KSR

KSR Postgame UK MBB at South Carolina 2/24/26

58 min
Feb 25, 2026about 2 months ago
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Summary

Kentucky basketball defeated South Carolina 72-63 on February 24, 2026, snapping a three-game losing streak. The postgame show analyzed the win, player performances, recruiting challenges, and the team's path to the NCAA tournament with three games remaining in the season.

Insights
  • Winning ugly games against inferior opponents is critical for tournament positioning; Kentucky's victory eliminates bubble talk despite uninspiring play
  • Bench production and frontcourt depth are becoming more important than backcourt dominance as the season progresses and key players cool off
  • Fan loyalty and program identity matter more than current performance; Kentucky's fanbase remains engaged despite a down season relative to historical standards
  • Coaching philosophy of player-led timeout huddles develops leadership and communication before coach intervention
  • Transfer portal and assistant coach recruiting quality are now as important as head coach reputation in modern college basketball
Trends
Shift from high school recruiting to transfer portal as primary talent acquisition method in college basketballImportance of general manager positions in college basketball programs for recruiting and roster managementPlayer empowerment and leadership development through structured timeout protocolsFrontcourt depth and rebounding dominance as differentiators in close gamesNIL era enabling rapid roster turnaround despite previous season underperformanceIncreased scrutiny on coaching technical fouls and sideline behavior with financial penaltiesRegional fan bases traveling to away games to maintain program support during down yearsBench scoring and role player consistency becoming critical to tournament success
Companies
iHeartRadio
Podcast distribution platform mentioned multiple times for various podcast shows including Burden of Guilt and Mind G...
ABC
Television network mentioned in context of The Bachelor reality show referenced during postgame discussion
ESPN
Sports media company referenced regarding SEC Network coverage and potential ESPN Classic replay consideration
SEC Network
Sports network broadcasting Kentucky basketball games and providing analyst commentary during broadcasts
People
Mark Pope
Kentucky basketball head coach who received $25,000 fine for sideline conduct; primary focus of recruiting and strate...
Denzel Aberdeen
Kentucky guard with 19 points and four three-pointers; identified as star performer and NIL investment justification
Otega Oweh
Kentucky forward who had uncharacteristic poor game with 8 points on 3-13 shooting, ending 30-game double-digit streak
Mo Diabate
Kentucky reserve who scored 12 points with strong second-half performance and high plus-minus rating
Malachi Moreno
Kentucky freshman center with 11 rebounds and 8 rebounds, praised for overperforming expectations and toughness
Colin Chandler
Kentucky player who hit crucial late three-pointers, contributing 10 points in the victory
Brandon Garrison
Kentucky forward with mixed performance including missed dunk and offensive rebound putback
Yelovich
Kentucky forward who shot 1-6 from three despite multiple open looks and had 11 points
Trent Noah
Kentucky bench player who went 0-3 from three and has not made a field goal since January
Jasper Johnson
Kentucky bench player who went 0-3 from three with turnovers, described as unplayable
Cam Williams
Kentucky player sidelined with injury, previously team's plus-minus leader before fluke defensive injury
Matt Jones
KSR host who lost his voice and did not appear for postgame show; received multiple on-air shout-outs
Peter Burns
SEC Network analyst who made three Matt Jones references during broadcast, including State of the Union joke
Tom Hart
Play-by-play announcer who encouraged players to shoot more three-pointers during game
Don Staley
South Carolina basketball coach present at game against Kentucky
Shane Beamer
South Carolina football coach present at basketball game; multiple callers expressed dislike for him
Jalen Lowe
Former Kentucky player whose absence affected Denzel Aberdeen's adjustment period this season
Vince Marrow
Former Kentucky assistant coach/recruiter; caller questioned if program needs similar recruiting help
Mark Fox
Georgia football coach referenced for using similar timeout huddle strategy
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor mentioned in podcast advertisement about 1969 Morehouse College protest
Quotes
"If you could press a button and rewind it all, I would."
Clayton Eckerd (from iHeartRadio ad)
"We just came off Kentucky's first three-game losing skid in five years. The bubble talk was getting very real."
Drew Franklin
"Any win right now is a great win. I don't care at this point."
Caller Luke
"Who knows where we'd be without him. Malachi has been awesome."
Drew Franklin (about Malachi Moreno)
"This team finds a way to win with Otega away having a rough night. Denzel Aberdeen, once again, stepping up and being the player that the NIL dollars are paying for."
Billy Rutledge
Full Transcript
I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all, I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to the A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome in to the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show. I am Drew Franklin. Filling in for Matt Jones, who, if you heard KSR this morning, does not have a voice. He tried to get through two hours, actually made it through two hours of our morning show, but had to hang it up before the pregame show and postgame show, but that's all right. I'm happy to fill in. And as always, Billy R. Sports is here producing this show. Billy, who lives in this studio like a troll. He's just here at all times. I think he sleeps under this table. You've been here all day. Billy it's good to see you tonight after Kentucky gets a win snaps out of the little bit of a losing skid winning 72-63 in Columbia Kentucky went in as about a 6.5 point favorite expectations to beat South Carolina one of the worst teams in the conference they had just come off a 7 game losing streak before stealing a win against Mississippi State last Saturday you know if we really really really wanted to be picky we wish Kentucky could have gone down there and blown them out just been a fun night from start to finish but that was not the case. South Carolina started out kind of hot, hit four three-pointers early. It looked kind of like the Georgia and Florida game where you have a team not known for shooting threes well, giving them a little too much cushion, making them pay. They had four of eight as Kentucky struggled from the field. Kentucky went one of seven from three early on. South Carolina led 12-5, led around 15-13, led for about half of the first half, and then Kentucky went on a big 10-0 run, highlighted by Denzel Aberdeen hitting back-to-back three-pointers, forcing South Carolina to call a timeout. It was mostly cats from there. They'd get up seven. South Carolina would crawl back, a little bit of a back-and-forth, but never truly felt threatened, and they pulled away in the end to win big. Aberdeen with 19 points. He's your star of the game. Not only did he hit those two threes, he had four in the game, but they all seemed timely, had a lot of big buckets. uh Otega Owe actually a quiet game a 30 game streak of double digit scoring came to an end tonight Otega with eight points on three of 13 shooting uh Aberdeen was helped out in scoring by Mo Diabate off the bench with 12 big second half on him we'll be bragging on Mo Di with Aberdeen uh Colin Chandler got up to 10 with a late three that was important and my guy Yelovich who I predicted as the MVP with 11 kind of a mixed bag from Yelovich some highs and lows but Billy R sports that was my long-winded quick uh you know just oh what do they call it like the view from however many feet that was my uh quick analysis how do you feel about just getting out of that three game losing funk and getting a win i don't care if it was against a team that's not very good well it's good to see you thanks for coming in studio and visiting my troll house here i uh i meant that in a polite loving way i'm excited for an evening with drew franklin even though some might get that on thursday night as well in madisonville more on that later um but yeah man they had to win. It was must win. They snapped the three game losing streak. I'm going to try to be positive on this post game show drew, because there was a chance this would have been an all time post game show if they would have lost that game to a bad South Carolina team. But like I said, I'm going to try to be positive. This team finds a way to win with Otega away, having a rough night. Denzel Aberdeen, once again, stepping up and being the player that the NIL dollars are paying for with that guy. And then Mo D you mentioned him. I mean, his energy and relentlessness in the second half i think is the reason why kentucky won that game i also let out a loud bang when colin chandler hit that three if you know anything about me he did it again you know i'm going to be yelling out a bang even if we're next to the president of espn but um it was just kind of a sigh of relief honestly that they won that game uh and probably signs of maybe this team's ceiling being a little bit lower than we think yeah that was a game like i said if We wanted to get picky. We could have asked for, you know, go out and kill them, but really just get out of there with a win. We just came off Kentucky's first three-game losing skid in five years. The bubble talk was getting very real. It never felt real until today, and if you had lost this game, you were on the bubble, and people that had that were not making the tournament conversation. That conversation was there to be had with three games left, but I think this game puts an end to that. Honestly, you could lose the next three. Those are all quad one opponents. I don't think it'll hurt your seed line too much. If anything, you can win the next three or two of them, whatever, and maybe help out. But today was just a big exhale. Get out of the gutter and get a win in the SEC. I mean, it felt real, though, Drew. I mean, it was a half-empty arena. South Carolina, who's 331st in three-point percentage, hits four threes in four minutes, and you're going, what is going on? Like, here we are again, not able to chase somebody off the three-point line. But they stick with it. I mean, somehow win this game. You mentioned the guy, Jelovich. I think at times he passed up some open shots, but did what he needed to do to contribute to the team. You know what he didn't pass up on? Three-pointers. As someone who was rooting for him, my man took a lot of threes tonight. One of six. He was open. He was open. He was open. He could have shot maybe double that amount tonight. He was so open, but he only hit one of them. I mean, what, seven of 25 from three. So they were chucking it up a lot tonight. Yeah, Yelovich, well, really the big storyline is he and Diabate is more so Yelovich early at Diabate in the second half. But you needed to get something out of that four spot. We kept talking about how, you know, you've wasted career games with Owe lately, and that backcourt has been so good, and you need help with them. The combination of Yelovich and Diabate tonight, what they did stepping up beside Marino, who was huge rebounding, he had 8-11. That was a big difference maker. The frontcourt, as much as this backcourt has been the team's identity lately, the frontcourt did it tonight. Would they end up winning the rebounding battle? 48 to 28. Good Lord. 18 offensive rebounds. South Carolina, not known as a good rebounding team, wasn't really a threat that they could win that, but 48 to 28 is something. As I said, Moreno with 11 leading the way. Garrison, I'm confused at how I want to react to Brandon Garrison. He had some moments. There were some flashy passes. He had a couple assists. There was a missed dunk. There were a couple times where I think he got caught in the quicksand. But overall, a slight improvement from my frustrations at the end of the Auburn game. I still don't know how to react to the Brandon Garrison experience, but in the first half he was a wild ride, but he did provide some off the bench, a little bit of effort. He was a good rebounder tonight. He had seven to back up Marino. So I'm not going to put down Garrison, even though there were some moments. It was just another wild ride with him. He had an offensive rebound and a putback that was pretty big, and Mo Diabate did around the same time. He only played 13 minutes, BG. So, I mean, that's about right with the amount of time he should be playing, don't you think? Just right. And, you know, he's not the only one with a missed dunk. Diabate tried to cram on someone's face and got blocked, and then it hit him and went out of bounds. That was a tough look when everything was going for him. Sure. Owe needs two points to get to double digits, has the breakaway, and just clanks it on the front of the rim on a one-handed dunk there. So that's 0 for 3 by my count on the dunk. So not just Garrison there that couldn't finish tonight at the rim. Oh, he was really struggling tonight. Do you think it was just the emphasis was on him, double teams every time he got the ball? Was he pressing tonight? Why do you think he struggled so much? Scout was on him. I mean, he had to come down a little bit. I mean, 3 of 13 for 8 points is a bad night overall. But we just, what was it, like 10 straight 20-point games? At some point, he was allowed to cool off a little bit. And, you know, it didn't hurt him. Still got the win. And he had 5 assists, which is big. He stepped up another or five steals stepped up another race. And that goes back to my first point is that this was big for this team to win without away scoring 20 in the game. Now Chandler hit the first three of the game and then it didn't feel like he hit another shot until the very end. He did end up with 10, I think. So he chipped in as well. But I mean, I think Denzel Aberdeen deserves the praise of Big Blue Nation. Not only this game, but these last few games, even the one where he was sick and still played well in that last game versus Auburn. He has definitely changed into a very different player than he was in the first half of the season. Yeah, five assists, no turnovers. That's his sixth game with three or more threes. Whoever called him Denzel Airbaldeen earlier in the season, they should be ashamed of themselves because, yes, he had a few airballs early on and he wasn't knocking down shots. But since SEC play, I mean, always been outstanding. But Aberdeen's been right next to him putting this team on his back. And another big game tonight for him. Why are you laughing? Is that what you – I didn't say I called him that. People called him that earlier on. You remember he did airball a lot earlier on in the season. That's not me making this up. I'm saying it as a compliment. He's really got it going, especially from three, which has been a big part of the team, turning around a little bit as the years ago. Yeah, and think, I mean, he's adjusting to life without Jalen Lowe as well, right? I mean, that was maybe part of the transition that maybe took a little bit longer than people thought with him. So it's good to see him play well, and man, you needed that. Just for the good vibes going into Saturday and before the SEC tournament, now you feel that you're squarely in the NCAA tournament, like you said, Drew. And you can just start to build some momentum that you have left for this season, I guess. Still got to get off that Wednesday conversation. It feels like a Wednesday team. Missouri, Tennessee, they're playing right now. This game is kind of how you feel about the Cats. If you don't think Kentucky's going to have much of a run and make a run at Friday, then you probably want Tennessee to win this and just help you knock Missouri down. If you're a big dreamer, maybe you want Tennessee to take a loss because you have that tiebreaker, but I would rather just go ahead and knock Missouri on down a little bit because they have the tiebreaker over Kentucky. Right now, 35-34 Missouri leads. Oklahoma was beating Auburn by nine or so at halftime, so an interesting result there. And I noticed when I walked in, you had the State of the Union. I did. Watching it on mute. Did you learn a lot on mute? I wanted to tell you how funny it was watching the State of the Union on mute because like just the the constantly standing up and clapping and sitting down standing up and sitting down and then the people behind trump how like lovingly gazing that they are towards trump during it i thought it was objectively funny with the sound off drew i don't know well i'm glad you switched it to basketball for me i had to yeah i figured you wouldn't want to i mean i can give updates from the state of the union i don't i don't know what's being stated right now but if you wanted to turn it on i could provide visuals give my thoughts on that half the room rising up and clapping the other half just scowling like it's it's just bizarre to watch it with the sound off but we have shifted to tennessee missouri and maybe peter burns will give us another ksr reference before okay yeah good point i have that in my notes but let's go and bring it up now peter burns does does matt owe him money or does he owe matt money and he's trying to make up with shout out there was three matt jones shout outs tonight there was three three i knew the one which was I agree what started before the game. Okay. It said something about, I guess this includes you, it said Matt Jones and the guys at Kentucky Sports Radio will be tweeting about this. That was pregame. That does include me. Nice. Then midgame, what was the exact line? Hotter than Matt Jones watching the State of the Union later tonight. Was that what it was? Peter, unbelievable line there. I can't believe you threw that one out there. Well done. And then I didn't hear this one because I was on my way here to talk to you, but Mario texted the group that there was a third Peter Burns mention after the game that I did not hear, but the count is up to three. Wow. Well, I mean, I thought it was just Tom Hart doing this. Now, Peter? That's got the whole SEC network. Ron Slay, Alyssa Lang. Ron Slay. I'll be doing shout-outs. We want your shout-outs here on the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show, 859-280-2287. We'll be talking about the Cats getting out of that funk and winning a game against South Carolina, 72-63. Only three games left, Billy. The season's flying by, but this show's not going to fly by. We got a lot of time left here in the night. Three segments to go. We want your calls. Talk about the win. Talk about the State of the Union, maybe within reason. Talk about Pope getting fined. Whatever you want to talk about, we're here for you. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show after Kentucky handled its business in Columbia, beating South Carolina 72-63. Drew Franklin here filling in for Matt Jones, who has lost his voice. Going to take a little evening off. rest up for tomorrow drink some water i've got billy rutledge here with me billy's keeping tabs on the tennessee mizzou game state of the union and he's taking your calls and i like that hat you got on the super bowl hat i've been wearing this one a lot what a trip man still can't believe that happened now it's like a fever dream isn't it yeah still in that dream you want to go back let's go back just making an annual thing yes i'd love to uh we want to hear from you 859-280-2287 got a full phone bank but first a quick shout out um i got a text my my friend is in the atlanta airport if anyone knows i knew a lot of people stuck in mexico at a resort in uh porto vario is that i was supposed to be there i know right now they made it to the atlanta airport oh so shout out to my friends got out of the country got got my guy joffrey married even though there's not a vendor i think they had to take photos with phones and make their own drinks and all that but they got him married but the point is he's at the atlanta airport and he texted me that he's in the bathroom and someone in the stall my my voice was coming from the stall your voice yes outside gate d35 so whoever is there in atlanta airport listening to ksr without headphones in while in the bathroom shout out to you i appreciate it hope all the people that went in there got to hear a little bit of case well you know when my headphones go dead and I still have to use the stall it doesn mean I going to stop my episode Drew So just play it with the speaker Gate D35, that's you. Or if there's multiple people at the airport, it could be you too. But I'm glad they're home too. That's also very important. That was a scary situation. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But shout out to everybody involved. Did you say Joffrey? Joffrey. Yes, he got married. Unfortunate name with the Game of Thrones stuff and all. Yeah, it probably didn't help. No. But, yeah, eventful weekend for them. I'm glad they're home. Let's get some calls. Let's start with Randall. Randall, what's up? How about Drew? I caught the announcer's comment there about, you know, Matt Jones, hotter than Matt Jones watching the State of the Union. I thought that was hilarious. But, yeah, Mark Pope, man, I really would. I'd give him a pass on, you know, like recruiting these guys out of high school because, I mean, if he's going to go get a high school player, he needs to go after that number one guy, you know, spend the money on him, but go to the portal. I think that's the smart decision on his part because, you know, to have a senior source team, you know, a team, and like build around our guys like Jasper, Morano, and Chandler, Chandler, guys like that, put the money on those guys. I think we could really have some success next year and we'll probably make a run this year. I got faith that they do. All right. Love that optimism. Appreciate the call. They have been going after the number one player and the number two and four and six and seven. And how many do they have? How many have they gotten? Zero. Not good. There's no – we can't fix that up. That is what it is. Maybe Stokes will surprise us. Probably not going to happen. the high school recruiting class looking like it'll be zero. That's inexcusable. Can't happen. But the portal, though, we don't know what'll be in there. We know some guys likely in there, some guys playing well at other schools, some names we hope will go in. But whoever it is, if there is one of these marquee players, don't get outbid. Don't get too emotional. You have to go get the best of the best if they're out there to get. It's okay if a player's motivation is money and not the name on the front of the shirt. I know how much we want for that to happen. drew but i don't know if that's realistic in the transfer portal era and unfortunately the guys you've kept in mark pope's system this year colin chandler uh jasper johnson uh what's the other one i'm thinking of trent noah two of the three are unplayable right now well not jasper um garrison's back and garrison is the two of the three i'm talking about let's talk about jasper and you want to talk about jasper and trent i intentionally didn't bring up the first segment because it's not a fun topic that was that was some of jasper's worst work i think there he went 0 for 3 from 3. Trent went 0 from 3 for 3, but Jasper had the turnover and then the next trip down the floor almost another turnover where he got Trapp lost the ball. Luckily Diabate recovers. I think they even scored. He looked unplayable out there. So what do we do? Part of it is they're supposed to be further down the bench than they are now. You've got guys that probably shouldn't be playing when you're healthy, but Kentucky can't. Everybody wants them to make this run. We just had a caller are saying they're optimistic. The bench has to be better than what we got tonight. Outside of Diabate, Garrison, Noah, and Jasper Johnson were one for 11 from the field. Yeah, and Trent, I mean, he hit the side of the backboard. Oh, that corner three was ugly. And then he got two more looks in the first half that were wide open. You cannot ask for better looks than those two he got and bricked both of those. I mean, he hasn't made a field goal since January. Yeah, and it's probably getting mental at this point, right? You're pressing. you're only in the minutes for a few times and you know if you miss you're going to be subbed out I mean how many minutes do you get in this game six minutes yeah he didn't come back in the second half of him I'm not mistaken with eight Noah did this the last game he went and rebounded he did it again tonight helped out there but he's on this team and he gets his minutes to hit the open threes and once again 0 for 3 from both of those guests oh that's tough but we can lift off the bench diabate we never really got fully into how good he was in the second half he was attacking uh he had the the breakaway where he gets the steal finishes the and one goes end to end uh made a nice cut to get a two getting blocked on the dunk not the best look but other than that he just went to war and was bullying in there when it was clear that kentucky had an advantage in the front court uh what do you have 10 of his 12 points in the second half all of his rebounds where i mentioned yellow bitch did a little bit for you in the first half in the second they just leaned on diabate in the muscle you're exactly right and it's the perfect time to give our johnny rocker personal injury attorney money maker of the game drew injured get small town compassion with big city results when you call the rocker at 270-321-4429 and while denzel aberdeen led the team in scoring it i think it's no doubt mo diabate tonight i mean also think back earlier in this year mo was screaming at the guys while still on the court you know like maybe somebody that could derail this team fully and uh you know mark pope has kept his head in it and he was just somebody that i thought played really well in that second half drew gave kentucky a shot to win that game yeah well when kentucky i mean right away they give up the seven point halftime lead 7-0 run south carolina immediately tie game like 40 seconds and let's be honest a lot of us thought oh here we go again but diabate had the big 5-0 run kind of sparked and got him going uh he had the highest plus modest on the team i believe it was a 16 yep in 20 minutes yeah kentucky's 5-0 this year when he gets to 12 points so huge game for him he and aberdeen really really carried the team where otago wade cooled off a little bit uh which which he earned a night off we'll give him that one uh who's up next on the phone hannah is up next hello hannah hey guys first time long time there you go thank you hey um i was at the game tonight i just wanted to say that i thought the crowd was about 45 to 50 percent Kentucky fans. Yeah I'm glad you called in I want to hear about this it sounded mostly Kentucky we had lots of go big blues and anytime they showed the crowd empty Carolina seats and then it looked like there's just an entire UK wall of people in one section looked like a good turnout. Yeah I was in that wall but yeah it was for sure mostly Kentucky fans. The guy I went with is a South Carolina fan, so I'm very glad that we won. Were they very hospitable? I have always said they can be some of the worst in the conference, and it doesn't get talked about enough. Ryan's been punched there. I've seen things there. Did you have a good time in addition to the win? Were they nice to you? Yeah, so it's interesting. I've been to a South Carolina football game and they were the nastiest people I've been around as far as fans but the the basketball fans they seem to be a lot a lot nicer I had some good talks with some older folks around us and I think they were also outnumbered so they really couldn't say anything well we appreciate you being there getting us the wind you get to go to many games uh yeah when i'm home i do um i go to the clemson game and the south carolina game because i'm um in myrtle beach but yeah they were awesome i met a lot of the players i met pope again um yeah it was it was i met mitch he was nice um but yeah it was a great experience well it sounds like a great time thanks for calling in tell us about it we appreciate it cool that you got to meet mark pope cool that you live at the beach that's pretty awesome got That's me, Mitch. Jealous. I haven't done that yet. That sounds fun. She had a big night. Big night. You haven't met Mitch, huh? No. One day. Who's up next? Let's go to Justin. Hello, Justin. What do you got for us? Hey, y'all. How's it going? We are excellent. Kentucky just got a win. Couldn't be better. That's right. That's right. I was at the bar tonight. I drove down. I live up in Frankfurt. Drove down to watch the game with some friends over at the bar this evening. And one thing that I noticed, not only, you know, with the arena there at South Carolina looking half empty, you know, it's a Tuesday night. Kentucky plays at 7 o'clock. That's a good time to play. And I anticipated, you know, the bar being packed and people being excited and, you know, ready to see UK kind of snap this streak that they've been in. And the one thing that I'm realizing with this season is, like, the hype just isn't there. You know, watching this game tonight, there were times when it would have been easy to tune out a little bit or, you know, not really focus in on what's happening. So I'm just curious from you guys, like, what can we do to really get some hype back up in this program? I mean, I think these next few games are a chance to do that. But I'm just curious from y'all, like, what does it look like to bring back some of that good Kentucky hype of we've got basketball games to play and there's tournaments coming up and we should be excited. but it just kind of feels bleh going into both the SEC and the NCAA. You're right. I appreciate the call. Hope you had a good time at the bar. I don't know how you fix it. I mean, this season, if you went 3-0 these next three games, heading into Nashville, maybe went a couple there, that gets people excited that you turned a corner. But otherwise, they're just going to have to kill it this offseason. As we just mentioned with another caller, they struck out completely on the high school class, or at least it's the bottom of the ninth of two outs, and it's looking like they're about to strike out and get shut out in that one. transfer portal we'll see what's there if it's anything like football there was kind of a dip in what went into the portal this year is everything's kind of leveling out we don't know what'll be there for basketball but whatever's in there you got guys you want to retain but also you have to you have to go after the biggest fish you missed those last year the yaxles wilkerson indiana demory uconn even like pierre at smu you didn't get any of those guys and they're lighting up to the scoreboard at their new schools those are the kind of guys you have to go find not a bunch of six men that you hope will hit another level? There's a lot of special freshmen in college basketball this year. And Mark Pope has to prove that he can get somebody out of the state of Kentucky when it comes to recruiting and building up that hype that the caller's looking for. You want to bring the hype back, you start winning games. I mean, that's exactly how you do it. You want to get that bar packed? Let's go on an Elite Eight run. Let's see the excitement then. People will buy all the way back in. And remember, this is what you're remembered for, is how you finish in the postseason. This could all be a moot point if they go on a run. So, I mean, there is still excitement left to be had, but there was definitely a time in this game where I did not think any of that would be coming. And we've already shown this year, we'll believe. Think about, I was in Nashville for the Gonzaga game where they were getting booed out of Jim. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I couldn't believe life in that moment. Then, a month and a half later, they win 8 of 9 in the SEC, play Florida close. I think you get a lot of hype back, and then you have the Georgia-Auburn games. It's like the team wants to believe. When they had that run, get the Arkansas win, I think a lot of people thought, oh, I'm going to tiptoe back onto this boat and pretend I didn't tweet some of that stuff. But then we're kind of all right back. Yeah, online it's like the fire mark poke crowds quiet this week, and then it flips the next week. I mean, fans are fickle, but this year has just been extreme, hasn't it? You go and beat Arkansas on the road like that? Two wins against Tennessee. You beat St. John's. They haven't lost a game since. That's going to be a good win on your resume, but ultimately it's just one of those years, up and down. Tennessee down five to Missouri right now. Are we rooting for Missouri here or Tennessee? I was kind of rooting for Tennessee to just push Missouri down a little bit more, but you're never going to see me mad about the Vols losing. Not one time have I been mad when the Vols lost. So kind of indifferent, I would say. Let's take one more, then we'll take a break. Yeah, so one more call. Okay, let's give one more call. Jack. Hello, Jack. What's going on? Hey, Drew. Me and my brother are currently driving back from the game. We both go to the University of Georgia and drove up to South Carolina to watch the game. And, you know, we were kind of wondering. We're like, I feel like all these Kentucky kids who go to different schools and they go to different places in the world, they all stay Kentucky fans. One person we took a picture for, she said she went to South Carolina and her husband went to South Carolina. She's from South Carolina, but she's still a Kentucky fan. Despite all these other schools and all these other places that people go, why is it that all of us from Kentucky just stay Kentucky fans like that? What is it about UK that is so special to us? I can kind of tell you, but I'm just curious what your thoughts are. Thank you. Appreciate the call. One, we're just better people. We're better human beings. We're loyal. We're not turning on our team. We start at birth like in Kentucky and we will die like in Kentucky. and all the in-between we'll just we're along for the ride and i don't know i i i think like most people in this state or from wherever you're from it's like you like your your parents liked it your grandparents liked it it's passed down to you it's not a choice like my grandparents their living room had like framed sports illustrated it's in it a few case stuff like you grow up i mean there were a few photos of me and the other grandkids but there was also like there's mike phillips and there's a picture of antoine walker you know it's like kyle macy was said in prayer at the dinner table most nights absolutely he was at the dinner table one time you know i'm not saying that doesn't happen everywhere else true but at kentucky there's just not other distractions it's like it is kentucky basketball you were born here it is you're gonna like it and you're expected to pass it on to that's right wherever you move in life whoever you marry whatever school you go to you might get a job that flies you out to san francisco whatever you're sticking with the cats it's born in you it's in your blood that's what connects the commonwealth man when there's no pro sports team people rally around things like that and i'm originally from florida uh and have made kentucky my home when i was 13 years old and have been here ever since and every time i leave i want to come back to kentucky there is a yearning to be back in the commonwealth and you hit the nail on the head the people are nicer here just much nicer oh we're the best humans come on we're not perfect we get especially online after a loss you know like two percent of us probably aren't the best best people overall we're great and we are carrying kentucky basketball can i make that point I've been thinking about this lately. What are the good things about Kentucky basketball right now? It's not recruiting. It's not the record in several years. We're not really in the national conversation lately. Probably not going to win a title. Been a long time since we won a title. Been a long time since we've been in the Final Four. Been a long time since we've even done anything in the SEC. You're hurting me right now. Hold on, though. You know what's there every damn year? The fans. That's right. We got this team on our backs carrying them right now. think about that everything is down a little bit across uk basketball but yes we might be slightly crazy and a lot of people hate us because the way we act but the thing that's still making kentucky right now it's big blue nation well you think about how bad they've played in nashville this year and then you see the crowd that still shows up at the sec turn exactly it's going to be a big blue takeover still even if they play on wednesday at 1 p.m respectfully to this team did they deserve to have a road crowd like they did tonight yelling go big blue through the tv probably not but those are kentucky fans that's what we do we're the best and right now we're the best thing the program's got going and the rest will get better but in the meantime the fans are still going to be here doing what they do amen how about that preach let's take a break shout out the fans shout out the guy at the Atlanta airport in the bathroom we'll be right back welcome back in to the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show Drew Franklin and Billy Rolidge after Kentucky 72 win at South Carolina Cats what 18 9 in the conference That's right. Feel pretty firm in the NCAA tournament now. You can stop those conversations. Still need to get another win to get out of that Wednesday talk. Maybe he can do that with Vandy coming to town on Saturday. But for right now, we're still celebrating the nine-point win. We're celebrating Denzel Aberdeen, celebrating Mo Diabate, Colin Chandler with another dagger, decaf dagger we call them, another big three yeah Colin Chandler man and he played so poorly in the last game he disappeared you don't know you know what happened and he had hit some big shots in that eight of nine stretch that Kentucky had won and good to see him hit another one tonight before we uh get more phone calls here I haven't heard your thoughts because it broke after our morning shows about Mark Pope having to write a $25,000 check uh surprised it was only 25k honestly I don't know what the standard it is for that but I feel like I would have made more of an example out of him for trying to dodge the the way that you do it right yeah I did I didn't think he's getting out of that one I don't know the scale of you know where that fits in the line of fines but I I knew he'd be riding one I saw after the game they asked Denzel Abertyne if he's gonna help pay it he was like heck no it's all on Mark Pope but he had a good laugh about it after the win in South Carolina I mean that'd be a stupid question 10 years ago right but nowadays these guys got they can all chip in if Mark was really upset about somebody and lost it. But I don't know, man. I don't know. Do you think that he'll get thrown out of a game as head coach at Kentucky? No, not with that kind of language. No. He didn't say the full word. I don't think he's capable of getting thrown out. I don't think he's a line stepper. Even when he punched the whiteboard in that CBS thing, you know, he like gently held the back of the whiteboard as he punched it, which is a good quality to have. I'm not hating. That's a great guy. But I don't know if we're going to get the throw-me-out. I guess he threw a water bottle at BYU and got tossed one time. I saw that video. Okay. So I guess he does have it in him if there's a prop nearby. He's got more technicals this year than I – I mean, I would have lost betting the under on that. So maybe we'll see it. It's been personal. I have one more thing before the phone lines. Yeah, go ahead. It's late. I feel like I'm getting mean, and I don't want to be mean. I try to be nice to everyone. But, Billy, South Carolina is not good at basketball. And I don't say that to take away from Kentucky's win. I'm happy we won however it looked. but how did South Carolina win three games? They're terrible. Meachie Johnson, he's had big games against Kentucky in the past. He is what he is. Had some tough shots tonight. He got to the foul line. What was that? That strong dude had a stretch where he turned it on, but he was 0 for 7 from 3. The Capic? Yeah. They were just giving him open shots. I think he was 1 for 6. For them to hit four threes to start the game and then finish 8 of 29 shows you how cold they got. i'm glad you know not trying to take away from kentucky's victory by calling out the opponent well you are a little bit but i am okay but it needs to be noted that that was not a good team no i was going to go to the same point they hit four threes in the first four minutes and they in the first half shooting 25 like it was just a disaster offensively for them after that they can't get a rebound i mean you've got yellow vich out jumping these guys for rebounds so i mean they've got a lot to work on obviously to work on where they're working on it for there's three games left i mean you could it's all about march baby yeah going on a run do you think uh mr paris is gone i don't know he's from my wife's hometown finley ohio and while i was watching him i was eating a bowl of ice cream from this famous shop in finley ohio and i felt sad for him looking down on my ice cream knowing it's probably over for him there i mean they lost all the stat that the rebounds losing that by 20 kentucky's fast break points 26 to 7 kentucky won like every stat it's amazing the game was as close as it was in fact as i'm just reading the box score here i don't know how it was close as it was but i just needed to get it off my chest that i do not think south carolina is great at the sport of men's basketball maybe the empty gym should have alluded that for us before the game even started don staley was there don staley was there maybe they're just so invested in the women's team they don't have enough energy for the men shane beamer was there I hate that guy. All right. Who's up next? Let's go to Nick. Hello, Nick. Do you like Shane Beamer? Of course not. All right. Me either. Nice. That makes three of us. Just a couple comments. One would be about the box score, the minutes, and then about Cam Williams as well. But the box score, I mean, I like seeing that O.A., Aberdeen, and Chandler each had around 35 minutes, 35 plus minutes. I mean, you got to have that the rest of the way. And I think what I would change is, you know, Yelovich has a little less than 17 minutes. Diabate has 20 minutes. I think you just got to give those guys more minutes and take away minutes from Garrison, have him about five or six. Johnson, I just don't feel like you can play him unless you have a huge lead by at least 15 points or so. He's just not giving anything. And Noah, I mean, he got about five minutes, but he got you five rebounds. I mean, he's got to make the shots, but he's getting bored. So I still think you can put him out there for a few minutes a game. I just think you've got to give some of these big guys some more minutes. I mean, because we've got three games left and then postseason. And last thing I would say on it is if there's some way, you know, they got to get Cam Williams back somehow because they just need that extra shooter and that extra big guy on the floor to just stress the defense more. Thank you. I appreciate the call. I would love to get Cam Williams back. And Pope keeps holding out hope, saying if they can go on a long enough run, then maybe they can get him to help. Billy, I just don't know if he gets healthy. God, it's been out that long, what he can do. But it is clear how much he's missed. I mean, he was the plus-minus leader on the team and just earned a starting role. I feel like he was finally turning a corner. And then he goes out with that fluke injury, just getting back on defense. So that's – Yeah, and then, like, conditioning-wise, how in shape is he when he does get healthy. One thing the caller says, he would like to see Brandon Garrison around five or six minutes a game. I just don't think we're going to see that. I feel like Pope is dedicated to Brandon. Oh, he's committed. But like, Yelovich, I know he thought he was Steph Curry here tonight for a little bit, taking a lot of threes, but that was a pretty good game for him. 11 matches is high for the year. He had 17 minutes to Garrison's 13. Maybe just slide a few more Yelovich's way. I'd even like to see him, Diabate, play together when Moreno needs a break. Yeah. Yeah. I just, what was the plan for this front court going into the season? I mean, you took a guy that was in the same calendar year with a major knee injury. I guess your expectation was Brandon Garrison was going to be better from last year, but Yelovich was a late addition to the roster. Like what was the plan at the front court this year? And it just, it feels like just a few weeks ago, we're like, what are we going to do with all these big men? We have way too many big men. Can we trade a big man for a guard? And now it's like, I need a little help in the front court with Marino. It's just added to the list of the rollercoaster things of this season. But I would like a little more jelly. Maybe not six three-pointers in a game. I mean, he could be really key. We talk about the stretch forward, how important it is in Mark Pope's offense. So maybe some more of that. But I'm telling you, Tom was yelling at them to shoot the ball at times in this game. As many threes as he shot, he could have had maybe even double. Oh, Tom wanted more. He was wide open. They were just letting him have it. I didn't do the Tom-Jack sync up tonight. should have jack was good tonight i mean he was frustrated from the get-go but then like seeing them fight and take the lead and i mean there was just some audible oh man's after after some buckets or some bad turnovers i i just love listening to those guys because they they treat it like it's their children out there no holding their emotions oh who's up next ed ed hello ed what's up hey hey guys i'm so happy that we won one and i got a question here um for the winningness program in history but how big of a lead do we still have over second place uh i think we are second aren't we no we had a four game lead over kansas earlier in the week i think a five game lead now i'm trying to do math on the fly pass them think call it a five game lead Well, I hope we don't – I hope we outlast Kansas and keep the lead. That would be sort of sad. I've been a Cat fan. I'm like 70 years old. I've been a Cat fan all my life. Me too, and that's something we're proud of. We can't be losing the all-time record. Right. Yeah. That would be a sad thing. But go Cats and hope for this. All right, thank you. I actually have the official numbers now. What is it? Turns out I was right. Imagine that. This big brain. Kentucky leads Kansas by five games, 2,440 to 2,435. All right. Let's go. That's from our guy Steven Peek. Just tweeted that an hour ago. I'm staying on top of it. I remember we had to change it on the open for UK a couple years ago. Yeah, we've slipped up, I think, a couple times. Lost it to Kansas briefly, got it back, and lost it to Carolina for a little bit, got it back. Let's just not give it up again. yeah let's just five game win more who's next michael hi michael thanks for calling in what do you think of the game hey what's up jerry hey man me my dad and my sister we're coming back from the ball game and it's my uh sister's first game she wants to say a little something all right hello sister hey yeah i just wanted to say i have been a fan for my whole life 33 years i went to my first in-person game. We're coming from Charlotte, and it was just, I was so ecstatic to see the players in person. It was just surreal, even though it was a away game. It was just, you know, great to see the team and just being there in person. The game was great. You know, I was so excited to be there. You know, the only thing I could say, I was a little disappointed in away a little bit but Aberdeen and Duabate showed up for the team and I was just great that everybody as a team showed up for everybody today. Yeah I'm glad they got the win for you since you showed up. Being your first game in person did you have any like takeaways or observations of something that was new or different or something that stood out to you watching in person? Well one thing I will say I did notice that Pope and the rest of the coaches they kind of huddled a little bit at timeout before they went and spoke to the team which is really odd that was the first time I noticed that it was at every timeout like why are you huddling before you go talk to the team you're taking away time to you know drop a play when South Carolina was talking to their team the entire team I'm sorry the entire time that was the first time I noticed that I thought that was a little strange I don't know what their game plan was behind that, but that was what I observed during the game. Tells me you've been paying attention. They've been doing that this year. We've had other people call in and ask that as well. Appreciate the call. Billy, that's a big thing. There's been timeouts where I'm not sure Pope spoke to a player because they do their coach's timeout or coach's huddle, and the player huddle is a few feet away. And then sometimes you let the assistant go and talk to the guys, and maybe it's not the head guy. I see Mark Fox do it a lot. Yeah, so we've seen it a couple different ways with how they handle it. It's also a good reminder that no matter how bad a game might be, it could be somebody's first game, right? 33-year fan and in their first game happens to be in an empty arena in Columbia, South Carolina, but still a special moment, right? I have to remind myself at Rupp a lot, you know, I'm pretty blessed covering the team for feels like 50 years. I get to go to a lot of games and there's nights where it's like, oh, Eastern Michigan, you know, stuff like that. But then you get in there and you see someone getting their first ice cream cone and all that, it brings the joy back a little bit because it is a very cool experience to watch Kentucky Bass go on person, whether that's in Rupp or South Carolina or the SEC tournament. And then that person's put on the Snackwards cam, and then they're mortified after their first visit to Rupp. But, I mean, it is special to see your team for the first time like that. Yeah, I've started staring the camera down while I eat, just waiting for the red light to go on. You want it. You're like – Yeah, bring it. Watch me. I intentionally just dropped chili all over my shirt, but nothing yet. we're gonna take another break here don't reach that high yeah that's true i'm up in the crow's nest uh another segment what you got anywhere to be we got one more to go yeah you got anywhere to go you want to do another one let's keep it going let's keep it going we should take a break i think that's how this works when we come back drew billy take your calls celebrating kentucky's 72 63 win over south carolina all right one more segment here on the local toyota dealers ksr post game show drew franklin and billy relidge our state of the union correspondent what have i missed so far billy I mean, I've been watching Tennessee, Missouri. Yeah, how about that? 67-65 Missouri, a minute left. Missouri has the ball, trying to put the Vols away. We're going to talk a little more about the Cats beating the Gamecocks because that's what we care about here in Kentucky. Here we've got a full phone bank. We do. We've got six calls before we end this thing, Drew, and then I get to go home and go to bed. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about bed, too. It's been a long day, but, you know, luckily I've got one of the 7 o'clock shows. I don't envy the guys at the 9 o'clock. You've got the morning post tomorrow? No morning posts. I got to be up early, though. Six o'clock alarm's already set. See you bright and early. Let's get these calls out of the way. Who's up first? Angus is up first. Angus, thanks for calling in. I just called to say that I hate Shane Beamer and his stupid freaking sunglasses. Go Cats. All right. We appreciate the call. That's, by my count, that's four of us. We're growing. The group is growing, Billy. Stockton Mortgage Plug here in the final segment. Poor Shane's probably on his way home. Like, I'll tune in to those Kentucky guys. Let's see what they're talking about. God, I don't like Shane. Who's up next? What do you think of Shane Beamer? TJ. Hi, TJ. Hey, buddy. How you doing, man? Couldn't be better. Hey, you know, I think Matt said it. You know, it was funny. I was listening to it the other day, actually. It was a podcast that y'all had when Calipari left, and Matt said it the best. he said be aware because it's not going to be exciting anymore with you know the number one recruit or the number five recruit just the way they play ball with Mark Pope and I'm trying to be excited about Kentucky basketball you know I've been a fan of those 40 years I've got the jerseys. I've got the maker's mark bottles. And I just found myself tonight almost falling asleep during the game because there's no alley oops. There's no top recruits coming in. There's no number one draft picks. There's no this, there's no that. It's just so hard to get into this mindset of Kentucky basketball is awesome because, because why? I mean, we pulled away at the end. sure, but there with like three minutes left, it was a two-point game against the worst team in the SEC. Why is that exciting? It's so hard, man. Help me out. All right, TJ. Appreciate the call. She's not that wrong. Wasn't the most fun basketball game to watch? I mean, South Carolina shot, what, 37% from the field? Kentucky, both teams under 40% from the field. Both teams under 30 from three It was a rock fight It was to get in Yeah Was it really It was to get in I mean this isn one I don know if ESPN Classic still exists They probably won't be turning on ESPN Classic tomorrow to catch this replay. I don't know if SEC Network will add this to Kentucky Day when they do that this summer. No, no, probably not. So, TJ, you're not alone in this not being a fun game. And overall, I know Kentucky basketball, we're in a little bit of a lull. It's not the gold standard that we're used to. you know if you don't want to say gold standard and go back farther not even the 90s even though we try to wear denim well i mean you made this point it's not even about just winning games that would bring the excitement back but you've talked about like the expectation of like going into the ncaa tournament with like a uk you better watch out for kentucky this year they don't have that this year they might be a team that makes an upset or could go on a run they're not the you got to watch out for kentucky this year and you made that point this week about how that's lost on you Well, that's what makes me sad, Billy. Being a Kentucky basketball fan, it's full-time. Like, even on a day, you know, you play Tuesday, Saturday, Thursday morning, you're thinking about Kentucky basketball and what's next. And this time of year, we're absolutely thinking about Selection Sunday. We're thinking about the SEC tournament. We're thinking in our heads we're going to hang another banner. You're doing the bracket pulls at your office, and everyone in the office puts Kentucky as the champion because we're all Kentucky fans. That's what we do. But now we're not in that spot. Like, I don't know about you. I'm not thinking about March Madness on Thursday morning, so I don't want to think about March Madness on Thursday. We don't have that excitement that we have that is just constantly in our brains at all times when things are going well. And part of the reason is you turn on the TV and you see a game like that, 72-63 against South Carolina. And we just had some great games around college. I mean, it was basically a Final Four on Saturday with one verse four, two verse three. I mean, this has been – for all the complaints about the transfer portal, and I don't like it either where you got guys in the G League just showing up with their algebra book acting like they're, you know, I'll go back to school. It's like, dude, you're 40. Go get a job. I don't like any of that. But this year, the games have been pretty awesome. And the stars have been stars. I mean, there are some dudes all over the country. And it's been a fun season. And when you ask anyone outside of Kentucky to talk about it, they're not saying the word Kentucky. It's a lot of other teams that are having all the fun. Yeah. I don't like this negativity, though. TJ got me down a path. Kentucky won 72-63. Remember, South Carolina's the bad team, not us. We won. Let's get to a happier caller. Who's next? We had somebody drop, so we have three left. Brandon is up next. Sorry to the caller that dropped. Hello, Brandon. Brandon. All right, Billy. During the break, I heard you talking. You said you were worried the phone lines were hanging up on people. I was, yeah. Do we think that's still a concern? No, Brandon's still on the line. Oh, okay. I think his phone may be on mute or something. I'll try to speak up. I'm just going to have to open the phones back up, Drew. I mean, we can't end like that. So we've got a couple more here. Luke is up next. Okay, Luke. Save us. Hey, guys. I just wanted to say a couple other things. One, TJ can kiss my ass being so negative. We won. Yes, the game was ugly. I drove eight hours here to see a game that should have come with a warning label. Yes, okay, that's part of it. Some games you're going to get be ugly, but we won. Why does it matter? Why are we complaining? Here's another thing. I'm going to hit people with. I called the pre-show earlier and talked about how Kentucky is, you know, basically this team is like a really hot girlfriend that keeps cheating on you. I mean, that's what they are. And the program itself is kind of like the oil industry that, look, it's boom or bust. There's a lot of boom or bust. Let me give you, let me hit you with some facts. My dad was born in 1959. The first 36 years of his life, that's until 1995 for all of you that stuck it now. So the first 36 years, you know what he saw Kentucky basketball do his first 36 years? one national title and four whole final fours. Dude, my childhood, I had four and five years. Okay, I was blessed. Okay, we are very fortunate to be Kentucky basketball fans because more often than not, it's pretty darn good. And yes, we have been in a blue blood rut, and I'm not trying to say that it's not an issue because it is an issue, but this program has been in far more positions than we are in now. And in the NIL era, you can turn it around very quickly. and I'm just really sick and tired of all the negativity and all that. Listen, I'm not saying I think, you know, I have my problems with Pope and all that stuff, but in this moment right now, I am not going to sit here and be angry about the fact that we won a game. What the hell is wrong with people to be angry at 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night about winning a basketball game? You know what? That's all I got to say, guys. Thank you for taking that call. Boom. Call of the night. Wow. Thanks for getting with Luke. Luke was his name? Yeah. Thank you, Luke. You got us back on track. I even drifted to negativity land there for a little bit. Billy had to run down the street and get me back on track. Thank you. We needed that energy. TJ got in my head a little bit. Talking about big picture things that don't matter. Just beat South Carolina. Covered the spread, Billy. Denzel Aberdeen had 19 points. Mo Diabate was awesome in the second half. You can only beat the team in front of you, Drew. That's all you can do. Held them to 36%. Kentucky's 10-0. When they hold teams under 40%. How do you win the rebounding battle by 20? Kentucky did that. We're not complaining about that. What else do you like? Colin Chandler with another dagger, another decaf dagger. You like that? He's not done. He's got more of those. I bet he hits one in Nashville. How about Malachi Moreno pick and roll out of an inbounds play? Chef's kiss. Chef's kiss. Almost did a Ryan Lemon noise there. Sorry. Got a little carried away. Big game for Malachi. Too shy of a double-double. Love the 11 rebounds. Also love that we won. Got out of that three-game losing streak. Hadn't had one of those in five years. Let's not do that again for a long time. Needed it. I also got some more people on the line if you want to. I thought you were going to tell me more things you're excited about. That too. Looks like Missouri won. Did Missouri win? They look happy. I looked away. And, of course, it goes to the studio. It looked like they were celebrating. Who's up next? Oh, yeah. Look at them. That's a celebration. They're definitely celebrating. We're going to call it here. You're hearing it now on the KSR postgame show. Missouri beat Tennessee somehow. Oh, yeah, up four. They're good. Missouri wins. Down go the Vols. Not mad about it. Who's up next? Matt is up next. Hi, Matt. What's up? Hey, guys. Great win. I don't care at this point. Any win right now is a great win. I thought it was a hard-fought win. My concern is recruiting for next year. I just wonder if maybe what our issue is, we don't have, say, a Vince Merrow to help recruit the guys. Maybe we need to look at our assistant coaches and see why we're not getting recruits. I mean, Mark can't be the only guy doing the recruiting. We need some strong recruiters on the outside. We had guys with Calipari that were good at going out and getting people. That's maybe what we're missing right now. Thank you. You're exactly right on that. I appreciate the call. They do need some help on the recruiting trail. That's no secret. I think everyone is in agreement. They need a general manager. hopefully that's announced soon because portal season's right around the corner and i don't care what people say portal season began a long time ago because that's how the sport works and the football team i mean coach stein came in with two gms so i mean the least kentucky do is could it could get one and hopefully it's a little better than vince marrow because i think he brought in jasper johnson in the last minute for kentucky so he did help with that um you know people wondered about if it's pope doesn't want a gm uk the the three-letter place you're right will stein showed up with the gm and an assistant gm i mean he was ready to go hit the ground running why is why are we living in the stone age with the gm spot they need one bad it's obvious the best teams in the country have them but i feel i feel like we're being pulled by this magnetic force towards negative town and we're not gonna do it billy luke brought us back and i'm not doing it but we need do need a gm who's up next uh we get two more billy is up next billy only positive thoughts to wrap up the show. Well, I think this is kind of positive. I just wanted to explain to the lady who went to her first ball game in person today about the coaches huddle. I had heard Mark talk about this several months ago about somebody had brought up the question and he said he does it intentionally to give the players time to work out what they envisioned the problems were that are on the court and that helps develop the leadership among themselves and communications and then he has a coach or himself go over and talk to them and follow up make sure that they've covered all the bases all right the players the players to actually run that show if if they can recognize their own problems and work it out themselves first that's that's his plan perfect that's a great explanation billy see billy uh other billy the billy that's here with me right now which one me yeah you okay not not her billy someone asked a question we don't have the answer this billy comes through i mean that's the best billy on the show right now smartest fan base that's because i graduated from uk over 50 years ago in 1973 so i've been around the uk graduate for a long time i knew all the words on on ufk before i got out of high school in the 60s so there you go well maybe you should have a podcast sometime tell some stories you seem to know ball Thank you for calling in. All right. Thank you very much. I can't think of a better Billy that's been on these airwaves tonight. Well, hold on now. I mean, I agree. That was a great call by Billy. And if Brandon hadn't answered, we wouldn't have gotten Billy. So things happen for a reason, Drew. What do you think of the move of letting the players, like a players-only meeting during a timeout? I like that. Work your problems out before the coach comes in and gives you the game plan for the next what's going to happen. I could see how that would be bad at some times, but I think for the most part, that's a good concept. If I were in the – I'd have a hard time staying on task. I'd be cutting up. I would need a coach over there in my huddle. But I can see what he's going for. Yeah, I get the premise. Player empowerment. Didn't the last coach say that all the time? I think he did. Yeah, I've heard that. So we have one left. We got one call left. What's their name? Steve. Steve, you got to bring it. It's been a great ending here. We had Luke fire us up. We had Billy drop knowledge. Take us home. What's up? well first of all uh a win is a win and if you're going to beat north carolina and you're going to beat kansas you got to keep piling them up so you know take it when you can get it and also uh where would this team be without malachi marino i don't think he gets enough credit and if he wasn't there uh we'd be you know 50 or less on wins i think so the guy is a stud. He's outperformed whatever we thought he might do, and he's just one hell of a player. You're exactly right. Thank you for calling in and sharing that. It's a great way to end it. Malachi has been awesome. The original plan early, Brandon Garrison was the starter. We know Malachi pretty quickly started showing that he could compete and eventually take those minutes, becomes the starter. I feel like after every game, we get like this Malachi Marino is the first freshman since blah, blah, blah to have this many rebounds on the road. We're getting all these first time things for him as a freshman he's been awesome I'm I'm one of the people and I don't run from it I watched him at Great Crossing and I knew he'd eventually be good but I thought freshman year might not be quite ready just thought he'd need a little more muscle need to get a little more physical and he still has to work on that but I didn't see anything like we've seen from Reno and the caller's right who knows where we'd be without him has blown our expectations out of the water not only that he had the game winner versus LSU of course and I mean was it the first basket of the last game versus Auburn. He scores. He rolls his ankles on the court for five minutes and he ends up getting up, running off the court and then coming back in the game. The guy's tough and if he doesn't go to the NBA, I'm looking forward to a sophomore campaign for our guy Malachi. And here lately I feel like he's been money at the free throw line too, which you want this time of year, especially from your big guy. Four for four from tonight. I don't have past game stats in front of me, but I feel like if you looked up the last month he's been pretty consistent at the line too. So yes, shout out to Malachi Marino great night tonight almost got the double double but got the 11 rebounds two blocks just obvious when he's not out there it's a big difference Malachi Marino is 70 for 100 at the free throw line this year that's 70 that is I'd say in the last month it's even better that's probably a lot to do on the fly y'all just trust me Billy will call and back me up other Billy the Billy we like but I like this Billy it was fun thank you for uh let me hang with you late at I feel like we should probably turn this off and go home. They have other shows they have to do. State of the Union's over. Tennessee, Missouri's over. Kentucky, South Carolina's over. Cats win 72-63. Staying out of that bubble conversation. We'll be all right. Got Vandy coming up on Saturday. Three important games left. Let's win some of them. Hell, let's win all of them, Billy. Let's go 3-0. Let's do it. But for now, we're going to celebrate this one. Cats beat South Carolina. For Drew, Billy, and all our callers, thank you all for listening. Go Cats. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. 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Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.