KSR Postgame UK MBB at Texas A&M 3/03/26

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It was like stepping on another world. Was he a businessman? A criminal? A hero? Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him. Charlie's Place, from Atlas Obscura, and visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, everyone. It is the local Toyota Dealer's KSR postgame show. The Cats lay an egg in College Station. Fall to Texas A&M 96-85. in a game that really is frustrating and included maybe the worst stretch of basketball Kentucky has played since the Gonzaga game. 8-5-9, 2-8-0, 22-87. I said on the pregame show that you could really have any result in this game and it wouldn't shock me, whether it was Kentucky winning by 10 or losing by 15, I think is what I said. and we got the latter of those. We got an 11-point loss, but at one point, Kentucky was up by 10, so you could have had a different result. But this game came down to essentially a nine-minute stretch. If you take the first 11 minutes, I thought Kentucky looked excellent. Offensively, crisp, getting to the basket, probably more dunks than they've had all year. I think they had like five early on. open looks from three, sharing the ball, beating the press. I thought they were excellent. And then just completely collapsed in the last nine minutes. And Texas A&M, you've heard the notion, we've heard the phrase Buckyball. If you were to look up what Buckyball is at its most successful moment, you would see those last nine minutes of the first half. Kentucky let themselves get rattled. and Mark Pope with an inexplicable set of substitutions that I still don't know what he was thinking. Basically did the one thing that has consistently not worked all season. It's putting in four subs at once and for a stretch of about 73 seconds, I counted Billy. He had Owe and Aberdeen both on the bench, and he had the lineup of Johnson, Chandler, Noah, Yelovich, and Garrison in. And it was an 8-0 run, and Kentucky went from up five to down three, and then they just took off. And even when starters were brought back in, didn't really step up, and you got the result you had. It was funny. Kentucky had a shot. It was 30-18, and Kentucky got a steal and had a wide-open Noah three that if he hits would have put us up 15. He misses. They get the rebound, come down, hit an open three, and it just the game got out of control, and we only scored three more points the rest of the half and ended up taking the loss. So, you know, I mean, a couple of bright spots, I guess. Diabate played pretty well. What, 18 points? 19. 19. Ramadan Moe is a thing, right? It's great. You know, he ate on the bench for the first time. That was interesting how they pointed that out. It would be something to watch in the SEC tournament, et cetera, like if you can't drink water if Kentucky plays during the day. But he played well. And, you know, it was good to see, I guess, in the second half, Trent Noah hit a couple shots since he hadn't in a long time. But otherwise, you know, you look, Colin Chandler only has five attempts. You're not going to win if Colin Chandler only has five attempts. I think the part of that is on him for aggressive. You play 34 minutes. If you're Colin Chandler, you only take five shots. It's got to be better than that. They were five threes. He only made one. Not going to win like that. You're just not. and got completely obliterated by their bench. Their bench had, it looks to me, Billy, 57 points, and our bench had 39, which is actually quite a bit for us, but 57. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot. And we shot 48. Both teams shot 48%, but the difference is they hit 13 threes, and we hit eight. And so on the one hand, you can look at it and just say, well, they hit five more threes. They hit shots we didn't. And I guess there's something to that, but I also think the reality is in that nine-minute stretch we were outplayed. And I was frustrated during that stretch about the effort. I was frustrated about the substitution pattern. And I just, this team makes no sense to me. You don't know when they're going to be good. You don't know when they're going to be bad. and then you have games like today, first half like today, where they're both. For 11 minutes, you see Kentucky at their best, and for nine minutes, you see them at their absolute worst. And I think ultimately what's going to hold Kentucky back if they're not able to make a March run is this. Kentucky at its best is a pretty good team. But unfortunately, what we've seen this year is this Kentucky team at its worst is abysmal. Our best might be like, when we're playing our best, we might be like eighth to tenth best team in the country. But when we're at our worst, we're not even like a tournament team. And I'm not sure I've ever seen a Kentucky team whose high and low, the variance is greater than this one. I can't think of one. The Reed and Rob team was kind of like that, but this one is even more so. And I'll just give you a stat. Kentucky has now lost to Georgia. Who are the teams? What were the games we lost where everybody had lost all those games coming in? Georgia. Well, I should, Auburn, Georgia, Auburn, and now tonight against A&M. And if you look at those three games, going into the game, those three teams, Billy, were 3-16 coming into our games in their last six to seven games. 3-16 coming into the Kentucky games. And all of them beat us. And yet, we won at Arkansas, beat Tennessee twice, and beat Vandy. And, you know, how do you explain that? Our good is very good, but it's not great. But our bad is awful. And the problem is, at least tonight, the bad was so much worse than the good was good, and we take the loss. 859-280-2287. There's actually been a ton of news today. Obviously, Mitch Barnhart announced his resignation, and there's a lot that has even happened since our show about that. I'm going to say let's put Mitch Barnhart and all that on hold until tomorrow as much as possible and let's talk about this game and all the stuff with Mitch we'll deal with in more detail tomorrow. By the way, also SEC tournament. Missouri lost tonight. Had Kentucky won, They had a legitimate shot at the three seed in the SEC tournament. But now that they've lost, there's a chance, Billy. They're playing on Wednesday. No, Wednesday still in play? Yeah. There's now a better chance, I think, that they play on Wednesday than they don't. As crazy as that is, had they won, they had a shot at being the three seed in the SEC tournament. And now they could drop all the way to 10th because everything that happened tonight fell about as bad as it could have for Kentucky. We need, if Arkansas beats Texas tomorrow, then we're guaranteed to not be 10th. But we still could play on Wednesday. As a matter of fact, I think playing on Wednesday, if you look at the scenarios, might be the most likely scenario at this point in the first game of the tournament. That's back on the table. 859-280-2287. We will take a break. And take your calls. This is the Local Toyota Dealers KSR Post Game Show. Welcome back. Local Toyota Dealers KSR Post Game Show. 859-280-2287. Right now, let's see. You've got Vandy at Ole Miss. Vandy leads 69-68. We probably need Ole Miss, or we would help us if Ole Miss were to win this game. So I think you should be, if you're at home and you want to have something happen positive for Kentucky, I think you want Ole Miss to win this game against Vandy. But we will see. Right now Vandy leads by one with two minutes and 45 seconds to go. And the thing that I won't talk about except just to say this, I have literally only Billy, one politician in America I like right now, and he won tonight, James Tallarico. Oh, he's going to win. It's looking like he's going to win And if I disappear to Texas For a couple weeks this summer You'll know why Now we know why you're going to Austin all those years I didn't know him then But nevertheless Alright, who's up first? Jay Hi Matt I think the point that I was trying to make And without saying a million stats Is that it just seems to me Without talking about firing Mark Pope Or any of that I'm sure you're tired of talking about that it does seem to me though like we've seen enough where it seems like the chance that Mark Pope is going to be able to uphold the standard of Kentucky basketball as the number one program those chances are looking increasingly slim to me and I guess the most concise way I could put it would be to say that right here in the SEC we've got Nate Oates and Todd Golden and Mark Pope does not seem to be in that league and those guys are both younger than him uh and have better track records so i guess do you agree with me i think that's it what's your optimistic yeah great question i i don't if you were to sort of articulate my worries about uh pope i think that would be the best way to say it. I think when people say Pope can't coach, I do not think that's true. I think Pope is very bright. I think he does things that don't make sense to me, and he is probably too wedded to the numbers and to his predisposition as to what he needs to do in games. At the same time, though, I think he does some really intelligent stuff, but you just hit it the best way to put it, which is he can be really good, but can he be great? That's ultimately the question, because I can see greatness in John Shire. I can see greatness in Nate Oates. I can see greatness in Todd Golden. I can see greatness in Danny Hurley. But take someone like Hubert Davis. Can Hubert Davis put a winning team on the floor? Yes. but do you think hubert davis can be great and i think he played in the say what he he coached in the championship game so he has but that but that's a but that's a run he went on a run right mike davis coached in the championship game you know i mean mike davis went to the championship and then he got fired at uab 10 years later so you can make kevin ollie won a national championship. So, like, you can make a run. The question is, do you trust Hubert Davis to be consistently great every year? And my answer is probably not. I worry about that with Mark Pope. Can he be great? I don't think he's bad. And I think he is actually good. But can he be great? And I worry about it because we just lose by massive amounts too much. You know what I mean? Like we get down. We get down by 20, like all the time. And that just seems to me to be something a coach at Kentucky shouldn't do. Matt, I think you, this is my last thing. I think you just even more sort of highlighted the weakness of Mark Pope's track record. Because I think when Pope left BYU, it was like, well, that's a small-time program. BYU got a top ten player in the country today for next year. they have one of the best players in the country for this year they haven't missed a beat and mark pope didn if you look at that record coming into kentucky you know you saying these guys they weren that good they went on a run mark pope never went on a run That true but he wasn there very long to be fair I mean he was only there he wasn there very long I appreciate the call. So I'm not saying it's impossible that he can be great, but I do sort of look for the things to convince me he will be great. And there are some great wins, but I don't know, man. And losing by the amounts that they, the amount of times this team gets down 20 is just, I mean, you don't, that doesn't happen. You know, Bill Self, they've lost a couple times this year by big margins, and it's been like, whoa, that's happening to Bill Self? Well, it's happening to us all the time. This year and last year, if we're honest, we lost games by crazy amounts last year, too. This didn't end up being crazy, but we were down 20 at one point tonight. Who's next? Well, a great coach would call a timeout when the other team's on a 27-30 run. Well, okay, I'm glad you brought that up. So 27-3 run. During the 13-0 run, he'd ever call the timeout. And what's insane about that to me is you lose a timeout at the end of the first half. So he didn't even call the timeout that you lose. The use it or lose it. It's a use it or lose it timeout, and until the very end of the first half, he was content on just losing it. That's wild to me. I mean, you can't take it. You know what they say about when you die, you can't take your money with you. Well, you can't take your timeouts with you either. And I don't know. I don't know how you put – Billy, I am not a coach. I don't know how you watch this team play and think you can have Aberdeen and Owe both on the bench. Well, Aberdeen had two fouls early. I don't care. What good does it do for him to not get a third foul if we're down 14 at halftime? Well, like earlier this year, they could have advanced a lead farther and probably put the game away. Instead, they let the team back in. How about just not falling down 13? When you were up 12. When you were up 12. Aberdeen, you cannot have Aberdeen on the bench for more than a couple minutes. not because he's the best player, but just because we are lost without him on offense. And you saw it tonight. Who's next? Tyler. Tyler. Go ahead, Tyler. Matt, you know, I don't know if I'm crazy for saying this, but for me, I'm like, why don't we play the AOC trio until they either foul out or they literally can't breathe anymore? That's what I would do. We got to have subs. Well, you know, the first time, though, we did round of subs. Okay. So the first set of subs he put in, I thought he did it the right way. He would bring in, he had like Jasper in with Chandler out. Then when he brought Chandler back in, he took Jasper out, put Noah in. He was doing like one at a time, and I think that works. And then all of a sudden he just decided to do this mass sub, and I don't get that. Oh, and I agree with you there. I have so many times this year I've gone, why is Jasper in now? And then when the first round of subs came, I was like, okay, we actually played well. And I have – But you know what I've noticed with Jasper? Jasper plays his best when he's in with Aberdeen. That's actually when he plays the best. When he came in tonight, we were up one. And then when he went out the first time, we were up nine, and it was because he played with Aberdeen that whole time. And then when Aberdeen went out and they brought Jasper in, that's when we started to struggle. I think it would actually do Jasper some good to play with Aberdeen because I just think it takes some of the stress off of him. But go ahead. Oh, I completely agree with you. So I know earlier on the show this morning and on the pregame show, you all brought up, quote, buckyball. And I was like, I don't even know what that is. And then I realized what it was watching the game, and I was like, I feel like this is a recipe for a blowout. and then watching the guys play, I was like, man, we've responded. Like, we've kind of grown up because I feel like earlier in the year we would have gotten run off the floor, and we eventually did, but we were playing really good when it started. But then I'm like, okay, out of nowhere. Obviously, then when the second round of subs came, it went all to nothing. And I was like – then I came to my big point, and I was like – and kind of what you said at the beginning, I'm like, this team just – and for March, for the whole fan base, I feel like this is some advice. this team just is what it is. We could lose by 20. No, I agree. It is what it is. It is what it is. Every game, it is what it is. You know, anything can happen. And that is so frustrating for us as a fan base to go, we could lose by 20, we could win by 20, we could win a close game, we could lose a close game. But I guess at the same time, though, you're like, okay, well, I guess March could be the biggest goal. We have a shot in any game. I appreciate the call, but we could lose any game. Here's what buckyball is. Bucky ball is what you do when you have a team that is not as talented as the teams you're playing. You try to disrupt them. And when you play really good teams, you're going to get destroyed. And we looked like a really good team in the first 10 minutes. But then we fell into their trap, which is you get sped up, you start to hurry, then you start to play like them, and they're better at it than you. And then when they hit some shots, but part of the frustration, too, is that there was nobody even at that game. It wasn't like their crowd was crazy. It wasn't like the place was rocking. There was nobody there. And we still lost. Who's next? Sosa. Sosa. Go ahead, Sosa. Go ahead, Sosa. Yeah, thank you, guys. Yeah, yeah. One second, Matt. I would like Billy's perspective on the game because, honestly to God, I feel like I'm not sure about you, Matt. I love you. But you talk crap one way and then cover up crap the other way. I don't know what that means. Did you think tonight went well? Absolutely not. Okay. So, but just yesterday you were saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or actually what I'd like to get at, honestly, and I'd like Billy. But wait a minute. I'll let Billy do his thing, but what are you talking about? We did play well. Yesterday I spoke well of how they played. We played well for nine minutes. No, we beat Vandy. We destroyed Vandy on Saturday. Yesterday we beat Vandy. No, we beat him Saturday. and I talked about it yesterday. Okay, then let's – Okay, I appreciate the call. Billy, I'll let you describe the game. But, I mean, yes, I did say different things about the team yesterday because Saturday we beat Vandy by a lot and played excellent. Today we did not play well. If I came on here and said we're still great after today, you would think I had lost my mind. The reason I go back and forth is because this team goes back and forth. Now, Billy, give your take on the game. I just, I'm tired of hearing that other teams were more desperate than Kentucky or that they wanted it more. What's it going to take to motivate this Kentucky team? I mean, at times, I mean, they didn't even care about possessions that they had. And you have to care about every single possession, Matt. So like motivation just varies on this team so much. Brandon Garrison said after the game that they relaxed as a team and then they never responded well I'd argue this is a team that should never relax I mean you have blown some bad leads and I don't think that they should relax at all so it's it's frustrating it really is it is very frustrating I agree I don't really know what's happening in this Vandy Ole Miss game you probably don't have it on because it's on the computer but uh what's happening well it looks like I thought Ole Miss was going to the line with the game tied. And it looks like they're reviewing a play that occurred like 30 seconds before to see if there was a hook and hold. But they had already went ahead and played the next play, which I didn't think you could do that. But they did. And if they call it, then Vandy's going to end up getting, like, technical free throws. Uh-oh. When it's just 25 seconds to go. What a bizarre – I've never seen that before where they could go back in time and say, you know, that play a little while ago, we should have called something else on that. I've seen it for goaltending, but never something else. After review, it says play at 54 seconds has been upgraded to a flagrant one. So they are going back in time and calling a flagrant one on a play that occurred earlier in the game. you're opening up a Pandora's box never seen that before in my years of watching watching basketball I mean I can see why they called it because he did grab the guy's leg but like once the play's gone I can't believe you could go back alright who's next? Alex go ahead Alex hey Matt I'm pretty close to the same age if not the same age as Drew and he talks about the 96, all that 98. I can't watch the 96, 98, and 2012 One Shining Moment videos on YouTube without tearing up. I just can't. I agree with you. I'm that way too. I'm that way too. I mean, I'm serious. Like, I don't – this time of year I'll put them on and, like, I get so misty-eyed just remembering what we used to be. and now it's like we're a glorified AAU team. That's what it feels like to see us play. We don't hustle on defense. We don't do the stuff that we are known for doing. It's not that the players are different. It's just we just don't walk into the building like we're the champ anymore, and it absolutely kills me. I understand. I mean, I get it. I'm like you with the 96 and 98. Every year, usually before the tournament, I'll put on the ones we win and then other ones where I know we had a good run where we're in the video. And, yeah, it stinks. I mean, the reality is the last really good NCAA tournament moment that we had is – I mean, we beat Illinois last year, but I don't know that there's a moment that came out of that game. So probably the last big-time March Madness moment we had was when Tyler Hero hit that shot against Houston. And what year is that? Is that 2019? So, I mean, it's been seven years. So I know how you feel. And what it feels like to me watching the version of our team now, the players, the way that we're looked at. It's like, and I know you're a professional wrestling fan, it's like somebody that maybe was in the main event of like Survivor Series 93 or the World Rumble, and now they're touring doing like high school gyms. Like it's still the same person, but it doesn't have the attraction that it did before. I understand. I appreciate the call. I've been around a lot of that in wrestling, and sometimes people come in and it doesn't remind you what it used to be. I don't feel like we're that yet. This is not Mickey Rourke and the wrestler. But I don't know. I don't know. You have to think about what the wrestling analogy is. But you're not terribly far off. All right, let's do one more, and then we'll take a break. Who's next? Caleb. Caleb. Go ahead, Caleb. Hey, Matt. First time, long time. Who are? What's up? So, I was at the game tonight. I'm on my way home. And I'm glad you noticed it because I was wondering how it would show on TV. But that arena was, like, half empty. I was kind of shocked at how disappointed the turnout was for Texas A&M. I went to the Texas game last year, and they turned up. They kind of scared me a little bit. They were really into it. but at the beginning of the game, BBN was in it. We were all up, you know, going crazy. And then on that sub switch, they kind of just made us sit down and shut up for the rest of the game. And it is like one of the worst feelings in the world to be at an away game and see the other team going crazy. And I'm just sitting there watching a crime happen in front of my face. It's just like, I don't know, man. I get it. You're right. And it is kind of, you know, and I appreciate the call. This is two straight games where Kentucky has not only lost, or, well, Kentucky won at South Carolina. But this is two straight road games where we went and, like, the other team's fans didn't show up, which means we're not quite the draw that we have always been, which is a little disconcerting. I mean, I was at the A&M game four years ago. Now, granted, A&M was really good that year, but it was packed, and it was wild, and there was almost nobody there tonight. 859-280-2287. Did you get to say everything you wanted to say about the game? Well, besides the Johnny Rocker personal injury attorney moneymaker of the game, Matt, injured, get small-town compassion with big city results when you call the Rocker at 270-321-4429. Kind of tough to pick one tonight, but Mo Diabate, I thought, showed a lot of heart, Especially during Ramadan. Eight for nine from the field. 19 points in 22 minutes. He also had seven rebounds. He was plus three in the plus minus. He is our Johnny Rocker personal injury attorney moneymaker of the game. I agree. Speaking of wrestling, by the way, Shannon the Dude, Cash Daniel, Friday night. They're going at each other? Wow. How is Shannon going to cheat? Cash Daniel is like three Shannon the Dudes. Exactly. But Chan's going to have to throw something in his eyes. Yeah, exactly. All right, we'll take a break. They're going to overtime in Vandy Ole Miss. So we'll see what happens. We'll take a break. Be right back. It is the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show. All right, so people are giving wrestling analogies, Billy. Yeah, let's hear it. One person says, for me, we used to be the Rock, and now we're Rocky Malavia. That's good. Although Rocky Malvia was Rocky, was rock before The Rock. So you need somebody who was The Rock and then kind of became Rocky Malvia. I'm trying to think of a wrestler that was a huge star, like the best in the business, and then got to a point in their career where sometimes they would win and then sometimes they would lose to terrible people I trying to think Al Snow I like Al Snow, obviously. I don't think he was ever the Kentucky of wrestling. Okay. You know, the Kentucky of wrestling is going to have to be like your Steve Austins or your Ric Flair's. Flair got sad at the end. I don't think that's more. Ric Flair's more like Indiana. Well, I mean, Rick went a long time. Maybe AJ Styles. He was the champ. And then towards the end, they just had him losing to everybody. I don't know. It's a tough one. Okay, so we have some plays we need to talk about. First of all, Trent Noah finally gets hot, and then he turns his ankle on Mark Pope. What terrible luck. Do we know if he's okay, did they say? I haven't seen an update, but he was standing up shortly after that. What bad luck, though. You finally start making shots, and then you turn your ankle on your own coach. Yeah, that was bizarre. That was weird. And then Brandon Garrison just threw a ball off a guy's face. Hard. The Brandon Garrison experience is all over the place. He had a great first few minutes. He had like six points in a row. He had six points in a row. Great pass. And then, you know, he's throwing balls off people's faces. And, like, Brandon Garrison is one for the books. And then I read that we had a woman get ejected from the game and flip off the crowd on her way out. And I tweeted out, Mom? My mom didn't find that as funny as I did. Well, Karen wouldn't do that. She wouldn't. She would not get kicked out or flip anyone off. but I need to know who this woman was. She might be listening. Matter of fact, I bet she is listening. Good luck getting through tonight. If you got kicked out from this game and flipped somebody off, I feel like you're the kind of person that listens to this show. I would love to hear from you, either tonight or in the morning. If you were the woman that got kicked out and flipped off the crowd on the way out, because they were right behind the bench, I heard. So I need to know who that was. I don't know. who's next todd is next todd go ahead todd hey matt billy uh the rest are thing first thing come to mind was sting it's like how many times can you come out as the crow but sting wouldn't lose sting wouldn't lose though to these like they didn't have sting jobbing yeah that's true that's A couple points. You asked a question yesterday, or maybe someone called in about Ryan being a sunshine pumper and Drew. Like, I don't know. And I think the majority of us are kind of, I don't know, because Pope is still making the same mistakes on year two. Sub patterns. Not calling timeouts. I mean, you're up 12, and they go on a little run. and, I mean, even before it gets 13-0, call it when it's a 6-0 run. Burn a second timeout, you know? You know, you're right. I mean, these issues we're talking about were the exact same issues we were talking about last year, right? I mean, if you remember, the two things that used to frustrate us the most is he would go to the subs because last year there was a huge drop-off between our top six and the next guys, right? And he would go to those guys. And we would loot. They'd go on a run. And then I think the other thing that used to bother us was the timeouts. And we also last year would lose – like we'd fall down 20 to teams. And we didn't come back as much last year. So, yeah, you're right. There are some similar stuff. The relevancy point, I know you said on the show the other day something about that someone said we're irrelevant and that we're not irrelevant because we're on a lot of primetime spots and, you know, we still bring big ratings. But relevancy is we're nowhere near where UConn, Houston, for God's sake, it's not even close to Duke, like around that top ten, around like, okay, this is a one or two seed. No, we're not. We're not right now. And when are we going to be there? I mean, we're ten level losses this year. we have nobody for next year how do we replace away i mean that kid is unreal for us and that's a big chunk we're going to miss next year as well no i think that's a very fair question that's i appreciate the call very fair question and you're right we aren't in that group i kind of feel like we're sort of in the with north carolina group where although north carolina didn't make a championship game but i that was a luck run um but but they still got it so i mean you can't take it away from him. I like this. We're Chris Jericho. That's a good call. Jericho's my favorite wrestler, but he was, you know, the main guy, and then by the end he was just, you know. Or Hulk Hogan in TNA. How about Cena? See, Billy can't laugh at these because he doesn't know what all this means. Whoever wrote, we're Hulk Hogan in TNA, that's a good call. What were you going to say? Cena? Does he fit that? No, but Cena never jobs. He doesn't lose to randoms. The problem is we're losing to Georgia. We're losing to, yeah, that's, we've lost what, three in a row to Georgia? Two in a row to Georgia? Did Georgia beat Alabama tonight? They did, yeah. And that game hurt us. That's what put Wednesday back on the table for us. Georgia beating Alabama hurt us. So, and when Vandy wins and it's looking like they're probably going to, then, yeah, Wednesday is definitely on the table. We're going to need good results. I thought we were out of having to play Wednesday, but tonight went about as bad as it could have for us. Who's next? Mike. Mike. Go ahead, Mike. What's up, man? I'll tell you, I've been watching Kentucky since the 80s. I don't think I can ever remember a 36-4 run in my entire life. And it just seems like we kind of got rid of Cal Perry, which I think it was time, and got the poor man's version of Cal Perry. He's just as stubborn in a different way. Well, he is stubborn. You're right. He is stubborn. I think that's a really good point. He's stubborn in a different way than Cal. You know, Cal was kind of stubborn in the old school, this is how I do it, and you modern kids with your rock and roll, you're not going to change me. And Pope is almost the, sir, the computer, he's almost the chat GPT version. Like, chat GPT says this is what it is. And you're like, but wait a minute. Chat GPT is saying that one of our players is a grapefruit. And you're like, that can't be right. But this is what chat GPT says. So you're right, they're stubborn in different ways. Let me ask you another question that I've kind of noticed this year. Let's see if you agree with this. All of your best teams in the country are going away from this, I guess you would call it Steph Curry-type basketball. It seems like they're back to the offensive rebounding and the big guys. It's like we're headed back towards where we used to be, it seems to me. And I just don't. Man, I want it to work so bad with Pope. Man, I'm kidding. Well, I've always thought, so we've talked about this on the air before. I always think that whatever happens in the NBA, sir, give it two or three years and it'll happen in college basketball, right? And so I was listening to, I think I was talking about how I was listening to this podcast earlier in the year, and they said in the NBA now, you're right, it used to be get little, shoot threes, et cetera. And now they still put a priority on shooting. But now it's like get shooters but get offensive rebounders because the most efficient offense is getting it off the glass and scoring. And that's probably where we're headed with college basketball. And you're right, these teams that are good, like Michigan and Arizona does this, they get guys who can crash the glass and do that. Florida. Florida is the best example. Yeah, Florida is like that too. Get guys who can shoot. You need two types of players, guys that can shoot and guys that can go hit the glass. And we got a team this year that got a lot of guys that try to create one-on-one, and that just doesn't really work a lot in college basketball. So I appreciate the call. I mean, O.A. is the best version of that kind of player. He really is. But, you know, he goes through time where he struggles to score. and you know I love Moreno and I think he's going to be good but he's soft right now. He's got to get he's got to get stronger in the offseason because he just he gets bullied and think about these guys that have given us trouble Cyril at Georgia and the guy tonight for A&M they just go through him and that hurt Yelovich has the same same problem uh who's next martin martin go ahead martin hey man um just two quick points and i think my my first point has to do with pope um and his inability to keep his players engaged mentally throughout the game and this has been consistent since uh last year and this year um and the losses to iowa state and old miss um last year and then this year getting blown out by Gonzaga, it just seems like he has an inability to keep his team engaged when they go down. And so that's big for me in terms of whether or not he can be great as a coach going forward. And the second point is sort of a big point or a big picture point with Ms. Barnhart going. I think going forward, if we're going to get an AD that is going to take this seriously and an athletic department for that matter, we need an athletic department that has its finger on the pulse of the fan base because they seem out of touch with the rebranding, with what's going on in the home court advantage, the rebranding, that Wildcat they came out with. I can't remember what it was. I think it was a few years ago, but no one buys that merchandise. And so they really need to sort of be, you know, take a look at themselves on how to get in touch with the fan base. I agree totally with you. The first way to do that would be the list of this show. I totally agree with you about the – I think you will hear me talk a lot more about this as we go through the spring because according to Eli Kaplu and UK today, they're not hiring someone soon, like quickly. So I agree with you. I think they – I think the athletics department has been disconnected from the fans since COVID, and it's got to get better. I think it has gotten a little better on the football side, but there's still a ways to go. And I think on the basketball side, Mark's done some really good things in that regard, but there's still a way. The Atlantic Department has no – they have no idea what the average fan is like. They really don't. If I may, I would say they just need to stop catering to the older generation. I'm 31 years old, and I've got four brothers, and they're the biggest UK fans you can meet. I've died for any of them. We talk about every UK game while we're watching it, and we say the same things. You feel like you're shouting at the moon. Unfortunately, you and KSR kind of face the brunt of fans' frustrations, and you feel like you're shouting at the moon. and you see these things and you're feeling it in your gut, something's missing. And like I said, I mean – Well, no, they don't realize it. They don't realize it. I mean, here's the – and this is a much bigger conversation than tonight. But here's the problem. This is what happened when Cal was here, and it's what happens now. KSR reflects the fans, okay? We – when you hear us, you're hearing people like you. You're here – we reflect the fans. But to UK's administration, they think we move the fans, right? So they think the reason fans are upset about in-game experience is because KSR tells them to be. They don't understand that every single day, me, Ryan, Drew, Billy, Shannon, Mario, we are hearing from fans who are saying this, and we are reflecting what they're saying. UK, because they are so disconnected from the average fans, just blames us. And that's what Cal did. And to some extent in the latter years, that's what Mitch has done. And I'm with you. I hope the next group, and I appreciate the call, I don't think that's what Will Stein has done. I don't even really think that's what Mark Pope has done. I hope the new leadership of UK Athletics realizes there is a lot, there's a missing piece to the connection with the fans. and they've got to find it. And one of the things that would help is winning basketball games. 859-280-2287. Ole Miss has a free throw to tie here, Billy, after it looked like they might be done and they miss it. Come on, Ole Miss. Oh, goodness. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be right back. It's the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local Toyota Dealers KSR postgame show. You know, Billy, I'm a little bit of a nerd when it comes to political stuff, at least elections. I don't like how politics is done in America now, but I do like elections. And I just saw something I didn't know. Do you remember former baseball player Mark Teixeira? Yes. Yeah, first baseman. He won the Republican primary for Congress in a district in Texas. And it looks like a district that's a pretty strong Republican. So he will probably now be a congressman, Mark Teixeira. Here's what I thought when I saw this. You know, they have that Democrat-Republican baseball game every year. That's right, yeah. Should the Democrats just forfeit from now on? They've got a Yankee. Yeah, that seems unfair. That doesn't seem unfair. Yeah, he's going to be taking those old cards. They can't allow him to play, can they? Well, that would be cruel to make him say that. But, I mean, if LeBron James were to run for Congress, you can't let him play in the congressional basketball game. If he were a member of Congress, it would be. So you think he should get the play? If he was a member of Congress, yeah. Well, the game's over. Yeah. You put Aaron Judge in the middle of the country. Well, you just give him the Barry Bonds treatment. You just walk him. Oh, you walk him every time? Yeah, you can walk him. You can picture him. Now, I will say, I think it would be really funny if he struck out. Oh, yeah. That would be really embarrassing That would be really embarrassing if AOC strikes you out Oh yeah be a Democrat And you be like Bernie brings the heat Bernie I bet Bernie got quite the curveball I'm sorry, look, we got to laugh at something. We got beat tonight. And it wasn't good. Alright, who's up next? Jacob is next. Jacob, go ahead Jacob. Hey Matt, thanks for taking my call. Of course. So going back to the Cal era, towards the end, when you talked about the fans having this apathy towards Cal, obviously we're not there yet with Pope, but it feels like we're getting there pretty soon. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, it's all going to be about next year. Like, it's going to be next year. I mean, for better or worse, Mark Pope's success at Kentucky will come down to how next year goes. that's just going to be Mark Story wrote that about a week ago and he's exactly right this year I think no matter he did enough in terms of getting this team to play better and get to the tournament he'll have the job next year and Mitch is now going to be gone which also adds a different legacy to this conversation but nevertheless in terms of the fan base it'll all be based on next year. I think things need to go well next year, and there are reasons to be nervous about it, but I think fans will go into next season excited, but if we have a year where a lot of the same issues showcase, then you will start to hear major, major grumblings. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate the call. Let's do five more, and we'll call it a night. Rusty. Rusty. How are you, Rusty? Hey, Matt. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like tonight's game was a replay of the Oakland game. They went on a 27-3 run at the end of the first half and said, we'll adjust it. We'll see what they're doing in the first half and we'll make adjustments. But when that came out of the second half, they did the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was no adjustment. You're right. You're exactly right. And then we also, here's the problem. When you let a team go on those runs, then if they have moments where they get hot, you're just kind of screwed. And that's what happened. In the second half, we actually played okay, but then they hit a couple big threes, and we couldn't get it closer. than 9, 10, 11 because of the gap we gave them in the first half. You're right. But, you know, Jelovich come down, and he hit a three right off the bat. I'm like, okay. But then his man that he was guarding, two times down the court, they hit two threes in his face. And it's like, you know, it's great you scored three, but you can't give up six for three. Yeah, and Jimmy Dykes frustrates people, but he does good analysis, and he was noting our guys were like, we continue to play off of these three-point shooters, and I don't understand why. You know, make them beat you at the glass. If they do, shake their hand. But we got a lot of tall dudes. Make them beat us at the rim, and we give them these open looks, and you got the dude, the Spanish guy, who hit six threes, and we didn't even have our hand in his face, five of them. So, yes. And let me say this about Jimmy Dykes. He did say something that was hilarious earlier. They mentioned the fact that Noah didn't score a point in February. And Jimmy Dyke goes, well, there's only 28 days. I thought that was funny. Yeah, I appreciate the call. Yeah, February's over, Billy. So now it's time. Yeah, Trent Noah didn't hit a single shot in the month of February. So glad he finally saw him go in. To be fair, neither did I. you're not playing i mean you don't throw stones if you live in a glass house i didn't make one either neither did you for that matter well that's a false equivalency here i'm not playing for kentucky not making millions in whatever excuses you are dropping who's next kurt kurt go ahead kurt hey matt appreciate you taking my call i got a quick comment and a question um so the uh i think that first of all the positive note i think that uh loss like this to texas a&m in the way is going to be a uh catalyst for us to go and beat florida by a bunch at home um so i think that's a bunch not just win but a bunch yes no i think i think eight points man um and then on the other side i do have a question for you when i heard you talk today about jayden quaintance possibly entering the lineup again um i wasn't so concerned about jayden quaintance being a good player for the team or a participant like everybody was talking about i was concerned about the substitution pattern that's going to come as a result of that just because of kind of what we've seen with trenton and some of the other players i think what would end up happening is just one of the bigs that's playing right now just probably wouldn't get to play first of all i don't even know that he's going to play if he does play i don't know that'll play much. If he got to the point, though, that they felt like he could play 15, 20 minutes, probably what happens is probably Garrison just doesn't play. That's probably what, if you were going to make me guess, that's probably what would happen. That's fair. I mean, if that's the case, then I guess I would be a little less worried. It concerns me a little bit with just the substitution pattern that maybe he would play over Moreno or something like that. Yeah, I appreciate the call. By the way, here's another little thing. You know, Billy, I like little tidbits of information. Do you remember the ShamWow? Yes. Okay. Yes. So in another Republican primary, the guy who did the ShamWow, all right, his name is Offer Shlomi. That's the guy who did the ShamWow. And he wanted to run, you know, if I say Offer Shlomi, you don't know who that is, right? Correct. So he wanted to be on the ballot as ShamWow Shlomi. Good idea, honestly. Well, think about it. If you're like Ryan Lemon, you don't know anything, and you see ShamWow Shlomi on the ballot, you'd be like, oh, I remember the ShamWow. Some good yard signs. Well, the Board of Elections did not let ShamWow be ShamWow. That's a shame. Because his name is not ShamWow. and so he without having his name ShamWow on there he came in sixth well it sounds like he only got a he only got a thousand votes he could have changed his name to ShamWow maybe the middle name ShamWow it sounds like he just stopped you should be able if he had legally changed it then you think it would be okay to do it yes so if I was wanting to run for office you know there's a movie called distinguished gentleman where there's a guy named i think thomas jefferson and the congressman named thomas jefferson dies and he changes his name eddie murphy to thomas jefferson so people think they're voting for the dead guy and his campaign slogan is vote the name you know and he wins and then he goes to congress it's a great movie if you've ever seen i like the idea maybe an asterisk next to him if he's trying to you could run for office and just like change your name if you get it legally changed yeah it should be on the ballot you should run you should have run as mitch mcconnell for who's next run it back glenna glenna go ahead glenna hey good evening um i have a name for our team but it's not wrestling name Okay. It's like we've been Garth Brooks, and now we're going to Chris Gaines. Oh, no. I mean, I can't argue with you. That's not a bad one. We've been Garth Brooks, and now we're Chris Gaines. Well, we're not Chris Gaines yet, but we're like in the transformation, too, if we don't. Glenn, I don't think I can top that one. That's a pretty good one. oh thank you appreciate it that's depressing do you remember are you old enough to remember when Garth Brooks became Chris Gaines I've heard the story but I don't remember he just decided he was another person and he hosted Saturday Night Live and he was the host and Chris Gaines was the musical guest see that's too much alter egos are worse than you need to look this is something that will entertain you before to go to bed When Garth Brooks hosted Chris Gaines' musical guest, Tracy Morgan, they'd have a skit where he comes up to Garth Brooks in the hall and tells him he needs to watch out for Chris Gaines, acting like he doesn't know they're the same person. You should look that one up. I will. It's a good skit. Two more. Who's next? Will. Will. Go ahead, Will. Hey, man. I got a couple things to say real quick, and I'll be real quick. Pope just must think he's got a platoon system. Because every time he brings these guys in, we just are lost. And then we lose. And then I was saying the game's over. And one more thing, they talked to him after the game, and he said that we were fatigued. After 12 minutes, our guys are fatigued. We need to talk to the athletic trainer, and I'll let you comment. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we said this a lot. I feel like they don't get as tired as – But the thing is, if they're not tired and we're down 15, I'm not sure how that helps us either. I think they lost the game, in my opinion, when they made that mess up. But to be fair, when they put the starters back in, they weren't good either. So, you know, it's what it is. One more, and we'll call it a night, and then get ready for tomorrow. What's next? David. David. Go ahead, David. Hey, Matt. I know you like to finish on a positive, so you might want to get another caller ready. That's okay. We lost. We don't have to finish on a positive. We lost. Okay. I know you'd like to, but okay, here we go. Is this any better than the last two years of Cal? This year particularly or the two years that Pope has been? These two years with Pope. Well, let's see. Next to last year with Cal, we got to the second round, lost to Kansas State. Honestly, that was a very similar year to last year in the sense that, although last year was probably a little better than that year. Then the next year, Kentucky was pretty good that year, but then lost to Oakland. So let's see what we do in the tournament. I mean, we went one round farther in Pope's first year than we did Cal two years ago. Let's see what we do in the tournament. But, I mean, even if it's a little better, I think your point is it's not exponentially different one way or the other. And I think last year would have been – we would have felt better if it had been for Cal and Arkansas going to Sweet 16 also and seeing what they're doing, what would have been our players if he'd have stayed here. Yeah, I understand that. Although, I think if Cal had had those players here, we might have been awful. because they were people forget they were they barely made the tournament last year you know we're going to play wednesday we're going to play wednesday at one o'clock maybe in the sec tournament i'm going to remind you last year the wednesday at one o'clock game was arkansas and at one point they were down in the second half and if they had lost that game they might not have even made the ncaa tournament now of course they ended up in the sweet 16 but their fortunes changed and you know there's still time in theory that could happen with us too True, true So, I appreciate the call I mean, Cal, look Arkansas last year beat Kansas And then they beat Rick Pitino Those are two great wins But they almost didn't make the tournament You remember, I think Billy, they started SEC last year Like 1-6 And then they turned their season around Playing us That's when they turned their season around Well, disappointing loss And And we play Saturday, and who knows? Maybe we win because with this team, you just never know. Tomorrow will be a busy day on the show. We're going to have to talk about Mitch's retirement, the news that came out about his new role with the university, and then this SEC tournament scenarios will be at the bar. A lot going on tomorrow, so we will see you then. Cats lose, unfortunately, 96-85. This has been the Local Toilet Dealers, KSR Postgame Show. Thank you. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org. Brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. The human body is a beautiful machine, and keeping it running means understanding how it actually works. Which is why this podcast will kill you is doing a multi-part series on sleep. What it's for, why our bodies don't follow neat rules, and why modern life is not helping. 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