It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's nick coffee. All right, let's do this five o'clock
on a Friday. Thanks for hanging out with us. Maybe you've already got
the weekend started. We will do that in about an hour. But you
know, maybe you don't get your weekend started till later. Maybe you maybe
it started yesterday. I don't. Everybody's got different schedules, but the vibes
on a Friday always really strong, and it's best day of the week.
You know, it's actually a workday. You know, I start to get
up early. I can sleep in a little bit on Saturday Sunday. But
there's something about a Friday that just is the it's the best. There's no
case that could be made that it's not the best day of the week in
my opinion. Everybody has their own preferences. I get it, Like if
you work a I think they call it a flex shift, where you like
work the weekend, that would suck. So maybe like your Friday is is
different than everybody else's, but that like that's so that when everybody is well
not everybody, but like when most people have like worked the week, they're
ready to unwind. Knowing that like everybody's feeling the vibe makes it the vibe
that it is that makes sense, Like we're all in the same way.
Like if you've got a day off on a Wednesday, you know, technically
you know your it's your day, it's your weekend essentially, But like if
nobody else does, like, it just doesn't feel it doesn't feel right.
There's a collective enjoyment of Fridays that just makes it. You know, it's
the best day of the week, and I love it. So thank you
all for spending this this great day with us. The jets over top of
us are getting louder and louder. It would be really frightening for somebody who
would not know. Like if also, like if you just end up in
Louisville and you're downtown, maybe you have a layover or something, like I
imagine you probably be able to pick up that there's something going on here,
you know what I mean. But you probably know there's a fireworks show and
it's tomorrow night, and you're thinking, what the hell's going on? Like
the story that Jeff Greers shared with us earlier than the show. It sounds
crazy as somebody who's lived here my whole life, but like, if you're
not, you could you could even be, you know, somebody that's here
periodically for work and be completely thrown off by the Friday afternoon whenever. The
I know they fighter jets. Is that what their career is? Yeah,
I mean it's it's loud in a major way, all right. So if
you are just now joining us, been a busy, busy show thus far.
We did start with kind of picking up picking up from yesterday with the
news of Ali Khalifa, who committed the Louisville and we'll probably red shirt.
But I'm trying to figure out if that's like a definite thing. I'm assuming
that they that that is their plan, but I've been told by somebody who
wouldn't who would know more than I would, But I don't know if this
is for sure that it's not as if he's gonna have surgery. If that,
if he has surgery, then that makes it to where it's clearly,
hey, he's going to be on the end. He needs to not only
rehab, but then he'll have to get in shape after that, which that's
an issue now, is he's not in great playing shape. I mean,
he's clearly a big guy that you know, strength strengthening additioning I think will
be a big task for him to you know, to work on before he
hits the floor for Pat Kelsey, but if he if he is going to
have you know, in e fact, even if he's rehabbing his knee,
it's going to be tough for him to stay in shape because you know,
you're not running a whole lot. There's ways to stay active and you know,
do conditioning. If you can't put a lot of weight or any weight
on your knee, I mean to me, it sounds damn near impossible,
but I know there's ways of doing it. But either way, it's a
nice addition for Pat Kelsey, like rivalry stuff aside. You know, Pat
likes to play five out offense at times, which to me sounds crazy,
but it is something that's done this day and age with basketball, and it
can work, and it's worked for him at Charleston. And honestly, Ali
Khalifa at seven foot, two hundred and seventy pounds being a guy that excels
like his two biggest strengths are passing and shooting. Not something you typically see
from a guy that is seven foot two hundred and seventy pounds, and because
you know, you can't put a guard on him because you know at that
point he'd be forced to play down low and just go to work. So
he's just an odd matchup for other teams with the skill set that he has.
And you know, I'll stand by what I said yesterday. You know,
his production last year was just odd, and I did go back and
watch a lot of highlights and stuff, and now I can understand why he
would have that stat line right, Like his percentage wasn't great from the field
because you know, his three point percentage and his field goal percentage relatively similar.
You know why, because he pretty much only shot three point shots and
he you know, shot it in the mid thirties I believe it is,
which is not bad for a three point shooter. But his passing, I
mean, the way Pope played BYU, I mean that really helped him.
But packkelse he's going to play a similar style at times. And you know,
I think if he's on the floor for twenty minutes a game like he
was at BYU, I wouldn't be shocked if his assist numbers are similar or
maybe even better. And that sounds crazy, but when he's out there in
that system, playing that style, that's what he's there to do. It's
not like, oh, we're gonna feed our big and let him go to
work, but then we're gonna benefit on the fact that he's got good vision,
can see the floor and just and dish it, distribute, find cutters,
that kind of stuff. I mean, I guess they could do that,
but I think at times he'll be in there because that's his strength.
So a solid pick up, no doubt. And the fact that it was
a guy who played for Mark Pope and did not follow Mark Pope to Kentucky
but instead came to Louisville, you know that. Uh, that's that's an
added bonus. And it was a real reminder that Kentucky fans despite knowing and
I think they would tell you this. In fact, I had lunch with
a couple of my buddies today. They're Kentucky fans, and they know that
they're not going to recruit the way Cali Perry did at Kentucky because that's just
not realistic. Nobody does. And that's not a slight at Mark Pope,
nobody recruits like John cal Perry nobody, so like they know that going in.
But also, and I'm not talking about these guys specifically, but just
you know, it's still gonna be a process, an adjustment process, because
they're gonna lose on recruits like they never have before. And it's it's because
one Cala Perry's not there. And also selling Kentucky without Cali Perry is just
not just not the same thing. And I think Mark Pope will get some
good recruits. I think he'll probably end up getting some good transfers this cycle
as well. I don't know how good his team's gonna be. I mean,
they'd have nobody. By the way, if you missed that, at
the end of the four o'clock hour, Kentucky has lost Jordan Burks to the
transfer portal. So now they only have two guys on their roster for next
year and neither of them have played. One is a freshman, Travis Perry.
The other is is the transfer Colin something. Uh yeah, Colin Chandler
who transferred from UH from not Colin Coward, right, correct, He transferred
from BYU, but he never played. He was out. He was two
years on a mission, and now he's back and he's playing college basketball,
so you know Pope will be Let's be real, Kentucky being Kentucky never hurt
you and clearly helped you to an extent. But when Calip Perry was getting
top five player after top five player, it's because he sold them on getting
them too the NBA, and he did that really, really well. Now
the pitch is totally different. Now you're selling you'd want to come to Kentucky
because look, it's Kentucky and that matters. Kentucky's one of the bigger brands
in the sport. We all know that, but that doesn't matter as much
right now. Kids want to go to the NBA and they want to be
paid, and Kentucky can pay them. But you know, other schools came
too, right And I think, honestly, the type of player that you
would have to really throw up a lot of money, drop the bag,
stand on the business, I think that kind of player wouldn't fit with Mark
Poe. Not because like style of play, but like I think Mark Poe
is going to be a little more blue collar and want to get players that
it's not He's only going to get them if they say they would die to
wear the Kentucky uniform. Like you mentioned, that's just a clever thing to
say, to talk about how much you appreciate Kentucky and really playing to the
fan base, and that's that's that's a wise thing to say. But I
feel like Mark Pope would not really want a guy if he knows the only
way he could get him is if the school doubles the nil or whoever doubles
the nil that the other schools. I just don't know if that's a compatible
fit. So in a way, you gotta want people to want to be
there for the other reasons too, right, Like if they want to play
Kentucky because they love they like Kentucky as they you know clearly it's a great
program, great success, big fan base, and you know they feel like
they'll be competitive. They like Mark Pope because they've seen his style of play.
Maybe he eventually builds a pattern of getting guys to the NBA. I
think you'd want them to want to be there, and then it's like,
well, I know I'm gonna get money at Kentucky, so I'm not worried
about that. And be honest with you, that is how Caliperi got a
lot of these players. Clearly Nil was in good shape. But Cal early
on in the Nil era and maybe even most recently, he would navigate that
is with, Look, you don't have to worry about that, you're gonna
be in the NBA next year and it'll all work itself out and you're gonna
be paid here. Like it was rarely a bidding war for these freshmen.
I think it actually did turn into that with this class that signed to Kentucky
and is now going elsewhere. And that's why he struggled on the portal because
you know, Cal wasn't about to you know, I mean he could say
that to the freshman and they would know I'm going to the NBA, so
like, yeah, I'll make enough money six figures probably for me and my
family for the year that I'm there, and then it's big payday and nobody's
gonna give me a chance to get that bigger payday in the NBA than John
Vincent Caliperi. He can't sell that to Hunter Dickinson. He can't say the
same thing Becausehndery Dickon's not going to the NBA. It's like in the portal,
you gotta be able to do that. So maybe the older guys in
the portal that know they're not going to the NBA, they just want to
play for a guy who plays a really exciting style with like Mark Pope does.
Maybe that is that is that is the calling card, right, that's
what they do. They go get guys that are older that know the NBA
is not really in their future, but they want to play for a good
program that has a huge fan base and a coach that they like and they
feel like we'll utilize them. Well, I think that's going to be the
scenario, which, again, you can do that and it can work.
Look around the country. Some of the best teams in the last two years
have teams built like that. But it's so different than what Kentucky's always been
and I just think there's going to be an adjustment process for their fans to
kind of see that, because again, there's going to be losing these guys
that were committed and signed to Caliperi at Arkansas. That's the expectation. That's
not really a loss, right, you knew when they left. When he
left, those guys were leaving. To even some of the players that were
on this team. But when it comes down to getting transfers and you're in
a one on one battle with somebody and you lose more often than you win,
because again, these guys are picking Baylor like Jeremy Roach is going to
or maybe they're picking Arkansas because col wants to stick it to you. Take
a player that Mark Pope won't want. That's where I feel like it's gonna
be. I think it's gonna be tough for him to deal with it.
There's nothing to do about it. In the end, the change still needed
to happen. But if you had Scott Drew here instead of Mark Pope,
Scott Drew would not have hit you in your feelings the way Mark Pope did.
He wouldn't have had the crowd that they had because Mark Pope, you
know, similar to honestly, Jeff Brom not comparing them as accomplished coaches in
that same level. I'm just saying, Jeff Brom gives us something that if
Louisville paid a coach fifty million dollars annually couldn't give us. He is one
of us, he cares, he knows us. There's no way he would
ever not care about Louisville. Mark Pope's that guy, and that's great.
But Mark Pope, you know, he's just so different than like Scott Drew,
different than Caliperry two. But he also recruits at a really high level
and would have brought his five star freshmen with him, and he would have
brought Jeremy Roach probably. I mean, like, it's just it's just different.
So Kentucky could end up being really really good with Mark Pope or not
Kentucky fans, but Kentucky get end up being really good with Mark Pope.
But I just think the scenario where that's the case is going to take some
time, and no fan base is truly patient. But I think their fan
base, given their standard of excellence in their elitism, I think they could
crumble due to lack of patience. That's the way I see it. But
you know, only time will tell, all right, So back to the
Louisville side of things. Jaden Quaintance JQ as they call him. He's on
campus, he's visiting. There's all kinds of pictures he's posted on his Instagram
story and everybody's screenshotting them and sharing them, and it's it doesn't really mean
anything. It doesn't. You know, it's not a tell as if things
are going great or bad. Every recruit does this. But I'm just excited
and re energized to you know, to know that that we're we're all in
right, meaning we're this excited. And I think, to me, I
see this as kind of a free bee, like getting him here on his
first visit since de committing from Kentucky. And somebody texted to this in earlier
and I and I'm sure you're making fun of me, but I think it
actually still fits. Knowing that Nil is very important to acquaintance and his and
his folks, and then Pat Kelsey being able to get him to schedule his
first visits since de committing to Kentucky, that gives the impression. And it
may damn near be proof that Pat Kelsey's doing what Johnny's standing on business.
That's all they do. Yeah, I mean, it's standing on business.
So maybe you pay an insane amount of money to get this kid, and
it's just a bidding thing and you win the war as far as money.
And maybe that's the case, although Arkansas, I'm sure, I'm sure will
pay. I mean, if Arkansas's got Jerry Jones money, which that's literally
what Jerry Jones stated, is that he'll double whatever nil money that the former
Kentucky Commits are going to get to get him to come to Arkansas. At
that point, you Louisville is in a good spot with an IL, but
I don't think they're going to out out pay Jerry Jones, So I do
believe not to. And I don't know anything about quaintance, his family or
anything, but nobody's ever gonna come out, rather be a player or a
player's parent or a player's agent, because they have agents now too. They're
never going to come out and say, well, I just came down to
money. They're never gonna say that, but it does like that's a huge
factor. And if Arkansas can throw reckless amounts of money at a sixteen year
old kid, I think it'd be crazy for them to turn that down,
because again, this is a guy who is sixteen years old, he has
to play two years in college, he cannot go to the NBA until twenty
twenty six, and he's clearly a guy that is raw and has a lot
of potential. The ceiling is high, and he's not even close to being
as good as he's going to be. But if you watch him play,
like he's not somebody who's like learning how to play basketball, but as a
freak athlete Aaron Bradshaw or something. I'm not picking on that kid, but
like obviously you could see there was you know's he can run, he's got
size, length, athleticism, but like he don't know how to play basketball.
This guy, Quaintance is skilled already. He can handle the ball at
times, looks like he's a guard out there. He's developed, like he's
not some scrawny dude. I mean, he's special. So you know,
the fact that he's here is awesome, and I'm just trying not to get
just trying not to get my hopes up here because I knew going in,
like, hey, cool to get to visit, but you know, by
all accounts, this guy is probably going to follow John Caliperry Arkansas. Well
then I saw what his dad liked on Twitter, and it for just at
least a millisecond made me think, Okay, Louis will may get this guy.
So there is a UK fan who tweeted this out. When Kyle left
Kentucky, Jaden Quaintance's camp put out that he may stay at Kentucky, but
they want to talk about what that looks like. With the ad Mitch Barnhardt
ignored the formalities and called JQ nor any of the other commits. Now he's
likely Louisville bound. Well, his dad, Jaden Quainton's his father liked that
tweet, and it's probably more than anything, just him acknowledging that Barnhart didn't
have interest, which, as I explained earlier, I think Barnhart knows that
the arrangements made financially for those freshmen to come to Kentucky were made through John
Calaperi's sources of nil, not Kentucky's, and it just wouldn't be financially doable.
I mean, maybe they have the money, but like it's just it's
you lose cal you lose those guys. So maybe, you know, Mitch
probably saved time and energy by just letting it be and letting him walk.
But there's also that little line at the end. Now he's likely to Louisville,
which again that probably had very little to do maybe nothing to do with
why he liked the tweet. But I find myself now again getting in into
the the mess of you know, following recruiting, and I guess transfers on
the internet NonStop, and it was always something I kept up with, you
know, because of what I do. But like with Louisville, like you
know, Louiville didn't have a single recruit for the twenty twenty four class,
like there was there was no there was no movement, right, there was
no uh, nothing to really track and even like if there was something,
it was usually fake. Can he just trying to make it look like he's
recruiting And if it wasn't fake and it was real, it would just be
a reminder, man, we may get a good player. What a waste
because you know, the coaching staff it's a clown show. Speaking of Kenny,
that was also something we discussed earlier, and that was that he's followed
cald Arkansaw. I don't have really a big reaction to that. I mean
I expected him to get back in. Apparently he was offered a couple of
jobs in the NBA and he was awful. Also offered a job at Kentucky
which he turned down, and that would be weird to see him coaching at
Kentucky without Caliperi. But the reason why that they wanted to do that and
get him on board. Makes sense to me. It's kind of a desperation
thing. But I can also at least, I mean, I can't really
fault them for wanting to do it, because in order for you to continue
to maintain the brand of the NBA Factory one, it's gonna be hard to
do. Because that was Caliperry, right, Kentucky helped him. Right.
He doesn't believe that, I'm sure, but one of the reasons why Cal
was able to do what he did and recruit all these players wasn't just because
of him. It was because he was at Kentucky. He placed with the
humongous fan base, national audience every game, that kind of stuff. But
all those guys in the NBA that played for Cala Kentucky are close to Kenny
in a way that is deeper than just a coach. And if Kenny's at
Kentucky, that would give those guys the real reason to be around. And
you know, I don't think they hate Kentucky, but clearly Cal knows it's
best for him to control the narrative and let everybody know that those guys committed
to me, those are my guys, not Kentucky guys, the players,
you know, they're like the kids going through a divorce. They're never going
to I mean, they're never going to be crazy one side or the other.
They're going to say they love Big Blue and they're going to say they
love Cal. But make no mistake about it, it's going to be a
calculated thing from Cali Perry to make sure that he maintains that he's the guy
that puts everybody in the NBA and everybody knows that. But I think if
you had Kenny Payne there, Mark Pope would be able to maybe have those
guys around more. And I think they'll still come to Kentucky here and there.
But let's be honest, they'll be at Arkansas before they're gonna be in
Lexington. They will, especially since it's new and Cal's there. I mean,
that's just what's gonna happen. And I think that's gonna you know,
it's gonna make Kentucky fans you feel a certain way when we come back on
the other side. I'll let you guys hear what Josh Hurt had to say
about Kenny Paine taking the job at Arkansas. Stick with us. It's cofee
and Company, Phil about Thornton's on SportsTalk seven ninety. That's right, Coffee
and Company on a Friday afternoon. We've got about thirty minutes left here,
so let's make it count. We're gonna be joined coming up here in just
a couple of minutes by doctor Eric Michailroy from pro Riat Physical Therapy. But
I mentioned just before we went to break that the Kenny Payne to Arkansas news
really wasn't that surprising. I mean, I thought he was gonna get back
in the game relatively quickly. And also you know he reuniting with cal was
I think a no brainer. But I don't think any of us a month
ago thought it would be at h at Arkansas. But a lot has changed,
A lot has changed here recently, and man, especially like a month
ago, imagine like saying we'd be in this spot. It's just crazy.
But vibes are good, no doubt. And Josh Hurd was asked about Kenny
Payne going to Arkansas, and here's what he had to say. Not that
this is not a juicy SoundBite, but just wanted to share with you guys.
I think it's a great opportunity. What's wrong sound here we go.
I think it's a great opportunity for him. He had some tremendous, tremendous
success working with coach Cal and wish Kenny nothing but the best and hope that
they have that same success in fayette Ville, just as long as they're not
playing Louisville. So, joh, this is the first time I've seen Josh
since he was introducing Pat Kelsey a few weeks ago. And obviously he was
you'd see him from time to time at Louisville games this year, and I
think he had a couple of after like a board meeting, he was interviewed,
and he just looked, you know, he looked exhausted. You know,
he looked like he was, you know, as you could expect.
This was really really difficult for him to be the athletic director at a school
where basketball is such a vital thing and things, you know, to be
nice, we're I mean, I think it's it's putting it nicely to say
things were bad. I mean it was beyond that. And you know that
took a lot out of him because it's his job to you know, fix
that. And he looks like a million bucks now. He looks. He
looks ten years younger. You know, he just he could tell he's feeling
much better as we all are, right, I mean, the the vibe
enhancement that Pat Kelsey has has provided here is just what we needed. Now
we'll see, you know, if success is there. Only time will tell.
We can't determine that yet. But so far, just everybody being excited
once again about basketball is awesome. He really is. You know. It's
not that I don't remember what this felt like, but it had been a
while since we felt it. So good stuff. All right, speaking of
good stuff, let's bring him ahead. He's doctor Eric McElroy from pro Reaf
Physical Therapy. Eric. How we doing, sir? I'm doing great,
man. I'm sitting in traffic getting ready across the river heading to Saint Louis
for a soccer tournament, so on a beautiful day that sounds like fun.
Saint Louis Is Is that a city you would say you're a fan of?
Is it a place you frequent? I know it's probably not too far from
where you grew up, right, I'm originally from Memphis, so oh,
I didn't know that. I thought you were from the other part of Kentucky.
No, but the yeah, I think we don't go there a lot.
This is you know, they do have a lot of soccer tournament's pretty
big soccer town and so they have a big one Scott Gallagher. But yeah,
cool town y'all have to do. The city Museum is really cool obviously,
the arch and all that stuff. But no, we don't go there
really all because because you went to Murray State, I just tend to forget
that you're not actually from there. That's just where you where you went to
school. That's right, that's just where I went down there really to play
football. So but you know what, there's a lot of a lot of
students from Saint Louis and Memphis and Nashville down there because of where it is,
and so racer nation, baby, that's right. Uh, that's a
that's why. That's why I think it made it unique. You know,
I was coming down there from here and really there wasn't very many students.
I mean there's a lot from Louisville, but not nothing like Nashville, Memphis
and Saint Louis because those cities are all closer to Murray. Well, safe
travels, I hope we uh you know, we don't cause a distraction.
We'll keep we'll keep the questions professional here and is that way you can you
know, you could have some smooth sailing there as you make your way into
Saint Louis. But right now, I can't think of a time where the
both fan bases here locally Louisville Kentucky fans have been in this spot where they're
going to have an entirely new team next year, meaning everybody that is going
to be a scholarship basketball player at Louisville, Kentucky, Louisvill or Kentucky is
going to be someone who you know, enrolled as a freshman or somebody that
transferred from another school. And you know, the portal is still in its
early stages. But you know this is extreme, but it's because of the
situation, coaching changes, and just you know, everything that came with it.
But one of the new additions for Louisville is Ali Khalifa, who is
a six to eleven, two hundred and seventy pound big man from BYU and
he's got a very unique game. His strengths are passing and shooting, which
you don't typically see. You know, that be the real weapons for you
know, for a guy that size, but he's expected a red shirt due
to a nagging knee injury. And what I wanted to ask you is,
it doesn't sound like he's gonna have surgery. He already had surgery, and
he played this year not at one hundred percent. Mark Pope at BYU when
he was coaching him, said that he's just not one hundred percent and it
really his availability was was really down to pain tolerance. So he already had
a surgery and he's still going through the rehab process. When you hear that,
When you hear that, and again, I know you don't know what
the exact injury is or anything like that, but to hear that he is
going to set out an entire year to rehab, you know, would you
what's your reaction to hearing that? To me, that seems like that that
you know, that's a long time to take off. But then again,
you know, maybe somebody with that kind of a frame really needs that much
time to fully get back to one hundred percent. Well, it definitely tells
me that it's more than a nagging knee injury. Uh, you know,
I just it just seems kind of interesting that he's played and you know,
he is where he is, and then it's going to take a year.
So it tells me it's something that definitely needs to heal and recover if we're
gonna red shirt him considering the time you know where we are right now.
Uh, and basketball season is still far enough away that most pretty straightforward knee
scopes, uh, so on and so forth. You know, if I
kind of generalize that he should be back in plenty of times. So,
you know, it seems like something that makes me wonder if there's some cartilage
damage or something that's some of that stuff can be pretty fragile. Uh,
you got to give it time to to heal. So if they you know,
were to have to take some cartilage and and culture it and grow it
and then stick it. You know, sometimes we'll go in and plug it
on the surface of the joint and that stuff's pretty fat, fragile, and
they gotta let that heal and so things like that will take time, and
it makes me wonder if that's more of what he's dealing with. So you
know him and who knows. Can I can I tell you my theory?
Yeah, My theory is that the the the the red shirt thing is something
that they they're prepared to do just to make sure he's healthy. But obviously
strengthening additioning is an issue as well. He's a big guy, and you
know he's strengthing additioning. I think it's probably been an issue for him as
a basketball player his whole life, just because of his build. But I
think it's more of an emphasis you got to get in better shape before you
play, and if that takes you red shirting to do so, then we'll
It's just a guess, but I would not be shocked if he actually does
end up playing for Louisville this year, just just a hunch, because it's
not you know, again, I thought for sure that means he was going
that means he was gonna have to have surgery. It turns out he actually
already had surgery long go. It's just you know, he's still kind of
dealing with some pain and someone you know. But actually me ask you this,
if you are a bit like if you are somebody that is considered to
be overweight compared to others that play that level sport at that position, rehab's
probably a different animal, right because you know, it's it's it's probably it's
probably more extensive real rehabilitation that you'd need, right because you're you're carrying a
lot more weight, and you know, the other guys that are playing your
position, you know they're a lot more agile because they're not as big,
right, I mean, I think every every sports different as far as he
goes. When you're dealing with the guy that size who generally we would you
know, say yes, sorry, he's not as conditioned as the other athletes
that are leaner, quote unquote more fit. There is more challenges to it.
Those are things that you anticipate in the rehab process. You're going to
integrate more conditioning in the rehab process from day one. You always integrate conditioning
always. The rehab process is not really especially in athletics. Just like you
know, addressing the pain, the need, you're integrating a lot of different
things along the way that you're able to do and also keep the area that
we're trying to work on safe. So yeah, for people for athletes like
that who we know, we also know have a tendency to get a little
overweight or deconditioned faster, we're gonna put a lot more emphasis on that knowing
that, so we don't have that same lag time when they do start to
complete. The rehab process in itself makes sense, all right, let's switch
gears to the NBA. So I've not kept up with the the play in
games a whole lot other than just you know, knowing who's winning and advancing
and keeping their season alive. But Jimmy Butler is expected to miss several weeks,
which is gonna make it tough for this Miami Heat team. But he's
dealing with a right mc L injury, you know. I mean that that
makes it to where like they'd have to probably get into the second round maybe
for him to be one hundred percent. I don't know. I'm sure there's
levels to that kind of an injury. But right MCL several weeks? Is
that is that? You know? Is that reasonable? Or do you think
maybe he could potentially be back sooner or is that probably right about what it
is? No, I would say I would say that several weeks is probably
reasonable. You never know with MCLs. MCLs are unique in that they go
off a pop principle called Wolfe's law. So basically, they respond really well
to weight bearing exercise as long as it's not stressing the ligament. So I
know that sounds crazy, but it's a really fat, thick, long ligament
that does well conservatively. So depending on the level of the sprain of the
ligament or the severity of it, depends on the timeframe and coming back.
He's you know, generally speaking, a few weeks would be obviously reasonable,
but you know, just to make sure that he can move laterally and cut
and accelerate and decelerate. But they really respond well to conservative treatment weight bearing,
so there's a lot of things you can go ahead and start doing that
you can't with other ligaments, and so you never know. I mean,
sometimes you could come back sooner, especially if they're going to try to put
a brace on or something like that. He also seems like somebody just with
He's a tough guy. I could see him being able to play were a
little bit more pain than maybe most That's just kind of how how he seems
to be to be wired. But our guest here is doctor Eric Michaelroy from
Proria have physical therapy. I always appreciate him making time for us. I
had a buddy of mine who I was talking with the other day who's dealing
with it's not a real it's not an injury, but he he overdid himself.
He previously played college basketball at nai level and hadn't played in many years
competitively, you know, probably just picked up the ball, shot around.
But now he's he's in a men's league, and you know, he didn't
really have a whole lot of repetition going into it. He kind of just
went from not playing at all to just, you know, even though it's
men's league, it's still running them down the court, something he hadn't done
a long time. And in our conversation, I thought there would be a
good question to ask you next time we talked, because how often do you
guys see athletes that just really don't don't realize that you know, you're not
just rusty as far as like your skills, but like your body, like
trying to play at a level, even if it's not the level of playing
you know, small college basketball, like you know, just to go from
nothing to just out there run in full court in a you know, a
game like that's that's I mean, any time you play sports, it's dangerous,
but like it's probably pretty common because these are athletes that at one point
played at a really high level, were in great shape, probably much more
advanced than a lot of the guys playing in that league. But you know
what, they got older, they hadn't played in a while, and in
their minds they're like, oh, this will be nothing. And then they
come out and you know, tearing achilles or an acl or something like that
absolutely all the time, and your brain thinks she doesn't really age or feel
the effects of the aging process for a while like your body does. And
you're exactly right. When athletes are conditioned, you know, they've conditioned for
it. We take that for granted that all the conditioning we did in practices
that we dreaded that the coaches put us through, there's all kinds of tissue
adaptation that occurs from that, and you know, tissue conditioning and all kinds
of different things that enable us to perform at a higher level without the same
levels with and be able to recover faster and without the risk of injury and
so on and so forth. So when we have when we've been an athlete
in the past, and that where and here we place on our bodies,
later on, we'll start to show its ugly head, especially when we go
out and try to perform like we once did. And I was talking to
an athlete to having the clinic right now, who's pretty high level. He's
playing at the highest level in his sport right now. We're talking about TVT
and Peyton sever for instance. Oh yeah, job, and he's gonna try
to do that and all these things, and it's gonna take it soul.
He's going to be working out players. And you know, at some point
you got to focus a little bit more on recovery, knowing when to rest.
You are more risk for injuries such as achilles ruptures. So you know,
being a little smarter about how you you're your workload management, if you
will uh is extremely important, especially because you're not in the same level of
strength conditioning process or the rehab process for that matter, on a routine basis
like you were when you were playing competitively. Man, that makes so much
sense. You mentioned your mind kind of not not, you know, not
on the same page I guess as the rest of your body, because you
know, instincts are probably gonna you know, you're probably gonna be a little
rusty, a little slower to react. But you know in your mind,
if you truly were to kind of, you know, go at a slower
pace and just kind of, you know, do everything slower, a little
bit more mindful, maybe a little more careful, like your your mind is
going to think, like what's going on, Like this is not normal.
You used to go in you know, ten times faster. But that's that's
how you mess around and and and suffer an injury. I'm sure there's some
pride in the way too, because you know, not this you can't maybe
get back to that level. But there's some i mean, if you played
high level college basketball for four years, I mean it was your craft,
it was your passion. You poured everything into it. That's what you have
to do to succeed. But you know, four years later you may still
be in great shape. But if you go out there and play, you
know, you haven't been going through that grind like you did in college,
and it's you know, it's it's probably a humbling experience. But I'm sure
a lot of people have learned the hard way with an injury. Oh Ay,
pride is always in play, sure, right, that is always you
know, pride keeps me in business. That's that's a good point. Yeah,
People that probably getting the way they get injured and they got to come
see you. Absolutely, you know, and it happens in every sport,
you know, it's golf, tennis, and durance sports, pick up basketball.
That making difference, that's usually what drives us a little too, a
little further than we should be, no doubt, Eric, I appreciate you
making time for us on your trip to Saint Louis. Enjoy the city.
Hopefully the soccer tournament goes well and safe travels back to Louisville. We'll talk
to you soon, my friend. All right, go cars, go cards.
Thank you. That's doctor Eric McElroy. Always loved the good go I
always love the and the go cards are always there from our friends doctor Ben's
and doctor McElroy. But there's just something, there's something, there's some snak
on them, if that makes sense, right, There's some emphasis there because
you know, vibes are good and I love it. All right, quick
break, we'll come back and wrap this thing up on a Friday Coffee and
company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. You know, it's
the last segment on a Friday afternoon, and it kind of hit me.
I don't really have any any plans this weekend. I've got a wedding tomorrow,
so I guess that's plans. But you know, pretty low key for
me, which has kind of just become life for me now. And that's
that's okay. It's much different than you know, years ago. But I'm
content. In fact, it's kind of set now because the thought of like
actually making plans and you know, having a night out with a fellas or
something like that, you know, living like you know, I was ten
years younger, it just sounds awful. It sounds like not fun at all.
It sounds like a nightmare, which again I'm washed up. You got
any plans this weekend? No? I mean I'm gonna be working a little
bit tomorrow for for Thunder, but not in the same capacity as some of
our radio hosts. Are you are you doing? Are you like interviewing people?
No, I'll be I'll be editing those interviews. Okay, you got
to come in here to do it. No, I get to do the
house, which is not good. Yes, it's gonna say, because the
driving down here would be. And that's that's honestly. That's what gets me
about Thunder is that it there's just so many people all throughout downtown and then
for the most part, nearly all of them leave at the exact same time.
And that's I mean, you know, there's traffic when you're leaving the
Young Center for an event. Yeah, that's there's you know, there's way
way more people around downtown than the I've heard over the years. It's gotten
better for Thunder, but I haven't been down so long, and I think
they actually have the ability to, Like I think they have good plans in
place to navigate parking and get you know, get people out there out of
there as quick as possible. But when you have that many people, there's
really no way to do that like fast, you know what I mean.
So hopefully everybody enjoys themselves, not only tonight at the UH, at the
Spring game tomorrow, if you head to Thunder, and if you're heading to
to see the Racing Louisville match, enjoy yourselves. So we'll be back at
it on Monday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety