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 get it started,
Ladies and gentlemen, Hour number three, the five o'clock hour on a Wednesday
afternoon. Coffee and Company. Myself, Nick Coffee, the company man,
mister John Alden alongside, and we are fueled by Thornton's. Make sure you
sign up to become a member of the Thornton's Freshman Awards program if you haven't
already, a lot of incentives to come with it, including saving money every
time you go to the gas pump. I want to give him a shout
out real quick, because you know, I'm a bush Light guy. That's
my go to beer. And you can find bush Light in most places if
you want to buy it, like you know, gas station, liquor store,
whatnot. And you're now able to find that actually at restaurants more so
than used to. Like it's not that uncommon to find out that the sports
bar or just the restaurants you're going to, they they might have it on
tap. Hell, the Louisville football game sold it last year, and which
was you know, I was a big fan of But most places just have
the cans, which is fine, but I prefer either the aluminum bottles or
the glass bottles a bush like, that's my preference. And Thornton's the one
that's near me. They've got it every time, and you know, just
another reason why they're great. And I'm sure they didn't, you know,
make it available in their beer cave because of me, but you know,
I can at least think they did and say thank you, so thank you
Thornton's, and thank you all for hanging out with us today. We've got
two hours in with one more to go, but a busy show thus far.
And I hate doing this because I know a lot of folks are just
now getting in their vehicle or maybe you know, ending their work day.
I don't know what you're doing, but a lot of people joining in.
Right around five, right the audience turns over, so I don't want to,
you know, start discussing something you just missed. But we were discussing
the interest that Fan Duels Sports Book has in purchasing the previous you know,
the regional sports networks. The Valley Sports South used to be the Fox Sports
South, those channels, which is just crazy to think that you could be
watching your team play and it be on a sports books network. I mean,
it's just the rapid growth of sports betting in this country is awesome and
also kind of unreal. And what I think about more than anything is there
was clearly always an appetite for it. But one of the things that led
to me discussing this was the latest scandal. And I guess, I mean,
I guess you would call it a scandal, but Major League Baseball has
had to suspend four players for an entire season, and then there's one player
that has now been banned from Major League Baseball for life. And I would
say, this guy clearly has a betting problem, you know, and that's
not good. But these numbers are insane. So Jeff Passon, who covers
Major League Baseball, the infielder for the Padres. His name is Tukupeda Tukipeda
Marcano. That is, that's the guy who's banned for gambling. He only
won four point three percent of the two hundred and thirty one Major League Baseball
related bets he placed. Guy sucks at gambling. I mean, I feel
I feel better about betting on sports whenever I realize these guys who you know,
play the sport, they are terrible at betting on it. Same thing
with the Javonte porter who's been banned from the NBA for life. But the
total amount that this this young man bet when he was in the major leagues
with the Padres fifteen thousand dollars. Actually, I'm sorry, Wait a second,
I'm sorry. No. Total amount bet on baseball one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Total amount bet on major League Baseball eighty seven thousand dollars.
In some change. I guess he was betting on other baseball too. Average
amount per bet three hundred and seventy eight dollars. Number of major League Baseball
bets was two hundred and thirty one bets on pirates games, UH twenty five
and he only won again four point three percent of those bets. So I
mean unfortunate. Clearly, this guy's got a problem. I would say,
I don't think you end up in that situation unless you are in fact addicted
to gambling. Even the uh the you know, the Javonte Porter, the
Raptors player who also had the same treatment. He was betting on his own
team and betting, you know, betting on his team to lose and betting
on his own props. The story came out yesterday, the details that the
reason he you know, how this happened was he was so he was so
much in Have you heard this story, John, I heard some of it
this morning, So he's he was so much in debt to a bookie,
meaning he wasn't just betting with the sports book. He was betting in like,
I don't know if you don't, can you bet in New York City
or New York State? I don't know if you can. Yes, yeah,
well probably just like Kentucky. It's relet like we haven't eve been able
to bet legally in this state for a year yet, so I'm sure New
York was either around the time. So long story short, he was probably
betting in New York when he was living there when it wasn't legal, and
he was using a bookie. So the bookie who was arrested at at At
I think it was JFK the airport with I think it was sixty thousand dollars
in cash, a one way ticket to Australia and two cashiers checks that were
like over one hundred thousand dollars so he was on the run trying to get
away before they got him, but they did apprehend him. But he he
he was owed money by porter, so he's the one who told him,
Hey, here's what we're gonna do to make up your debt. You're gonna
fix these you know you're gonna you're gonna make sure these prop bets for you
go this way. And you know, I know there are some who see
this and think, well that these guys have these guys ruined their lives because
betting is illegal. This guy was already this guy was doing it when it
wasn't illegal. And I don't want to get too worked up. It's the
five o'clock guy. We're having fun. But when people get addicted to something
that is legal, there's a really good chance they would be addicted to it
if it wasn't legal. Heroin last I checked, not something you can purchase
at the store. But there's a lot of people unfortunately addicted to it.
It being legal or illegal. Really, I don't think has any impact on
people getting addicted to it now if it's more commonly. Again, like clearly,
sports betting is in your face everywhere now when it comes to sports stuff,
so maybe you got into it because of that, but I mean you
probably could have gotten into it at some point anyway. And because there are
some that can't control themselves and you know, may ruin their life. I
mean, that's what's happened with these young men who were professional athletes making a
lot of money and now their careers over. I mean, that's unfortunate,
but that's not like those isolated incidents are not worthy of you taking it away
from everybody else one, because we all enjoyed a lot of people do it
responsibly. It's not about making money or a second gig. It's just having
fun. It's entertainment. And also a ton of money is being made by
everybody involved in this sports betting world, right the league's I mean the NFL,
major League Baseball, in the NBA, They're incentive to be in bed
with these sports books is because of money. And last I check, that
matters a lot, all right. I actually I'm going to bet on the
finals, though I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I ended up
doing a two leg parlay for the Game seven Sunday that the two game sevens
we had on that Sunday before I left Town. I took both Dogs money
line, Pacers Game seven money line and the Wolves money line against Denver and
both hit. It's like a twenty five dollars parlay two legs. It paid
like one to sixty and I haven't touched it since because I went to Florida,
as you guys know, and you can't bet there, which is just
weird to open up the app and be like, oh, what can't bet?
There's one app in Florida, and I think it has something to do
with hard rock. Yeah, it's hard rock, but that's weird that and
I think you have to be there or something. You have to be there.
I don't know how they work that out, but yes, there's some
and in a weird way, there's some kind of a loophole to where like
it's betting, but it's not like I don't I don't do a lot of
like the underdog fantasy stuff or like there there's some there's some creativity out there
where you can use an app and do like daily fantasy and win money and
I guess technically it's not gambling, but yeah, there is some level of
Uh, hard rock has some kind of connection. I don't know how they
pulled it off, But eventually it's gonna be legal just about everywhere, right,
I mean, I can't imagine that in ten years we will have I
mean, in fact, do you have a guess, I'm gonna google it.
I'm gonna guess. I'm gonna say that there are twenty three states that
you can gamble and legally, what do you think I was gonna say,
thirty six? That's probably You're probably no, You're probably closer to being how
many sports can how many states can you dead on? Just like whatever?
Guess Indiana's preseason ranking from Jeff Goodman. That's the case. I'm gonna have
to start. You know, did you say how many? Did you say
is a thirty six? It's thirty six? Is it? Kind of?
So here's what it says. This is from Forbes. There is a patchwork
of laws and regulations. The industry has grown thanks to a twenty eighteen US
Supreme Court ruling. Since then, thirty eight states and the District of Columbia
have allowed some form of sports betting. Among those betting states, twenty nine
permit wagering online. So I think you are kind of pretty close, correct,
Yeah, you're the man I'm just I'm just just gonna start, you
know, I'm just starting saying things confidently. How can we shift this over
though, to like, you know, where it makes us money, where
we bet on what you're just guessing. I guess you've got You've got to
give me matchups. Here's what I'm gonna do tomorrow. I'm gonna ask you,
put you on the spot, give me the total score of game one
of the finals, and then we're gonna make a wager off of that as
far as the over under. Right, So it's like, your total score
is four points over what the total is and we're going over. I mean
that thing. That's what we're gonna do. No pressure, but you've been
on fire lately. It's impressive, no doubt. All Right. So the
big news today for Louisville basketball fans is that they're gonna get a visit from
a guy who I happen to believe is the most highly the top ranked guy
available in the portal, which really isn't saying much because there's not that many
guys left in the portal. But Coleman Hawkins, even if everybody who entered
the portal was available right now, he'd still find himself ranked in like the
top thirty, right, I mean, maybe even higher than that. I
don't really know. There's been so many guys that hit the portal and all
the rankings are kind of different, which is interesting. But he's going to
visit Louisville. This is really happening, not meaning that, like we know
for sure it's really happening. He's gonna come to Louisville. But last week
he threw out a little bit of a hint, quickly deleted it, and
then from there it sounds as if folks did some digging. I don't have
the ability to, you know, call Pat Kelsey and ask him, Hey,
you're gonna go take this guy, But people talk and they were still
they want to put it this way, they were still to add a player,
and they had money to go get a good player, and there really
aren't another options. I mean, to be honest with the the young man
who's in the twenty twenty four class, a freshman to be Jiggie Phillips.
I mean, he would be a nice edition as well. But whenever I
heard that, they were prepared to, you know, make another big splash
if they can make it work. One that told you that they're not worried
about the scholarship limit. They clearly have a plan to bypass that, and
they have money available, and I'm thinking, okay, well, if that's
your mindset. Like the only person that I feel like made sense was Hawkins,
because again, most guys that hit the portal are not still available.
So yesterday Jody Dimmling I believe, is the one who broke the news that
you know, and others I guess had hinted at it, but you know,
Jody is as connected as anybody when it comes to these kind of things,
and he said on his board that Louisville was actively trying to get it
finalized, meaning a visit. And then today on three Sports, I believe
it was Joe Tipton actually broke the story that he is going to visit this
weekend. So Louisville right now on paper thirteen scholarships that have been filled with
all the guys they've added since Pat Kelsey got here, there's a lot to
like. I think this team right now, just with the pieces you have,
and not just the fact where these guys come from and what they've accomplished
in their contributions, but just the way they I just think stylistically, like
this seems to be like clearly Pat Kelsey wasn't just out there going and grabbing
a dude who said he'd wanted to come here to put up decent stats.
I think he went after guys who fit the way he wants to play.
A lot of versatility, a lot of shooting. You've now added some good
defense that sort of came later in the process of adding these thirteen players.
And these guys win, right, Like, I'm sure I'm pretty sure everybody
but two that are on this roster right now. The thirteen played in the
tournament last year. I guess twelve because Kahani Roos didn't play in the tournament.
He's a freshman. So I already feel good about where Louisville is and
I'm excited about year one of the Pat Kelsey era, and I think this
could be a tournament team. None of us know how it's actually going to
play out, but it's just nice to be excited again and know that it's
justified. Right, we're not just being Homer's thinking that Louisville is going to
have a solid team next year. I think he'll be better than solid,
But if you add Coleman Hawkins, that takes it up a level, not
to where we're scheduling hotels booking hotels for the Final four, but he would
be, in the eyes of some the best player on your team. I
don't know if I would agree with that, but he's certainly in the conversation.
A six to ten, two hundred and twenty pound big who has played
in the Big Ten for four years, and he's been pretty damn good since
he's been there. I mean, as most guys do. He got better
every year at Illinois, and this past year he was all third team Big
Ten twelve point six boards, three assists, and at six ten he shoots
at thirty eight percent from three, So we'll see. I know SMU and
maybe Georgia are believed to be trying to get a visit as well, and
I guess they've got some money to spend. But you know, I think
Louisville. I mean again, those who cover recruiting are claiming Louisville is in
the lead here, They're in the driver's seat. They look to be the
most likely landing spot. And I don't usually get caught up in like where
Louisville is in preseason rankings that are from you know, I mean, it's
nice to be ranked in the actual rankings because you know, actually it is
silly. I mean, I'm as guilty as anybody, but seeing that number
next to your team's name when you're playing on TV, it does give you
a sense of like, you know, we're ranked, especially if you haven't
seen it in a while. Yeah, And that's actually what I was getting
to is, like these rankings that are put together by the field of sixty
eight, ESPN, the Athletic Sports illustrated these off season college basketball rankings.
You know, even though I respect a lot of the opinions of those who
put these together, like I never I don't really care. I can't fake
outrage or emotion if they're not included. But I mean, because it's been
so long since we've had any real legitimate buzz and optimism around louisvill basketball,
I am like hoping that they get Hawkins, not only because I think it
would make them a better team, but like there would be like they I
think they would be a top twenty five team in the eyes of just about
everybody, which again, if they don't go out there and play and you
prove that they're good. None that matters, but little things that we used
to take for granted that used to not really even be something we'd notice or
it was just an expectation as far as like expectations in the offseason, like
we haven't had those in a while. And by the way, one guy
who we actually talked about on the show already is not real impressed with what
Pat Kelsey's done so far, because I think not having Louisville as a preseason
top twenty five team right now is totally understandable. I don't even know if
I would have him in the top twenty five. I was being a objective
and most don't. It's just Jeff Goodman who put him out there, and
others have said, you know, this could be a top twenty five caliber
team with what Pat Kelsey's done. So it is not egregious to say Louisville's
not a top twenty five team, trust me. But John Rosstein he does
a forty five and he still doesn't have Louisville in the top forty five.
Am I am I justified in saying okay, like you're you're in the minority
here, Like he has Georgia, Wisconsin, Saint Mary's. I mean,
I think it's Mississippi State again. I know these teams were better than Louisvill
last year because everybody was, but like these teams got gutted by the portal
Louisville put together. I think, on paper a pretty good team. So
now that I find myself feeling like, Okay, am I letting my you
know, it's card Boy taken over here? Am I letting my fanhood get
in the way of me being fair and objective? And you know it's I
think it is happening a little bit, which tells me I'm back, Like
you know, we're I'm I'm like this is It's just nice to be excited
legitimately about Louisvill basketball again and not having to try to like psych yourself up
as a fan, like, hey, no, we won four games last
year, but next year is gonna be different. We're gonna be good and
nobody believed that, but you said it, because what are you gonna do?
Be miserable? Let me give you a different perspective. So earlier this
week you talked about Leonardi leaving Louisville. They were like the first team out
right Yeah, so you think about the teams that get at large bids,
you get three four four teams for each seed number. This is gonna involve
a little bit of math. Most of the at large bids go to the
top eleven, you know seed lines. If you do that times four,
it's forty four. So if you're that forty fifth team, you're that first
team out, and I guess you do have the twelve seats use of the
playing games. Yeah, so that goes up to forty six or something like
that, forty forty eight. Maybe, So if Louisville's just on that outside
line for LNARDI, maybe that's where Rothstein realistically has Louisville as well. That's
a good point. And you know, I'm looking at other teams that are
ranked in this top forty five, some that are even ranked, you know,
like UCLA's number sixteen, and I'm thinking, you know how and they
by the way, I mean, their their roster features one guy who you
know was here at Louisville, and you know, fine, fine player,
But like Scott Clark, if he's going to be the key catalyst in UCLA
being a top twenty team, good luck mc cronin. I mean no offense
to Sky, but like, he's not that big of a game changer.
So and by the way, UCLA did get better, but if you remember,
at one point last year, they were at like the same boat that
Louisville was in. So again I'm not this is not me claiming that Louisville
should be ranked ahead of UCLA. But when I see them at top fifteen
and they're coming off of a sixteen and seventeen year, like, I don't,
I don't mean, how do you do that? And here's one other
thing I don't like about roth Stein's list, at least other than he's a
psycho. Other than that, like I'm looking at Indiana's line specifically, he
has the key newcomers and key losses. I don't think he has them really
listed as key newcomers or key losses. They're just people that are leaving and
coming in. Because when I look at the key losses, a few of
those guys I'm looking at, I don't really care that they're gone. They
were really key impact players. I think you can I think you can have
again. Indiana is the best example. They don't have a key loss.
The only key loss is to the NBA with with where Yeah, I do
like how with Rostein in his top forty five he he actually shows you like
the projected starting five because then because that you know, because let's be real,
I can't tell you for sure, I mean I don't. I don't
know what a lot of these teams have done top to bottom. I know,
like big additions like for example, you know, I know that who
is it trying to find? You know, like Arkansas? He has Arkansas
number nine now, so like I'm aware of and by the way, Arkansas
a little different because I'm more more prone to pay attention to what Cal's doing
just because of the connection there. But I can at least see, okay,
why would you have Florida there? And then I can look at okay,
wow, they do bring back some good players that I'm familiar with and
know by the way, their bench looks pretty good, you know, via
the portal. So yeah, these are things that I would just purposefully avoid
looking at because it would just make me sad to know that we once used
to be in the mix, and you know, then we weren't. Then
we weren't. All right, real quick, I wanted to get to this
text that came in earlier, and then we'll take our first break here in
the five o'clock hour. This text on the Ellen N Federal Credit Union text
line says, Nick, do you worry that if, in fact he does
get two million dollars it could create some real jealousy within the roster. That's
one of the most untalked about things with NIL that I think is a real
issue players here. What other guys are gonna get and get jealous? I
mean, I don't I don't think it's ignored. I just think that's now
a big part of the staff. I mean, and in fact, there
are positions created within universities to kind of handle this, right, like an
in between with the university. And I don't know what the title is,
but you know there are schools out there that have that have hired someone that
is the in between, right, like the coach will tell And I'm not
even sure if you're allowed to do. I mean, nobody really knows,
I think what you're allowed to do and what you're not. But if a
coach knows what the NIL collective has to work with, I guess they're not
supposed to have any involvement. But yeah, I mean they're gonna like they're
gonna have say so, Like, let's put it this way, the FIBO
two circle is not going to decide how much money. I mean, I
guess technically that's probably the way it's supposed to go with the rules. But
you know, Dan Furman, the president of FIBO two circle, he's not
the one who decides if Coleman Hawkins gets two million and you know Chucky Hepburn
gets five hundred k like he you know, wow, you know, no
offense to Dan. I love Dan, but I'm just saying, like this
world where coaches have no involvement, they don't even know what it is,
they don't even know how, you know, it's just not realistic. That's
not Planet Earth. So there's an in between that is really there to you
know, be the middleman between the collective, the player and I guess you
know, the coach and the staff. So yeah, that's something you got
to worry about. Jealousy, and I think that's I think that's happened here
at Louisville with football. I mean, I think some of those guys that
Jeff Brohm packed their stuff and told them to you know, kick rocks and
get out of town. It wasn't just because you know they were going to
be leaving anyway, but it's because they were created beating a toxic environment to
where they were trying to kind of create jealousy. And you know, players
are going to lie about what they make. That is the one thing where
it would be beneficial for it to be public internally because it would eliminate somebody
claiming they're making way more. Now again, you also could have the realization,
I mean, I think from the player's perspective, it being public could
be beneficial to where nobody's lying within. Again, like at work, at
your job, that's not I mean, that's a no no in most businesses.
I mean, I'm sure employees talk and they share what they're earning,
and that way you can know if somebody that's doing the same job you are,
maybe you've been doing it longer, and somehow they're making more money than
you. If they've told you that, then you can you know, you
can take it up with with your employer and they don't have to match that
salary of the other person. But yeah, I mean to answer your question,
I'm sure there would be some jealousy, but you know, what are
they going to do walk and not get any money. I mean, you
know, like and by the way, I don't believe two million. I
just have a hard time thinking two million dollars is actually going to be the
amount of money that Coleman Hawkins would receive. But again, if they have
the money to do it, and they choose to do it, that doesn't
matter to me. Make it happen. It's not my money, all right,
we'll come back on the other side. Keep this thing rolling along.
And I haven't talked about it much this week. I think I mentioned it
briefly on Monday, but there seems to be some real genuine worry that if
South Carolina offers their job to Dan McDonald, he'll leave Louisville. And I
don't have any inside scoop or anything like that, but I do have some
thoughts on you know, if that did in fact happen, and maybe how
it could end up happening, because that'd be a big deal, no doubt.
But I think at some point it it, you know, it's sometimes
at some point it kind of seems inevitable that he may just want to go
elsewhere and be somewhere where baseball is a bigger priority. I don't go anywhere,
keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety right. So we
don't have a whole lot of time left, but thirty minutes. I mean
we actually we have time left. It's just I got a lot of things
I want to try to get in a little bit of rapid fire here before
we wrap it up. But I do need to tell you guys about my
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who don't ever go to the doctor until like they have to. And maybe
that's not just memy that maybe that's just people who don't trust doctors. I
don't. But what I'm getting at is you're not broken. You know,
you're not you know there's something wrong with you as if you're you know,
a flawed human. But as you get older, there are certain things that
just don't they don't think of the right way to describe it. I mean
rectile dysfunction, right, Like that usually is folks who get older and it
just happens, right, I mean, it's pretty common unfortunately. In fact,
you can be young and deal with that, and it's probably not something
you want to discuss with anybody because you know, it's maybe embarrassing, it's
private, it's awkward. But if you know you can do something about it,
why would you not. And a lot of men in this area Kentucky,
Ina have gone to the Louis of Men's Clinic to seek treatment. There's
a variety of different ways you can treat ed, and they've got a variety
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the most sense for you, what you're comfortable with, and they'll help you.
You know, saying that they can change your life is not an exaggeration
because look, direct tiutis function. It can be something that leaves you depressed.
It could be something that makes your partner feel a certain way, and
really it has nothing to do with them. It's just something that you're dealing
with. So you know, if you know, you know, and if
you've not done anything about it to get help, to get treatment for it,
better late than ever. Give my friends at the Lois of Men's Clinic
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pain, weight loss therapy, hair restoration. They can help you fellas.
So again, keep them in mind. Louis of Men's Clinic dot com is
the website FIVO two four four four four thousand if you want to give them
a call. All right, So, South Carolina they've got an opening for
a head baseball coach and Dan McDonald has been mentioned for a while now because
a couple of weeks as far as somebody that could potentially be the guy they
want to hire. And I've always thought that there was a scenario where Dan
McDonald could eventually leave because you know Louisville baseball, I mean, they haven't
had a lot of success in the last couple of years, but you know,
they were in the College Baseball World Series. I mean, how many
times has Dan been there? I mean I feel like it's at least at
least four. Let me see here, and what I'm getting at is,
since this is something that you guys probably already are well aware of. Dan
McDonald, I mean, he is Louisville baseball. I mean there was a
program before he got here, and you know they had moments, but I
mean when it comes to the yeah, they've Yeah. So as far as
College World Series, he has been to the College World Series one, two,
three, four, four times I'm sorry five times, including in his
first season. So you know, Louisville had really no NCAA tournament history in
baseball prior to his arrival. And he's now been here. And even though
they've struggled to the standard that he set in the last few years, I
mean, he's still won sixty nine percent of his games in his career.
You know, won the Big East four times, when the Atlantic Division of
the ACC five times, like despite the twenty eight and twenty two season in
twenty twenty one, they did make the Super Regional in twenty twenty two,
but you know fell short there and then the last couple of years they did
not make the tournament. So back to back years Dan McDonald not playing in
the postseason has unheard of it, It never happened. For this is the
first time they've gone back to back seasons with no postseason, not making the
NCAA tournament, so clearly not heading in the wrong direction. But he's done
enough as as a coach here to where any talk of like moving on from
him is acidin, to be honest with you, and I don't hear anybody
saying that. But I think, like every sport in college athletics, the
portal and in IL has has changed things. The job is a little bit
different, and I know that there are some that think, you know,
Dan is resistant to using in IL and he doesn't like the portal, and
I think the portal. Maybe that was true early on, but you know,
lately they've been active in the portal. I don't know if they are
crushing it into the portal compared to some other teams. But I think the
changes to college athletics, which again includes baseball, has made it more difficult
for Dan McDonald, and that may potentially make him want to go to a
different school where it wouldn't potentially be It's difficult, right, I mean,
first of all, we'll start with the facilities. I mean he was told
that in fact, they cut they had a ceremony, they cut a ribbon,
big donation from Kroger to get the new facilities over there, and it
still hadn't happened. And I know some folks who are close to the baseball
program. I know some folks who played for the baseball program over the years,
not recently, but you know, they're early during Dan's tenure at Louisville.
So you know, I don't say this because I'm like dissing the baseball
program, but it's just the reality of it. With the recent settlement with
the NCAA and the anti trust lawsuit, and we now know that schools are
going to be on the hook paying student athletes if they want to win,
Like baseball's not getting money anytime soon for an ail. It's just I mean,
and it's just clearly not a priority for U of L right now.
And I don't mean that they are thinking the hell with it, you know,
Dann McDonald, you can if we don't need you, we're gonna shut
up. We're gonna shut down. It's not that, it's just, you
know, when it comes to prioritizing resources, meaning money, U of L
and other schools are just not gonna do it for baseball when it doesn't it's
it's not a money maker, it's not personal, So I don't know if
he's gonna end up leaving. I've always said that if he stays here for
the rest of his career, nobody can be surprised because he this is his
program, right, I mean, Louisville Baseball has a brand within the sport
that is strong because of him and of course all of his great players.
But I mean him going elsewhere, I've always felt like, deep down wouldn't
happen, because look, why would you want to go start over? Like
he has everything he needs to win at Louisville, He's already doing it.
There was a stretch there where if they broke through in the College World Series
and won the whole thing, it wouldn't be considered some crazy surprise. Well
now I think they're trending in the wrong direction, and with the recent changes
to the sport, it's making it even more difficult for I think him to
kind of get back to where he was. So it sounds like there are
folks close to ul that do believe that, like this is a real threat,
and I think there's been real threats before, But he's always decided to
stick around, and I hope he does stick around. I think Daan McDonald
is a legend around here. Again, we talk mostly, especially on this
show, about men's basketball and football. I mean we talk about other sports
too, right, I Mean it's not just those two, but those move
the needle and those lead the conversation more so than anything else. But the
two most successful coaches at Floyd Street since I've been around, you know,
as a fan and covering this, you know, meeting guys who I've seen
start their career and still have their careers active here at Louisville. It's dam
McDonald with Louisville baseball and it's Jeff Walls with Louisville women's basketball. I mean,
so you know, I hope they never lose it, either of those
coaches. But there are other schools out there that as much as U of
L does prioritize women's basketball. Jeff makes a lot of money. You know.
The fan attendance, the fans support here is crazy for women's basketball.
Most schools, and I mean most schools out there and women's college basketball do
not have the fan support that Louisville does. In fact, a lot of
men's programs don't have the attendance numbers that Louisville women's basketball does. In baseball,
again, attendants was really bad the last couple of years, and you
know, the success hasn't been there. But U of L has paid Dan
McDonald a lot of money his pitching coach. I don't know what his exact
salary is, but I know for a while now he's been one of the
top paid assistant coaches in college baseball. Maybe that's changed and others have been
making more money, but there's clearly been an investment in both of these sports.
But when you're sacrificing and you're trying to figure out how you're gonna use
the money, you have to go towards things that are a priority. You
know, those two sports just don't usually mean they're they're behind those two right
like they're behind men's basketball and football, and that's just the way it is,
and that'll probably never change. But now it's going to be it could
potentially become a bigger issue for you because again right now, again, like
the SEC has got more money than most schools in any other conference, So
you know what, they could probably give Dan McDonald more money to pay baseball
players than Louisville will and can. I mean, I hope I'm wrong,
but we'll see again. I won't claim to have any any kind of inside
info, but if they offer Dan McDonald the job at South Carolina, I
wouldn't be shocked if he takes it. And it's sad because you know,
it'd be an end. It'd be the end of an era where he again,
whoever you go higher, the interest level in the Louisville job would be
strong. And it's all really because of the era that he was here from
from two thousand and seven to you know, twenty twenty four, if in
fact, it does come to an end. So I haven't talked about it
much this week. I don't have any inside info, but I really do
hope that he sticks around and they can get things back on track. But
i'd say the mass exodus in the portal that somebody you've probably already seen is
not a good sign as far as you know where this is headed. But
again, we shall see. All right, we've got one more segment here
to go, and I was going to try to get to something else before
we take a break, but let's go ahead and get a break now that
we have a little bit more time before we have to wrap it up and
say goodbye. Stick with us right here. It's coffee and company feel.
But Thorton's on Sports Talk seven to ninety. One of the things we discussed
earlier is the schedule that's been released for the expanded college football Playoff twelve teams
now, making it where it's been four for a while now, and it
gives you a chance to dream big and not be completely out of your mind.
Now, if you have the expectation of being there every year and you're
a Louisville or a Kentucky fan, I mean that's delusion. But now you
know, if you had just said, hey, we could be a playoff
team when there's four, I mean, like the likelihood of that is insane,
meaning insanely tough. Like even last year Louisville was was rolling, right,
I mean they were, I mean they were undefeated, manageable, scheduled,
there was nobody out there you felt like they couldn't beat. I mean,
they slipped up in a pit, which meant there was no way they
were going to make make the playoff. But even when they were rolling,
I still felt like, yeah, that's just that's just not I can't I
can't. I can't believe that, Like I can't realistically tell you that I
believe there's any chance they make it. Well, when it's twelve, it's
a totally different story. That means's gonna happen. But again I've mentioned it
throughout the show. I think that's the best benefit of expansion is for programs
like the local ones around here that every now and then we'll have a special
season and that would usually just lead to you maybe get into a New Year
six Bowl. Now a special season, you know, ten wins for one
of these two teams in the regular season, which both have done in the
last five years, that could, if some breaks go your way, put
you in the playoff. But one thing that I do like like the schedule
for Louisville, Like, let's be real, I know that Louisville plays in
a weaker conference than Kentucky, and there's some games against conference opponents in the
ACC that you know they're not you know, there's not many like the bottom
feeds of the AC, aren't you know, one two win teams like you've
had previously, But still like you know, when you play Boston College,
when you play Syracuse, when you play who else. I mean, you
know there's Virginia. I mean, there's teams that just typically are not very
good and it's not gonna be that tough of a game for you, and
you benefit from that, there's no doubt about it. Like Louislle winning ten
games last year, like that was probably their ceiling. You know, if
they played other schedules where they have won ten games, I'm sure they wouldn't
have so, like I'm well aware of that. And for Kentucky, you
know, I think they always believe that if they played in the ACC that
they would have every year be a ten win season. I mean, I'm
sure some believe that I'm doing a little bit of exaggeration. However, they
play in a tougher league now. Sometimes it breaks out to where their non
conference schedule is is weak and the SEC East only has like two good teams,
and then at the end of the year, strength of schedule it actually
favors Louisville doesn't matter because anytime Louisville Kentucky played recently, Kentucky's one. But
what I'm getting at is, even though it's at twelve teams now with Texas
and Oklahoma joining the SEC and other teams getting better, like Missouri took a
huge step forward last year. I don't think Shane Biemer is going to be
the guy at South Carolina. But clearly Georgia is not going anywhere. I
mean Tennessee with hypel I mean, they're I don't know if they're going to
be elite, but there's certainly they've got some you know, some stability now,
So could Kentucky get there? Like I still think the best days of
Kentucky football under Mark Stoops are in the rear view, mostly just because again
it's going to be harder to compete other teams, Like other teams are getting
better and they have better resources than you do. And you've added two programs
that typically have been way better than you in Texas and Oklahoma. So Kentucky,
you know they have according to A three Let me make sure I have
this correct. Yeah, according to On three Sports, this is ESPN.
Well, yes, on three aggregated it, but it's using ESPN's FPI when
it comes to strength of schedule, and this is the Kentucky has the fourth
toughest schedule in the country right now, which it looks like every one of
these schools in the top ten as far as the toughest schedules are in the
SEC, and then Georgia Tech is at number nine, which is extremely random.
But you know, like if Mark Stoops starts going six and six every
year occasionally seven and five, and that becomes the ceiling just because again,
they do play a tough schedule, and the schools that have traditionally been better
than them are back to being better than them, right Like South Carolina.
That's the one school that I could kind of see you guys going back and
forth with. But if Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, even Missouri now when
they're thriving, you might get him every now and then. But the fact
that Stoops wanted to go to Texas, say, and m at least I
believe he did and he didn't work out. I mean, I'm just curious.
He's always been a made man and I get why. And I'm not
saying Kentucky fans should like want him to be gone, but like if he
did just become this guy who's making a ton of money win in six maybe
seven every now and then, like would that be sustainable or would they want
to change? It's fascinating, But yeah, they have the fourth toughest schedule
in the country this year. All right, we're out of time, you
guys. Enjoy your evening, Stay safe. We'll talk to you tomorrow right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety