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 our number two
started here our first show in the month of July. July first, and
my son, who just turned forward a month ago today, he has his
first flag football practice tonight, John, How do you feel about that?
I mean, I'm sure he's gonna have fun, and uh, that's great,
but he's just he's growing up too quick, and I just can't imagine
they'll be like he's got to be on the younger side, like he must
have just probably like I imagine you probably can't. I mean, are there
is there a football for three year olds? That's wild if there is,
because you know, he just turned four, so therefore when it starts,
he's four, so maybe he's not. Like I don't even know what the
age range is. I want him to play whatever sports he wants to play,
and I want him to try every sport and figure out which ones he
likes best. Maybe he likes them all and he plays them all like he
loves baseball. And he doesn't get that for me, trust me, but
he loves it and he's you know from what I can tell, It's hard
to tell when you're that young, but he seems to be pretty good for
his age, right, he's you know, and he loves playing like it.
He likes practicing like it's you know, it's all he wants to do,
which you know makes me happy. In basketball, he's not. He's
not made it to a league just yet, which I don't have any problem
with. But like, here's my worry. It's good to have kids in
in sports really young because you know, maybe they pick up on it a
lot quicker than you know, kids did thirty years ago, whenever you had
to be you know, seven or something to play a certain sport. But
because they're so young in some of these sports, like we can call it
a basketball league, they ain't playing basketball and call it T ball and I'm
playing T ball. I mean here and there they are, but like they're
just laying down on the outfield, you know, just running in the bleachers
to you know, see mom midway through the second quarter in basketball, Like
I sometimes wonder and we'll find I mean again, I'm not going to stop
him from playing anything he wants to play, but I do wonder if that
could be counterproductive because you know, when I see the way kids are playing
basketball at the age of like four, that you know, it's something right
they have, like you know, they get to throw the ball in the
air every now and then, but like I don't know, Like I guess
they're so young they don't really grasp a lot of it. It doesn't stick
with them. So maybe there's some like muscle memory, some repetition to where
you do become better at dribbling the ball, and you you know, you
get better at shooting it. Although when you're so young, you don't shoot
it. You throw it like that's what it is, because you're not strong
enough to actually shoot it. So I don't know, I'm i'm i'm,
I'm paranoid about that kind of stuff, especially when it comes to basketball.
So like when we play outside, he's only four, but like I make
sure, you know, he's looking up when he dribbles as best he can.
You know, he doesn't throw it differently each time, and I say
shoot it. I don't say throw it because that would be like, you
know, an insult, but like that's what he's doing. He's throwing the
basketball and just hoping it ends up making it to, you know, the
level it needs to make it to have a chance to go in Did you
play What was the first sport you played as a kid. I don't remember
which one was first, but throughout my entire youth I did t ball and
baseball and then basketball and soccer. I never did football. Yeah, that
was too big of a whim. I thought about doing football, But even
as a young kid, I'm like, you know, where where would I
stand out in this sport? Like, you know, I was kind of
fast for a little guy, so maybe I could you know, maybe I
could have, But yeah, part of it was I was probably also scared
to get hit and I would have been extremely uncomfortable wearing all that equipm And
eventually you get used to it. But as a kid, I would have
been like, nah, the same for me. I'll go I'll go play
the sport I like where I can literally just play by myself outside and like
only whar you know? Heck basketball shorts if I want to. And with
baseball, once you got from machine pitch to kid pitch, that's when I
was done. I didn't like the kids who couldn't throw the ball well and
they'd hit you every year yeah, they beam you right in the head.
I was like, this scary stuff. So I played basketball as early as
I can remember, and I think I was five the first time I played
basketball. But at that point, I was still the kid that kind of
like, yeah, you know, they can put me on the floor as
one of the five kids, but I'm quite sure I'm gonna either get called
for traveling or I'm not gonna be able to hit the rim if I shoot
it, because I think the lead it was five to seven, and there
there was a big difference, at least from what I can remember. It
was a long time ago, but like the seven year olds seemed like adults
to me, because I just I think there's a and there is there's certain
ages, and I don't you know, my kids are still relatively young,
but man, you know, you look at a at a ten year old
and a thirteen year old, I mean that's three years, right, but
like that, you look just a drastic difference depending upon age. But I
remember when I was six, I had a girl spurt and it was much
different, and then basketball just became the love of my life. I played
t ball before I played anything, and I got hit with the ball and
never came back, and our coach was a drunk. I didn't. I
didn't realize that at the time, but I later learned that he had to,
you know, he had to bail and you know didn't didn't didn't coach
us anymore, And that made it to where I feel like it wasn't a
real thing for where like that kind of soured the experience for a lot of
parents who were first time t ball parents that the coach was no longer allowed
to coach us because he kept showing up drunk. So like it kind of
just faded away, and I never had any interest to go back and play.
But yeah, I didn't. I mean, I wouldn't have been good
at any other sport, and I was, you know, not that I
was some legendary basketball player, but it was a sport where I was,
you know, I was able to play and had fun and you know,
I played at all and you know, played it until I was, I
guess nineteen. That's whenever I realized, you know, sitting on the bench
of a college team just really wasn't something I wanted to do because I wasn't
good enough to actually play. But uh, yeah, he'll so he's four,
and he has played two seasons of t ball. He played fallball last
year and then he just finished up his league and then now and now he's
starting football. He'll do basketball this winter, which when he'll still be four.
So I think he will have played three different sports before I had ever
played any when I was that age. Yeah, that's insane. I was
probably four or five when I started doing any sort of youth sport. Yeah.
And one thing I really really shouldn't take for granted, because like it's
hard, but he's never been the kid in anything he's done that just cries
and doesn't want to be there. And if your kid does that, it
doesn't mean that there's something wrong. It means they're a kid there there,
especially if they've been at school all day or daycare or whatever and you got
practice at seven o'clock and you know, it's seven thirty and they're tired as
hell, so they get to wining and just wanting to go home. Like
he's really into it. In fact, he gets sad when we have to
leave. So that's that's you know, if I could give, if I
could give, you know, who knows, maybe he'll never play any sports
and not end up being any good to make any team. I don't know.
I hope that's not the case, but as of now, at four
years old, I can that that's my that's my compliment to my son as
an athlete. He at least likes to play and doesn't quit because again,
like I actually feel like that's pretty pretty awesome, because again, most kids
just get burned out with it, especially whenever you know you're in the outfield
at a at a T ball game, like you're not getting any action out
there, nobody's hitting it, you know, to the to the fence.
Now, he does get distracted and run around, but it's not to where
like you know, he wants to leave, all right, let's do it.
Coffee and Company feel by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. If
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five three zero seven ninety. We'll get back to the text line here just
a moment, but we've got the TBT coming up a little later this month.
Uh, super excited about seeing these guys in action once again, Like
I'm having some some flashbacks to how fun it was last year to watch former
Louisville players that were legends here and the elam ending. The way those games
end, I think is awesome and it's high level basketball, so I shouldn't
be surprised, but I was a little surprised to see this number. So
right now, when you look at tickets sold for the let's see, let
me pull up the uh let me pull it up here. Yeah, so
for tickets sold right now as of today, Louisville is in the lead of
everybody right because this is the I don't know if they call it the regional
round. I don't know what they call it, but the for I don't
know what they call. I guess I need to pull up the regional pods.
Yeah, yeah, for you know, all the pods out there,
because I think, yeah, don't they call isn't it like the quarterfinals something
like? Yeah, so if you end up winning your pod, you then
will go to the quarterfinals. And what the TVT decided to do, which
I think is a really good marketing tool for them, really good marketing idea,
I should say is they're going to give home court advantage if it ends
up being Louisville and Kentucky, because both Lexington and Louisville are host sites for
this. If you have whoever sells the most tickets within the pod or the
you know, the regional whatever you're whatever they're calling it, we'll get to
host, which is again a really good way for them to drive up tickets
sales. So right now Louisville is dominating. They've sold three thousand and ninety
tickets. Butler, which is the Indianapolis pod, which has Butler with a
team, IU has a team. Is there any other like for Okay?
Yeah, so they've sold one nine and seventy nine. They're in second place.
And then Lexington the UK team La Familia they've sold one thousand, six
hundred and forty two. So no surprise that you know. And by the
way, there are there are pods essentially all around the country. You know,
there's not you know, fifty of them, but these are three cities
that really care about really care about basketball, right and it's not a college
basketball event, but that's the draw, right, That's the hook from the
TBT itself is because they're going to have a much better chance of bringing a
lot of people to these games buying tickets if in fact, you know they
can market Hey, come watch. You know eighty percent of this roster that
all played for your team, and that's clearly what's happening here with the Louisville
team and with the Kentucky team as well. So if you go and look
at the top twenty most attended, yeah, says the top twenty attendance all
time, which Chita, Kansas owns the top four. In fact, they
own six of the top seven, which is crazy. So last year there
were seven two hundred and two people that went to one of the games that
was at Wichita, and then in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one and then
another game. So this is just one game, you know, So the
seven two hundred and two is is just for one night of the event.
Louisville last year had five thousand, four hundred and sixty nine, which ended
up being fifth place as far as most attendance for a game. They also
came in at eighth last year with a different game, which was four thousand,
seven hundred and eighty five. So look, every every Louisville louisvill played
three games last year I think it was in the TVT and ended up losing
before they could get to the quarterfinals. But all three of their games are
in the top twelve of all time, so they're doing their part. But
I feel like now that Louisville fans got a chance to experience it and get
a taste for what it is, they'll be even more than they're high last
year, which was again right about fifty five hundred. And if you're wondering,
if you're wondering about Wichita, Wichita has a team and they're they're kind
of quietly one of the more under I don't want say undervalue, but Wichita
State has a big basketball fan base. You know, they they have really
good attendance. I mean, Kansas is a basketball state. I mean with
Wichita and with Kansas of course being one of the legendary programs. So Wichita
is always the host for this instead of Lawrence because Wichita is obviously a much
bigger city, and Wichita State and Kansas have teams, so you got two
big fan bases. Like if Louisville and Kentucky shared a pod here, can
you imagine what ticket sales would be my gosh, that'd be no. Yeah,
And it makes sense for them not to put them in the same pod
because you can you can literally you can eat off both, right, because
Lexin's gonna have a good turnout, I would assume, even though they're a
little bit behind in ticket sales now, and obviously Louisville did good last year
and them wanting to come back and bring it here means it's working and I'm
really hoping they can. I mean, I felt like they had more than
fifty five hundred last year, but you know, seventy two hundred people in
Freedom Hall to watch these guys play does not sound unrealistic at all to me.
And I feel like last year there were so many people that just didn't
really know what it was. They're like, what are we doing? Like
because there used to be like these pro am games around town and they were
never like a Freedom Hall. But like it used to be that uncommon to
be, you know, to find an event where you'd see a bunch of
former Louisville players in Kentucky players, but they weren't you know, they weren't
playing on you know, at Freedom Hall, and they weren't playing for a
share of a million dollars. So I would imagine a lot of people who
went back last year are going to be going, and people who didn't get
to go last year are gonna want to go. So yeah, they they'll
play their first game. It'll be on Saturday, July at the twentieth at
two pm. And I think it also helps. I don't know how many
ticket sales are for Bellerman, but they played Bellerman in the first game,
and you know, I'll put it this way, there'll be more people buying
tickets for Bellerman than there would be if there was a you know, a
team made up of former players from like you know, Texas State or something,
right, I mean, it's it's you know, there's clearly a lot
of I mean, in fact, a lot of the guys who played for
Bellerman that had great careers and some of them are still playing professional. Those
guys are from the community, so there's a ton of I mean, this
is a chance for you know, if you live, if you're a Beller,
former Bellerman player, and I'll give you your name. Guy actually just
a little bit, a little bit younger than me, but I remember him
playing at Jeffersonville High School, Jeremy Kendall, who was not a highly recruited
guy, went to Juco and then Scotty Davenport knew he had knew he had
something special there and recruited him to Bellerman and he was a great player there.
I think he's still playing professionally overseas. He's probably at least a decade
into his pro career. Well, he's from right here in the area of
Jeffersonville, and of all the places he's played, I'm sure there are a
lot of friends and family that have not been able to make it across the
pond because it's not exactly convenient, right, Like, you're not you're you're
you're literally traveling across the world to go watch somebody play. So you know,
this could be a chance for those guys to have family and friends come
out and see them for the first time in a long long time, and
you know, a real game at Freedom Hall. And again, the money,
I don't want to act like these guys are hurting for money. And
if you're making a living playing the game you love at any level, I
think you should consider self to be blessed. But you won't see guys taking
place off you won't see. I mean, like if a guy is the
eighth or ninth man, maybe he doesn't love that, but he's gonna buy
in and really try to do his best he can in that roll off the
bench, because hey, the money splits a certain way, right, and
I think certain guys do. I mean, that's part of the GM role
of these teams is you've got to you know, you got to make them
an offer, like if we win, I want this much money. You
know, if this guy comes in and says, look, I'll take this
much if we win. Obviously not the biggest piece of the pie essentially,
but you know it's good enough for me, Like you know that that's actually
a role that it's pretty important because you know, you're really negotiating the buyout.
And there's also money that goes into this. People don't realize, right,
Like we've got you know, Chennaio on Awaku coming to Louisville for however
long, Right, he'll be here training and practicing before the event, and
he'll be like, they're not paying for their own place to stay. Right,
So there's some sponsorship money that comes in, some money that has to
be raissy the by the group itself. In order just to make this happened,
and they were able to do that. And I said it after last
year, even though they lost and it was unfortunate the way it ended with
that desperation three that that ended the game. This could become kind of our
thing. And I don't mean like to replace March, because we haven't been
relevant in March in a long time. I'm hopeful it can be because we
love basketball around here as much, if not more than anybody. And I
don't mean just Louisville. I mean you know Lexington too, like UK and
U of L, should be the dominant programs in in these events. And
I don't mean just by winning, because that's easier said than done, but
I mean like by hosting and having big crowds and having good teams. Because
if it's a bunch of former players that we all loved when they were around
for our programs and you know they're getting together to play again, I mean,
I just I don't think it's far fetched to say that, like,
if this thing keeps going, like it could be a thing where every July
we just know, hey, I can't wait for the TBT this year because
you know, perfect example, Montrez Harrald. The guy's been in the NBA
for you know, almost a decade now, and you know now he's not
because of his injury, so he's available to play. Like that's a new
player that, Like, I mean, Montre's one of the best all time
players here. Ever, I'm not saying he's the best, but he's certainly
a guy who had a phenomenal career. And you know, maybe in two
years it'll be Jordan Wara. Heck, maybe in you know, seven eight
years it'll be Terry Rozier, you know, Gorgy Jang maybe. So you
know, there's endless players that could end up playing that fans would love to
see, and they're probably you know, if they stay in shape, they're
probably going to be able to help you too. So I hope that that's
the case, because again, when you think about the plans for the TBT,
the event itself, like I think Louisville specifically is like best case scenario
for them because again, we have a legitimate arena and we have fans.
It'll come out and buy tickets and show up, and you know, there's
no reason Louisville shouldn't every year when they have a team be able to have
a team that could potentially win this whole thing. I will say this though,
and I'm glad somebody brought this up on the text line. I don't
remember the breakdown either, but you are right who just texted this in.
They gouged us last year and I wouldn't able to go because I was out
of town. That was when we took our vacation and I had Foamo man,
but I was watching on the beach at night. He took our beach
walk that night and I had it out on my phone because I'm watching it
like it's a real tournament game, and it was awesome. But you know,
the other pods, like Omaha had one. Other cities prices were like
seventy percent more expensive to get in for the Louisville game than the others.
And it's because they knew people would pay that, you know what I mean,
Like, they know you want to be there and you'll pay, you
know, a premium. You know, they're probably having to cel tickets fairly
cheap to get people in the door, you know, in these other and
spots. I would imagine that that hainkle Field House will be awesome, because
that's not a huge place anyway, and it's a good environment, Like I
bet that'll be a really cool uh yeah. Plus will be Indiana's first time
having a team in the TVT, so it'll be interesting to see. They
got some good players, Yeah, Troy Williams, Juwan Morgan, Yogi Ferrell,
even Jordan Holes who's currently on the Indiana staff as a recruiting coordinator or
something. He's on the team. Man, Juwan Morgan, Like he's probably
still playing at a really high level, I would imagine because he's been away
from Indiana for a little while, but he's playing overseas in Russia. Yeah,
it means he's making money if he's playing at the top level, which
i'd imagine. He had a couple of years in the NBA, I feel
like with the Jazz. Yeah, he made an NBA roster. I think
he got drafted in general, but he had a decent run in the NBA.
And this is one of those things where in most like in a lot
of other places, you know, especially like in the South, where they've
already they've been talking football for every second. You know, they do it
year round. Like it'd be a tough sell to like like make it you
know, content make it topical because you know, it just would be.
But here, like, I don't feel like I'm talking about something that nobody
would care about. I feel like, if you're a Louisville, a Kentucky
fan, and now even I guess you could say an Indiana fan, like
you're gonna be not tuning in and locked in like you are when your team's
playing in you know, the season, because again these these isn't a college
basketball game. But yeah, this region specifically should always have teams because they're
you know, they should always have good turnouts. And again, the teams
could be pretty good. It's a shame Indiana can only face Louisville or Kentucky
if both would make the national you know, the title game. Oh they're
on their whole other side. That'd be something though, wouldn't it? All
right? Quick break will come back, keep this thing rolling along, Get
back to the text line. Talk about the latest with this? Uh,
I mean, what do you call it? It's not a scandal, but
Kyle Philapowski, it's an entanglement. We'll call it that. Give it locked
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety so. Some good questions coming in here
on the text line five pot two sixty five three zero seven ninety. It's
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You can learn more and open your account today at LNFCU dot com.
All right, so, uh, some people have asked about certain players why
they're not playing, and I wish I had an answer for you, But
yeah, David Johnson is somebody that I feel like is still playing at a
high level. And last year he wanted to play. I think they were
in the I mean, I think they were getting close to finalizing it,
but might have been his agent potentially that told him to hold off. Because
here's the here's the rule. If you're not on an NBA contract, you
can play in this event. If you are even I mean if you're on
a G League contract, I mean I think those are usually I don't think
anybody has a long term G League contract, right, So like once the
year's over, like you're available to do whatever you want. Like there's guys
who probably play in the G League and then playing this in the summer and
then they're back to the G League the next year. So that's the only
rule that the tournament has as far as who can, who can and who
can't play. I got if you guys remember Joe Johnson played in let me.
I'm sure a lot of people remember. He's one of the best scores
for a long time in the NBA, played in the league for a long
long time. I think he just recently retired, but he was out of
the out of the league, not on a contract, a free agent,
just when this tournament took place a few years ago and he played in it,
and then he was back in the NBA, I think the next year.
So you know why some of these guys don't play. I don't know.
I I'm sure there's way more to it than I than I would ever
realize. But you know, you have Kyle Curic, Russ Smith, Payton,
Siva Montrez, Harrell Shanano, and Owaku. I mean, those are
just the big names that stand out without me looking at the roster. But
you know, if you are David Johnson, or you are Dwayne Sutton,
Raised Spaulding, those kind of guys. Jalen Johnson, by the way,
who's still playing at a really high level professionally, maybe it's about I don't
know, I mean, technically, I guess if you're if you're on an
over you could have a stipulation in your contract if you're playing overseas, they
could keep you from being able to play. Like that's I forgot about this,
thank you on the text line, I forgot Earl Clark could agreed to
play last year and was going to be a part of it, and then
he had to back out because there was a stipulation in the contract with the
team he was playing for overseas that did not allow him to play. I
guess violate his contract if that was the case. So I'm sure that that's
that's part of it. And money, right like, I mean, I
you know, there's there's there's only so much money you could offer everybody,
right, Like it's not an even split. There's certain players that have set
you know, they just met like and I get it, Like if you're
somebody who like Nan, who like to me, Nan, who is the
actual guy that is just unfortunately an old school big that would not translate to
the NBA that well. But he's a really good player, really smart player.
He if he stays healthy, he'll play for many more years professionally and
make a lot of money. I mean this this past year he played.
I mean, heck, let's see, he was in he was in Korea,
and then most recently he signed to play in Puerto Rico. He spent
time in Israel. So I mean, he's playing in high level leagues making
a lot of money, and he'll continue to do that, and he could
get hurt in this and not be able to play for a you know,
for you know, maybe never play again, depending on the injury. So
the reason I bring that up is because if you are somebody that you know,
if you're somebody that this is your livelihood still right like you you're going
to continue, this is how you make money. Agreeing to do this means
hey, I'm gonna hedge myself a little bit here, right that if I
end up you know, if I don't know, I just I think the
way the money breaks down is probably a bigger deal. Certainly a big deal
because money matters. But there's probably a lot of negotiation that goes into this
more than like, hey, we're gonna get a team together. You want
to play, sure, Like guys want to know what kind of money they're
gonna make. And if you know there are four players that are gonna get
the biggest payments, and then you know you've got a second tier and maybe
even a third tier. You may call somebody who you know that would help
you, but they're not gonna play for that little of money. And you
know, little money a lot of money. That's all relative. But yeah,
there's a lot of guys I feel like they could help, Like Dwayne
Sutton, to me, would be perfect for this. And I don't know
why he's not been involved in the last two teams. And I don't say
that to criticize anybody. I'm sure there's an obvious reason that I just don't
know about, all right. I like when you guys do this on the
text line, you bump your text that I read and say, yeah,
that's a good question, let me think about it. I'll get back to
it later, and then I just completely forget about it, lose track of
time, and you know that's what happened here. So this was a really,
really good question that came in last week, and I thank you for
bumping it, it, says Nick. Obviously, this hypothetical question over the
years has irritated you because it's stupid, and I agree. When asked if
you could only win one of the games against the rival Kentucky and basketball,
Kentucky and football, who would it be? Let's see, Yeah, the
long text, but the gist of it is which one is more important?
And I think this person's doing talk to text because I know talk to text
because sometimes people just have bad grammar sometimes talk to text just you know,
as somebody who tried to use it for a while and realized it's not as
effective even if you do speak perfect English, like, it's just never gonna
get it right as far as grammar or certain words. But I think what
you're asking is which one would be more of a big deal for Louisville this
year? Right, we have not beat Kentucky and football in a long time.
We haven't beat Kentucky and basketball in I guess it's been three seasons in
twenty in Max. Last year they didn't play and then Kenny lost to him
both times. So yeah, it's been three years. So, by the
way, thank you for acknowledging how stupid that hypothetical question is, because like,
you want to win both badly, right, you're not. There's no
like you know, there's no easy way to answer that because you also don't
want to act like one is not super important. They're both important. In
fact, every game against your rival is important. But let's be real,
I'd say there's way more of a of a of a desire or dare I
say desperation for you to beat Kentucky if you're a Louisville fan in basketball or
football, same thing on the Kentucky side. So timing is tricky here because
in basketball it's new, right Like, there's not like a streak we're trying
to break here, right Like Mark Pope's the new coach at Kentucky, Pat
Kelsey's new coach at Louisville. You know, there's really no like the rivalry
itself is kind of resetting here. And yeah, it's a good chance for
Louisville to get off to a good start, maybe create a streak of their
own, because you know, Caliperry won a lot when he played Louisville.
He didn't lose many times, So that would be you know, that'd be
great to knock off. I mean, if Pat Kelsey wins his first game
in rupp Arena, that'd be huge, and it would be you know,
it really set the tone I think for the rivalry, right, I mean,
it's just one game. Who knows, maybe one team would maybe maybe
the losing team ends up actually having a way worse season than the winning team.
You never know how it's going to play out. That's actually happened before.
But I mean, I gotta answer. I gotta say football like football.
It may not even do anything for Louisville as far as like their season,
as far as a bowl game, or as far as like it being
an accomplishment that like changes the way objective people view your twenty twenty four season.
But strictly from like a fan standpoint, they need to be Kentucky badly
and last year, I mean, that game didn't change anything for Louisville as
far as like where what would have happened with them? I mean, we'll
never know, But I like, if Louisville ends up beating Kentucky holding on
to win that one and then they end up still losing the same way to
Florida State, I don't think they that's not going to get Like Florida State's
not going to then get in the playoff because they beat a Louisville team that
had an extra win on their schedule and it happened to be a Kentucky team
that was below average in their own league. So it was just about ending
the streak and getting bragging rights back on our side. Ten wins season,
brom delivering right from the jump, and then you lose to Kentucky when they
actually hated their team, They hated their quarterback. I don't think they hated
their coach, but things weren't great whenever he told them to pony up more
money because they were getting their ass kicked by Georgia. Like that was the
worst loss to have, but it's not as bad knowing that it didn't.
What makes it not as painful, and trust me, it's painful is that
it didn't change anything for you and you can sit back and still know that
you had a good year. Like Louisville didn't not have a good year because
they lost to Kentucky. Some people might have said that in real time because
of the emotions that come with losing to your arrival. But louill went ten
and three and played in the a SEC Championship game. And I don't care
about the schedule being easier than most ACC in fact, easier than probably every
ACC school. Like you won ten games and you beat some good teams along
the way. You didn't beat any elite teams, but I mean, you
know, you won ten games. That doesn't happen very often you win ten
games in a Power five conference. So that makes it to where it's like
not something I'm stewing on, because again, I still think it's safe to
say that overall, coming off of a ten win season, like you established
momentum for your program. But then again, like the way you lost,
like the way it ended, I should say, like, you know,
losing three in a rows never ideal to have it in, but still like
it doesn't wash away the fact that you won ten games, and I think
that team really you got best case scenario out of those guys. I mean,
obviously you still could have beat Pitt and that would have been great,
but you also won a couple of games that maybe you shouldn't have. The
one that stands out to me is the NC State game when you beat them
in Raleigh. So yeah, I mean, I don't know, it's a
tough question. It's a tough question answer. I mean, obviously I want
to win both, but if I'm strictly thinking of which one would be more
meaningful, I think it's just ending the streak in football, because that's just
it's I mean, I never thought I would live to see the day where
Louisville would have this big of a losing streak to Kentucky. I mean the
last time they beat them was in twenty seventeen. I mean, Louisville hasn't
beat Kentucky on their home field in how long? I guess it would be.
Gosh, so you lost in sixteen on your home field, and then
I guess fourteen would have been. Yeah, the last time, the last
time Kentucky. But I'm sorry, the last time a Louisville Kentucky and football
on their home field at Cardinal Stadium which is now Llen N Cardinal Stadium was
in twenty fourteen when Kyle Bollen came in and Kentucky still seemed to not know
not only not know the resume and the credentials of one Devonte Parker, but
they seemingly didn't know who he was because they just kept letting him I mean,
just Moss any defensive back Kentucky put on him. So yeah, the
more I talk about it, that, yeah, just ending the streak like
that, that's got end it. Look, even if they're terrible this year,
which I'm not saying Kentucky's gonna be terrible, theybe be good. I
don't know, no clue. It's just a matter of ending it right.
Like it's not about anything substantial. I mean, they could they could be
two and nine going into that game, and I'll be a nervous wreck because
you know, in fact, I wonder if if you look at it that
way, like and I don't think they're going to be that bad, but
like I'm trying to think of a scenario where the pressure would be would be
on Louisville to win. I mean, because the pressure is there to break
the streak. But if Kentucky's having a good year and you're kind of mid,
I guess it's whatever. But honestly, the pressure was on louis last
year, to be honest with you. They were eight and a half point
favorites when it kicked off, and it was because I mean, I remember
the show is leading up to that game right before Thanksgiving, and like Kentucky
fans didn't I mean, they wouldn't say that they couldn't win, but they
didn't have any confidence in their team, and Louisville fans were really confident,
and it you know, didn't didn't work out, the pressure would really be
on Louisville if they happened to have a playoff spot potentially on the line.
Yeah, and not saying that that's exactly where they're headed. I mean,
I know they definitely could. But now that you have the expanded playoff,
I mean, that's the situation they would have been in last year if they
had twelve teams in tea playoff, no doubt. I mean, I still
think it would have been tough because of the loss you had at that point.
Would it was so bad to pit you know? Yeah? But no,
I mean yeah, And that's that's that's where the rivalry could really really
ramp up. We're never going to be known for our football rivalry. It's
always going to be basketball and I don't see that ever changing. And we're
never going to be getting near the amount of attention and all the other great
rivalry the great rivalries get on that day it's it's you know, it's rivalry
weekend. Essentially. You've got Alabama and Auburn, You've got Ohio State,
Michigan. You know, it's it. We're never going to be there.
I don't think, but if there was a scenario where Louisville and Kentucky were
both having like really really good years, it you know, if there's a
potential spot, even if it's just for one team, you know you could
play spoiler. And although you're not playing for a spot in the in the
twelve team playoff because you know you have a couple more losses because you're playing
a better league, you know you'd still feel you know, there's still be
a lot on the line for you to to eliminate and play spoiler for somebody
like Louisville because these two teams have never played each other when both are ranked
in football. And I gotta be honest, I don't. I don't know
how like that that could happen. I don't want to say it's impossible,
but I don't. I don't see it. And it's not because you know,
Kentucky's going to be the doorm out of the SEC. But like,
their lives just got a lot more difficult, right, they don't have divisions
anymore, and they're going to be playing two teams. You know, there's
two teams added. They won't play them every year, but that's a much
tougher game, and by the time you get to week twelve, I think
even if you did have a good season for who you are, tough to
see you in the top twenty five at that point because you probably have too
many losses. And I don't mean you'll have a losing record, but you
know, it's just unrealistic. And for Louisville, you know they could they
could be there, right, I mean, heck, they were there last
year as far as being a ranked team. But now feel bad about not
answering basketball because you know, be great for Pat Kelsey to get it.
I mean, it's a tough question to answer, which again I'm glad you
asked it, But I would say, what's the most important for Louisville fans?
Again, I can only speak for myself, but I would say,
we got to end this streak to Kentucky and football should have never happened.
And it's sad, all right, I'll be sad if you guys don't stick
with us for the next hour and fifteen minutes. We're taking up till six
o'clock like we always do. So stick around right here. Coffee and company.
Feel by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety so I really don't think there's
a whole lot of new information on Kyle Philipowski and his girlfriend since we talked
about it on Friday. It just I think seems to continue to spread as
far as just the unusual, and I guess really the intriguing component here because
it's you know, I mean, this guy was believed to be like a
lock to be a top seventeen to eighteen pick. He got invited to the
green room ESPN. They're not doing that to embarrassed players. They're doing it
because they feel like that's somebody that would be there and walk across the stage
and be a part of the event. And he was there, but he
didn't get drafted. Every team in the NBA passed on this guy in a
week draft where he was you know, again, there's other components to it,
but I mean, it makes it more believable that his older girlfriend was
a real red flag for teams because of how far he fell, And then
when you figure out more information about the situation, it makes it even more
believable that the NBA was like, yeah, this guy's bad news, and
again Utah drafting him. I mean, that's that again, as I said
last week, the joke writes itself like she's Mormon, and you know,
the Mormons essentially drafted him. So his parents and his brother. I don't
know if he has a sister or not, but family direct family, you
know, they they have made it clear that they blame her, his girlfriend,
for him not really being a part of their life anymore. Like he's
kind of cut them off and they're estranged, and the family blames her.
And I mean, he's twenty years old. I mean I feel like I
feel like that that is like, you know, that's if you're twenty years
old and you have a great, successful life. I mean, I feel
like you would need to be encouraged by somebody or maybe manipulated by somebody to
you know, cut off your family because by all accounts, it seems like
things are going pretty well for you. And you can use the internet pretty
quickly and realize that Kyle Filapowski hasn't come from some tragic situation where this woman's
like saved his life. I mean, he's been a pretty seems like he's
been a guy that's been pretty privileged. So they also now the family blame
Duke, Like they're being vocal about they tried to let Duke's basketball program.
I guess Shire and other people on the staff, people around the program know
they were concerned about this older girlfriend who may not be the best influence and
may have, uh, you know, maybe may just be looking to get
rich off this guy. And they're upset because Duke didn't anything about it.
And that's what I don't really understand. Like, I'll make fun of Duke
any chance I get. I mean, Duke is the villain in college basketball.
When Duke loses, we all win. Everybody else wins. But what
what do you want John Shyer to do? Like the girl and Philipowski were
already an item before he arrived at Duke. In fact, it sounds like
before he committed the Duke I mean do you want I mean, like you
want him to tell his player, you gotta cut off your you gotta dump
your girlfriend because your parents like that. Think about how unusual that is,
like, have the unusualness to the situation. Although I'm sure he could sympathize
with them, Like expecting him to take any action is idiotic, Like what
would he be able to do? And in fact, he'd probably have a
good chance of you know, impacting the team dynamic. If if he did
something like that and he wouldn't, like, it's just outrageous the more I
think about it, that the family was expecting the coach to intervene. Now,
if he was encouraged to have Kyle Filapowski reach back out to his family,
that's a little different. But if he encouraged him and he still didn't
want to do it, like I don't know what you want him to do,
it sucks, but like they're not to blame. He's a grown up
now. He wasn't when they got together, which is what makes it weird
and really just gross if you think about it, especially knowing she used to
be the babysitter and she saw dollar signs when she saw this guy becoming a
phenom at the high school level, and now she's getting paid because you know,
have you Are they fire? They are they engaged? I feel like
I don't remember for sure if she is, but I feel like I remember
seeing that as part of the story. I haven't seen the word fiance.
Doesn't mean it's not out there. I just don't remember seeing it, which
which I think the situation is this he can't propose to her and then marry
her until until he's Mormon. Okay, Yeah, and she's she's trying to
get him to convert to Mormon. And what if she made the call to
whoever's in charge of the Utah Jazz and told them to Diraff Philipowski obviously that
that's just I'm saying that tongue in cheek. Would that be something? Yeah,
I mean it wouldn't. I mean, like, you wouldn't think they
would take that call and act on it. But then again, like apparently
John, she followed him to class every day. She lived on campus with
him as a grown up, not a college kid, far removed from college.
She'd graduated college before he entered college and had a career, and she
lived with him on campus and followed him and like walked him to class.
Like that's weird. It's weird as hell. And I don't know, I
haven't looked much into it, but like I bet Duke fans, if they're
learning about this now getting more information, they're probably thinking, like, yeah,
that's probably why we weren't as good as we should have been, because
the Duke was fine, but they were pretty mid I feel like, I
mean, I didn't you know, and they especially to see you know,
they have talent every single year, but he regressed last year, still had
a good year. I won't try to act like he was a bum,
but you know he was. Him coming back after his freshman season was a
huge deal, and he still went on to average you know, sixteen and
eight, which is it's pretty damn good. But it just you know,
he didn't at times play like an All American and he wasn't. He was
not an All American, which look, not everybody can be an All American.
But I just felt like, you know, even throughout the year,
before knowing anything about his girlfriend and that whole dynamic, I just felt like,
yeah, he kind of didn't come back and be the guy everybody thought
he was going to be. All right, if you can't be the guy
you want to be, the man you want to be, that's unfortunate.
But if it's low testosterone, maybe a rectile dysfunction, I know who can
help you. That's my friends at the louis of Men's Clinic. Give him
a call five to four four four four thousand. Check him out online Louisville
Men's Clinic dot com. Again I mentioned ed and low t but that's not
it. They can also help you if you have joint pain, if you
want to lose some weight, They've got some effective ways with weight loss therapy,
including the semi glue tide craze, which of course has been very effective
for a lot a lot of folks out there that want to lose weight but
maybe don't have the discipline to go on some crazy strict diet. Well that
shot, the semi glue tide shot essentially does the work for you because you're
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the louis Men's Clinic, So give them a call five with two four four
four four thousand, Louisville Men's Clinic dot com. That is the website.
All right, We've got the five o'clock hour coming up next here, so
stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety