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
hour number two here on a Friday afternoon, getting set for the weekend,
getting set for the Louisville Spring game, which will be in just a few
hours. Hopefully they get a good crowd out there. I expect there will
be a good crowd to it. Again, you know, it's it's a
spring game. You know, it's not as if there should be the you
know, if you expect it to ever be like full, then I think
you're beyond unreasonable. But you know, this is the most successful season Louisvill's
had in a long long time, meaning the one they're coming off of.
So you know, I'm sure, I'm sure there'll be a better crowd and
we've seen in quite some time. Because you got to keep in mind there
wasn't a spring game for a while. I mean, they finally, I
think implemented one with sadderfield, you know, towards towards the end. But
it really was I mean it was almost I mean he was kind of forced
to do it because the ACC network wanted to televis they needed, they needed
the property, they needed content to put on the channel, and that changed
it. But I think the last time there was a huge crowd, and
I don't expect to Night's crowd to be like this one. But when Lamar
came back from the Heisman season that was and actually Teddy entering his last year
here, those were the two spring games that stand out to me that I
just remember being like a big, big deal. So hope again, Uh,
if you don't have plans, it's completely free and it's completely free to
park, and you know they will sell beer. That's always an added bonus.
You know, Louisville fans love to drink. That's kind of what we
do. I mean, we do other things too, but you know,
we were drinking before it was like socially accepted to drink at games. You
know. Like I remember, right around the time that I had first gotten
a chance to you know, make radio my full time career. It really
you know, you instead of you know, doing a day job, I
did things all throughout the day to try to make sure I had enough content
to fill a three hour talk show. And it really hit me, like
I knew that there were certain school. I knew Kentucky didn't sell beer at
games and it was an sec thing, but I didn't realize that, you
know, maybe ten years ago or so roughly, Louisville was one of very
few schools that allowed you to buy beer at football games and basketball games.
So you know, Dan just started it a couple of years. I mean,
look, we've been doing like this is what we do, folks.
We party and that's why, to be honest with you, at the time
when Louisville would have you know, before they expanded the stadium back in the
early Bobby tenure and even early Charlie actually, and they had expanded at that
point. But I mean, don't act like alcohol wasn't an enhancement there to
get people. Not to say everybody was just completely sloshed, although some people
probably were. I mean, like that enhances the atmosphere of your crowd.
And you know, not that we need to talk about this today, but
I actually it sounds crazy. But maybe it doesn't sound crazy because there's actually
been studies that have been public that you know that the people have talked about
that. If you want to avoid people completely getting belligerent to where they're throwing
up on people passing out fighting. You need to let them buy beer because
the people who are so dead set on wanting a buzz, they're gonna they're
gonna shove fireball down their neck for you know, twenty minutes before they're thinking,
Oh man, this game. Gosh, college football games last what three
days? I gotta, I gotta, I gotta have all I gotta have,
you know, I mean eighteen of those little fireball whiskey shots. Maybe
give me some, you know, some Jack Daniels as well, give me
some ever Clear, Yeah, every yeah, yeah, ever Clear, something
like that. They just they're just they're gonna want to think I got four
days to kill because the games last forever. I gotta get completely hammered so
I don't lose my buzz. They get in there, they start urinating on
themselves, throwing up on people, and you guys learn in the hard way.
Louisville, they've always let people buy beer. It's what we do,
win or lose, we still booze. Did you make that up? No,
it's gonna sell. That's pretty good. I wish I could take credit
for that, but no, in fact I might. I'm sure that's been
said by a lot of fan bases across the country, but I'm pretty sure
that came from uh Kentucky. So when my buddies first got to a lot
of my closest friends that I'm still close friends with today, they all went
to UK for four years graduated, and you know, believe it or not,
I spent a lot of time down there having you know, having a
good time, which was fun because it was actually the Billy Gillespie era in
basketball, so you know, I felt pretty good about being down there at
that time. But football, you know, they always sucked out loud until
like the you know, the end of the Rich Brooks era, I guess,
and they still weren't very good then, but you know, they're better
than they were before. But I remember, like all the students had shirts
that said win or lose, we still booze, which I think it's kind
of a I guess it could be. It could just be like, hey,
regardless, we're gonna have fun. But I took it at that time
like, we know we suck, but we're gonna get drunk. It's the
brain, like that's that's not a politically correct, like, you know,
way to describe the experience as a fan, but like it's really the truth
everywhere, Like whatever happens, we're still getting drunk, We're still gonna party
have fun. I mean, Indiana football fans are infamous for leaving after the
third quarter to go back to the drinking fields, as they call it.
Yeah, I you know, we'll have plenty of time to do it as
we get closer to football season. But I think Indiana football is a real
rarity in high level college sports because I mean, there are there are certain
things you can point to that do let you know that they care about football
a little bit, but really, for the most part, as a university
from top to bottom, they've never really even tried to make people think that
they care about football being good. I mean they clearly, you know,
don't try to sabotage it, but like it's just been such a secondary thing,
yeah, for so long. And I think the reason that they they're
able to do that is because they haven't needed it to be good. Like
from a financial standpoint, they've been fine, right, But like it's such
an untapped thing that if they if they mess around and start just going to
bowl games consistently, and I mean like to where you know, you're seven
and five, six and six, seven and five, eight and four,
and then maybe you drop off and go five and seven, I mean,
like and then you're back to seven and five again, Like that's not and
that's not even really making you a relevant program in the grand scheme of things,
But it gives you life you've never had as far as just I mean,
I actually struggle to say consistent sustained success because six and six is not
success. But again, it's just it gets you to a bowl game,
and you got to start somewhere in Indiana. There really is no reason why
in the NIL world, and with the resources that they have, and if
they get a good coach, which I'm sure Kurt Signetti is going to do
better there than you know a lot of the other coaches they've had. I
mean, I believe that we'll have to wait and see if it happens.
But like, if they really did want to be good, and again,
the coach that they hired is a guy that is you know, worthy of
it and has the chops to really succeed, Like they could be really good.
Now they're not going to you know, hit the microwave and become Ohio
State, but like there's no reason they can't be what I've always said,
this consent or something they should be Iowa. Iowa goes eight and four in
that rank, seven eight, nine games almost every single year. If Indiana
can replicate that, you'll please the fan base that may be asking too much
early on. And my worry would be that now that the league has added
these other teams, like you kind of missed your mark to do that.
And that's the other mystery is that you don't know what success or I guess
what Indiana's version of success truly looks like under this new conference format where you've
added four teams from the West Coast, so Wolt's have to see. Yeah,
I mean I think every team you added is going to be a tougher
game, right, I mean I would say this year CLA might be oh
yeah, because they have a very weird situation. They could be a mess.
Yeah, But Washington, Oregon, USC, they'll all be a tough
out. They're just gonna always be talented. And UCLA actually has always been
able to recruit pretty well, but they just haven't had they've got they have
some administration issues I think that have kept them up in football. But anyways,
let's dive back in here, shall we. So we talked earlier about
Kenny Payne taking the job at Arkansas, and it's really, you know,
not a surprise at all to me. We let you guys hear the Pat
kell not Pat Kelsey, but the Josh Herd comments on the situation, and
you know, he's I think he was always going to be completely classy about
it, and he was. But if you go to Twitter, and if
you go to Kent Taylor's Twitter account, if you just look at mine because
I shared it, I mean, Josh looks like a brand new man.
He's refreshed, and it's the revival as the revive Ville, as Pat Kelsey
has coined the hashtag. The vibes are just really good for bad. I
mean, who knows what happens, right, They still gotta put team together.
Like I'm trying not to sound like I'm completely getting ahead of myself here,
as if they're about to win a bunch of national championships. But with
how bad things were as far as just morale vibe, it's a total night
and day difference now and it feels good and Louisville fans are excited about recruiting
like they never have been before. Because look, they got a good class
last year. We know that, but deep down, a lot of us,
myself included, I mean, I wanted to believe that that would mean
that we'd have a breakthrough year for Kenny, but I knew that that wouldn't
be the case because of just how glaringly incompetent he and his staff were from
top to bottom. And it almost kind of made me more sad because I'm
like, we're gonna have some dudes that can play, and I think it's
going to be a waste because it's a clown show at the top of the
coaching staff. So yesterday they added Ali Khalifa, and you've got BBN and
coordination going back and forth about you know, we took a guy that Mark
Pope coached, and he wouldn't even go follow Pope to Kentucky. He wanted
to go to play for Pat Kelsey at Louisville and then Kentucky. Oh,
I mean we didn't want him. There's I mean, there's no way,
no, we didn't want him. Which they didn't want him. They didn't
make him a priority, but neither did Louisville. To be honest with you
and for those wondering like this is odd, like why would Louisville be in
the mix here? Because I talked about it earlier in the week. I
said I actually thought there was a chance that maybe, just maybe that this
was like a move from Mark Pope and Khalifa to try to give Pope his
first win over Louisville and recruiting. But it turns out there's a connection that
Khalifa has to a former Louisville cardinal. Honest my mood. Both both of
these guys are from Egypt. They know each other to some extent, and
he really sold Louisville to Khalifa, and he took the visit, and he's
going to be a louis of a cardinal and I assume he will red shirt
because that's what they're saying. So I guess that is the plan. But
I wouldn't be shocked if like he I mean, he's gonna start He's already
rehabbing his knee. Now what I gotta figure out is he gonna have surgery
that I don't know that would obviously make it to where it would be wise
to just let him sit. But I wouldn't be if there's no surgery.
I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up rehabbing for the next many months that
we have here, gets himself in better shape, and maybe he plays this
year, because again, there's no scenario. I mean, there's nothing that
locks you into where you have to red shirt. So I just found it
to be pretty telling because you know, Kentucky they're not going to get the
young man from Duke Jeremy Roach. There was belief that it was going to
be Louisville, not Louisville, but a Kentucky Arkansas and Saint John's well,
now he may have already committed, but it's Baylor. Baylor is Scott Drew
is gonna get him, which again, like that's Kentucky fans are already uneasy
because of their you know, I don't even want to say lack of ability
to get players. I mean it's still early, and like I don't think
Pope not getting a player yet is like a big red flag. But I
also understand the anxiousness to at least start to see the roster come together a
little bit, even if it's baby steps, because right now they have like
nobody, almost nobody. But it went from maybe Caliperry taking roach because he's
a good player, and also he would love to take him from Kentucky.
I'm not sure Patino was ever really in play there, but now it's a
guy who you can't deny you offered the job, but he turns you down
to State Baylor, and now he's gonna get him. So I'm not gonna
get ahead of myself here and tell you that Kentucky's gonna have a trash roster
next year, because nobody knows, and there's still guys entering the portal as
we speak. For example, Desmond Claude at Xavier, just at the portal.
He's a really good player that everybody's gonna want. And I think Jeff
Goodman's report yesterday makes total sense, and you know he would know this.
There are a lot of guys who know they're leaving but cannot endo the portal
because they're waiting for their last check from nil that they had at their previous
school. So maybe we see in the next week a big time, you
know, flood of guys hitting the portal because of that reason alone. We'll
see, all right, this is not a portal edition. This this would
be a big time addition from the recruiting ranks. Jaden acquaintance. I'm sorry,
Jaden acquaintance. I hope he becomes an acquaintance and then you know,
decides to stay here at Louisville. But he's visiting right now. He arrived.
I think last night somebody got a picture of him at the airport.
So he's here. He's posting all kinds of stuff on his Instagram and everybody's
screenshot and those pictures and sharing them, and it's you know, that doesn't
mean anything, right, any any recruit that takes a visit is going to
you know, share that they're there because they want to hear from that fan
base, and you know, they're probably, you know, even if they
don't end up that school, they're probably I'd say visiting a school, especially
one like Louisville, is an exciting experience. So it's not a tell in
any way if things are going good or bad. But his father liked,
slashed favorited. What is it called. I think it's like it's liked now
it used to be favorite. Yeah, So his dad liked a tweet that
a Kentucky fan sent, and sometimes liking a tweet can be honestly a sign.
I don't know everybody operates on that platform, I guess in a different
way. But I at times have have used that feature to let people know
that I saw what they posted, if that makes sense, and they didn't
like tag me or something like a subtweet. Yeah, I've also liked a
tweet so I can go to my likes and reference it later because I wanted
to use it for like show content. I've also liked a tweet just because
I liked something that somebody posted, but maybe I didn't, you know,
want to retweet it. So sometimes somebody could say something that like like for
example, I've liked a lot of tweets and oftentimes retweeted people who insult me,
you know, and you know, sometimes in a playful way, sometimes
in a very personal way. So I guess it just depends on how I
mean. We don't know how Quaintance's father uses the platform here, but he
is at upt Q the number four life, So up t Q four life.
He has eight hundred followers roughly, and there is a tweet from big
Blue Bud on Twitter. Big Blue Bud, I did you know referencing Twitter
as much as I have in the last ninety seconds and then referencing a tweet
from somebody who goes by Big Blue Bud without their name, like that's where
we are. But he said when Cal Love this is the tweet when Cal
lof Kentucky. Jaden Quaintance's camp put out that he may stay at UK,
but they'd want to talk about what that looks like. With the ad Mitch
Barnhart ignored the formalities and never called JQ nor any of the other commitments.
Now he's likely Louisville bound. And then that emoji that like you put in
front of your face like you know, oh my god, you know what
I mean? You know, I'm SI John, Like the emoji that's like
panic, I guess or just you know, like oh crap, yeah,
and then hashtag BBN. His father liked that tweet. And I don't know
what to do with that. Is that like a shot at Barnhardt. That's
probably more what it is than anything, because he's not considering Kentucky. None
of those guys are, I mean, And what's crazy is that, Like
I wouldn't be shocked at all if Cali Perry told Pope, like, don't
recruit any of these guys. And and that may sound asinine, but a
lot of Caliperi's NIL resources were from not UK boosters or a collective. Like
he had money from people that he knows, that you know well that they
could help him. I mean same thing with Kenny, by the way,
like Kenny had nil to build that team last year. None of those guys
would have came here without that. But he left six figures of nil funds
for men's basketball in the five to two collective unused because he wanted to do
it his way. He's a lot like call to be honest with you,
like he didn't want any help. He didn't listen to anybody. Again,
I got like PTSD, like Tourett's syndrome. Once we start talking about Kenny
pain, I can't help myself. But nonetheless, Mitch may have just known
that, hey, we don't have like we now that Col's gone, we
cannot fulfill what was arranged for them because that financial resource is now going to
be going to fell Arkansas. So maybe that's the way they approached it,
and maybe the quaintan's family feels a certain way because of that. But then
again, now he's likely Louisville bound like that may not have been why he
hit the like, but it's just fun to be in the weeds here again,
overreacting to little things on social media in the internet, because we're so
obsessed with getting the best players to have success, because we love college basketball
all that much around here. And we were dead for a while. I
mean, maybe not fully dead, but we were on life support for a
while, right. We weren't living. There was a machine keeping us from
being six feet under. And then a man showed up, handsome man,
I may say, thick glasses, black frame. He showed up in the
in the in the room at the hospital, and he ripped off all the
stuff that was keeping us alive. And we we bounced up. We jumped
up as if we woke up after being you know, in a coma for
years, and now we're alive again and it's fun. All right. That
was a little much. I'm sorry, but I get worked up. It's
a Friday, I get you know, I'm this is this is not a
new me, but this is, you know, this is I'm talking about
Louisville basketball like I was talking about Jeff bram in the fall. You know
what I'm saying. It was fun, good vibes. All right, At
one point, we're gonna have to get to the Duke situation because it could
just be the new norm. But if you have not paid attention, which
I don't know why you would, a lot of people wouldn't care. But
Duke has like nobody on their team now in Louisville, Kentucky's same situation,
but this is different. Like right now, Tyreee Proctor and Caleb Foster are
the only players returning to Duke. Ryan Young is out of eligibility, Philipowski
and Jared McCain are off to the NBA. Seven players now have hit the
portal and they've got freshmen coming in. But I just I worry a little
bit about the sustainability not only of like how this is working as far as
how you have to get players, but the days of having a foundation where
you're just loaded every year, Like how realistic is that going to be?
Because at any moment you can lose everybody. And there are guys who are
leaving teams that were successful that meaning not just the team was successful, they
had a successful role in a successful team and they had an il. But
you know what, they can just leave and start over and they're taking advantage
of that, like losing players to the portal. I feel like it more
often than I feel like nine times out of ten. Eventually, it's just
gonna be looked at is like nobody did anything wrong. It's just that these
players can do whatever they want and they're gonna choose to do that. All
right, quick break, We're gonna come back on the other side, bringing
mister Jeffrey Greer talk a little footy as they've got a big match coming up
this weekend tomorrow on the pitch for Thunder. How about that? I like
that. That's right, Coffee and Company getting you set for the weekend.
Here about halfway through the show on a Friday, appreciate you hanging out with
us. We are a fueled by Thornton's and we now welcome in a very
special guest, the one, the only, mister Jeffrey Greer. Jeff,
how are the vibes here out of Friday afternoon? Nick, I gotta tell
you, the vibes are absolutely immaculate. I just got haircut. Oh yeah,
I feel like I got a superpower going. You feel like a brand
new man. I feel like a brand new man. Although my wife told
me I look older when I got home, which is hard to do for
my age. You, honestly, now that you say that you've looked the
same since I first saw you over ten years ago, I think I don't
think you've aged at all. You are full of it. But thank you.
I'll tell my wife. You said that, I'll tell my wife he
said that. But no, we're gonna set an attendance record this weekend at
Racing Louisville. It's gonna be a lot of fun. The fighter jets are
screaming around downtown today. Louisville is doing itself proud. Yeah, that was
gonna be My first question was the attendance. I see you guys are over
ten thousand tickets sold at this point. I mean, is is that eclipse
the record by quite a bit? Or is it close? I know you
guys have had some good crowds in the early existence here of the club,
but that's that's a lot of folks. Yeah. So the record, the
all time record is ten ten fourteen. We've surpassed that. I would not
be surprised if we end up somewhere north of twelve thousand the tickets, I
mean, because of thunder the tickets have been selling like crazy. That's awesome,
which just adds to the element of this whole experience. So it should
be a lot of fun and certainly an exciting combination of events going on at
the same time, well, especially considering you know, Derby season is officially
upon us, and I know they're going to have the Traveling Kentucky Derby experience
at at Lynn Family Stadium tomorrow, and you know, you're probably going to
get some fans in attendance that like, maybe are are just here for Thunder,
right, Like you could you get a chance to kind of show off
what you guys do. As far as the atmosphere the club, I mean,
I feel like it'll be probably a lot of locals of course who want
to take in Thunder and watch the club. But you know, you got
you get a chance to show off, right Yeah. And that's the thing
is, it's such a great opportunity you've got. You know, you're gonna
have clean bathrooms, You're going to have good vendors open all day. I
mean, it's a place to go and hang out. There's covered areas.
I don't think it'll get too hot tomorrow, but you know, God forbid.
Somebody needs to be in a covered area. We've got that. So
it's really a great opportunity to attract a lot of people. And then,
like you said, you know you've got the game at five o'clock. It's
a great chance to show off what we're doing and show off these amazing athletes
and kind of have that vibe of a home field advantage. So it'll be
nice to see that crew in front of all these people, and I know
they're rare and to go and hoping to show off the product to some new
faces. Yeah, and again as you likely know they're meaning listeners likely know
this. You get a chance to see the awesome fireworks show celebrating thunder of
a Louisville. But also you can take pictures with the Kentucky Oaks Trophy and
win tickets to special events during Derby Week. So if you already haven't been
incentivized enough, I think that should that should put you over the top there.
But there's also potentially going to be some special guests that only Jeff Greor
could reel in right, like I'm hearing, there could be some real celebrities
there that you know they wouldn't be there without you. Well, I don't
know if I'd go that far, but I do think we're we I know
we're expecting somebody who's got busy night tonight. With the spring game coming out
tomorrow. I know that uh uh, the the athletics director of U L.
Josh Herd, is planning on coming out nice. And then you know
we had Jack Harlow last weekend, uh and uh. I know that he's
always interested in soccer games. So I don't want to I don't want to
put words in his mouth. I don't want to say he's for sure coming,
but I would not be surprised if we had had him at the game
tomorrow if he's in town. So Jack Harlow, I think as we speak,
is the most famous Louivillion currently like others have been has had their moment,
but you know, he's had a run here in the last four or
five years where he's I mean, he's a superstar. I mean I've always
always say this, Jeff. If you were on SNL and you do both
the musical act and you are like participating in the show like not many people
do that, and that that will always stand out to me because that hit
me like this dude isn't just like famous for his craft in his industry,
Like this guy is like a superstar, but he's a real soccer fan too,
Like he's a Louisville guy that supports everything Louisville, but like he also
like soccer is a big passion of his right, Yeah, because he So
he played at Atherton and I know he's he's got connections to Mockingberg Valley.
I mean, I'm sure anyone who follows him has seen him posting his his
IG stories playing there, and and I know his friends all play. Brother
is big in soccer too, I believe. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then on top of that, I remember maybe last year he went he
was going to some matches. Either he was on tour or he was just
happened to be in England for business, but he went to some matches while
he was over there. So yeah, he's a huge soccer fan. You
know, he's been to some Loose City games. It came to the racing
game this past weekend. So yeah, he's he's all about it, and
I think that's a really cool thing to have locally. I know Louisville fans
all know him from from going to basketball and football games too. So it's
just cool to have somebody like that, who's who so readily willing to show
support across all these different teams and show up for the city. What makes
it so great is that, you know, it's little things here and there
that make it to where you really can't question how genuine it is. Right,
It's not just because he knows he's playing to his hometown and his crowd
like he I mean running on the field when when Jeff Braun beat Notre Dame
and you know, just getting just like any other fan. Right, he
wasn't out there to be on TV. He was just on the field and
flipping off Kentucky fans during the Governor's Cup game. I mean it like this
guy, he really he really cares. So it is awesome to see,
no doubt. What can you tell me about the Utah Royals, right?
I mean what kind of a what kind of a matchup are we expecting here
tomorrow? Look there, that's an expansion team. It's so it means they're
in trouble. The interview, yeah so they Well I wouldn't go that far.
We gotta be careful with that because he can't go that far. I'll
go that far. They're in trouble. Well, the second you underestimate teams
in this league of parody. I think last year there are twelve teams in
the league. I think going into the last day there were six teams fighting
for the last like two spots in the playoffs. So, I mean it
was pretty intense last year, a lot of parody, and this league is
is like that. So that's kind of the fun part of this is these
games, you know are going to be difficult. You know they're going to
be competitive, but yeah, Utah's first four games out they've struggled a little
bit. So they're coming in here and I know it's going to be a
really difficult atmosphere for people to play in because it's going to be playes screaming
around, there's going to be a huge crowd, and and I know our
squad is just anxious to try to get a w after some hard fought but
frustrating draws to start the season. So I didn't even think about that the
opponent, really not knowing like I would. I wouldn't be shocked if if
every single representative from from the Utah club, the Royals, that's going to
be here. I would imagine all of them have never experienced thunder of Louisville,
and they're gonna probably think, what the hell's I mean, what the
hell's going on? And they're gonna think, what a second, there's a
there's a firework show for you know this, this extravagant firework show for a
horse race that's in a few weeks that last two minutes. And they're gonna
think we're crazy. But are crazy? Is gonna overwhelm them? They're not.
They're gonna wint to get the hell out of town, jeff I.
I would love for that to be the case, Nick, That would be
fantastic for everybody. I will tell you this funny little anecdote though, when
it was my first year here. I don't remember if I've told you the
story before, but my first year here, I lived down downtown on Fourth
It was fourth in Chestnut, in this little apartment, and I was I
would always walk over to the pole and the pot Belly on Fourth Street all
the time. I mean I was eating those two burritos and sandwiches like twice
a day every day for like two years. But anyway, one day it
was it was it would have been similar to today. It would have been
like the Friday before thunder when they were doing the warm up sessions and they're
flying the planes around and running their practice runs. Man. I remember walking
out to get lunch and being like, are we in state of war?
Because there are fighter jets like screaming around downtown and I have never like I'm
really uneasy, like like what is going on? And I remember I tweeted
it and I just got destroyed from that is a great story. I did
not know that story. That is a great welcome to Louisville, Jeff story.
That is so we're here, we're actually our studios are now at four
Street Live. And earlier in the three o'clock hour, same thing, Like
I thought, oh goodness, the spring game is gonna be ruined. There's
thunder, and no, it's the it's the practice for the jets. And
it's I mean, you could be asleep downtown in your hotel and it's gonna
wake you up. Like it's not it's it's it's not. It's not just
you know, a plane overhead. It's it's something much more, much more
extravagant than than just that. All Right, I got I want to do
a little rapid fire with you before we before we wrap up the conversation.
You ready, okay? All right? So, throughout your travels as somebody
who covered college basketball for many years here and you know, obviously you'd worked
elsewhere before you got to the Louisville market, what city did you end up
in for assignment or for covering a team that you would like to never ever
go back to, Like you hated it, you thought, who would want
to live here? No, I'm gonna say, can I This is gonna
make me sound like so so bougie, but I'm going to say a European
city so that nobody gets mad at me. Okay, safe, I have
you? I have an American answer, but I'm not going to say it.
But I would say Belgrade, Serbia. Probably don't want to go back
there. I will say you've probably seen the cliffs of their basketball games.
One of the most intense. No, no, no, the most intense
is that what they have like fire. Yes, I've seen players, they're
throwing stuff the opposing team. I'll never forget watching Marcus Page. You remember
Marcus Page walking off, walking off the court for partisan playing Red Star Belgrade
and they had police with shields over his head because people were throwing like pens
and lighters and batter and all sorts of stuff down at the players. That
was the craziest environment I've ever been in. But I would not. It's
a beautiful city, but it's not a great spot to go for Americans.
So that's that's my recommendation. I'll take your word for it. I will
not. I have no plans to go there, and I'm gonna keep it
that way, all right. So when you were a kid and you play,
and you played variety of sports growing up, which athlete did you did
you ever like pretend to be when you're taking a jump shot? You know,
I know you played soccer too, Like what athlete did you idolize when
you were young? Okay, I've got two for you. Baseball, No
mar Garciapara. Every kid grown up in New England tried to tried to be
like him with his little fidgety at bat warm up all that stuff. And
then I know Louisville fans will cringe at this, but he was a Celtic
star when I was growing up. I Lusa loved doing the Antoine walker after
making a three the little shimmy. Yeah I am. I am a big
Pacers fan, love Reggie Miller, which I got older and I realized,
like he's actually a hated player by everybody. It was very I didn't know
that one. When I was a young kid. I thought like, how
could you not love Reggie Miller, the guy's clutch, And then like,
I realized he's hated. So I went to see Reggie play the Pacers when
I was a kid. My dad took me. It was a great game,
double overtime, and sure enough it was Walker who hit a late three
and did the shimmy. And you know, I'm pretty sure I cried.
So, yeah, you enjoyed it. You enjoyed my tears. You didn't
know me then, but you know if you if you would have known,
I was crying, Yeah, exactly, that's that's that's how, that's how
sad. It was. All right, So, uh, last TV show
you binged on one of the streaming networks, House of the Dragon just finished
it, which was that on the first season. That's uh on HBO It's
or Max or whatever it is. It's the It's the new the new Game
of throw Gotcha. It's like a prequel The Game of Throats. Good stuff,
Jeff, uh, We'll let you get back to your kid. Okay,
he's watching Daniel Tiger's family trip right now. I've seen that many times.
I've been there, so we'll let you get back at it. As
always, appreciate your time and have a great day tomorrow. I know it's
big for the club and big for the city, So enjoy yourself, my
friend. All right, thank you so much, Nick, have a great
weekend, all right, YouTube brother Jeff Greer, always appreciate him making some
time for us. We got to run quick break. We'll come back on
the other side. Keep this thing rolling along. It is Coffee and Company.
We are Fieldbeth Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. All right,
as we wrap up the four o'clock hour, there is some breaking news
as Jordan Burk's Kentucky freshman has entered the transfer portal. So it's going to
be a brand new team entirely for Mark Pope, which I think that was
the expectation Burks. I guess entering the portal this late might I mean,
you kind of feel like if anybody was going to go, they would have
done it. But now he's entered the portal. And you gotta keep in
mind, this was a guy they added late last year because of just you
know, needing depth, and he didn't play. I mean, I'm trying
to pull up his numbers here. This is Avery. This guy was not
very impactful at all for Kentucky and his freshman season and in fact, I'm
not even sure how many games he played in. It was pretty telling when
they went to Canada and he couldn't get on the floor in those games.
But yeah, in he played in twenty games, which surprised me. Seven
minutes, you know, very very little production as far as statistics, but
he was a six eight forward and he's in the portal. So you know,
Mark Pope being tasked with honestly a bigger rebuild as far as just roster
than Kelsey. Well, I guess not as we speak, yes, because
honestly, you know, Pat Kelsey is probably not going to get anybody back.
But again, I keep thinking that the longer Mike James is out there
in the portal, but there's not like a list of schools he's visiting,
and it could just be that it's private, Like Mike James is a guy
that probably is not going to be talking to anybody about what he's going to
do. I'm sure he's probably talking to some coaches. I mean, I
would imagine he has been hit up since he's been in the portal, and
maybe he's visiting and considering other schools. But I still think there's maybe a
small chance he would return. But if he doesn't, not going to be
a shock, and Pat Kelsey will have all new players. But with Kentucky,
you know, I don't think Kelsey's gonna bring two guys with him.
I'm sorry, I don't think Pope's gonna bring two guys with him. In
fact, the guy that he's bringing with him has never played before. That's
the guy who was on the Mormon mission and did not play the last two
years. And the other players Travis Perry, who was the freshman that did
decide to stay committed to Kentucky and not open up his recruitment. So again,
this doesn't really change anything because Burke's even if he was still around,
I doubt he was looked at as somebody that would be a guy that can
really have a strong impact in year one from Mark Pope. But I'm just
curious if Kentucky fans see this, and because what it probably does is just
if you took like the afternoon off as far as worrying about what your team's
going to look like, maybe now you're thinking about it again because right now
you have zero players that have played for you before on your team. And
again same thing for Louisville. But even the transfer that came to Kentucky for
Pope has never played college basketball and the freshman again as a freshman who I
think will be good. I think Travis Perry actually is going to really really
thrive under Mark Pope because he's just he's a good player first and foremost,
but he's also an elite shooter, so you know, I know Kentucky is
expected to be one of the leaders for Amari Williams, who is who is
I guess down to three schools now, he's the transfer from Drexel. I
thought it was LSAL for some reason, but it's Drexel, same conference,
but he's down to Kentucky. Saint John's in Mississippi State, which I feel
like is a very random trio of schools to be picking from. And then
there's a big guy from Utah State who I don't know, I'm not sure
of his name, but a very productive guy that would be a good get
for Kentucky. But you know, maybe he just follows mister Sprinkle to uh.
Is it Washington? Is that where Danny Sprinkle went he left Utah State
Danny Sprinkle, Yeah, because you quickly forget about anything about this guy because
the only thing that stands out is his name is Danny Sprinkle. And he's
a good coach too, by the way, And if you know, in
both Louisville and Kentucky's situation, you're gonna want to look to Danny Sprinkle if
you're trying to get big expectations for year one, because Danny Sprinkle brought back
not a single point from the Utah State team that he coached last year and
ended up having a good team. I mean, in fact, Utah State
they went twenty eight and seven. This past year fourteen and four, they
finished first in the Mountain West. Uh and his only year there, first
year coach had never or sorry, I had no players from that team the
year prior and then went and did this in here with the Mountain West was
actually a pretty good league. So now he's at Washington and you know,
they've got resources, so you know, we'll see. But NIL money matters,
we know that. But everybody has in IL money. Because here's something
that I don't I can't prove this, but put it this way, Louisville
and Kentucky they've had, like everybody else, they've had to be very much
involved in competitive INNIL to get players because that's just the name of the game.
You know. I know that there are certain players for both sides that
have been believed to get this and that as far as a dollar amount,
and it's always been exaggerated, sometimes exaggerated substantially. And what happens is if
the player knows that the word out there is that he got three hundred K,
that makes him look like he's he's worth it, right, Like damn,
God must be great. If the school is believed to have dropped the
three hundred thousand dollars bag, they're standing on business John, we know that,
but it just makes them look like they got money. So it's kind
of all a mirage. Like I don't think the amount of money is close
to what it's being reported as and what not even being reported, but what
it's just being rumored as. So what Mark Pope is selling as Kentucky's coach
is not at all what transfers or high school kids envision when they think about
Kentucky. So the allure of Kentucky is still there, but then they're gonna
beat Mark Pope and they may like him, but it's not what they thought.
Like, it's not that they thought Mark Pope was gonna be John Calla
Perry. But am I making sense here? John? Like? What would
get people really attracted at Kentucky with Cali Perry? And look, I know
Cali Perry is not Kentucky. Kentucky was very successful before him. These college
kids and these high school kids don't know they I mean, they know that,
but they don't care about that. It's just different now. Ye,
not that Kentucky's lost its luster. It's just they're they're rebranding right now,
and not that the brand is going to be bad. It's just gonna take
a while for it to pick you. Yeah, in the immediate time.
I'm not predicting the future, but I would not be shocked if they lose
a lot of these battles to schools that maybe they wouldn't they would expect to
lose to you like Danny Sprinkle being able to take his big man from Utah
State with him to Washington when Kentucky wanted him, Like that would make total
sense because again they've got in Aiel just like Kentucky does. And maybe Kentucky
can throw more money, but maybe Washington can too. And again like just
the Cali Perry was going to final fours winning titles when college players currently and
high school You know, when college players currently that they're playing now, that
time when he was on top, they were probably in middle school dreaming of
playing at that level. High school kids they may not even remember it because
it was that long ago. So it's just different. By the way,
if your name is Danny Sprinkle, there's no scenario where at one point in
your life you were not a mail stripper, right, has to be.
My mind went to it's like bakery owner or something. Now Danny Sprinkle is
a mail stripper. Come on, John, Like mattress Mack, you either
sell mattresses or you're a porn start no in between five o'clock hours next MHM