It's time for coffee and company, fueled my Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day, Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we
are get off our show. Idiots, the kids are playing or turning off.
The punctures are screwing it up. Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother,
gold Play Inner Murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really
not. Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you kidding
me? Now? Here's Nick coffee. So it's not uncommon for me to
mention the weather as we get the party started, just to kind of ease
into the show. You know, I'm sure a lot of you, if
you are in the Kentucky and area, you don't need me to tell you
the weather. But I've realized I may need you guys to inform me because
the last two days, whenever I have arrived here at our phenomenal four Street
Live studios here, it's been sunny outside hot, disgusting humidity. But Sonny,
and then when I leave, as soon as I turn that corner in
the hallway, John, I can see outside our front door here. We're
on the second level at four Street, and like it's it's not flooded,
but la, there's big puddles. Yeah, so like clearly it rained a
ton and traffic on the way home yesterday and on Wednesday, because I mean
it must rain really hard because or just the roads need something done to it
to where there's not flooding on the interstate but right around that I'm so bad
at exits. But if you're heading Arthur Street right, yes, yeah,
sixty five South Arthur Street, Arthur Street exit area, you know, right
before you get to that gas station, and then of course next to it's
the Harley Davidson, I mean, it just puddles up. I mean it's
literally like standing water. And I'm just thinking, okay, I got here.
I was. I was two forty five. Sometimes you know little actually
usually it's a lot earlier than that. But anyways, for it to be
flooded, it must have rained, like really hard. And I had no
clue. I mean, being in this cave is you know it's not it's
not bad, but yeah, the last two days came outside and I'm like,
wow, I guess it's stormed pretty bad. Put it in my GPS
just to you know, see what traffic is and there's I mean, in
fact, I think yesterday was an awful day for traffic all over Louisville,
and it's because of how hard it rains. So as of now it's not
raining outside. In fact, it's sunny. But you know, who knows
what it's gonna what it's gonna be the next three hours. I guess I'll
find out whenever I walk out of here in roughly three hours. All right,
again, it is Coffee and Company. You heard the professional voiceover guy.
That's us. We are fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Nick Coffee. That is me the company man, mister John Alden alongside today
and we have got a lot to get into today, a lot to unpack,
as they say, obviously night one of the NBA Draft, a lot
to react to from that, and we have night to tonight. Still felt
a little weird at being different than it's always been where they have two nights
of the draft. But I gotta be honest with you, I think I'm
gonna prefer this to be the way they do it, because you know there's
enough to You knew one round of the NBA Draft, and that gives you
a whole lot to you know, to chew on, and certainly a lot
to react to from that, and we'll do that today. But today we're
gonna hear from I mean, they're not gonna be on the show as live
guest, but we're gonna hear from the new Louisville basketball coach, who I
feel like had his first real press conference today. Certainly his press conference when
he was introduced as the coach was a real one. But that wasn't talking
who We weren't talking ball. We were really figuring out who hell this guy
is. I mean, by the time he approached the podium, we were
well aware of his resume, and I knew who Pat Kelsey was. I
mean, I was familiar with him for years, just because he's on the
Chris Matck coaching tree, and if you follow college basketball, you know Winthrop
was a tournament type team and then obviously Charleston for a couple of years really
good. So but this was different and he was talking basketball today and it
was nice to hear. I think he was pretty strategic as far as some
of the answers that he gave, and we all want to know every little
thing, right, we want to be receiving updates about every practice, which
players are standing out, who did good this day, who did good that
day, and that's just not realistic. But I think he's got to be
careful to not single anybody out, because I mean that matters nowadays, right,
I mean, he's a brand new team. He's still getting to know
these guys, learning sort of how they react to certain things, including what
said to the media. So I don't want to say that I feel underwhelmed
by his press conference. I didn't think he said anything wrong. He said
some good stuff to get me excited, but you know, he's not going
to give us a whole lot in you know, if you just consider the
situation here. But he did say enough to get me excited. And in
fact, it was the players, some of the players who talked after Pat
Kelsey today that that I thought said some things that should get fans really excited.
So we'll hear some clips from that press conference, but also we're gonna
hear from the old coach, not the previous coach, not the previous coach
before him, And I guess technically there's been two interims, so let's go
back five coaches ago. Rick Patino, so he was on Kentucky Sports Radio
this morning. And for those who don't listen to KSR on this station,
Matt Jones has been gone for seemingly, you know, I feel like Matt's
been gone forever, but he's been on a European vacation and he's had a
lot of fill ins over the last few weeks or however long he's been gone.
And the crew at the Pardon My Take Podcast PFT commentor Dan Bigcat Cats.
I feel silly giving them an introduction, as if people don't know who
they are but the internet and you know, a portion of this audience,
it's an entirely different audience, different world. So there are some people thinking,
who the hell's Big Cat PFT Comment or what who huh? That's their
stage name, right. They're entertainers and they're really, really, really successful
for Barstool Sports. I don't know if they still are at the top of
the charts, but for a long time they were the number one sports podcast
in the world. And again they mix in sports, but it's really entertainment
and they're really entertaining. I am big fans of those guys, and every
year they come on as one of Matt's fill in hosts, And the best
part of it is that there's so many Kentucky fans that don't know who they
are. In fact, if they do, they just know them now because
they're the guys who fill in once a year, and they hate it.
Now. Some people love it because they're again, they're funny. If you
get it, you like it probably, But if you don't know who they
are and you tune in, you're thinking, what is this, what are
we doing? This is nonsense? And they troll really really well. I
mean they had Goalky on today, guys. I mean, like that's phenomenal.
They had Sam Decker on at one point when they hosted, who of
course was one of the star players for Wisconsin who ended Kentucky's perfect season.
So, like, you know, they're they're funny, they're not super serious.
I find them to be highly entertaining, and clearly a lot of people
across the planet do because they're they're on top. But today they had Rick
Patino on as well as Jack Golkie, and Patino didn't really I mean,
I'll just get it out of the way if you haven't heard what Patino said
that has gotten some of the fan base a little worked up meeting the Louisville
fan base is that he said that he has donated nil money to the Kentucky
football program because of his friendship with Mark Stoops and Eddie Grant. And he
said that he would give Mark Pope money if he ever needed it. And
then when he talked about Kentucky, you mentioned once again that it was Camelot
and that he was treated great there and never had a bad day. And
we'll let you guys here and I'm not going to play the whole interview,
but there's some clips that I'll play with you. I'll play for you guys.
And he also said that at Louisville he wasn't treated well. And you
know, I guess my question to Louisville fans because I have a question for
Kentucky fans too. My question of Louisville fans is this, if you remove
emotion from the situation, which is hard to do because if you're a fan,
there's emotion involved, unless you're just kind of like a you know,
half ass fan, which, by the way, you know, be a
fan whoever you want. But if you know emotion is normal within your fanhood,
because again that's part of it. That's that's how you become a fan
because you've emotionally attached yourself. You have you know, skin in the game.
You're impacted emotionally. I mean that sounds dramatic, right, Like we're
not crying ourselves to sleep every night. I mean I am, but you
guys probably aren't because I'm a lunatic. But you know, you were happy
when your team loses, and you are sad when or you're happy when your
team wins and you're sad when your team loses. That's the emotions that come
with being a fan. So it's hard to remove it because without it,
you're like, well why do I care? But just try it remove emotion
from the question. What was your realistic expectation for Rick Bettino as far as
how he would feel and treat Louisville after he was fired? Because I think
any scenario where you thought he would be lovey dovey and gassing us up,
meeting the city, the school, the program, his you know, the
fans. Any scenario you thought that he'd be raving about us and just you
know, donating money to Louisville football, that's delusion. If there's any scenario.
You thought that was how this was ever going to work out. It
is pure delusion. He was fired here and he should have been fired here.
And when I say that, I mean, you know you got to
you can we can all try to rewrite history. But at the time when
that came out, I don't think Louisville had any other option than to take
action. Now, I guess they could have put him on leave and looked
into it on their end, but at that point, you know, he'd
already had a few strikes, if you know what I'm saying. So he
was fired. He still feels like he was wronged. I mean, he
still probably wakes up in a panic at night reliving the horrific, horrific situation
that played out for him where he showed up to the basketball facilities and they
changed the locks. Remember when he mentioned that, like every interview whenever,
he was just I'm never doing a radio interview again. Then he did a
radio radio in every later that day, and he would talk about how how
he you know, how you know Pete Man, Papa John wronged him and
David Grissom and all those people, and then and they changed the locks.
I mean, he kept bringing up changing locks, so he feels as if
he was screwed over. So I mean, I don't think it's like a
personal thing to where he's like, oh yeah, those Louisville fans, the
hell with him. But he doesn't. Rick doesn't think about fans. I
mean, Rick, that's just not who he is. How many times did
Rick Patino ever mention fans during his run at Louisville. I mean, he
didn't go out of his way to bag on him, and I'm sure at
times he would occasionally say thanks to the fans. But Rick, Rick's a
larger than life guy, Like he's not gonna spend much time talking about fans.
So like he's not thinking, oh man, I really missed that Louisville
fan base, not because we did anything wrong, not because he doesn't like
us. But he's Rick Patino. He's not human compared to most. He's
a different dude. So I get fans just being a little turned off by
that. And clearly Rick knew what he was doing, sharing to the world
that he's donating money to Kentucky football in an il. I mean, he
knows what he's doing. So maybe that is just a jerk move, but
he doesn't care because he's never cared. He's Rick Patino. He's in his
own world. And another thing, I believe that he is genuinely who's walking
in here while I'm on I mean sorry, I mean the delight says on
the air, and I can't see who it was. But we okay,
well I heard voices out in the hallway, but I didn't know they were
near your room. Yeah, so anyways, now lost we were talking about
him being in his own world, Rick Patino, let me reset here.
Kentucky and Louisville are both places Rick Patino coach dad had success, and I
think he enjoyed his time at Louisville until you know the end. And look,
Rick got away with things no other coaches would get away with. I
mean, let's be real, Rick Pattino. I mean he survived two things
that most would not survive. And I don't mean like he survived as if
he was able to keep, you know, stay alive. I mean like
he kept his job. I mean, again, we don't need to get
into all of it today. But the Karen Cipher thing, I mean that
is a personal thing, not really related to his job. But he is
somebody that has high importance with that position, and most coaches would not be
able to keep their job if that played out the way that they did.
We'll never know because it's not happening. It's not often you see college basketball
coaches getting caught up in that kind of thing, right, Like, it's
not one of those things where college basketball head coach extorted for, you know,
fornicating with a woman on a table in an Italian restaurant in town.
It's not one of those things. Oh it happened again. Yeah, man,
they got to do something about that. Man, that's running rampant within
college basketball. It's just not how it works. So nobody got fired at
all for the minority hall stuff, which is just crazy to think about many
years later. So, like you know, Rick Rick was able to survive
that, and him being Rick Patino, he never really felt like he should
be appreciative of that because he just thinks he's larger than life and anybody that
would ever want to not have him as their coach, like that's their problem.
So you know, he enjoyed his time here, but then it ended
really badly and he's i think always going to be bitter about that, even
though his personal feelings about it, meaning like who they are towards. It's
people that aren't around anymore, Papa John, David Grissom, Greg Postal,
those people, they're not here anymore, right, So, like he's mad,
and I don't think he needs anybody that's here currently to like point that
anger directly towards. And some would say, well, then he's taking it
out on fans by doing this and telling us that he's donating, Like,
I think it's a totally different situation. And if he never coached to Kentucky,
right, Like, if he's just a random guy that you know,
if he's just randomly on this show as Louisville's former coach and he says he's
donating money to the Rivals football program, Like that's I mean, that doesn't
even make any sense. Who would do that? But oftentimes people forget the
fact that he was at Kentucky for a long time. He wasn't wronged by
them, He had great success there and his biggest regret ever is leaving.
So it was easy for us to not think about that because Kentucky fans hated
his ass when he was at Louisville, but Rick always loved Kentucky, the
job, the situation, everything that comes with it. So when Mark Pope
got the job, I mean, I can't say that I share any of
the similar feelings that a lot of Louisville fans have as far as him being
excited in wanting Mark Pope to do well. Mark Pope was a captain for
him on the only championship team he had at Kentucky. I mean, I
still feel like he was a big part of the eight nineteen ninety eight team,
but clearly, you know, Tubby was the coach. So I'm not
at all surprised that he is over the moon about Mark Pope and wants to
see him do well and feels very very I mean, if you ask Rick
the best time in his basketball career, I guarantee you he would say Kentucky.
In fact, I think he actually said exactly that in some former fashion
earlier today. So the football stuff is weird, and that makes it seem
as if like he is trying to maybe go out of his way to let
Louisville fans know like where his allegiance lies between the two. And I'm not
telling anybody like we should be happy about it, but I just I am
not at all surprised to hear these kind of things, because even when Rick
was here, he never talked bad about Kentucky. The only thing I could
think of he said was something along the lines of, you know, their
fans were like, it's their whole life, which I think at the time
when he made those comments it was more of like, you know, their
losers, but who knows, maybe he meant it as a compliment. So
today felt like the day for or at least some to kind of finally say,
all right, this guy, it's over. We had a great run,
bad ending, but he's he doesn't care about us, And I've kind
of already been there because for me, this is always I mean, even
with current coaches, this is all transactional. They can appreciate, they can
care, they can really you know, have an investment into the program they're
coaching at, and they can coach there for two decades and win championships,
but at the end of the day, you know what it is for them,
It is a job. It is transactional. So emotion that diehard fans
have for programs is never going to be the same type of an emotion that
a coach has. Doesn't mean they don't care and that it's only about money.
I mean, it is mostly about money. I mean, not the
only factor for these coaches, but it's a big factor. Right, So
maybe you know you look at Rick as a villain now and you didn't before.
But I mean, I just I'm put it this way. I'm just
not surprised because it's Rick. And again I go back to my initial question.
If you're if you're a Louisville fan, what did you realistically expect Rick
Pottino? I guess I should rephrase it, how did you realistically expect Patino
to feel about Louisville. He still thinks, right or wrong, that he
was, you know, betrayed by U L and they fired him and he
shouldn't have been fired. I mean that's the way he's always going to feel.
And you know, I don't see that ever changing. I don't.
And in Kentucky he wasn't fired. He left and the only you know,
the only thing he would he would, I guess have a real gripe about
about UK was about their how their fans treated him and felt about him when
he was at Louisville. But Rick is one of those guys that like even
if he did pay attention to it, he'd never acknowledge that he was really
plugged into what fans of anybody was saying about him, because he's such a
he's such a larger than life person to where he would never want anybody to
know that he even knows fans exist, like that's just who he is.
But here's what he had to say about the UK football stuff, which I
gotta be honest, I had no clue, Like I wouldn't have been if
this is not an exaggeration. I mean this, if that interview took place
earlier today and somebody asked him about Mark Stoops, I wouldn't have been shocked
if Rick Patino said he wasn't familiar with who that was. Turns out their
friends which didn't see that coming. Well, I actually cut a checked to
the football program because I'm a casual friend of Mark and Eddie Grin and cut
a check to the football program. But I would definitely cut a check if
Mark needs me for anything, no matter what, except for my firstborn Michael,
he could have it. So I mean that's random. I don't you
know. I just I guess in a way, if he's providing money to
help UK football. He's hurting Louisville because there our rival. But again I
could just and also is anybody like fact check that to see if that's even
true? Because Rick let let's beck Rick lies. I mean, like we
know that, but like that's the last thing I would have expected him to
say on that interview. Here's another clip that I'll play for you, and
some of this, I mean, honestly, every bit of this nineteen second
clip is something maybe not He's not said it all like this in one you
know, in one sound clip, but everything within this these are things we've
heard him say before, either when he was here or since he's left.
Well, I actually cut it here we go. I didn't get treated great.
One. I always called University of Kentucky Camelot for me. I never
had a bad year, never had a bad day. They treated me like
a king. They treated me with great respect, so I only had Obviously
I didn't get treated great when I was at Louisville. But sitting back on
and examining it today, I totally understand why. So I mean, even
that he says he didn't get treated Louisville, didn't get treated great at Louisville,
and then he later added, looking back on it, now I understand
why. I guess he means that Kentucky fans didn't treat him great at Louisville.
Is that what he means or they he understands that the mistakes that he
made it Louisville. So let's yeah, let's let's replay that, because I
there's a couple of different things this could mean. But I think I actually
the first couple of times I listened to it, I think I kind of
took it the wrong way. I was. I was of the belief that
he was saying he didn't get treated great by Louisville. I think what he
means is he didn't get treated great by Kentucky when he was at Louisville.
And he now understands why, let's see if that's I think that's what he
meant. I always called University of Kentucky camelot for me. I never had
a bad year, never had a bad day. They treated me like a
king. They treated me with great respect, so I only had Obviously I
didn't get treated great when I was at Louisville. But sitting sitting back on
it and examining it today, I totally understand why that's what he meant,
right, Yeah, I'm with you now, that makes total sense. So
he's not even really saying he was treated bad at Louisville, but he feels
like he was, and and he's he said that. I mean, he's
also said that he, you know, he should have been fired. He
said that once on some random radio show that he did when he got the
job at IONA. So look, I don't think he thinks about us at
all anymore, and I don't think we should think about him. I'm not
telling you to hate him. I mean I love the time when he was
here, and I can't say that I hate him because I just you know,
I don't. I don't be a lie. I mean, I'm not
going to be watch watching Saint John's every game, but you know, it
is the Kentucky football thing. I just don't get, Like, on what
planet does Eddie Grant and Rick Patino hang out? I mean, I don't.
That to me is just just odd. All right, we'll get to
our first break. So if you're a louis A fan and you're saying,
the hell with Patino? Cool, like, I mean, we don't you
know at some point, which I feel like we kind of were there and
then this happened. But like there's just really it's kind of going out of
your way to even bring him up in more. But he is still like
Cali Perry, one of the two coaches in college basketball that when they do
things they talk it generates attention because they are larger than life figures. That's
what we used to have around here. Now we got guys that are total
opposites and look, they may be just as successful. We'll have to wait
and see. But if you're a Kentucky fan, like do you feel do
you feel bad? Because like I'm sure you hear that and you like it
and you're like, wow, Rix, welcome back, welcome back to the
family. But like, you know, you loathe that man when he was
at Louisville, which I guess you should he was coaching the rival. But
it just if I was a Kentucky fan, I wouldn't know how to feel.
But as a Louisville fan, feel the way Phil, whatever way you
want. I just I'm not at all that's surprised by the way Rick feels
and things he says. But the UK football andil donation. I mean,
huh, that's right. Coffee and Company fuel by Thornton's here on Sports Talk
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show, you can five oh two five seven one seventy nine hundred is the
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on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line at five oh two six five
three zero seven ninety. And for those you know, I don't even know
why you even mentioned his name anymore. He's not the coach around here.
This is Louisville. Like again, I hear you, but you you know,
with all due respect, you have no clue how any of this works.
Like Rick Patino, one of the more legendary coaches ever, goes on
a show on this station and says that he's donated money to the Louisville Rivals
football program through NIL. That's the story. This is a radio show,
So I don't know why I get triggered by that sometimes, but like,
whatever you do, you do. Radio is what we're doing, and this
is something that would would be discussed and if not, you don't know how,
then you're not doing this right. Not to say that I'm better than
anybody else, but this is this is this is something that is worthy of
bringing up. So anyways, for those who are just not joining us.
But Tinos, as I just mentioned, he went on KSR this morning and
the majority of his interview was just you know, it didn't run the whole
lot there, but he did mention that he's donated money to the Kentucky football
program in NIL and would do the same thing for Mark Pope if he asked.
And I do feel like for some fans, and it's certainly shown on
the text line that this was kind of the full confirmation of all right,
I'm kind of you know, completely over it, which I don't think anybody
thought it was realistic that he was going to come back and be the coach
here, you know, I mean, and if you did, you're just
wrong. But you know, when things got so bad at Louisville after well
towards the end of Chris Mack, and then Rick was at Iona, and
then he made the tournament, and then of course he gets to Saint John's
and you know, he's still a guy that's going to move the needle in
in college basketball. I think because we sucked so bad, we found ourselves
reliving the good days of Rick Patino and really, you know, missing the
fact that we used to have a legendary Hall of Fame coach. I think
if Louisville was successful, you wouldn't have had that reaction. Now again,
maybe you'd still miss him every now and then, and you'd still go back
and look, you should still think very fondly of the great years that Louisville
had here, because they were great. I mean, I don't, I
don't. I can't relate and understand how what he said today would make you
feel any different about out his time here, the good days. But he's
he's not you know, and I hate to say this because I don't know
this to be a fact, but I don't know freak Patino ever really cared
about like the program and the fans. He cared about him. And when
he did care about the program, it was because of him, I mean,
And that's that's really not that uncommon now. He loves his players,
and I think he will always always love the players that were here, especially
that very special team that won a national championship. And I'm biased. Those
guys were great players that of course led to a great run here that that
gave lot of the third national championship, but they're also special guys, you
know that that I know he really loved coaching. Russ Smith changed Rick Patino
as far as a coach. Peyton you know, was the you know,
perfect point guard for him, a guy who you know, never had a
bad day of practice, never had a bad attitude, and that's hard to
do when you're playing for Ry Patinos. So for some we had a good
question that came up on the text line said, like, realistically speaking,
is there will there ever be a scenario where like he's he's brought back to
be honored and it's tough to say at this point, but I think yes,
there will be because if he's retired, like let's say, and by
the way, there's actually good timing here because eventually thet there instead of LA
is already revamping how they're gonna go about punishing people and uh, you know,
encouraging you to cooperate. And Louisville lost a national championship banner. Nobody's
ever lost a banner, and Louisville cooperated throughout that entire thing, and now
you know, they're really wanting to incentivize you for cooperating. So at some
point Louisville will get their banner back. I don't know when that's gonna be,
but and I don't really care if they get it back. But if
they do, let's say they get it back five six years, if the
fifteen year anniversary of that championship team is somewhere in the ballpark of when they
get the banner back, and Rick Pottino is retired at that point, which
isn't crazy to think about because of his age. If his players urged him
to come back, I think he would for them, And I think at
that point, you know, he might feel that he really was. I
mean, actually, begin I don't know if Potto has feelings, so I
was gonna say he might feel like he was beloved here. But again,
I to me, Rick's not human. And I don't say that to insult
him, but like he's one of the least relatable, certainly the least relatable
coach that I can think of that that I've you know, I've ever that's
ever coached the team that I'm a big fan of. And that's not a
crime. It's just, you know, like I don't think he thinks and
cease think, thinks about thinks of things the same way, and thinks of
things the way that you know that we do. But anyways, or let's
go to the phone lines five O two, five seven, one seventy nine
hundred is the number if you want to jump in and join us. Let's
go to Alison Allison Europe. First, How you doing today? Good?
Nick? How are you not too bad? So, you know, with
the Patino situation, you know, you don't want to take away the success
that he had and line to that, he did provide us with some players.
You know who won is on the staff, the current Louisville staff,
and he won a national championship with so tying to the comment that he made
about Mark Popen and I l there's really no difference. I can I understand
Mark Mark Pope's the head coach, but you know Peyton and Steve who's on
the Louisville basketball staff. You know. And another thing is, you know,
when you're the guy in George, you take the fall. You know
that was your program, you were the head coach. You know, not
only did we lose Rick, we also lost, in my opinion, one
of the best athletic directors that we'll ever see, you know. So I
think there's just so many things that tie tie into it for him to make
that comment. But you know, if he wants to give to Mark stops
his six and six squad that gets excited about beating Louisville every year, go
for it. You know. That's all I got. So that's all I
got. Next time. Thanks appreciate you, Allison. And it's a really
good point. Peyton. Steve is not the head coach, but he is
in the door here as a college basketball staffer for Pat Kelsey. And you
know Pat talked about Peyton today, and you know, Peyton's one of those
guys that you're kind of gonna hear the same thing every time someone is asked
to talk about him, because he's he's that special of a guy as a
person, and of course he was a hell of a player too. But
yeah, I mean that that's that's a great point. I mean, I
don't know if Peyton getting the job at Louisville would have would have was,
you know, because again Peyton's uh, you know, he's he's the director
of a player development alumni relations. I think that is his his title.
In fact, I think it's the title that Milt Wagner had last year and
the year before. So yeah, I mean that's that's that's fair. You
know, you would think that he even if he's not going to give the
same type of reaction, because again Peyton's not the head coach, he should
still, I think, go out of his way, and really isn't It
isn't going out of your way. It's what most coaches would do, is
to you know, publicly congratulate their former player who helped them win a national
championship, was a haptain and is now employed for the program. I mean
like, yeah, that's that's a fair point, and I know those two
have a great relationship too, by the way, so it's not like it's
personal. But if anything, it's Rick not wanting to do it because it's
Louisville and that's just him being him, and I think he'll always feel better
about that, which is wild because Rix, one of Rick's biggest lies that
he told consistently to all of us was get get better, not bitter.
I'm not bitter, which you're very bitter. That's that's who you are.
So anyways, we'll move on, all right. Again, I want somebody
to tell me how I mean we are moving on, but how the hell
Rick Betino and Eddie Gran friends, Like, somebody's gonna have to explain that
to me. For those who't know who Eddie Grant is, which I'm sure
John had no clue who Eddie Graan was, correct, Eddie Gran is a
I guess he's still a UK football staffer, but he's Mark Mark Stoop's former
oh who is just just the just the you know, just a proxy like
Eddie Gran is Mark Stoop's good old buddy who's never really done much as an
OC. In fact, his resume includes him only being the offensive coordinator.
I mean I guess he did have a run at Florida State for a couple
of years, but uh, he went to Cincinnati for a couple of years.
But he was Kentucky's OC for four or five years and now he's the
is a special assistant to the head coach. But he was a terrible OC
and I feel like he never even got to call the plays. It was
just, you know, he was gonna do what Stoops wanted to do,
which is run the ball every time and try to win the score, you
know, six to three, try to win by a score of six to
three. So you know, he seems to be just playing. You know,
I don't know him personally. Maybe he's a wild party guy. And
that's how him and Patino connected on South Beach or something at you know,
one of the fancy you know Italian regis. I don't know, I have
no clue, but that is not something I was anticipating to hear, is
that Patino is close friends with close relationship with with Stu. Just like I
still don't understand that. But like you know, he Stoops. He's the
head coach of an SEC team. But Eddie Graan and that's a that that
threw me off a little bit. All right, what I want to do
on the other side here is talk about last night's NBA draft. Again.
We are gonna let you hear from Pat Kelsey. Uh. There's like three
clips I feel like are worthy of you guys hearing. One is him discussing
the uh, the defensive philosophy that is that that he has as a coach,
and the other two were questions about starting lineup and like who's emerging as
you know the guy. I think the question actually asked, like who are
the dogs? So I really liked his answer. You know, I will
go ahead and tell you there's not a whole lot to take from this presser,
and that's okay. But it's the first time we're hearing Pat Kelsey talk
a little ball with talking ball, but maybe not just talking about you know,
him being here as the coach. He's here and it's happening. They're
gonna be playing a game I think a month from the day in the Bahamas.
All right, stick with us right here at this coffee and company.
Feilbout Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety so earlier. I said I said this
on Twitter right after the comment Patino made sort of took off as far as
his donation to the Kentucky Football Nil collective. Rick's just mad that we've got
an alpha now in Pat Kelsey, because again, I refuse to believe that
Pat Kelsey on his birthday going to dinner and taking a picture with his parents
at Porcinie's was a coincidence. Rick's mad that we took Porcini's back. That's
what it is. That's why he won't congratulate Peyton. That's why he's you
know, being petty and you know, gassing up UK. And really you
have done him talking up Kentucky basketball specifically with it being about Pope, like
that's not unusual. It'd be unusual for him not to do that. Now,
maybe he's gone a little over the top and mentioning he was gonna give
him money, like that's different. But a former player of his who won
a national championship and was a captain on that team is now coaching that program
that they were there together, like that is normal for a coach to you
know, think fondly, to feel good about something like that. And you
know, that's a good point that came in on the text line by the
way if you want to text, and you can five O two six five
three zero seven ninety. It's the L and N Federal Credit Union text line
that when it comes to Louisville fans bringing up this is what somebody said on
the text line when it comes to Louisville fans bringing up how badly Kentucky fans
treated Rick when he was there. I guess he did kind of allude to
that. But again, I don't think Rick Patino thinks about fans of anybody.
He just does. So when he thinks of fond days at Kentucky,
Hey, Kentucky fans, he's not really thinking about you. He's thinking about
the people that he got to know and he was close with that he worked
with, you know, rich friends that he made in Lexton's that's legitimately what
it is. And you know what he made some rich friends when he was
still in Louisville or when he was in Louisville, and he's still friends with
him today. And you know, those are the people that were really,
you know, going out of their way to try to get Richard Petite.
You know the job here, all right. Pat Kelsey earlier today had his
press conference just to give us an update now that he's been working with these
guys for the last couple of weeks. Also talk a little bit about the
trip to the Bahamas. We'll play some clips throughout the show, and this
one was the first question that came in, and he did before answering it,
talk about how awesome it was to see a full room at the press
conference in you know, late June. You could tell this is something that
you know, I'm sure he's excited about that. It's just different here,
but that'll eventually fade, you know, it's gonna he'll get more used to
it. But I happen to really like the fact that, you know,
he's honestly probably every day realizing like, man, I'm in a place where
people really like basketball matters. With that adds pressure, but it's also awesome.
I feel like if you're that guy and you embrace that, like,
you know, my man's made it. Now he's got to win because this
is a job where you need to win. But him being here is a
big deal for him as a basketball coach, and I'm I'm sure personally he
feels, you know, like it's I don't want to say a dream come
true. But if it is, it wouldn't shock me if that's how he
sees it. But might have been CD Kaplan who asked him about his defensive
philosophy. And I thought that was interesting to hear they're gonna be a team
that plays half court man de man defense, and yes there are some.
I mean, he didn't say it today. He probably has been told not
to say the word, but pack line. I mean, you got to
keep in mind he came from the same coaching tree Chris mac did coach Prosser.
So they're gonna play half court manda man defense, but they're also going
to play fast, which is kind of rare and the school. I guess
I should say the program that he mentioned as far as you know, we'll
let you hear it for yourself. But this should get you excited if you've
watched this basketball team in the last couple of years. That's a great question.
First of all, it's pretty cool afternoon in June to have a press
conference, look around, have a packed room like this. The passion for
Louisville basketball never ceases to amaze me. So kudos to Cardinal to you guys
for coming out. Love that question. When you ask have I been around
my guys to know enough of what our defensive identity is going to look like.
We had a pretty good idea going in of what we do and how
we do it defensively. Obviously, when we recruit we take those things into
consideration. Who are the type of players that kind of fit who we play?
I think I might have been asked this at the press conference, the
introductory press conference. I'm not sure we are predominantly I would say ninety nine
point nine percent a half court man de man team. I think it's an
interesting dichotomy that we do play fast on the offensive end. There's a lot
of possessions in our game. We tilt the floor, but our philosophy in
the half court is more of a half court mand a man team. I
compare us schematically a lot to Alabama in that regard. Both have a lot
of possession in their game. They pushed the ball offensively, but hang their
hat on a tough, tenacious, nasty, half court manda man defense.
So I mean again Alabama, I feel like when people discuss the new way
of playing basketball spacing a lot of possessions, a lot of three point shots,
you're really really tracking to get a good look from three point range,
or get a layup, get to the rim, paint, touch to where
you're you know, you've you've gotten there to get yourself in a position to
get a high percentage shot, or get to the foul line. So you
know, easier said than done. But I think they've built the personnel here
with this roster to play like that. Now. You know a lot of
people mentioning Alabama defensively because they were really bad last year on defense. They
were one to eleven in the Kent Palm and Adjusted defense. But that's not
always been the case for Natos's teams. I mean, in fact, if
you go back to the twenty twenty three season, when they went thirty one
and six with Brandon Miller and at times looked like the best team in the
country before they lost to San Diego State in the sweet sixteen, they were
number three in the country defensively in ken Pom number three and their offense was
twenty. So I don't know why people have this mind. I guess because
Bama was just so bad defensively last year at times. I don't know if
people realize that's not always been the case for Natos's teams now, they've not
always been great, but it's not as if if you choose to play that
way you're just going to be lousy. And natots in twenty twenty one,
I believe, which was NATO's first year there at Alabama twenty six and seven,
lost again in the sweet sixteen to UCLA that went on to lose to
Gonzaga in the final four. They were once again number three in the country
defensively. So I mean, if you can do it now. Again,
I'm not saying Louis was about to turn into Alabama, but that ski you
know, schematically, you know, being similar to them, and that's the
way you want to do it. And I'm not saying he's copying natoates in
Alabama, but that's a really exciting way to play and it's super effective if
you know, if you've got the personnel, and we'll see how it all
works out. Man, they got I mean, there's not many guys on
that. There's one guy and it's Kudor tray O, a the transfer from
Long Beach State, who I love. I think it's gonna be hard to
keep him off the floor. Very unique player. Man, you think about
his stat line. A guy who had who really can't shoot it, and
you know he's six' five, but yet he's got insane bounce, some
of the longest arms you'll ever see, just dominates the stat sheet. But
and he knows, he knows he's not a shooter, so guys will back
off of him, and he'll just take advantage of that find himself in a
position to you know, to rack up the assists. So he's not a
shooter, like he's not like he's one of those guys that probably more often
than not, will not take an open look. But other than that,
most of the guys they put on the floor are guys that if you leave
them open and they get a high percentage look, you know, they can
knock it down at a pretty good rate. Now you're gonna have guys that
have off shooting nights and sometimes it's gonna be hard to get good looks.
But man, I liked here in that a lot. As far as schematically,
I mean, Natoats and Alabama you know they're not they're you know,
they've not done what Yukon has done. But that was huge for Natots to
get to a final four this year because he'd been building right, he'd been
tracking towards it. Batbama's been good since he's been there, and then this
year it's a breakthrough win for Bama to get to a Final four. So
again, I don't want to act like louis was about to be Alabama and
go on that kind of run, but it isn't crazy to think that they
could. They could have success right out of the gate, and maybe in
you know, four or five years time, like natoats, maybe Louisville finds
themselves breaking through. All right, there's more from Kelsey as far as the
Bahamas trip. I feel like he was strategically trying not to mention names specifically
when asked questions, and I think that was smart. I want, I
want to hear the I want to hear everything, but I think he's wanting
to keep guys motivated, not wanting to prop up one guy not the other.
But he did slip talking about one guy when it comes to leadership.
We'll talk about that. Lets you hear what he had to say and keep
this party rolling along. But what I want to do when we get the
four o'clock hour started, something we haven't done yet really at all, which
is talk about last night's Round one of the NBAH SO Stick with Us,
Don't go anywhere, keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety mm HM