It's time for coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's Nick Coffee. You know, sometimes the commercial breaks here
during the show are used for you know, I mean, obviously it's you
know, as they say in the radio business, paying the bills, but
it also you know, gives us a break to you know, reset that
kind of stuff. And sometimes it's going to get a drink. Sometimes it's
going to the restroom. Sometimes it's making a phone call, sometimes it's you
know, nothing. But today's been a day where each time we've gone to
commercial break, the majority of that time when you were hearing about the wonderful
partners that we have here at iHeart Louisville, John and I have just been
chopping it up like the show's not at break, and I actually that helps
me like that key, you know, that's that's good for the show because
you know, I'm excited as can be about Louisville basketball in the direction that
Pat Kelsey has this thing going in And obviously you know, we don't talk
much EU on here, but you know, it's nice to see John energize
because Mike Woodson brought back I mean to be fair, I would say,
and we're going to get to Louisville in just a second. But I was
just thinking about it because I'm looking here at transfer portal rankings as far as
players, and then looking at portal rankings as far as teams, and Indiana
has done a good job in adding guys, no doubt. But also I
mean I think, I mean, I think that when you look at everybody
they brought back, and you know the guys that they did lose, I
think Woodson couldn't have done much better as far as managing the roster before you
make additions. They brought back everybody they wanted. The only guy they lost
is a guy that's going to be a lottery pick, probably in khlill Ware.
So I mean, wouldn't be shocked if they're preseason top twenty team.
But that was actually what got our conversation going during the break is how would,
I mean, how are you going to put together a top twenty five
in college basketball with this current landscape? I mean, I mean, it's
always a guest regardless even before the portal, but like you know, even
teams that are I mean, I think you could put together top fifteen and
feel pretty good about it. But I think fifteen to twenty five would be
you're just assuming that, like you know, it's the ultimate guess. I
mean even the elite teams. Last year, I remember Michigan State was like
number two or number three, and they ended up finishing the season as an
eight or a nine seed and the NAA Tournament. So again, none of
it means jack squad. Look at Miami. It's legitimately just based on your
roster structure and how well that structure may get along. And most I mean
most cases, it's probably gonna be fine if they projected to do well,
but you obviously will have a few cases where it's not no doubt about it.
All right, it is coffee and company, and we are fueled by
Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us.
Let's just get right to it. For those that if not been keeping
up, it's been a busy, busy last twenty four hours on the Louisville
basketball roster tracking situation. We started with our we started most recent and then
worked our way back to start the show at three o'clock. Let's do the
let's do it. The other way, let's start, I guess with last
night and work our way forward, because yesterday it was Tis Spaulding, of
rivals, who I believe. I could be wrong, but I think tis
the one who first had it out there that Chucky Hepburn will be visiting Louisville
and he will be arriving on Wednesday night, which of course was last night.
So that's a big get. And I kept talking about Chucky Hepburn as
a guy that like, there's not a whole lot out there as far as
his situation, and what I mean by that is I mean not even truly,
not of it had like given a full like here's what's happening, here's
the four or five schools, here's the situation. He just hit the portal,
what a week ago or something like that, and it just seemed as
if Louisville was the school that was going to get him. There was no
scheduled visit that I saw, There was no connection between Hepburn and anybody at
Louisville on the staff. But he hit the portal and like it almost seemed
as if people knew that where, you know, I thought that's where he
was gonna go. Before he even hit the portal. So sure enough he
gets to Louisville last night lands at the airport and there were fans there to
greet him, as well as Pat Kelsey and some of his staffers. I
know, Peyton Siva was there, so you know, he got a Warren
welcome, and hopefully he's enjoying his visit in Louisville right now. He is
a really really good point guard, a guy that can run your team.
You know, he's not a he's not a combo guard. I mean,
I guess you could he could. You could put him off the ball and
he'd be fine. But to me, he's a guy who, uh he's
he's at his best when he's running your team. You know, for assists
per game last year none points. You know, didn't have a great year
shooting the ball from the three point line, but uh this he's in the
season before forty percent three point shooter. I mean, and really, you
know what he brings that maybe you could say is lacking with the other guys
they've added right now is defense. I mean, he's a really really good
defensive player. And you know, I know that Aj Storer sort of bea
you know, was the man if you will for Wisconsin this past year seventeen
points four rebounds. Also a guard kind of more of a wing. But
you know it was that backcourt duo of Store and Hepburn that honestly, you
know, Wisconsin being good early was like the head scratcher, you remember that,
John. We were looking at the Ken palm during the season thinking like,
wait a second, Wisconsin's like number eight. And they had a roller
coaster of a season. But you know, they were a good team throughout.
I mean, they made the tournament, you know, and didn't work
out well for him, they lost to James Madison, which they have.
If Hepburn ends up joining this Louisville roster, you know you'd have him going,
you know, him joining forces with a guy who was the big fight,
you know he was, I mean Terrence Edward Junior was the man in
that game in the round of sixty four when James Madison knocked off Wisconsin.
So the belief here is obviously that there's a lot of money. But man,
can we all just accept we don't know any Like, we don't know
what any of the money actually is because we say a lot of money,
you know, chasing the bag and if a guy's lead, like, for
example, Greg Gard, that's Wisconsin's coach. By the way, did you
hear what Greg Gard had to say about this? I saw there was some
people tweeting about this earlier this afternoon. Yeah, I mean, he doesn't
blame him, but also you know, I mean, I know, I'll
just play it for you, guys. I've seen this landscap coming. I
mean, this isn't this isn't a surprise to anybody and anybody that I'm not
mad at anybody because or specifically Chucky and AJ. If anybody in their right
mind told any of you guys or Dallas that you could go triple your income
by taking you a different job, you'd do it in a heartbeat, no
questions asked. And so for a variety of reasons, I yeah, did
we all not want to see him go? Yeah? Of course, love
so that that didn't sound bad, right, Like that didn't mean, yeah,
he didn't say anything wrong. But you know, coaches can say that
to justify losing a player, and nobody will ever know if they're telling the
truth or not. Triple is nil maybe, but probably not because I don't
believe any of these numbers that are out there are legitimate and I said it
many times. It's a pretty obvious way to look at it. So it's
not as if I'm claiming I had this you know this, you know,
this takeaway from this situation that nobody else could come up with. But if
the player is believed to have gotten a million dollars, that looks good on
the player. If the school is believed to have paid, right, I
guess the nil collective, whoever it is, those that are you know,
working to get money to the players for the school, if they got a
million dollars for this guy, that makes them look good, like they've got
the big pockets. So, you know, it's such an unknown and I
do think that context, you know, would be a little you know,
would I mean, not only are we nosy and interested, but like I
do think he would help you kind of under stand maybe why guys are doing
this and that. But at the end of the day, I mean,
I guess that doesn't technically matter. But again, the money thing is is
probably never going to be transparent, and we may have, oh, eight
million dollars for this guy, like no way, but people just run with
it and say it, and it's you know, it's crazy because that's what
everybody's doing with with Jayden Quayn. So we're gonna get to him in just
a minute. But anyways, CHUCKI Epburn, he's leaving to get more money
and Louisville apparently has it, and hopefully he commits to Louisville because he'd be
a big time edition. So he arrived last night visiting right now. But
I think I saw that one of the one of the college basketball outlets has
him as the fourth best guard available in the portal. So a big time
edition, no doubt. And there was an addition to the roster earlier today
that is I mean, I want to say big man, but he's not
a big man. I mean he plays like it with his stats and he's
got you know, he can jump out of the gym. He's built like
a I mean, I wouldn't call him a little man to his face.
I mean this guy is built like a I mean like a UFC heavyweight fighter.
Uh. Cater trey o A is his name. Abubakar is his legal
name, but he goes by Cater. If you look at him, if
you go look at you know how he was referenced at at at Long Beach
State as well as as well as the you know, social media profiles for
him. So this is the six to five guy who just a flat out
productive player in every way. Uh twelve points, eight boards, four and
a half assists, one point six steals, and you know, about a
block and a half per game. He's six' five. He's a good
passer. I mean again, I watched highlights and I'm gonna post some of
them a little bit later if you haven't seen him. These are ones that
came from like the actual Long Beach State, like social media stuff. So
it's actually you know more, you know, it's not just film from you
know, his games. But he had a triple double in the Big West
Tournament. I mean, he had twelve double doubles last year. Big time
athlete. His motor doesn't stop. Can do a little bit of everything,
a good you know, a good defensive press. It's no doubt. Man,
I love this guy's game. So he is somebody that I, you
know, once I just saw what he brings to the table. Again,
he's not maybe a superstar, but I mean he's got again a motor that
just doesn't stop. He's freakishly athletic, he's strong as can be. Here,
I am describing him like he's like he's a basketball player created in a
laboratory, like you created him in a video game or something like that.
That's not what I mean. But I mean because again, he his weakness
is right. He's not a great ball handler, certainly not a good shooter.
You go look at his numbers. He doesn't shoot many threes. But
I say this all the time, and I don't know why it isn't said
more. Maybe people don't agree. And that's fine. Knowing who you are
as a basketball player is an absolute strength. It is a trait that a
lot of guys don't have. Right. This is somebody who knows who he
is as a player and does not veer away from that. He wants to
defend, he wants to block shots, he wants to run the floor.
You know. He he knows he can't shoot threes, so a lot of
times he will force the issue when they're there him to shoot and then you
know, show his vision and drop a dime. I mean, he's a
really good player. And there's not any of these guys yet that you could
claim are you know, the best player in the portal obviously, Terrence Edwards
Junior is ranked as the fifteenth best player I think the nineteenth best player now
in the portal by the Athletic and I think he will be, you know,
a big time guy for you. But the other guys, I mean,
it's not like I'm saying that, you know, you just landed a
future All American, but just a really good piece. And I think you
can have and we've seen it in recent years, like you can have really
really good teams that make deep runs in the tournament that maybe don't have an
absolute superstar, a guy that's average in twenty three a night, but you
know, good players that that work well together, they play you know,
a specific style system and you know that's what Pat Kelsey's building right now.
All right, So this this is something I wanted to share really quickly on
Trey Ora the Long Beach State transfer because this is this is a little bit
nerdy as far as just throwing numbers at you, but I think it's I
think it sounds impressive. You'll kind of give you some context to just how
productive this guy is and really just how rare he is. So this is
from the best wager on Twitter. So among players six' five or shorter
in college basketball. He led the country in block percentage. It's pretty impressive.
Right as far as guys six' five or shorter, only five players
in college basketball dunked the ball more times. Only ten players in college basketball
six' five or shorter had more offensive rebounds than him, I think,
and again, thank you to whoever runs the best Wager Twitter account, because
that is I mean that that is really putting in perspective. I think just
how rare this guy is. He plays very big for his size, with
his length and athleticism, he's an above the rim guy. I mean,
I love this. I love this edition. But again, I know,
once I get to really discussion over these players, you know, it's you
know, it seems as if I'm acting as if Louisville's just built the dream
team. But let me be excited, right, this is it's been a
long time coming, all right. So speaking of excited, this was actually
we'll be led with the start the show. So Jaden Quaint's the five star
Top ten player that visited Louisville last week. There was certainly a lot of
talk of him in the last couple of weeks, and here's how this thing
has played out. Louisville got a visit, the first visit since he decommitted
from Kentucky, and the expectation with that he was going to keep his options
open and that Arkansas was probably going to be the school to be because you
know, he'd followed Cali Perry and apparently Cala Perry's got all the money with
Jerry Jones and everybody else. Well, he just decided to not visit there
and remove them from consideration. He's not going to follow Calt Arkansas. Then
we found out that Memphis was going to get a visit this weekend, and
that Kentucky was going to get involved as well, and Mark Pope was going
to do an in home visit with him. Well, it turns out that
in home visit did not happen, got canceled, and Kentucky's not in the
mix. Well, now we found out, we found out earlier today that
he's not visiting Memphis anymore. And you have folks that cover college basketball,
you know, those that have a crystal Ball prediction for twenty four to seven
sports and the one, the only Trilli Donovan. They're now saying that they
you know, and again this doesn't. This is really just an educated guest
from a lot of guys. But I do trust Trilli Donovan as somebody that
wouldn't just say he thinks that Jaden Quaint's is going to Louisville if he didn't
truly think that, Like he's not. This isn't for engagement or clicks or
anything like that. This is just you know him. And that's one of
the things I do find very beneficial about someone like Chili Donovan. You know
his persona right, Trillly Donovan, not his real name, like it's a
brand. And you know, he has an insane amount of people that do
pay for his discord, which my man's making money. Good for him,
he's monetizing you know, this whole thing that he probably never thought would happen.
But where where he really stands to keep climbing and being maybe you know,
the industry leader in breaking news about college baskets bsketball is to get it
right and you know, to be consistent, and he's done that. You
know, he's got some stuff wrong before, so is everybody else. But
you know, him saying that he thinks that Jadan Quayn's is going to come
to Louisville makes me think that jayden Quain's sure enough is going to come to
Louisville, which again it's you know, I don't want to get my hopes
up. It's not happened. Yeah, but I'm at the point now and
I said this earlier, there's no stopping me from getting my hopes up now
because it's just the way this thing has has developed. Now something else we've
discussed. But for those of you that just now joining us the whole,
you know, it's just it's a weird position to be in as a Louisville
fan to think that, like you're potentially going to get a top ten player,
but like the reaction from others is not going to be like cheating or
you know, damn how about Pat Kelsey. It's going to be like,
huh, look at those suckers paying all that money for that player, which
again, like that's just jealousy, is what that is. Because any program
in the country would take him in any fan, if any program in the
country would be just fine if they paid whatever to get him, they would.
I mean that that's that's not you can't deny that he's that good of
he's that he's a top ten player that something could be the number one pick
in the twenty twenty six NBA draft. So that's a new I forgot what
that felt like, right to kind of have, you know, the envy
of some others. When's last time somebody envied Louisville basketball. It's been a
while, hasn't it. I mean been a while. And they'll be there'll
be people very envious of this commitment if it, in fact, in fact
happens. They won't say it, but they will be. You know,
what else happened last night, John that I kind of think I'll remember forever.
What wasn't like it was the first time I wanted to, you know,
kind of you know, just come unhinged on on Twitter defending my coach.
Oh yeah, because the Chucky Heaburn new was broke, and you know,
Wisconsin fans are sad they lost stores and hepburn and they claim it's,
you know, only because of money, which I'm sure money is a factor,
but that's gonna be the easy excuse for everybody. Fans. Oh yeah,
they just love for money. They're they're back chasing. There's nothing wrong
with that. Yeah. And then coaches, though coaches can always blame it
on that and then say, well, hey, you know you got more
money. I mean, I you gotta get more money, right, Like
what are coaches doing when they leave one job for another for more money?
Trust me, I know, but that's just how some people cope with it,
right. But somebody had responded to the Hepburn news that he was visiting
Louisville and saying, wow, leaving Wisconsin to go and play for College of
Charleston's old coach. And I jumped up off the couch like, hope,
I see this, guynna check him. Put him in his place instead,
I just you know, use Twitter and and you know, said yeah,
because everybody probably would love to line up and play for Greg Guard, Like
come on now, like you could be jealous about Louisville having the money to
get players in Louisville being a more attractive spot right now than you know,
Wisconsin. But I mean, wasn't their talk that Greg gard was interested in
the Louisville job last time it was open he was, so I mean he
should understand. Yeah, well they did, but they didn't take a shot
at you know, I mean they're taking a shot at Pat Kelsey not.
Oh yeah, And I don't like that, all right. I don't like
that. I mean, I know he's still new to this level of college
basketball, but you know, there's a lot of coaches. I'll just you
know, I could understand. But Greg Guard, Come on, what's Greg
Guard ever done? I means Greg Guard ever made it to the second weekend?
It's a good question. I mean, he's had good teams. What
have they ever done? So anyways, let's take a quick break. I
believe we're gonna be chatting on the other side with the one the only doctor,
Larry Ben's of pro Rihea physical therapy, and we'll keep this thing rolling
along. Also, we'll get to some draft stuff later because it is Day
one of the NFL Draft. I'm a draft nerd myself, looking forward to
it tonight. You always see some nonsense that happens during the draft, some
of the coverage. Twitter becomes a really wild place during the draft. So
looking forward to that. Don't go anywhere. It's cofee company. We are
field abou Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. It's right coffee and
company. Feel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety Thanks for hanging out
with us. Don't forget you could take us with you wherever you go.
Listen live on the out Radio WEP Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot Com.
We now bring in a special guest. It's doctor Larry Binns of pro
Rea Physical Therapy. Larry, I'll start with just making sure you're you're keeping
up. It's busy, it's hectic, But how about this momentum for Pat
Kelsey and his staff hit the ground running, putting a team together pretty quickly
here. Yeah, he absolutely is. But in a way it's surprising,
but not surprising. He's got a lot of energy. He's not gonna let
the grass grow underneath his feet there, and he is. He's a man
that you wanted the job. He understands. I mean, just look last
year at college at Charleston, what he did very similar. He lost all
his starters and everything else the year before, had to figure out an NIL
program there, brought in a whole new team. And you know, frankly,
that's one of the reasons why he's here at Littleville right now. He's
already done this, yep, no doubt about it. And over time,
you know, it's only been roughly a month since he's been here as the
coach, and there's a lot of things we knew right out of the gate.
There's some other things that I've picked up on since, and one of
those is that to recruit at the level of college at Charleston and Winthrop,
you know, you're recruiting a humongous pool of similar players, right because the
bigger fish obviously go to the bigger programs. So to be able to find
guys that fit, you know, in a big pool, find guys who
fit with what you want to do, don't necessarily worry as much about where
they're ranked, and that kind of stuff. Actually think you can really tell
a lot about a guy's ability to recruit when you are consistently successful at that
level. And now he's recruiting with a different logo on his shirt, with
some resources by his side, and it's coming together very nicely. No,
it absolutely is. And I think the thing that is most impressive about him
is he's got a discipline and a rigor on how he does it. You
know, he has said publicly, you know, the portal giveth and the
portal taketh, and he has a certain criteria or data set or data analytics
of you know, four or five things that you know I would call proprietary
that he looks for and if they don't meet that criteria, or if they
have four out of five rather than five out of five, you know,
he's not going to waste his time. So I don't quite know what those
criterias and in my business, but it obviously is very meaningful to him,
and you know it's already paying off, and uh, you know, it's
fun to see. And you know, I was a little disappointed that Mike
James is not coming back to Louisville. I thought he was just a tremendous
leader, a tremendous kid. But you know, the flip side of all
that is organizationally. You know, I'm in the business. You know,
we buy a lot of companies and we do a lot of transactions. I
think we've done eighty some in the last you know, eight years. And
you buy something good, sometimes you buy something medium, sometimes you buy something
bad at times, and I could tell you when you buy something that has
been underperforming, I'll just use that term. You tend to want to redo
the entire organization. You get the scent the culture and everything out of there
and you bring in your own. And that is to me, the most
us a thing that I've seen him do is just take a command position that
we're going to do things the way we want to do them, the way
we've had success. And our success transports from these colleges like Winthrope, then
Kyl's Charleston and University of Louisville. Lar You mentioned, you know, his
his criteria, you know the factors that really matter to him when it goes
you know, it comes to making decisions building a roster, and that reminded
me one of the one of the guys I talked to that had worked alongside
Pat at one point in their career. I was just getting thoughts on him,
and one of the things they emphasized was organized. And I'm thinking,
okay, that's that's obviously a good thing, but you know, what does
that really mean for a basketball coaches? It practice routine, But it sounds
like everything he does as far as his system is philosophy. It's very organized,
very structured, and they don't seem to take much time off, which
again Louisville fans already seeing the benefit of that. But let's let's shift gears
here to the Kentucky Derby. Next week we'll have Derby one fifty. And
I know each time Derby's come up during our conversations we talk about some of
the you know, the jockey, the jockey injuries and things like that,
and I wanted to refresh folks, just because you know, jockeys, you
know, they're a big part of this stuff, right, and you know,
they get they get injured, they get banged up. What would you
say is one of the more common injuries you see from a jockey that has
been doing this for many, many years. And it may not be because
you know, maybe they fell off the horse or you know, something crazy,
but just you know, kind of wear and tear on their body,
right, they go through it just like other athletes, you know, absolutely,
So let's unpack this a bit. You know a lot of times,
in fact, we say this in business, it's not the horse, it's
the jockey. It's the one guiding and leading. And you know, back
to basketball for a minute. We certainly got a jockey that right now we're
very proud of. And the work ethic and the mission, the passion,
the hunger, the drive is very impressive and the jockey community they have to
maintain a certain weight, so that has a whole set of consequences in its
own and then on top of that the wear and tear. You know,
if anybody has ever had the experience of riding any simulated, you know,
horse, they can understand that there's vibration and bouncing and the combination of those
two creates a lot of what we call cumulative trauma injuries, which is the
you know, sudden, sub maximum, repetitious way that your bones and ligaments
and muscles and things tend to wear down. And so a lot of if
you ask me what they're common injury outside of trauma, which is obviously fall
of the horse, all kinds of things can happen, but from a you
know, what's the most at risk and that is just the general wearing away
of their joints, particularly their knee and ankle. We've seen some shoulder stuff,
that is, we've rehabbed a lot of total shoulder injuries and jockeys.
And then you know, lastly, they have this weight issue that forces them
to you know, stay within a certain discipline relative to nutrition and maintaining that
weight. It's not an easy profession at all. So when it comes to
maintaining the weight. And forgive me for asking what is probably a stupid question.
I'm just not somebody that is super in formed on the sport of horse
racing. You know, our jockeys, I mean, are they are they
Are they you know, active in races throughout the entire year? Is it
more of a you know, non month thing, because I'm just curious about
when it comes to the nutrition and the weight, you know, having to
maintain. I'm just curious. Is it is it a thing that's just year
round or maybe you know, they have some time off and then they have
a certain amount of time where they realize they've got to you know, they
got to do their the work on their end to make sure they're back at
the way they need to be at. Yeah, it's a very that's a
that's a good question. And what I would tell you it's not monolithic at
all. It really is a function of where they rate, you know,
on the chart of how much money they make. That makes sense, you
know, they get paid according to you know, their their their winnings and
there's very few sports where the main driver is not the you know, the
proletariat is not the main money maker, and so horse racing is one of
those remnants we have where so many it's the eighty twenty rule. Twenty percent
of the jockeys make eighty percent of the dollars, and so they will go
to track to track and seasonality depending on on, you know, how much
money to make. The flip side of that is, if they get really
really good, they're paid to ride less and makes it a chance to pick
their horses, and they get a chance to, you know, in many
cases, pick their owners. And then you have the dynamic between the owners
and the jockey, which is very interesting because certain owners like certain jockeys,
and certain jockeys are you know, they're all independent contractors. They're not employed,
so they can ride whoever the heck they want, and some of them
are more loyal to certain owners who've been more loyal to them. So that's
actually one of the things that I pay attention to, is that sort of
the dynamic, the relationship management between between jockey and owner. And so therefore,
to your point, they will are more susceptible to injuries the more obviously
that they race. If you look at some of the careers of you know,
the older jockeys, some of them who were retired, the Ron Triquettes
of the world of the Secretariat, I know he was in town this week.
And you look at Gary Stevens and you see when they're younger, they're
a race all the time. The number of mounts that they have in a
given year, and it tends to obviously decrease, is they have more winnings
and decrease as they get over. Doctor Larry Ben's of Proria Physical Therapy is
our guests joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety. So the mini marathon
coming up. In fact, I say mini marathon because that's the only race.
There's a full marathon too, but I've only done it twice and it
was the Many, not the full marathon. But a lot of folks train,
you know, year round for this. Maybe they just stay and shape
their active runners. And there's others that you know, maybe it's once every
four or five years they decide to do it, and you know, there's
a lot of training that goes into it. I think a lot of folks
who do the Many will do the races before then they kind of, you
know, ease you into the much longer race at the end here. So
I just don't know if there's a possibility that anybody could do this and not
be sore the next day. Maybe it's those that just you know, can
do this kind of stuff in their sleep. But you know, for those
that you know, aren't, you know, aren't this isn't something that they've
done for years. Maybe maybe this is their first time they're going to be
sore, I would imagine. But for those who have to go to work
on Monday, they can't just lay around and rest any any tips for those
that you know that you know, we're going to hope to be back to
normal as soon as possible. Easier said than done, of course, no,
absolutely. So it's interesting, you know, Louisville, the state of
Kentucky, to my knowledge, has now narrowed the number of marathons they have
to this particular one. If you remember, there used to be one in
the fall. I ran in it one year. Used to meet over there
at the the VA Hospital and office orn and that was a fun one because
it wasn't many people in and most of the people in from out of state.
You know, you've got so many of these crazies that are trying to
do one marathon in every state, and some are trying to do one in
every country in Europe, and if you had those numbers up, it's well
over one hundred. Wow. So you get all kinds to your question.
Some are very experienced marathon ers, so they know how to train, and
then they get to a point where they know how to survive after the marathon,
which is why you see the you know, the wraps that they place
themselves in keep their bodies warm, and then you've got to go into ice
and you've had to do ice baths all the time for the next you know,
several hours on and off for the next you know, call it eight
to twelve hours. The amateurs that do it are actually quite more five because
they're more likely, as you said, to do the mini and the training
for these is now sort of you know, there's been enough research that people
know how to train for them. You do, you know, you build
up to five miles, and then every other week you go up two miles
until you know, you get to the point of the mini marathon about three
weeks before it, you do let's say eleven miles or ten miles. You
never technically go to the thirteen point one. That's the formula. So if
you're a marathon training, you might get up to seventeen miles, but then
the day of the marathon, you're going to you know, you're going to
the twenty four miles. So it's really it's really a proven formula because they
never run that full distance until the day of the mini or the marathon.
And I'm talking about the average person here, not the elite runner. They're
going to be sore to your point, and they need to go into a
cryotherapy booth, a tent, whatever the case may be. And not only
on the physical part of it, but on the internal medicine part of it.
They need to make sure they recarb you know. That's why Perogi's and
all these kind of things are very very common. They carb before it,
they carve after, and then they have their reserves and so it's and that's
not something to just monitor that that's really important right now. Absolutely, And
what's fascinating is, you know, you see all kinds of body shapes in
marathon, like as many and I encourage everybody in the city of Louisville has
just absolutely supported this event. Is always my favorite run was always a mini
marathon because of the support of the Louisville community. But you see the body
sizes of all types. But it just goes to show you that anybody could
do it with the proper training. But you better carb load beforehand, you
better have prepared and followed a pretty good formula because marathon running and long distance
running suffers what we call the too many too many's, too hard, too
much, too often, and too much compounding pressure, and the combination of
them causes all kinds of aches, pain, spraying, and strains, and
people want to just you know, respect that they can take an anti inflammatory
and maybe a little bit of ice. No, that's not it at all.
You really really have to be thoughtful. There's a lot of sports medicine
crew out there that are sponsors of the races and that we'll do massages and
that we'll oversee people's health after they cross the finish line. But it is
a site. It looks like they're gonna have great weather for it. You
know, you want to be cool. You want to be in the in
the forties when they start, hopefully, and that plays a big bearing as
well, because you have the whole dehydration element. You couldn't have said it
better. I uh, not just the you know, the mini marathons that
I've ran, but you know, I've done the ten miler that's a part
of the Triple Crown. I mean, that's probably my favorite race just through
the course of what it is. And you know, I'd be humbled to
feel like I had a really good time and see somebody that is a lot
older than me, a lot larger than me, and they kicked my ass.
Man, they beat me by you know, two minutes per mile maybe,
which you know, it's you're right, and if you train for it
and you're prepared and it's become something you have a lot of rep set and
you know you can you can do it, all right. One more question
for you, Larry before we let you go, and I appreciate your time
as always. When it comes to these college basketball college well really just college
athletics programs out there, when they take on a player, whether be a
transfer or a high school kid, obviously you know you're going to do your
standard physicals like everybody gets. But how often do you see, you know,
a medical evaluation kind of request that appears to be really one that they
want to make sure everything's okay. Not just your standard that you have to
have, but a program, a coach wants to make sure that before they
take on this player as a commit that they have a good bill of health
and that their injury history is not, you know, more severe than they've
been led to believe. Now that's a great question. So let's contrast it
with professional sports. So when somebody goes through a trade, it almost always
has the proviso subject to them passing a physical right the NCAA for a variety
of reasons, and some of these are well thought through. They don't have
a standard physical that an athlete has to pass. It's left to each institution
to kind of do their own thing. And you also have to remember these
student athletes are not employees of the university, so they have no workers comp
coverage, and that's got its own set of issues. And I think we've
talked about a little bit of that on your show. But now you throw
at IL and now you throw a third party, a collective by way of
example, or a vendor, you know, a commercial business that says I
am going to contract and pay this amount of money. In theory, they
can make whatever demands they want. You know, they set up whatever payment
terms. A lot of people are a little bit misinformed on this because generally,
you know, now it's the wild West. But you can set your
contract terms anyway you want. You can say we're only going to pay you
this through the three or four or five months that you play and practice,
versus thinking that you know they're getting a steady paycheck. They're an independent contractor,
you're a contractor. You could set the terms of that and in theory
to your point, Nick, and I think you'll see some of this.
You know, you got a place like Memphis putting in five million dollars a
year for five years. I mean, you would think they'd want to have
some parometers. Sure, parameters are around physicals, whether or not a kid
is physically equipped to them. It'll set up a crazy dynamic between the university,
the athletic department and a vendor. But you know, this is just
kind of the nebulous, crazy, you know world that we're living in right
now. Larry is always appreciate the time, great conversation as always, and
enjoy the rest of your day and we will talk soon. My friend,
absolutely, go cards, Go cards. That's doctor Larry Benn's pro re have
physical therapy, good stuff. As always, quick Break will come back and
wrap up the four o'clock hour, keep the party rolling along here, Coffee
and company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Not much time left
here as we wrap up the four o'clock hour, but we are going to,
as always, try to finish strong here with one more hour to go
and a loaded text line that I've neglected, so I will get to those
techs coming up here in the five o'clock hour, and the excitement that I
have for Louisville basketball just seeing this roster come together, and really, more
than anything, as much as I think these players are going to be good
additions and really give Pat Kelsey a chance to have a great start to his
hopefully very long tenure here at Louisville, I think the root of Louisville fans,
myself included, the root of the happiness here is just that it's you
forgot what it was like. I mean, it's I think it's a recognizable
feeling, but man, it had been a while, been a long time,
and this maybe this isn't part of it because it's just so far gone,
But you know this is the first time you can actually, I mean
in previous years when Louisville would really have momentum and put something together, right,
you got a good team coming back. You you know, you brought
in a really good class. You know, you brought back the like I
think the last time Louisville basketball felt really, really, really good entering a
season was the obvious twenty nineteen twenty season when MAC had them ranked number one
in the country for a little while. And you know, make no mistake
about it, that team will be a forgotten team due to a variety of
reasons, the pandemic, no postseason, and I think the MAC era honestly
will kind of go down as a blur. You know, there were some
really good moments throughout there, but I mean, it'll kind of just be
a blur. So that season, though, I mean, Louisville was preseason
number three, number four, depending on where you looked, and we felt
justified because again at that point, the reason Louisville was looked at to be
so good was because they brought I mean, you get they brought back their
entire team that was pretty good and kind of overachieved in year one and then
you bring in a good transfer in fresh Kimball and then if you remember that
class, I believe, yeah, the class with I mean, it's wild
how all those guys kind of finished their careers, but that class was the
top ten class with David Johnson, Jalen Withers, Sam Williamson, those guys.
So you know, that's the last time there was an offseason where managers
felt awesome. But even then, well, I mean, I can't speak
for anybody but myself, but even then, knowing how awesome that was and
just how great it, well, I think the the surprise feeling there was
that we just didn't really know how life would be without Patino. Well,
then within a couple of years of Patino being gone, Louisville was in really
good shape. So you know, it was almost like you didn't expect to
feel that good early on in that tenure, and it was great. But
even throughout that great time, in the back of my mind, it was
hard to ignore it. Every now and then that you felt like you had
a big punishment coming right death penalty, which was never realistic. But I'd
say most lovel fans felt like there was at least going to be a postseason
band that was handed down to you, so that just you know that weigh
in on you here and there could get in the way of your joy.
And then of course she got you know, I mean, wasn't a postseason
band that n SAA gave you, but you know, the obvious ending of
the mac era and then Kenny Payne experience, so like, it's really been
a long time where you can just dream big without having to worry about things
out of your control. So they're not close to finishing the roster just yet,
but so far, so good, and it just feels nice to be
excited like this again, and and you know it'd be justified. Now maybe
some would say it's not justified. You guys are losing your mind. When
I say you guys, I mean I guess UK fans talking about little fans.
But that's fine, you know. That's why I really do think that
despite both teams being in a similar situation with a new coach, that in
it. You know, if you'd have told each fan base six weeks ago
there's going to be a new coach, all of us on both sides would
have lost our minds if you told us it would be kat Pat Kelsey for
Louisville Mark Pope for Kentucky. Right, So that's a similar situation there,
building an entirely new team, similar situation there, But the big difference is
that Kentucky, fortunately for them, have had success recently. They just got
bounced in the tournament and they've you know, their standard had fallen a little
bit. But let's be real. I mean they were a three They were
a three seed this year. So Pope maybe he has that good of a
year, but like, there's not gonna be a they're gonna be an adjustment
period where they're gonna just be patient. They'll be more patient with Pope than
they would others because you know, he's Mark Pope and he's one of their
own. But with Louisville, like Pat Kelcey, I mean, he's not
only going to substantially eclipse the win total for Kenny Payne in his one season
that Kenny had in two, but I mean the bar like the bar's low.
Like things that we wouldn't put it this way, things that we would
never used to get excited about, We're gonna get way more excited about than
we ever, than than we thought possible, because it's just been so long
since. When was the last time Louisville played a really good game against a
decent team in one and look good doing it? And it happened, you
know, at a time you know where the season wasn't already shot. So
good vibes, no doubt. Our number five on the way will keep the
good vibes rolling along. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thorton's that' say
our number five, you did our number three. See I'm losing my mind.
It's what's happening here. It's our number three. It's the five clock
hour next Hm