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 do this hour
number three here, the five o'clock hour on a Thursday afternoon. Coffee and
company. That is us, fueled by Thornton's on a Sports Talk seven ninety
Nick coffee. That's me the company man, mister John Alden alongside. And
if you remember yesterday, I tried to give everybody a reminder. I think
most people know this. Now. Mother's Day always very busy for restaurants,
but it is in fact the busiest day of the year for restaurants. So
I mean, make make arrangements now. But I think again, even if
you make arrangements, I feel like you could still probably end up having to
wait because or maybe if you're making arrangements now, like for reservations, maybe
maybe you can't do it. But I just I'm sure there are people that
are going to sho up at a restaurant or for lunch, maybe dinner and
pull actually they're gonna pull in the park line just leave because they're gonna see
how crowded it is. And I'm such a child when it comes to eating,
like I I can be satisfied with like McDonald's, Like I don't eat
that very often, but like I won't wait very long anywhere at least if
it's my call, just because I can, I can be satisfied with the
different place that I don't have to wait that. Like I love food like
anybody else, right, I mean people love eating. I love eating.
I mean I have favorite foods. But like nothing is that's just my personality.
I suppose, like there's not No, it's not many places I would
that I would say, okay, our wait, but I can go next
door and it's nothing. Uh yeah, I'm gonna wait an hour, Like
it's just Nothing's that good to me? What's your maximum that you'll wait for
anything? Oh gosh, if it's me, I mean, let's just say
it's you and your wife going out for just a date night. What's the
longest you'll wait for anything? Well, it's a trick question because if we
went somewhere just the two of us, she picked where we went. So
therefore, like it's her call how long we're waiting, because it's not I'm
not the reason we're there, you know what I mean. But if it's
I don't know honestly, if I'm gonna wait if they tell me the waits
fifteen to twenty minutes or twenty to thirty minutes. Here's what it comes down
to. I actually because I can be like again, I can find something
I like, because I'm such a basic eater. It's about atmosphere. If
there's a good atmosphere and like it's you know, I'm you know, looking
to catch the vibe essentially and have a good evening with you know, drinks,
dinner with friends, or just my wife. Then I would wait for
that, especially if I can go get a drink while I wait or something
like that. But if I've got my kids and we have to wait different
ballgame. I mean, it's hard enough to keep them entertained with tablets at
dinner, but if we're in the if we're in the waiting room or the
area where and that's another part of it, Like if you have a you
have like we give you an example. They have a free plug for this
place that I don't go to that often, but when we do go,
I mean it's it's one of our favorite places. Is It's a hibachi place
called Saki Blue. They used to have no waiting area like nowhere when you're
packed in there like sardines. Well they've done some expansion and cleared out of
space to where now they actually have a decent sized area with a bar,
to where I can now stomach a long wait there, because one, I
love the place, but also like it's not it's it's not as uncomfortable.
What about you, Like, are you someone that I feel like just just
guessing you won't wait anywhere? No, it depends on what it is.
I'll do thirty to forty five. I can. I can get by without
complaining, and especially if we're with a group, like I'm not going to
be the guy that says, oh, we gotta get out. Yeah,
I'm not going to be that that ass you know what I mean, I've
done that before. Not to be like, not to be like all the
hell with this, I'm leaving you guys, enjoy this. But I'll be
the guy that will it's just my impatience and my weirdness. I'll be the
guy that'll like, well, you know, just a block over, they've
got this place. Now, I'll do that. That's that's fair. I've
done that before. So again, just remember though, if your mother wants
to go there, and there's a long wait, and she's willing to wait.
Then you're gonna wait, and that's what you should do. It's mother's
Day, it's their day. So just keep that in mind, fellas.
All right, before we get into the you know, the stuff we're supposed
to talk about. Sports. A survey here that tells us how close Americans
are with their mothers. I'm gonna read it here. It says nearly half,
which is forty eight percent of the two thousand Americans that were pulled,
wish they were closer to their moms. It makes me sad. While forty
six percent see their moms at least once a week. The most common ways
people bond with their mothers are by sharing life updates, celebrating holidays and milestones
together, and sharing both positive and negative emotions. The things people are least
likely to do with their mothers is ask for advice, engage in shared interests,
and give physical affection. See I can't, I can't really relate to
that. I mean, I see my mom at least once a week.
And it's funny, we were weren't even not just talking about this like a
day ago to days ago ago. Because I see my mom at least once
a week and it and it's mostly because well and I'll never know, but
it's because of my kids. My mom is you know, very close with
my children. Both my parents are, and you know, they make it
a point. And I probably take this for granted, but like they make
it a point to come see my kids. Obviously I have a three year
old and an eight year old, Like they can't get in the car and
go see Grandma and and and whatnot, which which by the way, she's
got God not Grandma. But you know, so like that's something that not
only like do they I mean I assume they want to see me and my
wife and my sister too whenever they make those kind of trips to be around.
But it's it's great because I, you know, I get to see
my mom at least once a week. Usually sometimes we're maybe two weeks to
go by, but like when my son has a baseball game or my daughter
is a baseball game, or even like if my nephew has a has a
basketball game, like we'll kind of all be there together as a family.
So that's not really like spending like a lot of time together but it's you
know, seeing my parents catching up, saying hello, that kind of stuff.
But also like I'll I mean, i'll I see my mom sometimes without
my without my kids, like we'll go to lunch or something, or I'll
go over her house and see her. So that's kind of always been that
way, like my whole life. I don't know if I would be called
I would I don't know. I think I've been called a mama's boy by
my wife before, but I don't know if she just says that because maybe
you know, I'm closer to my mom than than you know she is with
hers. But uh yeah, like I you know, if I if I
had like something really really like serious going on where I was scared, where
like you know, I had to be an adult, and like my wife,
I didn't want, you know, I didn't I didn't want to rely
on her to help me, I would call my mom. Like it's idding
till the day I die. I'll always have the instincts of like, all
crap, I don't know what to do. I'm gonna call my mom.
It's just what It's funny. That's what my wife does with her mother if
she if she has a question about something and for some reason, she doesn't
want to console me about her She might think that she can get better advice
from her mother. She will talk to her mom before me. See,
I think that's totally normal. But again I don't. Everybody's normal is different,
you know what I mean. Like there's probably there's probably very few things
I've ever discussed with my mom that like my wife doesn't know about, you
know what I mean. But and there's certain things I don't want to burden
my wife with, you know what I mean. Like that doesn't happen very
often, but like you know, like just give you scenario. If I
was considering taking a different job, I would obviously talk to my wife,
But before I would talk to my wife, I would want to talk to
my parents and see what they thought and discuss that and just because give them
my parents, Like that's there. I just think it's for most people.
And again maybe I'm wrong. I just think it's instincts just don't go away,
even when you become an adult and you have kids of your own,
Like it's just it's how it works with parents. I feel like I don't
like to ask parents for advice, And it's not because I think they give
me bad advice. I think there is a sense of pride in me.
It's probably not healthy honestly, to where I feel like I need to be
able to show them that I can handle things myself. Well, you are
you're I mean, you're at an age now where you mean that makes that
make sense because you are still relatively young in the world of like having a
mortgage, a full time job, of marriage, Like you're you're a young
adult. I am not, you know what I mean. So yeah,
and I have children, so like it's a little bit different. We're not
that far apart in age, but like our situations kind of are just because
of different stages of life, exactly different stages. So like I would never
want to burden my parents, and my parents would never want to burden me,
And I know that's not the case. And when I say burden,
I mean, like, you know, like sometimes it happens, but like
you know, ask for help that kind of stuff, like if I needed,
if I needed like some one of my parents to give me money so
I could feed my kids, Hopefully that never happens, like they would,
but just the thought of having to do that, I would never you know,
I would hate to be in that situation. So I don't know.
Everybody's different, right, like you know. Just I'm looking at this the
results from this survey. They've pulled two thousand people, and I'm kind of
like, yeah, like this doesn't really mean much to me, because again,
everybody's situation is different. Like my my wife as she's close, like
she has a good relationship with both of her parents, as do I,
but it's totally different, you know what I mean, Like she could not
talk to her parents maybe I don't know, for a week or something,
two weeks. Maybe maybe they text here and there, Like my dad calls
me every day just to talk, you know. So I'm more like your
wife and that I can go two or three weeks without talking to my mom,
and maybe that's too long. I think what we're discovering here is as
we as we chat, as I am a mama's boy, I think that's
what we've I think that's what we've uncovered here, just as out you know,
I mean, like you all don't like call your mom and cry like
when your favorite team loses. That's not normal. I'm kidding. I don't
do that. I will say this. I asked my mom to lunch tomorrow
and a lot of it because you good job. Yeah, I didn't want
to bring that up because I didn't know if you wanted to talk about that,
But yeah, that's good because that and you know, I don't know
if she's listening right now or if she ever listens, but like I would
be willing I've only met your mother once, but i'd be willing to bet
the fact that you just asked her to go to lunch probably was. She
was probably so happy to hear that. Not because she thinks, like that's
so out of that's so out of character for you, but like, you
know, that's good stuff. Man, that's good stuff. So I don't
get to go to lunch as much with my mom as I used to.
I could, but now that I'm on. When I was on in the
mornings, it was perfect because I could get the shit done and you know,
run some errands and but now, like she goes to lunch at one
and it just would put it a little tight as far as time to get
you know, ready for the show. So but we're looking I'm gonna we're
gonna go have have brunch at her house on Sunday, looking forward to that.
So hopefully everybody has you know, I know, obviously a lot of
folks may not have their parents anymore of their mother and that's very sad.
But I hope you have a mother in your life in some way, right,
like even if it's not your mother or even a grandmother, but like
if your wife's some mother or you know, even my sister, like she's
we're gonna hang out with her on Mother's Day too, she's a mom.
So anyways, let's uh, let's I'm gonna kind of go back here to
the beginning of the show just to catch some folks up on some of the
things we discussed a little a little earlier. I know we usually have a
different audience from the three o'clock hour to the five o'clock hour. But the
transfer portal and the nil like, that's been a huge talking point for I
mean years now, a couple of years now, right especially this time of
year, whenever guys are hitting the portal and you got to have nil resources
to get them. And I've always said that I believe that the number you
hear for a lot of players is exaggerated. And I've said many times I
think it's just because it's a mutually beneficial arrangement as far as optics and perception.
If you are the school that everybody's seeing, damn, they're going to
pay two million for that guy. That's a good look on you. That's
going to have more players in the portal wanting to come and play for you
because they want your money. If you're the player that has that price tag
and schools are willing to pay it, or at least it's perceived that way
that by definition, if it's real, which it's not, is your value.
So there's no transparency, there's probably never going to be, and to
be honest with you, it's really not our business to be. I mean,
I don't think I'm entitled to know how much a college kids making through
ANIL. I'd be interested, I'd be nosy, but like I don't,
I'm not entitled to that. So the athletic their crew did a really good
job of putting together a piece. It was Kyle Tucker, CJ. Moore,
and Brendan Marx that the title is how much are men's college basketball transfers
really getting paid? And there are insiders they spoke to that from what I
understand, these are people who are involved in the inil world, meaning like
agents or actually people who work for a collective, or people who have a
lot of money and they have a lot of love for a certain school and
they want to help them out, so they talk to a variety of different
people. Of course, they did not name them, And maybe I choose
to believe this because it does make it seem as if I was maybe you
know, right about it, but I think, you know, I trust
the reporting of these guys and these numbers again, like it's still a lot
of money to someone like myself, but you know, it's not two million,
two and a half million or one point eight million for the vast majority
of these players. But the schools that this time right now in college basketball,
by the way, this is college basketball only, not football. I
wish we had, but I believe the same thing in football as far as
the number being just exaggerated. But right now, one of the sources that
they talked to and quoted in this story, Baylor, Arkansas, Louisville,
Indiana, Alabama, and Kentucky are the biggest spenders this free Agenciason, which
again I think makes total sense because you know, Bama. Bama made a
Final four. They will support basketball when it's good and they're rolling right now.
Indiana since day one has had a lot of in IL money. I
mean, it seems to be kind of quiet usually, but sure enough,
anytime this comes up, Indiana has always always mentioned as it's as a school
that has that has resources, and I mean that's how they got McKenzie and
Baco last year, that's how they got Ballo this year. I mean they
have resources, which again is needed. And then Kentucky and Louisville obviously those
are big, those are big programs. But I think for Louisville specifically,
the amount of money they have right now for an IL, I hope that
it, you know, this is sustainable, Like I hope every year you
can be a school that has those resources and you can. I'm not like
worried that it's all gonna run out. But the situation here, I believe
is it's worked out well because Pat Kelsey, you got him cheap. I'm
surprised that he's paid what he's paid. I mean, it's a lot of
money to someone like myself, but it's easily the least amount of money Louisville's
paid a coach since you know, I don't know when, and I know
obviously inflation, like you know, two point whatever he's making now is a
lot. You know, that would have been considered the highest paid guy twenty
years ago. But you didn't have to go pay a large buy out to
get him. And you know, because he's not Scott Drew that's won a
national championship. If he were interested and he wanted to come here, you'd
had to pay him eight million a year. Well you pay you're paying Pat
Kelsey a fourth of that essentially, and a lot of the money that you
know, I guess was available to get a Scott Drew if he wanted to
come, A lot of that has been shifted towards ANIL resources, which is
which is great. I mean, it's it's worked out perfectly. And you
know the campaign that they launched that was huge for men's basketball, right the
million dollar match that Rick Keeber did, I mean, that's that's awesome.
So that's not a real surprise to see that those schools are the biggest spenders
out there. And Baylor, I don't know where their money comes from,
maybe because they don't pay Scott drew a whole lot. And but like they
I mean, that's not a surprise because Waco, Texas being the place where
some of the best players in the country, whether it be high school kids
or transfers, deciding to go, Like it's got to be money, and
you know, Baylor's good, so maybe they want to be a part of
some success. But those are the schools that are apparently spending the most money.
But when you hear about a big name in the portal, I feel
like when it gets out that this is what the market is, it's like
seven hundred and fifty k or higher, or one million or one point five
one point eight, that's just the noise about these big these big names.
But that's not the reality. So according to a variety of different folks,
rather it be again somebody with a collective or an agent. In fact,
I think one of the people quoted here is actually a player. So if
you are in the portal and you're a starter for a power high major program
like you know, think Louisville, Kentucky, you know, Duke, if
you're a starter, two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand is like the
bottom level. And again this is if you transfer in and that's where your
value is. If you're just there, obviously you can hit the portal and
check your market value, but like I don't think dudes who stick around are
getting taken care of probably the way they would if they transfer if they're good.
Right now, if you're an All Conference player, it's more around three
hundred and fifty thousand. That's a guy who is either probably coming back to
school as an All Conference player or transferring as an All Conference performer. Three
hundred and fifty thousand to four hundred if you're an All American and you come
back to school, which is rare, honestly, But if you're an All
American you come back to school, five hundred thousand plus is believed to be
the range. So that to me is more believable, more realistic. It's
still is just it's a lot of money or for these you know, for
these student athletes, but you know they're not they're they're pros now they have
been, and this makes it, you know, even more official, although
it's still stupid how they dress it up as it's not pay for play,
it's you know, it's because your name is Ben Johnson. So stupid.
So the conference situation is apparently a big deal as well. Like, I
think this is silly. But in the Big East they probably don't have as
much money. I guess, I don't know. I mean, it's weird
because in the Big East you you don't have football, but you know,
therefore you don't have to pay for football. It's not an expense. So
I just feel like, if you've got a good like if you've got a
good TV deal in the Big East, which I believe they do, you
know, you don't have as much overhead because football costs a lot of money
just to run. But apparently, like the Big East still is struggling to
be able to at certain places compete with not every school right, Like Rippetino
just landed the best backcourt in the portal with davey On Smith and Kadari Richmond.
Is that his name? I think? Or Ruths. No, that's
the freshman that's visiting Louisville, Kadari Richmond. For some reason, I'm so
for some reason, I know that's his name, but when I say it,
I'm like, no, that can't be his name. But he transferred
from Seaton Hall and it's totally irrelevant to what we're talking about right now.
But now I got to look it up and it is Kadari Richmond. So
uh, I just found that to be interesting. You know, maybe it'll
change over time, right like NIL is still going to be a thing whenever
these these college kids are employees of the school, because that's coming and the
schools will be responsible. Actually they're not gonna be responsible for paying them.
They're gonna they're gonna they're gonna choose to pay them or not. Like they're
gonna be allowed to do it. But if you choose not to, you're
not gonna get any players. Like, so everybody who wants to be good
in sports is going to do that. And unfortunately, it's actually probably going
to lead to some sports getting acts that don't make money. So where they
can have the money the resources to pay the players who play the sports,
they generate money for the school, which is which it sucks, but that's
I just think that's coming for certain places. So once everybody knows, hey,
they're an employee, they're making this much money, it may be more
difficult for you to say, hey, I need a million, you know
what I mean, Like if you're already getting this much money. Like,
I don't know if people would be willing to go as deep in their pockets.
But then again, man, like what fascinates me about this whole thing
is that there are people with a lot of money, like maybe not even
considered like super wealthy, but just rich, right, like you know,
something I can't relate to. And their escape from maybe their whatever their career
is their big business dealings that has led to them being super rich. Their
escape and their passion is the school they love and they love it many they
are so passionate about the Texas Longhorns or the Louisville Cardinals or whatever. So
like, if they've got it, this is like leisure money for them,
right, Like, hey, you go out, you spend a bunch of
money that you know that is a lot of money to you to go on
vacation and go to Hawaii with your family. They may go pay eight hundred
thousand for a power forward because they have it, and that's how they choose
to, you know, spend their money for you know, weird to call
it entertainment, but like, you know, income that you can just spend
on whatever you want because you got enough of it. Right. For me,
that would be you know, go in and buying a new pair of
shoes, because that's my life financially. For you know, somebody else,
it might be, hey, let's go get it all American. I've been
saving all right, stick around to coffee and company. Feel abou Thorton's right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety and Acon just kind of just kind of disappeared,
didn't he. I feel like he was featured in every hip hop rap
song he between the mid two thousands into the early twenties. I would I
mean, I could be wrong here, just guessing, trying to I mean,
he had some songs that were his that were big hits, but yeah,
like a lot of the songs I think people think of him for he
was He did the hook and it was made the song. But yeah,
he kind of just like I think, I feel like he stopped doing music
and like started like helping his country and devoting like a lot of his his
time and resources to doing things for you know where he was originally from,
Jamaica, I believe. But did he say did I hear the edited version
say mother sucker? And it said something weird? Because it is the edited
version, I don't know what word he said, but I think instead of
you know, the MF or he said mother sucker. And I'm like,
why, why hasn't that become the default, the automatic go to when you
can't say MF or you say mother sucker? I mean it just I mean,
I feel like I'm cursing when I say it. John's by day the
dumb button, I hear you. It just feels like I shouldn't be saying
that because you know, yeah, anyways, shout out to a on All
right, so quick update here for those who care. I believe every staffer
other than one for Louisville has landed elsewhere. That, of course, was,
you know, a part of the train wreck here in the Kenny payn
Eric Kenny. Obviously, my man's making a lot of money, getting paid
more than Pat Kelsey's gonna get paid this next year to to not coach Louisville,
and then he's also getting paid nine hundred thousand a year to coach with
kal at Arkansas. So what a fraud man, I mean, what a
what a bum? I can't help myself. You mentioned the train wreck.
I think we should refer to it as the Titanic from now. Yeah,
because that's what he called because he did it. And by the way,
like I'm cool with what Pat Kelsey said when he got introduced, because that's
just a stand up thing to do. And that's too you know, nobody
could claim that Kelsey was, you know, doing what Kenny did, blaming
everything else on someone else, right, and you know it was just a
respectful thing to do. But I mean, Kenny, Kenny sucks, dude.
I mean, didn't still blame everybody else. The only coach I know
of that wanted to keep coaching that left a job, got fired from a
job that didn't give you the typical post, right, the graphic thank you
so much for my time. Wish it would you know, he didn't even
have to write it. Somebody write it for him, posting on his own
Twitter, because like, you know, just he's he still believes that he
well, I don't know, he probably still believes he was a good head
coach and we know that's not true. But in his mind, the utter
disaster that was the two years he was the coach is everybody else's fault but
his, and I I'll never forget it, not just the two years.
I mean, I want to forget that, and I will once we get
rolling with Pat Kelsey. But being live on the radio hearing his last press
conference, the last time we heard him talk when they lost in the ACEC
Tournament, I mean we were building up to it, if you remember,
right, John Long, like five hours on the radio. We were building
up to it because you know, we knew it was probably gonna be the
last game. We knew it was, and you know, what's he going
to do? And I kept thinking like, Okay, you know it's going
to be a different press conference than typical because you know it's the end.
But then again, I kept telling myself the one thing I will say about
Kenny that isn't really a compliment, but it's just he was consistent from day
one, So me thinking like he might show a little bit of accountability and
might you know, be humble and be not even apologetic, but you know,
just you know, disappointed and you know, like have some accountability.
I guess it's the best word to use. Like it was foolish for me
to think that he was ever going to do that, because he was.
He never he never, he was he never showed any sign of that being
anything any any part of him, so you know he's he's now at Arkansas
and you know, I'm sure he'll have cave there and talk about their previous
fan bases. That's a good question. I'd like to be a fly on
the wall just to hear that, but yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure
it comes up. And to be fair, Kenny's going to be loved because
he's not going to be the guy that gets any heat if they lose.
And with Cal he's on a honeymoon. Man. Like Arkansas fans are everywhere.
They're passionate, obsessed, and they feel like they hit the lottery,
which I'm not sure they did. You know, they got they got a
John Caliperry when things have clearly faded into the the you know, they're not
so good part of his career. But yeah, anyways, Kenny's at Arkansas
and Danny Manning was hired by Tad Boyle yesterday at Colorado, which Danny,
you know a lot of people meant, you know, bring out like what
did he ever? Do? You know? He's lazy, didn't do anything.
He was just here to get a check. And I don't I've met
Danny Manning one time before he was here at Louisville. I interviewed him actually
whenever I was doing the a SEC basketball media day. He was a really
really nice It was nice to me. And also was around him and Chris
Mack together in Charlotte for that and it was not an interview, it was
just kind of, you know, I was kind of just around honestly when
they were and you know, everybody in the ACC from what I understand,
thinks he's a great man, Like he's a good dude. Not not sure
how good of a coach he is. He had some decent success here and
there at wake Forest, and then it completely fell apart. He had a
decent run at Tulsa, but towards the end I think I don't know if
it was Danny, but it started to get out that like coaches on Kenny's
staff were like done acting like you know, they supported Kenny, you know
what I mean, like they're still working for him. But you know,
I think Danny's the one who just my opinion, I think Danny was letting
some folks know, like hey, just so you know, like Kenny doesn't
do this. He doesn't even talk to his staff like and it's because it's
ridiculous. So, you know, I don't have a bad impression. I
mean, I put it this way. Did Danny Manning do anything good for
Louisville. No, But I don't feel like he's responsible for it. I
mean, technically, you know, he was hired by Kenny So Nolan Smith.
I don't know if this is official, but I do believe it came
from Trillie Donovan and he's usually right. But Nolan Smith is believed to be
joining the staff at Central Florida, and that means he'll be coaching under Johnny
Dawkins. So I genuinely was sad to see the way things went with Nolan
now towards the end when he I think, really just you know, I
mean, it was hard. I don't feel bad for him, but that
could have been a phenomenal story. His father played here, a legendary player
tragically passed away. You know, Nolan was not around Louisville a lot as
a kid because his dad was playing professionally, and he grew up I believe
you grew up in DC, and you know, he was a legendary player
coming up. He was a McDonald's America, one of the best players in
the country and ends up going to Duke and had a great career there and
went onto the NBA, was drafted in the first round, had a bright
future as a coach, and he got to Louisville and I just I don't
know, man, he to me, just my opinion, he was very
immature about some things, just really childish about just some of the social media
interaction with fans and some of the things he I mean, to me,
he just seemed very unprofessional at times and childish, which is just not something
I would have expected. But he is young. I mean, well he's
my age. But you know, that's just a bummer. And you know,
I think he has himself to blame for it for the most part.
But he also didn't have a great leader. I mean Kenny Payne. I
told this to somebody that wanted to talk U of l basketball with me at
Derby. You know, with Kenny, I think there's a long, long,
long, long list of things you can highlight that were a factor in
this being a failure. But I think the root of it is that he's
not a leader like he did. He's not a leader. He's a buddy
type coach and he's great with relationships and things like that. But he's not
a leader in any way, and you have to be a leader to be
That's what you are as a coach. You are a leader, the leader,
and everybody leads differently. You enough to do it, you know,
same way as everybody else. But like he just didn't have any leadership qualities,
and I think that impacted everything. And probably Nolan a guy who was
very green, who had only worked under the guy who he played for,
who was one probably one of the better leaders you'll ever see in basketball.
And his name is Mike Shesky. So I hope this was a learning experience
from Nolan. I wouldn't be shocked if he believes that like Louisville, you
know, was the problem and he'll never come back here, Like I don't
know, maybe he thinks that. But Johnny Dawkins is a really good man
and he has been in Nolan's life since Nolan was a baby. So Derek
Smith, Nolan's father, was on the Saint, was on the Sixers uh
with with Johnny Dawkins for I believe a few years and they became really close.
There's actually an ESPN article about that from years back that show a picture
of baby Nolan with Johnny Dawkins. So I actually feel like this is a
perfect situation for him to get a fresh start to learn and you know,
work with a great guy who, by all accounts, Johnny Dawkins is that.
So this this is, this is to be honest with you for what
he's accused of doing. You know the leak where he was the one basically
telling everyone he was telling some some you know U of L. The school
itself did an investigation. This was an Eric Crawford article that came out around
the time Kenny was fired that kind of got I won't say it get lost
in the shuffle, but I mean it's pretty substantial piece of information here.
U of L during the Christmas break did an investigation. The school did to
try to figure out who was telling national media members that Kenny was fired and
that there was already going to be an interim in place and it was going
to be Nolan. That investigation that you all conducted concluded that Nolan Smith was
the one doing that. You can't do that, like, that's no head
coach would hire you other than somebody who's known you your whole life and loves
you and wants to help you, like once, to help you get you
know, get your you know, get your career back on track. I
don't think there's another G five program that would have hired him as an assistant
coach other than Johnny Dawkins, who their UCFS now in the Big twelve.
So I don't wish, you know, I don't wish ill will on Nolan
and all and wishing well on anybody, but like you know, I was
sad to because that could have been really cool, that could have been really
special. And to be fair, he wasn't the head coach. He's not
the reason that Louisville was awful. And in fact, I said this,
I mean you heard me say this a few times John, and I'm sure
it sticks out like a sore thumb because it's actually a complimentary thing about that
staff. They won four games, was it in year one? And Nolan
was the recruiter that brought in a top five class now in il help,
there's no doubt about that. But Nolan was the key recruiter on every one
of those guys. That means he can recruit, so hopefully he can get
you know, get things back on track. But I just I was surprised
to see how childish or naive he was to think, like, dude,
like you're you're at Louisville, man, Like you should know this because you
came from Duke. Like there's gonna be a whole people on the internet,
and like you can't go back and forth with him. You and your wife
can't engage in fights with with fans who are anonymous online, like card Dude
forty five is not worth your time, brother, Like, and you do
it once and people are just gonna keep doing it to get the reaction out
of you. And like that just blew my mind that Like he didn't get
that, so I'm not sure it would have made any difference as far as
results. But the only coach that I don't think has landed anywhere is Josh
Jansen, who still not sure what that guy did. I mean, he
came from Oregon, was not an assistant coach. But yeah, I'm not
sure where he'll end up, but hopefully he can. Let he lands on
his feet somewhere. All Right, We'll take our last break here, come
back on the other side, keep this thing rolling along at his Coffee and
Company. Feel Beth Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. So this
is probably not surprising to anybody because Davo Sweeney Clemson said coach has been very
upfront about this being anti portal. But as as we get, I guess
closer to the portal closing for I guess it has closer football and there's still
guys out there that if you had to make a decision, but a lot
of the dust to settle a lot of the you know, a lot of
the rosters are pretty close to being finished at this point, and Clemson's the
only school on the power for level that did not take a single transfer in
the twenty twenty four cycle. So not surprising knowing Dabo has been very adamant
about it. But I almost feel like that's that's you not doing your job.
I mean, I guess you're not required to do things a certain way,
but like that's what this is now, Like do they have like a
large number of open scholarships? They lost eight players and didn't add anybody.
They only added freshmen, So I mean, yeah, I'm sure they have
scholarships open. Like that's I mean, is that is that almost like not
doing your job? I mean, if it makes firing him if they are
unsuccessful, very easy. I feel like it's a good point, Like it's
hard to imagine they'd ever do that, but like I don't know, Like
I think, not filling your scholarships because you don't believe in bringing in players
via the portal, yet players are leaving your program via the portal, Like
that's I think, that's not I mean, that's not doing your job.
So yeah, I mean, actually they lost twelve transfers, so that's a
lot. And you're curious if he'll just go find random freshmen to fill or
if he's just going to leave those scholarships open, Like I can't imagine.
I mean, he's leaving them open. Who else is he gonna go get?
And they already were very like when he was recruiting, when the portal
didn't exist, they they were very I think impressive how they recruited because they
they didn't offer a lot of guys, but they got just about everybody they
wanted. Like they went really all in in certain with certain guys and didn't
you know, didn't have a lot of backup options that if this guy didn't
commit, and they usually you know, Clemson was rolling for a little while
there like there was a time where it felt like Clemson was in fact not
just neck and neck with Bama, but they had the edge there a little
bit. And that hasn't like they're not terrible. In fact, they've actually
still been good compared to like just about everybody else, but they had such
momentum and now they're just kind of, you know, they're good. But
I almost feel like for some reason, even when they are, like let's
say they win the ACC this year, like they still aren't going to be
looked at like they were before. And am I crazy to think that they're
gonna start like the perception like it matters right the buzz off season, that
kind of stuff, hype, that's where the hype is generated. When you're
not adding dudes in the portal, you're not getting any hype, Like they're
just kind of out there existing. Doesn't mean you can't be good. Maybe
they're great this year, but that's another part of it, Like you're you're,
you're losing a little bit of relevance in the in the mix of the
you know, the you know, the high end of college football because you're
you're you're you're not mentioned because you're not active in the portal. I mean
they went nine and four last year, eleven and three, ten and three
the year before that. I mean, look, they last year was the
first year they didn't win double digit games since twenty ten. So like,
if they keep taking steps backwardly, if that turned into seven and then six
and like they like, where he's really screwed himself is the quarterback position,
because that's been a savior for a lot of these coaches, right, And
you know, if he's if a guy he recruits out of high school,
like if he's got a if he's got a dude who's a sophomore or junior
like dj Ulele and he stinks and he's leaving and transferring, You're not just
going to go to one of the dudes you brought in and hasn't played and
if he sucks, then like you're screwed. That's just it's it's a level
of stubbornness that I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure I've seen that
before this in college football. But all right, we're out of time.
Everybody, have a good night. Talk to you tomorrow.