Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day. Now, here's Nick coffee.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get it started. Hour number two here,
Speaker 2: four o'clock hour on a Friday afternoon, coffee and company,
Speaker 2: fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Nit coffee.
Speaker 2: That's me the company man John Allen alongside as we
Speaker 2: take you up until six o'clock. Kind of a low key,
Speaker 2: really awesome night of college football on a Friday. I
Speaker 2: mean Jacksonville State Kennesaw State. That gets us started at seven.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody cares about that game, but Houston TCU,
Speaker 2: Michigan State, Oregon SYRAQSUNLV, I mean Qson UNLV. I don't
Speaker 2: think maybe some don't think these are big matchups, but
Speaker 2: you know, for somebody who does like to get the
Speaker 2: weekend started on a Friday betting on some college football,
Speaker 2: these are decent games. I mean UNLV. They've got a
Speaker 2: lot of momentum right now. For those who don't know.
Speaker 2: Once that quarterback left because he didn't get his money,
Speaker 2: they put the backup in and they look better than
Speaker 2: they have all year last week, so that should be
Speaker 2: a big game, and if you know, if you care
Speaker 2: about the ACC, which not saying you should or you
Speaker 2: know you should root for Syracuse, but you know I
Speaker 2: lost to UNLV, here would probably be another bad look
Speaker 2: for the league, and we really can't control that. But
Speaker 2: I'm still not to the point where I can just
Speaker 2: acknowledge that who cares what they think about the ACC
Speaker 2: because if you win, you're in. And that's still the
Speaker 2: case now and I can't see a scenario where there's
Speaker 2: ever a college football playoff where they take away the
Speaker 2: auto bids from leagues like the ACC or the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: But I wouldn't put it past Sanky if he tried
Speaker 2: to do something like that, because you know, he's shown
Speaker 2: that he you know, the fact that they're fighting for
Speaker 2: four automatic bids anyway really is in my opinion, I
Speaker 2: think it's kind of a waste of time because if
Speaker 2: you really think about it, in most years like that
Speaker 2: could happen without them getting automatically but without those spots
Speaker 2: being automatically slotted for a certain conference, right because more
Speaker 2: often than not, you know there's going to be teams
Speaker 2: that the resume despite it. You know, when you get
Speaker 2: to the teams that don't get in because they were
Speaker 2: the best one loss team. And then of course the
Speaker 2: teams that do get in automatically are the ones who
Speaker 2: wins win their conference. But when you look at the
Speaker 2: pool of teams and you look in at a bunch
Speaker 2: of two loss teams and maybe a one loss team,
Speaker 2: maybe a three loss team, although I don't know, I
Speaker 2: find that to be pretty, you know, unlikely. You'd be
Speaker 2: unlikely to make it if you've got three. But if
Speaker 2: you're going to try to determine which are the most
Speaker 2: it'll be the teams that you know have losses against
Speaker 2: the really good teams in their league, and it just
Speaker 2: so happens that in league play their league schedule presented
Speaker 2: a challenge to where they play maybe you know, three
Speaker 2: of the top seven teams in the country. So anyways, tonight,
Speaker 2: I'm actually I'm you want you want my first pick, John,
Speaker 2: I'll give it to you.
Speaker 3: I'm curious. It might be it's not my I won't
Speaker 3: have a pick for Friday night, but I do have
Speaker 3: one if I were to pick it, I'm curious.
Speaker 1: What you got.
Speaker 2: We'll get into our picks at five thirty, because I've
Speaker 2: got a handful for this weekend. You guys can do
Speaker 2: what you want with those. But I'm actually gonna go
Speaker 2: the under in the Houston TCU game tonight. I think
Speaker 2: right now the line is set at fifty one. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna do an alternate
Speaker 2: and get it at fifty two.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And unders are never fun. Like it's no way to
Speaker 2: live betting unders and watching football hoping nobody scores. Like
Speaker 2: think about that, Like that's but Houston sucks. It's like
Speaker 2: watching softcore if you know what I'm saying. But yes,
Speaker 2: Houston does suck. You're absolutely right. But they're a wee
Speaker 2: bad team. So they've not scored a single point in
Speaker 2: conference games. They've gone scoreless in their two games against
Speaker 2: Big twelve competition. One was Cincinnati and the other who
Speaker 2: was Iowa State?
Speaker 4: Was it not?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Or wait a second, I believe it was Iowa State.
Speaker 2: Iowa State is in the Big twelve. So that that
Speaker 2: fact slash stat I just shared with you, you can
Speaker 2: throw it out the window because it's still weird to
Speaker 2: see them in the Big twelve. But yes, that was
Speaker 2: a in fact. I could be wrong here, and this
Speaker 2: is totally beside the point, But there are two games
Speaker 2: this year. I saw this earlier in the season, whenever
Speaker 2: I was just you know, looking looking over different things,
Speaker 2: trying to figure out what I want to bet on.
Speaker 2: Clearly not very successful at doing that. But there are
Speaker 2: two games played this year where in fact it is
Speaker 2: teams playing each other that are in the same conference,
Speaker 2: but because it was scheduled before realignment happened, it doesn't
Speaker 2: count as a conference game, which is really really weird.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean Houston to your point, Houston's really bad.
Speaker 2: They didn't score against Cincinnati, they didn't score against Iowa State,
Speaker 2: and it was Oklahoma that used to be a conference game,
Speaker 2: but now it's not. So they're one and four. Their
Speaker 2: only win is against a really bad Rice team. They're
Speaker 2: coming off of two straight weeks without scoring a point.
Speaker 2: Lost twenty to nothing to Iowa State, lost thirty four
Speaker 2: to nothing to Cincinnati. However, you know, their defense has
Speaker 2: been solid and they do a pretty good job at
Speaker 2: slowing teams down. And I think at this point they've
Speaker 2: learned our best chance to not win but to not
Speaker 2: get embarrassed is to slow the game down. So I
Speaker 2: actually think, you know, again, they've they've held two top
Speaker 2: twenty teams, Iowa State and Oklahoma. It's under twenty points
Speaker 2: or twenty or under twenty was what Iowa State scored,
Speaker 2: and they played Oklahoma on the road and lost twelve
Speaker 2: to sixteen. So unders aren't fun. If you don't want
Speaker 2: to do it because you just don't like totals and
Speaker 2: you don't like unders for sure, then I get it.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna go un fifty two here because TCU
Speaker 2: can score, but I think Houston's gonna be able to mean,
Speaker 2: wouldn't be shocked if I mean this no joke. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be shocked if if this is a forty four
Speaker 2: to three game, because Houston's not gonna do much scoring
Speaker 2: at all. So fifty two may seem like a high number,
Speaker 2: but you got to keep in mind it'd be very
Speaker 2: very I mean again, I mean this is crazy. Outside
Speaker 2: of their game against Rice, which Rice must really suck.
Speaker 2: They they've they've scored twelve points since September seventh. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's very bad. That's very sad. So maybe you hear
Speaker 2: all this and you say, look, I'm gonna take I'm
Speaker 2: gonna take TCU minus sixteen and a half and maybe
Speaker 2: that's maybe that's maybe that's the play. I kind of
Speaker 2: I'm kind I was kind of leaning that initially, but
Speaker 2: just looking at how bad Houston is offensively, I feel
Speaker 2: like the safer play, at least in my opinion, is
Speaker 2: to just take the under. But again, I know unders
Speaker 2: aren't fun for a lot of people. All right, speaking
Speaker 2: of fun, Tonight Louisville Live should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: You don't have to worry about losing to an exit
Speaker 2: ABI opponent. You have to worry about losing it all.
Speaker 2: It's not a game dunk contest three point shootout. They'll
Speaker 2: do a little three on three action with members of
Speaker 2: both the It's not gonna be, by the way, should
Speaker 2: have clarified earlier. The three on three is not gonna
Speaker 2: be three from the men's team three from the women's team.
Speaker 2: But they've split it up and that should be pretty competitive.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it won't be like that serious because you know,
Speaker 2: you don't want anybody get hurt out there, and that's
Speaker 2: what tonight is. It's just to have fun and to
Speaker 2: get fans excited, to let all the newcomers, which, by
Speaker 2: the way, and the Portal Era, especially with this Louisville
Speaker 2: men's team a lot of newcomers, no doubt, so they're
Speaker 2: gonna get a chance to be out in front of
Speaker 2: fans for the first time. And I assume the fans
Speaker 2: will be there. Not to say it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: sellout by any means, but I mean, for what this is,
Speaker 2: the atmosphere will be will be hopefully great. I'm going
Speaker 2: taking the family. I told Moose, we're gonna go watch
Speaker 2: the go karts practice and try to explain to them
Speaker 2: what they're gonna do. And he was like, well, it
Speaker 2: doesn't sound like a practice. I'm like, you gotta just
Speaker 2: you gotta wait and see, son, Like, you'll have to
Speaker 2: see what it is. But like, but this being such
Speaker 2: a big show with like them turning the lights out,
Speaker 2: all the introductions, probably a lot of dancing and whatnot,
Speaker 2: Like this is the p I think it's the perfect
Speaker 2: thing to take your kids to who don't have the
Speaker 2: patience to sit through an entire game. And hopefully my
Speaker 2: son will be you know, he'll be able to go
Speaker 2: to a game with me this year and we can
Speaker 2: watch it together. And he's he's not far off. But like,
Speaker 2: for what this is, he's gonna love it, like he's
Speaker 2: gonna see these guys out there duncan and you know
Speaker 2: he'll he'll have a ball.
Speaker 3: And he enjoyed the the TBT games over the summer.
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah he did. I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 2: I take that back. He was. I mean, he was
Speaker 2: asking a lot of questions, especially whenever the elam ending
Speaker 2: was going on and they turned the clock off. Like
Speaker 2: he It's like he had just started to figure out
Speaker 2: how it worked and then he was like, wait a second,
Speaker 2: what's going on now there's you know. But yes, he
Speaker 2: was very much into the tvt In fact, I did
Speaker 2: have to tell him this morning because he asked me,
Speaker 2: is Trev's gonna be there? Montres Harrall was was his
Speaker 2: guy Trees is in Australia playing professionally now, so he
Speaker 2: won't be there. I had to let him know. But
Speaker 2: he was like, but he's he's the dunker. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I know, son, but other people con dunk too. You'll
Speaker 2: see tonight. It's not just Montrez Harrel. Others can dunk.
Speaker 2: Although he is the all time leader in dunks at Louisville.
Speaker 2: And I have a feeling that brickerd will never be broken,
Speaker 2: all right. So Pat Kelsey yesterday hosted any former player
Speaker 2: that could be there for their practice. And I don't
Speaker 2: want to act as if nobody else has ever done
Speaker 2: that before. In fact, I think it's something that the
Speaker 2: last two coaches really knew they needed to do. I mean,
Speaker 2: Kenny obviously was a former player himself, but Chris Mack
Speaker 2: and I want to you know, things just went really
Speaker 2: bad at the end with coach Mack for reasons that
Speaker 2: you know, we all know. Not to say that he
Speaker 2: didn't make mistakes, not to say that he was perfect,
Speaker 2: but like you know, he was ready to move on
Speaker 2: and the guy they replaced him with clearly was awful,
Speaker 2: and he blamed a lot of his failure on Mac,
Speaker 2: which was nonsense. However, one thing Mac really did go
Speaker 2: out of his way to do that kind of gets
Speaker 2: just lost. And not to say we need to be
Speaker 2: talking about it now, but like he did try to
Speaker 2: you night, the former players of different eras, because as
Speaker 2: much as Rick Patino was a phenomenal coach here, he
Speaker 2: didn't do that. He didn't embrace the former eras. He
Speaker 2: didn't really embrace Denny and access was really not there
Speaker 2: for former players the way you see it in other programs,
Speaker 2: And obviously that's changed since Rick moved on. And I
Speaker 2: know Pat Kelsey has talked to a lot of these
Speaker 2: former players before yesterday, but had a lot of them
Speaker 2: there at practice and they got to see what he's
Speaker 2: like as a coach and just you know, those things
Speaker 2: are healthy for a program. And this is what he
Speaker 2: had to say when I guess, you know, talking to
Speaker 2: everybody in attendance. Rather this is before the practice started.
Speaker 2: This was when you know, he was talking to his
Speaker 2: players and of course all the guys that are there
Speaker 2: that played for Louisville, some many many years ago, some
Speaker 2: not that long ago. But you know, I thought this
Speaker 2: was really really cool to hear and I wanted you
Speaker 2: guys to hear it. Hear it as well. Let me
Speaker 2: back it up.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 5: There's guys back there behind us. We'll talk about this
Speaker 5: a little bit. Have done a ton to make that
Speaker 5: name across your jersey one of the most prestigious names
Speaker 5: in the history of college basketball. The emphasis today is
Speaker 5: honor the uniform. You know what, all through that every
Speaker 5: stinking day, what these guys are gonna see today is
Speaker 5: the same process, the same commitment to excellence that you
Speaker 5: guys have every single stinking day from the time you walked.
Speaker 1: In here on June fifth.
Speaker 5: Right, And then the quote of the day is this
Speaker 5: is kind of not really even a quote, but it says,
Speaker 5: Louisville Basketball is family. Right. Those guys started the tradition
Speaker 5: and made it something elite. Some of you guys will
Speaker 5: only be sitting in those chairs and wearing that uniform
Speaker 5: for one year. But you are family to those guys
Speaker 5: back there, right. Family loves each other, Family pours into
Speaker 5: each other, family supports each other, family mentors each other. Okay,
Speaker 5: we are family. I appreciate you guys being here, appreciate
Speaker 5: what you've done to pour into this program and like
Speaker 5: I said, to make it mean something special.
Speaker 2: So again, some may say that's you know, what you
Speaker 2: would expect him to say, or it's corny, but look,
Speaker 2: we're all healing given what's happened in the last few years,
Speaker 2: and I think yesterday and just hearing that is a
Speaker 2: good another one of I think the many examples that
Speaker 2: when Josh heard was deciding who was going to take
Speaker 2: over the program and get this thing back on track.
Speaker 2: Obviously you want somebody who's capable of winning, and Pat
Speaker 2: has shown he can win. Now will he do it
Speaker 2: at this level? I've see no reason why he can't,
Speaker 2: but obviously that remains to be seen. He hasn't coached
Speaker 2: a game yet. But Josh, I would assume new little
Speaker 2: things were gonna be really really important until you can
Speaker 2: get there, and even whenever you get there and you win,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, maybe you hit a
Speaker 2: wall and you have some rough times, you have some struggles,
Speaker 2: maybe a setback, maybe a year where it's not anything
Speaker 2: like what we had the last two years or even
Speaker 2: three years, but it's below the standard. You know, Let's
Speaker 2: say a few years in you've made the tournament every
Speaker 2: year and and you've gradually gone a further round. Let's
Speaker 2: say you're a tournament team around a thirty two. Then
Speaker 2: you get to the sweet sixteen, and then maybe that
Speaker 2: next year things don't work out, you got a bad
Speaker 2: batch in the portal or something. If you have a
Speaker 2: guy that you feel like gets this job, gets the
Speaker 2: fan base is appreciative of the job he has this
Speaker 2: fan base, will we'll ride with that guy, We'll complain,
Speaker 2: We'll do postgame shows where people lose their mind because
Speaker 2: that's in the moment, that's the raw, and I mean
Speaker 2: that's just because we're crazy about college basketball. But that's
Speaker 2: also what makes Louisville basketball great is that we are
Speaker 2: we're crazy about it. So again, I'm aware and I
Speaker 2: hate doing the disclaimer as much as I as much
Speaker 2: as I have been, and I'm doing right now. But
Speaker 2: nobody knows exactly how this play out. But so far,
Speaker 2: I think pat has done a great job at really
Speaker 2: delivering in every way you can until you can actually
Speaker 2: coach a game. And I learned a lot throughout the
Speaker 2: last few years as a level basketball fan myself, because
Speaker 2: you often hear you know, he doesn't get it, he's
Speaker 2: not built for it. And I'm not talking about Pat Kelsey.
Speaker 2: He was talking about when when fans complain about a coach,
Speaker 2: you know, or being relatable, likable, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And one thing that's never changed is that winning at
Speaker 2: the highest level matters. Rick Patina wasn't relatable. He was
Speaker 2: a robot. He talked down to us quite a bit.
Speaker 2: He's he's maybe one of the most unrelatable humans I've
Speaker 2: ever been around. And I don't mean like I've been
Speaker 2: around him a lot, because I'm beneath through Patino. He'd
Speaker 2: never let me around him. He you know, it's ree Pertino.
Speaker 2: But he wanted a really, really high level and you
Speaker 2: never had to question if you had a coach like that,
Speaker 2: was that was good enough for your job? We were
Speaker 2: really really spoiled. We went for Denny crumbed to Rick Patino.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? And that's what like fifty years.
Speaker 2: Collectively we had some great times and for some bad times,
Speaker 2: but really for the most part, maybe towards the end
Speaker 2: of the Dinny era, whenever you felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: his best days were clearly in the rear view. And
Speaker 2: maybe that brief stretch for Rick before they made that
Speaker 2: run to the Final four and twenty twelve, and I
Speaker 2: mean a really brief stretch. Other than that, throughout that
Speaker 2: what fifty years, even through the good and the bad,
Speaker 2: you knew you had a coach that was capable and
Speaker 2: was you know, good enough to be your coach at
Speaker 2: a place like Louisville. I mean, Denny made Louisville what
Speaker 2: it was. Rick came in at a very critical time
Speaker 2: and within a few years took it to a Final
Speaker 2: four and really got you elevated back to where you belong.
Speaker 2: So with Mac, you know, we loved the things that
Speaker 2: were so different than Rick until he lost. Right, I
Speaker 2: always use this line because it was, you know, seeing
Speaker 2: it play out in real time was just you know,
Speaker 2: something I'll always remember. We talked about how Chris Mack
Speaker 2: was one of us. Right, you'll see him at roosters
Speaker 2: drinking a beer having wings. He gets the same wings
Speaker 2: you get. Remember when they toilet paper at each other's
Speaker 2: house to like joke on, you know, to to rip
Speaker 2: each other because Sat won ACC Coach of the Year
Speaker 2: and then they were neighbors and Mac went over there
Speaker 2: and t Pete his house, maybe just his mailbox or
Speaker 2: something to kind of like, you know, I don't know
Speaker 2: how that would be, like giving him a gift or something,
Speaker 2: but like we thought it was so awesome because one,
Speaker 2: it was cool to see these guys show that they're
Speaker 2: human beings. We had Bobby Patrino and Rick Patino the
Speaker 2: most non human beings that have ever coached any sport,
Speaker 2: I think, So we loved it. We embraced that they
Speaker 2: were more relatable, they were more like normal humans. But
Speaker 2: then as soon as that they stopped winning at a
Speaker 2: super high level, which Sat never really did. We weaponized
Speaker 2: that against him, right, like, you better get off the
Speaker 2: lake talking about Mac and get out there and recruit.
Speaker 2: We got to get this thing turned around with Sat.
Speaker 2: You know. We loved that he was loving them up right,
Speaker 2: talking about loving on his players, just loving on those kids,
Speaker 2: loving all those boys whenever Bobby was mean. And then
Speaker 2: when he lost to Kentucky and he cried at midfield,
Speaker 2: the stoops about elsdown, like, Nah, get that guy the
Speaker 2: hell out of here. He's not built for this. So
Speaker 2: what you really want is somebody that wins at a
Speaker 2: really high level, regardless of the other stuff. Now, you
Speaker 2: don't want scandals, and we've certainly had a fair share
Speaker 2: of that, but we've also accepted scandals around here because
Speaker 2: we had a coach that was really, really good and
Speaker 2: we accepted it a little too long, I think, But nonetheless,
Speaker 2: I mean, what you really really want and what you
Speaker 2: really care about deep down is results. It's a results
Speaker 2: based business. As a fan, and if your coach wins
Speaker 2: at a high level, you can accept not everything but
Speaker 2: most everything. But until you get there, like the other
Speaker 2: stuff matters, and if you do have a setback, or
Speaker 2: you have, you know, maybe a stretch of play where
Speaker 2: you start to question your coach and his ability to
Speaker 2: be the guy. If he's somebody that you feel like
Speaker 2: gets it, you know, and you know, you think he
Speaker 2: is willing to acknowledge when he makes mistakes and basically
Speaker 2: be the opposite of Kenny Payne who blamed everybody else
Speaker 2: like that stuff. There's value there. It matters as well,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter more than winning. But Pat Kelsey, I'm
Speaker 2: sure by design. I don't know if it was just
Speaker 2: him knowing the situation, him being him, or if it
Speaker 2: was maybe a talk a conversation he had with Josh
Speaker 2: Hurd and the athletic department, But I think he's done
Speaker 2: a lot of little things that have really sped up
Speaker 2: this process. Not necessarily for winning, because again we don't
Speaker 2: know how many games they're going to win this year.
Speaker 2: We'll have to wait and see, but it has sped
Speaker 2: up the process for fans to go from being completely dejected,
Speaker 2: not even realizing when Louis played, not going to a game,
Speaker 2: and maybe two years or something. I think the little
Speaker 2: things Pat's done since he got hired has sped up
Speaker 2: the process to get those people back engaged, to get
Speaker 2: those people involved, to get those people making it a
Speaker 2: priority to be at Louisville Live tonight, and we all
Speaker 2: knew no matter who they hired, it was going to
Speaker 2: be much better than what we had before. And as
Speaker 2: a fan base, I think we all know we were
Speaker 2: going to embrace it. But I don't know if there
Speaker 2: were other coaches out there that would have kind of
Speaker 2: gotten us excited in this way and really generated this
Speaker 2: momentum within the fan base. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll never know.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter, but it's been awesome. All right, let's
Speaker 2: do this. On the other side, we're gonna be joined
Speaker 2: by mister Jeffrey Greer to talk a little footy as
Speaker 2: racing Louisville. They've got a big match tomorrow night Star
Speaker 2: Wars Night out there, so we'll talk to jeff get
Speaker 2: his thoughts on a lot of things. Love catching up
Speaker 2: with mister Greer, so we'll do that. On the other side,
Speaker 2: it's coffee and company. Feel about Thort's right here on
Speaker 2: Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, we're about halfway through
Speaker 2: here on a Friday afternoon. Coffee and company fueled by
Speaker 2: Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety appreciate you hanging
Speaker 2: out with us, and we also appreciate the one and
Speaker 2: only mister Jeffrey Greer who joins us now. Jeff, longtime,
Speaker 2: no talk, my friend. How you been. How's life?
Speaker 4: I am wonderful, Nick. I've got about three weeks until
Speaker 4: baby number two arrives. We've got baby number one rocking
Speaker 4: some serious pink eye.
Speaker 2: Oh no, the usual, the usual.
Speaker 4: Family stuff at home. But you know what, we're here.
Speaker 4: We can't complain, we're breathing. We're all good.
Speaker 2: How is baby number one feeling about there being a
Speaker 2: baby number two?
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what. I still don't think he quite
Speaker 4: like gets the concept, like of course, and I know
Speaker 4: you've experienced this, like I just I don't know yet
Speaker 4: if he's fully aware that somebody's about to come take
Speaker 4: a shy. But the good news is is like he's
Speaker 4: he's two and a half three now at this point,
Speaker 4: and I've got him shooting hoops and doing all sorts
Speaker 4: of stuff that can occupy him. So that's good.
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations to you guys. Uh, I can tell you
Speaker 2: it having two is it's not. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: everybody's different, but I feel like I was warned about
Speaker 2: all game changer. You know it's gonna be, and you
Speaker 2: know it's a it's an adjustment, of course, but like it,
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't it wasn't anything that wasn't anything
Speaker 2: we we can't we couldn't handle, and it certainly won't
Speaker 2: be anything that that you guys can't handle. So I
Speaker 2: hope the pink I recovers is that, like you know,
Speaker 2: is it spread at all?
Speaker 4: No, it hasn't hit as these so that's good. But Nick,
Speaker 4: I will say, I've been thinking about you. I was
Speaker 4: laughing a little bit as you're as you're talking about this,
Speaker 4: adding to and I was thinking about all the guys
Speaker 4: I know who have two kids. And you know, I'm
Speaker 4: hoping that that us switching to man the man out
Speaker 4: of a zone defense with the one is not going
Speaker 4: to be as confusing for me as it was for
Speaker 4: Kenny Payne. And I think we'll be I think we'll
Speaker 4: probably adjust a little bit better. I'm much more of
Speaker 4: a man a man defense guy anyway, so I think
Speaker 4: this is a good swap for us.
Speaker 2: Well, it won't be that really crazy, you know, never
Speaker 2: before seeing Mike Woodson's zone, that's you know, you have,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, yeah, you have to worry. You have
Speaker 2: to worry about that. But all right, let's talk about
Speaker 2: Racing lou Is. They are looking for their third straight
Speaker 2: home win and they've got a big match coming up
Speaker 2: here Kansas City Current. Uh, they're the fourth place team
Speaker 2: currently in the league. The momentum at home obviously, club's
Speaker 2: playing well in front of a home crowd. But you know,
Speaker 2: I would assume that the home crowd can take a
Speaker 2: little bit of you know, maybe not the credit, but
Speaker 2: like atmosphere matters in a major way for all for
Speaker 2: for every team, high school, you know, youth league, professional.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure for you guys to know that, you know,
Speaker 2: you got a chance to potentially get a third straight
Speaker 2: winning home in front of the fans like that, that's
Speaker 2: something special. Not that you guys are playing for other
Speaker 2: things as well. I know you've still got plenty of
Speaker 2: season left. But should be a good crowd out there
Speaker 2: tomorrow for you guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we're really trying this week. And I know. Look,
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm smart enough to know I've been in
Speaker 4: this market for eleven years, actually eleven eleventh anniversaries coming
Speaker 4: up on Halloween of moving to Louisville. But look, I
Speaker 4: know this is a football, football, and basketball town. It's
Speaker 4: a big college sports town. So that's why we we
Speaker 4: partnered with Lottie Stockwell and and the folks over at
Speaker 4: u of L to do just encourage folks to go
Speaker 4: to both. We got the football game at twelve and
Speaker 4: then if you show up at the racing game at
Speaker 4: Lynn Family Stadium, just walk over to the box office,
Speaker 4: excuse me and show them here U of L football ticket.
Speaker 4: You get in for free to our game. So we're
Speaker 4: just trying to get as many people into the into
Speaker 4: the stadium because it's right. We hear about this all
Speaker 4: the time, and I used to kind of roll my
Speaker 4: eyes as a reporter, but now that now that I'm
Speaker 4: working on this side, like it actually is a thing.
Speaker 4: Like you sleep in your own bed, you have your
Speaker 4: morning routine at home, You see familiar faces over and
Speaker 4: over and over again. And you know, any sport you
Speaker 4: always talk to people who they get to know a
Speaker 4: season ticket holder, they get to know, you know, a
Speaker 4: big corporate partner, but they get to know the diehards too,
Speaker 4: And I think that's really important with the home crowd,
Speaker 4: and it does make a huge difference in these games,
Speaker 4: because the bottom line is, Nick, when we're going on
Speaker 4: the road, we're playing in San Diego, they've got thirty
Speaker 4: thousand people right on top of you snap Dragon Stadium
Speaker 4: out there. They've got twenty thousand in Portland, twenty five
Speaker 4: thousand in La. Kansas City's home games are nuts twelve
Speaker 4: thousand or so packed in. So it makes a big difference.
Speaker 4: And we need a big, a big crowd tomorrow and
Speaker 4: a big win for sure.
Speaker 2: I'm sure in your position now you've you've been able
Speaker 2: to really kind of see that you can bring in
Speaker 2: more fans to kind of, you know, get a taste
Speaker 2: of what you guys have to offer with the experience
Speaker 2: at at Racing lou games by knowing, Hey, people who
Speaker 2: go to uf L games, even people who go to
Speaker 2: UK games, those are people who do enjoy sporting events.
Speaker 2: And and you know, I'm just curious how much you
Speaker 2: know do you would you say a big chunk of
Speaker 2: your fan base. I mean, they're probably wearing purple at
Speaker 2: every game, so you wouldn't know for sure, but like
Speaker 2: I would imagine a lot of the of the core,
Speaker 2: big of the big fans for for for the club,
Speaker 2: are either red or blue. Right, I'm just curious, do
Speaker 2: you get a sense for is there more red? Is
Speaker 2: it more blue? Again, you'll take either either or right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I don't care if you're If you show
Speaker 4: up and you're wearing Neon orange, you.
Speaker 2: Could be a Kenny Payne fan and and you you'll
Speaker 2: let them.
Speaker 4: In, right, Yeah, and that'll that'll at least fill one row.
Speaker 4: But but no, I mean, I think you know, it's
Speaker 4: really I'm just kidding. I'm sure he's a nice guy,
Speaker 4: but but no, I I uh, yes, that is a
Speaker 4: it's a great question, and it's and it's true, it's definitely,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's Skew's probably red just because of us
Speaker 4: being a Louisville based team, but we've got a lot
Speaker 4: of Indiana fans also nice a fair amount of like
Speaker 4: of tops, w k U tops and of course Bellerman
Speaker 4: here in town, like license plates and stuff like that
Speaker 4: in the parking lots of games, so it's widespread. There's
Speaker 4: a reason why our teams are purple. That's what you
Speaker 4: get when you combine red and blue. So I mean,
Speaker 4: it's it's kind of a fun chance to be the
Speaker 4: team for everybody, right, And and you know, I think
Speaker 4: people kind of put away their swords, at least I
Speaker 4: hope put away their swords for two hours rooting for
Speaker 4: the same team, and then after that they can go
Speaker 4: back to the fistfights and the dialysis clinic. But but yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's kind of a fun side note of of
Speaker 4: being a team here that's not connected to UK or
Speaker 4: U of L. You know, we're friends with both, and
Speaker 4: we welcome everybody to these games, so it's a fun mix.
Speaker 4: There's only one pit fan in the stadium for each game, though.
Speaker 2: And that's you.
Speaker 4: That's you, that's me.
Speaker 2: So right now, this this, I know, they look pretty good,
Speaker 2: bouncing back after a bad season where you the only
Speaker 2: good thing have been for you is you beat Louisville,
Speaker 2: which I still can't believe that happened. But this matchup
Speaker 2: with with the Kansas City Club, obviously you guys have
Speaker 2: played them already once this year was a draw, I
Speaker 2: believe in what was a pretty exciting game. It sounds
Speaker 2: like sort of some what are some takeaways from that
Speaker 2: first that first draw that you know, you think that
Speaker 2: you guys could capitalize on. Obviously, they're a good team,
Speaker 2: they're they're they're sitting ahead of you guys in the standings,
Speaker 2: But I think the first match shows that you guys
Speaker 2: clearly can compete with them, and it wouldn't be a
Speaker 2: big shocker if you were able to pull off the victory.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we can compete with any team in the league.
Speaker 4: But yeah, Kansas City, great environment. It was a wild game.
Speaker 4: Like you said, it was two to two going into
Speaker 4: the added time. I know that's it can be a
Speaker 4: confusing topic. But at the end of the game, the
Speaker 4: injury at a time, uh, and they scored like a
Speaker 4: minute into the injury time, and usually in soccer, I
Speaker 4: mean that's that's a game winner. But we scored at
Speaker 4: literally like right before the referee was going to blow
Speaker 4: the whistle. Uh, Savannah Demelo or start midfield. They're dribbled
Speaker 4: through like five players and scored and the whistle blew
Speaker 4: like I think literally right after she scored. So this
Speaker 4: pretty wild game there that the fans were chanting refuse suck,
Speaker 4: thirteen thousand strong or whatever the number is there as
Speaker 4: we're walking off, I mean you could feel the field
Speaker 4: vibrating as people were shouting. People didn't leave their seats,
Speaker 4: and that's awesome when you're on the road. I mean,
Speaker 4: what an awesome feeling is, Like everybody's angry about the
Speaker 4: result that your road team just pulled, and it's in
Speaker 4: that case we travel with twenty plus our staff, So
Speaker 4: it was like thirty five forty strong louisvillions in the
Speaker 4: middle of this just rowdy, angry place. It was pretty fun.
Speaker 4: But yeah, they are a very very fun team to watch.
Speaker 4: Hate to admit it, but they're very fast. They're very
Speaker 4: up and down. They score a ton of goals. They
Speaker 4: lead the league in goals. They've got the league's leading
Speaker 4: goal scorer, a player from Malawi in Africa. She's unbelievably fast.
Speaker 4: We've got our work cut out for us, so it's
Speaker 4: not going to be easy. But like you said, it
Speaker 4: was a draw in the end. We've never lost to
Speaker 4: them at home before in the six games that we've
Speaker 4: played them here in Louisville, so this would be a monster,
Speaker 4: monster win for us. Late in the season, we got
Speaker 4: four games left and we're still pushing hard for our
Speaker 4: first playoff appearance. So if you want to get into
Speaker 4: the playoffs, you've got to beat the teams that are
Speaker 4: already qualified for it and are expected to be championship contenders, and.
Speaker 2: They need you guys to show up out there tomorrow
Speaker 2: because it's going to be a beautiful night. If you
Speaker 2: bring your Louisville Football ticket, you will get in free,
Speaker 2: which hell, that's a free night of entertainment. Obviously, you
Speaker 2: know you can purchase the bruise and have some great
Speaker 2: food that they've got out there. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: works out perfect. As you mentioned, the noon game for
Speaker 2: football and then you guys get it started at seven
Speaker 2: point thirty and I expect you will have a good
Speaker 2: crowd on a beautiful night out there on a Saturday.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you on a real quick question. I know,
Speaker 2: before you were in the soccer world as your gig,
Speaker 2: you obviously covered U of L for a long time.
Speaker 2: Louisville Live. That became a thing during the Chris Smack era.
Speaker 2: I think they did it one year when Kenny was
Speaker 2: here for his two years. Any thoughts on you know,
Speaker 2: not what we're going to see tonight, but like you've
Speaker 2: all didn't have one of these for a really long
Speaker 2: time when Rick was here. Obviously you were here for
Speaker 2: a great chunk of his tenure and we didn't have
Speaker 2: this kind of an event I mean, you don't really
Speaker 2: get to learn a whole lot about the team. It's
Speaker 2: not a competitive thing. But like, I'm really glad. I know,
Speaker 2: you know, college troops really well. There were so many
Speaker 2: programs of Louisville's caliber that had an annual thing for
Speaker 2: decades where they kind of tip it off and really
Speaker 2: just party and introduced the team and whatnot. So this
Speaker 2: year they're doing it at the Yum Center tonight. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know, you know, this is a brand new team
Speaker 2: here where we've only seen just two games in the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: but you know, Louisville Live. I'm not surprised to see
Speaker 2: it's become a big thing for Louisville fans, given you
Speaker 2: know that we don't have to worry about losing to
Speaker 2: Kentucky Westling. You just can go watch them, you know,
Speaker 2: dunk and shoot three pointers.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, look, I think it's I think that stuff
Speaker 4: is just so smart. And you know, I remember in
Speaker 4: college they did they when I went to pitt they
Speaker 4: did something like this. This street that's mostly a pedestrian
Speaker 4: street between the Cathedral learning and the and the student
Speaker 4: union that you know, has always packed with people, and
Speaker 4: it kind of reminded me. It was very similar to
Speaker 4: the Four Street Live Louisville Live that they did with
Speaker 4: Chris Mack and I just look, I think it's just
Speaker 4: such an important thing for a team in modern college sports,
Speaker 4: and you really can't I mean, basketball is the one
Speaker 4: you can really do it for because it is a
Speaker 4: smaller space, but it's such an important marketing tool. It
Speaker 4: just gets people kind of hyped up for the season.
Speaker 4: And then on top of that, of course it's a
Speaker 4: big recruiting tool as well. And I'm sure you remember
Speaker 4: the signs for aidany Gahon and and you know all
Speaker 4: the different signs that the yeah, the Irish Hohole. Can
Speaker 4: you know, you can you know, insert recruit here. You
Speaker 4: know your students are going to show up and have
Speaker 4: some signs for them and stuff. So yeah, I think
Speaker 4: it's really important. I know the Young Center is probably
Speaker 4: a more traditional venue for it than you know, do
Speaker 4: in the quirky different Churchill Downs or Four Street Live
Speaker 4: or whatever, But I just think it's I think it's
Speaker 4: a really essential item to have, as you mentioned, for
Speaker 4: a program of Louisville's caliber, and even if you're not
Speaker 4: like a fan of that team, like I've wanted to
Speaker 4: go to Kansas their little I don't know what they're.
Speaker 2: Ving, something about the fog.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I just feel like that would just
Speaker 4: be kind of a cool experience to be there. So
Speaker 4: but yeah, people have lots of reason to be excited
Speaker 4: about Louisville basketball, so give them the event that they want.
Speaker 4: You know, we're right around the corner from these exhibitions
Speaker 4: getting going and college basketball being back, which is I mean,
Speaker 4: just an incredible feeling of football. But basketball is just
Speaker 4: a whole other planet for me, and kicking that stuff
Speaker 4: off with events like this is always fun.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, Sam, I totally agree, Jeff. I appreciate
Speaker 2: you making time for us. I expect you guys. We'll
Speaker 2: have a great crowd on hand tonight, and best of
Speaker 2: luck to the club. Hopefully they can get the victory.
Speaker 4: All right, Thanks so much, Nick, you guys out.
Speaker 2: There take care. That's Jeff Breer. Always appreciate him making
Speaker 2: sound for us again. Bring your Louisville football ticket tomorrow
Speaker 2: night to the to the soccer game Racing lou and
Speaker 2: you get in free. Hell of a deal. All right,
Speaker 2: quick break, We'll come back on the other side right here.
Speaker 2: On Sports Talk seven ninety. We're wrapping up the four
Speaker 2: o'clock hour here on a Friday afternoon coffee and company,
Speaker 2: fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. We'll finish
Speaker 2: strong here in the five o'clock hour. Been pretty guest
Speaker 2: heavy thus far, but we're wide open in the five
Speaker 2: o'clock hour, and there's a lot I want to get
Speaker 2: to before we get out of here for the weekend,
Speaker 2: including a slate of games on Saturday. Overall, that is
Speaker 2: not I mean, it's probably the most underwhelming schedule of
Speaker 2: the season in regards to like big matchups. But hey,
Speaker 2: I think now that people can not everybody bets on games.
Speaker 2: I get it, but like I've never really felt like, okay, like,
Speaker 2: for example, some of the biggest games where you really
Speaker 2: don't know what's going to happen, because like Alabama Georgia,
Speaker 2: I didn't touch that one. In fact, I did take
Speaker 2: I ended up taking Georgia plus twenty one and a
Speaker 2: half when they were getting hammered and I ended up
Speaker 2: it was a very small play, so it wasn't like
Speaker 2: a big win or anything like that, but like move though,
Speaker 2: well they were getting killed and I just felt like
Speaker 2: they'll end up keeping it closer than that, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Yeah, so true, they were down twenty one.
Speaker 2: They had just scored. I'm sorry, I think they scored
Speaker 2: to make it twenty eight to seven, and then the
Speaker 2: line in live was twenty one and a half. And
Speaker 2: I feel like, Okay, you know, they're not going to win,
Speaker 2: but I have a feeling that they'll be able to
Speaker 2: at least make I thought at that time, they're probably
Speaker 2: gonna lose by seventeen, but you know, put a small
Speaker 2: play on it, you know, and it worked out. But
Speaker 2: some games that would not be interesting as far as entertainment,
Speaker 2: can be really intriguing for you because you might you
Speaker 2: might have a certain feel for a team, Like there's
Speaker 2: always a team every year, and I haven't figured out
Speaker 2: that team yet this year, maybe I don't. Maybe maybe
Speaker 2: the street comes to an end. But there's a team
Speaker 2: every year that I end up betting on more than
Speaker 2: like half of the season, and I went every time.
Speaker 2: Last year. Uh it was Ole Miss actually Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 2: I mean, they were they were really good at covering
Speaker 2: spreads as favorites, and they were really good at covering
Speaker 2: spreads as dogs where they wouldn't went out right, but
Speaker 2: they'd keep it competitive. Year before that it was like
Speaker 2: Boston College, I think. And then there's some teams like that,
Speaker 2: you that you really fade, which depending on what happens
Speaker 2: tonight in that non interesting game between Houston and TCU.
Speaker 2: But if if if Houston continues to be, you know,
Speaker 2: the team they've been in the last few weeks, they
Speaker 2: just they may be a team we just fade, right, John,
Speaker 2: because they're really really bad. Like there are teams that
Speaker 2: you look at the record and think like, wow, man,
Speaker 2: they must they must really just really stink, and then
Speaker 2: you go look a little further at the numbers and
Speaker 2: you realize, oh, they're they're god awful. I mean, Houston
Speaker 2: plays TCU tonight, Houston hasn't scored a single point in
Speaker 2: three weeks. I mean, that's and it's weird. He crazy
Speaker 2: is normally a good, formidable program. Yeah, and they've got
Speaker 2: resources too. So whoever whoever took over for Dana, Dana Holgerson,
Speaker 2: he'll get he'll get it. He'll get a couple of
Speaker 2: years for sure. But they won't. They won't let somebody
Speaker 2: be this bad very long because they've got again, just
Speaker 2: like SMU SMU in fact, the state of Texas. Every
Speaker 2: school in Texas for the most part, has you know,
Speaker 2: Texas oil money from some of their boosters in alum
Speaker 2: or just fans that have the ability. SMU raised one
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars to go to the ACC so they
Speaker 2: could say, yeah, well we'll, we'll, we'll. All we need
Speaker 2: is an invite. We don't need any money from you
Speaker 2: right now. Well we'll wait years down the line to
Speaker 2: get some some of that revenue share. We've got people
Speaker 2: who will support us in this transition to where we're
Speaker 2: not going to be dependent upon TV money, which not
Speaker 2: many schools can do that, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Houston sucks, and tonight I'm taking them. The
Speaker 2: more I think about it, John, the more I'm thinking
Speaker 2: I need to just take TCU to cover. But I
Speaker 2: don't trust them a whole lot either. So the Unders player,
Speaker 2: I think you just don't like Unders. The Unders Unders
Speaker 2: are just I mean again, like it's what.
Speaker 3: You're talking about, bets that we would make previously or
Speaker 3: in years past. For me, it was Iowa the under.
Speaker 3: But this don't think they're doing that. I think their
Speaker 3: offense is a little more formidable.
Speaker 2: Well, and what it turns out, is that, like you
Speaker 2: realize that that the books just can't quite get a
Speaker 2: team figured out, like Louisville under Bobby the last year
Speaker 2: and really Louisville under Kenny Payne. We watch them and
Speaker 2: we put ourselves through the torture of watching them every
Speaker 2: game because we're fans, so we really know deep down
Speaker 2: like how bad they are and how there really is
Speaker 2: no result that would surprise you as far as how
Speaker 2: bad they get beat. But the books are looking at Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: we know they're down, but they got Bobby Patrino, They've
Speaker 2: got some decent players. I mean, yeah, Louisville Kenny Payne's
Speaker 2: the worst coach of all time. But you know they're
Speaker 2: playing UNBC. Well, they're looking at it from you know,
Speaker 2: an aerial view far away. We're looking at it right
Speaker 2: in front of the car wreck, and we know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're they might win, but they're not covering eleven against anybody.
Speaker 2: So anyways, real quick, before we get to the top
Speaker 2: of the hour, here, let's talk once again about my
Speaker 2: friends over at the Jefferson Animal Hospital. I'm sure you
Speaker 2: guys listening many of you have pets. I used to say,
Speaker 2: I don't have a pet because, like I feel like
Speaker 2: I would be lying because we have a dog, but
Speaker 2: like it's because my wife when got a dog. I
Speaker 2: have very little to do with said dog. However, you know,
Speaker 2: he's he's a good dog. Like he he doesn't get
Speaker 2: my way, he doesn't annoy me, so I care for him.
Speaker 2: He's part of the family. You know, he's you know,
Speaker 2: he's not he's not like my kid. But you know,
Speaker 2: I now feel comfortable in saying, yes, I have a
Speaker 2: dog and he's my pet. Are you proud of me? John?
Speaker 2: I am proud of you. I mean not that I'm
Speaker 2: like ever anti animal, It's just I've never had the
Speaker 2: relationship with a pet that a lot of people have had,
Speaker 2: growing up with one when they were kids and whatnot.
Speaker 2: So but I understand how important your pets are to you.
Speaker 2: They're they're part of your family. They're a big part
Speaker 2: of your life. So that's a bit, that's that's something you want,
Speaker 2: that's something you take serious. So if something is to
Speaker 2: happen to them, you need to know what you're gonna do. Well,
Speaker 2: I telling you what you're gonna do. You're gonna reach
Speaker 2: out to Jefferson Animal Hospital, on outer loop because they're
Speaker 2: open twenty four hours, three hundred and sixty five days
Speaker 2: a year, every day, even Christmas. They've got a doctor
Speaker 2: on site in case of an emergency. But it doesn't
Speaker 2: have to just be an emergency. Let's just say you
Speaker 2: want to get your pet checked out, make sure they're healthy,
Speaker 2: make sure there's not something that you need to get
Speaker 2: you know, need to need to be treating, whether it
Speaker 2: be some kind of condition or something like that. So
Speaker 2: you can give them a call anytime. Five O two
Speaker 2: nine hundred Pets is the number. Jefferson Vets dot com
Speaker 2: is the website, and they'll be happy to hear from you.
Speaker 2: That's what they do, right, They they put you at
Speaker 2: ease knowing you're gonna do the best, knowing that they're
Speaker 2: gonna do the best they can. They keeping your pet
Speaker 2: healthy and uh, they've been doing it for a long time, folks,
Speaker 2: since nineteen eighty that's forty four years. So again, Jefferson
Speaker 2: Animal Hospital, Jefferson Vetts dot com is the website. You
Speaker 2: can give them a call. Easy number to remember, it's
Speaker 2: five O two nine hundred pets all right, five o'clock
Speaker 2: hours next as we keep this thing rolling along getting
Speaker 2: your set for the weekend. It is coffee, any company,
Speaker 2: feel both Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety
Speaker 4: Very less, anything,