Speaker 1: Let's get the five o'clock hours. Started off here as
Speaker 1: a game day edition of Coffee and Company, fuel by
Speaker 1: Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety Nick Coffee, that's
Speaker 1: me Radio, Rick Ryder alongside today. Austin will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow and I think we'll also in the next couple
Speaker 1: of days we'll welcome back the company man, mister John
Speaker 1: Alden to join us as well. But Rick's been holding
Speaker 1: down for us over the last couple of days. Always
Speaker 1: a pleasure to work with you.
Speaker 2: Rick.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, and I hope I'm not
Speaker 1: overstepping here, but you're married, right.
Speaker 3: That's right, forty seven years.
Speaker 1: So if you mind me asking how did you and
Speaker 1: your wife meet?
Speaker 3: Well, we actually met at a singles function at a
Speaker 3: local church.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. You couldn't have given me a better answer.
Speaker 1: You say, forty seven years.
Speaker 3: Forty seven years.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, that's awesome. I got a lot more to go.
Speaker 1: My wife and I we've been together. This may will
Speaker 1: be our thirty fourteenth anniversary, which is crazy, how fast, crazy,
Speaker 1: how fast life goes. But I saw something here during
Speaker 1: the break that it doesn't really surprise me. Just you know,
Speaker 1: when you give it some thought, but it's a breakdown
Speaker 1: of how couples have met from nineteen thirty to now
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. And of course, as you could expect,
Speaker 1: it used to be, you know, way back in the
Speaker 1: days we're talking in the seventies and the eighties. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was you met your significant other through friends, mutual friends,
Speaker 1: maybe coworkers, or you met them at a borrower restaurant,
Speaker 1: you were introduced to them with family, and then by
Speaker 1: the time we got to really guess what year was it.
Speaker 1: And it's a really cool video that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: scan through because it just shows you each year what
Speaker 1: the percentage of couples that exist, you know, And it's no,
Speaker 1: it's not a perfect science, but it's just I guess,
Speaker 1: a survey to figure out how you know, of all
Speaker 1: the people that are together, whether they're couple or their
Speaker 1: married or whatever it may be, how they met. And
Speaker 1: when you got to right around two thousand and eleven,
Speaker 1: that is when it shifted to where the majority the
Speaker 1: leading way people have met is online. And now as
Speaker 1: we sit in twenty twenty four, it's set sixty percent
Speaker 1: have now have met on the couples that are together.
Speaker 1: Sixty percent of them they met online. Thirteen percent roughly
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen percent is they met through friends. So my
Speaker 1: wife and I we were high school sweethearts, as they say,
Speaker 1: I mean, we met long before high school. We grew
Speaker 1: up together. But yeah, you know, I just I never
Speaker 1: really give it much thought because again I can't relate.
Speaker 1: But I guess it does make sense given where we
Speaker 1: are technologically and how we're on our devices at all times.
Speaker 1: It's a convenient thing that I guess it shouldn't surprise
Speaker 1: me that to see that the majority of people that
Speaker 1: are now together they ended up meeting via the Internet,
Speaker 1: rather it be Facebook or a dating app or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, forty seven years congratulations, man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's all such things online.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're going together. Well, let me ask you
Speaker 1: this whenever. And I love that you said going together
Speaker 1: because that's old school. I like that when you all met,
Speaker 1: was that sort of like a I mean, I would
Speaker 1: imagine that was one of the more frequent ways for
Speaker 1: people to meet and potentially see if they find a
Speaker 1: match and you know, become become an item.
Speaker 3: Right, That's pretty much the way it was we met.
Speaker 3: It like I said, this church function, I was in
Speaker 3: radio full time at that time and we were I
Speaker 3: was m seing a dance where I was playing the records.
Speaker 1: And she knew you were the one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess she came up to the stage and
Speaker 3: you made quite an impression.
Speaker 1: Clearly.
Speaker 3: She kept asking for songs, and finally I got her
Speaker 3: phone number and the rest is history.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, good stuff, good stuff there, forty seven years.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you guys. I hope to make it to
Speaker 1: forty seven as well. But yeah, good stuff. All right.
Speaker 1: So let's just talk really quickly about the Bellerman game.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to I don't want to dismiss it,
Speaker 1: like you know, we're just going to spend a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes on it. But I also don't think the
Speaker 1: game itself, as far as the matchup is something that
Speaker 1: is that is all that intriguing. But maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: But for me, other than this game, as far as
Speaker 1: the scheduling, and that's something we've talked about throughout the
Speaker 1: first couple of hours. If you are just now joining
Speaker 1: us again, disclaimer, I mean, I think most people, at
Speaker 1: least I hope most people hear what I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: they're not necessarily having selective hearing. I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: I'm anti Louisville Bellerman and that they shouldn't play. I'm
Speaker 1: fine with them playing. Love Scotty Davenport. I want to
Speaker 1: see Bellerman do well, and if it's good for them,
Speaker 1: then great. I just I think you're going to see
Speaker 1: some programs, and maybe not this one. Maybe Pat Kelsey
Speaker 1: doesn't care, but I think you're going to see some
Speaker 1: programs some coaches, I should say not programs, but coaches decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: we really need to beef up our non conference schedule.
Speaker 1: As we just talked with Cel Brown there in the
Speaker 1: four o'clock hour, the ACC has really emphasized when it
Speaker 1: comes to non conference scheduling. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: fact I mean, it's true it started right before the pandemic,
Speaker 1: because I remember Chris Mack was pretty vocal about it
Speaker 1: on his Coaches Show one time. Now you've got a
Speaker 1: bunch of teams in the ACC that are going and
Speaker 1: scheduling teams in the three hundreds, and then they would
Speaker 1: mess around and lose to one of them, and that
Speaker 1: would really bring the whole league down in a way.
Speaker 1: And that's when you started to see the slow decline
Speaker 1: of opportunities to get quad one real valuable wins in
Speaker 1: league play. I mean the ACC. I mean it's fallen
Speaker 1: off substantially in basketball. I mean it used to be
Speaker 1: every week you had at least one. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was. It would be a rare
Speaker 1: week to not have an opportunity in league play from
Speaker 1: like January to March to get a real valuable win.
Speaker 1: Maybe not a win that's going to get you, you know,
Speaker 1: a big boost when with your resume, but a win
Speaker 1: that's got value. And now you see so many ACC
Speaker 1: teams scheduling teams in the three hundreds, and some of
Speaker 1: them will mess around and lose, and it just it's
Speaker 1: a killer of the league. So you know, with that
Speaker 1: in mind, if Bellerman stays kind of where they are,
Speaker 1: I just think it wouldn't be a shocker if you
Speaker 1: find out that the ACC is advising Louisville to not
Speaker 1: play those kind of teams and therefore they're going to
Speaker 1: not do it. Now, what I hope happens, and I
Speaker 1: could certainly see this happening, is that coach Davenport's program
Speaker 1: they end up kind of getting back to where they
Speaker 1: were when they first made the jump to Division One.
Speaker 1: They're not there right now. They've had a couple of
Speaker 1: tough losses here. They're zero to four on the season,
Speaker 1: and they were up nearly twenty points. I think it
Speaker 1: was against Southern Indiana and let that one slip away
Speaker 1: got to be a heartbreaker for coach Davenport and his team.
Speaker 1: And then I think even VMI is another team they
Speaker 1: played that they I don't know if they were in control,
Speaker 1: but it was a close game that they could have
Speaker 1: easily won. The other losses have come against the other
Speaker 1: losses have come against vm I or I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: v I BCU, who they played to start the season,
Speaker 1: and that's a tough game for him. They lost that
Speaker 1: win eighty four to sixty five. And then they did
Speaker 1: lose to Marshall on the road this past weekend by
Speaker 1: twenty one. So if you go back, let me. Actually,
Speaker 1: I can do it right here in the Ken Palm formula.
Speaker 1: Here we go. So Bellerman they finished twenty and thirteen
Speaker 1: in the year two thousand two, and they were ranked
Speaker 1: number two hundred in the kin Pom. When it's all
Speaker 1: said and done, that team is a team you should
Speaker 1: absolutely play because you know, well they might beat you.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was a good Scott Davenport team, and
Speaker 1: usually his teams are good. This team may be good too.
Speaker 1: They're just not really in that position right now, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately the last two years have led to them just
Speaker 1: not really being in a great spot when it comes
Speaker 1: to these numbers. In twenty twenty one, they finished one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty seventh in the kin Pom. So again,
Speaker 1: that's not like something to brag about for a lot
Speaker 1: of programs, but for Bellerman, a team that is still
Speaker 1: brand new really to Division one, that's great. So if
Speaker 1: they end up, you know, and I hope they do,
Speaker 1: and I believe they will get back to that level,
Speaker 1: then it's a different conversation. But as they currently sit
Speaker 1: in the three hundreds, it's just it's a game that
Speaker 1: if in fact coach Kelsey or even another team right like,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Bellerman's schedule here this year. They're not
Speaker 1: as loaded as they as they have been in previous
Speaker 1: years with the non conference opponents. But in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two they played Perdue, Gonzaga, CLA, West Virginia. You know,
Speaker 1: those are teams that maybe now they're looking at Bellermant
Speaker 1: and saying, yeah, we we we probably are going to
Speaker 1: pass on that one. I'm not saying that they are.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I mean, it would make total sense if
Speaker 1: coach Davenpore doesn't want to go out there and schedule
Speaker 1: that kind of a start to a season like he
Speaker 1: did a few years ago. So again, I just if
Speaker 1: you're somebody that really does enjoy these games, and you
Speaker 1: really love it because you're a Louisville fan, but you
Speaker 1: graduated from Bellerman or vice versa, enjoy it because you know,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't shock me if at some point these games
Speaker 1: this game isn't played. But here's Pat Kelsey yesterday when
Speaker 1: asked about the future of of this series.
Speaker 4: Uing in the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, he was first of all one of
Speaker 2: the first people to call me or text me and
Speaker 2: congratulate me, you know, when I got the job here,
Speaker 2: and it's been good to me over the years. We've
Speaker 2: talked x's and o's. You know, Doug I mentioned I
Speaker 2: worked with he was a GA at Xavier when I
Speaker 2: was the associate head coach there and ironically when I
Speaker 2: got my first head coaching job at Winthrop. I hired
Speaker 2: Doug as my director of basketball operations, and he was
Speaker 2: on the job for exactly thirty six hours and walked
Speaker 2: in and looked like he had seen a ghost. And
Speaker 2: I said, Doug, what's wrong you ges? Coach, I gotta
Speaker 2: talk to you about something. And I said, Doug's what's wrong?
Speaker 2: And he goes, I just got a call from coach
Speaker 2: Patino and or he offered me a job at the
Speaker 2: University of Louisville. I said, get your butt out of
Speaker 2: here right now, don't pass go, don't collect one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: So you know, I just have a lot of respect
Speaker 2: for Scott and I think it's good for the city.
Speaker 1: So you know, it is good for the city as
Speaker 1: far as giving both fan bases an opportunity to, you know,
Speaker 1: get together, watch these two teams play, and you know,
Speaker 1: like I get it, this is a much more preferable
Speaker 1: game around here than other teams in that caliber. And
Speaker 1: if that, if that alone is enough to say, hey,
Speaker 1: let's you know, if you're gonna play, let's put it
Speaker 1: this way. If you're gonna play one team, which typically
Speaker 1: you probably are going to play at least one team
Speaker 1: that is in that caliber then make a Bellarman like,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that, but you know, Morehead, they're also
Speaker 1: sort of in that same tier. So if I had
Speaker 1: to choose between one of the two, I would go
Speaker 1: Bellerman because of the obvious reason. But you know, I
Speaker 1: knew I should have just been a little bit more
Speaker 1: mindful of making this a talking point because it's probably
Speaker 1: already you know, people think I'm like, well, you got
Speaker 1: a good Bellerman, nothing at all, nothing at all. But
Speaker 1: what I've just tried to emphasize is that this is
Speaker 1: really something you know, and I know that Bellerman looks
Speaker 1: at it this way, like this is something that they
Speaker 1: probably appreciate that Louisville's willing to add them to their schedule,
Speaker 1: and I hope that they don't change that, but if
Speaker 1: they did, I'll just say that I won't I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be shocked. Now. As far as what I hope to
Speaker 1: see tonight from this team, one, I hope that they win,
Speaker 1: and I hope that it's not not close, because you know,
Speaker 1: you need to be I mean, by the way, real quick,
Speaker 1: just some numbers here. Louisville opened up at twenty one
Speaker 1: and a half. As far as being favored they opened
Speaker 1: up twenty one and a half point favorites as of now,
Speaker 1: it is now twenty eight and a half. That is
Speaker 1: the biggest line movement of any matchup that you have
Speaker 1: here in college basketball tonight. So you'd have to win
Speaker 1: this game by twenty nine points to cover, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if they will, but I hope they do,
Speaker 1: which makes me sound mean because I don't want coach
Speaker 1: Davenport to get blown out, but you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: the that's the preference for me tonight is that Louisville
Speaker 1: wins and they cover, and it's not even really about covering.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they could win by thirty and
Speaker 1: it might it may not actually benefit them when it
Speaker 1: comes to the to the formulas out there and the
Speaker 1: analytics and whatnot. But anyways, as far as what's on
Speaker 1: the court, you know, I think this is probably going
Speaker 1: to be a game where you see Pat Kelcey and
Speaker 1: his team be able to get into what they want
Speaker 1: to do, because I actually think Bellerman, you know, they're
Speaker 1: not going to want to have a track meet. That's
Speaker 1: not really the way they play, but they will, you know,
Speaker 1: let's take advantage of opportunities that they have to get
Speaker 1: some quick threes up if they've got good looks. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know coach Chadnbore has always built his team with
Speaker 1: some guys who can clearly shoot the ball. But I
Speaker 1: think Louisville will you. I don't know if they're gonna
Speaker 1: look like they did against Morehead Stay, but what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be interested to see. And Seal Brown touched on
Speaker 1: this a little bit during our conversation the four o'clock hour.
Speaker 1: You know, rotations like are you gonna continue to use
Speaker 1: your bench to where it's not necessarily about Okay, let's
Speaker 1: put Cora and Johnson in there because we really want
Speaker 1: to utilize something he's got in his bag. Or is
Speaker 1: it going to be based off of your style? Because again,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to explain it without sounding like such
Speaker 1: a dumbass, but Pat Kelsey at Winthrop and at Charleston
Speaker 1: and even early on here at Louisville in the exhibition games,
Speaker 1: in the Morehead Stay game, the success and the results
Speaker 1: were based more so off of a style of play
Speaker 1: than any specific player or players. Was not about who
Speaker 1: you have, it's what you're doing, and look, you can
Speaker 1: win that way against these kind of teams. And look,
Speaker 1: you may be able to win that way against a
Speaker 1: lot of teams when you have a roster that is
Speaker 1: built with a little bit more overall talent. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to say these guys are talent lists, but
Speaker 1: Pat went out and was able to get a team
Speaker 1: that really they fit a role, they fit a need
Speaker 1: for him to play the specific style that they want
Speaker 1: to play. But as we saw against Tennessee, you're not
Speaker 1: always going to be able to do that against good
Speaker 1: teams that are, you know, built like Rick Barnes's Tennessee
Speaker 1: teams are built. Belement is not going to give you
Speaker 1: a realistic look that can see if you really did
Speaker 1: get better when you play those kind of teams like Tennessee.
Speaker 1: But I will be paying attention to see if maybe
Speaker 1: the you know, the rotations are a little bit different,
Speaker 1: right do you do you try to get into some
Speaker 1: half court sets to you know, to to generate some
Speaker 1: good looks that aren't just okay, hey we got we
Speaker 1: got a good look there from three. It was within
Speaker 1: rhythm and everybody on the floor for the most part,
Speaker 1: has the green light. If we want to have as
Speaker 1: many possessions as possible, you know, and I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: shocked if they don't get into that, because they probably
Speaker 1: won't really need to, but it does give you a
Speaker 1: chance to kind of work on some stuff, and you'll
Speaker 1: know that it being effective tonight potentially won't mean for
Speaker 1: sure that it's going to be effective when you play
Speaker 1: Indiana or West Virginia or Arizona or Gonzaga next week
Speaker 1: when you're in the Bahamas, but you know it'll give
Speaker 1: you a chance to get some repetition at that for
Speaker 1: when you do get to the Bahamas and play those teams.
Speaker 1: So wouldn't shock me at all if we see a
Speaker 1: very more head state like performance where they're able to
Speaker 1: get into what they want to do and they just
Speaker 1: kind of overtime build a big lead and win it
Speaker 1: without much trouble at all. And that would be a
Speaker 1: fine result, because again, what I've accepted is that in
Speaker 1: order to kind of feel, in order to get any indication,
Speaker 1: if the ten day break, and I'm sure they work
Speaker 1: their tail off, and I know that Pat Kelsey's the
Speaker 1: kind of coach that will utilized that type of a
Speaker 1: setback and get better from it. In all as, and
Speaker 1: I think the guys on this team As far as
Speaker 1: the personnel, the mature guys you had that you have
Speaker 1: that played a lot of college basketball, I would imagine
Speaker 1: they probably have a good mindset because you know, they
Speaker 1: were humbled. I'm sure they didn't expect to go out
Speaker 1: there and lose to Tennessee that the way they did.
Speaker 1: So these two games in between Tennessee and the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: there's there's opportunity there to get better. But I've just
Speaker 1: accepted that. As far as me being able to figure
Speaker 1: out if they really are going to be able to
Speaker 1: compete better against teams like Tennessee, you won't find that
Speaker 1: out until next week when they are in when they're
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas. So I also, you know, I make
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see if if coach Davenport does want
Speaker 1: to slow it down, you know one, even though clearly
Speaker 1: he's more familiar with Louisville I would imagine than a
Speaker 1: lot of other teams out there, just because of you know,
Speaker 1: him being a Louisville guy. I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he's he's he's watching games like a fan like like
Speaker 1: all of us, and not coaching his team and scouting
Speaker 1: their opponents. But you know, take a little bit out
Speaker 1: of it. I know coach Davenport is really good at
Speaker 1: scouting opponents and being prepared and knowing what your opponent's
Speaker 1: about to do out there. So maybe that does give
Speaker 1: you some opportunities to run some half court sets because
Speaker 1: they're able to kind of keep you from doing what
Speaker 1: you want to do. I mean that, you know, I
Speaker 1: guess that wouldn't be ideal, but then again, it would
Speaker 1: give you opportunities to work on some stuff in the
Speaker 1: half court to where because I can already tell now
Speaker 1: like one thing that fans are just gonna start complaining about.
Speaker 1: I'm not even really being critical of fans, because like
Speaker 1: I get it. I would just encourage you to accept
Speaker 1: it and understand that that's what they're going to do.
Speaker 1: But like it started, even in the exhibitions, while we're
Speaker 1: shooting so many threes, well we keep jacking it up.
Speaker 1: Well that's what they want to do. And that's not
Speaker 1: to say that some of these shots are are not
Speaker 1: bad shots, because clearly some of them probably are shots
Speaker 1: that you know, Pat Kelsey wishes they would have had
Speaker 1: a little more movement, maybe a couple more passes within
Speaker 1: the possession to get a better look. But they got
Speaker 1: the green light. They want as many possessions as possible.
Speaker 1: They're going to space it out. Sometimes they're going to
Speaker 1: have five guys out on the floor and that's going
Speaker 1: to lead to a lot of three point shots every
Speaker 1: single night. And sometimes they're going to shoot it well
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're not. Now, they didn't shoot it well
Speaker 1: against Tennessee, we know that. But they didn't shoot it
Speaker 1: well against Morehead State either. I mean, it wasn't as bad,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't great. But you know what, it didn't
Speaker 1: matter because they were able to get into their style
Speaker 1: and they forced a ton of turnovers. It's, by the way,
Speaker 1: they've only played two games, so maybe this number is
Speaker 1: a little bit skewed, which it is. It's almost meaningless
Speaker 1: considering you only have two results to get these numbers from.
Speaker 1: But Louisville right now forces more turnovers than anybody in
Speaker 1: the country. So you know what that does is if
Speaker 1: you have an off shooting night and you're able to
Speaker 1: turn your teams over and play fast, you can potentially
Speaker 1: put up a lot of fast break points. That's why
Speaker 1: you probably didn't notice that they shot it as poorly
Speaker 1: as they did against Morehead State because they were able
Speaker 1: to turn all of Morehead State's turnovers into I think
Speaker 1: it was thirty one points off turnovers. So that's the
Speaker 1: recipe that you wont I think that Morehead stay game
Speaker 1: is to a t the way he wants his teams
Speaker 1: to play maybe a little bit better on the backboard. Clearly,
Speaker 1: I think he wants them to make more the reason
Speaker 1: they did, and he knows that they can. But as
Speaker 1: far as stylistically, that is what they want to do.
Speaker 1: But you're clearly not going to be able to do
Speaker 1: that against certain teams. And again we won't be able
Speaker 1: to see how they I want to say get better,
Speaker 1: but like I mean, I want to see a different plan.
Speaker 1: Not to say you abandon who you are and you
Speaker 1: try to create a new identity. That wouldn't make any sense,
Speaker 1: but you got to be able to go to something
Speaker 1: different whenever you have kind of lost the battle as
Speaker 1: far as the style of play. All right, let's do this.
Speaker 1: Let's get to a quick break. We'll come back on
Speaker 1: the other side. Talk a little bit about the college
Speaker 1: football playoff rankings. We're gonna get an update tonight. And
Speaker 1: if you're somebody that's annoyed by all the chatter about
Speaker 1: these rankings that don't matter, because the only ones that
Speaker 1: are going to matter are the ones at the end
Speaker 1: of the year, and it's all going to play itself out.
Speaker 1: You're not wrong, and I've got some evidence that really
Speaker 1: shows you how wild these next two weeks are going
Speaker 1: to be because there's so many teams that technically are
Speaker 1: still alive right now, but a lot of them play
Speaker 1: each other to where in the next week, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's going to be you're going to be eliminating a
Speaker 1: lot of teams. So we'll get into that. And I
Speaker 1: don't know which side to take, the SEC side of
Speaker 1: the Big ten side, because you know, the SEC is
Speaker 1: just out there acting like, come on, you can't tell
Speaker 1: me that these these Big ten teams like Penn State
Speaker 1: and Indiana are better than Georgia and Alabama. And I
Speaker 1: kind of agree with the SEC side of it. But
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's not about who you
Speaker 1: believe is better. It's about what you did to give
Speaker 1: yourself the opportunity to go play for a college football
Speaker 1: national championship, like you think. People debated if Northern Illinois
Speaker 1: was good enough to beat Notre Dame. No, because nobody
Speaker 1: thought it would happen, but it did, so I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to defend the SEC, but I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like that I have to. But then again,
Speaker 1: I find myself thinking, Okay, well the SEC shouldn't keep
Speaker 1: getting the benefit of the doubt, and they should play
Speaker 1: none like they should play non league games too, by
Speaker 1: the way, So we'll finish strong and last but not least,
Speaker 1: I want you to hear Cali Perry because if you're
Speaker 1: a Kentucky fan, you may not have any feeling on this,
Speaker 1: but I know there's some Kentucky fans that might like
Speaker 1: to hear that he's having to get on the microphone
Speaker 1: and beg Arkansas fans to give away their tickets if
Speaker 1: they purchase them, and they're not going to come because
Speaker 1: that's how bad attendance has been for them. And I
Speaker 1: think there's one specific reason why that's the case, and
Speaker 1: I don't hear anybody else talking about it. So we'll
Speaker 1: get to that as well. So stick around. We'll finish
Speaker 1: strong here in these next thirty five minutes or so
Speaker 1: right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now back to
Speaker 1: coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven
Speaker 1: nine day. That's right, we're back here coffee and company,
Speaker 1: fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety four our
Speaker 1: five o'clockers. We did discuss the news yesterday and there's
Speaker 1: really not a whole lot to add to it. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't something I was ignoring by any means. The
Speaker 1: arrest for Louisville football player Teon Holloway, charged with felony strangulation,
Speaker 1: strangulation and misdemeanor domestic assault. He was trying to smoke
Speaker 1: marijuana at about nine pm in an apartment with a woman.
Speaker 1: She apparently tried to stop him from doing that, and
Speaker 1: he allegedly threw the woman off the bed, struck her
Speaker 1: in the face with his fists. When she tried to
Speaker 1: fight back, he allegedly put a pillow over her face,
Speaker 1: smothering her for about ten seconds before attempting to throw
Speaker 1: her out of the room. That's all according to the
Speaker 1: police report. So terrible look for everybody involved. I don't
Speaker 1: think that this is a a I don't think this
Speaker 1: is reflective of the program as far as the culture
Speaker 1: and what Jeff Brahm has here. I think this is
Speaker 1: an isolated incident, and I think it will be an
Speaker 1: isolated thing. And as far as you know how this
Speaker 1: plays out for Holloway, you know he'll be fighting this
Speaker 1: in court and we'll see. You know, he's obviously entitled
Speaker 1: to the process that everybody is. But to have that
Speaker 1: happen and him be the guy that is in the
Speaker 1: news for a terrible reason. He's also somebody that you
Speaker 1: know had a I mean, back to back days for
Speaker 1: him were probably days he'd like to do over one
Speaker 1: for a clearly much more serious and real life awful
Speaker 1: thing than committing a penalty. But I know I'm not
Speaker 1: the only one that saw the news that it was
Speaker 1: that a louisvill football player was arrested and saw the
Speaker 1: name and thought, wait a second, isn't that Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It's the same guy who committed the penalty there towards
Speaker 1: the end of the game, the unsportsmanlike conduct for a
Speaker 1: sideline shove fifteen yard penalty that moves Stanford closer of course,
Speaker 1: for them to break our hearts. So I would imagine that.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I guess another thing to update
Speaker 1: those of you that have not seen the statement from Louisville,
Speaker 1: they did mention that they're aware of it. They're they're
Speaker 1: monitoring the situation, getting more info. But until further notice,
Speaker 1: Tayon Holloway has been suspended indefinitely from all team activities.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the college football playoff rankings.
Speaker 1: I really don't have any. I mean, I would imagine
Speaker 1: that tonight you're going to see the top five stay
Speaker 1: exactly where it is. Indiana's probably going to move up
Speaker 1: with BYU losing to Kansas. I'm sorry, Notre Dame is
Speaker 1: probably going to move up with BYU losing to Kansas.
Speaker 1: I would imagine Miami maybe they can move up because
Speaker 1: of some other losses that took place in this late
Speaker 1: in the process. Because here's my thoughts on it. I
Speaker 1: think initially the first few weeks should get these rankings.
Speaker 1: You're really just kind of seeing, you know, the first
Speaker 1: look at what the committee thinks of you and your conference,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But when you're this late in
Speaker 1: the year and there's twelve teams that get in and
Speaker 1: a lot of these teams that are fighting for spots
Speaker 1: are going to play each other either in the regular
Speaker 1: season or in the conference championship, like you kind of
Speaker 1: know that there's going to be the games where you
Speaker 1: figure out. It's not a matter of what the committee
Speaker 1: decides to do. Now, there may be others. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's not to say that every that all twelve spots
Speaker 1: are going to be worked out for themselves. There may
Speaker 1: be a couple of teams that get in, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a tough decision for the committee and that
Speaker 1: will be get your popcorn ready entertaining, because they're just
Speaker 1: gonna have to pick one and use and trust their
Speaker 1: judgment and not rely on metrics and numbers and not
Speaker 1: rely on because again, if they did that, like if
Speaker 1: they were just going to rely on numbers and results
Speaker 1: with a little bit of you know, an eye test component,
Speaker 1: then you'd have a lot of teams that we know
Speaker 1: are gonna make it be left out. Like right now,
Speaker 1: like Texas. Texas is nine and one. Texas lost at
Speaker 1: home to Georgia quality loss. If they don't beat Texas
Speaker 1: A and M this weekend, they should be removed from
Speaker 1: the top twenty five of the college Football Playoff rankings
Speaker 1: because they will have no when we're speaking of they
Speaker 1: won't be and I don't think the committee would put
Speaker 1: them in, but they might. You never know. They're at
Speaker 1: number three right now? How can you justify Texas at
Speaker 1: three when their best win is Vanderbilt when you have
Speaker 1: other teams that also have just one loss, like YU.
Speaker 1: I mean SMU at fourteen. I think they're ranked better,
Speaker 1: They've got a better resume than Texas, But nobody would
Speaker 1: tell you that Texas isn't better than SMU because just
Speaker 1: just just be honest with us, Like you're basing it
Speaker 1: off of brand reputation and perceived benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: And I think some people are admitting that, but they're
Speaker 1: doing it selectively right like who was it might have been?
Speaker 1: Let me see if I can pull this up here.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, this is this is this is Ryan
Speaker 1: Rosillo because I hear him and I don't necessarily disagree.
Speaker 1: But you know, like there's all kinds of games and
Speaker 1: results in sports over the years that going in you
Speaker 1: would have never said that these team teams should be
Speaker 1: able to play because you know one's way better than
Speaker 1: the other, and then you get an upset like that
Speaker 1: that's what and that what makes sports great? Like why
Speaker 1: play a regular season if you're going to have such
Speaker 1: a factor in deciding who gets to play in the
Speaker 1: playoff based off of what you believe in, what you've
Speaker 1: seen over time, rather than just direct results in one season.
Speaker 1: Here's Todd McShay and Ryan Rousseilo yesterday on the FanDuel
Speaker 1: TV network. I have Georgia ranked ahead of Indiana.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got no problem with it. I sent a
Speaker 4: text to our team yesterday like, how in the hell, like,
Speaker 4: in what world is Penn State in Indiana better than
Speaker 4: Georgia all Miss Alabama, Tennessee. I just don't see it.
Speaker 4: They're just not I get it, like your resumes and
Speaker 4: records and all that stuff, but they're just not.
Speaker 1: So I take a little bit of an issue with
Speaker 1: the with with with how he was so definitive, because again,
Speaker 1: you know how many teams have won in the postseason
Speaker 1: and the NAA Tournament in a best of three series
Speaker 1: or best you know, like, like how many times have
Speaker 1: you seen somebody win and move on in a postseason
Speaker 1: or win a championship? And you know that if they
Speaker 1: played the same team they beat ten times, they probably
Speaker 1: don't win another game like that? Sports, it's sports. What
Speaker 1: are we doing now? A playoff that didn't feature any
Speaker 1: of these teams he's referencing. I also feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that because because look, I'm willing to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: you are just going to have to to just guess
Speaker 1: there's not there's no way to like let it let
Speaker 1: it play itself out, because I mean, it's just impossible
Speaker 1: with the way you've got only twelve regular season games,
Speaker 1: you've got a bunch of conferences that have now expanded
Speaker 1: when there's no division like this is probably gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty routine where you end up with situations like this, right,
Speaker 1: a bunch of one loss of potentially two loss teams
Speaker 1: in other leagues, and you're just gonna have to, you know,
Speaker 1: let a certain part of the twelve team playoff play
Speaker 1: itself out and see who gets in. But then the
Speaker 1: committee's just gonna have to tell us who they think
Speaker 1: is better, and we're just gonna have to accept it.
Speaker 1: Like last year, you could have made the case that
Speaker 1: an SEC team didn't get in, but I couldn't tell
Speaker 1: you that I think that the SEC being left out
Speaker 1: of the playoff would would make any sense because it
Speaker 1: just seems unheard of, right because the SEC is the
Speaker 1: best league. But if there's not ever a statement made
Speaker 1: that you can't just live off that, then then forever
Speaker 1: you're gonna get. I mean, maybe I don't think that
Speaker 1: the SEC is scared of playing some of these teams,
Speaker 1: but like, go play nine games to remove more of
Speaker 1: the doubt that like you are in fact the best
Speaker 1: league and you'd have less teams in a situation like
Speaker 1: Texas that hasn't beaten anybody in your league we're talking
Speaker 1: about and they're at number three in the playoff rankings.
Speaker 1: You know why based off of last year only and
Speaker 1: you know their brand, Like, just tell us that the
Speaker 1: only justification that you can make for Texas being number
Speaker 1: three is because of what you think of them, not
Speaker 1: because of what they've done, and what you think of
Speaker 1: them is based off what last year they broke through
Speaker 1: with Tom Herman and made the four team playoff. I
Speaker 1: meant to say, Sorr, Tom Herman just got fired at FAU. Apologies,
Speaker 1: So like, I don't think that's crazy, but just tell
Speaker 1: us that that way, there's a little bit more of
Speaker 1: an understanding. But you know what else can be done
Speaker 1: when it comes to last year, and this is where
Speaker 1: it just gets it gets you're talking not even a
Speaker 1: year ago. You're talking benefit of that out history historically,
Speaker 1: you know, Indiana beat this year pretty badly. The two
Speaker 1: teams that played for the National Championship Game a year
Speaker 1: ago they getting Are they getting credit for that? Because
Speaker 1: Texas is getting credit for making the playoff last year?
Speaker 1: Should Indiana get credit for beating the two teams Michigan
Speaker 1: and Washington and really bully them. Should they get credit
Speaker 1: for that too? Like you know, it's it's so again.
Speaker 1: I find it actually pretty entertaining just to see all
Speaker 1: these different like, oh wow, like they're gonna get in,
Speaker 1: but man, they didn't earn it, and it's easy to
Speaker 1: just get you know, to sit back and get into
Speaker 1: it without really any dog in the fight because obviously
Speaker 1: Louisville is not gonna get in, and obviously the ACC.
Speaker 1: I can't sit there and tell you that I believe
Speaker 1: that league is as good as the SEC or the
Speaker 1: Big Ten. And you know what I believe is that
Speaker 1: the SEC is substantially better. Like what he's saying about Georgia, Ole,
Speaker 1: Miss Alabama and Tennessee, I do believe they're better than
Speaker 1: Penn State in Indiana. But I'm also willing to tell
Speaker 1: you that should matter. It should be about what you do.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's just restart the twelve team playoff over
Speaker 1: again if the team that's ranked number one didn't win it.
Speaker 1: Because you can't tell me they're not better. You can't
Speaker 1: tell me that. You can't you can't well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can tell you. Whatever results are results, And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: with a twelve team playoff and a twelve game regular
Speaker 1: season in college football, you're just gonna have results that
Speaker 1: that lead to this. And it's kind of chaotic and
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun from the outside looking in. But man,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know Indiana fans are real worried about
Speaker 1: losing to Ohio State and it and them not getting in.
Speaker 1: So I don't really think there's gonna be a whole
Speaker 1: lot of shake up tonight where you're like, wow, can
Speaker 1: you believe they did that? In fact, I shouldn't have
Speaker 1: lied to you. I'm sure you'll find it if you
Speaker 1: go look for it. Meaning teams that feel like, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, this is the week where the committee really
Speaker 1: screwed them and they don't feel like it's justified like that.
Speaker 1: That's certainly something that I could see, you know, playing
Speaker 1: out by the way real quick. I'm gonna run through
Speaker 1: these games that you have over these next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks because these are the most consequential games for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season that will determine the playoff. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Ohio State in Indiana. I mean, if Indiana wins this,
Speaker 1: they're in and Ohio State, their season is essentially I
Speaker 1: mean not over, but for Ohio State and what you
Speaker 1: paid for that roster and what you paid to go
Speaker 1: bring in chip Kelly, Like, yeah, I mean, it may
Speaker 1: be over for those guys too. Notre Dame in Army.
Speaker 1: Notre Dame is still alive, and if they beat Army,
Speaker 1: they'll be beating an undefeated Army that's nine to zero.
Speaker 1: Now a loss from it's crazy. A loss would give
Speaker 1: them a quality loss, but like not your typical quality loss.
Speaker 1: And I mean I have Notre Dame. I'm sure it'll
Speaker 1: be discussed. But they benefited from losing to Northern Illinois
Speaker 1: and not being in a conference this year because they
Speaker 1: can just run the table and you know, pick up
Speaker 1: a couple of quality wins and they're able to you know,
Speaker 1: not even get into the back and forth about who's
Speaker 1: the best in a certain league because they're not in
Speaker 1: a league. Florida and Ole Miss, Now that's obviously a
Speaker 1: big time matchup for ole Miss who wants to keep
Speaker 1: their playoff hopes alive. Florida's five and five and they
Speaker 1: did just beat LSU, so a loss for ole Miss
Speaker 1: here would eliminate them for sure. And in fact, you know,
Speaker 1: they got to win out in order to even have
Speaker 1: a chance. But Billy Dapier, I mean, let's be real,
Speaker 1: Lan Kiffin was the name everybody said was going to
Speaker 1: be taking his job when he got fired, or at
Speaker 1: least that was the hope from Florida fans, So it
Speaker 1: be quite the spoiler for billiy Napier if he could
Speaker 1: pull off that big upset. I don't predict it happens.
Speaker 1: And then Virginia plays SMU. That's not a big game
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, SMU should be able
Speaker 1: to take care of business. But obviously SMU, they were
Speaker 1: one loss they had to BYU took a little bit
Speaker 1: a little bit of a hit with BYU losing to Kansas,
Speaker 1: so they probably need to win and win big in
Speaker 1: order to keep hope alive for them. Arizona State and BYU.
Speaker 1: Arizona State has been one of the best stories in
Speaker 1: college football, by the way, four and a half wins
Speaker 1: was the total on the over under, and now here
Speaker 1: they are eight and two and BYU, you know, again
Speaker 1: they're coming off a loss that clearly changes some things
Speaker 1: for them. A win for BYU keeps them alive. A
Speaker 1: loss would certainly end the chances of them being able
Speaker 1: to to get in, at least I would assume, although
Speaker 1: again what I keep doing is not remembering, and I remember,
Speaker 1: I just don't take any if you win your league
Speaker 1: in when like when you're conference championship, you're in regardless.
Speaker 1: So I guess what it comes down to is have
Speaker 1: you eliminated yourself from playing for your league championship because
Speaker 1: if you're still alive, even like there's some teams that
Speaker 1: will probably make it to where they got to win
Speaker 1: their league to get in. There's some teams that the
Speaker 1: only hope is to win their league in order to
Speaker 1: get in, and if they lose one of these games
Speaker 1: in the next couple of weeks, obviously that changes their
Speaker 1: ability to do that. So I think that's probably it
Speaker 1: as far as well Clemson in South Carolina that one,
Speaker 1: of course we played at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: South Carolina is not going to make the playoff, but
Speaker 1: they are a dangerous team, no doubt, and a win
Speaker 1: over Clemson would mean that the only way Clemson could
Speaker 1: get in was to win the ACC Championship, which they
Speaker 1: might do Tennessee eight and two. They obviously are a
Speaker 1: two loss team hoping that things work out their way,
Speaker 1: but a loss to Vandy woul obviously eminate that. So
Speaker 1: you know, there's no perfect way to do it. And
Speaker 1: I think what it's going to come down to this
Speaker 1: year is just everybody talking about, all right, who do
Speaker 1: you think is better? I mean, the SEC are the
Speaker 1: Big ten, and I believe that the SEC is better.
Speaker 1: But I also don't think that that, you know, that
Speaker 1: should be the way to go about it. Like if
Speaker 1: you lost two games and you only play an eight
Speaker 1: le eight game league schedule and you're playing the Citadel
Speaker 1: and you know, Popcorn State in Week nine, Like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think you should get the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: And if it was based off of like who you
Speaker 1: just think is better, that's not how this works, man,
Speaker 1: That's not how sports works. You know, many teams win
Speaker 1: every night in any sport across the globe that you know,
Speaker 1: if they play more often than not, they're not better
Speaker 1: than the opponent they just beat. I mean, this thing
Speaker 1: has become such a and I love it. It's it's
Speaker 1: created so much conversation and so much more inclusion in
Speaker 1: the college football world. But it also it's it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy to see how this is going to play out.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean like who gets in, but like
Speaker 1: every year this is going to be the same type
Speaker 1: of scenario. I think