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Speaker 3: Company with Nick Coffee today at three on Sports Talk
Speaker 3: seven nine Day. It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled
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Speaker 4: Here's Nick Coffee?
Speaker 5: All right, Happy hump Day, Welcome in coffee and company,
Speaker 5: fuel by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety Nick Coffee,
Speaker 5: that is me. Appreciate you hanging out. We're taking you
Speaker 5: up until six o'clock. So sit back, relax, make yourself
Speaker 5: at home. I say we because I'm not alone. The
Speaker 5: one and only radio Rick Ryder is alongside today. Rick,
Speaker 5: you mind me asking a question? I should have given
Speaker 5: you a heads up, but that's ok.
Speaker 1: He old? Are you don't mind me asking your age?
Speaker 6: I'm seventy two years old.
Speaker 5: Seventy two years old. When did you get into this
Speaker 5: world that we call broadcasting radio? Well?
Speaker 6: Actually, I got my first job right out of high school.
Speaker 6: I got a job at a radio station here, working
Speaker 6: fill in and part time. And they called me up
Speaker 6: right after they hired me. A week after hiring me,
Speaker 6: and they said, we got somebody going on vacation next week.
Speaker 6: Can you come in every day and do afternoon drive?
Speaker 6: And at that time I was going to college and
Speaker 6: I had a couple of classes in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: So it was.
Speaker 6: But it was between two things, going to class, like
Speaker 6: I was supposed to or skip PLU, skip class for
Speaker 6: a week and be on the radio. So I chose
Speaker 6: skip class for a week and be on the radio.
Speaker 1: There we go.
Speaker 5: I assume a lot of people would probably have done
Speaker 5: the same thing. But uh, you know, you've been you've
Speaker 5: been with me on the air here, here and there
Speaker 5: for for many years now, and people hear you on
Speaker 5: KSR as well, and somebody I thought to myself, I'm
Speaker 5: gonna rememb to bring this up next time we've got
Speaker 5: Rick in producing the show, because somebody said that you
Speaker 5: have the best radio voice they've ever heard, and I thought,
Speaker 5: you know what, he's got the smooth tones, he's he's
Speaker 5: a he's a pioneer in the radio industry. So we're
Speaker 5: talking that's gotta be. Is that fifty ish years ago?
Speaker 6: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, goodness, gracious, we've got a legend with us today
Speaker 5: and we're happy as always when he's here.
Speaker 1: So like they're saying, radio Nick, that's right.
Speaker 5: That's right, good stuff. So we're with you until six o'clock.
Speaker 5: So again, sit back, relax, make yourself at home. I
Speaker 5: have no guest schedule today, so feel free to give
Speaker 5: us a call. Five h two, five seven one seventy
Speaker 5: nine hundred is the number. It is Game day Louisville
Speaker 5: and UTEP. And yes, these are the kind of games
Speaker 5: that I try not to complain about them being on
Speaker 5: the schedule, you know, especially not on the show, because
Speaker 5: I know it's nothing you can control, and I get
Speaker 5: that there's there's and I don't want to say certain fans.
Speaker 5: I think every fan enjoys watching their team play, but obviously,
Speaker 5: you know you want to see your team, maybe not tested,
Speaker 5: but you want to know going into a game that
Speaker 5: you or playing somebody that if you beat them and
Speaker 5: you look good doing it, there's something you can really
Speaker 5: take from that. And UTEP is not one of those teams.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: They're not Duke, they're not All Missed. They're not West Virginia,
Speaker 5: they're not Oklahoma, they're not Indiana, they're not Tennessee. But
Speaker 5: they should be, you know, put it this way, they're
Speaker 5: probably Winthrop area, if you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 5: they're better than Bellerman, they're better than Morehead State, probably
Speaker 5: around the Winthrop level, but a little bit better. And
Speaker 5: you got to keep in mind, Louisville now is not
Speaker 5: the same team they were when they played these kind
Speaker 5: of opponents previously. You don't have Cason Pryor anymore. Korin
Speaker 5: Johnson only played a couple of games before you lost
Speaker 5: him for the season, and Trey Ora same thing. He's
Speaker 5: not played I think since maybe the Tennessee game. So
Speaker 5: you know, I'm hoping that Louisville's able to come out
Speaker 5: tonight and win and not make us sweat it out
Speaker 5: to where we're worried about suffering really the first bad loss,
Speaker 5: because that's what this would be. So I'm actually a
Speaker 5: little more excited for this game than I usually would be,
Speaker 5: because you know, you need to win. You've lost three
Speaker 5: in a row and they haven't been to bad teams.
Speaker 5: But you know, when you play these kind of teams
Speaker 5: before you get into conference play, you better win because
Speaker 5: if not, I mean, it would be a big black
Speaker 5: eye on your resume. And it's really tough to even
Speaker 5: project what Louisville's resume is going to be like when
Speaker 5: we you know, when we get towards the end of February,
Speaker 5: close to March, I mean, I don't think anybody truly
Speaker 5: knows and I get why there are many that aren't
Speaker 5: as optimistic about this team maybe being a bubble team
Speaker 5: tournament type team, just because of how things have gone
Speaker 5: thus far. And it's not really anybody thinking that, you know,
Speaker 5: I know that the excuses are not what anybody wants
Speaker 5: to hear, and you're not gonna hear from Pat Kelsey
Speaker 5: because he's gonna make sure these guys don't give themselves excuses,
Speaker 5: don't feel sorry for themselves. They're going to continue to
Speaker 5: go out there and try to win games, regardless of
Speaker 5: who's on the schedule, and do whatever they've got to
Speaker 5: do to try to compete and win.
Speaker 1: But like we, I think everybody.
Speaker 5: Realizes this is your first year in a new era
Speaker 5: that was clearly needed in a major way, and who
Speaker 5: knows how good this team really would be at full strength,
Speaker 5: But I think we saw enough to feel like they
Speaker 5: could easily be a tournament team at full strength. I mean,
Speaker 5: maybe they could end up being a you know, top
Speaker 5: twenty caliber team at full strength. I mean, it's tough
Speaker 5: to say, and we'll really never know because obviously you
Speaker 5: had injuries that happened early. But it just feels like
Speaker 5: Louisville basketball has been through a lot over the years.
Speaker 5: I mean, they haven't made a tournament in what two
Speaker 5: last time they made the tournament was twenty nineteen, so
Speaker 5: five years ago. They haven't made the second weekend in
Speaker 5: ten years. Think about that. The last time Louisville basketball
Speaker 5: made it to the second weekend. This season here is
Speaker 5: the ten year anniversary for that. And there's been a
Speaker 5: lot of nonsense going on, right, Coaches getting fired, scandals,
Speaker 5: I mean, it's been you know, NCAA sanctions. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's just been. Man, it's been awful. You know, I
Speaker 5: had to say that, but it kind of has. Right,
Speaker 5: You've had to deal with that really has nothing to
Speaker 5: do with your team's just losing games. You're dealing with
Speaker 5: stuff that's just, you know, nonsense. So you've had all
Speaker 5: that going on, and yet now here you are, where
Speaker 5: you've turned the page a new era. Pat Kelsey as
Speaker 5: your head coach. He put a team together that who
Speaker 5: knows if they were good enough to be, you know,
Speaker 5: a real contender, but I think he did put a
Speaker 5: team together that you feel like would be fun to
Speaker 5: watch and would surely make the tournament. And now they've
Speaker 5: got this bad luck of injuries to where it's just
Speaker 5: you know, it sucks, it can it can certainly make
Speaker 5: you feel defeated. But I'm gonna sound corny here, but
Speaker 5: it's just it's just it's just how I feel. I
Speaker 5: think we're going to continue as a fan base to
Speaker 5: be motivated, and you know, I don't maybe motivated it's
Speaker 5: not the right word, because our motivation we don't we
Speaker 5: don't actually play, We have no impact on what happens
Speaker 5: in the game and whatnot. But I just think these
Speaker 5: guys are going to continue to play hard. I think
Speaker 5: they're going to steal a game or two that maybe
Speaker 5: they aren't supposed to win. I hope, and I do
Speaker 5: believe that they can avoid losses to teams like you
Speaker 5: see tonight on the schedule in uten and there's gonna
Speaker 5: be a lot of bad teams you play in the ACC,
Speaker 5: and I think, despite being shorthanded, they're going to continue
Speaker 5: to be able to win those games because you know,
Speaker 5: the mindset of the guy leading this whole thing right
Speaker 5: now is really really important.
Speaker 1: I mean it always is.
Speaker 5: I not to go back to the previous regime, but
Speaker 5: you know, I think I've always known this, but a
Speaker 5: real reminder for me during the Kenny Pain era is
Speaker 5: that a coach is a leader. You can lead in
Speaker 5: different ways. You can coach with different styles, like you're
Speaker 5: there's a lot of different ways to do it, and
Speaker 5: there's different ways to do it and be successful. But
Speaker 5: I don't think there was any bit of me. Kenny
Speaker 5: wasn't a leader, And you know, we learned that the
Speaker 5: hard way. He probably learned that the hard way. But
Speaker 5: Pat Kelsey is a leader, and I think a really
Speaker 5: good one. And you can say it's corny and it's
Speaker 5: it's certainly not something that's going to win you ball games, right.
Speaker 5: His energy, his enthusiasm is optimism. Like you can have
Speaker 5: all that, but if you can't coach, you don't have
Speaker 5: good players, you don't have a good strategy, then like
Speaker 5: none of it matters. But I feel like it will
Speaker 5: matter as far as getting the most out of this
Speaker 5: current team this season, because look, they are who they are.
Speaker 5: They're not They're not getting Prior back this year. They're
Speaker 5: not getting They're not getting Corn Johnson back. Trey Ora
Speaker 5: will see it. Sounds like he's still a few weeks away,
Speaker 5: and I hope that he comes back. But we are
Speaker 5: in a world now to where if the half the
Speaker 5: season's already gone and you've lost a handful of games,
Speaker 5: maybe he just decides, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna sit
Speaker 5: out the rest of the year. I mean, I'm not saying,
Speaker 5: you know, it's still that weird area to where like
Speaker 5: I don't know if like that's insulting the young man.
Speaker 5: Maybe he's just chomping at the bit to get out
Speaker 5: there and play. But like players now have the ability
Speaker 5: to kind of, you know, sit out and get an
Speaker 5: extra year. I mean, that's exactly what Colin Lacey did
Speaker 5: on the football side. So there's been some talk of
Speaker 5: him adding some kind of an international player during the
Speaker 5: semester break, but I mean, I don't have any info
Speaker 5: as far as if that's for sure gonna happen, and
Speaker 5: whoever it would be, I have a hard time thinking
Speaker 5: they would make, you know, a huge impact. It would
Speaker 5: probably be somebody that just gives you another body. So
Speaker 5: I kind of feel like it's played out up to
Speaker 5: this point to where, you know, the things that Pat
Speaker 5: Kelsey showed us the day he got here and introduced
Speaker 5: himself to all of us in his press conference and
Speaker 5: really won it in a major way. I think those
Speaker 5: things are really really important as far as again getting
Speaker 5: the most out of this current situation. And we'll see
Speaker 5: what happens tonight. I expect this team to come out
Speaker 5: and play well, be ready to play, and hopefully they
Speaker 5: take care of business and win this game without making
Speaker 5: us have to worry a whole lot about it as
Speaker 5: far as if you know, if it's in doubt. But
Speaker 5: I still think that the way they came out and
Speaker 5: played against Duke Man, they would have really been easy
Speaker 5: to go through the motions a Sunday at six o'clock
Speaker 5: against one of the best teams in the country. You've
Speaker 5: already lost two in a row, you got blown out
Speaker 5: the game before. Confidence couldn't have been high when they
Speaker 5: just missed open shot after open shot against Ole Miss.
Speaker 5: But they came out, they still played with confidence. They
Speaker 5: clearly recalibrated some things offensively as far as what they
Speaker 5: want to do. And I you know, I know what
Speaker 5: I sound like, sound like, you know, a loser, a
Speaker 5: guy who loves moral victories. But I'm just being honest
Speaker 5: and transparent with you. I think that there was some
Speaker 5: positives from that game, and tonight I'm hoping they can
Speaker 5: carry that over despite it being a loss that they
Speaker 5: suffered against Duke. And you also got to keep in
Speaker 5: mind this the last time this this group's gonna get
Speaker 5: some real repetition against a real team before they play
Speaker 5: Kentucky on Saturday. And I said this yesterday, why not
Speaker 5: say it once more? I still there's I've not it.
Speaker 4: I have to.
Speaker 5: I've had to just randomly kind of remind myself when
Speaker 5: I think about this weekend. You know, when I think
Speaker 5: about this weekend, I'm not you know, I'm to the
Speaker 5: point now where at my age, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna try to remember. I know my wife has
Speaker 5: probably told me some things we're gonna be doing. She's
Speaker 5: probably made plans and arrangements for me, but I don't
Speaker 5: really remember before I ask her, and then she gets
Speaker 5: on me for not listening to her. I'm gonna try
Speaker 5: to remember what it is. So then I go through
Speaker 5: you know, what I know is going on this weekend,
Speaker 5: And twice in the last couple of days, I've had
Speaker 5: to think, Okay, yeah, I guess it is the Louisville
Speaker 5: Kentucky game, but like, it doesn't feel like it in
Speaker 5: any way.
Speaker 1: It is earlier than he usually is.
Speaker 5: But you know, I just I wish Louisville would be
Speaker 5: at full strength here because in look, Kentucky's not a
Speaker 5: full strength either. They're gonna be without Kirk Crisa for
Speaker 5: a while. Lamont Butler didn't play against Gonzaga. I would
Speaker 5: imagine he'll probably be back for the Louisville game. But
Speaker 5: the rivalry is renewed with both programs having new coaches that,
Speaker 5: as far as the offseason, did a really good job
Speaker 5: at getting their fans excited about this new chapter for
Speaker 5: both Louisville basketball and Kentucky basketball. I just you know,
Speaker 5: I know Louisville's not even close to being the team
Speaker 5: that that we we knew that was built, right, the
Speaker 5: team that was assembled to go out here and get
Speaker 5: off get this Pat Kelsey air off to a good start.
Speaker 5: But hey, maybe maybe you know, I guess crazier things
Speaker 5: have happened. All right again, it's coffee and Company, and
Speaker 5: we are feel about Thornton's here on a Sports Talk
Speaker 5: seven ninety. Don't forget. You can take us with you
Speaker 5: wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 5: Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com and if
Speaker 5: you want to be a part of the show today,
Speaker 5: you can do it again. We don't have any guest scheduled,
Speaker 5: so give us a call five way two five seven
Speaker 5: one seventy nine hundred.
Speaker 1: That is the number to call in.
Speaker 5: You can also text in on the Ellen and Federal
Speaker 5: Credit Union text line BABO two six by three zero
Speaker 5: seven ninety. Questions, complaints, complements, insults, whatever you've got, feel
Speaker 5: free to shoot them our way. The Bill Belichick stuff
Speaker 5: is happened in folks. I know it was a big
Speaker 5: topic yesterday, just as far as knowing that there were
Speaker 5: reports that it was I guess close to being finalized,
Speaker 5: and then you didn't really get any kind of final
Speaker 5: confirmation that it was happening.
Speaker 1: And now you've got I mean.
Speaker 5: It would be there'd be a lot of retraction if
Speaker 5: in fact this is not real. But inside Carolina, it's
Speaker 5: an outlet that's covered Carolina for a long time. They've
Speaker 5: got over one hundred and forty thousand followers on Twitter.
Speaker 5: I believe they are a part of the on three
Speaker 5: Sports network. I believe they are the ones who I
Speaker 5: think today are are putting it out. They're putting their
Speaker 5: name on it. As they say, and letting you know
Speaker 5: that Bill Belichick, they're finalizing the deal and he is
Speaker 5: going to be North Carolina's new head coach. And I
Speaker 5: don't want to regurgitate and give you the same opinions
Speaker 5: thoughts that I had yesterday. But here we are twenty
Speaker 5: four hours later, and I still don't understand how this
Speaker 5: makes sense. I mean, the only thing that I can
Speaker 5: can see from the Belichick side that would make it
Speaker 5: make sense is that he just wants to get a
Speaker 5: gig at the college level, have a little bit of success,
Speaker 5: show that he can still despite you know, not in
Speaker 5: my in my opinion, I don't see I think he
Speaker 5: is the most unattractive candidate you could ever find as
Speaker 5: far as just somebody that you know is eager and
Speaker 5: ready to succeed in this new world of college football.
Speaker 5: I mean, he's clearly a Hall of Fame coach. He
Speaker 5: was phenomenal with with with the Patriots, like we all
Speaker 5: know that, but like, how does that translate to where
Speaker 5: you're going to be really good in college? So, like,
Speaker 5: you know, the only thing that makes sense is that
Speaker 5: he brings his son to be the DC and then
Speaker 5: whenever Belichick moves on maybe either go back to the
Speaker 5: NFL or to you know, retire because he's in his seventies. Maybe,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe at that point, you know, that to
Speaker 5: me would at least make it make sense as to
Speaker 5: why he was so wanting this job at North Carolina.
Speaker 5: But from the Carolina side, other than saying, you're hiring
Speaker 5: a legend, what is.
Speaker 1: The benefit here?
Speaker 5: I mean again, I know he's been phenomenal as a coach,
Speaker 5: but I just feel like the current college football player
Speaker 5: out there that wants to talk in IL that knows
Speaker 5: they don't really have to take you being a jerk, right,
Speaker 5: they can they can leave. I mean, if you're going
Speaker 5: to be in a hole and do the you know,
Speaker 5: break him down then build them up, players can decide, yeah,
Speaker 5: I don't really want to do that. I don't have
Speaker 5: to do that anymore. I know that's the old school
Speaker 5: way instead of you know, this process of you breaking
Speaker 5: me down and really just coaching me up and challenging me.
Speaker 5: I don't really want to do that because I can leave,
Speaker 5: I can hit the portal like I just don't. I
Speaker 5: just think the compatibility right now with Belichick in the
Speaker 5: new world of college football is just it just makes
Speaker 5: no sense for this move, but it's happening, and I
Speaker 5: mean it gives the ACC I guess some notoriety like
Speaker 5: it gives the ACC some attention, meaning you know, now
Speaker 5: you now know people are going to be tuned in
Speaker 5: more so than they probably would be if it wasn't
Speaker 5: Bill Belichick getting this job because people want to see
Speaker 5: how it's gonna work, you know, how he's gonna do.
Speaker 5: I mean, imagine like four years ago telling somebody that
Speaker 5: Bill Belichick will be coaching the North Carolina football program.
Speaker 5: And imagine telling somebody four or five years ago that
Speaker 5: Dion Sanders would be at Colorado and have you know
Speaker 5: the Highestman Trophy winner on his roster. I guess he
Speaker 5: hasn't won it yet, but he probably will. So it's happening.
Speaker 5: Belichick is uh is gonna be the North Carolina football coach,
Speaker 5: and I still just don't quite get it. All right,
Speaker 5: some other things we'll get into today. We now know
Speaker 5: what Tyler Shuck's going to do, and as expected, he's
Speaker 5: not going to play in the bowl game, and I
Speaker 5: think that makes total sense.
Speaker 1: But now I'm curious.
Speaker 5: It's Okay, who's gonna be your quarterback in this game specifically, because.
Speaker 1: If in fact, you.
Speaker 5: Lose more quarterbacks to the portal, I mean you've already
Speaker 5: lost Brady Allen. Like, I just feel like if Pierce
Speaker 5: Clarkson is ever gonna show us something, and I don't
Speaker 5: want to act like he's shown us that he can't play,
Speaker 5: but he just hasn't. You know, he's never been the
Speaker 5: starter because there's been guys that have been ahead of him.
Speaker 5: So this may be, you know, I mean, who knows,
Speaker 5: maybe this is like the only game he ever starts
Speaker 5: here at quarterback because they're going to bring in somebody
Speaker 5: in fact that that's somebody's on campus now if it
Speaker 5: ends up being Miller Moss who's visiting the USC transfer
Speaker 5: so we can certainly get into that. Also, we've got
Speaker 5: a breakdown of the amount of money that the NIL
Speaker 5: collectives across the country has brought in in the year
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four, which of course is about to come
Speaker 5: to an end before too long. And we'll tell you
Speaker 5: where Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana came in as far as how
Speaker 5: much money their collectives have been able to round up. Also,
Speaker 5: Mark Stoops, I don't know the specifics, but i'll certainly
Speaker 5: try to get it. But I saw that he's had
Speaker 5: he's having offseason surgery. I don't think it's anything serious,
Speaker 5: but man, the responses the comment section of these posts
Speaker 5: about his surgery, Like, man, it's just another reminder that
Speaker 5: that fan base hates this guy right now. And I
Speaker 5: say right now specifically because I think they do appreciate
Speaker 5: what he did, but they want him gone in a
Speaker 5: major way. And it just is a reminder that this
Speaker 5: thing has a much much more like it's much more
Speaker 5: likely for this thing with Stoops and Lexington to end
Speaker 5: really ugly than it does for him to like go
Speaker 5: out on a positive note. I mean, he's gonna have
Speaker 5: the opportunity because he's not going anywhere. They're not firing him.
Speaker 5: But man, I just don't know what they're gonna end
Speaker 5: up doing to get fans energized for football next season.
Speaker 5: I would imagine by the time you go through the
Speaker 5: summer and you see the roster, like, fans are always
Speaker 5: gonna want to be excited. So maybe that alone gets
Speaker 5: some momentum. But I don't, you know, I know I've
Speaker 5: said this multiple times in the last few months, but
Speaker 5: I feel like each time I say it once more
Speaker 5: it's just gotten worse where I feel like the noise
Speaker 5: from this Kentucky fan base as far as what they
Speaker 5: think about their football coach and their football program right now,
Speaker 5: I mean it's it's not good, and it's been louder
Speaker 5: than it's ever been. So we can certainly get into that,
Speaker 5: and we got a lot of other things we can
Speaker 5: get into today. I'm gonna mix it up, have some fun,
Speaker 5: and you guys can be a part of the show
Speaker 5: as mentioned five way two, five seven to one, seventy
Speaker 5: nine hundred. That's the number if you want to give
Speaker 5: us a call and we'll take you up till six o'clock.
Speaker 5: So hang out with us right here. It's coffee and company.
Speaker 5: Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4: Now back to coffee and company fuel my Thorntens on
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 5: I just had a double check. The game tonight Louisville
Speaker 5: and UTEP is going to be on the ACC Network Extra,
Speaker 5: which means you will need to have some type of
Speaker 5: device to watch it, meaning if you just rely on
Speaker 5: your box that you get from Spectrum or like Direct
Speaker 5: TV or I guess I mean, I now consider it
Speaker 5: like the old school way of watching of watching like TV.
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess it's not like ancient. In fact,
Speaker 5: there's probably a lot of people that still rely on
Speaker 5: a cable box or something like that. But yeah, you
Speaker 5: just need to. But if you have any kind of
Speaker 5: like plan, rather it be Spectrum or YouTube TV lot,
Speaker 5: you know, Hulu Live, whatever, it is something that gives
Speaker 5: you access to watch ESPN, all you got to do
Speaker 5: is just go to the ESPN app rather that be
Speaker 5: on your iPad, your phone, your smart TV, your Roku,
Speaker 5: your fire stick, your laptop, whatever, and just log in
Speaker 5: with your TV provider and you'll be good to go. Now,
Speaker 5: this UTEP team, you know, we talked about them a
Speaker 5: little bit yesterday. They're not you know, they're not. They're
Speaker 5: not some real threat as far. Let me back up
Speaker 5: a second, because, like Louisville's so thin, their margin for
Speaker 5: air is very small to where like if they don't
Speaker 5: play well, they could lose to just about anybody, including
Speaker 5: this team tonight. But they are off to a decent start.
Speaker 5: Meaning this UTEP team, they're six and two, no real
Speaker 5: notable wins, and their losses have not been great losses.
Speaker 5: But this is their first challenge against a team of
Speaker 5: this caliber. And trust me, I'm not saying that because
Speaker 5: Louisville's some elite team, but Louisville is a power for
Speaker 5: team and this is the first time UTEP's played one
Speaker 5: of those opponents. So one thing to keep in mind
Speaker 5: about this UTEP team is they are really good at
Speaker 5: turning you over. In fact, they're the number one team
Speaker 5: in the country when it comes to forcing turnovers at
Speaker 5: twenty eight percent. So Louisville I feel like it has
Speaker 5: been a little more turnover prone lately than you know
Speaker 5: you'd want, uh, And sometimes they're gonna have turnovers because
Speaker 5: of just the way they play as far as style,
Speaker 5: meaning they're going to live with some mistakes they're gonna
Speaker 5: or they're gonna live with some some gambling on defense,
Speaker 5: and they're gonna live with a turnover here and there
Speaker 5: that's just caused by maybe frantic pace, but because they
Speaker 5: want to play that style and they think, they hope
Speaker 5: that that it'll even out to where not only even out,
Speaker 5: but it'll be worth it in the end if you
Speaker 5: can get the game played at your at your pace.
Speaker 5: But now you can't really do that with the lack
Speaker 5: of bodies that you have, and in recent games Louisvill's
Speaker 5: had some careless turnovers that I don't really think I'm
Speaker 5: chalking up to style of play or I mean, it's
Speaker 5: just kind of being careless with the ball. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think they had a lot more turnovers than Duke had,
Speaker 5: and I think they had a lot more turnovers than
Speaker 5: ole Mis had, which you know is not ideal, but
Speaker 5: I think it's just a product of you know, their
Speaker 5: their current situation. I mean, for Louisville to to to
Speaker 5: succeed with Pat Kelsey's system and philosophy, yeah, you'll live
Speaker 5: with some turnovers, but like you would hope that the
Speaker 5: opponent is going to not be as comfortable in that style,
Speaker 5: but therefore they're going to turn it over a lot
Speaker 5: more than you, and that just hasn't happened in recent games.
Speaker 5: Now you've probably got guys handling the ball more so
Speaker 5: than they are used to, just because again the lack
Speaker 5: of options you have when it comes when it comes
Speaker 5: to depth. So currently, let me just double check here
Speaker 5: real quick on the let's go to draft Kings. I
Speaker 5: was looking at FanDuel earlier. I think it was like
Speaker 5: fourteen and a half, and I imagine it's probably somewhere
Speaker 5: similar to there.
Speaker 1: On DraftKings. Here, yeah, Louisville tonight they are favored by
Speaker 1: where is it? Where is it? Well, here we go.
Speaker 5: Louisville favored by fourteen and a half on both FanDuel
Speaker 5: and DraftKings. So Ken Palm projects this, as I believe
Speaker 5: right at about fourteen. In fact, I think it might
Speaker 5: be exactly fourteen points. As far as what the projected
Speaker 5: score is tonight, thirteen sixty five to seventy eight is
Speaker 5: the projected score according to Ken all right, it's Coffee
Speaker 5: and Company. We are feel about Thornton's here on Sports
Speaker 5: Talk seven ninety BABO two five seventy nine hundred is
Speaker 5: the number if you want to give us a call,
Speaker 5: And if you want to text in BABO two six
Speaker 5: five three zero seven ninety, that is the L and
Speaker 5: N Federal Credit Union text line. So again, five seven
Speaker 5: one seventy nine hundred. If you want to give us
Speaker 5: a call, text line is FIBO two six five three
Speaker 5: zero seven ninety. This text says, Nick, what could you
Speaker 5: see tonight that'll make you feel better about the Kentucky
Speaker 5: game on on Saturday?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 5: Well, of course a win and I don't want to
Speaker 5: give you a I mean, that's a good question, it's
Speaker 5: a fair question, and I feel like I'm buying some
Speaker 5: time here as I give you somewhat of a cop
Speaker 5: out answer. But you know, they could play poorly tonight
Speaker 5: and barely get by, and that doesn't mean that they
Speaker 5: won't be able to maybe put together a decent or
Speaker 5: a good game against Kentucky and make a lot of shots.
Speaker 5: So because Louisville, I mean, and everybody's dependent upon being
Speaker 5: able to make shots, right, I mean, I mean, if
Speaker 5: you're a really, really good defensively and that's really just
Speaker 5: your calling card is you don't even get you'd be
Speaker 5: fine if you win the game ten to eight, then
Speaker 5: maybe making shots is not as important. But even though
Speaker 5: Louisville has had to change some things a little bit,
Speaker 5: Pat Kelsey's had to probably make some adjustments he doesn't
Speaker 5: want to make, but it's just what he has.
Speaker 1: To do given the injuries that they have.
Speaker 5: You know, you're still gonna be able to for Louisville
Speaker 5: to beat really, I don't want to say anybody, but
Speaker 5: for Louisville to beat good teams like the team they
Speaker 5: play on Saturday at Reparena, Kentucky. There's really not a
Speaker 5: scenario that I can see where they end up winning
Speaker 5: or even really giving themselves a chance to win late
Speaker 5: if they're not shooting the ball decently to good from three.
Speaker 5: And obviously they got off to an eight, and they
Speaker 5: made eight of their first eleven threes against Duke, and
Speaker 5: that was a big factor. So I could tell you that, yeah, man,
Speaker 5: if they really continue to shoot it really if they
Speaker 5: shoot it really well tonight, and let's say they make
Speaker 5: seven of their first ten threes, just like you know,
Speaker 5: similar to what they did against Duke, that would be awesome.
Speaker 1: I guess that would be encouraging.
Speaker 5: But like I would know that that doesn't mean you're
Speaker 5: gonna be able to do it on Saturday when you
Speaker 5: go to Rupp Arena to play your first true road
Speaker 5: game in an atmosphere that's going to be probably pretty
Speaker 5: pretty rowdy. I mean, that is one thing that his
Speaker 5: kind of you know, I don't want to act like
Speaker 5: Louisville can't go in there and compete. I mean I
Speaker 5: hope that they do, and I hope that they can,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe find a way to win. If you
Speaker 5: can go play with Duke, for thirty minutes competitively, maybe
Speaker 5: you can find a way to get yourself late in
Speaker 5: that game with a chance to win it. I mean,
Speaker 5: you are going to be at their place. You weren't
Speaker 5: at Duke, you were at the whenever you played them
Speaker 5: the other night, and you know you didn't end up winning.
Speaker 5: You lost by eleven points. So you know, here's what
Speaker 5: here here, here, I'm scrambling to try to give you
Speaker 5: an answer that's not such a cop out. Here's my answer,
Speaker 5: and I'll read the question once again. What could you
Speaker 5: see tonight that'll make you feel better about the Kentucky game?
Speaker 5: More reps for Kahani Russ if Rus is getting more
Speaker 5: minutes than he got the other night because he played
Speaker 5: the minutes of everybody, and I just don't think that
Speaker 5: that's I mean that it wasn't as if he played
Speaker 5: five minutes and everybody else played twenty five or more.
Speaker 5: But I just don't know. And I'm not even saying
Speaker 5: you got to start him. You can bring him and
Speaker 5: Edwards off the bench, and I have no issue with it.
Speaker 5: But I think there really is no reason why Russ
Speaker 5: is not up there with everybody else as far as
Speaker 5: minutes played. Because I think one, he's got some ability,
Speaker 5: Like I just don't know what the downside is if
Speaker 5: you're Pat Kelsey at this point, and he may be
Speaker 5: able to give me an answer, and I just don't
Speaker 5: know it because I'm not in practice, and clearly I
Speaker 5: don't know as much about basketball as he does, but
Speaker 5: I just don't really know what the The clear benefit
Speaker 5: in doing it is that he'll get better and better
Speaker 5: and he's got a lot of talent, and you're going
Speaker 5: to be able to really get him some seasoning to
Speaker 5: where he's not maybe looking or playing or looking you
Speaker 5: know in any way, maybe you don't even think about
Speaker 5: him being a freshman when you get to late January
Speaker 5: if he's getting a lot of minutes now. So I
Speaker 5: thought he took advantage of the minutes that he got
Speaker 5: against Duke, and I saw some signs of what he
Speaker 5: can bring to the table. And it wasn't just in
Speaker 5: that game, but you know, he had a pretty solid
Speaker 5: night against Duke, and I feel like, you know, he
Speaker 5: is somebody that is not going to completely make you
Speaker 5: realize that you don't have Cason Pryor, but I feel
Speaker 5: like he could fill that void maybe even you know,
Speaker 5: substantially if you know, if he gets more reps. Like,
Speaker 5: I'm trying to think of things that Cason is really
Speaker 5: really good at that we know Prior can't do. I mean,
Speaker 5: let's be honest. I mean, I'm sorry, things that Cason
Speaker 5: can do that we know Rus can't do. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think Russ is a better three point shooter, to
Speaker 5: be honest with you, I mean, certainly is as far
Speaker 5: as percentages, He's not maybe as long, but I think
Speaker 5: he's a really good athlete. I don't think he's good
Speaker 5: as good as a ball handlers as Prior, and he's
Speaker 5: probably I mean, he's not as good of a rim protector,
Speaker 5: but I think he's got some energy, he's got some versatility.
Speaker 5: So if he has a double double to night and
Speaker 5: has the best game of his young career, I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that that
Speaker 5: means I'm gonna predict Louisville beats Kentucky on Saturday. But
Speaker 5: I just feel like if Louisville's going to be a
Speaker 5: team that can find themselves on the bubble with a
Speaker 5: potential chance to sneak into the tournament later on this year,
Speaker 5: I just have a hard time seeing that result not
Speaker 5: be due to him getting more run and being a
Speaker 5: bigger piece to what you're doing. So that would be
Speaker 5: my answer, and I hope it, you know, I hope
Speaker 5: it's not as much of a cop out as I
Speaker 5: intend as far as it sounded initially. Or back to
Speaker 5: the text line Bobo two six five three zero seven
Speaker 5: ninety again, it's the Llenn Federal Credit Union text line.
Speaker 5: Members get more at Ellen and Federal Credit Union. You
Speaker 5: can learn more and open your account today at lnfcu
Speaker 5: dot com. This text says, Nick, why would Shuck not
Speaker 5: play in the bowl game? He's not going to be
Speaker 5: an early draft pick. What's the risk he could get
Speaker 5: hurt and nobody would claim that he didn't get drafted
Speaker 5: because of the injury. These guys always opt out of
Speaker 5: bowl games as if they're going to be drafted on
Speaker 5: the first day, and that's not realistic for most of them,
Speaker 5: including Shuck. So I mean, I've got a couple examples
Speaker 5: for you. So you're right about Shuck in the NFL draft.
Speaker 5: He's not somebody that is you know, is going to
Speaker 5: be drafted early. I mean, he may not get drafted
Speaker 5: at all. I think he's got a chance to maybe
Speaker 5: be a late draft pick, or maybe you know, get
Speaker 5: an opportunity in somebody's training camp to potentially make a roster,
Speaker 5: make a practice squad something like that. I mean, if
Speaker 5: Jack Plumber can be a practice squad guy for the Panthers,
Speaker 5: I think Tyler Shuck would certainly be a practice squad guy,
Speaker 5: maybe even you know, a backup for somebody. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think he's got a lot of ability, and he
Speaker 5: showed that at Louisville this year, more than he did
Speaker 5: at any of his other stops at Texas Tech or
Speaker 5: at Oregon. So I can't speak for Tyler Shuck because
Speaker 5: I you know, I have no clue what his mindset is.
Speaker 5: But and for those just now joining us, he did
Speaker 5: put out a statement today on Twitter similar to what
Speaker 5: we saw from Jacorey Brooks yesterday. In fact, i'll read
Speaker 5: early quickly here for you. It says football has taken
Speaker 5: me on an incredible journey from Chandler Arizona, to Oregon,
Speaker 5: to Texas Tech, and finally here in Louisville. I'm thankful
Speaker 5: to each program for giving me the opportunity to grow
Speaker 5: as a player and a person, shaping who I am
Speaker 5: both on and off the field. I've learned so much
Speaker 5: about the resilience during this journey and the growth I've
Speaker 5: experienced along the way as a true reflection of the
Speaker 5: incredible support system I've had around me. I'm especially grateful
Speaker 5: to the Louisville community for embracing me this year, and
Speaker 5: to coach Jeff Brohm and coach Brian Brohm for their
Speaker 5: guidance and belief in me. I also want to thank
Speaker 5: the athletic Trainers, strengthening, conditioning staff, and equipment team for
Speaker 5: their tireless work and support. To my teammates, friends and family,
Speaker 5: thank you for always having my back and making all
Speaker 5: of this worth it. To my wife Jordan, thank you
Speaker 5: for being my rock, supporting me, and making countless sacrifices
Speaker 5: along the way. After much thought, I've decided to not
Speaker 5: participate in the Sun Bowl and declare for the twenty
Speaker 5: twenty five NFL Draft. I'm excited for what lies ahead,
Speaker 5: and I'm beyond thankful for everyone who has been a
Speaker 5: part of my journey. So that was his statement earlier today.
Speaker 5: I did not in any way expect him to play
Speaker 5: in the bowl game. But to answer your question, what's
Speaker 5: the risk, it's really about risk reward. If he plays
Speaker 5: really well on the Sun Bowl against what Washington, is
Speaker 5: that going to change anything about his draft stock?
Speaker 1: I would say no.
Speaker 5: In fact, because of what these bowl games have become,
Speaker 5: you'd likely have people claiming that, you know, he's only
Speaker 5: he's only getting this kind of love be or he
Speaker 5: put up those numbers because it was Washington's second string. Like,
Speaker 5: I just think because of what the bowl games have become,
Speaker 5: if NFL teams are looking at you, they're gonna analyze
Speaker 5: every little thing. They're gonna know everything about you. But
Speaker 5: if there's one film that they may not put a
Speaker 5: whole lot of emphasis in, it might be the bowl
Speaker 5: game whenever, you know, it just doesn't really seem like
Speaker 5: a real game. So you know, what's he really have
Speaker 5: to gain? And some would say, well, going and playing
Speaker 5: for his team. Yeah, but he also could get hurt,
Speaker 5: and yes, getting hurt wouldn't be the reason that he's
Speaker 5: not drafted in the first few rounds. But if you're
Speaker 5: not healthy when you've got the opportunity coming out of
Speaker 5: college to go show NFL teams what you can do,
Speaker 5: I mean you you'll never get that opportunity again if
Speaker 5: you get hurt and you can't go through the combine
Speaker 5: or just workouts that kind of stuff. You know, the
Speaker 5: next time around, you're just your you're damaged goods. So
Speaker 5: I just think it's just that the risk is not
Speaker 5: worth the reward. And because of who he is, I
Speaker 5: think he's somebody that is probably viewed in a He's
Speaker 5: probably in a big pool of quarterbacks that the NFL
Speaker 5: has some interest in, but they really don't know exactly
Speaker 5: how it'll translate. They want to see some So if
Speaker 5: he can't show what he can do among all those
Speaker 5: other quarterbacks that are probably in that same level, like
Speaker 5: that could make it to where he never gets an opportunity. Now,
Speaker 5: he may never play a snap in the NFL and
Speaker 5: and may have nothing to do with anybody getting hurt,
Speaker 5: but like or he could get hurt and not have
Speaker 5: the chance to show what he can do and then
Speaker 5: always wonder, Okay, man, if I was healthy whenever the
Speaker 5: combine happened, maybe that would have changed my life. So
Speaker 5: I'll give you an example. Cole Hikatini, I'm sure you
Speaker 5: guys remember him was a really really good tight end
Speaker 5: for Louisville. Was a Juco guy. I believe he was
Speaker 5: the tight end for the twenty sixteenth team that obviously
Speaker 5: Lamar Jackson won the Heisman and one of his top
Speaker 5: targets was Colelagattini. And Cole ended up getting hurt in
Speaker 5: that bowl game against LSU, and he was one of
Speaker 5: the best tight ends in the country statistically and was
Speaker 5: somebody on the radar of the NFL. Well, he got
Speaker 5: hurt in that bowl game, never got to work out.
Speaker 5: So what happened, he didn't get drafted. He ends up
Speaker 5: you know, getting healthy later science as an undrafted free
Speaker 5: agent and you know, ended up going right on the
Speaker 5: injured reserve list. So if he didn't get hurt in
Speaker 5: the bowl game, would he have been drafted, Would he
Speaker 5: have been a guy that's still playing in the NFL today?
Speaker 5: Probably not, But there's no doubt in my mind that
Speaker 5: his best chance to really find himself in a position
Speaker 5: to be drafted would have been to be healthy at
Speaker 5: that time. And whenever the NFL is looking at you
Speaker 5: and they know, hey, let's go check this guy out.
Speaker 5: Like it's such a competitive thing to get a spot
Speaker 5: in professional sports in the NFL and BA in Major
Speaker 5: League Baseball, and if you are you know your your
Speaker 5: your timeline is is altered because of an injury, Like
Speaker 5: it's there's no scenario that it's going to benefit you.
Speaker 1: It's going to hurt you.
Speaker 5: So you know, for those saying, well, hey, same thing
Speaker 5: could have happened against Kentucky, why would he play in
Speaker 5: that game, Well, it's different, Like that's a I mean,
Speaker 5: that's that's you're not You're They're not going to view
Speaker 5: the Bowl game substantially different one way or the other.
Speaker 5: So like him getting hurt against Kentucky, it still would
Speaker 5: have led to the same thing, right, him probably not
Speaker 5: being healthy.
Speaker 1: But like that's it's just different. It's a real game.
Speaker 5: So I don't you know, it's it's weird, right, It's
Speaker 5: it's it's these games have for years now kind of
Speaker 5: felt like, you know, what are we doing here? Are
Speaker 5: these really worth worth having? And they are because they
Speaker 5: make a lot of money. As long as they keep
Speaker 5: putting these things on TV and millions of people keep watching,
Speaker 5: they're gonna they're still gonna be Bowl games even if
Speaker 5: third string players getting all the reps. But you know,
Speaker 5: I get why players decide not to to go out
Speaker 5: there and and you know, spend another month practicing and
Speaker 5: that's another part of it. The timeline here, like if
Speaker 5: this was a game this week, then maybe he play.
Speaker 5: But you know, you're talking about the end of the
Speaker 5: end of December, and you know you'd still be around
Speaker 5: and practicing, knowing that it's only for one game that
Speaker 5: really won't change a lot for you. Or you can
Speaker 5: just go ahead and shut it down. At the college level,
Speaker 5: find your agent, get you know, get in, you know,
Speaker 5: start training right away for the NFL Combine, hoping the
Speaker 5: course that you get an invite.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, I understand why.
Speaker 5: It just feels like there's still people that feel like
Speaker 5: these guys are quitters and they should always play if
Speaker 5: there's a game, and I get it, but I also
Speaker 5: get it from their perspective as well. All right, quick
Speaker 5: break on the other side or a quick break, we'll
Speaker 5: come back on the other side and keep this thing
Speaker 5: rolling along. We'll get back to the text line.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you guys have seen this.
Speaker 5: I feel like this story is not getting as much
Speaker 5: attention as it typically would because of what happened earlier
Speaker 5: this week where they identified the alleged healthcare CEO killer.
Speaker 5: But there's this guy from Wisconsin who abandoned his family,
Speaker 5: faked his death, fled the you know, fled the country
Speaker 5: to go to some other random country, and he's now
Speaker 5: back in custody. And I feel like as we round
Speaker 5: out the twenty twenty four calendar year, this guy absolutely
Speaker 5: is in strong contention for the a whole of the year.
Speaker 5: Like what a scumbag and what he did and what
Speaker 5: he put his family through, like is one of the
Speaker 5: worst things I've ever I've ever seen. And if you
Speaker 5: guys haven't heard the story, it's it's it's wild and
Speaker 5: we'll talk about it on the other side, along with
Speaker 5: a lot of other things.
Speaker 1: We'll keep this thing rolling along. It's coffee and Company.
Speaker 5: We are feel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk
Speaker 5: seven nine.
Speaker 4: Now back to coffee and Companye my thorntins on Sports
Speaker 4: Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 1: I could be totally wrong here, but I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't feel like it used to be just to
Speaker 5: give in that every weekday Louisville and Kentucky and basketball
Speaker 5: were always going to play on the same night. I mean,
Speaker 5: there's you know, there's really, I guess, really two days
Speaker 5: that have a lot of regular regular season college basketball
Speaker 5: games and it's usually Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday is kind
Speaker 5: of rare, but you times can get the big Monday
Speaker 5: game for the ACC. Thursday is really rare. Thursday is
Speaker 5: usually a big night for women's college basketball or the
Speaker 5: smaller mid major programs. Friday is is kind of rare.
Speaker 5: Sunday happens a little later in the season. But I
Speaker 5: feel like for the last two or three years, every
Speaker 5: every weeknight, these two teams end up playing on the
Speaker 5: same night for the most part. So I didn't even
Speaker 5: realize it until just a moment ago. Kentucky plays Colgate tonight,
Speaker 5: and man, I didn't know that Colegate was so bad
Speaker 5: this year. And trust me, that's not a mean but
Speaker 5: Kentucky's having a.
Speaker 1: Hell of a year.
Speaker 5: Colgate could be the Colgate that usually is good, that
Speaker 5: wins the Patriot League regularly, and they would still probably cruise.
Speaker 5: But I mean, I'm somebody that knows this stuff because
Speaker 5: it's just useless information that I obtain when I'm trying
Speaker 5: to figure out if I'm trying to figure out who
Speaker 5: I want to bet on in college basketball, I do
Speaker 5: a lot of future bets when it comes to conference
Speaker 5: champions and I feel like Colgate was once again looked
Speaker 5: like the team that should be winning the Patriot League.
Speaker 5: I think they brought back like their whole team, and
Speaker 5: they were kind of good last year. Yeah, twenty five
Speaker 5: and ten last year overall sixteen and two in league play.
Speaker 5: And maybe they've got an injury. I don't know what's
Speaker 5: going on, but they're terrible this year. There's two and
Speaker 5: eight on the season, So I would imagine if if
Speaker 5: Mark Pope wants to make sure that his guys are
Speaker 5: more healthy for the rivalry game on Saturday, he'll be
Speaker 5: able to do that by holding out Well, Kirk Chris
Speaker 5: is out for a while, and Lamont Butler didn't play
Speaker 5: against Gonzaga I don't believe, so they probably won't need
Speaker 5: him to night. Maybe this is the night that the
Speaker 5: Travis Perry gets a lot of run for Kentucky. I mean,
Speaker 5: they could probably play anybody on their on their roster,
Speaker 5: I mean even walk On's and probably not not not
Speaker 5: have much trouble tonight. But yeah, they play at seven
Speaker 5: o'clock and the ken Prom projected score here is ninety
Speaker 5: to sixty two, which wouldn't be shocked if it's even.
Speaker 1: Worse than that.
Speaker 5: All Right, real quick before we get to the top
Speaker 5: of the hour here. I don't know if this is
Speaker 5: something that that you. I mean, people who fake their death.
Speaker 1: One are.
Speaker 5: Awful people for the most part. Like if you have
Speaker 5: people who love you and care about you when you
Speaker 5: fake your death, like I can't I can't imagine there's
Speaker 5: any kind of of an of an excuse that would
Speaker 5: make it not make you an a hole. And this guy,
Speaker 5: I mean, he had an elaborate plan, but it backfired
Speaker 5: on him, so I will retract. I did say that
Speaker 5: this guy, as we are rounding out the twenty twenty
Speaker 5: four year, he's got a good resume here to potentially
Speaker 5: be the jerk of the year, but he didn't actually
Speaker 5: physically harm anybody, and there's a lot of people who
Speaker 5: did that, so.
Speaker 1: Maybe he could be in line for.
Speaker 5: The biggest jerk of the year that didn't actually cause
Speaker 5: any physical harm to anybody, because I mean, the I mean,
Speaker 5: it's just this one of those things that like doesn't
Speaker 5: seem real, but it is. So this guy in Wisconsin,
Speaker 5: he faked his own drowning, left his wife and three children,
Speaker 5: and they all just assumed that he had died, And
Speaker 5: that is not at all what had happened. What he
Speaker 5: did is he met a woman online and she's from Uzbekistan,
Speaker 5: and apparently he had an online relationship with this woman.
Speaker 5: Nobody knew anything about it, and this was his elaborate
Speaker 5: plan to run off and start a new life with
Speaker 5: her in Huzbekistan as he was going to stage his
Speaker 5: own death and that he and that he drowned. I'm
Speaker 5: reading here from Beloit Daily News up in Wisconsin. It
Speaker 5: says here that he returned. Yeah, he's He was believed
Speaker 5: to have been in Eastern Europe for a while now,
Speaker 5: but willingly returned to the United States after roughly four
Speaker 5: months and he is now in custody. So Ryan Borgward
Speaker 5: is his name. But he came back on his own
Speaker 5: terms because of his family. That's according to Green Lake
Speaker 5: County Sheriff Mark Putol. It says that we can stand
Speaker 5: here feeling relieved. That's what the sheriff told the local
Speaker 5: media there. But he landed on Tuesday and was being
Speaker 5: held at the county jail penning an afternoon court appearance.
Speaker 5: The sheriff said his office has recommended a number of charges,
Speaker 5: including obstruction. So he did end up confessing before he
Speaker 5: came back, but that he faked his death because of
Speaker 5: personnel personal matters.
Speaker 1: He told the sheriffs.
Speaker 5: Once they figured out that he did not in fact
Speaker 5: die and they knew where he was, they were able
Speaker 5: to investigate, they begged him to. You know, they made
Speaker 5: national news like, hey, we know you're not dead, we
Speaker 5: know where you are. Please call your family. They're relieved
Speaker 5: to know you're alive, but they miss you. I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure that's what their message was in general.
Speaker 5: But he told he told the police once he did
Speaker 5: touch base with him. I guess when he was in
Speaker 5: Uzbekistan that in mid August, he traveled about fifty miles
Speaker 5: from his home and he went to a lake there
Speaker 5: was about fifty miles away where he overturned his kayak,
Speaker 5: dumped his phone, and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore,
Speaker 5: he said. He then, he said he picked that lake
Speaker 5: because it was the deepest in Wisconsin. After leaving the lake,
Speaker 5: he rode an electric bike seventy miles through the night
Speaker 5: to Madison, Wisconsin. From there, he said, he took a
Speaker 5: bus to Detroit, then boarded a bus to Canada and
Speaker 5: got on a plane. So apparently they did analysis of
Speaker 5: a laptop and it wasn't clear whose it was, but
Speaker 5: they it revealed a digital trail that shows he had
Speaker 5: planned a head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators.
Speaker 5: The laptop hard drive had been replaced and browsers had
Speaker 5: been cleared whenever he disappeared. Investigators down passport photos, inquiries
Speaker 5: about moving funds to foreign banks, and communication with this
Speaker 5: woman that he met from Muzekistan. They also discovered he
Speaker 5: also took out a three hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 5: dollars life insurance policy last January.
Speaker 1: So I mean, if you just want to.
Speaker 5: Get a divorce and move to Hisbekistan, like do that, Like,
Speaker 5: don't put your wife and gosh, your three children through.
Speaker 5: I mean two layers of just absolute grief that I
Speaker 5: hope to you know, nobody ever experiences.
Speaker 1: One.
Speaker 5: They thought you were dead, which that alone is traumatizing
Speaker 5: that dad's dead and he drowned. But also when they
Speaker 5: realize you're alive, then they have And I don't know
Speaker 5: how old his kids are doesn't say here, but maybe
Speaker 5: they're old enough to realize he just wanted us to
Speaker 5: think he was dead because he wanted to get away
Speaker 5: from us, and never see us again. Like what a
Speaker 5: jerk putting your your family through that, Like, just get
Speaker 5: a divorce, dude, Like it's you know, probably not and
Speaker 5: it's not ideal, but like it happens pretty often, unfortunately,
Speaker 5: and that's the right way to go about it, rather
Speaker 5: than what this jerk did.
Speaker 1: I mean, what a I mean, what a clown.
Speaker 5: I don't know if he'll end up actually doing any
Speaker 5: kind of real time here because I don't think I
Speaker 5: think the charges of and maybe he does do a
Speaker 5: little bit of time, but trust me, he won't be
Speaker 5: that long. And there'll be a Netflix documentary about this
Speaker 5: guy at some point. I'm sure there will be. All Right,
Speaker 5: quick break, we will come back on the other side
Speaker 5: to get the four o'clock hours started. We've got two
Speaker 5: hours to go. It is a gloomy, cold Wednesday edition
Speaker 5: of Coffee and Company, and hopefully he'll stick with us
Speaker 5: for these next two hours right here on Sports Talks.