Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
Speaker 2: I know I've talked about this before at some point
Speaker 2: over my nine plus years here on this station, but
Speaker 2: I would have if you had told me thirty years
Speaker 2: ago that this market sports radio market, and really just
Speaker 2: the coverage of sports in the market, rather it be
Speaker 2: television radio historically or just now fan creators, which is
Speaker 2: a big thing, I would have expected there to be
Speaker 2: more Indiana Hoo's your presence than there is, not nearly
Speaker 2: as much as U of L or nearly as much
Speaker 2: as UK. But we're like, I mean, heck, I'm right
Speaker 2: across the river from Indiana right now. A lot of
Speaker 2: people listen to us in Indiana. I have family that
Speaker 2: lives in Indiana. We're not that far actually from Bloomington.
Speaker 2: And again it's always been this way, But when you
Speaker 2: really consider it, I think most would be surprised if
Speaker 2: you just ended up here and you realize how close
Speaker 2: you are to another humongous institution in a big fan
Speaker 2: base in Indiana. The Louisville market.
Speaker 4: Again, they get.
Speaker 2: Covered obviously, there's certain TV stations here in town, I
Speaker 2: think that cover Indiana a little bit more extensively than others,
Speaker 2: and it's those who have bigger sports departments and those
Speaker 2: who haven't who have alums who went to Indiana. But nonetheless,
Speaker 2: I say all that to say, maybe the fact that
Speaker 2: they just don't get talked about like one of the
Speaker 2: local programs at all to the extent that you get
Speaker 2: with U of L in UK. Maybe that's why I
Speaker 2: didn't realize this. But I've never once thought about Indiana
Speaker 2: the Hoosiers not having a mascot, never even once.
Speaker 4: Cannsidered it.
Speaker 2: Austin, I know you haven't lived here as long as
Speaker 2: I have, but aren't I mean, I think you kind
Speaker 2: of said the same thing at the start of the show,
Speaker 2: like you never realized it right.
Speaker 3: Now, I would shocked, And and when I think about it,
Speaker 3: like what would it be, I can tell you, uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: go play.
Speaker 2: So I thought when I saw this, by the way,
Speaker 2: this story, I don't know when it got put out
Speaker 2: at WDRB its Rick Bose that you put it out there,
Speaker 2: and I hadn't even read it yet, but I just
Speaker 2: saw the link to it right when we started the show.
Speaker 4: I thought he was.
Speaker 2: Covering that they're going to create a mascot. Technically, Indiana
Speaker 2: has a mascot, they just haven't used it in a
Speaker 2: long long time. So they're bringing back Hoosier the Bison
Speaker 2: and it's pure the Bison.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hoosier the.
Speaker 2: Bison is apparently going to be I don't know if
Speaker 2: I like that. I mean, if they were starting from
Speaker 2: scratch to your point though, like what would it like?
Speaker 4: What would it be like that?
Speaker 2: Like a Hoosier is is? I mean, like a Hoosier
Speaker 2: is basically like West Virginia being the Mountaineers right their
Speaker 2: mascot at West Virginia WVU is a mountaineer human being
Speaker 2: like a man. Can you create a Hoosier and just
Speaker 2: like that you that you strut out there at halftime
Speaker 2: to perform with the dance team to be on the
Speaker 2: field before they to run onto the field with your
Speaker 2: with your football team, like it would be a real force.
Speaker 2: And you know, everybody's a mountaineer has had such a
Speaker 2: such a distinct look as far as the different people
Speaker 2: that have been the live mountaineer at games or the
Speaker 2: the leprechaun at Notre Dame, they've all looked the same, right,
Speaker 2: It's been the same thing, just a different version of
Speaker 2: it as somebody gets old or gets fired or whatever
Speaker 2: it may be. I think that, and this is such
Speaker 2: a West Virginia thing that you wouldn't believe it, but
Speaker 2: it's true. The Mountaineer that was the mountaineer a while back,
Speaker 2: maybe fifteen years ago something like that. He got fired
Speaker 2: because he got a bunch of deuise. So you know,
Speaker 2: when you're the mountain exactly true of the name, it
Speaker 2: seems like.
Speaker 3: So anyways, well, I just always thought that, I mean,
Speaker 3: if anything with Indiana go with like I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't know, like Stanford has like the tree, right, it's
Speaker 3: just and that's real stupid though, Christmas Tree. And then
Speaker 3: like let's say, well this is the pros. But like
Speaker 3: the Phillies they got like the Philly fanatic, Like I
Speaker 3: don't know what that thing is.
Speaker 4: It's like, have you seen what the devison looks like? No,
Speaker 4: I haven't.
Speaker 2: I just DMD you on Twitter the link that has
Speaker 2: a look at what because they're bringing it back because
Speaker 2: it was actually a thing from nineteen sixty five to
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 4: They looks terrifying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again as to what I just talked about,
Speaker 2: when I think of a Hoosier. I don't really know
Speaker 2: what I would think of as far as a mascot
Speaker 2: at all, but I certainly don't think bison.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Like, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Isn't there like a Buffalo trace up in Indiana somewhere
Speaker 3: I don't called Buffalo Trace, not the distillery, but we
Speaker 3: used to go to like a beach looking area when
Speaker 3: I was a kid, and they called it Buffalo Trace
Speaker 3: or Chase.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm kind of learning on the go here as
Speaker 2: I look into this on the air. Maybe they called
Speaker 2: themselves like maybe they weren't the Hoosiers, they were the Indiana,
Speaker 2: the IU Bison. And then it just and then they
Speaker 2: realized that Indiana. I don't even really know where the
Speaker 2: name Hoosier comes from. I just know it's I think
Speaker 2: of Indiana.
Speaker 3: If you can make up the name like Hoosier, then
Speaker 3: you can make up your own damn mascot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So anyways, Uh, the belief is that they're gonna they're
Speaker 2: gonna make it official because there's gonna be it looks like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be a fan event on Wednesday night, I
Speaker 2: guess in Bloomington that's gonna feature both Kurt Signetti and
Speaker 2: newly hired hoops coach Darien DeVries. So apparently this is
Speaker 2: this They're they pretty much confirmed it with some sposh
Speaker 2: social media stuff that they are doing this, and I
Speaker 2: guess it'll be official at this at this fan event
Speaker 2: tomorrow night. But with IU football gaining momentum after the
Speaker 2: CFP appearance CFP Playoff appearance last year, the Bison is
Speaker 2: expected a boost fan engagement in merchandise sales.
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 4: much it's gonna hurt it or if it will hurt
Speaker 4: it at all, but it.
Speaker 3: Will be exciting for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's so.
Speaker 2: But imagine us as Louisville and knowing they were gonna
Speaker 2: throw something at us that is like that's not us,
Speaker 2: and it would be so uncomfortable and weird and feel
Speaker 2: forced to where like if you're an Indiana fan and
Speaker 2: you're like, Okay, I get it, we don't have a mascot.
Speaker 4: But this this, this is a is a forest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I remember I was pissed off when Adidas
Speaker 2: gave us the murder bird uniforms when we played Auburn
Speaker 2: and the Chick fil A kickoff classic because they put
Speaker 2: a bird on there that's quite literally not our mascot,
Speaker 2: not even like a version of it. It had green
Speaker 2: eyes and just looked like a really scary alien.
Speaker 4: Type bird, a scary bird.
Speaker 2: So I mean, anyways, Indiana's getting a mascot and I
Speaker 2: never even realized that they didn't have one, which I
Speaker 2: think probably makes you realize. And I'm not saying just
Speaker 2: because of me. I bet there's a lot of people
Speaker 2: that have been fined with just Hoosiers. It's the Hoosiers,
Speaker 2: and we don't have an animal or a human that
Speaker 2: runs out and is the actual mascot. But like, if
Speaker 2: you really, you know, you haven't needed it, then why
Speaker 2: do you need it now? Maybe because it might Like
Speaker 2: to me, it just seems like a real force. But
Speaker 2: I'm sure those that were alive and thriving in the
Speaker 2: sixty five through sixty nine era when they had the bison,
Speaker 2: maybe they'll be excited.
Speaker 3: But our guy, Kenny Johnson's gonna be there.
Speaker 2: He's going to be in the building, that's right, which
Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned that. Talk about a talk about
Speaker 2: an unpredictable, unbelievable type of scenario. Here were Kenny Johnson,
Speaker 2: which when I say Kenny Johnson, I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people know who I'm talking about if you're a
Speaker 2: Louis a basketball fan. But I don't know, maybe you
Speaker 2: forgot or maybe you just don't know because he hasn't
Speaker 2: been an assistant coach here for a long time. But
Speaker 2: Kenny Johnson has been hired officially back at Indiana and
Speaker 2: he's joining Darian Devree's staff. And this is after being
Speaker 2: at Indiana more than ten years ago. So Kenny Johnson
Speaker 2: was at Indiana for I guess three seasons and at
Speaker 2: the time, you know, college basketball was a lot different.
Speaker 2: But he was Tom Crean's ace recruiter, a guy that
Speaker 2: has you know, been I mean at that time, I
Speaker 2: mean again, recruiting was so different because you like, these
Speaker 2: guys were powerful as hell assistant coaches who had the
Speaker 2: relationships with the shoe companies on the circuit, and they
Speaker 2: were young, relatable, They could go into homes parents and
Speaker 2: players loved them. They had a lot of charisma. I mean,
Speaker 2: nowadays you just talk about money and you got to
Speaker 2: be somewhat relatable. And it'll all work out. I mean,
Speaker 2: you don't need these guys, no offense to them. What
Speaker 2: they bring to the table just isn't quite as valuable
Speaker 2: or really you know, being sought after by college basketball
Speaker 2: head coaches because money is what they need. So anyways,
Speaker 2: he was great at Indiana and then Rick Pritino stole him.
Speaker 2: So he came to Louisville in twenty fourteen and was
Speaker 2: here until it all came to an end with Rick
Speaker 2: and Kenny. I mean since I mean he was he
Speaker 2: was involved in the I mean, did he get a
Speaker 2: show cause, I mean.
Speaker 3: He was involved in the Prime Bow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole brun I mean, here's here, here's what
Speaker 2: is believed when it comes to and I believe this myself.
Speaker 2: I can't prove it, and you know I don't have
Speaker 2: all details, but I I mean, I believe that Kenny
Speaker 2: Johnson leaving for Louisville and Louisville essentially you know, taking
Speaker 2: Indiana and Tom Crane's best recruiter that led to the
Speaker 2: ultimate downfall of the Patino era. And it's because the
Speaker 2: Katina palle stuff. There's really no way to talk. I've
Speaker 2: tried many times, and I've never been able to find
Speaker 2: a comfortable spot because it's just an uncomfortable thing to
Speaker 2: talk about. But the Katina pal stuff, the fact that
Speaker 2: there was an ounce of truth to what she said
Speaker 2: is gross and that's awful, and punishment was needed and
Speaker 2: we got punished. But overall, the book became a thing
Speaker 2: because of IU people that were bothered by it and.
Speaker 4: Ran with it.
Speaker 2: So I think they were jealous that Kenny Johnson left
Speaker 2: and they'd heard some things about what went on on
Speaker 2: a recruiting visit and they got into with Katina Powell.
Speaker 2: When I say they, I mean people who own a
Speaker 2: publishing company that published books, and they put it in motion.
Speaker 2: It became clearly a very sensationalized story because of the
Speaker 2: nature of what went on and clearly her being on TV.
Speaker 2: I mean, she's she's something. I mean, that's the best
Speaker 2: thing to say without being, you know, a jerk. But
Speaker 2: I think you all know what I mean when I
Speaker 2: say she's she's a real piece of work. But like,
Speaker 2: it all became a huge story, and it was I
Speaker 2: think rooted because Indiana wanted to get Louisville in trouble
Speaker 2: because they were bothered at Kenny Johnson left, so he's
Speaker 2: not tied to anything that went on at Minardie Hall
Speaker 2: and whatnot. But I think the whole plan to try
Speaker 2: to blow up Louisville was due to at least one
Speaker 2: of the big factors, and why this all came together
Speaker 2: was because of bitterness towards Kenny Johnson leaving. Well then
Speaker 2: you know Kenny was in fact involved in the in
Speaker 2: the Brian Bowen thing, and that ultimately was the biggest
Speaker 2: nail on the coffin for the Patino era because it
Speaker 2: all ended whenever we realized that Ruck Patino was coached too.
Speaker 2: And what always worried me always about Louisville eventually getting
Speaker 2: like real big punishment was that in court under oath,
Speaker 2: both Brian Bowen's father and Kenny Johnson, I believe, were
Speaker 2: I mean confirmed that Kenny Johnson paid him money and
Speaker 2: like he while Brian Bowen was already here. They met
Speaker 2: up at a gas station or some market in downtown
Speaker 2: and he gave him money, but it was his own
Speaker 2: money out of his own personal account. He was talking
Speaker 2: about how he was talking about how he hoped his
Speaker 2: wife didn't ask where the money had come from because
Speaker 2: there wasn't really big organ there wasn't a big orchestrated
Speaker 2: plan to get Brian Bowen paid by UFL coaches. It
Speaker 2: was all a plan to get him paid through like
Speaker 2: Adidas somehow. And even if you were on the even
Speaker 2: if you were kind of in the know that something
Speaker 2: was going on, anybody with a brain didn't talk about it,
Speaker 2: didn't address it because it was all being done by
Speaker 2: people behind the scenes, and the more loosely out there,
Speaker 2: the better likelihood you have of it blowing up, just
Speaker 2: like it happened with the Adidas and everybody that was involved.
Speaker 2: But Brian Bowen's dad kind of cornered Kenny Johnson like
Speaker 2: wanting money, and Kenny was, you know this time they're
Speaker 2: in private, like they don't they don't know that they're
Speaker 2: being recorded. But he's like, what are you talking about money?
Speaker 2: Like I don't have any money? Like what do you
Speaker 2: what do you mean? Like you know, what is this
Speaker 2: about kind of thing, And Kenny Johnson, I think, just
Speaker 2: in fear of like it blowing up, just stupidly decided
Speaker 2: to give him I think it was like twelve hundred
Speaker 2: dollars or something like that. And but that was, you know,
Speaker 2: that was that was the one thing that worried me
Speaker 2: because regardless of how unpredictably the NC double a is,
Speaker 2: regardless of how long the actual thing played out, like
Speaker 2: by the way I think Louisville being in limbo not
Speaker 2: knowing their fate for so long. To me, that's basically
Speaker 2: like having the death penalty.
Speaker 4: It really is.
Speaker 2: So we didn't get that, but we kind of did,
Speaker 2: if you know what I mean. But what I'm getting
Speaker 2: at is it was under oath, meaning, look, the NC
Speaker 2: double doesn't have subpoena power. They can't force people to talk.
Speaker 2: What they can do is claim you were under oath
Speaker 2: in federal court and this is what was said. This
Speaker 2: is the best way we have to get legitimate information.
Speaker 2: We are taking what was said under oath. We can't
Speaker 2: force any you know, that's the best way they would
Speaker 2: have to get information. So it was under oath that
Speaker 2: while Louisville was on probation for the Minority Hall stuff,
Speaker 2: Tina pal stuff, Kenny Johnson gave a player's dad money.
Speaker 2: I mean that that technically means you've I mean like
Speaker 2: that if they wanted to, they could have given you
Speaker 2: the most. To me, they could have given you the
Speaker 2: death penalty. I don't think that's realistic this day and
Speaker 2: age at all. And I also and I also think
Speaker 2: the IARP process, which by the way, how random is that.
Speaker 2: That's a process you had to fight the NCAA that
Speaker 2: now no longer exists. It was available for a brief.
Speaker 4: Amount of time. Louisville went through it, and I.
Speaker 2: Believe that was a big factor in how they were
Speaker 2: able to I mean again, didn't make sense to punish
Speaker 2: then many years later whenever, quite literally, you'd be taking
Speaker 2: away a potential postseason from players that were in middle
Speaker 2: school when this stuff happened. So anyways, Yeah, Kenny Johnson,
Speaker 2: he ended up getting fired at Louisville, and I think
Speaker 2: he still lived here for a little while. And if
Speaker 2: you remember, Patino would always make his coaches lose weight
Speaker 2: who were really big. Scotty Davenport lost a ton of
Speaker 2: weight when he joined Rick Staff, Kenny Johnson lost a
Speaker 2: ton of weight. Why King Jones lost a ton of
Speaker 2: weight and then Kenny had put a lot of it
Speaker 2: back on at the time, and I'd run into be
Speaker 2: in Louisville. I just felt sad thinking, you know, I
Speaker 2: really don't know what you know, his direct level was
Speaker 2: in anything as far as the wrongdoing. But like his
Speaker 2: you know, his he kind of his life got kind
Speaker 2: of blown up, and I don't really know if that
Speaker 2: was fair to him. But anyways, he was out of
Speaker 2: basketball for a little while, and then he landed on.
Speaker 4: LaSalle's staff for a couple of years.
Speaker 2: And then after that he ended up not coaching for
Speaker 2: a couple of years, and then he resurfaced with Archie
Speaker 2: Miller at Rhode Island, where he was there for a
Speaker 2: couple of seasons, and then last year he spent one
Speaker 2: season at Georgetown coaching with At Cooley as an assistant,
Speaker 2: and then now he's moving to coach at Indiana once
Speaker 2: again for Darian Debris. So clearly he's a guy that
Speaker 2: despite the history with the NCAA, he's a guy that
Speaker 2: head coaches won around and you know, good for him.
Speaker 2: It's just why you imagine telling anybody or even Kenny Johnson,
Speaker 2: and you know, twenty seventeen eighteen, when all this would happen,
Speaker 2: that eight years later or whatever the timeline would have been,
Speaker 2: you'd be back in college at a high level university
Speaker 2: at Indiana. I mean, it's just college athletics has changed
Speaker 2: so much. I mean, there was such coverage around here,
Speaker 2: specifically about all of this. Brian Bowen Adidas, the FBI
Speaker 2: having the press conference saying we got your playbook, We're
Speaker 2: coming for you. And now that's just the way it
Speaker 2: works where you have to pay, I mean you have
Speaker 2: to pay to get players. In fact, now schools have
Speaker 2: to share revenue. You've got this twenty plus million dollars
Speaker 2: that's going to be paid out by big schools, the
Speaker 2: bigger schools in sports every year because they have to
Speaker 2: share revenue. It's just it was such an archaic thing
Speaker 2: for generations as far as how they wanted to run amateurism.
Speaker 2: And then now here you are, and it's a completely
Speaker 2: different world and a pretty quick amount of time almost
Speaker 2: kind of hard to you know, even like keep up
Speaker 2: with to be honest with you, let's see here, we
Speaker 2: don't have a whole lot of time left. Again, we're
Speaker 2: going to hand it off to the Bats. In fact,
Speaker 2: we're gonna hand it off to Nick Curran as he
Speaker 2: gets set to broadcast for the Louis of Bats this evening,
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to seek and trying to use the
Speaker 2: amount of time we have here. Oh yeah, this is
Speaker 2: just something I wanted to to mention just because you
Speaker 2: don't typically get as excited for freshmen as you used to,
Speaker 2: just because now guys stick around in college longer and
Speaker 2: you can have really good freshmen and they can be impactful.
Speaker 2: And it's not that you don't like them, it's just
Speaker 2: the bigger additions made to your roster now that really
Speaker 2: give you a sense for how good you're going to be,
Speaker 2: or transfers more so than freshmen unless you've got, you know,
Speaker 2: a really really good freshman that might be one of
Speaker 2: the best freshmen in the country, might be a lottery
Speaker 2: pick after one year. And that's that's Mikel Brown junior.
Speaker 2: I mean, and he's made it to campus. He posted
Speaker 2: some stuff over the weekend. I guess he moved in,
Speaker 2: and he's posted some stuff on his Instagram of him
Speaker 2: working out of the facility. And again, that's what you
Speaker 2: would expect. And it's really not exciting as far as
Speaker 2: just seeing it. But this is something that used to
Speaker 2: be a big deal freshmen showing up. They finally made
Speaker 2: it to campus, and you know, now you don't really
Speaker 2: worry about a kid not showing up because there's likely
Speaker 2: a lot of money at play for kid. For said
Speaker 2: kid to show up, and I'm gonna have to. This
Speaker 2: is going to be an unusual experience for me as
Speaker 2: a Louisville fan, because, as we've discussed before, there's been
Speaker 2: some good freshmen clearly that have played at Louisville, made
Speaker 2: a big impact, helped you with some of the better
Speaker 2: teams we've had around here. I mean, look at never
Speaker 2: nervous purpose. I mean clearly, freshmen have at times been
Speaker 2: counted upon and played a big role. Montrez Harrell on
Speaker 2: that national championship team. He didn't average a lot of points,
Speaker 2: but man, he made an impact. He was a factor
Speaker 2: in why you were as good as you were. But
Speaker 2: I can't remember the last time, maybe ever, there's been
Speaker 2: a freshman that is entering his career at Louisville that
Speaker 2: not only is expected to be this good, but a
Speaker 2: guy that we're like, I mean well aware that he's
Speaker 2: a big piece to what we do. Like he need
Speaker 2: as a freshman for Louisville to have the type of
Speaker 2: season that a lot of folks expect them to have.
Speaker 2: And if you haven't paid attention, they're viewed to be
Speaker 2: one of the preseason top ten teams in the country
Speaker 2: by just about everybody to be honest with you. And
Speaker 2: part of that is because freshman Michel Brown Jr. Is
Speaker 2: in the mix here, and it's just it's just gonna
Speaker 2: be husual. Like for like last year, anything you got
Speaker 2: and I think you got enough to where he helped you.
Speaker 4: And I also happened to think.
Speaker 2: That he's got a really really bright future and you
Speaker 2: saw the upside. But like last year, anything that can
Speaker 2: I roostd was just a bonus to me, right, Like
Speaker 2: he was a freshman that would get minutes here and
Speaker 2: there and you'd see.
Speaker 4: The upside like it was the old school way.
Speaker 2: Well now, I mean not only because of how good
Speaker 2: mckel brown Junior is expected to be, but also because
Speaker 2: you know he's your point guard.
Speaker 4: He's the guy.
Speaker 2: Not to say that you're not gonna have other guys
Speaker 2: in the backcourt that can help you. Clearly they've got
Speaker 2: some other good guards they've added from the portal. Kobe
Speaker 2: Rodgers is going to be healthy, but you've got the
Speaker 2: number one point guard in the country coming in this
Speaker 2: year according to twenty four to seven Sports Composite. So again,
Speaker 2: the expectation is that he's gonna.
Speaker 4: Be really, really, really good.
Speaker 2: And again I'm trying to rack my brain as far
Speaker 2: as the last time there was such expectation on a
Speaker 2: freshman to be really really good, and it probably was
Speaker 2: Samato Samuels and let's be honest, louisvill was really really
Speaker 2: good with him. He also played alongside t will and
Speaker 2: Earl Clark when he was a freshman in that group,
Speaker 2: but he was a big He started every game and
Speaker 2: at times I think, you know, even as a freshman,
Speaker 2: would lead you in scoring the long side lottery pick.
Speaker 2: So I guess Tomato was the last time. But with
Speaker 2: Smarto man, he's one of those guys that even back
Speaker 2: then in the NBA was in a spot to where
Speaker 2: his game really didn't translate to the to the NBA.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know if I mean, he was like
Speaker 2: one of the number one players in the country, one
Speaker 2: of the top players in the country coming out of
Speaker 2: high school. But I never remember there being a whole
Speaker 2: lot of hype about one and done or going to
Speaker 2: the NBA. But he was really good in college for US,
Speaker 2: not not Eleape.
Speaker 4: It was good.
Speaker 2: But imagine if he stayed in college four years, how
Speaker 2: good he would have been. When it's all said downe
Speaker 2: he would have been one of these prototypical bigs in
Speaker 2: the last two three years that just stuck around forever
Speaker 2: and you knew they probably wouldn't play in the NBA.
Speaker 2: But man, they were really good players, right like Hunter
Speaker 2: Dickinson and Amando Baykot like that could have been SMARTO
Speaker 2: and he would have you know, he was Actually again,
Speaker 2: I would say this, he was better than I even
Speaker 2: remembered at Louisville. I think the expectations were so high
Speaker 2: that maybe I just didn't see it that way at
Speaker 2: the time, but he was. I mean, he was really
Speaker 2: good as a freshman alongside a really really good team,
Speaker 2: and then also as a sophomore, that team wasn't as good.
Speaker 2: That's the team if you remember that lost in the
Speaker 2: first round of California the rakeem Buckles game that Austin
Speaker 2: and I talked about actually not that long ago. But
Speaker 2: as a sophomore, I mean, he averaged fifteen point three
Speaker 2: a game to go along with seven boards, shot fifty
Speaker 2: two percent from the field. So in two seasons, I mean,
Speaker 2: he was he was really good and I never even
Speaker 2: really considered I just I felt un I felt overall, yeah,
Speaker 2: that was kind of an underwhelming career. But that's not
Speaker 2: fair to him because it's just he only played two
Speaker 2: years and he was he scored nine hundred and forty
Speaker 2: two points in two seasons.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's that's.
Speaker 2: Pretty good for a guy that started every single game
Speaker 2: he played here. By the way, So again, if if
Speaker 2: Michael if mckel brown Jr. Is productive in a way
Speaker 2: as a freshman that Smarto was, I'd say that's a
Speaker 2: pretty good recipe for Louis Well. And it's not as
Speaker 2: if they need him to be the best guard in
Speaker 2: the ACC them to be a good team. He's playing
Speaker 2: alongside really, really good players, I think it bodes well
Speaker 2: for everybody involved, right. I mean, if he can create
Speaker 2: plays and be dynamic and really be a real weapon
Speaker 2: for you, that'd be great as far as just you know, scoring,
Speaker 2: But he's also going to be out there kicking it
Speaker 2: to some of the best shooters in the ACC. And
Speaker 2: he's gonna have guys veterans that can run the floor
Speaker 2: like Cason Pryor and the Javon Hadley who's kind of
Speaker 2: a Swiss army kipe. They can do a little bit
Speaker 2: of everything for you. Pick and roll action with Sonny Frew,
Speaker 2: I mean I mean, there's obviously, when you're as good
Speaker 2: as MIKEL.
Speaker 4: Brown Jr.
Speaker 2: Is, there's a lot of teams you could just be
Speaker 2: thrown on too, and you could really benefit from playing
Speaker 2: alongside said talent. However, I do think the uh, I
Speaker 2: really do think that that Louisville's pieces could make it
Speaker 2: to where he's He could easily be a eleven twelve points,
Speaker 2: six and a half assists a game, and it would
Speaker 2: it would be just it would just be any other
Speaker 2: night for him. All Right, it's coffee and company if
Speaker 2: you'll about Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We
Speaker 2: were about to wrap this thing up here shortly. We've
Speaker 2: got louisvill Bat's action coming your way, and then of
Speaker 2: course the rest of this week.
Speaker 4: And that's all she wrote.
Speaker 2: I haven't really given it much thought until like the
Speaker 2: last twenty four hours that this is it. This is
Speaker 2: the final week for me. And again I'm not like
Speaker 2: I'm not leaving leaving. I'm just leaving this station and
Speaker 2: going down the hall to a different station. So you'll
Speaker 2: hear me mention that throughout the week, just because I
Speaker 2: want to make sure people are aware. I assume most
Speaker 2: people are but I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but yeah,
Speaker 2: after today, three more shows and that's it, which makes
Speaker 2: me sad, but hey, it's also really exciting and we'll
Speaker 2: finish strong.
Speaker 4: So have a good evening everybody.
Speaker 2: We're back at it tomorrow, three o'clock, right here on
Speaker 2: Sports Talk seven ninety s