Speaker 1: All right, five o'clock on a Friday, let's get it
Speaker 1: started one more hour and then we are out of
Speaker 1: here for the weekend, the holiday weekend. A reminder, we're
Speaker 1: out on Monday, so you'll hear national programming, and then
Speaker 1: back on Tuesday for a short week in the final week.
Speaker 1: For me here at Sports Talk seven ninety is certainly
Speaker 1: gonna make the most of the time that I have
Speaker 1: left here. And I'm sure a lot of you listening
Speaker 1: right now have already started your holiday weekend. If so,
Speaker 1: hell yeah, I'm sure you're having fun. Least I hope
Speaker 1: you are. I haven't looked outside in the last two
Speaker 1: hours and some change, because you know, I've been here
Speaker 1: in my cave in the back studio here, Studio B.
Speaker 1: But it was beautiful when I got here, and I
Speaker 1: hope that it still is.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'm.
Speaker 1: Hopeful that the sun comes out because it's going to
Speaker 1: be looks like mid to upper sixties this evening. Looks
Speaker 1: like the sun may come out later, which is good
Speaker 1: because I feel like when you're in the mid sixties,
Speaker 1: if the sun's not out like that's actually kind of chilly.
Speaker 1: But if the sun shining and there's not much of
Speaker 1: a breeze, it probably feels good. Which I'm heading to
Speaker 1: a slugger field after the game. Than I'm going to
Speaker 1: go to the Bats game with the family. Looking forward
Speaker 1: to that. And you can hear that Bats game right
Speaker 1: here with the voice of the Louis of Bats, Nick
Speaker 1: Currn on Sports Talk seven to ninety. All Right, so
Speaker 1: a lot to get to before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: But with high school coming to an end, really the
Speaker 1: school year coming to an end for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: if not already, probably within the next week or so,
Speaker 1: I would imagine I'm starting to see more about these
Speaker 1: these senior pranks, which I remember senior pranks being a
Speaker 1: thing when I was growing up, when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: It was, in fact, nineteen years ago that I graduated
Speaker 1: high school.
Speaker 2: Which just saying that out loud does make me feel old.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't feel like it was any time recently,
Speaker 1: but just to say that next year will be twenty
Speaker 1: years since I graduated high school. I mean again, when
Speaker 1: I think back, it does seem like it's been a
Speaker 1: long long time. But that the twenty year reunion is
Speaker 1: not one I'm ready for. I'm sure we'll have one
Speaker 1: and it'll be fun, but man, time goes by really fast.
Speaker 1: But anyways, I don't remember any thing we did in
Speaker 1: my senior year as far as a prank, And if
Speaker 1: we did something as a class, I probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: participated because I was always scared of getting in trouble
Speaker 1: for stuff. And I could be making this up, but
Speaker 1: I think there was some type of like there was
Speaker 1: something set up outside the school that somebody put on,
Speaker 1: like the roof, and I think like that was that
Speaker 1: was our senior prank.
Speaker 2: Haha.
Speaker 1: I don't really remember if it had a big reaction,
Speaker 1: if anybody got in any trouble. We didn't really do
Speaker 1: it big, I know, not long after I graduated. It
Speaker 1: might actually have been the year after I graduated, because
Speaker 1: my wife she graduated the year after me. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was her class or maybe one after her.
Speaker 1: But this, actually, this was such an outlandish senior prank
Speaker 1: that got enough attention to where I don't think it
Speaker 1: made the news and anybody got arrested. But you know,
Speaker 1: in the smaller community that I grew up in Bullock County,
Speaker 1: it word got out that they went to one of
Speaker 1: our rival schools, Mount Washington, full at East High School,
Speaker 1: and I think they stole a goat.
Speaker 2: I'm not making it up. I don't know.
Speaker 1: There were no pets, there were no animals whenever I
Speaker 1: was in school, but I think over time they've added
Speaker 1: like agriculture classes, departments or whatnot, farming stuff. I really
Speaker 1: don't know, but there was a goat that was I
Speaker 1: guess part of one of the schools in Bullock County
Speaker 1: that I mean, I don't know what you would do
Speaker 1: in class with a goat, but they stole the goat
Speaker 1: and brought it back to our high school, which I mean,
Speaker 1: that's kind of funny, But I hope the goat was
Speaker 1: safe and not scared. And I kind of feel like
Speaker 1: that probably happened at the perfect time to where it
Speaker 1: was still seen as relatively harmless. Maybe it was not popular,
Speaker 1: but I feel like if that happened now, it would
Speaker 1: make news. People would get arrested, and you know, not
Speaker 1: to say that they shouldn't, but obviously the reaction to
Speaker 1: things over the years has changed quite a bit the
Speaker 1: last in the last twenty years, and I don't I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little quick Google search here because
Speaker 1: I know this is something that happened recent recently, and
Speaker 1: I know it. I think it either it went viral
Speaker 1: online or yeah, WK why covered I knew, I knew
Speaker 1: I had seen it other than just on Facebook. But
Speaker 1: our partner's over at WKY they covered a recent senior
Speaker 1: prank that North Oldham students pulled off and it caused
Speaker 1: traffic delays because kids drove they rode bikes to school.
Speaker 1: Says here that drivers in Oldham County may have run
Speaker 1: into some delays. Thursday morning, seniors in North of Oldham
Speaker 1: High School decided to have a little fun and and
Speaker 1: and bike and scooter to school for their senior prank.
Speaker 1: This prank cost some temporary delays for drivers along Highway
Speaker 1: thirty two. That to me, like, I don't really think
Speaker 1: that's a prank, but like that that that that works.
Speaker 1: That's you know, I'm sure if you're sitting in traffic
Speaker 1: and you're running late to work, you're probably you're probably
Speaker 1: pissed because you're thinking, you know, have real funny, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be late to work.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there were some that were inconvenienced by it,
Speaker 1: But it's the most part, it's pretty harmless, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's not super dangerous. I guess it could be,
Speaker 1: but seemingly everybody involved, you know, had some fun with it,
Speaker 1: and it didn't it didn't become a big controversial thing.
Speaker 1: But over the years, across the country, senior pranks have
Speaker 1: at times unfortunately become not just controversial, but just really stupid.
Speaker 1: That like, you know, even though your kid and you're
Speaker 1: you're not quite I guess mature enough or aware, you
Speaker 1: don't have the self awareness to understand that, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that might get a laugh, but really pro and pros
Speaker 1: and cons here, is it really beneficial for me to
Speaker 1: do this? Even if I get a few laughs, probably
Speaker 1: not worth it if it ends up, you know, getting
Speaker 1: me arrested or ruining my future. And that, in fact,
Speaker 1: has has happened over the years this was in It
Speaker 1: looks like this actually wasn't just one isolated area, but
Speaker 1: in the last few years there have been multiple different
Speaker 1: senior pranks that were involving live animals. I guess this
Speaker 1: is similar to what I just referenced that happened in
Speaker 1: Bullet County long ago, which I guess I can't be
Speaker 1: too judgmental here, but students would bring and release chickens
Speaker 1: pigs or goats in school, and of course, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess some people found it funny, but obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: for health and safety reasons, you know, you probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: do that. That's probably again, I think the senior prank,
Speaker 1: it's a delicate line, right, like, are you going to
Speaker 1: because I think what I just mentioned that north Oldham
Speaker 1: did this year, In fact, I think it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: That to me is like the perfect balance of okay,
Speaker 1: far from controversial. Might have been annoying to some people,
Speaker 1: but you know, you probably laugh it off. But bringing
Speaker 1: live animals to school and letting them loose, that's probably
Speaker 1: not you know, and what's probably not worth it. This
Speaker 1: one's really funny.
Speaker 2: By the way.
Speaker 1: This was in Texas in twenty eighteen. A student hired
Speaker 1: a mariachi band to follow the school principle around for
Speaker 1: the day, and the principal in the news story here
Speaker 1: is quote, is he found it hilarious and even danced
Speaker 1: with the band at times. That's a good one. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it really is dependent upon the principle. Is
Speaker 1: he willing to play ball have some fun or is
Speaker 1: he going to be you know, real strict and not
Speaker 1: lean into it, but that's a good one. And I'm
Speaker 1: also surprised that the mariachi band took him up on it.
Speaker 1: Like I can see a mariachi band thinking like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I get what you're trying to do here,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to go and you know, get
Speaker 1: arrested for trespassing on school grounds where I'm not supposed
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: This what I feel.
Speaker 1: I don't even want to bring it up because it's
Speaker 1: just so stupid, but like, apparently it did happen. In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, there was a high school in Pennsylvania whose
Speaker 1: senior prank.
Speaker 2: Was a fake active shooter.
Speaker 1: It was a fake active shooter text, not a fake
Speaker 1: active shooter on campus, which, as you could expect, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the last thing you should ever joke about.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it ended up being a big deal because
Speaker 1: it was reported as a serious misuse of emergency systems.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you could actually I guess
Speaker 1: you could face some type of criminal charge for that.
Speaker 1: And this one, this one, I give these guys a
Speaker 1: lot of credit. I don't know how they pulled it off.
Speaker 1: But in twenty seventeen, a high school in Florida students
Speaker 1: somehow got a small car that I guess was disassembled prior,
Speaker 1: and then they reassembled it on the roof of their
Speaker 1: school overnight. So they actually put a car together, and
Speaker 1: when people showed up, there was a car on the roof, Like,
Speaker 1: that's good work. There was a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of national and local coverage because of the
Speaker 1: engineering work that went into that. But also, you know,
Speaker 1: like anything, there's people that claim, well, they could have
Speaker 1: hurt themselves.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you know what, you can get hurt every day.
Speaker 2: I like that one.
Speaker 1: I guess it could have gone wrong, somebody got hurt,
Speaker 1: or even if the car is disassembled, getting all the
Speaker 1: parts on the roof to then assemble said car, that
Speaker 1: could be a dangerous thing. That probably took a lot
Speaker 1: of work. And I don't know why, but I feel
Speaker 1: like you'd have to be in a really rural area
Speaker 1: to not hit the radar of somebody when you're pulling
Speaker 1: off one of these pranks. I mean, I guess a
Speaker 1: lot of folks are sleeping in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that one is listed here as one of
Speaker 1: the controversial ones. But I actually think that's pretty creative.
Speaker 1: This was actually I remember this making the news back
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two in Missouri, somebody went through the
Speaker 1: process of listing the actual school property for sale on Zillo.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it here and it does look like
Speaker 1: a legitimate Zillo posting that somebody can purchase the property.
Speaker 1: And what makes this creative and well done in my end,
Speaker 1: at least from my perspective, is that you can't just
Speaker 1: go I mean, you have to somebody who probably works
Speaker 1: in real estate has to help you get that posted.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure there were some resources used to make
Speaker 1: that happens.
Speaker 2: That's well done.
Speaker 1: I think most would realize, hey, that's the school that's
Speaker 1: not really for sale, but that's a good one. I
Speaker 1: like that one, and then this one. I don't remember this.
Speaker 1: This was in Wisconsin, just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: I'd have to see it to really know if I
Speaker 1: think it's like well done or not. But students at
Speaker 1: Cumberland High School in Wisconsin made it appear as if
Speaker 1: a car had crashed through the building using half a car.
Speaker 1: So apparently somehow they had half a vehicle and they
Speaker 1: put like bricks, tape and black tarp around it to
Speaker 1: where there was actually no damage.
Speaker 2: To the school. But when people arrived, they had half
Speaker 2: of a car.
Speaker 1: And then all the stuff in front of it looking
Speaker 1: as if it had crashed into the building. That's well done,
Speaker 1: that's not I mean, that's again a lot of creativity,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure a lot of these students had help.
Speaker 1: Like who has half a car availables for a senior prank?
Speaker 1: And now makes me wish we did something more creative,
Speaker 1: And look, maybe we did. I just didn't participate because
Speaker 1: this mentioned I was always scared of getting in trouble.
Speaker 1: I'm just happy I was able to graduate. That was
Speaker 1: probably my main focus at the time, just making sure
Speaker 1: I got what needed to be done in order to
Speaker 1: be able to actually, you know, finish high school. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see what do we want to get to here.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get to a break just yet,
Speaker 1: because we got a lot of things I want to
Speaker 1: run through before we run out of time today. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this isn't new information, but to see that Indian Animated
Speaker 1: official they announced that they're going to be playing at
Speaker 1: Ropperena this year on December thirteenth. That that's a game
Speaker 1: that should always happen. Indiana and Kentucky I mean, it
Speaker 1: is a rivalry, but if you are somebody around my
Speaker 1: age or certainly younger, I kind of get it that
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't really see it as a rivalry
Speaker 1: because I feel like when it was it, it's heyday.
Speaker 1: It was back honestly long before I was even around
Speaker 1: Bob Knight, Joe b those guys, and they played a
Speaker 1: lot in my childhood.
Speaker 2: But I don't really like, to me, there's not a
Speaker 2: whole lot.
Speaker 1: Of big memories of the of Indiana and Kentucky playing
Speaker 1: in basketball when I was a kid. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: they had memorable games, and I'm not a Kentucky fan,
Speaker 1: but obviously when you grow up around here, you know
Speaker 1: what's going on with both programs pretty much at all times,
Speaker 1: because there's so many fans and so much coverage on
Speaker 1: both sides of it.
Speaker 2: My memory.
Speaker 1: Comes to mind when I think of Kentucky and Indiana
Speaker 1: playing in basketball is when Mike Davis was in Indiana
Speaker 1: and they played the game at Freedom Hall. I think
Speaker 1: they did that more than once. I think they actually
Speaker 1: did that a handful of times. But they played at
Speaker 1: Freedom Hall and Mike Davis wanted a foul call, didn't
Speaker 1: get it and he just ran onto the court directly
Speaker 1: in front of the ref and just started putting his
Speaker 1: hand in his face, I guess, trying to tell the
Speaker 1: ref that his player had got hit in the face.
Speaker 1: But you know, the one that comes to mind for me,
Speaker 1: not as a child, but the twenty what was it
Speaker 1: twenty the twenty twelve game whenever they you know, the
Speaker 1: Watford shot, which Indiana still celebrates like it was a
Speaker 1: national championship moment, which is really embarrassing. And I've defended
Speaker 1: Indiana a lot over the years because I do believe
Speaker 1: they're just one coach away. They've got all the resources
Speaker 1: that you would need to be really, really good at
Speaker 1: basketball and win national championships. They just have yet to
Speaker 1: get it right since they fired Bob Knight, which was
Speaker 1: a long time ago. But what really reminds you of,
Speaker 1: I guess their humongous gas up and being you know, successful,
Speaker 1: is the way in which they really like go overboard
Speaker 1: about a regular season win against a team that, look,
Speaker 1: they were good. That Kentucky team's one of the best
Speaker 1: teams you'll ever see in college basketball in twenty twelve, right, and.
Speaker 2: The finish was insane. The buzzer beater from.
Speaker 1: Watford, like it was all great, but like now it's
Speaker 1: actually watered down because they tried to make it a
Speaker 1: bigger thing than it actually was. And I think the
Speaker 1: biggest component as far as like what makes that just
Speaker 1: seem so lame for them to do, to just go
Speaker 1: overboard and celebrating that, is that that same Kentucky team
Speaker 1: that they beat on the last second shot ended their
Speaker 1: season in the NCAA tournament, Like you can't really dunk
Speaker 1: on Kentucky whenever you went one and one against them,
Speaker 1: and then they won the game that mattered, Like it
Speaker 1: just to me, it really made me aware that, man,
Speaker 1: these Hoosiers have not had many big moments in a
Speaker 1: long time. And look, they haven't won a title in
Speaker 1: my lifetime. Their last one was in eighty seven. Now
Speaker 1: clearly they've got five of them, and not many can
Speaker 1: say they have that many. But anyways, Indiana has always
Speaker 1: just been a coach away from being really really successful.
Speaker 1: And who knows, maybe that guy ends up being Darian Devrees,
Speaker 1: but he'll be in rupt this year. And Louisville playing Indiana, Kentucky, Memphis,
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati all in the same season next year is awesome.
Speaker 2: And Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they really need to play Indiana,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad they are.
Speaker 2: I think it's a game that should be played.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to college basketball, if you're somebody
Speaker 1: like myself who wants the sport to be super successful,
Speaker 1: I wish there was more viewership. I wish more people
Speaker 1: loved it the way that I do. You need games
Speaker 1: like this, right, I mean, it's not going to compete
Speaker 1: with the NFL in November and December, certainly, but these
Speaker 1: are the kind of games that are clearly in every aspect,
Speaker 1: a much better thing for college hoops than playing Savannah
Speaker 1: State or Florida A and M. And you're always going
Speaker 1: to have some games against those kind of teams. But
Speaker 1: if you know, like I just think it's wild. But
Speaker 1: to this, like the Louisville's basketball schedule is not complete,
Speaker 1: but let's just say they've got Winthrop on the schedule.
Speaker 1: I'm only guessing Winthrop because I know Winthrop will be
Speaker 1: probably an annual opponent because of Pat Kelsey's history there.
Speaker 1: Obviously he got his head coaching start at Winthrop and
Speaker 1: his mentor, the late Skip Prosser, his son. I believe
Speaker 1: Mark Prosser is the head coach at Winthrop, so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked if they're on the schedule every year,
Speaker 1: and I have no problem with that. But let's say
Speaker 1: they play this year on a Wednesday in December at
Speaker 1: nine o'clock at night on the ACC network. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I feel like you got some real gall to like
Speaker 1: criticize fans who decide not to go. I mean again,
Speaker 1: I know we sometimes are wired and we compete with
Speaker 1: one another. Is who can be the biggest fan, who's
Speaker 1: the who's the most die hard fan? That kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: And I guess it's nice to have that competitive energy
Speaker 1: because you really love and support your team that much.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I just don't have the I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't with a criticize somebody who decided, yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: watch that one at home. So again, you're always gonna
Speaker 1: have some games like that. But the more you play
Speaker 1: teams that aren't nobody's and that there's history rather it
Speaker 1: be a rivalry or just a team that you have
Speaker 1: a lot of history with, that's a much better scenario
Speaker 1: to get a full crowd, a good atmosphere, and probably
Speaker 1: a better TV Number two. So Indiana and Kentucky renewing
Speaker 1: their rivalry. And that's the way it should be. These
Speaker 1: teams should always play. All right, let's get to a
Speaker 1: quick break. We'll come back on the other side. Let
Speaker 1: you hear what Mark Pope had to say about Pat Kelcey.
Speaker 1: I think, I mean, I wouldn't call it a bromance,
Speaker 1: but the two clearly like each other and it seems
Speaker 1: natural and I've got no issue with it. But I
Speaker 1: guess I can understand if some people are bothered by it,
Speaker 1: because I guess best case scenario is that you know
Speaker 1: your coach hates the rivals coach, vice versa, but you
Speaker 1: can't force it. You can't force it, And I just
Speaker 1: don't really see a scenario where these two specifically don't
Speaker 1: have seemingly a good relation like a friendship. Even so,
Speaker 1: we'll let you hear that, And we got a lot
Speaker 1: more we'll get into before we get out of here,
Speaker 1: So stick around. It's coffee and company. Feelbout Thornton's here
Speaker 1: on Sports Talk seven ninety All right, thank you big
Speaker 1: thanks to big time Carl Blatten for getting us ready
Speaker 1: for the weekend. This This song used to be an
Speaker 1: annual Friday thing and then it kind of just faded away.
Speaker 1: I guess I could have forced it, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: But thank you, Carl, I forgot this used to be
Speaker 1: our Friday sendoff, and now it's back, and I was
Speaker 1: already ready for the weekend. Now I'm even more ready,
Speaker 1: So good stuff there. It also kind of made me
Speaker 1: think back on all the you know, the years where
Speaker 1: every Friday that was that was a staple. And again
Speaker 1: next Friday, a week from the day, it will be my
Speaker 1: last day here at seven ninety and I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: the most of the time we have left. And this
Speaker 1: weekend we've got an extra day, so a long weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to get a plan together as
Speaker 1: far as really what I want next week to look like.
Speaker 1: I mentioned this at the beginning of the show. Don't
Speaker 1: know if it's gonna actually happen, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to find a way to get us out next
Speaker 1: week at some point to do the show somewhere and
Speaker 1: have a sendoff. And you know, as soon as I
Speaker 1: know if we can do that, I'll share info with
Speaker 1: you and hopefully you guys can can come and join us.
Speaker 1: All right, let's finish strong here about thirty minutes left
Speaker 1: before we get out of here. The love fest, if
Speaker 1: you will. I don't think it's a LoveFest necessarily, but
Speaker 1: I heard it described as that, and I can't say
Speaker 1: that that's an outlandish thing to say. But Pat Kelsey
Speaker 1: and Mark Pope, I think, not only do these guys
Speaker 1: respect one another, they don't have the exact same background.
Speaker 1: One is very tall, one is very not. But they
Speaker 1: got opportunities to take over programs that probably always were
Speaker 1: viewed as dream jobs for them, especially Mark Pope at Kentucky,
Speaker 1: Whereas with Kelsey, I don't really know what his dream
Speaker 1: job is. Obviously, he's got history with Cincinnati, that's where
Speaker 1: he played. I'm sorry with Xavier. He hates Cincinnati. He's
Speaker 1: a Xavier Musketeer and that's a big rivalry. But he's
Speaker 1: from Cincinnati, played at Xavier. That's where he really got
Speaker 1: his start in coaching under Skip Prossers. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if Louisville was viewed as a dream job, but
Speaker 1: I think he's certainly went out of his way to
Speaker 1: make people realize that. He sometimes can't believe he's actually
Speaker 1: the coach here. So another factor with these two guys
Speaker 1: is that you didn't see it as much this year
Speaker 1: because Louisville early on had so many injuries to where
Speaker 1: they did not reinvent themselves or change identity. But the
Speaker 1: way Pat wanted to play, he really wasn't able to
Speaker 1: because he didn't have the bodies. When you lost case
Speaker 1: In Pryor and Corain Johnson at the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: you really were limited in what you could do. And
Speaker 1: then of course there were some other injuries throughout the
Speaker 1: year as well, and then with Kentucky they had injury
Speaker 1: issues as well.
Speaker 2: Theirs came a little bit later in the year.
Speaker 1: But these guys, I mean, they want to play, maybe
Speaker 1: not the exact same way, but as far as the
Speaker 1: basketball philosophy that you see from both programs now with
Speaker 1: Pope and Kelsey, they're similar. They want to shoot a
Speaker 1: lot of threes in rhythm. There won't be many guys
Speaker 1: that don't have the green light. They want a lot
Speaker 1: of possessions each and every game. And defensively, it'll be clearly,
Speaker 1: if you know, defense is clearly going to be something
Speaker 1: they understand is important and they're going to work hard
Speaker 1: at it. But the real, I mean, the calling card
Speaker 1: is going to be offense and honestly, three point shooting
Speaker 1: in rhythm threes, spacing to where you can get to
Speaker 1: the rim or get to the free throw line. That is,
Speaker 1: That's what both these guys seemingly won. As far as
Speaker 1: how they've coached their entire careers, I don't think it
Speaker 1: was a coincidence that the season prior to both these
Speaker 1: guys taking over at Louisville and Kentucky. I believe both
Speaker 1: were in the top three as far as three point
Speaker 1: field goals attempted in a season, Charleston and BYU. So
Speaker 1: they're similar in a lot of ways. And I asked,
Speaker 1: you know, if I thought Mark Pope had something about
Speaker 1: him that made him unlikable, I would tell you. I mean,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be personal. I don't know him, but you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be more willing to find somebody unlikable or
Speaker 1: irritating to you if they're the rival, because you want
Speaker 1: that right. It's more comfortable for you if you find
Speaker 1: the opposing coach of your rival unlikable. Cal was great,
Speaker 1: perfect villain. He's actually just a great villain overall in
Speaker 1: college basketball, in sports. To be honest with you, I
Speaker 1: learned that whenever Kentucky would lose to teams like Saint
Speaker 1: Peter's in Oakland. Kentucky fans certainly upset and distraught after
Speaker 1: those kind of performances and those kind of results, But
Speaker 1: like cal losing with all that NBA talented teams like that,
Speaker 1: it seems like everybody celebrated outside of Kentucky fans.
Speaker 2: So he was a great villain. Mark Pope is not.
Speaker 1: And with Pat Kelsey, I don't know, because I don't
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not a Kentucky fan, but I think
Speaker 1: even their fans, even if they want, like, they're probably
Speaker 1: having to really work hard to manufacture something about him
Speaker 1: that they find to be unlikable. I mean, they can
Speaker 1: claim that they don't think he's a good coach and
Speaker 1: he stinks or whatever, but that it's a different thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the ammunition I've seen Kentucky fans when it
Speaker 1: comes to rivalrying with Louisville basketball fans. You know, they'll
Speaker 1: make fun of path for being short, or they'll make
Speaker 1: fun of his glasses or something. But other than that,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's you know, anytime you get into like
Speaker 1: personal appearance, that's almost an admission that you've lost the battle,
Speaker 1: right you've lost the war. When you start taking shots
Speaker 1: at somebody's personal appearance, you've lost the argument because that's
Speaker 1: what you turn to. But anyways, Matt and the KSR
Speaker 1: crew had to sit down with Mark Pope earlier this week.
Speaker 2: Didn't get a.
Speaker 1: Chance to hear the entire thing myself, but they did
Speaker 1: share this clip of Matt asking Mark Pope about the
Speaker 1: rivalry with Louisville. And I think this is worth you
Speaker 1: guys here, and especially if you're a Louisville fan, because
Speaker 1: you know you can't force it. And I think anybody
Speaker 1: acting like Mark Pope is a great villain and somebody
Speaker 1: we really just despise. Again, we wanted to lose every game.
Speaker 1: We're Louisville fans, and we certainly want him to lose
Speaker 1: when Louisville plays him. But outside of that, like, I
Speaker 1: think he's a pretty good coach myself, and I find
Speaker 1: him to be pretty hard to dislike. In fact, I
Speaker 1: kind of like him, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 3: The only downside I've seen about your tenure is and
Speaker 3: I hear this from Louisville fans too, So like I
Speaker 3: loved at times how much Kentucky and Louisville hated each other.
Speaker 3: Cal and your old coach wanted to stab each other
Speaker 3: and still do, whether whether they say it or not.
Speaker 3: But you and Pat Kelsey are too nice. Like the
Speaker 3: Louisville fans don't hate you. We don't really hate Pat Kelsey.
Speaker 3: That's the only thing I gotta get you to spice
Speaker 3: up the Louisville rivalry a little bit.
Speaker 4: I hate this Pat Kelsey and all of those Louisville fans. Hay, No,
Speaker 4: now here's the thing I'm gonna tell you this.
Speaker 1: You know, it's actually super cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, is that I got a boltload of respect from
Speaker 4: Pat Kelsey. Okay, I got so much. I think he's
Speaker 4: what he's what he did last year was incredible. Yes,
Speaker 4: And I mean two of my guys played for him
Speaker 4: last year, right, and and what they accomplished and and
Speaker 4: you know, I don't I don't have a ton of
Speaker 4: interaction with the little families, but I'm sure they're great.
Speaker 4: But but here's the thing. I actually, the one thing
Speaker 4: I would say is that that I actually think I
Speaker 4: think that this that this Kentucky Louisll thing is just
Speaker 4: gonna get heated and heated. You know, it's gonna get
Speaker 4: heated because it's gonna be back to being like one
Speaker 4: verse four in the contrey.
Speaker 3: No, they're gonna be good and they and they have
Speaker 3: the nisle to participate, and I think that's gonna be yes. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, you get you get to go in there
Speaker 3: next year. You'll get a sense of I think they're
Speaker 3: gonna be cussing at you like they used to cuss
Speaker 3: and me.
Speaker 4: They would never, they would not do that.
Speaker 1: So again, I just I think that was I think
Speaker 1: that was very genuine and just honest thoughts from Mark
Speaker 1: Pope about about Pat and he respects the work he's done.
Speaker 1: And you gotta you know, these guys they now understand
Speaker 1: and I'm sure Pope already did and both probably did right.
Speaker 1: Pope played here in in, you know, in the rivalry
Speaker 1: and Pat Kelsey comes from. Probably in my opinion, it's
Speaker 1: it's easily a top three rivalry in college basketball, Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and Xavier. I mean, that's that's that's real hatred, to
Speaker 1: be honest with you. It doesn't get the national love
Speaker 1: that Louisville and Kentucky and certainly the love that Duke
Speaker 1: and Carolina get. But that's a real heated rivalry. So
Speaker 1: I think both have always understood it. But you know,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna They're not gonna fake it. And I
Speaker 1: think even it wouldn't shock me at all if during
Speaker 1: the recruitment of maybe not with with Ali Khalifa, because
Speaker 1: I think Pope clearly wanted him to come to Kentucky,
Speaker 1: he chose Louisville. But I'm sure pat probably asked some
Speaker 1: questions to Mark Pope about Noah Waterman, who also played
Speaker 1: for for for Pope before transferring to Louisville. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be fine. It'll be a little it'll
Speaker 1: be a little unusual early on, it'll take some getting
Speaker 1: used to just understanding that these two guys actually do
Speaker 1: respect one another. But it shouldn't really impact us, because again,
Speaker 1: rivalries are about fans. That's that's always been a argument
Speaker 1: when it comes to college basketball's rivalries ranking, like when
Speaker 1: they rank the best rivalries in the sport. I'm clearly biased,
Speaker 1: hand up guilty of that, but I think Louisville and
Speaker 1: Kentucky every aspect of it. I think you could make
Speaker 1: the case and it's not even really that difficult to
Speaker 1: do that it's the best because of the components, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you didn't play each other for a long
Speaker 1: long time, and just the history of it, every bit
Speaker 1: of it makes it, including the Caliperi Patino element. I
Speaker 1: mean Rick going to Louisville and then cal already being
Speaker 1: kind of his personal rival, and then him taking over
Speaker 1: at Lexington. I mean, the dynamic of this entire thing.
Speaker 1: I think, I think it absolutely is the best rivalry
Speaker 1: in college basketball. And I always say this, why not
Speaker 1: say it once more? In the city of Louisville, there
Speaker 1: are so many on both sides that coexist together to
Speaker 1: where we're around each other. I mean, I guess everybody's different,
Speaker 1: everybody's situations different, but more often than not, you probably
Speaker 1: work with live with maybe a Kentucky fan if you're
Speaker 1: a Louisville fan, and vice versa. So again, everybody's different,
Speaker 1: but there's a good chance that you are very much
Speaker 1: into your diehard fan of one or the other, and
Speaker 1: you're oftentimes around the other side. Probably not during games,
Speaker 1: because that wouldn't be safe for anybody, I would assume,
Speaker 1: but that's what makes it special here. I don't think
Speaker 1: the rivalry is the same anywhere else in the country,
Speaker 1: certainly anywhere else in the state than it is right
Speaker 1: here in Louisville, and we only play once a year
Speaker 1: and more often than not. It's just about bragging rights,
Speaker 1: right in basketball, If both programs are historically where they
Speaker 1: where they have been, you know, you just take the
Speaker 1: consensus success, the average success over the last forty years
Speaker 1: of the two programs. Both are pretty good, right. Kentucky's
Speaker 1: pretty damn good. Louisville's not far behind. I mean, they
Speaker 1: don't have the accomplishments, but clearly Louisville, more often than not,
Speaker 1: is a pretty good program. So if they're there on
Speaker 1: any given year, that win is not gonna hurt you
Speaker 1: a whole lot, and it's probably not going to do
Speaker 1: a ton to elevate you. I mean, it's certainly good
Speaker 1: to have. If you beat Kentucky when they're good, that's
Speaker 1: going to help you on selection Sunday. Same thing on
Speaker 1: the other end. But if the teams are already pretty good,
Speaker 1: that's not like one that's not one isolated data point
Speaker 1: that's going to get you in the tournament or jump
Speaker 1: you up a seat or two. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: that could happen on occasion, but it's really just about
Speaker 1: bragging rights with the fans, and that's why I always
Speaker 1: think that. I mean, again, I did see a side
Speaker 1: of the Duke in Carolina fans coexisting when I went
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn for the ACC tournament, also when I went
Speaker 1: to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament, and you could sell
Speaker 1: there's some real there's some real rivalry energy there. So again,
Speaker 1: I'm sure more than anything is just the biased and
Speaker 1: if you it all depends on how you want to
Speaker 1: because I do think there's two different ways to view
Speaker 1: what makes a rivalry the best and how you want
Speaker 1: to rank them. Are you talking about just the heated
Speaker 1: hatred between the two fan bases and the history.
Speaker 2: I think Louisville and Kentucky would take the cake if
Speaker 2: that's the case.
Speaker 1: But if you want to view it as two programs
Speaker 1: that are clearly rivals, have a lot of history together,
Speaker 1: they have some rivalry moments, and they're also super super successful,
Speaker 1: then it's clearly Duke in Carolina. I mean, two of
Speaker 1: the best programs of all time. And look, Louisville Kentucky
Speaker 1: are both also two of the best programs of all time.
Speaker 1: Clearly Kentucky has the edge, but Louisville's easily a top
Speaker 1: eight program no matter how you want to slice it.
Speaker 1: So we're not there, as far as you know, the
Speaker 1: two collectively being great compared to Duke and Carolina because
Speaker 1: it's Duke Carolina. And there was a crazy stat that
Speaker 1: I'll have to look up during the break because I
Speaker 1: do want to. It almost doesn't seem real, but at
Speaker 1: one point the two teams had played each other. However
Speaker 1: many times it was over like a twenty five or
Speaker 1: thirty year stretch. If you add up the total scores
Speaker 1: from all the games. When they were going into one
Speaker 1: of their games recently in the last few years, it
Speaker 1: was tied. Think about it that like that. Not only
Speaker 1: are they great historically, but they're super competitive with one
Speaker 1: another and that makes the rivalry great. And again, if
Speaker 1: you're going to give the top spot to Duken Carolina,
Speaker 1: I certainly can't argue against that. And if Louisville wanted to,
Speaker 1: you know, do their part. I mean, again, let's be real,
Speaker 1: Louisville has not been as competitive in this series as
Speaker 1: as we would like. That's the very nice way to
Speaker 1: put it. I'm hopeful that that changes. But to Pope's point,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think if it does get competitive and
Speaker 1: Louisville starts getting some wins here in this rivalry, which
Speaker 1: I believe they will. I don't think it's going to
Speaker 1: because Kentucky fell off a cliff. I think it's going
Speaker 1: to because both teams are really good and sometimes you're
Speaker 1: going to get him, sometimes you're not. So I don't
Speaker 1: it's I'm already seeing on the text line here like it.
Speaker 1: It is a little unusual to like Kentucky's coach, and
Speaker 1: I can't lie to you and say that I don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like the guy. He's he's he's a
Speaker 1: likable guy. Of respective, I think he's a good coach.
Speaker 1: I think Kentucky's success in year one had more to
Speaker 1: do with him than anything. Like I don't think they
Speaker 1: were athletic last year. They certainly had injuries. Just when
Speaker 1: it looked as if they were going to get, you know,
Speaker 1: beat bad and really maybe.
Speaker 2: Hit a stretch to where people would start to.
Speaker 1: Question, I don't know, was this guy ready for the job,
Speaker 1: they would go win a big game. So I wish
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say I wish I wasn't saying those things.
Speaker 1: But I'm also not going to lie to myself or
Speaker 1: a lot of you. All right, quick break, we'll come
Speaker 1: back on the other side. Wrap this thing Up's coffee
Speaker 1: and company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Our last segment here will be a short one quickly though. Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: that's something this news I've been mentioning but not really
Speaker 1: getting into.
Speaker 2: And there's not a whole lot to add that I
Speaker 2: haven't already said.
Speaker 1: But Oklahoma has announced they're going to lay off five
Speaker 1: percent of their athletic department due to looming revenue sharing
Speaker 1: with athletes. So their athletic director, Joe Castellani, said that
Speaker 1: he will also be adjusting his compensation, reducing his salary,
Speaker 1: so they won't be the last to do it. But
Speaker 1: I will say I was not expecting a school from
Speaker 1: the SEC to be the first to say that they're
Speaker 1: going to start eliminating positions because they now know again
Speaker 1: there's now an annual twenty million, actually north of twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars that you have to pay because you've got
Speaker 1: to share revenue. Now. I mean, that's of all the
Speaker 1: things that have changed college athletics in recent years, that's
Speaker 1: that's a big one. And then sticking with money, pennies
Speaker 1: the penny is apparently dead, as the US Treasury has
Speaker 1: announced it will officially stop manufacturing the penny in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. I mean, I'm not bothered by this, although
Speaker 1: it could get kind of tricky as far as you
Speaker 1: know if you cause, I think they could stop producing
Speaker 1: it and we'll still have plenty of them to where
Speaker 1: you're going to get them and you can still use them.
Speaker 2: They're just not going to make them.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I know there are many out there
Speaker 1: that probably throw away a few pennies if they have
Speaker 1: them in their pocket, right, if you've got like a
Speaker 1: big old jug of them and you go, you know,
Speaker 1: get changed, you know, you cash in your change. Essentially
Speaker 1: a lot of people do that. But pennies are always
Speaker 1: just annoying to me. Like I've probably got I feel
Speaker 1: like I've got too many pennies in my cup holder,
Speaker 1: in my car and my dash, but like as many
Speaker 1: as I have, I bet I probably don't even have
Speaker 1: more than a couple of bucks, maybe because again it's
Speaker 1: one cent.
Speaker 2: So anyways, we're out of time. You guys enjoy the
Speaker 2: holiday weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll be back at it on Tuesday for the final
Speaker 1: week for me here at Sports Talk seven ninety Gonna
Speaker 1: make the most of it, have it go on everybody