Speaker 1: The kids are playing or trailot. The punctures are screwing
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother, gold Play Inner Murals.
Speaker 3: They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not.
Speaker 4: Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you
Speaker 4: kidding me?
Speaker 1: Now? Here's Nick Coffee?
Speaker 3: All right, Happy hump day, ladies and gentlemen, welcome in
Speaker 3: coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk
Speaker 3: seven to ninety. Nick Coffee, that's me. We've got Austin Montgomery,
Speaker 3: the travel Chief, alongside today. On a warm it's actually
Speaker 3: kind of kind of sticky out there. It's currently seventy
Speaker 3: nine degrees according to the Internet. The hot today's eighty one.
Speaker 3: With the humidity I'm looking here it says fifty nine percent.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's pretty humid. Yeah, you could tell
Speaker 3: me it's you know, thirty three percent humid, and you know,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't know necessarily what percentage makes it humid or not.
Speaker 3: But I'm just gonna guess that fifty nine percent means that,
Speaker 3: in fact, you know, it is a little sticky, a
Speaker 3: little muggy out there. And I'm lucky today because this
Speaker 3: is rare. I believe right now, the coolest place in
Speaker 3: our office is where I'm at. It's a cool sixty
Speaker 3: seven degrees. And I was walking around in our I mean,
Speaker 3: how do you describe this place Austin, Because like we
Speaker 3: don't really have like nobody has an office, but we
Speaker 3: have like meeting rooms that sometimes turn into people's offices,
Speaker 3: and then we've got desks that are kind of out
Speaker 3: in a big common area. So I put it this way.
Speaker 3: I was just walking around the whole place, you know, mingling,
Speaker 3: chatting with folks, and it's a lot warmer out there.
Speaker 3: And I asked one of our extraordinary sales folks, mister
Speaker 3: Brady Driscoll. I was like, is it always this hot
Speaker 3: out here? And he was like, yeah, we really never
Speaker 3: know what we're going to get. I'm like, okay, well
Speaker 3: it's not just me then, because usually if it's hot,
Speaker 3: this is the oven, this is where it just bakes.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: We've been lucky that someone has kept it cool and
Speaker 3: nobody's like adjusted it because I mean I probably shouldn't
Speaker 3: have even said anything, but it's sixty seven degrees in here,
Speaker 3: and that's I mean, that's usually like most places won't
Speaker 3: even let you turn it that low. There are certain
Speaker 3: certain hotels that like, you can't even get lower than
Speaker 3: sixty eight or sixty nine even So are you warm
Speaker 3: in there?
Speaker 4: It's a little bit warm in here. Yeah, kind of jealous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well come in here and you know, cool off
Speaker 3: in the break if you need to or go, you know,
Speaker 3: just dip my head and hose yourself down or something,
Speaker 3: because it's it's a little sticky. I walked, we walked
Speaker 3: to lunch today, and I don't know what's going on
Speaker 3: in Louisville today. I should know that, but there are
Speaker 3: a lot of there's a lot going on downtown, which
Speaker 3: again is always a good thing. I mentioned that every
Speaker 3: now and then on the show. But it was. It
Speaker 3: was a nice, nice walk throughout and again I walked
Speaker 3: further than I anticipated. I probably would have drove, but
Speaker 3: got a good walk in but also got hot and sweaty,
Speaker 3: which told me that it's actually pretty warm. So it's here.
Speaker 3: It's here. Yeah, the warm weather has arrived, and uh,
Speaker 3: I mean summer will be here soon. Kids are going
Speaker 3: to get out of school soon, and you know that's
Speaker 3: it's good for the kids, I'm sure, But man, I've
Speaker 3: now definitely and you'll you'll be here someday, Austin. The
Speaker 3: kids being out of school is not a good thing
Speaker 3: for most parents because they then have to either pay
Speaker 3: for childcare that they're not paying for during school hours,
Speaker 3: probably during the school year. You know, they have to
Speaker 3: worry about, you know, what their kids doing and all that.
Speaker 3: So we're trying. My wife and I are currently putting
Speaker 3: together our plan for you know, who's gonna keep who's
Speaker 3: gonna watch our little ones whenever, you know, when other
Speaker 3: school's out. You know, Moose is already in daycare, so
Speaker 3: it wo'll be good to go. But with Maya, she
Speaker 3: gets out of school and we are, I mean, we're basically,
Speaker 3: you know, just running through interviews because everybody wants to
Speaker 3: be around her, right like they want to sign up. Hey,
Speaker 3: can I get a day? Can I Can I get
Speaker 3: a day where I watch Maya? Because she, you know,
Speaker 3: she just brings so much joy and she's and she's great.
Speaker 3: So anyways, it's a warm Wednesday, and we're gonna have
Speaker 3: some fun. I at least I am. I'm gonna have fun.
Speaker 3: Austin's gonna have fun. I guess it's up to you
Speaker 3: if you have fun. But what we planned to do
Speaker 3: is provide an experience here coffee and company on a
Speaker 3: Wednesday that it'll be difficult for you to not have fun.
Speaker 3: That's what we want to do today, So let's get
Speaker 3: right to it. I will start with something that will
Speaker 3: make Louisville fans happy or at least you know, it'll
Speaker 3: be a good thing to be reminded about it in
Speaker 3: case you might have forgot. And on the Kentucky side,
Speaker 3: it's not good stuff, not good news. But like I
Speaker 3: don't think they're going to be shocked, and I don't
Speaker 3: even think they could disagree with me if they wanted to.
Speaker 3: But the momentum for both programs right now, I mean,
Speaker 3: it seems it seems like we've never really been in
Speaker 3: a place where it's headed in opposite directions for both
Speaker 3: programs at such a high rate of speed. Let me
Speaker 3: give an example. So currently we now know this came
Speaker 3: out a little bit earlier today. I believe Bret McMurphy's
Speaker 3: the one who put it out there. And it's the
Speaker 3: wind totals for all ACC teams. And this is from
Speaker 3: circa sportsbook. Have you seen this, shed Austin? Do you
Speaker 3: know what the win total is? For Louisville this year
Speaker 3: because I take a guess we're talking I'm sorry, we're
Speaker 3: talking football or basketball. Our football win total for louisvill football. Ah,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna say eight. See I would
Speaker 3: have said seven and a half for eight, but it's
Speaker 3: actually set at eight and a half. Oh and we'll
Speaker 3: get into later sort of you know, what would be
Speaker 3: the you know, take away your fan, take away your
Speaker 3: you know, the emotional attachment that you have to Louisville
Speaker 3: because it's your team. You know, what do you think
Speaker 3: here if you had to, if you had to lay
Speaker 3: some action, what would make the most sense. We can
Speaker 3: get into that a little bit later on. But again,
Speaker 3: just seeing that sports books objective folks look at Louisville
Speaker 3: as a team that they set at eight and a half, that,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just a sign that you know, you're
Speaker 3: in a good place. And I know people can make
Speaker 3: the jokes about the ACC being so bad and that's
Speaker 3: why well whatever, I mean, I'm not here to say
Speaker 3: that the ACC is great. But you know, when you've
Speaker 3: got eight and a half as the line, I mean,
Speaker 3: the expectation is that you're you're you're gonna win a
Speaker 3: lot more games and you're gonna lose, and we you know,
Speaker 3: we know that doesn't always play out that way. But
Speaker 3: when I see that, I mean, I can't remember. I
Speaker 3: don't know Jeff's first year. I know it wasn't close
Speaker 3: to being eight and a half, but I don't remember
Speaker 3: last year because you got to keep it. Louisll went
Speaker 3: ten and two in his first year, and then the
Speaker 3: next year you really didn't seem to have a whole
Speaker 3: lot of momentum to take from that, right because you'd
Speaker 3: made your appearance in the AEC Championship game, and really,
Speaker 3: people forgod, because it was all about Florida State, how
Speaker 3: they were without Jordan Travis, and they won the AEC
Speaker 3: title against Louisville and still didn't get in. And then
Speaker 3: Louisville lost their last three games to close out the season,
Speaker 3: and really they were all kind of in bad fashion.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: You lost to Kentucky, which is the ultimate punch to
Speaker 3: the gut, and then you lost to Florida State in
Speaker 3: a game that was really disgustingly ugly, and you know,
Speaker 3: the AEC championship game and they beat you without their
Speaker 3: second and first dring quarterback, and then of course the
Speaker 3: bowl game against USC you know, you got routed in
Speaker 3: the end. So I don't know what the wind totals
Speaker 3: were for last year, but I feel like it wasn't
Speaker 3: eight and a half. I feel like it was probably
Speaker 3: lower than that, probably closer to seven and a half
Speaker 3: or maybe eight, maybe even seven, I'm not sure. So again,
Speaker 3: that's a sign that there's momentum. You look at preseason
Speaker 3: rankings or I guess they're calling them post spring rankings.
Speaker 3: I mean, just about anyone that you can find, you'll
Speaker 3: see that. You'll see that Louisville is in the top
Speaker 3: twenty five. I think I saw the ESPN one earlier
Speaker 3: this week had him at number twenty two. So there's
Speaker 3: good momentum. And I think given where you are, and
Speaker 3: given the conference being you know there for the taking
Speaker 3: outside of maybe a couple teams, you know, it's just
Speaker 3: nice going into a season knowing that, yeah, you're not
Speaker 3: crazy to be looked at as a team that might
Speaker 3: end up in the playoff because they now put in
Speaker 3: more than just four and oh, by the way, you're
Speaker 3: a pretty good team. And also, I mean I feel
Speaker 3: like Louisill got a lot of free pub in real
Speaker 3: good PR because of the Tyler Shuck situation. Right when
Speaker 3: Nick Saban on that Friday night of the NFL Draft
Speaker 3: Day two was just glazon over my man, Jeffrey Bram
Speaker 3: I mean that, I mean he's acting like. One of
Speaker 3: the reasons why, in fact, that Tyler Shuck will have
Speaker 3: a good you know, will have an easier transition among
Speaker 3: a lot of things, was that he played for Jeff
Speaker 3: Bram in a pro style offense and he really prepared
Speaker 3: his quarterback for the next level. I mean, again, there's
Speaker 3: no guarantee that does anything for you, but it certainly
Speaker 3: can't hurt you, right if you've got quarterbacks that are
Speaker 3: hitting the portal or quarterbacks that are being recruited out
Speaker 3: of high school. They hear Nick Saban on the NFL
Speaker 3: draft coverage say that Jeff Brohm gets his quarterbacks ready
Speaker 3: for the NFL. I mean pretty damn good pr.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: So again, a lot of good moment for football on
Speaker 3: the Louisville side and on the Kentucky side, not so much.
Speaker 3: Austin their win total for Kentucky this year is set
Speaker 3: at four and a half. In that under that's gotta
Speaker 3: be the lowest that they've been set at in a
Speaker 3: long time, a long long time, And like, who's surprised
Speaker 3: by that? Like, I don't even think Kentucky fans are
Speaker 3: in any way surprised that that's what the wind total
Speaker 3: is set at. Because of what happened last year, their
Speaker 3: rosters seemingly got worse. And another big factor that's really
Speaker 3: important here that I'll never not acknowledge. They have a
Speaker 3: really tough schedule. They play Ole Miss South Carolina, who's
Speaker 3: got a lot of momentum, clearly a better program than Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Texas,
Speaker 3: and Tennessee. I don't need to tell you about those
Speaker 3: programs being better in Kentucky, it's quite clear. And then
Speaker 3: Auburn and Florida teams that are kind of in in
Speaker 3: a bad place right Like Florida did rebound well at
Speaker 3: the end of last year, but they hated their coach
Speaker 3: Auburn albert in Florida last year. With the teams that
Speaker 3: Kentucky was supposed to just simply be better than this
Speaker 3: past year. Therefore, you know you could easily lose because
Speaker 3: you know they're not complete chumps. But at the same
Speaker 3: point in time, like those teams embarrassed Kentucky. So they've
Speaker 3: got a tough schedule, but like four and a half,
Speaker 3: I think I would take the over and it's because
Speaker 3: I don't see them beating anybody in the SEC outside
Speaker 3: of maybe Vandy, and I don't even think that like
Speaker 3: their fans would disagree. So they've got Eastern Michigan, they'll
Speaker 3: win that. They've got Tennessee Tech, they'll win that, and
Speaker 3: then maybe Vandy, although Vandy is in Nashville this year,
Speaker 3: and then they played Toledo to start the season. I
Speaker 3: look at that as Okay, of course they're going to win.
Speaker 3: But Toledo, I mean they beat an SEC team last
Speaker 3: year by I think a bunch. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: this team was really bad. The only team that finished
Speaker 3: worse than Kentucky in the SEC was Mississippi State. But but
Speaker 3: Toledo went down to Starkville and bent them over. So
Speaker 3: Toledo is not exactly the MAC opponent that I think
Speaker 3: you would typically want to play. So I mean, I
Speaker 3: think rivalry aside, emotion aside, not trolling. I think the
Speaker 3: wise play there would be under four and a half.
Speaker 3: And I don't even think their fans, if they're objective,
Speaker 3: would really disagree. I can't speak for them, but like
Speaker 3: they know that they're probably not going to be super
Speaker 3: excited about Kentucky football again until a coaching change is made, unless,
Speaker 3: of course, Stoops somehow does really well out of nowhere
Speaker 3: this year, like unexpectedly they just end up being really good,
Speaker 3: which I don't see a scenario where that happens. So
Speaker 3: they know, and they're showing with the lack of interest
Speaker 3: their ticket sales for season tickets. It's again, this is
Speaker 3: I'm not beating them up, although it may sound like it,
Speaker 3: but like this is not a good piece of news.
Speaker 3: But it's also totally understandable. They sold out season tickets
Speaker 3: the last two seasons. This year, their season tickets are
Speaker 3: down seemingly at a substantial level. So therefore there was
Speaker 3: such a step back last year and really no plan
Speaker 3: to get the fan base back up and sell them that, hey,
Speaker 3: we're going to get this thing turned around. We know
Speaker 3: last year was unacceptable. We are ready to prove people wrong.
Speaker 3: We've got the right guys and here, look all that's words.
Speaker 3: It doesn't give you action, doesn't give you results. But like,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's been a whole lot of that
Speaker 3: like Stoops has kind of been chilling and you know,
Speaker 3: staying out of the public eye in every way this offseason.
Speaker 3: And again it could be because he's got something special
Speaker 3: brewing and he wants to lay low, or he might realize, yeah,
Speaker 3: we were really bad last year and I don't think
Speaker 3: we're going to be any better this year. So there
Speaker 3: are This is from the Herald Leader says the season
Speaker 3: football ticket sales are down, and they mentioned that they
Speaker 3: sold out forty thousand tickets the last two seasons. And
Speaker 3: now let's see, according to the Harold Leader, through May twelfth,
Speaker 3: which was yet earlier, this is Monday, Kentucky sold more
Speaker 3: than twenty one thousand season ticket packages, which is still
Speaker 3: twenty five thousand fewer tickets sold by the renewal deadline
Speaker 3: in April of twenty twenty four. So they've kept the
Speaker 3: price the same as what UK claims here per the
Speaker 3: Herold Leader, and you know that's a substantial drop off.
Speaker 3: Like these are the kind of things this is, this
Speaker 3: is the type of action that your fans take. And
Speaker 3: it may not even be because they're trying to force
Speaker 3: the issue here, trying to force the hand of Mitch
Speaker 3: Barnhardt they're just like they're out, like they're checked out,
Speaker 3: like they're they're not going to Like I think they
Speaker 3: realized that the best days of Kentucky football under Mark
Speaker 3: Stoops are clearly in the in the past and not
Speaker 3: in the future. Now, what I don't know is like
Speaker 3: how long is Barnhart even going to be there? And
Speaker 3: you know, like if they lost to Toledo, I think
Speaker 3: they would be of the belief that Stoops would get
Speaker 3: the can. I don't know that he would. I mean
Speaker 3: all the coaches that Mitch Barnhart has hired and been
Speaker 3: the boss of during his time in Lexington And disclaimer,
Speaker 3: I'm not at all connected anything at UK. I'm just
Speaker 3: going off of the optics and the public perception and oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, react like results. Things that happened Mark
Speaker 3: Stoops got Mitch Barnhart to prioritize football more than I
Speaker 3: think really any coach as Kentucky has now. Stoops also
Speaker 3: gave them a good return with improvements and they were
Speaker 3: clearly better during his you know, the majority of his
Speaker 3: stint there. So there's a scenario that like Barnhart can
Speaker 3: know he's out in two three years, and he can
Speaker 3: also just know deep down like, Yeah, that's my guy,
Speaker 3: and he's gonna be my guy until I'm not here anymore.
Speaker 3: Because whoever is the new AD after Barnhart whenever he
Speaker 3: does retire, like they're gonna want their own coach. So
Speaker 3: like if Barnhart ends up hiring a new coach and
Speaker 3: then retires a year or two later, I mean that,
Speaker 3: actually that would make your job a little less attractive
Speaker 3: because I think a coach would think, Look, I'm not
Speaker 3: if it's quite clear that you're kind of already phasing out,
Speaker 3: there needs to be an inner or there needs to
Speaker 3: be an AD in waiting or something, because I don't
Speaker 3: want to get here and have to clean up Mark
Speaker 3: Stoops's mess and then know that you're out in the
Speaker 3: year or two and somebody's going to come in and
Speaker 3: already want to get a new coach because if you're
Speaker 3: an AD, you're foolish to not have your own guy
Speaker 3: because you're you don't want to go down with somebody
Speaker 3: you didn't even hire, right, Like, who, I mean, who
Speaker 3: would do that? Ads are evaluated for a lot of things,
Speaker 3: but at most schools it's the coaching hire for football.
Speaker 3: Now Kentucky and louisll are a little bit different because
Speaker 3: our basketball programs are monsters nationally and clearly, like we
Speaker 3: learned the hard way, not that we didn't know it already,
Speaker 3: but man, we really learned during the Kidney Payne era.
Speaker 3: This city and this university UL needs basketball to be
Speaker 3: alive and thriving, not have you know the years that
Speaker 3: we had. So I don't know, I just I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't see a scenario where Stoops is not their coach,
Speaker 3: you know, at least a couple more years unless he
Speaker 3: walks away. And that that takes me back to the
Speaker 3: conversation that we had towards the end of the season
Speaker 3: here and there throughout the show, because Kentucky Evans were
Speaker 3: just like, you know, yeah, yeah, you know what. I
Speaker 3: think he might just call it, you know, he might
Speaker 3: be done. He might walk away. Who's walking away from
Speaker 3: that much money? Nobody Like do you hear yourselves?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Who would walk away from knowing you could lose every game?
Speaker 3: Like he would make them, Stoops would absolutely make them
Speaker 3: fire him, and he'd be foolish not to because that's like,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the amount of money still owed on
Speaker 3: its contract. I mean, that's who's walking away from that
Speaker 3: and just saying, yeah, I'm good, I'll get a new job.
Speaker 3: I'll go be a greeter at Walmart or something like.
Speaker 3: Nobody would do that. So I guess there's a scenario
Speaker 3: where he could maybe negotiate like a buyout that's lower
Speaker 3: to where it's a little bit more of a of
Speaker 3: a of a you know, not such a contentious and
Speaker 3: toxic exit. But everything I've seen like Stoops seems sensitive
Speaker 3: and bothered that people are mad that they sucked ass
Speaker 3: slash like pardon my language, but like, you know, he's
Speaker 3: got like this. You know, he still operates as if
Speaker 3: their fan base should not be critical of the bad,
Speaker 3: bad season they had and other issues, they should just
Speaker 3: be thankful that he showed up and saved their program
Speaker 3: like he did, which, to be fair, he did do
Speaker 3: a really good job, and he has done a good
Speaker 3: job overall. But to me, I just think this thing
Speaker 3: probably should have like he absolutely would have been wise
Speaker 3: and it would have worked out better for everyone had
Speaker 3: A and M not pulled the plug and actually hired him.
Speaker 3: They wanted to hire him, and then they realized, yeah,
Speaker 3: now we can't do that. And I still think it's
Speaker 3: hilarious that there are some that actually try to run
Speaker 3: with the narrative that he yeah, he told him no
Speaker 3: thanks after really considering, and you kidd me, I mean,
Speaker 3: not a chance in France that Mark Stoops turned down
Speaker 3: A and M to stay Kentucky. And you kind of
Speaker 3: felt like last year the way things played out, that man,
Speaker 3: he was already out the door and then uh oh yeah,
Speaker 3: we had to talk with some of our or donors, boosters,
Speaker 3: whatever down here in College Station, and we're gonna go
Speaker 3: in a different direction. That's what happened. I mean, and
Speaker 3: there's conflicting stories about it, but I trust who who
Speaker 3: I trust. As far as Stoops was making the phone calls,
Speaker 3: he was on his way out, he was telling people,
Speaker 3: thank you so much, and I mean he's celebrating not
Speaker 3: only because he beat Louisville that day, but like he'd
Speaker 3: gotten a huge job. And then you know he didn't
Speaker 3: actually get said jobs. So again, there's some real momentum
Speaker 3: for Louisville football, which is the way it should be
Speaker 3: and for Kentucky. I mean, it's nice for me to
Speaker 3: be able to position it this way. But I'm also
Speaker 3: not telling any lies here, Like what have I said
Speaker 3: that is untrue about the direction for both programs right now.
Speaker 3: I mean I think, I mean, I think it's I
Speaker 3: think it's quite clear. And this isn't even like a
Speaker 3: you know, this isn't even about well, louisvill is just
Speaker 3: so great they're gonna make the college football Playoff. I mean,
Speaker 3: I did say that they could realistically get there, but
Speaker 3: I'm not predicting it by any means right now. But
Speaker 3: it's more so that like Kentucky has completely fallen off,
Speaker 3: like can there be like Mississippi State would have to
Speaker 3: be the other, Like Mississippi State would have to be
Speaker 3: the only program that could have a lower wind total
Speaker 3: than Kentucky, right, I mean, I'm doing a quick little
Speaker 3: search here. Yeah, So according to CIRCA, Kentucky is at
Speaker 3: four and a half, Mississippi State's at three and a half,
Speaker 3: Vandy's five and a half, Arkansas five and a half,
Speaker 3: and everybody else is seven or more. So, I mean,
Speaker 3: they were in a spot to where they were better
Speaker 3: than Vandy consistently, and now that's not really the case anymore.
Speaker 3: And they were kind of trading barbs with South Carolina
Speaker 3: and then Florida, kind of a roller coaster but they
Speaker 3: had a good stretch of success against Florida, and then
Speaker 3: Tennessee really has had their numbers certainly in the last
Speaker 3: however many years, certainly since Josh Hipel's been there, and
Speaker 3: then they would go out and win their non conference games.
Speaker 3: But now you got Texas and you got Oklahoma in
Speaker 3: the league. So your league schedule's clearly going to be
Speaker 3: tougher and you might go to nine games. It sounds like,
Speaker 3: which again is going to make life harder. And I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know Mitch Barnhardt could tell their fan base. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we think Mark Stoops is the guy that's going to,
Speaker 3: you know, get Kentucky to where they're more so competitive
Speaker 3: in the best league in college football. I mean, yes,
Speaker 3: he has done it before, but man, been some years
Speaker 3: since they were actually good. And also everything's changed, right
Speaker 3: like you you know, I just think Stoops is in
Speaker 3: a position where he'll still be able to get money
Speaker 3: coming in to pay for nil but not I mean
Speaker 3: not after I mean again, when you think people aren't
Speaker 3: buying season ticket, I mean people clearly aren't buying season
Speaker 3: tickets in Lexington. I mean I think that would also
Speaker 3: lead you to believe that those that were lining up
Speaker 3: to give money to help him, probably aren't doing it
Speaker 3: at the same level they were prior, or even maybe
Speaker 3: doing it at all. I don't mean everybody, but you
Speaker 3: know and against Strops has done a good job overall.
Speaker 3: Any if he he does lose to Toledo in the
Speaker 3: first game and they can his ass afterwards that I
Speaker 3: think you'd still look at his overall time there and
Speaker 3: say he did a really good job at Kentucky. But
Speaker 3: more so than anything, the key element is that because
Speaker 3: it's a Kentucky and to be fair to him, nobody
Speaker 3: else has done what he did. He won ten games twice,
Speaker 3: He recruited at a level that really I don't think
Speaker 3: they'd ever thought they could they could recruit at. But
Speaker 3: time has passed and like there's really no momentum left
Speaker 3: from that success that he had and you got to
Speaker 3: build it back up kind of from scratch, and I
Speaker 3: just that's the scenario. I don't really see happening, but
Speaker 3: just my thoughts. All Right, we got a lot to
Speaker 3: get to. How about last night's NBA playoff game with
Speaker 3: the Nuggets and the and the Thunder. That was a
Speaker 3: sensational game. The NBA Playoffs man they keep delivering and
Speaker 3: I'm loving it. I am absolutely loving it. Also, Pat Kelsey,
Speaker 3: he talked today at the ACC Spring meetings. We'll let
Speaker 3: you guys hear plenty of that sound. Scotty Scheffler wore
Speaker 3: something today in the PGA Champion that I refuse to
Speaker 3: believe is just a random coincidence. So we can certainly
Speaker 3: get into that and a lot more. It's coffee and
Speaker 3: Company we're fuel Abu Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven.
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Speaker 3: at Refreshing Rewards dot com. Download the app on your Android,
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Speaker 3: You know, I'm very lucky in life to do something
Speaker 3: that I genuinely enjoy doing. It is work I do,
Speaker 3: in fact, believe it or not, do get paid to
Speaker 3: do this. Some might say it's a waste of an
Speaker 3: investment from the employer that I work for, But whatever,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm gonna keep doing it because it's fun.
Speaker 3: I enjoy what I do, and I know that I'm
Speaker 3: lucky because the's a lot of people that have jobs
Speaker 3: that they don't really probably love, or maybe it wasn't
Speaker 3: what they set out to do when they were trying
Speaker 3: to figure out what they wanted their career to be.
Speaker 3: But I can as I get older and try to
Speaker 3: remind myself, you know how fortunate I am. I often
Speaker 3: I feel like I noticed, more so now than ever,
Speaker 3: people who, regardless of their job, if they're really passionate
Speaker 3: about it and they're positive and they like what they
Speaker 3: do and they have good energy, you know, that stands
Speaker 3: out to me more. Right Like, I think it's become
Speaker 3: more of a rare thing. If you go to like
Speaker 3: a fast food place like you can be you can
Speaker 3: do everything needed as far as your job, and I'll
Speaker 3: be a satisfied customer even if you're not smiling, if
Speaker 3: you're not overly polite, but you know you're there doing
Speaker 3: your job. But if you are doing it and you
Speaker 3: seem like you're really, you know, you're into it, that
Speaker 3: stands out. And I think that's probably harder to do
Speaker 3: for certain people, clearly, but I wanted to give a
Speaker 3: shout out to this employee who's probably like a part timer.
Speaker 3: I shouldn't say. I don't know what his position is,
Speaker 3: but this guy works for the Cannapolis cannon Ballers. The
Speaker 3: Cannapolis Cannonballers Austin. You may know this because if your
Speaker 3: affiliation with the Bats, they're a single a affiliate of
Speaker 3: the White Sox, and there is an employee there. I
Speaker 3: guess he works in the facilities department. Maybe I don't
Speaker 3: know his role, but he's gone viral because he look,
Speaker 3: he had to do something that a lot of people
Speaker 3: probably wouldn't do, especially you know. I mean, I can
Speaker 3: see a lot of people just saying, yeah, I'm not
Speaker 3: doing that, but he did it, and it reminds me that,
Speaker 3: you know, what this guy probably knows, not what I
Speaker 3: necessarily signed up for, but hey, it's part of the gig,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to do it because it's my job.
Speaker 3: So a lot of baseball teams now have bats that
Speaker 3: are basically or dogs that are the bat dogs, and
Speaker 3: I believe they just after somebody gets a hit, these dogs,
Speaker 3: they'll go and grab the BA and bring it back
Speaker 3: to the dugout. Yeah, it's awesome. So is that just
Speaker 3: a minor league thing?
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's not in the majors yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's adorable, and you know, it's just one
Speaker 3: of the one of the little things that really can
Speaker 3: go a long way when it comes to kind of
Speaker 3: playing up and knowing what really brings people to come
Speaker 3: out and really enjoy minor league baseball. So the Cannapolis
Speaker 3: Cannonballers they use a yellow lab named Casey Betty. And
Speaker 3: during their Mother's Day game, Casey Betty took a big
Speaker 3: dump behind home plate. Oh nice, in the bottom of
Speaker 3: the third inning, and you know, there was a little stoppage.
Speaker 3: I guess it was that big of a dump, and
Speaker 3: you know, the game needed to go on, but they
Speaker 3: needed to get it cleaned up, get it out of
Speaker 3: the way. Well, you know this guy, all right, I'm here.
Speaker 3: This is what I do, not what I want to
Speaker 3: be doing, but hey, it's my job, so I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go out there. He picked up all the poop bear handed.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. And you know, that got a lot
Speaker 3: of attention because people were saying, wow, they were giving
Speaker 3: him praise, like, you know, praise for prompt action and realizing, hey,
Speaker 3: the game must go on. You work for the club
Speaker 3: in some way. They need this pooper move. You don't
Speaker 3: have time to go get a pair of gloves or
Speaker 3: you know, go get a pooper scooper or whatever they use.
Speaker 3: He just like, look, the quickest way for me to
Speaker 3: get this game back in play is for me to
Speaker 3: just pick up this poop with my hand.
Speaker 4: Oh no.
Speaker 3: Now, he also got a lot of criticism because people
Speaker 3: just said it was very disgusting. But like he he
Speaker 3: threw the poop away and then tried to like he
Speaker 3: probably had no clue that there was like camera on him,
Speaker 3: but he ended up then using like dirt from the
Speaker 3: field to kind of like, I guess put it over
Speaker 3: the the you know likes. Yeah, you know, he tried
Speaker 3: to like clean his I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 3: what what what the plan was. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 3: what the plan was, but you know, Jenny's shaking hands
Speaker 3: on the way out with people. But isn't that a
Speaker 3: guy who like, you know, like, he's probably not someone
Speaker 3: who enjoys walking around picking up poop with his bare hands.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he would have preferred to have, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: a pair of gloves or something to do it. But look,
Speaker 3: he's that's his job. Apparently he is responsible for making sure,
Speaker 3: you know, the facility. I mean, look, there might have
Speaker 3: been somebody beneath him that that works for him and
Speaker 3: they just weren't available, or maybe he knew they wouldn't
Speaker 3: do it, but he's going to do it. So shout
Speaker 3: out to that guy. Show must go on. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: hopefully he gets some kind of a raise or something,
Speaker 3: because I know it's a real grind. A lot of
Speaker 3: folks who work in really a lot of different capacities
Speaker 3: for minor league clubs. I mean, they're compensated to an extent,
Speaker 3: but it's a labor of love for a lot of them.
Speaker 3: You know, they enjoy being at the ballpark, being a
Speaker 3: part of it in some way. So I hope you
Speaker 3: got the pet the dog too, Yeah, I mean, and
Speaker 3: I hope that Casey Betty thanked him for cleaning up
Speaker 3: per poop because.
Speaker 4: It was a good girl.
Speaker 3: That's pretty gross. All right again, it's Coffee and Company
Speaker 3: fieldbouth Thornson. If you guys would like to join us
Speaker 3: on the show today, five oh two, five seven one
Speaker 3: seventy nine hundred is the number if you want to
Speaker 3: give us a call the Ellen and Federal Credit ing
Speaker 3: the text line, it's five oh two, four three eight
Speaker 3: ninety seventy three. Pat Kelsey talked at the Spring Meetings
Speaker 3: today on the ACC Network alongside Mark Packer from the
Speaker 3: ACC Network and Louisville's own Luke Hancock. Also they're part
Speaker 3: of the conversation. So it's about twelve minus and it's
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna split
Speaker 3: it into two and uh when we come back from
Speaker 3: our next break. We're not going to break right now,
Speaker 3: but we'll let you hear the first little snippet where
Speaker 3: he discusses sort of you know, the early stages of
Speaker 3: last year and kind of you know some you know,
Speaker 3: I feel like he shared something that I that I'm
Speaker 3: not totally surprised by, but I don't feel like we'd
Speaker 3: heard it before as far as really what what he
Speaker 3: felt like helped them put together such a special debut
Speaker 3: season for him. So again we'll let you guys hear
Speaker 3: that coming up, coming up shortly. But back to the
Speaker 3: football conversation. Somebody asked the question that's impossible to give
Speaker 3: an answer to, and sometimes those questions end up being
Speaker 3: a lot of fun because I, you know, I will
Speaker 3: never know, but what would the win total be for
Speaker 3: Kentucky if they had lou Leville schedule? And this comes
Speaker 3: in from time to time because this is one of
Speaker 3: those things that some Kentucky fans they just choose to
Speaker 3: chalk it up, is like, yeah, well, you know, we're
Speaker 3: actually better than you. It's just we play, you know,
Speaker 3: in a real league. Which again, nobody would advocate that
Speaker 3: the SEC is not a better football conference than the ACC.
Speaker 3: But I just find it funny that the ACC gets
Speaker 3: dumped on so much by the SEC fans and a
Speaker 3: lot of Kentucky fans of course, doing the rivalry thing
Speaker 3: back and forth with Louisville. And you know, would they
Speaker 3: be better off as far as being able to compete
Speaker 3: in the ACC over the SEC. Absolutely, will they win
Speaker 3: more games, I would imagine so, But I just think
Speaker 3: they've lived in a world to where they would come
Speaker 3: in and just be one of the best teams in
Speaker 3: the ACC right out of the gate. And I've never
Speaker 3: believed that they've never really had anything from the SEC
Speaker 3: to show that they like when they would when they
Speaker 3: were having more success than they had last year, right
Speaker 3: when they weren't going six, you know, when they weren't
Speaker 3: going four and eight or whatever. I mean, they had
Speaker 3: some runs where they were seven and five, seven and five,
Speaker 3: maybe six and six, and then finish the season either
Speaker 3: seven and six or six and seven. Now I don't
Speaker 3: have their records in front of me, but you know,
Speaker 3: it was a pretty pretty routine thing. They would occasionally
Speaker 3: beat some they weren't supposed to beat in the SEC.
Speaker 3: They would win all their non conference games, including Louisville,
Speaker 3: and then you know.
Speaker 4: They lose to.
Speaker 3: The teams in the SEC that, like most people actually
Speaker 3: think are a factor and why that league is so great.
Speaker 3: Nobody's ever looked at Kentucky at any point and been like, well, damn,
Speaker 3: SEC's loaded, you see Kentucky. Never, I mean, that's just
Speaker 3: it's not happened. So I can't give you an answer,
Speaker 3: but I'll try. You know, Louisville's and again this year.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think Tucky's gonna be really bad. So
Speaker 3: like if we were talking about one of the teams
Speaker 3: that Kentucky had that was seven and five or six
Speaker 3: and six, you know, that would be a little bit
Speaker 3: they'd be a little easier to do. I mean, I
Speaker 3: have no clue how good they're going to be this year.
Speaker 3: But I think objective folks again, people who set these
Speaker 3: win totals, they think they're going to be one of
Speaker 3: the worst, if not the worst teams in the in
Speaker 3: the SEC outside of Mississippi State. And again their schedules
Speaker 3: a factor in that, but they would be favored against
Speaker 3: KU and James Madison and Bowling Green, I would imagine.
Speaker 3: So that's three and that's how Louisville starts their season,
Speaker 3: those three teams against Pittsburgh. Maybe in previous years, yeah,
Speaker 3: but like this year, I mean, I don't think Pitt's great.
Speaker 3: They certainly didn't finish the season strong. I think they
Speaker 3: lost like six in a row to close out the year.
Speaker 3: But in Pittsburgh, given what Kentucky was last year and
Speaker 3: compared to what they are like now like or what
Speaker 3: they're supposed to be now like, I don't think they'd
Speaker 3: be favored in that game on the road at home
Speaker 3: against Virginia. I'll give them that one Miami and on
Speaker 3: the road no. Boston College at home, I'll give them
Speaker 3: that one. Virginia Tech on the road, no. And that
Speaker 3: would be different again, if we were talking about the
Speaker 3: Stoops teams that were, you know, competing for bowl games.
Speaker 3: Last year's team didn't, and I don't anticipate this year
Speaker 3: this team is going to either. So I think when
Speaker 3: you go on the road in Blacksburg, I think objectively speaking,
Speaker 3: people who work for these sports books would tell you, yeah,
Speaker 3: we would have Kentucky as an underdog there. Cal at home.
Speaker 3: I guess we can give them that one. Clemson no,
Speaker 3: SMU no. And then the rivalry game. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 3: anything can happen. There have been years where I'm thinking
Speaker 3: there's no scenario Louisville can lose this year, and then
Speaker 3: they do. But the way the game played out a
Speaker 3: year ago, and the fact that it's going to be
Speaker 3: in Louisville this year, and as we've discussed, there's completely
Speaker 3: complete opposite momentum for the programs right now. So I
Speaker 3: mean I think that would be I mean, that's a loss.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they would probably go from four and a
Speaker 3: half to five and a half if they were in
Speaker 3: the ACC. Maybe maybe six and a half. Yeah, probably
Speaker 3: six and a half or six because again Eku James
Speaker 3: Madison and Bowling Green, like I don't I mean, James
Speaker 3: Madison's been very good since they made the jump from
Speaker 3: FCS to FBS, but the majority of that is due
Speaker 3: to Kurt Signetti and he's now that in Indiana as
Speaker 3: you know, in Bowling Green. You know, I don't think
Speaker 3: they're one of the MAC teams that's very good. Could
Speaker 3: be wrong. And then Ekus an fcsd so And by
Speaker 3: the way, I said this when the schedule whenever, like
Speaker 3: with the schedule started coming together, and I'll say it
Speaker 3: again just because it's worth bringing up given what we're
Speaker 3: talking about. I'm not being critical of anybody because I
Speaker 3: think there's there's good reason that they're in this position.
Speaker 3: But Louisville's first three games of the season, like we
Speaker 3: we as Louisville fans, I feel like a lot of us,
Speaker 3: myself included, I guess I can only speak for me.
Speaker 3: We would make fun of Kentucky for that being the
Speaker 3: first three games of the season and call them, you know,
Speaker 3: call them out for a soft schedule. E Ku, James
Speaker 3: Madison and Bowling Green. That's the first three weeks and
Speaker 3: that just feels very underwhelming. Now again, as we now know,
Speaker 3: Jeff Brohm tried to get some good games on the
Speaker 3: schedule this year. I think it was was it old
Speaker 3: miss that that you know, decided not to play them,
Speaker 3: Maybe Tennessee too. And then obviously Indiana is supposed to
Speaker 3: be on the schedule and they bought out of the
Speaker 3: contract before they even hired Signetty, which has now led
Speaker 3: to Louisville having to kind of scramble and add games
Speaker 3: that necessarily weren't they weren't necessarily supposed to be there.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean again just saying, well, you know,
Speaker 3: how about what would their win total be if they
Speaker 3: played in that loser conference y'all got I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: would be different. But let's not remove ourselves from reality.
Speaker 3: Like Kentucky might be so bad this year that even
Speaker 3: the bottom of the of the ACC like they may
Speaker 3: be better than Kentucky. And again, I know they brought
Speaker 3: in guy like their portal class ranking looks solid, but
Speaker 3: it's based off of the amount of guys they brought in,
Speaker 3: I think more so than like the actual dudes. So again,
Speaker 3: if I'm wrong and there was, you know, actual momentum,
Speaker 3: and I'm just being a troll and being a Louisville guy,
Speaker 3: then I don't think you'd see you know, nineteen thousand
Speaker 3: season tickets that were sold to the last two seasons
Speaker 3: now not sold. I mean they went from forty thousand,
Speaker 3: which was selling it out to now they're at about
Speaker 3: twenty one thousand. That's a significant drop off if these
Speaker 3: numbers here from the Haired Leader are accurate. All right,
Speaker 3: let's get to a let's get to a quick time
Speaker 3: out again. We'll let you hear some Pat Kelsey sound
Speaker 3: on the other side. He was on television today on
Speaker 3: the ACC Network looking like a million bucks alongside Lukekencock,
Speaker 3: which is tough to do. Looks a good looking guy himself,
Speaker 3: but our guys were shining. Hancock and Kelsey. Didn't that
Speaker 3: sound like a law firm that would get the.
Speaker 4: Results done for you.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a buddy Hancock and Kelsey. They'll get the
Speaker 3: job done. Keep it lock right here on Sports Talk
Speaker 3: seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 3: That's right Coffee and Company a Wednesday edition. Happy hump Day, everybody.
Speaker 3: We are fueled by Thornton's You knew that, but I
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Speaker 3: Radio app. Also listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com.
Speaker 3: Let's just get right into Pat Kelsey, one of the
Speaker 3: many ACC coaches in various sports that have appeared on
Speaker 3: the ACC Network this week as the ACC Spring eatings
Speaker 3: are going on, and this is the first little snippet
Speaker 3: a PK with Luke Hancock as well as as Mark Packer.
Speaker 2: Here's the good news. We're gonna talk about your Louisville Cardinals.
Speaker 2: And look at those numbers right there. That puts it
Speaker 2: completely in perspective. The largest win increase in ACC history
Speaker 2: from season to season, three way tie at the top
Speaker 2: of the plus nineteen. But the last time it happened,
Speaker 2: you just saw it. The Louisville Cardinals got the Young
Speaker 2: Center absolutely going crazy, and I got news for everybody.
Speaker 4: It's just starting, just starting.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go on record right now that this is
Speaker 2: the team to beat for twenty five to twenty six
Speaker 2: in the league. I'm going to say it right now.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you a hot take right from
Speaker 2: the get go. No pressure on coach, that's what he
Speaker 2: signed up for. I think the Louisville Cards are gonna
Speaker 2: be the best team in the a CEC and men's basketball.
Speaker 2: How about that, coach, how about that at pressure?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: There no pressure? You signed up for pressure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Luke knows this.
Speaker 5: I mean he was one of the guys that hung
Speaker 5: a banner, you know, and there's should it should be
Speaker 5: up there, but there's there's three national championships.
Speaker 4: And I'm well aware.
Speaker 5: When I signed up I got this job that that's
Speaker 5: the expectations here, obviously coming off with a couple of
Speaker 5: years that Louisville's coming up. When we got the job
Speaker 5: and we were hired last year, there was nowhere to.
Speaker 4: Go to up.
Speaker 5: And we're proud of the year that we had. We
Speaker 5: had a phenomenal group. But now as you walk around town,
Speaker 5: it's the Attam boys are kind of phasing off and
Speaker 5: he's like, we're on the final four, right, Coach said,
Speaker 5: let's go do it.
Speaker 2: Let's go do it and why not. And again, I'm
Speaker 2: not a recruiting junkie. I'm on record with that, and
Speaker 2: I'll get let Luke go into deep dive here on hoops.
Speaker 2: But man, it looks like you did a great job
Speaker 2: of the portal. I mean, you've got some dudes coming.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're excited. We love our team.
Speaker 5: We have a great core group coming back from the
Speaker 5: group that we had last year and what we had
Speaker 5: in the portal really excited about. I say it to
Speaker 5: anybody who'll listen. My staff doesn't get enough credit.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: They give these awards out and the head coach gets
Speaker 5: a Coach of the Year and stuff like that. But
Speaker 5: I'm so lucky to have the guys with me that,
Speaker 5: you know, know our system, believe in our culture, recruit
Speaker 5: the caliber of guys that can win and win at
Speaker 5: a high.
Speaker 4: Level and that can carry our culture. And tip of
Speaker 4: the cap to those guys, coach.
Speaker 6: I told you early on, just wait, wait to get
Speaker 6: in that Young Center when it's really rocking one of
Speaker 6: those big environments. You did a phenomenal job just capitalizing
Speaker 6: on the buzz in this first year. Was there a
Speaker 6: moment through the year where you just kind of kind
Speaker 6: of took it all in like this is what Lovell
Speaker 6: basketball is supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I appreciate you saying that the
Speaker 5: young center in the atmosphere at University of Loversville basketball
Speaker 5: games is as good as any I've been doing this
Speaker 5: for twenty years and it's truly a special You know
Speaker 5: that Josh heard who's listening up in his hotel room
Speaker 5: right now because he had to call home and talk
Speaker 5: to the kids. He talked us into playing Tennessee early
Speaker 5: on and they kicked us in the mouth and we
Speaker 5: were walking off the court. He said, man, Pat, sorry,
Speaker 5: you know I made that suggestion and schedule that game.
Speaker 5: And I said, Josh, that is exactly what we needed.
Speaker 4: I believe it was kind.
Speaker 5: Of the catapultar the catalyst that sprung us into the
Speaker 5: success we had the rest of the season. But I
Speaker 5: talk about that game, although we got our teeth kicked
Speaker 5: in walking out for that white out the first time
Speaker 5: and looking up in the upper deck and just seeing
Speaker 5: a pact areena and the energy. Very disappointing game and
Speaker 5: that press conference we walked out, but to see it revived.
Speaker 4: We talked about the revival.
Speaker 5: And as you got late in the season and you
Speaker 5: see the crowds go from ten to twelve, to fourteen,
Speaker 5: to twenty to twenty two.
Speaker 4: And then to me, the moment that I.
Speaker 5: Think capsule that really captures the revival was when a
Speaker 5: one year guy, Chucky Heppern, in my opinion, one of
Speaker 5: the best point guards in the country were my favorite
Speaker 5: players I ever coached, when he checks out of the
Speaker 5: game for the last time on Senior Night and he
Speaker 5: goes out the center court and kisses that court. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think that's a moment that the Louisville fan base
Speaker 5: will remember forever.
Speaker 3: So that was about three and a half minutes rough,
Speaker 3: and I just the Tennessee game. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 3: it wasn't fun, and it was a real I mean, honestly,
Speaker 3: it was a roller coaster at the beginning of last season.
Speaker 3: And it's because you know, there was clearly a ton
Speaker 3: of excitement and we were starving, salivating, if you will,
Speaker 3: just to be excited about Louisville hoops. And Pat Kelsey
Speaker 3: was saying all the right things. He built a roster
Speaker 3: that we were excited about. We got a glimpse of
Speaker 3: what they could do in the Bahamas. They came out
Speaker 3: and made a ton of threes in their exhibition games.
Speaker 3: They beat Morehead State and covered and then here we
Speaker 3: go right out of the gate, wide out as he
Speaker 3: talked about that Tennessee game, and man, the energy in
Speaker 3: the arena was phenomenal. The atmosphere was phenomenal. It wasn't
Speaker 3: the biggest crowd because obviously the crowds grew throughout the season,
Speaker 3: but man, it felt like a real Louisville basketball moment
Speaker 3: where you know, if you were there, I think you
Speaker 3: know what I'm talking about. And then it went away
Speaker 3: pretty quick because Tennessee came out and just blitched you.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't remember that being Okay, they'll
Speaker 3: learn from this, they'll get better. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: we hope that really didn't know. So then right after
Speaker 3: Tennessee they did they play another game. I don't think
Speaker 3: they did. I think it was Tennessee and then off
Speaker 3: to the Bahamas? Was it not? Part of me says
Speaker 3: that's not true. But either way, they you know, they
Speaker 3: got tested again when they got to the Bahamas. And
Speaker 3: we're feeling, okay, we got our hopes up way too high,
Speaker 3: because man, Tennessee really humbled us. This team's maybe not
Speaker 3: going to be nearly as good as we anticipated. And
Speaker 3: then they go out they beat Indiana like a drum
Speaker 3: which was awesome, and then they beat West Virginia in
Speaker 3: overtime the next day, and and then on Black Friday
Speaker 3: they end up, you know, losing a close one to
Speaker 3: who was Oklahoma, and then Caseing gets hurt. So you're
Speaker 3: excited about the trip because you despite losing to Tennessee
Speaker 3: in a big way, you didn't do really well and
Speaker 3: the Bahamas felt like at the time you got some
Speaker 3: real valuable wins and you know, momentums there. And then
Speaker 3: Casing gets hurt. We find out that Monday or Tuesday
Speaker 3: that he's out for the year, and then you get
Speaker 3: beat bad by Ole Miss, So you know, you were excited, humbled, excited,
Speaker 3: had bad news about the injury, and then you find
Speaker 3: out about Korn and you know, slowly but surely they
Speaker 3: were competing better but still losing the teams like Duke
Speaker 3: and Kentucky. But once you got into January, things started
Speaker 3: rolling and that's really when things took off. But Pat Kelsey,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess it is beneficial as far as
Speaker 3: they'd never had any adversity, because how could they. They
Speaker 3: couldn't rick, they couldn't replicate any scenario. It was all
Speaker 3: a brand new team with all new pieces, and you
Speaker 3: know you're gonna find out the hard way really how
Speaker 3: you how you adjust, and how you how you know,
Speaker 3: you learn a lot about these new players, these new
Speaker 3: teammates that you've gotten really close with, but you've never
Speaker 3: had somebody come in and beat you down like Tennessee did.
Speaker 3: And clearly they they came together after that, and you know,
Speaker 3: they had adversity there, they had adversity with the injuries,
Speaker 3: but you know, they never ever felt sorry for themselves.
Speaker 3: And that really stood out all throughout the year that
Speaker 3: despite having you know, no pun intended, they were dealt
Speaker 3: with pretty bad handed cards as far as just some
Speaker 3: bad bad luck with injuries and whatnot, and you'd never
Speaker 3: you'd never known. And that's why Toms we just forgot
Speaker 3: that they were without Prior and without Johnson, because one
Speaker 3: they were playing well, but also you never heard any excuse,
Speaker 3: any there was no there was never any any feeling
Speaker 3: sorry for themselves, and I think that really was a
Speaker 3: factor in how they were able to put together a
Speaker 3: very successful first season, and who knows what the record
Speaker 3: looks like. This year could be substantially worse because your
Speaker 3: schedule you know, hopefully will be tougher because of your league.
Speaker 3: But momentum there and that's exciting. I mean again, the
Speaker 3: new world here with the portal in Nil is a
Speaker 3: big factor in how we were able to be dead
Speaker 3: for years and then just you know, now we've got
Speaker 3: some real life and energy and that's the way it
Speaker 3: should be around here, all right, stick around two hours left,
Speaker 3: it's coffee and company. Feel about Thornton's here on Sports
Speaker 3: Talk seven ninety