Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
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Speaker 2: I know I talked a lot last week about how
Speaker 2: it's been kind of fun to know that bracketology is
Speaker 2: really not worth a whole lot, but it's a reference point.
Speaker 3: And we love the tournament.
Speaker 2: We love March madness, seeing where your team is on
Speaker 2: a hypothetical bracket. If anybody's gonna enjoy it's going to
Speaker 2: be those of us around here who love college basketball.
Speaker 2: And I didn't look at it much at all the
Speaker 2: last few years for obvious reasons, because I didn't have
Speaker 2: a team that I was worried about their seat or
Speaker 2: are they gonna make it, or are they on the bubble?
Speaker 2: And last week I really started looking just because it
Speaker 2: was nice to see that, you know, as of now
Speaker 2: those who are projecting and I agree with him too.
Speaker 2: That's what made it better is that I knew that
Speaker 2: they were right. Louisville should be at least a tournament team,
Speaker 2: not a whole lot of wiggle room there. But now
Speaker 2: here we are two games after. I mean again, think
Speaker 2: about it. A week ago, they were probably safely in,
Speaker 2: but you know, bubblish, and now you've added a home
Speaker 2: game home win against a good Clemson team. You beat
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh at their place, to give you your best win on
Speaker 2: the resume up to this point. So I just checked
Speaker 2: during the break Jerry Palm. I checked both Leonardi and
Speaker 2: Jerry Palm. And I know there's others out there, but
Speaker 2: when you google, those are the first two that come up,
Speaker 2: the ESPN one and the CBS one. Leonardi hasn't updated
Speaker 2: his bracket since the tenth but our man, Jerry Palm.
Speaker 2: And I'm saying our man because he's my man, unless
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to be.
Speaker 3: I don't know why he wouldn't want to be. But
Speaker 3: he's got Louisville as a sixth seed.
Speaker 2: Austin Louisville right now, a six seed in Jerry Palm's
Speaker 2: updated bracket that came out at noon today, so he
Speaker 2: has them in the Midwest region and they are a
Speaker 2: sixth seed. They would play the winner of one the
Speaker 2: playing games, and the playing games right now are Ohio
Speaker 2: State and Dayton and UCF and Creighton, so you'd play
Speaker 2: the you'd play a winner of one of those games
Speaker 2: again hypothetically, and your.
Speaker 3: Three seed, which of course is who you'd.
Speaker 2: Play if you win, would be in Michigan State, who's
Speaker 2: got Saint Louis, who's a fourteen seed. Now, the fourth
Speaker 2: seed in that region, according to Jerry Palm, is Kentucky, which, oh,
Speaker 2: Kentucky's resume were like, honestly, Kentucky, I wouldn't. You could
Speaker 2: tell me they're a four everywhere, and I'd kind of
Speaker 2: believe you, because for whatever reason they're I mean, their
Speaker 2: their resume. As far as just what I know about
Speaker 2: the teams they've played, I feel like the resume is
Speaker 2: pretty damn good. But for reasons I don't really know,
Speaker 2: they're not loved by the Ken Palm and they're not
Speaker 2: necessary Well, they're.
Speaker 3: Good, they're in a good spot, better than most.
Speaker 2: But I feel like those who watch Kentucky and would
Speaker 2: put a bracket together would probably seed them higher than
Speaker 2: those that do it based off of these formulas. Because
Speaker 2: right now Kentucky is in the Ken Palm sitting at
Speaker 2: number twenty one, which you know, at thirteen and three
Speaker 2: with wins over Florida, Mississippi.
Speaker 3: State, Duke, and Gonzaga.
Speaker 2: I kind of feel like a four seed is is
Speaker 2: almost crazy, to be honest with you, I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: I'm wrong because their losses are I mean, their losses
Speaker 2: are to all teams that are going to be in
Speaker 2: I guess the Ohio State lost by twenty points is
Speaker 2: not looking great because they're a bubble team. But Georgia
Speaker 2: is going to make the tournament. And Georgia, after beating Kentucky.
Speaker 3: Ended up beating who was it?
Speaker 2: They went out and knocked off Oklahoma, who you know,
Speaker 2: Louislle needs Oklahoma to be good and they keep losing now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, I'm surprised to see them at
Speaker 2: a four seed considering the wins they have. But again,
Speaker 2: I think if you're somebody that is trying to predict
Speaker 2: what the NCAA committee is going to do, what you're
Speaker 2: saying here is that you're based you're giving the net
Speaker 2: rankings a lot of value when it comes to how
Speaker 2: they decide this, because again, let me see in the net.
Speaker 2: I just had the net rankings pulled up here, and
Speaker 2: they're not as easy to get to because they're you know,
Speaker 2: it's within the NAA website.
Speaker 3: But here here we go.
Speaker 2: Kentucky right now is, yeah, they're up to thirteen in
Speaker 2: the in the net, so they're higher in the net
Speaker 2: than they are the kin Palm, So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just to me, I feel like you're from Mike's son. Uh,
Speaker 2: you're just typing over here, just just but it's okay.
Speaker 2: It sounds like the show's really productive, and it happens
Speaker 2: sometimes I'll leave my mic on two. But anyways, with
Speaker 2: Kentucky and Jerry, like, I don't know, Jerry, I'm sure
Speaker 2: there are Kentucky fans listening now, some of them. Maybe
Speaker 2: they're now getting ready to go battle and send Jerry
Speaker 2: Palm a mean tweet or something, because I would be
Speaker 2: shocked if other bracketology that's out there would have them
Speaker 2: anything lower than a three seed. But he's got them
Speaker 2: at a four. So again, Kentucky, this is something you've
Speaker 2: been used to for a long time. You guys have
Speaker 2: made the tournament forever. I mean Cal missed the tournament
Speaker 2: how many years twice? I think it was in two
Speaker 2: thousand and thirteen and in twoenty twenty one. Other than that,
Speaker 2: you've been safely in the dance. So for Louisville, it's
Speaker 2: been a while, and the last time we were geared
Speaker 2: up for selection Sunday, you know what we got. We
Speaker 2: got left out, the first team on the outside looking in.
Speaker 3: Because of those bid stealers.
Speaker 2: So that, by the way, that was like that was tragic,
Speaker 2: Like I could I could feel as the day went on,
Speaker 2: and these teams that would win these leagues that weren't
Speaker 2: supposed to win these leagues in the year where we
Speaker 2: played college basketball with no fans and games would get
Speaker 2: canceled day of I mean, in that weird world that
Speaker 2: we were in at that time, like to have that
Speaker 2: be the year you get left out, I mean it
Speaker 2: makes sense just because of how weird of a year
Speaker 2: it was. If Louisville ended up playing many of the
Speaker 2: games they missed because of COVID, they probably ended up
Speaker 2: getting in not with a great seed.
Speaker 3: But the last time we were.
Speaker 2: Interested in watching Selection Sunday as Louisville fans, we got
Speaker 2: stabbed in the heart.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that was a we were were the first
Speaker 4: COVID reserve team though, right. Yeah, if any team went
Speaker 4: out that we're gonna call Louisville hit them with the
Speaker 4: hay you up text?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was that bite. It worse because you
Speaker 2: had to decide for yourself. Are you even gonna think
Speaker 2: about that being a probability or possibility, like it's completely
Speaker 2: out of your control or do you also want to
Speaker 2: want to be publicly rooting for someone to catch a
Speaker 2: virus that you know at the time people thought this
Speaker 2: was going to road. It was just weird, man, What
Speaker 2: a weird, weird time that was. So look, I'm loving
Speaker 2: watching all these bracketologists give their updates because all of
Speaker 2: them have Louisville safely in as of right now. And
Speaker 2: I mean that that's not something we used to get
Speaker 2: super excited about, but you know, perspective matters, and I'm
Speaker 2: loving it. And right now in the net, Louisville is
Speaker 2: sitting at thirty five, so thirty five in the net,
Speaker 2: and in the kin palm they are at thirty four,
Speaker 2: so in a good spot.
Speaker 3: And again, I.
Speaker 2: You what worried me about last week Clemson and Home
Speaker 2: Pitt at Pitt was that you could lose and it
Speaker 2: probably doesn't hurt you, meaning like it probably doesn't in
Speaker 2: real time stain your resume. It doesn't if you lose
Speaker 2: those games competitively, it does not end up resulting in
Speaker 2: you taking some kind of big loss that like how
Speaker 2: can you recover from that?
Speaker 3: Now? If you lose the Eku.
Speaker 2: I think at this point you're still probably on the
Speaker 2: outside looking in, which is wild to think about. But
Speaker 2: how about Noah Waterman. I mean, didn't have a good
Speaker 2: game against didn't have a good game against pitt And
Speaker 2: obviously we now know he's been playing with a hurt thumb.
Speaker 2: He's had pins put in his thumb, but he's still
Speaker 2: playing through it. Clearly we now know that's been a
Speaker 2: factor and why he struggled at times this year. But man,
Speaker 2: when they needed a bucket late to avoid a disastrous loss,
Speaker 2: he came through. And my dad said that on the
Speaker 2: way home from Pittsburgh yesterday, he said, if you thought
Speaker 2: about what or how important now that bucket by Waterman
Speaker 2: looks And I hadn't thought of it about it, but
Speaker 2: he's right, I mean that would. And look, that's also
Speaker 2: a kind of a weird way that's made this more
Speaker 2: exciting is that, like, I know, this team could mess
Speaker 2: around and lose to anybody. So therefore, when they play
Speaker 2: well and beat good teams where they play well and
Speaker 2: and prove that they're better than a team that we
Speaker 2: already thought was good, what that does for me is
Speaker 2: that you know that there's a level of kind of
Speaker 2: And this is gonna sound weird. I'm gonna try to
Speaker 2: make make I'm I'm gonna try to make sense here
Speaker 2: when I say this.
Speaker 3: I think when.
Speaker 2: You are in a great spot with your program, where
Speaker 2: you are elite, Louisville was there once, right, like a
Speaker 2: loss at any point was surprising. You could lose to
Speaker 2: good teams and you'd have to deal with it. But
Speaker 2: like you were getting twenty four to twenty five wins minimum,
Speaker 2: and that that's just the way it was when that
Speaker 2: when the expectations there, there are some games where they're
Speaker 2: still fun. You want to see your team win, but
Speaker 2: like you're kind of bummed if you win. But it's
Speaker 2: ugly right now. If you're in a great league, it
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter. But for Louisville kind of knowing that
Speaker 2: we would lose a lot of I mean, Louisvill's record
Speaker 2: in ACC played the last two years was awful. I
Speaker 2: mean they were dead last two straight years where the
Speaker 2: league was as bad as it's ever been. So to
Speaker 2: go from that to now winning games and sometimes beating
Speaker 2: good teams, and I think on Saturday you made a
Speaker 2: case that you are the second best team in the ACC.
Speaker 2: People can claim that that doesn't mean anything because they
Speaker 2: don't believe the ACC is any good at all. Whatever,
Speaker 2: I don't care, I'm going to enjoy it. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's kind of where I'm at with it. So
Speaker 2: when when when success is unexpected or not guaranteed, it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more satisfying. I feel like I've learned
Speaker 2: that this go around. This is That's what I feel
Speaker 2: like I've learned throughout this season so far. Whenever success
Speaker 2: has been sustained, it almost feels like as a fan,
Speaker 2: you're rooting in to make sure your team keeps the
Speaker 2: standard where it is, and that's still good to see
Speaker 2: if it's working out. But the feeling you get in
Speaker 2: that situation is more of just being confirmed right, Like
Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, that's what we do, that's what we do,
Speaker 2: it's who we are, and that's a good place to
Speaker 2: be because you know why. That means you're good. That
Speaker 2: means you've been winning pretty consistently. But we haven't around here.
Speaker 2: So now there's a level of emotion attached to anything
Speaker 2: good for Louisville that one we didn't have recently. And
Speaker 2: also it's not a given, like I still know that
Speaker 2: because of the law. The near lost to EKU and
Speaker 2: UTEP like they could no games super safe. However, they've
Speaker 2: been a different team really since they played since they
Speaker 2: played North Carolina, they've been a different team. They have
Speaker 2: absolutely been a different team. Defensively, their intensity has been insane,
Speaker 2: their attention to their attention to detail, and their defensive
Speaker 2: scout has been elite.
Speaker 3: And they've they've missed shots.
Speaker 2: They've had bad nights at the free throw line, like
Speaker 2: they did at pitt They missed layups, a lot of
Speaker 2: layups actually in that game against pitt But yet they're
Speaker 2: doing everything else so well and they're playing so hard
Speaker 2: that they're able to still go win. And that's why
Speaker 2: when I say the ceiling is still high for Louisville,
Speaker 2: some of these guys, in fact, most of these guys
Speaker 2: are as good as they're going to get as far
Speaker 2: as their ability, not all of them, but most of them.
Speaker 3: But I also know that at any.
Speaker 2: Given moreh Noah Waterman could make four threes in a
Speaker 2: game and flip it like he's got the ability to
Speaker 2: do that. Terrence Edward, I mean, were Louisville was really
Speaker 2: really balanced in their game against Pittsburgh, which is which
Speaker 2: is Again, that's when you have that balance. You know,
Speaker 2: you can have who was It? You could have Hadley
Speaker 2: go for thirty plus against Clemson and then the next
Speaker 2: night out it's not. It's not thirty for rain Smith,
Speaker 2: but he's getting he's close to it. He's given you
Speaker 2: twenty five and making seven threes.
Speaker 3: Chucky.
Speaker 2: He's had a thirty plus point game. Terrence Edwards junior,
Speaker 2: he had fourteen. He's had games in the twenties, right,
Speaker 2: So I mean these guys, I feel like the established
Speaker 2: roles for everybody that's getting legitimate playing time has been
Speaker 2: has been set, and you may have a night where somebody,
Speaker 2: like for example, Edwards, when Louisville beat Clemson and they
Speaker 2: beat who was it?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 2: Who was in Virginia? You know Edwards didn't have his
Speaker 2: best his best games. In fact, yeah, he went three
Speaker 2: straight games without scoring double digits. Edwards went from let's
Speaker 2: listen to the stat line here from Edwards twenty one
Speaker 2: against Duke, twenty two against UTEP, twenty three against UK
Speaker 2: nineteen against FSU, twenty against EKU. Well then against Carolina,
Speaker 2: Virginia and Clemson seven seven and five, So you know
Speaker 2: he went two of eleven against Clemson. He went two
Speaker 2: of nine against Virginia, two of twelve against Carolina. I'm
Speaker 2: not bringing these things up to criticize him. It's just
Speaker 2: that you can have a guy struggle, but if everybody
Speaker 2: if he's still playing hard and making an impact in
Speaker 2: other areas, and everybody else is playing well, and then
Speaker 2: you have one or two guys that maybe play above
Speaker 2: what they at what they typically do, like Hadley did
Speaker 2: against Clemson, like Rain did against Pittsburgh. That's how you
Speaker 2: end up in this position to where you know you're
Speaker 2: not playing perfect, some guys are not shooting the ball great,
Speaker 2: But when you have that kind of balance and that
Speaker 2: kind of consistency, you can withstand somebody not having a
Speaker 2: good night. I mean, just looking at the numbers here.
Speaker 2: Whenever Louisville was hit with the bad news that they
Speaker 2: knew they didn't have Corn Johnson the rest of the season,
Speaker 2: they knew they didn't have case In. Prior to the
Speaker 2: rest of the season, you didn't really know what was
Speaker 2: going to happen with Trey Ora. You still didn't see
Speaker 2: any real comfort level for Pat Kelsey to play Big Frank,
Speaker 2: you kind of felt like you got a seven man
Speaker 2: team right now, Like, that's what you have. So I
Speaker 2: just felt like, man, the ceiling's not high, and they
Speaker 2: got to be. They can't have many, they can't have
Speaker 2: many guys have an off night and beat anybody.
Speaker 3: Like that's just the way I saw it. I know
Speaker 3: wasn't alone.
Speaker 2: But here we are a month and some change later,
Speaker 2: they've become a really good team with this new version
Speaker 2: of themselves. Again, they could lose to anybody. We all
Speaker 2: know that, but what a job it's been for Pat
Speaker 2: Kelsey because you tell me, once it became clear that
Speaker 2: they're going to have to rely on Terrence Edwards to
Speaker 2: score a lot of points because they're so thin with injuries.
Speaker 2: A scenario where he makes six shots, he goes two
Speaker 2: of eleven, two of nine, two of twelve in three
Speaker 2: straight games against Carolina, Virginia and Clemson. The percentage chance
Speaker 2: I would have given Louisville to win those games, knowing
Speaker 2: that was his stat line would have been close to zero.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that's me not giving these guys enough credit.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's me, you know, overreacting and being worried.
Speaker 2: But like, let's be real, this group hasn't just found
Speaker 2: ways to win whenever it looked as if they were
Speaker 2: just snake bit with the injuries, They've become a pretty
Speaker 2: damn good team. And again I talked about this at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the show on Saturday. It kind of
Speaker 2: felt like and I'm sure it was because it was
Speaker 2: a win against pitt at their place. Who Pitt at
Speaker 2: that time, until Louisville showed up, they were i think
Speaker 2: visibly the second If you watch them play and you
Speaker 2: keep up with college oops, I think you would say
Speaker 2: before Louisville showed up, pitt was the second best team
Speaker 2: in the league and it wasn't close. Well, now, I
Speaker 2: think you have to get that to Louisville because right
Speaker 2: now Louisville's only loss is to Duke, a team that
Speaker 2: might run the table in this league. In fact, I
Speaker 2: think they will. And then the other teams that are
Speaker 2: believed to be in the tournament that are decent. I
Speaker 2: think some of these teams are better than decent, but
Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure others don't. You've got Carolina, Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: And Clemson.
Speaker 2: Little of It has beat all three of them, so
Speaker 2: you know, this team is playing in a way that
Speaker 2: I never anticipated and it's been awesome to see. And
Speaker 2: again it goes back to what I've been talking about
Speaker 2: in the last few minutes, is that when it's unexpected
Speaker 2: or it's in doubt, it's not certain, and then you
Speaker 2: get your team going on the road and winning a
Speaker 2: big game or relying on a great home crowd to
Speaker 2: beat Carolina. I mean, the joy you get from that
Speaker 2: is it's amplified all or Let's get to the phone
Speaker 2: lines coming up here on the other side. If you're
Speaker 2: on hold stag with us, Mike, you'll be up first.
Speaker 2: So if you want a hold of the break, we
Speaker 2: will get right to you and continue continue the party.
Speaker 2: Can we call it that a party on a Monday.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird, but we're having fun. Yeah, at
Speaker 2: least I am. Hopefully you guys are as well. Let's
Speaker 2: coffee and company feel abou Thorton's right here on Sports
Speaker 2: Talk seven.
Speaker 1: Ninety Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's
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Speaker 2: It's been a heavy basketball show thus far as you
Speaker 2: could expect. I mean, Louisville basketball is seemingly back. I
Speaker 2: feel like we can say that now and not just
Speaker 2: kind of like you know, I feel like we need
Speaker 2: to speak it into existence. I know the the fan
Speaker 2: energy is back, and I'm not talking attendance that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, but you can just tell, man, there's there's
Speaker 2: there's habits that we used to have as louis Of
Speaker 2: basketball fans during the season, and uh, you know, just
Speaker 2: I don't want to call it a nostalgiica because it's
Speaker 2: not like it's been it's been decades, but man, it's been.
Speaker 2: It's been long enough, and it's been a fun ride
Speaker 2: thus far, and I cannot wait to see how this
Speaker 2: team finishes the rest of the way, and I think
Speaker 2: fans have a good reason to think that they're going
Speaker 2: to finish strong. So we'll continue to talk some hoops,
Speaker 2: but I do want to tell you we are going
Speaker 2: to get some footall stuff before we run out of
Speaker 2: before we get out of here today, because we've got
Speaker 2: an NFL playoff game tonight, we've got the college football
Speaker 2: National Championship set. Haven't even shared any thoughts on that
Speaker 2: matchup just yet, and we now know where Pierce Clarkson,
Speaker 2: the former Louisville QB, it's going to be transferring to.
Speaker 3: So we'll get to that. But let's go to the
Speaker 3: phone lines. Five two. I'm seven to one.
Speaker 2: Seventy nine hundred is the number if you guys would
Speaker 2: like to jump in and join us. And let's go
Speaker 2: back to the phone lines and welcome in, Mike, Mike,
Speaker 2: how we doing, Hey.
Speaker 5: Man, doing great? Doing great. I'm a Kentucky fans, and
Speaker 5: we'll get that out of the way. But I really
Speaker 5: am glad to see Louisville come back and be a
Speaker 5: competitive and be a good team. And I slowly are
Speaker 5: the second best team in the ACC. And then the
Speaker 5: ACC is not great this year, but they're absolutely going
Speaker 5: to get four or five, maybe even six teams in
Speaker 5: the tournament. So that's all positive. So love that. And
Speaker 5: the second thing is, you know, the more you know
Speaker 5: people that you you meet or you have an understanding of,
Speaker 5: like what you think they're all about, and then the
Speaker 5: more you get to know them, sometimes you're like you
Speaker 5: like them even better, and sometimes you can't handle them well.
Speaker 5: Like Mark Pope is.
Speaker 6: The more I get to know the guy, the more
Speaker 6: I like him. Kelsey, the more I get to know him,
Speaker 6: the more I like him. Marcus Freeman, the more I
Speaker 6: learned about him, the more I like him. And then
Speaker 6: James Franklin for Penn State. The more I get to
Speaker 6: know him, the less I like that dude, and the
Speaker 6: more I think he's over right.
Speaker 2: We're on the same page. Thank you for the call, Mike.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Yeah, we're not on the same page
Speaker 2: as far as which teams we root for, But other
Speaker 2: than that, I'm totally with you because with Mark Pope,
Speaker 2: to me, he what we knew about him before he
Speaker 2: got the job. Now, Kentucky fans may have kept up
Speaker 2: with him at BYU, kept up with him at Utah
Speaker 2: Valley and the NBA. I mean, he's a He's a
Speaker 2: guy who played on a national championship team and went
Speaker 2: on to the NBA, so I'm sure they were well
Speaker 2: more more aware of kind of you know, his brand,
Speaker 2: his image, that kind of stuff before he became their coach.
Speaker 2: I just, you know, I knew of him as a
Speaker 2: guy that seemingly everybody thought really highly of as a
Speaker 2: guy and also as a basketball coach. I just never
Speaker 2: thought he'd be the guy that would take over for
Speaker 2: John calip Berry also never thought Pat Kelsey would be
Speaker 2: the guy to take over the Louisville job. So you know,
Speaker 2: we were both wrong in that regards as far as
Speaker 2: the fan base and who they would have expected to
Speaker 2: take over the job when it opens up. But I
Speaker 2: think Pope more than anything, I just feel like what
Speaker 2: I see as genuine. I feel like what he did
Speaker 2: with the young man in the wheelchair that was at
Speaker 2: the Mississippi State game, And for those who didn't see it,
Speaker 2: it's see everywhere. I'm sure you have seen it because
Speaker 2: it's gone viral. Pope stuck around, and I guess he
Speaker 2: does this at a lot of games and waved to
Speaker 2: the fans that did make the trip and said hello,
Speaker 2: Probably sound some basketballs, probably took some pictures, but he
Speaker 2: saw a young man in a wheelchair that obviously couldn't
Speaker 2: get down to court level, and he walked up there
Speaker 2: himself and sat down and chatted with the young man,
Speaker 2: just talking basketball. And somebody there got a video of it,
Speaker 2: and of course things like that go viral. And I'm glad,
Speaker 2: and the Internet is awesome. It's a great resource, it's
Speaker 2: a great tool.
Speaker 3: Social media. You can say the.
Speaker 2: Same thing, but there's also some real proof out there
Speaker 2: that social media can be toxic and can actually make
Speaker 2: you feel more negatively about everything. After a brief experience
Speaker 2: on certain social media platforms, so that'll always be the case.
Speaker 2: But there's also some great things you see that you
Speaker 2: wouldn't see if it wasn't for the power of social media,
Speaker 2: and to see Mark Pope do that that was in
Speaker 2: that beyond video, and it also be clear that he
Speaker 2: doesn't think I don't think he knew anybody was filming that,
Speaker 2: which again makes it seem even more so like it's genuine.
Speaker 2: So with Pope, I've never thought he wasn't a good guy,
Speaker 2: but the more I do see him in that role,
Speaker 2: the more humble he he. I mean, he is quite
Speaker 2: literally the opposite of Cal. And Cal, you know, he's
Speaker 2: having a really rough, really rough year at Arkansas in
Speaker 2: year one and he's doing the same nonsense. And it's
Speaker 2: not he hasn't won there yet. He hasn't won in
Speaker 2: a long time anywhere for him to be able to
Speaker 2: do that and not piss people off. So, you know,
Speaker 2: Cal the last I don't know, five six years different,
Speaker 2: but like when Cal was arrogant and he carried himself
Speaker 2: like the guy that he's kind of always carried himself
Speaker 2: at as and he won at a high level at
Speaker 2: a place like Kentucky. He was a good villain for
Speaker 2: us as the rival, but like he had some real
Speaker 2: credentials in real time to carry himself the way that
Speaker 2: he did. So it wasn't it wasn't really, you know,
Speaker 2: to me, it wasn't. This guy individually is is a
Speaker 2: real pompous a hole. It's just, man, he's the coach
Speaker 2: of Kentucky. He's a larger than life guy right now,
Speaker 2: and he's he's letting you know that he's aware of it.
Speaker 3: So what I'm getting at is with Mark Pope, he's.
Speaker 2: He's somebody that I don't think you'll ever see act
Speaker 2: as if he's bigger than the program.
Speaker 3: I mean, with Cal, that was how that was how
Speaker 3: they operated. That was how that was how it worked.
Speaker 2: And for a while it worked out well and then
Speaker 2: when it started to not work it it fell pretty
Speaker 2: quickly and it became a very you know, bad situation
Speaker 2: for the fan base and Cal himself because it had
Speaker 2: just run its course. So with Pope, I just he's
Speaker 2: I think the humble guy that you see is very
Speaker 2: much genuine. I think he is not out in any
Speaker 2: way to get attention. I think he's he's very humble
Speaker 2: I think he's selfless and he's I mean again, I'm
Speaker 2: about to block out just glazing over the Kentucky basketball coach,
Speaker 2: but I'm just being honest. I think he's a good dude,
Speaker 2: and he's also a good basketball coach, which is not
Speaker 2: a good recipe for us as Louisville fans, because we
Speaker 2: want Kentucky to not be good at basketball, which they
Speaker 2: probably always will be, at least to an extent, and
Speaker 2: we want their coach to be easy to dislike, but
Speaker 2: he's not. And Louisville fans, I can't speak for Kentucky
Speaker 2: fans because I'm not one.
Speaker 3: I couldn't. I couldn't put myself in your shoes.
Speaker 2: But to see Louisville basketball, your rival be where it
Speaker 2: was for three four years consecutively, really the last two
Speaker 2: were bad bad. The year before that was also bad.
Speaker 2: But before then, like Louisville was solid, in fact, sometimes
Speaker 2: really good, but there were enough scandals out there to
Speaker 2: wear like. We gave Kentucky fans a lot of ammunition.
Speaker 2: We gave them enough in about a five six year window.
Speaker 2: I feel like that should last more than a lifetime.
Speaker 2: I mean, think about what ammunition we gave Kentucky fans
Speaker 2: to make fun of us when it comes to basketball,
Speaker 2: and it really, I mean the ammunition that was bad
Speaker 2: was not even wins and losses like the last two years.
Speaker 2: Those were terrible, and they could make fun of us
Speaker 2: for that and whatnot. But we gave him, you know,
Speaker 2: non basketball related stuff that they're going to always use
Speaker 2: against us, and that I mean, we didn't do it
Speaker 2: as fans, but you know what I mean. So if
Speaker 2: you're a Kentucky fan, you clearly like Pat Kelsey. Maybe
Speaker 2: not everybody, but you just heard the caller there, Mike
Speaker 2: mentioned that. And when you see the so Pat Kelsey
Speaker 2: shared the video that I just talked about with Mark Pope,
Speaker 2: and you know, I don't think I can't think exactly
Speaker 2: what it was. He said, I'll read it for you directly,
Speaker 2: because that like to me, I'd always heard from some
Speaker 2: Kentucky fans that you know, they weren't going out of
Speaker 2: their way, but they were dealing with it internally at
Speaker 2: the time that they don't like that Pat Kelsey appears
Speaker 2: to be as likable as he is, so you know,
Speaker 2: they wouldn't go out of their way, but they deep
Speaker 2: down kind of wanted the guy to be easier to dislike.
Speaker 2: And then he shares the Pope video and says love
Speaker 2: your neighbor. Great stuff, And like all the responses from
Speaker 2: Kentucky fans are, I'll read you this one here it says,
Speaker 2: stop it.
Speaker 3: We want, we want, we want to hate you. Just
Speaker 3: let us hate you.
Speaker 2: Stop making us like you. That is not how this
Speaker 2: is supposed to work. Uh, this says, I'll echo what
Speaker 2: other UK fans have said. Here, you seem like a
Speaker 2: pretty good dude. We aren't supposed to be like we aren't.
Speaker 2: We aren't supposed to like the Louisville coach. Here, you're
Speaker 2: making it hard to hate U of l coach. You've
Speaker 2: got the cards rolling again. So I think you'll always
Speaker 2: find a level of satisfaction when your rival loses, but
Speaker 2: for it to just be because of the rivalry specifically,
Speaker 2: and not because you enjoy to see a coach lose
Speaker 2: or you enjoy to see a player lose like that. Like,
Speaker 2: I don't even take as much satisfaction in Kentucky fans
Speaker 2: being sad about basketball anymore because, deep down, because because
Speaker 2: I've learned this over the years, when it comes to
Speaker 2: postgame shows like if Louisville loses and Kentucky fans tune
Speaker 2: in like that's normal. But they want tears, like they
Speaker 2: want they want a level of like, oh man, they're
Speaker 2: melting down.
Speaker 3: This is great.
Speaker 2: And I gave them a lot of not tears, but
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of nonsense, a lot of things
Speaker 2: they probably got. Kitty Payne destroying the program in two
Speaker 2: years made me a mad man, and I think that
Speaker 2: provided some entertainment unattentionally to the rival, because I would
Speaker 2: just scream and yell about it because I was hoping
Speaker 2: that I would wake up from the nightmare by just
Speaker 2: yelling that. That's kind of what it was for a
Speaker 2: little while there, and it sucked.
Speaker 4: There were stages to that, if I remember, because I
Speaker 4: don't mean for this to sound bad, because I would
Speaker 4: always listen to the podcast while I was kind of
Speaker 4: going to sleep and I would just wake up sometime.
Speaker 3: Me yell and probably yelling at a caller.
Speaker 4: No, it was actually soothing because at that point you
Speaker 4: were just defeated.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we're just like yeah, so here we go.
Speaker 4: It's just another It was.
Speaker 2: A eulogy, but it turned into I mean that's so
Speaker 2: it was peaceful, so so I love to know that
Speaker 2: I put you to sleep.
Speaker 3: That's that's the goal of the show. Usually put people asleep.
Speaker 3: So put us in your ears. We'll make you fall asleep.
Speaker 3: I'm kidding. I know I know what you meant by that.
Speaker 2: But what I'm getting at with with the UK stuff,
Speaker 2: like I I would.
Speaker 3: Which game was it?
Speaker 2: It wasn't the Ohio State game. Maybe no, it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the Clemson game. It was the Ohio State game.
Speaker 2: And I didn't I didn't even see much of the
Speaker 2: Georgia game, and I certainly didn't listen to any of
Speaker 2: the post game stuff. So when they lost to Ohio State,
Speaker 2: I tuned in because, you know, like I wanted to
Speaker 2: hear them sad, because that's you know, that's maybe that's
Speaker 2: the sick of fans, and I'm I guess I'm one
Speaker 2: of them, and this is my space, this is my.
Speaker 3: World, because you know, it's kind of what we do.
Speaker 2: But I know that deep down, even if they're upset
Speaker 2: and maybe not as confident in the team they have
Speaker 2: this year, I know that they are confident in the
Speaker 2: guy that's coaching them, and I know that they are
Speaker 2: still going to be really good. And when you have
Speaker 2: like the end of cal where was falling apart for him.
Speaker 2: That was fun because.
Speaker 3: Like they were, they thought they were stuck. Like to
Speaker 3: hear the I.
Speaker 2: Mean, Louisville knew they were getting rid of their coach
Speaker 2: and that and by the way, that is here. Here's
Speaker 2: some examples as to like what you really hope to
Speaker 2: get when you tune in to the rival postgame show
Speaker 2: or just the rivals like a UK show or a
Speaker 2: U of L show, whether it be a postgame show
Speaker 2: or just to show that's daily whatever it may be, podcast,
Speaker 2: live show, whatever. I remember Kentucky fans that wanted to
Speaker 2: take joy in Louisville losing, which they did, and I
Speaker 2: get it. Some of them would call in and yell
Speaker 2: at me and tell me that Kenny's not getting fired
Speaker 2: and that I remember, he should stick around, and that
Speaker 2: it's not his fault, it's everybody else's fault. And there
Speaker 2: are a variety of reasons I guess why fans would
Speaker 2: do that, but I think deep down is that the
Speaker 2: best case scenario for them is that we were stuck
Speaker 2: with Kenny forever, because then we you know, then we
Speaker 2: would just be sad all the time and there'd be
Speaker 2: no there'd be no light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2: We would just be you know, miserable, which we were
Speaker 2: for a couple of years. But like I knew that
Speaker 2: Louisville was never going to retain him for a thirty year.
Speaker 2: That wasn't that wasn't happening. That was never gonna happen.
Speaker 2: So with Kentucky, like it was kind of nice to
Speaker 2: know that they were stuck with Cal and then they weren't.
Speaker 2: And then they you know, I thought when they hired
Speaker 2: Pope and they lost their mind as a fan base,
Speaker 2: that it was going to be like they were gonna
Speaker 2: be so toxic and they were going to runhim out
Speaker 2: of town before he coached a game, and like I
Speaker 2: would have been sitting with popcorn, watching and entertainment. But
Speaker 2: then Pope did what he does, you know, reminded them
Speaker 2: that he's a guy who has a national championship ring there,
Speaker 2: he was a captain, He cares about Kentucky. It means
Speaker 2: a lot to him. It's he knows it's bigger than him.
Speaker 2: And that was such a refresher for them. I guess
Speaker 2: I should say that was so refreshing to them because
Speaker 2: it was such a different tone than what they had
Speaker 2: with Cal.
Speaker 3: So you know, deep down.
Speaker 2: I think we we want our teams to be great
Speaker 2: and our rivals to be terrible, but for it to
Speaker 2: continue to kind of have, you know, the longevity. You
Speaker 2: can't have one stay down so long. So I'm kind
Speaker 2: of the I'm kind of to the point now where
Speaker 2: and I don't I don't want to miss quote Mike
Speaker 2: who just called in, but I'm going to take a
Speaker 2: guess at kind of what he mean or what he
Speaker 2: meant by it's nice to have Louisville back, like in
Speaker 2: real time, you want him to probably lose, because you know,
Speaker 2: that's what you that's how rivalry works for most people.
Speaker 2: But for Louisville to have some life again, that that
Speaker 2: that you know, we can now talk about our team
Speaker 2: and feel good about it and not be you know,
Speaker 2: doing it just based solely off of like when we
Speaker 2: were lifeless and we couldn't pick our faceook off the
Speaker 2: mat before we played you guys in basketball for what
Speaker 2: three straight games. Look, Louisville clearly has come out on
Speaker 2: the losing end a lot more than the winning end
Speaker 2: in this rivalry for really.
Speaker 3: The history of my life.
Speaker 2: But you know, the last few years were a lot
Speaker 2: different than really any other time to where it was
Speaker 2: just I mean, it couldn't have been fun for you guys, right,
Speaker 2: It's always going to be, I guess good to beat
Speaker 2: your rival, and you know what the feeling is when
Speaker 2: you don't. But if Kentucky, like if Mark Pope's got
Speaker 2: it rolling in Louisville, beats him, that'll be more enjoyable
Speaker 2: than if they stunk. And I'm sure Kentucky always likes
Speaker 2: beating Louisville, but whenever you were beating Kenny Payne, that
Speaker 2: could mean I mean again, like was that fun? I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't even remember like the last two years, three
Speaker 2: years I guess roughly of this rivalry matchup, and I
Speaker 2: guess they didn't play three years ago because of the
Speaker 2: COVID situation. But I mean, that's the dark days of
Speaker 2: the rivalry in my opinion, not because just because Louisville
Speaker 2: wasn't good, but because like you couldn't even like you
Speaker 2: should always be able to psych yourself up for that game,
Speaker 2: even if you're having a down year. Your down year
Speaker 2: should never be terrible like they were the last couple
Speaker 2: of years, and you should feel like Okay, here we go, like,
Speaker 2: let's do this. And I'm sure a lot of you
Speaker 2: guys are aware of this by now as adults and
Speaker 2: fans of sports, like we don't have no impact in
Speaker 2: the game, but you know, it's nice to kind of
Speaker 2: feel like you do, like, let let it's game day,
Speaker 2: let's go, let's get this done. And we couldn't even
Speaker 2: do that for a while because of how bad things were.
Speaker 2: And now I don't know when Pat Kelsey's gonna beat
Speaker 2: Mark Pope. I'm sure it'll happen. I hope it happens
Speaker 2: a lot. Maybe it happens next year, maybe it happens
Speaker 2: in the tournament.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: But there's going to be clearly some life from Louisville
Speaker 2: side of it now, and that makes it better. And
Speaker 2: I think Kentucky fans are are comfortable, at least at
Speaker 2: least some of them in saying that, yeah, yeah, Louis's
Speaker 2: pretty good this year, Like Kentucky beat a good Louisville team.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not looking like a huge resume win
Speaker 2: for him by any means, but I mean, the better
Speaker 2: Louisville does actually is going to be better for them.
Speaker 2: I know that's not how you typically view it, as
Speaker 2: you know when it comes to the rivalry for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's been kind of a weird year
Speaker 2: Louisville basketball. I don't mean just this season, but just
Speaker 2: both coaches went both programs went through a coaching change.
Speaker 2: Both programs hired coaches that the vast majority of the
Speaker 2: fan base would not have expected to be hired. And
Speaker 2: I think the vast majority wasn't initially thrilled, but it
Speaker 2: didn't take long for both sides to really buy in
Speaker 2: and embrace the new guys leading their programs. And both
Speaker 2: guys have gotten off to really good starts. And I
Speaker 2: can't help but really like the guy leading Kentucky. And
Speaker 2: I know Kentucky fans at least some of them feel
Speaker 2: the same way about Pat Kelcey. And this is, if anything,
Speaker 2: it's just an unusual time here for this rivalry. But
Speaker 2: it's fun it is. Let's take a quick break. We'll
Speaker 2: go back on the other side, talk a little football
Speaker 2: or wrap some things up. Thanks for hanging out with
Speaker 2: us right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to coffee and company, fueled by Orrantines on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 2: So Pierce Clarkson is one of the handful of players
Speaker 2: that left Louisville via the transfer portal. I think everybody
Speaker 2: listening is well aware of his resume, which you know,
Speaker 2: as a college quarterback, there's nothing on his resume.
Speaker 3: But that's not his fault.
Speaker 2: It's just he is one of many freshmen that timing
Speaker 2: is not on his side as far as his college career,
Speaker 2: because well not freshman. He's one of the he's one
Speaker 2: of many quarterbacks who can make the claim that they
Speaker 2: fell into bad timing as far as when they entered
Speaker 2: the college game because it was at a time where
Speaker 2: you can no longer have to rely on an unexperienced quarterback,
Speaker 2: and coaches at high level programs that want to win
Speaker 2: and keep their job, they're gonna trust a guy that's
Speaker 2: played a lot of snaps before they trust somebody that's
Speaker 2: never done it before. And Pierce Clarkson, again, he may
Speaker 2: be really good, but it's just rare for a guy
Speaker 2: to show how good he is as a first time
Speaker 2: starter at a high level program in the Power four leagues.
Speaker 2: So Jeff Brom and look, maybe Jeff Brom just knew
Speaker 2: it wasn't going to be a good fit. Maybe he
Speaker 2: doesn't think that Pierce is good enough to succeed in
Speaker 2: his program. I have no clue, but Piers transferring doesn't
Speaker 2: surprise me in any way, And I don't really think
Speaker 2: there's anybody to blame for it. I think that's just
Speaker 2: you chalk it up as what we're currently like where
Speaker 2: college football currently is. So him deciding to commit today
Speaker 2: to ole Miss I thought was interesting.
Speaker 3: One. Good for him. That's a good program.
Speaker 2: Lane Kiffin is clearly he's got some momentum at Old Miss.
Speaker 2: And if you're a quarterback, you think you'd want to
Speaker 2: play for a high powered offense that lane Kiffin usually
Speaker 2: puts on the field.
Speaker 3: So congrats to Pierce.
Speaker 2: Maybe he goes there and he's super successful, or maybe
Speaker 2: he goes there and he's a backup again, or maybe
Speaker 2: he goes there and you know, he starts and he's
Speaker 2: not good. Maybe he plays a different position. I have
Speaker 2: no intel at all, but I think some fans seeing
Speaker 2: him going to Old Miss, it got him thinking once again, Man,
Speaker 2: if he's going to go play for lane Kiffin at
Speaker 2: ole Miss, wouldn't you think he could play here? Like?
Speaker 3: Did Jeff do the right thing?
Speaker 2: And going and getting a Miller Moss and not just
Speaker 2: handing the reins over to Pierce Clarkson. And I mean,
Speaker 2: only time will tell. But I mean, even if even
Speaker 2: if Pierce was great at ole Miss and he's there
Speaker 2: because he's never played full season before, like he's gonna be,
Speaker 2: he's gonna have a lot of eligibility left.
Speaker 3: So let's say he becomes.
Speaker 2: Their quarterback of the future and he's there for three
Speaker 2: years and Ole Miss was the school that was willing
Speaker 2: to give him the chance and let him be a
Speaker 2: first time starter leading them in the SEC. That would
Speaker 2: be a good return on that risk, if you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And I guess in the eyes of
Speaker 2: some Louisville would look bad. But I just I think
Speaker 2: deciding not to hit the portal and just giving it
Speaker 2: to a guy that has never played before, that would
Speaker 2: be a risk that I don't think Jeff would be
Speaker 2: willing to take. And if Pierce wanted to hang out
Speaker 2: and stick around and compete, and maybe he went out
Speaker 2: there and got better and won the job, then you know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure Jeff would be cool with that. But it's
Speaker 2: just different anymore for quarterbacks. I give you an example.
Speaker 2: We got to run in just a moment. But when
Speaker 2: Rick Patino was here, he recruited a guy named Shaquan
Speaker 2: Airon who was a.
Speaker 3: Five star recruit. I remember him.
Speaker 2: Borderline McDonald's All American and was one of the highest
Speaker 2: rated recruits for Rick Patino at Louisville at the time.
Speaker 2: He also brought in in that same class Quentin Snyder. Well, Quenton,
Speaker 2: of course, was a really highly regarded recruit, had a
Speaker 2: phenomenal career here at Louisville, and his teammate Killen Martin
Speaker 2: was not the level of Q as far as like
Speaker 2: where he ranked. I think he was a three star,
Speaker 2: but he had some legitimate offers and he ended up
Speaker 2: going to Butler and he was right in Louisville's backyard
Speaker 2: playing alongside Q and Keelan went on to have a
Speaker 2: great career. Butler played in the NBA for a little
Speaker 2: while and Rick didn't recruit him. So when Rick, or
Speaker 2: when Kaitlyn was playing really well at Butler, I remember
Speaker 2: people saying like, Wow, how did Rick let this guy
Speaker 2: get out of his backyard. Well, Rick at the time
Speaker 2: took another player at the same position that was, you know,
Speaker 2: a top twenty five player overall, was a five star
Speaker 2: in one of the services. So had he not taken
Speaker 2: that commitment and he took the kid from Ballard, people
Speaker 2: would have crushed him, you know. So you gotta you
Speaker 2: gotta know, and I'm sure coaches, in fact, the successful
Speaker 2: ones can't make any big decision worried about. I wonder
Speaker 2: what the fans are gonna think about this, because they
Speaker 2: gotta they gotta trust their gut. It's their job, they know.
Speaker 2: But if Pierce goes and has a great career at
Speaker 2: Ole Miss, yeah, it might be like a damn what
Speaker 2: could have been? But also I think if you're if
Speaker 2: you're fair, it would just I mean, there was really
Speaker 2: no way to predict that. And that's that's you know.
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta you gotta make decisions, and sometimes
Speaker 2: they're gonna work out well, sometimes are not. All Right,
Speaker 2: we're out of town, you guys, enjoy your night, Enjoy
Speaker 2: the playoff game.
Speaker 3: Go uh go Vikings