Speaker 1: It's time for Coffee and Company, Fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2: Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think
Speaker 2: when we.
Speaker 3: Are get off our show, idiot.
Speaker 2: The kids are playing or turn at the countries are.
Speaker 3: Screwing it up.
Speaker 1: Goldplea inter murals, Brother, Goldpleay Intermurals.
Speaker 3: They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not.
Speaker 3: Who's the kid here? Who's the kid?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me? Now? Here's nick coffee?
Speaker 2: All right, let's get it started.
Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls welcome in Game day
Speaker 4: edition of Coffee and Company, Fueled by Thornton's here on
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety. I don't know why I said
Speaker 4: that so much like a robot, But.
Speaker 2: I'm not a robot. I'm human. Hey, I's take, I'm
Speaker 2: a man. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I was watching you mentioned Ai, I was watching
Speaker 4: a show that you were really guessing up, which I
Speaker 4: value your opinion a lot, Austin, So thank you you
Speaker 4: were talking. I've heard great things about it. The wife
Speaker 4: and I we watched two episodes last night. The show
Speaker 4: so far is phenomenal. Landman Billy Bob Thornton Blairmount Plus.
Speaker 4: At the beginning of the episode, they're showing it's either
Speaker 4: Billy Bob Thornton or it's the one of the leaders
Speaker 4: of the crew that his son works for.
Speaker 2: That of course, we know what happens early on in the.
Speaker 4: Episode, so no spoilers, but one of them is driving
Speaker 4: a truck listening to the radio and kind of talking
Speaker 4: back to it. But it's like talk radio, and I
Speaker 4: mean it's almost like they were introducing something that to
Speaker 4: my knowledge doesn't exist yet, at least I hope not.
Speaker 4: But it was like AI talk radio, like hey, tell
Speaker 4: me what you want to listen to, or when it
Speaker 4: comes to the talk format and it's like a robot.
Speaker 4: It sounded like a robot, and it scared me because like,
Speaker 4: wait a second, are they going to place us, which
Speaker 4: I mean they can't. They can try, can't do that,
Speaker 4: can't do it. They not like us, They not like
Speaker 4: us because we're not robots. We're we're really humans. But
Speaker 4: you like the show so far, Oh my gosh, it's great.
Speaker 2: Oh really, I love it. So I'm glad you do
Speaker 2: everything about it.
Speaker 4: I mean, Taylor Sheridan, that's who, that's that's the name, correct,
Speaker 4: that's the guy Taylor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's I.
Speaker 4: Mean, anything he touches is phenomenal and really one of
Speaker 4: my favorite shows of all time. It wasn't when it
Speaker 4: wasn't that one of his first shows, Sons of Anarchy,
Speaker 4: I think it was.
Speaker 5: Yes, I haven't watched Sons of Anarchy, but he also
Speaker 5: does that in Yellowstone Oh yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, I honestly, when you look at when
Speaker 4: you look at Yellowstone Landman, although it's new, and then
Speaker 4: you look at Sons of Anarchy, I mean, the guy
Speaker 4: is I mean, he's he's anything he puts together. When
Speaker 4: it comes to series like that, it seems to be
Speaker 4: it seems to be phenomenal. But anyways, I I've always
Speaker 4: told myself, well, hey, like yeah, people don't listen to
Speaker 4: music the way they used to, but we're the music.
Speaker 4: Like you know, you can't just turn on anything and
Speaker 4: get it is because I mean, iHeart media pays a
Speaker 4: pretty penny.
Speaker 2: To be able to get this. H I mean they
Speaker 2: pay something. I mean that's.
Speaker 5: Certainly the fans don't get to see your beautiful faces
Speaker 5: true today, So like truth, I'm on the better end
Speaker 5: of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I tell you what I mean. AI is a
Speaker 4: really powerful thing, and I've found myself utilizing it here
Speaker 4: and there for things, and it scares me because creative people,
Speaker 4: which technically that's.
Speaker 2: What this is. This is, this is creative art here.
Speaker 4: I mean, it sounds really self serving and just ridiculous
Speaker 4: to say that, but technically our job is to try
Speaker 4: to entertain and keep you listening, and of course you
Speaker 4: need to be creative in ways to do that effectively.
Speaker 4: So I think you know what I mean. But AI
Speaker 4: is I'm not scared of AI becoming too powerful to
Speaker 4: where like we get overrun by artificial intelligence like robots,
Speaker 4: but it is sphere.
Speaker 2: It does scare me that it could quite literally wipe
Speaker 2: out not just.
Speaker 4: Low level, entry level and look, those jobs are important
Speaker 4: too for people, especially if it's what you rely upon
Speaker 4: and that's your career, that's how you make a living.
Speaker 2: That's a scary thing.
Speaker 4: But I think for those who haven't really dipped their
Speaker 4: toe into the world of artificial intelligence, they would be
Speaker 4: shocked to see the type of positions, the type.
Speaker 2: Of careers that it could wipe out.
Speaker 4: Which again it's a scary, scary thing. But anyways, I
Speaker 4: didn't mean to sound like a robot. I'm not a robot.
Speaker 4: I'm a real human. I'm a man, damn it. And
Speaker 4: we're ready to rock and roll for the next two
Speaker 4: hours and fifty five minutes. So game day Louisville, n
Speaker 4: C State. We'll certainly talk a lot about that. Kentucky,
Speaker 4: they just keep beating teams they shouldn't beat when they
Speaker 4: don't have a full roster. It's a very unusual resume
Speaker 4: for Mark Pope. But I'll say what I've said many times.
Speaker 4: His resume at this point isn't perfect by any means,
Speaker 4: and their season hasn't been perfect by any means. But
Speaker 4: I think if you look at the losses they have,
Speaker 4: you can justify them for the most part. And I
Speaker 4: think if you look at the wins they have, you
Speaker 4: really can't make much sense of it other than the
Speaker 4: fact that this guy's a really good coach. I wish,
Speaker 4: I wish that wasn't the case, but I think that's
Speaker 4: that's exactly what's playing out. So again, we're loaded the
Speaker 4: rest of the way, taking you up until six o'clock. Yesterday,
Speaker 4: we had a guest scheduled and I completely forgot about him.
Speaker 2: I don't know how that happened, but it did.
Speaker 4: We had our man Kevin Sweeney, who covers college hoops
Speaker 4: for Sports Illustrated, set for four thirty, and I just
Speaker 4: completely forgot about it. I think I mentioned at the
Speaker 4: beginning of the show, and then of course, you know,
Speaker 4: I forgot and then he's like, hey, where you at?
Speaker 4: And I ghosted him, So I kind of feel scared
Speaker 4: to even ask him now, like maybe he'll say, well, no,
Speaker 4: you had your chance with me yesterday and you missed it.
Speaker 4: It's like no showing for a date or ghost in
Speaker 4: a chick and then like and then acting like it
Speaker 4: never happened. I'm sure that happens a lot with guys, right.
Speaker 4: I could see a lot of dudes out there just like, hey,
Speaker 4: what's up, knowing you haven't actual like knowing you haven't
Speaker 4: spoken a long time, and the last communication was her
Speaker 4: like asking like, are you alive? I bet that happens
Speaker 4: pretty often now that I think about it. But anyways,
Speaker 4: Valentine's Day's coming up, and I just I'm in a
Speaker 4: good mood. The weather sucks, but it's game day and
Speaker 4: the vibes are strong on my end because I was
Speaker 4: just asked to go on a Valentine's.
Speaker 2: Day date with my wife, Oh look at that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I said, yes, she's she's she didn't have
Speaker 4: to sweat it out anymore. She's she's, she's good. We're
Speaker 4: gonna be good for Friday because.
Speaker 5: You guys skip the Christmas thing, right, So, like Valentine's
Speaker 5: is is that always going to be a thing.
Speaker 4: So I'm glad you asked Valentine's Day. To me, It's
Speaker 4: never really been a thing we we were, I mean,
Speaker 4: of all the holidays that we celebrate together, I mean
Speaker 4: we I would say Valentine's Day is the one that
Speaker 4: really consistently. It's just never really been much of a
Speaker 4: thing for us, Like we'll.
Speaker 2: We'll have a night.
Speaker 4: We'll never do it on actual the actual day of
Speaker 4: the holiday, just because it's it's impossible to get it
Speaker 4: to get a spot at certain at most places. But
Speaker 4: Valentine's Day. Again, if it's like your favorite holiday and
Speaker 4: you love celebrating it with your significant other, that's awesome.
Speaker 4: I've gotten to the point where I now I hate
Speaker 4: mentioning things that like I'm not as big of a
Speaker 4: fan on because I don't want it to sound like
Speaker 4: that I'm anti these holidays and that like I'm I'm
Speaker 4: I'm judging people who do like it. I mean, you
Speaker 4: can like whatever you want. It's just it's never and
Speaker 4: it's a cliche you hear from time to time. But
Speaker 4: like we we are in love every day, like we do,
Speaker 4: you know, we celebrate. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 4: we celebrate, but I mean, like Valentine's Day, is it
Speaker 4: more for like puppy love, like a new thing, Because
Speaker 4: if you've been with somebody for twenty five thirty years,
Speaker 4: well maybe longer. Obviously you can still celebrate the holiday,
Speaker 4: but like that feeling of that day doesn't really do
Speaker 4: much because again, I have it every day. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying exactly do you all? Do you and
Speaker 4: the significant other, the fiance?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Do you guys?
Speaker 4: Are you guys big on the holiday or is it
Speaker 4: kind of just whatever?
Speaker 5: We've always gone out for Valentine's Day? Yes, and we're
Speaker 5: we're doing it again this we're doing it again this year,
Speaker 5: actually doing it tomorrow because it was pretty tough. I
Speaker 5: tried to call a couple is a couple of weeks
Speaker 5: ago and they were already booked out for Friday.
Speaker 4: And the good on you, so you know, like hey,
Speaker 4: because you guys are foodies, and you know, if you
Speaker 4: want to get a spot at a nice place on
Speaker 4: Valentine's Day, especially considering it's on a Friday this year,
Speaker 4: like you got to call ahead of.
Speaker 2: Time, it's tough.
Speaker 5: So we're going to La Chase. Have you ever heard
Speaker 5: of that place? No, it's like a French restaurant. The
Speaker 5: Fance loves that kind of stuff. She's traveled all over
Speaker 5: the world. She's see where I'm fine with the place
Speaker 5: that has just like chicken fingers and like double cheese
Speaker 5: Western burgers. She likes a little bit more exotic of
Speaker 5: She has a little bit more exotic of a food taste.
Speaker 5: So this place is like French. I don't like any
Speaker 5: of that stuff. I can't pronounce anything on the menu,
Speaker 5: so I'm gonna I'm going to probably ask for a
Speaker 5: burger or whatever that their steak is. But we're We're
Speaker 5: still doing it as long as she's happy. She's just
Speaker 5: more or less happy that I'm the one that planned it.
Speaker 5: Right as we've gone along, It's like, I want you
Speaker 5: to plan the dates. I want you to like she
Speaker 5: wants to feel wanted to. You know, I just can't
Speaker 5: be complacent. So that's just it. She's been begging about
Speaker 5: that place for a while.
Speaker 4: It's the little things, man, It's the little things, like hey,
Speaker 4: making sure that you did call ahead, you got the reservation.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's not like it took a whole lot
Speaker 4: of work, but no, but it'll go a long way.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 5: I paid tomorrow too perfectly, so I'm gonna have my
Speaker 5: paycheck and it drained in the exact same day record time.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you this when it comes to a
Speaker 4: lot of the restaurants that you've been able to try
Speaker 4: with your fiance. And one of my favorite lines ever
Speaker 4: because for those who don't know what a food influencer
Speaker 4: is the soon to be missus Sidney Montgomery.
Speaker 2: That's right, she gets to go try these.
Speaker 4: Fancy restaurants and she'll document her experience with photos, video,
Speaker 4: and you know, it's a good look. If you've got
Speaker 4: a restaurant and she comes and gives you a good review,
Speaker 4: that's kind of how it works. Are you somebody that
Speaker 4: would have enjoyed that kind of dining without her?
Speaker 3: Meaning?
Speaker 4: Like, did you cause where I'm coming from is these
Speaker 4: restaurants sound very nice. I bet it's a great experience.
Speaker 4: But if I can't pronounce anything on the menu, and
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: Know what it is.
Speaker 4: I just feel out of place because again I have
Speaker 4: the out of a toddler chicken fingers and pizza and burgers.
Speaker 4: I'm good, but you so if you were the same
Speaker 4: with me. But I bet now that you've experienced all
Speaker 4: these restaurants, you're probably like, hey, this is actually pretty awesome.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, it depends. We've gone to a couple of
Speaker 5: places where I'm saying it. We've gone to a couple
Speaker 5: of places where I'm like, what on earth is this.
Speaker 5: We went to a place a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 5: or brother took us out because he just the first
Speaker 5: time we saw him in such a long time since
Speaker 5: we got engaged, and they wanted to pay for our
Speaker 5: meals and shout out Matt and Clair if your listening,
Speaker 5: shout them out. But I didn't really like anything on
Speaker 5: the menu. The only thing that I saw was able
Speaker 5: to pronounce was the duck. So I got the duck,
Speaker 5: and the fiance was really proud of me. She said, oh,
Speaker 5: You're going completely out of your comfort zone, and I
Speaker 5: kind of felt defended. I'm like, I can only imagine
Speaker 5: like duck tastes like chicken. I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 5: I kind of wish I would have gotten like the halibit,
Speaker 5: but you know, the duck was all right, and I
Speaker 5: did kind of step out of my comfort zone, so
Speaker 5: I don't know, it wasn't too bad. I just now
Speaker 5: got to get used to because you said food influencer,
Speaker 5: I can't walk in first, She's got to walk in
Speaker 5: with the camera. I love the line walk away everywhere
Speaker 5: I got it. I just stay out of the way.
Speaker 4: My favorite line ever from Austin when he told me
Speaker 4: about his experience with his fiance when it comes to
Speaker 4: these restaurants is the phone eats first. You got to
Speaker 4: take a picture before you touch any of the food
Speaker 4: because you got a document it.
Speaker 2: That's what pays for it. Yeah, that's uh so we
Speaker 2: are that couple.
Speaker 5: If you see somebody hovering over for an extra ten
Speaker 5: amount of seconds trying to get every single angle of
Speaker 5: the steaming hot faheitas that came out, it's probably me
Speaker 5: in Sydney. So come say what's up.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4: I've stepped out of my comfort zone and it doesn't
Speaker 4: take much because again, I'm pretty limited as far as
Speaker 4: what I what I want to eat. When it comes
Speaker 4: to the menu, if you've got five pages, just give
Speaker 4: me the page that has, you know, chicken wings or
Speaker 4: a burger or something like that. But my wife, she's
Speaker 4: she's the kind that will like something so much. She'll
Speaker 4: know that you know that you don't like it and
Speaker 4: want you to try it, and if you don't try it,
Speaker 4: she's offended. So finally I started stepping out of my
Speaker 4: umpor zone and trying things that she really liked, because
Speaker 4: I would tell her, no, I've had this before. I
Speaker 4: don't like it. Yeah, I've had a version of that.
Speaker 4: I know, I'm pretty I know that I don't like mushrooms.
Speaker 4: I've never had death, never had dead flesh, but I
Speaker 4: imagine that's what a mushroom tastes like. So finally, after
Speaker 4: a while, I started trying things that she, you know,
Speaker 4: just assumable.
Speaker 2: There's no way nobody wouldn't like this.
Speaker 4: And she finally believes me now because she was just
Speaker 4: of the she thought she could fix me. She thought
Speaker 4: she could have me trying all these different foods and
Speaker 4: I would really expand and no, I'm I think I've
Speaker 4: I've had the same preferences when it comes to food
Speaker 4: since I was probably about thirteen years old, sorely mistaken,
Speaker 4: she was, Yeah, so that's that's just kind of how
Speaker 4: I'm wired. So we actually do go to dinner, but
Speaker 4: not like a full Valentine's Day dinner. So we've gone
Speaker 4: to the same place, no joke, probably seven eight years
Speaker 4: in a row now, but what and we thought we
Speaker 4: found something special because this place we go to it
Speaker 4: is a sit down restaurant, but it's mom and pop,
Speaker 4: it's locally owned. It is not in a great area
Speaker 4: of town. It is in a very very rough shopping center.
Speaker 4: And we just randomly ended up there one time long
Speaker 4: ago and thought, wow, like I would have never ever
Speaker 4: wanted to come here, but we ended up here, and
Speaker 4: it's really good. So we thought, well, nobody's going to
Speaker 4: go there for Valentine's Day because you know, it's not
Speaker 4: it all romantic and you know, I mean it's not.
Speaker 4: It's not really well known. So and anytime we've ever
Speaker 4: been there outside of Valentine's Day, it's empty.
Speaker 2: So every year there's more and more people.
Speaker 4: And this is a place that actually doesn't even have
Speaker 4: like a setup for you to wait in the lobby
Speaker 4: like you can't. You're kind of just hovering around like
Speaker 4: there's no there's no area to wait for a seat,
Speaker 4: that's not kind of in the way where you feel
Speaker 4: like you're just standing on.
Speaker 2: Top of people, so very intimate.
Speaker 4: A few years ago we noticed that like they they've
Speaker 4: never probably had a wait before like that. So what
Speaker 4: I'm worried about now is that like everybody else has
Speaker 4: kind of had the same idea that we've had for
Speaker 4: a while, and we're going to show up and it's
Speaker 4: actually going to be hell on earth like it typically
Speaker 4: is when you wait and wait and wait for dinner,
Speaker 4: you wait to get seated when you don't have reservations.
Speaker 2: What's the place I'm trying to keep its secret of it? Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you off there. Yeah, and I don't want
Speaker 2: to give him free advertising either.
Speaker 5: By the way, Well, Valentine or White Castle does the
Speaker 5: thing where you could book in and go to White Castle.
Speaker 2: They'll make you like something special. So are those places busy?
Speaker 4: Because because there are some fast foods, some chain places
Speaker 4: that kind of have fun with it. They kind of
Speaker 4: make fun of themselves, like White Castle's making fun of
Speaker 4: themselves when they do that right, and it works like
Speaker 4: you know, in fact, I had a buddy who took
Speaker 4: his wife one time to white Castle.
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: And like, you know, if you just want to have
Speaker 4: a meal and you know, you want to spend some
Speaker 4: time together and you're not really having a certain standard
Speaker 4: set as far as what needs to be fine dining
Speaker 4: and needs to be a you know, exclusive type situation,
Speaker 4: then you know, I mean, look, I could eat anything
Speaker 4: as far as you know what I like and be
Speaker 4: fine with it. So she did call me today and
Speaker 4: asked us, you know, she said, hey, six thirty would
Speaker 4: that be good for you? And I'm like, are you
Speaker 4: asking me out on a date for Valentine's Day? And
Speaker 4: she was like, well I got married. She was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you didn't ask me, so I figured i'd ask you.
Speaker 4: And I was like, well it worked. I was just
Speaker 4: waiting to see if you'd finally asked, you know, just
Speaker 4: kind of seeing him. She's still got the got the
Speaker 4: fire for me. How could she not?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: I mean, of course, So anyways, Valentine's Day just a
Speaker 4: couple of days away.
Speaker 5: You remember some places hooters, May they rest in peace.
Speaker 5: They're not dead, well damn near, they're not as well
Speaker 5: be damn near at least here in this area. What
Speaker 5: is there like one or maybe.
Speaker 4: Tall No, We've got So they did get rid of
Speaker 4: the one, by the way, there was one in Dixie,
Speaker 4: which I was well aware of, and there was one
Speaker 4: I think in Clarksville that I don't even know where
Speaker 4: it was, didn't know it existed.
Speaker 2: But they shut those down.
Speaker 4: But the one on Preston Highway somehow is still around,
Speaker 4: and then the one on the one on DuPont Elite Talent,
Speaker 4: and then the one closed no no, and then the
Speaker 4: one on the River in Jeffersonville is still open.
Speaker 2: So they're still around, okay.
Speaker 4: And I get why people at times, because I hope
Speaker 4: they're not a client they are whatever I'm actually I'm
Speaker 4: actually going to work it around to where I'm actually going.
Speaker 2: To give them a compliment. I haven't gotten the Hooters hat.
Speaker 4: There was a stretch where, like any Hooters I would
Speaker 4: go to anywhere, I would be like, man, this place
Speaker 4: has gone downhill, and I don't. And I'm not making
Speaker 4: a comment about like the appearance of the staff. I'm
Speaker 4: just talking about the food and the service.
Speaker 2: Get the chicken, breast, hold the chicken, and then.
Speaker 4: And then after a while, Like I started to go
Speaker 4: there here, you know, every now and then, and it's
Speaker 4: actually like, when Hooters is good, Hooters is.
Speaker 2: Really really good.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's been a while, but I wouldn't you know,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't go to Valentine's Day there.
Speaker 5: Well, they used to, I think a couple of years
Speaker 5: ago they had a promotion to where I like, you
Speaker 5: brought a picture of your accent and like ripped it up.
Speaker 5: They would give you like free wings or something like that,
Speaker 5: And I wonder how many people took advantage. Not a
Speaker 5: bad promo, No, that's great. It's not a bad promote.
Speaker 5: You never know, you can find love at a Hooters
Speaker 5: knowing where or the other you.
Speaker 4: Know what else is anywhere else is a restaurant that,
Speaker 4: like I understand, and I totally get why. There have
Speaker 4: been some people that'll be like, yeah, enough bad experiences.
Speaker 2: I'm not going back.
Speaker 4: They've lost me. But when I have it and it's good,
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, man, it's elite. It's tumbleweed. Like again,
Speaker 4: Tumbleweed is I don't even know how many of those
Speaker 4: are still left.
Speaker 2: There's not that many. But when it's good, it's really,
Speaker 2: really really good. It Tumbleweed's always been hit or mess
Speaker 2: with me my whole life. Yeah, it's I mean, the
Speaker 2: case so so good, I'm sure. So anyway, which ones
Speaker 2: are still open? There's one there's one.
Speaker 4: In Brooks, which is right, it's in Bullock County, which sure,
Speaker 4: if you knew what I was talking about. But if
Speaker 4: you get off sixty five at the Brooks exit right
Speaker 4: in Bullet County, there you'll see one, okay. And then
Speaker 4: there's also one that's actually not far from uh from
Speaker 4: Barchtown Road, like Hikes Point area, that one is still there.
Speaker 4: And then gosh, I don't really know where there. I
Speaker 4: have no clue if there's any other left any interesting
Speaker 4: there used to be the one that was down on
Speaker 4: the waterfront, and now they've put like eighteen different restaurants
Speaker 4: in there that cannot stay open because I guess the.
Speaker 2: Least restaurant cemetery. Yeah, I mean, did you ever go
Speaker 2: to the one that was on the river? No?
Speaker 4: It was, I mean it was a phenomenal location. I
Speaker 4: mean it was. It was kind of like if you
Speaker 4: were going to go downtown and you wanted to go
Speaker 4: to a place where you could actually park in a
Speaker 4: parking lot and not you know, in a garage or
Speaker 4: on the street. Not to say that going downtown and
Speaker 4: eating is bad. It's just this was a huge place
Speaker 4: that had a big parking lot. It's set right on
Speaker 4: the river. It was right next to the to the
Speaker 4: waterfront park, and it started to go downhill and then
Speaker 4: it completely, you know, shut down.
Speaker 2: And I'm not kidding you.
Speaker 4: I was exaggerating about eighteen But there have been more
Speaker 4: restaurants that have tried to succeed in that place since
Speaker 4: Tumbleweed closed than you would imagine, and none of them
Speaker 4: last very long. So anyways, fellas, just know you're two
Speaker 4: days away, so don't procrastin in it. If you need
Speaker 4: to get flowers, you need to get a car, you
Speaker 4: need to get a gift, then yeah, go ahead and
Speaker 4: get that taken care of. All right, we need to
Speaker 4: get our first break out of the way. We got
Speaker 4: a lot to get into. We'll talk about tonight's n
Speaker 4: C State matchup. Still no word on Chucky Hepburn, And
Speaker 4: I'll admit it, I don't, I don't. I don't mind
Speaker 4: being transparent. You guys know that I'm scared about tonight.
Speaker 4: And it's not again, it's not about all that I
Speaker 4: think in C State's this great team.
Speaker 2: It's just that one.
Speaker 4: Louisville clearly is a more vulnerable team when they play
Speaker 4: without Chucky Hepburn. But also it's just there's so much
Speaker 4: to lose with every game left. Like I'm on the
Speaker 4: edge of my seat kind of antsy about the rest
Speaker 4: of this schedule. And typically that would mean it's because man,
Speaker 4: we've got so many big games.
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
Speaker 4: There's a lot, a lot on the line, And really
Speaker 4: it's the opposite. It's just any loss could really change
Speaker 4: how Louisville is viewed as a potential INSTAA tournament team.
Speaker 4: So we'll get into all that, and then how about
Speaker 4: Kentucky Mark Pope, I mean, the hell's this guy doing?
Speaker 4: Like no Lamont Butler for the majority of the game,
Speaker 4: No Jackson Robinson sweep in Tennessee. I mean, crazy impressive
Speaker 4: performance from them last night.
Speaker 2: No doubt we got a lot of other stuff we'll
Speaker 2: get too, So stick around.
Speaker 4: It's coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's right here on
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 4: If you guys want to join us on the show today.
Speaker 4: You can give us a call five ZO two five
Speaker 4: seven one seventy nine hundred. That's the number to call
Speaker 4: in text line Ellen and Federal Credit Union tex line
Speaker 4: five O two six five three zero seven ninety, taking
Speaker 4: you up until six o'clock at his game day. We'll
Speaker 4: get into Louisville and NC State throughout the afternoon today.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't want to lie neck like we're
Speaker 4: going to break the game down. I think both teams
Speaker 4: here are pretty easy to figure out, at least as
Speaker 4: of right now. NC State's lost eight in a row.
Speaker 4: As I've said for the last couple of weeks, anytime
Speaker 4: NC State comes up, I do wonder if their fans,
Speaker 4: if they could go back, would they have just taken
Speaker 4: the loss in the ACC Tournament, which would have ended
Speaker 4: their season and of course ended probably Kevin Keats's time there. Well,
Speaker 4: now they go to a Final four, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: that was a fun ride. But now they're back to
Speaker 4: being really in the same situation they were in last
Speaker 4: year around this time. I mean, in fact, that they're
Speaker 4: worse now I believe than they were a year ago.
Speaker 4: But still they're not a good team. But Louisville is
Speaker 4: vulnerable without Chucky. Hepburn more so than they than they
Speaker 4: are without him, and he may play tonight. I really
Speaker 4: I've spent more time thinking about this, this injury for
Speaker 4: Chucky than than I should because there's nothing I can
Speaker 4: do about it, right, I mean, just you know, there's
Speaker 4: worrying about it.
Speaker 2: Isn't going to do anything other than make it worse.
Speaker 4: But this has been such a fun ride of fun
Speaker 4: season and obviously the longer he doesn't play again, the
Speaker 4: more I guess, I don't want to say likely, but
Speaker 4: the more vulnerable Louisville is to maybe lose a game
Speaker 4: that could change their resume substantially. And you know, the
Speaker 4: longer if he misses the game today and it's just
Speaker 4: the same thing and he's now missed two straight games,
Speaker 4: that won't tell us anything for sure as far as
Speaker 4: like long term. But I would worry. I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: worried as it is. And it's not because I have
Speaker 4: any kind of intel. It's just, you know, I'm a worrier,
Speaker 4: that's my nature. And I've learned just by talking with
Speaker 4: other Louisville fans about Chucky, that I'm a bigger worrier
Speaker 4: about things than I even realize, because I mean, I
Speaker 4: feel like, if you one thing that people keep mentioning
Speaker 4: that I think is true that I need to remind
Speaker 4: myself of just to kind of down and not be
Speaker 4: so paranoid about it, is that if he had like
Speaker 4: a severe injury that was going to potentially keep him
Speaker 4: out for you know, a long time.
Speaker 2: I think we would know.
Speaker 4: I mean, they would tell us that, and I feel
Speaker 4: like they would know, meaning they would have had enough
Speaker 4: time now to kind of determine if, in fact, you know,
Speaker 4: he needs like some kind of procedure.
Speaker 2: Gune or something like that.
Speaker 4: But again, five two, five, seven, one seventy nine hundred
Speaker 4: is the number if you guys want to give us
Speaker 4: a call and uh, we'll take your costs here coming
Speaker 4: up in just just a moment. Have you seen the
Speaker 4: spread in this one tonight, Austin.
Speaker 2: No, I haven't.
Speaker 5: Shall I go ahead and guests take a guess. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna say, Louisville minus five.
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 4: I think it opened up a little bit larger than that.
Speaker 4: So she said, let me see if it's let me
Speaker 4: see if there's an update here. Yeah, right now, Currently
Speaker 4: the cards are you were close. It's six and a half,
Speaker 4: so Louisville favored about six and a half as of
Speaker 4: right now before we get into this this matchup here. Uh,
Speaker 4: Kentucky last night, I mean they they they sweep Tennessee
Speaker 4: and even going back to I feel like the last
Speaker 4: couple of years.
Speaker 2: And I could be wrong on this.
Speaker 4: It's not like I'm looking up stats in facts about
Speaker 4: Kentucky basketball to make them, you know that are positive
Speaker 4: and impressive, but I kind of feel like they've owned
Speaker 4: Tennessee as of late. There was some weird games where
Speaker 4: they were supposed to beat Tennessee, like they were the
Speaker 4: team that looked better, that had the momentum, and then
Speaker 4: they lost. And then I know there's been some games
Speaker 4: where Kentucky has ended up beating Tennessee where they were underdogs,
Speaker 4: which last night was one of them. Also, you go
Speaker 4: back to the Tennessee game where they played them in Knoxville,
Speaker 4: they beat them there. I think the last game that
Speaker 4: Tennessee lost. I don't know if they won the SEC
Speaker 4: Tournament or not, but I remember last year Dalton Connect
Speaker 4: that team that went to the Elite eight. I know
Speaker 4: one of their last losses might have been their last
Speaker 4: regular season loss ended up being against that Kentucky team
Speaker 4: that you know.
Speaker 2: Lost to Oakland.
Speaker 4: So I can't really make any sense of it, and
Speaker 4: I don't really think anybody can, to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: But somehow when they have guys that are out, they
Speaker 4: play better. And it's not it's not like they're a
Speaker 4: better team with a higher ceiling. When you don't have
Speaker 4: Jackson Robinson, or you don't have a healthy LaMonte Butler,
Speaker 4: or you don't have a healthy Andrew Carr kerk Crisa
Speaker 4: hasn't played in months, it seems like so nobody would
Speaker 4: tell you that they're better when those guys aren't available.
Speaker 4: That makes no sense, But I guess to make sense
Speaker 4: of it, what I would say is that when and
Speaker 4: I guess maybe you could make the comparison to Louisville, Right,
Speaker 4: like Terrence Edwards was really not comfortable and really didn't
Speaker 4: have an identified role at least that was consistent or
Speaker 4: very effective whenever.
Speaker 2: Everybody was healthy.
Speaker 4: Now there was only a few games, right, It wasn't
Speaker 4: like it wasn't as if he played twenty games and
Speaker 4: was struggling. But there's certain guys on Louisville's team that
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if they would have gotten as comfortable
Speaker 4: and settled into the identified roles they have now if
Speaker 4: there were as many players in the rotation. Jamon Hadley
Speaker 4: became mister insistent and a guy that is super valuable
Speaker 4: for this team. And not to say that he was
Speaker 4: playing poorly whenever you had Case and Pryor out there,
Speaker 4: but there was no option to just bench. I mean
Speaker 4: you had to play him a lot more minutes because
Speaker 4: you didn't have anybody else to play. Same thing could
Speaker 4: be said about Terrence Edwards right Whenkoran Johnson just wasn't
Speaker 4: available anymore because he was done for the year. I mean,
Speaker 4: Terrence Edwards was going to be getting more minutes and
Speaker 4: was going to need to, you know, find where he
Speaker 4: fits to get comfortable. And with Kentucky, the only thing
Speaker 4: I will say is that part of it is that
Speaker 4: these guys, and I don't mean just for Louisville. I'm
Speaker 4: you know, now back to Kentucky. When you look at
Speaker 4: the young Kentucky guys that are coming off the bench,
Speaker 4: the freshman Travis Perry and Trent Noah, those guys just
Speaker 4: played phenomenal last night. I mean nineteen minutes you got
Speaker 4: eleven from Noah, he was three or four from downtown Travis.
Speaker 4: Perry also made two out of three threes and hit
Speaker 4: some big ones. So it wasn't as if these guys
Speaker 4: put up crazy numbers, but they were. They were needed
Speaker 4: and relied upon more than they typically are, and they delivered.
Speaker 4: So there's a part of that that's just being being
Speaker 4: clutch and tough knowing, hey, my team needs me, I
Speaker 4: gotta go make plays. I'm gonna go get it done,
Speaker 4: not being overwhelmed knowing, hey, there's some more. There's some
Speaker 4: added pressure here because you're not just getting some minutes
Speaker 4: to come off the bench and give somebody a quick breather,
Speaker 4: because you know you're the eighth, ninth, tenth man on
Speaker 4: the bench. You're gonna have to play and actually contribute
Speaker 4: to an extent and really just not mess up as well.
Speaker 4: So credit to those guys, which I think those guys
Speaker 4: have a really bright future. I mean, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: Kentucky fans are gonna eat it up right. They haven't
Speaker 4: had kids like that from eastern Kentucky. I don't Travis
Speaker 4: is more from western in Lyon County, but I mean
Speaker 4: these are Kentucky kids who grew up probably worshiping the
Speaker 4: program like most kids out in the state do. They
Speaker 4: were really good players and they probably wouldn't have been
Speaker 4: playing for Kentucky had it not been for Mark Pope. Now,
Speaker 4: Travis Perry did end up committing pretty early. And I've
Speaker 4: watched Travis play when he was a junior in high school.
Speaker 4: Didn't see any of these games as a senior, and
Speaker 4: I knew the kid could play. I mean, I don't
Speaker 4: know if he'll ever be like an All American, but
Speaker 4: he could play for Kentucky with Caliperi there, with Patino there,
Speaker 4: with Pope there. Now again, he'll probably have a better
Speaker 4: role and thrive more playing in the system that Mark
Speaker 4: Pope coaches, but he can play. Trent No, I never
Speaker 4: watched him play, but I remember, and you hear this
Speaker 4: a lot, And there's many players that you know, you
Speaker 4: hear this about, and sometimes it's just not the truth.
Speaker 4: But kids that are out in the state, whether it
Speaker 4: be in the Thirteenth Region in eastern Kentucky or even
Speaker 4: northern Kentucky at times, and look, I guess it happens
Speaker 4: around here in Louisville too, where these guys are really
Speaker 4: good put up big numbers. They've got Division one offers,
Speaker 4: but you know they're not getting the Louisville or the
Speaker 4: Kentucky offer because that's that's a top tier program. And
Speaker 4: there's folks that will tell you, look, you got this
Speaker 4: kid can play. I'm telling you he can play Louislle,
Speaker 4: he can play Kentucky, and a lot of times you
Speaker 4: hear that and it's not true. It's just not And
Speaker 4: sometimes you know, sometimes you know.
Speaker 2: You you see that they were right.
Speaker 4: And I guess people will write about Trentoah because I
Speaker 4: will say the noise about this kid was louder than
Speaker 4: really anybody I can remember in recent history as far
Speaker 4: as a kid that you knew that was going to
Speaker 4: play Division one basketball, but he wasn't getting interest from
Speaker 4: the big programs in the state. He committed to South Carolina,
Speaker 4: signed with South Carolina, and really, it's got to be
Speaker 4: like fate for that kid, because he probably dreamed to
Speaker 4: play for Kentucky. I'm sure he did, and he asked
Speaker 4: to be let out of his letter of intent because
Speaker 4: Cali Perry left, and I think he thought, you know what,
Speaker 4: I might be able to get a look from Mark
Speaker 4: Pope because he's a little bit different than Cali Perry,
Speaker 4: and sure enough it all worked out. He ended up
Speaker 4: in Kentucky and now he's given him good minutes and
Speaker 4: he's gonna be a good player.
Speaker 2: He's a really good shooter.
Speaker 4: He plays tough, a competitor, a guy that you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know what his ceiling is as far as
Speaker 4: like NBA upside, but he's a good freshman that'll only
Speaker 4: get better. And he's the kind of kid that, let's
Speaker 4: be real, Travis Perry and trentt Noah, they're not leaving
Speaker 4: Kentucky right. They're not going to hit the portal like
Speaker 4: they They may even fall behind in the rotation over
Speaker 4: the years, but if they're still getting valuable minutes and
Speaker 4: they have a valuable role, they're going to stay there
Speaker 4: because that's.
Speaker 2: Where they want to be.
Speaker 4: And they'll probably clean up with nil more so than
Speaker 4: other five star recruits from anywhere because you know their
Speaker 4: Kentucky kids and that matters. So again, with Noah, he
Speaker 4: was the guy that I think it was around. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think his team, Harlan County. They played in the
Speaker 4: King of the Bluegrass, which is a big high school
Speaker 4: basketball tournament here at Fardel High School. It's been going
Speaker 4: on for many years. Lloyd Gardner put it together and
Speaker 4: it's I mean, it's legendary. So I remember, I guess
Speaker 4: it was maybe last year during his senior season, or
Speaker 4: maybe the year before, because I think he'd already signed
Speaker 4: with South Carolina, but at some point he came as
Speaker 4: high school player and it was I mean, anybody who
Speaker 4: watched him play would.
Speaker 2: Say, look, you got to go see this kid. If
Speaker 2: you're going to go to the.
Speaker 4: King of the Bluegrass, make sure you go when Harlan plays,
Speaker 4: Harlan County plays. I think that's where he went because
Speaker 4: he's not just a good kid from Kentucky that can
Speaker 4: light it up. He's a really good player. And so
Speaker 4: far it looks like looks like they were right. So anyways,
Speaker 4: back to sort of trying to make sense of how
Speaker 4: Kentucky has their best wins of the season when they're shorthanded.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can't really make sense of it. But
Speaker 4: I would guess is that when you have veteran players
Speaker 4: like Almanor, who was a really good player at a
Speaker 4: low level, Kobe Brea, who played thirty three minutes last
Speaker 4: night and was productive, hit three threes at eleven points.
Speaker 4: I mean, always been their leading scorer all year. He
Speaker 4: had a solid night. But I just if I had
Speaker 4: to guess, it would just be that these guys are
Speaker 4: are getting more minutes and simply playing a little bit
Speaker 4: more loose, more comfortable. But there really isn't anything on
Speaker 4: the stat sheet that just tells you that can that
Speaker 4: you know there wasn't a That's what makes it even
Speaker 4: more puzzling is that when they do get these wins
Speaker 4: against Tennessee at Tennessee beat them last night in Lexington,
Speaker 4: they beat Gonzaga without Lamont Butler and Kirk Criesa, they
Speaker 4: ended up beating who was There was another victory I
Speaker 4: feel like they got when they were injured and it
Speaker 4: felt like a game they probably shouldn't have won. They
Speaker 4: were healthy when they knocked off Duke, and I think
Speaker 4: they were fully healthy when they knocked off Florida, which
Speaker 4: is a great win for him. But it's almost like
Speaker 4: you tell Mark Pope he's gonna be without some guys
Speaker 4: and it's no for no real reason. You just kind
Speaker 4: of feel like they're gonna win because so far that's
Speaker 4: what they've done. That is that is the pattern that
Speaker 4: has taken place, and it's not like they needed an
Speaker 4: insane night. They did shoot fifty percent from three, which
Speaker 4: is pretty damn good, and Tennessee shot three of eighteen.
Speaker 4: I guess that that's what stands out on the stat
Speaker 4: sheet as to how that ends up happening to where
Speaker 4: they win by eleven points. But like Rick Barnes, I
Speaker 4: think he's a good coach, and I'm not going to
Speaker 4: do the thing where I act like Tennessee stinks because
Speaker 4: they lost by eleven to Kentucky, Because if Tennessee was
Speaker 4: really good, they would be losing this game when Kentucky
Speaker 4: doesn't have Jackson Robinson and Lamont Butler, you know, only
Speaker 4: plays twenty minutes. I mean, I wish I could, but
Speaker 4: I wouldn't. I don't want to lie to you. I
Speaker 4: don't want a lot to myself. Tennessee's a really good team.
Speaker 4: Kentucky just has got the best of him. But if
Speaker 4: I had to blame it on something, Rick Barnes just
Speaker 4: he's a good coach. But I don't know why he doesn't.
Speaker 4: It's like he doesn't scout Kentucky and maybe they're hard
Speaker 4: to scout. Whenever you realize, oh yeah, the guy we
Speaker 4: really wanted to take away. He's not even playing tonight,
Speaker 4: Jackson Robinson, he's out Lamont Butler, we don't really know
Speaker 4: what we're gonna get because he's been kind of in
Speaker 4: and out as far as being healthy all year. Kobe Brea,
Speaker 4: we know that. Don't let him get open from three.
Speaker 4: But then whenever you really give too much attention to
Speaker 4: the three, then he can.
Speaker 2: You know, he can. He can hurts you in other ways.
Speaker 4: And they probably didn't have a whole lot on the
Speaker 4: scouting report, I would imagine with Perry and Noah. I mean,
Speaker 4: Carr played nineteen minutes last night, had two points in
Speaker 4: two rebounds, like they beat Tennessee by eleven, And I
Speaker 4: mean it's not just that they didn't get Jackson Robinson
Speaker 4: at all. Butler played fine, but again six points. And
Speaker 4: then Carr another guy who I would I feel like
Speaker 4: he's one of the more valuable players on that team,
Speaker 4: yet he didn't do anything in the time he played.
Speaker 4: Mauri Williams six points in twenty one minutes. So just
Speaker 4: a good team win for Kentucky and they have a
Speaker 4: very unusual resume. They still don't have any terrible losses
Speaker 4: because the sec is just not going to give you
Speaker 4: any terrible losses when it comes to the metrics. But
Speaker 4: I mean, they got a lot of good wins. They're
Speaker 4: gonna have some real value, I mean, Tennessee. And I'm
Speaker 4: not saying this is correct because again, like the formula
Speaker 4: is clearly flawed when it comes to factoring in and
Speaker 4: the net and the kin Palm. It just does not
Speaker 4: factor in winning and losing as much as it should.
Speaker 4: If you play really good teams competitively, you will maintain
Speaker 4: the same range of your net in kin Palm ranking,
Speaker 4: which I just don't think that I just don't think
Speaker 4: that should be the case. Like, for example, Ohio State
Speaker 4: is fourteen and ten and six and seven in Big
Speaker 4: ten play and they're ahead of Louisville in the NET
Speaker 4: and they are nowhere near a tournament team. They're twenty
Speaker 4: eighth in the net in the kim Palm, and they
Speaker 4: have I guess like one or two decent wins, but
Speaker 4: yet they've lost six I'm sorry, they're six and seven
Speaker 4: in league play.
Speaker 2: So like, you shouldn't just play teams.
Speaker 4: Competitively and compete and have the wins and losses not
Speaker 4: have a bigger factor in how you move up or
Speaker 4: move down in the formula here. But what I was
Speaker 4: getting at is that a sweep of Tennessee that Kentucky
Speaker 4: now has, who's going to have a better data point
Speaker 4: on their resume as far as like the net and
Speaker 4: the Kim palm and that kind of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 4: you look at the rest of their the rest of
Speaker 4: their resume right now, they're lost to Clemson, can tenues
Speaker 4: to look better.
Speaker 2: Ohio State. I mean, I don't think it's a good loss.
Speaker 4: They lost by twenty on a neutral site, but again,
Speaker 4: the numbers seem to really like Ohio State, so therefore
Speaker 4: it's not a bad loss. Georgia at their place not
Speaker 4: a good loss, but I mean it's certainly not one
Speaker 4: that's going to be a real stain on the resume.
Speaker 4: It's still considered Quad one. And then Bama one of
Speaker 4: the best teams in the country. Ole Miss at third place.
Speaker 4: Arkansas at home is not a good loss, but it's
Speaker 4: still a team that's in the top forty bobbish when
Speaker 4: you look at the numbers. So I wish I could
Speaker 4: I wish I could say otherwise, but I feel like
Speaker 4: a lot of these wins that Kentucky has has picked
Speaker 4: up this year that have real value when you consider
Speaker 4: the circumstances in those matchups. It's just a sign that
Speaker 4: they're a really well coached team, not to say he's perfect.
Speaker 2: He'll lose.
Speaker 4: Who knows what they're going to do the rest of
Speaker 4: the way. Who knows what will happen in the n
Speaker 4: SAA tournament. I mean, you just never know. But as
Speaker 4: of now, twenty five games in. This are twenty four
Speaker 4: games in, I should say they've I think they've got
Speaker 4: themselves a pretty good coach.
Speaker 2: All right, I'll move on now.
Speaker 4: I know it probably made a lot of you want
Speaker 4: to vomit if you're you know, big UFL fan anti uk,
Speaker 4: which I am. But you know, it's my job to
Speaker 4: be honest and say what I think, even if it's
Speaker 4: you know, something you don't agree with. And a lot
Speaker 4: of times, believe it or not, I share things that
Speaker 4: are my opinion that are wrong. But they still let
Speaker 4: me do this, which is a lot of fun. So
Speaker 4: let's just keep that between us if we can. Let's
Speaker 4: take a quick break. We'll come back on the other side.
Speaker 4: Talk a little n C State Louisville tonight. Also some
Speaker 4: other things we'll get into today there is a great
Speaker 4: article from Pat Kelsey at I keep saying, yeah, who's
Speaker 4: not Sports Illustrated, But it's a real good column about
Speaker 4: Pat Kelcey with some really good quotes from different people,
Speaker 4: and it's just a reminder how lucky we are to
Speaker 4: have this guy.
Speaker 2: And there are some teams out.
Speaker 4: There, some individuals that we as Louisville fans, realize we
Speaker 4: owe a big thank you, right like Cincinnati hiring Sadderfield,
Speaker 4: those kind of things. When it comes to Pat Kelsey,
Speaker 4: if this thing continues to work out, which it's working
Speaker 4: out right now, at least in my opinion it is.
Speaker 4: I don't know how you could disagree, but we will
Speaker 4: have somebody to thank. And I'll tell you who that is.
Speaker 4: On the other side, it's probably somebody you may not
Speaker 4: even know who it is. But to keep it locked,
Speaker 4: it is game day. It's coffee and Company fuel by
Speaker 4: Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 4: So, if you haven't checked out the article at Sports
Speaker 4: Illustrated that that Pat Fordy put together, I would highly
Speaker 4: encourage you you do exactly that I remember a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago, Pat Kelsey was at the press conference
Speaker 4: I think it might have been before the Georgia Tech
Speaker 4: game that Friday, and I thought it was one of
Speaker 4: the better press conferences for Pat Kelce, not because of
Speaker 4: any you know any, I mean, it was just he
Speaker 4: was being asked questions that kind of told us a
Speaker 4: little bit more about him as as a coach, as
Speaker 4: a person, his story, and it's just and we know
Speaker 4: a lot about him already, but I just I found
Speaker 4: it to be very informative. And Pat was there clearly
Speaker 4: working on a piece that he spent some time on
Speaker 4: and he published it earlier this morning.
Speaker 2: Again it's as Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 4: Title is how Pat Kelsey revived Louisville hoops and his
Speaker 4: passion along the way, And Josh heard, I mean so
Speaker 4: far deserves a lot of credit for this move because
Speaker 4: even though he wasn't the first or maybe he wasn't
Speaker 4: the second choice either, it's still somebody that probably would
Speaker 4: have still been at Charleston had Louisville a really good
Speaker 4: job not not offered it. So clearly regardless of when
Speaker 4: he or where he was on the on the order,
Speaker 4: as far as who Josh Hurd wanted this was a
Speaker 4: move that you know, so far looks like it was
Speaker 4: a home run. And it's not just because louisll has
Speaker 4: been able to have some success and win some games
Speaker 4: and this team is playing a good brand of basketball
Speaker 4: that fans are really really excited about. I mean, Bar
Speaker 4: was separateretty low as far as just you know, given
Speaker 4: effort and playing hard. But even if we didn't have
Speaker 4: a stretch of terrible seasons like we did for three
Speaker 4: straight years, we still, I think, are a fan base
Speaker 4: that does appreciate guys who play hard and play with
Speaker 4: a lot of energy. And Pat Kelsey has that and
Speaker 4: these guys are a reflection of it. But really he
Speaker 4: just he seems to be a guy that his personality,
Speaker 4: his energy, his work ethic, his story. I think it's
Speaker 4: it's the perfect fit for Louisville at the perfect time
Speaker 4: because he probably wakes up every day thinking like is
Speaker 4: this crazy?
Speaker 2: Is this real?
Speaker 4: Am I the head coach at Louisville. Not to say
Speaker 4: that he thinks he's undeserving, but I mean there's certain
Speaker 4: things that played out in order for it to work
Speaker 4: out like this to where he is the guy. So
Speaker 4: I would encourage you to check it out. It's it's
Speaker 4: really really well done. And what I what I took
Speaker 4: from it, among many things that that I hadn't really given.
Speaker 2: Much thought to, is that.
Speaker 4: The first and I don't even think Louisville offered the
Speaker 4: job to Scott Drew. I mean, I think what it
Speaker 4: came down to is that they just knew that if
Speaker 4: in fact he was gonna kick the time, if he
Speaker 4: was going to be interested, it was gonna be very,
Speaker 4: very very expensive, and really not even because of like
Speaker 4: a buyout, but just because of what he was going
Speaker 4: to cost. And we'll get to this later. I don't
Speaker 4: want to spend too much time on it because it's
Speaker 4: not super relevant.
Speaker 2: Well I guess it's relevant. It's just it's not fun
Speaker 2: to talk about.
Speaker 4: But Louisville got Pat Kelsey really cheap, and yet they're
Speaker 4: still really struggling financially because of a lot of things,
Speaker 4: including Kenny Paynes buyout and the fact that nobody spent
Speaker 4: money on the program going to games whenever Kenny was here.
Speaker 4: So we'll get to that later. It was a good
Speaker 4: breakdown by the CJ earlier today. But anyways, you know
Speaker 4: Pat Kelsey, I mean I think that was one of
Speaker 4: the factors that made him attractive, one of the many,
Speaker 4: I'm sure, but he was somebody who knew wouldn't say no.
Speaker 4: I think the first conversation, it's what it said in
Speaker 4: the article, the first conversation that Josh heard and Pat
Speaker 4: Kelsey had, which by the way, I don't even know
Speaker 4: if this was in the article, but I just the
Speaker 4: first coach that Josh talked to was Pat Kelsey. He
Speaker 4: also in some way kicked the tires on Scott Drew.
Speaker 4: But it just financially you weren'tna be able to do it,
Speaker 4: and well, I guess you could have, but then like
Speaker 4: money that you're gonna need for an IL and that
Speaker 4: kind of stuff like it would have gone probably towards
Speaker 4: whatever you had to do to afford to bring somebody
Speaker 4: like Scott Drew from Baylor. And then Dusty May. I
Speaker 4: think they believed that Dusty May wanted the job, but
Speaker 4: Dusty May didn't want the job. Now I don't know
Speaker 4: if he maybe it was gamesmanship, maybe he would have
Speaker 4: taken and had Michigan not actually offered, maybe he would
Speaker 4: have ended up at Ohio State. I'm not sure, but
Speaker 4: he was somebody that they wanted and he's doing a
Speaker 4: great job. I mean, they got a big win last
Speaker 4: night against Purdue, like Michigan got themselves a good coach.
Speaker 4: Now will he be there long term? I don't know,
Speaker 4: because Indiana is a job that he certainly didn't didn't
Speaker 4: shut that down the other day when he was asked
Speaker 4: about it. But then from there it was shirts at
Speaker 4: Indiana State. And that's the one I didn't hate the
Speaker 4: idea of hiring Dusty May. I just felt like Dusty
Speaker 4: May was somebody that, more than anything, just had one
Speaker 4: specific impressive thing on his resume, and then he went
Speaker 4: to a final four and that matters.
Speaker 2: That's valuable. But like to me, he could have.
Speaker 4: Easily been the guy who had the random tournament run
Speaker 4: and then ten years later you realize, yeah, that guy's
Speaker 4: pretty average. The only thing, the only reason you know
Speaker 4: who he is is because he took a team to
Speaker 4: the tournament. Like maybe Porter Moser is that guy who's
Speaker 4: at Oklahoma now and struggling Shaka smart. I mean, he's
Speaker 4: doing well at Marquette now, but like he's very far
Speaker 4: removed from from the final four, and he hadn't made
Speaker 4: the second weekend since that final four until last year,
Speaker 4: so that was my worry. But I wasn't like, oh,
Speaker 4: you better not hire Dusty may I just I knew
Speaker 4: I wasn't gonna be as juiced about it as others
Speaker 4: because one, he was kind of boring, and I just
Speaker 4: didn't feel like he had he had not done what
Speaker 4: Kelsey had done to be honest with you and for
Speaker 4: what it's worth, and it's worth nothing. It's just I
Speaker 4: guess my own insecurity wanting people to know that, like, hey,
Speaker 4: I was always Pat Kelsey ahead of Shirts and Dusty
Speaker 4: may I just you know, I never thought they would
Speaker 4: actually hire a guy from that level because I was
Speaker 4: just delusional thinking that Louisville was going to have to
Speaker 4: go out and get some big name when clearly Josh
Speaker 4: Hurt had a plan and so far it looks like
Speaker 4: it's working. But anyways, back to Josh Shirts, that's the
Speaker 4: one that I just felt like, man, no, like you
Speaker 4: can't do that, and they offered him the job, and
Speaker 4: what ended up happening is that he did not end
Speaker 4: He did not end up winning the Missouri Valley Tournament.
Speaker 4: So that changed sort of like his availability and when
Speaker 4: to talk to where he had taken the Saint Louis job.
Speaker 2: I mean that's a real thing.
Speaker 4: By the way, Like Louisville was in the process and
Speaker 4: I think pretty much offered in the job and he
Speaker 4: couldn't take it because he'd already signed something with Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: That's what happened, and it was a blessing in disguise.
Speaker 4: So I feel like when it comes to who we
Speaker 4: should be thinking, especially if things continue to work out
Speaker 4: really well with Pat Kelsey, I mean, I think we
Speaker 4: got to be thinking Darien Devrees, who was at Drake,
Speaker 4: who beat Indiana State in the Missouri Valley Tournament, and
Speaker 4: had Indiana State won that, I think Josh Shirtz would
Speaker 4: have been our coach, and who knows, maybe it would
Speaker 4: have been okay. But man, and look, I think if
Speaker 4: you are a good coach, you could win here.
Speaker 2: It's Louisville. You have resources, they're gonna help you. You
Speaker 2: can win here.
Speaker 4: But Pat Kelsey, I think what's made it to where
Speaker 4: fans are just enjoying this first season so much and
Speaker 4: the riot has been so fun and you can't get
Speaker 4: enough of it is because of him, as a dude. Now,
Speaker 4: if he did all this stuff that he didn't win,
Speaker 4: totally different conversation, but he does win and it's just
Speaker 4: been amazing. So maybe we had Darian Devrees who beat
Speaker 4: Drake or I'm sorry, who coached Drake at the time.
Speaker 2: Now he's a West Virginia.
Speaker 4: We beat him earlier this year, by the way, but
Speaker 4: now he's at West Virginia. His Drake team beat Indiana
Speaker 4: State and that really led to it playing out where
Speaker 4: Pat Kelsey got the job because Shash Shirts couldn't take it. It
Speaker 4: sounds like, so throw him in there with Luke Fickle
Speaker 4: who took the Wisconsin job, and then Cincinnati because they
Speaker 4: hired Scott Saderfield Maryland for leaving the ACC to go
Speaker 4: to the Big Tens so we could get in the ACC.
Speaker 4: We got a long list of folks that for random,
Speaker 4: well not really random.
Speaker 2: But it's like a butterfly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly. We probably owe him a thank you
Speaker 4: more than people would realize. And I think Darien Debris
Speaker 4: at West Virginia certainly is is oh to thank you
Speaker 4: for beating Indiana State last year.
Speaker 2: All right, we got two hours left. Stick with us.
Speaker 2: It's game day Louisville, n C State tonight.
Speaker 4: We'll talk about it next right here on Sports Talk
Speaker 4: seven ninety