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.
Speaker 3: Don't know who the hell we think we are.
Speaker 1: Get off our show, idiot. The kids are playing or
Speaker 1: tail off, crying. The countries are screwing it up. Gold
Speaker 1: Play Inner Murals, Brother, gold Play Inner Murals.
Speaker 4: They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not.
Speaker 1: Who's the kid here?
Speaker 3: Who's the kid here?
Speaker 4: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Here's Nick coffee?
Speaker 4: All right, good afternoon, Welcome in Game day edition. Here
Speaker 4: Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven
Speaker 4: ninety Nick Coffee with you. We've got Austin Montgomery once
Speaker 4: again back in the house as we take you up
Speaker 4: until six o'clock. And there is a lot to get
Speaker 4: into here today. And I was going to start by
Speaker 4: letting you know that I cannot wait till nine o'clock
Speaker 4: tonight to act like a lunatic and just lose my mind,
Speaker 4: kind of like I did during those games in the Bahamas.
Speaker 4: And I hope that that's the case, because I would
Speaker 4: say that if I'm losing my mind and I'm really
Speaker 4: you know, in rare form worrying about maybe waking up
Speaker 4: my kids, who my kid and the kids won't be asleep,
Speaker 4: they're gonna watch with me.
Speaker 3: But my point is like.
Speaker 4: I'm excited about tonight and everything about the Bahamas trip,
Speaker 4: the battle for Atlantis last week made me feel alive.
Speaker 4: The excitement and the I mean just the awesome, awesome
Speaker 4: result in the first game against Indiana where you just
Speaker 4: bent them over. I mean Mike Woodson, I mean he's
Speaker 4: still recovering from the ass whooping that Pat Kelsey gave him.
Speaker 4: And then the next game it was a heart I
Speaker 4: mean it was it was I was at a heart attack,
Speaker 4: almost died. I feel like I'm at Churchill Down's with
Speaker 4: the family for Thanksgiving because that's what we do, and
Speaker 4: I'm just off in a corner by myself, watching on
Speaker 4: my phone, just not even knowing what happened in my family.
Speaker 4: They could have left, I wouldn't have known. But that's
Speaker 4: how you know, that's how insane I And then of
Speaker 4: course the heartbreaker in the championship game against Oklahoma. That
Speaker 4: was tough to lose, a game that was right there
Speaker 4: and it would have been awesome to get another real
Speaker 4: good win. So I forgot what it's like to be
Speaker 4: crazy about Louisville basketball. You know when your team has life,
Speaker 4: and Louisville certainly has life. So I am excited about tonight.
Speaker 4: But about twenty minutes ago, we got some tough news
Speaker 4: that really isn't that surprising. I think it started to
Speaker 4: look like this was going to be the case. But
Speaker 4: Coorin Johnson, the transfer from Washington, only played in two
Speaker 4: games this year for Louisville.
Speaker 3: He is out for the rest of the season.
Speaker 4: He's gonna have shoulder surgery, which means he's out for
Speaker 4: the year, going a red shirt. No clue what he'll
Speaker 4: do with the year of eligibility he'll have after red shirting.
Speaker 4: But you know, this is a guy that was one
Speaker 4: of the more I mean you now have with Case
Speaker 4: and Pryor after the year with the torn acl We
Speaker 4: found that out yesterday Coorin Johnson confirming that he did
Speaker 4: see a specialist, and I guess he got a second opinion,
Speaker 4: and I guess both opinions were that he needs to
Speaker 4: shut it down on and get and get surgery. You know,
Speaker 4: you've lost two of the most talented guys that you
Speaker 4: brought in the portal. This is not in any way
Speaker 4: ideal for Louisville basketball. I mean, it's just not. But
Speaker 4: I'm I'm surprised, kind of irritated, and dare I say motivated,
Speaker 4: because I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna tell
Speaker 4: anybody that this doesn't change sort of how we look
Speaker 4: at the rest of the season.
Speaker 3: This changes a lot.
Speaker 4: Ceiling not as high for this team without Case and
Speaker 4: Pryor and also with Koran Johnson. But I think people
Speaker 4: forget Karan Johnson didn't play in the Bahamas.
Speaker 3: He'd be great to have.
Speaker 4: I mean, you want him, your your ceiling is not
Speaker 4: as high without him, But I mean you saw this
Speaker 4: team play pretty good without him. Now Case and Price
Speaker 4: is a little bit different. I think you can do
Speaker 4: some things to maybe lighten the uh the trying to
Speaker 4: think of the right way to describe it, because you
Speaker 4: really can't ask anybody, even collectively to kind of give
Speaker 4: you what he gave you. And I don't mean just
Speaker 4: because you know, because of his production, because of his numbers,
Speaker 4: because his numbers really weren't that crazy. But he's just
Speaker 4: a very very rare player athletics six foot ten. Don't
Speaker 4: know if he can shoot it but he does like
Speaker 4: to shoot it and makes it occasionally, but still a
Speaker 4: good athlete got a good handle, can really, you know,
Speaker 4: cause some mismatch problems. And I think you can change
Speaker 4: some things as far as what you're doing in the
Speaker 4: half court to maybe he doesn't seem as missed, but
Speaker 4: I don't know if Pat Kelsey's going to do that.
Speaker 4: So again, you know, this stinks, But I'm surprised by
Speaker 4: the amount of Louisville fans that act like we should
Speaker 4: just cancel the season now. I mean, why would just
Speaker 4: shut it down and just plan for next year? And
Speaker 4: it's not like it's the entire fan base. But like
Speaker 4: I put out that, I still think Louisville has the
Speaker 4: pieces to put together a season where you could find
Speaker 4: yourself appearing in the NCAA Tournament and you would have thought,
Speaker 4: I said Louisville was going to go beat the Chicago
Speaker 4: Bulls in ninety seven. I mean, like, I don't think
Speaker 4: that that's that crazy to say. You realized they put
Speaker 4: sixty eight teams in the tournament, guys, right, and there's
Speaker 4: teams that make it every year that you know aren't
Speaker 4: very good. Maybe we've just had maybe because we haven't
Speaker 4: been involved in Selections Sunday in a long time. We
Speaker 4: have not been relevant enough as a program to even
Speaker 4: really need to tune in on Selection Sunday since what
Speaker 4: two thousand and gosh was it twenty nineteen? I guess
Speaker 4: it was twenty twenty one whenever they were the first
Speaker 4: team left out. But there are a lot of teams
Speaker 4: that you wouldn't claim are good or you know, dangerous
Speaker 4: or elite by any means that end up getting in
Speaker 4: the tournament. So you know, if they don't make it,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to be totally stunned, but like, this
Speaker 4: is a this is less than ideal.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 4: Still think that this team can win some games. I
Speaker 4: still think they can win tonight. They're still favored in
Speaker 4: tonight's game, and they were opening line faces whenever Buddy
Speaker 4: knew that Cason Pryor wasn't gonna play. I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that that means they're gonna win, because obviously Louisville's been
Speaker 4: favorite in games they've lost and vice versa, Like it
Speaker 4: doesn't always work out that way, But in a weird way,
Speaker 4: I'm kind of like, well, I hope they win tonight
Speaker 4: so I can go dunk on people who are acting
Speaker 4: like it's insane to think that this team could still
Speaker 4: be any good.
Speaker 3: So anyways, welcome inn.
Speaker 4: It is Coffee and Company, and again we are fiel
Speaker 4: Abou Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety Nick Coffee
Speaker 4: with you, Austin Montgomery alongside. I mean again, you know
Speaker 4: that it's not it's not good news to have these
Speaker 4: guys out for the entire season, But like, do you
Speaker 4: think And again, if you if you totally disagree, then
Speaker 4: tell me I'm not. I'm not setting you up here
Speaker 4: to just say, yeah, Nick, you're right, I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I want you to shoot me straight, like, do you
Speaker 4: still think this team could be a tournament team with.
Speaker 3: With what they have? Absolutely?
Speaker 4: I do?
Speaker 2: Okay, and you mean that right, yes, yes, because I'm
Speaker 2: not just agreeing with you, I actually actually do them.
Speaker 2: When we were talking about the Cayson prior injury, I
Speaker 2: think that there were a lot of people over the
Speaker 2: weekend that were just I wouldn't say ready to cast
Speaker 2: him off, but they were a little bit angry about
Speaker 2: the shot selection and how he's kind of playing outside
Speaker 2: as means I get it that he can knock a
Speaker 2: few down from out there, but it seemed like Kayson
Speaker 2: Prior was always offensively floating around the perimeter mark where
Speaker 2: he shouldn't have been. I don't think that there's gonna
Speaker 2: be a lot of lost sleep over him offensively. I mean,
Speaker 2: of course it helps when he gives you those kind
Speaker 2: of plays where he's rim running behind like a guard
Speaker 2: coming down there. But he is really, really, really a
Speaker 2: big loss on more of the defensive end.
Speaker 3: That's what I'd be more.
Speaker 4: Just a athlete with link. Yeah, and you don't really
Speaker 4: have anybody that you can just automatically. Now, I do
Speaker 4: think when it comes to defense, rebounding athleticism, that's where
Speaker 4: when you get Trey ore back, he can help you
Speaker 4: in that role. Now, yes, he's not going to be
Speaker 4: a guy that can score much for you. And that's
Speaker 4: but Cason Pryor again for the amount of shots that
Speaker 4: you know, let me.
Speaker 3: Pull up his numbers here.
Speaker 4: And this is where I kind of tried to tiptoe
Speaker 4: around it yesterday because I don't want to. I don't
Speaker 4: want it to I don't I don't want to act
Speaker 4: like I'm saying this guy's not any good and Louis
Speaker 4: is going to be fine without him. So I'm trying
Speaker 4: to find that middle ground, that balance, because you know
Speaker 4: he'll be missed. Louisville will be a much better team
Speaker 4: if they had him. Same thing with Caseon, but same
Speaker 4: thing with with Korn Johnson. But Corn Johnson's only playing
Speaker 4: two games. Yeh.
Speaker 2: When he played against Tennessee, he scored two points, so
Speaker 2: almost out a sight out of mind. And I had
Speaker 2: to say that for the young man.
Speaker 4: But yeah, and with Prior it's a little bit different,
Speaker 4: there's no doubt about it. But when you look at
Speaker 4: his you know, his numbers, I mean, I think his
Speaker 4: shooting percentages. I'm waiting for my internet to load here. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean he's shooting on the season. Case in Prior,
Speaker 4: he's shooting fifteen percent from three thirty six percent from
Speaker 4: the field. And you know, again, so his production, I
Speaker 4: feel like it's not crazy at all to think that
Speaker 4: you could make that up. You may have to do
Speaker 4: some different things to get the twelve points the game
Speaker 4: that he was getting, but were you really again, the
Speaker 4: ceiling is not as high, and you've lost a long
Speaker 4: athlete who is a little bit different than not only
Speaker 4: most of the guys on your team, but a lot
Speaker 4: of the guys you're going to play just because you know.
Speaker 4: That's what makes case In a very intriguing player. One,
Speaker 4: he has some real ability about him. But he's a
Speaker 4: six ' ten guy that really is not in any
Speaker 4: way a post player. And you know when he ends
Speaker 4: up being defended by post players and he can take
Speaker 4: advantage of that. I mean, what I would say about
Speaker 4: case and pryor other than just having you know, good
Speaker 4: size and athleticism that makes him a dangerous player. He's
Speaker 4: a really good ball handler for a guy that's six ten,
Speaker 4: so and you're not going to get that without him.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, there's nobody fall off the court sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So again I'm trying to find the middle ground
Speaker 4: to where I can acknowledge that, yes, this is less
Speaker 4: than ideal, this changes things, But like you still have
Speaker 4: your two leading scorers, and I don't think that the
Speaker 4: leading scorers right now are going to be much different
Speaker 4: towards the end of the year.
Speaker 3: Like maybe just maybe rain.
Speaker 4: Smith kind of falls off slightly, but you know, he's
Speaker 4: scoring thirteen a game. Chucky heapburns up to about fifteen
Speaker 4: a game. So you know, if you lost Chucky Hepburn,
Speaker 4: that'd be a totally different scenario. Look, Chuck, he's gonna
Speaker 4: play a lot more minutes now, there's no doubt about it,
Speaker 4: especially with Korn not coming back at all. But you know,
Speaker 4: he was already playing a lot of minutes. And for
Speaker 4: those saying, well did you see how ghast he was, well, yeah,
Speaker 4: you played three games in three days, one that went
Speaker 4: into overtime.
Speaker 3: Like that's not normal.
Speaker 4: So, you know, rarely am I the guy providing optimism
Speaker 4: for people because everybody acts like I'm some gloom and doom,
Speaker 4: miserable human being. And I guess maybe it can appear
Speaker 4: like that at times. But look, we've been dead as
Speaker 4: a program for years, I mean lifeless, so much so
Speaker 4: that I know all of you listening that are, you know,
Speaker 4: like me, obsessed with Wolves of Basketball. You care about
Speaker 4: it more than you probably should. You just can't shake it.
Speaker 4: It's just part of us. You were experiencing things last
Speaker 4: week that you haven't experienced in a long time, and
Speaker 4: you forgot what it felt like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.
Speaker 4: I know they could lose a couple more players, and
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be enjoying watching a competitive team that is
Speaker 4: that you know, isn't what we had the last few years.
Speaker 4: So you know, if you disagree, you think I'm pumping
Speaker 4: sunshine and you know, leading the pep rally trying to
Speaker 4: you know, be a cheerleader, then that's fine. I'm just
Speaker 4: you know, nobody would ever act like, oh, no big deal,
Speaker 4: who cares, but just this, oh my god, we might
Speaker 4: as well just like Pat Kelsey should just let his
Speaker 4: assistance coach the rest of the season, and he's going
Speaker 4: to go out recruiting players, Like, why don't we sack
Speaker 4: up and have some life about it? I mean, it's
Speaker 4: almost like people don't even watch the Bahamas. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: you played three good teams and you beat two of them.
Speaker 2: I agree, and you and you came away from the
Speaker 2: Bahamas unfortunately down a player with Case and Pryor, and
Speaker 2: I know you couldn't capitalize off of that last win.
Speaker 2: But it feels like ever since going up to the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: after getting spanked by Tennessee and after kind of a
Speaker 2: couple home games or we're really trying to find our.
Speaker 3: Identity, those were such a waste, weren't they.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, it's anything, and they seem like forever ago,
Speaker 2: it was like you and c.
Speaker 3: Wilmington or something like that.
Speaker 4: It was went through up Inwenllerman, Yes, and he took
Speaker 4: care of business. But it just felt like they were
Speaker 4: ready to get those games over so they could go
Speaker 4: see where they stand whenever they play real teams again.
Speaker 3: And I don't know about you guys, I feel like
Speaker 3: they did pretty well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think they did too, and I feel like they
Speaker 2: found their identity on offense. They walked away with understanding,
Speaker 2: we don't need to just kind of like search the
Speaker 2: perimeter for these shots, because that's what we did in
Speaker 2: the first shot at the Bahamas and over the summer,
Speaker 2: even you came out and said it, this team might
Speaker 2: you know, it's not gonna be every game they might
Speaker 2: break this single game record because they could have had
Speaker 2: the single game record that they called those actual games
Speaker 2: when they played the Baja Mar team.
Speaker 4: Same thing in their first exhibition game as well. Yeah,
Speaker 4: when they played who was it that team that was
Speaker 4: Young Harris or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, young Harris. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So you know, like I think against West Virginia and
Speaker 4: maybe that'll end up not looking like some big win.
Speaker 4: I don't know, it's early, but I was impressed because
Speaker 4: they won a game that was not in any way
Speaker 4: played the way they want to play. They were able
Speaker 4: to win a different way, and they were able to
Speaker 4: rely on Chucky. Hepburn to go create some magic in
Speaker 4: the half court, and you know, he had a game
Speaker 4: where it's gonna be tough for him to maybe ever
Speaker 4: reproduce that. But I don't think he needs to be
Speaker 4: that guy every night. So you know, what I really
Speaker 4: want to see, and I don't don't have a clue
Speaker 4: what to expect, is will we see some adjustments to
Speaker 4: the identity now that you don't have a case in prior?
Speaker 4: And I would say the same thing about Corn Johnson,
Speaker 4: but they've been doing the same thing without him, meaning
Speaker 4: same style. And I'm not asking Pat Kelsey to change
Speaker 4: his philosophy and change what he does. But I do
Speaker 4: think that you're not as good in the half You're
Speaker 4: not as good at running without prior.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're just not. That's where he.
Speaker 4: Could really like he could get the ball up the
Speaker 4: court and beat other guys at his size and go
Speaker 4: dunk on somebody Like that's just where you're you're gonna
Speaker 4: miss that. So I don't want you to pound the
Speaker 4: air out of the ball and play in the half court.
Speaker 4: But I do think more sets in the half court
Speaker 4: to one get Chucky in space to where he can
Speaker 4: either make a play on his own or create for somebody.
Speaker 4: I think you can need to run some action to
Speaker 4: get nowhere Waterman some clean looks. So you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know if we'll see that tonight, because you know,
Speaker 4: they found out yesterday about casein, so they had a
Speaker 4: day to prepare. So my guess is they're gonna they're
Speaker 4: going about this thing is, hey, next man up. We're
Speaker 4: gonna continue to do what we do and we're gonna
Speaker 4: be who we are and somebody goes down, we got
Speaker 4: a guy on the bench that's gonna have to step
Speaker 4: up and play. And you know, maybe that works out.
Speaker 4: We'll have we'll have to see. But tonight they've got
Speaker 4: a big opportunity. And I think despite the bad news
Speaker 4: that you got yesterday and today, this team can still
Speaker 4: go win and it would be a big time win.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know if there's gonna be many
Speaker 4: wins for the ACC and this ACC SEC challenge, but
Speaker 4: Louisville is favored tonight and I'm hoping that there's a good,
Speaker 4: lively crowd there and uh, you know, they're drunk. It's
Speaker 4: gonna be late nine o'clock tip, and uh be nice,
Speaker 4: be nice to get a win here because you know
Speaker 4: there's value, right. These are games that if you lose,
Speaker 4: you know, it's not it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 4: You're losing to a ranked team, but you are at home,
Speaker 4: and a win here by the end of the season
Speaker 4: will probably end up looking like a really valuable win
Speaker 4: for you, because I would imagine Ole Miss will end
Speaker 4: up being a pretty good team and they'll probably end
Speaker 4: up being, you know, a decent seed in the tournament. Now,
Speaker 4: beating them at home won't give you as much value,
Speaker 4: but still there's there's some value there. So we'll continue
Speaker 4: you to talk hoops as we get set for tonight's
Speaker 4: matchup Louisville and Ole Miss. Some other things we need
Speaker 4: to get into today. When it comes to the ACC
Speaker 4: SEC Challenge, people are in denial about the league and
Speaker 4: I don't know what it is. I'm gonna talk about
Speaker 4: coming up here in about ten minutes when we get
Speaker 4: back from our first break, But the evidence is right
Speaker 4: in front of you. I don't even have to pull
Speaker 4: the numbers, but I did. The ACC is a basketball
Speaker 4: league in the last ten years has become a shell
Speaker 4: of itself. And there are people that like, I know
Speaker 4: that like cover and I don't mean like I know
Speaker 4: the minute's a big deal, but like people whose opinion
Speaker 4: I respect when it comes to basketball, that will look
Speaker 4: at what is right in front of our face and
Speaker 4: act like it's not the case. Like they'll tell you
Speaker 4: that the ACC is just fine. And I don't mean
Speaker 4: part of me says, you know, hey, Louisvill can take
Speaker 4: advantage of it and win a bunch of games and
Speaker 4: maybe win the league moving forward and great. But I,
Speaker 4: as someone who is a Louisville fan my whole life,
Speaker 4: I'm thirty six, I never really felt like Louisville.
Speaker 3: I never I could never get.
Speaker 4: Into the conference pride. Louisville was in a bunch of
Speaker 4: different leagues growing up. They were into in a football
Speaker 4: for a chunk of my childhood. But when Louisvill got
Speaker 4: in the Big Eastern Basketball, I felt like, Okay, this
Speaker 4: is awesome. We are a part of an elite league
Speaker 4: that nobody can claim is not the best college basketball
Speaker 4: conference and it's not close. Well, then you go to
Speaker 4: the ACC and it gets you, know, you feel like
Speaker 4: it's getting even better. And now I don't know if
Speaker 4: you play in a league that is the I mean
Speaker 4: of the Power four, is it the fourth best league
Speaker 4: or the Power five? I should say it's it's probably
Speaker 4: fourth at best. And you know that makes me sad.
Speaker 4: I mean, I can't do anything about it. I can't
Speaker 4: change it. But anytime I bring up the fact that, like, man,
Speaker 4: what happened to the ACC? Why is nobody talking about it?
Speaker 4: I get? I get you know those that are in denial,
Speaker 4: telling me what are you talking about? NC State went
Speaker 4: did the Final four? Okay, pull whatever singular data point
Speaker 4: you want to convince yourself whatever you want, but the
Speaker 4: ACC is nowhere near what it once was in hoops
Speaker 4: and the numbers that I have to back that up
Speaker 4: will probably floor you unless you're somebody that you know
Speaker 4: is living on planet Earth and realizing what we're watching here. Also,
Speaker 4: we'll get into some louisvill football stuff, but I will
Speaker 4: go ahead and share the news for those of you
Speaker 4: that might have missed it earlier today, Colin Lacy confirming
Speaker 4: he will be back for Louisville.
Speaker 3: Not only is that huge, I mean.
Speaker 4: That's a guy that you know, I kind of feel
Speaker 4: like you already won in the portal here because he's
Speaker 4: a guy that if he does hit the portal, everybody's
Speaker 4: gonna want him.
Speaker 3: And he was already here. But him, I mean, I
Speaker 3: really in the good.
Speaker 4: I guess things can change, but him deciding to come
Speaker 4: back to Louisville is huge because it's not only a
Speaker 4: weapon that you're gonna be able to really utilize at
Speaker 4: full strength because he will be fully healthy, but it
Speaker 4: will probably help Jeff Brom go get a quarterback, right.
Speaker 4: I would say a quarterback would love to one play
Speaker 4: for Jeff Brom calling the plays, but also have a
Speaker 4: weapon like Colin Lacy out there, who really started to
Speaker 4: shine once he got healthy and then of course, you know,
Speaker 4: decided to hang it up and then at some point
Speaker 4: I do want to get to Jamis Winston last night,
Speaker 4: who I think Jamis Winston, you know, go back to
Speaker 4: Florida State, stealing crab legs and just being, you know, a.
Speaker 3: Character, and he still has a character.
Speaker 4: But Jamis Winston, I feel like he's kind of low key,
Speaker 4: unexpectedly turned into one of the most intriguing professional athletes
Speaker 4: out there.
Speaker 3: And you know he really has.
Speaker 4: When I say that, some people are probably like, what
Speaker 4: the hell are you talking about? Like he's a backup
Speaker 4: that gets to play because Deshaun Watson is you know
Speaker 4: Deshaun Watson, And yeah, I'm talking about when he gets
Speaker 4: in front I don't care about football, although he did
Speaker 4: have a wild game last night, but when he gets
Speaker 4: in front of a camera or a microphone.
Speaker 3: You you want to hear it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're you know, you may not really know what
Speaker 4: he's saying, and you may not believe it. You may think,
Speaker 4: what the hell is this guy on? But like I
Speaker 4: need more of Jameis Winston and it's certainly entertaining, It's
Speaker 4: absolutely it. Look, this is all about entertainment, right, A
Speaker 4: pro wrestling factor exactly. That's what he should already have
Speaker 4: a contract with the WW that states when he's done
Speaker 4: playing football, he's going to be on the mic. I
Speaker 4: don't know if he can wrestle, but he's an NFL player.
Speaker 4: I'd say you could probably turn him into a wrestler
Speaker 4: if you wanted to do it something for him. Pat
Speaker 4: McAfee is on WW. Yeah, well, and you know, I'm
Speaker 4: just thinking about him being the Preacher character with the
Speaker 4: a WWE storyline, and like it would be Golden. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of like, who is it Brady who
Speaker 4: already had the deal in place to go be a
Speaker 4: broadcaster while he was still playing quarterback in the NFL
Speaker 4: is Hunter running ww Still, Yes he's now there because
Speaker 4: Vince has gone right. Yes, Yes, Triple H needs to
Speaker 4: get that done because psy it would be worth every
Speaker 4: penny to make that happen. I think also tonight we're
Speaker 4: gonna get the we're gonna get the updated college football
Speaker 4: playoff rankings, and I get coaches lobbying for themselves at
Speaker 4: this point, I get it. I would probably do the
Speaker 4: same thing, but it's become so annoying. And there's one
Speaker 4: thing that all of them are saying, those that you
Speaker 4: know are on the outside looking in, but you know,
Speaker 4: I guess holding out hope that they might get a break.
Speaker 4: There's one thing that they all say that I think
Speaker 4: is the direct evidence that they know they're not worthy.
Speaker 4: They're just trying to, you know, disguise it. And with Kentucky,
Speaker 4: they've got Clemson tonight, which I don't think Clemson is
Speaker 4: going to challenge them, to be.
Speaker 3: Honest with you.
Speaker 4: I hope they do, hope they beat them, but don't
Speaker 4: see that happening, but Mark Stoop's another day where another
Speaker 4: piece negative news and other offensive staff are moving on
Speaker 4: because you know, that's just how things are going for
Speaker 4: Mark Stoops right now. So we are loaded the rest
Speaker 4: of the way. We're gonna be joined by cl Brown
Speaker 4: of the Courier Journal coming up at four h five,
Speaker 4: So stick around. We'll take you up till six o'clock.
Speaker 4: I'm Nick Coffee. He's Austin Montgomery, and this is Coffee
Speaker 4: and Company fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk
Speaker 4: seven ninety.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 4: This is Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety. Make sure that you sign up
Speaker 4: to become a member of the Thornton's Refreshming Awards program.
Speaker 3: If you haven't already.
Speaker 4: You'll save money at the gas pump and you'll be
Speaker 4: able to take advantage of a lot of perks, including
Speaker 4: the Frequency Club.
Speaker 3: In fact, I was a big winner.
Speaker 4: I mean it's I don't know if it's considered a win,
Speaker 4: but I was able to benefit from the Frequency Club
Speaker 4: for the probably one million time today because I went
Speaker 4: this morning despite it being freezing outside, just brutally cold.
Speaker 4: My kids wanted their morning fizz freeze, the icy, the
Speaker 4: slushy as they call them at Thornton's. And you know,
Speaker 4: I get them, not every day, but pretty regularly. And
Speaker 4: when you're a member of the Refreshing Awards program every
Speaker 4: so often, I think it's every time you get to
Speaker 4: ten of them, you get one free. So today, you know,
Speaker 4: I got a free one. I mean it was like
Speaker 4: eighty nine cents, but still, people love free stuff. You
Speaker 4: like saving money. You're gonna save money at the pumps.
Speaker 4: So it's just a really irresponsible decision not to be
Speaker 4: a member of the Refreshing Awards program at Thornton's. That's
Speaker 4: just my opinion, but it's the truth, if I'm being
Speaker 4: honest with you, all right, Nick, Coffee with you, Austin
Speaker 4: Montgomery alongside today, Let's go to the text line five
Speaker 4: O two six five three zero seven nineties the number
Speaker 4: if you want to text in the Llenn Federal Credit
Speaker 4: Union text line. This text came in and says, Nick,
Speaker 4: I can't be the only one a little sour about
Speaker 4: Colin Lacy as far as how he handled the season,
Speaker 4: not sure we would want him back.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a new ballgame.
Speaker 4: I don't want to get into the whole conversation that
Speaker 4: we had around the time that he decided to opt out,
Speaker 4: because that's what he did, and it's still technically bailing
Speaker 4: on your team, and it's still viewed as like he quit,
Speaker 4: and people who say that they're not they're not lying.
Speaker 3: They're telling the truth.
Speaker 4: But I would encourage you to just understand that now,
Speaker 4: this is a job, and anybody that has a job,
Speaker 4: they're going to look out for themselves, right, I mean
Speaker 4: they're going to do everything possible to make the absolute
Speaker 4: best of the situation for themselves. This isn't like a
Speaker 4: job to us, right, we don't view it that way,
Speaker 4: but it is to them. So Colin Lacey, you know,
Speaker 4: he wasn't playing earlier in the year, got healthy the
Speaker 4: season as far as the big accomplishments, the big goals
Speaker 4: had kind of faded because of the early losses, and
Speaker 4: I was told he was never really healthy when he
Speaker 4: came back. I mean, he was healthy enough to play,
Speaker 4: but like he was still kind of getting trying to
Speaker 4: get back to one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: So he made a decision that said you.
Speaker 4: Look, Look, I can go ahead and opt out because
Speaker 4: I didn't play in the first few games. I've now
Speaker 4: played in four, and I could ride it out. And look,
Speaker 4: if he would have stuck around and played and finished strong,
Speaker 4: nobody would have said a word. But when he does
Speaker 4: take advantage of the situation for himself, which anybody listening
Speaker 4: to this would do the same thing. I don't mean
Speaker 4: that you would do that because you don't know a
Speaker 4: lot of us didn't play college football. Not a lot
Speaker 4: of us have been in that position to where we
Speaker 4: would know what we would do. But just think about
Speaker 4: your job, how you make a living, how you provide
Speaker 4: for yourself and your family. You take advantage of every
Speaker 4: little thing you could to make the most of it
Speaker 4: to benefit yourself. It's not really selfish if you think
Speaker 4: about it. I mean, I get why people view it
Speaker 4: that way, but again, I would just encourage you to
Speaker 4: understand it's a new world now, and his decision, I
Speaker 4: mean it's gonna be I mean, Louisvill's now gonna have
Speaker 4: him for another year, and he's a really, really good player.
Speaker 4: We never even got the full coldin Lacy experience because
Speaker 4: he wasn't fully healthy when he was playing and he
Speaker 4: missed the first what four games of the season, So like,
Speaker 4: I understand why people view it that way, but this
Speaker 4: is this is just how it is now and maybe
Speaker 4: you'll never get used to it. And if and if
Speaker 4: that's the case, then you know, do you But I
Speaker 4: just I think if you for a second tried to,
Speaker 4: you know, consider the fact that this is a job,
Speaker 4: just like you have a job, and if you're going
Speaker 4: to try to do something that is more beneficial for
Speaker 4: you and maybe not as beneficial for your employer at
Speaker 4: that time, like that's normal people would look at you
Speaker 4: like a fool if you had a chance to do
Speaker 4: something like a loophole to benefit yourself. But like again,
Speaker 4: it's still you know, it's gonna be a little while,
Speaker 4: I think before people truly realize that this is a job.
Speaker 4: To these guys now, and they're they're not here because
Speaker 4: they grew up rooting for the team like we did.
Speaker 4: They're here because they are trying to individually improve theirselves.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sure they like being a part of
Speaker 4: a team and they want to win their competitors. That's
Speaker 4: probably one of the reasons why they're playing at this level.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, this is now job.
Speaker 4: So I'm not surprised at all. We had somebody text
Speaker 4: in and say that, all right, so if you are
Speaker 4: just not joining us the bummer news today. On the
Speaker 4: basketball side, Corn Johnson is out for the year, gonna
Speaker 4: have shoulder surgery. He did get a second opinion, and
Speaker 4: I guess both opinions were the same, and that is
Speaker 4: that you need to go ahead and call it a
Speaker 4: season and get surgery and get better. So I don't
Speaker 4: want to minimize, you know, anything about Koran because he's
Speaker 4: a good player, he's raining. I guess maybe he's the
Speaker 4: last ever because the PAC twelve's dead, right, he's the
Speaker 4: last ever PAC twelve six Man of the Year, and
Speaker 4: he's a shooter. He gives you more options at guard
Speaker 4: like you need him, but you were able to get
Speaker 4: by without him, and I would hope that you know,
Speaker 4: there's gonna be some certain guys. That's in fact, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna ask Seal Brown this when we bring him in
Speaker 4: at RO five. You know, I'm sure the easy answer
Speaker 4: and I'm sure Cel will give me a good answer.
Speaker 4: The easy answer is everybody's got to step up with
Speaker 4: the absence of prior and of course now knowing that
Speaker 4: you're not getting Corn Johnson.
Speaker 3: Back, but I'm gonna ask him if there's one guy or.
Speaker 4: Maybe two who are maybe gonna be really crucial to
Speaker 4: Louisville being able to still have a successful season where
Speaker 4: maybe they get into the tournament despite these injuries. So
Speaker 4: we can get into that a little bit later on.
Speaker 4: But as we just reference there as I was reading
Speaker 4: that text, the good news on the football side is
Speaker 4: that you are getting Colin Lacy back, and that's that's massive.
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like when it comes to playmakers,
Speaker 4: you know you have.
Speaker 3: And I don't know. This is this is.
Speaker 4: Another new element to how we fans as college football
Speaker 4: and college basketball fans, because you just know guys can
Speaker 4: leave whenever they want after any season, without any penalty,
Speaker 4: without any I mean, it's not crazy that just nobody
Speaker 4: giving any sign, nobody's saying anything.
Speaker 3: You just wondering are they going to be back?
Speaker 4: Right. It's kind of like whenever guys would announce they
Speaker 4: were coming back to the or they were coming back
Speaker 4: to school and not going to the NBA, and eighty
Speaker 4: percent of the people that would put up those graphics
Speaker 4: on Twitter, you would think to yourself, Oh, no surprise here,
Speaker 4: we knew the NBA didn't want you, Like it was.
Speaker 3: Such an embarrassing thing for some of these guys. They
Speaker 3: would do that. They're announced, they're coming back. Where were
Speaker 3: you going? Well, now it's a new world.
Speaker 4: You can go wherever you want, not the NBA, I mean,
Speaker 4: unless if you're good enough you can so Nope, Like
Speaker 4: Isaac Brown hasn't said anything, but like we know, if
Speaker 4: there's one guy that you're gonna have to potentially worry
Speaker 4: about somebody doing some tampering and trying to get him
Speaker 4: away from here, it's Isaac Brown, Duke Watson as well.
Speaker 4: But Duke Watson did say last night on a social
Speaker 4: media I'm an old man now, I feel like because
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, I think I don't know
Speaker 4: if it was a TikTok live or something Instagram.
Speaker 3: I feel like Nick Saban what did he call it?
Speaker 3: Insta chat?
Speaker 4: And there's an old clip of not Nick Saban, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: it was Bill Belichick on some press conference many years
Speaker 4: ago when she was trying to reference the social media platforms.
Speaker 4: I feel like that right now because I know what
Speaker 4: they are, but I don't know if he was live
Speaker 4: on one of them, or if it was I think
Speaker 4: he joined somebody's live and somebody screenshotted the screen recorded
Speaker 4: the video of him saying Louisville fans need to leave
Speaker 4: them alone. I'm not going anywhere something like that. So
Speaker 4: and by the way, if it's the younger generation that's
Speaker 4: got to share what these guys are doing on social media,
Speaker 4: then I'll I'm all for it because that is good news.
Speaker 4: So what I was getting at is with Lacey back,
Speaker 4: and right now, I guess the belief is that both
Speaker 4: your star running backs are going to be back, like
Speaker 4: you've already got some real offensive firepower to work with.
Speaker 4: And we'll get into it a little bit later on,
Speaker 4: maybe even later in the week, because we've got a
Speaker 4: lot to get to today. But there are a lot
Speaker 4: of guys that have announced they're leaving Louisville. But for
Speaker 4: the most part, it's not really anybody that you relied
Speaker 4: on much this year. And maybe one day we'll get
Speaker 4: comfortable doing this. But I wish those guys well, I
Speaker 4: hope they had a great experience here. But it's never
Speaker 4: gonna let me ask you this, Austin, it's never going
Speaker 4: to in any way not sound rude when you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: that guy's leaving, see you later.
Speaker 3: Who gives a damn? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like, I don't want to say that, but like that's
Speaker 4: kind of gonna be the reaction because the majority of
Speaker 4: guys who enter the portal are entering the portal because
Speaker 4: they're not playing where they are. Yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 4: it's just gonna sound like be being a jerk. But
Speaker 4: I don't want to be a jerk. But you know,
Speaker 4: for example, like Maurice Turner, wish the young man well
Speaker 4: saw that he was leaving.
Speaker 3: I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 4: He's a running back who has been here a long
Speaker 4: time and he got passed up by two true freshmen.
Speaker 2: And you kind of said the same part last week
Speaker 2: when Louisville lost out on that local recruit. Who when
Speaker 2: you when you turned around and said, well, I mean
Speaker 2: look what he was coming for.
Speaker 3: He was running back.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, the running back who he committed. Yeah, it
Speaker 4: makes total sense.
Speaker 2: Right, and question the kid you're like to hell with
Speaker 2: on me or be like, okay, it looks like they're
Speaker 2: more or less sitting pretty at that running back position,
Speaker 2: So I guess it's all kind of how'd you say,
Speaker 2: it's all kind of of situational.
Speaker 4: And who returns and and one guy that did leave,
Speaker 4: Ben Perry. He was here for a while. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: he entered the portal last year and then pulled his
Speaker 4: name out. I believe it might have been two years ago.
Speaker 4: And solid player, but you know kind of like, who's
Speaker 4: the guy who had that pick six against Central Florida
Speaker 4: who ended up transferring to Miami. He's gonna drive me crazy.
Speaker 4: It's not even not even important, not to say he's
Speaker 4: not important.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Like he was really just known for that play,
Speaker 4: and he would have given you some good linebacker depth
Speaker 4: this year, no doubt. But you know what, he hit
Speaker 4: the portal because he realized, I'm now behind stan Kuan
Speaker 4: Clark who passed me up, and I'm going to go elsewhere.
Speaker 4: So you know that's somebody that is is in Mary
Speaker 4: Huggins Bruce who randomly found his way back here. But
Speaker 4: Mary Huggins Bruce was the guy last year that like,
Speaker 4: you know, he's not your best receiver, but he he
Speaker 4: gave you something to where you didn't want to lose him.
Speaker 4: But if you put yourself in his shoes, and he
Speaker 4: clearly was wrong. He thought the grass was going to
Speaker 4: be green or elsewhere, and he couldn't get on the
Speaker 4: field at South Carolina. So you know, it's just it's
Speaker 4: still it's so much different than what we've all grown
Speaker 4: up and I mean college sports right now, I think
Speaker 4: it's awesome, but like it is so different outside the
Speaker 4: lines that how we keep up with it, how we
Speaker 4: discuss off season stuff, like, it's just so different, and
Speaker 4: it's going to take a while before I think this
Speaker 4: feels like the new norm.
Speaker 3: Jalen Alderman is a guy that you're thinking, here we
Speaker 3: go and I don't know what he was doing.
Speaker 4: I don't know what he ended up doing at at Miami,
Speaker 4: but I think right now, and it's still early in
Speaker 4: the Jeff Brom era, you're two years in here with
Speaker 4: Jeff Brom. I think one Jeff can can sell to
Speaker 4: guys in the portal, especially on the offensive side of
Speaker 4: the ball, that you come here, we will give you
Speaker 4: an opportunity to shine and really thrive.
Speaker 3: I mean I don't think you could.
Speaker 4: I mean, go look at all the quarterbacks that were
Speaker 4: that were believed to be so much better than Tyler Shuck,
Speaker 4: that got a lot more money than Tyler Shuck probably
Speaker 4: did to go elsewhere that didn't come close to having
Speaker 4: the season.
Speaker 3: That he had.
Speaker 4: So I trust Jeff's I when it comes to the
Speaker 4: quarterback situation, and I think he can. I mean, if
Speaker 4: you're a guy in the portal, I think you're gonna
Speaker 4: want to get a phone call from Jeff Brohm, especially
Speaker 4: if you're a quarterback.
Speaker 3: So you know that.
Speaker 4: Looking at Isaac Garinda, who was a second second string
Speaker 4: running back at Wisconsin, he comes to Louisville and ends
Speaker 4: up being the lead ball carrier for Louisville towards the
Speaker 4: end of the season. He's still making plays in the
Speaker 4: NFL right now, Like he went to Louisville and maybe
Speaker 4: he would have done it elsewhere. Will never know, but
Speaker 4: I feel like him at Louisville, he really showed what
Speaker 4: he could do, got him an opportunity in the NFL.
Speaker 4: I mean say the same thing about Jacory Brooks. I mean,
Speaker 4: he was gonna be good wherever he went. But you know,
Speaker 4: obviously Jae Cory Brooks is a guy that you know,
Speaker 4: was not getting a lot of reps anymore at Alabama,
Speaker 4: comes to Louisville had a phenomenal season, was one of
Speaker 4: the best receivers in the country.
Speaker 3: So Brom's been able.
Speaker 4: To show in two years, yeah, you come here and
Speaker 4: you can play, You'll have an opportunity to shine and
Speaker 4: we'll win some ball games. But he also, right now,
Speaker 4: I believe has in two years shown that the guys
Speaker 4: that you lose, like, there's not many guys they've lost
Speaker 4: to the Portal that we end up realizing, damn, how
Speaker 4: do we let that guy get away? Because again, that's
Speaker 4: the majority of the guys who leave. And this goes
Speaker 4: back to the conversation I was just having, like I
Speaker 4: don't want to say, hey, I'll help you pack your bags,
Speaker 4: get the hell out of here.
Speaker 3: You bomb, you're not good enough to play.
Speaker 4: But more often than not, it's dudes that you totally
Speaker 4: understand why they're leaving because they're not a big part
Speaker 4: of it and they probably can get more opportunities elsewhere,
Speaker 4: and that's what you want. Right You're gonna lose guys
Speaker 4: to the portal every year. But if it's the majority
Speaker 4: of those guys are the dudes who really didn't do
Speaker 4: a whole lot and didn't get opportunity then that's a
Speaker 4: good thing because it's opening up another opportunity for a
Speaker 4: scholarship and I owe money, and you can go to
Speaker 4: the portal and probably get a guy that's better than him.
Speaker 4: Maybe not at the same position, but like you can.
Speaker 4: Now you know, you lose a linebacker or aligneman, well
Speaker 4: now you can you can go get you know, a
Speaker 4: really good safety in the linebacker and the linemen are leaving.
Speaker 3: Because they passed up and you're already set.
Speaker 4: There so a lot of moving parts, but so far,
Speaker 4: I think Jeff Brahm has shown that he's one of
Speaker 4: the coaches that is adapting to this, to this new world.
Speaker 4: All right, let's go ahead and get you our second
Speaker 4: break here, because I want to come back on the
Speaker 4: other side and make sure I've got enough time to
Speaker 4: get to this ACC SEC stuff, because this could be
Speaker 4: the biggest lopsided series we've seen between any ACC challenge.
Speaker 4: And what I mean by that this is just the
Speaker 4: second year of the ACC SEC Challenge. You used to
Speaker 4: be the ACC Big Ten Challenge, But if you look
Speaker 4: at how poorly the ACC's competed up to this point
Speaker 4: with the other power conferences, I mean doesn't mean that
Speaker 4: you can't end up having a good season and making
Speaker 4: the tournament.
Speaker 3: But like, this is where you get. This is where you.
Speaker 4: Make your case that you're good enough to be in
Speaker 4: the tournament, because once you get like, the ACC has
Speaker 4: now lost the benefit of the they've now lost the
Speaker 4: benefit of the doubt to beat up on each other
Speaker 4: in league play and say, well, what are you gonna do? Yeah,
Speaker 4: we went five hundred and the ACC. But man, look
Speaker 4: at the ACC. This ain't the ACC of old. So
Speaker 4: we'll talk about that and a lot more. Keep it
Speaker 4: lock right here, don't I get Cel Brown of the
Speaker 4: Courier Journal coming up here at four h five on
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4: So I'm looking through FanDuel sportsbook right now at all
Speaker 4: of these ACC SEC matchups tonight, which, by the way,
Speaker 4: there's gonna be matchups throughout the week here, but tonight
Speaker 4: is night one, and from what I can tell here,
Speaker 4: and I'm still scrolling, there's a lot of college basketball
Speaker 4: games and I'm not able to uh, I'm not able
Speaker 4: to change the uh it's not let me filtered by conference.
Speaker 3: So I'm just trying to. I'm looking at him one
Speaker 3: by one.
Speaker 4: I think Louisville, as far as I can tell, Louisville
Speaker 4: right now is the only ACC team in action tonight
Speaker 4: in this ACC SEC challenge that is favored.
Speaker 3: I mean, you've got gosh.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm still looking here to see if I
Speaker 4: can find if there's one. Kentucky's close there. They're only
Speaker 4: favored by a point and a half over Clemson, which
Speaker 4: I'm not betting that because you know, gross, but I
Speaker 4: think Clemson is gonna get beat by at least ten.
Speaker 4: I mean not because like Kentucky's scary good, which, by
Speaker 4: the way, I do think they are good, and they've
Speaker 4: looked really good so far this year, but like Clemson's
Speaker 4: not good.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I mean, Clemson doesn't have a great environment for basketball,
Speaker 4: and they they lost to somebody earlier this year that
Speaker 4: was not a quality loss from So maybe I'll be wrong.
Speaker 4: In fact, I hope I'm wrong, but yeah, let me run.
Speaker 3: Through it here.
Speaker 4: You've got Louisville tonight. Let me see if there's been
Speaker 4: any movement here because they opened up. I think it
Speaker 4: is three point favorites, or maybe it was four points. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was four points. Now it's down at three and
Speaker 4: a half.
Speaker 3: But you've got Florida State and LSU.
Speaker 4: LSU is favored by four and a half in that one.
Speaker 4: You've got let's see, Miami and Arkansas. Arkansas favored in
Speaker 4: that one by looks like z four and a half,
Speaker 4: which I would take.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Miami's been bad this.
Speaker 4: Year, so I feel like I would take Arkansas there,
Speaker 4: but I don't know they've they've kind of struggled as well.
Speaker 4: Syracuston Tennessee. Tennessee is favored about twenty one and a
Speaker 4: half points in that game. The other matchups here in
Speaker 4: Night one of the ACC SEC Challenge, and there's some
Speaker 4: of these teams, like, for example, like California and Missouri.
Speaker 4: Took me a while to realize, you know what, that's
Speaker 4: also part of the ACC SEC Challenge. Missouri and the
Speaker 4: SEC is still kind of weird to me, honestly, although
Speaker 4: they've been there for a while. Cal in the ACC
Speaker 4: It's still never gonna seem real. But Missouri is favored
Speaker 4: about ten and a half against Cal. South Carolina Boston College.
Speaker 4: South Carolina favored by four and a half at BC
Speaker 4: and then Notre Dame in Georgia. Georgia's at home hosting
Speaker 4: Notre Dame. They are favored by eight and a half.
Speaker 4: So yeah, Louisville right now the only team in the
Speaker 4: ACC in Night one that it's favored, which I mean
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that you won't see some upsets. I mean
Speaker 4: I would hope that the ACC can be competitive in
Speaker 4: this is gonna tell you. I'm not gonna be shocked
Speaker 4: if they're not, because this is this is this is
Speaker 4: a number, this is an opinion. This is a number,
Speaker 4: and you can try to manipulate the number to mean
Speaker 4: whatever you want it to mean. But facts are facts
Speaker 4: right now in the ACC, the league itself as of now,
Speaker 4: because there already have been some ACC SEC matchups. For example,
Speaker 4: the louisll played Tennessee. So right now as we speak
Speaker 4: today on December the third, the SEC is twelve and
Speaker 4: one against the ACC. Before this thing started, the only
Speaker 4: win for the ACC in the against the against the
Speaker 4: SEC up to this point is pitt who beat LSU, which,
Speaker 4: by the way, Piblock's really good. The ACC against other
Speaker 4: power conferences Big East, Big twelve, Big ten SEC so
Speaker 4: far this year twelve and twenty nine.
Speaker 3: This is where you have to win games in order
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when you get to the league, you get some
Speaker 4: level of benefit of the doubt that you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: their records not great, But man, what are you gonna
Speaker 4: do you play in the ACC. Well, if you lose
Speaker 4: to all these other power conferences and you're a mid
Speaker 4: level team in this league, I don't know how you
Speaker 4: can expect to make the tournament unless you're just gonna
Speaker 4: get a gift. I mean, it's crazy. So ten years
Speaker 4: ago I went back and looked at this. Ten years
Speaker 4: ago the twenty twenty five season, five of the top
Speaker 4: twelve teams and the final eight peop pole were from
Speaker 4: the ACC. Six of those teams were in the top
Speaker 4: twenty five, so you had six top twenty five teams
Speaker 4: at the end of the season. Duke won the championship.
Speaker 4: And by the way, your six ranked teams was two
Speaker 4: more than any other league. So now, I mean, who's
Speaker 4: good in the league. I mean, Carolina and Duke are
Speaker 4: always gonna be up. And I know NC State made
Speaker 4: a Final four last year, and I know Miami did
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty three. But like the days of having
Speaker 4: a deep conference, that the success is sustainable it's just
Speaker 4: gone like Miami made a Final four and then last
Speaker 4: year they were the most disappointing team maybe in college
Speaker 4: basketball NC State. The only reason they made the tournament
Speaker 4: is because nobody in the league could put away a
Speaker 4: team that finished nine and eleven in league play. Kevin
Speaker 4: Keats was gonna get fired. He almost lost to Kenny
Speaker 4: Payne in the a SEC tournament. And I love Keats.
Speaker 4: Like again, I'm not picking on the AEC. I just
Speaker 4: don't know why people won't acknowledge the fact that, like, man,
Speaker 4: what happened in this league? And I know the answer, Well,
Speaker 4: you know, we lost a bunch of coaches. Well yeah,
Speaker 4: but go fix it. I mean, the SEC is the
Speaker 4: best example. They invested in basketball. They realized, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: we're pretty good in football. We kind of own that, right. Well,
Speaker 4: now we got a network. We're gonna have to put
Speaker 4: college basketball games on these on these on this network,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna need people to watch, We're gonna need
Speaker 4: people to care.
Speaker 3: So what do they do.
Speaker 4: They encourage league members to go out there and invest
Speaker 4: in basketball, and it's worked out. They've hired some phenomenal
Speaker 4: coaches and now the SEC. I believe when it comes
Speaker 4: to depth. Is the second best league in the country,
Speaker 4: maybe the best depending on what happens with the Big
Speaker 4: Twelve this year. So you've got teams like Louisville and yeah,
Speaker 4: I should have put the disclaimer out there beforehand. Like
Speaker 4: I know, Louisville is one of the is maybe the
Speaker 4: biggest problem here because they were for the most part
Speaker 4: a pretty damn good team in their own league since
Speaker 4: they got there, and then they've fallen off a cliff. So,
Speaker 4: like I know, Louisville is a big factor in it,
Speaker 4: but it's not just Louislle. And by the way, Louisville,
Speaker 4: to their credit, is always going to have a strong
Speaker 4: investment in being good in basketball. That's why they got
Speaker 4: rid of Kenny Paine after two years and probably should
Speaker 4: have done after one year. And we'll see what happens
Speaker 4: with Pat Kelsey. But like Loue, you have to worry
Speaker 4: about Louisville prioritizing basketball. You have Florida State who has
Speaker 4: falling off a cliff in recent years. Virginia Tony Bennett
Speaker 4: ran away from the game because he started to become
Speaker 4: not only a guy that couldn't live up to the
Speaker 4: standard that he set for himself. He became a bum
Speaker 4: in this new world of college basketball. I mean, Notre
Speaker 4: Dame with Mike Bray they were pretty good. Right now
Speaker 4: they're not. You know, like maybe they can get something
Speaker 4: going with Michael Shrewsbury, but like they're not a legitimate
Speaker 4: team right now. I mean, who else used to be good,
Speaker 4: Like Virginia Tech. They had a good run there with
Speaker 4: Buzz Williams. Now they're dead last among Power five teams
Speaker 4: in the net rankings. And I know Clemson made an
Speaker 4: lead eight last year, but they finally made the tournament
Speaker 4: and then did win some games, and they deserve credit
Speaker 4: for that, But Brad brown Wells their coach, they're not
Speaker 4: gonna go.
Speaker 3: I bet they don't go back to the tournament for
Speaker 3: a long time. So like I don't.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think you fixed it by investing in
Speaker 4: basketball and going and paying a lot of money to
Speaker 4: get really good coaches. Like go play if you're if
Speaker 4: you're one of these schools that used to be really
Speaker 4: good and you've fallen off, go take somebody's coach. And
Speaker 4: to do that, you've got to have an investment. And
Speaker 4: clearly the AEC is not bringing in the same revenue
Speaker 4: that the SEC and the Big Ten are, but still
Speaker 4: like if you don't, I mean, I think the ACC
Speaker 4: is a basketball conference will always be propped up by
Speaker 4: the big time programs like Duke in Carolina, and I'm
Speaker 4: hoping that one day Louisville can be a program that
Speaker 4: is kind of holding their weight. They haven't done it
Speaker 4: in a long time, but you know, if they, if
Speaker 4: things work out with Pat Kelsey, I think you could
Speaker 4: be one of the examples of a of a team
Speaker 4: that's that's not a factor in the ACC looking like
Speaker 4: a league that is a shell of what it once was.
Speaker 4: But I mean, I just the reason I bring this
Speaker 4: up is because I looked at those numbers and I thought,
Speaker 4: I don't know if anybody realizes how bad it actually is.
Speaker 4: But also when I was at the a SEC basketball
Speaker 4: media day in Charlotte, instead of acknowledging like how far
Speaker 4: the league's fallen and like you need like you're not
Speaker 4: what you want and I don't mean, I don't that's
Speaker 4: not They're not going to lead the conference media days
Speaker 4: by talking about how how everybody sucks. But instead of
Speaker 4: like you know, addressing it and acknowledging it and and
Speaker 4: trying to find a path forward and getting better. They
Speaker 4: just blamed the committee as if they're being picked on,
Speaker 4: Like no, like the ACC is nowhere close to what
Speaker 4: it once was, and there's look that's that's not anything
Speaker 4: we can change right now. But the people in denial
Speaker 4: about it, I just don't understand, Like, go look, go
Speaker 4: look at what the AEC used to look like. You
Speaker 4: used to have opportunities for quad one wins like every
Speaker 4: other game. Now you better win in a non conference
Speaker 4: because if you don't, and you don't beat the few
Speaker 4: good teams you have in your league, you're looking at
Speaker 4: the nit. All right, quick break, we'll come back on
Speaker 4: the other side. We've got cl Brown joining us to
Speaker 4: get the four o'clock hour started right here on Sports
Speaker 4: Talk seven ninety