More on the UK/Duke game from last night, Tyson vs. Paul, and your phone calls.
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Welcome to Hour two of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now Here's Matt Jones, quarterback.
I remember two Kentucky Sports Radio. Here.
It's a KS bar and grill, nice lunch, crowd of people happy. You can just feel it and the energy of the Big Blue Nation. People excited. I'm excited. Everybody is eight fim nine two eight twenty two eighty seven one vers rights. Matt, this is my take on the celebration last night in Lexington State Street, KS bar, et cetera. Yeah, it was celebrating beating Duke. But I think more deeply, it's a celebration of BBN having their program back the way they want it, but still being able to win.
You agree with that, yep. I think that says a lot of what it is. We feel, like we said it early, we got our program back, and that feeling is back. That basketball means something to our coach, and wins mean something to our coach, and we're gonna We're gonna play to win every single game.
Yeah.
I think if you ask Kentucky players, this is kind of how they want to win too, or excuse me, Kentucky fans, this is how they want to win with guys like playing above themselves, playing as a team. You know, I hope it stays like this throughout the Pope era. I think it will. But you can really tell the guys on this team are playing for the front and that they always speech when it was over. Yeah, I encourage all of you to go see it. Go find Otega always comments after the game. He said, when you put this jersey on, there's an honor to it, and he says, it's up to you to match that honor.
That was a really cool thing to see.
That's that's it's neat to see a kid like say that, but not just be giving it lip service.
It felt like he minted.
Yeah, these kids, and you know probably all the sports get media training. This is even though you know they're speaking for themselves, there's also this is a little bit of our messaging.
It doesn't feel force at all.
They really believe it and are living being a part of this and it being bigger than them.
Mark Pope.
Mark Pope said something rent interesting last night, and when he said it get processed to me in a different way. He said, everyone on this team, and this is probably true with the exception of maybe Brandon Garrison because he was so talented. He said, everyone on this team, no one ever dreamed they'd play here.
It's like, if you.
Think about when they were in high school and college, Kentucky was never really an option for any of these guys that are playing. You know, maybe obviously for Travis Perry, but for the guys that are in the rotation, they never thought they would be here, and now they're here and they really appreciate it, And I think that's cool.
It's a different era of one and done's we've got right now. You know, we had the freshman one and dons. Now we've got these.
They don't all have to be one and done. No, right, oh way, he can play another year?
Hoping for that? Way, Who are our guys that can be here another year?
There's six fifth year seniors, yan one regular senior. So I mean, so, oh way do we have so who Garrison can be back?
Garrison? Yeah? I mean Noah Perry Chandler, So just Oway and Garrison, Yeah, Noah, Perry Chandler. Who missing? Is there another one that might be it?
Almanor Great Almanor I think has one more year if he wants to play.
Yeah, but most of them are old.
You gotta I hope when you show your video Mario of the bar you got to show me going Alvanor pointing at you. Almanor hit a three and I was I was very excited Almanor in the corner. If you listen the pregame show, we were mocking you about it happening. And it didn't take long from it.
He got automatic automatic. The guy his point permitted played is pretty high.
So all right, so let's talk about the people who ended up going to the show A game from here. So, uh, the guy who won the timp from Williamsburg took his dad. I just tweeted out the picture they got in their car. Williamsburg got there. The play for forty years that Drew picked he owes you Drew.
Yeah, we got exactly the result. We woned. Why we haven't had any wins of Duke?
I assumed his was all about the seventy eight team, however, hold he was was ninety eight, one of the more recent ones, and it last night.
Are we back here?
Shannon?
Can you hear us? Yeah? I got you now, Okay, I.
Said it was broke up for a second. Then, uh so the two kids that came in here, you remember the two kids from UK didn't know each other. We're gonna go we're are we shating?
Let's do it?
Yeah, you're back, but it's kind of hiccuping as you're talking.
So I don't really know what to do about that.
Now you sound fine, it's just it's not it's not consistent. So it's kind of all.
Right, Well, we'll do the best we can. Okay.
The two kids from uh from that came in, didn't know each other.
We're gonna go together, right right right? They ended up.
One of them wrote me and said, look, I tried and tried, and I can't get out of my class. He said, I thought my professor would let me. My professor didn't let me. First of all, shame on you, professor. Yes, come on to the professor. You're a UK professor, UK professor, as a fellow professor, as a fellow man of the arts. I would have I would have allowed my student to get sure, you would have. So he The other kid ended up taking his friend Mario has on his account, he did some videos there. They seem to have a great time. By the way, to that guy, come out here at the bar sometime. I'd love to hear your experience with your friend. But boo to the professor who would not let ween A win a go with us because that was lose a by that professor.
Yeah, I missed what I can imagine was a memorable, once in a lifetime experience, especially with the results of the game.
And Connor is the one that went right. I can't wait to hear some of his stories.
Yes, so Connor stopped by. Then are woman in Cynthiana that gets nicked?
Did she do it? I haven't heard from her yet.
I'm gonna feel like she did, but we need to hear if you got because I had a lot of people after the game going is the woman nicked in Cynthiana? So I don't know if if you were in Harrison County and you saw a full moon last night, somebody needs to tell me, uh, if that occurred.
She did?
Say she lives kind of in a rural area where she could do it. Probably nobody would see her.
But somebody's got to take you gotta have visual proof, need proof? Yeah, tasteful, but nevertheless we did. We didn't need proof.
Well, there's a keyword in what you said. We want to hear if she did it. We don't really need to see if she did it. But we would like to for yourself.
I mean, there has to be there has to be visual evidence. You have to show anything, but you have to like you.
Know, Shannon can hold it like your photo. He can just be in charge of all these photos.
Shannon already has people's butts on his phone, probably a lot that we don't know.
It is totally fine. Uh. If he has another.
I guess we could check the Harrison County police blotter to see if they arrested any streakers last night running through town.
All right, they say, we're still breaking up, so let's do this. Let's take a break, Let's see what we can do about this.
Sound good now, Well.
I'm still getting messages that we're breaking up. So either way screaming though it might be a minute or two behind. Yeah, might be you're exactly right. Maybe it is a movie, Shannon. If Shannon says we're okay, we'll go eight five, nine, twenty two eighty seven.
Who's next?
Let's go to John?
John? Go ahead, John?
Hey, if though time's it going?
Doing good?
Hey? U first time?
Long time?
And I gotta say. Born and raised in Lexington, went to UK, lifelong fan and I live in Atlanta now when I went to the game last night, and I just got a first and foremost, I gotta apologize and ask for forgiveness from our Lord and savor Coach Pope. I was not happy when he got hired, but then we switched over and on a Sunday, gave my life to him, repented, and now I mean, we are just experiencing a camaraderie that I don't remember feeling as a UK fan for a long time. We've obviously been super excited with all the talent that we have and like the players coming in, but at the stadiumast there was just dislike we are banding arms together. And when Coach Pope like turned to the crowd and put his fist in the air, I mean, the place went crazy.
So you were at okay, So you were at the game last night, and so do you go to a lot of these games or is it like because I am I'm interested in what you said, because I agree with you. The BBN is unified in a way that part of me wonders if you have to go back to like twenty fifteen, because that lost to Wisconsin. I do think broke some of our fan base and some people just decided after that Cal couldn't coach, which I didn't believe was true, but there were but there were some that felt like that. Did you feel like there was kind of a unified sense last night?
Yeah, And you know, I was telling some of my friends this after the game. You know, in years past, if we're playing a big game, or even a game where maybe we're just down, I think mentally we're kind of going were uk, We're going to turn it on. Our guys are gonna you know, be our guys, our studs, and we're gonna win this game. Swaggy Cow's gonna do swaggy things. And I think last night there was this like we're really excited that we're in this, but do we actually have this in us? Like do we actually are we able to actually pull this off? And man, I'll tell you it's like we're nine points down and then we're six points down, and then we're three points down, and then they go on another run in their back up eight. But then we just kept on clawing back. And I think as that happened, our our crowd just started believing. And when always got that steal, I mean, it was crazy.
That's awesome I appreciate the call. I do think that they're you know, first of all, you could tell by the second half, like we're really good. You know, part of this was Drew. We just didn't know how good we were. Like there was there was a sense of with all these guys, I really have no idea whether we're good. About midway through the second half, I was able to go, you know what, we're good. Whether we win or not, we're good. And then to win. You know, why can't this team make the final four. I'm not saying I'm not gonna act like we're a favorite to make the final four. I don't believe that right now. But why can't we We've got the pieces like the oh maybe we'll get in the tournament. That's nonsense. Like if we should be in the tournament, we got the teams to do it.
Why not. Why can't we make a run? Yeah?
When Pope was hired, the early critics said, well, he's never won a tournament game, and Arkansas fans still talking about having a tournament game.
That's not what a tournament game.
It was a pretty big statement in being comfortable with Pope in big games and what will eventually be tournament games when we get there and gets.
A chance, we don't know how far he'll go.
But winning that game against one of the best teams in college basketball told me they're gonna be all right in the postseason.
Yeah, I totally agree with.
And you know my concern going in the season, do we have a guy who can go get a bucket in a big moment, beat his man off the dribble. Still have that concern, right, Still have that concern, Still wonder about it. But it's nice to see us win a game, even though we don't necessarily have that.
They always say, you know, the mark of a good team is when you can win a game and you're not playing your best. Kentucky didn't play their best last night, and their best player had one point and they beat one of the best team in college.
So let's talk about our best player just a second. He only had one point.
Didn't look good, No, he didn't at really, at any point in the game, didn't look good.
You just scratched that off as a one off and say he's looked good every other game. He look good at by you? That's not where it's one game or are you are you work?
I'll tell you my concern. I didn't think he looked very hesitant, like he was not even looking for his shot, didn't attack the basket like he was.
He did take that one three he did. They missed it by lot.
He only took like four shots. I think he was over for four.
Took that with three minutes to go where it was open, and I you know he didn't he was open.
He had to take it. He took it.
If you were a freshman we've never seen before, I would worry. But if you watch some of his BYU, he saved them a few times. Their game at in Lawrence, Kansas where they went in and beat Kansas in Fallallen, he had a great game, hit a bunch of threes. Just speculating maybe the Champions Classic. There were probably a lot of NBA scouts there that aren't normally at BYU games. He might have had a little bit in his head, which is why he had that slow start. But I think long term he'll be fine.
I feel like that too.
I mean, if he was a freshman, I might be worried, but I feel okay about it.
He's got a lot of tape at BYU have hitting big shots even though he was their sixth man, he did a lot of good and big games for them.
Yeah, who's next, Let's David. How are you? David? Hey, David, you gotta be happy, don't you.
I'm a Cloud nine baby good.
I'm glad.
I was like to say this. I think last night was Pope's went to Cal beating Yukon and Duke, I mean Yukon in North Carolina in.
Two thousand and nine ten season and.
Petito and Patito beating Shack at LSU nineteen eighty nine total.
I agree with you.
This is his, This is his I'm for real win. Every coach kind of has it, you know. Uh you mentioned Rick Patino's I'm for real win was beating Shaq and Chris Jackson in RUP. With that, with that with his first team. Tubby's kind of I'm for real win is the comeback against Duke in the NCAA tournament.
I think it took a lot people a long.
Time to accept Tubby, but then when he came back and won that game, he was good. Cal's was Yukon and UNC and I completely agree with you. Pope's is this game.
Yeah, and He's gonna have a lot of a lot more way that came from exactly. I think we're gonna beat than n I think we might lose the Zagga, but after seeing Clemson struggle with the East, I said we could beat them at the week fight him.
Well, David, I appreciate it that.
The way I look at that Clemson Good Zaga back to back is if we can win one of those two, I'm thrilled. Two road games against good teams, top twenty five teams. Let's get one of them. If we get them both, that's awesome, but let's get one of them. That would make this stretch two and one. Then go beat Louisville, Ohio State. You could go into the non conference with only one loss, which would be I thought we might have three, Yeah, and you could go with one. So Ryan, I'm I look at that week we're on the road at Clemson and Good zag and go get one.
My perception of this team has changed after last night. They are better than I thought they were even gonna be there. You know, they showed up to the big games and showed some grit. You know, they drank the want of juice last night. They wanted it more than Duke, and they showed me that with these senior leadership guys, and for years.
We were kind of told that the game doesn't matter and don't worry, we'll get there in March. But that's a big win for the tournament. Resume that when you're looking at seeding, you know, the top seed usually wins instowly turn and they're gonna win the ACC. Yeah, they're gonna win the AC. Statements change. Most likely we'll do wonders for Kentucky seed line when we get to that point, which we're all speculating what Pope can do there. That Duke win will go a long way when they get to that.
And by the way, winning does matter.
It's nice to have a coach who realizes winning matters in these games. It masks this is not just about you know, it's not just about playing a game and to get wait till March.
The beating Duke matters. It just does. And you can feel that today.
Hey BBN, you wouldn't want to buy tickets to a big game and then not go, so use your court physical therapy benefits before they reset January first call court physical therapy near. You get rid of aches and pains, and if you've met your deductible. You may be able to receive therapy for an extreme discount. Visit court dot com. That's kort dot com. We'll take a break. It's Wingsday. He at Chaos Bark, Turkey Sports Radio working back Tekey Sports Radio Here. It's Chaos Bar and Grill Dollar Wings all day and night here on Wednesday.
Wingsday.
Got a lot of people I see already taking advantage of it.
A guy just brought in.
He's got the basketball from nineteen seventy eight, signed by all members of the seventy eighteen.
That's cool. They all signed it in seventy eight. Very cool.
Yeah, we went through. It's got Jack Gibbons, Kyle Macy, Mike Phillips, got them all. Jay Scheidler, Chris Gettlefinger, Tim Stevens are all on there. James Lee.
Yes, great, great, great.
Cool piece of memorabilion. It is really cool.
One person writes, Matt If Kerkkrisa hits that fifty footer, that's a one quite fifty foot would he be an all time legend.
I mean if that had gone.
In, that's a shot like that enters the They put that shot on at rupp Aerna like during the intro. If that thing had gone in and then that's what made us win. When he took it, I saw criticism from the national guys online for him taking it. I think he had to take it. There was only like five seconds left in on the shot clock, so I was okay with it.
Yeah, shot clock was winding down and he'd hit one a little closer than that. I mean it was pretty deep. He already hit a deep one, so I had no problem with him pulling the trigger on that.
I already thought about this. The shot wouldn't have made him a hero. What he would have done after making the shot, Yeah, no one knows what he would have done, but it would have been a historic mocking of Duke. I know there's a clip with like three minutes in the game. He's on TV and he's playing with his mustache at the guy bringing the ball up the court. So we know there were so many antics that we don't even know about, and he would have been unbearable if he had made that.
One person rights, Matt, Do you think Duke is an all time hateable Duke Team? No, not necessarily, I mean I don't. I think Cooper Flag is good enough that you just kind of shake his hand and say, he doesn't look like a trash talker. I mean, what's amazing, only seventeen years old. I mean that he's I mean, he's seventeen.
Now.
I will say the one dude nipple I think is gonna be easy to dislike. First of all, he looks like a thirty five year old right now.
He does. But he's also good.
But no, I think if you go back, if you like, go back to my duke haterble list, it's usually because they either were were jerks, or like they complained, or they weren't as good as people act like.
I don't really think any of that's true about those guys.
Maybe a little bit of reality check too. For Cooper Flag, you know, he had the ball in his hands two times down the floor and turned it over both times. They're late in the game, not to take up for him, but he did have twenty six points, and so like, I don't know.
I mean, there's gonna be a lot made of the fact he turned it over twice. One of them was a steel and then he slipped the other time. He still had twenty six. He's good, you know, he's definitely do twelve or three seventeen years old.
You know, yeah, he's he'll get even better. I think he's gonna be the Unicorn, and they've been talking about coming into college basketball. We were fortunate we saw him on November twelfth and in March.
Yeah, I agree with you.
What did you think of What did you think of the whole atmosphere? They've renewed the Champions Classic. Some people online were saying, you know, these games on neutral courts, they don't have the same field, But a lot of times they were saying that during the Kansas Michigan State game because no one was there.
But I think it's because most of the people that went were Duke and Kentucky.
Fans and they just weren't in the arena yet, right, And I think once look, it felt like the atmosphere was great once our people got it.
Yeah.
Apparently, during one of the TV timeouts, they bring out a couple of students for a half court shots, and the Kentucky kid they brought out had a Pope costume on, and our fan base went nuts for the guy, like as much as they were playing a real game. So that just tells me that the environment had to be pretty good. Inside there.
Yeah, I think it's stuck during Kansas Michigan State, but it's always Michigan State. Let's be honest. They shouldn't be in it. They shouldn't be in it. They you know what they ought to do?
What should they do?
All you guys are smart, take Michigan State out, put Yukon in.
That's who should be in it.
Yukon should replace Michigan State right now, Yukon, that would be the right. I mean, Carolina you'd put in it, but they're the same conference as Duke, so you can't do it. So if you're gonna have Duke take out Michigan State, put yu Kan in and then I think you would have exactly what you need.
Yeah, I would love to see that too. And the early game thing.
As I said, I think I've been to all of these and Kentucky has been the late game ten of fourteen times, which is crazy in itself. And it's been the case in all of these were the first game hadn't had the crowd because the Kentucky fans whoever they're playing, are still out getting ready for it.
In Michigan State, like no one comes.
So Michigan State shouldn't be in it, like and if they weren't in it, if you had Yukon, Kansas, Kentucky Duke, it would be full all four games, right like you. But they don't do that, and they should. Who's up next, Joe, Joe? Go ahead, Joe.
Hey, guess I just wanted to call in. We had to come to the hospital last night deliver maybe at twelve o'clock, like the last two minutes on the radio. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but somehow, some way, I'm gonna speak poking on this first fifty.
On this one first specificate, Oh you had the baby? Wait a minute, so you had your baby during the last two minutes of the game.
We didn't have it, but we were on the way to the.
Oh you went to the hospital during the last two minutes of the game.
Yeah, you definitely need I think would you like to have your baby?
Bet Otaga?
I think I could swing that.
Otaga feels like that would be a good I mean, Otaga probably made the play while you were on your way to the hospital. What do you think, Drew, Otaga? Baby I would even work in a way as a middle name. Just go all in on the Otega away. Hey, you gotta have some connections, sir. What did you name your child?
It's Kay Joseph.
But we can throw something else.
In there, k Otaga Joseph.
Why not?
I like it?
Well, that is cool. I appreciate the call. You'll always remember, certainly, always remember this game.
Remember the little girl that was named Cali Perry after they won the title in twenty twelve.
You think that's you think they still like that? Uh what?
He'll have to call in and tell us, hope.
So we'll take a break A five nine, twenty two eighty seven KSR.
TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney called TJ. He'll make them pay now.
More of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.
Kentucky Sports Radio. If I'm nine two eight oh.
Twenty two eighty seven this weekend, I remember we've got the UK Murray State game Saturday, one thirty, UK women against Louisville at six.
Also, Jake Paul is fighting Mike Tyson Friday night. Are you watching that?
Shannon?
We're gonna here at the bar.
I think we're gonna I'm actually really excited about that.
I don't know why.
Maybe it's the nostalgia of Tyson. I just hope that he doesn't come out and look like a fifty eight year old man.
A different rules, so they're using fourteen pound goal or fourteen ounce gloves instead of ten. They're going two minute rounds instead of three, and eight rounds instead of twelve.
I hope Tyson just knocks his block off in the first round. That would make me happy. But I don't know that that's.
Says that the stupid money is all pouring in on Tyson and the smart money is all pouring in on Paul.
I don't know what do you think is gonna happen?
Do you get no idea? Yeah, no idea. You know, we decided to get the fight here. We don't. We don't get a lot of fights anymore.
But I'm hoping that it feels like that's something younger people will like wanting to see.
Jake Paul, we'll see.
I mean, it's tough with Netflix because like you have to do this all this rigamarole to get the net, but we're we're gonna get it and have it Friday night.
You know, I can't think of a time that I'm really interested enough i'd want to watch a fight. I think just the fact it's those two guys. I know it's not a title fight, but the fact it's those years. I won't get to watch it live, but I want to see some of it.
Well, why would you want to watch a fight when it's over? Don't you want to see?
Like?
Don't you want to see like when when it's live? Some of it too?
Like what you're gonna watch like one round?
I mean, it's not that route wrong, you're gonna watch it? Yeah, you'renna watch just the fourth round and then stop.
I want to see Mike Tyson. I want to see, Well, he's like at fifty eight, my aid, he's my ad.
I mean, here's the thing, you know, like he was struggling at the end of his career.
He was thirty eight.
Then he's twenty years older since the last time he fought. But I guess so, I guess we'll see if I'm not two eight twenty two eighty seven.
One person rites Matt.
The thing I liked is that really none of our guys look scared at the end. You had car taking it to the basket light, butler o way uh even Robinson took the three that he missed. It's nice to see that we have guys who want the ball in those moments.
That's true.
D that when they were down at halftime. I think I might even said to Ryan, but I was thinking at that point. The good thing about this Kentucky team is no matter what, they could get hot in a hurry, and you can look up.
At three straight threes in their back a.
Yeah, they made a comeback, but I was surprised they actually did it with defense and other things without a big three point.
Only one three pointer.
Think about this, only one three pointer in the last eleven and a half minutes of the game, and we won it.
If I told you second half defense would beat Duke, you'd like, what. But sure, Duke missed some open shots. But what I think Duke shot forty nine percent in the first half and second or in the second half shot twenty something percent. That was the halftime adjustments. And that's just to see the team we worried about defense win that way was very refreshed.
I also think it's worth noting that the lineup that we've talked about but we hadn't seen really all year, we saw it in the last five minutes of the game, which was Car at the.
Five and four perimeter. Dude.
Yes, they basically down the stretch, played uh Away, Robinson, either Butler or Creasa, and then Brea some as well.
That they they played four out and Car as the five.
They did not play Williams and Garrison much in the last five minutes of the game. That was like the first time we'd seen that line up all year. Yeah, and car got buckets. Like I said, he was tough down low, scored some big buckets. Then they made their big comeback and.
He was able to exploit there the duke big there at the end.
That and they didn't lose a lot of rebounding in that scenario. I like a little Car at the five, especially late in games. Mario Williams hid his free throws last night. I still worry about him being in If he gets sent to the line and he's he he's gonna have at least two turnovers a game where he's trying to do too much and get on Sports Center. A couple of times it works out and you're like, wow, what an umber the pass, But a couple of times it lands in the crowd.
He can't.
He never dribbles with his right hand. He only goes left, and he only dribbles with his left hand, and he looks when he dribbles the ball, he looks unbelievably awkward, like it feels like he dribbles. It feels like he dribbles like Stanley on the office with the ball like way out in front of him, and you just hope that he spins and makes it work. Although he did hit a jumper and he was four for four from the free throw line with the ugliest shot. But yeah, he dribbles like it's like, and he only goes left, and it's kind of surprising that it works out. But he was three for twelve from the field, so you don't want him shooting too much.
The world got to see that jumper from fifteen foot not granted he did hit it.
It was the ugliest jumper that's ever gone in ht the rim and just went smash, fell and fell in in the basket.
But I don't know if it's a good thing, but he is and you're right, it does look like Stanley.
He is capable of just.
Grabbing a rebound and going now, but he's also out of control. He also grabbed that one rebound and went and then turned it over.
That's what I mean.
He's he's gonna have some bad turnovers. But how many guys his size can just take it and go the other way? I don't know how often we want that, but he's capable.
Yeah, who's up next, Brian? And go ahead, Brian.
How y'all doing today?
Doing good?
I got my redemption. I got my redemption last night. My son called in yesterday Clark, the one that pushed his grandma. Yes, that was my son. So I got my redemption last night. Oh good, it's good to Yep, it's good to see a coach make adjustments at halftime.
Well, no, it is very I appreciate the call. It is very good to see uh to. So yeah, we've talked about a lot to see a coach. A coach make adjustments to seem sort of you know, figure out what's not working changing. I mean even just like think about going to that lineup with Karth. They hadn't done that the entire season, and then in the final five minutes with the game on the line, he.
Does and it works and they got buckets. So yeah, you know, not just adjustments at halftime, you know, in game adjustments, you know, drawing up plays coming out of a time out, drawing up plays for out of bound plays. I mean, he he's definitely a different breath of fresh air that we've been missing for a long time.
I want to give a shout out one of the guys we haven't mentioned.
Kobe Braa got two huge rebounds down the stretch. I mean, he's not a great defender, but he went in there and they fought for rebounds against taller players, just boxing out and finding a way to get rebounds.
I felt like we got like seven.
Rebounds down the stretch where the ball would bounce on the floor and we would find a way to come up with it in the in the scrap.
Yeah, he and car both felt like that. Just a little behind athletically, but lay in that game. They were hustling and making a lot of the plays defensively that kept Kentucky in it. I worried early on when Lamont Butler, you know one of the guys I think is gonna be star defensively, There's that loose ball and it kind of went halfway after it.
And oh yeah, that was.
I think just early on Kentucky looked a little nervous and that was part of it. But the second half they were fighting and doing everything they could and that come back.
One person rights, Matt, Do you think uh Mark Pope can now lose a couple of games and it's okay? I think I think he has what do you think he has? Universal? Like we always talk about the approval rating? Is there anyone not giving Mark proop approval right now? I mean, is he at one hundred percent?
I don't know what you could say, Like, even though I wanted to be a hater, I don't even know what I would come up with.
Yeah, how can you come up with anything to be a negative of what he's done? And after they won last night? I mean, if they lose at Clemson, they lose it to Gonzaga, is I give him a pass on those games? Like we're still in the honeymoon phase?
Yeah?
I mean the only thing that could frustrate people is if we lost to Louisville probably Yeah, but you could lose to Clempson and Gonzaga and people would still feel positive.
I agree, Let's not do that.
No, we don't want to do that.
I mean forty zero seems more likely than that at this point, with all the excitement around here.
Do you like it seems like every time Jay Billis does one of our games, it becomes a contrary. Do you like ja Billis on the Call of Games?
I do, like I said, I saw a lot of complaints on social media about him being a duke homerlast night. That's why I ask you, But I like him doing it again, Shan.
And I like him though, ye me, I know you hosted with him for a few years.
Yeah, he and I are really close friends, so I mean he'd be biased a little bit, but no, I think that he does a good job of calling it down the middle. I saw a lot of people, though, saying the same thing that you did online.
I didn't feel like he was a duke.
I mean, look, the storyline in that game is is Cooper Flagg? I get it, Like that's the storyline now. I mean, ESPN, it is a little weird that their headline for the game is John Shire says Duke's cramping hurt their loss, Like come on, yeah, you know, I mean they're cramping was an issue, but like that shouldn't be the headline. But with that said, I fully expected the story to be Duke, and it will be Duke all year just because of.
How many draft picks they have. But that's what we were for many years.
We can't we can't complain like that's what we were for a long time.
They're going to promote Duke as much as they can because he's going to be a national story. He already is, but just the more casual viewers are going to learn more and more about him because he will be the number one pick.
I bet the ratings for that game are really good last night, Like, I bet that ends up being a very highly rated You know, it's interesting they had Dallas and Golden State played in the NBA Clay's return to step against Steph.
I kind of feel like the Kentucky Duke.
Game is going to outrate that game, and yet the coverage will be way more for the Steph. Yeah, in my view, And this is a criticism of ESPN that I've made to ESPN college bask For many years they covered college football, not nearly as much as as popular as it was. Now they've kind of they cover it a lot. I still don't think they cover college basket that think about the coverage they make to the NBA Visa VI College even though the really good college games get better ratings than the NBA games too.
I feel like, you know, Clay returned to Steph is a good story. But if you want to watch a game, you're watching that Kentucky Duke game last night.
You know what.
It was a good game though too. That Steph would Steph was amazing down the stretch. But I still I'll make your bet. I bet that Duke Kentucky game got better. I bet I bet it did a nine two eighty seven. Tell me about stock to.
Boy, Oh, I got a great read for you. Can I pull it up? Because they got sent me and newing that you're really gonna love you want you to.
Pull it up?
I mean, I think the whole point was, especially when I put this doughnut in my mouth, which for you to have the ad read ready, okay, so I could chew this.
I'm gonna read it exactly as it's written. R E S P. That's what it said.
I know, but you don't have to scratch.
I think I gotta say it like that normal.
Voice, normal voice, R E S B C No, No, like you don't need to put on a like.
Just just just read it, Okay.
R E s p e c T That good.
That's good.
R s b e c T. Find out what it means to Daniel After he closed his loan with Stockton Mortgage, Daniel.
Said, fire whoever wrote that?
I couldn't be happier with the team. It's Stockton Mortgage. They led me through the process with a profound sense of professionalism and respect for home buying. Made simple start at Stockton Mortgage by going to s doctor dot com doctor Mortgage in MLS A two five nine equal housing lender, it.
Says R E s p c T find out what it means to Daniel.
Daniel, See, I knew you'd love it. I knew you would love that read That's why I want to make sure you's Daniel. Uh, he's a Stockton Mortgage customer.
But like they don't tell us that.
Look to Daniel Hayes. Can you do in search your own finale? What it means to Daniel Hey.
Daniel Jones, Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone, Yeah, Daniel Orton.
Yeah, Daniel Rten Okay, I mean I'd send that back to the to the drawing board.
Don't use that one again.
I mean it's up to them. It's their ads. I just don't know. First of all, anything that will keep you from yelling R E S P E c T would be positive. I would take a break and be right back. Okay, sorry, welcome back. Take you sports radio segment spots about Shady Rays. Stop overpaying for sunglasses. I got some right up here. You're tired of buying expensive sunglasses only to lose or break them.
Go Shady Rays.
Great premium polarized shades for every activity, tangle free aviators. Go grab a pair of shades and try them at Shady Rays. There's one in Lexington, won in Louisville, or online at Shadyrays dot com. Here at Ksbar and Grill where we got you can always tell when Kentucky wins.
Like this place. It's just better and I think it's gonna be Uh. I'm excited.
You know, we if somebody when you're on a restaurant and you try to try to keep the thing going.
The UK basketball team.
Has been such a disappointment over the last five years, and especially like where you really feel it is like road games because people just would not come out and watch road games and then last night was so awesome and so fun, and it feels like, Okay, now here we go, you could show up, Ryan could take a shirt off.
Ryan.
I knew it was fun when Hubby called me at like midnight in the uber on the way home, and I was like, oh, he must have had a good time if that was happening.
Hubby stayed to the very end. We were all still here partying, celebrating. I just talked to Druder in one of the breaks. I don't even know who they played next. I was so focused on this Duke game. I didn't even know who was next with the basketball.
So we played.
We played Lipscomb next Tuesday, so we got the weekend off. Lipscomb next Tuesday, which is the team that played Arkansas and with like five minutes to go was only down four. So it would be an interesting basis of comparison is Lipscomb.
They had a bad loss last night.
They were up twelve at home with like four minutes left and managed to lose, So they'll be coming off of that. To your point about the bar being crazy, there are people here that I've talked to during breaks. They're like work thirds and we normally go home and go to bed. Be like, no driving the chaos barb be part of this last night other than people sweeping and counting the money to go home. I was the last person to leave, sitting at the bar working on my computer, and two different ubers showed up after we were kind of closed.
Like we just want to keep the party going. Had to politely be like, you know, it's two in the morning.
I mean, people just wanted to be around Kentucky fans late last night and even earlier this morning.
I got up at five forty five this morning in Evansville.
Right, thank you very much.
Tyler Hero had forty last night, by the way, for the for the heat, his career high, just keeping that UK train going BJ another one BJ Boston. A lot of you may have forgotten him. He's killing it this year for the Pelicans, and I'm happy for him, Like that team's that team's stunk, But I don't really, I don't blame him. One of the things is gonna be tough tough about that COVID team and the and only the second losing record is like there are multiple pros that were on that team. You know, Olivier Sar played in the NBA BJ Boston.
In the NBA Isaiah Jackson.
Isaiah Jackson. I mean, so we have three guys in the NBA from that team, and we went and we had a losing record.
Not just a losing record, they were really bad, really bad. YEA, three NBA guys on that team. Just I'm not saying I feel like there was even more? Are we forgetting anyone? Well? I mean, rest in peace.
Terrence Clark probably would have been in the NBA if he had not passed.
Who's next, Tyler? Tyler? Go ahead, Tyler.
Hey, Matti, guys, thanks, thanks for taking my call. I probably don't add anything new to this, but I went back and looked last night at my tweets from a few months ago when we hired Mark Pope, and I said something to the effect of this is like a legacy hire for Barnart. He's either going to be a hero or a doing based on this higher And you know, at first I thought the expectations and the higher he was, he wasn't setting Pope up for success based on the way things were communicated. But you know, hat in hand, he you know, Mark Pope is exactly the coach we needed and we didn't know we needed at the time. I mean, I felt like, well I've heard Ryan say this multiple times, but you know, I'm an Eastern Kentucky kid originally, and uh, I didn't get to go to a lot of games. My dad worked second shift a lot of times growing up, and we moved to Central Kentucky and he worked at Toyota and he worked second shift his whole life. And I remember I got to take my dad to Reperena for his first game and seeing my dad what it meant to him to be in Ropperena, and I felt like the last five years of being called a basketball penny and everybody acting like, you know, games didn't matter. It was just like we felt like we were being condescended to and talked down to his fans. And you know now when I take my son, he went to Pope's second game, it was a game the other night. He didn't want to leave my son's twelve and has never known he came to be really good.
And that is to cut you off, but I totally agree with you with you on that. I appreciate it. Called Mark Pope said, there's a thread that connects everyone involved with Kentucky basketball, and Mark Pope was the first perfect person right now to kind of get that thread back tied. There are a lot of people, not everybody, but there were people who felt like their kind of connection and thread to Kentucky basketball had frayed in recent years for whatever reason. Everybody has a different reason. Maybe it was I didn't get to know the players. Maybe it was, you know, I don't like the way Cal talks to us. Maybe it was we're losing too much. Whatever it was, but there were people whose connection to the program just wasn't as strong as it once was. And it feels like, no matter what your thought about the program was, Ryan, everyone's connection is now back strong and tiding it.
I love that word thread because we do. We as fans feel as much as part of the UK basketball program as otega Oway. We as fans feel as much part as Mark Pope, that thread that connects us to the team. You're right, had been kind of afraidtle bit over the years because Cal called a player's program. Well, no, it's not, you know, it's a fans program.
Yeah.
And it's not just the fans and the players. There are people that work behind the scenes of the UK that have worked there forever who have talked about how even in the office, everything just feels like a cohesive unit against everyone's working together.
Yeah, and that's what uh, you know, that's what you want. Yep, you want to have that that excitement. It's a unified, big blue nation and we're going to just to the rest of the world, we're gonna be obnoxious. I mean get ready, like I'm I'm tweeting at you like we're gonna be obnoxious. You bring me on your radio shows, I'm gonna be talking trash. Kentucky basketball the way we all love it is back and what a huge victory last night against Duke. Thank you all very much for listening. Deron Lamb and Marcus Tgue in the building tomorrow two national champions.
This has been Kentucky Sports Radio.