2026-03-24- KSR - Hour 1

Summary

KSR Hour 1 – March 24, 2026

Matt Jones and the KSR crew dissect UK basketball and athletics, break down Mark Pope’s fiery call-in show, react to a UK donor’s open letter, and debate the impact of social media and online fandoms on the Wildcat community.

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Episode Overview

In one of the “busiest days in KSR recent history,” Matt Jones and the crew (Ryan Lemons, Shannon, plus guest mentions of Drew Franklin and Kyle Tucker) tackle multiple, show-defining stories swirling around Kentucky athletics—with a laser focus on Coach Mark Pope’s surprisingly candid call-in show, the UK Women’s Sweet 16 berth, donor Brett Setzer’s open letter drama, and awkward public shots from DeMarcus Cousins. The hosts dig into the details and tone of Pope’s recent self-defense and fan/media critiques, while also unpacking the complicated interplay between Kentucky fans, Facebook, and the public narrative around UK sports.

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Main Themes and Key Segments

1. Unpacking Mark Pope’s Candid Call-In Show

[10:03–21:19, 24:43–27:48, 29:41–39:01]

Summary:
Mark Pope, previously guarded and “boring” in public comments, opens up in his latest call-in show, provoking both support and criticism. The hosts break down major Pope talking points, including injury excuses, player departures, and, most controversially, Pope’s four-minute statistical comparison of his two years to John Calipari’s final four.

Key Insights & Quotes:

• Pope’s new tone: “Last night was Pope at his most open and honest about how he actually feels… do more of that… be who you are.” —Matt Jones [10:12]
• Roster complaints: Pope zeroes in on injuries, specifically losing left-handed point guard Jalen Lowe, as excuses for offensive struggles.
• Statistical comparison to Calipari:
  • “He did four minutes with numbers… when in Cal’s last four years he did this, we did this... The overall theme was our last two years were better than Cal’s last four.” —Matt Jones [14:42]
• Fan reaction split: “There are fans that are like, yes, Mark, take up for yourself… but then there’s people going, dude, we wanted Cal gone because that wasn’t acceptable. And now you’re saying it’s a little better than that?” —Matt Jones [17:33]
• Pope on recruiting:
  • “He was like, we didn’t have enough creators the last two years… I love that. Because I’ve been saying that for two years.” —Matt Jones [29:47]
  • “He did say to get the players we want, which that’s quite a caveat…” —Matt Jones [30:48]
• Caveats on Cal comparison:
  • “COVID’s doing a lot of work. Take that COVID team out, those numbers aren’t the same… Is the right comparison him vs Cal’s last four, or vs Cal’s first two years?” —Matt Jones [16:33]
  • “Once you get into the compare-me-to-Cal game, be careful.” —Matt Jones [17:01]
• On injuries and lefty point guards: “I buy you can run an offense around a left-handed point guard, but that doesn’t just derail your whole season. That injury happened in the blue-white game in October.” —Shannon [13:01]
• Excuses vs. reasons:
  • “What you call an excuse could also be a reason.” —Text Machine [25:28]
  • “Excuses can be reasons… It’s interesting, the reaction to people of that clip was very different. There are people who really think that was the way to do it.” —Matt Jones [25:37]

2. Calipari vs. Pope — Brewing Tensions

[15:38–21:19, 47:10–49:47]

Summary:
Pope directly compares his record to Cal’s, inciting speculation about how Calipari will respond. The KSR crew predicts Cal’s likely—perhaps subtle—retaliation in upcoming media appearances.

Quotes & Analysis:

• “Cal will respond to this… He’s not going to let that go. I’m surprised [Pope] did it.” —Matt Jones [17:14]
• “70% chance Cal references this in some way,” predicts Matt Jones on whether Cal will answer. [47:26]
• “If he wins—definitely will [respond]… If they were to beat Arizona… that’s a post-game press conference comment.” —Ryan Lemons [47:46]

3. Social Media, Facebook Groups, and the Fan Narrative

[31:24–39:13, 44:07–46:39]

Summary:
A recurring KSR theme: the “real” fan voice versus manufactured or sensational online narratives. Jones reveals that Mark Pope’s primary UK media consumption is… Facebook groups, which the hosts argue are rife with misinformation, fake headlines, and off-beat memes—distorting both fan perception and coach perspective.

Key Moments & Quotes:

• “When he goes online, he only goes to two places. He goes to ESPN and he’s on Facebook… So if you think about it, for the… many of you listeners do… that’s what Mark is seeing, which is interesting.” —Matt Jones [33:14]
• “I don’t know why he needs to do this. When he gets up and goes, you know what is media nowadays? Is it a guy in his basement?... He’s seeing these fan groups on Facebook. So where you and I… see writers and headlines… he’s seeing ‘Pope’s fans in your ears.’” —Matt Jones [33:47]
• “Those of you that are in whatever the group is… you guys actually have some power now over these things... Maybe it’s all fun and games when you all post these memes, but maybe they’re actually having an effect.” —Matt Jones [36:30]
• “I just do worry… this is part of, like, getting our media relations up to date… Someone should tell Mark that 98% of people are rolling their eyes [at those memes].” —Matt Jones [38:08]
• Audience stereotype: “90% of Kentucky fans on Facebook is a guy with sunglasses holding a fish in the air.” —Text Machine [46:23]

4. DeMarcus Cousins’ On-Air Shot at Matt Jones

[05:11–07:43]

Summary:
DeMarcus Cousins, a beloved former UK player, unexpectedly calls out Matt Jones on TV, eliciting a vulnerable response from the host. Jones reflects on loyalty between alumni and coaches, and empathy for players’ perspectives.

Quotes:

• “‘We got to stop listening to Matt Jones talk about basketball.’ I mean, he’s not wrong… but that stunk and it made me sad.” —Matt Jones [06:07]
• “His loyalty is more to Cal, and it should be—he’s had a great life, and Cal was a big part of that.” —Matt Jones [08:08]

5. The UK Women Make the Sweet 16

[04:11–04:33, 21:42]

Summary:
While the Pope discussion roils, the UK women win a wild NCAA tournament game—clinching their first Sweet 16 since 2016.

Quotes:

• “They won, and now they’re going to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016. I had not realized it had been 10 years since the women have gone to the Sweet 16.” —Matt Jones [04:11–04:18]
• Crew expresses surprise at the drought: “That’s a long time... it doesn’t feel that long.” —Ryan Lemons [04:18]

6. Brett Setzer’s Letter, Donor-Administration Disputes (Brief Mention)

[04:33–05:05]

Summary:
Prominent UK donor Brett Setzer’s public letter calling for reversal of the Mitch Barnhart contract sparks media attention. The crew credits KSR’s Drew Franklin with a big scoop and notes brewing off-court drama.

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Notable Moments & Quotes

• Mark Pope’s media habits revealed: “He only goes… ESPN and Facebook. Mark’s coverage of UK athletics, what he sees is Facebook. Oh, no, that’s the worst place to go.” —Matt Jones [33:14]
• On left-handed bigs and offense:
  • “He said they created their entire offense around having a left-handed point guard, Jalen Lowe… Now that may be true, I’ve never heard that before in my life.” —Matt Jones [11:57]
  • Extended banter searching for famous lefty big men: “David Robinson… Chris Bosh… Bill Russell… I didn’t know he was left-handed.” —Matt Jones, Ryan Lemons, Shannon [24:43–25:23]
• Fans influencing coaches:
  • “Pope’s reading it. You wonder who’s reading it. Mark Pope’s reading it.” —Matt Jones and Ryan Lemons [38:21–38:27]
  • “Those people that are… now we know that. Your fan sites on Facebook… you’re the media in Mark Pope’s world.” —Matt Jones
• Pope on recruiting optimism: “He even said… be patient. There’s some good news on the way in recruiting. And he felt good where they are.” —Shannon [31:02]
• Self-aware humor and KSR banter:
  • “Shannon is the only one who is a fan of butts.” —Matt Jones (after Ryan says Pope’s call was full of “yeah, buts”) [20:29]
  • “90% of Kentucky fans on Facebook is a guy with sunglasses holding a fish in the air.” —Text Machine [46:23]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:39] — Matt sets up the four “show-lead” stories
• [03:31] — DeMarcus Cousins’ comments about Matt Jones
• [04:11] — UK Women’s Sweet 16
• [04:43] — Brett Setzer donor drama
• [10:03] — Opening Mark Pope call-in show analysis
• [14:39] — Pope’s Calipari comparison (four-minute viral clip)
• [17:14] — Speculation about Cal’s response
• [24:43] — Deep-dive on left-handed big men and basketball strategy
• [29:41] — Recruiting and “creators” discussion
• [31:24, 33:14, 36:30] — Impact of Facebook groups and social media on perception
• [46:23] — Facebook fan stereotypes and KSR’s “Ladies of KSR” fan group shout-out
• [47:26–49:47] — Predicting Calipari’s response to Pope

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

The episode is animated, self-effacing, and candid—characterized by Matt’s mix of humor, legal-contrarian logic, and vulnerability (notably over DeMarcus Cousins’ remarks). The crew offers moments of empathy for Pope but does not shy away from challenging his rationalizations and comparing them to prior UK standards. There’s a recurring emphasis on fan influence in the digital era, with the surprising revelation of how much Facebook groups shape both coach and collective fan psyche. Listeners new and old will find the episode a classic “all-angles” KSR hour—packed with insight, inside jokes, and authentic debate.

For more, catch the KSR crew weekdays at 10 a.m.—and join the conversation on Twitter (not Facebook—unless you’re Mark Pope).

Transcript

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[Matt Jones]

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[Ryan Lemons]

this is Kentucky Sports Radio, presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

[Matt Jones]

Welcome everyone.

It is Kentucky Sports radio. Here Tuesday, March 24, on what might be one of the busier days in KSR recent history, I was thinking about this. There are probably four things that we could talk about that would lead and drive entire shows. And if you just look at Mark Pope's comments, there were probably four or

five different things in that that could have led. I mean, there's probably seven or eight

things that could have led a show here today, but we can't do it. We will do them all, but we can't do them as long. But you can give us down the Clark's puppet Shop phone line 859-280-2287. Avision Auto Glass Text Machine, 772-774-5254. In this edition, sponsored by the TJ Smith Law Office, called TJ. He'll make them pay. There are, I would say, four main things. Like I said, you could drive a show. One is Pope's press conference. Chances are that'll be the focus of a lot of what we say. His. Well, I say press conferences, more of his. He did a radio show, right? And said a ton of stuff. I mean, I think I tweeted for an hour straight just on the stuff he said. The UK women, while that was going on, won an insane game against West Virginia, which they really dominated throughout the. And then nearly lost at the end. And Kenny Brooks, who I love Kenny Brooks like the best dude and I think a great coach, had maybe the worst second of basketball I've ever seen a coach. We escaped it. We did, but we got to talk about these time management in that last second. But they won and now they're going

the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016. I had not realized it had been 10 years since the women have gone to the Sweet 16.

[Ryan Lemons]

I didn't realize it's been that long either. That's a long drive.

[Matt Jones]

That's a long time, you know. Good.

That's awesome.

Because I, I did not realize it

had been that long. It doesn't feel that long.

[Shannon]

Yeah, they said it on the broadcast as soon as the game ended. And I went to type a tweet and I stopped. I was like, did I hear him correctly? And I even had to look online to be sure.

[Matt Jones]

That was amazing. Then prominent UK donor Brett Setzer both did an interview and ended up in

a Herald Leader article with Linda Blackford.

And our own Drew Franklin scooped the letter that he sent to UK demanding the reversal of the Mitch Barnhart $950,000 a year contract. Drew, doing some investigative investigatory You, Me. You and Linda Blackford.

Really?

You and Linda Blackford more than anybody. You two knuckleheads just really going after this story.

[Shannon]

I had a knucklehead phone call today. Us knuckleheads got to stick together from time to time.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

Look at this.

We got, like, a real journalist here. A lot of knuckles. DeMarcus Cousins goes on TV yesterday, and it breaks my heart on television. Taking a shot at me out of nowhere.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

What was that all about?

[Matt Jones]

On television? Yeah.

I don't know.

That bummed me out.

I mean, I guess we'll just start with that real quick. That bummed me out.

I know you don't. You have to take that. I don't. I'm not trying to get. I'm not trying to get into DeMarcus. If you're saying to me, Matt Jones, who are like, your three favorite players of all time at uk, I mean, there's a lot. But if you're just talking about on the court, I put John and DeMarcus together. The John Wall, DeMarcus cousins. For me, it's like Tayshawn Prince, John Wall, DeMarcus cousins.

[Ryan Lemons]

And I don't know, but you'd say Jamal McGlore.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah, and probably Jamal McGlore. So it was. That was a bummer. He goes on TV and says, you know, we got to stop listening to Matt Jones talk about basketball. I mean, he's not wrong. I don't know anything. But that. That stunk, and it made me sad.

[Shannon]

I was confused because his other comments seemed to be what you were saying.

[Matt Jones]

Everything he said is what I've said. He said, you know, we've got to start realizing these players don't know what the jersey means. Come to Kentucky. They'll fight. He literally, it was almost if he heard the postgame show and then said exactly what I said, you know, I mean, demarcus is very close to Cal. Cal. He and Cal have a great relationship. Cal was great to him. Demarcus was mad when Cal left at me, and. And that stinks. But I haven't talked to him since then. You know, we were. When he was here, you know, he was the. He was the best. And we had a really good relationship

and always had it after that.

I mean, you went out to Sacramento at one point and stayed his house.

[Shannon]

I've been to the All Star game parties with him.

[Matt Jones]

So, I mean, you know, but this is DeMarcus co.

I mean, this is Mr. President, this is Demarcus co. And so I'm not gonna lie.

And not say it. It made me sad, like it did. You know, when I saw that, I was with. I had a friend in town who's been. Who hasn't been here in, like, six months. I was excited to. To see her, and we were eating lunch, and I just was like, oh, man, that stinks. But, you know, I think people were like, go to me, trying to say, are you gonna say something? I'm not. I love that dude. Like, he's earned his right. Guys who played here, they've earned the right. They can say whatever. Next time I see him, I'm sure I'll run into him sometimes. I hope he'll. He'll put me in a headlock.

[Shannon]

It'll be like the Carl conversation.

[Matt Jones]

I hope.

I hope he does, because I'm not. I'm not. I'll tell you one thing I'm not going to do. I'm not fighting with DeMarcus because. Whether physically or metaphorically, because I love that dude. And so, you know, when I.

[Ryan Lemons]

When I first saw it, I. What you just said, I felt like he was just sharing the narrative he got from Coach Cal.

[Matt Jones]

Well, I don't.

I don't want to say that, because that makes it sound like he can't come up with his own opinion, which I. Which he can.

But he's very loyal to Coach Cass.

[Ryan Lemons]

He is.

[Matt Jones]

I mean, we'll do it. We'll use it like this, right?

So if I. Let's say me and you. Somebody out there was being really critical

of you, and even if I like that person.

So, like, if Dan Orlofsky was like, Ryan Lemon is terrible as a. As a radio host, I could see me going, we got to stop listening to Dan Orlovsky about radio. Right.

Because for you, my loyalty is going

to be more to you than to Dan Orlofsky. Even though I like Dan Orlovsky, that's how I look at it. So, I mean, his loyalty is more

to Cal, and it should be like, he's. He's had a great life, and Cal

was a big part of that, so I get it.

[Shannon]

Yeah. And he may be one of the closest to Cal from that whole era. Cal did a lot. He just getting him on the right track and helping him with his.

[Matt Jones]

Maybe the closest bum.

[Ryan Lemons]

Me.

[Matt Jones]

I'm not.

But. But you know what?

We.

We move on. Everybody who really knows me, like, was checking in. Hey, dude. Yeah. Even my mom from Wheaton College was. She called, like, three times, was like, you're okay. Right.

[Shannon]

Checking on her to go up Michelle Beatles.

[Matt Jones]

She knows how Michelle Beetle was about. I heard her like laughing in the background. I don't even know Michelle Beetle.

How does Michelle Beetle even know who I am? I don't know.

[Shannon]

We need the longer clip. Maybe we'll dig.

[Ryan Lemons]

Probably.

[Matt Jones]

I don't.

[Ryan Lemons]

Probably just laughing along. Like hahaha. You know, like when somebody says something.

[Matt Jones]

I don't want the law. I saw the longer clip. Literally, it was as random as it looked. He just kind of out of nowhere.

[Shannon]

I love. Clearly he's got the cow connection, but he still says I'm Kentucky.

[Matt Jones]

That was important. He did say I love Cal, but Kentucky is my place. I was glad to hear him say that. That's what we want to hear these guys.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

Say. Right. So all right. So now that was one of the things. I think the more important thing is the Pope press conference. So you know, Pope does this, this call in show and I would say

for most of the year the Pope

calling show has been really unhelpful and boring.

I thought last night was Pope at

his most open and honest about how he actually feels.

I actually think Mark Pope was Mark Pope last night.

We've seen this other thing. I think a lot of the year

this was Mark Pope and I thought there were a lot of interesting things. Before we say anything, I want to be clear. I'm glad he talked like that last night. Do more of that, right? Just be who you are. Be proud of who you self.

As Ryan Lemon used to say, Shannon,

like be who you are. And he did that for better or worse. And he said a lot of things. And I want to go over a

couple things he said and just get people's reaction to them.

I think the most important one will

be the one that I say last.

So Pope said a lot. He made a big deal about the fact that they haven't gotten to play

with the full roster.

He said 56 Power 5 games.

We've only played in two years with our full roster in five games. That was very important to him to say. I understand that.

That is correct.

It also though is a weird thing to say when we just played Iowa State, whose best player got hurt right before the game.

[Shannon]

It's really working against his argument right

[Matt Jones]

now that like that game is not a great argument because they lost their

best player moments before, like a day before the game and destroy this. But.

But I also understand he's not wrong about that. He then said, and I found this interesting, I'm going to say odd, but still very interesting. He said that they created their entire offense around having a left handed point guard, Jalen Lowe. And that when he got hurt, they then had to change the entire way they played. He went so far as to say, you might say, why does a left

handed point guard matter?

Well, with a bunch of things. One, it actually suits a right handed big extremely well. Because point guards and bigs, if you

have a point guard that comes off

the ball screen to his left, you get the big man that's rolling to the right.

It's way more effective than you have

when you have a right handed point

guard and a left handed big, it works.

But a right handed point guard and

right handed big can be awkward. Now that may be very well be true. I've never heard that before in my life.

I also don't know how many times have we seen left handed bigs. Like I was sitting there thinking most

point guards are right handed, right?

So he's saying they play better with

a left handed big.

Who's the last left handed big you

can remember that played in the post?

Amari.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Jones]

Terrence Jones. But I that, you know, Montgomery, there

ain't many of them.

You know, do you buy the idea that when you have a left handed point guard and then he gets hurt,

everything has to change and it screws the team up? No.

[Shannon]

I mean I buy that you can run an offense around the left handed handed point guard. And I think that's, you know, what he was saying is true from a basketball standpoint. But that doesn't just derail your whole season. And I don't think, I don't even know that. I would have said that out loud

[Matt Jones]

if I don't think.

[Shannon]

I sure in the game plan he's thinking, oh, we have this advantage with left handed. Poor guy, we'll play that way. But that injury happened in the blue white game in October.

[Matt Jones]

I mean, and shouldn't they be able to go both ways?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, yeah. If you're a right handed guy, you could still feed with your left hand even if you're right handed.

[Matt Jones]

I mean you've got to be able

to go both ways, right?

[Shannon]

We can't be a team that relies on one dominant. Their one player's dominant hand. Like the whole season can't ride on

[Matt Jones]

one player's dominant hand. We had a backup that was left handed and we lost him to Villanova. Akadem Lewis was left handed.

[Shannon]

He brought that up a few times. And Travis Perry got brought up a lot.

[Ryan Lemons]

He did. Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

But I mean, okay, fair enough.

A Kaden Lewis and Travis Perry left. But, like, that's on you.

[Shannon]

And that's just the world.

[Matt Jones]

That's on you.

You ha.

It's ultimately it's your responsibility to get

these players to come.

[Shannon]

That's college basketball now.

[Matt Jones]

That's the way it is. You could continue.

You could sit there and cry over spilled milk all day. Guys. There's going to be guys leave this team that you probably would like to keep. But you know, that's. That's what it is, right?

[Ryan Lemons]

In this day and age of college basketball, man, their left hand, right hand, they're so good at both hands. I don't think it matters anymore.

[Matt Jones]

What seemed to matter, at least in what he said, the way they do it. But the big thing he said, and

I think this is the thing that

everyone is focused on the most, the big thing he said is he compared his two years to Cal's last four years, and he did.

I posted the clip.

It is four minutes long.

He did four minutes with numbers that Shannon.

He didn't just get off the top of his head.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, no. He did some show.

[Matt Jones]

He, He. He did show prep. He did something Ryan Lemons never done. One time, he did show prep. He had the numbers.

He was like, when in Cal's last four years. He did this. We did this.

This was the schedule.

Now, this is the schedule. These are the top 40 teams we beat. That's the top 40 teams they beat. This is how many times they won in the SEC tournament. This is how many times we won. And the overall theme was our last two years were better than Cal's last four. And it was four minutes long. And I posted that clip and it's gone mega viral. I posted, actually, another UK account posted Big Blue Bud, and then I put it on mine. So I want to give him credit for putting it up there, but what'd you think of that?

[Shannon]

I was writing on the board, Real Thomas happening. I was like, I am shocked that he is comparing himself to Cal because, I mean, maybe wouldn't directly call it a jab, but it's not. Not a jab. I mean, he's saying, I'm doing better

[Matt Jones]

than Cal, better than Cal, better than California.

He's right. Okay, so let me be clear. I don't think he's wrong. His facts are not optional. They are correct. And if you've listened to the show you and I drew have made this these same facts. Yes, but, Ryan, it was odd to hear him do it. Yeah, because it's the first time I've ever heard him compare himself To Cal

in a way that downgrades Cal.

And it also is, I think, selective fact choice.

Okay.

Is he wrong?

No.

His last two years, objectively, are probably

better than cows last four.

But two major, major caveats.

One, Covid's doing a lot of work. Take that Covid team out. Those numbers aren't the same.

But more importantly, is the right comparison. Him versus Cal's last four years or him versus Cal's first two years?

Depends on who you ask. True, right?

Depends on who you ask. So once you get into the compare me to Cal game, be careful.

You got to be careful.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yep.

[Matt Jones]

And I'll say one more thing. The cow Kentucky breakup.

Cal's taking some shots at Mitchell, but

he really hasn't taken a ton of shots in Kentucky.

That will change.

[Shannon]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Jones]

Cal will respond to this.

[Shannon]

Cal's been pretty gracious.

[Matt Jones]

I know this. Cal's been pretty great.

He's responding to this now.

Will he respond to it in a good way, bad way?

I don't know.

But he's not going to let that go.

I'm surprised he did it. I'm not. And I looked at the responses online.

They were wildly varied.

There are fans that are like, yes,

Mark, take up for yourself. And I get that. I'm actually.

I don't mind a guy taking up for himself. But then there's people going, dude, we

wanted Cal gone because that wasn't acceptable.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

And now you're saying it's a little

[Ryan Lemons]

better than that was my exact take. Like, why would you choose to compare yourself to the four years that basically had fans wanting Caliperi gone? I mean, that's the same.

[Matt Jones]

And it's all. And he said it's better. And I think Pope's words were barely better.

[Ryan Lemons]

Barely.

Yeah, that's a weird barely better.

But we all agree was unacceptable those last four years of Cal.

[Matt Jones]

But he was like, it's barely better, and we're moving in the right direction.

[Ryan Lemons]

So that's progress in his mind.

[Matt Jones]

He said it was.

It's exactly what he said. He said it's progress, barely.

[Shannon]

But if you're on the calendar and you could be like, you played in the first game of the SEC tournament.

[Matt Jones]

Well, okay, so I. I am on. In general, I'm on Pope's side of

the argument, but, you know, I'm.

I'm a dork when it comes to law.

And, like. Well, you say this, but, you know, how many times have you heard me be a contrarian on here?

When he mentions the SEC tournament and

he goes, well, We've won three games and he only won one.

Yeah, but that's because we were playing in the Wednesday games Cal never played in the wins against the six. Our, our three wins have been in games Cal never played in because he always got to Friday.

Right?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

So, you know, it all depends on how you look at it.

Right.

And I'm just surprised that he voluntarily got into the Cal versus Me.

[Shannon]

Right.

[Ryan Lemons]

And had all that show prepped, all the doc, the numbers.

[Matt Jones]

It wasn't random. He came in saying, I'm going to do this.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yes, that was his point.

Cherry picking numbers though.

[Matt Jones]

Here's what I would say.

Remember how I've talked about how this should be a well oiled machine for Kentucky to roll?

We need coaches, media, boosters, fans, administration

on the same team.

When you got stuff going and when

you got everybody on the same team, you don't make that argument. If you're Pope, you let other people make it for you. Right? You let me and Drew make it for you or you let Kyle Tucker

make it for you or you let Mitch Barnhart make it for you when you make it for yourself.

I'm not sure that's the greatest look, I don't either.

[Ryan Lemons]

So maybe I just kept hearing a lot of yeah, buts.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah, but he ended by saying this is not an excuse fest.

[Ryan Lemons]

What do you call what he's trying to do then?

[Matt Jones]

But Shannon, you could see how some

people would look at it as an excuse.

[Ryan Lemons]

Sounds like a whole lot of excuses to me. Well, we had injuries, but we're comparing it to the last four years of Cal. But this, but this is too many

butts and left handed point guard things.

[Matt Jones]

Shannon, there's too many.

But I mean, I mean Shannon is the. Shannon only is a fan of butts.

[Shannon]

If I could say one thing that I did like about Pope's show even though I didn't.

[Matt Jones]

Some of the appreciate you laughing at that, Shannon. These two just stared at me when I said that. But I'm glad at least you laughed. Go ahead.

[Shannon]

Some of the stats I rolled my eyes with, but I turned that show on expecting to get sad, mopey, depressed.

[Matt Jones]

He was much better.

[Shannon]

I loved his energy. Maybe, maybe every point he made I didn't completely love. But I like that it wasn't oh poor me. Because we've heard a lot that this year he at least spoke with some confidence. Even if I didn't agree with everything

[Matt Jones]

he said, I did love the tone much more than I have the rest.

[Shannon]

We want some more of that.

[Matt Jones]

We're going to open up the phones

in a few minutes because I actually we got a lot of positive feedback that they like the let's just hear from people. We're going to talk in a second about the other thing that sort of come the pointing fingers and I want to be able to allow fans to

just have some time to so it's

not just Matt, Ryan, Drew and Shannon. Like how does the actual fan base feel? We'll do that a little bit in the second hour, but we'll take a break. We'll talk some more about it. We need to talk about Brett Setzer's letter that he wrote and we need to talk about the women's team going

to the sweet 16 to play Texas.

That's next here on KS.

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[Malcolm Gladwell]

hello Hello, I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I recently spoke with IBM's new director of Research, Jake Ambetta. We discussed his vision for the future of quantum computing at IBM Research.

[Jake Ambetta]

What we always do is answer what is the future of computing? Whether it's coming up with new algorithms, coming up with better AI, coming up with Quantum or coming up with just how do different accelerators go together? It's our DNA. To answer the question of what is the future?

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Isn't it a perfect problem for IBM because you kind of need to have a legacy of building stuff, building actual physical machines. Yeah.

[Jake Ambetta]

It's why I came to IBM. I wanted the experienced the culture of building hard things that others have not done before.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Where do you imagine we are in the timeline of this technology? There will come a point when it will mature, right?

[Jake Ambetta]

Yeah.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

My cell phone is a mature technology at this point. How far are we from that point with quantum?

[Jake Ambetta]

By 2029 we'll build the first fault tolerant quantum computer that is one that can run a very, very large, large problem.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

To learn how IBM is building the future of computing visit IBM.com quantum.

[Matt Jones]

Welcome back Tech Sports Radio. We're sitting here trying to think on the left handed, great left handed big men. I came up with David Robinson.

[Ryan Lemons]

That's a good one.

[Matt Jones]

He's a great left handed big man. What else is on that list?

[Shannon]

I found a list. It's mostly guards. Not many bigs.

[Matt Jones]

There aren't many bigs.

Chris Bosch, Chris Bosh. Okay, yeah, yeah.

[Shannon]

Bill Russell. How about that one?

[Ryan Lemons]

Bill Russell was left handed according to this list.

[Matt Jones]

I didn't know he was left handed.

[Shannon]

He was pretty good.

[Matt Jones]

I don't think I've ever seen one video of Bill Russell playing basketball. Have you?

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, yeah. Where like the old school.

[Matt Jones]

You watch a lot of 50s basketball.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh yeah, I love it.

[Matt Jones]

Okay. I don't honestly don't think I've seen one clip. I'm sure I know they exist, I'm sure, but I don't think I've ever seen.

[Ryan Lemons]

I didn't realize he was left handed.

[Matt Jones]

One person on text machine writes, matt,

what you call an excuse could also be a reason.

Have you ever thought of that? Yeah, because I look at it.

Excuses can be reasons.

Yeah, I get it.

It's interesting. The reaction to people of that clip was very different. There are people who really think that

that was the way to do it.

And I'm trying to think if I was in Mark's situation I might want to do that too. And then there's people who think the opposite. It had varied reaction. Just go look at my clip of it and look at the comments and look at the quote tweets and you'll

see very different reactions to it which is just kind of interesting to me. One person writes, Matt, I Have to tell you, I'm not saying he's wrong, but I've never in my life heard a coach talk about left handed point guard changing the way they have to play ever.

[Ryan Lemons]

Never ever have I heard that.

[Matt Jones]

I haven't either, but I don't, you know, but I'm not a coach so I don't know. But I'd never heard that.

[Shannon]

I mean if he said it in November as the season was starting, like we've got to adjust, that's one thing. But I mean that injury was a long time ago.

[Matt Jones]

It was in October and that's part

[Shannon]

of being a coach.

[Matt Jones]

Johnson, left handed.

[Shannon]

Jasper's left handed.

[Ryan Lemons]

Wasn't he our backup point guard?

[Matt Jones]

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

I mean I haven't, I haven't really heard. Now he also ended that by saying doing the thing he did at the press conference before. Well, a couple of things. First of all actually let me do that next segment.

He, he said, he answered the question.

Said they did not offer Yaxel Landenberg seven to nine million dollars. Wish he had just said that the first time he was asked.

[Ryan Lemons]

Should just said that.

[Matt Jones]

But I'm glad to hear him say that because I don't think they did.

Yeah, I think Yaxel was either exaggerating or depending on how you want to look at it, lying. I do not think Kentucky offered him 7 million to $9 million. And Mark was very explicit and said, let me be clear, we did not offer 7 to 9 million.

[Shannon]

I like that.

[Matt Jones]

Stanford I like.

That's one that I don't think is an excuse.

That's correcting the record.

[Shannon]

And I think we all believed that at the time. But having Pope actually say it, I mean just in itself, 7 to 9 million is not an offer.

[Matt Jones]

It's not an offer. That's a range.

[Shannon]

That's a $9 million.

[Matt Jones]

No one offers seven to $9 million. I'm going to buy this house. I will offer you 400 to $700,000. Well, you know what, I'll take 700. So he did do that. All right, so we went long the first segment. So let's take this break and then we'll talk about some of the other stuff he's at right after this.

[Ryan Seacrest]

TJ Smith, personal injury attorney. Call tj. He'll make him pay.

[Ryan Lemons]

Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.

[Matt Jones]

Shannon's so good. Because this isn't even the name of this song, right?

[Ryan Lemons]

No, this is. How did you talk about Donkey Donk?

[Matt Jones]

How did you remember that?

It started left, left, left, right, left.

That was a perfect. But how did you remember that?

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, the music video was a good way to remember that. If you've seen the music video for

[Matt Jones]

this song, I don't think I've seen it. Now I'm gonna have to look it up. Yeah, there's something that goes left, left, left, right.

[Ryan Lemons]

Imagine. Yes.

[Matt Jones]

Okay.

I mean, that is really, like. I don't think you get.

You don't get nearly enough credit for how. Well.

And especially with the podcast now and

people not hearing the music, the podcast listeners don't realize how well you time that together. That's a. That's a live listener gets that.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

And. But I appreciate it.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, I wish you could tell that to our bosses so they would appreciate it.

[Matt Jones]

I. And I will also say, espn, you have an impact on espn.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, really?

[Matt Jones]

I've watched this on ESPN now. So we started on espn, bringing.

It all starts with Tony Kornizer, who used to do this.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

Then I brought the concept of the music

connects to a word or phrase. We said before Shannon started doing it, and we've, like, met. Our minds have melted. I brought that to espn, and over the last few years, they've started doing it on my show, and now they

started doing it on the other show.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, they have.

[Matt Jones]

And one of the producers on one

of their shows says, well, I kind of took this from my days working on your show.

So, like, literally, that progression has kind of made.

When you listen ESPN and you hear them do this, I think it kind of. It really started with Courtheiser many years ago, but I kind of stole it from him and then went on from that.

[Ryan Lemons]

So it is kind of an underappreciated thing that Shannon does for this show. Really adds a lot to it.

[Matt Jones]

I agree. All right, so some other things Pope said.

Pope said in recruiting this year, they're looking for creators.

He was like, we didn't have enough creators the last two years, where basically, he means guys who can just go get their own shot.

I was sitting in my house, and I went, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Because I've been saying that for two years.

We haven't had those guys.

And I think you got to have at least, like, three of them.

And this year we had one, maybe

two, depending on what you think of Aberdeen. He says, we need to get a

team full of creators. Drew, I love that good stuff.

[Shannon]

That was my favorite part of the show. They really lack that. I mean, how many times do we see them get Jammed up in the half court and even oh way who can get to the rim and finish, he.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

He can.

[Shannon]

If there's not spacing, you need a guy that can just go out there. When all else fails, he can go get you a bucket.

[Matt Jones]

And Jalen Lowe was that.

That was part of why I thought

losing him was so big. He was the only guy we had that I really felt like was really good at that.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, you got to say it now. You gotta go out and do it.

[Matt Jones]

You gotta go out and get somebody get him.

But I'm glad he says that they could get him. Then he said that we have. I think he was addressing Jack Givens, his comments after the game. He said, we have all the resources we need. Now.

He did say to get the players we want, which that's quite a caveat because that could mean he.

There are players he want. That just doesn't cost a lot. So we'll see. But nevertheless, he didn't act like resources would be an issue and that's what

[Shannon]

we want to hear. And he even said, I forgot the exact word. But he insinuated, be patient. There's some good news on the way in recruiting. And he felt good where they are.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Shannon]

So that's better than the alternative where when you look at a sheet of paper and there's zero recruits, he's at least trying to inject some. Inject some hope in the fan base.

[Matt Jones]

He then went off kind of again on the Facebook memes and all that.

I don't know what it is about that. Well, actually I have a theory which I'll say in just a second. But then he ended this by going, here's the thing. We can get confused sometimes. There's a super, super vocal, like 1%, 0.1% very vocal, trying to get hits and listeners. And then there's the 99% of BBN that is true believers cheering their guts out.

Everywhere I go and everyone. We meet a lot of people around

town, everybody says they love PBN and they're praying for us to be successful and they're cheering us on. That's different. When I talk to people and they're just trying to put out something negative.

I don't understand why he needs to do this.

I, you know, I don't know who he was talking about. Could be us, could be whatever. I don't know why he needs to do this.

I. The moment, you know, this is the

same guy who I met with two years ago who looked at me and said, when I deserve criticizing, I Want you to blast me. If you don't do that, then that's not what BBN is. I guess that's easy to say when you think you're going to win every game, but I love Mark Pope. I'm cheering you on.

We are not like we want. We want you to win.

I don't even. He may not even talk about us. He may have been talking about somebody else.

I don't know.

I talked to somebody who knows Mark really well yesterday. There aren't a lot of those people here, but I do. I know one. And they said to me, look, here's the thing you have to understand about Mark. When he goes online, he only goes to two places. It's a little scoop. He goes to ESPN and he's on Facebook. And he was like, you need to understand that Mark's coverage of UK athletics, what he sees is Facebook. Oh no, that's the worst place to go. I had never heard this before and I was like, oh, okay.

But then that makes sense. That's why he's talking about these memes about his wife in an airplane and Colin Chance Chandler giving all the money to. To. To homeless. It's like that's what he sees.

Right.

So if you think about it for the.

I don't go on Facebook really at

all, but many of you listeners do think about the coverage of UK sports you see on Facebook. That's what Mark is seeing, which is interesting. So that also made me think maybe he wasn't talking about us because we're not really. I'm not even on Facebook. But that means he's seen ksr, the website. But that also means he's seen like these fan sites that write stuff like Blue Nation. Yeah. Like Pope's cats in your face. Or like, you know, come get some blue. In Mark Pope's world, he sees that as the media, which I think is really interesting to know. Remember how we used to talk about the only people Mitch Barnhart talked to were via email?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

And so it was like, what kind of person emails? Well, that's who Mitch Barnhart's listening to now. I kind of know, at least according to this person, that the media Mark Pope is consuming is what pops up on his Facebook. So I want you to think about your fan sites on Facebook. It's not people really in the media.

Right.

So now those comments make sense to me. When he gets up there and goes, you know what is really media nowadays? Is it a guy in his basement is it's cause he's seeing these Fan groups on Facebook. So where you and I that are online or if you're on Twitter and you see writers and you see headlines, and you. He's seen Pope's fans in your ears pose. And Shannon, now it makes sense to me.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, there's a ton of fake headlines. I saw a good one yesterday that said that Jaden Quaintance was about to work out for the Knicks today at full strength, and people lost their minds in the comment section because they believed

[Matt Jones]

it to be true, but it's not true. So that's what he's seen.

[Ryan Lemons]

But, you know, half of his week is spent with local media.

[Matt Jones]

But I don't think he sees it. He sees. I don't know what are the biggest Facebook fan groups.

[Shannon]

I don't look at them.

[Matt Jones]

I don't get on Facebook.

[Shannon]

Wild names.

[Matt Jones]

But, like, I'd be interesting. Those people that are. Now we know that. And so my. When I. When I heard that, I was like, okay, somebody needs to tell him that's not really the media.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, the people you meet with two or three times a week, that's the media.

[Matt Jones]

So. So it also made me sort of interestingly think, you know, yesterday continued the tradition. That happens a little bit where.

Where there's a group of people go, matt Jones is ruining UK athletics, and

you ran John Cal Perry out of town. You gonna run? Well, Cal didn't even get on the Internet, and Pope is on the Internet on Facebook, a site I don't even use. So who are those people? The funny thing is, we don't even

[Shannon]

know who those people are, have faces or names.

[Matt Jones]

They don't even have faces or names. So are those the people that are powerful? Are those the people that Mark is thinking of when he thinks of media? If so, a little note to all the fan sites out there. Those of you that are in whatever the group is, you're kind of like, you guys actually have some power now over these things. Maybe we should be careful. Maybe it's all fun and games when you all post these memes, but maybe they're actually having an effect.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

That was the most fascinating thing to me, because I have sat there and wondered, what is Mark talking about when he says all this stuff? Now imagine you're a fan that only sees Facebook.

That's what he's talking about.

[Shannon]

Well, watching the. I wasn't there, but I was watching the live stream in St. Louis. When he mentioned the Leanne thing, I thought, did he just reference one of those random AI Facebook things?

[Matt Jones]

Surely he's looking at those.

[Ryan Lemons]

Crazy.

[Shannon]

No one should look at those.

[Ryan Lemons]

Hard to understand a smart guy who can't figure it out.

[Matt Jones]

Well, I'm not saying he's falling for those. I don't think that's true, But I think he thinks that is what media is now.

[Ryan Lemons]

He thinks that's.

[Matt Jones]

Oh, yeah, somebody reported that our fans are reading that and thinking it's true.

[Shannon]

Most of our fans are rolling their eyes at that and saying, grandma, stop reading that. And reposting it and commenting on it.

[Matt Jones]

But what Grandma is reading, it sounds like Shannon is what Mark is reading.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, that's. That's social media. That's not the actual media. And you can't believe anything you see on Facebook.

[Matt Jones]

So now it. But the one thing is now it makes sense. Now I know why he's saying all that. And now we do have to think about when these groups post this stuff.

[Ryan Lemons]

Pope's reading it.

[Matt Jones]

You wonder.

[Ryan Lemons]

You wonder who's reading it. Mark Pope's reading it.

[Shannon]

Some of them are so crazy. I don't know how anyone with common sense could believe them. Just an ounce of critical thinking.

[Ryan Lemons]

Come on.

[Matt Jones]

No, I just do worry that, like, you know, this is part of, like, getting our, our media relations and stuff up to date. You know, one of the. Well, just someone tell mark that, like, 98% of people are rolling their eyes. Colin Chandler donated his whole nil to Turning Point usa. Does he think we all believe that?

[Shannon]

I hope not. It's very clear he doesn't believe it because he said, every day I see something that's fake. But I hope he doesn't think that just the whole fan base is walking around talking about stuff like that.

[Matt Jones]

I worry that he does think that

[Shannon]

most of them laugh it off.

[Matt Jones]

And let me just say, when he

says everyone that comes up to me says something nice.

Well, of course. I mean, everyone that comes up to

me says something nice. I don't have a hundred percent approval writing.

People are not. People don't come up to you and

just say, you suck.

[Ryan Lemons]

Not to your face.

Yeah, a lot better if they did, though.

[Matt Jones]

I don't think it would. Because it wouldn't happen to you. It would happen to me.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, we get on social media, but

[Matt Jones]

they do it on social media. But he's like, well, nobody comes up

to me and says they're not. Don't think I'm going to, Jake.

Well, no one's going to do. Of course no one's going to come

up to the coach and go, you're not doing a good job.

[Shannon]

Yeah, I know, I don't think he has the Twitter app if he thinks he's 99%.

[Matt Jones]

Well, now I'm going to have to. I guess I'm going to have to get on Facebook and see what people say because I didn't know you're going to join.

I'm not joining any of those. I did try to join one of those groups. It was called like Pope's Boys or Pope's Dogs or something.

That's the.

[Shannon]

There's one. Pope's Something. It's the craziest.

[Matt Jones]

And I try to join it and

they refuse to let me in.

And they were like, no. And I was like, it was like,

I think you're right. That's a big one.

It's like Popes, Popes, paps.

[Shannon]

I'm not even going to say the other team, but there was one on there. It had an AI image. It was like Team X's starting player died on the court.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Shannon]

And I'm like, what do you post?

[Matt Jones]

Who posts that? But I guess now apparently Pope's pups. That one is the one that our coach reads.

It's time to score big this month with Don Franklin. Is that. Am I supposed to do Don Franklin? Yeah, I'm doing it now.

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owned makes and models at Don Franklin Auto. It's Don Franklin Auto driven by family. This morning I got up, by the way, three of the top 15 episodes of sports podcasts in America were KSR episodes. One hour two and the postgame show were three of the top 15. And the other were all barstool or Bill Simmons or like. So obviously one thing that people say is, well, we can't have apathy in bbm. We don't have apathy. At least not in this world. We'll take a break. Be right back.

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[Malcolm Gladwell]

Hello. Hello, I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I recently spoke with IBM's new director of Research, Jake Mbeta. We discussed his vision for the future of quantum computing at IBM Research.

[Jake Ambetta]

What we always do is answer what is the future of computing? Whether it's coming up with new algorithms, coming up with better AI, coming up with Quantum, or coming up with just how do different accelerators go together? It's our DNA. To answer the question of what is the future?

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Isn't it a perfect problem for IBM because you kind of need to have a legacy of building stuff.

[Jake Ambetta]

Yes.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Building actual physical machines. Yeah.

[Jake Ambetta]

It's why I came to IBM. I wanted the experience, the culture of building hard things that others have not done before.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Where do you imagine we are in the timeline of this technology? There will come a point when it will mature, right?

[Jake Ambetta]

Yeah.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

My cell phone is a mature technology at this point. How far away from that point?

[Jake Ambetta]

With Quantum, by 2029 we'll build the first fault tolerant Quantum computer that is one that can run a very, very large, large problem.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

To learn how IBM is building the future of computing, visit IBM.com quantum.

[Matt Jones]

Welcome back. You were saying during the break, Ryan, that your parents fall for Facebook stuff.

[Ryan Lemons]

That's what I think. And I don't mean to be mean, but like the older fan are the ones that kind of fall for these stories and retweet them, you know, repost them. They say get more clicks for it. That's why they keep doing it.

[Matt Jones]

One person writes, Matt, a lot of people know the group that I'm talking about. I guess, I guess it's called Pope's Cats. And this person says it's the worst thing on Facebook. Lots of fake stuff on there. If you only saw that, it would be hard to know what was true about UK sports. So I always go to KSR and see if it's on there.

Yeah. That's good.

Yeah. I can see what you should do. They wouldn't let me in there. How's I not able to get in?

[Shannon]

Sounds like Pope's in there. That means one of the people in there is a person.

[Matt Jones]

Writes, matt, this is kind of funny. Do you think he's on bond that bridge? And ladies of ksr. Well, we have to approve. Well, I don't run bond that bridge, but there's a few people that do. And I do see that they have to approve people to get in. So I think we would know if he was on Ladies of ksr. They have a no, no men policy. Yes. I wonder if that includes Mark Pope.

[Shannon]

That's right.

[Matt Jones]

You cannot get in. It's strict. Very strict. No, no, no. Aren't you. But they did let me in.

[Ryan Lemons]

No, man.

[Matt Jones]

But I don't think that. I honestly don't think they like that I'm in. I'll say this, though. They are the most active and loyal KSR supporters. The Ladies of KSR group is posting constantly and they are the. They are the most active and they come up when I meet them and they're like. Are in the Ladies of KSR group. They sent a huge group mailer to my. To. To Larry, to my dad. So, like they're. They have the best.

[Shannon]

Our. The nursery at home is full of stuff that the ladies of ksr, including handmade quilts. And they got together and they would like. Someone would do half of it, then they'd ship and someone else would finish it. Because they all had different types.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Shannon]

And then they. Well, they came to Paul Miller and I mean, we had like a little Ladies of KSR shower after the show. They gave us so many things. Our bookshelf was full of books from the ladies of ksr.

[Matt Jones]

How nice is that?

[Kyle Tucker]

Very cool.

[Shannon]

Very nice.

[Matt Jones]

So maybe some good things on Facebook.

[Ryan Lemons]

You know, he does live in a house full of women that probably can get in these. Those groups and kind of maybe keep him posted.

[Matt Jones]

But it's.

The ladies of KSR are not saying negative things. They're the most positive people on one person. Writes Matt. 90% of Kentucky fans on Facebook is a guy with sunglasses holding a fish in the air.

[Shannon]

Fair.

[Ryan Lemons]

Very fair.

[Matt Jones]

I will say this. When someone calls me some name that is like liberal beta. 85% chance A. It's a sunglasses selfie and probably 35% chance there is a fish involved somewhere.

[Ryan Lemons]

And they're saying about you. You can't even bait a hook like that country Song.

[Matt Jones]

I can't Beta hook. I can beta hook.

[Ryan Lemons]

We can't even beat a beta hook.

[Matt Jones]

I can't. God. But. But there you go. So I do feel like, overall, I'm glad he did that show last night. Let's do odds. This Cal reference this sometime this weekend. This Cal reference Pope's.

[Shannon]

I forgot there's Cal speaking.

[Matt Jones]

Cal have a press conference tomorrow.

Will he reference Pope's reference comparison to him? Will he find a sly way to slip it in? I'm going to say 70% chance yet. If I know Cal,

that's the kind of thing. Because let me tell you how Cal gets his news.

We were talking about Facebook.

This is what it was here.

I assume it's the same.

He has them print out all the

stories from the Internet that.

That.

That they think he should read. He used to print out every KSR Herald Leader, Courier, Journal.

And then he had other things he

was interested in, like Basketball Times, which I don't even know if that still exists.

And they would print them out. And sometimes he would call me and he would read from.

He'd be like, do you see what Jim Jenkins said in the Basketball Times? I was like, I don't even know what that is. What is that?

So I don't know.

Someone is going to print out for him a story about what Pope said. Will he reference it?

[Shannon]

Eileen? Yes. It'll be subtle, but it'll be in there. Someone during the show last night, show wasn't even over yet. They said, oh, this is going to get back to Cal. I said, no, this is already.

[Matt Jones]

It's already back to Cal.

[Shannon]

The moment it came out of post game, it's already there. Someone sent it to Cal.

[Matt Jones]

It's already there. So do you think he will?

[Ryan Lemons]

I feel like he'll do it if they win the game. He'll do it in the post game when he's feeling good and confident.

[Matt Jones]

That's a good call. Yeah, that's a good call. If they were to beat it, Arizona. That's a really good.

[Ryan Lemons]

I think he'll do it by four.

[Shannon]

He's already farther in the tournament and just won the SEC Championship.

[Matt Jones]

He does it.

[Ryan Lemons]

I'm kind of with Ryan. If he wins, he definitely will. I don't know that he will yet. I mean, he's in the sweet 16 trying to get to the Elite Eight, so I don't know that he's gonna.

[Matt Jones]

You're right.

That's a post game, Ryan. Yeah, that's a post game press conference.

Cow. See what I did?

[Ryan Lemons]

See what I did there.

[Matt Jones]

Would you like to compare wins between other schools and. Yeah, like that's what he'll do.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, my first two years in Arkansas, somebody's first two years in another school.

When do we play that team?

[Matt Jones]

Oh yeah, when we play that team.

[Ryan Lemons]

Where are they now?

[Matt Jones]

Go Arizona, please. All right, here's what I want to do.

I want to open up the phones, get your take on the season.

Pope, his comments, not just me talking. We're going to do another rim, not Rim Shot.

[Ryan Lemons]

Wow. That's a different show.

[Shannon]

Let's not do that today.

[Ryan Lemons]

KSR after dark.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

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[Julian Edelman]

247 this is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me. I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time, and one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate. As a Jewish athlete, my identity is something I am proud of, but I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate that aired during the Big Game really hit home. It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words. And sometimes standing next to someone is enough and you can show support by sharing the blue square.