Billy Rutledge (3:45)

4.

Matt Jones (3:46)

Did you know you had 17 points from Amari Williams, who I thought was great. Andrew Carr had 17. This is the best version of Carr we've seen since his injury. 20 from Kobe Braya, who, even though he was only 7 for 17, I thought actually played really well considering he was having to create a lot of his offense. And then I thought Travis Perry with 12 points, gave a lot, had some good minutes from Colin Chandler. You know, it was a bad game for Ortega away and Brandon Garrison. I thought both those guys really played poorly and honestly, we probably needed them both to play well if we were going to have a chance to win the game. And it did not happen. So let's, let's go through first. The good. You know, the team started amazing. 20 points in the first five minutes. First half was bizarre. We scored 20 points in five minutes and. And then we only scored 20 points in the next 15 minutes. They got to pass the ball around a lot. When they got open looks, which Carr and Brea did they hit threes. I thought they played really, really, really, really well to start the game. Then we went to kind of, I don't want to say a line change because they didn't exactly do that, but then we went to the bench, gave up a little bit of the lead, but still had a decent cushion. It was the second time that we went to the bench that we went from, I think up 4 to down 11 or whatever. Our bench, you know, I mean, when I say our bench, I think a lot of it is there's just such a huge drop off right now between Amare Williams and Brandon Garrison. And I. Part of that is that Amare is playing really, really, really well. But part of it is Brandon Garrison is not playing well. And that drop off, I mean, because basically Pope has now switched to. It's a one versus one, meaning one of those two guys is in no matter what. And 27 minutes for Williams, 13 for Garrison. I'm getting to the point that I think it's going to need to be like 34 minutes for Williams, six minutes for Garrison. I. I have to tell you, you know, in watching now 27 Mark Pope games, the only thing I don't understand is his substitution pattern and specifically Amara Williams only had one foul tonight. He had one foul. Why does he only play in 27 minutes? These other teams, you know, Mark Sears played 35 minutes tonight. Your best player has got to play. Like, when you're trying to be great, your best player needs to play 35 minutes. But right now, we had, you know, Brea played 35 for us. Braya, why can't Williams. I don't. I don't understand it. I really don't. I don't get it. I'd rather have eight more minutes of Amari, even if he's a little fatigued, because the Garrison minutes just. They crush us. And I'm surprised because I thought at the beginning of the year that gap was not very far from those guys. But it has been so far. Like I said, I thought Kobe Braya did well. He was 7 for 17, but he was. I mean, it was clear Alabama, especially after those first few minutes, was going to be all over him. He still was able to create points. Great to see Carr play well. I mean, Carr again. Back to my minutes. Point. Carr plays 29 minutes. I mean, how's Car coming off a back injury? Getting two more minutes in Amari. I just. I don't understand. But Carr, he hit corner threes. We got to see that part of his game. I thought he. I really thought he played great. And then he kind of owned the Grant Nelson matchup. I mean, Nelson, who absolutely crushed us last time, was really not a factor tonight. Give Carr a lot of credit for that. Some of it, though, was foul trouble for Nelson as well. Good minutes by Perry. He went one for seven from three. Travis had about three of those were open. You got to hit those. But besides that, I saw a lot I liked. He wasn't scared. He went to the basket. I thought he played well. You know, defensively, he just kind of is what he is. He's not. He's not able to stay in front of these guys, and that's going to be a problem. But when he get. If he can hit the shots and attack like he does, you can still make that work. I thought Colin Chandler gave some good minutes as well. Trent Noah, it was not a great Trent Noah game. I think his, the athleticism was a little bit of an issue for him. I mean, this Auburn, or excuse me, Alabama team is really athletic at each position and our guys that were not at that are not really good athletes. I think you, it kind of exposed them. If Ortega away has a normal Ortega away game, then this is a really close game. He just, I, I don't know, he just looked way off to me. You know, he was one for nine from the field. I counted four missed layups. Layups where I wouldn't say he was wide open, but layups where he could have finished and he missed all four of them. And then I think he really got rattled at the start of the second half when he picked up those two quick fouls. I just thought for the first time all year, I thought in the second half he looked really just disheveled and I hadn't felt like that all year. So, you know, if he has his normal 12 to 14 points, then this game is, is coming down to the, to the wire. It just didn't happen. My other takeaway is, and this isn't why we lost. And you know, if you listen to this show, I'm not a blame the refs guy, but I thought there was some really questionable officiating, especially in the second half. I mean, I, I just didn't understand the calls. And then the refs got, got whistle happy at the end. You know, the refs do that thing where, you know, they feel like they got to call it on both, both ends. I get the sense that maybe Alabama is a hard team to officiate. Their last four games have had like obscene amounts of foul calls, which is weird because they're not a team that in the last couple years has drawn a lot of contact. But I think they're playing more into doing that because you go, look, there have been huge amounts of foul calls in their last four games and the same was true tonight as well. So the Cats lose. There are now four games left. They are seven and seven in conference still as of this moment will be tied for the eighth seed. We will get it right now because we have a tiebreaker. But Mississippi State schedule opens up a little bit. So for me it comes down to this. Kentucky's got to beat Oklahoma Wednesday night. It's not like you got to win to make the tournament, but if you want to not play on Wednesday, we got to go to Oklahoma and get a win. They Want it home today to Mississippi State. That's a big win for them. They probably see that game in Norman as their chance to make the NCAA tournament. So we got to win. I think that game Wednesday becomes very important. Have to beat LSU at home and then you know, if we could steal one of Missouri and Auburn that'd be great. But the next big thing is to go win a road game. And we, we haven't looked great on the road. I know we won in Knoxville, but we lost to not, you know, an average Georgia team, an average Vandy team, an average to bad Texas team. We're going to have to go get one of these on the road and I think Wednesday night is the one that we got to find a way to get. 859-280-2287 we're going to take your calls. A disappointing loss, not so much in the result. I thought we were going to lose but it oddly was a frustrating game to me probably because of the start. When you get up 20 to 9 you think hey man, this may come down to the end. And by the end of the first half it just didn't feel like we had what it takes to, to compete to the end. 859-280-2287 One more thing, Billy. That ref that followed Mark Pope down the sideline.

Billy Rutledge (11:48)

Yeah, what was that?

Matt Jones (11:49)

What a joke. Refs I there are very few people in this world that take themselves more seriously than college basketball officials. And the he should be fine. That referee, any referee that follows a coach staring at him, you are asking to try to cause in confrontation which is the exact opposite thing that a referee should do. And Mark Pope of all coaches is about the least yelling one I've seen. And when you're following him, kind of daring him to talk to you, you are on an ego trip. And that referee was completely on an ego trip. He ended up not giving Mark a technical, but he wanted to. And I hate when referees do that. College basketball referees, not all of them, but most of them are the most egotistical power trip people in sports. I'm serious. Like now you meet them off the court, most of them are very nice but they get on that court and part of it is they take too much abuse from coaches. Coaches yell at them too much but that doesn't give them like they act like they're kings of the world sometimes. And you saw that with that guy tonight. 859-280-2287 we'll take a break and be right back. It's a Local Toyota dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. 859-280-2287. The text machine is 772-774-5254. One person writes Matt, I'm tired of these refs. They cheat. Tonight we had the cheating and cheatingest ass refs we've ever had. I don't know if I'd say that, but I don't think they cheat. I think they're human beings and their predispositions or their temperament comes into play. You know, I, I, I there. I didn't like the way the game was called in the second half. I thought we were at the bad end of the whistle in the second half. I didn't think though it would have changed the outcome. But you know, I mean Travis Perry got fouled on his three. They didn't call it then I thought the art, the Alabama guy did not get fouled. Sears. I think he did get fouled. But I don't know how you call one and not the other. I, I don't. To me, you, you either call them both or you call neither of them. Things like that. You know, that inconsistency is. As a fan, what drives me crazy. But I'm more cons. I mean people make mistakes. My concern is about the ego of officials and that tonight that was that Oglesby who followed Pope. I don't know. I was that Ogles. Whoever it was, that dude, that's, he should be fine. I really believe that, that, that, that officials just should not do that. One person writes, Matt, do you think at our best we're just not as good as Alabama? No, I think Alabama is a notch above us. Even at our best, I do think we could beat them in an individual game. We almost beat them in rup. I think if we end up getting everybody, everybody back and we were to play them in the SEC tournament, I think we could win. I do think their best is better than our best. But, but that's okay. I mean I think there's an. I think Auburn and Duke are the best two teams. Then I think you've got a group right behind that that is next which is probably like Alabama, Florida and Houston. And then I think there's probably a group of 12 right below that and we're one of those. And we beat Florida, we beat Duke. We've lost Alabama twice. So in those games I think we have a chance to beat any of them. But we also can be beaten by people that Aren't very good. And that's. That's what's frustrating about this team. But remember, we said this before the season. This is how Mark was at. This is how Mark's teams were at. At byu. They beat anybody. They could lose to anybody. That's just how they were. I don't know if he'll be like that his whole time here, but that's how he was there. So it may be kind of. There may be more inconsistency than. Than maybe sometimes we're used to. All right, who's up first?

Billy Rutledge (16:02)

Mark.

Matt Jones (16:03)

Mark. Go ahead, Mark. Hi.

Billy Rutledge (16:06)

I've got something both positive and negative. What would you want first?

Matt Jones (16:11)

Well, start with the positive.

Billy Rutledge (16:14)

Positive. This game was very encouraging to me because with the refereeing, if we get some honest, competent refs in any game in the tournament, I think we got a great shot.

Matt Jones (16:29)

But we weren't going to win tonight either way. I mean, let's be real. We lost by 13. All right, so we didn't lose because of a riff. I mean, let's just be real. We didn't. We didn't lose because of a riff.

Billy Rutledge (16:47)

Okay.

Matt Jones (16:49)

I mean, do you disagree with that moment?

Billy Rutledge (16:52)

Well, I know it affects momentum, and.

Matt Jones (16:55)

So we lost by Thursday. We were lost. We were. We were losing most of the game after the beginning. So I want us. I want to be able to be critical, but we also have to be fair. And we can't just act like, you know, it was a call here or call there. We were down double digits almost all of the second half.

Billy Rutledge (17:16)

I agree with you on that. I just see it as a factor, not a big one. But the. The bad is. And this is. Even in our big win over Vandy, there are so many lazy passes just driving me absolutely ape.

Matt Jones (17:34)

I agree with you. I mean, we do have some. We do make lazy passes. I think sometimes when the pressure comes, there comes a point where we, you know, we, we. I agree. I think that's the way to put it. We do have lazy passes.

Billy Rutledge (17:50)

Thank you.

Matt Jones (17:51)

Appreciate the call. There you go. He makes his statement and then that's it. What were you gonna say?

Billy Rutledge (17:57)

Yeah, I was just gonna say I think away had a couple of those lazy passes and the second half especially.

Matt Jones (18:02)

Yeah, he. His mind was not in it in the second half and I don't really know why. I think. I think he got those two fouls back to back. I think he thought they were both bad calls and I think it made him. I think. I think it probably took him mentally out of the game, honestly. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (18:17)

Mitch.

Matt Jones (18:17)

Mitch. Go ahead, Mitch.

Billy Rutledge (18:21)

Hi. The. The officiating was bad tonight, but the announcing was even worse. Jimmy Dykes and Carl Ravage are the worst announcing duo that ESPN has to offer. Carl Ravitch thinks it is Sunday night baseball. He has no idea what's going on. And Jimmy Dice can do nothing but stupid alliterations and gimmicks. That's all he is. Jimmy's jet rim run paint touch. That's all he's got. I am so sick of it. We have to find better announcers.

Matt Jones (18:49)

We've gotten him a lot. So you're not. You're not a. You're not a fan?

Billy Rutledge (18:54)

No. This the guy doing Arkansas game, John Shifrin. He is fantastic. He brings the juice. He understands the flow of the game. Carl Ravitch, at multiple points, said the wrong thing on the broadcast. At one point, we were diving for a loose ball, and they called it. They called a timeout, and he said, oh, possession arrow to Kentucky. Like, he's on the floor supposed to be calling the game, and he has no idea what's going on. It's every single time.

Matt Jones (19:20)

I.

Billy Rutledge (19:20)

They. They're the worst.

Matt Jones (19:23)

All right. Anything else? Oh, no, that's it. That's fine. I understand. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate the call. We do get Jimmy Dykes a lot. I mean, you know, there have been years where it was Tom Hard and Jimmy Dykes. It's been Carl Ravich a lot this year. We do get him a lot. I. I don't mind him. I think what I do like about Jimmy Dykes is I think he knows Kentucky's team very well. It's frustrating when you get announcers that clearly don't know your team, and I think he does. But, you know, there's a lot of gimmicky stuff with Jimmy, and I think some people don't enjoy that. He doesn't bother me. I think there are worse guys. I liked hearing Dick Vital. Yeah. How was he? Yeah, I mean, I feel like, to me, his voice gave out a little bit as the game went on, but just, you know, I like him. Dick's like, he's been doing this for 40 some years, and I think, you know, I think there's something to be said for him still going out there and doing it, and he still. He knows the game. And so I. I think having him as a third person on one game a week, I think that's a good role for him. And I thought. I thought it was nice to get to hear him. I. I listen, he's the kind of the voice of my youth. So who's next?

Billy Rutledge (20:36)

Tyler.

Matt Jones (20:37)

Tyler. Go ahead, Tyler.

Billy Rutledge (20:40)

What's going on, Matt? I tell you, man, every time right before Kentucky game, doesn't matter who the opponent. I tell myself I'm gonna be calm, cool and collected. And then the game starts.

Matt Jones (20:50)

I know what you mean.

Billy Rutledge (20:51)

Exact opposite. So, first of all, going back to that last caller, you don't want to deal with the announcers. Think up Tom Leach and Goose Givens.

Matt Jones (21:00)

Yeah, it's easier to do now if you. I mean, like now in the world of DVR and. And all that, like, you know, it's. Well, I guess, actually, wait a minute.

Billy Rutledge (21:11)

You gotta listen on stream.

Matt Jones (21:12)

So you have to live that the way to do it is to listen on stream and then sync up your TVs if people haven't done it. So. But I agree with you. I mean, Tom and Jack, I think, are a great duo.

Billy Rutledge (21:23)

Oh, it just. It makes the game better. It's. It takes a little bit, a little bit of an effort, but it's worth it. And then the only other point I have is, man, I call me crazy, but we only shot 26, three balls tonight. And I get that they were hounding our guys, but we don't shoot. To me, we don't shoot the three ball enough. And the only way we were going to win tonight is shooting the three ball and making it. And I feel like I know Travis Perry was one of her seven, but, like, I don't think we shoot.

Matt Jones (21:50)

Keep shooting. Kobe Braya passed up open shots. Perry passed. There was that one possession where Perry passed up one, bray, it passed up two, and we ended up with Amari Williams throwing one at the buzzer. Like, shoot it. Like, I've said this over and over, but if it is Brea Perry, Almanor Carr, you know, Robinson when he's healthy, like, I don't care if you miss, shoot it. If you miss it, you miss it. Travis Perry was 1 for 7, but six of those shots were good. One of them was bad, but six of them were good. And I would say to you, keep shooting it, son, because I. There are a lot of shots we take that are not going to be better than Travis Perry or someone else. Open for three. Shoot it.

Billy Rutledge (22:34)

Oh, yeah. I don't know what play it was. It was in the second half, but I. I think Andrew Carr was open, but braille was even more open and he had the ball and he hesitated. And I literally, I screamed to shoot the ball and I was.

Matt Jones (22:47)

I'm with you and like. And some guys need to know. I mean, the two. The most frustrating play. I appreciate the call of the game. For me, the most frustrating place when Brandon Garrison got that rebound and tried to dribble coast to coast. What are you doing, kid? What are you doing? I love you, but what are you doing? There is almost no player on the team that we have that's good enough to go coast to coast. Maybe Lamont Butler maybe away, but Garrison pass. Amari did the same thing pass you guys. I mean, like, what. What are you thinking? Went. That drives me crazy. When especially that he had two guys ahead of him. It wasn't like he was at the front of the thing. He had two guys in front of him. He did not pass it. And then he didn't even come close to making the layup. It's like, come on, guys. Like, just, let's take good shots. And when the season's over, When I interview Pope, at some point during. After the season's over, which I'm sure I will probably, my first question is going to be to him. Like you said in the preseason, we need to shoot 35 threes a game. We shoot like 25 to 27 every game. Why. Why don't we shoot more of them? Because I. I don't really understand it. I don't understand why we don't shoot more threes. Because I just. If we take 35 instead of 27, we're probably gonna hit two or three more and all of a sudden it's a four point game, five point game rather than a 13 point game game. Take more threes. This is. That's what we're good at, especially now that we have a depleted roster. So I. I just don't get it. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (24:21)

Hunter.

Matt Jones (24:22)

Hunter. Go ahead, Hunter.

Billy Rutledge (24:25)

Matt. Billy, how are we doing tonight?

Matt Jones (24:27)

Doing good.

Billy Rutledge (24:29)

Yeah. I got three points for you. The first one we like. The reality is we weren't winning that game. Even if Amari wasn't bouncing off his foot or doing soft passes, even if we were hitting our shots, even if we could guard Mark Sears, the officiating was just terrible.

Matt Jones (24:44)

And you guys gotta. I mean, you do have to stop. Do you really believe. I mean, I'm not trying. Look, I think the officiating was bad too, and I'm gonna say it, but you can't really believe we were going to win that game if it was called. 100 down the middle. We lost by 13. Oh, we had. We had 13. Let me just say, we had 13 steals. That's the most steals we have all year. We have 13 steals. Kobe Bray had 20, Mari Williams had 17. Travis Perry had 10. We had a lot of guys play kind of above their heads, and we still lost by 13. Do you really think we would have won if the officiating was better?

Billy Rutledge (25:21)

No. And that's why I said that, you.

Matt Jones (25:23)

Know, I thought you.

Billy Rutledge (25:24)

Even if you were able to hit a shot, even if we were able to guard Mark Sears, even if we MRI wasn't turning the ball over every three possessions, the officiating just wasn't there for us. Like, that's reality is like they.

Matt Jones (25:35)

No, but. So you are saying. Wait a minute. You are saying that we lost because of the officiating? I'm.

Billy Rutledge (25:41)

I'm saying it's a reason. It's not the reason. We can shoot. We couldn't. We. We couldn't hit our shots. That's the reality. That's why we lost. And then the second point, the T is the tv. I mean, I wasn't a big fan of the TV review. I'm gonna have to listen to the radio the rest of the year. Like, it wasn't the fact of, like, how they were talking. It's just they were so dominant on Alabama and like, rarely talked about us. It was like 70% Alabama. I would almost want to say, well.

Matt Jones (26:09)

Now you know what everybody. Now you know what every other team in the SEC feels like when we play games, because most of the time it's the other way around. I mean, I listen, I love us, but, like, that's natural. You know why they did that? Alabama was winning and they're better than we are. That's why the announcers talk more about them. They're winning and they're better than we are, and we're in there at that arena. I just want us to be fair. I'm not. I mean, just be fair. Like most games Kentucky plays, the announcers are talking about Kentucky the whole time. It's just in this one, we're playing a better team on the road and they're beating us. That doesn't happen a lot. So that's why they talked about them.

Billy Rutledge (26:48)

Yeah, that's a good point. And I, and I don't like to be an all negative, so I will leave it one positive note. Seeing how Colin Chandler and how Travis Perry played, I'm not worried about next season offer as far as guards. I think they're going to make a big step and I think we're going to be just. All right, thanks, guys. Have a great Night.

Matt Jones (27:02)

Appreciate it. I was very encouraged by how they both played. I'm not ready to go that far. I still think we're going to need more guards, but the, the sort of development in the last three games of Colin Chandler is really positive. And then like I said, I, you know, I, I worry about how Travis is going to deal with the athleticism of SEC guards his whole career, but I love the way he's not scared. We had a couple of guys that look scared tonight. He did not. And I give him a lot of credit for that. He's going to. In order to be a big time contributor, he's going to have to make up for the fact that he's going to be limited on defense by being an offensive weapon. And you started to see a little bit of that tonight. Even though he didn't shoot the ball great, he took it to the basket. He would drive and pass. So there were some good signs I thought from him as well. And Chandler's a good athlete. Chandler probably guarded Sears better than anyone else we had tonight. It's just, you know, he didn't end up playing huge minutes.

Billy Rutledge (28:02)

So what's next year? Jasper Johnson, Colin Chandler, Travis Perry, Kirk Risa.

Matt Jones (28:08)

Well, first of all, you have to tell me whether Kerr's coming back. I kind of think he won't, but if he does, that's, I think it's owe a first, you know, away. You know, I kind of wondered if Chandler would be back, but now maybe, maybe he is. Perry will be back. I think I go get a couple guys in the portal. I mean, Jasper's going to, Jasper is going to be good, but I still think they got to get at least one or two guys in the portal. I mean, to me, Mark Stoops offense should have three guards and I think he agrees with that. Which means you need to have a lot of guards on the roster. We don't have enough guards on the roster this year. Now some of that's because three guys are hurt, but like, I don't think you'll see him go guard light going into next year. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (28:55)

Brad.

Matt Jones (28:56)

And they got money, by the way, to go get. I mean, they're going to go get one or two big catches in the Portal. I'm going to assume. Go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (29:06)

Hey, Matt. Billy. What's up?

Matt Jones (29:08)

What's up?

Billy Rutledge (29:09)

I got two things first of which I totally disagree with with the ref situation. I think if you go back and look at that game in the second half, there were some very crucial moments.

Matt Jones (29:23)

Where we were Only down. I mean, you really want to. Okay, but do you hear what you're saying? We were only down six. We were still down. I mean, in a, in a basket.

Billy Rutledge (29:34)

In a basketball game, six and four. I mean, what do you, did you.

Matt Jones (29:38)

Was there ever a point in this game? Let me ask you a question. Was there ever. Was there ever really a point in this game? You thought we could stop them?

Billy Rutledge (29:46)

Yeah, we were getting steals.

Matt Jones (29:49)

They scored 96 points. They scored 96. Okay. With 13.

Billy Rutledge (29:55)

A lot of that came off of a lot of that. A lot of the end of that came off some, some sloppy last minute threes.

Matt Jones (30:03)

They had 15 turnovers. We out. Well, we, we basically tied them in rebounds. They had 15 turnovers and shot 35% from three and still scored 96. I mean, look. Yeah, complain about the rest.

Billy Rutledge (30:23)

Of the lane and falling down. I mean there's, I mean you can't overcome that. I mean we're, we're, we're essentially playing six on five.

Matt Jones (30:32)

All right, what's your other point?

Billy Rutledge (30:37)

My other point would be if, if, if Alabama had Sears and Nelson down to injury, what do you think it would look like for them to come into rough?

Matt Jones (30:49)

Well, they'd probably lose, but I'm not really sure what your point is because they, we played each other full on and lost in rupt to them.

Billy Rutledge (30:58)

I mean, it was a bang bang game. The point is.

Matt Jones (31:01)

I know and I agree it is a bang bang game.

Billy Rutledge (31:03)

Alabama, Alabama is just not like head and shoulders above us is the point. I'm trying to.

Matt Jones (31:10)

All right, well, I appreciate the call. I mean they did beat us at rup, which is very hard to do. At least, you know, normally. That was a great game. It was a bang bang game. We could have won it. And I do think we can beat them. I also don't think if we're. I feel, I feel like I'm having to be. I'm just trying to be realistic. We're 18 and nine. We're, we're really good and we can beat anybody. But you know, they've got basically the same team coming off a final four. They're good. They're good and they're better than us. But that doesn't mean we can't beat them in a given game. I think if we are healthy, we can beat anybody in the country. We also, to be fair, have lost at home to Arkansas, have lost to Georgia Vandy and a Texas team that's down 20 to South Carolina right now. Who hasn't won a game in the sec? So we do need to be balanced when we're saying what this. This team is. 859-280-2287. What were you going to say?

Billy Rutledge (32:14)

I was just going to say that the free throw numbers were pretty similar tonight, despite all the talk about officials. I mean, they shot 25, Kentucky shot 22. But I was as frustrated as the caller on that Sears one, the one where they didn't frustrates me.

Matt Jones (32:28)

The set, the Sears and Perry one is frustrating, but we. I totally agree with that, but I think we were down eight at that moment because I. If. Or maybe we were down. I don't know, we were down like 8 to 11, something like that. I agree with you. There were bad calls. Okay, there were. But let's. I thought two of the worst calls were on away, but he was playing terribly. So I'm not sure that having him in would have helped us a lot because he didn't play well tonight. This was the worst game he's had at Kentucky. So, you know, my mom just texted me and said I seem frustrated. I'm not frustrated. I just.

Billy Rutledge (33:05)

You sure it's okay?

Matt Jones (33:08)

There have been games. There have been games where I think we lost because of officials. I think we lost to North Carolina in 2017 in part because of what happened officiating in that game. All right. I think there were calls in the 2015 Wisconsin game that were important. When you lose by 13, I'm just not gonna say it's because of the officials, but maybe other people are. 859-280-2287. We'll take a break. Be right back. It's the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. 859-280-2287. One person writes, Matt Sears knows how to work the whistle. It's annoying, but it's also a fact. That's true. Now that I agree with Mark Sears, one of the best players in the country. Getting a whistle. He is. And there's a skill to that. There is. There is a skill to that. It's. De'Aaron Fox is really good at that. At Kentucky, there's a skill. Go back and watch some of that game. When we beat UCLA in Memphis in the Sweet 16, he plays amazing, but he also draws a lot of fouls because he's good at it. He knew how to make a move and get a call and then hang and like, he. He's good at it. And Sears is great at it. So Sears draws fouls that maybe another person wouldn't get and he's just good at it. There's a. There's a talent to that. I don't think it's flopping exactly, but it's like a first cousin of flopping, Billy. It's like, yeah, draw contact. You got contact, but then like, make it really show up.

Billy Rutledge (34:49)

Does Kentucky have one of those players?

Matt Jones (34:51)

I don't think we got one this year. I don't. I think away doesn't are. This group does not like contact. Trent Noah is the. And Colin Chandler oddly seemed like the two guys that are okay with it. Our guys don't like. I mean, there was a play, we ended up stopping them on the second shot, so it didn't matter. But Billy, do you. Do you remember the play we had like four guys reach down for the ball and we didn't get it. And Alabama dove and they got it.

Billy Rutledge (35:18)

Yeah. Nobody does now.

Matt Jones (35:20)

They missed their second shot, so it didn't matter. But once again, we bend down and they get on the floor and like, our guys just. Kobe Bray doesn't like contact. Jackson doesn't like contact. Owe doesn't like contact. These guys just don't like contact. Even our bigs don't like contact, you know, and so we don't draw as many fouls. Even though as you made the point, we did shoot a decent number of free throws. One person writes, Matt, what did you think about the USA chant at Amare Williams? Don't like it. Didn't like it. You know, everybody can say, oh, take a joke. There's a lot of things you, you could say to somebody that might even make you laugh that you shouldn't say. Like, why are you. I mean, I'm all for America, you know, I'm American as anybody, proud American, whatever. But like, you don't have to be like, rude. First of all, Alabama, you have a player that's from Nigeria.

Billy Rutledge (36:15)

Yeah, Nigeria.

Matt Jones (36:16)

Like you have a player from Nigeria. But the other thing is, like, I, I'm okay with the idea. Like I said the other night, I was okay with the booing with the Canadian thing and the atlant, but this is like calling out an individual person. And I just don't love chanting USA at a kid from Britain who is in the USA playing basketball. I just don't like it, you know, I mean, am I, like, angry about it? No, I'm not going to yell at him, but I just think it's unnecessary. I think this, you know, you got to be careful because in this it starts to drift and people start talking about politics. I mean, I said I didn't like it, Billy. And, like, there were 10 references to Joe Biden like that had anything to do with it. It's just like, you don't have to do that. You can yell at Amari Williams for something without going, usa you for Britain. Yeah. Like, you don't have to do that. And I think it would actually look much worse if he was from, like, Nigeria, like, their player, or in today's world, Mexico, Like, I just don't like it. You don't need to do that. I mean, again, I'm not gonna, like, go yell at the people in the student section. I just think it's kind of like the most sort of behavior that. Yell something else. You know, make a joke about being from Britain. Like, I don't know.

Billy Rutledge (37:32)

Not a lot of creativity in these SEC student sections.

Matt Jones (37:36)

Yeah. Yell about tea and crumpets or something. I don't know. Who's up next?

Billy Rutledge (37:39)

Richard.

Matt Jones (37:40)

Richard. Go ahead, Richard.

Billy Rutledge (37:42)

Hey, so like you said earlier, we want to be fair but responsible. And I think the SEC gets hyped up as the best conference in college basketball. Maybe rightly so, but I think if they want to do that, they need to hold up on their examination. And that means commentators, refs. But what people aren't talking about is coaches. NATO's. I was at the Alabama game at Rupp, and NATO was. He did not stop talking to the officials. Then when we played A and M, Buzz Williams, the most childish thing I've ever seen, he gets up and yells at the refs because Jackson Robins smiled at him. And then he tried to do it again. And if he had gotten that again, he would have been ejected. So he's trying to get a player, his former player, ejected from the game. So I think that there is a lack of character in some of these SEC coaches that people don't talk about. It affects the game.

Matt Jones (38:41)

I don't think it's just. You're right. I think you're right. But it's also true of every. It's not just sec. I mean, I, for three years, went to Duke games and I watched Mike Shashevsky, arguably the greatest coach of all time, treated referees like they were subhuman people. And I'm like, why do you do that? Why do you. Well, I mean. But I mean, you. That we. You could turn on any game. Like, I don't even know who's playing right now.

Billy Rutledge (39:07)

Right now.

Matt Jones (39:08)

Cal's. I'm sure Cal's doing it like, there's just an accepted level I. There's an accepted level of treatment of. By. Of referees by coaches that I don't understand well.

Billy Rutledge (39:18)

So I guess I would just say this. When Coach K retired, we had a golden opportunity to hit a reset on sliminess. And I think it's passed. You've got great young coaches like Pope. You've got great old coaches like Pitino, who, you know, Pitino has his own thing, but I. I like the way his team plays.

Matt Jones (39:36)

But he yells at refs, too. He screams the whole time.

Billy Rutledge (39:39)

He yells the refs, but I mean justifiedly. So I'm not mad. I'm not mad at Nate Oats for yelling at refs when they're wrong. I'm yelling at. It's about, you know, him trying to get the rest to be wrong. You know, that's a completely different thing. And that's what he does. That's what he did when he was at rough. That's what he did tonight. There was a video of, I think, the foul on Sears where the ref looked to NATO. NATO gets up and waves his fist and then the ref calls the foul like a second or two after the shot. And he's looking at both. I mean, even if that's not him looking for the approval to call foul the terrible. Look, you know, I feel okay, I appreciate the call.

Matt Jones (40:18)

I got you. I got you. I got your point that, you know. No, I mean, I got it. By the way, tomorrow is tomorrow. Tomorrow a senior day for UK women. Do we not. Do we play Tennessee on the road?

Billy Rutledge (40:31)

It's lsu, I believe, tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it's senior night.

Matt Jones (40:35)

Let me check, because don't we still. We still play Tennessee at home, don't we? How's it Senior night? Because I keep saying it's senior night. Are they. What? Well, anyway, that's going to be a great game tomorrow. Yeah. So they're doing. Yeah, they're also senior night. So why are we doing Senior Night?

Billy Rutledge (40:54)

Well, the game versus Tennessee is Fandomonium night, while the game versus LSU is senior. It's really strange.

Matt Jones (41:01)

Have we ever done that before where we do Senior Day on the next to last game of the year?

Billy Rutledge (41:06)

I'm not sure that.

Matt Jones (41:09)

Isn't that odd? Well, it's gonna be an awesome environment tomorrow. I'm definitely going to be watching Mulky coming in. I think we got. We can beat lsu. I don't know if we will, but we can. I think that's going to be a great atmosphere yeah. Mari Williams, by the way, as somebody points out, had four second half turnovers. So even though he played really well though, that's. That's a lot of turnovers in my one half. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (41:33)

Michael.

Matt Jones (41:34)

Michael. Go ahead, Michael.

Billy Rutledge (41:36)

Hey, Matt. First time a long time.

Matt Jones (41:38)

Who. What's up?

Billy Rutledge (41:40)

I'm calling out Monro, North Carolina from Berea. But real quick, when Pope makes his adjustments within 15, 16 minutes. First half, I feel like the whole team just collapsed. I. I feel like his starters need to play four and it. When he puts Garrison in there, they just, it's. They fall apart.

Matt Jones (42:08)

Well, I mean, you have to play some subs, right? But I. The thing that's bothered me are the like line changes. Now, he didn't do as much of that tonight, but I, you're right. I mean, we take a huge drop when we get to the subs. We just do. And I, you know, I don't know what you do about that. I will say this. You're going to have to play subs. But I look and I see Amari Williams, 27 minutes. And I think, why, why is that? Not like 33, right?

Billy Rutledge (42:37)

When they were, when, when they were up 30 to 12, I felt 30, 18. They just, I feel like they just. I mean, well, that's.

Matt Jones (42:46)

You're right. That's when we did the second. You're exactly right. So that was the second wave of subs. And you are right. The game changed during that one. I think you're exactly right. That was a really bad defensive lineup too. It was like Almanor Perry, Noah Garrison in at the same time. And that's just that that lineup can't guard.

Billy Rutledge (43:07)

I love Pope, but as far as him being an analytics guy, I feel like he should keep the starters out way more than he needs to be.

Matt Jones (43:16)

Yeah, I think that's a good point. I appreciate the call. I had somebody who has been to some Pope practices tell me or. No, not been to practice. Excuse me. Talk to him. They were in town a couple weeks ago and he said to them he's very big on hyper efficiency. Basically how many minutes can I play my guy to get him at a hundred percent capacity for the longest time? And that's all nice and I'm sure he has many more numbers than I do about it, but I'd rather have 80% Amari Williams than 100% Brandon Garrison right now. And I don't say that to be mean to Brandon Garrison. It's just a fact. I think 80% Brandon Garrison is going to give us more success. To me, 80% Amari Williams than 100% Brandon Garrison.

Billy Rutledge (44:08)

But playing the bench has developed some guys. I mean, like Colin Chandler, I didn't.

Matt Jones (44:12)

Think he is, but like. All right, so look at, let's look at the minutes here. So I would say you had Colin Chandler, 13 minutes. I'm fine with that. Almanor, 10 minutes. Fine with that. But maybe Garrison should be 8 instead of 13. Maybe Noah should be like 15 instead of 23. Right. I'm not saying don't play them, but we didn't have one player play 30 minutes. They had two guys play 30.

Billy Rutledge (44:38)

Oh, Brea played 35.

Matt Jones (44:40)

Yeah, we. Well, I'm sorry, we had, we had one one. Right.

Billy Rutledge (44:44)

Yeah.

Matt Jones (44:45)

The rest of them, I, I just. And if Brea can play 35, then why can't these other guys? It's not like Bray is in the greatest shape.

Billy Rutledge (44:55)

Yeah.

Matt Jones (44:56)

You know, so, I mean, he's in good shape, but I mean, it's not like he's a crazy good athlete. Like, I feel like if Brea can play that many minutes, then so can can Amari. Oh, way. I think probably would have. He was just in.

Billy Rutledge (45:06)

Well, like you said, Carr had back issues. He still played 29.

Matt Jones (45:10)

Exactly.

Billy Rutledge (45:11)

Yeah.

Matt Jones (45:12)

I mean, if you play car 29, how's Amari only playing 27? I mean, car. Car was only playing 14 a week ago, you know.

Billy Rutledge (45:20)

Yeah.

Matt Jones (45:21)

Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (45:22)

Cat Head.

Matt Jones (45:23)

Cathead. Go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (45:26)

Hey, guys, what's going on? Hey, I gotta. I got a statement and a couple questions. Okay, first of all, let's get a little, let's get a little wrestling. So that's right, there you go. Our freshmen, they're not going to get the calls, right?

Matt Jones (45:44)

I mean, this, it's not whether bad.

Billy Rutledge (45:48)

Calls this, that they, they, they've not got that status yet. So they're not gonna get the call. They're not gonna get the calls, and they're gonna get the cow calls on them, you know, so that's my statement. My question is preparing to go to Nashville again for the SEC tournament. Are we going to win a game? Well, and, and, and, and, and where is Alice Bluegram playing?

Matt Jones (46:21)

I will get you the answer to the second question. I don't know it off the top of my head on the first question. Yeah, I think we. First of all, if we play Wednesday, we would play South Carolina. I think we'll win that. Although they're about to win their first game, as I predicted, Billy Friday on ksr, and I think we win on Thursday. If we start Then either. So, yes, I do think we win one now. Do I think it looks like we may have to play Auburn on Friday at 1? Do I think we win that? I don't know. I don't know about that. Yeah, I don't know about that. We'll see. Yeah.

Billy Rutledge (46:59)

You know, we're. We. We are embattled. Like, we. We got very few players now like we fel. We did tonight. We have no more bodies.

Matt Jones (47:09)

Yeah, we don't. You're right. You're exactly right. I appreciate the call. I do think, though, you know, when we get into SC or into the NCAA tournament, I think it's gonna be nice, Billy, to not place these teams anymore. Like, everybody's so good. Yeah, it's gonna be nice to play. Play somebody else. I have to say, I don't know. Very few people listen to this. Will care about this. But Bill, you know the rest on in ovw, the wrestlers, I like the. Yeah, the two guys that spin around. Right, right. Omaha. The Omaha college basketball team brought them in to give the pregame pump up speech to their team tonight. And I wish you could see the outfits they're wearing.

Billy Rutledge (47:56)

Oh, they came in outfits. Of course.

Matt Jones (47:58)

Yes. And it included this line, which I love. First of all, the name of their speech, Billy, was called nothing succeeds like success. Okay, that's the thing. They say things like that. And then it started with this live. If you're anything like me, and I know I am, you woke up this morning being awake.

Billy Rutledge (48:21)

Oh, wow. Talk about motivational.

Matt Jones (48:24)

Before I go, how motivational is that?

Billy Rutledge (48:27)

I'm awake.

Matt Jones (48:28)

You need to look at that video. You need to look up there.

Billy Rutledge (48:30)

Is that online?

Matt Jones (48:31)

Yeah, it's. I'll send you the picture of it. It's great. All right, let's do one more and we'll take a break. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (48:36)

Michael.

Matt Jones (48:37)

Michael. Go ahead, Michael.

Billy Rutledge (48:40)

Hey, what's up, fellas? I've kind of building off of what the other gentleman, the other Michael said earlier when he mentioned the substitutions. I got. I don't understand. You can make it make sense for me how it can be up 13 points, he makes these subs. And then I think Alabama went on a 27 to 2 run. And I'm just trying to understand Pope stocks. Why don't you call a timeout, try to regroup, re. Put yourselves right or your starters back in. They're warmed up. You're up 13. I mean, build. You've got your playing Alabama. Build a higher lead than that. I mean, can you.

Matt Jones (49:26)

Yeah, I Mean, I think it's going to be a question. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's going to be a question I want to ask him when the year is over. I mean, I. There's clearly a philosophy behind it. I think the philosophy is what I just said a minute ago, which is he kind of wants to play the players to get 100% efficiency as much as they can. But I don't know, I feel like when there's a big gap between your number one and your number two, maybe you can't do that quite as much.

Billy Rutledge (49:55)

Yeah, but I mean, we could have. I'm not. I do agree with you on the ref side. Based off of us losing, we can't just blame it all on the refs. I was getting really ticked off at how the rest were calling the game. But it's not just the refs. I mean, we were up. I mean, it was. I think we got to a point where we were down three. We could have tied the game and there was like four or five possessions. We just went empty. Nothing. Nothing.

Matt Jones (50:20)

No, you're right. That was. Right. Yeah.

Billy Rutledge (50:24)

Yeah. But I. I do the Wisconsin thing you mentioned earlier, I was looking that stuff up today, thinking about that. I don't even know why that came up into my head, but I was just like, man, that Wisconsin still just eats at me. But anyways, y'all have a good night.

Matt Jones (50:40)

Appreciate the call. I've always believed that if we beat Wisconsin and we won the NCAA tournament that year, I think Cal probably retires a couple years before and like Kentucky fans, I mean, he would have. It would have been the best year in 40 years. It would be a completely different. It'd be interesting to see in an alternate universe what the Kentucky world was like if we beat Wisconsin, like, it would just be a different world. I mean, like, we would have. Cal, I think nationally would be looked at differently. Like, the whole thing would just be completely different. By the way, it looks like Arkansas won, didn't they, against Missouri.

Billy Rutledge (51:19)

Yeah. Big win for Cal.

Matt Jones (51:20)

Big win. So that probably will get them in the tournament. So that is a big win for Cal. That's probably a. Makes the tournament victory for Arkansas. We'll take a break. 859-280-2287. Cats lose to Alabama on the road. We'll do our final segment right after this. It's local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is a local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Duke beat Illinois Billy by 45 points tonight.

Billy Rutledge (51:49)

Geez.

Matt Jones (51:50)

43110 to 67 on a neutral court. That was the freest money of all. Duke does not lose. Duke just does not lose in Madison Square Garden. It's like a home game for them.

Billy Rutledge (52:02)

Illinois is not bad.

Matt Jones (52:03)

I mean, well, they're 43 points worse. Worse than Duke. Two other things, one of which people may or may not care about, the other one may make them mad. But I still have to say it because it, it's funny. First of all, Ellie De La Cruz, two at bats today. Billy in the spring training game, two home runs, one left handed, one right handed.

Billy Rutledge (52:25)

Wow, hot start. It's a good thing.

Matt Jones (52:27)

First game, first spring training game. Yes. Whoever got me that bobblehead, Whoever did that, that was very nice. And second, your boy, your hero, Elon Musk.

Billy Rutledge (52:38)

Oh, you're gonna say Tom Brady.

Matt Jones (52:40)

Is that your heroes? Tom Brady, one of them. What about Elon Musk?

Billy Rutledge (52:45)

No.

Matt Jones (52:46)

Okay, well, he, I don't know if you saw this. He sent an email or his little people to every federal employee today that said by Monday night at midnight, you have to send the what you did last week and the five things you accomplished. All right?

Billy Rutledge (53:02)

Okay.

Matt Jones (53:03)

To every federal employee. I am friends with federal employees who got the email. Here's the only problem. He sent it from an outside mail server. Outside the government. That's not secured. So now, come on. The head of the FBI, the Secret Service, the DEA and the CIA has sent out a memo tonight telling their workers. Please do not respond to the email because you may end up with security and counterintelligence.

Billy Rutledge (53:32)

Oh my God.

Matt Jones (53:33)

Nice job, Elon.

Billy Rutledge (53:37)

Are you going to send me your five things you accomplished?

Matt Jones (53:40)

He is the worst. The worst. I mean, did nobody like. How does he send that to all the government workers from an outside email address?

Billy Rutledge (53:51)

Well, he's, he's still learning. He's, he's still getting.

Matt Jones (53:54)

But somebody shouldn't be learning. Tough guy. Never mind. Shut up. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (53:59)

Let's go to Jerry.

Matt Jones (54:02)

Jerry. Go ahead, Jerry.

Billy Rutledge (54:04)

Before I get my point about the game, I'm just curious, did Musk send those emails to the people that supervise the SpaceX contracts?

Matt Jones (54:12)

We'll see. All right. No, I don't want to get into all that. I just made my point and now it's Saturday night and then since we lost, I just had to say that. Now let's get. What's next? Go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (54:21)

Well, you gotta laugh this with this stuff anyway.

Matt Jones (54:26)

You can't cuss. It's not time.

Billy Rutledge (54:28)

I know, I know. I'm sorry. I got It.

Matt Jones (54:29)

I'm sorry.

Billy Rutledge (54:30)

So. But as far as the game goes, when have we ever gone to Alabama and you could probably say Georgia and Auburn as well and gotten a good whistle. We always get bad officiated. Alabama, that's. It's. It's baked in the cake. I mean, the biggest reason they lost is they didn't make the plays they needed to be out. That officiating was terrible, but it's always terrible when they play down Alabama.

Matt Jones (54:50)

Yeah. And it's so. Look, I'm sure somebody should do a study. Maybe they have. I think the home team always gets a better whistle, especially when the crowd is loud. That's just my view because it's just not. It's human nature, like it's human nature that the crowd, like the, the ref tends to go with the crowd.

Billy Rutledge (55:10)

Well, somebody said that there was a USA Today article. I never saw it, but one of their sports writers said he watched several SEC games this year and that the officiating was so overwhelming, home teams was so overwhelmingly good favorite that if you win a rogue in the sec, there's something special going on.

Matt Jones (55:30)

I think these. I think anytime a crowd is really into a game, the officials end up favoring the home team. I think that's just almost natural.

Billy Rutledge (55:40)

But. But yeah, I mean, I think that sequence there with Perry and. And then Sears getting that call was terrible. And then the other thing was. I can't remember who it was, but he, the Alabama player put his arm up and actually shoved the UK player down and they called the UK player for walking instead of a charge. Even vital picked that one up.

Matt Jones (56:02)

Yeah.

Billy Rutledge (56:02)

You know, but like I said, that's just, it's just, it's. That's what it is. But actually the biggest reason they lost is that this, you know, they're shorthanded, they didn't make the plays. And until we get those guys back, it's just going to be. It's going to be a tough road to hoe.

Matt Jones (56:17)

Totally agree. Appreciate the call. I mean, it's just. It is. I mean, this team. If this was the team going into the NCAA tournament, then I'd be like, hopefully we can win one, and if we win two, it's great. But this isn't going to be the team. I think we're going to have Butler. I'm going to just make a guess. We have Butler for the Auburn game. Might even have him Wednesday. But I think the Auburn game is more likely Robinson. I hope we get him by the SEC tournament. That's the way that's the way I'm looking at it. And then it's a different team with those guys than it is with what it is right now. Let's do four more. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (56:53)

Joe is next.

Matt Jones (56:54)

Joe, go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (56:56)

Quickly, Matt, on the ladies game tomorrow. I just assumed George's amore's parents or flying in from Australia, and maybe that's.

Matt Jones (57:05)

The reason why apparently the women. Somebody sent. Somebody sent me a message. The women always try to do their senior day on the last weekend home game. I didn't know that. So.

Billy Rutledge (57:15)

Okay. All right. No, I'll just. I was just kind of curious myself. And quickly, Matt, on the game, I. I really think the key to our whole team is it's Garrison. I. If I'm Mark Pope, I'm giving him 10 minutes a game, and if he doesn't have four fouls and about three block shots when he comes out of the game, I'm looking at Garrison and saying, that's just how you help us win the game is by. Is by being physical and getting some block shots. And my gosh, Matt, I mean, it's just to the point. I think sometimes he just lets him lay it in and he just thinks he's doing his job. He's 6 foot 11. I mean, give me some block shots. I understand why Amari might be hesitant because he knows he's so important to the team that maybe he don't want to get in foul trouble. But, Garrison, you are expendable. You can help this team by giving me four fouls and three block shots a game. Thanks a lot, Matt. Goodbye.

Matt Jones (58:07)

Appreciate the call. I mean, I don't. I think there's. There's something to that. I. You know, I. I don't feel like the gap between those guys. Billy was as big at the beginning of the year as it is now. You know, I don't. And I don't know if that's just that Amari's really, really improved or if things have gone differently for Brandon. But, you know, I think you look at the roster, you could say, like, it feels like everyone on the team has improved or had to deal with an injury, like Cars had to deal with an injury. But I don't Just don't feel that way about Garrison. And I'm not sure why, but it just. It doesn't seem to have happened for him. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (58:44)

Amari's improved a lot. It's.

Matt Jones (58:46)

Barry's improved a lot. I mean, the freshmen have all improved. Yeah, you know, always been pretty consistent all year, but I think Almondor's improved. Right? Like, I think it's. It's really been Ben Garrison that's kind of taking a step back. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (59:02)

Sherry.

Matt Jones (59:02)

Sherry. How are you, Sherry? I'm good, Matt.

Billy Rutledge (59:06)

I just wanted to call. I don't really have nothing rude to.

Matt Jones (59:10)

Say about the game. I feel just like you did, and I think you do an excellent job.

Billy Rutledge (59:15)

With all the people that call in our man. And I wanted to say, whenever that guy called a while ago and said.

Matt Jones (59:22)

That, the announcers just kept talking about Alabama.

Billy Rutledge (59:26)

You really explained that so well, and I just wanted to brag on you.

Matt Jones (59:31)

Thank you very much. And I love me some Matt Jones.

Billy Rutledge (59:36)

Oh, thank you. You have a good night.

Matt Jones (59:38)

Much appreciate it.

Billy Rutledge (59:39)

Said it twice to make sure you heard it twice.

Matt Jones (59:42)

Well, good. That's very. That's very nice of her. Yeah. I mean, like, it's. We. We. It's natural. Like, you're gonna talk about the team that's winning. Like, that's just what's gonna happen. And then you're gonna talk about, you know, when you're in an environment and everybody in that environment is cheering for a team, you're gonna talk about the team that everybody's cheering for. And I would say to you, watch Kentucky play, like, South Carolina and ask yourself if you were a South Carolina fan, which team you think they're talking about more, you know?

Billy Rutledge (60:17)

Yeah.

Matt Jones (60:18)

By the way, the Texas head coach looks exactly like Gus Fring from Better. Yeah.

Billy Rutledge (60:23)

Breaking Bad.

Matt Jones (60:24)

Breaking Bad. He looks like. Just like him. All right, two more. Who's next?

Billy Rutledge (60:29)

I got the Shannon. He had no idea what I was talking about. Heather Fringer. Friggin.

Matt Jones (60:36)

I think it's freeing. All right, go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (60:38)

Heather is back.

Matt Jones (60:39)

Heather, go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (60:40)

Crap. Sorry. I was putting a piece of wood on the floor, and I. It felt fell out on me. Okay, first of all, I agree with you on Elon. He also.

Matt Jones (60:57)

Okay, I don't. I don't. I don't bring this stuff. I don't bring this stuff up to then get everybody's opinions. I'm not able to. I just say it and we move on. So go ahead. Okay, well, all right, we'll go past that.

Billy Rutledge (61:08)

I was also just wondering about this substitution thing. I don't want to complain. I love Pope, but it seems like it's just the timing of. Of when he subs out, like, within the first, you know, few minutes. And I've been getting crap on Twitter about it, but, you know, talking about their age and they're older, but crap LeBron's 40 and he plays, you know, but I don't understand the time. And after just a few minutes of taking them all out, because that was a big, big difference in the plus minus. I'm sure when we were at 20 to nine and he took them out and put the others in and they scored 27 points on us. I, I just, I don't, I don't want to be frustrated, but I don't know why he does it.

Matt Jones (62:05)

Well, I mean, I, I agree. We've talked a lot about it. I appreciate the call. I, I, you know, these Dudes can play 30 minutes, but he clearly has a philosophy because we have not. He's done this all year and granted we've won games doing it, but I don't understand it, especially when there's a huge gap. I mean, I just think, you know, one thing like Cal, but, you know, you go look at Cal's rotations in the tournament, he's playing guys 33 minutes ago. I mean, he, he would get down to playing seven guys. When we won the national championship, we only played six guys. You know, the. Lloyd Vargas was the seventh and Kyle Wilcher was the eighth, but we basically went with six. You know, I feel like these guys can do it. Even the, even the platoon team, by the time you got to the tournament, they platoon for a half and then he played the best guys. So I feel like we can play the best guys. Just play them, you know, play them.

Billy Rutledge (63:02)

No load management games for Amari.

Matt Jones (63:03)

Yeah. And it may be different game guys each game. Right. Like it might be, you know, tonight Travis Perry was playing pretty well, so maybe you give him more minutes. We've had games. Noah played well, but like, I just don't ever, I'm never going to see a reason why Kobe bray until we get Robinson Butler back. You're. I'm not going to understand why Oa Brea and Garrison are not in every minute. You can have them in and then car as many minutes as his bat can take. Right. Like those four dudes should be in every second that they could that their bodies can go a little bit like last year. What do you mean?

Billy Rutledge (63:44)

Just like the, not the, the guys, the right guys not playing at the same time.

Matt Jones (63:48)

Yeah, well, yeah, that was, that was a little different, but you're exactly right. A little sort of similar. All right, who's next?

Billy Rutledge (63:54)

Jordan.

Matt Jones (63:55)

Jordan. Finish strong.

Billy Rutledge (63:57)

All right, Matt, so first I'm going to start with the Elama stuff.

Matt Jones (64:00)

Okay.

Billy Rutledge (64:00)

I know you don't want to talk about it.

Matt Jones (64:02)

No, you're not willing? No. You're not. If you want me to. Okay, go ahead. If you're a federal employee, I'll let.

Billy Rutledge (64:06)

You say I'm a federal employee. I actually did get the email today. It's from hr ofopm.gov so it's, it's actually from a legitimate source. So they are asking you to tell you to tell them what you did. Five things you did in the past week. So it's kind of weird, but.

Matt Jones (64:25)

Oh, it's. It's from a non secure server. I bet you get a message that tells you not to do it it. But anyway, go ahead.

Billy Rutledge (64:31)

Oh, well, we actually got a thing from our Washington D.C. and again, you.

Matt Jones (64:37)

Just wanted to make your comment and now you're keeping going. I want you to get onto the sports. Okay.

Billy Rutledge (64:42)

All right. For the sports. So I will say this about Kentucky. So everybody's complaining about Mark Pope and the way he's doing stuff, his rotations and stuff. But honestly, we played Alabama really good tonight and you had, you had your three leading scores kind of down. You know, Butler away was away, fouled out. And then you had Jackson Robinson not playing. We played that team good. I think Mark Pope has a perfect st offense going into the season. Everything we're doing right now is good. We're going to be an NCAA tournament team. People do not know how to play us. That's the problem with the SEC right now. That's why we're doing so good in the sec. People do not know how to play. Play that offense with Amari standing at the top of the key, passing the ball around, you know, just going around. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows how to play us right now. We're gonna be just fine. People need to be happy about what we're doing right now, what Mark Pope's doing right now. We're gonna be fine. Everything with this team, with Mark Pope leading, this team only got four games.

Matt Jones (65:51)

I mean, to be fair, sir, we only have four games left and we don't even know if two of our, if our two best players are going to be back yet. I think it's reasonable for people to not just say we're fine. I think it's reasonable for people to go, I don't know. I mean, you know, we haven't like Jackson Robinson, if he plays, which I think he will, but if he does, like, he may just start back in the postseason. I don't know how you can know that's going to work out. I hope it works out. I think if we're 100% healthy. We can beat anybody, but we don't know that's going to happen.

Billy Rutledge (66:25)

Mark Pope has that offense that people do not know how to defend. These other coaches, they do not know how to defend it. People have admitted it before and Kentucky is going to be fine. We are going to be fine.

Matt Jones (66:38)

All right.

Billy Rutledge (66:39)

We're going to be great.

Matt Jones (66:41)

All right. Well, I appreciate the call. Nothing was going to deter that guy's point. Point. Everything's gonna be I responded and he same thing again. You know, it's all right. Hey, listen, man. Feisty show sometimes for me, sometimes for everybody else. But I liked it. And congrats to South Carolina. Gets their first conference win, beats Texas tonight. That Texas loss is a tough one.

Billy Rutledge (67:06)

Just fell apart.

Matt Jones (67:07)

That Texas loss, that Texas loss may end up costing us. Like if we had won against Texas, I think we'd have a chance of finishing like as the six seed or five seed and we're now we might be the nine and play on Wednesday. That was a big loss, that Texas loss. Thank you all very much for listening. Support the women's team tomorrow. Big game against lsu. I'd tell you to go, but it's already sold out. You can't go unless you're going. And we'll have it on at the bar if you want to come by Monday. We're going to be in studio but then we will be at the bar Tuesday, Wednesday and and Thursday for the shows. Play Oklahoma Wednesday night. Four games left. We're getting into the time of the year that we all love. This is why we love basketball, is we're heading in very close to March. Cats lose tonight, but there's still a lot to happen. We'll see you later. This has been the local Toyota dealers KSR postgame show.