Billy (5:18)

I think it was Amari, but.

Matt Jones (5:21)

Excuse me, Amari. And by the way, I thought Amari was not good. Those were. The two guys I think really cost Kentucky tonight were Butler and Amari. I still don't. I still understand what Amari does on defense when he doesn't, like, contest shots. I mean, I don't get it, you know, at this point. And Mark Pope kind of seemed to suggest this in the last week. Maybe that's what they coach him to do. There was a huge play. Huge play. We're up one, and guy drives the basket, and he, like, jumps but doesn't raise his arms. And I, like, I don't get it. And poor guy has hands of stone. You know, if you go get. If you take your baby to meet the team, Billy, don't hand them to Marty. I mean, he just. Well, I'm just saying, he. Like, he had that one rebound, so. 68, 64. Actually, I said Robinson missed along, too. Actually, at 68, 64, Butler did a pump fake under the basket. He got under the rim, looked like he was going to finish. He missed it, but it fell right into Amari's hands. He had an open dunk, and, Billy, he just dropped it out of bounds.

Billy (6:29)

Yeah, it is puzzling with that guy.

Matt Jones (6:31)

He baffles me. I'm not sure there's ever been a Kentucky player that baffles me more. I mean, his numbers suggest that he's not just a good rebounder, that he's an elite rebounder. Like, he's, like, second in the country in rebounding stats. And yet when I watch him, I feel like he misses so many rebounds. And, you know, on the play where he got hit in the head like he does, he's got a dunk, and instead he pumps fakes and he gets hit in the back of the head. And he just perplexes me as a player. He really does. You know, on the one play where the guy drives and he doesn't jump, he gives up a layup. Then the next play, he gets a huge block, and you go, well, what? It just. He doesn't make sense to me. And Butler just had two games in a row. He keeps playing with his left shoulder, which makes me think maybe that's bothering him. I mean, I think clearly it is bothering me. I don't know if that's having an effect on how he plays, but I thought those two guys just did not play well. And then you throw in we don't have car. And if you listen to Pope after the game, he didn't say Carr is out for a bit, but he kind of. It kind of sounded like it. And he said he didn't think he had done right by car. Maybe suggesting that he brought him back too soon or, you know, that's gonna be tough. I mean, Almanor played well tonight. I thought Almanor filled him pretty well for him. But that, That'll be a. That'll be a bad loss in part on defense, but also just as a scoring option. Because while Almanor is a really. Has become a really good three point shooter, he has not shown the ability yet like Carr does to be able to score inside. And I think they really. I think they missed that when they don't have him. You know, a couple of highlights. Obviously away had that stretch that was really, really good. He kind of looked like a leader getting to the basket. You know, he had a big turnover there at the end as well though. But, but. And he missed a three that. I think if away hits that three, we win the game. It was what, 60, I don't know, 65, 64, whatever. And he gets. He shoot. We're up one and he has a three. I think if he hits it, we win. I saw some people online didn't like that he took the shot. I was fine with it. I mean, one of my overall points. On offense, we've got to shoot more threes. Like we are not good at going to the basket yet. I feel like we tried a lot. Whereas we are a good three point shooting team. Fire it. You know, Vandy took nine more threes than we did. How's that possible? Like we should. We should be leading. Unless we play Alabama. We should be leading every game in three point attempts. And we still, I mean, we still take it to the basket. And honestly, with the exception of away, I'm not sure any of our guys are really good at finishing at the rim. But we just, we insist on it and I want to see. So I was fine with that away 3 because I want those guys shooting more. That's their. That's their strength. But he misses it. I thought Trent Noah played really well. I did. I thought. There was a period in the first half where I felt like he was the only dude on the team going after loose balls and not being scared. Contact. One of the frustrating things when I played high school basketball, Billy, my friends would sometimes give me a hard time and call me. It wasn't a good nickname to have as A basketball player. They would call me Feathers.

Billy (9:56)

Oh, feathers.

Matt Jones (9:58)

Feathers. Because I would shoot like a high arching and they always would tell me how I wanted to avoid contact. And honestly, they were probably right. I would try to feather the ball in right. I felt like a lot of our guys were being feathers tonight, especially in the first half, except Trent Noah. He didn't seem to mind contact and he would throw himself in there. And this was a game where the rest were just letting them play. And he went out there and did a great job at sort of playing to the contact. I didn't understand at the end when they substituted him in on defense on that play. I don't really know why they did that. He's a freshman and like, you know, and he got taken to the basket and I don't know what that was, but. But that's not his fault. He was in the game. He did the best he could, but I thought he played really well in the minutes that he played and really gave an effort when the rest of the team was not. So it's a disappointing loss. And why it's disappointing is more of a big picture thing. We're three and three in the conference. We play at Tennessee on Tuesday. We can't assume we're going to win that game. I mean, now we've had these road trips where we lose the first one that we should win and then win the second one. We did it with Clemson and then Gonzaga. We did it with Georgia and the Mississippi State. So maybe we go down to Knoxville and get a victory. I'm not going to predict that. I think Tennessee is, for many reasons, a really hard matchup for us. Maybe the worst matchup for us in the SEC. So you could be 3 and 4 with John Calipari and Arkansas coming to town. And you, I mean, you want to look up must win in the dictionary, that would be there. But just bigger picture, you know, you sit there and you look at schedule and you go, okay, where are these wins coming from? Right? I mean, you. I think, you know, the NCAA tournament, we have what. We have 14 wins right now. We're 14 and five. I think in this SEC, we're probably in with 18 wins. Certainly 19, but probably 18, but you sit there and you go, okay, where are these obvious wins? We play LSU at home. All right, I'll give us that one. Right? We play South Carolina home. All right, I'll give us that one. We play Vandy at home. I know we lost tonight. I don't think we're losing to him. At home. All right, so you get that one. But there's probably not another game on the schedule that you would say, okay, well, we're definitely winning that one. So I mean, we got to go get some wins. We got to go on the road and get some wins. I mean, right now we're in 10th place in the SEC, right? We're, we're what, a third of a way of the way through the schedule. Six games and we're in 10th place in the SEC. If the tournament started today, we'd be playing on Wednesday. Now, I think we're better than that. We're going to have to go win these games. We still have four games left to play against Tennessee, Alabama and Auburn, three teams that are great. We still got to go to Oklahoma and to Texas and to Missouri and so got a host Ole Miss and we still gotta play Cal. You know, this is, this is not like gimme territory. So I think, you know, this game. My expectations got a little bit checked when we lost to, when we lost to Georgia because I felt like, look, if you're going to have a chance to contend in the sc, you got win this one and we lost it. They probably get further checked tonight. Okay, so we're not going to win the sec. I think it's going to be an uphill struggle to come in the top four of the sec. We still can, but I think it's going to be a struggle. I think you had to win at least one of these Georgia and Vanny games to do that. So now it's like, well, you got to come in the top eight. We don't want to play on Wednesday. We got at least play on Thursday. And we also want to have a seed in the NCAA tournament where you can do something right. You know, I actually think a 4, 5, 6 is not a bad seed. That's a seed where you can still make noise. When you get down to eight, nine, that becomes a lot more difficult and we got to make sure we avoid that. I'm, I'm concerned because we're. I don't think Carroll will play again this year. Carr may be out for a little bit. I, I mean, I don't want to think about the Arkansas game, but I think Carr is important for the matchups in that Arkansas game, and so we may not have him. You know, I'm not. I still think this team, this team at its peak is as good as anybody, which is why the NCAA tournament is going to be so weird. There's not going to be one team in that NCAA tournament, Billy, that I don't think Kentucky could be. You know what I mean? There's not gonna be one team I don't think they can beat, but there probably aren't gonna be that many teams that I don't think can beat us.

Billy (14:48)

They could lose in the first round.

Matt Jones (14:50)

No, you're exactly right. Like, we could play the overall number one seed in the final Four, and I would think we got a really good shot to win. I also think we could play a one seed against any team seated 13th and up, and they can beat us. So, you know, just gonna have to be along for the ride. I'll finish with this. I think defensively we are what we are. We actually held Vandy to 74. That should be enough to win. We did. We've lost, by the way, in every game we've lost outside of Rup, we've scored under 70. We're not beating anybody in the 60s, nobody. So really our offense is how we win or lose games. What disappointed me tonight was the effort. For 30 of the 40 minutes, I thought for 10 minutes, we not only had great effort, we had great execution. We looked amazing. But in the first 20 minutes and really the last eight, I thought our effort was just poor. And for a team like this, where execution and crispness and. And teamwork is how you succeed, we don't have individual superstars, so it's got to be a team, collective effort. You have to have effort. If dudes like this don't play with effort, we look like a high school team. And for about the last eight minutes of the first half, we kind of looked like a high school team. You can't do that. We cannot do that. And we haven't done it much this year, so I'm not, like, worried about it. But tonight, the effort for about 30 minutes of the 40 minutes was really, really poor. 859280, 22, 87. If you listen to Pope's postgame comments, he sounded pretty downtrodden on it. I think he was. I think that's his version of being angry tonight, Billy. You know, like, he barely said much. His sentences were short. He was. I want to say he was terse, but he didn't go very long. That was, I think, the closest I've seen to angry Pope. And I can see why, because I. It was a disappointing effort. All right, we'll take your calls. 859-280-2287. We'll take a break. Be right back. It is the local Toyota deer. Look at These people are like, give me a hard time. One of my friends listening that called me Feathers. That wasn't very nice. He's surprised I said it on the radio. You, this is true.

Billy (17:21)

Oh, I'll call you Feathers for the rest of my life.

Matt Jones (17:22)

I think it's only when I try to feather the ball in, which is what we were trying to do tonight. This is the local toy dealers KSR post game show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. 859-280-2287. Shout out to 8 year old Bo who texted the text machine Billy and asked what I thought of the game. Eight years old on the text machine. That's a good UK fan right there.

Billy (17:46)

Incredible.

Matt Jones (17:47)

Incredible. How about that? One person writes, matt, I stopped watching the game as soon as they banked in that three. I knew what was going to happen. I can't. I mean we have to like, we have to lead the country and banked in three, I think, I don't know. Did they bank in a three against Clemson? Because I know they banked in a three at Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and now this one. I can't remember if they banked in a 3 at Clemson, but I kind of think they did. We, I mean every loss this year they've hit a banked in three.

Billy (18:17)

I'm crazy.

Matt Jones (18:19)

I don't think there's been. I bet you if you look at our history, there are very few seasons we have four banked in threes against us and we've had four in the four of the five losses. I can't remember if there was one against Clemson but I, for some reason in my head I think there might have been. But I know there was one against Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama and tonight mean banked in threes are the worst. That means you missed it so badly it went in.

Billy (18:46)

There also wasn't a foul called for the first 12 minutes of the game.

Matt Jones (18:49)

See, I like that. You know, I saw people complaining on that one that Amare got pulled, that people say got pulled down. But the thing is I'm glad. I mean they didn't call it because they didn't call stuff like that the whole game. So I don't know how people expected them to after a whole game of not calling fouls to then call that one. Right? You just got to be tougher. This team is not tough, they are soft. Now part of that is because they're a jump shooting team so it's okay. But like you got to be tougher all these Guys, really, except Owe are not. And even Owe avoids contact sometimes. But, you know, he. He, I think, always tough. A lot of these other dudes, man, they just don't like to be hit any of them. They avoid contact so much. And I mean, obviously, the final telling thing was on that free throw at the end. We got four guys down there, and they didn't move. And the Vandy guy gets it. And even though we ended up getting the ball, it's like, how did you all not move? They move any of them. So it is what it is. Who's up first?

Billy (19:56)

Jason.

Matt Jones (19:57)

Jason. What's up, Jason?

C (20:00)

Doing well, man. Greetings from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A good friend, Heather from Pikeville. Yeah. This game in general, Amari Williams has to be the most frustrating individual I've watched in a long time. Dude has hands. You remember Marvin Stone? Marvin Stone had terrible hands. Amari Williams might be worse than Marvin Stone. That was. I. I don't get how the guy just can't hold on to the basketball.

Matt Jones (20:26)

He really does have bad. He has bad hands. He is. I texted this to Drew during the game, and I. You know, he does some things really well, so I'm not. And obviously I'm missing something because his numbers on rebounding are, like, through the roof. But I agree with you. He may be the most frustrating player I can remember in a long time because I'm like, yeah, just look and go, what are you doing? It's. It's amazing. Me because he's. He's a great athlete, but, like, you're right, man. In the hands, I feel like we drop a lot. I mean, I think we all. None of our guys have great hands, but he particularly sticks out.

C (21:07)

Yeah, no doubt. And as far as, like, 50. 50 balls, we have to be the absolute worst team in the NCAA about picking up 50. 50 balls, loose balls, anything. We just can't come up with them. I can't do it. And there was a bank three in the Clemson game, sir.

Matt Jones (21:23)

Oh, see, look at that. Five of them. I appreciate the call. How is that possible that there are five? I mean, should we just stop watching when someone banks in a three, that's it.

Billy (21:35)

End of the game right there.

Matt Jones (21:36)

It's unbelievable. And we. He's right about the loose balls. I mean, we get no loose. Well, I won't say no, but we don't get nearly. If they're 50. 50, but we lose, like, 80 to 20 on loose balls. Part of it is just, again, hustle. We reach. We don't go get these guys. Reach. They don't go get. You know, they reach, they don't dive. And that caught and that's. And the other teams do and they get them. Who's next?

Billy (22:04)

Matt.

Matt Jones (22:04)

Matt, go ahead. Matt.

C (22:07)

Hey, this is Matt from Brea, Kentucky and my dad, Shannon and I, we just have a huge, you know, love for the UK basketball and everything you guys do. But the, the three pointer is what wins games. And what we kind of want to know on your all's end, everybody's in, is like, how do we defend that? Because we have to stop the three. Not just against Vandy tonight or whoever we played against, but the whole season, especially in the NCAA tournament. I mean, we have to defend the three because that's what wins games.

Matt Jones (22:37)

All right, so. So first of all, I appreciate you. Listen, that's a. I think that's a great point. I mean, for. We took 23 threes, they took 33. So one of the things is appreciate the call. If they're going to take 10 more than you, you're going to lose. Because we hit nine, they hit 12, we shot from three. 39%. If we took 33, we hit 13. And all of a sudden take those free throws away at the end. No, I mean, no, we hit 13, we win. Like, we just don't take enough of them. Now as far as how to defend them, there are teams we play where I understand why we give them the three. I don't understand why we give Vandy the three. Make Vandy beat us off the bounce. You know what I mean, Billy? I want to make them beat us off the bounce. I want to make them beat us at the rim. Don't let them shoot threes. Pope said after the game that like they were worried about getting beat off the bounce. And so they gave up some big man threes and they made five of them. You know what, make them beat us. I know they will some, but the last time I checked, two is less than three. And I just. In the first half, some of those threes were our guys. Just gave them so much space. You remember the one, Amari was 10ft from him.

Billy (23:59)

Yeah. Well, part of that I think was such an emphasis on, you know, defending without fouling. I think Jackson Robinson said afterwards that they were timid to start the game fair enough.

Matt Jones (24:08)

But like after they haven't called a foul in four minutes. Foul, right. They didn't call a foul for the first nine minutes of the game. Twelve minutes of the game. So foul, you know, I mean, like they're not calling anything foul. You know, Travis Perry came in there, poor guy. But like, I get he's not good at. I mean, he's. First of all, I think Travis is going to be a good player, but he's not a great defender. But he gave him so much space and that dude hits a three, it's like Travis, if you're going to get beat off the dribble anyway, don't give him four feet of space at the three point line. You know, you saw what Vandy did to us. They got out on us like Georgia did and they started defending us outside half court to try to create steals. I'd like to see us do some of that because right now, man, we give them space and then we still get beat off the dribble. So that's tough. Who's next?

Billy (25:02)

Tim.

Matt Jones (25:03)

Tim. What's up, Tim? But with that said, by the way, on defense, I don't think we did play great defense, but they only scored 74 points and that should have been enough to win. 74 is a number. If you told me before the game we hold them to 74, I'd have taken it. Tim. Go ahead, Tim.

C (25:19)

Me too. Me too. Matt Jones, this is Tim Csuch from Philpot, Kentucky. First off, shout out Matt and Billy. You guys, in the words of the greatest American, y'all are some great Kentuckians. Just so you know, I just wanted to call in and say that was everybody is, you know, a lot of people are frustrated, as they should be. But the thing that blows my mind, it's kind of just like where we're at in the country, I guess. Like nobody's calling in about the players and, and everybody's asking questions about the, you know, the, the rest and things. But like, if your first question as a media member is not, okay, so Mark Pope, you put Trent Noah in in the second half.

Matt Jones (25:58)

I didn't get that.

C (25:59)

Two minutes left in the second half. And how. What was your thinking there? And you know, and also the thing I don't understand is the game the way it was managed. Why is there not questions about that? Like, I love Mark. I am so happy he's our coach. But at the same time, like we're allowed to ask. This is the University of Kentucky. Like, that was the. One of the weirdest. It looked like a TBT game.

Matt Jones (26:28)

No, no, hang on a second. Because I want to give you a chance. I want to give you a chance to, to respond.

C (26:34)

Yes, go ahead.

Matt Jones (26:34)

I think you make, though, a very good point, which is we're in this weird place in society where the. You either have to love the person or not like them at all. And you can't go, I like you, but I have some questions. Right? Like we don't. You're not allowed to do that. Like, just think about, like you're not allowed to just go, eh, what about this? I did. I'm with you. I did not understand, and I hate to say this because I thought Trip played really well. I didn't understand the decision for a defensive play to put Trent in. But at the end of the first half, if you go back and look at the end of the first half, we had bizarre lineups in there. I mean, there we had like lineups. At one point we had Colin Chandler, Noah Brea, Almanor and Butler. And I was like, what is, what is this lineup? I mean, these dudes have probably never even played together in practice. So listen, maybe Colin Chandler will be good here one day. I hope he is. I don't think he can play right now in the sec. And we put him in for two different runs and I don't know what his plus minus was, but I don't think it was very good. So I'm with you. There was some weird lineup stuff to.

C (27:42)

Me tonight and thank you for saying that. Like I, you just summarized like, I just, I only know I have short time. So those are exactly what I was wanting to ask too about it along with. We just apparently abandoned the whole point guard position today. That was another question I would love to hear Mark Post answer to. Like, okay, so we're just, we're going to take Butler out and we're just not going to play a point, a point guard. But I know Butler, I mean, I.

Matt Jones (28:09)

Was okay with that. I was okay with that because that, that was when we made our run. Honestly, we made our Runway when. Oh was running point. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I appreciate the call we made our run from. I don't mean to cut you off, but I, but I think you make good points. We made our run from down three to up seven, I believe with Butler on the bench. When it was away, I think it was O.A. robinson away. Robinson, Brea, Almanor, Garrison maybe or Almanor Williams. Like that was kind of when we made our run. He's right though. At the end of the first half. I mean, I'm not going to go back and watch it because it was so bad. Those last eight minutes of the first half, Billy, it looked like a high school game.

Billy (28:51)

20 to 4 run by Vandy at.

Matt Jones (28:53)

The end of the first I didn't understand. I mean, we were just kind of running up and down the court, it looked like for eight minutes. That's the worst we've looked. That's the worst we've looked all year. I don't know what we were doing those last eight minutes, the first half, but the thing is we still came back. We had a seven point lead. Like you gotta win at that point. Who's next?

Billy (29:13)

Dave.

Matt Jones (29:14)

Dave, Go ahead, Dave.

C (29:17)

How you doing, Matt Jones?

Matt Jones (29:18)

Good. How you doing, Dave?

C (29:20)

I'm doing great. They're just a little disappointed we lost. But you know what? I can't believe people. Nobody says something. And valuable Andrew Carr was because he us miss him. That zoom action on the five and the four outside and spread it and throw it to Lamont. That was some. He was really. We missed him a lot tonight.

Matt Jones (29:39)

I agree with you. Here's the good thing about one of the things we forget about Carr and I'm guilty of this too. You mentioned that about the zoom action. This team really struggles to get easy baskets, you know what I mean? Like all of our baskets are jump shots. We struggle to get easy back. And Andrew Carr gets us three or four easy baskets a game. And we didn't, we didn't have those tonight. There's probably four times that he gets a little up and under or like you said, a little zoom action. He like gets a little hit, you know, head fakes, gets fouled, makes the free throws. He gets like, he gets us like eight points a game easy and we just don't. He's like the only one who can get easy points.

C (30:22)

100%. Man, I just can't believe the BBN and talking because they, they're smart. They knew this. We'd have won that game if he'd been there tonight. 100% agree with. I think we'd have won thousand of a thousand night.

Matt Jones (30:34)

Yeah, I appreciate the call that. That's probably true, but. But we didn't have him and we still should have won. You know, by the way, Vandy, you know, they stormed the court against Tennessee, cost him $250,000, right. By SEC rule. The court storm tonight, I think cost them like $400,000 and it wasn't even that many kids. You know, I don't know if you saw they were desperately trying to keep them off. I saw.

Billy (31:02)

Yeah, they were. The security guards were lining up $400,000.

Matt Jones (31:05)

A lot of money for Vandy, especially with this $22 million rev share coming. I mean, all these schools like are having to add $22 million to their budget, you know, 400,000. That court storm may have cost, like, one or two people their jobs.

Billy (31:22)

Well, and when you say.

Matt Jones (31:23)

I mean, I'm not kidding, like, that's a lot. When you just court stormed earlier this week. Who's next?

Billy (31:30)

Moffat.

Matt Jones (31:31)

Moffat. Go ahead, Moffat.

C (31:34)

Hey, Matt. All right, so just like all y'all, I did not really enjoy watching that game. You know, it was rough to watch. But I gotta think back to earlier this year when Mark Pope got hired. And I was one of the people that was like, what the heck is going on? Mark Pope? What? We've come a long way since then. I know we've had a couple, you know, bumps in the road, but I don't think when I compare how I feel to this loss, compared to the Oakland or St. Peter's loss, it's nowhere near the same. Let's keep our heads up. Mark Pope, I think he's a great coach. He's gonna make adjustments. You know, I want to talk about the last coach, but I couldn't. Let me say. But I couldn't. You know, I wouldn't say that about the last coach. I've got hope for this team. Let's just think back to where we were when he first got hired, to where we are right now. We're. We probably won't be in the top 10 after this game.

Matt Jones (32:35)

Right now, I'm with you. Like, there's a difference between. I appreciate the call. Big picture. I'm still very happy with. With Mark Pope. I still think he's a. He's exactly what the program needs. I still think he's going to long term be very, very successful. You know, none of this has anything to do with long term. This is just this season. Right. I mean, honestly, if you had told me when the season started, if I had to look at that schedule and say, what would be the record for Kentucky after that game at Vandy, Billy? I probably would have been like, all right, 14 and 5. I'm good. You know what I mean?

Billy (33:13)

Right.

Matt Jones (33:14)

The weird thing is just who we're losing to versus who we're beating. Like, we beat the game. Like, I didn't think we were going to win against Duke. I didn't think we were going to win against Gonzaga. You know, I didn't. But I thought we'd win at Georgia. I didn't think we'd win at Mississippi State, but we did. I thought we were going to win today. It's just like, it hasn't been the Games haven't played out. The record is probably about what we. The record might even be a little better than I thought. I thought we were going to be like 20 and 11 this year, and that may be where we end up. It's just been a weird path. It's just a weird path. But, like, overall, this team, I still am a huge Mark Pope fan. I think what's correct is something that, you know, I said a lot this year that a lot of people didn't love. We just don't have a great player. Jackson Robinson's really good. Always a really good athlete. We still have a great player. And it's hard to win when you don't have a great player. We just don't have one, unfortunately. 859-280-2287. We're going to take a break. Come back. This is local Toyota dealers, KSR Postgame Show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Duke is playing Wake Forest. They're up 51, 47 with four minutes to go at Wake Forest. You know, it's the kind of game when you're a really good team, you got to win. You're not playing well, you're on the road, you're playing a team that's good, but not great. Duke looks like they may win it. We did not. What are you complaining about about the Duke game, Bill?

Billy (34:51)

It's like green. Like they need to white balance their cameras. Matt, this is broadcasting 100, so maybe call somebody up at ESPN, please.

Matt Jones (34:59)

Looking at it, I didn't really see it on mine. You sure it's not just your television?

Billy (35:03)

No, I'm not sure because I've only watched one tv. I do have it written down here that Duke would be undefeated in conference play.

Matt Jones (35:10)

I told you, they're going 20.

Billy (35:12)

So we'll see.

Matt Jones (35:12)

I mean, this was the. This was probably this in the. At North Carolina, remember? What was the bet we made? 1 and a half. Was that who I bet someone that was. That.

Billy (35:20)

It wasn't me.

Matt Jones (35:22)

Someone that I said that. Oh, no, no, it was. Somebody heard me and then wrote and said they wanted to bet me there. I don't think they're going to lose a conference game because the ICC is too bad and they already beat Louisville. It was $500,000 that Vandy is going to be fined. And the ad, Candice Lee apparently went to the student section during that review. You know, at the end they were looking to see and begged the students not. Not to storm the court. There's a Picture of her, she was like, I want to use this money for Nil. Please don't stor. And then they did it anyway.

Billy (35:57)

Wow, that's funny. I got to see that picture.

Matt Jones (35:59)

Yeah, there's a picture of her like going, please don't go, oh, there it is.

Billy (36:07)

Her hands are in prayer.

Matt Jones (36:08)

She's literally in prayer, please don't do it. And then they did it anyway. See, I told. I mean, that's not a small amount of money. $500,000, a lot of money. Yes. She's literally, she has her hands in prayer going, please don't storm the court. And then they did. All right, 859-280-2287. Who's next?

Billy (36:32)

Mike.

Matt Jones (36:33)

Mike. Go ahead, Mike.

C (36:36)

Hi, Matt. I, I like you, but I have some questions. Okay, I, I do, I do enjoy your post game analysis that always. But I want to push back on your occasional pushback. When people talk about the negative effects of nil and I'm a retired lawyer, you're absolutely right. It's legal. It's just, it's here to stay. There's no point complaining about it. It's just the way it is now. So I'm not arguing about that. But you've often asked, do you see any reduced effort by players who are making a lot of money? And you look, you have looked to the pros and then you look at our own team, which displays great effort a lot of times. But then you have games like tonight where you are the first person to observe. There are many lapses in effort.

Matt Jones (37:36)

But I would argue with you, but I would go back, I could go back 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, when they weren't, weren't being paid and there were games where we didn't play with effort. You know, the COVID year. One of my problems with that team was that that team often really didn't play with 100% effort. Well, they weren't being paid at least, you know, from nil. So, So, I mean, I, I think it's easy to then say, I think there, there are always teams that struggle with effort. It's easy though, to go, well, it's cause of nil there. I mean, there's high school teams out there that don't play with effort. Like effort I don't think is related to money for 95% of these guys or more.

C (38:22)

We, we just, we don't know.

Matt Jones (38:25)

We don't know. We don't know.

C (38:27)

I don't know enough to argue with you. That's my point. Is that when people bring it up as a suggestion, I think the correct answer is, well, we really don't know.

Matt Jones (38:38)

But I would say to you, if you're gonna say. If you're gonna say. My general overall argument about if you're going to be accusatory to people. You're a lawyer. You know this. If you're going to say a kid is not playing with effort because he's getting money, you need some proof.

C (38:55)

Say that.

Matt Jones (38:56)

You need to say some proof of that.

C (38:57)

Absolutely.

Matt Jones (38:58)

You can't just say it. You have to. You have to shut. The kid. The kid at Indiana. The kid at Indiana Diallo, who's, like, going out to bars before the games, like, bought this crazy car and all this stuff. If you want to say, this kid got 2 million, put on weight, et cetera, like, okay, I still don't know if I would say that. But at least you have something to point to.

C (39:23)

Right?

Matt Jones (39:23)

We don't really have anything to point to. And I don't like when people just say that in the abstract.

C (39:30)

No, I'm throwing it out there as a possibility. I don't think that I have absolutely no evidence. You're completely right about that. I'm just saying that when people are skeptical that this might be a situation that kind of.

Matt Jones (39:47)

Yeah, that's a. It's a fair. It shouldn't be. That's fair. That's totally fair. But I would also say to you that Ohio State just won the national championship in football and had more nil than any team in the country. So if they didn't care, would they have won the national championship? Right. So, I mean, I can't argue. Yeah. All right. Well, I appreciate the call. It's a fair point. Maybe I shouldn't be as dismissive. I just. We have a tendency sometimes to say, like, I really. And I've been like this in the beginning. I don't like when kids are playing bad and we then make it like a reflection on their character. So, like, take Amari Williams. He frustrates me a lot. I said that. He frustrates me as much as any player I can remember. But I've heard nothing but any. Anyone say anything but that he's a great kid, you can be a terrible basketball player and a wonderful human being. You know, Billy, hopefully you and I are like that because we both stink at basketball. I'm assuming you do.

Billy (40:51)

I do.

Matt Jones (40:51)

And hopefully we can. Hopefully. We're good people. Right. So I just don't like when people use poor play to then reflect on Their character. That's my reasoning for when I push back on that. Who's next?

Billy (41:02)

Branch.

Matt Jones (41:04)

Branch, go ahead.

C (41:06)

Hey, Matt. How are you?

Matt Jones (41:08)

Good.

C (41:10)

Let me ask you this about Mark Pope. Here's my question about him, is a lot of our frustrations in recent years have been built around the same things beating us every single game.

Matt Jones (41:22)

Yeah.

C (41:22)

And obviously, the things that are beating us are different now. But as smart as Mark Pope is and as good as his offensive sets are, it's crazy to me that he can't figure out Amari Williams putting his hand up, you know, defensive effort, effort on the glass, all of those things, you know?

Matt Jones (41:43)

Well, yes, I think I understand what you're saying. I will say this about effort. I don't know how you make somebody go after a 50. 50 ball. You know what I mean? Like, on some level, the kid just has to do it, right? I'm sure Mark Pope says, go get that ball right there. On some level, I feel like. I mean, I feel like coaches. You know, maybe he coaches Amari not to put his hands up. That would surprise me. And if he does, I would say that's fair to question. But some of it is. Like, I know he doesn't coach Amari to drop the ball and just go off his hands out of bounds, like, on some level. I don't know, man. Like, what else is he supposed to do?

Billy (42:33)

Yeah, for sure.

C (42:33)

I guess I'm not saying I think he coaches him that way, but. And I'm definitely not saying he should have the attitude of the last guy we had, but Hope himself, I guess, doesn't really seem like a super tough, physical guy.

Matt Jones (42:47)

Oh, wait, then you don't remember. You don't remember him playing? Like, how old are you?

C (42:53)

27.

Matt Jones (42:54)

So, yeah, I mean, when he played, he was the most physical dude on that team. I mean, if you go Back to the 96 team, I appreciate the call. Like, they were uber talented, but you had a lot of these uber athletes, and then there were two dudes who were, like, physical knock you guys. Mark Pope and Anthony Epps, those were the two dudes that were physical, and then they had all this talent everywhere around it. So, yeah, I wouldn't say that. Now he plays a system that doesn't emphasize physicality. They're. They're a shooting technique system. So maybe that's something he's gonna have to improve on, is getting his guys to be physical. Somebody sent me a message on the text machine that I thought was an interesting point. He said, mark's used to playing in the Big 12, which is a much more finesse league or it has been much higher scoring and maybe he's going to have to adjust his system to a league that's a lot more physical because the SEC has always, even when it hasn't been talented, it's always been physical. It's an interesting point, Billy. Maybe that will be what he has to do.

Billy (43:56)

Yeah. And maybe Amari Williams is used to playing in his conference and when it comes to the sec, it's a little different not being defensive.

Matt Jones (44:02)

It may be. It may be. But that's an interesting point. I mean, he's used in the Big 12. There were a lot of teams that put up points, get up and down the court. Maybe Mark's going to have to get a little bit of an adjustment to get. Because like even the worst team in the SEC has great athletes. Right. We might be the least athletic team in the SEC now. We're one of the most talented, I think, but we might be the least athletic and that might be something that has to change. But he's also bringing in three recruits next year that are all great athletes. So like you gotta. I do think you have to give him time to go get those guys. Who's next?

Billy (44:40)

Stub.

Matt Jones (44:41)

Stub. What's up?

C (44:44)

Hey, Matt. So people are. You talk about Amari Williams and he was two. He was two time defensive player of the year at Drexel. And I know people will say that's the A10, but it's still not, you know, like playing transy.

Matt Jones (44:59)

No, you're right. 18 is probably the seventh or eighth best conference in the, in the country.

C (45:06)

Yeah. So. But talking about tonight, Kentucky out shopping from the field, the three point line, the free throw line, and they had a plus 13 rebound margin and still lost, I think. What? Wow.

Matt Jones (45:20)

Wow. We had a plus 13 rebound margin in. Still lost. Wow, that's bad. That's. So it's turnovers, right?

C (45:28)

Turnover, 16 to 5. So what. What's disappointing is I, is I didn't think a team that was experienced like this team is, would lose a game because they would. I mean they, they just. They melted and fell apart in the last four minutes and I didn't think a team like this would ever lose a game like that. But which, which brings me to another point that I'm concerned about. I wonder if they're starting to wear down. Maybe injuries are just accumulating.

Matt Jones (46:02)

Injuries are part of it. Injuries are part of it. But you know, they had a week off, right. So you know, you know, I Don't know that I can buy the wear down. They just had a week off. But that's, you make a good point about, about the turnovers. I mean I, I knew we had a bunch. I don't think I realized they only had five. So I mean that's 16 to five. That's, that's a huge difference. That, I mean that's that and the threes. If you just didn't know any other stats then we had 16. Turn was they had five, they made 13 threes. We had made nine. Sir, we're probably losing if those are the stats.

C (46:36)

I think at this point this has been my last thing is just, you know, hope to finish middle of the pack and see what happens in March. I agree. Appreciate it.

Matt Jones (46:45)

Appreciate the call. I agree. Because the one thing about this group, I do think they can beat anybody in March but they also can lose to anybody in March. 859-280-2287 we will take a break, have a final segment. It's a local. Good calls by the way tonight, one of the better even after a loss, one of the better set of calls the local Toyota dealers. KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is final segment local toy dealers KSR post game show. Good set of callers tonight. Kentucky loses. I hate when Kentucky plays early in the day and then loses. Feels like it's hard to enjoy the games that come after. Always been like that even in football. Play a noon game and lose. Now when you play early and win, you can watch the games and not be nervous. That I like. But I hate when they play early and lose. 859-280-2287. Who's up next?

Billy (47:34)

Jerry.

Matt Jones (47:35)

Jerry. Go ahead, Jerry.

C (47:38)

Hey man, thanks for taking my call. I got two quick things. We was at one point for two minutes and something to go in the game and Butler had the ball at the top of the key when he was at the free throw line. He tries to force the ball into him. Yep, they steal the ball, score, which I ain't got no problem with that. Then the next time down the floor, we go inside, I started banding up that down the floor, goes up for a shot, Williams goes for the block. The kid missed the shot and Butler just stands and watches the ball, man. And they get the rebound.

Matt Jones (48:12)

Yeah, he was bad the last few minutes. He, he was bad last few minutes he was. And then he got his pocket picked. One or two possessions after that. That was, you know, he's a senior. He's been, he's been in the national championship game. He's got to be better than that down the stretch.

C (48:26)

Hey man, let me say one more thing and I'll leave you alone in the second half.

Matt Jones (48:31)

Leave me alone.

C (48:34)

They had no answer for all way he should have been had. He should have had the ball in his hand a lot more. And at the end of the day, man, I mean we fixed it. We're probably not gonna beat Tennessee. I hope we do. But if we go on a three game losing streak, we've got to beat Arkansas, man.

Matt Jones (48:52)

We gotta be ark. So no matter what, I mean I can't imagine, I can't imagine doing this show next week at what time? Midnight, 12:30 at night. Is that where, when it's going to be? I mean it's going to be because the game's at nine in it.

Billy (49:06)

Yeah, with the documentary crew in town too.

Matt Jones (49:08)

Oh, come on now. If I have to sit in my house and do that interview and do this post game show and it's 12:30 at night break, the NFL show the next day and we lose, man, you're going to have to carry me out of it. Who's next?

Billy (49:22)

Robert.

C (49:23)

Robert.

Matt Jones (49:23)

Go ahead, Robert.

C (49:26)

Hey, Robert from Stanford. The only thing I have is, I think going back to Coach P, who I had interviewed at a TV station in the mid-90s when I worked there, is that the bad thing about it is Andrew Carr is the straw that stirs the drink. That boy.

Matt Jones (49:48)

I don't, I don't know if I agree with that. I mean I like Andrew a lot but you know, if you go, look, I mean we, we've won some big games where he really hasn't played great. I mean the Alabama game, we, we were right there and I don't even know. I don't think he played particularly well at all. I think he's very important but like he would have gotten us three or four easy baskets like I said earlier. But I think you can win without him. Although it's obviously better to have it.

C (50:17)

You can and I always go back to it. It's better to have them than to have not. And if we would have him, that's true tonight, I think we would have been better off.

Matt Jones (50:27)

I agree. I, I will agree with you there. I, if we had had him tonight, I appreciate the call. If we'd had him tonight, I think we'd have been in a lot better shape. I think we would, I think they could, you know, if car on the one hand, because Vandy's so small, missing car doesn't kill you on the other hand, I still think one of the best versions of Kentucky is car at the five and a lot of team sizes. So much that you can't do that. You could have done that tonight because Vandy's small. So we could have played car at the 5 and been difficult to guard and we just weren't able to do that. Who's next?

Billy (51:01)

Lee?

Matt Jones (51:02)

Lee. Go ahead, Lee.

C (51:04)

Hey, Mad. A lot of dissecting going on now after. After losing a couple games in two weeks and stuff.

Matt Jones (51:10)

But what's wrong with that? Like, what's the point? Is it. I mean, that's what we're supposed to do, right?

C (51:14)

Yeah, that's what your show's about. Yeah, I was getting ready to say it's really changed though, and the way it's gone. But I do agree with you on a couple. On several things. I won't talk about them real quick. One is, I agree with you 100. I don't watch much sports after we lose a Saturday afternoon game. I probably won't watch TV again until the Eagles play tomorrow afternoon and I'll watch them. So that's. That's one thing. The other thing is I went to about 35 games in 1996 and Mark Pope was anything but frail.

Matt Jones (51:48)

I agree he was. Well, I mean, his. It was his effort and energy that made him a player. You know what I mean? I mean, he wasn't gifted with great talent, but he played nine years in the NBA because of his effort, you.

C (51:59)

Know, and he wasn't afraid to knock you down. And I. And I agree with you to it on this. And then I'm gonna say one thing, I am going to do dissecting myself. I'm gonna say this other thing, though. I agree with you, what you said too. This team looked like probably they looked the first week they came to practice like they never played together that first half, the whole first half. And it was just horrible. The one thing I do want to kind of say, I don't know any big mistakes that. That Pope has made in coaching this year. He's done a lot of good things. But if, If Andrew Carr had been hurt and didn't need to play the last few games, I wish he'd set him out. But if he'd been able to play today, I wish he had played him. And I don't know we'll ever know the answer to that because I do agree. I think we'll win. Last thing and I hang up. And I appreciate you listening to me. Just remember this, regardless what we do. I think we'll end up 9 and 9 sec or 10 and 8 sec and get probably a 6 or 7 seat and go to have a chance to win one or two games. But we start out the year, we want to beat arc. We want to beat Louisville. We've done that. We want to beat Duke. We done that. We want to beat Gonzaga. We done that. Now we have to beat Arkansas. And I love your program and God bless and go Cats.

Matt Jones (53:19)

That is true. If you told us before the year started you get to beat five teams, we would have said Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, Tennessee, and Arkansas, probably. All right, we've done the first three. Now we got to get the next two. So may not win the next one in Knoxville, but we can still beat them in Rupert. And then we got to beat Arkansas. Who's next?

Billy (53:44)

We've got three left. Bones is next.

Matt Jones (53:47)

Bones, go ahead, Bones. Look at you telling me how we're gonna. That's what I was gonna do was three of them. Go ahead, Bones.

C (53:53)

What's going on, guys? So, just a couple things. I got a challenge for Corey Price, since he's the stat guru. Wonder if there's any way he might be able to figure out, out of maybe the last couple years, five years or whatever, anytime a team is banked in a three, how many times we've lost? Because I'd like to say it's probably 75%, at least losses. And then my other big concern was, you know, the scouting report on Vanderbilt was there's a leading team about fields and points off of turnovers, and they seem to annihilate us on that like we didn't even know it was coming. And then the last thing is, I'm still not really worried about the season or whatever, because I told my friend tonight, I'm willing to probably put money on that if the SEC tournament when it starts, I'd be shocked if there's more than two teams in the SEC that have two losses or less. And I'll just hang up and let. Guys, listen. Man. Love your show. Go catch.

Matt Jones (54:44)

I don't even think there'll be two. I think they'll probably only be one team with two losses or less, and that'll be Auburn. I think Alabama will have it more than two losses. Tennessee will have more than two losses. Everybody's gonna have more than two losses except Auburn. I. I think that. I feel. I feel pretty confident about that. Yeah, the. The turnovers is a big issue tonight, and. But most of them were in the first half. I really Those last eight minutes of the first half, like, never show those on television ever again because it was. Who's next?

Billy (55:21)

Ian.

Matt Jones (55:22)

Ian. Go ahead, Ian. Two more. What's up?

C (55:26)

Hey, Matt. To add on to what the guy said a couple callers ago about how, you know, we won against Gonzaga, we won against Duke, We've. We've done all these things. I. I don't think that Mark Pope is the guy who's just gonna roll the dice and be just completely careless, but I think there's a scenario where he knows that this game against a. A really decent Vanderbilt team at their house is not really. Doesn't matter if we lose there to be perfectly off.

Matt Jones (56:06)

I disagree with.

C (56:07)

He could. He can do things.

Matt Jones (56:09)

Yeah, I disagree with you. You gotta. This is a game there. If there are so few wins on the schedule that you feel that, like, you can look at and go, like, I feel good. We're gonna beat South Carolina at home. We're gonna beat LSU at home. I think we're going to be vandy home. But there's not a lot of other games on the schedule that I go. Well, we're definitely going to win that one. So, like, you got to win these. I mean, I do not. You know, with two minutes to go, we're up one. Like, I don't think Mark Pope was thinking, it's not that big a deal if we win this.

C (56:40)

No, I agree with that. But my, My question, honestly, in the. When when Noah came out at the very first time he came on the floor, I was like, what is going on? Why is he. And, And I just wonder if he is. If he is adjusting some lineups and doing some things where, like you even said, what are. What are these lineups?

Matt Jones (57:00)

Where.

C (57:00)

He's just saying, I know, I know we're close enough and we can try to figure out what's going on so that we know in March what. What we have.

Matt Jones (57:10)

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. But I, I appreciate the call. We're going too long with it then. I mean, we. We've been down like nine points in, like almost every game, you know, and we can't just keep doing that. I mean, if he doesn't go down 14, we win this game easy. Like, you. You just can't. And again, you know, I like, again, I'm not trying to be rude or mean, but Colin Chandler, he can't play right now in these games. He just can't. And he doesn't need to. We don't need to go with him twice to find out. It's pretty clear no one Perry have shown they can in certain parts. I don't think tonight was a Perry night, but it was a Noah night. So, you know, I don't mind that. But then, you know, putting all those guys in at once at the end of the first half, that just did not work. Let's do one more. Who's next?

Billy (58:04)

Josh.

Matt Jones (58:05)

Josh. Go ahead, Josh.

C (58:08)

Hey, Matt. Thanks for taking my call here in Western North Carolina. Really always appreciate ksr. Got me through the floods and everything. Always got me to laugh when I listen to your show. But I wanted to make two points. We can't win. 17 turnovers, 11 assist every game we have to have. When we beat good teams, our assist turnover ratio is outstanding. And tonight was hard.

Matt Jones (58:29)

True. Gotta execute, right? Like, this is not a talent team. This is an execution team. And like your. Your point says, if we don't execute, we will lose. And that's what happened tonight.

C (58:41)

And here's my second point. Last year used to say, first of all, totally different team, but we always said we could lose anybody, we could beat anybody. That's how this team feels.

Matt Jones (58:51)

That's exactly right there. You know what's crazy, and I appreciate the call. I thought about that actually, before, like this week when, you know, we didn't have a game. It's crazy to say this, but this is a lot like last year's team, but just a lot less talented. Last year's team had infinite talent, and you just thought, man, if we hit shots and reach our potential, look how good we are this team. Not nearly the same amount of talent, but we just say, man, if we just execute, we're really good. And just as it would be frustrating last year that we couldn't get them to put the lineups on and to get all the talent and make it work, it's a different frustration this year. But it's like, man, if you guys will just hustle and execute your execution, you can be really good when it happens. So they're different teams, way different talent levels. That team last year was a lot more talented, did not play particularly smart. This team plays smart, not particularly talented, but it's like if they both would just reach their full potential, they both have the ability to beat anybody. But as we saw last year, they both could lose to anybody. And hopefully we won't have that result this year. All right, thank you, folks, very much for listening. Kansas is playing Houston right now. Billy. I know it's part of the KSR parlay. How did the rest of our team do in the parlay. Do you know?

Billy (60:21)

No, I'm not sure.

Matt Jones (60:23)

I'm gonna do. Look at this real quick. The Butler beat the Paul. Yes, it did. There was one. All right. Sorry. I'm making you hear this. Utah and Baylor. Baylor beat Utah. That's two. What were the other two? Kansas. And what was the other one? Billy, come on, help me out. I don't know.

Billy (60:40)

I didn't bet it. But I can look it up real quick.

Matt Jones (60:42)

Look it up real quick because we're two for four. Kansas gonna win tonight. That's gonna be three.

Billy (60:46)

Oh, you think Kansas gets it done tonight?

Matt Jones (60:48)

Kansas is going to win tonight.

Billy (60:49)

Yeah. I've almost got it.

Matt Jones (60:52)

Oregon State, Santa Clara. Well, I don't know off the top of my head. What happened in the Oregon State Santa Clara game here? I'm gonna look it up. I think they're in the West Coast Conference now. And Oregon State is up two at halftime. Come on now. There'll be something positive for the night. Thank you, folks, very much for listening. We will see you on Monday. If you get ready for it tomorrow, listen to the ESPN Championship Game Preview Sunday at 10am thanks to Billy for hanging in. We'll see you later. This has been the local toy dealers KSR post game show.