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- [00:00]
Matt Jones
This is the story of the 1. As head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on. That's why he works behind the scenes, ensuring every light is working, the H Vac is humming, and his facility shines with Grainger's supplies and solutions for every challenge he faces. Plus 24. 7 customer support. His venue never misses a beat. Call quickgranger.com or just stop by Granger.
- [00:26]
Caller
For the ones who get it done.
- [00:31]
Billy Gillespie
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught, the answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zieman and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York since the Son of Sam. Available now Listen for free on the.
- [00:55]
Matt Jones
Iheartradio app, Apple PODC wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:03]
Billy Gillespie
The murder of an 18 year old.
- [01:05]
Matt Jones
Girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:35]
Caller
And to binge the entire season ad free.
- [01:37]
Matt Jones
Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.
- [01:43]
Billy Gillespie
I'm Jonathan Goldstein and on the new season of Heavyweight.
- [01:46]
Matt Jones
And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke.
- [01:51]
Billy Gillespie
A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old and a centenarian rediscovers a lost 80 years ago.
- [01:59]
Caller
How can one 1 year old woman fall in love again?
- [02:06]
Billy Gillespie
Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:13]
Matt Jones
Welcome everyone. It is the local Toyota dealers. KSR Post game show Kentucky with an embarrassing loss tonight to Michigan State in the Champions Classic 8366. A terrible performance that I think raises a lot of questions about the season and a lot more. Well, you can give us a shout. We'll open up the phones at the end of the segment. There's a lot I want to say, so it's hard to even know where to start. Start. Let's start with just the basketball part of it. This was just an absolutely atrocious performance by Kentucky. I mean, whatever statistic you want to measure. Kentucky was outplayed shooting percentage 2 points for Michigan State. They shoot 50%. They shoot 50% from 3. We shoot 35 from 2 and 23% from 3. We are out rebounded 42 to 28. That's awful. 25 assists for Michigan State, 9, 13 for us. Just, just a terrible performance. It looked uninspired and it looked discombobulated, which was a word that Pope actually used in the post game press conference. And it was awful. And we're going to talk about Pope's comments, but I'll just say from my end, that looked like a team that a. I don't want to say was not ready to play because their best seven minutes of the game were the first seven minutes. But they were out coached, they were out hustled. And Michigan State under Tom Izzo to me is a team that is a mirror to who you are. Like you find out who you are when you play Michigan State because at least in the last decade, they've never had the most talented team. They've never, they've never actually even been. I don't think they've been top five or ten in a number of years. But what they do is, is they are fundamental. They rebound, they play defense, they make the right play. And if you, whatever it is that you do poorly, they will reflect it. They are a mirror to you. And tonight they mirrored and showed that this team is way off the margin. You know, last year we said about Kentucky that the hole was greater than the sum of the parts. And I actually think that was true. And even though, you know, their record was not amazing, I thought they had a really a better year than even the players they had. This team is less than the sum of the parts. This team right now is much worse than they should be, kind of on all ends. I am shocked at how bad they are defensively. Really, I'm shocked at how bad they are defensively. They can't guard anybody. They gave. They clearly had a game plan to try to force Michigan State to take jumpers. And they made a lot of threes at the beginning and we didn't really adjust. And when we did, we were just out hustled at other positions. They got any shot they wanted pretty much the entire game. And defensively, I always worried this team wouldn't be a great three point shooting team. But I never thought they'd be bad defensively. And tonight with arguably your worst defender hurt, which is Jalen Lowe, you should have been great defensively. And they were awful. And then first half just eye bleeding bad. When you let Michigan State shoot 50% from the field and 50% from three. I just don't know how you can, you know how you can let that happen with the roster that, that Mark Pope has. He said in his post game comments. We have good players and I'm not getting it getting out of them what what we need to. I think they probably are missing some star power, but that doesn't explain tonight's performance. You shouldn't lose like they lost tonight no matter what. With acquaintance out low. I mean, you should, you should, you, you should have, you should not lose by 17 to Michigan State in a game you're never really in except the first seven minutes, no matter what your roster is at Kentucky. So it's on Pope. I mean it just is. I think he knows that. I think to the for the most part he has accepted that and he's taken ownership, but it's on him. I was sitting there watching as I was at halftime, sort of thinking about the deficit we had created. I was thinking about all these big games over the years, over these two years where Pope has had these huge deficits to start the game. Duke, we came back and won, but we were down 15. Gonzaga, we were came back and won, but we were down 20. Ohio State, we were down 18 in the first half. Arkansas, we got down big. Alabama, we got down big twice in two of the three games against them last year, got down big against Louisville, got down big against Michigan State. And in all of those games I went back and looked in all of those games, we actually started pretty well in all of them. In the first five to six minutes of all of those games, we started pretty well. And then when the first substitution comes in because Pope's big on the mass substitution, the team just has kind of collapsed. And then the other team goes on a run that we just can't come back from. Now. Tonight that happened, but then we put the starters back in and they were worse. I mean, the, the worst plus minuses on the team for this game were the starters. So it's an embarrassing performance and it's a performance that raises a lot of questions. When the game was over, when the game was over, I was sitting there watching. First of all, Mark Pope took 50 minutes, I think to come out, 55 minutes for the press conference. I've been covering UK a long time. That's the longest I've ever seen a coach take to come out after a losing performance. I can't remember that ever happening. And he sounded just defeated. And I want to read you some of these quotes I give Mark credit for, I guess, openness, sort of. But then in some ways he wasn't open. He started by saying we're disappointed and discouraged and completely discombobulated. Now Billy, I give him credit for alliteration on that. Yeah, but he sounded so dejected. Like I've, I mean I remember when he came here, somebody that knew him at BYU said to me, he loses poorly. Not in that he takes it out on other people or he's not a good sport. But he seems to internalize it so much that he becomes, it's hard to see him like that. And that's kind of how I felt tonight. Here are some quotes from the post game. There was one team that was really well coached and one team that wasn't tonight. My messaging is not resonating with the guys right now. I gotta take the hit for this. I've got skilled, talented players that care and I just can't get it right. And he's correct about all of that. He clearly knows that this has been kind of an abysmal start for the amount of talent that he has. He then ends the press conference though by saying we will not fail this season. Very, I mean not mincing words. We will not fail this season. That's strong words. That's a quote that will come back up throughout the year and you know, will live one way or the other. But then I was excited to see what would he would say to Tom because I think coaches, I, I, I think some coaches get this like Rick Patino got this when he would talk with Kwood. That conversation with Tom Leach is ultimately your message to the fans. The fans don't hear the press conference. They snippets that media puts out. But the, but the radio part is directly to the fans. And I gotta tell you, Billy, I couldn't have been more disappointed in his comments. I mean I couldn't have been more disappointed in the way Mark handled that one word answers. He wasn't rude to Tom. Like there were times that, you know, you go back in history, Billy Gillespie would be rude to Tom. Cal wouldn't be rude, but he'd sometimes be short. Mark wasn't that but he was like not at all open and seem to completely forget that there's a fan base like yearning to hear what he says. And it was epitomized when Tom said what I thought was a very good question. What did you tell your guys in the locker room after the game? And he said we told them a lot of things. That's it.
- [11:39]
Billy Gillespie
That's it.
- [11:39]
Matt Jones
We told him a lot of things. Like, what kind of answer is that? That's a horrible answer. If Cal had said that, I would have ripped the guy. How can you do that? Your fans are sitting there waiting for you. How can you say we told him a lot of things? I don't understand. He has been so good with this fan base. And then all of a sudden, starting with the Louisville pregame, I feel like the last 10 days have been a different person. The whole cryptic messaging of what happened in the Louisville locker room. I guess he didn't get asked that tonight. I'm kind of surprised, but he didn't. The whole Taylor Swift will throw some crumbs out. We still don't know about Jalen Lowe really, at all. He had some weird comments in the pregame and then this. I mean, he's got to know that this is a fan base that. I mean, I don't think they've turned on Pope by any means, but are at least questioning what's going on. And I don't. Billy, we told them a lot of things. What does that mean?
- [12:58]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah, I felt bad for Tom. I mean, we waited a long time for that interview.
- [13:01]
Matt Jones
And, I mean, Pope Talked for what, three minutes? You guys broke it up into two segments?
- [13:07]
Billy Gillespie
11.
- [13:07]
Matt Jones
Yeah, three. Okay. 3 minutes and 11 seconds. I mean, that's an interview that's like, I think usually 15 minutes, 3 minutes and 11 seconds. So, you know, what worries me about this is he looks like a coach that doesn't have an answer for all this. That just doesn't have an answer. And, you know, this job's hard. There's a lot on this job. There's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of responsibility, and it's a big job. And winning here is the best thing in the world. But losing here stinks. All right? Our fans can be really hard. We can be really great. We can be really hard. But with that sort of great possibility, which Mark knows, comes responsibility. And on both of the major ways you measure coaches success on the floor and then communication off. This has been a 10 day miserable failure. The Louisville game, I can understand Louisville's good. You're playing on their home floor. You know, they get off on a run. Mikhail Brown is a great player. Like, I get it. But this, this was a disaster. And I don't know, I'm very disappointed. I'm not giving up on the season at all. But there's a lot of problems on this team. They don't defend. They can't make shots. And let's be honest, they don't seem to like each other. I don't know that there's chemistry issues but does that look like a team that likes each other? There were reports that Brandon Garrison and a couple of guys were jawn at each other on the bench. That doesn't surprise me because they don't play like a group that likes each other. And that's crazy because when I was around them during the preseason they seemed like a group that really got along well. But I don't know, they seem like completely different pages. Guys just. I mean did you see people lifting each other up during the game? I didn't. So it really has in 10 days kind of fallen off the tracks. And I'm not saying they can't get it back on. There's still plenty of time. But I did not think they would be this bad. I thought they would lose to Louisville. I didn't think they would lose tonight. But whether they were going to lose or win, I certainly didn't think it was going to play out like this. You know, I certainly didn't think that we were going to be questioning effort, chemistry and our coaches response both in X and O's and in dealing with the fan base. It's very, very disappointing. And fans out there who are concerned, I get it. To be honest with you. I think you should be 859280, 2287 the phone lines are open. I thought we were going to at least get to celebrate that Arkansas had lost because they were down five to Winthrop with 90 seconds left and Winthrop had the ball and then they won.
- [16:38]
Billy Gillespie
They came back.
- [16:39]
Matt Jones
They came back and won. I still think they got that call wrong on the out of bounds but there you go. So Arkansas pulls it out. So we have to bask in this sadness alone. 859-280-2287 we will take your calls. Terrible night. What do you think about it? That's next here on the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR post game show text machine is 772-774-5254 a lot of folks, a lot of folks writing in one person writes my Matt, just an observation but do you think it could be some of the news players that came in didn't complement the players that we had and that's created attention? I mean I don't know maybe but like if it is that's you can't let that happen because there's gonna be in the transfer Portal era, there's gonna be people new coming in every year. So, like, you got to work that out. I mean, that's one of those things you hear me talk about. You can sit there and complain, but that's the reality of basketball now. And if you're gonna have a team that has a lot of transfers come in, then you got to create that chemistry. And they did it last year. Now, you could say, well, last year, everybody was new. And that's true, but you got to make it work. And I haven't heard there's a new guy, old guy thing. I do think there seems to be a chemistry issue, but I don't know. You know, I don't know. One person writes, tonight was absolutely abysmal, but come on, Matt. You're better than this. I'm concerned, but Pope spent 50 minutes post game having to come to Jesus meeting with his players. Everyone's making a mountain out of a molehill about the Louisville pregame emotions as well. Well, I mean, no, I'm not making a mountain out of a molehill. This is two games now. Okay? Like, if it's one game, I was. I mean, there's. That's on social media right now from my show, from our show this morning, where I'm sitting here saying, I think we're overreacting the Louisville game. But you're not overreacting to this. That's two games where they have had abysmal first halves and two games where, in the post game, Pope has been odd. He just has. He's been odd in these post games. Talking about in the last one, something that. I mean, he's got national media now speculating what happened in the Louisville locker room. Like, that story continue. Will continue to go. And it's because he brought it up. And then, you know, yes, he could have. He doesn't have to go into detail with what happened with the locker room, but when you go, we said things to them. I mean, that's just. I. I think Mark's the nicest guy in the world, but that's kind of a disrespectful answer to the fan base. It just is. It just is. So it surprises me because it seems uncharacteristic of him, and it doesn't. Like, I want my coach to hate losing, but there's a difference between hating losing and then, like, I don't know, just not handling it well. And I feel like these last two games, he just hasn't handled it well. You know, maybe. Maybe other people disagree, but that's that's my take. All right, let's get started. Billy, who's up first?
- [19:49]
Billy Gillespie
Curtis is up.
- [19:51]
Matt Jones
Curtis, Go ahead, Curtis. Hey, Matt.
- [19:54]
Caller
How's it going, man? I know it's probably not a great night, but I just wanted to call in just because what you said there, like, something happened with Pope over these past two weeks. Like, I mean, have you heard anything of what happened? I mean, he's not the same guy we got to know last year. Something seriously changed. Is he worried that he's starting to fail?
- [20:16]
Matt Jones
Well, I don't want to act like I don't.
- [20:17]
Caller
Be honest, like, for the first time.
- [20:20]
Matt Jones
Go ahead. No, go ahead. You see, for the first time.
- [20:22]
Caller
For the first time since he's been our coach, like, Matt, I mean, I shouldn't call him ready to be fired, but I'm having serious doubts if he can handle this right now. I truly am, and I think a lot of our fans are. I've been reading online tonight, and people are like, what. What's going on? Like, something just happened. And it's. It's been a weird, weird two weeks. And I have one more point, but I'll let you see if you talk.
- [20:42]
Matt Jones
Well, I think it has been weird. I'm not ready to say can't handle it. Here's what I would say. When you. When you've been at Valley, when you've been at Utah Valley and byu, it's a different thing than when you're here. And, like, part of. Part of being successful is you're going to succeed and you're going to fail. And so part of what you have to do is learn how you handle failure. And he's really good at giving, like, comments and quotes that are motivational and that are big picture. And I actually find some of what he says to be inspiring. At the same time, some of those things also need to apply to yourself. Right? And so he has been odd. He has not handled losing in these last two games the way it is, and I am not ready to say he can't succeed here, but I think what you said is why his comments after these games are so important. There's a lot of the fan base wanting to see what he says and to sort of take it in. And I just think he's. He's done it really poorly, so I understand why people wonder. I. This. He has been different in these last 10 days. I don't know why. I don't know him well enough to know that, but he has been odd in these last 210 days. I think that's fair to say?
- [21:55]
Caller
Yeah. All right. Well, thanks. Yeah, I think we're on the same page there. Again, I'm not ready to give up, but, like, some. Something seems off there and. And it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. But maybe we'll find out one day why something was off and what happened. But in any event, that's got to change. But. But one other question then, and I'll. And I'll kind up and let you finish out, but I. I just have a question about some of these lineups he puts out there, and. And specifically about Brandon Garrison. Obviously, I'm not going to just try and sit here and just completely bash the kid, but it's clear he's a huge negative when he's out there. Do you think that Pope obviously sees this? Is he worried that he doesn't have any options right now? I mean, I think Moreno or put anybody else out there that's better than him. I mean, that clip.
- [22:37]
Matt Jones
Well, there's no doubt Moreno's been back. There's no doubt Moreno clip where Garrison.
- [22:42]
Caller
Watched the ball get tipped up three times.
- [22:45]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I just retweeted it. I appreciate the call. I mean, there's no doubt he's been terrible, and there's no doubt Moreno's been better. My guess is there probably is a staff thinking if we bench Garrison for Moreno, do we lose Garrison? You know, like, from a mental team standpoint. And I. I don't know the answer to that question, but I don't think there's any doubt. He needs less minutes. And you got Jaden Quaint potentially coming here soon, and the guy on a team full of guys that have been disappointing for me, Brandon Garrison's been the most disappointing. Always been disappointing, too. But, like, Garrison's been really disappointing. And that clip, which I just retweeted, if you haven't seen it, I mean, it's awful. It's early in the game, and it's just, you know, I don't know, man. I don't know if you can rely on him as a. As a. As your starting five, especially, you know, I said in the pregame, this is the kind of game you need Garrison for because it's tough. Like, this is the physical game, and he got completely just annihilated by a physical team. And if you want to be worried a little bit, we've played two opposite ends of the Spectrum team in Louisville and Michigan State that both have kind of destroyed us. We came back against Louisville, but, you know, those are two very different teams. And, you know, last year, we would have beaten that Michigan State team, and we might have lost to the Louisville team, but we would have beaten that Michigan State team. And now there's a part of me that goes, well, if you can't beat either of those teams, then not just can't beat, like, get destroyed, then that's. That's worrisome. Who's next?
- [24:22]
Billy Gillespie
Ben.
- [24:23]
Matt Jones
Ben, go ahead.
- [24:23]
Caller
Ben, Matt, Billy, are Veggie, Trey. It's nice to talk to you guys, given the circumstances. I just got home from the women's game. I will say that I watched a much better game than what you all seem to have watched. Yeah, every time that I tuned in, it seems like I just saw a couple of players playing for the name on the back of the jersey and not the front, which was very frustrating to see. So my second thought was I was really encouraged when Pope came out and talked to the media. And then I listened to Tom Leaches, and I was discouraged again. So I'm just at a loss right now.
- [25:04]
Matt Jones
I've never.
- [25:04]
Caller
I haven't been this in a while, honestly. I checked out with Cal back in Covid, so now it's like. I don't know. I'm not. I don't. I don't want to give up on the season for sure, but, I mean, it's just. It's just.
- [25:19]
Matt Jones
I understand. I understand people being at a loss. I'm a little bit out of a loss. I mean, I. And I appreciate the call. I'm. I'm at a loss because I don't know, man. If you had told me at the beginning of the game, what. What are the likely scenarios of this game? Us being blown off the floor would been one of my least plausible scenarios. And, like, Billy, us debating whether Mark Pope was rude to Tom Leach would have been like, at the bottom. Bottom of the scenario.
- [25:49]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah. I never thought this would happen.
- [25:50]
Matt Jones
I mean, and I don't think he was, like, rude to him personally, but, like, that was a rude answer. That was maybe not to Tom Leach. Rude to the fan base. You know, it was rude to the fan base. Like, it just is that stuff matters. You know, I say it over and over. I've said it about Mark Stoops. I used to say it about Cal towards the end. And Billy, like, that stuff matters. And. And it especially matters when you lose. And what's weird is, like, he seems to do the best talking when we win. And honestly, Billy, that's when we need him the least. Right? You need him the most. When you lose, you need the leader to encourage you, and he seems to be the worst at it.
- [26:31]
Billy Gillespie
When he loses, you got to keep the energy. Win or loss, you got to be the same consistent person as a leader.
- [26:38]
Matt Jones
It's most important in times of, like, problems. Anybody can lead when it's good, but can you lead when it's bad? And it seems like the way we're feeling, the team is clearly feeling that way, too, because they are not connected to him. I mean, he did say, I give him credit. He's like, I. I am not connecting to these guys. Well, it shows they're not. And that's. That's surprising.
- [27:03]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah. One quote from that radio interview he did, he said, we're not in this for each other right now.
- [27:09]
Matt Jones
Well, for a person that's preached that, that's concerning. And he's right. They're not. And they don't seem to like each other. Now, I don't want to say there's a chemistry issue, because I don't know. But they don't seem to like each other. And the reality is, you. You hear a lot of stuff. I don't know what of it is true, but I do know this. You've heard me say this. So sometimes I feel like I've done this so long, I repeat myself. But silence. The void will be filled by noise. So when you say nothing, the void will be filled by noise. And when Mark Pope said something happened in the Louisville locker room and didn't say what it was, you asked for what's happening right now, you're asking for it. Who's next?
- [27:57]
Billy Gillespie
Tyler.
- [27:58]
Matt Jones
Tyler. Go ahead, Tyler.
- [28:00]
Caller
Man, I wish he was on better terms, but it's good to talk to you tonight, man. You. You took one of my bigger points, which was the fact that, you know, we have two games where we played good teams. And the only thing that we have to look back to is what happened with Louisville pregame. And he didn't say much, but it's like, okay, what happened must have been horrible because we got beat by U of L and we looked horrible. And the night we looked bad, we looked worse, honestly, which I didn't think was possible.
- [28:27]
Matt Jones
Oh, we did look worse. No doubt. We looked worse. Good teams, like, really good teams could have lost to Louisville that night the way we lost. Right. Good teams don't lose like this to that team.
- [28:42]
Caller
Okay, so I got. That was one of my big points. You took it. So I got. I got two more, and if I only get one, that's fine. But I was looking. I didn't watch a whole lot of the game. I kind of stopped midway through the first half because I was like, I'm not doing this to myself tonight. But in the stat, like, so as you could understand. So one of the big stats that pointed out to me was that Michigan State had 25 assists on 32 made shots. Tonight, we only had 13 assists on 20 made shots. And against Louisville, Louisville had 20 assists on 31 shots, and we had 14 assists on 32 shots. And obviously again with. With the UFO game, it's not as big of a discrepancy, but that tells me that, like, whatever offense is supposed to be, supposed to be, if you watch it, like, I watched Mark Pope make a signal for a play once tonight, and it resulted in Jasper Johnson having a step back three. And I was like, I don't know what he was trying to signal. I don't think that's what he wanted.
- [29:38]
Matt Jones
It wasn't that.
- [29:39]
Caller
And so whatever offense we're trying to run, it ain't working. And whatever the offense that Michigan State or the opponent is trying to run, either we're not scouting it or even if we do scout it, we're not ready for what they're doing. And I just, like, it makes me.
- [29:54]
Matt Jones
I think we scouted them decently well because we scored. Like, remember we scored. We had 17 points in the first six and a half minutes.
- [30:05]
Caller
Yeah.
- [30:06]
Matt Jones
And then we scored, what, 12. The rest the. The, like next 13 minutes. So we basically. So I. I think what happens is I think we scout. Okay. But then adjustments, which I thought would be the thing he was the best at, have not been good.
- [30:27]
Caller
And the adjustments last year, for the most part, seem to be good at. What I'll say is.
- [30:32]
Matt Jones
And I.
- [30:33]
Caller
And I'll. And I'll be done after this, but I saw a tweet and I agreed with it. And I. I pointed this out to my dad when I was watching the game was we started well against both Louisville and tonight against Michigan State. But then, like, kind of. I feel like the first media timeout, we gave up two big runs that were pretty much impossible to come back from. And that doesn't make. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, like.
- [30:58]
Matt Jones
Well, it doesn't. It does. It does to me with one thing, and I appreciate the call. I hate his mass substitutions. I hated him last year. I hate him this year. I hate five in, five out. We're not good enough. We weren't good enough last year. We're not good enough this year. There's a big drop off between the starters and the reserves and I don't know why we insist on doing that against Louisville. I think it was extremely obvious tonight. Same thing now. The starters, when they came back in, didn't do any better. So, I mean, I can't. But I hate the mass substitutions. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. Other teams don't do that. I just, I hate it. We're not good enough for that. We're not like. And we did that last year and oftentimes it happened last year. I just, I don't know why that's. I mean, he's clearly his philosophy, he talks about collecting data and I get all that, but we may not be good enough to collect data this year. We may have to, you know, stay with teams early because, I mean, we got down 20 in the first half and you know, games most of the time over at that point. Who's next?
- [32:01]
Billy Gillespie
Mike?
- [32:02]
Matt Jones
Mike. Go ahead, Mike.
- [32:05]
Caller
Matt, if you had told me that in 1995, 1996, that Mark Pope was going to be a head basketball coach in college, head college basketball coach, I would not have thought that he would have trouble teaching teams how to defend because he was a grunt work player when he played.
- [32:26]
Matt Jones
He was.
- [32:26]
Caller
Yeah, I would have thought, I would have thought, you know, he and the, the people that are in their late 20s, early 30s, that never. That didn't see him. You go back and watch those games, he was the, he was the glue guy. He, he battled. So it's, it's surprising to me that this is his coaching style.
- [32:50]
Matt Jones
So it's surprising to me. And he clearly knew like his weakness last year was defense. But what it seems to be that we have done is that we then recruited a team to fix the weakness. But they're just as bad on defense without the good offense, which is not like he got rid of shooting ability to play defense and the defense isn't any better and we now don't have the shooting ability.
- [33:19]
Caller
And I'm sorry, man. Like playing 10, 11, 12 guys. I know people will say it's an embarrassment of riches, but it's a miserable thing to do because you need seven guys.
- [33:32]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I agree.
- [33:33]
Caller
Your eight to nine, your eight, nine guys are for injuries and foul trouble.
- [33:39]
Matt Jones
Or when somebody, or when somebody doesn't play well. You know, I appreciate the call. I'm. I'm kind of with you on that. I, I always thought Cal probably played one or two too few guys and I kind of think Pope May play one or two too many guys, but, you know, our starters got to be better if we're going to play these starters. I mean, I, I just, I can't get over how bad for most of this game they looked. I just, I don't understand why they are so bad. Defensively. It really is, it really is frustrating. 859-280-2287. Duke leads by 10 right now against Kansas. Duke's really, really good. Kansas doesn't have their best player, but both these teams look better than we did. We'll take a break and be right back. It's a local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. 859-280-22871 person right on the text machine says, matt, Mark Pope's hurting like fans are. Maybe that's why he was short with Tom. I mean, maybe, but sorry. You got to be better than that, right? I mean, you do. You have to. You know, he doesn't get the luxury that fans do of, you know, not like, like, this is your job, right? I mean, being a basketball coach is great. You make a ton of money to do something most people would pay to do. And yeah, there's moments that it stinks, but that's why you're paid the money, right? So, I mean, I don't, I, I used to say this with Cal. Like, he would skip those post games. I'm like, man, you only got to do 31 of these a year. Similarly, I mean, you got like. So I'm sure he's sad, but like, part of the job is dealing with sadness. Part of the job is dealing with happiness. I mean, that, that's, that's part of it. One person says Travis Ford did an interview earlier this week where he said he was worried about team chemistry. What do you make of that? Well, I didn't know that, but if he did, that's concerning because Travis is around the team a lot because of his announcing duties. So, like, that's the kind of thing. So like to. If. Let's assume that's the case. I didn't hear it. But if Travis said that. So that would make two things tonight from people that are around the team a lot that would worry me. Jack Givens, basically, if you listen to the post game comments question, the team's like, how hard they're trying. Well, he's there every day, so I'm gonna listen to Jack over almost anybody when it comes to that kind of stuff. And Travis Is not there every day. But Travis is there in preparation for the games he calls, which he's called, like, three, which means he's been there quite a bit. And if Jack is questioning how hard they work and Travis is questioning their chemistry, those guys have seen even more than we have. And that worries me. Okay. That. That's. That's officially worries. And honestly, you can read Mark Pope's quotes, and he seems to suggest similar kind of things, and I don't understand why chemistry would be an issue. Like, if you go back through the last 20 years, and I think of the teams that had chemistry issues, I can point you to the personalities that caused that. But these dudes seem like good guys. Don't seem to have particularly combative personalities that I know of. The only person I've had heard of kind of being a little bit can mean a little bit difficult would be low. But he's not even playing right now, so I don't think you can blame him. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Who's next?
- [37:38]
Billy Gillespie
Martin.
- [37:38]
Matt Jones
Martin. Go ahead, Martin.
- [37:41]
Caller
Hey, Matt. I'm just gonna, I guess, echo a lot what people have said, but Mark Pope definitely seems a little off on the sideline. Just, like, watching his body language and looking at him through the TV just looks a little off. You mentioned maybe something along the lines of he can't get the team to buy in. And there was a point in time in the game, second half, where it seemed like he was trying to coach up diabate from the sideline and, like, get him into a position, and he's just, like, walking to where he needs to be. And I don't know that. That might just be me, like, looking into it too hard, but it just seems like.
- [38:24]
Matt Jones
Well, I don't mean to be harsh. This is going to sound harsh. Okay. This is going to sound harsh. But if Modiabate and Denzel Aberdeen, one of whom's won a national championship at Florida and one of whom was a glue guy on a final four team at Alabama, if you're not able to reach them, well, their other coach did. So maybe that's on you. Right. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like we're talking about problem children. These are dudes who've been part of winning programs that came here.
- [38:54]
Caller
Right, Right. And you mentioned in this might be something else. Just it might be a coincidence or something. But, like, I saw Jack Givens had brought in Matt Matthew Bradford to speak to the team, and maybe he speaks to the team quite Often, but he's a w. Double amputee. Just was involved in an ID explosion and it seemed like maybe that he was trying to get the team motivated by, like, having him speak to them or something.
- [39:24]
Matt Jones
Well, I mean, I would. I would not read too much in that. I mean, Matthew Bradford's a great guy and lots of people try to, like. Yeah, I wouldn't read too much in that because. Because, like, the football team brings him in a lot. I. I don't know if he's been to basketball stuff before, but Matthew's a great guy. Appreciate the call. A hero. And I wouldn't read like they need this. I think. I think Mark. One of the good things about Mark is. Is I think he. He gets things bigger than. Than sports. And so. But, you know, he. They. I am really shocked. Not just that we've lost, but I'm really shocked we're talking about some of these issues. We are, because it just. I never would have seen that coming. Who's next?
- [40:12]
Billy Gillespie
I'm shocked at the perception change of Mark Supes and Mark Pope over the last.
- [40:16]
Matt Jones
I mean, think about that. I mean, just think about that flip. I mean, I don't think Stoops is necessarily out of the woodwork yet, but out of the woods. Not the woodwork. But it has been a quick check. I mean, just three weeks ago, we had just gotten blown out by Tennessee and we've beaten Purdue and now think about my. It's. That's a big change. What's next?
- [40:41]
Billy Gillespie
Skyler?
- [40:42]
Matt Jones
Skyler. Go ahead, Skyler.
- [40:46]
Caller
Hey, Matt, just. I want to shout out my boys, Cole and Keegan out on the West Coast. Hey, I just noticed tonight, a one team that played with house money and the other team played afraid to lose their money. One team played with a chip on their shoulder and the other team acts like, because maybe they've been there before, that they're going to walk onto the court and just win the championship automatically. One team was compared to the 96 Wildcats and the other team is a decent Big Ten. Big Ten foe of the Indiana Hoosiers. And one team's coach was honest and articulate and acted like a leader afterwards. And the other team acted. The other team's coach acted, I don't know, almost performatively sad. And. And it was like, yeah, every. Every bit of the game. There was bad body language on the court. There was like a spurt of four minutes in the second half when we kind of pulled it to. To 10. And then we. We pulled out all of our. All of our players who made that run and put in yellow bitch. And it was terrible.
- [41:48]
Matt Jones
Yeah. You know, I mean, I would performatively said is an interesting word because I. Because I. I think it makes it sound like you think he sad. I think it's almost that he's too sad. You know what I mean? Like, I. I don't think Mark Pope is put. I'll put it like this. If Mark Pope was putting on a performance, he put on a bad one because I actually don't think he won any. Did himself any favors in any of those comments.
- [42:12]
Caller
Okay, then maybe he needs to be a performative leader in losing. Because you're right.
- [42:17]
Matt Jones
That might be true. That might be true. Yeah. I mean, that. That might actually be true. I mean, sometimes, you know, do have to. My mom always use the phrase rise to the moment. And maybe he needs to do that. Maybe you have to sit there and compose yourself and say, okay, I may not be in a good place right now, but I need to be in a good place for this team, these fans. Right. Because I appreciate the call. I mean, I'll just. I mean, we talked about it this morning, the story that is being shared about what happened before the game. And I have. I mean, we. The reality is, I don't want to speculate, but you can't help it because he didn't say what it was. The story that was shared is that Mark Pope was uncharacteristic in the pregame locker room. And that kind of. It put the team in a weird place. Kind of almost freaked them out a little bit. Now, I don't know if that's true or not. I really. I have no idea. But that is kind of. If you're around the program and you talk to the people on the periphery, that's what they say. Well, I don't know if that's true, Billy, but it seems like the most likely explanation to me. Because he's been weird besides the locker room, hasn't he?
- [43:28]
Billy Gillespie
Right. And it felt like he wanted to take ownership for it, but he also didn't want to say what it was. It was just strange.
- [43:34]
Matt Jones
Yeah. I think it seemed like he wanted to acknowledge that he had maybe screwed it up, but he didn't want to say what it was. So he said we flipped the switch too early. The story that kind of floated around is that he came in and was kind of being uncharacteristic, like yelling and challenging guys, and it just kind of threw guys off and then put people in weird spots. Now, I don't know if that's true or not. Right. But let's say it was then you could see a guy who realizes he messes up, has regret, and it kind of snowballs. Right? Yeah. We're getting into, like, who, like, psycho analysis. Who knows? And I don't know the answer, but I do know this. The dude that's been in these press conferences, these. It's not the same guy that was here since last April. And I don't know why that is. And I think other fans are wondering the same thing. And the team we're watching has, like, all of the opposite characteristics of the team we watched last year.
- [44:33]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah.
- [44:34]
Matt Jones
I mean, take everything we liked about that team last year, and we're seeing almost none of that now, including from guys that were on both teams. I'll tell you, the OA looks like a completely different person than he did last year, and we don't know why.
- [44:52]
Caller
Yeah.
- [44:52]
Billy Gillespie
And you emphasize defense in the off season and can't stop anything.
- [44:57]
Matt Jones
Yeah. Who's next?
- [44:58]
Billy Gillespie
Richard.
- [44:59]
Matt Jones
Richard, go ahead.
- [45:03]
Caller
Well, my. My thing is, I don't think we have any guard play. You all.
- [45:11]
Matt Jones
Well, I don't think without Jalen Lowe. Without Jalen. Without Jalen, nobody. I'm not gonna be able to. I forget.
- [45:20]
Caller
What I'm saying is we don't run any.
- [45:22]
Matt Jones
Force of voice is not gonna.
- [45:24]
Billy Gillespie
He's gonna get it in.
- [45:24]
Matt Jones
He's the one guy who can out force voice me, so I'm gonna let him. Go ahead. Go ahead, Richard.
- [45:31]
Caller
All right. We don't run any plays, Matt.
- [45:35]
Matt Jones
I mean, we do. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.
- [45:38]
Caller
No, we don't run it. Well. Those guys last year would whip that ball four or five different times to hit the wide open, man. We don't do that this year, and.
- [45:48]
Matt Jones
I don't know why. We're not as good at it. We're running plays. We're just not.
- [45:51]
Caller
I don't think we try like we did last year.
- [45:54]
Matt Jones
I agree with that.
- [45:55]
Caller
The difference is, personally, I think that team we had last year right now would beat this one to death.
- [46:01]
Matt Jones
I do, for sure. Well, Jack said. All right, Richard, I appreciate the call, man. I'd like to get in a word. Jack said last year, all those guys came in with, like, a burning chip on their shoulder to show that they deserve to be at Kentucky. And that makes a lot of sense to me. Kobe Braya came from Dayton. Lamont Butler from San Diego State. Right. Andrew Carr from Wake Forest. Jackson Robinson from byu. Amari Williams from Drexel. Right. Like, these guys Wanted to show Ortega was a bench player at Oklahoma. I want to show. And so they had a desire like a burn to prove that they should be here. And we're just not seeing that right right now. We're just not. Let's do one more. We'll take a break. Who's next?
- [46:53]
Billy Gillespie
Hunter.
- [46:54]
Matt Jones
Hunter. Go ahead, Hunter.
- [46:57]
Caller
Matt, Billy, it's great to talk to you guys tonight. I got three quick things. I'm gonna go through them real quick. First, I, I think we need a wellness check on, on Mark. Like there's when seeing that tunnel in the pregame when he's coming in there and that just look on his face like I felt for him and I'm.
- [47:15]
Matt Jones
Just like, so what's everybody talking about right there? I've had a bunch of people write me that on the text machine that I missed. I missed the very beginning. I mean I turned it on right at the tip. What happened when he walked? Because I've had a lot of people say that.
- [47:30]
Caller
So they showed both coaches walking almost like in the off the bus in the tunnel and they were by themselves and Izzo is just smiling like he's just doing his thing. And then Mark is just head down and he has this thousand yard stare and just this look of dread. You can find the picture online. It's not good. It's not good at all. And as soon as I saw that it was. As soon as I saw that I was like, oh, I was like this is. I hope this goes well. Like I legit lost any confidence that we had in this game. Secondly, I'm curious and I'm wondering because here's the thing, the coaches and the players know most about the situation and I wonder if Jalen was is waiting to make his decision and waiting to see how these games go. And I'm wondering if we're going to get an announcement here the next day or so that he's going to be having whatever that long term six is for the injury that he's going to go that option.
- [48:26]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I worry about that too. I mean I have no reason to. So like this is not. Appreciate the call. This is not anything I've heard. But I, I do wonder about that. Like if you're Jalen Lowe and you're sitting there thinking, okay, what do I want to do? You know, this game didn't help with that. Or maybe he sees it and says, you know, they need me. I, we do need him. I mean like the reality is he is a guy. What I why I was so excited about him is he's a guy. When the offense breaks down, he can go get you buckets. And he did it against Louisville. Now, I know he missed the free throws at the end and all that, but, like, when we were doing nothing else, right, he got us going. And we could have used that tonight. Completely different subject, but the LSU coaching search is one of the funniest things ever. Billy, what's going on? Lane Kiffin. So there were apparently message board posters hanging out there. They're doing shifts at the Baton Rouge airport to see when private jets take off.
- [49:28]
Billy Gillespie
Well, that's just like BBN to a degree.
- [49:30]
Matt Jones
And then this Louisiana governor Jeff Landry got a pop out. Daniel continues to get personally involved in the Tigers coaching. At a political fundraiser in Baton Rouge tonight, Landry said he had spoken to Lane Kiffin for almost two hours trying to talk him into the LSU gig.
- [49:47]
Billy Gillespie
You don't talk him out of it.
- [49:50]
Matt Jones
How about that? You got the governor, two hour. Can you imagine, like, Andy Beshear calling a coach for two hours? Maybe it happens more than we know. I don't know. 859-280-2287. We will take a break and we will be right back. This is the local toy dealers KSR post game show. All right, so I just saw that tunnel video. Yeah, If I had seen that, I think I would have quickly.
- [50:22]
Billy Gillespie
Not great.
- [50:22]
Matt Jones
Confident, not great. I mean, he looks like. Well, fake. David Beckham says it looks like a guy who's walking into work who hates his job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've not heard any of this. So I'd like. I'm gonna play this. I'm playing this raw meaning. Like, this is Jeff Goodman interviewing Mark Pope. And I've had two friends send this to me and say this is one of the weirder interviews they've ever heard and makes him very sad. So it's two minutes. Mark Pope, the whole time, seems to be staring at the ground. I've not heard this. So we will all listen to this together. Okay, here we go. All right, Mark, this is probably. I think it's down as I've seen you, period, in since I've known you. What are you going through right now in terms of the frustration after this loss? Well, I don't want to take away anything from Michigan, say, because Tom is one of the great coaches in college basketball. And those guys played tough and together and hard and played well. So, you know, mostly just credit those guys. And we are facing a monumental challenge right now, and I'm excited to see if we can figure it out. You hinted at something like this a week or so ago, before the Louisville game or after the Louisville game. Did you sense that this has been kind of brewing throughout the preseason? No.
- [51:56]
Caller
I'm, I'm, I'm.
- [51:59]
Matt Jones
I'm disappointed with how disconnected we've been. I thought I had a better pulse. I thought I was doing a better job coaching than I'm doing right now. So it's been eye opening for me a little bit. So, no, I'm a little bit surprised. And by coaching, you're not talking about X's and O's as much as you're talking about getting these guys to play for the Kentucky name, correct? No, I think it's everything. I think it's developing a culture. It's the right care, it's the right focus, it's the right schemes, it's the right X's and O's.
- [52:43]
Caller
It's a poor job.
- [52:44]
Matt Jones
The nice thing is I can fix it like we can fix it, but it's a really disappointing result. All right, thanks, Mark. What do you think about that?
- [52:57]
Billy Gillespie
The dude needs to talk. Like he said, a loss of words, but we need to hear something out of him.
- [53:03]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I think that looked really sad. I mean, I, you know, Jeff Goodman knows Mark really well. I mean, Jeff Goodman probably knows Mark better than any other media member. And when he says to him, this is the saddest you've ever looked like, I'll take that at face value. I think Jeff would know that. And you know, Mark just looks like he's completely at a loss for words. I mean, he looks, I don't know, man. I mean, he looks like a dude who.
- [53:34]
Caller
I don't know.
- [53:36]
Billy Gillespie
But your players are going to see that. Like, yeah, this is the leader.
- [53:40]
Matt Jones
I don't know, man. Like, I just, I. This is like, I'm oddly more pessimistic after watching, listening to all these comments after the game than I was. Than I was watching it. All right, who's next?
- [53:53]
Billy Gillespie
Well, let's do the Johnny Rocker, personal injury attorney, moneymaker of the game injured. Get small town compassion with big city results.
- [54:00]
Matt Jones
I mean, who you're going to pick at? Sorry, do you read? I spoke over it.
- [54:05]
Billy Gillespie
Small town compassion with big city results. When you call The Rocker at 270-321-4429 and yeah, we're kind of looking around to find the moneymaker of the game tonight, but we're going to go with Malachi Moreno. He had nine points. He was seven of eight from the free throw line. He had four rebounds, two of them being offensive rebounds. When the team had six total, he had two, three assists, one block and 20 minutes. He was only minus one in the plus minus. He is our moneymaker of the game and he should start.
- [54:34]
Matt Jones
Yeah, he needs to start.
- [54:35]
Billy Gillespie
He needs next game.
- [54:36]
Matt Jones
I think. I think that that needs to happen. I don't like this video online right now. Have you seen this video of Otega.
- [54:44]
Billy Gillespie
Way kind of rolling his eyes?
- [54:47]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I don't like that.
- [54:48]
Billy Gillespie
Are we dissect. Are we dissecting everything?
- [54:49]
Matt Jones
Well, probably, probably. We're probably over dissecting things. I think that's. But, you know, that's what happens. That's. That's. You're at Kentucky, right? Yeah, so. But yeah, I don't like that video either. For people who don't know, Mark Pope is explaining that he hasn't coached well and that he needs to. Oh, Mario just tweeted this out and that he needs to. That there was still time to fix it. And Otega Way looks to be like rolling his ass as he says it. All right, who's next?
- [55:22]
Billy Gillespie
Todd.
- [55:23]
Matt Jones
Todd. Go ahead, Todd.
- [55:26]
Caller
Hey, Matt. Agree with everything you said tonight. It's definitely been a very confusing week with the comments post. Louisville, the way we played, and then. And then tonight as well. Couple things. Last year, these problems are now the defensive problems of this year. We can't stay in front of anybody. We can't defend a big role. And last year it was, well, wait till we get some better athletes.
- [55:55]
Matt Jones
But you're breaking up. I'm sorry, sir. I want to hear. I want to hear what you say, but it's. I appreciate the call. You're breaking up. I can't hear you. I think you were suggesting, though, that last year we said we can't defend the pick a roll because we don't have the athletes, and now we have them. And you're. You're exactly right. I mean, they're not defending the pick and roll well, but they're not really not defending anything well. And yeah, I mean, I don't. It's hard for me to believe Mark Pope can't coach defense. It's like the caller said earlier, he played on one. He played on a great defensive team. He's smart. He knows basketball. He can coach defense. Last year the excuse was, though, he didn't have the athletes, but he does this year. But like what I said earlier, it feels like we traded shooting for defense and toughness and ended up with none of them. And that's a bad Trade. That's like a trade the Reds would make. Who's next? Although I like key. Brian.
- [56:52]
Billy Gillespie
Go ahead, Victor.
- [56:53]
Matt Jones
Victor. Go ahead, Victor.
- [56:56]
Caller
First time caller.
- [56:57]
Matt Jones
Who off?
- [56:59]
Caller
All right, so I'm having a problem being optimistic. Freshman year, Covid, then St. Peter's then the second round, then Oakland. Those were my four years at college. Now, that was California.
- [57:10]
Matt Jones
Tough four years.
- [57:12]
Caller
It was tough. But now last year, sweet 16. I mean, yeah, that's good, but I mean, we're Kentucky. We have to remember who we are. And I'm kind of like worried, thinking that this honeymoon is over. And I would like. My question for you. I'm not trying to sound rude or anything, but what is. If you were Mark Post, financial advisor, what would you do with $22 million?
- [57:37]
Matt Jones
Oh, you mean for the roster?
- [57:40]
Caller
Sure.
- [57:42]
Matt Jones
Well, you know, the $22 million. I. I appreciate we're going to hear that all year. That's just the nature of. If you. If you spend that kind of money. I don't really think that's the issue because I don't think this is a talent issue. If you have lower. I mean, if it was a talent issue, low and quaints are coming. So I hope they're coming. My issue is effort. This is not. Tonight has nothing to do with talent. We may have lost to Louisville because they have more talent and we're better. But, like, this is an effort issue. Tonight. We just got out, coached out, everything. There's nothing you do to win a basketball game that. We did better than them tonight. We were not. We did not coach better. We did not shoot better. We did not play better defense. We were not more motivated. Every single thing you can do to win a game. We were worse than they were tonight. So, you know, I'm. We lost to Louisville. I think it was reasonable to say, you know, if this had happened or this had happened. That's not tonight. Tonight's an all systems failure. This is the worst performance of the Mark Pope era. And this is one of the worst regular season November performances in a long time. Now, it's not the worst. We lost at home to UNC Wilmington. I mean, we've done some. We've done some bad things. We lost Evansville, but this one's pretty bad. Who's next?
- [59:05]
Billy Gillespie
Johnny.
- [59:06]
Matt Jones
Johnny. Go ahead, Johnny.
- [59:09]
Caller
Hey, Matt. Feeling pretty defeated tonight. That was an embarrassing performance. What do you guys think? That we need to shrink the rotation?
- [59:22]
Matt Jones
Yes.
- [59:23]
Caller
Quickly.
- [59:24]
Matt Jones
Yes. I think you need. For me, I'm changing the starting lineup. I'm putting Malachi in instead of Garrison. And I'm gonna play three guys off the bench. I'm gonna probably play, you know, I mean it's hard for me to see Garrison minutes, but. So let's say yellow, either Noah or Williams and you know, Jasper, that's probably who I'm going with right now. But even if you play 10, I think you have to like to me right now this team should be a, when Jaylen Lowe comes back, this probably be a seven or eight man rotation. I kind of don't care who they are. But if you try to play 10 and nobody's playing well, I just don't think you let anybody get into a rookie rhythm.
- [60:11]
Caller
Yeah, I agree. I don't think Yich is ready and I don't know if BG and Trent will ever be ready. Start Marino and have Cam and Jasper as your main two reserves. Even run some small ball lineups with Mo and Cam together. Offense opens up when the four can shoot.
- [60:27]
Matt Jones
I, I, I do think that's a huge issue. I appreciate the call. I think Diabate at the 4 is an offensive problem. Those threes he took tonight were some of the saddest shots Billy I've ever seen.
- [60:39]
Billy Gillespie
That first half was rough for him.
- [60:41]
Matt Jones
I mean he is Stanley from the office for three years. He is, I mean it's, it's bad his threes.
- [60:52]
Billy Gillespie
So what you put at the five.
- [60:53]
Matt Jones
But I like him on defense and I like some of the other stuff he gives. But that, well that's, I got mocked for saying him at the five and Malachi at the four. But wouldn't you rather have Malachi shooting that or anyone? That's not him. He is the worst shooter on the team. And when he, and he had, he had four threes tonight and I don't think one of them was close and they were wide open. Wide open. They're giving him what we used to give at Trancy, the Kyle Sadler treatment. Shoot. I see Kyle sometimes, he hates that I use him as that analogy, but it's the truth. Well, we would just say shoot. That's what they're doing with him.
- [61:32]
Billy Gillespie
Well, how about Michigan State hitting 13 threes in the first three games? They hit 11 tonight.
- [61:38]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I mean that, that explains why, but remember they hit four of them right at the beginning, but we were still ahead. You know, they, I mean they scored what they score, 83. I mean that's a lot for them. But we scored 69. We're not going to beat anybody. I don't, I don't think Pope's won a Game yet where we've scored under 70.
- [61:55]
Billy Gillespie
66.
- [61:56]
Matt Jones
66. Yeah. I think I saw popes like Owen 10 or something. When we score under 70, let's do four more and we'll call it a night. Who's next?
- [62:03]
Billy Gillespie
Jerry.
- [62:04]
Matt Jones
Jerry. Go ahead, Jerry.
- [62:07]
Caller
The avate kills me, man. He just. He shoots the ball from his hip, man. You think a guy that's been playing college basketball, we'd be shooting the ball from the top? There's no way, man, he can do. He can hit shots from the hill, man. I mean, it just don't make sense to me. And another thing, Garrison, he just don't give you no effort, man. He just stands around. There was two different times tonight, I was telling my wife, they got to drive the ball through the hole. He just stands on the only point his hands up there, man. He's 6 11.
- [62:43]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I agree. I mean.
- [62:45]
Caller
I mean, I love my character, man, but Jesus Christ, give it a little effort, man. Thank you for taking my call.
- [62:52]
Matt Jones
Appreciate it. Yeah, I can't argue. Three more. Who's next?
- [62:58]
Billy Gillespie
Landon.
- [62:59]
Matt Jones
Landon. Am I overreacting? Hang on just a second. We're reacting. This away video. I mean, this away video looks bad.
- [63:06]
Billy Gillespie
I can't. I can't really tell. I mean, it does look like an eye roll.
- [63:11]
Matt Jones
I. I guess it's not obvious in the eye roll, but it looks like an eye roll. Who's next?
- [63:17]
Billy Gillespie
Landon's up landing.
- [63:19]
Matt Jones
Go ahead, Landon.
- [63:20]
Caller
All right, Matt. How's it going, man? It's been a long week for Kentucky basketball, for sure. With the Louisville. Loss was rough, and then this just was icing on the cake. Thankfully, we are only three. Three weeks in, and I feel like I still trust Pope up to this point. There's no reason to give up on him. I mean, you look at the level game, we went down 16 two separate times and fought back both times, and same thing tonight. Down 22 and got to 10. So, I mean, we're there, but we're not fully there at the same time. This team has plenty of talent and also a lot of talent that is missing on the floor at the same time, so. And I think we have a plenty enough run to make it to the it. And Maddie bangs in the end, it's still go Cards.
- [64:08]
Matt Jones
Yeah. I mean, I don't. I guess that was just at the end, he just said, go cards.
- [64:16]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah.
- [64:18]
Matt Jones
All right. I think that was. I think that was more of a burn in your head than you thought. It's. It's hard to talk trash when. When we're we're already down. There's nothing you can say to me that's going to make me feel worse than we already do.
- [64:29]
Billy Gillespie
Hope's face did it all for me.
- [64:31]
Matt Jones
Today is not good.
- [64:34]
Billy Gillespie
From that.
- [64:34]
Matt Jones
Pope's face is not good. No, let's. I'm gonna play one more video here. This was apparently away. Was. Well, why are you so worried about away? Apparently this was. This is away talking about his, I guess his effort. Let me play this. What's not working for you personally as an individual, right?
- [64:56]
Caller
No, I mean, we all gonna figure it out.
- [64:59]
Matt Jones
But with me, it's just a matter of me playing hard, having effort, 100%. That's something that I got to go out there and do, and everything else.
- [65:07]
Caller
Is going to place after that.
- [65:09]
Matt Jones
Well, okay. At least he knows that. But you kind of would hope he already would do that.
- [65:14]
Billy Gillespie
Yeah. Does that mean he's not doing that?
- [65:17]
Matt Jones
Okay. All right, two more. Who's next? Poe? Actually, that one is a Louisville one. He doesn't count. We'll do three. Go ahead. Poor.
- [65:26]
Caller
Hey, guys. It's just mind boggling. I don't know where to start. I guess with Mark Pope. That was the craziest interview by head coach for a big time school that I've ever heard. After the game, something's up. One thing reason I don't use the word. I watch trying to use the word talent. They. They. They're athletic, but they don't pass the ball good. They. They don't handle the ball good. I know they. They don't have Jalen Lowe right now, but I don't even know if he's the answer. But the good thing is we're early in the season. We got our big guy still supposed to come back. Plans? I'm gonna try to keep a.
- [66:21]
Matt Jones
Try to keep your head up. You. You know, you.
- [66:24]
Caller
Yeah.
- [66:24]
Matt Jones
You sound as sad as Mark Pope and I don't want you to do that.
- [66:28]
Caller
Yeah, well, I am probably. And that's the thing. It's Kentucky basketball. And that's how. That's how we are.
- [66:36]
Matt Jones
But that's how we are.
- [66:37]
Caller
It's our. It's early, but we're not looking good and we're not sounding good and. And it's just bad, man.
- [66:46]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [66:47]
Caller
But I'll talk to you in the morning.
- [66:49]
Matt Jones
Appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. 859-280-22-287. Two more. Who's next?
- [66:56]
Billy Gillespie
Hopper.
- [66:57]
Matt Jones
Hopper. Hopper.
- [66:59]
Billy Gillespie
Hopper.
- [67:00]
Matt Jones
Hopper. Go ahead. What's up, Hopper?
- [67:02]
Caller
Okay, so. So I think that on Brandon Garrison. Not only him, but I think the whole team needs to work on their rebounding skills because, like, I mean, Brandon really watched the ball drop in front of him three times and never caught it one time.
- [67:19]
Matt Jones
Andrew, you're right. Hopper. Where are you from, Hopper? I. I hear an Eastern Kentucky accent. Am I right?
- [67:27]
Caller
Yeah, I. I don't know if I. Dad, am I from Eastern.
- [67:34]
Matt Jones
Yeah, you're. You're from Eastern Kentucky. Southern Kentucky, from Wayne County. You from Monticello?
- [67:43]
Caller
Yes.
- [67:44]
Matt Jones
Okay, that's eastern Kentucky. You're from Southeast. You're not. Tell your dad that I said it's not Southern Kentucky. Monticello is eastern Kentucky.
- [67:56]
Caller
He's listening to you. I had to go in the other room because he was mad at me because I was trying to do it.
- [68:03]
Matt Jones
Well, you tell him. He. You tell him that you're from Eastern Kentucky and I've been to Wayne County High School. There's a lot of mountains there. So thank you for calling, Hopper. Appreciate it.
- [68:12]
Caller
Okay, bye.
- [68:14]
Matt Jones
There you go. See, now that cheers me up, hearing a kid from Wayne county call the post game show. Let's do one more. Who's next?
- [68:20]
Billy Gillespie
Chris?
- [68:21]
Matt Jones
Chris. Go ahead, Chris.
- [68:23]
Caller
Okay, Matthew, I'm going to compare my four years at school to the other guys. Four years, freshman year, dream Game, sophomore year, Georgetown Final Four, junior year, lost to St. John's in the Sweet 16, senior year, LSU Elite 8. Not too bad. Not a bad run.
- [68:42]
Matt Jones
That's a great one. I. I spoke. That was fun.
- [68:45]
Caller
I graduated with Kenny Walker.
- [68:47]
Matt Jones
I spoke at UK last week and we were talking about what would have. Because. Because I argue that if you were in school 95, 96, 97, 98, that might have been the best four years to be at Ukraine. If you graduate 98 or 99, something like that. Yeah, probably 90, 98. If you graduate 98 or 99,. That'd be the best. I graduated in 2000. But we were also saying, well, what's the worst for football and basketball? And you could make an argument that the people graduating right now have kind of had that right, or at least in the last couple years because they haven't really seen either team be really good. Whereas, like in 97, 98, like, both teams were great for us. So. Yeah.
- [69:36]
Caller
But here's the deal. Our coach is a Patino disciple.
- [69:41]
Matt Jones
Yep.
- [69:42]
Caller
Let's go full court pressure, press the hell out of people and start having some fun.
- [69:50]
Matt Jones
Well, this team certainly likes being in transition. I appreciate the call. And if they're not going to play any defense, maybe that's what you have to do. When we were in transition, which was the first seven minutes, we looked pretty good and that was really the only time we looked good the whole time. Well, folks, that was a good post game show in terms of calls and everybody getting in. It's a tough loss. It's very frustrating, but, you know, hopefully it gets better. I can't remember a time that I felt more bewildered by the team than now. I mean, we've seen teams where we've had frustrations, we've seen teams be bad, we've seen teams have struggles. I can't. I kind of understand a little bit about Pope sort of not knowing what to say because I don't really know what to say. This is surprising to me, but he's gonna have to turn it around. He ended his press conference by saying, we will not fail. Those are his words. I think he has earned the right to, to see if that. To see if that happens. But I will say I hope he gets some sleep. I hope, I hope somebody who's his friend cheers him up a little bit because he, he. He does not look like a happy camper. Billy, we will. Thank you for staying up. We'll be back tomorrow morning. We'll do this again. We'll probably make it kind of a caller heavy morning show, which we don't do a lot just because I want to hear from more folks and hopefully we'll have some more clarification on some of the things we talked about. Shout out to the women's team who did win by 40 tonight in a huge game for them as well. We'll see you later. This has been the local toy dealers KSR postgame show.
- [71:37]
Billy Gillespie
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught, the answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zieman and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer. The investigation into the most notorious killer in New York since the Son of Sam. Available now listen for free on the.
- [72:01]
Matt Jones
Iheartradio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [72:09]
Billy Gillespie
The murder of an 18 year old.
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Matt Jones
Girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever, wherever you.
- [72:40]
Caller
Get your podcasts and to binge the.
- [72:42]
Matt Jones
Entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Can we get a Thanksgiving first?
- [72:55]
Caller
I'm hungry. What's up y'?
- [72:57]
Billy Gillespie
All?
- [72:57]
Matt Jones
It's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of the Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On Ellis Ever after, we get real.
- [73:06]
Caller
With our crew about family, love and marriage and everything else in between.
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Matt Jones
Listen to Ellis ever after on America's.
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Caller
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Matt Jones
Follow Ellis ever after and start listening.
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Caller
On the free iHeartRadio app today.
- [73:19]
Matt Jones
Atlanta is a spirit. It's not just a city. It's where crunk was born in a club in the West End. Before world star, it was 55 9, where preachers go viral and students at the HBCU turned heartbreak in the Resurrection, where dreamers brought Hollywood to the south and hustlers bring their visions to create black wealth. Nobody's rushing into relationships with you. I'm big rude. Listen to Atlanta ears on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.