Kentucky Basketball: Survive and Advance; The Breaking Point

ROUND of SHOTS #129 - show date 3.8.2026

Roundtable featuring Dave Slone, Terry Brown, Kai McClelland, and Paul (Bleed Blue Network) - hosted by Kevin Hale

Topics:
* UK Women's Hoops - The Greenville Run & NCAA Tourney projections
* UK Men's Hoops - The Fatigue & Maturity Meltdown
* UK Men's Hoops - The 'Nashville Grind'
* Mitch Barnhart's 'Golden Parachute'
* Final Shots & more!

@BigBlueNationD1 @TBrown_80 @TerrellTres @nolanuky27 @allUKball @BleedBNetwork @kevinhale423


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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:56

The ladies, they had their little uh run, SEC run. What was it a three games? Trace, I'll start with you. Give me some uh feedback with how the ladies went.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, it went exactly how I kind of envisioned it would. They they got past the first two teams, um, played pretty pretty solid, had some great moments through those, but then you meet the juggernauts of all juggernauts in the women's basketball world. South Carolina, uh, you know, they they they deservedly so they've earned it, but they have the tournaments in South Carolina. You gotta, you know, it's like if you had the well, I guess we can't really say that anymore. Back in the day, if you would have had the SEC tournament in like Owensboro or something, you know what I'm saying? Louisville. Yeah, Louisville, there you go. And it's like, yeah, it's a old Kentucky man, you're gonna say gonna get dominated no matter what. But but with that being said, they are the best team. They deserve, and they they waxed Kentucky pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Um, I didn't think it was gonna be that bad, but but they got absolutely ass thumped today, by the way, by Texas. Yeah, and then Carolina got ran out of the gym by Texas today. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, the way it went in Lexington, I didn't think it was gonna be that bad, but you know, they put up a competitive fight, but there you go. That's the difference, and that's the momentum you can have at home versus away, and um, they got it handed to them.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

Anybody else jump in about the ladies?

SPEAKER_06 2:06

Yeah, so I thought the Georgia game could have gone either way, just judging by uh regular season against them. I mean, we're pretty evenly matched, but the fact that they beat them by 15, I thought was encouraging in the second round. Um, I actually thought they had a good run for the most part. I other than I mean the South Carolina game was more of a blowout than I thought it would be, but we've already proven we can play with them if we're at our best and at least have like a day's worth of rest. And it's not our third game in three days. I still think that this team uh can make the Sweet 16. And they I don't maybe Elite Eight, maybe Elite Eight, but they can definitely make the second weekend for sure. And I think this has been a successful year for Kenny Brooks. Uh he's built upon what they what they started last year, and the sky's the limit for this program right now.

SPEAKER_05 2:45

Three games in three days. Did the ladies get fatigued, TB? It's a joke.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Kind of which I mean you know that's the how these conference tournaments go.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

It is. And if you don't want to play three games in three days or five games in five days, you do something about it, right? Dave O, any thoughts?

SPEAKER_07 3:02

Yeah, they're they're kind of the victim of their own demise, you know, the way some of those losses that they had, you know, Georgia, Mississippi State, so on and so forth, Alabama. Um playing on Wednesday is not ideal, right? And the men are getting ready to find that out coming up soon. Um, you know, but this time you can actually use fatigue as an excuse, you know, this is the proper time to use that. Uh, you know, run running into South Carolina, obviously, after it really showed.

SPEAKER_06 3:27

It really showed onto those turnovers.

SPEAKER_07 3:29

But you know, but once you once you remember just the way they played South Carolina, not even four days before that, you know, we all we we all believe, and even I believe the media finally understands that they should be a top 16 seed and play at home and then you know have that right and make it as far as just as the elite age possible. But it depends on the draw. Like they like you know, like everybody else said, they've they've proven they can play with the best teams in the country.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

So Paul, last night on space or cow, did you have a take on the lighting rookie?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Yeah, I think everybody everybody said it it um, you know, it was gonna we're gonna need a another elite performance from Claire, and it's just the legs were legs were gone for most of the most of the team, and uh there wasn't really anybody else to to pick up the uh the slack, um, but get some rest going to the NCAA tournament, see what they can do.

SPEAKER_07 4:11

Pick up the strap instead of the slack.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

Yeah, uh 23 and 10. That was funny. 23 and 10, I think, is their record. Uh last night, Paul, I'm I'm gonna ask you to bring this up, and we don't have to go with nauseum on this, but can you you're not exactly dazzled with Coach Brooks, and and tell us why.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Uh I don't know. It's just a lot of hype and not a lot of like there's not a lot of things to hang your hat on. I mean, we're double-digit losses. I mean, it's kind of like Pope, like, you know, he came in and there's a lot of hoopla. Oh, he's such a good recruiter, we can do all this, and like I don't know. Like, I feel like we should be better than a nine seed and bat it there as well. Um uh I I don't like some of the things he's handled with it. It just seems like we don't show up sometimes in in every big game. Um, we've gotten beat you know some losses that shouldn't happen there. So um look, it's not like he's getting fired either. And the recruiting seems like it's good, but it's not like translating into kind of taking that next step. So we'll see what happens. I'm just not I I just I'm not I'm not saying I'm kind of neutral on him. I just don't think he's all that in a bag of chips that maybe we made him out to be. Um, but you know, he's got another year to prove it because you know he's got some some some some girls coming in, uh, need a big splash, and they need to take a big step next next year. They can't be a nine, eight, nine, ten seed um and hear all the things that we're hearing. You know, you got to see a big step. Same thing with Pope. Anybody want to follow up on that?

SPEAKER_06 5:34

Yeah, I'll push back on that. Uh could look at the history of Kentucky women's basketball. It's not great. Matthew Mitchell's our best coach, probably ever, if that tells you anything. And Matthew Mitchell was great, but Kyra Elzy, that was a horrible hire, and that about ranch off the ground. That was a terrible hire. And look at what Kenny Brooks has had the re had to build off of. I think they had like eight wins the year before he got here, and then immediately last year, 23 wins. And this year I felt like uh just kind of with the way that the class turned out, I thought it would be more like maybe about be the same as last year, if you know what I mean. Just don't take a step back, and I thought that would be a success. And I do think that was the case for this year's team. Next year, I think I might I might agree with you a little bit more that they may need to.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

That's what I'm saying. I'm not like some people act uh uh, I guess the thing is is like some people talk about Brooks like he's the greatest thing in sliced bread, and it's been it's been okay, right? Like, and that's what I'm saying. Like next year, you've got to prove it next year, though, in the aspect you got to start beating some teams and taking a step, right? Like, and that's kind of just my overall point. But with basketball, we're yeah, but but in basketball, we're in that realm all the way, right? Like we we have good wins too, and we're a nine seed. You you can have one good win, right? Like they need to start showing that they can be a top four or five team in the SEC competing for you know an elite eight to maybe even get to a final four, just being on that level, or at least taking like a lot of the teams like that to the to the mat, not having to go through five games of five days to win, right? You just got to take a step forward. It's different in men's basketball, right? Like, because we have that, like there's a mut a lot more pressure on men's basketball than there is women's. But it'd be good to see us take like another little step, right? Like forward. You go from a six to a five seed next year or a nine to a five, that's a big jump, right, in my opinion. Like, I'm not saying go win the SEC next year, but if you can go from a nine seed to a five seed in the SEC tournament and maybe you get to a semifinal, I would consider that a really good show of progress and talent. And that's like that moral mark of like, hey, they're coming, right? Like, that's kind of what I'm looking for there.

SPEAKER_06 7:28

I don't know. I I think he's done a really good job for considering the circumstance, but I'm not gonna disagree with you on that last part for sure. I think that would be a huge step for the program.

SPEAKER_05 7:35

Trace, you're you follow the ladies.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah, I think that you know, I think they could have a great run this tournament, and then it'd be it would be pretty, you know, he's it is yeah, essentially in his second year without the postseason yet. So there's not a whole lot. I mean, there is evidence to go off of, but not an extended amount of evidence. I think he's recruiting a top level that arguably we've never seen here uh uh at this level for women's basketball. He is like the third or fourth supported program on campus, you know, football and basketball is gonna come first. Like it is a little limited, but that South Carolina, you know, for them, I'm sure football's first, but I'm sure they're second or third. It's he's kind of limited, but that's well they're the cream of the crop, right? Like they're be that case coming into it. So I mean, it's I guess it's a can't use all of them.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

It didn't used to be, right? Like that's the other thing, too, right? Like, I'm old enough to remember when South Carolina was to nobody in women's basketball. And you had Yukon and Tennessee dominated the landscape. You had Stanford in women's basketball, right? Like you had like some of these teams that you see like now, like Tennessee, right? Like, they're not nearly as good. And they were they were like the standard bear. Yukon was the standard bear in women's basketball. You're seeing that shift, which makes it exciting because it shows it's possible, right? Like the the the the stranglehold is kind of like football too, right? Like the the the the stranglehold on like the only three or four teams that can win it is no longer there. Uh I mean even Louisville's women's basketball team, you look at them, right? Like they're you know, they're they've done a really good job. So uh lot a lot to be at least optimistic for there.

SPEAKER_06 8:59

Yeah, women's basketball is so different in that case, where I think if you just hire the right coach, I mean you can do something, you can be like a South Carolina if you can just hire the perfect person for your job. Uh it's unlike anything, I think, in that in that scenario.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

TB, you uh you solid now. He's not yeah, he's still all right. He's a great lawyer, he freaking dips a lot, man. I mean, but he must be talking to clients, clearly. So okay.

SPEAKER_06 9:24

Yeah, talking to Mark Pope.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah, he's still charging by the minute, too, I'm sure. Charge.

SPEAKER_06 9:28

All right, let's see.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Maybe we wanted to go change his green shirt so he didn't look so out of place for the rest of us.

SPEAKER_05 9:34

Uh staying with the ladies. What is the projected seed? Four or five, maybe four, four, pretty solid four. Okay, which is they'll get the host. So again, that will all play out next Saturday, or excuse me, next Sunday. What is come on? It's all piling up on you. No, so that's that's the ladies. Dawn Staley. There's always been that little thing thrown out about her. Is she capable of coaching men's a men's team? Successfully coaching a men's team.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah, I would say yeah, but you're gonna have, you know, it's the gonna be, um under my knowledge, the first time ever. So you're gonna have like the kickback you expect. Are guys gonna listen to a if it comes to basketball? Yeah, I think she's got a fair shot. X's and O's, but is the other stuff gonna this is it gonna handcuff you? I don't know. I think she would have a chance if if at a smaller school and see how it goes, to my knowledge, the first woman to come to men. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 10:30

She would be she's smart enough for sure. Head coach, yes. As a head coach, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Don't don't uh forget about Bernadette Maddox.

SPEAKER_05 10:37

Yeah, Tina, or yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

That was the early 90s, so Kentucky was ahead of the curve there.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

A little bit, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Would she if if you if you changed your question a little bit to like would she be great on a staff in a very high role that's not the head coach? I'm all yeah, I'm down for it. I think she's she's she's good at something. Yeah, she's good at coaching, you know, good in the basketball world. I think she'd be great as an assistant coach, and then we'll see how it goes for sure.

SPEAKER_05 10:59

All right, let's uh let's move to the dudes. The dudes. Uh yay, let's go. Yeah, now let's really, yeah. I mean, we're we're uh what a week. Uh and I don't even want to talk about that one. Uh so Florida, it was obviously senior night. Uh a game, not just an important night for you know our seniors, uh, last game of the regular season, but a game that if we had won, we would be we would have been we would have locked the fourth seat up, correct? Double by double bye. No Wednesday, no Wednesday talk, but nah, didn't happen. Florida uh started off what 11 and 0 run. Tucky missed, you know, again, they this team was just paralyzed in the opening moments yesterday. Um, you know, I think but like you said, paralyzed.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

It was it was so such a weird feeling in that building because you had the excitement of like oh tell you senior day, they all got their applause. That place was full, the vibes were great. Everything before the tip-off was like, this is a big Saturday, Florida, and then bam 11-0. And it was such a sobering feeling.

SPEAKER_06 12:11

As good of a pregame environment as I've ever seen at rep, by the way. As good, if not better, than any that I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

They they at least responded, and then you just had bonehead play, bonehead play, followed by dumbass play, and the game went like all of a sudden you went from down by one to fourteen. Yeah, well, it was Garrison started it with an idiotic turnover, and then Jasper goes with an idiotic turnover and an intentional foul. And it goes, I think from that point it went from because they hit a three or something, right? So it goes from one to it went from like one to nine in like two possessions, which was just nuts, and then you're down 14, I think, within 90 seconds after you had the ball to take the lead. Yep. And that was that that just uh I mean, you could tell Jasper just didn't belong in that game anyway. And then that was just what a dumbass play that was. I it's just it just changed the whole whole complexity because Kentucky kind of had had the momentum and had Florida on the ropes. Florida, they were on a um, I think they were on a 19-9 run at that point, and then Florida goes on like a 13-0 run, and that was the end of that.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

End of that, and then uh so uh the cats go into the locker room halftime down 49-32, uh set down 17 on senior night, which you know I heard it on from on the TV. There were some boo birds in Rup. Oh, yeah. You know, how often do you hear the boo birds on uh a senior ceremony?

SPEAKER_03 13:36

Constant boo birds, too, like up and down the floor boobirds. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

The amount of times I've heard booze at games this year is like I I've never I've never noticed it as much as this year. I know it's not been like this, but like even I don't remember the last year of Cal when I don't remember there, I don't know if there was a boo to that I caught, but like I've bet you I can think of seven games this year that I've been at that there are boos. I'm like, I'm always getting used to it. Like even on just bad plays, it's like we could be down five and you know be within reach and like a bad play, a player will get beat by like 30 people. I'm like, it feels a little it's different. It's a there's something, you know, people aren't very happy.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

It was very loud. It was very loud yesterday. Um, very, very audibly loud for a couple possessions after that. And a lot of it was it wasn't because we were losing, it was because of just terrible play execution, bad positioning, coaching. I mean, you name it. There was multiple times yesterday, you know. I I I even remember another play when Jasper came back in the game. He's just staring somewhere, don't know what he's doing, and the ball just gets tipped. And if he's paying attention and he's you know engaged, it's a it's a turnover. Uh, and you've just seen people booing then. It wasn't as loud, but it was very loud in the first half. Um, they got booed off the court at halftime as well. So, I mean, it's again, I've said this on Zion the Hill. It's not the losses, it's the it's the effort, the execution, the game plan, all of it. And it doesn't matter, like we're down three players and everything. This is a poorly coached team, a poorly coached team that doesn't give effort, that has absolutely brain dead moments on defense, that has players that don't know what they're doing on the offensive side, and then it'll do something like take a dribble crossover uh up and under Eurostep, and you're like, where the fuck's that been for the last month? Right. And that's you know, it's there. Obviously, these guys have talent. We just don't have a staff right now that can get that talent out, and that is the problem. It is not the fact that we lost to Florida by five. If we would have lost to Florida by what, six, five or six, and it was that game, the whole game, we're all talking about, hey, like Kentucky's down three starters, and they're taking arguably maybe the one of the best teams, if not the best team to the mat. This team could make a run. Instead, we're sitting over here going, like, my God, are we gonna get like, are we even gonna get to Friday to play him again?

SPEAKER_05 15:44

Well, look, kick with that we kick with that we. Let me know.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Well, you're you're you're you're homering way too much and not the reality of what's happening.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

I mean, hold on, hold on, Kyle. I'm gonna I'm gonna let's talk. I'm gonna let's talk, Kyle. Uh so the final count, 84-77, seven-point loss. Uh Owe was the lone bright spot, 28 points in his rough finale. Um, Kentucky did outscore Florida by 10 in the second half. Uh, did get it down to five late. Uh, but a one glaring set, 24 to 4. Fast break points. That was fast, fast break points, 24 to 4. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:20

Sounds about right.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Yeah. So Kyle, jump in. And then yeah, we'll pivot. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Yeah. I mean, so the and I I've been steadfast on I get the the the frustrations. Same here with the constant double digit, um, just feel like you're getting smacked in the face, blowout uh by halftime, you know, feels like Ruperina feels like why did I even show up four minutes in the game as we're going? And this one felt a little bit different because we made the run back. Um, but just I think you gotta look at the totality of the game. And if you look at the way that game is finished, we put ourselves in a poor position, and we can argue why that was substitution patterns, coaching, player effort, talent, whatever. But you are in a position still to be arguably a top three team in the country right now. Not arguably, definitely one of the top three teams in the country right now. Um, to get that double by in a season that's been disappointing. You are a missed uh shot clock violation. I haven't seen anything where that thing hit the rim again, Brandon Garrison in the game. So, like, why? Because I think Moreno gets the rebound again. So I I get the I also have my frustrations with aspects of this team and the in the coaching. Um, you get a turnover that should have been a turnover where O boy steps out of bounds on the baseline. Like, you are there in the game at the end of it against a top three team to get it, right? So I'm just if you look at it holistically, we should still, while be frustrated and the booze are deserving, and the the the questioning of some of the stuff throughout the first you know portions of the game, the middle eight, whatever you want to look at, but you can still look at it be like what Paul just said against the top three team in the country, we were there in it to win a game. And if the calls are away, who knows what happens, right? So, two things can be true. You can be frustrated, but I don't think just because some things happen every single time um, you know, we find ourselves in this in this situation we have to go instantly to dude's not capable, can't coach, gotta fire. It's just that all that stuff. I don't I don't see how any of it does any good at this moment in time.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Down 18 with seven minutes left. Florida takes their foot off the gas, and it was 24 seconds left. We were down. We're still at that we still didn't quit. Oh, but but but we have we have 14 of those our team didn't quit, like things that we make fun of Louisville for for oh, congratulations. Like, you know, we make fun of other teams and pretend to hang banners there for like almost one the game, right? Like it doesn't matter. Like we we were in that position because we played like shit. Florida just checked out. We Kentucky, the University of Kentucky. Like, we are this is a historically bad team, like historically bad, very historically bad. And we're talking about oh, we didn't quit. We got our ass rate uh railed on senior night down 18 with less than seven minutes to play, and Florida took their foot off the gas, took their took their starters out, and yeah, there was a blown call. Okay, they came all this stuff, but they also didn't do anything the that the like the the last part of the game. We still lost by by what nine, seven or eight, nine, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 19:26

So uh TB, I haven't heard from you. I know you got a lot. You you've done your homework, so uh our residential attorney at law. Can everybody see that? Is that is that visible? Well, let me uh let me do you a solid. Let me see. Can I do this? Oh, it's less visible now. Oh, hold on. No, I'm trying to uh uh TB gets this spot.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

I saw it fine when it was all of us.

SPEAKER_05 19:50

I saw I could see it fine. Yeah, I could too. Okay, fine. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

So look, okay, so he's gonna get year three, right? I've been saying year three. This is what we have to see in year three, right? He's got to reach the elite eight because every year three coach gets the elite eight. He's got to be SEC coach of the year because every coach since Adolph Ruff has been SEC coach of the year. He's got to get his win percentage up to 69 because every great coach of Kentucky reaches that mark.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

What is his current percentage?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

His current percentage is 65%, right? We've got to get rid of the double double, right? No more 10 lost seasons. We have to stop getting beat by double digit points, right? So he's got 24 losses in two years, 14 have been by double digits. That's 58%. That's a fucking lot. Like, people want to talk about the boo birds. Kentucky should not be beat by double digits 60% of the time, right? He's got the wins, the losses are bad. Now, last year we had nine losses by double digits. This year, we've got five losses by double digits. The average margin of victory or of loss is 12.5 points a game for all 24. That's a fucking lot. We talk about how great Kentucky is. Paul, you talked on this, right? The thing is, if you want to be a great coach of Kentucky, we make a big deal about five coaches winning championships, right, gentlemen? Right? Five coaches won, right, right? Adolph Rupp won 82% of his game, champion. Rick Patino won 81% of his games, champion. John Caliperi won 77% of his games, champion. Uh Tubby Smith won 76% of his game, champion. Joe B. Hall, 75% of his games, champion. If you wanted to sit at the big boys table, you win 75% of your game. I don't care that we have three people out. I don't want to play close. That's not what we do here. All I'm saying is when I was defending Cal in those last couple of years, people kept telling me about the standard of Kentucky. They kept telling me this our standard is above everybody else, right? Is that what people said? Yes, yes, yes, that's what people said, right? So what I'm saying is if we have this conversation next year and we don't hit these marks, then the standard has been lowered. Or you get rid of them. Yeah, you gotta go right. We go get somebody else. Because if we don't do this, then this is what every coach has done, then we are lowering our standards, right? We can't allow that. Yeah, Dave, we have to issue it.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

Let me get let me get Dave Bo in here real quick. Let me get Dave all going real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Speak.

SPEAKER_07 22:23

Well, first of all, Paul, you're not gonna bully me out of my green shirt, okay? Sometimes we just gotta be different. Anywho, um Like I said, like I said last night, um when I was in my filling, just constantly doing scrolling on Twitter, the effort from that team knowing damn gonna well what they had to do. Now, granted, Saturday's team. Yeah, now it's a big what, right? Which is big, probably one of the favorites, if not the favorites, will go and win a national title, right? But you get them on your home court, you get them during senior day, you get them whenever you expect to play your absolute best, whenever all you have to do is win for a double buy. The most prestigious thing in SC term is a double buy. And and I'll put, I thought it was funny, I thought it was getting more engagement. But I said that I have seen better effort out of fat people on 600-pound life trying to lose weight while sneaking sugar cookies. Okay, I've seen better effort out of those people than a whole team just trying to win a game for the double by. Right, right? Okay, am I right? The effort was shit from start to finish. Um, I am pissed off. I am totally checked out. I'm sorry, Rando. I know I keep going back and forth. I am totally checked out right now.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

We need Rando here. Just say it. We do need Rando.

SPEAKER_07 23:49

Now listen, and am I gonna watch Wednesday? Yeah. Am I gonna hope for Thursday? Yeah. Fuck, I'm gonna hope we make it all the way to Sunday, right? Am I gonna watch this a W tournament? Am I gonna cheer my ass off? Yes. But am I pissed off and am I over it? Yes. I'm I'm I'm over Scott and I'm over all the way to Zach Toe, who never sees a minute. Like, I'm tired of the entire thing, right? I mean, we don't deserve this. I don't know what we did to deserve this, I don't know who we pissed off, but I'm done.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

The the basketball gods, because we collectively said the 2015 team was a huge disappointment, and the universe is like, I will show you what disappointment is.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

No, we did not collectively say that. I really have never heard that.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

You've not heard a never heard that. You you've you've not heard people say they stop being less of a fan. I never heard that.

SPEAKER_06 24:35

No, maybe from like crazy people, but saying we are just that same we that just keeps getting thrown out.

SPEAKER_07 24:41

What is what but what does that mean? So so whenever us as fans, and I'm gonna speak collectively, but whenever us as fans are so frustrated and so pissed off and so over this bullshit, and we complain and complain and complain, and people are like, oh well, then you gotta turn in your fan card and you ain't gonna cheer for your team no more. What the fuck does that even mean? Are we not allowed to be upset and pissed off that we spend money on merch, on tickets, we spend time with we say fuck our family and and and watch basketball instead? To sit here and watch this bullshit? Are we not allowed to complain and bitch without turning in our fan card? Like that's passion.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah, I'm not saying turn in your fan card at all.

SPEAKER_07 25:16

I think you must say, sorry, T B. I'm done. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

No, it's all good, man. I I have my whiteboard, I got my notes. And the thing is, the non-win team lost by an average of six points and had a lot of close games. That's why it feels different, is because Kentucky is not competitive in these games. If it stays, like Paul said, if it stays four, five, six points for most of the game and you lose it, you can say, damn, I wish we were healthy. But when it gets to be 20 points, and what have I said repeatedly on this show? I'm tired of Kyle Rabbit saying if Kentucky can get it to 10. He said it Saturday night, and my wife looked at me and I'm like, We get it to single digits by halftime. If we get it to if Kentucky is watch out, and I'm like, people are just tired of that, and it's okay to be tired of that.

SPEAKER_05 26:04

I don't disagree. Oh, it's it's okay. Go ahead, go ahead, Tryce.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

No, my sorry man.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

Or uh Trace, go.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Sorry, I just real quick. Um, I think also what makes it hard too is like as Kentucky fans, this fan base is different from most. We all care, we all watch every single second. So part of the hard part is when we know early on in the year that the team might be bad, we get these vibes out this gonna be a long year. We marinate in it. Other schools, you know, they just oh, we're not watching up with Indiana fans, all the other schools, although there's not watch. This team sucks so well. We watch every second, we watch every press conference, we have podcasts on Sunday night talking about it when we just got became a Wednesday unclear. Like we marinate in it, and so that makes it hard. It's like the definition of insanity, doing it over and over again. Um, and we do it all year long. So that just we're we're making in the hardness of the year, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 26:50

Yeah, trust me, I wouldn't be doing this on a Sunday night if I lived in Montana or something.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

You know, uh to put like when we take off, like you know, you got you gotta like really put this in into context and perspective of where we're at and the historical aspects of where like this is in the entirety of Kentucky playing basketball, Kentucky has lost 14 games, which we haven't lost 14 yet, but we have to literally win the national championship or the RCC championship to not lose 14, right? Four times in history. We've lost 13 or more, six times in history, two more losses. Billy G was 40 and 27, Pope with Pope with right now is 43 and 24. Now, a little more wins, but you also are gonna have a really bad year. And the thing that we have to look at, and we're saying, Oh, this dude can't do it, and like Randall, I get where you're coming from. Like, you want to be positive, but this guy, the coach also, he's been a head coach for 11 years. Nine of the 11 years, he has double digit losses. Like, there's not like something that said it doesn't, but that that that should mean it's even easier. You're at Utah Valley, you're at Utah.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

They got worse. Look at look look how many top 25 wins they have since uh since COVID 11, where Pope is on at Kentucky. But um, I mean, I I'm you talk about being old enough. I'm old enough to remember being on a live watch during the Gonzaga game at halftime, and he was we should fire this dude because he can't do it. And next thing you know, oh never mind. And then we can we replay the same thing on Duke. Oh, wait, never mind. And then by the end of this season, it would be a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

I'm not the one calling for him to be fired this season, though. I'm not saying he should be fired. I don't think he should be because it we have the same idiot hiring another coach, which makes no sense. Like, that's why we're kind of in a position. You got to give him the third year, you got to give him some benefit of the doubt anyway, on the fact that we have had injuries. So, like, I'm also not sitting here, but I am also like looking at this historically, going, like, if we look at this like without like any kind of just there's no agenda. I have no head coach that I think we should go get. I'm not pushing and vying for anybody, okay? But if you look at the aspect of he has nine out of eleven years that he has double digit losses, all right. We've not come out of the gate great, we've had the same issues have kind of plagued the our plagued us now two years in a row. Now injuries have played a factor. Now we have to go out and flip an entire roster because we have no recruits coming in. Maybe we land one, maybe we land two, and then we still have to go get five or six in the portal to have a chance to be good. Everything's stacked against us right now. And that's the aspect of kind of what I'm saying. It's not good. And it's wit, and you couple that with historically bad performances and historically bad losses uh in the season, it it puts Kentucky basketball on a bad situation. I want him to succeed. I would love nothing more, Randall. I promise you. I want nothing more than us to win five games of five days this week or to go out and make the Elite A. I want to beat, I want it. I'm gonna cheer like shit, but it doesn't look good. And that's the aspect I think where we're coming from. I don't think we're gonna go get Todd Golden. I'm not naive enough to think that we're gonna go pull like the best coach out there, right? I don't think that we should get rid of Pope because I think we have a better chance, arguably, with Pope next year than if we fired him this year and Mitch Barnhardt's dumbass tried to go get another guy because they think he's incompetent and capable to go get a coach that's with the times right now. You gotta go find, you gotta go find that Todd Golden, right? Like you got to go find that guy because guys aren't leaving blue blood programs like they used to not leave it in basketball, they're not leaving in football. You gotta go find the guy that's maybe somewhere a step down, right? Like we people like Jai Lucas. You gotta find Todd Golden before he's Todd Golden. Yeah, J Lucas isn't leaving Miami. Miami could go throw$11 million at the guy and the their NILs is a hundred times better, and you get to live in Miami. And it's easier to win in Miami, right? You have less pressure. So that's what I'm kind of saying there. Like people should stay off. Like, we're not firing them. It's actually dumb for us to want them fired this year because of the situation we're in at the athletic department level, but at the same time, cognizant of the fact that that there's a lot of cards stacked against the deck, too.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

I'm not saying that I'm sold on Pope. I just I'm I'm I just I ask folks to give to like just think clear-minded. I think we can at times be rabid-ass fans. And I get it, I'm I'm the same way. Like I was telling, I was on the show a couple weeks ago, and I have like dents in my garage floor because there was a dumbbell that got dropped and thrown because I'm so like frustrated. I'm just, if we look at it, if we look at it through throughout the whole season, you can't lose to Texas AM, you can't use lose to Georgia, you can't lose to Missouri. All these things are are you can and you can directly point it back to Pope in decision making for sure. And some of the some of these games earlier in the season, we are healthier than what we are now. Also, though, as we get later in some of these big runs that we go on, and if you go look at the top five teams in the country, they all have eight to nine man rotations, they all are playing dudes less than 30 minutes. There's only a handful, two, I think. Uh Florida and um maybe Michigan, they're playing guys more than 30 minutes a game. So the guys that are coming in here to supplement our starters, who I think do give effort 80% of the time on floor. There are some bone-headed plays, but but but yesterday, I don't look at the guys we rely on not so much giving effort. Colin Tanner disappearing kind of sucks.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

But they shut him down. They did a great job too. No, I don't blame Colin there. They did an X hell of a job defensively on him.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yeah, but let me what I'm saying is what I'm saying is if you if you look at the guys that are coming in here to spell them, they would would typically be on the end of the bench in their sweatsuits with their laces untied, right? No, no expectation to get in in the game. Jazz was taking a bunch of licks. Um, you know, BG, if we have um, if we have a healthy five-man, does he get playing time? I don't know. Uh Ballard thinks so because there's some kind of weirdness going on in the locker room there. If you listen to what he's saying, but ultimately I'm saying, like, no, some of these guys aren't uh getting some playing time. So if you look at it and what Pope has to do, you talk about trying to unleash that talent. Some of these dudes are just limited, right? And they are on the roster as back end pieces um anyway. So I agree with everything TB is saying. The year three has got it. Uh, I know Dave O has said the same thing. Year year three's gotta be it. Um, I just if you look at it and you try to find some positives in what's going on, I do believe there is some defined input for a year three to be successful, even if it's all all about the transfer, because that's only year one. Turn the page, TB.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Now, real quick, Mark Pope does have four of the largest halftime deficits overcome to win in Kentucky history. He's got four of the ten. So, yeah, that's a that I'm coming with some positive as well.

SPEAKER_05 33:12

Well, you know why that's the case.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Yeah, because they're down, and we've been down against Power 14s about 85% of the time. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 33:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

All I'm saying is I want him to have time, but the people that are on on Twitter, whatever, like you're you're being, you're not a good fan or whatever. It's like when Corey Price and other people are putting out this. Uh uh, my friend Blake, I don't uh I can't remember his Twitter handle was like, it's Mark first time since Pope, because after every game, it's the first time Kentucky's lost by 20 points since 1924. It's the biggest victory, it's the biggest margin of victory we've had since probation with Patino and before it all thrubbed. And people are tired of that. Like Billy G lost, but not like this, right? Cal lost, but not like this. Like, and then I saw people moving the goalposts, right? Because I said three years, and people brought out uh uh Joe B Hall's second year that was bad, his third year was a runner-up, and then he won a 78 championship. And people point out, well, he had some other bad years and then he had to go, right? Eddie Sutton had to go. When Tubby became 10 loss tubby, he had to go. When Cal was losing, he had to go. The problem is we got the championship first, and then we got the 10 loss seasons, but now we're mired in a 10 loss season without the championships. And so to Paul's point, is we what what do we have to look forward to next year? Besides hope, what do we have?

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Like, what do you feel a lot like? Did you not get tired of that with Cal in the last five years? Where it was always by by this time in the season, we are just like, Well, guess what? Is that the best recruiting class you can get?

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Who cares? Who gives a damn? Absolutely, and that's why he's no longer fucking coaching. I said it was time for him to go. I said it was time for him to go because he he got to the mountaintop, and at Kentucky, it's can you get back to the mountaintop, right? You get there, can you get back? But now we're like, we don't know if this guy can.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

We think he can. Expectation and potential will get you fired. And look at this season. We had expectation and potential, and we didn't live up to it. It will get you fired if you can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Yeah, I'll I'll play devil's advocate. I'll play devil's advocate in this too. Like, I think there is something to be said, and we might talk about this at you know more at length than I put put this post out. I do think there's something needs to be said about the administration. Um, after seven years of basketball and NIL and everything, like, like there is a kind of a thing of like, all right, we had this with Cal, and now we're having this with uh with Pope. And I do think a lot of the reason why Cal left was because of NIL, and I think if we would have fixed it, he would have probably still been here. I think that Arkansas was a life raft for him to get out of the situation. I don't think he wanted to be in. Um, I think there's some some constraints there too. Um, but the reality is is Kentucky's not like we haven't been really worth a shit in basketball since I mean we haven't won an SEC type tournament since 2018, guys, right? Like this is this transcends Mark Pope too, right? This is not just a Mark Pope problem. And there's a lot of double-digit losses, bad losses, double-digit seed losses, right? Like, and like at some point, you like at some point always blaming the coach is a problem because you got to go to the root of the problem, and it's not just the coach.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

I don't want to hear any more great point. We're two and oh against the spread against Florida, all right? Good teams win, great teams cover. Don't ever forget it.

SPEAKER_06 36:30

Yeah, I don't want to hear that if I ever hear that excuse, by the way, of Joe B Hall, Joe B Hall's second year, they went 13 and 13. Look at Patino's first two years. I think I'm gonna take my phone and throw it through the because I'm getting pretty tired of that one. Do we understand that that happened in the administration? That happened in the Richard Nixon administration. Roster construction is so different now than it ever even thought about being 50 years ago. And then the whole idea that it was a bad situation when Pope got here. Pope got here on really what I would call a pretty positive, uh, not a positive, but a pretty okay situation, an opportunistic one, at least, because he could come here, build his own roster from the start, and put his own mark on the on the team immediately. And he did that last year.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Um Joby Hall had 13 losses, eight to top 10 team. Like it was a brutal schedule that year. Yeah, if we're if we're keeping it buck.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

Okay. Hold on. Let me let me hold on, Dave oh. Let me let me set get this part out, and then um I'll let you talk. You know, last night or yesterday's game also just uh, you know, I think it's probably fair to say BBN's frustration, you know, it's you know still there. Uh, but then you had you kind of you had the post-game quotes, uh bit uh didn't hold back after the Florida loss, after yesterday's loss, calling the team's play childish and saying guys were playing, were playing losing ball by not sharing and taking bad shots when things got tough. Agree with that. Uh it's I mean a talking point here. Is there a leadership rift? Is you know, who is the you know, is it always the lead? Do we even have an on court leader to share? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:10

No, it's there's no, there's no there's no one dude on there that's like the dog that's gonna walk in that huddle. No, drop 32 F bombs, threaten to punch everyone, shoot your mom, and then have you scared to go back on the court that you gotta play hard, right? Like there's no Oteka is obviously the leader and he and he tries to lead by example. And I mean, I there was a time where I thought he was gonna lead the team and they were gonna win, right? Like that maybe he's gonna score 40 and he's gonna win it on on his own. But this team is no vocal leader, and I think that that is an issue. And and I and he's right, right? Look, when this team shares the ball, they're good. When this team shares the ball and plays team defense, they actually are pretty good. But like yesterday was just that it's it's they fall into those ruts, and that's the confusing thing. How can we go out and look like we are a final four team and can beat any play with anybody in the nation, and then just go out and get gall stomped by you know a Vandy? It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Daveo, you know, I think we score in single ways if Mirando's not making at the rim, and it's really easy to coach against that.

SPEAKER_05 39:07

Yeah, Davo, I think it's safe to say the fans are a little bit exhausted with the unpredictables. Is that what they're calling this team? The unpredictable falling behind by 20 points in back-to-back games, uh, to me is a coaching and preparation red flag. But go ahead, speak.

SPEAKER_07 39:23

Yeah, so you talk about confusing, right? So Pope's first year, right? That was now look, Sweet 16 is not what Kentucky basketball is, right? We can all we can all agree on that. That is not our goal, right? Our goal was Elite Eight, Battle Fours, National 10. We want to have so many banners and rough arena that we had to build another building just for banners, right? That is our goal at the University of Kentucky. So the most frustrating thing is he did so much last year with so less, right? And I don't want to say less as in the players are bad. I'm saying less is because it was the type of players that you really never really see at the University of Kentucky as a collective, as a whole team, right? You had you had a bunch of really good players in smaller schools who really came into this program and gave a shit and gave it all. And they all had really good skill sets and they all did their job perfectly, right? And that's the brand, and and that, and that was the uh result of the run you saw. And we all can agree that if healthy, here we go again, fucking talking about if healthy, if healthy, if if if butts and what's whatever, they could have made a run to the final four, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:23

That team I don't think that's I don't think Tennessee beats us. I don't think there's any way Tennessee beats us healthy. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_07 40:27

That team is collectively together, they love each other, they love playing with each other, right? And that's what got us all hyped to come in next this year, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:35

And they were Warriors, man. That's the thing. Lamont, Lamont, and Brea were two guys that uh that were vocal in your face, and like you had and and you but you also had Amari who would get into it, right? Like you would see Amari get in like Brandon Garrison's ass, right? Like you'd see you'd see that happen. Um, uh, what's his face? I why I forget the white kid's name. Um Carr already. Carr. Carr. Carr's another one that was a vocal leader, right? Like emotional. I I you didn't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_07 41:03

The whole game? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Yo, Kirk Creesa was on the bench talking shit. Like then when right, like you you had that. We don't have that on this team.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

Even if he just stays healthy, I think the team would have had a better shot at doing something. Because they had a that had a ball handler at that point.

SPEAKER_07 41:17

So that's why I was saying, like, it's so we're all so confused about what happened this year, right? The the money was thrown around, yada yada yada. That's not here nor there, right? That's why we're all confused about what the hell happened, right? We heard some of the big names, the Modi, we had the big news of OA coming back, right? We had all this, we had all this, but this what the fuck happened, right? And that's what we're all confused about. And that's why we're all gonna just kind of stand on business that year three has to be it, right? It has to be. He has to go back to what worked in year one and stop trying to please everybody else and just do what worked for him.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

This roster construction fell apart when a Caden Lewis decided to dip. That was arguably. I agree. Yeah, we we'll have another point guard to replace to replace him. Say it again. I'm sorry. Here's the hope and he jumps back into portal.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Yeah, I doubt it. I don't know, but I would take it all right. You might be jumps to the NBA. Brandon, that's a really good point. I don't think nobody talks about enough, honestly. I mean, if if if a cade if if Caden is on this team right now, this team has probably four, maybe even five less losses. We don't lose to North Carolina. I don't think there's a shot. I don't think we lose to North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

We don't go to Missouri and George Hourne with that with the Caden Lewis.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

No, no, I agree with you. I I it that's a great point. And like people want to say Pope Whift, but that had not I mean that had more to do with the fact that we went after Lowe, probably shouldn't have, because it was a two-year guy and didn't realize the player we had. So I mean maybe we can blame that on Pope, but I I I don't know that whole situation.

SPEAKER_06 42:40

So I I think that it was it it was a personal situation even for Lewis. I think that happened.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

I think that Pops, I think if Pops decides not to funnel money through his freaking thing with Bob, but yeah, probably I would assume that that had a bigger role than people talk about. Yeah, it's obviously TV's been raising his hand. He liked y'all need to shut the hell up. I got something to say. Sorry, go ahead, TV.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

No, it it it's fine, but like it's just you know, when we like the coach, we can come out with these hypothetical if we'd have said I'm this guy, if we had done this, right? Like it is what it is, but you know, like if you don't win a title, there's always hypothetical time to the season, right? But but because I see these things, and I've seen people tabulate, you know, over the last like 10 years, the injury problems the Kentucky's had, right? Like going back eight, nine years, we've had starters miss time, right? But all of a sudden the last two years, it's like, well, you have to take that in consideration.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Yeah, but PB, we haven't had we haven't had the percentage of like multiple starters either. Like that is a little different.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Okay, it but see that's now we're starting to split hairs.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

But we're not splitting hairs, like if we're being honest, like I mean, if we're being honest, though, we have three guys that they that they thought would start that are out this year, two guys were out last year. Now, they weren't out to the end last year, right? Like when Lamont Gutler got re-hurt, and arguably, I think if Jackson Robinson doesn't get hurt, we survive. We we still might go to an elite eight, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:00

I'm I'm fine with whatever, man. Like it, you know, it it is. I just you know, I I see things and I'm like, but last year though, but last year that team also went to the mat, too, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Like you never you never doubted that team's the heart and desire and effort last year. And I think it was a little different. You knew we just didn't have the horses last year, right? It wasn't all the preparation, like they at least went to the mat last year, right? This year is way different.

SPEAKER_06 44:24

I don't think that injuries play as big of a factor for this year as people try to act like they do. I think this has all come down to the fact that the roster construction was horrible. He went and got a bunch of players that did not fit his system. He listened to way too many people because let's be honest, majority of fans said that they wanted. Defense when we spent the last five years talking about how we wanted offense, then suddenly we wanted defense again. And then he listened to those people when got the defensive players. And this is what happens when Mark Pope gets guys that can't shoot and tries to teach and tries to teach defensive players how to how to shoot. I think that's majority of what the problems with this year's team was.

SPEAKER_05 44:57

We do not shooters. Let me uh there's some people with some comments. I'm gonna get them get them on here and let you all.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Can you talk about the game plan comment? Because like you talk about game plans and Pope's game plan being all jacked up. Van D, Florida, like when you're when you're getting your dudes opportunities at the rim and we missed 21, 25 layups. Is that a Pope game plan thing?

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Well the first the first game against Florida, I don't think anybody blames Pope for. Like that was one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yeah, this last one, I think they I think the stat was they read with like four minutes left, we had made missed 21 opportunities at the rim. And then the bandy game, it was embarrassing how many layups we had missed opportunities at the rim. Like you're getting these dudes wide open opportunities to finish, even if it's contested to get the free throw line, and we can't finish. Now, that's maybe on Pope and the staff talent issue, but game plan, I don't think that's there's a lot of those fours, though.

SPEAKER_06 45:47

But you have the AM game and the Auburn game, which were just egregious coaching jobs, I thought. I think the AM game on that run with him not calling the timeout. That was one of the most egregious coaching jobs I think I've ever seen from anybody in the sport.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

Honestly, he should have called a timeout. Like when Florida scored the first three buckets, he should have called a timeout right there and he let it get to 11-0 before he called a timeout, right? Like those are the things of like you like Cal would call I saw Cal call timeouts. I'm not trying to say I want Calm. Less than 30 seconds into the four four nothing timeout, right? Like, but the on the flip side, we don't have three or four dudes that he can just like rip their ass and sit the sit them on the bench either, right? Like he is limited on that. Like, so that's where I do say there is a give and take a little bit of like, yes, there's these bad things, there is some limitations, but it's like it's always like there's not a consistent thing, right? It's always all over the place. If it was a consistent thing, we wouldn't have this conversation.

SPEAKER_05 46:38

All right, let me let me jump in here. I'm gonna give some people in the chat some time. Ryan Adams, you don't realize the fall you're while you're in it, and now we find ourselves in lost relevance, staring down into a cellar. I've said this uh numerous times, and I get blasted by people uh that don't, you know, I'm not a fan for saying, but we haven't been relevant this decade, period. And to me, relevance, we yeah, we had a couple of good regular seasons, but to me it's it's the postseason. It's the SEC tournament, it's and it's the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Well, well, that's 2020 on. That's on 2020.

SPEAKER_05 47:12

This decade, yeah, 2020.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

Like it's part of it's part of it is the regular season as well, right? That's that's part of it. Like everybody says wait until March, but part of being a Kentucky fan is putting the game on and knowing that you're not gonna be down by 20 points. Part of being a Kentucky fan is like, we're playing Georgia, I ain't even got to pay attention, I can do everything over here. That's part of the experience as well. It's not just wait until March. So that's where I would push back a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

What's this? Uh Pope is having a Zoom call on uh think paint. Talk to me about that. Who knows, Trace? You know he thinks Trace, you got the sleep on that.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

I just know he went to watch him the other day, right after one of our losses the day after that. That's all I know.

SPEAKER_06 47:48

He would be a really good addition. He would be a really good addition. He's about like he would be like getting, according to like some people, he'd be like getting like a top 10, 15 recruit.

SPEAKER_07 47:58

You get him and he was all pretty young too, isn't he? He's been pretty much 19.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

He's 19. Yes, he didn't go to college ball. He signed with Reebok. So if you guys want to know about Dink Pate, go to Netflix. I think it's Netflix. Watch the Shaq AI documentary when they were the president and VP of uh of Reebok, and they really focused in on on uh on Dink Pate and convinced him to go G-League route, not college route, because they thought he was gonna hit the league real quick. He hasn't he hasn't exploded as they thought, but he's a Reebok athlete, one of the first guys that Shaq and AI wanted to sign, um, along with Nathan Mitch. So um you can know a lot about Dink Pate. He's kind of he's he's he's flashy, he's um he's uh he comes off. I think if you watch him, his personality is kind of loud, but if you actually just go watch the documentary, I I don't think that he's he doesn't seem like a diva, really. Um you watch him on the court, you see some of his stuff, you're like, I don't know. You watch the documentary, I think you actually you'll want this dude wearing blue and white next year.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

He's the kind of player that we haven't had in a while that I think Kentucky needs. Like you need a little bit of a flamboyant, maybe a little bit of a showboat or a little bit, but that's the kind of thing I think the fans want to get tied to. Like, but also a bucket getter, right? Like this dude could go out and average 18-19 a game here very easily. And he's the type of guy when we're playing a game like yesterday, just goes and gets shots, right? And we need that.

SPEAKER_06 49:13

Just saying, G-League Ignite coach was Jason Hart. Jason Hart is on our staff. And also will he be on our staff next year? Yeah, probably. I would assume he will be.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_05 49:24

Do we know how many games Coach Hall lost at Rup? Uh TB might have been. Uh let's on the legal pad somewhere. It's on the legal pad. Yeah. Uh games play, game plans this year, laughable. He's been awful, awful. TB, how many games has did Joe Coach Hall lose at Rup? Do you know that?

SPEAKER_01 49:43

Uh lose at Rup during that one year?

SPEAKER_03 49:46

Anyway. Or just total. Total. If you had the guy. I guess what's I maybe what's the most losses he ever had at home in a single year?

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Uh I don't have that in front of me. I just have the just the one year. But even then, he wasn't losing at Rup. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

That's the other thing, too, right? Like Rup's no longer a cathedral and a fortress. I mean, but that goes back to Cal. I mean, and that's that's a whole nother administrative conversation of just like we just also have really dog shit game day atmospheres, and that's not just a basketball problem, right? And that's that's the admin that needs to fix that.

SPEAKER_06 50:17

That's that's the result of your president being 850 years old and your athletic director having been in the job for 45 years, is what that means.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

I got your answer. If you if you uh uh if you um believe in AI, it says total home losses was 14. He was 121 and 14 at home.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

That's wild. That's really good, actually. Wow. He got fired.

SPEAKER_05 50:40

Yeah. All right, let's uh 14. Where am I at? Uh 1215.

SPEAKER_03 50:48

Can I pose a question real quick just to the group? Sure. All right. I'm I'm one of those guys that also says, like, it's not necessarily never say never. We all thought Stoops was coming back. Is there is there the 10% chance that we get dog walked on Wednesday and dog walked in the first round of the NCA tournament and and it gets so loud they have to do something? No. I am of the opinion, I am of the opinion, yes, but I think it's slim. But you we always have to realize there's always a point. Does anybody else think that if that happens, there is a point where maybe they feel they maybe it's so loud and so bad and so negative going into next year that they can't keep that.

SPEAKER_06 51:27

No, and here's why. Do you really think Mitch Barnhart in the last two months of his job wants to go conduct another basketball couple?

SPEAKER_03 51:34

I don't, I don't, but but but champions blueboard but the champions blue board could potentially force the hand because I think force the hand a lot on well they owe him 26 million, that's the biggest problem. That's why I think there's they're not gonna fire him. But like I and you if you think no, it's fine. I I'm not gonna say never never. I think it's slim. I want to say I do think it's very slim. But if you lost by 15 to LSU and then go play like a seven or a ten and they beat you by double digits, I think it gets real a lot more dicey than than it is right now.

SPEAKER_06 52:04

What I think would happen. That is a possibility. No, it's our I think fans would try to run him off, like, oh look, Providence has a job opening. They like I'm just gonna go over here and get out of this situation. The fact of the matter with Mark Pope is that's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 52:16

Correct.

SPEAKER_06 52:17

The only way you're getting rid of Mark Pope here is if he's getting fired. This is his dream job. He's not gonna leave his dream job. It's just not gonna happen. He's not going to Minnesota.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

I agree with you on that part. I don't think he's taking an off-ramp.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

And and he's got a lot of the former players on his side. Guys, yeah, the 90s nostalgia.

SPEAKER_06 52:33

We're gonna run that back.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Yeah, the guys that were cool on Cal are now back in the fold. And if you follow some of these guys on Twitter, they're the first ones to tell you it takes time, it all this kind of stuff. So you don't want to alienate that stretch of the former players.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

I just figured it's worth an asking.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

No, no, I'm not sure. I would say if if they do, if they if if that's even on the table, like there's conversations behind the scenes mentioned Champions Blue, then there better be some things like there was with Stein where you've already had conversations like, hey dog, if this gets bad, we're coming for you. All right, TJ? TJ O over in uh in Iowa State, something like that. Hey, answer answer the phone. Like you can't just it's something. You just better have better have had those conversations now and not and not hope and pray you can find the right dude. That's the only thing when Cal decided to walk.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Yeah, that was the only thing, right, Randall? Like we were talking about that. We were tech talking to each other in in October about like, hey, we've we've like we had both heard that Stein that there had been some back channeling with some people that they had reached out or whatever, and that's why it happened so fast. But you're right, like that or Donovan or something, you gotta have plan B and it's gotta you gotta have it to where it's two or three, and it's not like last time, because we were caught flat footed when we when we the last search. Sorry, Kevin. Took over your show. Go ahead. It's okay.

SPEAKER_05 53:43

Uh let's talk the uh Nashville grind. The SEC tournament starts, as we've mentioned a few times this Wednesday. And if anybody is happy, if there's one group of people that are happy that Kentucky is playing on Wednesday, it's basically the city of Nashville. Uh because they know uh we'll bring a crowd. But again, we're Kentucky, and Wednesdays Wednesday ball has never happened before.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

The non-win team did not play on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

For real. The 916 team, they didn't, they played on a Thursday, I think.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

They played, they played on Thursday. That's what I'm saying. They did not play on Wednesday. That's why I said some of the pushback from fans is there's so much. This is the first time this has ever happened. Like, there's just a lot to take in. Like, we're the poverty franchise, it kicks off the SEC tournament. Are you shitting me?

SPEAKER_05 54:32

Trace, it starts Wednesday with LSU. If we can get past them, then it's probably Missouri Thursday. Uh, a team that we lost.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

You know what our record was in the SEC that year? Eight and nine. Yeah. So sure, we didn't play on Wednesday, but we were eight and nine in the SEC.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Yeah, which which tied for eighths.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

You guys want to hear about the craziest shit in the world about the you want the you want to know about the Kentucky effect? Last night, tickets for the for the game were nine dollars. They're$67 for upper deck now.

SPEAKER_05 55:02

You really, yeah, you did mention that. Well, you look last night, nine.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

That's like uh that's like a thousand percent increase in ticket prices between last night and today. That is the Kentucky effect. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 55:13

You know, no other team's doing it. Which goes to T TB, put up the whiteboard, put it up again. That's why.

SPEAKER_05 55:21

That is why. Trace say going back to you. Uh we got the potential our our three-game stretch, at least three, I'll look for now. Wednesday I'll issue, possibly Missouri, Thursday, and if we can get to Friday, it's probably gonna be Florida. But three games and three nights. The fatigue, you know, that's sorry narrative, but what do you feel about?

SPEAKER_02 55:46

That's good news.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

Touche. Part of me that I that worries me as well is that Gonzaga game that we had this season was in the same building, Bris Town Arena, and I was there, and that was about as humiliating as possible. The 35-point loss in the same building that we're going to, and I I cannot express.

SPEAKER_06 56:05

Andy whipped our ass there, too. We've lost by 59 points in that city this year.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

That's what I'm saying. That's that's you perfectly because we felt that way about Indianapolis for a little while, the St. Peters and all the champions class and things like that. I'm getting a little bit that I know we had the uh OA game winner, etc. Then we got waxed by Alabama, and that was awful. But part of me, uh I am a little concerned about Nashville. You know, part of it is like you're gonna beat if you beat Missouri if at this point, then you get Missouri, um, I'm sorry, LSU, Missouri, then it's just like you're gonna lose on Florida uh on Friday to Florida. I just we're not dominant anymore. I'm kind of worried. I'm not confident going into it. I mean, I guess our head coach is more confident. He said the postseason is just one game at a time, which it is, but I don't have any confidence going forward. Uh I think it's gonna be bad. And if we do lose one of those first two games that you're supposed to win, um it's gonna it's gonna be really loud. I'm not confident going into it at all.

SPEAKER_05 56:56

Uh Davo, I haven't heard from you. What are you feeling?

SPEAKER_07 56:59

Yeah, I'm not I'm not I'm not excited at all. Um, and that sucks because like like March is like the time for everybody to be pumped up, right?

SPEAKER_05 57:07

This is the greatest month of uh of sports to me.

SPEAKER_07 57:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:11

Uh the madness. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_07 57:13

And this this whole fucking season's been madness um at this point. Um so you got you you got LSU that took a miracle pass and a miracle catch and a miracle shot to win that game, right? Your first your first game, so that's not encouraging, right? And then and and then and then you get potentially Missouri who who came in a rope and beat you, right? And then after that, oh well what do you get? You get a team that's been that that that just got enough spanking your ass in rope arena, right? So there there is nothing that is super encouraging about this. Um as as always. I I I I hope we make it a Sunday. Um, but I I'm not excited, guys, and that sucks.

SPEAKER_05 57:50

What's uh is is is there is there really uh a good chance of Cam Cam Williams playing?

SPEAKER_06 57:56

Yes, I think so, according to I think it was KSR put that out.

SPEAKER_07 58:01

Yeah, he's been practicing, right? Full five on five.

SPEAKER_06 58:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 58:04

In in SEC play? SC tournament.

SPEAKER_05 58:07

It's another tournament, yeah. SEC tournament. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

Uh yeah, I didn't know. I I didn't hear that. I I was the timeline I think put him at the beginning of the NCAA tournament if we got him in the SEC tournament.

SPEAKER_06 58:16

I believe that's according to Jack Pilgrim, uh, that he was he'd been going full strength and practice. Yeah, he did put that out there too. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

I think JQ probably plays too. Oh, I'd be I would be shocked.

SPEAKER_06 58:27

That's not based on anything. That's just based on my brain telling me that there's no shot he's playing.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

They're saying there, I mean, if you look at everything they're talking about, swelling down, he's in I think he's full contact too now.

SPEAKER_07 58:37

Um if anything, take care of his draft stock, right?

SPEAKER_03 58:40

Because if he wants to get drafted in lottery again, he better play. I think I think 30 almost. I think I think he's gotta play. I think he's gonna play. I mean, I think they're at least gonna give him a shot. I don't think he can play five games in five days, but I think that I and maybe he doesn't play Wednesday, but maybe you see if Kentucky gets to Friday, I think you see him. I definitely damn think you see him in the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_07 59:02

Paul Paul, do you know what's gonna be really fucked up? And of course, I I'm I I hope I'm not jeansing nothing, but if if if if it is happening the way it's happening, his draft talk is falling, right? What if this this young man decides to come back to college and ends up getting a hold of some chicken money and ends up playing for Caliperi?

SPEAKER_03 59:20

Oh God, I don't well what here's the other what if what if this young man comes back on the first game of the NCAA tournament, drops 25 a game, and takes us to the final four? I mean Then I'm buying his jersey. I yeah. You imagine he needs to play. I already got one. You you imagine that like there is a there is a world, like I will say this like like JQ does have the the kind of talent that nobody else on this team really has. That if he turns it on for six games, he could win you six games. I mean, and it and if he goes and plays in an elite level, Kentucky does become a different team. Now, this is very hypothetical. I know TB doesn't like hypotheticals, but if you want to say what's the silver lining in in it in this, if if JQ does come back and Cam Williams comes back, the entire trajectory of this team does look different. I mean, Cam Williams is a 6'9 freak athlete that can hit outside shots. And if you get another outside shot maker with and Colin Chandler's proven that he can be that, right? Like you've got that kind of three-headed monster at guard, and you've got him playing at a four, the whole team looks different. And we did look different until he got hurt. So maybe may that if there's a silver lining, if those guys come back and are and are healthy, maybe they have a better shot to play somebody. But you got it, you can't be an eight seed. You got to get into that seven or six or you are in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

I'm making this right here. If this team gets to the sweet 16, I will chop this up and eat all the notes I have made comparing previous teams. I agree with you. If if they make the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I will eat this paper that I've written. I will eat every single page I've written about this team and previous teams to make points.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:54

If they're gonna do that, if they're gonna do that, they can't be an eight or a nine, and they probably can't be a seven. The one seeds and the two seeds this year are so much better than everybody else.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

There's a big drop-off, I think, even in the twos, though. I mean, there's only gonna be there's only gonna be two twos that I think that you're gonna be real worried about. I think there's a couple others.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:12

How many two seeds are there that you think this Kentucky team can beat right now, Paul?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

I think they could beat Illinois.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:17

I do not.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:18

I do not think Illinois's too inconsistent. Like I'm not sold on Illinois at all. Um, Florida, if Florida went to a two seed, no. Um I was looking at the lines.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:27

I think they're a one now.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

Oh, yeah, they're a one. They're a one those. Yeah, Florida's a one. Um I crazy we can't. I think I think we could beat Houston, and I think we could beat Michigan State. I don't think we could beat Houston. We definitely can't beat Michigan State. On our day, we can beat those teams. I think there's a huge gap between the the ones. I think there's five real elite teams, and then there's a big, there's a drop that I think they can lose to a lot of teams. Now, maybe they don't, but they can. And then you go to the threes, and there's an even bigger drop. So if you you get paired to where you can play a three seed in the second round, I like our chances a hell of a lot more. The two gets dicey on who you get matched up with, and the one is like you better pray that like both your guys go for 30.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:08

Yeah, you can be an eight or an on in this tournament and have a chance of this week.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

The only one I think they could compete with, and this sounds dumb, is Duke because Duke doesn't have like the monsters that all the other ones do. And if they go cold, maybe you can beat them. No, monsters and not I'm talking about like Arizona's got like seven guys that look like they're 12 feet tall, right? Like like the size comparison in Arizona and Yukon and stuff is just way different. I don't think I think all those teams would be Kentucky by 25. I think I'm not saying, listen, I'm saying it's a 5% chance, but that would be the only team I'd be like, maybe we could have a shot against them at a one, but it is also very slim. Like, don't get me wrong. I'm not I'm betting, I'm taking the spread on that, on any of those games.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:48

Let's let's uh uh let's move past or not worry about the NCAA tournament at this point. Trace, I know you got a bounce. Uh give us final thoughts and uh heading into this week and hope to see you next weekend.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

You know, unfortunately, I I feel like I'm in the same position I've been for what three or four years now. Um I used to love the SEC tournament as we all did. It used to be a blast. And the last oh I don't want to. Look at the hi.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

You say hi.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

Oh, critty, uh she must she must take out her uh what's what's up.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

She don't look like me. She don't look like me. Rando can vouch for that. Rando can vouch for it. He's she don't look like me.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:26

Uh, but just kind of as I gotta exit here, but um uh, you know, unfortunately the SEC tournament used to be a blast, and Wednesdays and Thursdays too were fun for a while. Um, the last few years, and I feel like it's just in a cycle now, it's year after year after year. It just it's it's very frustrating. I just don't have any confidence. We're going in there, uh we're playing on Wednesday now. We don't have I don't have any confidence, and that sucks. Um, but as always, I'd love to be wrong. I hate that I we've got to this point, but it's year after year. I'd love to be wrong. Um, let's see what they can do. Um staying away from it though, in terms of betting on it, I don't think we're gonna win.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:57

You and me, bud. All right, Trace. Uh, appreciate you hanging with us. Thank you, sir. I'll be in touch. Uh, hope to see you next weekend. Go catch.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:06

Okay, let me see. All right. Uh let's uh all right, where where am I? What am I going?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

Am I am I a bad fan for thinking we get to Friday? I'm okay. Like, I don't really we play Saturday is Sunday, like, yes, I'll be happy if we actually get a chance. But if if if if I want to see TB eat some yellow paper to get to a sweet 16, I think we gotta have like the the tournament's right around the corner. You get to Sunday, you're playing again on Wednesday, Thursday, depending on where you go in the Thursday, Friday. On the seating line, like especially if you're talking about Cam coming back, maybe JQ coming back. Like, get me to Friday. We play Florida close. We get to Saturday, I'll be ecstatic, but like if if if the the big one matters, and and I know this is again, this is changing the standard TV. You can you can you come at me later, but if I legit, if I want to make a NCAA tournament run, get to the Sweet 16, and then who knows once you get to Elite 8, I don't think I want this team playing deep into the weekend just because if you get there, it's gonna have to be on the back of OA. And you saw what happened late in the Florida game, he just didn't have the legs, it's gotta be on the back of Zell, and he's gotta be more efficient. Um, and you gotta be able to to ride Moreno and these young guys. If we're if we're having to do this load management thing or or um you know playing the playing the minutes game in a to get to a sweet 16 and relying on BG or whatever the the rotation is or Trent Noah or Jasper. Oh boy, we it just yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:30

Like UConn did it with a seven-man rotation and then they won the natty. So it is possible. We don't got we don't have UConn's dudes, though. We don't have uh they only had two dudes. I mean, hey, listen, like they had one dude that could rebound, and but they they're the that was like Shabazz and uh what and uh yeah, they were they had two bad dudes. Like I I agree with you, but all I'm saying is we it has happened before, so it's not like it's not like it's impossible. And UConn, I think, was worse than us most of the year that year. So it's possible, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

Like there's hope I've seen a national champion play six dude because I'm not counting right. I'm not counting out what you so I'm so you can do it. Don't tell me what can't be done because I've seen it done. That's fair with with what we got on this team right now. Would I be a bad fan if I but I'm just saying, you know, would I be a things you can't do, and I've absolutely seen it done. Like, I'm not trying to fire a Pope, but I see people like you can't fire a guy after two years. We did it. I've seen it done. Yep. Like we delivered and then went to non elite eight. Like, you can do these things. We can choose not to.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:33

Yes, probably. I was getting ready to say like, if we won an SEC title and then lost in the second round, Terry's definitely gonna. Scorch me for that one because that's lower in the standard, isn't it, Terry?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:42

If we won the SEC title and lost in the second round, I think you would still see a lot more hope in next like next year. I would feel better because of that. I would better I would.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:50

I wouldn't be like, yes, that was awesome, but I would still be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:54

Here's the other flip side to it, right? Like if you lose on Wednesday or Thursday, you're staring down the barrel of an eight-nine. You might even go into the committee and the committee really want to screw you and put you on an 11-11 play-in. Like it's not impossible at 19 and 13, if you lose Wednesday, that you're in a play-in-the-curve. You've got to get to Friday. You've got to get to Friday. You've got to. Because if you want any chance at a six or a seven, you've got to get to Friday. And if you don't, you start putting yourself in a really situation where you like if you get to a six or a seven, Kentucky has a shot to get to a sweet 16 still. Maybe it's still not great, but you have a shot.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:30

All of this is just to set up us against Miami of Ohio in the first round. All of this is all.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:41

I'll cut your hand off to play them. Yeah. I would take us a 10 seed playing them in the first round. If they're a seven, give me Miami of Ohio all day, every day in the first round. They have one top 200 win and have not played one top one on the team.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:57

Real ones watch that Ohio game where they barely where they it took like three overtimes to beat a 15 lost Ohio team.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

Casey did a thing yesterday that I think he he looked at that 82% of their conference games have been by five points or less. Yeah. I saw that. Yeah, like listen, cut it to them. It's hard to go 31 and 0. It is hard, but they're but they're not they're they're not that they're not like the Wichita State 31 and oh team. Like that was good.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:23

And to any of my friends and all my friends who have sent this to me, stop telling me that Travis Steele needs to be the next head coach at Kentucky. Please put that down. Anyway, sorry, Kevin. You can have your show back now.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:33

Can I? I can. I think I got the wheel. We're gonna assume it. You've lost it a lot tonight. What's that? You have lost the wheel a lot tonight. I have. But I've got some good talkers and it's 14 of us on the show. That's okay. You know. And all of us like to talk. And all yeah. I do too. But I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm playing along. Uh Mitch Barnhart, uh, March 2nd. He signs. I'm just gonna mute myself until I'm gonna I'm gonna knee because you got some good takes on Mitch. Uh the narrative here, uh yeah, March 2nd, he is this, what is it even is this position? It's like a special advisor or whatever. Um it's made up. It's basically made up. Uh, you know, this is comes at a time too where UK and other schools are you know citing their own financial executive in residence at the sports and workforce initiative. Special assist, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:31

Executive in residence.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:33

You know, and I've said this too. Um I said this last night. Um, you know, this is we're we're good we're handing this, we're handing him nearly a million dollars, you know, at the same time too, where the school is reaching out to the fans for donations.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

That Eli Capoludo singularly signed off on, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:52

Yep. And uh and then you know, he's potentially, you know, obviously Pope's not leaving, but he is going to be uh well, let's stay with with Mitch. You know, there's gonna have to be a new AD, and he's going to be part of likely that conversation on who the new AD is. Paul, you've been uh uh a straight shooter when it comes to Mitch. Summarize what's what's going on here.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:19

30-second summary, Paul.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:20

Yeah. Jeff to go to someone else then. Uh this is not a 30-second thing. Um, look, I let me let me let me put it this. This is I I put this out. Well, you know what? I'll I'll say that for like the last shot. Um, look, this is this is it's not it's not good, right? Like this is a hyper-inflated athletic director with results that have been mid-tier at best. You know, people want to talk about he's the greatest athletic director in our lifetime. For what? Like, we can talk about the fact that they parated four you know, six national titles on the table, four of them when we're in rifle. I don't even know if any of us can tell you when rifle season is, when any of those titles were. No disrespect to them. Not no disrespect to them, but like you get judged, you get judged by you get judged by when I even say your your your top sports, men's, women's, men's women's basketball, baseball, softball, football, even and if you want to count volleyball, it just depends on the school. Those are the six sports that people you probably will will follow in any capacity, right? Some more than others. Now, here basketball matters. The fact that if you look in the last 24 years, teams like Florida and Yukon have passed Kentucky standing still, that's gotta be a referendum on on the leadership. You've had, and someone brought this up yesterday, there's been three scandals major. There's the cheerleading scandal that nobody even talks about anymore. You have swimming that looks now like, according to Kevin, doesn't go to trial until 2027. And now you have a track and true track and field. And like I talked to like I talked to some reporters um two days ago, uh, who said that the track and field scandal is actually like 10 times worse when people find out about it, it's like 10 times worse than what swimming was. Um isn't there a Title IX? Uh there's there's yes, Title Nine. There's all these, there's all these problems, and then when you couple that up uh in terms of winning, oh look at the facilities he did. We were really behind. Like we're still behind in facilities, we're behind it. Basketball facilities, football, we're falling behind again. Like it needs some up and some up, some facelift. We have the worst game day atmosphere in in the SEC. Uh, I I don't think anybody would argue that. You go to other teams, it's fun. Kentucky fans are really good because like the atmosphere that's there is really us. Like, that's what's brought. There is no movement. And when you go to we went to Vandy, and I I'll I keep saying this, it was in your face the whole game. The whole game, it was in your face. It never stopped. You don't get that at Kentucky, right? Like, we run like these things out between at the TV timeouts talking about like this dude who grew a crop three years ago and he won an award. Like, nobody gives a shit, right? Like, play some Lil John and like crank the speakers by the way. Can we get speakers that work at Commonwealth or Crow whatever we want to call that place? Can we like in 24 years you couldn't fix the fucking sound system at all? Like, so that we have you have 24 years of just mid, like we are competitive at everything and great at nothing anymore. And we have no, we have we are not winning SEC titles, we're not winning national titles, and we're giving this guy a send-off. But the thing that I think is the most telling thing about Mitch is you have seen this failure over the last six years, and specifically the hostility towards the fans has grown significantly, and that's the thing when this when the hostility keeps coming and you're keep told you're you're told to shut up, don't ask questions, you fucking peasants, which is basically what he does. That should tell you everything you need to know that the that the that the what we think are cracks are probably chasms, uh, and we're really in a a lot of trouble. And why I think Kentucky's on the on a knife's edge is because of the administration um and the ability to over these are easy problems in these days, but I don't think we have people in that building that can fix that. And it starts with Mitch and how he's ran this athletic program for the last 24 years.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:59

Who is and this is maybe a hot take, or maybe I'm totally off out of bounds with this, but is this uh Dave O TB, I'll start with you. Is this$950,000 salary of reward for 24 years of service? Uh, or is it hush money protection to keep Mitch in the fold, you know, while these lawsuits play out?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:22

Um I'm gonna jump in on just that that Mitch is the ringleader of all that. You know, it's not it's not hush money. This is just the corrupt aspect of how this administration thinks that he's been a success in their little cabal of you know stupidity.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:38

So, you know, I was I was uh a Mitch fan, you know, for his first for his first 15 years, because I thought there were some good things that were heading that direction. And then 2014, 2015, things started taking a turn, right? Uh I don't know any Kentucky fan that could listen to the Pablo Torre uh uh uh expose on the swim team, which a direct quote from a former Kentucky swimmer, I don't care about you know what that Riley Gaines is doing when my head coach raped my teammate. And it's like, what? Like, what are what are we doing? And basically the game plan is because a lot of these smaller coaches, they're like year two contracts, so they drag out the investigation until the person's no longer employed, and then it's like, well, I guess that's okay, which seems to be the game plan that they're doing with the track and field and cross-country coach. That to me is untenable. Like that to me, whatever you've done, even if we had 15 championships, I don't want my university to be that. Not only is it daughter, but I've got daughters myself, and we've got these women student athletes that are like, yeah, I don't feel comfortable on campus. That breaks my damn heart. Like, and and and and it's just and I'm with you, Paul. What I know about the track and field, it's worse than swimming. And my God, what are we doing? And then to to kind of rub our face in it, yeah, I'm not a family.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:01

Okay. Where's the silence? Just come back. Uh Dave O. G thoughts on Mitch? This I'm gonna try to who's the next, who's the potential next pay date? We can't hire one of our own.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:14

We can I know who it doesn't need to be, and it's two people, and it's Mark Hill, and it's Rachel Baker. It's three.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:20

It's Baker Hill and PV. And I have nothing personally against I have nothing like hear me out. I have nothing personally against Wade P V, but the Paul's not not been great. Yeah, and they're not a they have no football and they're not a big time NIL school. And you need a guy that's gonna come in here and be able to turn the keys on NIL and football and basketball. And I feel like PV is a nostalgia hire when we need an innovative hire. I'm nothing against the man, a person.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:45

I don't disagree with you necessarily. I don't disagree with you really at all. Um, but if it were PV, it's not the end of the world to me, is I guess is my the main thing I'm saying. But the two people that I really care about, like not getting the job, are Mark Hill and Reggie.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:58

I'll die on that hill and I could get talked into PV. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

That's it would be more appropriate for that GM role because of what he's done. He would be able to do that. I agree with you on that too. Yeah. N IO and the in the K fund, that would be a perfect job for him. Now, does he look at it as a downgrade potentially? Um, he gets to come back home. Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna be a home run hire. Yeah, that's a great job.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:18

I don't know that yeah. The AD thing, I don't know, but as a as a GM, he would crush it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:22

I actually wouldn't mind if he came back as the assistant AD again. Like I just don't think and where he was focusing on that. I just don't think that that that where Kentucky is right now, we can afford that. And I've said this a hundred times. I don't know why we're not looking at at the assistant AD at Indiana. I mean, you want to talk about a team that pulled themselves out of the fucking ashes. Go go get go get that guy because they at least know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:43

One thing about PV too Vandy.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:45

Go ahead, go ahead, buddy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:46

One thing about PV to me, though, as well, is if he were the athletic director, I do think he could go hire somebody, like hire a deputy AD that knows football or that could really focus on football and kind of help him hone that in a little bit. Uh so you do have that, but the other two I just don't. That would just be a repeat of Mitch Barnhart. I mean, I don't think P V really would be. Sorry, go ahead, go. No, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:07

No, um, I just I I think um you gotta it just can't be with from within, and it just makes me nervous that, you know, with with Mitch just still having this oversight on it, um, my my my faith and all my confidence goes into to Tammy and like, please, God, buddy, do what you do with football. Go uh go put your thing out there, lay it on the table, and said, Hey, bud, this is what we're doing. Um, but uh we will we will see, I guess. But the the basketball GM has to happen, and I think you have to have an attainment. Because one thing, if you look at Indiana and Vandy, like the reason why they were able to do such a quick flip, their big three, right? From the president to the AD to the head football coach, were all in line. They all said, I'm gonna give you all the money, I'm gonna give you everything you need to make football great, because they knew all of athletics would be great after that, right? Because that's where the money comes in. We can do a lot of good things. Everybody you've seen the chat, and you mentioned on here, we don't have a president that is that has that mindset, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:02

The the president is not about like super let's go figure out athletics to even have a mind right now, like Paw Paws asleep at the wheel, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:11

Yeah, yeah. So it's just like you, you know, as long as that's there, you got you gotta find someone who's who's strong-willed enough to be able to kind of Heisman that piece away. But the reason why I used and whatnot have been successful is they're the top three are in sync, and I don't think we're gonna have that while Mitch is still here, why Capoludo is still the president. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:28

I think a lot of people about the Baker idea. Really nervous about that. Her name is being thrown around so much to the point where I'm nervous that that's I have actually I've actually heard her name less than Hill.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:38

I I I think if you look at like a lot of the big players, you're seeing Hill more than Baker. I think Baker causes too many problems because of the the nepotism thing, right? Like her husband is the VP of JMI. I don't know legally if that would work. I think you could actually have like legal challenges coming from outside sources on that. Um, I think that there's actually they're really they would be really exposed there. I think Mark Hill, Mark Hill's the same thing, though. I mean, it's Mark Hill, Rachel Baker, they're six one half dozen the other, flip, flip a switch, right? But like the there's a real problem too with Eli Capoludo because our athletic program's gotten to this because you've had you've got you've had a president whose MIA on the athletic team is basically let Mitch Barnhart run this, like you know, his little mafia that he wants to run. And there's been no checks and balances on the athletic department for almost for a decade. And that has to change. And I think a lot of people had hope in Eric Monday, and I think those hopes have just dashed. Like Eric Monday, it can't be like if he's the president too, like we're still we're still have the same stupidity at the at the wheel. It's gotta be Kentucky's Board of Trustees has to grow some balls and fix this, or Kentucky's in a big problem for a decade.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:43

And the Eric Monday thing is so sleazy because he came out of nowhere. He pretty much came out of the shadows, and it's almost like he saw an opportunity to get the president's job to get that job from Cappoluto because he's like, Oh, this guy's like I said, he's 10,000 years old, so I could probably get this job in the next two years or something. And I that he just feels like a guy taking an opportunity of uh out of that. So I'm not a big Eric Monday fan.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:07

Me either. All right, guys. Let's uh wrap this up. Final shots time. Uh no one. I'll start with you.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:15

Oh, okay. Um so first of all, don't root for a loss. You're don't root for a loss. I don't care how bad you want someone fired. I say it all the time. Don't root for a loss. Uh, if you're gonna do that, just don't even fan. Um, hope we win the title. We won't, but I hope we do. But at the end of the day, uh renovate Rup Arena, put dividers in the urinals uh in the men's bathroom. Please change the sinks. And outside of that, do whatever the hell you want to that building. Uh amount of people I had tell me, new coach, I was talking about the building, not the program. So, you know, do that. That's my bucket list, too.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:48

Yeah, Rando, what you got?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:50

I just there there is nothing more I want right now out of this season than TB dipping some yellow paper and some water or whatever a hot sauce. Whatever you gotta do to choke that stuff down. So give me a sweet 16 and I'll say I'm low in the standard. I'll say it out loud, but I'll say it with pride with pride and happiness because I don't know what it's gonna do to them guts, but it can't be good, and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:13

We'll all throw in on some Pepto Bismol, though, but it'll be one hell, it'll be must ETV because I promise you, me and Randall will plug this that this show for a fucking week to show it. You're gonna be watching that. Like this show will have a million people on because we will plug it so hard that you're eating paper.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

Think about plugging it. Can I give my account back, Elon? Please, man. I've got hacked. Give me my stuff back, dude. You still haven't got it back yet? Tuesday, my seven days ends on Tuesday. Please let me let me get it back. I don't know. I'm doing everything Gronk and and Chad GPT told me to do to prove I got ownership, but I don't know. Their support won't email me back. So I'm just I don't know. There might be all you c ball too coming coming at you at the beginning of the of the football season. Who knows? Do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:55

Uh Paul, final shot, sir. Uh so I'm just gonna read. I um I'm just gonna read a post that I did earlier because I think it's important and it's kind of just my final thought on everything. Um in the NIL era, the administration has become far more crucial to success on the field and the court. For years under Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky has operated like a closed-door operation that many donors and businesses have found difficult to work with. Those complaints start way before the NIL era. They've been around a long time. What's changed is the landscape. You can't you can't lean on history and brand alone anymore. Success now depends on organization, adaptability, creativity, and the ability to identify the right talent when elite coaches no longer take discounts just to be part of blue blood programs or just to make a leap. NIL has leveled the playing field. Programs are programs that adjust quickly thrive, programs that don't are getting exposed, and Kentucky's one of them. And that's exactly what this new era has done in Kentucky, in the Kentucky Athletic Department. The same closed-minded approach that existed for years under Barnhart is now showing its cracks. It's a big reason we've seen the drop-off for the past five years and why the tone from the administration towards the fans often feels dismissive. The frustration from the fan base is coming out of the frustration from the fan base isn't coming out of nowhere. It's a result of years of feeling ignored. Right now, Youth K athletics is standing on a cliff. An internal hire or nostalgia hire an athletic director could set this program back a decade. Kentucky needs a real reset. That means cleaning house from top to bottom, starting with the president, Eli Capoludo, then Eric Monday and beyond. Fans can argue about Mark Pope and results all they want, but if the administration doesn't truly change, nothing else will either. The cycle will continue. A new coach, the same problems, the same frustrations. If fans want real change, the focus can't stop at the sideline. It has to reach to the top. That means directing the anger, frustration, and yes, even keeping dollars away to force a complete shift in leadership and culture. Simply blaming the coach is the easiest move. It's also what the people in power would prefer.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:58

The end.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:58

The end. The end.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:00

I was, yeah, I'm with you. Totally with you. TB. Final shot, Bob.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:04

Final shot, uh, another PSA. Uh, just want to share with uh got a bunch of guys here. Uh so 12 years ago, this past Tuesday, I uh survived a uh suicide attempt. So I share that story to let folks know reach out uh when you're feeling low. Um, because we've seen, you know, how tough the world can be. So reach out, whatever you need to do to do that. And then the next day, as I was thinking about that, I now have my colonoscopy scheduled. So take care of your mind and your body because I know how us men are. Don't tough it out, whatever it is. Open yourself up, take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:40

Well said. Well said. Tavo, you in your green shirt gets get the final shot.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:45

Hey man, we all gotta be different, right? So listen, at the end of the day, I didn't really get to speak too much on Mitch. Um, I do kind of wish that he would be fired by calls. Um, kind of like how Caliberry was secretly fired by calls by skinny dipping with Arkansas administration and uh and basically seeking out a job and not having to get his buyout. And by calls, I wish that every contract that he signed that was fucking retarded, gets voided, and all the buyouts are gone, um, including JMI. Um, so that's my hope and that's my wish that somebody gets it together. It takes care of the situation because um he has done a lot of fucking stupid stuff over the years, and uh, and that's what we deserve. So that's my final shot there. And Randall, please get your account back because no, no matter how many DMs you send me, I will not click on that link so you can hack my account.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:37

I was mean. Randall, I was mean to them, and so now I got unfriended. Just letting you know. I was mean to them and now I cannot see your tweets.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:44

Good. I was told it was locked. Twitter sent me because of illegal activity was locked. It clearly is not because they're still sending stuff.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:50

And please unblock me too when you get it back because I can't see anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:57

Oh, good stuff tonight, guys. Uh, I think this nine o'clock. I I didn't want to go this late, but then you know, Paul is on here, and then I realized when Paul's on, this the length of the show doubles easily.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:10

You also have 700 people on the live right now on just our our stream.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:15

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:16

I told you later is better.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:18

It's tripled from last week. It did. All right, good stuff. Uh the SEC tournament this week, Wednesday night. Or what time is it? Wednesday, what time do we play Wednesday night? Wednesday night.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:28

We're the first game, Birdie.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:32

It's breakfast time here in Central Standard Time. So that's a good point, yes. And it'll be in the morning for you, TV.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:38

I can't believe I have to watch Kentucky basketball at work on a Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:42

I can't believe it. I got leave in. If we make it through Wednesday, uh you won't they they won't see me at work Thursday, Friday. Very well.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:52

Well, I hope to see you all next Sunday as we uh we'll we'll be back doing this again. SEC uh tournament this week. Let's root for the boys. Uh go cats and uh what time is the selection show Sunday though, Kevin?

SPEAKER_07 1:28:05

Uh six. Six. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:08

Next Sunday. Yeah, this thing will be yeah, next Sunday we'll we'll know everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:13

By this nothing past Friday night matters for the turn for the for the the for the bracket. They proved it. Unless you win it. Nothing past Friday night. Yeah, unless you win it.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:23

Next week, you guys can preview Kentucky versus Miami of Ohio in the first round.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:27

That would be cool. I will literally be hype about it if that happens. All right, guys. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:33

Good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:34

You boys.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:35

Good night. Everybody, have a good week. Go cats. Go cats. Go cats.