Kentucky Roster Updates | 'Insiders' Impacting Recruiting | B1G & SEC Power 1 Pivot

ROUND of SHOTS #133 - show date 4.12.2026

Roundtable featuring Dave Slone, Terry Brown, Drew Byous, Kyle Randow, and Paul (Bleed Blue Network) - hosted by Kevin Hale

Topics:

• Michigan Natty Champs
• Kentucky Football Spring Game
• Kentucky Football Recruiting Updates
• Kentucky Basketball Portal/Recruiting Updates
• Do 'Insiders' Impact Recruiting?
• B1G & SEC Drifting Apart
• Final Shots

@BigBlueNationD1 @TBrown_80 @DrewByousBBN @AllUKBall_HPS @BleedBNetwork @kevinhale423


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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:56

Past week, past Monday night, Michigan became uh our national champions. Man, uh, we're gonna I'm gonna bring up the Big Ten later, but I tell you what, guys, Dave, I'll start with you. Well, first of all, that Michigan Yukon game. Yukon, to their credit, another uh Final Four, another championship game. Early's doing his thing, but this year was Michigan's year. Dave, what would you think of the game?

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Thankfully it kept them away from creeping up on us a little bit more. Um, you know, that's kudos to Michigan. They kind of dominated the whole season. So, you know, just kind of ended it off in a way that all people thought it. Well, it's congratulations.

SPEAKER_07 1:32

Yeah. If there's any uh question about how uh popular uh March Madness is, how popular the men's college basketball game is, the uh viewership TV, um 18, they averaged 18.3 million viewers, peaked at over 20. Um, what do you think of the game?

SPEAKER_04 1:54

I and I and I have to say, still not what Caitlin Clark of West Des Moines, Iowa uh was able to do when she was with the women's game. So I have to say that because my wife is from West Des Moines, Iowa. So I'm right in the heart of Big Ten country, and I've heard a lot of trash talking about that. Uh the game itself is like most games, uneventful, right? Like Kate uh like uh Connecticut um made it interesting, but it was kind of early on that you thought Michigan was gonna win. Uh that's how most of these gate these games go, right? You look at Super Bowls, you look at World Series. They're not these dramatic, oh, like they're kind of mundane games, right? There haven't been a lot of great games, but uh I tip my hat to Connecticut for making it, uh, for making it more competitive than it was. You know, they were oh like oh of 15, you know, from the uh three-point line in the second half. Uh Michigan did what we kind of thought they would do, so tip my hat to them, but living in Big Ten country being an SEC guy, not great.

SPEAKER_07 2:51

Well, big ten country uh when it comes to basketball, football. Um I'm looking at uh a graphic uh wrestling, uh women's best women's champion, too.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

I mean look, man, look, like my my my wife is an Iowa fan, and she gets to tell me how her men's team made it farther than my men's team, and my men's team was a blue blood.

SPEAKER_07 3:13

I can imagine the the the pillow talk game, her pillow talk game is probably just Drew would just crazy from when we played in bowl games.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

When Kentucky and Iowa played bowl games, I'm sitting here, you know, it's not great to be in Big Ten country for an SEC guy.

SPEAKER_07 3:25

Drew, what say you? What'd you think of the game?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, I thought the I mean the game was kind of sluggish, like, but you expect that in the national title game. It's always very, you know, a physical, it's hard to shoot in those football stadiums. I thought UConn did a pretty good job, like game plan-wise, of hanging around. They just they couldn't put enough game pressure on Michigan to like really try to force their way into a win. Uh, but I thought Hurley coached a great game, they didn't make enough shots down the stretch. But overall, like Michigan deserved to probably win the Natty. They were one of the best teams all year. We got to see the two heavyweights face off in the final four with Arizona and Michigan. Michigan dominated that game. So congrats to Michigan. They deserved it. They uh touched up and got the win. So tip your cap.

SPEAKER_07 4:11

Tip your cap. Well, Dave's got one. Paul's got a cap. Tip your cap and Paul and tell us what you think.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Um, I thought it was I I agree, it was kind of a boring game. Uh, you kind of always felt Michigan was the better team, even when UConn was kind of, you know, they were playing okay, but UConn, it looked forced for UConn. It didn't look like Michigan was like fluid, and then you saw them kind of hit their stride, and then it was like, oh yeah. And even though UConn kind of kept it close, you always feel like Michigan had that gear just to keep like that arm's length, right? Like, and it's those frustrating games where you feel like you're in the game, but you know you're really not, right? Um, I you could clearly tell um that um uh Yaxel was not a hundred percent. I think if he's a hundred percent, they probably roll UConn like like by 20. Um, obviously, um the rest of that supporting cast was really good. So uh off you know, hats off to them. They were uh, you know, I think it's one of the years where the I think the best team probably of the whole season did win the national title. Like the best team did win. Um, they really didn't get pushed too much in the tournament either. I mean, they kind of barrel rolled through everything. It did remind you a lot of you know, a lot of other elite teams. Apparently, my daughter wants to come up here tonight. Um so um, so I want her take too. But go ahead. Yeah, her take her take is gonna be um and uh and yeah, so it was I it look I was I was in Orlando, it was a work trip. I was eating wings at Yard House um by the Orlando eye, having some smoked old fashions, um and uh and uh talking with uh with John from State Line. Uh we're we we're just texting and talking on the phone, so it was a good time. Um, and uh it was an at least it was if you like basketball, I think it was entertaining. If it was a neutral and you don't necessarily like basketball, I think it wasn't. Because I do think it was very fundamentally and fundamentally played very sound. I think the game was called fairly well, and the and I think the the physicality and competitiveness was very high, even though the shots weren't falling. So from someone like myself who watches a lot of basketball, I know you guys do too, right? That was entertaining. I thought that was fun. Uh, but if it was a neutral game, you wanted to see like 95-90, right? Like just a gun shoot. But I think it was a good game. I I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_07 6:21

A little bit of a grind, but go ahead, people.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

The thing is about Yukon is they run really good offensive sets off of their horns action, right? Like that to me, as a basketball fan, is like that's what I'm watching for. It's like, how are you doing like it's physical, like Paul said, but how are you getting your guys open? And UConn runs fabulous sets, just fabulous sets off that horn action. And as a basketball head, it really was a great game to watch, to be honest with you. Like, I didn't have a rooting interest, even though I do have a Michigan and Yukon jersey, you know. Uh, but just watching them run their like we knew you would. Hey man, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. Uh my dad told me that. That's a shout out to uh James N. Brown. Papa Brown. Papa Brown told me that if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. Uh, but so it was a it was a good game. And and uh as if we put a bow on this, like my wife is now into basketball because of the Caitlin Clark effect. So I love it because I'm able to like explain to her hey, this is this is a good offensive set, even though the person doesn't hit the shot, this is a good offensive set based on what the defense is giving. And so, like Paul said, if you're a basketball head, the game was great, right? Because Connecticut would do things and drop into a zone, and Michigan had a a counter for that, right? Like, if you're a basketball head, that's awesome to watch. Two really high-level coaches be like, Oh, you're doing this, I'm gonna do that. And to me, as far as as championship games go, that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_07 7:50

Pretty good. Uh, people in the chat appreciate y'all hanging out with us. Comments, bring it, we'll we'll share, we'll take what's this? I'm not that was Wildcat Corey. Good to see you, brother. Uh, let's not mention one player's name on the space, just say T S. Going to FY. What is that? I don't what does that mean?

SPEAKER_04 8:09

They don't want to even mention smokes all. I've I I've played basketball with Wildcat Corey. He's a great dude. Uh, so I don't know what he's doing.

SPEAKER_07 8:17

Are you better than him in basketball?

SPEAKER_04 8:19

I'm not better than most people in basketball. My thing is because of my jersey game, I look good. Like, people are like, what's your what's your comp? Everybody wants to be my friend.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Hey, look good, feel good, play good.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

Yeah, do you know who I want to be is Rick Fox on the Lakers from 2000, 2001? Or Vanessa Williams Rick Fox? Why? Because Rick Fox would be like, here's 10 points, here's five assists, four rebounds. I'm going home to Miss America. That's all I ever wanted. Like, everybody wanted to be like Mike, no, let me just be that dude. So that's who I am.

SPEAKER_07 8:50

For your child, Paul. All right. Good stuff. All right. Uh, what's the next? Let's see. Let's go to spring football game. That's come this coming Saturday, guys. Um, I tell you what, I I mean, we're gonna kind of pivot from this spring game conversation into the recruiting update, but man, am I right to feel excited, Paul? I'll start with you. A right to feel excited about Kentucky football right now.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

I mean, right now, I think I think our class went to top 15 for the 27 class. There's still a couple guys in the 26th class that you gotta look out for. Um, it's real interesting when you looked at all look at all the graphics that all these guys are putting out when they're narrowing those schools down, and you see a lot of Kentucky logos on graphics you never saw Kentucky logos on before. Um, they pulled the number two quarterback in the nation today. Um, absolutely massive get. Jake Narwhat. Um, uh he turned down some some some names, right? Like, you know, Iowa, uh, Florida State, um, some other big, you know, guys like that. Big time guy um has uh um you know good pedigrees, multi-sport athlete, good size. He's six four, two hundred pounds, he's gonna put on a lot of weight. Um look, I think Kentucky's got like one of the 26 guys that they're sitting there. Uh he's one of the top five QBs in that class, too. If you look at Oregon, uh and if you actually go and look at looked at their roster, they had six QBs on their list, and every single guy was a top 10 QB. Um, it was just an absolute plethora of it, and they sell it. Like, you know, you come in, a guy, a guy plays maybe a year or two, and then there's a three or four-way competition, and then two guys might leave, one guy's the backup, and he's the next guy, right? So you've seen that. But the one thing that that Stein does is he puts dudes in the league. I mean, you look like like it look at Sadiq, you know, that's a big selling point there. Sadiq is it was is gonna be a first-round draft pick, probably, maybe second round because he's a tight end. Like, you know, um you're talking, um, you know, you're talking about Willie's gonna be probably maybe the go-to or one of the biggest go-to guys on the team this year. Um, you know, I I'm really excited where it's going. And like, you know, I think a lot of people were happy when he says all the good players want to, all the best players want to play for Will Stein. And I think everybody, you know, a little bit um was like, hey, oh yeah, that's great, but uh, you're at Kentucky, right? I mean, all the best players sure as hell look like they might want to play for Will Stein because Kentucky is in the mix for dudes. And I'm just gonna tell you right now, I think that that class Kentucky gets in 27 is gonna be a top 10 class. And I think Kentucky, you're gonna see dudes coming here with stars and pedigree and stuff that you've never seen before. This is the biggest QB commitment since uh Tim Couch.

SPEAKER_07 11:33

Oh, nice. Um, Drew, I'll let you jump in with the recruiting updates. But I'm I'm well, real quick. I mean, obviously, Stein's resume speaks for itself. It's kind of cool as a fan, Drew, to have a an offensive-minded coach. Not just offensive, I mean, I mean, his his last his three years at Oregon were crazy stat-wise. But go ahead, what you got?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah, I think just as far as recruiting updates, like they're continuing to push the buttons for a lot of guys. I think this is the time I mentioned it last week, but this is around the time where the staff, really every staff in the country, is trying to push for commitments. This is kind of that commitment window from here until the beginning of the season. So they're gonna try to push to get, I'm sure, plenty of more players committed. Like Paul said, they're on they're on lists that we would have never ever seen Kentucky on years ago. So I think, you know, not to get into specific names because it's a hard thing, and football recruiting guys can just pop out of nowhere. But I'm guessing the staff, I'm I'm sure we're not done with with um, you know, football commits anytime soon. There was a big D-Leman commit the other day, four-star guy. It just continues to roll in. The biggest thing for them is continue, you know, while the the iron's hot, you have this new coach buzz to continue to pull some guys. Um, yeah, I think the optimism for the program is really high. Like, I'm excited. I I don't know about year one. I think there will be some success. I don't know how much success we're talking, but I think, anyways, this time that or the the position that Stein took over in as a young head coach, like you want to have success early, but really you're trying to by about year three to like start hopefully knocking on the on the door to you know competing in the SEC. Maybe if you can get lucky or or things fall your way and knock on a chance for the college football playoffs. Like, that's all we dream of as Kentucky football fans, is one day to just be in that spot. So year three, TB, huh? But go ahead, Drew. No, T B can go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 13:23

No, but jump in TB with uh with Will, what's your take on so far with with what you've seen?

SPEAKER_04 13:29

It it's great to to kind of piggyback off what Paul and Drew have said is football because you need so many guys, right? So part of it is but besides the rankings, like who are you beating out for guys, right? Who else is on the table when these guys pick their hats, right? There's a there's a there's a uh a progression of that, like and so early on with stoops, it was like we were getting these three stars and they could coach them up. Okay, that's great, but now it's like okay, you're on the same table as these other programs that have had success. That's the next leap, right? My thing with Will Stein is what's the identity? Like, what is it that you are gonna do that's different from everybody else? And I think Will Stein being like, hey, I'm an offensive guy, this is what we're gonna do, we're gonna put dudes in the league this way. I'm all for it. I'm not into the specifics for recruitment, but I know is like when a kid's like it's either Alabama, Georgia, or Kentucky, to me, that's a win that's moving in the right direction. And I do feel that Will Stein's moving in that direct that direction.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

And what TB's saying, and what TB's saying is like, even if you miss out on guys in high school with the Georgia's Alabamas, those guys a year from now could be entering the portal, and you already have a great relationship with them. Very and those guys can be programmed changing guys in the future. So even if you lose the recruitment immediately, you know, and they go to a school for a year, doesn't mean that they can't come back. And though building those relationships, relationships with the players, relationships with the agents, those things are important. So I think Stein's doing a good job of that, and yeah, we'll just continue to see how it progresses.

SPEAKER_07 15:03

But yeah, for the record, guys, we we have to at least stay on five minutes past the top of the hour just so that Kyle can come on and we can give him five good minutes. Davo, Will Stein, how you feeling?

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Wild wildcat Corey's giving me points. Wildcat Corey's giving me points only because I cut to the basket. But go ahead, Davo. I'm sorry. Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_07 15:23

He he's not is he the official point taker or maker or whatever? What's going on here? Scorekeeper, scorekeeper, yeah. Dave, tell us how you're feeling.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Will Stein said it a couple of a couple those couple days ago in his press conference. He said he's not gonna beg and plea and get down on his knees for these recruits to come to Kentucky. He is he said they're gonna have to want to come here and they're gonna have to want to come in battle. And I mean, you're seeing that. And you know, Drew Drew's saying you know, you don't know how they're gonna do in year one, which is obviously a mystery to everybody, right? But remember, whenever he came in, like he literally came in like the day of national signings, you know, and then he was already super far behind on the 27th class, and just to see him pull in two studs, you know, one on the defensive end and then the number two quarterback in the nation, that's nothing to see. Like that is super impressive. And then you talk about what he built from the portal for year one coming up. You know, he addressed the most important needs, he beefed up the offensive line with some really good players. Our defensive line already had quite a bit of retention coming back, and and then and and you know, and we're amore stewart is still the coach, so there's some camaraderie there already. You know, he got the best running back in the portal, right? And I mean, I know wide receivers is just a skill position, right? They're they're just talented. You're gonna get talented wide receivers, they're gonna do talented things. So I'm not I'm not worried about that. I mean, you know, there's probably some little concern here and there on the back end on on the defensive end in secondary, but I mean, other than that, like I'm really excited. I mean, honestly, and I fully expect the spring game to be pretty packed as well.

SPEAKER_07 16:52

Well, let's let's let's uh let's go back to that.

SPEAKER_05 16:54

The the I think I think I think you're you're you're underselling the the defense. They went out and got some big dudes, plus they returned like the two best defensive ends, like two guys um that were you know really good uh last year. I I think our corners are gonna be pretty good actually. Like you look at our secondary, they have a lot more depth, they have a lot of skill. They went out and got some guys that have length. You that was the one thing that they looked at, right? Like they looked at length and athleticism. But here's the thing, right? Like that the lot the front seven, I think, is gonna be probably in the upper half of the SEC. And the thing is too, there, and and the other thing there, and one of the is that the safety position is gonna have a shit ton of experience, right? Now, the corners uh, you know, there may be some some growing pains there, but the safety position with the front seven can really hide that too, because you're gonna see what Stein said is we're gonna we're they they're talking about they're gonna blitz, right? Like they're gonna their whole thing is helter, skelter, put pressure on. So I think I think that's gonna be good because you know this is better better than anybody watching Kentucky or or anything in the SSE. What's the one thing that kills you? This all game, right? And and I think Kentucky's gonna be able to stand up to that. But when you mentioned the wide receivers, I think one of the things that's really noticeable is the competitive throws to competitive catches that you're that we're seeing in these videos. Now we saw one video last year, right? Like of a throw. Uh, I think Gilmore caught it, but you're seeing all these guys making catches. You're seeing like that toe drag back corner end zone. I mean, you've seen 10 or 12 of those catches now. And I mean, that's defended about as good as you're gonna defend. And if Kentucky's throwing balls like that, we've we will have touchdowns and and drives and highlights that we have not had in this place in a long time. And I think I think the biggest thing is like maybe they don't have like the clear cut number one dude, but I think they got five dudes, and on any given day, those five can beat you. And I think the the guy is gonna be Willie.

SPEAKER_07 18:45

Feeling good. Now, let's um what's the what what's the with Stein? I don't and I don't honestly I don't know this. What is his spring game objective? Play football.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, I think he wants to play football. I mean legit.

SPEAKER_05 18:58

That's a actually it's that's a in an answer. Yeah, it's I actually asked them about it at his press conference, and I because so Oregon runs a complete full game day experience. Right. And I asked Will Stein if he was gonna bring that, and he said absolutely. And he said, You want to know the one way to get better at football? Play more football. So they're going to have full lineup, they're gonna do punting, they're gonna do all that, actual score, running clock, that kind of thing. They're going to simulate the game. So this isn't gonna be one of those blue versus white nonsense where you know you get a half a point for a deflected pass or a three and out, right?

SPEAKER_07 19:31

Like this is gonna be like he does have some kind of a scoring system, too.

SPEAKER_05 19:36

No, it's not points, it's touchdowns. I uh they count touchdowns, is how they do it. They do the actual game, they run clock though. So apparently, I think that first half is gonna be a full like half, like ran, and then like the second half is like running clock, and then there may or or or something, but like there's gonna be a full half, I believe, is what he said of pure football, and then maybe you get other shit mixed in, but like that first half should be just like a game, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Right, yeah, Kevin. I I think I know what you're referencing. It and the other it was on Saturday, he referenced like some he it was a press or a post, yeah. Go ahead. Yeah, it was some kind of scrimmage thing that they were doing with offense versus defense, and it was like a stop or a turnover, you get points, and if you pulled an off field goal, it was some weird scoring system that they were doing, but I don't know that for practice, though. Wasn't that how they do it in practice?

SPEAKER_05 20:25

Oh, so they're not doing I misunderstood. Yeah, I misunderstood what you were asking.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Okay, uh what the the issue is we need an identity, and what's gonna be the Kentucky football identity? Like, what what's Will Stein gonna do, right? Like, we've we we've been through stoops, and stoops is like, we're gonna limit possessions, we're gonna play some good defense, but what is Will Stein gonna do? That's it.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

We don't know because he's a first-year head coach, like right.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

So that's I think that that's the big thing, but I'm sorry, go ahead, Drew.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

No, I was just gonna jump in and say, like, that's the one thing that you could be the biggest football expert or the knower of it all of Kentucky football, and like we really don't know because brand new program. There was a lot of turnover, or I shouldn't say a lot. There was a good amount of guys that returned, but like we we don't know a Will Stein head coach football team, so you know maybe we get that in year one and we see it. Maybe it's a year two thing. Like, I think the identity that we see now is like, yeah, we want to score points on offense, we want to be aggressive on defense. We want to force turnovers and create havoc, but we don't really know. We got to see the product on the field, we got to see how he's really like as a head coach and the way that the team goes about business.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

So it's those game day decisions, right? Like we can talk about coaching them up, we can talk about scheme, but a lot of it broils down to the game day decision. So we'll see when it comes to Will Stein. But I'm excited, like don't get it twisted. I'm excited now that there's a fresh uh breath of fresh air into the football program.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Well, well, one thing one thing we do know about Will Stein, right, is he went out and hired a lot of experienced, smart people. Thank you. The guy literally went out and hired assistants for the assistance. So I mean, yeah, he will be in charge of putting together a game plan, which we all trust because we've seen his what his offense does at Oregon, right? But he also, like I said, he has a lot of people who's gonna handle that for him.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Except against Iowa. I have to put that out there, like their lowest point total in I Indian's post or lowest point total was against Iowa. So Iowa just a special kind of defense.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

So luckily year in and year out.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

I I have to I have to I have to put that out there because where I am on in my wife. So I have to say like I said, I mean.

SPEAKER_07 22:39

I um I'm not how does TB's wife get so much airtime on this show? Eventually, TB you're gonna have to bring her on Steve Globe. Exactly. Let her let her speak for herself, T B.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

She she can come on and tell you about my three years with Mark Pope. She knows that because I talk to her all the time before I come on to the show.

SPEAKER_07 22:56

You know, there's you know what? Not only does she know about the three-year thing from TB, the rest of BBN knows about TB's three-year plan. Absolutely. And it's okay. All right, all right, let's uh shift gears. Kentucky men's basketball portal recruiting updates. Um is a busy week, it's a uh crazy week. Uh, you know, after the national championship game, guys, uh obviously the portal uh went um went full bore. And uh Drew, I'll start with you. What you got?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, well, I think obviously this past weekend Zoom Diallo was here on a visit. Obviously, a top transfer portal guard from Washington. Um, I believe that the visit went pretty well. They were we saw the photos from Keeneland and all those things. So we'll kind of see how how the visit marinates and the decision there. Uh, obviously, we got the update, was it yesterday morning from um the Nike Hoop Summit? Tyron Stokes sat down with Kristen Peake and did the interview. So, really the first time in months, we got like a clear real update from Tyron Stokes himself, which was nice to hear and see and those things. Obviously, he'll be shooting, might be in Lexington now. I know he's coming in tonight, visit tomorrow. Rob White, Rob Wright, transfer guard from BYU, will be on campus tomorrow as well for a visit. So I think the the plan there is they're gonna try to. I I think this is Kentucky's kind of plan to sort of see if they can lock this thing down with Stokes. Um, I I think they're gonna push over the next 24 hours to try to get papers signed to lock them down, get them committed, maybe a silent commitment, not publicly. Um, so I think we'll we'll see how that goes. And then uh I know Paul reported it earlier or uh Dylan that uh Donnie Freeman will be on campus Tuesday, I believe. So he's a big, big transfer portal guy as well from Syracuse. Uh power forward, dynamic power forward, really good player. So I think we're kind of in a wait and see game. I think this sort of recruiting offseason domino sort of sits on the decision from Tyron or kind of the the word that they can get from Tyron of what he's thinking and his plan, and then they'll I guess make a decision from there of what they want to do. There's still so many great players in the portal. I don't think they've really missed on anybody that was like a super huge priority for them. And I yeah, I think that's really kind of it as far as I know. Like it's just kind of a wait and see game. Tyron will be here tomorrow, Rob Wright will be here tomorrow, conducted a visit with Zoom, and we'll see how this thing plays out over the next 24, 48 hours. It'll be it'll be interesting for sure.

SPEAKER_07 25:33

Paul, based on what you know, what what is the NIL budget for this upcoming season?

SPEAKER_05 25:38

I think it's gonna be whatever we can get it. If we can get these four guys, they're gonna do it. Um, Rob Wright, uh, the staff met with him yesterday um in Atlanta. So you're looking at this is a continuation of kind of a visit that was went well. Um, look, the the the entire the entire mantra of what was going on with with Rob was like he's going back to BYU, right? And then it switched. Um, and so you know there's that, but also, you know, Zoom Diallo is here. Um, but uh, you know, I talked to a source earlier today and they said that Kentucky's 100% trying to land both. Um they want Rob Wright, they want Zoom Diallo. Now, whether that happens or not, uh, I think is yet to be seen. I've there's some just on the back end, there's some interesting convers you know, things going on. There's some people who have actually said they're surprised there wasn't a Zoom Diallo commitment today. I don't know, like I I've not heard that. We haven't, but we have heard that from people that have said that they were surprised it didn't happen. Um, I don't obviously there's some you know nuances between uh you know maybe Rob Wright's decision or Kentucky's decision there. Um, but if they can get Rob Wright, uh Zoom Diallo, Tyron Stokes, and Donnie Freeman, I think that you're gonna see that happen. Now, I know Dylan said Tuesday. Um, maybe that that maybe that could switch a little bit potentially as far as the day goes. But um, you know, the fact that that happened, then the coaches pull up with Donnie Freeman on FaceTime to say add that banner, I think is a pretty good indication that he's either really close to coming to Kentucky or like he's definitely visiting, right? Like that you don't usually do that with that player if you're not gonna visit, right? So um I the fans have been really anxious. I definitely think that there's a plan here. I think that these are the four guys, you know. To Drew's point, there's a lot of good players on the portal. Kentucky's reached out to a lot of guys. I think some of it has been some smoke and mirrors to be like, here's the hand over here to show what this hand isn't doing to get caught. I think you're seeing the influence of Keegan in this a lot more compared to what we've seen in the past. Um, and look, if they land Stokes and look, they're going to try and get a commitment from Stokes, right? It might be silent, but he will have signed papers, right? If he's if they pivot, then then you're gonna see real quick they're like I don't think they're gonna play games. I think Stokes has an aggressive offer. I don't think Kansas is gonna is doing that. Kansas also is kind of pivoting to some other guys a little bit. It makes you really think maybe Stokes really is here. Obviously, he's not going back to Kansas. This is a trip that he's taking. He's not coming alone, by the way. We've heard, so that's also really good news. So um, look, that this is I know Louisville got some guys today. I'm not as impressed with like the guys Louisville got in terms of like just fit. I don't think it I I feel like Louisville's getting some dudes that they're talking about that maybe don't fit as well together as what Kentucky might be looking at, and you never know until they play, right? Um, but what they paid for some of those guys, I'm glad we didn't get involved in that because they rate paid a lot of money for those two.

SPEAKER_07 28:33

How much was that? What's the rumor out there that they spent for those two guys? Wasn't it like in the seven seven to nine million for both of them?

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Which is insane. Um and then, you know, if they get the guy from Wisconsin, right? Like their budget's gonna, I mean, they say they have a ton of money, but it it is what it is. Um, but I'm look, I I I've we've been very optimistic, you know, in our group chat, and uh and with with you know, there's been a lot of negativity. We kept saying, like hold, like wait. We don't put out everything that we hear just because there's a lot of vetting and you have to go through like it, it takes a process, right? Um, and uh, and so uh we're hearing a lot of good things. Dylan's been on Donnie Freeman for months. Um, he was the first to say he's going in the portal, first to say he's visiting. He's been ahead on Donnie Freeman for uh this whole time. Uh so you know, I'm excited for what's coming um or what could be coming. Um, and yeah, let's uh let's let's let's see what happens. But I think Kentucky, the consensus is Kentucky's in a really good spot with all four of those guys as it stands right now. Um, I think it I don't think it's a Zoom Diallo or I Rob Wright. I think it could be one of the others. So if you saw Zoom commit tomorrow while Rob's still here, I don't think that means we're not getting Rob, right? So that's which is a big thing because that could be a dynamic ass backcourt.

SPEAKER_07 29:46

Corey's at our Corey is so good to see you, brother.

SPEAKER_05 29:50

It's like it's it's like saying he who should not be named.

SPEAKER_07 29:54

I love Wildcat Court. He's the best, man. He's our Louisville guy, too. Uh what's this this one? Louisville has those Minnesota Daycares laundry. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

I I don't want to defend uh Louisville or Louisville fans. I grew up a Louisville fan, but people that think that Louisville doesn't care about men's basketball, you're still mistaken. No, yeah, like they they people that people that don't that people that think that Louisville can't drum up money for these guys, like come on, guys. Like, don't put me in a position, don't be me positioned to have to defend the University of Louisville because they are a top 10 team of all time. Like, like let's stop let's stop the bullshit. I'm hearing Louisville, yeah. Right, like like we gotta stop the bullshit. Like Louisville's problem is they're Auburn compared to Alabama, they're Iowa State compared to Iowa, where if you look at their resume on its own, you're like, wow, that's a great team. Except they're like 80 miles from probably the most transcendent team in that scene. The Mecca, right? Like Auburn to Alabama, Iowa State has eight national championships in wrestling. Great, Iowa's got 24, right? My point is you you you we want to think as Kentucky fans, Louisville fans don't care, or there's no money in Louisville. I'm from Louisville, I'm telling you, like, don't don't get it twisted, guys.

SPEAKER_07 31:12

Don't speak of wrestling, I have caused my AEW pay-per-view to to do this show tonight. So my 40 bucks is on hold right now.

SPEAKER_04 31:21

But I I I will say this to to to to uh uh Pope, right? Louisville's made some splashes, as Paul alluded to. What we cannot have happen is Louisville to win the game, you know, whenever November, December.

SPEAKER_07 31:36

They're still a measuring stick for us in this state, whether our fan base wants to admit it or not, they are because they're both they're both on the same trajectory right now.

SPEAKER_05 31:45

That's fair too.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

And the problem is good, you can't lose to Louisville twice because if you check the history when Louisville beats Kentucky twice, it's a seismic shift because we never lost three times. So if Louisville does their thing and wins this season, that's pressure. Like people think, like I tweet out about the three-year rule, and people are like, that's not right. Let Louisville win two games in a row in men's basketball. Let that happen. The last time it happened, we brought in John Calipari and he brought in John Wall. Like, y'all can be out here like patience and all this kind of stuff. Let Louisville get close to winning three games in that series, and then you will see an elite eight, and we don't. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Like, you let that happen, it ain't gotta be what I put on my whiteboard.

SPEAKER_07 32:33

Dave, I hadn't heard from you. What are you feeling with the uh the cats or the bass?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

As far as the recruiting class is going.

SPEAKER_07 32:41

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Well, it sounds like he's got probably the biggest visitor he's gonna have on campus coming up the next 24 to 28. I was gonna say this coming week is pretty you know, like and like I said earlier, like if he don't lock down two or three of these, you know, got at least two of them while they're here, like go on ahead and and and go to U-Haul and go ahead and start packing your boxes. Um, because I mean that that's not gonna be a great sign. Uh you can't you you can't get these big time manbunkers on campus and not have them walk away without committing. I don't give a damn what they got scheduled after Kentucky. Like, you have them at what we still believe to be the Mecca of college basketball sign. Like, don't don't fuck around with this. Because I mean there's other there's other other schools out there who's throwing really stupid money at these players, so sell them on Kentucky while you pay them what they should be paying.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

And I'll say this too, like what Dave was saying, like, we need to lock them down. I I know what me and Paul mentioned there's a lot of really good players still out there in the portal, but this is the exact thing that happened last year. We were in on our early targets and we missed on them, and then we were late to the party for the second tier guys, missed on some of those guys, and then we had to fall to the third tier guys. We thought it was okay. We're like, oh, Coach Pope did a great job in year one, it'll be just fine. And then we saw what happened. So, like the they need to close these guys down, or we're we have a chance to be in the same spot that Kentucky was in last year, and I I don't want to do that all again. It can work out, but I don't I don't like the same formula happening.

SPEAKER_07 34:09

I mean, right now with the players, I mean, yeah, I'll Noah coming back, no offense. I'm not dazzled. He's he's to he's gonna be a 10th or 11th guy, but but if you look at the glory, he's our glorified three-point shooting contest for the blue, you know, the mid-night.

SPEAKER_05 34:25

Yeah, well, I'll push back a little bit there, Kevin. Like he he had some big games as a freshman, he's got some decent size, he's got some experience. If he could get a little bit more athleticism, he's a guy that if you need to go 10 or 11 deep in a game, you could potentially count on to do something. And I think the pressure hits differently with it. And like, here's the thing if you're going out to get a guy to be that 10th or 11th guy, it's a harder sell than bringing someone like that back. And so, like, a lot of fans, or not a lot, but some fans were like, you know, kind of shitting on it. I was actually like good. I'm like, we like you gotta have these guys on the roster. You can't just you can't go, hey, we're only eight deep, and then you're you know, a bunch of like, and then just like me and Davo as like the ninth and tenth dudes.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

You know, what Arkansas had this year? Arkansas was just when those guys started out of Alabama, they had walk-ons checking in the game, correct.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

So I would like to think I can get at least eight minutes a game. Shit.

SPEAKER_05 35:14

I I mean we I I we can get the minutes, but they're gonna get a lot of buckets on us. That's the problem. I mean, that's not the issue. All right. Like you see my ass pulling up from the logo just so I don't want us to get to the three-point line. Probably exactly. Uh, but like it's good. Like, we need we need that ninth, nine to twelve. You're gonna have to have some guys that have maybe a little bit of experience, um, or or have some potential. Um, right, you got Hawthorne that it's probably gonna play a bigger role. Obviously, you got you know, Noah. Um, I always forget the kid uh the kid's name. I played basketball in the L LAC, like he was like when he was goofy knee knocking because he was growing so fast. Um LAC at Lowell uh no Lexington Athletic. Oh not the Lowell Athletic. Uh yeah, like I've been to LAC too, but um, but they look do you need those guys for like that 9, 10, 11, 12. So I'm happy that he came back uh because it's a lot easier. And we got him cheat too, right? So it's a lot easier to get him to come here than convince another guy and pay him double, even double what he's making isn't a lot, but still it's a good it's a good deal for Kentucky.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

And it also makes those you gotta keep those Kentucky boys fans happy too as well.

SPEAKER_05 36:18

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

And the biggest thing with Trinity.

SPEAKER_03 36:19

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. Let me let me hold that. Say that again, Debo. It also keeps those, you gotta keep those Kentucky boys around fans happy.

SPEAKER_05 36:28

You wanna you want a little like thingy thingy that maybe something, maybe nothing. You know the bed sheet, you know the bed sheet like house. Tyron Stokes like the post. Could be something, could be nothing. I'm monitoring. Or mod.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

But the biggest thing I want to say about Trent is like like what Paul said, like, you gotta have those guys. Like the thing with Trent is like if he can just make his open shots, he becomes a he becomes a player that can see five to ten, maybe 15 minutes if he gets hot in a game. Like he's had a lot of really good looks over two years. And I know he's not, yeah, he's not the biggest, he's not the fastest, not the most athletic. But from what we've been told, is like he is an elite shooter in practice. If he can just translate that to the game and knock down some shots, he he has a clear role. He can do so, you know, he's a pretty good rebounder for his size and his athleticism. Like, he's actually a pretty decent rebounder. So, like, he provides value. The biggest thing for Trent is like, can he get to this point in his junior year where like he can knock down the shots in the games at an efficient, consistent level? If he can do that, he has value on the Kentucky roster as a ninth, tenth, eleventh guy. Good takes.

SPEAKER_07 37:34

That's fair, fair. Um, this will be a telling week for the the program, definitely. Uh, you know, I have to say this too. You know, watching the Final Four game or the championship game Monday night, and actually last weekend too. I'm I'm watching Connecticut and and Michigan play, and I'm like, guys, Kentucky, our current state, our program right now can't even come close to touching those schools, those programs. We are that far off to me, talent-wise, uh, just performance-wise. I mean, it's this is uh this is year three coming up, TB.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

I mean, how long has Dusty May been at uh a mission team? He's right, two years at eight wins, right? Yes, yes, like I I understand that people want to have patience because we like the coach, but we're watching Dusty May in year two cut down nets. We're watching Ben McCallum at Iowa in year one go to an elite eight and beat a Florida team that Kentucky did not lead for one minute, right? Todd Golden reminded everyone of that. Like we we sat on this show and talked about well, you know, Florida's tough, and and uh Iowa out rebounded them, and their tallest player was six foot seven, right?

SPEAKER_07 38:46

Yeah, so and and Florida's got a s what the the tallest player ever on the team.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Right, they they got all they got this big front line, but I'm watching Iowa dismantle them because I'm talking to my wife. There you go, my wife, I know, and I'm like, hey, Florida's tough. I don't know if Iowa can do it. And she's like, Iowa controlled that game. I'm like, Yeah, you're right, right? Like, oh, you get the scoops over there.

SPEAKER_07 39:06

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Just doom scrolling and hoping. Just scrolling.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Yeah, so my my my point is we keep talking about patience, but this is the one era of college basketball where it's like, hey, you really don't need patience, you need money, and you'll be able to get guys, right? Like to me, and I keep saying this, and people hate me for it, but it's like it is the the toughest job is been Joe B. Hall being like, Hey, Negroes, you can complain, right? Okay, the toughest job was like Rick Patino being like, Hey, I know it's probation, we're not gonna be on TV. Complay, right? That's a tougher proposition, and it's like Coach Cal. Hey, it's been five years, we've lost Louisville two years in a row, we haven't been to the Sweet 16. Complex. So for me, it's like for this is scrolling tender. All right, but my point is we can be successful in this day and age. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_07 40:00

Wait a minute, what's this? We got a DEI hire on this podcast. What is it because I'm black? Look, you're just saying TB is not the let me just look. Let me just say this. Well, we got a we got uh we got the white folk, we got the black folk, we got the Asian folk, we got all the food groups here tonight.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

But but look, man, if if you're going for DEI hire, that's low-hanging fruit. Listen to my takes, those are wild enough. You do not you you do not need to say I'm a DEI hire, which is crazy. Maybe they're talking about the Asian guy, okay? I'm good at math, I'm good at numbers. It's you have been offended by everything, sir. What am I offended by? I just said that Joby Hall had to be like, hey, Negroes can play here. That's a legitimate saying. I gave you my Louisville take. I don't know who this person is, but like I'm not offended by anything. I love everybody. I'm married to a white woman. Why what are you talking about? I love everybody.

SPEAKER_07 40:55

We do come on. Yeah, we were given, you know, we were given Louisville shout-outs. I mean, they had a great weekend. They did a DEI.

SPEAKER_04 41:03

I have never been called a DEI hire.

SPEAKER_07 41:05

You are our DEI hire. I went through HI. I had to go through HR to clear this hire. Daveo and I talked to our HR rep to get you on. We you know, there's no issues here anyway. And Paul signed off on it because Paul is my dad when it comes to hire?

SPEAKER_04 41:21

What are you trying to tell my mom? She's gonna be like, damn, you a DI hire? That's amazing. All right, hold on. We are I'm gonna tell my wife, hey baby, I'm a DEI hire. They only look at me as a Negro.

SPEAKER_07 41:34

Hey, baby. I thought I was only only gonna do 60 minutes because I'm a little under the weather, but I'm I'm gonna go until we until T B tells me to wind it down.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

It's fine, man.

SPEAKER_07 41:45

I'm a DI. That's some awesome. Oh no, look at this. There it is. That's what it is. Damn excellent intel. Come on, man. I'm a DEI hire. Look at this. Paul must have insane intel. He isn't up at 25. Yeah, Paul, you're you are doing a podcast. You know that, right? Sorry. Busy.

SPEAKER_06 42:05

Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_07 42:06

Man, very wise voice. All right, I'll be changing my Twitter name to DEI hire. I gotta clip that. I gotta clip this whole D uh thing. Uh you know what? I I wanna I'm gonna digress or hold hold hold this thought. You know, I'll I want to say everyone, we've got over 1200 people watching us and Paul. You're you get a lot of credit for that, and I appreciate your brother. Um the Sunday night thing, I want and I want everyone watching, hanging with us to to help us out. Sunday night when it comes to Kentucky sports conversation is round of shots. Is this show is your wind down for the week? It's the last thing on a Sunday night that you I hate to interrupt you, Kevin, but my white wife is here.

SPEAKER_04 42:52

White wife, you know what?

SPEAKER_07 42:54

You know, not all you know if we're gonna do this right. Let me just let's focus on where oh nope. You always do that shit, and you put your give them my three, give them my three things about Coach Pope. Come on. I'll uh and uh your Katie, your hair is lighter today. It's not the best. Oh, it's great. It's great. It looks amazing, though.

SPEAKER_08 43:14

No, oh, oh really? That's so sweet.

SPEAKER_07 43:18

You gotta improve while you're here. Be honest, Katie. Whose pillow game talk is best? You or TBs when it comes to sports?

SPEAKER_00 43:27

Mine, obviously. Obviously. I mean, that's not even a question. I don't even know why.

SPEAKER_07 43:33

You in you in Big Ten, do what's uh what is your take? You you are you're seeing this this the madness that is BBN, that is Kentucky's sport. Tell us your I love it.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

I mean, honestly, I love a uh a passionate uh fan base. Um Big Ten is very passionate as well. Uh I think the SEC and the Big Ten is um probably the two premier um conferences.

SPEAKER_07 44:01

Um I think the SEC is in second place now, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

I don't think so. But anyway, uh no, I no, I I love it. Um it's great perspective. Um yeah, so uh, but three years, that's what I hear in my house a lot. Um so anyway, thanks for letting me hijack. I'm gonna let you guys get back to your thing. I don't wanna I I see the the the comments about how this is cringy. So I don't want to be cringy, but um anyway, into it. Well, I mean, yeah, generally I don't if it were my own show, but it the fact that it's his, I'm not trying to hijack it. So anyway, you guys have a good night.

SPEAKER_07 44:41

Good to see you. Thanks for helping. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Did she uh did she uh I was gonna say this real quick because there's been a couple of little remarks. If if you're gonna be even remotely close to being racist or saying something stupid like that, did I miss something? Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's been some, you know, like name your favorite five whites, okay? Fuck off. I totally like like please, like please, please, please leave. Really? Seriously, like leave.

SPEAKER_07 45:09

I was just trying to have some fun. I'm I'm sorry, guys. That no, no, no, no. Don't don't fucking apologize for anything. You're not the one that commented it. No, for at the end of the day, here here's my take. And then I oh my god, I'm looking at this. This let's see who is this fucking he's got stone coat. Good god. At the end of the day, um, this is a hobby. Oh, don't be nice to him, Kevin. Just tell me. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm I'm saying this. This is a hobby. I'm going to say and do uh round of shots the way I want to do. I'm going to have my uh the people who are on here is who I want to be on here. To me, every Sunday night round of shots may might be the last round of shots because I'm just gonna we're just gonna do what we want to do. So don't don't start uh no. I uh hopefully that's not what was happening.

SPEAKER_04 46:02

Yeah, and I do love everybody. My point is that you know, every coach that coaches Kentucky has the burden of being the coach of Kentucky, right? Every coach that coaches Kentucky takes over and has work to do, right? Like I think we undersell how bad the fan base and the program was the last two years of Tubby, the last or the two years of Billy G, right? Like we undersell that. But I've talked to people that were around then that's like, man, it was bad, right? Talk to Patrick Patterson's uh mom, right? Like we were gonna not be able to feel the team that year until Cal came, right? So my point is we have overcome every challenge. This challenge of NIL, we should be able to overcome as well.

SPEAKER_07 46:44

So there you go. Paul, look at this take. Right, Stokes, Freeman with Merino would be a build I'm into, and think it would get Pope back. Oh yeah. All right, you feeling that? What are you thinking, Paul?

SPEAKER_05 46:57

I think that we would be a really good team with that lineup, really good, top to bottom. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

I I run with that. Look, guys, I'm in the middle of Big Ten country. I want Kentucky to be the best, and I think maybe people misinterpret what I'm saying. I want Kentucky to be the best.

SPEAKER_07 47:14

So I but the reality is that look, this is the tough pill for BBN to swallow. We're not the best, we haven't been the best in years. I and I got like I I had made the comment about how in this decade, 2020, up until now, that we have not been relevant in the basketball scene. Kyle kind of pushed back, and I I I okay, yeah. Kentucky, when Kentucky plays on any station, ESPN, whatever, the viewers are there, people are gonna watch. We it's Kentucky. But as a Kentucky fan, what have we done lately? We haven't. And it's depri it's a little sad when I keep seeing how Michigan and Yukon are like at this fucking level, and we're not.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

And and and thing that look, this person is like, you know, Polk was put in an unwinnable position. That's the fucking job. Like, we can dance around it's a three-point shot, it's this, it's the expanded tournament. Your job is to win games, your job is not to be down by double digits in 50% of your SEC game. I don't give a damn about what Vanderbilt does or Georgia does. I should not sit down as a Kentucky fan and be like, I hope we don't get blown out. That's the job. That's what Rup would tell you, that's what Hall would tell you, that's what uh uh Edd Sutton would tell you, that's what Patina would tell you, that's the job. Independent of what anybody else is doing, the job at Kentucky, and I've got my notepad here. You win 75% of your game, full stop, and you win a championship. Period. Absolutely. Stop carrying water because you like the coach and understand that five previous dudes have done that over 85 years of basketball. I'm hoping that we get an offseason where we get back to that. I want to do that. I'm a Kentucky fan. I want to win.

SPEAKER_07 49:02

We're we're we're we've been so used to winning, but when it when we when we're when whenever I feel like Kentucky basketball is in second place, it's not even we're not even second place now, but we're that we're not even the um it it's just very frustrating.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

Um so so the University of Kentucky played North Carolina in 2009. It was game day at North Carolina, and that was the Tyler Hansbrough team, okay? Like they get back home, right? And so what happened was the game day crew went around talk about North Carolina's championship aspiration. Well, we got Tyler Hansbrough, blah, blah, blah. And then they were like, what about Kentucky? And they fucking laughed. That hurt me more than anything else. It hurt me more than losing to St. Peter's, hurt me more than anything is that the nation was like, Kentucky doesn't matter. I want to fucking matter. I don't think that's a hard ask as a Kentucky fan.

SPEAKER_07 49:53

And that's that's the thing. Uh the yeah, we get the viewers uh uh uh for our games, but there's so just so many teams that have lapped us, Davo. I mean, I mean it that's that's where we are right now. How I mean it I guess the jury is still out.

SPEAKER_04 50:09

Eddie Sutton is not a good reference. Eddie Sutton made the elite eight.

SPEAKER_07 50:12

He did.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Every three-year coach has made the elite eight going back to 1924. We can do this all day if you want.

SPEAKER_07 50:18

I know you can. You got the ammo, you got the receipt, you got your uh uh paper, yellow paper.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

I'm not moaning and groaning, I'm just saying that every coach with three years has done this and pretending like now with some insurmountable odds is like it's defeatist.

SPEAKER_07 50:35

Are you getting the scoops there? What's going on? Okay, he's not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 50:39

The reality is there is a bunch of teams who have quote unquote passed up where we should be as a programmer, and we all know the reason for that. It started at the top with just not allowing you know the athlete department to catch up and be where they need to be as far as you know the way they went after recruits and so on. But now it seems like they finally starting to get their head out of their ass and understand the urgency that it that that it needs um to to compete. Right. And I believe and you're seeing that with football. Um, and and hopefully you're gonna start seeing that with basketball.

SPEAKER_07 51:11

Like Harris says, I'm with it. Uh are we even a top 10 program since 2020 with the results? No, we're not.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

We are sweet 16 in two round of 32s. That's it.

SPEAKER_07 51:21

We're not now. I I think it was last the last show, last weekend, or with within the last few weeks. I I put the the uh Tyrese Maxie team, the what if with them that that was the sp that was a potential special team. I love that team. Love that team. Or that three guard monster, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

But go ahead, good. The biggest thing about it though is like what you say, what if, like, what if that team lost in the first round? Like, I don't think they would have, but we didn't think that the two teams that did lose in the first round were were gonna lose in the first round either. So the Reed Shepherds and Yeah, what's his name again, Jake?

SPEAKER_07 51:58

What was that? Hit that infamous name, Jack. Yeah, I mean, what has he done lately? I'm hell bent on finding him and getting him on here on a Sunday night. Troll Kentucky fans. Let's let's go down memory lane with him.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

I mean now that guy took the one percent of my soul and my heart out that day when he hit 10 threes. I mean, honestly, to give him credit, they were some very crazy threes.

SPEAKER_07 52:23

I mean, he the shots they were hitting was incredible, and yeah, Paul. Again, I thank you. We have over 1400 people watching us. I I I I know how to give props to and Paul, what are you doing? Are you even listening to me at this point?

SPEAKER_05 52:38

Dealing with something, sorry.

SPEAKER_07 52:39

That's fine. You you take care of you. All right, I'm going to switch to a topic that um I'm gonna put this out here. I'll I'm gonna throw this out first for TB and Davo. And we're obviously over the 60 minutes, but we'll wrap it up there. No, no, we're gonna roll a little bit. Um, just so that Kyle will come on just in time for us to end the show. Um, do insiders impact recruiting? Last week when we did the show, I brought up um how our fan base, and and granted, it's a it's a small percentage, but unfortunately, BBN is so goddamn big that even a small percentage of our fan base is a lot of noise. It's a lot of fucking noise. How how our fan base will go at players, go at on social media, bragging them, threatening them, and bull you know, for all you BBN motherfuckers out there that do this, I'm gonna I'm gonna say this is me talking, not the guys. Uh, this is just me. It it's it's such a bitch move to be on your keyboard and you go at these kids. There, they are kids, and and yes, they're getting paid and all that, and and there's a percentage of our fan base that feels like that they're entitled to go after the kids. Let me remind you, these players are like kind of world-class athletes, they're fucking close to borderline aliens. Say that shit to their face and they will beat the I would encourage it's not even that.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Can I can I explain something real quick? I know I've kind of hijacked this, but no, no, I was a fan, I was on Twitter, I was on Facebook, and I got the opportunity. The first basketball game I covered was during the 2014 years, the loss to Arkansas. Okay, that the the 2014 team was not very good, right? Like during the regular season. And I covered the game against Arkansas, and I'm like, I'm gonna give it to these guys. I'm a fan, I've paid money, I'm giving all this stuff. And then I got two feet away from Julius Randle, and what I saw was an 18-year-old trying to figure things out, right?

SPEAKER_07 54:45

Rand Randall is to me one of honestly one of my all-time favorite players, I can.

SPEAKER_04 54:50

Right. He doesn't get enough love, right? Oh, and so it's like these are kids, and we could talk about money, and a lot of that's kids, and it's kids. And I've I've I look, I would go to the games early, I would stay late, and I would see these guys interact with their family, uh, the mothers and dads and sisters and brothers. I'm like, they're just fucking kids. And because we cover ourselves, it is they're getting money. We before they got money, we were like, well, they get a full scholarship and they're on TV. It makes us feel good to say it's a small percentage. And I get why, as humans, we need to say it's a small percentage that are assholes. It's not a small percentage. I wish we could look around the world and stop saying it's only a small percentage. Like, no, it's it's more than you think. My last thing, and I'll shut up for a little bit, is we as the big blue nation think that we love a kid. You know, we've seen bed sheets on these on these uh houses around Lexington, and we think that has an impact, right? We think it's positive. It is ridiculous to think there's no negative impact to our negative behavior. Yep. We just think if we're like rah-rah rah, that's good. But if we're like boo, we think there's no impact on that, and it absolutely is.

SPEAKER_07 55:59

So there's me. Well, in in the in all the comments, I appreciate it or on hangouts. You know, and here's we're we're probably going at people, and and and I'll I don't I'm not trying to call out people. We have the we have the most passionate fan base when it comes to makes it feel good to say that.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

And let me let me just say this too. Like, go ahead, go ahead. We all as fans in the big blue nation, all of these kids are literally living out all of our dreams when we were kids. We live vicarious. BBN lives vicariously through these kids. We thank you, we all grew up like, man, like when I was growing up, I was like, I want to be the next John Wall, I want to be the next Harrison twins, I want to be the next all of those things. And it's I'm now older than these kids that are playing at Kentucky, and like I I still wish I could live their dream. Like I always talk about it, like I grew up playing baseball and football primarily, and because of what Coach Cow did for me as a kid, of like the the way that Kentucky was, like, I quit baseball and football just to play basketball and ended up becoming a pretty good player and having an opportunity to play in college. But like, if like that's how much Kentucky basketball, I guess, has an impact on me. And so I'm never, you know, I can't I can't speak for anybody else, but like it's so unfair to treat again. We talked about it, I think it was last week or it was my first week on two weeks ago. Like, there's one thing about criticizing their play, you know, oh, X player needs to stop turning the ball over, X player needs to shoot the ball better. There's also another thing of just being completely rude and hitting the DMs or hitting the comments and just taking personal shots and the family stuff. And I don't get it.

SPEAKER_04 57:38

And and that's my thing, Drew, is like if I'm two for 10 with five turnovers, they understand it. That's expected you're gonna talk about, but all we're asking is please don't send death threats, please don't tell me I'm a piece of shit. But we conflate the two between passionate fans and jackasses. And for the last three weeks, we've had Kentucky fans being like, I can't complain. No, absolutely. If if if if if Moreno is not hitting layup, tweet Moreno can't hit layup, but Moreno needs to die. We need to separate that between that's two different things. Yeah, and so as fans, we wrap up in this. I should be able to criticize, absolutely. Your team loses, you should criticize, they get blown up by 35 points. You should be able to boo and say, This is not a good product, but you should not be able to say is Mark Pope needs to die, his family needs it. Like, we need to be able to have two different conversations, and we don't because we wrap it up in how passionate the fan base is, and it's like, no, some of you guys are assholes.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Yeah, the one fan, the one fan, I don't know his name. I he has a smaller podcast or whatever, but that took that video. Was it March Madness, the round one game or SEC tournament, and said, like, took that shot at Malachi and then called his mom out, too. Like, that that was that's insane, absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

I didn't use this person like I was drunk. But what I'm saying is you all know when you cross a fucking line. Yeah, let's be for we're all adults, you know when you cross a line, right? Between criticizing play and making it weirdly personal.

SPEAKER_07 59:08

Yeah, also the the the hair you know what you do. Hey, well, here's here's the here's the problem too, guys. Problem or the reality. It's the reality. Our fan base, and God love them. I'm not a god god, but anyways, uh there's there's a there is a percentage of our fan base just feels entitled that they that feel like they have to engage in in every freaking moment and thing about basketball, football, well, basketball, because bas for the record, basketball's still king here. It's still king, but you know what? Well Stein is kind of changing that narrative. But anyways, uh I I'm um this is this is again where uh as a fan base, it's it's it's it's very embarrassing. It's when you when you just uh in in a lot of it, and this is this is where I'm not trying to get political here. This is where our mindset is right now as as a whole when it comes to our our the the states is that you just people feel like they can just spout off anything that they want without any recourse or repercussions. And um, yeah, uh I'm just so again let me bring this home. Uh on on our on our show, it it is conversation. We're talking about this, and there's good and bad. We just have to uh keep in mind that you know it's it's a game. And but at the same time too, Paul, there's a lot of money involved. There's a lot of uh there's a lot of moving parts that where uh we have to figure out Pope, our program, how we get back to being one of the premier programs in you know, in modern in this modern time. What are you thinking, Phil? Well, I mean, uh you're seeing all the comments. You everyone is there's a lot of passion, and you know what? For for people in the chat that are positive, negative, I feel you. That that's the passion. This is the passion of our fan base.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:17

Uh you know, but at the same time, see we just have to I don't I don't want to crap on that, right? Like I I don't yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:24

I think it it's uh you know because Kentucky games are different, like I said they are they are different, and you know it's it's the fun ones that you know want to talk shit about someone that you don't know that has a faceless name and no name out there. The the number one thing to realize is sports doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life, like we're really excited about it. But it's a game, guys. It's a fucking game. Yeah, and we're over here calling people like every name in the book and like then trying to destroy people because you like that something happens. Like if you don't like something, just just go somewhere else, like go get your news somewhere else, follow someone else. Like it's not that serious, but like Kentucky in the modern age, man, like the biggest thing that like we have to do is just realize like the game has changed, man. Like it just has like we have to adapt or die. So I mean, it's just it's just what it is, what it is, man. I I'm just I'm just irritated at this point for a lot of reasons on some stuff, and it's frankly not worth my time. Like, I don't care that much.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:19

Brand Brando, you are just arriving. Good to see you, my brother. How are you? Same man.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

My bad, dude. You know, Sundays are tough for me. No, I know I told you seven of them a little bit late.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:29

I know you you give us a few minutes on a Sunday night, but you do a four fucking four-hour show on a Saturday night. Hey, we had fun. I know we do. I chimed in. Kyle's my guy. Uh, so you're you're jumping in, and uh, we're going a little over uh for you, but the the talking point right now is uh well actually it was supposed to be the insiders impacting recruiting, but it's it's not just insiders because you got all these insiders who do their crystal balls, and you know that so and so is 90 going to Kentucky, blah blah blah. But we're also talking about uh our fan base who go at players and you know that that whole vibe where uh there's a percentage of our fan base that feel like they have to be involved in every fucking process, every thing about Kentucky basketball, football, which is are the the two. Rando, what uh what's what's been your take when you when you see this shit on social media, how the fans are or how BBN interacts with players, with uh, you know, is what it Jasper who was or uh shit his dad? Was it his dad who put his uncle uncle? I'm sorry. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

You're yeah, you yeah, we we talked about that a little bit last night. I mean it I think there's a there's a there's a line that gets crossed sometimes. Um, and you know, I guess you can you can go back in time and look at the stuff, some of the things that uh got brought up about Jasper and BG and then you know JQ and how their family come. I don't know. Like some people think it's you know it's embarrassing, it's a bad look for the player. Um, I guess not being in those shoes, I would understand how it's tough to kind of fight back at some of the at some of the fans. Um if it is family, you know, so it's you know, you would prefer them not do it. I would say the player probably prefers them not do it anyways. They're trying to kind of keep this stuff away, even though they do see it. Um, you know, we saw in the some of the Paramount Plus clips that clearly the players are seeing the stuff, right? So they have to be able to, and I think it's the coaching staff, it's the players in the locker room, um, have to do their jobs and try to silence that noise. Um there, I all I will say is there's definitely a line that that's been crossed for some players. Um, but criticism, criticism is fine. Like you're here, you are, yes, these are young men, 17 to 24, whatever. Um, there they can accept it. With beard, with beards and family. Yeah, and I mean some of them aren't, but you know, it's like jazz for he's coming in there and he he's young and some of this stuff, and it it's the new, it's the new age that's gonna happen. Like everybody's on social media. Um, you know, you get in the locker room, the first thing you do is is search your name. It's not the right thing to do, but it's tough to not do when you grew up in in that environment. And, you know, we all on this on this space currently, and we have our own spaces where that's what we do is we get on there and and we give feedback and we talk about games, and you know, sometimes that does come with criticisms. But there are some hashtags that go out at some of these players and and some just outlandish things that aren't appropriate. Um, so I would like to limit that back. Um, I think the insider thing has kind of been that y'all have talked about it and it's gone around um X and different message boards and whatnot. You just gotta be careful about what you put out there. I thought it was interesting. I you know, I commented on Polichek's um long post where he was like, hey, I'm putting out information that I'm being told. I he didn't say who's telling them that they don't want it out, but he's putting out information that people don't want out just because there's this like insatiable, like we you can't get enough information. And I'm curious, like, who's the one asking for that information to go out? Because the fan base just receives info and then we do something with it. We might ask for updates or whatnot, but like we're not dictating so much, or we shouldn't be dictating um what these big media platforms are doing, right? Appreciate that, man. Thanks. Um, you know, I would say that there's there's some so accountability needs to be done with the um the higher level folks that are actually like running these big media companies on three rivals and what's getting put out there. All that being said, you just go look at Twitter right now, currently. I don't know if you guys have seen it, you guys doing a show. Go look at the positive stuff on BBN, right? The the sheets hanging up on frat houses and Tyron Stokes is actually. Loving that on Instagram and all these players are doing uh you know, Mo Williams is out there on a FaceTime, apparently, with I think it was Donnie Freeman, um, from what was uh put out there on X. So you see like the positive of this fan base, and really that outweighs the negative. It's just the negative is such so much noise that it carries a little bit. Um, but yeah, that's that's my take on. I mean, we we we have the the largest fan base um in college basketball. We have the best fan base in college basketball. Our 10% is just of those like not so great people on X and social media, but but it's just so much bigger large, yes. Right, right. Our 10% is just bigger than even your other blue bloods, it's just bigger, right? Um, so so like I said, that noise just carries a little bit more. That's that's my thoughts on it. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:23

Uh well what's your take though, guys, when it comes to these quote unquote insiders who put their freaking crystal ball and and the the the scope, uh everything about uh sports right now, college sports, is is it's it's trained, it's changed. It's it's we're in a whole new environment now where uh podcasters, uh people who are not who are probably doing what we're doing, um, you know, are labeled themselves as analysts, Daivo, put out their their takes, put out their crystal balls, and you know, the influence. It's like you're this social media, everything about act, every all of this is is just changed the the approach of um recruiting, not to mention NIL. But David, when you see this, I mean what are you thinking feeling?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:24

Leave them alone. Yeah, you know, like they they they're literally credentialed media, they have a job to do, whether you like it or not, they do have sources.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:32

Fair.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:32

Um, I mean, like, like you said, we're living in a day and age now where these players can have an offer, make up their mind, go and take a shit and change their mind because they just got a better offer, you know. And I mean, things things happen that fast. Um, you know, I I firmly believe that we have a lot of good, credible media members out there who get great information. And as and as I said, the minds are changing so fast. Um, so like leave them alone. I mean, that's that's that's the best way I can put it. You know, um, yeah, it's it's it's okay to get frustrated, right? Because I believe most of the frustration is coming from just from the fact that, you know, quote unquote Pope is not able to land these land these recruits, and you know, they're going elsewhere after they get told they're coming to kids up, you know. So I mean, just don't hinder so much on somebody literally just trying to do their job.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:21

Now, Drew, Paul, I'm gonna put this out to you all, and this is with much love. You you you two have the uh you're in a position to be quote unquote insiders. You you know this. You I don't say that. Well, no, well, all right, fair from my perspective, Drew. You have a lot of insight on all the recruiting, Paul with Bleed Blue, which you know we're we're all part of. Where are we at right now with uh with with this whole recruiting and portal? I mean, you got bloggers, you got vlog bloggers, bloggers, video bloggers who just can put out put out their takes and their narrative and potentially either bring uh bring a recruit into the the fold or totally blast them away from uh our our you know our program. Yeah. Paul, uh well let me let me start with Paul. Paul, your network uh blee blue, who we are uh you're we're we're all here for I mean, here for it. How how does how how do you uh with with blee blue navigate these waters?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:34

Um I mean it's difficult. I mean, look, there's a lot of screw ups along the way. I mean, you know, we screwed up a lot in the beginning.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:41

Well, in fairness to you, in fairness, I'm gonna I'm gonna put this out because I don't uh I I get it. People watching, there's some people that there's a lot of people that are you know uh fans of Paul's support, and then there's people that it's a is it fair to say, Paul, it's very cut. I honestly did not realize uh and this is me being so fucking naive, is uh how cutthroat where where all these platforms have to be the first one to put the shit out. And and you and you know this, we've seen it. People put shit out where they don't 100% know what the fuck's going on, but they people everyone is trying to be the first platform to put uh a uh a narrative, a story, a recruit coming, or whatever. How are we that was go ahead?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:32

That was definitely yeah, that was definitely like the biggest mistake early on was worrying about being first. Um, you know, being first was always something that I think you know, just trying to make a name for yourself and and uh um anything. Um, but I mean, you know, I think there's a misconception, at least of us. Like none of us get paid, we don't make any money, like with blee blue. Like, well, you need to change that, by the way. Yeah, that'd be nice. Um, everybody kind of does this for the love of stuff. I mean, look, we've made mistakes, we we get things wrong, we get things right. Um, and uh um yeah, I think a lot of people want news, but then like the news comes out. I mean, like there's viability, right? Like there, right? Like you want news and it comes out, and then you know, we say it. So trying to find a median to say it to where you don't get absolutely crushed or people just want to say stuff is difficult. Um, you know, like earlier I got um, you know, obviously I got a little worked up, but that was had nothing to do with honestly anything that was happening in here or just something else and just frustrating. But um you don't have to apologize. It I showed you Kevin. Yeah, I showed you Kevin, and you can understand why I was very upset. Uh, but the you know, I I I I I look you make one mistake and and all of a sudden, you know, people are saying, you know, taglining you and everything. Um, it's an interesting world because you know, information is so easily available, it's easy to find, it's easy to get. Um, so it's hard to kind of differentiate that. And I think the one thing for us, at least now, what we try not to do is be first. I mean, if we are, it's great, but it's like, are we right? Can we verify this multiple times? I think we've gotten better at that. Um, but it's it's hard, man. Like you'll get you'll get an agent that'll tell you something and then you'll run with it. And then they were saying it, so you put it out. So it changed on the, you know, the yeah, it's real hard to discern. So um, yeah, man, like I I definitely um I definitely don't don't love it. Um look, I'm not an insider. I do know some things, I do know some people, but I wouldn't, you know, I don't know the people that like ApolloCheck knows or you know, Jack knows or Dylan knows, like, you know, that's why he's part of it. So um, you know, I rely on a lot of those guys now um to like kind of tell me stuff too. So um it's a difficult world and and uh you know it's but it's fun too. Like you get a lot of highs with it, um, you get a lot of lows. Um, but you know, at the end of the day, it's uh it's I think it's just kind of addicting. It's why we all do it.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:52

It is. That's why we're here tonight to shoot the shit and try to figure this out together. Random, you you your show last night. I I peeked in. What the hell were you all talking about for four hours?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

Whatever we wanted to, my guy. It was yeah, we we just were we we had we talked about some recruits coming in, we talked about uh pulp a little bit, we talked about guys returning, we talked about uh JMI, and you know, I had uh a conversation with an agent who just worked a deal, and I had some questions about is the JMI deal really a hindrance since we went over that um and how he navigated those waters and and getting the deal done. Um so that was that was cool. We discussed that, and then everything else was random. We talked about the London Drag strip. Um, we talked uh we talked about NASCAR versus the Masters and which one was better. Um my gosh. I mean, there was just there was just yeah, I mean, it was three and a half hours of just uh by the time I left that show, that's the the heavy pour aspect of the happy hour was I went inside and it was like you know, the lights hit me. I'm like, my goodness, I need to, I was gonna, you know, have one more nightcap. Like, nope, I'm just gonna go to bed because we we had ourselves the time.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:00

Uh, our fan base is amazing. And and knowing you pulled off a four-hour show, you probably had a fucking ton of people hanging with you last night.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

Yeah, it was it was a good time. It's gonna cost me some money because we we did a giveaway. We said if we were gonna hit uh 1k live, then we were um gonna give some stuff away. I think by the time we hung up and I went to bed, it was at 1.5. So um, yeah, there's gonna be some heavy poor merch and some state line code merch going out um here next week.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:27

Well, for the record, if we ever hit 5,000 views on Sunday night, I'll do something special. 5,000. Come on, bring it. That's out of your pocket, Kevin Hale. It'll it'll be out of mouth. It's out of your pocket, baby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

TB, how you doing, man? I'm sorry. I jumped in the show to even ask her. You were doing Kevin, not for nothing but my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:46

I'm doing good, man. I'm in the middle of Big Ten country, and when uh Iowa State puts your team out, and then Iowa Hawkeyes get to the Elite Eight, and you've been telling your neighbor. Let me can I tell you a quick story? My neighbor doesn't speak to me, right? Our mailbox is like a junction mailbox, whatever. Doesn't speak to me. I go to my mailbox, I come to the next one.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:04

It's not about the mailbox, it's probably not the mailbox why he doesn't speak about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:09

He's got his Iowa State shirt on, and he's like, Hey neighbor, how are you? Because I run around the neighborhood with my Kentucky stuff on, and then he wants to talk. Rando, I'm doing, I'm doing better, but it's it's it's tough to be a Kentucky guy in the middle of big tip country. So there you go.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:23

Get your hands off him, though, it sounds like nice segue. You can't go to jail, no. All right, guys, real quick. One of my talking uh, and I'm gonna do this. This was a talking point. I'm gonna try to wrap this show up. We were we stayed on past 90 or an hour just for Kyle to show up because we love Kyle. Appreciate that me too. The uh Big Ten SEC, you know, this is where obviously, guys, these are the two. I mean, am I wrong to say it's really these two conferences right now? It's Big Ten, SEC, and there's every other conference. Um, the you know, the back uh I I want to say back in January there was a report that there were SEC and Big Ten were trying to work on a college football format. I mean, you obviously you you got these two conferences that are just head and shoulders above everyone else. But as a Kentucky fan in SEC school, Big Ten is really lapped us right now. TB, you're in that heartland. What is the what's the uh what is happening here? Because I uh uh SEC or excuse me, NCAA basketball, men's basketball champion, Michigan, women's champion, UCLA, granted, uh West Coast, big still Big Ten. Yeah, you got football, uh Indiana. I mean, to me, that's I I'll say it right now. That's Indiana winning the freaking college football uh playoff. Um just puts gives every a lot of schools uh the mindset that they can fucking do it too. Yeah, you got the uh Big Ten is just past us. I mean, the and when I say us, I mean SEC is us. What's the rhyme and reason for that, T B?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:15

So I I was never a big, you know, a lot of guys, you know, a lot of folks like SEC, SEC, I was never involved in that uh until I moved here. And the the the thing is, okay, the Big Ten's won three straight football championships, but the previous 20, you know, SEC won. Like it don't that don't matter though. Well, okay, if you let me bring this point home, my point is a lot of folks are annoyed at the SEC, SEC. And my point is if any conference had seven different teams, seven win football championships, they'd be doing the same thing, right? People try to act like the SEC is doing something different, but count them with me LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, right, Florida, Tennessee, and I'm probably missing somebody. Like, if any other conference had done that in football, we'd be hearing the same thing, right? On my show, Cats Talk Wednesday, you can find it wherever you find your uh podcast. We talk to uh uh um uh Breta, the the golf coach at UK, right? And the thing is, if you compete in SEC, that's the goal. Like we we focus on men's basketball, women's basketball, football. But for every other coach, it's like if you compete at the SEC level, you can then compete at the national level. That's where the SEC is. And I don't think it's like that for every other conference until the last few years the Big Ten has showed up, right? The difference is the SEC was getting by because Joe Smith Carlot could pay recruits, and now Indiana has fucking Mark Cuban, right? Like we're dealing with thousandaires and billionaires. That's the difference.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:49

Well, it's it's not just that TB, it's not just that. You know, give I uh the this whole notion with conferences that the the with schools in conferences. Um Big Ten went out and just brought in uh what how many West Coast conference or West Coast schools into the Big Ten. Yeah, three, four. And we're still when I say we like come on. We're still regional. We're still we're SEC. When I say we, SEC is still regional, it's right southeast, you know, but the Big Ten went and did their thing, and like, oh, uh what they did at first as a fan of college sports, it's like, what the fuck are they doing bringing all these west coast schools into the Big Ten? Now I get it. Yes, now I fucking get it. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:44

And and and and that's the thing is you and a lot of other people are gonna talk about NIL and how it doesn't doesn't feel the same as it used to when people were playing for oh play for a good old PU and I gotta look at conferences that Stanford is in the ACC and Washington is in the same conference as Rutgers and tell me that that's got no impact on anything. Not to go down that, not to go down that tube, but that's fair. It it is what it is. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:11

Wrap it up, Kevin Hale. We are wrapping it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:14

Uh so what real quick to TB's point, to T B's point, the Big Ten has the most Fortune 500 CEO alumni compared to any other conference. So, like to his point, the money is there, like they are dumping a bunch of money into these programs for coaches and players, and it's making a difference. SEC was king because we're recruiting down where they play football a lot: Florida, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Bama. Well, guess what? That money's bringing those kids from the south to the north. I gotta give a shout out to our point I'm trying to make.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:48

Real quick, guys, we are over like right now, 1043, 1043 p.m. Eastern. We are at over 2,000 viewers right now. Paul, thank you. Uh you get a lot of credit for that. Uh and TB, TB, uh, your DEI uh situation as to the viewership. Uh Drew, your hair and goatee are awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

Kyle, your model looks uh Drew's Drew's the good looking one now. He's he's taking a little yeah, man.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:21

I I've got a couple family members who are Kyle fans in you know that shout out, and then we got Paul's Barry White voice that he said he sung. I I need to get you to sing a song, Paul. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:37

I did I was in concert choir in college, and there's no way I'm doing that. No shit.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:41

And you know what? I'm gonna put this out there, uh, real quick. Uh with Blee Blue Network. Um, we are going to I I am I'm a Paul guy. I'm going to be hosting a a podcast for Blee Blue Network. It's called Blee Blue Prime Time, and uh that will be happening soon. Uh so stay tuned for that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:04

Well, what the fuck do I bring to the table? I know. Come on.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:11

You scratch the uh fricker furker fricker.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:14

Don't don't start, Kyle. Don't don't start.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:17

I already got my I already got my piece out.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:23

Joy Photon. That was backstreet. Or no, not backstreet. That was in sync, right? Who's that? Joy Patone. That was InSync, baby. In sync.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:31

I don't know. They they all they all run together. I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:34

Come on, can we just bab bah come on, do it, Terry. I know Drew, you don't know who you don't know the book those boy bands from the 90s. You weren't even born in the 90s, were you? 2002. Fuck off. All right. All right, we are coming in. We're in it. Paul, you your head has been down. You give you got news? What's going on?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:58

No news, just no lots of just a lot of back and forth on stuff. Sorry. All right, no, we're good. He's like he's the Adam Schefter of the podcast. Adam. Adam.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:08

I didn't say that. 99% less of the brain.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:12

Uh all right, guys. Uh, we are wrapping, dude. Ooh, almost two hours. All right. Lit it is time for final shots. Drew, you're the young one. You are our token kiddo. Oh, okay. We say that one. I thought that was gonna go somewhere. Not great. No, no, TB is our token one for different reasons. Oh, damn. Oh who the fuck put the D up? Drew, give us your final shot.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:46

Final shot. You know, my final shot is just good luck to Mark Pope and staff tomorrow. Let's have a great visit with Tyron Stokes and Rob Wright. Let's hopefully lock them up. Let's start making progress and let's get this basketball program back to being Kentucky Basketball. Spoken like an ambassador.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:04

Kyle, you're next. You come on. Um final shot.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:08

Yeah, I mean, I what you asked me um the first question when I jumped on here, I think we focus on the positive sides of the fan base. Um, and you know, I'm not I'll start off with saying I have also had issues with some of the things that are are put out um by fans or you know, big media and the back and forth. I thought it definitely hinders Kentucky recruiting. Um, we know other schools negatively recruit against us and they use some of these things. Uh and we know that kids are on social media, it's gonna affect us. But that being said, if you truly just take some time, fix your algorithm, right? Go and intentionally search for the positive sides of BBN, you will see that it is over overwhelmingly um the majority of our fan base. And it's it's the folks that we want the players, we want the coaching staff, we should be looking to engage with uh because like we truly are um the most relevant thing in college basketball. We've had this conversation last time. We aren't the most successful in the last decade, but when it comes to relevancy, we are still it. Everybody is looking to see what Kentucky is doing. When we don't do well, they dunk on us, and when we are doing well, they're scared of us. So the positive side of the fan base, like let's rally here. Let's go, let's go and do the thing to help Pope get Stokes. I don't know if it really plays for Stokes. I think he's gonna make his mind up based on what he's gonna make his mind up. There's other things there, but it could play for guys like Rob, it could play guys for like Donnie Freeman, it could play um for some of these bigs. I know we had a call with Magoon and there's other ones that we're chasing out there. Um, you know, rally around Pope like we did two years ago tomorrow, I think is the anniversary of his press conference. Let's do that over the next week. Let's do that over the next next week and be the positive side of BBN and then and then we can stop all this stupid Pope whiff and all this other nonsense and really start looking forward to next season because we know it's a make it break one for him, right? We know it's a make it break season for Pope. So let's start off on the right foot. Positive. Let's make college basketball fear us again. Fear us.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:06

There's you know, from a from a host perspective, I'm sitting here, guys, list looking. We have over 2100, 21 fucking hundred people watching right now. As a host, I don't I don't want to end this show because we got 20 fucking 100 people. BBN, you guys uh insane. Uh yeah, so much love, appreciate everyone hanging with us on a Sunday night. I I think Round of Shots, this is my final I don't know, final shot, whatever. Uh this is this is our fan base. I mean and I as the leader of whatever of Round of Shots and TB and Davo are my partners in crime on this, and uh my actually all everyone here is part of Round of Shots. I get to do a podcast as a hobby on a Sunday night talking about um something that I that is is is my thing. Uh Kentucky sports is I'm I'm an old guy. I'm going I'm I'm literally in a few Thursday in a few weeks. I'm gonna hit the final number before uh my birthday before I hit the magic 60. I'm yeah, 59 coming up. I love Kentucky sports. I love everything blue, is is is my thing, and I get to do a Sunday night show winding down, talking about. Kentucky Sports with these cat. No pun intended. Well, actually pun intended. Cat. And and then TB, you bring the wifey on. That was it was amazing. So again, uh this is uh our fan base is is is the most passionate. And I get to hang do this as a hobby, and it's it's fun. I I I I I'm just I'm amazed every week when we do our show, guys, where we we get a ton of views just talk sports, and you know nobody cares like we do. Nobody cares like we do, and I think a lot of people tune in just to hear Paul's voice. Uh nobody does that. No, uh just you. No, you I'm a fan. Paul, give us your final shot.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:29

Um, I think I'm gonna echo Rando a little bit and just you know, pump the brakes, watch the process kind of unfold. This time next week, we'd be we could be all sitting on here talking about how how our team stacks up to other great Kentucky teams on paper, at least. Obviously, you gotta go in the games, right? Um, you know, if we're on here, we don't have three, four commitments next Sunday. Yeah, like there's there's gonna be reason to be worried and stuff, but like we care so much that sometimes we forget where things stand, right? You know, like the the the portal was three days open, two days open, right? Like, guys, I think we got our first portal guy. What last year was day four, five or six, something like that, right? So, and it falls way differently this year. So trust the process. Things feel different this time around. They do feel different now. You got to go and land the guys, right? Um, but look, man, like Pope knows what this season's gonna have uh entails. If we go through another season like this, he knows he loses his dream job, right? Like, and you know, we can criticize and everything, but we don't have to go like there's been some personal stuff. Like at the end of the day it's sports, like, but like you know that he cares, and that's the number one thing I think nobody can doubt Pope is that he does care. Um, and uh, and look, by this time next week, I I I think we're gonna probably be talking about some cool stuff. Um, I I don't think you would see maybe like Mo Williams and the and I think it was Mikhail getting out and doing that, right? Like that's that's telling. So enjoy the process, trust it, and and uh look, believe it because like Rando said, like they sure don't want uh, you know, they don't want to fear us again because they know that we are a hell of a machine when Kentucky is on the prowl again. Uh and uh and they don't want this two-year little end uh couple year little streak to end. Um we land some of these dudes, it might happen.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:14

I I can't ignore a comment. What the fuck does this mean? You guys don't have enough money to compete with the University of Illinois. Is that what you're saying? Okay, fair.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:25

That was their they they the money's not the issue, by the way. It's uh go ahead, good playing on the basketball court's been the issue, it's not the money. And then they the the comment before that I responded to them. They said Kentucky can't compete with Illinois. I I said we Kentucky literally just beat them in the tournament last year. I mean, congrats, they made the final four, but like damn.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:48

I know TB, another big 10. Go ahead. No, so good on them.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:54

I love that kid's game.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:55

I'm gonna say I'm gonna say one thing about the state of Illinois. They call themselves Elaine of Lincoln, and he was born in Kentucky. So if your state's whole get down is based off of Kentuckian, I'm not here to hear you because there's nobody that was born in Illinois that they recognize like the boy born in Hodginville, Kentucky. You don't even need a final shot, TV. Just end on that one. If Illinois is so great, why do they hitch their wagon to a boy born in Kentucky?

SPEAKER_07 1:32:21

Oh good. Honest Abe. Honest Abe. I'm just wondering.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:25

TB, I'm dropping the mic for you here.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:30

That's my that's my thing. Uh, so somebody asked, what is a good year for Mark Pope? He's got to get to the lead eight because every three-year coach does it.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:37

Uh, but not keep going with your final shot, TB.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:40

My final shot is I want to give a shout out to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference uh uh uh lacrosse defensive player of the week. That is uh Sarah Brown, my daughter. That is two players of the week for this lacrosse season. They are 14 and 5 and looking for another conference championship. So uh I'm supporting her. So there you go.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:05

What is this? I'll see you on your podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:09

All right, you know, I think you say because Eli Night doesn't have a podcast because look, they are the cicadas of college sports. We only have to care about Illinois because they pop up every 16 years, they make a lot of noise, and then they go away and we forget about them because they made the final four in 1989 with Kendall Gill, 05 with Luther Head and those guys, and this year that's three final four. No one has ever sent a text message to say Illinois has won a national championship.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:38

Yeah, hey Dave O, that's more than Tennessee, though.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:41

It is 1058 on a vertical teams have made the final four, but Tennessee has not. 99 teams, but Tennessee ain't won.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:50

Davo, my brother. Oh yeah, shout out to the listen real quick. Hold on, hold on. It's 1058 on a Sunday night, and literally we have 20 almost 2300 people watching us, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:04

Yeah, so shout out to all the haters in the chat. You guys are the absolute example of why Kentucky is and always will be relevant in the college basketball world. Um, so suck on that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:15

Shout out to the lovers as well. We love y'all for support, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:18

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:19

Yeah, support fans as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:21

Um, yeah, uh piggyback off everybody I said, just just stop being a dedicated fan and enjoy your team um and support your team. Uh be frustrated, but uh leave leave the nonsense to yourself, text it to yourself, tweet it to yourself. Um leave the leave the players alone, leave the coaches alone. Um, and also my final uh uh final shot is my feed the studs head is scheduled to get here tomorrow. So uh USPS actually do your job and get it here tomorrow. So I don't have to sit here and play Russian roulette when it's actually gonna show up. So you can't put it on the show.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:53

You might as well do that. It doesn't matter what John sends me, it never gets it. Either doesn't get here or never on time.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:59

Well, it's it's in Louisville right now. No one is it's it's gonna go to Indianapolis and probably Pennsylvania and then come here.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:06

I have a polo that's living in in Indianapolis or in Louisville, by the way. Just sitting there, still is.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:11

I hope you get about football season at least.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:14

And and for me being the round of shots guy, and uh everyone here is part of uh our uh it is part of round of shots. I can't thank enough to thank the people watching. I mean, seriously, guys, we are like teetering at 11 p.m. eastern time. We all we're almost 2300 people are tuning in. This is our our fan base is is crazy, and um it's okay. Now it's time to go to bed. It's time to go to bed for TB, for Dave O for Drew, Paul, Randos. Good to see you. Thank you for your service and all that good stuff. Yeah, yacht, yeah. Well, uh what's your story, real quick, Rando? You coming back on the East Coast, right coast too? July.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:03

I'll be in Quantico, Virginia. All right, so you will see me in Lexington a lot more beautiful place. Uh next next football season is gonna be it's like an eight-hour drive. I'll be there.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:11

I need one of those sharks. Paul, we need some bleed blue shard, too, right? Have tons of them. We can get a ton of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:18

Okay, bluegrass-elite.com, heavy poor 15, get 15% off. I give it to you for free. For free. Kevin, well, I mean, I'm not a part of bleed blue, so I he got, I mean, he gotta pay for it. I'm just messing with you.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:33

Free shipping. Free shipping. You want to swap? I'll swap with you. You do a shirt swap.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:37

I'm getting ready to print up some round of shot shirts too. We'll share it for for everybody. All right, uh TB, Davo, Drew Oh, Paulo, Rando. Oh, uh we may have we should have a special guest on Twitter. Oh, you know what? You know what? Tease it. We'll tease it. We'll tease it. Tease it. Give us a little spoiler alert, Dave. We may not, but we should have a football commit on next week. Yeah, a football commit. Uh, not a not just a football commit, a big time. A big time commit. So that is. Yeah, come on, come back next Sunday night. Hey, look, look, Sunday night, guys, round of shots is the BBN podcast of the night. Not Matt Jump, not any of the other ones. It's us. Play along, hang with us. Love y'all. Wishing everyone a good night. Good night. Peace out. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:33

Go be blue.