transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Known for his crowd work, Comedy Off-Broadway in Lexington welcomes club favorite Ian Bagg, April 9th through the 11th. Then from Saturday Night Live and the hit TV show DMV, catch Tim Meadows, April 16th through the 18th. And from Netflix and social media, catch Amber Autry, May 1st and 2nd. For tickets to all Comedy Off-Broadway shows, call 859-271-Joke or visit comedyoffbroadway.com.

Speaker 2:
[00:31] This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

Speaker 3:
[00:37] Welcome everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio, Wednesday, April the 22nd. I am Matt Jones here on another nice spring day in Lexington. It is wings day at KS Bar and Grill, even though we're not out there. All day today, you get dollar wings, day and night. Go eat them, put them in your face, and chew. Ryan Lemond, Shannon The Dude, Matt Jones. Clark's Puppet Shop, Phone Line, 859-280-2287. Avision, Auto Glass, Text Machine, 772-774-5254. And this edition is sponsored by the TJ Smith Law Office. Call TJ, he'll make them pay. All right, three things today. First of all, the exciting Will Stein will join us at 1130.

Speaker 4:
[01:17] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[01:18] We're gonna do a football talk. I'm gonna get him to introduce us to some of the players. And like, you know, not nitty gritty X and O, but X and O for the common man and woman.

Speaker 4:
[01:34] For the non-football nerds?

Speaker 3:
[01:36] Well, I mean, just we haven't really gotten to talk about the players beyond the quarterback. And so I want to ask him about the positions and what he thinks good. I mean, he's now been through spring practice.

Speaker 4:
[01:45] I wore my autographed Will Stein t-shirt today.

Speaker 3:
[01:48] Shannon, I think Ryan thought he was coming in here.

Speaker 4:
[01:50] I didn't think he was coming in.

Speaker 3:
[01:51] But he's not.

Speaker 2:
[01:52] See, I thought he was too. That's why I got my quarter-zipping khakis on.

Speaker 3:
[01:56] I know, he's going to be by Zoom.

Speaker 2:
[02:00] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[02:01] So Ryan dressed up like a little child and unfortunately.

Speaker 4:
[02:05] Will Stein autographed t-shirt, brand new, first time I've worn it.

Speaker 3:
[02:08] It's not going to work out. Now, the other thing is, there are two major conversations that I think I want to have. The one I thought was going to be the centerpiece, and then the governor decided to throw a bomb yesterday. So the first was, I had someone, well, actually, let's do the governor one first. So I think this is a pretty amazing story. So for those of you that didn't see, Governor Andy Beshear just out of nowhere, Ryan.

Speaker 4:
[02:40] Yeah, it did come out of nowhere.

Speaker 3:
[02:43] I mean, I didn't, no heads up. I have to say, when I first saw this, I thought it might be AI.

Speaker 4:
[02:49] I did too.

Speaker 3:
[02:50] I really did.

Speaker 4:
[02:51] Yeah, I did look at the account.

Speaker 3:
[02:52] Shannon, I have to say, I can't believe, but I thought, is this AI?

Speaker 2:
[02:56] Yeah, I saw that. I'm like, man, that escalated quickly. Just out of nowhere.

Speaker 3:
[02:59] Yes, out of nowhere. So here, I'm not gonna read all of it, but here are the main points of the, Andy Beshear puts this statement out. I'm losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky. My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new Dean of Law was the only candidate not recommended by the law school faculty. And then he goes on to say that he thinks certain donors are pushing partisan and undue influence. And he said students, faculties and trustees should attend the board meetings. That's later this week to make their voices heard. Like that's a wow to me. Essentially, calling out the UK president and leadership over the $1 million is Mitch's contract.

Speaker 4:
[03:47] Of course, it doesn't say it by name, but we know what you're talking about.

Speaker 3:
[03:50] And the other one is the law school dean. I couldn't believe it. Like, you don't see governors do that. So, you get to the question of like, why? Now, here's what I want to do, Ryan, and you tell me, I think we just need to cut through the BS and just say what's actually happening here.

Speaker 4:
[04:12] Okay, let's do it.

Speaker 3:
[04:13] Are you good with that?

Speaker 4:
[04:14] I'm good with it.

Speaker 3:
[04:15] I'm going to tell you what actually is going on in these words.

Speaker 4:
[04:19] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[04:20] And everybody can fall on whatever side they want. To me, and people know, I like Governor Beshear, but I also think you say what it is. What's really at issue here is that a couple things happened that I think people need to understand. In 2024, UK changed the way they do all governing. Used to be if you hired deans of like the law school or the business school or whatever, it had to be approved by the Board of Trustees.

Speaker 4:
[04:53] Absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[04:53] And there was often a university faculty vote on things. They didn't always follow what the faculty said, but the faculty got a vote.

Speaker 4:
[05:02] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[05:02] In 2024, power at UK was essentially consolidated in the president's office. The president of the university has what at UK has unprecedented power. They basically signed off down where the Board of Trustees does not approve all but tenure agreements. So basically, the president can hire a dean, they can hire an athletic director, they can hire all of this and the Board of Trustees does not have to approve of. Matter of fact, they don't even get a vote. That's never how it's been. And in 2024, they changed the bylaws. And they basically made the university president like an all-powerful authority. Now, the reasoning for doing this depends on whether you want how you look at it. They would say to you, it streamlines the process. Rather than all of these things having to go to a Board of Trustees that only meets once a month and it has other lives, now the president can just do the work.

Speaker 4:
[06:01] Okay? Okay.

Speaker 3:
[06:03] Other people would say the president's office was tired of dealing with Boards of Trustees. The governor appoints those people depending on who's the governor. You might get a conservative Board of Trustees or a liberal Board of Trustees. And they were like, you know what? Let's just have the president do it. All right? Well, Governor Beshear, who was appointing the people on the Board of Trustees, didn't like that.

Speaker 4:
[06:31] I can see why.

Speaker 3:
[06:32] Because the governor, whoever the governor is gets much less powerful in that moment. So now you get to the law school. I think Andy Beshear cares more about the law school in this than Barnhart, but Barnhart gets thrown into this. They hired this guy, Greg Van Tatenhove, to run the law school. Now, side note, you've heard me tell the story, Shannon, about how I ended up at KSR because I applied for a job, thought I would get it, didn't get it. You remember that?

Speaker 2:
[07:01] Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3:
[07:01] That was Greg Van Tatenhove.

Speaker 4:
[07:03] That's why we know that name.

Speaker 3:
[07:05] He was the guy that didn't hire me as the US. Assistant US. Attorney that led me to go be able to start KSR. So it all comes full circle.

Speaker 2:
[07:15] Did you do a big favor?

Speaker 3:
[07:16] He did. But it was, I used that story as like an unanswered prayers thing. Like I really wanted that job. Van Tatenhove, I came in second, and now 20 years later, I'm doing this. If he had hired me, I'd probably be a, I don't know what I'd be somewhere, but I'd probably be a lawyer. So Van Tatenhove is a Republican. He's been appointed the Dean. I think the statement by Beshear is suggesting that pressure from donors, and I would read that, Ryan, to say the crafts. Wouldn't you?

Speaker 4:
[07:49] He doesn't mention again any names, but you gotta figure, assume that's who he's talking about.

Speaker 3:
[07:52] And they're very close to Greg. I know they're very close to him. And so Barnhart's upset, or excuse me, Beshear's upset about that. And then he does something I think is brilliant, Shannon, which is he throws the bitch thing in there.

Speaker 2:
[08:07] Oh yeah, the $1 million job.

Speaker 3:
[08:08] Because if he had only sent a message about the law school, would we be talking about it?

Speaker 4:
[08:14] Most people would glaze over it.

Speaker 3:
[08:15] No one would care, Shannon. But he intelligently goes, but if I throw in the bitch contract.

Speaker 4:
[08:22] Now it's gonna catch some attention.

Speaker 3:
[08:23] Now it's gonna catch some attention. Because the way they hired the law school dean, Ryan, is also how they did the Mitch contract. Eli gave Mitch that contract and did not run it by the board of trustees.

Speaker 4:
[08:38] Didn't have to get it approved by him, right?

Speaker 3:
[08:39] Didn't have to get it approved. Because they changed the rules in 2024, 24, you would have used to have had to take the law school dean, take it to the board of trustees. Take the Mitch contract, take it to the board of trustees. Now you don't have to. Now the president gets to do whatever they want. And Beshear's like, how do I make the point that that's bad? Oh, people are against this Mitch contract, I'll throw that in. What do you think? Do you agree with the governor that there should be some oversight of the president giving jobs or giving contracts? Or do you think the other argument that we need it to be efficient, it's just better for the president to do it? Which one do you go for?

Speaker 4:
[09:24] Like, I go along with what we've been saying for a couple of weeks, they're like, there's a leaderless university going on over there, there's no leader, there's nobody acting as a leader, nobody acting as a leader in the Athletic Department. And I was really...

Speaker 3:
[09:35] But I think Beshear's making the opposite point. I think Beshear's making the point, there's one person deciding everything.

Speaker 2:
[09:41] Yeah, he's basically the king. You need some...

Speaker 3:
[09:43] He's saying he's the king.

Speaker 2:
[09:44] You need some form of checks and balances in this.

Speaker 3:
[09:47] That's exactly right. I don't think that's what... But I think Beshear's saying the opposite of that. He's saying one person's making every decision, and that's not right.

Speaker 4:
[09:58] And it struck me because that wasn't Matt Jones saying it, that wasn't Brett Setzer saying it, that was the governor of the state of Kentucky pointing out our flagship university has some issues.

Speaker 3:
[10:08] And I will also note, it's easy for this stuff to come in through partisan, and I get it. As soon as the governor gets involved, people are going to think it's partisan. And then when he said he brought up the word partisan.

Speaker 4:
[10:17] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[10:18] But I will note that the criticisms of this structure, you have on the one hand, Andy Beshear, Democrat, probably running for president.

Speaker 4:
[10:26] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[10:26] Then you have Brett Setzer, who I think he would be fine with me saying is a MAGA to the core donor. Like far right donor.

Speaker 4:
[10:37] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[10:38] They're both making the same criticism.

Speaker 4:
[10:40] Exactly same point.

Speaker 3:
[10:42] I think that's kind of interesting.

Speaker 4:
[10:43] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[10:44] Setzer, MAGA donor, saying it's the president doing everything and they're giving these contracts out. And then you have a left governor saying the same thing.

Speaker 2:
[10:55] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[10:55] So maybe I said it wrong. Leaders, leaderless university. It's like almost like a dictatorship. There's no exact opposite. Yeah. There's not checks and balance of a board to try to approve or disapprove of what their moves are trying to make over there.

Speaker 3:
[11:08] So Shannon, how does this apply for the future? I'm not even giving a judgment on what Beshear said. I actually think Van Tatenhove will be a good law school dean. I had a lot of graduates of UK law who wrote me disappointed saying, Matt, you're a voice on the left. How could you say it's okay to have this right wing judges? I think he'll do a good job. I really do. This is a guy who turned me down for a job. I mean, I'm friendly with him, but I got no allegiance to him, but he's smart. And I actually think the president of a law school, dean of a law school doesn't have to be an academic. I actually think he'll do a good job. So I can't really agree with the governor on that. But what I can agree with is we need to have an office where there's a checks and balance. Because what happened is Eli Capilouto and Eric Monday gave this deal to Mitch and no one approved it. And we're now stuck with this million dollar a year deal with 10 tickets and no one has the ability to overturn it. And guess what? He refused to talk about it. I think that's a legitimate criticism. Do you? Do you, Shannon?

Speaker 2:
[12:19] Oh, yeah, yeah, I absolutely do. I mean, you know, even the president of the United States has somebody that overlooks what he does. You got Congress.

Speaker 3:
[12:27] In theory, yes.

Speaker 2:
[12:28] And in this situation, there's nobody to check the president on this.

Speaker 4:
[12:33] So does Governor Beshear join the knucklehead club now?

Speaker 3:
[12:36] Well, I wonder if Mitch Barnhart will call the governor a knucklehead. Because I will remember-

Speaker 2:
[12:41] He's the king knucklehead.

Speaker 3:
[12:42] He said the only people questioning any of this were a couple of knuckleheads.

Speaker 4:
[12:46] That's exactly what he said.

Speaker 3:
[12:48] And he's like, I'm not evaluating it was me and Drew. Well, I mean, is the governor a knucklehead?

Speaker 4:
[12:52] I guess he joins the club.

Speaker 3:
[12:53] Is Brett Setzer a knucklehead?

Speaker 4:
[12:55] He's in the club for sure.

Speaker 3:
[12:56] It's a bipartisan knucklehead. You know. So, but now, how does this matter for the future? This puts a lot of- okay, this same president of no checks and balances, guess what his next big hire is? The athletic director.

Speaker 4:
[13:16] Yeah, right.

Speaker 3:
[13:18] So now, all of a sudden, I expected they would hire an athletic director. We've asked, well, why hasn't it happened? Maybe they knew this was coming. Because now the next athletic director, he's gonna hire somebody and you've got the governor going, all right, what are you doing over there? We're gonna be watching. So I actually think what this does is it makes it to where, I don't know what they're gonna do about the next athletic director. Cause all of a sudden, you have the governor of the state, who's running for president, saying, hey, what kind of ship are you running over there?

Speaker 4:
[13:52] Yeah, what's going on over there?

Speaker 3:
[13:53] This was a headline on ESPN yesterday, nationally.

Speaker 4:
[13:57] It was on the Daily Mail yesterday.

Speaker 3:
[14:00] So now of a sudden, the scrutiny over who they hire as AD is not just gonna be Big Blue Nation and a bunch of knuckleheads. It's gonna be the national political world going, this dude that's running for president has publicly called about the president of the university, what's gonna happen now.

Speaker 4:
[14:18] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[14:19] So I actually think all of a sudden, the AD hire at UK Athletics has a chance to become a national story.

Speaker 4:
[14:27] A lot more eyes on it now. Seeing what he's gonna do, what's gonna happen?

Speaker 3:
[14:30] So Shannon, it's kind of like a wow thing, no matter which side you're on. This has made it now to whoever the next AD is. It could literally be an issue in the presidential race.

Speaker 2:
[14:46] This thing just got amplified tenfold.

Speaker 3:
[14:48] It's got amplified, like the scrutiny on who they hire as AD just got amplified by a thousand. Because it's going to be seen as presidential candidate. Takes on the main university in his state.

Speaker 4:
[15:03] Yeah, the flagship university in your state.

Speaker 2:
[15:05] And when you have the ability to create a job at a thin air, a million dollars, and there's no job description, that's a problem. How does nobody see that's a problem?

Speaker 3:
[15:15] Well, I think a lot of people do see it. So I think what Beshear did is he took an issue that most people wouldn't care about. Who's the dean of the law school? And by throwing in Barnhart, now all of a sudden, you have this huge story.

Speaker 4:
[15:32] Yeah, for like me on the outside, I didn't know there was this controversy about the dean of law school.

Speaker 3:
[15:35] Well, now you do.

Speaker 4:
[15:36] Now we do, because I paid attention because he put the Barnhart thing in there.

Speaker 3:
[15:39] So, 859-280-2287. We'll open up the phones in a minute. I just wanted to give people an understanding of what's actually in play there. We won't have to spend all day on it. We have Will Stein on, talks from recruiting Kentucky, got another basketball player yesterday. Top 25 rankings are out for next season. Where did the cats land? We'll talk about all that right after this. Who sings this?

Speaker 2:
[16:05] It's the Bloodhound Gang. You and Me and Baby, We, Nothing but Mammals.

Speaker 3:
[16:11] I had this album when I was in college. Oh boy. That was a- Oh boy. Because what is it? We are the Discovery Channel, right?

Speaker 2:
[16:19] Let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.

Speaker 3:
[16:20] Let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel. My college roommate, Tal, was a huge fan of the Bloodhound Gang. Well, I haven't thought about the Bloodhound Game a long time. 859-280-2287. Comments coming in. Let me read one that I do think is worth noting. One person writes, Matt, why are we talking about this? It's just politics. This is a sports show. Because this is going to have a huge, the only reason all of that story is interesting to me is because it's gonna have a huge determining factor on who wins the governor's, or excuse me, on who is the AD. Like, this is now, this is now a who's gonna be the AD. And more specifically, like Eli Capilouto, here's another breaking news. He ain't gonna be the president after this. He's gonna be retiring too.

Speaker 4:
[17:09] He's been a lame duck president for a couple of years.

Speaker 3:
[17:11] I'm surprised he hasn't announced it. I mean, they're gonna go in the spring. We're gonna have a new president and a new AD.

Speaker 4:
[17:17] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[17:18] Right, that's what's gonna be happening starting in June or July. We're gonna have a new president and a new AD. A new president and new AD that from a sports perspective will be figuring out whether or not the University of Kentucky is going to be competitive in the new in-isle landscape. That's the... You may not care about who the dean of law school is. Most people don't. I mean, I don't even really care. But I assume by listening to this, you care about UK sports. The two people that will have the biggest impact on deciding if in the next decade, Kentucky is going to be relevant nationally, are going to be hired in the next month and a half. Yeah. And this tweet by Beshear is about how is this person going to be hired? Because I think UK's goal is to have Eric Monday be president and then Eric Monday pick an AD that'll do what he wants. And I'm not saying that's good or bad. I don't know Eric Monday. I'm just saying to you, this throws a wrench in that probably.

Speaker 4:
[18:18] Yes, I think it really does.

Speaker 3:
[18:20] This throws, that tweet probably throws a wrench in that and now who knows what happens. So I just think it's interesting, Shannon, the two most important hires that will decide the future kind of of UK sports. Now I think it's up in the air what happens.

Speaker 2:
[18:35] Yeah, and again, when you've got one person that's deciding that, you need to have like a group of people like a trustee, the board of trustees that are gonna vote on that. It doesn't make me feel good knowing that one person is potentially going to decide that for Kentucky.

Speaker 3:
[18:49] But I will also note, again, I'm here to be fair, the board of trustees at every university is usually just people that were friends or donors of the governor. It's not like they have some special knowledge. They're usually picked because they donate a lot of money to a campaign.

Speaker 2:
[19:04] But I'll take their collective vote over one person's decision.

Speaker 3:
[19:08] Usually that's correct. So anyway, that's where that is. Now let's switch gears for a second. Let's talk just about basketball. Kentucky does get a commitment yesterday. Braden Hawthorne's brother, is it Zion?

Speaker 4:
[19:20] Zion.

Speaker 3:
[19:21] Didn't even know that was a person.

Speaker 4:
[19:23] Didn't either.

Speaker 3:
[19:24] But I'm fine with it.

Speaker 4:
[19:26] Package deal.

Speaker 3:
[19:29] So in my view, you have to ask yourself, do you trust the judgment of the staff and people around the program? Because everybody around the program will tell you they thought Braden Hawthorne was really good and could have played last year. My argument was, well, why didn't he play? We could have used him. But regardless, he didn't. He's coming back. I'm excited about that. Jack Givens, I think, said there were times he was as good as anybody on the floor last year.

Speaker 4:
[19:58] Best player in practice at some time, some points.

Speaker 3:
[20:01] His brother, I don't know how good his brother is. This may have been a case where they said, we want Braden to stay, but will you take Zion? I got no problem with it if they did. You have 15 roster spots now. You used to have 12, then you had 13. Now you got 15. They ain't going to all play. I'm fine throwing a flyer on this kid. Really what matters is your top nine or 10. If you want to take Zion Hawthorne, I'm fine with it. How about you?

Speaker 4:
[20:31] I think he's just also gives you a little more depth at point guard. They've had a little problem with depth at point guard, so now you've got the Williams kid.

Speaker 3:
[20:39] Well, now you have four guys who could play point guard.

Speaker 4:
[20:41] We may need all four of them where things have gone, but I was going to have Braden back. There was word that he was going to play, but then he got hurt. Then the word came out that he really wasn't hurt. They just didn't play him, so I'm not kind of confused how that all played out, but they definitely could have used him this year.

Speaker 3:
[20:54] So yeah, I'm fine with it. I think, I have been very adamant about taking up for UK fans. I had a moment, Shannon, I was disappointed in some yesterday. When that announcement happened, I thought some of the postings under the announcement were wrong by Kentucky fans.

Speaker 2:
[21:13] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[21:13] Cause that kid's gonna see that. Yeah. And that kid did nothing wrong, right? He should be excited to be here. So I do hope, listen, I'm as frustrated when they don't get guys I want, but like, don't take it out on this random kid. We might end up looking and he might end up being really good. And he's gonna be like the 14th or 15th man. It doesn't really matter. Shannon, like, that's not the moment to express frustration about other things.

Speaker 2:
[21:42] And if I could tell you, the last thing you need right now is to lose players. So if you lost him because you refused to take his player, you know, it's good. You get Hawthorne back, now you get his brother. So you filled in another roster spot. He may not get much play in time, but you gotta fill that with somebody, right?

Speaker 3:
[21:56] Last year's roster spot, two of the roster spots were Reese Potter and Braden Hawthorne who didn't play.

Speaker 4:
[22:01] Yep, correct.

Speaker 3:
[22:02] So now if one of them is his brother, what difference does it make?

Speaker 4:
[22:05] Right.

Speaker 3:
[22:06] You're not gonna play.

Speaker 2:
[22:06] Makes no difference.

Speaker 3:
[22:08] It makes no difference. So don't be like there's no reason to be rude about it. And maybe he'll be good. I don't know. But Braden Hawthorne, I think they expect they would not have brought him back, Ryan, unless they thought he would be in the rotation.

Speaker 4:
[22:20] I really think they're excited about having him as part of the program. Want to kind of help build with him as part of the program. So I think it was kind of a good get for him yesterday.

Speaker 3:
[22:27] Yeah. So now we find out what's next.

Speaker 4:
[22:33] Louisville got another big commitment yesterday, didn't they?

Speaker 3:
[22:35] They did. But you know what? I just want to have a roster. Field of 68 and ESPN both put out in their preseason top 25s. Yeah. We weren't in either one of them yet. Oh. One of them we were 37th and one of them we were 44th. So I'm pretty concerned about us getting just players. And along those lines, we'll talk about Stokes, who I think we're going to have a decision from very, very soon. We'll be right back.

Speaker 5:
[23:05] TJ Smith, personal injury attorney. Call TJ, he'll make him pay.

Speaker 2:
[23:09] Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio, presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.

Speaker 3:
[23:14] Welcome back, Kentucky Sports Radio. 859-280-2287. All right, so let's switch gears for a second. Tyron Stokes.

Speaker 4:
[23:21] All right.

Speaker 3:
[23:22] Announced yesterday his final three, which I think at one point were a final two, but now it's back to three. Kentucky, Kansas, Oregon. We've talked about that. I hear, no.

Speaker 4:
[23:40] He was ready.

Speaker 3:
[23:41] Sometimes when I say I can see, like a quick draw McGee over here, Mario, Shannon pulls up the phone. You don't need everything out on the internet.

Speaker 4:
[23:52] But this is gonna be good.

Speaker 3:
[23:55] Part of the thing is, Mario, we'll talk for two hours and then you'll take the four minutes where there's some crazy, and then that's what you put up. And everybody's like, oh, Matt talks about it. What's all they see? Cause it's all you put up.

Speaker 2:
[24:08] Anything that can age poorly, he probably shouldn't film.

Speaker 3:
[24:11] He does. Like, I mean, you had to put up the, like, you know, the one of me going, it could happen. You had to put that up. All right. So anyway, so no, don't put that. There's a lot of scuttlebutt in the college basketball world that Stokes will decide the next day or two.

Speaker 4:
[24:28] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[24:28] Okay. Some people even think today, I don't know, but I will tell you that folks around UK think it's coming. Maybe today, if not today, tomorrow. Kentucky still thinks they can get him.

Speaker 4:
[24:46] I hope they went up their offer even.

Speaker 3:
[24:48] Kentucky genuinely believes that, I don't want to say they believe they are going to get him, but they genuinely believe they can get him. And I think Kansas does too. And presumably Oregon is somehow involved. I don't know where he's going to go, but I think Kentucky is getting to a... Remember how I told you there was a chunk of money for Stokes that wasn't there for anybody else? It might be there for one other person now. And it's sort of coming to, I think, for Kentucky, like, all right, just let us know so we can figure out what we're doing with this.

Speaker 4:
[25:25] With a big chunk of money?

Speaker 3:
[25:26] Yeah. But it could be today or tomorrow that the decision's made. Kentucky still thinks they can get him. I mean, they genuinely do. If you read, if all you do is read the internet and the insiders, they all have him going to Kansas. But I'm telling you, the folks at Kentucky still think they can get him. Now, that might be delusional, but Ryan, that's what they think. And I do think it's interesting that all this negativity, if they were to pull Stokes off tonight, would it just flip everything around, Shannon?

Speaker 2:
[26:03] Yeah. Absolutely it does. All of a sudden, there are more positive fan base if we get Stokes. What's concerning for me is going from two schools to three schools. Because if you lose them to Oregon, it's what we talked about yesterday.

Speaker 3:
[26:15] Losing to Oregon is the worst possible.

Speaker 2:
[26:17] It's kind of like what happened with Donnie Freeman.

Speaker 3:
[26:21] Losing to Kansas is bad, Shannon, but losing to Oregon would be worse.

Speaker 4:
[26:24] Especially if he's picking it just based on Nike school. You picked Oregon Nike over Kentucky Nike.

Speaker 2:
[26:30] Go back to last Friday, Donnie Freeman cancels his visit to Yukon, looks good for Kentucky, then here comes St. John's out of nowhere and takes him. I hope this isn't the case with what's going to happen with Oregon.

Speaker 3:
[26:40] But what if they were to get it? I mean, what if they were just to randomly pull the number one player in the country?

Speaker 2:
[26:48] We're talking ourselves into number nine this upcoming season.

Speaker 3:
[26:51] Well, I still think we're a little ways away from that.

Speaker 2:
[26:53] I mean, that's just our fan base, though.

Speaker 3:
[26:54] But I mean, we would be, it would bring, we would immediately put a jolt of energy into all this.

Speaker 4:
[26:59] Immediately, overnight, we're excited about what Mark Pope is doing at Kentucky basketball program.

Speaker 3:
[27:05] I think we would be excited about the fact we got this guy.

Speaker 4:
[27:07] No doubt we would be excited.

Speaker 3:
[27:11] But I'm telling you, they still think they can get him. That's what's amazing.

Speaker 4:
[27:14] That's good to hear.

Speaker 3:
[27:15] They genuinely think they can get him. That doesn't mean they think they have, but they don't understand why this fan base has given up on getting him. Now, I mean, I understand because we've lost a bunch of these other guys. But I think they legitimately are like, just hang on.

Speaker 4:
[27:39] It's good to hear you say that because the more this drags out, the more I thought he was going to be probably Kansas and down with Oregon in the picture.

Speaker 3:
[27:45] If you made me pick, I still think he's going to Kansas. But I was a little surprised. They still think they can get him. So I mean, they know better than I do. So we'll see. Which gets me to the final point before we do open the phone. So I got a message yesterday. This is, let me just say, this is not from a hater. Okay, this is from a KSR supporter. Someone who has always been a big supporter of our show, et cetera. And they wrote me this, and I took it seriously because this is not just somebody just chirping. A lot of times our critics are just people who are just chirping. And they said to me this. I just want you to know, I hear people now kind of upset about your negativity here locally. Just sharing what I'm hearing. There are many folks who think KSR alone and you specifically are whipping up the negativity among fans and that it's unnecessary. I'm not saying I agree. I don't even really have an opinion. I just wanted you to know. Okay, I saw that. And because of who it was, I was like, all right, I'm going to listen to this. And I don't mean to turn this into a reflection of, do you agree with that or not? But I was sitting here thinking like, okay, let's just say for argument's sake, that I wanted to talk positively. What would I do? Like, I was having this thought in my brain last night. Like, what would I do? Some people would say, well, just talk about UK football. We're going to have Will Stein on. I'm very excited. There's nothing, what are you going to say about UK football? We've never seen these guys play. We don't know them.

Speaker 4:
[29:35] Right.

Speaker 3:
[29:35] Right, like we, and it is just a fact until September, talking UK football is when our ratings drop. I'm hoping that changes. There were times that was different, but it's just a fact and it just is. The difference is when Will Stein is on here.

Speaker 4:
[29:52] Sure.

Speaker 3:
[29:54] And everybody can say, well, but you should, I've done, I know what works and what doesn't. Basketball talk during this time of year is what works. So what is the way, I'm being genuine asking here, to talk about UK basketball today and be positive. Because I don't want to just sound, I'm not a grump. There are some people on the radio who just like throwing barbs and that's not me, I like to have fun. But what do you say for the people who get in the comment section and say KSR is too negative, you're going to run Pope off like you rain cow. Like what would you like to hear? So really, I'm not putting this online because those people I think don't even listen. But for those of you that listen, what is the case for major positivity right now? And I'm asking you all, Shannon, Ryan, what is it? Because I don't want to be that guy that's gloom and doom. I don't think people like that, but I don't really know what you say.

Speaker 4:
[31:01] You know, we're all forced to have these conversations with our fan base right now.

Speaker 3:
[31:04] I'm excited about Alex Wilkins.

Speaker 4:
[31:06] That's the first thing I go to right now.

Speaker 3:
[31:08] I'm excited about Zoom Diallo. I think Moreno is going to be better and going to be really good. I think Cam will be better than what we saw. But that roster is situated is not a top 25 roster. It's not. So what do you want me to say? That it is?

Speaker 2:
[31:34] I think the best way to be positive about it is to not talk about it. But you can't ignore it.

Speaker 4:
[31:40] You can't.

Speaker 3:
[31:41] Because then people go, Matt, why aren't you talking about sports? I don't know. What are you supposed to do? What is the positive?

Speaker 2:
[31:50] Time for a fast food bracket.

Speaker 3:
[31:54] We're heading there, but it's portal season. It is portal season. If it was June, the answer is exactly that, Shannon. Now, you just start make Ryan roll around on the street or something. Here, eat a bunch of donuts, Ryan. But this is the season.

Speaker 4:
[32:11] I'm with you. I start with Wilkins and I try to bring up, look, Kobe Brea. Wilkins can be a Kobe Brea. Come in and be our leading scorer. He doesn't shoot like that. I think he'll be our leading scorer, like be our offensive weapon. Then I go to, and I think Marino's going to make a big jump this year. He made a big jump from great crossing to a freshman, freshman to sophomore is going to make a big jump, and he's an NBA kid.

Speaker 3:
[32:34] But even if those two things happen.

Speaker 4:
[32:36] Then I go to Cam Williams. He had just starting to get comfortable in the offense and just starting to find his shot when he got hurt. I think he's going to be huge this year.

Speaker 3:
[32:45] Okay, so what does that team get you?

Speaker 4:
[32:47] It gets me a little more excited than it was.

Speaker 3:
[32:50] But is that team, that team does what in the tournament?

Speaker 4:
[32:53] Sweet 16, maybe.

Speaker 3:
[32:54] You think that's a sweet, see, I don't even think that's a sweet 16.

Speaker 4:
[32:58] That's what I'm hoping for, hoping I can get to a sweet 16. Definitely not a final 14. I think it's somebody I could get behind and get excited about.

Speaker 3:
[33:05] Oh, I'm gonna get behind any of them.

Speaker 4:
[33:06] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[33:07] I don't care what the team is. They can put Mario out there. I'm gonna be cheering. I'm gonna be going crazy.

Speaker 4:
[33:13] And I keep telling them, don't give up. There could be a four guy they pull over from overseas somewhere, you know, get a foreign guy come in and maybe be that missing link.

Speaker 3:
[33:20] So are you, everything you're saying here, you believe?

Speaker 4:
[33:23] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[33:23] Okay, well then why aren't you being more positive?

Speaker 4:
[33:26] Well, because sweet 16 is still not, I think Kentucky's standard. Still we're not have that guy that we can get us to a final four. That's the Kentucky standard.

Speaker 3:
[33:35] Well, all right, 859-280-2287. I'm glad to hear the case for positivity. I do not, I want you all to know, the listeners of this show, the thing about this show is because it is so successful, it has people with strong opinions who don't even listen.

Speaker 4:
[33:52] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[33:52] Right. They have these strong opinions about what we do and who we are, and they never turn it on. I had a guy the other day go into long detail about how I was hurting the program, and then he said, I mean, I don't listen, but this is what I'm told. And I'm like, but those of you listening right now, you clearly listen. So what do you think? I think, by the way, we get criticism for things we don't even say.

Speaker 4:
[34:21] Right.

Speaker 3:
[34:22] You know, like, if you don't listen, everything bad that happens is us. But I'm now talking, this guy that wrote me is a listener.

Speaker 4:
[34:32] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[34:33] What would you suggest? Are there people out there that are very excited that we're just not hearing from? Because we opened up the phones yesterday, and we didn't get those calls.

Speaker 2:
[34:43] Right now we got one caller, and I asked her, I said, are you going to make the positive case? She goes, no.

Speaker 6:
[34:48] All right, Commonwealth Causes.

Speaker 3:
[34:51] Commonwealth Causes is creating a better Kentucky by shining a spotlight on local charities and inspiring generosity across the state. Each week you could join in the fun while giving back. The Queen of Hearts raffle happens every Thursday, and the next ultimate bourbon collection raffle will happen April 30th. $20,000 worth of bourbon to share, or the $10,000 Queen of Hearts pot. It'll make you a piece in the puzzle to supporting Kentucky charities. Download the app, Commonwealth Causes. Support and win the bourbon raffle. They're the Queen of Hearts, which Ryan has yet to win, but will one day go to commonwealthcauses.com, or app KYcauses on social. Phone lines are open. We will take your calls. Will Stein will be on here at 1130. I am excited about that. It's KSR. Welcome back to Kentucky Sports Radio. All right. Good comments on the text machine. People cut all over the place. Most people seeming to say that they think like we're just being objective, and then there are people who are saying we are not negative enough. Let me read a couple other. I'm a listener, it's 20 years, I agree with the negativity. It's not fair. You don't deal with NIL transfer portals, but you speak like you do. Well, I also don't coach, and neither do you, then neither does anybody. There's a level of this that this is all our opinion. And if we could only speak on what we knew, then this would be a two hour show, Shannon, about constitutional law.

Speaker 2:
[36:12] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[36:12] Right, and I don't know that people would want to listen to that.

Speaker 2:
[36:15] Because we don't know anything else.

Speaker 3:
[36:16] So there comes a point of, if you don't know, I'm giving you the most information that I have, and then get basing my opinion on that. And like, that's all you can do, right? There are people, one person writes, Matt, I think you all should just report the facts and leave it at that. Well, that's a news program.

Speaker 2:
[36:36] Yeah, we'll read the news to you.

Speaker 3:
[36:37] That's not a talk radio show. Bob Valvano used to do that. Remember, he would read the newspaper.

Speaker 2:
[36:42] The show will be over in five minutes.

Speaker 3:
[36:44] I mean, that's not...

Speaker 4:
[36:45] We are a sports talk radio show in Lexington, Kentucky.

Speaker 3:
[36:49] Yeah, now, like this one makes some sense. Matt, I think part of the problem was that during the season, it felt like you all in the fan base hung on Pope's every word and turned it into a narrative of, he doesn't know how to handle the media, and he's kind of weird. I mean, that's maybe a fair comparison, but at the same time, here's the way I would look at it. Think about this goal of this show has always been to have conversations that like you and your friends have. Right?

Speaker 4:
[37:21] That's why it works, I think.

Speaker 3:
[37:23] After some of those press conferences, Shannon, people and their friends were talking about, did you see what happened in that press conference?

Speaker 2:
[37:29] Of course, there were.

Speaker 3:
[37:31] You know, I mean, when he came on and said, something happened in the locker room, every person was like, what happened in the locker room?

Speaker 4:
[37:39] Absolutely.

Speaker 2:
[37:40] And what do you want us to say?

Speaker 3:
[37:41] You want us to come on the radio and go, let's not talk about what happened. Like, you're trying to mirror the conversations that fans have. And Pope had a lot of odd moments last year.

Speaker 4:
[37:53] He did. The way he handled some of those losses.

Speaker 3:
[37:55] But we have odd moments. We do. Ryan, Shannon, has many odd moments.

Speaker 2:
[38:00] Almost daily.

Speaker 3:
[38:02] And we talk about those. Now, lastly, one person says, why don't you have Pope on more to talk about things himself? I've asked. I've asked and asked and asked. And I don't think he's like avoiding us, but they're not coming on. I asked to have him on after the season. I asked to have him on during the season. I asked to have him on before the portal opened. I asked to have him on last week. And in every case, they'll say to me, he's gonna do it, just not yet.

Speaker 4:
[38:33] And he's not just doing us. He's not talking to anybody.

Speaker 3:
[38:36] I can't make them do that. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4:
[38:39] Right.

Speaker 3:
[38:40] And the idea that people say, well, the university won't deal with you. Will Stein's on at 1130. That's, it's made up. It's just, they're making the choice not to come on. Anything, not just me. So, you know.

Speaker 4:
[38:54] As I said, we need to hear from him at times. Our fan base, we need to hear from our leader.

Speaker 3:
[38:59] So, there's a lot of people saying they think we're objective, and I appreciate all that. All right. So, now there are people on. Lauren, go ahead, Lauren.

Speaker 5:
[39:09] Hey, first time caller.

Speaker 3:
[39:11] Who are?

Speaker 5:
[39:13] I think you guys are totally objective. I listen every day, maybe sometimes twice a day, if I don't feel like I heard everything you said. Um, my question is, do you all think that these recruits are too soft and they don't want the heat?

Speaker 3:
[39:32] I don't blame them to come to know. I actually don't think that's it. I mean, there is some talk that that Christian Collins, maybe, that some of the folks around him didn't like the sort of idea of fan comments. But I think that's, I don't think that has a huge part. No, I appreciate the call. It might have for like one player. But in general, no, because the thing is, there's a reason why these players come and they go, hey, BBN, where you at? Think about how many times you've seen those posts, right? Cause they love the, we give more positive attention too.

Speaker 4:
[40:12] Absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[40:13] So yeah, we do give negative, some people. But go look how many positive comments people sent.

Speaker 4:
[40:20] And when they show up, we follow them on all their social medias. They love that stuff.

Speaker 3:
[40:23] They love it. They love it.

Speaker 2:
[40:25] You may have heard, though, this isn't for everyone. Not everybody can deal with the spotlight here.

Speaker 3:
[40:28] But you know, Cal was right about that.

Speaker 2:
[40:30] Yeah, right. There's some.

Speaker 3:
[40:31] And I will tell you, the football staff, both the last one and this one, would use me and others to pump up that because they knew how much the players liked it. Yes. Right? They got it. They would go, hey, this guy's here. And then all of a sudden, I would retweet it. And dozens of people would say, come here. And then other schools don't get that as much. And in football. So that's an advantage that we have, that we should use. Patrick, go ahead.

Speaker 6:
[41:06] Hey, first time, long time.

Speaker 3:
[41:08] Who are?

Speaker 6:
[41:10] Hey, my question is kind of two things here. Number one, it hurts because Pope is one of us. And I think that's why fans get so emotionally attached to it. He does. And that's why when he came, we filled the arena. That's right. But my question is, how much of the recruiting stuff is on Pope? I told my buddy weeks ago, then it feels like there's something brewing behind the scenes. And what I mean is the JMI stuff, Pope gets these guys to the closing table. How do we know it's his fault? Like what if it's-

Speaker 3:
[41:50] We don't. We don't. We really don't.

Speaker 6:
[41:53] What if it's the university?

Speaker 3:
[41:54] The answer to the question is we don't. I'll be honest with you, we don't. I appreciate the call. I don't know if the reason the deal isn't closed is Pope, is JMI, is UK in general, is it not understanding the agents? I don't know. And I wish I did. I have theories, I've heard things, but if you were to say to me like definitively under oath, why do I think we're not getting players? I don't know, I think it's a lot of things.

Speaker 2:
[42:23] It's not hurting the football team.

Speaker 3:
[42:25] It's not, but that's a different process, but to some extent, you are right, they're getting the football guys. So we'll take a break, we'll take more of your calls, talk about this and other things, KSR.