December 22, 2025 • 41 mins
Billy flies solo today and welcomes in Zack Gagan to talk Kentucky basketball.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome everyone to another edition of the KSR pre Show.
Today is Monday, December twenty second. I am Billy Rutledge
and no Shannon the Dude Surprise, he's on vacation. We'll
continue on without him. The eight five nine two eight
oh two two eight seven textas at five O two
two sixty five sixty six five six and is always
(00:21):
The KSR pre Show is brought to you by Italics
Fine Italian Dining in Lexington, Kentucky at the City Center
on Main Street. Just a few days away from Christmas.
Hopefully everybody's having a great holiday. Also, our man Shannon
the Dude celebrated a birthday yesterday, turning fifty eight years old.
Congratulations to Shannon the Dude. Just getting up there in
age now. So we'll have a special guest today joining
(00:44):
me is former KSR pre Show co host Zach Gagan.
You can foll him on Twitter at Zach z Gagan KSR.
He is a former guest of the KSR pre Show.
Also did a Little cut Man at the last couple
of years or so. Zach, Good to see you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, Bill, thanks for having me on. We were talking
coming here. I think it's been about a year since
I did my last pre show. So Shanon's on vacation.
I'm ready to step in. Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, ready to talk some ball with you today, Zach.
And by the way, Shannon's not fifty eight. I mean
I embellished a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Fifty nine fifty six, okay, and.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I gave him a couple more years than I should have.
But you know, he's you know, he's somebody that is
getting up there in age. I was a little insulted
when Shannon didn't think that I could beat him in
a race. We talked about the KSR members in a race, Jack,
and of course Shannon didn't think that I could beat him.
What do you think the rankings could look out if
(01:35):
we were doing a race of the KSR guys.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I guess if we are, we including Mario two. Yeah, Marios,
I have to pick Mario firs just because he's the youngest.
He's a you know, former basketball player himself, and I'll
put you second. I feel like he's still got some
young legs and you can he takes Shannon pretty easy.
What is this like one hundred yard dash? What's the
what's the race?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Who knows who knows, and who knows if this will
ever happen. This would be typical KSR fashion that it
never come to for a couple of years. But listen,
I mean he's gonna have to be sitting down for
two weeks if we do something like that. I mean,
it'd be I'm sure strenuous activity for the man who
does still get in the ring.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But Zach, it's great to be with you. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You do a great job on the website covering the Cats.
I want to talk a little bit later about an
article you did about Darius Miller, but you know, constantly
covering recruiting and Kentucky basketball. It's kind of a dream
job to be able to do something like this, don't
you think.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, absolutely, every single day when people ask me what
I do, I say, I write about basketball all day.
So that's that is kind of a dream job for sure.
I joined, I got a bunch of great coworkers that
I've gotten to know and talk about and get to
be really good friends with. So it is it is
a dream job. I said, wake up every day and
get to come in here and talk with Billy about
basketball for an hour and then we're going to go
(02:45):
talk to Jadan quaintson King Williams afterwards.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, that's kind of like the low points of the job.
I wouldn't call that the dream.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh, it's a hot point absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But we use the KSR website as a cheat sheet
for our show every morning. So you guys do have
a job. I think you did the EBNBA for a while. Yes, right,
we're keeping up with the guys in the NBA and
their stats. That was always helpful. We're not doing the
morning prep. So that's how I got my start with Kassa.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And that was my pitch to Matt in our internship
meeting was, Hey, there's a thirty guys playing in the NBA.
Do you want me to write about them, you know,
for the website. He said, sure, let's go for it.
And that was about eight years ago now or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So and we could spend the whole rest of the
show saying why Kentucky would be the perfect place for
an NBA team, But I digress. That is for another
day because we've got plenty of sports to talk about.
We do need to talk about the UK volleyball team
who fell in the National Championship Game to Texas A
and M. They were swept quite the run by Texas
A and M. They come back to reverse sweep Louisville.
(03:41):
They then beat three straight number one seats to win
the NCAA Championship. So I think, you know, part of
you just has to give a hat tip to Texas
A and M.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
That was a great run.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
But sweeping Kentucky in the National Championship game, there were
a couple of self inflicted errors in that first set.
Kentucky really can never rebound from there where it was.
It was a great run and Craig Skinner did it
again with this talent, but they just ultimately fell short.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, it was definitely a disappointing end to what was
a very magical season. You know, had that six point
lead early in the first set, and it felt like
they were about to take it away there down the stretch,
and then Texas ATAM just made it a last minute push.
You got a bunch of ties like twenty twenty one,
twenty two, and then once it got to twenty four,
all Texas A and M just kind of proved themselves
(04:27):
why they're in that spot, and they took that first set,
and then Kentucky was just kind of they were playing
catch up from there and Texas and like you said,
they beat three number one seeds sketch to that point,
so like that was not a fluky run at all
or anything. Kentucky did beat them earlier in the season
three to one, but this one it was tex San
was just on the mission. They were a team like
kind of destined for the championship there, and they had
the whole crowd behind him. It felt like, you know,
(04:47):
everyone in that everyone in Kansas City was rooting for Texas,
A and M. It felt like even all the Nebraska
fans for some reason had this weird contempt for Kentucky
right now. I didn't know there was a big volleyball rivalry.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, Nebraska is, you know, really the best program when
it comes to the sports, so maybe rooting against Kentucky
since they've been so good. But you know, I've really
enjoyed getting to know this team in the lighter half
of the year. I didn't follow them that closely at
the beginning, but watching a lot of these games on
TV through this run, I mean I've grown attached to
some of these girls, and you know, Eva Hudson has
(05:18):
just been phenomenal, and you know Andrew's Carr's sister was
such a big role. And not only her, you know,
playing with Andrew after Andrew left, but Eva coming from Purdue.
I saw a social media post that Eva made that said,
you know, you're going to rEFInd your love of the
sport by going to Kentucky. And that's that's kind of
what's happened from perdue to Kentucky for her, but not
(05:40):
just her, but brook Brooklyn Delay and all these girls
that have not only been played for maybe just one
year like somehow, but have been in the system for
a while. Craig Skinners has built a contender with that program,
and I'm excited for years to come. Let's just hope
that he doesn't have to get into an airplane just
to sell tickets every single time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, Yeah, I don't think he will on because like
me and my fiance, we've already talked about getting season
tickets for next year. I really like they're not too expensive.
You know, you get like fifteen twenty home matches something
like that a year. But you know, last season is
when I started to kind of get into the team
because they were still really good. I believe they went
to the lead eight last year, but then this season
I probably watched, you know, seventy eighty percent of their matches,
so I kind of got really locked in on this team.
And like I said, they were just really fun to follow.
(06:19):
The personalities were really fun. They were all really cool
to get to know. I went to the sweet sixteen
game where they swept cal Poly. That was just a blast.
Like you know, I've never seen a beat down be
so like entertaining from a fan perspective, and only losing
one senior just happens to be Eva Hudson because you know,
one of the two or three best players in the country.
But Craig skoenners in good shape here to kind of
(06:40):
reload for next season. I know Brooklyn Delake was playing
on a tormentiscus all season long, so she might already
be in surgery right now as far as we know,
trying to get ready for next year. But they should
be in good shape going into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
In that Wisconsin game was so much fun, just then
battling back through adversity to eventually get the win. There's
nothing like the positive energy from a volleyball match, right
It just seems a little positive than some of these
other sports.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Sometimes you don't even know like which team lost the
point because they're both celebrating, so they're always positive and upbeating.
Like that's a very that's a mentally challenging sport where
you can't you can't dwell on one point, like you
seriously can't, because if you dwell on one point, you're
gonna lose the next point and all of a sudden
you're out of the set and it's over with. So uh,
it's it's definitely one. You have to stay positive, you
have to be I think it was Maggie Davis found
(07:24):
like or it was discovered that they write little or
draw smiley faces on their hands, like as a reminder
to be positive and just you know, have fun with
it all the time. So you know, they lived that
out pretty much all season. It just like I said,
he ran to a buzz saw there in Texas A
and m who just was I mean, they're blocking was unbelievable.
Kentucky couldn't get anything over the Nettfeler.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Do you think Stoops should have done that Over the
last couple of years, I mean, things kind of fell
apart near the end. Maybe smiley faces on the hand
remind the guys to be grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Maybe, yeah, maybe that would have motivated him a little
bit more. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know when they were going to
concession stands. Yeah yeah, it didn't matter what was on
your hand.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That was a hot dog.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But speaking of mentally challenging sports, I think you know,
the excitement of the weekend was Kentucky beating number twenty
two Saint John's seventy eight to sixty six. Much was
made of Mark Pope taking on Rick Patino. Pope had
the nice suit on he did, and eventually that suit
was drenched in water as the guy celebrated in the
locker room. It was a big win for Kentucky, but
(08:24):
it felt more than that, Zach, I don't know, tell
me if I'm wrong, But just the debut of Jaden
Quainton's how good Jalen Lowe played after he came back
from his injury seven seconds into the game. He comes
in seven seconds, then he gets hurt. You know, he
eventually comes back and it's just a difference maker. Those
two guys really just kind of jumped off the TV
(08:45):
screen or the radio dow depending on how you were
watching or listening, and man, it just felt more than
just one win on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What did you think? I mean, it definitely did, because
it felt like you can you can kind of readjust
the ceiling expectations of the team now just knowing that
Jaden Quaintance is kind of what we all expected him
to be and maybe even better, Like definitely didn't look
like a guy who had missed the last nine months
trying to recover from a torn acl like was very
bouncy out there. Just looked like a top ten pick,
(09:14):
maybe even a top five pick. You know that he's
kind of protected to be since he was literally like
a junior or what in high school. So that and
then combined with the jail not thing like you said,
like when he went out seven second after seven se
I think everyone in Big Blue Nation was thinking, all right, well,
there goes the season. There goes the season because you
don't have a guy that can run the show anymore.
And that's kind of you know, that's going to be
(09:35):
a game by game thing now for the rest of
the season, until everyone is sure that Jalen Lowe's shoulder
is good enough that he can actually you know, lower
it and there's not like this constant fear of him
having a pop out again, because that's that's just going
to be a game by game thing now with him.
But you know, as long as he's in, as long
as Jade Quaintance is in, and when Otega Away and
Modi Abata are fighting like they were fighting in that
Saint John's game, like you can this is not a
(09:56):
team that's going to score ninety points and win every time.
They're a team that's going to try and just bull
you around and win games that are seventy to sixty.
And you know that might not be as fun or
as like appealing to watch, but it's going to be
just as exciting, I think, as long as the wins
are still stacking up. But now you're two in a
row against Indiana and Saint John's, you have a little
bit of momentum going into the new year. You've got
a nice break coming up with between the Bellarmine game,
(10:18):
you got two weeks off so guys can heal up
and rest. But yes, it definitely felt like more than
one regular win. It felt like you can kind of
readjust things of how the rest of the season might
play out.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, and that positive momentum going into this break is huge, right,
I mean if they would have lost that game, really
the only non conference win on your resume is Indiana.
I think you have a doom and gloom transition into
the new year, but now I think you start conference
play with a little bit of an excitement like what
can this team do? You know, we will probably see
this team continue to shorten.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The rotation a little bit too, think so eventually.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And that probably means guys like Trent Noah is on
the outside looking in with a guy like Cam Williams
playing so well. Jaden Quainton's come back, coming back, ac
Malachai Moreno probably losing some minutes, Brandon Garrison probably going
to be losing some minutes. I thought that, you know,
you made a great point there about how Kentucky's playing.
They're mucking it up. It's going to be in the
sixties and seventies. After the Indiana game, Mark Pope said,
(11:13):
this is not how we want to play, and it's
almost like, this is how you have to play, Mark,
this is the team that you have. We've made a
lot about roster construction and how it's not the typical BYU.
Mark Pope offense that does a ton of threes, and
maybe Mark is still trying to get to that point
is maybe is this the realization that this is a
(11:34):
different team than Mark Pope has had in years past
and it just has to be done a different way.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
He's definitely realizes that this is kind of how they
have to play right now. But he makes a point
in pretty much every press conference, every media hit he does,
where he's trying to say, like, we're still going to
be a good offensive team, Like that's still the goal
is to get there and be a team that, you know,
I don't know if they're a team that's going to
be shooting twelve for thirty from three every game, but
this is a team that he still wants to get
up into the you know, I think there's still averaging
eighty something points aga so it's not like they're not
(12:01):
scoring at all, but you know, it's been helped out
by a bunch of bad opponents, you know, been able
to wrap up some points against them. So he does
really like he's he makes a point to say that
he still wants to score a lot of points with
this team. It's just right now, like that's just kind
of not where they're at, Like the space they're in
right now is they're still trying to like they they've
only played one half of basketball with a full roster,
(12:22):
which is kind of you know, crazy to think about,
like not counting Reese Potter, who's gonna do the Recher
and Braden Hawthorne, but everyone else. They've played one half
of basketball and it looks pretty good and how they
were playing it, and they played it by just bullyballing
everyone and having Jayalen Low get into the paint and
Jaden Quainton's be on the other end of the floor
in the paint just blocking everything and playing great defense.
So that's just where they're at right now. Maybe they
(12:44):
can get to a point where they're you know, score
more points. But you know, if I can keep talking
a little bit about the like having guys like you're
gonna need someone like Jasper Johnson, you know, down down
the road eventually, Like especially if Jalen Low keeps going
in and out of the lineup, like you're gonna need
him eventually. See, that's a guy you want to keep
playing as well in terms of rotation and keeping the
deep rotation, like Malachi played pretty well against Saint John's
(13:06):
or really well. I thought Brandon Garrison had some good moments.
So like Colin Chandler, you know, trying to like, these
are guys you're probably gonna need later on in the season,
so you don't want to still just keep burying them.
But Jasper Johnson particularly, you're probably gonna have, like I
would like to see him maybe try and get a
little bit more run at point, Like I know he's
just struggled so far this season, but you're gonna you're
just gonna need another ball handlers this season goes along,
(13:27):
and I don't think there's really is another one on
there that can do something like Jennle Lowe other than Jasperson.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So yeah, especially at the point guard spot. Now, Chandler
has not been playing great as of late. He plays
better against the worst teams, it seems like. And you know,
if Lowe is gonna be there, and you can move
Aberdeen to the two and then put Away at three,
and then I don't know, I mean, even Cam Williams
can play some three too, right, And if you want
to put Away at the two, and that allows Diabaatee
(13:55):
and Quenton's to play together, that allows moreno to still
get some run. By the way, Jane Quainton's that first
shot that he made told me all I needed to know.
I mean it was the fade away off the backboard
shot looked effortless. And then he's making these huge blocks.
I mean, it's been a while since Kentucky's had a
player like that. And the emotion swings from the first
(14:17):
half to the second half of that game was incredible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean, the season was over with Jalen low out.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I mean they were down what seven at half, just
like they were against Indiana, but they battle back, they
score over fifty points in the second half, and we're
all back in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So with Jayden Quins, gonna give you a fun little
stat with him, love a fun little stuff. So on,
when I was rewatching the game, I was tracking some
of the stuff in the shots that he was, like
he was the one to actually contest the shot, not
like a primary defender, but he was the one contesting
a Saint John's shot opponent. Those Saint John's players went
one for seven against him, and the one shot they
(14:51):
made was a fast break dunk where Jaden quains tried
to chase down block one of Saint John's players in transition,
So you don't even have to count that one because
he it was sprinting down the full court like trying
to get a highlight block there. So really you could
say he's Saint John's guys were zero for six shooting
against him when he was the guy with the hand
in the face. So he just changed the game completely
and really on both ends of the floor. Like he
(15:13):
had one point where he was at the top of
the key and like called his number and just took
Zubie I think it was Zuobi, took him off the dribble,
went to the left, got to the to the block,
and just had a nice little right hand shot at
the ram like a couple of really huge dunks where
he's just under the rim scooping up loose balls, like
he's just he's a different kind of athlete, Like just
a different kind of athlete, different kind of defender that
this team did not have, and he just immediately changes
(15:35):
your season from the moment he steps on the floor.
And he saw it with that first shot where he
had to fade away. You know, I don't care if
he called bank or not. Like it went in and
it looked awesome. So yeah, he's He's just he's everything
that we thought he was. And I don't even feel
like this is like being premature and like a small
sample size, like we have all of his Arizona State season,
Like he did the exact same thing that he was
doing at Arizona State that he did against Saint John's.
(15:56):
So I think you've you've got something special brewing, and
it's just a matter of getting them ramped up in
conditions so he can be a twenty five minute game guy.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
By February, Well, you mentioned that this team's ceiling has
been raised. I want to talk more about that when
we come back from the break. Also, Rick Patino, I
don't know if he lectured the media, but he did
remind them a little bit about you know, you know,
it's different being a basketball coach than it is a
media member, and he kind of explained why I want
to share that quote. And also more random nonsense from
(16:24):
the weekend, like Ed Cooley drilling a child with a
water bottle.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Did you see that? Sex? I sure did. Ed Cooley. Man,
he he's one of my favorite coaches, just not not
for that my favorite coach.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
He's a character, No I'm kidding, folks. I don't want
to see the kids hit with water bottles.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But they had good seats. They're fine, Yeah, yeah they were.
They were courtside. Man, there's more good seats.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So we'll take a break. We are with Zach Gagan
from KSR. You can fall him on Twitter at z
Gagan KSR. He'll be hanging out with us for a
couple more segments here on the KSR pre show.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
It is the KSR pre Show Here in the Christmas Spirit,
Billy Rutledge and Zach Gagan joining me for this episode
of the show. We're just talking about I've still got
some Christmas shopping to do. Zach's got to mail a
letter in which I was asking if are you sending
out Christmas cards yet, Zach?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
And not yet yet. You're gonna be doing that maybe
next year. But yeah, we got we get we just
got engagement, did Halloween, so we're we were putting that
off until next year. The whole Christmas card with the
dogs and the pictures and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Okay, so you'll do it pre kids then and send
a Christmas card. It does feel like a very ca
We do have a kid the dog is our kid.
Oh okay, one of those families. Yeah yeah, name that
the dog is the kid. Y See, the problem would
be for my Christmas card, nobody would sit still. We
got the dog and the cat and then just haven't
trying to get everybody still for it. I don't know
if we'd ever be able to do it. Hey, but
(17:49):
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Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, shut up, Zach.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
After the Saint John's Kentucky game, Rick Pattino was speaking
to the media and had some words for advice for you.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think he was speaking to me in particular. Yes,
he from my desk in Lexington. That's right.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So tell me what your response is to Rick Patino
here he said, quote, you all need to learn a
little bit of a lesson as writers. Expecting Kentucky to
be a great basketball team with all of these injuries,
you all need to learn a lesson. You can't be
a great basketball team without two of your best players.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Is it that simple?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Zach?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So if I can actually kind of give myself a
pat on the back here me and my Zoom Action
co host, can I plug my Zoom Action or KSR
Breakdown show on YouTube me and Brandon Ramsey or Brandon
Ramsey and myself do that and we have kind of
been tooting that horn since the second week of the
season of you got to really readjust your expectations and
(19:35):
how you view this team until everyone's fully healthy. Like
I will admit that a lot of those losses sucked,
Like losing to a gun Zaga by thirty five points
was embarrassing, But there was still this bit that you're
missing and I think even for that game, you know,
you didn't have modabate, so there's a point where you're
missing three starters. It was just hard to for us
at least to kind of fully project and like give
(19:56):
you know, give our full real thought like what this
team is going to to be five months from now.
We were not we were hesitant to like be very
strong about that. So we always noted that we wanted
to note that in all of our breakdowns and everything
that when you're missing three starting caliber guys, for a
lot of the time it was two of them, and
one of them is Jayden Quainton's who is a potential
top ten pick, Like you just had to take all
(20:16):
that stuff into account. Like I said, we were disappointed
with a lot of those losses of Kentucky could have
played better, played harder in some of those things, but
it was just really it was hard to judge the
long term projection of this team knowing that you had
so many quality guys on the bench, and one of
them is Jayalen Low, who you saw what happened in
the second half against Saint John's, Like, he just makes
life so much easier. You can get into the paint,
he can dish the ball out. They just don't have
(20:37):
anyone that can do that. So when you have a
guy who can run the offense on one end and
a guy who can protect the paint on the other end, like,
those are pretty big impactors and contributors to your team.
So I would like to think that Rick was not
personally talking to me. I like to you know, that
was something that we, Brandon and I have made sure
to bring up time and time again. You must have
missed that episode of Yeah, I guess he's not watching.
(20:59):
He should though, you know he might learned some stuff,
and not from me, maybe from Brandon.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But you know, nothing was more indicative of that though
than Otega away in this game versus Saint John's.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Him scoring twenty points. It was a quiet twenty point.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yes, didn't feel it and really feels like a guy
that can be the second or third option on a
team and not the first. And maybe when he was
the first with Low end quaintance out. You know, it
just didn't look like how it was supposed to. We
just got about a minute till we need to hit
the hard break. We'll take some calls on the other
side of this break. But you said that the ceiling
has been risen for Kentucky. What is that ceiling?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I still don't know yet, but I like, you know,
maybe a couple of weeks ago, you know, still taking
into account all the injuries and everything, you would think
that maybe it was like a Sweet sixteen, like maybe
a team that could sneak into the tournament something like that.
But now that you've got everyone together, you see the
actual product, you know, and especially with the SEC kind
of being weaker compared to last season, like Kentucky can
(21:52):
easily like right now, is still probably one of the
top three or four teams in the SEC.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Before its radio Zach, I needed a need a round.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Make it me pick right el eight. You could you
could see this team making an Elite eight if things
all break right. But they are going to have to
start shooting the ball better eventually.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, it kind of feels like a Sweet sixteen for me.
How good that team was last year. They kind of
ran into a team that they'd already beaten twice in Tennessee.
It's hard to beat a team three times like that,
but it's definitely risen. After that's game, I will agree.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
With you there.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
We'll take some other calls on the calls on the
other side of this break and much more. Was Zach
Gagan on the Ksrpre Show Welcome Back Monday edition of
the show. Before the show, the KSR pre Show will
hand it off to Matt and the guys at ten am.
Until then, we're talking a little ball with Zach Gagan
at ze Gagan KSR. This is his final segment on
the show before he goes and interviews Jaden Quainton's and
(22:43):
who's the other one?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Came? Williams came? Williams been playing great defense really long.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yes, was finally got some threes to fall against Saint John's.
That was awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yes, his his better play is a big part of
this ceiling change I've we've been talking about for Kentucky basketball.
The famous Idaho Potato Bowl is this afternoon, Zach, between
Washington State and Utah State. Will you be locked in
for that one?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No? Not the Potato Bowl No, that one is not.
That one didn't make it on my schedule. About the
New Orleans Bowl, No, that one as well did not
make it on my schedule. Not big into these random
bowl games, I was. I was more interested in the
Xbox Bowl.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well, that was fun to see Arkansas State win that
one in master chief and the winning trophy to Butch Jones,
a champion of life. But you should lock into the
New Orleans Bowl because that's the one that Matt's doing
play by play for. That's right with Matt and Myron
coming up for Western Kentucky and Southern Miss your album
Mater there, my album Mater.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I got to talk to Matt last night on the
NFL Cover zero podcast a little bit about the prep
work that he's been doing, and I'm sure he'll talk
more about it today, but I think he's bought poster
boards and he's excited to make actual like you know,
spotting charts and things like that. So our guy's been practicing,
so we're I think I'm looking forward to that one
at least. It was also an eventful college football playoff weekend.
(23:57):
Before we hit the phones, Will Stein's Oregon Offen dominates
JMU and scores fifty one points. I thought that was
probably best case scenario, don't you think. Yeah, I think
over five hundred yards of offense. I know that their
first five drives they scored five touchdowns to five different players.
So if you're a Kentucky fan, I think that's really
you know, you don't care that Oregon gave up thirty
four points.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
You don't care about that side of the ball. You
care that they scored fifty one, had five hundred yards
and played really well and kind of I think had
forty eight points after three quarters. So yeah, that's encouraging
if you're a Kentucky fan.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
It does feel like the college football playoffs are broken, though.
There are a lot of blowouts, and not just when
JMU or two Lane are involved. Even between the big matchups,
we've seen blowouts in years past. But we did get
a good game for Alabama. Oklahoma, Miami A and m
had an interesting ending. But it's just a weird, just
weird college football playoffs right now. But the atmospheres on
(24:48):
college campuses are a cool part of that experience. Let's
take some phone calls though, eight five nine two, eight
oh two to eight seven. We've had some people patiently waiting,
including Joey, who is on the line. Joey, what's going on?
Joe are you there?
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh you had to go tend to the crown.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I understand, I understand when duty calls, you've got things
to do. Let's just hope that baby didn't get hit
by a water bottle like that kid did in the
game with Ed Cooley.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I wonder where you're going with that, but ye see,
I have transitions. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You just got to wait and they'll get there. But yeah,
I mean Ed Cooley, frustrated losing to Xavier in the
final minutes, throws a water bottle into the stands and
it definitely doesn't go where he intended it to. I
think that needed to be more of a launch into
the crowd, and it went directly at the people in
the front row.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It did, yeh see drilled the child. I guess he
knows that family apparently, so oh he does. Yeah, so
he he apologized. I think he apologized in the press
arms they'd apologized to them after as well. But yeah,
Ed Kolely was not happy with how that game ended.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I guess, so let's let's say that they don't know
each other. Okay, and your child has just been hit
by a water bottle from.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
The head coach of a BASKETA call my lawyer immediately.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Is it kind of like a no wet floor sign?
You've just slipped in McDonald's. It's like you're gonna milk
them for everything that you can. I think I would
have been the most dramatic person in that arena.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
That would have happened to me, and oh yeah, I
would have fallen on the floor. Yeah, I would have
found a catchup package square hit it on my head
and yeah, yeah, just a nute little flop. I would
have done some acting. You was seeing some real Broadway stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The kid would have been fine. I would have been
the one on the ground trying to draw a call
or something like that. Billy didn't even get hit by it,
and he's over there crying on the floor. Yeah, I
need money. I am suing at that point, but glad
everybody is okay. In that odd moment from college basketball
that was on again, it was on, Lee is on
the line, what's up?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Lye eight five nine two two eight seven.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Hey, good morning, Billy, Thanks for all your hard work.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Thanks Lee.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Hey, I had a question so if we wanted to
get another point guard, how how would that happen over
the Christmas break with the Nile stuff? For you know,
the rule changes to the n C double A. Would
like a player have to volunteer, like to be team
manager and then we signed you know, like kind of
(27:05):
like the Kentucky quarterback like played like I don't know,
one game or two games for you know, he was
a backup. Would the NCAA would you be I mean
like allowed to do that or could you get a
European player of the Christmas break because you couldn't really
argue any team chemistry after the two first halfs between
(27:28):
Saint John's in Indiana like that that's like watching paint draw.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Hey well, Lee, I appreciate the call. That is a
great question because I've had the same question myself. I mean,
we've had Shad and Sharp and big Z in the
past where we can do whatever we want with transcripts.
It feels like it at this point. I don't know
what I'm talking about, but it just feels like you
can get somebody eligible. I think there was a team
that just added a player not too long ago. Ye see,
you know you you see this from a lens of
(27:56):
knowing the G League, right, I mean, is it possible
that Kentucky could add somebody like this?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It is possible, I would just say it's very at
least in Kentucky's situation, I'd say it's highly unlikely, just
because of some of the stuff I wasn't mentioned earlier,
with like having Jasper Johnson, Like you've already kind of
got the guy there. You just want to maybe push
him a little bit more into that direction and give
him some more minutes. So we'll see if that's the
route Pope actually goes. But you know, the team is
already so deep, and I don't know how all these
(28:21):
nil contracts work, Like I won't pretend to know, like
the you know how that works with bringing in a
new kid. And but like I said, you know, USC
just brought in a kid because they were dealing with
a lot of injuries, so they brought in a guy.
I think he played at Robert Morris, but like hadn't
played this year, so he was still technically like in
the portal or whatever and was able to get himself
locked in with USC. And I guess he'll play probably
(28:43):
whenever the news. So you're just on the roster. He
had not played yet, not on the roster they added him.
He was a midseason ad. Okay, so it has happened.
It's happened at other schools, and you've seen like the
G League kids are coming in a lot of those
guys are waiting until next season to play though, So
I mean it is possible, but from a you know,
just from an nil, like the contract standpoint of getting
(29:04):
a kid on, you know is and you also got
to look at like what's the market? Is there even
someone talented enough out there that would be willing to
take you know, like a small amount of money to
come and play back up point guard for Kentucky? I mean,
I'm sure there is, But is that player worth it?
Like would you rather bring that person there? Or do
you rather just try and elevate Jasper Johnson who's already
been in house for eight months, and have him try
and take over that role and a kid that's probably
(29:24):
more talented, purely talented than you're gonna get as opposed
to like a veteran. What a weird conversation though, just
is it's not a conversation from twenty nineteen, No, Like,
is there a trade deadline coming out, like, you know,
is do we have enough cap space to sign this guy?
Like it's just we've morphed into professional sports with college
and it's just silly that some people still use the
term student athletes when we come to a little bit.
(29:46):
I mean, I get that you want your team to
have a good GPA, and most kids don't go to
the professional ranks, but when it comes to certain sports,
especially the elites like Kentucky and college basketball, it's you know,
they didn't what is it to Marcus Cousins, the same
as spelling bee? Yeah, whatever the sayings have been in
the past, you know, not here for school, they're here
(30:07):
to win ball games. And so can we just add
somebody from Robert Morris middle of the year? Maybe so.
I think it was the NC State coach Will Wade
who recently said something about, you know, like other GPA
is three point or like we don't care about that.
Like he was kind of open, He's like we don't
care about the GPA. It's like sin and it's like, yeah,
we don't really need to pretend that we do care
about that anymore, because like these kids are getting paid
a million dollars to play basketball. They're not really here
(30:29):
to go to school, even if they some I'm sure
some of them aren't take school seriously and everything, but
we don't have to pretend that that's what they're all
here for.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
More.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, let's take another call here. Peanut is on the line.
Always good to hear from Peanut. Peanut, what's up?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Ho's go on?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Man? Good man?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
How you doing? I'm probably do good. I'm starting back
to work last week.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
That's great to hear, Peanut. We've been thinking about you,
all right, Peanut. Did you mute your phone with your cheek?
I've done that before.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Oh there he is, Peanut, there, yeah, here here all right?
What you got for us?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah? I wanted to thank you for y'all for everything
you do from have done, put word out and I
want to thank all the BBN for all.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
The letters and cards.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And I got a piece of the floor of the
meadow Lands one in ninety six from somebody. I've got
a ninety eight championship pen and a lot of things
I got. I just want everybody to know, appreciate it
and thank you cards for coming for everyone.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
BIGATION is the best. Peanut.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, absolutely, man, Uh, we are going to support one
of our O I'm glad that you're doing well and
back to work.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Peanut.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Yeah, it's a long time time and I couldn't wait
get you have your answer to hear that machine running.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Well.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Hey man, Merry Christmas to you and hopefully you have
a great holiday coming up.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Okay, Peanut, all right you two guys, all right, there
you go. Thanks a little community there. You're on the
kiss or reshow Zach love it, Zach you can.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You can find Zach Gagan's riding on Kentucky Sports Radio
dot com. You recently did an article about Darius Miller
and some of the changes he's making in the community.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is that right, Yeah, So Darius Miller is getting just
more and more involved in Lexington. In particular. I was
able to he's him and a group have kind of
because I know it's the it used to be called
the Sports Center out by the Fayette Mall. Yeah, next
to Kentucky Branded. Yeah, it's owned by the mall, but
Darius and a group have like kind of rented it
out and they've renamed it. It's called the Alumni Center Now.
It's still kind of the same thing where they've got
(32:31):
all those courts in there, but they're gonna heighten it
a little bit, you know, make it like a big
skills training area like for you know, mainly kids, especially
especially like Darius Miller's gonna be hands on doing like
basketball skills camps, training sessions and stuff with kids. You know,
it's gonna be volleyball stuff I think doing like wrestling
and boxing, pickleball, even cheerleading, all this type of stuff. Yeah, pickleball,
(32:55):
it's it's getting into the even with Darius Miller, it's
getting in there. So yeah, he's just doing a bunch
of stuff like that. But the reason I went over there,
I think it was this past Friday, is he was
doing hosting a toy drive and his goal was to
bring in five hundred toys and have a local foster
home called Sunrise come and pick them up. And their
goal was to get five hundred toys. And I kind
(33:17):
of showed up early and there was still probably you know,
over one hundred there, and then I texted one of
the people that was working with and they said they
hit over their goal by the end of the night,
So it was like a five to nine thing and
they were able to hit over five hundred toys, but
all was in there was like while I was in there,
Darius was helping other kids like just shoot around, like
kind of teaching them some small basketball stuff. You had
some girl like some girls over here rolling up to
(33:38):
play volleyball, like some people just kind of hanging out.
Like he's trying to make it like a big community
thing as well. And then I know he has other
plans in store for like you know, restaurants and more
special events, and he wants to do more like turkey
giveaways and toy drives, like he wants to do more
stuff like this in general. So there's big stuff coming
from Darius over the next couple of months, and I'm
sure it'll be announced, like we'll post stuff on KSR
(33:59):
about as well. But yeah, he's getting very involved, him
and his wife as well. They're really trying to get
back to the community. And Darius A he's just he
really is one of the nicer guys you'll ever talk to.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Especially cool as that to just come back to Lexington
to buy a place and and then you can bring
your kid to a sports center like that. And then
Darius Miller is given I'm shooting it is like how cool.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Is that awesome?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I do want to leave you with one final question
before you leave us, Zach, before you interview Jade and
Quainton's and Cam Williams today. Uh, and that's about your
kind of articles that you've done on KSR. Is there
one that comes to mind when you think of, like,
you know, an impactful one or one that you're really
proud of? You know, you can find all these writings
at Kentucky Sports Radio dot com. But what kind of
(34:43):
you How many years have you been working there.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Full time now? I think I'm on over four and
a half years, four and a year, I think five
years full time in like February or something like that.
Is there was there a future article or something that
you're there? Is There's one article that I always go
back to when people ask me about something like that,
and it's when I first got brought on. I don't
do as much recruiting stuff anymore, but that was kind
of what I was brought on to do full time,
(35:06):
was recruiting. And Freddy Maggard hooked me up with the
Bryant family, Ty Brian, so I was able to talk
to Cisco Bryant and Ty And this was when Ty
was still at Frederick Douglas who's a junior there and
kind of still being lightly recruited. So I did a
big story about him, and just like his relationship with Cisco,
and Cisco had played at uk Kentucky's recruitment and everything,
so it started there and then I got to see
(35:28):
Ty commit to Kentucky. Then I got to see him
grow at Kentucky and get, you know, have a breakout
season this year. And you know, I've been able to,
you know, share some of those moments like with Ty
and Cisco and just say like, hey, like I appreciate
you all doing, you know, doing that interview with me
and kind of giving me a jump start, and it's
it's really awesome to see you all thriving now, you know,
have he many years later. So I was really proud
of that piece because it was like one of my
(35:49):
first big ones that I did and now was successful
and and he's successful absolutely, and I could probably go
play in the NFL one day, especially if he has
a good year coming up and decides to stick around
at Kentucky, which we all hope he does. I guess
we don't know for sure on all these transfer portals,
and all that stuff. It doesn't it doesn't open for
another week or two. But yeah, I was. That's the
piece I usually point to and the one that sticks out.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
And I've and I've done very little recruiting coverage over
my years, but I used to work for a couple
of newspapers and to be able to talk to a
parent and let them gush about their kid is a
lot of fun too. Like it's just you know, they
are living vicariously through their kids a lot of times,
for better or for worse. But you know, when you
get a for better one and they're actually making good decisions,
(36:30):
it is happy. It is nice to see their happiness. Yeah,
and even better when Ty Bryant somebody like that has success.
So if I look up Ty Bryant, Zach Gig and
I can find it online, then right, probably you'd have
to go back a few years, but it would be
up there for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well you do great work, Zach.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I appreciate you last minute jumping on with me another
one of shann the Dude's vacation days. We're all familiar
with them now, But keep up the good work. You
can follow Zach at z Gig and KSR online and
what kind of coverage you got coming up for us
this week or when when the new year starts.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Well, today, like I said, we'll go do these interviews
and then hey, what's up, Mario. We'll go do these
interviews and we'll be writing about that pretty much all day.
We're going to do a Zoom Action episode Brandon and
I with Steven Peak later on today, and then we
got Bellaman tomorrow and we're just kind of pushing along
at that point. Then we got a nice break coming up. Actually,
this little break games, Mario just barges in. I'm sorry
about that.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Zach. Hey, no, he lightens on on and he'll just
come in start talking. You know what.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Zach, Thank you, buddy, Thank you appreciate it. We'll take
a break.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
We will wrap things up on this Monday edition of
the KSRP Pre Show. On the other side of this break,
Billy Rutlers a big thank you to Zach Gagan here
on the ksrpre Show.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
It's our final segment of this Monday edition of the
KSR Pre Show. A reminder we are brought to you
by Drafting Sportsbook. Holiday football has arrived. The regular seasons
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Speaker 2 (37:53):
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Bet must win to receive bonus bets, which expire in
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Speaker 2 (38:14):
Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources
see DKNG, dot co, slash Audio Limited time offer. Big
thank you to Zach for joining us here on the
pre show. I've got Mario on the mic. Now, how
you doing for a minute? What's up, dude? Yeah? I
saw you had Zach on man. He was great. Zack's
a great guy. He does great work.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Does and Mario, how prepared are you for Christmas coming
up this week?
Speaker 5 (38:39):
I'm still doing a little bit of last minute Christmas
shopping let's just say that I got a few gifts
over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
But I'm not done yet.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
It's madness out there, isn't it It is? You know,
the worst part about it is shopping. That's the worst
part about Christmas is actually shopping part.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Now, did you remember to bring a Christmas gift for
a Christmas exchange here at the iHeart office today?
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I made a quick stop at CVS before.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Oh, okay, so you did bring a game? I did?
I did. Do you not think I was gonna bring.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
I did not think you were going to bring one. No,
I thought you were going to forget and then have
to maybe run out during the next two hours.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I'm not like your co host Shandon the.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Dude, Well, he would bring a can of green beans.
Please give him a little bit more credit. I've got
a couple of things wrapped to My one rule today
is you're not allowed to make fun of my wrapping job.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
So I didn't wrap. I didn't wrap. It's fun. I
just brought it. Oh, so you didn't do any I
didn't do no rapping. No, I didn't have time. Okay,
but I did get a gift. Well, that's still better.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Than Shannon the dude who would give you a gift
in the Amazon box that it got mailed into.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
It's a little late. That's pretty bad, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Mario?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
That's pretty bad, man. But what do you expect from
Shannon the dude?
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Okay, well, now you're switching up a little bit because
I heard you talking trash about.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I was talking, of course I was. Of course I was, so,
why are you switching up? No, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
I'm not switching up. I'm not switching up at all.
But I was talking trash you were. Yeah, I had
a lot to say, especially especially about you, Billy are
so I will say that no at all, there's nothing.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
There's nothing here, folks. I was gonna that was what
I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
There's not much of a rivalry here, even though Matt
likes to play things up. You know, Shannon and I
were supposed to be in a boxing match back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
You ever heard of rough and rowdy with barstool Sports.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
They were doing these like boxing exhibitions, and Matt wanted us.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
In a boxing ring, in a boxing ring.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
How do you feel about, Well, we were going to
make it happen, but uh, I got in a car wreck,
and my lawyer was like, you cannot go in a
boxing match right now when you're in litigation right now.
So it's still up for the table, was it. I
mean it hasn't been on the table for a while. Okay,
But with all this talk about races, I mean, might
as well just put the boxing ring.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
We got to do the racist first, to racist first,
and then maybe the boxing.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Yeah, people were giving me some crap about that. At
least you backed me up there.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
I did say you would go second place.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Well, just youth alone, youth, I'm going to be second place.
Matt was trying to say Drew was going to beat
me in the race. He's sitting over here too. But Drew,
I mean, can't get out of bed. He said he
wouldn't get to the ship. He said he wouldn't be
surprised if he came in last. That wouldn't surprise him.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Okay, hold on, let me get through. Okay, Drew, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (41:07):
I've actually not had a chance to chime in on
this topic that's been lasting a week. Yes, you all
can put me last. I don't run anymore. About three
years ago, I looked in the mirror and said, this
is I'm done running unless there's a fire or an emergency.
These legs aren't picking up, so you need to run
fo Yeah, what what is the point of running? Nothing
unless I need to get somewhere in a hurry. So
I will happily take last in the race because I'm
(41:28):
not running.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
So he's last, and I'm case. Ryan Lemon's after that.
Drew's just he's not even gonna participate.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
The base stealer, like, that's like, who knows how fast?
Ryan lemon Is said, that was like years ago. Though,
that was like how long? Ryan twenty thirty years ago? Ago,
thirty years ago ago?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Okay, okay, well, hey we're out of time.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Big thanks to Zach, Ryan, Drew, Matt maybe even Mario
are coming up next on KSR. We've got some best
us coming up. We appreciate you listening. Everybody, have a
happy holiday. From the ksrpre Show.
Welcome everyone to another edition of the KSR pre Show.
Today is Monday, December twenty second. I am Billy Rutledge
and no Shannon the Dude Surprise, he's on vacation. We'll
continue on without him. The eight five nine two eight
oh two two eight seven textas at five O two
two sixty five sixty six five six and is always
(00:21):
The KSR pre Show is brought to you by Italics
Fine Italian Dining in Lexington, Kentucky at the City Center
on Main Street. Just a few days away from Christmas.
Hopefully everybody's having a great holiday. Also, our man Shannon
the Dude celebrated a birthday yesterday, turning fifty eight years old.
Congratulations to Shannon the Dude. Just getting up there in
age now. So we'll have a special guest today joining
(00:44):
me is former KSR pre Show co host Zach Gagan.
You can foll him on Twitter at Zach z Gagan KSR.
He is a former guest of the KSR pre Show.
Also did a Little cut Man at the last couple
of years or so. Zach, Good to see you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, Bill, thanks for having me on. We were talking
coming here. I think it's been about a year since
I did my last pre show. So Shanon's on vacation.
I'm ready to step in. Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, ready to talk some ball with you today, Zach.
And by the way, Shannon's not fifty eight. I mean
I embellished a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Fifty nine fifty six, okay, and.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I gave him a couple more years than I should have.
But you know, he's you know, he's somebody that is
getting up there in age. I was a little insulted
when Shannon didn't think that I could beat him in
a race. We talked about the KSR members in a race, Jack,
and of course Shannon didn't think that I could beat him.
What do you think the rankings could look out if
(01:35):
we were doing a race of the KSR guys.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I guess if we are, we including Mario two. Yeah, Marios,
I have to pick Mario firs just because he's the youngest.
He's a you know, former basketball player himself, and I'll
put you second. I feel like he's still got some
young legs and you can he takes Shannon pretty easy.
What is this like one hundred yard dash? What's the
what's the race?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Who knows who knows, and who knows if this will
ever happen. This would be typical KSR fashion that it
never come to for a couple of years. But listen,
I mean he's gonna have to be sitting down for
two weeks if we do something like that. I mean,
it'd be I'm sure strenuous activity for the man who
does still get in the ring.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But Zach, it's great to be with you. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You do a great job on the website covering the Cats.
I want to talk a little bit later about an
article you did about Darius Miller, but you know, constantly
covering recruiting and Kentucky basketball. It's kind of a dream
job to be able to do something like this, don't
you think.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, absolutely, every single day when people ask me what
I do, I say, I write about basketball all day.
So that's that is kind of a dream job for sure.
I joined, I got a bunch of great coworkers that
I've gotten to know and talk about and get to
be really good friends with. So it is it is
a dream job. I said, wake up every day and
get to come in here and talk with Billy about
basketball for an hour and then we're going to go
(02:45):
talk to Jadan quaintson King Williams afterwards.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, that's kind of like the low points of the job.
I wouldn't call that the dream.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh, it's a hot point absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But we use the KSR website as a cheat sheet
for our show every morning. So you guys do have
a job. I think you did the EBNBA for a while. Yes, right,
we're keeping up with the guys in the NBA and
their stats. That was always helpful. We're not doing the
morning prep. So that's how I got my start with Kassa.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And that was my pitch to Matt in our internship
meeting was, Hey, there's a thirty guys playing in the NBA.
Do you want me to write about them, you know,
for the website. He said, sure, let's go for it.
And that was about eight years ago now or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So and we could spend the whole rest of the
show saying why Kentucky would be the perfect place for
an NBA team, But I digress. That is for another
day because we've got plenty of sports to talk about.
We do need to talk about the UK volleyball team
who fell in the National Championship Game to Texas A
and M. They were swept quite the run by Texas
A and M. They come back to reverse sweep Louisville.
(03:41):
They then beat three straight number one seats to win
the NCAA Championship. So I think, you know, part of
you just has to give a hat tip to Texas
A and M.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
That was a great run.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
But sweeping Kentucky in the National Championship game, there were
a couple of self inflicted errors in that first set.
Kentucky really can never rebound from there where it was.
It was a great run and Craig Skinner did it
again with this talent, but they just ultimately fell short.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, it was definitely a disappointing end to what was
a very magical season. You know, had that six point
lead early in the first set, and it felt like
they were about to take it away there down the stretch,
and then Texas ATAM just made it a last minute push.
You got a bunch of ties like twenty twenty one,
twenty two, and then once it got to twenty four,
all Texas A and M just kind of proved themselves
(04:27):
why they're in that spot, and they took that first set,
and then Kentucky was just kind of they were playing
catch up from there and Texas and like you said,
they beat three number one seeds sketch to that point,
so like that was not a fluky run at all
or anything. Kentucky did beat them earlier in the season
three to one, but this one it was tex San
was just on the mission. They were a team like
kind of destined for the championship there, and they had
the whole crowd behind him. It felt like, you know,
(04:47):
everyone in that everyone in Kansas City was rooting for Texas,
A and M. It felt like even all the Nebraska
fans for some reason had this weird contempt for Kentucky
right now. I didn't know there was a big volleyball rivalry.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, Nebraska is, you know, really the best program when
it comes to the sports, so maybe rooting against Kentucky
since they've been so good. But you know, I've really
enjoyed getting to know this team in the lighter half
of the year. I didn't follow them that closely at
the beginning, but watching a lot of these games on
TV through this run, I mean I've grown attached to
some of these girls, and you know, Eva Hudson has
(05:18):
just been phenomenal, and you know Andrew's Carr's sister was
such a big role. And not only her, you know,
playing with Andrew after Andrew left, but Eva coming from Purdue.
I saw a social media post that Eva made that said,
you know, you're going to rEFInd your love of the
sport by going to Kentucky. And that's that's kind of
what's happened from perdue to Kentucky for her, but not
(05:40):
just her, but brook Brooklyn Delay and all these girls
that have not only been played for maybe just one
year like somehow, but have been in the system for
a while. Craig Skinners has built a contender with that program,
and I'm excited for years to come. Let's just hope
that he doesn't have to get into an airplane just
to sell tickets every single time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, Yeah, I don't think he will on because like
me and my fiance, we've already talked about getting season
tickets for next year. I really like they're not too expensive.
You know, you get like fifteen twenty home matches something
like that a year. But you know, last season is
when I started to kind of get into the team
because they were still really good. I believe they went
to the lead eight last year, but then this season
I probably watched, you know, seventy eighty percent of their matches,
so I kind of got really locked in on this team.
And like I said, they were just really fun to follow.
(06:19):
The personalities were really fun. They were all really cool
to get to know. I went to the sweet sixteen
game where they swept cal Poly. That was just a blast.
Like you know, I've never seen a beat down be
so like entertaining from a fan perspective, and only losing
one senior just happens to be Eva Hudson because you know,
one of the two or three best players in the country.
But Craig skoenners in good shape here to kind of
(06:40):
reload for next season. I know Brooklyn Delake was playing
on a tormentiscus all season long, so she might already
be in surgery right now as far as we know,
trying to get ready for next year. But they should
be in good shape going into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
In that Wisconsin game was so much fun, just then
battling back through adversity to eventually get the win. There's
nothing like the positive energy from a volleyball match, right
It just seems a little positive than some of these
other sports.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Sometimes you don't even know like which team lost the
point because they're both celebrating, so they're always positive and upbeating.
Like that's a very that's a mentally challenging sport where
you can't you can't dwell on one point, like you
seriously can't, because if you dwell on one point, you're
gonna lose the next point and all of a sudden
you're out of the set and it's over with. So uh,
it's it's definitely one. You have to stay positive, you
have to be I think it was Maggie Davis found
(07:24):
like or it was discovered that they write little or
draw smiley faces on their hands, like as a reminder
to be positive and just you know, have fun with
it all the time. So you know, they lived that
out pretty much all season. It just like I said,
he ran to a buzz saw there in Texas A
and m who just was I mean, they're blocking was unbelievable.
Kentucky couldn't get anything over the Nettfeler.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Do you think Stoops should have done that Over the
last couple of years, I mean, things kind of fell
apart near the end. Maybe smiley faces on the hand
remind the guys to be grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Maybe, yeah, maybe that would have motivated him a little
bit more. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know when they were going to
concession stands. Yeah yeah, it didn't matter what was on
your hand.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That was a hot dog.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But speaking of mentally challenging sports, I think you know,
the excitement of the weekend was Kentucky beating number twenty
two Saint John's seventy eight to sixty six. Much was
made of Mark Pope taking on Rick Patino. Pope had
the nice suit on he did, and eventually that suit
was drenched in water as the guy celebrated in the
locker room. It was a big win for Kentucky, but
(08:24):
it felt more than that, Zach, I don't know, tell
me if I'm wrong, But just the debut of Jaden
Quainton's how good Jalen Lowe played after he came back
from his injury seven seconds into the game. He comes
in seven seconds, then he gets hurt. You know, he
eventually comes back and it's just a difference maker. Those
two guys really just kind of jumped off the TV
(08:45):
screen or the radio dow depending on how you were
watching or listening, and man, it just felt more than
just one win on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What did you think? I mean, it definitely did, because
it felt like you can you can kind of readjust
the ceiling expectations of the team now just knowing that
Jaden Quaintance is kind of what we all expected him
to be and maybe even better, Like definitely didn't look
like a guy who had missed the last nine months
trying to recover from a torn acl like was very
bouncy out there. Just looked like a top ten pick,
(09:14):
maybe even a top five pick. You know that he's
kind of protected to be since he was literally like
a junior or what in high school. So that and
then combined with the jail not thing like you said,
like when he went out seven second after seven se
I think everyone in Big Blue Nation was thinking, all right, well,
there goes the season. There goes the season because you
don't have a guy that can run the show anymore.
And that's kind of you know, that's going to be
(09:35):
a game by game thing now for the rest of
the season, until everyone is sure that Jalen Lowe's shoulder
is good enough that he can actually you know, lower
it and there's not like this constant fear of him
having a pop out again, because that's that's just going
to be a game by game thing now with him.
But you know, as long as he's in, as long
as Jade Quaintance is in, and when Otega Away and
Modi Abata are fighting like they were fighting in that
Saint John's game, like you can this is not a
(09:56):
team that's going to score ninety points and win every time.
They're a team that's going to try and just bull
you around and win games that are seventy to sixty.
And you know that might not be as fun or
as like appealing to watch, but it's going to be
just as exciting, I think, as long as the wins
are still stacking up. But now you're two in a
row against Indiana and Saint John's, you have a little
bit of momentum going into the new year. You've got
a nice break coming up with between the Bellarmine game,
(10:18):
you got two weeks off so guys can heal up
and rest. But yes, it definitely felt like more than
one regular win. It felt like you can kind of
readjust things of how the rest of the season might
play out.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, and that positive momentum going into this break is huge, right,
I mean if they would have lost that game, really
the only non conference win on your resume is Indiana.
I think you have a doom and gloom transition into
the new year, but now I think you start conference
play with a little bit of an excitement like what
can this team do? You know, we will probably see
this team continue to shorten.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The rotation a little bit too, think so eventually.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And that probably means guys like Trent Noah is on
the outside looking in with a guy like Cam Williams
playing so well. Jaden Quainton's come back, coming back, ac
Malachai Moreno probably losing some minutes, Brandon Garrison probably going
to be losing some minutes. I thought that, you know,
you made a great point there about how Kentucky's playing.
They're mucking it up. It's going to be in the
sixties and seventies. After the Indiana game, Mark Pope said,
(11:13):
this is not how we want to play, and it's
almost like, this is how you have to play, Mark,
this is the team that you have. We've made a
lot about roster construction and how it's not the typical BYU.
Mark Pope offense that does a ton of threes, and
maybe Mark is still trying to get to that point
is maybe is this the realization that this is a
(11:34):
different team than Mark Pope has had in years past
and it just has to be done a different way.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
He's definitely realizes that this is kind of how they
have to play right now. But he makes a point
in pretty much every press conference, every media hit he does,
where he's trying to say, like, we're still going to
be a good offensive team, Like that's still the goal
is to get there and be a team that, you know,
I don't know if they're a team that's going to
be shooting twelve for thirty from three every game, but
this is a team that he still wants to get
up into the you know, I think there's still averaging
eighty something points aga so it's not like they're not
(12:01):
scoring at all, but you know, it's been helped out
by a bunch of bad opponents, you know, been able
to wrap up some points against them. So he does
really like he's he makes a point to say that
he still wants to score a lot of points with
this team. It's just right now, like that's just kind
of not where they're at, Like the space they're in
right now is they're still trying to like they they've
only played one half of basketball with a full roster,
(12:22):
which is kind of you know, crazy to think about,
like not counting Reese Potter, who's gonna do the Recher
and Braden Hawthorne, but everyone else. They've played one half
of basketball and it looks pretty good and how they
were playing it, and they played it by just bullyballing
everyone and having Jayalen Low get into the paint and
Jaden Quainton's be on the other end of the floor
in the paint just blocking everything and playing great defense.
So that's just where they're at right now. Maybe they
(12:44):
can get to a point where they're you know, score
more points. But you know, if I can keep talking
a little bit about the like having guys like you're
gonna need someone like Jasper Johnson, you know, down down
the road eventually, Like especially if Jalen Low keeps going
in and out of the lineup, like you're gonna need
him eventually. See, that's a guy you want to keep
playing as well in terms of rotation and keeping the
deep rotation, like Malachi played pretty well against Saint John's
(13:06):
or really well. I thought Brandon Garrison had some good moments.
So like Colin Chandler, you know, trying to like, these
are guys you're probably gonna need later on in the season,
so you don't want to still just keep burying them.
But Jasper Johnson particularly, you're probably gonna have, like I
would like to see him maybe try and get a
little bit more run at point, Like I know he's
just struggled so far this season, but you're gonna you're
just gonna need another ball handlers this season goes along,
(13:27):
and I don't think there's really is another one on
there that can do something like Jennle Lowe other than Jasperson.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So yeah, especially at the point guard spot. Now, Chandler
has not been playing great as of late. He plays
better against the worst teams, it seems like. And you know,
if Lowe is gonna be there, and you can move
Aberdeen to the two and then put Away at three,
and then I don't know, I mean, even Cam Williams
can play some three too, right, And if you want
to put Away at the two, and that allows Diabaatee
(13:55):
and Quenton's to play together, that allows moreno to still
get some run. By the way, Jane Quainton's that first
shot that he made told me all I needed to know.
I mean it was the fade away off the backboard
shot looked effortless. And then he's making these huge blocks.
I mean, it's been a while since Kentucky's had a
player like that. And the emotion swings from the first
(14:17):
half to the second half of that game was incredible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean, the season was over with Jalen low out.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I mean they were down what seven at half, just
like they were against Indiana, but they battle back, they
score over fifty points in the second half, and we're
all back in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So with Jayden Quins, gonna give you a fun little
stat with him, love a fun little stuff. So on,
when I was rewatching the game, I was tracking some
of the stuff in the shots that he was, like
he was the one to actually contest the shot, not
like a primary defender, but he was the one contesting
a Saint John's shot opponent. Those Saint John's players went
one for seven against him, and the one shot they
(14:51):
made was a fast break dunk where Jaden quains tried
to chase down block one of Saint John's players in transition,
So you don't even have to count that one because
he it was sprinting down the full court like trying
to get a highlight block there. So really you could
say he's Saint John's guys were zero for six shooting
against him when he was the guy with the hand
in the face. So he just changed the game completely
and really on both ends of the floor. Like he
(15:13):
had one point where he was at the top of
the key and like called his number and just took
Zubie I think it was Zuobi, took him off the dribble,
went to the left, got to the to the block,
and just had a nice little right hand shot at
the ram like a couple of really huge dunks where
he's just under the rim scooping up loose balls, like
he's just he's a different kind of athlete, Like just
a different kind of athlete, different kind of defender that
this team did not have, and he just immediately changes
(15:35):
your season from the moment he steps on the floor.
And he saw it with that first shot where he
had to fade away. You know, I don't care if
he called bank or not. Like it went in and
it looked awesome. So yeah, he's He's just he's everything
that we thought he was. And I don't even feel
like this is like being premature and like a small
sample size, like we have all of his Arizona State season,
Like he did the exact same thing that he was
doing at Arizona State that he did against Saint John's.
(15:56):
So I think you've you've got something special brewing, and
it's just a matter of getting them ramped up in
conditions so he can be a twenty five minute game guy.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
By February, Well, you mentioned that this team's ceiling has
been raised. I want to talk more about that when
we come back from the break. Also, Rick Patino, I
don't know if he lectured the media, but he did
remind them a little bit about you know, you know,
it's different being a basketball coach than it is a
media member, and he kind of explained why I want
to share that quote. And also more random nonsense from
(16:24):
the weekend, like Ed Cooley drilling a child with a
water bottle.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Did you see that? Sex? I sure did. Ed Cooley. Man,
he he's one of my favorite coaches, just not not
for that my favorite coach.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
He's a character, No I'm kidding, folks. I don't want
to see the kids hit with water bottles.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But they had good seats. They're fine, Yeah, yeah they were.
They were courtside. Man, there's more good seats.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So we'll take a break. We are with Zach Gagan
from KSR. You can fall him on Twitter at z
Gagan KSR. He'll be hanging out with us for a
couple more segments here on the KSR pre show.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
It is the KSR pre Show Here in the Christmas Spirit,
Billy Rutledge and Zach Gagan joining me for this episode
of the show. We're just talking about I've still got
some Christmas shopping to do. Zach's got to mail a
letter in which I was asking if are you sending
out Christmas cards yet, Zach?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
And not yet yet. You're gonna be doing that maybe
next year. But yeah, we got we get we just
got engagement, did Halloween, so we're we were putting that
off until next year. The whole Christmas card with the
dogs and the pictures and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Okay, so you'll do it pre kids then and send
a Christmas card. It does feel like a very ca
We do have a kid the dog is our kid.
Oh okay, one of those families. Yeah yeah, name that
the dog is the kid. Y See, the problem would
be for my Christmas card, nobody would sit still. We
got the dog and the cat and then just haven't
trying to get everybody still for it. I don't know
if we'd ever be able to do it. Hey, but
(17:49):
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(18:33):
dot co, slash audio limited time offer. I know that
also works in Kentucky too, but Kansas is getting a
little plug there.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, shut up, Zach.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
After the Saint John's Kentucky game, Rick Pattino was speaking
to the media and had some words for advice for you.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think he was speaking to me in particular. Yes,
he from my desk in Lexington. That's right.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So tell me what your response is to Rick Patino
here he said, quote, you all need to learn a
little bit of a lesson as writers. Expecting Kentucky to
be a great basketball team with all of these injuries,
you all need to learn a lesson. You can't be
a great basketball team without two of your best players.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Is it that simple?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Zach?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So if I can actually kind of give myself a
pat on the back here me and my Zoom Action
co host, can I plug my Zoom Action or KSR
Breakdown show on YouTube me and Brandon Ramsey or Brandon
Ramsey and myself do that and we have kind of
been tooting that horn since the second week of the
season of you got to really readjust your expectations and
(19:35):
how you view this team until everyone's fully healthy. Like
I will admit that a lot of those losses sucked,
Like losing to a gun Zaga by thirty five points
was embarrassing, But there was still this bit that you're
missing and I think even for that game, you know,
you didn't have modabate, so there's a point where you're
missing three starters. It was just hard to for us
at least to kind of fully project and like give
(19:56):
you know, give our full real thought like what this
team is going to to be five months from now.
We were not we were hesitant to like be very
strong about that. So we always noted that we wanted
to note that in all of our breakdowns and everything
that when you're missing three starting caliber guys, for a
lot of the time it was two of them, and
one of them is Jayden Quainton's who is a potential
top ten pick, Like you just had to take all
(20:16):
that stuff into account. Like I said, we were disappointed
with a lot of those losses of Kentucky could have
played better, played harder in some of those things, but
it was just really it was hard to judge the
long term projection of this team knowing that you had
so many quality guys on the bench, and one of
them is Jayalen Low, who you saw what happened in
the second half against Saint John's, Like, he just makes
life so much easier. You can get into the paint,
he can dish the ball out. They just don't have
(20:37):
anyone that can do that. So when you have a
guy who can run the offense on one end and
a guy who can protect the paint on the other end, like,
those are pretty big impactors and contributors to your team.
So I would like to think that Rick was not
personally talking to me. I like to you know, that
was something that we, Brandon and I have made sure
to bring up time and time again. You must have
missed that episode of Yeah, I guess he's not watching.
(20:59):
He should though, you know he might learned some stuff,
and not from me, maybe from Brandon.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But you know, nothing was more indicative of that though
than Otega away in this game versus Saint John's.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Him scoring twenty points. It was a quiet twenty point.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yes, didn't feel it and really feels like a guy
that can be the second or third option on a
team and not the first. And maybe when he was
the first with Low end quaintance out. You know, it
just didn't look like how it was supposed to. We
just got about a minute till we need to hit
the hard break. We'll take some calls on the other
side of this break. But you said that the ceiling
has been risen for Kentucky. What is that ceiling?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I still don't know yet, but I like, you know,
maybe a couple of weeks ago, you know, still taking
into account all the injuries and everything, you would think
that maybe it was like a Sweet sixteen, like maybe
a team that could sneak into the tournament something like that.
But now that you've got everyone together, you see the
actual product, you know, and especially with the SEC kind
of being weaker compared to last season, like Kentucky can
(21:52):
easily like right now, is still probably one of the
top three or four teams in the SEC.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Before its radio Zach, I needed a need a round.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Make it me pick right el eight. You could you
could see this team making an Elite eight if things
all break right. But they are going to have to
start shooting the ball better eventually.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, it kind of feels like a Sweet sixteen for me.
How good that team was last year. They kind of
ran into a team that they'd already beaten twice in Tennessee.
It's hard to beat a team three times like that,
but it's definitely risen. After that's game, I will agree.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
With you there.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
We'll take some other calls on the calls on the
other side of this break and much more. Was Zach
Gagan on the Ksrpre Show Welcome Back Monday edition of
the show. Before the show, the KSR pre Show will
hand it off to Matt and the guys at ten am.
Until then, we're talking a little ball with Zach Gagan
at ze Gagan KSR. This is his final segment on
the show before he goes and interviews Jaden Quainton's and
(22:43):
who's the other one?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Came? Williams came? Williams been playing great defense really long.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yes, was finally got some threes to fall against Saint John's.
That was awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yes, his his better play is a big part of
this ceiling change I've we've been talking about for Kentucky basketball.
The famous Idaho Potato Bowl is this afternoon, Zach, between
Washington State and Utah State. Will you be locked in
for that one?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No? Not the Potato Bowl No, that one is not.
That one didn't make it on my schedule. About the
New Orleans Bowl, No, that one as well did not
make it on my schedule. Not big into these random
bowl games, I was. I was more interested in the
Xbox Bowl.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well, that was fun to see Arkansas State win that
one in master chief and the winning trophy to Butch Jones,
a champion of life. But you should lock into the
New Orleans Bowl because that's the one that Matt's doing
play by play for. That's right with Matt and Myron
coming up for Western Kentucky and Southern Miss your album
Mater there, my album Mater.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I got to talk to Matt last night on the
NFL Cover zero podcast a little bit about the prep
work that he's been doing, and I'm sure he'll talk
more about it today, but I think he's bought poster
boards and he's excited to make actual like you know,
spotting charts and things like that. So our guy's been practicing,
so we're I think I'm looking forward to that one
at least. It was also an eventful college football playoff weekend.
(23:57):
Before we hit the phones, Will Stein's Oregon Offen dominates
JMU and scores fifty one points. I thought that was
probably best case scenario, don't you think. Yeah, I think
over five hundred yards of offense. I know that their
first five drives they scored five touchdowns to five different players.
So if you're a Kentucky fan, I think that's really
you know, you don't care that Oregon gave up thirty
four points.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
You don't care about that side of the ball. You
care that they scored fifty one, had five hundred yards
and played really well and kind of I think had
forty eight points after three quarters. So yeah, that's encouraging
if you're a Kentucky fan.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
It does feel like the college football playoffs are broken, though.
There are a lot of blowouts, and not just when
JMU or two Lane are involved. Even between the big matchups,
we've seen blowouts in years past. But we did get
a good game for Alabama. Oklahoma, Miami A and m
had an interesting ending. But it's just a weird, just
weird college football playoffs right now. But the atmospheres on
(24:48):
college campuses are a cool part of that experience. Let's
take some phone calls though, eight five nine two, eight
oh two to eight seven. We've had some people patiently waiting,
including Joey, who is on the line. Joey, what's going on?
Joe are you there?
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh you had to go tend to the crown.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I understand, I understand when duty calls, you've got things
to do. Let's just hope that baby didn't get hit
by a water bottle like that kid did in the
game with Ed Cooley.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I wonder where you're going with that, but ye see,
I have transitions. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You just got to wait and they'll get there. But yeah,
I mean Ed Cooley, frustrated losing to Xavier in the
final minutes, throws a water bottle into the stands and
it definitely doesn't go where he intended it to. I
think that needed to be more of a launch into
the crowd, and it went directly at the people in
the front row.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It did, yeh see drilled the child. I guess he
knows that family apparently, so oh he does. Yeah, so
he he apologized. I think he apologized in the press
arms they'd apologized to them after as well. But yeah,
Ed Kolely was not happy with how that game ended.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I guess, so let's let's say that they don't know
each other. Okay, and your child has just been hit
by a water bottle from.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
The head coach of a BASKETA call my lawyer immediately.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Is it kind of like a no wet floor sign?
You've just slipped in McDonald's. It's like you're gonna milk
them for everything that you can. I think I would
have been the most dramatic person in that arena.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
That would have happened to me, and oh yeah, I
would have fallen on the floor. Yeah, I would have
found a catchup package square hit it on my head
and yeah, yeah, just a nute little flop. I would
have done some acting. You was seeing some real Broadway stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The kid would have been fine. I would have been
the one on the ground trying to draw a call
or something like that. Billy didn't even get hit by it,
and he's over there crying on the floor. Yeah, I
need money. I am suing at that point, but glad
everybody is okay. In that odd moment from college basketball
that was on again, it was on, Lee is on
the line, what's up?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Lye eight five nine two two eight seven.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Hey, good morning, Billy, Thanks for all your hard work.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Thanks Lee.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Hey, I had a question so if we wanted to
get another point guard, how how would that happen over
the Christmas break with the Nile stuff? For you know,
the rule changes to the n C double A. Would
like a player have to volunteer, like to be team
manager and then we signed you know, like kind of
(27:05):
like the Kentucky quarterback like played like I don't know,
one game or two games for you know, he was
a backup. Would the NCAA would you be I mean
like allowed to do that or could you get a
European player of the Christmas break because you couldn't really
argue any team chemistry after the two first halfs between
(27:28):
Saint John's in Indiana like that that's like watching paint draw.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Hey well, Lee, I appreciate the call. That is a
great question because I've had the same question myself. I mean,
we've had Shad and Sharp and big Z in the
past where we can do whatever we want with transcripts.
It feels like it at this point. I don't know
what I'm talking about, but it just feels like you
can get somebody eligible. I think there was a team
that just added a player not too long ago. Ye see,
you know you you see this from a lens of
(27:56):
knowing the G League, right, I mean, is it possible
that Kentucky could add somebody like this?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It is possible, I would just say it's very at
least in Kentucky's situation, I'd say it's highly unlikely, just
because of some of the stuff I wasn't mentioned earlier,
with like having Jasper Johnson, Like you've already kind of
got the guy there. You just want to maybe push
him a little bit more into that direction and give
him some more minutes. So we'll see if that's the
route Pope actually goes. But you know, the team is
already so deep, and I don't know how all these
(28:21):
nil contracts work, Like I won't pretend to know, like
the you know how that works with bringing in a
new kid. And but like I said, you know, USC
just brought in a kid because they were dealing with
a lot of injuries, so they brought in a guy.
I think he played at Robert Morris, but like hadn't
played this year, so he was still technically like in
the portal or whatever and was able to get himself
locked in with USC. And I guess he'll play probably
(28:43):
whenever the news. So you're just on the roster. He
had not played yet, not on the roster they added him.
He was a midseason ad. Okay, so it has happened.
It's happened at other schools, and you've seen like the
G League kids are coming in a lot of those
guys are waiting until next season to play though, So
I mean it is possible, but from a you know,
just from an nil, like the contract standpoint of getting
(29:04):
a kid on, you know is and you also got
to look at like what's the market? Is there even
someone talented enough out there that would be willing to
take you know, like a small amount of money to
come and play back up point guard for Kentucky? I mean,
I'm sure there is, But is that player worth it?
Like would you rather bring that person there? Or do
you rather just try and elevate Jasper Johnson who's already
been in house for eight months, and have him try
and take over that role and a kid that's probably
(29:24):
more talented, purely talented than you're gonna get as opposed
to like a veteran. What a weird conversation though, just
is it's not a conversation from twenty nineteen, No, Like,
is there a trade deadline coming out, like, you know,
is do we have enough cap space to sign this guy?
Like it's just we've morphed into professional sports with college
and it's just silly that some people still use the
term student athletes when we come to a little bit.
(29:46):
I mean, I get that you want your team to
have a good GPA, and most kids don't go to
the professional ranks, but when it comes to certain sports,
especially the elites like Kentucky and college basketball, it's you know,
they didn't what is it to Marcus Cousins, the same
as spelling bee? Yeah, whatever the sayings have been in
the past, you know, not here for school, they're here
(30:07):
to win ball games. And so can we just add
somebody from Robert Morris middle of the year? Maybe so.
I think it was the NC State coach Will Wade
who recently said something about, you know, like other GPA
is three point or like we don't care about that.
Like he was kind of open, He's like we don't
care about the GPA. It's like sin and it's like, yeah,
we don't really need to pretend that we do care
about that anymore, because like these kids are getting paid
a million dollars to play basketball. They're not really here
(30:29):
to go to school, even if they some I'm sure
some of them aren't take school seriously and everything, but
we don't have to pretend that that's what they're all
here for.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
More.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, let's take another call here. Peanut is on the line.
Always good to hear from Peanut. Peanut, what's up?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Ho's go on?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Man? Good man?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
How you doing? I'm probably do good. I'm starting back
to work last week.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
That's great to hear, Peanut. We've been thinking about you,
all right, Peanut. Did you mute your phone with your cheek?
I've done that before.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Oh there he is, Peanut, there, yeah, here here all right?
What you got for us?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah? I wanted to thank you for y'all for everything
you do from have done, put word out and I
want to thank all the BBN for all.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
The letters and cards.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And I got a piece of the floor of the
meadow Lands one in ninety six from somebody. I've got
a ninety eight championship pen and a lot of things
I got. I just want everybody to know, appreciate it
and thank you cards for coming for everyone.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
BIGATION is the best. Peanut.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, absolutely, man, Uh, we are going to support one
of our O I'm glad that you're doing well and
back to work.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Peanut.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Yeah, it's a long time time and I couldn't wait
get you have your answer to hear that machine running.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Well.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Hey man, Merry Christmas to you and hopefully you have
a great holiday coming up.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Okay, Peanut, all right you two guys, all right, there
you go. Thanks a little community there. You're on the
kiss or reshow Zach love it, Zach you can.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You can find Zach Gagan's riding on Kentucky Sports Radio
dot com. You recently did an article about Darius Miller
and some of the changes he's making in the community.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is that right, Yeah, So Darius Miller is getting just
more and more involved in Lexington. In particular. I was
able to he's him and a group have kind of
because I know it's the it used to be called
the Sports Center out by the Fayette Mall. Yeah, next
to Kentucky Branded. Yeah, it's owned by the mall, but
Darius and a group have like kind of rented it
out and they've renamed it. It's called the Alumni Center Now.
It's still kind of the same thing where they've got
(32:31):
all those courts in there, but they're gonna heighten it
a little bit, you know, make it like a big
skills training area like for you know, mainly kids, especially
especially like Darius Miller's gonna be hands on doing like
basketball skills camps, training sessions and stuff with kids. You know,
it's gonna be volleyball stuff I think doing like wrestling
and boxing, pickleball, even cheerleading, all this type of stuff. Yeah, pickleball,
(32:55):
it's it's getting into the even with Darius Miller, it's
getting in there. So yeah, he's just doing a bunch
of stuff like that. But the reason I went over there,
I think it was this past Friday, is he was
doing hosting a toy drive and his goal was to
bring in five hundred toys and have a local foster
home called Sunrise come and pick them up. And their
goal was to get five hundred toys. And I kind
(33:17):
of showed up early and there was still probably you know,
over one hundred there, and then I texted one of
the people that was working with and they said they
hit over their goal by the end of the night,
So it was like a five to nine thing and
they were able to hit over five hundred toys, but
all was in there was like while I was in there,
Darius was helping other kids like just shoot around, like
kind of teaching them some small basketball stuff. You had
some girl like some girls over here rolling up to
(33:38):
play volleyball, like some people just kind of hanging out.
Like he's trying to make it like a big community
thing as well. And then I know he has other
plans in store for like you know, restaurants and more
special events, and he wants to do more like turkey
giveaways and toy drives, like he wants to do more
stuff like this in general. So there's big stuff coming
from Darius over the next couple of months, and I'm
sure it'll be announced, like we'll post stuff on KSR
(33:59):
about as well. But yeah, he's getting very involved, him
and his wife as well. They're really trying to get
back to the community. And Darius A he's just he
really is one of the nicer guys you'll ever talk to.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Especially cool as that to just come back to Lexington
to buy a place and and then you can bring
your kid to a sports center like that. And then
Darius Miller is given I'm shooting it is like how cool.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Is that awesome?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I do want to leave you with one final question
before you leave us, Zach, before you interview Jade and
Quainton's and Cam Williams today. Uh, and that's about your
kind of articles that you've done on KSR. Is there
one that comes to mind when you think of, like,
you know, an impactful one or one that you're really
proud of? You know, you can find all these writings
at Kentucky Sports Radio dot com. But what kind of
(34:43):
you How many years have you been working there.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Full time now? I think I'm on over four and
a half years, four and a year, I think five
years full time in like February or something like that.
Is there was there a future article or something that
you're there? Is There's one article that I always go
back to when people ask me about something like that,
and it's when I first got brought on. I don't
do as much recruiting stuff anymore, but that was kind
of what I was brought on to do full time,
(35:06):
was recruiting. And Freddy Maggard hooked me up with the
Bryant family, Ty Brian, so I was able to talk
to Cisco Bryant and Ty And this was when Ty
was still at Frederick Douglas who's a junior there and
kind of still being lightly recruited. So I did a
big story about him, and just like his relationship with Cisco,
and Cisco had played at uk Kentucky's recruitment and everything,
so it started there and then I got to see
(35:28):
Ty commit to Kentucky. Then I got to see him
grow at Kentucky and get, you know, have a breakout
season this year. And you know, I've been able to,
you know, share some of those moments like with Ty
and Cisco and just say like, hey, like I appreciate
you all doing, you know, doing that interview with me
and kind of giving me a jump start, and it's
it's really awesome to see you all thriving now, you know,
have he many years later. So I was really proud
of that piece because it was like one of my
(35:49):
first big ones that I did and now was successful
and and he's successful absolutely, and I could probably go
play in the NFL one day, especially if he has
a good year coming up and decides to stick around
at Kentucky, which we all hope he does. I guess
we don't know for sure on all these transfer portals,
and all that stuff. It doesn't it doesn't open for
another week or two. But yeah, I was. That's the
piece I usually point to and the one that sticks out.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
And I've and I've done very little recruiting coverage over
my years, but I used to work for a couple
of newspapers and to be able to talk to a
parent and let them gush about their kid is a
lot of fun too. Like it's just you know, they
are living vicariously through their kids a lot of times,
for better or for worse. But you know, when you
get a for better one and they're actually making good decisions,
(36:30):
it is happy. It is nice to see their happiness. Yeah,
and even better when Ty Bryant somebody like that has success.
So if I look up Ty Bryant, Zach Gig and
I can find it online, then right, probably you'd have
to go back a few years, but it would be
up there for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well you do great work, Zach.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I appreciate you last minute jumping on with me another
one of shann the Dude's vacation days. We're all familiar
with them now, But keep up the good work. You
can follow Zach at z Gig and KSR online and
what kind of coverage you got coming up for us
this week or when when the new year starts.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Well, today, like I said, we'll go do these interviews
and then hey, what's up, Mario. We'll go do these
interviews and we'll be writing about that pretty much all day.
We're going to do a Zoom Action episode Brandon and
I with Steven Peak later on today, and then we
got Bellaman tomorrow and we're just kind of pushing along
at that point. Then we got a nice break coming up. Actually,
this little break games, Mario just barges in. I'm sorry
about that.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Zach. Hey, no, he lightens on on and he'll just
come in start talking. You know what.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Zach, Thank you, buddy, Thank you appreciate it. We'll take
a break.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
We will wrap things up on this Monday edition of
the KSRP Pre Show. On the other side of this break,
Billy Rutlers a big thank you to Zach Gagan here
on the ksrpre Show.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
It's our final segment of this Monday edition of the
KSR Pre Show. A reminder we are brought to you
by Drafting Sportsbook. Holiday football has arrived. The regular seasons
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Speaker 2 (37:53):
And if you use promo code.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
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bet wins, you'll get two hundred dollars in distantly in
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Bet must win to receive bonus bets, which expire in
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Speaker 2 (38:14):
Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources
see DKNG, dot co, slash Audio Limited time offer. Big
thank you to Zach for joining us here on the
pre show. I've got Mario on the mic. Now, how
you doing for a minute? What's up, dude? Yeah? I
saw you had Zach on man. He was great. Zack's
a great guy. He does great work.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Does and Mario, how prepared are you for Christmas coming
up this week?
Speaker 5 (38:39):
I'm still doing a little bit of last minute Christmas
shopping let's just say that I got a few gifts
over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
But I'm not done yet.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
It's madness out there, isn't it It is? You know,
the worst part about it is shopping. That's the worst
part about Christmas is actually shopping part.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Now, did you remember to bring a Christmas gift for
a Christmas exchange here at the iHeart office today?
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I made a quick stop at CVS before.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Oh, okay, so you did bring a game? I did?
I did. Do you not think I was gonna bring.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
I did not think you were going to bring one. No,
I thought you were going to forget and then have
to maybe run out during the next two hours.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I'm not like your co host Shandon the.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Dude, Well, he would bring a can of green beans.
Please give him a little bit more credit. I've got
a couple of things wrapped to My one rule today
is you're not allowed to make fun of my wrapping job.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
So I didn't wrap. I didn't wrap. It's fun. I
just brought it. Oh, so you didn't do any I
didn't do no rapping. No, I didn't have time. Okay,
but I did get a gift. Well, that's still better.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Than Shannon the dude who would give you a gift
in the Amazon box that it got mailed into.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
It's a little late. That's pretty bad, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Mario?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
That's pretty bad, man. But what do you expect from
Shannon the dude?
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Okay, well, now you're switching up a little bit because
I heard you talking trash about.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I was talking, of course I was. Of course I was, so,
why are you switching up? No, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
I'm not switching up. I'm not switching up at all.
But I was talking trash you were. Yeah, I had
a lot to say, especially especially about you, Billy are
so I will say that no at all, there's nothing.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
There's nothing here, folks. I was gonna that was what
I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
There's not much of a rivalry here, even though Matt
likes to play things up. You know, Shannon and I
were supposed to be in a boxing match back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
You ever heard of rough and rowdy with barstool Sports.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
They were doing these like boxing exhibitions, and Matt wanted us.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
In a boxing ring, in a boxing ring.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
How do you feel about, Well, we were going to
make it happen, but uh, I got in a car wreck,
and my lawyer was like, you cannot go in a
boxing match right now when you're in litigation right now.
So it's still up for the table, was it. I
mean it hasn't been on the table for a while. Okay,
But with all this talk about races, I mean, might
as well just put the boxing ring.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
We got to do the racist first, to racist first,
and then maybe the boxing.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Yeah, people were giving me some crap about that. At
least you backed me up there.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
I did say you would go second place.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Well, just youth alone, youth, I'm going to be second place.
Matt was trying to say Drew was going to beat
me in the race. He's sitting over here too. But Drew,
I mean, can't get out of bed. He said he
wouldn't get to the ship. He said he wouldn't be
surprised if he came in last. That wouldn't surprise him.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Okay, hold on, let me get through. Okay, Drew, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (41:07):
I've actually not had a chance to chime in on
this topic that's been lasting a week. Yes, you all
can put me last. I don't run anymore. About three
years ago, I looked in the mirror and said, this
is I'm done running unless there's a fire or an emergency.
These legs aren't picking up, so you need to run
fo Yeah, what what is the point of running? Nothing
unless I need to get somewhere in a hurry. So
I will happily take last in the race because I'm
(41:28):
not running.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
So he's last, and I'm case. Ryan Lemon's after that.
Drew's just he's not even gonna participate.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
The base stealer, like, that's like, who knows how fast?
Ryan lemon Is said, that was like years ago. Though,
that was like how long? Ryan twenty thirty years ago? Ago,
thirty years ago ago?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Okay, okay, well, hey we're out of time.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Big thanks to Zach, Ryan, Drew, Matt maybe even Mario
are coming up next on KSR. We've got some best
us coming up. We appreciate you listening. Everybody, have a
happy holiday. From the ksrpre Show.
Hosts And Creators
Shannon Grigsby
Billy Rutledge
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