5.23: Weekend Ready H1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get it started.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Good afternoon, Happy Friday, and welcome in coffee and company fuel.
Beth Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety A beautiful
Friday afternoon as we get you set for the holiday weekend,
and really I feel like we're going to get you
set for the summer as well. This weekend always feels
like these summer officially starts. I'm not sure if we're

(00:21):
going to feel that with the weather, but hey, it's
beautiful outside, a little cooler than what probably most folks
would prefer, unless you know, maybe you're outside because you
have to be outdoors for your job. If so, I'm
not sure you could get a much more beautiful and
pleasant day. But uh yeah, we got holiday weekend, and
I'll tell you what, as we get this thing started,

(00:43):
I'm not sure I have ever been in here at
three o'clock on a on a I mean, any day.
I was gonna say Friday, but it is a ghost
town here at our studios, which that's okay. I mean,
I'm not surprised a lot of folks get out pretty
early when you've got the long holiday weekend coming up.
So as I made my way around the building once

(01:06):
I got here about thirty minutes ago.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I mean there's probably I think it's me.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's big Time Carl Bln and who's producing this afternoon,
Gus Allen, who's producing for Terry Miners, And I think
that might be it. Maybe one other person, maybe two
other people, but if they're here, I didn't see them,
so but that's okay. We'll take you up till six o'clocks.
Mentioned get you set for the weekend. A lot to
get into today, and you can take us with you
wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeart Radio app.

(01:33):
Also listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. There'll
be plenty of ways for you guys to participate in
the show today. Be a part of it if you'd like,
and I'll let you know how you can do that
coming up here in just a moment. But I'm going
to the Bats game that I'm excited. And I mentioned
the weather not being maybe as warm as as everyone
as a lot of people would. Oh, I guess what.

(01:55):
I'm talking to people who are going to the lake
this weekend. I'm talking to people who are going to
want to be around a pool. I feel like there's
a lot of folks that this is the weekend annually
where they just make sure that they have the poll
open by then. I mean, you can still enjoy your
pool all summer without it being opened this weekend, but
I feel like it's the target date for a lot
of folks. So if that's you know, if you want

(02:16):
to be around water, you want to be in water,
You're probably gonna be pretty chilly this weekend. But again,
the bat's played tonight, which of course you'll hear that
game right here on Sports Talk seven ninety, but should
be a good night. I've got a hoodie on, no shorts.
I'm gonna make sure when my wife meets meets us
there at at the ballpark that the kids are not
bundled up. I mean, I don't want to be dramatic,

(02:36):
but I mean it's when the sun goes down and
it's breezy like it has been today, it's going to
be kind of chilly, but should be a good evening.
And again I'm looking forward to the big holiday weekend,
and this is the fifth after today, there'll be just
four shows left for me here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
and I don't want to drag that out. I'm sure

(02:57):
I've probably made it a bigger talking point than a
lot of people probably would prefer. But I also want
to make sure that whenever this isn't here meaning coffee
and Company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety,
when it is no more, starting June second, that you
at least know where I'm at. You know, I didn't
I didn't leave town.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I didn't. I didn't. You know I didn't quit. I
didn't get fired.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I guess I could somehow get myself fired from now
until then, I hope that doesn't happen. But I'm just
going to be moving up your radio dial a lot
earlier in the day. In fact, it'll be middle of
the night morning, depending upon how you want to look
at it. So I'm going to be taking over Tony Cruz,
who will be retiring. His last show will be Friday,
a week from today, and then June second, that's whenever

(03:41):
a new world starts for me. And I was talking
to Carl before the show started, and I mean, I'm
telling myself next week, meaning the week before it becomes official,
I need to I'm going to start getting up as
if I'm needing to be on the air at five am,
hoping that by the time we get to June second,

(04:02):
I'll be a little bit more prepared. But I've also
kind of thought to myself, well, why not just take
advantage of like the days I still have left to
sleep in, Because I've talked to Tony Cruz others that
have been a part of the morning show in some
former fashion over the years, and you really never get

(04:22):
used to it. And then some tell me that they
lose the ability to sleep in because after many years
of just being programmed Monday through Friday to get up
at probably three point thirty or maybe four o'clock at
the latest, it just kind of becomes routine. And I mean,
I'm hopeful you can go back to sleep after you
wake up, but still you want to, you know, sleeping

(04:42):
in For me, the best case scenario for sleeping in,
which I don't often sleep in.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Guess sleep until eight o'clock will be considered sleeping in
moving forward in my new life. But usually you want
to sleep in unbothered. You don't wake up, you just realize, hey,
I got a few extra hours of sleep, more so
than what I'm used to and I'm feeling refreshed. I
hope I can still have that once I make this,
make this transition. But the only person who has told
me that they you know that told me two things

(05:11):
that and I believe both. It never gets easy. You
get used to it, but it's never easy to just realize, hey,
it's three o'clock or three thirty or maybe even four
o'clock and you got to get up and you got
to start your day. That's really early. But also you know, you,
you know, will you be able to sleep in? I
don't sleep in now, even as someone who doesn't.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Get up that early.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
But Paul Rodgers, of course, the legendary voice of the
Cards when he was doing the sports for Kentucky and
his morning news for many, many many years. I mean,
he was the sports anchor for Kentucky and his morning
news for a long long time before I guess it
was around twenty twenty when that came to an end.
But he told me he never had any problem at
any point sleeping in when he wanted to, which I'm

(05:53):
hopeful that I can follow in that path because it
would be nice to because really it's it's the mental component, right,
like sometimes even if even if you know you don't
have to get up early, but you probably will still
wake up early. That's a much different evening than knowing, hey,
now I got it.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
It's like a chore. It's a job. You gotta lay.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Down and try your best to fall asleep because you
got to get up before too long.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Just the mental component of knowing.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Hey, if I wake up early, cool, I can just
roll over and try to go back to bed. That's
a better mindset, I guess than having the well I
better get to sleep, because three point thirty three, forty five,
whatever it is, it's gonna come, it's gonna come early.
So again, after today, there'll be four more shows because
we're out on Monday for the holidays. So gonna make

(06:41):
next week a fun week at least I'm gonna try
my best to do that, and then of course we'll
have some fun today. As mentioned, we're gonna take you
up until six o'clock, and if you guys want to
join us on the show, we will open up the
phone lines coming up here after the first segment. You
can give us a call five O two five seven
one seventy nine hundred. You can also text in on
the L and N Federal Credit Union Tech Line five
HO two four three eight ninety seventy three. There's a

(07:04):
lot we can get into today. In fact, I probably
have more prepared today to run through than I have
in quite some time. It just kind of worked out
that way with the recent change to the College Football Playoff,
meaning they're no longer going to give buys to those
who win the conference championship. They're just going to seed
it one through twelve. That'll be this upcoming season. That's

(07:29):
the way that it should be. And we have two
completely different I guess ways to react to this from
those who feel like, because let's be real, if you're
in the Big Twelve, like Arizona State last year, you
know you were not somebody that was probably worthy of
a top four seed and a bye, but you got

(07:50):
it because you win your league. Same thing for Boise State.
Boise State last year ended up being I guess the
highest ranked conference champion. They were ranked higher than the
AC champ therefore they got they got that spot. So
Boise State they're boohooin as if they're against it. Whereas

(08:11):
the Big Twelve commissioner, Brett Yormack, he came out and
said something that I'll give him credit because I'm going
to just assume that he's being genuine. He's not, you know,
just given us lip service here. But he said today
might not have This was his comment from yesterday's news.
He said that, and I'm paraphrasing here. I wish I
had the quote directly in front of him, in front
of him, but I don't. But he said, today may

(08:34):
not have been a great day for the Big Twelve,
but it's a great day for the future of college
football and the playoffs something along those lines, which I
think that's actually a good way to look at it,
because I mean, you could lie to everybody and act
as if you, as a Big Twelve champ are annually
always going to be worthy of a top four seed

(08:55):
and a bye, but that's realistically not the case. I mean,
Kansas State and all these early rankings for next season
or I guess the upcoming season, I should say for
college football, Kansas State is the highest ranked team I've seen,
and they're borderline twenty. So as much as I bag
on the ACC in needing to be better and mostly basketball,
but football certainly is behind the Big Ten in the SEC.

(09:19):
But it also seems as if right now, like if
the teams going into this season end up being as
good as we believe they are, the Clemsons, the Miamis,
the Louisville's, the SMUs, then I think the ACC should
be firmly at number three. And then you know, you
hope that there's the occasional year where maybe you can
be competing better with the big dogs like the SEC

(09:44):
in the Big Ten. I just think it's going to
be tough to envision, given that those leagues now have
just so much depth. I mean, the SEC has already
been a monster for so long, and then now they've
added Texas and Oklahoma and the Big Ten. I mean,
I think the Big Ten really got better with their
additions more than the SEC did, because the Big Ten
is Ohio State's conference. Penn State's been there, they've been consistent,
they're really good. But Michigan had that run with Horrball,

(10:07):
and we know what happened with that.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
That was.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, that was Connor Stallion's. It was his work
really that put Michigan in a different situation than they
were throughout the first however many years it was for
Harrball before he finally broke through and made the playoff.
So the Big ten again, it's it's Ohio State, Penn
State's usually really good, Michigan usually pretty solid. And then

(10:31):
outside of that, I mean Michigan State they had those
random years where they were really really good, but that's
certainly been a long time since that happened. And then
now you've got USC, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon, and Washington, which
I mean, Oregon's a monster USC at any moment can

(10:52):
be UCLA. I don't really know what the future holds
for them. And then with Washington, clearly they took a
step back when klen de Borr left, but you know,
they're a program that's consistently been pretty good.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
So anyways, this.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Move to re work the twelve seeded format where you
don't give anybody any automatic bid, you just seed it
one through twelve.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
That's the right way to go about it.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
But you've got one side of it, which is, you know,
the Mountain West and I honestly don't even know is
Boise going to the new PAC twelve that's going to
call itself the PAC twelve, but clearly just be a
different version of the Mountain West. Either way, we can
get intoto that a little bit. Also, we talked about
the college football coaching rankings that CBS Sports gave us

(11:38):
this week. They gave us one through sixty eight of
the Power for Coaches This and I love list season
off season rankings, summer stuff just because it gets me
so excited for college football season. And it's a better
scenario when you're able to get excited for the college
football season and also see things about your team, your
program that gets you even more excited. So, Jeff Brom

(12:01):
being listed as the seventeenth best coach in college football,
that was awesome to see. Not super surprising, but certainly
nice to see your head coach getting some love. But
also Louisll's running back room. There is a ranking from
I Believe It's Pro Football Focus that ranks the best
running back groups within college football for this upcoming season
and not a surprise, but where Louisville ranked was pretty high.

(12:25):
And I mean that just seems dangerous right a Jeff
Brom offense. Hopefully Miller Moss can step in and be
maybe not Tyler Shuck but something close to it. Fingers crossed.
Will see if that ends up happening. But even if
he can't you got some good running backs that can
definitely help you move the ball down the field, which
I feel like giving Jeff brom elite running backs like

(12:46):
Isaac Brown and Duke Watson. I mean, I think that's
like it's unfair, but I'll take it. Sticking with college football,
the annual Athlon Sports Anonymous Quotes from Coaches is out.
I haven't seen the ACC, but the SEC has come out.
I don't think they put out the ACC yet, but
we'll tell you what anonymous coach has said about Kentucky

(13:08):
football for this upcoming season. It probably won't surprise you
when you end up hearing it. So we can certainly
get into that, and also coming up a little later
on Mark Pope was with the KSR crew this week
at some point. I don't believe it was a live interview.
I think they ended up going and recording it and
then kind of just sharing it on KSR in chunks.

(13:30):
But hearing Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelcey will just
make It's just gonna make me give you a recycled take,
which is that we can keep hoping and you know,
believing that one day with these two coaches here within
the rivalry, Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey. We can hope
that one day there'll be some real contentious animosity where

(13:52):
they don't like each other, and maybe they're you know,
they're they're at each other's throats because of, you know,
being a rivalry and something is transpired to where they
don't like each other, somebody did something that made the
other one feel a certain way, like maybe that ends
up happening. Who knows, Only time will tell. But hearing
Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelcey just confirms what I believe,
which is that it's if you're at this point anybody

(14:16):
talking about it being like a rivalry within those two,
it's just a force. Now again, fans make a rivalry
and that's all that matters. We're always going to be
going at each other and that's what makes sports great.
But when I hear Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelsey,
when I hear Pat Kelsey talk about Mark Pope, I
do think there's a level of genuine respect among each

(14:38):
other and that they it'd be a real force if
they had to speak sideways about one another. Also, I
kind of forgot this was even a thing, but the
iu UK basketball series back on, I guess we now
have the official date for when Indiana is going to
go into Rup and play And this is the way,

(14:58):
Like this just seems it's like a really good offseason
thus far in college basketball around here. When it comes
to getting games on the schedule that should be played.
Louisville obviously we know that. You know, they're going to
play Indiana. That's been in the works I think for
a while. But they're also now going to play Cincinnati
in Memphis this year.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
That's just the way it should be.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
And with Kentucky, they played Indiana for a long time
and then obviously Cal went to Bloomington and lost and
cried and talked about how the atmosphere was too dangerous
for his players, and you know he boohooed. And to
be fair, Kentucky doesn't really need Indiana on the schedule
because Indiana, to be fair, is not been really pulling

(15:43):
their weight when it comes to the college basketball you know,
blue blood status in quite some time. I mean Indiana,
I always defend him, and I do think all it
takes is a good coach and they'll be one of
the best programs in the country. Now, does that equate
to Final Fours? In titles. That's much different conversation. But
if Darien Devrees is as good of a coach as

(16:04):
I think he is, Indiana should be really good.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Because they've got all the resources.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
All it takes is somebody to, you know, get it done,
and they've just really since Bob Knight. They hired one
coach who I think was really good, and then he
got caught at the time doing something that was considered
illegal by NCAA bylaws and that changed a lot of things.
That was Kelvin Sampson. Tom Creane was fine, but they
never broke through and he had too many seasons where

(16:29):
they should have been better than they were. But now
that this series is back on between Indiana and Kentucky,
that's just.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Good for college basketball. These are like these are the.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Kind of games that can only help when it comes
to attendance in viewership issues that we've seen in college
basketball prior to March Madness. I don't know if you're
going to see sellout crowds for these games. Maybe you will,
but long ago, there should have been a real push
to say, look, let's stop playing Long Beach State and

(17:00):
Montana Tech on a random November or December evening, Let's
actually go out here and schedule games that fans want
to see, because that will do what It'll get people
more inclined to say, you know, I want to be there.
That's going to be a good atmosphere, that's going to
be a good game. And you're always going to have
the games against the teams that a lot of people
don't know much about or maybe you have never even
heard of. But reducing as many of those as possible

(17:23):
can only help you, because one, it's good for the fans,
but also you'll be more battle tested. And yeah, you
might take some losses, but I think we've learned recently
with the NAA Committee, you beating nobody's by thirty doesn't
do anything for you. If you lose to a decent
team or a good team, that's still probably going to
be a means a loss. It still counts as an

(17:45):
l But I think we've seen recently with the committee
that they don't really hold that against you if you're
actually playing really good teams. And then, of course, how
could I not mention this in our first segment. We've
got Game two of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight. Hope
full that my Pacers can carry momentum into this one,
because man, they're riding some momentum after that come from

(18:06):
behind victory just a couple of nights ago still doesn't
seem real. But it was real and it was awesome,
And if they get this thing, if they win tonight,
it's a sweep.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
I believe that.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I mean, the Pacers clearly can be beat They're not perfect,
and the Knicks they're a good team. They were the
better team in that game just a couple of nights ago,
for what ninety eight percent of it maybe, So I'm
not trying to get ahead of myself and get too
confident here, but I think if the Knicks end up

(18:40):
leaving Madison Square Garden to head to Indy for Game
three in Game four and they don't have a win
to show for their first two games, having home court advantage,
I think they're just going to crawl in there and
get beat.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Down in Indie. Again.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I could be wrong, trust me, I'm wrong often. We've
been on the air twenty minutes. I've probably been wrong
multiple times since we started the show. So I'm not
guaranteeing anything. I just think if they win tonight, which
again easier said than done. I think it'll be hard
to envision New York rallying and being able to keep
this thing a series, but we shall see. So also,

(19:14):
one last thing, I want to make sure and mention
that we get that make sure and mention because I
don't want to get to it later. I think today
was a big day for those of you that will
work in college athletics that worry about sort of what
this new revenue sharing world will do for you. We've
got one school, a power school by the way, a
school from the SEC that has already started laying off

(19:37):
staffers and they're claiming it is due to the revenue
sharing that is coming. So there's already been so much
change in college sports in the last three four years.
I say it all the time because it's you know,
we're a college market. We talk about college sports here
more than we talk about anything, and it is a
different world now compared to what it was just a
few years ago. But once you start having that annual

(19:58):
twenty plus million dollar bill that you have because you've
got to sheer revenue now, I mean it changes things.
So again, we're loaded today. If you guys want to
join us on the show, you can again the text line.
It's the L and N Federal Credit Union text line
five O two four three eight ninety seventy three. And
if you want to give us a call, you can
do that too, five O two five seven one seventy
nine hundred. It's Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's right

(20:20):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety all right, three twenty
eight here on a Friday afternoon, it is coffee and Company,
and we are fueled by Thornton's. The last place I
was prior to walking in here to our iHeart Studios
at four Street Live was Thornton's. Stopped in at the
location right there off for Fern Valley Road on sixty five.

(20:42):
Got myself what I typically need before the show, which
is an energy drink, and you can still get three.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Monster Energy drinks.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
I go with the white, but there's all kinds of
different flavors, and I've actually not tried many other than
like maybe two or three.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Maybe if I'm mix it up, I may realize that
there's other flavors that I like, but I just stick
with what I know. But anyways, whatever you like, if
you like them, you can get three of them for
seven bucks. That is not just a deal. That's a steal.
You put in your phone number at checkout, or you
scan your Refreshing Awards membership card and you'll save. And
this is one of those things that I just keep thinking,
there's no way they're gonna keep this around forever, right

(21:20):
because I mean it's a steal. So again, we were
probably feel about Thornton's. If you haven't sign up yet
to become a member of the Refreshing Awards program, you can.
All you got to do is down all the app
on your Android, your iPhone and you will.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Be good to go.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
All right, So the Pacers in the Knicks will take
We'll get it started tonight in game two. I'm gonna
do a little I know yesterday I believe it was
Pacers plus five and a half. They were underdogs, and
I'm certain they still are. But let's see if there's
been any change here in the spread. It wouldn't shock
me if there hasn't, and there has been, but it's

(21:54):
actually more so in favor of the Knicks. So now
you've got Nick's. Mine is six, so the Pacers six
point dogs. I don't think I'm going to touch this one.
But I'm also not going to be surprised at all
if the Pacers win this thing outright, because even if
you didn't have the situation that you had on Wednesday night,
which was just i mean, one of the best comebacks

(22:15):
you'll ever see in the NBA playoffs ever, which you
got to wonder if maybe maybe it didn't even seem
as crazy because the Pacers had done it two other
times in this postseason. Now again it wasn't quite a comeback,
and against the Bucks or the Cavs like they were,
I mean again, they would have four, they would have
fourteen points with less than three minutes left and came

(22:36):
back in one, which is just crazy to say. But
Tyre's Halliburton. He has absolutely been the clutch player.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Aaron Nesmith is the reason. Halliburton was in the position
to hit the big shot to at the time seemingly
end it. But then we learned his foots on the
line and obviously he you know, he only got two.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Therefore they went to overtime in one.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
But Aaron Nesmith was in I'm not sure if he'll
I mean, he may end up having a really good
career the rest of the way.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Which he probably will. He's a good player.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
But what he did in the fourth quarter against the
Knicks on Wednesday, I mean, you won't see that.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Maybe ever.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I mean, again, this sounds like hyperbole, This sounds like
recency bias, sounds like a Homer Pacers fan, which I am.
But the only other time that that has happened in
the postseason, And I know I said this many times yesterday,
but this just this is so crazy. Why not say
it once again? But the only other player that did

(23:32):
what Aaron Nei Smith that did on Wednesday was Reggie Miller,
and he did it against the Knicks in nineteen ninety
four in the Garden. The only two players in league
history to have twenty plus points and five plus three
pointers in the fourth quarter of a playoff game on
an opponent's home court. So credit to Nei Smith. But again,
Haliburton has really just been the clutch player, and I

(23:55):
felt it when he had the ball late with that
chance to either tie or potentially when I mean, I
had confidence that I don't typically have. I'm a pessimist
by nature, That's just how I am. But currently Halliburton
is an elite company because when it comes to the
most game tying or go ahead field goals made in

(24:16):
the playoffs. Lebron James has eight, which is the lead.
Nobody has more than eight. Reggie Miller has five, Halliburton
has four, Kobe Bryant has four, and this is random
as hell. Chris Middleton has four, which I don't. I mean,
I remember Chris Middleton, of course for his role in

(24:37):
the Bucks when they were in a much different spot
than they were in the last couple of years. But yeah,
I would have never guessed it was Chris Middleton, but
it is, so shout out to him, all right, So
let's talk about the Let's see, let me make sure
I'm given proper credit here. Yeah, it is Pro Football Focus.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
They do a.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Lot of football content and a lot of analytics, as
some would say, a lot of nerd driven content, but hey,
I'm nerd out for it, especially when it's propping up
the team I root for, which is Louisville. So they
have given us their annual off season rankings for certain positions,
and they now have the top ten running back rooms

(25:21):
in the twenty twenty five season, and Louisville comes in
at number four. I mean, you got to keep in mind,
they've got Isaac Brown and Duke Watson who were phenomenal
last year as true freshman. I mean, Isaac Brown was
one of the best freshmen in the country, was acc
I don't know if they call it Freshman of the
Year or Newcomer of the Year, whatever it is, but

(25:41):
he was special and you could tell Lee as you
got closer to the start of the season. I think
they wanted to kind of play it cool, as if
maybe they didn't realize they had something super special with
Isaac Brown, but it was really hard for them to
do that. I think anytime you'd have a coach talking
after practice, during fall camp or even during the summer,
I mean I think they it would be hard for

(26:01):
him not to. When talking about the personnel on offense,
mentioned Isaac Brown as a guy that's just a little
bit different, and he showed that early on. And then
really it was a Notre Dame game up in South
Bend where I feel like it really stood out that
he was he was a special talent even though he's
a true freshman eighteen years old. He's a guy that's
going to be a factor for you right away, and

(26:22):
he was. And the Duke Watson if you remember, he
didn't he didn't necessarily get a whole lot of action
early on. But by the time this season was, this
past season was winding down, it was you had you
had two running backs that were really the core of
your of your backfield, and they were both really good,
and again they were both true freshmen. Because Duke Watson,

(26:42):
he ended up I'm pretty sure I can go back
and double check this, but he ended up getting enough
carries because of just the workload he was given in
the last three to four games to where he did
qualify as far as this stat most rushing yards per carry,
and I'm pretty sure he led the country in yards
per carry. And then Kewan Brown. There's not really any

(27:05):
stats specifically that I can think of that make him
as good as I believe he is. And he's not
proven quite like Isaac Brown or Duke Watson. But I've
always felt like this kid's got a lot of potential.
He's a really good athlete, strong, strong running back from Atlanta.
I mean, he showed it against FCS opponents in the

(27:26):
first couple of years, and then he's made some plays
here and there. It's not like he's only done it
against that caliber competition. But if he's your third back,
I mean, I think that speaks to how talented you
are in your running back room. And I'd forgot that
he initially hit the portal and it committed to Boise State.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
I believe it was.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
I guess he was going to be the potential replacement
for their star running back who's now in the NFL.
I don't know, I can't think of his name, but
you know what I'm talking about, right, So, Kewan Brown
being your third back again.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
That speaks to just how loaded you are.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
So the only other programs that have better running acts
according to Pro Football Focused, You've got Texas at number one,
Notre Dame at number two, and then Penn State at
number three. And I know that Louisville's receivers, you know,
there's some that think that maybe that's a spot that
they really are gonna, you know, gonna have a question

(28:19):
mark there, which I don't know if that's the right
way to describe it, because I think everybody realizes with
Colin Lacy coming back, that's a pretty big deal.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
I mean, he's a special player.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
And I mean right at the time he decided to
opt out and just salvage a year of eligibility. I
mean that was right around the time we realized that
we had something special. But to get him to stick
around here, that's big time. And you even saw it
in the bowl game. He was able to play in
that Bowl game without it counting towards him burning a
year of eligibility. And then I think Corey Bell or

(28:48):
not Cory Bell, Chris Bell, I.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Think he's he.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
I think it's safe to say his season last year
was a breakout type season. So I like what they've
got at receiver. But I know some people aren't as optimistic.
But even if you do take a step back at
the receiver spot, because you do, you're gonna miss you
Cory Brooks obviously. But if you've got these if you've
got a line that can that can, you know, do

(29:12):
their part. You've got some ball carriers that can can
absolutely help you sustain drives and help you put some
points on the board. All right, it's coffee and company.
Phil about Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. If
you guys want to give us a call, you can
five oh two five seven seventy nine hundred is the number.
You can also text in five h two four three
eight ninety seventy three. All right, So this text came

(29:37):
in right as the show had started, and it was
a question surrounding.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
The exhibition, the charity exhibition.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Games that college basketball programs have been playing I think
for the.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Last few years.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
And I the question is, you know, is there a
scenario where Louisville could end up playing one of these
big time exhibitions that fans can watch and get a sense.
And I'm paraphrasing here. I don't have the text in
front of me, but to answer your question, I don't
know if Louisville has any right I mean, I don't
think they have any right now that have been announced,
and maybe they're working on some from behind the scenes.

(30:13):
But Kentucky, I know they're playing Georgetown that got announced
earlier this week, where they're going to play them in
an exhibition game. And I could be wrong, but I
believe the format is this. It's not a real game,
it doesn't count, but you can per you know, I
think they I don't know if I don't remember if
they let fans come or not. But even when they
don't let fans come, it'll be available for you to

(30:35):
watch in some way, And I think money, like if
you pay in some of these games, if you pay
to like buy the stream to watch it, that money
goes towards charity. So you get a chance to actually
play a good team before your season starts. It doesn't
count against you if you lose. Also doesn't count towards
you if you win, towards your resume if you win,
but it gives you a chance to, I guess, kind

(30:55):
of see where you stand before you actually get a
season started. So yeah, I'm envious. I think a tucky. Also,
maybe this is something I'm making up in my head,
but I think, aren't they playing Perdue as well in
one of these exhibition games?

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Maybe I dream that.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
I don't know, But either way, I would love for
Louisville to have one of these games on the schedule.
But as far as is it actually happening, I've got
no clue, no clue at all all right, what I
want to get to coming up here on the other side,
the athletic they have put together it's really Stuart Mandel
who does the bulk of the college football work for

(31:30):
the athletic, and he has put together his top twenty
five college programs of the two thousands, and I'll go
ahead and give you a spoiler alert. There's no local
team here mentioned, but I do want to take a
look at sort of how it came together. We're not
going to break it down one through twenty five, but
I feel like Louisville was probably maybe just on the

(31:52):
outside looking in. Maybe I'm wrong here, but when I
see teams twenty one through twenty five, I feel like
Louisville had it not been for the Bobby year of
completely just falling apart, had it not been for I
guess maybe the Crag years.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
And then I suppose, I mean, SAT.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Never had a bad, bad year, but you really were
just you were stuck in no man's land where you
weren't really good, but you also weren't terrible enough to
fire a coach. So we can take a look at that.
And uh, we got a lot more to get into,
including something that makes me happy that we can talk
about later.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
The penny.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yes, the penny, the actual you know, the the coin
that people probably just throw away now is dead. The
US Treasury has announced they're going to officially stop manufacturing
the penny in twenty twenty six, and My question is this,
who's upset about this? I mean, who wants pennies? It
is wild to think about that pennies may eventually down

(32:53):
the line, like when I'm really, really old, god willing,
I make it to be very, very old, that like
a penny is going to be a rare thing to fined.
But then again, there's so many of them, and nobody
want like, nobody's keeping them as a I mean, nobody's
keeping a penny any at any point. Now, hard for
me to imagine it would be like a collector's item
down the line, But I guess only time will tell us.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
So stick with us again.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
We'll take you up till six o'clock, getting you set
for the holiday weekend. A lot of you seemingly have
already started the holiday weekend, so cheers to you, but
double take you up till six. Right here, it's coffee
and company, feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
That's right, coffee and company, fuel about Thornton's here on
Sports Talk seven ninety, getting you set for the holiday weekend.
Appreciate you hanging out with us, and we now bring

(33:34):
in a special guest from Racing Louisville as well as
Louisville City FC. It is the one and only mister
Jeff Milby. Jeff, how are we doing, brother Nick?

Speaker 3 (33:42):
I am doing wonderfully, but not as wonderfully as I
hear you were doing. I just wanted to be among
the last to congratulate you on your move to the
mothership over at News Radio eight forty. Whas really excited
for you, man, what's cool news.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I really appreciate that. And I ask you, what's it
like getting up that early regularly? Because I know you've
done it before, and and you know, I've yet to
have anybody tell me it was gonna be easy, and
I'm sure you probably aren't gonna do that either.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
No, I mean it's it's not easy, and especially for
you because you are not a coffee drinker despite your name.
Correct you in the coffee.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, though it might be.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
I'd tell you when I was on that shift working
that show with Tony Cruz, I don't know that I
could have made it without some coffee. I mean, come,
like Wednesday Thursday. You sleep in on the weekend, right,
but Wednesday Thursday you start to feel it when that
when that three thirty alarm alarm kicks in. So you know,
my advice to you just live on the vibes of
the show man, live on the vibes of the show.
And I tell you what the biggest challenge of that

(34:40):
show is making sure that you have an extra set
of clothes for Dwight Whitten when it comes in. And
I'll come in without a shirt, and you just got
to be ready for him. So you know, maybe pack
pack an extra set shirt, shoes, some underwear form just
in case, because you never know when he's gonna when
he's gonna turn up.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
And and I think you and I are relatively close
to the same aide. So you're telling me that when
you were doing the S Show with Tony Cruz and
getting up really really early, like I'm about to start,
you were still able to, like the mental alarm clock
would be off. On the weekends, you could actually sleep
in a little bit without like just waking up automatically.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
You know, Nick, I've never been a dude that just
wakes up. I mean natural sleep in kind of person. Good.
I didn't have a children right now, I would sleep
into like noon every day. So for me, for me.
It never reset, But boy oh boy, was it an adjustment.
Those afternoon naps really hit. That's what I'll tell you
after I get home from work. Those afternoon naps were
really important, really much.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
I'm gonna have to embrace the nap and also found
the balance to where it's not where I sleep so
long to where then I can't sleep at night because
then it just turns into a really bad cycle.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
But I'll adjustin.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
I really do appreciate you your kind words there. I'm
excited and gonna make the most of these last last
five shows i've got here on seven ninety. Let's get
an update on how things are going. We'll start with
Racing lou before we get to Lose City.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
How's the club been doing lately? I know they are.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
They're on the road this weekend against Angel City FC,
but they'll be back in action here as we get
June started at Lynn Family Stadium.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, next home game opportunity for both teams is that's
first weekend in June June sixth, June seventh, back to
back nights of soccer Lynn Family Stadium, Racing on the
Friday night, lou City on the Saturday night. But yeah,
racing this weekend at Angel City. Where are they located?
You might be asking, well, in the City of Angels,
Los Angeles out in La California, Sunshine for racing this
week and makes sense, right, some solid branding there from

(36:31):
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney who owns that team. Look,
it's another game, Nick, This NDWSO league is so there's
a glut of teams in the middle. There are like
two teams that have separated themselves, Kansas City, San Diego's
up there now, Washington they're in that group that separated themselves.
And there are two teams at the bottom Chicago and Utah.
But everybody else in the middle is a winnable game

(36:52):
for racing Louisville right now, from second down to racing
Louisville in eleventh place, only six points separate those teams
from second to eleven, and six points is two wins,
get three points for a win, So it is close.
It is tight right now in the NWSL.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Is that typical?

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Is that typical with the league for it to be
that competitive that that you know you've got a lot
of balance there.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah, for sure, it is typical of the league, would
say Nick. Last year was a little bit of an
outlier because there were a couple of teams that ran
away with it, namely Orlando who won the title. But
this this is the league that operates on a salary cap,
and it's a really strict salary cap. I mean, you
talk about the NBA, there's a lot of conversation about
second second apron teams and teams spending over the cap.
Not the case in the NWSL, and everybody spends pretty
close to that cap limit. So there is a lot

(37:35):
of talent spread across the league. There's a lot of
parody spread across the league. Generally, year in and year out,
it is a very competitive league from top to bottom.
By design, that's what they want, right They don't want
any team to feel like they're out of it in
any given year. So that's the way the league typically is,
and it's an opportunity for Racing Louisville. They've got four
games left before they shut down for a month for

(37:56):
summer international tournaments like the European Championships and other big
international tournaments for the national teams get together, kind of
like the World Cup. They're going to pause the league
for a month in the summer for that. So there's
four games to go for Racing Louisville before that pause.
They've got angel City this weekend. They're in seventh place,
Racing down in eleventh, so a gettable game and scene
that's competing for that final playoff spot in eighth place.

(38:16):
And then next week when they come or rather after
this international break next week and they'll come home for
that June sixth game, they take on Utah, who is
one of those two teams in the bottom. They are
second from last in the league. So it is a
very winnable game, maybe a should win game for Racing
Louisll when they come back to Lynn Famley Stadium on
June sixth. So an important time right now with these
four games leading into that month long break in July

(38:38):
for them to get some points, make some hay, get
into that playoff picture before they go on that break,
and then the second half of the season will start
in August. We're calling it the down the stretch part
of the season. That'll be really when they make the
difference for this playoff push. But an important crucial time
right now to get some points in the bag, move
up the standings before they take a little pause for
a while.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Well, so the last month they had to draw against Portland,
and then they got two wins with the win against
Houston as well as Gotham FC, and then fell short
recently to to Seattle Rain. What has been I guess
a theme with this group in the last month or
so as they start I feel like, when you get
to this point in the season, you certainly developed an identity.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
I would say, Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say, Nick.
They have really honed in on what their identity is.
You talked about those back to back wins. They'd be
Houston on the road, then they come home and they
have a win over Gossam in a nationally televised game
on Amazon Prime. Is the team that's going to press,
They're going to outwork the opposition. That's the idea of
this team. They're going to run harder, run more, and
work harder than the team that they're facing on the

(39:38):
other side of the field. And in many ways that
was the case last week and that lost to Seattle.
It's one of those frustrating games. I talk about soccer
being a game where there can be flutes. If this
were a football game, Racing would have out gained the
up the opponent like four hundred yards to one fifty,
but still somehow managed to lose the game. That's the
way the game went. They dominated possesion, They had over
sixty percent possession, They had twenty shots, twelve corner kicks,

(40:01):
and Seattle hardly had the ball on the other half
of the field. But Seattle hit them on one fast break,
one counter attack going the other way scored and Racing
just couldn't break them down because after Seattle went up,
they dropped everybody back and just sat outside of their
box and said, here, Racing, you can have the ball.
See if you can break us down. We're gonna put
all eleven players pretty much in the in the mouth

(40:21):
the goal of the goal of the mouth of the
goals that I'm trying to say, and they just couldn't
do it. It was just one of those unfortunate games. But
still for a loss, a good performance and a performance
you can take some positives out of and some confidence
out of, and so they have an opportunity to take
that confidence, maybe take a little a little edge after
losing a game they felt like they should have won
based on the performance and go out to California and

(40:43):
get an important result against Angel City ten o'clock Saturday night.
It's one for the late nighters, ten pm on nationally
televised game, you know, for the night owls. This might
be your last opportunity neck to be a night owl
before you have to start right. No, so this is
your your Saturday night opportunity here is, you know, get
a few cold ones on the couch, watch the game

(41:05):
on I for one in the morning. That's right, watch
a little footy.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
I like it all right.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
So with Louisville City FC, obviously they had the close
one that they fell just short in the Open Cup
against Minnesota United and then since then a couple of
a couple of draws. What kind of momentum do we
have here? Again, we're spoiled when it comes to Low CITYFC.
They've just they just went a lot. We're just used
to that. But since that that close loss to Minnesota

(41:31):
United FC, sort of, where where do we go from here?
You mentioned the next chance to see both these teams
will be next weekend. I'm sorry, once we get to June,
so kind of I guess where they are as far
as developing their identity again they win, But is it
another year where we can expect and hope for a
push in the postseason.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, look, I mean that's the standard for Louisville City, right.
They are the winningest all time team in the USL Championship.
They're the only team to win back to back titles
in the history of the league in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen,
you know, with a nine consecutive Eastern Conference finals in
the playoffs up until last year. This is a team
that perennially wins. And so for that reason, back to
back ties with a loss in that three game stretch,

(42:10):
a loss and then two ties kind of feels like
a downward swing, right, three games without a win feels
like a downward swing. Based on the standards of this team,
we are absolutely, we absolutely are spoiled. Yes, but it's
a team that's struggling with injuries right now, especially up top.
They're a little fin in the forward position. Uh, Philip
Goodroom is healthy, but he's kind of battling a leg

(42:30):
injury at the moment. And then Sam Glidal, the backup
forward to him, is out for a little while right
now with an injury as well. So it's injuries are
playing a factor, and then there's travel. Last week they
were at Hartford in Connecticut, all the way up in
New England. This week they're at Monterey Bay, which is
in a place called Seaside, California in northern California, so
a California trip, And the next week they're going to
be in Virginia to face Loud and United. So they're

(42:51):
criss crossing the country right now while they're a little
bit beat up. So I think for for lou City,
the mentality right now is just survived this little stretch.
Survived for the most try to avoid taking a loss,
try to avoid having a few bad results in a
row until you get your guys healthy, get your team healthy,
and maybe get some reinforcements in the potential for a
move in the works over the next week or so

(43:12):
that you might keep your eyes peeled for if you're
a Loose City fan, that would be a reinforcement in
that attack in the in the offensive end. But they're
just trying to survive right now and get home on
June seventh, where they'll face the Tampa Bay Rowdies, typically
a great team that's been a rivalry in the last
five six years. They met in the Eastern Conference final
two years in a row. But Tampa Bay is down
on their luck right now, they're down in last place.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
We'll take advantage of just what the doctor, exactly.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
What they're going to do. That's exactly what the doctor ordered.
They perhaps will need it when they get home after
this road trip that's coming up. On June seventh, LU
City against the Tampa Bay Rowties at Lynn Family Stadium.
A chance for Lucity to maybe knock a few in
against their old rival of years past when they're kicking
while they're down. Kind of game against your rival. So
we'll see what happens. That's the mentality right now for
LU Cities. Just survive right now.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Good stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Jeff is always appreciate the time. Enjoy the holiday week
in my man, and we'll talk next week.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Yes, sir, appreciate you that. Congrats again, man.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Thank you, take care. That's Jeff Milby from Racing Louisville
and Louisville City FC. Always appreciate his time. Good vibes
as always from our man, Jeff. So again, we'll be back.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Once we get June.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Once we get to June, you'll be able to get
back out there to ll In Family Stadium and see
both clubs, Racing Louisville and Low CITYFC.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
All right, quick break.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
We've got two more hours left before we get out
of here for the weekend, so stick around right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety