5.23 Weekend Ready: H3

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, five o'clock on a Friday, let's get it
started one more hour and then we are out of
here for the weekend, the holiday weekend. A reminder, we're
out on Monday, so you'll hear national programming, and then
back on Tuesday for a short week in the final week.
For me here at Sports Talk seven ninety is certainly
gonna make the most of the time that I have
left here. And I'm sure a lot of you listening

(00:23):
right now have already started your holiday weekend. If so,
hell yeah, I'm sure you're having fun. Least I hope
you are. I haven't looked outside in the last two
hours and some change, because you know, I've been here
in my cave in the back studio here, Studio B.
But it was beautiful when I got here, and I
hope that it still is.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
In fact, I'm.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Hopeful that the sun comes out because it's going to
be looks like mid to upper sixties this evening. Looks
like the sun may come out later, which is good
because I feel like when you're in the mid sixties,
if the sun's not out like that's actually kind of chilly.
But if the sun shining and there's not much of
a breeze, it probably feels good. Which I'm heading to
a slugger field after the game. Than I'm going to

(01:03):
go to the Bats game with the family. Looking forward
to that. And you can hear that Bats game right
here with the voice of the Louis of Bats, Nick
Currn on Sports Talk seven to ninety. All Right, so
a lot to get to before we get out of here.
But with high school coming to an end, really the
school year coming to an end for a lot of people,
if not already, probably within the next week or so,
I would imagine I'm starting to see more about these

(01:25):
these senior pranks, which I remember senior pranks being a
thing when I was growing up, when I was a kid.
It was, in fact, nineteen years ago that I graduated
high school.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Which just saying that out loud does make me feel old.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I mean, it doesn't feel like it was any time recently,
but just to say that next year will be twenty
years since I graduated high school. I mean again, when
I think back, it does seem like it's been a
long long time. But that the twenty year reunion is
not one I'm ready for. I'm sure we'll have one
and it'll be fun, but man, time goes by really fast.
But anyways, I don't remember any thing we did in

(02:01):
my senior year as far as a prank, And if
we did something as a class, I probably wouldn't have
participated because I was always scared of getting in trouble
for stuff. And I could be making this up, but
I think there was some type of like there was
something set up outside the school that somebody put on,
like the roof, and I think like that was that
was our senior prank.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Haha.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I don't really remember if it had a big reaction,
if anybody got in any trouble. We didn't really do
it big, I know, not long after I graduated. It
might actually have been the year after I graduated, because
my wife she graduated the year after me. I don't
know if it was her class or maybe one after her.
But this, actually, this was such an outlandish senior prank

(02:45):
that got enough attention to where I don't think it
made the news and anybody got arrested. But you know,
in the smaller community that I grew up in Bullock County,
it word got out that they went to one of
our rival schools, Mount Washington, full at East High School,
and I think they stole a goat.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
I'm not making it up. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
There were no pets, there were no animals whenever I
was in school, but I think over time they've added
like agriculture classes, departments or whatnot, farming stuff. I really
don't know, but there was a goat that was I
guess part of one of the schools in Bullock County
that I mean, I don't know what you would do
in class with a goat, but they stole the goat

(03:29):
and brought it back to our high school, which I mean,
that's kind of funny, But I hope the goat was
safe and not scared. And I kind of feel like
that probably happened at the perfect time to where it
was still seen as relatively harmless. Maybe it was not popular,

(03:49):
but I feel like if that happened now, it would
make news. People would get arrested, and you know, not
to say that they shouldn't, but obviously the reaction to
things over the years has changed quite a bit the
last in the last twenty years, and I don't I'm
I'm gonna do a little quick Google search here because
I know this is something that happened recent recently, and
I know it. I think it either it went viral

(04:11):
online or yeah, WK why covered I knew, I knew
I had seen it other than just on Facebook. But
our partner's over at WKY they covered a recent senior
prank that North Oldham students pulled off and it caused
traffic delays because kids drove they rode bikes to school.
Says here that drivers in Oldham County may have run
into some delays. Thursday morning, seniors in North of Oldham

(04:31):
High School decided to have a little fun and and
and bike and scooter to school for their senior prank.
This prank cost some temporary delays for drivers along Highway
thirty two. That to me, like, I don't really think
that's a prank, but like that that that that works.
That's you know, I'm sure if you're sitting in traffic
and you're running late to work, you're probably you're probably
pissed because you're thinking, you know, have real funny, I'm

(04:54):
gonna be late to work.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
You know.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
I'm sure there were some that were inconvenienced by it,
But it's the most part, it's pretty harmless, right, I mean,
it's it's not super dangerous. I guess it could be,
but seemingly everybody involved, you know, had some fun with it,
and it didn't it didn't become a big controversial thing.
But over the years, across the country, senior pranks have

(05:17):
at times unfortunately become not just controversial, but just really stupid.
That like, you know, even though your kid and you're
you're not quite I guess mature enough or aware, you
don't have the self awareness to understand that, like, yeah,
that might get a laugh, but really pro and pros
and cons here, is it really beneficial for me to

(05:37):
do this? Even if I get a few laughs, probably
not worth it if it ends up, you know, getting
me arrested or ruining my future. And that, in fact,
has has happened over the years this was in It
looks like this actually wasn't just one isolated area, but
in the last few years there have been multiple different
senior pranks that were involving live animals. I guess this

(06:00):
is similar to what I just referenced that happened in
Bullet County long ago, which I guess I can't be
too judgmental here, but students would bring and release chickens
pigs or goats in school, and of course, you know,
I guess some people found it funny, but obviously, you know,
for health and safety reasons, you know, you probably shouldn't
do that. That's probably again, I think the senior prank,

(06:22):
it's a delicate line, right, like, are you going to
because I think what I just mentioned that north Oldham
did this year, In fact, I think it was yesterday.
That to me is like the perfect balance of okay,
far from controversial. Might have been annoying to some people,
but you know, you probably laugh it off. But bringing
live animals to school and letting them loose, that's probably

(06:44):
not you know, and what's probably not worth it. This
one's really funny.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
This was in Texas in twenty eighteen. A student hired
a mariachi band to follow the school principle around for
the day, and the principal in the news story here
is quote, is he found it hilarious and even danced
with the band at times. That's a good one. I mean,
I guess it really is dependent upon the principle. Is
he willing to play ball have some fun or is
he going to be you know, real strict and not

(07:12):
lean into it, but that's a good one. And I'm
also surprised that the mariachi band took him up on it.
Like I can see a mariachi band thinking like, yeah,
you know, I get what you're trying to do here,
but I don't want to go and you know, get
arrested for trespassing on school grounds where I'm not supposed
to be.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
This what I feel.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
I don't even want to bring it up because it's
just so stupid, but like, apparently it did happen. In
twenty nineteen, there was a high school in Pennsylvania whose
senior prank.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Was a fake active shooter.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
It was a fake active shooter text, not a fake
active shooter on campus, which, as you could expect, that's
I mean, that's the last thing you should ever joke about.
But yeah, it ended up being a big deal because
it was reported as a serious misuse of emergency systems.
And I don't know if you could actually I guess
you could face some type of criminal charge for that.

(08:05):
And this one, this one, I give these guys a
lot of credit. I don't know how they pulled it off.
But in twenty seventeen, a high school in Florida students
somehow got a small car that I guess was disassembled prior,
and then they reassembled it on the roof of their
school overnight. So they actually put a car together, and
when people showed up, there was a car on the roof, Like,

(08:26):
that's good work. There was a lot of you know,
a lot of national and local coverage because of the
engineering work that went into that. But also, you know,
like anything, there's people that claim, well, they could have
hurt themselves.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Well, yeah, you know what, you can get hurt every day.
I like that one.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I guess it could have gone wrong, somebody got hurt,
or even if the car is disassembled, getting all the
parts on the roof to then assemble said car, that
could be a dangerous thing. That probably took a lot
of work. And I don't know why, but I feel
like you'd have to be in a really rural area
to not hit the radar of somebody when you're pulling

(09:02):
off one of these pranks. I mean, I guess a
lot of folks are sleeping in the middle of the night.
But yeah, that one is listed here as one of
the controversial ones. But I actually think that's pretty creative.
This was actually I remember this making the news back
in twenty twenty two in Missouri, somebody went through the
process of listing the actual school property for sale on Zillo.

(09:25):
I'm looking at it here and it does look like
a legitimate Zillo posting that somebody can purchase the property.
And what makes this creative and well done in my end,
at least from my perspective, is that you can't just
go I mean, you have to somebody who probably works
in real estate has to help you get that posted.
So I'm sure there were some resources used to make

(09:45):
that happens.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
That's well done.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I think most would realize, hey, that's the school that's
not really for sale, but that's a good one. I
like that one, and then this one. I don't remember this.
This was in Wisconsin, just a couple of years ago.
I'd have to see it to really know if I
think it's like well done or not. But students at
Cumberland High School in Wisconsin made it appear as if
a car had crashed through the building using half a car.

(10:09):
So apparently somehow they had half a vehicle and they
put like bricks, tape and black tarp around it to
where there was actually no damage.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
To the school. But when people arrived, they had half
of a car.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
And then all the stuff in front of it looking
as if it had crashed into the building. That's well done,
that's not I mean, that's again a lot of creativity,
and I'm sure a lot of these students had help.
Like who has half a car availables for a senior prank?
And now makes me wish we did something more creative,
And look, maybe we did. I just didn't participate because
this mentioned I was always scared of getting in trouble.

(10:42):
I'm just happy I was able to graduate. That was
probably my main focus at the time, just making sure
I got what needed to be done in order to
be able to actually, you know, finish high school. All right,
let's see what do we want to get to here.
I don't want to get to a break just yet,
because we got a lot of things I want to
run through before we run out of time today. But yeah,
this isn't new information, but to see that Indian Animated

(11:06):
official they announced that they're going to be playing at
Ropperena this year on December thirteenth. That that's a game
that should always happen. Indiana and Kentucky I mean, it
is a rivalry, but if you are somebody around my
age or certainly younger, I kind of get it that
you don't. You don't really see it as a rivalry

(11:27):
because I feel like when it was it, it's heyday.
It was back honestly long before I was even around
Bob Knight, Joe b those guys, and they played a
lot in my childhood.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
But I don't really like, to me, there's not a
whole lot.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Of big memories of the of Indiana and Kentucky playing
in basketball when I was a kid. And I'm sure
they had memorable games, and I'm not a Kentucky fan,
but obviously when you grow up around here, you know
what's going on with both programs pretty much at all times,
because there's so many fans and so much coverage on
both sides of it.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
My memory.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Comes to mind when I think of Kentucky and Indiana
playing in basketball is when Mike Davis was in Indiana
and they played the game at Freedom Hall. I think
they did that more than once. I think they actually
did that a handful of times. But they played at
Freedom Hall and Mike Davis wanted a foul call, didn't
get it and he just ran onto the court directly
in front of the ref and just started putting his

(12:20):
hand in his face, I guess, trying to tell the
ref that his player had got hit in the face.
But you know, the one that comes to mind for me,
not as a child, but the twenty what was it
twenty the twenty twelve game whenever they you know, the
Watford shot, which Indiana still celebrates like it was a
national championship moment, which is really embarrassing. And I've defended

(12:41):
Indiana a lot over the years because I do believe
they're just one coach away. They've got all the resources
that you would need to be really, really good at
basketball and win national championships. They just have yet to
get it right since they fired Bob Knight, which was
a long time ago. But what really reminds you of,
I guess their humongous gas up and being you know, successful,

(13:03):
is the way in which they really like go overboard
about a regular season win against a team that, look,
they were good. That Kentucky team's one of the best
teams you'll ever see in college basketball in twenty twelve, right, and.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
The finish was insane. The buzzer beater from.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Watford, like it was all great, but like now it's
actually watered down because they tried to make it a
bigger thing than it actually was. And I think the
biggest component as far as like what makes that just
seem so lame for them to do, to just go
overboard and celebrating that, is that that same Kentucky team
that they beat on the last second shot ended their

(13:41):
season in the NCAA tournament, Like you can't really dunk
on Kentucky whenever you went one and one against them,
and then they won the game that mattered, Like it
just to me, it really made me aware that, man,
these Hoosiers have not had many big moments in a
long time. And look, they haven't won a title in
my lifetime. Their last one was in eighty seven. Now
clearly they've got five of them, and not many can

(14:03):
say they have that many. But anyways, Indiana has always
just been a coach away from being really really successful.
And who knows, maybe that guy ends up being Darian Devrees,
but he'll be in rupt this year. And Louisville playing Indiana, Kentucky, Memphis,
and Cincinnati all in the same season next year is awesome.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
And Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
I don't know if they really need to play Indiana,
but I'm glad they are.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
I think it's a game that should be played.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
And when it comes to college basketball, if you're somebody
like myself who wants the sport to be super successful,
I wish there was more viewership. I wish more people
loved it the way that I do. You need games
like this, right, I mean, it's not going to compete
with the NFL in November and December, certainly, but these
are the kind of games that are clearly in every aspect,
a much better thing for college hoops than playing Savannah

(14:56):
State or Florida A and M. And you're always going
to have some games against those kind of teams. But
if you know, like I just think it's wild. But
to this, like the Louisville's basketball schedule is not complete,
but let's just say they've got Winthrop on the schedule.
I'm only guessing Winthrop because I know Winthrop will be
probably an annual opponent because of Pat Kelsey's history there.

(15:16):
Obviously he got his head coaching start at Winthrop and
his mentor, the late Skip Prosser, his son. I believe
Mark Prosser is the head coach at Winthrop, so I
wouldn't be shocked if they're on the schedule every year,
and I have no problem with that. But let's say
they play this year on a Wednesday in December at
nine o'clock at night on the ACC network. I mean, like,
I feel like you got some real gall to like

(15:37):
criticize fans who decide not to go. I mean again,
I know we sometimes are wired and we compete with
one another. Is who can be the biggest fan, who's
the who's the most die hard fan? That kind of stuff,
And I guess it's nice to have that competitive energy
because you really love and support your team that much.
But I mean, I just don't have the I can't.

(15:59):
I can't with a criticize somebody who decided, yeah, I'll
watch that one at home. So again, you're always gonna
have some games like that. But the more you play
teams that aren't nobody's and that there's history rather it
be a rivalry or just a team that you have
a lot of history with, that's a much better scenario
to get a full crowd, a good atmosphere, and probably
a better TV Number two. So Indiana and Kentucky renewing

(16:22):
their rivalry. And that's the way it should be. These
teams should always play. All right, let's get to a
quick break. We'll come back on the other side. Let
you hear what Mark Pope had to say about Pat Kelcey.
I think, I mean, I wouldn't call it a bromance,
but the two clearly like each other and it seems
natural and I've got no issue with it. But I

(16:42):
guess I can understand if some people are bothered by it,
because I guess best case scenario is that you know
your coach hates the rivals coach, vice versa, but you
can't force it. You can't force it, And I just
don't really see a scenario where these two specifically don't
have seemingly a good relation like a friendship. Even so,
we'll let you hear that, And we got a lot

(17:04):
more we'll get into before we get out of here,
So stick around. It's coffee and company. Feelbout Thornton's here
on Sports Talk seven ninety All right, thank you big
thanks to big time Carl Blatten for getting us ready
for the weekend. This This song used to be an
annual Friday thing and then it kind of just faded away.
I guess I could have forced it, but I didn't.

(17:25):
But thank you, Carl, I forgot this used to be
our Friday sendoff, and now it's back, and I was
already ready for the weekend. Now I'm even more ready,
So good stuff there. It also kind of made me
think back on all the you know, the years where
every Friday that was that was a staple. And again
next Friday, a week from the day, it will be my
last day here at seven ninety and I'm gonna make
the most of the time we have left. And this

(17:47):
weekend we've got an extra day, so a long weekend.
I'm going to try to get a plan together as
far as really what I want next week to look like.
I mentioned this at the beginning of the show. Don't
know if it's gonna actually happen, but I'm going to
try to find a way to get us out next
week at some point to do the show somewhere and
have a sendoff. And you know, as soon as I
know if we can do that, I'll share info with

(18:08):
you and hopefully you guys can can come and join us.
All right, let's finish strong here about thirty minutes left
before we get out of here. The love fest, if
you will. I don't think it's a LoveFest necessarily, but
I heard it described as that, and I can't say
that that's an outlandish thing to say. But Pat Kelsey
and Mark Pope, I think, not only do these guys

(18:28):
respect one another, they don't have the exact same background.
One is very tall, one is very not. But they
got opportunities to take over programs that probably always were
viewed as dream jobs for them, especially Mark Pope at Kentucky,
Whereas with Kelsey, I don't really know what his dream

(18:50):
job is. Obviously, he's got history with Cincinnati, that's where
he played. I'm sorry with Xavier. He hates Cincinnati. He's
a Xavier Musketeer and that's a big rivalry. But he's
from Cincinnati, played at Xavier. That's where he really got
his start in coaching under Skip Prossers. So I don't
know if Louisville was viewed as a dream job, but
I think he's certainly went out of his way to

(19:10):
make people realize that. He sometimes can't believe he's actually
the coach here. So another factor with these two guys
is that you didn't see it as much this year
because Louisville early on had so many injuries to where
they did not reinvent themselves or change identity. But the
way Pat wanted to play, he really wasn't able to
because he didn't have the bodies. When you lost case
In Pryor and Corain Johnson at the beginning of the season,

(19:34):
you really were limited in what you could do. And
then of course there were some other injuries throughout the
year as well, and then with Kentucky they had injury
issues as well.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Theirs came a little bit later in the year.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
But these guys, I mean, they want to play, maybe
not the exact same way, but as far as the
basketball philosophy that you see from both programs now with
Pope and Kelsey, they're similar. They want to shoot a
lot of threes in rhythm. There won't be many guys
that don't have the green light. They want a lot

(20:05):
of possessions each and every game. And defensively, it'll be clearly,
if you know, defense is clearly going to be something
they understand is important and they're going to work hard
at it. But the real, I mean, the calling card
is going to be offense and honestly, three point shooting
in rhythm threes, spacing to where you can get to

(20:25):
the rim or get to the free throw line. That is,
That's what both these guys seemingly won. As far as
how they've coached their entire careers, I don't think it
was a coincidence that the season prior to both these
guys taking over at Louisville and Kentucky. I believe both
were in the top three as far as three point
field goals attempted in a season, Charleston and BYU. So

(20:48):
they're similar in a lot of ways. And I asked,
you know, if I thought Mark Pope had something about
him that made him unlikable, I would tell you. I mean,
it wouldn't be personal. I don't know him, but you know,
you're gonna be more willing to find somebody unlikable or
irritating to you if they're the rival, because you want
that right. It's more comfortable for you if you find

(21:10):
the opposing coach of your rival unlikable. Cal was great,
perfect villain. He's actually just a great villain overall in
college basketball, in sports. To be honest with you, I
learned that whenever Kentucky would lose to teams like Saint
Peter's in Oakland. Kentucky fans certainly upset and distraught after
those kind of performances and those kind of results, But

(21:32):
like cal losing with all that NBA talented teams like that,
it seems like everybody celebrated outside of Kentucky fans.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So he was a great villain. Mark Pope is not.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
And with Pat Kelsey, I don't know, because I don't
you know, I'm not a Kentucky fan, but I think
even their fans, even if they want, like, they're probably
having to really work hard to manufacture something about him
that they find to be unlikable. I mean, they can
claim that they don't think he's a good coach and
he stinks or whatever, but that it's a different thing.
I mean, the ammunition I've seen Kentucky fans when it

(22:05):
comes to rivalrying with Louisville basketball fans. You know, they'll
make fun of path for being short, or they'll make
fun of his glasses or something. But other than that,
I mean, that's you know, anytime you get into like
personal appearance, that's almost an admission that you've lost the battle,
right you've lost the war. When you start taking shots
at somebody's personal appearance, you've lost the argument because that's

(22:25):
what you turn to. But anyways, Matt and the KSR
crew had to sit down with Mark Pope earlier this week.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Didn't get a.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Chance to hear the entire thing myself, but they did
share this clip of Matt asking Mark Pope about the
rivalry with Louisville. And I think this is worth you
guys here, and especially if you're a Louisville fan, because
you know you can't force it. And I think anybody
acting like Mark Pope is a great villain and somebody

(22:53):
we really just despise. Again, we wanted to lose every game.
We're Louisville fans, and we certainly want him to lose
when Louisville plays him. But outside of that, like, I
think he's a pretty good coach myself, and I find
him to be pretty hard to dislike. In fact, I
kind of like him, if I'm being honest.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
The only downside I've seen about your tenure is and
I hear this from Louisville fans too, So like I
loved at times how much Kentucky and Louisville hated each other.
Cal and your old coach wanted to stab each other
and still do, whether whether they say it or not.
But you and Pat Kelsey are too nice. Like the
Louisville fans don't hate you. We don't really hate Pat Kelsey.

(23:31):
That's the only thing I gotta get you to spice
up the Louisville rivalry a little bit.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
I hate this Pat Kelsey and all of those Louisville fans. Hay, No,
now here's the thing I'm gonna tell you this.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
You know, it's actually super cool.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, is that I got a boltload of respect from
Pat Kelsey. Okay, I got so much. I think he's
what he's what he did last year was incredible. Yes,
And I mean two of my guys played for him
last year, right, and and what they accomplished and and
you know, I don't I don't have a ton of
interaction with the little families, but I'm sure they're great.
But but here's the thing. I actually, the one thing

(24:06):
I would say is that that I actually think I
think that this that this Kentucky Louisll thing is just
gonna get heated and heated. You know, it's gonna get
heated because it's gonna be back to being like one
verse four in the contrey.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
No, they're gonna be good and they and they have
the nisle to participate, and I think that's gonna be yes. Yeah,
I mean, you get you get to go in there
next year. You'll get a sense of I think they're
gonna be cussing at you like they used to cuss
and me.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
They would never, they would not do that.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
So again, I just I think that was I think
that was very genuine and just honest thoughts from Mark
Pope about about Pat and he respects the work he's done.
And you gotta you know, these guys they now understand
and I'm sure Pope already did and both probably did right.

(24:58):
Pope played here in in, you know, in the rivalry
and Pat Kelsey comes from. Probably in my opinion, it's
it's easily a top three rivalry in college basketball, Cincinnati
and Xavier. I mean, that's that's that's real hatred, to
be honest with you. It doesn't get the national love
that Louisville and Kentucky and certainly the love that Duke

(25:19):
and Carolina get. But that's a real heated rivalry. So
I think both have always understood it. But you know,
they're not gonna They're not gonna fake it. And I
think even it wouldn't shock me at all if during
the recruitment of maybe not with with Ali Khalifa, because
I think Pope clearly wanted him to come to Kentucky,
he chose Louisville. But I'm sure pat probably asked some
questions to Mark Pope about Noah Waterman, who also played

(25:41):
for for for Pope before transferring to Louisville. So, you know,
I think it'll be fine. It'll be a little it'll
be a little unusual early on, it'll take some getting
used to just understanding that these two guys actually do
respect one another. But it shouldn't really impact us, because again,
rivalries are about fans. That's that's always been a argument
when it comes to college basketball's rivalries ranking, like when

(26:06):
they rank the best rivalries in the sport. I'm clearly biased,
hand up guilty of that, but I think Louisville and
Kentucky every aspect of it. I think you could make
the case and it's not even really that difficult to
do that it's the best because of the components, right,
I mean, you didn't play each other for a long
long time, and just the history of it, every bit

(26:27):
of it makes it, including the Caliperi Patino element. I
mean Rick going to Louisville and then cal already being
kind of his personal rival, and then him taking over
at Lexington. I mean, the dynamic of this entire thing.
I think, I think it absolutely is the best rivalry
in college basketball. And I always say this, why not
say it once more? In the city of Louisville, there
are so many on both sides that coexist together to

(26:50):
where we're around each other. I mean, I guess everybody's different,
everybody's situations different, but more often than not, you probably
work with live with maybe a Kentucky fan if you're
a Louisville fan, and vice versa. So again, everybody's different,
but there's a good chance that you are very much
into your diehard fan of one or the other, and

(27:11):
you're oftentimes around the other side. Probably not during games,
because that wouldn't be safe for anybody, I would assume,
but that's what makes it special here. I don't think
the rivalry is the same anywhere else in the country,
certainly anywhere else in the state than it is right
here in Louisville, and we only play once a year
and more often than not. It's just about bragging rights,

(27:32):
right in basketball, If both programs are historically where they
where they have been, you know, you just take the
consensus success, the average success over the last forty years
of the two programs. Both are pretty good, right. Kentucky's
pretty damn good. Louisville's not far behind. I mean, they
don't have the accomplishments, but clearly Louisville, more often than not,

(27:53):
is a pretty good program. So if they're there on
any given year, that win is not gonna hurt you
a whole lot, and it's probably not going to do
a ton to elevate you. I mean, it's certainly good
to have. If you beat Kentucky when they're good, that's
going to help you on selection Sunday. Same thing on
the other end. But if the teams are already pretty good,
that's not like one that's not one isolated data point

(28:16):
that's going to get you in the tournament or jump
you up a seat or two. I mean, I guess
that could happen on occasion, but it's really just about
bragging rights with the fans, and that's why I always
think that. I mean, again, I did see a side
of the Duke in Carolina fans coexisting when I went
to Brooklyn for the ACC tournament, also when I went
to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament, and you could sell

(28:37):
there's some real there's some real rivalry energy there. So again,
I'm sure more than anything is just the biased and
if you it all depends on how you want to
because I do think there's two different ways to view
what makes a rivalry the best and how you want
to rank them. Are you talking about just the heated
hatred between the two fan bases and the history.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
I think Louisville and Kentucky would take the cake if
that's the case.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
But if you want to view it as two programs
that are clearly rivals, have a lot of history together,
they have some rivalry moments, and they're also super super successful,
then it's clearly Duke in Carolina. I mean, two of
the best programs of all time. And look, Louisville Kentucky
are both also two of the best programs of all time.
Clearly Kentucky has the edge, but Louisville's easily a top

(29:26):
eight program no matter how you want to slice it.
So we're not there, as far as you know, the
two collectively being great compared to Duke and Carolina because
it's Duke Carolina. And there was a crazy stat that
I'll have to look up during the break because I
do want to. It almost doesn't seem real, but at
one point the two teams had played each other. However
many times it was over like a twenty five or

(29:48):
thirty year stretch. If you add up the total scores
from all the games. When they were going into one
of their games recently in the last few years, it
was tied. Think about it that like that. Not only
are they great historically, but they're super competitive with one
another and that makes the rivalry great. And again, if
you're going to give the top spot to Duken Carolina,

(30:10):
I certainly can't argue against that. And if Louisville wanted to,
you know, do their part. I mean, again, let's be real,
Louisville has not been as competitive in this series as
as we would like. That's the very nice way to
put it. I'm hopeful that that changes. But to Pope's point,
I mean, I think if it does get competitive and
Louisville starts getting some wins here in this rivalry, which

(30:32):
I believe they will. I don't think it's going to
because Kentucky fell off a cliff. I think it's going
to because both teams are really good and sometimes you're
going to get him, sometimes you're not. So I don't
it's I'm already seeing on the text line here like it.
It is a little unusual to like Kentucky's coach, and
I can't lie to you and say that I don't.

(30:53):
I mean, I like the guy. He's he's he's a
likable guy. Of respective, I think he's a good coach.
I think Kentucky's success in year one had more to
do with him than anything. Like I don't think they
were athletic last year. They certainly had injuries. Just when
it looked as if they were going to get, you know,
beat bad and really maybe.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Hit a stretch to where people would start to.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Question, I don't know, was this guy ready for the job,
they would go win a big game. So I wish
I wouldn't say I wish I wasn't saying those things.
But I'm also not going to lie to myself or
a lot of you. All right, quick break, we'll come
back on the other side. Wrap this thing Up's coffee
and company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Our last segment here will be a short one quickly though. Oklahoma,

(31:36):
that's something this news I've been mentioning but not really
getting into.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
And there's not a whole lot to add that I
haven't already said.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
But Oklahoma has announced they're going to lay off five
percent of their athletic department due to looming revenue sharing
with athletes. So their athletic director, Joe Castellani, said that
he will also be adjusting his compensation, reducing his salary,
so they won't be the last to do it. But
I will say I was not expecting a school from
the SEC to be the first to say that they're

(32:02):
going to start eliminating positions because they now know again
there's now an annual twenty million, actually north of twenty
million dollars that you have to pay because you've got
to share revenue. Now. I mean, that's of all the
things that have changed college athletics in recent years, that's
that's a big one. And then sticking with money, pennies
the penny is apparently dead, as the US Treasury has

(32:25):
announced it will officially stop manufacturing the penny in twenty
twenty six. I mean, I'm not bothered by this, although
it could get kind of tricky as far as you
know if you cause, I think they could stop producing
it and we'll still have plenty of them to where
you're going to get them and you can still use them.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
They're just not going to make them.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
But I mean, I know there are many out there
that probably throw away a few pennies if they have
them in their pocket, right, if you've got like a
big old jug of them and you go, you know,
get changed, you know, you cash in your change. Essentially
a lot of people do that. But pennies are always
just annoying to me. Like I've probably got I feel

(33:04):
like I've got too many pennies in my cup holder,
in my car and my dash, but like as many
as I have, I bet I probably don't even have
more than a couple of bucks, maybe because again it's
one cent.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
So anyways, we're out of time. You guys enjoy the
holiday weekend.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
We'll be back at it on Tuesday for the final
week for me here at Sports Talk seven ninety Gonna
make the most of it, have it go on everybody