February 4, 2025 • 52 mins
Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 98-84 loss at Ole Miss.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. It is the local toy of dealers KSR
postgame show. Kentucky loses ninety eight eighty four in a
game where they were embarrassed for a half, fought back
in the second half, but a pretty bad loss on
the road in Oxford. Kentucky now four and five in
(00:21):
the SEC. It is only the first time since twenty
thirteen that they gave up as many points as they
did in the first half, and it's one of only
a couple of times in the last fifteen years they've
gone one in four in a row in SEC play.
The other time was twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, So look,
(00:44):
this was the first half. Is one of the worst
Kentucky halves to start a game I can remember, you
know the I saw. I think it was Corey Price
said the last time we were down twenty three in
the first half SEC play was to Tennessee in twenty thirteen,
(01:05):
and that actually was the game that as I was watching,
I thought of that was the last time I remember
watching Kentucky play a game and thinking we are just
not even in it. And that was the game after
Nerlins Noel got hurt and even though we didn't have
anyone new get hurt in the last game. That Nerlins
(01:25):
Noel loss was kind of a uh oh, this season's
in trouble. And I wonder if the Arkansas game had
a little of a similar effect, at least for a
half now. Unlike that Tennessee game, Kentucky fought back, got
it as close as eleven, but you let a team
score ninety eight, you're not gonna win. Kind of some
(01:50):
unbelievable numbers in this game. Ole Miss only had one turnover,
one turnover. It's only the second time since nineteen ninety
that a team has played a game in the SEC
and only had one turnover. And it's a testament to
(02:11):
the big storyline from the game, which is our defense
is right now awful. Second half it was a little better.
Ole Miss made some difficult shots, but we are lost
on defense. Part of it. I think fifty percent of
it is athleticism. You know, earlier this year, even when
(02:34):
we were good, I said, and I didn't think it
was controversial, but people sort of took it that way
that this was the least athletic team in the SEC.
And I still think and I think that's true, and
I think most people would now agree that we just
don't have great athletes on the team, and there's nothing
any of those guys can do about that. I mean,
you know they are the athletes, they are so fifty
(02:56):
percent of it. I don't know that you can fix.
I mean, there are a couple guys on this team
that they're not going to be able to stay in
front of their man one on one no matter what.
But the other fifty percent I do think is if
not fixable, should be an improvement. Is they just they
(03:17):
get lost, they make odd decisions, and there's a hustle
factor that just isn't there that I don't understand. There
were thirteen points scored out of the first thirty that
were big men shooting wide open shots where the big
man gardening three times tomorrow twice Garrison didn't even get
(03:40):
a hand up, I mean didn't even get a hand up,
and not surprisingly, all thirteen were nothing but net. The
defense in the first half, I'm not sure when I
can remember Kentucky plane worse defense. Offensively, we scored eighty four,
but once again, I still don't think take enough threes
only to twenty five. I looked it up. Kentucky has
(04:03):
taken thirty threes in only three of the nine SEC games.
If you remember, Pope said thirty to thirty five as
a goal every game, we've hit it three times, and
I think more damningly, we have given up six six
of the nine games, the other team has made more
threes than us. Earlier this year, we led the nation
(04:25):
in three point shooting, and we now only three of
the nine games. Forget about percentage, only three of the
nine games have we even made more than the other team.
You're not gonna win like that. I mean, We're just
not gonna win like that. And I don't know, I
don't know what we do about it. We look lost
(04:46):
on defense, and we all too often look lost on
offense with any ball pressure ball pressure is killing this team.
And a big part of that is you don't have
a point guard. You don't have Lamont Butler. But if
you listen to Mark Pope talk, he doesn't talk like
a guy who thinks he's gonna get Butler back. He
was asked about it tonight and he said something like,
(05:07):
we got to figure out how to be better now
without Butler. Hopefully we get Butler back. I still think
we will, But you know what happens until then, it's frustrating.
You know, Amari Williams made history tonight with a triple double.
I mean it's only the fourth one in the history
of the school. And by the way, Billy, what an
(05:28):
absurd group of names on our triple double list? Chris Mills,
dearon Fox, Isaiah Briscoe and Amar Williams. Is that not
wild that those are the four people? I mean, it's
that is a wild list. But Amari joins the list tonight,
and kudos to the kid on the pregame show who
(05:52):
predicted it. Yeah, I mean, Mason, what are the odds
you could have gotten on a triple double before or
the game when there's only been three in the history
of the school. But he got it. Unfortunately it's for
not because of the loss. So Amari played well, although
still I don't know what I don't know what it
is about him putting his not putting his hands up
(06:13):
on defense, but on offense, he had a great night.
Jackson Robinson played well, Otaga Oway played really well in
the second half. But it's too little, too late. If
we're giving up ninety eight to teams, we're not gonna win.
And you know, Mark Pope. He sounds like a guy
(06:34):
that isn't what it's not. Sounds like he said, we
don't really know what to do. I give him credit
for honesty, but that's not the most confidence inducing thing
in the world. But I do give him credit for
honesty on that. But they got to figure something out.
You know, I'm sitting here, I'm looking at the schedule,
(06:54):
right so we are fit. I am shifting my thought
process for these last nine games. I'm kind of shifting
my process to let's just I sound like cal, let's
just get to March. But I do think it's worth
noting March is not assured. We are fifteen and seven.
(07:19):
We do have as good as wins as anybody, so
if it's closed, we'll get in. I think if you're
nineteen and twelve, you're almost certainly in twenty. You're definitely
in nineteen, you're almost certainly in, and you might even
be in with eighteen. But I think you need nineteen
(07:42):
or twenty to be sure. So let's look at the schedule.
You play South Carolina Saturday. Billy must win, right, have
to win.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, they don't have a win in the SEC.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
They don't have a win in the SEC. You lose
that game all of a sudden, like it's a whole
different thing. Gotta win that, we get you to sixteen.
You later play Vandy at home. I know you lost
to them, but you gotta beat them at home. That
would be seventeen. And then you later play LSU at home.
That would be eighteen. Now, those are three games against
(08:14):
teams that if you don't beat those at home, those
are bad, terrible losses. I'm gonna assume they get all those.
That's eighteen. That might get you in. But let's say
you need another one, Billy, because I think nineteen is
for sure. Eighteen you're shaky, all right, Let's say you
(08:36):
can need nineteen. Let me give you the rest of them.
Tennessee at home at Texas, at Alabama, Auburn at home,
at Oklahoma at Missouri. I mean, none of those are gimmes,
and none of those I did. I'm gonna go so
far as to say, I don't know if except the
(08:59):
Oklahoma game, I'm not sure we'll be favored in any
of those games. I bet we won't actually, So you know,
while I still think it's much more likely than not
that they're in the tournament. And once they're in the tournament,
especially if Butler's back, I think they can beat most
(09:21):
any team. It's not certain as far as the SEC tournament.
You know, this year the field changes. We will have
four games on Wednesday, which means teams nine through sixteen
will play on Wednesday. And as of now, we would
be playing on Wednesday, because right now we are in
(09:43):
tenth place in the SEC. And again you look at
that schedule, you know, the chances of us playing on
Wednesday are greater than what thirty percent? You know, I
think it's I think unless you're five hundred in the SEC,
(10:04):
you're probably playing on Wednesday. So I'm shifting my brain
a little bit too. My hopes when conference place started,
come in the top four in the SEC, get a
double by get a top three or four seed so
that you get placed in a region that's closer to
(10:25):
your home. I'm kind of putting all that aside. I
think the loss to Andy and the loss to Arkansas
took that off the table. So now we just for me,
need to start playing significantly better. Beat these teams. We're
(10:45):
supposed to get some of these the other six I said,
get a couple of them, whichever couple you can get,
get them, and then go to March, hope we're as
healthy as we've been, and then play with the same
kind of aggression and no fear to lose that Arkansas
(11:07):
did on Saturday, because you know the team that played Deny.
I mean, we're not doing anything if it's that team.
But a week ago we won in Knoxville. So I'm
not giving up. I see people giving up. I'm not
giving up. But we gotta find a way. We can't
(11:31):
have performances. We lost that game tonight in like the
first six minutes. We can't keep having that happen. And
hopefully Pope and his staff will start being able to
come up with a plan to change it, because right now,
what's happening in these last two games is not working.
Eight five, nine, two, twenty two, eighty seven will take
(11:54):
your calls. I'm gonna try to have a little bit
of fun because starting at midnight, I can't eat again
until Thursday at like oh yeah, and so I'm gonna
eat like one candy bar right before bed. I don't
eat after like seven o'clock. It's like, you know a
(12:15):
way to like lose what right?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But I'm eating Tony because I can't eat for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
You canna be angry tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Wait till Thursday show. Yeah, exactly. We'll be right back.
This is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. Welcome back.
It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. Hey,
f I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven.
Let's just get started, Billy. It was no fun night,
(12:49):
so let's just get the phone. Who's up first, Let's
go to Wes. Wes, go ahead, Hey, what's up?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Matt Jones? First off, you guys are also I wanted
to say something. I normally call it a different name.
I'm calling today with my actual name because I am
going to be critical and I think you, you know,
out of respect. I'm going to use my real name
because I'm going to be critical with you guys, and
you know, if you'll give me that chance. At Louisville,
(13:16):
the reason why they went to where they are is
because I think it wasn't just the Tino was the
worst person in the world. I think he was allowed
to just be not not questioned, not not not spoken against,
and that builds and builds and builds and that's kind
of where we are in the country and everything. To
be honest, and right now we're in a situation where
(13:38):
I can't like Mark Pope because I do. But the
last thing just coaching.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But who's saying you can't be critical? I hang on,
hang on when no one has. First of all, I
don't go to the press conference, so I can't ask
any questions. I've been very critical. I literally started this
segment by saying, that's one of the worst games has
defensively that I can remember. So of course you can
(14:10):
ask you a question. So I mean, I don't know.
That's not fair to say no one's being critical. I'm
not there to ask my pope because I'm not in Oxford,
because I'm doing things like this show. But I am
being critical and and to some people I'm being of
course you can, but that's just not fair to say
no one's being.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Critical and you're one hundred percent right if that is
what I was saying that let me respond because I
have written down the first thing you started your show
on was you you told the fan base that you
believe that fifty percent of the reason that we are
bad at defense because of athleticism and you're so you're
you're telling me right now, that's how you started to
(14:49):
show mat.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But I believe that that's not that's Roberts. I believe
that no, Jackson Robinson is not hang on, Jackson Robinson
is not a great athlete. He's he's good, he's a
good athlete. But Kobe Braya, Ansley Almanor, Travis Perry, Trent
and Noah Brandon Brandon Garrison should be a good athlete.
He's just not a good defender. Okay, But but that
(15:13):
doesn't mean they're great athletes. I mean, Jimmy, I'm not
the only one said that. Jimmy Dyke said during the game,
we have an athletic disadvantage at almost every position without Butler,
and I agree with that. Amari's really the only one. Yes,
of course they of course.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
They'll that that I do not agree with. But hey,
we're allowed, We're allowed to disagree.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
How do you explain how do you explain them beating
us off the dribble play after play if we're if
you're if by the way, saying they're not good athletes
is not an excuse, it's just a reality. No, it's
not because he recruited him and if he's going to
have a team of guys in our athletes, But that's
(16:02):
but that's different than saying they're not an athlete. Does
not mean that you are absolving the theme. He recruited
the team. He has to he has to create a
defense around what he has and right now it's not happening.
But that but I can't just say these are great
athletes when some of them can barely dunk.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Okay, I think that's a stretch. And but I will
say I agree with you. You know I'm not. I
just said that's how you started the show, and the
show should have started with, Hey, let's be real here.
Like the last four games, some of the coaching decisions
and just pure coaching, it has just been astronomically bad.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And I.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Can't make him come on the show.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
You're right, you're right, and I wish he would. You're right,
that's right, that's one hundred right, you're right. But I
would say, I do know that you guys have the
biggest you know, y'all have the you have a bigger spectrum.
Then you know that's because you've earned that. This show
deserves it and it's awesome. So I just wish you know.
I was at the Article game and I left, and
I remember me and my dad were talking and he
(17:13):
never gets critical, and I was like, man, why can't
they ask Like I'm at the game and I watched
Brea and Amar and then come in to check in
in a TV timeout, and the entire fan they went
up in cheers because they were like, finally, thank you
put these players back in the gate.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Can Okay, I appreciate the call. I get it. I was,
I mean, I'm not exactly sure what your first call
is about me and what we're saying or we're not.
We were very critical of the decision to play Chandler
and those guys as much as they did the last game.
But if objectively, the reason we can't play defense man
(17:53):
demand is that our guys are not good defenders. But
that's not an excuse to give up ninety eight points.
I mean again, athlete is fifty percent of it. But
did we Billy have better athletes than Saint Peter's in Oakland? Yes? Yes,
and we lost. You know why because our athletes didn't
(18:14):
play well and they out schemed us. Mark Pope has
has And I'm not even being hugely critical of him.
I think he got the team he could get considering
everything happened. But we have to create a defense for
this team. And if we put Kobe Brea on an
island with a guy that's five eleven and fast, he
(18:34):
is going to give up basket after basket. And that's
what happened a lot of the game. So you know,
maybe it's play zone, but they went zone, and they
gave up a wide open quarter three. And I love
Andrew Carr, but he was playing zone with the back
to the guy in the corner. That ain't gonna work.
So I don't know who's next.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
What a start good, Let's switch gears a little bit.
Good Glow Girl is next Glow Girl?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I will say. By the way, his point though about
how you can love a coach or like a coach
and still be critical of him, I agree with that.
That was my frustration with some of our fan base
during the end of the Callier is like you couldn't
criticize it, or you were like didn't support the team.
You can be critical of Pope and still think he's
the guy for the job. That is totally fair. Go ahead,
(19:26):
glogut globe guys.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
That what you girl, Girl, Glow Girl.
Speaker 7 (19:32):
Okay, I just I was at the game, and first
of all, I disagree with Jack Kilgrim acting like the
atmosphere was substandard or whatever word he used, because it
was packed the lower bow. It was so loud my
(19:52):
ears of ringing by the time I left. They played
music the whole time, their student athlete, their student section
goes three ways around the arena, and some seats were
empty in the upper level, but the lower level was full.
They were loud, they were fast. It was a beautiful
new arena. And the other thing I want to say
(20:15):
is they we can't shoot threes when they're constantly taking
us out of the position, like they were guarding so
well that we can't just lob up a bunch of
threes when they're not open.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well you can, however, you can, and we did this
in the second half. You can create hard back door
cuts which leads to drives to the basket, which when
they then cut off the drive, you can kick out
the shooters. We did that a lot in the second half,
and it worked. In the first half, we did none
of that. We had guys try to go on one.
We tried to force it into the post and a
(20:53):
lot of that stuff didn't work, uh huh, and we
missed a bunch of what I mean, we missed like
seven or eight layups.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Well, that's so frustrating. That was last year too, but
that's the most frustrating that those layups they miss and
those hook shots they miss. Then they tried. I mean,
but when you say, well, and I look on Twitter
and it makes me sad because everyone's saying they aren't trying,
they aren't trying. They looked like they were gave a
lot more in the second half, but even in the
(21:22):
first half, they're doing what they can do.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
You know, they work hard.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
And I go to all the home games and I've
gone to some of the away games, so I do
hate to hear the criticism that they're not trying hard.
Maybe they just can't help. But like you say, because
I've called.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, I think they try. There's a difference between trying.
It's hard to articulate. I think they tried. It's not
like I think these dudes are like quitters. Difference between
trying though, And let me give example. This was one
play probably nobody remembers it. There's a play towards the
end of the half there was a loose ball. It
got knocked. It was right at the top of the
(22:02):
key on our offensive end. Jackson Robinson, who I love
and if if we didn't have Jackson Robinson, we might
not win another game this year. So this is he's
He might be my favorite player on the team. So
this is not a not saying anything bad about him,
but he there was a loose ball and he reached
for it and you could almost see he could either
(22:23):
put his shoulder down and go grab it, or he
could reach for it. He reached. Old Miss guy came
and grabbed Old Miss guy got it lay up. If
Robinson does that, he gets it. He stopped. It was
like he saw contact and he said, I'm stopping before
this contact and contact got the ball because old Miss
(22:46):
did it. I think our guys do that a lot.
It's like they shy from that final moment of aggression
that will go get you the ball, and I think
that hurts us a lot.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
Okay, Okay, well, thank you very much, thank you glo girl.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I mean, I you know, do we you have to
play as as Pope I think said in the game
early this year, like your hair's on fire. Go back
and watch how Arkansas played Saturday night. That's what they did.
They play and which is crazy because oftentimes I didn't.
I thought Cow's teams didn't do that at Kentucky. This
(23:26):
team was playing like that earlier in the year and
in the first half. Now, I thought in the second
half we did do it, but we were down too much.
But in the first half we just we didn't do it.
And then you throw in you know, I think Oway
missed three shots at the rim. I don't know what
the garrison back to the basket hook shots are. I mean,
(23:48):
those aren't going to go in ever. I mean we
did that on three or four plays in a row.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I didn't there's a ten second call in the first half.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It was yeah, walked it up the court, walked it in.
I mean Chandler picked the ball up into a trap.
It's like, what, all right, what's next?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Taylor?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Taylor, go ahead, Taylor?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Hey, mad I'm struggling with two words tonight, and those
are expectations and perception. My obviously, our expectations are final fours, championships,
certainly not being down by twenty three and.
Speaker 8 (24:24):
A half in the SEC.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
My perception is colored a little bit by the fact
that the last time we had a new head coach
it was John Walla, de Marcus Cousins, Eric Bludsoe.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
And now I'm looking at the schedule a little bit
and frankly, I see eighteen nineteen wins twenty maybe, yeah,
And so I'm kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
A much touch tougher, much tougher. You're exactly right, much tougher,
exactly right. I went back before the before the Arkansas game,
I watched that clip. I think we've talked about it.
It was an hour and twenty minutes of one score
from every UK game that we won during the cal Era.
And one of the things that struck me is how
bad the SEC was during some of those years, Like
(25:11):
we were beaten teams five million. It's a much tougher SEC.
If this, if we were in the ACC right now,
we'd have gimme games. There just aren't many gimme games
in this league right now.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No one I agree with that. But but that our
present is the reality, and so I don't wonder what
the expectation being what it is, how do we view
this team if if, in fact what plays out looks
like it's going to with you know, eighteen nineteen twenty wins,
you're looking at a seven, eight, nine seed, and then
you don't depends.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
On what happened. I think it depends how it depends
on what happens in March, right, I mean, so let's
say let's say we win nine. Let's say we win nineteen,
and we're nineteen and twelve. We go down the SEC tournament.
Let's say we win two games, which in some years
would have gotten us to the finals, but this year
might only get us to Friday, right, and then so
(26:09):
we go in the tournament with twenty one wins. Let's
say we're with that record of eight seed. We win
that game, and then we play Iowa State in the
second round. The reality is how that Iowa State going
game goes, my friend, is probably how we look at
(26:30):
the year, right, I mean it is.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It is an Anthony Davis and Julius Randall and the
Harrison Twins aren't coming. I guess no they're not.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
They're not. But remember about the Julius Randall. Remember about
the Julius Randall year. Awesome year. If James Young misses
that three, we lose in the second round, and then
how do we look at the year.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
We looked terrible. I was there, but it was awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, And that's that's really to some extent, when you're
not dominant, how you look at the year is gonna
be like, what do you remember of the Jamal Murray
Tyler less years?
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Indiana?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You remember losing to Indiana? Right, Like, that's what you remember,
you know. I mean, that's kind of how these things go,
is that, you know. And I'm as guilty as anybody.
The Saint Peter's year, we were a two seed. We
were good. But what we're gonna remember, say Peters, you know, so,
(27:33):
I mean on to some respera, to some respects, and
I appreciate the call. Unless your team is dominant, like
the John Waal team, or like the twenty fifteen team,
or even like the twenty seventeen team, you're inevitably gonna
look through the lens of how it ended as to
(27:54):
how you judge it. I thought this team had a
chance to go twenty five and six, and even if
we got upset in the tournament, people say, wow, that
was still a heck of a year. Man, that was fun. Well,
I don't know if people will look at it like
that if we're nineteen and twelve, So then it's just
(28:15):
gonna be what we do in March. And I don't
think it has any judgment on what's gonna happen for
Pope in the future, because he had a month to
build this roster, and unlike cal he didn't have four
five star guys already committed to him at another school.
But yeah, it's it's different because I think in large
(28:36):
part because the Butler injury, we'd just changed the way
things are going. Let's do one more and we'll take
a break.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Who's Nathan?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Nathan?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Go ahead, and Nathan, I'm at a long time list,
their first time caller.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Who are What's up?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
So I was at the game.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Tonight and I want to say I really liked the
effort that we gave the second half.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I think starting out and.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
They could have just dropped the bomb and kind of
given up.
Speaker 9 (29:01):
Saw a lot of a lot of strength in those
back door cuts, like you were saying, I think there's
hope there.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
But it's been seemed to be a trend in the
past few games and when teams are pressing us super
high on the corner, we can't get those threes off,
especially in the first half.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It takes us super.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Long to adjust. I just don't know what we should
what needs to be done about that.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, I don't either. I mean I I I you know,
there's probably a part of it, and I appreciate the
call that when what what did Old Miss shooting the
first half? Billy? Sixty five percent? I mean a lot
of that's because we helped them, but you know, they
hit when they hit threes like that, we're probably gonna
lose either way.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
But sixty percent sixty two.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It was frustrating to me about the first is that
we were down twenty three. It felt like we were
never in it. We were down twenty three, and in
some ways, Billy, I feel like we were lucky to
be down twenty three.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
But you know, like zero turnovers in the first half
and Old Miss one in the game.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
That's it's unpressible.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's that's crazy. It's it's and and some of it's
a lot of it's them, but some of it was us,
and we were just bad. And you know, I do
I like Mark Pope said, there are no moral victories
at Kentucky. There are That was unacceptable. If it's the
biggest halftime deficit since twenty thirteen. That's bad. We'll take
(30:19):
a break and be right back. It's a Local Toy
Dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the Local
Toy Dealers KSR postgame Show. I haven't had a Snickers
in a long time, Billy, and I just ate the
first bike. That was really good.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
You're not yourself when you're hungry.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
You know. I can't eat these because then I'll get
big again. Because those are really good.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
No, I'm serious, and you've got discipline.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
You can have a Snickers every now and then, right,
I don't know, man, semi clusters.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, but I'm I'm like that, that's not true, not anymore.
I eat like I like literally don't eat more than
like six a day, like and I mean like six clusters.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Not six bags like six clusters.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I mean I've lost you don't give me any crowd,
I've lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
No, I'll give you a lot of credit. You have
lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
That's why I can't eat these because they're too good.
I'm only doing it for myself tonight because I because
you know, people are saying, there's no way I'm gonna
be able to do the show on Thursday. I'm doing it.
I'm just not doing it at the bar.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
Well, you know, the bathroom's not really close here either.
All right, you gotta run through multiple doors down a hallway.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
I'll make it work. Don't you worry about me? Who's
up next?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Okay, Skyler, Skyler, go ahead, Skyler.
Speaker 11 (31:40):
Billy, stop body shaming Matt Jones on the area.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
No kidding, like you can't. I had my physical last
week and I was twenty three pounds less than the
last time I was in there. And that's still not
good enough for Billy think about him.
Speaker 11 (31:54):
But go ahead, Billy, come on, Hey, a couple of
things guys. First, I'm still I'm still mad at Reed Sheepherd.
I'm still hurt. But he did a big He had
a big night tonight, sixteen points, seven rebounds.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Reach Eperd did well. Good for him. He still shouldn't
warn that shirt. Still shouldn't warn the shirt.
Speaker 11 (32:17):
Absolutely. Hey, I'm curious what your thoughts are on what
you think Mark Pope's mindset is right now.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
This is kind of tough.
Speaker 11 (32:25):
The honeymoon has kind of war worn.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
He knows it. And the thing is, he knows this
is what's tough. This is what's gotta be tough for Mark.
Mark knows so much about this that he can't like
delude himself. You know, like if you've been to karaoke
and you hear some woman or man get up there
and sing and can't sing, but they believe they can sing.
In their mind they're killing it, but they're not. Yeah,
(32:49):
sometimes I envy those people. It's like it doesn't matter,
they still feel like they're killing it. Mark knows. Mark
knows because like he's he knows how we feel. He's
not listening to this show, but he knows what these
calls are, and that's got to make it tough.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (33:06):
I think the loss to cal personally for him probably
had to be really difficult because I think that's a
big kind of monkey on his back that he has
to get off almost for his own confidence. And I
don't know him, but I'm just I'm projecting that, and
I think that that likely is really difficult for both
Mark Pope and honestly John Cali Perry because John Calli
(33:27):
Perry is going to be continue to be hated by
the fan base because because he won honestly.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
For honestly, it's weird. It's weird. If Mark had won,
I think things would have been better at least with
the Kentucky fan base for both of them, you know
what I mean. Now, it wouldn't have I mean, cal
still wanted to win, and it's better for the Arkansas
fan base that he would. But for the Kentucky fan base,
I think if Pope had won, both of them would
(33:54):
have been better off. But that's the way it goes.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
And to speak to speak to the expectations to the
caller talked about about, you know, Caler Perry's first team
had John Wall and all that stuff. I do not
miss John Caller Perry for a minute. I appreciate the honesty,
the in depth analysis from our coach. Now, the care
he gets it. I know he's feeling the pressure right now.
He should feel the pressure, but I I'm just eager
(34:19):
to see now how like this is kind of when
a coach is made right when you kind of get
everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.
And so he's lost two point guards and so now
now what is this going to look like for him?
I'm kind of I'm kind of excited to see, honestly,
which way it goes. I'm worried. I'm kind of worried
right now that it could go south.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
But that Mark's story, and I appreciate the call. Mark's
story wrote in The Hair Leader that you don't become
the Kentucky coach until your adversity. If that's true, then
here it is. Right here it is, I do think
when I'm coming Pope, though, I don't think it's fair
(35:03):
to compare him to the first year of Cal. Cal
just took the team he was gonna have at Memphis,
which was already full of five stars, and brought him here.
And then he added Patrick Patterson, who I was pretty good,
right and Darius Miller. This is a different situation. Pope
didn't recruit five stars to be with you, and he
(35:23):
only was able to bring one guy from his team
last year. Now, the portal makes it easier in some
ways than what Cal had to do, But he didn't
get to say, hey, John Wall DeMarcus Cousins, we're just
moving to a different location. He did do that at Arkansas,
(35:44):
So I think it would be fair actually to compare
his first year at Kentucky with his first year at Arkansas.
But for Pope, this is a lot more like Rick's
first year. In some ways he's having to start over,
and in some way he's done amazingly well. But we've
now had some clunkers too, And that's weird. That's a
(36:06):
weird dichotomy. Who's next, Donnie, Donnie, go ahead, Donnie.
Speaker 10 (36:13):
Hey, I'm sitting beside the road up in my holler
and fifth passes from when I get home, Man, I'm
going to have two hot dogs and I'm going to
have a cake.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Okay, And why why two hot dogs?
Speaker 10 (36:30):
Well, it's in your honor. I think what You're trying
to lose weight and.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I'm not trying to see Billy, why did you take
my weight? Part of this conversation, Like by the way,
like what what is that about? Billy?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I don't remember. I don't remember bringing that up. I
think I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I have a colonoscopy Thursday. This is the reason I
have to haveay Thursday. This is not about like a
weight loss or team. I don't get to eat tomorrow
because I have to do there.
Speaker 10 (37:03):
My deepest apologies, but I'll still have the hot dogs
in Okay, listen, this is so simple. My gosh, you
are playing in the most athletic conference, probably in the
world other than the NBA. I mean, these teams, listen,
(37:27):
they can they're athletes, but they're athletes who are ballplayers.
They can jump, they can shoot, they have the first
step on you. They will get the loose ball, they
will get the rebound. Mighty Kentucky comes to town. They
are hungry. That is why this Kentucky team is in
(37:51):
the position that it's in. Make no mistake if you don't,
if you don't basketball, you know that he's This league
is all about athletes every team. They will kick your butt.
They're good. They can shoot, they can run, they can
dun't they can do it at all. They're not only athletes,
(38:13):
they are basketball players. Now that being said, I wish
you would come in on that. And and here's my question.
We don't have a point guard right now. Yeah, Robinson
is very uncomfortable with the ball. I think or other
(38:34):
two guard old way he is. He is good off
of a pass. I don't think he can he doesn't
have that.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
He's a huge Yeah, he's not a huge offensive talent,
so it makes it hard for him, Like Jackson, Robinson
create his own shot. But you're right, he doesn't want
to be he's not. He done like one hundred comfortable
as a point guard.
Speaker 10 (38:53):
Okay, here's my question to you. Here's my question to you.
I don't think we have have a point guard right now.
And you know more about this than I do. You know,
I'm very tempted to throw Purry out there.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
And all right, he played all right tonight. I appreciate
the call. He played all right tonight, and he was aggressive,
but he was also playing against a dude that was
closer to his high you know. He he did not
fare as well against the Arkansas guards for a couple
of minutes he played. Then, Yes, Perry, I think there
(39:32):
are games that can work. I actually thought he played
pretty well in the minutes he played in the first half.
To your point on the athletes, we are the most
unathletic team in the in the SEC. We just are.
We just are now. I think we are more skilled
(39:53):
than all but a couple of the teams, but we
are the most unathletic team. And we're not used to
that because in the col years we were either the
most athletic team or like the second most athletic team
every year. Well now it's the exact opposite, and so
you know, long term, we'll have to see can you
(40:13):
win in the SEC. Because the thing about the SEC is,
even when the guys weren't talented, they were always great athletes.
The SEC has had great athletes my entire life. The
talent's coming gone, but the athleticism has always been there.
Pope tends to not recruit like that. How's that gonna work.
(40:33):
We'll see next year. He's already got better athletes coming
in than we have this year. But we'll see. But
this year it is what it is like. You know
how many dudes on this team, Billy are as athletic.
Think about last year's Kentucky team, Rob Dillingham, Reed Shephard,
(40:57):
Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw. Think about those guys.
Antonio Reeves was good. Antonio Reeves might be the best
athlete on the team if he was on the team
this year and he was the worst athlete last year.
You know what I mean. Like, it's just a different team,
and so we have to That's why we have to
(41:19):
make shots. That's why we have to outscheme people, because
we're not gonna out athlete people.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I mean, they could use a Trey Mitchell too.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I mean, I mean per Antonio Reeves was probably like
the eighth best athlete on the team last year, and
he might be the best athlete on this team except
maybe Oway. So it's just different. And so it's like
we and for us Kentucky fans, we Kentucky man, We've
just not seen a team like this here. It's fun
when it's rolling. Think about the Duke game and the
(41:48):
Florida game and all that, the Gonzaga game. But tonight
it was tough to watch. Eight five nine two eight
zero twenty two eighty seven. We will take a break
and be right back for the final segments. The Local
Toy Dealers k I saw our postgame show Welcome back
final segment. It is a Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show.
If I'm nine, two eighth twenty two eighty seven, Thank
(42:12):
you all for listening and calling in. We got five
people on. Let's do them and then we'll get ready
for tomorrow and hope we can forget about this game.
This won't be one that will stick in the memory banks,
at least for me. What's next, Jonathan Jonathan, Although it
was history, Actually I say we won't remember. We probably
will believe because we're the triple double. Yeah yeah, I
(42:32):
mean because of the triple double and then a rare
twenty eight what do they call it? Trillion? Basically, Ansley
Almonor and Trent Noah both played more than ten minutes.
Ansley Almanor fifteen minutes, Trent Noah thirteen minutes. Neither one
(42:53):
of them had a stat got a single one all zeros.
That's amazing. Just for the last Kentucky player to play
more than seven minutes and have all zeros was Perry
Stevenson in two thousand and nine played nine minutes. So
we had two guys tonight have all zero for stats
(43:15):
with more minutes than Perry Stevenson. First time that's happened
in twenty years, and it happened twice in one game.
That's wild. All right, Go ahead, Jonathan, Jonathan, Go ahead, Jonathan.
Speaker 9 (43:29):
Hey, Matt quick, couple questions here. You were talking about
seeding earlier, and even after the Arkansas lost, ESPN's Joe
Lenardi he has a still has a three seed today
and then also just you know, just you know, curious
as to you know, I'm curious in the fact that
won't the committee evaluate Kentucky's resume differently with Lamart Butler
(43:51):
being out.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
So the first question is, yes, you're right about that,
and that's why I mean normally, if you went, say
nineteen and twelve, you would not be a seven seed.
You'd be in like the first four. But the reason
we would be, I think is because of how good
the SEC is and how good our resume is with
Lamont Butler. Here's what they'll do, because I've been on
(44:14):
this mock committee. They will look at our record and
if our record with Lamont Butler is significantly different than
without him and he's playing, then yes they will consider it. If, however,
he comes back and we go like two and two,
(44:35):
then it probably won't make that much difference. Does that
make sense? So if they can look at a gap
on our record and go, well, they were one and
eight when he was gone, but the rest of the
time they were this, then yes, they will consider that.
It might move us up like one seed line.
Speaker 9 (44:51):
I understand that, and my you know, it'll be interesting
to see. I think next Saturday is when the committee
does their top sixteen seeds that they reveal, So that
means we have South Carolina and Tennessee but the two
games before that, so we'll see what they think of us,
and hopefully we can pull these next two off.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah. So if we won the next two, Yeah, if
we won the next two, I bet we would be
on that list. If we didn't the South Carolina game,
here's what's gonna happen. Even if we win, it's gonna
hurt us because it's gonna bring our strength to schedule
down because that's the only team in the SEC that's
not a what quad whatever? Right, So in some ways
even beating them doesn't help you. But if we could
(45:29):
beat Tennessee and then you're probably right.
Speaker 9 (45:33):
Just hope we get in the tournament. I think if
we get in the tournament, I don't want us to
blow all those good wins away where we could have
had a good season, a real good chance to make
a good run.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, I agree. I appreciate the call. Four more. Who's next, Steve, Steve,
go ahead, Steve.
Speaker 12 (45:49):
Hi, Matt, how are you tonight good? The real problem
of to night. Let's get to it. You know, I
know the defense isn't good. We only had one steal
that was Jackson Robbin, and we only had one block
that was Travis Perry of all people, Is that right?
Speaker 6 (46:05):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Is that right? We only one block It was Travis Perry.
I didn't realize that.
Speaker 12 (46:10):
Yes, yes, but you said yourself. These guys are getting
older and defensively, we couldn't expect them to get much
better and they're not going to.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
Uh.
Speaker 12 (46:18):
The real problem is our offense. Amari Williams is awesome,
but Tennysis says a lot about how good he is,
but also just how much he's you know, handling the ball. Yeah,
and uh, and we need a point guard. We need
Butler back Kelsey, and we need car back kealth Lee
so that Angley Almanor and Kobe Braa can return back
to their normal physicians and coming off the bench, and
(46:42):
our offense flows better that way. Yeah. Even when Florida
scores over one hundred, honest, when we score more than them,
we win. So we can't really expect our defense to
get much better. We really need our offense to get
sorted out.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Totally agree with that, completely. I appreciate the call. I mean,
the thing is one thing that's clear is until Butler
was hurt, our offense was pretty good. Even when we lost.
That really hasn't been the case. The whole time since
he's been gone, and hopefully, hopefully that changes if he returns,
(47:19):
which we really need him to. Who's next, Todd, Todd,
go ahead, Todd.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
So Matt, like he was talking about earlier, Pope has
got a huge what he has, and it is amazing
he was able to put together a team even this
good and when the short time he had. But I
was wanting to touch on what you said too tonight
(47:46):
about how the team seemed to get better of the
second half. You know, it looks to me like we
should have made those changes in the first half. Surely
you know to wait till halftime. You know, as soon
as you see what's happening, it looked like you need
to make a change right then, because it seemed to
(48:09):
me when we kind of doing that against Tennessee, we.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Were I'm sure Pope wanted to do it, the guys
just weren't executing it. And then I think this team
really has a tendency. I think Pope is one or
two plays short on calling time out sometimes. Jack Gibbons
mentioned that on the post game Martin may just have
to say I'm going to take a time out one
play quicker than I'm used to because they we've given
(48:36):
up eight zho ten to oh runs very quickly now
in multiple games in a row.
Speaker 6 (48:41):
Yeah, and if I had figured correctly, and you might
could have Billy to look it up to the way
I figured, we're averaging giving up seventy eight points a game.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Yeah, you may be right. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
I actually thought it might be more than that, but
when I figured it up, it's like seventy seven point seven.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Yeah, that's still a lot, though, I mean, that's a lot,
and it is and in an SCC play it's more
than that, I bet. I mean, so, yeah, that's a lot,
and it's gonna you know, for us to win like that,
our offense has to be pretty flawless, and that hasn't
hadn't been the case yet. Appreciate it. Todd two more,
who's next?
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Todd number two?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Todd number two, what's up?
Speaker 8 (49:30):
And I appreciate you taking my call a couple points.
First thing, I know, we're down two point guards, but
somebody on that team has got to light of fire
under these guys to get them more intense on defense.
We're so kind of lackadaisical that it seems like the
other team gets in a flow and it's just like,
(49:51):
we have no defensive answer for that.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
We had no answer from them in the first half.
I mean when they went zone. What what scared me
about when they let zone is how lost we looked
on so like, yeah, that possession, that possession when they
played zone, if you go back and look, that was
a horrible defensive possession. I mean, I don't know that
(50:19):
any of the dudes knew where they were supposed to
be and when they got That's why he didn't play
it anymore. Is I think they would have scored one
thousand if we stayed in zone because those right from
the beginning, all four five of them were looking at
each other like where are we supposed to be? It
was that was not gonna go.
Speaker 8 (50:35):
Well, yeah, there was no communication at all. Car and
I think Robinson were like on the same man. And
then the guy that hit six threes is standing on
the corner wide open. I'm like, God, somebody's got to
be like, go go get you know, I've got him
roll back or something. But second point offense, I know
people are pressuring up on us and we're starting the
(50:55):
offense like thirty feet from the goal. I get that
to a degree, but the dribble handoff is killing us.
We're getting nothing out of that. And then we wait
to backdoor people when we're down twenty seven. I mean,
we should be doing that within the first five minutes.
There's no screens away from the ball to free up
the guys that can't create their own shot.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, well so Bret Bray it can't get separation, right, No,
neither can car neither can all Minor. So the only
two guys that can get any separation are Oway in Robinson.
So they're really the only ones that can come off
that screen and get any downhill momentum. And the problem
(51:37):
is that Robinson apparently that dude that was guarding Robinson
is like one of the best defenders in the league.
And so really, now you're the o Way And if
you'll notice, in the first half, oh, Way got the
ball downhill towards the rim, but he how many times
did he miss the finish? So again like, yeah, we
just couldn't get anything to work.
Speaker 8 (51:57):
Yeah, I'd like to see him go downhill and then
slide Brea off the wing to the corner and have
someone setting the screen like kind of a backdoor screen
to freeme open or something, because we've just got to
find an open look versus a contested look. Good luck Thursday,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Thank you very much. All right, so tomorrow we will
be at KSPAR and Thursday I'll have Billy in charge
of keeping the door open in between the studio and
and everything.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
That'll be something, there's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Thank you all very much for staying up. Tough loss.
Next thing, you just gotta beat South Carolina Saturday. South
Carolina Saturday is a must must must win. We will
see you guys later. Cats go down ninety eight to
eighty four. This has been the local Toyter Dealers KSR
postgame show.
Welcome everyone. It is the local toy of dealers KSR
postgame show. Kentucky loses ninety eight eighty four in a
game where they were embarrassed for a half, fought back
in the second half, but a pretty bad loss on
the road in Oxford. Kentucky now four and five in
(00:21):
the SEC. It is only the first time since twenty
thirteen that they gave up as many points as they
did in the first half, and it's one of only
a couple of times in the last fifteen years they've
gone one in four in a row in SEC play.
The other time was twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, So look,
(00:44):
this was the first half. Is one of the worst
Kentucky halves to start a game I can remember, you
know the I saw. I think it was Corey Price
said the last time we were down twenty three in
the first half SEC play was to Tennessee in twenty thirteen,
(01:05):
and that actually was the game that as I was watching,
I thought of that was the last time I remember
watching Kentucky play a game and thinking we are just
not even in it. And that was the game after
Nerlins Noel got hurt and even though we didn't have
anyone new get hurt in the last game. That Nerlins
(01:25):
Noel loss was kind of a uh oh, this season's
in trouble. And I wonder if the Arkansas game had
a little of a similar effect, at least for a
half now. Unlike that Tennessee game, Kentucky fought back, got
it as close as eleven, but you let a team
score ninety eight, you're not gonna win. Kind of some
(01:50):
unbelievable numbers in this game. Ole Miss only had one turnover,
one turnover. It's only the second time since nineteen ninety
that a team has played a game in the SEC
and only had one turnover. And it's a testament to
(02:11):
the big storyline from the game, which is our defense
is right now awful. Second half it was a little better.
Ole Miss made some difficult shots, but we are lost
on defense. Part of it. I think fifty percent of
it is athleticism. You know, earlier this year, even when
(02:34):
we were good, I said, and I didn't think it
was controversial, but people sort of took it that way
that this was the least athletic team in the SEC.
And I still think and I think that's true, and
I think most people would now agree that we just
don't have great athletes on the team, and there's nothing
any of those guys can do about that. I mean,
you know they are the athletes, they are so fifty
(02:56):
percent of it. I don't know that you can fix.
I mean, there are a couple guys on this team
that they're not going to be able to stay in
front of their man one on one no matter what.
But the other fifty percent I do think is if
not fixable, should be an improvement. Is they just they
(03:17):
get lost, they make odd decisions, and there's a hustle
factor that just isn't there that I don't understand. There
were thirteen points scored out of the first thirty that
were big men shooting wide open shots where the big
man gardening three times tomorrow twice Garrison didn't even get
(03:40):
a hand up, I mean didn't even get a hand up,
and not surprisingly, all thirteen were nothing but net. The
defense in the first half, I'm not sure when I
can remember Kentucky plane worse defense. Offensively, we scored eighty four,
but once again, I still don't think take enough threes
only to twenty five. I looked it up. Kentucky has
(04:03):
taken thirty threes in only three of the nine SEC games.
If you remember, Pope said thirty to thirty five as
a goal every game, we've hit it three times, and
I think more damningly, we have given up six six
of the nine games, the other team has made more
threes than us. Earlier this year, we led the nation
(04:25):
in three point shooting, and we now only three of
the nine games. Forget about percentage, only three of the
nine games have we even made more than the other team.
You're not gonna win like that. I mean, We're just
not gonna win like that. And I don't know, I
don't know what we do about it. We look lost
(04:46):
on defense, and we all too often look lost on
offense with any ball pressure ball pressure is killing this team.
And a big part of that is you don't have
a point guard. You don't have Lamont Butler. But if
you listen to Mark Pope talk, he doesn't talk like
a guy who thinks he's gonna get Butler back. He
was asked about it tonight and he said something like,
(05:07):
we got to figure out how to be better now
without Butler. Hopefully we get Butler back. I still think
we will, But you know what happens until then, it's frustrating.
You know, Amari Williams made history tonight with a triple double.
I mean it's only the fourth one in the history
of the school. And by the way, Billy, what an
(05:28):
absurd group of names on our triple double list? Chris Mills,
dearon Fox, Isaiah Briscoe and Amar Williams. Is that not
wild that those are the four people? I mean, it's
that is a wild list. But Amari joins the list tonight,
and kudos to the kid on the pregame show who
(05:52):
predicted it. Yeah, I mean, Mason, what are the odds
you could have gotten on a triple double before or
the game when there's only been three in the history
of the school. But he got it. Unfortunately it's for
not because of the loss. So Amari played well, although
still I don't know what I don't know what it
is about him putting his not putting his hands up
(06:13):
on defense, but on offense, he had a great night.
Jackson Robinson played well, Otaga Oway played really well in
the second half. But it's too little, too late. If
we're giving up ninety eight to teams, we're not gonna win.
And you know, Mark Pope. He sounds like a guy
(06:34):
that isn't what it's not. Sounds like he said, we
don't really know what to do. I give him credit
for honesty, but that's not the most confidence inducing thing
in the world. But I do give him credit for
honesty on that. But they got to figure something out.
You know, I'm sitting here, I'm looking at the schedule,
(06:54):
right so we are fit. I am shifting my thought
process for these last nine games. I'm kind of shifting
my process to let's just I sound like cal, let's
just get to March. But I do think it's worth
noting March is not assured. We are fifteen and seven.
(07:19):
We do have as good as wins as anybody, so
if it's closed, we'll get in. I think if you're
nineteen and twelve, you're almost certainly in twenty. You're definitely
in nineteen, you're almost certainly in, and you might even
be in with eighteen. But I think you need nineteen
(07:42):
or twenty to be sure. So let's look at the schedule.
You play South Carolina Saturday. Billy must win, right, have
to win.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, they don't have a win in the SEC.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
They don't have a win in the SEC. You lose
that game all of a sudden, like it's a whole
different thing. Gotta win that, we get you to sixteen.
You later play Vandy at home. I know you lost
to them, but you gotta beat them at home. That
would be seventeen. And then you later play LSU at home.
That would be eighteen. Now, those are three games against
(08:14):
teams that if you don't beat those at home, those
are bad, terrible losses. I'm gonna assume they get all those.
That's eighteen. That might get you in. But let's say
you need another one, Billy, because I think nineteen is
for sure. Eighteen you're shaky, all right, Let's say you
(08:36):
can need nineteen. Let me give you the rest of them.
Tennessee at home at Texas, at Alabama, Auburn at home,
at Oklahoma at Missouri. I mean, none of those are gimmes,
and none of those I did. I'm gonna go so
far as to say, I don't know if except the
(08:59):
Oklahoma game, I'm not sure we'll be favored in any
of those games. I bet we won't actually, So you know,
while I still think it's much more likely than not
that they're in the tournament. And once they're in the tournament,
especially if Butler's back, I think they can beat most
(09:21):
any team. It's not certain as far as the SEC tournament.
You know, this year the field changes. We will have
four games on Wednesday, which means teams nine through sixteen
will play on Wednesday. And as of now, we would
be playing on Wednesday, because right now we are in
(09:43):
tenth place in the SEC. And again you look at
that schedule, you know, the chances of us playing on
Wednesday are greater than what thirty percent? You know, I
think it's I think unless you're five hundred in the SEC,
(10:04):
you're probably playing on Wednesday. So I'm shifting my brain
a little bit too. My hopes when conference place started,
come in the top four in the SEC, get a
double by get a top three or four seed so
that you get placed in a region that's closer to
(10:25):
your home. I'm kind of putting all that aside. I
think the loss to Andy and the loss to Arkansas
took that off the table. So now we just for me,
need to start playing significantly better. Beat these teams. We're
(10:45):
supposed to get some of these the other six I said,
get a couple of them, whichever couple you can get,
get them, and then go to March, hope we're as
healthy as we've been, and then play with the same
kind of aggression and no fear to lose that Arkansas
(11:07):
did on Saturday, because you know the team that played Deny.
I mean, we're not doing anything if it's that team.
But a week ago we won in Knoxville. So I'm
not giving up. I see people giving up. I'm not
giving up. But we gotta find a way. We can't
(11:31):
have performances. We lost that game tonight in like the
first six minutes. We can't keep having that happen. And
hopefully Pope and his staff will start being able to
come up with a plan to change it, because right now,
what's happening in these last two games is not working.
Eight five, nine, two, twenty two, eighty seven will take
(11:54):
your calls. I'm gonna try to have a little bit
of fun because starting at midnight, I can't eat again
until Thursday at like oh yeah, and so I'm gonna
eat like one candy bar right before bed. I don't
eat after like seven o'clock. It's like, you know a
(12:15):
way to like lose what right?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But I'm eating Tony because I can't eat for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
You canna be angry tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Wait till Thursday show. Yeah, exactly. We'll be right back.
This is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. Welcome back.
It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. Hey,
f I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven.
Let's just get started, Billy. It was no fun night,
(12:49):
so let's just get the phone. Who's up first, Let's
go to Wes. Wes, go ahead, Hey, what's up?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Matt Jones? First off, you guys are also I wanted
to say something. I normally call it a different name.
I'm calling today with my actual name because I am
going to be critical and I think you, you know,
out of respect. I'm going to use my real name
because I'm going to be critical with you guys, and
you know, if you'll give me that chance. At Louisville,
(13:16):
the reason why they went to where they are is
because I think it wasn't just the Tino was the
worst person in the world. I think he was allowed
to just be not not questioned, not not not spoken against,
and that builds and builds and builds and that's kind
of where we are in the country and everything. To
be honest, and right now we're in a situation where
(13:38):
I can't like Mark Pope because I do. But the
last thing just coaching.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But who's saying you can't be critical? I hang on,
hang on when no one has. First of all, I
don't go to the press conference, so I can't ask
any questions. I've been very critical. I literally started this
segment by saying, that's one of the worst games has
defensively that I can remember. So of course you can
(14:10):
ask you a question. So I mean, I don't know.
That's not fair to say no one's being critical. I'm
not there to ask my pope because I'm not in Oxford,
because I'm doing things like this show. But I am
being critical and and to some people I'm being of
course you can, but that's just not fair to say
no one's being.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Critical and you're one hundred percent right if that is
what I was saying that let me respond because I
have written down the first thing you started your show
on was you you told the fan base that you
believe that fifty percent of the reason that we are
bad at defense because of athleticism and you're so you're
you're telling me right now, that's how you started to
(14:49):
show mat.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But I believe that that's not that's Roberts. I believe
that no, Jackson Robinson is not hang on, Jackson Robinson
is not a great athlete. He's he's good, he's a
good athlete. But Kobe Braya, Ansley Almanor, Travis Perry, Trent
and Noah Brandon Brandon Garrison should be a good athlete.
He's just not a good defender. Okay, But but that
(15:13):
doesn't mean they're great athletes. I mean, Jimmy, I'm not
the only one said that. Jimmy Dyke said during the game,
we have an athletic disadvantage at almost every position without Butler,
and I agree with that. Amari's really the only one. Yes,
of course they of course.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
They'll that that I do not agree with. But hey,
we're allowed, We're allowed to disagree.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
How do you explain how do you explain them beating
us off the dribble play after play if we're if
you're if by the way, saying they're not good athletes
is not an excuse, it's just a reality. No, it's
not because he recruited him and if he's going to
have a team of guys in our athletes, But that's
(16:02):
but that's different than saying they're not an athlete. Does
not mean that you are absolving the theme. He recruited
the team. He has to he has to create a
defense around what he has and right now it's not happening.
But that but I can't just say these are great
athletes when some of them can barely dunk.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Okay, I think that's a stretch. And but I will
say I agree with you. You know I'm not. I
just said that's how you started the show, and the
show should have started with, Hey, let's be real here.
Like the last four games, some of the coaching decisions
and just pure coaching, it has just been astronomically bad.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And I.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Can't make him come on the show.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
You're right, you're right, and I wish he would. You're right,
that's right, that's one hundred right, you're right. But I
would say, I do know that you guys have the
biggest you know, y'all have the you have a bigger spectrum.
Then you know that's because you've earned that. This show
deserves it and it's awesome. So I just wish you know.
I was at the Article game and I left, and
I remember me and my dad were talking and he
(17:13):
never gets critical, and I was like, man, why can't
they ask Like I'm at the game and I watched
Brea and Amar and then come in to check in
in a TV timeout, and the entire fan they went
up in cheers because they were like, finally, thank you
put these players back in the gate.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Can Okay, I appreciate the call. I get it. I was,
I mean, I'm not exactly sure what your first call
is about me and what we're saying or we're not.
We were very critical of the decision to play Chandler
and those guys as much as they did the last game.
But if objectively, the reason we can't play defense man
(17:53):
demand is that our guys are not good defenders. But
that's not an excuse to give up ninety eight points.
I mean again, athlete is fifty percent of it. But
did we Billy have better athletes than Saint Peter's in Oakland? Yes? Yes,
and we lost. You know why because our athletes didn't
(18:14):
play well and they out schemed us. Mark Pope has
has And I'm not even being hugely critical of him.
I think he got the team he could get considering
everything happened. But we have to create a defense for
this team. And if we put Kobe Brea on an
island with a guy that's five eleven and fast, he
(18:34):
is going to give up basket after basket. And that's
what happened a lot of the game. So you know,
maybe it's play zone, but they went zone, and they
gave up a wide open quarter three. And I love
Andrew Carr, but he was playing zone with the back
to the guy in the corner. That ain't gonna work.
So I don't know who's next.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
What a start good, Let's switch gears a little bit.
Good Glow Girl is next Glow Girl?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I will say. By the way, his point though about
how you can love a coach or like a coach
and still be critical of him, I agree with that.
That was my frustration with some of our fan base
during the end of the Callier is like you couldn't
criticize it, or you were like didn't support the team.
You can be critical of Pope and still think he's
the guy for the job. That is totally fair. Go ahead,
(19:26):
glogut globe guys.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
That what you girl, Girl, Glow Girl.
Speaker 7 (19:32):
Okay, I just I was at the game, and first
of all, I disagree with Jack Kilgrim acting like the
atmosphere was substandard or whatever word he used, because it
was packed the lower bow. It was so loud my
(19:52):
ears of ringing by the time I left. They played
music the whole time, their student athlete, their student section
goes three ways around the arena, and some seats were
empty in the upper level, but the lower level was full.
They were loud, they were fast. It was a beautiful
new arena. And the other thing I want to say
(20:15):
is they we can't shoot threes when they're constantly taking
us out of the position, like they were guarding so
well that we can't just lob up a bunch of
threes when they're not open.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well you can, however, you can, and we did this
in the second half. You can create hard back door
cuts which leads to drives to the basket, which when
they then cut off the drive, you can kick out
the shooters. We did that a lot in the second half,
and it worked. In the first half, we did none
of that. We had guys try to go on one.
We tried to force it into the post and a
(20:53):
lot of that stuff didn't work, uh huh, and we
missed a bunch of what I mean, we missed like
seven or eight layups.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Well, that's so frustrating. That was last year too, but
that's the most frustrating that those layups they miss and
those hook shots they miss. Then they tried. I mean,
but when you say, well, and I look on Twitter
and it makes me sad because everyone's saying they aren't trying,
they aren't trying. They looked like they were gave a
lot more in the second half, but even in the
(21:22):
first half, they're doing what they can do.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
You know, they work hard.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
And I go to all the home games and I've
gone to some of the away games, so I do
hate to hear the criticism that they're not trying hard.
Maybe they just can't help. But like you say, because
I've called.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, I think they try. There's a difference between trying.
It's hard to articulate. I think they tried. It's not
like I think these dudes are like quitters. Difference between
trying though, And let me give example. This was one
play probably nobody remembers it. There's a play towards the
end of the half there was a loose ball. It
got knocked. It was right at the top of the
(22:02):
key on our offensive end. Jackson Robinson, who I love
and if if we didn't have Jackson Robinson, we might
not win another game this year. So this is he's
He might be my favorite player on the team. So
this is not a not saying anything bad about him,
but he there was a loose ball and he reached
for it and you could almost see he could either
(22:23):
put his shoulder down and go grab it, or he
could reach for it. He reached. Old Miss guy came
and grabbed Old Miss guy got it lay up. If
Robinson does that, he gets it. He stopped. It was
like he saw contact and he said, I'm stopping before
this contact and contact got the ball because old Miss
(22:46):
did it. I think our guys do that a lot.
It's like they shy from that final moment of aggression
that will go get you the ball, and I think
that hurts us a lot.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
Okay, Okay, well, thank you very much, thank you glo girl.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I mean, I you know, do we you have to
play as as Pope I think said in the game
early this year, like your hair's on fire. Go back
and watch how Arkansas played Saturday night. That's what they did.
They play and which is crazy because oftentimes I didn't.
I thought Cow's teams didn't do that at Kentucky. This
(23:26):
team was playing like that earlier in the year and
in the first half. Now, I thought in the second
half we did do it, but we were down too much.
But in the first half we just we didn't do it.
And then you throw in you know, I think Oway
missed three shots at the rim. I don't know what
the garrison back to the basket hook shots are. I mean,
(23:48):
those aren't going to go in ever. I mean we
did that on three or four plays in a row.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I didn't there's a ten second call in the first half.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It was yeah, walked it up the court, walked it in.
I mean Chandler picked the ball up into a trap.
It's like, what, all right, what's next?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Taylor?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Taylor, go ahead, Taylor?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Hey, mad I'm struggling with two words tonight, and those
are expectations and perception. My obviously, our expectations are final fours, championships,
certainly not being down by twenty three and.
Speaker 8 (24:24):
A half in the SEC.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
My perception is colored a little bit by the fact
that the last time we had a new head coach
it was John Walla, de Marcus Cousins, Eric Bludsoe.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
And now I'm looking at the schedule a little bit
and frankly, I see eighteen nineteen wins twenty maybe, yeah,
And so I'm kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
A much touch tougher, much tougher. You're exactly right, much tougher,
exactly right. I went back before the before the Arkansas game,
I watched that clip. I think we've talked about it.
It was an hour and twenty minutes of one score
from every UK game that we won during the cal Era.
And one of the things that struck me is how
bad the SEC was during some of those years, Like
(25:11):
we were beaten teams five million. It's a much tougher SEC.
If this, if we were in the ACC right now,
we'd have gimme games. There just aren't many gimme games
in this league right now.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No one I agree with that. But but that our
present is the reality, and so I don't wonder what
the expectation being what it is, how do we view
this team if if, in fact what plays out looks
like it's going to with you know, eighteen nineteen twenty wins,
you're looking at a seven, eight, nine seed, and then
you don't depends.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
On what happened. I think it depends how it depends
on what happens in March, right, I mean, so let's
say let's say we win nine. Let's say we win nineteen,
and we're nineteen and twelve. We go down the SEC tournament.
Let's say we win two games, which in some years
would have gotten us to the finals, but this year
might only get us to Friday, right, and then so
(26:09):
we go in the tournament with twenty one wins. Let's
say we're with that record of eight seed. We win
that game, and then we play Iowa State in the
second round. The reality is how that Iowa State going
game goes, my friend, is probably how we look at
(26:30):
the year, right, I mean it is.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It is an Anthony Davis and Julius Randall and the
Harrison Twins aren't coming. I guess no they're not.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
They're not. But remember about the Julius Randall. Remember about
the Julius Randall year. Awesome year. If James Young misses
that three, we lose in the second round, and then
how do we look at the year.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
We looked terrible. I was there, but it was awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, And that's that's really to some extent, when you're
not dominant, how you look at the year is gonna
be like, what do you remember of the Jamal Murray
Tyler less years?
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Indiana?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You remember losing to Indiana? Right, Like, that's what you remember,
you know. I mean, that's kind of how these things go,
is that, you know. And I'm as guilty as anybody.
The Saint Peter's year, we were a two seed. We
were good. But what we're gonna remember, say Peters, you know, so,
(27:33):
I mean on to some respera, to some respects, and
I appreciate the call. Unless your team is dominant, like
the John Waal team, or like the twenty fifteen team,
or even like the twenty seventeen team, you're inevitably gonna
look through the lens of how it ended as to
(27:54):
how you judge it. I thought this team had a
chance to go twenty five and six, and even if
we got upset in the tournament, people say, wow, that
was still a heck of a year. Man, that was fun. Well,
I don't know if people will look at it like
that if we're nineteen and twelve, So then it's just
(28:15):
gonna be what we do in March. And I don't
think it has any judgment on what's gonna happen for
Pope in the future, because he had a month to
build this roster, and unlike cal he didn't have four
five star guys already committed to him at another school.
But yeah, it's it's different because I think in large
(28:36):
part because the Butler injury, we'd just changed the way
things are going. Let's do one more and we'll take
a break.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Who's Nathan?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Nathan?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Go ahead, and Nathan, I'm at a long time list,
their first time caller.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Who are What's up?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
So I was at the game.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Tonight and I want to say I really liked the
effort that we gave the second half.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I think starting out and.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
They could have just dropped the bomb and kind of
given up.
Speaker 9 (29:01):
Saw a lot of a lot of strength in those
back door cuts, like you were saying, I think there's
hope there.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
But it's been seemed to be a trend in the
past few games and when teams are pressing us super
high on the corner, we can't get those threes off,
especially in the first half.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It takes us super.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Long to adjust. I just don't know what we should
what needs to be done about that.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, I don't either. I mean I I I you know,
there's probably a part of it, and I appreciate the
call that when what what did Old Miss shooting the
first half? Billy? Sixty five percent? I mean a lot
of that's because we helped them, but you know, they
hit when they hit threes like that, we're probably gonna
lose either way.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
But sixty percent sixty two.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It was frustrating to me about the first is that
we were down twenty three. It felt like we were
never in it. We were down twenty three, and in
some ways, Billy, I feel like we were lucky to
be down twenty three.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
But you know, like zero turnovers in the first half
and Old Miss one in the game.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
That's it's unpressible.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's that's crazy. It's it's and and some of it's
a lot of it's them, but some of it was us,
and we were just bad. And you know, I do
I like Mark Pope said, there are no moral victories
at Kentucky. There are That was unacceptable. If it's the
biggest halftime deficit since twenty thirteen. That's bad. We'll take
(30:19):
a break and be right back. It's a Local Toy
Dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the Local
Toy Dealers KSR postgame Show. I haven't had a Snickers
in a long time, Billy, and I just ate the
first bike. That was really good.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
You're not yourself when you're hungry.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
You know. I can't eat these because then I'll get
big again. Because those are really good.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
No, I'm serious, and you've got discipline.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
You can have a Snickers every now and then, right,
I don't know, man, semi clusters.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, but I'm I'm like that, that's not true, not anymore.
I eat like I like literally don't eat more than
like six a day, like and I mean like six clusters.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Not six bags like six clusters.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I mean I've lost you don't give me any crowd,
I've lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
No, I'll give you a lot of credit. You have
lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
That's why I can't eat these because they're too good.
I'm only doing it for myself tonight because I because
you know, people are saying, there's no way I'm gonna
be able to do the show on Thursday. I'm doing it.
I'm just not doing it at the bar.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
Well, you know, the bathroom's not really close here either.
All right, you gotta run through multiple doors down a hallway.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
I'll make it work. Don't you worry about me? Who's
up next?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Okay, Skyler, Skyler, go ahead, Skyler.
Speaker 11 (31:40):
Billy, stop body shaming Matt Jones on the area.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
No kidding, like you can't. I had my physical last
week and I was twenty three pounds less than the
last time I was in there. And that's still not
good enough for Billy think about him.
Speaker 11 (31:54):
But go ahead, Billy, come on, Hey, a couple of
things guys. First, I'm still I'm still mad at Reed Sheepherd.
I'm still hurt. But he did a big He had
a big night tonight, sixteen points, seven rebounds.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Reach Eperd did well. Good for him. He still shouldn't
warn that shirt. Still shouldn't warn the shirt.
Speaker 11 (32:17):
Absolutely. Hey, I'm curious what your thoughts are on what
you think Mark Pope's mindset is right now.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
This is kind of tough.
Speaker 11 (32:25):
The honeymoon has kind of war worn.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
He knows it. And the thing is, he knows this
is what's tough. This is what's gotta be tough for Mark.
Mark knows so much about this that he can't like
delude himself. You know, like if you've been to karaoke
and you hear some woman or man get up there
and sing and can't sing, but they believe they can sing.
In their mind they're killing it, but they're not. Yeah,
(32:49):
sometimes I envy those people. It's like it doesn't matter,
they still feel like they're killing it. Mark knows. Mark
knows because like he's he knows how we feel. He's
not listening to this show, but he knows what these
calls are, and that's got to make it tough.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (33:06):
I think the loss to cal personally for him probably
had to be really difficult because I think that's a
big kind of monkey on his back that he has
to get off almost for his own confidence. And I
don't know him, but I'm just I'm projecting that, and
I think that that likely is really difficult for both
Mark Pope and honestly John Cali Perry because John Calli
(33:27):
Perry is going to be continue to be hated by
the fan base because because he won honestly.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
For honestly, it's weird. It's weird. If Mark had won,
I think things would have been better at least with
the Kentucky fan base for both of them, you know
what I mean. Now, it wouldn't have I mean, cal
still wanted to win, and it's better for the Arkansas
fan base that he would. But for the Kentucky fan base,
I think if Pope had won, both of them would
(33:54):
have been better off. But that's the way it goes.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
And to speak to speak to the expectations to the
caller talked about about, you know, Caler Perry's first team
had John Wall and all that stuff. I do not
miss John Caller Perry for a minute. I appreciate the honesty,
the in depth analysis from our coach. Now, the care
he gets it. I know he's feeling the pressure right now.
He should feel the pressure, but I I'm just eager
(34:19):
to see now how like this is kind of when
a coach is made right when you kind of get
everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.
And so he's lost two point guards and so now
now what is this going to look like for him?
I'm kind of I'm kind of excited to see, honestly,
which way it goes. I'm worried. I'm kind of worried
right now that it could go south.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
But that Mark's story, and I appreciate the call. Mark's
story wrote in The Hair Leader that you don't become
the Kentucky coach until your adversity. If that's true, then
here it is. Right here it is, I do think
when I'm coming Pope, though, I don't think it's fair
(35:03):
to compare him to the first year of Cal. Cal
just took the team he was gonna have at Memphis,
which was already full of five stars, and brought him here.
And then he added Patrick Patterson, who I was pretty good,
right and Darius Miller. This is a different situation. Pope
didn't recruit five stars to be with you, and he
(35:23):
only was able to bring one guy from his team
last year. Now, the portal makes it easier in some
ways than what Cal had to do, But he didn't
get to say, hey, John Wall DeMarcus Cousins, we're just
moving to a different location. He did do that at Arkansas,
(35:44):
So I think it would be fair actually to compare
his first year at Kentucky with his first year at Arkansas.
But for Pope, this is a lot more like Rick's
first year. In some ways he's having to start over,
and in some way he's done amazingly well. But we've
now had some clunkers too, And that's weird. That's a
(36:06):
weird dichotomy. Who's next, Donnie, Donnie, go ahead, Donnie.
Speaker 10 (36:13):
Hey, I'm sitting beside the road up in my holler
and fifth passes from when I get home, Man, I'm
going to have two hot dogs and I'm going to
have a cake.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Okay, And why why two hot dogs?
Speaker 10 (36:30):
Well, it's in your honor. I think what You're trying
to lose weight and.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I'm not trying to see Billy, why did you take
my weight? Part of this conversation, Like by the way,
like what what is that about? Billy?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I don't remember. I don't remember bringing that up. I
think I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I have a colonoscopy Thursday. This is the reason I
have to haveay Thursday. This is not about like a
weight loss or team. I don't get to eat tomorrow
because I have to do there.
Speaker 10 (37:03):
My deepest apologies, but I'll still have the hot dogs
in Okay, listen, this is so simple. My gosh, you
are playing in the most athletic conference, probably in the
world other than the NBA. I mean, these teams, listen,
(37:27):
they can they're athletes, but they're athletes who are ballplayers.
They can jump, they can shoot, they have the first
step on you. They will get the loose ball, they
will get the rebound. Mighty Kentucky comes to town. They
are hungry. That is why this Kentucky team is in
(37:51):
the position that it's in. Make no mistake if you don't,
if you don't basketball, you know that he's This league
is all about athletes every team. They will kick your butt.
They're good. They can shoot, they can run, they can
dun't they can do it at all. They're not only athletes,
(38:13):
they are basketball players. Now that being said, I wish
you would come in on that. And and here's my question.
We don't have a point guard right now. Yeah, Robinson
is very uncomfortable with the ball. I think or other
(38:34):
two guard old way he is. He is good off
of a pass. I don't think he can he doesn't
have that.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
He's a huge Yeah, he's not a huge offensive talent,
so it makes it hard for him, Like Jackson, Robinson
create his own shot. But you're right, he doesn't want
to be he's not. He done like one hundred comfortable
as a point guard.
Speaker 10 (38:53):
Okay, here's my question to you. Here's my question to you.
I don't think we have have a point guard right now.
And you know more about this than I do. You know,
I'm very tempted to throw Purry out there.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
And all right, he played all right tonight. I appreciate
the call. He played all right tonight, and he was aggressive,
but he was also playing against a dude that was
closer to his high you know. He he did not
fare as well against the Arkansas guards for a couple
of minutes he played. Then, Yes, Perry, I think there
(39:32):
are games that can work. I actually thought he played
pretty well in the minutes he played in the first half.
To your point on the athletes, we are the most
unathletic team in the in the SEC. We just are.
We just are now. I think we are more skilled
(39:53):
than all but a couple of the teams, but we
are the most unathletic team. And we're not used to
that because in the col years we were either the
most athletic team or like the second most athletic team
every year. Well now it's the exact opposite, and so
you know, long term, we'll have to see can you
(40:13):
win in the SEC. Because the thing about the SEC is,
even when the guys weren't talented, they were always great athletes.
The SEC has had great athletes my entire life. The
talent's coming gone, but the athleticism has always been there.
Pope tends to not recruit like that. How's that gonna work.
(40:33):
We'll see next year. He's already got better athletes coming
in than we have this year. But we'll see. But
this year it is what it is like. You know
how many dudes on this team, Billy are as athletic.
Think about last year's Kentucky team, Rob Dillingham, Reed Shephard,
(40:57):
Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw. Think about those guys.
Antonio Reeves was good. Antonio Reeves might be the best
athlete on the team if he was on the team
this year and he was the worst athlete last year.
You know what I mean. Like, it's just a different team,
and so we have to That's why we have to
(41:19):
make shots. That's why we have to outscheme people, because
we're not gonna out athlete people.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I mean, they could use a Trey Mitchell too.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I mean, I mean per Antonio Reeves was probably like
the eighth best athlete on the team last year, and
he might be the best athlete on this team except
maybe Oway. So it's just different. And so it's like
we and for us Kentucky fans, we Kentucky man, We've
just not seen a team like this here. It's fun
when it's rolling. Think about the Duke game and the
(41:48):
Florida game and all that, the Gonzaga game. But tonight
it was tough to watch. Eight five nine two eight
zero twenty two eighty seven. We will take a break
and be right back for the final segments. The Local
Toy Dealers k I saw our postgame show Welcome back
final segment. It is a Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show.
If I'm nine, two eighth twenty two eighty seven, Thank
(42:12):
you all for listening and calling in. We got five
people on. Let's do them and then we'll get ready
for tomorrow and hope we can forget about this game.
This won't be one that will stick in the memory banks,
at least for me. What's next, Jonathan Jonathan, Although it
was history, Actually I say we won't remember. We probably
will believe because we're the triple double. Yeah yeah, I
(42:32):
mean because of the triple double and then a rare
twenty eight what do they call it? Trillion? Basically, Ansley
Almonor and Trent Noah both played more than ten minutes.
Ansley Almanor fifteen minutes, Trent Noah thirteen minutes. Neither one
(42:53):
of them had a stat got a single one all zeros.
That's amazing. Just for the last Kentucky player to play
more than seven minutes and have all zeros was Perry
Stevenson in two thousand and nine played nine minutes. So
we had two guys tonight have all zero for stats
(43:15):
with more minutes than Perry Stevenson. First time that's happened
in twenty years, and it happened twice in one game.
That's wild. All right, Go ahead, Jonathan, Jonathan, Go ahead, Jonathan.
Speaker 9 (43:29):
Hey, Matt quick, couple questions here. You were talking about
seeding earlier, and even after the Arkansas lost, ESPN's Joe
Lenardi he has a still has a three seed today
and then also just you know, just you know, curious
as to you know, I'm curious in the fact that
won't the committee evaluate Kentucky's resume differently with Lamart Butler
(43:51):
being out.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
So the first question is, yes, you're right about that,
and that's why I mean normally, if you went, say
nineteen and twelve, you would not be a seven seed.
You'd be in like the first four. But the reason
we would be, I think is because of how good
the SEC is and how good our resume is with
Lamont Butler. Here's what they'll do, because I've been on
(44:14):
this mock committee. They will look at our record and
if our record with Lamont Butler is significantly different than
without him and he's playing, then yes they will consider it. If, however,
he comes back and we go like two and two,
(44:35):
then it probably won't make that much difference. Does that
make sense? So if they can look at a gap
on our record and go, well, they were one and
eight when he was gone, but the rest of the
time they were this, then yes, they will consider that.
It might move us up like one seed line.
Speaker 9 (44:51):
I understand that, and my you know, it'll be interesting
to see. I think next Saturday is when the committee
does their top sixteen seeds that they reveal, So that
means we have South Carolina and Tennessee but the two
games before that, so we'll see what they think of us,
and hopefully we can pull these next two off.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah. So if we won the next two, Yeah, if
we won the next two, I bet we would be
on that list. If we didn't the South Carolina game,
here's what's gonna happen. Even if we win, it's gonna
hurt us because it's gonna bring our strength to schedule
down because that's the only team in the SEC that's
not a what quad whatever? Right, So in some ways
even beating them doesn't help you. But if we could
(45:29):
beat Tennessee and then you're probably right.
Speaker 9 (45:33):
Just hope we get in the tournament. I think if
we get in the tournament, I don't want us to
blow all those good wins away where we could have
had a good season, a real good chance to make
a good run.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, I agree. I appreciate the call. Four more. Who's next, Steve, Steve,
go ahead, Steve.
Speaker 12 (45:49):
Hi, Matt, how are you tonight good? The real problem
of to night. Let's get to it. You know, I
know the defense isn't good. We only had one steal
that was Jackson Robbin, and we only had one block
that was Travis Perry of all people, Is that right?
Speaker 6 (46:05):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Is that right? We only one block It was Travis Perry.
I didn't realize that.
Speaker 12 (46:10):
Yes, yes, but you said yourself. These guys are getting
older and defensively, we couldn't expect them to get much
better and they're not going to.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
Uh.
Speaker 12 (46:18):
The real problem is our offense. Amari Williams is awesome,
but Tennysis says a lot about how good he is,
but also just how much he's you know, handling the ball. Yeah,
and uh, and we need a point guard. We need
Butler back Kelsey, and we need car back kealth Lee
so that Angley Almanor and Kobe Braa can return back
to their normal physicians and coming off the bench, and
(46:42):
our offense flows better that way. Yeah. Even when Florida
scores over one hundred, honest, when we score more than them,
we win. So we can't really expect our defense to
get much better. We really need our offense to get
sorted out.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Totally agree with that, completely. I appreciate the call. I mean,
the thing is one thing that's clear is until Butler
was hurt, our offense was pretty good. Even when we lost.
That really hasn't been the case. The whole time since
he's been gone, and hopefully, hopefully that changes if he returns,
(47:19):
which we really need him to. Who's next, Todd, Todd,
go ahead, Todd.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
So Matt, like he was talking about earlier, Pope has
got a huge what he has, and it is amazing
he was able to put together a team even this
good and when the short time he had. But I
was wanting to touch on what you said too tonight
(47:46):
about how the team seemed to get better of the
second half. You know, it looks to me like we
should have made those changes in the first half. Surely
you know to wait till halftime. You know, as soon
as you see what's happening, it looked like you need
to make a change right then, because it seemed to
(48:09):
me when we kind of doing that against Tennessee, we.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Were I'm sure Pope wanted to do it, the guys
just weren't executing it. And then I think this team
really has a tendency. I think Pope is one or
two plays short on calling time out sometimes. Jack Gibbons
mentioned that on the post game Martin may just have
to say I'm going to take a time out one
play quicker than I'm used to because they we've given
(48:36):
up eight zho ten to oh runs very quickly now
in multiple games in a row.
Speaker 6 (48:41):
Yeah, and if I had figured correctly, and you might
could have Billy to look it up to the way
I figured, we're averaging giving up seventy eight points a game.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Yeah, you may be right. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
I actually thought it might be more than that, but
when I figured it up, it's like seventy seven point seven.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Yeah, that's still a lot, though, I mean, that's a lot,
and it is and in an SCC play it's more
than that, I bet. I mean, so, yeah, that's a lot,
and it's gonna you know, for us to win like that,
our offense has to be pretty flawless, and that hasn't
hadn't been the case yet. Appreciate it. Todd two more,
who's next?
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Todd number two?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Todd number two, what's up?
Speaker 8 (49:30):
And I appreciate you taking my call a couple points.
First thing, I know, we're down two point guards, but
somebody on that team has got to light of fire
under these guys to get them more intense on defense.
We're so kind of lackadaisical that it seems like the
other team gets in a flow and it's just like,
(49:51):
we have no defensive answer for that.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
We had no answer from them in the first half.
I mean when they went zone. What what scared me
about when they let zone is how lost we looked
on so like, yeah, that possession, that possession when they
played zone, if you go back and look, that was
a horrible defensive possession. I mean, I don't know that
(50:19):
any of the dudes knew where they were supposed to
be and when they got That's why he didn't play
it anymore. Is I think they would have scored one
thousand if we stayed in zone because those right from
the beginning, all four five of them were looking at
each other like where are we supposed to be? It
was that was not gonna go.
Speaker 8 (50:35):
Well, yeah, there was no communication at all. Car and
I think Robinson were like on the same man. And
then the guy that hit six threes is standing on
the corner wide open. I'm like, God, somebody's got to
be like, go go get you know, I've got him
roll back or something. But second point offense, I know
people are pressuring up on us and we're starting the
(50:55):
offense like thirty feet from the goal. I get that
to a degree, but the dribble handoff is killing us.
We're getting nothing out of that. And then we wait
to backdoor people when we're down twenty seven. I mean,
we should be doing that within the first five minutes.
There's no screens away from the ball to free up
the guys that can't create their own shot.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, well so Bret Bray it can't get separation, right, No,
neither can car neither can all Minor. So the only
two guys that can get any separation are Oway in Robinson.
So they're really the only ones that can come off
that screen and get any downhill momentum. And the problem
(51:37):
is that Robinson apparently that dude that was guarding Robinson
is like one of the best defenders in the league.
And so really, now you're the o Way And if
you'll notice, in the first half, oh, Way got the
ball downhill towards the rim, but he how many times
did he miss the finish? So again like, yeah, we
just couldn't get anything to work.
Speaker 8 (51:57):
Yeah, I'd like to see him go downhill and then
slide Brea off the wing to the corner and have
someone setting the screen like kind of a backdoor screen
to freeme open or something, because we've just got to
find an open look versus a contested look. Good luck Thursday,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Thank you very much. All right, so tomorrow we will
be at KSPAR and Thursday I'll have Billy in charge
of keeping the door open in between the studio and
and everything.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
That'll be something, there's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Thank you all very much for staying up. Tough loss.
Next thing, you just gotta beat South Carolina Saturday. South
Carolina Saturday is a must must must win. We will
see you guys later. Cats go down ninety eight to
eighty four. This has been the local Toyter Dealers KSR
postgame show.
Host
Matt Jones
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.