Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's time for coffee and company.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Holy.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Are get off our show. Idiots.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
The kids are playing or turn at the countries are.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Screwing it up. Gold play inner murals, brother, gold play
inter murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're
really not. Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here?
Are you kidding me? Now? Here's nick coffee?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Can I start with some corny back from vacation workplace lines?
You know, like things you hear your colleagues say when
you come back after a long vacation.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Hit me with it?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Remember me? How about this one? How about this one?
Let's see if I can remember how to do this?
Oh yeah, or maybe you can. Maybe you can. You
can hit me with one. I got one for you. You
ready go for it? Who's the duke guy? Nice to
meet you. I can't think of any at the time. Yeah,
I put you on the push you on the spot
here and look, I'll think of one. I'll refrain from from,
(01:17):
you know, all the corny stuff. But it really does
feel like it's been about a month since I've been
here to do what we are about to do for
the next three hours, which has provide what is hopefully
an enjoyable experience for you here on Sports Talk seven nine.
It is coffee in company with myself, Nick Coffee, and
the tribal Chief, Austin Montgomery, and we are fueled by
Thornton's taking you up until six o'clock. And what a
(01:38):
good day to be back. We've got a National championship
game tonight and I have a hard time thinking that
we won't be highly entertained with this matchup between Florida
and Houston, and obviously a lot to unpack as far
as how we got here, and we'll do that. Reaction
to the Final four, I suppose, more than anything, will
just probably make fun of Duke, right and and you
(02:02):
know the collapse that they had and with Duke, we
don't probably need a reminder for this, but if you did,
it was there. Duke is one of I don't know,
there's not that many of them in all levels of sports.
I would guess there's probably ten or less teams, schools, programs, clubs,
(02:24):
whatever you want to call it, because of course you
know different levels different sports they do reference, you know,
they reference, they have different names, but my point is
they're villains. Right. If you're not a fan of certain
teams and you know they lose, you you really enjoy it.
And I feel like college basketball fans, really sports fans
(02:45):
across the globe enjoyed seeing Duke lose the way they
did the other night, unless, of course, you somehow are
a Duke fan. If so, I don't really know how
you become a Duke fan, unless you went there, or
you just became a bandwagon whatever it may be, or
maybe you lost some money because they lost. But other
than that, we all it kind of felt like we
were big winners in a Final four despite you know,
(03:05):
most of our teams, especially the local teams, not being there.
So again tonight National Championship game, Austin just said it.
He's right. I mean, he said it to me right
before the show started. But I've been thinking about it
since he said it, because it's true. This is it
College basketball officially over after tonight, and it'll be sad,
but already a lot of momentum for year two for
(03:26):
Pat Kelsea obviously, as I'm sure a lot of you know,
a lot went on last week, and I wasn't here
to react to it, so I'll try to, as always,
do not make an entire show on old news from
a week prior. But obviously there's a lot to run through,
and I've got plenty of thoughts to share, and you
can't I mean with Pat Kelseat when you look at
(03:48):
what he's been able to do so far. We're talking
about three commits in the portal that as it stands
right now, they have the number one class. That could change,
of course, but still, I mean, there's work to be done.
But I feel like when I was gone last week,
he got a lot of work done in my absence.
He didn't need me. Clearly that's a joke. I hope
you guys get it. But my point is he has
(04:09):
three transfers coming in all guards that should help and
fit what he likes to do as far as the
style he wants to play. You have two top twenty
five incoming freshmen that'll be joining the mix next year.
Sonny is not a McDonald's American and he's a guy
we'd never heard of until he committed. But just to
remind folks, MIKEL. Brown, he's a top ten player overall.
(04:30):
McDonald's All American won the three point shoot out, by
the way in the McDonald's All American Game. But Sonny Frew,
he's a guy that you know, again, we just heard
of him when he committed, but he's ranked as a
top twenty five player overall in the class, ahead of
you know, guys that are McDonald's Americans. So a lot
to be excited about. But they're not done. They are
not done. I'm sure there's still plenty of guys there
(04:52):
working on on the portal. Who knows what happens with
Nata Mint. I certainly don't feel like it's gonna be Louisville,
But I just say that based off of what I
see on the toxic platform that is X formerly known
as Twitter. Like I'm not an insider by any means,
I'm not sure anybody really knows what's going on with
this kid. He ends up at Louisville, great, If not,
(05:13):
Lowiell will have money to go get somebody else, probably
not a guy that's you know, looked at as a
top ten pick in next year's draft. But you can
go get a really good college player that can help
you have a big special season. I mean I don't
want to act like we shouldn't prioritize elite NBA talent
(05:34):
coming out of the high school ranks, because I feel
like every coach program would take those guys. But man,
the proof is there. It's gonna be there tonight when
you watch that. The guys who have that status as
eighteen year olds, some of them are phenomenal. Look at
Cooper flag right, I mean Edgecomb at Baylor. I mean
there are great freshmen that have joined teams that are
(05:56):
loaded with other veterans and transfers, and they are very
impact So it's not like you should avoid them. But
there's also teams that we watched in the Final four
that were able to get there and have great seasons
because it was the first time we had a Final
four with all one seeds in quite some time, and
there wasn't really a freshman that had.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
A big role.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And that doesn't mean those guys are bad, it's just,
you know, the game's different now. So again, Nata ment,
I kind of feel like it's been one of those
things that I have not really touched on with this
show at the same or even close to the same
level as Louisville fans. Have kind of been throwing it
out there because again, he would be one of the
best players that ever committed here. But I just if
(06:36):
he does, Like I you know, this is not me
just accepting a loss before it happens, meaning losing him
and him going somewhere else. I'm saying it because I
mean it. I won't lose a wink of sleep if
he doesn't come here. If he does, great, If not,
I don't my you know, my expectations for Louisville really
won't change. I guess if they don't get anybody else,
which I find it highly unlikely. But anyways, pack else
(07:00):
off to a great start. And last year he didn't
have proof of concept, meaning he hasn't he hadn't shown
anybody that he'd be able to have success at this level.
And I feel silly now because we kept saying that
last year. I said it a lot. This is a
guy that has been at Charleston, at sam or it's Winthrop.
Can he get it done here? That's a big jump
(07:21):
and all that's true. But I just feel now that
we've gone a full season in watching it right before
our eyes. As far as you know, what he what
he brings to the table. Who he is as a coach,
as a leader, A guy who is insanely detailed and organized,
clearly not going to be out work by anybody. I mean,
you have he's got a he's got a formula, right,
(07:42):
it's been successful, and now he's got resources that can help.
You know, he had resources last year, right, Like he
came to Louisville and was building a roster from scratch.
And yeah, he's a great recruiter, I think when it
comes to just being energetic, like you can when you
listen to him talk when he was introduced as the
coach here, you could tell, Okay, I could see guys
really liking this guy's high level of energy, wanting to
play for him, that kind of stuff. But you know,
(08:04):
money was gonna really matter, and money's always going to
matter when it comes to players. But I feel like
everything about Pat Kill now nothing really changed with this guy.
There's just now a season under his belt where he
has shown he's off to a good start and there
really should be no reason to expect them to slow down.
I don't mean they're gonna win the same amount of
games they won last year, because obviously the record was
(08:25):
somewhat indicated by the acc being down. But nonetheless, this
guy has now shown he's got some momentum here and
didn't take long for them to prioritize who they wanted
in the portal and then get those commitments. So exciting stuff. Again, Well,
I'm not gonna give you, you know, a ton on the
three guys that have been added. We'll talk about him
briefly because again those in fact, I think all of
(08:47):
those commitments happened like pretty early last week. No, I
mean it was the weekend whenever we landed the young
man from Kennesaw State wory. But after that, I mean,
wasn't long after he committed did you end up making
it official with Isaac McNeely, who, of course another guy
they prioritized pretty early to the shoot up from Virginia, and
(09:09):
then Ryan Conwell the transfer from Xavier. So off to
a good start, no doubt. Now, Mark Pope a little
bit of a different situation on the Kentucky side, And
I'm gonna give you this disclaimer before I say this,
because it's important. It is insanely too early to panic
about having a good enough roster to compete at a
high level next year. In year two, for Mark Pope.
(09:30):
That's the disclaimer, But here's the facts. He went after
three guys and simply couldn't get them. He couldn't. I mean,
they clearly considered Kentucky. He got a face to face
with one of them, a guy who the UAB transfer.
I always forget his name for some reason, but Mark
(09:51):
Pope got a face to face from an understand Maybe
I had that, maybe it was a different rooker, but
either way, like there's really no way to hide that
they were prioritizing a few different guys. In all, all
of those guys decided to go elsewhere. And that doesn't
mean like Mark Pope is a bomb and he can't recruit.
I mean, Louivill fans of course are going to say that,
and I don't blame him. I get it. It's a rivalry,
(10:11):
but you know they're not used to that, right Kentucky.
Last year. I don't even remember who they targeted in
the portal. I don't remember like who their big git was,
because to me, they just had a nice collection of players.
I would say Jackson Robinson, who came with Pope from BYU.
Would you agree, Austin Jackson Robinson was probably the guy
that came with Pope. Yes, that like had the most
(10:32):
hype that ever that they thought was going to be
their best player.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I would agree with that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So you know, with that said, like maybe he'll get
the same kind of class this year and they're not
going to take as many because they've got guys coming
back and they bring in freshmen. But you know, I'm
trying to defend Mark Pope here before I say something
that I think is really undoubtable. I mean I can't
prove it, but like the commitment that they did land
over the weekend Jalen Low from Pittsburgh, I mean that
(10:59):
was that he's a talented player and he you know,
he may be really good for them, who knows that
works out, But to me, he might be the worst
fit for what Mark Pope wants to once out of
a guard, he's not a good defender. He is a
high volume shooter, but he shoots a terrible percentage and
is not a good three point shooter really at all.
(11:20):
But he's talented. I mean, he's quick, he can get
to the rim, he can finish at the rim, but
he shot a terrible percentage and I remember watching him
play against Louisville when I was in person in Pittsburgh
and also watching him play when Chucky Hepburn, you know,
abused him. I mean a talented guy. Clearly he's making
an obvious upgrade here. Going from Pittsburgh to any program
(11:43):
that he was considering, I would assume would have been
a big jump up. Kentucky obviously is that, but like
I think, it screams desperation. We keep swinging and missing.
I don't want to let it get any worse. So
it wasn't as if they I don't think they had
to beg the guy to come to Kentucky. But like
to me, it's rather obvious, and I think louisll fans,
if you watched Pittsburgh, you're familiar with the acc like
(12:04):
you would know that this guy talented. But when you're
talking about like compatibility as far as what Mark Pope
likes to do, as far as his style as a coach,
especially on offense, this guy they may figure it out,
it may work out well, but everything about his game
at Pittsburgh just doesn't translate. So again I see two
(12:26):
sides of the Kentucky reaction, which I don't know why
it ended up that way. Maybe it's because I do
love to kind of just, you know, sit back and
watch our rivals be miserable. But like when I would
be off of Twitter for like a day, which, by
the way, we'll get to that, it was a really
good thing for me to do, just kind of unplugged
more than I usually do. But it would be Kentucky
(12:46):
fans either acting as if the sky's falling because Pope
missed out on another player, or it was a Kentucky
fan yelling and other Kentucky fans telling them to calm down.
Don't you know where this guy was ranked last year
and this guy was rank last year? Well, both things
could be true, meaning the portal class rankings can be silly,
(13:06):
and I think we will learn down the line that
there's not really worth There's not a whole lot you
should put into that. It just to mean, I think
it's hard to really know how good of a class
you're getting when you're getting players from all different levels
of high major, low major, mid major, sophomore who played
(13:26):
a little bit a year ago, a fifth year senior
who's taking advantage of an extra year, Like it's just insanely,
it's insanely difficult to really know what you're getting. So again,
both things can be true. I mean, they're missing out
on guys and that that should be should be maybe
not like concerning, but Kentucky's just not used to get
missing out on players. That's what I was. That's the
(13:47):
point I was getting to earlier, and I'm right back
where I left off before vacation, just losing my train
of thought. But like, when's the last time Kentucky would
would like and by the way, the last time they
would miss on recruits like routinely is if they know
as they did last week or really since the season ended,
was probably before. Like the internet is what it is
now where people have this platform where they can just
(14:09):
constantly bitch and complain about it and talk about it. Right,
So like it's a new it's a new experience for
Kentucky fans because like pre John Caliperi, Billy Gillespie, Tubby Smith,
like maybe they were going after players and missing routinely,
but at the end of Tubby and really during Billy's time,
you understood why they weren't picking Kentucky. Right. So here's
(14:30):
Mark Pope coming off of a really good season overall,
as far as you know, they played to their seed,
got to the sweet sixteen, that kind of stuff. But
it just you know, it's I think they're not panic.
They still trust in Pope. But again, this is a
new thing for them. They've not they've not gone through
this in this new world, and hell, it's new to
(14:52):
all of us as far as the season coming to
an end, and the most important component to how you're
gonna view the next season for your program is based
off a short amount of a short window of time
where coaches are scrambling like crazy and you've got thousands
of players entering the portal. And again, I just think
it's hard to imagine many teams looking back midway through
(15:17):
the season, and you know, if you can, if you're
midway through next season and you reflect and you're honest
and you say, yeah, we really missed in the portal,
have a hard time thinking that you're having a successful
season midway through. It's important, but it's also just so unusual,
so different than what we used to be accustomed to
(15:37):
as far as looking ahead to the next season, because
we're excited about some players that like we've never even
heard of, you know what I mean, Like I'll be
honest with you when it comes to the kid from
Kennesaw State. I mean, I love what I see. As
far as his numbers, Adrian Wooley was insanely impressive at
Kinnesau State. But I'm at least willing to acknowledge that
(15:59):
pride to three two two. Three weeks ago never heard
of him, and now who knows, he may be your
best player next year. I'm not saying he will be,
but you just don't know. So anyways, this is gonna
be sports talk radio in this market, I believe for
the foreseeable future, meaning when you get towards the end
of the college basketball season. Really, I guess once the
(16:23):
I mean the portal opens officially like leading up to
the Sweet sixteen, which is crazy to think about, but
that's just the way. That's that's what the NAA decided
to do. So this mad scramble for a few weeks
to a month as far as figuring out, you know,
where guys end up, Like, it's it's gonna be something
we track, it can also become, you know, and I'm
sure there's many people that aren't interested at all, And
I get it, totally get it, all right, If you
(16:45):
guys want to be part of the show today, you can.
You can give us a call five oh two five
seven one seventy nine hundred. You can also text in
on the ln N Federal Credit Union Tex Line at
five oh two four three eight ninety seventy three. And uh,
I mean you can react to really whatever. I mean,
if you just missed me that badly and you just
want to call and have some dialogue, I mean, I
(17:05):
get it. Going without me for that long. I'm sure
it was a really really uh difficult experience for those
out there. And again, I hope you can pick up
on sarcasm. But I am happy to be back, and
I'm hopeful that that is coming across the airwaves Austin.
I didn't miss a whole lot, right, We got the
city underwater.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Other other than what you just talked about. Yeah, there
was kind of a flood that happened. Thunder over Louisville's
canceled nowah so sad, which is wild. First time it's
ever happened since COVID. That was only the other time
that's happened. So no news coverage down there. It's gonna
be weird.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
It is gonna be weird, and I think if you
are paying attention today as to what is happening with
the Ohio River and downtown Louisville, as it's I mean,
we may be underwater when we leave here today. I
mean I'm exaggerating, but I mean these next two days
from the coverage I followed, that's when it's going to be.
It's just going to they call it the crest, Yes,
(17:58):
something like that. We're reaching, is Hyatt's point. I mean,
it's the Cincinnati River yesterday or not Sincinnati, the Ohio
River in Cincinnati the last couple of days. I mean
that was insane to see, and it's now happening right here.
I mean there's people down the river roads or an
avenue area that are being rescued from from certain places
because when it when it rapidly rises, it it rises quickly.
(18:20):
That's what I told her. That's right. Yeah, I mean
it's thanks to doctor Wood, the Louisville Men's Clinic and
for being honest. But anyways, we're talking about flooding here
and it's uh, it's about a crest. It sucks that
that thunders can't canceled because it is such an I
mean that's how you knew that they were aware that
this was going to be bad, you know what I mean.
And it's such an economic thing for for this for
this city, this community in so many ways that like
(18:42):
you never think about if you you know, if you
unless you just sit down and randomly think about it.
But I think not having thunder is probably a bigger
deal than most people realize, just because that this is
an event that brings way more people to Louisville that
I think most realize. I mean, it's not the dirt,
but like, and it's been here for so long, and
I actually when I see the amount of people that
(19:05):
are there every year, especially when there's good weather and
you got that working for you, I mean, that's when
it hits me. You know what. There's an insane amount
of people in downtown Louisville right now, and there's a
ton of them that are not from here, and that's
it's always big for the economy around here when you
can bring in visitors and tourists and people that want
to take in the big events. And not having thunder
is a real punch to the gut.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
No doubt, I've actually enjoyed thunder since living here. When
I didn't live here for the longest time. We always
had tapes. My parents will recorder, my grandparents will record
them and always send them back to my parents out
in Arizona. So we got to see like the coverage
of it and all the themes, and I never really
found it like fascinating, and I was always at begrudging,
like we're just really doing all this for an air
show and the Kentucky Derby. But after being down there
(19:49):
and just like because I honestly never went to Thunder
other than like the last couple of years when I
started working here and they needed some help down you know,
just getting interviews, and the amount of people that have
said that they I talked to people that didn't even
know about like it was part of the Derby festivities.
It's like, oh, yeah, that's right, Katucky Derby is here
in a couple of weeks. They just come for the fireworks, yep.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And and I'm with you. I have lived here my
whole life, and I never could really understand and I
won't lie to you like I'm super interested in fireworks
or really the air show. Where do you think It's
just not something that I'm super you know, into but
working here and being around it in that aspect where
you're not just you know, scrambling to try to find
a spot with your friends to hang out of the waterfront.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
There was also a really cool couple of years where
we did, like the Bats the Bats parking lot lets,
you like, bring our vs and campers down there.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I had some friends that their families would set up
their RVs and campers and we would hang out there
for a little while. So there's a lot of different
ways you can take it in, but to me it
was kind of always like whatever, but working at and
being around people who you know, when you're going from
random stranger to random stranger to get an interview, you realize, oh,
this person's from Ohio, this person's from Wisconsin. Yeah, you
realize that. Like, let me give you an example. Despite
(20:59):
not really being my thing, there's something about being at
an event that you can just you know, the energy
from people who were there because they love it. It
can be a little bit infectious that you just feel like, hey,
this is actually a pretty cool thing that we have
here in Louisville. And the best example and this may
not hit but I'm gonna try when I went to
do a vibe check it Louder than Life. I couldn't
(21:19):
name any bands there other than like the main events
and I could or the main actcent. I couldn't probably
really name any songs of theirs. I would maybe know
a few, so like I'm the most unrelatable as far
as music, Like, I just that's just not really my jam.
But being there, man, I could tell the people who
love it. Man, they freaking love it, oh dude. And
there's something about that that, again I think can be infectious.
(21:40):
I'm not sure if that's the best comparison, but that's
kind of what Thunder turned into for me, because it
is something that like not just I mean not just
a handful of louivillions. There are people that travel. I mean,
there's somebody I interviewed that had been like nineteen straight
thunder over Louisville events, which wow, I mean I would
have never even yeah, I would never even guessed that
like somebody would do that. But some people really love
that kind of stuff. It's a bummer that that we
(22:02):
aren't having it this year. And look the flood the flooding,
I should say that. I mean, it's it's crazy and
then one thing I did miss and I were you know,
I wasn't. I was trying not to be super you know,
distracted by my phone and what's going on. But I
was also interested to kind of know what is going
on back home, especially when I saw that we had
(22:22):
some severe thunderstorms tornado like stuff coming through.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And I didn't see it until earlier today when I
was putting the show together, that the tornado that hit
the jay Town area. I mean it was the strongest
tornado to hit Jefferson County since nineteen ninety six. I
mean wow.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
So, I mean, hey, we can't get tornadoes here as
I always grew up and everyone's a dog. The tornado
hasn't hit Louisville since the nineteen blah blah blah, what'd
you say ninety six?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, there you go. And so like I've.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Always tornadoes scared the ever living hell out of me,
always as a kid growing up. And it was partly
because of watching Twister. It was like my favorite movie ever.
So like I was already PTSD buy it. So like
one of the big drawing points of wanting to move
back here to Louisville was, no, they have tornadoes.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Well, the tornado. There was a tornado that hit Bullet
County right where I mean right. I remember I was
in I think second grade, I think it was ninety
six and second grade. We had storms that come through
the area and it hit Bullet County pretty tough to
where when it happened, we actually didn't finish like the
last month of school because a lot of the schools,
even my elementary school was used as like shelter for
families because it was like it was a I mean,
(23:29):
we got like CNN coverage. It was pretty crazy. And
then we had one in Fern Creek that really wasn't
that long ago. It wasn't a huge one, but you know,
it did touch down I think the Glenn Mary neighborhood
and it wiped out a couple of houses. But we
had a really scary experience on our way back on
Saturday because we were driving back Saturday and our plan
was to and by the way, wife won. We drove
(23:50):
all the way through and it worked out because the
kids were perfectly behaved, so it was great. Yeah, so
it was great, but on the way back, you know,
we didn't really want I mean, I just I didn't
want to have to get up at five am, last
day of vacation. I'd rather sleep in a little bit
and like not feel rushed, and then we'll get on
the road and we'll see what happens. Well, I wanted
to stop because we knew we were going to be
(24:12):
entering tough weather at some point. My wife just wanted
so badly to get home, and I mean, I was
gonna let her make the call. But then we're coming
through Nashville, and all of a sudden, you know, I
don't have any I'm not following anything on my social media.
I don't have any apps for local news stations in Nashville.
I'm not checking social media about what's going on in Nashville.
But all of a sudden, my iPhone starts going off
(24:34):
the alarm that says there's a tornado warning where you are.
Obviously they can they know my location, And all of
a sudden, I look up in the sky and sure enough,
I'm like, I don't know if that's a tornado, but
if somebody told me that it was, I would believe them.
So we ended up pulling off the road for like
an hour and twenty minutes, and you go look it
up on X I mean it was. In fact, it
(24:55):
became a he became somewhat of a not a national
story within sports. But everybody, buddy in the Nashville area
was pissed because they could watch the Final four because
the local coverage on CBS was tracking this storm, and
everybody was pissed about it. But we were like we
were following the tornado. So we ended up pulling off.
It took like an hour and fifteen minutes before we
were able to feel comfortable enough to get back on
(25:16):
the road and try to get back home. And then
we knew it was gonna be dark on sixty five
and there's stretches of sixty five that are so dark
at night. And you know, we've got friends that left
ahead of us that didn't stop, and they were like
telling us that at certain spots on sixty five north
kind of like around Etown, around I guess a little
bit a little bit south of the town, there were
(25:39):
like you could see the water rising close to the interstate.
And I'm just having like I told my wife, look,
we can't, like we don't We're not gonna be able
to see anything. It's gonna be dark as can be,
you know, We're already seeing areas of sixty five that
we're going to drive through in an hour and a
half that are already close to having like where they're
gonna have to close the Interstate because the water's too high.
So we ended up standing bowling Green randomly as hell
(26:00):
on Saturday night, had a good evening. We end up
getting late dinner watch some of the final four games.
But but yeah, it was. It was probably the scariest
experience for me when it comes to weather in a
long time, because we were in traffic in downtown Nashville
on the Interstate. I guess going through downtown Nashville on
the Interstate and everybody's kind of like, You've got a
(26:23):
bunch of cars that are just off to the side
of the road not knowing what to do. You've got
some people driving like a bad out of hell trying
to get somewhere where they could be safe. We didn't
know what to do. We ended up we ended up
getting off the exit not knowing where we are, and
I told her, like to find a parking garage or something,
you know, I just don't want to be And then
sure enough we didn't realize that, but we're driving towards
the storm, So it was it was kind of scary,
(26:44):
but it was a lot worse here because clearly a
tornado did touchdown in jay Town and cause a lot
of damage. Again, that came in earlier today as the
National Weather Service has said that the Yeah, it was
a a preliminary confirmation of an EF three tornado in
Jaytown last Wednesday night early Thursday morning, one hundred and
forty five mile per hour winds, which is crazy, dude.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
The sirens were going.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I had to I woke up in the middle of
the night and you know, couldn't go back to sleep
for a little while, so I got my phone out
and that's all anybody was talking about, was like, wow,
this storm must have been pretty severe. And sure enough,
it was the strongest one we've had in Louisville in
nineteen years or twenty nine years. Yikes. All right, let's
take a break, way too long back. But clock management
still not a strong suit of mine, but maybe I'll
(27:30):
get better one day.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It was a new guy.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Hey, stranger, it's coffee and Company. We're fuel about Thorton's
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Sports Talk seven nine days.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's one thing. One of the many things I missed
last week is DJ travel Chief on the ones and two.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yeah, good stuff songs, A vibe it is, man, it
is just reminds me of the nineties, just like mom
and dad are getting McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It's a rain.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it's just music you can feel because there's a
level of nostalgia to it for us, right, Yeah, I
love it. Beautiful stuff and thank you all the beautiful
people who are with us. Hopefully you didn't forget about
this show because I was out last week and I'm back.
It's Coffee and Company where Philbeth Thorton's. My name is
Nick Coffee, the Austin Well, the Travel Chief, Austin Montgomery,
that's the other voice that you hear. And it is
(28:21):
now National Championship Game night. We've got Florida and Houston,
which should be a really really really good game. I mean,
I'm hoping so it would mean I guess you never
know what you're gonna get, but I think it'd be
a really really really big surprise. If this thing's not competitive,
maybe it's not super competitive, but I think both these
teams clearly are very very good, very well coached, and
(28:44):
you know, I think it's just going to come down
to who can you know, cause you know, to me,
it's pretty simple. Can Florida continue to be as efficient
as they've been offensively throughout this tournament? Or can Houston
be the team that disrupts them enough to just kind
of hold on and win. But tonight, eight fifty, I
(29:05):
believe is the tip, which uh is late. I feel
like that's later than what we usually get.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
But that's what the guy said on the commercial. I
didn't know. I always felt there was like around nine o'clock. Yeah,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So people have been complaining. People have been complaining about
it for a long time because they just say, there's
no reason to have it start this late, which I mean,
you don't want the West. If you did it it's
seven thirty, it'd be four to thirty on the West coast.
And some say, well, who cares? The West Coast doesn't
really care enough to watch college basketball at a high level,
(29:35):
and I agree with that. But what makes all this
work is television viewers. And even if you're getting, you know,
way more viewership on the West or the East, Coast
or just Central America. You still need West Coast viewers
to an extent for you to be able to have
that big number that gets you those big big checks
that keep this thing, you know, keep this keeps this
(29:56):
thing going. So currently Florida is favored by one and
and that's what I would probably have said it at myself.
I just the Florida team certainly really really talented. They're
very balanced. But Walter Clayton Junior, what he's been able
to do is I mean, I know they had a
close call, and really, I don't know if I can
(30:19):
really say that Texas Tech choked or that like Florida
pulled off some miracle, because if you watched Walter Clayton
Junior this year, even last year, heck, I mean, if
you want to get real specific, just in the last month.
He hits shots where he is defended as perfectly as
(30:40):
he could possibly be defended. And he doesn't just do
it randomly like he's on some heater. He's got that
in his back, like there are shots that he like.
When they say things like he can get to his spot,
that sometimes annoys me because I think it's a real
tryhard move from an analyst as far as like wanting
you to know that, you know, sometimes these guys I
(31:01):
believe and I'm you know, I think, I think I've
got the credentials and I've I mean I've certified ballner.
I mean that's that's right, sort offued ballnover here.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
What about play both ways? You liked that?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean he's a two way guy, uh
picking picking pop guy three and three and d can
with his left hand to so you know there's but
when you hear get to his spot, that means that
means he is somebody that knows how to get what
he's the best at, like knows knows where his bread
is buttered if you will, and and and you know
(31:31):
he can find that comfort zone consistently and and get
his I mean that and that's that's technically what that
means as far as my understanding of it. But Walter
Clayton Junior gets to his spots, and it's it's if
he's getting there and he has been able to do it,
I mean it's insane. I mean his elevation on his
pull up jump shot despite not being very tall, like
that's what makes up for it. He's athletic enough. I
(31:53):
wouldn't say he's the super athlete, but he doesn't lack
athleticism to an extent to where like it's holding him back.
I don't know if i'd say he's a lottery pick.
I know Summers starting to say that he should be
and could be. I wouldn't be shocked if he is.
But that guy's really really good. And yes, Houston is
a team that is defensively elite, but he's been defended
at times as good as anybody could defend him, and
(32:15):
he still made shots, not just ones that are big
because of the moment, because you know that, of course
is something he's doing as well. But like early on
in that game against Auburn, like do you how do
you defend that? I mean, I think the answer in
some of these shots he's hitting and people say, like,
what are you supposed to do? There's nothing you can do.
He's just that good. Now, maybe he's run out of
gas and his shots aren't falling. Now you really never know.
(32:37):
But I would take Florida here just because I think
that they're a little bit better built to win this.
But Houston's also a team that they're going to fight
to the end, and always give themselves a chance to
you know, to stay alive and win one, just like
they did against Duke. And I wish I had a
(32:58):
strong take or you know, feeling about the way that
ended between Houston and Duke, but I don't. I don't mean.
What I mean by that is I'm not ready to say, well, hey,
that's why you don't go young, because that's that's something
you could easily say, is that it got late. Duke
had outplayed everybody in this tournament by a wide margin,
meaning their opponents of course, and they outplayed Houston like
(33:20):
that game played out where like Houston's good, we know
what they can do, but man, Duke's just got some dudes,
like Douke's elite with talent, and they are and then
at the end, Houston their DNA is their veterans. They're tough,
they don't waiver, They're not going to be outworked there.
You know, they could be down twenty, which rarely ever
happens because they're so good. But like they did just
(33:41):
enough to give themselves a chance, and they took advantage
of every Duke mistake and they also made some tough
shots on their end, right like that comeback It's mostly
going to be about how did Duke manage to lose
in that situation, which is crazy to think about. I mean,
the win probability for Duke down the stretch, it's crazy
to think that they lost the way that they did.
(34:03):
But Houston hit a tough step back three, which at
that point, what are they down? Seven?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Maybe six?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
They're just like they're they're in desperation mode, right, Like
Duke's just letting them jack it up because you know,
that's a shot they want to take. We clearly are
in a good position if we just don't screw up.
And sure enough, they screwed up, and the turnover like
the three, and then the turnover that led to another
three point shot that was missed, and then dunk tipped
(34:29):
in that changed everything. That five point swing to go
along with the technical I suppose where he read Actually
I'm sorry, you know the tech. Yeah, the technical on Houston.
Did that put him up six or seven? I don't
know what it was at that time, and it's really
not important, but yes.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
And then there was the over the back on a
Cooper five.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah, and look that call absolutely questionable, no doubt about it.
I don't I don't have a strumming when I say
I don't have a strong feeling on it. I can
see why he called it. I wouldn't have been shocked
at all if he didn't call it, which is a
really half assed way to give you an opinion on it.
But you know, Cooper Flag, he he did something I
think the instincts for the reft and I don't think
(35:06):
I don't think it was him anticipating a foul that
didn't happen. But Cooper Flag has length right, he had
like he can do some things that most can't do,
as far as finding his way to a rebound without
giving you the old boxing out your guy getting low
and using the trunk of your legs like he's just
he's different. So I think him doing that and his guy,
(35:28):
you know, maybe didn't have a full I mean, it
wasn't like a I think had the guy really dropped
low and you know, pushed Cooper Flag out of the way.
And I don't think there's really enough time to do it.
They were reacting to a to a miss and you know,
balls coming towards him. But I think had the guy
for for forgetting his name for Houston, that that they
(35:49):
that they put to the foul line because of the
because of the over the over the back call. I
woun't even I didn't even want to say, like if
he'd has sold it more, I just mean more so,
like had he actually been in a in a better
box out position, maybe they wouldn't have called it. I
know what you're thinking, Well, if he wasn't in a
box opposition, he wasn't boxing out, it was it was
a bad call. Look, maybe you're right. I just think
that what that ref saw in real time, I understand
(36:10):
why his instincts were, I gotta call this foul now again.
I also think that if he didn't call it wouldn't
have been a huge deal. And here's something that nobody
wants to hear. I hate even saying it because it's lame.
It sounds like I'm, you know, get off my lawn
kind of guy. But like, there are questionable calls that
could go either way an unbelievable amount of time in games.
(36:32):
We're just not used to seeing it late when calls,
you know, can certainly impact a game the way that
one did. And you know, I know the oh you
got to swallow your whistle there late. Well, don't you
want it consistent? Like which one is it? I think
what you want is perfect officiating. I'm here to tell
you something that'll never happen. Players misshots, Refs miss calls.
(36:53):
The best refs of all time. They miss calls every
game they call, every game that they're a part of.
They miss calls every player, Michael Jordan, the best ever,
Lebron whoever, Larry Bird. They miss shots. They're not perfect.
Like that's one thing that's starting to really just make
me feel like I'm a Boomer's I just I can
with the officiating. Like in game, yeah, I'll yell about
(37:13):
a ref because I'm watching my team and I'm in
the moment, like I'm I'm a sportsman. But like in
retrospect after a game, I really have ever felt like, well, man,
we just really got screwed by the officials. They really
got us because they're not perfect. And those that say
that refs need to be a have a press they
need to be held accountable, have a press conference after
so they got to face the music. You would be underwhelmed.
(37:36):
You'd be underwhelmed in a major way. Like those of
you who don't go to the lot of men's clinic.
Your wife's underwhelmed. That's the underwhelming feeling that you would feel,
because you'd want to you'd find a stream for it
on Twitter or maybe you'd you know, maybe you pull O.
I don't know where you'd find it, but you'd find
that press conference. So these refs have to take their medicine,
and you know what they would tell you, Yeah, we
missed that one, and you would feel a level of like,
(37:58):
because they're not perfect. They miscall and sometimes there's questionable
calls that like it could go either way, and you're
just you're you're at the mercy of whatever they decide.
Because they're officials, you can tell I miss talking about
doctor wood A theew Woman's clinical I was on.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Vacation, right, that's right, I know what your mind was going.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
All right, let's get to a quick time. I will
come back and wrap up the three o'clock hour. We'll
get to some texts that are coming in on the
Leenn Federal Credit Union text line fab OO two four
three eight ninety seventy three. Phone lines now open five
O two five to seven one seventy nine hundred. It's
Coffee and Company Fiel about Thornton's right here on Sports
Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
I will say one of the questions that came in
on the Llenn Federal Credit Union text line five O
two four three eight ninety seventy three, this came in earlier,
and I I if you'd asked me beforehand, I would
have guessed, just a guess that when I returned from vacation,
we would have some kind of clarity on what some
(39:03):
of the guys that can return to Louisville are going
to do. Are they going to return to Louisville or
are they going to hit the portal again or maybe
pursue professional options. And it doesn't appear that we have
any update case and Pryor and Jamon Hadley are still
members of the program as far as I mean, I mean,
I don't know. It's awkward because there are still some
(39:24):
that'll say, well, why would you why would you even
talk about them leaving? They haven't left fair enough? But
like I feel like, now, haven't we got to the
point where good players don't don't you feel the need to,
like if you are keeping up with the portal and
maybe not even the portal. Let me let me, let
(39:45):
me rephrase if you are up to date as far
as like where we are in college athletics basketball, specifically
good players playing for programs that you know, really any program,
but especially programs that aren't making the final four every year.
I think you kind of just sit back and you
you do need a confirmation that somebody is going to
(40:07):
be coming back, because you know that they have the
ability to leave whenever they want, and a lot of
them are doing it. So I'm not telling you the
case in Prior and Jamon Hadley are are gonna leave,
and I'm gonna wait until they tell us they're coming
back for me to believe it. I just I to
me no clue what they're gonna do. Hope they come back,
So I don't. I don't know. I would. I would
have assumed that there would be some type of clarity
(40:29):
on maybe there an il situation on their end to
where they would know, Okay, is this good for me?
Or do I do? I want to go hit the
portal and see if I can get some money, more
money elsewhere. And you got to keep in mind with
some guys being available to play because of injury this
past season, Kobe Rodgers, Ali Khalifa, as well as the
(40:51):
guys they've met. Because again, this is where it's just
awkward because it's still relatively new, but it's very obvious
but also important if you are a player who, like,
if you're a Jamon Hadley, let's say there is a
I'm gonna pull up the transfer portal ranking just to
give you kind of an example, because you know, Javon
Hadley was awesome. I would love to have him back. Look,
(41:13):
I love everything about him, and I mean that like
I think he is. He was one of the I
wouldn't say one of the unsung heroes, but like he
was a super super factor in Louisville being able to
go eighteen and two in the ACC and make it
to the a SEC Championship game and get this thing
turned around. He didn't get the same praise and love
that guys like Chucky and even rain God, and that's
(41:34):
that's understandable Terrence Edwards too, But like, those four, to
me were the real reasons why Louisville was able to
rally after having some tough losses early and then some injuries.
Those guys really kind of put it all together. But
let's say I'm trying to find I mean, would you
consider help me out here? Austin Like he can definitely
stretch the floor and give you some perimeter play. But
(41:58):
Javon's a four, right, he's a stretch for like he's
he's a guy who can you know he can give
you some He's a mismatch because for Beggs he's a
little too quick for him at times. And for guards
he can he can box, he can post him up.
So let's say you've got perfect example, and I have
no clue if Louisville. In fact, it looks like Louisville,
(42:19):
I mean looks like this guy may already have landed
at another school. But bright, yeah, Bryce Hopkins, he's transferring
to play for Rick Patino at Saint John's. He is
a six to seven, two and twenty pound power forward.
So again this is all hypothetical. He's already going to
Saint John's play for Rick. And you may remember he
was committed to Louisville under Chris Mack before he ended
up going to Kentucky for a year and then going
to Providence. Having a really good season, and he's been
injured the last two. But anyways, if Louisville landed him,
(42:43):
Javon Hadley understandably so would have to reconsider what he
wants to do, right like the days of well, you
don't want to compete, it's not about that. It's about
doing what makes sense. It's about doing what make like
what's best for you. I mean, so it doesn't look
like Louisville has it anybody. You know, Bryce is a
top ten transfer. So like, I'm just giving you a hypothetical.
(43:04):
So in a long witted way, I have no clue
what those guys are doing. That's what I'm trying to say.
But those that think we should just assume they're back,
maybe you're right, and I'm not assuming that they're not back,
but I am someone that for me, I will need
them to announce they're coming back for me to just assume. Okay, Like,
when I think about Louisville's lineup next year, there's a
(43:26):
lot of unknown pieces. One because they're still going to
be active in the portal to an extent, but also
I'd love to look at potential lineups next season and
talk about depth with guys like Cason Pryor and Javon Hadley.
It's just I don't know if they're coming back, because
if they didn't, then they decided to go elsewhere. It
wouldn't be a it shouldn't be a big shock to anybody.
(43:47):
I'll say that. So again, no real clarity on my end,
but I would love both those guys to come back,
And honestly, I just I love the dynamic of that.
I mean, you bring in a couple of really talented freshmen,
one who's already played pro ball for a couple of years,
Sonny Frew, and the three guards you've added in the portal.
Hell yeah, I mean Canai Rus hasn't hit the portal.
(44:09):
I mean I would love to get him back. And
then you've got veterans like Javon and a healthy case.
And I mean, I think that's a pretty good I mean,
that's a pretty good recipe. To be honest with you,
I still would like to see a more polished, offensive,
low post guy. And we'll actually talk about one of
those guys who is fighting for another year, a College
(44:32):
of Charleston transfer who played for Pat Kelce. His argument
as far as why he deserves another year is exactly
what I guessed it would be, and we'll get to
that in a lot more two more hours left here,
stick around National Championship Game the Night, good stuff right
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
It's time for coffee and company.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Holy.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Are get off our show. Idiots.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
The kids are playing or turn at the countries are.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Screwing it up. Gold play inner murals, brother, gold play
inter murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're
really not. Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here?
Are you kidding me? Now? Here's nick coffee?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Can I start with some corny back from vacation workplace lines?
You know, like things you hear your colleagues say when
you come back after a long vacation.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Hit me with it?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Remember me? How about this one? How about this one?
Let's see if I can remember how to do this?
Oh yeah, or maybe you can. Maybe you can. You
can hit me with one. I got one for you. You
ready go for it? Who's the duke guy? Nice to
meet you. I can't think of any at the time. Yeah,
I put you on the push you on the spot
here and look, I'll think of one. I'll refrain from from,
(01:17):
you know, all the corny stuff. But it really does
feel like it's been about a month since I've been
here to do what we are about to do for
the next three hours, which has provide what is hopefully
an enjoyable experience for you here on Sports Talk seven nine.
It is coffee in company with myself, Nick Coffee, and
the tribal Chief, Austin Montgomery, and we are fueled by
Thornton's taking you up until six o'clock. And what a
(01:38):
good day to be back. We've got a National championship
game tonight and I have a hard time thinking that
we won't be highly entertained with this matchup between Florida
and Houston, and obviously a lot to unpack as far
as how we got here, and we'll do that. Reaction
to the Final four, I suppose, more than anything, will
just probably make fun of Duke, right and and you
(02:02):
know the collapse that they had and with Duke, we
don't probably need a reminder for this, but if you did,
it was there. Duke is one of I don't know,
there's not that many of them in all levels of sports.
I would guess there's probably ten or less teams, schools, programs, clubs,
(02:24):
whatever you want to call it, because of course you
know different levels different sports they do reference, you know,
they reference, they have different names, but my point is
they're villains. Right. If you're not a fan of certain
teams and you know they lose, you you really enjoy it.
And I feel like college basketball fans, really sports fans
(02:45):
across the globe enjoyed seeing Duke lose the way they
did the other night, unless, of course, you somehow are
a Duke fan. If so, I don't really know how
you become a Duke fan, unless you went there, or
you just became a bandwagon whatever it may be, or
maybe you lost some money because they lost. But other
than that, we all it kind of felt like we
were big winners in a Final four despite you know,
(03:05):
most of our teams, especially the local teams, not being there.
So again tonight National Championship game, Austin just said it.
He's right. I mean, he said it to me right
before the show started. But I've been thinking about it
since he said it, because it's true. This is it
College basketball officially over after tonight, and it'll be sad,
but already a lot of momentum for year two for
(03:26):
Pat Kelsea obviously, as I'm sure a lot of you know,
a lot went on last week, and I wasn't here
to react to it, so I'll try to, as always,
do not make an entire show on old news from
a week prior. But obviously there's a lot to run through,
and I've got plenty of thoughts to share, and you
can't I mean with Pat Kelseat when you look at
(03:48):
what he's been able to do so far. We're talking
about three commits in the portal that as it stands
right now, they have the number one class. That could change,
of course, but still, I mean, there's work to be done.
But I feel like when I was gone last week,
he got a lot of work done in my absence.
He didn't need me. Clearly that's a joke. I hope
you guys get it. But my point is he has
(04:09):
three transfers coming in all guards that should help and
fit what he likes to do as far as the
style he wants to play. You have two top twenty
five incoming freshmen that'll be joining the mix next year.
Sonny is not a McDonald's American and he's a guy
we'd never heard of until he committed. But just to
remind folks, MIKEL. Brown, he's a top ten player overall.
(04:30):
McDonald's All American won the three point shoot out, by
the way in the McDonald's All American Game. But Sonny Frew,
he's a guy that you know, again, we just heard
of him when he committed, but he's ranked as a
top twenty five player overall in the class, ahead of
you know, guys that are McDonald's Americans. So a lot
to be excited about. But they're not done. They are
not done. I'm sure there's still plenty of guys there
(04:52):
working on on the portal. Who knows what happens with
Nata Mint. I certainly don't feel like it's gonna be Louisville,
But I just say that based off of what I
see on the toxic platform that is X formerly known
as Twitter. Like I'm not an insider by any means,
I'm not sure anybody really knows what's going on with
this kid. He ends up at Louisville, great, If not,
(05:13):
Lowiell will have money to go get somebody else, probably
not a guy that's you know, looked at as a
top ten pick in next year's draft. But you can
go get a really good college player that can help
you have a big special season. I mean I don't
want to act like we shouldn't prioritize elite NBA talent
(05:34):
coming out of the high school ranks, because I feel
like every coach program would take those guys. But man,
the proof is there. It's gonna be there tonight when
you watch that. The guys who have that status as
eighteen year olds, some of them are phenomenal. Look at
Cooper flag right, I mean Edgecomb at Baylor. I mean
there are great freshmen that have joined teams that are
(05:56):
loaded with other veterans and transfers, and they are very
impact So it's not like you should avoid them. But
there's also teams that we watched in the Final four
that were able to get there and have great seasons
because it was the first time we had a Final
four with all one seeds in quite some time, and
there wasn't really a freshman that had.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
A big role.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And that doesn't mean those guys are bad, it's just,
you know, the game's different now. So again, Nata ment,
I kind of feel like it's been one of those
things that I have not really touched on with this
show at the same or even close to the same
level as Louisville fans. Have kind of been throwing it
out there because again, he would be one of the
best players that ever committed here. But I just if
(06:36):
he does, Like I you know, this is not me
just accepting a loss before it happens, meaning losing him
and him going somewhere else. I'm saying it because I
mean it. I won't lose a wink of sleep if
he doesn't come here. If he does, great, If not,
I don't my you know, my expectations for Louisville really
won't change. I guess if they don't get anybody else,
which I find it highly unlikely. But anyways, pack else
(07:00):
off to a great start. And last year he didn't
have proof of concept, meaning he hasn't he hadn't shown
anybody that he'd be able to have success at this level.
And I feel silly now because we kept saying that
last year. I said it a lot. This is a
guy that has been at Charleston, at sam or it's Winthrop.
Can he get it done here? That's a big jump
(07:21):
and all that's true. But I just feel now that
we've gone a full season in watching it right before
our eyes. As far as you know, what he what
he brings to the table. Who he is as a coach,
as a leader, A guy who is insanely detailed and organized,
clearly not going to be out work by anybody. I mean,
you have he's got a he's got a formula, right,
(07:42):
it's been successful, and now he's got resources that can help.
You know, he had resources last year, right, Like he
came to Louisville and was building a roster from scratch.
And yeah, he's a great recruiter, I think when it
comes to just being energetic, like you can when you
listen to him talk when he was introduced as the
coach here, you could tell, Okay, I could see guys
really liking this guy's high level of energy, wanting to
play for him, that kind of stuff. But you know,
(08:04):
money was gonna really matter, and money's always going to
matter when it comes to players. But I feel like
everything about Pat Kill now nothing really changed with this guy.
There's just now a season under his belt where he
has shown he's off to a good start and there
really should be no reason to expect them to slow down.
I don't mean they're gonna win the same amount of
games they won last year, because obviously the record was
(08:25):
somewhat indicated by the acc being down. But nonetheless, this
guy has now shown he's got some momentum here and
didn't take long for them to prioritize who they wanted
in the portal and then get those commitments. So exciting stuff. Again, Well,
I'm not gonna give you, you know, a ton on the
three guys that have been added. We'll talk about him
briefly because again those in fact, I think all of
(08:47):
those commitments happened like pretty early last week. No, I
mean it was the weekend whenever we landed the young
man from Kennesaw State wory. But after that, I mean,
wasn't long after he committed did you end up making
it official with Isaac McNeely, who, of course another guy
they prioritized pretty early to the shoot up from Virginia, and
(09:09):
then Ryan Conwell the transfer from Xavier. So off to
a good start, no doubt. Now, Mark Pope a little
bit of a different situation on the Kentucky side, And
I'm gonna give you this disclaimer before I say this,
because it's important. It is insanely too early to panic
about having a good enough roster to compete at a
high level next year. In year two, for Mark Pope.
(09:30):
That's the disclaimer, But here's the facts. He went after
three guys and simply couldn't get them. He couldn't. I mean,
they clearly considered Kentucky. He got a face to face
with one of them, a guy who the UAB transfer.
I always forget his name for some reason, but Mark
(09:51):
Pope got a face to face from an understand Maybe
I had that, maybe it was a different rooker, but
either way, like there's really no way to hide that
they were prioritizing a few different guys. In all, all
of those guys decided to go elsewhere. And that doesn't
mean like Mark Pope is a bomb and he can't recruit.
I mean, Louivill fans of course are going to say that,
and I don't blame him. I get it. It's a rivalry,
(10:11):
but you know they're not used to that, right Kentucky.
Last year. I don't even remember who they targeted in
the portal. I don't remember like who their big git was,
because to me, they just had a nice collection of players.
I would say Jackson Robinson, who came with Pope from BYU.
Would you agree, Austin Jackson Robinson was probably the guy
that came with Pope. Yes, that like had the most
(10:32):
hype that ever that they thought was going to be
their best player.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I would agree with that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So you know, with that said, like maybe he'll get
the same kind of class this year and they're not
going to take as many because they've got guys coming
back and they bring in freshmen. But you know, I'm
trying to defend Mark Pope here before I say something
that I think is really undoubtable. I mean I can't
prove it, but like the commitment that they did land
over the weekend Jalen Low from Pittsburgh, I mean that
(10:59):
was that he's a talented player and he you know,
he may be really good for them, who knows that
works out, But to me, he might be the worst
fit for what Mark Pope wants to once out of
a guard, he's not a good defender. He is a
high volume shooter, but he shoots a terrible percentage and
is not a good three point shooter really at all.
(11:20):
But he's talented. I mean, he's quick, he can get
to the rim, he can finish at the rim, but
he shot a terrible percentage and I remember watching him
play against Louisville when I was in person in Pittsburgh
and also watching him play when Chucky Hepburn, you know,
abused him. I mean a talented guy. Clearly he's making
an obvious upgrade here. Going from Pittsburgh to any program
(11:43):
that he was considering, I would assume would have been
a big jump up. Kentucky obviously is that, but like
I think, it screams desperation. We keep swinging and missing.
I don't want to let it get any worse. So
it wasn't as if they I don't think they had
to beg the guy to come to Kentucky. But like
to me, it's rather obvious, and I think louisll fans,
if you watched Pittsburgh, you're familiar with the acc like
(12:04):
you would know that this guy talented. But when you're
talking about like compatibility as far as what Mark Pope
likes to do, as far as his style as a coach,
especially on offense, this guy they may figure it out,
it may work out well, but everything about his game
at Pittsburgh just doesn't translate. So again I see two
(12:26):
sides of the Kentucky reaction, which I don't know why
it ended up that way. Maybe it's because I do
love to kind of just, you know, sit back and
watch our rivals be miserable. But like when I would
be off of Twitter for like a day, which, by
the way, we'll get to that, it was a really
good thing for me to do, just kind of unplugged
more than I usually do. But it would be Kentucky
(12:46):
fans either acting as if the sky's falling because Pope
missed out on another player, or it was a Kentucky
fan yelling and other Kentucky fans telling them to calm down.
Don't you know where this guy was ranked last year
and this guy was rank last year? Well, both things
could be true, meaning the portal class rankings can be silly,
(13:06):
and I think we will learn down the line that
there's not really worth There's not a whole lot you
should put into that. It just to mean, I think
it's hard to really know how good of a class
you're getting when you're getting players from all different levels
of high major, low major, mid major, sophomore who played
(13:26):
a little bit a year ago, a fifth year senior
who's taking advantage of an extra year, Like it's just insanely,
it's insanely difficult to really know what you're getting. So again,
both things can be true. I mean, they're missing out
on guys and that that should be should be maybe
not like concerning, but Kentucky's just not used to get
missing out on players. That's what I was. That's the
(13:47):
point I was getting to earlier, and I'm right back
where I left off before vacation, just losing my train
of thought. But like, when's the last time Kentucky would
would like and by the way, the last time they
would miss on recruits like routinely is if they know
as they did last week or really since the season ended,
was probably before. Like the internet is what it is
now where people have this platform where they can just
(14:09):
constantly bitch and complain about it and talk about it. Right,
So like it's a new it's a new experience for
Kentucky fans because like pre John Caliperi, Billy Gillespie, Tubby Smith,
like maybe they were going after players and missing routinely,
but at the end of Tubby and really during Billy's time,
you understood why they weren't picking Kentucky. Right. So here's
(14:30):
Mark Pope coming off of a really good season overall,
as far as you know, they played to their seed,
got to the sweet sixteen, that kind of stuff. But
it just you know, it's I think they're not panic.
They still trust in Pope. But again, this is a
new thing for them. They've not they've not gone through
this in this new world, and hell, it's new to
(14:52):
all of us as far as the season coming to
an end, and the most important component to how you're
gonna view the next season for your program is based
off a short amount of a short window of time
where coaches are scrambling like crazy and you've got thousands
of players entering the portal. And again, I just think
it's hard to imagine many teams looking back midway through
(15:17):
the season, and you know, if you can, if you're
midway through next season and you reflect and you're honest
and you say, yeah, we really missed in the portal,
have a hard time thinking that you're having a successful
season midway through. It's important, but it's also just so unusual,
so different than what we used to be accustomed to
(15:37):
as far as looking ahead to the next season, because
we're excited about some players that like we've never even
heard of, you know what I mean, Like I'll be
honest with you when it comes to the kid from
Kennesaw State. I mean, I love what I see. As
far as his numbers, Adrian Wooley was insanely impressive at
Kinnesau State. But I'm at least willing to acknowledge that
(15:59):
pride to three two two. Three weeks ago never heard
of him, and now who knows, he may be your
best player next year. I'm not saying he will be,
but you just don't know. So anyways, this is gonna
be sports talk radio in this market, I believe for
the foreseeable future, meaning when you get towards the end
of the college basketball season. Really, I guess once the
(16:23):
I mean the portal opens officially like leading up to
the Sweet sixteen, which is crazy to think about, but
that's just the way. That's that's what the NAA decided
to do. So this mad scramble for a few weeks
to a month as far as figuring out, you know,
where guys end up, Like, it's it's gonna be something
we track, it can also become, you know, and I'm
sure there's many people that aren't interested at all, And
I get it, totally get it, all right, If you
(16:45):
guys want to be part of the show today, you can.
You can give us a call five oh two five
seven one seventy nine hundred. You can also text in
on the ln N Federal Credit Union Tex Line at
five oh two four three eight ninety seventy three. And uh,
I mean you can react to really whatever. I mean,
if you just missed me that badly and you just
want to call and have some dialogue, I mean, I
(17:05):
get it. Going without me for that long. I'm sure
it was a really really uh difficult experience for those
out there. And again, I hope you can pick up
on sarcasm. But I am happy to be back, and
I'm hopeful that that is coming across the airwaves Austin.
I didn't miss a whole lot, right, We got the
city underwater.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Other other than what you just talked about. Yeah, there
was kind of a flood that happened. Thunder over Louisville's
canceled nowah so sad, which is wild. First time it's
ever happened since COVID. That was only the other time
that's happened. So no news coverage down there. It's gonna
be weird.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
It is gonna be weird, and I think if you
are paying attention today as to what is happening with
the Ohio River and downtown Louisville, as it's I mean,
we may be underwater when we leave here today. I
mean I'm exaggerating, but I mean these next two days
from the coverage I followed, that's when it's going to be.
It's just going to they call it the crest, Yes,
(17:58):
something like that. We're reaching, is Hyatt's point. I mean,
it's the Cincinnati River yesterday or not Sincinnati, the Ohio
River in Cincinnati the last couple of days. I mean
that was insane to see, and it's now happening right here.
I mean there's people down the river roads or an
avenue area that are being rescued from from certain places
because when it when it rapidly rises, it it rises quickly.
(18:20):
That's what I told her. That's right. Yeah, I mean
it's thanks to doctor Wood, the Louisville Men's Clinic and
for being honest. But anyways, we're talking about flooding here
and it's uh, it's about a crest. It sucks that
that thunders can't canceled because it is such an I
mean that's how you knew that they were aware that
this was going to be bad, you know what I mean.
And it's such an economic thing for for this for
this city, this community in so many ways that like
(18:42):
you never think about if you you know, if you
unless you just sit down and randomly think about it.
But I think not having thunder is probably a bigger
deal than most people realize, just because that this is
an event that brings way more people to Louisville that
I think most realize. I mean, it's not the dirt,
but like, and it's been here for so long, and
I actually when I see the amount of people that
(19:05):
are there every year, especially when there's good weather and
you got that working for you, I mean, that's when
it hits me. You know what. There's an insane amount
of people in downtown Louisville right now, and there's a
ton of them that are not from here, and that's
it's always big for the economy around here when you
can bring in visitors and tourists and people that want
to take in the big events. And not having thunder
is a real punch to the gut.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
No doubt, I've actually enjoyed thunder since living here. When
I didn't live here for the longest time. We always
had tapes. My parents will recorder, my grandparents will record
them and always send them back to my parents out
in Arizona. So we got to see like the coverage
of it and all the themes, and I never really
found it like fascinating, and I was always at begrudging,
like we're just really doing all this for an air
show and the Kentucky Derby. But after being down there
(19:49):
and just like because I honestly never went to Thunder
other than like the last couple of years when I
started working here and they needed some help down you know,
just getting interviews, and the amount of people that have
said that they I talked to people that didn't even
know about like it was part of the Derby festivities.
It's like, oh, yeah, that's right, Katucky Derby is here
in a couple of weeks. They just come for the fireworks, yep.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And and I'm with you. I have lived here my
whole life, and I never could really understand and I
won't lie to you like I'm super interested in fireworks
or really the air show. Where do you think It's
just not something that I'm super you know, into but
working here and being around it in that aspect where
you're not just you know, scrambling to try to find
a spot with your friends to hang out of the waterfront.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
There was also a really cool couple of years where
we did, like the Bats the Bats parking lot lets,
you like, bring our vs and campers down there.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I had some friends that their families would set up
their RVs and campers and we would hang out there
for a little while. So there's a lot of different
ways you can take it in, but to me it
was kind of always like whatever, but working at and
being around people who you know, when you're going from
random stranger to random stranger to get an interview, you realize, oh,
this person's from Ohio, this person's from Wisconsin. Yeah, you
realize that. Like, let me give you an example. Despite
(20:59):
not really being my thing, there's something about being at
an event that you can just you know, the energy
from people who were there because they love it. It
can be a little bit infectious that you just feel like, hey,
this is actually a pretty cool thing that we have
here in Louisville. And the best example and this may
not hit but I'm gonna try when I went to
do a vibe check it Louder than Life. I couldn't
(21:19):
name any bands there other than like the main events
and I could or the main actcent. I couldn't probably
really name any songs of theirs. I would maybe know
a few, so like I'm the most unrelatable as far
as music, Like, I just that's just not really my jam.
But being there, man, I could tell the people who
love it. Man, they freaking love it, oh dude. And
there's something about that that, again I think can be infectious.
(21:40):
I'm not sure if that's the best comparison, but that's
kind of what Thunder turned into for me, because it
is something that like not just I mean not just
a handful of louivillions. There are people that travel. I mean,
there's somebody I interviewed that had been like nineteen straight
thunder over Louisville events, which wow, I mean I would
have never even yeah, I would never even guessed that
like somebody would do that. But some people really love
that kind of stuff. It's a bummer that that we
(22:02):
aren't having it this year. And look the flood the flooding,
I should say that. I mean, it's it's crazy and
then one thing I did miss and I were you know,
I wasn't. I was trying not to be super you know,
distracted by my phone and what's going on. But I
was also interested to kind of know what is going
on back home, especially when I saw that we had
(22:22):
some severe thunderstorms tornado like stuff coming through.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And I didn't see it until earlier today when I
was putting the show together, that the tornado that hit
the jay Town area. I mean it was the strongest
tornado to hit Jefferson County since nineteen ninety six. I
mean wow.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
So, I mean, hey, we can't get tornadoes here as
I always grew up and everyone's a dog. The tornado
hasn't hit Louisville since the nineteen blah blah blah, what'd
you say ninety six?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, there you go. And so like I've.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Always tornadoes scared the ever living hell out of me,
always as a kid growing up. And it was partly
because of watching Twister. It was like my favorite movie ever.
So like I was already PTSD buy it. So like
one of the big drawing points of wanting to move
back here to Louisville was, no, they have tornadoes.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Well, the tornado. There was a tornado that hit Bullet
County right where I mean right. I remember I was
in I think second grade, I think it was ninety
six and second grade. We had storms that come through
the area and it hit Bullet County pretty tough to
where when it happened, we actually didn't finish like the
last month of school because a lot of the schools,
even my elementary school was used as like shelter for
families because it was like it was a I mean,
(23:29):
we got like CNN coverage. It was pretty crazy. And
then we had one in Fern Creek that really wasn't
that long ago. It wasn't a huge one, but you know,
it did touch down I think the Glenn Mary neighborhood
and it wiped out a couple of houses. But we
had a really scary experience on our way back on
Saturday because we were driving back Saturday and our plan
was to and by the way, wife won. We drove
(23:50):
all the way through and it worked out because the
kids were perfectly behaved, so it was great. Yeah, so
it was great, but on the way back, you know,
we didn't really want I mean, I just I didn't
want to have to get up at five am, last
day of vacation. I'd rather sleep in a little bit
and like not feel rushed, and then we'll get on
the road and we'll see what happens. Well, I wanted
to stop because we knew we were going to be
(24:12):
entering tough weather at some point. My wife just wanted
so badly to get home, and I mean, I was
gonna let her make the call. But then we're coming
through Nashville, and all of a sudden, you know, I
don't have any I'm not following anything on my social media.
I don't have any apps for local news stations in Nashville.
I'm not checking social media about what's going on in Nashville.
But all of a sudden, my iPhone starts going off
(24:34):
the alarm that says there's a tornado warning where you are.
Obviously they can they know my location, And all of
a sudden, I look up in the sky and sure enough,
I'm like, I don't know if that's a tornado, but
if somebody told me that it was, I would believe them.
So we ended up pulling off the road for like
an hour and twenty minutes, and you go look it
up on X I mean it was. In fact, it
(24:55):
became a he became somewhat of a not a national
story within sports. But everybody, buddy in the Nashville area
was pissed because they could watch the Final four because
the local coverage on CBS was tracking this storm, and
everybody was pissed about it. But we were like we
were following the tornado. So we ended up pulling off.
It took like an hour and fifteen minutes before we
were able to feel comfortable enough to get back on
(25:16):
the road and try to get back home. And then
we knew it was gonna be dark on sixty five
and there's stretches of sixty five that are so dark
at night. And you know, we've got friends that left
ahead of us that didn't stop, and they were like
telling us that at certain spots on sixty five north
kind of like around Etown, around I guess a little
bit a little bit south of the town, there were
(25:39):
like you could see the water rising close to the interstate.
And I'm just having like I told my wife, look,
we can't, like we don't We're not gonna be able
to see anything. It's gonna be dark as can be,
you know, We're already seeing areas of sixty five that
we're going to drive through in an hour and a
half that are already close to having like where they're
gonna have to close the Interstate because the water's too high.
So we ended up standing bowling Green randomly as hell
(26:00):
on Saturday night, had a good evening. We end up
getting late dinner watch some of the final four games.
But but yeah, it was. It was probably the scariest
experience for me when it comes to weather in a
long time, because we were in traffic in downtown Nashville
on the Interstate. I guess going through downtown Nashville on
the Interstate and everybody's kind of like, You've got a
(26:23):
bunch of cars that are just off to the side
of the road not knowing what to do. You've got
some people driving like a bad out of hell trying
to get somewhere where they could be safe. We didn't
know what to do. We ended up we ended up
getting off the exit not knowing where we are, and
I told her, like to find a parking garage or something,
you know, I just don't want to be And then
sure enough we didn't realize that, but we're driving towards
the storm, So it was it was kind of scary,
(26:44):
but it was a lot worse here because clearly a
tornado did touchdown in jay Town and cause a lot
of damage. Again, that came in earlier today as the
National Weather Service has said that the Yeah, it was
a a preliminary confirmation of an EF three tornado in
Jaytown last Wednesday night early Thursday morning, one hundred and
forty five mile per hour winds, which is crazy, dude.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
The sirens were going.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I had to I woke up in the middle of
the night and you know, couldn't go back to sleep
for a little while, so I got my phone out
and that's all anybody was talking about, was like, wow,
this storm must have been pretty severe. And sure enough,
it was the strongest one we've had in Louisville in
nineteen years or twenty nine years. Yikes. All right, let's
take a break, way too long back. But clock management
still not a strong suit of mine, but maybe I'll
(27:30):
get better one day.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It was a new guy.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Hey, stranger, it's coffee and Company. We're fuel about Thorton's
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Sports Talk seven nine days.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's one thing. One of the many things I missed
last week is DJ travel Chief on the ones and two.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yeah, good stuff songs, A vibe it is, man, it
is just reminds me of the nineties, just like mom
and dad are getting McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It's a rain.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it's just music you can feel because there's a
level of nostalgia to it for us, right, Yeah, I
love it. Beautiful stuff and thank you all the beautiful
people who are with us. Hopefully you didn't forget about
this show because I was out last week and I'm back.
It's Coffee and Company where Philbeth Thorton's. My name is
Nick Coffee, the Austin Well, the Travel Chief, Austin Montgomery,
that's the other voice that you hear. And it is
(28:21):
now National Championship Game night. We've got Florida and Houston,
which should be a really really really good game. I mean,
I'm hoping so it would mean I guess you never
know what you're gonna get, but I think it'd be
a really really really big surprise. If this thing's not competitive,
maybe it's not super competitive, but I think both these
teams clearly are very very good, very well coached, and
(28:44):
you know, I think it's just going to come down
to who can you know, cause you know, to me,
it's pretty simple. Can Florida continue to be as efficient
as they've been offensively throughout this tournament? Or can Houston
be the team that disrupts them enough to just kind
of hold on and win. But tonight, eight fifty, I
(29:05):
believe is the tip, which uh is late. I feel
like that's later than what we usually get.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
But that's what the guy said on the commercial. I
didn't know. I always felt there was like around nine o'clock. Yeah,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So people have been complaining. People have been complaining about
it for a long time because they just say, there's
no reason to have it start this late, which I mean,
you don't want the West. If you did it it's
seven thirty, it'd be four to thirty on the West coast.
And some say, well, who cares? The West Coast doesn't
really care enough to watch college basketball at a high level,
(29:35):
and I agree with that. But what makes all this
work is television viewers. And even if you're getting, you know,
way more viewership on the West or the East, Coast
or just Central America. You still need West Coast viewers
to an extent for you to be able to have
that big number that gets you those big big checks
that keep this thing, you know, keep this keeps this
(29:56):
thing going. So currently Florida is favored by one and
and that's what I would probably have said it at myself.
I just the Florida team certainly really really talented. They're
very balanced. But Walter Clayton Junior, what he's been able
to do is I mean, I know they had a
close call, and really, I don't know if I can
(30:19):
really say that Texas Tech choked or that like Florida
pulled off some miracle, because if you watched Walter Clayton
Junior this year, even last year, heck, I mean, if
you want to get real specific, just in the last month.
He hits shots where he is defended as perfectly as
(30:40):
he could possibly be defended. And he doesn't just do
it randomly like he's on some heater. He's got that
in his back, like there are shots that he like.
When they say things like he can get to his spot,
that sometimes annoys me because I think it's a real
tryhard move from an analyst as far as like wanting
you to know that, you know, sometimes these guys I
(31:01):
believe and I'm you know, I think, I think I've
got the credentials and I've I mean I've certified ballner.
I mean that's that's right, sort offued ballnover here.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
What about play both ways? You liked that?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean he's a two way guy, uh
picking picking pop guy three and three and d can
with his left hand to so you know there's but
when you hear get to his spot, that means that
means he is somebody that knows how to get what
he's the best at, like knows knows where his bread
is buttered if you will, and and and you know
(31:31):
he can find that comfort zone consistently and and get
his I mean that and that's that's technically what that
means as far as my understanding of it. But Walter
Clayton Junior gets to his spots, and it's it's if
he's getting there and he has been able to do it,
I mean it's insane. I mean his elevation on his
pull up jump shot despite not being very tall, like
that's what makes up for it. He's athletic enough. I
(31:53):
wouldn't say he's the super athlete, but he doesn't lack
athleticism to an extent to where like it's holding him back.
I don't know if i'd say he's a lottery pick.
I know Summers starting to say that he should be
and could be. I wouldn't be shocked if he is.
But that guy's really really good. And yes, Houston is
a team that is defensively elite, but he's been defended
at times as good as anybody could defend him, and
(32:15):
he still made shots, not just ones that are big
because of the moment, because you know that, of course
is something he's doing as well. But like early on
in that game against Auburn, like do you how do
you defend that? I mean, I think the answer in
some of these shots he's hitting and people say, like,
what are you supposed to do? There's nothing you can do.
He's just that good. Now, maybe he's run out of
gas and his shots aren't falling. Now you really never know.
(32:37):
But I would take Florida here just because I think
that they're a little bit better built to win this.
But Houston's also a team that they're going to fight
to the end, and always give themselves a chance to
you know, to stay alive and win one, just like
they did against Duke. And I wish I had a
(32:58):
strong take or you know, feeling about the way that
ended between Houston and Duke, but I don't. I don't mean.
What I mean by that is I'm not ready to say, well, hey,
that's why you don't go young, because that's that's something
you could easily say, is that it got late. Duke
had outplayed everybody in this tournament by a wide margin,
meaning their opponents of course, and they outplayed Houston like
(33:20):
that game played out where like Houston's good, we know
what they can do, but man, Duke's just got some dudes,
like Douke's elite with talent, and they are and then
at the end, Houston their DNA is their veterans. They're tough,
they don't waiver, They're not going to be outworked there.
You know, they could be down twenty, which rarely ever
happens because they're so good. But like they did just
(33:41):
enough to give themselves a chance, and they took advantage
of every Duke mistake and they also made some tough
shots on their end, right like that comeback It's mostly
going to be about how did Duke manage to lose
in that situation, which is crazy to think about. I mean,
the win probability for Duke down the stretch, it's crazy
to think that they lost the way that they did.
(34:03):
But Houston hit a tough step back three, which at
that point, what are they down? Seven?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Maybe six?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
They're just like they're they're in desperation mode, right, Like
Duke's just letting them jack it up because you know,
that's a shot they want to take. We clearly are
in a good position if we just don't screw up.
And sure enough, they screwed up, and the turnover like
the three, and then the turnover that led to another
three point shot that was missed, and then dunk tipped
(34:29):
in that changed everything. That five point swing to go
along with the technical I suppose where he read Actually
I'm sorry, you know the tech. Yeah, the technical on Houston.
Did that put him up six or seven? I don't
know what it was at that time, and it's really
not important, but yes.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
And then there was the over the back on a
Cooper five.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah, and look that call absolutely questionable, no doubt about it.
I don't I don't have a strumming when I say
I don't have a strong feeling on it. I can
see why he called it. I wouldn't have been shocked
at all if he didn't call it, which is a
really half assed way to give you an opinion on it.
But you know, Cooper Flag, he he did something I
think the instincts for the reft and I don't think
(35:06):
I don't think it was him anticipating a foul that
didn't happen. But Cooper Flag has length right, he had
like he can do some things that most can't do,
as far as finding his way to a rebound without
giving you the old boxing out your guy getting low
and using the trunk of your legs like he's just
he's different. So I think him doing that and his guy,
(35:28):
you know, maybe didn't have a full I mean, it
wasn't like a I think had the guy really dropped
low and you know, pushed Cooper Flag out of the way.
And I don't think there's really enough time to do it.
They were reacting to a to a miss and you know,
balls coming towards him. But I think had the guy
for for forgetting his name for Houston, that that they
(35:49):
that they put to the foul line because of the
because of the over the over the back call. I
woun't even I didn't even want to say, like if
he'd has sold it more, I just mean more so,
like had he actually been in a in a better
box out position, maybe they wouldn't have called it. I
know what you're thinking, Well, if he wasn't in a
box opposition, he wasn't boxing out, it was it was
a bad call. Look, maybe you're right. I just think
that what that ref saw in real time, I understand
(36:10):
why his instincts were, I gotta call this foul now again.
I also think that if he didn't call it wouldn't
have been a huge deal. And here's something that nobody
wants to hear. I hate even saying it because it's lame.
It sounds like I'm, you know, get off my lawn
kind of guy. But like, there are questionable calls that
could go either way an unbelievable amount of time in games.
(36:32):
We're just not used to seeing it late when calls,
you know, can certainly impact a game the way that
one did. And you know, I know the oh you
got to swallow your whistle there late. Well, don't you
want it consistent? Like which one is it? I think
what you want is perfect officiating. I'm here to tell
you something that'll never happen. Players misshots, Refs miss calls.
(36:53):
The best refs of all time. They miss calls every
game they call, every game that they're a part of.
They miss calls every player, Michael Jordan, the best ever,
Lebron whoever, Larry Bird. They miss shots. They're not perfect.
Like that's one thing that's starting to really just make
me feel like I'm a Boomer's I just I can
with the officiating. Like in game, yeah, I'll yell about
(37:13):
a ref because I'm watching my team and I'm in
the moment, like I'm I'm a sportsman. But like in
retrospect after a game, I really have ever felt like, well, man,
we just really got screwed by the officials. They really
got us because they're not perfect. And those that say
that refs need to be a have a press they
need to be held accountable, have a press conference after
so they got to face the music. You would be underwhelmed.
(37:36):
You'd be underwhelmed in a major way. Like those of
you who don't go to the lot of men's clinic.
Your wife's underwhelmed. That's the underwhelming feeling that you would feel,
because you'd want to you'd find a stream for it
on Twitter or maybe you'd you know, maybe you pull O.
I don't know where you'd find it, but you'd find
that press conference. So these refs have to take their medicine,
and you know what they would tell you, Yeah, we
missed that one, and you would feel a level of like,
(37:58):
because they're not perfect. They miscall and sometimes there's questionable
calls that like it could go either way, and you're
just you're you're at the mercy of whatever they decide.
Because they're officials, you can tell I miss talking about
doctor wood A theew Woman's clinical I was on.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Vacation, right, that's right, I know what your mind was going.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
All right, let's get to a quick time. I will
come back and wrap up the three o'clock hour. We'll
get to some texts that are coming in on the
Leenn Federal Credit Union text line fab OO two four
three eight ninety seventy three. Phone lines now open five
O two five to seven one seventy nine hundred. It's
Coffee and Company Fiel about Thornton's right here on Sports
Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
I will say one of the questions that came in
on the Llenn Federal Credit Union text line five O
two four three eight ninety seventy three, this came in earlier,
and I I if you'd asked me beforehand, I would
have guessed, just a guess that when I returned from vacation,
we would have some kind of clarity on what some
(39:03):
of the guys that can return to Louisville are going
to do. Are they going to return to Louisville or
are they going to hit the portal again or maybe
pursue professional options. And it doesn't appear that we have
any update case and Pryor and Jamon Hadley are still
members of the program as far as I mean, I mean,
I don't know. It's awkward because there are still some
(39:24):
that'll say, well, why would you why would you even
talk about them leaving? They haven't left fair enough? But
like I feel like, now, haven't we got to the
point where good players don't don't you feel the need to,
like if you are keeping up with the portal and
maybe not even the portal. Let me let me, let
(39:45):
me rephrase if you are up to date as far
as like where we are in college athletics basketball, specifically
good players playing for programs that you know, really any program,
but especially programs that aren't making the final four every year.
I think you kind of just sit back and you
you do need a confirmation that somebody is going to
(40:07):
be coming back, because you know that they have the
ability to leave whenever they want, and a lot of
them are doing it. So I'm not telling you the
case in Prior and Jamon Hadley are are gonna leave,
and I'm gonna wait until they tell us they're coming
back for me to believe it. I just I to
me no clue what they're gonna do. Hope they come back,
So I don't. I don't know. I would. I would
have assumed that there would be some type of clarity
(40:29):
on maybe there an il situation on their end to
where they would know, Okay, is this good for me?
Or do I do? I want to go hit the
portal and see if I can get some money, more
money elsewhere. And you got to keep in mind with
some guys being available to play because of injury this
past season, Kobe Rodgers, Ali Khalifa, as well as the
(40:51):
guys they've met. Because again, this is where it's just
awkward because it's still relatively new, but it's very obvious
but also important if you are a player who, like,
if you're a Jamon Hadley, let's say there is a
I'm gonna pull up the transfer portal ranking just to
give you kind of an example, because you know, Javon
Hadley was awesome. I would love to have him back. Look,
(41:13):
I love everything about him, and I mean that like
I think he is. He was one of the I
wouldn't say one of the unsung heroes, but like he
was a super super factor in Louisville being able to
go eighteen and two in the ACC and make it
to the a SEC Championship game and get this thing
turned around. He didn't get the same praise and love
that guys like Chucky and even rain God, and that's
(41:34):
that's understandable Terrence Edwards too, But like, those four, to
me were the real reasons why Louisville was able to
rally after having some tough losses early and then some injuries.
Those guys really kind of put it all together. But
let's say I'm trying to find I mean, would you
consider help me out here? Austin Like he can definitely
stretch the floor and give you some perimeter play. But
(41:58):
Javon's a four, right, he's a stretch for like he's
he's a guy who can you know he can give
you some He's a mismatch because for Beggs he's a
little too quick for him at times. And for guards
he can he can box, he can post him up.
So let's say you've got perfect example, and I have
no clue if Louisville. In fact, it looks like Louisville,
(42:19):
I mean looks like this guy may already have landed
at another school. But bright, yeah, Bryce Hopkins, he's transferring
to play for Rick Patino at Saint John's. He is
a six to seven, two and twenty pound power forward.
So again this is all hypothetical. He's already going to
Saint John's play for Rick. And you may remember he
was committed to Louisville under Chris Mack before he ended
up going to Kentucky for a year and then going
to Providence. Having a really good season, and he's been
injured the last two. But anyways, if Louisville landed him,
(42:43):
Javon Hadley understandably so would have to reconsider what he
wants to do, right like the days of well, you
don't want to compete, it's not about that. It's about
doing what makes sense. It's about doing what make like
what's best for you. I mean, so it doesn't look
like Louisville has it anybody. You know, Bryce is a
top ten transfer. So like, I'm just giving you a hypothetical.
(43:04):
So in a long witted way, I have no clue
what those guys are doing. That's what I'm trying to say.
But those that think we should just assume they're back,
maybe you're right, and I'm not assuming that they're not back,
but I am someone that for me, I will need
them to announce they're coming back for me to just assume. Okay, Like,
when I think about Louisville's lineup next year, there's a
(43:26):
lot of unknown pieces. One because they're still going to
be active in the portal to an extent, but also
I'd love to look at potential lineups next season and
talk about depth with guys like Cason Pryor and Javon Hadley.
It's just I don't know if they're coming back, because
if they didn't, then they decided to go elsewhere. It
wouldn't be a it shouldn't be a big shock to anybody.
(43:47):
I'll say that. So again, no real clarity on my end,
but I would love both those guys to come back,
And honestly, I just I love the dynamic of that.
I mean, you bring in a couple of really talented freshmen,
one who's already played pro ball for a couple of years,
Sonny Frew, and the three guards you've added in the portal.
Hell yeah, I mean Canai Rus hasn't hit the portal.
(44:09):
I mean I would love to get him back. And
then you've got veterans like Javon and a healthy case.
And I mean, I think that's a pretty good I mean,
that's a pretty good recipe. To be honest with you,
I still would like to see a more polished, offensive,
low post guy. And we'll actually talk about one of
those guys who is fighting for another year, a College
(44:32):
of Charleston transfer who played for Pat Kelce. His argument
as far as why he deserves another year is exactly
what I guessed it would be, and we'll get to
that in a lot more two more hours left here,
stick around National Championship Game the Night, good stuff right
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
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