June 27, 2024 • 42 mins
It's a Pardon My Take takeover with Big Cat and PFT Commenter talking NBA Draft and are also joined by Rick Pitino.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington. Welcomes David Lucas June sixth
through the eighth, Then catch Josh Blue June twentieth through
the twenty second, and don't miss Rocky Dale Davis June
twenty eighth and twenty ninth. Comedy Off Broadway opened in
downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still bringing
the best in stand up comedy to the area thirty
(00:20):
seven years later. Call E five nine two seven to
one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com co Offay.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good morning, Kentucky. How we doing. It's not Matt Jones.
It's part of my take, big Cat and pft here,
where's Matt Jones. Matt Jones is in Fallujah?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Really yes, so that's an interesting place for him to go.
I thought he would be in Atlanta moderating the presidential debate,
cutting Trump's mike off tonight. I thought that was his job. No,
I think he I don't think he's gonna make it back.
He's doing Fallujah, then he's going to Ukraine. I think
he brought a briefcase of cash.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Go Big Blue, Yeah, Go Big Blue, and then he's
gonna work his way back to Yeah. America's America. Welcome
in for any new listeners today. We are part of
My Take, the number one sports podcast. We've been hosting
a day a year on Kentucky Sports Radio. I think
this is our eighth year.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Yeah, every year since we started the podcast. Our good
friend Matt asked us to fill in. And I still
remember the first show that we had because it was
right after Part of My Take started. We sat down,
we were in a studio and we caught all kinds
of hell from.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Kentucky fans, all kinds of you thought we were trolling, right,
And I know what you're about to say. Let me
just say this right now, because every time we host
I will see we get a lot of Kentucky Sports
radio fans that get very mad and they say turn
it off within three minutes. We're in the three minute
window here, so let us give a pitch to you
to stick with us for two hour stakes. I think
(02:04):
it's going to be our best show we've ever done
Kentucky Sports Radio. PFT. What you're gonna say, Well, first
of all. We know ball.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
We know ball, and I think every caller should start
out today by admitting that we know ball. Yeah, maybe
we turned you off in the past because we said
that coach Cal was on the hot seat in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
You thought we were joking about that. Yep. I think
we were just the first to say it, and now
you're all saying it. You're listening to two guys that
are basically the Steve Jobs of ball. We know. We
knew that the computer was going to be big before
the computer was big.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
So we know everything there is to know about Kentucky basketball.
So we want to hear from you. Do you think
that this is going to be coach Cal's last season
coaching Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
We called this, We did call We called this. We
had him on the hot seat for the last eight
years and people say no, no, no, he's going to
be fine. And then you all came around to us
and you realized that we were right, you were wrong.
We're not gonna take a victory lap. No, we're not
going to pat ourselves on the back. But for all
the people that say that, well, all they do is bits,
and everything turns out the bit was we know ball.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, we were the first to say it, first to
think it actually and yeah, so we would appreciate maybe
if every caller would start out by just congratulating us.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But we don't need to take a victory lab. But
here's the thing. We are on the side of Kentucky
because we were proven right. So I think that we
are officially members of Big Blue Nation, and being members
of Big Blue Nation means that we are going to
today take down Arkansas and we're gonna lift up Kentucky.
We're here to help, and I want to start with
(03:34):
taking down Arkansas for the people. Okay, So here's where
I'm going to start, because this was the most pathetic
thing I've seen in probably the last year on Twitter
last night. Last night, obviously the NBA Draft huge night.
It's bigger than the March madness for Kentucky. Under cal
you get the number three pick, and Reed Shephard you
(03:56):
get the number eight pick, and Rob Dillingham, who got
then gets traded to Minnesota. So now it's the Minnesota Timbercats.
I like that because you got you got Kat and
Rob together. So another another banner night for Kentucky basketball.
Two top ten picks and it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Two starting players from Kentucky taken in the top ten.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It's amazing, great job. So here is where the pathetic
tweet comes in, and here's where I hope Kentucky sports
fans will continue on this journey with us for the
next two hours. Last night, Arkansas men's basketball tweeted a
list of the last fifteen, sixteen years, seventeen years, sorry
(04:41):
instead a player coach by coach Cal has been selected
in seventeen straight NBA drafts, with a picture of Cal
in his Arkansas pull over. That is so pathetic to
be to be basically what you're seeing Kentucky basketball is
you're seeing what you were and now what Arkansas is
(05:04):
gonna be, and that they're celebrating the NBA Draft. Those
guys didn't even play for Arkansas. Their Kentucky Rea Shepherd
is Kentucky through and through, and they have basically picked
up what Cal has become in NBA draft is the
most important thing and they've just taken the mantle and
they're running with it. That is so pathetic to basically
(05:27):
crown yourself an achievement that has zero to do with
Arkansas and be like, this is what we care about
the NBA draft. Just lockstep. They just care about Arkansas basketball.
All they care about is the NBA draft. Kentucky basketball.
We care about winning Win on March badness, winning basketball games.
And it's funny because they are.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I'm sure that they If you're an Arkansas basketball fan,
you enjoyed nothing more than coach cal doing this exact
same press tour for Kentucky. Yes, because then they were saying, well,
he hasn't won anything, and now they've converted themselves. They're
doing it themselves. Amazing accomplishment. Come to Arkansas and get drafted.
It's that simple. That's my favorite reply right there. And
(06:07):
I'll give credit to Kentucky fans for the most par
Kentucky basketball fans never bought into that, correct. They were like,
it's nice that our players are getting paid. That's a
good recruitment tool to bring good players here. But you
guys cared about winning basketball games, and that's why calson
longer there. I do think that you need to step
up one thing though, if you're going to compete with
Arkansas the chicken situation, you can't get bought out by
(06:28):
another bigger chicken guy. Chicken, you Kentucky should be the
biggest chicken state. Arkansas needs to sit down that you
guys need to step up and crush them like the
ants they are because you're the original chicken guys.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, what if we're just a whiskey state instead of
a chicken sam What did what did coach Jim Harbass say?
Chicken is nervous bird, nervous little animal. I want to
be associated with being a chicken school.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
However, he did change his tune on the chicken and
he said after buying chickens, they're remarkably industrious birds and
they produce eggs every night.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, you guys laid in eggs in the tournament. Now
you're ready to move on. But I'm happy for Kentucky
basketball fans today because you get the moment where again
you get the accomplishment. Reed Shepherd one of the best
homegrown basketball players in Kentucky history, going three in the draft.
He's going to be great in the pros. But you
get to watch Arkansas basically celebrate something they had zero
(07:21):
to do with, and you get to see how ridiculous
it is to celebrate and accomplish it. Like the NBA Draft.
When we're talking about college basketball, and we can now
as members of Big Blue Nation, the two of us are,
we can get back to basics and focus on winning
in March. Yeah, you're talking.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Listen, there's two BBC's talking to you right now. There's
Big Blue Cat, there's Big Blue Commentary. This is BBC
Radio right.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Now, and we are standing firm behind you. Guys. I
think you're head in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I think you have the tallest coach in Division I
basketball now right six. Yeah, that's important for the intimidation prospect.
That is a very tall co Yeah, real tall coach. Yeah,
your coach could beat up anyone else.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah. The Pope is infallible. The Pope is a fount.
Now I should say too that Mark Pope did not
have any players from YU get drafted last night. But
that's what I'm saying. We're back to basics. I think
all Kentucky fans would take winning in March versus winning
in June. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So, so, Coach Kel had these stats just ready to
go off the top of his head last night. He
was ready to say seventy percent of the players that
we've recruited in the last fifteen years have been drafted
seventy three percent of those seventy percent have gone to
second contracts, thirty percent of the max contracts in the NBA,
or my guys and our kids have earned over five
billion dollars in contracts. He just walks around with those
(08:39):
stats in the back, visiting you don't want. It's very
nice to have that, and it's a good recruiting tool,
but that he wakes up in the morning, he's like,
my friends are rich.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, And the most important stat that he forgot they
forgot to guard Jack Cokie forgot it. That's the most
important stat I don't think you can care about you don't.
We're out with the old, in with the new. It's
a new day for Big Blue name. I'll say this too.
Coach Cal was looking a little old.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Look.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think I think it's Kentucky fans. We got the
best years of Coach Cal and again we squeezed it dry.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I don't want any smoke with the Cal family. I
want to be clear, but I'm still terrified of the
cow family.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Love them too. I love Brad. Brad's my guysive. We're
just trying to defend our big Blue nation and puff
out our chest because Today's a big day. Today is
the dawning of a new era.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And you've got all the all the old guys coming home.
I think Patino said that he would contribute to the
NIL fund too, So you're getting, uh, you're getting some
of the former guys pitching in.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Everyone's pumped off. It takes a village. I said it
when it happened. Uh, you know, the end was was tumultuous.
It's been bad the last few years in terms of
March Madness, not winning the SEC. But Kentucky basketball is
bigger than a coach, and I think what happened at
the end of the cal era is col was trying
(09:55):
to be bigger than the program. And you guys are
going to be just sorry. We are going to be
just fine being Kentucky basketball. Don't It's not about one
coach at Kentucky Basketball. It's about tradition, it's about being
one of the best programs, about being a blue blood.
It has nothing to do with who's coaching. It has
everything to do with the fans, ourselves and Big Blue Nation.
(10:18):
And I think this is going to be a great
We're gonna look back and we're going to say this
was the best thing that could have happened for Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
We're supposed to be Kentucky, y'all supposed to be Kentucky,
and now guess what we are Kentucky. Yeah, we don't
have to worry about about all the marketing that goes
around it. We don't have to worry about the flashes.
Let's just get back the ball. Yeah, let's just ball
out and beat Oakland.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Let's let's be let's let's let's play some defense, Let's
put the ball in the cup, and let's win some games.
It's that simple. It's that simple. Sometimes ball is that
easy ball. And we are knowers of the ball.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We know ball more than anybody else that's ever hosted
this program before. They've never had anybody like that. Are
experts in basketball host this right, No one like us
Jay billis. He's an expert in being disingenuine, disingenuous and
legal ease. Yes, we're here to actually, our our legal
advice is probably better than Jay billis. So if you
have any legal questions, don't wait for Jake. Call us
up and we'll answer those questions for you.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
By the way, I forgot to I forgot to mention
off the top. Uh, I did a bad job as
a host. But uh, Kentucky Sports Radio. We're sponsored by
TJ Smith Loff is called TJ. He'll make them pay. Yes,
we TJ is a close personal friend of ours. He
called in last year. We'd love to talk to him again. Uh,
he's a He's a wonderful sponsor and we love TJ.
If you if you need someone, TJ is the guy
(11:34):
to go to.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I yeah, I actually have some questions for TJ if
he's around. I need to know if we can sue
our producer Hank Yes, just for being a big black
ring cloud.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, so let's see if TJ can can call in
at some point. But speaking to Collins, we so we
do this every year. We'd like to hear from Kentucky
h fans. I know we have a big fan base.
We want to have our we love our fans. But
today's about Kentucky. So we want to hear from Kentucky listeners.
Regular listeners of this show. You can call in eight
(12:03):
five nine two eight zero two two eight seven. So
we want to hear from you. And we we usually
do our best of on our podcast on Friday, and
we want to hear from everyone there. I also want
to say he should have said it from the from
the start. This is our first time hosting since we've
lost Harvey. Harvey was a good friend of ours. Harvey
called in a bunch of years. I think Harvey is
(12:27):
smiling right now down from heaven on where Kentucky basketball
is going in the direction we're going. He might be.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He might also you might also hate the fact that
we're hosting the show, but he is definitely happy about No.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I think he's shaking his fingers saying those guys they
knew ball.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
And maybe maybe he's saying that that they were right.
But yeah, you know what, this one's for Harvey. This
on this show is dedicated to the memory of Harvey,
because guys like Harvey are would make sports great. Yes,
people that care that much about it and will defend
their team to the end of the earth. This one's
for Harvey.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah. So the call in number again is eight five
nine two eight zero two two eight seven. It's the
Clark's Pumping Shop phone line to call in. We're going
to take callers probably in the second hour. We're going
to take a break right now. When we come back,
we'll talk a little bit more about the NBA Draft
than We have a big, big guest coming up hopefully
at ten thirty that everyone's going to want to tune into.
(13:17):
I'm telling you right now, for all the people that
say they turned it off, you made a mistake. You
can't hear me right now, but you made a mistake.
Tune back in. Text the person who says they hate
us and be like, you gotta tune back in, because
this is going to be the best time we've ever
done in terms of hosting this show.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
You can hear it right now, or you can read
about it later. Yeah, it's yours. It's your choice. I
think if I were you, I would want to listen
live to this.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, you want to be an idiot later and be like, oh,
I didn't even hear them.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And if we have any callers out there that are
currently engaged in a feud with a neighbor, I want
to hear about some Kentucky feuds. Yeah, those are genuinely
good calls. Specifically, a crik and a holler.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
A holler. If you're from a holler, you get priority. Yep,
absolutely front of the line. Any hollers. Okay, let's take
a break and we come back. We will get ourselves
ready for our guests, and uh, we'll talk a little
bit more about the NBA draft last night, Kevin. Then
take it high. All right, we're back Kentucky Sports Radio.
(14:19):
Pardon my take take over. Uh, we have a big
guest coming up in a minute. If you missed the
start of the show. We want everyone to just remind
us that we are ball knowers if you call in,
because we were the first to put coach Cal in
the hot seat, and then we everything that we said
was going to happen turned out to be correct, exactly right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
If you had listened to us seven years ago, you
would be much happier right now, you'd be in a
better place, right better place.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So we do know ball.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
The number again is eight five nine two eight zero
two two eight seven. Regular callers, please call in. We
want to talk to the real people of Kentucky. Do
we want to take a call.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Before we get the inter call and we'll see, uh yeah,
if the uh, if we think you're not a regular caller,
we might hang up on you because we really want
to keep it to Kentucky Sports Radio callers. All right, Shannon,
who we got yeah, we got Charlene, Sharlen, how you doing.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Hey guys, good morning. I agree with everything you've said.
You know, just to prove that coach cal never really
had a true statistician stattician. He didn't even realize last
night he called Reed Shepherd one of the best three
point shooters in the country, when in fact, Reid was
the best percentage three point shooter in the country. That
(15:33):
just shows how much you know, like, there's no statistician
the team. You know, it's crazy. Secondly, Secondly, what really
just I hope someday I won't be angry about it anymore,
but I'm still salty because, you know what, because he
can't coach defense, because his game plan offensively is something
akin to if you make a play, if you got
(15:55):
to play, go and make it, And because he just
really can't coach at team to wins. We got cheated
out of extra games with two very special players, Rob
dealing him and Read Shepherd, and I just I don't
know if I'll ever get over that.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Tea Ques.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Charlene, you actually sound a little emotional right now. Your
voice was quivering a little there. It's okay, this is
a safe place like that I agree with you read
Shepherd is he should have played into the second third
weekend of March Madness and we got robbed of it.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah we did, Yeah, now we did well. I'm not
only I mean, I'm angry because I'm a lifelong Kentucky
fan and I just I think that he just made
a sham of our program, especially the last ten years,
and just so hardheaded and wouldn't like make any adjustments
or changes when it came to winning. And you know
(16:50):
what it isn't Calipari University. It's the University of Kentucky.
We were there before him, we were there during him,
and we'll still be there long after he's gone. In
the late Gray al McGuire from Marquette said.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That yes, that's a fact. It is. And you make
a good point, because we should.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
There should be highlights that play for the rest of
our lifetime of Reed Shepherd making iconic plays in the
NCAA tournament, and those highlights will not exist.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I don't know if you turn Kentucky into a sham.
Kentucky's been relevant certainly since Calston.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
You're there.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It's just that they've been relevant for some reasons that
you would not. You know, ideally you'd like them to
be relevant because they're making final fours, they're winning championships.
They've just mostly been relevant because they have all these
expectations and then they always fall flat, and then he
celebrates things that don't really have anything to do with
the program winning. It's been kind of like the Dallas
(17:41):
Cowboys for the last seven years. Yeah, and that's it's relevant.
You'r relevant, but also like a bit of a laughing stock.
And the laughing stock thing comes in because you should
have these expectations to be great, you should do great things,
but unfortunately it just hasn't worked out.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
But I think we're on the right track right now.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Yeah, and say it, well, is not Lexington Big Blue Nation.
It's just not going to be the same. I mean,
you're gonna go Fayetteville, Arkansas. I mean, come on, don't
give me a break.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Lexington is the best.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
He he doesn't look right wearing that color, either the
Arkansas red or I don't know what it is, but
it looks like he's wearing pajamas.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
As a bigger man, wearing red is never a good
move because you just end up looking like the kool
Aid man. The calaid Man, no disrespect, you know, coach
cal You.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Know, the only consolation I have is that dude has
to listen for the next however many years to the
chant from the stands up.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Bitchally Yeah, yeah, come on, come on, count joke.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
That's a joke.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And your point about his coaching, he I think his
coaching strategy was, let's roll the ball out there.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yeah, just roll it up. But you know what, there's
only one ball.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
You're not wrong, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Yeah, well, Charlie, he literally said it. He literally said it.
If you have a play, go and make that play right.
That's what he told him. Told him always right before
the game. That's it.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And he also said, uh, that guy Jack Golkie, he
can't shoot. Don't worry about him. Not a good strategy,
not a good Thank you so much for your calling.
Uh there are better days ahead, I can tell you
that right now.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Oh I know it. I have never so excited love
Mark Pope. Have my picture with him on my profile
on ex curly cat number four UK, cat.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Number four UK. I love that.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Where'd you get your picture taken with him?
Speaker 5 (19:36):
At an exhibition game in Evansville, Indiana of the Indiana
Pacers and the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I love that. You're a real me.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
My daughter, my little daughter, and I could raise her
a Kentucky basketball fan. She's a thirty year old doctor
now and I'm just as big a fan as I am,
which I thought could never happen. But yeah, there's a
picture of the three of us on my profile page on.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I can see it right now. I'm looking at you,
sports lover and vintage nineties NBA card seller.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I love that. I love that, Charlene, thank you so
much for calling in better days ahead. We are big
Blue Nation. Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Marks the Bomb, thank you, Bomb Bomb.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I love Pope, the Charlene. I could hear it in
her voice that it's been it's been tough. Yeah, she's
she's kind of wearing the years right.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And I want people like Charlene next time we host
the show.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I want it to be a victory party.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Yeah, I want us to have Champagne live on the air,
I'll say, and celebrate Kentucky being back.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'll say it right now. Kentucky basketball is gonna win
a title before Arkansas. I agree, fact, I agree. Hey,
is Kentucky back right now? Oh? So bad. I think
we're back, so back, by the way. I don't know when, Shannon,
When did you guys start charging people to comment on
the site? Oh the paywall?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I think that happened when Matt sold the site
to someone else.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Fun and all that money to Ukraine. Whatever happened to
free speech? Yeah? You ever hear something called the First Amendment?
We can get you to log in. I just logged.
I just I just I just paid. I paid. We've
got to reimburse you now. Yeah, our our bandlets said,
tell me this is the only episode I skip, also
giving my exact examples from today's episode. Oh, that guy's smart.
(21:21):
That guy's smart. Yeah, that guy's smart. Someone asked his
Mark Pope on the hot seat.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
You know, might be you know what I think. I
think we should be at Kentucky. The expectations are different
from b YU.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You gotta win now. Yeah, you've got a lot of energy.
You're saying all the right things right now. I need
to see it on the court.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Shannon, did someone on this show call
him coach Poops? Say it again? I'm sorry I was.
I was taking a call from our our special guest.
Someone said, I mean our own guy have said coach Poops?
Oh yeah, who said that?
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I think when during a conversation of trying to match
together Stoops and Pope, that that came out of somebody.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah, mistake.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I like that because you you have to have like
a celebrity couple named from like Branjelina.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So it's coach coach Poops. Yeah, I like that. Okay,
that that that that's fair. I was just making sure
that there was no slander because we are Mark Pope. Guys.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, get a little producing on the air here. Our
special guest called in. Uh, we're going to get a
call back in about four minutes when we take So
we're up against the heartbreak here, all right, So.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Let's do a heartbreak and then we have a very
very special guest who is going to call in. You
do not want to turn off the radio. I can
guarantee you that it is the first time he's ever
called into this show. And we back right after this.
TJ Smith, personal injury attorney, called TJ He'll make them pay.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Here's Matt Jones. All right, we're back part of my
takeover Kentucky Sports Radio. We're waiting for our very very
special guests to call back in. He shouldn't have any
moment now we're waiting. Do you want to take another
call while we wait for him. Well, I'm hoping he
calls in any any moment. People are saying it might
be Jack Golkie, who is a personal friend of ours.
(23:18):
He did work out with us. Love to have Jack Golkie.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You guys wouldn't stoop to that level.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean, it's not like we had Sam Decker on
the show, yeah in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Now, we wouldn't do that to you, guys. I do
love Golkie.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I wonder if Kentucky fans, if there's a small part
of them that we're like, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
What, respect respect to Golkie the guy.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
He was awesome and Golkie actually might be the man
who's responsible for the uprising of Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You can point at that moment and say, thank you, Golkie,
you saved Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
He's a Franz Ferdinand of Kentucky basketball. Yeah, was that
the ol Gabrielle Prince. He's a Gabrielle Princi and then
everything was great for that. Yes, everything worked out right
after that happens, So you'll be good. What nineteen fourteen, Yeah,
well really good years after.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I think we traced the rise of Tom Brady directly
back to Gabrielle princip assassinating the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Everything that's,
everything good that's happened in the world has been because
of the start of World War One. Yes, a lot
of bad stuff too, but you can just you know,
God bless the broken road that brought us back to glory.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, Shannon, has he called back in? Do you want
to try to call him?
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Maybe Shann's talking to him. You might be Talking's good.
I feel like that's good. Okay, here we go. All right. So,
for the first time ever in Kentucky sports radio history,
we want to welcome on a friend of ours who's
been on part of my take. He's a legend in
the state of Kentucky. He's a horse racing Officionado. It
(24:49):
is Saint John's head basketball coach, Rick Patino coach. Are
you there.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
I am good to be with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
It's great to hear from you. We're very excited to
have you on We're So we've hosted this show eight
years in a row whenever Matt is on vacation, and
we were the first to say that cow was on
the hot seat eight years ago. So today has been
a victory lap for us, and we thought there's no
better guy to have on to pump up Big Blue
Nation your relationship with Mark Pope than coach Rick Patino.
(25:20):
So let's start there. I have some Saint John's questions
as well, but what are we getting out of Mark
Pope as a basketball coach?
Speaker 6 (25:30):
Well, obviously I'm extremely biased because he was my captain
of a national championship team and was a great captain,
a tireless worker, and I absolutely love him and what
he did for a program. But that being said, when
I was not working, I traveled out to see him
coach a small school Division I school, a Grand Valley
(25:52):
of something like that, and I was blown away for
how good a teacher he was. And then I watched
every game I could at BYU and love their offense.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Was.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
It was great ball movement, great player movement. And I
just think Mark does a fabulous job at communicating with
his players. He has a great way about it and
he has a quality that very few of us have.
He has incredible humility and for somebody who at a
(26:27):
very young age just as a tireless work and his
accomplishing things, he's always maintained the same humility that he
had back when he was a player. And Mark would
you know, obviously guys like Antoine and those guys are
all guys from inner cities. And my language wasn't the
greatest either, But every day would Mark if he made
a mistake, he would say frick and constantly frick, frick frick.
(26:52):
And finally, after a weekness, I said, Mark, I can
tell you whatever God that you pray to, he knows
what means. So why don't you say it or drop it?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
They're just words. Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's A,
if it's an R, if it's a you. I think
the messages get across coach. When when they hired Mark Pope,
you you were saying that, you know what, it might
be time for Rick Patino to cut a check to
Kentucky's nil program.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Is that something that you're actually considering doing well?
Speaker 6 (27:23):
I actually cut a check to the football program because
I'm a casual friend of of Mark and and Eddie
gran and I cut a check to the football program,
but I would definitely cut a check if Mark needs
me for anything, no matter what. Except for my firstborn Michael,
he could have it. He's just the first. Absolutely, I
(27:47):
absolutely love Mark and would do anything for you for
his program. I'm very I had. I always called University
of Kentucky Camelot for me. I never had a bad year,
never had a bad day. They treated me like a king.
They treated me with great respect, so I only had
Obviously I didn't get treated great when I was at Louisville,
(28:07):
but sitting back on and examining it today, I totally
understand why. So I am very, very fond of the
University of Kentucky rooting for football. I sent the baseball
coach at text wishing him good luck. So I'm very
bullish on Mark in the football program and hope they
do great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I love it, And I think the thing that Kentucky
basketball fans should be excited about, and maybe you can
speak to this more is Kentucky basketball in the last
few years now. Obviously Cal had success at the beginning
of his run, but in the last few years, it
feels like the actual coaching x's and o's. Maybe wasn't
there all the time Mark Pope, if you watched him
(28:45):
at BYU, the guy knows how to coach basketball. And
maybe you could speak to this specifically, but like being
able to coach guys and put them in the best
sets to be able to drop winning plays the end
of games. I feel like Mark Pope is the perfect
guy for that.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
He is he look Mark Pope is. He tried to
become a doctor and it wasn't his Niche. Mark Pope
was a Rhodes Scholar candidate, and he's just an extremely
bright person. And combining his credentials about being bright, he's
an excellent teacher of basketball. He also has you know,
he was also a terrific basketball player that got the
maximum of his abilities because he gave it all every
(29:24):
single day. A great leader, he showed great leaders. Everybody
in the team just thought he was the best guy
in the team in terms of never said a negative
word about a teammate, never said a negative word about
his coaching staff. Loyal to the point that you couldn't
quite believe it. And he and his and his wife
and children are the same way. Just wonderful wonderful people.
(29:48):
And you know, look, how did a terrific job. But
what happens with a lot of coaches. I mean there
are exceptions in the rule. I think Bill self and
I think Mike Shuzhevski. You know, you run out of familiarity,
breeds can tempt you there a long time, You get
a little stale. You need another journey. And so everybody,
this is this is now Mark Pope's time, and cal
(30:10):
cal was great for the University of Kentucky, brought them a
lot of success, and we wish them certainly well at Arkansas.
And then now it's time to move on and have
a whole different brand.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah, yep, you said it.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Uh, coach, do you have any message for the Kentucky
fans that are listening right now? I don't know if
you've had an opportunity to address them over the last
few years here, but that we've got a lot of
them listening right now, that that care about you, that.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Care about program.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
Look, I love the Kentucky fans to me are very
very special.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
They were and treated me my family with great reverence.
I got nothing but great things to say about the
Kentucky fan. I totally get it today. Why they were
bitter at me of going to University of Louisville. I
was going back because the reason I was going back
is I loved Kentucky so much from my UK day
and wanted to relive that love of love of the sport.
(31:04):
But right now they have a fabulous program with all sports,
and I think that I think that's going to be
a special special time for Mark Pope and the University
Kentucky walkouts because I think he's good. I think the
fans are going to fall in love with Mark because
the thing about him, the Pope didn't matter. The name
(31:24):
on the back never mattered to Mark. He could care
less about individual glory, could care less about it if
anybody mentioned that he played a great game. It's always
about team. It's always about Kentucky and Jeff Shepherds and
Ron Mercer's and Nash Burns and all those guys that
I coach. It was always about Kentucky, Telfrey, Fellhouse, Farmer,
(31:47):
all about them. And I used to always kid those
guys in the locker room. They always give every time
they put the jersey on. Telfree would tear up and
I said, something wrong with you Johnny and not feeling well.
He said, no, every time I put that uniform, Mom,
I just came believe I'm putting it on. I said,
we'll get over John. We got a big game man. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, playing for the playing for the name in the
front of the jersey is important, especially in today's college basketball. So,
speaking of that, you have practicing about twenty minutes, How
is your team looking this year? Because it looks like
you guys added some really talented players. You were right
on the cusp last year. It was your first year.
How how do you feel like this team is going
(32:28):
to shape and put and be put together when you
guys start playing ball in November.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Well, we're much bigger with seven to one seven foot
six ten six ' nine a backcourt. I never thought
I'd coach another guard as fast as Peyton Siva, but
I have a young man from Utah, Daveon Smith, who
is faster as faster, if not faster than Peyton Siva.
I have Kadari Richmond from Seaton Hall as a first
team All Big East Basketball player, sime And Wiltshire who's
(32:57):
a sophomore now who's also a terrific god. So the
backcourt is really strong, the wings are very strong, and
the centers, although they don't have great experience, a very big,
big and talented and athletic. So I'm really bullish on
this basketball team. We were supposed to play Kentucky but
couldn't work it out, and I'm hoping that we can
(33:18):
come to Lexington next year for our thirtieth reunion and
Kentucky can go back to the Madison Square Garden the
following year.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I that Yeah, Kentucky, quick duck and Patino. I love it.
You step up to the plate, give give the people
what they want. Coach.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Are we planning on wearing more suits this year? That's
very important for us.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I wore all suits the whole season, just about with
the exception of a white out where I wore a
white jacket and jeans. Outside of that, I wore suits
the whole year.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
It doesn't feel right when you look on the sidelines
and you see coach Patino wearing like a polo shirt.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
We want to see the suits every game. Coach.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
I'm definitely gonna be in them, and you know what,
I believe in it. It's something I've done all my life,
So why not continue. Why change? There's certain things you
have to change. You have to change the way you
coach players today, the way you run your offenses, defenses,
treat them off the court as well. But certain things
should not change. And that's one of those.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Yeah, coach, in these spring and summer practices, what are
you looking for this early on as you're putting a
team together. What are you keen on in practice that's
telling you, Okay, we could have a good team this year.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
You know, I made a mistake last year. I did
not have my team ready early in the year because
I was just focused on player development, working on this
skill development, and I didn't work on a lot of
team things defensively, and we were not ready early. We
were ready late, and it probably stopped us because the
NCAA no longer cared about the last ten games of
(34:43):
the season. They were treating the first ten equal to
the last ten. So now I understand that I don't
think the net means a whole lot. I think it's
really quad one wins, quad two wins, making sure you
don't lose like we did to Michigan, a quad three.
You never expected Michigan to be a quad three game.
But it was, so I'm gonna have the team more
(35:05):
ready defensively going into September.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I love it, Coach. I have one last question. I
missed you. I saw you were at Saratoga for the
Belmont Stakes. I was there as well. Yep, how did
you do? I hope you did better than me. I
lost about twenty thousand dollars that weekend. Not great, not great.
I was. I thought I had figured it out. I did.
The one thing you can't do on a horse racing
weekend is win the second race of the first day,
(35:32):
because then you think you got it figured out, and
then I don't think I want to race for like
fifteen races in a row. But how did you do?
And and what do you guys? Do you have some
horses coming up?
Speaker 6 (35:42):
I do. I'm racing tomorrow. I have a horse called
Agalos to Great, who's the name of my agent in Greece,
And Agalos the Great is running at Aqueduct getting ready.
It's a prep race coming off of long vacation to
get ready for a big steak at Finger Lakes. I was.
I believe I was two for twenty two and getting destroyed.
(36:03):
And I went back and tried to renegotiate my contract
with Saint John's. But I did. I did get out
on the last race when I was leaving, and if
you could win the last race, you could cut your
losses in half.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, that way? Was it the last last race or
the second? I won the second to last race on Saturday.
That was like a like a fourteen to one shot,
and I was like, oh man, maybe I did figure
this was it.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
Yeah, this was a it was a long yeah, I
think it was the same ars.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah, it was on the turn he came out of.
Speaker 6 (36:33):
Note. Yes, yeah, yes, it was, Yes, it was. That's right.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah. You need to when you have a bad weekend
and at the tracks, you need to just turn to
our our good friend Mike Ropoli and be like, come on,
let's go.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
I got. I told my wife I'm never I'm never
going to the track again, and she said I've heard
that now eleven hundred times.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Right, horse racing for the rest of the week. That's
what I do. And then I wait for them. So
you said, Aglos, there he's racing at Aqueduct tomorrow. What
race is he in? Because I'm gonna I might sprinkle
a few Nichols on him.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
You know, I don't know. I think it's the fifth race.
I'm actually traveling to Tampa for unfortunately for a funeral,
and I won't see it, but I know it's I
think it's the fifth race. My other friend Chris marra
hoo holds, his family owns the Giants. He has a
horse in the race, and we're betting dinner to see
which horse finishes out of who.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I like that. I like coach.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I'm actually I'm taking a trip to Greece next week
and I was hoping that you could you could maybe
teach me something to say, a good phrase to say,
or any tips about.
Speaker 6 (37:37):
When are you going to be When will you be there.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I'm going to be there Saturday through I believe Saturday
full week.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
I'm going July the sixth to see them try and
qualify for the Olympics. I try to help the federation
a little bit there. And you're going to Athens.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
I'm going to be traveling around a bit. Yeah, Athens,
then checking out some of the beaches too.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
Great, So I'll be you say, you have to understand
the greetings they always say, Kelly Matta for a good morning,
Kelly Spata for for afternoon, Kala Nita, this good night,
and you always just by just just saying yes us,
that's hello, goodbye, Paula, Hello, you're welcome. Hello. Uh polsise,
(38:21):
Uh that you got about seven eight expressions and of
course the firm expression that you have to use if
somebody cuts you off. Malacca.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Okay, okay, malay. I love it. Well, coach, I know
you got practice coming up. I want to thank you
so much for calling in.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
We're excited about Mark Pope, excited about Saint John's this year.
Thanks so much, and have a great practice.
Speaker 6 (38:46):
All right, guys, tell Mark I love them.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Okay, thanks so much. That was coach Rick Patino calling in.
Kentucky sports radio history has been made full endorsement Hatchet buried,
hatchet beary. Well, no, I wouldn't say so, you know,
thanks for us on this day. Yeah, Rick Patino is
always welcome on this day. Yes, but uh, thank you
to coach Patino. I told everyone they got to they
got to stay tuned in. For all the people who
(39:08):
uh usually say they turn it off after two minutes,
I think we deliver. You can tell this guy loves Kentucky. Yes,
he really cares about the state of yes.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And he kind of it sounds like he kind of
feels bad about going to Louisville.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, he's like, I get it.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Well, maybe not, he doesn't feel bad, but he understands
the hate that he got from Yeah, Louisville.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah, and so you know, you know, it's good to
see that. You know, everything's being minted and he's clearly
rooting for Mark Popez. Are we all right? We're gonna
take a break. When we come back, we'll finish up
hour one. We also want to hear from you, Kentucky
sports fans. Eight five nine two eight zero two two
eight seven. That's a Clark Pumping Shop phone number. We're
gonna take a break, quick break. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Hello, Kentucky, we're back. It's the part of my takeover.
We want to hear from the people of Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
So give us a call. Eight five nine two eight
zero two two eight seven. We made history today, pft.
I feel good about it.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
I'm looking at Twitter right now and it looks like
that that might have made some news there Applecross, Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
You're talking about it. Shout out to.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
The guy that's listening to us right now with his
cell phone on his clip on his belt, like your
new quarterback has right, that's the new style. He's stocking
shelves in a grocery store. So if you listen to
us right now, uh we we certainly appreciate.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, he's there. The someone tweet is a video guy
just in the grocery store. No headphones on. Just listen
to the show. That guy rocks. But yeah, that that
was That was very cool. I don't think that we
ever thought that Rick Patino would call HIMO Kentucky Sports Radio.
All it took was Matt Jones going to North Korea.
That's it. That's it. So and then you know magic
(40:40):
can happen. He loves you guys. Yeah, that much is
very clear.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Have you seen, by the way, the picture of Brock
vandergriff the quarterback for Kentucky. No, let me so this
is this, This is the pick right here, that's the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Dude. That he might be a hoss, he is a
certified This is a big hoss.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
And he's got the cell phone clip on his belt.
That's quite a move for a high school kid. He me, yeah,
he is a fifty year old high school kid.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I love it. Yeah, I wouldn't. He looks he looks
like if you went and tried to date his daughter,
there'd be there'd be some hard questions.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
Oh, he's got some shirts that he takes, some prom
pictures of him holding like an over under shotgun, and
he's just he's intimidating the hell out of his daughter's date.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah. Yeah, So you're in good hands with Kentucky football,
which got an an IL check from Rick Patino. We
found out there we go poops. Yeah, the marks, the
poops or the mark poops are here to stay. H Okay.
So we got a great second hour. We do want
to take more calls in the second hour. You call
into the Clark's Pumping Shop. Uh, phone number eight five
(41:41):
nine two eight zero two two eight seven. I also
want to say the guy who tweeted us, uh, let
me see what was his actual who The guy who
was in the grocery store that's a Kentucky branded tweeted
the day that's for Sean with mer uh he wins.
Kentucky Branded tweeted the day We'll back right after this
hour two. Pardon my takeover Kentucky Sports Radio
Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington. Welcomes David Lucas June sixth
through the eighth, Then catch Josh Blue June twentieth through
the twenty second, and don't miss Rocky Dale Davis June
twenty eighth and twenty ninth. Comedy Off Broadway opened in
downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still bringing
the best in stand up comedy to the area thirty
(00:20):
seven years later. Call E five nine two seven to
one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com co Offay.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good morning, Kentucky. How we doing. It's not Matt Jones.
It's part of my take, big Cat and pft here,
where's Matt Jones. Matt Jones is in Fallujah?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Really yes, so that's an interesting place for him to go.
I thought he would be in Atlanta moderating the presidential debate,
cutting Trump's mike off tonight. I thought that was his job. No,
I think he I don't think he's gonna make it back.
He's doing Fallujah, then he's going to Ukraine. I think
he brought a briefcase of cash.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Go Big Blue, Yeah, Go Big Blue, and then he's
gonna work his way back to Yeah. America's America. Welcome
in for any new listeners today. We are part of
My Take, the number one sports podcast. We've been hosting
a day a year on Kentucky Sports Radio. I think
this is our eighth year.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Yeah, every year since we started the podcast. Our good
friend Matt asked us to fill in. And I still
remember the first show that we had because it was
right after Part of My Take started. We sat down,
we were in a studio and we caught all kinds
of hell from.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Kentucky fans, all kinds of you thought we were trolling, right,
And I know what you're about to say. Let me
just say this right now, because every time we host
I will see we get a lot of Kentucky Sports
radio fans that get very mad and they say turn
it off within three minutes. We're in the three minute
window here, so let us give a pitch to you
to stick with us for two hour stakes. I think
(02:04):
it's going to be our best show we've ever done
Kentucky Sports Radio. PFT. What you're gonna say, Well, first
of all. We know ball.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
We know ball, and I think every caller should start
out today by admitting that we know ball. Yeah, maybe
we turned you off in the past because we said
that coach Cal was on the hot seat in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
You thought we were joking about that. Yep. I think
we were just the first to say it, and now
you're all saying it. You're listening to two guys that
are basically the Steve Jobs of ball. We know. We
knew that the computer was going to be big before
the computer was big.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
So we know everything there is to know about Kentucky basketball.
So we want to hear from you. Do you think
that this is going to be coach Cal's last season
coaching Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
We called this, We did call We called this. We
had him on the hot seat for the last eight
years and people say no, no, no, he's going to
be fine. And then you all came around to us
and you realized that we were right, you were wrong.
We're not gonna take a victory lap. No, we're not
going to pat ourselves on the back. But for all
the people that say that, well, all they do is bits,
and everything turns out the bit was we know ball.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, we were the first to say it, first to
think it actually and yeah, so we would appreciate maybe
if every caller would start out by just congratulating us.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But we don't need to take a victory lab. But
here's the thing. We are on the side of Kentucky
because we were proven right. So I think that we
are officially members of Big Blue Nation, and being members
of Big Blue Nation means that we are going to
today take down Arkansas and we're gonna lift up Kentucky.
We're here to help, and I want to start with
(03:34):
taking down Arkansas for the people. Okay, So here's where
I'm going to start, because this was the most pathetic
thing I've seen in probably the last year on Twitter
last night. Last night, obviously the NBA Draft huge night.
It's bigger than the March madness for Kentucky. Under cal
you get the number three pick, and Reed Shephard you
(03:56):
get the number eight pick, and Rob Dillingham, who got
then gets traded to Minnesota. So now it's the Minnesota Timbercats.
I like that because you got you got Kat and
Rob together. So another another banner night for Kentucky basketball.
Two top ten picks and it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Two starting players from Kentucky taken in the top ten.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It's amazing, great job. So here is where the pathetic
tweet comes in, and here's where I hope Kentucky sports
fans will continue on this journey with us for the
next two hours. Last night, Arkansas men's basketball tweeted a
list of the last fifteen, sixteen years, seventeen years, sorry
(04:41):
instead a player coach by coach Cal has been selected
in seventeen straight NBA drafts, with a picture of Cal
in his Arkansas pull over. That is so pathetic to
be to be basically what you're seeing Kentucky basketball is
you're seeing what you were and now what Arkansas is
(05:04):
gonna be, and that they're celebrating the NBA Draft. Those
guys didn't even play for Arkansas. Their Kentucky Rea Shepherd
is Kentucky through and through, and they have basically picked
up what Cal has become in NBA draft is the
most important thing and they've just taken the mantle and
they're running with it. That is so pathetic to basically
(05:27):
crown yourself an achievement that has zero to do with
Arkansas and be like, this is what we care about
the NBA draft. Just lockstep. They just care about Arkansas basketball.
All they care about is the NBA draft. Kentucky basketball.
We care about winning Win on March badness, winning basketball games.
And it's funny because they are.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I'm sure that they If you're an Arkansas basketball fan,
you enjoyed nothing more than coach cal doing this exact
same press tour for Kentucky. Yes, because then they were saying, well,
he hasn't won anything, and now they've converted themselves. They're
doing it themselves. Amazing accomplishment. Come to Arkansas and get drafted.
It's that simple. That's my favorite reply right there. And
(06:07):
I'll give credit to Kentucky fans for the most par
Kentucky basketball fans never bought into that, correct. They were like,
it's nice that our players are getting paid. That's a
good recruitment tool to bring good players here. But you
guys cared about winning basketball games, and that's why calson
longer there. I do think that you need to step
up one thing though, if you're going to compete with
Arkansas the chicken situation, you can't get bought out by
(06:28):
another bigger chicken guy. Chicken, you Kentucky should be the
biggest chicken state. Arkansas needs to sit down that you
guys need to step up and crush them like the
ants they are because you're the original chicken guys.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, what if we're just a whiskey state instead of
a chicken sam What did what did coach Jim Harbass say?
Chicken is nervous bird, nervous little animal. I want to
be associated with being a chicken school.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
However, he did change his tune on the chicken and
he said after buying chickens, they're remarkably industrious birds and
they produce eggs every night.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, you guys laid in eggs in the tournament. Now
you're ready to move on. But I'm happy for Kentucky
basketball fans today because you get the moment where again
you get the accomplishment. Reed Shepherd one of the best
homegrown basketball players in Kentucky history, going three in the draft.
He's going to be great in the pros. But you
get to watch Arkansas basically celebrate something they had zero
(07:21):
to do with, and you get to see how ridiculous
it is to celebrate and accomplish it. Like the NBA Draft.
When we're talking about college basketball, and we can now
as members of Big Blue Nation, the two of us are,
we can get back to basics and focus on winning
in March. Yeah, you're talking.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Listen, there's two BBC's talking to you right now. There's
Big Blue Cat, there's Big Blue Commentary. This is BBC
Radio right.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Now, and we are standing firm behind you. Guys. I
think you're head in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I think you have the tallest coach in Division I
basketball now right six. Yeah, that's important for the intimidation prospect.
That is a very tall co Yeah, real tall coach. Yeah,
your coach could beat up anyone else.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah. The Pope is infallible. The Pope is a fount.
Now I should say too that Mark Pope did not
have any players from YU get drafted last night. But
that's what I'm saying. We're back to basics. I think
all Kentucky fans would take winning in March versus winning
in June. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So, so, Coach Kel had these stats just ready to
go off the top of his head last night. He
was ready to say seventy percent of the players that
we've recruited in the last fifteen years have been drafted
seventy three percent of those seventy percent have gone to
second contracts, thirty percent of the max contracts in the NBA,
or my guys and our kids have earned over five
billion dollars in contracts. He just walks around with those
(08:39):
stats in the back, visiting you don't want. It's very
nice to have that, and it's a good recruiting tool,
but that he wakes up in the morning, he's like,
my friends are rich.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, And the most important stat that he forgot they
forgot to guard Jack Cokie forgot it. That's the most
important stat I don't think you can care about you don't.
We're out with the old, in with the new. It's
a new day for Big Blue name. I'll say this too.
Coach Cal was looking a little old.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Look.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think I think it's Kentucky fans. We got the
best years of Coach Cal and again we squeezed it dry.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I don't want any smoke with the Cal family. I
want to be clear, but I'm still terrified of the
cow family.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Love them too. I love Brad. Brad's my guysive. We're
just trying to defend our big Blue nation and puff
out our chest because Today's a big day. Today is
the dawning of a new era.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And you've got all the all the old guys coming home.
I think Patino said that he would contribute to the
NIL fund too, So you're getting, uh, you're getting some
of the former guys pitching in.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Everyone's pumped off. It takes a village. I said it
when it happened. Uh, you know, the end was was tumultuous.
It's been bad the last few years in terms of
March Madness, not winning the SEC. But Kentucky basketball is
bigger than a coach, and I think what happened at
the end of the cal era is col was trying
(09:55):
to be bigger than the program. And you guys are
going to be just sorry. We are going to be
just fine being Kentucky basketball. Don't It's not about one
coach at Kentucky Basketball. It's about tradition, it's about being
one of the best programs, about being a blue blood.
It has nothing to do with who's coaching. It has
everything to do with the fans, ourselves and Big Blue Nation.
(10:18):
And I think this is going to be a great
We're gonna look back and we're going to say this
was the best thing that could have happened for Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
We're supposed to be Kentucky, y'all supposed to be Kentucky,
and now guess what we are Kentucky. Yeah, we don't
have to worry about about all the marketing that goes
around it. We don't have to worry about the flashes.
Let's just get back the ball. Yeah, let's just ball
out and beat Oakland.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Let's let's be let's let's let's play some defense, Let's
put the ball in the cup, and let's win some games.
It's that simple. It's that simple. Sometimes ball is that
easy ball. And we are knowers of the ball.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We know ball more than anybody else that's ever hosted
this program before. They've never had anybody like that. Are
experts in basketball host this right, No one like us
Jay billis. He's an expert in being disingenuine, disingenuous and
legal ease. Yes, we're here to actually, our our legal
advice is probably better than Jay billis. So if you
have any legal questions, don't wait for Jake. Call us
up and we'll answer those questions for you.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
By the way, I forgot to I forgot to mention
off the top. Uh, I did a bad job as
a host. But uh, Kentucky Sports Radio. We're sponsored by
TJ Smith Loff is called TJ. He'll make them pay. Yes,
we TJ is a close personal friend of ours. He
called in last year. We'd love to talk to him again. Uh,
he's a He's a wonderful sponsor and we love TJ.
If you if you need someone, TJ is the guy
(11:34):
to go to.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I yeah, I actually have some questions for TJ if
he's around. I need to know if we can sue
our producer Hank Yes, just for being a big black
ring cloud.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, so let's see if TJ can can call in
at some point. But speaking to Collins, we so we
do this every year. We'd like to hear from Kentucky
h fans. I know we have a big fan base.
We want to have our we love our fans. But
today's about Kentucky. So we want to hear from Kentucky listeners.
Regular listeners of this show. You can call in eight
(12:03):
five nine two eight zero two two eight seven. So
we want to hear from you. And we we usually
do our best of on our podcast on Friday, and
we want to hear from everyone there. I also want
to say he should have said it from the from
the start. This is our first time hosting since we've
lost Harvey. Harvey was a good friend of ours. Harvey
called in a bunch of years. I think Harvey is
(12:27):
smiling right now down from heaven on where Kentucky basketball
is going in the direction we're going. He might be.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He might also you might also hate the fact that
we're hosting the show, but he is definitely happy about No.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I think he's shaking his fingers saying those guys they
knew ball.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
And maybe maybe he's saying that that they were right.
But yeah, you know what, this one's for Harvey. This
on this show is dedicated to the memory of Harvey,
because guys like Harvey are would make sports great. Yes,
people that care that much about it and will defend
their team to the end of the earth. This one's
for Harvey.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah. So the call in number again is eight five
nine two eight zero two two eight seven. It's the
Clark's Pumping Shop phone line to call in. We're going
to take callers probably in the second hour. We're going
to take a break right now. When we come back,
we'll talk a little bit more about the NBA Draft
than We have a big, big guest coming up hopefully
at ten thirty that everyone's going to want to tune into.
(13:17):
I'm telling you right now, for all the people that
say they turned it off, you made a mistake. You
can't hear me right now, but you made a mistake.
Tune back in. Text the person who says they hate
us and be like, you gotta tune back in, because
this is going to be the best time we've ever
done in terms of hosting this show.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
You can hear it right now, or you can read
about it later. Yeah, it's yours. It's your choice. I
think if I were you, I would want to listen
live to this.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, you want to be an idiot later and be like, oh,
I didn't even hear them.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And if we have any callers out there that are
currently engaged in a feud with a neighbor, I want
to hear about some Kentucky feuds. Yeah, those are genuinely
good calls. Specifically, a crik and a holler.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
A holler. If you're from a holler, you get priority. Yep,
absolutely front of the line. Any hollers. Okay, let's take
a break and we come back. We will get ourselves
ready for our guests, and uh, we'll talk a little
bit more about the NBA draft last night, Kevin. Then
take it high. All right, we're back Kentucky Sports Radio.
(14:19):
Pardon my take take over. Uh, we have a big
guest coming up in a minute. If you missed the
start of the show. We want everyone to just remind
us that we are ball knowers if you call in,
because we were the first to put coach Cal in
the hot seat, and then we everything that we said
was going to happen turned out to be correct, exactly right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
If you had listened to us seven years ago, you
would be much happier right now, you'd be in a
better place, right better place.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So we do know ball.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
The number again is eight five nine two eight zero
two two eight seven. Regular callers, please call in. We
want to talk to the real people of Kentucky. Do
we want to take a call.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Before we get the inter call and we'll see, uh yeah,
if the uh, if we think you're not a regular caller,
we might hang up on you because we really want
to keep it to Kentucky Sports Radio callers. All right, Shannon,
who we got yeah, we got Charlene, Sharlen, how you doing.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Hey guys, good morning. I agree with everything you've said.
You know, just to prove that coach cal never really
had a true statistician stattician. He didn't even realize last
night he called Reed Shepherd one of the best three
point shooters in the country, when in fact, Reid was
the best percentage three point shooter in the country. That
(15:33):
just shows how much you know, like, there's no statistician
the team. You know, it's crazy. Secondly, Secondly, what really
just I hope someday I won't be angry about it anymore,
but I'm still salty because, you know what, because he
can't coach defense, because his game plan offensively is something
akin to if you make a play, if you got
(15:55):
to play, go and make it, And because he just
really can't coach at team to wins. We got cheated
out of extra games with two very special players, Rob
dealing him and Read Shepherd, and I just I don't
know if I'll ever get over that.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Tea Ques.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Charlene, you actually sound a little emotional right now. Your
voice was quivering a little there. It's okay, this is
a safe place like that I agree with you read
Shepherd is he should have played into the second third
weekend of March Madness and we got robbed of it.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah we did, Yeah, now we did well. I'm not
only I mean, I'm angry because I'm a lifelong Kentucky
fan and I just I think that he just made
a sham of our program, especially the last ten years,
and just so hardheaded and wouldn't like make any adjustments
or changes when it came to winning. And you know
(16:50):
what it isn't Calipari University. It's the University of Kentucky.
We were there before him, we were there during him,
and we'll still be there long after he's gone. In
the late Gray al McGuire from Marquette said.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That yes, that's a fact. It is. And you make
a good point, because we should.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
There should be highlights that play for the rest of
our lifetime of Reed Shepherd making iconic plays in the
NCAA tournament, and those highlights will not exist.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I don't know if you turn Kentucky into a sham.
Kentucky's been relevant certainly since Calston.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
You're there.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It's just that they've been relevant for some reasons that
you would not. You know, ideally you'd like them to
be relevant because they're making final fours, they're winning championships.
They've just mostly been relevant because they have all these
expectations and then they always fall flat, and then he
celebrates things that don't really have anything to do with
the program winning. It's been kind of like the Dallas
(17:41):
Cowboys for the last seven years. Yeah, and that's it's relevant.
You'r relevant, but also like a bit of a laughing stock.
And the laughing stock thing comes in because you should
have these expectations to be great, you should do great things,
but unfortunately it just hasn't worked out.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
But I think we're on the right track right now.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Yeah, and say it, well, is not Lexington Big Blue Nation.
It's just not going to be the same. I mean,
you're gonna go Fayetteville, Arkansas. I mean, come on, don't
give me a break.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Lexington is the best.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
He he doesn't look right wearing that color, either the
Arkansas red or I don't know what it is, but
it looks like he's wearing pajamas.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
As a bigger man, wearing red is never a good
move because you just end up looking like the kool
Aid man. The calaid Man, no disrespect, you know, coach
cal You.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Know, the only consolation I have is that dude has
to listen for the next however many years to the
chant from the stands up.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Bitchally Yeah, yeah, come on, come on, count joke.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
That's a joke.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And your point about his coaching, he I think his
coaching strategy was, let's roll the ball out there.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yeah, just roll it up. But you know what, there's
only one ball.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
You're not wrong, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Yeah, well, Charlie, he literally said it. He literally said it.
If you have a play, go and make that play right.
That's what he told him. Told him always right before
the game. That's it.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And he also said, uh, that guy Jack Golkie, he
can't shoot. Don't worry about him. Not a good strategy,
not a good Thank you so much for your calling.
Uh there are better days ahead, I can tell you
that right now.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Oh I know it. I have never so excited love
Mark Pope. Have my picture with him on my profile
on ex curly cat number four UK, cat.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Number four UK. I love that.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Where'd you get your picture taken with him?
Speaker 5 (19:36):
At an exhibition game in Evansville, Indiana of the Indiana
Pacers and the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I love that. You're a real me.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
My daughter, my little daughter, and I could raise her
a Kentucky basketball fan. She's a thirty year old doctor
now and I'm just as big a fan as I am,
which I thought could never happen. But yeah, there's a
picture of the three of us on my profile page on.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I can see it right now. I'm looking at you,
sports lover and vintage nineties NBA card seller.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I love that. I love that, Charlene, thank you so
much for calling in better days ahead. We are big
Blue Nation. Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Marks the Bomb, thank you, Bomb Bomb.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I love Pope, the Charlene. I could hear it in
her voice that it's been it's been tough. Yeah, she's
she's kind of wearing the years right.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And I want people like Charlene next time we host
the show.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I want it to be a victory party.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Yeah, I want us to have Champagne live on the air,
I'll say, and celebrate Kentucky being back.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'll say it right now. Kentucky basketball is gonna win
a title before Arkansas. I agree, fact, I agree. Hey,
is Kentucky back right now? Oh? So bad. I think
we're back, so back, by the way. I don't know when, Shannon,
When did you guys start charging people to comment on
the site? Oh the paywall?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I think that happened when Matt sold the site
to someone else.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Fun and all that money to Ukraine. Whatever happened to
free speech? Yeah? You ever hear something called the First Amendment?
We can get you to log in. I just logged.
I just I just I just paid. I paid. We've
got to reimburse you now. Yeah, our our bandlets said,
tell me this is the only episode I skip, also
giving my exact examples from today's episode. Oh, that guy's smart.
(21:21):
That guy's smart. Yeah, that guy's smart. Someone asked his
Mark Pope on the hot seat.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
You know, might be you know what I think. I
think we should be at Kentucky. The expectations are different
from b YU.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You gotta win now. Yeah, you've got a lot of energy.
You're saying all the right things right now. I need
to see it on the court.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Shannon, did someone on this show call
him coach Poops? Say it again? I'm sorry I was.
I was taking a call from our our special guest.
Someone said, I mean our own guy have said coach Poops?
Oh yeah, who said that?
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I think when during a conversation of trying to match
together Stoops and Pope, that that came out of somebody.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah, mistake.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I like that because you you have to have like
a celebrity couple named from like Branjelina.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So it's coach coach Poops. Yeah, I like that. Okay,
that that that that's fair. I was just making sure
that there was no slander because we are Mark Pope. Guys.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, get a little producing on the air here. Our
special guest called in. Uh, we're going to get a
call back in about four minutes when we take So
we're up against the heartbreak here, all right, So.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Let's do a heartbreak and then we have a very
very special guest who is going to call in. You
do not want to turn off the radio. I can
guarantee you that it is the first time he's ever
called into this show. And we back right after this.
TJ Smith, personal injury attorney, called TJ He'll make them pay.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Here's Matt Jones. All right, we're back part of my
takeover Kentucky Sports Radio. We're waiting for our very very
special guests to call back in. He shouldn't have any
moment now we're waiting. Do you want to take another
call while we wait for him. Well, I'm hoping he
calls in any any moment. People are saying it might
be Jack Golkie, who is a personal friend of ours.
(23:18):
He did work out with us. Love to have Jack Golkie.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You guys wouldn't stoop to that level.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean, it's not like we had Sam Decker on
the show, yeah in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Now, we wouldn't do that to you, guys. I do
love Golkie.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I wonder if Kentucky fans, if there's a small part
of them that we're like, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
What, respect respect to Golkie the guy.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
He was awesome and Golkie actually might be the man
who's responsible for the uprising of Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You can point at that moment and say, thank you, Golkie,
you saved Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
He's a Franz Ferdinand of Kentucky basketball. Yeah, was that
the ol Gabrielle Prince. He's a Gabrielle Princi and then
everything was great for that. Yes, everything worked out right
after that happens, So you'll be good. What nineteen fourteen, Yeah,
well really good years after.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I think we traced the rise of Tom Brady directly
back to Gabrielle princip assassinating the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Everything that's,
everything good that's happened in the world has been because
of the start of World War One. Yes, a lot
of bad stuff too, but you can just you know,
God bless the broken road that brought us back to glory.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, Shannon, has he called back in? Do you want
to try to call him?
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Maybe Shann's talking to him. You might be Talking's good.
I feel like that's good. Okay, here we go. All right. So,
for the first time ever in Kentucky sports radio history,
we want to welcome on a friend of ours who's
been on part of my take. He's a legend in
the state of Kentucky. He's a horse racing Officionado. It
(24:49):
is Saint John's head basketball coach, Rick Patino coach. Are
you there.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
I am good to be with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
It's great to hear from you. We're very excited to
have you on We're So we've hosted this show eight
years in a row whenever Matt is on vacation, and
we were the first to say that cow was on
the hot seat eight years ago. So today has been
a victory lap for us, and we thought there's no
better guy to have on to pump up Big Blue
Nation your relationship with Mark Pope than coach Rick Patino.
(25:20):
So let's start there. I have some Saint John's questions
as well, but what are we getting out of Mark
Pope as a basketball coach?
Speaker 6 (25:30):
Well, obviously I'm extremely biased because he was my captain
of a national championship team and was a great captain,
a tireless worker, and I absolutely love him and what
he did for a program. But that being said, when
I was not working, I traveled out to see him
coach a small school Division I school, a Grand Valley
(25:52):
of something like that, and I was blown away for
how good a teacher he was. And then I watched
every game I could at BYU and love their offense.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Was.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
It was great ball movement, great player movement. And I
just think Mark does a fabulous job at communicating with
his players. He has a great way about it and
he has a quality that very few of us have.
He has incredible humility and for somebody who at a
(26:27):
very young age just as a tireless work and his
accomplishing things, he's always maintained the same humility that he
had back when he was a player. And Mark would
you know, obviously guys like Antoine and those guys are
all guys from inner cities. And my language wasn't the
greatest either, But every day would Mark if he made
a mistake, he would say frick and constantly frick, frick frick.
(26:52):
And finally, after a weekness, I said, Mark, I can
tell you whatever God that you pray to, he knows
what means. So why don't you say it or drop it?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
They're just words. Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's A,
if it's an R, if it's a you. I think
the messages get across coach. When when they hired Mark Pope,
you you were saying that, you know what, it might
be time for Rick Patino to cut a check to
Kentucky's nil program.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Is that something that you're actually considering doing well?
Speaker 6 (27:23):
I actually cut a check to the football program because
I'm a casual friend of of Mark and and Eddie
gran and I cut a check to the football program,
but I would definitely cut a check if Mark needs
me for anything, no matter what. Except for my firstborn Michael,
he could have it. He's just the first. Absolutely, I
(27:47):
absolutely love Mark and would do anything for you for
his program. I'm very I had. I always called University
of Kentucky Camelot for me. I never had a bad year,
never had a bad day. They treated me like a king.
They treated me with great respect, so I only had
Obviously I didn't get treated great when I was at Louisville,
(28:07):
but sitting back on and examining it today, I totally
understand why. So I am very, very fond of the
University of Kentucky rooting for football. I sent the baseball
coach at text wishing him good luck. So I'm very
bullish on Mark in the football program and hope they
do great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I love it, And I think the thing that Kentucky
basketball fans should be excited about, and maybe you can
speak to this more is Kentucky basketball in the last
few years now. Obviously Cal had success at the beginning
of his run, but in the last few years, it
feels like the actual coaching x's and o's. Maybe wasn't
there all the time Mark Pope, if you watched him
(28:45):
at BYU, the guy knows how to coach basketball. And
maybe you could speak to this specifically, but like being
able to coach guys and put them in the best
sets to be able to drop winning plays the end
of games. I feel like Mark Pope is the perfect
guy for that.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
He is he look Mark Pope is. He tried to
become a doctor and it wasn't his Niche. Mark Pope
was a Rhodes Scholar candidate, and he's just an extremely
bright person. And combining his credentials about being bright, he's
an excellent teacher of basketball. He also has you know,
he was also a terrific basketball player that got the
maximum of his abilities because he gave it all every
(29:24):
single day. A great leader, he showed great leaders. Everybody
in the team just thought he was the best guy
in the team in terms of never said a negative
word about a teammate, never said a negative word about
his coaching staff. Loyal to the point that you couldn't
quite believe it. And he and his and his wife
and children are the same way. Just wonderful wonderful people.
(29:48):
And you know, look, how did a terrific job. But
what happens with a lot of coaches. I mean there
are exceptions in the rule. I think Bill self and
I think Mike Shuzhevski. You know, you run out of familiarity,
breeds can tempt you there a long time, You get
a little stale. You need another journey. And so everybody,
this is this is now Mark Pope's time, and cal
(30:10):
cal was great for the University of Kentucky, brought them a
lot of success, and we wish them certainly well at Arkansas.
And then now it's time to move on and have
a whole different brand.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah, yep, you said it.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Uh, coach, do you have any message for the Kentucky
fans that are listening right now? I don't know if
you've had an opportunity to address them over the last
few years here, but that we've got a lot of
them listening right now, that that care about you, that.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Care about program.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
Look, I love the Kentucky fans to me are very
very special.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
They were and treated me my family with great reverence.
I got nothing but great things to say about the
Kentucky fan. I totally get it today. Why they were
bitter at me of going to University of Louisville. I
was going back because the reason I was going back
is I loved Kentucky so much from my UK day
and wanted to relive that love of love of the sport.
(31:04):
But right now they have a fabulous program with all sports,
and I think that I think that's going to be
a special special time for Mark Pope and the University
Kentucky walkouts because I think he's good. I think the
fans are going to fall in love with Mark because
the thing about him, the Pope didn't matter. The name
(31:24):
on the back never mattered to Mark. He could care
less about individual glory, could care less about it if
anybody mentioned that he played a great game. It's always
about team. It's always about Kentucky and Jeff Shepherds and
Ron Mercer's and Nash Burns and all those guys that
I coach. It was always about Kentucky, Telfrey, Fellhouse, Farmer,
(31:47):
all about them. And I used to always kid those
guys in the locker room. They always give every time
they put the jersey on. Telfree would tear up and
I said, something wrong with you Johnny and not feeling well.
He said, no, every time I put that uniform, Mom,
I just came believe I'm putting it on. I said,
we'll get over John. We got a big game man. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, playing for the playing for the name in the
front of the jersey is important, especially in today's college basketball. So,
speaking of that, you have practicing about twenty minutes, How
is your team looking this year? Because it looks like
you guys added some really talented players. You were right
on the cusp last year. It was your first year.
How how do you feel like this team is going
(32:28):
to shape and put and be put together when you
guys start playing ball in November.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Well, we're much bigger with seven to one seven foot
six ten six ' nine a backcourt. I never thought
I'd coach another guard as fast as Peyton Siva, but
I have a young man from Utah, Daveon Smith, who
is faster as faster, if not faster than Peyton Siva.
I have Kadari Richmond from Seaton Hall as a first
team All Big East Basketball player, sime And Wiltshire who's
(32:57):
a sophomore now who's also a terrific god. So the
backcourt is really strong, the wings are very strong, and
the centers, although they don't have great experience, a very big,
big and talented and athletic. So I'm really bullish on
this basketball team. We were supposed to play Kentucky but
couldn't work it out, and I'm hoping that we can
(33:18):
come to Lexington next year for our thirtieth reunion and
Kentucky can go back to the Madison Square Garden the
following year.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I that Yeah, Kentucky, quick duck and Patino. I love it.
You step up to the plate, give give the people
what they want. Coach.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Are we planning on wearing more suits this year? That's
very important for us.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I wore all suits the whole season, just about with
the exception of a white out where I wore a
white jacket and jeans. Outside of that, I wore suits
the whole year.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
It doesn't feel right when you look on the sidelines
and you see coach Patino wearing like a polo shirt.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
We want to see the suits every game. Coach.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
I'm definitely gonna be in them, and you know what,
I believe in it. It's something I've done all my life,
So why not continue. Why change? There's certain things you
have to change. You have to change the way you
coach players today, the way you run your offenses, defenses,
treat them off the court as well. But certain things
should not change. And that's one of those.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Yeah, coach, in these spring and summer practices, what are
you looking for this early on as you're putting a
team together. What are you keen on in practice that's
telling you, Okay, we could have a good team this year.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
You know, I made a mistake last year. I did
not have my team ready early in the year because
I was just focused on player development, working on this
skill development, and I didn't work on a lot of
team things defensively, and we were not ready early. We
were ready late, and it probably stopped us because the
NCAA no longer cared about the last ten games of
(34:43):
the season. They were treating the first ten equal to
the last ten. So now I understand that I don't
think the net means a whole lot. I think it's
really quad one wins, quad two wins, making sure you
don't lose like we did to Michigan, a quad three.
You never expected Michigan to be a quad three game.
But it was, so I'm gonna have the team more
(35:05):
ready defensively going into September.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I love it, Coach. I have one last question. I
missed you. I saw you were at Saratoga for the
Belmont Stakes. I was there as well. Yep, how did
you do? I hope you did better than me. I
lost about twenty thousand dollars that weekend. Not great, not great.
I was. I thought I had figured it out. I did.
The one thing you can't do on a horse racing
weekend is win the second race of the first day,
(35:32):
because then you think you got it figured out, and
then I don't think I want to race for like
fifteen races in a row. But how did you do?
And and what do you guys? Do you have some
horses coming up?
Speaker 6 (35:42):
I do. I'm racing tomorrow. I have a horse called
Agalos to Great, who's the name of my agent in Greece,
And Agalos the Great is running at Aqueduct getting ready.
It's a prep race coming off of long vacation to
get ready for a big steak at Finger Lakes. I was.
I believe I was two for twenty two and getting destroyed.
(36:03):
And I went back and tried to renegotiate my contract
with Saint John's. But I did. I did get out
on the last race when I was leaving, and if
you could win the last race, you could cut your
losses in half.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, that way? Was it the last last race or
the second? I won the second to last race on Saturday.
That was like a like a fourteen to one shot,
and I was like, oh man, maybe I did figure
this was it.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
Yeah, this was a it was a long yeah, I
think it was the same ars.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah, it was on the turn he came out of.
Speaker 6 (36:33):
Note. Yes, yeah, yes, it was, Yes, it was. That's right.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah. You need to when you have a bad weekend
and at the tracks, you need to just turn to
our our good friend Mike Ropoli and be like, come on,
let's go.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
I got. I told my wife I'm never I'm never
going to the track again, and she said I've heard
that now eleven hundred times.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Right, horse racing for the rest of the week. That's
what I do. And then I wait for them. So
you said, Aglos, there he's racing at Aqueduct tomorrow. What
race is he in? Because I'm gonna I might sprinkle
a few Nichols on him.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
You know, I don't know. I think it's the fifth race.
I'm actually traveling to Tampa for unfortunately for a funeral,
and I won't see it, but I know it's I
think it's the fifth race. My other friend Chris marra
hoo holds, his family owns the Giants. He has a
horse in the race, and we're betting dinner to see
which horse finishes out of who.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I like that. I like coach.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I'm actually I'm taking a trip to Greece next week
and I was hoping that you could you could maybe
teach me something to say, a good phrase to say,
or any tips about.
Speaker 6 (37:37):
When are you going to be When will you be there.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I'm going to be there Saturday through I believe Saturday
full week.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
I'm going July the sixth to see them try and
qualify for the Olympics. I try to help the federation
a little bit there. And you're going to Athens.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
I'm going to be traveling around a bit. Yeah, Athens,
then checking out some of the beaches too.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
Great, So I'll be you say, you have to understand
the greetings they always say, Kelly Matta for a good morning,
Kelly Spata for for afternoon, Kala Nita, this good night,
and you always just by just just saying yes us,
that's hello, goodbye, Paula, Hello, you're welcome. Hello. Uh polsise,
(38:21):
Uh that you got about seven eight expressions and of
course the firm expression that you have to use if
somebody cuts you off. Malacca.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Okay, okay, malay. I love it. Well, coach, I know
you got practice coming up. I want to thank you
so much for calling in.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
We're excited about Mark Pope, excited about Saint John's this year.
Thanks so much, and have a great practice.
Speaker 6 (38:46):
All right, guys, tell Mark I love them.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Okay, thanks so much. That was coach Rick Patino calling in.
Kentucky sports radio history has been made full endorsement Hatchet buried,
hatchet beary. Well, no, I wouldn't say so, you know,
thanks for us on this day. Yeah, Rick Patino is
always welcome on this day. Yes, but uh, thank you
to coach Patino. I told everyone they got to they
got to stay tuned in. For all the people who
(39:08):
uh usually say they turn it off after two minutes,
I think we deliver. You can tell this guy loves Kentucky. Yes,
he really cares about the state of yes.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And he kind of it sounds like he kind of
feels bad about going to Louisville.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, he's like, I get it.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Well, maybe not, he doesn't feel bad, but he understands
the hate that he got from Yeah, Louisville.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah, and so you know, you know, it's good to
see that. You know, everything's being minted and he's clearly
rooting for Mark Popez. Are we all right? We're gonna
take a break. When we come back, we'll finish up
hour one. We also want to hear from you, Kentucky
sports fans. Eight five nine two eight zero two two
eight seven. That's a Clark Pumping Shop phone number. We're
gonna take a break, quick break. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Hello, Kentucky, we're back. It's the part of my takeover.
We want to hear from the people of Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
So give us a call. Eight five nine two eight
zero two two eight seven. We made history today, pft.
I feel good about it.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
I'm looking at Twitter right now and it looks like
that that might have made some news there Applecross, Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
You're talking about it. Shout out to.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
The guy that's listening to us right now with his
cell phone on his clip on his belt, like your
new quarterback has right, that's the new style. He's stocking
shelves in a grocery store. So if you listen to
us right now, uh we we certainly appreciate.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, he's there. The someone tweet is a video guy
just in the grocery store. No headphones on. Just listen
to the show. That guy rocks. But yeah, that that
was That was very cool. I don't think that we
ever thought that Rick Patino would call HIMO Kentucky Sports Radio.
All it took was Matt Jones going to North Korea.
That's it. That's it. So and then you know magic
(40:40):
can happen. He loves you guys. Yeah, that much is
very clear.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Have you seen, by the way, the picture of Brock
vandergriff the quarterback for Kentucky. No, let me so this
is this, This is the pick right here, that's the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Dude. That he might be a hoss, he is a
certified This is a big hoss.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
And he's got the cell phone clip on his belt.
That's quite a move for a high school kid. He me, yeah,
he is a fifty year old high school kid.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I love it. Yeah, I wouldn't. He looks he looks
like if you went and tried to date his daughter,
there'd be there'd be some hard questions.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
Oh, he's got some shirts that he takes, some prom
pictures of him holding like an over under shotgun, and
he's just he's intimidating the hell out of his daughter's date.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah. Yeah, So you're in good hands with Kentucky football,
which got an an IL check from Rick Patino. We
found out there we go poops. Yeah, the marks, the
poops or the mark poops are here to stay. H Okay.
So we got a great second hour. We do want
to take more calls in the second hour. You call
into the Clark's Pumping Shop. Uh, phone number eight five
(41:41):
nine two eight zero two two eight seven. I also
want to say the guy who tweeted us, uh, let
me see what was his actual who The guy who
was in the grocery store that's a Kentucky branded tweeted
the day that's for Sean with mer uh he wins.
Kentucky Branded tweeted the day We'll back right after this
hour two. Pardon my takeover Kentucky Sports Radio
Host
Matt Jones
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.