2025-04-07- KSR - Hour 1

Drew, Billy and Corey talk UK Basketball. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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catch rising comedy stars Sam tallon April eleventh and twelfth.
Comedy Up Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven,
and they're still bringing the best and stand up comedy

(00:21):
to the area at thirty eight years later. Call eight
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Up Broadway dot com com off Broadway.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is not Matt Jones. Welcome into Kentucky Sports Radio.
I am Drew Franklin filling in for Matt Jones. I'm
also filling in for Ryan Lemon, I'm filling in for
Shannon the Dude, and I'm filling in for our guy
Mario Maitland. All four of them took vacation at the
same time this week, leaving me to fly solo. Got
my guy, Billy r. Sports. He didn't take vacation. He

(00:50):
lives here at the iHeart Studio. He'll be staying with me.
But you know, I feel phil lonely, so far used
to having my guys here. I'm used to just showing up.
Matt's done the show prep, but I'm flying solo. Feel
a little bit like Kevin McAllister on Home Alone. Billy.
Everybody just got on a plane and left me forgot
all about me back here. But I will defend the
KSR house while they're gone. We'll do some stuff we
don't normally get to do when our parents and siblings

(01:12):
are here. We'll eat some junk food, watch some rubbish,
maybe get a little trouble, but we're gonna have a fun,
fun week. First, I guess I gotta do our checklist. Billy,
help me get you know you're the one that knows.
I want to make sure I get this right. First
of all, the Clark's pumping shup phone line Toato to
two eight. Wait, already messed it up? That's right, got it?

(01:33):
Whiskey thief call today. We'll be looking for that to
give us a call.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
There.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
We have the a Vision auto glass text machine. It
is somewhere in Amsterdam. If you want to text that.
It will not help us here, but feel free to
blow Matt up as he is across the pond. And
uh We're We're brought to you by TJ. Smith, personal
injury lawyer. Call TJ and he will make them pay.
There you gonna hit it all.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Billy, We're underway. Absolutely, it's great to be with you, Drew.
Like you've said throughout the week, We're just gonna keep
showing up and doing ourb for Drew Palooza. Drew Unterrupted
was the name that I write. I like that one,
but I know you're gonna kill it. So really looking
forward to this week and glad to be with you today.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Thank you. I appreciate you sticking around. You just did
a good a pre show Drew Palooza. I feel like
puts a lot of pressure on me. I just want
to show up and do the show like I've been
doing for a decade. I know the guys are gone,
but I wanted to keep it kind of the same.
But Drew Palooza, I think a listener came up with
that feels like it needs T shirts, signage, posters, that
that feels like a little more than I need. It
makes it a bigger event than I than I felt

(02:30):
like coming into even though I am very excited to
do this.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Get a T shirt done, Kentucky branded. We got a
graphic done about it. So I hope you're not feeling
the pressure, Drew, But the the entire state's going to
be listening.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh my goodness, maybe even people beyond.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Maybe maybe so well, Uh, we.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Could start a lot of different directions, you know, Mark
Pope added another player to the to the roster over
the weekend, lots of trans transfer, portal news. But Billy,
I went to start with the state of our country.
How do you feel about that? Did you see it
going that way? In your face? Looks terrified right now?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Just a state of the Union to start, Drew week I.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Love you know, well, we've been divided as a nation lately,
but on Saturday we were all united, with Duke giving
us an all time collapse in the final four. So
even though we could talk about our own roster, how
it looks, how it's shaping out, what we need, who
we're talking to, I would much rather talk about that
meltdown that we saw in San Antonio, because I'm sure
you're like me. It absolutely made the weekend.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Cooper Flag's face when he got called for that over
over the back foul after the misfree throw.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Incredible priceless. No, they tried to tell us he was
better than Anthony Davis could slurp up the tears. They
tried to tell us Zion was better Nanthony Davis. Neither
one of them got a ring. Duke led for thirty
five minutes, thirty five minutes over Houston. They led by
fourteen with eight minutes left, nine with two minutes left, six,
with thirty seconds left. ESPN gave them a ninety nine

(03:52):
percent chance of winning. Houston got it done, scoring nine
points in the final thirty three seconds. Did you ever
thinking that game that Houston could pull it off? And
did you celebrate as much as I did? I almost
went to State Street. I'm that much of a hater
against Duke that I treated it like my own team.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
In one thought the game was Overdrew. I'm one hundred
percent honest with you. I was starting to move on
to other things, starting to look at my phone a
little bit more than watching the game, and they just
keep hanging around, hanging around, and john Shire collapses at
the end.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
How great was that? It?

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Really?

Speaker 4 (04:24):
I was stunned, though, weren't you? I mean, I jaw
on the floor while celebrating. Obviously, with Duke loving I
was stunned that Houston was able to make that comeback. Duke,
I think one field goal in the final ten minutes of.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Your game, Chef's kiss. I wasn't gonna confess to this,
but you said you started doing other things. I in
the second half turned on the movie Conclaves about electing
a new Pope. I had the game on. You know,
I bring out my side TV. It's usually for NFL Sundays.
I prop it up in a little chair in my
living room next to my usual TV. But Conclave took

(04:59):
over the big TV. I was so tired of watching
the Duke love Fest. They kept showing Coach k kept
telling me how great Cooper Flag is. So I'm like,
you know what, I got to find out who this
new pope is that they're electing. In this movie that
won an Oscar was nominated for an Oscar. But I
had it on corner of the room, kind of watching it,
a little side of them about three minutes left out
of side. Okay, this is going to the big TV

(05:20):
with sound. Just absolutely love the collapse. I thought, for
a moment, you know, Houston got that technical foul. Yeah,
reaching over on the inbounds and Kelvin Samson put his
face in his hands, and I thought it was a
good run. While we lasted, but they just continued to
get it done. You mentioned that over the back call
that really changed things. Even though Doug Shalls wasn't a
part of that call, I felt like Doug got some

(05:41):
good TV time there at the end of the game.
I really really happy for Doug. Big moment for him
in that game. But what'd you think about that over
the back call. That's kind of a big talking point
as part of the collapse.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Yeah, I mean, listen, it's Duke, So I think the
consensus is that, you know what, that was a foul.
I'm not gonna cry over Duke having a bad call
against them, but we've seen a lot of questionable calls
in college basketball this year, so I'm you know, I'm
not going to act shocked when there's a questionable one
on one of the biggest stages in college basketball this year.

(06:11):
But ultimately it was just it was it was really
great to see. I'm really happy for Kelvin Samps and
that guy's story and about building that basketball program at
Houston has been incredible. Jim Nance as well, you know,
shedd and tears. It is a good story with Houston,
but overall, just glad to see Duke not in that
big game tonight.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
One of my favorite aspects of the game, other than
Duke making one field goal for the final ten minutes.
Really impressive stat from Duke's seven foot two projected top
ten pick. Mal you watch zero rebounds, you are seven
foot two and you are being considered a top ten pick.
Some mock drafts even have him in the top five.

(06:51):
My man got zero rebounds in the National championship and
it even better statistic he was a minus twenty and
twenty one minutes of basketball. How is that even possible.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
That they're not making up any ground with you out there,
but with zero rebounders as a seven footer, I didn't
realize that, Drew. That is that is hard to do.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
It's very hard to do. You can talk about the
over back. You can also talk about Procter missing that
free throw, Shire playing a little stallball. There was the
stat that he was like seventy seven and zero when
Duke has a ten point lead. Love seeing him fall apart.
Kind of felt like that Kentucky game when Kentucky beat
him in the Champions Classic, same situation, Cooper Flagg had

(07:30):
a chance to win it against Kentucky. He slipped, but
in this one went to that spin move that Mark
Pope pointed out in the Kentucky game. I'm sure Mark
Pope saw that coming against Houston and he just fell short,
hit in front iron and it goes the other way
and Houston gets the win.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Little deja vu, wasn't it. I mean, just get put
at Cooper in isolation. He's gonna rotate and then try
to shoot. But against Kentucky he obviously turned the ball over.
People told me that Kentucky did trail Duke by ten points,
so I.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Thought that, but that stat popped up that it had
not happened, so I guess CBS needs to get the
stats correct.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
I read it as that had not happened on the
pre show, and then I got a bunch of people
correcting me, so I assume that it did happen. But
that was just such a signature win for Mark Pope
this year, not only beating Duke but Gonzaga and then
to see Duke lose was.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
It was great.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie. That made for
a great I guess what would you say, cap of
the day after Florida and Auburn as well the day
before the same day.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, one more thing on Duke Houston. Yeah, how about
White Lotus just they knew, they had to have known,
but it was like episode two or three earlier in
the season. We're not playing spoiler on White Lotus. I
know last last finale I did. I won't ruin it
for everyone, but if you haven't seen like the second
or third episode by now, that's on you. But one
of the main characters, the dad, is wearing a Duke

(08:46):
T shirt and he puts a gun to his head
for that screenshot of a Duke fan right there with
the bullet to his dome. And we thought this will
pop up back up in the installed tournament. We thought
maybe the first weekend, and an upset looked like the
White Lotus meme had died, and then they blow that
huge lead and that thing was all over the internet,
as it should have been.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Incredibly timely. I mean with the with the finale last night,
it's like they thought this through and they said, Hey,
our finale will be the weekend of the Final four.
Let's put him in some apparel of a team that
could be there and it ends up being it. But
for Duke to you know, were they like suing for
this or they need to take it down, or they
were whining about it?

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Oh did you watch the finale? I did. Yeah, Well
they did it again with the scene. There's another scene
with the T shirt. Not going to reveal anything about
what happens in the storyline, but there. They gave us
another meme last night. But just great to see Duke lose.
I know it's not the right attitude you should have
when your team's not in it, to be hating on
another team so much, but that's that's what we are
as Kentucky fans.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
And they and they tried a full court pass at
the end of that game drew. Oh yeah, they tried it,
and the college basketball gods were not gonna let that
happen twice.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I mean that one wasn't even close. But even the
even the fade away at the end had a little
late nourished Why didn't he hit front iron back in
ninety two? Yeah, but on the other game, Florida Advance
beating Auburn. Auburn led for that much of that one.
It was Bruce Pearl's second Final four appearance after twenty
nineteen when he got in beating our Kentucky Wildcats and
that Elite eight stupid Tigers in that one. But I

(10:14):
thought it was interesting. I'm sure that they've featured this
on the broadcast. Lots of people already know, but the
connection of Pearl and Todd Golden. Pearl coached Todd Golden
in the Jewish Olympics years ago, and then really Todd
Golden was one of Pearl's very first hires at Auburn.
He hired his son Steven and he hired Todd Golden.
So a history with those guys. And then they meet

(10:34):
Florida versus Auburn first SEC matchup in the Final four.
Did it turn out the way he thought it? Did it?

Speaker 5 (10:41):
Did?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I think?

Speaker 5 (10:42):
You know?

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Florida was my National Championship pick for a reason because
when they play at that tempo, they are hard to stop.
And Walter Clayton showed off his layup package. Man, I mean, boy,
was he good first player since Larry Bird I think
to have back to back thirty point games in the
Elite eight in the Final four, and he was incredible.
He had to be I mean he had to be
ever sense of the word incredible for Florida to win

(11:03):
that game. You know, Broom has been a great story
as the National Player of the Year and a guy
coming from Morehead. I feel like I've kind of rooted
for him a little bit to a degree for Auburn,
but I thought, you know, it was a good game.
Auburn was up eight at halftime, so for Florida to
come back and the baby faced Todd Golden to keep
it rolling. Now is it the youngest coach or the
oldest coach could win the title tonight and him and

(11:24):
Calvin Sampson. So I'm looking forward to a fun matchup.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
What about you?

Speaker 4 (11:26):
What'd you think of that?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Sec? I was pretty indifferent. You know, Florida, I guess
they're they're pretty far behind in titles, but you don't
want them getting too many. Where they got two. They
won in twenty six, two thousand and seven. It's the
last time they were there, so I leaned Auburn a
little bit, even though the belts in Reparina were still
fresh on my mind. I didn't want to have them
to have the satisfaction. But you nailed at Walter Clayton.

(11:48):
He's special thirty four points. I mean, I du was
at Iona for Rick Patino a couple of years ago,
transfers to Florida has a special year. It's makes us
look back on that January game in reperena. How in
the heck to Kentucky? Well, they didn't really contain him.
I think it's one oh seven to one oh two,
But Kentucky pulling that off looks even better in hindsight.
You know what it was?

Speaker 4 (12:07):
It was that early start. I mean, Kentucky's such an
old team, true that they were able to get it
out of the way, go to that early early bird
special at Golden Corral afterwards and get to bed by
eight o'clock. I mean, those old guys makes a difference,
but it does make you scratch your head a little bit.
How did they beat that Florida team? Now that they'll
be playing tonight in the National Championship, it goes to
show you what this team's potential and ceiling was when

(12:29):
they were fully healthy.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Absolutely, one more note I head from the final four,
then we'll move on. We have Corey Price in studio.
He's going to teach us about Kentucky's eight National Championships.
I thought it's, you know, championship Day, and since we're
not a part of it, we will reflect on the
eight times Kentucky did win it. So a lot of
us remember twenty twelve, ninety six, ninety eight. But we'll
start back at the beginning. I don't have a lot

(12:50):
of firsthand knowledge of those and memories, but we did
some homework and Corey's going to teach us a lot
about those. But like that before we get to that
and the transfer portal news that was big over the weekend.
One more from the Final four? Did you see Jelly
Roll playing before the Final four games? I saw he performed.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
I asked the fiance if she liked Jelly Roll. She
said she wasn't a fan, and then I think we
changed it after that?

Speaker 2 (13:11):
What did?

Speaker 4 (13:12):
What did Jelly Roll do as well?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
I like Jelly Roll. I'm not I don't drive around
listening to jelly Roll, but when it comes on, you know,
I'll sing a little bit. And he's apparently the nicest
guy of all time. He lives in Nashville. I have
friends that have known him a little bit, golfed with him,
live near him, and they just act like he is
the greatest human on earth, even though you know, judging
a book by its cover with all the tattoos and
stuff might not come across that way. But I'm bringing

(13:35):
him up because in his performance, his drummer was wearing
a Louisville football jersey. I guess Jelly Roll has a
Louisville fan in his group. Also odd to wear a
football jersey at a at a Final four event, whatever that.
But the cameras turned him so you didn't see that.
He take the cameras right on him. It's a solo
shot on this cards fan drumming for Jelly Roll, and
he just takes his drumstick and licks it from bottom

(13:58):
to top while looking at the camera. It was very
Louisville behavior. You're on the big stage, you're wearing the
wrong uniform. But I thought for a second Louisville was
gonna have a cool moment being part of the Final
four introduction. And then my man just licks his drumstick
up and down, proving that, you know, louis Of fans,
they just are what they are.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Okay, you know, probably getting a little too intimate with
your musical instruments there. I always think of when you
think of Louisville behavior, the fan drinking out of the
garbage bag and the Louisville tailgate and can you remember
that one?

Speaker 2 (14:28):
What a classic? She full bag of trash and ripped
off a bottom corner and just chugged it.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Get a little testy right now with all their transfer
portal additions.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
I mean, well, we'll get to that next. They're doing
pretty well. We got a pat Lousville on the back,
but not too hard. Kentucky also got an edition. Over
the weekend. You had Jacob Polchek from KSR Plus on
on the KSR pre show. And as he was leaving
packing things up, saying goodbye to me, I said, where
are you going? Why don't you just stay? We're gonna
talk portal. Might as well have Jacob on. So Jacob
will do the next segment with us. As we go

(14:59):
over where Kentucky he stands in the portal. Who they added?
How the roster shakes up? Corey Price is here? He
brought donuts. He also brought me a gift that he says,
I have to open on the air. Oh is that right?
We'll do it later. It's nicely wrapped in a plastic bag.
Might have moved there for a minute, so I'm a
little nervous about what that could be. We got Keenlan,
we got masters a lot going on, but we'll take
a break now, we'll come back with Jacob and the

(15:20):
news around Kentucky basketball, and we'll be right back. Welcome
back to KSR. Drew Franklin filling in for the whole
crew as they take vacations. At the same time, Billy
our Sports is here with me. He's gonna do the
full two hours. I appreciate Billy sticking around after his
pre show so I can have some familiarity with the
KSR personalities here.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
I'm tripling my hours of work, so that should be
reflected on my paycheck, right.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Big big money. Yeah, I guess we should get to
the big roster news. As I mentioned in the first segment,
Jacob from KSR Plus, who works around the clock track
and recruiting and all the Kentucky basketball movements, was on
his way out of the building and I said, well, heck,
why don't you just stick around with us. We're gonna
be talking about it, you know, as much as anyone.
So Jacob, I appreciate, appreciate you hanging around hope you

(16:04):
know someone's watching your dog. I know usually the dog
sittings an issue. I hope we're not keeping you away
from home for too long. Is that we good?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah? Hey, if he's if he's gonna do damage, he's
probably already done it by now.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
So what's the harm You got a puppy tearing things
up or what?

Speaker 3 (16:16):
He's got bad separation anxiety.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
But he's getting better with it, so he'll be all right. Well,
we'll run through what's happening with UK basketball, then you
can go check on your pupp But I appreciate you
being here as we react to the big news over
the weekend. On Saturday, Kentucky added a point guard to
the back court. Jalen Lowe, a six three hundred and
seventy five lefty from Pittsburgh. He was third team All ACC.

(16:39):
He has two years left of eligibility. Averaged sixteen eight
sixteen point eight points, five point five assists, four point
two rebounds, and a sophomore year for a pretty terrible
pit team. They went eight and twelve in the ACC.
He's got some good size. Watching his tape, he can
really get to the rim. Great change of pace makes
his free throws looks like a good stry didn't shoot

(17:01):
it that well. Shot twenty seven percent from three at
thirty eight percent from the field. A lot of people
are hoping that getting into Pope's system and having some
better pieces around instead of playing for a terrible team
will help his efficiency. But Jacob, I'll start with you.
What did you think of the addition of low over
the weekend?

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, Billy, let me know that people are not too
happy about this edition, but I think it's a really
good pick up for Kentucky. Like you said, he's not
the best shooter, but he's come up clutch.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
In a lot of games.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
If you want to get excited about this guy, I
urge you to look back at his game against Duke
his freshman year. So a couple of years ago, he
hit the game winning shot over Kyle Philipowski at Duke
in Cameron Indoor, shushing the Duke fans. So he's an
exciting player. And I had a pit beat writer text
me about him that they're getting a really, really good player.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'm sold on a big shot in Duke. Also, he
played Louisville twice this year. Twenty four points, six assists
in one game, sixteen points, ten rebounds, favassists and the other.
I even wrote down what Pat Kelsey said about and
Pat Kelsey said, he's a dynamic guard. He puts fouls
on you. He's as fast and quick twitch as any
guard we're gonna play against. He has an uncanny knack

(18:10):
when he gets to the rim and if you come over,
he has this ability at the last second to whoop
and fire that thing for threes. So looks like we'll
have to put some shooters around him. But it's a
guy that can really facilitate. He and O Way will
make great drivers. I just mentioning the negative reaction. I
think he's a good piece. I think a lot of
that is everyone wanted Dent. You know Kentucky. It's everybody

(18:31):
wants the number one ranked of everything. You lose Dent
to UCLA, who followed Kentucky's big offer with a big
offer of their own and kept him home. I think,
you know, we gotta trust Pope. I think Pope found
what he wanted. I like what I've seen him low.
I like how I can fit, how he can make
a big jump. But there is a little bit of
fan disappointment, which I feel like our fans just read
the stats on ESPN dot com. They see a site

(18:54):
ranked transfer portals and then they're like, I can't believe
we lost this guy when they probably didn't even know
that person was on the two months ago. But there
has been a little bit of a disappointing reaction.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, and I think you're getting Low at a much
better value than you would have gotten Dent being the
number one player in the portal.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
He went for a lot of nil money.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Getting a guy like Low, you're not spending as much
you can build out the rest of the roster, and
he was really i'd say probably their third option at
point guard, so you're not going too far down the list.
But I think they got a really good player in Low.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
I think Kentucky fans spent all year trashing the ACC
and now they've got to turn around and talk themselves
into a third team All ACC guard. But that doesn't
mean that he doesn't have room to grow to become
a better player and could be even better in a
system like Mark Pope's right.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, and I think you put him around SEC talent,
you put him around Kentucky talent. He's not going to
be shooting as much as he did at Pittsburgh, So
it'll allow him to be more efficient. And if you
want proof of a guy that can shoot the ball
a little better at point guard, just look at Lamont
Butler what he did going from San Diego State to Kentucky.
I think Low could have a growth like that. And
he's lefty, and he's lefty.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
Which is all left backcourt. It's getting a lot of lefties, Jasper.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Johnson and Kayden Lewis now Low. I don't know what
it is about lefties, and I am a lefty, so
maybe I should know. Corey, you're a lefty. You just
raised your left hand. That told on yourself that you're
a lefty. It just I don't know if it really
matters to a defender. Maybe it does, but it just
looks so much better when a lefty shooting ball. It
really does. I don't know the science behind it, maybe
just because it looks so different, but it just looks

(20:23):
so pure when you've got a lefty shooting, and we
got three of them in the back court looking forward
to that.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Well, football too, like you don't see it often because
it changes you know a lot. You know, your left
tackle is not the blind side blocker anymore. Receivers kind
of have to play a different ball. And but Michael
Pennix is doing it with the Atlanta Falcons and it's
just esthetically pleasing.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Dan's not forget the hefty lefty, our favorite lefty call time,
of course, Jacob, before you go back to dog sitting,
what else should we be looking for in the transfer
portal right now?

Speaker 3 (20:48):
The one guy that I'm watching right now is Wesley
Yates from USC scored fourteen points a game last year,
and Kentucky has already reached out to him.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
They're recruiting him.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Another school to watch there is Washington, and so he's
got I got my eyes on him. And then we've
got a full list of guys that they're going after
over on ks R plus.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
But check out kiss our plus. Check out kiss our Plus.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
But yeah, Wesley Yates is really the number one target
in my eyes right now.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
He's a great example of the fan overreaction. You know,
I don't know if we'll get Wesley Yates. You're in
a good spot. But on Friday, Kentucky fans are like,
there's no more people left, the portals closed. What are
we gonna do? And then Wesley Yates enters. You've got
guys enter in today. The thing's right from Baylor just ending.
I mean, it's open for two more weeks. I wrote
a big thing about this. I'm not telling you how

(21:34):
to fan, but it's not the end of the world.
If a guy goes to another school because he had
a zoom with Mark Pope or that, you think the
portal's closed and there's no one left. Wesley Yates is
a great example. No one was talking about him last
week on Friday, the sky is falling in Big Blue Nation.
Saturday morning, Yates pops up in a good spot there. Pierre,
who I called Jason Pierre last week, still embarrassed by that.

(21:55):
He's still in the mix. So a lot of good
options overall. Before we let you go out out KSR plus,
things going well there after a few you know, the
dent thing. We weren't not our fault. It changed on
a dome. But you kind a lot of heat for that.
When you're doing all right, we good. I'm doing good.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
I think the people on ks R plus are the
ones that understand because they saw the full shift. They
saw it go from Kentucky's in a good spot. Oh,
UCLA's picking up traction. Oh, Ucla might have the lead
to all right, he's going to UCLA.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Well cool, Keep following Jacob there on KSR plus ks board.
We have a lot of fun. We have a show
thread going every day on ks board. Check that out.
But Jacob, thank you for stopping by and dropping a
little insight on low and we look forward to what
you're reporting next. Maybe a commitment today, who knows? That's
not a Ryan lemontoo much. Just not hoping, but should
be more pieces fallowing soon. Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Thank you, Jacob. All right, well we'll take another break.

(22:45):
Corey Price. We're gonna let him talk. He brought donuts.
That's the least we can do. So we'll be right
back on KSR. Here's not Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin,
sitting with my good friend Billy Rutledge. Corey Price plugging
it in his microphone. Now to get ready to join us.
Before we get to that, let me tell you a
little bit about court physical therapy. Spring has sprung and

(23:07):
that means you were getting outside more, whether that's doing
yard work or just staying active by biking or running.
For most increased physical activity when the weather gets warmer
can lead to aches, pains, and injury. That's where Court
physical therapy can help. At Court, our therapists know what
it takes to help you heal and get back to
the things you enjoy while also helping you prevent future
injuries from happening. With over seventy locations statewide, it's easy

(23:29):
to find a center near you. Go to Court dot com.
That's ko Art dot com. I went to one of
those seventy locations, the Beaumont. They got my back filling
better years.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (23:38):
So a little personal testimony for me over there at
Court did a great job.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
We got to get that back lubricated so you can
get back on the golf course.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
True, that's right, it's been a long time. We'll talk
to some golf you like my hat. Little masters have here.
It's that time of the year. The birds chirping, Billy,
the fake birds are chirping. A few more portal things
that we didn't get to with jacobf This just flies by, Billy.
I got a bunch of notes. It's not gonna get
to half.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
Of them' that's what happens. But you'd rather be over
prepared than under prepared, right.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
I'm a big prepared guy. I always want to be prepared.
Kerr crisa. He has a new home. He entered the
portal leaving Kentucky a week ago, spent five or six
days shopping around, and he has landed at Cincinnati. He
will be a bear Cat, going back to the Big
Twelve for his sixth season of college basketball. Unbelievable six seasons.

(24:25):
I'll even play his old school West Virginia and Arizona,
both old schools in the Big Twelve. But Kerr, we
were expected him to enter the portal. He did. There
were rumors about Saint John's maybe being in the mix.
I didn't hear much about Cincinnati, but yesterday news dropped
at Kerr will be a Bearcat just going across the river.
What do you think about that news, Billy?

Speaker 4 (24:44):
You know, shades of C. J. Frederick. I wish him
nothing but the best. You know, I've heard rumblings that
maybe things weren't the best behind the scenes, But look,
that's a guy that even after breaking his foot, he
still got back on defense and contested that shot. I
will remember that for a while. Despite him not playing
only like nine games, this year and getting that medical
red shirt. But I know there's some pressure there in

(25:06):
Cincinnati for that coach to make the tournament that he
has not made it in four or five years at
this point. But do you feel like the new pit
transfer is an upgrade over Kirkrisa in the grands game
of things, because it feels like I do.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
I mean, I don't know that he'll be Laman Butler.
I was a big fan of Lamont, but you gotta
remember this time Lamont wasn't highly ranked. We all rely
on these transfer portal rankings. Ansley Almanor was like number
three hundred to something, three hundred and forty fifth and
it was down to Siena in Kentucky. Yeah, we liked
Ansley Almanora a right, right, Yeah, sure. Amari Williams was
like seventy fifth. Did Amory turn out? Okay, now we don't.

(25:42):
It's Kentucky. We don't always want to have the seventy
fifth and three hundred and forty fifth person. I'm not
sugarcoating things, but you gotta remember, we don't know what
will happen when they get into the system, get around
better pieces, go up a level. Pope's coaching the fan
base and Reperena can bring the best out of people.
So we truly don't know how these guys will pan out.
But I did like Low, especially watching highlights. He's fun,

(26:02):
he's quick.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
I have had to adjust my expectations in year one
because cal would bring in all the five stars, right
and you are getting guys from Drexvil in the transfer portal.
But now in year two, the transfer portal is in
full swing and you've got some cream of the crop
in the SEC that it looked like some guys value
over Kentucky right now. So it's just it's a brave
new world. If you've read that book, Drew, and I

(26:24):
think Mark Pope is the right guy for the job.
But you know, also, I'm not going to expect him
to get the best of the best every single time.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
I've not read that book. I have not read that
at all. And if you look at last year's portal ranking,
some of the top guys didn't pan out. The schools
that did the best in the portal didn't have a
great year. It's all about the right fit and I
just got to trust Pope on this. There is one
that was a bit of a loss we all wanted
Yaksul Lindenberg from UAB. Yeah, number one guy in the portal.

(26:51):
Kentucky was in great standing with him. Pope had flown
to see him. They had been zooming. He picked Michigan
on Saturday. So that is if we were going to
say that there is a loss, that's one that hurt. However,
there's talk that he will still go to the NBA.
So as long as he just goes to the NBA
and ditches Michigan in a couple months, then we can
look at that. And maybe Pope was out in front
of it. Maybe Pope even knew that was the case,

(27:13):
but in the moment, it didn't love seeing Yaxell go
to Michigan.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
You would really hate that if you're all in on
this guy, he's committed to your school and then decides
to just go to the NBA.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
You know.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
I think of recent recruiting Missus with Hunter Dickinson, with
Great Osibor, and both of those guys I don't think
lit up the world at their new stops, and I
think you look back at it and say, thank God
they didn't come here, right. So yeah, I do think
Big Blue Nation, for the most part, needs to pump
the brakes and allow this process to play out before
you have your hot takes about how you think Pope

(27:44):
is doing. But I'm not gonna lie. I've had to
adjust my expectations a little bit over the last couple weeks.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, I mean we all get antsy as teams started
getting additions. Louisville's done well. We want to see stuff,
but we also have to remember how last year went.
I mean, we're way ahead of that, already in a
better spot. I think people aren't considering assuming he stays,
and so far it's looking like it will. I mean
otega Oway would be top five in the portal. I
think everyone was happy when you took Jasper Johnson from Alabama.
I mean Nat Oates thought he had Jasper Johnson. Pope

(28:10):
went and won that recruitment. Kayden Lewis down to duke
in Yukon. Pope pulled him away from there. So there's
still good pieces you got to consider in the grand
scheme of.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Things, and retaining otega Away is a huge part of
what you want to do next year. And I'm not
sure any news is dropped on that yet as he
still waits to make a decision. But that's a guy
I'd love to see in year two of Mark Pope system.
And think about some of the other guys. Colin Chandler's
another one that week.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Expect sleeping on him, right, I mean, look at the
jump he just made. You know, as everyone knows two
years off from basketball, you get reminded of that inny
time there's a game and he does something. Yeah, but
I mean, look at the jump he just made. From
November to the NCAA tournament. If I had told you
at Christmas he would be hitting logo threes and step
back threes in March, mad as, you would have thought
I'm crazy. But if he made that jump in a
few months as a freshman, what about a whole summer

(28:54):
and going into a sophomore season, what can he be
capable of doing?

Speaker 4 (28:57):
And not specific to Chandler, but this team improved so
much on defense after that Old Miss game. When it
comes to Chempom ratings that it makes me confident that
no matter the roster, Pope can adjust and get them
to focus on things they need to.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Corey Price, I haven't been talking to you yet. You're
you've been here. I think you got here two hours early.
You were here before, Billy, you were here before ready
the people that opened the city center downtown.

Speaker 5 (29:17):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Where where do you stand in your your patients and
how you feel about the the transfer portal movement so far?

Speaker 6 (29:25):
Well, for I say, a long time listener of first
time guest.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Oh, welcome, first time at the bar, would never put
the headset on you everyone, just so they know, I
guess I better set up Corey if you don't know,
and you probably do. We reference him a lot big
on Twitter. Somehow finds every stat in the world, every
newspaper clipping in the world, every uh school photo of
every person we've ever had on the show, even school
photos of people like Dan Docketts. To get to that,

(29:51):
Dan is a great, great gab out Corey. Corey can
find anything on the Internet and he's specific specifically good
at stats. So we're gonna get to that a little later.
But back to your your portal thoughts.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
I would see late great j T would say, it's
now coach Pope, he's got it. Uh Like I said,
uh uh he is a male alum. By the way,
shout out to the Bulldogs. Yeah so uh like I said,
last year, we were not nearly at this point, we've
already got two guys. I think, uh, I'm I'm optimistic.

(30:25):
I'm hoping for maybe the guy from Princeton.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Maybe Lee, Yeah, Xavian Xavi. Lee looks good. I don't
know what adding low will do. You're still looking at Pierre,
but he's he's still an option. He's got some fun highlights.
He's another guy that can get to the rim. Billy.
I feel like we we had some calls and already
lost one that they went away. I don't want to
run people off. I'm already already taking too long to
get to the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
So it's on Monday. We understand if somebody has something
come up at the beginning of the work, dake.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
But are you running it? There is Rick running it?

Speaker 4 (30:52):
Rick is running it?

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Okay, Well, Rick, let's go to the phone line. Good
to see you, Rick, or hear from you, Rick. Who's
up first on the phone line? First off is LLL
cool ta love starting my week with LL cool ta
Thanks for calling in.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Hey, Hey, Drew and crew. Hey, I'm out here in
Montana droning the skies, but I wanted to kind of
figure out what we're gonna do with our roster. It
seems like we are like point guard heavy right now.
It seems like we need to add a big man
down bow. I mean, we got Brandon Garrison and Malick High,
but I feel like we need to add some more

(31:26):
size or we might be getting bullet down low.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
You're absolutely right. But before I give my thoughts on that,
you're you're manning a drone in Montana right now? That
sounds fair. Is this just like a hobby or you're
out there for work? Tell me more about your droning
in Montana. I'm sure that's some good scenery at the moment,
especially at that hour.

Speaker 7 (31:48):
Oh man, that's beautiful. Yeah, I do it for work.
It's pretty low key, honestly, but you do get a
couple of neighbors who, you know, get a little edgy
with you.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
All right, Well, stay safe out there. If you can
send a picture or something on Twitter, we'd love to
see the droning in Montana. What's going on up there?
But thanks for calling in. We appreciate the call. And
he's exactly right. We're tracking a lot of guards, but
little Finn in the in the front court. Garrison Marino,
as he said, but you gotta go out and get
some forwards. I know he's gonna get a stretch for
that can shoot, can kind of fill that Andrew Carr Roll,

(32:22):
But I wouldn't mind a little bit of depth there too.
Pretty concerning at the moment, even though he'll eventually get it.
But Kentucky's roster right now as it stands, has ten players.
You got Low Lewis Perry at point guard, O Way
Chandler Johnson at two guard, then little Cam Williams, Trenta
on the wing, but then it's just Garrison and Marino Billy.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, and you know in Mark Pope's system, he's not
going to play the bigs thirty thirty five minutes, so
you're gonna see more rotation and depth is important there.
I think the guy from Robert Morris as the stretch
for is probably one that a lot of people have
circled right now if you're looking at specific guys. But
I mean, look that there is absolutely the front court

(33:03):
is an issue right now. They don't have the depth
that they need right now. I'm very confident that Malachi
Moreno will be a good player, but will he be
the first few games? Will he need to adjust to
the physicality of the SEC. I mean, he is a freshman,
so it would be nice to bring in a transfer
portal guy with experience like.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
The Robert Morriscat. Oh yeah, I'm gonna try to say
his name, Alvero Folquerz.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
I'm gonna say that's correct until somebody says otherwise.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
It's been quiet around him, but he was one of
the first names to pop up when transfer portal season started.
He's been over in Spain. I guess just you know,
gotta go home check on things. I don't know if
he's back, but the plan has been to get him
for a visit. But that's one you know, we don't
know that anything's a done deal. But he seems like
a favorite to fill that Andrew Carr stretch forward role.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
And every year we see more and more Europeans I
feel like impacting the college and the professional game. Speaking
of big Z has a new home in Illinois, I
believe correct teaming up with his brother in Orlando, Antigua,
so uh, you know, hopefully his stomach can hold up
in Illinois. It's been quite their journey for him.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
It will be fun to see the Avisich brothers there.
I guess Coach Oh worked at work the phone got
big Z to join him there. Coach Oh was big
and getting big Z here to Kentucky, big Z stepping
away from Arkansas to go for some brother who love
in Illinois. I guess I'll root for big Z a
little bit. I know people are indifferent. They didn't love
his reactions in Reparina. Oh yeah, bood whatever. I'll be

(34:27):
cheering for big Z at Illinois a little bit, not
cheering too hard, but I hope things go well. I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
I'm the same way. I feel like I'm defending him.
He doesn't know any better, Drew. I mean, he's just
doing what Cal told him to do, and now he's
breaking away from Cal and going up there with Coach Oh.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
You can't take that Georgia game memory from me. That
was too much like Tric. We got time for one more,
Rick sure to Ryan's up next, Ryan, Thanks for calling in.

Speaker 5 (34:51):
How you doing, Drew? I met you years ago with
the barn Burn Creek and uh long haired old whitehead guy.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah that sounds fun.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
I'm a happy Yeah, you remember me? I think anyway,
I'm a happy man this morning. I can't Stan Duke
and uh, I've got a root for Florida because Billy's
talking about uh uh Kentucky bands trashing the acc or whatever.

(35:20):
Uh they've been to Louisville and the national van. I've
been trashing that uh Southeastern Conference teams for years in basketball,
and we finally proved that we had good teams. And
actually I think this he sees basketball better than the football.
And it's not all about money because everybody's got money nowadays.
Uh we Uh, it's about a lot of that's coaching

(35:42):
and and the players were getting Now. I don't think
it's all about money because I think us the Big
Ten had the best, had the best teams. But I
also wanted to go to shout out a shout out
to the Kentucky administration for put Bellerman on the schedule
because I like Bellerman. I like coach Davenport. Remember Legie
play for coach Chattingport in that game, you know, in

(36:03):
that high school game at Ballad. I guess Ballad years ago.
But I guess that's about all I got.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
We appreciate the call. Hope to see in another bar
in Fern Creek. Also, glad you know I don't know
the rules on language, but uh when it's just a
slip of the tongue, like it was more of a
stutter than the actual word there, right, Billy, Well, yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
I don't know that matters in the fcc fins, but
we're gonna hope that, uh we don't get one for that.
Can I use a callism here for something that you
can do whatever that he was talking about this there's
no rules this week because he was talking about there's
everyone gets back the SEC and college basketball. Coaches win games,
but administrations win championships. And I think it is has

(36:49):
a lot to do about money, despite what the caller
is saying, because the SEC has committed to basketball in
many recent years. You've seen the coaches salaries go up.
You've seen some of the best coaches in the game
in the SEC now. So it's going to be very
different than your your granddad's SEC or Kentucky just strolling
to the SEC championship.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Game every year.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
I mean, they are legit and they are here to stay.
So I think I will be rooting for Florida in
the championship game tonight for that reason.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
I've had Houston on my bracket since the beginning. I'm
gonna stick with that. But you know, I get people
like in the SEC as I look at the clock,
I'm worried about my National Championship history lessons. I'm already
a little behind skin.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
Well, we got a whole second hour.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I mean, we got a lot of national championships, and
we got callers, we got the masters, we got we
got so much to talk about. I'm way behind on
my notes. So, yes, you got a whole week. So
that's true. But you know, with Corey here, we got
to go through our championships. Brought him in it. Why
we flew him in it? Why I brought donuts. So
let's take a quick break and we come back. We
will start our history lessons on Kentucky's eight national championships,

(37:47):
and we'll take more of your calls here on KSR.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to Kentucky Sports Radio.
Drew Franklin with Billy Religion, Corey Price. We're about to
start our history lesson on Kentucky's eight national championships. But
first a couple little notes here. Some of our KSR
listeners on Twitter have tweeted me at Drew Franklin KSR.
Hit me up there Jelly Rolls. Drummer is Cody Ash

(38:09):
from Mount Washington and he went to Bullet East. Shannon
the dudes next, So maybe Shannon knows Cody. Maybe Shannon
and Cody were licking drumsticks together in high school.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Probably eating banana croquette, but drumsticks next thing.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah. Also, before we get to our championships, Corey, you
were saying that your father and our guy Rick right
in the Louisville studio, we're high school classmates. Yep.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
They went to training class in nineteen seventy. Uh yeah,
I got that picture of them at your rocks. That's right,
got picture of them from sixty eight, their sophomore year.
It's a small, small world.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Very very cool connection there we have on the show.
But let's get right to our our history. You know,
Kentucky's got eight national championships. We're just gonna tell you
a little about it, a little bit about each one.
We don't want to forget, you know, some of them
been a while. We've got like four and sixty five years.
I don't like to say that out loud, but you know,
we want to win it every year. It's four four,
I mean, we got we gotta get the We gotta

(39:02):
pumped these numbers up. We gotta get Pope going. But first, Corey,
let's start with the first one, nineteen forty eight eight
off RUPs eighteenth season when Kentucky beat Baylor in the
title game in Madison Square Garden. What else do we
know about that first title season?

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Outside we have eight more titles than the balls, so
it's oh yes.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
And several more final fours. Oh yeah, good.

Speaker 6 (39:22):
Note they had a thirty six and three record the
end of the season, that sixteen game Wayne streak. They
pushed the ball up up the floor. They were fifth
in the country and scoring offense at sixty nine points
a game.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
It's nice.

Speaker 6 (39:35):
The leading scorer was a fellow mel alum, Ralph Beard.
I can do a shout out to Mail today. Today
is their birthday at their first day classes on April seventh,
eighteen fifty six.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Today's male's birthday.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
Yeah, okay, that's interesting years old to high school go dogs.
That team had three All Americans, of course, Ralph Beard,
Alex Groza, and Wawah Jones. All five starters were named
to the All conference team.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I think we ever called the Fab five. Huh is
it that one of our most famous starting fives of
all time.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
Nine guys were picked in the draft from from that team.
Seven actually played in the pros. The schedule was a
little weird for the Commerce player. They only played nine games,
but they were nine to zero. Won the Commerce in
the season, won the Commerce Tournament.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
As you allude to.

Speaker 6 (40:23):
They defeated Baylor fifty eight to forty two in the
national title game. Alex Groz had led the Cats and
scoring the game with twelve points. Was also named the
final four most I say player.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
He was pretty good.

Speaker 6 (40:34):
And then during the summer, the starting five was part
of Team USA that won Olympic gold. They defeated France
in the gold medal game is sixty five to twenty one.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Wow. I like that. We win the national championship and
they're like, hey, you guys want to just represent America
in the Olympics. Was an assistant UK was the first
college program to have five Olympic gold medals. I'll add
that stat I liked you you texted me. The song
of the Year was Minyana by with Dave Barbering the Brazilians.
I guess we'll do a.

Speaker 6 (41:03):
Song of the years number one. The week of the finals.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, I also want to add they beat Tennessee three
times that year, three times. A little topical beat them
in the SEC tournament. We loved beating Tennessee. And Cliff
Barker one of the one of the Fab five. He
was a World War Two veteran and he was shot
down over Germany and was a prisoner for sixteen months.
And while he was imprisoned, he dribbled a volleyball to
polish his skills before going on to play for Kentucky.

(41:28):
I mean, what a different era could you imagine as
we're in the portal right now, Like we're looking at
a guy in a prison camp in World War Two.
He's been dribbling a volleyball. But that just shows you
what that era was like. I had a couple of
World War Two veterans on that team, just completely different times.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
And eighteenth season for rout before he won a title.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah, finally finally got one. We'll do a little more
on nineteen forty eight, move on to nineteen forty nine
after the break, but Rick's counted me down after the
first hour. We've had fun so far. More championship facts,
maybe some championship trivia, maybe some Keenland talk, maybe some
Masters talk. It's Drew here with Billy and Corey having
lots of fun on a Monday, kicking off Drew Week.

(42:06):
We'll be right back after this break.