KSR Postgame UK MBB vs Alabama 01/18/25

Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 102-97 loss vs Alabama.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame Show.
Kentucky falls in rupperna to Alabama one to oh, two
to ninety seven, their first home loss of the year
and their first loss against a top fifteen team after
five victories. You can give a shout eight five to nine,
two eighth, twenty two eighty seven. A lot of you

(00:21):
are driving back home or heading wherever you are, so
feel free to give me a shout. The Cats, you know,
scored ninety seven points and still lose. Really the first
time this year where they've had a game where they've
played pretty well offensively and still we're not able to
get the victory. And the other games where Kentucky's lost,

(00:42):
their point total has been in the sixties. This one
was ninety seven and still a loss. And I thought, honestly,
the better team today one Alabama. A couple things that
I thought were crucial to the game ended up playing
out before the game. If you were listening yesterday, we
said basically two things were important. One was Grant Nelson,

(01:07):
because I think the one consistent thing we've seen this
year is teams that have a guy at the four,
sometimes at the three, but really at the four, who
is versatile, can shoot from outside and go to the basket.
They really give us a hard time, even you know,
going back to Cooper Flag, to Asa Newell at Georgia,

(01:29):
the two guys at Florida that got all those rebounds,
and then again Grant Nelson here today and he had
a great first half, nineteen points in the first half,
twenty six points in the game. He was a real
issue for us, and I thought was really the reason
Alabama was ahead at halftime and a half where Kentucky
may have even outplayed Alabama but just couldn't really do

(01:52):
anything with Grant Nelson. And then the second thing, And
it sounds very simplistic, but Drew and I both made
the point. These two teams love to shoot threes, and
they're both good at it. Whoever hits the most will win. Well,
you know, Alabama made thirteen, Kentucky made eleven. We lost

(02:14):
by five. It really, I'm not saying the whole game
can be broken down into something that simple, but it's
a pretty important thing. These two teams each have strengths
outside of three point shooting, but the one thing they
share is three point shooting, and they made two more
of them than we did, and we had open looks.
We had chances to hit shots that I think if

(02:35):
you hit, maybe it's a different ending. Almanor had a
couple of open threes. I thought, you know, Perry in
the second half, I had an open three that was big.
Butler had an open three. You know, you miss those.
And Alabama in that little run where it was tied
eighty one eighty one and then they scored nine straight points,

(02:55):
they hit two open threes in similar situations, and in
my opinion, that was maybe even the difference in the
game some you know, smaller, smaller things. First of all,
I thought, even though his stat line looks pretty good
and I think he played well defensively, I thought Lamont

(03:17):
Butler struggled offensively, especially down the stretch that little sequence
from eighty one to eighty one to ninety eighty one,
you know, obviously as a sequence where they won the game,
and Lamont made a couple big mistakes during that during
that sequence, especially on offense. The turnover on the fast
break was huge. It was eighty four eighty one. We

(03:40):
had a chance to get an easy basket there, maybe
even an am one, and he throws it away, then
they come down and hit a three. And then the
next sequence for us, Butler gets a step and gets
into the lane, but then throws a lob to Amari
that just really didn't have much of a chance of success,
and Amari doesn't catch it. Eighty seven eighty one becomes
ninety to eighty one when they hit a three, and

(04:02):
then that's kind of that. I think Amari Williams is
really is a good player. He hustles a lot, but
when he is having to be a centerpiece of your offense,
you're going to struggle. And there were three or four
times where he tried to initiate offense by dribbling. I
never think that's really a good thing for us, and

(04:23):
even throwing lobs to him. I think I saw a
stat somewhere that we're one of the worst teams in
the country at throwing and executing lobbs. And I'm not
shocked at that, because again, we're not a crazy athletic team.
We're a good shooting team, we're a good execution team,
but we're not crazy athletic, and I think you see
that in lobbs, where you know, we try to do

(04:45):
stuff that maybe some of our guys, it's not their
strong point defensively. You know, you give up one hundred
and two, it's gonna be hard to win. We gave
up one hundred to Florida and did win. I gave
up one hundred and two today. You know, I don't
talk about or write a lot about defense because I
just don't think we're ever going to be great at defense.

(05:05):
I just don't think this team is built with guys
who are really good defensive players outside of Butler and
sometimes oh Way. I mean, I think Carr is a
big defensive liability, Bray is a defensive liability, and Robinson
can be a defensive liability. Perry's a defensive liability. So

(05:29):
you get that many guys on the court that are
not great defenders, You're never going to be a great
defensive team. Now. What you can do, however, is get
loose balls and get rebounds. And we did give up
fifteen offensive rebounds. Now that's a big number. It didn't
crush us, though, because we actually outscored them on second

(05:51):
chance points. We had thirteen offensive rebounds, so we gave
up fifteen, which is too many, But I don't think
that's why we lost. I think part of the re
and we struggled. There was fifty fifty balls. You heard
Mark Pope say on the post game that he thought
we just weren't We were like a step slow getting
to some of those fifty fifty balls, And I kind

(06:13):
of agree. Some of their offensive rebounds were long threes
that we just really didn't scramble and weren't in a
good position for. But you know, defensively, you can't give
up one hundred and two. But I think we're gonna
give up one hundred and two against teams like that.
Sometimes they ended up shooting eighty five percent from the

(06:34):
free throw line. What were they, Billy twenty six of
thirty or something like that from the free.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Throw Alabama, are you yeah? Yeah, they were twenty nine
to thirty four.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Twenty nine to thirty four. That's a great percentage. They
got thirty four free throws. We got twenty four free throws,
but they got thirty four. And you know, when you
most of these teams, we've actually had some pretty good
free throw percentage luck this year when the other team
shoots them. Not today, twenty nine to thirty four, and
they made the big ones when they needed to. You know,

(07:06):
there was the big foul on the three pointer by Sears.
That is the fourth time in the last three games
we have had a landing area three point foul called
on us, and you know, it's frustrating to watch those calls.
But at the same time, the NCAA announced before the
season they were going to emphasize that, and we have

(07:30):
to stop doing it. Like, whether you think that's a
foul or not, we can't keep doing it because they're
gonna call it, Which gets me into a greater sort
of conversation about fouls in general. We're just not doing
a good job of drawing fouls. And I think you know,
Almanor had a three at the end where they went

(07:52):
into his landing area. It was the one he made,
but he didn't fall down, and like, they're not gonna
call that unless you fall down. So I mean, there
may come a point where I'm not saying flop, but
if somebody land, if you land and he's in your
landing there, you gotta fall down. And we've got to
do a better job of drawing fouls. These other teams

(08:14):
are doing a really good job of drawing fouls on us,
and you know, we gave up thirty four free throws.
And I actually think the refs a lot of the
game kind of let the guys play. We were not
getting the whistle. You know, some of that can be
you know, you can say all the refs stink, and
sometimes I think that, but like some of it is also,

(08:37):
you know, we shoot jumpers. These teams are driving to
paint and they're drawing fouls and we're not. Sears was great,
Nelson was very good. You know. I I heard J.
Billis say one time, a long time ago, when two
teams are basically even, if the top two players in
the game are on one of the two sides, that

(08:58):
team will win. I thought about that tonight because I
think UK and Alabama are close to even. Alabama might
be slightly better, but if we're close to even, the
two best players on the FLOORI tonight were Sears and Nelson,
and that's why we lost. If a game is close
to even and one team has the two best players,
they're gonna win. And I think that's kind of what

(09:20):
happened tonight. I'm not overly down about the game. I
thought there was a chance they could lose this game.
That's why I thought it was so important that they
beat Mississippi State, and they beat Texas A and M,
and they did. This game probably makes it hard for
us to win the SEC, but I don't know that
we were going to win the SEC anyway. I still

(09:43):
think a really good goal for this team is to
get the double by be a top four in the league,
and then if you're top four in the league, you're
probably gonna be a three seed in the tournament. I
think if the tournament started tomorrow, we'd be a three
seed today. So I think your goals are still there. Now.
You play va In next on the road. You gotta
win that one. You play at Tennessee, which is a

(10:04):
game that's going to be very, very difficult to win,
and I think if you do lose, not the end
of the world. And then what are the next three
after that? Billy? Do you know after after Vangs?

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I don't. I'll pull it up right now here.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, pull it up. The game at Vanding next Saturday,
I do think is very important. It's sold out, and
I've got to think if it's sold out, it's sold
out with a lot of Kentucky fans there. So we
get this week off. Y Saturday. I think that's gonna
be a big one.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
What's after Tennessee versus Arkansasary.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Obviously have to win that one.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
What's next and you're at Old Miss February four?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Tough game but winnable, but a tough game. And then
what's the next one?

Speaker 3 (10:42):
You're at home versus South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Again, you will win that one. So there is this
little sequence here where you play. You play if you
win what you're supposed to you. If you can win
at Vandy, you win Arkansas, and you win South Carolina,
you get those three, and then you play at Tennessee
and at Old Miss. You know, if you could steal
one of those and go four and one in that sequence,

(11:04):
be seven and three in conference, I think you would
love where you're sitting. Love where you're sitting. So we
played five ranked teams to start the conference. We're gonna
play two in our next five games instead of five.
Gotta take advantage of that during this sequence. And uh,
I'm gonna look at these five and say, we'd love

(11:25):
to go four and one, four to one, Gotta go
three and two, but four and one, and I feel
like you're in pretty good shape. Hey, Fi, I've nine
two eighth twenty two eighty seven. We're gonna take your calls.
Disappointing loss against a really good Alabama team. Uh, you
know at some point the top fifteen team had to
beat us. We were five and oh so they finally

(11:45):
got one. We'll take a break and be right back.
It's it's the Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show. Well,
you know people are down about the loss because this
is the Billy said the first time this year where
the phones are not full going into the first segment.
So if I'm nine two eight twenty two eighty seven,
look Saturday afternoons, you know, I know you got other
stuff to do. Probably a lot of people thought I

(12:07):
don't want to relive that game, but hopefully, hopefully we
can talk throughout the show. One person, the Prince rites Matt,
I want your take on this. Do you think there's
been a big foul descript scene our two sec losses.
Am I just seeing it as a biased fan? Or
do you think we're not getting a fair shake because
Pope is too nice? I like how we used to

(12:30):
always say the rest didn't like us cause cal complained
too much, and now it's that Pope is too nice.
I look in these five SEC games, I thought I
wasn't a huge fan of the officiat officiating at Georgia,
But I think are the complaints about officials We're doing

(12:52):
too much of it. To be honest with you, I
thought the game was officiated fine tonight. I didn't. You know, Look,
they're not gonna get every call, right, but I did
not think it was unfair. Alabama's gonna draw more fouls.
They cut to the rim, they go at the rim,
they try to shoot layups, they shoot over people. They're
going to get more fouls. We shoot jumpers like we

(13:13):
fade away when when you do that, you're not gonna
get his any foul calls. That's just a fact. Like
it's we our guys, I was given them. I think
our guys have been a lot tougher in the last
couple of games than they were, for instance, in the
Georgia game. But our guys do not play to contact
the Alabama and a lot of these teams we've played do,

(13:34):
and you're gonna get more foul calls when you play
to contact. So you know, I mean, there were calls
I thought were wrong today, but we got benefit of
calls too. I mean, think about if that Kobe Brea
in the what do you call it? Believe when they
say you're like in your.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Zone or whatever in your bag.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
No, like when they would say that when they called
that foul, Brea had the ball and the guy was
in his face and they said they would he would
they oh, oh, what do they call it? Not in
your back? They were like, it's called it in your something?
Was it? Whatever it was? I mean, got didn't even
touch him and we got that call. So, you know,
I just every game when I look at the text machine,

(14:15):
half of the comments are not more after the game
or the official stink. I mean, I just the officials
I do think go to the monitor too much. But
beyond that, they beat us. That's that's kind of how
I look at it. And by the way, Almonor, I
guess did fall? I didn't see that, so people are
telling me he did fall. I think they also called
a foul and Amari on the same play. So maybe

(14:37):
because the whistle blew on that, they didn't call the
other one. I don't know. All right, who's up first?

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Andrew?

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Andrew?

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Go ahead, Andrew, Hey, Matt, how's it going?

Speaker 1 (14:46):
You can hear me good? Yes, I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Good, awesome. I think this is the first time chatting
with you. I actually interviewed for a KSR internship right
after Ryan's handguy bitting in the Chick fil A parking lot.
So it's been a while, man. But I I feel
like I'm the first fan that's very skeptical that Hope

(15:09):
Can will be able to string together six games in
March to help us win a title at any point,
just because I feel like we live and die by
the three.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, I mean, I don't. I think that worry is
completely First of all, how many coaches string six wins
together in a tournament every year? Like?

Speaker 5 (15:30):
What?

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Right?

Speaker 5 (15:32):
So?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
I mean, and how many coaches have ever done it
in history? You're probably talking like forty or fifty. So
you know the chance that there's a very good chance
he won't because it's very hard to do. But I
just still disagree with your premise. I think this team
right here, I think that argument is fair about but

(15:54):
how do you know he's not gonna have teams that
have guys who can get stops. He is gonna have
athletes on next year's team that are better. He's gonna
have three at least athletes on next year's team that
are better than any athlete we have right now. And
the longer he's here, he's gonna get more guys like that.
And he wasn't able to get guys like that at
Utah Valley State and at BYU. So excuse me, I

(16:17):
don't know how you can say that because he'll have
different kinds of rosters in the future.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Well, I agree with you. I just think that Caleb
Wilson is definitely key for next year to be able
to make a run. But I'm just I'm just a
little bit afraid, especially watching Pope's previous tournament games with but.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
He's never had he's never had roster. I mean he
was at BYU and he was at b YU before
they started giving Big Nile money, before the new guy
came on, so I mean he's never had he is.
Just think about it like this, He's never had an
NBA player on his roster ever, and now he's gonna

(16:58):
have them. So like the idea he can't have a
team to play defense. He was at BYU without elite athletes,
and he probably thought his best way to win was
to get a team that could shoot threes. Same thing
with this team. He looks at it and says, look,
I don't have any elite defenders. I have won, so
I've got to play a way that can give us

(17:19):
a chance to win. Wait until he gets those guys,
and then I think you there's a lot better chance
we will see really good defense.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
I agree, Matt. I just hope that Pope will be
able to I guess change his philosophy in March where
games are usually a little bit more low scoring, and
if we shoot thirty percent from the three point line,
we can still win those games and move on.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well, I do too, but you also, and I appreciate
the call, have to deal with the roster that you have.
And this roster, and I've said this since like Game two,
we're never gonna be good defense. They just don't have
the players. So we got to be the best we
can be. But we got four of our top seven guys,

(18:11):
maybe five of our top eight, who cannot guard. I
think Butler can guard, Away can guard, and Amari can
kind of guard. But the rest of our guys can't guard,
and they're never gonna be able to. And that's not
to criticize them. They can do a lot of things
really well. But I don't care how much Carr and

(18:33):
Brea and those guys lock in. They're not They cannot
stay with these dudes. You know, Travis Perry, there might
come a time he's a good defender, but I don't
care how much he locks in when he's guarding Mark Sears.
He doesn't have a chance of staying in front of
that guy. And Grant Nelson Andrew Carr with a hurt

(18:54):
back is not gonna stay in that guy, and so
it just makes it. It makes it who's next? Mike, Mike?
What's up? Mike?

Speaker 5 (19:05):
Hi, Matt.

Speaker 6 (19:06):
I enjoy your postgame analysis. I'm seventy three years old,
and even after fifty years, I'm a very unlearned student
of the game. So I always listen to your show,
and I agree with you. I just think I'm happy, basically,
I mean, I'm disappointed, but we're a very nice team.

(19:31):
But Alabama appears to be a little bit better. Yeah,
you might easily go down there and beat them by
twelve or fifteen, but I think they're a slightly better team.
I think UK is a legit Sweet sixteen team. I
think we have realistic hopes for being an Elite A

(19:54):
team and realistic dreams of being a Final four team.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
I think that is a perfectly like I think that
is a very cognizant analysis. I appreciate the call and
thank you for your nice car. I think that is
a you know, the good thing about the NCAA tournament
is you can pull an upset, or a team can
get upset before they play you, and you can be
no better and go around or too farther right, like

(20:21):
San Diego State made the championship with Lamont Butler a
few years ago. That was not a championship team, but
there were a couple upsets they ended up getting. You know,
I can't remember who they got in the final four
that year. It was like what Miami, Florida Atlantic, yukonn
and San Diego State, right, so you know, I think

(20:43):
they played Florida Atlantic in the final four. Well, you
get Florida Atlantic in the final four, all of a sudden,
you might be in the championship game. So I think
that I do think this is kind of a team
that would be like Elite eight to really good Sweet sixteen,
hover in that mark. But if they get a matchup
that works and they play really well, or they hit

(21:06):
fourteen threes instead of eleven, they could be in the
Final four. Right, That's and that is not that is
not me being critical. I love this team. This is
one of the most fun teams to watch that I
can remember us having in years. But they have limitations.
And when you score ninety seven and you still lose,

(21:28):
I think it's fair to say defense is going to
be a limitation for this team. Who's next?

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Michael's next?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Michael, go ahead, Michael, Hey, what'sten? Man?

Speaker 7 (21:39):
I hope you all having a good day?

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Bro, you too.

Speaker 7 (21:44):
I'll I'm going to be a fan, that's just gonna say.
I'm I'm enjoying watching coach Pope. I didn't expect this
year to play out the way it was. I was expecting,
you know, to have a little bit more struggles. Uh No,
going into the game today, I didn't. I'm not gonna

(22:05):
say I was expecting to win, but I definitely expected
uh as close.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
As it was.

Speaker 7 (22:10):
I'm proud of watching the kids play the way they
did today. I do think that we would have pulled
off the wind had we not allowed a back to
back to back three points.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
That I totally agree with you. I mean, that was
that was the swing right there. That was the swing.
That was the swing. I mean if you, let's if
Lamont Butler on that fast break throws a better pass
and you get a basket or maybe even an one
and the crowd's going crazy and you come out of
that time out and Alabama has to score, could be

(22:49):
a different game, right like, like it could be a
different game. I'm totally with you on that.

Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, I really feel like if that portion that
few minutes would not have happened, we I think we
could have at least pulled off a win by a
few points. But I think that really changed the dynamics.
And anyways, appreciate listening to yall, y'all have a good day.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Appreciate the call. No, that was the swing. And even
on the play after the timeout, it's eighty four eighty one,
Alabama makes a little baseline drive and Amari cuts it
off and gets a block and the ball you know,
I mean, he blocked the shot, so that's what he's
supposed to do. The ball just falls into Mark Sears hands.

(23:30):
Someone probably Butler or o Way should have been boxing
out Sears, but Sears gets the ball and then he
kicks it out for an open three, and the guy
makes it. And you know, that may have just been
a bad bounce because Amari blocked, you know, and MARII
did exactly what he was supposed to do. It's just
it fell into sears hand. And then he kicked it
out and the guy hits a three. And so it

(23:51):
went from what could have been a tie game to
a six point game. And then of course the next
possession I think had an open three misses. It comes
down we play twenty three seconds of good defense and
then the guy shoots the three and lands on Butler

(24:11):
and or oh Way or whoever it was. And that's that,
you know, I mean that that that little run loses
you the game. Hey, if I'm nine two eighty seven,
who's next, Kyle, Kyle, go ahead, Kyle.

Speaker 8 (24:26):
Hey, Matt, I'm gonna piggyback off the last two collars
and then add a little bit of just like a
generalized thing, I think it is important to look at
like this. I think we're a fringe Elite eight team,
probably a Sweet sixteen team. But you're looking at two
teams who are on paper, probably Elite eight teams. Sweet
sixteen team. So, as you said, it comes down to

(24:47):
sometimes just those balances. Maybe we can get them back
at Alabama. It's nothing to hang our head over. But
I think where I've started noticing this team starts to
struggle or when we lose games is if you look
at that five minutes before the end of the first half,
and then I don't want to put the last minute
in because fALS come into that. But maybe like the

(25:08):
five minutes before that, those swings have like killed us
in some of these games where we either shouldn't have
won or we end up winning, like at Gonzaga or
against the Duke.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
We struggled a little bit at the end of first halves.
I can't remember. There is a game and I can't
remember which one it was where I felt like that
run was really good for us. But yes, we have
had some problems. I think tonight we haven't even I
haven't mentioned it yet. I think fatigue was an issue tonight.
You know, Andrew Carr did not play well and he
was in foul trouble, and Butler, I mean had to

(25:44):
play because Perry couldn't really guard seers. Butler had to
play pretty much the whole game. And I kind of
felt like at the end Butler and Robinson maybe there
was a little fatigue there at the end as well.

Speaker 8 (26:01):
Yeah, I guess like what I look at and I
was texting like a like a friend group, is that
I felt like we should have been up maybe five
or seven at the end of the first half. And
when we were down too, I felt really concerned.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I think we should have been we should have been up,
But I think it was I think it was Grant Nelson.
We get Nelson. He kills absolutely he and again I'm
not picking on Car, but Grant Nelson abused Car in
that first half. He just abused him and and and
that was the difference. It was kind of like in
some ways the A and M game in reverse. If

(26:36):
you remember the A and M game, we probably should
have been behind and Jackson Robinson just had a great half.
Well I think that's what.

Speaker 8 (26:44):
Happened at the time, minute, yes or or half. Like Yeah,
as you talked about earlier, the individual players making the
game important. So if you have that player who does that,
you end up winning. But before you go on to
the next point and you can talking about what we
were but are we going to see a game under
two and a half hours this year in the SEC,

(27:05):
or should we just make this the NFL?

Speaker 1 (27:08):
I mean that could I appreciate the call the the
Matt Norlander CBS was talking about how the SEC games
are longer than any other conferences this year, and I
think there's a few things about. One of them is
these monitor reviews. I mean, I think he said the
A and M Alabama game the other night had eleven
monitor reviews Billy the course of the game. I mean

(27:30):
the fact that they went to the monitor on a
shot clock one minute into the game, like who like
stop the rule needs to be monitored, like last two minutes,
last three minutes, and each coach gets one challenge. That's it.
There's no reason to do this. I mean they were
looking at stuff that wasn't even close right. I mean

(27:54):
that slows the game down. And then part of it
are the fouls. I mean, you know there we've we
specifically have played in a lot of games of fouls.
And again I'm not saying there aren't calls to go
against us, but part of the reason we foil so
much is because we're not good defenders. We get beat

(28:15):
and so we foul to keep them from score. I mean,
that's part of it. Is we foul a lot because
we've been beaten. You know, I think if you go
and look at the guys who, generally speaking foul the most,
it's usually the guys that we don't that aren't the
best defenders. Car has been probably leads the team in fouls.

(28:38):
So you know, it is what it is. Let's do
one more and we'll take a break. Chris, Chris, go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 9 (28:46):
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. First time caller,
actually five year old of the game. My daughter of
the game. She loved it. Star Pats kids and the
popcorn was was great them right. Yes, I've got a
couple of things. I thought it was a well played game,
both really good teams. Toward the end some of the

(29:09):
fifty to fifty balls went their way, and I thought,
you know, you all touched on it. Fatigue did play
a factor. I think toward the end there some of
those fifty balls that Mark Pope team I think would
get went their way, and about ball kind of bounced
the wrong way. But I do want to talk a
little bit about our big specifically Williams and the fit

(29:31):
for the offense.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Big Z.

Speaker 9 (29:33):
I think a lot of people would agree would have
been an awesome fit for this offense. And his hair
was on fire playing for Arkansas earlier in the season.
He was banging threes and looking really good. The last
three games that they've played, he's scored zero points and
he's had ten or less minutes played. I don't know
if he's heard or what he's got going on, but

(29:55):
we've already had one free big Z moment when he
was at Uka. I think we need another free big
Z moment when they come on February first.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Well, I think, I think, But there's a lot of players.
There's a lot of players out there that are I mean,
I appreciate the call we know Z because he was here,
but I mean there are dudes all over the country
that you know my here's my guess. My guess is
his Pope's big men next year are going to be

(30:27):
a returning garrison, and then he will go find a
guy somewhere to be what you're talking about. I agree
with you. I don't think Amari is the ideal big
for Pope's offense. He can't shoot threes, and I think
Pope would like to have a big who can dribble.

(30:48):
And while Amari, certainly I think things he can dribble,
it is not his strong suit. Now. I think the
thing Pope probably likes is his passing, which is probably
why he brought him in because he's a He's a
good passer, really good passer. But I think you will
see probably next year in the portal him get a
big that is more attuned to how he plays. I've

(31:11):
got a feeling, and I have no idea if this
is true, but I got a feeling that our big
most years is gonna be a transfer that Mark is
gonna look around and see because the big is so
important for his system with the passing and running the
offense at the top of the key, He'll look around
and go, where are the bigs that can shoot that
are good passers at the top of the key. I'm

(31:34):
gonna go look for a dude like that and are smart.
I think that's gonna be what he'll do going forward.
But with this year, he had to get who he
could get. He looked at Amari, he looked at Garrison,
and he looked at Osibor. And if you if you
were to watch great Osibor play, he's a load. But
he's also a good passer, Like I can see why
he was interested in him, right, So you know, I

(31:54):
think the passing is why Maury is a center. Hey,
if I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven,
we will take a break and we will come back.
Kats tough loss against Alabama. It's the Local Toy Dealers
KSR postgame show, Welcome back. It is the Local Toy
Dealers KSR postgame show. It's in the cylinder. Is the
rule I was trying to think of.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
That makes sense?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yeah, that's what they called the thing on the bre
the Braya play aff nine two eighth twenty two eighty seven.
I need somebody reminded me as I should have. As
we also have Malachi Moreno coming next year, who is
very very talented. I don't know how much, Like I
don't know if he can be here, I don't know.

(32:37):
Maybe that's Pope's plan is to have Garrison as the
starter in Malachi's the bench player. Garrison. You know, Garrison defensively,
I don't love the way, you know, he's a step
slow to actually looking at the foul leaders. He's actually
sat third on the team in fouls and he plays
significantly less minutes than everybody else, so he's also a
kind of a foul foul first guy. One person writes

(33:01):
Matt next, our team shoots a lot of threes, and
when we make them, we're good. When we don't, we're bad.
Is it just that simple? Yeah? But no, I mean yes,
I think it was that simple today because we were
playing a team that plays just like us. But I

(33:24):
don't think it's that simple. Like next week we played
Bandy or when we played A and M. I think
it's different in those games. But against the team Florida
and Alabama are going to play just like us, and
I think whoever makes the most shots wins. We said
that before the game, and I think that'll be true
down in Tuscaloosa two. And I also just think the

(33:44):
one thing this team has struggled with is when we
play against a guy that we just cannot guard, we
have a hard time overcoming that. The only team I
think we've beaten that had a dude we just couldn't
guard was Cooper Flag and Duke we couldn't guard him,
but like he made those airs at the end of

(34:05):
the game, but we couldn't tonight, we could not guard
Nelson in the first half, and we could not guard
Seers in the second half. And even even when he
didn't score, he was kicking it out for open looks
like we just we had no answer for those two
guys tonight, and I think it's ultimately what took us down.
Who's next, Andy, Andy? Go ahead, Andy?

Speaker 9 (34:26):
Hey, how's it going?

Speaker 1 (34:28):
What's up?

Speaker 9 (34:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (34:31):
Yeah, A couple of things, you know, you know, people
talking about the free throw discrepancy and the foul calls.
I mean, I don't really know if that's the best
thing to really kind of blame the game on. I
think the Georgia thing is one thing, but it's kind
of just the nature of how we play. I mean,
you know, they take a lot outside shots and they
don't really drive the ball a lot. So I mean

(34:52):
that's just kind of how it's gonna end up.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I totally agree with that. I Mean, we don't, you know,
Jackson Robinson, Kobe Brea, they avoid contact. Oh way gets
a little Butler will draw cont try to draw content,
but he also fades away. We just you're we just
don't play a way that's gonna draw a lot of fouls,
especially at the rim. So we're we're not gonna get

(35:16):
as many free throws as everybody else the way we play.

Speaker 11 (35:20):
Yeah, and I think I think, well, I think Butler.

Speaker 10 (35:23):
I think Butler could sort of fix that. You know.
I like that he plays off a two feet but
I think that, you know, he sort of like he
drives to the rim. I think that he's predetermined, he
already makes up in his mind that he's gonna come
to a jump stop and pump fake when I think
that he should just lay the ball up and try
to draw contact instead of trying to go for a
pump take and get him up in the air.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, I think that. I think that's I think that's
a pretty good critique. Also, you know, he had that
play at the end of the game where he gave
up a wide open layup to circle around and shoot
a contested three. I don't know what he was doing
right there, but uh, you know, listen, he's a great defenders,
he's the only guy we have. It's a really good
but I didn't think tonight was his greatest game offensively.

Speaker 12 (36:05):
Do you agree or disagree?

Speaker 10 (36:06):
But I think they kind of surrendered the game really
sort of in the first half and especially in the
second half, they stopped trying to run with him, they
stopped trying to match them on their three point attempts.
And even in the first half, there was at least
like three straight possessions where they just forced started force
feeding the ball into Mary Williams. And I didn't really understand.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
That those three possessions were big to me. Yeah, those
three possessions were big to me. Twice they force fed
him and once he tried to take a guy off
the dribble. And I, you know, I like Omari Williams,
and I don't think he played bad tonight, although his
plus minus was awful. I think he was like minus eighteen.
But you I don't know. I don't know. I don't

(36:48):
think you forced the ball to him offensively. Sometimes it's
gonna happen, but like when he takes off dribbling from
the free throw line, I just am like, oh no,
so you're right. There were like three straight possessions that
kind of went through Amari, and I don't think we
scored on any of them.

Speaker 10 (37:04):
Yeah, I don't understand that. I'm not saying like they
to me, it just seemed like they surrendered it in
that sense. They stopped trying to match the volume on
their three point shots. I mean they got to shoot
more to be able to to be able to win
a game like that.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, I appreciate the call. I mean I think Brandon
Garrison was like plus ten tonight and Amar was minus
like eighteen. But I mean that's one game. There have
been a couple of games this year where a Mari
was first and plus minus, including I think our last one.
So you know that stat can be a little misleading
depending in an individual game.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
Who's next, Stub?

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Is next Stub? What's up stub?

Speaker 13 (37:45):
Hey? Man?

Speaker 14 (37:46):
So the SEC is not messing around, man, I've been
on my calculator for the past few minutes. So first
of all, Mark Pope works the officials. You can work
the officials, not be a lunatic about it.

Speaker 11 (37:58):
He worked.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
I agree, I agree.

Speaker 14 (38:00):
But the five teams that Kentucky played outside the SEC
and the powerful Conference Duke Clembs in the house that
Gonziga Louisville, Yeah, those teams shot one hundred and one
free throws. Okay, the five SEC opponents have shot one
hundred and fifty. Okay, It's it's not even close.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Man.

Speaker 14 (38:20):
These teams are so good and so skilled. If Duke
was in the SEC, they'd be two and three, I
think five games in.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
I think it's also when you're playing those when you're
playing those other teams you, I mean there's a culture
of officials too, like how many fouls they call and
the SEC officials may just call more. I mean, I
don't know, but you're right. The athleticism is so good
in the SEC, you're gonna get more collisions, which means

(38:49):
you're probably gonna get more fouls.

Speaker 14 (38:53):
And we just have guys that don't. Our guys I
think are so they're I think they're a little bit
more under size even when they do draw contact. I
think the officiles are just like, well, the other team's
just bigger, more athletic. I mean, Kobe brew has only
shot ten free throws for the year. Jackson Robinson's only
shot twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yes, but think about Kobe Bray anyway, he avoids contact,
you know what I mean, Like Kobe doesn't Jackson. That
number should be higher. But you know, I appreciate the call.
The person on our team that I think gets the
worst whistle, to be honest with you, is Amari because
I think the very nature he fouls a lot, and
he gets fouled a lot, and I think they end

(39:35):
up just It's like when Shaq used to play, Like
Shaq got filed more than anyone in the league, but
he also was massive, and I think they used it
against him and Amari. I think Mari's the one guy
that I think gets fouled and then doesn't get the
call more than most because he he Amari does not
avoid contact, but you know, he's also not the greatest

(39:59):
free throw shoo, Who's next?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
It's hard to avoid contact when a guy like Grant
Nelson pushes off every single shot that he has.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Wow, you have some strong feelings there. You are you
anti Grant Nelson? Yeah? I mean you don't like Wist
carving him.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
He was carving him up.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
I mean I thought he was you know, in the
second half, I think he only had five points, but
I thought the first half he was he was great.
He was great, Like that was the dude that alb
maybe thought they were getting when they were he originally
transferred who's next? Hunter? What's up? Hunter?

Speaker 5 (40:32):
Matt?

Speaker 12 (40:33):
How are you doing.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Good?

Speaker 5 (40:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (40:38):
For my first ever game, that was a top two
atmosphere and it wasn't too.

Speaker 14 (40:41):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
I'm sure, yeah, you like that. That was really's line. Yeah,
it was. It sounded loud in there, and you know,
again with ESPN, it's hard to tell sometimes, but it
sounded like it was a good atmosphere.

Speaker 7 (40:54):
Yeah, I was saut with Mario.

Speaker 12 (40:55):
Mario said this was just as good as little and
I agree just from hearing it. But my two points
as far as like the game goes, really what it
just kind of came down to everyone blaming the rest
and like maybe it was a factor, but ultimately it
just came down to, like you said, the fifty to
fifty balls, and honestly, it was a lot of trying
to do one handed rebounding instead of too, and what
was happening is they'd have to pop that ball up

(41:16):
with the one hand and then you're scrambling trying to
find it where if they got the two handball, maybe
we're gonna able to get more rebounds.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
Could be a different ball game.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
I think you're right, y'all. Tell you the one guy
we have that does rebound with two hands is a way.
I thought he had some really strong rebounds tonight. I
love the way he crashed the glass.

Speaker 12 (41:34):
Yeah, he did an awesome job. It's just everyone else again.
It was the fifty to fifty balls. And then my
second point is I'm not worried about this game at all,
just especially because I could see it, like in the
March's postgame show after he was done nswering and he
would cut to the brake, you could just see on
his face that he was just like he was just
sad and angry and he wanted to put on the

(41:55):
best performance he could. And I know that that's going
to changelate into this by many bye weeks that we
have and I am not worried to come.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. I appreciate the call.
He both said in the media postgame press conference, and
then he said on his radio show he used the
phrase losing is the worst, and you know, I love,
I love that he hates to lose. He says, we
are supposed to win every game. That is a stark

(42:25):
contrast from you know, Wade till March and its process
and blah blah blah. He is like, we should win
every game, and I love. I feel like Billy, if
he were not the coach, he would be pacing in
his room, like I'm pacing in my room, right.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
You think you do a lot of the similar stuff
you do.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, like I think he would do. I think he
would go up and get in the shower, right. Like.
I feel like I feel like it matters to him
on such a level. And I really do. I really
do appreciate ate that about him, that it You know,
this is the second time now we've lost a game.
Uh this in Ohio State where we were losing going

(43:09):
into a week a bye and you can tell he
hates that, like he's gonna it's gonna bother him all
week that we lost going into a bye. I like
that about him. I like that. I like that these
regular games matter because they do matter us. I mean,
on one level, if you're in the tournament, like it's
all the same, but it's not here, Like here, we

(43:29):
want to win these games, and I like that he
seems like he does too. Who's next, Jake, Jake, Go ahead.

Speaker 15 (43:36):
Jake, Hey, Matt, I've just got a couple of points.
I know this has been talked about a lot, and
this is not a complaint about the officiating at all,
because all of the fouls I thought were pretty legitimate,
but I really think that Alabama getting in the bonus
like six minutes into the second half as well as
they were shooting huge, that was huge.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah. Huge. We had we had three three fouls in
like thirty seconds in that game, and that got them
in the bonus early. And you're right with him shooting
the way they were, that was huge.

Speaker 15 (44:11):
Yeah. And then my other point, you brought up Garrison's defense,
and I agree with you that his defense is pretty bad,
but I've really enjoyed watching his development as an offensive
player throughout the season so far. Yeah, I think he
had if I'm correct, I think he had eleven point
six rebounds, five assists, and no turnovers today. So I mean,

(44:31):
if he can keep just improving and if he can
get better on defense, I think he could be a
difference maker for us later in the season.

Speaker 13 (44:38):
Well.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
And his ability to shoot threes has an impact with
the other players, right, they have to come out and
guard him him and they have to close guard him,
they have to face guard him, which they don't face
guard a marn So that's a big deal. That allows
backdoor cuts, that allows guys to uh to get more space.

(44:59):
You know, in the first half, Alabama was doing to
us every possession what Garrison allows us to do on offense,
which is play five out and then take a guy
off the dribble or backcut, et cetera. So yeah, I mean,
I think Garrison next year will be our starting center,
and I think, you know, his defense needs to improve,

(45:20):
but there's a lot of stuff I think he does
really well.

Speaker 15 (45:24):
Yeah. And then my last question, what would you think
about him maybe getting more minutes over at car because
in my opinion, neither of them are really great defensively,
and I I.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Just don't think you can play him and Williams together.
I don't think that's you know, and I appreciate the call.
If there was ever a game, you could probably do it.
It would like being in Starkansas, because you know, Cal
plays plays two bigs together a lot. But I just
I don't know that that works with him with Williams,
you know, I do think though, with Garrison, you know,

(45:59):
you could at all manure at the four. You know,
I thought going into the year you'd be able to
play Brea at the four a lot, and I just
don't think you can because he can't guard those guys
and he struggles with the guys at the three too.
But he just when he's had to play the four
and we've only had one big out there, we do struggle.

(46:20):
I mean, he just he has a heart. He has
a heart. He can't buy. He can't rebound with the fours,
that's the problem. He can't really guard the threes or
the fours, but he can't rebound with the fours, and
that that hurts us. And so if you're putting you know,
car or Garrison at the five with him at the four,
you kind of have a defensive problem. They went on

(46:40):
a ten oh run and our lineup I think was
was was Perry allmnore or excuse me, Perry, Braa, Garrison
and then maybe Oway and Robinson and it just that
lineup can't play can't play defense? Billy? Do you? I mean,
I know, I guess you don't hear because you're here

(47:00):
in the radio broadcast, but do you can we get one?
Billis game without the ice cream?

Speaker 5 (47:05):
Just?

Speaker 3 (47:05):
What did they do it again?

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Again? Wow?

Speaker 11 (47:08):
Like?

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Is there any like will they ever have a game
where they don't do it? Ever?

Speaker 2 (47:12):
I don't think so. I think that's kind of Jay's
thing at this point now. So I mean, yeah, kill
some time after a commercial break.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
SMU beat Miami by forty five points on the road
today forty five, and Virginia lost by twenty at Louisville.
Those two coaches listen Tony Bennett, Larra Naga legends. But
quitting on your team mid season and then watching them
collapse is to me a really really bad look. We'll

(47:41):
take a break and be right back. It's the Local
Toy Dealers KSR postgame Show. Walk. I'm back. It is
final segment, Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame Show. You got
the Chiefs and the Texans about to start. It's freezing
cold in Kansas City. Already started, by the way, has
already started.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yeah, it's Kansas City.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Kansas City. Tennessee is losing to Vanderbilt in the second
half forty one thirty seven. Vandy trying to pull an
upset in in Nashville. We'll see what happens. And then
at midnight tonight, Billy the TikTok CEO has announced they
will pull TikTok at midnight tonight. What do you think

(48:19):
about that?

Speaker 3 (48:20):
It's disappointing.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah, I guess Trump announced that he would give them
ninety more days, but then I saw he actually doesn't
have the power to do that unless they can prove
that there are papers ready for it to be sold.
So but I feel like Monday there's gonna be a
lot of things that they go. I don't know if

(48:43):
he can do that, and then maybe they will anyway,
but either way, it's going off at midnight tonight. So
get your get all your tiktoks in tonight. You're gonna
give like a goodbye billy.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
No, but I am going to be disappointed to not
see any more dancing videos from you. I mean you
kind of got started and then didn't really a lot
after that.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Well we I mean we've we the KSR account has
gotten a lot of people. You know, I bet it'll
be back, even if it's gone for a little while.
I kind of bet it'll be uh be back. My
My Democratic Party is really terrible at PR because I mean,
think about this. They set this thing up where the
Republicans and Trump wanted it banned, the Democrats helped him

(49:26):
band it, ban it, and now Trump's gonna get to
save it. He's gonna come in and save it like
we are the worst at PR, like the worst, and
like Trump's really good at pr like he it was
literally their idea and then he's gonna be the one
that gets to save it. So oh well, Uh, if

(49:47):
I'm nine to two eight twenty two, eighty seven, another
three for bandy, Man, they're hot? Who's up next? Joy
is no Joy? What's up? Joy?

Speaker 8 (49:55):
Hey man?

Speaker 16 (49:56):
I have two things. One was at the ball game
about the officiating. After we have a ninth foul called
on us and uh, they had won. Pope actually got
to talk to the official, and he was hot and
when he sat down, Oh, he was hot. And when
he sat down, he was still hot.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
Uh.

Speaker 16 (50:15):
Fox had to go out and talk to coach.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Fox had got and talked to the official.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
See, none of that was on television, so I didn't
get to see that. You got so you, Pope get hot?
We want Somebody called this week and asked if he
did that? So you saw it?

Speaker 16 (50:31):
Yes, he did, he and and it changed. I mean
you started seeing foul came on both ends that way,
because every time they went down the floor, uh, and
it was a stoppage and play Alabama's coach would be
talking to an official. It was every stinking time that
they go down he would be talking to the officials,
and I think Pope finally said, hey, wait a minute,

(50:52):
I needed my chance to talk to you too. So anyway,
that was one thing, but the other one I have
to tell a funny story about Arkansas. I was listening
to Paul on the other day and a guy called
in and he's an Arkansas fan, and he said, mister Finebaum,
I think you probably know more about coach cal than
we do. But what kind of offense does he run?
He said, he dribbles the ball all around the floor

(51:14):
and then he shoots a shot at the last second.
And I thought that's exactly the kind of offense that
he blames.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
So yeah, no, no, you're exactly right. Well he Uh
we could have told him that, couldn't we. We kind
of knew that in bad no, but they didn't listen.
I appreciate the call. They got a big one tonight.
They can't lose tonight. They have any chance of pulling
it off in Missouri tonight, Billy.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
No, No, not on the road.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I don't think they're gonna win until they can get
an easy team at home.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
LSU.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
I mean, for some reason, I feel like though maybe
they pull on from the Ashes tonight we'll see uh eight,
I'm nine twenty two eighty seven. Vaney up ten now
in Tennessee. Let's do five more. Who's next?

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Greg?

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Greg? Go ahead?

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Greg at second time caller?

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Love your show? All right?

Speaker 11 (52:03):
Two points And first of all, I love I love
Pope so but just two points and it just drives
me crazy. And I coached, so you know, first part
of the game for me is so important.

Speaker 14 (52:15):
The first half.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
I get my.

Speaker 11 (52:17):
Teams to drive the ball and get get fouls right,
and I isolate on the two players, the three players,
and one player that I know is gonna kill us
in this game. I go after him and drive at
him and get him in foul trouble. Well, he did
it the second half with Nelson, and it just drove
me crazy. Why didn't we do in the first half.
That's one point.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
No, we did. I think that's a really good that's
a really good point. They did clearly start going at Nelson.
He got his fourth foul, he had to sit a
little bit. Probably should have done that earlier.

Speaker 11 (52:48):
Yeah, it makes the game so easy because you got
in a foul trail. The second point is I hear
what you're saying about defense, right, We're never gonna be defense.
But I'm watching this team play defense. And I did
the same thing with Cals because he couldn't coach defense
for crap. But the things they're doing are so correctable.
It's stuff you learn in seventh grade. Don't let your
man drive baseline. They keep doing it, and they keep

(53:11):
doing it. Amari put your ding hands up in the
air and some of the other ones.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
I wonder how coach shoe I wonder about I feel like,
and I could be wrong about this, but I wonder
if they tell him to or if he just does
it on his own. I feel like Amari sits back
like a half a step to then try to go
for a block. I don't know if you notice that.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
Yeah, but he doesn't.

Speaker 11 (53:35):
But he doesn't do it.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Wait, he doesn't always get it, but yeah.

Speaker 11 (53:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But two things to that point you
had If you look at Iday watch twenty twelve video, right,
they were great at the second guys and the third
guys behind. They would wait and then he'd jump up
and block it. It's perfect if you want to do that,
but watch the film how they did it. Second thing,
off ball defense and help We're still terrible at it.

(54:01):
They got a couple of times. Today they kind of
got it a little bit. I saw a little bit
of progress. But if you see guys coming in, you've
got to cut them off your guy a little bit
and then go towards the ball and help out.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
They did it a little bit.

Speaker 11 (54:14):
Better, but you know, it's just gotta get back and
those are all correctable things, right, all.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Right, Well, that's yeah, that's a fair point. I might
have to let you go because we're gonna get cut
off here, but I appreciate the call. But those are
all good points. You know, you you probably know more
about it than I do. Four more vanding down up
thirteen four more. Who's next? Drew, Drew, go ahead.

Speaker 17 (54:38):
Drew, Hey, Matt for some very long time.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Who Ah.

Speaker 17 (54:45):
Just a quick point about Amari Williams. I mean, honestly,
I think overall he could be great at the end
of the season. We just got to get him to
play a little bit more aggressive, and that I mean
going to grabbing the ball with two hands, going to
the basket, not really trying to be pretty with it
and fading away. But I think by the time the
season's over, I think he could be really good for us.

(55:07):
And then the question I had for you, and just
real quick about the officiating, like Guinea Fan, I mean,
I hate the officiating, but that's not why we lost
the game. With the gambling that we have now with
all these sports, do you think, I mean, is there
any way that like some kind of accountability will be
brought with bad calls and miscalls and things like that,

(55:28):
just kind of want to get your take on.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Well, the officials do get graded now, right, Like they
get graded by the league, and they don't release those grades,
but it decides who gets the marquee games, who gets
the NCAA tournament, who gets the final four. Now, I
mean are those grades good? I don't really know. I
mean I don't see them, but they are graded. Now,
if you're talking about with gambling, like if you're thinking like, oh, well,

(55:55):
there could be a ref achieving, I mean I would
say to you if any ref thought about doing that,
he is an idiot, because you would be looking at
federal prison. So yeah, it's not just like a little thing.
It's like a you know, federal prison thing. And so
like go see what Michael Porter's brother is looking at

(56:15):
for the Raptors, right, now, so, uh yeah, I don't
I would be surprised anything like that. I just.

Speaker 17 (56:24):
Yeah, I wasn't trying to excuse anything like that.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I just didn't know.

Speaker 17 (56:26):
I mean, there's a lot more money at stake, and
liked calls, miscalls, things like that if there would be
just something, and I didn't. I didn't know that there
was anything.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
And they do get graded. They do get graded and
and and I appreciate the call. They don't release the grades,
but it decides who gets the big games in the
Marquee the Marquee Games three more. Who's next? W C,
w C? What's up?

Speaker 5 (56:48):
Thanks taking my call? Man, little I guess first time? Well,
I got on there one time a little bit okay,
it's a little bit easier to get plead or not.
That was the before and after of the Duke game. Yeah,
I yes, So I tried to get through beforehand and

(57:09):
a sudden and I was gone. Predicted the score for
you and I didn't get on and I texted to you.
I know that you read the text because.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
I may have.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
I mean it was a while, okay, but what did
you say?

Speaker 5 (57:24):
I know I know you did, because when you came
on the air, you said that we just got through
beating Duke by a certain score. You see the score
that I sent you instead of instead of the score
that the game actually was.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Okay, well, I guess you got my brain.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Then, yeah, okay, Well I think we if you go
back about ten months and think about what we thought
we might be at this time of year, you compare
that to where we are now, and everybody'd be real happy.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
I please totally agree with you on that. Totally agree
with you.

Speaker 5 (57:56):
I'm sure glad we've got coach Pope instead of coach Octave.
You know that Alabama coaches. His name is eight notes,
eight notes. You know all your musicians know that, you
know eight consecutive.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
He's a good coach too, I will say, I mean.

Speaker 5 (58:16):
He's a good conan heed to start calling him coach
Octave minds a lot, but he's okay. But anyway, that
but about that game, and another little point about the
last game or the next home game. Uh yeah, I
know you all when you played played Florida. Have you
all serve GATORA? We do, yes, Well, now you know

(58:41):
there's a certain part of the pigs and that a
minute of the port you could serve some pork dishes
there that.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Now you we we're already doing. Don't you worry about it.
I appreciate the call. We're already Uh, we're already playing
it on that. Uh. I like Naos. By way, I
didn't know until today that he was a man teacher.
Did you know that? Have they said that before?

Speaker 3 (59:02):
I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
I've never heard that. He looked like a math teacher,
but he was a math teacher. He said he was
a high school math teacher when Bobby Hurley hired him
as an assistant at Buffalo. So he's smart, he's a
good coach, like the two. I think it was easy
when he first got here to kind of dismiss him
as just a loud mouth blah blah blah. But he's
he's a good coach, and he his schemes are good.

(59:24):
And I think you can tell Pope respects his offense
and vice versa. So I think I think though that's
a he's a he's a he's a smart, smart guy.
Two more, who's next, Luke, Luke? What's up? Luke? Hey?

Speaker 18 (59:40):
Matt just kind of wanted to say, I think, you know, obviously,
losing sucks, but I don't think that my view on
the team as a whole is necessarily changed after today.
I think this is kind of who we are. We
are a Sweet sixteen, Elite eight team, and Alabama to me,
is an Elite eight final four team. I think we
are a slight step below them because they, in my opinion,

(01:00:05):
I think the difference is very simple. They have a
Mark Sears and we don't. We just don't have that
truly elite go to guy. I mean, we have a
group of very good players, and we're very very well coached,
and I'm obviously very very excited about what Mark Pope
can do here in his time at Kentucky. But I
just don't think that we are truly an elite elite team.

(01:00:27):
I think we are a top fifteen, top ten team,
but I don't think that we are a top five
team where we're a legitimate national title contender. Now that
does not mean that something crazy can't happen where we
can make a Final four. I'm not going to rule
that out, and I'm not down on the team by
any stretch, but I've always felt that that's who we are.

Speaker 8 (01:00:45):
That's kind of who we are.

Speaker 18 (01:00:46):
But one more thing, real quick, I just want to say,
we obviously play them again, so we will have a
chance to go down there in about a month and
what they did to us today, we will have the
opportunity to return the favor and do that to them
and them on their home floor.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Totally agree, And for the tournament, you're better off winning.
If you had somebody explain this to me, when you
play a team twice for the tournament, you're actually better
off beating them there and losing at home than the
other way around. So if you.

Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
Can, yeah, would it weird?

Speaker 18 (01:01:17):
That makes no sense, But it doesn't understand the net
rank and don't make sense. But that's you know, it
is what it is. But you know, I'm still very
excited about this team. We're obviously very very very good.
The question is is can we can we shore up
the defense to become more of a truly elite team.
And I'm not really sure what the exact answer is

(01:01:39):
because I know, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
The difference is what you said just a minute ago,
and I appreciate the call. The difference is we don't
have a Mark Sears right like Mark Sears, and remember
Grant Nelson has been a little disappointing at Alabama, but
he was a he was one of the maybe the
best player in the portal last year, two years ago
or whenever he was there. Mark Sears is like he's been.

(01:02:01):
He's not had the best year, but last year was
he was an SEC Player of the Year candidate and
they maybe even won it. Who won it last year?
It was Reeves, Sears and somebody else? Were the three guys? Oh,
Dalton connects connect one but Jackson Robinson's good, but he's
not that. And Andrew Carr is good, but he's not

(01:02:24):
Grant Nelson. And I honestly think if you take Mark
Sears and Grant Nelson and then put him up against say,
Robinson and Carr, that's the difference in the two teams, honestly,
is that those guys Robinson and Carr might be our
two best scores, even though Oway probably leads a team

(01:02:46):
in scoring. But if I'm just talking about guys who
at their peak can get can get you buckets, and
their two guys are better. And that's I think, ultimately
probably what it is. Let's do one more. Who's next, Mike, Mike,
go ahead.

Speaker 13 (01:02:58):
Mike, Hey, Matt how a, y'all doing the night doing good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
All right.

Speaker 13 (01:03:05):
I just want to say I'm not too worried about
the loss tonight. Alabama's a good team and I got
faith in Pope. I'll figure it out. And I also
want to say that me and my wife listened.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
To you every day and we love you all, but
but we disagree with you.

Speaker 13 (01:03:19):
I with you, but we disagree with you. With Jay
Billis and the ice cream, we look forward to that way. Ever,
he calls the game that is a rubber arena, saying
he only does that at rub So just lay off
of him a little bit twitch the ice.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Cream, understand, But I love you to death. Appreciate the call.
All right. So there's one vote for the ice cream,
Billy for the bringing it up. I got taking an opinion,
why not? The ice cream is good? Like I've only
had it once or twice and it seemed fine. And
then I met the young woman who who started it
and her dad, and they seem really really nice people,

(01:03:58):
so I wanted to succeed. I I'm just saying, I'm
just surprised they bring it up every single time he's
on there. But you know what, that's okay. Maybe that's
the thing that's our thing, right, that's the Willy played
wide receiver. It's just it will be that imperpetuity every
long as Jay billis is the announcer. Hey, thank you
folks very much. If you get up tomorrow morning and

(01:04:21):
you are are feeling it, turn on ESPN Radio. Listen
to me on the NFL pregame show. We are off
on Monday. We're taking the holiday off and then we'll
be back Tuesday. National Championship Game is Monday night at
the bar. We're giving away money, so be watching my
social media. I got to see how many spots we

(01:04:41):
have opened, but I'm gonna give away the final few spots. Billy.
Enjoy your holiday, and thank you all very much. Alabama
wins one seven. We'll get him next week. This has
been the Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show