It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
I know I talked a lot last week about how it's been kind of fun to know that bracketology is really not worth a whole lot, but it's a reference point.
And we love the tournament.
We love March madness, seeing where your team is on a hypothetical bracket. If anybody's gonna enjoy it's going to be those of us around here who love college basketball. And I didn't look at it much at all the last few years for obvious reasons, because I didn't have a team that I was worried about their seat or are they gonna make it, or are they on the bubble?
And last week I really started looking just because it was nice to see that, you know, as of now those who are projecting and I agree with him too. That's what made it better is that I knew that they were right. Louisville should be at least a tournament team, not a whole lot of wiggle room there. But now here we are two games after. I mean again, think about it. A week ago, they were probably safely in, but you know, bubblish, and now you've added a home
game home win against a good Clemson team. You beat Pittsburgh at their place, to give you your best win on the resume up to this point. So I just checked during the break Jerry Palm. I checked both Leonardi and Jerry Palm. And I know there's others out there, but when you google, those are the first two that come up, the ESPN one and the CBS one. Leonardi hasn't updated his bracket since the tenth but our man, Jerry Palm. And I'm saying our man because he's my man, unless he doesn't want to be.
I don't know why he wouldn't want to be. But he's got Louisville as a sixth seed.
Austin Louisville right now, a six seed in Jerry Palm's updated bracket that came out at noon today, so he has them in the Midwest region and they are a sixth seed. They would play the winner of one the playing games, and the playing games right now are Ohio State and Dayton and UCF and Creighton, so you'd play the you'd play a winner of one of those games again hypothetically, and your.
Three seed, which of course is who you'd.
Play if you win, would be in Michigan State, who's got Saint Louis, who's a fourteen seed. Now, the fourth seed in that region, according to Jerry Palm, is Kentucky, which, oh, Kentucky's resume were like, honestly, Kentucky, I wouldn't. You could tell me they're a four everywhere, and I'd kind of believe you, because for whatever reason they're I mean, their their resume. As far as just what I know about the teams they've played, I feel like the resume is
pretty damn good. But for reasons I don't really know, they're not loved by the Ken Palm and they're not necessary Well, they're.
Good, they're in a good spot, better than most.
But I feel like those who watch Kentucky and would put a bracket together would probably seed them higher than those that do it based off of these formulas. Because right now Kentucky is in the Ken Palm sitting at number twenty one, which you know, at thirteen and three with wins over Florida, Mississippi.
State, Duke, and Gonzaga.
I kind of feel like a four seed is is almost crazy, to be honest with you, I mean, maybe I'm wrong because their losses are I mean, their losses are to all teams that are going to be in I guess the Ohio State lost by twenty points is not looking great because they're a bubble team. But Georgia is going to make the tournament. And Georgia, after beating Kentucky.
Ended up beating who was it?
They went out and knocked off Oklahoma, who you know, Louislle needs Oklahoma to be good and they keep losing now. But yeah, I mean, I'm surprised to see them at a four seed considering the wins they have. But again, I think if you're somebody that is trying to predict what the NCAA committee is going to do, what you're saying here is that you're based you're giving the net rankings a lot of value when it comes to how they decide this, because again, let me see in the net.
I just had the net rankings pulled up here, and they're not as easy to get to because they're you know, it's within the NAA website.
But here here we go.
Kentucky right now is, yeah, they're up to thirteen in the in the net, so they're higher in the net than they are the kin Palm, So I don't know. I just to me, I feel like you're from Mike's son. Uh, you're just typing over here, just just but it's okay. It sounds like the show's really productive, and it happens sometimes I'll leave my mic on two. But anyways, with Kentucky and Jerry, like, I don't know, Jerry, I'm sure
there are Kentucky fans listening now, some of them. Maybe they're now getting ready to go battle and send Jerry Palm a mean tweet or something, because I would be shocked if other bracketology that's out there would have them anything lower than a three seed. But he's got them at a four. So again, Kentucky, this is something you've been used to for a long time. You guys have made the tournament forever. I mean Cal missed the tournament how many years twice? I think it was in two
thousand and thirteen and in twoenty twenty one. Other than that, you've been safely in the dance. So for Louisville, it's been a while, and the last time we were geared up for selection Sunday, you know what we got. We got left out, the first team on the outside looking in.
Because of those bid stealers.
So that, by the way, that was like that was tragic, Like I could I could feel as the day went on, and these teams that would win these leagues that weren't supposed to win these leagues in the year where we played college basketball with no fans and games would get canceled day of I mean, in that weird world that we were in at that time, like to have that be the year you get left out, I mean it makes sense just because of how weird of a year
it was. If Louisville ended up playing many of the games they missed because of COVID, they probably ended up getting in not with a great seed.
But the last time we were.
Interested in watching Selection Sunday as Louisville fans, we got stabbed in the heart.
Yeah, and that was a we were were the first COVID reserve team though, right. Yeah, if any team went out that we're gonna call Louisville hit them with the hay you up text?
Yeah, and that was that bite. It worse because you had to decide for yourself. Are you even gonna think about that being a probability or possibility, like it's completely out of your control or do you also want to want to be publicly rooting for someone to catch a virus that you know at the time people thought this was going to road. It was just weird, man, What a weird, weird time that was. So look, I'm loving watching all these bracketologists give their updates because all of
them have Louisville safely in as of right now. And I mean that that's not something we used to get super excited about, but you know, perspective matters, and I'm loving it. And right now in the net, Louisville is sitting at thirty five, so thirty five in the net, and in the kin palm they are at thirty four, so in a good spot.
And again, I.
You what worried me about last week Clemson and Home Pitt at Pitt was that you could lose and it probably doesn't hurt you, meaning like it probably doesn't in real time stain your resume. It doesn't if you lose those games competitively, it does not end up resulting in you taking some kind of big loss that like how can you recover from that?
Now? If you lose the Eku.
I think at this point you're still probably on the outside looking in, which is wild to think about. But how about Noah Waterman. I mean, didn't have a good game against didn't have a good game against pitt And obviously we now know he's been playing with a hurt thumb. He's had pins put in his thumb, but he's still playing through it. Clearly we now know that's been a factor and why he struggled at times this year. But man, when they needed a bucket late to avoid a disastrous loss,
he came through. And my dad said that on the way home from Pittsburgh yesterday, he said, if you thought about what or how important now that bucket by Waterman looks And I hadn't thought of it about it, but he's right, I mean that would. And look, that's also a kind of a weird way that's made this more exciting is that, like, I know, this team could mess
around and lose to anybody. So therefore, when they play well and beat good teams where they play well and and prove that they're better than a team that we already thought was good, what that does for me is that you know that there's a level of kind of And this is gonna sound weird. I'm gonna try to make make I'm I'm gonna try to make sense here when I say this.
I think when.
You are in a great spot with your program, where you are elite, Louisville was there once, right, like a loss at any point was surprising. You could lose to good teams and you'd have to deal with it. But like you were getting twenty four to twenty five wins minimum, and that that's just the way it was when that when the expectations there, there are some games where they're still fun. You want to see your team win, but like you're kind of bummed if you win. But it's
ugly right now. If you're in a great league, it doesn't really matter. But for Louisville kind of knowing that we would lose a lot of I mean, Louisvill's record in ACC played the last two years was awful. I mean they were dead last two straight years where the league was as bad as it's ever been. So to go from that to now winning games and sometimes beating good teams, and I think on Saturday you made a case that you are the second best team in the ACC.
People can claim that that doesn't mean anything because they don't believe the ACC is any good at all. Whatever, I don't care, I'm going to enjoy it. I mean, that's that's kind of where I'm at with it. So when when when success is unexpected or not guaranteed, it's a little bit more satisfying. I feel like I've learned that this go around. This is That's what I feel
like I've learned throughout this season so far. Whenever success has been sustained, it almost feels like as a fan, you're rooting in to make sure your team keeps the standard where it is, and that's still good to see if it's working out. But the feeling you get in that situation is more of just being confirmed right, Like it's like, yeah, that's what we do, that's what we do, it's who we are, and that's a good place to be because you know why. That means you're good. That
means you've been winning pretty consistently. But we haven't around here. So now there's a level of emotion attached to anything good for Louisville that one we didn't have recently. And also it's not a given, like I still know that because of the law. The near lost to EKU and UTEP like they could no games super safe. However, they've been a different team really since they played since they played North Carolina, they've been a different team. They have
absolutely been a different team. Defensively, their intensity has been insane, their attention to their attention to detail, and their defensive scout has been elite.
And they've they've missed shots.
They've had bad nights at the free throw line, like they did at pitt They missed layups, a lot of layups actually in that game against pitt But yet they're doing everything else so well and they're playing so hard that they're able to still go win. And that's why when I say the ceiling is still high for Louisville, some of these guys, in fact, most of these guys are as good as they're going to get as far as their ability, not all of them, but most of them.
But I also know that at any.
Given moreh Noah Waterman could make four threes in a game and flip it like he's got the ability to do that. Terrence Edward, I mean, were Louisville was really really balanced in their game against Pittsburgh, which is which is Again, that's when you have that balance. You know, you can have who was It? You could have Hadley go for thirty plus against Clemson and then the next night out it's not. It's not thirty for rain Smith,
but he's getting he's close to it. He's given you twenty five and making seven threes.
Chucky.
He's had a thirty plus point game. Terrence Edwards junior, he had fourteen. He's had games in the twenties, right, So I mean these guys, I feel like the established roles for everybody that's getting legitimate playing time has been has been set, and you may have a night where somebody, like for example, Edwards, when Louisville beat Clemson and they beat who was it?
Was it?
Who was in Virginia? You know Edwards didn't have his best his best games. In fact, yeah, he went three straight games without scoring double digits. Edwards went from let's listen to the stat line here from Edwards twenty one against Duke, twenty two against UTEP, twenty three against UK nineteen against FSU, twenty against EKU. Well then against Carolina, Virginia and Clemson seven seven and five, So you know he went two of eleven against Clemson. He went two
of nine against Virginia, two of twelve against Carolina. I'm not bringing these things up to criticize him. It's just that you can have a guy struggle, but if everybody if he's still playing hard and making an impact in other areas, and everybody else is playing well, and then you have one or two guys that maybe play above what they at what they typically do, like Hadley did
against Clemson, like Rain did against Pittsburgh. That's how you end up in this position to where you know you're not playing perfect, some guys are not shooting the ball great, But when you have that kind of balance and that kind of consistency, you can withstand somebody not having a good night. I mean, just looking at the numbers here. Whenever Louisville was hit with the bad news that they knew they didn't have Corn Johnson the rest of the season,
they knew they didn't have case In. Prior to the rest of the season, you didn't really know what was going to happen with Trey Ora. You still didn't see any real comfort level for Pat Kelsey to play Big Frank, you kind of felt like you got a seven man team right now, Like, that's what you have. So I just felt like, man, the ceiling's not high, and they got to be. They can't have many, they can't have many guys have an off night and beat anybody.
Like that's just the way I saw it. I know wasn't alone.
But here we are a month and some change later, they've become a really good team with this new version of themselves. Again, they could lose to anybody. We all know that, but what a job it's been for Pat Kelsey because you tell me, once it became clear that they're going to have to rely on Terrence Edwards to score a lot of points because they're so thin with injuries. A scenario where he makes six shots, he goes two of eleven, two of nine, two of twelve in three
straight games against Carolina, Virginia and Clemson. The percentage chance I would have given Louisville to win those games, knowing that was his stat line would have been close to zero. And I'm sure that's me not giving these guys enough credit. I'm sure that's me, you know, overreacting and being worried. But like, let's be real, this group hasn't just found ways to win whenever it looked as if they were just snake bit with the injuries, They've become a pretty
damn good team. And again I talked about this at the beginning of the show on Saturday. It kind of felt like and I'm sure it was because it was a win against pitt at their place. Who Pitt at that time, until Louisville showed up, they were i think visibly the second If you watch them play and you keep up with college oops, I think you would say before Louisville showed up, pitt was the second best team
in the league and it wasn't close. Well, now, I think you have to get that to Louisville because right now Louisville's only loss is to Duke, a team that might run the table in this league. In fact, I think they will. And then the other teams that are believed to be in the tournament that are decent. I think some of these teams are better than decent, but you know, I'm sure others don't. You've got Carolina, Pittsburgh.
And Clemson.
Little of It has beat all three of them, so you know, this team is playing in a way that I never anticipated and it's been awesome to see. And again it goes back to what I've been talking about in the last few minutes, is that when it's unexpected or it's in doubt, it's not certain, and then you get your team going on the road and winning a big game or relying on a great home crowd to beat Carolina. I mean, the joy you get from that is it's amplified all or Let's get to the phone
lines coming up here on the other side. If you're on hold stag with us, Mike, you'll be up first. So if you want a hold of the break, we will get right to you and continue continue the party. Can we call it that a party on a Monday. It's kind of weird, but we're having fun. Yeah, at least I am. Hopefully you guys are as well. Let's coffee and company feel abou Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven.
Ninety Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
It's been a heavy basketball show thus far as you could expect. I mean, Louisville basketball is seemingly back. I feel like we can say that now and not just kind of like you know, I feel like we need
to speak it into existence. I know the the fan energy is back, and I'm not talking attendance that kind of stuff, but you can just tell, man, there's there's there's habits that we used to have as louis Of basketball fans during the season, and uh, you know, just I don't want to call it a nostalgiica because it's not like it's been it's been decades, but man, it's been.
It's been long enough, and it's been a fun ride thus far, and I cannot wait to see how this team finishes the rest of the way, and I think fans have a good reason to think that they're going to finish strong. So we'll continue to talk some hoops, but I do want to tell you we are going to get some footall stuff before we run out of before we get out of here today, because we've got an NFL playoff game tonight, we've got the college football
National Championship set. Haven't even shared any thoughts on that matchup just yet, and we now know where Pierce Clarkson, the former Louisville QB, it's going to be transferring to.
So we'll get to that. But let's go to the phone lines. Five two. I'm seven to one.
Seventy nine hundred is the number if you guys would like to jump in and join us. And let's go back to the phone lines and welcome in, Mike, Mike, how we doing, Hey.
Man, doing great? Doing great. I'm a Kentucky fans, and we'll get that out of the way. But I really am glad to see Louisville come back and be a competitive and be a good team. And I slowly are the second best team in the ACC. And then the ACC is not great this year, but they're absolutely going to get four or five, maybe even six teams in
the tournament. So that's all positive. So love that. And the second thing is, you know, the more you know people that you you meet or you have an understanding of, like what you think they're all about, and then the more you get to know them, sometimes you're like you like them even better, and sometimes you can't handle them well. Like Mark Pope is.
The more I get to know the guy, the more I like him. Kelsey, the more I get to know him, the more I like him. Marcus Freeman, the more I learned about him, the more I like him. And then James Franklin for Penn State. The more I get to know him, the less I like that dude, and the more I think he's over right.
We're on the same page. Thank you for the call, Mike. I appreciate it. Yeah, we're not on the same page as far as which teams we root for, But other than that, I'm totally with you because with Mark Pope, to me, he what we knew about him before he got the job. Now, Kentucky fans may have kept up with him at BYU, kept up with him at Utah
Valley and the NBA. I mean, he's a He's a guy who played on a national championship team and went on to the NBA, so I'm sure they were well more more aware of kind of you know, his brand, his image, that kind of stuff before he became their coach. I just, you know, I knew of him as a guy that seemingly everybody thought really highly of as a guy and also as a basketball coach. I just never thought he'd be the guy that would take over for John calip Berry also never thought Pat Kelsey would be
the guy to take over the Louisville job. So you know, we were both wrong in that regards as far as the fan base and who they would have expected to take over the job when it opens up. But I think Pope more than anything, I just feel like what I see as genuine. I feel like what he did with the young man in the wheelchair that was at the Mississippi State game, And for those who didn't see it, it's see everywhere. I'm sure you have seen it because
it's gone viral. Pope stuck around, and I guess he does this at a lot of games and waved to the fans that did make the trip and said hello, Probably sound some basketballs, probably took some pictures, but he saw a young man in a wheelchair that obviously couldn't get down to court level, and he walked up there himself and sat down and chatted with the young man, just talking basketball. And somebody there got a video of it, and of course things like that go viral. And I'm glad,
and the Internet is awesome. It's a great resource, it's a great tool.
Social media. You can say the.
Same thing, but there's also some real proof out there that social media can be toxic and can actually make you feel more negatively about everything. After a brief experience on certain social media platforms, so that'll always be the case.
But there's also some great things you see that you wouldn't see if it wasn't for the power of social media, and to see Mark Pope do that that was in that beyond video, and it also be clear that he doesn't think I don't think he knew anybody was filming that, which again makes it seem even more so like it's genuine. So with Pope, I've never thought he wasn't a good guy, but the more I do see him in that role, the more humble he he. I mean, he is quite
literally the opposite of Cal. And Cal, you know, he's having a really rough, really rough year at Arkansas in year one and he's doing the same nonsense. And it's not he hasn't won there yet. He hasn't won in a long time anywhere for him to be able to do that and not piss people off. So, you know, Cal the last I don't know, five six years different, but like when Cal was arrogant and he carried himself like the guy that he's kind of always carried himself at as and he won at a high level at
a place like Kentucky. He was a good villain for us as the rival, but like he had some real credentials in real time to carry himself the way that he did. So it wasn't it wasn't really, you know, to me, it wasn't. This guy individually is is a real pompous a hole. It's just, man, he's the coach of Kentucky. He's a larger than life guy right now, and he's he's letting you know that he's aware of it.
So what I'm getting at is with Mark Pope, he's.
He's somebody that I don't think you'll ever see act as if he's bigger than the program.
I mean, with Cal, that was how that was how they operated. That was how that was how it worked.
And for a while it worked out well and then when it started to not work it it fell pretty quickly and it became a very you know, bad situation for the fan base and Cal himself because it had just run its course. So with Pope, I just he's I think the humble guy that you see is very much genuine. I think he is not out in any way to get attention. I think he's he's very humble I think he's selfless and he's I mean again, I'm about to block out just glazing over the Kentucky basketball coach,
but I'm just being honest. I think he's a good dude, and he's also a good basketball coach, which is not a good recipe for us as Louisville fans, because we want Kentucky to not be good at basketball, which they probably always will be, at least to an extent, and we want their coach to be easy to dislike, but he's not. And Louisville fans, I can't speak for Kentucky fans because I'm not one.
I couldn't. I couldn't put myself in your shoes.
But to see Louisville basketball, your rival be where it was for three four years consecutively, really the last two were bad bad. The year before that was also bad. But before then, like Louisville was solid, in fact, sometimes really good, but there were enough scandals out there to wear like. We gave Kentucky fans a lot of ammunition. We gave them enough in about a five six year window. I feel like that should last more than a lifetime.
I mean, think about what ammunition we gave Kentucky fans to make fun of us when it comes to basketball, and it really, I mean the ammunition that was bad was not even wins and losses like the last two years. Those were terrible, and they could make fun of us for that and whatnot. But we gave him, you know, non basketball related stuff that they're going to always use against us, and that I mean, we didn't do it as fans, but you know what I mean. So if
you're a Kentucky fan, you clearly like Pat Kelsey. Maybe not everybody, but you just heard the caller there, Mike mentioned that. And when you see the so Pat Kelsey shared the video that I just talked about with Mark Pope, and you know, I don't think I can't think exactly
what it was. He said, I'll read it for you directly, because that like to me, I'd always heard from some Kentucky fans that you know, they weren't going out of their way, but they were dealing with it internally at the time that they don't like that Pat Kelsey appears to be as likable as he is, so you know, they wouldn't go out of their way, but they deep down kind of wanted the guy to be easier to dislike. And then he shares the Pope video and says love
your neighbor. Great stuff, And like all the responses from Kentucky fans are, I'll read you this one here it says, stop it.
We want, we want, we want to hate you. Just let us hate you.
Stop making us like you. That is not how this is supposed to work. Uh, this says, I'll echo what other UK fans have said. Here, you seem like a pretty good dude. We aren't supposed to be like we aren't. We aren't supposed to like the Louisville coach. Here, you're making it hard to hate U of l coach. You've
got the cards rolling again. So I think you'll always find a level of satisfaction when your rival loses, but for it to just be because of the rivalry specifically, and not because you enjoy to see a coach lose
or you enjoy to see a player lose like that. Like, I don't even take as much satisfaction in Kentucky fans being sad about basketball anymore because, deep down, because because I've learned this over the years, when it comes to postgame shows like if Louisville loses and Kentucky fans tune in like that's normal. But they want tears, like they want they want a level of like, oh man, they're melting down.
This is great.
And I gave them a lot of not tears, but you know, a lot of nonsense, a lot of things they probably got. Kitty Payne destroying the program in two years made me a mad man, and I think that provided some entertainment unattentionally to the rival, because I would just scream and yell about it because I was hoping that I would wake up from the nightmare by just yelling that. That's kind of what it was for a little while there, and it sucked.
There were stages to that, if I remember, because I don't mean for this to sound bad, because I would always listen to the podcast while I was kind of going to sleep and I would just wake up sometime.
Me yell and probably yelling at a caller.
No, it was actually soothing because at that point you were just defeated.
Oh yeah, we're just like yeah, so here we go.
It's just another It was.
A eulogy, but it turned into I mean that's so it was peaceful, so so I love to know that I put you to sleep.
That's that's the goal of the show. Usually put people asleep. So put us in your ears. We'll make you fall asleep. I'm kidding. I know I know what you meant by that.
But what I'm getting at with with the UK stuff, like I I would.
Which game was it?
It wasn't the Ohio State game. Maybe no, it was. It wasn't the Clemson game. It was the Ohio State game. And I didn't I didn't even see much of the Georgia game, and I certainly didn't listen to any of the post game stuff. So when they lost to Ohio State, I tuned in because, you know, like I wanted to hear them sad, because that's you know, that's maybe that's the sick of fans, and I'm I guess I'm one of them, and this is my space, this is my.
World, because you know, it's kind of what we do.
But I know that deep down, even if they're upset and maybe not as confident in the team they have this year, I know that they are confident in the guy that's coaching them, and I know that they are still going to be really good. And when you have like the end of cal where was falling apart for him. That was fun because.
Like they were, they thought they were stuck. Like to hear the I.
Mean, Louisville knew they were getting rid of their coach and that and by the way, that is here. Here's some examples as to like what you really hope to get when you tune in to the rival postgame show or just the rivals like a UK show or a U of L show, whether it be a postgame show or just to show that's daily whatever it may be, podcast, live show, whatever. I remember Kentucky fans that wanted to take joy in Louisville losing, which they did, and I
get it. Some of them would call in and yell at me and tell me that Kenny's not getting fired and that I remember, he should stick around, and that it's not his fault, it's everybody else's fault. And there are a variety of reasons I guess why fans would do that, but I think deep down is that the best case scenario for them is that we were stuck with Kenny forever, because then we you know, then we would just be sad all the time and there'd be no there'd be no light at the end of the tunnel.
We would just be you know, miserable, which we were for a couple of years. But like I knew that Louisville was never going to retain him for a thirty year. That wasn't that wasn't happening. That was never gonna happen. So with Kentucky, like it was kind of nice to know that they were stuck with Cal and then they weren't.
And then they you know, I thought when they hired Pope and they lost their mind as a fan base, that it was going to be like they were gonna be so toxic and they were going to runhim out of town before he coached a game, and like I would have been sitting with popcorn, watching and entertainment. But then Pope did what he does, you know, reminded them that he's a guy who has a national championship ring there, he was a captain, He cares about Kentucky. It means
a lot to him. It's he knows it's bigger than him. And that was such a refresher for them. I guess I should say that was so refreshing to them because it was such a different tone than what they had with Cal.
So you know, deep down.
I think we we want our teams to be great and our rivals to be terrible, but for it to continue to kind of have, you know, the longevity. You
can't have one stay down so long. So I'm kind of the I'm kind of to the point now where and I don't I don't want to miss quote Mike who just called in, but I'm going to take a guess at kind of what he mean or what he meant by it's nice to have Louisville back, like in real time, you want him to probably lose, because you know, that's what you that's how rivalry works for most people.
But for Louisville to have some life again, that that that you know, we can now talk about our team and feel good about it and not be you know, doing it just based solely off of like when we were lifeless and we couldn't pick our faceook off the mat before we played you guys in basketball for what three straight games. Look, Louisville clearly has come out on the losing end a lot more than the winning end in this rivalry for really.
The history of my life.
But you know, the last few years were a lot different than really any other time to where it was just I mean, it couldn't have been fun for you guys, right, It's always going to be, I guess good to beat your rival, and you know what the feeling is when you don't. But if Kentucky, like if Mark Pope's got it rolling in Louisville, beats him, that'll be more enjoyable than if they stunk. And I'm sure Kentucky always likes beating Louisville, but whenever you were beating Kenny Payne, that
could mean I mean again, like was that fun? I mean, I don't even remember like the last two years, three years I guess roughly of this rivalry matchup, and I guess they didn't play three years ago because of the COVID situation. But I mean, that's the dark days of the rivalry in my opinion, not because just because Louisville wasn't good, but because like you couldn't even like you should always be able to psych yourself up for that game,
even if you're having a down year. Your down year should never be terrible like they were the last couple of years, and you should feel like Okay, here we go, like, let's do this. And I'm sure a lot of you guys are aware of this by now as adults and fans of sports, like we don't have no impact in the game, but you know, it's nice to kind of feel like you do, like, let let it's game day, let's go, let's get this done. And we couldn't even do that for a while because of how bad things were.
And now I don't know when Pat Kelsey's gonna beat Mark Pope. I'm sure it'll happen. I hope it happens a lot. Maybe it happens next year, maybe it happens in the tournament.
I don't know.
But there's going to be clearly some life from Louisville side of it now, and that makes it better. And I think Kentucky fans are are comfortable, at least at least some of them in saying that, yeah, yeah, Louis's pretty good this year, Like Kentucky beat a good Louisville team. I mean, it's not looking like a huge resume win for him by any means, but I mean, the better Louisville does actually is going to be better for them.
I know that's not how you typically view it, as you know when it comes to the rivalry for obvious reasons. But yeah, it's it's been kind of a weird year Louisville basketball. I don't mean just this season, but just both coaches went both programs went through a coaching change. Both programs hired coaches that the vast majority of the fan base would not have expected to be hired. And I think the vast majority wasn't initially thrilled, but it didn't take long for both sides to really buy in
and embrace the new guys leading their programs. And both guys have gotten off to really good starts. And I can't help but really like the guy leading Kentucky. And I know Kentucky fans at least some of them feel the same way about Pat Kelcey. And this is, if anything, it's just an unusual time here for this rivalry. But it's fun it is. Let's take a quick break. We'll go back on the other side, talk a little football
or wrap some things up. Thanks for hanging out with us right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Now back to coffee and company, fueled by Orrantines on Sports Talk seven nine day.
So Pierce Clarkson is one of the handful of players that left Louisville via the transfer portal. I think everybody listening is well aware of his resume, which you know, as a college quarterback, there's nothing on his resume.
But that's not his fault.
It's just he is one of many freshmen that timing is not on his side as far as his college career,
because well not freshman. He's one of the he's one of many quarterbacks who can make the claim that they fell into bad timing as far as when they entered the college game because it was at a time where you can no longer have to rely on an unexperienced quarterback, and coaches at high level programs that want to win and keep their job, they're gonna trust a guy that's played a lot of snaps before they trust somebody that's
never done it before. And Pierce Clarkson, again, he may be really good, but it's just rare for a guy to show how good he is as a first time starter at a high level program in the Power four leagues. So Jeff Brom and look, maybe Jeff Brom just knew it wasn't going to be a good fit. Maybe he doesn't think that Pierce is good enough to succeed in his program. I have no clue, but Piers transferring doesn't surprise me in any way, And I don't really think
there's anybody to blame for it. I think that's just you chalk it up as what we're currently like where college football currently is. So him deciding to commit today to ole Miss I thought was interesting.
One. Good for him. That's a good program.
Lane Kiffin is clearly he's got some momentum at Old Miss. And if you're a quarterback, you think you'd want to play for a high powered offense that lane Kiffin usually puts on the field.
So congrats to Pierce.
Maybe he goes there and he's super successful, or maybe he goes there and he's a backup again, or maybe he goes there and you know, he starts and he's not good. Maybe he plays a different position. I have no intel at all, but I think some fans seeing him going to Old Miss, it got him thinking once again, Man, if he's going to go play for lane Kiffin at ole Miss, wouldn't you think he could play here? Like?
Did Jeff do the right thing?
And going and getting a Miller Moss and not just handing the reins over to Pierce Clarkson. And I mean, only time will tell. But I mean, even if even if Pierce was great at ole Miss and he's there because he's never played full season before, like he's gonna be, he's gonna have a lot of eligibility left.
So let's say he becomes.
Their quarterback of the future and he's there for three years and Ole Miss was the school that was willing to give him the chance and let him be a first time starter leading them in the SEC. That would be a good return on that risk, if you know what I mean. And I guess in the eyes of some Louisville would look bad. But I just I think deciding not to hit the portal and just giving it to a guy that has never played before, that would be a risk that I don't think Jeff would be
willing to take. And if Pierce wanted to hang out and stick around and compete, and maybe he went out there and got better and won the job, then you know, I'm sure Jeff would be cool with that. But it's just different anymore for quarterbacks. I give you an example. We got to run in just a moment. But when Rick Patino was here, he recruited a guy named Shaquan Airon who was a.
Five star recruit. I remember him.
Borderline McDonald's All American and was one of the highest rated recruits for Rick Patino at Louisville at the time. He also brought in in that same class Quentin Snyder. Well, Quenton, of course, was a really highly regarded recruit, had a phenomenal career here at Louisville, and his teammate Killen Martin was not the level of Q as far as like
where he ranked. I think he was a three star, but he had some legitimate offers and he ended up going to Butler and he was right in Louisville's backyard playing alongside Q and Keelan went on to have a great career. Butler played in the NBA for a little while and Rick didn't recruit him. So when Rick, or when Kaitlyn was playing really well at Butler, I remember people saying like, Wow, how did Rick let this guy
get out of his backyard. Well, Rick at the time took another player at the same position that was, you know, a top twenty five player overall, was a five star in one of the services. So had he not taken that commitment and he took the kid from Ballard, people would have crushed him, you know. So you gotta you gotta know, and I'm sure coaches, in fact, the successful ones can't make any big decision worried about. I wonder what the fans are gonna think about this, because they
gotta they gotta trust their gut. It's their job, they know. But if Pierce goes and has a great career at Ole Miss, yeah, it might be like a damn what could have been? But also I think if you're if you're fair, it would just I mean, there was really no way to predict that. And that's that's you know. You gotta you gotta you gotta make decisions, and sometimes they're gonna work out well, sometimes are not. All Right, we're out of town, you guys, enjoy your night, Enjoy the playoff game.
Go uh go Vikings