It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick coffee.
All right, let's get it start at five o'clock here on a game day Tuesday, Louisville, Syracuse tonight seven o'clock, Kentucky will be taken on Mississippi State at seven o'clock, and both teams favored here and both teams coming off wins that had some real value. I mean, Kentucky, they're gonna have a lot of chances to get wins with value in the SEC. But that Lass said Georgia, probably maybe there's a reason Kentucky was underdogs in that game.
But they played well like they seemingly do pretty often, and that's a big win for him. And now they've got A and M at home, and A and M's without their best players. So I don't say that to try to discredit a potential win before it happens. But when you play in such a tough conference, I feel like, you know, you take advantage of the of the breaks
that you get. And I don't think anybody wants way Taylor to be hurt, but clearly you could take advantage of him not being there about beating this team and here's something that can help that that that is another beneficial factors that despite him being hurt, the formulas don't know that, right, the net rankings don't know that you're taking on this A and M team without their best players.
So Louisville much different situation. They're coming off a win where it was the win left on the schedule at that point that had the most value, and of course with that comes a real challenge. But they were able
to get it done knocking off Pittsburgh. And if you can play the way you've played the last five games and just being in a position that you're in right now, you've now got a Syracuse game on the road where you are understandably favored by eight points, and there's a real level of expectation in regards to, yeah, you should win the game.
You could lose.
It wouldn't be the biggest shocker in college basketball. Certainly wouldn't be a humongous deal. But I think to us, and I guess to the credit of Louisville's team, Pat Kelcey and his crew, they've now put themselves in a position to where if they do have an off night.
I hope nobody bails on them.
I hope that the criticism and then the concern isn't next level, although wouldn't shock me if it is, because I know our fan base. But you know, they've played well enough to where this is. This is a weird game, but it's another sign meaning that, hey, they've shown how good they can be. We know who they are, we know who Syracuse is. It's January fourteenth, it's not late in the season, but it's damn sure not early. So with that, go take care of business, Go get a
road win in conference play. And since we started the segment here in the five o'clock hour, there's been some movement or Louisville now favored by eight and a half against against Syracuse. It was within like the last five minutes Kentucky. They are seven point favorites in this matchup. And let me just check here again the net rankings. And I hate nerd adding nerding out on these numbers and saying formulas, Ken Palm, net ranking, all that stuff, but it matters.
It does.
And even if you don't agree with it, because I've been pretty vocal that I think the formulas out there they get referenced the most ken palm in the net. Although I look at them all the time, I factor in the net whenever whenever i'm making you know, a factor in ken palm quite a bit whenever I'm making wagers, and sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't, So you know, I reference them. But clearly there's not as much factored
in when it comes to winning and losing games. And that's how you've been in this position to where you can be a team that's barely above five hundred overall, have a losing record in your league, but if you're competitive every night despite losing in a good league, you'll have a much better number than you should. But Syracuse right now, they are sitting at where are they, Syracuse? I'm still scrolling here. Damn, Syracuse is one forty seven
in the net. They're eight and eight overall, and gosh, I'm still scrolling here. You got to go down to the So there's three hundred and sixty four teams here in Division one college basketball, and Boston College is the worst team in the.
Net at nine and eight. Miami is next in line at they're four and twelve.
So Boston College is at two twenty eight, Miami's at two oh nine, Virginia Tech is at one seventy six, Georgia Tech is one forty eight, and Syracuse is one forty seven. Virginia is at one thirty eight. So the bottom of the ACC is bad, real bad. So again
qs is. I was thinking maybe q S could end up, you know, inching towards the top one hundred, and this would maybe be a quad two opportunity, But I don't think that's going to happen if you're entering well, if you're four games into conference play without any non conference games left, and you're eight and eight and one seven overall. Again, I stand by what I said a moment ago. We know who Syracuse is, so mean Louisville can go in
there and play poorly and still win. We know that, But we also know that they should be able to take care of business and get another victory tonight. So I was not aware of this, but thank you to the text line for letting me know. Tonight on the call on the ACC network, you will have Eric Dievendorf as your color analyst, and I'm assuming Louisville fans listening know that name when I say Eric Dievendorf. You know
who I'm talking about. Pretty a pretty memorable name, just because it's not that common, and he was a pretty memorable player for a variety of reasons. One, he was pretty good, but also, you know, he was he was kind of a villain, was he not?
I mean, I feel like he was.
I feel like he was a villain, one of those guys that was good enough to be arrogant at times, and a guy that you know, was a part of some good Syracuse teams. And I'm sure Syracuse fans loved him, but they understood why every other fan base didn't like him,
just because you know how he played. But he's now in the broadcast world and he is going to be the color analyst, which I'm not surprised, Like I think, I don't know if the text that I got telling me that he was going to be on the broadcast, I didn't look to just confirm that that was correct.
And you are correct, And I would imagine if it's something Louisville fans are discussing, maybe they're just acknowledging that, like he was a villain and now he's going to be on the call, or maybe they're claiming that he shouldn't be a part of the broadcast because he will not be able to be unbiased due to the fact that he played at CUES. I mean, I don't know. I don't have much of a reaction to it. But I used to think that this was just something that
would never end up happening. But if you are, I mean, I'm trying to think of other examples than just this one. But like Katie George, she is, she's I mean, she's clearly a big deal at ESPN for or colleague of ours here at seven to ninety and she's a part of ESPN's top coverage of sports, including the NFL, including
college football. And she also is a huge part of volleyball for ESPN because you know, she was a volleyball star here at Louisville, so she's in that space and she gets to do Louisville games despite her being a U OFL alum. So Jay billis, he's always been able to do duke games from what I can tell, So I think it's like the top level. If you're you know, I think you get the benefit of the doubt that you're going to be professional and not let your favoritism
play out in the broadcast. So again, there's probably more examples that I'm just blanking on. So I guess if it's you feeling like he shouldn't be able to do it because he's going to just be slobber and all over Syracuse, I mean get I get your concern, but typically those broadcasters that end up in these positions, they're well aware that they need to need to balance that and not be partial to one team. So I don't I knew that he was working for the ACC network,
but I did not. I don't has he done it. I feel like he's done a Louisville game before and and I can't remember which one it was, So maybe we've had him before and he was fine. But now he's going to be on the call, and of course it's for his his alma mater. But I would be shocked if he's, you know, glazing Syracuse one, because as a former player, he can't be happy, he can't feel like they're in a good spot. In fact, if I was Deevendorf, and look, maybe they play well tonight beat Louivell,
I hope that doesn't happen. But if I was Deevendorf. My my worry would be about not being, you know, a Homer. But if in fact this QS team shows up tonight and they're the same Q's team they've been and they maybe get blown out or something, I would have a hard time in his position not making it clear that I'm upset, which again is the same thing. But the opposing fans would not care, and the fans of Syracuse would probably support him and agree with him,
so it wouldn't be as big of a deal. But if if bias is showing and it's because they're loving on the opponent, it would make the other fan base certainly feel a certain way. But yeah, it's it's more
so common than I would have ever expected. And again I think if you're in that position in broadcasting, they assume that you'll be able to handle that, although there's also really no scenario, Like there are some announcers you probably could guess, but you wouldn't really know if they have root like you would never know if they have rooting interests. You would never know when they sit down to call a game if in their mind they have a preference in who wins or loses. But they're humans,
they probably do to an extent. So you know, like with these situations where you've got Dieveendorf or Billis, you know that their preference is that they they it's impossible for them to be truly like who cares. Now, you can still do your you can have rooting interest and do your job and be objective and not make it sound like you care about either team. But the question is is already answered with certain athletes because again they
are a part of said program. They if you end up being a broadcaster calling a game for the sport you played, you know what, that probably means you were really good at that sport. So you know you clearly care about the program. But you can still do your job effectively, and and you know it's no big issue in fact, Billis to me, and maybe I'm wrong here, Bill, and I still think Jay billis Is is good at what he does.
And I'm I'm I'm not. I don't know if I would say I'm like a big fan of J. Billis.
I mean, I like him well enough, but like he's kind of become miserable at times. And I think we used to think him complaining about officiating and reviews and about the nc DOUBLEA. It used to be edgy billis like he's not afraid to call him out and and I don't know why. I don't know why, but like now it just kind of sounds like, all right, dude, we get it, we get it. You don't respect the NCAA. Geez, can we give you the one eight hundred number to
leave a message that you're unhappy? Like we don't want to hear about it NonStop during the game. I feel like that's been the shift to an extent. It used to be like, oh yeah, this guy will tell you that's a bad call, and now we're like, come on, billis, geez, we get it. So he's always been, I think, really good at what he does. He's just kind of become not annoying, but just I don't know, it's a little stale, I suppose, but when it comes to others that are
in this position, he's clearly one of the best. But I feel like I can like I'll never know, so maybe this is just me giving myself credit for something I'll never be able to actually prove that I can do. But I feel like I would know that Billis had a duke affiliation by listening to him consistently called Duke games if I was completely unaware of his resume. And it's not because he's he's gushing, because because he's careful, like he will at times make it clear and say
something that maybe a Duchy would be upset about. It's probably true, but he'll he'll take advantage of giving you an example of where he'll he'll say that maybe Duke
got a favorable call or something like that. But then he'll also at times and just how he says it to where I can tell like he's not so happy with something that went against Duke, or or he'll do at times lightly what I just mentioned you may see from Debendorf if of course, you know he slips up, and that is that like when Duke is not playing well and Duke is struggling, or a player like Jay Billis took it personal when Grayson Allen was out there
tripping people, right, because you know, anybody who supports that is a loser, and I don't think anybody does. But if there was going to be somebody defending Grayson Allen and his addiction to tripping people, it would be Duke fans, because you know it's their guy.
I get it.
Billis though, like he's having to talk about it and he's embarrassed. He wouldn't be embarrassed about it as much or mabe at all if it's any other program. So yeah, we've got ACC Network tonight, and it looks like the.
Let's see it looks like.
Who's the play by play Doug Sherman, So Doug Sherman and Eric Devendorf tonight. This question came in on the text line earlier and I totally missed it, and I'm glad I was just scrolling through here and found it because it's a good question, and I'm buying some time here to try to give you an answer. But the question is, well, I guess the text was. Nick helped me out. My buddy and I at work are in an argument. He claimed Syracuse is a mini rival of Louisville.
Do you agree? I think I'll put it this way. I think we use the.
Word rival and rivalry, which, of course you know we know what it means. Those are technically two different words, but we use that way too loosely. Because you could have history with a program, you cannot like them more so than another team. Maybe there's a team you don't really care about. Beating them is like beating anybody else other than your rival. But like, you can have history
and you can dislike a team. But I think again, we use that way too loosely because I have, like, I have no energy or emotion towards anything with Syracuse basketball at all. I don't wish that they stink. Certainly don't wish that they succeed. I don't have any real care about them. But yes, Louisville does in fact have history like they've had some. In fact, we see if I can pull up the game notes here, because I would imagine historically speaking that the all time record between
these two teams is pretty competitive. And I think Patino and Beheim, their connection, their history together, I feel like that, you know, that was a talking point in the ACC. So there's history. It's been competitive usually. Beating them is valuable this year not so much, to be fair, than
beating us recently wasn't super valuable as well. So you know, I don't have the number in front of me as far as yeah, here he goes says, I'm looking at the lois of game notes, and it doesn't give me anything specific about the Syracuse matchup here. I know there's something out there, I just don't I don't have it in front of me, but I'm dying to know what.
Yeah, here we go, Here we go. Dana Brown, how about her?
She's the sid for UL basketball, took over for Zach Greenwell who left us to go to LSU.
But she's doing a great job.
And I found her game notes, and again, this is where I just got to get better. I am stuck on, not being able to move on until I actually see a number that is really not relevant to the conversation, that really isn't even relevant to the show. It's useless information at this point, but I can't let it go. I'm dying to find out what the all time record is between these two teams when they play each other,
and it's in here somewhere. But regardless, what I was getting at is, despite there being history and despite there used to be a game where there'd be a lot of value, I don't feel any rivalry energy emotion to where I would say there are a mini rival or any type of rival at all. I think Kentucky and Louisville are such big rivals within with each other that
anybody that you loosely call a rival. I mean it's on another planet, you know, in a lower level compared to the rivalry that you have, like when you have a big time rival, especially when you're around here in Louisville where we all coexist together and there's so many Louisville fans, there's so many Kentucky fans. You probably are
related to somebody from the other side. You might work with somebody from the other side, you might have you might have had kids with somebody from the other side, and you know, like trust me, we were all. That's why I think that it's so special and different here than anywhere else in the state of Kentucky, you're really anywhere. It's because there's so many of both sides here, So when it's that heavy, I rarely ever even think of any other program that is technically considered a rival to me,
I just don't think of them that way. But like Cincinnati is a rival in basketball, Memphis is a rival historically.
But not in alone long time.
And then outside of that, like you had like Marquette, I kind of feel like there was some rivalry energy there from a basketball standpoint, But again, those are nothing close to Kentucky. So I don't, you know, like people used to say that Louisville and Clemson there was like a they were a rival like that kind of died quickly, my memory is correct, but it used to come up and it would irritate me because I would think, why are we rivals? Like we've never beat them until this year.
Same thing Wake Forest. I don't know where that thing.
I mean, it's not.
Exactly a good look for Louisville football to claim that they ar rivals with Wake Forest. You don't want to rival with a program of the wake Forest level. But I guess because of the history, because of you know, when I say history, I think everybody knows what I'm referring to. But obviously they played in the Orange Bowl. There was the Waking League situation, there was the Matthew Colburn situation. The kid who got gray shirted by Bobby
went to Wake and led us up. I mean, there, you know, there's history to an extent, But like that doesn't make them a rival Virginia, Like I don't. I kind of feel like somebody said Virginia was a rival one time.
They're not.
I mean in basketball, they have got our number they've been a thorn on our side. But there I mean, And I'll give you an example. Tennessee and Kentucky are close to each other. That's the only layer between the two that gives them any ability to claim.
That their rivals.
I guess if you're in southern Kentucky and you live near Tennessee the border, then I guess it's the same thing. There's probably a lot of Kentucky fans and Tennessee fans together, but Tennessee doesn't consider you arrival. They consider Alabama the arrival or Vandy even I guess actually Tennessee considers Alabama, and I feel like there's somebody else in the SEC
that they claim to be a bit like. So I think for any rivalry to be truly a rivalry in my eyes, And again, I'm sure people see it differently, and that's fine. I'm not the ultimate decider on how this works, but I think it makes sense.
It's got to be a two way street. It's gotta be.
And I don't even mean from a competitive standpoint, that certainly helps, right, there's no doubt Louisville needs to be a little more competitive in the rivalry in basketball, and you know, we all know that, but it's a two way street in regards to the hatred, and that's what makes it a rival. That's what makes it a great rival, that's what makes it one of the best. So, you know, with all that said, I don't. I don't think that
Syracuse fans think much about Louisville, and I know I don't. Again, your buddy, I'm gonna say that if again, I don't know if you yeah, I think you were on. I think I gave you the answer you were wanting for. I don't know if your buddy cares or not. I think I get where he's coming from as far as the history, but as far as Syracuse.
Being a mini rival, I don't.
I wouldn't claim that they are, and I don't if I'm claiming many rivals, it's actual rivals, but they're just so far and away different than Kentucky. And those are the schools I mentioned, Cincinnati, Marquette, Memphis, maybe West Virginia. So I hope, I hope my answered. You know, you helped your argument with your buddy. I doubt you can bring this to him and he'll say, Okay, well, I'll admit it. Nick Coffee said it, so I was wrong. I'm sure he'll probably make his own case, and you
know he has every right to do that. And speaking of rivals, this this story, this is a little bit old, but it's got me thinking because I think, honestly, when it comes to college basketball, the most comparable rival to Louisville Kentucky is Xavier Cincinnati. Seriously, I think it is. And Duke and Carolina will always be viewed as the best and biggest rivalry in college basketball, and I get it.
I can't really argue against that because when it comes down to it, North Carolina and Duke are two of the best programs in the history of the sport. They have a ton of accolades, they're clearly rivals, and they've been both super successful. And the competitiveness, I mean, I'm gonna pull it up here because the time record between North Carolina and Duke and basketball just a few years ago, they played countless times and it was like fifty to fifty,
like they'd split it. And that's just I mean, that's that's crazy. Or actually, I'm sorry, let me back up. North Carolina still holds the edge one forty three to one seventeen, but in the past fifty years. Yeah, in the past fifty years. This was from February of last year. In the last fifty years, Duke and Carolina have split their one hundred and fourteen meetings, with each having fifty seven wins to fifty seven losses. Again, that is why
that is. You know, it's super competitive. They're always really good in their huge programs. Like that's why they're always going to have the edge over Louisville Kentucky, and I don't have a problem with it, but I think what makes the rivalry what it is is fans, not history. I mean, history is a part of it, but like fans are the ones who really players in college don't
decide what a rivalry is. They don't stick around that long. Right, Maybe there's history between the two teams, but like teams change over the years, it's the fans that make it a rivalry. The energy and the emotion from a fan is what makes rivalries exist, and they clearly have that there. But I just think we're on a different level for a variety of reasons. But again I'm biased, but Xavier and Cincinnati is really really intense, and that's those aren't
as big a programs. But man, that's I think you don't even have to follow college basketball that closely to know that. And the reason I bring them up is because it's one of the old time rivalry troll moves that it's just so elite. I mean, I got to tip my cap to Xavier here. So apparently there was a middle school here in Kentucky, I believe in Taylor County that got sent a cease and assist in regards
to their logo. I guess they're the bear Cats and Cincinnati told them that they can't use that logo because of copyright. And that's not that uncommon. But when I understand you can you can sign something acknowledging that, you know, like it's just a paperwork kind of thing to where Cincinnati is gonna give you the pass and tell you that one you're good. We don't believe we're going to lose value of our logo because you're middle school in Kentucky. Or they can say you're good, but you have to
make this change or that change. Well, apparently Cincinnati told them they needed to change something, and this middle school did not have the resources to go through, you know, updating their logo. So they just decided to say, let's
let's rebrand and start from scratch. We don't you know, that'll be easier than having to you know, because what they'd have to do is not only not only would they have to just make a correction to a graphic in regards to what they can show as far as the bear cats, they'd also have to like no longer use any gear that had the previous version of their bear cat. So like, it wasn't just an easy thing to do. If they'd have told them they were good,
then it would have been fine. So I don't even know if they fought back, but it became a thing, and you know who found out about it, Xavier. So Xavier gave them some kind of an investment to help them with their rebrand. When it comes to guess resources that needed, right cost and graphics, and I mean probably a lot that goes into it. Xavier foot of the bill and made this middle school. Now the Musketeers just like Xavier, and they did it, of course, you know,
to spite their rival. And that's that's great rivalry heat right there. Man's that's even if you're Cincinnati, you tip the cap there and you feel you feel a level of like camaraderie, like all right, yeah, score one of those guys. We'll get them back and we'll be even better because that's how much we hate each other like it. It's kind of crazy, at least I think it is. But anyways, let's get to a quick break. I'm a one man operation right now, so I just realized, oh yeah,
I probably need to get to commercial break soon. It's five twenty seven, So anyways, we will take a quick time out come back on the other side. Keep this thing rolling along. A lot more to get into, so stick with us. Right here, it's Coffee and Company. Phil about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on Sports Talk seven nine day.
That's right, it is Coffee and Company. We got about twenty five minutes left here on a Tuesday afternoon, a cold Tuesday. In fact, it's getting dark outside. It's probably evening in the eyes of most now, but it is cold and it's going to be even colder tomorrow, which I feel like today, and I guess even even yesterday at times like it felt way colder than it was when we had all that snow, so stay warm today.
I was on sixty five right before I got to I'm really good at getting anywhere I need to go downtown, especially for some who you know, didn't spend a lot of time downtown growing up or anything like that. But I'm so bad at knowing the name of the streets. I can give you, Muhammad Ali, I know Brook Street,
but I don't know where I was. But I was getting ready to get off whatever exit I get off of, and there was a vehicle to my right that was slightly behind me, and I put my blinker on, and you know that was they acknowledged the blinker and they were going to do one of two things, slow down and let me over stay where they were. I guess three things, slow down and let me over, speed up and get out of my way and let me over, or be an a hole and just kind of, you know,
block me. But they sped up and it was a decent I mean, it was a new ish vehicle. I don't think it was brand new. It was like a white I want to say, maybe like a mid size suv. I think it was a Hyundai. And it looked like a newer vehicle. And they had the window in the back seat on the driver's side down and the window on the on the passenger seat in the front down. I noticed it once when she sped past me and
let me over. I know, I noticed that the back window was down on the driver's side, and then once I got over.
And I got off the exit, I saw the other side. So this is it's been.
It drove me crazy, thinking there's got to be a malfunction here, Like nobody would choose to have the windows down in this weather, and nobody would choose for those.
Windows to be down, So.
Maybe it's I'm probably something nobody else would have given any thought or even noticed. But it made me think, like, if you're driving with the windows down, it has to be because there's something wrong with your window and it's broke, because I mean, you would freeze to death. I mean not literally, but like who would want to do that?
Like there are some people who don't have air don't have air conditioning in the car when it's one hundred degrees outside, and obviously that that stings, and if their windows are down, you're assuming that they have no AC and that's that's that's what they're doing to you. Know, not suffocate inside a hot car with no AC in the middle of the summer. But when I see it be you know, when it's when it's a bazillion degrees outside, and it would it would be a rare situation for
like a Newish car to not I AC. It could be broke, I suppose, But like when people choose windows down in the extreme conditions. But and it's a choice thing, like I just I'll never understand it. It also makes me realize I'm really soft because I know back in the day there wasn't heat in AC in vehicles. In fact, some homes didn't have it. So I'm very fortunate and
I guess spoiled to have had those amenities. And I went one summer without having AC in my car, and I was probably like twenty two, twenty three years old, and it was I mean, it was a time in my life where I had just gotten started in a career that I'm not in now, and I was getting married and I felt like, Okay, I've become a grown up here, like grown up things are happening to an extent, and I need to be responsible with purchases. I need to be responsible with money. I need to, you know.
I mean, we moved into a house, we had a mortgage, but like I knew, I needed to do something to put myself in a situation where financially I could get a different car because I couldn't do it anymore. And trust me, I'm not doing a pity me because I'm sure there are people listening right now that have that. Maybe they've never had a vehicle with AC, so like, I get it, I'm soft.
I'm a diva in the eyes of some.
But here's why it was even worse for me than others, because of the car. I had, a Mitsubishi Eclipse two was it a two thousand and one or something, and it was a convertible and nobody told me until like I got rid of the car that everybody thought that was like a super like that's a that's.
A girl car. And I never even thought of it.
But you know what, once somebody told me that, I was like, you're right, nine out of ten people I'll see driving this kind of vehicle, it's a woman. But anyways, I liked it when I got it, and you know, the AC went out. Wasn't going to pay to get it fixed because I knew eventually I would just want to get a new car.
But it was a convertible.
It had black leather, It had a rag top like a like a soft top, which was also black. And because it's a small car, like, the windows are tiny. So if I was with no AC and it's one hundred degrees outside, I could leave the windows down and the top up, but then I'm just baking with that black leather top or whatever.
You know.
I don't know what the material was, but obviously, I mean it was. It made it even hotter. And because of how small the windows were, there's no wind coming in, Like there's no I mean, there's there's ventilation, but like I'm not getting anything from the wind because of just how small the car is, So that sucked. Or I could take the top down and if the sun's out,
I'm just sitting there baking on black leather. I mean it was Again, I know it sound like a poor me guy, but it was a time in life where I'm like, you'll you'll work hard, Dick, and you'll be able to no longer, you know.
Be in this position at some point. But eventually I did.
I got rid of that car, and since then, I've I've been blessed to be able to have heat in the cold winter and uh ac in the in the warm, warm summers that we get around here. All Right, we talked earlier about sports gambling, and I was just sharing sort of what I've been doing lately when it comes to betting on college basketball, I've been really interested in betting on games live, which was new to me, and a lot of you on the text line have let me know that you only bet live games, and I
get it. I mean, I don't know why you would only do it, but I used to not even touch a game if I if it had already started, and I will now, like if I knew that there was a certain line that clearly is going to be different now, then I'll stay away. And there's nothing worse than knowing that you just missed the bet and you would have got the line that you knew was going to be a good play for you, and then clearly the game started. They they've adjusted and now you know you're kind of screwed.
But when it comes to athletes getting getting in trouble, getting caught doing things they're not supposed to be doing, there have been some pretty mild examples, and I think anybody that was in favor of this being a thing where sports gambling is legal just about everywhere. I mean not everywhere, but in most places. I mean an amount of in the amount of seven years or so, it is become legal. I mean in a ton of states, the way more states you can bet legally now than
you can't. And anybody that is in a position of like power, anybody that works within these leagues like the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, they're clearly in business with these sports books. Everybody's making a ton of money because
sports betting is legal. They knew when they move forward with this that there would be examples, there would be situations where they've got to they've got to make an example out of somebody and hold them accountable to let you you know, because there's no scenario that you you could ever claim that this would never happen. In fact, it can be legal in every place other than Vegas and still happen. That happened in previous you know, eras
of college sports. So anyways, there's no bigger example in my opinion right now than John tay Porter, who was the NBA player who of course has been banned for life from the league and is now facing federal charges. Obviously he's in, you know, he's in. He's he's gonna go to prison because you know he wasn't just I mean, there's some guys that, like, for example, who is at Calvin Ridley, the receiver who was with Jacksonville maybe or maybe it was I don't know who was with, but
maybe Atlanta. Anyways, he got suspended for a whole year, but it was because he was just betting on games the had nothing to do with Like, again, the issue there is you just knew you weren't supposed to do it, and I don't even think what you're doing is really gonna harm anybody, but it's silly to think you would get away with it. And the risk as an NFL player given that salary, Like I love the action, it's fun for me, but like the risk is nowhere near
the reward for somebody in that position. So some of these guys that you know that get criticized, it's not that they're doing something awful, it's just that they're stupid.
That's what it comes down to.
And clearly that's the case with John Tay Porter, but like what he's doing is also stupid and awful because
he was betting. I mean, he was shaving points. And the story is not I mean, it's been out there for a long time, but there's now an updated article here in The New York Times that features some of the text messages that he would send to bets during games, Like this, dude was texting people what to do when it comes to betting while playing, Like not while he's in the league, but like while the game's going on, when he's on the bench or he's in the locker room at halftime.
One of them says.
Here, there are four quotes from this article that share the exchanges between John say Porter and Better's during games. Here's the first one quote, I went back to the locker room to get my eye checked on. I mean, that's probably him letting them know that no worries, I'm buying time. Or maybe I don't know, maybe he did get his eye hurt and he's telling them, I can't shape points for you right now. My eyes hurt. They may not put me back in. This one says, I
don't know if I'm gonna play much more. This one says I'm not starting the second half. The last one here is is is great.
But if it's.
Garbage time, I will shoot a million shots. So I mean that that's that's just one really stupid. But also like I feel like anybody who's in like if you're a basketball player in the NBA, I mean, clearly, it's your job, it's your it's how you make a living, but there's also a level of integrity and like that's the kind of thing that if this got wide. The NBA is already not. By the way, look like the NBA is not in trouble, like their viewership is down.
They just signed it insanely lucrative new media rights deals. So like the NBA, the NBA is fine. They just have seen a ratings drop. And I think one of the factors is that it's just not a it's not serious when it comes to competition. When you have guys that just sit out because they want to rest when they're perfectly healthy, and you're playing eighty two games, Like
you're not serious about competing. You can't tell me that games matter when teams knowingly just let guys rest and you know basically except that they're probably gonna lose like that, that's just not good for your product. So you know, if there was more, which I think this is going to be a real rare exception to see the level
of what went on here with John tay Porter. But like, if that was to be a bigger issue where other we're doing it, that could ruin the NBA, Like that could absolutely destroy an employer that you know is pretty special to a lot of people, especially those that you know,
create generational wealth for working within the league. So I mean, I think there's some guys that have gotten in trouble with it where their teammates or their peers within the league probably just look at them like what are you doing? Don't be such an idiot, But like this is like okay, you're you're jeopardizing like everything for everybody with this kind of stuff. Which again, you do this kind of stuff,
you go to prison. And I'm sure, I mean, I know it wasn't worth it for John tay Porter, but they got to make examples out of people, both the NBA and of course you know prosecutors. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side and wrap this thing up.
It's Coffee and Company.
Feel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Just a few minutes left here as we wrap it up on a Tuesday afternoon evening. I feel like it was somebody I'm a textallan to mention this a while back that when I was stuck on is this do I say afternoon or do I say evening?
And they were right.
They made a good point that it actually starts in the afternoon, but like when you get to the five o'clock hour and it starts getting dark outside, I'm not sure if that is evening, but it certainly doesn't feel like afternoon, so it's fair enough. I feel like whenever it's you know, summertime, and it's not dark by the time I walk out of here, it's a little bit different. But we started the afternoon and we pretty much end in the evening. And we appreciate you for hanging out
with us. And if you ever miss anything, don't forget. You can always go check out the podcast on the out radio app also anywhere you get podcasts, but I think they tell us to recommend you get it on the out radio app or on Apple podcasts, So it'll be up shortly after we wrap this thing up. So just a few minutes left Louisville Syracuse tonight.
I mean, I.
It's kind of awkward here because Louisville I feel like it's still a team that I believe needs to do certain things well if they want to win games on the road in ACC play. And again that is true, but also I kind of feel like I'd be a liar if I said, well, they better do this or that or this, because if not, there's no way they win.
Well.
They've shown that they can still win and beat good teams when certain things don't necessarily go their way, and that's why they're favored by eight and a half points. And that's why this is a game to where I feel like this is the first ACC game. And trust me, I'm not getting cocky, and it wouldn't matter if I was, because you know, I don't play.
I don't I don't have a I don't you know, I'm not a.
It's you know, it's a little different. So even if I was getting ahead of myself, it wouldn't matter. But they have played well enough, not just with the wins, but how they've played to where this is a game you should go win, and I think they will, So I would say what's important tonight is, you know, just continuing to bring the energy, intensity, effort, physicality. I mean, I think defense has been the biggest factor in why this team has been so good in the last five games.
They've they've seemed to be as good or.
Better than everybody they've played when it comes to, you know, being on the floor for loose balls, hustle, plays those kind of things, and yeah, despite at times shots not falling and despite Tom's free throws just have been an issue, they've been able to still you know, I guess some would say they're getting by and maybe it'll bite you at some point, and you know what, you're probably right, But there's also a different way to look at it.
They're not they're not you know, avoiding a disaster. They're they're still finding ways to win. And I think both things can can be true. But the Syracuse team, I talked about it a little bit earlier, they're they're not good. They're not they're not having a good season. They're eight and eight, which again I think that speaks to our Louisville is nearly favored about double digits on the road, but a big part of their season they were without their player who is really good. He's proven to be
pretty good and that is JJ Sterling. But he is, he is, he's back, and you know, he's he's he's having a phenomenal season when it comes to you know, production, He's twenty points a game. And since they since he has returned this year, they are there. Well, yeah, he's played in there. Let's see, he's played in their last three games and they are there two and one in those three games, and they've won their last two and
he's been a big part of that. Twenty six points against Boston College the other night, twenty one against Georgia Tech. So he's he's on a tear right now. So obviously containing him is going to be key. But I feel like I'm I'm justified in being confident that this team's going to be able to do that.
But we shall see.
All Right, we're out here, you guys, enjoy your evening, and we'll be back at it tomorrow right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
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