1.17: Lock In - Hour 3

Kelsey went in there and beat them by twenty. They're clearly down in a major way, and they'll be making a coaching change at the end of the year because Tony Bennett bailed on them before the season started. So the ACC needs Virginia to be better than they are right now, because the league needs a lot of teams to be better. Like Louisville was a big factor in

the ACC's real fall in recent years. In fact, they were the worst team for two straight years in a two year stretch where the ACC was maybe as bad as it's ever been, although maybe this year is the worst year. So Louisville right now has at least done their part to try to get back on track. I'm sure in a different ACC many years ago, they probably wouldn't be sitting as the second best team in the league.

But at least they're heading in the right direction. But I think whoever takes over at Syracuse when that job opens up, whoever takes over at Miami Florida State was bad and now they're they're They're not great, but they're Leonard Hamilton's having a little bit of a bounce back season right now, but he's also nearly eighty years old.

So these jobs who they hire like it could be somebody we don't even know, It could be a name that we're not thrilled by, but whoever it is, like, these teams need to be good again, because I've not seen anything quite like this as far as the ACC in a seven eight year stretch, going from easily one of and at times even the best league in the country to now just being a league that looks like a you know, has been Duke is still creaming the crop. And I wanted to get defensive for the ACC last

night because I was watching Fox Sports. They had I think it was the was the Rutgers one of the Big ten matchups Ruggers and somebody else I was watching and Casey Jacobs and former Stanford Whang. He's one of the analysts for Fox Sports, and he was talking about the ACC during their wrap up show and he said something about Duke, and I thought, that's that's that's asinin and then I realized, wait a second, he's right. He said that Duke this year is like Gonzaga has been

for many years in their league. And more than anything, that speaks to how good Duke is. But also it speaks to how the second best team is Louisville, who I think is good. Maybe I'm biased, I don't know how good, but clearly they're playing some pretty good basketball. They've beaten some decent teams along the way, they played a really challenging schedule, so we'll see how this season finishes. But you know, Louisville was the worst team in this

league by a long shot. Now again, nothing left from those two seasons currently, so maybe that's not worth mentioning. But still, I mean, I wanted to be defensive, like that's a crazy take, You're out of your mind, But he's kind of right. I mean, Duke is Duke will run the table this year, and they should. I mean, they may slip up and to somebody, but it would have to be like a big slip up. They are

going to play Carolina. I mean, they'll play the other teams in the league that are believed to be, you know, tournament worthy, but even the teams that right now are believed to be in the tournament according to Joey Brackett's we talked about this yesterday, So I don't want to regurgitate too much, but this is just a real eye opener to where the league is right now. Because Leonardi doesn't see the bracket, he's going off of his opinion and the formula of the net rankings that the NCAA uses.

So maybe he's off here, but I don't I wouldn't be shocked if he's actually correct in how he values this league. So Duke is safely and they're a one seed. They're probably the second one seed behind Auburn. Louisville is up to a sixth seed according to Lenardi, which hey,

I mean, that's a pretty good spot right now. And although you don't have a whole lot of opportunities to get big wins that are going to significantly boost your resume, you do have a lot of wins likely if you keep playing the way you're playing, and that certainly won't hurt you. So I don't know. Maybe this team's ceiling

is like a five or four. We'll see. So the two teams right now that are safely in as of today, and again it's just Lenardi, So maybe he's wrong, but I'd say just about everybody projecting a bracket right now would be close to, you know, on the same page with him. So Louisville is a sixth seed, Duke as a one seed. Those are the only two teams that right now are safely in. There are three teams that are on the bubble. You've got Clemson as an eight seed,

and they don't. They're only there because they have that really valuable win against Kentucky, which is a great win for Clemson. So Clemson is in as an eight seed right now. And then you've got Carolina and Pittsburgh as nine seeds, which because you now have the play in games. I still think that's bubble, but it's on the good side of the bubble. A nine seed, I think used

to be considered you're really dangerous. Now you don't have a whole lot of wiggle room, but like you're not you could lose the game and you're not gonna fall out of the field. But with the issue is that you are right now. You have very little opportunity if you're Carolina, Pittsburgh or Clemson, to really boost your resume because the league just doesn't give you that many opportunities to do that. And if you slip up and lose to one of these teams that are in the bottom half,

it'll crush your numbers. Doesn't necessarily mean you're out, but like a loss or two to Virginia Cal Florida State, even I know Wake Forest is playing well and they've got a good record in league play, but they're not even sniffing the bubble right now. So those are losses that will crush you when it comes to your resume, like the net and all that. So I don't see a scenario where the league only gets two in but three four is certainly a realistic thing, and that's just crazy,

crazy to see. And that's why Louisville's recent run here and they're just winning basketball games, which this is the longest ACC winning streak I think that Louisvill's ever had, which is awesome to see, and clearly It's not like you're knocking off top ten teams on a weekly basis right now. But you already have cleared what is easily

the toughest stretch of play in acc action. So it didn't mean you can put it on cruise control and just expect to go out there and beat anybody like You're gonna have to keep playing well, and I think this team will do that. So Tomorrow's game against Virginia, it's a much different field than than what it used

to be. And that's a good thing. And I'll be honest with you, even though Tony Bennet's not there and Virginia is not good right now, if I didn't just see Louisville go on the road and beat them by twenty, I probably would still have a little bit of worry. Like, man, this team just always gives us trouble. But again, this Louisville team with Pat Kelsey, they don't seem to be vulnerable to Virginia, and this Virginia team, to be fair, is not what they once were. Another big game tomorrow,

Kentucky taken on Alabama. That'll be one of the best games of the day in college basketball. In fact, it might be the best game of the day if we're being honest. I mean, yeah, I mean I'm looking here at the kin palm. You've got a handful of ranked matchups. But Bama and Kentucky that one is. That's the two highest ranked teams that are playing each other. Kentucky is projected to win ninety to eighty nine according to kin Pom, and I haven't Is there a spread up for this one?

Have you seen it yet? Let me see? Yeah, here we go. Fan on DraftKings has kentuckypadat Kentucky is two and a half point favorites over Bama here, which I'm not surprised at all. I would have guessed it would have been closer to like one and a half. But what I You know this, there are some games that Kentucky's been able to win this year that really could have gone either way. And I don't say that to discredit them, because that's a lot of really good, bad,

really good teams playing really good teams. That's usually what happens, right it's close, you know, both teams are great, and somebody's gonna make the place necessary to win. And Kentucky has done that enough times to where I'm I'm willing to say that that's a part of their identity, like that's that's part of what they do. They find ways to win close games at times when when the games are played at their style, and it's really been pretty consistent.

The three teams that have been able to beat Kentucky, they did one thing. They were able to keep the game from being played at the pace that Kentucky wants, with as many possessions as Kentucky wants. And that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to beat Kentucky because they have found ways to win those kind of games too. Right, They beat Mississippi State, who really wanted to kind of slow them down and beat them up like Georgia did, like

Ohio State did. They knocked off Gonzaga where they were getting blown out and then Pope made some adjustments and they found a way to win. So it's not as if they can't win those games. But the only three teams that have been able to do it, they played a specific style. Alabama is not going to do that. They're going to be who they are, NATO, It's to

be honest with you. He in my opinion is the I don't want to see the innovator, because I don't know if that's true, but as far as coaches that really embraced this modern style of basketball where it's we're doing everything we can to generate a lot of good looks from three shots near the rim or getting to the free throw line. That is that you know, there's not gonna be any long twos. We're not running sets

to get somebody a mid range jumper. We are out here executing to get those three things in rhythm, threes, free throw line, or if we can get to the rim, we'll do that like that's what they want to do, and others coaches are doing it clearly, Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey. That is their style. That is what led to them having success elsewhere to get the jobs they have now. But Natoates broke through at Alabama and made a Final four like he to me is the guy that is kind of the leader of this new era

of basketball. So there's no way they're going to make any adjustments to what they're doing. They're going to come in and play the way they play and hope it works out. And it may work out because they're good, but nobody's been able to beat Kentucky, yet that wants to play the way Kentucky wants to play Florida. Florida came in, they were hot, and it looked like, man Florida is is just better at this think Kentucky and Florida is still a good team. But since they're lost

to Kentucky, have they lost two more times? I know they lost to the all S at home the other night to was it LSU I think no?

I mean, actually, I probably won't be watching it if it's at the same time as the louisvill game, which I kind of think it is now I'm curious. Let me see. I know Louisville plays at noon and Kentucky also plays at noon, so I'll probably, you know, keep up with their score here and there, but obviously I'll be locked into this Louisville Virginia game. We also have NFL playoffs coming up here this weekend, which I'm excited about. We'll talk about that coming up a little bit later

on here within the within the five o'clock hour. But tomorrow's tomorrow's theme, the promotion for this game against Virginia, and I'm gonna let me let me see if I can. I mean, I know, I mean, I know what they're doing. I just want to make sure if they're if they're branding it for some if if there's a certain tagline they're using for this game. I want to make sure

and get it right. But they they put together a really awesome promo video that is narrated by Cornell Bradley, who if you know Louisville basketball, and I don't just mean Louisville Cardinal basketball, I mean basketball in the Louisville community. Uh, he's a legend. The Dirt Bowl, an event that has gone on for a long, long time here in Louisville. It's I mean, don't I don't feel like, I don't feel like I don't need to give any kind of

explanation as to what it is. But it was a really good message that Louisville basketball is not I mean, this is the city's team. This is not just the school. Obviously it is university and that's that's the huge component to it. But for years, for generatations, Louisville Natives have felt like this is dirt team, like Louisville Basketball is

the pro team. And it was a really good tip of the cap to sort of, you know, the culture of basketball here in this in this community, which, of course, if you've been around long enough and you're you're you're familiar enough, the dirt ball is a big deal. And I want just let you guys hear uh this this awesome, awesome narration by the legend here Shawnee part the.

was really really cool. And I have a this isn't like a great story, but it was something that I'm glad happened because I at a young age, without really I would have not known a whole lot about the Dirt Bowl, and I wouldn't have known anything about Cornell Bradley. But when I was in high school, it was my soft it was my junior year. We played a game at Shawnee High School, So North Bullet High School. We went to Shawnee to play game, and we never played

there before. I knew of Shawnee, I knew the school, but I didn't really know what to expect. And we get there and they're doing the you know, they've got a PA announcer like most high school teams do, and they're introducing the starting lineups. And usually when you're on the road number twelve coffee, like they're not they're not really gonna gash you up. They're not really going to be into it. It's just like a formality, right like Bucket Johnson like that when you score, like that's that's

that's just how it is. And it's not like they're disrespecting you. That's just the way it is. But they usually introduced the road team first, right, Well, he was introducing us like he was I mean, he was my hype man or hype like not just me, but like he had some he had some real real energy and it was it was, and I'm like, this is this is different. And then of course he did it for Shawnee as well, and he certainly turned it up a notch or two for them because he was the guy

that calls their games. And I'm not sure if he still does now, but I know he did then. This was back in like two thousand and four, two thousand and five, and I just remember thinking, like, man, I can there's an energy here, like there's this is like knowing when you make a shot, this guy is going to be, you know, hyping you up more than even if you were on your home floor with the local guy that's doing the PA at your high school. And it was just a cool energy man and he was

bringing a lot of a lot of energy. And I made the first shot of the game. I don't think I scored much, but in that game, I made the first shot and I made a three. And you know, still, this was before I realized that he actually would bring the same level regardless of who's scoring. So I made a three. He's I think he's on the stage at the high school. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't remember him being at scores table, but anyways, you know, it's an

empty gym. We're playing. Yeah, we played at six o'clock. The girls played at seven thirty, so this is a weekday at six o'clock. There's not a whole lot of people there, so I wasn't expecting to really hear anything. After I made a shot and all of a sudden, bang, I said, bang, And he did it after anybody made a three, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and like, we never experienced anything like that, you know, at all, and it was just really cool. We end

up winning, and I just remember that. And then my dad, my father was one who told me like who he was and kind of introduced me to what the Dirt

Bowl was talked about, Errol Griffith and his time. You know, how big of a phenom he was before he got to Louisville, and how the legends tell the stories of griff showing up at a young young age out there just dominating when he's like fourteen and he's playing against grown men, and just kind of it really got me interested in the culture of Louisville basketball more so than just Louisville meeting the University of Louisville. And I'm a

nerd for that kind of stuff. So like, I just all I've understo, like I understand what the Dirt bol is, and to have the folks at U of L reach out and do this, it's just a really it's just a really cool connection. And there's people who aren't necessarily like into basketball the way I am that that know what the Dirt Bowl is and know Cornell Bradley so

well done and the Dirt Bowl itself. Like what I find fascinating is there's so many guys in Louisville that, for a variety of reasons, it didn't work out where they were able to have great careers in high school

and go on and play in college. And obviously there's been many guys that have that have played in the NBA that are from Louisville, not U of L. But just you know, there's to say we've got countless guys, but there's been a lot of really good talent to come out of Louisvel over the years, especially back long before I was around. And there's guys that again didn't have that same opportunity that it didn't work out for. Maybe it was grades, maybe they just had some issues

in life. That kind of kept them from reaching their potential. But like I remember some of those guys that I played against, I played with. There's a guy that I played AAU with my junior years. His name is Terrence Britt. He played at Fern Creek High School. To this day, one of the best players I've ever watched that I've

ever played against and alongside with. And you know, he had some academic issues and didn't get recruited by the bigger schools because they just knew he wouldn't qualify and played JUCO briefly, and like, I don't know last i'd heard Terrence had fallen on some hard times, but I remember not that long ago, I was looking at the paper and he won MVP of the Dirt Ball and

I'm like, that's what that is. Like there's guys that didn't have maybe the net, they didn't have the resources, or they just had some some hardships that kept them from realizing their potential unfortunately. But man, they could hoop and when they want to go show what they can do, like the Dirt Bowl is for that. And I remember seeing that and thinking, like, man, likes that's one. I'm not surprised because he was one of the best players

I've ever watched. Like I'm not kidding you. I believe better circumstances for him, he'd be an NBA and I don't even think he played past a year Juco. But shout out to Cornell Bradley, and I really hope that this you know, everything they're doing to get people there, I hope it works out, man, because this team deserves it and the fans, I mean, like, you want to be able to be a part of a game in an atmosphere where it feels like, hey, not only are

we winning and this is fun. Look around. This place is more crowded than it's been in a long time. And I don't know, We'll never know. I mean, you never know for sure, but I'm hopeful that that's tomorrow quick break will come back. On the other side, get to your phone calls right here. On Sports Talk seven.

Will Ferrell. Yeah, like that song is what is Love? Yeah, that's that's an awesome song, but like the whole like that whatever you just played, and the rhythm is a dancer and then of course the and I always forget, yeah what is Love? That song? There's like twenty songs that are kind of in that same realm. And again I'm not gonna seek it out, but it's it's a vibe so good stuff.

because those movies were pretty popular for a reason. Sure, all right, if I go to if I'm seven to one, seventy nine hundred is the number if you guys would like to jump in and give us a call, And the call screener software here tells me that hater Tyrone is on the line, and I understand he wants to call to inform people that Louisville's championship in twenty thirteen is not real. Is that? Is that true?

Louisville fans are getting made fun of by KSR Matt Jones for for giving away tickets, and I look, I think it's silly, but I'm not surprised or bothered because again, it it's a rivalry. That's what we do. We go back and forth. But like, no, Joe Caliperi against Morehead State, not that long ago he bought was it two thousand tickets to give away to people, So like there's so many examples of when your team does it, it's it's whatever.

But if it's the rival, you load up and you make fun of them like that, like that's just what this is, man like.

of all things. I just referenced that when Wayne Blackshir played at Louisville, Louisville won a national championship, and that got Tyrone itching to call in and you know, go back and forth, because again that's what this is. But you know, I love the back and forth, but like I don't that just seems like a very very old jab from from BBN. Like to be honest with you, bro, we've given you way better ammunition than the banner stuff. R I mean, not super lately, but you know, like

so anyways, thank you for calling in. All right. Text line This is on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line five O two six five three zero seven ninety. If you guys want to contribute to the show. Questions, complaints, compliments, insults, whatever you've got, send him our way. This is from And I like it when you guys do this. This is an old school listener. He's been doing it since day one. This is Kirk. I used to like it

when you not Austin's dad Kirk. But I like it when people would send in texts and leave a name, even if it's like not a real name, like there were there was somebody showed it to one of our remotes who went by I think like upper Crust Bill. I think that's the name, and I just didn't really have I didn't know what to expect. But he showed up to one of our remotes at Boombaughs and like would not have expected. What I see on the text line and read from Upper Crust Bill was that. But

you never know. So I like when you leave a name. You don't have to, you know, want too, You can leave a fake name whatever. I'm pretty sure, pretty sure it's not your Kirk. It's not your Kirk, it's not your dad. But if it is, I'll stand corrected. But anyways, he said, you know what's gonna happen in the NSAA tournament.

They're going to either put Louisville in the eight nine game with Louisville or Saint John's being the eight nine, or they're gonna put Louisville Louisville against Charleston if Charleston wins their conference. I mean, I'd say the probability of

that happening is not high. But if in fact, the seeds are trending to be where they could be matched up, where maybe Louisville is a five and Charleston's a twelve, or Louisville's a nine and Saint John's is an eight, I mean, if they have the ability to do that, they will, I mean, make no mistake about it. I do not think it was a pure coincidence that Louisville played Minnesota in Max's tournament in the first year, Like I don't you know, I don't think they were conspiring

to get us. But if they have the ability to pick a matchup that, you know, as far as the teams and the seeds, it makes sense, right, nobody was misseeded in that in that game it was the seven to ten and Louisville was the seven, Minnesota was the ten, And when they're looking at the sevens and the tens, if they have a chance to put a matchup together that also has a storyline to it. They'll do that because at the end of the day, this is innertainment.

So still I still think the probability of that happening is low. But if in fact it lines up to where those teams that you mentioned, for those of Chris Max at Charleston, I don't see how that would happen because they win their league. They're probably looking at Actually, let me let me look this up here, because Pat Kelcey and I don't know, maybe Mac and his team don't win their league this year, but they're they're in

the driver's seat to do it right now. They actually got a pretty good win last night on the road. But Charleston played Alabama in the first round last year, and I remember when Alabama was as a seed. They had to be like a top seed, right, like not a one or two, but close to it. I would imagine, yeah, here we go the NAA tournament last year, one seed, right, No, Obama wasn't. They made a final four. But they weren't a one seed Alabama. Let's see where are we here?

They were a they were four seed. So in that same region, Charleston was the thirteen seed, So I don't think Charleston's going to be twenty seven and seven like they were with Kelsey last year, but they're off to a good start, so I would say Charleston's ceiling this year would be thirteen. I don't think they could get higher than that, and I think if they win their league,

they're probably looking at like fourteen. So Louisville would need to be what a Louisville would need to be of five seed to play them or maybe a three seed to play them, And I just don't see Louisville being there,

but I could be wrong. But yeah, again, I'll go back to what I just said, not to repeat myself, but if in fact it just plays out to where the seed lines are a match up, then they'll probably pick the teams that would give somewhat of a of an intriguing mean look, Pat Kelsey and Chris Mack playing each other in the tournament would be insane, Like I'm just gonna leave it that like that, not to say like they would like they're gonna fistfight each other, But

those two guys, well, I'll buy love both those guys, and I know they have a good relationship and I probably have already done too much here by like insinuating that there's like bad blood and there's not. There's just a lot of history. And I mean Kelsey having the job and having success like that's crazy probably to Chris Mack just because of how things have played out. Mac was here and didn't work out and it was mostly because of timing and some other things, and now Kelsey

is here. And just to just to make it clear that I'm not acting like this would just be a game where there would be a lot on their minds that week for a variety of reasons. They both come from the Skip Prosser tree. They both looked at him as a father figure from what I understand, and whenever Skip passed away, and it was a heavy thing for a lot of those guys, they were kind of, you know,

all there for each other. And I'll just say this two things to just make it, you know, to make it clear that I'm not saying that like Chris has bad blood. I think he's genuinely happy for Pat. He saw my reaction at the time to like the initial hiring of Pat Kelsey, and I wasn't critical of Pat. I was just kind of critical of the process, like this is what happened. Is is like I never would have expected with such an important hire, you hire somebody

that you know is just at a lower level. And clearly here we are many months later and Pat Kelsey's freaking killing it. Like Mack called me, was like, hey, chill, chill, that's my guy. He's a great man. Like he'll be fine there. I don't know how it's gonna work out, but like take it like wanted me to be nice. Not that he would matter. I don't think Pa Kelsey

would ever care about anything I say. But I'm just saying like that that speaks to the respect that he has for Pat and and and their their their friends. But Dino, let me just let me just say, Dino, I'm just gonna say, Dean, I'm gonna leave it at that. Like that was when Dino Gattio extorted Chris Mack, and that played out the way that it did a way that Mac didn't want it to play out, but he had no control over, meaning he did not want that

to be public. He didn't want Dino to be federally prosecuted. But the school had no choice that well, they had a choice, but the school chose to go that route, and that muddied up some things within that world. That tree, those guys that kind of all came up at the same time with skip. Does that make any sense at all? Like I feel like I'm I'm kind of trying not to be super vague, but like if they had that would be it would be a really awkward thing, but it could happen. You never know.

The few friends of ours. We appreciate them listening. He's a Kentucky fan, Nick, but he tunes into the show all the time, and he just he enjoys listening to all of our stations. Actually listens to Tony and dwighte. He's listened to Terry and he just he's uh eating an air guy, so he's always constantly right, oh yeah, always got.

of a little bit anxious. I'm confident in the Ravens, but I also know that they could go into Buffalo and lose because Buffalo is a really good team and clearly they're amped up for this game that this is going to be, in my opinion, the biggest atmosphere Lamar's played in in the NFL. I mean that. I know he played in Kansas City and all that, and Kansas City is great, but like this is big for Buffalo. Kansas is Kansas City's always going to be a tough environment.

They got a huge fan base, but like they've been winning, they're expected to win. The Baltimore Ravens are favorites in Buffalo. If you don't think Buffalo is going to be juiced, Y're wrong. And I'm hoping Lamar can pull it out. But there's some other good games as well that we'll talk about as we wrap it up right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

and we've got some big time matchups. I kind of think we're gonna get We're gonna get chalk here as far as favorites moving on outside of and we may still get the Eagles over the Rams, but I think the Rams. I'm still surprised to see it at six points. I thought by now it would have been lower than that.

But again, maybe I'm not crediting the Eagles enough for having such a good season, But the Rams, I just think if you look at them the last I don't know however many weeks they've been, they look like they're one of the best teams in the league. And I know Minnesota obviously didn't have a good game the other night, but I think the LA had a lot to do with that as well.

know they can slip up. But I know Philadelphia is not looking at this Rams team as a team that you know has the record that they have, which is, let me see the NFL websites, you know for the teams it doesn't include you got to you gotta count up the actual record. And the reason the only reason I was going to bring up the record, it's actually not relevant at all because my point is that the the record does not really give you a good feel for how good this team is because of how well

they've played. They looked like they were going to be bums earlier this year, and they had some injury issues. Both puk and Akua and and Cooper Cup were out and now they're not, and they're playing well, and yeah, this is a team that's better than the ten and seven record shows and the Eagles are good too. Like, I'll be honest with you, because the Eagles early on were winning, but it was ugly and they were complaining about their coach being a loser, which I kind of

think he is. That was mean, but he just kind of seems like such a deweed, Yeah, Sirianni. Yeah, like I had no clue that for fourteen and three, Like I knew they were good, but I didn't know they were that good. But Saquan has helped them out so true. I mean, he's two running backs that a lot of people thought were not having a whole lot left in the tank. Henry and I mean that's a storyline in

the NFL this year, these guys. Barkley's not super old but clearly been injury prone, and both Barkley and Henry have been phenomenal this year. So last question I got for you before we run out of time. Are you we want the Ravens to win? Are you confident? I'm not as confident as I want to be. Oh yeah, absolutely, Okay, I'm confident now, feel better game. Yes, now feel better.