10.29: Waste of Time - Hour 2

it was. I mean, I don't think anybody was detecting a lot, but you know, him saying that he supports his players, but obviously he didn't agree, wasn't happy with the decision because Louis was a much better team when they've got somebody like Colin Lacy out there, which all that stuff is true, but it's almost like when playing that I was a pub was playing it from the press conference video, like you could kind of see that he was understanding, Yeah, this I don't like it, didn't

agree with it, but this is the way it is, and we're going to support him and we'd love to have him back. Some people have on the text line acted like, you know, they think he's just saying that to look like a guy who still is open to nil and maybe he wouldn't want him back, And look, you guys. Maybe right. I don't know, but I did say, you know, there are fans out there that I think if Jeff said, the hell with him, he's gone kick Rocks.

We don't need him. He quit on his team. You know, there are fans that if he said that, they would they would say, hell, yeah, Jeff, you tell him. And a few of you chirped up and said, yeah, I wish he would say that, And like, I get it, because Colin Lacey he quit. Like I can't say that you're wrong. We can call it opting out, but like

it's quitting, and it's weird that he can quit. And yet because of the players having all the control and the power, like he could still potentially stick around, and you know, he can leverage the situation, and he probably will. Now we'll be successful. I don't know. Only time will tell. But what I mean by he could leverage a situation is that he knows Louisville was able to see when healthy that he's a really good weapon to have on offense, and with that they might need to come with a

little bit more money for the next inile package. But then again, you know, do you tell them, Okay, well, we're not paying you the whatever you were owed because you stopped playing, but we'll work on a package for next year. Like, if that's the case, one, do you even have the ability to do that, because as you know, you can't technically pay for play. You weren't paying Colin Lacy to play here, you were just paying him to exist.

I mean quite literally, that's what the NIL contracts are, Marketing appearances, that kind of stuff.

a lot easier for coaches and everybody involved. Meaning if everybody had a max where yeah, you've got the twenty two million that each athletic department is allowed to pay out annually to their student athletes, and then you've got a maximum on what you're allowed to do with nil that would that would make it to where, you know, as far as the top tier you have even you have an even playing field. Right, It's just the kid's

got the same money. He's just going to have to decide where he wants to go for football reasons, right, or for where he wants to live. That kind of stuff. Money wouldn't be if you've got a really good player. Money wouldn't be the ultimate kicker, because it'd be the same for the really good players. Now, sure there'd be some players that don't get the maximumount that kind of stuff, But I'm just thinking out loud here, like what is the formula that you could put in place here where

this is regulated? And it's clearly a part of college sports moving forward where you know guys are getting paid, but like, it's not such a free for all. It's not the wild wild West as they say. And I'm sure there are some out there that have a plan that would certainly work a lot better than what we're doing right now. But we ain't there yet, and I

don't know when we're going to be. Because again, next year, when you can start to pay athletes, yes, that does provide some guardrails because you know, the teams that want to compete at a high level, they're all going to be maxed out and it's going to be split up. And that seems okay, yeah, that makes sense, But no, nil is still going to be something that is utilized to be the you know, the kicker, the cherry on top, if you will, when it comes to really having leverage

over a different program. And look, the rich I've just gotten richer for the most part, because the schools that have the best facilities, that have the best tradition, that have the best resources, that play on national TV, that have won national championships, that have put guys in the NFL, in the NBA, those programs are still I mean, those programs had had benefits then that the habit that the have nots don't didn't have And it's still the same.

So you know, I do think at times we we act as if this has changed the product that we love a lot more than it actually has. But it's easy to say that until it's your team that has been impacted by it. In Louisville, I mean, let's make no mistake about it, Colin Lacey was playing his best football and he just decided, well, I'm out, all right. It's coffee and Company. We are feel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. If you want to join us on the show, you can five two five seventy

nine hundred is the number. If you wann give us a call, you can text in on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line at five oh two six five three zero seven ninety. Make sure you guys stop in into Thornton's. I mean, and I oftentimes encourage you guys to become Refreshment Awards members. And if you haven't done it by now, I guess you're not going to, but just you know, there is still an option to

do that. But I'm telling you to stop in at Thornton's not just because you'll save money on fuel when you get when you hit the gas pump as a member of the Refreshment Awards program, but you're also gonna be able to take advantage of all the great food items they have. They've unveiled some really cool food items over the years. You guys have heard me talk about the pizza Wedge. It was like a Pizza Quesadia, and it's not around anymore. Maybe they bring it back one day.

Just for me. That'd be great because it was delicious. But right now, they've got tiketos that are to die for, spicy beef and chicken. They've got cheese. You could get three of them for three bucks. That's a cheap and nutritious lunch. I mean, I can't speak to the how healthy it is, but like you know, three tiketos, I mean, that'll fill me up. I don't know about you guys,

but that's just enough for me. So again, that's one of the many delicious items they have when it comes to food, breakfast, lunch, even a late I mean doesn't sound like a dinner, But I mean if you needed to get dinner there because you're in a rush and you don't have a lot of time, you could do it, and you could do it deliciously. Is that a word deliciously? I don't think it is. I think a word I

don't know. Sometimes I just get to yap and I think, man, I think I might have made up a few words there. Let's see if they stick. Anyways. Point of the whole thing is that we're fueled by Thornton's. And I know you knew that, but I wanted to tell you once more. Right, So, last night Louisville in action against Spaulding, and if you listen to the postgame show and you listen to the beginning of this show, I really don't have much to

add other than what was said last night. I don't feel any different about this team today as I did last Tuesday, as I did before they played their first exhibition game against Young Harris. And it's not because I've been further, you know, encouraged to be super optimistic and expect this team to be a tournament caliber team. It's just that I know that any any real learning point or takeaway for me personally would just be a reach. And what I mean by that is, I mean I'm

still encouraged by this team. They didn't do anything to make me worried, but like if they did do something, if there was a specific stat which there is, free throws and that is something you got. I mean, I talked about this on the post game show. Missing free throws like they did last night, that's not really free throws. Isn't one of those things you can just chalk it

up to, well, what are you gonna do? I mean, it's it's Spaulding I mean, the arena is not even halfway full, and uh, you know, maybe they weren't focused, like and I guess maybe there's some truth to that, But like I feel like, if you step to the free throw line, it really doesn't matter if it's an exhibition or who the opponent is. It's a free throw.

It's a it's a it's a routine thing that you do, and you may not be great at it, but like you your your routine, your form, that kind of stuff, your process when you step to the stripe, like it should always be the same. It would be very unusual and weird if it wasn't like, hey, here's my here's my exhibition free throw form, Like here's how I here's how I get in to shoot a free throw when

we're playing exhibit, Like it doesn't make any sense. So that is something that you know, clearly they got to be better at that when they play real teams, because that is something that can beat you going twenty one or thirty fourth the line. But other than that, like let's say they didn't shoot the ball so well in their first exhibition game, and last night they didn't make twenty four of them, but they made eight of twenty three.

That's thirty five percent. That's still a team percentage better than most. And clearly you could tell they weren't trying to run things to get a bunch of threes in this game. So even if there was a stat that was alarming for exhibition games, I wouldn't say that you should ignore it. But I'm also not going to act like, well,

here we go, we're doomed. Or if there's something that was like overly impressive, like let's say, instead of making twenty four threes last night like you did the first game, you made thirty four threes, I mean, insanely unrealistic. But I would also have to just, you know, remind myself pretty quickly that this is an exhibition game and rarely do you remember any of the act will play in these games. So Jerry, one of our callers yesterday, called

in and I kind of disagreed with him. Initially, we had some people reacting to his call saying, he's, you know, he's somebody who just likes to suck the fun out of parties. But like I get it, Like it kind of diff feel like a waste of time last night for me, you know, not to say that, like, I'm angry that my time was spent watching this team play, but like I guess from my perspective, like I get why it would be viewed that way in the eyes of some because you know, it's falding and I doubt

we ever get rid of these exhibition games. Somebody asked me that on the text line earlier. Do you think we ever just stop having these games? Because it does you know, it's I mean, I'm sure we're a little sensitive to the attendance thing because for recent years, Louislle basketball has been attended in a way we never really thought we'd ever see. But again, we'll never know because

we can't go back and change things. But I think you could be in a much different situation, meaning you could be coming off of two years that weren't nearly as bad as the last two years were for Louisville, and I still think you would have had a very very light crowd for that game last night. Like, I don't think that's anything to do really with where the program has been lately. We're going to learn pretty quickly how much fans are willing to buy tickets and go

to a game because the Tennessee game. I mean that sets up perfectly. It's a game against the top fifteen team, Pat Kelsey's first regular season game. U of L is marketing as marketing it as a wide out, and you know,

there's no football game, like I mean, it's it. I don't want to maybe I'm way off here because I think you could get eighteen thousand plus there I do, But maybe I'm way off, like maybe we get fifteen thousand and and by the way, if you get fifteen thousand and they're allowed, it's going to be a great atmosphere. But there's a part of me that wants to very early on in the season kind of shove people up about like Louisville never being able to get a big

crowd for a basketball game again. And that's I mean, I think that's nonsense for people to say. But maybe they'll be proven to be more correct than me. I don't know. I don't know what tickets look like for that game, but if the Louisville fan base is consistent, they'll prove that they are willing to pay at ten, get loud, get rowdy for a big event, meaning a big game like Louisville Miami was sold out. The team was coming off of you know, two out of three losses.

Miami's really good and that matters that. I mean, there's a reason it was a big game. Miami was the number six team in the county at the time, but it was noon, so like Louisill sold it out. Crowd was great. That that was you know, not that I needed that, but that was encouraging for me to see, just because you know, it'll be a surprise to me if there is a really light attended game when you've got a big game and the team is at least decent.

But this would be the first because Louisville, I guess when was the last time they had a huge crowdut a basketball game. It would have to be, gosh, it would have to be the the Michigan game maybe, I know. In that year they had a bunch of big games, meaning when they played the number one Michigan's number one in the country, Louislle knocked him off. Or maybe was

it the other way around. Louisville was number one in the country, I think defending the number one spot against Michigan who had just won the Battle for Atlantis, and I don't think it was sold out, but it was close to it. And then the rest of the year they had some other big games that had big crowds. And then the next year, obviously you couldn't have big

crowds because of COVID. The year after that they started off really rough and the crowd really never showed up in a way that you would have expected, and they haven't been back since. I mean, they had a big crowd on hand for the let's see, they had a big crowd on hand for Russ's retirement number of retirement and that was gosh, that was max last home game, I think, so, I guess you know that would be because

that season would be the year where Mac left. Even though Louis wouldn't great, there still were some games where you had big opponents and you did big things like retiring Russ's number to where you could get a big crowd. So again, that's that's who we are as a fan base. And I'm not saying you got to like it or

accept it. It's just reality. If the opponents not really interesting or good or expected to be much of a you know, challenge, like a Spaulding or a young Harris, I just think that is going to matter more than anything as far as people spending their hard earn money to go to games. And I look, I agree it would be best for Louisville to have games with highly attempt mean, you want sellouts every game, but it's just

not realistic. But I do think the conversation for me at least will shift if we get to some of these big games like Tennessee, Ole Miss. When you come back from from the Bahamas, you got to play Ole Miss in the sec ACC Challenge. You'll host Duke on what is it December something, and then you have Carolina I think is head at home?

get sad. But I'm not there yet. And yes, I know last night was not a highly attended game, and I think it's awesome that the fans went, meaning the ones that did go, I think it's great and I hope they had a good time. But like anybody that decided not to go, I just I can't with a

straight face like come on, where were you guys? Ah, we go to support this team, like okay, well it's their money to spend, and they may I'll be in it, like maybe they're saving their money because the Tennessee ticket's gonna be way more expensive. And as we discussed last night, I know there are cheaper ways to get tickets spend on. Everybody knows that. And if you are somebody that just, hey, I don't usually buy tickets, hmm, what am I gonna do?

I guess I'll go to go karts dot com. I'll click tickets, then I'll click single game tickets, then I'll click Spaulding, then I'll click two tickets. I'm gonna select the upper level because I don't have a lot of money.

Let's go check out. You're you're spending one hundred bucks before you leave to go, Like, that's not like you can do that if you're U of L and your ticket master, and clearly that's the financial decision they made, but I just think it's it's it's really insane to have that be the price point, especially from the direct host meaning U of L. Like, you go to their website, you click buy tickets, it takes you to their ticket Master website and you check out, and you're one hundred

bucks in the hole just to buy the tickets. That's not parking, that's not if you want to get a drink, you want to get food, Like, that's not a cheap evening for most people this day and age. So if they decided not to do it, like to say that, come on, where were you at? Like, I just think that's lame. But they also doesn't mean that I don't think that attendance is important because it is all right, well we'll take a quick time out coming up here

just a moment. But I want to let you hear this because Ron English, I saw the quote yesterday and it really kind of it would be an exaggeration to say that it floored me, but like it kind of. Did you know? The defense has not been good this year at times, and they've been a mess as far as communication. They sub too much at times. There'll be no difference in what the offense is doing, and yet

they'll run a new group out there. I mean the weeks three was at three straight games where it was pretty common to see two more guys on the field sometimes than you're supposed to have, Like they're a mess, guys running wide open. Like sometimes that happens, but like it's happened too much for people to just assume, well, what are you going to do? This defense doesn't have

good players. So Ron english has I think been deserving of a lot of criticism, and he showed us during the off season that he's willing to take the criticism. He kind of fell on the sword, if you will, when it comes to the defense falling apart last year well, when asked sort of about the and this is one of those questions where the MIC's not on the person asking it, so you can't really hear exactly what was asked. And I do think that matters a lot in this

answer that we're about to get. But let's I guess, I mean, maybe we can't hear it, but the person's off Mike. But Ron english Man he sent it a whole lot like Kenny Payne with his answer, Oh yeah, okay, here's what it was. It was about why they need to why they need to make the scheme more simple, And here it was his answer.

figured out. But I also feel like again, others like myself who know enough to be dangerous but would clearly admit to not be an expert. I can tell by watching that they're doing too much out there, so like complicated. I can't tell you if it's complicated because I don't have a I don't have an ability to know what would be viewed as super complicated and what would be viewed as super ski super simple as far as game plan.

But I can tell you by the body language of the players all year and just by some of the things you see out there that like, whatever you're doing, it's not simple. It is very complicated. And Jeff Brahm has mentioned that, like he's said, like it's too complicated, like we need, you know, we need to simplify some things. And I didn't get the sense that when that was said from Jeff that it was because the guys aren't smart enough to figure it out. And he didn't use

those words. He used his words correctly. And look, maybe Ron English is just being honest, But to say that we thought we would have betteran guys that would have a little higher aptitude than they've had, and with that we have to be less ambitious in what we're asking them to do. I don't really think he's earned the benefit of the doubt at this point, given the results for him to be able to in other words, tell us, these guys aren't smart enough to grasp mentally what I

want to do defensively. So I really got a dumb it down for him. I mean, like, that's essentially what he said, and he's blaming the players instead of taking accountability. And I hate to hear that because the defense is coming off of the best spinish they've had all year. And I know it's Boston College, but they have some momentum right now. I hope that they can really carry with them. And if it is simple and that's what

made it work against BC, then hell yeah. But that didn't sound like a guy who really thinks that his plan and his ex you know, in his strategy, his scheme is the problem. It's that the guys they don't have the they don't have the level of aptitude that they expected. I mean, that's just I don't know. Maybe he's right, but like I wouldn't have said that even if I believe that, I wouldn't have said it given the situation that we have here. Quick break, we'll come

back on the other side. Keeould rolling along. It's coffee and company. Feel boy Thorntons right here on Sports Talk seven ninety you didn't know it, John, But I love that song. Oh yeah, that song is such a vibe. There's all kinds of different versions of it too, you know, like different DJs that I guess.

make sure I get this correct. I want to get I want to cite my source here because a cardinal companion on Twitter sent me a message and I thought it's worth mentioning. He mentions that, you know, free throws were concerned last night for the team. However, he goes on to see to highlight that a lot of the guys you know that shot free throws poorly last night. You know, typically don't shoot that poorly, and honestly, some of them don't go to the free throw on a

whole lot. So the numbers from last night, I mean, they are what they are, but I doubt that you'll see well, I hope you won't see many games where you end up with that. I mean, of of the two exhibition games, when you just think at numbers that stand out from either a positive way or I suppose a negative way. The positive is that from three point range, I mean, you made thirty two threes in two exhibition games,

which I mean that's that's a lot. That's sixteen per right now, I don't know if you're going to be able to do that night in a night out. There are going to be some teams that, you know, make sure that rain Smith doesn't get a shot off that make sure that they you know, make sure they're they're well aware that when you've got a big like Noah Waterman who's stretching the floor and stepping outside like you know that is a guy that will comfortably take a

shot and drain it. So you know you're gonna have some teams that defend you a lot better where you're not gonna get the looks that you got again hung Harris. But this team, they were built to shoot threes. And I've seen nothing at this point that that that tells you that you're you know, you have a team that can't really fill it up on any given night. Now you're good when you are this dependent upon the three point line, You're gonna have nights where it goes against you.

And look, that's one thing that we haven't really talked about it. We don't need to at this point, but Louisville style of play does make them vulnerable if if they have a night off. Now I don't I don't buy into the whole Well, hey, that's what you get. You live by the three, you die by the three, because that's a really silly I mean, like anything that you really utilize because you know, it's a strength, you know what you do, you live and die by it.

That's just how it works. Like it's really I'm not ready to put it up there as one of those sayings in sports that is very very common but really stupid, like well, hey, win's a win. I mean, like we went there, right, Win's a win. Like so live and die by it. It's kind of just as silly in my opinion, but again that's just my opinion. So yeah, your style of play is going to make you at times, you know, vulnerable to a law for a loss, maybe against a team that's not that good, if you just

have that bad of a night shooting. However, the analytics still tell you that, like, if you can play this way effectively, you will win a lot more games than you will lose, and you could be really really good.

I mean Alabama. I mean, I'm not saying what was gonna be Alabama and make a Final four, but if there's one and Pat Kelsey has said this before, if there's one team that you know, he feels like and he's not comparing his team saying they're as good, but he mentioned Alabama at one of his press conferences that he's had since getting hired, that that is a team that he thinks is probably the most And I'm paraphrasing here, so maybe I'm actually putting words in his mouth, but

he brought up Alabama when asked about, you know, style of play comparisons because natoates in Alabama made a Final four last year and last year they were not good defensively, and that got talked about a lot because they were really bad defensively. But Natoates's teams at Alabama and nearly every other year since he's been in Tuscaloosa played the same style offensively and were good defensively. So that's what

Pat Kelsey wants to do. Obviously, they're you know, their butter is going to be you know, well, what's the saying. The bread and butter is going to be offense more than defense, right, Like they're not going to be out there just beating teams because they're that good defense. So they're going to score a lot of points. But the team is built to do that and to go back to kind of having to live on, you know, living

about the three, dying by the three. If you're somebody that is worried about that, it could always still come back and bite you in the ass. But when you've got this many guys that are all going to play that all but maybe two have the green light at any moment because being a really good shooter is I mean,

shooting is a part of their strength. Like that's that's what makes them be able to play at a program like Louisville, and that's what's helped them be able to have successful college careers up to this point is because that's a tool that they've got in the toolbox, right, That's a weapon they have is they are good shooters.

So I would say right now, some guys have a different green light, if you will, like Rain Smith, if he if he's comfortable, he could fire it at any moment, and I don't think there's going to be anybody taking any issue with it. I think Corn Johnson's same thing, maybe even Edwards as long as you know he's set and then everybody else, it just depends. Like you know, Hadley can knock it down. That's not his strength, but he is a guy that can shoot trail ray shooting

is not his strength. He will still take them within the flow of what they're doing offensively, but you know, that's just not his strength. Prior you know, I don't think he has the best looking shot, but he's proven that he can certainly stretch the floor and knock it down. I worry a little bit about him leaning into the three point shot more so than he needs to, because this is certainly an offense where you can find yourself open and you've got the green light to do it.

But he's also really good at driving, and he showed that last night. I mean he only took three three pointers, made all three of them. So in the game, the game against Young Harris, he came out kind of firing. And you know, so again maybe frank anselom Ivy, he's probably he only played eight minutes last night. He's not gonna play a whole lot of minutes. But the Noah Waterman, that's a guy that literally he's not fast. He always falls down, but he's got good size. He can stretch

the floor and knock down three. So it'd be different if you only had, like if you're if your team was not deep and you really lived and died by the three, and you needed night in and night out to have three guys collectively shoot a thirty six percent or more, like, if that was such a core thing, then you know, then you might be in trouble. But let's say that the team percentage night in and night out. You know that after playing twenty games, if you shoot

it better than this percentage, you're in good shape. What makes Louisville, you know that percentage maybe thirty eight percent forty percent, which is really good for most teams, and it'd be undoable for a lot of teams. It is a big risk because most teams can't night in and

night out shoot it at forty eclipped. However, when you've got this many guys, let's say two of them are having an off night, well, hey, that means you're gonna play Coren Johnson in case in prior a lot more than you played Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards or you know, Ah Waterman or whoever. Like, you can have some guys that have an off night and it's not a big ask or a real surprise if the other guys come

in and they and they fill it up too. Now, if everybody's off, that's gonna be a recipe that you know, will likely lead to you losing to some teams, and that can happen, but it'll be a rarity at least. I hope our Happy National Internet Day, everybody, how do you celebrate john You've got any big plans?

it for granted. And I say this all the time. I don't know how anybody did this, meaning whatever you want to call this, I mean, it is my job. Some of you wouldn't call it a job, but you know, believe it or not, they do pay me. I don't know how anybody did this before the Internet, Like I

don't know. Like in a way I tell myself, you could have really kind of gotten more create, like you could have got lost and really created from a blank canvas if you will not to get artsy fartsy here and act like this is anything other than what it is. But you know, like the Internet provides, it's your fingertips at any moment, an endless ability to get information or

find creative ideas or steal something somebody else is doing. Like, there's all kinds of ways to figure out what you want to do within your radio show or your podcast, whatever it may be, because you can utilize the Internet. It's just part of it. Back back in the day before the Internet, did you read newspapers?

without the Internet for the majority of the time. And I want to make him sound like a donis form mean, the Internet did exists, let's be real. But like even before social media platforms and YouTube and whatnot, Like you know, if you just go into websites and that's that's still different than you know, going directly from a newspaper. But I am very appreciati of the Internet. I don't know what we would do without it.

that I ever used. And I remember like just looking up stuff all the time, like and of course the early days of like interacting on the Internet was all AOL and stemes like that's how a lot of I mean, I shouldn't say a lot of Maybe it was different for different people where they grew up, considering their situation. But I can just speak to people in my age range that are, you know, a little bit younger than me, a little bit older than me, Like we mostly communicated

through AOL and Steam Messenger. We didn't have cell phones that were texting just yet. And by the time you know that that became a thing, I think the Internet, you know, as far as AOL and stea messenger like that kind of had had faded a little bit.

that that's how it. That's how it like, because the Internet wasn't like there was no way like going and watching like a live video, like you knew going in you're gonna have to wait forever for it to buffer, because that's just what it was. Yes, But then once you got DSL. I remember DS that was a big upgrade,

like it was a new world. And of course now you've got fiber for some people, and it's you know, there's no delay, like if something takes like a millisecond to load for me at home, I'm thinking something wrong like my WiFi down or something like that. So, yeah, the Internet's great. Don't know where life would be without it. I'm sure there's some people that think it ruined the world. And I don't know, maybe maybe you're right. I have no clue, but it's really all I know at this point.

I remember I found Michael Jordan's I was at my dad's work on his work computer. He was out, you know, doing work stuff, and I was on his work computer in his office and I with ask Jeeves. I found Michael Jordan's like fan website and like you can you can like you know, hit like contact us or something, and you can write messages. And I was I think I sent him like fifty messages, thinking like Michael Jordan's on another computer, probably in the locker room with the bulls,

and he's reading this. He hasn't wrote me back yet. He's probably getting ready for the game. Like that's that's that was the Internet. It was the first Internet Internet memory for me.

sign with Gatorade. I don't know if we have any any any number as far as how much he's going to be paid for this. Obviously you would expect it would be a lot of money. But the let's see here, Yeah, the the others that have partnered with Gatorade in the NIL era, at least as recently was Juju Watkins, the USC women's basketball player, Page Buckers who plays women's basketball for Yukon, and then Shadoor Sanders of Colorado obviously Deon Sanderson.

So guy played a played a second yet and he's already inking a deal with UH with the biggest you know. I mean, at this point, there's no there's no way that there's a bigger drink brand out there than Gatorad. I'm not saying it's the best, because clearly there are competitors, but you know, I don't know if this is a sign that this guy is, you know, as legit as

they say. But if you think about it again, nobody's really surprised because of the hype that's come with this guy, I mean, Cooper Flagg is believed to be a guy that could be the best true freshman we've had in college basketball in a long time, maybe since Zion right, And that's why there's not a whole lot of surprise here. But like what if you mean, what if he ended up getting an insane amount of money and it wouldn't

be a big deal to a corporation like Gatoray. They probably have had plenty of losses when it comes to what they spend on marketing that maybe they didn't end up seeing a great return on that investment. But he's never played a second, you know what I mean, Like, I don't know, there hasn't the freshman entering college not getting near the amount of money that transfers get is the way that it should be. But that would be the I mean, like again, imagine in the Nile world.

Imagine if the Anile world existed with some of these other recruiting busts and there wasn't the transfer portal. I mean, imagine if Scalabasia the number one player in America that went to Kentucky, they ended up being a pretty big bust. I mean, he ended up getting drafted in the first round, but he wasn't very good to Kentucky and he got drafted based off the high school hype and then within a few years was clearly out of the league. And

I don't think he plays ball anywhere anymore. Like imagine if somebody all right, we'll give you two million if you commit to Kentucky and like that's what you got, that'll make somebody never want to give to ANIL again. And

I'm sure that's happened to an extent. But that's why for the sake of everybody involved, outside of those that are giving money, it's best for everybody to not have the to not have the full transparency, if that makes sense, Because if you think about it, like if you're giving an IL money and it's just to help the team because it's you an individual, if you're giving ANIL money because you own a corporation and you've got the money to do it, you would be much more I guess

you know aware of what kind of investment that was a good one a bad one if you knew exactly where your dollars went. Now, with that said, there are people who don't donate to ANIL because they want to know exactly what their money's going towards, not only the program, but like which player, and that'd be tough to I think, have full transparency on that. But I also get that it's your money. If you're gonna spend that, you want

to know what it's going towards, right. I Mean, I hate to call people suckers because I don't believe that they are, but like, I get why there are some people out there that say, man, college sports fans are suckers because they're just giving money blindly to go get players or transfers high school kids or kids that are transferring to college, and that doesn't even get them anything, Like they don't even know for sure if that money is going there, that doesn't give them a season ticket,

that doesn't give them any kind of access, Like they're just they're just giving their money away and hoping that it all works out. It's really important, so I'm not shaming anybody for doing it, but like, you know, what else do you spend money on like that?