11.4: Throwing Trash - Hour 2 (brief)

because you have fun after you win. Yeah, I mean I've been able to kind of for the most part. You know, it doesn't really impact me like a in a big way. Like I'm just a sad fan that like wants my team to win, and I usually, I mean that's always the case, but usually I don't really I guess that quite as much throughout this show, at least I don't think I did. But I know this year was different because, man, demoralizing wouldn't be the right word to use. I mean, frustrating is still the best

the best way I think I can describe it. But it was an unusual, and it still has been for the most part, right, Like I mean, the result on Saturday against Clemson was really I mean, it's at this point it's an isolated game, like there's Louisville hasn't really done that all year. But I think we've always known they were capable of it. We've seen signs that they they you know, can be the team that gets the

type of win that they just got against Clemson. But it it, you know, and look, no matter how you lose, it sucks seeing your team lose to anybody, under any circumstances, the result that you don't want. But man, this has been a real learning experience for me that the way it all plays out is a big factor. And I just can't think of any season that I would compare

this one too. I mean, after the Notre Dame loss, I remember being speechless for the postgame show, just because you know, you were right there fourth and one, you're driving with a chance to potentially, you know, take the lead, depending on what Jeff would have wanted to do there, and then you get a fourth and one, I'm sorry on fourth and one, you get a you get to delay a game like the one thing you can't do.

And then you go back and think of all the mistakes that were made, and I just remember thinking like, man, like you really shot yourself on the foot repeatedly. Yet you showed it you're a good team and still had a chance to win. I'm glad they got that one out of the way. Now they can tighten some things up and and and you know, still achieved the ultimate goal, right winning the ACC and maybe going to the playoff.

And yet they they weak in and week out. I mean, did kind of the same stuff where they were making avoidable mistakes and just not playing clean football. And you know, Brom called it sloppy. That's that's a word that is that is I think that it fits. So, you know, that was frustrating. I just I felt like, Okay, this team's identity is going to be that they had ability, but we'll never know really how good they could have because they couldn't get out of their own way at times. Well,

they're changing their identity. I mean, you still got to live with the losses that you had, right you know, you can't go back and change those. But I'm going to hope that what happened in the second half at Boston College, where this defense really started to look like the defense we were talking about all off season, and your offense has kind of done their part throughout the year.

Your offense has been good enough. And if in fact, they carry this momentum the next few weeks and went out the regular season and finished nine to three, I think we will be able to say that they they got it together, they changed their identity. They no longer are a team that was just consistently going to make

avoidable mistakes. So again, the big picture for Louisville, like heading into this year, I don't know how many fans realistically expected to be in the playoff, But when you were coming off of a ten win season where you played in the ACC championship game last year, in the playoff is expanding to twelve, I think you realized, hey, like, if we could have the type of season we had last year, there's a good chance we're going to be

in the mix. So I don't know people expected it and had the mindset if they don't get there, then something wrong. This is a major red flag. I don't think it was that, but for that whole thing to kind of be shot and dead and there being no, I mean you have. You've been out of the playoff picture since you lost your second game, right, I mean you've been out of the ACC race since you lost to Miami, and then you know, that was pretty much

midway through the year. And I don't think anybody believed that this team was bad and that they you know, that there's a major problem with like the talent this, and that it was just kind of a mess. So, you know, a punch to the gut, if you will, when it comes to midway through the season having to realize, like all the big picture stuff that you that you thought about, that you believed realistically was possible, it's already gone.

But all you can do is, you know, go from there and this team does win out, you know, easier said than done. We'll see if that ends up happening. I mean, it'll still be a really really strong second season of the Jeff bron era, and I think you'd have a lot of momentum and that's better than you know, limping to the rest of the season and feeling sorry for yourself and I well, never know because it didn't play out that way. But when they've been down twenty

to nothing in the first half at Boston College. With the way the season had played out up until that point, I think a lot of teams would have just mailed it in. Now. They wouldn't have, you know, collectively, just said hey, we quit. But I think it would have been very natural and almost expected to see the team go through the motions and just kind of realize, man, this this didn't work out this year, especially when you

consider how many guys on this team are new this year. Right, these aren't guys that have been at Louisville for four or five years and played for Jeff for many years. Like these are guys that, honestly a good chunk of the guys we talked about this year. They're only here one year or you know, or they're new here and maybe they'll be here longer than one year. So I

give these guys a lot of credit. I give Jeff, Bram and staff a lot of credit because moral victories are you know, what losers do, and I hate doing that. But the fact that they were able to at least put themselves in positions late in games against Miami SMU

and Notre Dame. I mean, you still lost, but I think again, and I'm not saying we got to chalk this up on the scoreboard, like, hey, at least we didn't quit, because you don't want to ever be I mean, it's just it sounds off to give people credit for not quitting. You should never quit. But even in those losses, this team's still after making mistakes, they put themselves back in position or where you felt like, Okay, here we go, we got a chance. Here are we gonna get it done?

Are we once again gonna lose a close game and look back on all the mistakes that we made And that's what they did many times until you know they didn't. And if they end up finishing strong, let's say they went out and like they're all blowouts. Again not predicting it, we'll see, but like, if that's the case, I will look back at that Boston College game and say, I don't know what was said at the halftime there. I don't know what you know, what flipped the switch, But man,

that's where this team, that's where they came together. All right, let's see. I will remind you we will have basketball postgame coverage tonight as soon as the game ends. I'm trying to make the most of the time we have here. We haven't talked a whole lot about basketball, but the

night Morehead State first real game. When I think of Morehead State, I'm sure the same thing I think about is what comes to mind for you guys, and that is that you know, this Morehead State team did give Louisville their worst loss of the I mean, their worst upset in the NSAA tournament. I'm not even really sure what would be a close second. But they have a new coach at Morehead. Jonathan Maddox was an assistant of

the guy whose name I'm already forgetting. He's a Kentucky native, but he left to take the job at James Madison and they just promoted from within. So you know, they were really good last year, this Morehead State team. They won a lot of games. They don't bring back a ton from that team just because you know the portal. I mean, believe it or not, Nobody pays attention to

the guys that leave from this level very often. But even if you're somebody that's not putting up big numbers that's going to attract attention from programs of the Power five level. You could average eight a game at Morehead and still hit the Portland and up elsewhere. Like these guys actually at this level bounce around more than you might expect. So like Louisville, it's it's, you know, not all brand new, but pretty new if you will, and if you are somebody that keeps up with the gambling

side of things. Louisville currently favored by twenty one and a half. I'm going to I was going to refresh there to see if maybe there's been an update, but it does not look like there has, at least not here At DraftKings. FanDuel also has Louisville at minus twenty one and a half. So, look, they may win the night, they may win big, they may cover. That'd be great.

I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna bet on it because I don't have any need to and I you know, I wouldn't want to bet Morehead State to cover, and I don't feel confident enough that Louisll's going to win this game by twenty two points because Morehead's a respectable opponent and you know, I think more I mean, look,

Wolvevill's still going to be putting. I don't want to stay putting it all together because that makes it sound like like that's giving me like PTSD flashbacks of like Kenny Payne telling it's gonna take Tome, It's gonna take Tome. Like No, Pat Kelsey has had these guys in play since pretty early on in the offseason, right he put together his roster. Maybe not as I mean, in fact,

he did move pretty quickly. It's just that he had to literally build an entire team, whereas a lot of schools in college basketball had to add, you know, five six guys. So with that said, you know, I'm not gonna be shocked if you have some segments of play. Meaning when I say segment, I mean you know, in between TV timeouts, right, you play a twenty minute half and there's you know, there's there's the under sixteen time out,

the under twelve. You guys know, if you follow close enough, and you know, I wouldn't be shocked if there's a couple of you know, a couple of segments within this game where maybe morehead state in that segment, maybe they're maybe they were won by four or five points or something like that. And I think that's to be expected when you've got your opener. And again it's not as much that this group like, and again they are all

brand new they have. The only experience they have playing together is what we saw in the Bahamas and what we saw in these last two exhibition games. But I just think the difference in competition is going to be so much different that, like, you know, it might you know, it might take some adjusting. Now, with that said, a good question that came in earlier, and I'm glad you ask it. Anytime you ask it probably doesn't make for

good radio. But when people ask questions that like I've given a lot of thought on, I really don't know how to answer it. I usually bring it to the airwaves, but typically that just makes me look like a fool, I suppose. But if Louisville was to play there like their second unit, do I think that Louisville's second unit would be better than the Like if you put your starting five against your second group, would that be more of a challenge for your starters than if you took

more head state starting lineup? And I feel arrogant saying that, Yeah, the Louisville reserves, guys like Corn Johnson and Casein Pryor who don't start, would clearly be better than whoever Morehead State starts. So yes, Like I don't want to sound overly confident, but yeah, so maybe, And I think the question you're asking, maybe you weren't intending for this to happen, but it's made me realize that maybe I shouldn't expect this Louisville team to take some time to kind of,

you know, settle in. I mean, even if you've got a big chunk of your team coming back. In college basketball, like I think there's always been a level of like, Okay, well, hey, it's the first game, you know they'll settle in. I'm just excited, man, because it starts for real tonight. The exhibition games were you know something, I mean, you were able to see Louisville dominate, and it's nice to be able to complete exhibition exhibition action knowing that you avoided

a loss for the first time in three seasons. But tonight it's real Morehead State. I have a lot of respect for their program and for those asking two people have asked, what would your reaction be if they lost? Like why are you even saying that? I mean, if you're like a UK fan, I get it, but like, I'm not even going there not going to go there. Try not to go there because it would be bad. It'd be really bad. In fact, I hope that they play well tonight and cover. But even if they don't cover,

but they look good doing it. Maybe it's a backdoor cover by Morehead State, you know, you know, I think that's the result given that football's off this week, where you can look at Saturday at noon playing a top fifteen team in Tennessee, a wide out in November, which is rare, Like I hope like crazy that that place is rowdy and close to full. I don't know if that's going to happen. I hope that it does. But you play well tonight, you look good doing it. The

programs around here certainly feed off each other. And with football getting that big win, if Pat Kelsey's able to you know, went impressively tonight in his first real game, there's gonna be a lot of buzz. I mean, there already is a lot of buzz and anticipation for this game against Tennessee on Saturday. But you know, playing well tonight can only help you when it comes to getting more and more people interested in and getting out to the UMP Center. And I mean that would be huge.

I mean again, we've got to get past more Head State before you can get to it, before you can get to Tennessee. But if they start too and oh this year, and knowing the football team is off on Saturday with a bye like that would be a hell of a week for a Louisville for a Louisville fans, A hell of a week, all right. Five O two, five seven one seventy nine hundred is the number if you guys want to jump in and join us on the phone lines again, five O two, five to seven,

one seventy nine hundred. It is Coffee and Company and we are fueled by Thornton's here game day edition. Good vibes, no doubt. All right, let's go to the phone ones. Let's welcome in, Ben, Ben, How are you doing this afternoon? Brother?

So like I I it's important, but like that price point, it's just not realistic to expect eighteen thousand or even close to that to to pay for that on a Monday night against Morehead. And I hate saying that because again it makes it like, oh, we know, we don't care. It's not that, it's just that's really not doable financially for a lot of people.

pulled it out. But and defense looked great because it was the best they looked all year, and they got tough. We finished strong and we end up for somehow beating Kentucky and finished nine and three with the win over Clemson of Kentucky. I take that over anything but that. It's probably a playoff bers, but you know that's just me. But I just don't ask you something, Nick, Man. It's say we finished strong and undefeated. Do you think Brian

English gets to keep his job? I hang up and listen Nick on the show.

that was impressive. And I'm given credit to both the players, but obviously the guy that's that's that's running that defense, and these guys really do, like I mean, I don't know about everybody, but like there's never been a a thought that Louisville's defense is struggling and there's poor communication and there's mass confusion at times because they don't like their coach like I think they they love Ron English and he has a lot of support from these players,

and he clearly had enough support from Jeff Brohm. He's still his guy. But that was like, if he doesn't revert back and they continue to play really well defensively the rest of the season, then I would say more likely than not, he'll probably still be here. But then again,

I don't know. I mean, it's just I shouldn't say inexcusable, because it does happen from time to time, but it felt like, really all here until Clemson, until Saturday night, the Louisville defense would kind of need to see the other team have a couple of possessions to figure out what they want to do. And sometimes you'll have a team that'll throw something at you that you didn't expect. You didn't see it on film taking you were taking aback,

But that wasn't really what was happening. Right every week, quarterbacks that can run, they were able to see, hey, you all are making this easy. We're gonna take off and run with our quarterback, and it was working. There were no adjustments, and at least not big adjustments. So it's tough to say if he'll be back for sure.

I mean, I would imagine, you know, Jeff brom is going to consider what's best for the program, and Ron English certainly took a huge step in the right direction as far as showing that he is somebody that can get good results for the defense. But I don't know.

I hate to give you such a non answer, but I could see I could see both things playing out where they make a move to go in a different direction just because they, you know, want to try something else, or maybe he's still the guy because hey, you know, brom has really only had one defensive coordinator at all three stops that has really at times not only worked out, but like had good defensive play and it's run English.

So I think that's why he came. He didn't come to Louisville from Purdue with Jeff because of a phenomenal resume. Jeff built a staff there and he had a defense that was working more so than really ever has as his time as a head coach, and it would make total sense to carry that over here with you. And since he's been here, we've had a mixed bag. A great start last year kind of fell apart late this year kind of been a rough start, and now they're

kind of getting it together. So we shall see, all right, quick time out, we'll come back on the other side. And what I want to get to again, I I'm not gonna share something that I've not shared before, but like I don't know the solution to the tickets and attendance kind of thing, and I don't, you know, it's something that's not gonna go away as far as a talking point something Louisville fans want to talk about. And I get it. It's just I don't have any fiery

hot take opinions. I just you know, we'll get to it. On the other side, they'll stick with us right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Don't forget coming up tonight. As soon as the game ends, and I mean as soon as the game ends between Louisville and Morehead State, we'll go live here for the Louisville Basketball postgame show reacting to whatever it is that happens. And I'm expecting, you know, get I'm expecting Louisville to win. I really

don't have any doubt that they're gonna win. But I guess what I'm trying to emphasize without making it seem as if like I'm scared, is that, like I know that Morehead State is going to be a different type of test than what they've had so far in exhibition play. But I'm glad somebody asked this question earlier on the text line. They're a team that the way they're built,

they're like practices should be should be super competitive. The hell is that my phone just started with the election going on I feel like my phone's getting hacked or something like, I'm my phone was sitting down and did you could you hear anything from did you hear my voice?

they were losing these games earlier this year. It has led me to kind of not mean, as we get closer to the election, election day, which is tomorrow, like I've kind of been I don't know, kind of check. I mean, I feel like I have to remind myself every now and then, oh yeah, it's election day tomorrow, because you know, you're selling Nick Saban right, Yeah, well no, there never there never be a scenario where I could

claim that I wasn't aware. Uh And and you know, it's it's easy to see it when you when you do just peruse any social media or really any ad right now, commercials, television, radio, whatever, Like it's we're that close. But I'm just ready for it to be over.

this race is this time around. But you know, it would be kind of fun to challenge yourself to just be completely unplugged, right and like you like go to bed, put turn your phone off, and wake up tomorrow morning or Wednesday morning, and you know at that point, just I mean, you have a tough time to catch.

you need to keep them safe and healthy. And your pets they aren't going to communicate with you and let you know if they've got a I mean, they may not even know they've got some kind of a serious health thing going on, right, I mean a lot of I mean humans or pets. Sometimes you learn way way too late that you've got some kind of a health thing going on, and it's pretty serious. So if you haven't had your pet checked out in a while, get them checked out at the Jefferson Animal Hospital.

Vetts dot com. All right, again, we are we are out of here earlier today, and that gives me a rare opportunity to do something that I that I've never done since we made this move. I'm gonna I'm gonna go pick up my kids.

game of the Pat Kelsey era tonight at seven. And again We're going to react to it once once it's over, and I'm not gonna bet on it. But if I had to take a side here, like you know, gun to my head, which please don't put a gun to my head, I would take Louisville to cover twenty one and a half, just because I think, you know this, these players, they should be energized to get out in front of this crowd, you know, in a real game

like this. I hope that the atmosphere in the vibe is not similar to what we had against Spaulding and against Young Harris. If it is, that would be unfortunate, but I would also understand why. But I think these guys are They're gonna be ready to play. And I think Morehead State from what I gather, and this is one of the things I did look into a little

bit earlier. I didn't want to nerd out too much on just basketball stuff when it comes to Morehead State, considering louisvill football's coming off a win against Clemson and you know, we didn't have as much time as we typically have today. But Morehead State, I think is going to want to try to play the same style that Louisville does, and that I think could be a pretty

dangerous thing for them to do. And there's gonna be some teams that realize, hey, we don't want to run with them, and Morehead may decide to do that tonight. But if it's a game where there's a ton of possessions, a lot of threes. Then I would imagine that'll be in Louisville's favor, maybe in a big way. So fingers crossed again, we're out of here. Sorry for the short show today, but we're back live tonight as soon as

it ends. Right here for the first Louisville well, the first I guess, official Louisville basketball post game show right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety