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All right, good afternoon, Welcome in Game day edition. Here Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Nick Coffee with you. We've got Austin Montgomery once again back in the house as we take you up until six o'clock. And there is a lot to get into here today. And I was going to start by letting you know that I cannot wait till nine o'clock tonight to act like a lunatic and just lose my mind, kind of like I did during those games in the Bahamas.
And I hope that that's the case, because I would say that if I'm losing my mind and I'm really you know, in rare form worrying about maybe waking up my kids, who my kid and the kids won't be asleep, they're gonna watch with me.
But my point is like.
I'm excited about tonight and everything about the Bahamas trip, the battle for Atlantis last week made me feel alive. The excitement and the I mean just the awesome, awesome result in the first game against Indiana where you just bent them over. I mean Mike Woodson, I mean he's still recovering from the ass whooping that Pat Kelsey gave him. And then the next game it was a heart I mean it was it was I was at a heart attack,
almost died. I feel like I'm at Churchill Down's with the family for Thanksgiving because that's what we do, and I'm just off in a corner by myself, watching on my phone, just not even knowing what happened in my family. They could have left, I wouldn't have known. But that's how you know, that's how insane I And then of course the heartbreaker in the championship game against Oklahoma. That was tough to lose, a game that was right there and it would have been awesome to get another real
good win. So I forgot what it's like to be crazy about Louisville basketball. You know when your team has life, and Louisville certainly has life. So I am excited about tonight. But about twenty minutes ago, we got some tough news that really isn't that surprising. I think it started to look like this was going to be the case. But Coorin Johnson, the transfer from Washington, only played in two games this year for Louisville.
He is out for the rest of the season.
He's gonna have shoulder surgery, which means he's out for the year, going a red shirt. No clue what he'll do with the year of eligibility he'll have after red shirting. But you know, this is a guy that was one of the more I mean you now have with Case and Pryor after the year with the torn acl We found that out yesterday Coorin Johnson confirming that he did see a specialist, and I guess he got a second opinion, and I guess both opinions were that he needs to
shut it down on and get and get surgery. You know, you've lost two of the most talented guys that you brought in the portal. This is not in any way ideal for Louisville basketball. I mean, it's just not. But I'm I'm surprised, kind of irritated, and dare I say motivated, because I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna tell anybody that this doesn't change sort of how we look at the rest of the season.
This changes a lot.
Ceiling not as high for this team without Case and Pryor and also with Koran Johnson. But I think people forget Karan Johnson didn't play in the Bahamas.
He'd be great to have.
I mean, you want him, your your ceiling is not as high without him, But I mean you saw this team play pretty good without him. Now Case and Price is a little bit different. I think you can do some things to maybe lighten the uh the trying to think of the right way to describe it, because you really can't ask anybody, even collectively to kind of give you what he gave you. And I don't mean just because you know, because of his production, because of his numbers,
because his numbers really weren't that crazy. But he's just a very very rare player athletics six foot ten. Don't know if he can shoot it but he does like to shoot it and makes it occasionally, but still a good athlete got a good handle, can really, you know, cause some mismatch problems. And I think you can change some things as far as what you're doing in the half court to maybe he doesn't seem as missed, but I don't know if Pat Kelsey's going to do that.
So again, you know, this stinks, But I'm surprised by the amount of Louisville fans that act like we should just cancel the season now. I mean, why would just shut it down and just plan for next year? And it's not like it's the entire fan base. But like I put out that, I still think Louisville has the pieces to put together a season where you could find yourself appearing in the NCAA Tournament and you would have thought, I said Louisville was going to go beat the Chicago
Bulls in ninety seven. I mean, like, I don't think that that's that crazy to say. You realized they put sixty eight teams in the tournament, guys, right, and there's teams that make it every year that you know aren't very good. Maybe we've just had maybe because we haven't been involved in Selections Sunday in a long time. We have not been relevant enough as a program to even really need to tune in on Selection Sunday since what
two thousand and gosh was it twenty nineteen? I guess it was twenty twenty one whenever they were the first team left out. But there are a lot of teams that you wouldn't claim are good or you know, dangerous or elite by any means that end up getting in the tournament. So you know, if they don't make it, I'm not going to be totally stunned, but like, this is a this is less than ideal.
But I.
Still think that this team can win some games. I still think they can win tonight. They're still favored in tonight's game, and they were opening line faces whenever Buddy
knew that Cason Pryor wasn't gonna play. I'm not saying that that means they're gonna win, because obviously Louisville's been favorite in games they've lost and vice versa, Like it doesn't always work out that way, But in a weird way, I'm kind of like, well, I hope they win tonight so I can go dunk on people who are acting like it's insane to think that this team could still be any good.
So anyways, welcome inn.
It is Coffee and Company, and again we are fiel Abou Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety Nick Coffee with you, Austin Montgomery alongside. I mean again, you know that it's not it's not good news to have these guys out for the entire season, But like, do you think And again, if you if you totally disagree, then tell me I'm not. I'm not setting you up here to just say, yeah, Nick, you're right, I agree with you.
I want you to shoot me straight, like, do you still think this team could be a tournament team with.
With what they have? Absolutely?
I do?
Okay, and you mean that right, yes, yes, because I'm not just agreeing with you, I actually actually do them.
When we were talking about the Cayson prior injury, I think that there were a lot of people over the weekend that were just I wouldn't say ready to cast him off, but they were a little bit angry about the shot selection and how he's kind of playing outside as means I get it that he can knock a few down from out there, but it seemed like Kayson Prior was always offensively floating around the perimeter mark where he shouldn't have been. I don't think that there's gonna
be a lot of lost sleep over him offensively. I mean, of course it helps when he gives you those kind of plays where he's rim running behind like a guard coming down there. But he is really, really, really a big loss on more of the defensive end.
That's what I'd be more.
Just a athlete with link. Yeah, and you don't really have anybody that you can just automatically. Now, I do think when it comes to defense, rebounding athleticism, that's where when you get Trey ore back, he can help you in that role. Now, yes, he's not going to be a guy that can score much for you. And that's but Cason Pryor again for the amount of shots that you know, let me.
Pull up his numbers here.
And this is where I kind of tried to tiptoe around it yesterday because I don't want to. I don't want it to I don't I don't want to act like I'm saying this guy's not any good and Louis is going to be fine without him. So I'm trying to find that middle ground, that balance, because you know he'll be missed. Louisville will be a much better team if they had him. Same thing with Caseon, but same thing with with Korn Johnson. But Corn Johnson's only playing two games. Yeh.
When he played against Tennessee, he scored two points, so almost out a sight out of mind. And I had to say that for the young man.
But yeah, and with Prior it's a little bit different, there's no doubt about it. But when you look at his you know, his numbers, I mean, I think his shooting percentages. I'm waiting for my internet to load here. Yeah, I mean he's shooting on the season. Case in Prior, he's shooting fifteen percent from three thirty six percent from the field. And you know, again, so his production, I feel like it's not crazy at all to think that
you could make that up. You may have to do some different things to get the twelve points the game that he was getting, but were you really again, the ceiling is not as high, and you've lost a long athlete who is a little bit different than not only most of the guys on your team, but a lot of the guys you're going to play just because you know. That's what makes case In a very intriguing player. One, he has some real ability about him. But he's a six ' ten guy that really is not in any
way a post player. And you know when he ends up being defended by post players and he can take advantage of that. I mean, what I would say about case and pryor other than just having you know, good size and athleticism that makes him a dangerous player. He's a really good ball handler for a guy that's six ten, so and you're not going to get that without him.
I mean, you know, there's nobody fall off the court sometimes.
Yeah, So again I'm trying to find the middle ground to where I can acknowledge that, yes, this is less than ideal, this changes things, But like you still have your two leading scorers, and I don't think that the leading scorers right now are going to be much different towards the end of the year.
Like maybe just maybe rain.
Smith kind of falls off slightly, but you know, he's scoring thirteen a game. Chucky heapburns up to about fifteen a game. So you know, if you lost Chucky Hepburn, that'd be a totally different scenario. Look, Chuck, he's gonna play a lot more minutes now, there's no doubt about it, especially with Korn not coming back at all. But you know,
he was already playing a lot of minutes. And for those saying, well did you see how ghast he was, well, yeah, you played three games in three days, one that went into overtime.
Like that's not normal.
So, you know, rarely am I the guy providing optimism for people because everybody acts like I'm some gloom and doom, miserable human being. And I guess maybe it can appear like that at times. But look, we've been dead as a program for years, I mean lifeless, so much so that I know all of you listening that are, you know, like me, obsessed with Wolves of Basketball. You care about it more than you probably should. You just can't shake it.
It's just part of us. You were experiencing things last week that you haven't experienced in a long time, and you forgot what it felt like.
Yeah, so.
I know they could lose a couple more players, and I'm gonna be enjoying watching a competitive team that is that you know, isn't what we had the last few years. So you know, if you disagree, you think I'm pumping sunshine and you know, leading the pep rally trying to
you know, be a cheerleader, then that's fine. I'm just you know, nobody would ever act like, oh, no big deal, who cares, but just this, oh my god, we might as well just like Pat Kelsey should just let his assistance coach the rest of the season, and he's going to go out recruiting players, Like, why don't we sack up and have some life about it? I mean, it's almost like people don't even watch the Bahamas. Yeah, I mean, you played three good teams and you beat two of them.
I agree, and you and you came away from the Bahamas unfortunately down a player with Case and Pryor, and I know you couldn't capitalize off of that last win. But it feels like ever since going up to the Bahamas, after getting spanked by Tennessee and after kind of a couple home games or we're really trying to find our.
Identity, those were such a waste, weren't they.
I'm telling you, it's anything, and they seem like forever ago, it was like you and c.
Wilmington or something like that.
It was went through up Inwenllerman, Yes, and he took care of business. But it just felt like they were ready to get those games over so they could go see where they stand whenever they play real teams again.
And I don't know about you guys, I feel like they did pretty well.
Yeah.
I think they did too, and I feel like they
found their identity on offense. They walked away with understanding, we don't need to just kind of like search the perimeter for these shots, because that's what we did in the first shot at the Bahamas and over the summer, even you came out and said it, this team might you know, it's not gonna be every game they might break this single game record because they could have had the single game record that they called those actual games when they played the Baja Mar team.
Same thing in their first exhibition game as well. Yeah, when they played who was it that team that was Young Harris or something.
Yeah, young Harris. Yeah.
So you know, like I think against West Virginia and maybe that'll end up not looking like some big win. I don't know, it's early, but I was impressed because they won a game that was not in any way played the way they want to play. They were able to win a different way, and they were able to rely on Chucky. Hepburn to go create some magic in the half court, and you know, he had a game where it's gonna be tough for him to maybe ever reproduce that. But I don't think he needs to be
that guy every night. So you know, what I really want to see, and I don't don't have a clue what to expect, is will we see some adjustments to the identity now that you don't have a case in prior? And I would say the same thing about Corn Johnson, but they've been doing the same thing without him, meaning same style. And I'm not asking Pat Kelsey to change his philosophy and change what he does. But I do think that you're not as good in the half You're not as good at running without prior.
I mean, you're just not. That's where he.
Could really like he could get the ball up the court and beat other guys at his size and go dunk on somebody Like that's just where you're you're gonna miss that. So I don't want you to pound the air out of the ball and play in the half court. But I do think more sets in the half court to one get Chucky in space to where he can either make a play on his own or create for somebody. I think you can need to run some action to
get nowhere Waterman some clean looks. So you know, I don't know if we'll see that tonight, because you know, they found out yesterday about casein, so they had a day to prepare. So my guess is they're gonna they're going about this thing is, hey, next man up. We're gonna continue to do what we do and we're gonna be who we are and somebody goes down, we got a guy on the bench that's gonna have to step up and play. And you know, maybe that works out.
We'll have we'll have to see. But tonight they've got a big opportunity. And I think despite the bad news that you got yesterday and today, this team can still go win and it would be a big time win. I mean, I don't know if there's gonna be many wins for the ACC and this ACC SEC challenge, but Louisville is favored tonight and I'm hoping that there's a good,
lively crowd there and uh, you know, they're drunk. It's gonna be late nine o'clock tip, and uh be nice, be nice to get a win here because you know there's value, right. These are games that if you lose, you know, it's not it's not the end of the world.
You're losing to a ranked team, but you are at home, and a win here by the end of the season will probably end up looking like a really valuable win for you, because I would imagine Ole Miss will end up being a pretty good team and they'll probably end up being, you know, a decent seed in the tournament. Now, beating them at home won't give you as much value,
but still there's there's some value there. So we'll continue you to talk hoops as we get set for tonight's matchup Louisville and Ole Miss. Some other things we need to get into today. When it comes to the ACC SEC Challenge, people are in denial about the league and I don't know what it is. I'm gonna talk about coming up here in about ten minutes when we get back from our first break, But the evidence is right in front of you. I don't even have to pull
the numbers, but I did. The ACC is a basketball league in the last ten years has become a shell of itself. And there are people that like, I know that like cover and I don't mean like I know the minute's a big deal, but like people whose opinion I respect when it comes to basketball, that will look at what is right in front of our face and act like it's not the case. Like they'll tell you
that the ACC is just fine. And I don't mean part of me says, you know, hey, Louisvill can take advantage of it and win a bunch of games and maybe win the league moving forward and great. But I, as someone who is a Louisville fan my whole life, I'm thirty six, I never really felt like Louisville.
I never I could never get.
Into the conference pride. Louisville was in a bunch of different leagues growing up. They were into in a football for a chunk of my childhood. But when Louisvill got in the Big Eastern Basketball, I felt like, Okay, this is awesome. We are a part of an elite league that nobody can claim is not the best college basketball conference and it's not close. Well, then you go to the ACC and it gets you, know, you feel like
it's getting even better. And now I don't know if you play in a league that is the I mean of the Power four, is it the fourth best league or the Power five? I should say it's it's probably fourth at best. And you know that makes me sad. I mean, I can't do anything about it. I can't change it. But anytime I bring up the fact that, like, man, what happened to the ACC? Why is nobody talking about it? I get? I get you know those that are in denial,
telling me what are you talking about? NC State went did the Final four? Okay, pull whatever singular data point you want to convince yourself whatever you want, but the ACC is nowhere near what it once was in hoops and the numbers that I have to back that up will probably floor you unless you're somebody that you know
is living on planet Earth and realizing what we're watching here. Also, we'll get into some louisvill football stuff, but I will go ahead and share the news for those of you that might have missed it earlier today, Colin Lacy confirming he will be back for Louisville.
Not only is that huge, I mean.
That's a guy that you know, I kind of feel like you already won in the portal here because he's a guy that if he does hit the portal, everybody's gonna want him.
And he was already here. But him, I mean, I really in the good.
I guess things can change, but him deciding to come back to Louisville is huge because it's not only a weapon that you're gonna be able to really utilize at full strength because he will be fully healthy, but it will probably help Jeff Brom go get a quarterback, right.
I would say a quarterback would love to one play for Jeff Brom calling the plays, but also have a weapon like Colin Lacy out there, who really started to shine once he got healthy and then of course, you know, decided to hang it up and then at some point I do want to get to Jamis Winston last night, who I think Jamis Winston, you know, go back to Florida State, stealing crab legs and just being, you know, a.
Character, and he still has a character.
But Jamis Winston, I feel like he's kind of low key, unexpectedly turned into one of the most intriguing professional athletes out there.
And you know he really has.
When I say that, some people are probably like, what the hell are you talking about? Like he's a backup that gets to play because Deshaun Watson is you know Deshaun Watson, And yeah, I'm talking about when he gets in front I don't care about football, although he did have a wild game last night, but when he gets in front of a camera or a microphone.
You you want to hear it.
Yeah, you're you know, you may not really know what he's saying, and you may not believe it. You may think, what the hell is this guy on? But like I need more of Jameis Winston and it's certainly entertaining, It's absolutely it. Look, this is all about entertainment, right, A pro wrestling factor exactly. That's what he should already have a contract with the WW that states when he's done playing football, he's going to be on the mic. I don't know if he can wrestle, but he's an NFL player.
I'd say you could probably turn him into a wrestler if you wanted to do it something for him. Pat McAfee is on WW. Yeah, well, and you know, I'm just thinking about him being the Preacher character with the a WWE storyline, and like it would be Golden. Yeah, you know, kind of like, who is it Brady who already had the deal in place to go be a broadcaster while he was still playing quarterback in the NFL is Hunter running ww Still, Yes he's now there because
Vince has gone right. Yes, Yes, Triple H needs to get that done because psy it would be worth every penny to make that happen. I think also tonight we're gonna get the we're gonna get the updated college football playoff rankings, and I get coaches lobbying for themselves at this point, I get it. I would probably do the
same thing, but it's become so annoying. And there's one thing that all of them are saying, those that you know are on the outside looking in, but you know, I guess holding out hope that they might get a break. There's one thing that they all say that I think is the direct evidence that they know they're not worthy. They're just trying to, you know, disguise it. And with Kentucky, they've got Clemson tonight, which I don't think Clemson is going to challenge them, to be.
Honest with you.
I hope they do, hope they beat them, but don't see that happening, but Mark Stoop's another day where another piece negative news and other offensive staff are moving on because you know, that's just how things are going for Mark Stoops right now. So we are loaded the rest of the way. We're gonna be joined by cl Brown of the Courier Journal coming up at four h five, So stick around. We'll take you up till six o'clock.
I'm Nick Coffee. He's Austin Montgomery, and this is Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on Sports Talk seven ninety.
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a member of the Refreshing Awards program at Thornton's. That's just my opinion, but it's the truth, if I'm being honest with you, all right, Nick, Coffee with you, Austin Montgomery alongside today, Let's go to the text line five O two six five three zero seven nineties the number if you want to text in the Llenn Federal Credit
Union text line. This text came in and says, Nick, I can't be the only one a little sour about Colin Lacy as far as how he handled the season, not sure we would want him back.
Well, it's a new ballgame.
I don't want to get into the whole conversation that we had around the time that he decided to opt out, because that's what he did, and it's still technically bailing on your team, and it's still viewed as like he quit, and people who say that they're not they're not lying.
They're telling the truth.
But I would encourage you to just understand that now, this is a job, and anybody that has a job, they're going to look out for themselves, right, I mean they're going to do everything possible to make the absolute best of the situation for themselves. This isn't like a job to us, right, we don't view it that way,
but it is to them. So Colin Lacey, you know, he wasn't playing earlier in the year, got healthy the season as far as the big accomplishments, the big goals had kind of faded because of the early losses, and I was told he was never really healthy when he came back. I mean, he was healthy enough to play, but like he was still kind of getting trying to get back to one hundred percent.
So he made a decision that said you.
Look, Look, I can go ahead and opt out because I didn't play in the first few games. I've now played in four, and I could ride it out. And look, if he would have stuck around and played and finished strong, nobody would have said a word. But when he does take advantage of the situation for himself, which anybody listening to this would do the same thing. I don't mean that you would do that because you don't know a
lot of us didn't play college football. Not a lot of us have been in that position to where we would know what we would do. But just think about your job, how you make a living, how you provide for yourself and your family. You take advantage of every little thing you could to make the most of it to benefit yourself. It's not really selfish if you think
about it. I mean, I get why people view it that way, but again, I would just encourage you to understand it's a new world now, and his decision, I mean it's gonna be I mean, Louisvill's now gonna have him for another year, and he's a really, really good player.
We never even got the full coldin Lacy experience because he wasn't fully healthy when he was playing and he missed the first what four games of the season, So like, I understand why people view it that way, but this is this is just how it is now and maybe
you'll never get used to it. And if and if that's the case, then you know, do you But I just I think if you for a second tried to, you know, consider the fact that this is a job, just like you have a job, and if you're going to try to do something that is more beneficial for you and maybe not as beneficial for your employer at that time, like that's normal people would look at you like a fool if you had a chance to do
something like a loophole to benefit yourself. But like again, it's still you know, it's gonna be a little while, I think before people truly realize that this is a job. To these guys now, and they're they're not here because they grew up rooting for the team like we did. They're here because they are trying to individually improve theirselves. I mean, I'm sure they like being a part of
a team and they want to win their competitors. That's probably one of the reasons why they're playing at this level. But at the end of the day, this is now job. So I'm not surprised at all. We had somebody text in and say that, all right, so if you are just not joining us the bummer news today. On the basketball side, Corn Johnson is out for the year, gonna
have shoulder surgery. He did get a second opinion, and I guess both opinions were the same, and that is that you need to go ahead and call it a season and get surgery and get better. So I don't want to minimize, you know, anything about Koran because he's a good player, he's raining. I guess maybe he's the last ever because the PAC twelve's dead, right, he's the last ever PAC twelve six Man of the Year, and
he's a shooter. He gives you more options at guard like you need him, but you were able to get by without him, and I would hope that you know, there's gonna be some certain guys. That's in fact, I'm gonna ask Seal Brown this when we bring him in at RO five. You know, I'm sure the easy answer and I'm sure Cel will give me a good answer. The easy answer is everybody's got to step up with the absence of prior and of course now knowing that you're not getting Corn Johnson.
Back, but I'm gonna ask him if there's one guy or.
Maybe two who are maybe gonna be really crucial to Louisville being able to still have a successful season where maybe they get into the tournament despite these injuries. So we can get into that a little bit later on. But as we just reference there as I was reading that text, the good news on the football side is that you are getting Colin Lacy back, and that's that's massive. I mean, I feel like when it comes to playmakers, you know you have.
And I don't know. This is this is.
Another new element to how we fans as college football and college basketball fans, because you just know guys can leave whenever they want after any season, without any penalty, without any I mean, it's not crazy that just nobody giving any sign, nobody's saying anything.
You just wondering are they going to be back?
Right. It's kind of like whenever guys would announce they were coming back to the or they were coming back to school and not going to the NBA, and eighty percent of the people that would put up those graphics on Twitter, you would think to yourself, Oh, no surprise here, we knew the NBA didn't want you, Like it was.
Such an embarrassing thing for some of these guys. They would do that. They're announced, they're coming back. Where were you going? Well, now it's a new world.
You can go wherever you want, not the NBA, I mean, unless if you're good enough you can so Nope, Like Isaac Brown hasn't said anything, but like we know, if there's one guy that you're gonna have to potentially worry about somebody doing some tampering and trying to get him away from here, it's Isaac Brown, Duke Watson as well. But Duke Watson did say last night on a social media I'm an old man now, I feel like because
I don't know. I mean, I think I don't know if it was a TikTok live or something Instagram.
I feel like Nick Saban what did he call it? Insta chat?
And there's an old clip of not Nick Saban, I'm sorry, it was Bill Belichick on some press conference many years ago when she was trying to reference the social media platforms. I feel like that right now because I know what they are, but I don't know if he was live on one of them, or if it was I think he joined somebody's live and somebody screenshotted the screen recorded the video of him saying Louisville fans need to leave
them alone. I'm not going anywhere something like that. So and by the way, if it's the younger generation that's got to share what these guys are doing on social media, then I'll I'm all for it because that is good news. So what I was getting at is with Lacey back, and right now, I guess the belief is that both your star running backs are going to be back, like you've already got some real offensive firepower to work with.
And we'll get into it a little bit later on, maybe even later in the week, because we've got a lot to get to today. But there are a lot of guys that have announced they're leaving Louisville. But for the most part, it's not really anybody that you relied on much this year. And maybe one day we'll get comfortable doing this. But I wish those guys well, I
hope they had a great experience here. But it's never gonna let me ask you this, Austin, it's never going to in any way not sound rude when you're like, oh, that guy's leaving, see you later.
Who gives a damn? You know what I mean?
Like, I don't want to say that, but like that's kind of gonna be the reaction because the majority of guys who enter the portal are entering the portal because they're not playing where they are. Yeah, I mean, like it's just gonna sound like be being a jerk. But I don't want to be a jerk. But you know, for example, like Maurice Turner, wish the young man well saw that he was leaving.
I wasn't surprised.
He's a running back who has been here a long time and he got passed up by two true freshmen.
And you kind of said the same part last week when Louisville lost out on that local recruit. Who when you when you turned around and said, well, I mean look what he was coming for.
He was running back.
Oh yeah, the running back who he committed. Yeah, it makes total sense.
Right, and question the kid you're like to hell with on me or be like, okay, it looks like they're more or less sitting pretty at that running back position, So I guess it's all kind of how'd you say, it's all kind of of situational.
And who returns and and one guy that did leave, Ben Perry. He was here for a while. Yeah, and he entered the portal last year and then pulled his name out. I believe it might have been two years ago. And solid player, but you know kind of like, who's the guy who had that pick six against Central Florida who ended up transferring to Miami. He's gonna drive me crazy. It's not even not even important, not to say he's not important.
Oh yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Right, Yeah, Like he was really just known for that play, and he would have given you some good linebacker depth this year, no doubt. But you know what, he hit the portal because he realized, I'm now behind stan Kuan Clark who passed me up, and I'm going to go elsewhere. So you know that's somebody that is is in Mary
Huggins Bruce who randomly found his way back here. But Mary Huggins Bruce was the guy last year that like, you know, he's not your best receiver, but he he gave you something to where you didn't want to lose him. But if you put yourself in his shoes, and he clearly was wrong. He thought the grass was going to be green or elsewhere, and he couldn't get on the
field at South Carolina. So you know, it's just it's still it's so much different than what we've all grown up and I mean college sports right now, I think it's awesome, but like it is so different outside the lines that how we keep up with it, how we discuss off season stuff, like, it's just so different, and it's going to take a while before I think this feels like the new norm.
Jalen Alderman is a guy that you're thinking, here we go and I don't know what he was doing.
I don't know what he ended up doing at at Miami, but I think right now, and it's still early in the Jeff Brom era, you're two years in here with Jeff Brom. I think one Jeff can can sell to guys in the portal, especially on the offensive side of the ball, that you come here, we will give you an opportunity to shine and really thrive.
I mean I don't think you could.
I mean, go look at all the quarterbacks that were that were believed to be so much better than Tyler Shuck, that got a lot more money than Tyler Shuck probably did to go elsewhere that didn't come close to having the season.
That he had.
So I trust Jeff's I when it comes to the quarterback situation, and I think he can. I mean, if you're a guy in the portal, I think you're gonna want to get a phone call from Jeff Brohm, especially if you're a quarterback.
So you know that.
Looking at Isaac Garinda, who was a second second string running back at Wisconsin, he comes to Louisville and ends up being the lead ball carrier for Louisville towards the end of the season. He's still making plays in the NFL right now, Like he went to Louisville and maybe he would have done it elsewhere. Will never know, but I feel like him at Louisville, he really showed what he could do, got him an opportunity in the NFL. I mean say the same thing about Jacory Brooks. I mean,
he was gonna be good wherever he went. But you know, obviously Jae Cory Brooks is a guy that you know, was not getting a lot of reps anymore at Alabama, comes to Louisville had a phenomenal season, was one of the best receivers in the country.
So Brom's been able.
To show in two years, yeah, you come here and you can play, You'll have an opportunity to shine and we'll win some ball games. But he also, right now, I believe has in two years shown that the guys that you lose, like, there's not many guys they've lost to the Portal that we end up realizing, damn, how do we let that guy get away? Because again, that's
the majority of the guys who leave. And this goes back to the conversation I was just having, like I don't want to say, hey, I'll help you pack your bags, get the hell out of here.
You bomb, you're not good enough to play.
But more often than not, it's dudes that you totally understand why they're leaving because they're not a big part of it and they probably can get more opportunities elsewhere, and that's what you want. Right You're gonna lose guys
to the portal every year. But if it's the majority of those guys are the dudes who really didn't do a whole lot and didn't get opportunity then that's a good thing because it's opening up another opportunity for a scholarship and I owe money, and you can go to the portal and probably get a guy that's better than him. Maybe not at the same position, but like you can.
Now you know, you lose a linebacker or aligneman, well now you can you can go get you know, a really good safety in the linebacker and the linemen are leaving.
Because they passed up and you're already set.
There so a lot of moving parts, but so far, I think Jeff Brahm has shown that he's one of the coaches that is adapting to this, to this new world. All right, let's go ahead and get you our second break here, because I want to come back on the other side and make sure I've got enough time to get to this ACC SEC stuff, because this could be the biggest lopsided series we've seen between any ACC challenge. And what I mean by that this is just the
second year of the ACC SEC Challenge. You used to be the ACC Big Ten Challenge, But if you look at how poorly the ACC's competed up to this point with the other power conferences, I mean doesn't mean that you can't end up having a good season and making the tournament.
But like, this is where you get. This is where you.
Make your case that you're good enough to be in the tournament, because once you get like, the ACC has now lost the benefit of the they've now lost the benefit of the doubt to beat up on each other in league play and say, well, what are you gonna do? Yeah, we went five hundred and the ACC. But man, look at the ACC. This ain't the ACC of old. So
we'll talk about that and a lot more. Keep it lock right here, don't I get Cel Brown of the Courier Journal coming up here at four h five on Sports Talk seven ninety.
You're listening to Coffee and Company with Nick Coffee on Sports Talk seven ninety.
So I'm looking through FanDuel sportsbook right now at all of these ACC SEC matchups tonight, which, by the way, there's gonna be matchups throughout the week here, but tonight is night one, and from what I can tell here, and I'm still scrolling, there's a lot of college basketball games and I'm not able to uh, I'm not able to change the uh it's not let me filtered by conference.
So I'm just trying to. I'm looking at him one by one.
I think Louisville, as far as I can tell, Louisville right now is the only ACC team in action tonight in this ACC SEC challenge that is favored.
I mean, you've got gosh.
I mean, I'm still looking here to see if I can find if there's one. Kentucky's close there. They're only favored by a point and a half over Clemson, which I'm not betting that because you know, gross, but I think Clemson is gonna get beat by at least ten. I mean not because like Kentucky's scary good, which, by the way, I do think they are good, and they've looked really good so far this year, but like Clemson's not good.
I don't know.
I mean, Clemson doesn't have a great environment for basketball, and they they lost to somebody earlier this year that was not a quality loss from So maybe I'll be wrong. In fact, I hope I'm wrong, but yeah, let me run.
Through it here.
You've got Louisville tonight. Let me see if there's been any movement here because they opened up. I think it is three point favorites, or maybe it was four points. Yeah, it was four points. Now it's down at three and a half.
But you've got Florida State and LSU.
LSU is favored by four and a half in that one. You've got let's see, Miami and Arkansas. Arkansas favored in that one by looks like z four and a half, which I would take.
I don't know. Miami's been bad this.
Year, so I feel like I would take Arkansas there, but I don't know they've they've kind of struggled as well. Syracuston Tennessee. Tennessee is favored about twenty one and a half points in that game. The other matchups here in Night one of the ACC SEC Challenge, and there's some of these teams, like, for example, like California and Missouri. Took me a while to realize, you know what, that's
also part of the ACC SEC Challenge. Missouri and the SEC is still kind of weird to me, honestly, although they've been there for a while. Cal in the ACC It's still never gonna seem real. But Missouri is favored about ten and a half against Cal. South Carolina Boston College. South Carolina favored by four and a half at BC and then Notre Dame in Georgia. Georgia's at home hosting Notre Dame. They are favored by eight and a half.
So yeah, Louisville right now the only team in the ACC in Night one that it's favored, which I mean doesn't mean that you won't see some upsets. I mean I would hope that the ACC can be competitive in this is gonna tell you. I'm not gonna be shocked if they're not, because this is this is this is a number, this is an opinion. This is a number, and you can try to manipulate the number to mean whatever you want it to mean. But facts are facts right now in the ACC, the league itself as of now,
because there already have been some ACC SEC matchups. For example, the louisll played Tennessee. So right now as we speak today on December the third, the SEC is twelve and one against the ACC. Before this thing started, the only win for the ACC in the against the against the SEC up to this point is pitt who beat LSU, which, by the way, Piblock's really good. The ACC against other power conferences Big East, Big twelve, Big ten SEC so far this year twelve and twenty nine.
This is where you have to win games in order to that.
Yeah, when you get to the league, you get some level of benefit of the doubt that you know, yeah, their records not great, But man, what are you gonna do you play in the ACC. Well, if you lose to all these other power conferences and you're a mid level team in this league, I don't know how you can expect to make the tournament unless you're just gonna get a gift. I mean, it's crazy. So ten years
ago I went back and looked at this. Ten years ago the twenty twenty five season, five of the top twelve teams and the final eight peop pole were from the ACC. Six of those teams were in the top twenty five, so you had six top twenty five teams at the end of the season. Duke won the championship. And by the way, your six ranked teams was two more than any other league. So now, I mean, who's good in the league. I mean, Carolina and Duke are
always gonna be up. And I know NC State made a Final four last year, and I know Miami did in twenty twenty three. But like the days of having a deep conference, that the success is sustainable it's just gone like Miami made a Final four and then last year they were the most disappointing team maybe in college basketball NC State. The only reason they made the tournament is because nobody in the league could put away a team that finished nine and eleven in league play. Kevin
Keats was gonna get fired. He almost lost to Kenny Payne in the a SEC tournament. And I love Keats. Like again, I'm not picking on the AEC. I just don't know why people won't acknowledge the fact that, like, man, what happened in this league? And I know the answer, Well, you know, we lost a bunch of coaches. Well yeah, but go fix it. I mean, the SEC is the best example. They invested in basketball. They realized, oh yeah, we're pretty good in football. We kind of own that, right. Well,
now we got a network. We're gonna have to put college basketball games on these on these on this network, and we're gonna need people to watch, We're gonna need people to care.
So what do they do.
They encourage league members to go out there and invest in basketball, and it's worked out. They've hired some phenomenal coaches and now the SEC. I believe when it comes to depth. Is the second best league in the country, maybe the best depending on what happens with the Big Twelve this year. So you've got teams like Louisville and yeah,
I should have put the disclaimer out there beforehand. Like I know, Louisville is one of the is maybe the biggest problem here because they were for the most part a pretty damn good team in their own league since they got there, and then they've fallen off a cliff. So, like I know, Louisville is a big factor in it, but it's not just Louislle. And by the way, Louisville, to their credit, is always going to have a strong
investment in being good in basketball. That's why they got rid of Kenny Paine after two years and probably should have done after one year. And we'll see what happens with Pat Kelsey. But like Loue, you have to worry about Louisville prioritizing basketball. You have Florida State who has falling off a cliff in recent years. Virginia Tony Bennett ran away from the game because he started to become not only a guy that couldn't live up to the standard that he set for himself. He became a bum
in this new world of college basketball. I mean, Notre Dame with Mike Bray they were pretty good. Right now they're not. You know, like maybe they can get something going with Michael Shrewsbury, but like they're not a legitimate team right now. I mean, who else used to be good, Like Virginia Tech. They had a good run there with Buzz Williams. Now they're dead last among Power five teams
in the net rankings. And I know Clemson made an lead eight last year, but they finally made the tournament and then did win some games, and they deserve credit for that, But Brad brown Wells their coach, they're not gonna go.
I bet they don't go back to the tournament for a long time. So like I don't.
I mean, I think you fixed it by investing in basketball and going and paying a lot of money to get really good coaches. Like go play if you're if you're one of these schools that used to be really good and you've fallen off, go take somebody's coach. And
to do that, you've got to have an investment. And clearly the AEC is not bringing in the same revenue that the SEC and the Big Ten are, but still like if you don't, I mean, I think the ACC is a basketball conference will always be propped up by the big time programs like Duke in Carolina, and I'm hoping that one day Louisville can be a program that
is kind of holding their weight. They haven't done it in a long time, but you know, if they, if things work out with Pat Kelsey, I think you could be one of the examples of a of a team that's that's not a factor in the ACC looking like a league that is a shell of what it once was. But I mean, I just the reason I bring this up is because I looked at those numbers and I thought, I don't know if anybody realizes how bad it actually is.
But also when I was at the a SEC basketball media day in Charlotte, instead of acknowledging like how far the league's fallen and like you need like you're not what you want and I don't mean, I don't that's not They're not going to lead the conference media days by talking about how how everybody sucks. But instead of like you know, addressing it and acknowledging it and and
trying to find a path forward and getting better. They just blamed the committee as if they're being picked on, Like no, like the ACC is nowhere close to what it once was, and there's look that's that's not anything we can change right now. But the people in denial about it, I just don't understand, Like, go look, go look at what the AEC used to look like. You used to have opportunities for quad one wins like every
other game. Now you better win in a non conference because if you don't, and you don't beat the few good teams you have in your league, you're looking at the nit. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side. We've got cl Brown joining us to get the four o'clock hour started right here on Sports Talk seven ninety