It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
So after last night's eighty five to sixty eight victory over col Louisville, they are one went away from finishing eighteen and two in the ACC which would easily be their best finish ever. But right now, when it comes to the win total increase for Louisville, the current number, let's see Louisville right now is at sixteen and by the way, they include not just regular season but postseason as well, But Louisville eight and twenty four last year,
now twenty four and six. That's sixteen games up and the record is twenty Anybody have a clue who did that? Who had a twenty game turnaround? It's actually somewhat recently, and it's it's not really a trick question, but it's so. Iowa State in twoenty and twenty one, I guess that was the first year that as the year we tried
to play college basketball with COVID going on. They went two and twenty two, and then the next year they hired Otselberger, who, by the way, apparently is in the mix for the Indiana job, which I don't know what to believe, but it sounds like maybe that's the guy Indiana's really really gonna come after, which he'd be a fine coach. I think if he can win at Iowa State,
why can't he win Indiana. But anyways, they were two and twenty two in twenty twenty one, and then in twenty twenty two they went twenty two and thirteen, so took him all the way to the Sweet sixteen, and he I would have, honestly, I think I if I wasn't looking at this, I think I would have got that right because I remember just you using that as a weapon for idiots who would act like Kenny Payne needed a lot of time to you know, not be
the worst coach in the world. And then also in recent years like Duke Duke in two thousand, same things. So Duke went thirteen and eleven in the year where we again tried to play basketball and you know, had a lot of cancelations that kind of stuff. They were thirteen and eleven and the next year they went thirty two and seven, So they had the nineteen game bump.
And there's a lot in fact.
Kentucky is on here too at number seventeen or with seventeen game turnaround, because in twenty twenty one they were nine and sixteen.
That was the year Cal.
You know, that's what it really fell apart for Cal to be honest with you, because they were bad in a way that nobody ever expected and they shouldn't have been as bad, and you know, the pandemic was going on, and that to me, you know, I'm not an insider by any means, from what I understand is that he'd been such a made man for so long there and he did have another year where they were really bad, but then they bounced back the next year and were
phenomenal in fourteen and fifteen, So you know, he'd had a down year, but like that was a different level down and there'd been a big drought already as far as making a final four to where he went twent he went nine and sixteen, and couldn't believe that, Like fans were upset, Like he thought, like how could they ever be upset at me? I'm Caliperry, Like, look at
what I've done for you. I'm a rock star. And you know the next year would they do Yeah, twenty six and eight, So a seventeen game turnaround and then you know they end up losing to Saint Peter's, which was you know, very very fun night for me, if I'm being honest with you. So if Louisville ends up you know, to break the record, like I think Pac can do it, because keep in mind, let's say you know you went on you went on Saturday, that's seventeen.
You win your quarterfinal game on Thursday in the ACC, which again you could lose, but you know, like right now, I think you might end up playing Virginia Tech. I'd love to get a shot at them againhim to be honest with you, because I think Louisville on any other night would blow them out.
So that puts you at eighteen.
So really, if you end up winning against Clemson, easier seven done, if it goes chalk, of course, that would put you at nineteen. And then from then on, really you've got the ACC title game. Of course if you get there, and then whoever you play in the first round, that those two opportunities will give you the chance to tie it.
But like let's say Louisville.
Goes all the way to the championship game and loses to Duke, but they beat Clemson again easier Seve than done. But let's say that plays out, that'll put you at nineteen. So then in the tournament, the first round, it's like it could very much position to where if you make the second weekend sweet sixteen, not only is that insanely awesome if that's what happens, but also that would break the record for the most, you know, the biggest win
total increase from a prior season. All right, it's Coffee and Company. We are feel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Thanks for hanging out us certainly appreciated, Nick Coffee. That's me the tribal chief alongside today and real quick. One more thing to throw out there about Louisville basketball, because you know, I love bragging on this team.
It's been that fun. It's been awesome. With the thirty five? Was that what he had last night? Thirty six? Thirty five?
I said thirty five, And I'm thinking, well, no, it must have been like twenty five, And then sure enough, like that's a lot of points, like like Chuck he had just under forty twice and Javon had thirty had thirty.
Something thirty two, right y, Yeah, that sounds about it.
I went to yep, Cless game, that's right, Moos and Maya and then uh and then Rain had thirty just because he hit ten three. He hit more than thirty, but he had thirty something when he hit ten threes against SMU and then you know last night fat thirty five.
So Louisville has had four players.
With thirty or more in a game this year and there's no other team that's been able to do that. Which again, that alone, like that says a lot, but think about this, like these guys were given a lot more basically just responsibility, right, Like there's nobody to really spell Chucky. Hepburn that was supposed to be Corn Johnson, Like Chucky's got a run point Terrence. You know he was gonna be your off guard, that can you know,
basically two to three guy. I don't know if they had a lot of plans for him to run point, but now he's had to be more of a distributor. And really your your your backup point guard because you don't have another guy outside of Chucky, So you know, he all these guys took on much bigger roles, not by design, but because it's what they had to do. And man, they have all I mean again I talked about it earlier. They won't get four guys on the All SEC First and the All ACC First and second
team honors. I just don't think they will because that would basically Louisville getting forty percent. But you could make the case, man, all these guys didn't just you know, step up and help you. They were good players for a good team that really he was clearly in the
top tier of this conference. And you put these numbers on anybody, and we're talking about a player that you know, you would think, is you know, deserving worthy of All ACC honors to an extent, maybe not first team or even second team, but Chuck, he's the best player in this league not named Cooper Flag. He's the best point guard in the league. Seventeen points per game I'm sorry, sixteen points a game in acc play, seven assists and two point four steals.
That leads the league edwards.
Seventeen points per game in acc action just under that overall of the season five games of twenty or more. Hadley, I mean, I feel like he's criminally underappreciated when it comes to just like guys in this league that have been really good for the good teams. If he was putting up these numbers for a bad team to be impressive.
Hadley's averaging twelve and a half points, seven point three rebounds, which is top ten in the ACC in league play fifty percent overall, forty percent from three to seventy eight percent from the line, Like that's I mean to me, that take out the fact that Louisville is likely going to finish eighteen and two in the league. It's a really good player, probably not first team, maybe not second team,
but certainly third team at worst. And then rain thirteen point four points per game, one hundred and sixty three pointers may thirteen more than anybody in the ACC, by the way, leeds All, And by the way, he didn't make a three last night, didn't make a three on Saturday, at least I don't think he did. And he still has thirteen more threes than anybody in the conference. And again, he's averaging thirteen point four points a game for the
second best team in this conference depending upon standings. So you know, these guys, I mean, I just put it this way. This is the best way I can really throw it out there as far as like how it's kind of stopped me in my tracks here with these guys. Let's say, for Louisville to even be like decent the rest of the way, these guys were going to have
to have these these numbers all year. I've always liked these guys, but you'd have told me in November December that that like they were going to need to do that for Louisville to be even decent, let alone eighteen and two potentially in the league. I just would have thought, there's, like, as much as I love these guys, I just don't see how that happens. But sure enough, they got comfortable, they really solidified their roles, and they've been consistent for
the most part all year. And when guys don't have a night like rain last night, couldn't go. He's dealing with some kind of a minor injury.
Couldn't go.
So you know what, It's not something you can dial up any moment on a moment's notice. But you got a guy that's not crazy to see him go for thirty five and Terrence Edwards. So again, I love these guys, love this team. One more regular season game left, and then we get to the real fun part, the postseason, which man, I guess Louisville did play in the postseason under Kenny Payne, but you know it was really it was a day of shame in the ACC tournament. That's
not the case this year. All Right, what do I want to do coming up here on the other side, We'll let you guys hear what Josh Hurd had to say he was on yesterday with Terry Miners, the beautiful bald man that Isry Minors. You guys, you know where to find him. I'm not going to tell you because I don't want you to leave you. We need to stay here with me, right, I mean, he's already on the big stick, and he's already, you know, the living
legend in Louisville media. I got tough competition here, but I don't feel like competition because he's he's my friend. He's just down the hall, and sure enough we can play some of the great stuff that he has on his show. So we'll do that after this first break that we get to coming up here shortly but real quick.
I want to switch to Kentucky because you know they're safely a top four seat as it stands right now, and I really you know, with the loss, put it this way, the only potential bad loss is now in the rear view because LSU was that. But again that was just a they won by like a billion, it seemed so now like right now, no matter where you look, you're going to see Kentucky I think anywhere between a three and a four, And I'm not sure that they
could fall. I mean, if they get like blown up out at Missouri, maybe that would hit them to where they fall off the four line or something, or maybe fall from the three to the four. But like if they lose a close game doesn't hurt them. If they win, that's a really valuable win, that probably doesn't move them. I think the ones and twos I think are solidified. I think maybe you could see a two fall to a three, depending upon what happens in these conference tournaments.
But you know, with Kentucky, whoever they play, Like, even if they played Arkansas in the first round and lost in the SEC tournament, that would be a nightmare for them. But if they did, that's probably not going to be enough to put a dent in their resume bad enough to fall on the seed line. So like, credit to them, they've done enough to where they really have no pressure when it comes to seating. But I just I don't know,
because they've they've lost so many games. It's hard to still even though you know you're good and you have wins to prove that, even though you know you're losing to other really good teams or teams that are better than you, when you just start racking up the losses like they've done, they're now four in or five and twelve in, they're last thirteen I'm sorry, five and twelve in their last seventeen. So you know, you probably just start to slightly lose a little bit of not belief.
But when you lose enough and you get to the tournament and you know you playing in the second round against a I don't know, Like if Kentucky ends up in the second round against a sixth seed, you know, that could be Clemson who's already beat them. It could be it could be Kansas, it could be Arizona, it could be you know, it could be even be why
you could be Louisville if there's six or something. You know, like if you end up losing those games, I think even though you know you're playing a loaded league, I think you know, those teams that can potentially be on the sixth line and beat you are also good and it wouldn't be that big of a shock. So, like, I don't want to misrepresentatives if I feel like their fans are down on the dumps as we get closer
to March Madness. But again, they've just stacked up more losses than you typically would see a team with their seeding.
Being where it is.
But a show that I really really enjoy is a Barstool Sports podcast. This is uh, let me make sure I've got the right. I want to give the proper credit here. So this is what's his name? I can't think of the here. I am telling you that I really like him, and I can't think of the damn guy's name, Mark Titus.
I'm sorry.
The Mark Titus show on Barstool Sports. He talks college hoops, does College Hoops podcast, one of the many things he does for Barstool Sports. But he said this about Kentucky, and I don't think he's trolling. I don't think he's like insulting their team. But I thought, okay, initially, man, this guy's out of his mind. But then I thought
about it. I'm like, you know what, maybe he's not way off here, and I'll let you guys hear it, because I think Kentucky fans would disagree with this, but I could be wrong.
I think if Kentucky makes the Sweet sixteen really and loses by fifteen, I think Kentucky fans have to be happy with that. At this point in the year.
I'm interested to hear from a Kentucky fan on that because I'm with you. They're they're beating up, they're injured, they're not playing as good as basketball, but they're also doing it. We say this every show against the SEC, night in and night out, and night in and night out.
So I've got my hand near the dump button. This has got like twenty seconds left. I don't remember they're being cursing. But then again, like it doesn't really hit your radar when you listen to Barstool Sports, because there's a lot of cursing in there, more so than most content that's you know, like of the sports world, because they don't you know, they don't have to censor anything,
so I don't think they curse here. But like I'm just if if you know, if you notice something off, it's because we had hit the dump button and they did curse.
So anyways, they're gonna they should absolutely get to a Sweet sixteen, and then who are they gonna match up with? I don't know, but yeah, Mark Pope's had a great first year. But I think they have higher expectations.
I don't. I don't think they can guard. I think they can't. They they can't play defense, and there's too there's too many question marks game to game of like who's going to step up? And yeah, I like I said, I think they're more they're more fun team than they are a good team.
So again go back to the beginning of it when it comes to did he say if they get to the Sweet sixteen and then lose to fifteen, they should to be happy.
I thought I heard he was predicting that, but I don't know. He may have said if they get to the sweet sixteen, because he's talking about a scenario really.
And loses by I think if Kentucky makes the Sweet sixteen real and loses by Okay, so.
They make the Sweet sixteen and then they get beat by fifteen, I that's one of those things where I think it'll depend on who it is, It'll depend on how it looks, because that's not like a crazy scenario. But I don't know. I mean, Kentucky's weird. They have enough wins against good teams to where you look at the rest of college basketball and I think you'd be foolish to not say, well, yeah, I mean, you never know what's going to happen in March. We can tell
you that firsthand. We lost to Saint Peter's in Oakland, but we have proven to be good enough to compete with the best of the best. So let's set expectations on a deep run. I mean, it is Kentucky. But then again, you also have to keep in mind that despite having and what I think Pope said this after
their loss to Auburn. But when you look at the ap pole in college basketball right now, which again I'm only referencing this because Pope referenced it, we know the Ken Palm, and really the net is the actual ranking that matters when it comes to the selection process. But with Auburn, Duke, Tennessee, and Florida, I mean, Kentucky has four wins against the top five teams in the country, so like that that's valuable. That is one of the reasons why they really can't fall far at all. They
can't fall much at all. In fact, when it comes to the seating, you know, you swept Tennessee, who's a top five team, could be a one seed when it's all said and done. You beat Florida, which is a really valuable win that seems to be only getting more valuable, and you beat Duke, only one of three teams. So look, all that is something that should give you some real excitement and some real belief in your team if you
need it. But I think also in the back of your mind you realize, yeah, I wouldn't want to play Duke right now. That was in November when these guys were, you know, just getting to know each other, and now they look scary good. And then with Tennessee, I mean, I don't know, I can't explain it. Tennessee just you know, credit to Mark Pope, like he's the Tennessee volunteer killer, because Tennessee was bad in both those games. But I'm not saying that as if like they're overrated. No, they've
proven to be really good. But Kentucky got them both times and then you know Florida. But again with Florida, you probably need it, Like to beat Tennessee's the only win you have here. Wins I should say that you have here where you can say, Okay, we did actually beat really good teams without a full roster, right like, do you beat Duke if Robinson's not there? He actually
didn't really show up in that game. I don't even know if he scored, to be honest with you, but you know what I mean, same thing with Florida, right like, that was a shootout, close game. Florida's great, you guys outlasted them, But could you do that again on a neutral court, not at roup if you don't Jackson Robinson. And again, those are the kind of teams you're not gonna have to beat them to get to the Elite eight.
I mean, those are the teams that you might you might play them in the Elite eight of the Final four.
But I don't know.
I just think as I try to check the pulse, which I'm not as good at it as others when it comes to Kentucky fans because I'm not one of them, and you know, I knew I do know a lot of them, but I think they they realize that they have a team that that you know, should be able to go and compete. Put it this way, if they end up losing in like the second round, or maybe they get to the sweet sixteen and they get boat raced again, it really depends on who it is and
how it looks. But I can't tell if there's gonna be a collective Yeah, we probably should have saw that coming with the injuries and with all the losses, or if it's going to be a all right, Pope, pressure's on now, bucco, because this is Kentucky. You had a really good season, really good seed. We don't expect to be leaving early. And I don't know why I said bucco. That was a dad moment. Like I don't think I've ever said bucco before in my life. Have you ever
hit me? Yeah, like you're you're probably thinking like, oh crap, Nick, is it happening. It's like those urges I get that. I don't know where they come from. I can't even really explain it. It's like an out of body experience where I just do something that's really corny on you know, dad brand.
My dad always says buck Owens. But I don't know if I don't know if Bucco was short for buck Owens.
That's a guy. That's a guy that likes to talk ball, is it not.
That's a guy that's a guy who will sit on the he'll sit on the stool at the sports bar and just name random players with you.
Yeah, it's my kind of guy. Shut up, Kirk. So you know, I don't know why I said Bucko.
But again, the ultimate moment was whenever I was at a Mexican restaurant, and I would have loved to have had like surveillance footage on this because I think I was like abducted, I was possessed by uh aliens or something. Because I don't know why I said it. Where it came from wasn't me, I think, but some guy who worked at the restaurant. He was rolling one of the kegs up to the bar because they the keg was out, and without thinking and not even really noticing it, I
just blurted out, hey, is that for me? Like he needed to leave the keg at my table and I'm I. As soon as I said it, I looked around, like what happened? And my wife looked at me like, who are you? And I'm like, I don't know. I guess I'm turning into that dad. That guy.
It's it's like the Tim Allen like Santa Claus transformation.
But Tim all was actually funny. That wasn't funny.
That was that was funny, funny for corny, right, yeah, funny for like funny for that. Yeah, I mean, like you know, anyways, thank you for telling me that was funny. Makes me not feel as bad bucko. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side again. Josh Hurd was all with Terry Miners yesterday. We'll let you hear what he said to the beautiful bald man and keep it rolling along. Here. We got a guess gonna be
joining us in the five o'clock hour. A guy that has not been on these airwaves in a long time, a good friend of mine, a man I miss, dearly miss his beautiful face, mister Dan Coob, formerly of our partners over WK. Why Dan, he's making movies now and he's got one that I am curious. I'm excited to hear about it, and I want you guys to hear about it as well. Not only fans movies, you pervert. It's already know somebody who's gonna be sending that into
the text line. Keep it locked right here. It's Coffee and Company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven.
Ninety on Sports Talk seven nine day.
So according to the best Wager Twitter account, and I believe them, they usually crank out some pretty good info stats analytics when it comes to college basketball. But the four players, four different players with at least thirty points in at least one game. That has not only only been done by Louisville this year, but there's no ACC
team that's done at this century. So again, it's not like these guys are gonna, you know, collectively score thirty a night each, But just to know that somebody doing that is within within their like, it's not crazy, right, It's not. It's not it's not likely, it's not it's
not probable. It's clearly been rare. But like, if I tell you Louisville's going to beat a three seed in the second round, in the round of thirty two and Terrence is gonna get thirty or Chuck, he's gonna get thirty, Like, you're not really going to be surprised because that's not their average. We don't ever you know, expect that on a game by game basis, but like it, clearly they've shown they can do that. All Right, some football stuff really quickly here before.
We get to some sound.
The Steelers are hosting Tyler Shuck today. Now it sounds like their position to move forward with justin Fields and the Russell Wilson experience is now over. But man, that could be the like if Shuck ends up in Pittsburgh in I don't know, round three or something and the Fields experiment just like wasn't the right move because you know, he's never really at any point looked like a for sure thing as a starting quarterback that can succeed in
the NFL. Like that could be how Shuck gets a chance to get out there and you know, do his thing.
Also, two to at will.
You probably heard this during the Fox Sports update during the break, but he signed a one year deal with Rams gonna stay in LA a ten million, ten million dollars one year deal fully guaranteed. So that's about That's about the money they pay us around here. So congratulations, congratulations to him. How about that ten million fully guaranteed even if you suck, or even if you know, like I mean, guaranteed money is not a bad deal.
It's not.
I mean, it's good work if you can get it, very good work, if you can get it right, honest man's work. It's right.
Five oh two five to seven one seventy nine hundred is the number if you want to give us a call. And we've got a new text line, folks. Five oh two four three eight ninety seventy three is the ln N Federal Credit Union text line. Again, five oh two four three eight ninety seventy three. We've got folks texting in here. A lot of people are just doing you know what I requested, which is, hey, send in something and just tell it. Tell me your name so I
can get you labeled in here. That way, when I read a text, you know it's it's Burt or Ben or John in Saint Matthew's or Derek or like Gary in high View, like those kind of things. So Gary, questions, complains, compliments, insults,
whatever you've got, you can send those as well. But if you just want to save it in your phone so you have it and then text us like your name, I'll get you saved, and it's like, you know, like we kind of you know, we gave each other to each other's number, right, like we're kind of like we're kind of doing something here, you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, I mean, you know, we'll see what happens. Maybe maybe I give you a call one day, you know,
I don't maybe you know, maybe that happens. So anyways, real quick, let's talkbout the little Men's Clinic, folks, fellows, I should say, but not just fellows, because obviously the Louis of Men's Clinic, what do they do? They help men, But there's probably women that listen that realize, hey, why doesn't my husband listen to what Nick Coffee is saying and that he needs to go see doctor Wood at
the Men's Clinic. Although that may be an awkward thing, Like, hey, you know, if I was somebody struggling with e D which who knows, maybe I will be at some point, because it happens. It's life, you know, And I knew it, but I like I was, I guess in you know, I was somehow able to like hide it, and like maybe in my world I would believe like my wife wouldn't know if she just like randomly.
Requested that I go there, like it would.
Be her looking out for me and our intimacy of course, but also like it would probably be a little bit of a hit to the hit to the pride, right, But I feel like it's got to be one of those things that if you know, you know, like it's not like you are unaware if you have that kind of issue.
And again, no shame, no judgment. It's more common you'd ever realize.
It's awkward to talk about, but erectatis function happens, and the Little Men's Clinic can certainly help you with that.
So what I was going to say is, maybe.
You know, ladies, you can encourage your husband, your partner to go to go see them, but maybe be delicate if you're going to do that. I think you just want to make it clear that you want them to know you're coming from a place of love to where you want you want to help them, and you want to help them address something that may be a little bit tough to address, but a rectatus function, low testosterone. They can help you lose weight, They've got weight loss
therapy treatment. They also can restore your hair, that's right hair restoration. So Louisvillmen's Clinic dot COM's the website. BABO two four four four four thousand is the number, all right. So Josh heard was on yesterday with Terry Miners across the hall. I don't know, I've never, I've never. I don't know why this has been a pet pee for me, and I don't know if I've ever said it on the radio, but I'll say it now.
Our sister station, why do we what do we call it that?
I don't know. They're not our sister, No sister, not O brother either, meta minor miners. We're going away.
Over top of everybody said here and I kind of love it, but but I'll stop.
But yes, I could do that all day exactly. They get it.
But but Terry had Josha on yesterday and as you could expect, just talking about this big turnaround in year one, and look, Josh heard, this hire was going to make or break him as the athletic director.
Here.
I say that not really knowing if like it didn't work out, if anybody actually would take because for an athletic director to get heat, it's people who are not directly involved in sports having to kind of, you know, really go address it themselves and clean it up. So I don't know if he would have been fired if it didn't work out with Patt.
And who knows. It's still early, but so far, so good.
And Pat Kelsey looks like he's going to be very successful here, and you know what, Josh Hurt looks good for bringing him here. So a couple of things. One, I just wanted to hear you guys. I just wanted you guys to hear a little bit about Josh when it comes to kind of I guess, you know, getting the sense that this was going to be successful. But then also he was asked about, you know, heard needing
more money and needing a new deal. And I'm not saying that Josh Hurt is requesting that, but if he did, it would be understandable. And I'm sure fans just want to know, hey, like, let's just make sure we get this guy taken care of, because you know what, we kind of love, we kind of like him.
In fact, no, we love him.
But here's a little bit from that conversation yesterday on has.
The University of Louisville welcome back Josh? Good to have you glad to be.
Here, are Terry.
Everything's beautiful, brother. I see you are getting a lot of input now from people around America saying this, Pat Kelsey, guys got to be the coach of the Year candidates.
He'd get my vote.
Yeah, he's done a phenomenal job.
And I don't have to tell anybody in Louisville that.
But I don't know what the expectations were, but I'll say that he's exceeded him if he's If you would have told me when he was hired a little less than a year ago that going into what day is today, March fifth, that we had an opportunity to still win the ACC regular season and play for a one or a two seed in the ACC tournament, I would have said, where do I sign?
At what moment did you get the feeling?
Oh?
Boy, I did pick the right piece here game one prior to.
It's easy for me to say that it felt good from the start, but from a wins and losses standpoint, I really think if you look at when they were six and five coming off of that UK game and how they just just.
Played so well.
And I know they didn't win that game in Lexington, but they didn't back down from At the time, I believe UK was ranked number four, and I think there was some real disappointment in that locker room that they didn't win that game and that they truly believed that
they had an opportunity to do something special. And then if you look at what's transpired since then, you know, I think there's so many moments that you could point to where you're like, hey, this, you know, you feel really good about the higher But I think from just the overarching fan base, I would say that I think most of them would say after that UK game.
That makes me feel.
As if I was maybe smart for a moment, because I want to act like there was a ton of resistance from from listeners. But when Louisville was struggling and they were to lose in games because you know, they were playing good teams and then they were dealing with losing prior and also Koryn it was for sure he wasn't going to come back at all. They were kind of regrouping, trying to, you know, find find their new
roles in the new version. Each player kind of had to become a different version than they were anticipated.
And then then they were expected to be.
But I remember they kept losing, and you know a lot of people said, well, hey, you know, probably not in the cards. No pun intended for Lois to make the tournament because you know the injuries, and it's just you know, this team, who knows how good they are. And I don't think anybody was like out on Pat Kelsey.
But I kept thinking, yeah, despite the losses, Like I remember tweeting it out during the Duke game, and I remember it just because it got a lot of it got a lot of pushback from some but also plenty of support as well. But I said, look, I don't know what's going to happen in this game when it's all said and done, or really what happens this season. But like Pat Kelcey, like him still getting his guys to remain like they were never too high, too low.
They would get beat sometimes bad, but they would come out ready to play, executing, and they were they were
a reflection of him. And despite losing to Ole Miss, despite losing to Duke, despite losing to Kentucky there straight losses, I mean I still felt like, hey, they're getting better, Like they're they're starting to kind of round into a team that I don't know if they can make a deep run or even make the tournament, but like, there may be something to work with here despite no longer having some guys that you expected to have big roles here.
And I guess Josh Hurd noticed it as well. And again, it doesn't prove anything, right like that that moment didn't guarantee you they'd be here where they are, just late in the year.
But like.
There's a there's a real notice of little things when it comes to a coach who's got a good command of his locker room, a guy, I mean.
A coach is a coaches.
There's a lot of ways to do it, but at the end of the day, you know what a coach is a leader and Pat Kelsey, to me, seems to be a very very good leader. And that was evident even when they were losing. That was evident, you know, even whenever it looked as if maybe they weren't going to have the type of season they're having right now. So yeah, again it felt weird because you know, you don't like to lose, but after the Kentucky game, I felt good about where Louisville was.
You never want to lose to your rival.
That just sounds gross, but I mean they competed in rough and really you know they were they were. I mean I think honestly they've played Kentucky better at rop than just about anybody, right. I mean, some teams have actually gone in and won it rough, right, like Auburn, But we're not talking I'm talking about like the SEC that's super loaded, even the teams that you know are good that lost it rough. I feel like Kentucky louisll was just as competitive. And of course that was when
Kentucky was at full strength. So it felt weird to kind of prop that up a lost to your rival as a reason to feel good. But I couldn't lie to myself. I could tell that in that moment they were playing, they were playing well, and you know, hard to imagine. My one fear that I remember talking about on the show was that, you know, you were having Terrence and Chucky go off for like a total of fifty between the two, close to sixty sometimes and you'd lose.
And I'm thinking, okay, man, you shot fifty something percent from three or roughly, that you had these two guys go off career high type numbers or at least around there is that sustainable. And you go back to what we've talked about a lot today. You know, thirty a
night is not sustainable for any of these guys. But if you look at what they're at, like the guys who really had to absorb bigger roles with much more responsibility, they've been consistently as good as they need to be for Louisville to be.
In this position.
All right, So the question about Pat Kelsey, you know, needing more money, I'm trying to, Yeah, let me see if I can. Let me get it to the spot here on the uh and I'm playing this from the iHeart portal. So apologies for having to like let it load here we go because Terry asked him about how often he hears that, you know that Pat needs more money, and I thought, you know, it wasn't much of a response, but it's also what you want to hear in that moment.
Women's team looks great too there at the tournament this week playing when Friday, here we go.
Seed's going to be based on what they do in Green Girl this week, it right.
DEA's all speculation same on the men's side, what seed they'll get and all that. And you're expecting great support too for the men's team in the tournament next week. It's really exciting, Josh. How many times a week does someone bad for you to pay Pat Kelsey more money? It's happening.
I can promise you that.
I can promise you that, and I can assure you we're gonna do everything that we need to do to make sure Pat and his family feel like they're welcome here in Louisville.
Yeah.
So again that's not like an official Hey, he signed a contract, but no brainer. Josh, Herd's well aware that we got to do whatever we got to do to keep this guy around. And Louisville has never in my to my knowledge, I don't know if Louisville's since Denny decided to not go back to UCLA, has Louisville ever been in a position where we were worried about losing our coach to another job. Like Rick would do the whole like floated out there to make people appreciate him.
But I don't think Rick was ever leaving Louisville. He was a made man here, I mean, and where would he go that was better?
Right?
Like?
It just it wasn't realistic.
I remember when I lived in Arizona, people were literally thinking that that was a possibility. It was right afterlude Olsen retired, and people were people had their people had their eyes on Ricky.
P Yeah, because I mean at that point Arizona, you know, I mean, they haven't been to a Final four since Loude Olsen, but clearly they made their mark on the on the sport during that time. And you know, Rick Rick at that time, I guess hadn't been at Louisville that long, right, like he'd been here a little while.
But like you know, I think once Rick, once they rode it out with Rick as far as like his off the court stuff with Cipher, I kind of feel like at that point it was going to be a no brainer that he that he that he stays.
But anyways, you know, I.
Don't think louisvill would ever lose a basketball coach because again, like there's even though there are better jobs, and yes there are better jobs than Louisville, but not many, and you've got a good enough job to where like you know, it just wouldn't make a lot of sense unless like there's a connection, like if Pat Kelsey played at duke or something. They'd be a different situation. But Louisville, I hope has him for a long time because he's so
far he's been great. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side, wrap up the four o'clock hour, and then we've got the five o'clock hour, and we're going to be joined by our buddy mister Dan Coob, who I missed dearly. He's got a really cool project that I think you guys are going to be excited to hear about.
So stick with us. Coffee and Company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven.
Ninety Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
That's right, we were wrapping up the four o'clock hour here on a Thursday afternoon. I don't know if it's still sunny outside now, but it was on the way in and it was beautiful outside. I need to stop mentioning weather because yesterday, yesterday was a reminder that I mean, I knew it was cold, and it wasn't you know, wasn't you know beautiful outside? But I didn't know we'd
be walking out to Oh and that's what happened. So anyways, not a lot of time left here, but I do want to mention the local high school basketball postseason tournaments that are going on. I know the sixth and seventh regions. I believe the semis are now set and I know, let's.
See heret me.
Just make sure I've got it correct here because I could be wrong, and I've not kept up with it super close, but I've kept it up with just enough. I've been really enjoyed. I really enjoyed watching my North Bullet Eagles. This year's my buddy, former teammate of mine, Jesse Curry's first year coaching the Eagles, and they had
a good year. Nineteen wins. Did fall short in the regional tournament earlier this week to PRP, but I'm pretty sure nineteen wins in the first season is the most any North Bullet coaches had in their first year, like ever. But anyways, they fell to more in the district championship. Who has a really good team, and again PRP got them in the in the.
Regional tournament earlier this week.
But right now you've got really the final four here locally, and let's see. I know they're doing it at Valley and let me see, here we go, here we go. This website teasy to navigate. I'm just an idiot. But p RP and Butler will play on Saturday at noon. That's the semi one of the semi final matchups in the sixth region, and then More will play jay Town after that. And I've not seen all these teams play, but certainly sounds like jay Town has got a really,
really good team. But I watched More and they you know, I don't I don't know what their sealing is, but they got they got a bunch of bunch of bunch of defenders. Guys, they can rebound, and they look good against against North Bullet.
When I watched him play.
And then in the seventh region you've got Manual, who got past Mail the rivalry matchup earlier this week in the region in the first round of the regionals, they'll take on Trinity. Uh so that'll take place on that's tomorrow night at six o'clock. And then after that you'll have Ballard taken on Saint X, who, last I checked it, number one team is the number one team in the state. So Manual and Trinity and then Ballard in the st X and then I know we have some folks that
listen from you know, just south of here. Fifth region they haven't started yet that actually starts. Let's see is that. Yeah, they'll play tomorrow. It looks like in their first round games. But you got Bargetown, Caverna Ader County, Central Hard and North Hard and Bethlehem Green Green County who's really good this year in Taylor County, and then just north I guess it's north right up seventy one the Oldham Counties.
That's the eighth region.
They have yet to start their tournament either, but that that would take by the way, that when I was in high school, we used to be in the eighth region.
The Bullet County schools did.
They don't know what to do with us, because we could be in the fifth, we could be in the sixth, which we are. We were in the eighth when I was growing up. We wouldn't belong in the seventh necessarily. But and in fact they just made the recent change to her. Now for the first time in a long time, all Bullet County schools will be in the same district, which is the way it should be, but it hasn't
been in a long time. But the eighth Region tournament has played at Henry County High School and they have such.
An old, humongous gym.
And when I say old, I mean I don't mean that in a bad way, Like it's old in a cool way. And I remember I got to play there, not in the regional tournament, but I got to play a game there, and like it just felt like Kentucky high school basketball in that in that gym. But yeah, they and and I I don't like that in the sixth and seventh the first round of the regional is a home game for the higher for the better seated team. Like again, you're gonna reward them because they won, but
like it's the regional tournament. It should be a neutral site game at every round because like I just feel like if you know, if you make the regional tournament and you get like we got to we we won our district when I was a senior and we got to go to the Louisville Gardens to play and we
got beat bad by Western when we got there. But like, you know how cool it was for kids for like like like us from Bullet County to go play at the Louisville gardens, Like that was a big that's a big deal, and it felt like, you know, we were it felt like we made the regional, like we even though we lost and we only showed up to get
beat you know, we took the bus there. The school emptied out and everybody you know went down to the gardens and it was cool, like to have that same level as far as like how far you go were you just losing the first round? I mean the experience of playing in the garden would be cool. Going on the road to play PRP who won their district and them being the one that injured season. You know. Again, if you don't like it, beat them, I get it.
But like I just feel like regional tournaments should should all be at the same location and not have like, you know, home games for teams that win their district. Because honestly, even if I was, you know, even if I was able to play a home game because I won my district, yeah that would beneficial, but like that would feel weird, like I would want to play, you know, and we don't really JCPS uses Valley for all these games now.
They used to use the gardens.
In fact, I'm pretty sure the last event for basketball in the Gardens was when I was in high school, my senior year, and then they did it Bellarmine, which was kind of cool, but I just wish they would. I wish there was a venue that would host it to where like it was. It was like, you know, it wasn't some teams playing on their home floor. But they even do that in college now.
Which is stupid.
Like some some conference tournaments like the the they're they're like the top seeded team gets to host it.
It's stupid. All right, stick with USPAK. Another hour to go. We're a little late for the break here. Apologies