It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's nick coffee. All right, let's do this five o'clock on a Friday. Thanks for hanging out with us. Maybe you've already got the weekend started. We will do that in about an hour. But you know, maybe you don't get your weekend started till later. Maybe you maybe
it started yesterday. I don't. Everybody's got different schedules, but the vibes on a Friday always really strong, and it's best day of the week. You know, it's actually a workday. You know, I start to get up early. I can sleep in a little bit on Saturday Sunday. But there's something about a Friday that just is the it's the best. There's no case that could be made that it's not the best day of the week in
my opinion. Everybody has their own preferences. I get it, Like if you work a I think they call it a flex shift, where you like work the weekend, that would suck. So maybe like your Friday is is different than everybody else's, but that like that's so that when everybody is well not everybody, but like when most people have like worked the week, they're ready to unwind. Knowing that like everybody's feeling the vibe makes it the vibe that it is that makes sense, Like we're all in the same way.
Like if you've got a day off on a Wednesday, you know, technically you know your it's your day, it's your weekend essentially, But like if nobody else does, like, it just doesn't feel it doesn't feel right. There's a collective enjoyment of Fridays that just makes it. You know, it's the best day of the week, and I love it. So thank you all for spending this this great day with us. The jets over top of us are getting louder and louder. It would be really frightening for somebody who
would not know. Like if also, like if you just end up in Louisville and you're downtown, maybe you have a layover or something, like I imagine you probably be able to pick up that there's something going on here, you know what I mean. But you probably know there's a fireworks show and it's tomorrow night, and you're thinking, what the hell's going on? Like
the story that Jeff Greers shared with us earlier than the show. It sounds crazy as somebody who's lived here my whole life, but like, if you're not, you could you could even be, you know, somebody that's here periodically for work and be completely thrown off by the Friday afternoon whenever. The I know they fighter jets. Is that what their career is? Yeah, I mean it's it's loud in a major way, all right. So if you are just now joining us, been a busy, busy show thus far.
We did start with kind of picking up picking up from yesterday with the news of Ali Khalifa, who committed the Louisville and we'll probably red shirt. But I'm trying to figure out if that's like a definite thing. I'm assuming that they that that is their plan, but I've been told by somebody who wouldn't who would know more than I would, But I don't know if this is for sure that it's not as if he's gonna have surgery. If that, if he has surgery, then that makes it to where it's clearly,
hey, he's going to be on the end. He needs to not only rehab, but then he'll have to get in shape after that, which that's
an issue now, is he's not in great playing shape. I mean, he's clearly a big guy that you know, strength strengthening additioning I think will be a big task for him to you know, to work on before he hits the floor for Pat Kelsey, but if he if he is going to have you know, in e fact, even if he's rehabbing his knee, it's going to be tough for him to stay in shape because you know, you're not running a whole lot. There's ways to stay active and you know,
do conditioning. If you can't put a lot of weight or any weight on your knee, I mean to me, it sounds damn near impossible, but I know there's ways of doing it. But either way, it's a nice addition for Pat Kelsey, like rivalry stuff aside. You know, Pat likes to play five out offense at times, which to me sounds crazy, but it is something that's done this day and age with basketball, and it
can work, and it's worked for him at Charleston. And honestly, Ali Khalifa at seven foot, two hundred and seventy pounds being a guy that excels like his two biggest strengths are passing and shooting. Not something you typically see from a guy that is seven foot two hundred and seventy pounds, and because you know, you can't put a guard on him because you know at that
point he'd be forced to play down low and just go to work. So he's just an odd matchup for other teams with the skill set that he has.
And you know, I'll stand by what I said yesterday. You know, his production last year was just odd, and I did go back and watch a lot of highlights and stuff, and now I can understand why he would have that stat line right, Like his percentage wasn't great from the field because you know, his three point percentage and his field goal percentage relatively similar. You know why, because he pretty much only shot three point shots and he you know, shot it in the mid thirties I believe it is,
which is not bad for a three point shooter. But his passing, I mean, the way Pope played BYU, I mean that really helped him. But packkelse he's going to play a similar style at times. And you know, I think if he's on the floor for twenty minutes a game like he was at BYU, I wouldn't be shocked if his assist numbers are similar or maybe even better. And that sounds crazy, but when he's out there in
that system, playing that style, that's what he's there to do. It's not like, oh, we're gonna feed our big and let him go to work, but then we're gonna benefit on the fact that he's got good vision, can see the floor and just and dish it, distribute, find cutters, that kind of stuff. I mean, I guess they could do that, but I think at times he'll be in there because that's his strength.
So a solid pick up, no doubt. And the fact that it was a guy who played for Mark Pope and did not follow Mark Pope to Kentucky but instead came to Louisville, you know that. Uh, that's that's an added bonus. And it was a real reminder that Kentucky fans despite knowing and I think they would tell you this. In fact, I had lunch with a couple of my buddies today. They're Kentucky fans, and they know that they're not going to recruit the way Cali Perry did at Kentucky because that's just
not realistic. Nobody does. And that's not a slight at Mark Pope, nobody recruits like John cal Perry nobody, so like they know that going in. But also, and I'm not talking about these guys specifically, but just you know, it's still gonna be a process, an adjustment process, because they're gonna lose on recruits like they never have before. And it's it's because one Cala Perry's not there. And also selling Kentucky without Cali Perry is just
not just not the same thing. And I think Mark Pope will get some good recruits. I think he'll probably end up getting some good transfers this cycle as well. I don't know how good his team's gonna be. I mean, they'd have nobody. By the way, if you missed that, at the end of the four o'clock hour, Kentucky has lost Jordan Burks to the transfer portal. So now they only have two guys on their roster for next year and neither of them have played. One is a freshman, Travis Perry.
The other is is the transfer Colin something. Uh yeah, Colin Chandler who transferred from UH from not Colin Coward, right, correct, He transferred from BYU, but he never played. He was out. He was two years on a mission, and now he's back and he's playing college basketball, so you know Pope will be Let's be real, Kentucky being Kentucky never hurt
you and clearly helped you to an extent. But when Calip Perry was getting top five player after top five player, it's because he sold them on getting them too the NBA, and he did that really, really well. Now the pitch is totally different. Now you're selling you'd want to come to Kentucky because look, it's Kentucky and that matters. Kentucky's one of the bigger brands in the sport. We all know that, but that doesn't matter as much right now. Kids want to go to the NBA and they want to be
paid, and Kentucky can pay them. But you know, other schools came too, right And I think, honestly, the type of player that you would have to really throw up a lot of money, drop the bag, stand on the business, I think that kind of player wouldn't fit with Mark Poe. Not because like style of play, but like I think Mark Poe is going to be a little more blue collar and want to get players that it's not He's only going to get them if they say they would die to
wear the Kentucky uniform. Like you mentioned, that's just a clever thing to say, to talk about how much you appreciate Kentucky and really playing to the fan base, and that's that's that's a wise thing to say. But I feel like Mark Pope would not really want a guy if he knows the only way he could get him is if the school doubles the nil or whoever doubles the nil that the other schools. I just don't know if that's a compatible
fit. So in a way, you gotta want people to want to be there for the other reasons too, right, Like if they want to play Kentucky because they love they like Kentucky as they you know clearly it's a great program, great success, big fan base, and you know they feel like they'll be competitive. They like Mark Pope because they've seen his style of play.
Maybe he eventually builds a pattern of getting guys to the NBA. I think you'd want them to want to be there, and then it's like, well, I know I'm gonna get money at Kentucky, so I'm not worried about that. And be honest with you, that is how Caliperi got a
lot of these players. Clearly Nil was in good shape. But Cal early on in the Nil era and maybe even most recently, he would navigate that is with, Look, you don't have to worry about that, you're gonna be in the NBA next year and it'll all work itself out and you're gonna be paid here. Like it was rarely a bidding war for these freshmen. I think it actually did turn into that with this class that signed to Kentucky
and is now going elsewhere. And that's why he struggled on the portal because you know, Cal wasn't about to you know, I mean he could say that to the freshman and they would know I'm going to the NBA, so like, yeah, I'll make enough money six figures probably for me and my family for the year that I'm there, and then it's big payday and nobody's gonna give me a chance to get that bigger payday in the NBA than John Vincent Caliperi. He can't sell that to Hunter Dickinson. He can't say the
same thing Becausehndery Dickon's not going to the NBA. It's like in the portal, you gotta be able to do that. So maybe the older guys in the portal that know they're not going to the NBA, they just want to play for a guy who plays a really exciting style with like Mark Pope does. Maybe that is that is that is the calling card, right, that's
what they do. They go get guys that are older that know the NBA is not really in their future, but they want to play for a good program that has a huge fan base and a coach that they like and they feel like we'll utilize them. Well, I think that's going to be the scenario, which, again, you can do that and it can work. Look around the country. Some of the best teams in the last two years
have teams built like that. But it's so different than what Kentucky's always been and I just think there's going to be an adjustment process for their fans to kind of see that, because again, there's going to be losing these guys that were committed and signed to Caliperi at Arkansas. That's the expectation. That's not really a loss, right, you knew when they left. When he left, those guys were leaving. To even some of the players that were
on this team. But when it comes down to getting transfers and you're in a one on one battle with somebody and you lose more often than you win, because again, these guys are picking Baylor like Jeremy Roach is going to or maybe they're picking Arkansas because col wants to stick it to you. Take a player that Mark Pope won't want. That's where I feel like it's gonna be. I think it's gonna be tough for him to deal with it. There's nothing to do about it. In the end, the change still needed
to happen. But if you had Scott Drew here instead of Mark Pope, Scott Drew would not have hit you in your feelings the way Mark Pope did. He wouldn't have had the crowd that they had because Mark Pope, you know, similar to honestly, Jeff Brom not comparing them as accomplished coaches in that same level. I'm just saying, Jeff Brom gives us something that if Louisville paid a coach fifty million dollars annually couldn't give us. He is one of us, he cares, he knows us. There's no way he would
ever not care about Louisville. Mark Pope's that guy, and that's great. But Mark Pope, you know, he's just so different than like Scott Drew, different than Caliperry two. But he also recruits at a really high level and would have brought his five star freshmen with him, and he would have brought Jeremy Roach probably. I mean, like, it's just it's just different.
So Kentucky could end up being really really good with Mark Pope or not Kentucky fans, but Kentucky get end up being really good with Mark Pope. But I just think the scenario where that's the case is going to take some time, and no fan base is truly patient. But I think their fan base, given their standard of excellence in their elitism, I think they could crumble due to lack of patience. That's the way I see it. But you know, only time will tell, all right, So back to the
Louisville side of things. Jaden Quaintance JQ as they call him. He's on campus, he's visiting. There's all kinds of pictures he's posted on his Instagram story and everybody's screenshotting them and sharing them, and it's it doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't. You know, it's not a tell as if things are going great or bad. Every recruit does this. But I'm just excited and re energized to you know, to know that that we're we're all in
right, meaning we're this excited. And I think, to me, I see this as kind of a free bee, like getting him here on his first visit since de committing from Kentucky. And somebody texted to this in earlier and I and I'm sure you're making fun of me, but I think it actually still fits. Knowing that Nil is very important to acquaintance and his and his folks, and then Pat Kelsey being able to get him to schedule his
first visits since de committing to Kentucky, that gives the impression. And it may damn near be proof that Pat Kelsey's doing what Johnny's standing on business. That's all they do. Yeah, I mean, it's standing on business. So maybe you pay an insane amount of money to get this kid, and it's just a bidding thing and you win the war as far as money. And maybe that's the case, although Arkansas, I'm sure, I'm sure will
pay. I mean, if Arkansas's got Jerry Jones money, which that's literally what Jerry Jones stated, is that he'll double whatever nil money that the former Kentucky Commits are going to get to get him to come to Arkansas. At that point, you Louisville is in a good spot with an IL, but I don't think they're going to out out pay Jerry Jones, So I do believe not to. And I don't know anything about quaintance, his family or anything, but nobody's ever gonna come out, rather be a player or a
player's parent or a player's agent, because they have agents now too. They're never going to come out and say, well, I just came down to money. They're never gonna say that, but it does like that's a huge
factor. And if Arkansas can throw reckless amounts of money at a sixteen year old kid, I think it'd be crazy for them to turn that down, because again, this is a guy who is sixteen years old, he has to play two years in college, he cannot go to the NBA until twenty twenty six, and he's clearly a guy that is raw and has a lot of potential. The ceiling is high, and he's not even close to being
as good as he's going to be. But if you watch him play, like he's not somebody who's like learning how to play basketball, but as a freak athlete Aaron Bradshaw or something. I'm not picking on that kid, but like obviously you could see there was you know's he can run, he's got size, length, athleticism, but like he don't know how to play basketball. This guy, Quaintance is skilled already. He can handle the ball at times, looks like he's a guard out there. He's developed, like he's
not some scrawny dude. I mean, he's special. So you know, the fact that he's here is awesome, and I'm just trying not to get just trying not to get my hopes up here because I knew going in, like, hey, cool to get to visit, but you know, by all accounts, this guy is probably going to follow John Caliperry Arkansas. Well then I saw what his dad liked on Twitter, and it for just at least a millisecond made me think, Okay, Louis will may get this guy.
So there is a UK fan who tweeted this out. When Kyle left Kentucky, Jaden Quaintance's camp put out that he may stay at Kentucky, but they want to talk about what that looks like. With the ad Mitch Barnhardt ignored the formalities and called JQ nor any of the other commits. Now he's
likely Louisville bound. Well, his dad, Jaden Quainton's his father liked that tweet, and it's probably more than anything, just him acknowledging that Barnhart didn't have interest, which, as I explained earlier, I think Barnhart knows that the arrangements made financially for those freshmen to come to Kentucky were made through John Calaperi's sources of nil, not Kentucky's, and it just wouldn't be financially doable. I mean, maybe they have the money, but like it's just it's
you lose cal you lose those guys. So maybe, you know, Mitch probably saved time and energy by just letting it be and letting him walk. But there's also that little line at the end. Now he's likely to Louisville, which again that probably had very little to do maybe nothing to do with why he liked the tweet. But I find myself now again getting in into the the mess of you know, following recruiting, and I guess transfers on the internet NonStop, and it was always something I kept up with, you
know, because of what I do. But like with Louisville, like you know, Louiville didn't have a single recruit for the twenty twenty four class, like there was there was no there was no movement, right, there was no uh, nothing to really track and even like if there was something, it was usually fake. Can he just trying to make it look like he's recruiting And if it wasn't fake and it was real, it would just be a reminder, man, we may get a good player. What a waste
because you know, the coaching staff it's a clown show. Speaking of Kenny, that was also something we discussed earlier, and that was that he's followed cald Arkansaw. I don't have really a big reaction to that. I mean I expected him to get back in. Apparently he was offered a couple of jobs in the NBA and he was awful. Also offered a job at Kentucky which he turned down, and that would be weird to see him coaching at Kentucky without Caliperi. But the reason why that they wanted to do that and
get him on board. Makes sense to me. It's kind of a desperation thing. But I can also at least, I mean, I can't really fault them for wanting to do it, because in order for you to continue to maintain the brand of the NBA Factory one, it's gonna be hard to do. Because that was Caliperry, right, Kentucky helped him. Right. He doesn't believe that, I'm sure, but one of the reasons why Cal was able to do what he did and recruit all these players wasn't just because
of him. It was because he was at Kentucky. He placed with the humongous fan base, national audience every game, that kind of stuff. But all those guys in the NBA that played for Cala Kentucky are close to Kenny in a way that is deeper than just a coach. And if Kenny's at
Kentucky, that would give those guys the real reason to be around. And you know, I don't think they hate Kentucky, but clearly Cal knows it's best for him to control the narrative and let everybody know that those guys committed to me, those are my guys, not Kentucky guys, the players, you know, they're like the kids going through a divorce. They're never going to I mean, they're never going to be crazy one side or the other. They're going to say they love Big Blue and they're going to say they
love Cal. But make no mistake about it, it's going to be a calculated thing from Cali Perry to make sure that he maintains that he's the guy that puts everybody in the NBA and everybody knows that. But I think if you had Kenny Payne there, Mark Pope would be able to maybe have those guys around more. And I think they'll still come to Kentucky here and there. But let's be honest, they'll be at Arkansas before they're gonna be in
Lexington. They will, especially since it's new and Cal's there. I mean, that's just what's gonna happen. And I think that's gonna you know, it's gonna make Kentucky fans you feel a certain way when we come back on the other side. I'll let you guys hear what Josh Hurt had to say about Kenny Paine taking the job at Arkansas. Stick with us. It's cofee and Company, Phil about Thornton's on SportsTalk seven ninety. That's right, Coffee
and Company on a Friday afternoon. We've got about thirty minutes left here, so let's make it count. We're gonna be joined coming up here in just a couple of minutes by doctor Eric Michailroy from pro Riat Physical Therapy. But I mentioned just before we went to break that the Kenny Payne to Arkansas news really wasn't that surprising. I mean, I thought he was gonna get back in the game relatively quickly. And also you know he reuniting with cal was
I think a no brainer. But I don't think any of us a month ago thought it would be at h at Arkansas. But a lot has changed, A lot has changed here recently, and man, especially like a month ago, imagine like saying we'd be in this spot. It's just crazy. But vibes are good, no doubt. And Josh Hurd was asked about Kenny Payne going to Arkansas, and here's what he had to say. Not that this is not a juicy SoundBite, but just wanted to share with you guys.
I think it's a great opportunity. What's wrong sound here we go. I think it's a great opportunity for him. He had some tremendous, tremendous success working with coach Cal and wish Kenny nothing but the best and hope that they have that same success in fayette Ville, just as long as they're not playing Louisville. So, joh, this is the first time I've seen Josh
since he was introducing Pat Kelsey a few weeks ago. And obviously he was you'd see him from time to time at Louisville games this year, and I think he had a couple of after like a board meeting, he was interviewed, and he just looked, you know, he looked exhausted. You know, he looked like he was, you know, as you could expect.
This was really really difficult for him to be the athletic director at a school where basketball is such a vital thing and things, you know, to be nice, we're I mean, I think it's it's putting it nicely to say things were bad. I mean it was beyond that. And you know that took a lot out of him because it's his job to you know, fix that. And he looks like a million bucks now. He looks. He
looks ten years younger. You know, he just he could tell he's feeling much better as we all are, right, I mean, the the vibe enhancement that Pat Kelsey has has provided here is just what we needed. Now we'll see, you know, if success is there. Only time will tell. We can't determine that yet. But so far, just everybody being excited once again about basketball is awesome. He really is. You know. It's not that I don't remember what this felt like, but it had been a
while since we felt it. So good stuff. All right, speaking of good stuff, let's bring him ahead. He's doctor Eric McElroy from pro Reaf Physical Therapy. Eric. How we doing, sir? I'm doing great, man. I'm sitting in traffic getting ready across the river heading to Saint Louis for a soccer tournament, so on a beautiful day that sounds like fun. Saint Louis Is Is that a city you would say you're a fan of?
Is it a place you frequent? I know it's probably not too far from where you grew up, right, I'm originally from Memphis, so oh, I didn't know that. I thought you were from the other part of Kentucky. No, but the yeah, I think we don't go there a lot. This is you know, they do have a lot of soccer tournament's pretty big soccer town and so they have a big one Scott Gallagher. But yeah, cool town y'all have to do. The city Museum is really cool obviously,
the arch and all that stuff. But no, we don't go there really all because because you went to Murray State, I just tend to forget that you're not actually from there. That's just where you where you went to school. That's right, that's just where I went down there really to play football. So but you know what, there's a lot of a lot of students from Saint Louis and Memphis and Nashville down there because of where it is, and so racer nation, baby, that's right. Uh, that's a
that's why. That's why I think it made it unique. You know, I was coming down there from here and really there wasn't very many students. I mean there's a lot from Louisville, but not nothing like Nashville, Memphis and Saint Louis because those cities are all closer to Murray. Well, safe travels, I hope we uh you know, we don't cause a distraction.
We'll keep we'll keep the questions professional here and is that way you can you know, you could have some smooth sailing there as you make your way into
Saint Louis. But right now, I can't think of a time where the both fan bases here locally Louisville Kentucky fans have been in this spot where they're going to have an entirely new team next year, meaning everybody that is going to be a scholarship basketball player at Louisville, Kentucky, Louisvill or Kentucky is going to be someone who you know, enrolled as a freshman or somebody that transferred from another school. And you know, the portal is still in its
early stages. But you know this is extreme, but it's because of the situation, coaching changes, and just you know, everything that came with it. But one of the new additions for Louisville is Ali Khalifa, who is a six to eleven, two hundred and seventy pound big man from BYU and he's got a very unique game. His strengths are passing and shooting, which you don't typically see. You know, that be the real weapons for you know, for a guy that size, but he's expected a red shirt due
to a nagging knee injury. And what I wanted to ask you is, it doesn't sound like he's gonna have surgery. He already had surgery, and he played this year not at one hundred percent. Mark Pope at BYU when he was coaching him, said that he's just not one hundred percent and it really his availability was was really down to pain tolerance. So he already had
a surgery and he's still going through the rehab process. When you hear that, When you hear that, and again, I know you don't know what the exact injury is or anything like that, but to hear that he is going to set out an entire year to rehab, you know, would you what's your reaction to hearing that? To me, that seems like that that you know, that's a long time to take off. But then again, you know, maybe somebody with that kind of a frame really needs that much
time to fully get back to one hundred percent. Well, it definitely tells me that it's more than a nagging knee injury. Uh, you know, I just it just seems kind of interesting that he's played and you know, he is where he is, and then it's going to take a year. So it tells me it's something that definitely needs to heal and recover if we're gonna red shirt him considering the time you know where we are right now.
Uh, and basketball season is still far enough away that most pretty straightforward knee scopes, uh, so on and so forth. You know, if I kind of generalize that he should be back in plenty of times. So, you know, it seems like something that makes me wonder if there's some cartilage damage or something that's some of that stuff can be pretty fragile. Uh, you got to give it time to to heal. So if they you know, were to have to take some cartilage and and culture it and grow it
and then stick it. You know, sometimes we'll go in and plug it on the surface of the joint and that stuff's pretty fat, fragile, and they gotta let that heal and so things like that will take time, and it makes me wonder if that's more of what he's dealing with. So you know him and who knows. Can I can I tell you my theory? Yeah, My theory is that the the the the red shirt thing is something that they they're prepared to do just to make sure he's healthy. But obviously
strengthening additioning is an issue as well. He's a big guy, and you know he's strengthing additioning. I think it's probably been an issue for him as
a basketball player his whole life, just because of his build. But I think it's more of an emphasis you got to get in better shape before you play, and if that takes you red shirting to do so, then we'll It's just a guess, but I would not be shocked if he actually does end up playing for Louisville this year, just just a hunch, because it's not you know, again, I thought for sure that means he was going that means he was gonna have to have surgery. It turns out he actually
already had surgery long go. It's just you know, he's still kind of
dealing with some pain and someone you know. But actually me ask you this, if you are a bit like if you are somebody that is considered to be overweight compared to others that play that level sport at that position, rehab's probably a different animal, right because you know, it's it's it's probably it's probably more extensive real rehabilitation that you'd need, right because you're you're carrying a lot more weight, and you know, the other guys that are playing your
position, you know they're a lot more agile because they're not as big, right, I mean, I think every every sports different as far as he goes. When you're dealing with the guy that size who generally we would you know, say yes, sorry, he's not as conditioned as the other athletes that are leaner, quote unquote more fit. There is more challenges to it. Those are things that you anticipate in the rehab process. You're going to
integrate more conditioning in the rehab process from day one. You always integrate conditioning always. The rehab process is not really especially in athletics. Just like you know, addressing the pain, the need, you're integrating a lot of different things along the way that you're able to do and also keep the area that
we're trying to work on safe. So yeah, for people for athletes like that who we know, we also know have a tendency to get a little overweight or deconditioned faster, we're gonna put a lot more emphasis on that knowing that, so we don't have that same lag time when they do start to complete. The rehab process in itself makes sense, all right, let's switch gears to the NBA. So I've not kept up with the the play in games a whole lot other than just you know, knowing who's winning and advancing
and keeping their season alive. But Jimmy Butler is expected to miss several weeks, which is gonna make it tough for this Miami Heat team. But he's dealing with a right mc L injury, you know. I mean that that makes it to where like they'd have to probably get into the second round maybe for him to be one hundred percent. I don't know. I'm sure there's levels to that kind of an injury. But right MCL several weeks? Is
that is that? You know? Is that reasonable? Or do you think maybe he could potentially be back sooner or is that probably right about what it is? No, I would say I would say that several weeks is probably reasonable. You never know with MCLs. MCLs are unique in that they go off a pop principle called Wolfe's law. So basically, they respond really well to weight bearing exercise as long as it's not stressing the ligament. So I know that sounds crazy, but it's a really fat, thick, long ligament
that does well conservatively. So depending on the level of the sprain of the ligament or the severity of it, depends on the timeframe and coming back. He's you know, generally speaking, a few weeks would be obviously reasonable, but you know, just to make sure that he can move laterally and cut and accelerate and decelerate. But they really respond well to conservative treatment weight bearing, so there's a lot of things you can go ahead and start doing that
you can't with other ligaments, and so you never know. I mean, sometimes you could come back sooner, especially if they're going to try to put a brace on or something like that. He also seems like somebody just with He's a tough guy. I could see him being able to play were a little bit more pain than maybe most That's just kind of how how he seems to be to be wired. But our guest here is doctor Eric Michaelroy from
Proria have physical therapy. I always appreciate him making time for us. I had a buddy of mine who I was talking with the other day who's dealing with it's not a real it's not an injury, but he he overdid himself. He previously played college basketball at nai level and hadn't played in many years competitively, you know, probably just picked up the ball, shot around. But now he's he's in a men's league, and you know, he didn't
really have a whole lot of repetition going into it. He kind of just went from not playing at all to just, you know, even though it's men's league, it's still running them down the court, something he hadn't done
a long time. And in our conversation, I thought there would be a good question to ask you next time we talked, because how often do you guys see athletes that just really don't don't realize that you know, you're not just rusty as far as like your skills, but like your body, like trying to play at a level, even if it's not the level of playing you know, small college basketball, like you know, just to go from nothing to just out there run in full court in a you know, a
game like that's that's I mean, any time you play sports, it's dangerous, but like it's probably pretty common because these are athletes that at one point played at a really high level, were in great shape, probably much more advanced than a lot of the guys playing in that league. But you know what, they got older, they hadn't played in a while, and in
their minds they're like, oh, this will be nothing. And then they come out and you know, tearing achilles or an acl or something like that absolutely all the time, and your brain thinks she doesn't really age or feel the effects of the aging process for a while like your body does. And you're exactly right. When athletes are conditioned, you know, they've conditioned for
it. We take that for granted that all the conditioning we did in practices that we dreaded that the coaches put us through, there's all kinds of tissue adaptation that occurs from that, and you know, tissue conditioning and all kinds of different things that enable us to perform at a higher level without the same levels with and be able to recover faster and without the risk of injury and
so on and so forth. So when we have when we've been an athlete in the past, and that where and here we place on our bodies, later on, we'll start to show its ugly head, especially when we go out and try to perform like we once did. And I was talking to an athlete to having the clinic right now, who's pretty high level. He's playing at the highest level in his sport right now. We're talking about TVT
and Peyton sever for instance. Oh yeah, job, and he's gonna try to do that and all these things, and it's gonna take it soul. He's going to be working out players. And you know, at some point you got to focus a little bit more on recovery, knowing when to rest.
You are more risk for injuries such as achilles ruptures. So you know, being a little smarter about how you you're your workload management, if you will uh is extremely important, especially because you're not in the same level of strength conditioning process or the rehab process for that matter, on a routine basis like you were when you were playing competitively. Man, that makes so much
sense. You mentioned your mind kind of not not, you know, not on the same page I guess as the rest of your body, because you know, instincts are probably gonna you know, you're probably gonna be a little
rusty, a little slower to react. But you know in your mind, if you truly were to kind of, you know, go at a slower pace and just kind of, you know, do everything slower, a little bit more mindful, maybe a little more careful, like your your mind is going to think, like what's going on, Like this is not normal. You used to go in you know, ten times faster. But that's that's
how you mess around and and and suffer an injury. I'm sure there's some pride in the way too, because you know, not this you can't maybe get back to that level. But there's some i mean, if you played high level college basketball for four years, I mean it was your craft, it was your passion. You poured everything into it. That's what you have to do to succeed. But you know, four years later you may still
be in great shape. But if you go out there and play, you know, you haven't been going through that grind like you did in college, and it's you know, it's it's probably a humbling experience. But I'm sure a lot of people have learned the hard way with an injury. Oh Ay, pride is always in play, sure, right, that is always you know, pride keeps me in business. That's that's a good point. Yeah, People that probably getting the way they get injured and they got to come
see you. Absolutely, you know, and it happens in every sport, you know, it's golf, tennis, and durance sports, pick up basketball. That making difference, that's usually what drives us a little too, a little further than we should be, no doubt, Eric, I appreciate you making time for us on your trip to Saint Louis. Enjoy the city. Hopefully the soccer tournament goes well and safe travels back to Louisville. We'll talk to you soon, my friend. All right, go cars, go cards.
Thank you. That's doctor Eric McElroy. Always loved the good go I always love the and the go cards are always there from our friends doctor Ben's and doctor McElroy. But there's just something, there's something, there's some snak on them, if that makes sense, right, There's some emphasis there because you know, vibes are good and I love it. All right, quick break, we'll come back and wrap this thing up on a Friday Coffee and
company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. You know, it's the last segment on a Friday afternoon, and it kind of hit me. I don't really have any any plans this weekend. I've got a wedding tomorrow, so I guess that's plans. But you know, pretty low key for me, which has kind of just become life for me now. And that's that's okay. It's much different than you know, years ago. But I'm
content. In fact, it's kind of set now because the thought of like actually making plans and you know, having a night out with a fellas or something like that, you know, living like you know, I was ten years younger, it just sounds awful. It sounds like not fun at all. It sounds like a nightmare, which again I'm washed up. You got any plans this weekend? No? I mean I'm gonna be working a little bit tomorrow for for Thunder, but not in the same capacity as some of
our radio hosts. Are you are you doing? Are you like interviewing people? No, I'll be I'll be editing those interviews. Okay, you got to come in here to do it. No, I get to do the house, which is not good. Yes, it's gonna say, because the driving down here would be. And that's that's honestly. That's what gets me about Thunder is that it there's just so many people all throughout downtown and then for the most part, nearly all of them leave at the exact same time.
And that's I mean, you know, there's traffic when you're leaving the Young Center for an event. Yeah, that's there's you know, there's way way more people around downtown than the I've heard over the years. It's gotten better for Thunder, but I haven't been down so long, and I think they actually have the ability to, Like I think they have good plans in place to navigate parking and get you know, get people out there out of
there as quick as possible. But when you have that many people, there's really no way to do that like fast, you know what I mean. So hopefully everybody enjoys themselves, not only tonight at the UH, at the Spring game tomorrow, if you head to Thunder, and if you're heading to to see the Racing Louisville match, enjoy yourselves. So we'll be back at it on Monday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety