Forward to being here at three o'clock and doing what I love. This is a fun, fun gig. It doesn't feel like a gig slash job because I love doing it. But today is one of those days, and I'd say it happens every few weeks where I just you know, I'm running around Aaron's just doing you know, adult stuff. This is one of the best things about this job is that, like it doesn't feel like adult stuff.
I mean, you guys have listened to the show, right, I mean this is far from a professional you know broadcast, right, but you know, just being an adult and being responsible. It's just been a hectic day, but I'm glad to be here, and I again, every day I'm glad to be here, but today I was really looking forward to just settling in and getting the show started. And that's what we're doing right now. It is Coffee and Company. We are fueled by Thornton's here on a sports
Talk seven ninety. My name is Nick Coffee. I hope you knew that. If not, my ego took a little bit of a hit, but I'll grow from it. The other voice you're going to hear today is the one and the only mister Austin Montgomery going on the government name again. Yeah, what do you want me to call you? We've always kind of had that struggle. There was one time I was Chuck on the show. Remember that, Oh Chucky, Yeah, Chucky, that's right, Chucky. Yeah,
remind me how you became Chucky. We worked at Chucky Cheese. Yeah, I worked at That was my first job. It was Chucky Cheese. That's how I try to impress you and Matt Allen back in the day. So nicknames, it's not I've actually tried to give nicknames before in radio, and yours didn't hit. Billy's didn't hit. We never had Billy's. We never we never came to a good one. I mean it was like Billy Vanilly was what we went with, and like it just did. I mean,
Billy's not gonna lie. I don't I don't mind that. I don't know why that didn't take off well because Billy, like Billy, Billy thought he could make his own nickname, Okay, And like if you've listened to I mean love Billy so happy to see him thriving doing his thing on the KOSR pre show. I mean he's somebody that as they often mentioned on KSR. I mean, he's got big aspirations. My man will shoot his shot
in just about any aspect. And it goes back to and for those who don't know, like the story about Billy and Jennifer Lawrence that became, I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say it's a legendary story on KSR, but I know it's been mentioned from Toime to tom And if you listen to that show and you think of Billy, like one of the early times where Billy became like a known, you know character if you will, within the KSR world, is whenever he became one of the film producers and I let Matt know
that Billy was training for I guess a few days or something. And at the time, you know Jennifer Lawrence, of course we know who. She's one of the most famous actresses in the world, right, Louisville native. Well, just so happens that her family and her I guess herself, and I believe her brother, they're friendly with the one of the only Terry miners.
And before she became, you know, the superstar that she is, there was some level of relationship between the Lawrence family and mister miners, and she's been in studio times and she came in studio. This was gosh, this is pretty early in my time. This is when I was on mid days, and you know, she was I mean, gott to keep in mind, like she has she's at that time. You know, she's not just roaming in part. I mean she's she's got an entourage with her,
she's got you know, probably security. Right, So it was known that she was there, and it was kind of a big deal, right, I mean, she's a super celebrity, and Billy was quite sure that if in fact he did cross paths with her and they like were in the same room, like, he would get her phone number. And what made it great is that he wasn't joking, He wasn't trying to be funny, he wasn't trying to you know, create clever content. My man was dead serious
that all it would take was a conversation and he'd get the number. Okay, Obviously it never happened. I think at the time she was engaged. I don't know if she's married now, I'm not quite sure, but that's when I knew Billy. I mean, he's he's he's business yeah, exactly, and that led to Billy not not being cool with you know, any nickname. We but because you can't pick your own nickname, no, you
can't. Has to be bestowed upon you, like like from you or a mister Miners or a mister Vinetti, or it has to have to be hearing it and cross exactly. So look, I've actually now that I'm thinking about it. You know, yours was the story was good, the chucky cheese thing, right, but it's not a good enough nick dam to where people would just think your name is Charles. You know what I'm saying, Like,
you know that's true. So you didn't push back on it, so I you know, no, I mean who was I young in my radio days to do that? Right? So yeah, the you and Billy it just you know, for different reasons, it never really stuck. However, the marvelous Matt Allen that just rolls off the tongue, it does. I
think the company man is it fits perfectly well. And for those who don't really like John absolutely is like the you know, he's the guy that's gonna do his I mean, he's super professional and I'm just here to do my job. Yeah, And he's the company man, right, he's gonna you know, and he's not here for you know, airtime. He's not here to uh, you know, to spit out some hot takes. My man
wants to run the show, run the operation, run the board. And he's you know, he's he's an old soul and I mean totally, totally, totally and I you know, love him so. And then there was another another producer that was here for a while. And for those that have listened to this show for a long time, rather it be when I say this show, I know it's now Coffee and Company, but when it was the Red Zone, I mean it's really it's the same thing we've had for
you know, many years now. But there was a guy named Nick Simmons I think was his name, and he was a producer here for a little while. His background was like audio engineering, super super great guy to work with. Not a sports fan, which actually made it cool because like we could we could connect on the air about stuff that's not sports related, and he was he was a good dude. He ended up moving to Nashville, and uh, I'm pretty sure he's involved in the music scene there in some
capacity, working for a recording studio. But he was a big dude. I mean you would see him and think like like physically damn, like he must play football, like we're talking, My man was my man was big. I mean, this is I'm sorry to do this. If Nick's listening, and I'm sure he's not. But if you ever seen the show teen Mom, Yes, do you remember, like the original like the og teen Mom? I don't know, you know, Gary, I do? Yeah, big, big g Yeah, that is that. That's what That's what
Nick looked like, straight up looked like him. So I called him Nick the Brick because he was huge and and and you know, it stuck. It works. So here I am acting like I can't give good nicknames, and I've had a few, but yeah, at one point and this is just this just shows how stupid I am seven minutes in already giving you a good example of how stupid I can be. He no longer worked here because he again, he moved to Nashville and started, you know, working a
job that you know, was I think his dream career. And I would reference him and say he's no longer with us, and it hit me like after a few techs, like some of the text line, Like I saw a text that thought like that somebody was telling me on the text line that he was dead. And then I realized that he just posted on Facebook two hours ago he's not. But then because I was saying he's no longer with us I met with the company, everybody thought I meant that he was dead.
He's no longer with us. Yeah, so you know like it, you know. So anyways, We've had a lot of different you know, nicknames over the years for different people, and some have been good, some have you know, have not, but either way, it is it's the one and the only, mister Austin Montgomery, a jack of all trades. Thank you here at iHeart and uh, you know, you can't be thinking about anything other than WrestleMania right now. That's all that's on my ready for
it when you leave, you flying out? Yeah tomorrow, nice tomorrow, we're flying out of Nashville. Though you said that, like I said's a problem. Well no, no, that's not a problem. It's just it's just you know, I'm so ready to leave. There's just good you're driving up there, you stay in the night tonight, uh tomorrow morning. It's just like there's gonna be three different us leaving before we finally leave, you know, me leaving the house and me leaving their house, and then us
leaving for Nashville and then so you know, I'm I'm impatient. I'm mentioning for it. Yeah, I get. I mean again, it goes back to yesterday as far as just you know, having a destination, a trip, an event or something, and I haven't had that in a while, and I'm I'm itching for one. And your trip to Philadelphia for WrestleMania has got me even more interested in doing something, you know, something like that. So we'll see. I'm gonna try by the next couple of weeks to
actually figure out because I need to. I need to legitimately let the brass here know what days I'm gonna use so they can make, you know, the necessary range. Try to hope to get you to like WrestleMania next year or something. There's a there's a lot of speculation that it could come to Nashville soon. So if it all comes in, ask wouldn't shock me because Nashville's like become like Nashville in ten years, became like the New La. It's huge, and it's you know, it's it's I'm just gonna say it,
I hate Nashville. There are certain there's certain elements of Nashville that are that are like, I mean, it's it's not a bad town, but like it's just become too big for itself, if that makes sense. Like property, like you can't live in Nashville unless you know you're i mean, help, everything's expensive this day and age. Like yeah, I mean,
I mean it's crazy. Like the two cities that, like, ten fifteen years ago, if you just said, yeah, these two cities will be two of the most booming cities in America that everybody's gonna want to be in, whether it be you know, young people wanting to start their adult life or celebrities wanting to relocate. Nashville, Tennessee, Austin, Texas. Yeah, those two cities in ten fifteen years have completely transformed to something that they
are just that. I mean, heck, Louisville and Nashville not even kidding you. Twenty years ago, very similar cities, Yeah, very similar. Now not as much. And you would have thought that Nashville would have been bigger twenty years ago than Louisville. People would have laughed at you maybe it's crazy the come up for Nashville, but the glow up for Nashville, that's right. That's right. So let's just dive right in here, because yesterday was a big day in regards to the news for Pat Kelcey, and that
is that he landed his first commitment. And I'm still saying it it's his first commitment as the Louisville coach because I'm telling you, the dudes who followed into Charleston, I'm happy that they did, but they were already admitted to Pat Kelsey. They just followed him. Terence Davis Junior, who of course is you know, known by known as Fats, which I love. You know, he's uh, he's in the mix. He committed yesterday and that was that was a big get sun Belt Player of the year, a guy
who was a top ten player in the portal. And and Pat's not slowing down, folks, because you know, yesterday we talked about the flight tracker and the the private you know, the chartered plight plane, the private plane that he took. I guess it was out of Jeffersonville and he went to Toledo. And I think we've known that that trip to Toledo was to see one player specifically, and that was Dante Maddox junior, who really good player
from the MAC at Toledo. He's considering schools like Kansas, Texas, Creighton, and I don't have his list in front of me, but Louisville is one of the many Power six programs. In fact, you know, we're talking about programs that have been really good lately, like recently is this year.
So I don't know where Louisville stands, but clearly they are there, they're pushing, They've got a lots Here's what Louisville has right now that a lot of schools don't and they won't have this eventually at least one of these components. What Pat Kelsey can sell right now is I'm building a team, my dude, Like right now, you know, we're gonna bring in the amount of guys needed, right thirteen scholarship players, and you're gonna compete and
have to work for everything you get. But right now, you come in, I mean there's no but there's I mean, there's nobody competing for your spot because again there's currently three players on the roster right now, essentially, so that you Kansas can't sell that, Creighton can't sell. That doesn't mean Louisville is gonna for sure get these guys. But they also have the bag
the money nil and we all know that matters. And I feel like, in a way, as much as it was talked about Yesterdy, I kind of feel like, I'm I'm I'm just now truly realizing where Louisville can when apps can can separate themselves from a from the vast majority of college basketball with the nil money right now again, eventually, you know, money runs, I mean, it's got to be something you got to you got to sustain
it. And I don't know if they can sustain the amount of money they've been, uh they've been raising in the last week or so, but you know, Louisville has really I mean, if you're a transfer, a guy that's played a few years at a school like James Madison or a couple of years at a school like FAU or Toledo for Dante Maddix junior specifically, what
would you think those guys are looking to do. They're looking to go up a level, but they also want to have a key role, right, Maybe they don't want to be the guy that gets the most shots a game. But they want to go somewhere where they will be an integral part of that team's you know, identity, and they also want money, right Like, that's probably I would say guys can transfer for any reason at this day
and age, and it won't shock me. But you know, if you're somebody that's already kind of a man at a certain school and you know you're getting your numbers, you're getting notoriety, you have friends, it could just be where truly you're looking to make money because you know that you won't be in the NBA, and yeah, you could play overseas in the G League, but depending on what those contracts look like across the pond, your biggest
chance to put some money away is probably going to be nil in college at a place like this, So I'm not trying to set the bar too high. Who knows, maybe in a week's time we don't have any other added commitments other than the one we have right now, but man, momentum is there and it's awesome to see so right now, according to Trilly, Donovan Dante Maddox junior Louisville is believed to be the leader, and there's a couple of there's a couple of players at FAU that Louisville is. You know,
we talked about the flight tracker yesterday. I don't know if he ever made it to Boca Raton, because it seems I think I saw that the flight to Toledo landed back in Louisville, and you know, I don't know if
he stayed longer than expected or if whether it was an impact. But on three Sports is now reporting that John L. Davis, who, by the way, is the number one player available in the portal right now, according to three Sports, that Louisville is not the leader because again, Michigan is the school that every FAU transfer that is in the portal, the belief is they are going to follow their coach, Dustin May to Michigan. And I'd still say that it's most likely that that's what John L. Davis does.
But the report from on three Sports is that I'll read the direct report here. It says Michigan is the school to watch for FAU transfer John L. Davis. But Louisville isn't going down without a fight. With an influx of nil capital, Pat Kelsey is ready to take some big swings to reconstruct the
roster. So for those who aren't familiar with John L. Davis, I mean he's been the star player for FAU eighteen point two points a game, six and a half rebounds, three assists, I mean, shot the ball really well, was co American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, and I mean those are all American caliber numbers. So I mean, again, the
number one player in the portal if you're going off of on three. So with all that said, I mean I'd still think Michigan would be the school to be because you would think he'd want to follow the coach that he's already played for, that he had success under, and it's going to be at a higher level, and certainly there'll be some nil potential for him there. But I mean Louisville may I mean, I'm not kidding you this. You know, it's such a private world in regards to like the actual money that
every player truly gets. But it sounds as if, just given the current makeup of the collectives and the previous I guess lack of support with NIL at Michigan, would he go to Michigan If Louisville could double his money. I mean, I don't think he would. I don't know the guy at all. Maybe money's not what he's mostly after, but I mean come on now, like that's that matters. Now it matters. So by the way,
he's not the only FAU player that apparently Pat Kelsey's can. They got ten scholarships to fill, so they're gonna be kicking tires talking to evaluating like probably everybody in the portal to an extent, at least guys that you know have proven to be pretty good or really good college players. But Nicholas Boyd is another guard for FAU who put up ten points a game last year, and
it's just a sophomore and I believe let me just double check this. Yeah, as a I mean he's he shot at about thirty eight percent from three for his careers. So you know, I those two guys for FAU, let's be real. I mean they were good. I mean johnal Davis has proven to be really, really good, and he's played really well against some really good teams, including their run to the Final four last year. But like, you're gonna need more than just these guys. But like, man,
if this is like what you could start with. I mean, I'm not sure you could have envisioned a better you know, first couple of weeks here for Pat Kelsey. So again, I'm probably already getting ahead of myself because it sounds as if I'm acting like the players in the portal have already decided they're going to come to Louisville. But you guys have heard my man Pat Kelsey sell. He can do it, he's really good at it, and now he's got Louisville to sell with a fan base that's clearly showing their
support with the collective here five h'o two circle. I mean, even if these guys don't give a damn about Louisville's final fours and championships and all that, you're still gonna be playing in an NBA arena, and if things are rolling that arena, I mean, even if Louisville had a dabt like, let's just go back to a previous world. Let's say twenty I mean twenty, let's say twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, Chris Mack, that era,
you know, when Louisville was going. Let's let's use this as an example. The David Paget year twenty two thousand weren't showing up because of just you know, it was the team wasn't as good. They just got rid of Tom and Rick and it just you know, was uncomfortable. But still we're talking probably sixteen seventeen thousand, and you could tell it was a lighter crowd at that time because we weren't used to that. And then who would have
thought five years later we'd have four thousand people there at Max. But my point is this, even if like we know what it's like when it's crazy crowded and it's just you know, when it's at its best, but these players coming from Fau, James, Madison, Toledo, wherever else that you know is not Louisville, they'll I mean, Louisville could have half capacity. You know, let's say they have eleven thousand instead of the twenty two that
it holds. That's still going to be a much bigger atmosphere than where most of these guys have played. And I think that matters. So again, trying not to to raise the bar too high here to where I have people thinking that I'm saying this guy needs to go get every elite player in the portal. But there's no doubt. One week on the job, this guy is. You know, it's off to a good start and that's exciting. All right, we got to get to our first break coming up here.
Just a moment we got, but we have a lot to run through in these next two and a half hours roughly, Yukon they've got more fuel to believe that that it is Yukon versus the world. I don't know if you guys saw the story last night. They couldn't get a plane out of out of Yukon. And I love Dan Hurley documenting it, and I'm sure he's leaning into this because he now knows that like people think it's kind of funny that he's acting as if they're underdogs or you know, it's it's the world
against Yukon. But it's become a pretty fun storyline, I think. All right, we talked about the uk Collective and how they've really struggled to raise money with a lot familiar but it's you know, it's not just the ribbon back and forth between the fan the fans here and the rivalry. It's now starting to get a little bit of national coverage at the college, you know, college basketball level, that like, yikes, why can't they raise more
money? And what I want to do is read the comments from Kentucky fans about it, because that's just I mean, it's I know it doesn't represent uh an entire fan base, but ready for that. It's it's it's actually kind of fun. And then tonight, I'm gonna say it, we got a big basketball game tonight and n i T Championship seen Holloway and the Seaton Hall Pirates, Josh Shirts and the Indiana State Sycamores, and I'm really excited because I may, I may put everything in the account tonight on Seaton Hall
plus two and a half. And you hear me Seton Hall plus two and a half. Oh, they're four, they're they're they're actually minus they were they were minus four. I'm sorry, plus four. Now it's plus two and a half. And I'm I'm gonna ride with Sheen Holloway and the uh uh and the uh screw it, let's just go get Pat Kelsey instead bowl. Yeah, which about that? And that's that's that's not a bad thing, not a bad thing. Yes, and again, revision is history.
But like I think, I mean, imagine if you were waiting on these guys in the N I T right now. Yeah, you wouldn't have the first the start that you have here. It'll by the way, you wouldn't have this big pot of money for players right now, right, so we are loaded. The rest of the way stick with us. It is Coffee and Company, and we are fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk
seven nine day. All right, if you got want to be a part of the Coffee and Company experience, I guess just by listening you're a part of the experience. But if you want to interact with us, you can do that too. Five OO two five seven one seventy nine hundred is the number if you want to give us a call. Text line also an option. It is the l and N Federal Credit Union text Line. Members get more at LNN Federal Credit Union. You can learn more and open your accounts.
Say hey at LNFCU dot com. All right, So this first text that comes in in regards to the NIL stuff I was just discussing earlier with Well, I mean, it was really just talking about potential additions to this roster, and we do know that Louisville is in really good shape with NIL right now, and that makes you feel good about nearly any player they talk
to because we know that matters. Now, it's not the overall factor for everybody, and other schools also have NIL resources too, but still, I mean, in this new world, I mean, I think Louisville is going to be competitive with just about everybody in this space now on the floor of that kind of stuff, totally different situation, and that's something we won't know until some time. But this Texas, Nick, do you get the sense that Kelsey was so bothered by Dusty May being the prized pick that he's not
just trying to take players so they don't go to Michigan. I don't know what his motive is, but I mean whatever, I mean, if he wants to go get those players, and it's because not only he thinks they're good, but he wants to stick it to Dusty May, then you know, whatever gets those players because they're both really I mean specifically John L. Davis. I mean again, we're talking about a guy that is the number one player in the portal right now, so I mean Dusty May connection or
not. I mean, that's a good player that anybody would want to go get, So you know, I don't. I mean, we'll we'll we'll learn about Pat Kelsey over the years, And to me, I think it's going to be pretty easy to kind of pick up on his personality this kind of stuff, because you know, he's I think he's going to be a I wouldn't say, you know, he'll be transparent more so than what we were used to with the last regime. But it's not like he's gonna tell
us everything. But my point is this, like I think with him being a high energy clearly emotions very much a part of how he does his thing, whether it be coaching or talking in a press conference. He's always on. That's the first thing that someone said to me when they were describing him having worked with him before, is my man is always on. So if he is somebody that you know is better about that and wants to you know, like embarrass the guys that were offered the job before him, then you
know, whatever works, whatever works. But again, when it comes to this particular situation, I mean, maybe that is a factor. I don't know. We'll never know for sure because I don't think he come out and say that, but now that I'm thinking on it, him mentioning the Scott Drew and Dusty May situation in the when he was doing his thing at the press conference about the neighborhood and the house where they live this and that, I mean, I guess that's somewhat like self deprecating. But a lot of
coaches wouldn't do that. A lot of coaches would never even enter, like even bring up cal or other. I mean, that's just that's you know, That's why when I think back to his press conference, other than just you know, it being a good, good job on his part of executing how relatable he can be and how how much he wants to be here and how you know, that kind of stuff, he was so much aware of.
He could read the room and read the situation. He knew that everybody there was was well aware that he wasn't the first second, really even the third choice, and he probably knew that a lot of fans weren't all that
familiar with him in his resume. So, you know, long story short, I think we'll find out within you know, I don't know how long, but I don't think if he somebody that will, in fact, you know, go out of his way to try to really you know, stick it to somebody, which I don't think he has any ill feelings towards Dusty May. But then again, if you remember that video when they played each other, because for those who don't know this, and if you're not like
on Twitter, you probably never saw it. And I know people that are on Twitter, it's a constant thing, but there's a lot of folks that aren't. But Austin, do you know what video I'm referring to where no, So yeah, refresh. Dusty May and FAU played College at Charleston earlier this year, and it was in one of those early season tournaments and apparently one of the players for FAU had set something to uh, had said something
to Pat Kelsey to my coach. Yeah, okay, so I meanly quite literally, I mean that's I mean, he an FAU player, had just I don't know what he'd said, but it got Pat Kelsey really hot, and Kelsey marched down the sideline to tell Dusty May, like, hey, your players being disrespectful kind of thing, like, you know, And I don't know if we'll ever find out what it is he actually said, but it clearly got him all upset and bothered, and Dusty May responded with just
a h don't don't talk to me. So I just said it. I think I just sent it to you. Uh check it out. So maybe they're maybe they're maybe it's not even about like Dusty May being the guy that that that you know, Louisville tried to hire. Uh, but maybe there's some connection there because of how worked up Kelsey got about you know, that whole exchange. And I'm sure I'm manufacturing a very non existent beef between the two, but hey, uh, I'm down because, like, let's just
be real. Dusty May, I never I never wanted him to be the coach in any way. It was a I think it was not a great look as far as the optics of the search, the way it went down with him. But if you listen to this show even a little bit for weeks leading up, in fact longer than weeks, I just never felt like Dusty May would be a fit here. I didn't think there was enough on the resume to say let's let this guy try. I mean, you know again, Final four is great and I can't take that away from him.
I'm not even discrediting it. Discrediting it. But the other factor that everybody got so horned up for about Dusty May was the fact that FAU used to suck and now they're now they're decent. I mean, that's that's what it turned into. And they they were barely a decent team this year. They would not have made the tournament if they weren't a final four team the year
before. You will not, You will not convince me otherwise. So you know what I remember seeing that video, Okay, now that you showed like if there is a coach that like, you know, and look, I can say this because I'm not a very big guy either when it comes to stature, although yes, as you can probably tell, I've been in the weight room a little bit lately. But when it comes to like, I
mean, Pat Kelsey's not a real big dude. But if there's one dude, I feel like, you know, and not to say there's only one, but like he would he would beat the hell out of Dusty May. If you set up the match at WrestleMania Austin, Dusty May, Pat Kelsey, Pat Kelsey's going over. Yeah, He's going over. Yeah, he's going over. I could see that. I remember that video. No, what it probably is he probably told him that he's not a Kelciotto guy, and that's that's a that's a big mistake. Huge. So yeah, when
you texted that in, I hadn't even thought about that. Whoever it was that sent that. But you know, I like the way we're thinking now, right, we are so in love with this new coach that we're thinking like, oh yeah, he's trying to stick it to these other coaches. Man, he's he's our guy now, and he's got he's got the Louisville muscles to flex with Chigan. I know Louisville's been really bad lately, but hey, right now, I mean it's a new era, it's a fresh
start, and that alone is very very exciting. All right. So, Austin, we talked a little bit about your story yesterday in the five o'clock hour for those who might have missed it, and that was that was you know, he spent a lot of time growing up in Arizona and five to two, oh what what how would you compare Arizona Highway expressway and traffic situations there? How would you compare that to Louisville. It's a lot more chill, and not just only in Arizona, just the West coast in general.
You said you've been out there before. It's like and we talked about it yesterday, like the retirement nature and the retirement community of like the Arizona and
the California and like the nomada of the West area out there. The highways are just so wide, right, I don't know if you've ever seen the Western how like I ten, it's so wide, and the I always feel like a lot if for some reason that like we have like you know, I sixty five, Yeah, but I feel like a lot of the West Coast interstates or you know, obviously the eyes furnished it, but like eye something the up let me let me catch the eye thin for the eyes,
you know, yeah, for to me. But it's so like you have that it's more more wide open, more free flowing. And I think I actually just read something a couple of weeks ago, just the study of the elderly people really kind of don't like to be on the expressways all that much, so they more they're more or less using main roads. So everything just kind of way more free flowing out there on the west. What about Louisville though, like it's it's it's another different story. The first of all,
always under construction. I know everyone always says that, and a lot of people like to try to come back, well, you that's over exaggerated, but like just take a look at downtown, like how long it usually takes to get here because of construction. It's already bad with the one way streets anyways, and then you got you got everything's blocked, you have bridges blocked. It's it's absolutely that's what it is. It's the construction that never never
ends. Like there's areas of interstates in the metro in you know, the region essentially here that have that have been being worked on for years with no progress seemingly. And I say that, you know, tongue in cheek.
I'm sure, I don't want to act like nobody's out there working, but like, for example, the area between Geen Snyder and sixty four east or west, I mean that whole from I guess just past the Jeffersontown Taylorsville Road exit if you're heading east to probably around Old Henry, Like that's just been a mess for I feel like my whole life. Yeah, the old Henry and even we've got a little bit further, like the bill toown road area too, is still kind of like a mess that way in the Gene Snyder.
So the I'm aware that trapped for you know, I'll just start with when it comes to traffic, like, we don't have it nearly as bad as big I mean, like, first of all, you can get to if there's no construction or traffic, you can get to really anywhere in Louisville or the Louisville metro area rather quickly. I agree. And you know, from a traffic standpoint, I mean, we all everybody hates traffic. There's nobody that likes traffic, but we don't. We're not Nashville, Atlanta,
DC, Chicago. Like you know, at times when I complain about traffic, I feel like, you know what, like you know, in the grand scheme of things like this, is I have it easy compared to other I means there are there are people who live in like the suburbs of bigger cities that it's just a it's a given that they're in the car for two and a half hours a day, and that's to get to working. To come home from work and that would suck. So we don't have it that
bad. But the construction is what I just don't know today. To me, this is just something that I cannot understand. How there could have been an easy There has to have been a better way to do it than how they decided to do it on the So I'm leaving an appointment on the old Henry exit and I am going, I'm getting back on the Snyder and I'm heading west to HIT sixty four. Yeah, and there's two lanes and you know, they're kind of you know, hodgepodge together if you will, because
it's you know, they're doing construction. And then there's this big concrete barrier between the two lanes. Yeah, and there's not enough unless you know, unless I've just missed all these warnings, all these signs, and if you're on it every day then you would know, but I'm not. So there.
There's that concrete barrier where you can go left or right, but you're just you know, it's just a two lane interstate and you're you're you know, long story short, if you do, if you're not in the far right lane going west on the Snyder, I guess it's called south on the Snyder. I'm sorry, if you're not on the far right lane three miles or so before you get to I sixty four, you can't get off.
Oh so you're like stuck in that lane. So I had to drive three and a half four miles past sixty four and there was no sign that said there, and there might have been one, but like, first of all, sign or no sign, why would you do like that? That just seems that just seems crazy, because let's be real, that exit, that's the majority of people that are on sn I would I shouldn't say the majority,
but a lot of people that are on Snyder heading south. You know, some of them may be just continuing to go down Snyder to get to one of those exits, or you know, maybe go to the to the south end. But a lot of people are going to be getting on sixty four east or west. And again I'm sure some people are thinking, what an idiot that's been like that forever and there's signs everywhere. Well, like to me, it's not normal to just know, Hey, why I'm heading
in the right direction, The exit's on the right. Why can I not like switch lands and again, I'm sure it's because of what they're doing with its construction, but I had to drive and here everybody else did it too. Like I noticed that I got off. I got off of the J ten exit, which is the next exit available, and I took a left.
And I'm not kidding you, eighty percent of the cars that were at that light getting off of the exit were taking a left and getting back on Snyder heading the other way because they missed it too, like you were,
Like the pace car. It's just just leading everybody back on. And look, I'm not going to say that I don't deserve some blame here because you know, I could have just been a little more mindful, a little bit more aware of it, and maybe there was a sign and I should have known whatever, But that that made me twenty minutes late to something that I would have been on time for. Yeah, and like that, you know,
again taking some accountability on my part. But just I said this to Austin during the break, I don't know if anybody's ever been on the Snyder in that in that vicinity of the Gene Snyder and it not been an experience that dampened your day a little bit. It's just a mess and on my way and I just kind of what I just now on the city part, like the inside when we're using like actual main roads. And I texted you
about this earlier, like I've it's twenty two, twenty four. There's got to be a better way to temporarily patch up street work than the three inch like things. Oh yeah, the plates that are in the middle of the road that you could cook kunk over and you could just kind of feel your tires going spuddy. You know, what was that for? It might as well have been a speed bump on the interstate when you're going sixty five.
Yeah, I just I just don't. I just don't. There has to be, like I don't know, maybe I don't get paid to make these decisions, so that's why. But there has to be, like I feel like that's been around for so many years, there has to be another way. Is there like a little bit thinner plates like it? It just shreds your tires and it's almost like the equivalent of like stubbing your toe, you
know. And it's the sound and the feel like I don't, you know, I've had I can't hopefully you didn't have any actual damage to your car, but the feel of it when you're holding the wheel, and then the sound when you do it, you're thinking, damn, that couldn't have been good for me. Body. Yeah, it makes you. It's a kind of sound that it makes you like turn your radio down like, oh yeah, what what just happened? That about it? So all right, let's
get too quick break. We'll come back on the other side. And I'm not sure how much time we're going to spend on this specifically, but some breaking news in college basketball. Eric Musselman is in fact leaving Arkansas as he's been trying to get the hell out of Fayetteville for a long time now. He has found a new destination and that is in Los Angeles. He's going to be the next USC coach. Which you got to think about the dominoes
here, fellas. We've got Arkansas open and Arkansas they're going after Chris Beard, They're going after Will Wade, They're going after Jerome Tang. Those are the three guys. And yes, Twitter's already let you know, light me up, letting me know that you know, Arkansas is about to conduct a search that basically would have been led by me but hey, I don't care about that. Now. We got Pat Kelsey and he's he's fired up and
ready to be here, and you know, will he win? I hope so, but I'm not gonna worry about that until you know, we get there. This is the honeymoon, all right, it's coffee. In fact, it's coffee and Company, not the honeymoon. But stick with us right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Now back to Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. That's right, coffee and Company, wrapping up the three o'clock hours. Still got two more hours left
here and a lot to get into. So don't go anywhere. Hang out right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Take us with you wherever you go. You can listen live on the AHET Radio app. Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. All right, so this, uh, this news broke yesterday and it's not something that gets you know, it's got a whole lot of it. It has not received a whole lot of attention nationally,
at least not that I can tell. But there is a new tournament, postseason tournament, I should say, in college basketball that I guess is hoping to rival the NIT And I mean when I think of college basketball tournaments that aren't the NSAA Tournament, I mean I kind of just feel like, I mean, well, for just me specifically, I'm thinking, Okay, that
gives me more games to bet on. But if you care about a team that is that has done some things in college basketball as far as deep tournament runs, national championships, final fours, it's just impossible for you to look at the n i T or anything like that, this new tournament or the CBI or whatever. It's just hard to to to embrace that because you didn't get anywhere close to your goal. And the realization of that is that you're
playing in these other tournaments. But when it comes to like Indiana State tonight, they're gonna play in the n i T Championship and that's a big deal for them. So it really is, you know, it's relative to where you are, I guess in the hierarchy of college basketball. But this new tournament has been put together by Fox and I can't be I can't be reading. I mean, the name is Fox Sports n I T. There's no way now I'm gonna I'm gonna have to go to the actual official release because
that they couldn't be able to call it that. Uh what's it called? I mean, what are they gonna call the tournament? Now? Yeah, I mean I don't. I mean, that's very generic. If it is, I'm reports in it. Oh, it can't be that because that's the name of another tournament, you would, you know, But the right up at the Athletics says the says that's what they're gonna call it. Okay,
it's called the College Basketball Crown, which whatever. I mean, that's not the worst name, but again, like it's a crown that, like you you don't want to because one school wants Nick in March. I mean, the Crown is like the best you could do because you didn't qualify for a much bigger tournament that happens to include sixty eight teams. But I mean, I just look, I'm not bothered by it. It's not gonna hurt anything, but it is to me. It just seems kind of silly. But
it's gonna be a sixteen team tournament called the College Basketball Crown. It's going to feature schools that failed to qualify for the tournament obviously, like nobody's gonna turn down the ensible A tournament to go to this. But there's gonna be two teams from each of these leagues, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, in the Big East. They're going to receive automatic bids. So teams don't make the tournament from those three leagues. I guess the two best teams
that got left out are going to qualify for this tournament. And these leagues are going to require they play in this tournament and not the n I T. You know why, because Fox that's who. That's the leagues that Fox is partnered with for broadcast coverage. So the Big Ten, Big Twelve, Big East, they all have games in some form or fashion on Fox. I don't think the Big Twelve does yet. I think this is the year where they're going to start. So I mean it's going to take place in
Vegas. I guess the entire tournament will be in uh in Vegas at the MGM Garden Arena, and it'll be on Fox, FS one or Fox. So I don't know if this was necessary, but just give you let me just give you an example like Rick Patino this year, he declined to go to the n I T and a lot of schools did, and I think declining to go to the n i T is usually just because like you know,
hey, like what are we like this? That's not who we are, right But now I think if you're saying John's Kansas State, I mean, there's a lot of schools that decline the n i T this year. And it's not because you think you're too good for it. You just know that it's not a huge accomplishment. And also you've got to be focused on
the portal right now. And then I l like, that's that's I mean coaching in the n i T while you know the rest of the country is aggressively pursuing the portal that kind of stuff, like you you could you could
get left behind. So what I'm why I'm bringing up those teams is that because of the affiliation with Fox and these conferences, Saint John's wouldn't be allowed to sit this out like they're going to be required to play in it by their conference because it's now kind of you know, it's part of this partnership. But I think it was Matt Norlander who said it best that this just,
I mean, this just isn't necessary. You know, the ACC and the SEC aren't even officially attached to this because of the allegiances to the example,
like ACC, these teams aren't going to play in it. I don't think they're even allowed because again it's all about the TV network war and a lot of logistical issues here with everybody playing in Vegas and again like coaching changes for non instead of a tournament teams like again like a magic I mean, it's just it's going to be the ultimate, Like nobody really wants to be here. Because if you're in the NAT and you're from a mid major,
then yeah, it's it's a different situation entirely. But if you're in the Big East, the Big twelve, or the Big Ten and you're there unless you're just a doormat of that league, like nobody wants to be there, and there's a chance that they'll probably they could be moving on from you as the coach because you didn't you didn't qualify for a much bigger tournament that actually
matters. So look, there'll be some TV revenue at it, and I'm never going to complain about more basketball, But like if you're one of these teams that ends up here from those three leagues like it. Just it seems like a waste of time. Which, by the way, speaking of the NAT, you want to talk about that a little later on, because, believe it or not, we have a good game to night Seaton Hall in Indiana State. And it is wild to think that two of the coaches coaching
tonight were in the mix for the Louisville job. One was offered the Louisville job and could not take it. And I think early on it looks like a blessing in disguise. But just think about this. Imagine if you know Louisville didn't have a coach yet because he was still coaching in the n I T. I mean, that would not be a good look. All right, we got to run two more hours to go. Stick with us. It is coffee and Company. We are fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety