5.14: Warm Wednesday - Hour 1

I feel like that's pretty humid. Yeah, you could tell me it's you know, thirty three percent humid, and you know, I wouldn't know necessarily what percentage makes it humid or not. But I'm just gonna guess that fifty nine percent means that, in fact, you know, it is a little sticky, a little muggy out there. And I'm lucky today because this is rare. I believe right now, the coolest place in our office is where I'm at. It's a cool sixty

seven degrees. And I was walking around in our I mean, how do you describe this place Austin, Because like we don't really have like nobody has an office, but we have like meeting rooms that sometimes turn into people's offices, and then we've got desks that are kind of out in a big common area. So I put it this way. I was just walking around the whole place, you know, mingling, chatting with folks, and it's a lot warmer out there. And I asked one of our extraordinary sales folks, mister

Brady Driscoll. I was like, is it always this hot out here? And he was like, yeah, we really never know what we're going to get. I'm like, okay, well it's not just me then, because usually if it's hot, this is the oven, this is where it just bakes.

further than I anticipated. I probably would have drove, but got a good walk in but also got hot and sweaty, which told me that it's actually pretty warm. So it's here. It's here. Yeah, the warm weather has arrived, and uh, I mean summer will be here soon. Kids are going to get out of school soon, and you know that's it's good for the kids, I'm sure, But man, I've

now definitely and you'll you'll be here someday, Austin. The kids being out of school is not a good thing for most parents because they then have to either pay for childcare that they're not paying for during school hours, probably during the school year. You know, they have to worry about, you know, what their kids doing and all that.

So we're trying. My wife and I are currently putting together our plan for you know, who's gonna keep who's gonna watch our little ones whenever, you know, when other school's out. You know, Moose is already in daycare, so it wo'll be good to go. But with Maya, she gets out of school and we are, I mean, we're basically, you know, just running through interviews because everybody wants to be around her, right like they want to sign up. Hey, can I get a day? Can I Can I get

a day where I watch Maya? Because she, you know, she just brings so much joy and she's and she's great. So anyways, it's a warm Wednesday, and we're gonna have some fun. I at least I am. I'm gonna have fun. Austin's gonna have fun. I guess it's up to you if you have fun. But what we planned to do is provide an experience here coffee and company on a Wednesday that it'll be difficult for you to not have fun. That's what we want to do today, So let's get

right to it. I will start with something that will make Louisville fans happy or at least you know, it'll be a good thing to be reminded about it in case you might have forgot. And on the Kentucky side, it's not good stuff, not good news. But like I don't think they're going to be shocked, and I don't even think they could disagree with me if they wanted to.

But the momentum for both programs right now, I mean, it seems it seems like we've never really been in a place where it's headed in opposite directions for both programs at such a high rate of speed. Let me give an example. So currently we now know this came out a little bit earlier today. I believe Bret McMurphy's the one who put it out there. And it's the wind totals for all ACC teams. And this is from circa sportsbook. Have you seen this, shed Austin? Do you

know what the win total is? For Louisville this year because I take a guess we're talking I'm sorry, we're talking football or basketball. Our football win total for louisvill football. Ah, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna say eight. See I would have said seven and a half for eight, but it's actually set at eight and a half. Oh and we'll get into later sort of you know, what would be the you know, take away your fan, take away your you know, the emotional attachment that you have to Louisville

because it's your team. You know, what do you think here if you had to, if you had to lay some action, what would make the most sense. We can get into that a little bit later on. But again, just seeing that sports books objective folks look at Louisville as a team that they set at eight and a half, that, I mean, that's just a sign that you know, you're in a good place. And I know people can make the jokes about the ACC being so bad and that's why well whatever, I mean, I'm not here to say

that the ACC is great. But you know, when you've got eight and a half as the line, I mean, the expectation is that you're you're you're gonna win a lot more games and you're gonna lose, and we you know, we know that doesn't always play out that way. But when I see that, I mean, I can't remember. I don't know Jeff's first year. I know it wasn't close to being eight and a half, but I don't remember

last year because you got to keep it. Louisll went ten and two in his first year, and then the next year you really didn't seem to have a whole lot of momentum to take from that, right because you'd made your appearance in the AEC Championship game, and really, people forgod, because it was all about Florida State, how they were without Jordan Travis, and they won the AEC

title against Louisville and still didn't get in. And then Louisville lost their last three games to close out the season, and really they were all kind of in bad fashion.

eight and a half. I feel like it was probably lower than that, probably closer to seven and a half or maybe eight, maybe even seven, I'm not sure. So again, that's a sign that there's momentum. You look at preseason rankings or I guess they're calling them post spring rankings. I mean, just about anyone that you can find, you'll see that. You'll see that Louisville is in the top twenty five. I think I saw the ESPN one earlier this week had him at number twenty two. So there's

good momentum. And I think given where you are, and given the conference being you know there for the taking outside of maybe a couple teams, you know, it's just nice going into a season knowing that, yeah, you're not crazy to be looked at as a team that might end up in the playoff because they now put in more than just four and oh, by the way, you're a pretty good team. And also, I mean I feel like Louisill got a lot of free pub in real

good PR because of the Tyler Shuck situation. Right when Nick Saban on that Friday night of the NFL Draft Day two was just glazon over my man, Jeffrey Bram I mean that, I mean he's acting like. One of the reasons why, in fact, that Tyler Shuck will have a good you know, will have an easier transition among a lot of things, was that he played for Jeff Bram in a pro style offense and he really prepared

his quarterback for the next level. I mean, again, there's no guarantee that does anything for you, but it certainly can't hurt you, right if you've got quarterbacks that are hitting the portal or quarterbacks that are being recruited out of high school. They hear Nick Saban on the NFL draft coverage say that Jeff Brohm gets his quarterbacks ready for the NFL. I mean pretty damn good pr.

rosters seemingly got worse. And another big factor that's really important here that I'll never not acknowledge. They have a really tough schedule. They play Ole Miss South Carolina, who's got a lot of momentum, clearly a better program than Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Texas, and Tennessee. I don't need to tell you about those

programs being better in Kentucky, it's quite clear. And then Auburn and Florida teams that are kind of in in a bad place right Like Florida did rebound well at the end of last year, but they hated their coach Auburn albert in Florida last year. With the teams that Kentucky was supposed to just simply be better than this past year. Therefore, you know you could easily lose because you know they're not complete chumps. But at the same

point in time, like those teams embarrassed Kentucky. So they've got a tough schedule, but like four and a half, I think I would take the over and it's because I don't see them beating anybody in the SEC outside of maybe Vandy, and I don't even think that like their fans would disagree. So they've got Eastern Michigan, they'll win that. They've got Tennessee Tech, they'll win that, and then maybe Vandy, although Vandy is in Nashville this year,

and then they played Toledo to start the season. I look at that as Okay, of course they're going to win. But Toledo, I mean they beat an SEC team last year by I think a bunch. I think, you know, this team was really bad. The only team that finished worse than Kentucky in the SEC was Mississippi State. But but Toledo went down to Starkville and bent them over. So Toledo is not exactly the MAC opponent that I think you would typically want to play. So I mean, I

think rivalry aside, emotion aside, not trolling. I think the wise play there would be under four and a half. And I don't even think their fans, if they're objective, would really disagree. I can't speak for them, but like they know that they're probably not going to be super excited about Kentucky football again until a coaching change is made, unless, of course, Stoops somehow does really well out of nowhere this year, like unexpectedly they just end up being really good,

which I don't see a scenario where that happens. So they know, and they're showing with the lack of interest their ticket sales for season tickets. It's again, this is I'm not beating them up, although it may sound like it, but like this is not a good piece of news. But it's also totally understandable. They sold out season tickets the last two seasons. This year, their season tickets are

down seemingly at a substantial level. So therefore there was such a step back last year and really no plan to get the fan base back up and sell them that, hey, we're going to get this thing turned around. We know last year was unacceptable. We are ready to prove people wrong. We've got the right guys and here, look all that's words.

It doesn't give you action, doesn't give you results. But like, I don't think there's been a whole lot of that like Stoops has kind of been chilling and you know, staying out of the public eye in every way this offseason. And again it could be because he's got something special brewing and he wants to lay low, or he might realize, yeah, we were really bad last year and I don't think

we're going to be any better this year. So there are This is from the Herald Leader says the season football ticket sales are down, and they mentioned that they sold out forty thousand tickets the last two seasons. And now let's see, according to the Harold Leader, through May twelfth, which was yet earlier, this is Monday, Kentucky sold more than twenty one thousand season ticket packages, which is still twenty five thousand fewer tickets sold by the renewal deadline

in April of twenty twenty four. So they've kept the price the same as what UK claims here per the Herold Leader, and you know that's a substantial drop off. Like these are the kind of things this is, this

is the type of action that your fans take. And it may not even be because they're trying to force the issue here, trying to force the hand of Mitch Barnhardt they're just like they're out, like they're checked out, like they're they're not going to Like I think they realized that the best days of Kentucky football under Mark Stoops are clearly in the in the past and not in the future. Now, what I don't know is like

how long is Barnhart even going to be there? And you know, like if they lost to Toledo, I think they would be of the belief that Stoops would get the can. I don't know that he would. I mean all the coaches that Mitch Barnhart has hired and been the boss of during his time in Lexington And disclaimer, I'm not at all connected anything at UK. I'm just going off of the optics and the public perception and oh,

by the way, react like results. Things that happened Mark Stoops got Mitch Barnhart to prioritize football more than I think really any coach as Kentucky has now. Stoops also gave them a good return with improvements and they were clearly better during his you know, the majority of his stint there. So there's a scenario that like Barnhart can know he's out in two three years, and he can also just know deep down like, Yeah, that's my guy, and he's gonna be my guy until I'm not here anymore.

Because whoever is the new AD after Barnhart whenever he

does retire, like they're gonna want their own coach. So like if Barnhart ends up hiring a new coach and then retires a year or two later, I mean that, actually that would make your job a little less attractive because I think a coach would think, Look, I'm not if it's quite clear that you're kind of already phasing out, there needs to be an inner or there needs to be an AD in waiting or something, because I don't want to get here and have to clean up Mark

Stoops's mess and then know that you're out in the year or two and somebody's going to come in and already want to get a new coach because if you're an AD, you're foolish to not have your own guy because you're you don't want to go down with somebody you didn't even hire, right, Like, who, I mean, who would do that? Ads are evaluated for a lot of things, but at most schools it's the coaching hire for football.

Now Kentucky and louisll are a little bit different because our basketball programs are monsters nationally and clearly, like we learned the hard way, not that we didn't know it already, but man, we really learned during the Kidney Payne era. This city and this university UL needs basketball to be alive and thriving, not have you know the years that we had. So I don't know, I just I don't. I don't see a scenario where Stoops is not their coach, you know, at least a couple more years unless he

walks away. And that that takes me back to the conversation that we had towards the end of the season here and there throughout the show, because Kentucky Evans were just like, you know, yeah, yeah, you know what. I think he might just call it, you know, he might be done. He might walk away. Who's walking away from that much money? Nobody Like do you hear yourselves?

Nobody would do that. So I guess there's a scenario where he could maybe negotiate like a buyout that's lower to where it's a little bit more of a of a of a you know, not such a contentious and toxic exit. But everything I've seen like Stoops seems sensitive and bothered that people are mad that they sucked ass slash like pardon my language, but like, you know, he's

got like this. You know, he still operates as if their fan base should not be critical of the bad, bad season they had and other issues, they should just be thankful that he showed up and saved their program like he did, which, to be fair, he did do a really good job, and he has done a good

job overall. But to me, I just think this thing probably should have like he absolutely would have been wise and it would have worked out better for everyone had A and M not pulled the plug and actually hired him. They wanted to hire him, and then they realized, yeah,

now we can't do that. And I still think it's hilarious that there are some that actually try to run with the narrative that he yeah, he told him no thanks after really considering, and you kidd me, I mean, not a chance in France that Mark Stoops turned down

A and M to stay Kentucky. And you kind of felt like last year the way things played out, that man, he was already out the door and then uh oh yeah, we had to talk with some of our or donors, boosters, whatever down here in College Station, and we're gonna go in a different direction. That's what happened. I mean, and there's conflicting stories about it, but I trust who who

I trust. As far as Stoops was making the phone calls, he was on his way out, he was telling people, thank you so much, and I mean he's celebrating not only because he beat Louisville that day, but like he'd gotten a huge job. And then you know he didn't actually get said jobs. So again, there's some real momentum for Louisville football, which is the way it should be and for Kentucky. I mean, it's nice for me to

be able to position it this way. But I'm also not telling any lies here, Like what have I said that is untrue about the direction for both programs right now. I mean I think, I mean, I think it's I think it's quite clear. And this isn't even like a you know, this isn't even about well, louisvill is just so great they're gonna make the college football Playoff. I mean, I did say that they could realistically get there, but

I'm not predicting it by any means right now. But it's more so that like Kentucky has completely fallen off, like can there be like Mississippi State would have to be the other, Like Mississippi State would have to be the only program that could have a lower wind total than Kentucky, right, I mean, I'm doing a quick little search here. Yeah, So according to CIRCA, Kentucky is at four and a half, Mississippi State's at three and a half, Vandy's five and a half, Arkansas five and a half,

and everybody else is seven or more. So, I mean, they were in a spot to where they were better than Vandy consistently, and now that's not really the case anymore.

And they were kind of trading barbs with South Carolina and then Florida, kind of a roller coaster but they had a good stretch of success against Florida, and then Tennessee really has had their numbers certainly in the last however many years, certainly since Josh Hipel's been there, and then they would go out and win their non conference games. But now you got Texas and you got Oklahoma in the league. So your league schedule's clearly going to be

tougher and you might go to nine games. It sounds like, which again is going to make life harder. And I mean, I don't know Mitch Barnhardt could tell their fan base. Yeah, we think Mark Stoops is the guy that's going to, you know, get Kentucky to where they're more so competitive in the best league in college football. I mean, yes, he has done it before, but man, been some years

since they were actually good. And also everything's changed, right like you you know, I just think Stoops is in a position where he'll still be able to get money coming in to pay for nil but not I mean not after I mean again, when you think people aren't buying season ticket, I mean people clearly aren't buying season

tickets in Lexington. I mean I think that would also lead you to believe that those that were lining up to give money to help him, probably aren't doing it at the same level they were prior, or even maybe doing it at all. I don't mean everybody, but you know and against Strops has done a good job overall. Any if he he does lose to Toledo in the first game and they can his ass afterwards that I think you'd still look at his overall time there and

say he did a really good job at Kentucky. But more so than anything, the key element is that because it's a Kentucky and to be fair to him, nobody else has done what he did. He won ten games twice, He recruited at a level that really I don't think they'd ever thought they could they could recruit at. But time has passed and like there's really no momentum left from that success that he had and you got to build it back up kind of from scratch, and I

just that's the scenario. I don't really see happening, but just my thoughts. All Right, we got a lot to get to. How about last night's NBA playoff game with the Nuggets and the and the Thunder. That was a sensational game. The NBA Playoffs man they keep delivering and I'm loving it. I am absolutely loving it. Also, Pat Kelsey, he talked today at the ACC Spring meetings. We'll let you guys hear plenty of that sound. Scotty Scheffler wore something today in the PGA Champion that I refuse to

believe is just a random coincidence. So we can certainly get into that and a lot more. It's coffee and Company we're fuel Abu Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven.

at Refreshing Rewards dot com. Download the app on your Android, your I phone, and you will be good to go. You know, I'm very lucky in life to do something that I genuinely enjoy doing. It is work I do, in fact, believe it or not, do get paid to do this. Some might say it's a waste of an investment from the employer that I work for, But whatever, you know, I'm gonna keep doing it because it's fun.

I enjoy what I do, and I know that I'm lucky because the's a lot of people that have jobs that they don't really probably love, or maybe it wasn't what they set out to do when they were trying to figure out what they wanted their career to be. But I can as I get older and try to

remind myself, you know how fortunate I am. I often I feel like I noticed, more so now than ever, people who, regardless of their job, if they're really passionate about it and they're positive and they like what they do and they have good energy, you know, that stands out to me more. Right Like, I think it's become

more of a rare thing. If you go to like a fast food place like you can be you can do everything needed as far as your job, and I'll be a satisfied customer even if you're not smiling, if you're not overly polite, but you know you're there doing your job. But if you are doing it and you seem like you're really, you know, you're into it, that

stands out. And I think that's probably harder to do for certain people, clearly, but I wanted to give a shout out to this employee who's probably like a part timer. I shouldn't say. I don't know what his position is, but this guy works for the Cannapolis cannon Ballers. The Cannapolis Cannonballers Austin. You may know this because if your affiliation with the Bats, they're a single a affiliate of the White Sox, and there is an employee there. I

guess he works in the facilities department. Maybe I don't know his role, but he's gone viral because he look, he had to do something that a lot of people probably wouldn't do, especially you know. I mean, I can see a lot of people just saying, yeah, I'm not doing that, but he did it, and it reminds me that, you know, what this guy probably knows, not what I necessarily signed up for, but hey, it's part of the gig, and I'm going to do it because it's my job.

So a lot of baseball teams now have bats that are basically or dogs that are the bat dogs, and I believe they just after somebody gets a hit, these dogs, they'll go and grab the BA and bring it back to the dugout. Yeah, it's awesome. So is that just a minor league thing?

I guess it was that big of a dump, and you know, the game needed to go on, but they needed to get it cleaned up, get it out of the way. Well, you know this guy, all right, I'm here. This is what I do, not what I want to be doing, but hey, it's my job, so I'm gonna go out there. He picked up all the poop bear handed. Oh my gosh. And you know, that got a lot of attention because people were saying, wow, they were giving him praise, like, you know, praise for prompt action and realizing, hey,

the game must go on. You work for the club in some way. They need this pooper move. You don't have time to go get a pair of gloves or you know, go get a pooper scooper or whatever they use. He just like, look, the quickest way for me to get this game back in play is for me to just pick up this poop with my hand.

on the way out with people. But isn't that a guy who like, you know, like, he's probably not someone who enjoys walking around picking up poop with his bare hands. I'm sure he would have preferred to have, uh, you know, a pair of gloves or something to do it. But look, he's that's his job. Apparently he is responsible for making sure,

you know, the facility. I mean, look, there might have been somebody beneath him that that works for him and they just weren't available, or maybe he knew they wouldn't do it, but he's going to do it. So shout out to that guy. Show must go on. Yeah, I mean, hopefully he gets some kind of a raise or something, because I know it's a real grind. A lot of folks who work in really a lot of different capacities

for minor league clubs. I mean, they're compensated to an extent, but it's a labor of love for a lot of them. You know, they enjoy being at the ballpark, being a part of it in some way. So I hope you got the pet the dog too, Yeah, I mean, and I hope that Casey Betty thanked him for cleaning up per poop because.

of the conversation. So it's about twelve minus and it's what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna split it into two and uh when we come back from

our next break. We're not going to break right now, but we'll let you hear the first little snippet where he discusses sort of you know, the early stages of last year and kind of you know some you know, I feel like he shared something that I that I'm not totally surprised by, but I don't feel like we'd heard it before as far as really what what he felt like helped them put together such a special debut season for him. So again we'll let you guys hear

that coming up, coming up shortly. But back to the football conversation. Somebody asked the question that's impossible to give an answer to, and sometimes those questions end up being a lot of fun because I, you know, I will never know, but what would the win total be for Kentucky if they had lou Leville schedule? And this comes in from time to time because this is one of those things that some Kentucky fans they just choose to chalk it up, is like, yeah, well, you know, we're

actually better than you. It's just we play, you know, in a real league. Which again, nobody would advocate that the SEC is not a better football conference than the ACC. But I just find it funny that the ACC gets dumped on so much by the SEC fans and a lot of Kentucky fans of course, doing the rivalry thing back and forth with Louisville. And you know, would they be better off as far as being able to compete

in the ACC over the SEC. Absolutely, will they win more games, I would imagine so, But I just think they've lived in a world to where they would come in and just be one of the best teams in the ACC right out of the gate. And I've never believed that they've never really had anything from the SEC to show that they like when they would when they were having more success than they had last year, right when they weren't going six, you know, when they weren't

going four and eight or whatever. I mean, they had some runs where they were seven and five, seven and five, maybe six and six, and then finish the season either seven and six or six and seven. Now I don't have their records in front of me, but you know, it was a pretty pretty routine thing. They would occasionally beat some they weren't supposed to beat in the SEC. They would win all their non conference games, including Louisville, and then you know.

I mean, I think Tucky's gonna be really bad. So like if we were talking about one of the teams that Kentucky had that was seven and five or six and six, you know, that would be a little bit they'd be a little easier to do. I mean, I have no clue how good they're going to be this year. But I think objective folks again, people who set these win totals, they think they're going to be one of the worst, if not the worst teams in the in

the SEC outside of Mississippi State. And again their schedules a factor in that, but they would be favored against KU and James Madison and Bowling Green, I would imagine. So that's three and that's how Louisville starts their season, those three teams against Pittsburgh. Maybe in previous years, yeah, but like this year, I mean, I don't think Pitt's great. They certainly didn't finish the season strong. I think they lost like six in a row to close out the year.

But in Pittsburgh, given what Kentucky was last year and compared to what they are like now like or what they're supposed to be now like, I don't think they'd be favored in that game on the road at home against Virginia. I'll give them that one Miami and on the road no. Boston College at home, I'll give them that one. Virginia Tech on the road, no. And that would be different again, if we were talking about the Stoops teams that were, you know, competing for bowl games.

Last year's team didn't, and I don't anticipate this year this team is going to either. So I think when you go on the road in Blacksburg, I think objectively speaking, people who work for these sports books would tell you, yeah, we would have Kentucky as an underdog there. Cal at home. I guess we can give them that one. Clemson no, SMU no. And then the rivalry game. I mean, I mean,

anything can happen. There have been years where I'm thinking there's no scenario Louisville can lose this year, and then they do. But the way the game played out a year ago, and the fact that it's going to be in Louisville this year, and as we've discussed, there's completely complete opposite momentum for the programs right now. So I mean I think that would be I mean, that's a loss. So yeah, they would probably go from four and a half to five and a half if they were in

the ACC. Maybe maybe six and a half. Yeah, probably six and a half or six because again Eku James Madison and Bowling Green, like I don't I mean, James Madison's been very good since they made the jump from FCS to FBS, but the majority of that is due to Kurt Signetti and he's now that in Indiana as you know, in Bowling Green. You know, I don't think they're one of the MAC teams that's very good. Could

be wrong. And then Ekus an fcsd so And by the way, I said this when the schedule whenever, like with the schedule started coming together, and I'll say it again just because it's worth bringing up given what we're talking about. I'm not being critical of anybody because I think there's there's good reason that they're in this position. But Louisville's first three games of the season, like we we as Louisville fans, I feel like a lot of us, myself included, I guess I can only speak for me.

We would make fun of Kentucky for that being the first three games of the season and call them, you know, call them out for a soft schedule. E Ku, James Madison and Bowling Green. That's the first three weeks and that just feels very underwhelming. Now again, as we now know, Jeff Brohm tried to get some good games on the schedule this year. I think it was was it old miss that that you know, decided not to play them,

Maybe Tennessee too. And then obviously Indiana is supposed to be on the schedule and they bought out of the contract before they even hired Signetty, which has now led to Louisville having to kind of scramble and add games that necessarily weren't they weren't necessarily supposed to be there. So yeah, I mean again just saying, well, you know, how about what would their win total be if they played in that loser conference y'all got I mean, yeah,

would be different. But let's not remove ourselves from reality. Like Kentucky might be so bad this year that even the bottom of the of the ACC like they may be better than Kentucky. And again, I know they brought in guy like their portal class ranking looks solid, but it's based off of the amount of guys they brought in,

I think more so than like the actual dudes. So again, if I'm wrong and there was, you know, actual momentum, and I'm just being a troll and being a Louisville guy, then I don't think you'd see you know, nineteen thousand season tickets that were sold to the last two seasons now not sold. I mean they went from forty thousand, which was selling it out to now they're at about twenty one thousand. That's a significant drop off if these

numbers here from the Haired Leader are accurate. All right, let's get to a let's get to a quick time out again. We'll let you hear some Pat Kelsey sound on the other side. He was on television today on the ACC Network looking like a million bucks alongside Lukekencock, which is tough to do. Looks a good looking guy himself, but our guys were shining. Hancock and Kelsey. Didn't that sound like a law firm that would get the.

Let's just get right into Pat Kelsey, one of the many ACC coaches in various sports that have appeared on the ACC Network this week as the ACC Spring eatings are going on, and this is the first little snippet a PK with Luke Hancock as well as as Mark Packer.

were walking off the court. He said, man, Pat, sorry, you know I made that suggestion and schedule that game. And I said, Josh, that is exactly what we needed.

what they could do in the Bahamas. They came out and made a ton of threes in their exhibition games. They beat Morehead State and covered and then here we go right out of the gate, wide out as he talked about that Tennessee game, and man, the energy in the arena was phenomenal. The atmosphere was phenomenal. It wasn't the biggest crowd because obviously the crowds grew throughout the season, but man, it felt like a real Louisville basketball moment where you know, if you were there, I think you

know what I'm talking about. And then it went away pretty quick because Tennessee came out and just blitched you. And you know, I don't remember that being Okay, they'll learn from this, they'll get better. I mean, I think we hope that really didn't know. So then right after Tennessee they did they play another game. I don't think they did. I think it was Tennessee and then off to the Bahamas? Was it not? Part of me says that's not true. But either way, they you know, they

got tested again when they got to the Bahamas. And we're feeling, okay, we got our hopes up way too high, because man, Tennessee really humbled us. This team's maybe not going to be nearly as good as we anticipated. And then they go out they beat Indiana like a drum which was awesome, and then they beat West Virginia in overtime the next day, and and then on Black Friday they end up, you know, losing a close one to

who was Oklahoma, and then Caseing gets hurt. So you're excited about the trip because you despite losing to Tennessee in a big way, you didn't do really well and the Bahamas felt like at the time you got some real valuable wins and you know, momentums there. And then

Casing gets hurt. We find out that Monday or Tuesday that he's out for the year, and then you get beat bad by Ole Miss, So you know, you were excited, humbled, excited, had bad news about the injury, and then you find out about Korn and you know, slowly but surely they were competing better but still losing the teams like Duke and Kentucky. But once you got into January, things started rolling and that's really when things took off. But Pat Kelsey, you know, I guess it is beneficial as far as

they'd never had any adversity, because how could they. They couldn't rick, they couldn't replicate any scenario. It was all a brand new team with all new pieces, and you know you're gonna find out the hard way really how you how you adjust, and how you how you know, you learn a lot about these new players, these new teammates that you've gotten really close with, but you've never had somebody come in and beat you down like Tennessee did.

And clearly they they came together after that, and you know, they had adversity there, they had adversity with the injuries, but you know, they never ever felt sorry for themselves. And that really stood out all throughout the year that despite having you know, no pun intended, they were dealt with pretty bad handed cards as far as just some bad bad luck with injuries and whatnot, and you'd never

you'd never known. And that's why Toms we just forgot that they were without Prior and without Johnson, because one they were playing well, but also you never heard any excuse, any there was no there was never any any feeling sorry for themselves, and I think that really was a factor in how they were able to put together a very successful first season, and who knows what the record

looks like. This year could be substantially worse because your schedule you know, hopefully will be tougher because of your league. But momentum there and that's exciting. I mean again, the new world here with the portal in Nil is a big factor in how we were able to be dead for years and then just you know, now we've got some real life and energy and that's the way it should be around here, all right, stick around two hours left,

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