It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
I know I've talked about this before at some point over my nine plus years here on this station, but I would have if you had told me thirty years ago that this market sports radio market, and really just the coverage of sports in the market, rather it be television radio historically or just now fan creators, which is a big thing, I would have expected there to be more Indiana Hoo's your presence than there is, not nearly as much as U of L or nearly as much
as UK. But we're like, I mean, heck, I'm right across the river from Indiana right now. A lot of people listen to us in Indiana. I have family that lives in Indiana. We're not that far actually from Bloomington. And again it's always been this way, But when you really consider it, I think most would be surprised if you just ended up here and you realize how close you are to another humongous institution in a big fan base in Indiana. The Louisville market.
Again, they get.
Covered obviously, there's certain TV stations here in town, I think that cover Indiana a little bit more extensively than others, and it's those who have bigger sports departments and those who haven't who have alums who went to Indiana. But nonetheless, I say all that to say, maybe the fact that they just don't get talked about like one of the local programs at all to the extent that you get with U of L in UK. Maybe that's why I
didn't realize this. But I've never once thought about Indiana the Hoosiers not having a mascot, never even once.
Cannsidered it.
Austin, I know you haven't lived here as long as I have, but aren't I mean, I think you kind of said the same thing at the start of the show, like you never realized it right.
Now, I would shocked, And and when I think about it, like what would it be, I can tell you, uh, yeah, go play.
So I thought when I saw this, by the way, this story, I don't know when it got put out at WDRB its Rick Bose that you put it out there, and I hadn't even read it yet, but I just saw the link to it right when we started the show.
I thought he was.
Covering that they're going to create a mascot. Technically, Indiana has a mascot, they just haven't used it in a long long time. So they're bringing back Hoosier the Bison and it's pure the Bison.
Yeah, Hoosier the.
Bison is apparently going to be I don't know if I like that. I mean, if they were starting from scratch to your point though, like what would it like?
What would it be like that?
Like a Hoosier is is? I mean, like a Hoosier is basically like West Virginia being the Mountaineers right their mascot at West Virginia WVU is a mountaineer human being like a man. Can you create a Hoosier and just like that you that you strut out there at halftime to perform with the dance team to be on the field before they to run onto the field with your with your football team, like it would be a real force.
And you know, everybody's a mountaineer has had such a such a distinct look as far as the different people that have been the live mountaineer at games or the the leprechaun at Notre Dame, they've all looked the same, right, It's been the same thing, just a different version of it as somebody gets old or gets fired or whatever it may be. I think that, and this is such a West Virginia thing that you wouldn't believe it, but it's true. The Mountaineer that was the mountaineer a while back,
maybe fifteen years ago something like that. He got fired because he got a bunch of deuise. So you know, when you're the mountain exactly true of the name, it seems like.
So anyways, well, I just always thought that, I mean, if anything with Indiana go with like I mean, I don't know, like Stanford has like the tree, right, it's just and that's real stupid though, Christmas Tree. And then like let's say, well this is the pros. But like the Phillies they got like the Philly fanatic, Like I don't know what that thing is.
It's like, have you seen what the devison looks like? No, I haven't.
I just DMD you on Twitter the link that has a look at what because they're bringing it back because it was actually a thing from nineteen sixty five to nineteen sixty nine.
They looks terrifying.
Yeah, and again as to what I just talked about, when I think of a Hoosier. I don't really know what I would think of as far as a mascot at all, but I certainly don't think bison.
You know what I'm saying, Like, Yeah, I don't know.
Isn't there like a Buffalo trace up in Indiana somewhere I don't called Buffalo Trace, not the distillery, but we used to go to like a beach looking area when I was a kid, and they called it Buffalo Trace or Chase.
So I don't know.
I'm I'm kind of learning on the go here as I look into this on the air. Maybe they called themselves like maybe they weren't the Hoosiers, they were the Indiana, the IU Bison. And then it just and then they realized that Indiana. I don't even really know where the name Hoosier comes from. I just know it's I think of Indiana.
If you can make up the name like Hoosier, then you can make up your own damn mascot.
Yeah.
So anyways, Uh, the belief is that they're gonna they're gonna make it official because there's gonna be it looks like, uh, yeah, there's gonna be a fan event on Wednesday night, I guess in Bloomington that's gonna feature both Kurt Signetti and newly hired hoops coach Darien DeVries. So apparently this is this They're they pretty much confirmed it with some sposh social media stuff that they are doing this, and I guess it'll be official at this at this fan event
tomorrow night. But with IU football gaining momentum after the CFP appearance CFP Playoff appearance last year, the Bison is expected a boost fan engagement in merchandise sales.
I don't think so. I mean, I don't know how much it's gonna hurt it or if it will hurt it at all, but it.
Will be exciting for a couple of weeks.
Yeah, but it's so.
But imagine us as Louisville and knowing they were gonna throw something at us that is like that's not us, and it would be so uncomfortable and weird and feel forced to where like if you're an Indiana fan and you're like, Okay, I get it, we don't have a mascot.
But this this, this is a is a forest.
Yeah, Like I remember I was pissed off when Adidas gave us the murder bird uniforms when we played Auburn and the Chick fil A kickoff classic because they put a bird on there that's quite literally not our mascot, not even like a version of it. It had green eyes and just looked like a really scary alien.
Type bird, a scary bird.
So I mean, anyways, Indiana's getting a mascot and I never even realized that they didn't have one, which I think probably makes you realize. And I'm not saying just because of me. I bet there's a lot of people that have been fined with just Hoosiers. It's the Hoosiers, and we don't have an animal or a human that runs out and is the actual mascot. But like, if you really, you know, you haven't needed it, then why do you need it now? Maybe because it might Like
to me, it just seems like a real force. But I'm sure those that were alive and thriving in the sixty five through sixty nine era when they had the bison, maybe they'll be excited.
But our guy, Kenny Johnson's gonna be there.
He's going to be in the building, that's right, which I'm glad you mentioned that. Talk about a talk about an unpredictable, unbelievable type of scenario. Here were Kenny Johnson, which when I say Kenny Johnson, I think a lot of people know who I'm talking about if you're a Louis a basketball fan. But I don't know, maybe you forgot or maybe you just don't know because he hasn't been an assistant coach here for a long time. But Kenny Johnson has been hired officially back at Indiana and
he's joining Darian Devree's staff. And this is after being at Indiana more than ten years ago. So Kenny Johnson was at Indiana for I guess three seasons and at the time, you know, college basketball was a lot different.
But he was Tom Crean's ace recruiter, a guy that has you know, been I mean at that time, I mean again, recruiting was so different because you like, these guys were powerful as hell assistant coaches who had the relationships with the shoe companies on the circuit, and they were young, relatable, They could go into homes parents and players loved them. They had a lot of charisma. I mean, nowadays you just talk about money and you got to be somewhat relatable. And it'll all work out. I mean,
you don't need these guys, no offense to them. What they bring to the table just isn't quite as valuable or really you know, being sought after by college basketball head coaches because money is what they need. So anyways, he was great at Indiana and then Rick Pritino stole him. So he came to Louisville in twenty fourteen and was here until it all came to an end with Rick and Kenny. I mean since I mean he was he was involved in the I mean, did he get a show cause, I mean.
He was involved in the Prime Bow.
Yeah, the whole brun I mean, here's here, here's what is believed when it comes to and I believe this myself. I can't prove it, and you know I don't have all details, but I I mean, I believe that Kenny Johnson leaving for Louisville and Louisville essentially you know, taking Indiana and Tom Crane's best recruiter that led to the ultimate downfall of the Patino era. And it's because the
Katina palle stuff. There's really no way to talk. I've tried many times, and I've never been able to find a comfortable spot because it's just an uncomfortable thing to talk about. But the Katina pal stuff, the fact that there was an ounce of truth to what she said is gross and that's awful, and punishment was needed and we got punished. But overall, the book became a thing because of IU people that were bothered by it and.
Ran with it.
So I think they were jealous that Kenny Johnson left and they'd heard some things about what went on on a recruiting visit and they got into with Katina Powell. When I say they, I mean people who own a publishing company that published books, and they put it in motion. It became clearly a very sensationalized story because of the nature of what went on and clearly her being on TV. I mean, she's she's something. I mean, that's the best
thing to say without being, you know, a jerk. But I think you all know what I mean when I say she's she's a real piece of work. But like, it all became a huge story, and it was I think rooted because Indiana wanted to get Louisville in trouble because they were bothered at Kenny Johnson left, so he's not tied to anything that went on at Minardie Hall and whatnot. But I think the whole plan to try to blow up Louisville was due to at least one of the big factors, and why this all came together
was because of bitterness towards Kenny Johnson leaving. Well then you know Kenny was in fact involved in the in the Brian Bowen thing, and that ultimately was the biggest nail on the coffin for the Patino era because it all ended whenever we realized that Ruck Patino was coached too.
And what always worried me always about Louisville eventually getting like real big punishment was that in court under oath, both Brian Bowen's father and Kenny Johnson, I believe, were I mean confirmed that Kenny Johnson paid him money and like he while Brian Bowen was already here. They met up at a gas station or some market in downtown and he gave him money, but it was his own
money out of his own personal account. He was talking about how he was talking about how he hoped his wife didn't ask where the money had come from because there wasn't really big organ there wasn't a big orchestrated plan to get Brian Bowen paid by UFL coaches. It was all a plan to get him paid through like
Adidas somehow. And even if you were on the even if you were kind of in the know that something was going on, anybody with a brain didn't talk about it, didn't address it because it was all being done by people behind the scenes, and the more loosely out there, the better likelihood you have of it blowing up, just like it happened with the Adidas and everybody that was involved.
But Brian Bowen's dad kind of cornered Kenny Johnson like wanting money, and Kenny was, you know this time they're in private, like they don't they don't know that they're being recorded. But he's like, what are you talking about money? Like I don't have any money? Like what do you what do you mean? Like you know, what is this about kind of thing, And Kenny Johnson, I think, just in fear of like it blowing up, just stupidly decided to give him I think it was like twelve hundred
dollars or something like that. And but that was, you know, that was that was the one thing that worried me because regardless of how unpredictably the NC double a is, regardless of how long the actual thing played out, like by the way I think Louisville being in limbo not knowing their fate for so long. To me, that's basically like having the death penalty.
It really is.
So we didn't get that, but we kind of did, if you know what I mean. But what I'm getting at is it was under oath, meaning, look, the NC double doesn't have subpoena power. They can't force people to talk. What they can do is claim you were under oath in federal court and this is what was said. This is the best way we have to get legitimate information. We are taking what was said under oath. We can't force any you know, that's the best way they would
have to get information. So it was under oath that while Louisville was on probation for the Minority Hall stuff, Tina pal stuff, Kenny Johnson gave a player's dad money. I mean that that technically means you've I mean like that if they wanted to, they could have given you the most. To me, they could have given you the death penalty. I don't think that's realistic this day and age at all. And I also and I also think the IARP process, which by the way, how random is that.
That's a process you had to fight the NCAA that now no longer exists. It was available for a brief.
Amount of time. Louisville went through it, and I.
Believe that was a big factor in how they were able to I mean again, didn't make sense to punish then many years later whenever, quite literally, you'd be taking away a potential postseason from players that were in middle school when this stuff happened. So anyways, Yeah, Kenny Johnson, he ended up getting fired at Louisville, and I think he still lived here for a little while. And if you remember, Patino would always make his coaches lose weight
who were really big. Scotty Davenport lost a ton of weight when he joined Rick Staff, Kenny Johnson lost a ton of weight. Why King Jones lost a ton of weight and then Kenny had put a lot of it back on at the time, and I'd run into be in Louisville. I just felt sad thinking, you know, I really don't know what you know, his direct level was in anything as far as the wrongdoing. But like his you know, his he kind of his life got kind of blown up, and I don't really know if that
was fair to him. But anyways, he was out of basketball for a little while, and then he landed on.
LaSalle's staff for a couple of years.
And then after that he ended up not coaching for a couple of years, and then he resurfaced with Archie Miller at Rhode Island, where he was there for a couple of seasons, and then last year he spent one season at Georgetown coaching with At Cooley as an assistant, and then now he's moving to coach at Indiana once again for Darian Debris. So clearly he's a guy that despite the history with the NCAA, he's a guy that head coaches won around and you know, good for him.
It's just why you imagine telling anybody or even Kenny Johnson, and you know, twenty seventeen eighteen, when all this would happen, that eight years later or whatever the timeline would have been, you'd be back in college at a high level university at Indiana. I mean, it's just college athletics has changed so much. I mean, there was such coverage around here, specifically about all of this. Brian Bowen Adidas, the FBI having the press conference saying we got your playbook, We're
coming for you. And now that's just the way it works where you have to pay, I mean you have to pay to get players. In fact, now schools have to share revenue. You've got this twenty plus million dollars that's going to be paid out by big schools, the bigger schools in sports every year because they have to share revenue. It's just it was such an archaic thing for generations as far as how they wanted to run amateurism.
And then now here you are, and it's a completely different world and a pretty quick amount of time almost kind of hard to you know, even like keep up with to be honest with you, let's see here, we don't have a whole lot of time left. Again, we're going to hand it off to the Bats. In fact, we're gonna hand it off to Nick Curran as he gets set to broadcast for the Louis of Bats this evening, and I'm trying to seek and trying to use the
amount of time we have here. Oh yeah, this is just something I wanted to to mention just because you don't typically get as excited for freshmen as you used to, just because now guys stick around in college longer and you can have really good freshmen and they can be impactful.
And it's not that you don't like them, it's just the bigger additions made to your roster now that really give you a sense for how good you're going to be, or transfers more so than freshmen unless you've got, you know, a really really good freshman that might be one of the best freshmen in the country, might be a lottery pick after one year. And that's that's Mikel Brown junior. I mean, and he's made it to campus. He posted
some stuff over the weekend. I guess he moved in, and he's posted some stuff on his Instagram of him working out of the facility. And again, that's what you would expect. And it's really not exciting as far as just seeing it. But this is something that used to be a big deal freshmen showing up. They finally made it to campus, and you know, now you don't really worry about a kid not showing up because there's likely a lot of money at play for kid. For said
kid to show up, and I'm gonna have to. This is going to be an unusual experience for me as a Louisville fan, because, as we've discussed before, there's been some good freshmen clearly that have played at Louisville, made a big impact, helped you with some of the better teams we've had around here. I mean, look at never nervous purpose. I mean clearly, freshmen have at times been counted upon and played a big role. Montrez Harrell on
that national championship team. He didn't average a lot of points, but man, he made an impact. He was a factor in why you were as good as you were. But I can't remember the last time, maybe ever, there's been a freshman that is entering his career at Louisville that not only is expected to be this good, but a guy that we're like, I mean well aware that he's a big piece to what we do. Like he need as a freshman for Louisville to have the type of season that a lot of folks expect them to have.
And if you haven't paid attention, they're viewed to be one of the preseason top ten teams in the country by just about everybody to be honest with you. And part of that is because freshman Michel Brown Jr. Is in the mix here, and it's just it's just gonna be husual. Like for like last year, anything you got and I think you got enough to where he helped you.
And I also happened to think.
That he's got a really really bright future and you saw the upside. But like last year, anything that can I roostd was just a bonus to me, right, Like he was a freshman that would get minutes here and there and you'd see.
The upside like it was the old school way.
Well now, I mean not only because of how good mckel brown Junior is expected to be, but also because you know he's your point guard.
He's the guy.
Not to say that you're not gonna have other guys in the backcourt that can help you. Clearly they've got some other good guards they've added from the portal. Kobe Rodgers is going to be healthy, but you've got the number one point guard in the country coming in this year according to twenty four to seven Sports Composite. So again, the expectation is that he's gonna.
Be really, really, really good.
And again I'm trying to rack my brain as far as the last time there was such expectation on a freshman to be really really good, and it probably was Samato Samuels and let's be honest, louisvill was really really good with him. He also played alongside t will and Earl Clark when he was a freshman in that group, but he was a big He started every game and at times I think, you know, even as a freshman, would lead you in scoring the long side lottery pick.
So I guess Tomato was the last time. But with Smarto man, he's one of those guys that even back then in the NBA was in a spot to where his game really didn't translate to the to the NBA. Like I don't know if I mean, he was like one of the number one players in the country, one of the top players in the country coming out of high school. But I never remember there being a whole lot of hype about one and done or going to the NBA. But he was really good in college for US, not not Eleape.
It was good.
But imagine if he stayed in college four years, how good he would have been. When it's all said downe he would have been one of these prototypical bigs in the last two three years that just stuck around forever and you knew they probably wouldn't play in the NBA. But man, they were really good players, right like Hunter Dickinson and Amando Baykot like that could have been SMARTO and he would have you know, he was Actually again, I would say this, he was better than I even
remembered at Louisville. I think the expectations were so high that maybe I just didn't see it that way at the time, but he was. I mean, he was really good as a freshman alongside a really really good team, and then also as a sophomore, that team wasn't as good. That's the team if you remember that lost in the first round of California the rakeem Buckles game that Austin
and I talked about actually not that long ago. But as a sophomore, I mean, he averaged fifteen point three a game to go along with seven boards, shot fifty two percent from the field. So in two seasons, I mean, he was he was really good and I never even really considered I just I felt un I felt overall, yeah, that was kind of an underwhelming career. But that's not fair to him because it's just he only played two years and he was he scored nine hundred and forty two points in two seasons.
I mean, that's that's.
Pretty good for a guy that started every single game he played here. By the way, So again, if if Michael if mckel brown Jr. Is productive in a way as a freshman that Smarto was, I'd say that's a pretty good recipe for Louis Well. And it's not as if they need him to be the best guard in the ACC them to be a good team. He's playing alongside really, really good players, I think it bodes well
for everybody involved, right. I mean, if he can create plays and be dynamic and really be a real weapon for you, that'd be great as far as just you know, scoring, But he's also going to be out there kicking it to some of the best shooters in the ACC. And he's gonna have guys veterans that can run the floor like Cason Pryor and the Javon Hadley who's kind of a Swiss army kipe. They can do a little bit
of everything for you. Pick and roll action with Sonny Frew, I mean I mean, there's obviously, when you're as good as MIKEL.
Brown Jr.
Is, there's a lot of teams you could just be thrown on too, and you could really benefit from playing alongside said talent. However, I do think the uh, I really do think that that Louisville's pieces could make it to where he's He could easily be a eleven twelve points, six and a half assists a game, and it would it would be just it would just be any other night for him. All Right, it's coffee and company if you'll about Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We
were about to wrap this thing up here shortly. We've got louisvill Bat's action coming your way, and then of course the rest of this week.
And that's all she wrote.
I haven't really given it much thought until like the last twenty four hours that this is it. This is the final week for me. And again I'm not like I'm not leaving leaving. I'm just leaving this station and going down the hall to a different station. So you'll hear me mention that throughout the week, just because I
want to make sure people are aware. I assume most people are but I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but yeah, after today, three more shows and that's it, which makes me sad, but hey, it's also really exciting and we'll finish strong.
So have a good evening everybody.
We're back at it tomorrow, three o'clock, right here on Sports Talk seven ninety s