It's time for coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
All right, let's get it started, Ladies and gentlemen, our number two here, four o'clock on a Monday afternoon. Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's Nick Coffee. That's me, hence the name Coffee and Company. The company man mister John Aldens alongside today. And he's been here for a while. But I was out last week on vacation, and I'm happy to be back. A lot to get to and we are going to talk some loulf of basketball.
Trust me.
I was able to watch both of those exhibition games if you want to call him that, over there in the Bahamas, and I don't care about level of competition. I still was very excited to see I mean really from top of the bottom. I mean, first of all, you get a chance to see all these guys play for the first time ever.
I mean, I have no problem in admitting it.
I'm somebody that watches a lot of college basketball, probably more than most and outside of Chucky Hepburn, I really don't. I mean, I really don't know if I've watched any of the other guys and remembered it, you know what I mean. Like, I didn't watch a lot of Long Beach State basketball that was where, of course Trey Ore played.
I watched by U a little.
Bit, but I don't remember a ton about Noah Waterman, at least from you know, from those games. So I think some people probably feel like there may be you know, maybe they're being a bad fan by acknowledging it. Look, this is not normal. They just added an entirely new team.
Everybody is new on this roster, so you know, just to see them play for the first time was exciting, and I'll give you some big picture takeaways as much as I can from you know that kind of setting a couple of games in the Bahamas against you know, competition, that's not great. But yeah, I'm super excited about year one for the Pat Kelsey era, and now just sucks. We gotta wait months before we get a chance to see these guys again. All right, let's bring him in.
He's mister Jeff Greer, and Jeff been a while since we chatted. Before we get into the big news, I have to know how's your summer going. Some are going good still.
Yeah, man, it's too hot. It's too hot. But other than that, yeah, I having a great time.
It's fun having a little kid who can actually like start to do stuff and like like's getting in the water and all those things. I know, Yeah, I have plenty of experience with that. So yeah, we're having a good summer. It seems like you guys are too.
Yep, no doubt about it.
My son is just now the age where he's getting to the point where he's you know, I mean he's always been into sports as much as someone can, but men, there was a big difference from three to four to where like now he you know, he understands more.
He's more competitive.
So it's kind of like I got a bro, you know, not just you know, a human that I have to keep alive and take care of. Like we're doing, We're having a good time together. So yeah, I holp you with the fane, keep the good summer vibes going, and I know you guys over at Soccer Holdings had some some big news exciting news to share today, as the United States women's national soccer team is coming back to Louisville first time in what twenty years.
Yeah, first time in twenty years, and I honestly, when we first started these conversations, I thought it had been twenty five years, But it turns out they played here a couple times between nineteen ninety nine, which of course was the famous World Cup win at the Rose Bowl and the penalty shootout and all that stuff and really kind of considered the landmark moment that the women's national
team arrived on the scene in American sports culture. But they played at Cardinal Stadium in their celebratory victory tour after that World Cup, and then they came back a couple more times, I believe between ninety nine and four. But yeah, this is a huge deal for our city. They're very selective about where they go, and it's a big big kudos to our general manager Ryan Dell, who used to work for US Soccer to land this.
It's a big economic boost.
Obviously, they're gonna have a lot of people coming into town from the region to come watch this game.
But it's also great for soccer here because.
It will show off the stadium, It'll it'll show off the facilities they'll practice over here at our training center, and it doesn't hurt to show off our facilities to potential free agents too.
Who play for the national team.
So all in all, just a really great opportunity for this city and for our club.
It makes sense for them to be selective as far as where they want to go for the for these kind of matches. But what do you think it is they look for specifically in that? Is it just you know, a community that will have that they'll have a lot of fans show up because they are big on soccer, is it?
You know?
I mean, I just maybe that's not a question you can answer directly, but I'm just curious as to what specifically they look for. Because you're right, then picking Louisville is a great sign not only for this city as a sports city, but it's it's certainly big for the growing community of supporters around here.
Yeah, it's it's a nod to And look, we know this from from all of our years being around basketball and football and obviously golf here in Louisville and hosting these events. You know, Louisville is a good events city. It's great hospitality. With the Derby obviously baked in, you already kind of have the annual ability to show off your hospitality. But we know the NCAA tournament has been
here a whole lot. We know obviously you know PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup and all these different events have been coming here for a reason. And so when they're looking around, you know, one you want to find a willing partner. And of course we were like from the get go, I mean, we pursued them to bring them here. But you need to have great facilities, which we we do have. I don't know how many people.
Know this in Louisville.
It's something to be really proud of, but we have some of the best what are considered some of the best practice facilities in stadium in American soccer period and that's including MLS, that's including NWSL the highest level all the way down. These are outstanding facilities. And then on the women's side in particular, I mean the training center is probably in the very very highest echelon in the world. So as that part of the game catches up, so
they look for facilities. Certainly the mayor helped in the Louisville Sports Commission and our friends and Louisble Tourism. You need to have all of that aligned and have some marketing, and then the biggest thing, Nick is, you know, we have to have a minimum fifteen thousand capacity at our stadium, so we're going to get bleachers brought in. Sports Commission
really helped with that. We'll have some bleachers brought in on the open end of the stadium to fill it in a little bit more so that there's more places to sit versus the standing room capacity that we normally have. But once we were able to kind of fulfill all of those things.
I mean, they were ready to go.
And they always like coming to newer places or different places than the same old cities that they usually go to for these games.
It's wild for me to think about the US women's national team playing at any point at Cardinal Stadium that is now you know, doesn't exist anymore, But I guess back then that really would have been the only place you could have put it. Now we have this phenomenal stadium right there in downtown Louisville that is probably the best thing visibly you can see from that stretch there on sixty four and seventy one. It just looks absolutely amazing. One of the things when it comes to the growth
of soccer in the community. I know you didn't grow up here, but obviously you know you're it's soccer is
a big part of your meets your career now. I mean, have you heard from others that have been around the soccer community for you know, maybe generations, maybe decades as far as like just where we are as a city that supports this sport now compared to last time we were here, Because I feel like even within United States women' soccer, there's probably not a ton of people still involved that you know, maybe there is that would have been there around that time, But I feel like this
could be a good storyline in the soccer world nationally that Wow, this city of Louisville, Kentucky. You know, people think Derby, people think basketball lois slugger, but man, they really have come a long way when it comes to the sport of soccer. Mean, they wouldn't be coming here to do this if that wasn't the case. But I feel like this could probably give you more attention towards that than anything you guys have done.
Yeah, look, it's this is this is It's been a huge summer for our entire organization. We had one of the biggest clubs in Germany come play here. Just last week Eintracht Frankfurt. They are historically a very top level team in Germany. Not you know, there's a couple of teams ahead of them in the pecking order, but still
a team that is well respected. To have them come here and play lou City last week was really cool and they had rave reviews to bring back to Germany, which is important because the other piece of news was that FIFA named US as one of the World Cup training sites for twenty twenty six, when the Men's World Cup is here, and that's a big thing too, is to be able to say, hey, we're going to have
a team come train here. I don't think we know who that is going to be yet, but we're gonna have one of the forty eight teams in that World Cup come and train in Louisville and be based in Louisville.
So you know, they'll stay at you know, probably the Omni or one of the nice hotels downtown, right and and they'll be around, they'll be in the facility and so this just adds another element to that is this great summer that we're having just you know, shows how far the investment in this sport has come.
There's always been a base.
Here in Louisville.
Look, Louisville is a population center, and so that means soccer is going to be popular here. Soccer has been popular for our entire lives in terms of people playing it. But now it's about the investment of.
Building facilities and.
Obviously with the start of Loose City and then adding racing and the academy that we have here, it's just very much grown on the last decade. And yeah, to your point, you know, if you talk to like, go talk to Amina Ekech former U of l Legend and UFL Legend period and now a pro played here for a couple of years and talk to her about what soccer was like when she was seven or ten years old in Louisville compared to now fifteen years later, and she'll tell you. I mean, it is just it's been
a glow up. As the young folks say, it's been really cool to see it all pop up so quickly.
So you mentioned the Louisll Sports Commission as well as Mayor Greenberg and his team. You know, when people bring up like why isn't you know, why isn't lou City in MLS. Why don't we even have a you know, a G League team, Like, there's a lot of people who want professional sports to work to be here. You know, you guys obviously have done that at soccer holdings with both Racing and Louse City. But you know, there's always talks about potentially Louisville being an NBA city, which I'm
not really sure if that'll ever actually happen. But my point is this, you know, how important is it for you guys to have that support from the Sports Commission, from the mayor in his office. I think there's some you know, it makes sense people who aren't involved in it wouldn't really know the process, all the things that you have to do to like bring these events here like this this you mentioned FIFA is going to have you guys host for the for the women's national team
and all that kind of stuff. Like do you since the support is there from the community to where if you guys want to be able to host and you want to be able to do these big things that those people in office again, the mayor and the Sports Commission, Like I just get the sense that there's a whole lot of support to do whatever you guys need to to get done to make these kind of things happen.
And that's awesome to see.
Yeah, of course, yeah, it takes a lot of effort. And again to your point, like since moving so to speak, inside the walls instead of being a reporter and covering these things and talking about them, you really do get to see just how invested everyone is, but also just how much time things take and how much attention to
detailed things take. I mentioned the bleacher bleachers earlier. Well that took that took a I think at least two different mentions and meetings and then a phone call to a phone call to a phone call to line up the bleachers. And just something as simple as that you would think, you know, oh it's simple, just get some bleachers. Well now you've got a trans support them from a
different part in the city. I mean, it's it. There's a lot of that stuff, and obviously there's some of that at a higher level, and there's some stuff that's even more minute school than that, or that's the wrong word, but but even more of a minuche than that. That requires a lot of time and effort and a whole lot of people involved.
But yeah.
I mean, look this city, we love our sports, right, I mean, we love sports here.
It doesn't matter.
Like I said earlier, we're talking about golf and horse racing in the same conversation as football and basketball and soccer and and these sports are all over the map. I mean, shoot, if they had a tennis tournament here, I think.
That would be packed too.
I know Cincinnati does well with theirs, so you know, across the board, the PLL again had their All Star has had their All Star stuff here, so that.
Stuff is packed too.
So the biggest thing I think Nick, as we.
Go forward, and I would say this, if there's an NBA team someday that comes to Louisville. I know that's a very divisive topic among people at the Lightning rout of the top is you just always need to make sure that there is corporate alignment.
And what I mean by that, it's something.
I have not thought about a whole lot until I got into this business, is you don't just need the mayor. You don't just need sports commission, Tourism Bureau. A lot of the people in like the nonprofit world and the civic part of everything, but you need businesses to line up too, and you need money behind things, and you need them to not just write checks. You need them to write checks, but also have a staff that wants that,
that wants the excitement. And we've got some great partners who have been very involved over the years, and you just need that persistently and consistently to get that stuff up and running and then sustain it. So it's a big part of all of this, and I think Louisville has done a great job of building that up.
Well, you've clearly been very busy. But I got asked, did you get a chance to see any of the Bahamas games last week? Any highlights anything?
No?
Well, yeah, I saw some highlights I saw obviously.
I mean, you know, I'm I'm very close with with Mike Rutherford and I always his tweets just always seem.
To find my timeline at the time that I'm checking my.
My Twitter feed and was making me laugh about forty and oh and all that stuff.
But look, what are you laughing? On the table?
I love that. I love it.
Uh, it's definitely on the table.
I nobody's played a game yet, but but.
No, I did the so I wrote the Lindy's Uh. I do the Lindy's magazine a SEC preview, and I write the Louisville preview the last couple of years.
And okay, you know, little humble bread. Okay, I pick up the Lindy's every year.
Maybe there you go, there you go.
So but no, I I I talked to the editors there about about Louisville and and you know, like you said right before I came on, I mean, this is an entirely new team and entirely new coaching staff, and I know there's some familiar faces helping out, but it's fascinating.
To me what could happened. The potential is extremely.
High, and to me, on paper, Louisville has enough talent to be very much a team in the mix in the top like five or six in the ACC.
And like just from a talent standpoint and what those guys did at other schools, you know, I just I feel like that's a really good roster. I'm probably most intrigued by what they do up front. I think they're gonna be a little bit of a leaner, leaner side up front and space the floor a little bit more. I think James Scott is the guy who's got to really step in as a shop blocker and be that guy for them.
But but no.
I mean it's fully impressive and I think you know, Pat Kelsey has done exactly what Louisville needed.
Somebody to do over the last four or five months. So I'm sure they've sold some seat and tickets.
I don't know if you have that inside info or not.
I'm sure they have.
Oh yeah, they're they're heading the right direction with that, that's for sure.
Yeah, that's what you need, Nick.
Yeah, I mean, even if it's summertime games in the Bahamas, you just need to build some excitement.
There's certainly plenty of talent there, no.
Doubt about it.
Couldn't have said it better Jeff. As always, we appreciate the time. Congrats to everybody over there at Soccer Holdings. I know there's so much work that goes in to everything that you guys do, So keep it up and we'll be in touch.
My friend.
Awesome, thanks for having me, Nick, I appreciate it.
No problem.
Again that is Jeff Breer. Always appreciate his time and enjoy the conversation as well. We'll take a quick break and we'll carry that conversation into the next segment in regards to Louisville basketball, because yeah, I mean, I've I mean, I could just sit here and give you my thoughts on every single player that I watched play last week. I don't think that would be very interesting, certainly wouldn't make for great radio. So I'll condense it just with
some big takeaways that I have. And yes, I'm aware that you know they played two teams in the Bahamas, one school from Canada and one team called the Bahamas Select who. I have no clue if though the level of you know, talent on those teams. But I knew that going in that it wasn't going to be about hey, they're going to go play some elite teams, but still just seeing the personnel that Pat Kelsey has to work with, seeing the style of play that this group's going to
have exciting stuff, no doubt. So we'll talk more about that as we take you up till six o'clock. Again, it's coffee and Company and we are fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, coffee and company rolling along here on a Monday afternoon on Sports Talk seven ninety. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. I hope you guys missed me as
much as I missed you. I mean I did miss you know, I missed the show and I'm not here, but it was probably the best vacation I've had as far as just you know, not really thinking a whole lot about work. Which I don't say that to present myself as somebody that just works harder than everybody. I just look, I'm I'm wired a little bit differently mentally,
so like I worry about I'm a worrier. It's like when I'm not here, I worry about, well, you know what, they probably are going to realize it don't even need me, probably my life show and I'm probably just going to hand the gig off to John, the company Man's going to take the reins. And you know, like I just I don't know why my mind goes in the direction that it goes. But I would have thought had I known all that was gonna be going on last week while I was out, that I would have been thinking
about it and worried about it. But I was enjoying myself and my wife. She's great, by the way, but she didn't even like give me any kind of a side eyed look or make any kind of a snarky comment whenever I was watching Pat Kelcey and the Cards on my phone at dinner on Tuesday night and then during the day at the pool and at the beach on Thursday. Because you know, she understands the excitement that I have for this new era that is the Pat
Kelsey air for Louisville basketball. So I went in thinking, okay, look, don't get too high, don't get too low, because you know, take it for what it is. It's an exhibition game where they're probably not looking to go out and win by fifty. They're looking to see what these guys do
in this setting. Right, it's not a real game, but you know, there's going to be a clock, there's gonna be referees, it's going to be televised, like, you know, let's see what these guys do in these kind of situations when they're playing against somebody else that's not you know, one of their teammates. So again I told myself, look, don't get too high, don't get too low. But I got way too high because I love this team.
I do.
I don't know if they have you know, the roster that you look at and say, Wow, this team could win a national championship.
I mean I don't. I'm not there, But as far as what you have to work with the pieces.
I mean, I don't know how you couldn't be ecstatic about this this upcoming season. And I know, and I'm saying that without the obvious elephant in the room, which is that, hey, we just know we're not going to be as bad as we were the last two years. And the bar is so low because you know, Kenny Payne lost to Division two exhibition opponents in each of the two seasons he was here, So like, throw all that out the window.
I mean, it's not something you can just ignore.
Like Louisville fans are going to be more excited about beating bums on the schedule because you know, some of those bums beat you in recent years. Hex some of those bums, you know you barely escaped with a victory
against them. So I know all that going in. But that's like I think, even if you had a team that was coming off of a tournament appearance last year, you should still feel very good about the personnel that Pat Kelsey has to work with and you know, I again try not to just give some random thoughts on each of the players that you know that we watched
last week, because again, that wouldn't be interesting radio. But it's like it's it's all brand new, right, Like it's it's hard not to just go one by one and tell you, wow, did you see Javon Hadley Man. That's a guy who reminds me so much of Dwayne Sutton. And he's the perfect example of the guy that I referenced earlier that he's played college basketball for many years now. This is a guy who is a fifth year senior,
He's twenty three years old. He knows who he is as a player, and he knows where his bread is buttered, so to speak, right Like, he knows, hey, at six six two o five, there's gonna be some situations where I've got got guards on me that are smaller, and I'm gonna use that to my advantage and I'm gonna be more physical around the rim.
You know.
You know, he's a guy that has played a lot of college basketball, knows who he is as a player. I mean, Corange, that guy's silky smooth as an offensive player. I mean, he can get hot in a hurry. You see why he was packed twelve six Man of the Year with his minutes. You know, he could have fourteen points in a game where he played ten minutes just because he gets hot in a hurry, can run the floor.
You know, I think Chucky Hepburn is hard to say this without it sounding like I'm claiming he's the best player, but like, there's not another Chucky Hepburn on this team, meaning a guy who is a veteran who has been in a leadership position throughout his entire time in college basketball. At three, I mean, he was the starting point guard for Wisconsin for three years since his freshman season until his junior season, which just ended this past year. Was
a captain. I believe all three at least two of those seasons. Maybe wasn't all three, but I mean, this is a guy who's your leader. He can set the tone for you guys defensively. And then I mean, how about Cater Treure.
I mean I.
Literally got exactly what I was expecting to see out of watching him. I mean, just a unique guy six ' five, two hundred pounds, does not have to take a shot to be an impact player. He's gonna be hard to keep off the floor because I mean, he's got a high motor, long and athletic, can rebound, and I think he's become a really good passer throughout his career because he knows he can't shoot. He's not a jump shooter, and teams dare him to shoot it. So
what does he do? He doesn't take the bait. He gets in the paint and either you know, can can dunk on somebody's head or he can distribute. And then guys like Trey Ora, Noah Waterman and Case and Pryor, I mean those are your I mean I call him stretch fowards. But you know, I didn't realize Case and Pryor and Noah Watermen are nearly seven feet tall, Case
and Prior six ' ten, Waterman six' eleven. I mentioned Trairay too because he's six ' five, but he's he's got linked to where he might, you know, depending on minute distribution, he might lead this team in rebounds. So what really stood out to me is that those are guys that typically maybe not their style of maybe not them specifically as players, but like you're you know, you're full man, you're four or five in most instances, even still in basketball, if those guys get a rebound, they're
looking for a guard. Well, these guys not so much. They can they can initiate up temple play by just ripping in and running. I mean, how many times did you see case in prior get it off the glass and just go same thing with Watermen who did not play in the first game, but in the second game you can see what he brings to the table. I love this team before I saw no Waterman and then he gets out there as a six to eleven guy that can knock down the three plays with a lot
of confidence. You know this team is, They've got to pieces to be pretty damn good. Now, do they have elite talent that you feel like, you know you're going to be watching in the NBA for many years to come. Probably not. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I
don't think so. But you don't need that to be a really good basketball team in college basketball anymore, right because the days of really just banking on young eighteen nineteen year old kids, kids who really haven't accomplished a whole lot, but their name and their value is based off of potential that they may not reach until they're you know, in the NBA three four years, Like you're still going to bring in young talented players. Again, Connie Ru's the only freshman on this team.
He looked great. He's a reminder.
Oh yeah, that guy's young. He's got a lot of growing pains ahead of him, as most freshmen do in college. But man, you can see he's got a lot of potential.
He's got a lot of talent. So you know, I'm not saying that you can't still rely on guys like that, but again, if you can go get a fifth year Javon Hadley, who is a guy who did a little bit of everything for Colorado last year in the Pac twelve started all thirty six games, average twelve point six rebounds, two and a half assists, one point two steals per game.
I mean, that's a I don't want to say it's a finished product as if he can't get better at certain things, but like, that guy's probably never going to sniff the NBA draft board, but you know what, he can be a high impact player college and you can win a lot of games with these kind of players.
So you know, I feel like I've talked about most of the guys, you know, James Scott for a little worried that he might have actually gotten himself hurt in that first game, but you know, he's he's somebody that probably won't have the same kind of role and certainly
probably won't have the same amount of minutes. But like he's he's unique, like Hepburn and the fact that you really don't have another guy like that, right, he's a six ' eleven, needs to give you some some presence around the rim as a shot blocker, kind of a rim runner. Rain Smith, I mean, again, like Terrence Edwards Junior.
I mean, these are guys that again, I know it sounds as if I'm just reeling off names, like I'm telling you that this is the next dream team that's going to represent you know, the United States and the Olympics.
But when you go out and build a brand new team and you have the transfer portal and you have money through NIL that you can you can utilize to say, yeah, you know what I'm you know, I'm case in Prior, and I don't really love the fact that they're bringing in a guy who's kind of like me in Noah Waterman, who's a sixty year senior who's also a six ten six ' eleven guy who can stretch the floor and shoot.
It not ideal for me to join a team that has one of me or a guy that's kind of similar, But you know what, the nil check was pretty great, so I'm going to be able to do it. So you're you're seeing a team one through ten, one through eleven, however many they play this year. They obviously have some guys that aren't going to play because of injury, Ali Khalifa,
Kobe Rodgers, those guys. But you know, like when you get to man eight through eleven, or maybe seven through ten in your rotation on your depth chart or whatever, when you can build a roster like this with a bunch of guys who played a lot of college basketball, you really don't have much of a drop off, right, Like That's what makes That's what really stood out to me because the old ways of building a roster with no portal, with no nil you would have three or
four freshmen, you'd have I don't know, six to eight sophomores and juniors and then a few seniors like that would be your team and you would just know, okay, the freshmen they're probably not going to get a ton of minutes. Maybe one of them will turn into a guy that you can rely on when you get to March. You hope that every one of these sophomores and juniors
that came back are a better version of themself. You are confident that a couple of them will be, but the rest of them are probably just going to be who they are. And then maybe you got a guy coming back that's like a senior that's a you know, a preseason all conference player, right Like that used to be a pretty normal roster when it comes to structure,
pre nil, pre portal. Now you're like a GM. You can go out and literally get guys that give you the personnel needed to be the exact team you want to be. Now, will they be good enough overall to win at a high level, You really never know. But Pat Kelsey wanted to go get veterans, guys who have played a lot of college basketball, guys who've been a part of winning cultures. He clearly wanted to have a
lot of shooters. He's done that. He wanted to have balance and he's got that as well size, So you know, they're not humongous out there. You know, I don't like the thought of Big Frank having to play major minutes, but you know he does give it.
Again. That's another example.
That's a guy who has played it both Syracuse and at Georgia, has kind of been a career journey man who really doesn't get it extensive, extensive minutes. But you know what, we got an il. We need another body in the in the front court. Let's go get this six ' ten, two hundred and fifteen pound fifth year senior who will come in and you know, fill the role that we need. So I don't know just the way I used to look at every roster for Louisville
and really just college basketball programs in general. You know, again, it was mostly based off of like that structure that I just laid out. Now, it could be anything. Now, this won't be normal, meaning like you're not going to see this moving forward. They're not going to go get thirteen new players again next year, but if they had to, they could. So I think you'll see more a traditional mixture of young freshmen that have a lot of potential, a chunk of guys who are back, and then you'll
lose guys to the portal because you always do. That's just college basketball now, and you'll go fill four or five spots, maybe three spots, depending upon you know, it'll probably be different each year. So look, I can't wait to see these guys, but now we got to wait many months and it makes me sad. But really really enjoyed the coverage of the of the two games, I thought, I really thought rob Ostry did a good job as well as T is it TJ T.
What's his name? Oglesby? I think that sounds right. He's one of the field of sixty eight guys.
I mean, he was gushing over Louisville in like a major way, and I you know, it got me thinking, okay, man, if he sees it and he's being objective, then you know, yeah, Terrence Oglesby's name. Excuse me, but I thought they did a good job. And you know, again, I'm maybe I'm a little biased here, but I really do believe that their comments about Louisville having, you know, tournament caliber team.
I think Oglesby just put out his I guess late summer ACC rankings he has Louisville as a top five ACC team, Like I don't think that that's just that's crazy. I mean, it probably says more about the league than anything else. But again, I'll go back to what I said right after we knew the roster was officially set, and that is that it's not unfair. It's not putting too much on Pat Kelce right away to say that he has a tournament caliber team. I now feel that
even more so after watching them play. And yes, I know they played nobody's but they've got the personnel to have a good season to get to the tournament. And I have no reason to think that won't happen. I can't tell you for sure that it will. You'll we'll never know, right, it's the ultimate unknown here. But this team's gonna be fun to watch, and I think they're
gonna win a lot of games. You know, if I was forced to nitpick, and again, it would be nitpicking defensively, you know, like clearly they gave up a lot of points in the first I don't know, fifteen minutes or so of that game against the Canadian team. But I just think that's what we're gonna see, is like they're gonna value to I mean, they're gonna clearly prioritize the defense,
it's gonna be very important. But what's gonna make them really thrive and get the game played at a style they want to play.
It's gonna be offense.
It's gonna be not worrying if you got beat on defense for that possession, you get it out, create some early offense for yourself. And I think what you hope is that you get enough stops defensively and you pick your spots and you initiate fast, fast paced play, and you are built to do that better than most of your opponents. Now that may not always be the case, because you may run into a team that you know, they got the horses and they can outrun you, they
can outshoot you. I mean, I'm sure that's gonna happen at times. But overall, really impressed and I think Pat Kelsey right now as we get into August, I mean I'm not to say he's perfect, because he's not. No, he is, but like he's so far on the job. All you can do is, you know, engage with the fan base, get them excited, really generate enthusiasm, go recruit, build a roster, you know, be accessible. I mean he's done all those things almost flawlessly, to be honest with you.
And again that's not to say they haven't missed out on some guys they didn't want to get. But so far, so good for Pat Kelsey. Now we just got to wait until, you know, we actually get basketball season here, all right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side. Get at the text line fivebo two six five three zero seven ninety it's the llen N Federal Credit Union text line, and we're gonna take you up till six o'clock. So we still got an hour and some change, so
stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I didn't plan on discussing this, and I'm not sure how many people care, but we were just talking about the new world of college athletics with Nil and the portal, and really that being the reason Louisville was able to put together a brand new team and have legitimate excitement about year one. Right, there's no rebuild when you're Louisville and you have resources and you know, an advantage that
a lot of places don't have. You know, you can put a team together right away, and that's what Pat Kelsey's done. But to see this, this is just crazy to me that between Division one and Division two there are three thousand and fifty five players still in the transfer portal, So two thousand and thirty five from the Division one level have entered the transfer portal. It's college basketball players during this past season twenty twenty three, twenty
four that have not found the new school. So that that's not even guys who went from you know, D one to D two. That's guys who were D one and I guess now just have never have never found a new home. I mean, is that maybe the most not discussed component to the portal and what it's done to college athletics, like, because that can't be good, right.
It's weird yea.
And I would assume that most of these guys who are in the portal will just go back to the school that they were trying to transfer away from.
And I'm starting to see that they'll be the occasional like, hey, Utah Valley State is getting back such and such who was in the portal after averaging seventeen points a game last year, And it's because they just never found what they were looking for, right, And they have the ability to do that. They can test the market, see what's out there, and schools like that are not in a position to tell you to kick rocks because they probably
need you so. But you know, the portal is something that clearly there's a lot of opinions on it from fans of programs, and I think usually the opinion and I guess it shouldn't. I was going to say people love it if they if they benefit from it, and they hate it if they don't. But I don't know if that's legitimately the truth, because I think there are people who do love the fact that they can use the portal and go get good players because they want to be good. Everybody wants to have a good team
and have success. But you also miss the days of having a guy they would be there three four years that you can see to. I mean, look those guys who played for the TBT team last week, free them all. I mean those guys, most of them played here for many years, three four years, national championship runs for a few of them, and that's why they are legends here. I mean, you could do it for a year and
still be remembered. But you know what, they had a journey, right They were here for a while, and you got to see him, you know, go through the ups and downs, and for the most part, those guys had a lot more ups than downs.
But just to see that number, it's crazy that of THEGNA.
Filled out their final scholarship. Very random, is kind of out of the blue. Post last week a guy named Dallas James from South Carolina State.
And he wasn't like very good there, right.
No, I believe he averaged maybe a point or two a game. His big calling card is shot blocking. Okay, that's what he's going to be known for. And he probably won't play very many minutes for Indiana, but that's kind of what he'll be utilized for.
Yeah, so seven footer, he's played sparingly throughout his time at South Carolina State. As a scene, he played in twenty six games uh started fourteen, but he only averaged seven minutes per game, less than a point a game, one point three rebounds. Obviously known for shot blocking, but like that, that's that is like why not take that guy?
Right?
Like, you have one scholarship, use it or lose it. This is a guy that at least gives you presence and practice that can give you some size that you'll you know that you'll most likely see when you play other teams.
So and he's not someone who will be holding onto a scholarship for years to come. He's just a one and done guy.
Yeah, And I'm curious, like if this guy wasn't gonna go, Like if this guy didn't get the offer from Mike Woodson in Indiana, Like, would he have just been one of these guys It's like, all right, well, I guess I'm done. Maybe because I mean, like it's not uncommon at all for guys to go to Division one as either a lower like a lower recruit, or just as a guy who you know, wasn't a big recruit but somehow found it found a roster spot on a school in the MAC because of like you know, a connection
and then learn and be humbled. I'm not a Division one player, Like, I'm not going to play Division one basketball anywhere and get a lot of minutes because that level is a little bit beyond where I'm at. A lot that happens all the time, And those guys end up going to in AI schools. Maybe they go Juco and then and then bounce back somewhere else. Maybe they go D two, D three, Like there's all kinds of options.
And that's what has me curious here when I look at this breakdown from the transfer transfer portal for playing time database here, like are they counting that in? Like I don't know if those dudes end up going to an NAI school or a JUCO or Division three like whatever database they're referencing in the portal, like they may not, Like they may not, they may like there's no way they're calling every one of these guys like, hey, did
you find a school? You know what I'm saying, Like some of these guys end up at schools you'd never heard of that might have you know, four hundred students at a tiny school. So like if one, if two thousand and thirty five of these guys ended up doing that, that
wouldn't really shock me. But if if it's true that we are in the beginning of August, schools about to start everywhere and you have over two thousand college basketball players that hit the portal and never found a home, Like I'm sure every situation is different, but man, that sucks.
Like that's like these guys, you know, are leaving a college basketball experience that most would die for, and it maybe because they thought they were better than where they were or they thought, you know, to give you the old cliche that the grass would be greener. And you know, that's one thing I do feel comfortable in saying about moving forward because everybody can be in the portal and be available. I think you're going to see dudes who do put up big numbers for lousy teams of the
lower level. They're not going to get the calls they probably think they're going to get because you know what, like, no, you put up twenty four game, but man, your team won four league games the last two years, like we just that's just not that that's not what we're looking for. So anyways, the coaches poll is out. I don't have any real strong opinions on it, but we'll talk about it.
On the other side.
No Louisville in the preseason top twenty five coaches, Paul, And again I'm fighting some urges here. When I say urges, I mean the urge to play the disrespect card. But I don't want to sound like such a homer, but like, I don't know how Louisville can have a ten win season and you know, playing the ACC Conference championship game end up beating teams last year that yeah, maybe there
wasn't a big time wow. They knocked off a top five team, but they beat a lot of teams who had winning records, went to bowl games, did not play any and they played eleven Power five opponents in the regular season. And yet they just don't seem to be getting much love at all. And I think everybody's gonna be wrong about how good this Louisville team can be.
But we shall see.
Stick with us five o'clock hours next right here on Sports Talk seven ninety