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, at his hour number three, the five o'clock hour on a Wednesday afternoon.
Nick Coffee.
That's me, the company man, mister John Allen alongside today and we are collectively coffee and Company. And that's not just the two of us, that's you guys as well. So thanks for hanging out with us. If you are just now joining us, welcome in. You've missed out, but hey,
at least you get at least you get something. You can also listen to the whole show whenever it ends on the podcast if you, you know, if you're really feen in for a three hour fix of a of the show, which I guess technically it's about two hours total when it comes to content. But yeah, however you're listening,
wherever you're listening, we certainly appreciate you. So I haven't talked a whole lot about the Olympics, other than just the occasional story that does get a lot of attention, and it you know, I lied to myself once again. Next time in twenty twenty eight. I'm just gonna know going in, don't even act like you're gonna get into the Olympics, because I've said it now for I think the last three Olympics.
Do you think there will be an extra incentive since we're hosting in twenty.
Eight maybe, I mean potentially, Like any that's a long time away, so maybe by then I'll be like, oh no, Nick, You're definitely going to do it this time around, And you know, I'll probably just be lying to myself. But one thing I have learned about the Olympics in the last couple of days that fascinates me is that some of these jobs that exist within the Olympic Games, that I mean are serious jobs. They have to be done
by somebody, and I don't think you get paid. In fact, that's what I was trying to dig up real quick during the break there. These are like a lot of people who work at these kinds of st I mean, there's a lot of people that work at sporting events that do it to volunteer, just to be there and be around it.
Like a lot of the staffers you see that work at like Louisville.
Football games, basketball games, helping out with like you know, whatever needs to be, whatever's needed. Like they're doing it just to help to volunteer. In fact, whenever we had the PGA Championship here in Louisville, if you guys remember, there was a ton of volunteers that they needed to help out. But like that was the key word volunteers. You don't get paid. In fact, you have to pay for I think like the like the official gear that you wear to show that you're a volunteer. So you're not,
I mean, you're you're paying to be around it. I guess you have to pay for a ticket. But yeah, these jobs, there's four of them that I just think are hilarious. One of them is uh is in the swimming events, and it's a cap catcher. That's somebody who after somebody swims in a race and their cap comes off their head if they end up just floating in
the water or maybe they sink. There's just a dude that you know, in a speedo who doesn't have the figure that all the Olympic swimmers have that he's just tasked to dive in that water and pick up those caps because you can't have a cap floating around when another race is about to start. I mean, that doesn't seem like a very enjoyable job, but at least you can say you were a part of the Olympics in some form or fashion, right.
I guess if you really want to be in France or wherever, we.
May give you a fresh tale each time, because I mean, if you're doing it in between every race, like your towel's gonna get wet, like you just you're gonna be soggy. There's also the block builder, and that is somebody who restacks and or polishes the blocks for equestrian events when the horses kick them down right, you know, there's those blocks there that make up the the the amount of how far they got to jump up in the air
to Again. I really feel like it's nothing but word vomit right now, because I don't know any of the terminology that that is, you know, needed for talking about swimming in equestrian, know nothing about it. You could also be a camera cleaner, and this is somebody that literally just uh carries around this humongous stick that I guess has like, you know, a rag on the end of it, and you're there to clean the camera high above the diving board with what appears to be the longest mop
slash duster you've ever seen. And obviously it gets splashed every now and then and it gets wet.
I mean, and you're you know, you're in an area with a big pool.
Maybe it could just get fog up, some condensation on there, and you just carry around this humongous mop duster looking thing and you're there to they let you know. When the camera's a little foggy or wet, you get up there, you wipe it down. That would actually, I mean, you got to you gotta hold that thing up pretty high in the air. That actually seems like a job that might require, you know, a little more wor work than the others we've mentioned. And then the last one is
a balloon brandisher. That is somebody who casually walks around while brandishing a massive balloon attached to a long pole. And what this does is it preps camera angles for floor routines. So this is somebody who walks around to I guess let those working the cameras know that this gymnast their routine is about to you know, be here and there, and this is where you need to make sure you have the camera. These are jobs that honestly, they're important, right, I mean, you got to do it.
If not, we'd have bad camera angles. For gymnastics, we'd have you know, nobody to stack the blocks. In the equestrian we'd have cameras with water on them or fog. We'd have cabs in the pool which could get in a way and you know, cause a race to be compromised. So shout out to these volunteers that are working these very important jobs. All right, Uh, if you have not, I've heard much of the show today. We have mentioned
throughout the first couple of hours here and there. I mean it's not led the show from top, you know, start to finish. But big news in college football kind of sort of the more we discuss it, the more
I feel like it's actually nothing. But yet it's something that's probably been all over the headlines since it came out earlier today, and that is that former Michigan coach keyword former Jim Harball has received a four year show cause and also he's been given a one season suspension from the NCAA Committee on Infractions for COVID nineteen dead period recruiting violations in twenty twenty one, roughly four years ago.
So anytime you hear of a coach that just won a national championship that is coaching you know, or was coaching at a place like Michigan gets hit with that level of a punishment, four year show cause and he's got to be suspended for an entire season, that's news, you know, unless the guy's not in college football anymore and will never be in college football again, not because of anything the Committee on Infractions did, but simply because he probably wanted to move on from Michigan long ago,
but he wanted to bring them a national championship, and he cheated to do it.
We know that.
But you know he did it, and in his mind he didn't cheat, and he'll never admit it, and we may never find out that he had any involvement in it, because usually if you're somebody like a Harball and that kind of stuff's going on, you make it to where nobody could ever prove that you were involved. You leave no fingerprints, right, you have no direct communication with anybody about what went on, and you can just play dumb
like he had no clue. So what I think this is, it's the NCAA just proving what we already have known for many years, and that is that they're out of touch, their delusional, and they have become more irrelevant by the day, it seems. I mean, the question about the nc DOUBLEA in regards to are they really needed for the high level, big business, big big, big money sports, like, are they really needed? Are they just in the way because they're
not needed in college football at the top. They're only needed in basketball because they give us the NSAA tournament. But we felt like for I mean, I remember, gosh, I remember listening to Tony Vanettie and Dave Jennings the Afternoon Underdogs on this station many many, many years ago, talk about the NCAA is just gonna not exist anymore. They're not needed, they're irrelevant, And here they are. They're still around, but it's it's been out there forever, but
since this turned into anything but amateur sports. This is quite literally professional sports on steroids. Now in the last few years, with NIL the portal and now with of course the schools, they're gonna be the ones paying the players. So the NSABA is just not needed. And I feel like today was I think they thought they did something
substantial here. I think they thought they really set an example to let people know, hey, despite the perception out there about us, we're still here and we're going to hold people accountable who break rules because that's what we do. And yet, like it fell so flat because you didn't do anything. You laid out a very severe penalty that will never actually penalize the person you gave it to because you don't have any power to do anything. He's
untouchable to you. And it seems like even if coaches and players are touchable to the NCAA, meaning they're still in the sport, rather they're looking to maintain eligibility, whether they're looking to defend themselves for allegations that could lead to suspensions, all that kind of stuff. I kind of feel like even those people at this point feel a little bit untouchable, because lately the playbook has been pretty clear. Hire a lawyer, fight the NCAA in court, and they
will lose. So it's a big story Harball one year's suspension, four year show cause, but it's nothing because he's mean again, Like this is like the NBA suspending me for a season.
Oh damn.
Without that suspension, I'd you know, i'd be playing for the Knicks like that suspended me from dating Margot Robbie. Well, geez, if you didn't hit me with that penalty, we'd be we'd be shacking up tonight, Like what are you doing here? And I know they've at times punished people who aren't working, but it's because they were fired. It's because like they got, they got you know, they got in trouble. This guy left because he doesn't mean he's not interested in college
football anymore. And by the way, I should have mentioned this for those who haven't really been following it that closely. This has nothing to do with sign sealing stuff. This is just because of a COVID nineteen recruiting infraction. And by the way they did this, they gave him a four year ban for recruits getting you know, I think recruits being contacted when they weren't supposed to be in maybe a free meal or something when they weren't supposed
to get anything. And they did this just you know, they made this decision, and this took place. You know what they're accusing him of doing. The rule breaking that they're accusing him of took place like just a few months before it became legal to actually pay players, and he didn't pay anybody. He just contacted somebody what he wasn't supposed to do. And I believe some kind of a meal was calmed or provided for recruits something like that. So it's a story, but it also kind of isn't.
And in fact, I think if the instantly wanted to be a story to where people are talking about, wow, you better mess with you in still Bula now, it backfired on him because they're delusional. The story, in my opinion, is how useless they are and how ridiculous it is that they put this out there, is if they've actually done something substantial.
Anyways. All right, So.
I would say when it comes to the most hated college football teams, like all time, it's usually the big dogs, right Like this college Football Report Twitter account, they put together a college football hatred tiers, and the Despised tier is the tier that features the schools that are the most hated in football. No surprise, it's the ones who are arrogant and think that their bleep doesn't stink, and it's because they've been really good, at least most of them. Michigan,
Ohio State, Texas Alabama and Notre Dame. What do all those schools have in common? One, they're huge brands. Two have a lot of tradition. But Texas is not what you think it is. Like Texas is Texas because like it's clearly a state that loves football. They have unlimited money, But like Texas doesn't have this deep rooted tradition as a football program, Like I think a lot of people believe they do. Notre Dame does. But like, when's the
last time Notre Dame won a national championship. I'm gonna look that up. I mean it's got to be I mean, could let me see? They won in nineteen eighty eight, the year I was born. I'm thirty six years old. Like Notre Dame, I always defend Notre Dame because they've made the Playoff a lot, and people claim it's because they you know, they don't in a reason. I'm gonna get back to why I'm bringing up the most hated teams because this program is not hated all the time,
but currently Colorado's in the mix. Like people are waiting to seek prime fail I'm one of them. But nonetheless, like with Notre Dame, I always defending because people will claim that they only got in because they're not in a conference and they don't play anybody, which is usually
not I mean, that's not the truth. They usually end up playing a very challenging schedule for the most part, and just because they get killed in the playoff or in the national championship game doesn't necessarily mean they didn't belong there. And a lot of the times where they've gotten blown out, the team that you feel like should have been there in place of them, they probably would have got blown out to maybe even worse. But anyways,
Notre Dame. They only like again, haven't won a championship in thirty six years, and in the College Football playoff. Here the last ten seasons, they only have four wins against top ten teams. That puts them twenty fifth among FBS teams. They're four and fourteen in games against top
ten teams in that span. Now, with that said, four and fourteen against top ten teams, if you found other teams that played eighteen times in that span against top ten teams, I bet the vast majority would have similar or worst records. Because you know what, you don't beat top ten teams very often. That's why they're top ten teams,
they don't lose very often. It's kind of like the Kentucky stat that I think is you know, I'll admit it, it's nice to throw out there because it makes them look like they're like they're foolish to assume that they've arrived as a football program when they really haven't. But it is a little misleading to say, well, Mark Stoops is what is he? Two and something? Crazy against teams
with a winning record in the SEC. Well, in an eight game schedule, there aren't that many teams that finished with winning records in the SEC, because you know, there's a there's a clear, you know, hierarchy of that league where you know you can be six and two, seven and one pretty much annually and then you know you've got your four and four and three and five's in the occasional five and three.
But anyways, back to Colorado.
There there, I mean, I I can't pinpoint one specific thing about Deon Sanders his play, Like, I don't know what it is, but I think I'm just annoyed. Maybe I'm a hater. In fact, I guess that is what it is. Maybe I was just avoiding trying. Maybe I was avoiding saying that, but I guess that probably is what it is. I'm just a hater like Deon Sanders gets so much attention anytime he does anything, he moves
the needle like nobody else. Last year was proof they weren't good, and yet they were one of the most talked about teams in the country even when they started losing and everybody realized they stunk. Deon Sanders gave Colorado the TMZ effect in college football. No matter what's going on, they're going to be talked about, no matter what Deon Sanders says, no matter what his record is. When he says outlandish things, it's going to be a talking point,
it's going to be a storyline. And that's just because he has that effect because he's Deon Sanders.
He's prime.
So to see that they weren't good last year, They're probably going to be similar this year, maybe a little better, but yet they'll still be talking about a whole lot like that just annoys me, and I guess in the end that just makes me a hater because I'm feeling like they shouldn't be getting the attention that they're getting. I mean, am I wrong?
John?
I feel like they're a pretty not at easy I don't want to say an easy team to hate, but like when they act the way they act, they're as cocky as they are. Dion clearly, you know, says the things he says, and then they go out and they stink again. Like there's gonna be a lot of people I feel like that have satisfaction.
And I'm one of them. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.
I know you're right, especially because you see the players, not only Dicon Sansy, you see people like should or Sanders. They clown other people on social media and just act like that they're all high and mighty like they're Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State, any of those top tier.
Yeah, they've done nothing to warrant this perception they have of themselves. They have but yet fifteen.
But yet the media.
Gives it to them non stop to where it's like they don't even need to win. They're gonna always be talked about.
And when they had their I guess this cute little run where they started off three or four and oh, and they they beat the TCU team that ended up not being as good as people lead. I mean that was I mean, that was college game Day for first.
That's the team who played in the National Championship game and.
They ended up being nothing. And people thought Colorado might be a top twenty twenty or you know, fifteen twenty team after that win. And they they won their next few games after that, but once they got into the bulk of their schedule, they they proved that they weren't worthy of that.
Yeah, I mean they and they also beat Nebraska in Nebraska also was pretty mean last year.
Yeah, I mean, so I uh, I'm ready.
For Dion Sanders to fail.
Yeah, I mean he already has and he you know, not just not not big picture, but like I mean, last year was a failure.
And again if if you that's what that's what.
Irritates me about the Deon Sanders stuff, is that, yeah, he was in his first year and he did completely overturn a roster top to bottom.
But that's because he wanted to.
But there'd be a little bit more grace for someone who didn't carry themselves as if they're about to take over the sport, you know what I mean. Like's that's what irks me is that, And I just think it's human nature maybe not everybody's the same, because there are people who just think, like, oh, everybody's hating jealous dion
of what he hasn't done anything. But I think if you're somebody that is so arrogant and so over the top, so you know, flashy, braggadocious, and then you fall completely flat of what you've claimed you can do and will do, there's a level of people enjoying that, like, Wow, you got humbled, and I was happy to see it. I don't know if Dean Sanders can be humbled. I'm not sure that's possible, but I think that's sort of where I'm at with it because it's not like I hate
him as a guy. It's not like I just like I know nothing about Colorado Buffalo football, but like, because of how they carry themselves in this, the perception they have of themselves, I am someone that has no problem admitting when they fail, I will take satisfaction in that.
When's that Louis Vuitton luggage showing up?
Yeah he's got it, and they just you know, they didn't win with it. So the reason I bring them up is because they did something that I believe is is insanely lame and the Arkansas football Twitter account call him out for it, and I love it. So Colorado put out a video yesterday of Shardoor Sanders, the quarterback of course, Dion's son throwing it throw, you know, making a play in practice, and it says darts only on the tweet, and then it has the little you know,
the dartboard uh. And then it's his hashtag fall camp and it's got the buffalo emoji. In the video, it shows him dropping back in the pocket. There's a there's a view from behind the pocket, behind the line that shows him scrambling a little bit and then he throws one up in the air and then it quickly goes to a different camera, which is somebody catching a touchdown in the end zone. Well, didn't take anybody to do any kind of like crazy editing work to determine they
doctor the footage. The pass caught in the end was not the pass that was thrown in the first clip. So they doctored a video to make it look like he threw a touchdown pass with like you know, legitimate pressure to the quarterback and whatnot. And they you know, the majority of the video is them celebrating after the fact, doing all what they do. Right, So Arkansas's football account put the same thing out there, darts, only same emoji, and then they put the razorback hog emoji.
I think that's what that is.
And they do the same thing, but they make it a little they make it a little more obvious, right, like two completely different days of practice. But it's funny like that to me is so petty and funny. That's one of the things that makes college football great. But it's even better for me knowing that it's Colorado getting clown because that's just that they do clown stuff like that. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side, we go. We'll have about thirty minutes left when we
come back. Someone's accused me on the text line of not talking enough about Louis Basketball's Bahamas trip. That's one way to get me to talk about it. Are you questioning if I'm all in on this team or not?
You're wrong.
It's another one of those songs, John, that you told me as songs like maybe five six years old. I'd believe you, and it's not.
It's two thousand and nine, right, eight, Okay.
Yeah, so it's sixteen years old. So yeah, Kevin Rudolph had a very brief run. Oh yeah, whatever happened to him.
I don't really know what he's doing, but he ye like this song yet I made it, and maybe a couple of others in that he.
Had this song with Lil Wayne and he signed with Lil Wayne's Young Money, and you know, that was like the first introduction to somebody within that group that was more of like, you know, an artist, producer, rock kind of guy than than you know, the rest of the crew.
And yeah, I.
Don't I mean, I've not heard anything from him since that song you just played. So shout out to Kevin Rudolph. I wonder what he's up to today. I'm sure he's probably still involved in music maybe, but you know, maybe he.
Just travels to the clubs and plays that song and leaves.
I mean, it was a pretty big hit, wasn't it was.
You could you couldn't go to a sporting event and not hear it at that time.
Yeah, let it rock, all right?
So this texture earlier on the text line se LNN Federal Credit Union text line five O two six five three zero seven nineties the number if you guys would like to text in and join us. But somebody says that, you know, and I'm trying to scroll through here to find that it says, Yeah, Nick, what was your biggest takeaway from the Bahamas? I don't feel like you talked a whole lot about it. I was expecting you to come back from vacation and mention more of your takeaways. Well,
I mean I talked about it. I just it was last week and it was not a real game. And I do know that there are many people who listen to this show that that you know, don't didn't watch and probably aren't. You know, they're just not as as into a game that's in the summer in the Bahamas
that you could only watch on YouTube. But I also tried to balance that with throwing in the other side, which which is, well, Louisville basketball fans are starving for, I mean starving for you know, this new era and it's here hadn't started just yet, but like this is an unusual exception. This is this is the first time we're going to get a chance to see Pat Kelsey
and this brand new team. So to see that they had over ten thousand people watching, I think it was closer to fifteen thousand people watching on the Tuesday night game and then at noon on a Thursday. I don't know what it capped at, but they were around six thousand at one point watching live. I mean that does tell you there is an appetite for it. So again, look,
I've talked about it a lot Monday. I don't know if you weren't listening at that point, but you know, biggest takeaway for me, and I was just talking about this a little bit earlier with the Invertrees who is now down the hall producing for mister Minors, but seeing how unselfish they were, that that really stood out and
stuck with me. I mean obviously the personnel. I mean I talked a lot about those guys specifically, and I think when we were talking up these guys and being really excited about almost teaching every one of them as far as them being good pieces to really get this thing turned around in year one, I think what we saw matched what we were thinking, if that makes sense. Like I didn't see anything from anybody that made me feel like, Okay, well we were wrong about this guy.
He's not gonna be able to help us as much.
And the reason you can say that is because it's a squad that looks really good on paper because of the amount of good players you have, not because of two or three All American Superstar future NBA guys. It's you just got a bunch of really experienced players that know who they are as players and play within their game and fit exactly the way Pat Kelsey wants to play.
So you know, what stood out to me is that they were guys making multiple extra passes in possessions to get really good shots and that led to good looks and guys knocking down a lot. I mean, the amount of assists they had. I don't have the number off the top of my head, but it was insane. And it's because they were unselfish. They shared the ball, and it really, in my opinion, what it did in both games, more so in the first game than the second game.
But you did start to see it about midway through that second game against the college from from from Canada. But when you're whipping it around and you're playing unselfish basketball, making extra pass after extra pass to make sure you get the best shots you can, that's when you realize you're playing a team from the Bahamas that might have some decent players that are playing you know, Division one college at certain places, but also like they're not a structured team.
They're not.
They am in practicing for months, right, and that's when they break down defensively, And you won't see guys do that as much when you get to like real college games. But hey, that's how you can fold a team and you know, name the score if you want to. And that's what they could have done in that first game.
And again, this is this is not something that's I mean, it's important and it may be corny to some, but it honestly is the first thing that I noticed when I watch this group play, their energy and their effort and to see them diving on diving on the floor up thirty you know, just never you know, being physical, being locked in, having an intensity about him, really just
being locked in. And there's probably other ways to describe it than just saying locked in, but one way to describe it is that they were.
They were.
I'm gonna I'm trying to think a different way to describe it, because I don't even know if locked in does it justice. But put it this way, the way you saw Kenny Payne's teams on the floor, no real attention to detail, the inner just just not me just almost just flat footed. And it's not that they were just out there completely not trying, but like they were a reflection of the guy on the sideline that had no energy, was lifeless, didn't really say a whole lot.
Just just didn't really have much.
And I'd be a liar if I said the first time I saw a team play for Kenny Payne, I knew he was going to win what twelve games in two years, because nobody would have ever thought that was possible, to be honest with you, you could have said he was the worst coach ever and still felt like, well, he's going to win more than twelve in two years.
But when they played Leonora Ryan in that exhibition game, who we now refer to as Leanne Rhimes and they lost, I remember thinking, Man, these guys their energy, their enthusiasm, their spirit, it's a reflection of the guy on the sideline, who I feel like lacks all of those things in a major way. And now we watched a team who I feel like their energy, their enthusiasm, their spirit, their effort is a reflection of the guy on the sideline
who we love what he brings to the table. In that regard Pat Kelcey, Now again, I'm not saying that means he's going to go out there and you know, win thirty games in year one. I mean, I think Louisville has a chance to be pretty good this year, and I think the future is bright with Pat Kelsey. He hasn't coached a game here yet, so I'm not
going to get ahead of myself. But you know, we're talking about base level stuff here, right, because you can have energy, effort, enthusiasm, attention to detail, focus and still not be good, right. I mean, that happens, but that's where it starts. So you know, having a team give effort and really you know, be a collective unit right where guys are clapping it up for each other, they're unselfish, you know, they're up thirty diving.
On the floor for loose balls.
I mean, those are things that I will tell you it's hard for me to not have major appreciation for the little stuff that you just expect to happen when it didn't happen for two years here. So those are the things that really step out to me that aren't really personnel related as far as well, this player is going to be this good and this player is going
to be that good. So look, I I really really think this team can not only just be good for you know, the bounce back year, the you know, the first year of the Pat Kelsey era, coming off of two disastrous seasons that none of us ever believed possible. Like the bar's low. But I think they can be pretty good. And I'm saying that knowing they've got a pretty tough schedule, and I'm saying that knowing also that
the ACC is is not going to be an elite league. Guys, you got Cooper Flagg coming in at Duke and they're always going to have talent. But John Shire's not going to do what coach k did. And honestly, that's not fair to Shire because nobody's going to I mean, Carolina, you know, they're always going to be talented, and Hubert Davis, I think he's done a solid job. But you know, outside of that, who do you look at in the ACC and you feel like, uh.
Oh, they're going to be really really good next year we're in trouble. Don't give me.
In c State they might be good, but their final four was ridiculous. I mean, they weren't good last year. They turned it on the Final four and you know, had some March magic, and they bring back some good players, and that two of those guys are from Louisville that transferred in and Brandon Hunley had field to Mike James.
You know, I like, I like Steve Forbes, but I don't know if he's going to be a team that you got to like, oh, what are you gonna do when when you got to play them, they're just too good. I mean, this is kind of a weird way to go about it. But like, one of the things that has me super excited about year one is I think that the program or the conference that Louisville plays in is not very good.
I mean.
Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, I mean, Notre Dame Miami, I mean Florida State might be the worst team in the league. Clemson they made an Elite eight, right, I don't know how sustainable that is for what's his.
Name, Brad Brown?
Yeah? Brownwell is Yeah. I mean like.
Syracuse could Syracuse is the team I think that could be better, like actually be good, not to the level of like, you know, final fours, necessarily as far as that being the expectation, But I do think in Red autry second year, he's got a chance to to kind of either you know, look like a guy who might be in over his head who took over as the first time head coach, or somebody who might be able
to actually do something. So yeah, I'm super excited. And this is a text that came in a little bit earlier in regards to basketball, and I probably should have got to it earlier because we have a ton of time right now. But somebody asked if I think that Pat Kelsey's going to strategically get guys to visit during some big football games this year.
Yeah, I do.
I mean, I don't think Louisville's home schedule is great this year as far as the big matchups. In fact, Louisvill's home games this year, you've got two games that are kind of non starters, Austin p Jacksonville State. You then will play Georgia Tech SMU Miami could be a big one on the nineteenth of October, and then you play Pittsburgh and home on November twenty third. So the bigger games are going to be away. But that didn't mean you still can have a great atmosphere, and yes
that is, I mean we could. I don't spend more time on it, because you've already spent more time on the previous regime.
We don't need to go there.
But last year, I mean, you had a ten win season, sellout games at Ellen N Cardinal Stadium last year, which doesn't happen often to sellouts and great atmospheres because they were playing some damn good football. They were a top twenty, top fifteen team for the majority of the year, top ten at one point, right, And Kenny Payne, a guy who's seemingly coaching for his job, didn't recruit any high
school kids. Therefore, he didn't have anybody visiting Louisville, did not have a single visitor from the twenty twenty five recruiting class or sorted the twenty twenty four recruiting class until you know, he realized, oh, I guess I'd better start recruiting better. And remember the nonsense he pulled with the visit from Carter Knox.
I mean, that was so dramatic too. Some of this stuff doesn't seem like it really happened. Isn't it funny how it feels like an alternate reacity.
It does because it just it almost you know, even though it's over and we know it happened, it doesn't seem like some of these things are real. Like when he blamed Tyler Johnson's tights, I mean, and Mike Woodson tricked him because he went zone like what is what was?
Yeah?
Yeah, my gosh.
But it's over. It's over, and I'm happy about that. All right, quick break, we'll come back. Wrap this thing up.
It's coffee and company, I feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. All right, with very little time left, let's hit the text line this Texas. Nick, when you mentioned VHH and Mike James at NC State, it reminded me of how many former players are going to be playing elsewhere next year. Who do you think has the best season as far as like best numbers? I think
it'll be close. I think, well, put it this way, I think as far as numbers, I actually think Curtis Williams Junior could have a big season at Georgetown for Fred Cooley. But I don't know if if you know they're going to be any good or not. I mean, they were really really.
Bad last year.
I always thought Curtis Williams Junior had a lot of talent, silky smooth offensive player, good kid too from what I understand, and just you know, he he kind of lost his confidence a little bit, as you could expect. I mean, these guys went through a season as far as just losses and struggle that you know, they probably have never gone through at any point in their life as basketball players.
So Mike James and Brenda hilly had Field, I think those could be two important guys for KEATS, but I don't know if they'll have, Like you know, I don't know if they'll be all conference type players there.
Brandon could be.
I mean, he's got all the tools and he really played well and showed why he was at one point a top ten player at times last year, just you know, unfortunately came in a lot of losing efforts. So he's probably the most talented guy that has left. Tyler Johnson wouldn't be shocked if he really blends in well with
what they've got going on at Wake Forest. I know they brought Hunter Salas back, and him playing alongside Hunter Salas could be could be a pretty good duo in the ACC and then I've got somewhat of a surprise answer for you because he's now at Grand Canyon, which means he's not going to get a whole lot of attention.
There's not going to be a lot of games on TV, but it's a lower level and he's a giant Dennis Evans, like, I think Dennis Evans could end up having a pretty you know, not a He's not gonna be an All American or anything like that, but I feel like he may be somebody you realize, oh wow, this guy's leading the country in block shots. So who am I forgetting? Oh, Scott Clark, you know at UCLA. I wouldn't be shocked if he's, you know, a guy that's got a you know,
decent role. But I don't know if he'll be. You know, Louisville had talented players last year that you know, clearly were better than their record. I mean they Kenny played nothing but Ford five star players against Kentucky Wesley in an exhibition game and lost. So and they had they had talent. But trust me, I don't think I ever made it sound as if they had a roster that if you know, they had a good coach, they'd be a four seed in the tournament. No, but I mean
they just were unexcusably bad. Who else am I forgetting? Oh, this is one of those guys that I wouldn't be shocked if, like he ends up maybe having a good like you'll you'll see him pretty regularly, and I'm completely forgetting his name.
He transferred to.
Illinois, Trey White, Yeah, Tray White, because he I mean, he's never lacked talent. He just was inconsistent and you know, had no interest in playing defense and didn't even hide it. So you know he's got talent. He's a six seven wing, good athlete, good size, So you know, maybe him playing alongside good talent at Illinois and a good coach in Brad Underwood, maybe he ends up being pretty good.
So but none of that matters.
Again, you know, these guys left for for good reason, and you know, I love this current level team that we have that Pat Kelsey and his staff is put together. All right, we're out of time. We will talk to you tomorrow, that is, if you join us, And why wouldn't you, I mean, come on three o'clock right here on Sports Talk seven ninety