Welcome everybody. It is the KSR pre Show. It's Wednesday, February fifth. I am Shannon the Dude. I'm in lovell being joined by Billy Relige. He is over in Lexington and you can give us a call no matter where you are eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line.
Could send us a text.
Five O two two six five six six five six be your Whiskey Thief call of the day. And the KSR pre Show is being brought to you by Italics Fine Italian Dining in Lexington. The Cats drop another one last night. We'll get into that in just a few minutes, but first of all, Billy, how are you doing this morning?
Good morning, dude.
I'm glad we just were at Whiskey Thief the other day because I needed the little Kentucky bourbon after that loss last night and after some of the phone calls we took on the postgame show.
Little contentious last night.
You know, it feels like it's been building a little bit, the fourth loss in the last five games.
But it's great to be with you this morning.
How are you doing doing good?
I noticed a lot of schools, by the way, are out because of the flu.
There's a sickness going around.
Do you I don't ever remember, like in all my years, going to school getting out because people were sick. I mean, I know, we just went through a pandemic, so I get that. Set that aside, but I'm talking about for the flu. Do you ever remember schools just shutting down because the flu was so bad?
No, no widespread illness, sick days. But you know, my brother goes to school, High School in Oldham County and Monday, seventeen hundred students and two hundred staff members didn't show up for school because of sicknesses. So they I think they're going in what the computer learning and TI Friday. Yeah, so unbelievable. Hopefully everybody's okay. But at the same time, you know, a nice little break for those kids there.
I see that it's also National Weather Manday, So a salute to all of our weather men and women.
Out there who have the job where they.
Come in and only get it right half the time. What a what a wonderful job.
It's not an exact science, but we need we commend our weather men and women right.
Yeah, now, some people could say, well, you know, what kind of job can you keep? Were you you're only right half the time, I would say, well, weather Man would be one, and I guess the other one really would probably be a sports radio host, because you and I only get it right about fifty percent of the time. Right last night, once again, you picked the Cats. I picked the Cats. They lost.
I don't know what you're thinking. I picked old.
Miss, Well, you picked all Miss. Okay, I'm sorry, maybe I looked at the end.
So this is where we need to start today, because I thought we talked about this yesterday that we were.
Both gonna pick Old Miss to reverse this curse. But you picked the Cats, Shannon.
So I'm not sure if you just didn't want to do what we were doing or what happened there you just had to change of heart.
Ofly, Yeah, so you're blaming me for the loss? I am, well, I mean it just felt like, you know, Kentucky loses games that you think they're gonna win. They win games you think they're gonna lose. So this is one of those I thought, you know, going on the road ran this is yeah, but you know what, this is a game that you think they're gonna lose, they're going to win.
Boy was I wrong?
Boy?
We were where do you where do you want to start? I mean ninety eight eighty four.
If you didn't watch the game and you just looked at the score, you would say, well, you know, it was probably a close game.
Old Miss just kind of pulled away at the end. That was not the case.
I mean, all nine thousand plus that that arena holds were you know it.
It created a great atmosphere.
It was a red out, you know, like a cow used to say, where everybody's super Bowl. It's still the case with Kentucky and they drop a game last night, Billy where it looked like at one point they were gonna get beat by possibly thirty five or forty points. I mean, they were down by twenty seven to open up the second half. If you're looking for a silver lining, I mean, I guess you could say they did fight hard in the second half and at least somewhat try
to battle back. I mean, you still lose the game by fourteen, but they could have easily been just blown out of the arena last night, if you know, things that continued to go the way they did in the first half, but just really an embarrassing first half, Philly.
Embarrassing is a good word for it.
I didn't know if I was going to go there, but it's hard to use other words to describe what that first half was. And look, this is a culmination of a lot of things, right, and I think there's a bit of a domino effect here. You don't have your two starting point guards, and that leads to players playing out of position and doing things that they're not used to being doing.
But yet, Shannon, you.
Can still not have a point guard and still have effort, right, You can still you can still have that sense of urgency. You can still do a lot of things on the defensive end to keep you in ball games. And they did none of that in the first half.
None of it.
May have been one of the worst halfs of basketball I've ever watched from one single team. There was ten second calls in that first half, Shannon.
They could not bring the ball up the floor.
When it was the last time you remember Kentucky getting a ten second violation while they could not handle Ole Miss's ball pressure, I mean, they couldn't. I just I don't know, I don't remember the last time Kentucky got a half cord violation. Turnovers killed Kentucky last night, Billy. I mean the defense was atrocious, wide open three after wide open three, and ole Miss made them every time. And now that's back to back games, Billy, where you
give up thirteen threes in a game. They did it against Arkansas and then again last night against Ole Miss.
And they're kind of getting beat at their own game, are they not? Kitell?
They are.
Kentucky is not shooting more threes than their opponent, which they should, and I think at this point, defenses have just decided, Okay, look we're gonna give them inside. We're not going to give up the outside shot. And they're limiting the amount of threes that Kentucky that Kentucky's taking.
Yeah, you know, Pope had a mark of what thirty thirty five threes a game and I think we've only reached that mark maybe three times in SEC play so far. And you know what, you got to give credit to Old Miss, right. I mean, they hit shots, whether they were just wide open, standing still, and Kentucky decided not to put not to put a hand in their face
or even some contested shots. I mean, they came out motivated and ready to go, and and scored fifty four points in a half, which is you know, you have to commend Chris Beard and what Ole Miss is doing right now. But you know, I don't know, I'm a little bit in of a panic mode here with this Kentucky team because with without your starting point guards, this team is just not built to win at this level
in the SEC. And you already squabbled this roster together late notice with Mark Pope, But now, Shannon, you know, with how physical this conference is and and this and guys like Ansley Almanor and Tretno coming in and doing nothing for fifteen minutes, you know, you have to wonder if this team is, you know, is in trouble right now without Lamont Butler and Kirk Crisa and you know, good on Amari Williams Man only the fourth triple double
in Kentucky basketball history. But you know, he said he'd traded away for a win, and then that's kind of how I feel. It's a we'll have to remember this game as the fourth ever triple double in Kentucky history. But a brutal loss for Mark Pope, losing four of the last five games.
You were telling me before we started the a caller on the pregame show called the Amari Williams triple double.
Yeah yeah, Mason called in, and you know, he also predicted a win, but he was like, you know, Amaro Williams might mess around and get a triple double tonight. And you know, that's a pretty good call still, you know what I mean, for it only be the fourth triple double in Kentucky history.
So I'm happy for a Mari.
But look, your center doesn't need to have you know, it doesn't need to be the one that's getting double digit assist right that That is a microcosm of you not having your point guards. And man, I guess I never realized how just how much Lamont Butler's defense met Shannon Right, some on ball pressure leads to your your other players being able to play good defense as well.
So you know, it's just very very disappointing and and I think it's it's inevitable you have to adjust your expectations once again for this Kentucky team.
If you told me before the game that Amari is gonna get a triple double, I would say, Okay, that's that's a win, right, I would think so but Ole miss on offense.
I mean that that.
Shot fake it worked. You know, they were talking about the old Bob Knight shot fake. That's what Chris beerd does and it worked. Kentucky down what twenty three points at halftime, just you know, tried to fight back.
Just couldn't quite get there.
Though, and Mark Pope said after the game, you know, he said there are no moral victories at Kentucky, and he realizes that. So if you're, you know, trying to put a positive spin on it, you can say, well, Kentucky, they fought back, but you still lost by double digits on the road.
Dole miss No, And I appreciate that though. I think that's the right thing to say right now. I mean there's a lot distraught in Big Blue Nation. And Mark Pope saying that realizes or he understands the assignment Santon.
But you know what they've got to adjust.
I mean, how could you have the number two offensive efficiency team in the country but the one hundred and tenth defensive efficiency team. You've got to be able to play some defense if you're going to stay in some games this year.
But again they know that.
But you know, when you see a stat line with Old Miss twenty four assists in one turnovers.
Yeah, it's insane.
That's the thing, man.
Again, I've never seen a stat line like that.
Continues to be the problem with Kentucky not creating turnovers on the defensive end, but then on the offensive end, they're they're turning the ball over like crazy, and that's just been crushing this team. And you go back to the Vandy game and all the other games after that, it's just turnover after turnover has really been the Achilles Hill for the team.
Yeah.
You know, Jackson Robinson I don't think is comfortable with the ball in his hands. He'd much rather be an off ball guy. Travis Perry logs some good minutes for you in the first half, but you know, at times he doesn't seem ready to go. You know, I was glad to see the Mountain Momba get in there, But like I said, he didn't do anything. He was part of the trillion club, Shannon. That's another stat line.
You don't see very much him and Ansley Almanor doing that.
But I know people were asking for Trent Noah in the Arkansas game, but you know, okay, Pope plays them thirteen minutes. He does nothing at all, like nothing, not one thing on the stat line. And Ansley Almanar, who has been so good right shooting the three, Yeah, you need it. You you needed a few threes out of him. You didn't get anything out of him last night. So when you're already down two or three guys, and you know Andrew Carr played twenty three minutes last night, I mean,
got ten points for you. It didn't looked all that bad. But you know he's still battling through pain. You got two other guys out. You can't have nights where players don't give you anything. You know, you don't need twenty from Angeley almon Or, but you need something from them. You don't need twenty from Trent Noah, but you need something. And you got zeros. And it's hard to win a game like that.
Yeah, And you know I kind of looked at the Tennessee game like wow, you know, Kentucky can beat anybody in the country. But then it's like, thank goodness, they missed all those three pointers in those in that game. Shitting right, the good thing name is thirty four threes in that one or this could have been a five game losing streak for Kentucky right now, and and I'm serious, like, look at the rest of the schedule.
All right, let's do it. Let's do it.
Let's look at it and see see what we think. Now, what did you have Kentucky at in the SEC before we started?
It was above five hundred, Okay, so I think it was. Was it ten and eight? Is that how many SEC games that they play?
Yeah, I've got them at eleven, at them at eleven, eleven and seven? They are what four and five right now? So let's look ahead. You got South Carolina coming up. That feels like that should be a win.
All that you can't. You can take it lightly, but that should be a win.
They don't have a single win in the SEC.
I believe you have to get you have to win that game on Saturday. You know, you would think, okay, going into that game, no pressure, but when you've lost four out of your five games, this is a little bit of pressure.
I think. So you got to win that game.
Oh, there's a lot of pressure on that game.
So let's say five and five there.
Then you play at home against Tennessee, Okay, and that game could go either way, that's yeah. So then you got Texas. It's on the road, though, it's on the road, so that could be a tough one. Vandy at home, I think you feel good about that one. You go on the road to Alabama, that's probably a loss. You go at Oklahoma, they play good at home too, that's gonna be a tough one. Then you host number one Auburn.
I mean, that's not gonna get any easier. LSU on the road or no, LSU is at home, you feel like you should win that game.
And then at Missouri.
So really, I mean, looking at the rest of the schedule, South Carolina, Van even though Vandy got you, you feel like at home, you're you're gonna win that game, right, So looking at the remaining schedule, there's three games that I feel pretty confident that Kentucky's going to win, South Carolina, Vandy, and LSU. Other than that, Billy, I don't know what's gonna happen. I mean, I think you're gonna get some of those wins. But let's just say, worst case scenario,
you lose all those other games. That's another one, two, three, four, five six losses we're talking about, and at that point you've already got uh what You've already got five, So now you're talking about seven and eleven.
Wow, you know it's unbelieva. I mean, that's that's a reality.
It's a real possibility. Not saying it's gonna happen.
Eight teams playing on Wednesday at the SEC Tournament this year. Just book your get your Airbnb ready to be there on Wednesday. Yeah, but you're right, I'm kind of with you. South Carolina, Andy, LSU As the games that maybe a Kentucky's a favorite in, maybe you can steal one at in Oklahoma, but I don't think Auburn, Missouri, Alabama, even Tennessee despite you winning in Tennessee or are great matchups for Kentucky right now.
So it's just when can they get Lamont Butler back? Man? Yeah?
Have you ever see a player means so much to a team like this? I mean, obviously like a Lebron in the NBA, but like in college. It's amazing how much Lamont gets this team to go. And it's even more amazing that this team was able to win at Gonzaga and at Tennessee without.
Lamont or Kurk Criso.
So we know it's in there for them but you know, at times, Shannon, I use this term, there's I feel like a lack of urgency with this team, Like I don't know if they needed to be.
Motivated at halftime.
They did fight back in the second half, but you have to wonder where that fight was in the first was.
Lamont Butler wondering, like, you know, Pope hasn't really said a whole lot about him, But if we're reading the tea leaves Billy, I think that the situation is he could probably play if he absolutely had to.
But you got to wonder, like, Okay, is.
It worth first of all, you know, putting them up Butler out there, let's say fifty percent, versus keeping him out and playing Jackson Robinson at the point, right, you know, and you also don't want to further injure that that shoulder as well. So I think that's kind of the dilemma right now that Pope has.
But at this point, I mean, if he can go.
I mean the season slipping away.
Yeah, I mean I might, I might try it. If he's able to go. Obviously it's gonna be up to Pope and it's gonna be up to Butler himself. But here's the thing, you know, going back to the schedule talk, Billy, I think if you get to five hundred in the SEC, you're going to be securely in the tournament. So I don't think that you need eleven wins. You don't need ten. I think if you can get to nine, possibly even
go eight. And I think there's possibility. Do you ma even have teams that are eight and ten in the conference in the NCAA tournament.
And I know that's going to make a lot of people mad.
Nationally, but we're talking about a historically great conference like I've never seen before. So I think even if you get to eight wins, there's a chance that you get into the tournament. Lonardi last night had thirteen teams in as of last night, So I think about that, thirteen out of the sixteen.
Wow.
Yeah, I think that would be a record too. I mean, Kentucky was a three seed to start this week, and you know, really, over these last five games or so, I feel like they may be more of like a five or a six seed now. But I also want to take this point to say that this is not the time to jump off the Mark Pope bandwagon.
Oh yeah, I saw tweets last night.
You know the Internet.
I mean it's sometimes there's a reason why you should stay off the internet is because you know, people can just be so quick to react, and I really don't think, you know, that would be a disservice to one of our own to do that middle of the year, especially with a group that's been so riddled with injuries and it's had to overcome some of this advert like this, you've let one bad loss turn into two with this Arkansas game. I know it's been four of the last five,
but there's still a lot to play for. And like you said, this is a historic SEC. You should not hang your head if you are close to five hundred and the SEC this year. We even talked about that before the season started, with how good the SEC was. So I just wanted to take the time to tell people to pump the brakes a little bit with you know, col wasn't the issue or you know, Mark Pope has
got to do this, this and this. He does have a lot to do in front of him, but we should still should support one of our own.
Eight five, nine, two, twenty two eighty seven. We'll take your phone calls coming up next and Billy, you said that.
Some of the calls last night were very angry.
Right, well, we'll talk about I want you to tell me about some of the calls because I didn't I didn't stay up and listen to it last night. We'll be right back. It is the KSR pre Show. It is the KSR pre Show. Eight five, nine two, eight
oh twenty two eighty seven. We got some open lines if you want to get in, Billy, we were talking about, you know, like last night, if if you go through and you read the comments, like on like Matt's tweets or like just the you know, official Kentucky basketball Twitter account.
Twitter is not real life.
It's just not I mean, you get the worst of the worst, and you know, the most extreme case in every situation. It feels like it give us a real I'm gonna read this to you, Billy. This is an actual tweet last night. I like Pope, but in my opinion, he gets one more year than if he can't produce to the level, expect that he must go.
Like we're halfway through the season.
You've already got people on Twitter talking ridiculous stuff like that, Like the season can go a lot of different ways.
Still still a lot of games.
We just talked about it in the first segment, and for people to already be tweeting stuff like.
That, that's ridiculous.
Now, you didn't get any type of calls like that on the postgame show last night, did you?
Nothing that ridiculous?
Yeah, And I also echo the sentiment of j billis that the SEC tournament is going to be harder than the NCAA tournament this year.
So cats get in, they've got a shot.
Shaneon it's all about stringing together results and maybe you get a little healthier in March, so you know, not already look to next year and if Pope doesn't produce, he's done. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's a microwave society. But please, let's give the guy a little bit of patience.
But I think I just say that about the Postgame Show last night because it was the very first caller that kind of got into a screaming match with Matt about you know, these guys not being athletic, but that doesn't mean that they don't have talent, Shannon and I and I have to agree with somebody on the text line this morning five h two two six five six six, five six, getting so many texts that you know, it's
actually slowing down the app this morning, dude. But one person did say that, you know, I think we're all starting to see the flaws of the transfers that have come to this Kentucky team this year and why they were in the transfer portal, right, I mean, if you're going to remake your loroster every year, there's gonna be a reason why a lot of those guys are available, right and in the past, if youngsters it took a little while to reach their pinnacle and play well in
February and March, you know, you know it kind of I scratched my head and wonder why these veterans can't play team defense better, you know what I mean, Shannon, Like, I feel like they should have seen this before. But like the guys went to zone last night and it looked like they had never played zone defense before.
I just go back to again, like, let's keep in mind this team does not have all of its pieces.
Now.
I know other teams deal with injuries as well, but you talk about struggling defensively, Lamtt Butler is your lockdown defender and you don't have them and when you don't have your lockdown defender, it's going to look differently. You are going to struggling games. And I think that's what we've seen. I don't want to just use that as an excuse, but that's the reality. That's the hand that Mark Pope has been dealt over the last several games.
And I mean, I guess you even go back to the you know Kerkriesa getting hurt during the Gonzaga game.
Yeah, I just don't know about Kerrman. I don't know if we see him again. We saw a video of him shooting the other day, but I just you know, we've been hearing that he's gonna be coming back in February, and he you know, has not come back yet, So I don't know about him. It may be a Travis Perry situation where that kid's got to get real better, very quickly. But Lamont's very valuable to this team, no doubt. But that still does not excuse what we saw in
the first half. Yeah, yesterday, that was ridiculous, and you know, credit to this team for fighting in the second, but that first half should have never happened. If you didn't, it almost didn't have a great crowd either, It's not was in the environment right, because from everybody that was there, they said it was pretty sad.
Actually, I mean it was sold out, was it not? No, it was not sold out last night. It looked like it was.
Not from the pictures I saw from like Pilgrim uh there.
Well regardless, you know, I think you know talking about Kirk Crisa, did he give you a whole lot offensively? No, But I felt like the team played with a different motor when he was on the floor. He was like the uh the like the energy of the team, I
felt like, and it's real the energizer bunny he was. Yeah, So I mean you just look at like when when he was on the floor, the team played with a different speed, a different intensity, And it's just a different team when you take those two guys out of the situation.
So it'll be a little bit of grit as well. Yeah, compared to Amari Williams, who you could poke them all day long and I don't think he'd ever get mad at you shit, and you know he's just not going to say anything about it. So it's you need a little nasty on there. We talked about Kentucky trying to find they're nasty.
Right.
At one point of this year, Andrew Kara Think said that got to play a little bit nastyear.
Well, where was that?
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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co, slash audio. Let's go quickly to the phones and talk to Rich.
Go ahead, Rich, Hey, guys, deserve all your pity because I'm a big Kentucky fan ten miles from the Arkansas campus. Has been a rough week.
Oh that's tough, rough year.
Yeah, And what I've seen it drives me crazy, is you know, our defense is awful, but we do not hit the offensive boards. It off, we shoot a three pointer and we all run to the other are and it's like they no sense hurrying back because we're not going to send anybody anyway. And then we're just slow, slow, slow for loose balls. I mean, last night there's probably five times there's a ball between two of our guys and one of them misses guys and they get it every time.
Rich, we appreciate the call.
We'll talk more about it coming up next eight five nine and two, eight oh twenty two eighty seven.
Welcome back.
It is the ksrpre Show eight five nine and two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. We'll go back to the phones in just a minute and we'll talk some more about the game from last night. Do you want to mention, though, Billy, UK baseball season is about to start. You know they start so early for baseball here. Baseball is about to start. The single game tickets go on sell this morning at ten o'clock some one. About two twenty five minutes from now, you'll be able to get
baseball tickets for the upcoming season. The Cats are ranked by the Way twenty fourth in the preseason poll.
So ad Yeah, I'm Benji Jones.
Got a good team coming back, So looking forward to to baseball season. But man, like I remember playing at Bellerman, we'd be out there freezing our butts off, going, man, this is not baseball, whether it's.
Ten degrees out here.
And then if you're a pitcher, of course, would I always try to do Billy, you want to throw inside so that the hitter, would you know, hit one off the handle. Yeah, and you know when it's freezing cold and you hit one off the handle like that hurts that like stings your hands. So that was always my strategy in cold games. Just go inside, inside, inside, and make them hit it off the handle every time.
Yeah.
I was so bad at baseball in high school. I couldn't even make contact to make my hands feel bad.
To have that hardest thing to do in sports, right, I mean, can we agree on that hitting a baseball is the hardest.
Thing to do?
No, doubt and I thought, I mean, I thought I was going to be professional. How good I was in Little League, Shannon, But you get to that that next level. Yeah, they back up the mound and they start pitching seventy eighty miles.
An hour at you, and they throw sliders and curves, sniders and knuckle curves and knuckleballs.
And changing John surgery. They've been throwing a curveball for seven years. So no, there's definitely a step up. And to have that hand eye coordination is simply incredible. Yeah, so excited for another year of Kentucky baseball. That'll get us back in the right mindset.
Yeah, So get your tickets and get out there and support MinJe Own and the Backcats. All right, so let's go back to the caller because we were up against the heartbreak there. The last caller's point was lack of offensive rebounds.
And you know, Billy, I think.
Okay, that just goes back to the lack of physicality, right. I mean, if you're going to get an offensive rebound, you got to get in there and fight. And I think that that's a lot of it. We've talked about the lack of physicality. I think that results in a lack of offensive rebounds.
It's that simple.
Well, I mean, Kentucky had six offensive rebounds compared to ole Miss's three in the last game. They out rebounded ole Miss thirty seven to twenty nine. Kentucky even shot fifty percent for the game. So I think you show me that before the game starts and you tell me Amari had a triple double. Like you said, Jennon, you know that sounds good. You know, I think that may
be enough. Kentucky scores what eighty four points? That sounds about right, but you know Ole Miss was able to score just a little bit more.
Shannon played zero defense. There was zero defense last night.
Well, that and the very first play at the game, you know, Amari is hacked on one end, ole Miss goes down and uh, you know what gets a basket. Kentucky misses a three, and then ole Miss hits a three. So it's five to zero just like that. And that was the start of maybe the worst half of the season. And following the Arkansas game, Shannon, there's not a lot of good vibes right now. But at the same time, you know, is it as simple as you just don't
have your all around great defensive point guard, Shannon. I feel like it is to a degree, but there are a lot of areas that this team can can improve.
There's no doubt.
Let's go to the phones and talk to Jerry.
What's up, Hey, thanks for taking my filefellows. Yeah, I just think I just think myself that we get Lamark Butler back, we'll go be a whole different team.
But I've got one issue, and it's really not that bad. It's very fixable. Its Garrison has got to start playing better defense, man. I mean that was two different times last night. Even the announcer he got I got beat off the dribble and he just stood there man and just wash them go straight in for a layup. And that's that, you know, and that can't happen. I mean, espastly if you're struggling the way we're stopping the ball. But I mean, but we get Lamark Butler back, I feel good about this team.
Yeah, if and win. Thanks for the callege, Gerry, Thank you, Jerry.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, Garrison didn't play great defense last night, but again I'm not going to just single out him. I mean, I feel like it was the overall team did not play well at all. Defensively, it doesn't matter if he's crazy for you if you're giving up ninety eight.
Yeah, And I don't envy this coaching staff and the decisions they have to make with injuries, right because you know, if it is a situation where Lamont Butler could play, but it's about pain management and you know, one wrong screen and you're out for the season. Shannon, It's like, when do you bring this guy back? The games that really matter are in March, but you got to get to March, and this team has got to play a
lot better in a lot of different areas. So you know, I don't know, I expected a lot more minutes from Colin Chandler. He only played about two minutes. I think people have been upset about his offensive production. But when you have Ansley and Noah out, they're doing nothing, why not throw some more minutes Colin Chandler's way. So you know, rotations just have been funky as of late, and that has a lot to do with point guards being out right.
Well, you know, I mean last game, going back to the Arkansas game, Trent Noah didn't play any and people are like, well, you didn't play Trent Noah, Colin Chandler is getting too many minutes.
Then you give those minutes to Noah.
Last night, Colin Chandler doesn't give inn and now people are saying, well, you should have paid Colin. So it's like, you know, it's got to be a better balance. I guess when we're distributing minutes, it can't be all or nothing. And it kind of felt like it has been that the last couple of games.
And they all don't have to come in at the same time. Dude, right, like you can steal minutes with guys coming in and playing with the starters, right, there's there's just a big drop when those guys play out. But let's be honest, the starters aren't playing up to what they need to be doing right now, otego O Way scores double digits again, but yet at time Shannon he seemed really ineffective despite leading the team with twenty
four points. So especially he played a lot better in the second half, but it looked like deer in the headlights in that first.
What do we think about Kobe Brea, I mean, didn't play horrible last night.
He did get you ten four out of ten, shooting.
Two out of six though from three, Like I want all of his shots to be threes, Like I didn't shoot enough. That's what I'm saying, Like I need you know, you go two for six from three. I want him shooting like eight to ten threes a game. He still doesn't shoot enough for me.
Well, they're not getting to that thirty thirty five mark.
And so you know, while Kentucky has the second best offense in the country when it comes to efficiency, I feel like it could have it could be even more. And that's exciting to say, right because when this team is at its best, you know, Drew brought this up on the pregame show yesterday, it feels like Kentucky wins
come when Kobe Brand makes shots. Could it be as simple as that, you know, as you look for answers here on a Wednesday, I don't know, Uh, I just know that when he's out there, it feels like you're playing with four guys on defense, and so that can be a real problem. You've got to be one of the best shooters in college basketball to make up for that, and at times, you know, he can disappear.
Let's go to bt hey, bt bt.
Hey, good morning, Good morning, gentlemen, good morning. You know everybody's freaking out.
I'm not.
You know, it's not the time first year much transfers pieces in the corps, you know. I mean, it's just it's a hodgepodge and he's done. He's exceeded my expectations this first year. So I mean, I couldn't be happier. There's gonna be some struggles injury the whole state as the blue so who knows what's going on behind closed doors.
So but the other thing that kind of I wanted to bring up, and I know it's probably been discussed, but I kind of changed my opinion on the whole booing cow thing that you know that really, looking back, that was really classless on our part as Kentucky fans. That man gave us fifteen years. You know, it's not each job. I'm sure, I know there's anybody can justify stuff, but you know, I wouldn't want to do that considering you know that it's not a good look.
And I'm just ready to move off from the calabooing thing, you know, like let's just put that behind this next really called PT.
You know, you got to move on from that.
You can't you know, do you think last night there was a hangover from the Arkansas game?
Billy?
Do you feel like that was maybe the case? They came out and certainly played like it in the first half.
Yeah, it's I think it's possible. Uh, definitely a lot of emotions in that game. But you can't let one loss turn into your or or you know, three turn into four like we've seen over the last five games. I'm squeezing this rubber duck to try not get too angry at the callers that tell Kentucky fans they're class lists Ford.
Why do you have a rubber duck? You don't have a jeep? I am you take a bath with it?
The Quantus Club of Lexington Chain, Oh.
That's right, Yeah, that's right, Kentucky House, the studio, They're everywhere.
I can't get rid of them.
You know, I'll just go out to my car in a parking lot and THO would be randomly a duck sitting there on myne geep.
What a life you live? You know? Six radio shows?
You you're a heel on OVW and every time you go to your jeep you get a new little rubber.
Not every time.
What a great community you've got.
I don't want the rubber ducks.
So I think that's the dumbest thing man like, Like, if you own a Jeep, you're probably like hating me right now because guys that have Jeeps and women that have jeeps, you're supposed to like embrace the jeep life. You're supposed to go off road and you're supposed to go mudd and supposed to take your doors off and the top off.
And can you take the doors off your car?
Of course?
Yeah, yeah, you're supposed to have You're supposed to have jeeps lining your dash if you're a jeep wrangler driver. And I'm just not into that. Like I like the Jeep. I like the leather heatd seats, I like the hard top. I can take off when I want to, But I don't want the stupid rubber ducks lined up and every time I take a left or a right hand turn, they go sliding across your dash.
I don't want that, Shannon, No stupid.
Do you ever take your doors off though, because that seems a little crazy to me.
No, Usually just the top I go topless. Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm not gonna go doorless.
I feel like you could just roll down the window.
I mean, yeah, you're really doing the most when you're on the interesting.
When you take the doors off, though, you kind of feel like you're riding around in a really fast golf cart.
You know.
There's just something about the freedom of the doors just off.
Maybe when you're mudding or you're taking it off road. It'd be fun to have no doors.
Not taking it mud. And I got paid a lot for that jeep. The last thing I'm want to do is take it and scratch it up.
Scratch.
See that's me though, I'm having it. I already told you I get my ducks to everybody else, my my buddies that drive jeeps who actually do go muddy Lucas.
What's upcas, Hey.
Good morning guys, thanks for taking my call. I love Mark, love what he's doing. My question little concern is when we've gone on these runs and other games and have won games, you can see the opposing coach they call a timer. He's got some fire in him, some passion. He players might seem, Oh, this coach is upset. We better start playing some better defense. I haven't seen once where Mark's like got angry or raised his voice and
try to light a fire under the team. He's so just soft and I don't know if that will be an issue moving forward, but he at yes, yes, just some of the defensive breakdowns and they showed him on the screen and you could see his mouth, like his mouth wow, Like what have we got ourselves into here? I just lighting a fire under some of the players, showing some more emotion. Maybe that like what are we doing? We beat these ranked teams and then we show up
some games and it's just not the same. That's what I had to say.
Yeah, thanks for the call, Lucas.
You know, it's interesting, Billy liked. Players have to be treated differently, whether or not you think that's fair, because certain players will react differently to a coach. Whether he is yelling at one player that might motivate player one, Player two may go into his shell if he gets jailed at So I think that you got to walk a fine line as a coach, like screaming at your ass. But you know, it is I kind of hear what he's saying, because Pope is he seems like he's so nice.
He just I just feel like it's a different type of coaching temperament. Cala Perry versus.
Definitely a different type.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess I would argue in in verse of that, is that just because you don't see him screaming at the referee doesn't mean he doesn't care, right, I mean you just kind of kind of like you said, these every kid needs to be coached a little differently, and especially this generation of kids.
You've got to coach a lot differently.
So I don't know if I equate you know, yelling on the sideline to you know, good coaching and caring about winning, because obviously all those guys here, But at times, as a fan and if you're frustrated, you do want to see a reaction, right You want to see the guys care about what they're doing, and maybe at times you could see Mark Pope's niceness as him not caring.
I just see him in the postgame press conference just distraught and just as somebody that's going to go into a hole for the next five days trying to figure out what he's going to do without two starting point guards. I do feel like there is an element of bad luck that has played into the roster construction and situation right now. But at the same time, you know, throw the pity out the window. You have got to win games.
You've got to be able to be in a position to make the NCAA tur so you can achieve your ultimate goals.
If you listen to the sideline reporter last night, what's her name, Molly, Molly? Yeah, she was, uh, you like Molly, I like Molly, you like. She was basically saying like what Pope was saying during the time out, and it sounds like it's more positive reinforcement instead of just getting in your grill and getting yelled at, which is what we saw, you know, with with Cal a lot of times,
we just you know, dress a guy down. Pope seems to be the type of coach that gives you positive reinforcement, like, come on, guys, we're still in this thing. And you know what, again, they didn't lay down. They didn't lay down and die and get beat.
By before in the second half.
And you know, Cal would pull somebody out if they missed two threes back to back, right. You know, Mark, Pope may leave you in there and try to work through your issues. But you know, one thing I'd love to see when guys get healthier is for them to tighten up this rotation, Shannon, because I feel like we were playing a lot of guys and that may be doing a disservice to the chemistry on the court at
certain times and really the flow of the game. But ultimately, it doesn't matter who's on the court if you're going to get of the I guess maybe the the energy and effort that we saw in the first half.
All right, before we go to the break, tell me about Poppies.
Talk about energy and effort, channing, and you're looking for some authentic Mexican food. Marcos over at Poppy's Mexican Restaurant can do exactly that for you. We've talked about their Valentine's Deal day coming up, but it's just a great place to watch a game, whether it be a UK game, the Super Bowl this weekend. They've got street taco deals, appetizer sampler platters for just fourteen dollars, game day beer buckets eight beers for just sixteen dollars in bottomless mimosas
on Sunday from eleven am to five thirty pm. The Big Game I think starts at six thirty, so maybe you just go drink some momosas all day and get ready for the big game on Sunday.
They've got some.
Great appetizers like cono ste frios, the barrier tacos is something that I've come to love when I go at to Poppy's Mexican Restaurant, and if you are a guacamole guy or gal out there, this is the place to go. They've got some really good guacamole along with some keso and and the chorizo kaeso.
Shannon, you ever get that?
Oh?
Yeah's so good. It's good stuff, man.
I think it's treso concaso is what they call it over there. So a lot of great things. Check it out Poppy's Mexican Restaurant in the Palomar Fountains location or in Chevy Chase above Charlie Brown's. We will be at Poppy's Mexican Restaurant for a remote in the next couple weeks. Shan right, so excited to introduce some of that food to you.
All Right, We're gonna go back to the phones when we get back, So hang on, Frank and Brandon and anybody else that wants to call it eight five nine two twenty two eighty seven.
It's the ksrpre show. Welcome back, It is the KSR pre show.
Belly, you were telling me that buzz Baker had the hiccups during the pre show the pregame show last night.
Yeah, he texted me and Cameron and was like, thanks for all the help the other night. It was it was rough, and I did feel for Dave because he had a chronic case of the hiccups. And I don't know if you heard the first couple of segments, but he was really struggling.
He had to get some help afterwards.
Glad Dave's doing okay, but he's a professional.
He fought through it. Shannon, but you ever had a chronic case of the hiccups?
Not on the air, no, Like, do you know how to get rid of hiccups?
Well, I only got twelve calls after Dave had the hiccups for the first two segments of people saying I don't want to be on the air, but here's how you fix the hiccups.
Yeah, what worked?
Well, I don't know if it worked, but he started standing up and then we also drew a dot on a piece of paper.
He had to stare at the dot and then when he felt a hiccup coming on, he would stop breathing. That was the advice was No, I didn't try to scare him.
I'll tell you what works for me. My grandmother told me this.
You take you hold your breath and take seven swallows of water. I don't know why at seven. I mean, I guess maybe six or eight would work too, but it has always worked for me. I don't know that it works for everybody, but it works for me. Yeah, maybe six would do it, maybe eight.
I don't know why.
A woman come out call in and say, take eleven SIPs of water again, you'll be fine.
I think the point is, hold your breath and sip some water. Do it you know, X amount of times and it'll go away. So glad that we much better now, Okay, you don't want to have hiccups thrust. Yeah, let's go to the phones.
Frank. What's up, Frank?
Hey, Shana, I figured i'd call back and acknowledge Billy today.
Oh you don't have to. We can turn Billy's mic down.
What's up, Frank, I'm.
Not discouraged about Kentucky. You guys got to remember we're playing without our point guard. You take the head of the snake out of the lineup defensively, offensively. Did y'all notice how Ole Miss was guarding us in our jerseys?
Yeah, they were the only guy that we have.
That can drive the ball is away a little bit. The rest of the team without Butler, they can play in your jersey because they have no threat of driving the basketball. And you've got car that's limited Kerr that's been out, so three of your top seven guys. But Pope's supposed to just pick up all the pieces and just is It's not going to happen like that again, Butler.
I thank thee Yeah, thank you, Yeah, thanks for the call.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I think that's that's the thing that teams are doing. Just guard the three, right, Just limit limit Kentucky from behind the arc real quick, Brandon, go ahead, Hey.
Guys, I just wanted to make a comment on the whole Mark Pope is a soft coach. I mean, you don't play six years in the NBA the captain of a national championship team if you're assault individual. I just think he treats him like adults and with respect. I think if there's a time when he needs to yell at him, he's he's smart enough to know when that time comes right. And I just wanted if you all felt the same way or what your opinion.
Yeah, I don't agree with the caller at all. That said it that he was soft earlier. I don't think that's the case.
I agree with the text line. Composure can be a good thing, that's right, coach right yep.
And DraftKings could be a good thing if you win some money. Bet five dollars, get two hundred and bonus bets. Promo code ks are only on Draft Kings. KSR is coming up next. Matt's got a colonoscope to take care.
I don't think just to eat anything today. Looking forward to hearing about that.
Kevin up next for Billy Rutledgeum Shane of the Dude, Thanks for listening.