Comedy Up Broadway in Lexington welcomes Mike Armstrong March twenty seventh through the twenty ninth. Then it's the Lexington debut of Lorie kill martin April third through the fifth, and catch rising comedy stars Sam tallon April eleventh and twelfth. Comedy Up Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still bringing the best and stand up comedy
to the area at thirty eight years later. Call eight five ninety two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Up Broadway dot com com off Broadway.
This is not Matt Jones. Welcome into Kentucky Sports Radio. I am Drew Franklin filling in for Matt Jones. I'm also filling in for Ryan Lemon, I'm filling in for Shannon the Dude, and I'm filling in for our guy Mario Maitland. All four of them took vacation at the same time this week, leaving me to fly solo. Got my guy, Billy r. Sports. He didn't take vacation. He lives here at the iHeart Studio. He'll be staying with me. But you know, I feel phil lonely, so far used
to having my guys here. I'm used to just showing up. Matt's done the show prep, but I'm flying solo. Feel a little bit like Kevin McAllister on Home Alone. Billy. Everybody just got on a plane and left me forgot all about me back here. But I will defend the KSR house while they're gone. We'll do some stuff we don't normally get to do when our parents and siblings are here. We'll eat some junk food, watch some rubbish, maybe get a little trouble, but we're gonna have a fun,
fun week. First, I guess I gotta do our checklist. Billy, help me get you know you're the one that knows. I want to make sure I get this right. First of all, the Clark's pumping shup phone line Toato to two eight. Wait, already messed it up? That's right, got it? Whiskey thief call today. We'll be looking for that to give us a call.
There.
We have the a Vision auto glass text machine. It is somewhere in Amsterdam. If you want to text that. It will not help us here, but feel free to blow Matt up as he is across the pond. And uh We're We're brought to you by TJ. Smith, personal injury lawyer. Call TJ and he will make them pay. There you gonna hit it all.
Billy, We're underway. Absolutely, it's great to be with you, Drew. Like you've said throughout the week, We're just gonna keep showing up and doing ourb for Drew Palooza. Drew Unterrupted was the name that I write. I like that one, but I know you're gonna kill it. So really looking forward to this week and glad to be with you today.
Thank you. I appreciate you sticking around. You just did a good a pre show Drew Palooza. I feel like puts a lot of pressure on me. I just want to show up and do the show like I've been doing for a decade. I know the guys are gone, but I wanted to keep it kind of the same. But Drew Palooza, I think a listener came up with that feels like it needs T shirts, signage, posters, that
that feels like a little more than I need. It makes it a bigger event than I than I felt like coming into even though I am very excited to do this.
Get a T shirt done, Kentucky branded. We got a graphic done about it. So I hope you're not feeling the pressure, Drew, But the the entire state's going to be listening.
Oh my goodness, maybe even people beyond.
Maybe maybe so well, Uh, we.
Could start a lot of different directions, you know, Mark Pope added another player to the to the roster over the weekend, lots of trans transfer, portal news. But Billy, I went to start with the state of our country. How do you feel about that? Did you see it going that way? In your face? Looks terrified right now?
Just a state of the Union to start, Drew week I.
Love you know, well, we've been divided as a nation lately, but on Saturday we were all united, with Duke giving us an all time collapse in the final four. So even though we could talk about our own roster, how it looks, how it's shaping out, what we need, who we're talking to, I would much rather talk about that meltdown that we saw in San Antonio, because I'm sure you're like me. It absolutely made the weekend.
Cooper Flag's face when he got called for that over over the back foul after the misfree throw.
Incredible priceless. No, they tried to tell us he was better than Anthony Davis could slurp up the tears. They tried to tell us Zion was better Nanthony Davis. Neither one of them got a ring. Duke led for thirty five minutes, thirty five minutes over Houston. They led by fourteen with eight minutes left, nine with two minutes left, six, with thirty seconds left. ESPN gave them a ninety nine percent chance of winning. Houston got it done, scoring nine
points in the final thirty three seconds. Did you ever thinking that game that Houston could pull it off? And did you celebrate as much as I did? I almost went to State Street. I'm that much of a hater against Duke that I treated it like my own team.
In one thought the game was Overdrew. I'm one hundred percent honest with you. I was starting to move on to other things, starting to look at my phone a little bit more than watching the game, and they just keep hanging around, hanging around, and john Shire collapses at the end.
How great was that? It?
Really?
I was stunned, though, weren't you? I mean, I jaw on the floor while celebrating. Obviously, with Duke loving I was stunned that Houston was able to make that comeback. Duke, I think one field goal in the final ten minutes of.
Your game, Chef's kiss. I wasn't gonna confess to this, but you said you started doing other things. I in the second half turned on the movie Conclaves about electing a new Pope. I had the game on. You know, I bring out my side TV. It's usually for NFL Sundays. I prop it up in a little chair in my living room next to my usual TV. But Conclave took over the big TV. I was so tired of watching the Duke love Fest. They kept showing Coach k kept
telling me how great Cooper Flag is. So I'm like, you know what, I got to find out who this new pope is that they're electing. In this movie that won an Oscar was nominated for an Oscar. But I had it on corner of the room, kind of watching it, a little side of them about three minutes left out of side. Okay, this is going to the big TV with sound. Just absolutely love the collapse. I thought, for
a moment, you know, Houston got that technical foul. Yeah, reaching over on the inbounds and Kelvin Samson put his face in his hands, and I thought it was a good run. While we lasted, but they just continued to get it done. You mentioned that over the back call that really changed things. Even though Doug Shalls wasn't a part of that call, I felt like Doug got some good TV time there at the end of the game. I really really happy for Doug. Big moment for him
in that game. But what'd you think about that over the back call. That's kind of a big talking point as part of the collapse.
Yeah, I mean, listen, it's Duke, So I think the consensus is that, you know what, that was a foul. I'm not gonna cry over Duke having a bad call against them, but we've seen a lot of questionable calls in college basketball this year, so I'm you know, I'm not going to act shocked when there's a questionable one on one of the biggest stages in college basketball this year. But ultimately it was just it was it was really
great to see. I'm really happy for Kelvin Samps and that guy's story and about building that basketball program at Houston has been incredible. Jim Nance as well, you know, shedd and tears. It is a good story with Houston, but overall, just glad to see Duke not in that big game tonight.
One of my favorite aspects of the game, other than Duke making one field goal for the final ten minutes. Really impressive stat from Duke's seven foot two projected top ten pick. Mal you watch zero rebounds, you are seven foot two and you are being considered a top ten pick. Some mock drafts even have him in the top five. My man got zero rebounds in the National championship and it even better statistic he was a minus twenty and twenty one minutes of basketball. How is that even possible.
That they're not making up any ground with you out there, but with zero rebounders as a seven footer, I didn't realize that, Drew. That is that is hard to do.
It's very hard to do. You can talk about the over back. You can also talk about Procter missing that free throw, Shire playing a little stallball. There was the stat that he was like seventy seven and zero when Duke has a ten point lead. Love seeing him fall apart. Kind of felt like that Kentucky game when Kentucky beat him in the Champions Classic, same situation, Cooper Flagg had a chance to win it against Kentucky. He slipped, but in this one went to that spin move that Mark
Pope pointed out in the Kentucky game. I'm sure Mark Pope saw that coming against Houston and he just fell short, hit in front iron and it goes the other way and Houston gets the win.
Little deja vu, wasn't it. I mean, just get put at Cooper in isolation. He's gonna rotate and then try to shoot. But against Kentucky he obviously turned the ball over. People told me that Kentucky did trail Duke by ten points, so I.
Thought that, but that stat popped up that it had not happened, so I guess CBS needs to get the stats correct.
I read it as that had not happened on the pre show, and then I got a bunch of people correcting me, so I assume that it did happen. But that was just such a signature win for Mark Pope this year, not only beating Duke but Gonzaga and then to see Duke lose was.
It was great.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie. That made for a great I guess what would you say, cap of the day after Florida and Auburn as well the day before the same day.
Yeah, one more thing on Duke Houston. Yeah, how about White Lotus just they knew, they had to have known, but it was like episode two or three earlier in the season. We're not playing spoiler on White Lotus. I know last last finale I did. I won't ruin it for everyone, but if you haven't seen like the second or third episode by now, that's on you. But one of the main characters, the dad, is wearing a Duke T shirt and he puts a gun to his head for that screenshot of a Duke fan right there with
the bullet to his dome. And we thought this will pop up back up in the installed tournament. We thought maybe the first weekend, and an upset looked like the White Lotus meme had died, and then they blow that huge lead and that thing was all over the internet, as it should have been.
Incredibly timely. I mean with the with the finale last night, it's like they thought this through and they said, Hey, our finale will be the weekend of the Final four. Let's put him in some apparel of a team that could be there and it ends up being it. But for Duke to you know, were they like suing for this or they need to take it down, or they were whining about it?
Oh did you watch the finale? I did. Yeah, Well they did it again with the scene. There's another scene with the T shirt. Not going to reveal anything about what happens in the storyline, but there. They gave us another meme last night. But just great to see Duke lose. I know it's not the right attitude you should have when your team's not in it, to be hating on another team so much, but that's that's what we are as Kentucky fans.
And they and they tried a full court pass at the end of that game drew. Oh yeah, they tried it, and the college basketball gods were not gonna let that happen twice.
I mean that one wasn't even close. But even the even the fade away at the end had a little late nourished Why didn't he hit front iron back in ninety two? Yeah, but on the other game, Florida Advance beating Auburn. Auburn led for that much of that one. It was Bruce Pearl's second Final four appearance after twenty nineteen when he got in beating our Kentucky Wildcats and that Elite eight stupid Tigers in that one. But I thought it was interesting. I'm sure that they've featured this
on the broadcast. Lots of people already know, but the connection of Pearl and Todd Golden. Pearl coached Todd Golden in the Jewish Olympics years ago, and then really Todd Golden was one of Pearl's very first hires at Auburn. He hired his son Steven and he hired Todd Golden. So a history with those guys. And then they meet Florida versus Auburn first SEC matchup in the Final four. Did it turn out the way he thought it? Did it?
Did?
I think?
You know?
Florida was my National Championship pick for a reason because when they play at that tempo, they are hard to stop. And Walter Clayton showed off his layup package. Man, I mean, boy, was he good first player since Larry Bird I think to have back to back thirty point games in the Elite eight in the Final four, and he was incredible. He had to be I mean he had to be ever sense of the word incredible for Florida to win
that game. You know, Broom has been a great story as the National Player of the Year and a guy coming from Morehead. I feel like I've kind of rooted for him a little bit to a degree for Auburn, but I thought, you know, it was a good game. Auburn was up eight at halftime, so for Florida to come back and the baby faced Todd Golden to keep it rolling. Now is it the youngest coach or the oldest coach could win the title tonight and him and Calvin Sampson. So I'm looking forward to a fun matchup.
What about you?
What'd you think of that?
Sec? I was pretty indifferent. You know, Florida, I guess they're they're pretty far behind in titles, but you don't want them getting too many. Where they got two. They won in twenty six, two thousand and seven. It's the last time they were there, so I leaned Auburn a little bit, even though the belts in Reparina were still fresh on my mind. I didn't want to have them to have the satisfaction. But you nailed at Walter Clayton.
He's special thirty four points. I mean, I du was at Iona for Rick Patino a couple of years ago, transfers to Florida has a special year. It's makes us look back on that January game in reperena. How in the heck to Kentucky? Well, they didn't really contain him. I think it's one oh seven to one oh two, But Kentucky pulling that off looks even better in hindsight. You know what it was?
It was that early start. I mean, Kentucky's such an old team, true that they were able to get it out of the way, go to that early early bird special at Golden Corral afterwards and get to bed by eight o'clock. I mean, those old guys makes a difference, but it does make you scratch your head a little bit.
How did they beat that Florida team? Now that they'll be playing tonight in the National Championship, it goes to show you what this team's potential and ceiling was when they were fully healthy.
Absolutely, one more note I head from the final four, then we'll move on. We have Corey Price in studio. He's going to teach us about Kentucky's eight National Championships. I thought it's, you know, championship Day, and since we're not a part of it, we will reflect on the eight times Kentucky did win it. So a lot of us remember twenty twelve, ninety six, ninety eight. But we'll
start back at the beginning. I don't have a lot of firsthand knowledge of those and memories, but we did some homework and Corey's going to teach us a lot about those. But like that before we get to that and the transfer portal news that was big over the weekend. One more from the Final four? Did you see Jelly Roll playing before the Final four games? I saw he performed.
I asked the fiance if she liked Jelly Roll. She said she wasn't a fan, and then I think we changed it after that?
What did?
What did Jelly Roll do as well?
I like Jelly Roll. I'm not I don't drive around listening to jelly Roll, but when it comes on, you know, I'll sing a little bit. And he's apparently the nicest guy of all time. He lives in Nashville. I have friends that have known him a little bit, golfed with him, live near him, and they just act like he is the greatest human on earth, even though you know, judging a book by its cover with all the tattoos and
stuff might not come across that way. But I'm bringing him up because in his performance, his drummer was wearing a Louisville football jersey. I guess Jelly Roll has a Louisville fan in his group. Also odd to wear a football jersey at a at a Final four event, whatever that. But the cameras turned him so you didn't see that. He take the cameras right on him. It's a solo shot on this cards fan drumming for Jelly Roll, and he just takes his drumstick and licks it from bottom
to top while looking at the camera. It was very Louisville behavior. You're on the big stage, you're wearing the wrong uniform. But I thought for a second Louisville was gonna have a cool moment being part of the Final four introduction. And then my man just licks his drumstick up and down, proving that, you know, louis Of fans, they just are what they are.
Okay, you know, probably getting a little too intimate with your musical instruments there. I always think of when you think of Louisville behavior, the fan drinking out of the garbage bag and the Louisville tailgate and can you remember that one?
What a classic? She full bag of trash and ripped off a bottom corner and just chugged it.
Get a little testy right now with all their transfer portal additions.
I mean, well, we'll get to that next. They're doing pretty well. We got a pat Lousville on the back, but not too hard. Kentucky also got an edition. Over the weekend. You had Jacob Polchek from KSR Plus on on the KSR pre show. And as he was leaving packing things up, saying goodbye to me, I said, where are you going? Why don't you just stay? We're gonna talk portal. Might as well have Jacob on. So Jacob will do the next segment with us. As we go
over where Kentucky he stands in the portal. Who they added? How the roster shakes up? Corey Price is here? He brought donuts. He also brought me a gift that he says, I have to open on the air. Oh is that right? We'll do it later. It's nicely wrapped in a plastic bag. Might have moved there for a minute, so I'm a little nervous about what that could be. We got Keenlan, we got masters a lot going on, but we'll take a break now, we'll come back with Jacob and the
news around Kentucky basketball, and we'll be right back. Welcome back to KSR. Drew Franklin filling in for the whole crew as they take vacations. At the same time, Billy our Sports is here with me. He's gonna do the full two hours. I appreciate Billy sticking around after his pre show so I can have some familiarity with the KSR personalities here.
I'm tripling my hours of work, so that should be reflected on my paycheck, right.
Big big money. Yeah, I guess we should get to the big roster news. As I mentioned in the first segment, Jacob from KSR Plus, who works around the clock track and recruiting and all the Kentucky basketball movements, was on his way out of the building and I said, well, heck, why don't you just stick around with us. We're gonna be talking about it, you know, as much as anyone. So Jacob, I appreciate, appreciate you hanging around hope you know someone's watching your dog. I know usually the dog
sittings an issue. I hope we're not keeping you away from home for too long. Is that we good?
Yeah? Hey, if he's if he's gonna do damage, he's probably already done it by now.
So what's the harm You got a puppy tearing things up or what?
He's got bad separation anxiety.
But he's getting better with it, so he'll be all right. Well, we'll run through what's happening with UK basketball, then you can go check on your pupp But I appreciate you being here as we react to the big news over the weekend. On Saturday, Kentucky added a point guard to the back court. Jalen Lowe, a six three hundred and seventy five lefty from Pittsburgh. He was third team All ACC.
He has two years left of eligibility. Averaged sixteen eight sixteen point eight points, five point five assists, four point two rebounds, and a sophomore year for a pretty terrible pit team. They went eight and twelve in the ACC. He's got some good size. Watching his tape, he can really get to the rim. Great change of pace makes his free throws looks like a good stry didn't shoot it that well. Shot twenty seven percent from three at
thirty eight percent from the field. A lot of people are hoping that getting into Pope's system and having some better pieces around instead of playing for a terrible team will help his efficiency. But Jacob, I'll start with you. What did you think of the addition of low over the weekend?
Yeah, Billy, let me know that people are not too happy about this edition, but I think it's a really good pick up for Kentucky. Like you said, he's not the best shooter, but he's come up clutch.
In a lot of games.
If you want to get excited about this guy, I urge you to look back at his game against Duke his freshman year. So a couple of years ago, he hit the game winning shot over Kyle Philipowski at Duke in Cameron Indoor, shushing the Duke fans. So he's an exciting player. And I had a pit beat writer text me about him that they're getting a really, really good player.
I'm sold on a big shot in Duke. Also, he played Louisville twice this year. Twenty four points, six assists in one game, sixteen points, ten rebounds, favassists and the other. I even wrote down what Pat Kelsey said about and Pat Kelsey said, he's a dynamic guard. He puts fouls on you. He's as fast and quick twitch as any guard we're gonna play against. He has an uncanny knack when he gets to the rim and if you come over, he has this ability at the last second to whoop
and fire that thing for threes. So looks like we'll have to put some shooters around him. But it's a guy that can really facilitate. He and O Way will make great drivers. I just mentioning the negative reaction. I think he's a good piece. I think a lot of that is everyone wanted Dent. You know Kentucky. It's everybody wants the number one ranked of everything. You lose Dent to UCLA, who followed Kentucky's big offer with a big offer of their own and kept him home. I think,
you know, we gotta trust Pope. I think Pope found what he wanted. I like what I've seen him low. I like how I can fit, how he can make a big jump. But there is a little bit of fan disappointment, which I feel like our fans just read the stats on ESPN dot com. They see a site ranked transfer portals and then they're like, I can't believe we lost this guy when they probably didn't even know that person was on the two months ago. But there has been a little bit of a disappointing reaction.
Yeah, and I think you're getting Low at a much better value than you would have gotten Dent being the number one player in the portal.
He went for a lot of nil money.
Getting a guy like Low, you're not spending as much you can build out the rest of the roster, and he was really i'd say probably their third option at point guard, so you're not going too far down the list. But I think they got a really good player in Low.
Yeah.
I think Kentucky fans spent all year trashing the ACC and now they've got to turn around and talk themselves into a third team All ACC guard. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have room to grow to become a better player and could be even better in a system like Mark Pope's right.
Yeah, and I think you put him around SEC talent, you put him around Kentucky talent. He's not going to be shooting as much as he did at Pittsburgh, So it'll allow him to be more efficient. And if you want proof of a guy that can shoot the ball a little better at point guard, just look at Lamont Butler what he did going from San Diego State to Kentucky. I think Low could have a growth like that. And he's lefty, and he's lefty.
Which is all left backcourt. It's getting a lot of lefties, Jasper.
Johnson and Kayden Lewis now Low. I don't know what it is about lefties, and I am a lefty, so maybe I should know. Corey, you're a lefty. You just raised your left hand. That told on yourself that you're a lefty. It just I don't know if it really matters to a defender. Maybe it does, but it just looks so much better when a lefty shooting ball. It
really does. I don't know the science behind it, maybe just because it looks so different, but it just looks so pure when you've got a lefty shooting, and we got three of them in the back court looking forward to that.
Well, football too, like you don't see it often because it changes you know a lot. You know, your left tackle is not the blind side blocker anymore. Receivers kind of have to play a different ball. And but Michael Pennix is doing it with the Atlanta Falcons and it's just esthetically pleasing.
Dan's not forget the hefty lefty, our favorite lefty call time, of course, Jacob, before you go back to dog sitting, what else should we be looking for in the transfer portal right now?
The one guy that I'm watching right now is Wesley Yates from USC scored fourteen points a game last year, and Kentucky has already reached out to him.
They're recruiting him.
Another school to watch there is Washington, and so he's got I got my eyes on him. And then we've got a full list of guys that they're going after over on ks R plus.
But check out kiss our plus. Check out kiss our Plus.
But yeah, Wesley Yates is really the number one target in my eyes right now.
He's a great example of the fan overreaction. You know, I don't know if we'll get Wesley Yates. You're in a good spot. But on Friday, Kentucky fans are like, there's no more people left, the portals closed. What are we gonna do? And then Wesley Yates enters. You've got guys enter in today. The thing's right from Baylor just ending. I mean, it's open for two more weeks. I wrote a big thing about this. I'm not telling you how to fan, but it's not the end of the world.
If a guy goes to another school because he had a zoom with Mark Pope or that, you think the portal's closed and there's no one left. Wesley Yates is a great example. No one was talking about him last week on Friday, the sky is falling in Big Blue Nation. Saturday morning, Yates pops up in a good spot there. Pierre, who I called Jason Pierre last week, still embarrassed by that. He's still in the mix. So a lot of good
options overall. Before we let you go out out KSR plus, things going well there after a few you know, the dent thing. We weren't not our fault. It changed on a dome. But you kind a lot of heat for that. When you're doing all right, we good. I'm doing good.
I think the people on ks R plus are the ones that understand because they saw the full shift. They saw it go from Kentucky's in a good spot. Oh, UCLA's picking up traction. Oh, Ucla might have the lead to all right, he's going to UCLA.
Well cool, Keep following Jacob there on KSR plus ks board. We have a lot of fun. We have a show thread going every day on ks board. Check that out. But Jacob, thank you for stopping by and dropping a little insight on low and we look forward to what you're reporting next. Maybe a commitment today, who knows? That's not a Ryan lemontoo much. Just not hoping, but should be more pieces fallowing soon. Absolutely, thanks for having me. Thank you, Jacob. All right, well we'll take another break.
Corey Price. We're gonna let him talk. He brought donuts. That's the least we can do. So we'll be right back on KSR. Here's not Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin, sitting with my good friend Billy Rutledge. Corey Price plugging it in his microphone. Now to get ready to join us. Before we get to that, let me tell you a little bit about court physical therapy. Spring has sprung and that means you were getting outside more, whether that's doing yard work or just staying active by biking or running.
For most increased physical activity when the weather gets warmer can lead to aches, pains, and injury. That's where Court physical therapy can help. At Court, our therapists know what it takes to help you heal and get back to the things you enjoy while also helping you prevent future injuries from happening. With over seventy locations statewide, it's easy to find a center near you. Go to Court dot com. That's ko Art dot com. I went to one of
those seventy locations, the Beaumont. They got my back filling better years.
Is that right?
So a little personal testimony for me over there at Court did a great job.
We got to get that back lubricated so you can get back on the golf course.
True, that's right, it's been a long time. We'll talk to some golf you like my hat. Little masters have here. It's that time of the year. The birds chirping, Billy, the fake birds are chirping. A few more portal things that we didn't get to with jacobf This just flies by, Billy. I got a bunch of notes. It's not gonna get to half.
Of them' that's what happens. But you'd rather be over prepared than under prepared, right.
I'm a big prepared guy. I always want to be prepared. Kerr crisa. He has a new home. He entered the portal leaving Kentucky a week ago, spent five or six days shopping around, and he has landed at Cincinnati. He will be a bear Cat, going back to the Big Twelve for his sixth season of college basketball. Unbelievable six seasons. I'll even play his old school West Virginia and Arizona, both old schools in the Big Twelve. But Kerr, we
were expected him to enter the portal. He did. There were rumors about Saint John's maybe being in the mix. I didn't hear much about Cincinnati, but yesterday news dropped at Kerr will be a Bearcat just going across the river. What do you think about that news, Billy?
You know, shades of C. J. Frederick. I wish him nothing but the best. You know, I've heard rumblings that maybe things weren't the best behind the scenes, But look, that's a guy that even after breaking his foot, he still got back on defense and contested that shot. I will remember that for a while. Despite him not playing only like nine games, this year and getting that medical
red shirt. But I know there's some pressure there in Cincinnati for that coach to make the tournament that he has not made it in four or five years at this point. But do you feel like the new pit transfer is an upgrade over Kirkrisa in the grands game of things, because it feels like I do.
I mean, I don't know that he'll be Laman Butler. I was a big fan of Lamont, but you gotta remember this time Lamont wasn't highly ranked. We all rely on these transfer portal rankings. Ansley Almanor was like number three hundred to something, three hundred and forty fifth and it was down to Siena in Kentucky. Yeah, we liked Ansley Almanora a right, right, Yeah, sure. Amari Williams was like seventy fifth. Did Amory turn out? Okay, now we don't.
It's Kentucky. We don't always want to have the seventy fifth and three hundred and forty fifth person. I'm not sugarcoating things, but you gotta remember, we don't know what will happen when they get into the system, get around better pieces, go up a level. Pope's coaching the fan base and Reperena can bring the best out of people. So we truly don't know how these guys will pan out. But I did like Low, especially watching highlights. He's fun, he's quick.
I have had to adjust my expectations in year one because cal would bring in all the five stars, right and you are getting guys from Drexvil in the transfer portal. But now in year two, the transfer portal is in full swing and you've got some cream of the crop in the SEC that it looked like some guys value over Kentucky right now. So it's just it's a brave new world. If you've read that book, Drew, and I think Mark Pope is the right guy for the job.
But you know, also, I'm not going to expect him to get the best of the best every single time.
I've not read that book. I have not read that at all. And if you look at last year's portal ranking, some of the top guys didn't pan out. The schools that did the best in the portal didn't have a great year. It's all about the right fit and I just got to trust Pope on this. There is one that was a bit of a loss we all wanted Yaksul Lindenberg from UAB. Yeah, number one guy in the portal. Kentucky was in great standing with him. Pope had flown to see him. They had been zooming. He picked Michigan
on Saturday. So that is if we were going to say that there is a loss, that's one that hurt. However, there's talk that he will still go to the NBA. So as long as he just goes to the NBA and ditches Michigan in a couple months, then we can look at that. And maybe Pope was out in front of it. Maybe Pope even knew that was the case, but in the moment, it didn't love seeing Yaxell go to Michigan.
You would really hate that if you're all in on this guy, he's committed to your school and then decides to just go to the NBA.
You know.
I think of recent recruiting Missus with Hunter Dickinson, with Great Osibor, and both of those guys I don't think lit up the world at their new stops, and I think you look back at it and say, thank God they didn't come here, right. So yeah, I do think Big Blue Nation, for the most part, needs to pump the brakes and allow this process to play out before you have your hot takes about how you think Pope
is doing. But I'm not gonna lie. I've had to adjust my expectations a little bit over the last couple weeks.
Yeah, I mean we all get antsy as teams started getting additions. Louisville's done well. We want to see stuff, but we also have to remember how last year went. I mean, we're way ahead of that, already in a better spot. I think people aren't considering assuming he stays, and so far it's looking like it will. I mean otega Oway would be top five in the portal. I think everyone was happy when you took Jasper Johnson from Alabama. I mean Nat Oates thought he had Jasper Johnson. Pope
went and won that recruitment. Kayden Lewis down to duke in Yukon. Pope pulled him away from there. So there's still good pieces you got to consider in the grand scheme of.
Things, and retaining otega Away is a huge part of what you want to do next year. And I'm not sure any news is dropped on that yet as he still waits to make a decision. But that's a guy I'd love to see in year two of Mark Pope system. And think about some of the other guys. Colin Chandler's another one that week.
Expect sleeping on him, right, I mean, look at the jump he just made. You know, as everyone knows two years off from basketball, you get reminded of that inny time there's a game and he does something. Yeah, but I mean, look at the jump he just made. From November to the NCAA tournament. If I had told you at Christmas he would be hitting logo threes and step back threes in March, mad as, you would have thought
I'm crazy. But if he made that jump in a few months as a freshman, what about a whole summer and going into a sophomore season, what can he be capable of doing?
And not specific to Chandler, but this team improved so much on defense after that Old Miss game. When it comes to Chempom ratings that it makes me confident that no matter the roster, Pope can adjust and get them to focus on things they need to.
Corey Price, I haven't been talking to you yet. You're you've been here. I think you got here two hours early. You were here before, Billy, you were here before ready the people that opened the city center downtown.
Uh.
Where where do you stand in your your patients and how you feel about the the transfer portal movement so far?
Well, for I say, a long time listener of first time guest.
Oh, welcome, first time at the bar, would never put the headset on you everyone, just so they know, I guess I better set up Corey if you don't know, and you probably do. We reference him a lot big on Twitter. Somehow finds every stat in the world, every newspaper clipping in the world, every uh school photo of every person we've ever had on the show, even school photos of people like Dan Docketts. To get to that,
Dan is a great, great gab out Corey. Corey can find anything on the Internet and he's specific specifically good at stats. So we're gonna get to that a little later. But back to your your portal thoughts.
I would see late great j T would say, it's now coach Pope, he's got it. Uh Like I said, uh uh he is a male alum. By the way, shout out to the Bulldogs. Yeah so uh like I said, last year, we were not nearly at this point, we've already got two guys. I think, uh, I'm I'm optimistic. I'm hoping for maybe the guy from Princeton.
Maybe Lee, Yeah, Xavian Xavi. Lee looks good. I don't know what adding low will do. You're still looking at Pierre, but he's he's still an option. He's got some fun highlights. He's another guy that can get to the rim. Billy. I feel like we we had some calls and already lost one that they went away. I don't want to run people off. I'm already already taking too long to get to the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line.
So it's on Monday. We understand if somebody has something come up at the beginning of the work, dake.
But are you running it? There is Rick running it?
Rick is running it?
Okay, Well, Rick, let's go to the phone line. Good to see you, Rick, or hear from you, Rick. Who's up first on the phone line? First off is LLL cool ta love starting my week with LL cool ta Thanks for calling in.
Hey, Hey, Drew and crew. Hey, I'm out here in Montana droning the skies, but I wanted to kind of figure out what we're gonna do with our roster. It seems like we are like point guard heavy right now. It seems like we need to add a big man down bow. I mean, we got Brandon Garrison and Malick High, but I feel like we need to add some more size or we might be getting bullet down low.
You're absolutely right. But before I give my thoughts on that, you're you're manning a drone in Montana right now? That sounds fair. Is this just like a hobby or you're out there for work? Tell me more about your droning in Montana. I'm sure that's some good scenery at the moment, especially at that hour.
Oh man, that's beautiful. Yeah, I do it for work. It's pretty low key, honestly, but you do get a couple of neighbors who, you know, get a little edgy with you.
All right, Well, stay safe out there. If you can send a picture or something on Twitter, we'd love to see the droning in Montana. What's going on up there? But thanks for calling in. We appreciate the call. And he's exactly right. We're tracking a lot of guards, but little Finn in the in the front court. Garrison Marino, as he said, but you gotta go out and get
some forwards. I know he's gonna get a stretch for that can shoot, can kind of fill that Andrew Carr Roll, But I wouldn't mind a little bit of depth there too. Pretty concerning at the moment, even though he'll eventually get it. But Kentucky's roster right now as it stands, has ten players. You got Low Lewis Perry at point guard, O Way Chandler Johnson at two guard, then little Cam Williams, Trenta on the wing, but then it's just Garrison and Marino Billy.
Yeah, and you know in Mark Pope's system, he's not going to play the bigs thirty thirty five minutes, so you're gonna see more rotation and depth is important there. I think the guy from Robert Morris as the stretch for is probably one that a lot of people have circled right now if you're looking at specific guys. But I mean, look that there is absolutely the front court is an issue right now. They don't have the depth
that they need right now. I'm very confident that Malachi Moreno will be a good player, but will he be the first few games? Will he need to adjust to the physicality of the SEC. I mean, he is a freshman, so it would be nice to bring in a transfer portal guy with experience like.
The Robert Morriscat. Oh yeah, I'm gonna try to say his name, Alvero Folquerz.
I'm gonna say that's correct until somebody says otherwise.
It's been quiet around him, but he was one of the first names to pop up when transfer portal season started. He's been over in Spain. I guess just you know, gotta go home check on things. I don't know if he's back, but the plan has been to get him for a visit. But that's one you know, we don't know that anything's a done deal. But he seems like a favorite to fill that Andrew Carr stretch forward role.
And every year we see more and more Europeans I feel like impacting the college and the professional game. Speaking of big Z has a new home in Illinois, I believe correct teaming up with his brother in Orlando, Antigua, so uh, you know, hopefully his stomach can hold up in Illinois. It's been quite their journey for him.
It will be fun to see the Avisich brothers there. I guess Coach Oh worked at work the phone got big Z to join him there. Coach Oh was big and getting big Z here to Kentucky, big Z stepping away from Arkansas to go for some brother who love in Illinois. I guess I'll root for big Z a little bit. I know people are indifferent. They didn't love his reactions in Reparina. Oh yeah, bood whatever. I'll be cheering for big Z at Illinois a little bit, not
cheering too hard, but I hope things go well. I don't know.
I'm the same way. I feel like I'm defending him. He doesn't know any better, Drew. I mean, he's just doing what Cal told him to do, and now he's breaking away from Cal and going up there with Coach Oh.
You can't take that Georgia game memory from me. That was too much like Tric. We got time for one more, Rick sure to Ryan's up next, Ryan, Thanks for calling in.
How you doing, Drew? I met you years ago with the barn Burn Creek and uh long haired old whitehead guy.
Yeah that sounds fun.
I'm a happy Yeah, you remember me? I think anyway, I'm a happy man this morning. I can't Stan Duke and uh, I've got a root for Florida because Billy's talking about uh uh Kentucky bands trashing the acc or whatever. Uh they've been to Louisville and the national van. I've been trashing that uh Southeastern Conference teams for years in basketball, and we finally proved that we had good teams. And actually I think this he sees basketball better than the football.
And it's not all about money because everybody's got money nowadays. Uh we Uh, it's about a lot of that's coaching and and the players were getting Now. I don't think it's all about money because I think us the Big Ten had the best, had the best teams. But I also wanted to go to shout out a shout out to the Kentucky administration for put Bellerman on the schedule because I like Bellerman. I like coach Davenport. Remember Legie play for coach Chattingport in that game, you know, in
that high school game at Ballad. I guess Ballad years ago. But I guess that's about all I got.
We appreciate the call. Hope to see in another bar in Fern Creek. Also, glad you know I don't know the rules on language, but uh when it's just a slip of the tongue, like it was more of a stutter than the actual word there, right, Billy, Well, yeah.
I don't know that matters in the fcc fins, but we're gonna hope that, uh we don't get one for that. Can I use a callism here for something that you can do whatever that he was talking about this there's no rules this week because he was talking about there's everyone gets back the SEC and college basketball. Coaches win games, but administrations win championships. And I think it is has a lot to do about money, despite what the caller is saying, because the SEC has committed to basketball in
many recent years. You've seen the coaches salaries go up. You've seen some of the best coaches in the game in the SEC now. So it's going to be very different than your your granddad's SEC or Kentucky just strolling to the SEC championship.
Game every year.
I mean, they are legit and they are here to stay. So I think I will be rooting for Florida in the championship game tonight for that reason.
I've had Houston on my bracket since the beginning. I'm gonna stick with that. But you know, I get people like in the SEC as I look at the clock, I'm worried about my National Championship history lessons. I'm already a little behind skin.
Well, we got a whole second hour.
I mean, we got a lot of national championships, and we got callers, we got the masters, we got we got so much to talk about. I'm way behind on my notes. So, yes, you got a whole week. So that's true. But you know, with Corey here, we got to go through our championships. Brought him in it. Why we flew him in it? Why I brought donuts. So
let's take a quick break and we come back. We will start our history lessons on Kentucky's eight national championships, and we'll take more of your calls here on KSR. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Kentucky Sports Radio. Drew Franklin with Billy Religion, Corey Price. We're about to start our history lesson on Kentucky's eight national championships. But first a couple little notes here. Some of our KSR listeners on Twitter have tweeted me at Drew Franklin KSR.
Hit me up there Jelly Rolls. Drummer is Cody Ash from Mount Washington and he went to Bullet East. Shannon the dudes next, So maybe Shannon knows Cody. Maybe Shannon and Cody were licking drumsticks together in high school.
Probably eating banana croquette, but drumsticks next thing.
Yeah. Also, before we get to our championships, Corey, you were saying that your father and our guy Rick right in the Louisville studio, we're high school classmates. Yep.
They went to training class in nineteen seventy. Uh yeah, I got that picture of them at your rocks. That's right, got picture of them from sixty eight, their sophomore year. It's a small, small world.
Very very cool connection there we have on the show. But let's get right to our our history. You know, Kentucky's got eight national championships. We're just gonna tell you a little about it, a little bit about each one. We don't want to forget, you know, some of them been a while. We've got like four and sixty five years. I don't like to say that out loud, but you know, we want to win it every year. It's four four, I mean, we got we gotta get the We gotta
pumped these numbers up. We gotta get Pope going. But first, Corey, let's start with the first one, nineteen forty eight eight off RUPs eighteenth season when Kentucky beat Baylor in the title game in Madison Square Garden. What else do we know about that first title season?
Outside we have eight more titles than the balls, so it's oh yes.
And several more final fours. Oh yeah, good.
Note they had a thirty six and three record the end of the season, that sixteen game Wayne streak. They pushed the ball up up the floor. They were fifth in the country and scoring offense at sixty nine points a game.
It's nice.
The leading scorer was a fellow mel alum, Ralph Beard. I can do a shout out to Mail today. Today is their birthday at their first day classes on April seventh, eighteen fifty six.
Today's male's birthday.
Yeah, okay, that's interesting years old to high school go dogs. That team had three All Americans, of course, Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, and Wawah Jones. All five starters were named to the All conference team.
I think we ever called the Fab five. Huh is it that one of our most famous starting fives of all time.
Nine guys were picked in the draft from from that team. Seven actually played in the pros. The schedule was a little weird for the Commerce player. They only played nine games, but they were nine to zero. Won the Commerce in the season, won the Commerce Tournament.
As you allude to.
They defeated Baylor fifty eight to forty two in the national title game. Alex Groz had led the Cats and scoring the game with twelve points. Was also named the final four most I say player.
He was pretty good.
And then during the summer, the starting five was part of Team USA that won Olympic gold. They defeated France in the gold medal game is sixty five to twenty one.
Wow. I like that. We win the national championship and they're like, hey, you guys want to just represent America in the Olympics. Was an assistant UK was the first college program to have five Olympic gold medals. I'll add that stat I liked you you texted me. The song of the Year was Minyana by with Dave Barbering the Brazilians. I guess we'll do a.
Song of the years number one. The week of the finals.
Yeah, I also want to add they beat Tennessee three times that year, three times. A little topical beat them in the SEC tournament. We loved beating Tennessee. And Cliff Barker one of the one of the Fab five. He was a World War Two veteran and he was shot down over Germany and was a prisoner for sixteen months. And while he was imprisoned, he dribbled a volleyball to polish his skills before going on to play for Kentucky.
I mean, what a different era could you imagine as we're in the portal right now, Like we're looking at a guy in a prison camp in World War Two. He's been dribbling a volleyball. But that just shows you what that era was like. I had a couple of World War Two veterans on that team, just completely different times.
And eighteenth season for rout before he won a title.
Yeah, finally finally got one. We'll do a little more on nineteen forty eight, move on to nineteen forty nine after the break, but Rick's counted me down after the first hour. We've had fun so far. More championship facts, maybe some championship trivia, maybe some Keenland talk, maybe some Masters talk. It's Drew here with Billy and Corey having lots of fun on a Monday, kicking off Drew Week. We'll be right back after this break.