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Just The Cats 09-28-26 · Just The Cats

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Just the Cats with Michael Bennett.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hello, Big Blue Nation.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: It is Monday, September 28th. And once again, I'm not
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Michael Bennett. This is Dr. John Huang filling in for
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Michael Bennett. Michael took a couple of days off and
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: I am under no delusions. I know you guys are
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: tuning in to hear Michael Bennett. It's kind of like
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: you're showing up at a Mark Pope press conference, and
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: instead you get Mark Fox.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I'm like Mark Fox. I've got a lot of opinions.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I have a lot to say, but nobody wants to
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: hear Mark Fox.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to hear me. You want to hear Michael Bennett?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Like I said, Michael took a couple of days off.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: He was gracious enough to hand me controls of the airplane,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: and I am so happy to report that We are
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: still flying. And one of the reasons is I have
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: my good co-pilot back today after he deserted me for
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the last hour on Friday.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Justin Kalin, how are you?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I am fantastic. I'm even better now after that great
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: analogy to begin this show. Can I just call you
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Mark Fox the rest of these two hours?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I am Mark Fox, one and only Mark Fox. Kind
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of bland, vanilla, nobody cares who he is.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Mark Fox taking shots here at 8 o'clock on a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Monday morning. I love it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: No, but I survived that hour with Trevor.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Listen, he told me that you sold me out for
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: a bowl of salsa and chips. Is that correct?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It is correct.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Well, I threw a quesadilla on top of that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: All right. So that made it worth it, right?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: It did, yes.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Trevor was fantastic.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I knew we were going to have a good show
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: when he started off by calling me Dr. Hung. You
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: talk about an ego boost. Dr. Hung. Then, of course,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: he threw a couple of direct shots at my dental
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: profession and also, of course, at my UK fandom. But
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: I behaved myself. I did not punch down. I knew
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I was a guest in somebody else's house. I also
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: didn't know that the Louisville Cardinals would end up pooping
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: the bed. What about that? 30-27, lost the Wake Forest.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: This is just like Jeff Brom. He's been the coach
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: now of Louisville, what, four years? I think that sounds right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I think in at least three of these years, he
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: has done this. He has beaten somebody who he maybe
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: was not supposed to beat, and then the very next week,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: he turns around and loses the opponent that he was
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: supposed to destroy. This has to be horrible for Cardinal fans.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: How do they survive this rollercoaster ride?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Well, in years past, I feel like all those Jeff Blunders,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: if you will. I feel like they were always on
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the road, whether it was Stanford or Cal. I never
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: thought that we would get a Jeff Blunder at home. Now,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Wake Forest had just played very well against Miami the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: week before, so maybe they came in with some confidence.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: But that game, at least the first half, was a
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. I mean, the way it was going
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: back and forth as just an outsider watching that game
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: from a college football fan perspective, I thought it was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyable. Now, the end in the second half got
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a little boring. The scoring slowed down quite a bit,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: but the finish on it was awesome. I do think
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the announcer, did you watch the end of it?
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: I did not. I did not see any of the game.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: I'm just curious about what is the temperature of the
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: fan base right now based on what happened.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: They're freaking out a little bit, no doubt. I mean,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that's your second loss of the season. You've got to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: be perfect from here on out. You could not really
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: afford an ACC loss. If you want to play in
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that title game. So we'll see what happens moving forward.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: But yeah, the reason I bring up the end and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: ask if you watched the announcer, he cursed it. It
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: was his fault that Louisville lost as somebody who does
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: play by play and believes in the announcers jinx. I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: think he jinxed it. He literally said, as Louisville was
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: lining up for their game tying field goal, he says,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I can't remember the kicker's name, but he says, well,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: sometimes he has an issue with kicking them low and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And what's he do?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And it was a low kick.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Low kick that gets blocked with ease. I felt like
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: it was all his fault.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I feel for Cardinal fans.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Well, not much, but just a little bit.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I understand.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I actually root for Louisville.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I want them to win.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: In fact, in terms of a good rivalry game, you
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: want both programs to be good. I wanted Louisville to
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: come into the Kentucky game with a chance to go
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: into the playoffs, and now there's not a chance in
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: France of that happening. Wouldn't it be great? Kentucky, chance
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: for a bowl game. Louisville, chance to go to the playoffs.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: One of these teams is going to knock the other
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: ones off. Not going to happen this year, unfortunately.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we actually talked about that last week
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: on my show, how... As a Kentucky fan and as
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a Louisville fan, both of you were kind of put
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in weird spots where you needed to cheer for the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: other team because you do. You want that game to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: mean as much as possible. I mean, and if Louisville's
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: going into that 10-1 and you as Kentucky fan have
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to win that game and knock them out
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of the playoffs and then for Louisville fan on their
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: side of things, say Kentucky's going for bowl eligibility. You
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: have a chance to knock them off and keep them
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: out of a bowl. Like that was going to be
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But now it's. Who knows what
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the records are going to be when that game comes.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: As we move on, that game has to mean something
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: because nowadays with all the talk about increasing the conference
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: schedules and possibly that game being knocked off of the schedule,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: we need that game to matter more than just being
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: a rivalry. It has to factor into how the teams
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: progress in the postseason.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Are you with Will Stein in thinking that you would
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: want it back in week one?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Yes. I like excitement right out of the gate, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: I think Kentucky-Louisville right out of the gate is a
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: heck of a lot better than Youngstown State or some
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: sort of FCS school.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I like it first of the year.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't want a runway up to it, though?
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: No, no. I think right out of the gate, excitement.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: If it were me, I would prefer to play probably
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: 11 SEC games and then Louisville.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: That's what I like.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: This is great. This season with the SEC, we're It
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: seems like every single weekend there are games that are
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: just so attractive. You want to watch all of them.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: The problem is you can't decide. Some of them overlap.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: They're on all these different channels. But they are at
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: least two or three marquee games every single weekend. And,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: of course, that's what happens when you have 10 of
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: the top 25 teams being ranked in the top 25
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: from the SEC. Yeah.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: See, normally I would be with you because I think
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: it would be fun to have a week one, too.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you get all this trash talk all summer long.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: That just feels like the first game you should play.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: But with the way this season has shook out for
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: both of these teams, I kind of think it's going
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to be a fun year for it to be. the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: last game of the year. Because now you're getting all
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: this trash talk in the middle of the season. You
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: got Louisville fans paying attention to Kentucky results, Kentucky fans
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: paying attention to Louisville results, and just constantly going back
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and forth with one another. I freaking love it. As
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: an outsider that has no dog in the fight, I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: love sitting back and watching Louisville versus Kentucky.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: And if both teams end up with their seasons imploding,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: then at least you have a rivalry game to kind
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: of close things out.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: It may not mean.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Anything, but bragging rights, little brother, big brother, it still
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: does mean something.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: It will mean something. I guarantee you that. To one
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: side or the other, it will mean something. Did you
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: know that there has never been a game in this
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: rivalry where both teams were ranked?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: That doesn't sound right.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Right? Does it? It doesn't sound right. Is that true?
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I heard that last week, and I was like, no way.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: There's never been a game where both teams are ranked.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: We have to.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Let me do some.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: We have to fact check that. Right. All right.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: This is not just the cards.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: It's just the cats. Make sure that you call in,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: text in, Whiskey Thief text.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Line 502-414-1450, or you can message me directly at.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: On X at KentuckyHuangs, K-Y-H-U-A-N-G-S. But big, big weekend. I
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: was busy. I covered the UK football game. I was there.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Then on Sunday, I went to the UK volleyball game
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: where they took down seventh-ranked Texas in a sweep. I
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: don't know. Is Kentucky volleyball probably the biggest sport on
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: campus right now? It sure seemed that way. Full house,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: historic Memorial Coliseum, over 6,000 people. I think it was
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: the fourth most attended game, event in the venue history. Wow.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Craig Skinner's got something going. I think he's set the
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: bar now for that volleyball team. It's either Final Four
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: or bust. Mm-hmm. They came through, they played well, had
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a slow start.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Are you into volleyball.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Absolutely I freaking love college volleyball I mean especially this
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: year has been tremendous you've gotten so many just big
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: time matchups early in the season and now you're obviously
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: in conference play you're going to continue to get big
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: matchups but I don't think you're wrong in saying what
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you said I think they are the best the hottest
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: sport on campus right now it is absolutely final four
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: bust I mean they are they're going to be deep
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs every single year which is awesome to
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: see I'll tell you what though right on our heels
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and you may not know this about me but I'm
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: a huge huge Kenny Brooks advocate I think the women's
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: sports on campus right now UK they're they're all just
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: they're popping off except for I guess softball not not
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: great but yeah basketball and volleyball Yeah. They're cooking.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I think it's, it's great. First of all, for women's
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: sports to be getting that attention, but the sports themselves
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: and the athletes.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: They are just so relatable.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Uh, every time that you are able to interview these people,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: they always have stories and they're, they seem to be
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: able to convey those stories in a manner that sometimes these,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: these men aren't able to, uh, And also, it seems
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: like that the administrations behind these so-called minor sports are
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: making more of an effort to make media feel welcome.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: When you go ahead and you attend those events, it's
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: almost like they want you to be there. Whereas still
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: with men's basketball and football, it's almost like you're intruding.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: You almost get a little bit of a dismissive attitude of, hey,
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: we're you're not really here for us. We're here for you.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Whereas in some of the minor sports, it's a little
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: bit different. I think it makes a difference for the
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: people who are covering that.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Now, do you still feel that way with football? Because
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I do feel like with Will Stein, that has changed
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: on the football side of things.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: A little bit, but still, it's very guarded. They're still very,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: very protective. Even though on the outside, it seems like
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: they're making more of an effort to to reconnect with
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: the fan base and with media, they are still very
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: selective in who they bring out. And there's always somebody
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: watching over you to make sure that you don't get
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: too out of your hand with the questions that you ask.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: It's different.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Football, men's basketball are in a different realm when it
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: comes to University of Kentucky sports. And I think anybody
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: who covers that, if you ask them, they'll tell you
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: the same thing.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe you're right. Maybe it is just the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: outsider's perspective. Because I do feel like this football staff
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: has been much more welcoming. It feels like they want
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: to have a relationship with the media. And even Mark Pope,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to a certain extent, having the whole media madness thing
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: this year. I mean, it feels like the first two years...
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: They didn't want a relationship with the media. And I've
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: said this to Michael multiple times. The media having a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: relationship with the coaching staff and the team, that's mutually beneficial.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Both sides can benefit from that relationship. So at least
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: from the outside, it feels like there are strides trying
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: to be made, but I could be way wrong on that.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: We'll wait and see. In my usual fashion, I am
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: extremely skeptical about openness strategies. to the media. It's bunker
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: mentality for men's basketball. It has been for a little while,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: ever since the latter part of the Calipari years into
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: the Pope early years. We'll see if it changes. I'm
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: going to try to hit these breaks today. I'm already
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: a couple of minutes late for our first one. We'll
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: see you. Oh, I thought it was a 15.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, 20. Okay.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I'm still learning. I'm still learning. Then let's press on.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Then let's finish up with the UK football from that standpoint.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Slow start. It was kind of a pitiful first half.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: If you look back on how the game went, Kentucky
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: was trailing 21-14 with, I think, a minute 20 to
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: go in the first half. And then within the span
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: of about 48 seconds, they scored 10 points. At that point,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I think everybody in the stadium knew Kentucky would win, but...
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: It was the pucker factor was up for a little,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: little while. Yeah.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Did you see any of the game?
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I watched basically the whole thing. And I was, let
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: me be the first to say, I was very grateful
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: for that 21, 14 deficit because that allowed me to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: get Kentucky at eight and a half on the gambling line,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: which started at 20 and a half. So I jumped
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: all over that. So I made me a little bit
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of money on Saturday, thanks to the cats. But yeah,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I was very surprised by that slow start in the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: first half for sure.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Three-headed running back attack, C.J. Baxter, Jason Patterson, Javante Barnes,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: all with 100 yards or more. But there was a
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: lot of sloppy play in that first half. I can
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: point to a couple of plays right off the bat.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Willie Rodriguez dropped an easy slant pass on that fourth down.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: That could have changed the entire complexion of how that
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: first half went. Then there was that muff punt by
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Brock Kaufman.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: That also.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: changed the direction of the game later on.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Can we talk about that? Because so you had the first,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: do we have to, well, hang on. So we had
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the first punt of the game, right? And that kid,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: it also bounced in front of him. he caught it
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: off the bounce. And I was thinking, well, he got
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: lucky because he made the play and he was able
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: to keep possession for Kentucky. And I'm thinking you probably
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have picked that up, buddy, but you got away
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: with it. And then the very next punt, I believe
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: it was a different return, man. You can correct me
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong on that, but I think they yanked
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the first return man and they stuck somebody else back there.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And he, he does the exact same thing, but he
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: can't make the play.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, Yeah, that was Kaufman.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Is the coaching staff not telling him, hey, if it bounces,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: get away from it. We almost lost possession on the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: first punt. It almost happened twice in a row.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I think they are telling them that. I think it's
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: really a matter of brain farting, lack of execution during
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: special teams. And it is a little bit of a
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: consistent trend that you've seen over the course of the
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: first four games so far. I think it's a checkmark
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: that needs to be corrected before it gets any worse.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Because that.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Muff, Kentucky could have taken that ball and they could
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: have taken the ball down the field and scored on that.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: But instead, it went just the opposite way. There was
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: a blown coverage later in that possession, too, that resulted
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: in a touchdown. And that, like I said, that changes
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: the entire complexion of the ball game, all because of
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: a stupid special teams play. Yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was borderline inexcusable. And you're lucky that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: it was South Alabama, because had that been this week
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: against South Carolina, maybe you don't get away with that.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Or maybe it's a couple weeks against LSU. You probably
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: definitely don't get away with that and still find a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: way to win the game, but... Kudos to them for
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: bouncing up off the turf and recovering from that. That
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: was a very boneheaded play.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Great second half. 21-0 shutout. Like you said, they covered
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: the spread on that. And big game in South Carolina
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: coming up. I've got a couple stories about the Gamecocks,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: about my trips down there. We'll hit that on the
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: other side of the break. Now I am officially two
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: minutes late for my break. So there, I'm consistent. We'll
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: see you on the other side. Welcome back to Just
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: the Cats. I am Dr. John Kwong filling in for
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: Michael Bennett and the Whiskey Thief text line is open 502-414-1450. Justin,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I have the disadvantage of not being able to see those.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: So if any texts come through, make sure you read
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: those out. But I've got a I've got a question
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: for the listeners out there.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Kentucky is 3-1 right now.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: But if I'm honest with myself, I don't really think
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: I know much more about them than I did before
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: the season started.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: If you told me they would have been 3-1, I
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: would have signed right on the dotted line. I did
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: predict them to beat Alabama and lose to Texas A
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: & M, but they did just the opposite. Doesn't matter.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: That's their record. And as Bill Parcell says, you are
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: what your record says you are. My question is, what
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: does their record say that they are? I'm not quite
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: sure that I know. What has Will Stein shown you
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: through four games that you didn't really know when he
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: was hired? Does anything jump out at you, Justin, in
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: regard to that?
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess for me it would just be
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the speed of play. I mean, I knew he was
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: probably going to come in and run an up-tempo type offense,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: offense but i never thought i guess the way that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: they've executed under those scenarios i think has been a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: lot better than i anticipated him being coming into the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: season so that's probably where i would go with that
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: other than that i'm right there with you i don't
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I like to feel like I have a gauge on
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: this Kentucky team and what they are and what they
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: could potentially be at the end of the year. But
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: truth be told, I'm right there with you. I don't
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: think we know.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I think those two bad halves have really kind of
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: muddied the waters, so to speak. We don't want to
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: see those ugly halves kind of rearing their heads at
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: inopportune times. And the fact that they went as bad
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: as they went We kind of do have to wonder.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: We don't know who Kenny Minchie is right now yet either.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: He seems to appear to be more of just a manager,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: but part of that has been Stein. He says there's
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: no reason to play hero ball yet. Take the easy money.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: And so far, I think he's done pretty well. He's
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: done what he needs to do, but he has yet
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: to have that truly breakout game yet.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Well, do you credit some of that to the running though?
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Because I mean, You mentioned the three 100-yard rushers, which
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Corey Price put out hasn't happened since 2020 against Ole Miss.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: So that's not something that happens every day. If you
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: have a football team that can effectively run the ball
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and you're getting positive plays and not getting behind the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: chains on first and second down and you can keep
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that momentum going, I think that's something that you've got
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to continue to rely on, and if you can do
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that effectively, there really is no need for Kenny Menchie
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to be anything more than a game manager.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: And that's fine.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: The bottom line is Kentucky's got to continue to win,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: and this game coming up in South Carolina is pretty
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: critical when you think about how the rest of the
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: season is going to go. Columbia's a tough place to play,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: but that team, is in turmoil right now. Yeah, Shane
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Beamer is on the hot seat. There seems to be
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: a little bit of team dissension. We saw some videos
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: on the sideline of players not kind of getting along,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: not wanting to come out of the game when they
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: should have. But make no mistake, That rooster down there,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: that cock crowing Williams-Brice Stadium, 80,000 people. I lived in
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Columbia for three years when I was stationed at Fort Jackson.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: You get to know the football fans and the football
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: team in areas where you live, and a lot of
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: times you develop a little bit of affinity for them.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: I'll admit, I became a little bit of a South
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Carolina football fan, and That football rules the roost there.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: They don't give a hoot about basketball. Football is the sport.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: And they want that team to do super well, understandably so.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: And I think it's going to be hard because it's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: going to be a make or break game for Beamer
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: down there. What say ye?
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I agree with you. I'm wondering at this point, if
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: he even makes it to the end of the season, look,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: if I'm cat fan, I'm not worried about this game.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Not one bit. I mean, the fact that Dylan Stewart,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: their edge rushers suspended indefinitely because of a punchy through
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: that helps. I mean, we were just talking about the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: running game. You think that helps the running game? Absolutely.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It's also in throwing situations. That's going to give Kenny
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Menchie more time. I mean, obviously you're going to, throw
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: somebody else in his spot that's not nearly as athletic
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: or highly regarded as a guy like Dylan Stewart. So
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I think, in my honest opinion, I haven't seen a
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: spread yet. I haven't even looked for a spread yet.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: But I imagine Kentucky's probably going to be 10.5, 11.5-point
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: favorites on the road in Columbia, which at the start
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of this season, who would have saw that come?
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: I may have to get my eyes checked, but I
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: thought I saw an initial early line come across where
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Kentucky was a three and a half point underdog.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: You are right.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I'm showing two and a half. That's crazy to me.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: And here you have somebody like Lenora Sellers, who I
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: think just a couple of years ago was going to
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: be touted as a Heisman candidate. And now when you
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: look at the message boards, people think he's a bum.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: They're telling him to kind of hit the road. Times
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: do change, don't they?
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: That number actually worries me.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: In what way?
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: You study those numbers. What does it actually mean?
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you look at what happened down in
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Florida this weekend, right? You had the quote from John
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Summerall last night or last week. There's some good drugs
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: out there because Florida was favored by three and a half.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: but then they go on and win that game by 24.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: So I don't know. It feels like Vegas maybe knows
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: something that we don't because I don't think, like I said,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think Cat should be 9 1⁄2, 10 1⁄2.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: There's an aura down there with Gamecock fans, and this
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: may be a controversial opinion, but I think they are
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: some of the most vicious. I think they're the most
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: vicious fan base in the SEC. You get down there,
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: and this is for both basketball and football. There almost
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: seems like there's a type of evil aura that kind
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: of pervades down on the opposing teams.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Those fans, they are brutal. They are mean.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: They won't give you any grace at all. When I
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: was down there a couple years ago, I made the big,
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: big mistake of wearing blue. Normally when I go and
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I cover a game, I dress in neutral colors so
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: people won't know. Specifically, they won't spill beer on me
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: or spit on me or anything like that.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: This time I made the mistake.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: I wore blue. And when I was getting on the
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: media shuttle to get back to my car after the game,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: this was in a year in which Kentucky had beat
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: South Carolina, the shuttle driver literally looked at me and
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: told me that he was not going to give me
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: a ride back. What? I thought he was kidding. I'm thinking,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: this is your job. You're providing a shuttle service to
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: media members. And he goes, nope, not going to do it.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: And finally, one of the supervisors came by and got
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: things going.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: I was able to get on the shuttle.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: And this guy, I don't know if he was just
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: overtaken with evil spirits or was drunk or whatever, but
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: he took off like a bat out of you-know-what, just
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: going 35 miles an hour in a shuttle. He literally
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: ran headfirst into another shuttle.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: We had a shuttle wreck.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: No way. It was something that could have turned horribly,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: horribly wrong if people had gotten hurt. But fortunately, nobody
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: was severely injured. But it was an extremely bad look.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: I went back and I made sure that I contacted
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: the athletic director at USC. And he wrote me back
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: and apologized profusely and said, we'll look into it. We
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: want to make sure that this never happens again. We
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: take all this seriously. Whether they did or not, I
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: don't know. I never heard back from them. I was new.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to really make waves. I didn't follow up.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Now, if that had happened, you could have bet your.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Bottom dollar that I would have followed up.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: But I say all that just to give you an
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: example of the kind of stuff that you're dealing with.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: when you're dealing with South Carolina football fans down there.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: That is crazy.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: It's going to be rough.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: So were you the only one on the shuttle?
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I was the only one on the shuttle at the time.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: There were a couple people coming from the other direction.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know. They were hauling supplies or whatever. But literally, ram, bam,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: head first. And I could have easily been thrown out.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: If I hadn't been so alert and kind of watching
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: for what was going on, then I could have been
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: seriously hurt on that.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: That is crazy.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: That is my memory of Williams-Fry Stadium. Other than the
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: three years that I was back there in the early
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: 80s when South Carolina actually was very good. They were
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: top ranked. I think they were on track to become
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: the number one ranked team in the nation. Then they
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: got upset by Navy. This was the Joe Morrison days.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: Black magic. It was 100 degrees in Columbia during those
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: early fall Saturdays, but everybody would wear black football school
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: for sure. They're going to be ready. I'm just hoping
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: that the turmoil that's engulfed the program is going to
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: kind of diffuse some of that aura that I'm talking about.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, they are in a position where they need
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: a big, big win and they, you, they know that.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, maybe I'll, I'll maybe change my
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: opinion as the week goes on, but as it stands
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: on this Monday, I just, I think the Cats roll
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: in that game. I really do.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I think it's a toss-up.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: I think it's a toss-up.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: It's not good news because my opinions are always wrong
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: with Kentucky. I don't know if you know that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Just tone it down a little bit. Tone it down
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: a little bit. Let's not give them too much mojo.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Can you believe that we have Basketball Media Day coming
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: up today? Really? Are you aware of that? Yes, official
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: UK Basketball Media Day. We've got Mark Pope speaking at 1230.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Then they've got a short time with the players. It's
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: only 30 minutes. I think they've kind of condensed it.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: So when you talk about trying to open things up
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: a little bit more, it's almost like This kind of
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: got swept under the rug. Media Today, Big Blue Madness
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: coming up Friday. The first exhibition game in a couple
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: of weeks. Basketball season is upon us. And it's very,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: very rare that we have both Kentucky interest in Kentucky
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: football and basketball today.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Going at the same time.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Usually by this time, football season is starting to implode anyway,
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: focusing on basketball. Not this year. We've got a doubleheader
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: going on at the same time now.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's wild. The last exhibition game is a month
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: from today. So we're, what, a month and some change
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: away from the official start?
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: I think about five weeks from the opening game against Manhattan.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: It's going to come up real, real quick. Do you
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: have any initial thoughts on this basketball team?
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Are you excited? Are you deflated?
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: I get all sorts of opinions from people from different
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: ends of the spectrum.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Well, we talk about how we still don't know what
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: this Kentucky football team is, despite seeing them play four games.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I'm even more so that way with this basketball team.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I think on paper... It looks like it can be
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: really good. I love the addition of Momchilovich. I think
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: that's going to do wonders for this team. Cam Williams,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: if you get him to be able to shoot the
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: way he has in past years, I think that could
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: be a really good thing. I really like Zoom Diallo
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and Alex Wilkins. The thing that it hinges on for me,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and I've said this multiple times, Malachi has to be
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: much better. He has to be much better. And I
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: think he's got it in him, and I think the
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: NBA– stuff he probably learned some things that he needs
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to work on but I want to see him shooting
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: more mid-range more three-point shots I mean we know He's
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: got that in his arsenal. That shot he hit against
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: LSU to win was just a thing of beauty. But, yeah,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: this whole team for me hinges on Malachi Moreno in
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: the four spot. Can you get good production out of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: a guy like Justin McBride consistently at that four, or
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: do you have to look elsewhere? So those are the
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: two things that I'm kind of cautious about when it
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: comes to this Kentucky basketball team. But on paper, I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: think it should be a really good squad.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: I want to follow up with that, but got another
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: break coming up right now We'll see you on the
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: other side of that. This is Dr. John Huang, Justin Kalen,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: Just the Cats. Dr. John Huang, Justin Kalin on Just
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: the Cats. We are cruising at 30,000 feet so far.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: No crashing and burning so far. Heck of a lot
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: of things to talk about today. Justin, I wanted to
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: follow up on some of your comments about basketball team.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: I agree about Moreno. I think he does need to
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: be much better. The reality is he wasn't that great
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: his first year. I mean, he was good.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: But he wasn't great. He didn't really show us anything.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: He has to come back a lot stronger, like you mentioned,
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: maybe play a little bit out on the floor a
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: little bit more. We're going to need his rebounding to
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: kind of ratchet up a couple of notches. I think
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: one of the things that Kentucky basketball has to be
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: really keyed in on is staying away from injuries. I
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: know a lot of that is just dumb luck, but look,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: you already had Momchilovich with his finger. Evidently, that's healed,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: and and he's ready to go, but we don't know.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: You all should have never freaked out about that, ever,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: in a million years.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: That's what we do. We freak out at the first
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: sign of a hangnail. Cam Williams, he's evidently on the
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: mend also, but he is going to need a lot
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: of catch-up time in regard to conditioning, in regard to
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: basketball conditioning. And then Trent Noah, we don't know about
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: this thigh injury. Is this something that's going to linger
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: over the course of time? And What other hidden twisted
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: ankles or, God forbid, ACL injuries are out there on
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: the horizon? Pope has had his share. Hopefully, karma is
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: going to do a little bit of a reversal this year,
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: and Kentucky will be able to go through injury-free. Because depth-wise,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I think they're actually pretty solid. If you look at
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: all of the positions, there are two, sometimes three deep
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: at all of these. One more roster spot, unfortunately. I
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: don't think Pope was able to garner anybody from media madness.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: There was no 30-something person with eligibility that had enough skills.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Mario was pretty darn cool. I think he could help
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: in a pinch from that standpoint. But it is a
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: very different ballgame when you're talking about professional-level accomplishments. versus YMCA.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: By the way, I didn't see you out there at
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Media Madness. Did you not get the invite?
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: No, on account of I'm not a Kentucky media member,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: no invite for me. And I wouldn't have done anything,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: so it's probably a good thing you didn't see me
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: out there. I don't know if you know this, but
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I'm 5'0, so I can't shoot over anybody. But if
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I'm wide open and you need a three, I'm your guy,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: but I just can't have a defender near me.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: I think our green team could have used a three-point
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: specialist out there.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: A marksman, a sharpshooter.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: But I think they let anybody in because based on
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: the talent level that I saw, and I'm talking to
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: myself there, anybody could have stepped in and filled the
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: role there. It was a fun time. And maybe they
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: are making more of an effort to get everybody involved.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: Or maybe it was just a trap, right? The minute
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: you start saying something negative, they're going to pull out
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: the tape. and show you shooting those air balls in
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: media madness.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: I know their game. I know their game.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: Justin, one of the things that I heard you talking
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: about a little bit earlier after my workout was the
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: President's Cup. And I think events like that would be
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: really neat to cover. Oh, yeah. I started thinking about
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: what are some of the events over the course of
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: history that I would have liked to have revisited. And
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: I didn't know if you had any favorites. Obviously, Miracle
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: on Ice. I'm talking about if you knew the results
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: of something that happened, like we do.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Historical, iconic events.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: What are maybe the top two or three that you
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: would have liked to go back and either visited as
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: a fan or or as a media member. Anything pop
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: out to you?
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I go straight to Indiana because that's my
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: main love when it comes to sports. And so I
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: immediately start thinking back to that. I would have loved
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: to been in attendance when Bob Knight threw the chair.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I think that could have been a lot of fun.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: That would have been a fun game to call. or
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: to be on coverage for. And then I have to
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: go back to the national championship last year. I obviously
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't there, but I think being there as a media
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: member would have been pretty dang cool. Those are really
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the first two that jump out at me immediately.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: I think being a Kentucky fan, I think also Kentucky's
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: national championships are at the top of my list. Of course,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: the 1978 NCAA championship, which was the first one, In
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: my lifetime, Kentucky and Duke, Givens with his 41 points.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: As a Kentucky fan, that's probably awfully difficult to beat.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: I was also down there actually in the Superdome when
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Kentucky won their latest against Kansas. So that's something in
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: 2012 that always stick out in my mind, but in
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: actual sports that are not Kentucky-related that I did not
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: attend that I wish I would have would probably obviously
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: be the miracle on ice, the hockey game. I think
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Secretariat in the Belmont would have been kind of neat
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: to know that he won by all those lengths and
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: to be able to see him come down the stretch.
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: Being a boxing fan during the early days when boxing
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: was huge, Ali Frazier, 71, Madison Square Garden. You had
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: two undefeated heavyweight champs. A lot of cultural significance associated
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: with that. I think that was the match that you
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: had Frank Sinatra shooting photos ringside. It's almost impossible to
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: kind of describe what heavyweight boxing meant at that time.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: It was a huge sport, so those would also be
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: at the top of my list. You're a big baseball fan, right?
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: Any of those That's.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: What Red Sox.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Carlton Fisk, you know, game game six and waiting that
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: home run through.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I think being at the the Babe Ruth calling a
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: shot game would have been a lot of fun. The
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: ball that went under Billy Buckner's glove would have been
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun to be at. I mean, those
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: are the first ones that jumped to my mind. But yeah,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: anything involved with the Reds, heck yeah, sign me up.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll even go a little bit further.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: How about Jesse Owens in 1936 Berlin Olympics? That would
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: have been neat. Wilt Chamberlain, 100-point game.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: I think that was in the early 60s. Michael Jordan, right?
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Final shot as a bull, 1998 finals, NBA finals, game six.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: You know that you're watching the last few seconds of
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: that dynasty. So all that has significance.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I got one more for you in regards with basketball.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: When Shaq shattered the backboard. Would have loved to have
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: been there for that.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: All right. How many backboard shattering events have there actually been?
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: I can probably think of maybe three or four that
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: have been highly, highly publicized. You know, the Bring It
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: Home Jerome from Pitt, Bill Rafferty, shouting about that one, right?
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: That would be another good one, yeah.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: This is the wonderful thing about sports. You have all
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: these memories that come before you and A lot of
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: them were even before you were born. And you just
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: remember because they've been preserved for posterity's sake. And to
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: go back and to look over it and to recreate
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: that and to just wonder what would have been like.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: You know how you feel when you're sitting in the
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: stands and you get that shot of adrenaline and that
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: high of high or.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Even the low of lows. I would have liked to
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: go back and.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Seeing the Kentucky Duke game in the spectrum, the Christian
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: Leitner game, I know it was devastating, but to see
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Sean Woods hit that shot and then Leitner 2.1 seconds later,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: that's something that's always going to be able to stick
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: with you, whether it's good or bad.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: All right, so now I guess the only thing we
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: need you to do is build us a time machine.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: We can make all this happen.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, along the same lines, you're talking about posterity and
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: time machines. Are there any of these sports traditions that
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: you think need to disappear? What are the famous sports
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: traditions now? And this is one for the listeners, too.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: What do you see out there that you'd like to
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: go ahead and get rid of? Something like post-game handshake lines.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: Is that something that we probably need to kind of retire?
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: No, I like that.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: How about the Gatorade dump coaches dumping Gatorade? See getting dumped.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing about me. I don't like change. So
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: if it's something that's been going on for decades now,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I don't want to change it like the Gatorade dump
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: or like the handshake line or like throwing hats on
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the ice for a hat trick and hockey. Like I don't,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want any of the longstanding traditions to go.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: And you're like cutting down the nets after, after a championship.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're Tom Crean and you it's a sweet 16,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: maybe don't cut down the net. But yeah, other than that,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: if it's a big moment and you win a title, absolutely.
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: I think mine, I think the Gatorade bath has probably
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: run its course before. It was fun when it felt spontaneous,
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: but now you've got two guys are kind of stalking
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: a 64 year old coach with a cooler while he's
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: trying to shake somebody's hand. You like that chaos, right?
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: We know it's coming. He knows it's coming. The camera
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: knows that it's coming. The only suspense is whether somebody's
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: going to kind of tear their rotator cuff lifting that
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: cooler up.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: How do you feel about, like, a bubble gum dump?
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: You ever seen one of those in, like, baseball? They'll
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: just take the big bucket of double bubble and dump
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: it over someone's head?
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: No, how does that work? Is that only reserved for
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: extreme situations, or is that becoming routine?
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: I think you hit on a big point there. I
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: think a lot of.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Times these things, they, they kind of irk me because
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: they become so mundane. Yeah. I like them to be
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: reserved for really huge, huge efforts and events and victories
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: and championships.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Now the, the bubble gum dump, I feel like more
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: times when I see it, it's because a player hit
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: a walk off or something to give their team the win,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: but at least it is, it's something different. It's not,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: it's not the Gatorade dump. It's, I don't know. You
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: kind of see it, and you're like, well, that's different.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I like it. So that's how I feel about the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: bubble gum dome. If there is one thing that I
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: want to go away, and this is more of a
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: rule thing, let players taunt. You know, like when they're
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: running into the end zone, if somebody wants to look
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: back and throw a peace sign up to the defenders,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: that should be allowed. Let them have fun. At the
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: end of the day, they're all playing a kid's game.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Let them enjoy it.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: But you have to draw the line at simulating going
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: to the restroom, right? Oh, my gosh.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: What are we doing?
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: That was absolutely ridiculous. I chuckled a little bit, but
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: then I caught myself. That's only enabling activities like that.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: What do you think the punishment should have been for
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: that guy?
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think it should have been anything
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: more than it was, just an unsportsmanlike conduct, and you
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: move on with it. I mean, it was... I do
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: think it crossed the line, but I don't think it
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: was so far across the line that anything extra should happen.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: Give him a slap on the wrist and tell him
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: not to do it again, right?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Buddy, let's use our head next time. The head up top.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Wimbledon whites.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: Are you okay with only being able to wear white
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: at Wimbledon?
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm good with that. Again, it goes back to tradition.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: Big tradition. Do you like the spelling of the Kentucky Y,
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: the Y, the bringing out the guy, the cheerleaders go
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: do the K?
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Got no problem with it. Here's one I would change, though,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: and I'll take this directly from Liv. PGA guys should
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: be able to wear shorts. I don't– I get it.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: The golf pants are tradition, but let them wear shorts
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: if they want. Half the time they're playing, it's so
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: dang hot. Let them wear what they want.
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: But golf is a gentleman's game, Justin.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: You can be a gentleman wearing shorts.
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: We can't pollute the butler cabin with some guy wearing
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: shorts in. We've got the green jacket ceremony, all that,
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: the piano music. Greatest tradition in sports, right? You cannot
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: pollute that with wearing shorts.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: See, I don't know. If there's one thing I could
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: get rid of, it would be the pants on golf.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: That sounds really awful coming out of my mouth. I
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: want them to wear shorts. All right.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: You are PGA commissioner. I think I'll have to give
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: you that one. I'm not going to die on that hill.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: There are other things worth fighting for. We're coming up
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: on the top of the hour. Once again, I've thrown
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: out all these questions out there for the listeners. Where
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: are you guys?
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're just quiet today.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: Maybe they're just finding.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Well, we'll come back and we'll see if we can
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: light it up with some more rapid fire questions for
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: Justin Galen.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Just the Cats with Michael Bennett.
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: Hey everyone, this is Dr. John Huang and Justin Kalen
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: sitting in for Michael Bennett and Just the Cats. We
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: are having a great time kicking.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Off this Monday.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: A big, big week. Kentucky Basketball Media Day coming up.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: We've got Big Blue Madness on Friday night. We're talking
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: about traditions and I've discovered that not only is Justin
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: a very, very strict traditionalist, but He's actually a practical,
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: level-headed guy. Everything I've thrown at him, he's come up
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: with good answers and good explanations.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: So, Justin, I'm going to give you a treat. I'm
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: going to let you be Jay Bat.
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: Let's say Jay Bat calls a press conference tomorrow and
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: announces that one Kentucky tradition is gone. a tradition is gone,
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: which one of those traditions would actually make you mad
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: enough to say, nope, you can't mess with that? Anything
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: come to your mind right now? Anything that if J-Bat said,
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: we're going to go ahead and nix this, that you
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: would get your pitchfork and your torch out, and you
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: would go on the rampage.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Do you care.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: About any of the traditions enough to die on that
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: particular hill?
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: If they wanted to get rid of the blue-white champ,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I would absolutely lose my belief.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: That is a fantastic answer. Great minds think alike.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, as somebody who's not a Kentucky fan, anytime
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: I'm watching Kentucky play, constantly one of the coolest things
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: that i can hear coming across my tv is the
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: boo why i mean the way it's audible over the
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: broadcast is, I mean, that's got to be the best
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: tradition that there is.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: But I'm going to play devil's advocate a little while.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Don't you think that a lot of times that when
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: Kentucky fans break into that blue and white chant that
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: it destroys momentum? Kentucky has gone on a run. The
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: fans are excited. They're energized. And all of a sudden
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: you hear blue, white, blue, white. People are distracted. It
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: kind of destroys the mojo. Yes, no?
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Are you saying that's happened historically or you're just saying
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: that's what you feel like happens?
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: I actually feel like that that happens quite a bit,
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: especially during basketball games. The fans are jazzed up. Kentucky
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: has gone on a 10-0 run. All of a sudden,
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: the blue-white chant breaks out. Other team will score five
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: in a row.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: That's very interesting. I'm going, I've never noticed that personally.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: Look at that next time. See if you notice that
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: next time.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Pay attention.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I will.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do the flip side.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: Now, which supposedly sacred Kentucky tradition or event Could J-Bat
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: eliminate tomorrow? And if you're being truthful with yourself, you
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: really wouldn't give a hoot. You really wouldn't care. What
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: Kentucky tradition, if J-Bat eliminated tomorrow, you really wouldn't care?
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: I would say nothing's really jumping out at me all
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: that much, but I would go with Big Blue Madness.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow. Yeah. Big blue madness.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Because, I mean, nobody really gets anything out of it. Yeah,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: that's great. You get to meet the team. But if
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: you listen to any sort of media coverage, I mean,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: you already know the team. We've been talking about them.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: ad nauseum for months now. So you, you should have
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: an understanding of who the team is. And I just,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's all that exciting. You don't get
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: that much. Yeah. You get to see them scrimmage against
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: each other, but really who gives a bleep about it?
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: It's not against each other, whatever dunk contest, three point challenge.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: I don't need any of that. Get rid of big
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: blue madness.
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: You and probably how many, how many tickets that they
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: sold on that?
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Evidently it's sold out.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Every year.
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah. In a way, I do agree with you that
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: it's extremely boring. Very much.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: It's a boring event to cover.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: Before, when you had the Matthew Mitchell come out and
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: do his dance, that was something that fans could look
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: forward to. But lately, there really hasn't been anything like that. Well,
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: I take that back. It was kind of neat having
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: John Wall there and seeing him do his recreation of
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: the dance. That was kind of cool. But that was
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: essentially three seconds worth. Yeah. Then when Rick Pitino showed up,
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: that was kind of cool, but that was completely unscripted,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: unexpected at the end. I think little things like that
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: that fans are looking for are what kind of drives that.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: But overall, I wouldn't shed too many tears if they
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: went ahead and got rid of it. Let's just start
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: off right at the get-go. In fact, now, even heading
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: into some of these exhibition games, when you're playing a...
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: I don't even know. Who are they playing that first game? Oh,
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: they're playing Travis Ford's team, right? Okay, that adds a
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: little bit of a connection factor associated with that. But
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: other than that, I want to jump into the big deal.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: I want to see the Purdue's. I want to see
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: the Texas Techs come in.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Well, on the flip side of that, you saw the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Purdue's last year. And we saw how... That changed the
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: whole mindset of Big Blue Nation when you win that
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: game and then regular season starts. And it's like, wait,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: how are we losing these games? We beat Purdue in
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: an exhibition.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: Wasn't that fun, though?
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: It was fun.
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: That's what being a fan is all about.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: It was fun. Let me ask you this in regards
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: to Big Blue Madness. How would you feel about moving
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: it back to midnight? Because that, to me, that's what
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: made all those events across the country, your Big Blue Madness,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: your Hoosier Hysteria, That's what makes them so exciting. When
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: they were at midnight and it felt like you were
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: doing something wrong because you were out of the house
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: so late and it's like you should be asleep, but no,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: you're at this awesome basketball event where you're getting to
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: meet the team and get your first eyes on them.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: And they felt like they were also tweaking the, pushing
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: the boundaries of the rule because it was midnight because
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: that was the particular night that the teams were legally
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: allowed to practice for the first time. And unfortunately or fortunately,
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: I'm old enough to remember when it was midnight madness,
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: when you would get out there, when you would purposely
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: stay up late and kids were allowed to stay up late,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: come out, see Kenny Skywalker, do those dunks and interact
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: with fans. I think that would be a very positive
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: move to move it back to midnight. But logistically, I
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: think it would be too difficult. I think the calendar
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: nowadays with things constantly changing, to be able to coordinate that.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: They want it. They want to be able to market it.
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: TV wants to be able to produce it. They want
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: it to be on a Friday or Saturday night. So
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: it's not going to happen, but I think that's a
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: good idea though.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: That is, that's one of two college basketball traditions that
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I want to see make its return along with what
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: happened to the 24 hour marathon. Remember that when we'd
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: have games from midnight to midnight for 24 straight hours,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: we've got to bring that back. That was so awesome.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Waking up at five in the morning and there's a
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: basketball game on, it's like, wait, what? That has to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: make its return.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: Society needs to accept the fact that there are people
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: like us who have no lives other than sports, that
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: we're willing to watch sports 24 hours a day if,
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: there's something worth watching.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, during COVID, I was watching Korean baseball because
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that was the only thing I could watch. I got
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: heavily invested in the Korean baseball league. I mean, I
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: knew all the teams, all the players. It was wild
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: how quickly I learned Korean baseball because there was nothing
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: else to watch.
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: I do have my limits, though. I'll watch anything UK.
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: I'm technically more of a University of Kentucky sports fan
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: than I am literally a sports fan. But if you
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: show me anything UK-related, anything athletes wearing blue, I'll go
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: ahead and watch that. You're a huge baseball fan then, right?
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say huge, but I'm a big baseball fan, yeah.
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: So this time of the year, fall, wild card playoffs. Mm-hmm.
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: Division playoffs, World Series, this kind of lights a fire
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: underneath you.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. I am jacked up because during the
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: week we don't have football all that often. I mean,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: you get it on Thursday night, you're getting some games
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: on Friday night too, but really Tuesday and Wednesday are
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: kind of the down days. So the fact that tomorrow
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: and Wednesday we get wildcard baseball gives me something to watch.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I'm going to be locked in, no doubt.
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: I'm a Reds fan. I followed them throughout.
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: I'm not really a super baseball fan, so I'm going
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: to rely on your expertise to kind of set me
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: straight on this. It seems like that there's a huge
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: level of intensity that ratchets up right now. You take
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: the regular season, you've got a 2-1 game. To me, boring.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: You get a 2-1 game.
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: Here in the wildcard playoffs, you're on the edge of
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: your seat. It's cardiac catheter time. Is that not correct?
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: No, I agree with you 1,000%. Now, I am a
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: little different in that regard because I do like a
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: good pitcher's duel in baseball, which is so unlike me
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: because every other sport, like for football, give me a
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: 70-63 game. Basketball, give me a 110-105. But for whatever
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: reason with baseball– Yeah, if the game's 13 to 11
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: and you're hitting all kinds of homers, am I going
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: to enjoy that? Sure. But do I like a pitcher's
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: duel more? I actually do. I like low-scoring baseball games.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: I think it's very entertaining. But you're right in saying
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: that it's more entertaining in the postseason than it is
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: regular season.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: And the other thing, the other beef I have against
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: baseball in the postseason is you've got this 160-plus game
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: regular season grind. Yeah. And now it comes down to
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: essentially 48 hours, right? Your season, all that hard work,
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: all that time and effort could be over in 48 hours.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: Some people could probably say.
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: They like that.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: They like the drama associated with that.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: To me, I think it kind of violates the purity
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: of the game. Maybe I'm speaking out of both sides
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: of my mouth, but it's kind of like March Madness.
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: It's really not the best way to determine who the
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: best team is, is it not? But it does add excitement.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: I can't believe you just said that. I mean, we
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: might have to end just the Cats 15 minutes into
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: the second hour. How are you going to hate on
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: March Madness? That is the best thing. Well, it was.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Until now, we're going to move up to 76 teams.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: They're getting out of control with it. But when it
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: was 64 teams, that was the perfect tournament.
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: You have misinterpreted what I just said. Maybe I misspoke.
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: We'll have to check the tape. But it's not that
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: it's a bad event. It's exciting. I'm just saying that
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: it's probably the worst way to determine who the truly
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: best team is.
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: March Madness. one game, one and done, you're out.
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: Baseball wildcard playoffs.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Best two out of three, you're out.
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: If you don't win that, that just does not, it
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: violates the sanctity of determining a true champion.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: All right, let's do a little brain surgery here then.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: How does Dr. John Wong fix the March Madness turn?
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: How do you get the best champion possible?
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: First of all, you don't expand. I think 64 is
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: probably the right number. From a purist standpoint, I would
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: almost prefer it to be a little bit less because
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: I am one of these guys that I enjoy regular seasons.
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: I want those games to count. You talk about expanding
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: the college football playoffs. I think if you go anything
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: above 16, it's too much. Because I love, I mentioned
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: right at the very beginning how it's wonderful how you
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: have all these great regular season matchups. And they're great
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: not only because the teams are great, but because.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: You know that.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: If you lose, your chances of making that playoff is
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: greatly diminished. Louisville is out because they lost to Wake Forest.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: That game essentially was like a championship game for them.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: I don't like dilution. That would be my number one.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: Let's make sure we definitely don't expand. Let's put the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: emphasis once again on the regular season instead of the
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: conference champion being the automatic qualifier. I want the regular
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: season champion to be the automatic qualifier. Then anything that
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: you do in the conference championship, conference tournament, that's just
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: gravy for your resume. That's what's going to get you in. Also,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: if you perform well enough, but it's not going to
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: be automatic. Regular season is what counts. That's what I
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: would fix.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but doesn't that take away from the conference tournaments then?
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, you'll have your John Calipari going in there
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: losing the first round because there's nothing to play for.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: Good point.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: I have nothing against that.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: Conference championships are strictly, it's a money grab. It's excitement.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: It's fun. It's a time for Kentucky fans to spend
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: their beer and cigarette money, as John Califari said, go
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: down there and blow it on a weekend in Nashville.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: But it really, if they did away with it, it
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: would just be one less exciting week of basketball sacrificed
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: for the potential of determining who really is the best
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: team over the course of the year. Selection Sunday, the
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: same way. Are you really selecting the teams that have
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: performed best over the course of the year? Or are
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: you selecting teams that you think have the greatest chance
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: of winning the championships? Those are two different things. It's
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: the same with the polls. Are the polls a reward
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: for how you've done? Or are the polls a reflection
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: of how good you think the team is going to be?
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: Which one is it? You can't have both.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: I just, I don't know. I don't know that I
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: could disagree with you anymore, especially with the conference championships. Now, look,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: if you want to get rid of them, for the
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: big conferences, the big 10 SEC, whatever, and use the regular,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: I'm good with that, but we can't get to a
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: point where we're taking away the smaller conferences tournaments. Cause
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: those are awesome. And it feels like more times than
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: not are pretty pivotal in getting the actual winner of
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: that tournament into the big day.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: I'm very conflicted.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: Once you, you move past all of that, and you
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: get into this one loss and you're out. I love
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: the excitement of that. I love the pressure of that.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: I think that's what truly makes March Madness. These upsets,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: number 16 seed over a one seed. I know it
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: doesn't happen very often, but 15 over two.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: Those are exciting times.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: But, man, you just think of all the times that
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: Kentucky could have, should have won, and they didn't. It
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: just breaks my heart.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: So that's what this comes down to.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: The best team needs to win. And Kentucky was the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: best team on too many years. I'm still fretting over
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: all those potential losses. They should have two or three
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: more championships.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: How would you feel about making the NCAA tournament double elimination?
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Like you go to a loser's bracket if you lose.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Do you think that would make it better? More telling
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: who the actual champion is?
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 3: It would make it more representative of who the champion is. Yeah,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: when you talk about college baseball and the double elimination
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: brackets that a lot of times they incorporate, normally the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: best team does end up coming up ahead. Gotcha. Okay.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: All right. I was just curious. I think that'd be
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun, make a double elimination, give us
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: even more basketball. Hell yeah.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: That is interesting. I'll have to bring that to the
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: commissioner and see if they can– make a big big
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: difference on that time for another break i'm hitting these
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: i'm going on stride right now we'll be back on
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: the other end and we'll have some more disagreements coming
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: up if you guys aren't going to call in and
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: disagree with us and justin and i will just have
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: to disagree amongst ourselves just the cats we'll be right.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: Back Well, I guess.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: It would be nice if I could touch your body.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: I know not everybody has got a body like you.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: But I gotta think twice.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: Hey, Justin, how much fun is this? Justin Kalin, Dr.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: John Wong, sitting in for Michael Bennett on Just the Cats,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: a spirited conversation. about essentially the entire purpose of playing games.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: Is it to determine a champion or is it to
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: generate excitement? I think you can probably do a little
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: bit of both. But the whole purpose is to generate discussion.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: So we're still waiting for you to kind of chime
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: in on the text line, Whiskey Thief text line. Justin,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: I told you I couldn't join you on Crosstalk earlier
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: this morning because I was working out. I usually go
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: to the Y and do my usual morning workouts. And
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: one of the things I discovered is that I get
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: irritated pretty easily when people are talking in public and
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: making their conversations available to anybody within earshot. So I
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: want you as a good... non-biased observer to kind of
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: either talk me on the ledge or to show me
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: the error of my ways. But when I'm on the treadmill,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: one of the things that bothers me to no end
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: is when two other people hop on adjacent treadmills and
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: start carrying on a random conversation. Look, I'm there to exercise.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 3: I don't need to be hearing about what you had
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: for dinner or who you went out on a date
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 3: with You can do that in the sanctity of a
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: coffee shop someplace else, not at the YMCA. Am I
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: way off base in regard to that?
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: I think you are, yeah. This is, in our short
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: time together, this is hands down your oldest man take
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: ever that you've ever brought up on this show. It's
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: actually hilarious. I'm laughing.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: You do.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: You don't want people to talk in public. Save it
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: for your house. I don't need to hear it when
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: I'm out and about.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: If you have something to say to me, then okay,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: you're welcome to say it. But other people, they don't
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: care about our conversations.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Here's my question.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's why we don't have any texters in there
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: right now. They don't care what we're saying.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: We do have one text. I'll get to that in
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: a minute. But first, do you not wear headphones?
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I do, but I can still hear them.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: I have these fancy-smancy, all right, sound-muting, noise-canceling headphones, but
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: they're still kind of talking like they're out in their
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: living rooms.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: This is not your living room.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you got duped with the sound-canceling headphones.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like they are because you shouldn't be
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: able to hear their conversation. But maybe just crank the
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: music up a couple more. I know it's probably not
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: good for your ears, but just sometimes you got to
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: do that.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: All right. Everybody has old man takes. So what are,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: what are some of yours though? There's got to be
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: something that irritates you to no end that other people
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 3: would probably be okay with.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is where we need Michael because he could,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: he could probably point out four or five of mine
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: really quick. I've got nothing that's jumping off the table
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: at me.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: The shopping cart one people who don't return their shopping carts,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: shouldn't they be penalized, put in jail?
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: That is an offense that is unforgivable.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: If you've got a shopping cart, you've got to at
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: least put it in the little corral that they have
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: for you. You can't just leave it on the side.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: in a parking space, taking up a parking space, potential hazard.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: You don't want it to roll away and ding your car.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Come on, man. That one doesn't really affect me all
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: that often because I go to the grocery store like three,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: four times a year, so I never really even have
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: to deal with that. I guess my oldest take, the
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: one thing that consistently bothers the absolute hell out of
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: me and will for the rest of my life, I
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: guarantee it, is when people do not use their turn signals.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: drives me absolutely bananas because it is the easiest thing
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: you can do while you are driving. Just hit that
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: little flip, bam, turn signals on. It's incredible.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: You bought a $ 70, 000 automobile and apparently that turn signal
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 3: is just not an option, right?
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah. I don't know if we're leaving them off
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: at cars now or what, but yeah, that every single
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: day of my life, I will get at least one
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: time where I'm like, really dude, couldn't use a turn signal.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Drives me nuts.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: Here's one that will probably also vault me into the
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: old man category. I used to think the QR codes
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: that they have at restaurants for the menus was absolutely fantastic.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 3: But I have found out that I really miss those
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: laminated menus that are passed out. A lot of times
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: with these QR codes, there have been a couple instances
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: where because.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: I've had it, I've had to.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: kind of register or log in or do something that
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: I did not want to do. I came to the
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: restaurant to eat. I'm not there to update my operating
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: system at all. Exactly.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to the menus. Are you okay with
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: that one?
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: I'm on your side with that.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: The whole QR code menus, I'm over it. That was a... Look,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: when COVID ended... There should be certain things that come back.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: That was one of those things. Look, we can all
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: sit next to each other now. So why can't we
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: look at a normal menu like we were prior to COVID?
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: I'll give you another example. I went to my church
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: picnic yesterday and we do a chicken dinner every year,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: which is super popular. People love it. My grandma's the
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: one who's in charge of it all. And when I
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: walk in yesterday, it had been many, many years since
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: I've been to my church picnic. But they got all
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: these chicken dinners in to-go containers, and they're putting them
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: in a plastic bag, like a shopping bag. And so finally,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: I went up to my grandma, and I was like, Grandma,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: COVID was six years ago. And she was like, well,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. And I was like, yeah, no, I'm not
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: telling you that because it's been that long. I'm telling
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: you that to ask you why in the heck we're
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: still doing things like it is COVID. Why are these
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: people not getting their chicken dinners on a plate? We're
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: wasting– so much money just on the packaging for these
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: dinners so people can grab their bag, walk over to
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: a table and sit there and eat it. Throw it
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: on a plate. It's not COVID anymore.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: What was her explanation? How did she answer you?
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: She was on my side. She was like, yeah, I'm
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: definitely bringing it up at the meetings for next year's.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, good for her.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: Because that is a big beef of mine too. Not
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: so much the packaging of dinners, but these industrial packaging
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 3: containers that come through, the ones that are vacuum seal
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: that you require heavy duty equipment or scissors.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: Or some sort of chainsaw to open.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 3: I am a dentist.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: My fingers are important to me.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: I don't need to be damaging my fingers, trauma to
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: my hands by trying to open those packages. If I
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: need trauma shears, to get to my toothbrush, then I
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: think we've over-engineered that toothbrush.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: Well, good news for you. You don't really need your
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: hands anymore because you were a dentist, right?
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: It's now all talking, right? I've gone from the hands
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: to the mouth right now.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: All right, let's head over to the Whiskey Thief text
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: line here. 48 Handley texts in and says, big moments
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: in sports. Bjorn versus McEnroe, Wimbledon final. McEnroe, a classic
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: serve and volleyer against Bjorn, the human backboard with ice
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: water in his veins. To add spice to the cake,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: McEnroe warmed up sporting his Davis Cup jacket. It was
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: one for the ages.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: I would have loved to have been there. I'm a
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 3: big tennis fan myself. I grew up Borg, McEnroe, Connors. Lendl,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: all those guys, the Swedes, Edberg into the mix, and
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: then kind of transitioned into Agassi, Sampras, anything associated with tennis.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: In fact, when I look at my bucket list items,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: I've already checked the Super Bowl off of there. I
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: think Wimbledon probably remains one that I need to definitely do.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: I would rather go to the U.S. Open than Wimbledon,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: as crazy as that sounds. I know Wimbledon's more prestigious,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: but I just think the atmosphere that you would get
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: at the U.S. Open, especially if you've got a couple
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: good tennis players, U.S. American tennis players like we saw
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: this past year, I think that would be a.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: Lot of fun. I would highly recommend it. I was
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: there in 2012 with my brother as a fan. And
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: the way they have that structured, of course, you have
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: Arthur Ashe Stadium where you have your actual seats with
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: the tickets. That stadium looks awesome. It is. I was
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: here before they put the roof on. I can't imagine
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: what it looks like right now. It's almost like when
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: you see the Grand Canyon for the first time, you've
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: seen pictures of it. But when you walk out there
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: and you really see it layered and the vastness and
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: the magnitude and the sky in the background, everybody is
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 3: blown away. The same thing with Altarash Stadium, it feels
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: like your eyes can't adjust because you're watching tennis. You
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: got that little postage stamp court in the stadium that's
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: as big as a lot of big basketball arenas right now.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: And you probably leave there with your neck sore from
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: going back and forth so much.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 3: Well, I think you're so far away. We had the
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: cheap seats. We were way out there. So it was
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 3: a matter of making sure that you had a good
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: optometrist so that you had your eyeglass prescription the right magnitude.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: But if you get there during the early rounds, then
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: you can go around, you can walk around, you can
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: go to all the other outlying stadiums, and you can
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: see all these big names up close and personal. If
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: you're a tennis fan, I would highly recommend that. And
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 3: obviously the U.S. Open is the major that's probably the
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: easiest for us American fans to get to. But I'd
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: like to do them all. Absolutely.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: Jamie text in says you don't work out with headphones on.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: Got to bring your own music to get pumped up to.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: I do. Like I say, I do. But still, they
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 3: say they're noise canceling. I'm holding them up right now.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: These Apple. Hey, I've even got my name stenciled on.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: These are the latest. I think they're the five series.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: So I'm up to date on that. But these people,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 3: they're still talking up a storm. I say, shut the
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 3: heck up. Come on.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: Jamie also says louder than life and bourbon and beyond
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't good for my ears, but I did it anyways.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: The people watching it louder than life was on another level.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: People of Walmart would be like, whoa, hang on, man.
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: Who knew band-aids could be a top? And it's never
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: the ones you wish were wearing them.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 3: We all have our pet peeves. My brother just texted me.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: He just said, call me. That's another thing that irritates me.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 3: Doesn't that irritate you when you just get a text
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: that says, call me? Yeah. There's no explanation. It's almost like,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: oh my God, what's wrong? And your mind starts playing
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: games with you. Now you've ruined my afternoon because you've
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 3: just texted, call me. You got to write an answer.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: You got to write some sort of explanation of why
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: you want me to call you.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: I would much rather them just go ahead and call.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: My parents do that a lot because I do work
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: in radio. There is a small part of me that
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: actually respects that they do that. But more times than not,
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: I'm like, just call me. I'm either going to answer
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: or I'm not. And you can leave a voicemail or
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: text me, whatever you got to do. Just call me.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: Don't text me, call me.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: Are you in the studio right now? I am. And
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 3: do you all have like a common area back in
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: the back where you have food or you take a
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 3: little break or snacks.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: Or anything like that? There's like a kitchen.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: Is there a microwave in the kitchen?
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 3: There is. Here's another one of my pet peeves. When
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 3: somebody uses the microwave and they leave like three seconds.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: Left on the timer.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: That is cause for... If not dismissal, at least a
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 3: severe reprimand and demerits on your report card.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: I can get behind that one as well. That drives
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: me nuts, especially at my house where I use the
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: microwave as a time, like a time source. I like
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: to look at it and see what time it is.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: But if there's three seconds on it, you don't get that.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: So that can be really annoying. Another text says, okay, seriously,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: if someone texts a QR code to you, what do
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: you do to use it? This makes me feel like
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: I was truly born in the late 1900s.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 3: That's the thing with technology is it's all a scam.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 3: It's all an effort to try to get you to
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 3: buy into something, to scam.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: You in a particular way.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 3: I hate having to sign up for things. I don't
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 3: want to register for anything. I don't want to give
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 3: a username. I don't want to create a password. I
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 3: just want to get on the darn site. and do
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: what you're saying for me to do. I don't want
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 3: to have to jump through five extra hoops in order
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: to be able to do that.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: But that is a good point. If somebody sends you
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: a picture of a QR code, because you have to
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: take a picture of the code to make it register,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: but if someone sends you a picture, you can't take
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: a picture. You know what I mean?
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: There is a way to get on that, though, right?
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 3: I think if you right-click on it, there's some sort of,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: menu where you can end up going to the site.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: See, now you're making me think about it. And that's
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: what I want to avoid. I don't want to think about.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: It. I think a lot, if you look at a
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: lot of these pet peeves, as you call them, old
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: man pet peeves, they really aren't about major inconveniences because
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: these are all things that I can do and I'm
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: willing to do. And I still fortunately can do them,
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: but they're really about people acting as if nobody else exists.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: It really is all about common courtesy. And I think
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 3: that's probably what I want to circle back to and
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: bring up this topic is that we can all be
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 3: a lot kinder to each other. And I think a
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 3: lot of the times that we get on each other's
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: nerves is strictly because we're only thinking about ourselves.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not wrong in saying that. Speaking of old man,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Texter says, as far as turn signal, it doesn't matter.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: You get to come over. People turn it on and
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: whip in front of you many times unsafely. Couldn't agree more.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: We are due for our last break. We have our
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 3: final segment coming up. Like I said, be kind to
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 3: each other. But having said that, if you leave three
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: seconds on that microwave, you are dead to me. We'll
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: see you on the other end of the break. Just
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: the Cats, Dr. John Wong.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: And we are indeed still standing.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to the final.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Segment of the Mark Fox show, a show where we
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: cover all sorts of topics from sports.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 4: To the frivolous.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: Michael Bennett would.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: Be happy with this, I hope, I think. Now, one
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 3: of the things, Justin, is I think that in these
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 3: last four hours or so, well, three, since you did
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: bail on me on that one, I've learned a lot
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 3: about you. I think I've gotten to know you a
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: little bit better over the course of time. Did you
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 3: hear Will Wade and his conversation about how he's building
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 3: his roster down at LSU?
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: No, but please tell me, because it doesn't make any
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: sense what he's trying to do down there.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: As everybody knows, Will Wade is a little bit of
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: a rebel, a little bit of a maverick, and I
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: think he takes great comfort, and he's proud of that.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: So he was talking about the way that LSU is
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: building their roster, about maybe pushing the envelopes, going to
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: pro ranks, pulling these guys back in, and he kind
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: of compared it to how Americans in general state it,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 3: hotels back in the olden days, and now they stay
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 3: at Airbnbs. How we used to all take taxis every place,
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: and now we take Ubers. And I thought he had
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: a point that unconventional roster construction is only unconventional in
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 3: the eye of the beholder. Who's to say what's going
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 3: to happen with the state of sports as we head
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 3: on into this next century? Could he be just ahead
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 3: of the curve, or is he truly just an a-hole
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 3: in what he's doing?
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know that I would classify him
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: as an a-hole, more like an idiot, because I don't really, again,
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know what he's trying to do. If I
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: look at their basketball roster right now, they have four players. How?
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: Because you're banking on all those international guys that a
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: good majority of them are probably going to be ruled ineligible.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: So then what do you do? And the one guy
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: I feel really, really bad for in this situation, especially
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: given the roster makeup of Kentucky and how much they
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: need somebody at that four spot, you think anybody regrets
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: his decision more than Mo Diabate? What are you doing, man?
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: He's one of the four players. Four. You need five
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 3: to play basketball. But who knows what's going to happen, right?
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 3: Things can change on a dime, and I think that's
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: what they're banking it on. They're rolling the dice. As
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 3: you said, hopefully there's going to be a flood of
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: international talent that's going to come in, and who knows?
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: The proof will be in the pudding. Let's see what happens.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 3: Let's hold our judgment until he comes. I guess my
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 3: point is that because we don't know, because everything is
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 3: up in the air, I guess you can't fault these
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: guys for trying to go out on a limb and
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 3: create an advantage in some way. Now, if he gets
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 3: caught with his pants down, then obviously that's going to
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: be a different story.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Well, sports and sports specifically. History always repeats itself, right?
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: So as an Indiana fan, I can tell you exactly
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: what's going to happen here. He's going to be forced
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: to go get kids off the street, go get low-level
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: one stars that haven't signed anywhere. He will have a
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: roster put together, but he's going to go 6-25. I mean,
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: I almost guarantee it. There is no way you can
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: have as little depth as they have right now. Even
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: if you have an entire roster, there's virtually no way
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: they have success.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be great to be a media member down
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 3: in Tiger country right now? That would be the dream
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 3: come true. You talk about drama and always having something
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 3: to talk about and write about. That would be the key.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: But it's all exhausting stuff to talk. There's only so
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: much Lane Kiffin I can talk. And I personally have
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: never had an issue with Will Wade. I think Will
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: Wade has shown the ability to be a really good coach.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: But I just don't get it. I don't get what
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: the goal is here.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: Everybody has their agenda.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: Look at Mississippi Valley State. I want to kind of
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: flip the script there. Here's a school that in their
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 3: first 16 games, all of them are on the road.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 3: And 14 of those are guaranteed games against high majors.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 3: Now you talk about a team that's going to go
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 3: worse than four at 16 right off the bat. This
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 3: is essentially, you're a mercenary. You're kind of just sacrificing
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: everything for the sake of the almighty dollar. Is that okay?
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: Is that any better?
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: It's just another strategy.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: For a school of their size, yeah, I don't mind
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: them doing that at all because that is probably a
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: large chunk of their revenue that's brought into the athletic
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: department every year when you're doing those paid games. And that,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: in theory, getting all that money into the athletic department
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: should propel you in future years. And ideally, if you
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: continue playing a schedule like that, eventually you're going to
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: win one of those. But you've got to keep the
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: money coming in, and that will allow you to potentially
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: build better rosters moving forward.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be heading to Media Day today. Mark Pope,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: hopefully he'll be open to answering questions. I'm sure he
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: will be because it is Media Day. It's not Coach's Day,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 3: in the words of the great Jerry Tipton. Is there
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 3: anything specifically that you would like me to ask Mark
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 3: Pope if I get the chance?
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: Before I answer that, I was just curious what your
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: question would be. Because I know you've got one in
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: your mind already of something that you want to ask.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 3: I do, but it's in preparation for a column. So
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: I don't want to disclose that right now. And plus,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 3: with those things, I've learned you always have to kind
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: of test the temperature.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 2: I've got to see what kind of mood he's in.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: I've got to see what other questions are thrown out there.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 3: You're going to get the standard, oh, how is this
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 3: player doing? You can get that anywhere. Those are boring questions.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: I want to see how it goes. But I do
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 3: have a couple that I have in my mind. I
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 3: do like Pope. I don't want to appear adversarial. But
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: what I've also noticed over the course of time is
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: that there are more and more fan sites in the media. Mm-hmm.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 3: who will not bring up anything remotely concerning. I didn't
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: want to say negative, but concerning. And I think there
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 3: are some concerning aspects of this team. And I'd like
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: Pope to be able to disclose those. All right, what
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 3: would you ask?
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: That's the thing is I don't really know because I
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: don't want to put him in a spot to make
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: him uncomfortable in any way, shape, or form leading into
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: the season. But I would just, I'd be curious, I guess,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: his mindset going into the year. I wouldn't directly ask
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: him if he feels like he's on the hot seat,
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: but I would be curious to know what his mindset
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: is going into the year. year three and in that regard.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: The key is to be able to ask the question
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: in a way that's very diplomatic is is not confrontational
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 3: you don't feel like you don't want him to feel
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: like that you have an agenda But probably the most
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: important thing is to be able to get them to
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 3: answer it in a way that's not coach speak. Because nowadays,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: that's pretty much all you get nowadays. You almost need
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 3: a filter and a lens to be able to translate
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 3: what these guys are saying. They are so uptight and
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: not wanting to say the wrong thing or taking something
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 3: that they know is going to be used against them
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: later on when they lose three games in a row.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 3: I understand that.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 2: It's a tough gig. I feel for them.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: But they're also getting paid a lot of money to
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 3: coach Kentucky basketball.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: Maybe if I had a question, I would give him
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to have his Will Stein moment. Ask him, Coach,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: you're feeling good going into this season. Why are you
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: going to win? And maybe he comes out and he's
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: cheeky and he does that because of me. I don't know.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: That could provide for a great moment.
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 3: You just never know. You just never know. And hopefully
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 3: there'll be some talking points there and some drama that
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 3: comes out of there. But anyway, I would be remiss
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 3: if I didn't thank you, Justin, for being so helpful.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 3: You are great. You are fantastic. I'm not just trying
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: to butter you up. In fact, I want to kind
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: of give you the microphone here at the very end.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 3: It's also a way in which I can kind of
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 3: sneakily determine how your mind thinks. But I kind of
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 3: upset Trevor a little bit by using the term Mount Rushmore.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 3: He evidently doesn't like the term Mount Rushmore of so-and-so.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 3: So I want to purposely ask you what your Mount
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 3: Rushmore is of IU sports figures, not just basketball, not
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: just football, but all Indiana University sports figures. I want
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 3: you to take into account everything, mainly their time at
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 3: Indiana University, but also time afterwards and their accomplishments afterwards
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 3: should also fit. You get four. Which four are those?
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 3: I'm putting you on the spot specifically.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: The first two are relatively easy. Obviously, Bob Knight, I mean,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: legendary coach, and then Mark Spitz, who held the Olympic
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: swimming record before Michael Phelps came along. Those two for
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: me are easy. I'm thinking Lilly King could be another
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: good option. She was an awesome swimmer, has had a
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: great Olympic career in her own right. She was awesome
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: for Indiana. But I don't think I could throw her
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: on there. Man, those next two are really, really, really difficult.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 3: That's usually the case. You usually have one or two.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 3: Like even for UK, you can easily throw out the
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 3: Adolph Rupp, the Dan Issel. But then there's a lot
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 3: of competition for those remaining spots also. For UK, do
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 3: you have any that really come to your mind?
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, Dan Issel for sure. Yeah, I mean, I
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: got to meet him. once I'll never forget shaking his
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: hand and his fingers touching on the other side of
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: my hand. I mean, it was the pause on that dude,
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: just massive. But yeah, Dan, Dan Issa would be up
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: there for sure. I would, I'm likely to go Rick
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: Patino in that regard for whatever reason, I've just got
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: an affinity for him more so than like your Adolf Rupp.
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: And plus I wasn't even really around for the Adolf
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: Rupp era. A lot of people would go, uh, uh,
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: K would, but I, I've always had the opinion. I
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: think Tom Leach is better than K would. So if
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to throw one of those guys up there,
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: it would have to be Tom Leach. Um, yeah, I
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, you get, you obviously you've got
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: all kinds of basketball players that choose from your, your
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: John Walls, your ADs who've gone on to have great
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: careers in the NBA. They were great at Kentucky as well.
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know that fourth one's tough. It kind of
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: comes down to those last two picks and it gets
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: really difficult.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 3: How about for Kentucky football? Is there somebody that stands
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 3: head and shoulders? Would him couch make the cut? So
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 3: he would be on there. He would be one of
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 3: the top four.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: I would say so, yeah.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 3: I would agree. Number one overall draft pick, kind of
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 3: transformed Kentucky football. Anytime that you think of Kentucky football,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 3: he's probably.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: The name that comes to mind.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 3: I think he did make the UK program nationally relevant.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 3: When I think about athletes who deserve that exalted status,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 3: it's usually people who have made Kentucky relevant.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: Jenny Hansen in gymnastics.
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 3: If you look at exactly what she accomplished and all
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: the awards and accolades that she developed over time, I
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 3: think you could make a really good argument for her
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 3: being up there also, even though if you probably polled
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 3: Half of UK basketball fans, maybe even more than half,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 3: they probably wouldn't even know who she was.
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: All right, I got my final. I got my four.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going Bob Knight.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 3: Go for it.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: Mark Spitz. Give me Calvert Chaney. And I'll go Antoine Randall.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 3: That's good. That's good.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 2: You've spread it out.
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: You've got two basketball, one football, and a non-football basketball. Excellent.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 3: Does Mark Spitz, does he still... convey a lot of
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 3: affinity to the university? Is he real loyal to IU?
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: Does he make appearances back? I would assume, but yeah,
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: I don't, I'm not sure. Is he even still with us?
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if he's still with us. He is. Okay.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: He's 76.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't, yeah. I don't remember him in passing away,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 3: but that was probably one of the first Olympics that
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 3: I really paid attention to. And boy, made everybody want
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 3: to jump in the pool and become a swimmer.
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: I do have a couple quick texts we need to
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: get to before we get out of here. Texter says,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: maybe phrase a question like, do you feel this is
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: a program-defining season? That's a good one. And then Will
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: from South Central says, Steve Alford would have to be
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: on the Indiana one. So there you go.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 3: Program-defining season. I like that. Hopefully we'll get an answer. Yeah.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: All right. We got to go, John.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 3: It's been fun.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: It has been fun.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 3: Let's do it again. If you'll have me, the plane's
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 3: still flying.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 2: Michael will be back tomorrow.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: See you.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 3: Mark Fox out.