Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / Scooch and Chad reunite + Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio

Transcript

Scooch and Chad reunite + Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites the podcast from the Action Network,
0:15
Speaker 1: Huge Huge Show Today, And I mean that with all sincerity.
0:19
Speaker 1: I'm not just doing like typical podcast, Huge Show Today.
0:23
Speaker 1: Later on in the show, Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports
0:28
Speaker 1: Radio a legend. He has built himself into a legend
0:32
Speaker 1: in the state of Kentucky all things Kentucky sports, specifically
0:36
Speaker 1: Kentucky Wildcats basketball. Matt and Drew Franklin, his kylleague at
0:42
Speaker 1: Kentucky Sports Radio are gonna be covering the tournament as
0:46
Speaker 1: well as everything through the Kentucky Derby for the Action Network.
0:50
Speaker 1: And so he's gonna come on. He's gonna talk about
0:52
Speaker 1: college basketball with us and one of his very first
0:54
Speaker 1: duties as a newly minted member of the team. Before
0:58
Speaker 1: we get to Matt Jones, my favorite person in the
1:02
Speaker 1: world from New Orleans repping all the books in the
1:06
Speaker 1: state of Nevada for board gaming. Mr Bob Scoochee, my
1:29
Speaker 1: brother from another mother. What is going on? Oh man,
1:34
Speaker 1: how's it has it been going with you? I've missed you. Yeah,
1:39
Speaker 1: it's been a while since we did one of these.
1:41
Speaker 1: I have felt like I've been unmoored since the football
1:46
Speaker 1: season ended. And while I've enjoyed doing the podcasts and
1:50
Speaker 1: Blackjack is doing a great job with Paula Duca, once
1:52
Speaker 1: a week, UM, I have sort of felt like, wait,
1:56
Speaker 1: I'm not talking to Scooch today. That's what I felt like,
2:01
Speaker 1: you need a dose. I need a little hit a Scooch.
2:05
Speaker 1: I did get to have a hit a Scooch uh
2:09
Speaker 1: several times over the last week because I have been
2:12
Speaker 1: watching the video for the Favorites by the Scootles on YouTube.
2:19
Speaker 1: If you go to YouTube and type in the Favorites
2:21
Speaker 1: and Scootles that's s k O O T l E
2:25
Speaker 1: s uh, you can see the video that Scooch made
2:28
Speaker 1: about the podcast with his band with a random picture
2:32
Speaker 1: of Jake Cornege from the Westgate in the middle of it. Um.
2:36
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why that happened. Uh. And then I
2:39
Speaker 1: played it for my wife the other night and she's like,
2:41
Speaker 1: that is so fun. You know, She's not really interested
2:45
Speaker 1: in anything that has to do with me, So the
2:48
Speaker 1: fact that it might have might have been because like
2:50
Speaker 1: you were sort of centerpiece. But I don't know, do
2:53
Speaker 1: we have a clip? Are we playing a clip of
2:55
Speaker 1: it right now? What's happening? Are we gonna We're gonna
2:59
Speaker 1: try it, okay, would you think? So? What did you
3:02
Speaker 1: think of it? You think it was all right? That
3:03
Speaker 1: was amazing. I loved it. It's so creative, so smart,
3:07
Speaker 1: Like it sounded great, it was smooth. I felt like
3:10
Speaker 1: I was listening to the Beatles sing about me. There
3:14
Speaker 1: you go. That was our intent. I liked it, and
3:18
Speaker 1: the guys were like, you know, the song was finished
3:20
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, so the guys were like killing
3:22
Speaker 1: me there, Hey, what does Chad think of it? What
3:24
Speaker 1: does you think of the song? And I was like,
3:27
Speaker 1: he'll listen to it when he gets around to it.
3:29
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. So typically you, by the
3:31
Speaker 1: way to not text me NonStop and be like, dude,
3:36
Speaker 1: we wrote a freaking song, listen to it and like
3:39
Speaker 1: just sort of randomly bring it up. You brought it up.
3:42
Speaker 1: We were we were on the phone, I don't know,
3:44
Speaker 1: last week and you're like, hey, what do you think that?
3:46
Speaker 1: Like literally went on the phone for twenty five minutes
3:48
Speaker 1: talking about eight different things, and you bring it up
3:51
Speaker 1: at the very end as if it like was by
3:54
Speaker 1: the way, Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It was,
3:57
Speaker 1: by the way, it was by the way, but it's
3:59
Speaker 1: important to your guys. And now guess what on a
4:02
Speaker 1: national podcast making their debut, the hit makers Bob Scucci
4:11
Speaker 1: in the school Dools you think you be? You'll eating
4:38
Speaker 1: cha cha? Three p three goings up Wednesday. Yeah, I
5:09
Speaker 1: mean come on Wednesday morning, we're on the set. That
5:13
Speaker 1: is so good. Yeah. I tried to make it a
5:19
Speaker 1: little relevant to the show. Well, I would appreciate it
5:21
Speaker 1: since you were writing a song about the show. Yeah,
5:26
Speaker 1: School Larry had that nice up beat melody and uh
5:30
Speaker 1: scoot l Ray put the stuff together and got Scootle
5:34
Speaker 1: Bob and Schootle Steve. So I gotta I gotta give
5:37
Speaker 1: everyone props. Way to go, Way to go, Scootles, Way
5:40
Speaker 1: to go. The entire team we love it. If you
5:43
Speaker 1: want to check out more of the song, go to YouTube.
5:46
Speaker 1: Type in the favorites and Scootles s k O O
5:50
Speaker 1: T L E S Scootles. Here are the Favorites. A
5:54
Speaker 1: podcast song written by Bob and his team. Well done,
5:58
Speaker 1: Mr Scucci, El done. I think people are really gonna
6:01
Speaker 1: appreciate that. In the Year of Kindness, that's all for you.
6:06
Speaker 1: It's like you're the only one who's playing kind of
6:13
Speaker 1: like New year's resolutions by by February. Everyone's yeah, I'm done. Yeah,
6:17
Speaker 1: honest to god, no one. No one's being very kind. Hey, listen,
6:21
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what is kind. We're gonna have a
6:22
Speaker 1: big college basketball show. I mentioned that Matt Jones is
6:24
Speaker 1: gonna come on. Uh in a little bit, probably twenty minutes. Um,
6:28
Speaker 1: you happen to have Vegas itself is hosting a whole
6:32
Speaker 1: bunch of college basketball tournaments, conference tournaments next week. Uh,
6:36
Speaker 1: you're gonna have at the at the Year Leader, You're
6:40
Speaker 1: gonna have the West Coast Conference tournaments. So Gonzaga, which
6:44
Speaker 1: is gonna be great because they're probably gonna run away
6:46
Speaker 1: with that thing. And then you're also gonna have what
6:49
Speaker 1: is it, the Whack Whack. Yeah. So I mean it's
6:52
Speaker 1: a lot of smaller schools that you know, probably not
6:54
Speaker 1: familiar with. But that's that's another good tournament. So how
6:56
Speaker 1: does it work when those happens? Can you guys take
6:58
Speaker 1: bets on those games? Some of them we can and
7:01
Speaker 1: some of them we can. Now, the West Coast Conference
7:03
Speaker 1: little is a little tricky because we know we make
7:05
Speaker 1: deals with the conference themselves and a lot of times
7:08
Speaker 1: they request that the teams be not on the board
7:12
Speaker 1: because the arena is so close to the sports book,
7:14
Speaker 1: they just prefer not their players to see the names
7:17
Speaker 1: of a team on the board. So a lot of
7:19
Speaker 1: times what we'll do just at the Orleans alone, will
7:21
Speaker 1: we will prohibit betting on those games, but uh, we'll
7:25
Speaker 1: still take them at our other properties, so as long
7:28
Speaker 1: as they're not on the board. If the Orleans were okay,
7:31
Speaker 1: And that's more of a request from the from the
7:33
Speaker 1: conference in our deal with with them more so than
7:35
Speaker 1: any regulations. So financially, it must be worth it for
7:39
Speaker 1: you guys, because like, what's the value in taking those
7:41
Speaker 1: games off the board if you're not gonna sort of
7:43
Speaker 1: make it up on either side? Right? Yeah, yeah, So
7:46
Speaker 1: I mean it's a trade offense. To be honest with you,
7:48
Speaker 1: we don't know how we're gonna come out if we
7:49
Speaker 1: booked them. You know, the last the last times we
7:51
Speaker 1: did book some of those teams we got destroyed, you know,
7:54
Speaker 1: because nine of the arena is going to be filled
7:56
Speaker 1: up with you know, either Gonzaga or or St. Mary's fans,
8:00
Speaker 1: and along those two teams generally wins that tournament, and lately,
8:03
Speaker 1: had we booked last year, we would have gotten crushed
8:06
Speaker 1: on on Gonzaga, all right. The other the other team
8:09
Speaker 1: that's playing in Vegas but not at the Orleans is Nevada,
8:14
Speaker 1: which has completely just sort of very interesting a few
8:20
Speaker 1: days for them. I thought Nevada and Paul Ducas, like
8:23
Speaker 1: before college basketball started, Paula Duca, uh was just talking
8:28
Speaker 1: up Nevada like none other, thinking they'd be undefeated. And
8:31
Speaker 1: then you know, the preseason rankings come out, everybody's on Nevada.
8:34
Speaker 1: They've lost three games. I think last weekend was insanity
8:39
Speaker 1: with the player punching the fire extinguisher and the court storming.
8:44
Speaker 1: How do you take into account volatility for a team
8:48
Speaker 1: like that when they are getting into their conference tournament. Well,
8:52
Speaker 1: I mean you have to take you know, kind of
8:53
Speaker 1: how they how they've been playing recently, and that that's
8:56
Speaker 1: one of the factors. But as long as they have
8:58
Speaker 1: to key personnel in the game, uh, that kind of
9:03
Speaker 1: that's how we derive their power ratings to begin with.
9:06
Speaker 1: I mean, as long as that core doesn't change, we
9:08
Speaker 1: can't change it too much. I mean there's really two seasons.
9:11
Speaker 1: There's there's the you know, the season prior to the
9:14
Speaker 1: tournament and then the tournament, and I can't tell you
9:17
Speaker 1: how many times we've adjusted odds significantly from the last
9:22
Speaker 1: day of the regular season for for these teams, and
9:24
Speaker 1: then once they go into the tournament and we kind
9:27
Speaker 1: of look at the seating and we look at the brackets. Uh,
9:29
Speaker 1: you know, teams that finish up the year eighteen to
9:32
Speaker 1: one can suddenly become twelve to one because they have
9:34
Speaker 1: an easy bracket, or or vice versa team that finished
9:38
Speaker 1: you know, eight to one or seven and one may
9:40
Speaker 1: jump up to fifteen to one. So, um, you know,
9:43
Speaker 1: how we treat it. We try not to overadjust, but
9:46
Speaker 1: there's you know, a slight adjustment, and a lot of
9:48
Speaker 1: it's just based on on the public perception, Like you
9:51
Speaker 1: were just saying, how how people perceive the team to
9:53
Speaker 1: be playing. Okay, we're gonna get back to the podcast
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11:34
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the podcast. No bigger story in
11:39
Speaker 1: college basketball then the return of Zion Williamson. M How
11:45
Speaker 1: do you measure his impact going forward? Do you doesn't matter?
11:52
Speaker 1: Like is do such a public team that people are
11:54
Speaker 1: going to bet on no matter what? How do you
11:56
Speaker 1: how do you account for all this? Well, he's the
11:58
Speaker 1: best player in the country. I mean you have to
12:00
Speaker 1: adjust for it. They were good without them, but they're
12:02
Speaker 1: great with them. Um. You know, they asked me in
12:06
Speaker 1: one of the local shows. Uh, earlier this year, if
12:09
Speaker 1: I if I put made a line between Duke this
12:12
Speaker 1: year and you and LV from what would I make
12:15
Speaker 1: the line? And I said, I'd make Duke a favorite
12:18
Speaker 1: against that team, one of the greatest teams of all time.
12:21
Speaker 1: And they could keep rubbing my nose in it every
12:23
Speaker 1: time Duke loses a game. Uh. But but I still
12:26
Speaker 1: think they're the best team in the country. And with Zion,
12:29
Speaker 1: I mean, they were great teams. So, uh, you have
12:33
Speaker 1: to adjust for that. That's That's one of the biggest adjustments,
12:37
Speaker 1: you know, in all of college basketball. I mean, I'm
12:40
Speaker 1: not saying anything revelatory here. So you want to hear
12:43
Speaker 1: your podcast, Oh say, But you know, for years, Duke
12:47
Speaker 1: has been one of those teams that wise guys kind
12:48
Speaker 1: of hate because they are great during the regular season
12:52
Speaker 1: and then they go in to the tournament and they're
12:54
Speaker 1: so streaky because of their three point shooting that you
12:57
Speaker 1: can't get a good read on them. And so I
12:59
Speaker 1: have heard for you. You know, certainly our friend Allen
13:01
Speaker 1: Boston like hates coach k hates Dan Duke. Um. You know,
13:06
Speaker 1: the more obscure team with the coach who's a genius,
13:10
Speaker 1: the better for for Boston. But um, I gotta get
13:13
Speaker 1: Boston on a podcast before the tournament. You really should.
13:17
Speaker 1: I mean, that's another perspective. Problem is like I think
13:21
Speaker 1: he's mad at me. He might be, you never know,
13:26
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like he's mad at me, and
13:28
Speaker 1: I can't figure out why. I'll text him. I'll text
13:32
Speaker 1: him and I'll see him. That's the problem. You don't
13:34
Speaker 1: call him honestly, that might be it. But uh, if
13:38
Speaker 1: I bring him on the podcast, you gotta come on too, Okay,
13:43
Speaker 1: I don't know how much I could add to what
13:45
Speaker 1: he's what he's going to say, I'm bringing you on
13:47
Speaker 1: this week, bringing and bringing you both on next week.
13:49
Speaker 1: That's what's gonna happen. We're gonna figure that out. Um.
13:53
Speaker 1: But Duke win Zion's playing r J. Barrett, like, that
13:57
Speaker 1: team is a different team. It's a much more athletic,
13:59
Speaker 1: much more inside at our team that I think it
14:01
Speaker 1: normally is like, is that a team that scares you
14:04
Speaker 1: when you get to the tournament, Duke, Yeah, yeah, I
14:09
Speaker 1: mean as far as the vola the volatility, but but
14:12
Speaker 1: generally volatilility is usually good for us in the tournament
14:15
Speaker 1: because the public perception they're gonna be on them no
14:18
Speaker 1: matter what. So anytime they don't cover, and any of
14:21
Speaker 1: the top teams that when they don't cover, it's gonna
14:25
Speaker 1: be good for the sports books. So we're looking for
14:27
Speaker 1: a little volatility. Um. Generally, if we get you know,
14:31
Speaker 1: uh in the final four, if we get the one
14:34
Speaker 1: seeds in the two seeds, it's usually not too good
14:36
Speaker 1: for us. We need at least one team that's a
14:39
Speaker 1: that's a much higher seed or lower seed. Do I
14:42
Speaker 1: look at it? Uh, you know, for for a little
14:45
Speaker 1: parody in there that's usually good for the sports books.
14:48
Speaker 1: Who's scaring you the most right now? Gonzaga. Yeah, that's one,
14:55
Speaker 1: I mean, and far as far as like who a
14:58
Speaker 1: team that wins when they when we get crushed, that's why.
15:02
Speaker 1: That's the way I'm looking at it, you know, And
15:04
Speaker 1: I just see it. And maybe it's because we just
15:06
Speaker 1: have such a following here on the West coast, and
15:08
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just looking at our Las Vegas sports books,
15:11
Speaker 1: and maybe I need to start looking at some of
15:13
Speaker 1: the sports books around the country. But right now, when
15:16
Speaker 1: they cover we get we get destroyed. So there's just
15:20
Speaker 1: just such this this big following. A lot of it's
15:23
Speaker 1: just the sentimental reasons. But I mean, I have a
15:26
Speaker 1: great team, but that's that's one of the team that
15:29
Speaker 1: that scares me. And if they go deep into it,
15:31
Speaker 1: we're not gonna have a good tournament. Really, yeah, I
15:35
Speaker 1: could see that. Yeah, you're just so popular right now
15:38
Speaker 1: out here. Well, look, they were number one for a
15:40
Speaker 1: lot for a big part of the year. They beat
15:42
Speaker 1: Duke early in the year. Uh, They're one of those
15:45
Speaker 1: teams that you can't even you know, I know, this
15:47
Speaker 1: is sort of InVogue many many years ago. But they
15:50
Speaker 1: can't be one of those mid major surprises, like they
15:52
Speaker 1: get top flight athletes. Mark fu is an amazing coach.
15:56
Speaker 1: Uh they are having their runs in the tournament. Why
15:59
Speaker 1: would you have such a liability on them? Why would
16:01
Speaker 1: you even make them big enough to have a liability
16:03
Speaker 1: before the season. Um, well, I'm not really looking at
16:09
Speaker 1: it from the futures perspective as much as game by game.
16:12
Speaker 1: It's not that we get crushed with the futures on it.
16:15
Speaker 1: So if that's what you're asking me, I'd have to
16:17
Speaker 1: I'd have to point to another team. But uh, um,
16:22
Speaker 1: you know, probably Tennessee or North Carolina. We probably lose
16:26
Speaker 1: a little bit more than gonzag in terms of like futures.
16:30
Speaker 1: I'm just looking like game by game when they went,
16:32
Speaker 1: when they win and cover, it's just a big loss
16:35
Speaker 1: for us. Yeah. I guess that's an interesting I hadn't.
16:38
Speaker 1: It's so funny, like you get into the tournament and
16:41
Speaker 1: you start thinking about betting, and like there's a dichotomy.
16:45
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks about the brackets, so you think about betting,
16:48
Speaker 1: But people aren't making their picks in the brackets against
16:51
Speaker 1: the spread. They're making them straight up and yet betters
16:55
Speaker 1: don't play brackets nearly as often, but they're betting every
16:58
Speaker 1: single one of those games. Yeah, except the committee like
17:03
Speaker 1: screws over betters. It's almost like, do you think the
17:06
Speaker 1: committee spends a lot of time thinking about, for lack
17:10
Speaker 1: of a better term, vegas rankings and they end up
17:15
Speaker 1: you know, for years they would pit like Gonzaga against Butler,
17:19
Speaker 1: to bet on teams that the wise guys are dying
17:22
Speaker 1: to see, like the lower seeded team that nobody knows
17:26
Speaker 1: against the higher seeded team that is a public team,
17:29
Speaker 1: and you rarely get those matchups anymore. Loyola last year
17:32
Speaker 1: it was like Loyola Miami was one of those few
17:34
Speaker 1: early round matchups where you were getting a bet on
17:37
Speaker 1: team against the high profile team. Yeah. And I can't
17:41
Speaker 1: speak to how the committee's line of thinking is. I
17:45
Speaker 1: just look at um. Sometimes it seems like it's coincidence,
17:49
Speaker 1: and it maybe not. But uh, you know, you look
17:51
Speaker 1: at any tournament set up, even even the conference tournament.
17:55
Speaker 1: It's kind of structured so that the two best teams
17:57
Speaker 1: played each other in the final round. So it's not
18:00
Speaker 1: a stretch to think that maybe that's how they want
18:03
Speaker 1: the entire tournament to pan out is they want to
18:05
Speaker 1: higher profile teams to to face each other in the
18:08
Speaker 1: later rounds. They don't want to knock out the best
18:10
Speaker 1: teams early on, even if it means some of these
18:14
Speaker 1: smaller schools and mid majors going deep into the tournaments. So,
18:17
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's a lot of it is
18:19
Speaker 1: driven by some ratings and what you want to see,
18:22
Speaker 1: what the public's appetite is. So I don't think it's
18:27
Speaker 1: a coincidence that a lot of that is happening. How
18:29
Speaker 1: much more interesting would the seatings potentially be if a
18:35
Speaker 1: bookmaker was allowed in to help with the seatings, to
18:38
Speaker 1: give an entirely different perspective. I think eventually that's what
18:43
Speaker 1: you're going to see. I think once all the states
18:45
Speaker 1: opt in and you see sports betting in every state,
18:48
Speaker 1: and they drop a lot of the barriers and drop
18:52
Speaker 1: a lot of the kind of you know, pretend that
18:54
Speaker 1: we want to keep the arms distance and everything. We
18:57
Speaker 1: used to be part of some of the polling, and
18:59
Speaker 1: I think it makes a difference, like in other words,
19:01
Speaker 1: when I say part of the poll, and there used
19:03
Speaker 1: to be like the A P Pole and the coaches poll.
19:06
Speaker 1: There were some groups that used to look at a
19:07
Speaker 1: Vegas bookmaker's poll because it would be a more accurate
19:11
Speaker 1: reflection of who the favored teams would be and and
19:14
Speaker 1: not to say who would win. But let's say the rankings.
19:18
Speaker 1: You know, the number one team loses a close game
19:20
Speaker 1: and suddenly that number one team is number four. Now,
19:23
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that that team wouldn't be favored in
19:26
Speaker 1: every single game it played the rest of the year.
19:29
Speaker 1: So you know, that's what Vegas is looking at. Okay,
19:31
Speaker 1: that this team lost the game, but we still have
19:34
Speaker 1: them a five point favorite over the number two teams.
19:36
Speaker 1: So I think eventually it's gonna be a valuable tool
19:41
Speaker 1: in terms of who Vegas or who the oddsmakers thinks
19:44
Speaker 1: are the best teams. The seedings would be so much
19:47
Speaker 1: better if a bookmaker was in there to help direct
19:52
Speaker 1: which brackets, which what the matchups should be. I definitely
19:57
Speaker 1: think so. I think that kind of input is helpful
20:01
Speaker 1: to kind of the sports better. Who I mean, the fans,
20:05
Speaker 1: the ratings, I think, everybody. I mean, I think it
20:08
Speaker 1: would be a valuable tool since you are now practically
20:12
Speaker 1: bookmaker to the world. And uh, the n c a
20:18
Speaker 1: A has been nominally progressive over the years in the
20:23
Speaker 1: way it approaches sports betting, like maintaining relationships with bookmakers
20:27
Speaker 1: to understand what the action is, using bookmakers as sort
20:31
Speaker 1: of the canaries in the coal mine on point shaving
20:34
Speaker 1: and things like that. Like I could see the n
20:36
Speaker 1: C double A being thoughtful about having a bookmaker in
20:40
Speaker 1: the room. That's a really interesting idea. Can I claim
20:43
Speaker 1: that idea? Can I claim like being the first person
20:45
Speaker 1: to think of that? Absolutely? Yeah, I think you did.
20:49
Speaker 1: I think, and you should probably push for it. I'll
20:51
Speaker 1: push forward on my end, you know. I'll try and
20:54
Speaker 1: devise a committee that will help out, and then when
20:57
Speaker 1: the m C double A wants to reach out, we'll
20:59
Speaker 1: give the committee names and we can go from there
21:03
Speaker 1: well after the seatings. If we don't like it, let's
21:06
Speaker 1: start a campaign on the Twitter. Okay, would that get
21:10
Speaker 1: would that get you to join Twitter? Yeah? Okay, maybe
21:19
Speaker 1: that sounds like you no, Scooch, We'll do a BOYD
21:22
Speaker 1: gaming Twitter account that sounds like it's a no hoo.
21:26
Speaker 1: That sounds like it's a no. Get your time ready
21:31
Speaker 1: for a Wednesday Scooch will be on the Twitter. Yeah,
21:36
Speaker 1: that's a good tune. I'll try I'll try to produce
21:38
Speaker 1: that that song for you. Ray is going to be like,
21:42
Speaker 1: what an idiot? Yeah, I know, Yeah, Ray is not
21:48
Speaker 1: going to be happy with me after that Google, Ray
21:51
Speaker 1: is gonna be very mad. You're gonna get a couple
21:52
Speaker 1: of emails. I'll tell you that. I like how you
21:55
Speaker 1: call each You call everybody scootle Ray, scootle Bob. It's
22:02
Speaker 1: like you're dwings and we need to distinguish you. Yeah,
22:08
Speaker 1: and when you're in like jam sessions, do you say, hey,
22:11
Speaker 1: scootl Ray, what do you think of this chord we have?
22:17
Speaker 1: We have worse nickname that I probably can't repeat. Really, yeah,
22:22
Speaker 1: that's fun. Say one, there's there's strudal. Oh God, by
22:30
Speaker 1: the way, Strudal is what like my old Jewish bubby
22:33
Speaker 1: would name her dog. That's like every old jew in
22:39
Speaker 1: my family names their dog after like you know, Jewish food.
22:43
Speaker 1: There's a strudal, there's a Google, there's a filter fish,
22:47
Speaker 1: there's a mats of ball. There's a roast chicken that
22:51
Speaker 1: has no flavor. It's like, right, only the humans are sucks.
22:57
Speaker 1: The dogs are treated with kindness in reverence. Okay, like
23:03
Speaker 1: a mench who's struddle? Are you Struddle. No, I'm not struggle.
23:10
Speaker 1: You know, I might be Strudle. I don't even know
23:12
Speaker 1: who our nicknames are anymore. I know there's a wet noodle.
23:15
Speaker 1: Who's that? Uncle Ray? That's why Uncle Ray is gonna
23:22
Speaker 1: call me and be pissed about the song today. Yeah,
23:27
Speaker 1: here's the other here's the other thing we gotta work on, Scooch.
23:30
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do with the Lakers? Ah? Man,
23:37
Speaker 1: they're in Uh, they're in a bit of disarray. Huh
23:40
Speaker 1: what are What do you think the odds are on
23:42
Speaker 1: Luke Walton returning this coach? I would uh, I would
23:47
Speaker 1: make him probably a four to one favorite that he
23:49
Speaker 1: does not return. Uh. What if you had to hang
23:54
Speaker 1: And by the way, some of these questions are courtesy um,
23:56
Speaker 1: some of them, all of them of Uncle Matt, Uncle
23:59
Speaker 1: Matt Mitchell and of our audio geniuses at the Action Network.
24:02
Speaker 1: If you had to hang it right now, what would
24:05
Speaker 1: you put the Lakers win total for next season? Man,
24:11
Speaker 1: that's a tough one, UM right now? Probably to see
24:19
Speaker 1: that here? Did he already put them up? No, Uncle Matt.
24:23
Speaker 1: Uncle Matt Mitchell isn't a bookmaker, Scooch. He works with
24:26
Speaker 1: the Action Network well, I'm just curious to be made one.
24:30
Speaker 1: But let's see right now, based on the same personnel,
24:34
Speaker 1: just right now, how many ways they have right now
24:42
Speaker 1: I'm checking, I'm in the Google. Let's make sure Lakers
24:48
Speaker 1: have thirty thirty wins with eighteen. Wow, they're not even
24:53
Speaker 1: gonna their season total before it started was. They're at
24:57
Speaker 1: thirty and there are what teen games left in the season?
25:02
Speaker 1: The Lakers and going eighteen and O Scooch? No, No,
25:06
Speaker 1: what was your liability over under forty eight? Uh? They
25:11
Speaker 1: pounded it over. You are going to win some to
25:14
Speaker 1: narrate some bucks. We're gonna win some bucks there, You're
25:17
Speaker 1: gonna win some Maybe someone should be nicknamed Bucks in
25:20
Speaker 1: the uh in the scoots. Oh yeah, definitely. All right, listen,
25:28
Speaker 1: I gotta call Matt Jones. He's our new superstar at
25:31
Speaker 1: the Action Network. I can't keep him waiting. Um. No,
25:34
Speaker 1: it was great to reconnect with you, buddy. Thank you
25:37
Speaker 1: for doing that there, thank you for doing that song. Okay,
25:40
Speaker 1: all right, see your buddy. Take care. Before we get
25:44
Speaker 1: back to the podcast, I want to talk about audible.
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Speaker 1: hundred five hundred. Let's get back to listening to the show. Alrighty,
27:36
Speaker 1: as promised. My next guest on the Favorites, joining us
27:41
Speaker 1: from Kentucky Sports Radio, joining the Action Network for a
27:46
Speaker 1: spell during college basketball and through the Kentucky derby Mr
27:50
Speaker 1: Matt Jones. Applause, applause, applause, applause. It's going on, brother,
27:56
Speaker 1: I'm good, how are you? I can hear the applause
27:58
Speaker 1: all the way here at Kentucky was very exciting. I
28:01
Speaker 1: feel like I walk around with applause ringing in my
28:03
Speaker 1: ears all day. That's how I get through it. Well good,
28:06
Speaker 1: it must be nice. I walk around with a lot
28:10
Speaker 1: of people screaming obscenities at me, so it ends up
28:12
Speaker 1: working out really well. I don't think that's true. Like
28:14
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. You need to describe to people, like what
28:20
Speaker 1: a big deal you've become in Kentucky in a way
28:23
Speaker 1: that like I would imagine most people listen to this podcast. No,
28:27
Speaker 1: just because you know, you do regular appearances and bar
28:29
Speaker 1: stool and you're on ESPN a bunch and you hosted
28:31
Speaker 1: a show on ESPN Radio all season and you fill
28:34
Speaker 1: in for a football season. You're filling for Finding Bottom
28:36
Speaker 1: a lot. But like, explain to people what you have
28:40
Speaker 1: created with Kentucky Sports Radio, which is truly astounding, uh
28:44
Speaker 1: in its popularity and like a from the bootstraps guy
28:49
Speaker 1: who's passionate about sports and media, uh, making a what
28:53
Speaker 1: I like to call and we do the segment a
28:55
Speaker 1: loot on this podcast, a you bet your life stand
28:58
Speaker 1: on his own talent and ingenuity. Well, so about fifteen
29:03
Speaker 1: years ago now, which it's crazy to think it's that long,
29:05
Speaker 1: I was an attorney and you know, blogs and and
29:09
Speaker 1: sort of websites that were not just newspaper based. We're
29:14
Speaker 1: we're kind of just taking off. I know that sounds crazy.
29:17
Speaker 1: It's like it wasn't that long ago, but it really
29:19
Speaker 1: was true. And like two thousand, three dozen four and
29:22
Speaker 1: I started, uh, Kentucky Sports Radio really just as a
29:27
Speaker 1: way to have fun with my friends and kind of uh,
29:31
Speaker 1: you know, right about UK athletics and just to be
29:35
Speaker 1: sort of doofy. It started as a blog that looked
29:37
Speaker 1: like you created it on you know, old school windows,
29:42
Speaker 1: and it slowly got more and more popular. It's sort
29:46
Speaker 1: of followed with the rise of blogs, so a lot
29:48
Speaker 1: of sites like Dead's Been and even early bar stools
29:52
Speaker 1: around that time, and they just kind of slowly it's
29:54
Speaker 1: sort of became a thing, and we kind of rode
29:57
Speaker 1: that wave. And then Kentucky John Calipari got year and
30:01
Speaker 1: it became a huge Chucky basketball took off, and and
30:04
Speaker 1: I created a radio show that had the same name
30:08
Speaker 1: as the website, and over time we've just kind of
30:11
Speaker 1: created a little mini Kentucky sort of empire here with
30:14
Speaker 1: a radio TV show, a daily TV show, a website.
30:19
Speaker 1: We now have a sports bar, and it's been it's
30:22
Speaker 1: been a really awesome, awesome experience here. But it really
30:26
Speaker 1: just started with me in my basement with my friend Hubby, going, hey,
30:30
Speaker 1: let's do something fun because our my legal job is
30:33
Speaker 1: too boring, so let's try this, and it just kind
30:35
Speaker 1: of took off What was the first story you wrote.
30:40
Speaker 1: That's a great question. The very first story I wrote
30:43
Speaker 1: was about it was dirty. I don't know the first story,
30:46
Speaker 1: but it was Tubby Smith at the end of Tubby
30:48
Speaker 1: Smith time in Lexington, and it was kind of those
30:51
Speaker 1: years were like as it time for Tubby to move
30:54
Speaker 1: on and and sort of those debates and I we
30:57
Speaker 1: really blew up. When we blew up was Patrick Patterson
31:01
Speaker 1: who now plays in the NBA for the Thunder. His
31:04
Speaker 1: high school recruitment came down to Kentucky, Florida and North Carolina,
31:10
Speaker 1: and he just kind of thought we were funny because
31:12
Speaker 1: we were two googers, and he gave us like all
31:15
Speaker 1: of his inside scoops and he broke his commitment on
31:18
Speaker 1: my podcast, and like that was really when the state
31:22
Speaker 1: of Kentucky really took notice of us, and we just
31:24
Speaker 1: kind of rode that wave. That is insane. Why do
31:28
Speaker 1: you how do you think he found you? That? That's nuts? Well,
31:32
Speaker 1: so we went to an A a U event. Okay,
31:36
Speaker 1: So now, like everything I'm saying makes me sound nine
31:39
Speaker 1: years old, But like when I went to A A
31:41
Speaker 1: U events in like oh five, oh, six, oh seven,
31:44
Speaker 1: there weren't as many like reporters. There wasn't you know,
31:48
Speaker 1: there wasn't YouTube, there wasn't all this stuff where like
31:50
Speaker 1: people just showed up and asked everybody questions. So most
31:53
Speaker 1: of the people that went to events were just like reporters,
31:57
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, they were just like old school reporters.
31:59
Speaker 1: And we went in and we did something that now
32:01
Speaker 1: everybody does, but that back then people didn't do, which
32:05
Speaker 1: was we asked him like about American Idol and you know,
32:07
Speaker 1: about rap and stuff, and like he now, everybody does that,
32:12
Speaker 1: but back then we were kind of the only ones
32:13
Speaker 1: doing it, and so he just thought we were much
32:15
Speaker 1: more fun than talking to the sort of regular TV
32:18
Speaker 1: and sports writer guys until he would come on our show,
32:22
Speaker 1: and you know, we weren't that much older than him,
32:24
Speaker 1: and so it was kind of it was just a
32:26
Speaker 1: way to do something different. And now I've done it
32:29
Speaker 1: so long, I'm the old guy asking those questions. But
32:32
Speaker 1: when I started, I was much younger, and so it
32:34
Speaker 1: was easier to connect. But like, here's what's interesting to me.
32:38
Speaker 1: You want to start a blog and you choose a
32:42
Speaker 1: name Kentucky Sports Radio, which is like so sort of analog. Well,
32:50
Speaker 1: you wanna know, why I did that. It was very simple.
32:53
Speaker 1: I thought the idea, I've been a big believer throughout life.
32:55
Speaker 1: If you don't have it, act like you have it.
32:58
Speaker 1: So I learned that at I literally the night we
33:02
Speaker 1: created it, we were trying to think of a name,
33:04
Speaker 1: and I was like, how about Kentucky Sports Radio. That way,
33:07
Speaker 1: if we ever apply for press credentials, they'll think we're
33:10
Speaker 1: an actual radio show. And we did, and so we
33:14
Speaker 1: got press credentials for like now people credential blogs, but
33:17
Speaker 1: back then they didn't, so like we would apply to
33:20
Speaker 1: Kentucky Sports Radio and people just assumed it was a
33:22
Speaker 1: radio show. And the idea was, Okay, well maybe one
33:26
Speaker 1: day we'll be a radio show, but we'll fake it
33:28
Speaker 1: till we make it. And we actually got credentialed for
33:31
Speaker 1: events because they thought we were a radio show even
33:34
Speaker 1: though we worked. When were you making enough that you
33:39
Speaker 1: could quit being a lawyer? Took a long time. I
33:42
Speaker 1: mean it took probably five years. And then you know,
33:47
Speaker 1: like again there's a lot of luck involved, Like it
33:50
Speaker 1: was the perfect timing. Like I don't think you could
33:53
Speaker 1: start a blog now and really have success unless you
33:56
Speaker 1: have a lot of money behind it, you know, seed
33:59
Speaker 1: capital or like, I just don't think you can do
34:01
Speaker 1: it nowadays, But back then you could kind of do
34:05
Speaker 1: it because the Internet people didn't it wasn't as saturated
34:08
Speaker 1: with information and so we but it still took a
34:13
Speaker 1: long time. I mean, the idea. I remember in two
34:15
Speaker 1: thousand and ten when I sort of quit practicing law
34:19
Speaker 1: and decided to do radio in the web. Selling the
34:22
Speaker 1: internet advertising was almost impossible, like nobody would buy it,
34:26
Speaker 1: and we had these huge traffic numbers and people still
34:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't buy it. So even for my first couple of
34:31
Speaker 1: years of doing it in like two thousand and ten eleven,
34:35
Speaker 1: really I made no money. I just sort of lived off,
34:38
Speaker 1: barely getting by. And it really starting about two thousand twelve,
34:43
Speaker 1: the Internet as a resource to make money had really
34:46
Speaker 1: kind of risen a lot. And then Kentucky won the
34:49
Speaker 1: national championship and so we really were We wrote that
34:52
Speaker 1: way for New York Times did a feature on us,
34:55
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden then it became more of
34:58
Speaker 1: an elaborate business. I love this story. Well, it's it's
35:04
Speaker 1: it's unique, I mean, And here's the thing, this is
35:07
Speaker 1: what I love about the owner. Co owner and I
35:10
Speaker 1: were college friends. Almost all of the early writers of
35:14
Speaker 1: mine were just college friends of mine and they had
35:16
Speaker 1: other jobs. My the guys that I hired in two
35:20
Speaker 1: thousand nine and ten and and men and women basically
35:25
Speaker 1: all still work on it. We've kind of like people
35:28
Speaker 1: love it because it's like fun and so it's not
35:32
Speaker 1: it's a business. It now makes like we do very well,
35:36
Speaker 1: but it's still the same people and we still kind
35:39
Speaker 1: of all act the same. And we were all friends
35:41
Speaker 1: before this and we're still kind of friends now. And
35:43
Speaker 1: it's just been it's been a blast, and it hasn't
35:46
Speaker 1: gotten so big that it's become annoying. It's been like,
35:51
Speaker 1: right at the perfect level of you can make a
35:53
Speaker 1: really good living and have fun and take care of everybody,
35:56
Speaker 1: but you don't get the headaches, uh sometimes when things
36:00
Speaker 1: get huge. So it's been great. How do you resist
36:02
Speaker 1: the temptation to try to play outside your lane? Well,
36:08
Speaker 1: I I I do play outside of my lane first,
36:11
Speaker 1: but I mean you do, but like as a as
36:14
Speaker 1: a media personality individually, right, like this has been a
36:17
Speaker 1: platform for you, but like Kentucky Sports Radio, you could
36:22
Speaker 1: have decided, you know what, We've built a following, We're Kentucky.
36:26
Speaker 1: But that's sec so maybe we should be doing more. Yeah,
36:30
Speaker 1: I think that's a mistake. I read a book many
36:32
Speaker 1: years ago Chad called this was in the early two thousand's,
36:36
Speaker 1: and I thought, and it probably was one of the
36:38
Speaker 1: best books I've ever read. Now some of it's dated now,
36:40
Speaker 1: but it was called Jehad Versus McWorld, And the theory
36:44
Speaker 1: of the book was that as the Internet and everything grew,
36:48
Speaker 1: there were gonna be two significant forces. Force one, we're
36:52
Speaker 1: gonna be these mega corporations that got huge and became
36:56
Speaker 1: massive and a huge part of our lives, and we've
36:58
Speaker 1: seen that with Amazon, Google, except But then phase two
37:02
Speaker 1: was there would be this hyper local thing. And they
37:05
Speaker 1: talked about in the in the context of war with
37:09
Speaker 1: you know, jihad, etcetera. But the idea also applies to media,
37:13
Speaker 1: which is people are either gonna want the biggest platforms
37:16
Speaker 1: or they're gonna want something that's hyper local that they
37:19
Speaker 1: can't get anywhere else. And where you fail is in
37:22
Speaker 1: the middle when you try to be a little bit
37:24
Speaker 1: of both, like that just doesn't work. So I think
37:27
Speaker 1: one of the things that I learned is, Okay, if
37:30
Speaker 1: you try to cover the whole sec. I don't really
37:34
Speaker 1: think that works. But if you cover your team, that's
37:38
Speaker 1: good because the readers really care about your team. And
37:42
Speaker 1: I could give you a many, many different areas of
37:44
Speaker 1: news that I think this is true, but I really
37:45
Speaker 1: believe this. I think people now either turn on the
37:49
Speaker 1: mega corporation or the hyper individualized. The thing I really
37:55
Speaker 1: care about corporation and the ones in between are the
37:58
Speaker 1: ones that the new economy has really struggled with. And
38:02
Speaker 1: we have stayed in that small lane, so people have
38:05
Speaker 1: tried to buy us out. I mean, I'm one of
38:07
Speaker 1: the last really independent, really successful blogs. I mean, how
38:11
Speaker 1: many more can you think of that that that don't
38:14
Speaker 1: have any national affiliation. We don't, and I think it's
38:18
Speaker 1: because I found this market and I felt like if
38:22
Speaker 1: I merged with anyone else, it would dilute my products
38:25
Speaker 1: so much that my fans would hate it. So I
38:27
Speaker 1: was just like, I'll just keep doing it. And it's
38:29
Speaker 1: worked out pretty well for its Yeah, well, but it's
38:35
Speaker 1: it's hard because people were offering money that at the
38:38
Speaker 1: time was a lot of money to me, and I
38:41
Speaker 1: wasn't making money really, and so it had to be
38:44
Speaker 1: I I watched as virtually every college sports blog that
38:48
Speaker 1: was worth anything sold themselves to Explanation, to Rivals, to Scout,
38:54
Speaker 1: to Yahoo seven. Like they all got bought up, every
38:58
Speaker 1: one of them, and there are only a handful of
39:01
Speaker 1: us left. I mean I used to know a bunch
39:03
Speaker 1: of them, and some of them have even sold up.
39:05
Speaker 1: And I'm one of the last ones. And the reason
39:08
Speaker 1: was like, once you get into that, it becomes a job.
39:12
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know what, I quipped this
39:14
Speaker 1: stuff to have a job. I want to run it
39:16
Speaker 1: as my thing. And so I hung on and and
39:19
Speaker 1: you know, while I hang on forever as independent, I
39:22
Speaker 1: don't know, but it's hard to see letting go because
39:25
Speaker 1: again go back to my jihad versus McWorld theory, I
39:29
Speaker 1: think it's those middle organizations that are not succeeding. ESPN
39:34
Speaker 1: will always succeed, right, but I think and I think
39:37
Speaker 1: local stuff succeeds. I think the regional stuff are the
39:41
Speaker 1: ones that struggle. Well, I don't disagree with you obviously,
39:44
Speaker 1: Like I left ESPN and went to Action because I
39:48
Speaker 1: felt like going to a place that we're helping to
39:51
Speaker 1: start a place that is singular and focus and obsessive
39:54
Speaker 1: about one particular thing, and see that's what's brilliant about
39:58
Speaker 1: Like what you all did, it is exactly what we
40:01
Speaker 1: did with Kentucky. As you said, Okay, rather than be sports,
40:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be sports gambling and it's like perfect right there,
40:10
Speaker 1: Like nobody's really filling this void. We'll do it and
40:14
Speaker 1: that's where the future lies. And people ask me all
40:16
Speaker 1: the time like how do I get to have your job?
40:18
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you're too late for my job. My
40:20
Speaker 1: job is gone. I hit the right time for that.
40:23
Speaker 1: Now your job is to see what's the thing that
40:26
Speaker 1: no one's doing that people are gonna care about. And
40:29
Speaker 1: I think what you guys did is brilliant because you
40:32
Speaker 1: hit one of those those voids. Brilliant, just brilliant. Uh
40:37
Speaker 1: let's talk about sports for a minute. Okay, Yes, tell
40:42
Speaker 1: me about this Kentucky team. What am I to make
40:43
Speaker 1: of this Kentucky team right now as we head into
40:46
Speaker 1: the SEC tournament? What am I to make them as
40:48
Speaker 1: a better and what am I to make them as
40:50
Speaker 1: someone who is thinking about brackets really good but not perfect?
40:56
Speaker 1: So as a better I would say that they are
41:00
Speaker 1: a very difficult team to gamble on because you don't
41:04
Speaker 1: know what you're gonna get um. I am a huge
41:08
Speaker 1: fan of In game Way During. Drew Franklin basically has
41:11
Speaker 1: taught me into it. It's all I do anymore. And
41:14
Speaker 1: in game Way During for Kentucky is very easy because
41:16
Speaker 1: they're always gonna fall behind and they're always gonna come back.
41:19
Speaker 1: But the but Vegas has really hit spreads pretty much
41:24
Speaker 1: dead on with Kentucky. They just they're not consistent. Now.
41:27
Speaker 1: I do think in terms of brackets, they are one
41:31
Speaker 1: of five teams that can win the championship if everything
41:34
Speaker 1: goes perfectly. I think the winner of the titles coming
41:37
Speaker 1: out of Duke Kentucky, Virginia, Gonzaga, and Tennessee, one of
41:40
Speaker 1: those five teams is winning, and I think Kentucky is
41:43
Speaker 1: right there. The thing about those five teams is two
41:46
Speaker 1: of them are gonna end up in the same bracket,
41:48
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be really bad for one of those
41:50
Speaker 1: two U two programs. And I'm worried Kentucky is gonna
41:54
Speaker 1: be one of those two. But I like to wait
41:56
Speaker 1: Kentucky plays. I think as as a gambler, I would
41:59
Speaker 1: say Kentucky stay away from him until Read Travis comes back,
42:04
Speaker 1: because they're still getting the benefit with the lines of
42:06
Speaker 1: having a full roster, and they don't, and so I
42:09
Speaker 1: think they're like, I want to say, maybe one in
42:11
Speaker 1: five against the spread in the last games. Wait till
42:13
Speaker 1: he comes back before you really go all in on it. Alright,
42:17
Speaker 1: So you mentioned Kentucky, you mentioned Tennessee, you mentioned Virginia,
42:22
Speaker 1: you mentioned Duke and Kenzaga. I don't have future bets
42:28
Speaker 1: underneath those teams. I have future bets on Marquette, Kansas State, Houston,
42:33
Speaker 1: and Washington. I don't mind the Houston one. I mean
42:37
Speaker 1: I think Houston. I think the other three just don't
42:40
Speaker 1: have the athletes to win the whole thing, but Houston does. Um.
42:45
Speaker 1: You know, I got Kentucky at one right after the
42:48
Speaker 1: Duke game because because Betters just jumped off of Kentucky
42:53
Speaker 1: for a while because they look so bad. They lost
42:55
Speaker 1: the Duke, they lost the Seaton Hall, and I still
42:57
Speaker 1: thought the talent was there. Um, But I like you
43:01
Speaker 1: Houston one. There's a scenario I think where Houston uh
43:05
Speaker 1: could find its way into the final four, and then
43:07
Speaker 1: once you're in the final four, you never know what
43:09
Speaker 1: will happen. So I uh, the key for Houston is
43:13
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a team go to if you don't
43:16
Speaker 1: believe in Gonzaga, and there's a lot of people that don't.
43:19
Speaker 1: If I when the bracket comes out, I would find
43:22
Speaker 1: the three, four or five or six UH seeded team
43:25
Speaker 1: in the West and take them because I think they'll
43:28
Speaker 1: have the easiest path to the Final four if you
43:31
Speaker 1: don't believe in Gonzaga. And because of the pod theory,
43:34
Speaker 1: there's a good chance Houston will be in the three
43:36
Speaker 1: in the West. So I don't think that's a terrible one. Wow,
43:39
Speaker 1: you just blew my mind with all the ways in
43:41
Speaker 1: which Houston can get to the Final four and make
43:43
Speaker 1: me some money. Well, Houston as the three seat in
43:46
Speaker 1: the West is very likely to happen. And again, if
43:49
Speaker 1: you don't believe in Gonzaga, and a lot of people don't,
43:52
Speaker 1: then they got as good as shot as anybody you
43:54
Speaker 1: get in the final four from the West. Alright, So,
43:57
Speaker 1: Kentucky is an interesting team to me because they've been
44:00
Speaker 1: so inconsistent this year. And like I thought, when they
44:03
Speaker 1: blew out Tennessee a couple of weeks ago at home,
44:06
Speaker 1: I thought, all right, they've sort of gotten over their
44:08
Speaker 1: middle of the season hump. They're fine tuned, they're ready
44:12
Speaker 1: to roll, and then they go to Tennessee and get
44:14
Speaker 1: blown out. And maybe that was just like a bad
44:16
Speaker 1: spot for Kentucky because they have been riding high and
44:19
Speaker 1: they came in and they were on the road and
44:21
Speaker 1: sort of a different spot. And you know, Tennessee had
44:24
Speaker 1: the revenge scenario there. But which Tennant Which Kentucky team
44:28
Speaker 1: do you think is the team that gets to the tournament?
44:31
Speaker 1: What does coach cal do to make sure they are
44:33
Speaker 1: the team to beat Tennessee? Well, first thing, I got
44:36
Speaker 1: to get healthy. I mean read Travis, the one senior
44:39
Speaker 1: on the team, one of the few seniors Cal's ever had,
44:42
Speaker 1: Uh has been out for the last four games. He's
44:44
Speaker 1: supposed to play on Senior Day on Saturday, and if
44:47
Speaker 1: he does, I think that makes the team a lot
44:49
Speaker 1: closer to the team that played in Lexington than than
44:52
Speaker 1: the one that played in Knoxville. But the other thing
44:54
Speaker 1: is Tesse is really good and they and they're just
44:56
Speaker 1: not gonna lose at home and they haven't lost a
44:58
Speaker 1: home game in two years, So I just I didn't
45:01
Speaker 1: think Kentucky was gonna win that no matter what. The
45:03
Speaker 1: game to watches in the SEC Tournament the SEC Tournament
45:06
Speaker 1: is gonna be in Nashville. It's gonna be only Kentucky
45:09
Speaker 1: and Tennessee fan because the SEC fans don't come to
45:13
Speaker 1: the SEC Tournament except Kentucky and then this year Tennessee.
45:16
Speaker 1: They're gonna end up playing in the semifinals on Saturday,
45:19
Speaker 1: and I think that game is going to be for
45:21
Speaker 1: the number one seed. It's gonna basically be a neutral court.
45:24
Speaker 1: It will be about half Tennessee fans half Kentucky fans.
45:28
Speaker 1: That's the game to watch. I think whoever wins that
45:31
Speaker 1: game is the superior of the two teams and would
45:34
Speaker 1: be a team I would take to go to the
45:36
Speaker 1: final four because I think both those teams are really good.
45:40
Speaker 1: That'll be an awesome test and what should be one
45:43
Speaker 1: of the good college environment. Conference tournaments usually are bad environments,
45:47
Speaker 1: but the SEC, when it's Kentucky and Tennessee in Nashville,
45:51
Speaker 1: that'll be one of the best environments of the year.
45:53
Speaker 1: You mentioned something really interesting in me before you and
45:55
Speaker 1: Drew Franklin, who works with you in Kentucky Sports Radio,
45:58
Speaker 1: and he's also going to be contributing to the act
46:00
Speaker 1: your network um writing quite a bit you mentioned in
46:03
Speaker 1: game betting, and Drew is a is a pretty hardcore,
46:05
Speaker 1: very smart better. So tell me what he's been teaching
46:08
Speaker 1: you about in game betting. Well, I mean, the thing
46:11
Speaker 1: that I like about in game betting is finding sort
46:14
Speaker 1: of the trends about teams. You know, I mean to me,
46:17
Speaker 1: when you really know a team and you've watched them
46:20
Speaker 1: a lot, like Drew and I do with Kentucky and
46:23
Speaker 1: some of the NBA teams. You know, the rhythms, like
46:26
Speaker 1: you know when they play poorly and when they don't.
46:29
Speaker 1: And because in game betting, my view is because it's
46:32
Speaker 1: done almost totally, it feels like with an algorithm and
46:37
Speaker 1: not so much with feel, you can actually outsmart in
46:40
Speaker 1: game betters. Now that's not scientific, but I really feel
46:43
Speaker 1: like you can. So Like perfect example, last night, Kentucky
46:46
Speaker 1: is playing Old Miss in the first it's and it's
46:50
Speaker 1: on the road, and within ten minutes Kentucky is down
46:54
Speaker 1: eight on the road to Old Miss. But the thing
46:57
Speaker 1: that you don't know if you just look at that score,
46:59
Speaker 1: is that P J. Washington, Kentucky's best player, has been
47:01
Speaker 1: on the bench with foul trump And you don't under
47:04
Speaker 1: realize that Kentucky's had wide open shots. It just missed
47:06
Speaker 1: them all. And so I look at that, and now
47:09
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I look at the spread and
47:11
Speaker 1: in Kentucky's getting to all of a sudden as opposed
47:14
Speaker 1: to have been as five and a half point favorite
47:16
Speaker 1: beginning the game. So all of a sudden, I'm getting
47:18
Speaker 1: odds just for Kentucky to win the game. And I
47:22
Speaker 1: still feel like they're the much better team with four
47:24
Speaker 1: minutes to go in the first half. That to me
47:26
Speaker 1: is an easy play. And when you do it, I
47:30
Speaker 1: do it a lot for the NBA in the playoffs
47:32
Speaker 1: because in the playoffs, you know in the second quarter
47:35
Speaker 1: the best team is almost always losing for some reason.
47:38
Speaker 1: You can make those turnabouts quick. So I always look
47:41
Speaker 1: for disproportionate scores on teams that I know, and Drew
47:45
Speaker 1: has done a really good job. He was the of
47:47
Speaker 1: the two of us. He was the initiator at the
47:49
Speaker 1: endgame stuff, and he and I will just text and
47:52
Speaker 1: be like, you know, right now, Golden States down seventeen
47:55
Speaker 1: at home to Phoenix, and you know they're coming back,
47:59
Speaker 1: and so it's just a matter of getting in on
48:00
Speaker 1: it at the right time. I love the end game betting,
48:03
Speaker 1: but I also think for guys like us, it changes
48:08
Speaker 1: everything you do to talk about betting in the pregame,
48:12
Speaker 1: meaning all of a sudden it doesn't matter anymore. Well,
48:15
Speaker 1: I agree, Listen, Drew and I, you know, we we
48:19
Speaker 1: for college football and the NBA, he and I've basically
48:24
Speaker 1: stopped betting pregame. Now college basketball, I actually still think
48:29
Speaker 1: the end game unless you know the team is a
48:32
Speaker 1: little tougher. But for college football in the NBA, that's
48:36
Speaker 1: basically what he and I do now, and I agree
48:38
Speaker 1: with you. It completely changes the way you look at
48:41
Speaker 1: games going into them before it starts. Well, listen, Matt Jones,
48:45
Speaker 1: everybody is going to get a chance to read here. Listen,
48:50
Speaker 1: follow the stuff that you and Drew in Kentucky Sports
48:53
Speaker 1: Radio I'm doing for the Action Network. I'm super excited.
48:56
Speaker 1: We've been talking about this for a while. I can't
48:57
Speaker 1: wait to get you going. Yes, we're looking forward to it,
49:01
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, listen, let me say, we don't
49:03
Speaker 1: claim to be experts, but we're like a lot of
49:05
Speaker 1: the people that I'm sure follow the Action Network. We
49:08
Speaker 1: just like to have fun with it, and we've played
49:11
Speaker 1: so much that we've lost doing things that don't work,
49:14
Speaker 1: and so now we like actually tried to win some
49:16
Speaker 1: for the first time after many years of not winning
49:19
Speaker 1: is the best, Losing is the worst. That's right. And
49:23
Speaker 1: the thing is, I'm a big believer. And what you said,
49:26
Speaker 1: We're gonna do some horse race. The reason I love
49:29
Speaker 1: horse racing and the reason I love the n c
49:30
Speaker 1: A Tournament. There's so much stupid money in the derby
49:34
Speaker 1: and in the n c A Tournament, and that's where
49:36
Speaker 1: you can actually make money. Let's make some money. There
49:42
Speaker 1: you go, We'll call you money. Matt, don't do that.
49:46
Speaker 1: I have to. I have to keep my humble conductab
49:49
Speaker 1: So that's right, all right, Matt Jones, thanks for doing this, brother,
49:53
Speaker 1: Touch you later, no problem, all right. I want to
49:55
Speaker 1: thank Bob Scucci for coming back on the Favorites. I
49:59
Speaker 1: want to thank Matt Joe. It's for coming on the
50:00
Speaker 1: Favorites for the first time and for all the work
50:02
Speaker 1: he's gonna do for the Action Network along with Drew
50:04
Speaker 1: Franklin and Kentucky Sports Radio. I am Chad Millman. This
50:08
Speaker 1: has been the Favorites from the Action Network. You can
50:11
Speaker 1: join us twice a week. Me and black Jack Fletch
50:15
Speaker 1: will be switching off, but you can always get good info.
50:18
Speaker 1: Go download the Action Network app, check out Action network
50:21
Speaker 1: dot com, download the podcast and Apple podcast Radio dot com,
50:24
Speaker 1: Slash the Action Network, or wherever you get your podcasts.
50:28
Speaker 1: Until next time,