Sports , just my opinion
Transcription
The podcast "Thoughts from the Nosebleeds" discusses Louisville sports and other big sports like the NFL, NBA, hockey, and NASCAR. The host, Daniel, is joined by co-host Chris. They share their opinions on various topics and what they would do if they were in charge of teams. The first topic they discuss is Kenny Payne, the coach of the Louisville Cardinal basketball team. They talk about the team's poor performance and speculate on the reasons behind it, including Payne's coaching style and the impact of the NIL (name, image, and likeness) on recruiting. They also mention the potential consequences for Payne if the team's performance doesn't improve. Overall, they express frustration with the team's current state and discuss the importance of results in the business of college basketball. Welcome to the first episode of Thoughts from the Nosebleeds, my name is Daniel, I'll be your host of this fun podcast. We're going to talk about Louisville sports in general and everything with the cards. Then we're also going to talk about the big sports, the NFL and all the fun teams within that league, the NBA maybe, hockey, NASCAR. My co-host will be Chris, he'll be along in other episodes as our schedules can match up as we both have regular 9-5 jobs. So we're going to have fun with this, no crazy expectations and just for fun, put our opinions out there, what we think we would do if we were in charge of some of these teams and that's about all this podcast is going to be for, for fun, sports. From down the road I plan on improving this podcast, first time doing this, got a little mixer board over here like you've seen on radio shows, so we're just going to have fun. So first topic that we're going to talk about today is Kenny Payne, the coach of the Louisville Cardinal basketball team in a historically bad, bad year, not only in school program but across the NCAA in a whole, it is just so bad I can't even begin to describe it. They are 2-16, they have way too much talent to be 2-16, I don't know if it's the players, the coach, combination of it all, I mean we have one point guard in LLS who bless his heart has to play almost 40 minutes a game. So I mean he's giving you 20 points a game, giving you about 5 assists, problem is he gives you 5 turnovers, but then again he's also playing 40 minutes a game, so it's not entirely his fault, I put a lot of it on Kenny Payne, I was not a Kenny Payne supporter of him being hired, he's been a fantastic assistant in the NBA and in, at Kentucky in the college level, but the game has changed since he left for the NBA, but it's not the same, he got NIL, that has been a game changer, kids don't want to come play just for the school anymore, they're going to go play for the school that gives them the best chance to earn money with their name and image and likeness, so it's not about the kids going up watching UofL and Kentucky and the Dukes and the North Carolinas, they're going to want to play where they get the best NIL deal, and Louisville has a good system, they got the 502 circle, it's fantastic, it's run by former players who you know help guide this program and you can also as a fan get a monthly membership, which is fantastic, fans want to have a say in what goes on, well now you get to have a say a little bit, you get to put your money in there and it can go to players and they can do things for you, so do little small videos and stuff like that, so it's a good thing, and it's going to help get players here eventually for the basketball team if Kenny Payne will embrace the NIL, he really hasn't done so yet, he doesn't talk about the NIL, and you're not supposed to when you're on the recruiting trail, it's not supposed to be a recruiting tool, but let's face it, we know that's not going to happen, we all know the kid's going to say, what's the NIL deal, what can I get, what are you going to pay me, it's just now that everything's above board, nothing's below board anymore, players have always been paid, it was just under the table and you had to have bag men, and sometimes you got caught and sometimes you didn't, so now that everything's above board with the NIL, you can basically pay a player to come play for your program, and that's what it's going to come down to, UofL football has got some fantastic recruits because of the NIL, now granted, but Jeff Baum and his system, pass happy, has brought a good quarterback, a lot of wide receivers, and the defense is going to be good too I think, he's brought in some big time defensive players, but NIL has helped in that regard, so you know, I know I just took a sip of my drink here, don't get so dry, but NIL is a big deal, and Kenny Payne is going to have to get on board with that if he wants to bring some good players, it's also Kenny Payne's fault that I think he probably, I haven't seen it personally, but I think he probably practices this team way too hard, and they have no legs by the time the game comes around, because that's what it looks like, they start off fantastic, and then they just die, they don't have any fight left in them, and that could be Kenny Payne's practicing them way too hard during the week, and if that's the case, then maybe he needs to look at himself, and look in the practice, and tone it down, now granted I know he's trying to build a culture and get the way he wants to play, but the roster he has currently, right now, with one guard, a couple bigs, and some wing players, not many, that can play the way he wants to play, it's just not working, it's just not, how many times have we seen coaches adjust to the roster that they have, not, you know, they adjust, they don't have the certain guy that would make the offense go, so they just adjust, they tweak it, I mean, that's what great coaches do, and I'm not saying Kenny Payne can't be great, but right now, it's not looking too good, he needs to look at his roster, and bring out the talents that they do have, not what he wants them to have, and it's frustrating to watch, I mean, I watch the games from tip-off to the double-zeros, and it's painful, and if I can't watch it, I'm listening to Paul Rodgers on 93.9 The Bill, and him and Bobby V are describing what's going on, and it's painful to listen to, it's painful to watch, so I don't know what the answer's going to be, but if they're 2-28 by the end of the year, Josh, our athletic director, is going to have to have a very serious sit-down and conversation with Kenny Payne, and basically tell him that if he doesn't get his act together, he's going to be gone sooner rather than later, and now, when he was hired, after the debacle of Chris Mack and all that, he had a rough roster to go with, the roster right now is not completely his fault, some of it is his fault, he pushed some players away that really wanted to stay, he can say that everybody had a roster spot, but I don't necessarily agree with that because of the way the roster looks now, so, I don't know, and he's going to have to do a lot of recruiting at the end of this year, and in the transfer portal, because now that there's no sanctions over UofL and all that from the scandal from five years ago that took way too long, he has no excuse, there's no excuse for him not to be able to get the top-end recruits or top-end transfer portal guys into UofL, there's none, but the football team can bring in some of the best recruits the school has ever seen before Jeff Braum has even stepped foot on the football field, I mean, that says something about Ben Isle, but it also says something about Jeff Braum's game plan, now granted, KP is a first-time head coach, I grant you that, but 20 games into your year, we don't see any improvement, in fact it seems like they're getting worse, I've seen exhibition games, I've seen all the games, I don't see any improvement, and I don't want to hear, well, they played good for 25 minutes, or they played good for 30 minutes, that's like saying everybody gets a participation trophy for playing hard, no, this is division one basketball, you don't get a participation trophy, you either win or you lose, and if you don't win enough, you get fired, or if you don't play good enough, your scholarship is revoked and you don't get it the next year, this is a results-based business, and granted, some of you are going to say, but they're getting a free education, yeah, they're getting a free education that most kids will never get, being a student-athlete, they got some perks and all that, but being a student-athlete is a good thing, I'm not saying they're not getting educated, but when you're not producing, you're sitting on the bench, and if you have goals to make it to the NBA or the NFL, you're going to transfer, and you're going to go somewhere that's going to give you a shot, that's what it's going to come down to, so I don't want to hear that they're students first, because that's gone, that in the 80s and the 90s, yeah, they may have been, quotation, students first, athletes second, nowadays with NIL, they're students first, they are paid players first, and then they are students, now the ones that know they don't have another shot at the next level, yes, they're taking very serious academic classes, but some of the kids that are going to be at the next level, let's face it, they're not taking the hardest classes that they can take to be at the next level, they're just not, so I don't want to hear the student-athlete angle, because it's not there anymore, they're paid players at this point, it's a semi-pro league if you want to even call it that, and the NBA has the G League, but with NIL, you can get paid more if you're a top player, look at Desheboye in Kentucky, he's getting paid like $2 million for his NIL deal, he wouldn't be making that close to that in the G League, so will that make basketball better in the NCAA with NIL versus the G League, probably, and that'll be fun to actually have players stick around at schools for a couple years versus one and done's, that's fantastic, so I don't know, but back to KP, he's got this coaching staff of Danny Manning and Nolan Smith and some guy from Oregon, James I think is his name, and I don't know what they're doing, I've seen Nolan Smith get off the bench a couple times and get mad, seen Danny Manning get off the bench a couple times and get mad, but I don't see coaching, I see griping and kids, KP has said, well, I don't have guys playing hard, if you don't have guys playing hard, sit them down, put in somebody that's going to play hard, I've seen J.J. Turner, every time he hits the floor, he plays hard, I've seen Tamari Lennon hit the floor and play hard, Fabio, a freshman, who technically should be a senior in high school right now, but reclassed, every time he gets there, he plays hard, he plays 100 miles an hour, but does he make the freshman mistakes, sure, sure does, he makes the freshman mistakes, but you know what, I can live with a freshman mistake, because he's given me everything he's got, I don't have to question his toughness or his heart on the floor, he's going to make plays, sometimes it's a home play and it drives us nuts, but if we're getting beat by 20 points anyway with the juniors and the seniors on the floor, you might as well play your freshman to see what you have, and see what you're going to have to build around coming up the next year, it's just frustrating to see Zan Payne on the floor, nothing against Zan Payne, I mean he's a solid player to be played Division 1 basketball at the Power 5 level, he has to be good, there's no doubt, I'm not questioning his talent, but he's not Fabio, he's done after this year, I've got to see Fabio, Devon Reed play with J.J. and Lands on the floor, they're your future, Bradley Hunter Hatfield, he's your future, yeah, granted L. Ellis is your only point guard, I get he has to play because he's your only point guard, but Fabio can play point guard, put L. Ellis at 2, put Mike James at the 3, J.J. at the 4, Huntley at the 5, I mean that's just, let that roster run for a few minutes, see what you get, but I feel like K.P. keeps doing the same thing, expecting different results, and that's the pure definition of insanity, to do the same thing expecting different results, and obviously it's not working, so we might as well try something else, I mean there's no harm in trying something else, just rolling the ball out there and having five guys play as individuals sure is not working, we're getting beat by teams, even lower level teams, the Bellarmines, the United States, they are teams, doesn't matter how good your talent is, if you're not playing as a team, you're going to get beat by everybody and anybody, and UofL this year is the perfect example of that, doesn't matter how good your talent is, doesn't matter who your coach is, it matters how your team plays together, and the roster he has, he's trying to put a round peg in a circle, and it's just not going to work, and it's frustrating to watch over and over and over again, it's just like dude, do something else, I'm not saying I'm a great coach, I'm not saying that at all, but I've coached some basketball in my day, I've coached softball, baseball, football, I've coached it all at some small level, I'm not saying I'm division one material at all, but I've coached it, I've coached middle school basketball, I coached some high school kids when I was a high schooler, and I beat my high school coach with a sub-part team, but you know what, we got to practice as a team, and we played as a team, and we beat the starters, so I mean, you got to coach what you have, not what you wish you had, and it's annoying to see that he does the same thing over and over, so I don't know, it could be way better than two and 18, and usually in these ball games, usually there's about a five to seven minute stretch, just one stretch, not like one minute here, two minutes there, it's one stretch, five to seven minutes, that the UofL team just loses their mind and doesn't know how to play basketball anymore, and that's when they get outscored like 25 to three, or 18 to four runs, that destroys all the hard work they've played already, and then they have to dig out, or try and dig out if they think they want to, they have to try and dig out of a hole that by the time they get back into the ball game, it's already over, it's either halftime, or it's later in the second half, and it's too late to mount a comeback, and so I just, I don't know, I think it's between the years with these kids mostly, I don't think it's a talent issue, I think it's between the years, and I don't think they're connecting with KP and what he's telling them, they can say whatever they want in the interviews, but what I see on the floor is they are not connected to KP in doing what KP wants to do, when they get flustered, and they get behind, next thing you know, it's five individuals doing what they know how to do on the basketball court, and they're not playing as a team, like I don't see plays run good enough, or executed well enough, and when they do execute a play, they either turn it over at the end, or they pass up a shot that was right there, like they take the shots the defense wants them to take, and believe me, we are not a good shooting team, so, and we can mess layups, and we can't rebound still, so, I mean, we mess up the fundamentals, and at division one, you really shouldn't have to be taught the fundamentals of basketball, at division one, you should be fine-tuning your fundamentals of basketball that you do have, not teaching from the basics, and I feel they're teaching from the basics, and it's just hard, it's hard to watch, I can't express enough how hard it is to watch, like, it's amazing, so, we'll see if KP can get this turned around, and get this thing going towards the end of the year, I don't see it, we play ACC's schedule the rest of the way, all the teams that we play are good, Duke, Virginia's, Florida State's, even the Boston College and Georgia Tech, they're not terrible, I mean, they're solid teams, Boston College gave, no, it was Clemson who beat Duke, and now, granted, Clemson beat us, but, it's, I just don't see it, even when we start off good, and I think that we might have a solid game, it goes by the wayside, and that five to seven minute stretch, where we'll turn the ball over five times in a row, and the next thing you know, they've scored, other teams scored 25 points, and we're down by 18 to 20 points, and then we dig out of the hole the rest of the game, we may, might, we might make small runs, five, six points here and there, but we sure don't make the big runs, and stop them, and we got LA defense going on, we don't, we're like the third tallest team in the country, we can't block a shot for nothing, so, I, it's frustrating, it's even frustrating to talk about, I don't know, well, maybe we'll come back to this, get us some football, so, I'm sitting here, I'm watching the Giants and the Vikings play in the wildcard round, and there's been a solid ball game, the Giants just took a lead with a Saquon Barkley touchdown, with about 7.45 to go in the fourth quarter, but I have a feeling the Vikings will have an answer for that, there's been a heavyweight battle, and so, not the Cowboys, they play Monday night against Tampa Bay, and as a lifelong Cowboy fan, I, I don't have any faith in them to beat Tom Brady and Tampa at Tampa, I mean, I know Tampa's been terrible this year at eight and nine, and they only get to host the game because they won their division in the NFC south, but, I just don't have any faith in Doc Prescott right now, so, we'll see how that goes, my nephew, Isaac, he's a, he's a Chiefs fan, so he's excited, and the Chiefs are good, and, but I always give him, give him hell for it anyway, but, you know, he usually gets, gets the last say, because, well, I'm not a Cowboys fan, so, we'll see how that works out, we've got a little rum action going, I'm a big rum guy, I like me some rum, if anybody's listening to this podcast, and you are a basketball fan, and you know you love basketball, a little free advertisement here, Russ Smith has a bourbon out called Mr. and Mrs., it's got a green label, a blue label, and a red label, and it's pretty delicious, I have the blue and red myself, the blue is a good, good daily sipper, the red, that's more of a special occasion, so, but it's good, it's been good to drink on, so, now I took a drink, and, got to refocus here, we'll talk some football, man, how excited can we be about U of O football with Jeff Baum, coming back to the state, coaching his alma mater, where he got coached by Howard Schnellenberger, played seven years in the NFL, was some of the best coaches in the, in the world for football, so, he, I think he's going to do well, he did very well at Purdue, his last stop in the Big Ten, so, that, that was exciting to see, he did good at Western Kentucky, the previous stop before Purdue, so, it's going to be fun for U of O football, it's going to be pass happy, like U of O fans are used to, it's going to be fun, it's going to be high action, definitely more fun than watching Satterfield run left, run right, and then a short five yard out, where that was hardly ever open, it's going to be a fun season next year, I'll be finishing up my school at the end of football season, so, hopefully I get to go to a game or two, but, that'll be fun, I'm excited, he's definitely got some big time people coming in, Pierce Clarkson, our top, one of our top recruits, quarterback from California, from St. John's Bosco, he's a fun follow on Twitter, let me tell you, he's fun to follow, but, he's going to be the next great U of O quarterback, I think, we got Jack Plummer, who is, has no relation to Jake Plummer, by the way, who's going to be a solid player for that bridge, for that one year bridge, he played for Brom when he, early in his career at Purdue, before he transferred to Cal last year, but, he's coming to U of O, he knows Brom system, so, that's going to be good, that'll be helpful, but, we got some big time players coming, we got some top end talent from the transfer portal coming with the wide receivers and defense, oh, I can't wait to see that front seven next year, he's got some studs in that department right there, they're going to get after the quarterback, there's no doubt about that, they're going to, the secondary's going to be big, it's going to be a fun time next year for football, I'm excited, especially with the new playoff system coming, boy, I predict that in two years, U of O will be playing in the college football playoff, and it's going to be fun, it's going to be a good time, so, I think we're similar in the way TCU is, you know, we get that, we get the right players and make that right run, we could be in that title game, now, hopefully, it would be better than 65-7 if we're playing Georgia or Alabama, but, you know, that's how you play the games, 2013 Louisville football team played Florida, and, you know, it's the big SEC, you know, SEC, SEC, whatever, I'm tired of that chant, but, you know, Florida went down there and we, U of O beat them, Teddy Bridgewater and those boys beat Florida, now, some will say Florida didn't want to be there because they missed out on the national title game, Bill Hockey is still the sugar bowl, it's still one of the top bowls in the season, you can't tell me you don't want to be playing in the sugar bowl, especially if you're the SEC, it's like one of your bowls that you always win, so, I didn't, I don't want to hear that, and, again, that's been 10 years ago now, it was a great game, first play, pick six by U of O, put us on the board early, and, you know, right at that time, we were like, okay, we can play with these boys, so, and that's what we did, we played with them, so, I think this Jeff Brown U of O team will be able to play in the college football playoff, with the way the SEC is set up, with no divisions coming, and so we don't have to fight for, fight through Clemson every year, we'll be able to get to the football playoff, heck, we'll be able to get to the SEC title game now, a lot easier, not having to play Clemson every year, because, let's say, Clemson is the standard in the division right now, but, not having to play them every year, sure else, now, having no division, and your top two best teams are playing, it's going to be fantastic, because, you know, you had the Atlantic and the Coastal, so, now, you're getting Clemson, who is, you know, running 10-0, you know, 10-1 or 11-0 in the season, is not playing in the ACC title game against some 7-5 team from the other division, so, now, you get your two top teams, who are going to be 10-1, 11-0, 9-3 even, in a bad year, now, you get good shots of getting to the college football playoff, because, your top two teams in making the ACC have a great chance of being in the top 12, so, it's going to be fun, I'm excited for Jeff Baum and Louisville football, I'm excited that they have a great opportunity to make the college football playoff, and why I think it will be happening in two years, can you imagine when UofL gets to play a home game for a college football, it's going to be in December, it's going to be cold, the Louisville Colton Stadium is going to be packed, that 65,000 seat stadium, which is probably a little too big for us right now, it's going to be packed, people are going to bundle up, they're going to tailgate like nobody else's business, and they have that liquid courage in them, and they're going to be warm, and they're going to be ready to play, so, and I'm going to try my hardest to be there, you know, my goal, and it's always been my goal with my buddy, we're going to have season tickets right next to each other, so we can be in our 90's, hopefully still doing podcasts, going to UofL football games, and going back in my day, you know, UofL was doing this, this, and this, and hopefully by then, we've won a national title at UofL, and I think we will, and I think Jeff Baum is going to be our best shot at winning the national title while he's here at Louisville, and as long as he stays here at Louisville, because I think he's going to be the one that stays here the longest, because usually Louisville was a stepping stone kind of job, that's Bobby Petrino, Charlie Strong, they used UofL, turned us into good for three or four years, and then went to big time schools, didn't really work out for Charlie, he got fired from Texas pretty quick, and I called that as soon as they hired him, I said he'd be gone in three years, and he was gone in three years, I'm originally from Oklahoma, so I follow OU football too, and I'm so happy Lincoln Riley got beat down by Tulane, it was great, loved it, but we'll keep it mostly UofL, we'll talk about Colorado and Oklahoma as we go along, because my buddy Chris, he's from Colorado, and he follows that, and you know, you got good old, being on Prime, Tom Sanders there in Colorado making noise, and that's a good thing for this school, for that school anyway, wouldn't mind seeing Prime and UofL, but Jeff Baum's going to be good, he brings an exciting brand of football, and as I'm sitting here watching this game, Minnesota's having a punt with about 6.20 left in the fourth quarter, and Giants are winning, so for me, I would like to see the Giants win, just so if Dallas were to win tomorrow night, we don't have to go play Philly in the next round, and Giants have to go play Philly, and we can go somewhere else to play, or we can go to San Francisco to play, I'd much rather go to San Francisco to play the 49ers than Philly in the next round, so kind of want the Giants to win this today, so maybe Danny Jones can pull it off, he's always been a laughing stock the last few years, so maybe he can pull this one out, but we'll see what happens, so wow, 30 minutes have gone by already, and I've just been talking up a storm, fun times, so we're going to wrap up this podcast for tonight, I'm going to do a little editing, you'll be able to find this podcast up on Podbean, I'm going to try and attach it to as many social media sites as I can, thank you for listening, and I will get another episode up as soon as I can, and again, it's been fun, and it's been a good time, I hope y'all enjoy it, and hope y'all come back and listen again.
