Howdy folks, welcome back to episode 3 now, correct Jack?

Episode 3 of the Kentucky round ball round up. My name is Zach Gagan. We have Jack Pilgrim with us as always.

Today is going to be, I guess they've all been very news heavy episodes, but today a little bit more so because the last 24 hours for Kentucky sports fans have been something something to see not in a good way either.

So it started off obviously with the unfortunate passing of John Schlaarman yesterday morning today is Friday that we're recording this.

So yesterday morning that happened kind of came as a shock to everyone, I guess.

Obviously, Schlaarman's been dealing with that for a while and hasn't exactly been with the team and the same capacity had been so still tragic news though to hear that and the news kind of continued on throughout the day as Matthew Mitchell retired late last night.

That kind of shocked everyone just as equally obviously for different reasons though. So it's been an interesting 12 hours.

We're not going to talk about the football team, but we just thought we'd at least bring that up that situation because it is very, very sad.

Give it the attention. It definitely deserves. Yeah. Yeah. So it's definitely we got plenty to talk about because the Matthew Mitchell news coincidentally broke last night during Kentucky's the men's team pro day, the men's teams pro day.

So probably what we're going to be doing today. Sorry, my friend just went off is we're going to be breaking down pretty much as those two things that's probably all I think we'll have plenty of stuff to dive into today for those two topics.

So might not cover much other stuff, but I feel like that's going to be more than enough to get to. So Jack, why don't you go ahead and say hello.

Well, hi, how are you? I'm very glad to be here again. I appreciate your little introduction here and looking forward to another, you know, it kind of sucks that we kind of have to start this on such a negative note because I mean,

you know, I, you know, me, I'm kind of the eternal optimist. I'm like, all, you know, happy dandy about pretty much everything I can find some sort of positivity about everything. But yesterday, that was, that was pretty much a big old crap sandwich that the University of Kentucky fan base and just the UK athletics family was fed.

I mean, when we woke up, I mean, with starting with the John Slurman news, it's pretty obvious that that was going that we were headed that route. I mean, when he, they end the Tennessee streak with him getting the game ball, how celebratory that was, how big of a moment that was, how that was, it kind of felt like that was his last hurrah.

He really did. He missed the Missouri game. He missed the road trip and then he wasn't even in attendance for the Georgia home game in back to back weeks.

And the more the coaching staff and the players continue to say, we really need to do as a pluck to pray for them. We really need you guys to have your thoughts with the Schlurman family right now, if you could tell that momentum was building in a very negative way that we were probably headed toward what ultimately ended up happening.

So yeah, the news broke yesterday, early morning, we kind of spent all day kind of sulking a little bit morning, the loss kind of celebrating what he brought to the table for the football program, how massive of a, you know, an impact dating back to his time as a player through what he's done with a big blue wall at Kentucky, the offensive line, all that stuff.

We just got kind of to the alright, let's take a step forward. We got Kentucky basketball to watch tonight. Let's kind of celebrate with each other a little bit and then bam hit with yet another just massive, massive blow for the pro for just the UK athletics family. I mean, Matthew Mitchell has become just such a darling for the UK fan base.

They've loved watching his, you know, dances a bit blue madness. They've loved watching him kind of take that program over and turn it into a perennial contender of, you know, the SEC somebody that's going to guarantee that they're going to make the NCAA tournament. They're going to compete. They're going to, you know, have success year after year. They're going to bring in exciting players.

You know, we've had so much success over the years under Matthew Mitchell and then all of it just kind of felt like the rug was pulled from underneath it just last night. It was just like the momentum that we were, I mean, we talked about this on the show literally the last two weeks saying this is Matthew Mitchell's moment. We finally get his time as a, you know, with a legitimate title contending team.

And, I mean, yeah, they're still going to compete. I mean, we'll talk about what this means for the program and how they're still going to thrive. But this loss can't be understated. I mean, this is a huge hit to the UK athletics family just, you know, outside of basketball, just what, you know, for him to abruptly announce this decision, the way he did leads me to believe that it was a, it was a serious decision on his part that he had.

He had no choice but to make this decision, which makes me just feel even worse about his health status, which makes me just, you know, hurt for his family hurt for his kids just trying to figure out, OK, how serious is this is this brain brain situation have things gotten worse. What is that, you know, I'm hoping for some clarity at some point in the near future.

...