The Mood Swings of the BBN

By: LONNY DEMAREE

This writer a few years ago created a couple of mythical figures and about once a year I pull them out of the closet and create that dialogue fans engage in. Those figures are Yeahbut and Opto. They meet at the watercooler at the workplace or over a breakfast sandwich at the local fast food place. Every so often, savvy Opto flip the script on Yeahbut without his knowing and him catching on until it’s too late.
• Opto: Kentucky landed an Alabama 6-foot-1.5 215-pound bruising running back Khalifa Keith over the weekend. Alabama has 50 players that will sign Dl player this recruiting cycle.
• Yeahbut: The Wildcats lost their targeted defensive back Christian Conyer believed to be the #1 prospect in Kentucky to Tennessee? What’s the reason Kentucky can’t seem to land players out of South Warren High School in Bowling Green? Is Kentucky falling behind because of NIL? The Conye thing is a a bad look because it's Tennessee.
• Opto: Freshman Keith and Kaden Moorman for the long term - transfers Ramon Jefferson and Dee Beckwith will be joining an already loaded running backs room.
• Yeahbut: How are you going to get these guys clock?
• Opto: Remember next season at the top there’s going to be a turnover with Chris Rodriquez and Kavosiey Smoke. And don’t forget the transfer portal where there’s some chagrin but that’s the world we live in.
• That was a flip of the aforementioned (smiles).
• Opto: We are opening up recruiting (football) pipe lines throughout the South and Mid-West.
• Yeahbut: Looks like the emergence of the Cincinnati Bearcats, Kyle Tucker at Michigan State, and ever present Michigan University, when Southern Ohio been so good for the Wildcats?
• Opto: From the look of things on the basketball front and it’s recruiting, Calipari seems to be back in the game.
• Yeahbut: We thought that last year and the year before that but it didn’t playout that way.
• Opto: I agree but Calipari thrives off the spotlight and at this point it’s all onward and upward. The latest signing Robert Dillingham. He shoots 38.4% from the three, 52.9% from the field. And 79% from the free throw line.
• Yeahbut: We hear that kind of talk every year, but the Cats have not been to a final four since 2018 when they were defeated by the Kanas State Wildcats. It been 6-years since UK won a NCAA Championship and going into their seventh year.
• Opto: We were for the most part happy for Kenny Payne and cautiously optimistic for his success.
• Yeahbut: Although he has brought the community together, there’s not much shaking on the recruiting front for Payne and the Cardinals. The football team seems to have sucked all the air out of the room. It was thought that Payne’s hiring of Milt Wagner would be an automatic DJ Wagner to Louisville. My source says, not so fast. The grandson/grandad vibes may not chime so loud. Without getting into details, how about we just let that playout. I’m told it 95% Kentucky.