Ryan Allesi's Monday News and Views

by:Matt Jones09/19/10
alessi Today is a big day for one of my two employers, as CN2 launches its political show with Ryan Alessi tonight at 7 pm on the channel. We are building towards the launch of the sports show in November, but Ryan's political show begins tonight as he starts his coverage of all things Kentucky politics. Ryan is a former political writer with the Lexington Herald Leader who has a sterling reputation and is an amazing asset to the CN2 channel. With the big Senate election coming in November, Ryan has been on top of it better (in my humble view) than anyone else in the state on his GREAT political blog on the CN2 website. Ryan and Kenny Colston are covering the world of Kentucky politics from a perspective that too often has been lost in the realm, genuinely neutral, unbiased and fair. In the CN2 "newsroom", Ryan and I have had a number of conversations on politics and he is unbelievably knowledgable and thorough in his understanding of all things political in Kentucky. We are all very excited for the show's launch and I am ready to see the months of preparation finally become reality this evening. The show runs at 7 pm and 11:30 pm on CN2, a channel available to all Insight customers in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Northern Kentucky and anywhere else that Insight services. Today is a huge step in our development of the channel and I hope all of you who have political bents (and from the comment section when I write on politics, it is clear there are many of you), will check it out. Some notes to start the week: --- Kentucky's win over Akron puts them three wins away from a Bowl game, but much more importantly, has the team set up to make some real noise in the SEC. The game against Florida on Saturday is likely the most difficult on the UK schedule, but you get the sense from talking to players on the team, that they genuinely believe they can pull of a victory. The Vegas opening line was 16 in favor of Florida, which strikes me as a bit high, especially considering the high powered nature of the UK offense. However improvement must be seen on Defense, where breakdowns on Saturday, especially in the Secondary, are troubling. I think the Cats will hang with the Gators and their team of delinquents throughout and as we get ready for the game, we will do our part by obliterating the team and Urban Meyer on this here blog. --- While Derrick Locke had a great game on Saturday, the talk in the postgame was about the eye-opening performances by the younger Running Backs. Donald Russell, Raymond Sanders and Coshick Williams all opened eyes of fans on Saturday, each producing at least one play that had a "WOW" moment. They are the future of the Running Back position at Kentucky and each show a valued dimension to their games. All season long, we will see loads of Derrick Locke and Joker Phillips has said that the Cats have a "one running back system." But if something happens and Locke misses time, it is good to see that there is some explosiveness sitting behind him. --- A lot of criticism came out for the crowd on Saturday, specifically its lack of energy. I actually sat in the crowd for the first time in a long time and I must defend the group a bit. While I understand that some dont like part of the more casual fan experiences (specficially the "wave", which was probably the best one in Commonwealth Stadium history, but upsets the hardcore fans immensely), one cant expect an "A" level performance against Akron. There are still MAJOR issues with the University's ability to add to the fan experience, and the intros/music during the game are downright pathetic. The stadium wasnt full, but there was a good crowd and considering the poor start by the Cats, it remained supportive. There are times to complain about what the crowd does (a couple of years ago when the wave was started while a player was injured for example), but Saturday didnt bother me. --- Randall Cobb got heartburn and that is why he missed the second half. I have said many times that I will let Randall Cobb makeout with my future wife...but I cant accept he missed action with heartburn. Lets never speak of this again, or any other injury that is similar, such as if Derrick Locke misses time with gingivitis. --- Joe Mansour and Alex Smith...where are you? --- In the basketball world, UK had a visitor on campus this weekend as Negus Webster-Chan, a 2012 star came to Lexington. Chan was mentioned by Evan Daniels on our show last week as a player of immediate impact, who could be part of Coach Calipari's attempt at four straight #1 classes in 2012. With all but one player in the 2011 class wrapped up, the coaches are moving focus to 2012 and those names will start to get more known over the coming months. --- Everyone's favorite Twitter jabberer Tony Wroten Jr will make his college choice on October 8th at his high school. Wroten Jr, who likes to talk about a lot of subjects on his Twitter, many of which I cant print on a family website, is down to Washington and Louisville according to Insidetheville.com. Let me say this about Wroten. I dont know the kid and have nothing against him. But there probably has never been a kid that has used social media that has turned me off more than Wroten. If he goes to Louisville, it will literally be PERFECT and he will provide Drew ammunition for future Cardinal Facebook feeds for years to come. Cross your fingers. --- You remember when we put up a video of the UK Dance Team doing the Chicken Dance and asked you to vote for them in the contest? Well you did, and not surprisingly, they won. KSR...rigging online contests for five years. Congrats to the beautiful ladies of the UK Dance Team. --- Calipari flew out to the left Coast today and did an in-home visit with Kyle Wiltjer, the last 2011 commitment to the Cats. It is the first time he has visited Kyle and I am sure it was pleasant. Finally, I STILL dont have an online video of the Outside the Lines show from Friday. ESPN never put it up on their website (which they virtually always do) and as of now, I havent seen it on Youtube. If you DVR'd it, please put it up and send me the link, as I would like to post it. I want to thank the literally HUNDREDS of you who sent messages on Twitter, Facebook, email, text, calls on the radio show, etc for your kind words of support. It was a great experience that was made even better by the amazing response from all of you. I cant tell you how much it meant to me and it helped me have one of my favorite weekends ever. Below is the roundup of radio shows from last week, the KSR Podcast Episode 3 is in the post below and we will be back all day with our regular version of news and absurdity. Stay tuned....

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