Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: After a bunch of snow and cold weather this morning,
Speaker 2: it's trying to get warm downtown cloud coverage, but still
Speaker 2: chilly for April. There's no doubt about that. RSL is
Speaker 2: back in action. Coming up this weekend against the La Galaxy.
Speaker 2: We will do a little RSL with Pablo coming up
Speaker 2: in just a little bit. He apparently is the only
Speaker 2: good sport over there because he continues to join us
Speaker 2: even though there are not a lot of awesome things
Speaker 2: to discuss right now. Good stuff earlier from Tom Habers
Speaker 2: Show and Tim McMahon, but even though it's April, the
Speaker 2: Madison Marsh continues. The Final Four is here. Our next guest,
Speaker 2: our college basketball north star Ken Pomeroy, of course, Kenpalm
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 3: Ken, Happy Tuesday, man. How are we doing?
Speaker 1: We're doing great, spance. How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm well?
Speaker 2: So have you been able to take a few deep breaths?
Speaker 2: Are you currently joining us from a beach with your
Speaker 2: feet kicked up in a little drink with an umbrella?
Speaker 3: Like where you at right now?
Speaker 1: I'm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Speaker 3: It's not warm there, Ken, What are you doing there?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. It's hard to explain,
Speaker 1: but kind as far away from from home as I
Speaker 1: could as soon as as soon as the tournament started.
Speaker 2: Look, I've got a brother in law from Calgary, Alberta.
Speaker 2: I went up there for the wedding. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 2: But in April. I mean, if we're dealing with snow
Speaker 2: and cold in saw Lake, what are you dealing with
Speaker 2: up in Calgary right now?
Speaker 1: It's the same thing. It's almost the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: But just like Salt Lake, I think next week it's
Speaker 1: supposed to thaw out and spring will be here and
Speaker 1: so I'll still be here. So that'll be awesome.
Speaker 3: Ken.
Speaker 2: I hate to break it to you, but I have
Speaker 2: a feather in my cap as far as my college
Speaker 2: basketball career that you do not.
Speaker 3: Are you ready for it?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Bring it?
Speaker 2: Have you ever covered the college basketball crowd live in
Speaker 2: Las Vegas?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, there's only been one chance to do
Speaker 1: that so far.
Speaker 2: So congratulations, Ken Podmore like Spence Palm dot Com, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna start my own way side obviously, I kid. Do
Speaker 2: you have the context of the origin story for this
Speaker 2: postseason tournament that Utah basketball was in for one game
Speaker 2: before losing to Butler.
Speaker 1: That the ordin story. I mean, I assume that's just
Speaker 1: like a TV cash grab for Fox.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, but I wondered if somebody like you knew,
Speaker 2: like ultimately, hey, why did this come about? We already
Speaker 2: have the n I T and the CBI, Like, maybe
Speaker 2: that's as simple as that. I thought, maybe there was
Speaker 2: another side to it. But if you don't know Ken,
Speaker 2: nobody knows.
Speaker 1: No. I mean, the n I T is an ESPN property,
Speaker 1: and Fox wanted they wanted in on the you know,
Speaker 1: massive sub NCAA tournament demand you know that's out there, Spence,
Speaker 1: and so they started their their own tournament with It
Speaker 1: was expected to be all teams from you know, their
Speaker 1: power leagues that they have under contract, but that didn't
Speaker 1: quite work out. So they had to invite, you know
Speaker 1: a few of these interlopers like Butlers, but they had
Speaker 1: to invite boys eight and whether George Washington was there,
Speaker 1: there's like three or four that seems. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the exciting that's the story. I mean, that's pretty much
Speaker 1: all there is to it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, well let's just move on entirely then, and
Speaker 2: now that the season is in the books, we'll do
Speaker 2: some local stuff that we'll expand back.
Speaker 3: Now that we'll expand back to.
Speaker 2: Of course, the final four that's ahead, the tournament's taking place.
Speaker 2: In some of your takeaways, and I'm going to just
Speaker 2: kind of give you a little context. And this is
Speaker 2: just simply my opinion. It's not coming from a place
Speaker 2: of sourcing. It's not a situation that anybody has informed
Speaker 2: me that this will be the approach. But you know
Speaker 2: on the show, when I've talked to you about another guest.
Speaker 2: Since the news came down, the Mark Carlin moved on
Speaker 2: from Craig Smith and Alex Jensen became the higher we're
Speaker 2: just doing our best to figure out what this new
Speaker 2: era is going to look like, how Alex is going
Speaker 2: to how Alex is going to approach it, and whether
Speaker 2: it's Josh Eiler, the interim head coach who took over
Speaker 2: after Craig was fired, with twenty years of experience in
Speaker 2: the Big twelve, is a play in college and a
Speaker 2: coach in college, or a guy like Jake Kallen or
Speaker 2: Keanu Does who had his fifth double double in seven
Speaker 2: games after Josh kind of played him in a way
Speaker 2: that Craig just didn't. We're just trying to figure out
Speaker 2: who will be back, if anybody, And I'm starting to
Speaker 2: get the sense Ken did. I don't think anybody's coming back.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to make hires off this
Speaker 2: current assistant coach coaching staff that's left coaching the team,
Speaker 2: and I'm not sure he brings any of the players
Speaker 2: back either.
Speaker 3: That's just my guest. Tell me what your thoughts are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that would be my hunch as well.
Speaker 1: I don't have any less knowledge about this, and I
Speaker 1: didn't about the college basketball crown. But the way the
Speaker 1: way you do business these days, when you bring in
Speaker 1: a new coaching staff or ringing a new coach to
Speaker 1: start with, I mean, they rarely pulled over assistance. Occasionally,
Speaker 1: you might get one who's willing to stay over who
Speaker 1: might have some you know, special recruiting knowledge or something
Speaker 1: like that, or might be a guy who's survived through
Speaker 1: multiple staffs and there is a local institution. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, the staff changes over, and I mean
Speaker 1: for the most part, the team changes over, you know,
Speaker 1: not not necessarily entirely. Chare Calhoun was able to convince
Speaker 1: you know, two or three key players to stay if
Speaker 1: Utah state and that was really important to him. But
Speaker 1: you know, Danny Sprinkle and he was there, he started
Speaker 1: over the whole new team and that that worked for
Speaker 1: him too. And so yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't count
Speaker 1: on much of the roster as much of the eligible
Speaker 1: roster coming back. I mean, it does seem like you
Speaker 1: can certainly start over with the clean slate in this
Speaker 1: era of player movement. The flip side of that is like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how much of a honeymoon Alex is
Speaker 1: gonna get. I mean, he might get a little bit
Speaker 1: because he's Alex Jenson, but you know, if you come
Speaker 1: out and you know, end up at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the of the Big twelve next year, like, it's not
Speaker 1: going to be a kind of patience for that. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't think just because you can go out and get
Speaker 1: players now there is there's no he's no longer a
Speaker 1: rebuilding situation. You don't need three gears to build a roster.
Speaker 1: You need, you know, one year to kind of show
Speaker 1: what you can do in the transfer portal.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you whether you have the Ken palm
Speaker 2: metric in front of you or the Ken Palm eye
Speaker 2: test in front of you. Are any of these players,
Speaker 2: you know, because I keep reminding our audience and we
Speaker 2: forget this, and we even forget a little bit with Byu.
Speaker 2: We'll get to BYU in a moment. By us to
Speaker 2: pick to finish ninth in the Big Twelve, Utah was
Speaker 2: picked to finish last. So for a team that was
Speaker 2: picked to finish last, at least they didn't do that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess that's where we're at with the
Speaker 2: basketball program around here in Salt Lake City. So they
Speaker 2: did overshoot expectations. But based off of the knowledge you
Speaker 2: have of this roster and the games that you watched,
Speaker 2: are there players eligible to come back that you think
Speaker 2: Alex should go after?
Speaker 1: Well, I guess i'd frame it like that, like yeah,
Speaker 1: like as are all stars. He's a Big twelve quality player,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like a starter level, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but like he could be on a roster at other
Speaker 1: Big twelve schools like Troub Johns can can play a role.
Speaker 1: After that, you know, you're kind of struggling, like can
Speaker 1: new Dawes can play a role Like a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys can can play a role, but pretty easily replaceable.
Speaker 1: Advantage of keeping them normally would be like, you do
Speaker 1: want continuity in your program, like you want guys that
Speaker 1: have been through the system before, and you don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, teach a whole brand new group of ten
Speaker 1: guys you know how you want to play the game.
Speaker 1: But obviously that's not a factor here because you know,
Speaker 1: you have a new coach and so you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to teach everybody a new system anyway. So
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, there's not going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of incentive to bring back role players. But you know,
Speaker 1: he somehow could to mental sorry to come back. I
Speaker 1: think that would be of some value, you know. But
Speaker 1: certainly this roster is going to just be heavily populated
Speaker 1: from transfers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, for sure, don't Only time will tell.
Speaker 2: I think Alex is indicated both publicly and privately that
Speaker 2: he's in no rush here.
Speaker 3: He's going to take his time building this thing.
Speaker 2: And he is still coaching alongside Jason Kidd and the
Speaker 2: Dallas Mavericks, who look like there actually will be in
Speaker 2: the play in because Phoenix is unserious, so Alex won't
Speaker 2: be on the ground. You know, he's obviously his working
Speaker 2: He's made two HighRes Wes Wilcox and Raphael Chilius. But
Speaker 2: you know the rest of the stuff is going to
Speaker 2: take time, and it makes it impossible to analyze who
Speaker 2: Utah will be next year because we don't know who's
Speaker 2: going to play for them. But let me ask you
Speaker 2: a question about the Big Twelve, because you read about
Speaker 2: apparently Kansas has a stacked recruiting class, Houston's going to
Speaker 2: be awesome again, b YU brings in de Banza. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to tell you that I've got, Like I
Speaker 2: can't tell you who UCF is going after. I haven't
Speaker 2: done a deep dive on all this, but this was
Speaker 2: not a conference that was the best team in college
Speaker 2: basketball this year that went to the the SEC. But
Speaker 2: year and in year out, the Big Twelve is going
Speaker 2: to be, if not at the top, close to the top.
Speaker 2: So what's a Ken Palm expectation conference wide?
Speaker 3: How strong will this conference be next year?
Speaker 2: When Alex is trying to make his way through year one.
Speaker 1: It'll still be It'll be very difficult at the top.
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned the key players. You can throw Arizona
Speaker 1: in there, you can throw Baylor in there, and they
Speaker 1: picked up a pretty nice transfer from Oregon State this week.
Speaker 1: So all the all the teams you mentioned, except for
Speaker 1: probably UCF will still be you know, outstanding teams. I
Speaker 1: think the one thing, you know, the one one of
Speaker 1: the reasons Utah sticked last in the league was partly
Speaker 1: because not much was expected from them, but also because
Speaker 1: there it wasn't obvious like who the worst team would
Speaker 1: be in the league, Like all the teams were were decent.
Speaker 1: You know, there wasn't a team that you look at
Speaker 1: and like, oh, yeah, that's that's going to be an
Speaker 1: easy win. And it'll probably be the case again next year.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think this year was somewhat
Speaker 1: of an aberration with the SEC being as strong as
Speaker 1: it was, but certainly the top three leagues, you know,
Speaker 1: the SEC, the Big twelve to Big ten. I mean,
Speaker 1: what we're seeing from those three leagues is that almost
Speaker 1: every team in all those leagues has some talent, and
Speaker 1: so there are so on the one hand, when you
Speaker 1: picked last in the league, yeah, you can overachieve, Like
Speaker 1: there's probably like seven or eight candidates heading into this
Speaker 1: last season that you know could have been picked last
Speaker 1: for the league and you thought it over achieved to
Speaker 1: some extent. The negative is that learned an easy wins
Speaker 1: out there. So if somehow, I mean, it's great that
Speaker 1: the alex is taking its time, and I I guess
Speaker 1: in some respect I admire that he was able to
Speaker 1: work out this relationship where he could finish things out
Speaker 1: with the Mavericks and somehow still be the head coach
Speaker 1: at Utah. But you know, he's still on the trigger
Speaker 1: to fill out a roster and it doesn't take long
Speaker 1: before a lot of these you know, attractive transfers are gone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I could. I would be a little bit concerned about
Speaker 1: how next year is going to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, trying to talk realistically to you fans
Speaker 2: about year one. I think it's important because expectations knew
Speaker 2: need to be set appropriately. But to your point, Ken,
Speaker 2: because I used to say, I can remember when b
Speaker 2: YU when uh, when Bronco menahall left b YU for
Speaker 2: Virginia and most anybody that unders too what could come next?
Speaker 2: Landing on Coloni rather quickly, And I've talked about this
Speaker 2: with Larry Scoviak, Jim Boylan.
Speaker 3: Coaches.
Speaker 2: Typically the narrative is in college, like, all right, they
Speaker 2: need four years, give them four years because that way
Speaker 2: they get their recruiting cycle in over a four year period.
Speaker 2: And sometimes here it's even more complicated because you have
Speaker 2: the mission stuff and sometimes you need more than that
Speaker 2: to let you know, recruits that you dialed in when
Speaker 2: they were seventeen or eighteen that serve a mission, you
Speaker 2: need an extra couple of years then to get back
Speaker 2: so you can see what sort of hand they've been dealt.
Speaker 2: What is what is your take on how long a
Speaker 2: coach needs now in order to prove to a community
Speaker 2: that he was the right hire, because you don't to
Speaker 2: your point, you don't need three or four years anymore
Speaker 2: to develop a program and build a team.
Speaker 1: Yes, I looked at this during the season in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, what happens brillly in year one relative to
Speaker 1: like expectation? Are coaches that do not meet expectations? Can
Speaker 1: you write them off of you? And there was actually
Speaker 1: a amount of predictability there, like you can't completely write
Speaker 1: them off if they don't. And so I guess, like
Speaker 1: relative expectations, like you thought the expectation coming to this
Speaker 1: next season, I mean, you know it's gonna be bottom
Speaker 1: quarter of the of the conference. But if they were
Speaker 1: to end up ranked say one hundred and sixtieth in
Speaker 1: my ratings. You know, they'll probably like preseason, let's say eightieth,
Speaker 1: they end up like one hundred and sixtieth. That would
Speaker 1: be that would be a pretty bad sign. Like not
Speaker 1: you know, not so much that you're gonna fire a
Speaker 1: guy after one year, but there are reasons for concern
Speaker 1: at that point. And again it's not true for everyone.
Speaker 1: You can find rare one off for guys flip it
Speaker 1: in year two and overachieve after that, and it's not
Speaker 1: really clear like what the transfer portal era, how that
Speaker 1: changes the dynamic. But certainly, if you underachieve early, not
Speaker 1: a great sign. If you overachieve early, probably a really
Speaker 1: good sign. So you don't want to put the heat
Speaker 1: on a guy in year one. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: history would tell you that actually, like you can, you
Speaker 1: can learn a lot about a guy in their first.
Speaker 2: Year, and you can learn a lot about coaching styles, right,
Speaker 2: Like I do think it's fair to say to youth
Speaker 2: fans curious to know what this will look like under
Speaker 2: Alex that, well, number one, you have to have horses.
Speaker 3: There's no such thing as a great coach without great players.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's Alex's first task and the transfer portal
Speaker 2: is open. We've already seen big names sign and big
Speaker 2: names transfer and decide. But what do you anticipate based
Speaker 2: off of your knowledge of Alex in his time with
Speaker 2: the Jazz, in a couple of years with Dallas, and
Speaker 2: of course being a pedigree, you know, a proteges I
Speaker 2: should say of Rick majeris what schematically, conceptually do you
Speaker 2: think the type of coach Alex will be for youth
Speaker 2: fans to kind of expect next year.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a great question, and it's somewhat of
Speaker 1: a mystery because I think until you are fully in
Speaker 1: charge of running a program or running a team, you
Speaker 1: never really know what a guy is gonna do. I
Speaker 1: would have I would imagine, yeah, it's really oddouse, Like
Speaker 1: I would imagine he's like heavily into the time of Jaris,
Speaker 1: Like that would that would standard reason. The Jarish style
Speaker 1: really like cuts against the grain of what you know,
Speaker 1: most young coaches are are doing these days. Like the
Speaker 1: Jarrifs was very much about you know, controlling the tempo
Speaker 1: and preventing transition. I mean that was like probably his
Speaker 1: you know one hallmark was like he's not going to
Speaker 1: give up transition buckets, and so he didn't really attack
Speaker 1: the offensive class. Offensive possessions took a long time. Defensive
Speaker 1: possessions took even longer. Hard to really hard to really
Speaker 1: have a super successful offense if you're not willing to
Speaker 1: take shots early in the shot clock, if you're not
Speaker 1: willing to take a lot of three pointers, and so
Speaker 1: you'd have to think, you know, the NBA experience of
Speaker 1: Alex Jensen would alter that somewhat, like obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: some of those Jazz teams he would on the bench
Speaker 1: floor took a ton of three pointers, and so he
Speaker 1: should be comfortable with that. So I don't know exactly
Speaker 1: what he's gonna still hold over from, you know, playing
Speaker 1: for and coaching under Majeris, and you know what he's
Speaker 1: gonna bring with him from the NBA, But hopefully it
Speaker 1: is more of the latter outside than the former.
Speaker 2: All Right, moving over now to b YU before we
Speaker 2: get to what could be next for them, because you know,
Speaker 2: if you'd fan and look, it's I'm always careful when
Speaker 2: I try to try to.
Speaker 3: Draw these parallels.
Speaker 2: But it only takes one big time commit and recruit
Speaker 2: to put your program on the retrojectory, because when a
Speaker 2: player like aj de Banta decides to play for you
Speaker 2: and announces that on first take, I ultimately immediately ups
Speaker 2: the visibility of your program and other players want to
Speaker 2: play for you and with aj and by using the
Speaker 2: mix with some other recruits. But before we get there,
Speaker 2: my question with the Alabama game is simple, because it
Speaker 2: was you who brought up the dynamic of Brigham Young's
Speaker 2: lack of three point defense. You know, that was a
Speaker 2: metric you had that indicated they're They're not just bad,
Speaker 2: they're one of the worst teams in college basketball. So
Speaker 2: did Alabama make shots at a historic level or did
Speaker 2: by you fail guarding the three point line or somewhere
Speaker 2: in between.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, all those factors came into play. It
Speaker 1: was it was kind of stunning because obviously, how how
Speaker 1: you defend the three point line is is a choice
Speaker 1: that you can make game by game. You don't have
Speaker 1: to do the same thing every game. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: BYU had this long trend. They actually finished the season
Speaker 1: fourteenth in terms of fourteenth highest in terms of the
Speaker 1: amount of three points they allowed, and so obviously that
Speaker 1: came into play in this game. That said, like Alabama
Speaker 1: also was just unrealistically hot for the entire game. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with allowing a lot of three point
Speaker 1: of time. So like in general, it's kind of a
Speaker 1: sort of a sort of a stylistic choice. And we've
Speaker 1: seen really good coaches, Jim Beyhein perhaps the most notably,
Speaker 1: you know, play a style of defense that allows that.
Speaker 1: It's just a little bit different when you allow Alabama
Speaker 1: to do that because they're so willing to take shots
Speaker 1: early in the shot clock. They're willing to take shots
Speaker 1: from three or four feet beyond the three point line.
Speaker 1: You know, they have four or five guys on the
Speaker 1: court that are all willing to shoot it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was certainly there's something a
Speaker 1: choice that what you made, and it could have worked
Speaker 1: out like they you know, I really actually thought even
Speaker 1: in the second half that like Alabama was eventually going
Speaker 1: to go on a run where they missed like ten
Speaker 1: in a row or something and by You would get
Speaker 1: back in the game. It just it just never happened.
Speaker 1: It just seemed like this year's BYU team is a
Speaker 1: little more capable of instead of relying on kind of
Speaker 1: a gimmick and you know, forcing their opponent or allowing
Speaker 1: their opponents to take fifty three pointers. You know, they
Speaker 1: could play more straight up, more aggressive defense. You know,
Speaker 1: they have a little bit of rim protection in the middle,
Speaker 1: so that if you forced Mark seriars are driving the
Speaker 1: paint like you're not necessarily you know, just going to
Speaker 1: give up an easy bucket to somebody. So yeah, overall,
Speaker 1: I thought it was just a little puzzling. There was
Speaker 1: never really an adjustment made there.
Speaker 2: And on the other side, Alabama sold out to take
Speaker 2: away the three and BYU still continue to hunt for
Speaker 2: the three because they were getting their asses kick. You
Speaker 2: got to get back in the game. I get that
Speaker 2: six of thirty from three to twenty percent. And Foos
Speaker 2: played seven minutes and in the seven minutes he played,
Speaker 2: he went three of four.
Speaker 3: He had nine points, four rebounds.
Speaker 2: Like you and I discussed this, One of the things
Speaker 2: that I thought that made this BYU team different and
Speaker 2: a little bit more potent and dangerous than the one
Speaker 2: a year ago that went to the tournament also as
Speaker 2: a SUC seed, if I remember correctly, was their ability
Speaker 2: to beat in different ways. What do you make of
Speaker 2: what they did or did not do offensively to counter
Speaker 2: what Alabama took away from them, which was selling out
Speaker 2: the three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ultimately, you can't. I don't think you can fall
Speaker 1: By's offense too much. They finished up the night scoring
Speaker 1: one point one points per posession, which is a little
Speaker 1: above the national average, and you know, against the top
Speaker 1: level SEC team, is pretty impressive. I mean literally, you
Speaker 1: don't have to overcomplicate too much. Like they put eighty
Speaker 1: eight points on the board, like, you should be in
Speaker 1: You should be in the game if you're scoring eighty
Speaker 1: eight points, I mean, you should be winning the game, really,
Speaker 1: but at least be in the game. And they weren't
Speaker 1: even close to that, which is just stunning. So I
Speaker 1: think you got just about everything you could get from
Speaker 1: the offense. Obviously they could have stopped the three better,
Speaker 1: but we've talked about this too, Like the thing that
Speaker 1: made the YU offense so good this year was that
Speaker 1: they could survive without making three point shots. Like, when
Speaker 1: they made three point shots, they were explosive and they
Speaker 1: could beat this about anybody. But even when they weren't
Speaker 1: making threes, they were one of the best two point
Speaker 1: shooting teams in the country. They're twenty seven to forty
Speaker 1: two on two point shots against Alabama, So I would
Speaker 1: guess that's the best performance on two point that Alabama
Speaker 1: allowed all season. So yeah, the offense was was fine.
Speaker 1: I do share. I share your bewilderment about you know,
Speaker 1: Foos not getting more minutes. I think that was it
Speaker 1: was always the story of his career. I mean it
Speaker 1: was whether it's Kevin Young or Mark Pope, it was
Speaker 1: like he would always put up pretty good numbers for
Speaker 1: the minutes that he played. I realized he was kind
Speaker 1: of an unorthodox player, but I always felt like he
Speaker 1: was clearly, you know, a big twelve level type player.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's kind of a shame you never really
Speaker 1: got to, I guess, play, you know, be the demand,
Speaker 1: be the starting center, and play twenty five thirty minutes
Speaker 1: a game. He never really got that opportunity in his career.
Speaker 2: So it's clear that year one under Kevin Young, proof
Speaker 2: of concept is there, and it worked and they had
Speaker 2: a good year. But it's also clear that it's not
Speaker 2: just BYU. Because one of the other things that you
Speaker 2: talked about on the show as we were helping people
Speaker 2: fill out their brackets is hey, the top seeds and
Speaker 2: here we are with four and we'll get there. Four
Speaker 2: seeds in the final four now, So it wasn't just BYU.
Speaker 2: But there are levels to this stuff. And when BYU
Speaker 2: ran up against you know, one of the top one
Speaker 2: or two seeds in this tournament, whether it was Houston
Speaker 2: in the regular season or Alabama in the tournament, it
Speaker 2: was clear that there was a gap. And there are
Speaker 2: there are levels to this and there are different types
Speaker 2: of styles and teams and bigger teams and faster teams
Speaker 2: and stronger teams. So with the Bans coming in and
Speaker 2: potentially getting the bulk of this roster back, Cannon Catchings
Speaker 2: is hit the transfer portal. I think Iegor is leaving.
Speaker 2: I just I think he should. I thought he had
Speaker 2: a great NCAA tournament run. Most of the mock drafts
Speaker 2: I see indicate that he is a lottery pick. How
Speaker 2: does BYU close the gap to go from a really
Speaker 2: good team that made a Sweet sixteen run to a
Speaker 2: team that doesn't look like they are a JV team
Speaker 2: against the Houston or Alabama.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think they're closed. I mean, I
Speaker 1: really think it was a step forward this year, you know,
Speaker 1: just getting to the Sweet sixteen in the first place,
Speaker 1: with some of the wins they had in Dig twelve players. Also,
Speaker 1: I think we're pretty impressive and demonstrated that they they've
Speaker 1: taken a step forward. I mean, we've talked about the
Speaker 1: offense not just being a one trick pony in terms
Speaker 1: of three point shooting, but able to score in the
Speaker 1: paint as well. I mean, the offense was just, you know,
Speaker 1: super fun to watch. And I mean one guy who
Speaker 1: I thought had a great tournament, I mean, Devin was fine,
Speaker 1: but like Richie Saunders, I mean, to me, he looked
Speaker 1: like he was the one guy in that Alabama game
Speaker 1: that really looked like he belonged, you know, on both
Speaker 1: sides of the court. So so yeah, I think there
Speaker 1: should be a lot of optimism, Like you're not gonna
Speaker 1: probably get this whole roster back, but if you get
Speaker 1: the main pieces back, yeah, it's I think there's reasons
Speaker 1: reasons for optimism. You know, you're always gonna focus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can focus on those Houston games, you can focus
Speaker 1: on the Alabama game. I mean Houston they were like
Speaker 1: probably won't not be remembered this way, but I mean
Speaker 1: one loss and Dig twelve play, you know, really an
Speaker 1: historically good team. You know, in the modern era of
Speaker 1: guys going pro and as a player movement. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a historically good team that unfortunately also have
Speaker 1: to play a historically good team against, you know, in
Speaker 1: the final four. So again they might not be remembered
Speaker 1: for that, but I wouldn't take those losses too hard. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: BA is not a top five team in the country,
Speaker 1: we get it, They're in that twenty to thirty range.
Speaker 1: But that's a tremendous stuff forward and I think again,
Speaker 1: you keep that right, you know, keep this roster bringing
Speaker 1: to bonsa, especially with a veteran roster, like yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think next year could be pretty very promising.
Speaker 1: Not a top five team, but you know, if they're
Speaker 1: in that ten to fifteen range, that's you know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be one of the best teams I've ever had.
Speaker 2: Final four gets rolling on Saturday, and you you called it, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can remember you saying that, like there's a gap
Speaker 2: between the top teams and everybody else.
Speaker 3: Was it two thousand and eight the last time this
Speaker 3: has happened.
Speaker 2: We have all four number one seeds in the tournament,
Speaker 2: which for people like me that picked up sets because
Speaker 2: you know, I've watched the tournament before. It's not great
Speaker 2: for our brackets, but I think we've got two absolute
Speaker 2: dog fight basketball games. So what's the ken pob take
Speaker 2: for number one seeds? And how do you see the
Speaker 2: rest of the thing plan out with?
Speaker 3: Who do you like?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's just it hasn't been an interesting tournament.
Speaker 1: We're being honest, like, not very few upsets. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the biggest upset at the tournament was what
Speaker 1: Arkansas be meeting Saint John's, which you know, hard to paint.
Speaker 1: John Calipari is some sort of underdog or sympathetic Cinderella figure.
Speaker 1: So there's been that, and then most of the a
Speaker 1: lot of the games just haven't been closed. It'd be
Speaker 1: one thing if you didn't have a lot of upsets,
Speaker 1: and there were a lot of close games, but I
Speaker 1: really haven't been that many close games, and that kind
Speaker 1: of speaks to the way the regular season unfolded. I
Speaker 1: especially for these really top four to eighteens. It's certainly
Speaker 1: the top four team so so we get a little
Speaker 1: more drama in the final four. It's interesting that the
Speaker 1: Duke Houston game is the second game in line up
Speaker 1: on Saturday. I mean, that is going to be a
Speaker 1: difficult game to watch. I fear Houston first of all,
Speaker 1: just to you know, plays an exceptionally slow pace on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball, and you got a taste
Speaker 1: of that really in their last two games, but certainly
Speaker 1: in the sweet sixteen game against Perdue, which ends up,
Speaker 1: you know, being one of those close games. It did
Speaker 1: come down to the wire, but also it was just
Speaker 1: a brutal, you know, fifty seven possession grind with a
Speaker 1: final score of sixty two to sixty. That kind of
Speaker 1: takes you back to like pre shot clock era basketball,
Speaker 1: you know, not the way college basketball wants to be
Speaker 1: viewed at this point. I fear the Duke Houston game
Speaker 1: is going to be the same way. It's going to
Speaker 1: be very physical. Duke a little more modern offense. They
Speaker 1: will push the pace a little, but their defense has
Speaker 1: forced the longest possessions of any team in the country
Speaker 1: this year, and you saw a little taste of that
Speaker 1: against Allabamba. Not that that was a slow paced game,
Speaker 1: but you did hear the shot clock buzzer go off
Speaker 1: a few times for the Crimson Tide, which was something
Speaker 1: that would have been you know, unthinkable in the YU game.
Speaker 1: So do geys a way to grind it out to
Speaker 1: Lee as well. So that's you know, I mean Clear
Speaker 1: has a clear advantage, you know, just more talent pretty
Speaker 1: much one through seven. But it's gonna be extremely physical,
Speaker 1: and I fear a low scoring game and so it's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard to imagine due getting the kind of
Speaker 1: separation against Houston that they got against Alabama.
Speaker 2: Is there like a World Curling tournament in Calgary? With
Speaker 2: the way my mind works, I have not moved off
Speaker 2: our opening topic, and I'm just wondering why you're there.
Speaker 3: Is it curling related?
Speaker 1: You're getting warmer You're getting warmer Son.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough man an international man of mystery, Ken
Speaker 2: pomme roy, Hey, thanks for the time, Bud tell let's
Speaker 2: hit our listeners with the website.
Speaker 3: How can they get your work?
Speaker 1: Yeah, kenpon dot com. Sorry I forgot the name of
Speaker 1: my website. Er se can play. No, it's kenpon dot com. Uh,
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars for twelve months of of data. So
Speaker 1: if you sign up to day you'll get it for
Speaker 1: all next season in the entire tournament, well almost the
Speaker 1: entire tournament through the final four it right, So.
Speaker 3: There you go. Well, you need to fill out the bracket.
Speaker 2: Okay, when you're back in studio, I have a lot
Speaker 2: of off air questions about your trip, but for now
Speaker 2: I'll set you loose and say thanks for the
Speaker 1: Time, all right, you bets bet thanks for hatting me
Speaker 1: on