Speaker 1: Sports on k od O Probo k U D d
h D two one oh three, nine ninety ninety eight three, ESPN,
The Van stream Us Live on ESPN, Thevan dot Com.
The clackness of marches right around the corner, and the
Cougars are in the middle of it. It's time to
talk some college basketball on Cougar Sports with Ben Cripton.
Welcome to Bankrugar Sports one of three, nine ninety eight
point three ESPN The Fan. I'm Betfittal broadcasting from Lar
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Nobody does it better than vander Wealth and he stop
for a little college basketball on Cougar Sports, recapping the
b a Man's basketball's season and also talking about all
these McDonald's All Americans that have come through BYU and
the story behind it. I said earlier this week, I mean,
you always had six McDonald's All Americans in their illustrious history,
and I'm like, dude, in the nil transportal era, these
guys need to be getting all you can eat, uh,
year round. McDonald's given to them for becoming in a
McDonald's at least like one item on the menu where
they can go by any time and they themselves they
can pick up a free one, a little free by,
a mcflurry, a fry, an egg, McMuffin, a mcgriddle right
their their health staff doesn't banish. I mean, all I'm
saying is, you know, and maybe this is a catalyst
for change within the McDonald's menu to make it a
little bit more healthy, to make us athletes more strong,
right isn't that you gotta nurse and strengthen the body,
and you know McDonald's hasn't always done that.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: I mean the fast food, you know, realm of things
is not always the healthiest and doesn't always make you
the strongest.
Speaker 2: But uh, I do want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: We've had six six McDonald's all Americans and BAU basketball.
He's we got one of those guys on the line
right now. We're gonna welcome him in. It's to be
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Dental Prosofutah dot com. All right, let's get out to
the hotline. Welcome in McDonald's All Americans. Six foot eight
ballers shot collar out of Brighton High School in Salt
Lake City. We got number forty one. Garner meets on
the line. Garner, how that car are.
Speaker 2: You, buddy?
Speaker 3: I'm good? How are you doing? Man?
Speaker 2: Living the dream? Man living the dream.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you showing up, showing out for us today. How
does it feel to be one of six McDonald's All
Americans in BOE basketball history?
Speaker 2: Got Garner?
Speaker 3: You know it's kind of surreal. It's been twenty six years,
but whenever I see these lists come out, specially these
last two years with AJ and now Branch, it's a
guy and I see those and I see my name
on there, and I kind of think of that Sesame
Street song that you know, which one of these is
not like the others, but but still just an honor
and and it was a great experience, you know, when
I was a young kid to have that opportunity.
Speaker 1: So it's great, yes, indeed, Like, did you get anything
for being a McDonald's All American or was it just
like give us some of the perks of being at
McDonald's All American back in the day.
Speaker 3: All right, so back they to your to your earlier point.
We did get a little send off party at the
kind of local McDonald's of your choice, So that was
one of the things. And during the kind of week
long festivities, you had the opportunity they did a banquet
and they present you with a McDonald's All American ring.
I don't know if they still do that, but that
sits in, you know, my office proudly displayed, and that
was presented to us that year by John Wooden, which
was truthfully kind of one of the highlights TIA that
week was to meet and interact with him, you know,
the coach.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the greatest coach all time, John would What was
that experience? Like articulate that for us?
Speaker 3: You know, he talked to you know, there's a banquet
with the families and there was all the players from
both East and the West team. And you know the
thing about Coach Wooden was it wasn't just about basketball
with him and when he got up and he spoke
and it was about life. It was about the life
lessons that you can learn through basketball, and that that
was kind of part of his winning formula. I just
always stuck with me, and you know, ever since then,
i'd you know, be kind of kind of a student
of Coach Woulden, read a lot of his books, and
you know, I just think he is, like you said,
probably the greatest coach arguably of all time in college sports. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Truly a remarkable human on and off the court, did
it the right way. He had a lot of time
though that he brought in to UCO. You know, and
you know, I mean there's plenty of talent.
Speaker 2: Man. It's hard to lose when you have so much talent.
Speaker 1: Like that, but definitely the greatest coach all time in
basketball history. So when you look at like these, we
had kind of the glory days of like the eighties
and seventies when we had a bunch of McDonald's All Americans,
and then you're smack in the middle right like, hey,
you're a McDonald's All American. And there was kind of
like a revitalization in the Steve Cleveland era. It was
like a rebuild mode where we were getting back to
the NCAA tournament. You were a big part of that.
And now we're in the modern era you're seeing aj
and Bruce Branch. The third is this kind of an
awakening if you will? Is this a re I mean,
this is a new era of BAU basketball. This could
be the glory days back at it. You know, just
going into like the seventies and eighties, those elite eight
runs with Danny Age, et cetera, with all these McDonald's
All Americans that bring in it. Give me your prognostication
and projection on how BYU basketball is going to be
turned out in the years to come.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I certainly love what Kevin's done. He's helped
raise the profile of the program, and I think he's
showing a light on on what BYU has to offer,
not just his basketball program, but as a community, as
a school. And you know, the institution itself and kind
of what it stands for. And I think you know,
AJ and some of these others, I think they see that.
I think that they realize that you come to BYU
and if you embrace BOU for what it is, you'll
be embraced back by millions of people and you're going
to have their support and their fandom. And not only that,
but you've got a great coaching staff that can give
you the skills that you need. And we're now in
a conference that's going to facilitate, you know, that kind
of a profile that the top players are looking for.
So my hope is it does continue and that this
just becomes kind of a landing place for a lot
of the top talent. I think it's got that potential.
Speaker 1: Yeah, give me an eval of what you saw this year.
What did you like and what did you dislike? What
would you like to improve upon?
Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, you know one watching Aj, I mean that
was a generational type performance that we saw from him.
I loved watching his personal development from the beginning of
the year to the end where he really kind of
became a leader of the team, and some of the
individual efforts he put up were just some for the ages,
So it was fun to be able to watch that.
I'd love, obviously to see us as avoid the injury
bug like we did this year. I think with Richie
and Dawson in the lineup, we would have probably had
a much different outcome at the end. So that one's
hard and one that I'm certainly sensitive too. I struggled
with injuries for the vast majority of my career, so
that can be a tough one and it can certainly
affect the chemistry of the team and the confidence of
the team too, especially when you lose a leader like Richie,
so you know, staying healthy, maybe a little bit more
depth in that six seven kind of two or three
guys coming off the bench. I'd love to see us
shoot more consistently from outside the arc. Some of the
most you know, dangerous BYU teams have been that dual
threat where you've got the ability to tack the room,
but you're also just assassins from the outside. I didn't
feel like we had quite that much of a threat
beyond the arc this year, So I think, as you're
filling in the gaps, that would be what I would
be focusing on. But you know, Kevin knows this game
far better than I do, so I'll leave it to him.
Speaker 1: Well, you have pro style, you of collegiate style basketball,
and look, these guys are coming to Bay because they
want to be prepped for the NBA and maximize their
earning potential in the NBA and be able to make
that transition in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Yegor Deming did it right.
Speaker 1: You saw yeg Or have his ups and downs as
a basketball player at b YU. It was a pro
Scott scheme. He looked really good actually in the NCAA
tournament and then transition into the NBA, became one of
the best three point shooters in the NBA, one of
the best rookies in the NBA. So AJ's going to
do the same thing and he's probably going to be
on his way to winning an NBA championship depending on
where he ends up. Right, But the offense became stagnant
at times and it was ugly at times. That ball
got sticky in that high pick and roll situation. Is
there a balance right between pro style half court sets,
pro style offense, and just getting like higher percentage shots
that aren't so forced and aren't so contested, and that
Aj had to dribble like, yeah, like fifteen twenty dribbles
just to get a shot up, and it'd be nice
to get a few easy buckets for him as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would hope that there's a balance. I mean,
I think the goals, Yes, I understand for these players.
We want to provide a platform that, like said, will
attract the best players, and that means that you're going
to prepare them for the next level. But I think,
you know, I read some of that. I can't remember
if it was coach Young that said this, but basketballs
for the fans, and you want to see wins, and
so if there needs to be an adjustment to facilitate
kind of the college style basketball and to get the
wins when they count, then I'm all for that, and
I think it would actually really be a good thing
for the players in the program and fans all together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm just looking a little bit at these
these recruits that buy is bringing in for the next year,
specifically Bruce Branch that we've been talking about but also
Dean Rooker both play the same position, both can shoot
the three really well. You know what it's like to
come into BYU as a heralded recruit. What kind of
pressure are those two facing coming into BYU. Do you
expect big things from a guy like Dean Rooker who's
a local guy, but he's the four star versus the
five star Bruce Branch?
Speaker 2: What's that like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think I definitely had a little
different experience coming in with the spotlight, and there is
pressure that comes with that. I think coaches have to
actively manage that. These are young kids, you know, and
and and I think though that there's there's also something
to be said for just having good internal competition on
the team, where nothing's given, everything's earned, and just keeping
people hungry. So I don't actually my hope is that
Dean and and Branch will we'll be able to play
off each other, that they'll actually drive each other to
be better, and that we'll see and get more out
of them as a result of that. And I think
if you can keep that at a healthy level, it
can benefit a team, and they can actually help each
other transition into the college game and in the next level.
Speaker 1: Garner meets former b YU great ball or shot collar
here on your Utah ESPN Radio network talking to some
BYU basketball and what the future looks like for BAU
basketball in this nil transfer portal world in which we're
living in. Right, you look at the teams you played
in and like, you know, you're like, like, what would.
Speaker 2: Have happened year over year?
Speaker 1: Right, Like, let's talk about like how it would set
you up for your your future? Right, And you had
a great you had a great career oviity, you had
some injuries, et cetera. And you guys want a lot
of basketball games and uh, the education of your cd
W with phenomenal. But like, what do you think an
additional million dollars would have done for you? Would it
have ruined Garner meads when it had upended you know,
the work ethic, the blue collar nature of you and
your trajectory as a as a great holistic, well rounded
human being, or would have been a benefit to you
to maybe solidify yourself in the in the corporate world,
et cetera.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a that's a good question. And my wife
and I we we do laugh sometimes kind of in
our more candid moments and be like, man, what it
would have been like?
Speaker 1: You know, you would have upgraded to a town home
rather than that one bedroom apartment.
Speaker 3: Huh yeah, I mean we lived in a basement apartment,
no natural light coming through the windows. I mean it
was and I you know, I thought we were rich
and I had like maybe five or six grand in
my bank account. I mean, I maybe it would have
ruined me. I don't know. I would have, you know,
made some pretty poor financial decisions. But uh so it's
hard to go back and say I had done it
any differently because I've got a good life. I've been blessed,
and the opportunities that came my way when they came
were I think narrowly tailored for me and the experiences
I need to have. But I hope these young student
athletes that are have good advisors, and that's the thing
that changes, is you're really the team you have to
build around these kids, I think has to be more sophisticated,
and I think they need to protect them in a
way from people who would take advantage of them, and
in ways that you know would be pretty easy when
you've got young kids that trust people probably more than
they should in some instances, and you know, you watch AJ,
he's very polished, and I think that he's had kind
of that infrastructure around him. But I know there's a
lot of others and athletes that don't, And those are
the ones I worry about more than than like the
AJ's and the branches of the world.
Speaker 1: I was talking about the glory days, right, and we're
getting into a new new glory days, if you will.
Money people would say kind of like from seventy eight
through probably like the mid nineties when Frank Arnold, Ladell,
Anderson Rogerie, they were coaching up these BYU Cougars when
you were growing up, right, Like they were going to
NCAA tournaments pretty much every year. It seemed that way
they get, you know, second round games they'd get into.
They got into an Elite eight in the eighties, second round,
first round, second round, first round. There was a lot
of first round one and dons, et cetera. But like
when you were getting recruited, it was a rebuild. Steve
Cleveland had taken over to ninety seven ninety eight in
your high school heyday, when you were becoming a McDonald's
All American. They went nine to twenty one, twelve and sixteen,
and then twenty two and eleven, And you decided to
come to BYU at that time? Why as a McDonald's
all American getting recruited by freaking everybody in the country,
why by you at that time?
Speaker 3: It's a great question. I give asked that a lot.
And you know, I had narrowed down my schools to
really Stanford, Utah, and by U, and you would call,
you know, Stanford had just kind of come off the
Mark Madison years had some really good runs into the
final four, and Utah had the Britton Johnson's, the Alex
Jensen's and I mean they had Hano Metalas and they'd
been coming off what was really kind of a generational
run for them as well. And as I looked at
the coaches, you know, there were rumors that Mike Montgomery
was gonna mention jump to the NBA. Rickma Jerris's health
wasn't great, and I was finding on serving inn LBL
to listen. And part of my concern was continuity. I
didn't I didn't necessarily know who I would be playing
for in those instances. And that's coming from a kid
who look my parents are both University of Utah graduates.
My dad went to medical school there. He actually played
on the JV basketball team for year when they still
had that at university, and you know, my mom did
her nursing there. So I was kind of raised the
Utah guy, but you know, had a few experiences Rick
that kind of also showed me like that he could
be a difficult guy to play for too, and I
wasn't sure I wanted that experience, and and then I'd
be I'd be a miss if I didn't acknowledge the
role that Jeff Judkins played. You know, Juddy was at
one point in time, I think Rick's first assistant, and
you know, through a variety of different things that kind
of went down there, he ended up at BYU as
a director of basketball operations for the men's team, and
Juddy was on each staff. You know, at least back then,
it kind of seemed like they would they kind of
feel what kind of what coach connected with the players
that they were recruiting the most. And Juddy and I
had a pretty good connection, and so UTA had kind
of signed him to be my point of contact through
the recruiting process. And Judge's story stayed consistent the whole
time he's recruiting me, even when he went down to
b YU, and that was, Hey, Rick can make him
a really great basketball player. It's hard to play for
he said at times. And but he says, I'll oversee
your personal development. And he says, and I'll do. I'll
give you the same attention I gave Van Horn and
Hanno and and Doliac. And that was a commitment that
I meant a lot to me from jud And so
when Jed went down to BYU, I remember we went
and got breakfast one morning. He says, well, Jed, what's
the story now? I assume it's going to change and
he says, no, Rick can still make him to a
really great basketball player. He says, but but you still
have my commitment that I'll I'll devote you know, the
time and the energy into your personal skill development you
need to become a great player.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: The irony there and all of that is my My
fear about going to Utah and Stanford was in part
the coaching continuity and whether I actually played for the
coaches I committed to. And when I got back from
my mission, jud took the women's head jobs. So I
never actually really got to too much for it said.
And that's not to take anything away from from Steve
and his staff too, because you know, I admired coach Cleveland.
I thought he came in and had a really tall
order uh and and did a lot to bring the
program back to where it was competitive and was a
place where you know, you could recruit good players too. Again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's an increge intriguing storyline. Jutty's uh, I mean,
he's one of my favorite interviews. It's funny you mentioned
Jutty because I think, like my brother in law, Jake
told me a number of times, like you know, Jetty
was pretty integral in his like recruitment too, and ending
up at by U after his mission after playing at
Weaver State, and and then Jetty jumped over to obviously
the women's side of things, but.
Speaker 2: He like he loved, he loved Jutty, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1: And and uh, I always wondered like if Juddy you know,
would have continued to uh, you know, to coach on
the men's side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wanted to coach.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to be over ops, right, Like he
didn't want he wanted to be coaching guys. But they
had a pretty good coaching staff. You look at that
that crew, uh of Dave Rose obviously who became the
goat of BAU men's basketball, Steve Cleveland. They had Dave
Rice I think was on that staff. Juddy was on
that staff with Ops. You keep that staff together, man,
you doing some special things.
Speaker 2: I know Cleveland elsewhere and Dave took over.
Speaker 1: But had he just maybe written it out a little bit,
I wonder if he would have been kind of an
assistant head coach under Dave during that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean maybe in an alternative universe, that would
have been, you know, a really intriguing staff. And when
I love Dave, I if my body had permitted me to,
I would have loved to continue playing and finishing out
my eligibillionunder him to the style of play. And then
if you bring in like a Jenkins into that men's staff,
I mean, that would have been a powerhouse staff for sure.
And you're talking about two of the best humans in
the world too, not just their basketball IQ, but you know,
I just have unlimited amounts of respect for for Rose
and Judkins. Seriously, two of my basketball heroes.
Speaker 1: What were some of the injuries that you sustained, and
like what advice would you give to not only your
your younger self, but to those young basketball players that
are trying to stay healthy while getting it like maximum
reps and development, et cetera. Things that you learned, golden
rules that you maybe learned through the process.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I had this. I kind of had
this mentality of like just push, push, push, and I
think I wasn't as good at recovering or realizing when
I was potentially doing more damage than than good in
terms of like keeping myself on the on the floor.
And you know, when I came back from so serving
the mission, I just I was kind of just gung ho.
I wanted to go on the team was going to
Australia that summer, and I wanted to be in shape
where I could go play when we went to Australia
and really hit the gym hard. And I will say this,
I think the training techniques and regiments have changed. I
felt like when I came home, they trained me like
I was a linebacker.
Speaker 1: Well, you did like working out with Justin and like
putting four thousand pounds on the straight bar and squatting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I didn't. Actually, and I bulked up. I
mean I was like six percent body fat, two hundred
and forty eight pounds. But I think I lost some
of my agility and traded that for strength. And so
I think, you know, I would have trained a lot
different going back, and I would have probably allowed myself
more time before I really started pushing it hard, because
oh yeah, knowing what I know now about how muscle
and soft tissue works, you know, the muscle can get strong,
but the tens and other things and the injury that
really kind of people ask me, alltency, what was your career?
Describe your career at Baun said, it felt like a
false start. Yeah, And part of it was because immediately
after I got them from the mission, I developed tears
and the abdominal muscles right where they attached to the
pelvic bone.
Speaker 2: And you had like an cubist type of deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and sports hernia, yeah, kind of like sports hernia
type stuff. And that had you.
Speaker 2: Had any entries in high school at all?
Speaker 1: Garner, Sorry, I hate to cut you off, but did
you have any Did you have any Andrews high school?
Speaker 3: I did. I had a floating bone fragment in my
left knee underneath my pateel attendant. That kind of was problematic.
So I did have that operated on at the end
of my high school that had largely but time I
go for my mission, I wasn't an issue anymore. But
he was fine. But it was this abdominal kind of thing,
and this was a injury. It was really hard to
diagnose at the time that there wasn't very many people in
Utah that were trained to pick up on it. So
when I went into the training staff and it really
got bad in Australia and when I came back, they
just said, oh, it looks like you've got an abdominal strain.
Let's just treat you with some pretty heavy duty anti
inflammatories and then we'll inject you a cortizone as needed.
So I took quartersone injections over the course of my
freshman year. And I remember when the last injection wore off.
It was about two weeks after he played Syracuse in
the and Sibley Tournaments. Ending in line at an Albertson's
there Off University and had two gallons of milk in
my hands and I sneezed and like it felt like
two daggers in my stomach and I dropped. I literally
dropped my knees, dropped the cartons of milk, and was
just sitting there. I think people thought I was having
a medical emergency, and I knew at that point, I
was like, this is more serious than just a chronic strain.
And that's when we went and finally did some memorized
and specialized tests and I flew out to Philadelphia where
I actually had a complete abdominal reconstruction done, and that
just I just never fully recover from that. And then
I tried to come back and play my sophomore year.
I had all sorts of complications where I developed structures
and other muscles that raven over compensate. Tore my quad
muscle that year, and it just became a kind of
this cascading thing where I needed to rest and needed
to give my body a break. And unfortunately, at that point,
when you're on a clock with the withncatively eligibility, the
writing was on the wall, and my wife and I
decided at that point it was time to figure out
what was actually going to put food on the table
for our family and focus on that.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting, like like you're explaining these things. So
I had a sports hernia as well, you know, coming
off a mission, I had gotten bigger, faster, stronger, and
like it essentially ripped up my adductors and lower abs,
and I was able to luckily treat it conservatively through
like about a year of like rehab, like where I
was doing a ton of like isometrics, we were doing
like focal red light modalities, ultrasound, we did like diathermi.
I mean, who knows, you know, you know all I
was throwing everything out we did. Like at that time,
they started implement a stem and grasped in tools, so
they were like literally like scraping my abs and my
adductors to try to like create fibronic tissue overlay and things. Man,
it was it was pretty tough, man. So I know
exactly what you were going through, and yours was probably
even more more devastating than mine. So, uh man, I
wish I would have been that for you, bro, and
I got you hooked up at the pros. I would
have had some nice compression wear for you. I know
how to treat that now, Bro, I know how to
get after it and get guys out back on the court.
Speaker 2: Get them back on the field.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do. And you've been great over the years,
even since my playing Kurds because I still tend to
push it a little harder than I show the time.
Speaker 2: He does.
Speaker 1: Well, Gonner, always love and appreciate your time and talking
some ball with us today.
Speaker 2: Thanks for hopping on to talk some college basketball BYU.
Speaker 1: And I know you're on vacation right now, so stay
safe out there or enjoy your time big kugar or
do you appreciate your time as always.
Speaker 3: Brother, appreciate it. Thanks Ben. Likewise, there you go.
Speaker 1: That's Garner mead so one of the McDonald's All Americans
in BYU basketball history, one of six baller shot collar
and that segment was brought to you by Dental Pros
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gonna talk twelve personnel with a former BYU tiight End
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or vice versa in his twelve personnel sets.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have it again, Roger Salli