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the Cougar Beat. Getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics.
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Time for little Cougar Beat gonna be brought to you
by rubies In. Rubies In dot Com'm gonna delve into
all the knicks and crannies, all the news and notes
coming out of Brigham with our Cougar Sports insiders. They
cover the team on the daily, on the weekly. As
I mentioned, it's brought to you by rubies Inn and
our guest loves rubies In and loves Bryce Canyon National
Park We're gonna discuss it with him here on your
utah usping ready to network, Double D The Daily Eraldy
and Darnel Dixon on the line, Double D.
Speaker 3: Hey, you live in Living Well. You know I had
to cancel my reservations that rubys in because I hadn't
snowed down there yet. You got to get some snow
before me and missus have a chance to hang out
down there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got. You need the snow capped hoodoos when
you go down there and you get I got nice
and toasty warm by the fire after the the undulating
snowshoeing hikes. You love going down there with the snow
capped hoodos, don't you.
Speaker 3: Those are some words that I probably wouldn't have used,
but I guess they work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, I'm sorry. Look these are these are my words,
not Darnell's worlds words, no doubt about it. But uh,
you know you love Ruby's Inn and you love staying
at Bryce there at Bryce Candonational Park. Why do you
love it so much?
Speaker 3: Wellre are a lot of reasons. I mean, you and
I have talked about the breakfast there are really really
good and an over awesome to start the day, and
I love the non light noise there is there well
little light noisier the night. It's just so dark and
you see stars and it just feels wonderful to be
out in nature like that, No doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Hike bike razor of horseback ride to that hoodoos of
Bryce Kandon National Park. He will not be disappointed in
the experience. No answer butts about it. Darnell Dixon, let's
talk some bau hoops by the skin of their teeth.
The bo You Cougar basketball team got away with one
got the dub versus the buffs. Your thoughts, your comments
are what did you see, what did you like? What
did you dislike?
Speaker 3: Well, they had to make an adjustment on the fly,
and that is losing Richie Saunders in the first offensive series,
and then you're down to the big two, and those
both of those guys came through with big games. A
didn't shoot particularly well, but he had thirteen rebounds and
six assists and Rob had thirty nine points. And that's
probably what we're gonna have to see in the last
six games of the season. And if there's anything beyond
that in the Big Twelve Tournament or the NCAA tournament
is those guys are gonna have to play forty minutes
and put up twenty five to thirty points every single game.
They can take a night off, not without Richie out there.
Speaker 2: How does this impact that Richie Saunders loss impact there
were expectations of this BLAYU basketball team.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Ben, what's interesting is when I started
thinking about this and I saw Richie's post on Sunday
that he had suffered in acy elling drews out for
the year and all the thanks again. And then people
got online and you know, former players and family and
friends and fans about how much they love Richie and
how much he represents the program and what it means
to be a Cougart, And I started thinking, who does
that now? And how important is that today? In the
NIL transferport? Do you still need those kind of guys?
And I even asked Kevin Young that today and his
answer was kind of like, well, it's great if you
can get him. But this is kind of how I've
understood college basketball in my experience the last two years
with what's been going on. So you know, I don't know,
and in terms of this season, it's a huge loss,
and I feel like the team was kind of struggling
a little bit defensively, a lot of defensively. Let's just
go go there and say it, even with Richie in
the lineup. Now, without him, they've got one less perimitive defender,
one less experienced defender. And Richie was not a lockdown defender,
but he certainly was willing and was able to guard
well and cause turnovers and get out on the break
and do some things like that. So there's just a
lot of opportunities. And Kevin Young addressed us today for
players to step up and take those roles and do
some of those things. You know, if they felt like
they should have been getting more playing time, well, here
it is and see what you can do with it.
I feel like they went you know, beginning of the season,
we talked about them being possibly a Final four team.
I don't think they were that even when Richard was playing.
At this point the season. They had that four game
losing streak, but I still had confidence that Kevin Young
would find a way to get these guys playing their
best ball at the end of the season and give
themselves an opportunity maybe to make it another run in
the NCAA tournament. Now without Richie, that makes it even
more difficult. They've got six games left in the regular season.
Looking at that list of teams, yeah, I have a
hard time finding any more than two or three wins
in there. And then they might win a game in
the Big twelve and get themselves up to twenty two
or twenty three wins. You know, I think that's probably
gonna put them in the six to nine, maybe even
ten range, depending on what games they lose as an
NCAA tournament. See, and that's definitely a lot less than
what we thought this team had the capabilities to do.
Speaker 2: Darnald Dixon the Daily guaralden here on your Utah ESPN
Radio network and a cougar be brought to you by
rubisn rubies in dot com. Darnell, Uh, who's the most
likely to step up? And uh uh finally, uh you
know make an impact? That's uh, you know, that's a
role player right now. With Richie, gon more opportunities, more,
more minutes will be bestowed upon a few. We'll see
who is found worthy of those minutes and who produces.
But who's your who's your likely person may be bet
on right now?
Speaker 3: Well, they don't have a ton of really amazing options.
You know, they obviously have some season ending injuries previous
to Richie, I feel like Cannard Davis Junior and even
Kevin Young mentioned him today as somebody that you know,
he's kind of turned into us just kind of a
standstill shooter, and he's really got more skills than that.
He can take the ball to the basket and have
some moves that way. So I expect to see Cannaron
Davis give a few more opportunities to create from his spot.
I think they need to give Kadem Boup as many
minutes as they can spare because of his energy and defense.
I think Alexi Coast had showed that he's not afraid
of taking a big shot, and that was a huge
shot he made in overtime against Colorado and just taking it,
I mean he was going to shoot it as soon
as he kind of you could tell a very quick release.
He didn't hesitate, and that's good to see. So I
think there's some some bright spots, maybe not super bright,
but at least you see the potential there for some
of these guys to step up. Tyler Russ, have you
played at a bunch of games and even the first
guy off the bench when Richie got hurt. So you know,
Tyler hit a couple of threes and he plays hard defensively.
So there are some of those are the players that
I look at as guys that have an opportunity to
get more minutes, get more opportunities to show what they
can do and make themselves a big part of whatever
finished this is for BYU.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm leaning. Look, I'm leaning a Lexigostick. I'm an
Alexi Costick fan. Okay, and not everyone's h not everyone's
on board with me here. And uh, you know, I've
heard from a number of different people like, hey, he's
just he's just not good. He's not consistent, he doesn't
look good enough in practice, and obviously there's a reason
why he doesn't get minutes in games. But I think
I think he's my guy right now. That's who I'm
riding with. Tyler Maruss has been a favorite. You know,
some people are are still bought in. They think Mahilo
could come around, are like, hey, Cannar Davis, he's the
one that's getting almost forty minutes a game, Like he's
going to figure it out. Offensively, he's already a good defender,
he can be a good rebounder. They feel like he's
going to step up in a big way. And maybe
it's a it's a conglomerate of all of these guys
that step up and lift where they stand. But right now, man,
I hope it's a Lexi. I guess I'm rooting for
Alexi because I just think he's got the purest shot
out of all of them. I think he's got he's
got a quick release, he's got good size, he's got
good athleticism, in my opinion, and we need guys that
can actually hit a shot a standing three and I
love his pure stroke right now, I think he can
be a guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And one of the problems that Alessi's had this
year when he's gotten in is that he picks up
fouls pretty quickly and on the defensive. You know, he
comes in off the bench and he's got two fouls
in the first five minutes of the game. That puts
himself in a bad spot because then they got to
take him out and try somebody else Offensively, for sure,
he's got a great stroke, he's quick off the floor,
and he's confident. I think in a shot, But where
he needs to improve is to play defense well with
his feet, not pick up fouls, and not have to
exit the game so quickly. I also think it's important
that we kind of follow and this has been really
interesting to me too, is Kip Kata. His production has
fallen way off on both ends of the floor, and
Kevin Young told us he has a hand injury. You see,
he's got a couple of fingers taped together. And you
know there were games earlier this season in the non
conference where after the game, I was like, man, kid
was like the best player of the floor of that game.
I mean, he was impacting it defensively, rebounding, blocking shots,
he was getting Ali dunks, he was rebounding, just a
really impactful player. I mean, just haven't seen that for
the past couple of weeks, and we're seeing a lot
more Abdullah Med in the game playing that center position
back down the stretch against Colorado, it was all of
du I mean camp it didn't even play the last
probably twenty minutes of the game. So I would like
to see him get back in that's form because I
would really help BYU if they could get a defensive
presence and a rebounding presence that Cave is capable of.
But if his injury is such they can't, then that's
going to fall on Abdullah and it's going to fall
on other guys to, you know, come in and play
hard and get those rebounds.
Speaker 2: Darnell Dixon from The Daily Herald talking some Cougar basketball
here on your Utah ESPN Radio network. Uh, if you're
looking at the schedule here, I just got a text
from a friend and he says, what if Ben, What
if BYU only wins one game down the stretch? That's
kind of how he's feelings like b Yu what FM
is if they only win one game between now and
the tournament. Some people are believing that this is not
a this is not an NCAA tournament team. Where do
you stand, double D.
Speaker 3: I think they're an NCAA tournament team. And even if
they that'd be what one and five down the stretch,
their net ranking is still going to be pretty high.
They're still going to be probably even if they lose
some of those games against Iowa State against Arizona, that's
not going to hurt their net ranking. They're going to
need to try to pick up wins against teams like
UCF and Cincinnati. Losses to those teams would cause them
a lock, a little bit of trouble. But I still
think they can finish somewhere between maybe twenty five or
twenty eight, somewhere in that range. That's going to get
them in the NCAA tournament. They're not going to ignore
a team that's that high in the neck. And that's
the big difference between BYU in the Big twelve and
BYU in the West Coast Conference is BYU at twenty
two and twelve or twenty one eleven or whatever in
the WCC does not get them into the tournament. You know,
they might, they probably don't make it, But because they
play in a Big twelve, even when they struggle a
little bit to pick up those wins, they're still playing
quad one on quad two teams. So I still think
they're in a tournament team. And this is going to
give I mean, Kevin Young said, and this is this
is what I you know, I've been doing all my
life as a coach, is teams writing and people writing
us off and having to deal with all these things.
And he says he's energized to try to make this
work and So the players are going to feel that,
and they're gonna get an opportunity in the last six
games to put something together where they can maybe put
themselves in a position to win a game or two
in the NCAA tournament. Who knows what might happen.
Speaker 2: Is this basketball team cursed? Darnell? Have you thought those
words in your head after looking at the injuries? Nate
Pickens out for the season. Uh Dawson Baker after the season,
Burg has last game for the season. Richie Sounders out
for the season. Campekeetda has a hand issue. He had
a concussion. Is yearly save in stating out, is this
is this Billy basketball team cursed?
Speaker 3: I don't know if curse is what I'd say, that's
what the fans would say, because you know they're they're
really emotionally fight into this. I think it's just, you know,
you get bad breaks, and you know Richie has made
that move on the baseline a thousand times in his career.
You know where he drives hard down the lane, jumps
back to pass it back out and he just came
down on the rung and that happens, and you hope
it wouldn't happen the richie, you hope it wouldn't happen
this year, and you just have to deal with And
that's that's how Kevin Young approaches it, and you know,
as a member of the media, that's kind of how
I have to approach it. And I've been around long
enough to have seen teams that were good that got
a bad break. I mean, twenty twenty, you know, with
COVID nineteen, you know, that was definitely a bad break
for a team that looked like it could make some noise.
And then the team with Jimmer, you know, with with
Brandon Davies and what happened there, that team looked like
they could maybe make a long run. So I don't
know if bad luck's the bad thing. It's just we
really have to be good and you have to get
some good breaks in order to get to a championship
and you get to a final four and he just
hasn't happened for this program yet.
Speaker 2: So is this team finally going to get that Final
four monkey off their bat this this year?
Speaker 3: Darnell would shock me if that happened. I think they're
gonna give a good effort. I think Kevin Young and
as coaching staff are going to put these guys you know,
through the rates and make them step up, and they're
gonna give some teams some troubles. They're going to play
that are that are ranked per high. I mean they definitely.
I think I read that by U has the seventh
hardest schedule in the country. In the next six games.
You know who's number one, Arizona. So it's it's just
this Big twelve is just a gauntlet and they're going
to be tested and they're going to be their best
version of themselves. If they get to the NCAA tournament
and then everything starts over and you have a have
a shot, that's all you can hop for. Are they
final four team? I wasn't. I don't think they were
at this point in the season, even with Richie in
the pro in the program. I think they were just
struggling out way too much defensively to try to stop
the guards. That's the challenge tomorrow night when they play
at Arizona. By the way, we're sending Brandon Gurney to
two fun cover the Cougars, so we'll see if we'll
see if we get him back.
Speaker 2: But a man going out to touch that's right.
Speaker 3: And so uh trying to stop that guard line Berry's
and Jalen bradley Man. Those guys ate BYU for dinner
and lunch and breakfast last time they played, So there
was a big challenge and there's a big challenge every
night in the Big Twelve. But that, like I said,
they're just trying to be when the NCAA tournament opportunities come,
the best version of themselves and then you just play
a game.
Speaker 2: Darnell, any other things that have been keeping up at
night regarding this BYU basketball team. What have you been
writing about? What can you tease for us?
Speaker 3: Well? Like I did, I said, I did write a
column for tomorrow about Richie and the fact that you
know his his kind of player. A guy's four years
in your program and grew up watching the team and
wants to be a Cougar, and not just in BYU's program,
but all over college sports. Those guys are hard to
find anymore, and because of ni Ellen's, because of the
transfer portal, And I don't have anything against those ideas
for the individual. I think that it benefits a lot
of guys and it's good that they have the ability
to find the right place for themselves. But there are
some ancillary impacts, and this is one of them. That
guys like Richie really hard even a BYU are going
to be hard to find. Like who, like I said earlier,
who won on our team right now can provide that
kind of perspective that hey, it means something to go
out and play in front of rocket, means something to
wear this jersey. Who in that program can say that, Well,
nobody on the roster really those are all one or
two year guys that are in the program. Now we've
got a couple of guys Berti Koslowski, who his mom
played at BYU and he grew up in Salt Lake.
But he's injured, he's not playing and not really part
of that process. And they're bringing in a couple of
guys from TIMP you next next year that have some
good ties to the program. Maybe they'll stay four years,
who knows. But I just I just really lament the
fact that guys like Richie are just hard to find,
not just the b YU but anywhere in college sports anymore.
I mean, you then when you came to b YU,
you had Cameron Jensen tell you this is how we
do things. Follow me right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we had we had great examples of what
it not just a champion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not just camera but lots of different guys. Yeah yeah,
But but those kind of guys are hard to find anywhere,
and Richie was one of those guys. And I know
b Yu will miss that. I mean they were going
to miss anyway, because he's graduating at some point. But
I just I just see the future of the sport
being very different when it comes to guys that are
willing to buy their time and and get better each year.
That's what That's what Kevin Young said today about Richie
is he just paid his dues and got better each
year and now, you know, even an All League player
last year. But that kind of guy maybe doesn't stay
four years anymore. Maybe that guy that that you know
puts in the effort and starts to get better decides
to go wandering somewhere else because it's so easy to
do anymore. So I I wrote about that a little bit.
Hopefully it won't bump you out too much, Ben to
read it, because I know you you call me an
little kage sword or fart guy that right, well.
Speaker 2: Whoa whoa, whoa whoa now that's not that's not true.
You are get off my lawn type of guy. Though,
yes I am.
Speaker 3: Storytime, that's true.
Speaker 2: Ill that you got admit that. So uh, sometimes you
are ready to get off my lawn guy. What does
Richie Saunders breakout all the time amongst the best NBA
basketball history? Do you think.
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: I haven't. I haven't thought about that that much yet.
I'm still kind of been processing the fact that he's
not going to play for bu Yu anymore. I just
think his story is really cool because everything seems to
be in college sports now immediate satisfaction. I want to
play now, I want scoring points now. I want to
get to the NBA now. And and Richie when he
came to buy U, he had played at Wassatch academ
had a good stroke, he played a few minutes here
and there, showed some good energy, and you know, you
looked at him and thought, Okay, he's got some capabilities,
he's got some potential. We'll see how he goes. And
then he got to the point where as I said,
he was a first team All League in the Big twelve,
which is impressive. He had his moment last year in
the NCAA tournament during the run when you know, he
let people know and people found out that his grandfather
invented theator thoughts that was fantastic, and bau fans loved that.
They're like, yeah, he's one of us. Man be loving him.
So I think if you if you look at him
and if you want a number, I'm willing to start
with man top thirty maybe, and then down from there,
work my way down from there and see where I go.
I mean, like I said, I haven't really started comparing
things in that process, but I would say, for sure
top thirty and you could make an argument for top
twenty maybe if you look at all that stuff. But
I just know as a as a as a players,
fans love him almost as much as anybody that's ever
played the game. And you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm right there with you. So I don't.
In my son's room, I'm very judicious about what I
put up in that room. And he has a poster
of Richie Saunders up in his room, right, and he's young.
I mean, he's watched Boa basketball with me and things
of that nature, and I've always gone out of my
way to say, hey, that's how you play basketball. To
see how hard he works, see how you see how
high energy. I want my kids to follow Richie's example.
That's why it hurts me. Man. I'm a fan of
Richie as a human and the way he goes about
his craft, how he goes about his work, what he
does on and off the court. I've always been impressed
by him in all the interviews. Uh, and you know
he's he's the guy that does the lonely work. And
even Rob Wright in the post game said, hey, nobody
works harder. He's the hardest worker on our team. So
that to me is what uh you know, I I
I hope that he's he's been an inspiration enough to
get guys to put in the lonely work when it
matters most, which is right now, really refine their skill set,
really refined their their work ethic, really put in the
late the late hours, the late night hours, being the
gym rat, as Richie would, in these moments that matter most.
Speaker 3: So I would you there, yeah, And I also would
add that, you know, we'd all love to be a
j Devons and be six' nine and super uber talented and,
athletic but most of us have to scrape and work
hard to get you. KNOW i, Mean i'm not Saying
aga doesn't work, hard but there's a lot of material
for him to start, with right and and he's maybe
gonna be the number one pick in THE nba. Draft
richie wasn't going to be the number one pick in
THE nba, draft but he was going to show SOME
nba guys and he still. WILL i can be valuable
to you and your team and we can, win and
you're gonna love having me on your. Team and that's
where most of us comes, from is we just want
to be a part of something big and something, cool
and we're willing to put the effort. In and that's
Why richie issue.
Speaker 2: On, Yes, indeed my Guy Darnod dixon double ed always
appreciate her. Time we fought everyone to follow you ON
x At Darnell. RIGHTS i love having the hot Takes.
Darnell you, know tweet out some hot takes for me
and then make sure you're Reading darnell at The Daily.
Herald subscribe. Today thanks so much to DOUBLE d All,
right Thanks, ben appreciate. You we'll call that a. Segment Appreciate.
Darnell just want to guess it was brought to you
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