Speaker 1: All ras.
Speaker 2: Each time to check in with Preston and Garrett Handy
of Handy and Handy for sports court. Handy and Handy
are your accident and personal injury attorneys ready to assist
with any related.
Speaker 3: Questions you may have.
Speaker 2: Visit them online at Handylawutah dot com. Big Firm Experience,
Small Firm Attention.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to sports. Here on your one O three
nine nine eight point three ESPN the fan dial. He's
stop for a little sports court. That's right, Big Firm Experience,
fall from attention. It's stop to play a little judge
and jury. What's the version on the biggest headlines in sports?
Speaker 5: A lot?
Speaker 4: It' stop for a little sports court. Brought to you
by our good friends at Handy and Handy. Big Firm Experience,
Ball Firm Attention. Each week, we're breaking down the real
life legal drama intersected with your favorite athletes, teams and leads,
contract disputes and alka sideline scandals, courtroom battles. We're diving
deep with Utah's most trusted injury attorneys. We got Garrett
and Pressed and Handy on the light. Gentlemen, how you
guys doing today? Hey Ben, how you doing good to
be on Live the Dream. Guys, appreciate you hopping on
the dream. Hey, no room for improvement. Knock on wood,
here we go and can't wait to get into a
little sports court with you gentlemen today. Let's start it
off with this one little.
Speaker 3: Supreme Court ruling here.
Speaker 4: Here's are rather arguments hearing arguments in blockbuster cases challenging
transgender sports brand sports bands.
Speaker 3: What's the latest on this one?
Speaker 5: Well, it is the latest because it's been a hotbed
issue for a while. We've talked about many of these
instances where what happens is a transgender female who's a
biological male is playing on female sports team or competing
in female competition. And you know, there was the instance
with the swimmer and Riley Gains, the Kentucky swimmer, the
woman who you know couldn't win, and so she's been
a real activist in this. And what happened when all
these things were being seen that there was transgender females
playing in whether it was high school or college or whatever,
in female on female teams, states began to pass laws
and the majority of these laws were really basically saying, hey,
biological male who is a transgender female. No problem with that,
they're saying, but you can't participate on female teams and
compete against other females. So what happened when laws like
this were passed. Activist groups and even individual plaintiffs they
come forward and they challenge these laws, and they challenge
them based on what are constitutional issues? Really, not just
oh we don't like these issues. We're saying these violate
constitutional rights. Well, two states that made it through the
appeal system. They made it through the state system, they
made it through what's called the Federal Court of the
appeal system, and the United States Supreme Court SCOTIS decided
to hear these cases. And SCOTIS doesn't usually hear cases
unless they think it's an important issue to hear. It's
an issue of first impression and it needs to be
decided to set a precedent and to give guidelines going
forward with other laws. Well, the state of Idaho, in
the state of West Virginia's cases came up which were challenged.
So people challenging these losses and they're unconstitutional. Well, the
basic arguments are by the people challenging it are that, hey,
this violates Title fourteen Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution
where it involves gender rights, and whenever it involves gender,
things need to be highly scrutinized, and you can't be
treating you know, you can't be discrimination. That's really what
it comes down discrimination. Well, the other side, the ones
supporting the laws and these things, they're saying, hey, there's
really no constitutional right that addresses biological males transgender females
to play on women's teams. That's really the issue, and
you know, it's an emotional issue, it really is. So
arguments were heard, and most of the legal analysis coming
out think that it's it's going to uphold these laws,
essentially saying yeah, these laws are okay, and transgender females
cannot play on female teams. It's unfair, it's unfair competition,
that type of thing. But the question now that looks
at is if it comes down that way, if it does,
how far reaching is that? How broad is that opinion?
Because I read where only twenty seven states have passed
these laws, and twenty three actually have not paid these
laws and don't have them on the books. So the
question is, will this just go to these plaintiffs here
and say, yeah, your banned these laws? Are okay or
is it going to send a message to the other states.
I think it does. It sends a message to these
other states with laws, and it probably sends a message
to states that haven't passed laws. If you passed laws,
they'll probably be upheld. So, you know, one person argues said, hey,
we need this to be a national law. We can't
have it that. You know, transgender females can participate in
one state and they can't in another, you know, where
there's a lot of traveling teams and their college teams
are traveling all the time, and so how does that
affect it. So it'll be interesting to see how broad
how broad of a brush there is and how broadly
it applied. But regardless when the decision come down, I'm
not saying there has been a decision, it'll send a
message to everyone kind of with the leaning of the court,
and the court is a conservative court, so large part
they probably will uphold these laws.
Speaker 4: Still, it's perfectly fine for a transgender female though, to
play on a men's team, right if they make the team.
Speaker 5: Well, that's what a lot of people say, they're a
biological I mean, this gets into a lot of issues
that I don't fully understand. And I'm mindful and respectful
and sensitive to individuals that go through this, and they,
you know, and I think most people are saying, yeah,
if you claim to be transgender, and you claim to
be a transgender female, that's okay, and everybody needs to
respect each other. There's rights and boundaries and everything. But
then when it goes into well are we gonna let
you participate in female sports and female competitions against you know,
female athletes. And the one big one was this, uh,
this pennsylvani University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania swimmer, six foot four
dude who was just an okay swimmer on the men's team,
and he says these transitions, gets on the female teams,
and he wins the national championship, and a lot of females,
you know, were like, hey, we fought for this our
whole lives and now we're we're not allowed to win.
So that's where it's really looking like an unfair advantage.
But to your question, sure they can, if they can
make the.
Speaker 3: Team, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I don't think there's beenny, I don't think there'd be
any challenges to that.
Speaker 4: Sure, Well, yeah, exactly like, it's like you can still
play sports. It's not like your band from participation of sport.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a it's a uh. It's a complicated issue
with strong feelings on both sides.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I mean, I know there were a couple of transgender
females in Utah and it was just a couple, but
you know, I mean, their parents argue that this is
their chance to play sports and have competition and do
all that, and it goes to their mental health and
mental well being. And then you ask the question, well,
could they have made the men's soccer team or the
men's basketball team or you know, but that's not who
they wanted to be. That's their argument.
Speaker 4: Let's move on to NCAA basketball players and gamblers being
charged for allegedly rigging games. There's a lot of hullablue.
Like one of the fastest growing markets right now is
just being able to bet on just about anything. And
obviously college athletics is being extremely impacted by gambling. And
these young men and young ladies that are getting into gambling.
It's not a good thing. It's not a good thing
at all.
Speaker 3: What's the latest in this particular scenario.
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is another big case, another big indictment. I
guess I should say that that's come down. And you know,
we've talked recently. There was the NBA case with Terry Rozier, right,
similar type of case. There was the Chauncey Phillips, you know,
poker ring case. So there's been a lot of these
sports betting cases that we've talked about.
Speaker 1: This one.
Speaker 6: Maybe what's a little different about it is it involves
college basketball players, and it really involves I mean a
whole bunch of schools involved in this. I think there's gosh,
there are forty schools I think implicated in this. Most
of them are all mid major schools, and none of
our local schools I.
Speaker 1: Don't see on this list.
Speaker 6: I mean, but just as an example, Ben, I mean
schools like Abilene, Christian, Alabama State, Buffalo, Choppin State, Eastern Michigan,
Fordham Kennesas State. I mean, you get the idea, right,
and so a lot of times what was happening is
you had some people on the outside who would contact
these players, usually on underdog teams, and a lot of
times this involved just the point spread, and so you know,
they get these players on the underdog team to shave
some points, right, not score, you know, keep their point
totals down so that whether going into halftime or by
the end of the game, they'd win their bets. And
I mean so, I mean there was a like a
four hundred thousand dollars bet placed on a game between
Kennesas State and like Buffalo, right, I mean, it's crazy
who's betting on this?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 6: Or there was another one for Butler to cover a
six point five spread against DePaul. Well, what's coming out now?
I mean talking about DePaul in particular. I mean, and
this just goes back two seasons. This is all very
current stuff, right, I mean DePaul went oh to sixteen
in Big East play two years ago. Four of their
players from that team are implicated in this. Some of
these guys are on current rosters. And as of as
this news coming down, this is just today that this
in these charges came out. They've been cut from their
teams a few of them already. So anyway, it's it's again,
like you said, kind of just more of the same.
We've we've seen some of this, but here we are.
This is impacting some lower levels of college basketball.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's got to be.
Speaker 4: I mean, I hate to legalize certain things. Right, There'll
always be kind of a market for this stuff, but
it's I think the NCAA president has like asked the
federal government to like to help him, and I can't
remember what was what the specific request was, but limit
the ability of college sports gambling because it's infiltrating the
competitive the competitive.
Speaker 3: Nature of sport, especially at the collegiate levels. So this
isn't issue. This is a big issue.
Speaker 4: And more and more young people are are gambling that
literally their their funds away and going into debt just
to gamble.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, exactly, And that's what they're asking for. And
one of the one in particular what they're asking for
is a ban on these prop bets, right, so you know,
I mean, if we're just going to bet that Richie
Saunders is going to be two points under his average, right,
I mean you can bet on anything right in these
in these games, you know how many minutes played or whatever.
And so they've just made it so easy with online betting,
and and uh, it's yeah, it's all over the place,
but we've got to have some new rules in place.
Speaker 4: All right, let's move on. RAMS owner and Inglewood legal
battle over placement of billboards.
Speaker 3: A little marketing and advertising lawsuit. What are we at?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Exciting stuff for everything. Yeah, this is crazy exciting stuff.
So the owner of the Los Angeles Lunchiz Los Angeles Rams,
uh multi molti billionaire. H mister, how do you say
his name?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 5: Cronky, crunky, crunky. He is uh the owner of the Rams,
but apparently part owner of that. He fas a lawsuit
against the city of Inglewood where he's claiming they've entered
into an agreement with Wild Media stop his sixty billboards
around Hollywood Park where Sofi Stadium is. He's claiming that
this violet skill when this thing was going on, that
he put this up, probably saying, hey, you know, we
can't have stuff like that around here. This is kind
of our place to market and that type of thing
and earned revenue and he and he, uh, this advertisement
would undergot the exclusive sponsorships table ambush of marketing around
some of the world's sporting events. It's not just the
rams of there's not the charges to play there. There's
a ton of going around. You start putting up sixty boards,
it's going to make place look.
Speaker 1: Like, you know, like Vega.
Speaker 5: The city response there there says, hey, wait a minute,
this is you're being greedy, mister. We have a right
we want with personal public property as long as we
go through their proper processes to go through that. And
you know, and this is revenue for the city. And
so I guess what it comes down to. Was there
an agreement and what part of that agreement go and
does it violate that agreement? So fighting stuff. We'll see
if thingle would gets to put up any billboards.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, your your connection is a little bit uh,
you know, disrupted. But so I don't know if you
want to move to the other spot where.
Speaker 3: You're at before. But oh sorry, you're okay. I can
hear you now. But yeah, you're okay disrupted there.
Speaker 5: But fans out there, what I said was really not
too exciting you. You didn't miss a lot about a
multi multi billionaire so in a city over billboards?
Speaker 4: All right, let's talk aeron judge, then all rise legal
when in a trademark lesson case.
Speaker 3: What do we got?
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know how baseball teams or any team
does this right when a player's got a certain name
and they find some angle right, and they might do
this in the stadium on banners or on you know,
digital displays. And so this started happening in Yankee Stadium
with Aaron Judges. He was becoming popular. This goes back
to about twenty seventeen. And so one was all rise
right when Aaron Judge is up, or the other one
was here comes the Judge and so playing on this
legal theme with his name Judge. So at about that time,
Yankees are using these phrases. There's a guy in Long
Island who runs to the trademark office to register those
two phrases. He's going to put them on hats and
you know, T shirts and whatever and so some merch
and so this got into a dispute with the Yankees
over this trademark and the Yankees and Aaron Judge. I
guess Aaron Judge had not filed his own trademark for this,
and so part of the argument was, we'll wait a minute.
This is obviously about me, Aaron Judge, and this is
going to be really confusing for consumers. They're thinking, you
know that this is not a this is official merchandise.
He's not, and Aaron Judge isn't earning anything from that.
So they fought for what's called the common law trademark,
and they did. They did win their case in spite
of the guy who was going to make the T
shirts claiming that, well, you know, I had no I
just I like these phrases all rise and here comes
a judge. I don't know anything about Aaron Judge. I've
never heard of him. I've never been to a Yankees
baseball game. I've never seen him play. I don't know
anything about it. I just I just happen to like
these phrases. This has nothing to do with Aaron Judge.
And the court was not buying that. So I guess
the word is, if you've got a phrase you want
to use, better trademarket, better trademark lavoida legal fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, How do you check trademarks? Can we google that?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 4: You know, is there a trademark website to see if
something's trademarked?
Speaker 6: Yeah, there is the US Patent and Trademark Office, and
so a lot of times. You know, if you've got
a one one thing that you know intellectual property lawyers do, right,
is they'll monitor these kinds of things for their clients, right,
And see if anybody's filing anything or coming up so
that they're on top of it. But yeah, it's something
you just have to be vigilant about.
Speaker 4: Gotta be vigilant, gotta be proactive. Final thing here a
little update on the river Side abuse case. X coach
testifies to witnessing abuse.
Speaker 3: What do we have here?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well we quick quick on this. We talked about
this last week and follow This is a lawsuit that
grows out of the acclaim by a gentleman who played
for an all star team back in the seventies and
early eighties that was sponsored by Riverside Church. It was
kind of the first of its type, an all star
basketball team with really good players that traveled around the
country and even outside the country with sponsorships. Well, years
and years later, this mister Powell comes out with claims
that the coach, Ernest Lorch, who was a multi millionaire
lawyer in New York City, was sexually abusing him and
other players. Well, mister Lorch has since he has since
passed away and can you hear me? Yes, yeah, gotcha, Okay,
he since passed away. So a lawsuit goes against Riverside
Church and the issue is this he's soon in Riverside Church.
At Riverside Church is saying, well, wait a minute, mister
Lurch was the bad actor. This guy was the pedophile,
sex abuser. Not you know, we're not on this, but
he's saying, hey, he was under your supervision. He was
the coach of this team. He sat on your board
of trustees. You knew or should have known that this
stuff was going on, and you could have prevented it. Well,
so now the thing starts to trial this week, and
whenever a trial starts, the plaintiff, the person bringing the lawsuit,
mister Powell, he has the burden of proving everything. He
has to prove the legal arguments. He has to prove
his claims that Riverside knew or should have known about
this going on. He has to prove his damages. He's
claiming PTSD and mental health and emotional damages from this
happening forty years ago. Well, one of the witnesses, bombshell
witness was an assistant coach of the team who said
he walked in on mister Kring Lurch and saw him
actually abusing sexually abusing a player, and he actually went
and reported it to the pastor of the church.
Speaker 1: Well, here we come.
Speaker 5: Forty years later. They bring him into trial and he
testifies he actually took a bunch of players and said
he wasn't going to keep him there because he didn't
think they were safe. It's reported that it was widely
known around a lot of people that this guy was
a bad dude and there was some inappropriate stuff going on. Well,
the defense has attacked this and saying, hey, this was
forty plus years ago. How can you remember all this.
He's bringing this now, Why is he bringing it now
and didn't bring it earlier? So we'll hear from all
the plaintiff witnesses. The jury gets to hear all of that,
and then the defense will put their case on and
we'll see what happens. But this is a type of
This is a type of testimony, and apparently there were
a couple of other players that testified. That really goes
to the heart of mister Powell's arguments about Hey, the church,
he was under their supervision, They knew and should have
done something about it.
Speaker 4: Gentlemen, that is our sports court for today. The verdict
is out and we appreciate you joining us for yet
another Sports Cord segment. You guys are better at representing
clients that have been injured, whether it's like workman scomp
or auto injury accident. Tell us what you do, how
you do it, and why our listener should give you call.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Ben, we love coming on here. It's a good
time to talk about these legal issues in the world
of sports. Handy and Handy is a personal injury law firm.
We've been around a long time. Garrett and I have
years and years of experience. We represent and help people
that have been involved in all kinds of accidents where
they it's not their fault and they've suffered injury, minor injury,
serious injury. They've they've incurred medical expenses, lost income, they
have real damages. We help them through the legal and
the insurance process, make sure they get compensated. And we
feel like we feel like our experience and the personal
attention we give to clients really sets us apart from
a lot of firms, and we hope you give us
a call. Call us at eight zero one two six
four six six seven to seven, or visit our website
at Handy Law Utah dot com.
Speaker 4: Get m a call, set up an appointment if you've
been injured, you need representation eight O one two six
four sixty six seven seven. That's Tata one two six
four sixty six seven seven handy Law Utah dot com.
Speaker 3: Gentlemen, thank you so much. Always a pleasure talking sports
court with you.
Speaker 7: Hey, thanks Ben, you be all right?
Speaker 4: Thank you, gentlemen, we'll go to break. That was a
great segment with Garrett and Preston Handy. Appreciate them. Head
on over to Handylaw Utah dot com and get to
know them a little bit better.
Speaker 3: If you've been in an accident and you need representation.
Speaker 4: Uh, this is Cougar Sports, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back.
You're listening to your Utah ESPN Radio Network one of three,
nine ninety eight point three.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to this so marches right around the corner
and the Cougars are in the metal of it. It's
time to talk some college basketball on Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: With Ben Crittic.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to your sports one of three, nine ninety
eight point three ESPN. The band. I've been little broadcasting
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We're gonna welcome in to Cougar Sports Insider, College Basketball Insider,
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That Central Garage Utah dot Com. Let's get out to
the hotline.
Speaker 3: Welcome in.
Speaker 4: Mark Durant, the best color commentator, the best Twitter x
follow on social media.
Speaker 3: How the heck are you? Mark?
Speaker 1: Wow? Thank you, Ben, I'm doing great. I may or
may not have just.
Speaker 7: Played nine holes of golf in this beautiful, crazy weather,
So I'm a happy man. I don't know that I've
ever played golf this late in the winter in my life.
Speaker 3: It is pretty crazy. What's happening in Utah right now?
With the weather.
Speaker 4: Typically we're we're in the thick of the snow right
making snow angels and it's freezing cold. What's happening in
the Utah? You've been here for a long time.
Speaker 7: Well, listen, I know we need moisture and snow and
all that, but if we're not going to have it,
I'm gonna enjoy it. And if Salt Lake becomes the
new Saint George, then that's probably okay with me because
I want to move to Saint George.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I will save me moving.
Speaker 4: Oh man, where's your golf?
Speaker 1: By the way, I.
Speaker 7: Went out to Glenmore. We love it out at Glenmore.
Darcy Olsen is the pro out there. It's a great place.
They got a great youth program. As you know, my
daughter plays. So my daughter whooped me today, But I'm
getting used to that.
Speaker 3: Hey it's okay.
Speaker 4: Hey, that means you've you've trained her, well, you've mentored her. Well,
that's what you want. That's what every mom and dad want.
They want their kids to be better than they are.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah.
Speaker 7: The best thing I ever did, Ben, your young father,
So listen carefully, I am, is have your kids play golf.
I tried to get my boys to play basketball, but
I finally learned and my last one, I said, We're
doing golf because I'm gonna have fun. If I'm gonna
watch you, I'm gonna at least have fun myself. And
it's been the greatest thing. We get to spend so
much time together and she's excellent, and it's just fun.
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 4: Is that like, just because you have to sit next
to each other for I mean typically anywhere from two
to four, sometimes five hours, you actually get to talk
to your kids.
Speaker 3: They're not trying to avoid you.
Speaker 7: Right, Exactly what what other dad of a seventeen year
old daughter gets to spend five hours without any distractions?
Speaker 1: You know, with your child, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Actually the worst me.
Speaker 7: She still likes me. Ben, I don't know about your kids.
If your kids like you, if they don't like it
might be bad.
Speaker 1: But my daughter likes me. So No.
Speaker 4: Probably the worst decision I ever made. And it was
hard because it was it was before COVID, right, and
like I had purchased an Alpine country Club membership in
two thousand and ten. You know it was it was
dirt cheap at the time, right, and I can't remember
what the dudes were monthly, et cetera. But I had
that thing till like twenty and eighteen. But at that time,
I was getting free golf. Remember I used to do
the show at Thanksgiving point, I did advertising for Fox Hollow.
I mean I was everywhere, you know. I was like, well,
you know, do I really need this Alpine country Club membership?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And I sold it, kicking myself. Stupid decision.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: The spirit was not with me. It was not guiding
me at that time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they for a while, that long time ago, they
were giving those away.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 7: And now now it's it's a it's a hot commodity.
Speaker 4: Very very hot commodity. I'm kicking myself unfortunately, but we
all make good decisions. We all make bad decisions. U
K Why made some good decisions this offseason, not only
retaining talent, but acquired talent. How special has it been
for you to watch arguably the most talented team in
BAU basketball history ball out at the Marriott Center.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, you mentioned k Why. I love
that guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is.
Speaker 7: He's been so great to work with. He's super kind
of me and Greg, and he's just a super down
to earth guy. Love talking to him. I think he's
actually a brilliant basketball mind as I've watched him and
the adjustments and things that he makes and his game plans,
and I just I just think, how lucky are we
to have? So it's I think it starts with him,
and then because of who he is and his connections
and his ability to communicate with kids, he's able to
bring in you know, great, great young men and super
talented basketball players. And it used to be where, you know,
by you wouldn't even get a sniff from some of
these this level of recruit and now it seems like
they're in on almost all the best recruits and legitimately
have a chance, and so that that goes to a
lot of people, k Y and the school and the
resources and the boosters and all that to make BYU
an attractive spot for some of the best players. And
the fact that we've got aj is unheard of obviously.
And then even Rob Wright, you know, coming from Baylor
to BYU. I mean, who would have ever seen that happening?
And he he is one of my favorites man. He
is so good, so consistent, so tough. And of course Richie,
who's just the unicorn nowadays with his loyalty to the
university and all the things he does and how hard
he plays. I mean that Utah game, Ben, I've never
seen a bigger heart on display. He willed the team
to victory. He kind of put the team on his
back and got those big rebounds and made big shots
and so yeah, I mean it's it's I've been doing
a long time, you know, Jim or years were fine.
Every year's fine. But the level of play and how
this team plays is about as ton of time as
I've had in those thirty years.
Speaker 4: You mentioned Richie, the Todd King. I was having a
discussion with Jay Drew earlier in the show, and we're like,
how pivotal was that retention?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Like, what if he would
have ended up at at Kentucky.
Speaker 4: Maybe that Kentucky team goes to an Elite eight last
year and they get through the Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 3: If Richie's on.
Speaker 4: That squad this year, they're probably doing a whole lot
better because they have a glue guy, a leader, a
guy that sets the tone, that creates continuity and executes
and gets everyone bought in for what Mark Pope is building.
Speaker 3: The fact that b Yu was able to retain rich she.
Speaker 4: Is probably not not heralded enough, is one of the
greatest recruiting efforts that the staff has been able to execute.
Speaker 1: It really really is.
Speaker 7: And you know, I can't speak to specifics, but I
want people to understand that Richie left a lot on
the table to stay at BYU as good as by
US resources are.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: He stayed because he wanted to and he loves the university,
and so yeah, as a fan, I'm grateful to him
for that. But I think the obviously aj is is
even a I think a seasoned professional level player right now,
and he could play in the NBA and be an
All Star right now. But so he's he gets a
lot of attention rightly, so top draft pick guy. But
the best thing I think that ever happened to AJ
is Richie to have that kind of leader ship and
maturity and how to play the game and to learn
from Richie and to take a lot of the pressure
off of AJ to have to do it all himself.
You know, obviously there's other guys. Rob's great, but I mean,
you know, when you have three really good players, you know,
it's just not all about you. It's not all on
your shoulders. So you can kind of, you know, do
your thing and have some pressure taken off of you,
both off just the mental pressure that AJ must go through,
but just the pressure to play and deliver at all times.
And AJ, like the other night against TCU, he kind
of took over that game. But for the most part,
you know, he can kind of do his thing, and
because Richie particularly is a leader of that team. And
when you know, Ben, like like when you were senior
at b YU, I mean, you nobody had played hard
and you nobody practiced harder than you. And when you've
got a guy that's that good and sets that tone, like,
you have no excuses. If Richie's playing this hard, I
need to play that this hard. If he's doing getting rebound,
I need to do this. And so when you have
a guy like that and that senior leadership, who's you know,
all American caliber player and he's doing all the little
things that make people great, then you learn from that
and you have no excuses. And I think it's going
to be the best thing that ever happened to AJ
was to have Richie on this team.
Speaker 4: No excuses, play like a champion. There was a great victory,
a gritty one, an ugly one, a beautifully ugly one.
But when does the win is win over TCU? What
were your takeaways from that matchup late last night? That's
the That's one of the latest games you've probably had
to call recently.
Speaker 7: I guess there's reasons for it.
Speaker 1: If I'm the horn.
Speaker 7: Frogs, I'm pretty upset that I had to do that
because it was even later for them their body clock.
But I mean, I just don't get it. I mean,
maybe West Coast, but even West Coast it's eight o'clock star.
I'm like, what is the point of that? It seems silly,
But I you know, I get there's TV and all
that kind of stuff, but anyway, it was late, but
it's nice.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: I just had a nice meal before and got all
that out of the way before the game, so it
didn't bother me too much.
Speaker 1: But the yeah, the game.
Speaker 7: You know, Ben, I've been kind of waiting for that
game because everybody, every team has a game where it's
just not their night. It's you know, you come off
of a pretty intense rivalry game, it's certainly right for
a letdown, a trap game, whatever you want to call it.
And I just felt like, eventually, these guys are gonna
have an off night and they're gonna lose one, and
it's just gonna be one of those things. And I
was almost resigned myself to that. The great thing about
last night was they had that game. They had their
worst shooting night both from three and from two of
the year, and yet they won. So you can have
your bad game, the off game that inevitably you're going
to have, and still win. That's pretty good and it
shows you how good they are. And AJ was under
the weather, looked as bad as I've seen him play
in the first half, but man, he found something in
about eight to ten minutes of that second half where
he was great.
Speaker 1: And the thing I'm.
Speaker 7: Impressed about Aj is whether it's Yukon or Clemson or
whenever Byu needs him to be great, he has been
great and he found something deep inside and he was
kind of his game where he will BYU the victory
there to get them back in the lead. And so yeah,
I mean it was it was not a good game.
It was their letdown game, and yet somehow they managed
to win it. And so that's pretty cool. I mean,
you usually don't escape those kind of games with a win,
and so hopefully you learn some lessons, but you still
have a w the win, call him, and so that
that's that's good for this team. I expect them to
play much better, even though they're going into a tough,
tough place this weekend against Texas Tech and Lebock. But
I think they'll actually play a lot better and we'll
have a chance in that game.
Speaker 4: Mark, we've discussed this Big three. Some people call it
the brig three, the First Presidency. I mean, there's a
ton of different nicknames for this crew. But you know,
you have to wonder, is this the is this the
best trio in Bou basketball history? Is this better than
the Danny Ainge you know eighty one team with great
kite friend Roberts, I know, I know, I know your
your brother pretty good.
Speaker 3: You know they they had some good squad Mike. We
we've had.
Speaker 4: I think the mckelly Wesley crew was good. The Haffa
Travis Hanson crew was pretty good. Is this the best
trio in Bou basketball history?
Speaker 7: Yeah, if you if you drill down on it, there's
actually been some really good yeah, really good players, like
you may a lot of them. But I think as
far as.
Speaker 1: You know, recency bias is a thing.
Speaker 7: But you know, I just I can't imagine three better
players for Byu at the same time. I mean, Aj
is going to be possibly a number one pick and
so we've never had that. And Rob Wright, Holy cow,
I mean that guy is so good and he's such
as he's a guy that's so consistent too, and he's
steady and make when Byu is struggling, he's the guy
that makes a shot and just lightning quick, impossible to
stop him on the dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: And then we've talked about Ritchie.
Speaker 7: I mean, you've got three NBA guys. Probably two of
the guys first round NBA guys. One guy is maybe
a first pick, first round guy. So as far as talent,
pure talent, I think it's the best three. I mean,
they had a chance last night to have the third
consecutive game where they had three guys over twenty points.
Now they fell short of that, but that was like
would be the first time in thirty or forty years
in the entire NCAA that any three players have got
twenty a piece for three consecutive games. So they came
close to doing that, which says a lot of itself.
And the great thing about it is, you know, they're
all you know, they're all right around the same scoring,
you know, or right around twenty points a game. They
all shoot a right around the same number of field goals,
they shoot similar percentages. It's amazing kind of the the
balance that they've achieved, because sometimes when you have three
excellent players like that, it's hard to get that chemistry
and balance, and guys are thinking I got to get mine,
and you know, but it's just organically, they've found a
beautiful balance where they're all contributing, all shooting about the
same amount, all getting about the same amount of points,
and it's just it's really cool to see how those
three have become like a single super super player in
one in one in one guy and anyway, it's it's fun.
I mean, I'm waxing trying to wax poetic about it
and failing. But they're they're as good as I've ever seen,
and I've seen, you know, back to the Danny h days.
And that's no slide on anybody. I mean, the fact
they're just that good. And the fact that dy Us
in this possession excuse me, positioned in the big twelve,
in the top ten team and have those kind of
caliber guys, It's like, what what universe are we living in?
And whatever it is, I'm glad I'm living in it.
Speaker 1: Mark.
Speaker 4: We were discussing earlier today, who we need to step
up on the bench or from the bench. We have
one of the best starting fives. It's not the best
starting five in college basket, Paul, you can make that argument,
but we need bench players. We need more depth, We
need some consistency there. Who's a guy that you're looking
forward to in the next six weeks to maybe step
up and take that baton or or multiple guys to
take that baton who who's most likely.
Speaker 3: To do it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, one of the things I'm concerned about, and it
was evident last night. As good as the Big three
is and Keba is tremendous, it's uh you know, you
get a guy in foul trouble or aj was wasn't
feeling well, it doesn't take a lot to really hurt you.
And uh So they're walking a fine line, playing so
few guys and relying so much on the Big three.
Uh So you just kind of hope and pray nobody
gets hurt or you stay out of foul trouble or
or you're gonna have some problems. But h and answer
your question, I think they need to go all in
on Hilow. I think he's a good player. He makes
big plays, he plays without fear, he made a big three,
had a huge block last night. He brings size, he
stretches the floor. I think you're all in on him,
And I think it really hurt BYU that abdu Ahmed
did not play. I hope he can be healthy because
I think when Cava's out of the game, BYU is
a much different team. But with Bedo he comes in
and they're not that different. He's he's just a big
human and a great shot blocker.
Speaker 1: I'm so pleased with him.
Speaker 7: So I'm all in on Viido and Mahilo, And you know,
other than that, you're gonna have to kind of hope
and you know, hopefully Tyler Moruss makes a player too,
or Kostach or or whoever. But you know, I think seven,
if you have seven guys that you can count on
on the what you does, then they should be all right.
But you know, it's it's a little makes it a
little bit nervous when anybody you know, twists an ankle
or is not feeling well or gets in foul trouble,
because it can really turn on you quickly if if
you don't have those guys ready to go.
Speaker 4: I always feel like when we're about to make a run,
like we get it, we get injured, or something like
something crazy happens, you know, Like I hate to be
that guy. I'm knocking on wood right now, all the
wood here in my that's in my surrounding area. But
it's like, man, I just hope we can stay healthy,
you know, stay healthy and strong, nourish and strengthened and
built for a run in the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 7: Well, one of the things you worry about is because
you're not as deep. You know, you're playing those the
Big Tree a lot of minutes, I mean thirty thirty
five more, and so you worry about getting worn down
a little bit. And just in that TCU game, you know,
Aj was on the floor for a long time and
I was worried that he was injured, and Rob Wright
was knocked and he was limping for a while. I
ate and Richie in the post game had a big
ice bag on his caf and he was in kind
of twisted his ankle late. And so yeah, you know,
you find all the wood you can and knock on
it because this team is a potential title contender, a
Final four National championship contender, with everybody ready to play
and healthy. But if anything goes wrong, then it might
spoil the apple cart and turn the apple cart upside down,
because there's just not a lot of room for error.
Speaker 1: There is.
Speaker 7: They're they're awesome, they could win it all. I totally
believe that, but it's if one little thing happens, it
could change that equation overnight.
Speaker 1: So you just hope it doesn't and knock on the
wood and and o'.
Speaker 7: BYU fans have had some uff rough what ifs in
their fandom history, but hopefully this year won't be one
of them.
Speaker 4: Mark Durant, Ladies and Gentlemen, partner at Dorsey and Whitney LLP.
His specialty is obviously on the radio waves as the
color commentates alongside Greg Rubel on the BYU Sports Netw're
talking hoops, but he's also pretty good at real estate law,
So shout out to Dorsey and Whitney ll P. If
you need any real estate lawyering, then you got to
hit up my guy, Mark Durant. Mark, we always appreciate
our time together. I appreciate you hopping on to give
his nuggets and truth and knowledge and all manner of
by basketball commentary.
Speaker 7: Well, you know I love you and I'm happy to
come on anytime, and I'm excited about this weekend at
Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: And give give Ron a big kiss for me, will you.
Speaker 4: I shall give him a big hug, big kiss, big
smooch for you. Mark Durant, Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so
so much, brother.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks Ben Tuck.
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