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as well. Without further ado, let's fire up the ESPN,
the fans starting lineup and welcome in. Uh maybe it's
Bloodline two point zero, you know, getting into it with
seeing punk a little ww on Monday. People don't care
about that, but maybe the blood Line is back. But
the right hand man here at Cougar Sports are digital
content creator. We got bread always bringing the hammer. How
are we doing today, brother? Happy Friday, Happy Friday. I'm
happy that we're at the weekends. We got to get
a big weekend coming up with lots of NCAA tournament action.
Speaker 5: I'm fired up, though, Ron, Like, this is the most
fired up I think I've been in a while. Because
if I tell you something is going to happen, and
then it happens, and it was going to cause a problem,
and you didn't listen. Then I have an issue. And
the Big Twelve everyone and their mama tried to tell
you that this was an issue, and you were rude
enough to let the women play through. You didn't care
to change the court when the women were playing. Now
the men were saying, Hey, I don't know about this.
You have a large sample size. You didn't test this
thing out at all.
Speaker 6: I got a whole bunch of diet tribes.
Speaker 5: So liloqueis and monologues to go on as we get
in throughout the show.
Speaker 6: But I'm happy to be here, not happy with Brett,
you or Mark.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got a lot to get into today, like
a bunch speaking of the court, you know, I don't
want to miss anything. So I'm pulling up the statement
right now. But crazy because yesterday this was the statement
from the commissioner of the Big Twelve. What Brett just said,
the led court of the glass court is gone. It
was taken out last night. Brett, I think you have
some information of about what Matt Norlander was told. We'll
get to that here in momentary, but here's a statement.
Let me read it to you before we get to
that statement from Big Twelve Commissioner Brett you or Mark quote.
After consult with the coaches from our four semi final teams,
I have decided that in order to provide our student
athletes with the greatest level of comfort on a huge
stage this week, and we will transition to a hardwood
court for the remainder of the tournament. We look forward
to a great semi finals and championship game. Close quote Brett,
your thoughts on that? Obviously, we're gonna get into that
here a little bit before we get into the nitty
gritty h and you know, just this as a whole,
I'll let you go off of your diet. Try to
know you got thoughts.
Speaker 5: This was such a bad idea, like such a bad idea.
And I do want to clarify. I think I've said
this a number of times. I'm here for innovation. I'm
here for trying new things. I understand that you can't
bat a thousand, but you know what you also can't do.
You can't walk out there without a bat and say, hey,
you know, somehow I'm gonna hit a home run, Like
you still have to go through some kind of process
to trying to get on base. And this thing never
had a shot of getting on base because you were
always running the risk of player safety.
Speaker 6: Now when the decision was actually made.
Speaker 5: Matt Orlander of CBS Sports was on his podcast this
morning and said that he was told yesterday by the
Big Twelve because he had so. He was on CBS
Sports HQ two nights ago and during that interview he
was asked, is there any talk about getting rid of
the court and switching it back to hardwood? And at
the time he said, I'm gonna go ask around because
I actually don't have an answer on that, so he
asked around. Then yesterday, the Big Twelve came to Matt
Norlander of CBS Sports at halftime of the TCU Kansas
skating and said, hey, we've made the decision. We're gonna
switch to hardwood. He said, can I report this right now?
They said no, We're gonna need you to wait until
the end of the game. So they were transparent with
the reporters as to when they were going to do it.
What's interesting is that means likely that decision was being
made and discussed during the BYU game, in which we
saw folks like Emmanuel Sharp and others go down.
Speaker 6: I have so many problems with this run.
Speaker 5: First of all, the video right now is circulating of
I can't remember.
Speaker 6: I don't want to misquote whoever put out the article,
but there or put out the video. But there was a.
Speaker 5: Whole video of the CEO of ASB, which is the
company that made the court, of him talking about how
it's actually safer for the players and it's better on
their joints, and this, that and the other thing. This
is an all time bad look for the conference for
a number of reasons. First of all, they are not
acknowledging that Christian Anderson was hurt in any relation. I
don't know this. I don't want to put anything on
the Big twelve. My guess would be is because if
you did, you would admit fault, and if that ever
came up in a lawsuit, it would be public.
Speaker 6: I don't know if that's why.
Speaker 5: But what I do know is Brett or Mark has
made a public statement and he's been on Pat McFee
today and neither time have they even really said player safety.
The reasoning was, well, we've talked to the coaches, a
number of coaches who said Tommy Lloyd said, we'll play
on asphalt with double rims, which I don't know if
I would ever play on asphalt with double rims against
shoutout Ton on that one. So they aren't even admitting
that it's a player safety issue, even though what it
looks right now, even if this wasn't the Big Twelves intent,
what it looks like today is that you took.
Speaker 6: Money over player safety.
Speaker 5: I'm sure Brett Rmark in the Big Twelve Conference didn't
want anyone to get hurt. I don't think that was
their intent. But clearly this was not player tested. And
you know that for a number of reasons. A because
anyone who have been able to test it at a
high level is playing basketball right now, whether it be NBA,
college basketball, whatever, so they couldn't come in and test it.
And if you didn't have someone test it, how do
you know that it's safe. And the pushback is, well,
the EuroLeague uses it, and the NBA All Star Game
used it. Okay, first of all, NBA All Star Game,
we know they're not pushing that hard, so they're not
trying as hard, that they're not putting as much stress
on their joints as they would be if they're playing
in a Big twelve championship issue Number two with the
euro League, they're playing on those courts every single night
their bodies have adjusted to It would be like playing
a full season on turf and then playing your Big
Twelve Championship on grass.
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter if both ones are technically safe.
Speaker 5: Either way, you're setting up a safety issue because the
body is not adjusted. The other issue where the Big
Twelve looks bad is that there were women's teams complaining
about this last week, and so now what it looks
like is, well, you didn't care when the women's teams complained,
so now that the men's teams have complained, it's, oh,
you know what, We're gonna fix that right quick for you.
And again, I like the Big Twelve conference. I like
a lot of the innovation. I think they do a
lot of smart things, and I'm not even hating on
like some of the things that looked like a gimmick.
I get you can't bat a thousand, but you risked
player safety and you now look kind of sexist, irrespective
of if you are or not.
Speaker 6: We're also not even talking about the fact that there
were players.
Speaker 5: Who were saying I'm getting migraines from this, which if
anyone ever grew up like we have all those images
of kids with their feet with their face two feet
or two inches from a screen or an iPad or
TV whatever, like, you're also running into that exact same issue.
I just I have so many questions and I don't
understand how the Big Twelve didn't see any of this coming.
And whatever their intention may have or may have not been,
it looks really bad because it looks like you were
willing to take more money in exchange for risking player safety.
Speaker 3: Definitely looks like that, for sure. I appreciate all of
your comments. You wonder, uh, look, he's over two with
courts last year it wasn't esthetically pleasing on TV. You
have to wonder if he wanted to give the viewers
a better opportunity to see it, but it wasn't tested.
Player safety is the biggest thing. I'm glad they got
it right in the end because Christian Anderson and all
American who I will believe. If he can't go, that
is not good and the Big Twelve is responsible for that.
We will see check out the rest of our ESPN.
The fan started a line of Brett mentioned it, We're
gonna actually play a clip from Pat McAfee with him
on the show brett Or Mark about the court, and
we get into that a little bit. Then we'll get
into some postgame comments from Kevin Young Bau did not
advance to the semi final against Uston. They lost, but
is that a good or a bad thing. We'll discuss
that later in our question today. Laine Alo, the owner
and operator of a Game. Dave Mins Health and Pleasant
Girl would joined us at three zero five. At a
four h five, Darnold Dixon of Daily Herol will join
us for a little cougar beat at four point thirty.
We're gonna get into my interview with raiderdu Mooney got
a chance to catch up with one of the Safeties.
Remember we had Kelly Papingo on the show. K Pop
said that Raider has been standing out, not just in
the weight room but making place. We'll get it caught
up with him, and then Chancer Johnson Big twelve Endless
content creator Insider will join us at five oh five
to tell us about why they change the chord and
a little bit and about why an age of debons
get Big twelve Player of the Year. I know they're
still lingering a little bit, and then at five thirty
we'll close out the show. Excuse me, my apologies. Sam
Haffi will join us at five oh five, my apologies,
and then Chancer Johnson joined us at five thirty to
close out the show. Sam will join us from eight
to one. Bracketology, is BYU a six seed? And if
they are, are they going to Portland? And if they
get matched up Wiggins zagat is that the best three
seed that they could do to get to the sweet sixteen?
I firmly believe with the way BYU is playing right now,
they could be back in the sweet sixteen. That's they're stealing.
I won't go higher than that, but we'll talk to
Sam and see what he has. At five oh five,
without further ado, let's go ahead and get back into
our starting lineup. Welcome in the face and the host
of the show. We got Big Krital back in studio.
Been how we're doing?
Speaker 6: Guys are back, baby.
Speaker 4: Look. I love my team because you know, in my
life there's a lot of things going on and I
gotta be able to rely on fantastic teammates like you,
roddy As and it's especially Brett always bringing the hammer
so I appreciate you guys tipping off the show for us.
Uh yeah, five ft eleven hundred and eighty five pounds
can maybe possibly run a five flat forty Maybe. I
don't know still if I'm still capable of that. But
it's great. It's a great day to be a Cougar.
It's great to be on the show with you fine
gentlemen today. And look, is this a blessing in disguise
that BYU men's basketball lost this?
Speaker 3: Yes, it is.
Speaker 4: It is. It's the silver lining of it all that
they are playing really good basketball right now. The fact
that aj did agent didn't even touch the ball in
the last five minutes? Right? Was that?
Speaker 7: What thing? So like?
Speaker 3: I don't like?
Speaker 4: It felt like a Jackson Robinson lesson. Ye remember when
Jackson Ronson in the NCAA tournament versus Dushane and the
fighting Lebron James shoe you know, because Lebron gave him
all shoes before the tip off, and I'm like, all,
we're gonna lose. We're gonna lose cause Lebron is It
went viral with giving Shane basketball shoes, like he didn't
touch the ball in the last like six minutes and
we lost that game because Jackson Robinson wasn't getting the touches.
We lost this game because aj Debonson wasn't getting touches.
Our best player, the number one overall pick, and that
is unfortunate. It just is. But guess what the silver
lining is. We get to rest up, hewl up, get
ready to actually play on a real basketball court in
the NCAA tournament. Most likely I'm feeling it in Portland,
maybe taking on Miami Ohio, maybe taking on the three
seed Gonzaga after that, and getting to back to back
Sweet sixteens. We've never done it before, ladies and gentlemen.
But the way the form of the fashion this boay
men's basketball team is playing right now, they are playing
like a Sweet sixteen team. How do I know that
Houston is an Elite eight team. Houston is most likely
an Elite eight team with the potential to be a
Final four team. So if you're playing head to head
like that versus an Elite eight team, at least okay,
you can make it to a Sweet sixteen in my opinion,
So I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty I would
say optimistic about BYU Man's basketball right now, and shout
out to Brett or Mark for finally changing the floor too.
I know you guys went off on a diet drive
to start off to tip off the show, and it
is much needed. Now, what should Brett have done? Like,
where could we have trialed this particular court. I know
the due diligence was supposedly done overseas, right, and you
had that study, you had it on the NBA, you
know All Star court, right? But is that enough? Was
that enough to validate the jump to the led glass.
Speaker 5: Floor someone else had mentioned I'm glad you bring up
this point. I saw somebody on barstool today talking about how,
like experiments are not new in college basketball.
Speaker 6: Remember when we used.
Speaker 5: To have the game's play on an air Force carrier. Look,
it didn't work. The idea of it was really cool,
but like it didn't work. It's cool to try experiments.
This feels like something you would do maybe in a
non con game or like one of those mid season tournaments.
I'd be good with that, but it is really odd
that the first time you want to run this out
is during Big twelve championship tournament. That feels like you're
running some risks and I said it this morning, like,
there's no way that this was player tested. There is
no way the Big Twelve had their own survey and
their own data of players playing on it. A because
who would you have gotten and B had you run
your own players on this court, they would have told you,
hey man, this is a little bit slippery.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Now if they had, maybe they did do that. And
if they did that, they were told its slippery and
they ran it out. Anyway, when we found that out,
it's even worse. But it just makes it really hard
for me to believe that you truly play or tested
this because if you had, you would have known about
all these issues before you got to the Big Twelve tournament.
Speaker 4: So where could you have in a economical way gone
through the proof of concept where you got proper feedback?
Does that make sense? Like? And I don't know where
you would have done it at, because it's not like
you have like, uh, like a high school basketball tournament
that you'd put put it on, like you know what
I mean? Like, I don't know where you would have
done it at. Do you give a practice floor? Can
you have a practice floor like installed somewhere where you're
you know what I mean like.
Speaker 6: Installing one right now. That's not a yeah, you.
Speaker 4: Know what I mean though, It's like, and I'm so
I understand, like he is a he is an individual
Brett you or Mark always thinking outside the box. He's
he's an individual that's always pressing the envelope. But this one,
this one flopped, man, this one really was. It could
be devastating to the big token Christian because Christian Anderson's
groin injury. It could be devastating and it's unfortunate, it
really is. And there's a liability issue here too. You
wonder it's like did the guy sign off on playing
on this slippery floor? And is their lawsuits on the
back end. We'll get to it here on your Utah
ESPN Radio network. So got a great show for you.
Uh you already mentioned the nitty gritty and or excuse
me all the starting Lineuphy, don't we get into the
nitty gritty and get into some of this post game sound.
It's a silver lining type of show. It's a silver
lining type of day. Let's get into the post game
and you know what, celebrate. This is the first time
I ever celebrate the loss to the Houston Cougars nitty
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Speaker 3: And gentlemen, we have please present ours with that interpretation
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five Complete Circuit Electric Utah dot Com. All right, let's
get into some postgame sounds, shall we. BYU almost got
the victory, and you would never hear me celebrate and
almost got the victory, you know, on our show sixty
six seventy three, the Cougars are now twenty three and
eleven on the season, the Houston Cougars end up twenty
seven and five. They are going moving on to the
semi final. We wish them luckily, wish them well and
luckily for them they don't have to play on the
glass floor led floor anymore. But let's find out what
maybe the silver linings are right now, what key wise
takeaways were from this game? From this outing Kevin Young's
opening statement post game after falling to the Houston Cougars.
Speaker 7: Yeah, credit to Houston. They played a good game. They
deserve to win. They made the plays when that were
necessary down the stretch.
Speaker 4: And you know, we you know, when you.
Speaker 7: Play Houston, you got to you got to keep the
possession game pretty close.
Speaker 4: That you can.
Speaker 7: You know, there are too many offensive rebounds down a stretch.
You know, turned this over too much, and we turned
them over as well. But that was really a story.
And then and then Fleming's a special player, made big play.
Speaker 4: So give them credit. Yeah, Kingston's a nice he is
very nice. Ronald. Let's let's pontificate a little bit on this.
We know how good. Uh you know Kingston is we
know how good good? You know Tuglar Eves and there's
foul trouble early on. We were discussing in the post game, uh,
you know over at the house at the crib, just
what should have happened. Uh, even though it's a silver
lining and I'm glad, I'm kind of glad, b why
you actually lost to the Houston Cougars. I know there's
a lot of people that'd be like one of Judo
chopped me to the throat, right, but like we couldn't
get better. I don't think we would had to win
the NC. We would have had to win the Big
twelve tournament in order to get a five seed. Yeah,
we would have to win it all like, and I
just so, I'd rather just take the sixth seed and
most likely you may be heading to Portland because you
may be that last sixth seed and that actually is
quite fortuitous. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Anyway, let's
talk about if we did want to actually win this game,
what we would have done. Ronald.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mentioned the tia and I told
Bread this morning. I had a lot of thoughts last
night because that's just how it is after I think
the former you know player haven't played sports like man,
just watching it. When Houston gets in foul trouble like that. Man,
if you had told me Kingston Fleming would have four,
Tugler would have four, Emmanuel Sharp would have three. By
you shoots over forty percent, Ben from three and from
the field, I'd be like, oh, Houston's dead to right,
no doubt. But no, by you shot nine to twenty
eight in the second half, shot out the AJM brick
and Kevin Durant scoring record for the most of the
tournament in three games, shot out to him with that.
But I think the biggest thing, and I got confirmation
is Jackson Pain of the Desert News has been on
our show and he said I can bring up his
take again. Byu doesn't have a feost. They don't have.
You gotta have scoring in the post, Ben, and they
don't have the When I look at what Tugler did,
when I look at what Sanak Junior did, and I
look at Caba Mahilo and hadem not good enough, Like
it's not like it is. Kaba had eight points, thirteen boards, right,
he did he did well. He didn't play terrible in
the moments, but losing offensive rebounds, b Doo comes in
being Abdullah like. I mean, when you're losing rebounds and
frankfrs Schilla is yelling on the broadcast of like, b
Doo can't let that happen. He's got to be stronger,
he'd like Kevin Young just mentioned too many offensive rebounds
down the stretch, and I thought the reason why they
lost the game was the bigs. I know that they
ran out of legs, you know, playing three days in
three nights. But when you have a post player, Ben,
when you can work through the posts, that allows Rob to,
you know, relax a little bit, That allows AJ to
relax it because what was Aj doing?
Speaker 4: Ben?
Speaker 3: What if I criticized AJ for all the time I
put it on Twitter, I'm not gonna run from it.
It's trying to draw outs sometimes, trying to get the
whistle when things aren't going and some of those warfowles.
I don't want to act like they're not, But when
the officials aren't giving you the calls, Ben, what do
you say? You say this in football you gotta jest right,
and they don't. So that's my only criticism. And look,
when he gets to the NBA, he's going to get those.
But all of that couple with is when AJ's doing
that and Rob isn't getting that, and they can't get
to the free throw line. To slow the game down,
you need a post play, you need it back to
the basket big and they haven't really had that. And
I look, Ben, I know, I want to change my
take from a couple of weeks ago. I said, you know,
Dalla Hall, we said, Trevor Neil More what mag No,
it's fustraire. If Fus was on this team, he would
be able to give him the paints touches that they
need to slow down. He was not a bad passer
out of the paint either, being Cape's not the passer
that Fus was. And Abdullah is just nowhere near passing.
Don't even let him touch the ball. But I thought
that's what happened. I thought Tugler and Sanak and their
bigs completely controlled the glass and dominated the big man game,
and it was a struggle for Kiba to be out
there alone. And then Mahai Loo hadem and beat who
just didn't give enough. And when you're playing a top
ten defense like Houston, all of those guys have to
contribute over last one of them, and they just they
came out short. But it's okay. I think they'll learn.
That's the best they played Houston, ben since they've been
in a conference. Like for the fact that they had
the lead at halftime, I would not have predicted that,
But tip of the cap to it. They they didn't
quit there in a third iteration, but that's why they
lost the game. To give you my analysis, I thought
the bigs last night and collectively let them down.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed, great breakdown, Kevin Uh you brought up turnovers
triple the amount of turners you guys had against Houston
the first go around. What was Houston doing so well?
Was it self inflicted or was the just the issue
just just turning the ball over?
Speaker 7: Yeah, some of it we were, you know, we were
driving in the crowds for sure. But I'll just cut
to the chase right of the gate. AJ took ten
free throws. Rob Wright took four, and I don't ever
go there. And and again Houston beat U Stone cold
beat they.
Speaker 4: Won the game.
Speaker 7: AJ should have shot twenty free throws minimum in that game.
Rob Bright only shoots four free throws, Guy drives every
time and then Sharp shoots ten. And I'm not saying
the officials were like, oh, we're gonna give Houston.
Speaker 4: Calls and not be ware.
Speaker 7: I'm not suggesting that in any form for fashion. I
thought they flat out misscalls, bottom line, and that led
us some turnovers, that led us some frustration, and so
that's disappointing, you know. And again I think to your
actual question of the turnovers, yeah, I mean just we
drove into a crowd too much.
Speaker 4: Minimum. He leaned in, like like when you stutter, when
you lean into the mic and you you enunciate minimum minimum.
You heard every single valve there. You heard every single
consonant minimum. It means a little bit more agree or
disagree with his assessment. Brent always bring in the Hammer
Hammer time show.
Speaker 5: I love that he said, I'm just gonna go there, Like,
So what that means is he knew he wanted to
say this. He was just waiting for someone to ask
the right question for him to give that answer. I
do agree. I actually saw some tweets from national people
who hadn't watched a lot of YU games where they're like,
why are they swallowing the whistle with AJ like, is
it like this every time?
Speaker 6: They haven't watched a lot of BYU, And I'm like, yep, look.
Speaker 5: I think of this. This issue is twofold, right. Number
one is the Big twelve. They let you play a
little bit, but number two to combat that is the
Big twelve refs. I don't want to say have an ego,
but I will say they take pride in their job.
And I think what you've seen, not just in college
but in basketball as a whole, as you've seen players
trying to take advantage of getting to the free throw line,
playing disingenuous basketball. I'm talking about Oklahoma City. You're finding
out that it's better metric wise, it's more efficient for
you to get to the free throw line. So what
do you do. You find ways to exaggerate certain things
because you know you have a higher percent chance of
getting points if you get to the line. AJ, through
a lot of this season said I'm gonna find ways
to get myself to the line, and maybe at the
beginning it worked, but part of the way through the season,
the Big twelve refs, I'm assuming got together at some
point and said, look, we cannot just let him get
to the line if he has no intention of actually
shooting the basketball. And as much as we love AJ,
there were certain times where he was more interested in
getting to the line than he was playing through contact
and getting the shot up. So it's a little bit
of both, but unfortunately it's it's I don't want to say, boy,
you cried wolf, but you moved margins enough so that
once you got to the Big Twelve tournament. The decision
at that point the Big Twelve officials had made was
we're not gonna let you abuse us to get to
the line, and so when it came to the biggest stage,
they decided to swallow their whistle with AJ.
Speaker 6: I do think and you can't say that the officiating was.
Speaker 5: Horrible, right because they put Kingston Flemings in foul trouble.
They put a manual sharp infol trouble like they did
call it, but it was specific to a J at least,
and you can have the argument about Rob as well,
but it was felt specific to AJ that they said
we're not going to give calls and like, again, what's
what does Kevin Young care if the Big Twelve finds
him or they got it. I'm sure Crumble will pay
for it. I'm sure it'll get all taken care of.
I love Kevin Young for just going at it and
saying this is exactly what's on my mind.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you wonder has anyone put together the montage with
miss foul calls yet with a with a k Y
on the back end saying minimum, you know I need
I need that, I need all the misscalls because I mean,
do you do we agree with that? I mean, look,
there's obviously been miss calls, like I mean, whistles for
AJ have been intermittently right, and we've criticized him for
looking for those, yes, right, looking for those calls. Was
he looking for them as much or was he actually
when got but they weren't being called.
Speaker 5: I think he has evolved because again we heard it.
I saw I talked about this yesterday. We heard him
say in postgame I gotta stop doing that. Yeah, yeah,
So I think he has evolved and grown to the
point where like he is trying to get the shot
and he's not ignoring the fact that he could get fouled.
But you kind of waffle back and forth, and now
Fischer said, we don't even care if you're actually going
for the shot.
Speaker 6: We're just gonna take it away.
Speaker 5: And then to Ron's point, like he's played three games
in three days, and that man is tired. So if
I can get a little extra bump that will get
me to the line, I think that helps. I think
it's a little bit.
Speaker 3: Of both men. Can I give you some numbers. One
of the analysts, Miles, I forgot his name, correct me.
Bred helped me with the guy forgot his name anyway,
it doesn't matter. He's Simon Miles, Simon seventy six minutes ago.
Wildcats go Wildcats, right seventy seventy six minutes before the
Houston game. It's a lot on your legs. AJ played
all forty that's one hundred and sixteen minutes. I'm pretty
sure that's a lot of minutes been in three games.
So and this is where it happened. I think at
first there are three fouls where I'm like, okay, that
should have been called. Then there's one AJ that's fifty fifty.
They gave it a Tuggler. It could have gone both ways.
And then I think he was tired, be because remember
that one when Tugler's playing great d and he tries
to the NBA does this the hand in there where
he's defending in the face and you're allowed to do
this in college, but in the NBA you're not. And
he tries to rip through and get the foul and
looks on on like, AJ, that's not gonna be called
that's not gonna be called a thing now or I
think in the NCAA tournament that's just not an NBA
call that you're gonna get in college. But again it
goes back to what registered. I think he got it.
I think at that point he's like, all right, I'm
trying to get to the basket, Ben, and now I'm
not getting the calls and I'm not Now okay, now
let me see if I can, you know, draw some
contacts away from the whistle. And it didn't, And I
think that was what it What it did they get, Look,
you gotta tip your cap to this team. Then didn't
quit when Richie Sunders went down, Ben, they struggled. They
figure hear it out and because of playing in this
Big twelve. I think that's why they can see the
second weekend. I'm being honest when I said I don't
think that's hyperbaly. I think they've really found something and
even the minutes with Dominique Diamonde, they're playing defense. They're
really locked in. So there's no shame in losing to
the number two seeded team in the tournament, a top
ten team in the country, and a top ten defensive team.
Speaker 4: Most importantly, Yes, indeed, a couple of last things before
we go to break, because I do think we need
to discuss AJ's night. Some people would say that maybe
weren't watching it closely, that he had an off night.
There was a reporter that as you know, hey, with
this off night that AJ had offensively, you know, you know,
how would you evaluate AJ? Why did this happen? This
is what Kate Why had to.
Speaker 7: Say, How do you have off ninety seven of eighteen
from the field, nine to ten from the free throw line,
three or five from the field that had twenty six points?
Not a.
Speaker 4: Blake? I love how solid Ky gets and it's a
rut that I'm during the question Kevin, he presses these
media members.
Speaker 5: So I hate to go back to my Spencer Linton
time history. But one of the things that Spencer always
told me is like, if you're gonna ask a question
where you use a word like off night, or poor shooting,
then you need to also state whatever number you're using
that backs that up. And I I I just I
when I was and growing up as a as a journalist, like,
questions are very important, and if you're gonna say AJ
had an off night, then you need to bring the
number that you feel backs that up, because I think.
Speaker 6: Jay Drew maybe I'm trying to remember.
Speaker 5: Somebody in the BYU media asked the question of Kevin
Young somewhat insinuating off night or whatever, and he had
numbers to back it up, and Kevin Young was very
complimentary about having a conversation where he was like, I
don't necessarily fee that feel that way, but I see
why you're bringing up based on that number. Now, the
worst time to ask someone why they're having it enough night.
The worst time is right after they just went off
on a diet tribe saying I don't care if I
get fined going off on the referees.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 6: So I feel for reporters when they get blasted by
coaches for no reason.
Speaker 4: That was not one of those times.
Speaker 3: This is not a local reporter in our market, by
the way, this is someone else saw. I was not
surprised by this, Ben And I just want to give
some context because I post you got posted to your Twitter.
Here's jon Leine Campbell that put a reply. Any player
will love an off night like that. Good grief. People's
perception gets this oriented without free without the free throws,
DNP would have had eleven points twenty nine percent shooting,
and yet everyone is singing his praise. It's silly.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 3: It's a narrative thing.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed, not a bad night. Let's go to number four. Right,
let's go to it by his standards, though, uh maybe,
uh maybe he could have done more. Look, he did this,
serve to have a few more touches in the final
five minutes. If anything, I'm gonna put it on hey, K,
why why didn't get The better question would have been
why didn't aj touch the ball in the last five minutes?
He probably could have put up a thirty to forty piece.
What do you got?
Speaker 7: He can do everything on the court that you want
a basketball player to do. And I'm not trying to
get snappy. I think I thought he played a great
offensive game and should have had Like I said, the
guys should have had forty again, And I'm just calling
a spade of spade. He's his combination of size, skill,
mental capacity, processing, speed and it factor.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, if anything, if you wanted to throw
something at K why he's like why didn't he touch
the ball in the last five minutes? That would even
fair yep, And then Ky would have been like, you know,
he he's not gonna come back.
Speaker 6: And be like, oh he did. He was like okay,
but he didn't score. So where where like that is
a that is a fair question.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep, yep. Let's take a time out. That segment, guys,
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some of the sound bites BYU did lose to the
Houston Cougars, but in our opinion here at ESPN the Fan,
this is a good thing. Get rested up Friday, Saturday,
Selection Day Sunday, and then you get into the NCAA
tournament and you're a six seed. Anyway, guy, you're a
cit You'd have to win it all to be elevated
to a five seed. It is what it is. Let's
take that sixth seed and run with it. I think
it'll provide a nice pathway to the sweet sixteen fingers crossed.
That's well, thyugh get that's where they will end up.
Let's get back to the sound though, b what you
lost to Houston. It was announced AJ that you broke
the Big twelve tournament scoring record held by Kevin Durant.
It is a bit ironic because that is his favorite
play or believe all time, and it models his game
after Katie uh And. So obviously personal accolades are not
your focus, but has that you know, has this conference
record been impactful for you? What would you say about it?
Speaker 8: I'll speak with the accolades, not special Kevin Durant. Obviously
everybody knows he's my favor players. So that was the
only record I broke of his this weekend, So it
feels good to just break his records. How did it
prepare us for the March? Like the rail run, I
mean a lot. We needed some extra games under our belt.
So we were actually saying in locker room that we're
happy that we played in that first in the first
two games, you know, kind of showed our identity. We're
about perseverance, or about resiliency, and then you know, to
play Houston, I don't. I don't think any other team
plays as hard as Houston in the country. So to
be able to play them twice and get that type
of feedback and to get that type of film, I
think we'll be prepared for the tournament.
Speaker 4: That's aja pontificating about it. Look, he's a team for
this guy. I mean, I think he appreciates the individual
individual accolades, and he's competitive and his individual accolades. When
Champs Philip Johnson was asking him the question in the
post game, you know, in the aftermath of the Big
twelve Player of the Year award being an announced and
it wasn't given to him, No disrespect to anybody that
was a candidate, right, but he was like, yeah, I
thought I should have won it, but I also understand
what it's a team game, and I should have won
more ball games from my team. I should have won
more ball games from my team. And that's what makes
him so mature. We were kind of taken back by it,
right or were we were we surprised by it or
we were just like, oh, yeah, that's a j I
think we were kind of back and forth with because
we still view him as like a young eighteen nineteen
year old young man. That's yeah, he's gonna be the
first row of ball draft pick and he's got a
lot of ego. But I don't know if we expected
him to kind of deflect and say, yeah, I should
have won more games for my team.
Speaker 5: Because the answer I think that you're expecting, if it's
not yeah I should have won, is yeah, it's not that.
Speaker 4: Big a deal.
Speaker 6: I don't really care about the yeah, that's the answer
that you're expecting. It's not that big a deal.
Speaker 5: And both of those answers are like a seven out
of ten answer. He gave the ten out of ten answer,
and I think that's what surprised us. But to AJ's credit,
like he's gonna get the only accolade that matters, and
that is being the number one overall pick because because
guess what, that's a bigger accolade than the Wooden Award
than the Naatesmith Like that's a bigger that's a bigger accolade.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I'm sure he thinks it's cool.
Speaker 5: I thought the more interesting part of that quote was
playing three games this week, because if you think about it.
There's some guys who only played one game this week
or two and then there or can you imagine you
played one game on Tuesday or Wednesday and then you're
hanging out for like a week and a half until
you play next Thursday or Friday.
Speaker 6: AJ makes a really good point.
Speaker 5: They got a lot of really good games and one
of which is probably gonna be a Sweet sixteen, maybe
a Final four team in Houston. So it's not even
like you're playing scrubs for the week. You are legitimately
practicing for the NCAA tournament, which Kevin Young told us
all season that was why they scheduled their non coln
that way. They want to simulate NCAA tournament games as
much as they possibly can, and what better way to
do that than playing Houston in a neutral site.
Speaker 4: It was great, man, It really was, minus the led
court and everyone slipping. Although did the dunk? Did the
poster dunk that AJ dropped on?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: Houston? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Is the one who slipped?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he slipped, you know what I mean? And then
it was over Tugs. Uh did it? Did the slipper
before contribute to that?
Speaker 5: I'd like to say no, but it was guess what
you know, who was guarding agent the final six minutes.
You want to take a guess Emmanuel Sharp?
Speaker 4: Yes, so, And you wonder why Sharp had such a
poor performance. He couldn't hit because he had to probably
guard to Aj a little bit everyone.
Speaker 5: He also missed a lot of time because he got
so many fouls. And I wonder if maybe the court
contributed to that. You don't hear the leverage that that
you want to have. The other thing that you no
contributed to that was uh, I think they said on
the broadcast last night. Kelvin Sampson was saying that Kingston
Flemings had never run a mile on a track before
and that and for everyone who doesn't know, like that's
kind of their litmus test that Houston is you have
to run like a sub six minute mile, and his
first time ever running a mile five minute eight seconds.
I don't think in my entire life I've ever run
a five minute mile. So shout out to Kingston Flemings
and shout out.
Speaker 4: To Kevin Sick. I will say the whole team, like,
you know, it's interesting. I'll give you an anecdote here
because everyone's just think I'm a football guy. So I
have to like balance everybody else every once in a while,
because I know, even Ronald, even Bratt, you guys all
think I'm just a football just a dumb football jo,
dumb football jockey. The need I remind you in eighth grade,
I was a state champion at Hillcrest Middle School. Baby,
that's right. And I did play high school basketball of
oursity all that stuff. But like we we had a really,
really really good team in a eighth grade you know,
we had to do every single day before practice.
Speaker 3: You did not run a mile every day.
Speaker 4: We had to run a freaking mile every day. We
had to beat it every time, so like we would
gauge it like so we started off or like okay,
like we had to be sub like I think we
had to be like sub nine minutes or something like
that to start us off at the beginning of the season. Broh, kid,
you not in eighth grade. By the end of the season,
I was running a five forty five mile in eighth grade,
I believe it, and we and look like we would
press we would run. I mean, you know, there's a
reason why we ended up winning the state champion because
we were in phenomenal shape and we could run with
just about it. We got, we had some great players,
et cetera. But honestly, our eighth grade coach should have
probably been our varsity head coach. Like anyway, that's neither
here nor there, but like, running a mile under six
minutes is very difficult. It's very very difficult. You got
to be in a phenomenal cardiovascular shape. So that's an anecdote.
Anyone that's tried to go sub six six minutes and
made it, I salute you. That's a tough thing.
Speaker 3: We should have Kevin Young's squad do that. Ben, I mean,
can you tell me that you didn't see this yesterday?
The team that runs sub six minute miles, we're diving
on the led floor getting all the fifty to fifty
balls and they weren't exhausted. I get that that was
their first game, but they're never exhausted when you have
when you have Tuggler, Ben Tugler, Tuggler running a sub
six mile, Like the average mile last last year I
think was like five thirty or five forty five. I'm like,
that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed, it's it's Hey, you gotta go, and you
gotta be in good shape. No, doubt about it. So
let's go back to the sound here along the lines
with coach has asked, what gives you guys, you know,
some confidence, some swagger. There's been a lot of injuries
over the last few weeks. How are you guys gonna
make a run in the tournament?
Speaker 2: I think it's just we found our identity as a team.
I mean, we got role players stepping up like Dom
Alexey saying big shots for us, even moveing playing great
the last couple of games. So I think he's just
figuring out who we are as a team.
Speaker 4: Well, he said the identity do we do? We really
feel like they finally found because like, let's be honest,
remember when AJ and Rob and and and the others,
We're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine, We'll figure
it out. We're getting our identity. Remember like a month
and a half ago, Like after like a win two
months ago, we're like, oh, yeah, we got our identity.
We're gonna we're gonna figure it out. Like we're like,
I don't know if we were convinced at that time.
Speaker 6: I wasn't.
Speaker 4: I wasn't ronigh Am now, but I wasn't. Okay, So
we're all believing.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't. Yeah, no, I believe. Again, I did not
believe I picked him to lose like four games in
a row.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Yeah, I think we're believers. Now. How much confidence
does it give you, guys, knowing the workload et cetera,
that you carry every single night. That look, you guys
can can rely on others too, don playing minutes, Alexi move.
All these guys stepping up when it matters most.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're just coming together at right time. I mean,
like both of them said, we just figured out who
we are and we just everyone's just stepping up.
Speaker 4: Everyone's stepping up, everyone's stepping up. What did you guys learn?
What did you learn about last year? Ten weeks in
a row with the Big twelve play you're about to leave.
Now you're going to play some really good opponents. You
got a lot of eyeballs on you, et cetera. Give
us a little fresh breakdown of this.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it's been you know, it's funny when
you like, we were here. I think here we had
Big twelve media day. You were at the MC for
that too, So we had it in this building and
it was interesting at the coaches panel, just the amount
of respect that all the coaches in this league have
for this league. I think those that follow our league
extra closely understand every single night feels like Game seven
in the NBA Playoffs series.
Speaker 4: The physicality, the.
Speaker 7: Talent, the coaching, it's all at an extremely high level.
So I really I feel fortunate to be in this
league because I do think it prepares you literally for
anything in the country relative and that's you know, to
your point, you're gonna play a good team in any
game in the NCAA tournament. But yes, I think this
league prepares you because there's different styles and so forth,
and you know, the and I don't know if this
necessarily isn't a Big twelve specific thing, but the tournament's
so interesting because you're not You're just not as familiar
right with the opponent, right, And so getting out of
the Big Twelve and being able to go, you know,
see some fresh faces and things like that will be good.
But I think to your actual question, what prepares you most.
Speaker 4: Is just the gauntlet of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 7: And I think when you can get through that and
not not sinc I think that that in and of
itself gives teams and coaches a lot of confidence heading
into the tournament.
Speaker 4: There you go, that's k why discussing the refining fire
of the Big twelve conference?
Speaker 8: We know it.
Speaker 4: And I was looking at like quad quad one opportunities
this year. Seventeen seventeen quad one games on the schedule,
so over half your games set. And BA was seven
to ten on those quad one opportunities, seven to one
versus quad two teams. Right, they had let one loss
versus UCF at home. That was a quad two because
it was at home and your loss, and.
Speaker 5: If you have Ritchie you probably would Yeah, I think
if you have Richie you probably wouldn't.
Speaker 4: The most likely most likely. Right then, that definitely hurt.
But even then, like they were over complicating things defensively,
and I feel bad to a degree how harsh we
were on maybe some of the players. You wonder when
a player is hesitant or looks lazy, is it because
of coaching and scheme or is it because of the
individual effort. We're seeing a revitalized team, maybe more effort.
Maybe that's the sense of urgency, it's marge et cetera.
But you also have an indication that the coaching staff
was over complicating things defensively, and that's why they were
maybe lost. That's why they were hesitant, That's why they
were vacillating, That's why they were they were slow to react.
When you overcomplicate things, all the kid is doing is
thy thing rather than doing.
Speaker 5: I think it really helps. I know I've harped on
the sky a lot, but I think it really helps
having a Dominique Diamande on the floor to be maybe
not your primary defender. Sometimes he is your primary defender
and sometimes he's your secondary defender. But either way, the
way that Canard and Dominique together have been able to
shoulder a lot of that offensive load makes it a
lot easier on everybody else on the floor, so that
Rob and aj they don't have to give their absolute
one and ten percent on the defensive end when they're
already giving it on the offensive end like you don't.
You're not forced into shootouts anymore because you have two
guys who can primarily stop pretty much anybody you're you're
going to go against, unless you're playing against the Kingston
Flemings or Copede or Darren Peterson, which you will because
it's the dangers of this league.
Speaker 6: But I'll promise you this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess I can't promise you, but I'd be
willing to bet a lot of money whoever you play
in the first round of the NCAA tournament and maybe
the second round. I'd be willing to bet they don't
have a first round NBA draft pick on their team,
which you've seen for a lot of your games this season.
Speaker 6: And if that's the case, that.
Speaker 4: Will give you a little bit of a breather, no doubt, Ronald,
your assessment of Dom and his defensive effort.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't say what I really want to say,
but I'll just leave it at that. Don't start laughing.
Speaker 4: Don't you do it the fifth round.
Speaker 3: I'm pleading the fifth hard. We'll talk off record, That's
all I'll say. But no, I mean, look, he's an
orthodox guy that's completely gritty, like he does not want
to quit. I mean, look, he's the guy that's gonna
hound you probably value every play. He's the guy in cagedable.
You're like, dude, I don't I just I don't want
to see that. That's the guy.
Speaker 6: You're like, no, not him, Yeah, like can he guard
somebody else? Please?
Speaker 3: Exactly? It's like not me not, because you know that
every time you touch the balls sports with the Deem,
You're like, all right, this dude has a lot of energy.
With Dom is like he gonna bother you. He might
one hundred percent. Like this guy's like, am I gonna
get bumped in want of foul? And I get fouled
and then when he fouls me, am I gonna want
to get up? Like he's that guy you know the
whole time. But they need him, and Brett you and
I said it. You know, Ben, you had alluded to
it weeks ago. Was that the guy on the roster,
And remember he got the chance in the Utah game
picked up three quick fouls, and I'm like, okay, can't
do that. But now with Richie they need him, and
he's been playing great minutes, getting steals, pokes, And I
think that's what it's gonna come down to. By U's path,
Ben further will come down to Hadeem dom Alexi Koachs Knar.
I don't think it's gonna be a J and Robb
and people are gonna say, well, Ron, they could take
We know what we can see out of a J
and Robb. We see it offensively. I think it's gonna
come down to it. In the words of Shaquille o'nia
the others, what are the others going to do for
this roster in march madness?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean to keep it politically correct. I mean
Dom has been playing defense like Tyrone Bigghams. And if
you don't Tyrone Biggams like, you gotta google him. Anyway.
He gets crazy with it, no doubt about it. He's jitter,
He's going everywhere. He's got high energy. Man. He rows
with it. Guys, let's get into a few more soundbites
before we call this a segment here. AJ, you're very
competitive as a result of this loss. You look at
the opportunity to place Darren Peterson. Is that disappointing? We
were hoping for another matchup. We were hoping for another
head to head Darren Peterson versus AJ. This is what
he had to say.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean if they win to night, I mean
TC also has a chance to win. The almost beat
him at their place over there. So I mean I
was hoping I come out this game, would have win
and just be ready to play whoever is playing next.
But I mean it would have been nice to play
Kansas again. We take one off at their place, so
I mean, it would have been nice to go playing
him again and get a win.
Speaker 4: It doesn't even sound like he's even thinking about that stuff.
Speaker 6: I'm sure he's not.
Speaker 4: He wasn't even thinking about that.
Speaker 6: I don't know if that's a great question, Like, I
don't know, Yeah, this is.
Speaker 4: What it is. Final thing. You've been pretty candid about
this being an up and down season. How much as
has it been kind of a reward these last couple
of games, these last couple of weeks to see your
third iteration come together and start playing great ball? Ky?
Why it's great? I appreciate that question. Very very is
the answer, and not just for me, you know, I
can I can see it on the guys.
Speaker 7: You know, every everyone in our locker room is extremely competitive,
you know, and you know we had some dark times
even recently, you know, but we were able to just
push through it and.
Speaker 4: Just like there's always a way, just pound the rock.
Speaker 7: And we've you know, used every cliche in the coaching
book probably in that space. But it's been rewarding because
you know, when you go through adversity, adversity, you know,
it really does bring groups together. I think it's brought
our group closer together. I think, you know, our I
think it's brought our fan base closer together. You know,
I think that the moment we had at home in
our last home game, I think the fans knew how
much we needed that went. So I think it's really
galvanized all the Cougar nation. It's galvanized our locker room,
our coaching staff, you know, the young households galvanized a
little bit more, which is nice. And so and this
is something I told our guys a couple of weeks ago,
and and I learned this last year. And uh, you know,
I was fortunate in the NBA to be on some
really good teams. We were, you know, two wins away
from winning an NBA championship.
Speaker 3: And what I shared with the guys was that was cool.
Speaker 7: But there's absolutely nothing like playing in the in March
madness in the tournament, like even cooler for me than
going to the NBA finals.
Speaker 4: And I really just I can't wait for AJ two.
Speaker 7: Experience Rob obviously has experienced under his belt, so to
be able to have some good energy heading into that
unbelievable opportunity that we're gonna getting ready to get into.
Speaker 4: It's just super exciting. Wow, Okay, hampertime, your thoughts are
reaction your commentary to that Cougar byte that shound by
from k Why baby bigger.
Speaker 6: Than going to the NBA Finals?
Speaker 4: Crazy?
Speaker 5: And this is not a guy hypothetically who I'd like
to be there someday, like I imagine it's this great.
He's been there. Yeah, he's never been to a college
basketball national championship. No, he's never been to a Final four.
He's telling you that the environment, the energy, the vibe
of playing in the NCAA tournament, playing the big dance,
the march madness that we all love as sports fans,
Kevin Young feels that, which is pretty incredible. Kevin Young
always has seemed like a grateful guy, but it means
so much coming from him because there's probably.
Speaker 6: A lot of college basketball coaches who could say that
and you'd say.
Speaker 5: Well, you've never coached in the NBA, so like, I'm
glad that you think it's a big deal, but like you've.
Speaker 6: Never really been there.
Speaker 5: To say that, Kevin Young has legitimately coached in an
NBA finals and he's telling you March madness is that
much cooler which is pretty awesome for us, because I
think the average sports fan would say, and I love
the NBA, I love the NBA Finals. There's just nothing
that comp to the survive and advanced mentality of the
NCAA tournament. So for Kevin Young to say that that
is big time, that's incredible, and it also means he
revers it as a coach, he revers it as a
fan of the game, and hopefully that energy is so
infectious with his team that they love this tournament and
they find a way to make a run through the
dance Ronnie.
Speaker 4: Your thoughts man on that, I thought it was pretty
pretty fiery comment from Ky.
Speaker 3: Look, that's one of those social media ones that I
think can go viral because no one in their right
mind ben of who is you know, former fans of
the NBA or current right, we all in some shape
or form of watching the NBA and like, oh, it's
the NBA Finals. What do you think of lebron block?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: You think of the Spurs with you know, with the
Ray Allen shot for the Miami Heat. You think of
Michael Jordan Utah Jazz fans still salty Lillison a push off,
like you think of just all those iconic momenties Kobe,
Brian and Shaquille near the three peed in to have
coached in one of those, like even though he was
two games away, to say, oh, March madness is bigger
than that, Like that hits home. It does. Like Brett said,
there's no other coach has been you know, in college
in the NBA, Like no, no, like you know and
making that transition. He went, I don't want to say down,
but he's in college basketball a different league, and he's
saying that, No, this tournament is the best. Like that's
why I feel confident of this team could get to
a c sixteen because he's competitive, Like Kevin is treating
us like it's a Game seven of the NBA Finals
of what he's already coached in each of these matchups,
and you see it and I'm just gonna say it
like with that, with the passion that you hear in
his voice, if they get to a Sweet sixteen, Ben,
after everything bad that's to happen this season, I mean
bad of yes, bad injuries to good people, this is
a successful season. They get to the Sweet sixteen with
no Richie Saunders been. I wish we could go back
in time and had a time machine here on Cougar Sports.
Because if I were to tell you, or even tell
myself or tell Brett, yeah, BYU is gonna get to
the Sweet sixteen, They're gonna lose these four players, maybe
five and get to the sweet sixteen, you would be like, Okay,
yeah right, okay, I'll bet my savings, I'll bet the
mortgage and probably would lose it. But in Kevin Young,
you know the people trust and see why and yeah, man,
this we we need to get the this on social
media quick because I'm shocked at Kevin Young. This came
out of his mouth. But Kevin Young is very When
he says something, he really means it.
Speaker 4: Ben let's call that a segment. Guys. It was brought
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