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Speaker 1: Utah and b YU Football, Utah Valley Sports, Utah Jazz, Utah,

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Mammoth RSL and more on one oh three nine and

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ninety eight three ESPN The Fan get to know the

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Cougar's opponents and rivals right now. I need to know

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the faux segment. Todd Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel.

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Speaker 2: Now welcome back to Coober Sports here on one of three,

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nine and ninety three esp and the Fan. Ronald the

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three man weak for here holding down for Ben creditl

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as he is out taking care of some family things

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for today. Brett always bringing the hammer by my side.

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Caleb Lions in the house as well. Vig Kramwell on

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the data aggregation live from our Bandwelth Studios, band Ofwealth.

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All we ask is that's your schedule? Are free Q

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and our update bringing us back into the house. We're

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gonna get into a know the faux segment it's gonna

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be brought to you by Central Garage Door. You need

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at Central Garage Utah dot com. Without further ado, let's

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get out to the ESPN the Fan Hotline. We've had

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them on the show before and welcome back in We

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got Joseph Duarte, b writer for the Houston Chronicle. Joseph,

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Thanks Joseph, thank you for joining me today. Hey, thanks

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for having me on. Of course. Well, look, I need

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you to break it down for me. This is a

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Houston team that I feel like hasn't been talked about

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enough this year. But when I look at them on paper,

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it's the same as always. Uh def taxes at Kelvin Sampson, Yeah,

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pretty much.

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Speaker 3: You know, you know, the two assos are too ranked

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teams Tennessee and Texas Tech by I believe a combined

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seven points. So, uh, you know they I believe they

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began the year preseason two or three. So I mean,

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you look, you look at what their body of work

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is has been to date, and uh, yeah, I don't

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I don't think a lot of people so far talking

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about them, But that's because there's a lot of other

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good teams in the Big twelve alone that people are

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talking about.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 3: But you know, the formula and the recipe is still there,

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you know, Shelton Sampson stress is the rebounding, the taking

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away turnovers and the uh and the defensive part, and

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that's sort of has been what's kept them in games

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this year. New cast of characters, but really same script

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as as Houston's had in the past.

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Speaker 2: Number seven team in the net right now, they're eight

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to one a conference play twenty and two overall losses

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only coming in QUA one games. Wanted a neutral site

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against Tennessee by three, and then, like you mentioned, Texas

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Tech on the road in a true road environment. I

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love this Houston team. I love what to see on paper,

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the physicality. You said, a new cast, who's a new cast?

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The fan should be aware of going into the Marriott

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Center tomorrow night.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's the two freshman starters. The point guard, Kingston Flemmings,

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he's the one who on that that special Saturday a

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couple of weeks ago, had forty two forty three against

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Texas Tech in that road loss. And then Chris Sanak,

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who is the fourth spot. He'll he'll be the one

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that that probably butts heads with a j most of

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the game on Saturday. And those are two of the

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five stars that they brought in. They were two of

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the best at their positions in the last recruiting cycle.

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They have a third member that was a five Stars

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Isaiah Harwell, he's more of a bench player. But uh,

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you know, they've got the the returners around them, Milosusan,

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Emanuel Sharp, Jojo Tugler. Those three were returners from the

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National Championship Game team. But the two freshmen have carried

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their share of the load this year. And this will

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be an interesting environment for them because they haven't played

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in many places that will be rocking as much as

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the Marriott Center is on Saturday night.

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Speaker 2: How do you expect, you know, for them to do.

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You just mentioned that they haven't, but I mean Kingston

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Fleming just dropped forty two to the night I think

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AJ had dropped forty three. Waggler from Illinois's freshing classes ridiculous.

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First of all, I'm excited to see where they all

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go in the NBA Draft, But how do you expect

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them to handle this pressure tomorrow?

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Speaker 3: Well, Flemings is sort of you know, I was looking

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at the stats. I believe he's averaging like twenty five

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twenty six points against ranked teams this year. So me

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he They both have been in you know, on the

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on the Nike circuit and all the the AAUS. I mean,

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they've played against a lot of the top talent before

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they even got to college. And you know, the the

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Auburn game, I think, non conference one of the first

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couple of weeks of the season they were It was

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basically a road game because it was in Birmingham, not

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too far from from all Burns campus, and they both

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just really took off in that game. So Flemings has

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really stepped up a lot just to throughout the season,

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and Sanak has been more of a a work in progress.

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You know, he played five to five in high school

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and he wanted to come in and play the four.

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So you've got this bigger guy who tends to have

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to go outside on the perimeter and guard some of

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the the faster, quicker guards and that's been a little

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bit of a development for him. But you know, both

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of them have have shown flashes this year mostly you know,

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Flemings throughout it and Senec the Sinata the last couple

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of weeks.

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Speaker 2: Alexinat junior to six for eleven, twy pound freshman averaging

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nine and a half and grabbing just under eight boards

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and under an assist and fifty percent from the field.

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You said, he's probably going to get the assignment to

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start off on AJ. When you look at AJ on film,

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what do you see and what is his coaching staff? See,

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that's the guy that seems to slow down for BYU

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right now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and Andvin Kelvin when he when he

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looks at teams and he looks at the complete body

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of work, and you know, he's he's real complimentary of

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of of Richie Saunders and he likes the way that

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what he can do and how he can beat you.

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And you know they're familiar with UH Rob Wright from

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UH from his days at Baylor, and then you look

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at AJ and when Kelvin was recruiting Sanak and Flemings,

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you know, he would be at games where he would

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get a chance to see AJ playing.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 3: You know, he he doesn't prop up freshman as much

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as some coaches do, but he knows the talent that's there.

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We know, we asked him maybe, uh some of the

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freshmen that he's coaching his career against that he's just

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thought of been out of this world. He mentioned Gary Payton,

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Jason Kidd, Paul Pierce, Carmelo, Anthony tj Ford, and then

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he was like on AJ. You know, he said that

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he was more of the score and abilities, more like

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a Carmelo. So that's that's pretty high praise, uh from Kelvin.

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But uh, you know, they they know it's it's more

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than just the banter that they're gonna have to to

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go against. But it certainly starts with him, because, I mean,

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you look at this BYU roster. I mean, they average

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almost ninety points a game, and those three alone account

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for about sixty of them on most nights. So it's

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it's a tough challenge. But Houston's number two defensively and

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scoring allowed, so it should be a fun one. I

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don't know, you know, Houston showed the ability that they

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can score. I don't know if that's the type of

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game they want to get into, but things generally always

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start and usually finished with how they do on defense

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one hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: You just brought it up. You said ninety points a game,

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and I'm sitting next to two guys listening. They were

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shaking their head of I don't think by you scored

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ninety points tomorrow against this this Houston team. This is

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a team that, look, I need you to give me

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some insight from last year's team because you got still

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Emmanue Sharp, my little Suzan. You still got Joseph Tuggler,

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who were part of that great team last year with LJ.

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Speaker 3: Crime.

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Speaker 2: Man, it was beautiful watching you guys play basketball. Honestly,

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I know by You suffered a couple of losses, but man,

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and I think the average mile was what five and

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a half minutes by the team or something. Waking up

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at five am. Yeah, I'm like, this team is gonna

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pick you up ninety four feet for forty minutes and

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they're not gonna be out of breath.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's what they do. They just they

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grind you. You know, you hear a lot on the

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TV telecasts that there's there's not many teams out there

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that will outwork Houston. And it all starts with, you know,

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the hustle plays. I mean that you'll you could count

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them up tomorrow. There's probably more than a dozen plays

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where you're gonna see their guys just diving on the floor,

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wrestling with you, just fighting for that that extra inch,

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if you gotta get your hand on the ball. Uh.

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And that's sort of what their DNA is. That's that's

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how they beat you. And a lot of good teams

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end up looking average when when they when they go

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in and I've seen teams that score ninety on average

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score fifty against Houston or sixty, and you know, they

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they bring you down to another level. And as far

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as last year, I mean, help them tell you this

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team isn't as good as last year right now? That

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I mean last year when you look at what they had,

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the differences in the front court they had Juwan Roberts,

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he was a six year guy, made a lot of

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big plays.

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Speaker 2: He was the.

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Speaker 3: Winningest player in program history. He could just you could

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run things through him and he could score. They don't

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have that scoring consistency that they had last year with him.

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They also lost A Jvier Francis, who he had like

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a seven to six wing span. He could be a disruptor,

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especially when he was on the court with Tugler, who

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you know, was the big twelve defensive player of the year.

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So you had a bunch of different things going. And then,

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by the way, you had a really consistent probably one

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through three scoring you know, they lost l. J. Cryer

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and he could light you up on any minute. From

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the three, they they've got flashes of that. Flimmings and

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Sharper is good a one to two scoring punch that

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they've had. The third option that has just kind of

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fluctuated this year. It's between Uzan maybe Sanak, but it's

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really that's just not where it is for them. So

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there's been games where when they get into lolls, they

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get in these lapses on offense that they have to

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really rely on their defense to keep things close other otherwise,

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you know, they you know, they're a couple of times

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this year they've fallen behind, you know, ten or twelve

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points and had to make up some grounds in the

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second half.

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Speaker 2: You don't want to loose, go down ten to twelve

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points in the Mayor out Center, one on the toughest

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places to play in the Big twelve. It's hard to

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play in the Big twelve in general. But if there's

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a team to get down and come back, I believe

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it's uh Houston and Kelvin Sampson. This is a program

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that Look, he he is a he's a guy that

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can really do it. Look, he had a quote the

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other day, I'm gonna watch just shit some more light

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on it, you know about hey or are. We have

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a very poor athletic department, you know, with nil and everything,

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And I just speak thinks that speaks more to him

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and his his his coaches, his recruiting and everything that

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you're still able to get this high level talent, win

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in a high level play in a national championship game

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and you don't have the biggest, you know, nil budget.

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I actually love that.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm disappointed it took you ten and a half

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minutes to get to that, to get to this question. Yeah,

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that's all the that's all the news that was going

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down here. I actually, you know, talked to Kelby yesterday

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he clarified some things. I wrote that he basically gave

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himself a technical foul for what he said, because because

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what happened, you know, he started to get into the

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nil after the game. They have won the game, by

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the way, and he's getting into nil and he says, look,

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we're very poor. We were poor when I got here.

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We're still poor. And you know, Houston, it's very well

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known down here that Houston has been a heavily subsidized

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athletic department for many, many years with support from the university.

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And the latest NCAA financials came out and you know

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they were they ran a deficit for the second year

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in a row. So you got all that stuff, and

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you think that's where he was going with them, but

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he actually meant to say, look, we we like maybe

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a Cincinnati or UCF or b YU haven't gotten the

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full Big twelve share yet that's coming this spring. So

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all those years, at least in Houston's case, where they

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weren't in a power conference, they've lost out on hundreds

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of millions of dollars. Baylor and TCU got those last

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two spots of the Big twelve among the Texas schools

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and I'm sorry Baylor in Texas Tech and then TCU

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later on. That's just money that Houston never had. That

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if they would have had it, this could have been

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a totally different story of where they are. So he

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got into that and he was talking about NIL. You

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know that they it's that they're in. Nil's just not

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where a lot of schools are. They've invested in their roster,

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you know, they've been able to get several five star

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guys like Flemings and Sanaka. They have a couple of

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other ones coming in next year, but it's nowhere near

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you know, Kentucky and Duke in North Carolina and all

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the other schools that are traditionally up at the top.

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So yeah, I mean, he he got a little bit

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of a called into the principal's office, I guess so

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to speak with those comments, but he kind of just

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he was talking to it as a whole, mostly about

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NIL and just needing to somehow start bridging that gap

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with the revenue just tribution from the conference that's coming

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here in the next few months.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for shedding the light on that. Look, I

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knew I was gonna ask the question, probably not letting

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it be the first one. I just had to get

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the game thing, and then transition.

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Speaker 3: You had to slow us into it. I get you exactly.

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I was going like Houston.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to, you know, slow you down. Then I

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wanted to speed you up, you know, in transition a

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little bit the way I won before. Then. No, we're

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all the line with Joe Stuarte. He's a beat writer

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for the Houston Chronicle. Here right now here on ESPN

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uh the fan, What way can by you win this

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game tour on? Maybe from your perspective. Look, I'm not

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picking them and the one I'm gonna tell you right now,

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I do a basketball pre game show. This is one

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of the teams they haven't beaten in the Big Twelve.

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I don't know if it gets done tomorrow. Just with

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how great of a coach Kelvin Sampson is a right

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now b yu struggling man lost his last three games,

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four of his last five. The defense is struggling. And

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I just think, you know you mentioned it. Even when

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Houston gets down, they find a way to claw themselves back.

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Speaker 3: I think you know there's maybe something from like the

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tech game tech tech control the boards, and that's one

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thing you know, Houston in the past has been traditionally

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one of the top rebounding teams in the in the country,

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and in fact in offensive rebounds. You know, they had

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been anywhere from maybe third to tenth over the last

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few years and I believe they're about twenty fifth right now.

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So you know, they got killed on the board, especially

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the offensive boards against Texas Tech. That's where some teams

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have been able to, uh, to gain some ground, so

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to speak. And you know, if you have the home

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court like you do at the Marriott Center, maybe you

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got to force them into some stuff early. You've got

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to get them to to maybe beat some uncharacteristic turnovers

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that kind of things, because they don't beat themselves and

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that and that's what the discipline comes in with Kelvin teams.

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He you know, they match they they scout and then

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they do their matchups and they always find an edge

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that if you have two or three guys, they find

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a way to shut down one or two of them,

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or at least take a couple of them out of

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out of what their normal game plan would be and

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how they do against other teams. So you know, there

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there's it's certainly you know there's there's a code to

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crack to beat them, and I don't think many schools

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have figured that out over the years, but certainly, you know,

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the rebounding aspect has been a little bit of a

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one uh through the you know, the first you know,

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twenty two games or whatever it's been so far.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you do score predictions, Joe, but

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how do you see this one plan out? Could just

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be why you crack the code tomorrow.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think this is a high sixties, low

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seventies game. I mean I think I don't see this

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runaway at any point. You know, I can see Houston

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by five or so four or five, but you know,

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it's it's it's really uh yeah. The you hit it

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earlier in the show about just being able to win

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on the road in conference, and I saw a great

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stat from the by U Athletic Department where you know,

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Houston's doing the two games road swing to Utah and

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only one school, Texas Tech, has ever won both of

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their games on that swing. Everybody else has either lost,

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boat or split. So this is a tough This is

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a tough next few days for them, and then they

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get the uh the Gauntlet of Iowa State, Arizona and Kansas.

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Uh so, uh, I can I can see a split

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on this road game. I can see them losing on Saturday.

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Uh But you know they they're they're a little bit

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on a on a roll right now, and I think

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they'll they'll be prepared. I don't think it's gonna be

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The environment is not going to to shell shock them.

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They they they respect what Byu has. Kelvin raves about

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the crowd there, but you know they've been in some

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some big environments before.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Mayriot Center, although it's one of the tougher

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places to play in the big toeven in the country.

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Houston came in, you know last year, the year before

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they they played in this. They are not going to

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be phased, and that speaks to just to prepare in this.

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Kelvin has first team and I respect that that. When

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they won that seventy seven to seventy four, or maybe

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it was seventy five, I can't remember. Trevornill had the

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opportunity to tie and he missed a shot and they

362
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were unphased that game, and I was very impressed and

363
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I've been a big fan ever since. By you and

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Houston been in the conference, and I've seen this program

365
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,400
play Kevin Young twenty four and three at home in

366
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his two years, and the two of the three losses

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come to ranked teams. So that tells you how good

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this Big Twelve is. I'll finish up on this and

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I'll get you out of here on this. Just your

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thoughts on the Big Twelve Conference in this freshman class.

371
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You mentioned a golf that you got to play, Darren Peterson.

372
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Just your takeaways and evaluations of it.

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Speaker 3: Well, first, on the on the conference. You know, last year,

374
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it thought I saw everything when Houston went nineteen and one.

375
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I mean that was remarkable in itself, and it showed

376
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by them getting to the championship game at the final four.

377
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But you know this year, you look at Arizona and

378
00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:57,519
is there a team right now that can beat them?

379
00:17:57,839 --> 00:18:01,720
And I think right now they're one on the list.

380
00:18:01,759 --> 00:18:02,839
I don't even think there's a one, A.

381
00:18:02,839 --> 00:18:03,039
Speaker 2: One B.

382
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Speaker 3: I think they're a clear number one. And then you've

383
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:08,119
got Houston and then the one that I don't think

384
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,400
many people are talking about, Iowa State. You know, a

385
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:13,039
couple of weeks ago when they lost those games, I thought, okay,

386
00:18:13,079 --> 00:18:17,160
well maybe maybe there's some kings in the armor, but no,

387
00:18:17,319 --> 00:18:21,319
I mean they're just as much of a threat. Texas

388
00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:24,400
Tech just doesn't go away. I mean they just find

389
00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,759
a way. And they've got probably one of the best

390
00:18:26,759 --> 00:18:29,680
players in the country with j. T. Topkin, and then

391
00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:31,799
you got Byu. So to me, I think the league

392
00:18:31,839 --> 00:18:34,720
is in Kansas. I me know, I got an eleven

393
00:18:34,799 --> 00:18:38,000
year old who follows the rankings religiously. He's like, Dad,

394
00:18:38,319 --> 00:18:40,559
Kansas wasn't even on the radar a couple of weeks ago.

395
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Now they're almost at the top ten. I'm like, that's

396
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,640
how quickly things could change. You know, Peterson we think

397
00:18:45,759 --> 00:18:47,599
is healthy. We think he'll get through the rest of

398
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,160
the season. They'll play him. So you've got five or

399
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:54,480
six schools right there alone that not only you know,

400
00:18:54,599 --> 00:18:57,200
will contend for the conference title. I think two of

401
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,720
them can make the final four, maybe three of them.

402
00:18:59,799 --> 00:19:01,559
You know the Big East City what back in the

403
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,119
late eighties at one time where they say three or

404
00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,240
the four, uh, you know, the Big twelve could at

405
00:19:06,319 --> 00:19:09,119
least get two in there, depending on how the regions

406
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,519
work out. So you know that's from a team standpoint,

407
00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:13,559
and then you know, we talked about all the freshmen.

408
00:19:13,599 --> 00:19:15,160
I'd hate to be the guy who has to pick

409
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:19,160
Freshman of the Year or the the awards there, because

410
00:19:19,319 --> 00:19:21,000
I mean, you could you could have them. You know,

411
00:19:21,039 --> 00:19:23,559
a bunch of them are are going to be first teamers.

412
00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:25,119
And then by the way, you know, you look at

413
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:27,559
the NBA mock drafts. You know, I think nine of

414
00:19:27,759 --> 00:19:32,119
ten overall and the cross basketball college basketball are in

415
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:34,119
the lottery right now. The kind of the top ten

416
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,119
picks are all freshmen. And you got co Opete from Arizona.

417
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,839
There's another guy. So I mean, this is a wild

418
00:19:42,039 --> 00:19:44,519
year for the Big Twelve, not only from the youth aspect,

419
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,160
but the fact that you've got a really top heavy

420
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group of teams that could all compete for a national title.

421
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 2: You're not wrong. Great time to be a basketball fan,

422
00:19:54,079 --> 00:19:57,039
Great time for our business to be uh beat writers,

423
00:19:57,079 --> 00:20:00,240
to be radio talents and broadcasters and producers. This is

424
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,079
a wonderful time. I gotta let you go. You got

425
00:20:02,079 --> 00:20:04,599
other responsibilities before I do. What's the best way we

426
00:20:04,599 --> 00:20:06,240
can support you? What you do, your work and how

427
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:06,640
you do it.

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00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,000
Speaker 3: Just you know, I were at Houston Chronicle dot com

429
00:20:10,039 --> 00:20:13,839
and I'm on Twitter. Joseph Underscore Duarte d U A

430
00:20:14,039 --> 00:20:17,039
R T. And you know, look forward to my first

431
00:20:17,079 --> 00:20:19,440
trip to the Marriott Center tomorrow.

432
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:21,920
Speaker 2: Look forward to seeing you down there, Joe.

433
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:22,559
Speaker 1: Safe travels.

434
00:20:22,599 --> 00:20:23,279
Speaker 2: We'll see in provo.

435
00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:24,720
Speaker 3: Thank you appreciate it.

436
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,400
Speaker 2: We'll let Joseph Duarte go. We're gonna go to break

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but before I do, I gotta tell you that second

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