Speaker 1: They'll back this, so marches right around the corner and
the Cougars are in the metal level.
Speaker 2: It's time to talk some college basketball on Cougar Sports
with Ben Crittle. Welcome back to your sports one of
the Green nine ninety Fight point three ESPN the Phantom
and for the broadcasting from our Vanderwelth Studios, Batterbelt dot Com.
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Nobody does it better than our good friends at Betterwealth
Batterwell dot Comedies. Time for little college basketball talking to rehash,
re and convene with former b YU rate and talk
some bou basketball to celebrate the win over the University
of Utah and more. Here on your UTI ESPN Radio Network.
Going to be brought to you by rubisn rubies in
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Speaker 3: Let's get out to the hotline.
Speaker 2: Welcome and former BYU great ballers shot collar. We got JT.
Jonathan Tabnari on the line. JT for three. How the
heck are you, buddy?
Speaker 1: You know I was driving back from Phoenix. I was
in Phoenix this weekend for a sashion of the Adida
circuit for my boy. And as I drove back through
flag Staff and Page and actually drove through Bryce Canyon,
you didn't stop at I stopped at Ruby In and
I said, hey, I need to see the manager. Do
you know Ben Critter? And he said Ben who? And
I said Ben Crittle? Yes, the end, d Yu. He said,
I don't know who Ben Crittle is, but I know
who Jonathan Tabernari is.
Speaker 3: Who was this man? Who was this manager you speak of?
What is his name? I need to go reintroduce myself.
Speaker 1: Half of that story is true. I'm gonna leave. I'm
gonna let you decide which part has not. Ben.
Speaker 3: Did you really stop by Rubies though? Did you stop
by Bryce?
Speaker 1: I did drive by Bryce, but I did not stop
at Ruby's.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well, dude, you gotta let me know
when you when you want.
Speaker 3: To head down there with the fam. We'll get you
hooked up. You know, we'll take care of you. JT.
Speaker 1: I will say. I will say this, Ben, I needed
to go to Phoenix. That is true. We were there
for the Adida Circuit. Were actually the number one team
in the country, India Adida Circus. Right now, we're sixteen
and one and absolutely killing in the seventh grade division.
But it was the first time in my life, Bend.
I actually drove through at Beaver. We turned left and
we went through Peguige and Mary View, Order View and
page flag Staff, and I felt like I was at
Disneyland at cars Land Bend because that wasn't Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Ben and Bright Canyon. I mean, honestly, Ben, you know,
Kirie and I were talking about to be able to
get out and go over there and hikes and you know,
outdoors fun stuff, and obviously knowing that we have a
connection down there with BUYU at Ruby's in and so
what a beautiful place, and definitely excited to get out
there this summer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. You bring up a really good point.
Speaker 2: I always say, don't go to the mouse head on,
head on down to Bryce Canyonnational Park. If you love
cars World, if you love Big Thunder Mountain. That's the
inspiration from whence it came. That's Bryce Canyon at Disneyland.
All they did, oh Disneyland is just copy the Wonders
of the Earth and bring them all and remake them
there at Disneyland.
Speaker 3: So check out Bryce Canyon. It's the real deal.
Speaker 2: J T. Speaking of real deal, the BYU basketball team
gets there, gets themselves a nice victory at the Huntsman
they moved to what fifteen and one. How big of
a win was that for the BA Cougar basketball team.
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta tell you, I think it was
a solid win. You know, in this day and age
where people are putting way too much emphasis on style,
points and pointing for rainshow and points spread, I just
don't get it, Ben, you know, like I truly don't
get it. Now. I get the spread, and I get
covering over and under.
Speaker 4: But like I you know, in the media, and.
Speaker 1: You know, like YU was dalk two spots and the
top twenty five, they fell to eleven after a win.
How does that make sense? You know what I mean?
Like that's crazy to me. And so do all you
did what they were supposed to do. They went into
an environment that you know, can we just for a second, man,
forget about the rivalry when the huntsmen's center expect the
way that it was. It's a top twenty five venue
in college basketball. And but that's the problem, right, it
never happens like that. That's a different conversation, a different argument.
But like that was a tough place to play. I
don't care about Utah and if they're good or bad,
that's a rivalry game. And so Byu did what he
was supposed to do. Terrence Brown's gonna look incredible and
BYU blew next year, and uh, you know, like it
was just a great game. And you know, Richie Thing
rebound and aid offensive rebounds, Robert Wright sealed the doo,
Aj did his thing. Keba was a monster, you know,
And it was a fantastic game. I met with blocks
and rebounds and so so it was a great win
for BYU.
Speaker 2: It hasn't happened all that often recently. BYU has struggled
to get wins at the Huntsman Center.
Speaker 3: Why use that?
Speaker 2: Why is it that Utah plays their best game versus
b WHYU there there at Hudson Center the best game
all season?
Speaker 1: It seems, well, so one is the rivalry game right,
Two the gym is actually packed. All the other games
just look sad, and you know, like I just I
truly feel this, Ben, And I have a question for you,
because you've been covering the rivalry a little bit more
closely than I can, regardless if it's basketball or football.
But I have a question for you. This is not
a dig at Utah or a Utah and their fence.
My question for you is if all of the other
non BYU games you can hear a needle drop at Huntsman.
Why is it that the BYU game matters so much?
Is it because a lot of Utah fans are actually
BYU haters?
Speaker 3: I think there's gonna be some truth to that. Yeah,
I think.
Speaker 2: I think certain segments of any fan base right are
gonna hate certain UH individuals from the the opposing fan
base right.
Speaker 1: For you then becomes why is it that ninety nine
percent of BYU games are seventy five eighty percent plus
sold dow or not so dow a capacity. Let's put
that way. Seventy five eighty percent are a capacity and
at the Huntsman Center, ninety five percent of their games
are at fifteen percent think opacity? Why is that? Man?
Speaker 2: I mean that's something probably university, the University of Utah
is trying to figure out. I don't think they've been
able to figure out. I mean that once upon a time,
the Majeris era like that thing was sold out and
they were winning, and and and a winner is going
to attract fans, right, we want to go to games
in which our teams are.
Speaker 3: Winning, uh and and and.
Speaker 2: Look, Utah football attracts a lot of fans. They actually
have fans up there and they they sell out for football,
why aren't they selling out for basketball? Uh, it's unfortunate
that that that's that's where they're at right now. And
when they do show up, it's because b YU is
coming to town and it's their biggest game of the season.
Speaker 3: That's what we know.
Speaker 1: And then so you know, like I look at that
and you know, like it was just it was a
great atmosphere watching on TV. I had, you know, a
couple of TVs turned on watching again game. It was electric.
Talking to a lot of my media member friends and
and a lot of all their friends that were at
the game, they were ecstatic to be there. And so,
you know, I just don't understand why that fan base,
that community, they just don't buy into what what the
you know, the BUYU program is selling and uh, you know,
credit credit to Alex Jensen Trore having their boys ready
to go. Some of their players looked really good. Chance
Brown clearly heading shoulders above everybody else. You know, I
forgot his first name, but Dawes who was related to
Derek Dawes that played the bu yudas you know, definitely
it was a big presence. Their other big was really
good the lefty shooter and the other shooter were good,
you know, so like it was a great competitive and
fun game, and you know it was created for a
great al was here and uh, you know BYU is
two and one conference, which is a huge thing to do.
Speaker 2: THEA is fifteen and one. They are one of I
think only a few. They may be the only team
that has five quad one wins. They're only lost to
Yukon on a neutral court, and they have two quad
two wins. They are trending in the right direction. What
has been the best win of the season and why
for you?
Speaker 1: So, I'm probably gonna say Wisconsin, right because that was
a top twenty five team at the time the YU
played them by you beat them by thirty weave, I
think that they were up like thirty two or thirty
three at the time. You weren't. That game sounds about right,
That sounds about yeah right. I was at that one
and so like just a completely smack against them, and
and that team actually went to Michigan number one or
number two Michigan and actually won over the weekend. Yep,
So like a massive win right now for Buyu obviously
playing at the Garden against Clemson. Uh that was just
a highlight win, you know, kind of like a cherry
on the top. But at this point, Ben, you know,
like every win in the Big twelve is just important.
You know, like they got they got big games this
week coming up, right, do you you? They? On Wednesday
they play at home and uh, you know, with a
great matchup against TCU against he was eleven and five
coached by a guy the recruiting in high school, Jamie Dixon,
was actually at pit when I was being recruited by him,
and uh, they had a couple of sweet sixteen runs
over there, and uh, you know, uh and the Tulsen's
boy Canner plays for TCU. Now he's also getting a
nice bag of nil money. And so it's just, you know,
winning in the Big twelve is hard. Winning on the
Big twelve on the road is hard. Having a winning
streak in the Big twelve is even more difficult. And
BYU has a great opportunity, you know, winning winning on
Wednesday to then go to Lubbock on Saturday for an
incredible matchup with Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: JT for three Jonathan Tavnari talking BLAU basketball here on
your Utah ESPN Radio Network.
Speaker 3: If Wisconsin's the best win, where.
Speaker 2: Would Utah be ranked? I mean, it's still I know
it's a quad to win, but it's your rival. If
you lose that game, is it a big deal? You
lost it last year and still made it to the
Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 1: I'll probably say that the Utah win right now. You know,
I'm going over this catcher right now, and I probably
put that win. You know, it's definitely better than Holy Cross,
better than Delaware. I don't think it's better than Miami, obviously,
not better than Dayton. And then I'll probably say that
that win was aside from the top twenty five wins,
and in the Medicine Square Garden game, I'll probably put
that win up there right now. As they go through.
Speaker 4: Conference and you know, they have to be the good.
Speaker 1: CCU game to play.
Speaker 4: Then they play at Kansas, who's.
Speaker 1: Not ranked anymore, you know, and then in February they
play Baylor. Colorado is off to a great start. UCF
is a solid team this year, and so you know,
is that going to be a top five win for
b Are you? Absolutely not? Right? But I would dare
to say that after it's all set and done in
the regular season, before postseason starts. I would say that
aside from the top twenty five wins wins, and you know,
that win will probably be, you know, the buy sixth
or seventh best win of the season.
Speaker 2: Jonathan Devon r Alright, let's talk a little bit about
the Utah game. The Todd King was balling rob right,
the third kind of took over things in the at
the end of the game. Obviously, aj gets a ninth
i think ninth consecutive twenty point game.
Speaker 3: He's one of the best scorers.
Speaker 2: In UH in college basketball, and he may end up becoming,
at least from a single season standpoint, the best scorer
all time in b YU basketball history.
Speaker 3: I don't know, we'll see how that plays out.
Speaker 2: But what stood out to you about the Utah win,
specifically from the BAU.
Speaker 1: Side, Well, so, you know, I think let's start with
the with the with the break three.
Speaker 4: Let me give a little bit of credit to my buddy.
Speaker 1: Jerem Jordan and Jackson Payne. Break three is really good.
I voted for the three knee fights. My wife suggested
the three kings. The trimple combination is also really good.
The by you know, the b YU Trinity is up
there as well, and uh, you know, we got we
got some we got some bangers over here, right, and
so but you know, the brig the Brig three, Robert
Wright was clutched fifteen points in the first half, eight
in the second. Six of his eight points came down
to clutch in the last four or five minutes of
the game. I thought he was surgical, right, Richie, just
the heart of a lion and being able to fight
and keep fighting and end his career with a win
at Utah aj living up the moment and then throwing
the you down, you know already become he's already a
fan saver. And then you know he is definitely, uh,
he is definitely one of those guys that live in
a moment, and throwing the you down as he goes
to the tunnel just becomes an instant classic. Outside of
the break three, I would say, Keva and the pullback
dunk right reminisce a little bit of Joie Child's fast
from TJ. Haws. And then you know, impressed with how
Cunard played defense, very very impressed without am ed Adua
Amed Beatle is coming along fast, and so you look
at that. It makes exciting for what they have. Still
wish Mahilo was better at shooting. Still wish he was
more aggressive looking to shoot. Same thing with you know
all I say probably is the biggest disappointment aside from
the injuries, right, A lot of us expected out of him.
Tyler Maruss remains an incognito for me, right, I mean,
I feel like he's passing up a lot of shots
and uh where I totally believe the b YU team,
the BYU coaching staff. Definitely I would appreciate for him
to be a little bit more aggressive. And so to me,
that's the one thing that's missing on this team. It's
a foe man that can spread the floor, right, and
we've had some great ones at b YU. Michael Smith
probably the ultimate you know, spread the floor in terms
of being able to be aggressive. But he was such
up your scorer that he might have conflict with the
big three in terms of getting touches. Right, someone kind
of like me, kind of like Noah Hartsock that's very
defensive minded. You know, had uh Steven Rogers that came
after my senior year. He had been a little bit
you know, more healthy and and a better shooter. You know,
someone like Zach Sallya's that would be like perfect for this,
you know, for for this, and so to me that's
what that's what this team is missing, but an incredible
team effort.
Speaker 3: Nonetheless, the missing pieces.
Speaker 2: Can we develop those pieces even though they haven't shown
up just yet?
Speaker 1: Sorry? Ben, that cut off? Can you repeat the question?
Speaker 2: Can you meant you mentioned the missing pieces right now?
Can b why you developed those pieces with the that.
Speaker 1: They have no? No, no, what you see is what
you get at disappointing time. We just need to hope
that you know, the Big three stays healthy and uh
you know that also Keba stays healthy, Abdula stays healthy,
and that those other guys can come in and just
give you know, I think that in all honesty, if
you know, on a basketball game, you have about two
hundred minutes every game, right, each player can play, each
player can play forty minutes. You have five players, that's
two hundred minutes. I would say that, you know the break,
the Big.
Speaker 4: Three would play one hundred minutes.
Speaker 1: And you would hope that non Big three minutes would
if they could somehow be under one hundred every game,
you know, between ninety if by a miracle of heaven,
they could be under ninety to preserve them, that would
be incredible. But if that's not possible, I would probably say,
you know, keeping those minutes at you know, between ninety
and one hundred would be perfect. And then also if
you could make that the non big three points, that's
a big one, non big three points would be above
above thirty every game. If it could be thirty five,
then you could see that. Okay, something is brewing here.
But the way this team, the way this team is
built right now, there's not a whole lot of production
coming from you know, anybody not named AJ and Rob
and Richie, you know, and I would say Kaba too,
but not not much coming from anybody else at this point.
Speaker 2: Obviously the Big three they've they've definitely produced a lot
of points and you need them to stay healthy. I
have a question from a listener here. He said, did
JT just infer that he was defensive minded? I think
many think that JT was all about the three point
shot in offensive production.
Speaker 3: What would you say to that question?
Speaker 1: Go look at defensive wind shares and who is top
five and BYU.
Speaker 3: History boom the data.
Speaker 1: So hey, men, lie, women lie. Numbers don't lie. And
so what I can tell you is when he comes
to defensive wind shares, you know, like I don't remember
if I was like four or fifth, but I'm definitely
in the top five. I know that because I was
talking to Chris Miles and Kyle Collinsworth the other day
and we were we were talking about exactly this, and
it was like, you know, all of the all of
the records and good team, and I remember, now we'll
spark this. John Rothstein said, twelve win streak is the
longest in program history. John, you need to go read
a book or google the internet because the eighty seven
eighty eighteen got off to a seventeen and oh star
my senior year, we got fifteen straight wins when I
volunteered to come up the bench and became the first
six minute the year in program history. And so yeah,
so like it's you know, go look it up. I'm
not making it up. I am one of the best,
one of the best defenders in BYU history when he
comes to winds Share. So so talking about.
Speaker 2: Jat bringing the data, bringing the numbers. Stats, don't lie,
Jonathan Tabnaari, ladies and gentlemen always breaking it down. Nobody
does it better up some breaking news here on the
recruiting front for football real quick if I may, And
this is this is big for Michigan fans, not so
big for Utah fans. This one hurts as Ron or
excuse me, as Brandon Gurney says, shot.
Speaker 3: Through the heart.
Speaker 2: Celessie Moa, a four star wide receiver, has entered the
transfer portal from the University of Utah, so he could
be ending up at Michigan with his brother Ice.
Speaker 3: We'll see how it plays out. Yes, indeed does it?
Speaker 2: Does it feel good to see Utah's football players, you know,
de commit enter the portal and and go elsewhere?
Speaker 3: JT Are you petty like that?
Speaker 1: So I gotta tell you I'm not petty like that.
I am patty when after games they come in and
start attacking me. I mean, Ben, if you look at
my Twitter, my ex timeline, I was nothing but complimentary
about their team, about the arena, about their fans, doing
a game until some dude comes to me and says, Oh,
you don't know you're talking about And at that point
I'm like, I'm being positive, Like I like that fifty
cent meme, like what you're met at me for like
I'm being complimentary and you said that, and at that
point I'm like, listen, my guy, let me, let me
put you on your place. And at that point I
become patty. But you know, like I you know, like
I don't care like you know, Utah, I'm such a
lover of the state of Utah. The state of Utah,
I means so much to me. I'm a firm believer
that I want Utah basketball to be good because that
elevates the elevates the visibility in the entire state. And
so like when Utah football is really good and BYU
football is really good, that's great for the state. Every
single time that Utah is good, they show shots of
simple square. It's a great missionary tool. And so like,
I'm not petty unless someone pokes me the wrong way,
and then I don't have a filter and I don't
know when to stop. It's kind of like my wife
makes the perfect example. Sometimes I get really mad at
my kids right because they did something wrong, and she
relates this to a little fender bender, and I go
above and beyond, and instead of just leaving a defender bender,
I pull out a baseball bat and I go like
the little you know in between fights mode on Street
Fight Street Fighter and I just destroyed a card you
remember that? And then yeah, like that's what I do,
like I and so I don't know when to stop.
And so if you poke me and I'm like okay,
sounds like I has to put you back on your place.
And that's when I go nuts.
Speaker 2: My guy, Jonathan Tavanaar Ladies and gentlemen, JG. I always
appreciate our time. Brother, thanks for hopping on for a
college basketball segment.
Speaker 1: Always in Forever go Koog's.
Speaker 2: Boom Shaka Laca. That segment brought to you by rubies In,
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up next. This is Cougar Sports on one of three
nine ninety eight point three ESPN