Speaker 1: Tyson Ewing. Of course, he is the play by play
Speaker 1: man of the hour for the Utah women's basketball program
Speaker 1: and a long time Jazz data analyst. And he's even
Speaker 1: been up in the booth a few times when I've
Speaker 1: been doing my duties. We all do our duties right
Speaker 1: broadcasting games. I'm the color analysts for Utah football and
Speaker 1: Tyson teaches me everything. He fills me in all the stats,
Speaker 1: everything I need to know. Tyson, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: How you doing man, I'm impressed, but you know all that.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here with you. How are
Speaker 2: you Scott?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, well, I love to talk about sports. I love,
Speaker 1: you know, being associated with the folks at Broadway Media
Speaker 1: and of course filling in for Spence today on the
Speaker 1: Drive and things are good. I'm at the Home and
Speaker 1: Garden Show. I don't know if you've you ever go
Speaker 1: to it. I'm here with the Cooligan Water people and
Speaker 1: they got some amazing stuff going on. Just just really fun.
Speaker 1: But it's it's a fun, fun environment out here.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yes, I've never been myself, but definitely something
Speaker 2: that I'm sharing's extremely fun to be at. I'm just sorry.
Speaker 2: I can't be there with you in person.
Speaker 1: It's all the gadgets and toys and things you need
Speaker 1: for your house that will you. Some of them maybe
Speaker 1: you don't need, but some of them, like Cooligan water,
Speaker 1: you definitely need it. But some other things, they're kind
Speaker 1: of they're kind of fun. So I have to ask
Speaker 1: you this question, how fun is it to call a
Speaker 1: buzzer beater from half court against your rival? I mean,
Speaker 1: did I hear some just insane passion come out of
Speaker 1: your voice?
Speaker 2: Oh? My goodness, Yes, there was definitely a lot of passion,
Speaker 2: no doubt about that. I obviously it was.
Speaker 3: Not expecting that, nor was anybody in the building expecting
Speaker 3: that to fall. But you know, I'm definitely in in
Speaker 3: my own excitement level and when that went through, but
Speaker 3: inness Craze, I think everybody in the building could have
Speaker 3: heard me with how hi I got with my vocal cords. Incredible,
Speaker 3: to be honest, I loved it, as you could tell
Speaker 3: from just how excited I got, but extremely excited for her,
Speaker 3: and then meeting with her afterward, I tell you what's
Speaker 3: gott meeting with her afterwards. She was the most humble
Speaker 3: person on the planet.
Speaker 2: Here. I am just trying to hype her up, say, Maddie,
Speaker 2: I can't believe he just hit that shot. How does
Speaker 2: that feel? And she's like, I'm just happy I can
Speaker 2: do it for my teammates. And I'm like, okay, just
Speaker 2: you're just just exude humility right here. Incredible stuff. But overall,
Speaker 2: Scott so so cool, great, great opportunity, and obviously doing it,
Speaker 2: like you said against the BYU Cougar is amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's it's fascinating to watch this rivalry
Speaker 1: for me, you know, it's been around a long time
Speaker 1: and it's never been at a level that it is now.
Speaker 1: You know, in Power four conferences, you you had, you know,
Speaker 1: you're competing against each other in all these different sports
Speaker 1: and and what's fast the most fascinating thing to me
Speaker 1: is it certainly it certainly makes victories seem greater and
Speaker 1: defeats seem worse. Excuse me, wow, I I had had
Speaker 1: something go down the wrong tube Therehale. I'm getting so
Speaker 1: emotional about this rivalry thing, you know, it's just tearing
Speaker 1: up my eyes. But it's it's you know, it's so
Speaker 1: like the football season this last year was just it
Speaker 1: was it was just it was such a heartbreaking season.
Speaker 1: But it you know, if I'm being completely candid, it
Speaker 1: was worse because the folks down south were having such
Speaker 1: a great year. And and I have to it brings
Speaker 1: out a different intensity, uh to to your you know,
Speaker 1: your association with a conference, to your rival, and I
Speaker 1: wonder if it brings out, you know, a desire to, hey,
Speaker 1: we don't want to lose to these guys, so we
Speaker 1: need to up our game.
Speaker 2: I honestly believe all of that. And here's why you're
Speaker 2: seeing perfect examples of that all throughout sports this year.
Speaker 2: You think about the football game that you were calling.
Speaker 2: Utah was not having a good year. They did not
Speaker 2: have a good year. Buyu having a tremendous year, and
Speaker 2: they go and they have a chance to win that
Speaker 2: football game, and you know, some of us on the
Speaker 2: Utah side definitely thinks it should have gone one way.
Speaker 2: Then it ended up not going that way, but Utah
Speaker 2: raised their game to play against EYU because of how
Speaker 2: badly they wanted to win that game. You then fast
Speaker 2: forward to the to the men's basketball game to where,
Speaker 2: in all honesty, Utah it's a little bit struggling. That's
Speaker 2: a severe understatement I'll say that, but struggling on the
Speaker 2: basketball floor.
Speaker 1: B YU.
Speaker 2: On the on the other hand, especially now winning seven
Speaker 2: eight straight games, Now, somehow Utah was able to to
Speaker 2: really focus in at the Huntsman Center and get the
Speaker 2: job done in overtime. Sure it was an ugly game
Speaker 2: with free throws and all that not dropping, but you
Speaker 2: think of how the the Utah men were able to
Speaker 2: raise their level of play. And even on the women's side,
Speaker 2: b YU is having a down year, I'll stay that
Speaker 2: very very softly. They're they're they're not very good this year.
Speaker 2: But both times that the women's team played the YU
Speaker 2: this year, they were excellent games. Obviously the overtime game,
Speaker 2: the half court buzzer beater at the Huntsman Center. Utah
Speaker 2: struggled to shoot the basketball in that game. Then the
Speaker 2: one down at the Merriott Center, a game that at
Speaker 2: the time Utah was playing very good basketball. BUYU was
Speaker 2: not playing very good basketball, and they brought everything to
Speaker 2: that game and to the point where what the lady
Speaker 2: for by you actually had a chance late in that game.
Speaker 2: And so just to kind of sum it all up,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's those are just some examples of sporting events.
Speaker 2: Just this year to show that while you might not
Speaker 2: be having good seasons, everybody who plays those sports and
Speaker 2: plays against those you know, the BYU Cougars from Utah,
Speaker 2: everybody in that rivalry game brings it every single time
Speaker 2: they play that game. Again, just just perfect examples of
Speaker 2: it this year. I love the rivalry. So extremely excited
Speaker 2: that it's back in conference and that we can talk
Speaker 2: about it every single year rather than you know, talk
Speaker 2: about it out of conference, especially in the football ti
Speaker 2: where we didn't play it for so many years. Just
Speaker 2: extremely happy to have it back. And you know, you
Speaker 2: definitely love love to hate each other is really the
Speaker 2: best way to word that. You obviously played in the
Speaker 2: rivalry game when you were playing at college, you played
Speaker 2: the YU, so I know you have a certain kind
Speaker 2: of hatred that for that program, so you obviously can
Speaker 2: speak to it a little bit more than I could.
Speaker 2: But goodness, I'm again just so happy that it's back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am too, And I think rivalries are such
Speaker 1: a great part of college sports and in sports in general.
Speaker 1: You know, it just it does, it brings out the
Speaker 1: best it you really, you know, you just don't want
Speaker 1: to lose, and so you figure out you figure out
Speaker 1: how to get it done. The women, of course, had
Speaker 1: an early exit from the Big Twelve Championship. Surprising, you
Speaker 1: know what went on there and what does this mean
Speaker 1: moving forward for the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2: So I would definitely say surprising in the sense that
Speaker 2: you know, Texas Tech came into that game fourteen seed
Speaker 2: in the Big Twelve tournament, a team that only won
Speaker 2: four games total in conference play. We did play them
Speaker 2: in love it and it was a tough game, a
Speaker 2: game that Utah kind of had to crawl and scrape
Speaker 2: just to get the victory down there. So we knew
Speaker 2: that it was going to be at least a tougher
Speaker 2: game than it probably would have been had Kansas and
Speaker 2: won that game in their first round matchup, So we
Speaker 2: came in at least out broadcasters Miley and myself came
Speaker 2: in expecting it to be a tough game. Utah historically
Speaker 2: has struggled with pressure with ball pressure, especially in the
Speaker 2: full court, and while they didn't turn the ball over
Speaker 2: in the full court grass, it felt as though Utah
Speaker 2: when they crossed half court, we're just completely out of sorts.
Speaker 2: The entire game against Texas Tech yesterday to where it
Speaker 2: took them a long time to get into their offense,
Speaker 2: and this is a team that wants to get moving
Speaker 2: quickly and they just for some reason couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: A lot of stagnation where the ball was just being
Speaker 2: moved around the horn, not a lot of attacking the basket,
Speaker 2: especially in the second half. And the best way I
Speaker 2: could word it is that Texas Tech dictated every single
Speaker 2: part of that game yesterday, especially the second quarter where
Speaker 2: Utah couldn't hit anything with Texas Tech kind of found
Speaker 2: some rhythm. Then in the second half, Utah was starting
Speaker 2: to find their offense but couldn't get stops. Texas Tech
Speaker 2: went seven to ten and a third quarter and by
Speaker 2: it was a little bit too late for Utaha crawl back.
Speaker 2: They made some efforts late, but things just didn't go
Speaker 2: their way. And in alhan Ste I believe now, at
Speaker 2: least in my opinion, with this loss to a team
Speaker 2: that should have beaten, I believe that Utah was kind
Speaker 2: of flirting with that ex potential seven line on the
Speaker 2: NTA Tournament. I believe that with that loss, they're probably
Speaker 2: going to drop to an eight to nine slot, which
Speaker 2: means that in the women's side, the way that it
Speaker 2: works is the the post sixteen seeds host the first
Speaker 2: and second round of the Incative Way tournament. So what
Speaker 2: that would mean is if they're in that eighth slot,
Speaker 2: Utah would get an eight nine matchup and then they
Speaker 2: would then play the potential number one seed at their
Speaker 2: own place. So the way you could look at this
Speaker 2: is which is hypothetically say u c l A is
Speaker 2: the team that hosts, we go to u c LA.
Speaker 2: We would then have to play the Ruins at poly
Speaker 2: Pavilion for a chance to advance to the sweet sixteen.
Speaker 2: Well you could look at that and say, you know
Speaker 2: that that might be a little unfair because they're already
Speaker 2: you know, they're they're already the better team and getting
Speaker 2: any opportunity to host their own, you know, postseason tournament matchup.
Speaker 2: We learned that last year with Nzaga at the home
Speaker 2: court advantage four. Againzaga the four seed definitely helped them
Speaker 2: last year. But you know what, that's just the way
Speaker 2: that the women's game happens. And you know, you went
Speaker 2: again with that lot. I feel that we fall into
Speaker 2: that eight ninth spot to potentially having to play number
Speaker 2: one seed, We're not going to find out those selection Sunday,
Speaker 2: which is in about nine days from now. The n
Speaker 2: WA tournament for the women starts up exactly two weeks
Speaker 2: from today, So you thought it a nice long break
Speaker 2: to where they need to kind of get things right
Speaker 2: because they have lost through their last five games. Their
Speaker 2: last three games have not been good for them, especially
Speaker 2: on the offensive of the basketball, all three games shooting
Speaker 2: below forty percent. So a lot to work on as
Speaker 2: they gear up for, you know, for a hopeful postseason
Speaker 2: tournament NTAA tournament run in starting up the two weeks.
Speaker 1: So, Gavin Peterson your assessment, you know, new coach, first year,
Speaker 1: what do you think?
Speaker 2: So, Gavin obviously kind of came into a situation to
Speaker 2: where I would pull a good situation in the sense.
Speaker 4: That he was already part of the program, had been
Speaker 4: a part of the program for the last ten years
Speaker 4: with Lynn Roberts, and when Lynn got the opportunity to
Speaker 4: go to the WNBA, obviously she took that because she
Speaker 4: gets to a coach at.
Speaker 2: The high left for her.
Speaker 1: Do you like that move?
Speaker 2: I believe it has. It has been yet. I've actually
Speaker 2: talked to her a few times ever since that took place,
Speaker 2: and in her own words, how can you not take
Speaker 2: it right? So it's been a good transition for her. Obviously,
Speaker 2: there's not a lot going on other than her trying
Speaker 2: to go out, not really recruit, but try to find
Speaker 2: players to bring into the franchise and try to get
Speaker 2: things running for when May kicks around and then when
Speaker 2: they start their training camp and everything like that. So
Speaker 2: I feel that she's in a tremendous job so far
Speaker 2: and kind of indompreting herself. In fact, the GM for
Speaker 2: the LA Sports is actually at the game on Saturday
Speaker 2: against BYU, so she's obviously trying to show her how
Speaker 2: great Utah Athletics is as well.
Speaker 1: So from that.
Speaker 2: Standpoint, awesome. But then from the Gavin standpoint, these players
Speaker 2: were already bought in. These players were already ready to
Speaker 2: play for a coach, and when Davin Peterson stepped in,
Speaker 2: it felt super seamless. And I feel as though it's
Speaker 2: gone extramely well. Obviously, these last you know, five games
Speaker 2: haven't been haven't been great, but have an overall season,
Speaker 2: I would absolutely say that it's been very successful. In
Speaker 2: Utah should be extremely happy to have Devin at the
Speaker 2: Helm for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: So what does a fourteen million dollar gift mean for
Speaker 1: the women's sports program up on the hill.
Speaker 2: I think what that means. I mean, I'm definitely no
Speaker 2: expert in kind of you know where the money will
Speaker 2: be dispersed. What that means is it gives it gives
Speaker 2: women the opportunity to be able to use that fundage
Speaker 2: and hopefully grow their sports, because this is obviously the
Speaker 2: women's sports are continually growing. Gymnastics has been massive at
Speaker 2: the University of Utah for so many years, but that's
Speaker 2: been really the only program that has been consistently attracting fans,
Speaker 2: and so I believe that the gift will be an
Speaker 2: opportunity for the women's programs to hopefully bring more eyes
Speaker 2: to them. And you know, again not not quite an
Speaker 2: next be excited to see, you know, where that fourteen
Speaker 2: million will be dispersed and how the women's programs can
Speaker 2: continue to grow at Utah.
Speaker 1: Hey, Tyson, really appreciate you tuning in and joining us today.
Speaker 1: It's always fun to catch up and talk to you.
Speaker 1: And I have a feeling that maybe this longer break here, Mike,
Speaker 1: get a reset and that these women go on a
Speaker 1: long old run through the through the NCAA tournament. So
Speaker 1: have a great rest here Friday, and thanks for thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on.
Speaker 2: Wonderful. Thank you, Scott, appreciate your brother,