Speaker 1: Adam Mikolch the Goat. Although Adam, I am disappointed. I'm
Speaker 1: looking across from myself in the studio. I don't see
Speaker 1: across from me, man. I thought we were doing this
Speaker 1: in person.
Speaker 2: What gives?
Speaker 3: I am so sorry, Man, I just cut up doing
Speaker 3: some marins and stuff today and I got to be
Speaker 3: into the station here at three o'clock on the nose,
Speaker 3: so I didn't want to I didn't want to cut
Speaker 3: it too close today. Sorry about that, man. There's nothing
Speaker 3: like doing radio studio, especially with you.
Speaker 1: All good, All good, Because Dave Fox is on another
Speaker 1: lengthy vacation. I just need to ask you, how has
Speaker 1: Dave had a forty year career without ever working a day?
Speaker 1: Just out of curiosity, because I'm honestly impressed. He's like
Speaker 1: a mentor of mine. Forty years in this business without
Speaker 1: ever working a day.
Speaker 3: Well, that's the goal, right, And there's two schools that thought.
Speaker 3: You know, there's the old cliche, find something you love doing,
Speaker 3: do it every day of the rest of your life,
Speaker 3: and never working another day of the rest of your life.
Speaker 3: I'm calling bs on that from the top of mountains fence.
Speaker 3: It's just not that easy for our generation. Let's put
Speaker 3: it this way. When it comes to Dave Fox, he's
Speaker 3: got a lot of quality people that he surrounds himself with.
Speaker 3: And I'd like to think I sit into that umbrella.
Speaker 3: So when you've got a nice umbrella like that going life,
Speaker 3: life can be pretty smith well said.
Speaker 2: And we tease. We love our ged, we love our
Speaker 2: guy Dave.
Speaker 1: But of course Adam meglitch the goat, and Adam, I
Speaker 1: refer to you as the goat because somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: regardless of how dire the circumstance or situation, you hit
Speaker 1: us with positivity and anecdotes that kind of bring a
Speaker 1: smile to people's faces even when stories are hard. I
Speaker 1: wonder where that comes from. I wish I was more
Speaker 1: like that. Where where where's that approach come from?
Speaker 3: Oh that's seriously, that's just about one of the nicest
Speaker 3: things anybody said to me in a really long time.
Speaker 3: In all sin charity, I have really really good parents,
Speaker 3: and I'm one of those guys too, where you know,
Speaker 3: I'm I don't have children myself. So when you talk
Speaker 3: with somebody and you get to know somebody, there's something
Speaker 3: that they bring up quite a bit, right, And so
Speaker 3: anybody who has kids. They love talking about their kids.
Speaker 3: They've got pictures of their kids on their cell phone
Speaker 3: or pets. I don't have a pet too. So when
Speaker 3: I come up on conversation and I talk about good
Speaker 3: things that are going on in my life, it somehow
Speaker 3: always comes back to my mom and dad, who are
Speaker 3: my best friends. My dad is what I like to
Speaker 3: refer to as a Hall of Fame caliber track and
Speaker 3: cross country coach. Going back home, so my house, growing up,
Speaker 3: sitting down at the dinner table together was a big thing.
Speaker 3: Athletics were a huge part of our existence. You know.
Speaker 3: I was taught to try and break a sweat every
Speaker 3: day and just put your best foot forward. And so again,
Speaker 3: I was raised in a really really good household with
Speaker 3: two really loving parents, and I guess I just try
Speaker 3: and spread the love around and pay it forward whenever
Speaker 3: I can, because I'm a pretty lucky guy.
Speaker 1: You're also a pretty big dude. For people that don't
Speaker 1: know this about Adam, are you six three? It feels
Speaker 1: like you're about six three.
Speaker 3: I'm six four. I'd like to be about two ten.
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit heavier than that. And one of
Speaker 3: the funniest things about me, Spence is I have a
Speaker 3: seventeen shoe and I've worn to say, seventeen shoes since
Speaker 3: I was sixteen years old. It's one of the weirdest
Speaker 3: things about me. And as a kid who was sixteen
Speaker 3: and nineteen ninety four, so this is before the Internet
Speaker 3: and before everything, my life was very, very weird, trying
Speaker 3: to get shoes and trying to fit in as a
Speaker 3: normal member of society with feet that were way too
Speaker 3: big for my own good.
Speaker 2: We are the very same age. I don't know that
Speaker 2: I knew that until now.
Speaker 1: I was also sixteen in nineteen ninety four, because I
Speaker 1: bring it like were you an athlete?
Speaker 2: I don't even know this about you, Like what did
Speaker 2: you play growing up?
Speaker 3: So when I was growing up, like any other kid,
Speaker 3: the first sport that I got into was soccer, and
Speaker 3: I was actually really good at it. I was a
Speaker 3: really good midfielder. And then if you look up my
Speaker 3: hometown the Wikipedia page Snahomish, Washington, one of the claims
Speaker 3: to fame is that there was a semi pro soccer
Speaker 3: team that rolled through there by the name of Stormich United,
Speaker 3: and Stormich United started as a Premier League team for
Speaker 3: thirteen fourteen fifteen year olds and it was a traveling
Speaker 3: crew and I was actually on the first ever Sinahamas
Speaker 3: United team. So soccer was a huge part of my life.
Speaker 3: I loved playing it the reason I was a pretty
Speaker 3: good midfielder. Again, I say I have a Hall of
Speaker 3: Fame caliber track and cross country coach for a father.
Speaker 3: I was a distance runner growing up. I ran my
Speaker 3: first competitive race in about first grade. Hung on my
Speaker 3: dad's coattails and just running was a huge part of
Speaker 3: our life, and so I had a ton of insurance.
Speaker 3: So I made a midfielder because you never had to
Speaker 3: pull me from a game. And then again, I'm a
Speaker 3: little bit big to be a distance runner. So once
Speaker 3: I started growing up and growing into what would be
Speaker 3: my adult body, a guy who's five eleven sixty with
Speaker 3: a size seventeen shoe doesn't make a lot of sense
Speaker 3: to be running competitively in three mile races. But it's
Speaker 3: something I stuck with. But then when I quit basketball.
Speaker 3: When I quit basketball in the eighth grade, I dipped
Speaker 3: myself into a pool and that is what became my calling.
Speaker 3: So I was I was an All American breaststroker. It's
Speaker 3: the Homus High School and by all American. It doesn't
Speaker 3: mean that I was, you know, an absolute world beater.
Speaker 3: I just swam a good enough time to get that consideration.
Speaker 3: But I was a breaststroker and I swum the individual medley,
Speaker 3: and I really wanted to be a college athlete. I
Speaker 3: wanted to be a swimmer in college. The only problem
Speaker 3: was I just wasn't good enough. So I had a
Speaker 3: huge work ethic. I lived at the pool. I was
Speaker 3: a lifeguard, swim teacher, and if I wasn't in the
Speaker 3: classroom or at home, I was at the pool, and
Speaker 3: I poured my heart and soul into them. And I
Speaker 3: absolutely love that stuff. Athletics was a huge, huge part
Speaker 3: of my life and a huge part of the reason
Speaker 3: I got into the business I got into.
Speaker 2: So let's transition over there.
Speaker 1: For our audience, it isn't familiar because Adam is not
Speaker 1: a very consistent guest of ours. So, like I've always
Speaker 1: found this interesting for guys to kind of do what
Speaker 1: you and I do, and we have different jobs, we're
Speaker 1: in the same ecosystem. You have guys like us they
Speaker 1: played sports growing up, and then you have and I
Speaker 1: honestly I'm not.
Speaker 2: Judging one way or the other, but For instance, I.
Speaker 1: An Eagle who is a good friend of the show,
Speaker 1: and as a guy I've known my entire life. Like
Speaker 1: I will tell you, do not throw a football at me.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with it. But he
Speaker 1: wanted to be a broadcaster when he was like eight. Right,
Speaker 1: So you have a lot of play by play guys,
Speaker 1: and most of the play by play guys in our
Speaker 1: market breaking news. There are not athletes. Then you have
Speaker 1: guys that tried to play sports like you I want.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the starting point guard for the Knicks.
Speaker 1: I mean that was my thing. And you know, I
Speaker 1: played until I was about nineteen when I tried to
Speaker 1: play against pros and then I realized, Okay, if you
Speaker 1: want to be around this, you got to find something
Speaker 1: else to do. So what kind of lit the fire
Speaker 1: for you to follow this path and how did you
Speaker 1: land in our market?
Speaker 3: That's a great question, and it's actually something that I
Speaker 3: really like talking about because you're right there, there are
Speaker 3: many many different kinds of you know, professional sportscasters walking around.
Speaker 3: Some of the smartest ones when it comes to the
Speaker 3: analytics and the x's and o's and maybe memorizing stats
Speaker 3: and things like that, our guys that weren't athletes themselves,
Speaker 3: they just fell in love with the sport. And probably
Speaker 3: there's a certain sense of living vicariously through it now
Speaker 3: when it comes to me and the one sport that
Speaker 3: I left out, you know, when talking about you know
Speaker 3: what made me tick when I was growing up, all
Speaker 3: I wanted to do when I was maybe ten through
Speaker 3: sixteen was played baseball. That was another sport that I
Speaker 3: played and unfortunately had to give up at one point
Speaker 3: because I just wasn't good enough. But Holy Toledo Spence,
Speaker 3: I was the biggest baseball fan, baseball card collector. I
Speaker 3: grew up about forty forty minutes from Seattle, and I
Speaker 3: would do everything I could talk my dad and to
Speaker 3: take me to Mariners games. And it wasn't just to
Speaker 3: you know, to go sit in the know in our
Speaker 3: seats and watch the game. It was to go down
Speaker 3: and try and meet the players and take a handful
Speaker 3: of baseball cards and trying to get autographs and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. And then it was a really really strange twist.
Speaker 3: I was actually playing on a Pony State championship team
Speaker 3: when I was fourteen years old, and I was still
Speaker 3: clinging to this idea that I could work hard enough
Speaker 3: and probably grew up to be a professional baseball player
Speaker 3: one day, and I was just kind of crossing that
Speaker 3: threshold of being a little more realistic as a human being.
Speaker 3: I feel like, once you get into high school, you
Speaker 3: kind of have to start facing certain realities. And at
Speaker 3: one point, and I think my dad and I had
Speaker 3: just wrapped up. Uh he was, you know, he was
Speaker 3: running marathons at the time, and and so he would
Speaker 3: run for an hour, hour and a half at our
Speaker 3: local track and then I would throw a baseball against
Speaker 3: the wall while he did that, and then I would
Speaker 3: probably run for maybe, you know, the last ten minutes
Speaker 3: with him, something like that. So I'm going on and
Speaker 3: on like I always do, about playing baseball and maybe
Speaker 3: I can be a switch hitter and this and that
Speaker 3: and the other thing. And for whatever reason, my dad
Speaker 3: had finally had it and he just said, Adam, you're
Speaker 3: my son, and I love you, but you are never
Speaker 3: going to be a professional baseball player. And it just
Speaker 3: broke my heart. And I trust them, there's a there's
Speaker 3: a happy ending to this story. And so I was
Speaker 3: so kind of irritated by like I walked into the
Speaker 3: house and had tears in my eyes and didn't pick
Speaker 3: a fight with my dad or anything like that. I
Speaker 3: just kind of had to let it sit and digest.
Speaker 3: And then it was probably a couple of days later.
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, you know what, he's right, and
Speaker 3: good for him for actually saying something like that. But
Speaker 3: I didn't want to let the dream die necessarily like
Speaker 3: right there. So what I did is I thought to myself,
Speaker 3: what can I do, What can I possibly do with
Speaker 3: myself to make sure I stay as close to the
Speaker 3: arena as possible. How can I figure out a way
Speaker 3: to go to baseball games for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: And I've got a famous uncle by the name of
Speaker 3: Rick Lukens, who's a sportscaster in Spokane, and by him
Speaker 3: being on television, he was with the local ABC in
Speaker 3: in Spokane for thirty years. With him being on television,
Speaker 3: it was kind of a reality that I might be
Speaker 3: able to do this if I go to school and
Speaker 3: pay attention and set goals and try and run him down.
Speaker 3: So I decided then instead of being a baseball player,
Speaker 3: probably the next best thing would be to be a
Speaker 3: sportscaster and get to interview people at the King Dome
Speaker 3: and Seattle and lo and behold, I think I'm twenty
Speaker 3: two years old working at Fox Sports north West in Seattle,
Speaker 3: and wasn't one hundred percent sure that I wanted to
Speaker 3: go the career paths that This is right after I
Speaker 3: graduated from Wazoo. And it was the first time that,
Speaker 3: you know, a reporter took me on a story with
Speaker 3: them and I got to help out with it. And
Speaker 3: I called my mom at her office at home from
Speaker 3: the field at safegu Field and I just said, hey, Mom,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be a sportscaster. And she said, well,
Speaker 3: good honey, go for it. And then the rest is
Speaker 3: kind of history. Sorry, that was a long story, but
Speaker 3: that's that's the truth right there.
Speaker 1: Adam Is, I sayed, all my guests, I have four
Speaker 1: hours of space to fill. You can take forty five
Speaker 1: minutes if you'd like. So you've been you've been here
Speaker 1: for fifteen sixteen years.
Speaker 2: It feels bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be fifteen years in July.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So here's the question I wanted to get to as
Speaker 1: we move into kind of where we find ourselvesselves here locally,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got a kind of unique paradigm when
Speaker 1: it comes to this community because I was born here
Speaker 1: and then moved and grew up elsewhere, and then came
Speaker 1: back and went to college here, so it's kind of
Speaker 1: home and then kind of isn't home. It's been home
Speaker 1: essentially for twenty five straight years, so and it's good living.
Speaker 2: I love it here for sure. It's why I choose
Speaker 2: to live here.
Speaker 1: And I am pretty stunned when I take a step
Speaker 1: back and consider how much we have grown as a
Speaker 1: sporting market and community. I would say since I was
Speaker 1: in school at the University of Utah in the late nineties.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's pretty stunning.
Speaker 1: Of course, we have additional properties like ray Al, Salt
Speaker 1: Lake and the hockey club, but we also have evolved
Speaker 1: into this really undeniable college football market, and we're an
Speaker 1: NBA market, even though our team right now is on
Speaker 1: serious about winning. How have you seen our market change
Speaker 1: and grow in your fifteen years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a really good question. And again it's another
Speaker 3: thing that the keep train coming back year after year
Speaker 3: because you know, not only do I have some stability here,
Speaker 3: I mean you know the fact that there's still multiple
Speaker 3: radio stations that that cover sports in this market is
Speaker 3: a real indicator of how strong it is here.
Speaker 2: Multiple stations, Adam, I didn't. I thought there was only.
Speaker 3: One man to say. And I apologize well, and you know,
Speaker 3: all four TV stations still do sports, and sports is
Speaker 3: the first thing to go when when times gets up again.
Speaker 3: You know, I always mentioned them from Seattle, and I
Speaker 3: am and Seattle is a good sports town. But it's
Speaker 3: it's fairweather. It's not. It's not like it is here
Speaker 3: with with the diehards. I mean, people in Seattle have
Speaker 3: lots of other things that they'd rather do, rather go do,
Speaker 3: than watch sporting events. I I I grew up with
Speaker 3: a love for Utah because I was a Sonics fan,
Speaker 3: and the Sonics and the Jazz had great rivalries over
Speaker 3: the years. My brother used to impersonate Jeff Hornisack in
Speaker 3: the backyard when the red he chewed up a three ball.
Speaker 3: And so it's funny it took me moving here because
Speaker 3: I had this this remembrance of Salt Lake City. And
Speaker 3: you know, of course, my my my career path took
Speaker 3: me in a southeast Sideaho and then a long ways
Speaker 3: from home. I was in a Champagne, Illinois before I
Speaker 3: got my job here. And so when I moved here,
Speaker 3: I was hit with the realization that Utah had become
Speaker 3: a football town, and that has everything to do with
Speaker 3: the success of the University of Utah and a lot
Speaker 3: to do with what you know happens just down the
Speaker 3: road in Provo too. They're absolutely sports praised here, and
Speaker 3: then you know, the Jazz are are kind of the
Speaker 3: main attraction and they make the whole world go around.
Speaker 3: But I think one of the coolest things is the
Speaker 3: fact that the hockey club has taken out the way
Speaker 3: that it has, and that's the biggest change that I've noticed.
Speaker 3: I don't I think people here are absolutely sports praised,
Speaker 3: and the pulse of that has only gone up since
Speaker 3: I've been here. But with the hockey club, it's like
Speaker 3: anything else. I like to call it an experiment. When
Speaker 3: it's just taking off, and when it's just getting legs,
Speaker 3: I no longer referred to it as an experiment. And
Speaker 3: the first whole season isn't done yet. This town has
Speaker 3: absolutely wrapped itself around that club. The atmospheres are so
Speaker 3: different and so rocking and so much fun. And I
Speaker 3: think Salt Lake has not changed as a sports market
Speaker 3: since I've been here, But it just continues and continues
Speaker 3: to impress me. And then let's be honest too. I mean,
Speaker 3: we meet a lot of people who are like minded
Speaker 3: in the industry from different places, and they all just
Speaker 3: kind of sit back and marvel the fact that we've
Speaker 3: got a really, really good thing going here. I don't
Speaker 3: think the place has changed, but the fact that it
Speaker 3: has stayed the same and gotten a little bit better
Speaker 3: rather than trend in the opposite direction, That's what really
Speaker 3: really knocks my socks off. Because so many other places
Speaker 3: sports aren't gaining in popularity, they're actually waning in popularity.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And you know it's wild to consider if the Millers
Speaker 1: are able to to successfully bring us major League Baseball.
Speaker 1: I mean, for you, as a kid growing up in Seattle,
Speaker 1: can you imagine covering a Mariner's game three miles from
Speaker 1: where you're working right now at them?
Speaker 3: I couldn't. And honestly, you know, the stadium plans kind
Speaker 3: of stick to the Rose Park area, which is where
Speaker 3: I live now. I mean, honestly, if a Major League
Speaker 3: Baseball stadium was built within five miles of where I
Speaker 3: have my home right now, I don't know what I
Speaker 3: that I'd be able to contain myself and as a
Speaker 3: professional in this market and somebody who relies. I mean,
Speaker 3: we cover sports for a living, and honestly, sometimes it
Speaker 3: can be a bit much. I mean, we have so
Speaker 3: much to cover as it is, and then don't forget,
Speaker 3: you know, for someone like me who goes out and
Speaker 3: shoots video the turn stories on a daily basis, I
Speaker 3: get really enveloped in the spring high school sports season.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're going to see me out at state
Speaker 3: championship soccer games, softball and baseball games, things like that.
Speaker 3: So there's already a ton to cover. So it'd be
Speaker 3: a really really good problem to have to add one
Speaker 3: more professional franchise here and yet again, and I mean,
Speaker 3: if that happens, it's gonna work, Spence. Nothing doesn't work
Speaker 3: in Salt Lake City. These are sports crazed teumans here
Speaker 3: and it's a really wonderful place to be.
Speaker 1: So let's move over a couple questions about the here
Speaker 1: and now, and then I'll set you loose because I
Speaker 1: know you got to get to it, and I reference
Speaker 1: your ability or just your choice or whatever it is
Speaker 1: to wax positive regardless of what's going on, and the
Speaker 1: jazz for the first time in fifty plus years of basketball.
Speaker 1: Just lost their sixtieth game, and they've just lost their
Speaker 1: sixty first and they're probably gonna lose the rest of
Speaker 1: the way. So this is the deal for me, Adam.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I'm a child of this organization.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants me to see them, you know, but nobody
Speaker 1: wants to see them win a championship more than I do.
Speaker 1: And they're doing the right thing. It just sucks like
Speaker 1: with the you know, right, like with the ecosystem of
Speaker 1: the NBA and the way that the league is structured,
Speaker 1: and you know, essentially how you kind of have to
Speaker 1: go about this because of the way that the NBA
Speaker 1: is you know, put together to bring to certain markets
Speaker 1: based off to certain mechanisms, namely the NBA Draft.
Speaker 2: I get the approach.
Speaker 1: I think they should have done this two years ago
Speaker 1: when Victor Weimanamo was available.
Speaker 2: But it is what it is.
Speaker 1: What has been the biggest challenge in covering a team
Speaker 1: that's unseerious about winning? And what are some of the
Speaker 1: positive things that you've noticed this year?
Speaker 3: And just to kind of elaborate a little bit more
Speaker 3: for everybody at home, how significant this season has been
Speaker 3: I think the inaugural season of Jazz basketball that was
Speaker 3: in New Orleans and what was it, seventy three, seventy four.
Speaker 3: I'm close there, right, yeah, huh yep. Twenty three wins
Speaker 3: total in the first season ever, and I believe that's
Speaker 3: the all time fewest wins for a Jazz team in
Speaker 3: a single season. They are going to eclipse that if
Speaker 3: everything goes well, and as weird as that is to sound,
Speaker 3: they're going to They're gonna set a franchise record for
Speaker 3: the fewest wins in a single season. And it's by design.
Speaker 3: So here it's kind of been an evolution thing for me.
Speaker 3: I wasn't ready to and and again I have because
Speaker 3: you know, we're we're we onwn kjazs, kutv on Kjazs,
Speaker 3: and we are the Jazz station. I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 3: I have an obligation to cover this team, and it's
Speaker 3: a wonderful obligation to have. I've been doing live shots
Speaker 3: at Jazz games this year, probably more so than any
Speaker 3: time before, and it's because we want to be there
Speaker 3: and we want to we want to represent our product
Speaker 3: as best we can. And it took me a while
Speaker 3: to kind of evolve out of the mode of Okay, well,
Speaker 3: let's talk about the positives. They almost got the win tonight,
Speaker 3: and then finally to saying, okay, the jazz last tonight,
Speaker 3: and that's a that's that's a beautiful thing. It's just
Speaker 3: absolutely weird. But once it kind of became you know,
Speaker 3: Danny Ainge hasn't had a press conference and given us
Speaker 3: the exact blueprints of this plan whatsoever, but it's it's
Speaker 3: implied that this is what they want to do, if
Speaker 3: it makes sense what I'm saying here right now. So
Speaker 3: just looking at the development of the youngsters has has
Speaker 3: been something that I've been trying to do the best
Speaker 3: I can. I've we had you on Talking Jazz on
Speaker 3: Tuesday night and you and I were just going on
Speaker 3: and on about how much we like washing Isaiah call
Speaker 3: you play. So it has been kind of a work
Speaker 3: in progress, and the hardest thing for me to do
Speaker 3: was kind of allow myself to accept the fact that
Speaker 3: losing is by design when it comes to this team.
Speaker 3: And once I let that kind of go, it just
Speaker 3: became a little bit easier to focus on the young talent.
Speaker 3: And you know, the other thing, too, is the locker
Speaker 3: room these guys kind of know who they are, and
Speaker 3: so I kept waiting for it to get to a
Speaker 3: point where it would be really difficult to go in
Speaker 3: there and talk to those players. But they've been terrific
Speaker 3: this season. They've they've made it easy to kind of
Speaker 3: look at the positive side of things and to know
Speaker 3: that this is what the team needs to do to
Speaker 3: grow it in the right direction. Those kids in that
Speaker 3: locker room have made it real easy to do my job,
Speaker 3: and I guess I'm really appreciative of that. And so
Speaker 3: has Will Hardy too. Like he he's a great sound bite,
Speaker 3: he's very thoughtful, and he's he's also really you to
Speaker 3: talk to. So once once you, I guess, learn to
Speaker 3: accept the fact that losing is winning. This season in
Speaker 3: a very unique way, it kind of became easier and
Speaker 3: easier as it went along. That make any sense.
Speaker 2: It does. It does, and it takes some time to understand.
Speaker 1: Like, if you're working in an ecosystem that incentivizes losing,
Speaker 1: you're going to lean into it because the incentive structure
Speaker 1: says this is the right thing to do. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a don't hate the player, hate the
Speaker 1: game thing, Like I just don't like that the NBA
Speaker 1: incentivizes what the Jazz are doing, but the NBA does,
Speaker 1: so the Jazz have to do it.
Speaker 2: But before I set you loose at.
Speaker 1: Him, we are the home of the Utes, and we
Speaker 1: had a rough football season and another rough basketball season.
Speaker 1: But I think there's a lot of optimism for next
Speaker 1: year on both sides.
Speaker 2: We'll finish with the football program.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, Alex Jensen has been hired
Speaker 1: as the seventeenth coach and men's basketball history. Keiato Dawes
Speaker 1: withdrew from the transfer portal, he's coming back in Terrence
Speaker 1: Brown has been added as a transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson University,
Speaker 1: and when you look at the composite rankings, he is
Speaker 1: one of the top guards on the transfer market.
Speaker 2: So we have two pieces in place. But you you know, Ajay,
Speaker 2: what would you say.
Speaker 1: To you fans about what they should should expect now
Speaker 1: that he's in charge.
Speaker 3: I just I love Alex. I think he's a great guy,
Speaker 3: you know. You know, it's been one of my favorite
Speaker 3: things about him. We work in a really hectic profession,
Speaker 3: you know, especially you know again covering post game for
Speaker 3: a living. I mean, you know, at least once or
Speaker 3: twice a week. I go to a sporting event, win
Speaker 3: or lose. I go do post games, scrap it all together,
Speaker 3: and then you know, just get to a live shot,
Speaker 3: you know, running to get there and make it on time.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a hectic environment. Alex has this laid back, cool,
Speaker 3: calm demeanor about him everywhere he goes. And I got
Speaker 3: to know Alex when he was, of course working for
Speaker 3: working for Quinn Snyder and the Utah Jazz and he
Speaker 3: was never not sitting down courtside with Rudy Gobert with
Speaker 3: an iPad just looking through video and he's just calm, impatient,
Speaker 3: and a welcoming person. I think it's going to be
Speaker 3: really really interesting to see him developing college level talent
Speaker 3: because I think he's cut out for it. I think
Speaker 3: there's like a nurturing side to Alex. I think there's
Speaker 3: a thoughtfulness that is perfect for coaching kids who are
Speaker 3: coming right out of high school and growing them into
Speaker 3: a program. I just think he's going to create a
Speaker 3: family environment. And I'm not saying that wasn't present with
Speaker 3: Craig Smith. I was a huge Craig Smith fan, and
Speaker 3: it broke my heart when he got let go. But
Speaker 3: Alex is going to bring the family aspect of Utah
Speaker 3: basketball back to Utah. I think that's a big part
Speaker 3: of the reason they want him for this job. And then,
Speaker 3: you know, you've kind of prefaced this part of you know,
Speaker 3: our segment today talking about the transfer portal and how
Speaker 3: competitive it is there. I think the biggest thing that
Speaker 3: a coach can bring to the table for a program
Speaker 3: that wants to be competitive these days is to find
Speaker 3: a way to keep kids at your school. Don't have
Speaker 3: kids three quarters of the way through the season when
Speaker 3: they're not perfect and nothing's going absolutely perfect. Get them
Speaker 3: from putting their heads in the gutter and thinking about leaving.
Speaker 3: Find a way to make a program that kids don't
Speaker 3: want to leave. And that's why I'm so excited for
Speaker 3: Alex to come here. I think he's going to be great.
Speaker 2: At that all right.
Speaker 1: Last thing, you know, Utah football last year was installed
Speaker 1: as the favorite to win the Big Twelve by our
Speaker 1: friends in Las Vegas. The media pick Utah to win
Speaker 1: the Big twelve local national you know, and I wonder,
Speaker 1: Adam this year, if you pull up the way to
Speaker 1: early Big Twelve lists as far as what people think
Speaker 1: is going to happen next year. Utah for the most
Speaker 1: part is like five, six or seven. They're mid table. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: So you remove the pressure of everybody saying you're going
Speaker 1: to win the Big Twelve. The cfp's expanded to twelve,
Speaker 1: so you're going to that too. What gives you the
Speaker 1: most hope that year two in the Big twelve can
Speaker 1: be a lot better for Utah football than year one was.
Speaker 3: Okay, I hope he's not listening right now, because I
Speaker 3: don't mean it the way it sounds. But the fact
Speaker 3: that Utah has undeniably moved on from Cam Rising, I
Speaker 3: think is the first step in the right direction. You know,
Speaker 3: Cam his last two seasons was never a sure saying,
Speaker 3: and there were lots of ups and downs that were
Speaker 3: just there and always it already is as long as
Speaker 3: he was around. What's Cam going to do? How's Cam
Speaker 3: going to be? It looked pretty good through a couple
Speaker 3: of games this last season, and then I don't know
Speaker 3: what he was trying to pull in the game against Baylor.
Speaker 3: I've got a ton of respect for this kid. I
Speaker 3: think he's one of the best, not only quarterbacks, but
Speaker 3: one of the best leaders that the Utah football has
Speaker 3: had since since I've been here, and he's got a
Speaker 3: tremendous upside and he's going to have a right future.
Speaker 3: But the fact that they're moving on from that era
Speaker 3: and moving into something else, I think is the first
Speaker 3: step in the right direction. And then, yeah, I think
Speaker 3: there's a little juice up there too with Jason Beck.
Speaker 3: I hadn't had a change to meet him until I
Speaker 3: was up at practice on a Friday a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and we got to talk to a lot
Speaker 3: of the coordinators and he just looks bright at and
Speaker 3: bushy tailed and ready to make mistakes and fix those
Speaker 3: mistakes and get his hands dirty. And the other thing too,
Speaker 3: is he's playing for you like to call me the goat.
Speaker 3: The goat is Kyle Whittingham. I mean, that's the biggest
Speaker 3: arrow in the quiver that the University of Utah has,
Speaker 3: is They've they've got one of the deans of college
Speaker 3: football running their program, and guys just seemed to love
Speaker 3: to play for him. And I think I think as
Speaker 3: long as Kyle Whittingham is there, I think Utah's is
Speaker 3: going to be a force to be recommend.
Speaker 1: Adam you're the man. Appreciate the time. It was fun
Speaker 1: being on television with you this week. Have a great weekend,
Speaker 1: buddy with chat soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks everything, Sence, Appreciate you all right.
Speaker 1: Adam kolitch Ku TVs on Twitter which is just his
Speaker 1: name at Adam miklitch is where you find brought to
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