Speaker 1: Live in studio.
Speaker 2: After very successful johnts down to spring training, where he
Speaker 2: was in eighty degree weather every day, looking very tan
Speaker 2: and very rested. Forty years with the Utah Jazz Richard
Speaker 2: Smith Onday Wednesday afternoon, Smitty, Happy Wednesday, Sir?
Speaker 3: Are you same to you? Spence?
Speaker 4: It's good to be back in Salt Lake for a
Speaker 4: few days anyway.
Speaker 1: And you got something else coming up?
Speaker 4: Well? I always making a priority to stop by the drive,
Speaker 4: you know, whenever I'm in town and and make sure
Speaker 4: that I can I can bring your show down to
Speaker 4: the h down to the depths where it usually isn't
Speaker 4: isn't used to being when I'm on the air.
Speaker 1: Well, that's not true, as we all know. But what
Speaker 1: are you? Are you out again? You have another trip planned?
Speaker 3: You know what? You know what doing? Spence?
Speaker 4: I last year I volunteered to work at the UH
Speaker 4: the Indian Wells Tennis tournament down in Palm Springs, and
Speaker 4: that's coming around starting on Monday, and so we'll go
Speaker 4: heading back down there. I'm gonna work down there as
Speaker 4: a bombluntier and uh, I love you know, you know me, Spence.
Speaker 4: I love being out among the people, you know, and
Speaker 4: I'm a guy of the of the people, and so
Speaker 4: anything I can do to to help out the cause, uh,
Speaker 4: that that's where you'll find me. So so last year
Speaker 4: we did it, and and the first few days I worked.
Speaker 4: The first day, who walks right by me? And I
Speaker 4: do one of those double takes with Steve Nash and
Speaker 4: I go, is that Stevens? And then like the minute, lady,
Speaker 4: he walked back, you know by. And then next day
Speaker 4: who walks by Derk Novitski you know, just cruising, cruising, uh,
Speaker 4: cruising along the plaza there. So it's it's a it's
Speaker 4: a fun event. It's considered by tennis officionados as the
Speaker 4: fifth major, and so everybody plays both the the A
Speaker 4: t P and the w t A play uh, and
Speaker 4: so it's a fun tournament to be be part of.
Speaker 4: And so so we're heading down there, uh this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good for you, good for you.
Speaker 2: Well, while you were away, we had some news drop
Speaker 2: here locally where the University of Utah is now looking
Speaker 2: for a new head coach, Craig Smith relieved of his
Speaker 2: duties in his fourth year. It's a six year contract.
Speaker 2: He's due roughly five mill a little less than that.
Speaker 2: I think they're still paying Larry, So it's a lot
Speaker 2: of dead money to make coaches that you decided to
Speaker 2: move on from. Before we get into these kind of
Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts of but what was your reaction
Speaker 2: when you heard the news?
Speaker 4: Well, I was, first of all, I was very surprised
Speaker 4: that happened during the season. I was at the at
Speaker 4: the Kansas game the week earlier where they played well
Speaker 4: and and and be beat a good Kansas team that's
Speaker 4: been not not playing very well lately. But but we
Speaker 4: all know what they're about. And then they had the uh,
Speaker 4: the tough uh, the tough game against Central Florida the
Speaker 4: other day. Tough, tough way to lose a game at
Speaker 4: the end. But I'll tell you one thing, Craig Smith
Speaker 4: is is a very good coach.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: He works extremely hard at it. His teams really get
Speaker 4: after especially defensively. I'm surprised they did this. I don't
Speaker 4: know if it was a move made because of the
Speaker 4: coaching or they expect more. I don't know what you
Speaker 4: would expect more out of this roster. I don't think
Speaker 4: it's it's a great roster. I think it's what it
Speaker 4: really is. When you look at the standings is that
Speaker 4: they're a middle of the road Big twelve team at
Speaker 4: the moment. I don't know if it was an indictment
Speaker 4: on recruiting and not getting better players. I don't know
Speaker 4: what the thinking was behind the scenes, but I think
Speaker 4: it was, for me, my own personal opinion, very premature
Speaker 4: and very shortsighted. When you have a good coach like
Speaker 4: Craig Smith at the helm of your program, I think
Speaker 4: there are other ways to go about trying to strengthen
Speaker 4: and increase what you're trying to do.
Speaker 2: With that some good points there, and you know, let's
Speaker 2: kind of dig into some of the elements of this
Speaker 2: conversation before we get into what could come next and
Speaker 2: what that looks like. You know, my instant reaction was
Speaker 2: just kind of gutted for a good man, right, There's
Speaker 2: a personal side of these things that I don't think
Speaker 2: we cover very well on the media side, you know,
Speaker 2: And as you know, you know, my father was never
Speaker 2: a coach, but he was an executive and we uprooted
Speaker 2: several times because of his career. There's a family that
Speaker 2: has things, you know, kind of thrown into a little
Speaker 2: bit of chaos when a father loses a job and
Speaker 2: you've got to figure something out. The money, obviously, is
Speaker 2: a nice parachute in college sports. The reason why coaches
Speaker 2: negotiate buyouts like this is you're hired to be fired oftentimes.
Speaker 2: But like you, I was a little bit surprised. I
Speaker 2: kind of raised my eyebrows a little bit. So let's
Speaker 2: talk about the timing of it and why this could be.
Speaker 2: I've heard people say this gives the program some runway
Speaker 2: to retain some of the players, to get them back
Speaker 2: next year. I honestly don't know on this roster who
Speaker 2: you really want back next year.
Speaker 1: That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2: Because Gabe's a senior, so is Loss, and I think
Speaker 2: Jake Wallen's a nice player. I think Ezra Asar has
Speaker 2: shown some nice things. But I've heard that's one of
Speaker 2: the reasons I can't coroborate that. I really don't know why,
Speaker 2: because they had just be the two Kansas schools. This
Speaker 2: cannot be made just because they had a road loss
Speaker 2: to UCF. And if it's made because of that, that's
Speaker 2: like in a vacuum, which is unfair. So why do
Speaker 2: you think they decided to do this when there are
Speaker 2: still games left to be played?
Speaker 4: Well, I think One of the things is probably the
Speaker 4: notion that behind closed doors, if they thought, and they
Speaker 4: being the Athletic Department, Mark Harlan and whoever advises him
Speaker 4: or works with him in those kinds of things, if
Speaker 4: they were talking about this and it was something they
Speaker 4: had decided in their minds, we're going to do this anyway.
Speaker 4: It's an eventuality that we've come to the conclusion of doing,
Speaker 4: then you might as well do it, you know, when
Speaker 4: you feel comfortable that that's the decision and we're going
Speaker 4: to make anyway, you cut it clean, you cut it early.
Speaker 4: And then it also gives it gives you a chance
Speaker 4: a leg up on maybe other coaches who are either
Speaker 4: out there or coaches who might be uh interested or
Speaker 4: and or available, uh to get a head up on
Speaker 4: on maybe getting in with them in terms of conversations
Speaker 4: about about the job. The flip side of it for me,
Speaker 4: Spence is when you do this in the college ranks,
Speaker 4: it really in some regards, it really smacks of a
Speaker 4: little bit of uh urgency by the program. Uh, you know,
Speaker 4: a little bit of maybe excitability by the by the
Speaker 4: decision makers that they're uh, they're nervous or they're anxious
Speaker 4: about what's going on, and they're not They don't quite
Speaker 4: like what's happening now, so they're just gonna they're just
Speaker 4: gonna cut the cord. Uh. With that, I don't I
Speaker 4: don't like that feeling. I don't like the fact that
Speaker 4: that that you're not letting that coaching staff and those
Speaker 4: players see through the end of the season to see
Speaker 4: what could happen. You know, they've had some good wins,
Speaker 4: but but hey, you know, the the other part of
Speaker 4: it also is there they're one in seven on the road, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, in the Big twelve.
Speaker 3: But but you know.
Speaker 4: They look at the standing and say, well, do you
Speaker 4: the Big twelve or sixteen teams and their tenth and
Speaker 4: they're right in the middle. To me, we talked about
Speaker 4: that spence when the season began. That's what I expected
Speaker 4: them to be. I didn't expect them to be any
Speaker 4: world beaters in the in the Big twelve. Uh. They
Speaker 4: got a lot of heavy hitters in this league. And
Speaker 4: you know, if they want to make something, they want
Speaker 4: to make something happen now and get ahead of the curve.
Speaker 4: That's probably what I would assume they're they're thinking. I'm
Speaker 4: not sure it's a good look for the university when
Speaker 4: you do that, you know, during a season, Because to me,
Speaker 4: then it would say if I'm a coach, if I'm
Speaker 4: a perspective coach and I'm looking at that as a
Speaker 4: possible landing spot for me, the first thing I would
Speaker 4: say would be, Okay, who are the people calling the shots?
Speaker 4: Is it the the booster club, is it the athletic director?
Speaker 4: Are there other people involved in that decision making process?
Speaker 4: And who are they that I'm going to be working
Speaker 4: with that would make this kind of a decision during
Speaker 4: a season with the current coaching staff, That's a thing
Speaker 4: that would would come back to me as a question
Speaker 4: I would want to have answered, you know, as a
Speaker 4: perspective candidate, because that tells me that that you know,
Speaker 4: maybe the you know, the people you're working for aren't
Speaker 4: with you in the row boat when it's sinking and
Speaker 4: aren't willing to stay with you when it's not going
Speaker 4: as well as they want it to that they jump
Speaker 4: ship on you. And that's a concern that I would
Speaker 4: have as well.
Speaker 2: For four years of data with Craig and you know,
Speaker 2: some good moments, some good wins, I just I'm sitting
Speaker 2: or shaking my head that we haven't had an NCAA
Speaker 2: tournament team here since twenty sixteen. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 2: nearly been a decade. And ultimately, I you know, I
Speaker 2: think a lot of this, from what I've been told,
Speaker 2: was booster driven. I don't know how much of this
Speaker 2: was just Mark making a call.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know.
Speaker 2: I could foresee a scenario where the Huntsman's of the world,
Speaker 2: the Echoes of the world, the Garths of the world,
Speaker 2: called Taylor Randall and say we're not with this. It's
Speaker 2: not working. It's not it's not moving the direction that
Speaker 2: we want. I know, you're out of town. Josh Grant
Speaker 2: came on the show two days ago and just went
Speaker 2: scorched earth on the entire thing, and he even said
Speaker 2: he was excited.
Speaker 1: Did they decided to do this?
Speaker 2: I can't coroborate any of this, but Josh's claim is
Speaker 2: several alumni tried to contact Craig to off for help,
Speaker 2: and Craig wasn't open to that, which I'm conflicted about
Speaker 2: if I'm honest, Because if I'm Craig, I say I'm
Speaker 2: running a program. I have a team to coach. You know,
Speaker 2: his job is not to uh, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: cout out or whatever the alumni want him to do.
Speaker 2: But when the heavy hitters, the guys that are writing
Speaker 2: the checks aren't happy with the directionsmittee. If you're Mark Carlin,
Speaker 2: you probably are kind of forced to do something.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, and and that's the thing.
Speaker 4: If you if you're the head guy, you know, Mark
Speaker 4: Carlan is the athletic director, then who are you answering to?
Speaker 4: And and who who is your your constituency? You know, Look,
Speaker 4: if you know anything about basketball, if you're if you're
Speaker 4: a student of the game, if you profess to love
Speaker 4: the game and watch it, and you're sitting courtside and
Speaker 4: you're you're watching these players, and you're watching the teams
Speaker 4: that come through and who you're playing against, you cannot
Speaker 4: look at You could not look at the roster, you know,
Speaker 4: for the for Utah this year and and say, oh,
Speaker 4: that's a highly competitive team that's gonna be you know,
Speaker 4: you know, battle for a top four spot in the
Speaker 4: conference standings.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: They they don't have that kind of personnel. Souh. You
Speaker 4: as the athletic director and the people making those decisions,
Speaker 4: is that what you're basing your your your response, your
Speaker 4: your knee jerk reaction to h Are you doing it
Speaker 4: because you don't like the way the coach handles his team?
Speaker 4: You do it because you think they're not running the
Speaker 4: right offense, their their defense is it's stout enough in
Speaker 4: tough circum you know, whatever it is that that you
Speaker 4: that you think you're hanging your hat on. But but
Speaker 4: this team, you know, this program the way it is
Speaker 4: at the current time, and and and I can see
Speaker 4: some of this. You know, I'm a Craig Smith fan
Speaker 4: because I know him somewhat not great, but I know
Speaker 4: that he's a very good coach, and I know that
Speaker 4: he works extremely hard, you know, at it, and he's
Speaker 4: got a sincere will uh with his team and gets
Speaker 4: his team to buy into his approach and what he's
Speaker 4: trying to do. His issue this year has been that
Speaker 4: he just doesn't have the horses to stay in the race.
Speaker 4: That that's just that's a fact if you study basketball,
Speaker 4: if you know anything about it. They also had what,
Speaker 4: to me Spence was a very soft pre conference schedule,
Speaker 4: and so that makes their record look maybe a little
Speaker 4: bit better than what the team really is. And I
Speaker 4: understand that also in terms of college scheduling. Every college
Speaker 4: team tries to get you know, what they call built
Speaker 4: in wins in November and December to get your team,
Speaker 4: you know, positively affected and get them confidence for for
Speaker 4: going into their conference uh seasons each year. But if
Speaker 4: they made this decision based on boosters and based on
Speaker 4: you know, people who are paying you know, the money
Speaker 4: into ni L's or whatever it is, and they're letting
Speaker 4: those guys you know, have a loud voice in the room,
Speaker 4: then then that's really a major problem for the whole
Speaker 4: program in my opinion, because now you're you're expecting a
Speaker 4: coach to do miracles with a limited roster and limited
Speaker 4: resources that they have available to them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you on the talent level of
Speaker 2: this team. I just every and I watch every game.
Speaker 2: I watch every minute of every Utah basketball game, and
Speaker 2: I've been to a grip of them this year, and
Speaker 2: I just felt like Craig did not have the same
Speaker 2: amount of talent as his peers did. And Big twelve
Speaker 2: plays specifically, you know, teams kind of rolling into the
Speaker 2: Huntsman Center with better players, or you know, Craig going
Speaker 2: out on the road and going into gyms. That Houston game,
Speaker 2: it wasn't even fair, Like, it wasn't even a fair fight.
Speaker 2: At one point, I think they had eight turnovers in
Speaker 2: three baskets because Houston defensively overwhelmed you. They could not
Speaker 2: even get a shot off. So I do believe that
Speaker 2: there is a talent issue with the current roster. Do
Speaker 2: respect to the young men who are working, young men
Speaker 2: who were working hard to get better. But the problem,
Speaker 2: tommitdt is in that's on the coach too, you know.
Speaker 2: So like of course, ultimately I am with you when
Speaker 2: it comes to, you know, being gutted and seeing a
Speaker 2: good man losing his job. But there is part of
Speaker 2: me that doesn't mind this statement that this is not
Speaker 2: good enough. We are a basketball community that once upon
Speaker 2: a time had a team at the University of Utah
Speaker 2: not just make the NCAA tournament, but make deep runs
Speaker 2: and almost win national championships. And I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a bad thing to want a different standard while at
Speaker 2: the same time feeling bad for a good man who's
Speaker 2: lost his job. I think two things can be true there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think again, I think there's other forces
Speaker 4: that get involved in that.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Again, I don't know, pretend to know what the University
Speaker 4: of Utah scenario is in that regard, I'm just surprised
Speaker 4: that it happens, you know, during the course of the season,
Speaker 4: when you've been watching this team and you just came off,
Speaker 4: you know, where you saw that a team that's not
Speaker 4: as talented can go out and uncertain nights, you know,
Speaker 4: give Arizona a run for the money. You know, play
Speaker 4: Kansas very well. You know, play b YU very well,
Speaker 4: which is a very you know, so you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's been an uneven season for them. I understand that,
Speaker 4: I have to. I have to guess that they wanted
Speaker 4: to get ahead of the curve on a decision that
Speaker 4: had already been made at some other point, and they
Speaker 4: were just trying to figure out the best way to
Speaker 4: do it and to maybe, uh, you know, get up
Speaker 4: ahead of the pack on a new hiring.
Speaker 2: All right, before we catch a break, we'll do pro
Speaker 2: basketball coming up on the other side, Let's talk smitty
Speaker 2: about what could come next. So, you know, one of
Speaker 2: my favorite things about March Madness and the NCAA Tournament
Speaker 2: is watching coaches that get an automatic you know, qualifier
Speaker 2: spot after winning the Hurriz or something, win a couple
Speaker 2: of games and their life changes because they parlay that
Speaker 2: run into a bigger job at a bigger school where
Speaker 2: you get paid in a way that you never have
Speaker 2: to work again. I mean, your life literally changes if
Speaker 2: you're one of these coaches that rises up through the ranks.
Speaker 2: So there's that direction, and Jeff Bordella from ESPN to
Speaker 2: put together list of these young coaches that are in
Speaker 2: line to get a bigger job u Se San Diego,
Speaker 2: Eric Olsen, Colorado State, Nico medved South Dakota State, Eric Henderson,
Speaker 2: Boise State, Leon Rice u c Irvine, Russell Turner. Those
Speaker 2: are the four coaches he lists as candidates for Utah
Speaker 2: that fit the mold of younger coaches at smaller schools
Speaker 2: that are kind of rising through the ranks. Now on
Speaker 2: the other side, the community seems to have latched on
Speaker 2: to this idea of Alex Jensen as your head coach
Speaker 2: and Andre Miller as your assistant. And five years ago
Speaker 2: when Mark fired Larry Kascoviak, I was asked about Alex
Speaker 2: as a possibility, and I thought smitty at the time
Speaker 2: you were working with him, he was Quinn's lead assistant
Speaker 2: with the work he did with Rudy and how many
Speaker 2: games you guys want. I thought Alex would get a
Speaker 2: look and get an MBA job. Five years later, he
Speaker 2: still hasn't out an NBA job. Maybe he views this
Speaker 2: as I am labeled as a lifetime assistant in the pros,
Speaker 2: and maybe he looks at the Utah job.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. I can't speak for Alex. I
Speaker 4: don't know what his you know, what his druthers would be.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, the whole idea of the concept
Speaker 4: of trying to bring trying to bring back your uh
Speaker 4: your former heroes, you know, to resurrect and save the
Speaker 4: day and and and get you right on top at
Speaker 4: the mountaintop. I think that's I think that's a little
Speaker 4: preposterous to expect that, you know, type of reaction.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know.
Speaker 4: I think people are just grasping it thrust. Now, these
Speaker 4: guys might have an interest, they may come and do it.
Speaker 4: I don't know any of that. I think what you're
Speaker 4: trying to do as a program is you're trying to
Speaker 4: find the best coach that you think can get you
Speaker 4: good players where you can compete. And and again, I'm
Speaker 4: going back to what I think and in my my
Speaker 4: own opinion as to what they were probably looking at
Speaker 4: in this regard with Craig Smith, is that is that
Speaker 4: they probably looked and said, hey, we just don't have
Speaker 4: We got to have someone who can recruit and get
Speaker 4: in better players to be able to compete, you know,
Speaker 4: the way that we think we should be because his
Speaker 4: basketball knowledge is acumen, his approach, all those things have
Speaker 4: proven to be successful. Do they think someone else they
Speaker 4: they have on their radar can bring in those players?
Speaker 4: Do you bring in those It's not like the old days, Spence,
Speaker 4: where you're recruited and you just tried to recruit on
Speaker 4: reputation and coaching and and the things that you can
Speaker 4: give to a player to help them along their path. Uh,
Speaker 4: and then you know you didn't have to worry about
Speaker 4: nil stuff. Now it seems to be all related to
Speaker 4: how much money you have available. And and you know,
Speaker 4: the whole college thing to me is so out of whack,
Speaker 4: and it's so so way out out there in space,
Speaker 4: because this is really not college athletics. This is now
Speaker 4: just another version of a pro approach because you're in fact,
Speaker 4: it's it's really even you can even look at it
Speaker 4: and and as you study it say that it's even
Speaker 4: more so another step beyond like the NBA, for example,
Speaker 4: which has salary caps in certain restricts. In in college
Speaker 4: you can just get offer guys whatever you can you
Speaker 4: have to offer them, and there's no there's no contracts.
Speaker 4: So the player can come, he can come for a
Speaker 4: freshman year. It doesn't work, it doesn't you know, whatever
Speaker 4: it is, he's playing better than what you thought he
Speaker 4: was or the nil that you have available for him.
Speaker 4: So he goes to another school the next year. You know,
Speaker 4: he does don't have to sit out a year. He
Speaker 4: doesn't have to, you know, get out of conference. You
Speaker 4: can just do whatever he wants. And so you know this,
Speaker 4: this notion of the wild wild West in college basketball
Speaker 4: is really true.
Speaker 3: And if you if you.
Speaker 4: Want to be one of those one of those guys
Speaker 4: that is competing, if that's your thing, then you have
Speaker 4: to do like the approach the b YU is taken,
Speaker 4: which is jumping all in and saying we're gonna set
Speaker 4: it up like an NBA program, or we're gonna we're
Speaker 4: gonna get a lot of money in the n i
Speaker 4: L and we're gonna start recruiting guys and you know,
Speaker 4: there's no way a b YU program gets in with
Speaker 4: a conversation, even with an AJ debanza.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know five years ago, there's no way.
Speaker 4: So so if your if that's what your goal is,
Speaker 4: if that's what your aim is toward, then you jump
Speaker 4: all in. And maybe that's what this is about, is
Speaker 4: about the you saying, Okay, we gotta we gotta get
Speaker 4: we gotta get some some headway here. So we gotta
Speaker 4: get a new start, and we had to figure out
Speaker 4: how to redirect the program from where it is at
Speaker 4: the current time.
Speaker 2: Josh Eiler your interim head coach. His first task is
Speaker 2: McHale's center against Arizona tonight.
Speaker 3: That's an easy one.
Speaker 2: Six thirty pre game seven o'clock coverage here on ESPN
Speaker 2: seven hundred. Coming up next, we will talk some pro basketball.
Speaker 2: The Jazz are in action tonight. Luca Doncers put up
Speaker 2: a triple double against his old team, Smitdie Liven Studio
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Speaker 2: Coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 1: All right, we got one more big segment with Richard
Speaker 1: smith live in studio.
Speaker 2: We're gonna bring in Josh Furlong, who covers the University
Speaker 2: of Utah for our friends at KSL Smitty, Let's bring
Speaker 2: an off air conversation on air because when Alex Jensen
Speaker 2: was Quinn's lead assistant, you were with the Jazz, so
Speaker 2: you got to know Alex, Alex was G League Coach
Speaker 2: of the Year, and you were outlining why it is
Speaker 2: such a tough league to coach and what kind of
Speaker 2: strictly basketball wise, what kind of coach is Alex Jensen.
Speaker 4: Well, the first thing is he's very organized, He's very
Speaker 4: you know, he he learned a ton and worked for
Speaker 4: a lot of years, you know, with a very a
Speaker 4: good coach, but a very tough coach in Rick mcgarretty.
Speaker 4: And so he took a lot of the good things,
Speaker 4: you know, the the rec would bring to the court
Speaker 4: every day in terms of how they approached uh their
Speaker 4: their workouts, how they approached their player development, how they
Speaker 4: approached their attention to detail. You know, those those are
Speaker 4: the things that that he really has has taken as
Speaker 4: part of his his playbook so to speak, you know,
Speaker 4: in the in the coaching ranks. But but all you
Speaker 4: have to do is look at any coach and and
Speaker 4: the and the coach right now with Oka see is
Speaker 4: a good example. Mark Dano, who coached the G League
Speaker 4: team for ok C. They hired him as a young coach.
Speaker 4: I think he was the youngest coach in the NBA
Speaker 4: at the time they.
Speaker 3: Hired that's right.
Speaker 4: But they hired him because they felt confident that he
Speaker 4: knew what he was doing as a coach, how he
Speaker 4: was approaching the job with with with his team. And
Speaker 4: obviously they've gotten players and they been able to build
Speaker 4: their team up to what it is now and and
Speaker 4: but just think of it this way, Spence and we
Speaker 4: used to talk to the guys about this all the
Speaker 4: time who are on our various G League teams over
Speaker 4: the years. The the the tough part about coaching in
Speaker 4: the G League for a coach is is that nobody
Speaker 4: who's there wants to be there.
Speaker 1: It's a good way to put it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, everybody who everybody, the players, the coaches, the trainer,
Speaker 4: the pr guy, you know, whoever it is, they all
Speaker 4: want to be somewhere else, meaning they want to be
Speaker 4: in a higher profile job, they want to be in
Speaker 4: the NBA or they you know whatever. However you would
Speaker 4: you would uh uh determine that. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: they're also everybody who has chosen to be there. In
Speaker 4: other words, you know, we would speak to the guys
Speaker 4: all time. Hey, Spence, check its you you're player, you're
Speaker 4: our backup point guard. Well I'm giving you some leeway
Speaker 4: just being a backup on the team period. Yeah okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: but you look at a guy and you say you
Speaker 4: have chosen to be here, even though we all know
Speaker 4: you want to be somewhere else. And so just think
Speaker 4: of it from a coaching perspective. You've got twelve guys,
Speaker 4: thirteen guys, however many they have on their rosters now
Speaker 4: in the G League, and you're trying to coalesce those
Speaker 4: guys and get them all moving in the right direction
Speaker 4: and trying to trying to get something done in a
Speaker 4: positive way in terms of learning, in terms of playing,
Speaker 4: in terms of executing, and.
Speaker 3: Ultimately trying to win games.
Speaker 4: At the same time, as a coach, you know, all
Speaker 4: these guys not only want to be in another situation,
Speaker 4: but they're all trying to look out for their best interest.
Speaker 1: Good, right, really good.
Speaker 4: So they're all moving, you know, in different directions, with
Speaker 4: different motivations, et cetera. So as a coach in that league,
Speaker 4: it's very tough. That's why you get I think Spence,
Speaker 4: if you if you're paying attention to G League games.
Speaker 4: You get these wild swings during games where one team
Speaker 4: goes on a twenty one to two run and then
Speaker 4: the other team calls a time out whatever, and they
Speaker 4: come out, and then the next four minutes the other
Speaker 4: team goes on an eighteen and zero run or whatever
Speaker 4: it is. And it's because you're as a coach, you're
Speaker 4: trying to keep all your guys moving in the same
Speaker 4: direction and trying to get the same result, and it's
Speaker 4: a very difficult job to do. So if you have
Speaker 4: done that and you've shown you have success there, then
Speaker 4: to me, that's always been a big factor in looking
Speaker 4: at someone as a potential candidate for some other coaching
Speaker 4: job that they might be interested in.
Speaker 2: What about Alex as a person his personality, He's always
Speaker 2: truck me as very level headed, very measured, very even keel.
Speaker 2: You reference working for Rick, he also worked for a
Speaker 2: good yet tough coach in Quinn Right, And I would imagine,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you have insight into this, being an
Speaker 2: assistant coach for Quinn Snyder probably at times was great
Speaker 2: and probably at times you went home not feeling awesome
Speaker 2: about yourself. Right, He's a tough guy to probably work
Speaker 2: for and work with, even though I respect him, he's
Speaker 2: a good coach. So Alex as a person as opposed
Speaker 2: to a basketball coach, tell us about.
Speaker 4: That, Well, he's just a he's a quiet guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's.
Speaker 4: You know, very a very friendly guy. But he's not
Speaker 4: an exuberant, you know person, So he doesn't he doesn't
Speaker 4: get out of his element very often. When I've seen
Speaker 4: him in practices where where things aren't going right and
Speaker 4: someone's not doing what they've been asked to do or
Speaker 4: been instructed to do and doing it a certain way,
Speaker 4: he can be very stern and very direct. Uh, but
Speaker 4: but he does it in a in a manner that
Speaker 4: is respectful to the people around him. And in other words,
Speaker 4: it's not a yelling match, it's not a shouting match.
Speaker 4: It's not a you know, waving your hands all over
Speaker 4: the place kind of making a spectacle type of thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: He does it in a very succinct, very matter of fact,
Speaker 4: step by step process to try and get to where
Speaker 4: you're you're you're trying to go. And Uh, in that regards,
Speaker 4: he's a very calming influence, you know, for them, I
Speaker 4: think with the jazz staff for the several years that
Speaker 4: he was working with Quinn. He was a good balance
Speaker 4: to Quinn's fiery nature, uh, both on the court and
Speaker 4: and and you know, off the court, in practice and
Speaker 4: and meetings and that kind kind of thing. I think
Speaker 4: he brings a certain a certain resolve and a certain
Speaker 4: uh steadiness.
Speaker 3: Uh that that is uh, that.
Speaker 4: Is needed in a lot of situations, especially in the
Speaker 4: pro game, when you have so many games coming at
Speaker 4: you and and you have so much stuff, you know
Speaker 4: that that's changing almost every day. You need someone who's organized,
Speaker 4: someone who thinks through things, someone who has an approach
Speaker 4: uh that that is a step by step approach that
Speaker 4: makes sense to get you to where you want to go.
Speaker 4: And he's, uh, he's that kind of guy.
Speaker 2: One more thing here, because I didn't get to ask
Speaker 2: you about another candidates. I'm using air quotes as candidates
Speaker 2: because I don't know. But it's another guy that you know,
Speaker 2: and that's Johnny Bryant, who currently is the associate head
Speaker 2: coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: And they are awesome.
Speaker 2: And Johnny was with Tom in New York, right, And
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people believe Johnny an up
Speaker 2: and coming young coach. Maybe at some point we'll get
Speaker 2: a head coaching opportunity. I don't know that this is
Speaker 2: something he would be interested in based off of just
Speaker 2: where he's at in his career, but that's the name
Speaker 2: people have thrown around, you know, Johnny as well, what
Speaker 2: do you what do you think?
Speaker 4: Well, again, I think it spends a lot for me
Speaker 4: in my opinion. A lot of that is because Johnny's
Speaker 4: got the ties to the University of Utah, you know,
Speaker 4: from from many many years ago. You know, he's proven
Speaker 4: himself as a very good player development guy, as a
Speaker 4: very very good again, Johnny is a very organized coach.
Speaker 4: He's also somewhat like Alex and that he's more of
Speaker 4: a quiet voice in the room. Uh. He's he's not
Speaker 4: a an exuberant guy. He's not a yeller. He's not
Speaker 4: a you know, a high energy type of personality in
Speaker 4: the room. He's more he's he's more laid back, he's
Speaker 4: more succinct. He gets his point across very directly. He
Speaker 4: comes from a background where he was in from a
Speaker 4: lot of years in the player development world. Where he
Speaker 4: was he had to be organized, you had to have
Speaker 4: a certain plan of attack, you had to do things
Speaker 4: in a structured manner. Uh, in order to try and
Speaker 4: see results. Uh. And that's what he's that's what he's
Speaker 4: done at the pro level. Paul millsap aknew him, and
Speaker 4: coming out of the last NBA lockout year, Paul talked
Speaker 4: the Jazz into bringing him in as a player development guy,
Speaker 4: working with players individually and skilled development. And and Johnny
Speaker 4: worked his way on onto the NBA bench and as
Speaker 4: an assistant coach, uh and that kind of thing. But
Speaker 4: he's he's always been a very structured, organized guy with
Speaker 4: a quiet leadership.
Speaker 3: And and and.
Speaker 4: You know that would be somebody that that would be
Speaker 4: interesting for because he also has ties. You know, he's
Speaker 4: from the Oakland area originally, so he has ties outside
Speaker 4: of Utah. Uh. You know that would potentially in that
Speaker 4: kind of scenario, Uh, possibly help in terms of recruiting
Speaker 4: and and uh, you know, having contacts with people, you
Speaker 4: know in other parts of the country.
Speaker 2: Give us some perspective on how hard it is to
Speaker 2: play at McHale Center, where Utah is playing tonight.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, the mccale Center is an older facility
Speaker 4: where the fans are right on top of you. It
Speaker 4: was built at the same time as the facility at
Speaker 4: Arizona states. They're identical to each other. The fans in Tucson,
Speaker 4: they are. They're very rambunctious. It's funny because the students
Speaker 4: show up, the students get rowdy. But then there's a
Speaker 4: section of the of the of the spectators who are
Speaker 4: older retired folks who live in Tucson who go to
Speaker 4: the games because they have a lot of money and
Speaker 4: they don't have anything else going on in Tucson. And
Speaker 4: so the Arizona the University of Arizona men's basketball team
Speaker 4: for years has been like their pro team, and so
Speaker 4: all of those people come and they invest a lot,
Speaker 4: not only you know, financially, but also uh, you know,
Speaker 4: with their activity at the games. And so it's an
Speaker 4: interesting crowd. But it's a tough, tough place to play,
Speaker 4: you know, partly because of the.
Speaker 3: Crowd, but more more more.
Speaker 4: Importantly because Arizona always has very good teams and very
Speaker 4: good talent on the floor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: Our pregame coverage for Utah Hoops tonight begins at six
Speaker 2: thirty and then tip off for Josh Eilert's first game
Speaker 2: as the coach is at seven against Arizona and the
Speaker 2: McHale Center. I'm sure Josh is like, couldn't you wait,
Speaker 2: couldn't you wait?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: And and think of it too, Spencer, the Arizona's coming
Speaker 4: off that that brutal loss UH to BYU a few
Speaker 4: days ago. I was watching that game, and you know,
Speaker 4: the BYU, to their credit, got the benefit of two
Speaker 4: calls at the end of the game on the road
Speaker 4: in the Kale Center, which which you you you wouldn't
Speaker 4: put that in a movie script because you'd say, well,
Speaker 4: that wouldn't that would never happen.
Speaker 3: But it happened.
Speaker 4: UH to b what he's benefit, But they took advantage
Speaker 4: of it, and UH and made a payoff with those
Speaker 4: two Richie Saunders free throws at the end and UH
Speaker 4: and held on for for a big win for them
Speaker 4: and and UH a great win for their program in
Speaker 4: terms of where they're trying to go.
Speaker 1: You think Richie's a pro, You think Richie can make
Speaker 1: money play?
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 4: I like I like him, you know, I like him
Speaker 4: Spence because he's got good size as a guard six
Speaker 4: five sixty six. He plays with intensity, He's he is
Speaker 4: not afraid. He comes off those screens and is ready
Speaker 4: to catch and shoot he's gotten better this year, you know,
Speaker 4: under Kevin Young and his staff. And again we're talking
Speaker 4: about skill development. But but what Richie brings for me
Speaker 4: is he brings an intensity on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 4: He really plays hard, and he really plays with a
Speaker 4: certain level of fearlessness, which I like. I really think
Speaker 4: he's he's been been a terrific player for them. I
Speaker 4: think he's been their MVP this year. Totally agree, you know,
Speaker 4: and I really like him as a pro prospect.
Speaker 2: Because we were debating this earlier, back to the whole
Speaker 2: talent thing, and this is not a hard exercise to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're at home or at work, he
Speaker 2: can just google past National champions or Final four teams.
Speaker 2: Almost all of them, Smitty have at least two or
Speaker 2: three NBA guys in one or two like European pro types.
Speaker 2: The Duke team that won the National championship with John
Speaker 2: Shire and the zu bec kid maybe your only exception, right,
Speaker 2: I know John got a little bit of a look
Speaker 2: to be a pro and I think zu Beek got
Speaker 2: a couple of contracts. But even our teams here, you know,
Speaker 2: Rick had teams with Van Horn Metala, you know, Hanno
Speaker 2: of course, and then Doliak Britten obviously, Andre multiple b
Speaker 2: A guys, multiple pros, not just NBA guys, but European
Speaker 2: pros as well. How many pros do you think Kevin
Speaker 2: has on that b YU roster right now?
Speaker 4: Well, well, totally. There will be a few guys who
Speaker 4: will play overseas.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I think he's probably got four or five guys that
Speaker 4: will play uh professionally somewhere.
Speaker 3: I like the demon kid, he's uh.
Speaker 4: It'll be interesting to see if he's if he stays
Speaker 4: another year, you know, I think he could use that personally.
Speaker 4: I think he's uh. Sometimes he doesn't play full speed
Speaker 4: to me. Sometimes he really shows his skill level and
Speaker 4: shows the things that he's capable of doing. For me,
Speaker 4: he doesn't seem to do it enough. He doesn't seem
Speaker 4: to Sometimes he seems to me to be playing in
Speaker 4: second gear.
Speaker 3: But I like him.
Speaker 4: I like his skill level, and I like his his
Speaker 4: feel for the game, you know, and his size obviously
Speaker 4: is is an nb A type uh type size for
Speaker 4: that for that position.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: The other kid, the catching's kid, it just has had
Speaker 4: such an uneven uh season, you know, I I would
Speaker 4: assume he'd be coming back. You know, there was a
Speaker 4: lot of talk at the beginning of the year that
Speaker 4: he was a one and done kid. I haven't seen
Speaker 4: that personally. I think he's played, he's paid too erratically
Speaker 4: during the course of the year. Uh to uh to
Speaker 4: warrant coming out in the draft. Uh you know, but
Speaker 4: again who knows. In this day and age, you never know, Spence.
Speaker 4: It's one of the things that is set up and
Speaker 4: for these kids, uh that that helps them is that
Speaker 4: they can always go into the draft and do workouts
Speaker 4: for NBA teams, and then there's a certain date where
Speaker 4: they have to make a decision I'm staying in the
Speaker 4: draft or I'm pulling out. And the smart kids every
Speaker 4: I've always said this for years, every every college kid
Speaker 4: should enter the draft, no matter what year of school
Speaker 4: they're in, because then that gives them a window in
Speaker 4: the spring to go and do pro workouts. You go
Speaker 4: to the Jazz, you go to the Denver Nuggets, you
Speaker 4: go to the Phoenix Suns. You get a workout, you
Speaker 4: a see where you measure up against the other guys
Speaker 4: who they happen to have in a workout that day.
Speaker 4: But more importantly, you get direct feedback from the NBA
Speaker 4: personnel people who say, Spence checkets, you have no left hand.
Speaker 4: You cannot go left. Everybody knows it. It's in a
Speaker 4: bold lettering and the top of it. So you need
Speaker 4: to go back to school and work on that. That's
Speaker 4: what's going to help you in a potential program. So
Speaker 4: they get this kind of feedback, and then you can
Speaker 4: always you can take that and go wow. I got
Speaker 4: a lot of good feedback from these workouts and from
Speaker 4: the pro personnel guys telling me what I need to
Speaker 4: work on. Now I'm pulling out of the draft and
Speaker 4: I'm going back to school. I don't know why every
Speaker 4: college player doesn't do that. You know, it really makes
Speaker 4: a lot of sense for them, and it's there for
Speaker 4: them to help them make rational decisions about what they
Speaker 4: want to do with their you know, their careers going forward.
Speaker 4: So BYU has some guys who will who will be
Speaker 4: in that position I think in the spring, and will
Speaker 4: be interesting to see how it plays out for them.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do a little jazz here, you know, yazz.
Speaker 2: You know finally, well, I mean, ultimately we all know
Speaker 2: the deal and we're all just kind of riding this
Speaker 2: thing out and hoping for a little lottery luck and
Speaker 2: maybe a little Cooper flag action. So it's tough to
Speaker 2: make it all that interesting. But the latest Jazz young
Speaker 2: player who has played pretty well is Kyle Philipowski, who
Speaker 2: over the past six games, he's fifteen points, he's seven boards,
Speaker 2: he's sixty two percent from the floor, and he had
Speaker 2: his first two twenty point double doubles during you know,
Speaker 2: the past six games. So he's looked pretty good as
Speaker 2: of late. He's the latest young player. We talked about
Speaker 2: Kyante and Isaiah kind of the the rotational decision Will
Speaker 2: is made to start Isaiah and bring Kiante off the
Speaker 2: bench last time. But what are you seeing as of
Speaker 2: late now The Kyle's getting some minutes.
Speaker 4: Well, and he's going to continue to get minutes. And
Speaker 4: again this is this is all in the area of
Speaker 4: player development and trying to find out which guys you
Speaker 4: think have a chance to continue progressing, continue moving up
Speaker 4: the ladder, might be able to do something for you
Speaker 4: down the road somewhere, you know, in a more meaningful setting.
Speaker 4: And and Kyle Philipowski his his turn is up. And
Speaker 4: so I heard tonight that you know, again, marketing isn't
Speaker 4: going to play again tonight, so you know, Philipowski will
Speaker 4: probably get some good run again. And and that's the
Speaker 4: way they're playing it. And it's you know, you can
Speaker 4: say they're not trying to win games. You can say
Speaker 4: that they're trying to uh develop guys, you know, give
Speaker 4: them opportunities, and that's where they that's where they get them.
Speaker 4: That's what they've chosen to do. Instead of a Kyle Opowski,
Speaker 4: who in a so called normal NBA setting would be
Speaker 4: doing this in the G league situation, he's now doing
Speaker 4: it in the NBA situation. So there's arguments both ways,
Speaker 4: because you say, well, you know, he really should be
Speaker 4: at the G League and they should be working on
Speaker 4: specific things with him in terms of his improvement and development.
Speaker 4: But then you say, hey, he's now he's playing in
Speaker 4: the NBA and he's being able to to play with
Speaker 4: against NBA guys and so he's getting that kind of
Speaker 4: experience that you can't get anywhere else. And so that's
Speaker 4: where you find how how the guys can can get better,
Speaker 4: how can they improve? I think the Collier kid has
Speaker 4: improved this year. Yeah, sure, you know, he's he looks
Speaker 4: like you know, I mean there's a lot of holes
Speaker 4: in his game, not the least of which is his
Speaker 4: decision making at times on the fly and the and
Speaker 4: the passes to go into the fourth row and the
Speaker 4: stands and or where he tries to make a pocket
Speaker 4: pass with his three defenders in the lane, and it's
Speaker 4: it's just ill advised. And and and he and he's
Speaker 4: and he's, uh, you know, he's having a tough time
Speaker 4: shooting the ball. So that's something that he's gonna have
Speaker 4: to get get better at. But but he looks like
Speaker 4: he has a feel for the game and maybe that's
Speaker 4: something that uh uh that will continue to improve for him.
Speaker 4: And and these will be a couple of guys that
Speaker 4: they can work with uh during the summer on certain
Speaker 4: things that they see. And it's just part of that
Speaker 4: developmental package that that the Jazz have chosen to go
Speaker 4: in that direction.
Speaker 2: All right, Smitty, before I set you loose, Uh, let's
Speaker 2: end with this because everybody in the NBA world is
Speaker 2: talking about it. As Luka Doncic faced his old team
Speaker 2: last night put up a triple double uh Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: But every measurable metric isn't just the favorites in Vegas
Speaker 2: they're the favorite, but you know, their net differential is
Speaker 2: flirting with all time and they're still on pace to
Speaker 2: win north of seventy games even though they're forty six
Speaker 2: and eleven. They did lose just the other night, but
Speaker 2: they're the favorite with Luca and Lebron. How much of
Speaker 2: a legitimate threat this year are the LA Lakers?
Speaker 1: Well this year?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we always we always say this Spencer and it
Speaker 4: becomes a passe. But it really depends on their health.
Speaker 4: I mean, because they're gonna have to, you know, lean
Speaker 4: on Doncic and James to play forty one forty two
Speaker 4: minutes a game in in playoff games, and those guys
Speaker 4: are gonna have to be one hundred percent and they're
Speaker 4: gonna have to be able to to.
Speaker 3: Go full bore.
Speaker 4: If they're able to do that, if they're able to
Speaker 4: play in in in games where they're not playing back
Speaker 4: to backs and they don't have the travel issues that
Speaker 4: you have during the regular season, and they're and they're healthy, Uh,
Speaker 4: then you surround them with some some complimentary role players,
Speaker 4: whether it's Hachimura or whether it's the Reeves kid or
Speaker 4: whoever you got to help you in that regard. But
Speaker 4: those guys will have to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Speaker 4: Now you can also do that in playoff situations, Spence,
Speaker 4: because playoff games tend to be slower, they tend to
Speaker 4: be less possessions, they tend to be more controlled possessions.
Speaker 4: And with James and Doncic, you know, those are things
Speaker 4: that could help them during the course of a potential
Speaker 4: six or seven game series where where they're able to
Speaker 4: to save some energy and be able to play at
Speaker 4: a pace that that suits them a little bit better. So,
Speaker 4: you know, I've always said this, any team that has
Speaker 4: Lebron James on it and at least another guy, meaning
Speaker 4: a top level guy. He had Anthony Davis for years.
Speaker 4: Of course before that had Dwayne Wade and and Chris Bosh.
Speaker 4: But with this team, if Doncic is healthy and James
Speaker 4: is healthy, I don't put anything past him because don
Speaker 4: Chic is a special talent, and James has shown that
Speaker 4: he can he can do this, you know, against anybody
Speaker 4: at any time. And it's still is still getting it
Speaker 4: done at age forty, So you know, is it possible. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's possible. You know, will it happen, Well, you know,
Speaker 4: we'll see. There's a lot of good teams in that mix.
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of teams in the West
Speaker 4: that could come out if they're healthy and playing the
Speaker 4: way that they expect to play. I think it'll make
Speaker 4: for the playoffs to be exciting.
Speaker 2: All right, my friend. Always great to see you. Welcome
Speaker 2: back for a moment. If I don't see you, enjoy
Speaker 2: the tennis tournament. It's good to be Richard Smith.
Speaker 3: There you go. Hey, I can't I can't deny that
Speaker 3: spent