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Speaker 1: For the college football teams you care about wins, losses

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and everything in between. We talk it through on one

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O three nine and ninety eight three ESPN The Van.

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Get to know the Cougar's opponents and rivals right now.

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You gonna know the faux segment on Cougar Sports with

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Ben Gretel.

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Speaker 2: Welcome Back Cougar Sports one of three, nine ninety eight

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point three ESPN The Fan. I've been brutal broadcasting from

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our Vanderwelth Studios Vanderwelth dot com. Get on that free

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Q and A no obligation to invest QNA with our

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tax smart wealth advisors. If your vision of your financial

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future a little bit blurry, get on that free Q

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and A to obtained some gems from Vanderwealthbandwealth dot com. Uh,

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it is time to get to know the foe BYU

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taking their talents to Kansas City. They're trying to take

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on the Kansas State Jayhawks, excuse me in the Kansastate Wildcats.

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I apologize and we're gonna get to know the foe

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here on your Utah ESPN Radio Network. It's gonna be

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brought to you by Central Garage Door Central Garage Utah,

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Garage Utah dot com. Let's get out to the hotline

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and welcome in the voice of the Kansas State Wildcast.

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We got Wyatt Thompson on the line. Wyatt, how are

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you living well?

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Speaker 3: I'm doing okay, Ben, how are you? I got a

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little bit of a there's a little bit of a

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sore throat kind of chess colds going around the team.

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I've got just a tiny bit of it, So bear

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with me on this. But here we are in Kansas

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City and getting ready for I think what'll be an

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interesting tournament this year, without question.

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Speaker 2: No doubt about it. Well, sorry you're under the weather.

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We appreciate you making the sacrifice. What you know, being

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a voice, right, Like, what are your typical protocols? I

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mean people just think like we just step up to mic.

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We never have a cold, we never get sick. When

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you know, there's never any issues with anything, and we

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can just do it every day, all day and pontificate

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without any sort of inhibition in our vocal cords. Like,

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what's your protocol when you do feel a little you know, coronavirus,

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little flu bug hitting you.

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Speaker 3: You know, I don't have a whole lot then. To

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be honest, I've known guys that have, you know, like

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lost their voice almost entirely, not on wood. I've never

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had that happen. I don't know about you, but I've

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never had that happen. I'm just a little raspy. The

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truth is, I feel okay, I just don't sound perfect

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or like I normally do. But Coach Driscolls like that,

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a couple of our players, a couple of other coaches.

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It's just kind of some of the stuff that's going

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around this part of the country right now, so hopefully

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the coopers won't get that.

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Speaker 2: So you know, you don't do any like cough drops. No,

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like lemon honey tea, chamamle chai tea I've got, you know, uh.

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Speaker 3: Cold Buster will do the tamabiles so much, but the

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hot tea A little bit of lemon every now and again.

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Lemon water is probably pretty good. But that's a rarity

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for me because knock on wood, I'm not you know,

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under the weather very often. I've been pretty lucky.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got like sailine spray, I got salt gargling,

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I got cold I have Yeah, I mean I gotta

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you know, I have a pro No, no, now, I

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think I'm just more impacted by by cold and flu

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season than than most on the radio. So I got,

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I gotta, I gotta have like all my profile axes.

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I taken zinc every night now because you know, there's, uh,

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there's been all manner of bugs going around. So uh

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but let's uh, let's get into what we are really

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having you on for here, the Big twelve basketball Termam

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I give us a state of the basketball program with

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Kansas State, there's been turmoil. There's been ups and downs, right, Uh,

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it seemed like a couple of years ago the Kansas

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State Wildcats, they had this upward trajectory and all was

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well out there in Manhattan. As it relates to this

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basketball program, now there's been some turmoil. Give us the

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state of the program. What's going on.

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Speaker 3: Well, turmoil is probably a good word to use to

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quantify what this has been. Four years ago, in coach

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Tang's first year, it was magical. They went to the

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Elite eight, had a really really good team lost to

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fau in the regional final in Madison Square Garden led

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by Marquise Noel who had one of the great tournaments

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in the history of the NCAA tournament. Keante Johnson was

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a fringe pro on that team. They really played well.

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The next year they lost a young man by the

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name of Makwon Tomlin got into some trouble off the floor.

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He was removed from the team somewhat in a controversial move,

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and I don't know, if I'm being honest, if they

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ever recovered from that, I think that would have been

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a tournament team, but it wasn't. And then it's I

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have been the continued downhill slide over the last two years.

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You know, this year was a three and fifteen conference

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season at twelve and nineteen campaign overall, that really exposed

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case State in a lot of areas. What I would

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tell you is they struggle defensively, they struggle with rebounding.

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They don't have a lot of front court depth, and

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when you are bringing that to the table in this league,

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you're going to get your backside kicked a lot. And

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they have one hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's crazy. I didn't think that there'd be

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so much turmoil this season there within this basketball program,

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that there was an upward trajectory, where what's the current

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like maybe outlook from the personnel standpoint look like, have

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they been able to retain some of the maybe the

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culture cohesion that could get them a win or two

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in the twelve tournament dis go around?

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Speaker 3: You know, that's a really good question. I'm not sure

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how to go about answering that because they've been so inconsistent.

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I'll give you what I would describe as the perfect example.

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You know, you know this, you follow this league pretty closely,

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right well, one team that's been really, really pretty darn

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good of late is TCU. We kind of got them

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off the deck a few weeks ago in Fort Worth.

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Led for thirty nine minutes and thirty seconds. They never

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led until the very end and scored the final seven

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points of the game. My point is is Case State

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has done a really good job of finding ways to

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not win games. They lost a close game, and they

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truthfully have probably been better in conference play on the

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road than they've been at home. But think about this,

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they've at home, They've played Kansas BYU, you know, a

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few teams like that. On the road, it's been more

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of the Arizona States, the Oklahoma States, that thing. We

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played the Iowa Stage at home as an example. So

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it's the Big twelve, right, It's hard. We've also, I

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want to be totally fair and honest with your listeners,

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this is a team that has lost some I've kind

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of lost the exact track, but probably somewhere in the

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neighborhood of fifty eight or fifty seven games because of injuries.

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With this club, they have played most of the conference

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season without Abdy Vasher, who was a sharpshooter for them

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from three during the times that he was available. Forty

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from three is pretty good right, and they missed that badly.

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And again, they're not big enough, They're not deep enough,

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and that's that's been problematic. They are good enough with

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their guards on a day where they shoot the ball well,

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if they do some other things well, where they can

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give you a game, but getting over the hump has

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been the biggest part of that. I mean, they scored

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eighty five and Lawrence, but they gave up one hundred

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and four. So you kind of get the idea. And

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I'm I probably sound like Debbie Downer and I don't

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mean to be that way, but I also have to

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be honest. And when this season started, I'm not gonna

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kid you, I really felt like they had enough to

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maybe be middle of the pack, maybe be in the

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conversation for an NCAA tournament team. And they haven't been.

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They haven't been in the hemisphere of that, not even close.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So who are some of the key players, Like,

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if Kansas City is going to be competitive in this

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game vers at BYU, who are those players that are

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going to stand up and show out in the bright

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lights of the Big twelve tournament.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think three guys are guys that I probably

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should and need to mention. Probably PJ Haggerty would be

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the lead guy. He was aimous. Think about this a minute.

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He was a unanimous second team All American last year

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at Memphis. He was an honorable mention Big twelve pick

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this year and was second in the leading league in

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scoring behind some guy named AJ Debonta who's averaging almost

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twenty six a game into Big twelve play, but for PJ,

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it's about twenty four and a half, so he's been

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a good score right. The other two guys Amarie McGriff

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who is undersized at you know, six eight six nine

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and two thirty, left handed athletic, but really struggles with

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foul trouble. But the last couple of games he's been

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eighteen seven and two and seventeen seven and two because

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he hasn't been in foul trouble at home against West

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Virginia and at KU. And then the real wild card

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for me is Nate Johnson. When Nate plays well, Kse

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stages in games and they give themselves a chance. When

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he doesn't, it's really, really, really difficult for them to

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win games. And he's the kind of guy that he

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could he could be a fifteen point seven rebound seven assists,

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four steel guy. That's pretty good. Now, he doesn't do

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that all the time, but I mean he's twelve and

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a half p five rebounds, four and a half assists,

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and leaves to the conference and steels. So when he

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plays well, he's pretty good.

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Speaker 2: Give me a little scouting report on BYU from your perspective.

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What is it that they do well? What challenges do

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they pose? And I look, they've had their ups and

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downs this season. I mean there's a tenth team in

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the Big twelve. Like sometimes they play like a top

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ten team. Sometimes they played like maybe a top fifty team.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's more than fair. Yeah, that's more than

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fair man. I think what I would say is, I'm

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just being honest. Losing Richie was really hard. He's such

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a real t piece for them, that's, you know, very experienced.

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I mean, how many guys, mean, be honest with yourself,

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how many guys that you can you name that are

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eighteen points, nearly six rebounds, two assists. Blue guy make

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big shots, not afraid to be your top rebounder, defender

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night once in a while. And this is a team

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that has Devonsa and Robert Wright and others. So they

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miss him a lot. Now, what do they pose in

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terms of issues for Kansas State. Well, the one guy

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that I always say really really hurts Case State is

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because of the size and strength is Cape Keta. When

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you think back to the game in Manhattan, hit eleven points,

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sixteen rebounds, and I think a couple of blocks if

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memory serves me right. Visiting with coach Driscoll this morning,

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that's that's one of the things he said. They've got

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this and this and this and this, but the one

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guy that always seems to get us is Capa Keata

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And that's a fact. I like what they do offensively.

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I think if they if they defend, and you know,

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they I looked. I watched the UH I watched part

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of the Texas Tech game the other night live and

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then rewatched it the next morning, and if I'm not mistaken,

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they were down thirteen in the first half and came

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back and won the game. I just wonder how they

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will build off of that. That's that's a big time

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get in my mind. So I think they're dangerous. Would

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it be better for them long term if they had Richie, Yeah,

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but they don't. Unfortunately, that's you know, we've seen that

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with him, We've seen that with Topping. That's that's tough

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this time of year.

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Speaker 2: The Big twelve awards were dropped yesterday. Any thoughts on

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any debate on who should have would have could have

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received Maybe Player of the Year. We were debating a

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little bit whether or not A J. Debonca deserved the

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Player of the Year award. Give me your take on

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the matter.

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Speaker 3: I wouldn't tell you that. I think in a lot

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of years he would have been the Player of the Year,

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just just based on numbers alone and what he did consistently, right,

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I think that's the thing you want to look at. That.

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The interesting part for me with with Bradley winning the

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award is I think Arizona was clearly the best team

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in the league consistently start to finish. I think you'd

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agree with that. But who's the main guy with them?

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And maybe that's why they're so good Because one night

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it's Crebas, one night is Philip he one night it's Bradley,

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one night it was del Orso, I mean, Tobeyawaka. I mean,

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you just keep going with those guys, right, And I

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wonder sometimes the way these guys vote, maybe they cancel

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each other out. So I really like Bradley, and you

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went at the highest level with a good big man

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and a good point guard. Everybody knows that, right, So

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I don't necessarily disagree with Bradley, but I'm just trying

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to state that in a lot of years, Debonsa would

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have been the winner. In my opinion. As far as

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the rest of them, I didn't have a real big

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issue with it. And this is kind of nitpicking a little.

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And I don't understand how that freshman guard at Colorado,

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Isaiah Johnson, wasn't at least honorable mention. He really was

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good when we saw him. I think he finished with

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the flourished. But then you get to look in who

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are you going to take off? To put him on there?

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I didn't think it would have hurt to put him

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on just as an honorable mentioned guy. But that's again,

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that's probably myth picking. Did you have a real big

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problem with any of them? You could argue all day

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on the coach of the Year, But I if it

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were me, I would love to This is just my opinion.

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I would have loved to have seen the voting because

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I wonder how many votes Johnny Dowkins would have gotten.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think most people want to see the votes. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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I think most people want to see the votes. Yeah.

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I think that if you you know, in this era,

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I think everybody wants to know the why. Everybody wants

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that accountability. And I think the awards are supposed to

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be from a public relations standpoint, from an internal Big

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twelfth emilial standpoint, They're not supposed to be controversial, right,

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They're supposed to be really positive. They want to give

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awards to everybody. Everybody gets an award, everybody gets a

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troph everyone gets the medal. That's what it looks like

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to me. And I think for the most part, save

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the you know Thomas the call Rade Reguard, Like, I

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think you're right, he probably should have got a nod

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on the honorable mention. But if he didn't get a

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vote for whatever reason, that's on the voters.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's probably more than fair. I'm

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you know, I'm sitting here looking at this now. I

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went ahead and called it up, and I mean that

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that first team, it shows you the strength of the league.

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But show me another league that has Ritchie Baba Miller,

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Taman Lipsey, Mam Chileovich and Darren Peterson on the second team. Yeah,

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I would. I would say that would stand up against anybody,

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and then you continue to go down and like folks

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at UCF, I thought he had a fantastic year, Xavier

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Edmonds at TCU. Same. I love Colea Pete from the

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night he had thirty first night out. You know, So

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the league is, the league is really really good.

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Speaker 2: How many NCAA tournament bits does the Big twelve get

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this year?

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Speaker 3: Well? I think they. I think they're pretty much locked

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in for eight.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: I don't see how you can keep uc F and

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TCU out now right, I just don't see that. To me,

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it all comes down to, you know, big Steelers and

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can and or can Cincinnati play their way in this week?

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Do you agree with that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I don't know how often the conference tournaments,

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even in the kind of the power structure of basketball,

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determine seeding. Right now, I feel like they kind of

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like they they kind of the they toss it aside

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to it. Agree. So, I think the idea of playing

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playing into the tournament in the in your conference tournament

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outside of the championship game, it seems to me to

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be folly. I don't know. I could be wrong. Does

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that make sense? Like I just I'm not there yet.

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I'm not there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I would not disagree with that in any way.

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And I think generally speaking, and again I'll repeat it

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that way, generally speaking, I think you're on the money.

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But if you have if you have a team like

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Cincinnati and that's.

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Speaker 2: Trending, that's trending in.

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Speaker 3: Like, yeah, they didn't have Gizzle James for the longest

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period of time to start the year, that's a relatively

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legitimate piece.

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Speaker 2: Not only that, the marketability of that name n c

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W Gizzled James. You know what I mean, it really

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it really rings true. I like it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think you can say that too. You know,

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some some people were I think, just being dumb about it.

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We're questioning about by you being in I'm going wait, wait, wait,

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go look at their resume. Man. And you know what,

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if I'm a if I'm a major college basketball fan

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and I'm watching the tournament, don't we want to see

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aj Debons in the tournament. Yes, and for that matter,

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BYU in the tournament. But but sometimes it gets a

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little bit and I'm not picking on anybody but come on,

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Bruce Pearl, really.

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Speaker 2: I will say this. If I will say this, I'll

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counter it. If this was the college Football Playoff Committee,

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for sure, b YU would be outside of the NCAA tournament.

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They just find a way to leave BYU out and

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not get them into the big boys club. I don't

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know why that is.

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Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you, I don't. I don't want

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to speak for this past year because I think it

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was tighter. But two years ago they got jobbed. Yeah, period,

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end of story. I mean they beat said new head

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to head at their place. That's to me. That really

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fired me up. Man, and I I fight for the

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Big twelve. I've been doing this in this league for

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twenty four years, and a newcomer team or not. Man,

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I'm all for them, and they deserve to be in

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one h I'll fight that till the end of time.

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Speaker 2: You know this, agreed? Well, this is what I'll say

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about it, because I think Kansas State It's legacy, it's history,

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be it on the grid iron, on the hardwood, is gritty,

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blue collar, and I don't know if they always receive

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the benefit of the doubt, you know, especially, I mean,

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look like obviously the Snyder era is akin to an

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adjacent to and parallel to in many ways the Lavell

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era Edward Levell Edwards Eric excuse me, yeah, And so

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like you know, I think there's some some similarities here,

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kind of arm in arm and how the two programs

365
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are built and were built and maybe having to overachieve

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always because of whatever reason, right, you know, Kansas State

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in many ways, And I look at like what Indiana

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and Signetti are doing right now, and I think Snyder

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in many ways built up Kansas State in kind of

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the same way that Signetti is right now. And now

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it's somewhat different because Signetti just won a national championship,

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But I mean Kansas State was put on the mat

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because of Snyder. That being said, I'll kind of end

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with this new money. Old money doesn't like new money,

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the new kids on the block in the college football

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cabal that we're living in the cartel, right, this is

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me being a conspiracy there. It's hard to break through there.

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It's hard to get a equity in that brand stake,

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is what I'm getting at. They don't like that new money,

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they don't like the new kid on the block.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'll just add this and I know you're probably

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running out of time, But I'm one guy you could

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00:20:48,079 --> 00:20:52,319
be talking to today that experienced Lavelle Edwards and Bill Snyder.

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Snyder more up close and personal than Lavelle. But I

385
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was at Colorado State for a lot of years thirteen,

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I believe, and there is nobody from an offensive mind

387
00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:09,920
standpoint that I would necessarily put, you know, up against

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00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,079
him on most days. Yeah, you could argue Bill Snyder. Yeah,

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00:21:13,079 --> 00:21:15,640
you could probably argue Tom Osborne and maybe a couple

390
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of two or three others. But we're talking elite, elite,

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and sometimes I think he gets left out, and I

392
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:26,240
think that's sad. That dude was insanely good and put

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BYU Athletics on the map. And as far as I'm

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00:21:28,559 --> 00:21:32,920
concerned and Snyder, most people that don't follow it all

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00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:34,960
that closely have no idea how bad case they was

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00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,559
when Bill Snyder showed up. They just don't know, and

397
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believe me, they were bad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, right the way would you say that they were

399
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:43,319
kind of in lockstep, kind of side by side with

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who Indiana has been, you know, over the years, like historically,

401
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,079
and then Snyder came in and completely changed the trajectory

402
00:21:51,079 --> 00:21:51,359
of the.

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Speaker 3: Program they went, they went to one bowl for Snyder

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showed up in their history and you know how they

405
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did it, Yeah, they did it a bunch of guys

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that they red shirted for a year and then brought

407
00:22:04,319 --> 00:22:06,880
him back his red shirt seniors and they played in

408
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the Independence Bowl Bend in Shreveport. So Snyder comes along.

409
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Snyder comes along and goes to eleven straight and wins

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two Big twelve championships. A little different animal.

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Speaker 2: It took him five years to get to a bowl

412
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game though. That's what's so crazy. I mean they went

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seven to four, you know, and in a modern era,

414
00:22:29,079 --> 00:22:31,119
yeah they would have been I mean, but yeah, So

415
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:32,839
when I when I look at it like that, I

416
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really do I see I see a lot of similarities

417
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:40,599
to Indiana and Kansas State in the pre Snyder era.

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Well hopefully, hopefully it's a great game to I you know, turning,

419
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,039
you know, our gaze, casting our games towards the b

420
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:52,240
YU Kansas State matchup. Two fantastic programs. One that has

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been relink with turmoil in b YU, A little bit

422
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of a Jeckyll and Hide team this year. B YU

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00:22:58,599 --> 00:23:00,759
a favorite in this game. I think eleven and a

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00:23:00,799 --> 00:23:04,559
half point favorite and ESPN Analytics gives B y U

425
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:06,480
and eighty three point nine percent chance at victory, but

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hopefully it's a competitive one five pm tip off, I

427
00:23:08,799 --> 00:23:12,720
believe on ESPN Plus. Well, we appreciate you joining us.

428
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,400
Thanks for getting letting us get to know the phone,

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00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,160
Wyatt Thompson. Ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate you. Why we'll

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00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:18,039
catch up with the en soon.

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00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,599
Speaker 3: You got it, but always right talking to you, my friend,

432
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:21,240
Thank you, my.

433
00:23:21,599 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 2: Pleasure, my blessing, talking to Wyatt there. That segment was

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00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,279
brought to you by Central groadge Utah, Central Garage Utah

435
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442
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We appreciate it. When you do big ugar or to

443
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White Thompson, Jerem Jordan Dick Harmon, Jared Bledsoe, Sean Walker,

444
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,640
all of the fantastic guests. Shout out to Ronald the

445
00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,920
Three Man Weaver, Brent always bring the Hammer, Vic Kran

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and all of you Cougar fans,