Speaker 1: Let your money work for you rather than you always
working for your money.
Speaker 2: At Vanderwealth dot com.
Speaker 3: You were listening to one oh three, nine and ninety
eight three the band, part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.
This is Cougar Sports with Ben kretl At. It's time
for the Cougar Beat. Getting the dish from the local
reporters that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three EESPN the fan. I've been crital broadcasting from
our Vanderwilth.
Speaker 2: Studios Vanderwelth dot com.
Speaker 1: Get on a pre q and a no obligation to
do a VESQNA with our tax more Wealth Advisors certify
financial planners. Nobody does it better than band or Wealth
at each time for a little Cougar beat, gonna break
down what's going on in the athletics world of Brigham
Young University. Let's talk some basketball. We'll talk some football
with Camp Kwalani.
Speaker 2: Well underway.
Speaker 1: There is all manner and weeping, of weeping, whaling and
national teeth in Cougar Country. Because this BWIA men's basketball
team it.
Speaker 2: Looked like doodo.
Speaker 1: It looks like dude, last night, we're gonna break it
all down here on your Utah ESPN Radio, getting be
brought to you by all of our sponsors. Guys, we
can't do our show without our sponsors, so always give
our sponsors an opportunity to earn your business. You always
get the VP products, VPP service, VP discounts. Always ask
for VP products, VPP service, VP discounts when you get
into any one of our locations, any one of our
sponsor sponsors, they're gonna agent support you and whatever product
or service they can provide. Let's get out to the hotline.
Welcome in my guy, Double D. Darnell Dixon, the Daily
Heraldi in himself.
Speaker 2: What's up? Double D?
Speaker 4: Very much, pleasure beyond with you again, Ben.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure, always a blessing, talking ball with you, Darnell.
What was your reaction during the game last night watching
BYU fall to Cincinnati. Never really in the game, not
very competitive, turning the ball over, not playing good defense,
can't buying a can't buy a bucket.
Speaker 2: Aj Maybe it may have been his.
Speaker 1: Biggest offensive struggle all season long. What were you thinking
watching this thing unfold?
Speaker 4: Well? I got to thinking about how Cincinnati is very
much in the same position BYU was in last year
in the league, where they kind of got hot and
started playing well at the end. And I started thinking,
you know, I don't do a Big twelve men's basketball
power pool. I could do for the football just there's
so many games and everything. But if I were to
rank BYU right now in the Big twelve, where would
they stand and the way they're playing, I think I'd
rank them above Utah because they've beaten Utah twice and
the Newts are in last place, but anybody else, I
don't know if i'd rank that. I think b YU
might be playing about fifteenth best in the Big twelve
right now, and that is such a fall from where
they were at one point in this season. And you
can certainly blame a lot of it on losing Richie
Fonders six games ago, but BYU have had basically six
games to figure out how to play without him. And
they might look like they figured something out when they
beat I with Tata home, but every other game, I
mean they didn't. They didn't get blown out when Richie
was playing for and they've been blown out twice since,
and so there's not a lot right going on. In fact,
I wrote about my lead today was kind of like,
you know, I almost feel bad writing anything about him
because it's it feels like piling on because there's nothing
good going on in that program right now other than
bus Branch, the latest sign me who said, yeah, sign
me up for this. I'll go play for those guys.
But other than that, there's really I mean, what do
you say that's positive about what they're doing? There's not much?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, is there was there any silver linings
to this game?
Speaker 4: Maybe, you know, it's nice to see Alexi Coasters getting
playing time and making shots and kept becoming more comfortable
with more minutes. But you know, they started at dem
Boop and he was awful. He was terrible. I mean,
they're trying lots of different things. They're trying different starting lineups,
and the deams had some decent games this year where
he's been, you know, very energetic and rebounding, but he
did nothing in that game. So it's been a real
struggle and you can see the frustration on Kevin Young's
face as he talks about it. We get a chance
to do a news conference with him once a week,
and you know, We're trying to phrase the questions as
nicely as we can, but you know what basically comes
down to is why do you suck now? Because they're
still talent on that team. I really feel like they
have the ability to play with most teams in the conference.
They showed they can beat Iowa State with no Ritchie
on the floor. But right now they're at rock bottom
and I don't know how they figured their way out
of it. They've got one game to end the regular
season at home against Texas Tech Senior Day on Saturday,
and then you know, the start of the Big Twelfth Tournament.
Who looks like they're playing in the opening round as
on probably a nine seed. And if they make the
NCAA Tournament, which their body of work might get them in,
probably maybe they might be the lost three games of
the season, And that would be a real shame considering
where this team started from.
Speaker 1: What if b like you has to play Utah on
the Big twelve tournament and they lose to Utah, it
ruins me like you season, It completely saves Utah season,
Like I can see it happening, Dole thee Well, it would.
Speaker 4: Put Utah for BYU fans out of their misery for one,
and they would all go, well, of course, of course
this is how this season ends. You know, you can
just here be what your friends talking about it now?
Speaker 1: Oh man, so I do like the silver lining Alexa coastic.
You know, I made the point like earlier. It was
probably like over a month ago, a month and a
half ago. I'm like, look, this team's never gonna be
good at defense. Let's not act like they're ever gonna
be good at defense. They don't have a great defensive scheme.
They don't have a defensive coordinator that I've been impressed
by whatsoever. I was talking to my friend and he said,
can someone please explain to me our defensive scheme?
Speaker 2: What was it called?
Speaker 3: Do?
Speaker 4: There was a play last night where to b YU
defenders ran to a guy that didn't have the ball
away from the guy who had the ball, who had
a wide open tree and made it just how does
that even happen?
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel bad.
Speaker 1: I feel bad for Kevin honestly because I think I
don't think he really is.
Speaker 2: You know that I think he oversees the offense.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, Isaiah Thomas, Okay, when Bruce Branch the
third speaking of a positive silver lining and all this.
Isaiah Thomas, h two time All Star played for Kevin Young.
You know he quote tweets Bruce Branch the thirst commitment.
He says, look like this is you know, big time,
little brouh, You're going to a great coach in the NBA.
It is an offensive game. No one plays defense. No
one can't play defense. Maybe they're just too good at
offense to play any good defense. That's where kay Why
has made his hay. That's what Kay Why has done
in order to get his right and he needs some
help defensively or just go zone and live with the consequences.
Put your shooters out there and go get buckets and
see if you can have a freaking fast pace, just
back and forth, high fly and high floor, high fly
and high score chicks dig the deep ball three point contest.
That's kind of where I'm at right now with this team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, there's even more to be concerned about,
I think with this program. And one of the reasons
I say that is because Kevin's whole premise with his
program is we can develop you into an NBA talent
who on this team is getting better right now individually
certainly not as a team. But is there somebody on
this team that is getting better, that looks like they're
a better player they will in the season started. It's
really hard to bring I mean, other than Alexi Coast
that you maybe. Other than that, I don't know if
there's anybody on these teams getting better. And if you
build your program on look at all our NBA you
know pieces we've got an NBA nutritionist, an NBA wait guy.
When we have all of that, why why do we
Why are we having all these players who aren't improving?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Uh yeah, I think you make a really good point.
Speaker 1: We've asked that question too about midseason, like who on
the roster from last year has gotten better? You could
you could say that, like rich is Richie? Was Richie
better than he was the season prior? Some would say no,
you know, he's kind of on part. In fact, he
was impacted negatively by having maybe a J and Rob
take at times, the Lion's share of the looks and
the Lion's share of like the ISO basketball sets that yes,
led to a lot of scoring. But like he you know,
he's a catch and shoot guy. He runs off screen,
he's he's a he is a He can put it
on the floor and and get to the rim at times,
no doubt. But you wonder who was actually improved from
last year to this year that was on the roster last.
Speaker 4: Year, Well, there was an improvement for Richie in terms
of his scoring per game. He went not not quite
three points I think, but a shooting percentage was down yeah, yeah,
from three especially, I mean now, and you could see
that adjustment had to be made because you had two
other guys who had to have the ball really, but
they were making that work. I mean, all three of
them were averaging better than eighteen a game, and that
that works for you. I have most of most games,
and you know, Richie, I think impressed a lot of people.
That was it at Kansas where he threw up that
thirty three spot. It was just really being why he
was the only offense in the second half. And you know,
Richie didn't believe really that he was an NBA player
until last year when Kevin said, I think we can
get you in the NBA. You can play now. Was
the first time Richie kevinis said well maybe I can't. Yeah,
you know, so you know there's one thing, Ben that
I want to. I don't know if we we we
spend a ton of time with it. But last week
you asked me if I thought that, and this is
concerning Richie, that somebody, if somebody on the team, one
of the leaders or one of the starters, had to
be a member of the church. And I think I
gave you a lame answer, But I've been giving it
some thought, and I think it goes well beyond whether
they're a member of the church or not. And part
of that is, you know, we're all built on our experiences.
That's that's what we've become because we've we spend time
doing things and experiencing things. And a couple of weeks ago,
when Jimmer's Jersey was retired to have some of the Colorado,
they invited the media out onto the floor about the
three point line to shoot pictures and video and things.
And I'd never bet out on that floor and looked
around at eighteen thousand people. Now, certainly none of those
people were there for me, they're for Jimmer, but I
still felt a really interesting feeling it was and Ronnie
can probably attested as if he looked around, I'm sure
he did. I felt a real intimacy with those people
and a real love for Jimmer and through Jimmer, I
kind of felt that as well. So I'd never had
that experience before. Jimmer certainly has, and a lot of
the athletes certainly had. And so when you're talking about
a basketball program like BYU, Richie grew up wearing BYU
jerseys and knowing all the players' names and running around
the church gym and going, I'm Tyler Hawes told ones
that would looked at me play, and he had that
love for the program and that intimate relationship with those fans,
not just the ones in the arena, but the hundreds
of thousands of BLEU fans, the ones that show up
when they go play in Texas and California and New
York wherever they go. Nobody on this team has that.
I mean, they say basically, most of them put the
uniform on for the first time four months ago, and
they probably never gave BYU a second thought up until
the time they were recruited by them, when they were
eighteen or twenty or whatever age they were, so as
opposed to know whether or not they remember the church.
None of these players have the experience of feeling like
this is my school, and I really want to play
and win. For For a lot of them, this is
the place where they go to school and play ball,
and in some regards, this is where they pick up
their check. And I don't want to despair as the
players wrong say they're all just there for the money.
But their experiences are different. This is what I'm getting
around to this whole idea is the experiences that they've
had are way different than Richie. And if you ask
Richie a question like what did you think about the
fan support of the Rocks tonight? And if you ask
a j same question, you probably get this similar response,
but it can't possibly be the same for both of
those guys the feelings and the experience that they've had
with that. So I think that's definitely part of this
end the season swoon is that these guys don't know
where to reach out and don't know how to handle
this whole situation or believe in themselves or believe in
the program or whatever, and that's part whatever part motivates them.
They don't know where to go with that. Ritchie did.
And so that's a long way around to the question
you asked last week, and that shows. I've got a
lot of time on my hands because I sat around
and thought about it. But that to me is where
this program is at right now, and where a lot
of programs around the country are at. Where they're bringing
in I mean, I do previews for every team BYU plays,
do a little scattering port and most of the teams
are bringing in twelve thirteen new guys. If you do
that every year, what are you building. You're building one
team each year. You're not building a program, not not
for longevity or anything. So you know my concerns about
ANIL and about the transfer portal and what's going to create,
But in terms of how it relates to BYU and
their experience there, I think that plays a really big
part of what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's you wonder if k Why is
learning through this process and.
Speaker 2: You know his staff who's learning through this process a
little bit. Now.
Speaker 1: They are bringing in some guys, some guys, some dudes, right,
some some some guys that I think grew up maybe
being BA fans. But how long do they last at Bay?
We've seen this before, Jake Gualleen Tanner, Toolson, Dallan Hall,
like they all came to be a there elsewhere right now,
once at Virginia, whe's at TCU, once at Clemson.
Speaker 2: Now could they help b why you win this season?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 1: Or have they been stars for their respective teams? Not necessarily,
but they've all seen significant playing time and even a
starting role, and they're good basketball players. And the idea
is you get the most out of the that by
you try it and true, you know, legacy type of
kid and once they get to their senior year, they
can do something special. Right, So you wonder, you know,
what's what's the GM thinking, what's justin young thinking, what's
ky thinking? Is that the bigger issue? Is it the
player personnel issue? Or is it the scheme issue that
you're saying defensively? Is it the accountability that that isn't
really there? It seems right? Uh is that a coaching
issue more than it is a player issue?
Speaker 4: Well, I hate to be uh Namby Tamby about it,
but it is a combination of all of that. And
you know, there's a disconnect between what the coaches want
the players to do and what they're doing on the floor.
So you'd say, well, that's technical, that, that's scheme wise,
and everything like that. And then you look at the
guys that by You brought in this this year. Certainly
AJ and Robert great, you know in terms of how
you know, they've had some great moments and they they've
probably lived up to the hype. I would imagine those
people would say that, but there are certainly a lot
of guys in the roster that haven't. I mean, they
spend a lot of time recruiting and they spent a
lot of time talking about these guys and trying to
get him to fill roles. And that changed when they
had all the injuries. So some guys that were expect
to play certain roles, we're having to play different roles.
I think they imagine Canard Davis excuse me, as a
Mowatt Meg kind of guy, and he's not. He's not
a good defender, and he certainly is not shooting as
well as what shot last year once he got his
speed got into the lineup. You know, time Rouss has
been a disappointment, I think, and what he can do
out there, you know, I think Mihilo Boskovich hasn't gotten
a whole lot better. He's still kind of everywhere all
over the place on offense and fouls too much on defense.
So I just I just feel like the coaching staff
is definitely playing a role in this too, because you've
got to evaluate talent. You got to bring him in
and figure out how they fit, and that hasn't worked out. Again,
the injuries have made mess of that. But I think
there's a lot of guys on this roster that should
be very comfortable at the end of the season that
they're going to be back here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, how many of these guys are on the
roster next year? Do you think double D?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I would imagine,
you know, you take a look at the nucleus of
hopefully bringing back Rob but you don't know, he could
get offered a bunch or feel like he needs to
go somewhere, or his body language hasn't been great for
a few weeks as far as I'm concerned. And then
you've got Bruce Branch coming in, and you got kJ
Perry who's already with the team, And I think there's
some there's some strength to be there with Boops. I
think Mike probably will be back. You know, you wonder
about somebody like Koslowski who has never even really played
for me, maybe played in a couple of games in
two years. Maybe he wants to change in venue and
hopefully he can get healthy. I would imagine, you know,
if you're talking about fifteen roster spots, I would say
there'll be at least five or six new players, maybe more.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: I know you're a bystander, you're an indo in Capital
Jade journalists, but put yourself into the shoes of every
Cougar fan. Were you more ticked off last night because
of one the poor ass passing or number two the
brokeass defense?
Speaker 4: You know, for me, it would have been the fact
to check this out. So I crunched a few numbers
because I was curious, basically byu WI down double digits
for more than twenty seven minutes of that game. So
the forty minutes, at least twenty seven, maybe a little
bit more than that, they were down double digits, and
then they were down nine for a while, So I
would say probably ten minutes of that forty minute game
they were competitive. That's the most disturbing thing to me,
because every night's going to be different. You're going to
miss some shots, you're going to make some mistakes on defense,
but your ability to respond the adversity is really important,
and they didn't do that last night at all. Adversity
hit him and they just died. And then they played.
They played most of the game down double digits, and
that's really discouraging as a player that you can't break
into it. I mean, they were down I think from
about the eleven minute mark on the first half, they
were down double digits the rest of the first half.
Open the second half, they cut it to seven with
a couple of baskets, and then I think down to eight.
At one point it was forty eight to forty or something.
And then for the last about I don't know, fifteen
minutes of the game, they're down double digits again, as
many as twenty six. So if you want to point
at the offense, it wasn't great. The defense was lacking,
But the overall feeling is you got to be competitive
in those games and they weren't, just like they were
competitive at home against UCF down thirty six with three
minutes to go or three minutes played in the second half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll be honest, darn, I think I was most
disappointed I was most ticked off in the poor ass passing,
like I hate like I hate when you have, you know,
two players essentially on I don't know, the extended elbow,
extended wing, and there's like a lazy like a lazy pass,
just a lazy pass that is easily stolen taken in
transition you get an easy layup Like I'm like, that
is like the biggest fauxpa to me, Like AJ did it,
Rob did it, everybody did it, like everyone was involved
in the poor ass passing. Anyway, that probably got my
goat the most. But dart out, uh real quick before
I let you go. Camp Killani discussions.
Speaker 2: Where have you? Where you've been gazing? Where have you
been looking?
Speaker 1: At the first three practices or so of Camp Kilani,
twenty twenty six. What stood out to you about springball?
Speaker 4: I think I think one of the things was hearing
Aaron Rodgers talk about how he doesn't want to talk
about his younger player because he's afraid that they're going
to get recruited up from under it.
Speaker 5: The paranoida is real already, right, Yes, it is, indeed
it is, hey man that hey, even even with the
portal window not open, I mean, shoot, we've we've seen
crazier things in this modern era.
Speaker 1: Nil transfer portal world. Maybe someone hires the Laurie and says,
you know what I'm transferring. I can go get money elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Double D.
Speaker 1: We wish you a good day, good evening. Thanks for
hopping on for a cougar beat. We invite everyone to
follow Darnell at Darnell Wrights and to subscribe and read
The Daily Herald. The Daily Heraldi in himself is always
penning pieces there alongside with g Man Brandon Siagurty thinks
so much.
Speaker 4: Double D, Hey, thank you have a great week.
Speaker 1: Much love did the Double du and The Daily Heraldi
and guys, that's our show.
Speaker 2: We're sticking to it.
Speaker 1: Download the podcast iTunes, Speaker, Google Play Music, iHeart Radio, Spotify,
give us a rating, give us review. Uh, we appreciate
it when you do. And a couple of listeners reach
out to me and say, hey, we love the podcast,
we love the show. Thanks for for doing like, hey,
how can we improve the show? He's like nothing, man,
just keep doing what you guys do. Word up man,
salute him man. We We'll keep on doing what we do.
But if you do have any uh uh any insight
uh any constructor critician. We're always willing to be coached up.
We're coachable people. We can uh, we can always uh
make the show even better. But Big Cougar roared everyone.
They joined a shout out to Ronald the free Man
weaver obviously but always bringing the hammer, and Vic Graham.
We had a star start a cast today which included
Kevin Young commentary postgame, Aaron Rodgers sound from UH from Camp,
Kallani bear Bachmeyer commentary, Chris calls Er former b y
U great UH basketball player, Will Farron, former b YU
placekicker looking to make some hay in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Obviously.
Speaker 1: We caught up with Reggie Frischnett b AU wide receiver
and then the Daily herowaldy of himself, Darnel Dixon. Guys,
make sure you support all our sponsors. Can't do our
show without our sponsors, whether it's orthroprosen Utah Royal Army
and brand I get some fine twine linens.
Speaker 2: Check it out ESPN coupon code get ten percent off.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Dental pros Odon Men's Wear, big Otires
in American fork Pander will complete circuit Electric Central Garage,
Door Central Garage, Utah dot Com shout out to Brady Papinga,
John Beck, and Jared Blitzoe. There's respective businesses that they represent,
the XBT dot Com, Train three, DQB dot Com and
Utah Protective Films. Also salute to Premo Golf, Handy and Handy,
Advanced window Products, and Game Day Men's Health. We love
and appreciate all of our sponsors, and we love our