Speaker 1: So on k O v O probo k U d
d H D two one O three nine at ninety
eight three ESPN The Band stream.
Speaker 2: Us live on ESPN Theban dot Com.
Speaker 3: Get to know the Cougar's opponents and rivals right now.
Speaker 1: I gonna know the faux segment on Cougar Sports with
Ben Kretel.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cruger Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three ESPN The Fan.
Speaker 1: I'm Ben Crittle broadcasting from our Vanderwealth studios Mandterwealth dot Com.
Get on a free Q and A no obligation to
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Speaker 2: Rather than giving it all to Uncle Sam.
Speaker 1: It is time to get to know the voue b
YU versus U of a matchup the Wildcats versus the Cougars.
That's right down in Tucson, Ky.
Speaker 2: He says his backs against the wall, the backs against
the rope.
Speaker 1: He's gonna find a way to rally his troops that
have been decimated by injury.
Speaker 2: Well, guess what.
Speaker 1: The U A Watcats are also down a few key players.
Speaker 2: Including there. Maybe they're arguably the best player co Pete.
Speaker 1: We'll see if the personnel is equivalent in this game
down in Tucson. Tucson is a tough place to play.
Michel is a tough place to get dubs. But U
of A has lost some games recently. They need to
find a way to win. It's gonna be a tough one.
Note doubt about it. This know the faux segment gonna
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Let's get out to the hot line. Brian Jefferies is
on the live voice of the Arizona Wild Guys. Brian,
how that are you?
Speaker 3: Ben? Doing very well? How about you?
Speaker 1: I'm leaving the dream Man, talking ball and having a
great time. We're getting a ton of snow, pull a
ton of moisture, much needed moisture. The Byau Cougar basketball
team is probably enjoying some of the beautiful weather there
at Tucson, though I'm an Arizona boy, I know what
it's like at tucsad this time of the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's sunny, it's not quite as warm as normal
right now. We've got a little cold front moving in,
but it's in the sixties. Nice day, a little breeze outside,
So no complaints at all. It's our high season, as
you know, and we're going to enjoy it as long
as we've got.
Speaker 1: It, no doubt about it. What is the state of
u of a basketball right now?
Speaker 2: Brian?
Speaker 3: Well, you know they ran off to a twenty three
and oh start, best started in school history, and then
got beat at Kansas again. You know that's a tough
place to play, tough place to win if you're a
visiting team and came back home and then lost to
Texas Texas past Saturday, and think that one kind of
you know, put a little shock into everybody because it
was a home game number one. Although Arizona was shorthanded,
especially in the second half of that ballgame, I think
most people figured that they could, you know, somehow figure
out a way to do it. They couldn't. And you
give the Red Raiders all the credit in the world
for getting the way. And so, you know, back to
back losses now, and when teams go through this, when
you get off to a great start and then you
lose a couple of games, how do you rebound from that?
And I think that's going to be one of the
big questions for the Wildcats tonight and going forward, depending
on the health of the team starting tonight and going forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is the health of the team right now?
Why is co Pete sitting out this one?
Speaker 3: Well, I'll start before I mentioned Cole, I'll mention Dwayne Aristode,
who was in their rotation. He did not play against
Texas Tech. He will not play tonight. It's a illness.
It's not anything, no broken bones or anything, but he
will be out two games and we'll see about Saturday
when the Wildcats go to Houston Cole Pete. His right
leg has been bothering here the last week or so.
In m Kansas, they got a little bit worse during
the first half of the Texas Tech game, so he
sat out the second half and that was obviously a
big factor in Arizona's loss, and he will not play tonight.
I don't the plans are right now that he does
not go with the team on this road trip coming
up to Houston and Baylor, and they're going to kind
of reassess things after he has some time to, you know,
sit back and get arrest. The doctors are taking a
closer look at it to see if there's anything more.
But you know, without him, he was their top recruit
coming in. He averages fourteen points five rebounds a game,
and you know, it's tough to take a guy like
that out of the lineup, and they hope that they
can get him back here sometime soon because I think ultimately,
when you look at the big picture, Arizona needs to
have him if they want to get to where they
want to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it look BYU's been devastated by injury this year.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they've ever experienced anything like this.
Speaker 1: Has you ay or experienced attrition down the stretch that
has impacted maybe NCAA tournament runs and and conference championship runs.
Speaker 3: Well, I can. Yeah, there's always going to be seasons
that you've got injuries you have to deal with. You know,
last year Arizona Los mol Crevas, they're starting center eight
games into the season, and you know, they had designed
their entire offense really around him at seven foot two,
and they had to make some mid season adjustments. They
were able to do so, but that hurt big time.
They didn't get to the Sweet sixteen last year, but
I think without him that made an impact. And you
can go back over the years and find situations like that.
We were just last week celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary
of the two thousand and one Final four team, and
you know, they had an injury to Gilbert Arenas. They
made it to the Final four and they had beaten
Michigan State in the semi finals. Gilbert A Renas got
hurt the day between games. He couldn't even shoot his
shoulder hurt so bad, and he just wasn't very effective
against Duke and the championship game, and the boot Devils
won it and won the National Championship. So you know,
who knows if he would have been healthy, maybe Arizona
one would have won the Natty that year. So yeah,
you can go back and find I think key injuries
anytime that can affect a season, and those are just
a couple of examples that have hit Arizona here both
lately and twenty five years back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always tough to fight through it.
Speaker 2: All.
Speaker 1: Things were getting competitive right now. How would you describe
the Big twelve?
Speaker 2: Brian?
Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of great basketball over your time
as the voice there down there with in Tucson representing
the UVA Wildcatch. How competitive, how good, how talented? How
well coach are these Big twelve teams?
Speaker 3: Well? This is an incredible conference. And you know, when
Arizona joined the Big twelve last year, that's one thing
we were looking forward to. I was looking forward to
because even though I grew up around the Pac twelve
my entire life, the Pac ten before that, I think
I was born when it was the Pac eight. Not
to give away anything. But you know, it was a
kind of a jolt of the system to change conferences
all of a sudden at this point. But when it
comes to basketball, you could make the argument that the
Big twelve is the best in the country. And you
just take a look at the teams right now. You know, Houston, Arizona,
Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech, BYU and even on the
fringe there UCF, you know, maybe even West Virginia teams
that might have a chance to get into the tournament.
It's just incredibly competitive. It's a very physical conference. Going
on the road I think is very difficult. The venues
are tough to play in. You mentioned coming to McHale, obviously,
going to the Marriott Center, you go back to fog Allen,
you go to Houston. You could go almost anywhere and say,
how do you win on the road in this conference?
And that is a real key if you're going to
win the league. You got to figure out a way
to win away from home. So it's I so far,
I really enjoyed it because I love being in atmospheres
like that where you know the games, you don't know
the outcome of the game, and I think in the
Pac twelve. There was a point there where there were
half the stops that you made where you thought, Okay,
you're going to win and usually did. It's not that
way in the Big twelve. So very tough, very physical,
very demanding. I think on every team.
Speaker 1: Brian Jeffries here on your Utah ESPN ready to never
get in prep getting ready for that BYUU of a
matchup tonight should be a good one, should be a
competitive one. The voice of the Aarson a Lodcat Sockets
and Ball Right now, what is it that has led
to some of the losses experience? Like, how do you
describe the sequence of events that led to some of
these ls recently?
Speaker 3: Well, I would get I'm going to give Kansas most
of the credit for the game back in Lawrence. I mean,
that's an outstanding program, as I said, And you guys
know this. You know winning and fog Allen is very
difficult for any team. They rarely lose at home. They
were without Darren Peterson, their best player in the ball game.
Nobody knew that until right before tip off. He had
flu problems and so he decided to set out and
sometimes when that happens, you know the other guys say, okay,
well we got to step up, and they got some
great help from some people that you know, may not
have had that big a role so far in the season.
And Kansas is also an outstanding defensive team and that's
probably the biggest key there. They really took Arizona out
of its game. The Wildcats, you know, lead the Big
twelve in free throw attempts and free throws made. They
like to get the ball in the paint, they draw fouls,
they get to the free throw line. Kansas defended without fouling,
and so to their credit, they took one of Arizona's
you know, big weapons away from them. So again all
credit to them. Texas Tech was here over the weekend.
Arizona played with a seven man rotation. I think that hurt.
But Texas Tech is just a heck of a basketball team.
And you know, speaking of injuries, Joy just hate to
hear about j T. Top and now out for the year.
He was a force in that ball game. Because we
go back to the strength of this league and really
the top you know, five to six teams. I think
on a given day, anybody can beat the other one.
And so that was that was just to their it again.
Arizona played the first half with seven guys, the second
half was six guys, and then it goes to overtime,
and I think, and I'm not making any excuses, but
I think Arizona just got kind of winded in that
bowl game and the Red Raiders had more going for them,
and they get credit for the win. So that's you know,
that's been at these last two and now we find
out tonight and going forward, you know what the Wildcats
can do. They got to face very good BYU team.
Then they got to go to Houston on Saturday, and
so it doesn't get in easier.
Speaker 1: Give me your analysis of the first game at the
Marriott Center.
Speaker 2: What happened, Why it happened.
Speaker 1: It seemed like UVE was going to be a cruise
control with a dominant victory.
Speaker 2: What did you know the.
Speaker 1: Coaching staff say postgame and what did you see from courtside?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Arizona came out very strong in that
bowl game. I think the lead at halftime, I wanted
to say was thirteen, and went up by nineteen there
early in the second half, and then you know, BYU
started hitting shots. They didn't hit him in the first
half you know, Richie Sanders got going, the bands get also,
I mean obviously had his twenty four points. I think
one of the keys for Arizona in the win was
they held DeVonta to twenty four shots. So twenty four
shots for twenty four points. Coaches love to see that.
So even though he got his average, I think Arizona
didn't let him, you know, just take over the ballgame.
And Arizona played pretty good defense on Robert Wright as well,
and the late block shot by Brayden Burry's kind of
sealed the game up for Arizona. So you know, bo
I was reading the BYU notes and this is something
they've been pretty good at making comebacks. So when you have,
you know, some really good shooters, you can do that
because the three point, you know, basket can make a
huge difference when you get behind. And so the BYU's credit,
you know, they got to go in there and had
a chance to win it. Arizona was, you know, I
want to say lucky in some sense to get out
of there with a win. But because they have built
that big lead, they were was able to withstand the comeback.
And now without Richie Saunders, you know how what does
BYU do tonight? I think with Arizona without Coed Pete,
how what do they do tonight? Talking to Tommy Lloyd
earlier today, said it's probably gonna be adjustments on the
fly tonight and probably for both coaches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's going to be intriguing one, no doubt.
Richie Saunders is out for the season. Uh hash has
the coaching staff chimed in on on some of the
losses that BYU hasn't How they're prepping just for the
big two of.
Speaker 3: V yu Oh, I mean they've not got they haven't
given me any inside scoops. I think they're not going
to change much what they normally do. Arizona is a
man of man defensive team and that's it. And you know,
they've got to control what they can control. So, you know,
can they keep de Bonsa from going off tonight, which
we know he's obviously very capable of doing Again, they
did a pretty good job against Robert Wright in the
first game. Now Right's coming off back to back thirty
point games. They can't let him get going, and then
you know who's going to be that next guy? You
never know? And that's to me one of the you know,
keys to to basketball is that when you're down like that,
who's going to come off the bench or who's won
one of the starters, maybe that hasn't been a volume
score that all of a sudden is going to find
his range. And you know, Arizona's got a guy in
Anthony del Arso who I'm not saying he's going to
do it tonight, but they need him to put up
double figures. Probably with the loss of Coleo Pede, who
is it on the BYU roster that's going to be
able to step up tonight and you know, maybe not
score eighteen, but at least give them, you know, another
scoring presence outside the Big two.
Speaker 1: You mentioned this is a crazy time we're about. We're
a few weeks away from selection Sunday and March Madness.
It's going to be pretty crazy to see what happens.
There's even cannibalism occurring in the Big twelve right now
that could be some shifting, some pivoting. We'll see how
it plays out with these finals, six or seven games
with the Big twelve, is there a maybe a potential
bottom drawer or seemingly kind of middle of the PAC team.
Do you think that could maybe raise their stock and
get some big wins on the back end of the
schedule here in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, that's a great question, Ben, And you know,
outside of maybe the top five or six teams, I'm
kind of curious to see what UCF does here. They've
had a pretty good season with an entirely new roster.
Arizona State got a big win over Texas Tech last night,
and because we see the Sun Devils, you're in and
year out, that's a very talented roster. Now they haven't
played up maybe to their potential, and they're just me talking.
They're two games above five hundred right now. But that's
one of those teams on a neutral court where if
they get going like they did last night, then you
know they got a chance to beat some people. So
those two teams to me kind of stand out. And
maybe TCU that's another one that I think has an
opportunity because they're they're kind of on the bubble right
now in terms of getting into you know, March Madness
without winning the Big Twelve tournament, So you know, could
they get going here late in the season, So when
you get to the Big Twelve tournament, and you've got
teams like that where they they're in desperation mode. They've
got to win if they want to play beyond Kansas City.
And and you've got some talent like Arizona State has,
like UCF, like TCU. I wouldn't be surprised if you
know one of those three, if not, the two out
of those three make a pretty good run.
Speaker 1: The Big Twelve is I've called it the true Gauntlet
of college athletics. The SEC football conference. They're always talking
about the Gauntlet, how difficult it is. The Big Twelve
is where it's at right now. Big Ten not too
far off either. Do you think the Big Twelve these
are the best conference of basketball teams right now? I
don't think the Big Ten still takes the cake right now.
Speaker 3: Well I'm biased, of course, and so I think it's
the Big Twelve. And you know, I was looking. I
haven't updated it, but I look back the other night
and saw that of the top I want to say,
the top five teams in the Big Twelve, all their
losses had been quad one losses. No other Power four
conference could say that. Now I have to go back
and update it. I know it's changed because of Texas
Tech losing last night at Ez State, that was not
a Quad one loss for them, But I just think
that tells you right there the strength of this conference,
especially at the top. And so you know, Arizona's got
to play BYU Deny, go to Houston, go to Baylor,
Kansas home, Iowa, stayed at home, and then finish a
mile high up at Colorado. And you know, from the
Wildcat perspective, what they're looking at right now, it's a
really tough and they've already you know, lost to Kansas
Now in Texas Tech, you're in the latter half. So yeah,
very tough. And we knew that when the schedule came out,
and it's proving that way. And so if Arizona's gonna
win the championship this year, you know they're gonna have
to figure out how to get through some of these
teams that you know that right now have a deeper roster.
Speaker 1: Brian Jeffries, Ladies and gentlemen, how are you feeling right
now about the U of A Athletic department, their vision
for football, basketball and the rest.
Speaker 2: Of the Olympic sports right now?
Speaker 1: What what direction is U of A trending right now
do you think as far as where they stay and
in the competitive landscape of collegiate athletics.
Speaker 3: Well, if you go back a couple of years ago,
you know, Jed Fish was the football coach, won ten
games and then took the job at Washington. Brett Brennan
came in to take over. He was at San Jose State,
and the Wildcats went four and eight in their first
season under Brennan, and I think a lot of people
thought that was, you know, a major step backwards. I
think there were some reasons behind it, starting with the
transfer portal. You know, ten guys transferred to Washington that
certainly hurt. And then Brennan in the second year, they
win nine, they go to a bowl game, and he's
gotten a contract extension, did very well in the portal.
And so the feeling is the football program is on
solid ground right now and a chance really you know,
makes some major strides moving forward. Although, as you guys
probably know, I when the schedule came out, we see
game number two September twelfth is in provo against me.
Why that should be a lot of fun. But anyway,
the Arizona Athletics feels very good about where football is right. Obviously.
Tommy Lloyd, in his fifth year as the men's basketball coach,
has you know, done some great things. And this team,
if they get healthy, as a chance maybe to win
it all across the board. You know, baseball team was
at the College World Series last year. Softball's won eight
national championships, volleyball's moving up, women's basketball has a new
coach this year. I think they're in some growing pains
right now. Always have good golf here. I could go
on and on, so you know it right now seems
to be a really good time. Tennis has been outstanding,
and you know it's as the former athletic director here
would say, it's a great day to be a Wildcat,
and you could probably use that pretty much any day.
I mean, teams are going to have their ups and downs.
I mean, you know, everybody doesn't. It's a cyclical business.
As you know, you have good seasons and challenging seasons.
But it's been a good year so far for Arizona Athletics.
Speaker 1: Brian, best way to support you what you do, how
you do it, and give me a little score prediction,
or at least give me how you think this game
is going to play.
Speaker 2: Out tonight to Tucson.
Speaker 3: You know, I tell you what, here's some really interesting, man.
These are the top two scoring teams in the Big Twelve,
Arizona eighty eight points a game and BYU at eighty six.
I'm going to guess that neither team gets to eighty tonight.
I think these both coaches. I think both coaches know
that they're shorthanded and they've got to slow this game
down a little bit tonight because you know, I think
you're calling upon the bench now. They're probably going to
have to rotate some more guys in and out. And
I know both teams would like a little more up tempo.
I just have a gut feeling that this might be
a little lower scoring game than these two teams are
used to playing. So that's number one. I'm not going
to tell you who's going to win it because I
think there's so many new things right now. I mean,
how does Arizona adjust without co Opete? How does BYU
adjust without Richie Saunders. I think that those two elements
make this a little bit of an unpredictable outcome.
Speaker 1: It's the forty third meeting between these two programs. Arizona
leads all time series twenty two to twenty and by
US five and fifteen all time in Tucson.
Speaker 2: That's tough. It's tough to win down there.
Speaker 1: But that big said, The Creuz have won their last
two trips to the McHale Center, including that ninety six
ninety five win last season during a nine game winning streak.
We'll see how it plays out tonight. Thanks so much, Brian.
We appreciate you. Thanks for hopping on to give us
some some knowledge of the UFA Wildcats.
Speaker 3: All right, ben, enjoy it, enjoy the snow and then.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I appreciate that. We will, we need it.
We definitely. I'd rather be golfing with you though.
Speaker 3: All right, Well sometimes sometime down the road.
Speaker 2: All right, We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Brian Jeffries, the voice of the Arizona
Wildcats UFA wodcast. That was another folk segment brought to
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