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your garage door. Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome
in Double THEE the Daily Raldia to talk some Cougar
basketball with his day Double d How are you, buddy?
Speaker 2: I am doing well, Thanks Ben.
Speaker 3: How's Portland? How is it?
Speaker 2: Uh? You know, I'm an oor going in by birth.
Was born in Grant's Pass down south, a little bit grown,
raised in kid Junction a little further south than that.
Been to Portland a few times. It's been a while.
I know they have a great zoom here and right
now they've got some great basketball's gonna be played in
about uh less than twenty four hours.
Speaker 3: Boom shot a luck. I love it? Well, Darnelle, how
do you feel about them?
Speaker 1: Koog's right now? How do you like this matchup between Texas?
Did you catch the NC State Texas game last night?
Give me a little scouting report? What do you see
and how you feel about this Cougar men's basketball team?
Speaker 2: Well, well, right now, I think you know it's interesting
because the last couple of times in the NCAA tournament
being why you played a team from a mid major
conference to open and then the last time they ended
up playing a team from the Power Conference was UCLA
back in what was it twenty one or twenty two,
and UCLA went on to the final four, and they
were a team that came out of the first four.
So but the difference there, of course, was all those
games were played in Indianapolis, whereas Texas has had to
jump on the plane. Sean Miller told us the plane
didn't leave dating until about three am last night, and
so they fly out here in practice, and you know
that's got to have some sort of effect. And Rob
Wright said he didn't think it would have no large
effect because both teams this point the season, they just
want to win. They just want to get that w
in the NCAA Tournament. But as far as this team,
and we've talked about this before with Kevin Young, is
this is kind of the third generation of his team
this year that he's coached because of injuries and some
things that have happened. And the team showed when they
played in the Big Twell Tournament they can score it.
They scored one hundred and six points in their first
round game against Kansas State and then they held Washington
or held West Virginia to forty nine points. So they
play some defense, so I think they discovered some things.
Texas reminds me a lot of teams from the Big Twelve.
In the middle of the Big twelve that the what
you struggled with at times, as they're very athletic. They
got a big guy in the middle, kind of like
Arizona does with the seventh footer. I'll be interested to
see how Rob Wright does getting to the basket with
a guy kind of lurking around the rim there that's
seven feet tall. They have some shooters. They have a
guy who's familiar with Byu and Sean Miller has coached
against them both at its Sadier and Arizona. I could
be a great game and it is going to be
a big test for this team. I can't help but
think what this team would be like if Richie Saunders
were healthy at this point in the season, because I
think Kevin Young and as coaching staff had done a
great job of kind of reinventing themselves a couple of
times with the injuries, and they put them in a
great position. And that's kind of what I wrote about
today was, you know, despite all the things that happened,
they're still in the NCAA Tournament. They are a number
six seed. They got to where they wanted to be.
Now it's just a matter of getting out of the
court and proven that you belong.
Speaker 1: How far can this team go in the NCAA Tournament
the way that they were playing in the Big Twelve tournament.
Speaker 2: If they can continue that kind of play, I could
see them getting out of the first weekend. But it's
going to be tough. I mean, if they do manage
to get best Texas, it's going to be Gonzaga. And
you know, I think BYU fans were hoped to be
done with the Zags after leaving the West Coast Conference,
and it turns out that you know, if they do
get past Texas tomorrow, that that Sudu Cougars would probably
play would be the Zags and they're really good again,
and Mark Feugh's a great coach. But I think it'd
be really fantastic matchup. Getting past that is going to
be difficult, but it's not like this is a team
that can't. I think they have that ability. I think
that they have the confidence in themselves, maybe a little
better now than they had a month ago, and that
plays a big role as well. And you know AJ's
walking around here. They were a few minutes late coming
to the news conference, and there's a documentary crew following
him for behind the scenes in the NCAA tournament. They
were like three cameras following him as he walked up
to sit and answer our questions. There's a lot of
attention on Aj and b Yu in this tournament, and
you know how they handle that is also kind of
an interesting thing, and Kem Young said he believes in
AJ's ability to get through that He's had that attention
since the time he was about thirteen years old, and
so he's been through it already. But there's a lot
going on here, and there's a lot at Steak for
the coopers.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed plenty at Steak. Were you at the shoot around,
by the way, doubled, you.
Speaker 3: Got to see this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I did see some of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what did you see at the shoot around?
What stood out to you?
Speaker 2: It's pretty relaxed. I mean, this isn't like a full
fledged scrimmage. It's more like a get familiar with the
arena kind of thing. They were shooting and kind of
joking around. I saw Charles Aboo out there taking some shots.
He's a grad assistant former BYU player. And then there's
a lot of fans that were watching. I know Kevin
Young and some of the players are walked over to
sign some DYU flags, the shirts and things. So it's
more of a let's just get used to the arena
kind of thing more so than you know, what they
can practice with. But they've had some good time off
to rest. I know, someone like a Bacata can really
benefit from that time off because he was really banged up,
and I'm sure the other players, there's others who needed
to kind of get a couple of days to get
their their feedback under them and get themselves in the
best position to win on Thursday.
Speaker 1: So blessing the sky's kind of a silver line, because blow,
you got a six seed.
Speaker 3: They really couldn't have.
Speaker 1: The only way they got a five seed is if
they maybe got to the finals or won the Big
twelve tournament.
Speaker 3: So maybe a blessing in the skuys. They got to
rest up for seven days it is.
Speaker 2: And you know, I talked to Chris Burgess over the
summer about their scheduling and he told me they really
kind of patterned after Arizona. The way the Arizona last
year had I think eleven or twelve losses heading into
the NCAA tournament's still ended up with like a four
or five seed, I think. And so BYU did put
the work in early in the season, playing Villanova and
Yukon and Clemson and Wisconsin and just you know, even
the preseason when they're playing Nebraska and North Carolina State,
who are all all NCAA tournament teams. So they put
in the work to make themselves attractive to the NCAA
Tournament committee. So even with all the issues that they had,
with injuries and some of the losing streaks, a six
seed is still pretty good and puts them in a
position where they feel like they can make a run.
So that's the way I kind of think about this team.
And they head into in the first round.
Speaker 1: If you're Ky and this Cougar basketball team, do you
like or dislike playing a playing team in the first round?
Speaker 3: Texas could be warmed up.
Speaker 1: They're also having to travel, right, they played yesterday, they
got to travel. They were at Texas and other in date.
They were in Dayton, another in Portland. You know, it's
like you can go either way with this, right, do
you like it or dislike it? If you're b Yu
and Ky.
Speaker 2: Well, if you're Ky and we've asked him these kind
of questions before, he says, these guys are young, they're resilient.
They're going to be fine. He said me. On the
other hand, I need to go home, take a nap.
But these gets pay. You know, they've been raised playing
AAU basketball. They played two or three games in day
and they travel everywhere you know, they go. They go
travel to all different parts of the country. So for
most of them, it's not a big deal to do
something It's different, for sure than your regular season grind.
When you play two games in a week. You may
have two home games, you may have one road game
and a home game. You may have two home games,
and but they just adjust to that. So I don't
know that it's a big deal. And at the end
of the game you might look at it and say, well,
because BYU won this, or because because Texas won that.
But I don't know that it plays as big a
deal as maybe think it does. It's not like these
guys are flying coach, you know, they're like the NBA man.
They're flying sharter and getting everything taken care of farm.
So I think both teams are going to be fine.
Speaker 1: Who are you predicting to win the NCAA tournament? Have
you filled out your bracket yet?
Speaker 3: Double D? Where you leaning right now?
Speaker 2: You know those number one seeds all look great. And
my personal opinion is that Arizona was the best team
me what you played this year. They're just so versatile.
I mean, the first game, it was the guards, the
eight b yu up. Second game, it was a completely
different set of guys. And they can do that on
a on a game by game basis, where somebody steps
up and has a great game, because because you know,
Barry's was terrific in that first game, he didn't really
affect the game as my second time, but Arizona still won.
And that's what makes that's their superpower. That's what makes
Arizona best indifferent and you know we had Bradley Whin
the Player of the Year. The Big twelve is a
little on by the coaches and there were some grumbling
about that, but any one of those guys there starting five,
and they have a couple of guys even coming off
the bench, and Doloroso is one of them that can
lead them in scoring tonight. And so their their depth
and their versatility I think make them my favorite in
this tournament.
Speaker 1: Double d Darnell Dixon The Daily Heraldi and talking to
bu Basketball here on your Utah ESPN Radio network. Do
you feel like the benches built to make a run
right now? Do you feel like Kadeem is going to
be there that Alexi. I know he's been in the
starting lineup, but like he's been more of a supporting
cast role.
Speaker 3: Alexis going to show up.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like, you know the big three now
with Canard, Canard's gonna show up and play good basketball.
Give me kind of an evil of it. We know
what we typically get from AJ and Rob. More often
than not, they are the consistent elements of this team.
What about the other elements Keva as well?
Speaker 2: I really feel like those guys you just mentioned other
than Rob and AJ, have have caught the attention of
the opposition, which means that nobody's taken them lightly just
because they're not AJ and they're not Rob. Any coach
that does that is at their peril because those guys
have all shown that given certain games, they can step
up and make place. I think they're are more comfortable
in their roles than they were before because they'd played
you know, four or five games in those roles and say,
interesting to me about can artists that he's basically playing
the same way he played when things weren't going well,
when he wasn't making a shot, when he wasn't really
affecting the game as much defensively, I think he's playing
the same way. It's his shots are falling, which gives
him a lot more confidence on both ends. So all
of those guys have stepped into roles they feel comfortable
with what they're doing it feels like. And what Kevin
said today in that news conference was this is the
time of year. You can't fake stuff. You just go
with what has brought you here. And he feels like
he has a team that's built to be successful because
they're confident in what they're doing and they're playing to
their strengths. You can't make stuff up. It's the tournament, man.
You just do what you've got to do and do
what you've been doing. And that's how they feel heading
into it. With that win against Texas Tech at home
and then the three games in the Big Twelve tournament,
I feel like they're as good as they're going to
be in terms of preparation and confidence heading into the tournament.
Speaker 1: Darnell, give me a little prognostication, a little of score prediction.
How do you think this BYU Texas game plays out?
BA only a one and a half point favorite. I
believe they are. They're eight and eight versus tournament NCAA
tournament teams right now.
Speaker 3: That are in the field.
Speaker 1: They they're they're playing in Portland, could be a home
court type of feel.
Speaker 3: What do you make of it?
Speaker 2: I think both teams are going to be able to
score the ball. You know, BYU's discovered some things defensively
that might help them. But Texas has some shotmakers. And
you saw out of Mark in that game last night.
He made two just follow away kind of jumpers with
a defender in his face or the defender really couldn't
do a whole lot else on what they did and
the guy just made a shot. So Texas has some
guys like that. So by is going to be tested
for sure on the defensive end. I see a score
somewhere in the seventies or eighties, and you know, I
think Byu comes out on top, but I'm a very
close probably, you know, like eighty six eighty two. That's
what I'm going with.
Speaker 3: My guy W D.
Speaker 1: Darnold Dixon live from Portland, Oregon. A couple let of
things before I let you go. Camp Killani is still underway,
and you know, the the the Camp Killani conversations continue.
I've been looking at some of the highlights evaluating, you know,
who the starting offensive line is, you know who who's
going to be in the rotation.
Speaker 3: Check this out like in a recent rep.
Speaker 1: Tell me how you feel about this offensive line that's
going to be protecting bear Bachmeier. And granted this is
not the number ones right, but I thought it was instant.
Kyle Strufer Joke getting some reps at center. We all
know Bruce he's the guy, but he doesn't need to
prove himself. Kyle Stuferchoke getting reps at center, Poki Fen
now left tackle. We got Trevin Ossler left guard, at
right guard, Junior Sea getting some reps at right guard,
and then Andrew Gentry at right tackle. Today, Aaron Rodgers
said this offensive line is gonna be good. He was
oozing again. Last year he said the same thing. This
offense allow is going to be really good. How confident
are we in the offense a line protecting bear Bachmeyer
in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's still some questions to be answered
with those guys. And we all know that the rotation
is really important, and you have your five, but who
are the other two or three guys that may get
some time that may need to be called upon based
on matchups or injuries or things like that. I think
they've got a good start, and I think they brought
in some good talent, and what also helps them tremendously
is to have a returning starting quarterback as well as
the best running back and the MVP of the offensive
MVP of the Big twelve coming back at running back.
So one of the things that Aaron Rodrick actually this
was Kelly Pepinga said, was facing Bear Bockmeier this spring
has been a real eye opener because Bear has picked up,
you know, where he left off and gotten better at Reeds.
So you know, he Delly and his defense is being
challenged a lot by what Bear can do. And so
as far as an offensive line, that helps you a
lot when you have a quarterback who can read what's
happening and it makes you look good when he gets
through the ball before he gets sacked. And then he
got a running back like Algie and Martin who can
find a gap or doesn't even need a gamage and
it runs over a guy if you missed the block
and still gets five yards. So I think the offensive
line is in a position where they're going to get
a lot of help and that's going to help them
to be good this season. But I still think, like
I said, there's some impressions to be answered at certain
positions and how effective they can be and you can
be why your second game of the League game, so
we'll find out very soon.
Speaker 1: Darnell Dixon, Ladies and gentlemen, Double D always appreciate our
time together. Thanks for hopping on live from Portland for
a cougar beat.
Speaker 2: You bet Ben have a great one, all right, you.
Speaker 1: Too, man enjoyed the game. Manyana that segment. Great segment
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Speaker 3: Central Garage Utah dot com. Give Kelly a call.
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