Speaker 2: Got my rundown.
Speaker 1: Put me in a good mood on a Friday, not
Speaker 1: just because it's Friday, but my man, my friend, my
Speaker 1: guy who hasn't joined us in a long time. But
Speaker 1: we'll do some college basketball whatever else comes our way
Speaker 1: with the legend Utah State pro Hooper overseas and my
Speaker 1: former partner on Utah pre eff and Post, Spencer Nelson
Speaker 1: on a Friday.
Speaker 2: Happy Friday, my friend, how we been.
Speaker 3: H Spence check. It's so good to be talking to you.
Speaker 3: It has been a long time. Hey. Of all the
Speaker 3: introductory things you said, the one I'm most proud of
Speaker 3: is being your partner on the pre half in post.
Speaker 3: That was it? The overseas YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, Britton
Speaker 3: Johnson's friend. That doesn't matter as sent to me. But
Speaker 3: the fact that you said I was your partner on
Speaker 3: the pre half and post touches my heart.
Speaker 1: Well, that means a lot. You're lying, but thank you
Speaker 1: for saying that. But I need to start here because
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I just want to let you know that I'm reading
Speaker 2: this book.
Speaker 1: About anti gravity, okay, and it's impossible to put down.
Speaker 2: It's not funny, it's not funny. It's not funny, it
Speaker 2: is funny.
Speaker 3: Hey, all of your listeners, Okay, they're shaking their head
Speaker 3: and laughing at the same time. They're like, Spence, how
Speaker 3: could you say that joke on their But yet they
Speaker 3: love it. Everyone loves a good dad joke. I love
Speaker 3: that joke. Great, great material we like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need to we need to give our listeners context.
Speaker 1: You know, when you do late night postgame radio, you
Speaker 1: get a little slap happy, and so our guy Spencer
Speaker 1: and Nelson would entertain us with dad jokes that did
Speaker 1: not land oftentimes with Britton Johnson, but I always appreciated them.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that. Thank you will. I mean there is
Speaker 3: a certain amount of intellectual horsepower required to truly appreciate
Speaker 3: it dad joke. You and I have that. Britt is
Speaker 3: just different. He's just built differently. Don't they have T
Speaker 3: shirts hashtag built different?
Speaker 2: They do.
Speaker 1: I love Internet or intellectual horsepower. Every time we do,
Speaker 1: every time we talk, you drop something that I steal
Speaker 1: from you.
Speaker 2: So I'm stealing that.
Speaker 3: I like that. Yeah, great, great phrase. Intellectual horsepower is
Speaker 3: a good one.
Speaker 2: How's your world, man, what's going on with you? What's
Speaker 2: what's the deal.
Speaker 3: These days, man, life is good, working and family and
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, the Drill kids are getting older,
Speaker 3: which I'm grateful for, but at the same time, I
Speaker 3: don't want them to leave the house, which when they
Speaker 3: were kids, I would little I would have thought that
Speaker 3: was that wouldn't be the case. But now they're teenagers
Speaker 3: in their blast to hang out with, so that's really good.
Speaker 3: And then the Aggies are rolling, So still doing radio
Speaker 3: for the Aggies and that's been a lot of fun
Speaker 3: and man, living the dream.
Speaker 2: It's been good, very nice. So let's do We'll do
Speaker 2: some local college hoops.
Speaker 1: I want to jump around a little bit, and we'll
Speaker 1: start with Utah State, but we'll start with a question
Speaker 1: from a thirty thousand foot view before we get into
Speaker 1: topics in a vacuum?
Speaker 2: What is it about the.
Speaker 1: Basketball culture up there where it's almost like like my
Speaker 1: next gig, Spencer, I want to coach you toass eight
Speaker 1: for one year and then cash in on a big
Speaker 1: on a big contract, and then screw that job up
Speaker 1: and just retire. Like, what's the deal about the culture
Speaker 1: up there that just breeds quality basketball and has for
Speaker 1: like twenty or thirty years.
Speaker 3: I am more than happy to put a good word
Speaker 3: in for you. I don't know if it goes any far,
Speaker 3: but here's the reality. The spectrum is magical. You toss,
Speaker 3: it has a great tradition. I mean, we go back
Speaker 3: to Stu. But you know Craig, Ryan, Danny and now Jared.
Speaker 3: But I will say, we've got to give the administration
Speaker 3: a lot of credit over the last four hires. Like
Speaker 3: Craig's a great basketball coach. And I know you toss
Speaker 3: how it struggles and that kind of stuff, but he
Speaker 3: is a he is a good ball coach. And let's
Speaker 3: give Tim Durry some props because he had a lot
Speaker 3: of good pieces. And then Craig brought Nemi in and
Speaker 3: and he did a great job of coaching those guys.
Speaker 3: Ryan Otam, you see what he's doing at VCU. But
Speaker 3: before then, you know he's a good basketball coach. Daddy
Speaker 3: sprinkle Man, good basketball coach. Very different than the previous two,
Speaker 3: but a good coach. And I got to tell you,
Speaker 3: I don't know how much interaction you've been able to
Speaker 3: have with Jared Calhoun, but man, he's a good coach.
Speaker 3: I really like him. He's a Bobby Huggins. He's from
Speaker 3: the Bobby Huggins Tree, and I mean, he speaks truth,
Speaker 3: he's tough, but he has a good relationship with the kids,
Speaker 3: and I think he's a really good coach. And so honestly,
Speaker 3: I think coaching does deserve a lot of credit. That
Speaker 3: the narrative is, man, you can plug anyone in, but
Speaker 3: these guys are our good basketball coaches. So administration's done
Speaker 3: a good job. And then the pieces that have stuck around. Now,
Speaker 3: Danny's amazing thing was no one stuck around and he
Speaker 3: was able to do it. I guess Mace was here,
Speaker 3: so that's not completely true Mason and Fish, but from
Speaker 3: the other ones, I mean it's huge that Jared got
Speaker 3: Ian and Mason and Fish and Carson templan to stick
Speaker 3: around and those guys are playing well. And then inter
Speaker 3: brought in some great transfers. So Utah State does have
Speaker 3: a great tradition, a lot of winning. I mean going
Speaker 3: back to Stu, but Larry and Rod and those guys.
Speaker 3: But these guys are good coaches and you got to
Speaker 3: give them credit for what they're doing.
Speaker 2: No, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And obviously I was being a bit facetious, but just
Speaker 1: seems like the coach takes over and boom. Everyone asks questions,
Speaker 1: and more often than not, the teams near the top
Speaker 1: of the conference, they're either qualifying for or threatening to
Speaker 1: be an NCAA tournament team. And it's just wildly impressive
Speaker 1: because the basketball culture in Saul Lake is rich with history.
Speaker 1: But it's been a rough stretch for not just Craig
Speaker 1: but other coaches too. We'll get there in a moment,
Speaker 1: but I want to follow up about Jared Calhoun, who
Speaker 1: I don't know outside of just listening. I love listening
Speaker 1: to coaches postgame because the ones that don't want to
Speaker 1: get pithy and sarcastic actually do teach you. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think he has been impressive. He seems a little
Speaker 1: bit more mentally balanced than his mentor, Bob Huggins, a
Speaker 1: great coach, but you never knew if you didn't know
Speaker 1: what Huckey Bear was gonna do night in and night out.
Speaker 1: Jared doesn't strike me as that type of guy. But
Speaker 1: as you've been able to get to know him both
Speaker 1: on and off the floor, what makes him who he
Speaker 1: is as a coach and a person and schematically how
Speaker 1: does he like basketball to be played?
Speaker 3: So I think you know, as a person he comes
Speaker 3: off and everything I know. I mean a family man.
Speaker 3: He's got a wonderful family. He's got daughters who are
Speaker 3: involved in sports and getting involved in the community, and
Speaker 3: just really good people. Zero ego. Like, that's probably the
Speaker 3: first thing the first time I met him. He just
Speaker 3: came across as extremely down to earth and zero ego,
Speaker 3: which I really appreciated. And then from the standpoint, I
Speaker 3: think that carries over to the players when I see
Speaker 3: him interact with the player, with the players, same thing,
Speaker 3: zero ego. Just really straight of who he is and
Speaker 3: comfortable with that. And I think in a world of
Speaker 3: a lot of facade and things that aren't real because
Speaker 3: of social media and that kind of stuff, I think
Speaker 3: people can appreciate someone that, hey, this is who I am,
Speaker 3: and I'm comfortable with who I am, and so the
Speaker 3: players see that and I think they respect it. From
Speaker 3: the way he coaches schematically, you know, the big thing
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the season was the matchup zone.
Speaker 3: It's a very unique matchup zone that he runs, and
Speaker 3: he's got a couple different zones and kind of hybrid
Speaker 3: versions of it. But the thought was, Okay, not a
Speaker 3: lot of teams are going to be able to be
Speaker 3: prepared for this because it's a one off compared to
Speaker 3: the other twenty nine games they're playing this season, and
Speaker 3: so we're going to be able to kind of throw
Speaker 3: teams off with that. Early on, they were I think
Speaker 3: conference team. At least the guys that I've seen are
Speaker 3: more more comfortable. UNLV was very comfortable with their matchup zone.
Speaker 3: And one thing that I love is that he's not
Speaker 3: so stubborn that he won't adapt and he has gone
Speaker 3: demand at different points in times, which I don't think
Speaker 3: that's his default of where he wants to go. But
Speaker 3: this team is actually a good man to man defense team.
Speaker 3: Now they're only playing at a few minutes a game
Speaker 3: at times, but yet they are able to switch that
Speaker 3: up and that has given them some flexibility to throw
Speaker 3: other teams out of rhythm and not get used to
Speaker 3: just playing against his zone offensively. And every coach in
Speaker 3: the country says this, we want to run, run, run,
Speaker 3: run run, but literally that he does. I mean you,
Speaker 3: UNLV plays a slow pace. Every time that rebound is coming,
Speaker 3: Calhoun is swinging his arms and telling the guards to
Speaker 3: push it, push it, push it, which opens up easy
Speaker 3: opportunities for buckets in the paint, layups, dugs. This team
Speaker 3: actually has a lot more athleticism than you would think,
Speaker 3: and they've taken advantage of that. So it's fast paced
Speaker 3: and then I would say, just quick hitters. It's get
Speaker 3: out and transition and if you got to play in
Speaker 3: the half court, then it's going to be motioned. But
Speaker 3: a ton of quick hitting sets to get ian and
Speaker 3: I think there's a little bit of a pro mentality
Speaker 3: from there that I like, Like he is specifically targeting
Speaker 3: guys that he wants to get the ball in certain
Speaker 3: positions and then let them make a play. And Ian
Speaker 3: Martinez has done a good job throughout the season he
Speaker 3: struggled against UNLV Mason has done a good job and
Speaker 3: teams are adapting to that. But get the ball in
Speaker 3: the guy's hands, which is a very pro mentality, and
Speaker 3: then hey, do what you do. And I think the
Speaker 3: players have really liked the freedom and flexibility to play
Speaker 3: that way as well.
Speaker 1: And also their shot profile appears to be a modern
Speaker 1: day shot profile as far as what the numbers tell
Speaker 1: you you need to do to win basketball games. Of
Speaker 1: the ten or eleven guy Spencer, he plays, you know
Speaker 1: more than ten minutes a night. Seven of them seem
Speaker 1: like they can shoot it from the outside. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like they hunt it in the way that
Speaker 1: the Celtics do, but it does seem like offensively. The
Speaker 1: shot profile is a modern day approach to analytically winning
Speaker 1: basketball games.
Speaker 2: Is that kind of driving with what you're seeing?
Speaker 3: Totally? Yep, they got a bunch of shooters. Now some
Speaker 3: of them are better than others. Absolutely. Carson Templan went
Speaker 3: on a streak and he struggled. Maybe who they thought
Speaker 3: was going to be the best shooter in the year.
Speaker 3: Tucker Anderson has really struggled. He's a conundrum in the
Speaker 3: sense he's shooting, like I don't quote me on this,
Speaker 3: it was like seventeen percent from the three point line
Speaker 3: at home and then like thirty six on the road,
Speaker 3: and last year he shot high thirties coming from Arkansas.
Speaker 3: So he's really struggled. But Ian man Ian Martinez takes
Speaker 3: and makes really tough shots. Mason Falslip has shot it better.
Speaker 3: Drake Allen struggled a little early on but has really
Speaker 3: got a swag. And then the guy who's been the
Speaker 3: most consistent shooter is their sixth man, Dexter Ocono transfer
Speaker 3: from Oregon State. That's been I mean, he's been huge
Speaker 3: for him and really consistent providing a boost off the bench.
Speaker 3: But he shot it at a really high level. So
Speaker 3: your analysis is exactly right, Spence. They shoot, they don't
Speaker 3: hunt it crazily, but they got the guys to be
Speaker 3: able to shoot it if it's open, and they move
Speaker 3: the ball so well that it's open often enough that
Speaker 3: they're putting up a good number of threes.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to uts now in Craig Smith, who,
Speaker 1: as you referenced, once upon a time was up in
Speaker 1: Logan did a really good job.
Speaker 2: Craig as one wherever he's been.
Speaker 1: And this is year four for Craig, and I think
Speaker 1: it's a five year contract. So look, the pressure is
Speaker 1: real and he knows this. We're gonna have Craig on
Speaker 1: the show in just on an hour from right now.
Speaker 1: And you know, there are pieces on this roster that
Speaker 1: individually at times I really really like. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask Craig about his rotation. He's tinkered quite
Speaker 1: a bit with a bunch of different starting lineups, a
Speaker 1: bunch of different rotations. Gabe Matts in their leading scorer. Mean,
Speaker 1: teams just sell out on him and he has no
Speaker 1: space at all. So you look at the numbers, it's
Speaker 1: thirty one percent from three. It's like, what gives. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: everybody's gapping them and blitzing them off screens, ball screens,
Speaker 1: and he's got to find a way to be smarter
Speaker 1: with his decisions. He's been better as of late. They
Speaker 1: were finished, they were picked to finish last in the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve. They're four and five right now. They had
Speaker 1: a nice win here at home over Brigham Young. They're
Speaker 1: going to be on the road to Oklahoma State. The
Speaker 1: Houston game didn't even it was not even.
Speaker 2: A fair fight, like, it was just rough.
Speaker 1: And so look it's a tough conference obviously, But what
Speaker 1: do you make of I'll say, what you know whether
Speaker 1: or not you feel like there's progress being made down here,
Speaker 1: and what you know about Craig do you feel like
Speaker 1: still this is the guy to get this thing back
Speaker 1: to where it needs to be?
Speaker 3: Great question? So just a couple thoughts. When I saw
Speaker 3: Utah was finished last to pick to finish last in
Speaker 3: the Big twelve, I laughed, No, Craig Smith is going
Speaker 3: to finish last. Team is going to finish last. He's
Speaker 3: just too good of a coach. And I know people
Speaker 3: will be like, well, they're not winning a lot. You
Speaker 3: may not have the guys or the horses to finish
Speaker 3: in the top three, and they don't. They obviously don't.
Speaker 3: But his guys are gonna play hard, and they're gonna
Speaker 3: be well coached, and they're just not going to finish
Speaker 3: last in the league. I laugh at that, just because
Speaker 3: a well coached team and if they play hard for you,
Speaker 3: and I know his guys aren't gonna quit, they're not
Speaker 3: going to finish last. However, it is it's a matter
Speaker 3: of and you know this, in the Big Twelve or
Speaker 3: in any of the power conferences, it's pros. It's how
Speaker 3: can you get one NBA guy on your team? Can
Speaker 3: you get two? If you can get one, you're going
Speaker 3: to finish in the top half of the league for sure.
Speaker 3: If you can get two NBA guys on your team
Speaker 3: are pros, legitimate pros, then you're going to compete for
Speaker 3: a conference championship in the Big Twelve. But if you
Speaker 3: don't have two pros on your team, you're not. And
Speaker 3: you look at Houston, you look at Kansas, you look
Speaker 3: at Iowa State that it just plays out that way
Speaker 3: and then a really good supporting cast, and you know,
Speaker 3: you talk about gage mats, and you're right, guys are
Speaker 3: selling out, Teams are selling out and taking away. That
Speaker 3: thirty one percent is the threes he's taking. I mean,
Speaker 3: ninety percent of them are really hard threes to be taking.
Speaker 3: He'll get some open looks occasionally, but they're very different
Speaker 3: looks than some of the other dudes on the team
Speaker 3: are taking. I think the BYU win at home was
Speaker 3: huge in terms of excitement and you know, I'm not
Speaker 3: saving your job, that's not the right way to say it,
Speaker 3: but just reinforcing, hey, I'm the guy to do this.
Speaker 3: I can be here and I can be successful here.
Speaker 3: And then they have some good wins against you know,
Speaker 3: the middle and the bottom half of the Big twelve,
Speaker 3: and that's where I think Craig has to continue to
Speaker 3: win those games, and I think that he will. And
Speaker 3: they ultimately where they finished. They finished like ninth in
Speaker 3: the in the twelve which has sixteen teams, right, and
Speaker 3: so they're finishing middle top, top of the bottom type
Speaker 3: of thing, just because they don't have the guys and
Speaker 3: it's a whole different world now to go get the
Speaker 3: guys right. I mean, everyone's talking about what's going down
Speaker 3: in Utah County. BIU is paying this amount of money
Speaker 3: for their team. It's professional sports now, and I think
Speaker 3: the other challenge for Craig is just allocating the right
Speaker 3: money to the right guys who can produce. And that's
Speaker 3: a challenge in and of itself. And so guys that
Speaker 3: are getting paid money on Utah's team, they're not producing,
Speaker 3: So what happens to them? And how do you take
Speaker 3: care of the guys that are producing next year to
Speaker 3: keep them around. It's a huge challenge. But I think
Speaker 3: he's a good ball coach. Time will tell. I don't
Speaker 3: have a strong opinion if he's going to be able
Speaker 3: to turn the ship around, because there's a lot at
Speaker 3: Utah that's got to be turned around in just momentum
Speaker 3: and excitement from where it was when you and I
Speaker 3: were around, you know, playing and growing up. It's just
Speaker 3: a very different environment up there right now.
Speaker 1: And you know he is going to get a chance
Speaker 1: to see this thing through next season because according to
Speaker 1: Kassel reported today, the UTA Athletics reported a seventeen million
Speaker 1: dollar deficit this past year. Now you dig into the
Speaker 1: numbers what they received from the state, and it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily like, hey, we only lost seventeen mil and the
Speaker 1: football team and the basketball team are still profitable. But ultimately,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to pay Craig to not
Speaker 1: coach next year. So I do think he is going
Speaker 1: to get one more year. But let me follow up
Speaker 1: with something you kind of alluded to, because look, the
Speaker 1: bottom line is, in the modern day and age of
Speaker 1: college athletics, whether it's football or basketball or even other sports,
Speaker 1: you have to have your collective in order to be
Speaker 1: able to attract talent and be able to pay the
Speaker 1: players that you need to get here. So you have
Speaker 1: the horses, and from my vantage points, Betzer, almost every
Speaker 1: single night, almost every single night in this conference, Craig
Speaker 1: is going to have a coach on the other side
Speaker 1: that's we has more talents.
Speaker 2: That's my opinion. Give me your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm with you most every night, maybe not
Speaker 3: every night, but most every night in the Big twelve.
Speaker 3: Given right now, now, when I heard the numbers, and
Speaker 3: I don't want to say it publicly because I don't
Speaker 3: have anything verified, I was actually pleasantly surprised at the
Speaker 3: number that I heard that Utah had for their collective.
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, that's more. Now it's a matter
Speaker 3: of just allocating it to the right guys and being
Speaker 3: able to go get them. Is it less than, you know,
Speaker 3: the number that you hear from the valley or from
Speaker 3: Utah County? Yes? Is it more than the number that
Speaker 3: you hear up in Logan yes? Type of things. So
Speaker 3: it's the collective matters. What your paying dudes matters. And
Speaker 3: that's a whole nother conversation. But you're right, you have
Speaker 3: to go get it. And I may have said this
Speaker 3: to you before, but it's interesting. I had this kind
Speaker 3: of epiphany moment where in Europe. It's funny I played
Speaker 3: with a bunch of differ guys in Europe and the
Speaker 3: same is true now. Is I still stay decently connected
Speaker 3: to it? There are not a ton of dudes. There
Speaker 3: are some, but there are not a ton of dudes
Speaker 3: that played at the blue Bloods that are playing in Europe.
Speaker 3: A few. I mean I played with John Shire and
Speaker 3: the Deuhan was over there for a little bit. I
Speaker 3: mean there there are a few, but what it kind
Speaker 3: of opened my eyes to the elite teams in college
Speaker 3: basketball are one of two things, and most of it
Speaker 3: is the latter. Either really old and really experienced, or
Speaker 3: they've got a couple pros on their team surrounded by
Speaker 3: good college basketball players but not great college players that
Speaker 3: are going to go play professional and the impact of
Speaker 3: having I mean, you look at what Craig did at
Speaker 3: Utah State. Great coach, but he had two pros, right
Speaker 3: he had he had Nimi and he had Sam Marrow.
Speaker 3: Of course he's going to win a conference championship in
Speaker 3: the Mountain West and and San Diego State, by the way,
Speaker 3: had one NBA dude and then a couple of year
Speaker 3: and pros on their team, so they were really stacked
Speaker 3: as well. But in the Big twelve, that's what it
Speaker 3: comes down to is how many pros do you have?
Speaker 3: How many NBA level guys do you have on their team?
Speaker 3: Because I guess if we're going to play on words,
Speaker 3: all of them are pros now because they're getting played,
Speaker 3: they're getting paid to play basketball, so they're not amateurs anymore.
Speaker 3: So I'll articulate it better and say how many NBA
Speaker 3: level dudes do you have on your team? And right
Speaker 3: now they don't have any right, that's just the fact
Speaker 3: of the matter, and a decent number the Big twelve
Speaker 3: does have an NBA guy or they've got some European pros.
Speaker 3: And there's probably a couple of European pros. He had
Speaker 3: Brandon Carlson the last couple of years, which was a
Speaker 3: pro And so can you go get those dudes, because
Speaker 3: you're right right now, you just don't have We talked
Speaker 3: about intellectual horsepower, he doesn't have the basketball horsepower to
Speaker 3: go and finish in the top three or top five
Speaker 3: of the conference.
Speaker 1: Right now, Let's move down to provo here and talk
Speaker 1: about a coach that certainly has the horsepower because the
Speaker 1: collective is stepped up. According to reports, both Yegor demon
Speaker 1: and Kenon catchings or seven figure players for Kevin Young.
Speaker 1: And you know, Cannon had a really nice game against
Speaker 1: Baylor in provo, but prior to that, it didn't look great.
Speaker 1: You can tell why pro scouts love Yegor. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's really long, he's really big, he's got a good feel,
Speaker 1: he can see over the defense, and he's averaging six
Speaker 1: assists a game. Three point shot hasn't been great for him,
Speaker 1: but you can see why scouts love Yegor and over
Speaker 1: the past few games they've started to figure some things out.
Speaker 1: Mostly it's a make or miss team in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, but three straight wins after that loss to Utah,
Speaker 1: they've won four or five. I think Ken Palm has
Speaker 1: them of like thirty eight in the net and thinks
Speaker 1: they're going to be an NCAA tournament team. But I mean,
Speaker 1: talk about a coach that does have horses. But when
Speaker 1: you have the talent on paper Spencer, you got to
Speaker 1: prove you can coach, right, So what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on what BYU has done this year and what do
Speaker 1: you think they can do.
Speaker 2: The rest of the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, expectations mean everything. Right Going into the football season,
Speaker 3: I think people had really low expectations and Colonne blew
Speaker 3: it out of the water. Going into the basketball season,
Speaker 3: extremely high expectations and they've done well. But because those
Speaker 3: expectations are so high and the dollar figures you here
Speaker 3: throwing around, you're like, Okay, what's going to happen? I
Speaker 3: think Bill finish well. I think toughness and physicality have
Speaker 3: been an issue. I'm sure they're addressing it and that
Speaker 3: they've got to address it even more. You know, when
Speaker 3: they went to Providence early in the season and just
Speaker 3: got just beat up, and I don't mean from a
Speaker 3: score standpoint, just physically just outmanned. And you've seen that occur.
Speaker 3: But that's gonna happen when you've got a bunch of freshmen,
Speaker 3: I mean, and you're playing those dudes, and they're going
Speaker 3: to have to get tougher. They're going to have to
Speaker 3: get more physical, and especially when you get into the
Speaker 3: second half of conference and you get to the conference
Speaker 3: tournament than the NCAA tournament, Toughness, I mean, toughness always
Speaker 3: wins out. And so that's been kind of the question
Speaker 3: mark is how tough that team is, and early on
Speaker 3: I would say not very tough. I think they're getting tougher.
Speaker 3: I think kind of the the bigger picture for BYU,
Speaker 3: and it's going to be fascinating. You know, are they
Speaker 3: going to continue down the one and done NBA almost
Speaker 3: like John Calipari program strategy, and just continue to try
Speaker 3: to go after those dudes, or are they going to
Speaker 3: spread that money around a little bit more and hit
Speaker 3: the transfer port of more and instead of paying the
Speaker 3: dude whatever three million, four million, five million, I who
Speaker 3: knows exactly spread out amongst two or three dudes that
Speaker 3: have played at other Division one schools and pay them
Speaker 3: seven fifty to a million. But they've proven that they
Speaker 3: can do it already, and I think that's going to
Speaker 3: be really interesting to see how they play out, not
Speaker 3: just for this year, but I'm talking about from a
Speaker 3: program level. Are they really going to go all in
Speaker 3: on the one and done model or are they going
Speaker 3: to try to fine tune it? And a lot will
Speaker 3: depend on the success this year and next year. If
Speaker 3: they don't have success, and when I when you're paying
Speaker 3: that kind of money for a team, I mean you're
Speaker 3: winning games in the NCAA tournament. In my mind, I
Speaker 3: mean that's if people are putting seven figures into guys.
Speaker 3: That's the expectation. And if they do that, they probably
Speaker 3: continue to go down the one and done model. If
Speaker 3: they don't, then it'll be interesting to see if they
Speaker 3: pivot and try to spread it more with maybe less sexy,
Speaker 3: less flashy names, but guys that have you know, go
Speaker 3: get three or four dudes that have averaged thirteen or
Speaker 3: fourteen a game at other D one schools and showed
Speaker 3: that they can do it, and then you go that, Okay,
Speaker 3: let's get old model and let's compete that way, so
Speaker 3: it'll be interesting. Very talented, great coaching staff, a lot
Speaker 3: of money behind it.
Speaker 1: Last thing, your thoughts on the number one prospect not
Speaker 1: just in the class next year, but vortding to a
Speaker 1: lot of advanced scouts analyzing aj Debanta, he's probably the
Speaker 1: best prospect in three or four classes. And I always
Speaker 1: get a kick out of seeing people learn about BYU
Speaker 1: in real time. So he goes on first tag with
Speaker 1: his dad and announces BYU is the landing spot, and
Speaker 1: Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith has never looked more confused.
Speaker 1: But they are going to have four or five months
Speaker 1: for the price of seven million dollars a generational prospect
Speaker 1: down in Provo.
Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that the amount of buzz and the amount of hype.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was messaging with birds, you know, leading
Speaker 3: up to that, and they all along thought that they
Speaker 3: were a serious contender, and he felt like it was
Speaker 3: going to come down to them and k State and KU.
Speaker 3: I guess Kansas made a huge run at the end,
Speaker 3: but they felt like they had a legitimate chance, and
Speaker 3: sure enough, it wasn't delusion whatsoever. They did, and huge get.
Speaker 3: I don't know the kid at all personally, only have
Speaker 3: seen him from a basketball perspective, and yeah, extremely talented
Speaker 3: for his size, his athleticism, his skill set is shooting ability.
Speaker 3: I mean, so we talked about pros making the difference.
Speaker 3: He's a pro that can make the difference and he
Speaker 3: will be, I mean more than likely next year, the
Speaker 3: most talented dude to step on the floor. Every time
Speaker 3: b what you steps on the court. It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 3: mean he's the best player, but for sure the most
Speaker 3: talented guy on the court in this in terms of
Speaker 3: the ceiling and what he's capable of doing. So huge
Speaker 3: get for them, and then it'll be a matter of
Speaker 3: I mean you know this, you were around the NBA.
Speaker 3: When you have that kind of talent, coaching matters for sure,
Speaker 3: but managing egos, managing personalities, managing the locker room become
Speaker 3: equally as important. And so whether it's the pat Riley
Speaker 3: or a Phil Jackson, I mean, Kevin Youngung and fortunately
Speaker 3: he's from the pros and so he understands and has
Speaker 3: been around, the managing of those egos and those and
Speaker 3: those personalities is just as important to keep the culture
Speaker 3: and the chemistry of a team together, and that'll be
Speaker 3: really important when you start getting that kind of talent
Speaker 3: in the house.
Speaker 1: You know, Spencer, you're a father, so chances are you
Speaker 1: make breakfast at times for your kids.
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: I do? I Actually, you'd be proud of me. I'm
Speaker 3: making smoothies for my kids every morning.
Speaker 2: Nice smoothies. Nice.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, yeah, but yeah, I make breakfast.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just saying, like, when my son's in town,
Speaker 1: I like to make eggs for breakfast. And I just
Speaker 1: realized something recently, and I just wanted to share with
Speaker 1: you that you really have to watch what you say
Speaker 1: around those egg whites because they just can't take a yolk.
Speaker 2: It's not funny. It's not funny.
Speaker 3: It is hey. And you know what I was gonna
Speaker 3: say to you, And I don't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I didn't know how to make a banana split. But
Speaker 3: guess where I went. Guess where I went to learn
Speaker 3: how to make a banana split.
Speaker 2: I don't know where'd you go?
Speaker 3: I went to Sunday School.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Okay, Now that's good. That's quality. That's quality.
Speaker 1: That's quality stuff. That's what George Costanza calls leaving on
Speaker 1: a high note, my friend, so I'll set you loose.
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure to hear your voice.
Speaker 3: Be well, okay, Spence, you're the man. Appreciate you and
Speaker 3: keep up the great work. It's an awesome show.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: The great Spencer Nelson pro Hooper overseas was a great
Speaker 1: player in college at Utah State.
Speaker 2: I always appreciate his time.