Speaker 1: Just like the Cougar football team, ben Quittle was built,
not for, and since two thousand and nineties built himself
into the go to source on the radio and.
Speaker 2: Online for all things Cougars. This is Cougars Sports with
Ben Krittle.
Speaker 3: On one O three nine at ninety eight three ESPN Fan.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Cougar Sports one O three nine, ninety eight
point three ESPN de Fan. I'm Benfrito broadcasting from our
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best at Banterwealth. It is time to talk to college
basketball BYU basketball season is right around the corner. They
tipped off essentially their exhibition season at Nebraska. They fell short,
but it's just practice. We're talking about practice here. Despite
a late surge from its newcomers, Number eight b YU
fell short in a ninety to eighty nine exhibition loss
to Nebraska at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker 4: The cool thing was.
Speaker 1: After this loss, they had a high high power jet
that got them to Provo right before kickoff, and aj
De Bonds and the basketball players were first row of
the rock, rising and shouting as the Cougar football team
beat up on the utes. But let's talk basketball with
a former BYU Great. It's going to be brought to
you by Dental Pros of Utah Dentalprosofutah dot com. If
you've been told you need a filling, a crown a
root canal, get a second opinion At Dental Pros. They
utilize the best bio mimetic techniques, minimally invasive techniques to
rebuild your teeth layer by layer. All right, let's welcome
in the six foot eight two and twenty pounder out
of Brasil. Let's welcome in the uh the one, the
only Jonathan Tabinari for three JT Jonathan Tabernari.
Speaker 4: How the heck are you, buddy?
Speaker 3: I keep getting taller, I keep getting leaner, and I
haven't worked out even yet.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine when I actually get started working out
with Kyle Collins, work man, I'm gonna be six one ninety.
My goodness, what.
Speaker 1: Did you guys, finalize on. I said, I'd throw in money.
I don't know how much, I'll know whatever, right, But uh,
but what did you guys finalize on for this weight
loss challenge?
Speaker 3: So the reason why, the reason why Kyle said I'm
gonna give him a thousand dollars is because I'm like, look, man,
basketball is now my job anymore.
Speaker 2: You know, I run tech companies for a living out
ben you know. And then I have talked about.
Speaker 3: Sales, and uh, I'm busy, man, you know, I work
on startups.
Speaker 2: I speak you know, four or five languages, and I'm busy.
And so the last.
Speaker 3: Thing on my mind is you know, stinging shape because
in my mind, I don't need to be healthy. Well,
I don't need to be in shape for me to
you know, close deals.
Speaker 2: I mean in front of my computer. I'm working out
of you know, on a road.
Speaker 3: And so Kyle's like, well, let me throw some money
for me to see if that's going to incentivize.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, well, Kyle, a thousand bucks then you know, like,
let's just at least let's make that well, you know.
And I told him, I said, hey, look, let's do this.
Speaker 3: Let's do something for the giving machines like, I think
it's pretty cool. And so on Thursday, I'm on a
road right now, I'm in North Carolina.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm on the DO campus for some business.
Speaker 3: And on on Thursday, he and I are getting together
doing an official weight in and see where the thing goes.
Speaker 1: I love it, man, well, I support you and your
quest to lose some lbs, but also to do something
good with the money raised, which you always do. I
love and appreciate your brother and willing to support you
anyway that I can. But this bou basketball team, you know,
some people you know got eyes on this team nationally locally.
Speaker 4: What did you make of it? What did your eye see?
Speaker 1: The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly in this
exhibition game versus Nebraska?
Speaker 3: All So, I remember how you know, when we did
the show, a lot of times you go, let's go
with the nitty, greedy, you know, and then you said
you know you would didn't do also the good, the.
Speaker 2: Bad, and the ugly. Let's start with the good.
Speaker 3: Y aj debansa an absolutely terror, a nightmare.
Speaker 2: For opposing defenses. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 3: Then, just like Aaron Rodericks said, that bear running the
ball the way he did against Arizona's unsustainable? Is aj
getting to the line ten times the game sustainable?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I have a hard time imagining that anybody can take
that level off counting right, Michael Jordan did it, Kobe
did it, but there's not a ton of players you
know that actually did it, you know once the adjusted
the rules. James Harden, you know, kind of disappear, right, Shay?
Now you know Shy Goody is s GA Alexander? You know,
is he going to disappear?
Speaker 2: And so to be determined?
Speaker 3: Right, what I can tell you is that he is
not your typical freshman. And you know, I think Bhim
asked me, asked me last week is he going to
live up to the hype? And my brother in Christ,
I can tell you he will live up to the
hype because if he did that on a on a
I don't want to say, you know, half a because
he was going full speed and you could tell. But
can you imagine when you know the popcorn actually has
the extra butter on it, and you know the tickets
are actually sold and all of this stuff, My goodness gracious,
And so I would say that that band is the good,
the bad what I.
Speaker 2: Would say is probably the fact that.
Speaker 3: Kevin Young is going to have a hard time with
the rotations. And I don't think it's going to be
an early situation like it was, you know, him figuring
out the Foo situation, like if you remember last year.
But I said this all along, he had a really
clear path to figuring it out how to get foos
and how to get Keva in the game. And he
got their rotation down pretty quick, and and he figured
that out and it was a smooth one.
Speaker 2: The problem is this year.
Speaker 3: I you know, how is he going to play Xavion?
Because Davion is going to be a love threatch but
I don't think that for right now where he is
in his career, he's going to be much more than that.
And so how do you then play Kadeen and how
do you play Dominique? Which I was, you know, incredibly
impressed by their physique, their body, They look like NBA players,
They look like they along already right still whise they're
still developing and so but to me, the main question becomes,
how are they going to be able to do that
and develop quick? Because you know it's it's going to
be interesting when Keva comes out, who's the inside presence,
who is going to protect the paint?
Speaker 2: Who is going to cause the teams to collapse? And uh,
you know and.
Speaker 3: Create the space, which kind of brings me a little
bit to the ugly, which is I personally was expecting
more out of Richie Saunders. Now I'm not saying Richie
played bad, you know, like you know all you know
that lightning and thunder will strike me right now, I
don't mean that, but Richie was the very help me
out here with the word then he was almost like nonchalant,
like he was waiting for, you know, the ball.
Speaker 2: To come to him. And I don't think that this
is going to be a team.
Speaker 3: For now that it's going to have a ton of
bulk movement like it was last year.
Speaker 2: Aj needs the ball in his hands.
Speaker 3: To the effect if we saw that, you know at
the game, how many times.
Speaker 2: Did you have a chance to watch the game, then by.
Speaker 1: Way, yeah I was capable of watching it. And look,
look what type of offense do you want? Do you
want a pro style offense or do you want a
collegiate offense? And and well if age is going to
be when when Rob's out and agent is going to
be your primary ball handler. I think you're gonna get
a lot of ISO. That's just the nature of this
game right now.
Speaker 3: And and and I don't disagree with you, which is
why I said that that to me was the bad.
Speaker 2: Figuring out the rotations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the one with with Xavion, to me is just
a tip of this here.
Speaker 2: Because here's the thing. Robert right can go like he
can go.
Speaker 3: Go right, And and we saw in the first five
seven minutes he made some move that like he felt
like it felt like he was a like a senior
in high school playing against seventh graders. Like he looked
like they he made people look stupid. And that's fine.
The problem is you need to have you need to
have either AJ or Robert or Richie on the court
at all times. Now, when Robert and AJ are on
the court at all times, you can have more of
a pro style offense where it's more isolation. When Richie
is on the court by himself, you need to have
a Letsay there.
Speaker 5: You need to have you know, potentially Kadeen and Dominique
and Canar Dave is there because the ball needs to
move and Richie is a system player in terms of
the ball needs to move and needs to rotate so
he can catch.
Speaker 2: It on the go and go.
Speaker 3: Richie is not a giving the ball and I'm going
to create a shot that's not his game.
Speaker 2: And so that to me was the.
Speaker 3: Ugly is you know, in terms of I, you know,
Richie an incredible season last year, right, and we've all
due respect to a J right, And I don't mean
to put it down, and we're talking about the number
one recruit in the country, but like, Richie has been
there and done that, and I expected, I probably would
say I expected a little bit more out of Richie
in terms of his impact, but he felt like he
was a little bit hesitant because he was giving a
lot of room to AJ to operate. But I don't
think that it's necessarily only Richie's fault, right, I think
that this is one of those things that Kevin Young
and the staff is going to have to adjust the
rhythm off the game, you know, and then if I
can just throw one last seam, there is just you know,
the three point shooting, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, Mihilo's supposed to be a shooter.
Speaker 3: Ale Say is supposed to be a shooter, but we
actually saw AJ be more of a shooter than anybody else.
Speaker 2: And so again props to AJ.
Speaker 3: But who's going to be the guys that are going
to spot up and catch and shoot and open up
the floor for everybody else.
Speaker 4: That's my an Now the game ban Yeah, I love that.
Let me give you a quote from Kevin Young.
Speaker 1: He said three things I wanted out of this game
was to see our starters together, rob out AJ Wood,
shooters around him, and our defensive group. I feel good
about learning more about our group based on those criteria
that I laid out, no matter who we had out there,
just being able to play a team like that who
is well coached. That's Fred Hoiberg is a really good coach. Offensively,
they run their stuff super hard. That was a good
thing for us to experience. On the defensive side of
the ball, do you feel like you know, I mean,
this is all repetition we're talking about here. They're going
to get better defensively as well. One cohesion having it
on the defensive end as.
Speaker 3: Well, Right, Yeah, I totally agree. I to be honest
with you, Ben and listen, people like to make fun
of me j T who couldn't guard anybody.
Speaker 2: Go look at the stacks.
Speaker 4: Now you bodied up, bodied up some dudes. Man, you
got out there. Great for it.
Speaker 3: But but if you actually look at but Ben I
was never a grade one on one player.
Speaker 2: I was a great team defender exactly. And if you
look and if you.
Speaker 3: Look at the metrics and the stats, I'm one of
the top five top seven defensive players in Duyu history
in terms of wind share. Because when you have a
system down and you have people with high basketball IQ,
which you know I would probably say I have, that
makes the game easier. And so defensively to me, obviously,
it's not a concern as I watched this Uyu team,
because they will figure it out.
Speaker 2: They had enough guys there, you know, with.
Speaker 3: Will and John and Chris Burgess and the whole staff,
they're gonna be okay defensively right offensively, you know, finding
a ridm on offense, it's a whole lot more difficult,
you know, because you know you can't you know, it's
difficult for you to change the DNA of certain players,
you know.
Speaker 2: And so how can how can to me?
Speaker 3: And I told you this from the again, John Rothstein
has said, well, how is BYU gonna deal with the subs?
Speaker 2: And the bench. That's not my number one concern for
the year.
Speaker 3: My number one thing this year is how soon can
Cavin Young figure out the dynamics between Rob Wright, Aj
and Richie because those are going to be his three
leaguing scores this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Aj de Bonco scored nineteen of his team high thirty
points in the first half is the freshman win. Ten
of nineteen from the field, two to four from the
three point line, eight of eight from the charity stripe.
He also had seven rebounds, three assists, three steals in
the block. That's a nice healthy stat line. Kadi Maboo
he recorded a double double as a retro freshman with
eleven of BYU's thirty nine rebounds. He also went four
to four from the field and four to four from
the charity stripe. Richie Saunders and Alecxi Coastick also reached
double figures, finishing with eleven points up piece and the
Cougar shot forty five point three percent from the field. Uh,
but thirty two point three from three point range. You
alluded to maybe three point shooting. You want to see
a little bit more efficiency maybe from the three point line.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think that when you look at when you
look at what made u i U success, what makes
UIU successful last year? Right, and we're saying last year
because that was Kevin Young's first year. The he was
absolutely three point shooting and facing Now this is a
completely different roster. You have a team. You start with
the point guard where you have a scouring first point
guard right in comparison to Yegua. And then you have
a two guard who is arguably the best two guard
that has ever played at Uyu. And so as you
make all of these things and all of these these
these these distinctions.
Speaker 2: You know, you have to figure out a way. You
have to figure out a way too, You have you
have to figure out a way.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm just trying to walk away from This's like
wherever growth, it gets you worse, but you have to
figure out a way to adapt. And so to me,
this year, the number one thing that becomes important is
how can you find more space for everybody to to operate?
Speaker 2: How can you find more space for a gagword to operate?
Speaker 3: How can you find more space for Richie to actually
catch him penetrate?
Speaker 2: And you know, we didn't see a ton of debt
in the game. We saw a lot of individual work
one on one, which, again.
Speaker 3: I get what you said about a pro style offense
versus the collegiate offense. But you know two, you know one,
you know your leading returnings for is not a individual
one oh one, create his.
Speaker 2: Own shot type of player.
Speaker 3: He's a system guy that needs the ball to rotate
for him to be successful.
Speaker 2: So how will Kevin Young adapt to that? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I'm intrigued, no doubt about it. JT.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to rivalry talk. I know you love
to talk a little football. One of the debates I've
had with friends and foes, when BYU football beats the Utes,
is there more just happiness and Cougar Country than when
when BYU basketball beats the Utes on the hardwood? I
would say yes, that the collective fan base is happier
when we win on the grid ironers opposed to on
the hardwood.
Speaker 2: What say you? Oh?
Speaker 3: I would agree one thousand percent with that, and that's
because of their magnitude. One football game means way more
than two basketball games, right and right?
Speaker 1: I think from JT, who drives the ship, who's at
the helm?
Speaker 3: Hey, I've always said it, man, be you know, football
rides this show by all Mese, you know. So I
have always said that, you know, and I think because
of the impact of that one win, you know, not
necessarily not only because it's your rival, but it's because
it's a massive win against the component.
Speaker 2: But when it comes to Utah.
Speaker 3: It's your hater rival and with and I think you
know the successes of lates of Utah versus you know,
the constant failure that Utah basketball has been, you know
since pretty much under Bogut left town. It's you know,
it's a team sport when it comes to college ben basketball,
when it comes to college is that seems sport?
Speaker 2: Right? Very few people are like, oh, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Follow you know, this team, and I'm a I'm a
I'm a Utah State fan because of Jordan Love. Nobody
says that, right, They're not a Utah State fan. People
didn't become a UYU fan because of Gym. They were
YU fans before, right. People are not, Hey, I'm going
to be a YU fan because of aj No.
Speaker 2: People have been v YU fans.
Speaker 3: And so with football and the impact and and the
things that that are of consequence because of that win
become a magnitude and so I a thousand percent agree
with you. One BYU football win every year over Utah
means more.
Speaker 2: Than you know, all of the wins.
Speaker 3: Against Utah in basketball for the last ten years.
Speaker 4: JT.
Speaker 1: What did you make of the win over the Utes
this past weekend?
Speaker 4: How did you watch it? How'd you consume it? And
how'd you celebrate?
Speaker 3: I was at home, you know, my my boy, my
oldest boy, Xander is getting really into it and we're
watching it. He had friends over the house. You know,
I enjoy I don't enjoy going to the stadium. I
think the atmosphere and the experience is great. It's just
not my my favorite. And the reason why I say
that is because the reason why I that is because I,
you know, it's super loud, and I enjoy being able to.
Speaker 2: Mute the you know, the TV. I able to get
up and get some snacks, go to the bathroom. You know,
I'm just I don't know, but you know, from your.
Speaker 1: Own creature of convenience, that's what you are. You're a
creature of convenience, which is.
Speaker 3: Why i'm you know, which is probably one of the
reasons why it led me to gain you know, one
hundred and fifty pounds as I retire from playing basketball.
Speaker 4: And I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 3: Pace with who I am and with the choices that
I have made. It's true, you know what I mean,
and so but I am a creature of convenience and
you know, but again, right, what a fantastic win. And
watching the cut, Ben, you and I are very similar
of the way we feel about by U.
Speaker 2: And every time I watch the cut, I get emotional
like it.
Speaker 3: I get emotional because like I remember, and I know
you do too, because I mean, you even came from
me in scholars you know, from being a walk on to.
Speaker 2: Then earning playing time. I remember what it was like to.
Speaker 3: Work and work and work and work and work and
sacrifice and sacrifice to be able to earn and to
get victory, right, and to see other people going through that,
like it's emotional to me.
Speaker 2: And even more so you know at the end when
they sing the fight.
Speaker 3: Song and the things Kalan he say, and so you know,
what a great weekend for Kugarnation and a massive basketball
game here in about three days that I can wait
to see.
Speaker 2: How by does Let's go.
Speaker 1: Uh can't wait to watch you can't wait to see
it JT. Always a pleasure, always a blessing talking ball
with you. We'll chat again next week as we were
recap hopefully another big win for BYU basketball and football.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much, brother, Amen and always in forever.
Speaker 3: And I'm sorry it looks like I have, you know,
Elmer Fudd bouncing over here to get the.
Speaker 2: Bugs bunny, but always in forever gokus, my friend.
Speaker 1: Much love to you, Jonathan Devenard, the Brazilian bomber former
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