Speaker 1: All right, roll along on the program today. Time to
Speaker 1: talk some Utah men's basketball. The Utes have been able
Speaker 1: to grab a couple of wins in Big Twelve play,
Speaker 1: three straight wins and a couple of els to Houston
Speaker 1: and Baylor. Been a nice home win against a really
Speaker 1: good defensive team in Cincinnati. Hitting the road at Okay State.
Speaker 1: Our next guest good enough to give us some time.
Speaker 1: It's rare for us in the afternoons because they practice.
Speaker 1: The head coach of the Utes, Craig Smith, on the program, Craig,
Speaker 1: how are you, sir?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Spence, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: It's pretty rare for us in the afternoons to get
Speaker 1: your time, so we appreciate it.
Speaker 3: So let's start just big picture.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You guys are twenty games in overall, your nine games
Speaker 1: in in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: What do you like?
Speaker 3: What are you working on? Your thoughts with your team
Speaker 3: through twenty games?
Speaker 2: Craig, it's hard to believe we're already at this point.
Speaker 2: You know, play Oklahoma State, like you said, at two
Speaker 2: o'clock on Saturday, and we'll be halfway through conference play already.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's gone really fast. There's been some
Speaker 2: really like any season, there's you know, there's been some
Speaker 2: really good moments and some hard moments. It's been a
Speaker 2: you know, preseason were gonna pick sixteen out of sixteenth.
Speaker 2: Obviously you don't want to be picked in last place.
Speaker 2: But there's nowhere to go but up, I guess from
Speaker 2: that respective. But you know, we had a great summer
Speaker 2: this year. It was really unfortunate lost all three of
Speaker 2: our centers within eight days of our first game. We
Speaker 2: had to really reinvent ourselves and we were playing a
Speaker 2: way different brand of basketball than we've been we had been,
Speaker 2: and you know, it just it's not really how I
Speaker 2: like to play, certainly now being new to the Big
Speaker 2: twelve and being into it, it's really hard. I think
Speaker 2: there's the same success that way. And we went back
Speaker 2: to the way we were playing all summer and most
Speaker 2: of the fall. And that's big right. Our teams, no
Speaker 2: matter where I've been, whether it's Utah State, South Dakota,
Speaker 2: Mayville State, we've always been an elite rebounding team. It's
Speaker 2: just what we've done. And now that we've played, you know,
Speaker 2: inserted Jake Wallen into the starting lineup. You know, legit
Speaker 2: six nine, six ten with Ezra and sur I was
Speaker 2: a very powerful foreman and then lost and lovering at
Speaker 2: seven to one, you know, and then Keanu Dods is
Speaker 2: really impacting our program in a great way six '
Speaker 2: nine and really long. I'm happy with how we're playing,
Speaker 2: you know, one four the last six. I had a
Speaker 2: tough loss at Houston and had a tough loss at
Speaker 2: home to Baylor where we just had a ton of
Speaker 2: open shots. We just couldn't make a shot that night,
Speaker 2: and that happens in basketball. But I feel like we're
Speaker 2: rounding in the forum and we're doing some good things.
Speaker 2: And now we're going to continue continue at this weekend
Speaker 2: because winning on the road in the Big twelve is
Speaker 2: very very difficult U and so we're gonna have be
Speaker 2: ready to really compete on Saturday.
Speaker 1: You mentioned something there that that kind of peaked my interest.
Speaker 1: My years perked up, my antennas went off when you said,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not necessarily playing the way I want
Speaker 1: to play or I want to coach. And I always
Speaker 1: find it interesting when I am watching a team that's
Speaker 1: coached by a guy who I like and respect, like you,
Speaker 1: and I can remember when Quinn Snyder was here coaching
Speaker 1: those Jazz teams, when Rudy Gobert kind of evolved into
Speaker 1: this defensive stopper and they started him next to Derek Favors,
Speaker 1: and they didn't have a great offense, but Dennis Lindsay
Speaker 1: used to say, look, if they score seventy were fine
Speaker 1: scoring seventy two.
Speaker 3: And they took the air out of the basketball.
Speaker 1: And I always wondered, like, and I asked Quinn, was like,
Speaker 1: is this the way you want to coach?
Speaker 3: Is this the way you want to play?
Speaker 1: Said, no, it's the way we have to play based
Speaker 1: on our personnel, right, and then ultimately, you know, Donovan's drafted,
Speaker 1: he takes off, and then you know they acquire a
Speaker 1: bunch of good offensive pieces, and Quinn changed the way
Speaker 1: they played, and it was the way he wanted to coach,
Speaker 1: and it was the way he wanted them to play.
Speaker 1: But how much of your approach, Craig, is catered to
Speaker 1: the personnel, and how much of it is, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is the way I believe basketball should be played.
Speaker 2: Well, it's certainly as a head coach, you know, it's
Speaker 2: really interesting. You got to be who you are there's
Speaker 2: so many ways to win in basketball or football or
Speaker 2: volleyball or whatever it might be. But I think as
Speaker 2: a head coach, you've got to really have the security
Speaker 2: of who you are, what you believe in try to
Speaker 2: recruit to that at the same time, you know, it's
Speaker 2: like for me, I've always had to be at, you know,
Speaker 2: situations when I've gotten hired that maybe weren't the quote
Speaker 2: unquote sexiest jobs, or there are harder jobs, or certainly
Speaker 2: you know, I've always been hired a place where they've
Speaker 2: been struggling. Unfortunately we've been able to flip it around.
Speaker 2: So like I've always had to kind of adapt and
Speaker 2: adjust based off your personnel, right, based off your best players.
Speaker 2: Who's got talent. Uh So you've got to be able
Speaker 2: to fine tune some things offensively, certainly defensively as well.
Speaker 2: And you know, Paul, you know, the great obviously he's
Speaker 2: passed away for the legendary football coach Paul bear Bryant.
Speaker 2: You know, I I always tell you what a great
Speaker 2: player looks like, but I can certainly see it. And
Speaker 2: the first thing you got to do is get those
Speaker 2: guys in the game. And and so you know, I've
Speaker 2: always remembered that quote and thought about it. You just
Speaker 2: got to find it. The talented guys that are all
Speaker 2: about the team, that create toughness things that you value,
Speaker 2: and then you figure it out. And I really value
Speaker 2: defending and rebounding, and I just think it's a mentality thing.
Speaker 2: It's a toughness thing. It's an edge thing. It's a
Speaker 2: way of life. You can't do it somedays and that
Speaker 2: other days and showing up, you know, go to work
Speaker 2: when you don't feel like it, like you got to
Speaker 2: put the time in, you got to work hard. I
Speaker 2: just believe in those things. And so you know, we
Speaker 2: had had some success or that we were shooting a
Speaker 2: ton of threes, too many for my liking. Not that
Speaker 2: I don't like making threes, right, but but it's just
Speaker 2: you know, the Iowa game, I got a little in
Speaker 2: Baylor at Baylor, and it was like, all right, we're
Speaker 2: going back to what I believe in, who we were
Speaker 2: about what we got to do. And then you know,
Speaker 2: being what's easy to forget, like this is our first
Speaker 2: year in the Big twelve, and every league is a
Speaker 2: little bit different, and so the Big twelve is certainly
Speaker 2: different than the Pac twelve. You know, I had two
Speaker 2: years in the Big Ten, right, the Big Ten was
Speaker 2: more like the Big twelve, you know, back then. And
Speaker 2: so you learn what do you got to have? What
Speaker 2: are things you need to have? You know, where are
Speaker 2: we strong, where we got to get better at? And
Speaker 2: then what scheme do you have to have? Because there's
Speaker 2: just so much playmaking in this league. But it's awesome.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad we're a part of it. So anyway,
Speaker 2: going back to your question, you have to adjust to
Speaker 2: your personnel. But if it's not necessarily who you are,
Speaker 2: that can be a difficult thing. And so every coach
Speaker 2: has a little bit different style and what they believe
Speaker 2: in it. You got to be confident with it and
Speaker 2: roll with it. And I like what we're doing at
Speaker 2: this moment in time.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk conceptually for a minutes, just
Speaker 1: some of the concepts surrounding gab And you know I
Speaker 1: talked about this on air last week. I got a
Speaker 1: little pushback. I'm not saying that Gabe is Stephan Curry. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that, But what I'm saying is Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr oftentimes talks about, Hey, I want Steph to shoot
Speaker 1: five to seven quote unquote bad shots a game, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't mind him forcing up some shots because every night,
Speaker 1: every team, he is the first page on the scouting report,
Speaker 1: and Greg, as you know, everybody sells out to make
Speaker 1: sure Gabe doesn't have space. And when he is open,
Speaker 1: if he misses an open three, I feel like it's
Speaker 1: the same feeling when another player misses an open layup, right,
Speaker 1: Because you finally get him open and Gabe doesn't knock
Speaker 1: it down, He's like, oh man, that was a chance.
Speaker 1: But what are you trying to do just to get
Speaker 1: him some space? Because the shooting percentages are down? But
Speaker 1: if you're not watching, you can look at the numbers
Speaker 1: and say, what's wrong with it? Well, what's wrong with
Speaker 1: him is everybody's gapping them, everybody's blitzing them. They're running
Speaker 1: two and three out of them, right, So just conceptually,
Speaker 1: how are you trying to get Gab a little space
Speaker 1: so he can you know, knock down the shots, so
Speaker 1: you need him knocked down.
Speaker 2: How much time do you gut as.
Speaker 1: Much time as you have, Craig, there's a four hour
Speaker 1: radio show, my friend that is a.
Speaker 2: It's a very it's a great question and very insightful
Speaker 2: quite frankly, you know, as a coach, right, I've always
Speaker 2: been I want our guys on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 2: but on offense, really playing aggressive in attack mode. I
Speaker 2: don't ever want our guys where they feel paralyzed, where
Speaker 2: they're looking over their shoulder constantly, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Is this a good play? Is it not? Because then
Speaker 2: I think, I just think I've just been around guys
Speaker 2: like that, and I know what happens, and so I'd
Speaker 2: rather have to have rain him back a little bit
Speaker 2: than you know, go the other way. And so listen,
Speaker 2: I've coached game for three years. This is my fourth year.
Speaker 2: I know what he is. I know who he is.
Speaker 2: He's certainly the alpha, so to speak, or option one
Speaker 2: A whenever the one's getting ready to playoffs. Even now,
Speaker 2: whether his numbers are you know what they are, they're
Speaker 2: still putting their best depended on him. They're still saying, nope,
Speaker 2: we're not letting you get those you know, points or whatever.
Speaker 2: So he's had to adjust to that now. He's always
Speaker 2: been that guy last wilesho for the most part, he's
Speaker 2: been that guy for the last three years on the
Speaker 2: on the perimeter. But we've been able to play a
Speaker 2: little bit differently in the last few years. So listen,
Speaker 2: do I want him firing terrible shots? No, not necessarily. However,
Speaker 2: I want him aggressive. So if he's going to take
Speaker 2: you know, he's going to take a couple of bad
Speaker 2: shots here and there, like, it's just what it is.
Speaker 2: I when I first got hired at Utah State, I
Speaker 2: used to have to tell Sam merrill Sam, because he
Speaker 2: was so I got to make the right play. I
Speaker 2: got to make the right play. In his mind, the
Speaker 2: right play was always you know, if I'm boom, And
Speaker 2: I was like, Sam, look around. This team needs you
Speaker 2: to be super assertive and super aggressive. And so every
Speaker 2: now and then a bad shot, what you would deem
Speaker 2: a bad shot is probably better than you know, a
Speaker 2: cleaner look by somebody else. You know, telling him that
Speaker 2: is he was so engrossed in making the right play
Speaker 2: all the time, and I just wanted his mentality being
Speaker 2: a little more assertive or aggressive. And certainly after that
Speaker 2: I didn't have to tell him too many times. Right
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, And look, what's you know
Speaker 2: happened that way? So you got to know your guys,
Speaker 2: You got to know your team but I want our
Speaker 2: guys aggressive, not looking over their shoulder now. At the
Speaker 2: same time, with our team, I did have to really
Speaker 2: address that specifically after the Texas Tech game at home.
Speaker 2: I just felt like we were having too many guys
Speaker 2: just shucking up shots, and our shots selection was I
Speaker 2: would deem below average, right, and we just had to
Speaker 2: pull the reins back because we just were just, you know,
Speaker 2: teams didn't have to defend us. It was two and
Speaker 2: three guys getting all the shots, and I just felt
Speaker 2: like our team wasn't built like that. Into our guys credit,
Speaker 2: We've done a way better job with our shots selection,
Speaker 2: including Gabe and what he's done. And he's still going
Speaker 2: to peel up, which I want. He needs to get shot.
Speaker 2: It's just a matter of time before he gets out
Speaker 2: of this slump. I just know it. And the other
Speaker 2: night he showed some real signs. Went to the free
Speaker 2: throw line eight times seventh grade, made a months or
Speaker 2: shot with under two minutes ago to put us up
Speaker 2: to it's just a matter of time with Gabe. And
Speaker 2: then he just looked like, you know, sometimes when you
Speaker 2: got a you know, a fifth year senior, they feel
Speaker 2: like they got the weight of the world on him.
Speaker 2: Like one of Gabe's superpowers is he can just let
Speaker 2: things roll right off his shoulders and just go play basketball,
Speaker 2: just go hoop, and just we had a really good
Speaker 2: talk about that last week and he just looked more
Speaker 2: himself where he's just going to play basketball and not
Speaker 2: playing with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Speaker 2: So you know, you need scores to be aggressive and
Speaker 2: not overthinking, and it's just a matter of time for him.
Speaker 1: So on the other side, and you kind of alluded
Speaker 1: to my follow up is obviously and we'll just stick
Speaker 1: with the Warriors parallel, even though people online are gonna
Speaker 1: yell at me saying.
Speaker 3: I'm comparing Gabe to Seth Curry.
Speaker 1: But all ultimately, you know, it's not just about a
Speaker 1: shooter like Gabe and the attention that he mandates. It's
Speaker 1: also the space that that allows your other players because
Speaker 1: of that gravity.
Speaker 3: So how do you take advantage of that?
Speaker 1: Because you referenced that times maybe the shots selection has
Speaker 1: been great. You know, Hunter in the BYU game took
Speaker 1: advantage of some space to knock down some big time shots.
Speaker 1: So when Gabe is mandating all this attention and there's
Speaker 1: all this space due to that gravity. How does that
Speaker 1: benefit your team and how do you take advantage of it?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's huge. I mean, obviously he is the respect
Speaker 2: of all of our opponents, and they're going to put
Speaker 2: their best defender on him every game. Best perimeter defender
Speaker 2: is on him every game when he comes off a
Speaker 2: ball screen, they're almost always blitzing them or trapping him.
Speaker 2: And so now that creates the scene because on offense,
Speaker 2: when you can get two guys to the ball, you're
Speaker 2: creating an advantage. It's all about advantage disadvantage, and you're
Speaker 2: creating an advantage for your team. And so now you
Speaker 2: got two guys to him, you're playing four against three.
Speaker 2: Once he delivers that ball, whether he pitches the head
Speaker 2: to the next perimeter player or whether he hits the
Speaker 2: short role. Right with the short role is the guy
Speaker 2: that right sets the ball screen and Lovering is an
Speaker 2: elite passer. So when we can get him the ball
Speaker 2: in the short role, that creates a real advantage for
Speaker 2: our offense. Or he throws it back and now we
Speaker 2: can look inside or skip opposite and play. So it
Speaker 2: just creates a real advantage for our team on offense.
Speaker 2: Now he's got to tighten up with the ball. But
Speaker 2: he's become a much better playmaker slash decision maker. Even
Speaker 2: specifically the first half the other night, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: every time he touched it, they were sending two guys
Speaker 2: to him, essentially, and he was able to make a
Speaker 2: lot of the right plays that led to a lot
Speaker 2: of easy dunks and wide open threes for us. So,
Speaker 2: just the threat for him, and it creates spacing right,
Speaker 2: spacing his offensive spacing and spacing his offense. And if
Speaker 2: you don't have good spacing on the floor, or if
Speaker 2: you can pick a guy or two out there that
Speaker 2: maybe can't stretch the floor, now you don't really have
Speaker 2: to card that guy, and you can really plug up
Speaker 2: the paint. And so he creates advantages just by simply
Speaker 2: being out on the floor. And the last thing I'll
Speaker 2: say about Gabe, he's such a selfless guy. Two things.
Speaker 2: He's such a selfless guy. All the dude cares about
Speaker 2: his winning. He just wants to win, doesn't care of
Speaker 2: you know, he could. He had a lot of opportunities
Speaker 2: to go other places for more money over the summer,
Speaker 2: and he's like, coach, I am a running you. This
Speaker 2: is where I want to be right this. He's changed
Speaker 2: my life. I love being here, I love living here,
Speaker 2: I love playing in this program, I love playing for you,
Speaker 2: on and on and on, and I think it says
Speaker 2: a lot about the guy. All the guys on our
Speaker 2: team respect him. It's such detail, but he in facts
Speaker 2: winning just by being out on the floor. And he's
Speaker 2: such a good mover without the ball, constantly moving, which
Speaker 2: frees up everybody else on the floor.
Speaker 3: So I referenced the BYU game. I was there with
Speaker 3: some family. It was just man.
Speaker 1: You know, I was a student at the U, and
Speaker 1: I told you, Craig, the first time I interviewed you
Speaker 1: after you took the job, I was not going to
Speaker 1: bring up Rick Majerius every time you came on the show.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 2: You did tell me that, but you can't get I'm
Speaker 2: used to it.
Speaker 3: But I'll just say this.
Speaker 1: I mean, when I was a student in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: we planned our weeks around basketball games, and the BYU
Speaker 1: crowd for the first time, in my opinion, felt like
Speaker 1: I was back in school, you know, twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: years ago. And you said after the game, fans impact winning,
Speaker 1: and you are absolutely correct.
Speaker 3: So give me your.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on what it was like that night in the
Speaker 1: building to feel it like that and what it would
Speaker 1: mean your program if we could get that going more
Speaker 1: often than not.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean time and listen, we all have responsibility.
Speaker 2: I have a responsibility as head coach. Like I think
Speaker 2: we have a very exciting brand of basketball to watch.
Speaker 2: I think we have a lot of just great people
Speaker 2: in our program, but also no want like sustained success
Speaker 2: and to win. And you know that night and there's
Speaker 2: and there's been some of those nights. I mean, of
Speaker 2: course last year with YU as well, and they were
Speaker 2: ranked when we played I forget top ten, top fifteen,
Speaker 2: when we beat Arizona, Arizona's ranked number four in the
Speaker 2: country a couple of years ago. That was a really
Speaker 2: good crowd. And that was I think the night before
Speaker 2: our football team played in the Bowl Championship in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: But fans impact winning. I don't care what anyone says,
Speaker 2: Like players got to go make the plays, Coaches got
Speaker 2: to put guys in the right position, recruit you know,
Speaker 2: championship level players. Right, there's a lot of facets that
Speaker 2: go into everybody impacts winning, and so but when you
Speaker 2: come into an arena, and I remember I was an
Speaker 2: assistant in the Big Ten, the Big Ten. I'll never
Speaker 2: forget this stat. The Big Ten at that time. I
Speaker 2: don't know where this is, like ten years ago. For
Speaker 2: I think it was twenty six straight years led the
Speaker 2: country in attendance. And guess what they also, for like
Speaker 2: twenty five of those twenty six years had the best
Speaker 2: home winning percentage within league play, within league play in
Speaker 2: the country. So like, what's Big ten country? Well, it's cold,
Speaker 2: it's born in the north, right, there's not a lot
Speaker 2: of crazy, you know, things to do because people want
Speaker 2: to be inside. So what they do they go to
Speaker 2: sporting events, so they do. And so this those road
Speaker 2: environments and now being in the Big twelve, and it's
Speaker 2: early for us. But we started at Baylor, right, and
Speaker 2: they did a promotion they give up five thousand free
Speaker 2: tickets and it was packed because their football team was
Speaker 2: playing their bowl game that day December thirty. First. Then
Speaker 2: we played at Iowa State. Oh my gosh, that place
Speaker 2: is electric, right, And then it was that TCU not
Speaker 2: quite you know, but it was still a good home
Speaker 2: court and we played well that night and one at
Speaker 2: Houston Electric. Right, So we've played some very tough conference
Speaker 2: road games and that night specifically when we played when
Speaker 2: we be BYU, oh my gosh, Like those are our
Speaker 2: guys who remember that the rest of the life. That
Speaker 2: was the sixth biggest crowd in the history of the
Speaker 2: Huntsman Center, and so it was awesome. Your players feel it.
Speaker 2: They feel the energy, they feel the passion, they feel
Speaker 2: the caring, like there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 2: And so you know, we got to do our part.
Speaker 2: It helps to win, there's no doubt about that. But
Speaker 2: we do have an excellent brand of basketball. You know,
Speaker 2: we're top for most of the season, we've been one
Speaker 2: or two and assists. We really share the ball, I
Speaker 2: think now number six or number seven in the country.
Speaker 2: So we have players that are willing to sacrifice and
Speaker 2: play shared basketball and connected basketball. And we all know
Speaker 2: this state is an amazing basketball state. The fans are
Speaker 2: passionate and you can look up and down, whether it's
Speaker 2: you know Utah, stay at Utah, BYU go all the way,
Speaker 2: like it's like people love basketball in this state. And
Speaker 2: so but they impact winning in a great way. It
Speaker 2: becomes a huge home court advantage and it can be daunting.
Speaker 2: It can be very daunting when you're an opponent coming
Speaker 2: in because they see the games, whether they're watching them
Speaker 2: lit or through the coaches clips that they show, it
Speaker 2: can be a very daunting experience and it really tests
Speaker 2: your metal, you're discipline, your toughness, and so you know,
Speaker 2: that's what we envision, that's what we'd like to do.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things that go into it, but
Speaker 2: fans impact winning without questions.
Speaker 1: I know you got to go. So if you want
Speaker 1: to be super quick with this question, be super quick.
Speaker 1: But it was the one I wanted to I want
Speaker 1: it to end with because there are pieces Craig on
Speaker 1: this roster, and it seems like every night I watch
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Keanu just showed me something I hadn't
Speaker 1: seen before, or maybe myro little needs to get more
Speaker 1: run or while leans down the starting let like and
Speaker 1: then Ezra has really evolved.
Speaker 3: I mean, b yu performance was incredible.
Speaker 1: Are you close to landing on your preferred rotation or
Speaker 1: is just is it going to continue to be just
Speaker 1: like whatever the night needs and you're going to continue
Speaker 1: to kind of tinker and and just kind of go
Speaker 1: from there.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's a great question, very fair. I
Speaker 2: feel like we're very very sound on our top seven guys.
Speaker 2: You know, since we won four out of six for
Speaker 2: the most we've been pretty steady with who we're playing. Now,
Speaker 2: there's certainly been you know, the Houston game, guys got
Speaker 2: out of kind of got out of hand after a while.
Speaker 2: We had a couple of one guy specifically I had heard,
Speaker 2: so we kind of rotated some things and and and
Speaker 2: and then it got to a point where it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, you're playing some guys that just like Katie's young,
Speaker 2: Jake's young. It's easy forget those guys are only sophomore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so especially Jake doesn't have a crazy amount of game experience.
Speaker 2: You know, Miro little doesn't have a crazy amount of
Speaker 2: game experience. So you know, Ezra is really starting to
Speaker 2: grow into his own and figure some things out. And
Speaker 2: so I feel very good about you know, where we're
Speaker 2: at with our Uh, I guess you could say top seven.
Speaker 2: You know, the other night we played a little bit different.
Speaker 2: Lovering has been in some foul trouble here last you know,
Speaker 2: a few games, so we've had to kind of negotiate
Speaker 2: that a little bit the other night, Ezra had an
Speaker 2: amazing first half, had some constantly turnovers, and then he got
Speaker 2: his fourth file with about ten minutes to play, so
Speaker 2: we took him out. But then, you know, Keanu was
Speaker 2: playing so great and Jake was playing really well, so
Speaker 2: it's kind of like, hey, you got to ride those guys,
Speaker 2: you know, and those guys are good players. So I'm excited.
Speaker 2: I think we're finally kind of getting our footing, so
Speaker 2: to speak, with our role definition, who's doing what what
Speaker 2: what pieces seem to jell better with each other, who
Speaker 2: plays well off one another, and then and then there's
Speaker 2: some things we still got to figure out with a
Speaker 2: couple of spots, so to speak, and find consistency so
Speaker 2: we know exactly what we're going to get, you know,
Speaker 2: on a day to day basis.
Speaker 3: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks so much for the time. Best of luck
Speaker 1: in league play. I think it's been a pleasant surprise
Speaker 1: for a lot of people to see you get the
Speaker 1: wins you've been getting, and you got some winnable ones
Speaker 1: coming up. Craig, so save travels and we'll chat toom.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on, Spence. I always appreciate your
Speaker 2: time and I haven't been able to run into you
Speaker 2: about a fly school here this year, but I'm sure we'll.
Speaker 3: See each other down the road for sure. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3: I always appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, thanks Spence, all right, more coming up,
Speaker 1: go YOUU Soni SPN seven hundred