Speaker 1: Is Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel at its time for
the Cougar Beat, getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 2: Now, welcome back to Cougar Sports here one O, three
nine and ninety three ESPN and FAM. I got Andrew
Peterson and Caleb Lyons by my side. I'm gonna get
into a little Cougar be gonna welcome in Darnell Dixon
of the Daily Herald here. Momentarily effort and get him
on the line. Might have typed the number and wrong
you think I would type numbers in right after doing
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Buttons are hard to press. And Holston do everything at
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Speaker 3: All right, let's not wait any further.
Speaker 2: Let's get out to the ESPN and the Fanmily Highline
and welcome in Darnel Dixon of the Daily Hero.
Speaker 3: Donna, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1: I'm doing pretty well, Ronnie.
Speaker 3: Double d. Let's start with the thing that you love
the most.
Speaker 1: You like the wife, But I.
Speaker 3: Was talking about sports. Yes, you do you like like? Yes?
Speaker 2: Of course, your wife is an amazing person. Saw her
in the hospital when we had our kid. She's wonderful.
If you guys haven't met sister Dixon, shame on you.
She's a great person, a fun person to talk to us. Well,
we love the Dixon family. We love Bishop Dixon has
always like to say, let's start.
Speaker 3: With the volleyball.
Speaker 2: Give us an update, boy Uman's volleyball recap the weekend.
Force on what they got this week?
Speaker 1: Well, man, it was a really tough weekend for the Cougars.
Lost twice in five sets and had chance to win
both of those. And you know, you see your vine's
a really good team. And the difference in you know,
between winning and losing and all sports is sometimes pretty thin,
and it was certainly thin in that match where by
U on the first night won the first two and
then lost in five, and then they lost the first
two on Saturday and lost in five. It's all good
for a team that's learning to play together and some
new pieces. As long as they can learn from those
those experiences, they're gonna have other opportunities to play really
good teams. And they've got UCFB Santa Barbara on the
road starting tonight and tomorrow, another highly ranked team, another
opportunity to to test themselves. And you know, there's a
few more teams that there are going to allow twelve
teams into the tournament this year college or in college
volleyball for the men, so there's an opportunity to make
that and and you know they they have some good
talent there. It's just a matter of putting it together
at the right time, because time means everything in volleyball.
Speaker 2: Timing is everything in volleyball, it is in other sports.
Do you predict this team to make it to the
tournament and to make a run.
Speaker 1: At this point no, I think they've got an opportunity
to get there, but they're not there yet. The thing
about b YU, and this has kind of been the
story for the last probably five six years, is they've
had good teams, but not elite teams, and the elite
teams are the ones who make the Final four. And
to get from good to elite, you know they're gonna
have to win something, win some of these close matches
that they've been losing. So at this point, I don't
think they're going to be able to get in, but
I think they have the talent where if they continue
to improve, they can put themselves in a good position
to make it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right now, I agree. I don't think it's in
the making. I definitely think when you look at it
there they can keep improving each week. But that's the
best part about a season is one week of a
season can change a program. Speaking of changing a week
of the program, Darnelle, we were thoroughly entertained with Big Monday,
came down to wire a game that everybody thought by
you was out of just your initial takeaways and if
you have any silver linings from that game, whilch be
what you look like at one point they were gonna
win on Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you look at the silver lining as they were
able to come back in the game where they were
down nineteen points. I tend to be not quite as
optimistic about the outcome. And here let me tell you why.
The first thirteen minutes of that game was really close,
back and forth. There were nine lead changes and six ties.
It was two good teams going at each other, and
you expect, Okay, this one's gonna go down to the wire.
The last seven minutes. The first half was all Kansas.
I mean, sorry, all Arizona. I'm looking ahead all Arizona day.
I think they outscored by twenty to five in that
seven minute period, and then they dominated most of the
second half up until the final couple of minutes. Win
b why you got back in the game, and there
were some fortuitous bounces in the ball and a few
calls and be the only way to get there. But
my point is against a team as good as Arizona,
and there's no way anybody comes out of that game
thinking Arizona is not the number one team in the
country because they're really good. But you can't play an
elite team and only play fifteen minutes out of the forty.
Because when you add up those totals, for fifteen minutes,
BYU was as good, if not in some points better
than Arizona, but for the other twenty five it was Arizona.
So to me, BYU is still going to have to
prove and they've got an opportunity at Kansas this weekend.
They got Houston coming up on the schedule and another return,
you know, with Arizona going down to Tucson. They've got
to show that they can play more than about fifteen
minutes worth of good basketball against good teams. And so
coming out of that, I know Kevin Young came out
of it saying, hey, we can compete with any team
in the country, and he's probably right about that. But
I came out of it thinking, man, you just had
your two best players, too, of your best players combined
to shoot nine for forty, and you can't have that
happened in the big game. Now, it's possible that both
of them knew there were thirty three pro scouts in
the building, and maybe that made them a little bit nervous.
They were wanting to prove something. I don't know, but
I do think this team has a lot to proof
still that they can get themselves against elite teams and
and play more than fifteen minutes. We're to good basketball.
Speaker 4: Well, so buy Used, Now that's in my opinion, I
think that's the second time by Used done that, the
first time being Yukon and and maybe you can throw
Texas Tech in there too, where they just kind of
but I think they just went well and Texas Tech
you just melted down and stopped playing. Fact that one,
That one was more of a thirty out of forty minutes.
But but for Yukon and Texas Tech, is it both times?
Buy Used to have the opportunity to play these teams
that I think most people would say sort of piably
have the potential to make a Final Four run, and
BYU has not played very well at all for most
of those games. Is there any worry that that's what
this team will do going forward when they play the
Houstons and the Iowa States and Texas Tech. Again, is
BYU built to be able to compete for a full
game against these teams?
Speaker 1: I think that's the challenge with the coaching staff and
with the Big Three is to come up bigger in
those games. I mean another aspect of that game is
that Richie Saunders fouled out of the one minute mark.
Dan I have him for that last play, and that
might have made a difference. I also think that, you know,
we look at this college basketball scene and we see teams,
you know, getting better, and we got to realize too
that there's still some adjustment periods with all of the newness,
all the new players and the new coaches and new system.
And you know, each team rebuilds itself every year, and
even now it's a lot more that they have to
rebuild than they used to. So BYU as a team
and because they don't have the depth they had last year,
that those top three guys have to be it every night.
And if there is a silver lining, as Ron mentioned,
you talk about how Cannar Davis and Alexi Coast has
made three pointers. Anybody that watches the game knows defenses
are prime to stop those three players Richie and AJ
and Rob and they're gonna be shots open and guys
don't make them sometimes. So it's important that the Cougars
can figure out a way to involve everybody, and it's
Canard has gotten out of his shooting slump. That's great,
and we talked about there are opportunities for them to
step up and play these good teams and get a win.
But right now we've seen a couple of times against
the elite teams in the country. Yeah, they lost by
a little bit, but it's still lost, and they had
the opportunity to win. And they got to play better
for longer amounts of time. That's what I took out
of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely got to play better for longer amounts
of time. And look, you know, I like to ask
the feel good questions sometimes if the top king is
on the on the court, do you think Burry's blitzes
off the weak side to go block, or do you
think Rob lays it up for a win? Or if
he does blitz, do you think he kicks hit to
Richie and they win that game? Because I have to
think if Richie's on the court, they play that defensively
a little bit better. I have to think Tommy Lloyd
would tell him, don't you leave Richie Saunders.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that might be the case, but you have to
remember Cannard Davis had hit five to three pointers.
Speaker 3: This is true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the second half, so you know, they said,
you know, stick to the shooters, and Burry's decided not to.
And you can debate whether or not he fouled Rob.
You know, you can slow it down and look, maybe
he got the arm. It was a good defensive come off.
And and to give Rob credit to when he drove,
his defender went flying off out of bounds, so he
was open well y fourth and this got up. He
had driven into the key, his defender fallen off of him,
and he had an opportunity right there at the rim.
The big for Arizona was stuck to Kaba and so
that that was the right move to make. And Berry's
just came from behind and made a play. And so
you know, initially when I watched the playoff, thought, why
are you putting the ball in Rob's hands? He's three
for seventeen to night or whatever he was. Yeah, and
you know, Kevin Young said, you know, we ride or
die with these guys, and and we know their winners,
and we know Rob had a game winner against Clemson.
But you know also in that that Yukon game, he
dribbled the ball off his foot or you know, and
lost control of it on the opportunity for Buau to win.
So it's it's a it's a situation where Rob is still,
I think, kind of learning the college game somewhat and
he's going to get better in those situations. But I
think after looking at it, I'm like, Okay, I understand
why Kevin decided to go there, but I just don't
know if you wanted the ball to end up in
the hands of somebody who had not had a good
shooting game, and I don't know that. I don't know
if you can expect Rob to have eyes in the
back of his head either to realize that berries had
come off and No was standing alone the three point line.
You just can't.
Speaker 3: No, you're right, you can.
Speaker 2: And maybe if you give the ball to a j
at length, he can spin and see that that's coming
and avoid it. And that's a you know, that's a
nitpicking type thing. I will ask you this though, because
Ben always says you need two to three data points.
Rob hit the buzzer, beat it, but the play wasn't
drawn up for him. It was supposed to be Aj
then Richie, and he was a third option when Rob
has been the first and again he was the second
option because Kevin Young said they took the first one
away and we've seen it now with Rob. Have two
data points where Yukon and now this, Should they put
Aj in the back court Darnell and put Rob elsewhere?
Part of me thinks, because he's getting fronted by Coe
Pete and then Bradley's behind them. Rightfully so, but should
they have done that with twelve seconds rather than go
to Rob? You know, part of me wants to feel like, Okay,
you've got to get the ball in the best player's hands.
But at all calls should they have switched that?
Speaker 3: Do you think?
Speaker 2: Or is it just they just they're going to live
and die with, you know, the second option being Rob
or Richie.
Speaker 1: Sometimes yeah, I think they'll die with that option. I
think that getting the ball into Rob's hands as a
playmaker is probably the best idea because he's the one
that can get into the key and penetrate. He's quick
enough to do that. I don't know if he's developed
the kind of instincts to know that if you drive
into the middle of the key and the defense collapses,
there's going to be a couple of guys wide open
on the perimeter. I think sometimes he gets a little
bit of blinders when he gets in there, and he's
good at scoring inside for his size, he really is.
So I think maybe it's just something that Rob's going
to have to learn as he grows in his basketball
edgevcation that when you drive late in the game and
the defense SAgs, there's gonna be opportunities for guys to
be open outside of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where at all you always you wish
fifteen was in the game because you wonder if they
if they blitzed that hard and he kicks it, I
have to think I would bet my mortgage, you know
that if Richie Sounders got the last shot of the game,
Darnell in the maryout center against the number one team
in the country and he's wide open, and you're leaving
that he's going to bury that triple. But I can
live that way in my dreams, not today, this day
and age. But what I can live in is that
there's a top fifteen matchup on Saturday.
Speaker 3: Is all forgiven, Darnell. If this team plays well.
Speaker 2: Against Kansas and they come out of fog Allen Field
House with the win, I think that's a tougher place
to win and play than Lubbock Now some will push
back on me, but I think if you beat Kansas
for the third time and you get that premiere Quad
one road win in that type of environment, and aj
Ball's out and you walk out, no one's thinking about
Arizona or Texas Tech anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it appears that Darren Peterson is going to play
in this game. That's the last guy said, don't Yeah,
he's going to play. How about that? And you know,
as a general rule, you really want to win your
home games because you know how hard it is to
win on the road. So now you put yourself a
position where you're down one in the home game situation,
you really need a road win. And you know, Allen
Field House is a very difficult place to play. Their
second in the conference in attendance to BYU. They're a
really good defensive team in the half court. I think
that's going to be something you can definitely watch in
this game. They lead the Big twelve Kansas does in
field goal percentage defense and three point field goal percentage defense.
So in the half court, they're difficult to score against.
So you want to get some transition. You want to
get to the foul line if you can. And I
think that over the course of the season, AJ has
been able to do that in most games, but on
the road that becomes a little more difficult because you
don't get those home maybe as much. So it's it's
a great opportunity for this team to put that loss
behind them on Monday and show what they can do.
I don't think you're going to find another game where
robin Aga combined to go nine for forty or hopefully
they'll they'll shoot the ball better and defensively, they're not
going to get maybe as lost as they were against
those Kansas Scars because man Burry's and Bradlett were just
fantastic in that first half. There was just nothing defensively
the way you could do to slow those guys down,
And I think they figured a few things out in
the second half to force them to take some more
difficult shots. But that Arizona team is maybe the best
offensive team in the country and definitely, you know, shoot
better than fifty percent every game and they get lots
of points inside the key. So hopefully they've learned some
defensive lessons in that game. But it's going to be
a tough one. I mean, it's an afternoon game the
field house will be full. And we all know the
situation a couple of years ago when Mark Pup was
coaching and and Dollen Hall stuck that jumper top of
the key to to light up that and and for
me or you to win in Allen field House, that
was fantastic and it was It's another opportunity on Saturday
Double D.
Speaker 2: I revealed I've said multiple times and I keep saying
it because it's it's funny for me to say, but
that's Hunter Dickinson belongs to Dallan Hall. Dollen Hall is
Hunter Dickinson's daddy. You know all jokes because of that shot.
And look, look I even revealed it. He's gone now.
I wait for players to graduate, for them to lead
b YU, so I don't get in any trouble. I
talked to doll In his parents, mom and dad after
the game, and Dalla said he tried to do it again.
He said he tried to recreate it. You remember the
shot he took it as at oh and it point
it pointed straight up. It was a big time brick,
but he tried to.
Speaker 3: Re enact it.
Speaker 2: I don't blame him either, because when you hit a
shot like that on the road. That's like an all
time great shot in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Darnell, it is, and it's it's one that b where
you fans remember and and you know, even the media
who traveled to that game, and I was not as
fortunate to go to that one, but I know talking
to some of the other media that went just to
be there in that arena, and I had similar feelings,
you know, traveling to different locations for other sports, like
going to you know, a Notre Dame stadium for the
first time and walking on that field and realizing the
games that have been played there, same as Allen fieldhals.
There's been some fantastic games played there and amazing players
went on to be great pro players and win national championships,
and it's historic and it's fun and it's it's one
of the main reasons why people love that b why
you joined the Big Twelve, because you have those opportunities
now and you don't have to watch other teams just
take them. You get a chance to go play there
as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I made the case.
Speaker 4: I said this earlier in the show, and I want
to get your thoughts on this take. I think that
the winner of this game. I think this has big
seeding implications in March, that the winner of this game
will be one seed higher than the loser. I think
they're that close. Do you see it being that that
big of a game at this point in the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, few By can't just be here. You're pretty close,
and not just rankings, but in the net ranking and
some other things. Yeah, I can kind of see that.
It seems early in the season to you know, take
that stand. But we also know that because by you
can't play in the Sunday Regionals, that they're a little
bit limited and sometimes they drop a seed just because
of that reason. And so any opportunity BYU has to
beat a team that has a high net ranking to
improve their ability to be seated high is really important.
The coach has built the schedule in the non conference
to put themselves in the best position to get a
higher seed, and so they've done that. Now is the
opportunities that come up more often in the Big twelve
plays you have a team with a high net ranking. Now,
when you lose to that team doesn't necessarily hurt your
net ranking, but if they go down and the committee
starts looking at what you've done when they make their
decisions for the NCAA Tournament. Those kind of wins make
a big difference. So yeah, I think it's a really
big weekend for the Cougars and a win here could
put them in the position they want to be where
there are three or a four seed instead of five
verse six.
Speaker 3: It's a good point and they have you brought that up,
and I agree with them.
Speaker 2: I mean, right now, I think they're still flirting with
that three seed, but because of Sunday implications, they could
get bumped to a four. That's why they need if
they win Darnel, they win these next two games on
the road, and obviously there's a lot of season left,
but do you think if they win these next on
the roaw Kansas Oklahoma State, does that start to solidify
them in that three seed maybe and get them up
to that two seed range, Because with the Sunday implications,
if they keep losing these quad one games at home
or on the road, they're in potential, I think danger
of being a four seed, and I don't think you
can make a push at that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's probably. I mean, it's fun to speculate, but
it is league. It's just it's a difficult to really
predict week to week. I remember last year was a
Kansas State that went on like a five game winning streak.
Yeah it was four or five. That's I mean in
this league, that can happen. A team can get hot
and just start playing really well. I mean, who knows,
it could be Utah or Colorado or one of those
teams that's near the bottom of the league can step
up and just start knocking teams off. So you, you know,
as meat members, we can look ahead at different games
and different lineups and teams and matchups, and the coaches
while I'll say we only take, you know, our next opponent,
we'ren't worried about the other games. And you really have
to take that tact in this league because anybody can
rise up and beat you and put you with your
back against the wall. A little bit.
Speaker 2: Calling it right now, double D calling it right now
BYU win streak Kansas, Oklahoma, Houston, Baylor. I'm just kidding,
it's nuts. That's not the case. We'd all be shocked.
But I will say this though, I will say out
of the next six games that I mentioned, three of
them are Quad one games. Excuse me out of the six,
four are Quad one games, three on the road. If
you're able to get two out of the to get
two of those games on the road, that does help.
I think your resume bumps. You up to now six
and three in Quad one games, and you're gonna need
to two premier Quad one wins. I think Taboos's resume.
I think that's what the bracketologies are saying, Darnell, we
need to get you out of here. We'll get you
out of here on this How do you have this
one plan out on Saturday? What do you think happens
is Bay you finally get that Quad one win on
the road and turn it around.
Speaker 1: You know how I unlook predictions, Ronnie.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I'm asking for a score prediction.
Speaker 1: I think they'll play better for a longer amount of
time than they played on Monday. Let's say that. I
don't think Kansas is Arizona by any means, but it's
going to be really fun to watch. Peterson and and
the Boons will go at ease each other. They've done
it before in their high school careers. I think Darren
scored like fifty and Aja scored like forty nine or something.
It was crazy, So they're both going to take that personally.
So it's a great one on one matchup. And for
b YU, they just have to have guys like Kennard
Davis and Alexi and some of the other guys off
the bench just be solid and do the right things
and put them in a position where they take advantage
of their opportunities when the defense is focused on the
Big three. So I think BNYU has a really good
chance of winning this game. Kansas has been on a
roll lately, but they've proven that they are vulnerable. They're
not going to be great even with Darren Peterson, and
they've lost some games. So it's a classic matchup. Can't
wait for it.
Speaker 3: You wonder how much Kamba Kaba is going to play
a factor.
Speaker 2: He was named to Defensive Player of the Week, you
know the twenty twenty six Na Smith.
Speaker 3: You wonder what factor do be Doo and Kaba have.
Speaker 2: But I can tell you this, you cannot let Darren
Peterson and crew get you and foul troub but that's
for sure, Double d Before I let you go, what's
the best way we can support you?
Speaker 3: What you do, how you do it? Where can I
find that beautiful work.
Speaker 1: Earldextru dot com is the best place. And then I
sometimes tweet I know xing, I don't know. We call it.
Speaker 3: Tweeting xing. Both are okay in my opinion.
Speaker 1: And I try to be clever, so you know you
can be your own judge of that.
Speaker 2: Hey, all I gotta say is Canard Davis Jr. Was
hearing your tweeting xing zetting because he learned how to
play his role of shooting threes when someone passes it
to you and not calling his own number. So he
saw your your comments. He did kidded he didn't see
your comments, but I hope he heard them and he
felt them in his loins, in his bosom because he
had a great half. And if he shoots like that,
I don't think AJ and Robb will go nine to forty.
I think bo he's got a great shot for Saturday.
I look forward to this game. Darnella, We will catch
up with you next week.
Speaker 1: All right, doctu lated It's.
Speaker 2: Darnel Dixon of the Daily herod in the Little Cougar
Beat right there. I appreciate double D joining me.
Speaker 3: Guys.
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Speaker 1: To get to.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it. Keeping up with the Cougar segment.
Brian Logan coming up next. You're listening to Cougar Sports
right here on one O three nine ninety eight three ESPN.
Speaker 1: The Thing