Speaker 1: You're going on in the rules up CUBU Athletics. Here
from players, coaches, and experts on all the latest happenings
with their Cougars.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports one O three nine ninety eight
point three esbat the Fan. I'm Ben Fertil broadcasting from
our Vanderwealth Studios Vaterwealth dot Com. Get on that free
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how you can invest with the best and make your
money work for you rather than you always working for
your money. We're gonna get into a little world of
BA sports in this segment. How about a little update
on the BYU women's basketball team. They are taking on
the number two seed right now Kansas UH and that
tipped off at I believe three pm Mountain time. It's
in Wichita, Kansas, so a little bit of a home
court advantage I guess for the Kansas Jayhawks women's team.
You can check out the game on ESPN, U and UH.
Right now Kansas is a leading the game, and they
lead the series two, I, five and oh most recent
meetings this year, and so BYU hopefully finding a way
to survive in advance. They're down three right now now
in the start of the third quarter thirty one, twenty
eight and haven't been able to really hit shots there
at least they're they're three or four from the charity stripe,
but they're thirty five percent from the field, twenty three
percent from the three point line. But they're in striking distance,
no doubt about it. We're gonna welcome at our guests
here momentarily to talk the world of BYU Sports. But
this segment's brought to you by Primo Golf Premo Golf
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should too. Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome in,
my man, Jody Geennessy, formerly of the des Red News
and covering byu Utah perhaps as well as the Utah Jazz. Jody,
how you living? Man? Give me updates?
Speaker 1: Hey, Ben, good to be on with you man. Yeah,
I'm doing well, so I appreciate you having me on.
It's been a minute.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite Twitter follows as well, Jody. Have
you gotten anybody ticked off at you on Twitter recently?
That seems to be a staple, you poking the bear
a little bit. You know.
Speaker 1: Today I said, Hey, I'm excited to hop lock on
to sports radio with my man Ben Krittle, and I
asked for suggestions of what I say, and I even
said I'd give you a credit perhaps if they gave
me something worthwhile to say or something worthwhile to mock.
I only had one response, and it was my friend
Brady Freddy from Utah. He says, well, whatever you say,
it's going to make people mad. And then I like this.
He says, I heart you, my fiend. I don't know
if he meant friend or fiend, but both were.
Speaker 2: Well, apparently you're getting people angry with political posts. That
was the most recently, I think March twenty six. It's
got fifty thousand interactions.
Speaker 1: Jody, I was just it was pretty milk toast as well.
I just, you know, I said, you know, it's just
it's only jerry mandering depending on which party does it.
You know, if the other party does it, it's jerry mandering.
If your party does it, then it was necessary and
constitutionally correct. So wow, that was a Yeah, that was
a powder ca.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's interesting. So like this is interesting
because like obviously you were you're phenomenal at what you did,
right and in covering sports, and and obviously you were
on beats and other things and colle this etctera. Maybe
you're you're you're foray, you just haven't you haven't gone
into it yet, but maybe it's uh it's on the
political side of things. You really want to draw a
line in the sand to get people debating talk politics
on on on either the radio or on a YouTube
or on social media or in the written content piece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's if I mentioned by you or Utah
then that, or if I mentioned anything conservative or happen
to tease the liberals a little bit, both of those
subjects just go nuts. And it's usually generally the same
people who are coming after me and telling me how
big of a moron and how I was called dole,
I was called soft, I was you know, somebody asked
what happened to you, Jody, And I actually would like
to know that as well.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is who you've always been. It's just you were.
You know, you had to be curated, you know, people
had to kind of funnel you down a path like, hey,
you can only write about this, but in reality, this
is who you've always been.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like having fun growing up there as a
family called the Staples. In fact, I ran into them.
They came to my mom's funeral last week and great friends.
We were the Byu family. They were the Utah family
on the on the road and on our Street and
we just go back and forth, just fun, tongue in cheek,
just he's you know, and there were friends and nothing
was ever mean spirited. Every time I make a Utah joke,
it's intended with that same spirit, and it's never received
that way on Twitter. Holy cow. But yeah, we had
a good laugh about the Uau Utah rivalry the other
day at my mom's funeral. And I love the stapleas
they need some help on who.
Speaker 2: They root for.
Speaker 1: They think we need help on who we root for.
Speaker 2: But yeah, wow, Hey, I'm sorry, I had no idea.
I didn't know that you lost your mother, Jody. I mean,
obviously sports is to kind of like escape from it
all escapism of athletics and sports and things that nature.
But I'm glad you were able to reunite with with family, friends,
and hopefully it was a wonderful celebration of life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my two brothers are pretty funny. I think I'm
funny sometimes too, So we had a fun time celebrating
my mom's life and maybe poke in front of her.
I'm sure we're going to get a scolding at when
it's our time we are reunited in heaven. She'll be
like why did you mention that? But she's a great lady.
She I wrote a Utah Jazz book a few years
ago at the end of my tenure.
Speaker 2: There, and.
Speaker 1: I had the privilege of dedicating the book, and I
dedicated it to Utah Jazz funds, especially my home team,
and I mentioned her first and said that she's always
been my biggest fan and she growing up my dad
who passed away a long time ago. He was the
one who got me into sports, and he loved the
jazz and by U and one of his flaws is
that he was a Miami Dolphins fan and not a
Dealers fan like me. But we we worked with that.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: But she wasn't the biggest sports time. But when I
started covering the Utah Jazz Beat, she started reading everything
I wrote, and she would like text me and she's like,
I hope the jazz keep Gobier that's what she called him,
and and Heyward, and I sure liked this group. And
she would complain to me about the rockets and the
spurs and the referees and yeah, that was that was
some fun times to see Patty Guinness. He turned into
a big Youthah jazz fan.
Speaker 2: Love it man. Well, like I said, it's important that
we have our sports right, Uh, you know when when
all the real stuff it's we can have a little
bit of escapism and and have some entertainment while we're
at it. Jody, give us a little update. Where are
you working? What are you doing? Do you this covering
teams and writing about sports at all? I do?
Speaker 1: I miss it a lot, and I still I still
find ways to write here and there for the Probo
Daily Herald a little bit, and and for some wire services.
So I've actually I've been away from the Desert News
for a few years. And now I do communications and
public relations for a health professions university called Rocky Mountain
University in the old Noble Tower here in Provo. So
we have an undefeated football team, unlike the other team
in Provo, but we don't have sports, but we do
have a mascot. Anyway, I enjoy that. It's it's not
quite as as exciting as as b y U are
covering sports and by U and the jazz and whatnot.
But my first assignment was to do the magazine. And uh,
we have a lot of athletic trainers and people like that.
Colby Clawson who's now overseas athletic training for BYU. He's
a Rocky Mountain alum. So the first you can take
the sports writer out of out of the media market,
but you can't take the sports writer out of out
of me. So we did Alumni in Sports as our
first magazine theme. And so we featured Colby Clawson and
had some other by US alums and the University of
Kansas athletic trainer. And so I still write about sports.
I enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I love it well. I think you should at least
every once in a while write about it. I think
it'd be important to you know, just do some ic work,
you know, a column with Jody Gennessy. I think we
could all like if I said, hey, I need you
to write a column this week. I give you two days.
What do you going to pontificate on in the world
of BUE sports, in the world of jazz, where would
you go? What would you say? What would your thesis be? Jody?
Speaker 1: Right now, you know everybody is talking about BYU lacrosse.
Now I'm just gonna I think that they do have
a big game. It gets Utah Alley on Friday Night
one versus too. But Obviously, the big question right now
directly with BYU is how how their basketball season was
a bit disappointing and how they didn't go further into
the NCAA tournament. But now everybody's turning their sights on
the NBA draft and where's aja devots are going to go?
And you know, how how much fun would it be
if he ended up with he got Jazz? So I
think that's probably where I would steer my my column.
Speaker 2: It might if I.
Speaker 1: Wanted to rankle some people's feathers or whatever that saying is,
I might write about the football ticket situation because I
know my son is kind of upset that Dad didn't
get thee tickets. But before I could even get a
chance to they were gone. So I think is the
hottest top coming up?
Speaker 2: Look, I like, let's approach both of these. Okay, So
the Jazz have a what a ten and a half
percent chance of getting the number one overall pick. We
all know the history of the Utah Jazz and the lottery,
and to say the least, it hasn't been fortuitous for
the Utah Jazz or the New Orleans Jazz for that reason.
What was it nineteen eighty two. They did end up
picking Dominique Wilkins first overall, third pick or sorry, first round,
third overall. They ended up having to trade that one
because Dominique probably didn't want to play in Utah due
to whatever reason. They got thorough though in the eighty
three that was a great pick in the first round.
John Stockton first round, sixteenth overall. It doesn't seem like
they've ever really had great draft slots. They got cal
Ma Malone first pick or sorry, first round, thirteenth overall,
and eighty five and that ushered in I think a
pretty good era for the Utah Jazz, etc. But you know,
are you telling me there's a good chance do you
think somehow the puppeteers of the NBA bestow upon the
Jazz finally the lottery pick that has a void them
for so long in their history, never had they received
such a blessing. But aj loves BYU, he loves the
state of Utah. His parents live in Utah. My conspiracy theories,
this is all puppeteered, Okay, This is all leading up
to a lottery pick, first overall lottery pick that goes
to the Utah Jazz. And Tony Jones said he said,
within three years the Utah Jazz win a championship if
they get aj Wow.
Speaker 1: Well, hey, Tony, he's the man, so we we we
aren't seeing eyed eye on everything. He has Isaiah Thomas
above John Stockton on his pecking order, and obviously I
have reversed there. So if Tony is a pretty good
basketball mind, so yeah, that's there's a lot there. I
would have thought that maybe the Jazz would get the
benefit of the doubt and maybe some strings pulled in
their direction. But then Adam Silver went ahead and find
them five thousand dollars for when you think a game
earlier this season.
Speaker 2: Look, can I give you my theory on this Jody like,
I think it's all a bunch of orchestra. I think
it's orchestra, and I think this is Hey, well I
find him for tanking, you know. So then when he
does get the pick overall first overall pick, did Jazz
get a j No one can come back and say, hey,
this is all conspiracy theories. But I'm out ahead of it.
I know how the propaganda machine works.
Speaker 1: This is brilliant, man.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: I hope you're right. I love this little plot twist.
Speaker 2: You got going with this, well, are you a conspiracy theorist?
I wasn't a conspiracy theorist still twenty twenty. Are you
one now? I am, but I wasn't before.
Speaker 1: I am not one. But there have been some really
shady things in the NBA draft, Yeah, really shady. I
have several big time picks that were traded and then
that team ends up getting the number one pick the
next year, most notably recently the Dallas Maverick's getting rid
of Don Chic and one of the stupidest trades ever.
But you know, he end up with number one pick.
So yeah, the Jazz have just been the opposite. They've
been this model franchise for so many years where they
refused I mean, they wouldn't even come close to saying tank,
you know, and to their detriment, they would try to win,
and even on years or like I remember Jerry Sloan,
he should have tanked and he still pulled out forty
two wins. Should have been coaching the year that year
after Stockton retired, but continuing on tod until recently they
finally decided, hey, this is the only realistic way we
can get some top tier talent, and they got a
Bailey last year, even though the lottery draft didn't favor them.
His agent helped them out more than anything by being
a knucklehead and keeping him away from teams.
Speaker 2: But ACEH.
Speaker 1: Bailey is a nice player. So I hope AJ ends
up here in Utah. He would be like the perfect
He's the missing link for them, the missing piece, and
I just you know, I didn't get to see him
play in person, which was really a bummer for me
this year. But when I watched Lebron James earlier, you know,
fifteen years ago or so, when I was covering the NBA,
I would watch him and I was down low on
the core and it just felt like the court was
too small for Lebron. I don't know if you've ever
had that sense, but when I see AJ playing, I
get a similar sense. He's just so big and so athletic.
He's not as muscular as Lebron. Obviously, he can cover space.
He's got that long leg span, white wingspan as well.
He just can get around. He's got such good footwork.
He's so big, and he's clever too, So he looks
a little funky out there sometimes, but then he like
make this amazing move and he's got so many tools.
I yeah, I think he's the the no brainer number
one pick. I know that Peterson and Boozer getting a
lot of love as well, and you can make some
arguments for him, but AJ is the man in my book.
Speaker 2: Yeah, AJ is gonna go first overall. I mean, he's gritty,
he's competitive, he's uh, you know, he's not injury prone.
Like I just don't think there's any negative. He's got
some dog in him too, so you can build a
you can build an organization around AJ. In my opinion's
still young, no doubt, but extremely talented and hard working,
willing to do the lonely work. In my opinion, we
got Jody Gettessy on the Lion Cougar Sports ESPN The
fan Talk in some world of BYU Sports. You mentioned
the ticket issue. You said you would write a column
about the tickets. What's going on? Why would you? Why
would you delve into this? You're gonna get a call
from the SID Why you Why are you throwing the
ticket scandal into the column?
Speaker 1: Yeah, my my son, my seventeen year old. He's a
big boy. You fan, He's like dad, you gotta get
season tickets for US next year. And so I looked
into it and I thought, oh, maybe I'll join the
Cougar Club. And I was going to join one of
the lower tiers. And if I had joined that and pop,
you know, three hundred bucks or whatever it was going
to be, I wouldn't even I still wouldn't even get
a chance to buy season tickets. So look, I get
the bigger donors are going to get more opportunity to
buy a bunch of tickets, and I respect that, and
actually I agree with that, Like twelve, I think it's
the top level for the athletic Director's circle or whatever
it is. But I think at some point they're letting
these these they have these people that you know, they're
great great great grandfathers help Uyu build the football stadium
right after bringing young got here, and they're still like
grandfathered in and they're getting half the seats. And then
I think they need to limit it to four seats
instead of six or eight, just get more people an
opportunity to buy tickets. And I don't know, it's just
a little frustrating. I get it's a good problem to
have for the program. Overall, you've got this exciting product.
Klanie Sataki's an amazing coach. You got Bear, You've got
all these great things are happening at UA football. So
that's a good thing. But I think the more people
you get involved, get their butts in the seats, I
think that's going to be better for the program overall,
rather than getting letting so many There's so few people
buy so many tickets, So that's one of the frustrating
things for a lot of fans and possibly for me
as well. I'm used to being up in the press box,
you know, but now I have a kid that I
can't bring with me to the press box and got
to find a way to get him in the seats
as well. So yeah, I don't know what the right
answer is. I know DUAU probably mimics what a lot
of other big time programs do, and so they're not
doing anything nefarious by any means. But I think maybe
some serious conversations have to end. They're probably already ongoing,
and maybe they've already happened, but maybe expanding the stadium
it's time for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do see that. I do see it sequencing
out that way. I think I think what they'll do
is they'll they'll revamp it, remodel, at restructure at et cetera.
They could do a standing room only portion for the
time being. I don't know what the fire code says
or allows in that regard. You could do a standing
room only area that allows people to kind of watch
from the balconies, et cetera. But even that's limited. But
one of the things I brought up tell me, I
feel like this idea, it's a gift and kind merit allocation.
So like, Okay, if you don't have the money to
buy a bunch of you know, to buy your way
into access, what if but you have time and you
have a skill set. You know, for instance, Jodi Gannesstry
wants to allocate his time and resources and talents to
the building up of Brigham Young University. You can sign
an NDA, right, you can sign an NDA and and
aid and support and you know what, whatever it may
be your your skill set, you know, maybe a crew
gift and kind cougar club points. You know, you can
nallocate ten fifteen hours a week to the athletic department
with your respective skill set, and you a crew per hour,
a certain amount of dollared points does that make sense?
And you could probably you know what I mean. Like,
if you don't have the money, let us work for it.
Let us work our way up. You know, maybe I
want to be an usher for the football game. Don't
pay me, Just give me Cougar Club points, you know
what I mean. Give me the Cougar Club points. You
know what I mean. Let me.
Speaker 1: They might be yelling at me, Hey, hot dog man,
turn around, tell me hot dog stop watching the game.
Speaker 2: No, I like that.
Speaker 1: I have a big box of unsold jazz books that
I could I could donate. Maybe that could give me
a little bit of a.
Speaker 2: Cooper Club points.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe they can open up more seats
for Here's one thing I know. This year they do
have seven home games, which is because of that order
dam game. They need their big time program. Now do
seven games every single season? Play like the other boys,
you know, just do that. Get more opportunities. Maybe they
have one game where they don't let season ticket holders go,
they just open it up for everybody.
Speaker 2: Hey would I would love to see it. I'm all
about the ideas. So if you've got great ideas, let
me know. One last thing, Jody. In the world of
b a sports. I don't know if you saw this,
but b weave baseball finding a way to hit dingers
walk off home runs two of them, I believe. Over
the weekend versus Oklahoma State. Are the Batcats back? Are
they ready, finally, hopefully ready and willing to compete in
the Big twelve and win some baseball games?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I saw that. In fact, my son loves baseball too,
So we're gonna be heading over there to Miller Stadium.
That's a beautiful place to beautiful venue. And I love
the they had to walk off catch there in the
outfield against the youth.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Utah's new, really cool stadium as well. So I know
there's a bunch of Big twelve teams at five and
four and by US four and five, and so there's
a logjam in the middle. But they've got Yeah, they've
got a nice team. They kind of had a few
years where they were down in the dumps, but it
looks like they're they're coming back, and they got some
pop in their bat and some nice pictures. So that
would be really fun because they have a nice legacy.
Big Twelves are a tough team, but they do get
a lot of I don't know, five six teams into
the World Series, so let's hope that they keep on going.
That's fun. We need some stuff to cheer about in
the spring.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it. Amen to that, Jody. Always appreciate
our time together. Glad you're able to hop on for
the little world to BYU Sports and can't wait for
your column. Can't wait for that that that independent contractor column.
Wherever you want to write it, I'll you post it,
I'll retweet it, I'll read it, my friend.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it gets me some Cougar Club bucks and doesn't
get me banned from the stadium.
Speaker 2: So there you go, like, hey, just just allox. It's like, look,
I'm really I'm late, willing and ready to do press
releases for Sugar Club points. Whatever it is that you needed, Skid,
you could totally do it.
Speaker 1: I want if nothing else, I want some Bend bucks.
So there we go.
Speaker 2: I'll take you out to dinner, man, I'll help you
on your quest for a little bit of side hustle. Jody,
we said please, We appreciate your brother, Thanks as always
for hopping on and talking to some ball with us today.
Speaker 1: Have me back anytime, Ben, good chat.
Speaker 2: With you, buddy, all right, appreciate you, Jody Gennessy, Ladies
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Sports one oh three nine ninety eight point three e
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