Speaker 1: Probably the last day that you're in charge of our
Speaker 1: musical selection.
Speaker 2: But there's a method of your madness here.
Speaker 1: Vince Gill is the artist and Bill Riley is our guest.
Speaker 1: So what's the reasoning here? I'm gonna let you explain it.
Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 3: I guess not much of a hipster country thing like
Speaker 3: you were saying, No Vince Gill, Bill Riley, louse, stoppelgangers.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's some.
Speaker 3: Certain pictures of Vince Gill you can find, and it
Speaker 3: looks like Bill Riley belting out of country too.
Speaker 2: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling that our next guest is going
Speaker 1: to take on bird with that. Bill Riley joins the program.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard Ryle's that you look like Vince Gill?
Speaker 2: Hello?
Speaker 4: Bill, People stop me, Spence, gotcha, gotcha?
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 5: I've had people stop me in airports and places saying
Speaker 5: I look like Vince Skill.
Speaker 4: Oh. Porter Larson is on it today.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, Well we're continuing.
Speaker 1: Ryle's a very important hour on the program because last
Speaker 1: segment we had Craig Bowler Jack who has won the
Speaker 1: UTAs Sports Broadcaster the Year three times, and you Bill
Speaker 1: have one Utah sports broadcaster the year three times? Have
Speaker 1: you guys been able to get together with the robes
Speaker 1: and the brandy and the stoves to celebrate.
Speaker 5: Yet we were going to come in studio and where
Speaker 5: are Hugh Hefner smoking jackets? And if Steve Johnson would
Speaker 5: let us maybe fire up a stogy, have a brandy sniffer,
Speaker 5: one of those type things.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out and limb and say Steve probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't be thrilled if we're just smoking cigars in the studio.
Speaker 2: But your point stands.
Speaker 1: My follow up question is, have you guys cultivated the
Speaker 1: handshake like they have at SNL for the five Timers
Speaker 1: club where you just go one, two, three, You're great,
Speaker 1: You're great.
Speaker 2: Have you and Boller done that yet?
Speaker 5: No? But I will let you know. I will let
Speaker 5: you know that someone that you know that is close
Speaker 5: to you may or may not have shared a secret
Speaker 5: handshake with.
Speaker 4: Me that you would know.
Speaker 2: Oh no, was it Morgan?
Speaker 4: It was just not Scaley, No, it was that Scaley.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna tell me who is share the name.
Speaker 5: With you off air? Because I don't want to. I
Speaker 5: don't want to out him publicly.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, just so you know once you share the name,
Speaker 1: he's getting dinged. We're kicking him out because that's not allowed. Bill,
Speaker 1: that is not allowed.
Speaker 4: He's one of your guys, though, he is one of
Speaker 4: your guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right now my mind is spinning, but we
Speaker 1: we shall move on.
Speaker 4: Bill.
Speaker 2: How you been man? What's going on with you these days?
Speaker 4: I've been good.
Speaker 5: I was hoping. I'm glad that Porter brought me in
Speaker 5: with Vin skilled today. I was hoping for some third
Speaker 5: eye blind though.
Speaker 1: No, we hit our quota. Porter got loose with the
Speaker 1: third eye blind. We had like five third eye blind
Speaker 1: socks the other day.
Speaker 2: But but what's let's let's get an update.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously you're busy up there, and it's a
Speaker 1: new it's a new world. So we it's been a
Speaker 1: while since we've checked in with you as far as
Speaker 1: all of the things you have going on as the
Speaker 1: director of broadcasting at the University of Utah.
Speaker 2: Get let's get an update.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 5: A lot of baseball as of late, did some softball
Speaker 5: yesterday Weber State and Utah softball. Lots of prep going
Speaker 5: on for the big spring football game coming up on Saturday,
Speaker 5: A chance for Utah anwich. I'm sure, we'll talk about
Speaker 5: here momentarily, we'll get to see Devin damp here in
Speaker 5: all his glory and the rest of Utah football and
Speaker 5: just kind of winding down the season a little bit
Speaker 5: and then really ramping up for next year.
Speaker 4: We did. We're on our way to about fifty.
Speaker 5: Events this year on ESPN Plus, and next year we'll
Speaker 5: have in the neighborhood of one hundred and ten to
Speaker 5: one hundred and twenty events. So it will be it
Speaker 5: will be a big lift next year.
Speaker 2: Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1: So let's stay in the football space, and let's start
Speaker 1: the football portion of the conversation with the fact that
Speaker 1: the transfer portal has once again opened up, and it's
Speaker 1: a small one. It's I think it's only ten days.
Speaker 1: I think it'll close on the twenty fifth. And you know,
Speaker 1: you hear some of the interviews and some of the
Speaker 1: sound from coach Witt and others. But what do you anticipate,
Speaker 1: if anything Utah football doing over the next ten days.
Speaker 5: I you know, when spring football ends this weekend, they'll
Speaker 5: probably be some departures from the program.
Speaker 4: You know, that's always going to be the case.
Speaker 5: Some of the guys that figured out that they're not
Speaker 5: in the two or the three deep, and they probably
Speaker 5: want to move on to go someplace where they can play.
Speaker 5: But I think Utah will probably be a little active.
Speaker 5: They've always been a little active in the spring portal,
Speaker 5: and I could see them targeting some folks.
Speaker 4: I could see them maybe adding a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't think that they're necessarily going to be out
Speaker 5: hunting for somebody that's going to be an a one
Speaker 5: top line starter, but I could see them probably looking
Speaker 5: to add a little bit of depth on both sides
Speaker 5: of the ball. I'm not sure where it would be yet.
Speaker 5: You've got to talk to Jason Beck and Morgan Scalley
Speaker 5: after football kind of wraps up in the spring.
Speaker 4: But I would anticipate, as they've been.
Speaker 5: The last couple of years, I could see Utah probably
Speaker 5: going out and doing a little shopping and probably adding
Speaker 5: some depth on both offense and defense. You know, I
Speaker 5: wouldn't expect double digits, you know, I'd probably expect maybe
Speaker 5: a handful of guys, four or five guys. Maybe they
Speaker 5: would add the portal, but again that's just guesswork on
Speaker 5: my part.
Speaker 1: What about wide receiver because just you know, on paper
Speaker 1: and look on paper, there are so many new players
Speaker 1: that we still need to kind of understand what sort
Speaker 1: of hand we've been dealt. And honestly, Bill, you know this,
Speaker 1: we won't know until fall. You know, spring is spring
Speaker 1: and springball springball. And I'm excited to be up at
Speaker 1: Rice Ecles on Saturday in the spring game Forever twenty two.
Speaker 1: Game is always fun. Go to Utah Youth dot Com
Speaker 1: for tickets, but just on paper. And then what coach
Speaker 1: Witt has said during media, it feels like wide receiver
Speaker 1: might be a position of need. What tell me your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they're trying to I think they've got
Speaker 5: numbers right now, Spence, and I think what they've been
Speaker 5: trying to do through spring and that's why it's going
Speaker 5: to be interesting for me to talk to Beck. I'll
Speaker 5: get a chance to talk to him over the next
Speaker 5: day or two leading up to the game. Is where
Speaker 5: are You're at? The one name that's come up consistently
Speaker 5: through spring football has been Zacharias Williams Zack. They call
Speaker 5: him Zach now, but Zach Williams I think has kind
Speaker 5: of separated himself as kind of the wide receiver one,
Speaker 5: as the guys that they have right now, but they've
Speaker 5: got a bunch of other guys. You know, Zipper who
Speaker 5: has been in the program, Otto Tea who's new to
Speaker 5: the program, the Ryan Davis kid who came from New Mexico.
Speaker 5: With Jason Beck who's been in the Pro. There's some
Speaker 5: guys that have been there. But I think that they're
Speaker 5: trying to figure out what the hierarchy is. So it's
Speaker 5: gonna be really interesting for me to be able to
Speaker 5: talk to Jason Beck and see what he's seen over
Speaker 5: spring football. But to your point, because there haven't been
Speaker 5: a lot of names that have really jumped out, it
Speaker 5: wouldn't surprise me if maybe wide receiver was an area
Speaker 5: they look. Now, you know, here's your problem at wide receiver.
Speaker 5: Your problem at wide receiver is the elite guys are
Speaker 5: probably on teams and if an elite guy comes out,
Speaker 5: then you're gonna you know, it's going to be a
Speaker 5: bidding war for somebody like that. So I think that
Speaker 5: they would look to add somebody who's probably got a
Speaker 5: little bit of a resume already that's probably played and
Speaker 5: produced some places. But I think wide receiver might be
Speaker 5: an area that they could look. But I'll find out
Speaker 5: a little bit more. After the talk, I am able
Speaker 5: to talk to Jason Beck.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you're hearing about Devon, about Devon damp here.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've had an opportunity over the past
Speaker 1: couple of months to both Jason Beck and coach w
Speaker 1: and Morgan too, who joined last week. But I you know,
Speaker 1: I asked Jason, and I asked Kyle this too.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how much he loved it, but I asked.
Speaker 1: Both of them, like, Devn's the guy, right, like based
Speaker 1: off of just the difficulty.
Speaker 2: Certainly the health has been the biggest thing.
Speaker 1: But you know, we certainly have a Utah football fan
Speaker 1: base that I think at times were frustrated with the
Speaker 1: lack of information and the ambiguity surrounding your starting quarterback
Speaker 1: under center. And I'm not putting that on any one person,
Speaker 1: and I will maintain that Cameron Rising should never pay
Speaker 1: for a beer again in Salt Lake and should be
Speaker 1: remembered as a legend as he exits stage left. But
Speaker 1: you know, Jason said, yeah, the jobs Devn's and Kyle said, yeah,
Speaker 1: if we were playing tomorrow, Devon's our starting quarterback. So
Speaker 1: at least there there's no ambiguity around.
Speaker 2: The decision, at least as of now.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you're hearing about the progress of Utah's
Speaker 1: quarterback Devin damp Here.
Speaker 5: He's he's spectacular spence in the times I've had a
Speaker 5: chance to watch him, and I've I've been able.
Speaker 4: To get over to a number of practices.
Speaker 5: He is electric. I can't think of a quarterback Utah
Speaker 5: has had in the last twenty five years that's comparable
Speaker 5: to his skill set. And I say that from an
Speaker 5: athleticism standpoint. As good an athlete as Tyler Huntley was,
Speaker 5: Devin Dampier is a better athlete than Tyler Huntley.
Speaker 4: He's just got.
Speaker 5: The ability to do and move and do things that
Speaker 5: other quarterbacks haven't been able to do. Now again, he's
Speaker 5: doing it in practice against a defense that's been relatively vanilla.
Speaker 5: You know, Morgan Scali will dial it up from time
Speaker 5: to time, but he is a very unique athlete and
Speaker 5: his passing and I watched a lot of his stuff
Speaker 5: from New Mexico a year ago. His accuracy, at least
Speaker 5: in practice and on the practice field looks like it's
Speaker 5: gotten better to me. But here's the thing you've got
Speaker 5: to love talking to the.
Speaker 4: Coaches up there. He is a leader already.
Speaker 5: Now, some of that has to do with the fact
Speaker 5: that he knew the Awe offense coming in. That's the
Speaker 5: leg up he had on everybody else. But he is
Speaker 5: a guy that people have kind of been attracted to.
Speaker 5: He's been kind of a teammate magnet, and he is
Speaker 5: most definitely a leader on the field and in the
Speaker 5: in the classroom as well in the in the film room,
Speaker 5: and in the offensive meeting room.
Speaker 4: So I've not heard one.
Speaker 5: Thing on or off the field that is in any way,
Speaker 5: shape or form negative about Devin dan Pier. He has
Speaker 5: been really impressive this spring with his new teammates.
Speaker 1: When it comes to just the dynamic bill of spring football,
Speaker 1: what over the years, since you've been doing this for
Speaker 1: as long as you have, because you're really old, what
Speaker 1: are some of the things that are real that you
Speaker 1: would say to the fan base, Because for me, it's
Speaker 1: always just been an excuse for those of us that
Speaker 1: are in this space to do this for hours every day,
Speaker 1: to actually talk college football in the spring, and for
Speaker 1: college football fans that are chomping at the bit always
Speaker 1: because they're crazy people in Addicts reminded that it is
Speaker 1: coming back. But what are real things that the coaching
Speaker 1: staff is trying to implement that we can actually learn
Speaker 1: from spring ball.
Speaker 5: Well, I think it's athleticism more than anything else, and
Speaker 5: football moves. It's not that somebody breaks a fifty yard
Speaker 5: touchdown in practice. It's how they break the fifty yard touchdown.
Speaker 5: A guy like Wayshan Parker who's able to he looks
Speaker 5: the part of running back one. They've got four really
Speaker 5: good running backs on the team right now, but Parker
Speaker 5: looks different than the other three. Maybe that's because he
Speaker 5: had a really good freshman year at Washington State. But
Speaker 5: I think when you see guys out there athleticism and
Speaker 5: you know the freakishness that some of these guys possess,
Speaker 5: that's what flashes for you. It's not the fact that
Speaker 5: they score a touchdown or they do well against the
Speaker 5: ones or the twos. It's when you see a guy
Speaker 5: come out of a break and he leaves the defensive
Speaker 5: back of the dust, or you see a defensive back
Speaker 5: make a break on a ball and a really nice
Speaker 5: play against the first team offense. To me, I don't
Speaker 5: look at the overall results because again, those can come
Speaker 5: and go in spring football. It's how they got there.
Speaker 5: It's how they made the play. It's out jumping somebody
Speaker 5: or outrunning somebody, or just looking the part. So that's
Speaker 5: to me what usually translates. It's not that they, oh,
Speaker 5: they had a ninety yard touchdown run.
Speaker 4: That's not it for me.
Speaker 1: I asked Morgan this question last week, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was a typical coach answer, which I expected when
Speaker 1: it comes to preseason expectations.
Speaker 2: And look, we all know the truth of the matter.
Speaker 1: Coaches and players tell us they don't read, they don't listen,
Speaker 1: they don't watch, and they do they pay attention. And
Speaker 1: certainly in this day and age where we all have
Speaker 1: computers in our hand and the ability to be inun
Speaker 1: data with information twenty four or seven, you're going to
Speaker 1: be curious about what other people are expecting from you
Speaker 1: in this ecosystem. And last year, everybody expected you tough
Speaker 1: football to win the Big Twelve. Everybody expected you tough
Speaker 1: football to go the expanded CFP. This year, Bill, the
Speaker 1: pressure to do that is not there at all most
Speaker 1: of the way. Too early Big twelve predictions have utah
Speaker 1: about mid tier, about mid table, five, six or seven.
Speaker 1: Does the lack of pressure, take anything off the plate
Speaker 1: of these players and coaches, because coaches, whether it's Kyle
Speaker 1: or Kalani, we always hear the moniker in the message
Speaker 1: nobody believes in. You play with a chip on your shoulder.
Speaker 1: Remember everyone picked us six, seven, eight, not one, two
Speaker 1: or three. Does the lack of pressure do you think
Speaker 1: it bodes well for Utah football this year?
Speaker 5: Maybe a little bit, Spence, But what I would say
Speaker 5: is there's a lot more internal pressure. I think the
Speaker 5: lack of results, or the lack of usual results last
Speaker 5: year dials it up more internally because the bar has
Speaker 5: been set so high within the program. I could tell
Speaker 5: you Kyle Whittingham and those guys on that staff were
Speaker 5: really disappointed with how last year played out. Some of
Speaker 5: it was out of their control, like injuries, but you know,
Speaker 5: a five win season is not, you know, good by
Speaker 5: Utah standards. And so I think that there's a lot
Speaker 5: more internal pressure this year to have a bounce back
Speaker 5: year than there was any kind of external pressure even
Speaker 5: last year, because you know, Kyle Whittingham is not going
Speaker 5: to coach forever, and I don't think that he wants
Speaker 5: to have back to back down years toward the end
Speaker 5: of his career. So I just I think there's a
Speaker 5: lot more internal pressure to do well.
Speaker 4: But here's what I.
Speaker 5: Will tell you too, And I think you and I
Speaker 5: may have talked about this on prior hits about spring football.
Speaker 5: There's a real energy and a real kind of vibe
Speaker 5: around this team this spring, and I think some of
Speaker 5: it's the disappointment of last year, but I think some
Speaker 5: of it's the new blood and the new energy that stuff,
Speaker 5: you know, that that kind of Jason Beck and Micah
Speaker 5: Simon and Mark out to Why have brought in with
Speaker 5: the offense, and I think with this new offense, it
Speaker 5: has kind of brought a little bit out of the
Speaker 5: defense as well. So yeah, going back your original point,
Speaker 5: I think, you know, externally, there's not a lot of
Speaker 5: people talking about him, though some people are, but I
Speaker 5: think there's a lot of internal pressure to get back
Speaker 5: to where they've been the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting you reference that because I
Speaker 1: had a list of things I wanted to kick the
Speaker 1: tires with you today and one of the things I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you about is, you know you listen.
Speaker 2: To Kyle Morgan.
Speaker 1: You know you listen to all the coaches after practice
Speaker 1: and during their media availability, and ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: it is coach speak. Ninety nine percent of it is
Speaker 1: just kind of them filling their obligations, and I get it.
Speaker 1: But sometimes Kyle will say some things that kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, make me perk up a little bit.
Speaker 2: As my my antennas buzzing a little bit.
Speaker 1: And on a number of occasions, Bill, not once, not twice,
Speaker 1: multiple times he has said there's more positive energy in
Speaker 1: this building than we've had in quite some time, which
Speaker 1: struck me because Kyle's not one to run down former players.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's doing that, and he's not one
Speaker 1: to run down form or whatever, but just his expression
Speaker 1: of this positive energy around the club, the football team
Speaker 1: has caught me. It's got my attention on multiple times.
Speaker 1: So elaborate on that and maybe specifically what you've seen
Speaker 1: and felt from Kyle himself.
Speaker 5: I just think that there's some people that I think
Speaker 5: the new offensive staff brought a new offensive energy and
Speaker 5: kind of a new excitement around the program, and that
Speaker 5: certainly jumps start of the offensive side of things, but
Speaker 5: I think it's been kind of contagious on the defensive
Speaker 5: side as well, because they're seeing all this energy in
Speaker 5: this everything that's going on over there. And I think
Speaker 5: there's some of it too, is there's a lot of
Speaker 5: new faces on this team. There's you know, your roster,
Speaker 5: whether you're Utah or your BYU or your Tennessee or
Speaker 5: you or your Alabama, you're turning your roster over. So
Speaker 5: I think some of the new faces, to go along
Speaker 5: with some of the new energy on the offensive side
Speaker 5: and some of the new terminology has really done that.
Speaker 5: And I think it's permeated through the players and the staff,
Speaker 5: and I think the head coach has felt some of
Speaker 5: that too, and I think there's an excitement about that.
Speaker 5: I think Kyle decided he was going to come back
Speaker 5: to coach again. I think he felt a little re
Speaker 5: energized by it. So I think he's brought that with it.
Speaker 1: All Right, a couple of minutes left, so let's do
Speaker 1: a little basketball as Alex Jensen will potentially be coaching
Speaker 1: his last game with the Dallas Mavericks tonight, so you know,
Speaker 1: potentially we'll see that they win. They're going to maybe
Speaker 1: have one other game, but Alex might be a week
Speaker 1: away from leaving Dallas behind and moving here, moving back
Speaker 1: here well where he will be the seventeenth head coach
Speaker 1: in the history of the Utah men's basketball program. Before
Speaker 1: we get to the specifics, bill from your vantage point
Speaker 1: thirty thousand foot view about a month, month and a
Speaker 1: half of Alex's tenures so far.
Speaker 2: What are the main takeaways.
Speaker 5: Well, I think that he's finally beginning to get his
Speaker 5: staff in place, and I think that's important. I think
Speaker 5: the HighRes this week and getting close to completing his
Speaker 5: staff are big. I do know, though I don't know
Speaker 5: a lot of exact names. I know that they've had
Speaker 5: a lot of visitors on campus. I know that the coach,
Speaker 5: the staff that's here, Chileus, the GM, some of the
Speaker 5: other staff members are really working hard right now. So
Speaker 5: I think that they're they're vetting. I think they're doing
Speaker 5: their time. They're kind of doing the work and vetting
Speaker 5: these guys. I don't think they're just going out willy
Speaker 5: nilly and grabbing guys, because I think that they want
Speaker 5: to you know, as Alex has said, and I think
Speaker 5: he's probably said it with you and said it on
Speaker 5: Sean Show too.
Speaker 4: He wants to build it the right way.
Speaker 5: And doesn't want to just grab guys for the sake
Speaker 5: of grabbing guys, because I think we've seen how that's
Speaker 5: worked in some other places and it doesn't necessarily work.
Speaker 5: So I think that the I think he's had a plan.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people have maybe not necessarily
Speaker 5: felt it because he's not here full time. But the
Speaker 5: sense I've gotten is he's working a lot behind the scenes,
Speaker 5: and he's got the staff in place. It's working too,
Speaker 5: So I think as he's filling out this staff, I
Speaker 5: think we're going to be starting to see more and
Speaker 5: more players. I think we've got, you know, four commitments
Speaker 5: right now, or four guys they got a commitment today
Speaker 5: according to some of the reports, and then you've got
Speaker 5: Dawes and Terence Brown and James o'conno who have committed publicly.
Speaker 5: So I I think that some of that stuff is
Speaker 5: good for them, and I think it's very interesting to see,
Speaker 5: you know, how he's putting this thing together. But I
Speaker 5: like the patients that they'd come forward with.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like there you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: the positive energy on the football side of things, and
Speaker 1: I didn't talk to one person who felt like market
Speaker 1: landed on the right the wrong choice with Alex. It's
Speaker 1: one of the rare hires for my prism where everybody
Speaker 1: felt It felt to me like everybody was on board.
Speaker 1: Do you have any context as far as the positive
Speaker 1: energy around the basketball program, whether or not they're receiving
Speaker 1: phone calls for seizing ticket deposits and you know, a
Speaker 1: basketball community build they're quite frankly has been more or
Speaker 1: less dormant since Rick left. If we're honest with truncated
Speaker 1: moments here or there, what has been the buzz in
Speaker 1: the building around the new era that we're in now
Speaker 1: with Alex Jensen as the coach.
Speaker 5: Everybody here is excited about expense. I haven't talked to
Speaker 5: ticketing per se about you know, whether their ticket numbers
Speaker 5: are up, but I just know that there's a real
Speaker 5: buzz and talking to some folks in the Crimson Club,
Speaker 5: they've gotten great feedback and positive vibes from it too,
Speaker 5: So I think everything has been really really positive. As
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, Alex is beloved here as a
Speaker 5: former player and former just a local guy that's got
Speaker 5: such great ties. But everything to this point in time
Speaker 5: that I've heard or been talked to about is really
Speaker 5: positive about the hire.
Speaker 1: Last thing, what to you will indicate next year? Because
Speaker 1: I've been asked this a million times, and first of all,
Speaker 1: we don't know who the players are going to be,
Speaker 1: so it's impossible to analyze how good the team is
Speaker 1: going to be. But if you look at what the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve could be next year, Houston is going to
Speaker 1: be impossible. Again, They've got a bunch of transfers coming
Speaker 1: in to replace some of the players that are leaving
Speaker 1: your rock Chop Jayhawks are bringing in a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of transfers and talent byus open up the checkbook. And
Speaker 1: there's a rumor that they're going to grab the Williams
Speaker 1: kid from Texas Tech, which might make them a top
Speaker 1: ten team in college basketball next year. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: Bill to be very diligent to set expectations year one
Speaker 1: so Alex doesn't get a bunch of heat on him
Speaker 1: if he's not one of the top four or five
Speaker 1: teams of the Big Twelve. So, just generally speaking, what
Speaker 1: will you look for next year to indicate that this
Speaker 1: thing is at least moving in the right direction.
Speaker 5: But I think it's being competitive in the Big Twelve
Speaker 5: and winning.
Speaker 4: Games on the road and.
Speaker 5: Being you know, being in contention for you know, a
Speaker 5: being in the top half of the league, because if
Speaker 5: you're in the top half of the league, you're then
Speaker 5: in contention for an NCUBLEA tournament first. So it'll be
Speaker 5: interesting to see, you know, once the rosters put together,
Speaker 5: how that looks. But I think that's progress. I think
Speaker 5: being in the top half of one of the best
Speaker 5: leagues in the country and also being talked about, you know,
Speaker 5: when joeln already's putting bracketology and stuff together. That's that's
Speaker 5: important too, because I think that's the standard that you know,
Speaker 5: Mark Harlin and and Taylor Randall said they want to
Speaker 5: be an nc Double eight tournament team. So I think
Speaker 5: competing for an NCAA tournament birth and being in that conversation,
Speaker 5: that's progress.
Speaker 1: Wednesday, June twenty fifth, the NBA Draft will take place,
Speaker 1: and a little birdie tells me that we might see
Speaker 1: the triumph return of the former program director and longtime
Speaker 1: host over here at ESPN seven hundred to do a
Speaker 1: little radios can you coroborate those reports?
Speaker 4: Bill?
Speaker 5: You know, it sounds like I was extended an invitation
Speaker 5: on the air while I was listening to Third Eye
Speaker 5: Blind and you and and Porter talking the other day.
Speaker 4: A chance to be.
Speaker 5: In studio with you and Gordie to talk about the draft.
Speaker 5: I mean, I you know, maybe at full six, maybe
Speaker 5: we do just six seven hours go into the wee
Speaker 5: hours of the morning. It sounds like something that would
Speaker 5: excite me.
Speaker 1: Love to see it, love to hear it. We'll look
Speaker 1: forward to catching up with the Bill. Thanks for your
Speaker 1: time today, and have a great week.
Speaker 4: Okay, see a Saturday expense.
Speaker 1: Bill Riiley, Voice of the Utes. Saturday is the spring
Speaker 1: game Forever twenty two game. Go to utah Utes dot
Speaker 1: com to get some