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he's time to get to know the folk Bau basketball again.
Prepkin ready for the Colorado Buffalo's. They are heavy favorite
in this game. Buffaloes I have had their ups and
downs this season. They're fourteen eleven on the year, four
and eight in the Big Twelve, and they're looking to
write the Ship versus a Formidable Foe and byub Wa
Universe twenty two in the Nation, eighteen and six overall,
six and five in Big twelve.
Speaker 1: Play Finally Gotta Win on the Road.
Speaker 2: Versus Baylor recently and it'll be a Valentine special, That's right.
February fourteen, two pm tip off on FS one to
get to know the Foe, We're gonna welcome in an
insider and a voice of the Colorado Buffalos. And this
segment's gonna be brought to you by Game Day Men's
Health game Day Men's Health dot Com. If you're looking
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Speaker 1: All right, let's get out to the let's get out
to the hotline.
Speaker 2: Let's start some Colorado Buffalo basketball ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girl, let's welcome in the voice of the Colorado Buffalo's.
Speaker 1: We got Mark Johnson on the line. Mark, how that
are you?
Speaker 3: Well? A fantastic and I hope the way that you
guys have been playing all season long and the way
the Bufflos are playing on the road that being at
this Valentine's Day, you'll be somewhat loving to us on.
Speaker 2: Saturday when we get Hey, man, you know, we always
try to be kind to everyone that comes into the
friendly confines of the Marriott Center, no doubt. But it'll
be I'm sure a competitive one, no doubt. Look, the
Buffs have had their ups and downs this season, and
recently your head coach went off on a bit of
a diatrode post game.
Speaker 1: They are fantastic quotes.
Speaker 2: Give us a little breakdown what happened over the last
twenty four to forty eight hours with the Buffalo basketball
team and your head coach.
Speaker 3: Well, what what's going on is You've got you've got
a young basketball team in the University of Colorado. There's
one senior and he doesn't play much at all, and
so it's it's mainly all freshman and sophomores. BEng Got
Decket is a junior and he'll start. And so this
team a little bit immature. It's talented, but immature. And
here's what we're seeing with Colorado right now. Every team's
going to be a little different home in the way
this team is really jackling Hyde home and away, you know,
two wednesdays in a row. So you think of the
last four games, Bus have gone two and two, had
two nice wins at home, one over TCU, one over
Arizona State, and then sandwiched around those two where two
lopsided losses, one at Iowa State and than one at
Texas Tech last night. Now those are quality opponents, make
the mistake about it, but this is same Texas Tech
team they lost two by thirty four last night that
they lost you by two at home just a few
weeks ago. And so it's really an extreme team. And
what is getting Tad's at boils, you know, blood boiling,
is the fact that they've been so different home and
away from a I think from an intensity standpoint, from
a toughness standpoint. So last night he comes on the
postgame radio chill had it, carried it into the postgame
press conference, and said he's not sure that the team
is worthy of taking the charter home. He thought maybe
should book them on a six am flight, would have
been this morning. And I very quickly corrected him, said,
you know, I called him over here, so I paid
my dues. I'm okay getting unther charter. The rest of
you can stay back, but I want to go home
with the charter tonight. So's he's a competitive guy. He
rarely has an unspoken thought, and he's very honest most
of the time. But he was frustrated and very honest
last night.
Speaker 2: Well, I can understand he's a little bit frustrated with
his team. Right now, what's been the trajection of this team?
I mean, overall, you're like, hey, fourteen and eleven team,
they are struggling in the Big twelve. We know the
Big twelve is a gauntlet, but they've been competitive in
many of these games, right I mean, you look at
that Texas Tech matchup, It's like, hey, we were right
there knocking on the door. Cincinnati was a close one.
West Virginia had its back and forth. Kansas was a
close one. It was when you were within striking distance.
Even UCF the Iowa State game got away. Yeh beat TCU,
Baylor got away from you. That was a disappointing one.
Arizona State you bounced back, and then the Texas Tech
can go around was a flop.
Speaker 1: But doodle, what's happened.
Speaker 3: Well, it's kind of interesting that this team is early
on hees and if you look at the offensive numbers
for Colorado, it's a very I mean, the number is impressive. Right,
you know, they're able to score well. They shoot well
forty eight, forty nine, fifty percent. They've had a good
three point shooting team all year long. Generally they took
care of the ball well under ten. The game of
the last night was sixteen. And so they've done a
lot of things well on the offensive team. But like
a lot of young players, they gain their identity and
their energy for a game by what happens on the
offensive end. So last night, tax clamping down defensively and
instead of okay, let's pick up our intensity in a
defensive end. And okay, if you got to win this game.
You know, sixty to fifty seven, let's do that. You know,
they continued to fire, continue to get their head down,
then head Town have intensity on the defensive end. During
Tad Boyle's tenure here fifteen previous seasons, this has been
a program built on defensive rebounding, and this team lacks
in both of those areas, despite the fact they're physically
capable of doing that. And so that in itself becomes
the problem that they identify offensively instead of living defensively
and rebounding and then letting the offense come. And that's
why that's where the discrepancy has been on this team.
And and while he's getting so frustrated.
Speaker 2: Right now, well, it's it's always difficult to go through
long losing streaks.
Speaker 1: Right there.
Speaker 2: There was a there was a tough stretch there. It
was a six game losing streak. You thought you got
back into the swing of things with a dominant victory
over TCU, then you drop to Baylor, you beat Arizona State,
then you lose the Texas Tech. Is this the bounce back?
We've gone one win lost, win lost? Are they looking
confident enough to get a win on the road?
Speaker 1: At b YU.
Speaker 3: Well, I think they're certainly capable. Now, though obviously that'd
be a very steep hill to climb considering what BYU
isn't kind of the personnel that the Cougars have. And
so but with this team, uh, I think what's frustrating
about it? And we all know, like you mentioned just
a moment ago, the Big Twelve is an unforgiving league.
It's the best college basketball league in America. We all
understand that. So you're going to face a Byu or
a Techer in Iowa State or Kansas or you know
Houston or you know Arizona any given week, and sometimes
you stack them up three four in a row, and
it gets me very difficult. So when you are a
young squad like Colorado is, and then let's just be
real honest about it. What college athletics is I'm pretty
sure it's either fifteenth or sixteen. The Buff's roster payroll
is either dead last or next to dead last in
the Big Twelve. And so you're bringing a knife to
a gunfight in some respects Now, is that an excuse
for losing? No? Is it a contributing factor? It can be.
And so this is a talented team. I mean right now,
this freshman class, you know, you've got so many guys
like you know the Maaster where you're at another freshman
around the league that are so good. He kind of
gets lost in the mix. But Isaiah Johnson is a
very good freshman. He leads the Buffalo is a sixteen
pointsoot ball game. He's got NBA ties. His godfather is
is Dwayne Wade. His dad works with Lebron James. And
you know we're down to Tempe and Chris Paul shows
up to be So this kid has been around here
NBA basketball and playing against NBA players. Said, he's on
fourteen or fifteen years old, so he's got a very
high upside. He's he got of defies by what he
looks like, by how he plays. Looks like he's fourteen
years old, ways aboute hundred and sixty five pounds, but
a very talented kid. There's Jayalen holland, Josiah Sanders, ian
Enman Tacowe following. These are all really talented young guys,
but they don't know what they don't know at the
age of eighteen years old, and so there's going to
be some ups and downs. With this team, and you
know last night they had it down and so they're
hoping to bounce back, but you got to do it
on the road against another very quality team, a top
level team, and so it's not going to be easy
when they take on the BYU.
Speaker 2: Let's get a scouting report on these bops from a
personnel standpoint. You named off a few of these players.
I know Isaiah Johnson is the leading score of this team,
and there's some some good big men on this team
as well. I think there's some talent. You mentioned that
they're more than capable of beating many of these big
twelve teams, and they've showcased that. Let's get a little
personnel breakdown if you could.
Speaker 3: Well, therein lies the issue right there, and you saw
it last night. I don't know this is the box
score in front of you, but the two guys that
were supposed to be even though there are only ones
in upperclassman Payne got Dak is just about seven feet
tall and he's a pogo stick and a real bouncy guy.
A little on the green side, but he was going
to be one of the two guys that were going
to really build her out with all the freshmen coming in. Okay,
you're gonna be one of the guys. And then Sebastian Ronchik,
who's a sophomore from Slovaki sixty eleven, highly skilled guy.
I mean, he's got an NBA look about him. Now,
is he mentally tough enough to move out of the
NBA that's the question mark because he's been very inconsistent.
He can shoot it, he could put it on the floor.
He's kind of a stretch forward type, but really has
got an NBA game about him. Those guys last night
were horble in that game against Texas Tech. In fact,
one of the coaching staff I was driving home last
night after we land and shot me a quick text
about some of the numbers about what the three bigs
for Tech did, and it was, you know, phenomenal shooting,
fifty percent shooting and scored you know, thirty two points
or something combined, and the two bigs for Colorado only
had I think it was three points between the two
of them at about five rebounds and five turnovers on
top of it. So they've been inconsistent. That is probably
the major if you're going to kind of finger one
thing you point to that the two guys that were
supposed to elevate and be the cornerstone to the team
and allow the young guys to kind of come in
and grow a little bit haven't been as good consistently
as they should have been. Now do they have great games.
Just the game before Sebastian Rodgerson went out, I had
seventeen points, eleven rebounds, and a win over Arizona State
and was the best player in the court that night.
Hit what three or four three pointers in that ball game,
grabbed the four or five offensive rebounds, and so they're
very capable, but they might lead the parade and inconsistency,
and that's probably most troubling about that. Outside of that,
Barrington Hargress is a transfer guard from UC Riverside average
over twenty eight games froe of the top scorers in
the country a year ago. He has been wonderful. Now
he's six foot one, average about four or five assists
for ball game. Is this is eternal oprations about three
and a half to one. He has been as solid
as they come. So the two guys in the backcourt,
Barrington Hargress and Isaiah Johnson, have been kind of the
steadying force in this thing. The other youngsters have come
in and played well at different times. Those two bigs,
like I said, I've got to find themselves more consistency
down the stretch before we get to Kansas City.
Speaker 2: Well, I love the breakdown from I don't know if
you've chatted with the coaches or any of the players
about their scouting report on b Yu. But what's the
buzz there amongst the Buffaloes regarding the formidable foe that
he's BYU at the Merriage Center on Valentine's Day?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there wasn't much talk about that. I'm supposed to
get together with the coaches, got the scout later on
today and get a couple of comments from him on that.
But obviously, you know, you think about we've seen b
Yu last year he had the band said he is
obviously maybe the number one pick in the upcoming draft,
and he's dynamic with what he does. And Richie Saunders,
of course we saw him enough last year or know
that what he was able to do. And and then
you know, Robert writes a very quality players, so you know,
there's what we understand what you're getting up against. Uh,
you know, when you when you start playing BYU, the
way they shoot the ball, the way they rebound the ball,
what they do. It's a quality of quality opponent, like
like you kind of get used to in this league, right,
And so there's no you know, thoughts that somehow, you know,
we're walking into a situation where you got you know,
an opportunity where where the bops are sitting right now,
if you look at this and say, okay, this is
the game, we're really going to come in and we
got a chance to win this one. We thought that
going down the Baylor here, it's a true time ago
didn't work out that night. Now, this team BYU is
a lot better than what Baylor is. Baylor's talented, BYU
is a better team, and so I think it's a
great challenge for Colorado win SATA, no.
Speaker 1: Doubt about it.
Speaker 2: We got Mark Johnson on the line, Cougar Sports, HESBA
the fan, Mark Johnson, the voice of the Colorado Buffalo's
talking to buff Ball here on your Utah ESPN Radio network.
It's you know, obviously be always favored in this one,
heavily favored. You've been watching Big twelve basketball now, I
guess reignited, right compared contrast Big twelve basketball of the
prior I guess Colorado era before jumping into the PAC twelve,
and what the Big twelve looks like now.
Speaker 3: Well, it's totally different. You know. It's interesting because you know,
Colorado has got the phenomenal history in the league. Big seven,
Big eight, Big twelve one are the original members of it,
and so there was always that great history. When Colorado
made the jump in Tad Boyle's second year to the
PAC twelve, you understood the reasoning behind it. There were
a lot of fans that weren't happy about, you know,
kind of leaving behind the old old Big eight, Big twelve,
but you understood because Colorado's fan base or alumni base,
i should say, is really East coast or West coast heavy,
very heavy in California, and so it made sense in
that regard. And there are other things. Now, let's be
honest about it, the expanded PAC twelve and the leadership
that league. We're an unmitigated disaster in terms of how
they handled things, what they did, they ruined it. Larry
Scott might be go down as one of the worst
commissioners in the history of sports. I mean, a guy
who was a clown. And so you see that thing
fall apart, and and so you come back now with
this ever shifting ground. We'reund in college athletics and you
know nil and transfer portals and all that and kind
of get reunited with the old conference. But I mean,
look how different it is. You know, I joke all
the time during the football season, I said, boy, nothing
says Big twelve Conference, you know, football like Colorado at
West Virginia. I mean, it just you know, doesn't doesn't
seem to resonate with us. Now, with that being said,
it's a very good and fine football league, but it
is a spectacular basketball league. And so when you've got
you know, the Pac twelve leftovers that moved on from Arizona,
you know, Colorado, Arizona State, Utah comes in there by
you joins from the outside. And then you add Central
Florida has become kind of an interesting program in terms
of the money they're spending down there. West Virginia's got
great history, and in Cincinnati, which has you know, got
final fours in its history. You've created this monster conference
that I think is is better than virtually anything in
the country right now and can play with anybody. There's
a reason, you know, why there's what six seven teams
rank in the top twenty five and everyone I think
still everyone but Utah. I think the last I checked
is in the top one hundred of the net. And
so it's such a monster and that's why it's so grueling,
you know, gaming and game outs. You know, one of
the coaches said the other day to me that, you know,
we wouldn't have faced this kind of schedule in the
whole Pac twelve. Not you wouldn't have. Because what this
thing is now is really special from a basketball standpoint,
but it makes it tough on everybody. And if you're
having a year where maybe you're a little bit young,
or you suffer some injuries or guys don't pan out,
you bet you better get ready because you're gonna take
your lumps.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get your opinion after this particular game,
after watching aj to Bonds up close and personal, you've
seen Darren Peterson recently. He played I think one of
the few games thirty two minutes, sixteen points. I think
he was six to fifteen versus the Boffs, three of
five for the three point line and one for two
from the charity stripe, six rebounds, he had two turnovers
in that game. I can't wait to get your opinion
on who you would take number one overall in the
NBA draft.
Speaker 1: Mark.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting. My partner and I Scott Wilke,
who was a great player for the Buffalos back in
the eighties, went on and played professionally, sniffed around the
NBA for a while, was over in Europe for out
of the fourteen to fifteen years. And this is just
a basketball junkie we got. Being that we had time
to talk about such things in the second half of
that ball game last night. We got into those kind
of conversations because there are some great freshmen in this league,
and we kind of went back and forth. And you
know Peterson recently here with his decision not to play
against Arizona. He's had a ball game earlier. We had
been playing the second half, and you're like, Okay, you're talented.
Make no mistake about that one we saw him. I
was wildly impressed with what he is as a player,
But that bothers you. I've been impressed with the Boston
and kind of his commitments and the way he plays.
I think I would take him. That would be my
pick there, and I'd shive away a little bit way
from Peterson simply because of kind of the external things
that are going on around him that that body a
little bit. But then again, we're going to deal more
and more with that in college athletics when we got
a professional feel and a professional approach and professional money.
So that's going to become part of what we're dealing with.
But at this level, you want to see guys that
are hungry and they're competing and they've got a little
nasty to them, and and so you don't see that
from every one of the guys. And that's why I'm
looking forward to seeing demonsty in in you know, in
person this weekend, because I've seen enough highlights and I've
watched some of the games and got a good look
at him and a great appreciation for what he is.
But you know, you never truly get that feel until
you're sitting right in front of him and kind of
see him perform.
Speaker 2: I get the feeling mark that you're you're an anti
load management guy, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a dirty word. Well,
I'll take you a great explanation here. You know, Marshall Funk,
who was another football staff here at Colorado last year. Yeah,
and I was doing an event with Mark. We were
talking about this every thing, and I said, he said,
give me your opinions, and he said, what we've done
and he used, you know, on that staff, he had
Deon Sanders obviously, and Warren Stamp And he says, well,
Dianna and Warren and I were coming up. College was
our next step to get to the goal, and we
knew that we had to fight and work hard and
bleed and all that kind of stuff and sweat to
get there because then we'd get the reward. He says,
what we've done now, we've given the eighteen nineteen year
old the reward. It has taken the motivation away. And
he said it from his standpoint, he says, I see
it in the eyes of the players that I'm coaching.
Some of them are hardworking kids, but there's there's not
that incredible hunger of this is how I get out.
He said, that's gone. I had it, Prime added Warren
add it other great the players had it, and then
you you know, get that reward once you get to
the National Football League of the NBA. And he said,
we've taken that away. From these guys, and he said,
I wonder long term how that's going to affect our game.
And I think it was an interesting thought by him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how do you teach competitive nature? How do you
teach a sense of urgency? How do you teach like
that that hunger of like it's you know, I don't
want to say fear, but you know there is a
bit of a fear of like, oh my gosh, I
could lose this at any moment. I gotta I gotta
show up. I gotta compete. I I It's a fight
or flight type of deal.
Speaker 1: How do you teach that there.
Speaker 3: Is no doubt? You know? I once heard somebody say
that rock Bottom has created more success than privilege ever has.
And when you get a guy and you're backed up
against the wall and you know that's your only way out,
you were going to do everything to get there, and
you know, very few guys are naturally have that killer instincts.
You know, when you get great talents and great work
ethic and great killer instinct you put it together. You
get Michael Jordan, right, you get Special, you get Kobe Bryant.
Those guys are unique. How many times do we see
in pro sports, a guy that you know, he's fighting
along in his career and then he it's the big contract,
and all of a sudden, you see the level of
intensity kind of kind of tail off a little bit.
I mean, that's human nature. We all got to fight that.
Some guys are better at it than others. And I
don't know how you teach beyond that. You know, it
seems to me in my experience being an old guy.
You know, I think I think it's innate or it's not.
It's either in there or it's not. I don't know
that you can teach killer instinct, you know. And you
think of the greatest athletes we've ever seen, and go
on down the line with Bird and Jordan and Gretzky
and Tiger Woods and you know, pick all the great
ones out. They all had that. I think of eightly,
And I'm not sure if you can teach it, but
I do think you can dampen it early on by
getting too much comfort and you know, kind of making
things easy on guys. And I do wonder if that's
going to affect to our game.
Speaker 2: Love that perspective, Mark John said, The voice of the
Colorado Buffalo is one last thing before I let you go, Mark,
because I know this is you're in lockstep with me
on this one.
Speaker 1: Arm at arm.
Speaker 2: I have found it refreshing. Okay, well, let me take
a step back. Over the last like ten to fifteen,
may even twenty years, I've seen like kind of a god,
Deity and Christ take a back seat in the postgame interview, right,
you know, praising God, and like it's it's had a
revival of resurgence over the last two to three years
collegiately and professionally, and I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I've heard so many testimonies time and time again postgame
and and look, these athletes are not perfect. They fall
short in many ways personally, spiritually, morally, ethically, all those things.
But like, I just love the fact that they're they're
putting their faith on their sleeve and promoting faith in
an era that has kind of ridiculed it a bit.
Speaker 3: Well, we live in a world that is very hostile,
and we understand that from scripture, don't we. And for
your listeners that don't know what I was going to
be there as sportscaster, a pastor and I am actually
a pastor, a pastor a lot and preach a lot
and do a lot of that kind of stuff. And
so that's something that's near and dear to my heart.
And you know, in a role like mine, who a
guy that works for the institution not gonna be very
careful when I approach his anthles, sure about that, right,
go up and start those conversations. But I can respond
to the conversations. And so over the course of time,
a lot of young men have come up and started
those conversations with me that I'm allowed to. And so
having those conversations, I love the fact and a lot
of times with these young guys, it's it might be immature, right,
they're not fully understanding where it comes from, but what
it's ald about and how it works. But there's an interest,
there's an intrigue, and they're looking for comfort in some respects,
they're looking for dealing with the stress. And I understand that,
and I think it's important then for those that are
in those positions then to encourage those young men to
understand what it's all about. Right. And I'll tell you
a great story. Once I what young man that I
was kind of talking to in a regular basis, I
walked the locker room. He's got a shirt off, and
we've all seen this with asley try they got the tattoo.
Only God can judge me, and it was kind of funny.
And I walk up to and I said, a nice tattoo,
and he goes great, and I said, what does that
mean to you? And he so he tells me. And
then I said to him, I said, you're right, and
he will according to scripture, and that should terrify you, right,
which is why you And so it prompted a great
conversation with him about what that means. And I love
the fact we're seeing listen, anytime the Gospels preach man,
I'm all for it. And you're seeing that more and
more and more. And then I think it's important for
all of us older guys to kind of help them
along and kind of take that walk down their faith.
And so you're never gonna hear me poo poo that
kind of idea.
Speaker 2: Love it, Mark. I knew you'd be in lockstep with
me on that one. Big Kugarota. You man, enjoy the
call here in the marriage center and enjoy provo if
you get out and about get up to sundance. Get
up to Sundance. The Foundry is the best place for anything.
The Cowboy Bar is pretty cool too. Some live music
if you can catch it. I know you guys are
gonna be calling the game, but if you're gonna stay
a little bit longer after the game, or we have
some time prior on Friday night, feel free to do that.
We salute you, We appreciate you, Mark, and we'll see
in provo here shortly.
Speaker 3: I look forward to it. Take care, diego.
Speaker 1: Mark Johnson, the voice of the calling out of Buffalo's.
That was a no.
Speaker 2: The faux segment. It was a great one. Fantastic interview.
I love Chatt and Ball with Mark Jarnson. Guys, that's
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