Speaker 1: Sports on k O v O probo k U d
d H D two one O three nine at ninety
eight three ESPN, the band stream.
Speaker 2: Us live on ESPN theban dot com.
Speaker 1: This 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 3: And welcome back to Cougar Sports here on one O
three nine and ninety eight three esp and the fan
Ronald the three man Weaver here holding it down for
Ben Crittle on this Friday, February sixth edition of Cougar Sports,
taking you through the weekend, getting caught up on all
the news and notes, so happened today and tomorrow before
we come back next week.
Speaker 1: Then we'll be back.
Speaker 3: He is taking care of some family businesses, some celebration matters.
We wish him well in those endeavors. Gonna get into
a little Cougar Beat to start off the third hour
Cougar Sports our interview portion as we'll live from our
Bandwell studios of band Wealth All. He asked, if you
get a free Q and a no obligation to invest
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Speaker 3: If you want to save money or taxes, Blaye Anderson
and his crew can help aid and support you and
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Premo golf Apparel dot com. Without further ado, let's get
out to the ESPN the Fan Hotline and welcome in
our first guest. He should be honored first guest of
today's program. We got Sean Walkerkiss dot com. Seonathan, how
we doing today?
Speaker 4: Ron? You know I'm doing great because today I just
want to wish a happy National holiday to you. Sin
You're one of the first people I've talked to today.
For those who don't know, I'm a big well you
probably know me. I'm a big college football guy. I
love you our football. I'm a big college basketball guy.
You know this about me. I love me some college basketball.
Speaker 1: You also love that too.
Speaker 4: Yes, my Twitter followers and the esteemed bank credill remind
me that I'm also a soccer guy apparently, but I
do love me the world's game of football, beautiful game. Uh.
But you know what sport officially starts today That is
the greatest sport on the planet or the greatest collection
of sports, I should say on the planet. That would
be none other that than Leilano Cortina Winter Olympics over.
Speaker 1: The Winter Olympics.
Speaker 4: So so happy to have the opening ceremonies to you
and and yours, I.
Speaker 3: Guess happy to open ceremony. Some people are tuned into
the Winter Olympics. I need to do better. I am
not a Winter Olympics guy. I did watch the hockey
growing up when I was a kid, but I've tuned
out to that because Team Canada just seems to kick
booty all the time. They're the it's the best hockey nation,
you know, in the in the world, so no doubt
about that. But yeah, the Winter Olympics here, I think
actually a group of b YU students, my former uh
you know, my my alma modern my the alumni. I
think they're actually over there covering the winter over there
covering the Winter Olympics. So yeah, it's crazy to think that,
you know, Utah will be hosting that sooner rather than later.
Speaker 4: Twenty thirty four. It comes back to local shores, to
the great state of Utah. And if you want to know,
just quick plug for you. Eighty two athletes in this
year's Winter Olympics currently have ties to Utah. That includes
ten international athletes. Some guy I know wrote all about him.
You can go find it a kissl dot com. I
from on to the fullest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you go to kisso dot com or kisso
dot com slash sports for some guy I can't remember
his name, you might have to remind me he wrote
about it.
Speaker 1: You can check it out there. He does great work.
Speaker 3: Let's get it to it. The good, the bad, and
the ugly. Sean, is there any good with BYU basketball?
There's a lot of bad and a lot of ugly
right now.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 4: No, I still think there's some good. I mean, this
is still a top twenty team. Like I know, everybody's down.
It's a three game losing free that's not good. Obviously,
and the way just be WHYU team is lost in
a row, I think is more disheartening. But I think
this is still a good team. It's still the top
twenty five teams. This is still probably a top twenty team. Realistically.
They've run into some trouble, but you also have to
consider some of the competition that they faced of these
three games, right I mean literally the number one team
of the country in Arizona, another team that I think
was probably underrated. That's definitely top fifteen, maybe even top
ten when Darren Peterson is playing at his best, and
he's playing at his best right now in Kansas. I
also think Ogahoma State is a little bit underrated right now.
I mean, this is a team that currently has a
home win over the at present, I'll say number one
team in the SEC in Texas A and M now
Taxas and then has a lot we won't go into it.
This is mostly the what you show. I don't expect
Texas A and M to wind up finishing atop the
SEC standings by the end of the year, but they're
there right now. And I think Bucky Ball is very
much working in college station. So it's a great story
we need to give them tons of props. And this
Okahoma State team beat them and still Water earlier this year,
back in November. So I mean, I think the stretch
that the Yu's in right now, like, yes, it's tough. Yes,
there are a lot of things that they need to
do better, particularly defensively, but this is still a team
with one of the best talents in the NCAA and
AJD Bronsa. It's still got one of the better senior
guards in the country and Richie Saunders. I think Rob
Wright the third has had moments both for good and
bad recently, but when Rob is at his best, he's
one of the best point guards in the country. So
the depth is starting to catch up up to them.
And look, Ron, We've talked about this both on air
and off there. This team is not very deep. It
hasn't been very deep, and I think a lot of
that is kind of starting to catch up to this
team that really needs a little bit more of a
spark from sort of the non big three at the moment.
So when you ask is there good is there bad?
Than is they're ugly? My answer is yes, there's all
of them. Like I think there's still a lot of
talent on this team. They're just they're in a really
tough stretch and I think the toughest part of their
stress probably starts with their death and then on the
defensive side of the wall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you bring up a lot of valid points. The
good is, and I think a lot of people might
miss this, is that you're still gonna have a chance
to see aj being All American, Richie being All American.
Really like they're gonna be considerations all Big twelve still
mid season.
Speaker 1: Award watchless guys.
Speaker 3: But the record and the games that they're supposed to
win against these elite eight teams hasn't necessarily been there.
They got an opportunity tomorrow, Sean to correct that. And
I'll ask you that question after we talk about this one.
If all will be forgiven, if they'll win, But tomorrow,
can they get it done against Houston? This two teams
they haven't beat since they gotten the conference into basketball,
In particular, they haven't gotten Texas Tech. They'll meet them
one more time March eighth to close out the season
at home at the Marriott, and they haven't gotten Houston.
Can they turn it around tomorrow against Kelvin Sampson squad.
Mind you you thought the turnovers were problem against Oklahoma State. Wait,
you meet a Houston team who's very well conditioned, who
the average mile last year was like what five forty
seven sean, and they'll take you ninety four feet for
forty minutes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's death taxes and Kevin Sampson right now, right,
I mean, this is a very good team. I know
Houston comes in a little bit worse for wear than
they were last year, at least if you look at
the rankings, they're only the number eight team in the
country and NBAP top twenty five. They're only the number
eighteen in the Coach's pull, right, but this is the
number sixteen in Camp Palm, number seven in the net.
Kelvin Sampson is going to Kelvin Sampson, and he's going
to Kevin Sampson. Particularly defensive. Defensively, I mean thirty seven
thirty eight rebounds per game, most of those are on
the defensive glass, so they really they really shut you
down there. And then turnovers I think is a big deal.
They only so they they they only give up about
eight and a half turnovers per game. They force about
twice as many of that, the US six in turnover margin,
which is one of the best in the NCAA. Like,
they've got guys that can score. Maybe we can look
at the guys that can score. But I think the
thing that really sends out to me about this USON
team is just that this that pressive, suffocating defense that
causes a lot of mistakes and capitalizes a lot of mistakes.
Where if you're a team going against these codes, the
red codes, if you will, that hasn't been perfect or
as close to it as you can, they're really going
to make you pay. Like, I think that's just kind
of what Houston does. Like are they as good as
last year? Probably not particularly offensively. They got some dudes,
They got some really good guys. They lack a little
bit of a killer edge that they had a year ago,
But what they don't lack is defense. And I think
as long as skill of chances there quite frankly, they're
probably not going to be lacking for defense. So can
be yu and tomorrow, absolutely absolutely they can. I think
there are things that they got to do, but it
starts with taking care of the ball. It starts with
limiting your mistakes and just not giving Houston what they
do best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be super tough because this team, man
Calvin Sampson, they pride themselves on defense and that's why
they're able to stay in ballgames. This is one of
the teams that can score sixty to sixty five points
and still beat you like. That's how good they are defensively.
It got Kingston Fleming a part of that freshman class,
a lot.
Speaker 1: Of people, So we will see. We'll see what comes
down tomorrow.
Speaker 3: I'll ask you this, do they need a starting lineup
change something we debated yesterday dep you mentioned his issue.
Maybe they can't because of the depth. We had Kyle
collins Worth on the show. He said, there's someone on
this roster that hasn't played much that could help be
why you turn it around now. Last year's team's different.
But I said yesterday, Seawan, I apologize to Cougar Nation.
I said, Brandon Gurney and Sean Walker are right. It
might look like the way that the ball needs to
be moved at Dallen Hall might be missed. Yegor's in
the league, so we got to let that one kind
of go because he's been balling out.
Speaker 1: But maybe you miss Dallen Hall.
Speaker 3: You know you missed the depth that you have and
defensively maybe with some people it has n't been working.
Speaker 1: Do they need to starting lineup change? What say you,
Sean Walker?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And that's that I think is probably the biggest issue,
particularly a point guard. I know there's a lot of
talk about Rob right right now from fans and on
the hashtag internet about what he brings to this team.
But again, when Rob Wright is at his best, he's
one of the best point guards currently in the Power five,
Power Sick conferences, probably in all of the country. Consistency
has been a little bit of an issue lately. Ball
handling has at times been a little bit of an issue.
But I don't know if Yu has a guy that
can truly back him up, like who are you going
to start at the point? I think Kevin Young has
sort of admitted a little bit cheicily but also with
a little bit of truth, that Rob rides back up
point guard right now with aj De Bompson, you know,
he's kind of the primary ball handler when Rob goes
to the bench. That's why you see a lot of
the subsigon battings that Kevin Young has brought in this year.
It's because that's sort of the one two punch of
running that often. So I don't know if there's really
anything like Dalln Hall I think would be an excellent
choice on this team. Somebody in that role can who
can run the offense, who doesn't necessarily demand the ball,
because you got two players in Aj and Richie who
do probably demand a lot of the ball and who
can still kind of spread it around and then maybe
get to the rim when he needs to open up
the three, the three point line a little bit with
some well time threes as well. Like I don't know
if b why you had that on this team. You know,
maybe maybe kJ Perry. I know he's poticially with the team,
but he's also red shirting right now after his JUCO season,
So unless you want to burn that red shirt, I
don't know if there's an option there. The one that
I will the one option that I will see, and
I don't expect this to happen, mostly because Kevin Young
has said openly he doesn't expect any of this to happen.
But the one position where I think maybe you could
see some rotation, whether it's from the starting lineup, or
just more minutes from the bench is kind of on
that combo guards three line, if you will, and that's
Kennard Davis Junior. Maybe it's bringing in somebody like giving
a couple more minutes to dominate the amande, to give
you a little bit more defensively. Maybe it's going a
little bit bigger and putting me have a Bolskivic out
there a little bit more. Neither of those guys have
been super consistent. I'll throw a Lexikostitch in there as
well if you need a little bit of shooting. If
any of them more consistent, I think there'd be more
of an option for some additional rotations or even a
possible starting lineup change. The fact of the matter is
none of them have shown themselves to be consistent enough
to make that change to date. But maybe with a
three game losing streak, especially coming off with that lost
Adam gloom the state, that changes some things in Keny
Young's mind. I don't know, but I think those are
the guys. It's just a matter of can those guys
take advantage of more minutes, and that quite Wringley, is
a question that neither you me or Ben Krittle can answer.
That's one that only Kevin Young and his staff I
think can really attack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the part that I think is so interesting, Seans.
Speaker 5: I hear a lot of fans say, well, why don't
they just change the starting lineup? Why don't they just
move things around? And the question that I have to
ask is are you smarter than Kevin Young? Because to me,
if there was a solution, Kevin Young would have gone
to it, because the only argument against that would be
if Kevin Young had a solution and he was so
adamantly against it because it.
Speaker 2: Was personal, which we know is not the case.
Speaker 5: So then you have to come to the conclusion of well,
why isn't he moving anybody in or out?
Speaker 2: It's because who is he going to put in that spot?
Speaker 5: I mean to me, Sean, the only argument that you
could legitimately make to me for a lineup change is
pure nominally randomness and just a jolt to everybody's system
as a wake up call. That's to me, the only
way you could make the argument for, hey, move somebody
in or out.
Speaker 2: Now, who that is?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: The only one that really makes sense to me is like,
maybe you swap Dominique in for Canard at the starting,
even though it would be really odd to go from
Dominique not playing to Dominique's starting. But I do think
something needs to change just to wake everybody up, because honestly, Sean,
I'm I'm with everybody else who's a little bit more pessimistic.
But I do think while there is some some shallow
depth in certain spots, I also think a lot of
this is just mental at this point, like when you
go on this three game losing streak and when you
play these many close games with this many good teams.
I mean, Sean, I think part of it is just mental.
I think you just have to snap out of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think I think a lot of
it is. I think a lot of it is is
just there's so much pressure on Uh what are we
officially calling him now by us big three on on AJ,
Richie and Rob to really go off every night? The
uh what are we calling them out to? Break three?
I think that's the triple combination. The Proble Power Company,
I think was one shout out to our life.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, the smoke stacks kind of a nod to
the Proble Power Company. Uh, if you will like Uh,
I mean there's there's just there's so much. It just
feels it does feel like last several games, last several weeks.
Maybe you can even stand to do a couple of
months where there's been so much focus and so much
pressure even on AJ Richie and Rob to go off
night in and night out. Uh, that maybe some of
that is starting to get to uh, to get to
them a little bit. Like if you make a change
and you bring in, you know, Dominique Diamande, like you're
now to your point, right, You're bringing in a guy
who's only averaging about six or seven minutes per game, uh,
a guy who's scored warning at a two point per
game clip right now, and you're replacing him with Kennard
Davis Junior, who's playing almost thirty minutes a game, who's like, yeah,
she hasn't been great offensively, but again, nobody outside of
those those that big three have really been truly great offensively,
Like MoU Davis is still your number five score statistically
twenty two twenty three, twenty two games into the regular season.
By the way I bring this up, I think every
time I'm love with you guys, do you guys know
who's still number four and scoring. It's still Dawson Baker,
it's still does In Baker seven and a half points
per game. Will that ever change? I don't know. We'll see,
but yeah, so like I just I don't. I don't
feel like anybody's really like sees the opportunity and kind
of jumped out, like you know, ran into Kevin Young's
office and said, hey, you need to give me more minutes.
We could we could talk about how about whether this
team could use at Gallan Hall. I think those are
all valid points, Ron, and I agree with you a question. So,
I mean, this team maybe in a lot of ways
it needs a Trey Stewart and needs somebody to really
run in and say, give me more minutes. And here
is my play to prove that I deserve more minutes.
I don't know what.
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you that tough question. That's Brett,
said Jerreed McGregor. Jmack is on this bench in Jamak
would be Jamaki. I mean, look, Kevin Young said everything's
on the table. That means everything.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that.
Speaker 5: By the way, I don't when he says everything, I
don't believe j is a Hooper.
Speaker 3: Hey that I do. Hey, Hey, Jamack is Hooper. I
want to ask you. I'm asking you a tough question.
You know you know this is coming to uh. I
told you that I might pink something like this at
you would Rob Wright with the way that again they
brought him. They brought him in here with a different
skill set. I don't like where down hall skill set
is past first That is Jegor Dimmis was past first Robe.
Speaker 2: You know what we complained about with the team.
Speaker 5: We're like, how come they don't have any dogs who
let me just go and get buckets? I know, like
it's the exact last year you wanted these guys and
now you're wanting those guys because you don't have nobody
who distributed.
Speaker 1: This is very true. Why Ron wait? And maybe it's
not Rob, maybe it could be Canar, But would Dallen Hall.
Speaker 3: We know Dallaha would be to help this team to
experience the veteran leadership. But in moments like where the
Oklahoma State game particular, just that game sean not the
entire season, because people don't take that in totality. Someone's
gonna cut this and send it to send it to
Kevin Young citib I'm saying games like the Oklahoma State,
would Rob have taken a back seat being a younger
guard and Dallan being a veteran guard to slow the
game down and to get the offense running a little
bit more with that skill set, just that game when
things aren't working, Not the entire season, just the game.
Speaker 1: Because we saw that last year.
Speaker 3: With Diego, Who's better than Rob right, way better, light
years better. Yego even took the back seat when things
with the turnovers, when they came to certain moments and
the offense just couldn't get moving, they brought Dallan in.
Speaker 4: I think that's a great question, and I honestly probably
can't answer that question. I think the only one who
could actually answer that question is Rob right third, it's
Rob himself. That's also why you have coaching them. You
have coaches can make these decisions. You have coaches with
autonomy over their own program. Hopefully they have enough trust
within their own players that they can make those kinds
of decisions. And you know, like in the Gain, you
bring up yege Or last year kind of doing that,
Like Yegor didn't want to take a backseat, he didn't
want to sit on the bench, which he was struggling
for a couple of games, but he had also built
up in us trusting Kevin Young and Chris birds Is
Brandon Dunson will void the rest of that staff to
know that, Okay, the coaches are very clearly seeing something
and I'm kind of feeling it, but they're definitely seeing it.
So let's trust with them and see if it works out.
And I think it worked out through a couple of
those rough stretches with him and made him a better player,
certainly as we're seeing in this rookie season in the NBA.
So I mean, that is why you have coaches. So like,
that's not really an answer to your question, Ron, But
I also don't think that's that's the question that any
of us outside of those who are involved in that
situation really can answer, you know, so you probably need
to ask that of Rob or at the very least,
you know, see if Kevin Young could give you an
answer outside of a closed door meeting with him, which
I have my doubts about, but I'll we'll leave it
at that, we won't go too far into that.
Speaker 5: I also feel like Sean I would like to push
back on Ron.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was a good question.
Speaker 5: You know why, because the grass is always greener with
down Hall.
Speaker 2: How many times did we complain about down Hall?
Speaker 3: I know people complain about them, but there are moments
a lot of times, I know, but but there are
times where the moment was maybe I don't want to
say too big, but you weren't playing well in that moment.
Speaker 1: But that's just the moment.
Speaker 5: And I agree with you, like and there were I
like down Hall, but I also know that when down
Hall transferred, there were a lot of people, unjustifiably so,
who were happy that he was gone.
Speaker 1: I was not happy when it was gone.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and I disagree with those fans, and I
agree with you. I have a problem with those fans
because I did not feel that way when Dalla left
and I and I shouldn't have any type of skin
in the game, but as someone that covered it again,
like I said, I talked to Dollan multiple times after games,
his family.
Speaker 1: Good kid, Plain City, Utah.
Speaker 3: Like, when this kid came off of a mission, he
was thrown into a situation that he shouldn't have been
thrown into. And I'm gonna be honest, like to a degree.
I don't like that he was, you know, it was
either come off the bench and he was like, all right,
I'm out to do.
Speaker 1: I didn't like how that went.
Speaker 3: And I felt like, right now, in this moment, you
could have used the six foot four, two hundred pounder
that has a big body. I bet they wish they
have him now to a degree. And they, again, like
Sean just said, might not tell you that in the
closed door what is it a closed door meeting elsewhere,
you might not get that. But I would have to
believe depth wise they could use number thirty for sure
if he was still here.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Sean, we got to let you go. Oh yeah,
go ahead, No I was.
Speaker 4: I was just gonna say, I think there are a
lot of teams in the country that could use the
Plain City Dealer and a guy like Dollen Hall and
and they, I mean, for this BYU team, maybe they
could use him in the same way that Dollon Hall
came in his freshman year off of his mission. Do
you guys remember when Dallen Hall first got to BYU.
He wasn't starting right away like he was. He wasn't
starting right away. He was very talented four star guard
out of Fremont High School serving a mission excite. You know,
Utah data is excited to be at BYU BYU. Kid
threw and through, but he wasn't starting right away because
he had a guy named Rudy Williams ahead of him,
and old Ruedell was great point guard Coastal Carolina transfer,
experienced new college basketball. He was starting right away. And
then eventually there came a point in that season where Rudy,
whether for whatever reason or another, whether it was turnovers,
whether it's those starts, whether it was just rolls in
the offense, he went into the coach's office and he said, Hey,
I think, uh, I think Dalen Hall needs those minutes,
and I'm perfectly fine coming off of the bench to
try to give a spark to that second unit. And
I as much as you know, maybe the conversation could
center around does this YU team need Dallan Hall? Maybe
this YU team really needs somebody like a Rudy Williams
who's not afraid to not be in the starting lineup
but to be in the closing lineup and to really
give this team a spark where they actually need to
give it to them.
Speaker 1: It's a very good point I really like that point
you do.
Speaker 3: The Rudy Williams, a guy like that that was closing
it out because coming off the bench lighting up and
we've seen by you have success with that, Rudy Jackson Robinson.
You're waiting for it. We'll see what happens from the
down stretch, Sewan. Before I'll let you go, what's the
best way we can support you what you do and
find all of your work and how you do it.
Speaker 4: Hey, you already brought it up KISL dot com. Check
out KSL dot com sports where we are low did
in Olympics coverage over and from Milano, Cortina right now.
So yeah, just go give us a follow, give us
a club mark over there, and we'll try to keep you.
We'll also try to keep you up to date with
college basketball, the Super Bowl this weekend, uh here on
the local NBC affiliate on KSLP iPPV as well and
just anything else you need over there.
Speaker 3: You heard it from Sean, You can follow him on
x as well as actual ds w D that's actual
dsw on X Twitter, whatever the kids call.
Speaker 2: It these days.
Speaker 1: Sean, thanks so much. We'll catch up with you again.
Speaker 4: Next week and follow me on upscroll.
Speaker 3: You always got to get that louts and in that segment,
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little