Speaker 1: What is going on.
Speaker 2: Let's get a drive time Tuesday afternoon, fourteen minutes past
Speaker 2: the hour, two o'clock. Beautiful, beautiful spring light conditions outside
Speaker 2: about sixty eight degrees, little cloudy here in downtown Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City, Utah. But as it is every single day,
Speaker 2: it's going to have you along for the ride. Spence Check,
Speaker 2: it's behind the mic. That's Porter Larson beyond the glass
Speaker 2: today producing the program on this beautiful, beautiful Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: The world of college basketball crowded national champ last night.
Speaker 1: We'll get into the game today.
Speaker 2: The Houston Cougar's just fumbled the bag, as the kids
Speaker 2: would say. And the Florida, the Florida Gators are your
Speaker 2: national champ. Sixty five sixty three. He was point scored
Speaker 2: in a national championship game since twenty fourteen, and Florida
Speaker 2: comes back once again from a twelve point deficit against
Speaker 2: one of the best of not the best defensive teams
Speaker 2: in all of college basketball. Todd Golden, at the age
Speaker 2: of thirty nine, is the youngest coach to win a
Speaker 2: national championship since Jim Valvano wanted a thirty seven in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three. Of of course, big t thorough Bailey,
Speaker 2: NC State Wolfpack and unbelievable ride back in the day.
Speaker 2: But shout out to Florida out of the SEC. They
Speaker 2: get it done over a Houston team. Who if you
Speaker 2: were a fan of Big twelve hoops, you watched Houston
Speaker 2: snatch the souls of teams all year long, including Utah
Speaker 2: and including BYU. So we'll get to the college basketball storylines.
Speaker 2: And speaking of BYU and speaking of Utah, we have
Speaker 2: news for both of those teams. Players entering the NBA Draft,
Speaker 2: players entering the college Basketball Transfer Portal. We'll get that
Speaker 2: to you throughout the course of the show. Today. Utah
Speaker 2: Jazz are off tonight. They've got only a handful of
Speaker 2: games left. They're going to be welcoming to the Portland
Speaker 2: Trail Blazers coming up tomorrow. And then it's okay see
Speaker 2: coming up on Friday. Final opportunity to get to a
Speaker 2: Jazz game before we get to the offseason. NBA basketball
Speaker 2: this year is just while the business of pro basketball
Speaker 2: this year is just bizarre, as Michael Malone, after ten
Speaker 2: years in charge of the Denver Nuggets, has been fired
Speaker 2: five days left in the NBA season. As far as
Speaker 2: the calendar goes to determine playoff seeding, and Denver's right
Speaker 2: in the mix.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: They've lost four straight games, are eleven and thirteen since
Speaker 2: the All Star break. But once upon a time in
Speaker 2: pro basketball, if you're a generational superstar in your twenties,
Speaker 2: you were not traded, and then Dallas trades Lukadancic. If
Speaker 2: you're a really good young head coach with a rising team,
Speaker 2: chances are your job was safe.
Speaker 1: And then Memphis moves on from Taylor Jenkins.
Speaker 2: And if you're a head coach that brought a city
Speaker 2: a championship that hasn't seen a championship in nearly fifty
Speaker 2: years and you're the most successful head coach in the
Speaker 2: history of an organization, typically you keep your job. And
Speaker 2: Michael Malone is out of a job. Denver right now
Speaker 2: is the four seed. They do have a tough schedule
Speaker 2: to close out the year. But news that has just
Speaker 2: shaken the landscape or pro basketball. Michael Malone out as
Speaker 2: the head coach of the Denver Nugget. So we'll get
Speaker 2: to the latest and we'll talk a little. Utah Hockey
Speaker 2: Club as well as the Seattle Kraken are in town.
Speaker 2: Tonight to take on the Utah Hockey Club. Handfull of
Speaker 2: games left. The playoffs won't happen around here this year,
Speaker 2: but potentially moving forward as the foundation has been set RSL.
Speaker 2: As as the current situation stands, we are about two
Speaker 2: and a half weeks away from the primary transfer window closing.
Speaker 2: RSL got a result last weekend over the La Galaxy
Speaker 2: with a couple of goals from Diego Luna, So Kurt
Speaker 2: Schmid's going to stop by today we'll get all the
Speaker 2: latest with the Reale salt Lake stuff prior to this
Speaker 2: window closing. Will RSL make an addition They're going to
Speaker 2: take on Nashville coming up on Saturday. That's a six
Speaker 2: and thirty Mountain time start. Plenty of soccer left, but
Speaker 2: talent needed. If Raale sal Lake is going to make
Speaker 2: anything of this year. We are, i believe, fifteen days
Speaker 2: away fifteen sixteen days away now from the NFL Draft
Speaker 2: to some draft stuff. Of course on the program today,
Speaker 2: all the latest with the offseason news in the NFL
Speaker 2: and of course spring football up on the hill for
Speaker 2: the University of Utah down south for BYU as well,
Speaker 2: So a lot of storylines the salt Lake Bees open
Speaker 2: up their brand new ballpark.
Speaker 1: We have Tony Parks and Studio yesterday.
Speaker 2: Go to SLBs dot com The homestand starts tonight and
Speaker 2: goes over the next handful of days with an excuse.
Speaker 1: Me with a number of different giveaways.
Speaker 2: So if you're looking for something to do, is the
Speaker 2: weathers and I set out and support the Bees and
Speaker 2: their new digs out South. So a lot to do
Speaker 2: on this Tuesday edition of the program. It's great to
Speaker 2: have you with us. We'll start things off today with
Speaker 2: Tony Jones from the Athletic Tony stops by. He covers
Speaker 2: well right now, he's covering the Denver Nuggets. When the
Speaker 2: Jazz are a serious team. He covers the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little NBA Draft with Tony as well
Speaker 2: some NCAA tournament. Get his thoughts on the latest news
Speaker 2: surrounding BYU and Utah basketball players leaving for the draft
Speaker 2: and players entering the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: Good day to have Tim McMahon on the program. Covers
Speaker 1: the NBA for.
Speaker 2: ESPN, Ken Palm Ken Pomeroy will put a little bow
Speaker 2: on the college basketball season. Get Ken's takeaways from Florida
Speaker 2: winning their third national championship since the year two thousand.
Speaker 2: That's second in all of college basketball only to the
Speaker 2: Yukon Huskies. And then the aforementioned Kerk Schmidt stops by
Speaker 2: for the latest on the RSL roster construction project and
Speaker 2: hopefully we'll get an update from Kurt on maybe players
Speaker 2: on the way, So Tony Jones, Tim McMahon, Ken Pomeroy,
Speaker 2: Kurt Schmidt, the Spence checkets all of you, the great listeners,
Speaker 2: and that young man Porter Larson on a Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: NBA is bizarre this year, dude, Like that really bizarre.
Speaker 2: The last piece of news I thought that I would
Speaker 2: get today is that Michael Malone, after ten very successful
Speaker 2: years and the only coach the Nakola Jokicic has ever had,
Speaker 2: has been relieved with duties five days before the playoff
Speaker 2: seating is set.
Speaker 1: It is beyond bizarre.
Speaker 4: The timing is is maybe the craziest part, you know.
Speaker 4: And we've heard rumblings, we've heard things here and there
Speaker 4: about some some drama with you know, behind the scenes
Speaker 4: stuff in Denver, but man uh to to part ways
Speaker 4: with your head coach, a head coach who won an
Speaker 4: NBA championship less than two years ago. Man, that is uh,
Speaker 4: that is a drastic move to make with five games
Speaker 4: remaining in the season, And I just wonder what we
Speaker 4: don't know yet, because that's that's kind of the story
Speaker 4: there is that there's clearly tension behind the scenes with
Speaker 4: the with the Nuggets. But who is that between is it?
Speaker 4: Is it Nicola? Is it?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: It?
Speaker 4: Is it front office stuff? Obviously we know that the
Speaker 4: GM is going to be parting ways as well, so
Speaker 4: a lot going on in Denver. I'm much like the
Speaker 4: Luca Dodges situation, eager to hear more because I clearly
Speaker 4: can see that there is more u to this story.
Speaker 2: There has to be, because the entire thing is catching
Speaker 2: everybody off guard. But Tony Jones covers the Nuggets for
Speaker 2: the athleteck and timmcmahon is dialed in as well, So
Speaker 2: we'll bring them in to get a little knowledge as
Speaker 2: far as what's going on, and we'll talk about the
Speaker 2: final handful of games in the world of pro basketball.
Speaker 2: But before we do all that, on a Tuesday afternoon,
Speaker 2: courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks, it is
Speaker 2: Todd now for your opening tip.
Speaker 6: Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's
Speaker 6: number one Sports Talk Now into the studios of ESPN
Speaker 6: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 6: opening tip of the drive is brought to you by
Speaker 6: Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run
Speaker 6: your game with Prize Picks.
Speaker 2: Interesting listening to the reaction from folks kind of break
Speaker 2: down March Madness and the NCAA tournament that is now
Speaker 2: behind us, I thought it was fun. I'm on record
Speaker 2: and I've said this for years. It is potentially my
Speaker 2: favorite individual sporting event that we have on the sporting
Speaker 2: calendar every year. With the exception of a World Cup
Speaker 2: cycle or an Olympic cycle, or if the Jazz are
Speaker 2: in the finals or something like that, March Madness consistent
Speaker 2: brings it consistently is entertaining, consistently brings a ton of attention,
Speaker 2: and it is the main reason that basketball remains a
Speaker 2: revenue generator. Not on the level of football, which is
Speaker 2: on its own level, but basketball brings in money because
Speaker 2: of the tournament that now just ended. So the Florida
Speaker 2: Gators win the national championship last night, sixty five to
Speaker 2: sixty three over the Houston Cougars out of the Big Twelve. Now,
Speaker 2: as I referenced in the intro, I watched the Houston
Speaker 2: Cougars snatch souls from teams this year, all year long,
Speaker 2: including our local teams. Utah went down to Houston earlier
Speaker 2: in the season and they lost seventy to thirty six,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't even that close. At one point you
Speaker 2: tied eight turnovers and three baskets BYU, who was a
Speaker 2: really good team this year, a Sweet sixteen team, one
Speaker 2: of the top shelf teams in the Big Twelve, didn't
Speaker 2: even look like they belonged on the same floor in
Speaker 2: their two opportunities to play Houston eighty six fifty five
Speaker 2: down in Houston, then the Big Twelve tournament seventy four
Speaker 2: to fifty four. Like Houston all year long, just suffocated
Speaker 2: teams defensively. They had a veteran roster, Guys that have
Speaker 2: been transfers on a number of different occasions, Guys that
Speaker 2: have been together on a number of different occasions. Guys
Speaker 2: that have played in final four games in Big NCAA
Speaker 2: tournament games.
Speaker 7: LJ.
Speaker 2: Cryer leaves as a senior, as a prolific scorer. Juan
Speaker 2: Roberts leaves as a senior with an incredible career behind him,
Speaker 2: and they're going to lose a lot, but they have
Speaker 2: one of, if not the best transfer classes coming into
Speaker 2: college basketball next year.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that.
Speaker 2: There's already preseason top twenty fives out and I saw
Speaker 2: one today where Houston's at the top.
Speaker 1: So Kelvin Samson's not done here.
Speaker 2: At the age of sixty nine, Kelvin Sampson would have
Speaker 2: become the oldest said coach to win a national championship,
Speaker 2: but it was not to be because Todd Golden, this
Speaker 2: young coach who was at San Francisco not too long
Speaker 2: ago and quite honestly looks like the team manager, found
Speaker 2: a way to get this Florida team to fight and
Speaker 2: come back all year long. As I referenced to Porter
Speaker 2: prior to filling out my bracket, I should have trusted
Speaker 2: my gut because every time I watched Florida this year,
Speaker 2: they looked amazing. They had a game against Tennessee when
Speaker 2: Tennessee was the number one team in the country, where
Speaker 2: they beat them by thirty. Okay, we could continue to
Speaker 2: tell they beat Auburn, who was the number one team
Speaker 2: overall one point. They smoked a and m they ran
Speaker 2: away from Bama, they killed Missouri, they beat Bama one
Speaker 2: oh four to eighty two in the SEC Tournament, and
Speaker 2: so Florida all year long was one of the best
Speaker 2: teams in college basketball. But when they went down twelve
Speaker 2: to Houston last night, I almost turned on the White
Speaker 2: Lotus Finale just to watch something else, even though I've
Speaker 2: already seen it, because no part of me believed that
Speaker 2: any team was going to be able to come back
Speaker 2: from twelve points down in the second half against a
Speaker 2: team that has the physicality, the defensive pressure, and quite honestly,
Speaker 2: the experience with these upper classmen like the University of Hou.
Speaker 2: I thought they were just gonna suffocate them and it
Speaker 2: was not gonna be close. Walter Clayton Junior, a Final
Speaker 2: four most Valuable Player, did not have a point until
Speaker 2: fourteen to thirty seven left in the game. He hit
Speaker 2: his first three point shot with three minutes left in
Speaker 2: the game. Like, if you're Kelvin Sampson, that game fit
Speaker 2: the script that you were praying that it would for
Speaker 2: you to win your first national championship and then become
Speaker 2: a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's still gonna be
Speaker 2: a Hall of Fame coach. But it's just different when
Speaker 2: you're a champ, when you're a national champ. As I
Speaker 2: referenced in the open, Todd Golden becomes the youngest head
Speaker 2: coach to win a national championship in college basketball since
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three when Jim Valvana was thirty seven years old,
Speaker 2: bringing that NC wolf Pack team to the national championship
Speaker 2: led by one thorough Bailey.
Speaker 1: I got a big t and Florida's gonna lose a lot.
Speaker 2: That's a different team as Elijah Martin is gone, Walter
Speaker 2: Clayton Junior.
Speaker 1: Is gone, Will Rashard is gone.
Speaker 2: They've got a lot of players that were basically their
Speaker 2: best players this year that will leave. But Houston, this
Speaker 2: is one of those games. And I talked about with
Speaker 2: Sean during crosstalk. Emmanuel Sharp is a really good college
Speaker 2: basketball player. I don't know what his pro prospects are,
Speaker 2: maybe an overseas guy that can cut a paycheck. And
Speaker 2: he did an excellent defensive job on Walter Clayton Junior
Speaker 2: for about thirty minutes or so. They are not in
Speaker 2: this game without em Manuel Sharp. But those back to
Speaker 2: back turnovers to finish the game and the final possession
Speaker 2: when you don't even get it on the rim. That's
Speaker 2: the type of stuff that stays with you your entire life.
Speaker 2: When the stage is that big and you're playing for
Speaker 2: a national championship and you have.
Speaker 1: It in the bag, that game was done.
Speaker 2: Houston went their final four possessions without a shot, four turnovers,
Speaker 2: den the game. I mean there are losses and then
Speaker 2: there are those types of losses that never fully leave you.
Speaker 2: And they just could not run anything down the stretch.
Speaker 2: I thought the length of Florida really got to them.
Speaker 2: They went away from Juan Roberts in the post after
Speaker 2: he had a little bit of success. I don't know
Speaker 2: how LJ. Cryer does not have the ball in his
Speaker 2: hands to finish off the game over the final few possessions,
Speaker 2: and it looked like the final possession that ended in
Speaker 2: Emmanuel Sharp having a jump shot contested by Clayton and
Speaker 2: then he had to drop the ball if he was
Speaker 2: a little bit more patient. They were running a misdirection
Speaker 2: than a ball screen to get the ball to LJ.
Speaker 2: Cryer on the right wing because he's their best shot maker.
Speaker 2: He had nineteen last night. But ultimately Florida gets it done.
Speaker 2: They are your national champ and March Madness comes to
Speaker 2: a close. All right, we'll do some more college basketball
Speaker 2: because there's some news about the University of Utah, and
Speaker 2: there's some news about BYU that we'll get to. Some
Speaker 2: players leaving for the drafts, some players entering the transfer portal.
Speaker 2: I referenced the way too Early Top twenty five that
Speaker 2: Jeff Borzello released today. We'll get to that because Houston
Speaker 2: is at the top. BYU is in the top twenty five,
Speaker 2: but not near as high as I thought they'd be.
Speaker 2: So we'll get to some of that coming up on
Speaker 2: the show. But before we catch a break, do want
Speaker 2: to tell you a boy. My friends at Prize Pick,
Speaker 2: springtime is here and baseball season is officially underway. Don't
Speaker 2: miss your chance to add your favorite players from the
Speaker 2: diamond and your.
Speaker 1: Prize picks lineup.
Speaker 2: Whether it's strikeouts, RBIs or first any runs, take your
Speaker 2: pick of more or less for a shot to went
Speaker 2: up to one thousand times of cash today. On Prize Picks,
Speaker 2: you can mix and match player projections from different sports.
Speaker 2: Combine your favorite baseball players with players from basketball, hockey,
Speaker 2: E sports, and much more. Download the Prize picks app today.
Speaker 2: Use the promo cod ESPN seven hundred to check out.
Speaker 2: You get fifty bucks when you play your first five
Speaker 2: dollars lineup. The Denver Nuggets have fired Michael Malone after
Speaker 2: ten years on the sidelines and bringing Denver their first
Speaker 2: championship in nearly half a century. Our next guest might
Speaker 2: have some insight on this. Tony Jones Happy Tuesday, sir,
Speaker 2: How are.
Speaker 5: You uh wow right? Like Happy Tuesday? Thanks for having
Speaker 5: me on. That was a great walk up song. Just
Speaker 5: just a lot going on.
Speaker 1: A lot going on, Tony.
Speaker 2: And I'm old enough to remember when you were good
Speaker 2: at your job in the NBA, you got to keep
Speaker 2: it and when you were a twenty five generational player,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be traded. Luka Doncic is a Laker, Taylor
Speaker 2: Jenkins is looking for employment, and Michael Malone after a
Speaker 2: decade of high level coaching and a guy who I
Speaker 2: like and respect a lot. I mean, his dad, Brendan Malone,
Speaker 2: was an assistant for Jeff and Gundhy in New York and
Speaker 2: so we got to know the family, and of course
Speaker 2: Michael was back with the Knicks for a little bit
Speaker 2: as well. Help us understand this, Tony, like, why, how
Speaker 2: did this go down? And what what's your take on
Speaker 2: the way they went about their business.
Speaker 5: So I'm going to probably go against the grain a
Speaker 5: little bit, but I'm not surprised that this happened at all.
Speaker 5: I am surprised about the timing. I think the timing
Speaker 5: is is definitely the most shocking part of it. But
Speaker 5: I talked to a store yesterday for about an hour,
Speaker 5: and when I got off the phone with that source,
Speaker 5: I called Sam Amick, you know, my good friend, and
Speaker 5: Kylie got the athletic and the first thing I said
Speaker 5: when he picked up the phone was you had the Nuggets.
Speaker 5: They want to fire Michael Malone. And I'm surprised that
Speaker 5: they did it twenty four hours later, you know, But
Speaker 5: I'm not surprised that at the firing at all. Things
Speaker 5: where things have been kind of coming to a head
Speaker 5: for a while. This has kind of been brewing, and
Speaker 5: you know, and I think I'm surprised at the timing,
Speaker 5: and I'm surprised that everybody went. But this was the
Speaker 5: very definition of a power struggle. And Josh Cronky, the
Speaker 5: Nuggets owners, just apparently said, both of you guys can
Speaker 5: lead the building at this point, and that's what happened.
Speaker 2: And for our listeners, when Tony says, both of you guys,
Speaker 2: Calvin Booth is the general manager, and he was also
Speaker 2: informed that his contract will not be renewed. So they
Speaker 2: are getting rid of their head coach, Michael Malone and
Speaker 2: their general manager Calvin Booth. Now I can understand getting
Speaker 2: rid of Calvin Booth. Like I have said, and I
Speaker 2: believe this to be true, that Denver has failed Nikola Jokicy.
Speaker 2: The Kronkeys are not an ownership group that wants to
Speaker 2: spend the way that Joe lacub does or some of
Speaker 2: the other owners like a Steve Balmer. They do not
Speaker 2: want to be a luxury, tax paying team. They have,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, the best player in this generation and
Speaker 2: a player that when he's done, will be among the
Speaker 2: best players ever to play. But I didn't view this
Speaker 2: as a coaching issue. I know they've lost four straight,
Speaker 2: but to me, Jamal Murray's hamstring is a bigger issue
Speaker 2: than Michael Malone's coaching. Jamal hasn't played in five games,
Speaker 2: and if you take okayc off the table, Denver's right
Speaker 2: there with everybody else and maybe a team that could
Speaker 2: challenge Oklahoma City because we've seen them do it before.
Speaker 2: So your point about the power struggle between Calvin Booth
Speaker 2: and Michael Malone well taken. But they're both gone. Why
Speaker 2: not just get rid of Calvin Booth and keep Michael
Speaker 2: Malone around?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Can you is this a locker room issue? Is it
Speaker 2: a player issue? Like what exactly led them to doing
Speaker 2: this to their head coach?
Speaker 1: I understand the GM. I don't get the coaching thing.
Speaker 5: Well, because Michael Malone lost the locker room. And when
Speaker 5: I say he lost the locker room, that includes Nicola
Speaker 5: Yok he lost Nicola Yok and and and he lost
Speaker 5: the locker room as a whole. And uh so you
Speaker 5: know that's one of the reasons why you know, coach
Speaker 5: Malone also got fired as well. I have you know,
Speaker 5: some things brewing that you know that will be written
Speaker 5: pretty soon in the athletic. Uh in terms of specifics
Speaker 5: about you know, how Malone lost the locker room. But
Speaker 5: I can tell you from a broad sense through my
Speaker 5: sources that Malone lost the locker room. And you know
Speaker 5: there were there are several things in terms of in
Speaker 5: terms of Calvin, there are several things that went into
Speaker 5: his hiring as well, you know, one of which was,
Speaker 5: you know, the contract UH to Jamal Murray because of
Speaker 5: the their ability factor. And it wasn't that the contract
Speaker 5: to Murray, it was that the contract was was really
Speaker 5: expensive and it was really player friendly, a little bit
Speaker 5: too player friendly for for the cronkys taste in that,
Speaker 5: you know, along with you know, a couple of the
Speaker 5: missteps like given the technology a four year contract when
Speaker 5: we're not even sure he's an NBA player, you know,
Speaker 5: spending three second round picks to get off of UH,
Speaker 5: to get off of Reggie Jackson, you know, player options
Speaker 5: to ruffle Westbrook in Dario Sarich. You know, things like
Speaker 5: that that you know, have hamstring the Nuggets. I mean,
Speaker 5: if you look at what the Nuggets have going forward,
Speaker 5: you know, it's it's pretty bleak in terms of in
Speaker 5: terms in terms of assets, right, Like they have one
Speaker 5: tradable first round pick, which is twenty thirty one. They're
Speaker 5: twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty nine first round picks.
Speaker 5: And this is going to be a big shock to
Speaker 5: everybody here. They belong to the Oklahoma City Thunder because
Speaker 5: the Oklahoma City Thunder everything belongs to Oklahoma. So you know,
Speaker 5: there's no assets, there's no money. You know, it's gonna
Speaker 5: take whoever comes in and and gets the GM job.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's there's not really a cupboard to work with.
Speaker 5: And part of this I think is on the Crockys.
Speaker 5: It is, and you know, they made it really certain,
Speaker 5: they made it really certain you do not want to
Speaker 5: go into the second option. I mean, we do not
Speaker 5: want to go into the second apron. So Calvin Booth
Speaker 5: was in a large part working with what he had,
Speaker 5: which is what led to where we see the roster
Speaker 5: right now. Because like let's take for example, the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 5: The Boston Celtics, like, we can go into the to
Speaker 5: we can go into the the tax, we can go
Speaker 5: into the apron re sign you know, Jason Tatum re sign,
Speaker 5: Jalen Brown extend, you know, offer an extension to Drew
Speaker 5: Holliday and the people around them, and we'll we'll pay
Speaker 5: the tax. We're fine. We just want to put we
Speaker 5: want to put the best product in the floor as possible.
Speaker 5: And I think that Calvin Booth has been hamstrung in that.
Speaker 5: But at the same time, Calvin Booth made mistakes like
Speaker 5: the Zekenology contract. That's a legitimate mistake. It's untradeable, you know,
Speaker 5: and it's four years and you know, the the the
Speaker 5: Reddy Jackson trade eight you know, because he because he.
Speaker 3: Had a player option.
Speaker 5: You know, that's three second round picks. Those are three
Speaker 5: Those are three picks where you can either use it
Speaker 5: for a trade or you can, you know, try to
Speaker 5: go and get you can try to go and get
Speaker 5: rotation players. You can. So I think Calvin Booth hit
Speaker 5: on the margins in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
Speaker 5: three in order to win Denver on the championship, to
Speaker 5: win Denver a championship, because he went and got Bruce Brown,
Speaker 5: he went and got Jeff Green. Those are hits on
Speaker 5: the margin. But he also lost Contavious Carwell Pope the
Speaker 5: free agency. He also gave the achnowledge that contract, so
Speaker 5: he also missed on the margins. Ever since they lost
Speaker 5: the championship, so it's been a really mixed back.
Speaker 1: There three games left for Denver.
Speaker 2: Last thing here, you know, because as I referenced what
Speaker 2: I tried to do with all my NBA guests and
Speaker 2: have all year. Once it became obvious that Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: was playing at a historic level. The conversation has to
Speaker 2: become okay, like who keeps Mark dagnalled up at night?
Speaker 1: Who are the teams that he worries about?
Speaker 2: I still put Denver in that category because they have
Speaker 2: that dude. They have a guy that we've seen do
Speaker 2: it before, and no one ever does it by themselves.
Speaker 2: Michael didn't, Kobe didn't, Lebron didn't. But Jokic is as
Speaker 2: close to anybody that we've seen carrying the team to
Speaker 2: championships in playoff runs. So what do you think best
Speaker 2: case scenario is for Denver as the playoffs are only
Speaker 2: three games away?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, I still think their best case scenario
Speaker 5: is the championship. Like you said, they have NICOLEA. Jokic.
Speaker 5: When you have that guy, you're gonna have the best
Speaker 5: player in every series and you're gonna have a punch
Speaker 5: of chance. But you know, one of the things that
Speaker 5: Josh Conky said publicly today was that he wants to
Speaker 5: see the joy back, and there are reasons for this,
Speaker 5: but this team is not playing with joy. This team
Speaker 5: is not with energy, and you know, I think and
Speaker 5: that's part of the reason why Malone no longer has
Speaker 5: a job, and you know, I know I can't I
Speaker 5: can't really go in the specifics, but you know, there's
Speaker 5: some some things that have been at play internally, you
Speaker 5: know that of cost this, you know, so you know,
Speaker 5: the hope is that you know, we start they start
Speaker 5: with you know, one thing, right, come out Tomorrow night,
Speaker 5: play with energy. They lose the sacrament on Lamorrow night,
Speaker 5: there's a real chance that they're going to fall into
Speaker 5: the playing the playing. You know, this is a team
Speaker 5: that was second and third in the Western Conference for
Speaker 5: much of the second half of the season, and you know,
Speaker 5: now we're talking about, you know, a one game scenario
Speaker 5: of the Sacramento and if that doesn't work out for them,
Speaker 5: you know, they're you know, there's a real real chance
Speaker 5: that they're playing on Tuesday next week. So you know,
Speaker 5: I think I think the first thing, you know, in
Speaker 5: a macro sense, in a micro sense, is to come
Speaker 5: out on Wednesday and play with energy and play with
Speaker 5: force against Sacramento and then just kind of take it
Speaker 5: from there. You know. But the Nuggets that at their peak,
Speaker 5: I mean, this is still you know, if they get
Speaker 5: Jamal Murray back healthy, of course, this is still one
Speaker 5: of the best starting five in the league, one of
Speaker 5: the most efficient starting fives in the league. You have
Speaker 5: Yokis playing at an insane level. The guy's going to
Speaker 5: average a thirty point triple double this season. This is
Speaker 5: truly one of the best, you know seasons anybody has
Speaker 5: had an NBA history offensively, you know. So there's still
Speaker 5: you know, a puncher's chance to win any series that
Speaker 5: they're in. I was in Oklahoma City, you know, three
Speaker 5: weeks or a month ago or whatever it was. I mean,
Speaker 5: it all kind of goes together, you know, where they
Speaker 5: caused the Thunder real issues and they beat the Thunder
Speaker 5: on their home floor because the Thunder could not figure
Speaker 5: out a way to deal with NICOLEA. Jokis. So you
Speaker 5: know he's going He's an ultimate mismatch. He's the ultimate
Speaker 5: superstar in this league that we have in our league today.
Speaker 5: You know. So if you have that guy on the floor,
Speaker 5: you have a chance to win any series that you
Speaker 5: can play that you're playing.
Speaker 2: All right, Moving off the nugget stuff, let's bounce around
Speaker 2: with some local stories. It was announced earlier today that
Speaker 2: Yegor Demon is going to lead BYU and he's.
Speaker 1: Going to start his pro basketball career.
Speaker 2: So when you look at a lot of the mocks,
Speaker 2: he's still a lottery pick. Some have him as a
Speaker 2: top ten, some of them have like mid lottery. He's
Speaker 2: very young, he's very raw, So anybody that will take
Speaker 2: a fire on him is hoping that he learns how
Speaker 2: to shoot it consistently. Some of the decision making stuff improves,
Speaker 2: and he responds to forcing physicality better than he did
Speaker 2: at by you. There's a lot to like from a
Speaker 2: scouting perspective, just simply how big and long he is
Speaker 2: and how creative he can be with some of the distribution.
Speaker 2: But now that we know it's official, uh, Dollan Hall's
Speaker 2: in the transfer port transfer portal B. Why you need
Speaker 2: to point guard? What do you make in the news
Speaker 2: today that Jegor Demin is leaving Provo.
Speaker 5: I think he had to because he's going to be
Speaker 5: a first round pick, and you know, you you know,
Speaker 5: people talk about, well this Cooper flag going to go
Speaker 5: back to the Duke. Of course he's not going to
Speaker 5: go back to Duke. And people say, oh, well, you
Speaker 5: know in the age of nil you can recruit that money. No,
Speaker 5: you can't. You don't go into the draft. You know,
Speaker 5: for you know, season one or season two, Uh, you
Speaker 5: don't go in the draft at eighteenth for season one
Speaker 5: a season two, you want to go into the draft eighteen.
Speaker 5: And so by the time you're twenty three, you're on
Speaker 5: a second contract and you're making one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 5: And then by the time you're twenty eight, you're on
Speaker 5: a third contract and you make another one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 5: And then by the time you're thirty three, you do
Speaker 5: the same thing. And then guess what you're You know,
Speaker 5: you've made a half a billion dollars over the course
Speaker 5: of your career. You know, So the sooner that you
Speaker 5: start your clock, the better for your career, the better
Speaker 5: off you'll be. And if you're going to be a
Speaker 5: first round pick, and like you said, Jego is going
Speaker 5: to be a first round pick because there just aren't
Speaker 5: many humbo size six foot nine playmakers that are available.
Speaker 5: And you know, as you look at Josh Giddy, right,
Speaker 5: and you look at how raw he was coming out,
Speaker 5: look at him now and look at how he developed,
Speaker 5: and look at how well he's playing for the Chicago Bulls,
Speaker 5: And that's where you see what Yegor Deman can be
Speaker 5: like his his ARC type. His ARC type is literally
Speaker 5: playing for the Chicago Bulls right now. So you know,
Speaker 5: Jegor comes into the league, he hits the weight room,
Speaker 5: he falls in love with the weight room, he falls
Speaker 5: in love with the process. Then you know, by the
Speaker 5: time he's twenty two to twenty three, twenty four years old,
Speaker 5: you really have something there.
Speaker 2: So with Dallan Hall entering the transfer portal, Kevin Young
Speaker 2: needs a point guard. Or maybe they run it back
Speaker 2: with the Dawson Baker kid because right now, you know
Speaker 2: aj Aj Debonsa technically is a wing. Maybe they can
Speaker 2: run their offense through him because he is that skilled.
Speaker 2: Then the Xavion Stanton kid or they're getting from Vegas,
Speaker 2: I believe, is a center.
Speaker 1: What do they do with that league guard spot? Any thoughts.
Speaker 5: You can try to taw Dollan back into the fold,
Speaker 5: which you know, no no intel for me there, but
Speaker 5: I would think that it might be a little bit
Speaker 5: easier to talking back into the fold now that you
Speaker 5: know he would no doubt be a starter. And you know,
Speaker 5: let's let's put it this way. Jaegor is a lot
Speaker 5: more talented than Dylan, Like he's a better player but
Speaker 5: Dolan is a better fit with a Javancer in my opinion,
Speaker 5: than Yegor is because Jaegor for him to be effective,
Speaker 5: he needs the ball in his hands. I don't think
Speaker 5: Dollan needs the ball in his hands as much h
Speaker 5: to be effective. And what you what I'm getting at here,
Speaker 5: is that what you want if your b YU is
Speaker 5: you want the ball in aj Devance's hands, or you
Speaker 5: want the ball in richie'sunders hands as much as humanly
Speaker 5: possible next year, Like that is, you know, immediately Richie's
Speaker 5: Thunders and aj Devancer are immediately one of the best
Speaker 5: duos in college basketball. And you know, Adadavanta is a
Speaker 5: playmaking wing. He's a playmaking whatever if he's a shooting
Speaker 5: guard or a small forward, he's a playmaking wing. And
Speaker 5: I think Dallan can can can playoff of both of
Speaker 5: those guys. Uh add side for the position. I mean,
Speaker 5: he obviously has side for the position at defense for
Speaker 5: the position. Uh and you know, just kind of be
Speaker 5: a connector because I think Dollan's more of a connecting
Speaker 5: type point guard, Like you don't really want him, you know,
Speaker 5: being your dominant ball handler, but as a connector, as
Speaker 5: a guy who's who's you know, making secondary players off
Speaker 5: the dribble, like you really want him uh in that
Speaker 5: role as well, and I think that he can thrive
Speaker 5: in that role.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So on the Utah basketball side of things, you know,
Speaker 2: it still is a little bit quiet as far as
Speaker 2: you know, Alex continuing to fill out his staff. We
Speaker 2: don't really know what the rest of the staff is
Speaker 2: going to look like. Alex Hopton with Sean yesterday and
Speaker 2: had some interesting things to say about, you know, the
Speaker 2: type of staff he's looking for. It's not going to
Speaker 2: be as big as some of the other, you know,
Speaker 2: the other staffs in college basketball. So we're still a
Speaker 2: waiting word on, you know, on Andre Miller type. The
Speaker 2: transfer portal continues to bring news. Mike shrav Jamps is
Speaker 2: now officially in the transfer portal, Kano Dawes is back
Speaker 2: to play for AJA coming up next year, Jake Wallen
Speaker 2: is in the transfer portal. In addition to some other pieces,
Speaker 2: Mire a little found a landing spot. So we're still
Speaker 2: waiting to kind of learn exactly what Utah basketball is
Speaker 2: going to look like next year. You know, you were
Speaker 2: good enough to kind of talk talk to us about
Speaker 2: Raphael Chilius, the guy that you know and you played
Speaker 2: with back in the day. And apparently this Fairly Dickinson
Speaker 2: transferre Terrence Brown has a direct relationship with coach Chilius,
Speaker 2: and he was one of the top ten scorers in
Speaker 2: college basketball last year twenty one points, six boards, three
Speaker 2: point two assists. Shout out to the Great Northeast Conference
Speaker 2: that you're familiar with, where Fairley Dickinson, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: is located. Any insight on this, uh, this transfer that
Speaker 2: AJ was able to grab. According to on three, he's
Speaker 2: a four star transfer with a composite ranking of ninety
Speaker 2: three point.
Speaker 1: Two out of one hundred.
Speaker 2: So we have two pieces of the puzzle, now Kiano
Speaker 2: Dawes and now Terrence Brown. Any insight as far as
Speaker 2: what type of player Terrence is.
Speaker 5: Well, because I'm a basketball sico, I have watched Terrence
Speaker 5: Brown play, you know, my question for you know, my
Speaker 5: question is how is he going to adjust the big
Speaker 5: twelve physicality? But he's explosive off the dribble. He can
Speaker 5: shoot the ball, he can score the ball. He can
Speaker 5: score the ball and in multiple ways. He can score
Speaker 5: it at three levels. He's obviously proficient from three. He
Speaker 5: can get into the lane and get off the floater.
Speaker 5: He can get all the way to the basket off
Speaker 5: the dribble. You know, it's it's going to be interesting,
Speaker 5: uh from size, from a side standpoint, you know how
Speaker 5: he adjusts to you know, the physicality and the athleticism
Speaker 5: of the big twelve. You know. But he's a good
Speaker 5: a good addition. And what you want is somebody who's
Speaker 5: dynamic off the dribble. And what you want is somebody
Speaker 5: who can create most importantly basketball advantages. And and you know,
Speaker 5: at least in the Northeast Conference, there was no better
Speaker 5: UH player in that conference than Terrence Brown that career
Speaker 5: creating a basketball advantage off the dribble.
Speaker 2: So we kind of await word as far as what
Speaker 2: the staff and the rest of the roster will look like.
Speaker 2: But let's end with a little Utah jazz, Tony. We
Speaker 2: haven't talked a lot of jazz with you lately because
Speaker 2: if we're honest, there's just not a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows what time it is.
Speaker 2: They have three wins since the All Star break, there
Speaker 2: one and nineteen in their last twenty.
Speaker 1: We know what they're doing. We know what they're trying
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: But what I'll ask you today that I have been
Speaker 2: ashti in a while is with these grit with the
Speaker 2: grip of young players, and with the young players, I
Speaker 2: will remove Walker from the equation because I think we
Speaker 2: all can agree that Walker has played himself in the
Speaker 2: future plans of this organization. But I want, I just
Speaker 2: want to kick the tires with you on this group
Speaker 2: of young players. And we'll remove Taylor Hendricks because of
Speaker 2: course that he's hurt. But Isaiah Collier, Kyle Philipowski, of course,
Speaker 2: you know, will include Keyante in the mix, Cody Williams
Speaker 2: in the mix. Right cents upon the mix of these
Speaker 2: first and second year players, who do you feel has
Speaker 2: played their way to at least consideration to be around
Speaker 2: here long term, to be a piece of the puzzle
Speaker 2: when the Jazz are actually interested, interesting and serious about
Speaker 2: winning again.
Speaker 5: I will probably say Kyle Philipowski is the most likely
Speaker 5: because he he's the most unique. Uh he's you know,
Speaker 5: six eleven and seven foot Uh he you know, he
Speaker 5: obviously shoot the ball from three. It's funny because, uh,
Speaker 5: you know, some of the conversations with the Jazz two
Speaker 5: years ago, and they were like we're gonna bring Cal.
Speaker 5: This was after cost poss freshman or a duke. We're
Speaker 5: gonna bring Cal counsel Powski in. We're gonna bring him
Speaker 5: in for a want workout. We're definitely considering him, uh
Speaker 5: with our you know, our initial first round pick and
Speaker 5: that year was number nine, and that's the pick that
Speaker 5: that became you know, Taylor Hendrix. And I was like,
Speaker 5: you guys are crazy, like dude thinks like you know,
Speaker 5: I didn't like him at Duke, and now that I've
Speaker 5: seen him, you know a little bit more up close.
Speaker 5: I mean, they were absolutely right. Like he's he's kind
Speaker 5: of a mismatch offensively, Uh, he's, you know, so much
Speaker 5: tougher than I thought he was when he was at Duke.
Speaker 5: He's a lot more athletic than I thought he was
Speaker 5: when he was at Duke. You can see the development
Speaker 5: from you know, when he was drafted to now and
Speaker 5: you know, I think this guy has a chance to
Speaker 5: one day be an offensive I don't know about offensive
Speaker 5: engine because those guys are like twenty five points a night,
Speaker 5: but he, you know, I think he's got a chance
Speaker 5: to be a pretty significant offensive player in this league. Now,
Speaker 5: defenses is another story. You know, he can't really defend,
Speaker 5: and he's got to get a lot better at that.
Speaker 5: But you know, he's like really kind of a walking mismatch.
Speaker 5: Like you know, he's he's too big and strong and
Speaker 5: quick for fours, he's too quick for five. You know,
Speaker 5: he can space you out, he can go off the drubble,
Speaker 5: he's got counter moves. He's really crafty and cerebral. He's
Speaker 5: very tough, and he's got a lot more athletic pop.
Speaker 5: And then you know, you you give him credit for it.
Speaker 5: Looks like a choir boy, but he's definitely, Uh, he's
Speaker 5: definitely a really tough kid. He's what I would imagine
Speaker 5: and I hate to bring this up. I don't want
Speaker 5: to be blasphemous, but he's what I in today's league,
Speaker 5: and you know, and I think that, uh, he's he's
Speaker 5: been really really good for the Jazz in his in
Speaker 5: his rookie year, and I think he's got a chance,
Speaker 5: uh to be here for for a long time.
Speaker 2: All right, Tony, I know you're busy. We'll set you loose.
Speaker 2: Keep up the good work. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 5: Okay, no problem. Appreciate you, my guy.
Speaker 2: Tony Jones covers well the NBA for the athletic He's
Speaker 2: on the Nuggets beed right now, and he and Sam
Speaker 2: Amic with a piece up today concerning the shocking firing
Speaker 2: of Michael Malone with only three games left in the
Speaker 2: season and Denver is the four seed.
Speaker 1: Uh So there you go.
Speaker 2: You get Tony's work on his Twitter page at t
Speaker 2: Jones on the NBA. Brought to you today by our
Speaker 2: friends at IFA Country Stores. You can visit their team
Speaker 2: of pro turf and landscape consultants that help provide products
Speaker 2: and services to local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks,
Speaker 2: and other city properties throughout Utah. It's the same knowledge
Speaker 2: and care that they share with you about your yard
Speaker 2: only at i f A and online at if A
Speaker 2: dot co Op Weather's warm.
Speaker 1: Got to start thinking about that lung.
Speaker 6: Next on the drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your
Speaker 6: NBA Daily Assists.
Speaker 8: McMahon, vanmcmanating on the land, Texas flood As tickets, Mud
Speaker 8: He's and Man McMahon McMahan, the Manken.
Speaker 2: Tom Roy will stop by coming up at about an
Speaker 2: hour from right as we will put the college basketball
Speaker 2: season a bed. The Florida Gators are your national champ
Speaker 2: But shockey news in the world of pro basketball today,
Speaker 2: after a decade of very high level play, including a
Speaker 2: championship in Denver, Michael Malone has been fired by.
Speaker 1: The Kronky family.
Speaker 2: Our next guest probably has some thoughts on that.
Speaker 1: Tim. I'm old enough to know.
Speaker 2: I'm old enough to remember that if you were a
Speaker 2: generational player at the age of twenty five, you weren't traded,
Speaker 2: and if you were a really good coach, you could
Speaker 2: keep your job. But Michael Malone, Taylor Jenkins, Luka Dacic,
Speaker 2: this league is wild. We're all reacting to this in
Speaker 2: real time. But what was your initial reaction when you
Speaker 2: heard that the Kronkeys have moved off of Michael Malone?
Speaker 3: So my initial reaction was, well, I guess we know
Speaker 3: who won the power struggle between Michael Malone and Calva
Speaker 3: Booth and then oh no, they're both gone. So they
Speaker 3: ended up both losing the power struggle. So you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, you're making this decision with three games less
Speaker 3: than a regular season. To me, the guy is the
Speaker 3: winning his coach in franchise history. He won a title
Speaker 3: two years ago. You know, the most playoff wins in
Speaker 3: franchise history. He at least deserved a playoff run to
Speaker 3: be able to try to save his job. But Josh
Speaker 3: Croncky came to the conclusion that you know, as I
Speaker 3: was told, the way he explained to the rest of
Speaker 3: the coaching staff was, you know, the plane was going
Speaker 3: down and he was going to do whatever he could
Speaker 3: to try to save it, and they might not have
Speaker 3: a safe landing, but they're going to try. And he
Speaker 3: felt like the only way to do that was to
Speaker 3: fire them alone and basically tell Captain Booth, hey, thanks
Speaker 3: for your services, but they're no longer needed, you know,
Speaker 3: not going to do his contract. He's out now. And
Speaker 3: you know, essentially this power struggle between the coach and
Speaker 3: the GM ended up costing both of them their jobs
Speaker 3: and the Nuggets are going to win the best player
Speaker 3: in the world. Try to salvage the situation right away.
Speaker 2: I have no insight personally on where this power struggle
Speaker 2: began or why, but I can connect dots between some
Speaker 2: what I perceived to be puzzling roster construction decisions, and
Speaker 2: also financially, the ownership group clearly did not want to
Speaker 2: allocate necessary funds to keep some of their key pieces.
Speaker 2: But what was the impetus of this booth verse Malone thing?
Speaker 2: Where did this start and why did it get so bad?
Speaker 3: You know, I mean it's a pretty typical power struggle
Speaker 3: between coach and general manager. General manager wants coach to
Speaker 3: play young guys. Coach wants to rely on debts. You know. Look,
Speaker 3: they losing Bruce Brown and the way the title run.
Speaker 3: That was a simple problem, like they were. You know,
Speaker 3: there was a CBA math thought they couldn't pay him
Speaker 3: anything close to what he got. That's understandable. You know,
Speaker 3: Michael Malone wanted Jeff Green. The front office didn't want
Speaker 3: Michael Malone to keep playing Jeff Green. They wanted to
Speaker 3: play Peyton Watson. They lowball Jeff He's gone. You know.
Speaker 3: KCP was another case where you know, the front office said, no,
Speaker 3: we want Christian Brown to starting lineup, and Malone wanted
Speaker 3: to keep KCP. You know, Christian Brown, by the way,
Speaker 3: has had a very good year as a starter. Z ignag.
Speaker 3: He's another one. It's a young player who honestly hadn't
Speaker 3: done a whole lot, but got an extension from the
Speaker 3: front office. Malone didn't want to play him, you know
Speaker 3: he so there's a lot of that kind of stuff,
Speaker 3: and then you know you've got pride and you've got
Speaker 3: personalities here, and you know, Malone is not exactly what
Speaker 3: I would describe as a delicate flower. When he's not happy,
Speaker 3: you will be very well aware of it. He's very confrontational.
Speaker 3: And Calvin Booth, I was told, was kind of the
Speaker 3: one person who fought back against Malone, and again they
Speaker 3: ended up being they threw a bunch of punches and
Speaker 3: you know, they both got knocked out.
Speaker 2: So Tony Jones, your buddy from the Athletic Key and
Speaker 2: Sam amck are reporting that Mike Malone, Michael Malone, let's
Speaker 2: call him the name that he prefers, lost the locker room,
Speaker 2: and that includes Nikola Jokic, which, look, I'm not questioning
Speaker 2: Sam or Tony. I wouldn't do that to them, just
Speaker 2: like I wouldn't question you when you tell us things
Speaker 2: based off your reporting, we use them on the show.
Speaker 1: It's just that that doesn't feel like a Jokic.
Speaker 2: Thing to me right now. We have seen some emotional
Speaker 2: outbursts lately. They've lost four straight. I would put that
Speaker 2: on Jamal Murray's hamstring as much as anything.
Speaker 1: They are eleven and thirteen since the All Star break.
Speaker 2: But what do you make of that dynamic that maybe
Speaker 2: Michael Malone's players were even fed up with the way
Speaker 2: he was approaching things.
Speaker 3: I was told that Malone looks. You always hear that
Speaker 3: when coach gets fired, especially good season. Right, you'red the
Speaker 3: same thing with Taylor Jenkins in this I was told
Speaker 3: the same thing. I was told the players had quit
Speaker 3: on him, not necessary that Joker had quit on him,
Speaker 3: but Joker. What I was told directly was that Joker
Speaker 3: had tired of Malone's ego. You know, I don't. I
Speaker 3: don't know for certain that this was a decision that
Speaker 3: was run by Joker before it was made. But if
Speaker 3: it wasn't, that would surprise me, and I would think
Speaker 3: I would be pretty a pretty strange way to operate
Speaker 3: a franchise. But based on what I've been told by
Speaker 3: people who were involved, you know, with that franchise, people
Speaker 3: that work for the Nuggets, they don't think this is
Speaker 3: going to be a decision that necessarily upsets Joker, and
Speaker 3: they were pretty confident saying that they wouldn't be upset
Speaker 3: into Jamal Murray very interesting.
Speaker 2: You know, ever since Oklahoma City established themselves as the
Speaker 2: clear favorite and best team in the West and maybe
Speaker 2: the league, I've asked you and mcminimon all of our
Speaker 2: NBA guests that we have on who keeps s mart
Speaker 2: dagnalled up at night? And on more than a handful
Speaker 2: of occasions, the answer has been the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Do you think this change is that?
Speaker 2: Are they still a gitman threat even with all the
Speaker 2: chaos that's gone.
Speaker 3: To tell me how Jamal Murray's feeling come playoff?
Speaker 1: For sure?
Speaker 3: I mean that, honestly, that's the answer. I was told
Speaker 3: that Murray and Jokic both really do like David Adaman,
Speaker 3: who's going to be the interim coach. You know, maybe
Speaker 3: there's this is a situation where those guys kind of
Speaker 3: rally behind a coach who they'd like to get the
Speaker 3: job on a permanent basis, And you know, we'll see
Speaker 3: how all that plays out. But look, the Nuggets are
Speaker 3: going to have the best player probably in any series
Speaker 3: that they play in. I mean, you know, maybe Luca
Speaker 3: on any given series, could be better in Joker, maybe
Speaker 3: Shane any given series, But I like the Nuggets dogs
Speaker 3: there that's going to at least give you a fighting chance.
Speaker 3: But Joker can't do it alone. He can't be the
Speaker 3: only star. They need Murray playing at the kind of
Speaker 3: level that he played out during that title run to
Speaker 3: have any hope of making a deep run of the West.
Speaker 2: So the La Clippers have entered the group chat man.
Speaker 2: You know, whenever Kawhi Leonard is healthy and for a
Speaker 2: long stretch and decides that he's invested, we're all reminded
Speaker 2: of like, oh, yeah, he is one of those dudes
Speaker 2: and has been for a long time. They went on
Speaker 2: a stretch where they were like two and six in
Speaker 2: their previous eight and then I think they're eleven and
Speaker 2: three in their last fourteen, including winners of four straight
Speaker 2: and eight and two in their last ten. I know
Speaker 2: that we're all supposed to just say the Clippers are
Speaker 2: going to clip, because we've been conditioned to believe that,
Speaker 2: But their recent run doesn't feel like nothing.
Speaker 1: What do you make of it?
Speaker 3: There's definitely not nothing. And look, they kept their heads
Speaker 3: well above water even walk Kawhi was out for a
Speaker 3: big stretch of the season, and they've had They've had
Speaker 3: a lot of guys who've had great years, who have
Speaker 3: played better than I think people anticipated they would. Norman
Speaker 3: Powell has been awesome all season long. I mean, Zubats
Speaker 3: has had a phenomenal year. You know they have. I
Speaker 3: think they ran third defensively, you know, or they are
Speaker 3: at least the top defense. Zubots has been phenomenal there.
Speaker 3: You know, getting Chris done has really helped him bringing
Speaker 3: back the tomb. James Harden doesn't have the prettiest shooting numbers,
Speaker 3: but he's been extremely effective, you know, operating that offense.
Speaker 3: You know the fact that the Zubots and Pale, these
Speaker 3: guys are having career years. I think Harden's got something
Speaker 3: to do with that. Tyler's a hell of a coach,
Speaker 3: and so is Jeff Van Gundy. And Jeff Van Gundy's
Speaker 3: fingerprints are all over that defense. And so look, do
Speaker 3: I think that the Clippers are going to win the West?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: Do I think They're going to be, you know, a
Speaker 3: B word to match up with in the playoffs. I
Speaker 3: absolutely do.
Speaker 2: And for equal time, I'm going to ask you about
Speaker 2: another team that actually recently has the very same trajectory.
Speaker 2: Minnesota win I think three and five over an eight
Speaker 2: game stretch, and they're twelve and four. I believe in
Speaker 2: their last sixteen winners of five straight, seven and three
Speaker 2: in their last ten. It seems like every week we
Speaker 2: have you on, I'm I'm asking you about Denver and
Speaker 2: the Lakers, and of course, of course Golden State with
Speaker 2: that run with Jimmy Butler. But has the recent run
Speaker 2: of play for Minnesota changed your mind about what they
Speaker 2: can do this year in the playoffs?
Speaker 3: Again, They're They're a tough matchup. You know, their biggest
Speaker 3: flaw all season long has been closing games, and that's
Speaker 3: been an Ant issue. You know, Ant playing hero ball
Speaker 3: down a stretch and there have been examples are recently
Speaker 3: down to stretch of games where you know Ant was
Speaker 3: making the right plays, Ant was making good decisions. If
Speaker 3: Ant has matured in that regard, you know, if he's
Speaker 3: turned a corner and that fast of the game, you've
Speaker 3: got to respect the front or I'm sorry the Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: I know they were a Western Conference finals team last year,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's one of the fallow top played
Speaker 3: eight or ten players in the league. Definitely one of
Speaker 3: the most talented players in the league. And you know
Speaker 3: they've they're fixed right now in defense. But you know,
Speaker 3: they've got the ability to be one of, if not
Speaker 3: the best decent well, I'm gonna say the second best defense.
Speaker 3: I don't think they can be as good as the
Speaker 3: Thunder defensively, they've got the ability to be absolutely elite
Speaker 3: on that end the floor.
Speaker 2: So I'll just bottom line it, because, like I said,
Speaker 2: every week we ask you about that's the Thunder and
Speaker 2: everybody else? Who would you put at the top of
Speaker 2: the list right now of the group of teams that
Speaker 2: is everybody else as we currently stand today.
Speaker 3: You know, I had to do this for an ESPN
Speaker 3: dot com thing that ran earlier this week, and I
Speaker 3: put the Nuggets and then they fired their coaching GM.
Speaker 3: So I mean, honestly, dude, I could make a case
Speaker 3: for the Lakers. I can make a case for still
Speaker 3: the Nuggets because primarily of Joker. I can make a
Speaker 3: case for the Houston Rockets they're the two seed. You know.
Speaker 3: I can make a case for the Warriors. So I
Speaker 3: guess that's a long way of saying that. It's like that,
Speaker 3: I PA it believes Red Rocks has they a final
Speaker 3: r p A. There you go, and that's kind of
Speaker 3: where I am with this one.
Speaker 2: Well, as long as you only have two of those things,
Speaker 2: because they'll hit you pretty hard.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that much that yes, they are all right.
Speaker 2: What what does Matt Ashbia do and the what do
Speaker 2: the Phoenix Suns do this offseason?
Speaker 1: Tim?
Speaker 2: I mean, I was having dinner with some buddies last
Speaker 2: night and we were talking about the Jazz and how
Speaker 2: long it will take until they get back to at
Speaker 2: least a decent level of respectability and winning. And you
Speaker 2: know the fact that there's a team with Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: and Devin Booker, and of course there are issues beneath
Speaker 2: the surface as opposed to just giving you names on paper.
Speaker 2: But they are of course out of anything special this year.
Speaker 2: They are in salary capel. What happens in Phoenix this offseason.
Speaker 3: Well, they will have a lottery pick that goes to
Speaker 3: the Houston Rockets. They will most likely fire the coach
Speaker 3: again for the third straight year, and they'll go three
Speaker 3: for three with that under Matt Eshpia. You know, I
Speaker 3: don't know, Maybe they like the championship proven the coach
Speaker 3: and maybe they hire Michael Malone's available. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: they will almost certainly trade Kevin Durant, where I don't
Speaker 3: think they're going to get anything close to what they
Speaker 3: gave up for him. He's going to absolutely have to
Speaker 3: say and where he goes, and they will attempt to
Speaker 3: retool that roster around Devin Booker and continue to be
Speaker 3: absolutely all in. Now, is that the path that I
Speaker 3: would advise? No, it is not. Have they asked me
Speaker 3: for my input? No they have not. I asked them
Speaker 3: for what their plan was, and that's the plan that
Speaker 3: they laid out to me.
Speaker 1: All right, last thing, I will set you loose.
Speaker 2: I now you got a busy day, and I will
Speaker 2: ask you just a general question about the Jazz because
Speaker 2: you know I can get into the black magic and
Speaker 2: stretch at times to make topics interesting. But they're one
Speaker 2: in nineteen and their last twenty. They have three wins
Speaker 2: since the All Star break. Last three games they've given
Speaker 2: up one forty plus. But none of it matters because
Speaker 2: we all know the deal. Just what are you anticipating
Speaker 2: this offseason? Like, what what's the general approach? I don't
Speaker 2: think we're gonna hear Danny Ainge give a pressure where
Speaker 2: he talks about big game hunting ever again. But what
Speaker 2: do you think the general approach and obviously the first
Speaker 2: piece of the puzzle is the pick they get come May.
Speaker 2: But for jazz fans out here that are curious, and
Speaker 2: they're thirsty and and the patience is running thin, what's
Speaker 2: the off season have in store? Yeah?
Speaker 3: And the big game hunting thing really surprised me last
Speaker 3: year because I didn't like, you think you're a player
Speaker 3: away and you're a rebuilt away. And obviously that's the
Speaker 3: route that they've taken. And look, man, we all understand.
Speaker 3: This whole year has been lead up to the lottery
Speaker 3: and if they land fifth in the lottery, it's going
Speaker 3: to be awfully depressing. If they land first, then you
Speaker 3: know it's gonna be cast for celebration, and you know,
Speaker 3: souddenly things are looking up. Not that they'll be a
Speaker 3: playoff team or anything next year, but they'll have a
Speaker 3: clear franchise cornerstone and the guy to build around. But look,
Speaker 3: this is it's still I would say, the the very
Speaker 3: early in a rebuild. And I think you can argue
Speaker 3: that the rebuild was delayed more than it should have been.
Speaker 3: You know, they kind of half rebuilt for a couple
Speaker 3: of years. They're full blown rebuilding now. You know, you
Speaker 3: hope you get lucky in the lottery. You hope that
Speaker 3: all that work that you did to earn the best
Speaker 3: odds pans out for you. It's sure I hadn't been
Speaker 3: a whole lot of fun to watch, or I'm sure
Speaker 3: for anybody in that organization to live through. And honestly,
Speaker 3: like we talked before the deadline, I thought that that,
Speaker 3: you know, whether it was Colin Sexton or Jordan Clarkson,
Speaker 3: John Collins.
Speaker 9: At least one of those guys.
Speaker 3: Would get moved and have all those discussions again this summer.
Speaker 3: And you know, this is a team that I think
Speaker 3: you're trying to build to be in position to be good,
Speaker 3: you know, in twenty six and twenty seven and for
Speaker 3: a little while after that, but you're still a ways.
Speaker 2: Away, Yes, sir, all right, buddy, set you loose, Thanks
Speaker 2: for the time, be good all I appreciate it. Tim
Speaker 2: McMahon covers the NBA, you know, like Tony from the Athletic.
Speaker 2: Tony covers the jazz when they're interesting, and Tim covers
Speaker 2: the jazz when they're interesting, and neither of them are
Speaker 2: covering the jazz this year.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what the off season brings.
Speaker 2: Of course, the lottery will be the first step to
Speaker 2: understand through which prism they'll approach the rest of the
Speaker 2: off season, whether it's Cooper Flag. Hopefully at least it's
Speaker 2: in the top three or top four. I don't think
Speaker 2: they'll fall further than that, but it is a lottery,
Speaker 2: so you never know. All right, Tim stops bout today
Speaker 2: courtesy of our friends at IFA Country Stores. The weather
Speaker 2: is warm outside. If you look outside, the sun is shining.
Speaker 2: We've got a nice week of spring weather ahead. And
Speaker 2: if you've been neglecting your lawn, now it's time to
Speaker 2: think about it with our friends at IFA Country Stores.
Speaker 2: Eight Country Stores have everything you need to care for
Speaker 2: your lawn, no matter its size or shape. Their four
Speaker 2: plus law care program can promote healthy green grass this summer.
Speaker 2: Visit with their team of pro turf and landscape consultants
Speaker 2: that help provide products and services to local baseball and
Speaker 2: soccer fields, golf courses, parks, and other city properties throughout Utah.
Speaker 2: It's the same knowledge and care they can share with
Speaker 2: you about your yard only at IFA and online at
Speaker 2: IFA dot co Op. Today is the thirty five year
Speaker 2: anniversary of People's Instinctive Travels Great album from our guys
Speaker 2: tribe call quest on a Tuesday afternoon, So I'm now
Speaker 2: by the way for the Festival of Teas.
Speaker 1: ESPN.
Speaker 2: Festival of Teas is powered by the Utah Golf Association.
Speaker 2: Each day of spring and spring has sprung, it's beautiful outside.
Speaker 2: Today ESPN seven Hunters is given away rounds of golf
Speaker 2: from the best courses in the state. Listen to the
Speaker 2: Down and Dirty Scott Mitchell from ten to eleven, the
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show from eleven to two, and this little
Speaker 2: radio program which we call The Drive with Spence. Checkets
Speaker 2: from two to six for your chance to win each
Speaker 2: day from ESPN seven hundred and the Utah Golf Association.
Speaker 2: Details can be found at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.
Speaker 2: Today we are sending you to Glendale free round of
Speaker 2: golf to Glendale. Yesterday we had listeners text in nice
Speaker 2: things about you. Hell yeah, how did that make you
Speaker 2: feel really good? There's a lot of nice compliments. Let's
Speaker 2: text in more nice things about porter today then, because
Speaker 2: you're going to go opposite. No, no, I'm about spreading joy.
Speaker 2: You don't give me the credit for the love that
Speaker 2: I spread in the community. But I proceed, you know,
Speaker 2: unbothered by you. So I'm gonna do it again.
Speaker 4: We're gonna do this all the time.
Speaker 2: If you want eight seven seven three five three zero
Speaker 2: seven hundred text and something nice about Porter and we'll
Speaker 2: give you a free round of golf to Glendale. It's
Speaker 2: our festival of tease today. And also shout out to
Speaker 2: our friends at IFA Country Stores. It is warm outside.
Speaker 2: You may have neglected your lawn situation until right now.
Speaker 2: Time to think about it with our friends at IFA
Speaker 2: Country Stores. IFA Country Stores. They have everything you need
Speaker 2: to care for your lawnd no matter its size or shape.
Speaker 2: Their four plus long care program can promote healthy green
Speaker 2: grass this summer. Visit with their team of pro turf
Speaker 2: and landscape consultants that help provide products and services to
Speaker 2: local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks, and other
Speaker 2: city properties throughout Utah. It's the same knowledge you care.
Speaker 2: It's the same knowledge and care they share with you
Speaker 2: about your yard only at IFA and online at IFA
Speaker 2: dot co op.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get to the local stuff.
Speaker 2: As far as some announcements of players entering the transfer portals,
Speaker 2: some announcements of teams or excuse me players leaving the
Speaker 2: team to try their hand in the NBA Draft. The
Speaker 2: Florida Gators were crowned the national champs of college basketball
Speaker 2: last night on CBS sixty five to sixty three. An
Speaker 2: incredible comeback, and Florida came back all year long, all
Speaker 2: tournament long. It's kind of who they were after going
Speaker 2: down twelve to Houston.
Speaker 1: Twelve points to Houston is like twenty five or thirty
Speaker 1: to other teams.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a big, physical, defensive basketball team
Speaker 2: that likes to take the air out of the ball,
Speaker 2: slow it down.
Speaker 1: And when they went up twelve, I thought it was
Speaker 1: essentially over.
Speaker 2: But Emmanuel Sharp, who is a really really good college
Speaker 2: basketball player and did a really really good job on
Speaker 2: Walter Clayton Junior for the first thirty minutes or so
Speaker 2: of the game, had two of the most shocking plays
Speaker 2: down the stretch that you are going to see in
Speaker 2: a basketball game. This was as much about the Houston
Speaker 2: Cougars collapsing flat on their face as it was about
Speaker 2: the Florida Gators capitalizing, seizing the moment, and making enough
Speaker 2: plays down the stretch to get that win. It was
Speaker 2: a great basketball game to culminate what I thought was
Speaker 2: a really good tournament. I think we all probably prefer,
Speaker 2: you know, more buzzer beaters, more overtime games. There weren't
Speaker 2: very many of either of those, and there were no
Speaker 2: Cinderellas zero. Okay, Cinderella to me has to reach at
Speaker 2: least the Sweet sixteen to be deemed a Cinderella team
Speaker 2: on a run, and there was not one Cinderella in
Speaker 2: the final sixteen.
Speaker 1: Teams.
Speaker 2: Do not sell me on Arkansas. It's a ten seed.
Speaker 2: John Calipari has a team coming back. His top six
Speaker 2: players are coming back. He's adding three really really good
Speaker 2: transfers and recruits. They're a top ten team next year.
Speaker 2: We'll get to the way too early, top twenty five.
Speaker 2: We'll let you know where BYU is Utah. Of course
Speaker 2: not in there as of now, but porter I was
Speaker 2: talking about this with Sean during cross talk, and Sean
Speaker 2: shared a story as a high school football player when
Speaker 2: he had an opportunity for a very easy pick six
Speaker 2: and he pumped faked, pump faked, and ended up essentially
Speaker 2: not deciding what to do and then ultimately didn't make
Speaker 2: the play. And I'm sorry if you're em Manuel Sharp
Speaker 2: you will be he's seventy five years old, because I
Speaker 2: don't know that he's an NBA guy. I think Emmanuel
Speaker 2: Sharp is a guy that could maybe make a little
Speaker 2: bit of money playing basketball overseas or something like that.
Speaker 2: But there's a chance that that's the final time that
Speaker 2: Emmanuel Sharp will be playing in a basketball game that
Speaker 2: has that much at stake. And I am not bringing
Speaker 2: this up to pile on the kid, because honestly, I
Speaker 2: feel horrible for Emmanuel Sharp, who had a really, really
Speaker 2: good year. He is a junior, so he will return
Speaker 2: to Houston next year, so maybe they have a shot
Speaker 2: to get back to where they were. But this stuff
Speaker 2: is so fleeting, and I was thinking about this today
Speaker 2: through the prism of Denver firing Michael Malone. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you're a Denver Nuggets fan, the past five six
Speaker 2: years of Denver Nugget basketball, it's been the best stretch
Speaker 2: you have ever had.
Speaker 1: Shout out tr Don Danissel. This has been.
Speaker 2: A dream scenario for a market that is very similar
Speaker 2: to Salt Lake. It's similar to Salt Lake in size.
Speaker 2: Denver's a bigger city than we are. They've got pro baseball,
Speaker 2: they've got Pro football, it's a I think it's a
Speaker 2: top fifteen to sixteen market something like that. We're top thirty,
Speaker 2: so they're bigger than we are. But as far as
Speaker 2: the you know, the geographical proximity, the challenges of attracting
Speaker 2: players to play there in free agency. You know, I've
Speaker 2: always kind of taken a little bit of solace in
Speaker 2: what Denver has been able to do as somebody who
Speaker 2: badly wants the jazz to be good again.
Speaker 1: Make the jazz good again? You know what?
Speaker 2: Hu interesting, not great? Make the jazz good again. You
Speaker 2: know what, let's just lean into it. Print the shirts,
Speaker 2: make the jazz. Should we say great again? Or should
Speaker 2: we say good again? Because it's baby steps?
Speaker 4: Well, my take there would be the jazz haven't.
Speaker 2: Been great ever, No, because if you're great, you win
Speaker 2: a championship, you win one.
Speaker 4: Now, let's be clear they were. That was a great
Speaker 4: roster maybe, but yeah, I think greatness greatness for acquires
Speaker 4: a trophy, in my opinion, at least at a team level.
Speaker 2: Okay, I got it. Make the jazz almost great again?
Speaker 2: Mtja GA.
Speaker 4: I like the acronym. It's very simple, easy to easy
Speaker 4: catch up.
Speaker 2: Well, if we're going to start a movement. We need
Speaker 2: an acronym you do in order to print the shirts,
Speaker 2: print the hats, and then make All we have to
Speaker 2: do is convince people that this is a real thing.
Speaker 1: Come up with a bunch of.
Speaker 2: Conspiracy theories, maybe an act, some tariffs on some free
Speaker 2: agent signings.
Speaker 1: I think we're onto something here.
Speaker 4: Let's go Kevin Malone the office. A few words, do good,
Speaker 4: few words, do trick, very nice.
Speaker 2: Jazz good again, jga jga, jazz good again. Make the
Speaker 2: jazz almost great again like they were in the nineties. Look,
Speaker 2: I'm an idea man. Okay, we're work shopping on air here. Okay,
Speaker 2: but back to the original point. A number of examples
Speaker 2: lately in the NBA I think should give jazz fans
Speaker 2: some home hope about where the jazz can be. With
Speaker 2: a couple of savvy moves and you knock out you know,
Speaker 2: you land on the right draft pick, no matter where
Speaker 2: it is. And then suddenly, if you land on the
Speaker 2: right draft pick and you start to develop young players
Speaker 2: the right way, other players will want to play for you.
Speaker 2: We saw that here not too long ago, when Dennis
Speaker 2: Lindsay expedited the growth of the jazz by trading for
Speaker 2: Mike Conley, one of the most well respected, efficient pick
Speaker 2: and roll ball handlers of this generation.
Speaker 1: That's who Mike is.
Speaker 2: I mean at his peak, of course, not the player
Speaker 2: that he once was from Minnesota, but at Mike Conley's peak,
Speaker 2: he was one of the best lead guards in the NBA,
Speaker 2: and certainly his reputation as a member of the community,
Speaker 2: his reputation as a leader in the locker room, made
Speaker 2: that savvy move by Dennis Lindsay expedite the growth of
Speaker 2: this team to the point that they were. You know,
Speaker 2: Mike Conley missed three away from advancing in the postseason.
Speaker 2: Maybe fully healthy, they look different in the playoffs, but
Speaker 2: obviously that's revisionist history. And then there's Giannis in Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: where the Bucks want a championship in a city where
Speaker 2: not a lot of players care to play. A lot
Speaker 2: of examples as of late, as far as you know,
Speaker 2: if you're a Jazz fan, to look at that isn't
Speaker 2: simply Lebron going to Miami, or the Lakers getting just
Speaker 2: another start because that's what the Lakers do, or the
Speaker 2: Celtics just being the Celtics. There are some examples that
Speaker 2: have risen up and Denver's one of them.
Speaker 1: But back to the point, like this stuff is.
Speaker 2: So fleeting, and when you're in the moment as a fan,
Speaker 2: you feel like the success in the run will last
Speaker 2: forever because it feels like something's been built and then
Speaker 2: it's sustainable, and then you're stunned when it goes the
Speaker 2: other way, you know.
Speaker 1: I saw coach Win last night. He was at the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame dinner.
Speaker 2: My high school basketball coach, Mike Maxwell was inducted in
Speaker 2: the Utah Sports Hall of Fame, and I saw Kyle
Speaker 2: for a minute. Oh, by the way, porter, you should know.
Speaker 2: Kyle said to me, whenever you want me on, just
Speaker 2: let me know.
Speaker 4: Kyle Whittingham.
Speaker 1: Kyle Whittingham as opposed to Kyle who I don't know.
Speaker 2: Coach Wit said to me, Hey, whenever you need me,
Speaker 2: just let me know a hop on whenever.
Speaker 4: So we're gonna we're gonna hold it two that.
Speaker 2: Which I responded, be very careful what you promised, because
Speaker 2: I will call you tomorrow to join the radio show.
Speaker 1: But he was very nice.
Speaker 2: But it made me think like Utah Football Big twelve
Speaker 2: preseason picked to win the thing. Everybody thought, both locally
Speaker 2: and Ashley that this is the team that will win
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve and go to and expanded twelve team
Speaker 2: CFP and Utah football. Basically since the early two thousands,
Speaker 2: it's been about a twenty year stretch of mostly really
Speaker 2: really good years, and so last year caught everybody off
Speaker 2: guard because to me, it was a reminder of how
Speaker 2: fleeting this stuff is, and how is a fan you've
Speaker 2: got to enjoy when it's good, because it is never
Speaker 2: good all the time.
Speaker 1: It is cyclical.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there were youth fans that felt like Utah
Speaker 2: was never going to lose to BYU again after coach
Speaker 2: Wit had basically created what perceive what everybody perceived to
Speaker 2: be a very sizable talent gap on the roster and
Speaker 2: went through a stretch where Utah was winning like every
Speaker 2: single year. It's a generation still of Utah dominance over BYU.
Speaker 2: But I said during that streak, I said during the run, like,
Speaker 2: you know this won't last forever. These things are cyclical.
Speaker 2: These things are fleeting and windows closed so quickly. Like
Speaker 2: if you're a Denver Nuggets fan today, you are shaking
Speaker 2: your head. If you are Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars,
Speaker 2: today you are waking up going what the hell happened?
Speaker 2: We were right there, which brings me backporter to what
Speaker 2: I've talked about with Sean during crosstalk today, because there's
Speaker 2: no other way to spend this and again, I am
Speaker 2: not bringing this up to pile on this young man.
Speaker 1: I'm sure Emmanuel Sharp is having a really rough day.
Speaker 2: And I always find this interesting because you don't have
Speaker 2: to be on the national championship stage to remember that
Speaker 2: one moment where you missed the shot or you made
Speaker 2: the turnover, Are you blue the defensive assignment? Are you
Speaker 2: dropped the pass, or you fumbled the ball, you missed
Speaker 2: the tackle that led to the game winning play, and
Speaker 2: ultimately you are the reason your team lost. So I
Speaker 2: told the story earlier, and I am forty seven years old.
Speaker 2: This happened to me when I was sixteen, just high
Speaker 2: school basketball. Massive comeback against a rival school and had
Speaker 2: a really good fourth quarter, and then I had an
Speaker 2: opportunity to win the game and I actually got free.
Speaker 2: I had like a five foot bunny and instead of
Speaker 2: using the backboard, which you should have done, I tried
Speaker 2: to float it in and I shot a little flutter.
Speaker 2: I'm like Oh that's good. Around the rim, boom falls out,
Speaker 2: buzzer sounds.
Speaker 1: We lose.
Speaker 2: That wasn't for any It was a high school basketball game.
Speaker 1: It wasn't toun to me.
Speaker 2: I should have I should have two hands, two feet
Speaker 2: that I was a two footed jumper. There are still
Speaker 2: times where randomly, my dumb bing bong brain will remind me, like, hey,
Speaker 2: do you remember when you missed that game winner against Wilton?
Speaker 2: This was nineteen ninety five, And if that sticks with me,
Speaker 2: our guy, this poor guy, Emmanuel Sharp is going to
Speaker 2: be seventy five years old remembering the two turnovers he
Speaker 2: made to lose the national championship. It would have been
Speaker 2: Houston's first national championship. They had five slam a Jama,
Speaker 2: they had chem Olajuan take them to three straight final fours.
Speaker 2: Kelvin Sampson sixty nine years old, you win that national championship.
Speaker 1: You are a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: Do you have a moment or moments that still seep
Speaker 2: into your consciousness when you were a wide out at Summit?
Speaker 1: Where was it Summit High School? South? Is there a
Speaker 1: North Summit?
Speaker 4: There is? Don't don't make that mistake.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, wait is there beef between North and South Summit.
Speaker 4: Oh very much. So that's that's like bitter rivals. Did
Speaker 4: you ever ow Summit camus Coville, North Summit?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Were you ever tipping over any cattle that North Summit
Speaker 2: had just to say in your face, I'm just wondering
Speaker 2: what it's like up there.
Speaker 4: What's the I mean, there's they're small town rivalry stuff
Speaker 4: we never got into. I mean by the time came around,
Speaker 4: it was I guess Facebook beef.
Speaker 1: I don't know Fase beef.
Speaker 4: But but yeah, there's uh, there's there's rivalry, uh rivalry
Speaker 4: stuff going on up in up in that little valley.
Speaker 4: I will say, personally, like individually, in a in a
Speaker 4: big time moment like that, there there's not much that
Speaker 4: stands out. I had. I had my probably biggest like
Speaker 4: blunder individually. Was I had a technical foul on a
Speaker 4: dunk that I missed. Yes, I hung on the No,
Speaker 4: I hung on the rim on a dunk that I
Speaker 4: shot off the back of the rim and went out
Speaker 4: of bounds. I missed it, and then I remained on
Speaker 4: the rim and got a technical lost us like four
Speaker 4: points on the possession. But I will say relating to
Speaker 4: what happened to Houston. My my last experience playing playing
Speaker 4: high school basketball was one where, uh, we were like,
Speaker 4: we were the favorite team. We were one of the
Speaker 4: with the top teams in the state. We came in
Speaker 4: against shout out to our guys down there in Gunnison
Speaker 4: in the middle of no where. They came up and
Speaker 4: played really, really well. And at the end of the
Speaker 4: game we had the ball with a chance to win it,
Speaker 4: and on the inbound we had an awesome play drawn up.
Speaker 4: Shout out to my coach, Dusty, awesome play drawn up.
Speaker 4: And not gonna name any names, but we had a
Speaker 4: missed communication miss I'm not saying any it was, but
Speaker 4: it went through someone's hands. The Gunnison just picked it up,
Speaker 4: scooped it up and kind of sealed the game. But
Speaker 4: it was one of those moments where it was a
Speaker 4: anti climactic finish where your team had it in the
Speaker 4: grasp of their hands and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: your career's over like that really like in ten seconds,
Speaker 4: it goes from oh, hey, we're gonna be playing in
Speaker 4: the next round, We're gonna be playing for a state title,
Speaker 4: and then ten seconds later, because of kind of a
Speaker 4: you know, a botched play or a miscommunication with what
Speaker 4: the play was supposed to be. We're headed home, and
Speaker 4: it ended like that, and obviously not the stage of
Speaker 4: the Final four, but yeah, I relate to it in
Speaker 4: that way.
Speaker 2: The emotional toll that it takes and the scars that
Speaker 2: it leaves, because look, you know what this was like,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure a bulk of our listeners know what
Speaker 2: this is like as well, Like if you listen to
Speaker 2: sports talk radio and if you watch games, there's a
Speaker 2: good chance at some point you played. And at some
Speaker 2: point all of us probably were delusional and young and
Speaker 2: dumb to believe at some point we would be these
Speaker 2: guys that are playing in college and in pros.
Speaker 1: I mean, that certainly was my dream.
Speaker 2: And what it means that much when you're that young,
Speaker 2: if you don't, like I can even remember, this is
Speaker 2: wild to even bring up.
Speaker 1: I was at a jazz basketball camp.
Speaker 2: I think I was ten, and I'd made it to
Speaker 2: the finals of the free throw contest where you get
Speaker 2: a trophy if you win the free throw contest. There
Speaker 2: we go, and I can remember the night before because
Speaker 2: it was a week long thing. I used to go
Speaker 2: with my cousins. Shout out to my cousin Chad, and
Speaker 2: my cousin and Jay. May my cousin Jay rest in peace.
Speaker 2: He sadly passed away. But the three of us used
Speaker 2: to go his birthdays tomorrow. Wow, I'm glad I brought
Speaker 2: that up. But the three of us used to go
Speaker 2: to camp together. It was a week long thing. That
Speaker 2: is when John Stockton famously told us to get the
Speaker 2: hell away from his car, which broke my heart as
Speaker 2: a ten year old, but that's who John kind of was.
Speaker 1: But I made it to the free throw final.
Speaker 2: I was really pumped and I blew it like I
Speaker 2: had made eighteen of twenty to make it to the
Speaker 2: final round. And it was me and some bro and
Speaker 2: I could not sleep. I was nervous as I'll get out,
Speaker 2: and I think I hit like thirteen of twenty, which
Speaker 2: is not close enough to win it. He went like
Speaker 2: seventeen of twenty and won it. And I cried like
Speaker 2: a baby all the way home because I lost some
Speaker 2: free throw freaking contest. I'm ten years old and I
Speaker 2: still remember. It's there's just something. I'm not a psychologist,
Speaker 2: but there's something about the emotion that goes into the
Speaker 2: sports that you play when you're young, because it just
Speaker 2: feels like it means so much. As you age, you
Speaker 2: have perspective, but in the moment, it feels like you
Speaker 2: have low everything all at once.
Speaker 4: I think that's the entire point to it. Is your
Speaker 4: perspective when you're fourteen years old you're playing sports, is
Speaker 4: that this is everything. And to give you an idea, spence,
Speaker 4: put yourself in those shoes right back when you were seventeen,
Speaker 4: eighteen years old, and then imagine that that continues for
Speaker 4: four or five years, right, your everything, that perspective you
Speaker 4: have when you're eighteen nineteen, it's still going on when
Speaker 4: you're twenty five, you're twenty six, you're in the NBA,
Speaker 4: you're in high level college basketball. Imagine how much that
Speaker 4: feels like, right, Imagine the pressure that that gives you
Speaker 4: versus me playing a two a basketball game in North Sampete, Utah.
Speaker 4: Right Like, it's it's gotta be that times eight million
Speaker 4: when it comes to the feeling that these guys are
Speaker 4: dealing with the pressure that these guys are dealing with.
Speaker 4: And yeah, when we're doing radio twenty years later, we
Speaker 4: have some perspective that you know, it was just a game.
Speaker 4: It was just our teenage years. But you don't have
Speaker 4: that when you're living it. And that is true when
Speaker 4: you're still keeping that dream alive in college and beyond that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got it for a manual sharp and still stunned
Speaker 2: as to what I witnessed last night. And we'll get
Speaker 2: with Ken Palmer about this in a little bit, But
Speaker 2: a twelve point lead for Houston, based off of how
Speaker 2: I saw Houston shut off everybody's water all year, felt
Speaker 2: like it was insurmountable. I give Todd Golden a ton
Speaker 2: of credit and those Florida kids a ton of credit
Speaker 2: for just sticking with it and staying in the fight.
Speaker 2: You know, they do say style makes styles make fights.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's a little cliche, and I think if you're
Speaker 2: Calvin Sampson, you've got a lot of self reflecting to do,
Speaker 2: even though that dude's been the game for a long time.
Speaker 2: You can't even get a shot off in your final
Speaker 2: four possessions. You can't even get a shot like four
Speaker 2: turnovers in a row. The only thing that could have
Speaker 2: allowed Florida to win was a combination of the ability
Speaker 2: of them to stay in the fight. But Houston had
Speaker 2: to lay a big egg, and they did, and that
Speaker 2: makes this one tough. So we asked you to text
Speaker 2: in nice things about Porter to go play golf.
Speaker 1: I don't think we can do this anymore. This is sure. Well,
Speaker 1: I think people are really uh hamming it up.
Speaker 2: I think this is I don't think this is a
Speaker 2: healthy exercise for your already inflated ego.
Speaker 4: You don't think these people are being completely you know,
Speaker 4: right down the line, they're not being completely honest. You
Speaker 4: think they're you know, you think there's some motive behind it.
Speaker 2: Well, we've got a couple of issues here on the
Speaker 2: text line, and Porter will pick somebody to send a
Speaker 2: Glendale for a little free golf.
Speaker 1: That's our festival of tease. Now that's bring us here.
Speaker 1: We'll hooking you up with some golf. Uh.
Speaker 2: One texture said Porter is the best mid day sports
Speaker 2: radio producer in Utah.
Speaker 1: Let's be clear, this is afternoon drive.
Speaker 4: I I did middays for quite some time, so maybe
Speaker 4: it's still okay.
Speaker 2: So you're you were the best in that space, but
Speaker 2: now that you're in this space, you're no longer the best.
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: What they're saying both, I think is what their health
Speaker 2: can be true great knowledge of sports and likes's opinion.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. Thank you.
Speaker 2: The best thing about Porter is he gives us small
Speaker 2: town boys a good name. There we go, the goat
Speaker 2: producer of the drive true JP. Yeah, get him out
Speaker 2: of here, Brady, Sorry, Brady? Wow, Okay, all right? Numbers numbers, Hey,
Speaker 2: you're not wrong. The ratings are the ratings, Oh, Porter Larsen,
Speaker 2: is it obnoxious like James Peterson?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Wow? Was that James texting?
Speaker 4: That was rude?
Speaker 1: Porter always keeps the vibes up. That's not true.
Speaker 4: I will say that one might not be. I don't
Speaker 4: always keep the vibes up. Sometimes I'm counterproductive in that regard.
Speaker 2: How would you describe your vibes as the kids would say?
Speaker 1: You know, are the vibes high with you? Are you
Speaker 1: a riz? God? Like Bill orm You got some riz?
Speaker 4: It depends on the day. I think. My I'm not bipolar.
Speaker 4: That would be a diagnosis you'd need. But the vibes are,
Speaker 4: you know, up here, up there, down there. My grandmother
Speaker 4: just a little really inside baseball here.
Speaker 1: Snowboarder, is that your mom?
Speaker 4: No, my mom was a snowboard My grandmother was the
Speaker 4: one that had multiple personalities, but didn't tell her whole family.
Speaker 1: Until she sounds like a hoot man, I want to
Speaker 1: hang out with her.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we didn't know about this until I found her
Speaker 4: medical records after she died. I'm like, oh, there we go.
Speaker 4: I'm not on that level. But my vibes are you know,
Speaker 4: maybe here and here depends on the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's another My vibes depend on the day. I
Speaker 2: try to bring good vibes to the drive. But sometimes
Speaker 2: you land after a long forty eight hours in Vegas
Speaker 2: from seventy degree weather and you have to dig your
Speaker 2: car out in April, your vibes were really low that
Speaker 2: My vibes were admittedly bad that day. So I'm trying
Speaker 2: to bring good vibes. And then finally somebody text in
Speaker 2: I love Porter.
Speaker 4: There we go.
Speaker 1: Do you know who that is? No?
Speaker 4: Should I call their number?
Speaker 1: Yes? You know what new segment idea on air?
Speaker 2: You text in good things about Porter, then we call
Speaker 2: you and bring you on air. Another one spilled in
Speaker 2: Porter does good. Dog on at people like him? Porter
Speaker 2: does good. That's somebody from South Summit because they said
Speaker 2: dog on. I'm just messing around, So keep those texts
Speaker 2: coming in, say nice things about our guy Porter and
Speaker 2: we'll send you to play a little golf. All right,
Speaker 2: two hours down, two hours to go. We will put
Speaker 2: a little bit bow on the college basketball season. Oh
Speaker 2: may have buried the lead. Sorry, got distracted. Jegor Demon
Speaker 2: is leaving BYU for the NBA, and Mike Sharrav Jamps
Speaker 2: has elected to enter the transfer portal from the University
Speaker 2: of Utah. There's some other local stuff that we'll get
Speaker 2: to maybe kick the tires with Ken palmeray about this
Speaker 2: and then don't forget ourself, fans. We are two and
Speaker 2: a half weeks away from the primary window transfer window closing.
Speaker 2: In the world of Major League Soccer, our reinforcements on
Speaker 2: the way.
Speaker 1: Kurt Schmidt's gonna.
Speaker 2: Stop by today. Been a couple of weeks since we've
Speaker 2: caught up with Kurt Main. Roster construct for our local
Speaker 2: soccer club RSL's taken.
Speaker 1: On Nashville this weekends.
Speaker 2: After getting all three points against the LA Galaxy at
Speaker 2: the home behind the brace from Diego Luna.
Speaker 1: Brace is a.
Speaker 2: Soccer term for two goals scored in one game. I
Speaker 2: just don't want to get you know, I don't want
Speaker 2: to confuse our did you know that before I told
Speaker 2: you that a brace was two goals.
Speaker 4: I'm actually pretty good with the terms. Okay, you know,
Speaker 4: ask me about some schemes and strategy getting a you know,
Speaker 4: ahead of my skis on that one. But you give
Speaker 4: me the soccer terms un locked in.
Speaker 1: All right, brace two goals, diego.
Speaker 2: Luna becomes the youngest RSL player to tally fifteen goals
Speaker 2: and fifteen assists. The kid is really good. So we'll
Speaker 2: bring in Kurt to talk a little RSL. But the
Speaker 2: world of college basketball crown and national champ last night,
Speaker 2: Lorda Gators their third title in the two thousands, which
Speaker 2: puts them second behind the Yukon Huskies. Our next guest
Speaker 2: is our college basketball north Star Life north Star for
Speaker 2: honest Ken Pomeroy on a Tuesday Ken Palm dot com.
Speaker 7: How are we doing, Buddy, doing great spence, Just kind
Speaker 7: of reflecting on the season that was. In my position,
Speaker 7: it always goes by pretty quickly. I know for other
Speaker 7: people in the game they think it takes forever, but
Speaker 7: for me, it just flies by.
Speaker 2: So when we last spoke, you had escaped the chilly
Speaker 2: cold weather of Salt Lake in exchange for I.
Speaker 1: Believe Calgary is that where you were when we last spoke.
Speaker 7: That's that's correct.
Speaker 1: And where do we find you now? Ken? Where's your location?
Speaker 3: Still in Calgary?
Speaker 2: Still in Calgary? Who spends that much to do? You
Speaker 2: want to tell us what you're doing?
Speaker 7: Or no, it's not that exciting. I mean I can,
Speaker 7: I can. I can work you through the back, working
Speaker 7: through the thought process if you want.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want all of it.
Speaker 2: Ken, We've got four hours of radio to do, so
Speaker 2: build the space, sir.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 7: I So here's the deal. I'm as you know, I'm
Speaker 7: kind of self employed, you know, work on my own,
Speaker 7: can work remotely in cases where I'm not self employed,
Speaker 7: and it's just really productive for me to like get
Speaker 7: away from you know, distractions and stuff at home, and
Speaker 7: you know, my life situation allows me to do that.
Speaker 7: So so that's mostly the h that's mostly logic.
Speaker 9: Yeh.
Speaker 2: Look good for you. I'm not judging. I wish I
Speaker 2: had that type of freedom. I'm very jealous of my
Speaker 2: friends that are in the same position you are, where
Speaker 2: they can be like I'm just going to Bali for
Speaker 2: ten days because I can work from there. So hey, look,
Speaker 2: Calgary's beautiful. I have a brother in law from Calgary.
Speaker 2: He and my sister were married up there, So I'm
Speaker 2: not judging. I just for me, Ken, if I had
Speaker 2: the opportunity to get away, I think I would choose
Speaker 2: a beach.
Speaker 1: That's just that's just me.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I mean I'm not judge you either, Spens Like,
Speaker 7: I get how people. I get why people would want
Speaker 7: to go to a beach, and I can appreciate that.
Speaker 7: But the beach is not my my life style.
Speaker 2: So okay, there you go, Hey Tomato, Tomato, Ken, let's
Speaker 2: move on. Are we judging the Houston Cougars for that collapse?
Speaker 2: Let's start in a vacuum, then we'll pan back. And
Speaker 2: I was actually thinking about you when Houston went up twelve,
Speaker 2: because I believe, with your metrics, this is the best
Speaker 2: defensive basketball team in college basketball. And not to be
Speaker 2: redundant there, but I watched them snatch souls from Big
Speaker 2: twelve teams this year, and when they went up twelve, Ken,
Speaker 2: I thought, that's curtains.
Speaker 1: So what do you make.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the Houston side of how they collapse
Speaker 2: down the stretch.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I thought so too. I thought the walls were
Speaker 7: closing in on Florida, and you know, Florida dies a
Speaker 7: few bullets to get to the championship game, and then
Speaker 7: I thought this was it for them, Like you say,
Speaker 7: I seems like Houston was, you know, it was on
Speaker 7: mission after closing out that dude game. The way they
Speaker 7: did they're pretty much fire around also under especially defensively.
Speaker 7: The way they kind of figured out how to you know,
Speaker 7: essentially take Walter Clayton out of the game.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 7: That was that was the one thing that you didn't
Speaker 7: really think was possible, and they had done it up
Speaker 7: at that point. So at that point, yeah, I thought
Speaker 7: that the game was over. And there were a couple
Speaker 7: of things that went against One was that both they're
Speaker 7: big man ended up getting four fouls, you know, shortly
Speaker 7: after taking that lead, and so they had to play
Speaker 7: small for a little bit, and some of that you know,
Speaker 7: length that has propelled them to having the number one
Speaker 7: rated defense was on the bench, and in Florida was
Speaker 7: able to get me a little bit of flow offensively.
Speaker 7: That was the main thing. But the other thing was,
Speaker 7: like houston offense was pretty brutal all night. I mean,
Speaker 7: you got to give obviously credit to Florida's defense, but really,
Speaker 7: you know, you go back to even the Duke game,
Speaker 7: and Houston's offense was not great. Now, they did make threes,
Speaker 7: and that kind of, you know, covered up what was
Speaker 7: an awful two point shooting night for them against du
Speaker 7: They only made thirty three percent of their twos against Duke.
Speaker 7: They only made forty one percent against Florida, and it's
Speaker 7: just hard to overcome that. And that's been the that
Speaker 7: was the story for Houston all season long. You can
Speaker 7: look at their profile, almost everything is good or accessible
Speaker 7: except the two point shooting, which was just absolutely dreadful.
Speaker 7: And it was, you know, kind of a minor miracle
Speaker 7: they were able to go as far as they did.
Speaker 7: They ultimately finished the season ranked two ninety six and
Speaker 7: two point percent, so in some ways, an incredible coaching
Speaker 7: job in Helvin Sampson to get to the last game
Speaker 7: of the season with that kind of number.
Speaker 2: So a lot of attention today on poor Emmanuel Sharp,
Speaker 2: who is a really really good player and as a junior,
Speaker 2: and we'll get to what Houston has coming back next year.
Speaker 1: I want to talk some big twelve in a moment.
Speaker 2: I mean, the way too early top twenty five stuff
Speaker 2: that Borsello wrote for ESPN dot Com today. Yes, Houston
Speaker 2: is won as a result to who they could potentially
Speaker 2: return and then a grip of transfers.
Speaker 1: So we'll get to that in a moment.
Speaker 2: And look, my sincere hope for Emmanuel Sharp is that
Speaker 2: he comes back as a senior and as an opportunity
Speaker 2: to kind of redeem himself because they're not there without him.
Speaker 2: He was the main point of attack defenseman on Walter
Speaker 2: Clayton Junior. He was the guy that was tasked with
Speaker 2: guarding potentially the best league guard in the tournament and
Speaker 2: the final foremost outstanding player, and Clayton Junior did not
Speaker 2: get his first point until about fourteen thirty seven left
Speaker 2: in the game and didn't hit his first three until
Speaker 2: there was three minutes left. I mean, I thought Sharp
Speaker 2: did a really good job on him, and he had
Speaker 2: a good, solid tournament, but down the stretch, back to
Speaker 2: back turnovers, and I don't know what exactly the deal
Speaker 2: was when I went back and watched the replay Canada,
Speaker 2: the final play where Sharp rose up and then it
Speaker 2: was a really good contest by Walter Clayton Junior that
Speaker 2: caused him to simply have to drop the ball or
Speaker 2: else it would have been a travel when you watch
Speaker 2: the action on the strong side, it was a misdirect
Speaker 2: and a ball screen for LJ.
Speaker 1: Cryer.
Speaker 2: But Emanuel Sharpe just either ran out of time or
Speaker 2: wasn't patient enough. And I'm not saying it's all on him,
Speaker 2: but what do you make of four straight possessions to
Speaker 2: finish the game for Houston where they didn't even get
Speaker 2: a shot, Like, that's wild to me.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that is unbelievable. Yeah, for a team that you know, generally,
Speaker 7: like the one thing you could say about Houston was that,
Speaker 7: you know, they they wouldn't panic. You know, they they're
Speaker 7: a very experienced team and they're going to at least
Speaker 7: execute properly. They have their limitations offensively, and we you know,
Speaker 7: alluded to that, but certainly, Yeah, you watch that final play.
Speaker 7: I mean it's a little it's a little reminiscent of
Speaker 7: like the I mean, this is for the real olds
Speaker 7: out there, but you know, the eighty three title game.
Speaker 7: There are people making all these comparisons to that game,
Speaker 7: and final possession in that game was similar in the
Speaker 7: sense that it was like just terribly executed. Ultimately it
Speaker 7: turned out to work in that situation, But yeah, you
Speaker 7: rewatched that last possession for Houston, and it's like people
Speaker 7: are sort of like trying to set screens but not
Speaker 7: really committed to it, and so obviously nobody's getting open.
Speaker 7: And then yeah, Manuel Stricks just kind of left with
Speaker 7: a choice there, and in the moments he made it.
Speaker 7: Really that choice. To me, I think you had the
Speaker 7: you know, in the moment, you just have to like
Speaker 7: let that thing fly, throw your leg out, do something,
Speaker 7: draw some contact. Of course the official to make a call.
Speaker 7: But yeah, overall, the execution down the stretch by Houston
Speaker 7: was pretty dreadful.
Speaker 2: Now to your earlier point, you know, you can't talk
Speaker 2: about these things without acknowledging both sides of the coin.
Speaker 2: What did flor to do can to turn it on
Speaker 2: in the second half defensively after going down by twelve,
Speaker 2: because even going into locker room, I just had this
Speaker 2: sense like Houston's a better team, this is that this
Speaker 2: is their time. Were there specific adjustments that Todd Golden
Speaker 2: made in the locker room at halftime or in the
Speaker 2: second half that caused so much chaos for Houston.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know they were necessarily specific adjustment. I
Speaker 7: mean the first half they actually were fine. Defensively, like
Speaker 7: they you know, Houston wasn't scoring at will on them,
Speaker 7: they were getting a few offensive rebounds. And I think
Speaker 7: that's where Florida cleaned some things up in the second half,
Speaker 7: really preventing more offensive rebounds and also taking care of
Speaker 7: the ball offensively to prevent Houston from you know, operating
Speaker 7: against you know, not a set defense when they did
Speaker 7: get the ball. But I think that's the one thing
Speaker 7: that you know, I was really kind of impressed with
Speaker 7: with Florida. In the end. You look at the box
Speaker 7: score and I think you will see Houston had fifteen
Speaker 7: offensive rebounds and they're like, wow, that's you know, that's
Speaker 7: a great game for Houston. But actually there were so
Speaker 7: many misheh that in the end it was a Poppins.
Speaker 7: The rebounding crecenter thirty two percent, which is below Houston
Speaker 7: season average. So so you know, preventing those second chance
Speaker 7: points certainly helped. Houston had a you know, miserable day shooting,
Speaker 7: and you could put together I mean, I hate to
Speaker 7: say it, but you know, just among us a private
Speaker 7: company here, I mean Milo's us, and you could put
Speaker 7: together a highlight reel for him in that game of
Speaker 7: just some incredibly missed shots. I mean just missing everything
Speaker 7: multiple times. You know, that was an issue as well.
Speaker 7: And I don't like Florida, you know, maybe sped up
Speaker 7: Houston a little bit, but man, a lot of it
Speaker 7: is just like Houston, you know, not coming to play
Speaker 7: when it came to the three point shot. And you know,
Speaker 7: as we mentioned, they they're really deficient on two pointers.
Speaker 7: And where they've been able to overcome that is by
Speaker 7: having guys like Sharp and LJ. Cryer and using him,
Speaker 7: you know, make some threes. And that just didn't happen
Speaker 7: last night.
Speaker 2: Todd Golden, at the age of thirty nine, becomes the
Speaker 2: youngest head coach to win a national championship since Jim
Speaker 2: Valvano in eighty three when he was thirty seven years old.
Speaker 2: And if you didn't know any better and you were
Speaker 2: watching the postgame celebration, you would have said, why are
Speaker 2: they interviewing the team manager? I mean, he looks like
Speaker 2: a kid, and he's got his hat on backwards and
Speaker 2: he's enjoying the moment. How has he been able to
Speaker 2: do this after a brief stop I think it was
Speaker 2: San Francisco and just in a few short years, how
Speaker 2: have they been able to build Florida into a national champ.
Speaker 7: Well, it's they've just done a brilliant job of creating
Speaker 7: a roster. You know, they've been able to get some
Speaker 7: useful transfers, and you know, he ended up building a
Speaker 7: team like we saw but Houston, like we saw with Auburn,
Speaker 7: that's a very experienced team and you know it had
Speaker 7: like championship experience some extent. You know, Elijah Martin really
Speaker 7: playing a key role for this team coming over from
Speaker 7: Florida Atlantic. In addition, you know, they had you know,
Speaker 7: more front court depth probably than you know, any Power
Speaker 7: Conference team, and they just hit on these guys like
Speaker 7: you know, some of these guys I think people became
Speaker 7: familiar with in the tournament. You know Thomas Howe, for
Speaker 7: for one, I mean he comes off the bench for
Speaker 7: this team, and you know he'd be starting for probably
Speaker 7: most SEC teams, but for this team, he comes off
Speaker 7: the bench. And that's just a you know, a statement
Speaker 7: on how much depth this team has upfront and how
Speaker 7: they were you know, able to kind of exploit that
Speaker 7: against Houston, and Houston you know, got into foul trouble
Speaker 7: up front. They didn't have guys they could go to
Speaker 7: and they had to go ahead and play small. Florida
Speaker 7: really didn't have to do that over the course of
Speaker 7: the season. So it was really a you know, a
Speaker 7: great job in building a roster and just a phenomenal run.
Speaker 7: You know, I don't know, I don't know what else
Speaker 7: to say about it. It was you have to be impressed.
Speaker 7: I mean, I remember when Golden took the Florida job,
Speaker 7: and I mean I had heard through you know, secondhand
Speaker 7: channels that he wasn't even like, yeah, he was a
Speaker 7: little hasn't it taken? He wasn't sure like if that
Speaker 7: was the jump that he wanted to make. And I
Speaker 7: obviously I think he made the right decision. He worred
Speaker 7: through the math and realized, yeah, you can actually have
Speaker 7: a lot of stress Florida. You proved it pretty quickly here.
Speaker 2: I know you're not a scout, but you are a
Speaker 2: basketball guy that watches these games all year long, and
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's so interesting, Ken, because watching this
Speaker 2: tournament really my whole life. There are so many great
Speaker 2: individual tournament performances or even seasons by guards and players
Speaker 2: that turn out to just be excellent college players, and
Speaker 2: they just don't have the size or the speed or
Speaker 2: the strength to get it done in the pros.
Speaker 1: And we have local examples of that.
Speaker 2: The number one example might be Jimmer, who was an
Speaker 2: incredible college player and that ride was so fun. I
Speaker 2: don't care if you don't like byu. Jim Ermania was
Speaker 2: a real thing. That was really cool, and he was
Speaker 2: incredible to watch in college. And I could name a
Speaker 2: grip of play Randolph Childress. We could go on and
Speaker 2: on and on. And I don't know where I'm at
Speaker 2: with Walter Clayton.
Speaker 1: Junior as a pro.
Speaker 2: But after watching just the Stones to take and make
Speaker 2: big shots I was reading today, I think it was
Speaker 2: Givoni that compared them to Ben Gordon, who turned out
Speaker 2: to be a combo scoring guard in the pros with
Speaker 2: a long career including a sixth Man of the Year
Speaker 2: after a really really good career at Yukon. But what
Speaker 2: do you think Walter Clayton Junior did for his pro prospects?
Speaker 2: And do you think he's a long term NBA guy?
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a great question. I a lot of what
Speaker 7: you are saying, I would echo like, I'm not totally
Speaker 7: sure either. He's obviously a very good college player. He
Speaker 7: has some some vertical athleticism, you know, the tricky He's
Speaker 7: a little on the older side, so you know, kind
Speaker 7: of the challenge I think a modern day you know,
Speaker 7: evaluation of these players in the draft is that so
Speaker 7: many of them are, you know, a little bit older
Speaker 7: than they than they were five to ten years ago.
Speaker 5: So I don't know.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think I'm probably a little more negative
Speaker 7: on him than maybe the consensuses. I think there's certainly
Speaker 7: the opportunity though, like clearly, you know, you couldn't help it,
Speaker 7: but watch him through this tournament and it's not like
Speaker 7: Florida had an easy path, Like they had a very
Speaker 7: difficult path, and they were constantly in these very challenging games,
Speaker 7: and he would make play after play. You know, he's
Speaker 7: a very good shooter. There's some questions I think on
Speaker 7: the on the defensive end that you know, if he
Speaker 7: could answer those, that would really enhance the stock. But
Speaker 7: you know, teams are going to obviously be focusing on
Speaker 7: that and put them through the ringer on that over
Speaker 7: the coming weeks.
Speaker 2: Before we get to some local storylines, let's remove ourselves
Speaker 2: from the vacuum of the National Championship Game and pan
Speaker 2: back a little bit because I have not been able
Speaker 2: to talk to you since we saw. Like if Houston's
Speaker 2: collapse was a eight out of ten, Duke's collapse was
Speaker 2: a ten out of ten against the Houston Cougars and
Speaker 2: Sion James is a really good player, and I'm not
Speaker 2: piling on any of these young men. I think if
Speaker 2: you're John Shier, you have to realize that your guy
Speaker 2: is peeing down his leg every time he's trying to
Speaker 2: inbound the ball on the baseline and figure something else out.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, nine to ozhero run over the
Speaker 2: course of what the final forty seconds. I've heard a
Speaker 2: lot of people pile on Cooper, which I think is unfair.
Speaker 2: I thought that over the back call was atrocious. He
Speaker 2: hit their only bucket of the final I think nine minutes.
Speaker 2: It's wild that they went nine minutes without a bucket.
Speaker 2: Proctor couldn't get it going. I like the Konk Nipple kid.
Speaker 2: I wondered if they should have kind of allowed him
Speaker 2: to inbound the basketball, but their inability to simply handle
Speaker 2: pressure to the point of just getting the ball in bounds,
Speaker 2: just like Houston and Emmanuel Sharp will remember the loss
Speaker 2: from last night Sion James and the Duke Blue Devils
Speaker 2: are gonna wear that one for a long long time.
Speaker 1: That felt like it's stung. Did you digest that one?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 7: No question?
Speaker 5: I mean yeah.
Speaker 7: I mean this Duke team was kind of poised to, uh,
Speaker 7: you know, etch themselves among some of the great teams
Speaker 7: in college basketball history. And in order to complete that,
Speaker 7: you have to, you know, you have to win it all.
Speaker 7: And they were trying to do that. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 7: to blow you know, blow the kind of lead they
Speaker 7: had against a team that you know, almost that Houston's
Speaker 7: offensively challenge. Obviously they can make some threeson that was
Speaker 7: partly what they did. They come from behind, but you know,
Speaker 7: it really seemed to me like Duke was there came
Speaker 7: a point there, I don't know, eight nine minutes ago
Speaker 7: where Duke got kind of tentative. You know, like if
Speaker 7: you watched like the Alabama BYU game, Like when Alabama
Speaker 7: got ahead, they just kept playing, right, they just kept
Speaker 7: chucking up threes, and Duke, when they got ahead, really
Speaker 7: got tentative. They started passing on open threes. You know,
Speaker 7: Flag did that at least once, and you know Cnipple
Speaker 7: did it once, and I think Proctor did it once
Speaker 7: and you go back and watch those possessions and you know,
Speaker 7: they look they look kind of nice. On one hand,
Speaker 7: like all these guys are being so unselfish, you know,
Speaker 7: they're making the extra pass, but then they keep making
Speaker 7: the extra pass, and then Cooper Flag would get it
Speaker 7: and have to like, you know, throw up a turnaround
Speaker 7: you know, shot from the elbow, which like if anybody
Speaker 7: can make it, he can, but those are difficult shots
Speaker 7: and they weren't falling, and to me, that's where the
Speaker 7: avalanche kind of started. Obviously, not being able to get
Speaker 7: the ball in bounds is an issue, and I don't
Speaker 7: know what I don't know what John Shire is feeling.
Speaker 7: You know, remember that like football player, but he was
Speaker 7: running it seemed like you know last year or two
Speaker 7: where everybody would line up on the base line and
Speaker 7: you know, run down the court and then cut back
Speaker 7: like Duke was trying to, like, you know, have everybody
Speaker 7: come to the base line. And Houston was pretty easily
Speaker 7: able to defend that. So that was the issue. And
Speaker 7: then you also bring up the Cooper Flag bow, which
Speaker 7: you know, we shouldn't we shouldn't forget people just kind
Speaker 7: of like dismissed that. But that game was so physical
Speaker 7: over the last two minutes and they kind of call
Speaker 7: that foul on Cooper flag And if you actually go
Speaker 7: back and watch the replay of that, Juwan Roberts is
Speaker 7: the one boxing him out when the whistle blows, Like
Speaker 7: Juwan roberts instinct is that he thinks the fouls on him.
Speaker 7: He's like, he's kind of like throwing up his arms, like,
Speaker 7: why are you showing the whistle And yeah, it's actually
Speaker 7: on Cooper flag. And so you know, if they don't
Speaker 7: call that ballet, Houston still probably has the ball and
Speaker 7: has a chance to win. But that obviously made things
Speaker 7: a little bit easier for for Houston to.
Speaker 5: Pull it out.
Speaker 7: So yeah, that was, you know, a wild game, and
Speaker 7: I think, yeah, one that's gonna it's gonna hurt for
Speaker 7: a long time to do Seaons.
Speaker 2: The Auburn loss to Florida wasn't as epic of a collapse,
Speaker 2: but it kind of felt like in a way, Auburn
Speaker 2: also allowed Florida to steal that one from them. Like
Speaker 2: my takeaways from these games in the Final four is
Speaker 2: credit the team certainly that stayed in the fight and
Speaker 2: found a way to win, but every team that won
Speaker 2: seemed to get a little bit of a gift from
Speaker 2: their opponent. They went away from Johnny Broom, who had
Speaker 2: third team points with sixteen minutes left and had I
Speaker 2: think two points the rest of the way, and it
Speaker 2: felt like he was their one clear advantage, not just
Speaker 2: getting buckets but also creating space for his teammates.
Speaker 1: And Florida again comes back, they were down.
Speaker 2: And they outscore Auburn forty one to twenty seven in
Speaker 2: the second half. What do you make of the way
Speaker 2: the Auburn Tigers went out?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I just thought Broom was He was so banged
Speaker 7: up heading into that game, and I don't think people
Speaker 7: really realized how bad the elbow was. He was able
Speaker 7: to work through it and you know, be reasonably productive,
Speaker 7: but I mean, overall, one of his least productive games
Speaker 7: this season. And you know, ultimately, like Auburn's constructed a
Speaker 7: little bit different than Florida or Florida's you know, they
Speaker 7: got Walter Clayton, but they got a lot of other
Speaker 7: like guys that can contribute, you know, and high volume
Speaker 7: if they need it. Auburn really doesn't have that, Like
Speaker 7: they they play through Jannibery where the night room is
Speaker 7: not productive, they don't have anybody else that they can
Speaker 7: rely on to pick up the slack, any kind of
Speaker 7: all hands on deck to do that. And you know
Speaker 7: guys like Denver Jones and Chad Baker, Baker Mazzara tried
Speaker 7: to do that in that game, but you know, ultimately
Speaker 7: just wasn't quite enough. And really, like that's the thing
Speaker 7: when you look back to on this Florida run, like
Speaker 7: you know, people are gonna maybe forget about the fact
Speaker 7: that you know, multiple games here Florida was was trailing
Speaker 7: really on the wrong side look like the win probability draft.
Speaker 7: They were times where they were significantly on the wrong
Speaker 7: side of fifty percent in their last three games, and
Speaker 7: they were able to you know, pull each of them.
Speaker 1: Out, all right.
Speaker 2: A couple of local storylines can and shout out to
Speaker 2: the Northeast Conference, shout out to the Central Connecticut Blue Devils.
Speaker 2: But my question is about a player who's now trans
Speaker 2: to play at the University of Utah from Fairleigh Dickinson
Speaker 2: FDU and it is the first transfer portal addition from
Speaker 2: the outside count of DAWs back to play for aj
Speaker 2: next year. But Terrence Brown one of the top ten
Speaker 2: scores in college basketball twenty one points per game and
Speaker 2: was a leading scorer for FDU and I believe the
Speaker 2: leading scorer in that conference. And according to on three
Speaker 2: on three Sports, he is a four star transfer with
Speaker 2: a composite rating of ninety three point two out of
Speaker 2: one hundred. I'm not going to tell you I was
Speaker 2: grinding on FDU tape this year, but your college basketball savants,
Speaker 2: any insight on this young man who's now going to
Speaker 2: be in Salt Lake City playing for Alex Jensen or
Speaker 2: Raphael Chillis Chileus next year.
Speaker 7: Well, I'll confess I haven't broken down tape on him.
Speaker 7: I will tell you, like somebody making that big of
Speaker 7: a jump, like some of the scoring will transfer. But
Speaker 7: you know, you see this a lot of times at
Speaker 7: that level where you know, the pro gets a guy
Speaker 7: who's just like, you know, a someone to say, like
Speaker 7: you know, fairly take it was probably low major, right,
Speaker 7: like they're below mid major. So you get a guy
Speaker 7: who maybe you know was a mid major type player
Speaker 7: at your school and he just kind of dominates the ball.
Speaker 7: And so that's the story with Terrence Brown. Like he
Speaker 7: you know, obviously a big time scorer, but also just
Speaker 7: dominated possessions for them, you know, at the ball all
Speaker 7: the time. And I assume his role will change a
Speaker 7: little bit at the big twelve level and typically you
Speaker 7: do see, not typically, but almost all the time, the
Speaker 7: roles for these guys shrink. The question is how much
Speaker 7: will is shrink? Will you know, will he still be
Speaker 7: a go to guy at Utah? I would be a
Speaker 7: little skeptical of that. You know, he's he probably just
Speaker 7: ends up and I don't think it'd be like that's
Speaker 7: still a true role player, but something in between. You know,
Speaker 7: he's gonna be a guy second, third, fourth option. I
Speaker 7: think on a average big twelve offense, like that's kind
Speaker 7: of what you should be shooting for there. And so
Speaker 7: it's gonna be up to say, Jada, you know, fill
Speaker 7: in uh, you know, around him with other guys that
Speaker 7: are gonna be able to score. Because if you if
Speaker 7: you let him play the role that he played at
Speaker 7: a fairly ticket, that probably won't.
Speaker 2: Go well well said, if I asked you about this,
Speaker 2: forgive me, I don't remember what I had for breakfast
Speaker 2: this morning, But Kiano Dawes has decided to return to
Speaker 2: the you to play for Alex and his staff as well.
Speaker 2: What sort of news do you think that is for
Speaker 2: Utah fans?
Speaker 5: I think good news.
Speaker 7: It's a it's a bonus really, you know. I mean
Speaker 7: we talked about it last time where you know, you
Speaker 7: you shouldn't be surprised if they completely turned over the roster,
Speaker 7: and uh, they won't be turning over the roster. And
Speaker 7: you know, Keanu's again he was a role player last year,
Speaker 7: so he probably think is to be a role player
Speaker 7: this year. But you know, a guy that that can
Speaker 7: provide some offense for for the team and.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, I don't know where he.
Speaker 7: Ranks in the offensive pecking order after the roster is constructed,
Speaker 7: but U you know, he should be a guy who
Speaker 7: you know is in that like mix to be you know, second, third, fourth,
Speaker 7: leading score or something like that. If they can again
Speaker 7: find some talent to kind of build around, and if
Speaker 7: he ends up being the leading scorer, then you know,
Speaker 7: it's probably a situation where you know, Utah's in the
Speaker 7: in the bottom quarter of the league next year.
Speaker 2: All right, before I say you lose BYU with some
Speaker 2: news over the past week and they need a point guard.
Speaker 2: Dallen Hall is in the transfer portal and Yegor or
Speaker 2: Demon is going to the NBA. So give me your
Speaker 2: thoughts on on both those those storylines. What sort of
Speaker 2: NBA careers ahead for this this young man Diego Demon
Speaker 2: and what does Kevin Young do? Look, they're going to
Speaker 2: be fine based off of the reports about the nil
Speaker 2: perse they have down there, but they do have a
Speaker 2: hole in the roster.
Speaker 1: Now, ken do what do you think goes down here?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean they should be fine, Like, yeah, so
Speaker 7: they have a hole in the roster, but I mean,
Speaker 7: welcome to college basketball. That's like, you know, three hundred
Speaker 7: other teams right now. I mean, the fact that they
Speaker 7: don't have five holes on the roster is you know,
Speaker 7: put the head of a lot of teams. And as
Speaker 7: long as they kind of maintained that core of Richie
Speaker 7: Saunders and Katakata primarily. You know, Dawson Baker coming back
Speaker 7: will help out as well. Obviously, you know de Bonsa,
Speaker 7: I don't know if you call him the centerpiece in
Speaker 7: this whole operation, but you know he's going to be
Speaker 7: a significant contributor as well. So I mean, just from
Speaker 7: that standpoint, like, they'll be fine and they'll you know,
Speaker 7: they'll Kevin Young will find guys to fill the roster
Speaker 7: that I think we'll make this team, you know, at worse,
Speaker 7: let's say a borderline top twenty five team. I think
Speaker 7: with you know, Kata, Saunders and Devonsa. Just from that standpoint,
Speaker 7: the team should be really good. To me, it's like
Speaker 7: you don't want to like gig Or. I think we
Speaker 7: all knew was leaving even though the year was disappointing.
Speaker 7: Like he came. He came to Provo for one reason
Speaker 7: and that was ja launch his NBA career, And so
Speaker 7: it's not surprising that he's leaving and Dallen Hall leaving,
Speaker 7: you know, I think in a vacuum not too surprising either.
Speaker 7: I mean, YU doesn't suffer from the transfer bug as
Speaker 7: much as other schools for for obvious reasons regarding the church,
Speaker 7: and so you thought maybe maybe down Hall would come back.
Speaker 7: But in a normal situation, with the year he had,
Speaker 7: not terribly surprising he's leaving either, And it kind of
Speaker 7: gives by you an opportunity to, you know, go out
Speaker 7: and possibly get something better. I mean, I think, you know,
Speaker 7: point guards out there to see what they what they're
Speaker 7: coming into with the three guys, I just mentioned as
Speaker 7: the core of the team. Like you know, it's gonna
Speaker 7: be very attractive. So I don't think it's going to
Speaker 7: be a problem here to find a you know, an
Speaker 7: above average big twelve point card.
Speaker 2: All right, Ken, before I set you loose, one more
Speaker 2: push on the website. How can people go get their
Speaker 2: work to support you so you can go work in Calgary.
Speaker 7: Exactly, that's what it's all about. And uh yeah, Kenpalm
Speaker 7: dot Com. So it's twenty five bucks for twelve years
Speaker 7: or twelve years months of Yeah, well that's a special
Speaker 7: deal for right now now twelve months of data. So
Speaker 7: we have beside the twelve months because it means youp
Speaker 7: buy now, you will of course get all the data
Speaker 7: through the entire sity next year, which is what really matters.
Speaker 2: All right, my friend, thank you so much for the
Speaker 2: time all year long. And we'll set you loose and
Speaker 2: we'll chat soon.
Speaker 7: Okay, sounds great, Ben, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Kenpalm dot com is where you go. I'll remind you
Speaker 2: that the top eight teams in ken Palm's rating all
Speaker 2: made the Elite eight, and the top four teams in
Speaker 2: ken Palm's Raiding all made the final four.
Speaker 1: The man knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 2: It looks like they have better weather at Augusta today.
Speaker 1: It's Masters Week, Part three.
Speaker 2: Contest will be tomorrow that starts at ten am Mountain Time.
Speaker 2: You can see it on ESPN Plus. I guess you
Speaker 2: can see it on Disney as well if you have
Speaker 2: the Disney app. I guess Disney's getting into golf. So
Speaker 2: we'll do some Masters throughout the week. We'll get you
Speaker 2: ready for the tournament coming up at Augusta National. Get
Speaker 2: back to some of the basketball and football storylines. Mike
Speaker 2: Malone has been fired as the head coach of the
Speaker 2: Denver Nuggets. Rarel salt Lake is back in action. Coming
Speaker 2: up on Saturday. They hit the Roadie tick on Nashville.
Speaker 2: They'll be back home to take on Toronto the week
Speaker 2: after that after getting all three points over the weekend
Speaker 2: against the LA Galaxy. Our next guest sporting director, decision maker,
Speaker 2: intelligent soccer minds and a good time. If you want
Speaker 2: to grab some dinner, hang out Kurt Schmidt Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Kurt, how are you, sir?
Speaker 9: I'm good.
Speaker 2: It sounds like you are in transit somewhere. Where do
Speaker 2: we find you on this lovely Tuesday.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, in transit, heading heading home, and I gotta
Speaker 9: get on the phone when I get there, So was
Speaker 9: lucky to squeeze in.
Speaker 1: Well, I feel lucky you made time.
Speaker 2: Do you have to get on the phone with a
Speaker 2: potential signing or two that you are trying to get
Speaker 2: across the line prior to the transfer window closing in
Speaker 2: about two and a half weeks.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's definitely related.
Speaker 2: So okay, fair enough, follow up?
Speaker 1: Where are we at in this process?
Speaker 2: You know, the last few weeks, it's been Jason, it's
Speaker 2: been Tony, it's been uh, Pablo a couple of different times.
Speaker 2: And since you are the guy and the buckstots with you, Yes,
Speaker 2: I know it's a collaboration. You guys are talking together
Speaker 2: in a room, you know, ourself fans chomping at the bid.
Speaker 2: Are we getting close to getting these things across the line?
Speaker 9: Yeah? Yeah, we're getting close, you know, not sleeping a
Speaker 9: ton trying to trying to adjust my body clock to
Speaker 9: to try to match the European time change a little bit.
Speaker 9: But we're getting close a little bit, a little bit
Speaker 9: every day. Obviously we all want it to go a
Speaker 9: little bit faster, but it takes what it takes.
Speaker 2: Well, Since you alluded to your body adjusting to the
Speaker 2: European clock, I imagine you are speaking with players that
Speaker 2: play there soccer in Europe.
Speaker 1: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 9: I can't believe I let that slip.
Speaker 1: Europe's a big place, Kurt. There are plenty of soccer
Speaker 1: teams over there. I mean a lot of.
Speaker 2: People wonder because look, I could read you the rumors
Speaker 2: that I see online, and I've got three strikers in
Speaker 2: front of me that I'll play an MLS that you've
Speaker 2: been linked to. But you're speaking the players internationally or
Speaker 2: are you speaking to players domestically too?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean there's not one option, right, So we've
Speaker 9: got a couple options. There are some options in the league.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 9: It's teams are in an interesting spot. We're right around
Speaker 9: that time where you know they've got what they or
Speaker 9: they think they know what they've got after the early
Speaker 9: games of the season, and we're coming up towards the
Speaker 9: trade deadline, so you're going to start to see some
Speaker 9: movement within the league. So that may impact things as well,
Speaker 9: you know, But what we're looking for is is a
Speaker 9: tough spot, you know, a tough position to kind of
Speaker 9: fill always from within the league, you know, I think
Speaker 9: there's a few good candidates that could take a step
Speaker 9: and be contributors, but you know, it's it's a tough
Speaker 9: position to fill internally and usually have to go abroad
Speaker 9: to get to get someone.
Speaker 1: In there, as you know hurt.
Speaker 2: And now we'll tell our listeners the primary transfer window
Speaker 2: closes in two weeks, so we're looking at a hard
Speaker 2: deadline of April to twenty third. What's realistic to expect
Speaker 2: as far as making these additions prior to this window
Speaker 2: and then the process of getting them on the ground
Speaker 2: and how long it takes to get them acclimated to
Speaker 2: the system, and what's reasonable to expect when we could
Speaker 2: actually see them playing significant minutes and hopefully helping you
Speaker 2: guys out.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously the deal, you know, the
Speaker 9: deal and time it takes that to get done, which
Speaker 9: is where we're at right now, and hopefully finishing that up.
Speaker 9: There's the integration process, which you know can't be forgotten.
Speaker 9: I think the the you know, that's usually three to
Speaker 9: four weeks, depending on a few different factors that are
Speaker 9: of our hands. And then you know, your comments about
Speaker 9: getting acclimated and adjusted to the system. That obviously is
Speaker 9: the thing that takes probably the longest. You know, we
Speaker 9: play with with a little more structure maybe than a
Speaker 9: lot of teams where we might be recruiting from, and
Speaker 9: so it'll take teams take players a minute to you know,
Speaker 9: do enough video and get on the same page with
Speaker 9: their teammates and the coaches and fit in. But we
Speaker 9: still think a guy can come in and have an
Speaker 9: immediate impact and create danger and help us right away.
Speaker 2: How many players are you hoping to have signed before
Speaker 2: April twenty third?
Speaker 9: I will I will say, I'm I'm really hopeful we
Speaker 9: get one guy in. If there's another one that we
Speaker 9: can do, we'll do it. You know, we're we're keeping
Speaker 9: our ears open, our eyes open to what's out there,
Speaker 9: whether that's internal trades or abroad. You know, obviously we
Speaker 9: have an international player limit which we are always kind
Speaker 9: of bumping up against. So the odds of an additional
Speaker 9: signing being domestic or quite high, So.
Speaker 2: Of course everybody is surmising that. And for our listeners
Speaker 2: if you're just tuning in, Kurt Schmid is with us.
Speaker 2: So if there's one player across the line is it
Speaker 2: safe to say that that player is a striker.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, sure, it's pretty safe.
Speaker 9: Okay, definitely an attacker, and it's someone that can play
Speaker 9: center forward for US. I think, you know, Ari and
Speaker 9: Forster have done well. You know, even hayesus has come
Speaker 9: on there and done well. There's still young players that
Speaker 9: you know, we'll have their up and ups and downs.
Speaker 9: We believe in all all through those guys, you know,
Speaker 9: but I think sometimes it helps to have more experienced
Speaker 9: player come in and you know, shoulder some of the burden,
Speaker 9: some of the load and and you know, teach those
Speaker 9: guys as well and help those guys develop. So we
Speaker 9: are development of love as you know. So we're gonna
Speaker 9: keep developing those guys. But yeah, we need to add
Speaker 9: a little more experience in that part of the field.
Speaker 2: If there should be a secondary player added, what position
Speaker 2: would that secondary player play.
Speaker 9: That's a great question. Likely in the attack, but not
Speaker 9: closed off to anything. I think some of it is
Speaker 9: is finding a good opportunity and something that we can
Speaker 9: we can exploit, but likely looking to add some more
Speaker 9: competition in the attack. I think our competition in the
Speaker 9: in the middle of midfield and in the back line
Speaker 9: has been has been good early in the season, you know,
Speaker 9: but upfront is where we you know, we haven't scored
Speaker 9: as many goals, and our competition there is and maybe
Speaker 9: quite quite as good as it is in the back.
Speaker 2: Right now, are you satisfied with the goal opportunities that
Speaker 2: are created? Because it's one thing to have a pure
Speaker 2: goal scorer, and certainly we've had a few on this team,
Speaker 2: and one is recently last year as Chico that was
Speaker 2: able to put away a lot of chances.
Speaker 1: But you can't put away chances that they're not created.
Speaker 2: So are you satisfied with the creativity the attacking ability
Speaker 2: of your players right now that are providing the chances
Speaker 2: that hopefully these new players will be able to finish happy?
Speaker 9: Yes, satisfied? No, you know, it's it's obviously just the
Speaker 9: math equation, right, You've got to score more than you
Speaker 9: let in. So if you want to win games, do
Speaker 9: you either got to let in fewer goals or score more.
Speaker 9: So I look at it, you know, as yes, we
Speaker 9: do need to create higher quality chances in in more games.
Speaker 9: We need to create higher quality chances than we can
Speaker 9: see in those games. I think defensively, you know, we
Speaker 9: can we can tighten things up as well, and I
Speaker 9: think we've been a little unlucky. We've also conceded some
Speaker 9: some quality chances on the defensive end as well, But
Speaker 9: those things are always intertwined. And I know that you know,
Speaker 9: if we're able to finish of some chances that we're
Speaker 9: creating earlier in games, that lightens the load on those guys.
Speaker 9: So I want to do both. I want to increase
Speaker 9: the chances we the quality of the chances we create,
Speaker 9: and decrease the quality chances that we concede. But I
Speaker 9: think those things are interdependent.
Speaker 2: So as somebody who is acutely aware of the difficulties
Speaker 2: that decision makers like you face when it comes to
Speaker 2: getting these deals done, I know that I'll ask you
Speaker 2: about the delays as to why this has taken place,
Speaker 2: and we could go in a million different directions. So ultimately,
Speaker 2: how would you characterize and articulate to RSL fans why
Speaker 2: these signings have not been able to be completed yet?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, look, it takes at two and in
Speaker 9: this case three to tango, right, You've got to get
Speaker 9: us another club and another player all on the same
Speaker 9: page at the same time to get a deal done,
Speaker 9: and we're only in control of one of those three parties,
Speaker 9: so we are at the whim of other parties a
Speaker 9: lot of the time. And and and sorry, they'll train
Speaker 9: a thought.
Speaker 5: But when we when we go out.
Speaker 9: And we're talking to these clubs, you know, they have
Speaker 9: their own motivations. Okay, they could they could be motivated
Speaker 9: to sell or not their windows closed, which we seees
Speaker 9: in advantage sometimes in MLS that our windows stays open
Speaker 9: so long, but it can also be disadvantaged because as
Speaker 9: we go and talk to clubs, they you know, if
Speaker 9: they've got a player who's performing for them in that moment,
Speaker 9: they don't always want to let that guy go if
Speaker 9: they can't replace him. So we're kind of battling battling
Speaker 9: those that pushful.
Speaker 2: It has been reported pretty widely widely excuse me, first
Speaker 2: by Sportico and then ultimately the Salt Lake Tribune and others,
Speaker 2: that there is a what I've been told is an
Speaker 2: eminent ownership shift where the Miller family is coming in
Speaker 2: to take the business interest on of the team. Ryan
Speaker 2: Smith will exit stage left to focus on other things,
Speaker 2: and the Blitzer group will maintain whatever control they maintain.
Speaker 2: The natural follow up, Kurtis, has this ownership stuff in
Speaker 2: this transition, has this delayed your ability to make some
Speaker 2: of these decisions and get it done.
Speaker 9: I'll just tell you that I'm I'm far too worried
Speaker 9: and busy with with trying to get some signings over
Speaker 9: the line to comment to you about any ownership situation.
Speaker 2: Fair enough and smart answer, But I do want to
Speaker 2: go back to what you referenced because I think I
Speaker 2: think Ralpha cabral has been really, really good. And as
Speaker 2: you referenced earlier, you know, it's a math equation. You've
Speaker 2: got to put in more than you give up. And
Speaker 2: maybe lost in the attention on the attack is you
Speaker 2: guys have given up eleven goals, which is third worst
Speaker 2: in the West.
Speaker 1: Are we focused too much on one.
Speaker 2: Area of your team when maybe there's other areas that
Speaker 2: we need to be honed in on as well.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely, I do think we need to tighten things
Speaker 9: up in the back. But as I said before, the
Speaker 9: things that those things are interdependent. So on the one hand,
Speaker 9: there's a psychological opponent where if you feel like, you know,
Speaker 9: if you're playing center back or goalkeeper or you know,
Speaker 9: anywhere in the back line and you feel like your
Speaker 9: team can score a goal, you play with a little
Speaker 9: more confidence and maybe you're a little loose or less tense,
Speaker 9: and that helps you play better. Uh, even if that
Speaker 9: that guy doesn't score, but if if you're worried about
Speaker 9: that potentially you know, and maybe we miss a good
Speaker 9: chance or two, and now it shakes everybody a little bit.
Speaker 9: So from that standpoint, there's a psychological component. Defense is
Speaker 9: also a team game. Rafa, I think Rafa has been
Speaker 9: you know, very good despite despite the stat you mentioned.
Speaker 9: I think he's played really well. He's led the back line,
Speaker 9: he's been good in possession, He's made some good says.
Speaker 9: But you know, there's ten guys in front of him
Speaker 9: that also have have a responsibility to limit the chances
Speaker 9: that that we give up so that Rafa doesn't have
Speaker 9: to be as good or have to do as much.
Speaker 9: And so we need to we need to work on
Speaker 9: both of them.
Speaker 2: So of course, uh, you know, a lot of attention
Speaker 2: right now on Diego, deservedly so with his recent UH
Speaker 2: national team call ups, his kind of cult uh you know,
Speaker 2: uh status there, with his ability to play through injury,
Speaker 2: and that Oakan knows and was named the Utah Male
Speaker 2: Athlete of the Year got a brace for you guys
Speaker 2: against the Galaxy, becomes the youngest RSL player to tally
Speaker 2: fifteen goals fifteen assists. Uh, and it's only it's only
Speaker 2: good news as you reference your developmental club. And as
Speaker 2: Jason said on the show last week, we're a club that, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, we don't necessarily ride a check for ten.
Speaker 1: Million dollars for a player.
Speaker 2: We develop a check and then sell that player for
Speaker 2: ten million dollars. I would imagine, Kurt, your phone has
Speaker 2: to ring all the time about this young man.
Speaker 9: Yeah, look, Diego's doing doing great. How much my phone
Speaker 9: is or isn't ringing in relation to him, you know,
Speaker 9: is not really the point. I think the club, the
Speaker 9: club values him a ton. I value him a ton.
Speaker 9: I know the coaches value him a ton, and and
Speaker 9: my goal is to keep him here where he's performing
Speaker 9: at a good level as long as we can, you know,
Speaker 9: and how long that is is you know again, like
Speaker 9: I said, as long as we can keep the ear
Speaker 9: and he's happy here, you know, we're happy to happy
Speaker 9: to keep him intemp So you know, all that other
Speaker 9: stuff is you know, we don't want it to become
Speaker 9: a distraction, either for us or for him, or for
Speaker 9: the fans or anybody. Let's just you know, the point
Speaker 9: is to enjoy him while he's here and have him
Speaker 9: help us be as successful as possible.
Speaker 2: But also by your own admission and the admission of others.
Speaker 2: The point is, in addition to keeping them happy and
Speaker 2: keeping them playing well, the point, the other point is
Speaker 2: to continue the club's ethos and belief that you are
Speaker 2: a team that identifies young talent, develops that young talent,
Speaker 2: and then moves that young talent on if you can,
Speaker 2: you know, get the right price. So what are what
Speaker 2: are the uh the plates that you're juggling and spinning
Speaker 2: around above your head as you're balancing out what the
Speaker 2: right thing is to do for a player that is
Speaker 2: on record saying that he wants to play in Europe
Speaker 2: and as the chief decision maker for a club that
Speaker 2: is on record saying this is what we do.
Speaker 1: We develop young and then we sell.
Speaker 9: Yeah, we developed, We we buy or you know, draft
Speaker 9: or bring the academy young players. We developed them, and yeah,
Speaker 9: we sell them, but we don't, you know, we don't
Speaker 9: need to sell all of them. We do need to
Speaker 9: sell some to keep the sort of cycle churning and
Speaker 9: the cycle going. But every situation is different, right so
Speaker 9: Jego situation, it will be different and is different from
Speaker 9: Andreas or Fodel or anyone else that we're talking about.
Speaker 9: We're also a club, you know, and as I'm you know,
Speaker 9: working on the team and the roster and building things
Speaker 9: up that you know, we we do need to have
Speaker 9: some uh some pillars of the of the group right
Speaker 9: that that can be on the team for a long time.
Speaker 9: And right now you've got guys like Oheita. You've got
Speaker 9: guys like a Mecca to two guys that play in
Speaker 9: the middle of the field that you know, I think
Speaker 9: could be could be longer term players here. Brian has
Speaker 9: already been here, you know, a few years, and I
Speaker 9: think when I got here, you know, it was sort
Speaker 9: of the end of U or we're coming towards the
Speaker 9: end of a cycle where we you know, we had
Speaker 9: Demeir and we had Albert, we had Marcelo. You know,
Speaker 9: we had some good veteran guys that has sort of
Speaker 9: you know, eight out or left the team, and now
Speaker 9: we've got to replace that aspect as well. And as
Speaker 9: you know, as as you pointed out, as Uson pointed out,
Speaker 9: we're maybe not going to go buy you know, six seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 9: ten million dollar guy to fill that role, but we
Speaker 9: think we can develop guys into that role as well.
Speaker 9: So the player development aspect, you know, has has more
Speaker 9: than one logical endpoint.
Speaker 2: So let's get an update, progress update in your opinion
Speaker 2: or lack thereof, wherever you're at with it. For Diogo,
Speaker 2: who on paper is your only designated player, and you know,
Speaker 2: the breakaway against La you got to at least make
Speaker 2: the keeper make a safe, you know. But but I
Speaker 2: will give him credit because he's the one that won
Speaker 2: the ball back and provided the secondary assist on Diego's
Speaker 2: first goal. But I just think in that spot, you know,
Speaker 2: with all the attention and fanfare he received when he
Speaker 2: was signed, I think there are people that are wanting more.
Speaker 1: Where you at, Kurt, with the progress of Diego.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think he's playing really well this year. I
Speaker 9: think he's facilitating the game a lot. You mentioned the
Speaker 9: first goal. Second, you know, he facilitates uh in the
Speaker 9: in the possession for the second goal as well. And
Speaker 9: you know, him getting those chances is a huge positive.
Speaker 9: You know, when we look at recruitment and scouting and
Speaker 9: evaluate players within without the league. We you know, we
Speaker 9: look at things like expected goals and expected assists and
Speaker 9: is this guy creating chances that are a flight quality?
Speaker 9: Is he is he taking you know, is he taking
Speaker 9: shots of a high quality? And you know those are
Speaker 9: areas where Diogo's done all right this season and the
Speaker 9: execution needs to get there. And I think, you know,
Speaker 9: when he continues to create those chances, I do think
Speaker 9: he's going to finish them. You know, he's obviously got
Speaker 9: the one goal this year arguably should have uh, you know,
Speaker 9: the second one for you know, second one should have
Speaker 9: been in LA against La one hundred percent. But I
Speaker 9: know he's a team guy, and he's nobody's harder on
Speaker 9: Diogo than Diogo for for missing a chance like that.
Speaker 9: But I I'm just I'm I couldn't be happier to
Speaker 9: see it manifest itself in him fighting to win that
Speaker 9: ball back and create our first goal, to help us
Speaker 9: score the second goal. And he's a team guy, and
Speaker 9: I know he's he's certainly far happier that we went,
Speaker 9: that we win the game, then he is upset that
Speaker 9: he missed the chances.
Speaker 2: One spot, Kurt that I've felt and this this is
Speaker 2: just you know, this is something you're gonna have to
Speaker 2: walk me through because I just I like Alex Catranis,
Speaker 2: and I think there's a lot to like the Alex
Speaker 2: and Sam battle at that spot.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it's one thing when you guys.
Speaker 2: Had the Conka Calf Champions League kind of schedule sneak
Speaker 2: up on you where you're gonna have a bunch of
Speaker 2: midweek games. But when that went out at the table,
Speaker 2: I just figured that spot was Alex's. And there's nothing
Speaker 2: wrong with a healthy competition, But what do you make
Speaker 2: of that battle and how it's kind of played out?
Speaker 9: I think, yeah, competition is the watchword, right It's he's
Speaker 9: he's had that position. Last year, he didn't have as
Speaker 9: much competition for that spot. You know, this year Sam
Speaker 9: came in to kind of help us out in two
Speaker 9: spots that left center back and left back and help
Speaker 9: us through fix your congestion. One was in Concast Champions League,
Speaker 9: hopefully another as a as a run in Leagu's Cup.
Speaker 9: But yeah, right now, when it's one game a week,
Speaker 9: it's it's competition. And when we have competition between two
Speaker 9: guys that can both start in this league at the
Speaker 9: same position. That's gonna make each of them, you know,
Speaker 9: perform at the top of their game. So I think
Speaker 9: Sam's appearances Sam starts or something that's gonna motivate Alex
Speaker 9: and sharpen him up. And I thought he had a
Speaker 9: good game on Saturday, and I know that's gonna do
Speaker 9: the same to Sam. And I think if we have
Speaker 9: those two guys pushing each other as hard as possible,
Speaker 9: it's gonna make us as good as possible, regardless who starts, right.
Speaker 9: So that's that's the goal when we strive to build
Speaker 9: that depth and competition. And as I said earlier, I
Speaker 9: think we've done a good job of that along the
Speaker 9: back line.
Speaker 2: Healthy are you guys heading into the weekend in Nashville.
Speaker 9: Picked up a knock or two that we're still working
Speaker 9: on obviously, you know Kobe Henry last week. This week,
Speaker 9: you know, maybe maybe one more. Uh, it's a little
Speaker 9: too early to kind of say, gonna gonna have to
Speaker 9: see how the next couple.
Speaker 5: Of days a go.
Speaker 2: All right, before I say you loose, Uh, I've heard
Speaker 2: that Nashville UH Soccer specific UH Stadium is pretty is
Speaker 2: pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Is this your You've been there before, haven't you?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yep?
Speaker 2: What's your what's your favorite visiting venue? What's what's the
Speaker 2: best atmosphere? If I take our spot away here, what's
Speaker 2: what's your favorite venue to go watch a game?
Speaker 5: AP?
Speaker 9: I won't, I won't pick one. I mean, I think
Speaker 9: I think places like Portland, like l a. C. Even
Speaker 9: like Minnesota, Austin, when those places are alive, they're they're
Speaker 9: really they're entertaining to watch, and they're they're intimidating atmospheres
Speaker 9: to to play in as a as a visiting team,
Speaker 9: and I think they're just as a soccer fan, they're
Speaker 9: just you know, like a wonderful place is to watch
Speaker 9: a game and to experience a game. I know there's
Speaker 9: a few others that I'm missing, and you know, apologize,
Speaker 9: I guess, but there's some really good atmospheres, and I think,
Speaker 9: you know, from a stadium standpoint, there's obviously been some
Speaker 9: really nice stadiums built recently within the league. You know,
Speaker 9: we were just in Minnesota. That's a really nice stadium.
Speaker 9: You know, Nashville is certainly one of them. You know,
Speaker 9: I mentioned also already with they're one of them, as well,
Speaker 9: you know, so there are some you know, there's some
Speaker 9: nice stadiums in the league these days. So it's really
Speaker 9: it's a pleasure for the for the players, and it's
Speaker 9: a far cry from back in the day when when
Speaker 9: this thing.
Speaker 1: Started up, no doubt.
Speaker 2: All right, buddy, safe travels will set you loose because
Speaker 2: you have more important phone calls to make, namely in Europe.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time about with chat too perfect Thanks
Speaker 1: men Ert Schmid, sporting director for Real Salt Lake.
Speaker 2: Two weeks away from the primary transfer window closing.
Speaker 1: All right, wrapping up the program for.
Speaker 2: This Thursday afternoon, thirty fifth anniversary today, people's instinctive travels.
Speaker 2: Great tribe call quest album not their best album, not
Speaker 2: their best album, but a great album. Midnight Marauders, I
Speaker 2: don't know, reasonable minds can disagree. Thirty five years old
Speaker 2: makes me feel little. I don't think I kicked the
Speaker 2: tires with you on some pretty exciting breaking news. Ted
Speaker 2: Lasso is coming back for season four.
Speaker 4: Oh really, don't.
Speaker 2: Pretend like you're excited. You are our resident. That show sucks,
Speaker 2: guy Order.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I said that order verbatim.
Speaker 1: You're being a revisionist historian.
Speaker 4: I thought that the uh, the uproar about the show
Speaker 4: was a little out of hand, maybe a little excessive,
Speaker 4: But as you pointed out during that, uh, I think
Speaker 4: that folks needed, uh, you know, needed some good vibes
Speaker 4: at the time. Yeah, and he provided that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was COVID.
Speaker 4: It's subsided a little bit. So I think we were
Speaker 4: both right because you look at it now, and you know,
Speaker 4: people aren't losing their minds over what is ay find
Speaker 4: Jason Sudeikis sitcom.
Speaker 2: Nobody was losing their minds at the time. Our options
Speaker 2: were Tiger King, Cable News Fair, or Ted Lasso.
Speaker 1: It was a breath of fresh.
Speaker 2: Air for a world that was ending and melting right
Speaker 2: before our eyes. And you had to be a thief
Speaker 2: of joy. That's what you were. You're a thief of joy.
Speaker 4: I just sucked that, I know, talking about it as
Speaker 4: if it were like like a genuinely groundbreaking piece of
Speaker 4: cinematic art who said that I'll go find stuff for you.
Speaker 1: That's a little silly.
Speaker 2: See to me, it was just simply like a feel
Speaker 2: good show that had some funny moments, and Jason Sadaeikis
Speaker 2: is a funny guy.
Speaker 4: I agree with you Okay, I don't hate it.
Speaker 1: Glad we landed on the same spot. I still haven't
Speaker 1: seen it, but you never want to wait a second.
Speaker 1: You can't criticize it if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen the four seasons again. I watched the
Speaker 4: beginning and it was just like, you know, it's fine,
Speaker 4: it's funny. I'll be honest. I thought that the it
Speaker 4: was a little like forced, like some of the writing
Speaker 4: was a little corny. And that's what usually gets me
Speaker 4: with with shows. It's usually when I check out.
Speaker 2: But hey, teach, I always need that reminder that you
Speaker 2: don't like fun things. Sometimes I forget and then you remind,
Speaker 2: Like you don't play fantasy football. Certain you don't like holidays,
Speaker 2: You hate kids. You don't like puppies.
Speaker 4: I love puppies.
Speaker 1: You do love puppies. Yeah, you don't like kids.
Speaker 4: I like some kids.
Speaker 1: You don't like very many kids. You don't like holidays.
Speaker 4: I like some holidays.
Speaker 1: And you don't like ted Lasso, and you don't play
Speaker 1: fantasy football?
Speaker 4: That one?
Speaker 2: You know, what do you like that's fun? Give me
Speaker 2: a fun thing that you like besides seeing a rare
Speaker 2: bird in nature? Who take that off the table?
Speaker 4: Shine. Okay, you know, collective sporting events give me a good, good,
Speaker 4: good good feel.
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say collective soul. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said collective sporting events.
Speaker 4: That's good fun things. I love some tennis. Actually playing tennis.
Speaker 1: Tennis is fun.
Speaker 4: I like getting out out for a you know, a
Speaker 4: good hike. Flowers. I love flowers.
Speaker 1: You love flowers.
Speaker 4: I'm a plant guy.
Speaker 1: You love flowers and birds.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: You love it when our textures compliment you did blackmail
Speaker 1: you for golf?
Speaker 4: I do like that.
Speaker 1: I guess butter you up for golf. Uh so that
Speaker 1: happened today? All right.
Speaker 2: Last thing, Bobby Marx RNA Show wrote a piece concerning
Speaker 2: Luka Dacic and what every team could have offered if
Speaker 2: Niko Harrison did the thing where you're like, I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe just let everybody know he's available and take the
Speaker 2: best deal instead of shipping to the Lakers. Here's what
Speaker 2: Bobby Marks outlined that the Jazz could have offered for
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic, John Collins, Isaiah Callier, Taylor Hendrix, two twenty
Speaker 2: seven first round picks, a twenty nine first round pick,
Speaker 2: and yeah, there you go, So it would be five picks,
Speaker 2: five first round picks, John Collins, Isaiah Callier, Taylor Hendrix.
Speaker 1: Where do I sign?
Speaker 2: You make that deal seven days out of seven and
Speaker 2: twice on Sundays. But of course Nico Harrison decided not
Speaker 2: to let you know the NBA know that he was
Speaker 2: about to trade a generational global superstar at the age
Speaker 2: of twenty five. Mike Malone fired today as the Denver
Speaker 2: Nuggets head coach. Since shockwaves across the world of pro basketball.
Speaker 2: Busy night in the NBA, Busy night in hockey, the
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club. Welcome in the Seattle cracking for a
Speaker 2: seven o'clock drop of the puck at the Delta Center.
Speaker 2: Kind of the only local thing going on. Jazz back
Speaker 2: of action tomorrow taking on Portland. So there you go,
Speaker 2: all right, port Before we get out of here, what
Speaker 2: comes our way? On a Wednesday edition of the radio show.
Speaker 4: On a Wedday edition, the program will catch up with
Speaker 4: Andy Larson from the Stall Lake Tribune, as we do
Speaker 4: each and every week. NHL Behind the Glass with our
Speaker 4: guy Neil Smith. The Stanley Cup champion Zach Harper will
Speaker 4: stop by the program that is your NBA Daily assist
Speaker 4: for a Wednesday, and we're gonna catch up with Carly Daukendorf,
Speaker 4: the head coach for Utah women's gymnastics. They're going to
Speaker 4: the Nationals for the forty ninth maybe fiftieth straight year.
Speaker 4: Some pretty impressive stuff and always good to catch up
Speaker 4: on that side.
Speaker 2: What's the one gymnastics discipline you think you could do
Speaker 2: without training?
Speaker 4: Oh, here we go, you've got an answer. I was
Speaker 4: a gymnast for the young parts of my life. My
Speaker 4: mom thought it was gonna help me with all the
Speaker 4: other sports I probably did. I can still do a
Speaker 4: back handspring. That's impressive. Yeah, I would break my leg
Speaker 4: if I tried. I haven't tried probably like eight or
Speaker 4: nine months, so I probably shouldn't say that. But last
Speaker 4: time I checked, I could still do it backhands So.
Speaker 2: What are you saying the floor exercise would be your thing?
Speaker 2: Is that the deal? If you had a pick one?
Speaker 2: Because I'll be honest, I am amazed at all of
Speaker 2: the disciplines that gymnasts do, Like it doesn't register in
Speaker 2: my brain is like, yeah, you could go do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that there's one
Speaker 4: that like actually really specifically would play into to what
Speaker 4: I would do. I always like the bars.
Speaker 1: The uneven ones fair enough.
Speaker 4: I'm kind of like a jungle Jim kiddo, so I'll
Speaker 4: go with.
Speaker 2: That one fair enough. By the way, low End Theory
Speaker 2: is Tribe's best album. I just want to be on record.
Speaker 2: It's not Midnight Marauders, Brandon, do.
Speaker 1: Not add me?
Speaker 2: All right, Well, say good night special, Thank you, Tony Jones,
Speaker 2: Tim McMahon, Ken Pomeroy, Kurt Schmidt.
Speaker 1: If you missed any of it, you know the deal.
Speaker 2: Website ESPN seven hundred sports dot com, download our mobile app,
Speaker 2: take us on the go, easiest best way to listen
Speaker 2: to the station. And then, if you have some time
Speaker 2: tonight watching some hockey or some NBA, pull up your
Speaker 2: preferred podcast catcher, search the drive with spence check It's
Speaker 2: find our pod. Support us, give us a rating and
Speaker 2: a review, Sananie things in the comment. Some of you
Speaker 2: do not do that, and give us all the stars
Speaker 2: that you can. It actually helps us out. He's porter
Speaker 2: I'm spend saying, and I enjoy your Tuesday evening. We'll
Speaker 2: talk to you on a Wednesday drive and as always,
Speaker 2: you can find out right here on ESPN seven hundred
Speaker 2: ninety two NFM. We are proud to be part of
Speaker 2: utah's ESPN radio network.