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The stop a little sport court love my sports court segments.
Getting the latest on what's going on in the sports
and law world. It's time to play a little judge
and jury. What's the latest, what's the verdict on the
biggest headlines in sports and law?
Speaker 1: Sports Court. Each week we're breaking.
Speaker 3: Down real life legal drama, ladies and gentlemen, intersecting with
your favorite athletes, teams, and leagues. From contract disputes and
aoka O sideline scandals and corporate courtroom battles. Let's dive
deep with Utah's most trusted injury attorneys. We got Garrett
and Preston Handy on the line. Gentlemen, how you guys
doing today?
Speaker 4: Hey, Ben doing well? How are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing fantastic, Just talking all manner of Cougar Sports Commentary.
Now we get into the real stuff, the sports and
lost stuff, stuff that is hard hitting and it's just
very intriguing, right, all the things that are happening in
the sports and law world.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it.
Speaker 3: Guys, what's the leaders in the sports court?
Speaker 1: What do we want to start with.
Speaker 4: Well, let's start with a bad actor, a guy named
Darryl Cohen. This is a National Advisor portfolio manager with
Morgan Stanley who was working with a few NBA players
three of them, specifically here, and he was defrauding them
of money. He had a bunch of schemes going. The
first scheme he had going was that he was selling
them life insurance policies. Apparently he had an outfit that
was buying life insurance policies at probably regular prices, regular premiums,
and then he was selling them to these NBA players.
Probably had access to their money at sometimes a markup
of three hundred percent, which is crazy. This is an
example of professional athletes not watching their money. I think
another thing he was doing, and it was found that
another thing he was doing I'll get to that he
was taking money from their accounts. He had access to
their accounts. He took around five hundred thousand dollars and
allegedly put it into nonprofit charities, one called Beast Basketball.
Well it wasn't really going into this nonprofit charity. Then
the other thing he was doing is he was robbing
Peter to pay Paul. He was working with a sports
agency group and using these NBA players' money to pay
off some debts that they had to a Major League
Baseball player. So they're just moving their money around, and
evidence came out that they were using it. He was
using it for personal use, to pay off major debts
on a credit card, to do a lot of home improvements,
and to recreate with his girlfriend. Well, the US Attorney
of New York didn't like that and they prosecuted him,
and that recently here went to trial, which is always
surprising that these things make it to trial. Apparently he
felt he had a pretty good defense, but it was
a five week trial. He was ultimately found guilty of
wire fraud, which carries a potential sense of up to
twenty years. So this isn't the first time that someone's
going to take advantage of professional athletes in their money
and defraud them.
Speaker 1: Crazy.
Speaker 3: I mean, look like, you know, there's always bad players
out there, and you know, these financial advisors they can
get pretty uh, you know, you can toe the line
a little bit with some of these things, defrauding MBAs
that maybe are I mean they're trusting right, there may
be a network, et cetera. So I mean, this was
going on for how long? How long was this occurring for?
Speaker 4: Oh, for years? And they caught wind of it and
it was it was five million dollars, which is a lot,
a lot of money. But you know, Fortunately it wasn't there.
You know, it wasn't all of their networks. I remember
as a kid, first time I remember it was Kareem
Abdul Jabbar who trusted his agent, and his agent pretty
much pretty much buried him bankrupt kid to him and that,
you know, and you've heard of it over the years
that these athletes trusting athletes. They get hooked up with
someone that they feel like is going to manage their
money and probably grow their money, and they trust them,
and you know, what are they doing. They're working on
playing their sport and living the good life, have access
to a lot of money, and probably not minding things
like they should.
Speaker 3: Crazy times, guys, what's the current social media trial and
potential connection to sports betting trends? Look, I tell everyone, like,
there's so much going on in the sports betting world
right now that is probably not a good thing. What's
going on in this particular case.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're exactly right. There's a lot going on in
sports betting that's not a good thing. And so what
we're going to talk about here is sort of another
case that may have some implications or set some present
for potential litigation against these sports betting sites. But so
what's going on is in LA right now, there's a
big trial going on. It's been going on for several
several weeks against a lot of the big social media companies,
including Meta and YouTube. I think this plaintiff has already
settled with like Snapchat and maybe talk. But what the
allegation is, I mean, really simply is this plaintiff, I
think she's in maybe twenty one years old, is saying
that these products are harmful and addictive, right, and that
they've harmed her. And so again this is this is
kind of some groundbreaking litigation, but it's taking a page
out of the book of the big big tobacco litigation, right,
where for a long time nobody thought cigarettes were harmful,
but then here come these lawsuits, right that find out
that there is a very addictive, harmful thing and the
companies knew it and they've been hiding it. So same
situation here. So anyway, the correlation is that sports betting
sites are you know, you could argue, equally addictive, right
and causing a lot of problems with how they lure
you in and make it so easy. Right, that's what
they want you to do. They want you to jump
on and and make you place your bets and ultimately
lose your money. And so these these this could be
a blueprint, right, this social media case for litigation against
the sports betting companies. I don't think they're going to
be immune from it and probably will face those sorts
of lawsuits in the future.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you hope that the truth of some of these
you know sites, You know that the social media platforms,
you know, there's enough qualitative and quantitative data now that
there's going to be safeguards to be put in place,
because otherwise, you know, lawyer's got to step in and
start suing people, right, Yeah, there you go, yep, and
that's what happens. I was having actually this discussion today.
You know, it's a it's kind of an intriguing thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm in the orthopedic and sports medicine space on the
daily and then obviously in the sports media space in
the evenings, right, and we were talking about insurance companies
and I'm like, the only entities, the only people that
keep insurance companies in.
Speaker 1: Check are the lawyers. And lawyers get a bad rap.
Speaker 3: It's the insurance companies that need the bad rap.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 5: We're battling against them every single day.
Speaker 1: The checks and balances man.
Speaker 3: Otherwise, there's like days keep on elevating premiums are like
crazy and then denying claims left and right.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, you got it. It's crazy.
Speaker 3: If so, I had that discussion with our team, and
so I had to give them a little bit of truth,
a truth, bob. So you're doing you're doing the Lord's work, gentlemen. Anyway,
let's get into this here. Nevada judge is ripping NCAA
eligibility rule and grants the outfield and outfielder's sixth season.
Speaker 1: What do you got here?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, this is part of the ongoing saga as
the eligibility world turns. This is another case where a
college athlete. This one is Noah Blythe an outfielder at
University of Nevada. He is seeking a six year of eligibility.
He went to the NCAA and said, I want to
play a sixth year. NCAA said, nope, you're done. You
get five years to play four. And his story is
he played a Division one school for Waife Pacific during
the COVID year. He got a COVID waiver. Then he
played three years at the Powerhouse Antelope Valley which is
Naia School, and then he returned to Waye Pacific to
play another year. Now he wants a six year at
University of Pacific. Well as what happens as they follow
the playbook of the patriots sate of eligibility mister Diego Pavia,
he sued the NCAAA in the first thing he did
is he filed for a preliminary injunction. And the standard
for a preliminary injunction essentially is, hey, court, if you
don't grant this and you don't enjoy the NCAA from
enforcing their eligibility rule while we fight about the real issue,
I lose out this, it'll be a reparable harm. The
court also looks at would he prevail on the merits
if this thing went down. Well, the judge here she
granted his preliminary injunction, and she's probably the most vocal
and probably went after the NCAA more than about anyone.
She totally bought into the anti trust argument that force
enforcing eligibility rules on these players violates anti trust and
anti competitiveness. She came out and said this causes commercial
harm by denying otherwise qualified athletes access to financial, academic,
professional benefits of employment at a D one institution. She noted,
you know, this is this type compensation is not available
elsewhere to these players. Only just a small small percentage
of them get to go on to play professional sports.
She didn't buy into the argument that the NCAA says, hey,
you play your eligibility, you move on, and then there's
players there's freshman incoming taking that eligibility and if you
stay here and keep that spot, you take it away
from them. And she shut down the argument that said,
you know, they argued, well, you know a normal path
for a student in college is four or five years. Well,
and these players are playing six seven years. That doesn't follow.
So she shot it all down and granted him his
extra year. And the crazy thing about it is, these
judges are across the board. There's no predictability. We've seen
several athletes not granted their preliminary injunction requests, and then
we've seen several like Diego Pavia who got his preliminary
in junction and really played an extra two years while
he was just sitting there and then he's done. And
then say, well, let's go find about this in court,
and that's a moot point. So we need some predictability
on this. There's a lot of eligibility fights going on
out there that you know, they're winning and some they're losing,
and you know, the NCAA seems to be kind of
digging in on this eligibility thing, which I personally think
is a good thing. You know, I think there are
extenuating circumstances, but we need some predictability.
Speaker 1: Well, it was interesting.
Speaker 3: I don't know it's not on our list of topics today,
but Trinida Chamblis is being challenged right now by the
NC double A. Right, they're fighting back. I mean there
was a ruling in Mississippi. I think we had discussed
it in a prior segment with Trinidad Chamblass. But the
NC double A is coming back and they're fighting and
trying to strike down. Or maybe there's a judge there
in Mississippi that's a Mississippi fan, not an old miss fan,
that's trying to strike this thing down and maybe support
the NC double I don't know all the details on it,
but these eligibility issues continue to pop up. I'm sure
this is going to be consistent for the next few years.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Let's get into a little legal analysis of the Sharon
Moore hearing. He's scoring maybe a win, may have had
rights violated.
Speaker 1: Give us the latest on Sharon Moore.
Speaker 4: Well, we're talking about this Ben because it's noted around
the state that football college football in the state of
Utah is atoning for the sins and actions of one
mister Sharon Moore. As we know, he was the head
coach at the University of Michigan. It came out that
he was having a inappropriate no no relationship with a staffer.
Following that, he was arrested for felling, home invasions, stocking,
illegal entry, and as we know, he was let go
from his job at Michigan, and had he stayed in
a job at Michigan, one mister J. Hill would still
be the defensive coordinator at BYU. Right. Well, he was
arrested and so his attorney motion for a hearing, and
the basics was that they said they wanted the charges dismissed,
claiming that his due process rights had been violated. Specifically,
they pointed to the fact that the magistrate issued a
warrant based on false and misleading statements presented as facts.
The judge said that there was a glaring omission that
Moore's previous relationship with a woman was not disclosed by
the police detective when the magistrate authorized the warrant for
the rest, and that defendants due process may have been violated.
So he granted a hearing. This is a win for
shron Moore. He granted a hearing. I heard it was
March second, but I haven't heard what the results of
the hearing are. Whether you know, hey, the police law
enforcement have to comply with due as things, and if
they don't, sometimes, and I'm not saying Sharon Moore in
the s capes, sometimes guilty people get off simply because
the due due process steps were not followed. So we'll
see what the judge says about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you bring up a really funny point. And I
had this debate with others. I know it's just like
a side point, but like you know, who do who
did cougarnation? Blame more for for everything that and no
pun intended. Blame more with everything that occurred with the
the domino effect.
Speaker 1: Were they more.
Speaker 3: Angry at Kyle Whittingham? Were they more angry at like
uh the the athletic director of the University of Utah
with a more mad at sharmonn More because they lost
some really good coaches in the in the process.
Speaker 4: Well, the truth is in every the More let go. Simultaneously,
there's the Whittingham stepping down. We'll call it no one,
no one, No one saw that Michigan job coming Kyle's way.
No one did you know? And you had Sharon More
not been let go, he'd still be the head coach
of Michigan and he was. He If he were still
the head coach of Michigan, Kyle Woodenham would not be
in that position, and Kyle wood Whittingham would not have
taken many coaches and players from the state of Utah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, crazy times. Thank you, Sharon, Yeah, thank you so much, guys.
Any other updates on we didn't prep for this, any
updates on the Parker Kingston case from the last time
we chatted anything there.
Speaker 5: I haven't heard anything. I don't know about you, guys,
but yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Know the hearing or maybe like the next meeting hearing
was moved up in. Yeah, so March twenty fifth is
the latest on that. So we'll keep an eye on
that as well. Going back to the l dubility conversation, right,
it's like, I mean, look, you're seeing it in baseball,
You've seen it in basketball, you've seen it in football.
You're like, we have g leaguers trying to make their
way back to teams, and there's judges and rulings and
all these different states we're seeing. I don't know if
you guys saw this recently too. There are certain states
that will not tax. They've decided not to tax nil income.
I thought that was pretty insane. So they're trying to
create a competitive advantage via tax lot least state tax law.
I mean, I don't think they can circumvent federal tax law,
but state tax law for their nil earnings.
Speaker 1: What's your reaction to.
Speaker 5: That, Well, yeah, I mean it's everybody's competing, right, competing
for resources, and those resources are the top players in
the country, and so there's different ways to lure them in, right,
And if a school is having a hard time raising funds,
which again it's just an arms maybe states can step
in and with these schools where you know, again they've
got a vested interest in that. These are a lot
of them public state institutions. So maybe they offer a
tax break. It's maybe a little no different than luring
in a you know, a big company to your state
and offering them some incentives to come. So I think
it's creative. I guess that's my initial reaction. But it's
just it's just more of the same, right money, it's
a big business.
Speaker 1: Big business.
Speaker 3: Indeed, gentlemen, be let's talk a little bit about what
you guys do best. Okay, your business is representing those
that have been injured. Why should our listeners call you
if they've been in an accent if they've been injured.
Speaker 5: Well, what we're gonna do is is really make sure
we understand your case from from top to bottom and
be an adscate for you. We help people who've been injured.
We take them all the way through the process. Sometimes
that results and you know, we get our clients really
good results in settlements out of court, and sometimes we've
got to file lawsuits and take it down that direction.
So we're here ready to do what we what we
have to do and want to do to get people
compensated and help them out. So I'd love to hear
from anybody out there with you know, their legal concerns,
especially in the area of personal injury. You can reach
us at eight zero one two sixty four sixty six
seven seven, or go to our website at Handylawutah dot com.
Speaker 1: Eight ah one two six four sixty six seven seven.
Speaker 3: That's eight to one two six four sixty six seven
seven handy law Utah dot com. Gentlemen, we so let you.
We appreciate you. Always love learning from you. Guys in
a sports court segment.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you, Ben all.
Speaker 1: Right, thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 3: We'll call that a segment brought to you by Handylawutah
dot com. Handylawutah dot com is the place you go
when you've been in an accident. Call them big firm experience,
small firm attention. They will take care of you. We'll
take a brief time out. We'll get to know the
foe on the flip side. With Nathan Geese, Ladies and gentlemen,
he's going to discuss the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Speaker 1: He's a b writer for the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.
Speaker 3: What weaknesses, what strengths do they bring into provo as
the BYU men's basketball team tries to find a way
to knock off a top ten team and put a
hopefully a nice ending to a solid and I'd say
a good.
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Speaker 2: He's a one oh three nine ninety eight three ESPN
SportsCenter updates.
Speaker 7: For the first time in program history, the BYU women's
basketball team has won in Big twelve tournament game. Yesterday,
the Cougars in Blue defeated the Cougars and Red a
seventy six to sixty six win over Houston and Lenny
Gibb got off to a heart start, leading the Cougars
with eleven points in a Thai game heading in a halftime,
but everyone else picked up the slack and she was
held scoreless to start the second half. In a game
where multiple players, including GiB were in foul trouble, eight
b Yu found a way to come out on top.
This is the team's tenth Big twelve one of the season,
matching the total from the first two years combine. Olivia
Hamlin Lata Rocal, Delany Gabb and Sydney Binali all scored
between fourteen and sixteen points for the Cougars as it
was a team.
Speaker 1: Effort to advance to the next round.
Speaker 7: Earlier today at twelve thirty, the team tipped off against
Utah's They're trying to go three to zero against the
Utes this year. Sticking with women's basketball, their tournament helps
remain alive. Following the win, during the broadcast yesterday, ESPN
breacatologist Charlie Cream said by you would have to beat
Utah and most likely top seed at TCU as well
in the next round to secure a spot in the
NCAA tournament. Yesterday we mentioned the women's track and field
team will have eight entries in nationals, and today we
share that seven entries from the men will be joining them.
That group consists of Carter Cutting, Tavan Kitchen, and James's
brother Isaac Hendingrid, among others. Speaking of Jane, she and
Riley Chamberlain were placed on the third edition of the
Bowerman watch List yesterday by the USTFCCCA. The Bowerman is
awarded to the nation's top male and female track and
field athletes each year. The six and four BYAU baseball
team has their home opener and not as they take
on a Red hawt Cal Baptist team. The Lancer was
coming Rovo with an eleven three record to start the year.
First pitch is slated for three o'clock running out Today,
softball opens up Big twelve play on the road at
number thirteen Arizona, the wild catch of the second highest
rated Big twelve team, and the Cougars look to make
a statement win early in the season after a rough
start in non conference play. First pick for them is
slated for six. I'm Cameron Clark and this has been
your ESPN the Fan Cougar Sports Center update, brought to
you by.
Speaker 2: Royston from expansion talks in the Hot Stove to opening
Day and onto the World Series weekdays from seven to
ten on one oh three, nine and ninety eight three
ESPN Loove Band. Get to know the Cougar's opponents and
rivals right now, I need to know the faux segment
Tod Cougar Sports with Ben Kretlk.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to your sports.
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Speaker 1: It's time to get to know the fae.
Speaker 3: The Texas Tech Red Raiders coming to town to take
on the BYU Cougars. One team has reacted, I think
pretty well after losing their best player. The other team
has not reacted so after losing one of their best players.
Texas Tech is gonna be a tough one, even on
BYU's home court. And we're gonna get to know the vote,
what they're bringing and how they've reacted, how they've been
able to navigate the loss of JT.
Speaker 1: Topp.
Speaker 3: And this segment's gonna be brought to you by Central
Garage Utah. Central Garage Utah dot com. I love Kelly
over there at Central Garage Utah. They're gonna take care
of you. If you have any sort of issue with
your garage door. It's not opening, it's broken, many uh
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Give a call, set up an appointment. Shoot him a
text eight on one six oh four two nine one nine.
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Get a quote today. He's gonna take care of you
if you have a malfunctioning garage. All right, let's get
out to the hotline. Welcome in, Texas Tech insider Nathan
Geese of the Lubbick Avalanche Journal beat rider for the
Red Raiders. How you doing Nathan, No, I'm not doing
it too bad living the dream. Are you surprised at
how well this Texas Tech team has been able to
find their way after a critical, massive loss of JT.
Speaker 1: Topping for the season.
Speaker 4: Yes, and no.
Speaker 8: I think kind of the double edged sword here is
that while the timing of losing one of the best
players in the country and probably the Big twelve player
of the years, first team All American is that it
happened at the time where the rest of the team
was getting more healthy and those players just weren't around
much for the season. So you look at a guy
like Luke Vamboy and Josiah Mosley, They've been on the
shelf most of the year. So when JT goes down,
You're looking at, oh, well, who do they have. Well,
nobody's really seen what Luke and Josie can bring, but
now we're kind of seeing that where they can. You're
not going to replace JT with one guy. That has
to be multiple guys top and plays about played about
thirty five minutes a game, twenty points, ten rebounds. You're
not going to have any one person played thirty five
minutes now. But if you split that up between Vamboyan
and Moseley, and you slide in Lawan Watt to drop
him down to the five if you need to at
certain times, then it the mixture of it works a
lot better. But what I think they found in the
successes is that it opened up the floor a lot
more for everybody because when you have topping out there,
you have to kind of account for He needs that
space and the paint to operate, whereas without him you
can kind of spread people out, more of the paints,
more available for driving kick situations. And then on Tuesday
against TCU, you thought, okay, you can still have that.
But what JT brings defensively is something that they're really
needing to find a replacement. For he's a physical guy.
He gets in there in Texas mataphysical team in general,
even with topping. So when you lose that piece, he
become less physical. How do you kind of balance that out?
And that's what they need to find right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy to see how BYU has spiraled while
Texas Tech continues to play great basketball despite losing. As
you mentioned, one of the best players in the country
and maybe the best player in the Big Twelve. Do
you think JT was on track to be the Big
Twelve Player of the year.
Speaker 8: I was making that argument in mid January, and he
just kept rolling after that. That was before they got
the big wins over Houston, over Iowa State and exceeding
me over Arizona because he missed out state game. But yeah,
I mean I was making that argument before because if
you looked at what he was doing, he was better
than he was last year. If he kind of ran
away with it now, the only kind of problem with
that argument was there's so many of those freshmen people
were kind of propping up into that spot. A Doe
the Bonds obviously one of them. But I think you
had to kind of look at did Arizona really have
anybody that just stands out and know, you can make
the argument for Houston's Kingston findings, but if you just
look at the totality of what he was doing, Yeah,
he should have been the Big Twelve Player of the year.
And honestly, it would not shock me if the coaches
voted him the player of the Year still just because
of what he was doing, because if you look at
him miss like the last two weeks of the season,
that's not a huge chunk of the year. But he
should at least be a first team All Conference player
regardless of this. But yeah, he was in my mind
he should have repeated as Big Twelve Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: When you're looking at your team, this collective team, how
did you describe it right now without jat You mentioned
a few things what they're doing maybe schematically with personnel, etc.
But what changes has there been in the way, the
form and the fashion which they're operating, still scoring, still
playing great defense. Is just culture and coaching winning out
as well here.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Absolutely. And one of the things that I keep trying
to remind people over his entire tenure here is that
Grant m. Kaslin is probably best when he kind of
has a hand tie behind his back. What he's kind
of forced into doing something because when he has all
of his pieces that he gets a little bit tight.
He doesn't want to sit his star players because you
feel like he needs to keep him out there. And
that was kind of something that he struggled with in
the Elite Eight last year against Florida, where he should
have made different substitutions defensively, offensively, and they probably would
have been the Final fourteen. But now when you don't
have to sit keep top in and Anderson on the floor,
you can make those choices of we need a defensive
stock here, Hey, bring this guy in, we need offense,
bring this guy in. And I think what he's really
good at is what kind of helps here that you're
not waiting for top And to come back. Right, Some
players will be like, oh, he'll be back. Let's not
change too much. Well, they haven't changed a lot, but
they are operating in a way that's different. They still
start off with the high pick and roll with the
big man and kind of operate offensively there, but now
they've added in the new wrinkle of starting screens with
Donovan atwell starting at the free throw line. And that
changes the offense, and that's a little bit of how
the offense has changed a little bit. They've also kind
of had to change how they handle ball screen coverages
top and would get out in front and really hedge
high on the ball handler on screens, and now they're
still doing that, but it's not as high. So then
it's the defensive reactions that kind of change.
Speaker 3: Now, what's your scouted report on by you right now?
Have you discussed this particular game, this particular matchup with
any of the coaches. I don't know what you've had
as far as media availability is concerned in preparation for
this game a couple of days away now, But give
me a little scattering report from your purview from your
perch on the HWEYU Cougars.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the last time we were able to talk to
him was after the TCU game, and obviously that was
pretty heavily focused on what went wrong in that game.
But from what I saw, and I kind of saw
this a little bit even when Richie Sounder was in
the game, is that it was very heavy on DeVonta
Sanders and Rob Wright. Those three had to do stuff
and if they just weren't getting the job done, especially offensively,
they just weren't going to get the job done. Now
Saunders is the guy where he was kind of that
glue on. He was the hustle guy, the energy guy,
the attitude guy. He was just strong, three point shooters,
tough to the basket, and when you take that out,
it puts so much attention on especially Devanta, where the
defense was already focused on him. Now they can dedicate
pretty much till or free. Guys are just kind of
making sure he doesn't get it, or you can let
him get his and just know that the rest of
the team isn't going to beat you because they don't
really have the rep the offensive repertoire around him outside, right,
So I think that's kind of where they're struggling. And
I don't blame him if for having this kind of
happen late in the season. When you lose a guy
like that, it can be such a deflating thing. But
I also wasn't surprised when they beat Iowa State because
that's kind of one of those get up games, let's
do it for our guys. I think that was kind
of the same way Texas Tech did when they beat
Iowa State. Let's do it for our guy that's not
here with us. But then that comes that real adjustment
of Okay, teams have seen film on you how you
operate now, and then you have to make those other
wrinkles because you're not gonna be able to surprise them anymore.
Speaker 3: When you look at the last four games of the
Texas AKA Red Raiders wins over Kansas State, Cincinnati, Iowa State,
most recently though a loss a close loss to TCU.
Speaker 1: What happened in that game? How did the Red Raiders
fall short?
Speaker 8: This was one where it kind of so basically when
tapam went down, everybody at national media everywhere, it was like, oh, well,
this team's absolutely done. Well, no, they still have good players,
they can do it. Kansas State and helped because there,
let's be out there an awful team. So that's a
good way to get your feet wet in it amped
up a little bit with Cincinnati and do it with
Iowa State. What TCU kind of exposed is when you
don't have top and down low, your rebounding has to
be gang rebounding, and they just did not do that
against the horn Frogs. And what really kind of it
came down to was the offense sputters when Anderson Cakey
kind of free and if defenses are trapping him before
he could be able to pass it out the top end,
he could get that next pass at the offense back
and saying you're not gonna be able to do that
with a Luke van Boy or just Josiah Mosley. They
just don't have the same skill set. They don't have
the same kind of repertoire that top and does, or
this experience of operating in this and the defense was
where really struggled. The offense it could stand to be
better with it. But really what's kind of come down
to is Anderson's getting a lot more attention defensively now
he's had six turnovers in each of the last three games.
That has to be better. That started before JT got hurt.
Starting the actually started in the Arizona State game where
he's had a lot of turnovers. Now that needs to
be cleaned up. They had to get that offense back going,
but the defense, it's gonna have to come on defense.
I think for Texas Tech down the stretch.
Speaker 3: Talking BYU versus Texas Tech, we got a big match
to BYU is has their backs against them all. They
got to find a way to win. They continually drop
in the in the seedings. Joe Lunardi's nc DOUBLEA bracketology
and we're breaking it down right here with Nathan Geese,
b Writer Lubick Avalanche Journal. So Nathan, is you evaluate
the Big Twelve and you've seen these undulations. We've seen
the ups and downs. We've seen some teams that started
off the Big twelve regular season very low at low points,
and now they're playing their basketball.
Speaker 1: Cincinnati is a good example of that.
Speaker 3: They've had some great wins and they're looking they're trending
to become maybe an NCUAA tournament team. How would you
describe the Big twelve standings in Big twelve basketball this year?
Speaker 8: Well, I think you look at it, it's it was
kind of top heavy, especially initially with those six teams Arizona,
Iowa State, Houston, Kansas, Texas Tech, and b YU. But
what the middle of the season, the late of the
season scheduled. It exposes the flaw that every team has,
Like Houston's dropped more games this year because they don't
have any interior presence anymore on offense. They got it
on defense, but it's not on offense, and that can
make your offense pretty one dimensional and go and sputtering.
I always stay there. They're kind of streaky. If you're
not getting Monchiel Dich open three, they kind of stalls
that offense a lot. Joshua Jefferson's pretty good. But outside
of them and lipsy here or there, what are you
kind of getting from them? Arizona can't shoot threes. I
don't think it's a big problem for them, but they
that is a weakness. So there's Kansas. What are you
getting from Darren Peterson? How often are you gonna play?
Nobody knows? Texas Tech obviously they've got the injury factor
and so it's b yu And I think a lot
of it right now is that those teams that have
stayed healthy, like the Cincinnati, like the TCUs, like the UCS,
they're able to kind of keep their momentum going and
hit their strive late in the year. And I think
that's what's showing up the conference right now.
Speaker 1: So who's trending to become the Big twelve player of
the year. Would you say, then, where do you stand
on that debate?
Speaker 8: I have no idea, honestly, I have seen once you
get after topic. That's why I kind of make the
argument maybe it is still him, because who else is
it going to be? He could look at aj But
are you going to give it to the guy in
the tenth or eleventh place team just because he scores
a lot of points? That's kind of maybe he wins
by default just for that. I don't see. Maybe you
give it to Jade and Bradley at Arizona just because
he's been so consistent for him and coaches love a
fourth or fifty year guy who's just kind of headstrong
for him. Levings is an option I I honestly don't know.
It could be anybody, any one of like five or
six players. I'm like, all right, if that makes sense.
I kind of get that. Usually you kind of default
to the best player on the best team, and if
that's Arizona, maybe that's Bradley. But you can make an
argument for a couple of different guys on that team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a there's a heated debate and
when's the when? When does the the when is that announced?
What's the timeline for that?
Speaker 8: Anyway, it should be announced early next week, So I
want to say Monday, probably Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 3: If you were to prognosticate what the voters are gonna
what direction they're going to go, how they're going to
be split up, what would you prognosticate if you were
a betting man.
Speaker 8: Well, I'm not so you're asking the wrong guy there,
But I honestly couldn't even begin to guess. If I
had to put five bucks on it, I'd probably say
they might just default the Demanda because he because he
is good. Obviously he's leaving the country and scoring, and
right now he's kind of one of the few things propping.
Speaker 4: Up the team.
Speaker 8: But I just feel like they're probably gonna whittle it
down to all right, let me never mind, I'll put
my five bucks in Jaden, Bradley.
Speaker 1: Jay and Bradley. He's switching up. I like it. You
were debating with it yourself.
Speaker 8: That Yeah, that's I'm thinking loud right now.
Speaker 3: Hey, sometimes you gotta work it out. You gotta work
it out through just vocalizing things. And uh, I think
that the pessimist in you, you know, is like, they're
just gonna go with the high score.
Speaker 1: But you can't go with the high score because they're
not winning. Games right now, they're under death spiral. You
can't do that and then you revert.
Speaker 8: It if they had won two of their last five
instead of the losses. Maybe, but that is kind of
why I'd like. I don't know. Maybe. Is he even
still a first team All American because of it? I
don't know.
Speaker 1: But let me ask you this.
Speaker 3: If b Yu gets the win and AJ goes off,
Let's say he goes off for like a thirty piece,
does that cement him and there's recency bias as the
big twelve player year because he is leading the country
and scoring, and when he does go off it's pretty impressive.
With his holistic stat lines of rebounds, assists, and playmaking, I.
Speaker 8: Think they could obviously help him because I mean, I
don't honestly don't know when the votes are due from
the coaches or anything. I would assume sometimes Sunday, and
they can get all that and put together.
Speaker 4: I think it would.
Speaker 8: Definitely help him. I wouldn't make him the favorite right now,
but if he goes off and they can kind of
rite the ship there at least go out on a
good known he puts together a good game. Yeah, it
wouldn't shock me. It wouldn't shock me if you wn't
it anyway.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Guys.
Speaker 3: We got a big game. Okay, it's gonna be fantastic
at the Marriott Center. Then a pretend Texas Tech Red
Raiders twenty two and eight on the season twelve and
five and Big twelve play taking on the Bway Cougar's reeling.
Right now, they're twenty and ten on the season eight
to nine and Big twelve play. And I imagine the
Red Raiders are gonna be heavily favored in this game.
I think they would. But then I'm pulling up ESPN
Analytics and BYU is slightly favored in this game for
ESPN Analytics fifty nine point two percent. Now, I don't
always trust the analytics, so and I don't know if
the home that home court advantage is as prominent as
it was when Richie was around.
Speaker 1: But eight thirty pm tip off.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a late one at the marriage And
how do you see this game playing out?
Speaker 8: It's kind of too desperate team, Like, if you're BYU,
you're especially desperate right now. I mean, Texas Tech is
in the weird spot where this result doesn't mean a
lot for them. It might affect their NCAA tournament seating,
it means nothing for the Big twelve tournament. They already
got all top fourth. He locked up there. It's just
going to kind of depend on how Tech responds in
the physicality department and how much pride BYU still kind
of has, because they could easily just kind of pack
it in and say, all right, this season gone out
the rails for as AJK, look forward to the draft
and all that. But I think it's two desperate teas.
They're gonna that want to get out of the regular
season with a good note and get into the postseason
with some momentum.
Speaker 1: Nathan.
Speaker 3: Best way to support you what you do, how you
do it for all of our listeners.
Speaker 8: Uh, just follow me on X or Twitter whatever we're
calling it now at Nathan Geese and everything I write
and I take a lot of photos too. Is webbric
online dot com.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be heading out to Provo for this game?
Speaker 8: Nope, not Provo there, We're saving it for the Kansas
City trip.
Speaker 3: There you go, all right, Well, we appreciate you spending
some time with us, and we invite everyone to follow
you on X and read all your content there within
the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Nathan, We'll get you. We'll catch up
with again soon.
Speaker 8: All right, sounds good.
Speaker 4: Thanks they go.
Speaker 3: That's Nathan Geese in that segment that not the Folk
segment was brought to you by Say Garage Utah, Central
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Cougar Orta, Nathan Geese, Preston and Garrett Handy. We had
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