Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the previous team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the glory on
the grid. I let's talk some college football on Cougar
Sports with pen credit.
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point three S been the fan. I'm at Grittal broadcasting
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high income and accredited investors. Any stop for little college football.
We're gonna talk private equity and the good, the bad,
the ugly of it. What happens if private equity in
college sports fails up on the hill in Suli City.
That is a question everybody wants to know. We're gonna
delve into it with a college football insider here momentarily.
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take care of you. Know it's answer butts about it.
Let's get out to the hot line. Welcome in Matt
Brown of Extra Points college football Insider. What's up, Matt Hey,
Good to be back here.
Speaker 3: This this market kind of refuses to calm down enough
for me to kind of to focus elsewhere. Wasn't expecting
this to dominate dominate today. But it's a huge story.
Glad we we can talk about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So break it down for is what has
occurred over the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 3: So the University of Utah is going to do something
that several other schools have thought about but nobody else
is actual has actually done yet, which is is substantially
partner with a private equity firm to help finance the
athletic department. Based on the various reports here, because the
actual trustees conversation that was in the public was very
light on details, Utah is going to be moving their
revenue producing units in the athletic department to this new
LLC Utah Brands and Entertainment. It's going to be co
owned by a private equity firm, Utro Capital. Utah will
be the majority shareholder and will get a significant upfront
amount of money somewhere in the neighborhood according to reports
of around five hundred million dollars, and the private equity
firm will own a significant state in this new LLC,
and there will work to try and grow Utah's revenues
to the point where then they can you know, they
can sell the thing back in five, six, seven, eight years,
either sell it back to Utah or to some other party.
So this represents a very significant, like upfront financial investment
for Utah Athletics. But there's some meaningful risks and not
just what to do with this money, but how to
make sure you're growing the revenue enough to to to
play cake your new business partners.
Speaker 2: So what are the risks that they're running here by
going with private equity. Why is it that Utah is
the first to do this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think that would be interesting and I
want to hear more on the Utah side about what
kind of you know, push the urgency to do this
before say Syracuse or UNC or Purdue or any number
of other institutions that have been kicking around these ideas
are taking these meetings. I think one of the significant
risks for me is how much more you can meaningfully
grow your athletic department revenue in the relative short term, right, Utah,
just like BYU their television deal that's fixed, that's that's
already sold for a number of years, it's negotiated through
the Big twelve. There's very little any individual school can do.
Speaker 1: To change that.
Speaker 3: The area where everyone seems to be focusing in this
industry is, Hey, if we bring in the right partners,
we can make more money in corporate sponsorships. We can
make more money selling tickets, we can make more money
through licensing and concessions and everything else during the current
game day experience. And I think that that's true. Most
schools are leaving money on the table in some form
or fashion with those systems. But Utah sells out or
comes close to selling out most of their football games.
Stadium make that big. There's only so many more tickets
you can sell or how you know, raise ticket prices
so much. Basketball is a little bit of different, a
little bit of a different story. I'm a little concerned
about how much more corporate sponsorship opportunities are available. I
know that the metropolitan Salt Lake area is growing quite
a bit. I know, but there's lots of new potential
donors and new businesses popping up. But this is still
not that big of a city. And you have the Jazz,
you have the NHL team that's taking up a lot
of that potential corporate sponsorship money. You might have a
baseball team in five years. You've got BYU down the road,
and you have a ton of other Division one institutions
that offer way cheaper sponsorship packages that suck up some
of the available money. And for a lot of industries,
buying a gigantic billboard space, you know, next to campus
or or your stadium activations are too expensive. There's generally
only a handful of industries that buy in here. So
I'd be a little bit worried. Based on the amount
of money that UTAH already makes from tickets and you know,
multimedia rights and licensing, it's about twenty eight million dollars
I checked. I don't know. I'm sure the number could
go up, Like, could I go up to eighty? I don't.
I don't think so. And if it can't, or are
you handicapping yourself here by giving up too much of
your future revenue to a third party?
Speaker 2: Yeah? If it fails, what's what happens then? So, like,
let's say it's not profitable, and what does that mean? Fail? Right?
Is it not profitable? Do they go bankrupt? Right? We
know that that many institutions have their universities have kind
of subsidized the failings of an athletic department that is
trying to keep up with the Jones, the Joneses, the
arms race. Essentially, give me your perspective on if these
ventures are not profitable? Well?
Speaker 3: Would? I would caution everybody to be careful at making
assumptions about profitability when looking at the financial statements we
have in schools right now. We've talked about this a lot.
Utah Athletics prior to this arrangement wasn't trying to make
a profit. There was really no incentive for it to
take a profit because there's no investors. Your incentivized suspend
every dollar that you make because you're judge based on
what happens on the field, not on your own individual
financial management. And there's a lot of funny accounting that
happens with the university MSRs reports. That becomes a little
bit different when you're now partially accountable to a for
profit entity that didn't get in the entertainment business for
charity or because they care about Utah's to athletic traditions
or what it means for the community. Now there's a
big New York City investment firm that's here to make money,
which means you got to help make money too. There's
some limitations about how deep Utah can make cuts because
they still have to comply with Big twelve conference regulations,
the NCAA Regulations Title nine. They can't exactly shave themselves
down to just five sports. But by making this kind
of arrangement, where both parties are assuming some risk. The
other firm is getting a percentage of revenues that come
from all these other areas over the coming years. If
the revenues don't grow, then Utah's kind of handcuffed itself
a little bit here, loses some decision making power, and
then even if they get a bunch of money up front,
will be in a worse financial situation seven or eight
years down the line when they're only getting sixty percent
of the money but they should be getting because they
got to pay off these other guys, or they might
sell it to somebody else that Utah isn't as excited
about working with. It's it's not as risky as maybe
a private equity involvement in say, many newspapers or nursing
homes or the real estate market or anything, but it
is it is making a bet that I think is
far from certain.
Speaker 2: Why do you think Utah was the first domino to
fall on the private equity in sports dominoes? I guess
you know.
Speaker 3: I can only I can really only speculate. I don't
I don't know this for certain. I know that of
the other schools that I've talked to and know that
I've taken some of these meetings. A lot of the
hang up has been about the very specific financial terms.
So it may just be Utah just found a better
cultural fit at a better valuation than North Carolina or
Syracuse or some other places they've been able to do,
or the Big Twelve for that matter. For those conversations,
I can also understand why Utah might feel may be
some more unique urgency, given that I don't think this
is a state secret. There's a lot of people that
give money to the Utah or care about Utah that
don't want to be in the Big twelve in ten years,
or think that there's going to be some other kind
of realignment or reconfiguration around college sports and want to
put themselves in the best position to be in that
top group, whatever it is, whether it's Big Twelve, Part
two Champions League, the Big Ten with twenty seven teams.
Who knows, man, I don't know anybody who says they
do know is selling you something. So you have that incentive,
but you're not making the money. But the Big Ten
and the SEC are you don't really have access to
any of those immediate revenue streams. And some of there's
there's some relatively significant capital projects down the line that
are going to be expensive, Like you know, correct me
if I'm wrong. Like my understanding is that they want
to completely move the basketball arena and you know, make
some pretty significant renovations there those prop into it.
Speaker 2: No one goes to the games because it's not easy
to park and get into and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Sure, and even even then, it's kind of old and
you don't have the same luxury box situation that you
might have in the Delta Center or anything else. Like
I get all of that that stuffs expensive. So if
you have ambitions at one level facility or capital needs
that are going to be expensive, and you don't have
access to the traditional revenue streams that the big schools have,
I can understand why you'd be picking up the phone
and talking to these private equity firms and UTAH I
thinks fit some of those categories.
Speaker 2: How will Otro Capital and JMI Sports coexists? I believe
they both operate in this revenue generating world for the utes.
What does it mean? I think that the deal runs
through what two thy thirty four? I don't know any
thoughts there.
Speaker 3: That's part of what I've been trying to figure out
today because honestly, I don't don't. I don't personally see
a way where they would want to coexist. I don't
think you'd want to give up this much equity and
bring in subject matter experts through this private equity firm
if you didn't want to take all that upside yourself.
If you suddenly have to split this corporate right, this
new corporate fundraising with JMI and Otrow, I don't think
there's any way that you're gonna be able to make
enough new money to offset both of those things. My
assumption when I heard about this was, oh, I don't
they just signed that Jmidal like last year. I guess
they're going to buy their way out of it. And
that's just me speculating because I don't know, and I
haven't talked to anybody on the phone yet, But it's
difficult for me to see why you would do both
of those things. The other schools that have kind of
moved you created LLCs or try to, you know, financially
separate some of their corporate sponsorship stuff, they either handle
their MMR in house or they say like, no, we're
going to elevate our MMR partner, but they're not selling
equity to somebody else to help them.
Speaker 4: Grow those revenues.
Speaker 3: It feels supicasive to me. Did I lose you? Hello,
go and.
Speaker 2: Take over, Ronald? You got me? Okay, Sorry, I don't
know I lost connection there for a second, Matt. I apologize,
but I heard what you said. The the you know,
the future of athletics, I mean is is optimistic, I
believe because there's so much money in it, right, Like,
we're in a very affluent society. This is modern day
gladiatorial type of work. We are the modern day Romans,
if you will, in the United States of America. The
money is flowing, right the money is flowing into the sport.
Where do you really want it to come from? Is
the question? Would you though that universities have have you know,
have been operating and trying to govern these athletic departments
in a way that they are probably incapable of sufficiently
maybe operating them, like maybe they don't have the core
competencies to operate them now that they've become two hundred
million dollar organizations within their universities.
Speaker 3: So I think there is some truth to that. And
if you talk to folks that you know maybe have
worked for the Jazz or worked in the NHL, or
worked in in the NFL and then come to work
for BYU or the University of Utah. Most of them
are going to tell you. And this isn't me crapping
on you know, eight oh one area institutions. This is
true across almost all college athletics. The maturity of like
the internal infrastructure and college sports is usually substantially behind
what's what's in pro sports in terms of how they market,
how they collect fan data, how they handle licensing, like
the pros do all of those things better. And I
think there is some truth to the fact that, like, yeah,
universities are not going to be as good as those
things because they're they haven't been trying to run their
athletic departments the same way as the pros because again,
they're not trying to maximize profit. They have other goals,
other KPIs besides just the dollar. And this this industry
has only become more and more complicated as more and
more money has flown into it, Like I think you
could afford to run a department this way in nineteen
eighty one, when big television money wasn't really a thing,
and your biggest revenue was coming basically just from ticket
sales and like one golf outing that you would do
every year, and now eating at a place like Utah,
which is not that big of an athletic department. We're
looking at what one hundred and forty one hundred and
fifty million dollars in revenues a year for a school
like Ohio State. It's two twenty and that's only rising,
So it would make sense that you would need a
different governance model. The challenge is that even with you
bringing in private equity, I don't think that the kind
of the struggle between full straight professionalism. Money is the
only you know, metric we care about and all the
other things that go into college athletics. You can't serve
two masters, and that's been the major struggle on commun
in many ways for one hundred and fifty years, but
I think especially in the last twenty five and I
don't think this kind of deal fixes that. And that's
not a University of Utah problem. I think that's a
BYU problem, an Ohio State problem, and a Weaver State problem.
Doing this kind of deal came Dan. If you do
it right, gives you better quality of management and corporate strategy,
and chasing some of this money, it also runs the
risk of mecapping the very stuff that makes college sports compelling.
And then you might just have a gentrified version of
you know, Utah's minor league hockey team that you guys
used to have, and nobody really cares about who's on
that team, right, Like that's a difficult bounce.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you, this is the is the future
through of athletics sports athletics at the collegiate level? Is
it through private equity? Do you think this is going
to be the trend going forward after since Utah's now
gone this path, do you think more jump in?
Speaker 3: I want I want to be more conservative here, which
I know does not always make the best sports talk radio.
I believe it is probable that other schools will follow
Utah's lead. Plenty of schools have been curious and been
doing their due diligence on these kind of proposals as
best as I know, for at least twelve months. I
imagine at least a couple of them will Will the
majority or will everybody? I don't think so, and at
least not in the short term. And part of that
is because I think a lot of people want to see,
let's watch this for eighteen months and see if it works,
or you know, if they do it and then they
raise ticket price twenty five percent, or they lay off
some popular people, or to do some popular things and
donors revolt. Maybe we don't want to do this. You know,
there's there's gonna be some people that are a little
bit more conservative than others in jumping into it. What
I feel confident about is that everybody big school, medium school,
small school, probably down to what Westminster done in Division
three round here, everybody's worried about revenue. There's a couple
of different ways you can grow revenue. Partnering with a
private capital firm is one of those ways you can
bring in outside capital as a passive investor, like the
Big ten was considering, where you don't give up the
kind of more managerial control. That's another way. You can
also do it yourself, which is what Clemson in Kentucky
and Michigan State are trying to do. I don't know
if there's going to be one best solution. We're just
gonna have to kind of wait and see what happens.
I have a lot of I'm more skeptical of private equity,
but I also recognize part of that as my own
personal bias as a report or whose industry has been
especially farmed by many of these entities. I think if
we were if you were interviewing me after I'd spent
ten years working in nursing homes, I think I would
I would feel just as skeptical if I spent the
last ten years in F one or working in La Liga.
Maybe I wouldn't see this as risky at all, because
that it's more standard and there haven't been as many
catastrophes with these kind of companies. We're just gonna have
to see what happens.
Speaker 2: So I think the biggest concern that individuals have, at
least in the state of Utah, is that their tax
funds are going to subsidize any failures, will continue to subsidize.
Speaker 5: Ye'll leave you again, Kritil, you get out of game, Matt,
But no, I'm here, Ron We with the executive producer
coming in right now to help out for Ben Cridliz.
We're having a few technical difficulties. You guys apologize, that's
just how radio radio works, Matt, I just want to know, like,
long term wise, is this sustainable, especially with nil because
from my standpoint of how I'm looking at this, and
tell me how you view this, I don't know if
a one time you know, cash pump into a program,
if if that can be sustainable, Like, how do you
manage this going forward? Because if you do this one time,
it's great, but if it fails, then there's a lot
of backlash, bankruptcy, a lot of things that can come
with this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what I think sustainability is a tough question. But
if you're going to try to get you're going to
get a five hundred million dollar lump sum. The only
reason you'd ever pursue that is if you're planning on
using that money to build stuff that will give you
revenue down the line. I don't think you know, you know,
I'm speaking hyperbolically here, like Utah is not going to
take that five hundred million, throw it all into athlete
revenue share and year one outbid the Denver Broncos for
talent and and try to wrecks out like one that
that's not illegal, but it would also be a really
bad use of this money. They're going to try to,
you know, put this into things that they think will
will will generate future returns, whether that's the facilities, whether
that's in new salespeople, whether that's in new revenue streams,
or changing what they do with their own earned media.
And some of that stuff's you know, interesting to consumers.
Speaker 4: Some of it isn't.
Speaker 3: If you take this and you give up future equity
and you don't invest it wisely, you absolutely hurt yourself
long term, and that happens to businesses in this country
all the time. It would be the same thing if
we took out a loan from the bank and we
don't grow, and now suddenly we're stuck with those onerous obligations.
If you're if you're trying to compete with Texas and
Ohio State and Alabama, you don't have those resources, though,
you're going to have a different risk profile. And that's
you taught what that's things to what UTEL is considering
right now. And they're not the only ones to be doing.
Speaker 2: That, Matt. Many are concerned here the state that somehow
their tax dollars will continue you to fund Utah Athletics.
Kyle Whittingham is the highest paid employee in the state
of Utah. I imagine some of those those tax payer
dollars go to him right now, How does that all
work out? Do you think?
Speaker 3: I think if you are a tax payer, you're going
to have to come to terms with the fact that
part of being a taxpayer means paying for stuff that
you don't always directly use, whether that's for helping to
pay for your local K twelve pro you know, school,
even if your kids are homeschooled or go to a
private school or out of district. And part of that
is that it's going to go to on many levels
to help subsidize in state universities kids, there is always
a direct neat line between you know, this dollar fifty
from taxpayer and draper that goes directly into Kyle Whittingham's pocket.
Probably not. There's I know of a couple of universities
where there are direct appropriations to athletic departments, but usually
that isn't how it works. But if it's the money
that goes to the university general operating budget one year,
it could get you know, moved around and end up
as a subsidy to the athletic department in eighteen months. Yeah,
like those those kind of things happen, and I would
say that, you know, every athletic department needs to be
a good steward of the money that they get from taxpayers,
and the universities need to make sure they're not wasting
that it's it's it's important money. But not everything that
gets taxpayer money necessarily needs to be immediately profitable. I
don't think we ask if our roads to non profit
or if if some of the other places that we
that we spend money. I look, if it's if somebody
wants to get super fired up about that, I think
it would not be difficult for a Utah fans to
cut to come up with maybe some of the other
special tax advantages uh that BYU aligned institutions might get.
And I I for me, as an outsider, I think
that's just a silly war that's not worth fighting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh you well, that's why I like it's
Otro Capital and the University of Utah that own this venture.
It's like, okay, well there's going to be like this
is what I know about universities, and this is what
I know about about corporate America and even private equity.
Creative accounting occurs all the time. So that's the fear
right of this creative accounting that will subsidize failure as
well and mortgage like essentially you're mortgaging the potential failure
of this institution as a taxpayer.
Speaker 3: I mean it's possible. It's difficult for me to speak
with real certainty about some of this stuff because the
university hasn't responded to a bunch of people's grandma requests.
We don't have the specific financial terms of this arrangement,
and we don't as the public, don't know exactly what
happens if it doesn't work out. One of the things
that comes to being a taxpayer in general. If you
have a public university that you know, engages in an
expensive new physics building, or buys an online private university,
as a couple of public schools have done in the
Mountain West, or any number of initiatives. Sometimes these things
don't work, and sometimes you can offset those failures with
income from other places, and sometimes you get a bailout,
and then you have to see, Okay, does our state
have a structure where there's an accountability or force changes.
If there's that kind of bailout, is there a potential
taxpayer risk for this particular private equity deal. Maybe I
don't know enough to speak to how big of a
risk or how over how long an event horizon, But
I don't think that what I know right now that
there's way more taxpayer risk. I think I think there's
more risk just to the day to day operations they
have the athletic Department than there would be for Joe
Q taxpayer.
Speaker 2: Matt Brown, Ladies and gentlemen, Matt best way to support you?
What you do, how you do it? Over at extra Points?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean the best way to support me
is probably just mail me a check, which you know.
Speaker 6: I'm yeah, you get Matt Brown, Matt dot Brown, Matt
dash Brown, ep on venmo I think, but no, the
best way is to read extra Points.
Speaker 3: You can find it at extra Points mb dot com.
There's several free newsletters there on business and policy issues
in college athletics. We have some games. We have a
data library full of contracts and financial reports, including the
one that I cited during this interview, are all available there.
And then you can also upgrade to a paid subscription,
which is something that's industry leaders, ads, conference commissioners, agents, entrepreneurs,
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do all of the time. So if you want to
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Speaker 2: Matt Brown, we should let you appreciate you man, always
great content, always right insight. I appreciate you hopping on
to discuss private equity and sports, especially up on the
hill at the University of you up.
Speaker 3: Of course, can I can I throw one quick bomb
here into the mix while I have you on the
air before I go all right this, I want to
be careful here. What I am about to propose is
not something that I think has currently happened. I am
lightly trolling about where this opens. But let's let's say
hypothetically the University of Utah and Outrol Capital, this deal
works out. In seven years, OTRO decides to sell their steak.
They want to sell their steak, maybe not back to
the university, but maybe some other kind of gigantic managed
investments fund that has you know, bits and pieces of
all kinds of industries all over the world, and all
kinds of of excellence, I mean, of operational expertise, but
has a particular interest in things that happen in and
around Salt Lake City. What I'm proposing, of course critical,
is that the people that buy this next would be
Ensign Peaks. And if you're going to sell your athletics
department to institutional investors, who's to say who ends up
buying it next?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Could it be the LDS Church. I look, my job
is just to ask questions.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm sure there's a there's gonna be some sort
of caveout where Utah has to has to approve the
venture the sale, that that's something that they would.
Speaker 3: Aide when there's a will, there's a way. And I joke,
but like we thought we had that role here in Chicago,
and we accidentally sold all of our parking meters to
like the UAE because the firm that we sold it
to flipped it to somebody else, And now you can't
close the street in my neighborhood without going to the
Middle East. I say this jokingly, but there is always
a risk that the deal that you create isn't the
deal you end up within ten years when you start
selling stuff on the market. And I think that would
be very very funny if if if the church ended
up in a roundabout way buying part of Utah.
Speaker 2: The Athletic Department, that would be tremendous. Let's go. Thank you.
I appreciate that. Thanks so much, Matt Brown. Great, great, yeah,
thank you. There you go by the way. Tis the
season to be given cougarnation. We preating Matt Matt Brown,
so get back to him. Check out at Extra Points
MB dot com, ESPN the Fan of the Rocky Mountain
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go to break, don't go anywhere, Get your Prep Getting
you Ready BYU versus Clemson on the hardwood. This evening,
Kevin Young will discuss what's going on and how his
roster's looking right now is in the lead up to
Clemson at Clemson matchup. This is Cougar Sports on one
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Today we're gonna get into a little reading between the
line segment with Kevin Young. Get your Prep Getting Ready
for this BYU basketball game versus Clemson BYU seven and one.
Right now they're only lost to the Yukon Husky's great
thus quality loss. As they say in the College Football
Playoff committee room, Clemson is seven and two and this
is a great opportunity at the Jimmy V Classic, taking
on a fantastic basketball team and a fantastic basketball program.
BYU has that final test of the non conference play
in New York City. Baby, start spreading the news Madison
Square Garden at that Jimmy V Classic. The Tigers are
definitely a tournament team in my opinion, and BYU basketball
looks very much like a tournament team, a Sweet sixteen
team right now or better with their talents and abilities
being showcased up to this point. Check this out some
of the storylines here. Jake Wallen plays for the Clemson Tigers.
A former tim View High School product and a former
BYU Cougar commit. Decommitted from BAYU after his mission, went
up to the University of Utah balld out there, and
now he transferred over to Clemson. We wish him luck.
He's a nice player. Really like him as a player. Also,
Kirk Davidson, no sorry for Nick Davidson, his dad Actually
Kirksey Davidson previously played basketball at b YU He's from
the state of Utah as well, so some connections there
to the state of Utah. But let's get prepped. Let's
get ready for this matchup with Kevin Young K wise
opening statement on this Cougar basketball team facing Clemson.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think defensively, you know, just having to really
put together some game plans, obviously garding you know, some
high level teams with really good players and challenges your
ability to you know, have an understanding of what's being
asked from from an execution standpoint on that end of
the floor. That's probably where I think we've been able
to gain the most experience.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you have it. It's Kevin Young. I my
apologies as we got out. I thought that was the
opening statement. The question was you mentioned how much you
want this schedule to test your team. Where have you
seen the most growth with the tougher, more challenging schedule.
Let's get into number two. How have you been adjusting
with Dawson Baker being outed, with that season ending ACL
surgery and Nate Pickens being injured as well before the
start of the season.
Speaker 4: I mean, those guys weren't.
Speaker 7: Nate was brought here to be kind of a pseudo
backup point I mean, but the plan all along has
been for you know, Aj to operate as the backup
point guard, which we've been able to continue to do.
Now it's about having you know, uh, you know, finding
more minutes for some shooting, which Dawson obviously provided us.
I mean, he Dawson was unique because he could shoot
and he could handle the ball right, And so where
is that gonna get made up? I mean, we're giving
Alex alexey coastitch, you know, a crack at that tough
night for him the other night. But you know, he's
had he's he's had a really good run in practice
and so forth, so we trust him there. And then
you know, Mahilo obviously much different player, but he came
in I thought had his best game against cal Baptists.
So that I could go on and on with the
point being is we're just gonna have to find it
by committee. You know, I think between Mahilo, Dawson, excuse me, Mihailo,
Alexe Dom and Tyler, you know, those are the guys
that are kind of battling to to pick up some
of the minutes that that are left on the table.
Speaker 2: I thought it was an interesting commentary. Nate Pickens was
never viewed as a point guard. He was more viewed
as an off guard, shooting uh, scoring guard right uh
And and so Dawson was unique in his ability to
be able to handle and uh just be a score
shooter for this Cougar basket ball team. Two roles, even
though they they carry the the the g the the
the guard term on their roster positions, but they were
two different types of guards. Now, Alexi, he's he's gonna
have to step up. But Aj as we've talked about
Ronald the three man weaver, he's always been that backup
point guard. And look, you can even say he is
the point guard. I know, I know Rob right the
third is the guy, but he's I think a J.
De Bots is right there next to him as the
primary dual headed ball handling monsters for BYU.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Rob's ability is to be able to go down
ben and attack the basket. And like they told him
and he said, and even in previous media availabilities, Rob
go downhill, they collapse kicked to the open, you know,
shooter beIN. That's why they have these scoring guards. That's
what they brought in Nate Pickens, Dawson you saw until
he was injured, the development and his shot. That's what
they had been. It was to run the offense through
Rob what is it?
Speaker 3: Aj?
Speaker 5: And then even Knark little point that those where their
ball handlers and if you need to throw Richie and
Dawson and you could, but it was never meant for
Nate to be a backup ball handler. It was always
and Kevin Young just headed to run the offense through
Rob Wright and AJ Debonsa and been look at the
Yukon game, look at the Terry Chocolate Invitational. You know
when when they beat Dating, the ball was in whose hands?
Aj to Rob and then you swing. That's what it's
gonna be. That's what it always has been. That was
always a plan. So it does suck because you still
need guard depth to score and to defend the perimeter,
Bin right, because Nate Pickens is a good defending perimeter guard.
But unfortunately those guys are out for the season now.
But that is the role now that Kevin Young has told.
Speaker 2: Us getting back into it, b YU, getting prepped for Clemson.
We're getting into the Kevin Young sound here on your
UTI ESPN Ready and Eward by being invited to play
in this Jimmy V Classic. What does that say about
your program and the growth it has made over the
last few years.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it's humbling, you know, for you know,
this event, who want us to participate it? Particularly you
know out here in New York City and in the
venue of Madison Square Garden. Uh, you know, it's it's
great for our players. You know, I've obviously been in
the building quite a few times, but for our guys
to be able to do it in a kind of
a cool marquee type college event, I'm excited for those guys.
I think it's great for just to weere BYU's trending,
I think in all things, not just basketball, and we're
trying to uh you know, it's only been a several
years since we've been.
Speaker 4: In the Big Twelve, and I think it's really showing.
Speaker 7: I think what the future of BYU athletics can look like.
Speaker 2: Future is bright, no doubt about it. And it's uh,
you know. Tip off here in a little under an
hour is b YU looking to knock off the Clemson Tigers,
who are seven to two on the season. A little
breakdown from an analytics standpoint, the and at ken pomp standpoint.
This is a top twenty five team by US facing
by obviously ninth and kem pum Clemson twenty five. The
net rating for BAYU right now eight and Clemsons at
twenty six, so Bao is only a five and a
half point favorite in this game. Total over unders one
point fifty two point five. Ken Palm predicts a BA
victory by five points sixty seven point cents sixty seven
percent chance of victory. Getting back to ky sound Kevin
Young in this segment brought to you by Orthroprosiutah Orthroprosiutah
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utilize an HSA card eight oh one, four hundred five
through and eight that's eight oh one, four hundred five
through one eight. Kevin, what does the process of making
in game adjustments look like within your coaching staff? How
often do you stick to the original game plan and
how often do you have to scrape it or scrap
it excuse me, and make changes on the fly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, first of all, thank you for asking dad duties.
We're a success, so hopefully we're making strides there. But yeah,
I think, you know, I think it's really tough for
for our college coaches right now. I've seen some rhetoric
out there the other coaches kind of making the same sentiment.
I think for me, it's just an area I've hit
head on. I mean, I don't think it's snuck up
on us. I mean it's something we've been trying to
get ahead of really since the summer, and a lot
of that stuff, man just takes it just takes time.
Speaker 4: It's organic to the first question about the schedule.
Speaker 7: I think, you know, part of playing a tough schedule
is traveling, going to these different venues, and guys.
Speaker 4: Are together more, you know.
Speaker 7: I think Richie has said this a number of times.
I mean, it's really when you go through hard stuff
as a group. That's what really brings you together, because
you have to unite, you have to figure things out,
and I think.
Speaker 4: Our guys have done a pretty good job of that.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think structurally, you know, we we've had
to as coaches think through exactly like this is probably
the best way to say.
Speaker 4: I think that.
Speaker 7: Your schemes and your drills and what you do in
practice have to match the mat the identity of your culture.
So whatever you want your culture to be, like, I think,
how you play and how you practice have to go
on line with that. So, you know, we've had to
really think through the way that we do things on
a daily basis, is it in fact giving us the
returns that we want as it relates to, you know,
our continuity. So we've tweaked a couple of things in
terms of how we practice, how we drill, and we've
seen some direct correlation and carry over because of it.
Speaker 2: My bad on the question. That question was Kevin, the
last time you spoke with us, you mentioned you were
heading out for dad duties, so hopefully that went well.
How do you evaluate the progress progress at the chemistry
you're you're building with this team, especially with so many
new guys. That was that response. But number five, what
does the process of making in game adjustments look like
within your coaching staff? How do how often do you
stick to the original game plan and how often do
you have to scrap it and make changes on the fly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so, going into every game, we usually have a
Plan A and a Plan B as it relates to
specific coverages, whether that's pick and roll, whether that's post ups.
Those are usually the two most high volume and or
specific players. You know, if a guy gets going, we
need to turn up the heat on that particular guys.
So we're constantly talking about that each time out. You know, hey,
do we want to make an adjustment? Do we want
to go to Plan B? Some of that is prepredicated
on what lineups are out there. And then at half
you know, if you ever watched the game closely, I'm
always pointing back to the bench where and that's me
asking to pull that clip.
Speaker 4: For the halftime edit.
Speaker 7: And we usually I'll usually watch about I don't know
sixteen clips ish as a staff right before we go
address the players, and then we you know, we choose
the ones that we think are going to be the
most pertinent in terms of things that are hurting us
and either doubling down on what we actually said we
were gonna do or looking at making some adjustment.
Speaker 4: So that's usually the process.
Speaker 2: K Why discussing his BYU basketball team as we prep
for this Clemson matchup in Madison Square Garden? K why
you alluded earlier to what being invited means for the program.
You're such an NBA guy, can you talk about playing
in Madison Square Garden? Are you telling your players anything
different since this is the mecca of hoops.
Speaker 7: I try not to make things that aren't a big
deal a big deal, and so I haven't really hit
on it. I mean, we're having shoot We're having shoot
around there tomorrow morning of the game, which I thought was,
you know, important to get in there and just to
kind of take them a steak out of, you know,
the evening.
Speaker 4: So that'll be good.
Speaker 7: I mean, at the end of the day, it is just,
you know, basketball is basketball, and that's kind of always
been my philosophy. Now I think it's more of just
an honor I think to play in the Garden, especially
as a collegiate player. So I think our guys are
just excited. Honestly, I don't think any of these guys
are like, you know, this isn't too big of a moment.
I think they're just excited to get out there and
and compete in that in that building, which is so
you know, historic.
Speaker 2: Madison Square Garden. This is uh, this is a place
where so many basketball memories were made for fans, for media, members,
for players, for coaches for so long. I mean, look,
I I went out there in BYU Basketball's n I
T run. They made it to the Final four, they
lost to Valpo. It was a great team, fantastic year,
and many memories were made out there in NYC. And
so we wish them luck. We Yeah, you've been out
there too, Ronnie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, remember last I got you know, I was out
there for the you know, the Sweet sixteen when Bill
you played Alabama. Ben, I got a chance to go
not only to a game in Madison Square Garden, but
also got to go to Barkley Center and see the
Brooklyn Nets. It's way different than the Mecca, is completely different.
The atmosphere to be able to sit, you know, and
stanton Madison's or gardener where Reggie Miller hit the shot,
where everybody comes where Spike Lee has I saw him
as court side season tickets.
Speaker 4: It's crazy.
Speaker 5: There's nothing like being a Madison Square garden.
Speaker 2: Truly a unique place, no doubt about it. Let's get
on to Clemson. Little scattering report. Clemson has two Utah
kids on the roster, a little unusual. What is your
scattering report on them and the challenges they present?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, super familiar with you know, wha Leen and
uh and Welling.
Speaker 4: You both good players.
Speaker 7: And then and fit kind of how they play at Clemson,
they usually got a slew of bigger players, which they
care they do now very physical, very uh, try to
beat you up. They're very good with within the post,
but also have some guards who are who are dynamics.
So so it presents a little bit of a challenge
because of how how much they try to beat you
in the paint. So it'll be a little bit of
a contrasting style with our kind of more of our
our spacing versus their size. And so that's that's an
area that we've we've kind of looked at and try
to look at areas that we can exploit on.
Speaker 4: Offensive end and defensively how we can kind of.
Speaker 7: You know, combat that we looked at what we did
against against Wisconsin. There are a few similarities there, but
I think that's kind of where their bread is buttered.
Speaker 4: They're really organized.
Speaker 7: The coach does a really good job of of of Uh,
that's kind of what I look for when I'm when
i'm when I'm watching tape.
Speaker 4: Are they organized?
Speaker 7: Cause I think that's kind of a good coach and
they clearly are. So they've had a tough schedule too,
you know, they've they've played some some good teams, and
you know it'll be it'll be a fun matchup against another,
you know, power conference type team.
Speaker 2: Little scouting and report on this, uh, this square odd matchups.
RJ Godfrey baller, leading scorer, rebounder, definitely physical inside twelve
point one points per game, six point four rebounds. Kebri
Cata's got a tall task ahead of him, no doubt
about it. How do you see this game, though, Ronald
the three man weaver, give me your scattering report on
Clemson and how this game plays out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Kevin just mentioned it. Ben, I've gone and I
watched my tape. It's kind of like what Clemson did
last year. They have a good identity. Love what the
coach has done over there. They get long athletic for
us that can beat you up inside, that play the post,
but they can also pass and get it out as well. Now,
I think the biggest thing is can you limit the
inside point paints and force Clemson to take tough threes,
force them to take tough twos and they get the
one on one matchup. This is where this is gonna
be BYU's get back game, Ben, And when I mean
get back is when they played Yukon. Remember Yukon have
physical bigs and a little bit different than Clemson, but
got beat up inside. Couldn't stop it. Right now, we
know Kba Kata got knocked out of the game very early.
Don't think that will happen tonight. You're knock on wood steal.
That's gonna be the game of can you just shut everything?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 5: That goes through RJ. Goffrey and not just him, Carson,
excuse me not Carson Carter Welling. Also kim Ball two
been like those guys combined for over twenty twenty two
points per game and they're gonna be on the boards.
I think that's gonna be the biggest factors forcing them
to take tough threes. I got BYU winning this one.
This is gonna be a close ball game.
Speaker 2: I got this.
Speaker 5: I think Clemson actually does cover the spread. I don't
know if BYU will, just because of it being on
a neutral side and how far out. And this Clemson
team good been twenty six in net ranking like BYU
is is number eight their top ten. But look, they
beat Georgia on a neutral so they're able to go
in and beat BYU.
Speaker 4: It's capable.
Speaker 2: They can do it.
Speaker 5: They won that game ninety seven ninety four, but they
lost to Alabama, right who's number twelve to the inn
that they lost ninety to eighty four. That was in
a true away setting. Also lost a Quad two game
to Georgetown. But guess what, they beat a Big twelve
team already. They beat West Virginia on a neutral site
and that's a Quad three win. So this Clemson team
has been tested. They play early, and they're coming off
of lost Alabama. They're looking for to get in there,
get back against BYU. So this is gonna be a dogfight.
I expected to be close. I expected to be kind
of like the Villanova game, where boy, you will have
a lead, claims it will make a late push, but
BYU will come out with it. But we're in for
a treat bent little less than forty five minutes and
tip off will be in Madison's regard.
Speaker 2: For those that are in New York, last thing for
Ky they had to at least do a little field trip, right,
learn something, do something fun. What did you guys have
planned last night? Any fun activities in the city.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I ain't nothing. Nothing on the tourist front.
Speaker 7: These guys will get out of here and go take
care of some some some academic uh responsibilities, and then
we're doing uh, We're gonna we have a team dinner
plan tonight.
Speaker 4: That's that should be a good time.
Speaker 7: That's usually what we try to do when we go
out on the on the road and I think anything,
I mean, New York is such a cool place. I mean,
you could do something extremely ordinary, but with the fact
that it's in New York, it just makes it cooler.
Speaker 4: So I'm excited to just kind of honestly just get in.
Speaker 7: The bus and see the city and then go and
have a good meal with the guys and enjoy each
other's company.
Speaker 2: There go that was kay Wygan, you praya get you're
ready for that? BYU Clemson matchup. That segment was brought
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This is Cougar Sports on one of three nine ninety
eight point three