Speaker 1: Morning News Dumped eight o'clock on Bryce and BA NEUCI
and one oh three nine and ninety eight three ESPN.
Speaker 2: The band brought to you by Bally Plumbing and Drain Clean.
Just look for the truck with the dug.
Speaker 1: Ben Crittle's life accomplishments include a two time conference championship,
creator of the ode to the Walk on Business mogul,
and every Cougar Fan's favorite week sports radio host This
is Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel right here on one
o three nine at ninety eight three ESPN.
Speaker 2: A fan, Yeah, buddy, when I hear college basketball music,
it gets me turned up. You know why, because I'm
a basketball junkie. I love basketball, love basketball season. I
know I've been very h I've been a lot of
patrit of accountability with this BA basketball team the last
couple of days, and rightfully so. Look, I give credit
what credits due, but I also when things don't go well,
you know, you have to have it. That's the only
way we talk about it as we do here in
the world of journalism, and that's what we're gonna do.
In this last segment, break it all down with the
guy that knows this Houston basketball team very well. I
was told in the first hour by the two coals
that were here with me, they're not here with me
for the last segment. I got pressed. They said that
at BYU basketball gets a win, that not everything can
be fixed, but it's their best, one of their best
wins in program history. They can turn it around. And
I just don't know. Kelvin Sampson. There's two Look, I
always joke, you can't outrun death, you can't outrun taxes.
And look, you haven't been able to outrun Kelvin Sampson
and the Houston Cougars. I can tell you that you
haven't beaten them since he entered the conference. Rightfully, so
did you see what they did last year? Duke didn't
score for ten minutes? Goodness great, it's Cooper flag? Where
was he at? I got all the respect in the
world for all what that program is able to do,
no doubt about it. This segment gonna be brought to
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click the hot deals button today without further do. Let's
not make him wait anymore. He's got a busy schedule traveling.
I think they're gonna be taking care of some business,
you know. Later on. We got Jeremy Branham, the voice
of the Houston Cougar's Basketball with me on the line
right now. Jeremy, how we doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing good. How you doing? Thanks for having me on?
Speaker 2: No, thanks, joining I appreciate it. Luk, you heard my intro.
I was being tongue in cheek, but I'm also being
real death taxes and Kelvin Samson. This Houston Cougar's basketball
team is a phenomenal, but I feel like this season
they might not be getting as much attention as they
did last year. How do you do that from your perspective.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think last season they kind of flew under
the radar in the regular season two a bit. They
went one and two in Vegas last year and people
kind of forgot about him, and then they started to
make some noise in the Big Twelve, eventually won the
Big Twelve and eventually got a one seed, and that's
when you started people, you know, kind of picking up
momentum on them, I guess in terms of what the
talking heads had to say. And then I think it's
been similar this year. Didn't lose the two in Vegas,
took two to three, but you lost one to Tennessee,
you lost one early in Big twelve. Play at love it.
It feels kind of like the same story again where
it's kind of flying under the radar. But I don't
think Houston minds that too much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kelvin Samson doesn't mind anything, but he loves his
his defense. Take me through this roster this year different
than last year's, but it just seems the same discipline roster.
They're gonna pick you up ninety four feet the very
well conditioned. They get it done on the defensive end.
And I look, I've never seen the basketball team since
my time starting covering this is able to score sixty
to sixty five points but still beat you by twenty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they get after you defensively a little bit. They
believe in they're at court man de man defense and
they're very good at it. They've been very good at
it for a long time. Calvin, you know, he preaches defense,
demands it, and I think it's evident when you look
at all the defensive metrics overall from the roster. I
like the I like the mix. You know, you have
some of the veteran players that you had last year
on the deep run. Yu Zan's back, Sharp's back, Tugglers
back in that starting lineup, and then to round out
the starting five, you have two really good freshmen. Kingston
Flemmings has been one of the best freshmen all year. Really,
he's trending up. You know, he's projecting to be potentially
a top five depending which Muck draft you're looking at.
And then Chris Snak Junior has been really coming on lately.
You know, came in with a lot of accord with
somebody that was highly hally touted, highly recruited, and you know,
he's he's been steady all year and has really coming
on lately, coming off a game in which hit a
double double. He's scoring, he's rebounding, he's really starting to
find his footing in college basketball, and it's been fun
to watch his development of another very talented freshman.
Speaker 2: Scott A report on BYU and want you see you
mentioned junior. Obviously they got one of the best trios
in college basketball with Rob Wright, who you're familiar with,
Agent De Bonds, everybody, just like you know, Kingston, Fleming
and Snack junior guys that are gonna go in this
twenty twenty six NBA draft when that time comes. We'll
leave that conversation for another day. Obviously, who do you
think is gonna be matched up with them? And what
do you see on tape from this BYU basketball team.
Speaker 3: They're explosive offense. De Bonsa the best player in the country.
I think he would be in the He'd be in
the argument there, right, you'd have his name in the hat.
You could debate that. I like that you mentioned the
trio you know, right, Saunders and Devonsa, because there's a
lot of really good trios in the Big twelve. I'm
not sure there's one better than Byu. You know, Kansas
is good. You know, Peterson and you and Me would
be a pretty good trio. Iowa State has a good
trio with Lipsey and Jefferson and Mom Schilovich. So there's
just a bunch of really good teams, really good trios.
But BYU's right there. I mean, they have a headliner.
They have one of the best players in the country,
Richie Sanders. You know, he could sneak into the first
round too. He could have been an NBA guy last year.
Rob Wright one of the best point guards, not only
in this conference but in the entire country. So yeah,
that's tree up for Byu' is legit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has definite, definitely legit trio. AP you got
a question for Jeremy, Let's go ahead and turn it
over you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just just wanted to ask specifically on the
Rob right BUYU struggled a lot lately to defend point guards,
defend specifically with Rob Wright. Is that something you see
Houston attacking, especially with Kingston Flemings being so good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would it would. Houston likes to hunt matchups.
That's that's no secret, So they'll they'll try to go
out of defenders that they think they can get to. Now,
you know, this is kind of the chess match of coaching, right,
Like who does Rob right match up? Is Rob Right
match it up on Kingston Flemings If he is, the
Houston runs some actions where they switch him up and
get Kingston Flemings going against him. So it's kind of
the chess match there. Do I use link is pretty evident?
A lot of link there when if they use that
to kind of combat to Houston a little bit. But
Houston will hunt match ups that that's uh, that's something
that they like to do offensively.
Speaker 2: What is made Kings and Fleming just so good from
your standpoint, I was looking at the numbers. I think
he's over twenty or twenty five points in top ranked matchups.
The lights are too bright for this.
Speaker 3: Kid, No, he almost It's it's like he shines in them, right,
And there's there's always in any sport, like there's players
who play well against really good competition, and there's players
where the competition kind of gets to them, right, like
it frustrates them. It's you're playing good defenses, so you're
not gonna have as much success against better defenses. Now,
I think it's something that he craves. He just has
that mentality. I think it starts there. I think it's
the mentality. He's got god given athletic attributes as well,
but the mentality is something you don't see from any freshmen,
you know. It's it's kind of the killer instinct that
you see from seasoned veterans, kind of grizzled veterans. And
he's had that day one. He's had that in high school.
He he has that alpha guard, alpha man style about him.
He is the outfit in the room, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: His skill set, he's really good at everything. He's got
a shot that can beat you. You know, he's not
gonna lighted up like Steph Curry from behind the three
point line in terms of volume, but shoots it at
a high percentage because he has good shot selection. He's
good late in the shot clock, very athletic. So he
gets to the rim and you know he can elevate
on you. He can finish at the ram. His best attribute,
I think, at least from my point of view, is
his first step. He has a quick first step that
you just don't see very often. That allows him to
blow by defenses. And you know, depending on the defense
he's facing, maybe you have a big that comes over
to contest at the rim, and then he has the
vision to find the open man. So he has it all,
he really does. But that quick first step is the
thing that I think stands out more than anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I watched him a couple of weeks ago. I
get your thoughts. Just on this freshman class. Fleming had
dropped forty two. You saw that you have close and personal,
best seat in the house. I was tuned in watching
to it because I love college basketball, Big twelve basketball
in general. The Bondser dropped forty three. Later that day, Waggler,
where I'm from from Chicago? Way a line. He dropped,
you know forty six. Oh my gosh, this freshman class
is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was pretty crazy because we actually got stuck
in Lubbock in that game because of the ice the weather.
It was just too bad to fly out, so we
had to stay on Lubbock. So we went to the
hotel after the game and I was watching it in
the room and I was starting to wonder. I was like, Okay,
I wonder what the I was about to look it up. Actually,
I was wondering for my prep for the next game
or whatever. Who has the freshman record for the most
points in conference play? Because Kingston and you set the
U of H record, broke the record for what Rob
Williams had in the early eighties, so I knew he
had done that. And as I was starting to think, okay,
I wonder who has the big twelve freshman record? Was
about to open up the computer, but I had the
BYU game on. I think they were playing Utah that day,
and then he scores forty three. Okay, I let BYU
do that prep. Then I don't need to do that
research to Ruin. But yeah, the freshman in the unbelievable.
I mean, this is one of the better freshman class
we've seen in a really long time. It feels like
a lot of them are in the big well too.
You mentioned Wagler from Illinois and certainly not the big
twelve boozer from Duke's really good. You look across the country.
North Carolina has a guy, has a guy. But the
freshman play in this league is just You're probably the
top two picks in the draft and probably three of
the first five, so it's it's pretty insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty insane for sure. We're currently on the
line right now with ESPN the Fan in our last
segment with Jeremy Brenham, the voice of the Houston Cougars
men's basketball team, also hosts on ESPN ninety seven point
five in Houston as well. Debonza the name out there,
that's who everybody you know is trying to stop. But
it's so hard because he can get to his spots.
Who do you think starts the game? Are they gonna
throw multiple bodies at this this kid, this Houston ross
is probably familiar with aj from people playing against him
growing up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not really sure. Like you mentioned, he has,
he has the ability to make every defensive assignment a mismatch.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You can try to to match him up with his size,
but he's fast and he's athletic, and he'll he'll be
able to out athlete you if you try somebody that
can match his quickness potentially, or at least the best
that you can with his quickness and athleticism. Usually it's
a smaller guard and he's really good, like you mentioned,
getting to his spots rising and firing over those guards.
So I mean it's a matchup. It's a mismatch for anybody.
Everybody in the country is gonna have a difficult time
defending aj. I'm not sure what the cougars do. You know,
they're not huge with the guard position six three, six,
four sixty four their posts, you know, can they keep
up with with with him? I don't know, so I
would bet it's probably the last thing you said where
it's kind of all right, let's throw some bodies at him.
Let's see who's having some success. If there's not success there,
let's see if we can throw the kitchen sink at him.
So it should be fun to watch early who draws
that assignment and how long they draw that assignment for.
Speaker 2: You're coming to the house that Jimmer built. That's what
they call it. At least that's what I was told
right when I started. I'm from Big ten country. I
don't understand, you know, sometimes these rivalry terms. But you know,
I've learned about him the more I go on into
it riding. As I've watched, there doesn't seem like Houston
is phased by these big environments. Case of Flem, we
already mentioned it earlier, Shines Bright, what do they need
to do to come out of Provo with the win
because BYU's on a losing streak, they would love to
get a top ten win over you guys.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the easy answer is defend. You're right,
I mean this, going going to to Probo and playing
is always a thrill.
Speaker 2: I like the environments.
Speaker 3: I mean the environments are kind of why I love
college basketball. You go into these places that are just
loud and noisy, and you get the goose bromps whenever
it gets loud and noisy. And there's a lot of
great stops in this league. You know, I would put
Fortita Center up there with any of them. Allen Field
Houses obviously great aims is unbelievable. I think the Marriott
Center is the most underrated in the country, though I've
had the good fortune of calling two games there. In
the crowd there is on another level. I think they
kind of get lost in the shuffle a little bit
when you're looking at the best crowds in the country.
Because I would put BYUS fans up with anybody they
pack in that place. It is massive. The students are
on you, the entire game. I think they call it
the wall where it's just from the floor all the
way to the raptors where you're staring into that the
whole game. And they're loud and noisy, so it's a
great environment. It's an intimidating environment. They do a great
job up at the defense. I mean BYU the offense.
They have the star power that they have. They average
over eighty five points a game. They can score on anybody,
even in a loss against Oklahoma State. At Oklahoma State
they scored ninety two. So defense, you know, keeping BYU
at Bay offensively, You're not going to stop them obviously,
but trying to keep them below their season averages. But
it's going to be a good test, and I think
a good battle of two contrasting styles, right they say
they say in boxing that styles make fights. And you
have an elite offense first, an elite defense tomorrow night.
I think those styles make a pretty good fight.
Speaker 2: Definitely. I'm excited for the elite offense and the elite defense,
but have to remind the folks the elite defense has
won the last couple of matchups. If I have to
remind the folks as well, So maybe b what you
can lock a defensive. They struggle with that, and look,
I'm gonna all I'm gonna say is this, If you're
gonna let Kinks and Fleming get going, that'd be a
bad decision. If I were a betting man, I don't bet,
but if I have to, from what I know and
watch on tape, I wouldn't do that. Houston plays BYU.
Let's go through the rest of the schedule, and they
kind of you know, I don't want to say a gaulet,
but it gets it gets tough. You know, you go BYU,
then at Utah, right, the road trip out here in Utah.
How do you feel about the rest of the schedule.
You got a gatland of Iowa State, then you host
number one Arizona. That you got to go to Kansas.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's tough. I mean, it's it's a gauntlet everybody.
The Big Twelve is a difficult schedule. But you know,
Houston's road games I think are pretty apparent. You look,
I mean Texas Tech. You played a home at home,
so you can't reallyse anything about that, right, you got
them at home road the city split, but the one
matchup against BYU, it's on the road, the one match
up against Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse, the one matchup against
Iowa State in Ames Oklahoma State. They're tough to be
on the road and still Water. That's the final road
trip of the regular season. That's gonna be tough. The
one break you did have is the loan matchup against Arizona.
You get them at home. So all the all the heavyweight,
you know, main event, top of the marquee type of matchups,
most of them are on the road for Houston. And
then also all the big Monday games for Houston are
on the road at Kansas on a Monday, at Iowa
State on a Monday. What's tough about that too, is
you're coming off a Saturday game, You're playing Saturday, traveling Sunday,
and playing at a powerhouse that Monday night on Big Monday. So,
you know, I think that everybody kind of looks at
their Big twelve schedules like, man, this is a gauntlet.
You know, it's certainly no different when you look at
the Houston schedule. You know, I wish maybe there was
an extra big Monday game there for Houston. But when
you have sixteen team league and you're playing eighteen games,
and you want to put these heavyweights up against each
other as often as you can. I wouldn't want to
be a schedule maker in this league.
Speaker 2: Nope, don't want to be a schedule maker. And indeed
there are some scheduled people that will still have people
come for them because there are still some folks in
Provident's still ping me Ron, Debotson and Peterson only one time. Look,
I don't make the schedule. If I did, I gave
it to you three times if I could have. That's
just how it goes. Last time by you gotta win
over Houston in provo December fourth, nineteen sixty five, behind
thirty nine points from a certain player. Jerey Man needs
you to tell me, how do you see this one?
Plan out tomorrow? We'll get you out of here on this.
Speaker 3: Your guest is as good as mine. I mean, I
think you have the country and I think it's gonna
be fun. You know I mentioned the styles contrasting styles
to fights. This is that I know these two coaches
have a lot of respect for one another. Kind of
an interesting storyline there, second year young head coach and
Kevin you versus kind of the you know, the old
guard with Kelvin Sampson in his thirty seventh year, eight
hundred and nineteen career victories of both I think top
of the country coaches both in you know, both areas there,
top of the Big twelve. You know this has seating implications,
tournament implications. It's just it's a heavyweight matchup. It's flip
a coin. I mean, it's tough to win on the
road in this league. It's tough to be BYU, it's
tough to be in Houston. Flip the coin. We'll see
how it goes.
Speaker 2: Well, flip a coin and see how it goes before
I let you go, h what's the best way we
could support you? Good? Luckily your call, Not that you
need it, But where can people tune in from if
they want to hear from you tomorrow?
Speaker 3: Probably the Varsity networks the easiest spot, although I can't
imagine you have many fans of Utah wanted to do that,
but you can't have Varsity Network. I'm very annoying on
social media, so don't even bother with the handle.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna track you down on social media. I'm
gonna give you a follow. I've been told that I'm
annoying to at least that's what my wife tells me,
so we could be two annoying people together. But Jeremy,
we'll let you go please. I know you're traveled the
probos safely. Appreciate your time today and good luck tomorrow
and save travels for the rest of the weekend.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Happy to do it anytime.
Speaker 2: You'll have a good one you too. That was Jeremy Branham.
He is the voice of the Houston Cougars Men basketball
radio and host of ESPN ninety seven point five Houston.
Down there, he's on ex at Jeremy Brandham, appreciate him
joining us. Guys, we gotta close out our show. We've
had a great show. Shout at the bread always bringing
a hammer. Caleb Lyons joining me. They've taken off for
the day. We appreciate ap as well. Guys. Shout out
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can stay two nights or more between now March nineteenth.
There's plenty of time between now March nineteenth. At rubys
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Tomorrow seven thirty pm, Andrew Peterson and myself on my
show The Cougar Basketball pre Game with me will be
breaking down more and getting into the nitty gritty ken
BYU pull off this win