Speaker 1: All right, let's get it.
Speaker 2: Drive us on Monday afternoon, twelve minutes past the hour
Speaker 2: two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It is cloudy, it is chilly, looks like we're gonna
Speaker 1: get some rain.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a little bit of a rainy slash
Speaker 2: snowy week as we have welcomed in the month of March,
Speaker 2: but as it is every single day, it's going to
Speaker 2: have you along for the ride. Spence Jackets beyond the Mike,
Speaker 2: Porter Larson behind the glass today producing the program.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday to you.
Speaker 2: Hope you had a fantastic weekend, jam packed weekend in
Speaker 2: the world of local.
Speaker 1: And of course national sports.
Speaker 2: We got a lot to do on this Monday afternoon
Speaker 2: after a nice little springtime type week I should say,
Speaker 2: weatherwise last week, little chilly, little colder this week, but
Speaker 2: it is still early March, so hopefully had a fun weekend,
Speaker 2: got outside, enjoyed. The weather is a nice sixty two
Speaker 2: degree Sunday afternoon, and on the program today we will
Speaker 2: review the weekend that was in the world of both
Speaker 2: college and pro basketball. The IDEs of March is upon
Speaker 2: us BYU continues to say hot the Utah Men were
Speaker 2: able to get a win and the Utah women beat
Speaker 2: BYU here in saul Lake be a half court. Heave
Speaker 2: an incredible moments and now we are on too conference
Speaker 2: tournament time. On the women's side, the Utes will be
Speaker 2: the number six seed in the Big Twelve. BYU comes
Speaker 2: in at number twelve. Big Twelve Tournament style. BYU is
Speaker 2: able to beat West Virginia on Saturday night at the
Speaker 2: Marriott Center. Now they've got a big game coming up
Speaker 2: tomorrow in Ames against Iowa State. They win that game,
Speaker 2: they'll probably get the one of the top four seeds
Speaker 2: in the Big Twelve tournament, which leads to a double.
Speaker 1: Buy into the quarter finals.
Speaker 2: Final game of the regular season for both Utah and
Speaker 2: BYU men's hoops will be against each other down in
Speaker 2: Provo on March d eighth. University of Utah men, welcome
Speaker 2: in West Virginia coming up tomorrow night. Head up, heading
Speaker 2: up to the Huntsman Center and say thank you to
Speaker 2: these young men who have had a very emotional couple
Speaker 2: of weeks.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the latest with the.
Speaker 2: Head coaching higher and the potential candidates and where we're
Speaker 2: at now with the Utah men's basketball program. Good piece
Speaker 2: up in the Salt Lake Tribune Jason Batakia, a couple
Speaker 2: of good pieces on Utah men's hoops, doctor Gabe Madson
Speaker 2: about how he found out the news that coach Coach
Speaker 2: Smith had been let go.
Speaker 1: Really cool piece on Ezrasar in his background, his.
Speaker 2: Family and getting to know him a little bit better.
Speaker 2: So go to sltrip dot com for all the latest.
Speaker 2: Spring football is upon us down in Provo, not quite
Speaker 2: yet here, but obviously college football topical right now, so
Speaker 2: we'll get the latest college football storylines. We had a
Speaker 2: bunch of local boys at the Combine show out. We'll
Speaker 2: kind of give you an update in that direction. Some
Speaker 2: NFL news. T Higgins has been franchised for a second
Speaker 2: straight year, and we are high speed ahead to the
Speaker 2: NFL Draft, So we'll get to all the latest as
Speaker 2: far as the pro football and college football news. Right
Speaker 2: I'll Salt Lake with a breath of I should say,
Speaker 2: a sigh of relief for a fan base that was
Speaker 2: a little bit nervous after a rough start. RSL was
Speaker 2: able to win their home opener against Seattle at America
Speaker 2: First Few.
Speaker 1: We'll do a little soccer on the program today.
Speaker 2: The Utah Hockey Club lost to the Devils are back
Speaker 2: in action on Thursday against Detroit Points at a premium
Speaker 2: as the Wildcards still a very legitimate possibility. So a
Speaker 2: lot to do on the radio show today. Thanks for
Speaker 2: being a part of it. We're going to start off
Speaker 2: with Tom Havershrow NBA Daily Assist Style Jazz lost to
Speaker 2: the Pelicans, Thank goodness over the weekend jazz. Welcome in
Speaker 2: the red hot Detroit Pistons. When's the last time you
Speaker 2: were able to say a sentence like the red hot
Speaker 2: Detroit Pistons nineteen eighty eight? Not sure, but the Pistons
Speaker 2: are in town. Old buddy Dennis Lindsay is part of
Speaker 2: the Pistons front office. So Jazz in action tonight kind
Speaker 2: of the only local product in action.
Speaker 1: All the college hoops.
Speaker 2: Will take place tomorrow, and then the Utahey Club out
Speaker 2: off for a bit, so Tom Haberstrow our first guest.
Speaker 1: Right out of the gates.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little RSL with Donnie the Birthday Boy himself.
Speaker 1: Brian Dunseeth rolls by, the Voice of the Utes.
Speaker 2: Bill Riley is our guest in the four o'clock hour,
Speaker 2: and then Sam Monson stops by do a little football
Speaker 2: with Sam An entertaining fun guest excited to uh to
Speaker 2: catch up with Sam today we'll do some NFL drafts,
Speaker 2: some NFL combine and with Ryle's we'll do a little
Speaker 2: utes football and some and some basketball of course, and
Speaker 2: a busy, busy Monday show to get your week started
Speaker 2: out the right way. Tom Habershow, Brian dun Seth, Bill Riley,
Speaker 2: Sam Motson, Me, Spence Check. It's all of you, the
Speaker 2: great listeners and that guy who, like me, did not
Speaker 2: see any of the Oscar nominated movies.
Speaker 1: Port I want oh for ten man?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 2: By the way, when did we start nominating ten I
Speaker 2: call them films. It's not a big deal, right, When
Speaker 2: did we start nominating ten films for this award?
Speaker 4: I like to call them cinematic adventures?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Nice one upper in there. I don't know about when
Speaker 4: they or how much they nominate. I've never been like
Speaker 4: an award show guy. We've we've we've talked about this,
Speaker 4: but I expected you to see at least some of
Speaker 4: those movies. It's it's kind of in my wheelhouse to
Speaker 4: see them two years later once they arrive on streaming.
Speaker 4: But no, I thought I thought you would. You'd be
Speaker 4: all over it. Maybe we'll have to get our guy
Speaker 4: Brady on the line.
Speaker 1: The Movie Zone. Shout out to Brady.
Speaker 2: No, I feel like the only people that have seen
Speaker 2: more than like two or three of these films.
Speaker 1: Again, let's keep it above board here. Thank you. Nominated
Speaker 1: for the award.
Speaker 2: Are people in miserable relationships they don't want to talk
Speaker 2: to each other, so they just go to a movie.
Speaker 1: If you're single, you're just you're not going to see
Speaker 1: these movies.
Speaker 4: You're like going and doing stuff where you're you know,
Speaker 4: we racked up.
Speaker 2: You don't feel like you need to escape from your life. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll just put it like that.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, maybe not everybody's a who's a
Speaker 4: movie buff, but there's probably something there.
Speaker 2: No, I think most people it's like it's like Disney adults.
Speaker 2: We'll get to it later on, but our first guest
Speaker 2: is going to be Tom Haberstrow. But before we get
Speaker 2: to Tom, courtesy if our good friends over at Prize
Speaker 2: Picks on a Monday afternoon, it is Tom Now for
Speaker 2: your opening tip.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's
Speaker 5: number one Sports Talk Now into the studios of ESPN
Speaker 5: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 5: opening tip of the drive is brought to you by
Speaker 5: Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run
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Speaker 2: So recap real quick the basketball action over the weekend,
Speaker 2: and you know, ultimately we're still kind of waiting to
Speaker 2: hear more inform me on the situation with head coaching
Speaker 2: job for the University of Utah on the men's side
Speaker 2: of things, But they were a to able to get
Speaker 2: a win over Arizona State, and you just kind of
Speaker 2: felt happy for this group of young men who clearly
Speaker 2: have been through a very emotional roller coaster.
Speaker 1: As I've referenced at the top of the show.
Speaker 2: Our buddy Jason Battakio from the Salt Lake Tribune wrote
Speaker 2: a good piece on the player reaction to Craig losing
Speaker 2: his job. Where were you when you heard? What kind
Speaker 2: of were your thoughts afterwards? And Gabe Mattson and some
Speaker 2: others were interviewed, really cool piece on Ezra. Sorry, Ezra
Speaker 2: was really good against the depleted Arizona State team that
Speaker 2: essentially had five scholarship players and played six players. Even
Speaker 2: Bobby Hurley's kid got eight minutes. I'm hearing a lot
Speaker 2: of rumors and rumblings around the Arizona State men's basketball
Speaker 2: program that they're going to get rid of Bobby Hurley,
Speaker 2: you know, with what Kenny Dillingham has done on the
Speaker 2: football side of things. Arizona State's like I've always believed,
Speaker 2: kind of like a sleeping giant. They should be better
Speaker 2: in both basketball and football consist only than they have been.
Speaker 1: But a cool moment for the UT, says Brady Smith.
Speaker 1: Got in the game.
Speaker 2: Craig's son had an and one opportunity, and Brady's a
Speaker 2: really good free throw shooter. So when I saw it,
Speaker 2: I'm like, he's gonna knock down the free throw, but
Speaker 2: unfortunately missed it. He had a big smile on his
Speaker 2: face and it just kind of made you feel good,
Speaker 2: right for a program that's been through a bunch. So
Speaker 2: they were able to get a win against Arizona State. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we're kind of waiting to hear, like I said, more
Speaker 2: information on the situation with the head coaching job. I
Speaker 2: was happy for that group, though, happy for coach Eiler,
Speaker 2: Josh Eiler, to get a win. And now look the
Speaker 2: IDEs of march in college basketball. It's taught all of
Speaker 2: us that you never know what could happen. The program
Speaker 2: is escaping me. But there was a coach last year
Speaker 2: it was informed that he was going to lose his job,
Speaker 2: and he went on to win his conference tournament and
Speaker 2: went to the NCAA tournament. Right, So, look, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to sit here and predict that Utah is going
Speaker 2: to run through the Big twelve bracket. We've got West
Speaker 2: Virginia here in Sala coming up tomorrow, the final home
Speaker 2: opportunity for these young men to play in front of
Speaker 2: fans of the Hunts. It was long beach date. Okay,
Speaker 2: so the long beach date head coach was told he
Speaker 2: was fired. They went on to win their conference tournament
Speaker 2: then advanced the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Don Monson, I think the head coach. I
Speaker 4: wonder how often that's happened. But we're in a space
Speaker 4: where it's more of a possibility than I think probably
Speaker 4: ever before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I said, I'm not predicting it.
Speaker 2: And part of me feels like that game at BYU
Speaker 2: coming up on March the eighth could get really really
Speaker 2: ugly because BYU is playing some really high quality basketball.
Speaker 2: Right now, all of the signs and everything that I've
Speaker 2: heard and the people I've talked to seem to indicate
Speaker 2: that Alex Jensen is the top candidate and as I
Speaker 2: was able to report last week based off of two
Speaker 2: different sources, Alex is in the final year of his
Speaker 2: contract as the assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1: Is that Germaine in the situation.
Speaker 2: Not entirely sure how far these conversations gone.
Speaker 1: You know, I've heard that they have met, they have
Speaker 1: talked to each other.
Speaker 2: Apparently, according to a couple of ports, there was a
Speaker 2: meeting in Los Angeles with Alex Jensen. Not sure if
Speaker 2: Andre Miller has been contacted about being an assistant just yet.
Speaker 2: But whoever it is is going to be building this
Speaker 2: thing from the ground up, and if any news breaks,
Speaker 2: of course we will bring it to you. And as
Speaker 2: we've discussed and we'll continue to discuss, regardless of who
Speaker 2: the candidate is, they're all going to be asking the
Speaker 2: same question. If it's Alex Jensen, if it's Andre Miller,
Speaker 2: if it's Richard Patino, if it's Bryce Drew, They're going
Speaker 2: to look at Mark Carlin and Taylor Randall and say,
Speaker 2: what are the economics of.
Speaker 1: Your program right now? What does it look like?
Speaker 2: Are we keeping up with the ability to pay players
Speaker 2: what we need to pay them in order to get
Speaker 2: them to come here.
Speaker 1: Love it or hate it, man, that's where we're at.
Speaker 2: So no tangible news in that space over the weekend,
Speaker 2: but happy for the youths to get that win. Happy
Speaker 2: ultimately for coach Islert and those players to experience a win,
Speaker 2: and we'll see what they do the rest of the way.
Speaker 2: The best game of the weekend was the Utah women's
Speaker 2: game against BYU. Now BYU has this rising star, this freshman,
Speaker 2: Delaney Gibb freshman went for thirty six, ten and five.
Speaker 2: She was thirteen of eighteen from the floor, five of
Speaker 2: seven from three, and you know, of course, the attention
Speaker 2: is on the half court shot. Mad Wilki hit there
Speaker 2: at the end. It was her only three of the game,
Speaker 2: but it really was jan on a couple of different occasions.
Speaker 2: John Neekins tied the game in regulation with a big
Speaker 2: time three after BYU was able to take the lead
Speaker 2: by three. This would have been a big upset for
Speaker 2: BYU on the road. Utah is a much better team.
Speaker 2: And then Yanna was able Jihanna was able to hit
Speaker 2: a couple of free throws in overtime. Johna went ten
Speaker 2: of ten from the line. Maya went nine of ten,
Speaker 2: so those two combined nineteen of twenty from the free
Speaker 2: throw line, setting up Maddy Wilkie's half court heave, and
Speaker 2: what a moment. Maddy will never forget that for the
Speaker 2: rest of her life. And it was cool to see
Speaker 2: kind of the dog pile and the team going crazy.
Speaker 2: Utah women advanced to the Big Twelve Tournament where they
Speaker 2: will be a top six seed. BYU will be the
Speaker 2: twelve seed on the women's side. On the men's Bringing
Speaker 2: Me Young continues to roll. They've now won six straight
Speaker 2: basketball games. They embarrassed West Virginia. They dog walked him
Speaker 2: down at the Marriott Center. That game was over pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: And the nice thing if you're a BYU fan is
Speaker 2: they didn't shoot it very well.
Speaker 1: They did not make a three in the first half.
Speaker 2: Now you knew at some point a team that really
Speaker 2: is that proficient offensively was going to start knocking down shots,
Speaker 2: and they did in the second half. They hung fifty
Speaker 2: two points on West Virginia in the second half and
Speaker 2: seventy seven points against West Virginia.
Speaker 1: That's the most Dave allowed in Big Twelve play.
Speaker 2: But this really was the Trayory kid Fos Traior off
Speaker 2: the bench West Virginia for some reason decided to guard
Speaker 2: him one on one, and when you get food space
Speaker 2: on the block, he is impossible. He's got excellent footwork,
Speaker 2: great patients can finished with both his right in his
Speaker 2: left hand. He went nine to eleven from the floor.
Speaker 2: He had twenty points and ten boards. Richie Saunders once
Speaker 2: again named Big twelve Player of the Week, but he
Speaker 2: only had thirteen. This was kind of a defensive effort
Speaker 2: for bringing me young. But you've got to love that
Speaker 2: they didn't necessarily rely on just knocking down a bunch
Speaker 2: of three. And they've got a massive game coming up
Speaker 2: in Aames, taking on Iowa State, and if they win
Speaker 2: that game, they're going to be a top four seed
Speaker 2: in the Big twelve tournament. I don't think they can
Speaker 2: catch either Tech or Arizona.
Speaker 1: They're a full game behind them.
Speaker 2: They would need a little help, but a top four
Speaker 2: seed in the Big twelve tournament gives you a double
Speaker 2: buy in the quarterfinals. And at this point, not only
Speaker 2: is BYU a lock for the NCAA tournament, they might
Speaker 2: even get a top four or five seed, depending on
Speaker 2: what happens the rest of the way. Utah Jazz and
Speaker 2: Action Tonight they're taking on the Detroit Pistons. Got a loss,
Speaker 2: so a way to go against the Pelicans over the weekend.
Speaker 2: Jazz are essentially resting most of their vets. We know
Speaker 2: what time it is down the stretch. They're just losing
Speaker 2: games to up that lottery position. If they're one of
Speaker 2: the three worst teams in basketball, they will have a
Speaker 2: fourteen percent chance to the number one pick. It goes
Speaker 2: down incrementally from there. If you're number four, it's like
Speaker 2: twelve and a half percent. Number five is like ten
Speaker 2: or whatever. But you want to be one of the
Speaker 2: bottom three, and the jazzer right on pace for that.
Speaker 2: I timed the Uncrustable perfectly today, just.
Speaker 1: Like you could not have done it better.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if it's like twenty minutes twenty five minutes,
Speaker 2: but if you can get it when the jelly is
Speaker 2: still a little bit cold and it's like a little crunchy,
Speaker 2: o oh, man, knocked it right out of the park.
Speaker 2: I usually save until three, but I tried something new
Speaker 2: today and I think I'm onto something grape Yeah, oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm all in on the grape man. Like I've now
Speaker 2: only started to buy only grape. I don't buy the strawberry. Really,
Speaker 2: I haven't tried it. There's like new flavors, but I'm
Speaker 2: all in on the grape.
Speaker 4: There is quite a few. There's like a honey one.
Speaker 4: I mean, let's be clear, it's not anything groundbreaking. This
Speaker 4: is a peanut butter and something else sandwich. There's honey ones,
Speaker 4: there's strawberry Jaanda. The Uncrustables though they don't.
Speaker 2: Miss well, I'm just afraid that they're, as the kids
Speaker 2: would say, they're doing too much. They're trying too hard.
Speaker 2: Just stick with the basics, at least that's my opinion.
Speaker 2: We've got Doney on the program today. RSL was able
Speaker 2: to get a win. The Voice of the Utes, Bill
Speaker 2: Riley stops by Sam Monson for or some football.
Speaker 1: But on a Monday afternoon, it's always going to start
Speaker 1: a week with.
Speaker 2: My buddy Tom Haberstrow to talk a little pro basketball.
Speaker 1: Tom. Happy Monday, buddy. How we doing?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 7: I'm doing great? Fcch Champion Staples Wreckers. You're talking to
Speaker 7: an alum of the raining champion FCAC Staples Wreckers. That's right,
Speaker 7: that's right, Spence. I had that in my back pocket
Speaker 7: before I came on.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to rub that in.
Speaker 2: I'll just encourage you to go look at the box
Speaker 2: score from nineteen ninety six at Staples High when your
Speaker 2: boy just took Pete Van Sicklin and Ernie Vverina to school.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know if you know this, and it
Speaker 7: is for another time, but the suburban teams in the
Speaker 7: FCAC are now raining. They're now dominating the FCAC, which
Speaker 7: is very different than when we were growing up. But
Speaker 7: I digress. That is another topic for another conversation. And
Speaker 7: I am here in Portland. I am in studio for
Speaker 7: this four game trip that the Blazers are on the
Speaker 7: road and they're state just finished up a game against
Speaker 7: the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime. It was an amazing game.
Speaker 7: And the reason why we have Pearl Jams starting up
Speaker 7: is because I am here in the Pacific Northwest coming
Speaker 7: to you live from Portland, Oregon.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Are you a fan of the PMW as those of
Speaker 2: us out here like to call.
Speaker 1: It, Yes?
Speaker 7: Yes, And it's there's such a great food scene and
Speaker 7: people are very friendly. It's just there's like so here
Speaker 7: at the hotel, there's a you know, a purel dispenser
Speaker 7: like a hand sanitizer dispenser, and it says spread joy
Speaker 7: not germs. To me, that is Portland in a nutshell.
Speaker 7: Is there's just on something as just random and basic
Speaker 7: as a hand sanitizer machine. They gotta make it weird.
Speaker 3: They got to make it fun.
Speaker 7: Spread joy not germs.
Speaker 2: Worse to live by, keep Portland weird, man, I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: I've got buddies up there. And if you watch like
Speaker 2: propaganda news, you believe that the city is dead.
Speaker 1: It's not. It's very much great.
Speaker 2: Do not watch the news and believe what they tell you,
Speaker 2: just go and experience it. How often are you able
Speaker 2: to get up there, because usually you do all this
Speaker 2: stuff via zoom right or in the studio in your house.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I come up a couple of times a year.
Speaker 7: And I got a cousin, one of my close cousins
Speaker 7: here in Portland, so it's always great to come. The
Speaker 7: food scene is outrageous. I have that Top Chef podcast,
Speaker 7: Pack Your Knives. If you're a big fan of that
Speaker 7: show on Bravo Top Chef, you can listen to that.
Speaker 7: And I got to eat at one of these Top
Speaker 7: Chef restaurants. Called Cohn, Gregory Gordat and like man, every
Speaker 7: time I come to Portland, I'm just blown away at
Speaker 7: the food scene, the beer scene, like all the arts
Speaker 7: here in town. It's just a great I love coming here. Besides,
Speaker 7: you know, this is the only pro sports team in
Speaker 7: the four major sports here and they really care about
Speaker 7: their Blazers, and I know Salt Lake you guys are
Speaker 7: experiencing this too. Is just like they're adding you know,
Speaker 7: they're adding an NHL team there, and I gotta imagine,
Speaker 7: does this mean that the Jazz lose some of their
Speaker 7: real estate in the sports conversation. I'm wondering, I'm curious.
Speaker 1: It's a good question.
Speaker 2: And you know, I've often drawn parallels between Salt Lake
Speaker 2: City and Portland. You know, they have an MLS team,
Speaker 2: and their soccer fans are very intense and it's a
Speaker 2: really cool soccer experience like we have here right now.
Speaker 2: The hockey club's presence has not seemed to dilude the
Speaker 2: fan base when it comes to attendance for the Jazz.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting, Tom, is we got some TV
Speaker 2: ratings data a couple of weeks ago, and when you know,
Speaker 2: the Gobert Mitchell Quinn teams. When they were at their peak,
Speaker 2: the Jazz were second in the entire league in local
Speaker 2: NBA ratings.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were one. And this was like two three
Speaker 1: years in a row.
Speaker 2: And now the Jazz are like third to the bottom
Speaker 2: and they have the second worst drop as far as
Speaker 2: ratings go locally. So there's information available to indicate people
Speaker 2: aren't watching the games at home as much as they
Speaker 2: typically do. But I think I've been to maybe nine
Speaker 2: or ten games, and every game I've been to, and look,
Speaker 2: I will admit to being a snob.
Speaker 1: I only go to the games where the good teams.
Speaker 2: Are actually playing on the other side because the Jazz,
Speaker 2: you know, we know the deal. But every game I've
Speaker 2: been to tom that Arena has been packed. The Jazz
Speaker 2: fans continue to show up. At least from my vantage point.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and Blazers fans too. Is that even though they
Speaker 7: are going to this rebuild, the attendance is strong, and
Speaker 7: we just on the broadcast side, have the highest increase
Speaker 7: in year over year audience numbers. The ratings have increased
Speaker 7: by I see something like sixty percent. And you know,
Speaker 7: the team right now has the second best defense in
Speaker 7: the NBA. The Blazers do since they made this lineup
Speaker 7: change Shade and Sharp out of the starting lineup. Timani
Speaker 7: Kamara is a beast and Will Hardy has talked a
Speaker 7: big game on to Monic More loves that guy, and
Speaker 7: it reminded me, you know, like the Jazz they would
Speaker 7: love a player like that. And I've always said that
Speaker 7: Tommani Kamara is like the Walker Kessler of the Rudy
Speaker 7: Gobert trade, is like a kind of like an afterthought,
Speaker 7: a throw in that people aren't really excited about at
Speaker 7: the time of the trade because they don't they're not
Speaker 7: familiar with his game, and then later on they're like, oh,
Speaker 7: like long term, like Walker Kessler's, he's a real piece.
Speaker 7: Like he's a really good young player in the same
Speaker 7: way that Tammani Kamara, who's this All World defender on
Speaker 7: the wing, second year player for the For the Blazers,
Speaker 7: he's like the real gem of that Damian Lillard trade,
Speaker 7: where it's like, yeah, he's not as good as Drew
Speaker 7: Holiday right now, but down the line, if the Blazers
Speaker 7: can get Tomani Kamara to develop on the offensive end,
Speaker 7: they've got a real like Jimmy Butler type Derek White
Speaker 7: type and at the time just a second round pick.
Speaker 7: No one thought anything of it, but just like Walker Kessler,
Speaker 7: a real deal player.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up Walker Kessler because I wanted
Speaker 2: to revisit a topic that you and I covered to
Speaker 2: start the year and having kicked it around lately, because
Speaker 2: it's just been difficult to create interesting narratives for a
Speaker 2: team that's un serious about winning.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jaden Springer's side a three year deal.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that means that they're super high
Speaker 2: on him moving forward or they just need players on
Speaker 2: the roster, but to start the year and to start
Speaker 2: the season, for me, whenever I would go on a
Speaker 2: different radio show or a podcast, I'd get pretty much
Speaker 2: the same question, which is who's around on the team
Speaker 2: when they're good? Again outside of marketing and look, they
Speaker 2: have a lot of work to do to make sure
Speaker 2: that they're good in the next four years, or they
Speaker 2: have lowry like they are more than one or two
Speaker 2: pieces away. But just generally speaking, I mean, Walker clearly
Speaker 2: has played himself now to that conversation, He's been so
Speaker 2: good this year. If there's one real positive development for
Speaker 2: Jazz basketball, twenty four to twenty five. It is Walker Kessler,
Speaker 2: so I am more than willing to put him on
Speaker 2: that list. But if we look at this group of
Speaker 2: first and second year guys Keante George and we take
Speaker 2: Walker off the table and we place him next to Lowry,
Speaker 2: is okay, we know we've got something with you. With
Speaker 2: you two, Heantay has been better since well we asked
Speaker 2: him to come off the bench. There's a lot to
Speaker 2: like about the progress Isaiah Callier has made. You can't
Speaker 2: shoot twenty five percent from three and be a lead
Speaker 2: Garden Pro basketball. Taylor Hendrix's hurt, We'll put him on
Speaker 2: the shelf. Cody Williams, it does not look good at all.
Speaker 2: So if you look at these first and second year players,
Speaker 2: if we say Tom that Lowry and Walker are around,
Speaker 2: is there anybody else you're willing to put in that
Speaker 2: category as of now?
Speaker 7: Not right now, No, I don't have the confidence yet.
Speaker 7: I'd have to see more of Cody Williams. He looks
Speaker 7: just too thin, too unsure of himself. He looks like
Speaker 7: a child out there a lot of times. And I
Speaker 7: think without Jdubb, I'm not so sure I'd have the
Speaker 7: optimism JDub being Jalen Williams's older brother who's an absolute
Speaker 7: star in today's NBA who had forty plus points and
Speaker 7: just the Oklahoma City Thunder are not where they are
Speaker 7: without Jay Williams. But Cody Williams hasn't inspired me to
Speaker 7: make me believe that he's a real deal player. But
Speaker 7: you know, look, last year, we had a lot of
Speaker 7: questions about Scoot Henderson and I kept coming back to
Speaker 7: the point that he's super young, and it's hard to
Speaker 7: grade these guys when they're nineteen, when they're twenty years old,
Speaker 7: and that's what I think is the deal with you know,
Speaker 7: Cody Williams is that when he started the season, he
Speaker 7: was nineteen, and I just don't think he's there yet.
Speaker 7: I don't think he's an NBA player yet. But these guys,
Speaker 7: we need to grade them in year three or year four.
Speaker 7: And Walker Kessler is another example of he had a good,
Speaker 7: good rookie season, but to really see what they're gonna be,
Speaker 7: you need like three or four years before you make
Speaker 7: that evaluation. And Cante George, I'm not there yet. Cody
Speaker 7: Williams not there yet. Isaiah Collier, like you said, has
Speaker 7: to be more efficient, but you really love the playmaking
Speaker 7: and the attack mentality that he has. But for me,
Speaker 7: it's Walker Kessler and Larry Markinhan.
Speaker 2: All right, just for our jazz fan listeners who are
Speaker 2: very interested in the current landscape of these prospects rising
Speaker 2: up draft boards. Now, ultimately the bottom three teams will
Speaker 2: all have about a fourteen percent chance, and the Jazz
Speaker 2: should be in that bottom three. We'll see what happens,
Speaker 2: but they're clearly trending in that direction.
Speaker 1: They're resting their vets every night.
Speaker 2: It seems to me Tom that it is Cooper flag
Speaker 2: and then there is a massive gap between everybody else.
Speaker 2: But are we going to have people like some of
Speaker 2: the ziggers when people zag, like when Wembin Yama was available,
Speaker 2: and people like well, I kind of like Scoot, You're like, no,
Speaker 2: it's stop doing that. It's him, right. Is there anybody
Speaker 2: else that's in the Cooper flag cul de sac or
Speaker 2: is it Cooper flag and then everybody else in this
Speaker 2: draft process, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 7: Cooper flag and everybody else. To me, you know, some
Speaker 7: of these guys. I got to see Duke in person
Speaker 7: a few weeks ago at Cameron Indoor and Maleley walk,
Speaker 7: the big man seven foot two, he's he's going to
Speaker 7: be a really good NBA player, but he's not even
Speaker 7: in the same stratosphere as Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag, the
Speaker 7: fact that he's averaging you know, twenty two nine and
Speaker 7: five per thirty six minutes, you know, to keep the
Speaker 7: grade on that scale for all players in college basketball,
Speaker 7: no one has the productivity, no one has the upside.
Speaker 7: And by the way, he's the youngest guy in the class.
Speaker 3: That's what I don't think people realize.
Speaker 7: He's eighteen years old and doing this. He just turned eighteen,
Speaker 7: so he's not only the best player in college basketball.
Speaker 7: And dude, like the dude from Auburn, right, he's like
Speaker 7: twenty four years old. They're in the same conversation for
Speaker 7: Player of the Year. And I'm just sitting here, like
Speaker 7: they play two different leagues. Like the fact that that guy,
Speaker 7: as good as he is, he's like four or five
Speaker 7: years older than Cooper Flag. So what are we doing here?
Speaker 7: I know this isn't like who's the number one overall
Speaker 7: pick should get the Player of the Year, but it's
Speaker 7: just amazing to me that Cooper Flag is playing head
Speaker 7: to head with a guy who's like five years older
Speaker 7: than him and still putting up extremely good numbers. Look,
Speaker 7: you know, the Blazers fans, they're kind of in this
Speaker 7: very difficult position is they know that Cooper Flag is
Speaker 7: right there in the next year's draft pool, and yet
Speaker 7: the Blazers are one of the best teams in the
Speaker 7: NBA over the last month, and so it is this
Speaker 7: kind of like, I just hate that. This is the
Speaker 7: conversation for the NBA is like, when you have a
Speaker 7: good team, I don't want to have to be like, yeah,
Speaker 7: but they're missing out on Cooper Flag. And that's a
Speaker 7: tough thing. With the incentive structure as you've lived it
Speaker 7: there in Utah is there should never be a system
Speaker 7: in place that makes fans feel bad about winning. And
Speaker 7: that's unfortunately what we've created with the draft. And even
Speaker 7: though they've done those those flattening of the eye to
Speaker 7: curb tanking and to disincentivize teams from trying to lose,
Speaker 7: it's still unfortunately a big part of the conversation is
Speaker 7: whether teams like the Phoenix Suns or the Miami Heat
Speaker 7: the Golden State Warriors, should they really go for the
Speaker 7: playoffs or should they tank for Cooper Flag, and unfortunately
Speaker 7: we are still in that conversation no matter what the
Speaker 7: league has done in the recent years to curb tanking.
Speaker 2: One more Jazz thing here if we operate off a
Speaker 2: fun hypothetical and say, okay, finally, Lady Luck shines on
Speaker 2: Salt Lake. Finally, the Utah Jazz received the lottery luck
Speaker 2: that they've never received in the history of this organization.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that they've only been to the lottery nine
Speaker 2: times for a team that plays their basketball in Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City. They've never moved up, They've only stood pat
Speaker 2: or moved down. And they are able to grab that
Speaker 2: number one pick. And we enter next year, Tommy with
Speaker 2: a front line around here of lowry marketing, Walker Cashler
Speaker 2: and Cooper Flag. First of all, tickets would be flying
Speaker 2: off the shelf and they would be very popular. But
Speaker 2: second of all, from a basketball standpoint, we got something
Speaker 2: now right, Like that's now something the fan base can say, Okay,
Speaker 2: now here we go.
Speaker 1: I can see a future.
Speaker 7: And I don't think that those three guys can't play together.
Speaker 7: I mean, you look at Cooper Flag. He's kind of
Speaker 7: a Luca in the sense that.
Speaker 3: He is Ah.
Speaker 7: He's a hub of your offense and is marketing in
Speaker 7: the hub. I don't. I don't think Mark I like
Speaker 7: and marketing as a tall clay like Klay Thompson. He's
Speaker 7: an amazing shooter, but he's not a guy who's gonna
Speaker 7: be ball dominant and running the offense and playmaking for
Speaker 7: everybody else. That's Cooper Flag. Like I see, that's the
Speaker 7: vision for this dude, is like KG. Like KG was
Speaker 7: a guy who is the hub of the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 7: at his peak, and yeah the Boston Celtics. KG wasn't
Speaker 7: that guy, but man like peak KG, he very much
Speaker 7: was a point big And I see the same thing
Speaker 7: with Cooper Flag. So if you have Walker Kessler and
Speaker 7: his rim protection and then you have the weak side
Speaker 7: help protection that a Cooper Flag gets you overnight, if
Speaker 7: they can find, you know, some shooting around those guys overnight,
Speaker 7: the Utah Jazz would be a playoff team. I firmly
Speaker 7: believe that is the impact the effect of Cooper Flag.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, just because you'll be good with this,
Speaker 1: you live there.
Speaker 2: I've always wondered, so, Durham, what's like a two hour
Speaker 2: drive from Charlotte's roughly.
Speaker 1: Something like that.
Speaker 2: Yes, So is there anything that would turn Charlotte's or
Speaker 2: just that area North Carolina into a pro basketball market
Speaker 2: in a way that we haven't seen, Like Charlotte's gonna
Speaker 2: be one of the three worst teams I think, along
Speaker 2: with Washington and Utah. If the Hornets get number one
Speaker 2: and they put Cooper Flag next to you know, next
Speaker 2: next to ball, is that is there anything that will
Speaker 2: turn that that area into a pro basketball market that
Speaker 2: we haven't seen so far. I thought it was going
Speaker 2: to be more of a natural fit than it seemed
Speaker 2: to have been.
Speaker 7: It would one hundred percent put people back in the
Speaker 7: seats for the Charlotte Hornets. The whole city is ravenous
Speaker 7: for something to cheer about.
Speaker 3: The city just.
Speaker 7: Got an MLS team, right, They've got this LaMelo ball
Speaker 7: kid who's like just turning the corner and trying to
Speaker 7: be a winning player. But the roster they're breaking it
Speaker 7: down to the studs with the new ownership. And you
Speaker 7: have to remember, the Charlotte Hornets had the longest sellout
Speaker 7: streak in NBA history at one point. They were a
Speaker 7: huge market in the in the nineties. During the nineties
Speaker 7: with Larry Johnson, Alonzo Morning Muggsy Bogues. They were huge,
Speaker 7: and especially so in the local market, and it was
Speaker 7: impossible to get a ticket to go see the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 7: So it's there. There is this kind of this this
Speaker 7: this sense that we've got a huge fan base of
Speaker 7: basketball with UNC with the Tobacco Road right here, that
Speaker 7: if Cooper Flag, coming from Duke, can come here in
Speaker 7: Charlotte and be the face of the Charlotte Hornets, it'll
Speaker 7: change everything.
Speaker 3: And he is a very very.
Speaker 7: Serious basketball player in the way that there are a
Speaker 7: lot of questions around LaMelo Ball and how serious is
Speaker 7: about winning. He's never been on a winning team. That's
Speaker 7: not the case of Cooper Flag. There are no questions
Speaker 7: about his desire to be professional, desire to be a
Speaker 7: winning player and to do all the little things to
Speaker 7: win basketball games. And the other thing I will say,
Speaker 7: the Utah Jazz and the Charlotte Hornets are very similar
Speaker 7: in this sense where they always feel like they are
Speaker 7: the bridesmaid, never the bride when it comes to the
Speaker 7: draft lottery. I'm going to remind the listeners here the
Speaker 7: Charlotte Hornets and the Bobcats history in the NBA draft,
Speaker 7: because it's crazy all right, number one. In the Dwight
Speaker 7: Howard draft, who do they get at number two? It
Speaker 7: was a Mecca Okafer. The Charlotte Hornets could have had
Speaker 7: Dwight Howard, but instead they got a Mecca Okafer. In
Speaker 7: the Shaquille O'Neal draft, of course, the Charlotte Hornets didn't
Speaker 7: get the number one overall pick even though they are
Speaker 7: the one of the worst teams, and they ended up
Speaker 7: getting the number two pick when Victor Webbin Yama was
Speaker 7: the number one overall pick. The Sewtt Hornets ended up
Speaker 7: at number three. In of course, the Anthony Davis draft,
Speaker 7: they couldn't get number one. They ended up at number
Speaker 7: two to get Michael kid Gilchrist. The fall off between
Speaker 7: these generational bigs and the number two or number three
Speaker 7: guy that the Charlotte Hornets ended up getting has been outrageous.
Speaker 6: It is it.
Speaker 7: The fans always say, you know, there's something that the
Speaker 7: league will not let us get the number one overall pick,
Speaker 7: because look at this slew of generational bigs that come
Speaker 7: through the NBA, and we always seem to get the
Speaker 7: number two pick. And hopefully for Hornets fans, that changes.
Speaker 7: Hopefully for Jazz fans that changes, but there's only one
Speaker 7: Cooper flag, and unfortunately those fan bases can't get they
Speaker 7: can't all get Cooper flag, and so for many many
Speaker 7: fan bases, this is just gonna be another year losing.
Speaker 1: That is brutal.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever heard anybody articulate that draft
Speaker 2: history before. That's a baby's breath away from several franchise pieces. Goodness,
Speaker 2: all right, Tom, let's move off the jazz now and
Speaker 2: let's get some big picture thoughts about what's currently happening
Speaker 2: in the league.
Speaker 1: What are you willing to.
Speaker 2: Say about where the Lakers are at today and winning
Speaker 2: six straight games, Luca kind of taking over as the
Speaker 2: centerpiece against the Clips the other night, and Lebron really
Speaker 2: certainly not looking near his age. Are you willing to
Speaker 2: say that they need to be put in the category
Speaker 2: with OKC And I'll say, Denver, maybe that's your Tier
Speaker 2: one in the West.
Speaker 1: Are they a legitimate threat come playoff time?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 7: I've got OKAC in its own tier out West. I
Speaker 7: got Denver and the Lakers in that set, and the
Speaker 7: Golden State Warriors in that second tier.
Speaker 8: So out on.
Speaker 7: Tomdfinder dot com, I tear out the Contenders by five star,
Speaker 7: four star, three star, two star, one star ratings, and
Speaker 7: this morning just released my newest title Tiers. The Lakers
Speaker 7: are upgraded to a four star status. And I look
Speaker 7: at their performance with Luka Doncic and it's all about
Speaker 7: Lebron looks rejuvenated, Like he looks like prime Lebron right now,
Speaker 7: in the sense that he's trying a lot harder on defense.
Speaker 7: He's everywhere defensively, he's running out in fast fast breaks,
Speaker 7: his transition game. It looks like they breathe new life
Speaker 7: into Lebron. And Draymond Green said this about Jimmy Butler
Speaker 7: the acquisition. Right after they got Jimmy Butler, he said,
Speaker 7: we're gonna win the championship. You said it over All
Speaker 7: Star Weekend, And it's because of belief Capital b belief.
Speaker 7: And in some ways I see the same corollary for
Speaker 7: the Los Angeles Lakers as Lebron believes, I think he
Speaker 7: gets Luca on his team and he believes like he
Speaker 7: is the one, Like Anthony Davis is great, but he
Speaker 7: ain't Lucas Ajic. And the way that they have chemistry
Speaker 7: out on the floor is insane. They have been nineteen
Speaker 7: assists from Luca to Lebron already by far the most
Speaker 7: the assist recipient of Luca's assists is number one is Lebron.
Speaker 7: And the crazy stat from Dean Oliver, who's you know,
Speaker 7: the godfather of NBA analytics, who wrote the Bible of
Speaker 7: NBA analytics called Basketball on Paper. He works for the
Speaker 7: ESPN's analytics department. Now he runs it, and he just
Speaker 7: tweeted out that the shot quality of Luca's assists to
Speaker 7: Lebron before he shoots the ball, an average player would
Speaker 7: shoots seventy six percent on those shots. Think about that,
Speaker 7: Luca is finding Lebron in spots where the average NBA
Speaker 7: player would shoot seventy six percent, And of course Lebron
Speaker 7: is way higher than that because he's Lebron. But do
Speaker 7: you know how hard it is to get defenses to
Speaker 7: forget about Lebron James or miss him or lose him,
Speaker 7: or not even lose him. Just Luca can can place
Speaker 7: the ball in Lebron's hands and ways that no one
Speaker 7: else can't. Like when you look at those touchdown passes
Speaker 7: that Kevin Love used to throw to Lebron in Cleveland,
Speaker 7: Luca's doing it like three times over, like every time
Speaker 7: that Luca gets a rebound, now defensive rebound, Lebron's running
Speaker 7: down the floor and getting a wide open layup. And
Speaker 7: that's what's scary about this is that Luka Doncic is
Speaker 7: already has way more chemistry than Dwayne Wade, than Chris Bosh,
Speaker 7: than Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. It seems like he
Speaker 7: has way more chemistry with Lebron James than any of
Speaker 7: those guys had. At nearly lightning speed. Lebron's already got
Speaker 7: this in like five games playing with Luca, So I
Speaker 7: think I think they're in the four starts here because
Speaker 7: they don't have the bigs that I think is required
Speaker 7: to beat, you know, all the teams that they need
Speaker 7: to beat in order to get to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 7: But on Basketball Illuminati this week, we had Brandon Payne
Speaker 7: on who's Steph Curry's trainer and one of the great
Speaker 7: coaches skills coaches in the NBA, longtime shooting coach. He
Speaker 7: was just talking about how he thinks that the Lakers
Speaker 7: are every bit a championship contender as the rest of them.
Speaker 7: Calves Okac in Boston, I might not go as far
Speaker 7: to say that, but I think they're just in a
Speaker 7: tier below the Oklahoma City Thunder because of that chemistry
Speaker 7: between Lebron and Luca.
Speaker 2: All Right, before I set you loose, I'll ask you
Speaker 2: a similar question. But we move over to the East
Speaker 2: and on Friday night in Boston, Donovan Man, when Donovan
Speaker 2: cooks like that, it's just a lot of people around
Speaker 2: here kind of missed those days. But he went for
Speaker 2: forty one, and the Calves stormed back in the second
Speaker 2: half than they took care of the Celtics. And look,
Speaker 2: the Cavs winning is not new, but they're fifty and ten,
Speaker 2: they've won ten straight and they're seven and a half
Speaker 2: games out of Boston. At what point do we stop
Speaker 2: with the whole Boston and everybody else narrative and start
Speaker 2: to talk about the Calves in a more serious way,
Speaker 2: especially with the trade they made that you've talked about
Speaker 2: grabbing DeAndre Hunter, which kind of went under the radar
Speaker 2: because you know Luca was traded.
Speaker 7: Yeah, DeAndre Hunter, I think could be the missing piece
Speaker 7: from thirty two points yesterday against the Blazers, where you
Speaker 7: know Tamani Kamara was busy locking down Darius Garland four
Speaker 7: sixteen shooting from Darius Garland and here comes DeAndre Hunter, like, oh,
Speaker 7: I can carry this offense down the stretch. They didn't
Speaker 7: have that before the trade. Now they have this piece
Speaker 7: DeAndre Hunter, who's a big wing. I think he's I
Speaker 7: think he's a four. He's a natural four in today's
Speaker 7: modern MBA. And so they can go small like they
Speaker 7: did a lot in that game yesterday with Jared Allen
Speaker 7: on the bench and Ammably at the and that dynamic
Speaker 7: is huge. I'd picked the Calves as the favorite out
Speaker 7: of East right now. They're forty three and oh with
Speaker 7: a lead going into the fourth quarter. They have not
Speaker 7: lost the game with the lead, and going into the
Speaker 7: fourth I think the stat with thirty eight and one
Speaker 7: after a lead in the first quarter, so going into
Speaker 7: the second quarter with the lead, they've only lost one
Speaker 7: game this season. They're just they're Relentlesskenny Atkinson's done a
Speaker 7: great job there and I think Cleveland is right there
Speaker 7: in that top tier. If you go to Tomdfinder dot
Speaker 7: com you can see my tiers, my title tiers that
Speaker 7: I do every week, and I haven't changed.
Speaker 4: It's Cleveland.
Speaker 7: It's okay seeing it's Boston and then everybody else. I
Speaker 7: think Boston's really good, but man, Cleveland's coming for them,
Speaker 7: and I really believe that they should be on the
Speaker 7: same title tier as Boston.
Speaker 1: The raigning champs staying at the Nines, No, I'm.
Speaker 7: Staying at the highest regency by the Convention Center.
Speaker 2: Well go, what's that restaurant that have at the Nines.
Speaker 2: That's a good spot. You got to hit that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So the chef there, Gregory Gordet, he opened up his
Speaker 7: new restaurant after Top Chef, and that's the one that
Speaker 7: I went to when I first got Okay is con
Speaker 7: and the Nines restaurant up top is very good. But
Speaker 7: the chef behind that has now has his own restaurant
Speaker 7: and it is.
Speaker 3: It is awesome.
Speaker 7: And the Blazers the Blazer There's probably something like this
Speaker 7: in Utah and Salt Lake where like the jazz players
Speaker 7: and the jazz proNT office guys love to go there.
Speaker 7: That's what this restaurant is is it's called con K
Speaker 7: a n N by Gregory Gordet. And that's the spot
Speaker 7: in Portland. If you want to hit up a really
Speaker 7: good restaurant if you're visiting, go hit up con If
Speaker 7: you can get a reservation.
Speaker 2: All right, my guy, where can everybody? And by the way,
Speaker 2: here that's Vaulters. It's the Italian restaurant Vaults. That's where
Speaker 2: all the NBA guys like to go. So next time
Speaker 2: you're in Salt Lake, hit that up. But before I
Speaker 2: set you loose, where can everybody go?
Speaker 7: Find your work at Tom haraschro on x Tom Thefinder
Speaker 7: dot com, Yahoo Sports. In the Blazers broadcast, we got
Speaker 7: a Philadelphia seventy six is tonight, very exciting. No Joel
Speaker 7: Embiid and who knows about Paul George.
Speaker 2: All right, buddy, thanks for the time. Enjoy rip City
Speaker 2: and we'll chat soon. All right, thanks, be right great,
Speaker 2: Tom Haberstrow, we will catch a break. We've got one
Speaker 2: hour down. We have three hours to go. All right,
Speaker 2: We've got Ryle stop on by today. Voice of the Utes,
Speaker 2: Bill Riley, set your alarms for four o'clock, so about
Speaker 2: fifty minutes from right now. We'll do some Utah men's
Speaker 2: basketball with Bill. We'll do some Utah football with Bill.
Speaker 2: As we are high speed ahead to spring ball. We're
Speaker 2: gonna have coach Wit on the program. By the way,
Speaker 2: coming up on Wednesday of this week coach Wit will
Speaker 2: stop by, so stay tuned for that. Sam monson later
Speaker 2: on for a little NFL drafts and combine chatter as well.
Speaker 2: But URSL, hopefully for a moment, calmed the masses with
Speaker 2: a two miller result against Seattle. It was the MLS
Speaker 2: home opener for the lads on Saturday. Our next guest
Speaker 2: was on the call, and he is celebrating a birthday
Speaker 2: I believe today. Yes, Brian Don Seth, happy birthday, buddy boyppreciated.
Speaker 6: Yesterday was my birthday, but I appreciate it nonetheless. One man,
Speaker 6: thank you so much.
Speaker 1: So you're you're what forty two? Is that right thereabouts?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Maybe six years ago? Uh?
Speaker 6: Okay, No, unfortunately forty eight years old, man, And I
Speaker 6: don't know. It's weird. I can't be the only one
Speaker 6: out there in radio land who still thinks they're twenty three,
Speaker 6: twenty four but then wakes up with like a crank
Speaker 6: in their neck, their back hurts, and somehow, you know,
Speaker 6: they've got some foot issue out of nowhere. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 6: young and dynamic in my mind, and I'm I'm beat
Speaker 6: up and old in my body.
Speaker 2: You're preaching the choir man, I pulled my hamstring in
Speaker 2: the shower, just trying to apply you know, body wash.
Speaker 1: How old?
Speaker 6: How old?
Speaker 2: Was a bright eyed and bushy tailed Brian Dunsath when
Speaker 2: he first landed in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 6: Oh I was I think I was twenty six?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I was twenty six, twenty seventh somewhere there.
Speaker 2: Okay, man, you've been you've been around these parts. I
Speaker 2: know you left for a moment, but you've been back.
Speaker 2: You're basically a local, Donny by, now, aren't you.
Speaker 6: Oh dude, I represent the eight oh one really really well.
Speaker 6: I uh, I do it every I do what everybody
Speaker 6: from Utah does. When somebody speaks high of this beautiful
Speaker 6: state of ours, I tell him it's horrible that they'd
Speaker 6: hate it, and don't even think about visiting that you
Speaker 6: wouldn't like it.
Speaker 3: Just to keep all the rip wrap away.
Speaker 6: No, I I'm throwing through my kid.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: My wife Jade went to Skyline, went to Westminster. My
Speaker 6: boys are going to Churchill in Skyline. I'm not going anywhere. Man.
Speaker 6: I love thee one.
Speaker 1: That's good living here, There's no doubt.
Speaker 2: All right, Donny, Let's start with a little good before
Speaker 2: we dig into potentially some bad What if anything did
Speaker 2: that result and you and our guy Max on the call,
Speaker 2: what what.
Speaker 1: Did that result do?
Speaker 2: Just to kind of calm people down to nil in
Speaker 2: the home opener as far as MLS play goes, Yeah.
Speaker 6: I would say Spence and I agree with you to
Speaker 6: an extent, but I would say it was actually more
Speaker 6: important inside of that locker room for a group of players.
Speaker 6: You know, listen, they're missing forty two goals in twenty
Speaker 6: nine assists. If you go back to calendar year talking
Speaker 6: about Chijo Rongo, Anders Domez, Anderson Julio and Matt Crooks.
Speaker 6: You know, the beauty in that is when those type
Speaker 6: of players leave, there's a you know, there's a huge
Speaker 6: upside to it, which means inside that locker room there's
Speaker 6: a great opportunity for young players to fill that vacuum,
Speaker 6: not only on the field, but maybe more importantly from
Speaker 6: a leadership perspective. On top of that, I think for
Speaker 6: Pablo Mastroni, when you're looking at a Jago and you're
Speaker 6: looking at the old two players that our young dynamic
Speaker 6: have similar player profiles. One of these guys for going
Speaker 6: out on the international market, one of these guys you
Speaker 6: got to find somebody who could be that next you know, Halvrosapario,
Speaker 6: and that's t Jo Rongo. On top of that, I
Speaker 6: thought defensively at times they were pretty poor. In the
Speaker 6: first couple of games, I thought they were rock solid
Speaker 6: in the back with Cabral the relationship between Justin Glad
Speaker 6: and Philip quinton A Mecca and Brian o'hada pick it
Speaker 6: up right where they left off, and I thought there
Speaker 6: was a tweak and I'm not sure too many people
Speaker 6: notice this, but I think it could have outstanding ramifications
Speaker 6: going forward, and that was making Diego Luna the undisputed
Speaker 6: playmakers centrally underneath either Peel or a Jago and sliding
Speaker 6: Diego Gonzalvez out to that left hand side. And what
Speaker 6: it signifies the new sets is that Diego Luna has
Speaker 6: the keys to the Ferrari and maybe Diego Gonzalvez, who
Speaker 6: hasn't lived up to expectation so far, maybe a little
Speaker 6: less pressure and a better opportunity to kind of hide
Speaker 6: in the shadows and pick up some really important vacated
Speaker 6: speed spaces with work ethic in the running that Diego
Speaker 6: Luda has been doing in that number ten position.
Speaker 2: So I want to throw something at you that Jason,
Speaker 2: Jason Cris throwed me when cause you referenced Diogo, who
Speaker 2: was brought in last summer during that transfer window and
Speaker 2: is technically, I think, the only DP now on the roster.
Speaker 2: And to your point, there just haven't been enough bright
Speaker 2: moments to say, Okay, that's our guy, that's our DP,
Speaker 2: and Jason said the very same thing happened at the
Speaker 2: start of Javier's career, Javier Morales's career here in Salt Lake,
Speaker 2: where you know, you know the story as.
Speaker 1: Well as anybody. Jay takes the gig.
Speaker 2: He's having a tough time getting anybody to let him
Speaker 2: sign players, so he just takes a flight to Argentina
Speaker 2: and finds Javier, finds Fabian and of course Mattias Mantisia,
Speaker 2: which didn't work out as well.
Speaker 1: But is that Is that a good experience.
Speaker 2: In parallel to drop on for RSL fans like, yes,
Speaker 2: Diogo has struggled, but so did Haave and Hobby, for
Speaker 2: most people, including me, is the best player who's ever
Speaker 2: played here.
Speaker 6: It's a good food for thought, training, exercise, a couple
Speaker 6: of different things here at the time Hobby came in
Speaker 6: to play that number ten position.
Speaker 3: Remember, he was.
Speaker 6: Diving all over the place, he was always on the ground,
Speaker 6: and we were concerned that there was a physicality issue.
Speaker 6: But Hobby still could play Diogo. You know, for whatever reason,
Speaker 6: Matt Crooks was preferred over Diogo, and we could talk
Speaker 6: about adaption, and we could talk about time, we could
Speaker 6: talk about what I feel was the failure for me. Also,
Speaker 6: I'd like to get the job done way quicker than
Speaker 6: indeeded to deed, similar to Chico getting into market, you know,
Speaker 6: three weeks prior to even his availability to start training.
Speaker 6: You know, Pablo quite likely preferred Matt Crooks and chi
Speaker 6: Cho Wrongo together when healthy, and he preferred Anderson's Julio
Speaker 6: with Diogo because of the positioning. I take what Jason's
Speaker 6: analogy is, and what I'll do is, I'll hopefully add
Speaker 6: to it that if Diogo consolved is anywhere near as
Speaker 6: productive and important that Pavier Morales was to riale Se Lake,
Speaker 6: well then you've got an iconic tent, not just for
Speaker 6: the present but for the future as well. But as
Speaker 6: I say that, I wonder out loud for Diogo if
Speaker 6: ultimately he's a player that thrives on having guys that
Speaker 6: are also leaders amongst him, and having guys that are
Speaker 6: as talented, if not more talented, because during his time
Speaker 6: that was certainly the case at Benfica and Copenhagen. A
Speaker 6: guy that was going to start each and every game,
Speaker 6: but a guy that, maybe like Albert Rusknak during his
Speaker 6: tenure here at Riale Sa Lake, you didn't have to
Speaker 6: lean on him as much as maybe the observance of
Speaker 6: being a designated player is in Major League Soccer.
Speaker 2: So tell me, Donny, from your perspective and the inside
Speaker 2: knowledge you have, what is fair to say about the
Speaker 2: front office the ownership group right now, because you know,
Speaker 2: with all of the moves they made, and you know
Speaker 2: we could go over all of them. It's chie Sho
Speaker 2: to San Jose, it's moving Andress on your reference, Matt
Speaker 2: Crooks and oh everything. The number that I've been told
Speaker 2: is they pocketed you know, between fifteen and seven mil,
Speaker 2: which is great. I mean, and I understand that the
Speaker 2: Ondress thing is now proof of concept, but if you're
Speaker 2: a fan of the club, you're expecting that money to
Speaker 2: be reinvested into the club to get top shelf talent.
Speaker 2: And if we're honest, that just hasn't happened yet. What's
Speaker 2: fair to say about the process in your opinion, Yeah.
Speaker 6: There's a couple different factors. And I'm no apologies for
Speaker 6: Real Salt Lake, to be clear, because I think every
Speaker 6: team has certain things happened throughout the course of their
Speaker 6: one year plan, their three year plan, their five year plan,
Speaker 6: which is everything's great until you get punched in the face.
Speaker 6: Rsel got punched in the face on a couple different
Speaker 6: occasions and whatever it was, however, we kind of finalize
Speaker 6: the Chicho Orongo departure. The reality is, from a financial standpoint,
Speaker 6: Rial saw Lake is an organization took a four and
Speaker 6: a four million dollar bath on what the output was
Speaker 6: for what they paid for him versus what they ended
Speaker 6: up inevitably getting as a distressed asset moving him to
Speaker 6: San Jose. Anderson Julio had a big option yere and
Speaker 6: at that age and at that price, the club certainly
Speaker 6: felt as though they could maybe not upgrade, but upgrade
Speaker 6: in potential, which is what I think they've done. Although
Speaker 6: you've gotten rid of one of the you know, the
Speaker 6: most physically dominant in transition moments in Major League soccer.
Speaker 6: And Anderson Julio to stretch the field, and we certainly
Speaker 6: saw that and do that in Week one, getting the
Speaker 6: week the game winner on the road in Houston. Matt
Speaker 6: Crook's family didn't settle. You know, a similar story happened
Speaker 6: up in Vancouver where a designated player named Stephen Armstrong.
Speaker 6: I would challenge anyone to think about being by themselves
Speaker 6: with a young family across you know, a different in
Speaker 6: a different continent and thinking about that and having to
Speaker 6: do the player right, well, it might not do the
Speaker 6: club right. And then finally Elias Manuel, who was supposed
Speaker 6: to come over from New York Red Bulls, which I
Speaker 6: personally wasn't a huge fan of. But in the midst
Speaker 6: of that trade there was draft picks and there was
Speaker 6: a certain amount of general allocation money that was acquired
Speaker 6: in this offseason. And I think for Manoel who agreed
Speaker 6: to the move and then decided that he didn't want
Speaker 6: to agree to the move, two things will happen. One,
Speaker 6: you actually got a better return for what you even
Speaker 6: sent to New York Red Bulls for Manuel, because you're
Speaker 6: gonna end up getting around a million dollars from both
Speaker 6: the FOCO in Brazil for a player that never even
Speaker 6: showed up in market and number two. And this might
Speaker 6: sound harsh, sense, but if you've got a guy that
Speaker 6: doesn't want to be here, good riddance. There's no reason
Speaker 6: that rialso Lake should have to convince some guy why
Speaker 6: he should be coming to Salt Lake. Beat it like,
Speaker 6: it doesn't matter if we're talking Major League Baseball, we're
Speaker 6: talking NHL, we're talking NBA, like, this is a great
Speaker 6: place to live. And if you don't want to be
Speaker 6: a part of what's happening out here, kick rocks. And
Speaker 6: that's that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: So there's h it's been.
Speaker 6: It's been a hefty offseason. I think a couple of
Speaker 6: things caught him off guard. But the window's not closed.
Speaker 6: You have significant funds and hopefully you know they've identified
Speaker 6: somebody that will continue to push this group forward in
Speaker 6: a manner in which they will be significantly better then
Speaker 6: maybe where they're at right now. But dude, for thought,
Speaker 6: that goal from a Jago two goals and two matches,
Speaker 6: Hopefully that doesn't skew what the immediate need is of
Speaker 6: the club.
Speaker 2: And I want to I want to get to him
Speaker 2: in a moment, but I'm glad you brought up Manuel
Speaker 2: because I wanted to kick the tires with you on
Speaker 2: this dynamic and whether or not it's something that maybe
Speaker 2: we should talk about more than we do because we
Speaker 2: talk about it all the time. Through the prism of
Speaker 2: pro basketball in the Utah Jazz, I mean, I could
Speaker 2: give you a number of examples. Some people know about
Speaker 2: like Derek Harper and Ronnie Sychlee other people, other others don't.
Speaker 2: People don't really know about, namely like a Kevin Love.
Speaker 2: There was a trade on the table to bring Kevin
Speaker 2: Love to Utah when Donovan and Rudy were here, and
Speaker 2: he said he's simply through his agent. He informed the
Speaker 2: front office. I don't want to live there. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to play for the Jazz. I don't feel like
Speaker 2: we experienced that much on the soccer side, but are
Speaker 2: we starting to because and look, I know that harkening
Speaker 2: back to you know, two thousand and five to twenty
Speaker 2: ten is a fool's errand with how different the league
Speaker 2: is now. But my prism when I was with the
Speaker 2: club is meeting people like you and Kyle and Chris Brown,
Speaker 2: and I could keep going like transplants who came here
Speaker 2: and ended up loving it here because of our soccer
Speaker 2: community and the support that you guys had.
Speaker 1: Is it a new day where maybe.
Speaker 2: The club is running into the issue of people not
Speaker 2: wanting to live in Salt Lake City. To your point,
Speaker 2: if you don't want to, like, okay, get lost, we'll
Speaker 2: figure it out. But I just I don't know that
Speaker 2: I've heard many examples of it happening. Now we have
Speaker 2: one with a kid that I think they were hoping
Speaker 2: would come here and play.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I think there's twofold number one. I think
Speaker 6: we have to acknowledge that in football, worldwide, football, worldlife, soccer.
Speaker 6: It's a different dynamic here in Major League Soccer that
Speaker 6: effectively the players are league employees. They're not team employees.
Speaker 6: So usually it's a loane, it's a buy, or it's
Speaker 6: a sell. You know, you've got three different situations you
Speaker 6: can find yourself in. Here at Major League Soccer, it's different.
Speaker 6: You know, the club is the club, but you're still
Speaker 6: technically league employees. So that's a unique dynamic in which
Speaker 6: when players outside of the United States have experiences for
Speaker 6: the first time, they think they're signing with the club
Speaker 6: unbeknownst to them. You know, they're at any moment the
Speaker 6: club could trade you and you have no say. It's
Speaker 6: one of the reasons why I came to rials La
Speaker 6: from being in Sweden was because I got traded down
Speaker 6: to Dallas on trade deadline day. General manager quits, head
Speaker 6: coach gets fired. I'm in an option year, and neither
Speaker 6: the two knuckleheads who took charge were telling me either
Speaker 6: they were going to pick up my option or they
Speaker 6: were going to trade me. And when the LA Galaxy
Speaker 6: wanted me, they refused to flat out trade me. So
Speaker 6: I got caught in no man's land with a contract
Speaker 6: that no one would pick up, and yet I couldn't
Speaker 6: sign with anybody because my rights virtually didn't didn't exist.
Speaker 6: Now that's a very difficult two thousand and four conversation
Speaker 6: versus twenty twenty five, But the reality is it's still
Speaker 6: a culture shock for some of these players to try
Speaker 6: to contemplate and wrap their heads around the idea of
Speaker 6: at any moment, I could be traded through no fault
Speaker 6: of my own, even when my kids are settled, I've
Speaker 6: bought a house and you know everyone's in school, So
Speaker 6: fast forward to that. Listen. I think the reality is
Speaker 6: and We're a very insecure Utah state, right, especially when
Speaker 6: it comes to our sports. I think when people hear
Speaker 6: the name Real salt Lake, if they're not aware of it,
Speaker 6: they're gonna have to do a quick Google search and
Speaker 6: figure this out. Number two, I think they'll be aware
Speaker 6: of the Mormon culture, the universities, you know, the sporting ventures,
Speaker 6: you know, Utah Hockey Club and the jazz and then
Speaker 6: as they dig a little bit more into it once
Speaker 6: they show up in market, I think they're going to
Speaker 6: be overawed by the quite you know, by by the
Speaker 6: ridiculous beauty and you know, the how how incredibly nice
Speaker 6: everybody is in Utah. So I don't know, to your
Speaker 6: original question, we could potentially be in a situation like that,
Speaker 6: but I honestly think it's a bullet dodged for Real
Speaker 6: salt Lake when it's all said and done. I told
Speaker 6: you he was a substitute off the bench in an
Speaker 6: MLS Cup final. I wasn't really sold. I didn't think
Speaker 6: he was an upgrade Dan with some Julio. Oh what
Speaker 6: do I know?
Speaker 2: So let's move over now to the group of strikers
Speaker 2: that are on the roster. Before I ask you about
Speaker 2: potentially what's next, And they did sign a player Jesus Brea,
Speaker 2: who I'd known nothing about, and honestly, I don't know
Speaker 2: any think about any of these guys.
Speaker 1: I'm learning all about him.
Speaker 2: But I will ask you about the Yago kid because
Speaker 2: that was a really nice finish. Now, the second leg
Speaker 2: against Sara Diiano, he did have a goal, but he
Speaker 2: had like seven that he just should have tapped in.
Speaker 1: He had so many chances. But I feel like there's
Speaker 1: something there.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is, but he's a big,
Speaker 2: physical kid with good speed and he does have both
Speaker 2: of their goals. So you know, before we get to
Speaker 2: what's next, what's your take on whether it's Barea or
Speaker 2: Peel or Forrester and what you've seen so far.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so Jago, You're right, he had back to bad goals.
Speaker 6: He could have had multiple goals against Heartiano. He took
Speaker 6: that goal extremely well. I actually said during the broadcast
Speaker 6: in the goal call that he took it early. And
Speaker 6: I think that's one of the things that surprised Stephen
Speaker 6: Fry as the goalkeeper was coming off his line. A
Speaker 6: different player profile than what Peole has. Right forstar Rajago
Speaker 6: going through went to Duke University. Since some time at Nashville,
Speaker 6: he's got some familiarity with the league. Despite being a
Speaker 6: young striker, you can see there's high, high level potential.
Speaker 6: He's got a body type that's kind of Mama du
Speaker 6: Diallo for the MLS. Sikos out there the MLS after
Speaker 6: darkers that are listening to and if you're out there,
Speaker 6: you're epic. Peol is a young twenty year old from
Speaker 6: you know, Southwest Australia. Five goals in eleven games for
Speaker 6: his club before he comes over. He had that one
Speaker 6: potential redirect from Katrani's ball was a little bit behind
Speaker 6: him so he couldn't get it cleanly. But both of
Speaker 6: these guys body types are similar and yet they play
Speaker 6: dramatically different to one other. And then Barrera from anything
Speaker 6: that I've seen, college kid worthy of a high level
Speaker 6: draft pick. You've and remember there's because of the transition
Speaker 6: from the presidency, there's some paperwork issues that are being
Speaker 6: worked out in real time, and unfortunately for some of
Speaker 6: these work permits or green cards, Rialsa Lake is like
Speaker 6: many other teams in Major League Soccer and in the
Speaker 6: sporting landscape where things aren't getting done as fluidly as
Speaker 6: maybe they did under the previous administration. So I think
Speaker 6: there's going to be a little bit of a rotation,
Speaker 6: not in a bad way, but more of an addition
Speaker 6: to the roster as this kind of gets leveled out
Speaker 6: and calmed down and you see the certain paperwork that
Speaker 6: was planned on getting done and dusted. But I only
Speaker 6: saw Johnny in in two training sessions, and I can
Speaker 6: tell you that there is some great potential for this
Speaker 6: young Spaniard pathless travel kind of like yesper Laffelson coming
Speaker 6: to the United States to get his college education and
Speaker 6: then playing professional soccer, which yesper Loffelson should be starting,
Speaker 6: by the way for San Diego on Saturday for San
Speaker 6: Diego FC. Former rsler, But yeah, high, high level potential.
Speaker 6: So I think when we're talking about the roster Spence,
Speaker 6: I probably should say this. I don't think this is
Speaker 6: anywhere close to being the best roster for Rialsol Lake,
Speaker 6: as it's obviously in flux, but I would say position
Speaker 6: for position, you've got two legitimate starters in each position,
Speaker 6: and it might be the most competitive position for position
Speaker 6: roster that RSLO has ever put together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some definite depth in certain areas, but there
Speaker 2: just doesn't seem to be depth or quite frankly, top
Speaker 2: shelf quality up top. So let's move over now to
Speaker 2: any insight you have about a striker potentially on the way. Now,
Speaker 2: Kurt was on the show last week and he said
Speaker 2: that they're working on it, like they are actively talking
Speaker 2: to people. And you know, I know that the fans
Speaker 2: are just simply a little bit front because I've heard
Speaker 2: you and Max on the broadcast talk about this arms
Speaker 2: race in the Western Conference where these teams are spending
Speaker 2: millions and millions of dollars on high quality players. And
Speaker 2: to your point, there's depth in a lot of places.
Speaker 2: The new keeper seems to be a really experienced dude,
Speaker 2: but you've got to do something up top. So do
Speaker 2: you think reinforcements are on the way and do you
Speaker 2: have any idea what that looks like?
Speaker 6: So there's always a couple different ways to look at this, right,
Speaker 6: there's different mechanisms. Do you want a designated player? Do
Speaker 6: you want a target allocation money player? Do you want
Speaker 6: to you twenty two initiative player where it's effectively a
Speaker 6: designated player type under the age of twenty two. Do
Speaker 6: you want to use general allocation money. There's a new
Speaker 6: mechanism called cash per player in Major League Soccer. That's
Speaker 6: what saw Luco Eclosta leave Cincinnati and go to Dallas.
Speaker 6: Evander leave Portland and go to Cincinnati. Yoblich leaves LA
Speaker 6: Galaxy and go to Sporting Kansas City. And here's the
Speaker 6: other wrinkle in dynamic I've always been intrigued on and
Speaker 6: I've never really had clarity. What's the role of Ryan
Speaker 6: Smith in this conversation with regards to the monopoly money
Speaker 6: that both he and David Blitzer have. You know, we're
Speaker 6: acutely aware of both having the sporting umbrella in multiple
Speaker 6: leagues and having the sporting umbrellas with particular with David
Speaker 6: Blitzer worldwide. When you think about the investments in the
Speaker 6: clubs in the Bundesliga, the Premier League, Danish Super League,
Speaker 6: down in Portugal, I mean, list goes on and on,
Speaker 6: and what is the valuation and the ultimate amount of
Speaker 6: money that you're willing to spend not only on transfer
Speaker 6: fee but effectively the weekly wage, the yearly wage. So
Speaker 6: I guess what I'm trying to say spent is there's
Speaker 6: a lot of ways to crack the egg the question
Speaker 6: is what kind of egg is going to be cracked
Speaker 6: and is it just going to be a singular sunny
Speaker 6: side up or are we cooking with an omelet. That's uh,
Speaker 6: that all remains to be seen. But my problem, and
Speaker 6: I'll take this from more of like an Apple MLS
Speaker 6: analyst perspective, it's tough to be It's tough to try
Speaker 6: to tell everybody that you're taking Counky CAF Champions Cup
Speaker 6: serious when you have such a unique history in that
Speaker 6: tournament and it's your first time back in a long
Speaker 6: long time, and that's the roster that you put together
Speaker 6: three weeks ago to head down to Harry Giano. I
Speaker 6: think there's way more questions than answers, and for a
Speaker 6: really turbulent offseason, I think that's the point that frustrates
Speaker 6: RSL fans when you think about, as you referenced, Hobby
Speaker 6: and Nick and Kyle Nat and the good old days
Speaker 6: under Jason, but even when you think about Albert Rossmok
Speaker 6: or dom Domi or Crylock, Jefferson Savarino, now cheat Show,
Speaker 6: you know, now Andres Gomez, now, Anderson Julio, you know
Speaker 6: you've got a fan base that really believes in its
Speaker 6: players and believes in the club, but they need to
Speaker 6: believe in the club long term and who's going to
Speaker 6: be those next long term players that and maybe potentially
Speaker 6: make themselves those iconic faces and names that RSLO has
Speaker 6: always been used to referring to.
Speaker 2: All right, last thing, Donny, that I'll set you loose,
Speaker 2: And this is tapping into Brian Dunseth, the Apple TV analyst.
Speaker 2: The Houston Donamo played into Miami and Lino Messi did
Speaker 2: not make the trip.
Speaker 1: Because he needed to rest.
Speaker 2: The Donamo sent out a post on social media and
Speaker 2: suffice to say, fans that had shelled out a bunch
Speaker 2: of money to see Messi play in Houston were besides themselves.
Speaker 1: The Donamo did what it code.
Speaker 2: They've offered some free tickets, but this it's just part
Speaker 2: of the deal, isn't it. I mean, you can't expect him,
Speaker 2: at his advanced age to be healthy every single week.
Speaker 2: But I find this an interesting topic because you know
Speaker 2: my view on this, and I do view this from
Speaker 2: an old school MLS perspective. When Beckham came to the league, everyone,
Speaker 2: all of us in the league at the time, said Okay,
Speaker 2: when do we get him here? And I feel like,
Speaker 2: as long as Messi is playing, every team in MLS
Speaker 2: should have the opportunity to have him in their city.
Speaker 2: But if he needs rest, he needs rest, right. I
Speaker 2: guess it's just part of the deal. But I understand
Speaker 2: the fan frustration.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they certainly didn't need him last night, and h
Speaker 6: and Houston anyway, and they enter Miami smashed them. I
Speaker 6: think it's the timing that surprises everybody, because you're talking
Speaker 6: about load management at game three, Game four and such
Speaker 6: early start of the season. But also remember this is
Speaker 6: an inter Miami team that kind of bounced around the
Speaker 6: world in preseason because they were monetizing the Max Messi effect.
Speaker 6: I've got a real problem with people taking shots at
Speaker 6: the Houston Dynamo spence because those from the outside looking
Speaker 6: in are refused. But they're taking cheap shots, obviously, but
Speaker 6: also refusing to acknowledge that when people would hate trips
Speaker 6: to Barcelona, to the city of Barcelona, they would also
Speaker 6: try to coincide that with Barcelona playing at home when
Speaker 6: Lionel Messi was playing at the Camp new I was
Speaker 6: guilty of it. I convinced my beautiful wife Jade, on
Speaker 6: our ten year anniversary to stop in Barcelona on two
Speaker 6: specific days so I could watch Lionel Messi and then
Speaker 6: say to her, oh, no, I just wanted to introduce
Speaker 6: you to Lionel Messi. So I got away with it.
Speaker 6: What people don't understand, or at least what people have
Speaker 6: failed to take into context, is when Lionel Messi is
Speaker 6: popping around the United States, it's effectively the same as
Speaker 6: when Pele was at the end of NASL with the
Speaker 6: New York New Jory or New York Cosmos, when David
Speaker 6: Beckham was with La Galaxy, or say in particular, when
Speaker 6: any of your favorite teams from abroad come to the
Speaker 6: United States. Maybe not so much Tottenham, but you know
Speaker 6: big clubs like Man United and Barcelona and Juve.
Speaker 1: Unnecessarily people will spend.
Speaker 6: People will spend monopoly money to go see their team
Speaker 6: because spence it's cheaper and it's easier than getting on
Speaker 6: a plane flying abroad, spending the money on the flight,
Speaker 6: spending the money on the hotel, spending the money on
Speaker 6: the food, spending the money on the tickets. So what
Speaker 6: you're creating with Lionel Messi is a once in a
Speaker 6: lifetime effect to see the Peles or the Diego Maradonas
Speaker 6: and if you're you know, if you're an introvert, you're
Speaker 6: a messy person. If you're an extrovert, you're a Ronaldo
Speaker 6: Christiano Ronaldo person to see one of these players that
Speaker 6: are quote unquote the best players of our generation. So
Speaker 6: bravo to the Houston Dynamo in recognizing that in that
Speaker 6: moment there's an opportunity and the disappointment of all of
Speaker 6: those fans in the state of Texas or flying in
Speaker 6: from other states to go to Houston, to go to
Speaker 6: Show Energy Stadium to see the Houston Dynamo play host
Speaker 6: inter Miami. They recognize that there are a lot of
Speaker 6: people only coming for Lionel means, not even for inter Miami,
Speaker 6: just for Messi. But they also recognize that Spence, let's
Speaker 6: give them an extra ticket and see if we can
Speaker 6: get them back in the building. And while they may
Speaker 6: be a Messi fan, they may even be an inter
Speaker 6: Miami fan, maybe we can be their second favorite team.
Speaker 6: And I think that's what they did. Anybody tries to
Speaker 6: argue that it was naive, that it was inexperience, that
Speaker 6: it was silly, that it was dumb, they're as silly
Speaker 6: and naive to think that this wasn't a moment where
Speaker 6: the Houston Dynamo recognized that maybe, just maybe they could
Speaker 6: get a lot of crossover fans that were there just
Speaker 6: for MESSI but hopefully can be you know, short term
Speaker 6: and long term Houston Dynamo fans going forward.
Speaker 2: Is it Tito Max simply because his cocktail is Tito
Speaker 2: soda line?
Speaker 1: Is that as simple as what it is?
Speaker 6: No? No, it's too Max. Oh sometimes, but Spence, so
Speaker 6: I can promise you he is Tito Max.
Speaker 1: Everyone's okay, fair enough.
Speaker 2: This whole time, I'm like, it's he must just dig
Speaker 2: about casoda now I know the deal. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: all right, but man, happy belated, always appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: Hope to see you soon.
Speaker 6: Okay, it sounds good bye, all right.
Speaker 1: The Great Brian don Seth.
Speaker 2: RSL gets a win over the weekend against Seattle at home.
Speaker 1: San Diego is the next opponent coming up.
Speaker 2: There's no midweek games for a minute because RSL bowed
Speaker 2: out of Conker CAF Champions Cup action in a pretty
Speaker 2: pathetic fashion. So it's let's see, We've got San Diego
Speaker 2: then a road game at Houston back against Dallas and
Speaker 2: then on the road against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: That's your March schedule for the soccer club. All right.
Speaker 2: Coming up next the latest with Utah men's basketball coaching search.
Speaker 2: Who are the candidates? How close is it to being done?
Speaker 2: Is Alex Jensen on the way. We'll get to that,
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Speaker 1: I always got lyle stop them by today.
Speaker 2: Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley's going to be our
Speaker 2: guest coming up at about fifteen minutes from right now.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the Utes, time now for your chance to
Speaker 2: win tickets to the final Utah men's basketball game of
Speaker 2: the season. West Virginia rolls under the Huntsman Senta tomorrow
Speaker 2: night for a seven o'clock TI. You can hear that
Speaker 2: game obviously here on your home of the Utes, and
Speaker 2: you can watch it on ESPN Plus. So text three
Speaker 2: excuse me, Text utes to three three nine eighty six
Speaker 2: for a chance to win Utah men's basketball tickets. Text
Speaker 2: utes right now to three three nine eighty six for
Speaker 2: your chance to win Utah men's basketball tickets.
Speaker 1: After Ryles stops by, Sam.
Speaker 2: Monson will join us, we'll do a little NFL combine
Speaker 2: and we'll do a little NFL draft with Sam.
Speaker 1: Are local boys over the weekend, Brent, excuse me.
Speaker 2: Last week combine Indianapolis, Frank Keithy did not participate in
Speaker 2: the drills, but both Karne and Junior Tafuda did himself
Speaker 2: a big time, big time favor. Last week at the combine,
Speaker 2: Tyler Batty showed pretty well with the bench pres didn't
Speaker 2: run all that well.
Speaker 1: Jalen Royals from.
Speaker 2: Utah State Top ten wide receiver type prospect Jackson Dart
Speaker 2: has kind of shot up draft boards. A lot of
Speaker 2: people think you might be the third best quarterback. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't mind, you know, the analysis even being a little
Speaker 2: bit more favorable. It's interesting to follow the news cycle
Speaker 2: when it comes to the NFL Draft at this point
Speaker 2: as to are people high on cam Ward Titter Sanders.
Speaker 2: I've heard a lot of people say Jackson might be
Speaker 2: even a better prospect than those two.
Speaker 1: The only time will tell.
Speaker 2: T Higgins has been franchised for the Cincinnati Bengals for
Speaker 2: the second year in a row. So we'll do some
Speaker 2: football in the four o'clock hour. Latest on the Utah
Speaker 2: men's basketball coaching search. So, as we talked about last week,
Speaker 2: it looks like Alex Jensen is going to be the
Speaker 2: number one target.
Speaker 1: Nothing official.
Speaker 2: I think they will interview a number of different candidates
Speaker 2: that's my guest.
Speaker 1: Honestly, don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would not mind if Mark Harland has
Speaker 2: landed on Alex Jensen as his number one target, if
Speaker 2: you go all in on Alex. I just don't know
Speaker 2: where Mark's head is at. You know, Taylor Randall, where
Speaker 2: is he in this process? And is it all about
Speaker 2: finding a former ute? Is it all about finding somebody
Speaker 2: that will invigorate the community, or do you want to
Speaker 2: have a more of a classic type college basketball higher
Speaker 2: in you know, the image of a Richard Patino or
Speaker 2: a Bryce Drue, you know, coaches that have done a
Speaker 2: good job kind of at smaller schools, and then you
Speaker 2: kind of go in that direction. Obviously that's what Mark
Speaker 2: did as it pertains to the Craig Smith Higher which
Speaker 2: of course ultimately didn't work. So Craig has been let go,
Speaker 2: as we reported one week ago today actually that news
Speaker 2: came down and now the candidates seem to be in
Speaker 2: the same spot as we were a week ago. Kind
Speaker 2: of throughout the course of the week, the Alex hire
Speaker 2: is going to be a you know's if that's the direction.
Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to watch him operate as a head
Speaker 2: coach in college and are there things to be learned
Speaker 2: about what Kevin Young has done down at BYU with
Speaker 2: how well they played since he kind of settled in.
Speaker 2: BYU is ten and two in their last twelve and
Speaker 2: they've won six straight.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, none of this is about a vacuum.
Speaker 2: None of this is about just a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: of good basketball. All of this is about laying the
Speaker 2: foundation for success that can last years, right and the complication,
Speaker 2: the complication, the complicated part of the modern day of
Speaker 2: college basketball. Like college basketball has always had turnover. One
Speaker 2: and done's great freshmen or somebody that takes a huge
Speaker 2: leap between their freshmen and sophomore year and they simply
Speaker 2: decide to go to the draft. So turnover is always
Speaker 2: a part of the college basketball scene.
Speaker 1: That's why for any program to put.
Speaker 2: Together a decade or more of great play and advancing
Speaker 2: NCAA tournaments and extreme success on the winning side, and
Speaker 2: a culture that simply just breeds despite the turnover, the
Speaker 2: ability to implement what you want even though you have
Speaker 2: new players year and you're out.
Speaker 1: Those are those are rare breeds.
Speaker 2: That's why the term blue blood exists and the Dukes
Speaker 2: of the world or the Carolinas back in the day,
Speaker 2: or the Kansas is more often than not not good
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: But you know, teams that have the ability to.
Speaker 2: Win year and year out at a high level despite
Speaker 2: having to teach new players exactly what they are expected
Speaker 2: to do in your program. It's kind of what you know.
Speaker 2: I've always liked the way Kyle just bottom lines it.
Speaker 2: And by the way, Coach Waitea's going to join the
Speaker 2: show on Wednesday of this week where he says, look,
Speaker 2: we just need to know that you understand what we're
Speaker 2: asking you to do and you're physically capable of doing it.
Speaker 2: I mean it just you can be as reductive as
Speaker 2: doing that. So I understand you know right now the
Speaker 2: potential exciting feel in the community if Alex's is the guy,
Speaker 2: but if you're Mark Carlin and if you're Taylor Randalls,
Speaker 2: specifically if you're Mark, there's pressure to get this thing right.
Speaker 2: And because there's pressure to get this thing right, Mark
Speaker 2: will do his due diligence and make sure that he
Speaker 2: has the right candidate. Not to excite the community for
Speaker 2: one day, not to make sure that you know, season
Speaker 2: tickets suddenly take a spike for one moment, but to
Speaker 2: make sure that finally somebody will take this job.
Speaker 1: And if we're honest, it has been since Rick.
Speaker 2: It just has been since Coach majeris for somebody to
Speaker 2: take this job and have it for longer than a
Speaker 2: few years and have winning basketball and exciting basketball year
Speaker 2: in and year out.
Speaker 1: You know, Ray JACCOLETTI, Jim Boyle In.
Speaker 2: I thought Larry was the guy, and I think there's
Speaker 2: still a case to be made that maybe he was.
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, but you know, there's no
Speaker 2: use in talking about it now. And Craig took the
Speaker 2: job with a lot of fanfare, a lot of excitement
Speaker 2: based off of kind of the path that he had taken.
Speaker 2: But whoever this guy is, Mark will be. He will
Speaker 2: be intertwined with him. There will be no way to
Speaker 2: separate it because you know, the one hire Mark Carlin
Speaker 2: has made on the revenue generating sports side has been Craig.
Speaker 2: He did not hire Kyle, and this succession plan to
Speaker 2: have Morgan takeover for when Kyle stepped aside honestly pre
Speaker 2: dated Mark.
Speaker 1: So what will this hire be?
Speaker 2: And I can promise you if Mark Carlin sits now
Speaker 2: with Alex Jensen, and they have a number of interviews
Speaker 2: and Mark just doesn't feel like Alex either wants to
Speaker 2: do this thing in a way that will last consistently
Speaker 2: for a number of years, and feels like there's another
Speaker 2: candidate that he sits down with. It kind of energizes
Speaker 2: him and presents a plan. Quite frankly, because that's what
Speaker 2: these interviews are. Mark Skinna just ask whether it's Patino,
Speaker 2: whether it's true, whether it's Alex, whether it's Andre, whoever's
Speaker 2: across from him. Mark will ask him, what is your
Speaker 2: plan to rebuild this thing? And make no mistake, that's
Speaker 2: what this is going to be. I don't know how
Speaker 2: many of these players on the roster for the basketball
Speaker 2: team right now. We'll be back, and honestly, I hate
Speaker 2: to say this, I don't know that that's a bad thing.
Speaker 2: You know, most of their better players, you know, upperclassmen.
Speaker 2: I think you'd like Ezra back. I mean, Ezra's been really,
Speaker 2: really good. He's a junior Keanu DAEs over the past
Speaker 2: couple of games. Look, I don't I'm not going to
Speaker 2: speak for Craig. I'm not going to speak for Josh Eiler.
Speaker 2: It just feels that Josh maybe thinks Dawes should have
Speaker 2: been part of the rotation a little bit more because
Speaker 2: he's received more minutes over the past couple of games,
Speaker 2: and honestly, athletically he kind of stands out among his
Speaker 2: teammates quite Frank Ezra's a good athlete. Kianda is like
Speaker 2: an elite athlete. He's only a sophomore. I don't think
Speaker 2: you'd mind have having him coming back. Hunter Erickson, who's
Speaker 2: a BYU transfer, He's a senior, so this is it
Speaker 2: for him. Of course, as we kind of go down
Speaker 2: the roster, Caleb is a senior, the transfer who started
Speaker 2: his career here and he, you know, never received a
Speaker 2: bunch of consistent run. Josh Grant, who joined the show
Speaker 2: last week, kind of painted a picture where he thought
Speaker 2: Caleb should be playing more minutes lost and lovering as
Speaker 2: a senior. He's had a great career obviously. Gabe is
Speaker 2: a senior all time leader in three point shots. May
Speaker 2: just knocked down his three hundred to three against Asu Mason.
Speaker 2: His brother also a senior. Sharrob Jams is a junior,
Speaker 2: and that's really about it. Oh, Waleen Wallian's a sophomore.
Speaker 2: I think you like Walen back, so on the roster
Speaker 2: right now, maybe Jake Walleen, Ezra Sar and Keano Dawes
Speaker 2: are the players you're looking at to potential.
Speaker 1: Kick the tires to get him back here.
Speaker 2: But if you want him to come back here, first
Speaker 2: of all, that will be up to the head coach
Speaker 2: right whoever takes over. But it also will be up
Speaker 2: to the administration on the collective side to make sure
Speaker 2: that the checks that they're writing or what they need
Speaker 2: to be in order to inspire top talent to come here.
Speaker 2: I'm not fully sure what the current situation is as
Speaker 2: far as recruits. They were in the fold to play
Speaker 2: for Utah next year, but obviously they would have signed
Speaker 2: to play for Craig. How many of them have decommitted,
Speaker 2: How many of them have completely decided they're going to
Speaker 2: change direction?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I mean, I mean BYU
Speaker 1: is a little.
Speaker 2: Bit different because there are a lot of kids that
Speaker 2: grew up wanting simply the BYU experience. And whether it's
Speaker 2: Mark Pope or Kevin Young. You know, Richie Saunders and
Speaker 2: Dollen Hall had scholarship offers to go play in Lexington
Speaker 2: for Mark Pope and Kentucky, but they wanted to stay
Speaker 2: in Provo, but they also were paid to stay. I
Speaker 2: don't know that Utah has that same type of dynamic
Speaker 2: with players just wanting the Utah type of experience. There
Speaker 2: are some certain certainly Utah men. Nate Orchard talks about
Speaker 2: this all the time. You know, when they was a
Speaker 2: basketball start Highland, a football start Highland, he had a
Speaker 2: grip of offers and he wanted the Utah experience. Morgan Scaley,
Speaker 2: Utah man, Highland high football star, one of the Utah experience.
Speaker 1: So there are some out there.
Speaker 2: But how many basketball recruits right now that we're in
Speaker 2: the fold to potentially play for Craig next year simply
Speaker 2: just want that Utah experience And they don't care if
Speaker 2: it's Craig Smith or Richard Patino or Alex Jensen because
Speaker 2: ultimately what it comes down to. And I've talked about
Speaker 2: this and I'll continue to talk about it because I
Speaker 2: think it's only fair to Craig. This is a roster
Speaker 2: that badly needs an infusion of top shelf talent, whether
Speaker 2: that's through the transfer portal, whether that's through you know,
Speaker 2: freshman commits, whatever your avenue is, you got to go
Speaker 2: get talent if you want to compete with the top
Speaker 2: shelf in the Big Twelve. This team was picked to
Speaker 2: finish sixteenth in the conference. There's an argument to me,
Speaker 2: argument to be made that Craig actually did a good
Speaker 2: job with a roster that's devoided talent. But when you're
Speaker 2: the head coach, you have to wear that too. Now,
Speaker 2: the good news is in this day and age of
Speaker 2: college basketball, with the transfer portal, you can up your
Speaker 2: talent very quickly and you can turn things around within
Speaker 2: one off season. So that should give you some hope.
Speaker 2: But you got to get the right guy. You got
Speaker 2: to fill out the bench. And are you looking at
Speaker 2: the pro model Brigham Young used. And if you hire
Speaker 2: Alex Jensen, longtime NBA assistant coach, like Kevin Young longtime
Speaker 2: assistant coach, do you follow the model where Alex's bench
Speaker 2: is littered with kind of ex pros, G League guys,
Speaker 2: NBA assistants. Do you go the strength and conditioning route.
Speaker 2: Do you grab somebody who's in the pros? Do you
Speaker 2: grab the NBA nutritionists? Everything BYU has done with their
Speaker 2: basketball program has been first of all supported economically on
Speaker 2: a very intense level.
Speaker 1: In a way that I wasn't sure we would ever see.
Speaker 2: But second of all, they have decided to go all
Speaker 2: in on the message to young players, like, look, you
Speaker 2: know Kevin, and Kevin talks. Look, I respect him. He's
Speaker 2: a good coach. He talks about how he came from
Speaker 2: the NBA every time he has a chance. And here's
Speaker 2: why you can sit across from aj Demants and his
Speaker 2: father and say, I coach Kevin Durant, I coach Chris Paul,
Speaker 2: I coached Booker. I can teach your son what he
Speaker 2: needs to be an NBA player, and Alex can do
Speaker 2: the very same thing. Alex can say I coached Luka Doncic,
Speaker 2: I coached Kyrie Irving. I helped develop Donovan Mitchell, I
Speaker 2: helped develop Rudy Gobert. I can teach your son what
Speaker 2: he needs to learn to be one of those dudes.
Speaker 2: And that matters. Of course it does. I mean BYU
Speaker 2: signed the best recruit in the country last year. So
Speaker 2: we'll see what direction we go. Nothing official as of yet,
Speaker 2: but it does feel like all the signs are pointing
Speaker 2: towards Alex Jensen back.
Speaker 3: To Brady on the wing, guarded there by Clay Brady
Speaker 3: close one.
Speaker 1: Up, gets it to go in the fowl.
Speaker 8: Help boutcher Brady Smith and Utah gets the win. Here
Speaker 8: today Finals four, Utah ninety nine in Arizona State seventy three.
Speaker 1: Really cool moments over the weekend.
Speaker 2: As the son of Craig Smith, I was able to
Speaker 2: get a and one opportunity. Brady's a good free throw shooter,
Speaker 2: so bummer that he was unable to convert that free throw.
Speaker 2: But the voice of the Utes, who was on the
Speaker 2: call as our guest on a Monday afternoon, Bill Riley, sir, how.
Speaker 3: Are you Spence. I'm doing well. How's your Monday?
Speaker 1: Good man? That was kind of a fun little moment, right.
Speaker 2: I would imagine there were probably a few eyes in
Speaker 2: the crowd that weren't necessarily dry after watching that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. I mean anytime that those guys, you know,
Speaker 3: the bomb squad, the backup guys get in, you know
Speaker 3: you want those guys just chuck it. Man, you've been
Speaker 3: you don't get on the floor very much. Put that ball.
Speaker 3: I know that you would have never hesitated, but put
Speaker 3: that ball up. And when Brady got the opportunity there,
Speaker 3: you know, it was just it was really, really cool.
Speaker 3: So I was happy for him to get that bucket.
Speaker 3: Would have been cool for him to hit the free
Speaker 3: throw to get him to one hundred, but still a
Speaker 3: nice moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet Craig actually cracked on when he got
Speaker 2: home as a kid, you got to make the free throw.
Speaker 1: But last time we spoke.
Speaker 2: Bill, you were in Orlando, I believe, waiting for the
Speaker 2: team to fly in. And it's been one week since
Speaker 2: the news broke that Craig had been let go. So
Speaker 2: now that you've had a chance to spend some time
Speaker 2: around the team, how do you think they're doing. How
Speaker 2: do you think they're holding up, and how do you
Speaker 2: think the news is landed with them?
Speaker 3: I think surprisingly well spent. I mean again, changes are
Speaker 3: never easy, but mid you know, in season changes are
Speaker 3: especially tough. But they didn't get off the great start
Speaker 3: against Arizona, but they competed, played Arizona almost to a
Speaker 3: dead dead even in the second half, and then they
Speaker 3: came out Saturday and it was it was, you know,
Speaker 3: it was I don't know, maybe because there was a
Speaker 3: little bit of time between the change in leadership and
Speaker 3: everything else, but they just seem to play loose and
Speaker 3: they looked like they were having fun. Now, you know,
Speaker 3: winning is always much more fun than losing and beating
Speaker 3: up on Arizona State, because you know they were they
Speaker 3: were not very good. Saturday is fun too, but there
Speaker 3: was just a looseness of bunch about the group on
Speaker 3: Saturday and a lot of high fighting and smiles and
Speaker 3: all that stuff. So yeah, I think they're dealing with
Speaker 3: it as well or better than you could probably expect.
Speaker 2: So I've drawn this parallel couple different times when the
Speaker 2: football team moved on from coach lud and Mike Pajakian
Speaker 2: took over as the play caller. Mike's first media availability,
Speaker 2: he was very honest. He said, look, this is Andy system,
Speaker 2: and you know there's nothing I'm going to do at
Speaker 2: this point in the season to change what he's implemented.
Speaker 2: And so I wondered if coach Eiler would change anything
Speaker 2: as far as what Craig has already put in place,
Speaker 2: because it's just hard to make changes at this point
Speaker 2: of the season. But one thing we have seen is
Speaker 2: more minutes for Keanu. Kiano does right and athletically that
Speaker 2: kid matches up. So your thoughts on the improved or
Speaker 2: I should say, accelerated minutes for Keano And have you
Speaker 2: seen anything else that coach Eiltz tried to do that's
Speaker 2: a little bit different than what Craig was trying to do.
Speaker 3: I think, And he said this in the first pregame
Speaker 3: chat we did at Arizona, and he reiterated it again
Speaker 3: on Saturday, Spence, he was going to reward hard play
Speaker 3: and effort with more minutes, and so maybe that's why
Speaker 3: you saw Catta DAW's getting more minutes. Kano is he
Speaker 3: is a talent Spence. I think he's going to be
Speaker 3: a guy that whoever the new coach is that comes
Speaker 3: in really puts the full court press on to keep
Speaker 3: this kid around because he is really good and I
Speaker 3: think his upside is there. But you've seen more minutes
Speaker 3: the last couple of games from Mason Madison as well.
Speaker 3: You know, Mason's a guy that's well traveled, he's a senior,
Speaker 3: but he plays really hard and he's given Josh good
Speaker 3: effort and his minutes have gone up a little bit too.
Speaker 3: So I don't know that, you know, philosophically or strategically,
Speaker 3: they've done a whole lot different. You know, when they
Speaker 3: don't throw the ball all over the gym, and they
Speaker 3: value the basketball. Keep those turnovers down. They've been competitive
Speaker 3: all year long, and they did that obviously guess Arizona State.
Speaker 3: But I think the one thing that he has done
Speaker 3: is really rewarded guys that have really busted their butts
Speaker 3: and given good effort.
Speaker 1: How big is Josh Eiler.
Speaker 2: He looks like he's like a big strong He looks
Speaker 2: like a football coach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's about six five sixty six. He played basketball league.
Speaker 3: He was a walk on at Kansas State and that's
Speaker 3: where he connected with Bob Huggins. So that's and he
Speaker 3: was with Huggins for a year at Kansas State as
Speaker 3: a grad assistant and then fifteen or sixteen years at
Speaker 3: West Virginia with it. But he had Josh is a
Speaker 3: big guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't really tell the first time I saw him, like,
Speaker 2: who is that football coach on the sideline?
Speaker 1: That's a big boy.
Speaker 2: But so look, if I asked you to get weird
Speaker 2: for a moment, to expand your imagination, Like the Long
Speaker 2: Beach State coach last year was called into the office
Speaker 2: of his boss and told that he was going to
Speaker 2: be relieved of his duties, and they marched on to
Speaker 2: won their conference tournament and went to the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 2: No part of me is predicting anything like that, but
Speaker 2: March is wild in college hoops. Rest of the way,
Speaker 2: you know, win one for the gift for type approach.
Speaker 2: How do you think the rest of the year and
Speaker 2: then into the Big twelve tournament's gonna look for this team.
Speaker 3: I think they're gonna play really hard. I think they've
Speaker 3: got a really good chance tomorrow night in the Senior
Speaker 3: Night game, because they played really hard at West Virginia
Speaker 3: there again downfall Spence. I sound like I'm repeating myself here,
Speaker 3: but they turned the ball over and we're really loose
Speaker 3: with the basketball. It's hard to do that against good
Speaker 3: now West Virginia is it's hard to describe them because
Speaker 3: they're eight and ten in conference play, but they've got
Speaker 3: some good wins, Their net records pretty good. They should
Speaker 3: probably be a little better than they are, but they're
Speaker 3: not bad. They're a fringe tournament team. But you can't
Speaker 3: do that on the road anywhere. So if they value
Speaker 3: the basketball tomorrow night, they've got a chance. Because that
Speaker 3: game was a single digit game to West Virginia made
Speaker 3: some free throws, late, and then by used rivalry game.
Speaker 3: They've already beaten BYU once. Now BYU is playing really
Speaker 3: good basketball right now, but you and I have both
Speaker 3: been around long enough to know rivalry games are funny
Speaker 3: things and if you make some shots or another team
Speaker 3: is making some size So I think they've got a
Speaker 3: really good chance in these next two games, and then
Speaker 3: they're going to be somewhere depending on you know, if
Speaker 3: they go oh to two to one and one two
Speaker 3: and oh, they could be anywhere from a seven seed
Speaker 3: and get a buy which is a long shot because
Speaker 3: it's the other teams have to do some stuff to
Speaker 3: a nine or a ten or eleven seed, so they're
Speaker 3: likely still going to play on that first day of
Speaker 3: the tournament in Kansas City. But if they're in that
Speaker 3: ten to eleven range, you know, they might be playing
Speaker 3: a TCU, a team they beat on the road this
Speaker 3: year already, or a Baylor team that they played really tough.
Speaker 3: So again, I don't have any hard and fast predictions,
Speaker 3: but I know that this team, when they value the
Speaker 3: basketball and rebounded pretty well, and you've got a lot
Speaker 3: of seniors that I might be playing their last games,
Speaker 3: they could have a chance to win a few games
Speaker 3: here in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: So you're reference Kuanto count of Daz, who right now
Speaker 2: is a sophomore, and I would imagine with his kind
Speaker 2: of incremental growth, you'd like to see what it looks
Speaker 2: like when he's actually fully baked as a player. So
Speaker 2: I think you'd like to have him back. Ezra is
Speaker 2: a junior. He's shown growth. I think that's a talent
Speaker 2: you wouldn't mind having in your program. And then I
Speaker 2: guess the other player would be Jay Jake Wally and
Speaker 2: who's a sophomore. You know, Caleb Senior lost and senior
Speaker 2: Gave Masons Sharb Jams is a junior. Who do you
Speaker 2: think this program is going to make a full core
Speaker 2: press to try to get back on the roster for
Speaker 2: next season.
Speaker 3: Well, obviously that depends on the higher and how they
Speaker 3: value these guys. But all those guys that you just mentioned,
Speaker 3: I you know, Ezrasar is averaging almost twenty points a
Speaker 3: game at about seven rebounds in his last five games.
Speaker 3: He's playing at a really high level. He's also beginning
Speaker 3: to hit his free throws. And I'll tell you, Mike,
Speaker 3: Mike sharof Joms when he is like the other day,
Speaker 3: he had fourteen points and six assists in that win
Speaker 3: over Arizona State. I like his talent too. While Lean
Speaker 3: and Dawes, if you could keep and again, it's hard
Speaker 3: to say in this day and age of college basketball
Speaker 3: because these guys all you know, have the wandering eye.
Speaker 3: But whoever the coach is that comes in, if he
Speaker 3: could retain those guys you were just talking about, that's
Speaker 3: a really nice base to work with and some good
Speaker 3: young players to build around in what you do in
Speaker 3: recruiting and the portal and high school and transfers and
Speaker 3: everything else. So you know, I think whoever the guy
Speaker 3: is is going to have to evaluate the talent for sure.
Speaker 3: But if you could keep three or four of those
Speaker 3: guys you mentioned, maybe that's a long shot. I don't
Speaker 3: know because I'm not any of those guys. But if
Speaker 3: you could keep three or four of those guys, I
Speaker 3: think you'd be in pretty good shape with a good
Speaker 3: base to start from for whoever the new staff is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And ultimately, you know, if you get two or
Speaker 2: three back, or if you get zero back, it doesn't
Speaker 2: you know, it doesn't change the fact this roster needs
Speaker 2: a massive upgrade.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: The good news is, in this day and age, you
Speaker 2: can do it within a year in an expedited way
Speaker 2: that you weren't able to prior to. And I know
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't love the transfer portal. And
Speaker 2: we'll see what the house versus NCAA settlement brings. If
Speaker 2: these players are going to be asked to sign contracts
Speaker 2: where you stick around for two year years with an
Speaker 2: option for a third or whatever.
Speaker 1: Nobody really fully knows.
Speaker 2: But I wonder if you have any insight on recruits
Speaker 2: that were, you know, ready to play for Craig and
Speaker 2: talent there was ready to play for Craig and whether
Speaker 2: or not this program is you know, and when when
Speaker 2: Mark decided to move on from Larry, they lost a
Speaker 2: grip of good players, a lot of talent. Are we
Speaker 2: expecting the same thing and actodus of talent either on
Speaker 2: the roster or on the way.
Speaker 1: To play here with with Craig losing his job.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I don't know either way. Spence the on the
Speaker 3: roster stuff, I don't know. They've got the one kid,
Speaker 3: Krag they've had Frank Jackson's little brother committed. He's a
Speaker 3: Salt Lake Community College player. Everybody remembers Frank Jackson played
Speaker 3: in the NBA and obviously at Loam Peak, and in
Speaker 3: some of my conversations with Craig he would he never
Speaker 3: got specific with me about who they were targeting. He
Speaker 3: just said they felt good about some people they were
Speaker 3: talking to. And I don't know if that was, you know,
Speaker 3: potential transfers, or if that was high school kids or
Speaker 3: what it might have been. So I'm a little bit
Speaker 3: more in the dark on the recruiting side of things
Speaker 3: right now. And to be very fair, I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people are in that same position. There's a
Speaker 3: handful of programs that go out and you know, sign
Speaker 3: some of these top ten, fifteen, twenty high school kids.
Speaker 3: But I think a lot of these guys are coming
Speaker 3: in and saying, Okay, we're going to use the portal
Speaker 3: to rebuild this thing. I used tj Otzelberger as an
Speaker 3: example at Iowa State when he took that job. When
Speaker 3: he left UNLV and took that job, I think Iowa
Speaker 3: Stated had two or three wins the year before, and
Speaker 3: he came in and in that first year he lost
Speaker 3: a ton of talent at Iowa State and brought a
Speaker 3: bunch of transfers in the next year they were competitive,
Speaker 3: and then the year after that they were, you know,
Speaker 3: competing for the big twelve titles. So if you do
Speaker 3: it right in the portal and mix that with some
Speaker 3: high school or developmental kids that are in your program,
Speaker 3: you know, the right person could turn it around pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: I know that you are unable to comment on the
Speaker 2: majority of the stuff surrounding the coaching search, but I
Speaker 2: will ask you, are you aware of any sort of
Speaker 2: time frame that Mark and maybe President Randall have in
Speaker 2: mind before they want to land because you can't slow play,
Speaker 2: you know, you got to have your guy in play.
Speaker 2: So are you aware of any time frame that is
Speaker 2: preferable for the athletic department?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the proverbial sooner rather than later is always good.
Speaker 3: But I haven't been told any certain timeline on any
Speaker 3: of that stuff. So I think one of the reasons
Speaker 3: why the change was made a week ago today was
Speaker 3: to get a jump start on it, get a head
Speaker 3: start on it, and really get ahead of the game.
Speaker 3: And so I think they probably again would just assume,
Speaker 3: having done it a week ago, are probably down the
Speaker 3: road at least a little bit on it.
Speaker 2: Tell me what in conversations you have with people around town,
Speaker 2: friends of yours, you know, people that the care Avaluuta
Speaker 2: Athletic away from your job as the voice and director
Speaker 2: of broadcasting, because we have a bunch of different options,
Speaker 2: We have a bunch of different avenues, We have a
Speaker 2: bunch of different concepts and theories about how you can
Speaker 2: go about this. What do people say to you about
Speaker 2: what they helped this hire looks like in order for
Speaker 2: them to support this program.
Speaker 3: I think, and maybe I said it with you, or
Speaker 3: I've been on your show and Scott's show and Sean's show.
Speaker 3: But the people I talk to and you and I
Speaker 3: have some common friends, they're older guys. They're not old guys,
Speaker 3: but they're older guys now, and they can remember when
Speaker 3: Utah was really good consistently at basketball in the late
Speaker 3: eighties and the nineties, the early two thousands, and most
Speaker 3: of the guys that are friends of mine, that are
Speaker 3: Utah grads or ties to the Utah program are just
Speaker 3: wanting to get that glimmer, wanting it to be I
Speaker 3: just think there's a lot of Utah fans Spence that
Speaker 3: are on the precipice, you know, and that guy when
Speaker 3: that coach gets in there that you really see turns
Speaker 3: the corner a little bit. I think it opens the
Speaker 3: floodgate for support, and I think the people are just
Speaker 3: are itching to get back to the Huntsman Center. And
Speaker 3: I've just had a lot of people that are you
Speaker 3: know that that are really anxious to see who the
Speaker 3: guy is here that is hired, because I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of people that really want to get back
Speaker 3: out to your point, I think you brought it up
Speaker 3: with me a week ago, there's no reason you can't
Speaker 3: be a football at a basketball school. Lots of schools
Speaker 3: do it well, and I think there's a lot of
Speaker 3: people that are just like, ah, I can't wait to
Speaker 3: see who this is because I really want to be
Speaker 3: back at the Huntsman Center and seeing that great brand
Speaker 3: of basketball that I saw when I was in college
Speaker 3: or in high school.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep.
Speaker 2: And if there's a coach that's hired that's able to
Speaker 2: build this thing up where they win and they play
Speaker 2: entertaining basketball and somewhat consistent, I'm entirely confident this community
Speaker 2: will show up for that. I wondered because I hadn't
Speaker 2: had a chance to ask you this.
Speaker 1: I believe it was Florida State.
Speaker 2: I think there are three or four big programs who
Speaker 2: have canceled their spring games. Nebraska things doing it. They're
Speaker 2: just not doing spring football. They're doing spring football, but
Speaker 2: they're not doing spring games anymore.
Speaker 1: Do you think this is something.
Speaker 2: That could seep into the culture of college football where
Speaker 2: we just see a lot of teams doing away with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do. I think you know, Florida State did.
Speaker 3: Nebraska did. I think they use the guys of renovations
Speaker 3: to their stadium for doing it. But that's a big deal.
Speaker 3: Nebraska gets eighty thousand people because there's nothing else to
Speaker 3: do in Nebraska, but they get eighty thousand people for
Speaker 3: their spring game, so they cancel their spring game. Is
Speaker 3: a really really big deal. And there was somebody else.
Speaker 3: You're right there at usc usc All.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right too.
Speaker 3: So I think we'll probably see more of it. I
Speaker 3: know that Kyle Whittingham didn't have any plans to do
Speaker 3: it this year. I was talking to some people today
Speaker 3: and he's still good doing that spring game. I think
Speaker 3: we may end up getting to a point spence where
Speaker 3: it's not so much the game that's important, but it's
Speaker 3: a spring gathering to where people feel like they get
Speaker 3: to connect to their football program in the spring, whether
Speaker 3: that's a scrimmage, whether it's a practice, and then you
Speaker 3: get to have kind of a fan fest after practice,
Speaker 3: because to be very fair, most of these spring games
Speaker 3: are just glorified practices. Anyway. They might go for a
Speaker 3: quarter or a quarter and a half and then it's kind
Speaker 3: of like a you know, and they hold a lot
Speaker 3: of guys out. So I think fans like to come
Speaker 3: to the stadium. If they were watching a high end practice,
Speaker 3: I think they'd be okay with that too. But I
Speaker 3: do know at Utah there's no plans at least while
Speaker 3: Kyle Whittingham is coached to cancel it right now, all.
Speaker 1: Right, I know you got to go.
Speaker 2: But before I say, you lose, since we're in the
Speaker 2: football space, spring camp for the Utes is Thursday in
Speaker 2: March twentieth BYU already in action, the twenty two Forever
Speaker 2: game Saturday, April nineteenth. Fifteen practices over the course of
Speaker 2: five weeks. Just give me a couple of things you're
Speaker 2: hoping to learn about a team that's going to look
Speaker 2: a lot different than it did a year ago.
Speaker 3: I think I want to see first of all, Devin
Speaker 3: damp Pier, because I, like everybody else, has watched lost
Speaker 3: lots of New Mexico tape from a year ago, and
Speaker 3: he's he appears to be a really dynamic football player.
Speaker 3: I want to see how quickly and maybe it doesn't
Speaker 3: happen in the spring in fifteen practices, or maybe it does.
Speaker 3: You know, Jason Beck's offense takes with a lot of
Speaker 3: new faces. You know, the offensive line is going to
Speaker 3: be pretty much the same, but the receiver room's going
Speaker 3: to be a lot different, the running back room's going
Speaker 3: to be a lot different, and the quarterback position is
Speaker 3: going to be a lot different, and they're not going
Speaker 3: to play as many tight ends. They've already said that
Speaker 3: his personnel is a lot more eleven personnel instead of
Speaker 3: thirteen personnel. So I'm really curious to see how all
Speaker 3: those moving pieces on offense work. And you don't get
Speaker 3: to see a lot defensively because they don't do a
Speaker 3: lot of big hitting. But I am just a little
Speaker 3: curious to see how the corner spot looks and how
Speaker 3: they fill in some of the voids on the defensive line.
Speaker 3: Losing some guys to transfer into too graduation, so those
Speaker 3: are a couple of the areas I'm curious with, but
Speaker 3: I think I'm going to be like a lot of people.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have my eyes on what the offense looked like.
Speaker 3: And you know, Kyle was really pointed in saying, Hey,
Speaker 3: you can't have one of these really super intricate, thick
Speaker 3: playbooks anymore because you don't have two and three and
Speaker 3: four years to you know, integrate guys into that offense
Speaker 3: and learn it. So to that point, let's see how
Speaker 3: quickly Jason Beck's offense allows players to assimilate to it.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of what I'm looking at.
Speaker 2: Well, it's always good to have football to talk about.
Speaker 2: So just a couple of weeks away, Roles, appreciate the time, buddy,
Speaker 2: have a good week.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: By the way, what's the what's the vibe about Utah
Speaker 3: basketball on the Asian Posse group text?
Speaker 2: You know what, let me kick the tires and I'll
Speaker 2: get back to you. That's a very important question I
Speaker 2: had not considered.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 1: Thank you for reminding me. I'm going to stand the text.
Speaker 3: Now, will do? Thanks Bence.
Speaker 1: All right, Bill Riley.
Speaker 2: The Utah Men's Basketball Coaches Show will be tonight at six.
Speaker 2: So if you want to get to know Josh Eilert
Speaker 2: a little bit more, stay tuned. Right after we saygo I,
Speaker 2: Bill's gonna have the Coaches Show with Coach Eilert.
Speaker 1: As a big man's big dude. I was watching a coach.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that looks like a football coach on the sideline,
Speaker 2: So stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: Coming up.
Speaker 2: On the other side, though, we're going to bring in
Speaker 2: Sam Monson to cover some football, some NFL combine, NFL
Speaker 2: Draft stuff.
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Speaker 2: Kind of a quiet night here locally, most of the
Speaker 2: college basketball stuff gets rolling tomorrow. West Virginia in town
Speaker 2: for Senior Night for the Utah men's basketball team. Head
Speaker 2: on off to the Huntsmons Center to support these young men.
Speaker 2: I've had some tough news with their coach being fired
Speaker 2: over the past couple of weeks. BYU has a big
Speaker 2: one at Iowa State in Ames and then the Jazz
Speaker 2: are at action tonight against the red hot Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2: I don't know the last time I was able to
Speaker 2: say that sentence out loud.
Speaker 1: But let's see a little more football.
Speaker 2: NFL Draft is riding around the corner April twenty fourth
Speaker 2: through the twenty sixth, and it's gonna be inside and
Speaker 2: around lambeau Field where the Packers play.
Speaker 1: Our next guest is in front of the show.
Speaker 2: It's been a minute, but Sam Monson back on the
Speaker 2: Drive on a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, Sam, how are.
Speaker 9: You doing well? How about you?
Speaker 1: O'm good man. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: First of all, give me your thoughts on what you
Speaker 2: think the draft's gonna look like like when you how
Speaker 2: are they going to like logistically, how is this gonna work?
Speaker 2: Because when I look at the NFL website it says
Speaker 2: it's going to be inside and around Lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a good question. I think they're kind of
Speaker 9: basically taking over a block or two right outside the
Speaker 9: stadium and kind of creating the entire thing from one
Speaker 9: end of Lambeau to facing a way for it down
Speaker 9: down that kind of tidle town little stretch of road there.
Speaker 9: I think it'll be a pretty spectacular looking thing once
Speaker 9: they've got it all done and arranged.
Speaker 2: Huh interesting, well out of the box thinking. I guess
Speaker 2: you got to like that. So Sam, from your vantage
Speaker 2: point when it comes to analyzing the combine what is
Speaker 2: real and what is just for TV entertainment, it's always
Speaker 2: interesting to me as far as how much of this
Speaker 2: is just kind of a show and how much of
Speaker 2: this is actually real when it comes to what you
Speaker 2: see these players go through. How much of this is
Speaker 2: think you know, things you think are actually tangible and
Speaker 2: we can learn from.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, the NFL does a really good job of
Speaker 9: turning everything in the calendar these days into some kind
Speaker 9: of TV event and some kind of Muth's watch entertainment.
Speaker 9: You know, It's not like it used to be, where
Speaker 9: it was just the season, the postseason, and then everyone
Speaker 9: went away for nine months, you know, and came back
Speaker 9: again did it all over again. Now the NFL calendar
Speaker 9: is almost three sixty five days a year, and they're
Speaker 9: really good at making an event out of everything. But
Speaker 9: there's substance behind it as well. And that's not to
Speaker 9: say it's all of the puzzle. And I think NFL
Speaker 9: teams everybody has gotten a lot better at not getting
Speaker 9: too carried away by workout numbers and letting it override
Speaker 9: all of the other data points that you have and
Speaker 9: all the other information in particular you know, the tape
Speaker 9: and your evaluation from scouts. But it is a piece
Speaker 9: of the puzzle and understanding, you know, a lot of
Speaker 9: the athleticism work is about thresholds and does this guy
Speaker 9: that you think is a good player and has you know,
Speaker 9: good tape and attributes that you want to buy into,
Speaker 9: does he have the measurables that you know, year's worth
Speaker 9: of data have sort of said, if he's above this threshold,
Speaker 9: it can play in the NFL, or if he doesn't.
Speaker 9: If he falls below those numbers, you know, then you
Speaker 9: have a discussion to have about whether you want to
Speaker 9: start chasing exceptions or if you just write this guy
Speaker 9: off even if you liked him beforehand.
Speaker 2: Give me a couple couple of winners Combine winners. Some
Speaker 2: players you think helped themselves the most in Indianapolis.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I think there were quite a few
Speaker 9: of them overall. Nick em and Wori, the South Carolina safety,
Speaker 9: I mean, he had one of the best performances of
Speaker 9: any player at the Combine. Absolutely spectacular at you know,
Speaker 9: six three, two hundred and twenty pounds to jump a
Speaker 9: forty three inch vertical and have the kind of numbers
Speaker 9: across the board that he did, speed numbers and all
Speaker 9: those kinds of things. That was a spectacular performance by
Speaker 9: him and can only be propelling him upwards. I thought
Speaker 9: a couple of the edge rushers that we thought would
Speaker 9: run well did James Junior from Tennessee, Schamar Stewart from
Speaker 9: Texas A and M Those guys were supposed to be
Speaker 9: impressive athletes and they were today. Barn the Texas do
Speaker 9: what all defensive bank For him to come out, I mean,
Speaker 9: he's getting a lot of comps to Bryan Branch, the
Speaker 9: former Alabama star defensive bank who's now become a great
Speaker 9: player for the Detroit Lions. Baron ran a four to
Speaker 9: four flat. I mean Branch slipped into the second round
Speaker 9: because he ran in the four to five. So for
Speaker 9: Baron to go out there and put that kind of
Speaker 9: time out there shows that he can be a genuine
Speaker 9: player pretty much any spot in the secondary.
Speaker 2: On the other side of things, a couple of players
Speaker 2: that disappointed that didn't have a great week to have
Speaker 2: some work to do if they want to improve their stock.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't think there were too many that had
Speaker 9: really rough days. Dean Walker, the Kentucky nose tackle. He
Speaker 9: didn't run a forty, but his jumps were pretty pedestrian.
Speaker 9: He wasn't as big, I think as kind of he
Speaker 9: was during the Seas, So either he was never that
Speaker 9: big in the first place, or he's lost weight and
Speaker 9: lost signs, you know, presumably to try and show that
Speaker 9: he can be a really good athlete, and hasn't yet
Speaker 9: put that out there. So for a guy whose tape
Speaker 9: is up and down and is inconsistent. But the billing
Speaker 9: on him the book was he would be a spectacular
Speaker 9: athlete and the guy you want to buy into because
Speaker 9: of that. Didn't really show that or hasn't really shown
Speaker 9: that so far between the Senior Bowl and the combine
Speaker 9: ten Johnson from Oregon not necessarily a bad workout, but
Speaker 9: he showed up at one hundred and fifty four pounds,
Speaker 9: which I think everyone kind of knew, you know, we
Speaker 9: knew he would be in and around that size, but
Speaker 9: his kind of composite workout was it was weird. I mean,
Speaker 9: he ran in the four fives, which is a bad
Speaker 9: time for a guy that size. His ten yard split
Speaker 9: wasn't spectacular, but he ran a three cone that was
Speaker 9: properly elite six to sixth type of three cone. So
Speaker 9: he's the classic quicker rather than fast type of player.
Speaker 9: But also he then showed that he had the fastest
Speaker 9: miles per hour figure of anybody during the drills, And
Speaker 9: that's a new sort of aspect of the combine. These
Speaker 9: days you're seeing some of the tracking data being put
Speaker 9: into effect and live action, and not during the forty
Speaker 9: but during the actual receiver drills. As Johnson was the
Speaker 9: fastest guy out there running a go route. So just
Speaker 9: a strange sort of profile of a guy who you
Speaker 9: know looks quicker than fast, but then does show that
Speaker 9: when you actually get him doing football things, the playing
Speaker 9: speed is probably a lot better than that four or
Speaker 9: five number.
Speaker 2: Most importantly, Sam, were you present for the Ian Rappaport,
Speaker 2: Jordan Schultz back and forth? I mean, the biggest story
Speaker 2: to come out of the combine by far right.
Speaker 9: It was. I was telling my wife that during the
Speaker 9: week that you know, this is all anybody is talking
Speaker 9: about today, and that's not a great endorsement of what's
Speaker 9: happening during the week, that this.
Speaker 3: Was such a big story.
Speaker 9: Sadly, I think I missed it by about forty five minutes.
Speaker 9: I had been at that Starbucks on the way by,
Speaker 9: and then forty five minutes later I see that this
Speaker 9: story had gotten down and I can't believe that. I mean,
Speaker 9: this is where it's like Grand Central Station, It's where
Speaker 9: everybody is for a lot of that combine. Meetings take
Speaker 9: place there, all this kind of stuff. So it must
Speaker 9: have happened in front of you know, ten fifteen journalists,
Speaker 9: and not one of these guys has tracked down the
Speaker 9: CCTV footage, the security tape to show us exactly what happened.
Speaker 9: I'm disappointed in my journalist colleagues.
Speaker 2: I'm with you and Sam over the years, as you
Speaker 2: stop by, you seem like a really friendly guy. But
Speaker 2: I will ask you, have you ever had a beef
Speaker 2: with another media member that has led to like an
Speaker 2: in personal tercation.
Speaker 9: I don't think so, actually, I think. I mean I've
Speaker 9: had some sort of you know, Twitter spots with people,
Speaker 9: but I don't think it's ever led to the point
Speaker 9: where when you see them in person it's been a
Speaker 9: major problem as we I don't think I've ever reached
Speaker 9: that stage as well. I do wonder if part of
Speaker 9: it is because people ascume him. I'm like five two
Speaker 9: because I'm standing next to Steve Palazzola most of the
Speaker 9: time and he's six', Ten SO i get to may,
Speaker 9: LOOK i get to MAKE i get made look like
Speaker 9: a child on the. Regular But i'm, actually you, know five,
Speaker 9: Eleven SO i wonder if it's a surprising thing when
Speaker 9: people see me in, person, like, oh he's not actually
Speaker 9: that small a. Guy he's not not a little guy
Speaker 9: that we thought he.
Speaker 2: Was And i'm actually going back and forth in my
Speaker 2: head about. This does The irish accent disarm? People, Like,
Speaker 2: oh he's really? Nice or is it like, wait maybe
Speaker 2: he's like An irish street, Fighter like what what does
Speaker 2: that do for?
Speaker 9: PEOPLE i, mean The irish accent is pretty much gone now,
Speaker 9: anyway SO i don't think.
Speaker 3: That helps or hurts either.
Speaker 9: Way, UNFORTUNATELY i need to ham it back up with
Speaker 9: This dublin game coming this. SEASON i need to now
Speaker 9: as the TIME i need to tap back into The irish.
Speaker 2: News fair, Enough, hey before we get TO i got
Speaker 2: a couple of questions, about you, know the top of
Speaker 2: the drafts and quarterbacks and. Such but you, Know Jackson
Speaker 2: dard played his high school ball. Here he was a
Speaker 2: really kid at a corner canyon, kid and you know he
Speaker 2: uh he went ONTO usc and then of course transferred
Speaker 2: On Old miss and had a hell of a hell
Speaker 2: of a college. Career uh wanted him to stay, here of,
Speaker 2: course and maybe play for the you or B. Yu
Speaker 2: but when you have AN sc offer and that's what you,
Speaker 2: want that's where you.
Speaker 1: Go tell me what your analysis is of.
Speaker 2: Him i've read a lot of people who are saying
Speaker 2: that he's, drifting you, know rising up draft, boards and
Speaker 2: and so before we get to you know what you
Speaker 2: think the top of the draft's gonna look, like what's
Speaker 2: your what's your take On Jackson?
Speaker 9: Dark, YEAH i think he is rising up, boards AND
Speaker 9: i think he's got a lot of kind of he
Speaker 9: takes a lot of the boxes the things you're looking.
Speaker 9: For the statistical profile is very. Good you, know he's
Speaker 9: got multiple years of very good uh production and performance
Speaker 9: at All, miss albeit in an offense THAT i think
Speaker 9: is conducive to that kind of good play that helped
Speaker 9: him out. There but he's got some impressive performances and
Speaker 9: he's got a really good odd Season and that sounds
Speaker 9: kind of silly to, people you, know nothing's happened really,
Speaker 9: since but he's the guy that went to The senior.
Speaker 9: Ball you, know that's a week of this is in
Speaker 9: an all star setting that carries weight WITH nfl, teams
Speaker 9: AND i think he impressed people throwing at the combine as.
Speaker 9: Well SO i think everywhere he's been in this pre
Speaker 9: draft process he's enhanced his his kind of standing a little.
Speaker 9: Bit so you know a guy where there's definitely an
Speaker 9: open question once you get beyond those top two quarterbacks
Speaker 9: Cam ward And Shedher, sanders like who's the next guy
Speaker 9: and how high do you take? Him there are going
Speaker 9: to be teams that don't get their shot at those
Speaker 9: top two guys and still need a. QUARTERBACK i Think
Speaker 9: Jackson dart is in with a chance to be a
Speaker 9: lot of people's next.
Speaker 2: Guy how do you analyze those Two Fador, sanders Cam.
Speaker 2: Ward it's, funny it feels LIKE i Guess i'll use
Speaker 2: the term polarizing when it comes to the quarterback class this,
Speaker 2: year and namely those.
Speaker 1: Two is there is there one you prefer over the? Other?
Speaker 1: Salmon if, so, why?
Speaker 9: YEAH i mean they're very different, quarterbacks SO i think
Speaker 9: you're going to find the league quite split on. THEM
Speaker 9: a lot of people are going to gravitate towards Cam
Speaker 9: ward because he's the guy with the special. Traits he's
Speaker 9: the guy with the bigger, arm the better, athleticism the
Speaker 9: spectacular plays on his highlight reel and a lot of
Speaker 9: THE nfl is going through guys like. THAT i, mean
Speaker 9: think Of Josh allen And Patrick, mahomes you, know and
Speaker 9: these are guys with those highlight reel spectacular traits that
Speaker 9: can make amazing things. Happen And Shador standers is more
Speaker 9: of The i'm not comparing him to this, player but
Speaker 9: he's more in The Joe burrow style of, quarterback which
Speaker 9: is a guy that didn't have amazing. TOOLS i, mean
Speaker 9: People Joe burrow went number one overall and was a
Speaker 9: fairly clear cut number one overall, quarterback but people questioned
Speaker 9: whether he had a strong enough, arm whether his arm
Speaker 9: was good enough to go at that. Stage chador, STANDARDS
Speaker 9: i think is in the same kind of world where
Speaker 9: his tools don't wow you, ironically for you, know a
Speaker 9: kid Of Deon, sanders one of the greatest athletes of
Speaker 9: all time at any. Sport standers doesn't have amazing, traits
Speaker 9: but he's he's an accurate passer and layer the. Ball
Speaker 9: he's got a good, touch he's got a good deep,
Speaker 9: ball and it's kind of the mental aspect and just
Speaker 9: the feel for playing the. POSITION i think that people
Speaker 9: will gravitate, too if you're A shood Or sanders, fan
Speaker 9: so you, KNOW i like his. Tape part of, ME
Speaker 9: i think is leaning Towards Shoudhar, Sanders BUT i think
Speaker 9: it very much depends what style of quarterback or what
Speaker 9: style prospect you tend to gravitate.
Speaker 2: TOWARDS i feel like most of the mocks Have Abdul
Speaker 2: carter off the board at one To. Tennessee do you
Speaker 2: agree with, that and if, not which direction do you
Speaker 2: think they?
Speaker 9: Go certainly a lot of.
Speaker 5: Them.
Speaker 9: YEAH i, MEAN i think a lot of people bought
Speaker 9: into this line that The titans were putting out, there
Speaker 9: which is we're not going to pass on a Blue
Speaker 9: chat prospect at the top of the. Draft then, critically
Speaker 9: that doesn't preclude a. Quarterback it just means that if
Speaker 9: they take, one they've already endorsed them as a Blue chat.
Speaker 9: PROSPECT i think, that's you, know the kind of smoke
Speaker 9: screen or the kind of not quite misinformation but ambiguous
Speaker 9: statement teams tend to make around this. TIME a lot
Speaker 9: of people jumped on that and, went, well they're going
Speaker 9: to pass in a, Quarterback they're going to, take you,
Speaker 9: know the best player in the draft, otherwise and That's.
Speaker 9: CARTER i think they could end up taking Cam. Ward you,
Speaker 9: know it wouldn't shock me if they drafted him and,
Speaker 9: said with his, traits with his, ability with what he
Speaker 9: did to That miami, program he is a blue check
Speaker 9: quarterback and that's the thing the team needs more than.
Speaker 2: Anything so, Ultimately Travis hunter oftentimes has referred to as
Speaker 2: the best player in college. Football and obviously we're out
Speaker 2: here In big twelve country Formerly packed twelve, country and
Speaker 2: we Saw travis up, close you, know a. Ton if
Speaker 2: he's the best, player why isn't he going off the
Speaker 2: board of? One and what do you think his floor?
Speaker 6: Is?
Speaker 1: Sam, YEAH i.
Speaker 9: Mean it's a great. Question generally, speaking if you're not
Speaker 9: taking a quarterback at one team's team sort of lean
Speaker 9: towards a couple of. Positions it's edge, rusher its offensive,
Speaker 9: tackle and they sort of view those as the safe
Speaker 9: draft picks at those at that. Spot BUT i think
Speaker 9: you're right that we in TODAY'S, nfl at the passing
Speaker 9: game what it, is we should be asking more and.
Speaker 3: More if you.
Speaker 9: Think different positions are, special why are they not in
Speaker 9: consideration for number? ONE i made that argument back When
Speaker 9: Sauce gardner was coming out you, know if you think
Speaker 9: he's that, special why are we not talking about a
Speaker 9: cornerback in number?
Speaker 3: One?
Speaker 9: Overall they can have that kind of. Impact hunter is
Speaker 9: a totally unique player in this draft and in pretty
Speaker 9: much any. Draft he is a legitimate two way, player
Speaker 9: not the way we've seen from players in the, past
Speaker 9: where they're a, cornerback but they'll play a little bit
Speaker 9: on offense and you, know just enough to kind of
Speaker 9: we can call them two way. Players Travis hunter was
Speaker 9: a full time guy on both sides of the, ball
Speaker 9: and that doesn't. HAPPEN i, mean it hasn't happened since
Speaker 9: like the. Sixties it's completely. Ridiculous and what's more insane
Speaker 9: is THAT i think he's the best player in the
Speaker 9: draft at each one of those. POSITIONS i think he's
Speaker 9: wide receiver one AND i think he's corner. One SO
Speaker 9: i think thirty two teams are.
Speaker 3: Going to treat that.
Speaker 9: Differently some of, THEM i, think are going to see
Speaker 9: him just as a wide, receiver that's what he is to.
Speaker 9: Us some of them are going to see him just
Speaker 9: as a Corner some of them probably have two Different
Speaker 9: Travis hunters on their draft board and just rank him
Speaker 9: as two separate players and figure, out you, know we'll
Speaker 9: figure which way the board, lands what our needs look,
Speaker 9: like and will adjust. Accordingly and THEN i think you're
Speaker 9: going to get a smaller group of teams that are
Speaker 9: willing to entertain some kind of two way playing style
Speaker 9: for him going. Forward the easiest way of doing that
Speaker 9: is to draft them as a corner and have him
Speaker 9: play a kind of package of offensive. Plays BUT i
Speaker 9: think there are other ways of doing it as. Well and,
Speaker 9: LOOK i think there's a bunch of different ways of
Speaker 9: looking at, that BUT i think one of them is
Speaker 9: you can say it's cut in half his chance of
Speaker 9: being a. Bust you, know if he doesn't work out
Speaker 9: at one of, them you can move him to the
Speaker 9: other side of the ball and give him a second
Speaker 9: shot at a. Career SO i think you're he's a
Speaker 9: safer draft pick than players typically are a wide receiver
Speaker 9: or a.
Speaker 3: Corner BUT i think you're.
Speaker 9: Right there is an argument That hunter is the best
Speaker 9: player in this. Draft there's an argument that he's the
Speaker 9: best player two steparate positions in this. Draft and if
Speaker 9: he is actually capable of playing a unique two way,
Speaker 9: role that is theoretically more valuable than any other player
Speaker 9: in this draft outside of quarterback as. Well so if
Speaker 9: you're not if you don't believe the quarterbacks are worthy
Speaker 9: of those top. Picks, AGAIN i Think Travis hunter is
Speaker 9: absolutely in the argument to go number.
Speaker 2: One If travis is adamant that he plays both sides
Speaker 2: of the, ball do you think that sours certain teams on?
Speaker 9: Him i'm sure there are certain teams that wouldn't be into. That,
Speaker 9: YEAH i think there are definitely teams that are, saying,
Speaker 9: look even, NOW i mean SO i thought it was
Speaker 9: a bigger problem in twenty twenty, three but even on
Speaker 9: his twenty twenty four to, tape on both sides of the,
Speaker 9: ball you can see plays where he looks, tired, Right
Speaker 9: and that's so if you're a team thinking about playing
Speaker 9: him two ways in any, capacity what you're asking yourself
Speaker 9: is what kind of rest can we get? Him like
Speaker 9: how the workload he had was too? Much how can
Speaker 9: we scale that? Down what can we get it down
Speaker 9: to and will be manageable at that? Point SO i
Speaker 9: think that's definitely a potential. Issue if he's there would
Speaker 9: be teams THAT i think just don't want any part
Speaker 9: of that and think it's not worth the. Risk it's
Speaker 9: not worth the hassle, of you, know trying to get
Speaker 9: him to learn two different sides of the ball and
Speaker 9: try to juggle meetings that typically would take place at
Speaker 9: the same time. Otherwise you, know there's a lot of
Speaker 9: kind of logistics that would go into try to get
Speaker 9: him to play both sides of the. Ball i'm score
Speaker 9: some teams just don't see the need or the you,
Speaker 9: know the person that's most enhanced by the two way
Speaker 9: thing Is Travis. Hunter and if you're a team that
Speaker 9: just needs a wide receiver and don't necessarily need the cornerback,
Speaker 9: stuff you, know there's not much in it for you
Speaker 9: really to try and just do it Because Travis hunter wants.
Speaker 9: It but for the teams that, DO i think that's
Speaker 9: the challenge is not letting him do it at, all
Speaker 9: but figuring out what the best way of doing it
Speaker 9: is so that it's not an overall detriment to his
Speaker 9: play on either side of the.
Speaker 2: Ball If tennessee Goes carter at, one what Does cleveland
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 3: Too it's a great.
Speaker 9: QUESTION a lot of IT i think depends obviously on
Speaker 9: their evaluation of these. Quarterbacks BUT i think for them
Speaker 9: this is a gift that they did not expect to.
Speaker 9: Have they made arguably the worst personnel move that's ever
Speaker 9: been made in the history of the game with This
Speaker 9: Deshaun watson, deal between the trade for, him between the
Speaker 9: baggage that he came, with and between the contract that
Speaker 9: they handed, him which is still being treated as like
Speaker 9: an anomaly by the rest of THE nfl that has
Speaker 9: not been precedent that has not been used to create
Speaker 9: the next wave of fully guaranteed quarterback, contracts WHICH i
Speaker 9: think could have happened at one point in THE. Nfl
Speaker 9: they have still used that as like a mistake and
Speaker 9: a desperate act by a team and ignore it essentially
Speaker 9: when it comes to precedent that has crippled this. TEAM i,
Speaker 9: mean they are still stuck with that. Contract watson is
Speaker 9: now injured with an achilles injury, again and even when
Speaker 9: he wasn't, injured he looked like he couldn't be starting for,
Speaker 9: them that they needed to move on. Anyway the only
Speaker 9: way out of that deal is a cheap enough quarterback
Speaker 9: that you can have starting for you and sort of
Speaker 9: make that pay and go away and allow you to
Speaker 9: carry that contract and for it not to ruin everything.
Speaker 9: Else the easiest route to that is a quarterback at
Speaker 9: the top of the. Draft so you, know if they
Speaker 9: Love Cam, word if they love Shedhar, STANDERS i think
Speaker 9: it would be crazy to pans on one of those
Speaker 9: guys given this. Opportunity so if.
Speaker 2: We operate off and, again nobody knows how this is
Speaker 2: going to go, down we're all just. Guessing but if
Speaker 2: It's carter, one let's say It's ward. Two we land
Speaker 2: on The giants at, three and The giants need a,
Speaker 2: quarterback but they need a lot of. Things what point
Speaker 2: do you Think Travis hunter has to go off the?
Speaker 9: Board, well think THE x factor in all this is
Speaker 9: what happens before the, draft, right because we've got free.
Speaker 9: Agency we just dealt with This Matthew stafford will he
Speaker 9: won't eat, drama and he's gonna stay with The. Rams
Speaker 9: but these are all the dominoes that affect the.
Speaker 3: Top of the.
Speaker 9: Draft, Right first of, all it Was. Stafford THEN i
Speaker 9: think the next domino becomes what happens With Sam. Darnold
Speaker 9: does anybody at the top of the draft get? Him
Speaker 9: does a team saddle themselves With Aaron rodgers for one
Speaker 9: more year or two years and go with? HIM i
Speaker 9: think these are things that can affect who's going to
Speaker 9: go at the top of this. Draft, ultimately you, know
Speaker 9: specially As hunter, is you don't pass on a quarterback
Speaker 9: that you think can be a starter or can be
Speaker 9: the guy the future of your. Franchise For, hunter the
Speaker 9: quarterback position is, paramount it's. Everything so if you think
Speaker 9: you have one of those, guys you have to take,
Speaker 9: him regardless of who's still on the. Board if you've
Speaker 9: determined that the quarterbacks are not worth, it or that
Speaker 9: they're not those guys and you're going to pass on a, quarterback,
Speaker 9: whatever THEN i think anybody in the top five can
Speaker 9: realistically make a case For Travis, hunter and in, fact
Speaker 9: pretty much any team in the. DRAFT i mean, again
Speaker 9: this is a guy that might be the best corner
Speaker 9: and wide receiver in the. Draft at the same, time
Speaker 9: literally every single team in the league needs at least
Speaker 9: one of those two. Positions so at that, point if
Speaker 9: you're not taking a, quarterback he's absolutely in the top
Speaker 9: three of every single draft.
Speaker 2: Board who is The Sam monson candidate for the awkward
Speaker 2: Green Room Draft day, slides the most overhyped player that
Speaker 2: has the chance of sliding all the way down to
Speaker 2: the end of the first round that we're all going
Speaker 2: to watch feeling bad.
Speaker 9: For so a big part of that is always the
Speaker 9: stuff we don't, know you, Know it's the off field,
Speaker 9: Stuff it's the character concerned.
Speaker 3: Stuff it's the things.
Speaker 9: That teams have access to that we don't necessarily have
Speaker 9: access to on the. Outside AND i know, already you
Speaker 9: know there's some rumblings about things.
Speaker 3: That that will affect.
Speaker 9: That kind of, thing you, Know James Pearce, JUNIOR i
Speaker 9: think a lot of teams have some kind of off
Speaker 9: field red flags for, him and that's WHY i think
Speaker 9: you're seeing him start to drop on draft boards at the.
Speaker 9: Moment for a guy THAT i think otherwise would absolutely
Speaker 9: be seen as as a top tier pass rusher and
Speaker 9: a top tier guy outside of, That i'm not sure
Speaker 9: that anyone immediately jumps out as like this guy is
Speaker 9: definitely gonna.
Speaker 1: Slide where do you.
Speaker 2: Think i'll ask you About shador like floor For shador is?
Speaker 2: What AND i know to your, point there's a lot
Speaker 2: that could happen between now and the draft In.
Speaker 1: April you, Know i'm A jets. Fan i've told you that.
Speaker 2: Before, sam a long Suffering jets, Fan they're sitting there
Speaker 2: at seven and they need a. Quarterback who do you
Speaker 2: think the first team is going to be, like, yeah we.
Speaker 2: Can't you, know this is where we have to Draft.
Speaker 2: Shador he's not going to slide any further than.
Speaker 9: THAT i think That jets team or That jets pick
Speaker 9: probably is his, floor just because, again if we're talking
Speaker 9: about the teams that even if they start picking up
Speaker 9: quarterbacks and free agency and trades and, things it seems
Speaker 9: unlikely that every one of those teams in the top
Speaker 9: seven would take care of the quarterback position before the.
Speaker 9: Draft so you, know if Cam ward has gone somewhere
Speaker 9: in those first, picks The, raiders The, JETS i would
Speaker 9: imagine at least one of those teams is still without
Speaker 9: a quarterback at that, point AND i doubt they could
Speaker 9: pass On shud Or sanders at that.
Speaker 2: Spot what do you think happens With Darnold's and you, know,
Speaker 2: again out here in this footprint we Saw sam playoff
Speaker 2: close number of, times and as A jets, fan, actually
Speaker 2: when they Drafted Sam, DARNOLD i, Thought, okay finally we
Speaker 2: have the guy WHO i think can get it. Done
Speaker 2: and by the, way If I'm Dion i'm not sure
Speaker 2: THAT i want you to or In New, york AND
Speaker 2: i say that as A jets, Fan but you, Know
Speaker 2: sam has resurrected his career and he has this chance
Speaker 2: to have like a second. Half but you, Know Baker
Speaker 2: mayfield type. Run where do you think he? Lands what
Speaker 2: do you think that looks?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 9: Sam he? Does BUT i think at wants A Baker
Speaker 9: mayfield type of contract is, well because those last two
Speaker 9: games were so terrifying for any team that would want
Speaker 9: to buy into. Him he was spectacular for most of
Speaker 9: the season and it looked like he had completely changed
Speaker 9: and he was a different, player And kevin O'Connell had
Speaker 9: worked his matchic again and then it was almost like
Speaker 9: a switch got flipped and he went all the way
Speaker 9: back to seeing Ghosts Sam, donald you Know New York
Speaker 9: jets nightmare against The patriots And Bill belichick for those
Speaker 9: last two, games which by the, way were the most
Speaker 9: important games The vikings played all season. Long SO i
Speaker 9: think he's definitely earned himself a ton of money and
Speaker 9: he's earned himself a starting job next. Year but nobody
Speaker 9: is not going to be aware of. That you, know
Speaker 9: that is going to need let anybody who wants to
Speaker 9: Give donald the next, chance so you, KNOW i think
Speaker 9: his contract is probably going to have to reflect that
Speaker 9: the way the season. Ended it's not going to be the,
Speaker 9: big big money contract that maybe he was on course.
Speaker 9: FOR i think it should be some sort of middle
Speaker 9: class quarterback. Deal you, KNOW a team like The colts
Speaker 9: would be an interesting landing spot who seemed to have
Speaker 9: not so much soured On richardson but decided they just
Speaker 9: can't rely on him right, now whether it's injury or
Speaker 9: playing performance so. Far you, Know donald could step onto The,
Speaker 9: COLTS i, think and make that team a playoff football
Speaker 9: team pretty much right out of the. Gate The colts
Speaker 9: would be an interesting. SPOT i think The raiders would
Speaker 9: also make some sense With Pete carroll and presume coach
Speaker 9: who knows how to take some of the pressure off of.
Speaker 9: Quarterback those are the two SPOTS i think That i'd
Speaker 9: be most interested in for.
Speaker 2: Him surprised That stafford ended up back with The rams
Speaker 2: a lot of noise around.
Speaker 9: Him, NO i think that's the spot that made the most.
Speaker 9: SENSE i think they were basically trying to get everybody
Speaker 9: else to set the market for. Them my hunch is
Speaker 9: the two sides were reasonably far apart in terms of
Speaker 9: what they. WANTED i think The rams probably think That
Speaker 9: stafford doesn't have that much long, left And stafford wanted
Speaker 9: a bit more guarantees or assurance or duration on the
Speaker 9: deal than they, did so they basically gave him the
Speaker 9: permission to, go you, know go talk to other, people
Speaker 9: set the market for, us come back to, us and
Speaker 9: then we'll figure out if we can get it. DONE
Speaker 9: i think that's more what this, was rather than a
Speaker 9: concerted effort by either side to move on from each.
Speaker 2: Other forty Nine ers Sent Deebo samuels to the, commanders
Speaker 2: and it just it feels like this is a trade
Speaker 2: that could do a lot for the, commanders, who After terry,
Speaker 2: McLaurin had a pretty precipitous drop Between terry and whoever
Speaker 2: you think their number two or number three was or.
Speaker 2: Whatever and you, Know i've talked about this quite a.
Speaker 2: Bit Sam Jayden daniels was out this way To Arizona.
Speaker 2: State he actually almost was a. You he nearly played
Speaker 2: here In Salt lake for The university Of, utah AND
Speaker 2: i am still floored that he did that year.
Speaker 1: ONE i, mean he TRANSFERRED lsu obviously won The.
Speaker 2: Heisman BUT i wonder what your thoughts are on the
Speaker 2: rookie season Of Jayden daniels and what Adding Deebo samuel.
Speaker 3: Means, yeah he.
Speaker 9: Was, spectacular and he was getting better throughout the. SEASON i,
Speaker 9: mean that's the thing he. Was he didn't just say
Speaker 9: to start off hot and cling onto. It by the
Speaker 9: end of the, year he was getting better and better
Speaker 9: and looking more and more assured as the season went,
Speaker 9: on and in the. PLAYOFFS i, mean he looked like
Speaker 9: the kind of quarterback that could take them to something completely.
Speaker 9: Unprecedented So i'm all for surrounding him with weapons and
Speaker 9: seeing what he can do as quickly as. Possible and
Speaker 9: the debo deal is the perfect kind of opportunistic deal
Speaker 9: where that's what having a ton of cap space allows
Speaker 9: you to. Do you might not have been targeting guys like.
Speaker 9: That you might have been trying to find somebody in free,
Speaker 9: agency but the forty nine ers are in a different
Speaker 9: spot of their kind of salary cap life cycle and
Speaker 9: they're trying to shed, contracts and you, know for a
Speaker 9: fifth round, pick you can pick up a guy who's
Speaker 9: been one of the most dynamic and difficult to defend
Speaker 9: offensive playmakers in THE nfl.
Speaker 3: Over the last few.
Speaker 2: Years all, Right, zam before he said you, lose you,
Speaker 2: Know philly wins The Super bowl and you look At
Speaker 2: jalen at twenty, six Say quanted twenty, EIGHT Aj brown
Speaker 2: at twenty, Seven DeVante smith at twenty. Six you, know
Speaker 2: they've got the bulk of their best skill position players
Speaker 2: still smack dab in the middle of their. Prime and
Speaker 2: of course we'll see what the offseason. Brings they've got
Speaker 2: a really good young. Defense Jalen carter's twenty. THREE i
Speaker 2: could go up and down the. List is there a
Speaker 2: chance that we're seeing the start of what could be
Speaker 2: a pretty fruitful fun run For eagles?
Speaker 9: Fans, oh there's absolutely a. CHANCE i, mean it's really
Speaker 9: difficult to repeat to do anything like that in THE.
Speaker 9: Nfl The chiefs and The patriots have kind of broken
Speaker 9: everybody's perspective of how difficult it is to have that
Speaker 9: kind of sustained. Success, obviously the common tread from those
Speaker 9: two teams is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all,
Speaker 9: Time Tom brady and Then Patrick. Mahomes The eagles don't have.
Speaker 9: That you, Know Jalen hurts is, good but he's not,
Speaker 9: great but they do have the best roster in THE
Speaker 9: nfl right now and a chance to have the same
Speaker 9: thing again next. Year and if you're going to have
Speaker 9: a good rather than a great, quarterback that's what you
Speaker 9: need to still be able to make those of sustained
Speaker 9: runs year on. Year BUT i think you're. Right the
Speaker 9: core of that team is in their, prime if not.
Speaker 9: Younger they had an amazing draft by the looks of
Speaker 9: it last. Year they're very good at reloading and coming
Speaker 9: back younger and, better AND i think they're absolutely a
Speaker 9: team that would be seen as probably the favorite in
Speaker 9: THE nfc going into next.
Speaker 2: Year, Okay, sam where can everybody go to find the
Speaker 2: podcast and all your?
Speaker 1: Work?
Speaker 9: Yeah check The mic is the PODCAST m see anywhere
Speaker 9: you get your podcasts or on YouTube as.
Speaker 1: Well thank, you, sir have a great. Week love to
Speaker 1: get you on. Soon, okay.
Speaker 9: Anytime take it, easy all, Right.
Speaker 2: Sam, monson check out the new, Podcast check The mic,
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Speaker 2: matchup still two big. Names we'll see If kansas can
Speaker 2: make it. Interesting every TIME i Watch houston, PLAY i
Speaker 2: just feel like they're so much better than every other
Speaker 2: team in The Big. Twelve The pistons are in town
Speaker 2: to play The, jazz the red Hot Detroit, pistons and
Speaker 2: we got a good night OF nba, action including The
Speaker 2: warriors in. Action if you want to see a Little
Speaker 2: Steph curry rockets in. THUNDER a little bit later on
Speaker 2: The kings take on The. Mavericks let me ask, you
Speaker 2: Mister Lebron James stan see WHAT i did, there, kids
Speaker 2: you would understand is it time to say The lakers
Speaker 2: have to be at least considered as a serious threat
Speaker 2: to EITHER okac Or cleveland Or boston Or.
Speaker 1: Denver they've got to be in that. Tier Right if you.
Speaker 4: Would have asked me this the day they made that,
Speaker 4: TRADE i would have said. Yes and that's obviously a
Speaker 4: lot of faith In lebron And, luca BUT i just
Speaker 4: there's no way you can have those two on the
Speaker 4: floor healthy in the spring and not be mentioned right.
Speaker 4: Now there are some things they've got to figure. Out
Speaker 4: obviously the front court is one of. Them but you
Speaker 4: see the synergy that they have and the amount of
Speaker 4: the BASKETBALL iq that's on the floor when both of
Speaker 4: them are or when you can stagger time with, them
Speaker 4: and what it does to an, offense what it does
Speaker 4: even defensively communication, wise those guys are really smart on that.
Speaker 4: Side Although luca physically is not a great defender, man
Speaker 4: there is just a lot to like a lot to,
Speaker 4: like and as they get to know each other more
Speaker 4: and know how to play off each other a little bit,
Speaker 4: more that's something that only gets. Better, Right, so if Healthy,
Speaker 4: spence which is when you're relying on a guy who
Speaker 4: is almost forty one and a guy who we know
Speaker 4: has question marks about his day to day, routine his.
Speaker 1: Let's, say.
Speaker 4: Motivation or dedication to basketball outside of the actual hoops,
Speaker 4: part that is a question you can still. Ask but
Speaker 4: if those two are healthy and we are entering the,
Speaker 4: postseason especially if they have home court and maybe a
Speaker 4: top two seed in The, west, YEAH i wouldn't count them,
Speaker 4: out to say the.
Speaker 2: Least every possession ends with a good shot when those
Speaker 2: two are on the. FLOOR i MEAN i watched The clippers,
Speaker 2: game and just like every other player on the floor
Speaker 2: not Named luca And, lebron if you're in the right,
Speaker 2: spot you're just gonna get an open. SHOT i would
Speaker 2: be concerned with Starting Jackson hayes and Having Alex lena's your.
Speaker 2: Backup yokhich is gonna go for a, million but it
Speaker 2: looks really, dangerous, man when those two are, right which
Speaker 2: is not a, surprise all, right that will do it
Speaker 2: don't forget coming up on the other, Side it is
Speaker 2: The Utah Men's Coaches, Show Bill, riley interim head, Coach
Speaker 2: Josh Eiler porter what comes our way on A tuesday
Speaker 2: edition of the.
Speaker 4: Program on A tuesday edition of The Drive, spence we'll
Speaker 4: cover all of our, bases but zero in on some
Speaker 4: hoops as. Well tim McMahon for YOUR Nba Daily. Assist
Speaker 4: it looks like we'll chat with a, Friend Tony jones
Speaker 4: on A tuesday as. Well Aaron falk of The Salt Lake.
Speaker 4: Tribune haven't spoken With aaron for quite some, time so
Speaker 4: we'll be good to catch up with. Him and Then
Speaker 4: Josh furlong's weekly hit giving us the latest on The
Speaker 4: UT's Lady utes obviously a big. Win And Josh, eilert
Speaker 4: in his first weekend as the youths head, coach gets
Speaker 4: a w overa.
Speaker 2: Issue there you, Go so join us for A tuesday
Speaker 2: drive with. That will say good night very, special thank.
Speaker 2: You tom Haberstro brian Dun, Seth Bill riley And Sam
Speaker 2: monson kind of jumped, around did a little bit of
Speaker 2: everything as we like to do on the. Program if
Speaker 2: you missed any of, it you can go to the,
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Speaker 2: it actually does. Help, Reporter i'm spent saying to, night
Speaker 2: enjoy Your monday. Evening You Tom Men's coaches show coming
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