Speaker 1: It's a busy night in local college basketball byu is
Speaker 1: in Ames stake On Iowa State, Utah hosts West Virginia
Speaker 1: Senior Night. For these utes, head on down and say hello.
Speaker 1: Started the show off today with Sarah Todd. Tim McMahon
Speaker 1: joined us as well. Tom Now for our somewhat consistent visit.
Speaker 1: Although it's been a minute since the editor of the
Speaker 1: sports section of Solid Tribune graced us with his presence,
Speaker 1: Aaron Falk, Hello, sir, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well? How about you, Spencer?
Speaker 3: I'm well.
Speaker 1: Can you explain yourself as why it's been as to
Speaker 1: why it's been a number of months since you've graced
Speaker 1: us with your presence?
Speaker 2: You know, seasonal affect disorder? Probably?
Speaker 1: All right, Okay, fair enough? All right, So there's some
Speaker 1: breaking news ish. We're still waiting for an official announcement,
Speaker 1: but now we've got Jeff Goodman and John Rostein, two
Speaker 1: of the college basketball news breakers, in addition to our
Speaker 1: very own Sean O'Connell reporting that Alex Jensen is going
Speaker 1: to be the next head coach of the Time men's
Speaker 1: basketball program. I wonder, from a trip standpoint, when do
Speaker 1: you guys wait to break things like this, what's the
Speaker 1: process over the Tribune?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, certainly if it's you know, if we
Speaker 2: have it from at least one and hopefully two solid sources.
Speaker 2: You know, we go through a process and we try
Speaker 2: not to use unnamed sources very often. But if that's
Speaker 2: the case, you know, my reporters would run that up
Speaker 2: to me and we would clear that. But yeah, just
Speaker 2: I'm seeing the same thing you are right now with Rostein.
Speaker 2: It does seem like that the direction things are heading.
Speaker 2: So at the moment where we're waiting with everybody else.
Speaker 1: So Aaron, as a man around town and a local,
Speaker 1: not just a newsbreaker and editor, what do you make
Speaker 1: of the potential of Alex taking over? It's it's been
Speaker 1: interesting and we've talked about it, of course on the
Speaker 1: show since last Monday, after the news came down that
Speaker 1: Craig was let go. If we're honest, man, they have
Speaker 1: not had a consistent coach. They've not made the right
Speaker 1: higre since Rick left. I mean, Ray Jacoletti, Jim Boylan,
Speaker 1: Larry Kriscoviak, they all had moments, they all had teams
Speaker 1: that went to the NCAA tournament, and you know, Craig
Speaker 1: never made the tournament, but it looked like there was
Speaker 1: some incremental progress. So this is a basketball community that
Speaker 1: is waiting for a hire. They can build this thing
Speaker 1: back up consistently as opposed to moments in time. Do
Speaker 1: you do you think Alex is the guy that can
Speaker 1: do that for this basketball town.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I do think there's a lot of potential here.
Speaker 2: And obviously his name has been floated before, you know,
Speaker 2: when when Craig got the job four years ago, and
Speaker 2: at that point, you know, Alex's NBA head coaching potential
Speaker 2: seemed greater than that it turned out to be. And
Speaker 2: so maybe that window closed a little bit, and you know,
Speaker 2: he's a little bit older and more and you know,
Speaker 2: maybe there's a little bit more money on the line,
Speaker 2: and then this looks more intriguing. But I think there's
Speaker 2: you know, for for a few different reasons. I mean one,
Speaker 2: I you look at that that that arena, and you know,
Speaker 2: the people that are there, A huge number of them
Speaker 2: are people that are there because they have some memory
Speaker 2: of those running youths, those majerias running youths, right, and
Speaker 2: and what Alex and Doleiak and Britt Johnson and those
Speaker 2: guys did and they're they're looking to recreate that, right,
Speaker 2: And so if you're looking, if you're Mark Harlan and
Speaker 2: you're trying to turn this program around, you need money
Speaker 2: to do that. And the only way you're going to
Speaker 2: get more money. There are two paths, right, One to
Speaker 2: be a consistent winner that's going to take time. And
Speaker 2: then the other one is to find somebody who can
Speaker 2: tap into that that culture, that nostalgia, those memories and
Speaker 2: some old time donors and try to turn this thing faster.
Speaker 2: And I think Alex for you know, just for what
Speaker 2: he had done is a is a tremendous asset there.
Speaker 2: And then too, I got to know Alex pretty well
Speaker 2: when I worked for the Utah Jazz and and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, got to spend some time with him in
Speaker 2: some different settings, you know, a long time in the
Speaker 2: NBA bubble. I went to France with Alex and and
Speaker 2: Rudy Gobert and to watch him, you know, not just
Speaker 2: the work that he did obviously on the court and
Speaker 2: and that you know, you look at at Rudy's career
Speaker 2: and and obviously then you know that Alex Jenson can
Speaker 2: develop uh players from from ross talent into someone who
Speaker 2: is who is elite and so that that bodes well
Speaker 2: for you as a as a college program. But beyond that,
Speaker 2: just to see the way that he fostered and maintained
Speaker 2: that relationship with somebody who's, let's be honest, a bit quirky,
Speaker 2: probably had you know, some some interesting uh you know,
Speaker 2: asks and needs. And the way that he was able
Speaker 2: to do that, I think votes really well for Alex
Speaker 2: to be someone who can meet people they are and
Speaker 2: be a recruiter, which which is the one thing that
Speaker 2: he hasn't done for for quite a while.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, no, for sure, I wanted to follow up.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you referenced the second part of your answer
Speaker 1: because I was going to refer to your time with
Speaker 1: the Jazz and getting to know him a little bit.
Speaker 3: And it's interesting, Aaron.
Speaker 1: You know, I've known Alex for a long time and
Speaker 1: he's very introspective.
Speaker 3: He's quiet.
Speaker 1: Don't mistake his quiet nature for anything other than being
Speaker 1: a little bit introverted.
Speaker 3: But he's very smart.
Speaker 1: He's a very good basketball coach, and he kind of
Speaker 1: made a name for himself with the Gobert stuff, right
Speaker 1: Like ultimately Rudy's growth and evolution, you know that a
Speaker 1: lot of the credit simply goes to Gobert. But we
Speaker 1: all watched Rudy as a rookie, and I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is not going to work.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: He just looked uncoordinated, he looked lanky, And again the
Speaker 1: bulk of the credit goes to Gobert. But what did
Speaker 1: you see as far as Alex's work with not just
Speaker 1: Rudy favors Cancer like that the Big Man group. But
Speaker 1: of course Rudy's success is kind of Alex Alex's success
Speaker 1: or as well. Tell me what you saw with the
Speaker 1: developmental side of him while you were with the Jazz.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, obviously Alex knows knows the game and
Speaker 2: knows knows the fundamentals and and has the ability to
Speaker 2: teach that. But then I think to like I said,
Speaker 2: just to meet somebody where they are and and the
Speaker 2: the amount of time that that that Rudy wants to
Speaker 2: put in before and after Alex is there and ready
Speaker 2: to grind with you to uh, you know, to deal
Speaker 2: with some obvious difficult things, whether it was relationship with
Speaker 2: Donovan or or you know, challenges with with being sent
Speaker 2: to the G League in back and to be able
Speaker 2: to to kind of navigate those things. I mean, Alex
Speaker 2: was was there for him and he knew, you know,
Speaker 2: that's why this this trip to France stands out. And
Speaker 2: he knew how important it was to Rudy for people
Speaker 2: to see him and where he was from and and
Speaker 2: to to where he got to and so I think,
Speaker 2: you know, just being able to put all of that
Speaker 2: together makes sense. And then you know, I mean, you're right,
Speaker 2: a lot of this is on Rudy for you know,
Speaker 2: being a physical freak and someone who did have drive
Speaker 2: to get better and be able to put that package together.
Speaker 2: But the other thing I would point to is Alex came,
Speaker 2: came up under Majeris, coached and worked with Majeris, and
Speaker 2: then spent a long time with Quinn Snyder. And if
Speaker 2: you can, if you can deal with those types of
Speaker 2: demanding figures and and keep their respect and stay on
Speaker 2: their staff, I mean that I think that speaks to
Speaker 2: your talent as well.
Speaker 1: Good point, because I think a lot of folks may
Speaker 1: not know that Alex was on the staff under Ty
Speaker 1: Corbin and Quinn came and took over and he got
Speaker 1: rid of a lot of people. Aaron as you know,
Speaker 1: and I always viewed the fact that Quinn Snyder, who
Speaker 1: doesn't do anything accidentally and is very organized and maniacal
Speaker 1: and intentional with decision making. I always viewed the fact
Speaker 1: that he kept Alex on staff, and not just on staff,
Speaker 1: but made him his lead assistant for his entire nine years.
Speaker 1: Here are real testament to the type of coach in
Speaker 1: person Alex's.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're you're spot on that that first year
Speaker 2: maybe maybe you have Quinnsider coming into a new situation
Speaker 2: and you have a front office ownership group that that
Speaker 2: hesa says, we've got some assistants here, we want you
Speaker 2: to to try to work some things out right. Year two,
Speaker 2: quinns able to bring in his own guys, and Alex
Speaker 2: stays that says everything you need to know.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. Let me ask you this, do we overstate?
Speaker 1: And it's hard to kind of be analogous with UTAH
Speaker 1: and BYU with this dynamic because BYU is a little
Speaker 1: bit different. It's more unique where you know, Tom Homo
Speaker 1: steps down and the president, Shane Reese talks about we
Speaker 1: need a BYU guy. We're going to get a tried
Speaker 1: and true BYU guy that understands b Yu, that loves
Speaker 1: b Yu.
Speaker 3: Then of course there's the really religiosity.
Speaker 1: He even talked openly that he needs to love Jesus
Speaker 1: all those things that BYU brings.
Speaker 3: Do we overstate the potent.
Speaker 1: You'll need for a local for a ute when it
Speaker 1: comes to these types of things, or do you think
Speaker 1: it's a real thing. Like Josh Grant joined the show
Speaker 1: last week and was very honest, salient, and forthcoming about
Speaker 1: his opinion that it does need to be somebody that
Speaker 1: understands this community.
Speaker 3: What what do you think about that?
Speaker 2: I think, you know, and and I could be wrong,
Speaker 2: but I think it's it's maybe overblown in the sense
Speaker 2: that we've seen you know, we've seen people from the outside,
Speaker 2: and I mean we've talked about you know, Quinn and
Speaker 2: obviously it's a different situation. But people from the outside
Speaker 2: can come in and figure and figure it out and
Speaker 2: become beloved within the community. Right takes winning. But I
Speaker 2: go back to, you know, fundraising as the reason I
Speaker 2: think that it has to be a YOUTE right now,
Speaker 2: because there's no they're not going to bring in somebody.
Speaker 2: You know, if you if you go around you look
Speaker 2: at you know, the people that are going to make
Speaker 2: the leap and come be head coach of the University
Speaker 2: of Utah men's basketball program. You're probably dealing with a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, high achieving mid major guys or
Speaker 2: maybe middle achieving, high made, you know, Power four guys,
Speaker 2: or you know, there are some fringe like NBA types.
Speaker 2: You're going to go to the stars and grab Wooden
Speaker 2: bouncing here whatever, right, But that's just not going to
Speaker 2: excite a donor base and instantly, and this does. And
Speaker 2: I think this that's the number one thing. So you
Speaker 2: have a guy who who checked a lot of boxes,
Speaker 2: like we've talked about. You know, it is nice that
Speaker 2: he knows the culture and wants to put his heart
Speaker 2: into it because I do think that's that's a meaningful
Speaker 2: thing that you can't replicate. But at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, money is going to make this thing go
Speaker 2: and and that good feeling of seeing Alex Jensen with
Speaker 2: a hand extended is going to bring in more money
Speaker 2: to the University of Utah. Family on three absolutely one
Speaker 2: two three love it.
Speaker 3: So I wondering.
Speaker 1: Look, we've got to be clear, none of this is
Speaker 1: official yet, but you know, I trust trust Sean, I
Speaker 1: trust Goodman. I trust Rostein and everybody who's reported on
Speaker 1: this has reported that it is Alex, but you reference
Speaker 1: and I've been talking about this a ton, whether it's
Speaker 1: Alex Jensen or the ghost of Rick Manjaris or Richard
Speaker 1: Patino or whoever it is, is going to ask Mark
Speaker 1: and probably President Randall, what do the economics of your
Speaker 1: program look like? What is the financial infrastructure of Utah
Speaker 1: basketball right now?
Speaker 3: And you know, whether it's.
Speaker 1: UTAP basketball or Utah football or whatever it is. And
Speaker 1: we have house for s N Cuba. We're high speed
Speaker 1: ahead to the twenty million dollar number where you can
Speaker 1: start paying players. But do you have any understanding over
Speaker 1: the Solid Tribune of the current condition of the Crimson
Speaker 1: collective and whether or not the football program, the basketball
Speaker 1: program is being supported financially the way it needs to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know, the last reporting that we had
Speaker 2: on this was, you know, going into this year, they
Speaker 2: had the basketball program had about two and a half
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit more in and IL money and
Speaker 2: football was I think, and I could be wrong, somewhere
Speaker 2: in the six to seven ish range, you know. And
Speaker 2: everything we've heard is yes, we're we're we're looking for
Speaker 2: more where we will have more, and the hope is
Speaker 2: to reach that twenty million dollar revenue share max. And
Speaker 2: then how you allocate that Probably it's what you know,
Speaker 2: sixty seventy seventy percent of football, you know, twenty percent
Speaker 2: of basketball. Figure it out the rest of the way, right,
Speaker 2: and so you know, I think Utah's you know, looking
Speaker 2: at the Big twelve, maybe high middle of the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: One of the problems with this is it's so hard
Speaker 2: to know you see the big numbers that that flash
Speaker 2: for a certain player or a certain program. There's just
Speaker 2: no there's just no public accounting of it that has
Speaker 2: to happen. And so right now it still feels like everybody,
Speaker 2: everybody wants to put their best foot forward and make
Speaker 2: themselves look better, and then everyone else is just feeling
Speaker 2: like we don't have enough, because all you can do
Speaker 2: is hunger for more, right because you just you're not
Speaker 2: sure what everyone else has. And so I think they're
Speaker 2: you know, what we were told, you know, on the record,
Speaker 2: was two and a half million dollars for the basketball
Speaker 2: team this year. You look around the Big twelve, obviously
Speaker 2: there are guys that splash that for a single player.
Speaker 2: So you think you've got to get to that, you know,
Speaker 2: three and a half four relatively quickly. And I think
Speaker 2: that's where, again going back to it, money matters, Alex
Speaker 2: Jensen should be the guy that can help you get there.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what the bench looks like next to him,
Speaker 1: Andre Miller talked about as an assistant coach, and we'll
Speaker 1: end on this let's operate off dipothetical that Alex gets
Speaker 1: the job and they hire Andre, and then we'll see
Speaker 1: what they do to fill out the bench. That feels
Speaker 1: like it certainly and to your earlier point about fundraising,
Speaker 1: that would certainly win the day, That would certainly win
Speaker 1: the press conference. Yeah, I mean the way I anticipate
Speaker 1: this going down, if it does as soon as that
Speaker 1: announcement is made. My guess is that ticket office where
Speaker 1: he sees a lot of calls, four season ticket deposits,
Speaker 1: and Aaron, let's call it out, is man like. Whether
Speaker 1: it was Craig or Larry or Jim before him, it's
Speaker 1: been a number of years since that building has been
Speaker 1: full consistently. And if your coach with you can bring
Speaker 1: in a recruit on a Saturday night and you can
Speaker 1: just simply say do you want to be part of
Speaker 1: this because Rice Eckels on a Saturday night when it's
Speaker 1: a great home environment is really attractive, and the Huntsman
Speaker 1: hasn't been that for a while.
Speaker 3: So do you think, at least in.
Speaker 1: The moment, in a vacuum, that would motivate a lot
Speaker 1: of people to buy tickets right away?
Speaker 3: If this is the announcement we get.
Speaker 2: Oh, I definitely think so. I think you go on
Speaker 2: a fundraising run, you go on a ticket sales run
Speaker 2: that you haven't really enjoyed in quite a while. And
Speaker 2: then you know, basketball, unlike football's roster, that's small enough
Speaker 2: that you can you can turnish and there's so much
Speaker 2: turnover you can turn a ship around pretty quickly. And
Speaker 2: that's that's got to be your hope for sure.
Speaker 1: All Right, moving off, let's talk about some stories you
Speaker 1: guys have uncovered and written over the trip. And I
Speaker 1: thought our guy keV Kevin Reynolds, was some really good
Speaker 1: reporting about the BYU football nil collective situation and the
Speaker 1: meeting that was held prior to the last season where
Speaker 1: two BYU starters outline this situation where the nil was
Speaker 1: cut quite a bit as a result of a less
Speaker 1: than stellar year year one of the Big twelve. And
Speaker 1: then you know, equal time you talk to some of
Speaker 1: the people at the Royal Blue Collective and they're trying
Speaker 1: to step up, and you know, this is an interesting story.
Speaker 1: And of course, whenever you guys decided to go with
Speaker 1: something like this, you take a number of different things
Speaker 1: into account and talk to a number of different people.
Speaker 1: And of course BYU fans like to use the Internet
Speaker 1: to feel brave, so they've come at you quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But tell us take give us a little background how
Speaker 1: the story kind of came about and how you guys
Speaker 1: decided to go about your report.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean Kevin Reynolds, our by U beat writer, Uh,
Speaker 2: just a tremendously talented, uh young man who's who's come
Speaker 2: in from from Texas and over the last three years,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, developed a foothold in in you know,
Speaker 2: the the athletics department down there and and the locker room,
Speaker 2: and you know, I was, I think kind of made
Speaker 2: a name for himself as someone who's willing to you know,
Speaker 2: hear people out and and and tell their stories and
Speaker 2: and like you like we talked about earlier in terms
Speaker 2: of of you know, we prefer not to use an
Speaker 2: anonymous source if if if at all possible. And you know,
Speaker 2: here's a situation where, you know, through relationships developed over
Speaker 2: the course of a season working a beat, and you know,
Speaker 2: being there and and and you know, being uh perceived
Speaker 2: as as someone who's who's counted and and and good
Speaker 2: at his job, developed some relationship with with players and
Speaker 2: was able to tell their story. And obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: I think there are there are going to be people
Speaker 2: on that roster who did get some pay bumps or
Speaker 2: don't see it that way, or were frustrated. But here's
Speaker 2: here is the account of two young men on the
Speaker 2: record who say that, and Royal Luflective comes in and says, yes,
Speaker 2: we did cut you know for certain players. Maybe it
Speaker 2: weren't be eighty percent that from people said, you know,
Speaker 2: they weren't able to give us a firm number on
Speaker 2: what that was. And at the same time they say, hey,
Speaker 2: we're gonna we're going to up our numbers this year.
Speaker 2: We'll spend more in twenty twenty five than we did
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. And it kind of goes back
Speaker 2: to what we talked about earlier. It's one of those
Speaker 2: things where you know, if you're winning, you know you look,
Speaker 2: you start the season and everyone, every youth band is
Speaker 2: feeling like, we know, we're on top of the world.
Speaker 2: We're gonna we're gonna run through this conference, and then
Speaker 2: BYU outperforms and feels like, oh, the Cougars must have
Speaker 2: had everything right and il lies and utug and in
Speaker 2: disarray or whatever, and it's the truth is somewhere in
Speaker 2: the middle.
Speaker 3: As it always is, of course, as it always is.
Speaker 1: All Right, one quick jazz question here, because again we
Speaker 1: kind of all know what time it is, and no
Speaker 1: one is under any illusion as far as what they've
Speaker 1: tried to do all year. You've got a really good
Speaker 1: jazz reporter and our guy Andy, you know, Andy Larson.
Speaker 3: What have been see.
Speaker 1: It's a challenging thing whether you're in this space as
Speaker 1: a sports talk radio host to try to cover our
Speaker 1: local NBA team, and of course the Jazz have always
Speaker 1: been the big dog here a we are a basketball city,
Speaker 1: where we are a basketball market. But when the deal
Speaker 1: is what the deal is, it's tough on a fan base.
Speaker 1: It's a weird kind of infrastructure as far as NBA
Speaker 1: basketball right now, where you know, the incentive structure is
Speaker 1: such where about a third of the league has fan
Speaker 1: bases every year that has to outwardly cheer for them
Speaker 1: to lose in order to get a great draft, in
Speaker 1: order to get you know, things back on track. What
Speaker 1: have been the biggest challenges in covering a team that
Speaker 1: is in year three of a rebuild that quite frankly
Speaker 1: does not have a light at the end of the
Speaker 1: tunnel yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it is difficult to know how
Speaker 2: to strike that balance right of you know, trying to
Speaker 2: to to provide a level of criticism and I mean that,
Speaker 2: you know, so hopefully constructively. You know, in terms of uh,
Speaker 2: the goal of once I throw the ball up is
Speaker 2: to win. Well, that's not the goal here. But can
Speaker 2: we be critical of a performance, you know, if it
Speaker 2: if it doesn't meet a must or maybe you know,
Speaker 2: look at the last couple of games, right and some
Speaker 2: of Will Hardy's comments, right and or or does none
Speaker 2: of that matter because everybody knows what the end goal
Speaker 2: is here, right, And so strike trying to strike that
Speaker 2: balance of you know, when when do you say, hey,
Speaker 2: let's talk basketball and this wasn't very good and and
Speaker 2: you say it doesn't really matter that the basketball is
Speaker 2: not very good, because that's not the point. And so
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's a it's a tight rope that
Speaker 2: you walk, and I don't think you please everybody all
Speaker 2: the time. But you know, I think Andy's picked his
Speaker 2: spots and tried to, you know, say, come at performance
Speaker 2: as he did last night, when when maybe you're trying
Speaker 2: to speak to a bigger picture issue, you know, not
Speaker 2: necessarily that it's a poor performance, you know, and it's
Speaker 2: going to cost the Jazz some great thing this year,
Speaker 2: But how does it speak to the quality of the
Speaker 2: players in the locker room now and maybe what that
Speaker 2: projects going forward and trying to look at it through
Speaker 2: through that lens. And then the other difficult thing is
Speaker 2: just like how do you keep people engaged and caring?
Speaker 2: And you know, I think we're at kind of at
Speaker 2: a point in the season where everybody knows what's up,
Speaker 2: and you've got the people on the wagon who have
Speaker 2: been on the wagon all along, and everyone else is
Speaker 2: just waiting for the ping pong balls.
Speaker 3: So I wonder how the engagement has been.
Speaker 1: We saw some data a couple of weeks ago that
Speaker 1: the local TV ratings for the Jazz of tanked when
Speaker 1: it was Quinn and Rudy and Donovan and that great
Speaker 1: run for about five years.
Speaker 3: Well, I know, for a couple of years local TV.
Speaker 1: Ratings and pro basketball went like this one Golden State
Speaker 1: to Utah.
Speaker 3: I know that was at least a couple of years.
Speaker 1: And the Jazz, from what I read, have the third
Speaker 1: worst drop in local TV interest. Now I've been to
Speaker 1: maybe ten games and the building's still full. I have
Speaker 1: my dashboard, and Jazz interviews are not downloaded the way
Speaker 1: that they typically are. So the engagement on the media
Speaker 1: side seems to be a little bit down. How is
Speaker 1: it over at the trip when you guys ride about
Speaker 1: the Jazz?
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, I mean, for sure down relative to a year.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think that's just just to be expected.
Speaker 2: I mean, you you, people have so many options for
Speaker 2: how they spend their time and and their money and
Speaker 2: and you know, where they put their their energy. And
Speaker 2: if you know, you don't feel that that the sports
Speaker 2: team is giving it back to you, you know, it's
Speaker 2: I think it's completely reasonable that you're not you know,
Speaker 2: invested in uh, you know, how Isaiah Collier is doing today? Right? Like,
Speaker 2: I think that that makes sense. To me as a
Speaker 2: human being. There's there's diehards and and you know Annie's
Speaker 2: triple team, which he does after every game gets you know,
Speaker 2: we we've got as a newsletter goes to straight to
Speaker 2: your email inbox and that gets read reasonably well by
Speaker 2: you know, a group of diehard Utah jazz fans who
Speaker 2: are who are extremely invested in the things we talked about.
Speaker 2: How does Isaiah Calluer factor into the next good jazz team?
Speaker 2: What's you know, how to explain sort of lorry marketings
Speaker 2: dipped in numbers this year and should you be concerned
Speaker 2: people that really care about that, but my parents who
Speaker 2: will certainly care about the jazz when there's a playoff
Speaker 2: push happening, or you know, my friends who who you know,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of people out there who are
Speaker 2: jazz fans who know nobody on this roster right and
Speaker 2: they consider themselves jazz fans, but they're not going to
Speaker 2: put any time into it until they're getting something back
Speaker 2: from the franchise. And that's just going to mean everybody's
Speaker 2: numbers are down.
Speaker 1: Friend of the program, Belle Frasier has been very impressive.
Speaker 1: Good hire by you as the Utah Hockey Club continues
Speaker 1: their chase towards the wild card and they're right in
Speaker 1: the mix. What's it been like to learn this sport
Speaker 1: for the first time and what sort of interest are
Speaker 1: you receiving from the community when you guys cover the
Speaker 1: hockey club.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it truly has been a learning experience
Speaker 2: for me, and Bell has been uh, honestly as much
Speaker 2: of a resource for me as as as anything, and
Speaker 2: so I appreciate her knowledge and her passion for the game.
Speaker 2: You know, I I think there are a lot of
Speaker 2: barriers to entry to become an NHL fan, certainly an
Speaker 2: NHL die hard. It's you know, there are there are
Speaker 2: rules you don't understand that doesn't get talked about on
Speaker 2: Sports Center with any regularity. There there's just it's just
Speaker 2: it is. Again, there are diehards, but it is relatively niche.
Speaker 2: And so I think we're looking at a situation where,
Speaker 2: you know, a playoff appearance maybe helps jump start a
Speaker 2: generation of hockey fans, but I think that's something that's
Speaker 2: going to take a little bit to get going, you know,
Speaker 2: if it does, because right now people are feeling out,
Speaker 2: People enjoy going to the games, They care about what
Speaker 2: this team might be named some someday. I don't think
Speaker 2: your average person at a sports bar, even with a
Speaker 2: with a game on, is going to know who played
Speaker 2: in keller Is and that's going to take some time.
Speaker 1: All right, buddy, Before I say you loose question about
Speaker 1: the lads, of course you've been writing about the lads. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: First of all, a Mecca Anelli captain shout out? Is
Speaker 1: Nate Bench a soccer genius because he saw this this
Speaker 1: talent before any of us and now he's he's the captain,
Speaker 1: So I want you to address that. Then then, secondly,
Speaker 1: what's fair to say about a team that allegedly pocketed
Speaker 1: between fifteen and seventeen mil after a number of different
Speaker 1: transactions and they have not reinvested that into the talent
Speaker 1: just yet.
Speaker 2: I think to answer your first question, Nate Bench absolutely
Speaker 2: soccer savann Okay, if he doesn't he needs an office
Speaker 2: in Harriman, he does, no doubt's what's fair to say?
Speaker 2: You know? I mean, I was I'm curious to know
Speaker 2: the timing of the Chicho orongo ask and how close
Speaker 2: that might have been to start of the season, and
Speaker 2: you know, maybe how much runway they would have had
Speaker 2: to find a high level replacement, right, because I do
Speaker 2: think that they they brought in some players that they
Speaker 2: knew were not at that level. Even even you know,
Speaker 2: or disgruntled Brazilian friend who was going to basically be
Speaker 2: an Anders to Julio replacement was not going to be
Speaker 2: a Cheecho Orongo replacement, right. And so I would be
Speaker 2: very curious to know how much time they had to
Speaker 2: fix that problem. And if it was a lot of time,
Speaker 2: I can understand some of the frustration. If it was
Speaker 2: a little bit of time, you know, maybe the windows
Speaker 2: just not long enough to get a deal done. And
Speaker 2: you know, scouting and making transfers in the international football
Speaker 2: world seems to be absolutely an insane thing to try
Speaker 2: to accomplish, certainly in short order, and so I need
Speaker 2: I need to know that before really passing judgment. That
Speaker 2: being said, you know, it's it's a really long season,
Speaker 2: and you look at what RSL did last year, and
Speaker 2: they were great in the beginning and they stunk at
Speaker 2: the end, and none of those fans were very happy.
Speaker 2: And so if they can get somebody in the in
Speaker 2: the second window, and you know they're they're within striking distance,
Speaker 2: and they can you know, erase the memory of maybe
Speaker 2: a lackluster first half with a strong second and a
Speaker 2: couple of playoff win it's you know, it's probably.
Speaker 1: Better congratulations in order to our guy Kevin Reynoldson. How
Speaker 1: about my man Gordon Montson dusting off the fastball winning
Speaker 1: some APSC awards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate it. Yes, APSC Associated Press Sports Editors.
Speaker 2: It's probably our biggest sports writer award showcase out there nationwide.
Speaker 2: We compete in the B division, so just below the
Speaker 2: New York Times and ESPN and all that, we're competing
Speaker 2: way you know, the Oregonian, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis. There's
Speaker 2: very good sports sections if you're not perusing random cities
Speaker 2: newspapers and so to be in that group, we're we're
Speaker 2: honored and we appreciate everybody who reads and subscribes, and
Speaker 2: even to all my haters. You motivate me every day.
Speaker 1: Shout out to the haters. Sl trip dot com eron.
Speaker 1: I'm relieved that you're still allowed to come on the show,
Speaker 1: because I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure you're allowed to hang out with me.
Speaker 3: But thanks for your time today.
Speaker 2: Okay, anytime. Brother.
Speaker 1: Aaron Falk, the editor of The Solid Tribune appreciate his time.
Speaker 1: Sl trip dot com support our friends over the trip