Speaker 1: I heard what Colin cow heard from ten to one
on k O V O Provo k U D D
H D two one O three, nine ninety eight three,
ESPN the Fan.
Speaker 2: This is something special for you.
Speaker 1: It's time for Cougar Sports on one O three, nine
ninety three the Fan, part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
Speaker 3: Here's your host band Criminal.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Cougar Sports one of three, nine ninety eight
point three, ESPN the Fan. I've been cerdinl broadcasting from
our Banterwell Studios, Vanderwealth dot Com. Get on a free
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solutions to your financial future. Contact them today Banterwealth, Banterwealth
dot Com. We got a fantastic show for you. Unfortunately,
we're gonna have to break down yet another loss for
this Baia men's basketball team. It was fortunate, unfortunate. I know,
there's all manner of disappointment in Cougar country at now
because the expectations were sky high leading up to the season,
and now BYU fans just hope they pray that BYU
is not one and done in the NCAA tournament, is
not one and done in the Big twelve tournament. They
are just fingers crossed right now that they can find
a way this BA basketball team can find a way
to play better defense, not turn the ball over, and
find some scoring threats outside of Aj and Rob. Need
a little collective effort from the entire team. So we're
gonna diagnose, we're gonna treat, We're gonna move forward with
hopefully faith and stent fastness in this B E YU
basketball team. You're gonna break it all down here on
your Uti ESPN radio. Never keep us tuned in on
that one of three nine FM dollars in Utah County,
then out of your point three FM doll in Sally
Davison Weaver Counties. You can stream us espnfan dot Com,
ESPN the Fan the app, as well as the tune
and app. Download those apps from the respective apps, or
tell your smart speaker, Hey, smarts speaker, listen to Cougar
Sports and then critel hey Smartspeaker, listen to the ESPN
the Fan the app, and then download the podcast as
well iTunes, Spreaker, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify. Give us
a rating, give us a review. We appreciate it. When
you do, you can follow me on x at Priddel Benjamin,
follow us at ESPN the Fan without further ado, Why
don't we fired up the ESPN the Fans starting lamp
and I can introduce you to my co host and
the rest of the star studded cast that will be
joining us with his views. Beautiful Wednesday, March fourth edition
of Cougar Sports Behind the Glass Architecting the show. Let's
welcome in the bucket Getter himself, the MVP of the
Media Basketball Tournament. One spot of Toime, Ronald the three
man Weaver. What's up, Ronald?
Speaker 2: What's up? In the words of the great being the.
Speaker 5: Fan, college basketball analyst Javan Jonathan Tavnari, is it football season?
Speaker 2: Is it golf season? Is it tennis?
Speaker 5: French Open season? Have the has the World Cup started?
Speaker 4: Been that?
Speaker 2: That's That's where I met today, is of Wednesday, March fourth.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Ronald sent out a little question.
Speaker 2: I did uh and uh?
Speaker 4: You know do you want to do? You want to
pose that real quick the question that.
Speaker 2: You yeah, be happy to Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I saw this and it wasn't my question, but
I saw someone put it on Twitter. But I'm curious
at this point with this is what I'm doing Ben,
after planning the show, when when b U basketball continues
to have bad games, keep three cut nine sports edition?
Which three would you keep? Which would you cut? You
can text me if you have my number, you can
DM me.
Speaker 2: Uh please? Do I want to know? So? Out of
these nine, which would you keep? March Madness, NBA playoffs,
w NBA Playoffs, They're fire. You have to go watch
it if you haven't.
Speaker 5: Scanley cut playoffs, College football playoffs, NFL playoffs in MLB postseason, Baseball,
College World Series, Wimbledon, World Cup, the Olympics, the Masters
ap who is not here, He'll be tomorrow. But his
answers were keep March Madness, college football playoffs, the World Cup.
Cam Clark, who does our Cougar sports on our day,
says March Madness, Olympics, in MLB postseason. I'll let Ben
say his, and Bretts to give you mine. Obviously, I
got to keep the March Madness, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: At as well.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna actually say I'm gonna keep college FOOTBA playoffs.
I like me some college football. It's on there over
the NFL playoffs, even though I love you know, the
Patrick Malmes. No, college football plaoffs are way better. And
I'm gonna even take MLB postseason because I'm a baseball nerd.
I like the World Series.
Speaker 4: So there you go.
Speaker 2: There's my keep three cut nine edition.
Speaker 4: What are yours, Cougarnation, Yeah, I like that, I said,
of course in CUAA tournament can't beat March Madness. College
football playoff. College football's king, and of course football is
still king, and that is the NFL. So that's what
I went, and not very diverse. I love the Masters,
I love the World Cup. I love Major League Baseball.
But if you give me three, those are my These
are my three favorite things. So maybe you'll chime in
on that as well. Cogarnationless Welcome into Joe Brent always
bring the hammer hammer type show. Which three would you choose? Brothers?
Speaker 6: I think you're you forgot one from this list. One
I don't see BYU basketball, but I think I might
cut that one just hitting. I know, I made everybody
real uncomfortable, real quick cut it cutting. I'm keeping March
madness NBA playoffs, actually just kidding. I don't know, oh man, Yeah,
you know what. This is the dumb question. Why would
I cut any of them? Why did I just keep
in what like other planetoryy playing the aliens for like
pure dominance? Like why do I have to cut any
of these? I'm taking all of them. Give me all
the above. I didn't see that choice, but I'm penciling
in all the above. I need all the sports, can
I Can I pose another question before we get into
real talk.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 6: So the Big Twelves whole selling point on this court was,
oh my gosh, look how many different courts we can do.
So my assumption was, Okay, whoever's the higher seat in
the tournament is gonna play with their logo on the court.
That was the whole purpose of us flashing that we
had the ability to do this well. First day the
Women's Big Twelve Tournament has started today and the Big
twelve pr machine they are working double duty because everybody
has lots of complaints for this court. Number one being
there's no team logos like there's no need to be
able to change the court because it's just gonna stay
the big twelve tournament logo, which people have all kinds
of other problems with because again you're keeping all the
crazy like Louis Vuitton pattern all over this thing. You
add more logos now, those big corporate sponsors. I don't
know if you guys saw this the killer. If you're
sitting court side, you can no longer have a drink
because the court is digital and you might mess up
the court. So the Josh Furlong of KSL he put
out a tweet saying that like, people who are sitting
court side can no longer have drinks while they're sitting there,
which means you got to go the full game or
however long you're watching. If you want to get a drink,
you have to get up and go walk onto the concourse.
Great idea in execution, I don't know where I'm at
with it, but uh yeah, big twelve PR machine working
overtime on this one, working into ot on it.
Speaker 4: Look, I've even heard like there's some slippage going on. Yeah,
like there's like some some tactile issues. The performance of
the glass is not akin to the performance of of
of the wood typical. I mean, it's it's glass, So
I mean, if anything, if you get sweat on that glass,
I mean you're slipping, right.
Speaker 6: It's supposedly supposedly this is what they say, is that
it's a different compound of glass than your typical glass.
Speaker 4: But we're seeing we're seeing a little bit of more.
Speaker 6: Slippage there, Yes we are. But like their argument as well,
it's it's not regular glass that so it shouldn't have
that problem, but obviously it is. You also can't really
see the half court line, so back courts are gonna
be a little bit tougher to call on this one. Again,
really cool idea, definitely wasn't necessary.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed. Look, I love Brett Yormark. This guy's an
outside thinker. He's he's an early adopter of things. He
likes to stretch us. He likes to just introduce us
to new ways of thinking. I know you're a big
fan of the WW.
Speaker 6: You mean new ways of making more money for the
Big twelve conference.
Speaker 4: That's ways of finding the filthy luker anyway, any anyhow,
he'll do it. But yeah, sometimes he's gonna miss guys.
That's what an aggressive early adopter does. He misses sometimes
he can't bat a thousand, So shout out to Vic
Kram on the data aggregation and newsletter. Check out the
rest of our ESPN. The van starting lineup got a
great fantastic starts at a guest. We'll get to Ky
postgame commentary versus Cincinnati. I put out a few poles
of the day as well, regarding poles of the day
and and questions of the day. Chime in on him.
Aaron Roderck commentary, your offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach Aaron Roders
three oh five, Bear Bachmeyer three thirty. Chris collins With
former BYU men's basketball or sorry, former Bou men's basketball
player and now a head coach for Prova High School basketball.
Want a state championship and get caught up on him,
get his thoughts on the BAU basketball team. We could
use a big man like Chris Collinsworth in his prime
right now in Provo would be great. Will Farren, former
BOU playskicker, and then we'll get to know Reggie Frischnett
as well as Darnell. Get caught up with Darnell Dixon
at five thirty. All that him were here on your
Utah ESPN Radio network. Let's get into it. Then, nitty
gritty brought to you by Complete Circuit Electric, Complete Circuit
Electric Utah dot Com.
Speaker 2: Gentlemen, we have please presents with that interpretation of the.
Speaker 3: One to one too.
Speaker 5: So anyways, let's get down to then.
Speaker 4: Did he ready? Brought to you by our good friends
at Complete Circuit Electriccomplete Circuit Electric Utah dot Com. Rustin Taylor.
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one four hundred zero A day five, Complete Circuit Electric Utah,
Complete Circuit Electric Utah dot Com. All right, what the
age happened last night? It'd be why you lose sixty
eight to ninety. I mean, look, Cincinnati has been playing
really good basketball. I did not expect the largest margin
loss of the season, though, last night, even with b
what you're not playing all that well, they they they,
I mean, goodness, gracious me, but I like, I can't
believe how often, how early and often they turned the
ball over. It just just lazy passing, obviously poor defense.
I'm beginning to feel like it's more of a it's
a more of a scheme thing than it is even
an effort thing. Quite honestly, offense struggled as well. AJ
couldn't buy a bucket. He had his worst like shooting
performance it felt like of the season, seven to twenty
one from the field, one of eight from the three
point line. I don't know if liked the physicality got
to him. He did get some calls this game, but
maybe it was too little too late. He got to
the free throw line of eleven times to get eight
of those. But yeah, there's there's a there's some problems.
It's a mess, as Mark. But when you know when
Mark Durant is tweeting in the middle of the game
and he says, I don't know what to tell you, guys,
it's a mess. That man gave up. That man very
positive man, by the way, one of the most positive men.
Like not a negative Nancy at all, not a complainer,
not a whiner. He's a good he's loyal, strong, too,
positive guy, positive propaganda. He knows how had had to
give us good content without being over critical. He said,
I don't know what to tell you through in the towel,
it's a mess hamber Time Show.
Speaker 6: I didn't see Mark Durant courtside last night. I saw
I thought it was Tyson Jacks that had the headset on.
So I don't know where Mark was or if he
was just not there, but I'm with you. I saw
this tweet last night and I was.
Speaker 4: Like, holy cow, Okay, maybe he wasn't on the call.
I don't think I don't think.
Speaker 6: He was on the call.
Speaker 4: But but.
Speaker 6: So he tweeted out, I don't know what to tell you,
it's a mess right now. Depth was always an issue
for this team, but having Richie we were able to
manage it without him well dot dot dot. And to
your point, Mark is about that might be the most
positive person in the entire state of Utah and on
the whole plan, he's up there. But I think Mark
Durant might even be more positive than Spencer Linton. Either way, Yeah,
and again, both those guys work for BYU. So if
they are saying something to the contrary of hey, it
seems amazing, then it's like, oh shoot, because again we
say whatever we want because we don't work for the school.
And I couldn't believe that Mark tweeted this, not because
it wasn't true, but because if Mark's saying it, it's
a big deal. Holy cow, man, that was bad. Ten
turnovers in the first half. And then AJ says postgame
like I'm making stupid mistakes, Kevin Young saying that, like
we just gave the ball away, Like I'm Ron and
I were texting like at halftime, We're like, do this
things over? Like do you guys? You just want to
I wanted to turn the game off at halftime. I
didn't expe. I don't know, man, Like I keep thinking,
you know what, maybe one of these days they will
just find their pride and say we're not letting them
walk all over us anymore. Yeah, but I I don't
know if I should say this, but sometimes I feel
like this POI basketball team is wearing a sticky note
on their forehead that says kick me, and it's just like, hey, man,
go for thirty against me, because I'll give it to you. Yeah,
I think there's teams that I think everyone waiting on
selection Sunday is waiting to see can I get BYU
in the first round because they'll let me score as
many points as I want. And I know that that's
rude to say, because these are human beings trying to
play a game. But like, at some point, I think
this might be as of today, not resume wise, but
as of today, this might be the worst team in
the Big Twelve. And I think that that is not
hyper to say, Like I I think Utah could beat
this team. Yeah, I think what we saw last night,
I think this is one of the worst teams in
the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: Ben, I'm popping in here.
Speaker 5: They are gonna play Utah in the first round and
they could get bouncing the way Utah has played them
been both times at the Huntsmen and at the Marriott.
If they bring that same energy, they're beating this team
by fifteen. Like this team might get bounced to Utah.
Speaker 2: Like I know Alex Jensen is looking at Chops about
Oh check that everybody, and guess what.
Speaker 5: Twitter is about to go crazy and I'm gonna I'm
not gonna say a word I'm not gonna say a
word because if you go out there and lose the
Utah in the first round of the Big twelve Tournament,
you deserve it. Like we It's not hy probably said
this team might not win another game this year. Last
game is on Saturday, been first game in the Big
twelve Tournament, first game in the NCAA tournament. They might
not win a game. That is not I probably to
put on the table. And I'm gonna give them more
harsher point than Bratt because you know, I always get
point the finger at me because I'm gonna go to
sleep and keep it pushing.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that he's this play.
Speaker 5: And totality, but AJ, last night I saw some softness.
I'm being honest, like I'm seeing you be soft, like
sawft soft, like you're complaining and crying at Tony Padien.
Now for a call, Ben, I've never I just I
don't know, Ben, like I told you this, you know
last week, damn it, put your shoulder in somebody and
go up like he just you're running from the contact,
like I've never seen a player at this high of
a caliber like avoid it like I get that Darren
is different, but like you gotta embrace that, like you
got to when you get to the NBA been and
play and playoff basketball. If you thought what they're doing
in the Big twelve, like they're gonna do the same thing.
I'm just I'm shocked at AJ when things aren't going
his way instead of making the adjustment. I know he's
good at getting to the freaker line, he just won't draw,
like pick up an offensive foul or two if he did.
To say, okay, at least he's trying, like you're throwing
your hands up and I'm like, dude, they're not gonna
give you a call, Like that's not how it is,
Like the pump fake is not working. You gotta go
into the guy's chest. I just I'm waiting to see
that a little bit more from him. And last night
I saw I'm complaining a lot to the officials, and
I was surprised about that.
Speaker 2: I was disappointed in AJ doing that.
Speaker 5: You just you got to play basketball, and to me,
you have to adjust to the officiating, Ben, and you
know this from playing football. If the officials aren't gonna
call something, then either you have to make them call
it or just your game where you can still score
if they're not going to give you what you want.
Speaker 2: And I didn't see that last night from AJ.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is my thing, Like I'm gonna put a
little bit of this on the coaching staff because when
you when you decide to go ISO basketball and you
allow defenders to body up AJ, which that's what you're
allowing when you go ISO basketball, you're allowing the bodying
up of AJ. And AJ then he's not like this big, thick,
powerful Lebron like figure, right, Like he's not He's not
that guy. And so if you get like we remember
how we talked about before, like if someone's going off
on me, I'm fouling you hard. Yeah, everyone's kind of
falling like AJ, like moderately hard at times, and he's
not always getting the call. But they're bodying him up
pretty good. And I think he was impacted by that
physicality last night. I think schematically, you gotta get AJ
running around a lot more. Is in good shape. Would
we all agree with that? Now he's taking a good shape, Okay.
Speaker 6: Came out more than I thought he would last time
at certain times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think he's getting bodied up in because
he was he was just he was inconsistent. He just
wasn't hitting shots. So but there was one action that
was really nice where aj started from the right wing,
got got a couple of screens, got a couple of screens,
came around over to the left wing, and he's on
the run and he catches the ball and he's got
the guy on his back left shoulder. Do you guys
remember this early on? And he he had a nice lane.
I think he ended up getting to the to the
rim there he got some free throw shots, but that
was like the only like I felt like it advantageous
shot that he got within like sets. Yeah, there was
a couple like jumpers that he was It was like
semi contested some of them that he missed. But like
we we aren't giving him actions where he is getting,
in my opinion, kind of a nice wide open look.
That's my opinion. I agree he missed open shots, but
you gotta get him in rhythm early. You gotta get
him scoring, you gotta get him, you know, moving towards
the rim, and I just I don't know if we
did that quite honestly. He's got to finish at the
ram obviously, but he you know, he was he was,
he was bad, he was he was disrupted, There's no
doubt about it.
Speaker 6: I also to that point, I think a lot of
these teams are, like, we don't believe that you'll make
other guys beat us. Yes, exactly, So we're gonna sell
out for AJ. And if that means we have looser
coverage on Mhilo or someone else, then so be it.
But like, we don't believe those guys will beat us,
so we're gonna send more bodies to AJ. And if
you flick it out to a Mahi Low or a Haideem,
go for it. We'll let you have that, but force
us to go guard the other guys. And they have
a really hard time doing that, which is why it's
to your point, they can send so many bodies at AJ.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed, unfortunately what's going on is loco, right, this
is crazy. I can't believe they're getting They're just getting bludgeoned.
They're getting blown out. Cincinnati shot fifty percent from the
field while also while holding by to forty one point
four percent. Bearcats knocked down ten three pointers and recorded
ten steals and six blocks. On defense. Cincinnati led for
thirty seven minutes of the game. It's crazy. AJ led
the Cougars with twenty three points, six assists, and six rebounds. Additionally,
the hopefully coming back not the over I hope he's
not the first overall NBA draft pick because he said
he's possibly coming back after he talks to his mom
about it. He said it jokingly. We do have to
play that sound today, by the way, from the Deseret
Voices podcast. Anyway, AJ did not have his best game,
even though some of his stats look nice. Rob Right
the third was just behind the BOTSA with twenty one points,
eight of sixteen shooting. Alex Coo recorded fourteen points, going
four to seven from beyond the arc. Hadeem Boop got
the start, but looked at his swords just didn't look
like that. He look he is the energizing punny. He
is the solar battery. I think it's Jackson Payne coined
the phrase. But he just just he just didn't look good.
Let's get into some sound k y Aj Alexi Coastik
post game Kevin, where did it get away from you
guys tonight? Could you put your finger on it?
Speaker 7: Dug ourselves in a hole to start the game with
just bad offense. They had thirteen points off of turnovers
and in the first half, and that continued into the second,
so it was twenty one four deficit points off turnover.
It's tough to win, you know, just careless with the ball.
You know that they're a team that that does a
good job with their hands, and they're very physical and
so forth. And we took the bait. Thought that got
us into a bit of a hole. We could he couldn't,
you know, we couldn't. We couldn't chip into their lead,
even I thought we were actually playing pretty good. Our
defense I thought was actually pretty decent outside that first
little onslough of threes that they made, so so that
that I think really took the wind out of our
sales to start. And then we made that little push
to start the second half.
Speaker 4: But then it was more the same. Where did it
get away from you tonight? If you could put your
finger on it, like, I mean, pick pick your poison, right,
it was tough man.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, look, this is what we talk about though,
Like it's so hard to win basketball games when you
dig yourself into a hole early, especially when you know
like your defense is probably not going to be what
you wanted to be you like, play defense, but don't
give them the ball, because it felt like fast break
all night, Like it just felt like Dandae Thomas and
Jizsel James, like whenever they wanted they could take the
ball and they get a layup at the rim with
maybe one other guy there, and again they had they
had twelve fast break points.
Speaker 6: My guess is a lot of those were off of turnovers.
Twenty one total points off of turnovers. So like you
dig yourself in a hole early, they had ten turnovers
in the first half. It's just then you have to
play defense to get extra stops on top of if
it was just a fifty to fifty game, you cannot
put yourself in that position early. And to Kevin Young's point,
like they gave away the basketball. They weren't making clear
and concise and intentional passes, and it gave Cincinnati a
lot of confidence, Like you're giving these teams confidence, and
then you have to play behind extra from behind because
of a hole that you dug yourself into. When even
if it's fifty to fifty, if you don't give the
turnovers a way, it's gonna be a fight. You make
it an even tougher one on the road on an
East Coast road trip by turning the ball over so
consistently early in that first half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's get back to the sound here. Aj. There
was a lot of back and forth between yourself and
Baba Miller. How unique is his skill set at six
eleven with the with the game he had.
Speaker 9: No, he's tough, no senior can do it all, kind
of like a triple double kind of guy.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 9: I remember him at Florida statement. I got Taylor bow
Bowl and was playing with him. But Unick Skill said,
I think you can do well and things at the
next level.
Speaker 4: Two tough, tough player, No doubt.
Speaker 6: They got some freak athletes.
Speaker 4: They have some length, they got athleticism, and west Miller's
finally refining that and kind of funneling it into productive
playmaking ability. Kevin offensively, where did the breakdowns come? What happened? Where?
What took you out of the rhythm? Like you mentioned, well,
they just.
Speaker 7: Took the ball from us, you know, I mean, there's
there's They just took the ball from us.
Speaker 3: It's really the bottom line.
Speaker 7: So we got to do a better job with our
decision making. It's been you know, that's been an area
that we've struggled in. I mean there's you know, Rob
and AJ have the ball a lot. They had nine
turnovers between the two of them, and so that's got it.
That's got to.
Speaker 4: Improve, got improved. They just took the ball away from us.
I look, the passing was really bad. They just took
the ball.
Speaker 6: That's not like a careless it's just a careless thing.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's just careless, just careless. Look, you know,
I put out a poll. I mean it's a joke. Like,
I mean, all of it was broke, all of it
was bad, right, Like is there anything you know? We
are we to the point where we can have these
hard conversations, right, you know, And like I'm joking around,
like when I say, like broke ass passing, you know,
you know, or like weak ass defense, like like you
can I'm joking around because but at the same time,
like yeah, it's kind of serious, but it's it's a joke.
Like it was weak, it was poor, it was it
was bad. Can we have tough conversations right now about
this team yet? Or No?
Speaker 6: I think so we can? I think we have been Yeah,
I think so.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean again, like I think it's it's all within context.
Because Ron and I had the Ron and I recorded
the podcast last night, and I was like, I feel
so bad at this point because like I have to
have a hard conversation, but I understand, like these are
all human beings still, right, Like yeah, I'm not calling
out like no, and I'm not saying you are, I'm
saying like human. That was the struggle I had last
night when I was when Ron and I were recording,
because I was like, I I just I want this
to end, honestly, like I want I feel bad that
Kevin Young and that a Ja Monsa and that everyone
else on the team has to go out just to
really struggle in these games. I feel bad for the fans,
I feel bad for the coaches, like I feel bad
for everyone. I feel bad that we have to be honest.
But at the same time, like this is basketball. This
is a part of the game, and it's it's tough
because you took a lot of hits and you play
and maybe the best conference in all of college basketball.
But and I knew we I knew, we knew it
was going to be bad. I don't think we knew
it was going to be this rough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like when I asked that question, I do it
with a smile on my face, is what I'm getting at,
Like it's a joke, Like I can't. I don't know
if there's anyone that watched that game is like it
like if it's it's it's broke ass. I mean you've
been around your boys and like this, this is this
team feels broke ass right now? Sure, right, and like
because there's really no other way to like describe it.
It's just like man like tass. I mean I could
say booty cheeks, broke booty cheeks, weak, booty cheeks. I
mean it's bad, it's rough, it's rough, and so I
do it more so like because it made me laugh.
I guess I'm just trying to get away through I'm
just trying to persevere man, trying to get through it.
What's your message to the guys moving forward after another
tough loss.
Speaker 7: Well, my message to the guys I believe in a group.
You know is less than two weeks ago, we beat
Iowa State, who is a good basketball team, one of
the best teams in the country, and so I think, uh,
I think we're having I think our confidence is a
little bit shook right now as a group, you know,
So I just want our guys to to play with
more belief, inner belief, belief in themselves, belief in each other.
In sports is you know, you have to you have
to manage the emotional swings of sports, right and when
it when it's going bad, it feels like the world's
caven in, you know. And when it goes good, it
feels like you're on top of the world.
Speaker 4: And so you have to be able to manage that.
Speaker 7: And that's part of going through a season, especially one
that's filled with adversity like the one we've had this year.
And so I just I just want our guys to
continue to believe in each other and believe in themselves.
Speaker 4: I love the comment. I think it's important. Like there's
only so much. I mean, we're to the point now
maybe as a coaching staff where it's like accountability is
not working. We've already tried to kind of lay the
hammer down. It's not working. Now. These guys just don't
believe in themselves. We gotta we gotta instill believe in them.
We gotta go show the highlights. We gotta go show
like Iowa State game. We gotta go show that Yukon
game coming back in the in the second half. This
is what who you are. This is your potential, this
is who you're capable of being. This is your best self,
this is your best team, all those things right, Like,
that's that. That's where you're at right now. You got
to get back to the positive frame of mind so
that I'm down with it. Look, show the highlights, Show
what you're capable of, ceiling not floor. Go back and
look at all the ceiling games. Go back and and
and really enjoy. You know what you were able to accomplished,
because Joe Lunardi postgame said, look, BYU is going to
the tournament because of everything that they did prior to
the last eight games or so. And that i Woa
State win was a really good win. It was a
great win, and that helps.
Speaker 6: Does that one still just confuse you so much?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 6: I'm I'm like the more games I watched with this
bou basketball team after, I'm like, how did they beat
Iowa State? But then they can't control the game against
the UCF and CINCINNATAI.
Speaker 4: You're not even close. It's twenty two point les exactly,
and you were down thirty versus Iowa.
Speaker 6: State convincingly that wasn't control. It didn't come down to
the final shot, Like to your point, they controlled that game.
So I just look at this and I'm like, did
I was say, just play their worst game of the season,
and like me and my buddies could have beat that.
I like, I'm trying to contextualize and conceptualize, is by
you that good and they are just really shooting themselves
in the foot or does this be or your basketball team,
because of the injuries, not have the capability to win
these games no matter what they do, And I would
say it was just a fluke. I I don't know
how to contextualize that.
Speaker 4: It's hard. It's hard. It's hard to know. I think
everyone's just trying to figure out BYU right now. The
opposing coaching stats haven't figured out.
Speaker 6: It feels like I wonder if I wonder if some
of them are confused, like really, like we knew it
was gonna be a dogfight.
Speaker 4: But like, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's a rough one.
Let's go to break guys, We'll come back. I'm wondering.
My question of that is this, how would a bau
versus Utah basketball game in the Big tal Turner work
out for bo or A. Now could that juice up
a team looking to find its identity? Like that's kind
of how I'm feeling right now. It could be a
great motivating factor to to get the most out of
your team. It could be a good thing. And you
know how Brett Ormark wants to make some money. May
he's he's gonna have another b one somehow, some way,
figure out a way. The standings may may force it,
but if I know Brett's, he's gonna try to find
a way to get this game in the Big twelve Tournament.
We'll go to break guys. That was a great segment
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Speaker 4: No Fan.
Speaker 1: Ben Qrittle's life accomplishments include at two time conference championship,
creator of the ode to the Walk on Business mogul,
and every Cougar fans favorite weekday sports radio host.
Speaker 2: This is Cougar Sports with.
Speaker 1: Ben Krettle right here on one oh three nine at
ninety eight three ESPN The Fan.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to Cougar Sports.
Speaker 5: Here on one O three nine, ninety eight three ESPN
The Fan, Ronald the three man Weaver here Brett always
bringing a hammer by my side as well.
Speaker 2: Ben Crude stepped out for a moment to be back momentarily.
Speaker 5: Dave Cramone the data aggregation to appreciate whether you're tuning
in from whether you're listening on one O three nine
in Utah County, ninety eight three in Salt Lake, Davison
were you might be old fashioned on the tuning app
or the ESPN the FEN app.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you.
Speaker 5: Band of today is Sad by xx Tanasi on rip
Is it gonna be an rip to this billion men's
basketball team?
Speaker 2: There's still time left, but it's a question that I'm posing.
Speaker 5: It's a it's a sad time, I think for Cougar fans,
the amount of text messages that I got Brett, you
know this.
Speaker 2: I take the train to and from work.
Speaker 5: And I saw people watching the game after my Cougar
basketball pre game shot, I took the late train, so
I'm watching on a computer like everybody else. And I'm
watching a bunch of people going back to a bunch
of students that take you know, the classes in Salt Lake.
Speaker 2: They're watching it on their front of the laptop. And
the frustration that I am seeing like throwing their hands up.
One kid threw his phone, one kid slapped his laptop.
Speaker 5: And that's felt bad, Like I just really felt sad
more for the fan base of Right, because I get
paid whether they win or lose. That's that's that's that
might sound like a private thing, but that's the truth.
My job is to be objective. But you're seeing these
people like other stuff of like you know, why why
don't they care? Like I could do better than this right?
And you know you can't. Fans, just to let you.
Speaker 2: Know you can, like I have to keep otherwise God
do what right? So I have to keep the checks
and balances.
Speaker 5: But I do understand the frustration of what this year
was anticipated. To be in the injuries. Injuries do play
a team. I mean, I go back to the analogy.
Speaker 2: Bright.
Speaker 5: You probably are like, yes, you know, if people are
tired of seeing Golden State lose, people don't want to
see him lose like that. But the Kevin Douran Achilles
to Klay Thompson acl like that was the reason. I mean,
you saw when Kevin Durant was back in the game
before the injury. He was three of three in like
five minutes, and the crowd was like silence. That's what
happens when you have a full squad and you have
great players, great talent. People feared and I gently did
believe at the beginning of the season that people feared
by basketball. Rightfully so. But with everything up and down,
you know, it's a wounded dog and people see blood
in the water. And look, it's like in a UFC fight, right, Brett,
You've watched the UFC. A coach gonna say, hey, he's hurt,
Hey he's hurt, do this, do this. And I don't
fault coaches for doing I don't fault them for attacking
the weakness on the BU team. They're gonna do that
anyway to win. But when it's more prevalent, when it's
injury prone. And this is where I go with my statement, Brett,
and I'll get your thoughts on this before we get
into the rest of the sound. I think you need
more guys like Richie and and it doesn't necessarily need
to be returned missionaries that but it needs to be
BYU guys in this program because you saw what happen.
And by the way, I just want to paint this picture.
You know, Sean walkerfkssel dot com was talking about it.
B Yu was already struggling at some of these things
with Richie. It just now is putting more on notice
because you can't mask that because of how now you
can guard, So just want to make sure that it's
put out there. They still were struggling defensively, it just
wasn't as bad with the top king on the on
the floor. With that being said, Richie was it was
the hard foundation of this team. And when Richie got beat,
it's like to but come on for the Church of
East Christ when the foundation went to crumble, I believe
that's exactly what happened. So next season, when you go
into that, you need to figure out.
Speaker 2: Who's the heartbeat.
Speaker 5: Is it going to be a Dawson Baker, Brooks Barr
coming off of a mission. Is it going to be
Brodie calls Austin coming back. You need guys that have
wanted to and that b YU has been their passion
that can be that voice I'm sorry, like they have
an emotional connection to it where it means more. We're
gonna ask us to Darnell Dixon later in the last
hour in the last segment. But Brett got it, like
myself right when I got baptized into the church, it
was either you of I or b YU. Although I
was torn between because I grew up with both, there
was still something about BYU. Because I was baptized, I
spent you know, six years at being a member, Like
it was connection to that way of like I really
want to get into this university. Well, it's the same
I feel factor with those that are that are coming
into the program, are playing. It's nothing against it is
nothing against Rob. But you're asking young guys and also
that are coming here to play and develop and might
not have that other connection where you know it might
matter and it shouldn't matter when it comes to the
game of athletics. But at BYU, I keep telling people this,
things are different. You can't just show up and want
to play and then keep moving on. It doesn't work
that way. That's why they just don't take anybody. It's
not that way. In I think that's what has happened
is I don't think necessarily it's a bad basketball team
as a whole, are bad people or a bad culture.
I just think that foundation and that centerstone piece is
now gone, and I think it's showing its face. But
I know that they can fix it and get it
right as they go into March Madison next season.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean the good news is like, you got
a great head coach, you have great recruiting class coming in.
Eric Meeka tweeted out something yesterday that I thought was
very insightful and very helpful to this conversation. He said,
I think what a lot of college fan bases are
seeing and feeling is a shift from college sports being
more about the name on the front of the jersey
to the name on the back of the jersey. It's
not all on the athletes, though, it's just what an
inherently comes with professionalism. That's why top priority must be
a retention and continuity. Turnover is killing programs and killing
fan interest. Which is really interesting because there's always this
conversation of the NBA versus college basketball, and I think
this year college basketball is actually at an all time high.
I think I don't know what the numbers are, but
I think NBA compared to college I feel like, at
least when I pay attention to like the national shows
and podcasts and stuff, college basketball is actually being discussed
more on those shows than is the NBA. But I
do think what Eric Mika is saying is true. I
think this year is an anomaly because you have so
many stars in college basketball. But to Eric's point, every
year you have a new team, and it's so hard
for fans to keep up with who's the player, who's
this guy, what's happening With the portal college football, it's
a lot easier because you can't you have to at
least stay in college for longer. Basketball is a whole
different ballgame. I love this point about though, that Eric
talks about the college sports have shifted from being more
about the name on the front of the jerseys and
the name on the back of the jerseys because that
throws me back to the movie Miracle. I actually watched
that a couple of weeks ago after the USA beat Canada.
But it's valid. And we talked about this a little
bit with Bruce Branch yesterday, Like he's just a guy
who seems like, at this point in his career, like
basketball means so much to him, and I don't know
where I feel like that falls with this team. I
know a lot of people want to say there's no
effort on this team. I do think a lot of
these guys are trying. But yesterday my brother and I
were having this conversation. He's on a mission in California
right now, and he was like, man, it's just so
hard getting up every day just to be rejected. And
I was like, man, that's that's so real, and that
doesn't just change when you come home from a mission,
because that's like you're just you're gonna deal with rejection
and hardship and adversity your whole life. And I look
at this bou basketball team, and I know it's really
easy to say, well, why don't these guys care? I
think a lot of them do care. I think it's
really hard though, when you don't have a whole lot
of options of who can play. And to your point,
things were not perfect before Richie Saunders went down. It's
not like they were the number one defensive team in
the Big twelve before Richie went, and then he went
and now here we are, b Yu, this whole season
has not been a perfect defensive team. However, BYU could
get away with not being great defensively because they were
ridiculous offense. I exactly, you stretched the floor so much more.
And like I said to Ben earlier, a lot of
these defenses they're saying, make Hedem beat us, make Canard
beat us, make Alexi and Hylom, make those guys beat us.
We're gonna sell out to stop Rob and AJ and
more so AJ. We'll let everybody else do their thing.
If we can sell out and leave other guys open
and those guys beat us, then so be it. But
we're not changing our game plan to match that. And
so honestly, Ron, I know there's so much fan conversation
about effort, and these guys look like they don't care.
I do think there are some guys who care less
than others, But I also think this team has been
decimated and once you lose enough games, I think it
almost becomes like a mentality thing where even if you
have enough talent, you've been smacked down enough times that like,
if you don't get on the right track perfectly to
start a game and you have to play from behind
from the eight ball the whole way through, it just
makes it really, really tough. So are there guys who
don't care? Yeah, is that the sole reason BYU basketball
is losing games? No, It's a mixture of things. It's
a compilation of things. But at this point, I think
BYU has stood up to be smacked down enough times
by the ucfs and the Cincinnatis of the world that
I think it's gonna be really tough going forward. However,
what do we say anything can happen in March. It's March.
The madness is ready to be unleashed. I think Ben
made a very profound point. If this BYU basketball team
finds a way to beat Utah, if they find a
win a way to get wins in the Big Twelve tournament,
that could do enough. Because to me, it's not a
question about effort. The number one question is do you
believe that this team as it stands today has enough
talent and firepower to win game going forward, and then
we can have the question about effort on top of that.
But baseline talent and firepower, do they have it and
frankly run that's a question where I'm not sure. I
think there's a lot of fanswers say yes, they have it.
I don't know that they have it enough to compete
in Big Twelve play. Maybe it'll win a first round
tournament game. I know they beat Iowa State, but I
don't know that that one fully proved everything. It's a
really really nuanced, interesting conversation with this bou basketball team.
When you have to balance effort, firepower and talent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I no, you bring up a good point that
just started making me think at some point, when do
you run out of bodies?
Speaker 5: And you saw that last night. And look, these are
all divisional and basketball programs. A lot of people how
did you lose it as team? It's a division and
basketball program. When I'm hinting gat just to break it
down and explain so you understand, I'm coming from bau
Versus Ducune.
Speaker 2: You know Mark Pope's last season. It's a division in
basketball program.
Speaker 5: It doesn't matter what conference and that, and people are
gonna say no, like it's one of what remember when Virginia. Look,
Virginia lost to the number sixteen seed. Even if BYU
basketball loses in the first round in NCAA tournament, drops
in the seating or whatever, losing the first round of
Big Talk tournament, I still view, Brennan, You tell me
if I'm wrong. I still view Virginia being a number
one seed that season and what they did and some
people thought they were gonna win a national championship losing
to U NBC as a bigger bust on what has happened.
We've never had it. You never had a sixteen seed
beat a one seed. But that brings up and proves
my point. Any basketball team can beat any program on
any given day if you don't chill up.
Speaker 2: Happens.
Speaker 5: It happens all the time. I've seen it multiple multiple times.
I've been on teams that have done that. I've also
been to the receiving team of like, how do we
just get our you know a you know what what
just kicked?
Speaker 2: It happens. It's a part of it.
Speaker 5: But I agree, the bodies is what I'm concerned about.
In how deep can that go? Look at Cincinnati is
a good basketball team. And I've been saying this for
a while. A lot of these teams in the Big twelve,
I think can compete in the ACC, compete in the SEC.
People knowe, Bron, you're crazy. I don't think I am
like I don't. I mean, you see guys coming from
Baylor going to Cincinnati. From you see if going to Cincinnati,
it's it's a part of it. Rob even coming from
Baylor to BYU. It's so tough to play in this conference.
I really believe if this conference split and went ways,
it would be at the top of the WCC for sure.
With the likes of Gonzaga, it would be in the
middle of the pack. With the SEC. I think you
competed in the Big Ten just the physicality. Other leagues
aren't as physical as the Big twelve. And it's a
different style. And you have to give Cincinnati credit playing
and peaking at the right time six of its last seven.
Brett bou And now has lost eight of its last eleven,
and a lot a lot is not going right for BYU.
But to Ben's question of the day, which is could
a potential matchup with Utah in the Big twelve tournament.
Speaker 2: Could that spark BYU?
Speaker 5: To give you my flat out answer, Brett, Yes, I
believe it could actually robbery games things like that, Richie A.
It sounds like per Spenser Linchway had him on the show,
was gearing up for a surgery. Don't know if he
had that surgery last week, but if he did, and
he plans to take this trip. And the reason why
I bring that up is he's a senior. He's not
gonna play again. He's gonna be honored on Saturday in
the Texas Tech Game. If he's making these trips, Brad
And I don't know how that works when you get
surgery on an AC.
Speaker 2: I'm not a doc. I would have to ask those
who are in charge. But could that help?
Speaker 5: Could the guy that you know is the heartbeat of
the team, could that help spark having him at every game?
Could that motivate you? Okay, they got a game first round,
then they get the second. They end up in the quarterfinal.
Who knows what momentum they could have and what they
could take and could that help them in hard manus?
Speaker 2: If verywell?
Speaker 1: Could?
Speaker 5: Or it could be just the opposite and Okay, nothing changed,
it doesn't hurt. But I do believe maybe playing a
team that you don't want to lose to because it's
bigger than just a Big twelve tournament, it matters so
much in the terms of state of Utah into the programs.
I believe that could kick you into your butt into shape,
but only for that game. I'm not gonna take it
further than that, but I think just for that game
it could kick you into shape to get things right,
to get that one win. I don't know if I
can go further than that, but BYU gearing up to
play Utah that were the case, I believe that can
motivate them just for the Tuesday next Tuesday, March.
Speaker 6: Tenth, I do agree. If BYU finds a way to
beat Utah in that first round game, that absolutely energizes them. However,
BYU basketball, I believe has lost eight of their last
eleven games, also true all Big twelve games. And if
you'll remember that Utah game that was at Utah, that
one was a dog fight for BYU. The one improvo
was a lot easier. This is going to be a neutral.
Speaker 2: Sort very true site on a.
Speaker 6: Neutral court, so and to be fair, Ron, Like, I
think Utah wants it more than BYU does at this point.
I think Utah believes it more than BYU does at
this point. And also, let's be honest, it means more
to Utah than it does to BYU at this point,
because right now, Utah is not really playing for an
NCAA tournament seed. I mean they would be if they
went on to win the Big Twelve tournament. Obviously they'd
get the auto bit. I don't think that'll happen. But
you know what would be a super Bowl for Utah fans.
Hey Man, BYU was down, we kicked him when they
were down, and we beat the number one overall pick
of our rival. That would mean everything to the universe,
especially coming off the rough season that they've had this year.
And let's be real about Utah. I mean, let's be
real about the Big Twelve. The biggest issue in the
Big Twelve is not who can score the most points,
it's who can play the best defense. Everybody in the
Big Twelve can score. I gave you the numbers a
couple of weeks ago. Everyone in the like the number
one team I think in the Big Twelve last year
scoring wise, would have been like sixth or seventh your
average in the Big Twelve this year. Everybody can score.
It's a matter of who can play defense. And look,
I know why you can score. I don't know that
they can play defense, which is why I feel if
Bou matches up with Utah, I'll never pick Utah to
win any game ever, even if the Martians have the
death ray pointed at Earth. But if you're asking me
to bad money on it, I'm pleading the fifth on
that one because.
Speaker 5: I dcason even if the Martians had the death being
pointed at or shout out the Max Kellerman iguadala that
bre Is Bred is saying by you still, But yeah,
this is why you don't go down the dark desert highway.
Speaker 2: As g Man says. It won't make you any type
of cheddar anyway.
Speaker 5: But no, Yeah, Bred brings up a very good point
I could see, and with just with how things have
been a struggle, Utah very much to win this game.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of teams right now. But you
hope that's not the case.
Speaker 5: You hope that Look, I can't believe these words are
coming out of my mouth, but I'm saying it, and
you have to be this way.
Speaker 2: This is the objective part.
Speaker 5: You hope that as a fan and you are looking
as a media member of if they beat Texas Tech,
a top team, could that give you a had a
bit of momentum?
Speaker 2: Could that then you play Tuesday? How could that?
Speaker 6: How big of an if is that?
Speaker 5: I mean, I mean, if I'm gonna be honest, fifty
percent because I mean both teams have equal priser. Both
teams have fifty percent chance of winning, like yeah, with
everything taking it to occur.
Speaker 2: And look the reason why I say fifty to fifty.
That's the objective down the way.
Speaker 5: Both teams have to go play Texas Tech can come
out and have a bad shooting day, and even with
the lack of defense from BYU, if they're if they
are missing shots still and BYU is able to go out.
Speaker 2: There and shoot a high percentage shot.
Speaker 5: You know, if they're just on one a cap and
you have no idea what it's gonnacur, it's gonna be
Senior Night, It'll be at the Marriott Center. They have
to go on the road to win. Now, with that
being said, I am a logical man, Brett. You know
that's the objective that's the ridden part down the middle right,
the obviously objective part where I'm thinking logically is this
team just lost to TCU. It just got embarrassed. It
did not like losing, and they don't want to lose.
They don't want to drop two to go into big
teal turners. So even without both teams, without their best players,
you best believe they're.
Speaker 2: Gonna sell out on AJ on Saturday. They are. They're
gonna say we'll sell out.
Speaker 5: And if Rob Wright has fifty or anybody else on
the bench, or if Mahilo or Alexi, they'll live with that.
I guarantee that that's exactly what grahanma Castle is gonna do.
Speaker 2: AJ is gonna be heavily on the scout. They're gonna
have them circle. Remember that when we were growing up
bread where we.
Speaker 5: Drew the little bubble and then you put sub bubbles
is AJD Bonsa and then sub bubbles AJD Bonsa, AJD Bonsa,
AJD Bonsa, and then maybe one of the bubbles, says
Rob Right, I'm serious. I'm not joking when I say that.
That's the logical part in my brain. But we will see.
We don't know, but we will find out momentarily, But
what say you, Kugarnation does a potential matchup against Utah
and everything that it means more than just the Big
twelve and the tournament and losing to the state of
Utah and the rivalry. Could that give you the butt
kick you need? You ever been walking too slow and
someone you know gives you a little butt kicker, pushes
you a little bit? Okay, okay, I'm moving, I'm moving.
That might help BYU we will see or could it
be Saturday? I like the look of what's in front
of you, not necessarily looking the head. Could a game
against Texas Tech give you that motivation to take into
the tournament? I believe it can, because as having played
the next game is the most important game and it's
another top tier matchup. You get that win, that's another
top fifteen win. You can't argue that. So we'll see that.
Let's finish up a couple of sound bites and then
we'll go to break. Brad has to take off and
then how Vic come in with me. We'll get into
some Aaron Roddocks sound on the flip, but before we do,
let's get back to the sound. Kevin Cincinnati struggle Cincinnati
struggles going west. Does that bother you guys coming east
to do this swing against Cincinnati and West Virginia. Do
you guys like this this road trip that you have
to go on.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it is not an easy trip, for sure. You know,
we were fortunate enough to split on the trip last
year and that's why, you know, to that question, I
think you know, in this league in particular, the margins
are so slim, you know, so you know, we we
Cincinnati played a fantastic basketball game tonight. Got to give
them all the credit in the world. So it makes
the West Virginia lost thing even more because we actually,
you know, we played a decent game there and then
had a chance to win and then let that one
get away from us. So in this league, man, that
you can't you can't. You have to capitalize when you
have the opportunity. But to the specific question about this trip, yeah,
it's a difficult trip, but you know sports are difficult.
You got to still be able to be at your
best when your best is needed.
Speaker 5: A good point from Kevin right there, you still have
to be at your best even when you know your
when your best is needed. This road trip is tough.
I'm not gonna say and go into the ups and downs.
Oh it's cursing. I no, it's just it's a Big
Twelve trip that's tough. It's the same thing when teams
travel to play b Yu and Utah Bratt and they
don't win either game or they split. Remember Kansas last
year they lost both of those games. It's tough to
win in the Big Twelve. And when you have to
take a road trip to to Utah and West or
out East or wherever you have to go, it's it's
not easy.
Speaker 2: It is not easy at all.
Speaker 5: Remember when Oklahoma was in the conference to what is
it three years ago when BYU and Mark Pope took
that trip out and they were like four people sick,
like Fos was sick playing or Watermell was out.
Speaker 2: I can't remember the other people.
Speaker 5: I can't remember if Richie was out, but everybody had
the stomach bug and they had to go to Oklahoma
and then West Virginia. That was a tough road trip
and it didn't work out the best. That's what happens.
Crazy to think that ba he was playing Jeremiah Fears
back then. But the point what the point about what
I'm bringing up is trip Big twelve road trips are
tough to win on the road, and we have to
play two of them going to the East coast. It's
tough to be Cincinnati in their building, they play well,
it's tough to be West Virginia. It just didn't work
out a couple of last things. And then we'll get
to break. Let's switch things up. I'm gonna be jumping
just a little bit. Let's go to number nine.
Speaker 2: Kevin.
Speaker 5: You've seen Danta Thomas over the last two years, just
your thoughts and not having to face him anymore.
Speaker 4: Good seniors.
Speaker 7: He done, He's I know, he's a tough competitor, you know,
like him and Jizzre both killed this year last year.
He is still scarred from that. But he's a he's
a tough player, you know, like his motor.
Speaker 4: I thought was really.
Speaker 7: Impressed at the night offensively, you know, just chasing him
around all those screens.
Speaker 4: And so forth.
Speaker 7: But you know, that's a that's a luxury that that
West has been able to get, you know, some continuity,
which is tough in this day and age. So I
think that that's one of the reasons why I think
they're catching a stride right now, because there's just you know,
there's familiarity, which I think is really important.
Speaker 5: Yeah, him and Gisel James, those guys Hurt Bau and
Nidia Thomas.
Speaker 2: Kevin young little joke. I cut it up, but the
interaction was to see a senior good. You know, don't
want to see him anymore.
Speaker 5: Coaches say it all the time, but no, Dande Thomas
is a problem, Gisel James is a problem.
Speaker 2: This is a good Cincinnati team. I always felt like
they were.
Speaker 5: A dark horse where if they got hot at the
right time, and look they are. Kevin was asked previously
the question before if their NCAA tournament team. Brett, I'll
get your take on that is uc NCAA tournament team.
It's really tough, but I said this all the time.
With BYU having formerly been the top twenty five and
a quah one matchup for them, this has giving people
the resume to get into the NCAA tournament, UCF West
Virginia and now Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Brett.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so right now, if you go look at bracketology,
Cincinnati is the eighth or the fourth team in the
next four outs. There's the first four out, then there's
the next four out. Cincinnati is that team, so they
would be technically the seventy sixth ranked team. And let
me go, they did a little right up on so
that they have like a tiers of men's bubble watch
for the n CAA tournament. They listed Cincinnati under teams
with work to do Now this game was This article
was written after Cincinnati had beat BYU. They're still to
outside the top fifty and resume average. The rest of
the bubble is generally around number forty five. The consensus
model sets there at large chances in the mid twenty
percent chance. At this point, their case heavily relies on
Iowa State win, Kansas win, and now the BYU win,
but their recent hot streak sets up a big regular
season finale against TCU. You and I had this conversation
last night. It is a tough conversation with the bubble
and the NCBLEA tournament because you're comparing who the team
is today versus who does their resume? Say that there
are and it.
Speaker 4: Is it a joke?
Speaker 2: Bread, Is it a joke?
Speaker 6: You're about to say, like some people's resumes are some Yeah,
some people's resumes as a joke, but like who they
are today is not a joke.
Speaker 4: Agree.
Speaker 6: And if I'm hiring someone for a job, I don't
care that you were employee of the month six straight
months at your job a decade ago.
Speaker 4: Agree.
Speaker 6: What I care about is when I'm hiring you today,
what kind of employee are you now? Both things matter, obviously,
But I think when you look at Cincinnati's top wins
and you realize who they've beat, you realize the hot
streak that they're on, and then on top of that,
you look at not only the fact that they beat BYU,
but they held AJ Debonta to a rough performance. Again,
we're gonna be We're gonna look like big twelve homers.
But I think Cincinnati, given who they are today, I
do think they should be a turn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5: I think Cincinnati after that went over by you know
where they're trending. I put him as the first four
to play in even if that means they have to play, and.
Speaker 2: I do believe that they have to play.
Speaker 5: Let's finish up the last couple of sound bites with
Kevin Young, AJ, debons and Alexi coaches AJ with sixteen
points off the bench, excuse me, AJ with sixteen points
off the bench, the guy next to you that was big.
Then a guy like Dominic Diamande comes in and steps
up when the guys are around you are doing it
off the bench.
Speaker 2: Does that boost to give you fresh legs? Oh yeah, definitely,
especially with Alex like lights out.
Speaker 9: Y'all been seeing it for the past couple of games.
When Richie got injured, he has, you know, stepped up
into a bigger role, and dom I mean he's We've
been loving his energy since day one. Obviously haven't got
to showcase it a lot, you know, not playing, but
I mean tonight you showed it was Guarden full court.
I think he got a couple of rebounds, but his
energy is just different.
Speaker 5: Before we go into the number ten and give the breakdown,
let's play number eleven right off the back because the
couples with it. In my opinion, Alexi, that's two games
in a row where you shot the ball well. But
what has turned it on for you that's got you
going recently?
Speaker 10: I mean just always believing myself, believing in my work
and just like trying to step up into a bigger
role since we lost so many players, and also like
trying to use the opportunity coach gave me, and yeah.
Speaker 5: Use the opportunity to coach gave him. He hasnt been
shooting the ball well, it's not even the last two games.
That question was from Jay Drew, by the way, the
Desert News. If you go back even to the UCF game,
even though that it was a blowout, Alexi was still
shooting well in that game.
Speaker 2: He's been in the last couple of post games.
Speaker 5: I think out of the last four times Bous played,
he's comes to the postgame I think three times now.
I like what I'm seeing. And if you get the game,
you get matched up with Utah, you're able to get Utah.
You're gonna need this guy to hit shots. And he's
done that. And Brett, this is something we've been waiting
to see from Alexi. He's done it in the back
half of the season, a rough part of BYU, but
this is still I think a silver lining of a
player and taking it to the offseason because you brought
him in. Kevin un said this sucker can shoot. Well,
we're seeing that finally, and he wasn't hitting shots on
the road in around January five. Boy, he's hitting shots now.
I think that's a big positive for this team.
Speaker 6: Alexi last night had more threes than everyone else on
the team combined. Wow, he had four threes. Rob had one,
AJ had one, and then Kinnard had one. It just
makes you look back at the season and wonder, like,
had Alexi had a longer rope, a longer leash to
work with, could he have been a better supplemental, a
better complimentary piece to this team and kept BYU win
some of those rougher stretches because of his three point shooting.
But you heard Kevin say it. I think it was
Monday during media availability where he's like, it's my job
to it's your job to make me want to play
you and like, some of these guys had a short
leash and he's saying that now despite the fact that
he has a shorter rotation. If again, it's a chicken
in the egg conversation. I'm not pretending, Oh, if we
would have just given Alexi more minutes, he would have
shot better. We don't know, but it certainly does make
you look back on the season and wonder, had Alexi
had a longer leegh, could he have played at this
level the whole season? Because if so, I think that
makes BYU an even more dynamic basketball team when they
had Richie.
Speaker 2: It's a great ticke, It's a great point.
Speaker 5: You have to wonder with that along with handcuffing Canard
Davis junior Kevin Young mention that not me, but I
wonder with Canard's ballhanding ability and being able to create
an Alexis shooting ability, if that would have been able
to do itself more a little bit of non conference
going in the conference play, What could they have given
confidence wise to this team when they hit these bumps
in a row. We'll never know, but you hopefully you
can fix that going forward and even into the offseason
because I like what I see out of Canard down
the stretch in terms of playmaking, and I like what
I see from Alexi and shooting.
Speaker 2: I hope the fancy that too.
Speaker 5: If not, I would really invite you to go rewatch
the tape because I think those are big pieces that
they need to maintain going into next season. Last thing,
and then we'll get the break a j Obviously, you
guys are in a tough spot out right now. What
do you say to b YU fans that are starting
to wonder if this team has the moxie to finish
the season strong.
Speaker 4: I mean we do.
Speaker 6: We believe in ourselves.
Speaker 9: Like ky I said, we'd beat a really good team
less than two weeks ago. I mean we let two
or we let a multiple sip away, but I mean
we could still finish out the season strong, going to
the Big Toel Tournament strong, and you know, make a
march on.
Speaker 5: Buying or selling that from aj d Bonser Brett.
Speaker 6: Put me on the spot.
Speaker 2: Brother, I am sorry, they're not pre pay you for that.
Speaker 6: Fifth on this one.
Speaker 4: You can.
Speaker 6: The first thing I want to say is shout out
to Jay Drew for asking and asking an incredible qual.
Speaker 2: The toughest question I think, and he said it for
the last, really tough question for him to be like,
what do you say to fans who feel like this
team may not be able to do it? Yeah?
Speaker 6: And great question by Jay, Great response by a j.
Yeah that is true. They could still turn it on
get hot. The win against Iowa State is kind of
what you hang everything on because you say, well, you
had so some kind of performance that was good enough
to beat the team that the committee told you was
a one seed. You beat Iowa State in convincing fashion.
So is there's still some firepower left with this team
enough to get you wins in the Big Twelve Tournament
and the NCAA Tournament. I'm a guy who believes in
patterns ron I believe that people have good days, they
have bad days. But who you are seventy five percent
of the time is who you are. Who you are
twenty five percent of the time is not who you are.
I would love to be proven wrong. I'm selling not
because AJ doesn't. I don't think AJ doesn't believe. I
think he does. I think Kevin Young believes. I think
a lot of this guys on this team believe. I
just don't know if they have the firepower to get
it done, and I don't know if things can go
their way enough for them to get it done. I
hope that I'm wrong, but I don't. I don't know
that I'm buying this team to win Big Twelve Tournament
games or NCAA Tournament games.
Speaker 5: I'm buying it from AJ and AJ's belief valid. I'm
selling for everyone else that if I had to pick
and be objective, that's a tough part, and people are
gonna come for me. Those maybe it'd be au of
those listening, they have ever right to one hundred percent.
But from what I see, I feel like AJ is
busting you know, his ass, every like he is trying
and exhausting everything. You know, Rob is also playing forty
minutes like guys are trying out there. So I I
AJ to me, I believe AJ when he says this.
There has to be believed from the entire team. One
guy just can't believe. It's four of the guys on
the court. It's six of the guys on that bench
right now. I know the number two, the number four, six, eight,
and ten are out. I don't care. The other guys
have to believe, and you have to And what I'm
gonna believe and take from this is what I see
on Saturday.
Speaker 2: I believe Richie will be in the building. I believe,
you know, because he's gonna be honored.
Speaker 5: You playing on Saturday will tell me everything I need
to know what's gonna happen in the Big Soft Tournament
and NC tournament, even if they lose. If you show
up and don't have effort, if you show up and
want to be piss poorled, if all of that couple,
if you want to turn the ball over.
Speaker 2: Whatever the reasons are, I don't care.
Speaker 5: If that happens on Saturday, that will tell me everything
I need to know for next Tuesday. If you get
matched up with Utah and for the NCAA tournament, because
you're gonna drop to a ten seed. I believe that
is everything I will believe and go for. But they
have the power to change it. Like I said, fifty
to fifty chants Texas TeX's best players.
Speaker 2: Out so as BYU's.
Speaker 5: Let's see what happens as the Cougars take on the
Red Raiders on Saturday in the Marriott Center and shout
out to Rita. I talked to them. They're gonna be
giving the headbands away for the top king.
Speaker 2: We will see. We gotta go to break though.
Speaker 5: We're gonna get Aaron Rodercks sound on the flip side
and read it between the lines. Ben Kritta will be
back in studio, but before we do, just let you
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