Speaker 1: All right, let's get a draft time. Monday afternoon, eight
Speaker 1: minutes past the hour of two o'clock. It's a nice
Speaker 1: day outside. It's a lovely April day outside. It's about
Speaker 1: sixty eight degrees. We've got some scattered clouds here in
Speaker 1: downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It looks like we're to
Speaker 1: have a excuse me, a nice weather week, A spring type,
Speaker 1: spring type weather week, according to the forecast, a nice
Speaker 1: stretch of warm weather this week. And as it is
Speaker 1: every single day, it's good to have you along for
Speaker 1: the ride. Spence Jackets beyond the mic. That's Porter Larsen
Speaker 1: beyond the Glass today, jam Pack Monday Show. Happy Monday too.
Speaker 1: Hope you had a great weekend, a lot of great
Speaker 1: sports action to get to We will crown a college
Speaker 1: basketball championship tonight in San Antonio, Houston and Florida. After
Speaker 1: Saturday night's drama, a epic collapse by the Duke Blue
Speaker 1: Devils allowing Kelvin Sampson to advance the national championship game.
Speaker 1: Houston is going to try to win the first national
Speaker 1: championship in the history of that storied basketball program that
Speaker 1: includes the like Akeem Olajuan and five slam Agema, So
Speaker 1: Houston's trying to get it done out of the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: Florida representing the best team in college here, excuse me,
Speaker 1: the best conference in college basketball the SEC after they
Speaker 1: were able to take care of the number one overall
Speaker 1: seed Auburn on Saturday night. So six point fifty is
Speaker 1: your tip time at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio.
Speaker 1: CBS will have the coverage for you. Florida has not
Speaker 1: won a national championship since two thousand and seven, the
Speaker 1: second title day won in a back to back stretch
Speaker 1: under Billy Donovan with Jokim Noah and now Horford and
Speaker 1: Corey Brewer, one of the best college basketball teams really
Speaker 1: in the two thousands. If Florida wins tonight, it will
Speaker 1: be their third national championship since the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: which would tie them for second only behind the Yukon Huskies.
Speaker 1: So college basketball will crowd a champ tonight. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about Saturday's action where if you are a Duke fan,
Speaker 1: that one hurts. If you are a Cooper flag, if
Speaker 1: you're the Kinnipple, if you're John Shier, that loss on
Speaker 1: Saturday Night's gonna untch you for a long time. Of course,
Speaker 1: the immediate reaction is does this change the plans of
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag. I can't imagine that it does, but that
Speaker 1: conversation is taking place. And can you imagine a few
Speaker 1: Tad Jazz who are one in nineteen in their last
Speaker 1: twenty basketball games and have three wins since the All
Speaker 1: Star Break luck into the number one overall pick this
Speaker 1: year and Cooper Flagg goes back to school. I can't
Speaker 1: even believe I'm saying that out loud to into a microphone,
Speaker 1: But it was such a collapse and it was not
Speaker 1: Cooper's flag, Cooper Flag's fault. It was not Cooper's fault,
Speaker 1: but a lot of conversation about what this means for
Speaker 1: him and what it means for Duke moving forward. I
Speaker 1: thought KNK Nipple was really good. I thought Duke was
Speaker 1: the better team to start off the game, but Houston
Speaker 1: was able to outscore Duke nine to zero in the
Speaker 1: final thirty five seconds of the game and they march
Speaker 1: onto the national championship. Speaking of college basketball, the latest
Speaker 1: on the US top men's basketball situation. Ezrassar is now
Speaker 1: in the transfer portal that broke over the weekend. While
Speaker 1: we were off there, Alex Jensen opt on Sewan Show today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have AJ out at some point, So if
Speaker 1: you miss that, you want to hear from the new
Speaker 1: head coach of the Utes. ESPN seven hundred Sports dot
Speaker 1: Com is where you go, So check that out there.
Speaker 1: Good conversation that AJ had with Sean earlier in the
Speaker 1: in the day part earlier today on the radio station
Speaker 1: during Shawn Show, speaking of Utah Jazz. They got smoked
Speaker 1: by the Hawks. They just lose to everybody, because of
Speaker 1: course that's the deal. It is really tough to watch
Speaker 1: if you are continuing to watch. If you're not a
Speaker 1: basketball sicco like I am, like a lot of people
Speaker 1: in this business are, and you're still watching, credit to
Speaker 1: you or find a new hobby. One seven to one
Speaker 1: thirty four, Quinn Snyder's Atlanta Hawks hung one forty seven
Speaker 1: on Will Hardy's Utah Jazz. The Jazz have given up
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty or more points in three straight games.
Speaker 1: That's only happened three times in Jazz history and has
Speaker 1: not happened in a number of years. This is the
Speaker 1: worst team we've ever had here, There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: Try to focus on the positives exercise and futility. I
Speaker 1: guess Kant had a career high high five as they'll
Speaker 1: call you, with his eleventh double double. There's nothing to
Speaker 1: like about the team. There just isn't. I don't know
Speaker 1: what else to say. So they're doing this intentionally. You
Speaker 1: see what they can do in the draft. So we'll
Speaker 1: get to the latest in the NBA as we are
Speaker 1: high speeded to the stretch run of course happening now
Speaker 1: and the playoffs right around the corner light night of
Speaker 1: NBA basketball. They usually just make way for the National
Speaker 1: Championship game Sacramento and Detroit, Philadelphia and Miami. So a
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of NBA games tonight, but of
Speaker 1: course all eyes on the college basketball National Championship seventeen
Speaker 1: days away from the NFL drafts. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a smoke screen, but cam Ward is now moving
Speaker 1: towards your consensus number one pick latest with shid Or Sanders,
Speaker 1: Austin genty where he gonna go, and a lot of
Speaker 1: rumors surrounding the draft, which is less than three weeks away.
Speaker 1: So always a good time to talk a little NFL
Speaker 1: draft and a little offseason NFL Football spring football for
Speaker 1: both Utah and by U rolls on a spring football
Speaker 1: scrimmage for the Utes that was opened to some media
Speaker 1: members on Saturday. And you know, Devin Dan Pierre looks awesome,
Speaker 1: Date Johnson's fast. You know, spring football. What are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? But it's a nice, nice excuse to talk
Speaker 1: about spring football and where Utah football finds themselves prior
Speaker 1: to year two in the Big Twelve. RSL gets a win.
Speaker 1: Look at that, Maybe they don't need a striker, Maybe
Speaker 1: Diego can score all the goals two niligans La Galaxy.
Speaker 1: Over the weekend in America First Field, the Galaxy are,
Speaker 1: you're defending MLS champs, but they have not won game
Speaker 1: all year long, and RSL sends them home with a
Speaker 1: two zero loss in both of those goals scored by
Speaker 1: Diego Luna, who over the weekend was honored as the
Speaker 1: Utah Male Athlete of the Year at the STATA Sport Awards.
Speaker 1: So congratulates to Diego and RSL with a much needed
Speaker 1: three points. We are about two and a half weeks
Speaker 1: away from the summer. Excuse me, the primary transfer window
Speaker 1: closing in the spring window. It'll open up again in
Speaker 1: the summer, and still no word on RSL bringing in
Speaker 1: some reinforcements for Pablo and his staff. There will be
Speaker 1: an announcement, I'm told, in the coming weeks, and maybe
Speaker 1: even less than that, about this ownership transition becoming official.
Speaker 1: We'll get to some of those storylines as the Miller
Speaker 1: family is about to take over the business interest side
Speaker 1: of RSL. Ryan Smith will be out entirely, which is
Speaker 1: probably a good thing, and then Dave Blitzer will maintain
Speaker 1: a portion of ownership, and of course being part of
Speaker 1: that Blitzer umbrella is a good thing. So all the
Speaker 1: latest on the RSL side of things. Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: is getting set to finish off their year and what
Speaker 1: a year it's been. It will not culminate in a
Speaker 1: playoff appearance, but it's been fun to have hockey here
Speaker 1: in the market. Seattle's going to be in town coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow for a seven o'clock drop of the puck.
Speaker 1: Alex Ovechkin is all time leading goal scorer in pro
Speaker 1: hockey history. And yeah, we haven't even talked about the
Speaker 1: biggest week potentially in the world of professional golf all
Speaker 1: year long. It's augusta week. It's Master's week rain knocked
Speaker 1: the players off the course today. The par three is
Speaker 1: set for tomorrow and round one excuse me, Par three
Speaker 1: is set for Wednesday, and Round one of the eighty
Speaker 1: ninth playing of the Masters Championship at Augusta Golf Club
Speaker 1: and Augusta, Georgia will be Thursday. Scottie Scheffler, Roy Macelroy,
Speaker 1: your two favorites. We'll get to Augusta storylines throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the show. So, like I said, a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything, there you go. The table is set
Speaker 1: for some college basketball, for some NBA basketball, for some
Speaker 1: NFL draft, or some Utah Hockey club, for some RSL soccer,
Speaker 1: and some Masters golf. How about that? Did I leave
Speaker 1: anything off?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes? The Yukon women won another national championship. Geno rim
Speaker 1: is twelve and one in National Championship Games wild see
Speaker 1: the Yukon women win their first title in nine years,
Speaker 1: a nine year title drought. That shows you the standard
Speaker 1: the Yukon hoops has when nine years between national championships
Speaker 1: is called the drought baseball two, how about that? All right,
Speaker 1: let's get into the show. Josh Furlong, We'll be our
Speaker 1: first guest. Right out of the Gates. Josh covers the
Speaker 1: youths for our friends over at Kiss so I we'll
Speaker 1: do some Utah spring football, some Utah basketball. The Red
Speaker 1: Rocks are going to the Nationals for the forty ninth
Speaker 1: straight year, which is pretty remarkable, So Josh will stop
Speaker 1: by for all things Utah Athletics, NBA Daily Systyle with
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstrow, who caught some strays on the show last
Speaker 1: week after comparing Cooper Flag to Kevin Garnett. His buddy
Speaker 1: Zach Harper hopped on the show and it took Tom
Speaker 1: to task a little bit. So let's create a beef
Speaker 1: between Tom and Zach today. At least that's the goal.
Speaker 1: Belle Frasier, one of our favorites from the trip. She
Speaker 1: covers the Utah Hockey Club. We'll do a little NHL
Speaker 1: with Bell and then Tony Parks, the voice of the Bees,
Speaker 1: longtime radio host in this market. We'll be live in
Speaker 1: studio as we are now in the midst of baseball season.
Speaker 1: The Bees have made a move, and we'll do just
Speaker 1: a bunch of different local storylines with my I got
Speaker 1: a TP coming up on a Monday, So Josh for long.
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstrow, Bell Frasier, Tony Parks, Me, Spence check Ats,
Speaker 1: all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter
Speaker 1: Larsen producing booking the show on a Monday. You know,
Speaker 1: you and I never played for a paycheck. You and
Speaker 1: I never played for anything that anybody cared about. But
Speaker 1: you didn't. You don't have to be an ex pro
Speaker 1: to remember a loss or a shot you missed or
Speaker 1: a catch you dropped when you were playing competitively that
Speaker 1: you still think about to this day. And look, Cooper
Speaker 1: Flag is going to go on to be a great pro.
Speaker 1: I'm all in on him. There are very few holes
Speaker 1: in his game. That's the type of loss that if
Speaker 1: you're Konko Nipple, if you're Cooper Flag, if you're John Shy,
Speaker 1: or if you're the Duke Blue Devils, that one doesn't
Speaker 1: escape you. Man. That was a epic folding of the tents.
Speaker 3: Now, that's that's one that when you drop that kind
Speaker 3: of lead over that that amount of time. You know,
Speaker 3: my favorite thing in sports to watch, I'll be entirely
Speaker 3: honest with you, Tracy, with the thirteen points in whatever
Speaker 3: however many seconds, you just don't really see it very often.
Speaker 3: I'm a Knicks fan, so you go back to Reggie Miller, right,
Speaker 3: who had the inbailed steal three.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do that to me on a Monday. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, dude, I was there. Thanks a lot. Anthony
Speaker 1: Mason may rest in peace.
Speaker 3: Friend of the program, Eric Mika texted me during that
Speaker 3: game because when I was a freshman, he was a freshman.
Speaker 3: I was sitting on the very end of the bench.
Speaker 3: But my my hometown team won a state title over
Speaker 3: his high school team, scoring eight points in thirty five seconds,
Speaker 3: the final thirty five seconds of the game, and that
Speaker 3: to me is like the only relation. Luckily, we were
Speaker 3: on the good side of that. We were on the
Speaker 3: the elation of the night that time. But man, it's
Speaker 3: got a it's got a sting, especially when you make
Speaker 3: a few mistakes right when a player comes down in
Speaker 3: like the McGrady situation, just makes crazy shot after crazy shot.
Speaker 3: That's one thing. When you have a technical, when you
Speaker 3: have an over the back foul, when you have a
Speaker 3: kind of self imposed errors, Man, it's got a sting.
Speaker 3: And yeah, Duke Duke is out of it. It's a
Speaker 3: It was a crazy one to watch.
Speaker 1: I do get the feeling that the Duke college basketball
Speaker 1: program is the Cowboys, the Lakers, the Yankees. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people very much enjoyed that collapse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, if it wasn't Duke, I think yeah. So Anyway,
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation about what this can mean for
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag. But let's get into it as college basketball
Speaker 1: will crown it's national chant tonight. Josh Forlong is our
Speaker 1: first guest right out of the gates. But before we
Speaker 1: get to Josh, courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks,
Speaker 1: it is time now on a Monday, for your opening tip.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Drive with Spence. Check its on Utah's
Speaker 4: number one sports talk. Now into the studios of ESPN
Speaker 4: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
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Speaker 1: All right, so we've got Houston, We've got Florida tonight.
Speaker 1: For all the marbles, Vegas believe this is going to
Speaker 1: be a very very close game. The game opened up
Speaker 1: as Florida as a minor fi MIAs won and it
Speaker 1: has now moved to Florida minus one point five. According
Speaker 1: to bet MGM. The over under is one forty one
Speaker 1: point five, So Florida a just a scoach of a
Speaker 1: favorite Tonight should be a really, really good game. This
Speaker 1: is only the fifth time in college basketball tournament history
Speaker 1: that the two teams playing for national championship are both
Speaker 1: number one seeds and both won their conference tournaments. The
Speaker 1: other four times this took place, the game was decided
Speaker 1: by single digits. All of those four games were very,
Speaker 1: very close. I'm not expecting any type of a blowout.
Speaker 1: Florida is looking to win their first national championship since
Speaker 1: the second national championship Billy Donovan won back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven with really one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: college basketball teams in the history of the sport, with
Speaker 1: Al Horford and Jochem Noah and Corey Brewer. Really good
Speaker 1: teams under Billy Donovan. Of course, he is now with
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls. He's parlayed his college success into a
Speaker 1: lot of money in the pros. So Florida if they
Speaker 1: win tonight, it'll be their third national championship since the
Speaker 1: year two thousand. That's tied for the second most behind
Speaker 1: the Yukon Huskies. And they're led by this Walter Clayton
Speaker 1: junior kid who is stone cold, I mean talk about
Speaker 1: ice water in his veins, does nothing but hit big shots.
Speaker 1: He is by far their best player. They've got a
Speaker 1: lot of good bigs, and both these two teams tonight
Speaker 1: really really rebound well, specifically on the offensive end. So
Speaker 1: that's something to watch out for. Is Florida was able
Speaker 1: to beat the number one overall seed, Auburn Tigers, who
Speaker 1: went away from Johnny Broom in the second half. Johnny
Speaker 1: had fifteen points total, but he had twelve points with
Speaker 1: eighteen minutes left in the game. He only had three
Speaker 1: points in the final eighteen minutes, and they just started
Speaker 1: chucking up threes and they started panicking a little bit,
Speaker 1: and Florida just kind of held steady and they rode
Speaker 1: Walter Clayton Junior and his ability to just make big
Speaker 1: shot after big shot after big shot, off to catch
Speaker 1: off the bounce going right, going left, a lot of
Speaker 1: high pick and r ball screen action to get him loose,
Speaker 1: a lot of dribble handoffs, because they have a lot
Speaker 1: of bigs that are really, really skilled. So Todd Golden's
Speaker 1: thirty nine years old. You guys might remember him from
Speaker 1: the West Coast Conference days to coach San Francisco. If
Speaker 1: Todd wins tonight, if Florida wins tonight, Todd will be
Speaker 1: the second youngest head coach in college basketball history to
Speaker 1: win a national championship at the age of thirty nine,
Speaker 1: the only coach that younger would you know if he wins, Actually,
Speaker 1: the only coach that is younger on record to win
Speaker 1: a national championship was Jim Valvano, who's thirty seven years
Speaker 1: old with Big T thorough Daily and the NC State
Speaker 1: wolf Pack back in the day. On the other side,
Speaker 1: Calvin Sampson at the age of sixty nine, if he
Speaker 1: wins tonight, If Houston wins tonight, he will be the
Speaker 1: oldest coach in the history of the sport to win
Speaker 1: his first national championship. So, of course we are now
Speaker 1: a big twelve foot print once upon a time of
Speaker 1: pack twelve foot print. And so I've watched Houston play
Speaker 1: all year, and there are times, and of course oftentimes,
Speaker 1: if you're a radio host in Salt Lake City, you're
Speaker 1: gonna approach this through the paradigm of what it looked
Speaker 1: like when the local teams played against this team. And
Speaker 1: watching Houston play both Utah and BYU this year, I
Speaker 1: just I felt bad for the Utes and the Cougars
Speaker 1: when they played the Houston Cougars. It didn't look like
Speaker 1: a fair fight. When Utah went to Auburn, excuse me,
Speaker 1: when Utah went to Houston, they lost seventy to thirty six,
Speaker 1: and it honestly wasn't that close. That game was over
Speaker 1: within five minutes. I can remember watching the game and
Speaker 1: the announcer referencing the stat where at one point, I
Speaker 1: think the Utes had eight turnovers and three baskets. Houston
Speaker 1: is big, their physical, it's a veteran group. We'll get
Speaker 1: to this in a minute. I think this is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why they're able to beat that young
Speaker 1: duke team. A bunch of big, strong adults, a bunch
Speaker 1: of ground ups in the room, and veteran players that
Speaker 1: have played a lot of college basketball. But in the
Speaker 1: two games they played against BYU, it wasn't any better.
Speaker 1: I mean they smoked BYU eighty six fifty five, and
Speaker 1: then in the Big twelve tournament it was seventy four
Speaker 1: to fifty four. And BYU was good this year. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the scary part. Houston and BYU it looked like
Speaker 1: JV versus varsity and BYU was a Sweet sixteen team.
Speaker 1: That's how physical, that's how imposing, intense, and quite frankly prescient,
Speaker 1: Houston seems to be on defense, which is why watching
Speaker 1: them hang in there and then ultimately capitalize on the
Speaker 1: mistakes of this youthful Duke Blue Devil team really wasn't
Speaker 1: much of a surprise if you've been watching Houston all year.
Speaker 1: What was a surprise is the absolute epic meltdown by
Speaker 1: the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday night. And there's no
Speaker 1: other way to put that outscore nine to zero over
Speaker 1: the final thirty five seconds of the game. The Scion
Speaker 1: James kid, who's a good player for John Shier, Like,
Speaker 1: at what point are you going to try to let
Speaker 1: somebody else inbound the basketball? Like let con Kinipple try it.
Speaker 1: CON's a physical, strong kid who doesn't seem to be
Speaker 1: afraid of the moment. And poor Scion on those two
Speaker 1: turnovers down the stretch that ultimately cost him the game,
Speaker 1: he just looked rattled. Now, one thing, and we'll catch
Speaker 1: a break here in a moment. But one thing I
Speaker 1: want to push back on is this conversation that's become
Speaker 1: too tiered since Saturday night. And number one, is this
Speaker 1: an indictment on Cooper flag? No, it's not at all.
Speaker 1: Cooper had their only bucket of the final I think
Speaker 1: nine and a half minutes that corner three, The over
Speaker 1: the back foul that they called on Cooper Flag was
Speaker 1: an atrocious call. And yes, was he part of the
Speaker 1: group that melted down. Of course, And as I said
Speaker 1: earlier when I was talking with Porter, I don't care
Speaker 1: what if you ever played sports, It doesn't matter. Like
Speaker 1: even if you never played anything that really matter. Chances
Speaker 1: are you remember a game that maybe you missed a shot,
Speaker 1: you made a turnover, you lost when you shouldn't have.
Speaker 1: This loss for Duke is not going away anytime soon,
Speaker 1: and honestly probably ever. Like if you're sigh On James,
Speaker 1: you're gonna remember those turnof If you're Cooper Flag, do
Speaker 1: you want this to be your last game in college?
Speaker 1: And of course the conversation has turned into does this
Speaker 1: motivate Cooper Flagg to come back to Duke? Now, the
Speaker 1: side of the argument that makes sense is that Cooper
Speaker 1: is a young eighteen year old Okay, So that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that came into play here. LJ. Crier,
Speaker 1: Juan Roberts. These guys are in their mid twenties. These
Speaker 1: are twenty three year old players that have been playing
Speaker 1: for a long long time. They are five, sometimes almost
Speaker 1: six years older than Cooper who reclassified and should be
Speaker 1: a senior in high school. Cooper Flagg should be getting
Speaker 1: ready for prompt or did prom already happen? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Cooper Flagg should be getting away, you know, getting ready
Speaker 1: for graduation from high school. Reclassifies, goes to Duke as
Speaker 1: a freshman, and the reason I bring up his age, okay.
Speaker 1: Juxtaposed this to the Richie Saunders conversation, does Richie Saunders
Speaker 1: come back to play for BYU? Right? So, over the
Speaker 1: next few weeks, Richie is going to go through the
Speaker 1: pre draft process where he and reps his family as
Speaker 1: agent or whoever. We'll talk to NBA teams and they'll ask, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's your what are your thoughts on our guy? Do
Speaker 1: you think he could be drafted? Are you interested in
Speaker 1: drafting him? I don't think he's a first rounder? Okay,
Speaker 1: but is he a second rounder? And he's is he
Speaker 1: the type of second round pick that you like enough
Speaker 1: that if he falls to you, you're gonna give him
Speaker 1: a three or a four year deal. It doesn't happen
Speaker 1: all the time, but it does happen with second rounders,
Speaker 1: and if Richie gets the feedback that he can start
Speaker 1: his NBA career now, I very much believe he has
Speaker 1: no choice but to go do that because he's twenty
Speaker 1: three and he's coming up on twenty four. So the
Speaker 1: reports are BYU wants Richie back and they're willing to
Speaker 1: pay him seven figures and that's great, Okay. So if
Speaker 1: Richie goes through the draft process and he doesn't get
Speaker 1: positive feedback, go make a couple million bucks and play
Speaker 1: basketball for Kevin Young and go try to win a
Speaker 1: Big twelve. No issue with that. But if he has
Speaker 1: a chance to start his NBA clock, he's got to
Speaker 1: go do it now because of the age of twenty three.
Speaker 1: Because what you want to do is an NBA player
Speaker 1: is proved throughout your rookie contract that you have earned
Speaker 1: it to be able to be paid even more as
Speaker 1: a second contract guy, third contract guy. That's when the
Speaker 1: generational wealth starts filling in. Okay, So two different timeframes.
Speaker 1: Richie Saunders, twenty three, if you have feedback that says
Speaker 1: you can play NBA basketball, I think you got to
Speaker 1: go do that. Cooper flag Young, eighteen year old, if
Speaker 1: he wants to wait another year because talk about nil.
Speaker 1: I don't know what Duke's nil situation is. But if
Speaker 1: Richie Saunders is a two two and a half three
Speaker 1: million dollars a year guy, what is Cooper? And if
Speaker 1: you're Duke, are you willing to put together a package
Speaker 1: that's like ten mil next year to bring him back
Speaker 1: for one more season because he's good enough? And you
Speaker 1: know the other thing to keep in mind here is
Speaker 1: the Malu watch kid and then Conk Nipple. All three
Speaker 1: of those players are thought to be lottery picks. Do
Speaker 1: those three get together and decide, Okay, Duke, this is
Speaker 1: what's going to cost you to have all three of
Speaker 1: us for one more year. And we're willing to come
Speaker 1: back for one more year because we're all teenagers, as
Speaker 1: opposed to getting the clock rolling on my NBA contract
Speaker 1: to get the second year, you know, the second contract
Speaker 1: coming my way as a max player for Cooper flag
Speaker 1: well year one as a rookie. Even if you're there
Speaker 1: not number one pick, Duke could probably pay Cooper more
Speaker 1: money for one year to bring him back than he
Speaker 1: could get his first year as a pro. Now, I
Speaker 1: find all of this much ado about nothing because I
Speaker 1: just believe that if you're a generational player like Cooper
Speaker 1: is and you've stayed healthy, I think you've got to
Speaker 1: go get it started. That's my opinion. And maybe I'm
Speaker 1: being selfish here because the last thing I would want
Speaker 1: in the second week of May is to be sitting
Speaker 1: there when it's lottery night and Lady Luck finally shines
Speaker 1: on the Jazz and they grab number one overall and
Speaker 1: then Cooper announces that he's going back to do Can
Speaker 1: you imagine that? Would that be the most Utah jazz
Speaker 1: thing of all time? So yeah, just throwing that out there.
Speaker 1: But Houston and Florida tonight for all the marbles. Just
Speaker 1: before seven o'clock on CBS, as March Madness will conclude,
Speaker 1: Collish basketball will crown it's national champ tonight on the
Speaker 1: men's side after the Yukon women got it done over
Speaker 1: the weekends. Gino rim It's twelve and won in national
Speaker 1: championship games. That is a mind blowing stat. Houston Florida tonight,
Speaker 1: six fifty Mountain Time on CBS Florida as of now,
Speaker 1: is a one point five point favorite represented the SEC.
Speaker 1: Of course, Houston out of the Big twelve and Josh
Speaker 1: Furlong will join us right out of the gates. And Josh,
Speaker 1: if you've been watching Big twelve basketball all year long,
Speaker 1: you're probably not too surprised to see the Houston Cougar's
Speaker 1: playing for the national championship. Is that fair?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I think this is a team that they
Speaker 2: play together, they've been consistent, they've been together for a
Speaker 2: long time, and so you know, they're a tough team
Speaker 2: to beat. I mean, when I put in my bracket,
Speaker 2: they're the team that I actually put to win it all.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't a surprise to me by any means.
Speaker 2: You know, Florida's obviously a good team. They've got some length,
Speaker 2: So I'm really fascinated to kind of see how this works,
Speaker 2: especially with offense and in kind of the defensive prowess
Speaker 2: that that Houston brings. So it should be a really
Speaker 2: fun matchup. I mean, the fact that they can even
Speaker 2: beat Duke was was pretty remarkable. But love it so, Uh,
Speaker 2: you can't ask for anything more in a in a
Speaker 2: championship game.
Speaker 1: Since you brought it up, one more thing here, then
Speaker 1: we'll get onto the Utah content portion of the interview. Look, man,
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't care what level you ever played, uh,
Speaker 1: if you ever played you know, competitive sports, uh, of
Speaker 1: any condo, on any level. Their chances are there's a
Speaker 1: missed shot that you think about while you're trying to
Speaker 1: go to bed. There's a game that your team lost
Speaker 1: that you think about, that you that you wonder, uh
Speaker 1: you know, I should have, would have, could have, what
Speaker 1: have you. I don't care what Cooper Flag goes on
Speaker 1: to do the rest of the way. And I think
Speaker 1: he's got I'm all in on him. I think he's awesome.
Speaker 1: Conka Nipple, the Malawatch kid, Like, that's a team full
Speaker 1: of stars. I don't know, Josh, that you ever quite
Speaker 1: forget a loss that Duke, A loss the likes of
Speaker 1: which Duke suffered to the hands of Houston. That was
Speaker 1: one of the most epic collapses I think I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. I mean I remember looking at the clock
Speaker 2: thinking like, there's no way Houston really getting into this,
Speaker 2: and just little by little it just felt like Duke
Speaker 2: was kind of, you know, the whole definition of that
Speaker 2: f around and find out the situation right, Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know if you can put that on the radio,
Speaker 2: but I think this was just, you know, a situation
Speaker 2: where Duke just kind of felt comfortable and obviously they
Speaker 2: relied a ton on Cooper Flag, but he was the
Speaker 2: only one that was able to generate anything, and so
Speaker 2: when he didn't, you know, they really had nowhere to turn.
Speaker 2: And suddenly you've got a Houston team that got momentum
Speaker 2: and it all changed.
Speaker 5: But like I think if.
Speaker 2: You were to tell me that that was going to happen,
Speaker 2: especially with like a minute left of the game, I
Speaker 2: still don't know that I believe you, especially the way
Speaker 2: that it did. So definitely one for the ages. But yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to feel for Duke. I mean, that's going
Speaker 2: to be one that sticks with you for a very
Speaker 2: long time and I don't know that you can shake it,
Speaker 2: especially with how that went down.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what this means for where Cooper
Speaker 1: Flags had is that of the conversation over the past
Speaker 1: forty eight hours or so have been like does this
Speaker 1: motivate him to come back to school? And you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of roll my eyes at that. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, he turned eighteen, like three and a
Speaker 1: half months ago or so, he is a young eighteen
Speaker 1: year old and josh I cannot imagine what the reaction
Speaker 1: would be if we're sitting here watching the draft lottery.
Speaker 1: I think it's May twelfth, if I remember correctly, and
Speaker 1: Lady Luck shines on the Jazz they grabbed number one overall,
Speaker 1: and then Cooper Flag announces he's going back to Duke.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the reaction in this city.
Speaker 2: It would be the most like perfect thing that would
Speaker 2: happen to Utah the one time they finally get the
Speaker 2: number one seed and Cooper Flag, the guy that they've
Speaker 2: been taking for decides to stay in college. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I don't even want to know what
Speaker 2: that would do to people. I mean, I think people
Speaker 2: were okay with the Jazz tanking and you know, within reason,
Speaker 2: but then to not get somebody like Cooper Flag would
Speaker 2: just be devastating, you know, a generational talent. But that's
Speaker 2: the age of nil now, man. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: you know, he can obviously go get paid a fairly
Speaker 2: great wage at Duke, and if he really wants to
Speaker 2: get that national championship, you know, good for him. But
Speaker 2: you know he'd be crazy not to. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, you know, all it takes is
Speaker 2: an injury to derail things. At least if you're in
Speaker 2: the NBA, you've derailed it and you're in the NBA,
Speaker 2: so you know it would be crazier things would happen,
Speaker 2: But it would be the Jazz luck to have that
Speaker 2: happen where they get the number one pick and then
Speaker 2: everything goes to crap.
Speaker 1: Well, let's hope that does not go down, but only time.
Speaker 1: We'll tell Josh. Let's move over to some Utah stuff,
Speaker 1: and let's start with a piece of news. It appears
Speaker 1: to be very positive. I'm not going to be the
Speaker 1: radio host that claims that I was grinding on Fairley
Speaker 1: Dickinson tape last year. But Terrence Brown was their leading scorer.
Speaker 1: He's one of the top scorers in the country, and
Speaker 1: he is a rising junior, which means technically he has
Speaker 1: three years to play with the grad transfer stuff and
Speaker 1: a cently the background is he knows Raphael Chilias. But
Speaker 1: Utah Lands, who, according on three, is a four star
Speaker 1: transfer with a composite ranking of nearly ninety two out
Speaker 1: of one hundred. So again I'm not overly familiar. I've
Speaker 1: just been reading about him or watching some highlights. He's
Speaker 1: a pretty impressive young six to three sophomore. What do
Speaker 1: you make of this piece of the puzzle that Alex
Speaker 1: Jensen and his staff were able to dial in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not going to pretend to know a ton
Speaker 2: about you know, Fairleigh Dickinson or anything other than their
Speaker 2: tournament roun a few years back, But I mean, this
Speaker 2: is a guy that, you know, when you look at
Speaker 2: what Utah needs to be able to compete, or at
Speaker 2: least what they haven't had for the last few years,
Speaker 2: it's been guard play, and it's been outside shooters or
Speaker 2: guys that can be able to create their own shot,
Speaker 2: and Utah seemingly found that with Tams Brown. You know,
Speaker 2: he's a guy that you know, averages about twenty point
Speaker 2: six points per game, five point six rebounds, three point
Speaker 2: two assist, So he seems like he can do it
Speaker 2: all and is kind of a contributor of the offense
Speaker 2: more than what Utah's had.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you know, how he's able to translate to the
Speaker 2: Big twelve game will be the biggest thing. But I mean,
Speaker 2: when you're going in there and the first guy that
Speaker 2: you pull out of the portal, outside of getting Keanuds
Speaker 2: to withdraw from the portal. This becomes a huge get
Speaker 2: for Utah just you know, being able to get a
Speaker 2: guy that they feel confident in, that can score, that
Speaker 2: can do a lot of things at guard play. You know,
Speaker 2: he's a combo guard, so you know, I'm curious to
Speaker 2: see how much he'll have the ball in his hands
Speaker 2: or if he'll be the guy that they set up.
Speaker 2: But I mean, you still need great guard play, and
Speaker 2: especially in the Big twelve, you need that. So I
Speaker 2: think this is Alex Jensen working early to be able
Speaker 2: to work on those connections with with Chilias, but also
Speaker 2: it's being able to address the needs that they've seen
Speaker 2: in the past and kind of his mindset of he
Speaker 2: wants this team to be able to run fast, we
Speaker 2: have some tempo and be able to do that, and
Speaker 2: the best way to do that is with guard played.
Speaker 1: All right, So that's piece number two of the puzzle.
Speaker 1: And we're still learning about some of these other players
Speaker 1: and whether or not, you know, Alex and his staff
Speaker 1: are trying to get any of them back. So let's
Speaker 1: move over to some of those pieces of news. And
Speaker 1: I've got your Twitter feed pulled up. So, according to
Speaker 1: an account, you retweeted a running Hoops Running Hoops podcast.
Speaker 1: They're reporting the Josh Eilert will not be returning next season.
Speaker 1: I don't know that this is surprising, although you did
Speaker 1: join us pretty quickly after the news came down that
Speaker 1: Craig was out and the rumors were swirling that Alex
Speaker 1: was going to be in, and you made a really
Speaker 1: interesting case that essentially Josh, with two decades a Big
Speaker 1: twelve experience, might be a guy that Alex looks at.
Speaker 1: Josh rolled in a studio a few weeks ago, we
Speaker 1: spent some time together. Seems like a great guy. Moved
Speaker 1: his family out here, I believe three children, and this
Speaker 1: business oftentimes is unkind of family dynamics. So what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the news that you know? And I
Speaker 1: have no idea if AJ even talked to him, but
Speaker 1: Josh Eilert will not be returning in any role next
Speaker 1: year for Utah basketball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I know. Alex Jensen was. He was
Speaker 2: in town last week meeting with the players, meeting with
Speaker 2: the staff and trying to get his lay of the
Speaker 2: land on kind of what he could do for the
Speaker 2: for the you know, ever since Chileus is the first
Speaker 2: one that he hired there's been a lot more emphasis
Speaker 2: being placed on wanting to get his NBA guys, Guys
Speaker 2: that he feels like he has a great connection with
Speaker 2: guys that have kind of that NBA pedigree, and for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, Josh Eilert didn't kind of pad them out there.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, when you know, I made the
Speaker 2: case that if you're going to bring Josh Eilert on,
Speaker 2: it's mostly because of your ability to be able to
Speaker 2: scout the big twelves and being able to understand what
Speaker 2: goes on there. But since those conversations that we had,
Speaker 2: you know, I've kind of heard that there was a
Speaker 2: little bit more waffling there, especially with.
Speaker 5: The entire staff.
Speaker 2: There's still questions on guys like at David Evans or
Speaker 2: a low Lease. Obviously they provide connections to whether it
Speaker 2: be the AAU circuit or in David Evans's case, where
Speaker 2: you know, obviously he's coached in the state of Utah,
Speaker 2: He's got a lot of connections there. He also has
Speaker 2: a great international recruiting base that he can pull from.
Speaker 2: There's there's still questions remaining about them. I think the
Speaker 2: longer this goes on, the less likely it becomes.
Speaker 5: But I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 2: If David Evans is the guy that they hold on to,
Speaker 2: if they hold on to somebody, I think just from
Speaker 2: the Utah standpoint alone, that gives you, you know, the
Speaker 2: connections inside the state, which look, you know, Utah have
Speaker 2: some good recruiting, but like you also need some guys
Speaker 2: that can go out there and recruit from other areas, right,
Speaker 2: And I think with his ability to recruit outside of
Speaker 2: the country, yeah, you know the international circuits, I think
Speaker 2: that gives you a leg up. But look, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think there's so many different guys that you can
Speaker 2: go to. I don't know that it's a huge miss
Speaker 2: if you don't take any of these guys, but I think,
Speaker 2: you know, these are guys are going to have to
Speaker 2: fall in line with what the way Alec Jensen wants
Speaker 2: to do it. And you know, for whatever reason, it
Speaker 2: seems like Josh Eiler just wasn't the fit there. Whether
Speaker 2: it was his own choice or whether it was Alex's.
Speaker 2: You know, I haven't heard anything but that direction, but
Speaker 2: you know, you wish him best.
Speaker 5: He's a good guy.
Speaker 2: He's kind of a no nonsense guy, but also kind
Speaker 2: of stays out of the line by just happy to
Speaker 2: kind of work hard and get a team going forward.
Speaker 2: So tough to see that, but I think Utah or
Speaker 2: Alex Jensen specifically has an idea of where he wants
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: While we're in the space of talking about Alex's staff,
Speaker 1: you know, right out of the gates coach Chillius, and
Speaker 1: then about a week later, Wes hired as the GM
Speaker 1: and it's been quiet since then. Any insight and Alex
Speaker 1: hopped on Sean Show earlier today and talked about his
Speaker 1: desire to have a staff that's maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: smaller than what we've seen in college basketball as of late,
Speaker 1: which to me is great. I mean, there's like ten
Speaker 1: coaches on all these teams now, and so we'll see
Speaker 1: how this thing kind of takes shape. But do you
Speaker 1: have any information on the progress or maybe lack thereof
Speaker 1: and filling out the staff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know he's definitely been working hard to be
Speaker 2: able to kind of get his guys. I know that
Speaker 2: there's an NBA guy that he's still trying to work on,
Speaker 2: and whether that comes down to the NBA season or
Speaker 2: some other factors, I'm not entirely sure, but I know
Speaker 2: he wants, you know, at least one more NBA guy.
Speaker 2: And then outside of that, he's you know, trying to
Speaker 2: find some connections to the state of Utah, trying to
Speaker 2: find a good connection that will allow you to be
Speaker 2: able to whether that be recruiting or just being able
Speaker 2: to kind of have that that guy that's been in
Speaker 2: the state in people's homes or whatever that may be,
Speaker 2: that that is kind of recognizable that way. So you know,
Speaker 2: he's definitely being intentional with this. This isn't something where
Speaker 2: he's trying to hire a staff immediately so that they
Speaker 2: can get going for this next year. He's definitely looking
Speaker 2: long term, right. I think he's not trying to just
Speaker 2: kind of put a band aid over something real quick
Speaker 2: as he's dealing with, you know, what he's at in Dallas.
Speaker 2: He's definitely trying to be intentional. I mean, he said
Speaker 2: as much in his inturgal press conference, right Like, he
Speaker 2: said that he was going to take his time, he
Speaker 2: was going to do it, and you're you're definitely seeing that.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, he wants people to buy into
Speaker 2: his process. He wants people that are going to to
Speaker 2: maximize kind of his potential, especially if he is going
Speaker 2: to take that small staff, and I've heard the same thing.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to blow up the staff
Speaker 2: and make it some massive thing. You still need your
Speaker 2: directors of operations, you still need more assistant coaches, you
Speaker 2: need some other things that way. But I think he
Speaker 2: really attacked it hard and showed kind of his hand
Speaker 2: by getting Raphael Chilius as an assistant coach and then
Speaker 2: getting Wes Wilcox as a general manager. He showed kind
Speaker 2: of the direction he was going where this is going
Speaker 2: to be my focus. I'm going to focus on the recruits.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go from the NBA style and go
Speaker 2: from there. So I don't know that he feels the
Speaker 2: need to necessarily get something immediately, especially because he's got
Speaker 2: those proven guys that are able to kind of be
Speaker 2: in the system already.
Speaker 1: We did get some news over the weekend Ezrasar has
Speaker 1: entered the transfer portal. Of course, Ezra had a lot
Speaker 1: of bright moments playing for Craig this year, including the
Speaker 1: BYU game here in Salt Lake, and you know, I
Speaker 1: know he has children elsewhere in the country, I think
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, so maybe he's looking to get closer
Speaker 1: to home. He did feel like one of the candidates,
Speaker 1: along with Keanu Dawes, who will be back playing for
Speaker 1: the You so maybe Alex would take a long hard
Speaker 1: look at and maybe they still are. But can you
Speaker 1: shed some light on this information and whether or not
Speaker 1: Ezra is still considering maybe staying here in Salt Lake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Utah's definitely still in conversations with Ezra. You know,
Speaker 2: I think they want him, but I think they're gonna
Speaker 2: want him at the right price. I know we have
Speaker 2: to say that now in college basketball in college football,
Speaker 2: which is crazy, but I think, you know, based on
Speaker 2: his skill set, obviously he had tremendous abilities and tremendous upside,
Speaker 2: but there's still limiting aspects of his game where he
Speaker 2: kind of loses the ball on the post. He's not
Speaker 2: able to, you know, really shoot outside of maybe ten
Speaker 2: fifteen feet. Great guy around the rim, but outside of that,
Speaker 2: his game is pretty limited. So I think, you know,
Speaker 2: they want him. They want him to be able to
Speaker 2: be a complimentary player to probably Keanu does. Especially since
Speaker 2: Keanu has shown that he can be a bit more
Speaker 2: of a well rounded player, maybe his upside is a
Speaker 2: little bit better, and so if they can get him
Speaker 2: for the right place, one hundred percent they're gonna take him.
Speaker 2: But I think at this point, you know that if
Speaker 2: if the market's not there, Keanu is the guy that
Speaker 2: they're going to build around. He they've clearly made an
Speaker 2: emphasis that, you know, they wanted to be able to
Speaker 2: have him as kind of their their focal point of
Speaker 2: this team. And so if you can build around Keanu
Speaker 2: and you can have other players that can kind of
Speaker 2: work in that system, that helps, and whether Ezra fits
Speaker 2: in that or not, I you know, I would be
Speaker 2: surprised if he comes back, just based on everything and
Speaker 2: kind of how this roster, you know, even though it's
Speaker 2: not a large roster, but how this roster is taking shape,
Speaker 2: I would be surprised if those are two players that
Speaker 2: really kind of complement each other in the game. They
Speaker 2: have kind of a similar skill set outside of Keanu
Speaker 2: having a better shooting outside of the post. So, I
Speaker 2: you know, I know fans really got to love Ezra,
Speaker 2: you know, I think he was a great guy that
Speaker 2: spoke well, he was a great guy that fought for
Speaker 2: the team. But I think at this point, unless the
Speaker 2: price isn't right, you know, I think it's time to
Speaker 2: move on from.
Speaker 1: Ezra instead of going down the list. One more basketball
Speaker 1: quest and then we'll move on. Do you think there
Speaker 1: are any other players currently quote on the roster in
Speaker 1: the transfer portal that Alex is talking to trying to
Speaker 1: get back, whether it's Jake Wahaleen or any of the
Speaker 1: other players, Yeah.
Speaker 2: You mentioned it. I mean it's Jake Walleen. He's the
Speaker 2: guy that I think they really want to see come back.
Speaker 2: The strike that he made year over year from you know,
Speaker 2: his first year to last year kind of shows where
Speaker 2: he can go, right. They're excited about that. I know
Speaker 2: other in state schools are really pushing hard for him,
Speaker 2: and so I you know, this isn't going to be
Speaker 2: an easy thing. At the end of the day, Jake's
Speaker 2: you know, as all these players do. He has to
Speaker 2: do it's best for him. But I know that they're
Speaker 2: really interested in him and want to see him develop.
Speaker 2: But I know a school up north that is is
Speaker 2: absolutely pushing hard for him. So whether that comes down
Speaker 2: to money or kind of a better fit, whatever that
Speaker 2: may be, you know, he's going to be a hot
Speaker 2: commodity at least in the state alone. And you know,
Speaker 2: whether Utah gets him or not. You know, it can
Speaker 2: be a loss, but I don't think it has to be.
Speaker 2: They needed more out of him from an outside of
Speaker 2: shooting perspective, and so if he does come back, I
Speaker 2: think that's where you'd see them definitely grow and try
Speaker 2: to push his game because he's got he's got a
Speaker 2: tremendous upset as well. I mean, he gets into that post,
Speaker 2: he's able to rebound to the high rate, but they
Speaker 2: do need more shooting from the outside to make his
Speaker 2: game translates a little bit better with what Alex wants
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: All right over to the football side of things is
Speaker 1: there was a scrimmage on Saturday where media was allowed
Speaker 1: to watch, which doesn't happen often. There was once upon
Speaker 1: a time where it happened all the time, but of
Speaker 1: course things change and people get weird about access, as
Speaker 1: we've talked about. So any main takeaways from that scrimmage,
Speaker 1: anything you've fan should know, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I think the big takeaway from from this scrimmage
Speaker 2: alone is that Devin Dampier's the guy, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: and not there was any questions, but I think there's
Speaker 2: a noticeable enough difference between Devin Dampier and the rest
Speaker 2: of the quarterbacks, and right now that's Isaac Wilson and
Speaker 2: Bird Fickland. Those two have been the guys that have
Speaker 2: been backing him up. But I really think a guy
Speaker 2: like Bird Ficklin, who who he needs to put on
Speaker 2: a ton of weight, you know, just size. He's a
Speaker 2: smaller bodied guy right now, but he's got one of
Speaker 2: the best balls that that any of the quarterbacks have.
Speaker 2: You know, he's starting to make tremendous strides and so
Speaker 2: you're starting to see Bird kind of pushing Isaac a
Speaker 2: little bit. Isaac obviously needs to rebuild that confidence that
Speaker 2: he had after kind of just taking out last year
Speaker 2: based on having the whole offense on his shoulders and
Speaker 2: and it just not going well. But by it, Marge,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think this team, it's it's making the
Speaker 2: right progressions that it needs to make right. I think
Speaker 2: one of the questions about this this offense specifically, is
Speaker 2: that there wasn't really going to be a huge passing game.
Speaker 2: And you know, there's there is an emphasis more in
Speaker 2: the run game. As you know, over the last few years,
Speaker 2: they've wanted to push more of the passing. But I
Speaker 2: think Utah's utilizing this in a very effective way where
Speaker 2: they're being diverse and how they run the ball and
Speaker 2: as such, they're being able to use that to be
Speaker 2: able to open up a lot of these receivers. And
Speaker 2: you know, right now, there's not like a standout guy
Speaker 2: in that wide receiver room that says, Okay, it has
Speaker 2: to be that guy, you have to throw it to him.
Speaker 2: It has to be you know, whoever it is, whether
Speaker 2: it's Dorian Singer or whomever it was. You know, now
Speaker 2: it's much more of a spread it out distribution, and
Speaker 2: there's a lot of guys factoring into that and included
Speaker 2: in that as the tight ends. You know, Lennon King
Speaker 2: and Dallan Bentley who who had a great scrimmage, they're
Speaker 2: factored in there. But I think the way that Utah
Speaker 2: is setting this up where they're going to put the
Speaker 2: run emphasis there, well, they're still kind of making it
Speaker 2: a multi dimensional situation, whether that be with Devin Dampierre
Speaker 2: who can pass a run, whether that's with Nate Johnson
Speaker 2: or even Hunter Andrews. Hunter Andrews has got some tremendous
Speaker 2: speed and we're starting to see kind of his potential.
Speaker 2: This offense can be really fascinating, and I'm really curious
Speaker 2: to see how this continues to develop over the offseason
Speaker 2: because I think they could be a very potent offense
Speaker 2: if these things continue.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about the wide receivers,
Speaker 1: but you kind of broke it down there pretty well. Well,
Speaker 1: So before I say you lose, there will be another
Speaker 1: transfer portal window opening for Kyle and his staff with
Speaker 1: the ability to add to the group. Any thoughts, Maybe
Speaker 1: it is wide receiver, but any other holes on either
Speaker 1: side of the ball that you think they're going to
Speaker 1: look down to before we actually played football come fall, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Wide receiver.
Speaker 2: They're going to try to find a guy that can
Speaker 2: be kind of that wide receiver one right, Whether that's
Speaker 2: there or whether they can get it is, it remains
Speaker 2: to be seen. But that's going to be a big focus.
Speaker 2: And then defensive line, you're going to get those defensive
Speaker 2: tackles where you need some more depths there. They've got
Speaker 2: some good frontline talent, but the guys behind them are
Speaker 2: either young or they've been in the system a long
Speaker 2: time and have been injury prone, and so you just
Speaker 2: need more guys, more bodies there. Defensive ends, you're going
Speaker 2: to be okay, the defensive tackles you're going to need
Speaker 2: a little bit more. And then outside of that, I
Speaker 2: mean it's just kind of best player available. I mean,
Speaker 2: corner would be nice to be able to add another
Speaker 2: guy and that to be able to more depth. But
Speaker 2: I think your big focus going into the transit portal
Speaker 2: is going to be a wide receiver defensive tackle.
Speaker 1: All right, Josh. By the way, you were on television
Speaker 1: during one of the pressers, how long has it been
Speaker 1: since you shaved? That beard is getting weird?
Speaker 2: Man, It's been twenty twenty is when I started growing it.
Speaker 2: So I'll turn it up from time to time, but
Speaker 2: I'm keeping the beard as long as I can. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's motivation to get me to get skinny. Then I
Speaker 2: can maybe skip shave again.
Speaker 1: All right, man, Well do your thing. It looks good.
Speaker 1: As long as the wife likes it, you're good to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, right. She actually didn't like it before, and
Speaker 2: now she doesn't want me to see it shaved, so
Speaker 2: it's a good thing, I guess.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, thanks for the time. I have a
Speaker 1: good week.
Speaker 5: All right, Thanks you too, all right.
Speaker 1: Josh Furlong covers the University of Utah, for our friends
Speaker 1: at KS. I'll stop spot today courtesy of our friends
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Speaker 1: in a Tom Petty mood today on a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 1: What's going on? What's going on with you and there?
Speaker 1: What's the deal?
Speaker 3: I guess kind of not officially, but yeah. The first
Speaker 3: two songs going with a little Tom Petty, so maybe
Speaker 3: we'll keep it going with maybe not no, you can
Speaker 3: roll with it, but you do.
Speaker 1: You are aware this is a family friendly program, right Yeah,
Speaker 1: And your first Tom Petty bump songs about weed, dude,
Speaker 1: just be better.
Speaker 3: Mary Jane's a sweet girlfriend of his.
Speaker 1: It's weed. Just say no, kids, I'm just I'm the
Speaker 1: one that has to clean up for your poor musical
Speaker 1: choices by reminding the masses that we're here to take
Speaker 1: care of families and children.
Speaker 3: Is that our demographic?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just say no. It's all I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I think that sheet said like thirty five seventy Maile.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough. Our next guest passes on grass like
Speaker 1: Greg Fokker from Meet the Parents. Tom Haberstrol Monday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Hello Tom, how are you?
Speaker 5: I'm good man, how are you? I like that you
Speaker 5: make that presumption about me.
Speaker 1: Well, if you'd like to discuss your weeat smoking habits
Speaker 1: on air, Tom, I'm happy to make the space.
Speaker 5: No, this is a family program. You're absolutely right, I think, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is what an interest? Now? This is
Speaker 1: still this is still live radio. This is not a podcast.
Speaker 1: We have to behave ourselves in a way that people
Speaker 1: like you and Zach Harper do not.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we we have to remind ourselves that we're professionals,
Speaker 5: because everything in our lives just screams on professionals. So
Speaker 5: thank you for the reminder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you guys are very professional. But you know,
Speaker 1: you can drop a bomb here or there, or you
Speaker 1: can discuss things on podcasts that you can't discuss on radio, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of the deal.
Speaker 5: You tell me Spence, you're the one with the radio show.
Speaker 1: Well, when I go on podcasts, it seems like there's
Speaker 1: a little bit more freedom to use certain terms. Is
Speaker 1: that fair to say?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know what, I'm just surprised you went
Speaker 5: with weed. That kind of feels like another maybe like
Speaker 5: a graduate level program compared to just marijuana, you know,
Speaker 5: like feels like it feels like it's a little inside baseball.
Speaker 1: Nice job, my bad bubonic product. I've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of terms so we could use if you want to,
Speaker 1: but we can move on. I'm speaking of Zach Harper.
Speaker 1: He does not, like you're Kevin Garnett is Cooper flag
Speaker 1: com Just so you know.
Speaker 5: Well, Zach is way smarter than me on all things basketball,
Speaker 5: so I would trust him on all those things. But
Speaker 5: you know what, he's also a Minnesota Timberwolf lifer, so
Speaker 5: he probably understands that comparing anyone to KG is like
Speaker 5: any Bulls fan hearing people compare anybody to Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, fair enough, And it's funny because of
Speaker 1: all the comps that I've heard, the Garnett one actually
Speaker 1: tracks when you watch the way the Cooper can guard
Speaker 1: and how well he moves. I mean, look, I think
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's Kawhi or whether it's Garnett. Whenever
Speaker 1: you compare an eighteen year old to Hall of famers,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get pushed back. Is there anything about the
Speaker 1: way Duke went out that could potentially affect the way
Speaker 1: people view Cooper at all?
Speaker 5: I don't think so, Considering he's the youngest guy on
Speaker 5: the court by why margin, he was going against a
Speaker 5: lot older guys, And as much as I want to
Speaker 5: pin it all on him, I thought that the over
Speaker 5: the back call that they whistled on him was very borderline.
Speaker 5: Didn't feel like the right call at that stage. The
Speaker 5: physicality in the game feels like that was something you
Speaker 5: might call him the beginning of the game to set
Speaker 5: the tone for the rest of the game. But the
Speaker 5: way that Houston was being physical with Duke, I was
Speaker 5: flabbergasted at that call. And look, he missed the shot
Speaker 5: there at the end, But He'd made those shots time
Speaker 5: and time again, so I don't think that that was
Speaker 5: a bad shot. What really stands out to me is
Speaker 5: Malowatch having zero rebounds in over twenty minutes of action
Speaker 5: and that Duke had no rebounds after the four minute mark.
Speaker 5: That's insane. And some of that falls on Cooper Flag
Speaker 5: for sure, but it's one game. It's a huge game.
Speaker 5: And if the Duke Blue Devils went out in like
Speaker 5: the second round or then the Sweet sixteen, I would
Speaker 5: have a lot harsher words to say for Cooper Flag
Speaker 5: and John Shire and Duke. That was an epic collapse.
Speaker 5: But I wouldn't put this put this all on Cooper Flag,
Speaker 5: and it wouldn't change my evaluation of him.
Speaker 1: That's the type of lost Tom. I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's you know, Pete Van Sicklin and Ernie Verena and
Speaker 1: Staples in nineteen ninety five. It doesn't matter what level
Speaker 1: you played, it doesn't matter how long it's been. A
Speaker 1: loss like that. I don't think ever fully leaves you.
Speaker 1: Like if you're John Schi, if you're Conkain Nipple, the
Speaker 1: Malawatch kid or Cooper like all of them are probably
Speaker 1: gonna go on those All three of those kids are
Speaker 1: lottery picks. They're gonna make millions of dollars and play
Speaker 1: basketball for years. But the way they went out, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure a loss like that ever fully leaves you.
Speaker 5: It's traumatic, it's the best way to describe it. As
Speaker 5: a basketball player. It's you're always gonna think about it,
Speaker 5: like if you're up six with thirty six seconds left.
Speaker 5: For the rest of your career, you're going to be
Speaker 5: thinking about San Antonio.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be thinking.
Speaker 5: About what happened against the Houston Cougars. And that's that's
Speaker 5: the fact of the matter. For any athlete who's ever
Speaker 5: suffered a loss like that, you are always going to
Speaker 5: have it in the back of your mind. Now, time
Speaker 5: heals all wound, so eventually it'll fade for memory and
Speaker 5: it won't be so harsh and searing of a loss
Speaker 5: over time. But I can't imagine that anyone who suffers
Speaker 5: that kind of loss. I mean, I'll tell you what,
Speaker 5: I don't know. If you watch the White Lotus, oh yeah,
Speaker 5: it seems. I mean the text that I got from
Speaker 5: all my buddies in North Carolina, it was the duke
Speaker 5: shirt with the dad Ratcliff with the gun to his head,
Speaker 5: and I was sitting there being like, that feels like
Speaker 5: we're in a simulation now, because how is White Lotus
Speaker 5: picking the one team that has the most depressing most
Speaker 5: I can't believe that just happened loss, the most brutal
Speaker 5: loss of the tournament, and it happened right before the
Speaker 5: finale of White Life, which feels like we are part
Speaker 5: of this simulation where it's all connected in some way,
Speaker 5: just like in the White Lotus season finale. No spoilers,
Speaker 5: but that was one of the big themes, was how
Speaker 5: we're all connected in some way, and that finish by
Speaker 5: the Blue Devils did feel like this was preordained somehow
Speaker 5: that it would promote the White Lotus season finale that
Speaker 5: was last night. And I'm still gathering my thoughts on
Speaker 5: both the Duke loss on Saturday night and White Lotus
Speaker 5: on Sunday night. But both of them felt like big
Speaker 5: events in the year twenty twenty five, and.
Speaker 1: I was wrong about both. Just to be clear, I
Speaker 1: do not see either coming. But yeah, we'll leave the
Speaker 1: spoiler alerts for White Lotus software today. I do have
Speaker 1: one more question, Tom, and I don't think there's anything here.
Speaker 1: Let me be clear, my personal opinion and my personal
Speaker 1: belief is that Cooper is leaving. He's going. He's a
Speaker 1: generational player that's going to be the number one pick,
Speaker 1: and he is healthy, so you gotta go do that. Okay. Now,
Speaker 1: the other side of it is he is a young
Speaker 1: eighteen year old. He turned eighteen I think three and
Speaker 1: a half months ago, and a taste in your mouth
Speaker 1: like that to leave college maybe something that motivates him
Speaker 1: to come back because of his age and five years ago,
Speaker 1: this is a conversation we would not even be having. However,
Speaker 1: I could actually foresee whether it's you know, Cooper, Kahn,
Speaker 1: k Nipple, the Malawatch kid, all three of them saying, look,
Speaker 1: we know we're lottery picks, but we're all young, we're teenagers.
Speaker 1: And if Duke wants to step up with an NIO
Speaker 1: package that will pay them more for one year than
Speaker 1: what all of them could make as rookies in the NBA,
Speaker 1: to run it back and try to get john Shire's
Speaker 1: first national championship, I guess I would say stranger things
Speaker 1: have happened based off the current landscape, and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here shaking my head because I'm now imagining a scenario
Speaker 1: on May twelfth when the NBA lottery is held and
Speaker 1: the Jazz get number one, and then the next day
Speaker 1: Super Flag announces that he's going back to Duke. I
Speaker 1: do not know what it would be like around here.
Speaker 5: What do you what do you pain?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Oh man, oh man, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: think about it. But any shot in hell that that
Speaker 1: actually goes.
Speaker 5: Down, I think it's even less likely now than it
Speaker 5: was before that collapse, because I think there's no upside
Speaker 5: in coming back. There's the only way that you have
Speaker 5: redemption or that you win that equation is if you
Speaker 5: win the National Championship, right, Like anything short of that
Speaker 5: is just making more salt in the wound. And I
Speaker 5: think when you lose in the final four in epic
Speaker 5: fashion like that, there's only one way to forget that
Speaker 5: whole thing and to make those wrongs right is to
Speaker 5: win it all the next year, and just with a
Speaker 5: one and done style format of the NCAA tournament. I
Speaker 5: just I don't see the upside there being worth it,
Speaker 5: because in the NBA, you can make the argument that
Speaker 5: like a team's that much better than everybody else in
Speaker 5: a seven game series. You have a better shot of
Speaker 5: asserting your dominance in a seven game series, not in
Speaker 5: a one and done where something flukey can happen and
Speaker 5: everything collapses like a house of cards. So I think
Speaker 5: before that Cooper Flag championship or the Final four loss,
Speaker 5: I would say there's better odds if they win at all,
Speaker 5: that he would come back and do it again like
Speaker 5: Jokim Noah and Al Horford did. Then if they had
Speaker 5: this cataclysmic loss in the Final four, and I would
Speaker 5: just say, there's also this dynamic of dabansa next year
Speaker 5: where if he Cooper Flag comes back, and Canipple comes
Speaker 5: back and Malawatch comes back, there's an excellent draft class
Speaker 5: coming through next year that they're going to have to
Speaker 5: be competing for draft picks next year, and not only
Speaker 5: competing for draft picks or draft slot, you're competing for
Speaker 5: millions of dollars first year salary or at least rookie
Speaker 5: scale salaries. So I think the risk for Cooper Flag
Speaker 5: actually got even higher in deciding to come back. So
Speaker 5: I agree with you, I don't think it's gonna happen,
Speaker 5: and I think it's even more of a long shot,
Speaker 5: A long shot that turns into even more of a
Speaker 5: long shot. If they lose that game in horrific fashion.
Speaker 5: I think it's I don't even I don't think it's
Speaker 5: gonna happen. But you know what, stranger things have happened,
Speaker 5: like blowing a what was it a nine point lead
Speaker 5: with a minute twenty left? What was the what was
Speaker 5: the largest gap there probability? I think it was that
Speaker 5: six point lead with thirty two seconds left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were up nine with a minute. They were
Speaker 1: outscored nine to zero over the final thirty five seconds.
Speaker 1: And you know, strictly from a basketball standpoint, I felt
Speaker 1: really bad that john Shire didn't I felt bad for
Speaker 1: the players that John Shire didn't dial up a different
Speaker 1: inbounds play. They tried the same inbounds play over and
Speaker 1: over and over. They were trapped in the corner. They
Speaker 1: overcame a Houston player reaching over the end line to
Speaker 1: try to swap the ball out of I think it
Speaker 1: was Nipple's hands where Duke got a teck and possession,
Speaker 1: like the pion. James kid is a really good player,
Speaker 1: just looked panicked to trying to inbound the basketball. I honestly, Tom,
Speaker 1: I have tremendous respect for Duke basketball and John Shire.
Speaker 1: I thought their coach let them down down the stretch.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then he forget about the caniple kick out
Speaker 5: of bounds that went the wrong way. Yep, And it
Speaker 5: was it was a it was a crazy finish to
Speaker 5: that game. And you're still watching like wow, wow, like
Speaker 5: how did that happen? And there have been times where
Speaker 5: what was it the I seem to remember Maryland coming
Speaker 5: back against Duke down ten? Was it the other way
Speaker 5: around where it was like wojo, and like, I'll never
Speaker 5: forget if you're up by ten with a minute left.
Speaker 5: Ever since that that loss happened, I've never forgotten it,
Speaker 5: Like I've always in my head, no matter who it
Speaker 5: is who's playing no ten point lead with a minute left,
Speaker 5: his states like I wanted to be fifteen and this
Speaker 5: is the same sort of game. Well, I will for
Speaker 5: a long time look at a six point lead differently
Speaker 5: with thirty three seconds left NBA or college basketball, because
Speaker 5: that just happened in one of the biggest stages. So look,
Speaker 5: I think it's been a rough collapse for the Duke program.
Speaker 5: You know, when you talk about losing to NC State
Speaker 5: a year ago, and then losing to UNC and then
Speaker 5: losing here. It's been a really tough road for Duke.
Speaker 5: But I am not crying for them as as a
Speaker 5: wake forest, a lump based here in Charlotte who grew
Speaker 5: up a tar Heel fan. I'm not shedding any tiers,
Speaker 5: but like you, I had Duke winning it all and
Speaker 5: maybe that was an emotional hedge for me.
Speaker 1: The game you're talking about, I remember it now. It's
Speaker 1: the miracle minute. That was Jay Williams. That was that
Speaker 1: Maryland team with Wan Dix's and Steve Blake. Boozer was
Speaker 1: on Duke, as was Mike dud Levy and Chris Duhant.
Speaker 1: Duke came down, came back from ten minutes from ten
Speaker 1: points down with a minute twenty left to play. That
Speaker 1: was two thousand and one. I do remember that game
Speaker 1: now that you mention it.
Speaker 5: Yes, that was. That's the game where it's kind of scarring,
Speaker 5: where once once that happens and you've seen it with
Speaker 5: your eyes, you're just like, yeah, no, no, ten point
Speaker 5: lead with a minute left is safe, and you know
Speaker 5: there's I think if this was a bunch of eighteen
Speaker 5: year olds going at it, you know, like seniors in
Speaker 5: high school and Cooper Flag had that kind of collapse,
Speaker 5: I'd probably put a little bit more weight, like why
Speaker 5: couldn't it be dominated more down the stretch. But because
Speaker 5: some of these guys are you know, fifth year seniors
Speaker 5: and twenty two year olds, twenty three year olds in
Speaker 5: some cases, like I'm not sweating it for Cooper Flag,
Speaker 5: but it does give me a lot of excitement, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of debate going into the draft that otherwise
Speaker 5: wouldn't have been there if he had run the table.
Speaker 5: I feel like we would just be running out of
Speaker 5: things to say about Cooper Flag because he's that good.
Speaker 5: And now we can actually, you know, to a little
Speaker 5: bit of me dow on that bone of is there
Speaker 5: something that we're missing, because I think it is healthy.
Speaker 5: A little bit of a little bit of doubt or
Speaker 5: a little bit of criticism is healthy for a prospect
Speaker 5: where the bar isn't so high that he cannot physically,
Speaker 5: you know, reach those expectations. Because the only one that's
Speaker 5: ever done it, in my opinion, is Lebron James. And
Speaker 5: I mean it's just hyping someone to that degree. We
Speaker 5: did it with Zion Williamson, we did it with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 5: Cooper Flag, to me, feels like as big of an
Speaker 5: American prospect as we've had in decades. And Wenby doesn't
Speaker 5: count because I don't think America really knew what we
Speaker 5: were talking about with Wemby because he was French and
Speaker 5: because he hadn't played college hoops over here. But this
Speaker 5: feels like Cooper Flag losing in the final four. It
Speaker 5: feels like it might be some healthy adversity for him.
Speaker 5: Maybe I'm just I'm Roase color glasses year, but I
Speaker 5: think for Utah the I do not see Cooper Flag
Speaker 5: returning to Duke for another year, even if let's say
Speaker 5: another team that he's not super enentuies about. I think
Speaker 5: the odds of him returning actually decreased after that catachclismic loss.
Speaker 1: Tell me what before we do some NBA, before we
Speaker 1: say you lose a lot of conversation about this tournament. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I think there was one, maybe two overtime games. I
Speaker 1: think there was one game winner. There were no Cinderellas.
Speaker 1: Now all four number one seeds leads high quality basketball.
Speaker 1: I thought Saturday was awesome and I'm excited for the
Speaker 1: game tonight, But what's the Tom Haberstrow take on the
Speaker 1: NCAA March Matdis Tournament of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: I think it's better to have big name program in
Speaker 5: the final four than having a Cinderella run and then
Speaker 5: end in like the Elite eight. Like I think, all
Speaker 5: things considered, this is going to be great for ratings.
Speaker 5: It was great for the national conversation. And while as
Speaker 5: much as I like a good Cinderella, a good Saint
Speaker 5: Peter's a good George Mason, when it comes to the
Speaker 5: final four, I feel like we all collectively understand that
Speaker 5: they don't really have a real chance of winning this
Speaker 5: whole thing. Whereas all four of these teams that were
Speaker 5: in the final four, you wouldn't be surprised if anyone
Speaker 5: made the distance, and that kind of intrigue and that
Speaker 5: kind of those stakes felt bigger with the final four
Speaker 5: being all the top seeds basically, And I would say
Speaker 5: it's the same thing for the NBA. As much as
Speaker 5: we don't as much as we say and claim that
Speaker 5: we want parody, I think what fans really want secretly
Speaker 5: is Steph Curry going against Lebron James for the eighteenth time.
Speaker 5: I think people want that, they want rivalries. They want
Speaker 5: brand names, household names in the end, and there's a
Speaker 5: little hipster in everybody that wants Hey, wouldn't it be
Speaker 5: cool if it was Memphis versus Indiana in the NBA
Speaker 5: Finals this year? At the end of the day, I
Speaker 5: think Boston LA or Cleveland LA in the finals more
Speaker 5: people would care about that than if it was even
Speaker 5: Okay See. I feel like people would want to say,
Speaker 5: it'd be great to see Okay See up there Cleveland.
Speaker 5: What a great NBA Finals that would be. But at
Speaker 5: the end of the day, that would draw half the
Speaker 5: audience of a Lakers Cleveland or a Lakers Boston series.
Speaker 5: And the same thing goes for college basketball. We want
Speaker 5: the blue bloods, we want the big name programs, we
Speaker 5: want the number one seeds there at the end. But
Speaker 5: I can understand the argument that the Cinderella is the
Speaker 5: fact that we didn't get really any Cinderellas into the
Speaker 5: Sweet sixteen or close to it. I can understand.
Speaker 6: I think the.
Speaker 5: Optimal thing is a couple Cinderella's early on, and then
Speaker 5: we see the big dogs down the stretch.
Speaker 1: So Oklahoma City in the midst of a historic run.
Speaker 1: They just went nineteen and won over a twenty game stretch,
Speaker 1: but they have lost back to back games at full strength.
Speaker 1: You know, all their players played at Houston and then
Speaker 1: they got trounced by the Lakers. And I will say
Speaker 1: as a fan of this game, watching two players like
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca and dialing in on them and watching
Speaker 1: them kind of figure it out is pretty fascinating with
Speaker 1: the way they think about the game. But any concern
Speaker 1: at all as we only have a handful of games left,
Speaker 1: four or five for most teams, with where Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: finds themselves, there's just a couple l's, is all.
Speaker 5: I think it's two l's with incredibly hot shooting on
Speaker 5: the other side, like those are tough shots. The fact
Speaker 5: is that it took two sun like the surface of
Speaker 5: the sun, shooting nights to beat OKAC And not to
Speaker 5: say that they aren't beatable, but if they weren't such
Speaker 5: outliers from downtown where they're combined against Houston and the Lakers,
Speaker 5: they shot over fifty percent from three point land and
Speaker 5: that's that's the recipe, and that's the recipe for against
Speaker 5: the ninety six Bowls or the twenty seventeen Warriors. Like
Speaker 5: you need to have an outrageously hot shooting night in
Speaker 5: order to topple the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you can
Speaker 5: sit here and say like they they exploited a weakness,
Speaker 5: et cetera, et cetera. But it's a make or miss league,
Speaker 5: and that means the same for Okay seeing the rest
Speaker 5: of the team is that if the opponents, like the
Speaker 5: Lakers in the Houston Rockets, are gonna shoot lights out
Speaker 5: against you, they're gonna win. They're gonna win every once
Speaker 5: in a while against the Thunder, But in a seven
Speaker 5: game series, I don't see the Lakers hitting twenty two
Speaker 5: threes on fifty five percent shooting from downtown. And if
Speaker 5: they do that, then yeah, they're gonna win the series
Speaker 5: against Oka. See, but I just don't see that being sustainable.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about a couple of teams out
Speaker 1: this way that I don't really think we've just discussed
Speaker 1: very much. And the Clippers went through this stretch where
Speaker 1: they lost six of seven, and then since then they're
Speaker 1: fourteen and three in their last seventeen, with wins over
Speaker 1: the Pistons, the Knicks, the Calves, the Grizzlies, a couple
Speaker 1: wins over the Knicks and I could keep going. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's some wins over bad teams in there. But you know,
Speaker 1: every time Kawhi is healthy and every time he decides
Speaker 1: to be engaged, we're all reminded of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's who he is when he decides if basketball is
Speaker 1: important and he actually is healthy. Are you buying any
Speaker 1: of this? Are they a legitimate threat to do some
Speaker 1: sort of special thing come playoff time?
Speaker 5: Man, I'm going to let you in on a little
Speaker 5: teaser here that if you subscribe to my newsletter Tom
Speaker 5: Thefinder dot com, you'll see it in there, but I'll
Speaker 5: give it to your listeners here. And just with the
Speaker 5: knowledge that I'm going to give you something, please go
Speaker 5: subscribe Tom Thefinder dot com free, your paid doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: This stat blew me away when I was working on
Speaker 5: it over the weekend. I wanted to know when Luca
Speaker 5: and Lebron are on the floor, or when Fred VanVleet
Speaker 5: and Alburn Shangoon are on the floor, or John Morant
Speaker 5: and Jaron Jackson Junior on the floor, Haliburton and Siakam. Basically,
Speaker 5: when each team has their star players on the floor,
Speaker 5: what is the point differential? How much do they outscore
Speaker 5: opponents with their stars on the floor. And the fact
Speaker 5: of the matter is the Clippers have the best on
Speaker 5: court net rating for their stars on the floor, meaning
Speaker 5: when James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are on the floor
Speaker 5: for the Clippers, they're outscoring opponents by whopping thirteen point
Speaker 5: two points every one hundred possessions. You look at any
Speaker 5: star collection in the NBA for all the title contenders Cleveland, Okay,
Speaker 5: see Boston, Lakers, Minnesota. You look at when the Cleveland
Speaker 5: Cavaliers have their four all stars on the floor, and
Speaker 5: I'm counting Jared Allen there too, Carlyn Mitchell, Evan Mobley
Speaker 5: and Jared Allen. They're at plus ten. Kawhi and James
Speaker 5: Harden and Zubots on the floor, Norm Powell on the floor,
Speaker 5: Derreck Jones Junior, when Harden and Koi are on the floor,
Speaker 5: they're at plus thirteen. No one else is higher than that.
Speaker 5: And that really shows that when those two are healthy,
Speaker 5: James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, they're going to compete at
Speaker 5: the highest levels. And I mean against okay, see I
Speaker 5: mean against the Lakers, I mean against anybody. And one
Speaker 5: thing that's interesting that kind of got obscured by the
Speaker 5: huge Lakers win yesterday. Is that Lebron James and Luka
Speaker 5: Doncic have the lowest star net rating among all the
Speaker 5: title contenders. They're barely above zero, barely above zero. And
Speaker 5: that is interesting. I know that it's an you know,
Speaker 5: Luka Doncic just got acquired, he's working back from his injury.
Speaker 5: But most of the title contenders have their stars. When
Speaker 5: they're on the floor, they blow out opponents by doubled
Speaker 5: and the Lakers are a huge outlier in this. That
Speaker 5: Lebron James and Luka Doncic are basically breaking even when
Speaker 5: they're on the floor together, and that, you know, one
Speaker 5: game sample size of yesterday barely nudged them above the
Speaker 5: mendos or the break even line, And that's really interesting.
Speaker 5: No one else is in the same territory as Lebron
Speaker 5: and Doncic on the floor. They've got to figure out
Speaker 5: a way to maximize those two guys. And last night
Speaker 5: was incredible and Austin Reeves has been great, But it
Speaker 5: is interesting that the Lakers there have been some blowouts
Speaker 5: that they've been enduring since that trade. Is this is
Speaker 5: a source of concern for the Lakers, and definitely a
Speaker 5: source of appreciation for what Kawhi Leonard and he's healthy,
Speaker 5: and James Harden and he's healthy.
Speaker 1: What they can do, Yeah, whatever Kauhi is healthy for
Speaker 1: an extended period of time, I'm always just reminded of, like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a moment in time in his career that
Speaker 1: we actually considered him maybe the best player in this
Speaker 1: league outside of Lebron. And I'm realizing this in real time.
Speaker 1: And I'll ask you about one more team before he
Speaker 1: sets you loose, like the Clippers. The Timberwolves went through
Speaker 1: a stretch they went two and six over an eight
Speaker 1: game period. They even lost to the Utah Jazz, which
Speaker 1: does not happen very much. Yeah, and then after that,
Speaker 1: they're also fourteen and three in their last seventeen with
Speaker 1: some good wins, including a win over the Nuggets, and
Speaker 1: I could keep going, you know, two wins over Denver.
Speaker 1: So are you buying the recent surge from Minnesota? Are
Speaker 1: what are their chances to make some noise come playoff time?
Speaker 1: As that's right around the corner.
Speaker 5: So for my title tiers that just came out this morning,
Speaker 5: I actually upgraded the Clippers to a four Star tier
Speaker 5: and the other team on that tier the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 5: They're elite on both ends of the floor. They're tenth
Speaker 5: on offense adjusted for their opponent schedule and fifth defensively
Speaker 5: adjusted for their opponents strength. So this team is top
Speaker 5: five on defense, top ten on offense, and with their
Speaker 5: health on their side, now that they're healthy, they're really
Speaker 5: deep and they're good. And nos Red I think is
Speaker 5: the better option. That's to Rudy Gobert in crunch time
Speaker 5: and in the postseason rather than Julius Randall. But that's
Speaker 5: a good problem to have, like when you got two
Speaker 5: studs there. And I'm lower on Julius Randall than most people,
Speaker 5: But when you have the option to have a stretch
Speaker 5: five or a stretch four like nas Red instead of
Speaker 5: a bully like Julius Randall, if you need to go
Speaker 5: one on one and a guy to get you a bucket,
Speaker 5: probably lean towards Julius Randall. If Anthony Edwards is, you know,
Speaker 5: fatigue down the stretch or dealing with foul trouble, don't
Speaker 5: want to get a charge against them or anything like that,
Speaker 5: you got options. And this team with doctor Deevin Chenzo
Speaker 5: also stepping up his game, being one of the most
Speaker 5: efficient scorers in the NBA over the last couple months.
Speaker 5: This team is a four star contender. I still think
Speaker 5: that the Golden State Warriors are in a tier above
Speaker 5: along with OKC, Boston and Cleveland. I've got four teams
Speaker 5: in the five star tier. And that loss yesterday by
Speaker 5: the Golden State Warriors, Aman Thompson, what a performance by
Speaker 5: the Houston Rock is to absolutely shut down Steph Curry.
Speaker 5: It's it's going to be an absolute dogfight in the
Speaker 5: Western Conference. I'm not ready for it, Like I'm I'm
Speaker 5: already stressing out by all the good teams that are
Speaker 5: gonna get eliminated in this playing tournament. We're looking, I'm
Speaker 5: telling you, this is crazy. We're looking at the possibility
Speaker 5: of the Lakers getting the number two seed in the
Speaker 5: Western Conference or being eliminated in the play in tournament.
Speaker 5: That's that's what the next week is gonna tell us,
Speaker 5: because they have the opportunity to get the number two
Speaker 5: seed or the number eight seed. And if you're in
Speaker 5: the number eight seed, your two losses away from being
Speaker 5: eliminated from the playoffs before they even start. And that's
Speaker 5: where we're at with the Lakers, they can be anywhere
Speaker 5: from number two and number eight. And that's just that's
Speaker 5: that goes for Minnesota, that goes for Golden State, that
Speaker 5: goes for Houston Memphis. It's going to be crazy and
Speaker 5: I can't wait for it.
Speaker 1: Tom, where can people go find all the work? Buddy?
Speaker 5: Uh my X feed Tom Haveerstrow. Also Tom Underscore Haberstrow
Speaker 5: on Instagram. If you love Top Chef, got a Top
Speaker 5: Chef podcast going right now that's kicking in the high gear,
Speaker 5: So go check that out. And Tomdefinder dot com.
Speaker 1: You really think Zach is smarter than you are when
Speaker 1: it comes to basketball?
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, he's a big bully, that guy. I don't
Speaker 5: want to I don't want to get on his bad side.
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, yeah, Well, I appreciate the time, man,
Speaker 1: have a good week. We'll chat. So all right, Seed'll
Speaker 1: go with Tom Haerstrow. I'm about to send out my
Speaker 1: prize picks lineup for the National Championship Game tonight via
Speaker 1: social media, which I never do, but they've asked me
Speaker 1: to do it, and I well, I feel bad. So
Speaker 1: before I do this, it'll be up on my Twitter page,
Speaker 1: maybe Instagram I hate social media, but they're a valued
Speaker 1: client of ours, so I'm going to do this. Let
Speaker 1: me just say, do not copy these picks. None of
Speaker 1: us know what we're doing. Okay. The ones that present
Speaker 1: themselves as experts are just trying to sell you something.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to take care of a client. So I'm
Speaker 1: about to send out my prize picks. Lineup. I've got
Speaker 1: a little parlay going on for the National Championship game tonight.
Speaker 1: Tony Parks Live and studio in a bit, but joining
Speaker 1: us now. Belle Frasier, Salt Lake Tribune Bell, Happy Monday.
Speaker 1: How are you good? How are you? I'm well. Are
Speaker 1: you one that likes to risk a couple of ducats
Speaker 1: here and there on sports? You ever bet you ever
Speaker 1: get involved in any of this stuff?
Speaker 6: No, not at all. I am. I do not touch
Speaker 6: the betting bell.
Speaker 1: That is the smart approach. I'm very very proud of you.
Speaker 1: Hey put into context because I am old enough, and
Speaker 1: I very much know that you are not. But I
Speaker 1: am old enough to remember back in March of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four when Wayne Gretzky set the record for goal scored,
Speaker 1: and he has held the record since March of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, and once upon a time, bell it felt
Speaker 1: like people talked about this like they talk about John
Speaker 1: Stockton's assist record now, like there's no way anybody is
Speaker 1: ever passing this, and Elvechkin does it put this into
Speaker 1: context for us?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was always known as the impossible record. And
Speaker 6: Sportsnet released an interview with Ovechkin actually yesterday, from like
Speaker 6: ten years ago or something at the World Championships, and
Speaker 6: he was like, well, of course, I'm Elliott Fried and
Speaker 6: asked him if he ever thought he could break it,
Speaker 6: and he was like, of course not, like that's impossible,
Speaker 6: especially with the modern game right now, the goaltenders and
Speaker 6: how much better defensemen are and just it's a more
Speaker 6: high skilled game. But there's definitely less space out there,
Speaker 6: and goalies are better and they have bigger pads, and
Speaker 6: so I think everyone just put it in the back
Speaker 6: of their mind that Gretzky would forever hold that record,
Speaker 6: and Obskin defied all odds, and I think people were
Speaker 6: questioning it the past few years when he slowed down
Speaker 6: and the Capitals looked like they might be going towards
Speaker 6: a rebuild of sorts, but over the summer they retooled.
Speaker 6: They brought in some guys and other guys like Dylan
Speaker 6: Strom who assisted on that goal with Tom Wilson, have
Speaker 6: just had really good seasons and from getting swept by
Speaker 6: the Rangers in the first round last year, the Washington
Speaker 6: Capitals might win the President Trophy. Probably will, so I
Speaker 6: think that definitely helped with the fact. But yeah, an
Speaker 6: incredible achievement. Definitely had goosebumps watching that happen. I think
Speaker 6: if you're a hockey fan or just sports fan in general,
Speaker 6: those moments in history are really cool to witness. And
Speaker 6: congrats to him. It's been a really fun race to watch.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I guess we should learn our lesson and Gen xers
Speaker 1: like myself learn our lesson when we say, you know,
Speaker 1: this will never be broken, but does it feel like
Speaker 1: this is a record that you have to play bell,
Speaker 1: as you know, at such a high level for so
Speaker 1: long to even touch where Gretzky was and Alvechkin now is.
Speaker 1: Does this feel like one of those records It might be,
Speaker 1: you know, standing for a long long time.
Speaker 6: It definitely feels like it, right, But like you said,
Speaker 6: how some we sit there and say that when that's
Speaker 6: what we were all saying ten years ago. So who knows,
Speaker 6: but I think it'll probably be a while before someone
Speaker 6: gets close to this. But yeah, I won't say a
Speaker 6: definite no, because look Whatovuchkin did.
Speaker 1: For sure. All right, it's probably time to say that
Speaker 1: all of our dreams of seeing Stanley Cup hockey in
Speaker 1: our market year one, it's probably time to say that's
Speaker 1: not happening. Fair to say, fair to say for sure?
Speaker 1: All right, it feels like it's less on the performance
Speaker 1: of the Utah Hockey Club and more on whatever the
Speaker 1: hell Saint Louis figured out. How did the Blues get
Speaker 1: so hot?
Speaker 2: Bill?
Speaker 6: It's wild. I mean, you think about three weeks ago
Speaker 6: to a month ago, Utah was within four points and
Speaker 6: two points at a certain time from the Saint Louis Blues,
Speaker 6: and it was always cut to Canucks catch the Blues.
Speaker 6: And the Blues have won twelve straight I believe, franchise records.
Speaker 6: They have just gotten off running. And we've talked about
Speaker 6: it before. Utah was going to need help to make
Speaker 6: the playoffs. It didn't matter if they won out or
Speaker 6: won eighty or ninety percent of their remaining regular season games.
Speaker 6: They would need the teams around them. To lose and
Speaker 6: the Saint Louis lose at the exact opposite, so that
Speaker 6: definitely hurt Utah's chances. But I also think no matter
Speaker 6: how well the club has been playing down the stretch here,
Speaker 6: it's those games in October, November, December, when they were
Speaker 6: still figuring things out, when they were giving up late leads,
Speaker 6: when they were losing in overtime and didn't have a
Speaker 6: full healthy roster that's really caught up to them. You
Speaker 6: think about the amount of games that have slept went
Speaker 6: through their fingers this season, and it's the same for
Speaker 6: any team not making the playoffs. But it's hard to
Speaker 6: write off a game early and early on in the
Speaker 6: season when those points would mean a lot right now,
Speaker 6: but I don't think Utah Hockey Club fans should be
Speaker 6: that upset. The expectation this year was to just have
Speaker 6: a better season and then last year keep the rebuild going,
Speaker 6: and that has happened. Young stars have played well, the
Speaker 6: new veterans have played well, and they kept themselves in
Speaker 6: it until the final stretch of the season. So I
Speaker 6: think that was the goal for the front office and
Speaker 6: next year will probably be you know, the official push
Speaker 6: for their first playoff berth since the COVID bubble.
Speaker 1: And winning three of their last four. You know, after
Speaker 1: they went down to Tampa and got spanked eight zero,
Speaker 1: part of me wondered, like, all right, they might know
Speaker 1: the deal. They might know that this fight for the
Speaker 1: wild guard is not going to happen. But I've been
Speaker 1: impressed obviously. I mean, Winnipeg has been insanely good all year.
Speaker 1: Calgary's no slouch. The Blackhawks aren't good, but what have
Speaker 1: they done well? Winning three of the last four bell
Speaker 1: since they came back from that road trip that wasn't great?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree. When you saw that Tampa game ain't nothing,
Speaker 6: you thought maybe they would just put their hands up
Speaker 6: then take carel vimlka out of net, just let the
Speaker 6: rest of the season play out. But they did the
Speaker 6: exact opposite, and head coach Andre Spreeney said his team
Speaker 6: is the easiest team to coach in the NHL right
Speaker 6: now because they're so locked in, they care so much.
Speaker 6: He doesn't need to go in there and give a
Speaker 6: rallying speech right now. He said, they're blocking out the
Speaker 6: outside noise and all they want to do is play
Speaker 6: and play well. So I think for them, even if
Speaker 6: you're not playing for the playoffs right now. You're playing
Speaker 6: to win and build momentum for next season. And the
Speaker 6: Winnipeg Jets were really good measuring stick for Utah the
Speaker 6: way they dominated and handled that game. That's the number
Speaker 6: one team in the NHL. And while Utah will not
Speaker 6: see them in the first round of the playoffs this year,
Speaker 6: they might next year. And I think it's a good
Speaker 6: confidence booster to know that you can play that shutdown
Speaker 6: of a game against a team that is a Stanley
Speaker 6: Cup contender. So they're still motivated and there's a lot
Speaker 6: of guys playing for more. I talked to Nick d
Speaker 6: Simone today, who has been their seventh defenseman since January
Speaker 6: when he got claimed off of waivers, and he might
Speaker 6: go in tomorrow because John Marino is day to day
Speaker 6: with an upper body injury, but he's on an expiring contract.
Speaker 6: Nick Duke stad Is, Michael Karconi is, So guys in
Speaker 6: there are playing for the next deal. They're playing for
Speaker 6: a lot more than playoffs too, So I think there's
Speaker 6: still a lot of motivation in there and they want
Speaker 6: to give their fans a fun end to the first season,
Speaker 6: even if it's not a playoff birth.
Speaker 1: Oh Bell, I've got your Twitter pulled up. I see
Speaker 1: you've discovered my friends at Central Ninth Market.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, that was like the best sandwich I've
Speaker 6: ever had.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you tried the breakfast sandwich?
Speaker 6: No, I was going to get the breakfast sandwich, but
Speaker 6: I went.
Speaker 1: With the Morta Dallas okay, which and that's a safe bet.
Speaker 1: But you got to try the breakfast sandwich soon. It will.
Speaker 1: It will blow your mind. It's that good.
Speaker 6: Okay, I'll go back. I was gonna go back anyway,
Speaker 6: so that'll be my order this time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to my buddies over at Central Ninth.
Speaker 1: And you probably discovered by now that Faulk thinks he's
Speaker 1: a foodie, right, like he has all the recommendations, right.
Speaker 6: He is some good wrecks he does.
Speaker 1: Don't say that out loud. It just furthers the narrative
Speaker 1: and it just inflates as ego. But anyway, moving on,
Speaker 1: so you reference the push next year, So let's move
Speaker 1: into that space because if we're honest, it's just not
Speaker 1: happening this year. There are still games to talk about five,
Speaker 1: four or five, depending on which team you are. If
Speaker 1: you're Bill Armstrong and if you're the decision makers and
Speaker 1: the roster constructors, are you simply allowing this young group
Speaker 1: to continue to grow? Are there places you think additions
Speaker 1: need to be made? How do they take that next up,
Speaker 1: the next step next year? So we actually do see
Speaker 1: Stanley Cup Hockey and Salt Lake.
Speaker 6: I think it's the mix of both chased in an
Speaker 6: interesting position because it's young talent like Coolly Guns, their
Speaker 6: jersey's still young, Kestering, all of those guys, mc bain,
Speaker 6: Josh Jones, They've really had strong years and you can
Speaker 6: see if this team is going to be successful in
Speaker 6: the future, it's going to be those guys carrying it.
Speaker 6: Obviously you throw Clayton Keller in there, but that's a given.
Speaker 6: So I think they feel comfortable with what their core
Speaker 6: will be moving forward, and then you also have to
Speaker 6: balance they have a lot of prospects in the pipeline.
Speaker 6: Everyone's excited about Tijiginla col Bodan if they can get
Speaker 6: Simischev and Daniel boot to come over from the KHL
Speaker 6: next season, So those guys will probably spend some time
Speaker 6: in the AHL, but you definitely have to mark your
Speaker 6: window of when you want them to make the transition,
Speaker 6: but I do think Utah needs some reinforcements up front
Speaker 6: before those players are NHL ready. We've talked about this
Speaker 6: for a while, but someone in their top six that
Speaker 6: just has a scoring punch that can put away the
Speaker 6: backbreaker in a third period, who can extend the lead,
Speaker 6: and even a top six center as well. I think
Speaker 6: you're just looking for a little bit more edge, flair
Speaker 6: consistency in that top six that Utah maybe hasn't had
Speaker 6: throughout the season. So they definitely have their main pieces,
Speaker 6: but I think if they could bring someone in. We've
Speaker 6: talked about them being in the Mitch Marner stakes, who
Speaker 6: knows if that will actually happen. Sam Bennett's a center
Speaker 6: from the floor, the Panthers who won a Stanley Cup
Speaker 6: with Kevin Stenlin. You know, you never know the perfect fit.
Speaker 6: But they have a lot of cap space this summer,
Speaker 6: so I imagine they'll go through all of their options. And
Speaker 6: then Utah brought in some of its biggest players like
Speaker 6: Sergachev and Marino last summer through trade, so Utah has
Speaker 6: some players that haven't lived up to expectations this year.
Speaker 6: They also have a lot of draft picks and prospects
Speaker 6: that they could bundle, So I don't think people should
Speaker 6: only look at free agency for where Utah might impact
Speaker 6: the roster. Could definitely be through trade two. That's something
Speaker 6: general manager Bill Armstrong did. But yes, I think for
Speaker 6: them to turn the corner next year to make the playoffs,
Speaker 6: they're going to need that sharpshooter or a legitimate top
Speaker 6: six center, just something to kind of bolster them there.
Speaker 1: You know, you reference some of the games they allowed
Speaker 1: to slip away earlier on in the season, leaving points
Speaker 1: on the table. It's it's kind of wild looking at
Speaker 1: the standings where you you know, you look at the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference and the Bruins, the Flyers and the Penguins
Speaker 1: are the three worst teams in the East. And there
Speaker 1: are three of like the biggest brands and all of
Speaker 1: pro hockey, but there are no there are no teams
Speaker 1: bell in the East that have fewer home wins than
Speaker 1: the Utah Hockey Club. The worst home team in the
Speaker 1: East actually is the Rangers. Sorry for you and I
Speaker 1: Ranger fans. Eighteen wins at the Garden, which is pathetic,
Speaker 1: but seventeen wins at the Delta Center for the Utah
Speaker 1: hockey club, and from my vantage point Bell, but you're
Speaker 1: the expert. Two things, poor home performances and then also
Speaker 1: inability to close out games that you're leading going into
Speaker 1: the third period. Is that a maturation process? Are you
Speaker 1: expecting that to be better year two in Salt Lake?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's definitely a maturation process, and I think you've
Speaker 6: seen it get a lot better in the second half
Speaker 6: of the season. A majority of those losses on home
Speaker 6: ice came in the first half, when the guys admitted
Speaker 6: to it, They're like, we're gripping our six to tide.
Speaker 6: You want to win in front of these fans who
Speaker 6: are not dealing with the pressure well, and they were
Speaker 6: throwing away leads. They're letting coach called it emotional. They're
Speaker 6: letting their mental game get in front of the physical
Speaker 6: game on the ice. But I think you've really seen
Speaker 6: that start to shift in the second half, and they've
Speaker 6: been able to close out games. They've been able to
Speaker 6: come back from deficits. You know, they've come back from
Speaker 6: three nothing deficits and games to fourth over time in
Speaker 6: a shootout. So I definitely think you're seeing them believe
Speaker 6: in their own process a bit more. And then Once
Speaker 6: you start winning on home ice and you get the
Speaker 6: crowd behind you, it just builds that momentum and you've
Speaker 6: really seen that here in the past. But I think
Speaker 6: it was also important that they didn't freak out a
Speaker 6: lot of those games they were losing on home ice
Speaker 6: in the beginning. It was only by a goal or two,
Speaker 6: so it wasn't like they were getting blown out every
Speaker 6: time they came to Salt Lake City. So for them
Speaker 6: and a young team who's growing, they always talked about
Speaker 6: taking the good from the games, even if it was
Speaker 6: a loss, and I think they stuck with that. They
Speaker 6: didn't write every loss off as a terrible performance, and
Speaker 6: it's got them to winning on home ice now, and
Speaker 6: it's definitely something I imagine they put a big emphasis
Speaker 6: on going forward as the new market here continues to grow.
Speaker 1: What is going on with our New York Rangers. Why
Speaker 1: has this not been the step up that we were
Speaker 1: all expecting after the solid season a year ago.
Speaker 6: I have tapped out. I cannot.
Speaker 1: Oh no, well, you can't tap out. You can't tap out.
Speaker 6: I watch it when I can, but it's too depressing
Speaker 6: to fully invest in when you know my full time
Speaker 6: job is also watching hockey. So I'll put on the
Speaker 6: Lightning Rangers game tonight because Utah is not playing. But
Speaker 6: it's a tough team to invest in this year, for sure.
Speaker 1: That's fair. That's fair. All right. Let me move over here.
Speaker 1: So I have kind of a running joke with a
Speaker 1: lot of the hockey guests I have on this year
Speaker 1: that we are now hockeytown USA. A moniker that of
Speaker 1: course exists in Detroit, Michigan, where they throw octopus on
Speaker 1: the ice? Are we did we find our answer to
Speaker 1: throwing octopus on the ice where fans apparently are now
Speaker 1: throwing broccoli on the ice of the Delta Center.
Speaker 6: It seems like it that was really funny. If they
Speaker 6: were interviewing cREL Bamelka after his thirty three save performance
Speaker 6: against the Winnipeg Jibs and his twentieth consecutive start, you
Speaker 6: would never know. So an outstanding showing from him that
Speaker 6: helped Utah win the game. But there's been shout out
Speaker 6: Brandon from Utah Hockey Club Club on Twitter or x.
Speaker 6: He runs the fan page. He started showing up to
Speaker 6: the games with a broccoli like hat face mask thing on,
Speaker 6: and a bunch of other people started wearing the broccoli hat,
Speaker 6: so broccoli seemed to be the vegetable to represent the
Speaker 6: Malka or the team. And then yeah, after the game
Speaker 6: whatever two nights ago, raw real broccoli was on the ice.
Speaker 6: So we'll see. That's the first time it happened. We'll
Speaker 6: see if it continues to keep happening. But it's really cool,
Speaker 6: you know, without a team name, without much hockey history,
Speaker 6: fans have found their own traditions. And I'll always think
Speaker 6: of Utah Hockey Club when I see broccoli now too.
Speaker 6: So that's been a really cool subplot to the season,
Speaker 6: just seeing how fans kind of make their own hockey
Speaker 6: culture before the official branding is released.
Speaker 1: Is the plural of oct to push OCTOPI? I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 6: I honestly don't know either.
Speaker 1: Well, you're a writer, okay, I'm an.
Speaker 6: Idiot radio hokay, bad journalist over here?
Speaker 1: All right, Hey, oh thank you, porter. My producer looked
Speaker 1: it up. Octopuses that doesn't sound right. I'm going I'm
Speaker 1: going with OCTOPI. It is a right, Okay, Fine, what happens?
Speaker 1: So they signed Mamelka to the contract extension, and we're
Speaker 1: of course still tracking the progress and hoping Connor's doing well.
Speaker 1: How do you think the goalie situation settles in during
Speaker 1: the offseason going into next year, Bell.
Speaker 6: It'll be interesting. I actually just wrote a story on this,
Speaker 6: But teams need two goaltenders throughout the NHL season. Any
Speaker 6: team that it's going to be a contender is going
Speaker 6: to make the playoffs. They need to be able to
Speaker 6: have a one A, one B. And that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 6: need to mean a goalie rotation where you're going one
Speaker 6: on and one off. But it's it's no longer Henrik
Speaker 6: Lungquist playing seventy plus game season for four years in
Speaker 6: a row, where Andrew Raycroft played seventy two out of
Speaker 6: eighty two games in the early two thousands. NHL starters
Speaker 6: are playing fifty tops games a year. So it's great
Speaker 6: that Famelka is getting this teching on him. They have
Speaker 6: a lot of data on him on how he needs
Speaker 6: to recover and if he can handle long stretches, which
Speaker 6: he's proven he can, which makes people feel good about
Speaker 6: his contract. But like you said, the hope is that
Speaker 6: Connor Ingram is able to come back next year. He
Speaker 6: has one year left on his contract, that he's healthy,
Speaker 6: that he's ready to go, and then I think you
Speaker 6: feel really confident in a Vmelka Ingram kind of duo
Speaker 6: there that Ingram would be able to come in when
Speaker 6: the Milka needs the rest or just split up the workloads.
Speaker 6: But I think it's definitely something the team needs to
Speaker 6: think about. If Ingram is not able to return, they're
Speaker 6: going to have to go out and look for another goalie.
Speaker 6: They have good prospects, but none of them are kind
Speaker 6: of the fortified, certified backup that you need. I think
Speaker 6: you've seen that that they don't trust it because they
Speaker 6: have Ma Milica for twenty games straight. So the simplified
Speaker 6: answer is they're going to need someone else as well,
Speaker 6: and we hope it's Connor Ingram.
Speaker 1: All right, Bell, what is the latest intel you reference?
Speaker 1: It's a team without a name, and we keep hearing
Speaker 1: reports here there about trademarks filed and momentum in this
Speaker 1: direction that direction. What's the latest on this project to
Speaker 1: name our hockey club out here?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I mean Smith Entertainment Group is smart enough to
Speaker 6: know that everyone's stands and media like are smoothing all
Speaker 6: over the trademark website. All of that's public information. So
Speaker 6: what they've done is they've paid to extend the application
Speaker 6: process for basically all of the names. It's more than
Speaker 6: a dozen names, so Scorm and Blizzard and names that
Speaker 6: obviously are not real contenders are still active under their
Speaker 6: ownership on the trademark website, so that way, if everything's
Speaker 6: active and they don't kill any trademark applications, then you
Speaker 6: can't tell which one they're going to go with. But
Speaker 6: the only three logos other than the Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 6: and All a Girl season logos that are registered on
Speaker 6: the trademark website under SEG Hockey are the Mammoth Outlaw
Speaker 6: and Utah Hockey Club slash Yetti logo that they represented
Speaker 6: during the fans survey that were leased. So although they've
Speaker 6: extended all those names, don't worry fans. The ones he
Speaker 6: voted were still the top three and it sounds like
Speaker 6: they're going to announce the name sometime around the NHL
Speaker 6: Draft in June, So no real updates. I mean, the
Speaker 6: news this week was that they just extended all of them,
Speaker 6: so the news was that nothing has been eliminated essentially,
Speaker 6: But yeah, I would keep an eye out for NHL
Speaker 6: Draft June when the season ends for an official announcement.
Speaker 1: Last thing, Bella set you loose on this. The hockey
Speaker 1: club announcer are going to give out some awards, their
Speaker 1: individual awards after their final home game. I think it's
Speaker 1: Nashville if I remember correctly off the side of my
Speaker 1: head coming up. Okay, So after the Nashville game, I'll
Speaker 1: just ask you who's the MVP and why? What do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 6: Ooh, that's so hard. I would have said Sergachhovs and
Speaker 6: I can I give three. I'm gonna go Sev the Milka.
Speaker 6: I mean, I just think all three of those guys
Speaker 6: this team is in anywhere close to sniffing a postseason
Speaker 6: run if they don't have the seasons that they do.
Speaker 6: Sergachev came in and certified himself as the number one defenseman.
Speaker 6: He had to relearn how to walk this off season
Speaker 6: after breaking his left leg at the end of last year.
Speaker 6: He's on the powerplay, penalty killed five on five, bogging
Speaker 6: twenty five plus minutes. Tonight took on a leadership role,
Speaker 6: gotten the assistant captain a on his jersey a couple
Speaker 6: months into the season. So I think he's been everything
Speaker 6: they needed him to be. Clinton Keller. I feel like
Speaker 6: there's no explanation needed there. He is Captain Clutch. He's
Speaker 6: carried this team throughout the last seven to eight years
Speaker 6: before he even had the Captain c and his production
Speaker 6: has been Barnun and then Jamelka. We've talked about it.
Speaker 6: Bill Armstrong even said it. He saved their season when
Speaker 6: they were in a really tough spot. So I think
Speaker 6: all three of those guys are deserving of it, and
Speaker 6: we'll see what fans think and what the higher ups pick.
Speaker 1: Are you a fan of bacon?
Speaker 6: Bacon?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, Okay, so Belle, what you need to do
Speaker 1: because now I'm only thinking about sandwiches at this point
Speaker 1: after I saw the picture the Central Ninth Breakfast sandwich.
Speaker 1: If you're brave enough, the mortadella and the bacon on
Speaker 1: the sandwich is the way to go. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of meat, but if you're a man, it is excellent. Bell,
Speaker 1: I promise you.
Speaker 6: Okay, I will go back. I'll order that and I'll
Speaker 6: have an update for you in weeks time.
Speaker 1: Perfect. And also just know that I'm the one that
Speaker 1: told Falk about Central Ninth, just so you know.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, noted?
Speaker 1: Okay, Thanks? Bell, have a good week, all right.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: At Belle Fraser covers the Utah Hockey Club for the
Speaker 1: Salt Lake Tribune. At bell Fraser one is where you
Speaker 1: find her on Twitter. She's a really bright young journalist.
Speaker 1: My guest is she's not going to be here for
Speaker 1: very long. She's got a little podcast over the trip,
Speaker 1: and she does a really, really good job. I am
Speaker 1: firm in my belief that the the term for multiple
Speaker 1: octopus is OCTOPI. I think the plural for octopus is.
Speaker 1: It's not octopuses that sounds or octopedes. No, it's OCTOPI. Sorry,
Speaker 1: saying octopuses on air honestly sounds like I could get
Speaker 1: kicked off air. It sounds inappropriate.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe it does sound that way, but hey, you
Speaker 3: asked your resident wildlife guy here.
Speaker 1: No, that's fair, That's what I'm here for. Okay, you've
Speaker 1: never have you ever swam with either a single octopus
Speaker 1: or multiple OCTOPI? I'm going with it, man.
Speaker 3: I have Actually I have liar where like way south
Speaker 3: of the Equator.
Speaker 1: Ways out for the Equator.
Speaker 3: I've been to a place called Murrietta Islands, which is
Speaker 3: off the coast of like part of a arta Ish okay,
Speaker 3: and they it's like a it's like a wildlife refuge
Speaker 3: plush with octopi. There, I saw a octop octopus. Okay,
Speaker 3: not no ou to pusses or octipedes. It sounds weird.
Speaker 3: Octopi sounds cleaner and better. I don't disagree with you.
Speaker 3: They just don't go.
Speaker 1: With it, all right, Well they should. Salt Lake B's
Speaker 1: Avenue High all right. Opening week starts tomorrow. Look at
Speaker 1: that April eighth through the thirteenth, as we kick off
Speaker 1: our inaugural season at the Ballpark in America First Square
Speaker 1: in South Jordan. Who got a bunch of giveaways We're
Speaker 1: going to tell you about over the next hour. Because
Speaker 1: my friends, my dear friend who I've worked with for
Speaker 1: a number of different years at a number of different places,
Speaker 1: on a number of different games and projects. So on
Speaker 1: the mic, good coworker, off the mike, dear friend, Tony
Speaker 1: Parks live in studio. Hello, my friend, how are you?
Speaker 7: I'm great, man, I'm great. Just got back from Albuquerque.
Speaker 7: Had the old nine game roadie. All right, it's a
Speaker 7: good time, you know, you know, there's nothing like just
Speaker 7: waking up every day and going to a baseball like
Speaker 7: that was the dream from the time I was so
Speaker 7: little and live that once again. Just a taste of
Speaker 7: that again. This year is just awesome, man, just love
Speaker 7: it so. But now we have the home opener. So
Speaker 7: now it's an entirely different sort of adrenaline excitement.
Speaker 1: So let's stay in this space. Let's do a little
Speaker 1: Bees obviously voice of the Bees taking over after our
Speaker 1: dear friend Steve Cloukey retired. May Steve, of course, rest
Speaker 1: in peace. We all loved Steve, and Tony is stepping
Speaker 1: into some sizable shoes and has done that now for
Speaker 1: quite some time. Tell us about the new ballpark. Let's
Speaker 1: talk to people that may still be disappointed that the
Speaker 1: Bees have left us here in downtown saw Lake. What
Speaker 1: are the new digs, like, Tom, They're fantastic.
Speaker 7: I mean, the players raved about the new clubhouse because
Speaker 7: they were there for a few days right there at
Speaker 7: media Day and all that. So a few days before
Speaker 7: they left on the road trip, they got to check
Speaker 7: out the clubhouse, which is major league size. They got
Speaker 7: to check out some of the amenities, which are major
Speaker 7: league gest so everything behind the scenes has a major
Speaker 7: league look and feel to it. Now the big thing
Speaker 7: is for the fean experience to be able to reach
Speaker 7: something like that too. Everything we're trying to do with
Speaker 7: our TV product, you know, to the limits that we
Speaker 7: possibly can find.
Speaker 1: Everything is about leveling up.
Speaker 7: And it's not hey, we want to try to look
Speaker 7: like no, no, no, it's the standard. And what was
Speaker 7: really cool is Steve Clokey had that standard and I
Speaker 7: had that standard down on the field for everything we had.
Speaker 7: Whether it was a bad sound system, it didn't matter.
Speaker 7: Everything we could control, we made sure to do it
Speaker 7: at that level. And so what fans can look forward
Speaker 7: to is now a ballpark with a better sound system again,
Speaker 7: now with better amenities, great neighborhood, all those different things
Speaker 7: that come with it. This isn't to be disrespectful to
Speaker 7: the old ballpark. That place will always be emotional to me.
Speaker 7: So when people say, well, is it kind of mixed feeling,
Speaker 7: He's like, well, no, I mean, it was a wonderful
Speaker 7: tribute to be a part of the last year at
Speaker 7: that ballpark and the first year at this ballpark. And
Speaker 7: what happens is just like any situation you've ever had
Speaker 7: if you're you know, moving out of a home that
Speaker 7: was personal to you and emotional to you and had
Speaker 7: memories and all of that, and you move to your
Speaker 7: new house and you go, well, that there, there's some
Speaker 7: reasons why we moved here, and we really enjoy this.
Speaker 7: So for those who are disappointed that the Bees moved
Speaker 7: to a different place, like, there are so many things
Speaker 7: about the experience there.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna like.
Speaker 7: Where you say, Okay, I liked the old place too,
Speaker 7: and I like this one as well.
Speaker 1: This comes down to something extremely simplistic. We can reduce
Speaker 1: it to simply this, Tony, where do you live right right?
Speaker 1: Like that's people were going to react based off where
Speaker 1: they live. I live five minutes away from where we're
Speaker 1: broadcasting right now, So the fact that I was able
Speaker 1: to take tracks or head on down to the ballpark
Speaker 1: and be there within ten minutes is something I will miss.
Speaker 1: It just comes down to where you live. But it
Speaker 1: also comes down to progress. And we all understand what
Speaker 1: the Millers are trying to do with their big picture viewpoint.
Speaker 1: And you and I wor you still work for the Millers.
Speaker 1: I worked for them for seven years. I can speak
Speaker 1: to their professionalism. Steve Starks is a great friend and
Speaker 1: a mentor in a lot of ways, and huge. You know,
Speaker 1: is there anybody that cares more about doing good in
Speaker 1: our community than Gail? Probably not, right, So I understand
Speaker 1: the disappointment, but I think when you take a step
Speaker 1: back and understand the thirty thousand foot view of what
Speaker 1: the Miller Company is trying to do for our market
Speaker 1: with a project eventually bringing major League baseball here, even
Speaker 1: though you may not love it because you don't live
Speaker 1: close to the ballpark, it's probably a necessary step.
Speaker 7: They spent multiple decades as tenants to a place that
Speaker 7: was downtown or in the ballpark neighborhood, if you will,
Speaker 7: and they did a great job of being stewards in
Speaker 7: the community to that exact community, and by the way,
Speaker 7: they've still poured in great money to other areas of
Speaker 7: the community all over the state. So it's not a
Speaker 7: matter of them being cruel or selfish. It is simply
Speaker 7: a matter of Okay, now they own their own place
Speaker 7: that they purchased by the way, that they built, and
Speaker 7: that they have in a neighborhood that they like, and
Speaker 7: they're setting that up to obviously be something that would
Speaker 7: be their minor league team if a major league team
Speaker 7: ever happens to arrive.
Speaker 1: They have the stadium site ready.
Speaker 7: They have a number of other headaches that go on
Speaker 7: behind the scenes of a major league stadium and.
Speaker 1: What it takes and all that.
Speaker 7: I mean, the fact that they can this so low
Speaker 7: for two years, I mean, tip of your hat to that,
Speaker 7: because when the news came out, many of us at
Speaker 7: the ballpark at Smith's Ballpark at the time were shocked.
Speaker 1: We're like, this isn't some new development. This means people
Speaker 1: kept their.
Speaker 7: Trap shut for like two years on this, on all
Speaker 7: the developments behind it. Next thing you know, we're all
Speaker 7: standing there at a press conference and they've got shovels
Speaker 7: dug into the dirt and you're going, wait, this is serious.
Speaker 1: I actually was filling in that day.
Speaker 7: I want to say, I was filling in for Bill
Speaker 7: Riley in the middle of the day, and I came
Speaker 7: right from that to here thinking, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 7: did I just watch. Because Gail didn't step up and
Speaker 7: say we would like to have a team. Oh no,
Speaker 7: she was more than confident about the five tool player
Speaker 7: that Saltlake is on having what it takes, being what
Speaker 7: it takes, and being ready for the opportunity when it comes.
Speaker 1: So opening week, as far as the home opener starts
Speaker 1: tomorrow through the thirteenth. I would encourage you to go
Speaker 1: to SLBs dot com. They've got a great ticket deal
Speaker 1: that I just saw on the website. Tony. I've got
Speaker 1: the scripts so give giveaways include Pennett's t shirts, beanies
Speaker 1: more every night of the first home stands. You have
Speaker 1: any more specific you can fill in rally tals. You
Speaker 1: and I have all sorts of stuff coming up, man.
Speaker 7: I mean it's like the week to be there is
Speaker 7: opening week, and I understand it's going to be high demand.
Speaker 1: And oh boy, do I get the text messages now?
Speaker 1: Of course? Ay man, how season going. It's great. I
Speaker 1: don't have tickets, man, I'm sorry. There, it's high demand.
Speaker 1: It's part of the deal.
Speaker 7: I know, and I got it, and I'm not I
Speaker 7: don't blame them. I'm like, I'm sorry, man.
Speaker 1: You know what I started doing because, as you know,
Speaker 1: I've talked to you about this before. This has been
Speaker 1: part of my entire life, right like the call from
Speaker 1: the friend you haven't talked to in years. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: h seven years man, And you know, I honestly have
Speaker 1: more respect for people to cut to the chase as
Speaker 1: opposed to like, dude, we should do lunch. Oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, do you have any jazz you don't want
Speaker 1: to do lunch? Okay? So I started a number of
Speaker 1: years ago, like if it was the Jazz, if it's
Speaker 1: the utes, if it's rsl IF. I get a friend
Speaker 1: and I'm using air quotes around friend that I haven't
Speaker 1: talked to in years, and he hits, yeah, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you got any hookups? I say, I copy the website
Speaker 1: and I text them the website Utah, youthes dot com,
Speaker 1: SLBs dot com. But yes, I mean, folks are excited,
Speaker 1: right the buzz is.
Speaker 7: They should be. They absolutely should be. The hard part
Speaker 7: is yeah, I mean it's such high demand.
Speaker 1: I mean, and it should be. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: brand new ball part. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 7: The especially for the premium seating and all the suites
Speaker 7: and things like that. For people who experience that, I mean,
Speaker 7: I mean, it's another level. The suitets behind the home
Speaker 7: plate are closer uh to the plate than the mount
Speaker 7: so you're closer to the batter than the picture is.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, like the the amenities and.
Speaker 7: The top level uh sort of experience that that the
Speaker 7: fans are going to be in for for this I
Speaker 7: mean I've been in all these meetings, not that I've
Speaker 7: been dictating any of this, but overhearing the discussions and
Speaker 7: the fine details that these people are getting into, down
Speaker 7: to the very like, down to the very smallest detail
Speaker 7: to ensure that people traffic flow moves well, not just
Speaker 7: traffic flow of cars, but how do we make sure
Speaker 7: that people traffic flow moves really smoothly through here. How
Speaker 7: do we know that if somebody's confused, they can immediately
Speaker 7: identify someone that can help him right away, like within
Speaker 7: twelve feet. I mean, they get into the fine details
Speaker 7: of this. It's been awesome, uh, to kind of watch
Speaker 7: that process. I know it's not doesn't sound like the
Speaker 7: most exciting thing, but as you think about it from
Speaker 7: a fan experience, and I know I'm going to be
Speaker 7: in the booth, but the fan experience still means a
Speaker 7: lot to me.
Speaker 1: I worked in fan experience for a long time.
Speaker 7: You know, we had so many restrictions based on so
Speaker 7: many other details that we couldn't control. Now we can,
Speaker 7: and I think that that part is going to be awesome.
Speaker 7: Not to mention everybody who's put together the entertainment that
Speaker 7: that this is going to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, NYC is be consultant. No, I'm just kidding out
Speaker 1: of that. He is. He is in the ranks where
Speaker 1: he should be able to consolet across the country when
Speaker 1: people are looking, you know, for entertainment too. That's my guy,
Speaker 1: I know, it is. I know. But the storm you caused,
Speaker 1: my guys. I just love that he had the nerve
Speaker 1: to call himself any and he did a heck of
Speaker 1: a job. Yeah, viny sees allegend.
Speaker 7: And then from Brecken Johnson to Katie Brotherson, I mean,
Speaker 7: Ashley Javeli, Kitn Brown to Sandy Miller and they the
Speaker 7: work they've put in to put on a great show.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see what they are so again, check
Speaker 1: out SLBs dot com for more info. Opening Opening Week
Speaker 1: starts tomorrow. It is the new ballpark at America First
Speaker 1: Square in South Jordan. Fireworks and Drone Knights throughout the season,
Speaker 1: Brunch every Sunday game. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 7: And now the games are noon on Sunday. Oh that's
Speaker 7: the brunch time. Our bark in the park for nine games.
Speaker 7: You can bring your dog to the game. They're gonna
Speaker 7: do a Superman night, Cowboy theme weekend. So yes, they
Speaker 7: have left us in the Capital City to go go
Speaker 7: support them if you can.
Speaker 1: All right, Tony, let's learn about the team a little bit.
Speaker 1: I can anecdotally. It was twenty twelve and you and
Speaker 1: I were with our old station back in back in
Speaker 1: the day, and it was it was announced that Gordon
Speaker 1: and I were going to be doing a number of
Speaker 1: shows at the ballpark in preparation for opening week. And
Speaker 1: so I go to the ballpark and I grab our
Speaker 1: guy Clouks, I grab Steve and I say, hey, who
Speaker 1: should I interview? I don't know any of these players,
Speaker 1: so I'm not grinding on minor league baseball to this one.
Speaker 1: And Steve says to me and he points this way.
Speaker 1: Steve points this way. He said, there's a player over
Speaker 1: there named Mike Trout. Go interview him today because he's
Speaker 1: leaving next week and he will never come back. Ironically enough,
Speaker 1: he came back for a rehab assignment. But you get
Speaker 1: the deal, Like Steve knew that Mike was generational. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying, is there a Mike Trout on this roster?
Speaker 1: But you know, field players, pitchers, batters, who are some
Speaker 1: names to watch out for for the Bees this year.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean right now, Zach Netto had the assignment
Speaker 7: there with the Bees, which was awesome. I thought he
Speaker 7: played really well in Albuquerque. But you know, there's a
Speaker 7: number of guys that I'm you know, really excited about,
Speaker 7: you know, their future right around the corner with some
Speaker 7: of the excitement. Gustavo Campero is a guy that had
Speaker 7: some time in the Bigs last year, left fielder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's exciting, man.
Speaker 7: He is just you love those guys that show up
Speaker 7: to the ballpark with this big smile and this big
Speaker 7: energy and you know it's a child's game and you
Speaker 7: want to see.
Speaker 1: Them play it with the kids loving their heart. It's
Speaker 1: that guy. The other guy I really like his Bryce Tiodosio.
Speaker 1: He was a kind of a fan favorite last year.
Speaker 7: Comes in five total triples in his college and professional career,
Speaker 7: comes out leads the PCL with twelve of them.
Speaker 1: Forty stolen bases, stole twenty six in a row.
Speaker 7: I mean, just kind of every minute, it feels like
Speaker 7: he's getting better and better and better. He stole home
Speaker 7: in a day game that we had last week in Albuquerque.
Speaker 7: The heads up tag up to get the second and
Speaker 7: help get a big insurance run. Like, if you love
Speaker 7: good heads up baseball, this team is really fun to watch.
Speaker 1: They're really smart.
Speaker 7: Yomer Sanchez, you know, he's a gold glover with the
Speaker 7: White Sox. This dude made a big time play, made
Speaker 7: two or three of them yesterday defensively that I thought
Speaker 7: proved to be big. Sebastian Rivero is a really smart catcher.
Speaker 7: Deeke the guy just standing there like a statue and
Speaker 7: then swipe tag them real quick. I mean, just when
Speaker 7: you get into the If you're a big hardcore baseball fan,
Speaker 7: you're gonna love this group because you can see them
Speaker 7: get into the fine, fine millimeters that make the difference
Speaker 7: between winning and losing.
Speaker 1: So it's fun.
Speaker 7: Breent Carey is a picture I think is a guy
Speaker 7: that fans would like to you know, the minor.
Speaker 1: League baseball ecosystem and culture has always fascinated me. And
Speaker 1: I talk about this in the world of professional golf
Speaker 1: as it's augusta week at the Masters, and if you're
Speaker 1: not a big golf fan, and I've become a big
Speaker 1: golf fan over the past four or five years, and
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with trying to get better at it. I
Speaker 1: really enjoy playing. But you know, you hear the name
Speaker 1: of a dude that wins the tournament and you're like,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this guy before. He must have
Speaker 1: just started playing pro golf last week, right, And then
Speaker 1: you read about him, it's like this is his one
Speaker 1: hundred and eightieth start on the PGA Tour. He was
Speaker 1: a corn fairy guy. He's been on the tour for
Speaker 1: fifteen years, and he actually finally broke through. And I
Speaker 1: had an experience with my friend's brother. His name is
Speaker 1: Adam Rosales. Adam toiled in the minor leagues for like
Speaker 1: a decade. Yeah, I remember, And Adam was the type
Speaker 1: of guy where it's like I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people just would have quit, because literally for nine or
Speaker 1: ten years he was with Sacramento and he would come
Speaker 1: into town and we go watch and play against the bs.
Speaker 1: And as he entered his like late twenties, early thirties,
Speaker 1: we're kind of like, all right, Adam's just going to
Speaker 1: be a minor league play in a triple league baseball,
Speaker 1: which is great. You know, that's an amazing level to
Speaker 1: get to. He eventually got a bunch of call ups
Speaker 1: and spent about six or seven years playing in the majors.
Speaker 1: But if you were only a fan of like the
Speaker 1: A's when they called at him up or Arizona when
Speaker 1: they got him, You're like, oh, he must be a
Speaker 1: young No. He toiled for like a decade before he
Speaker 1: got his major league baseball called what kind of in
Speaker 1: your experience? What kind of people are these players that
Speaker 1: are continuing to toil in the minors with the hope
Speaker 1: that at one day you get a you know, a
Speaker 1: moonlight gram field of dreams one at bad You know,
Speaker 1: what's it like? Kind of getting to know these guys,
Speaker 1: that's who our manager is. I mean Keith Johnson had that.
Speaker 7: I want to say he had four abs at the
Speaker 7: major league level, spent a lot of years in that game.
Speaker 1: That is wild, you know.
Speaker 7: And he was not staying at the Kimpton next to
Speaker 7: the Golden One Center in Sacramento, right, He was not
Speaker 7: staying at the Red Rock five Star casino next to
Speaker 7: a brand new ballpark in Vegas.
Speaker 1: I mean he was staying at Lakina's.
Speaker 7: And yeah, I mean ye noicee oh yeah, Like that
Speaker 7: was a part of the pretteem problem for sure.
Speaker 1: Like this dude was, you.
Speaker 7: Know, taking the bus from I don't know exactly where,
Speaker 7: let's say Salt Lake to Reno rather than the flight.
Speaker 1: Now, I mean they're the amenities are totally different.
Speaker 7: This dude doesn't have to tell people his story. They
Speaker 7: just feel it from him. And nobody wants them to
Speaker 7: win more than he does. And he gets it, man like.
Speaker 1: He just so.
Speaker 7: These dudes are guys that, yeah, they're hungry for it.
Speaker 7: They're honest, and they're very humble, hungry, honest, humble.
Speaker 1: He was talking with Chase Still the other day.
Speaker 7: He was the first guy from the twenty one class
Speaker 7: to make it to the major leagues. Was back last
Speaker 7: year after an elbow injury, finally got himself back to
Speaker 7: premier level e RA at zero point eighty seven.
Speaker 1: I mean, moving on the pitches, you can feel it.
Speaker 1: He's coming back.
Speaker 7: All of a sudden, the elbow goes out and he's
Speaker 7: got surgery and he's done for the year.
Speaker 1: So he comes back and I see him last week.
Speaker 1: He's in New Mexico.
Speaker 7: Native dude goes out there, two errors in the first
Speaker 7: inning behind him, wheels are wobbling everywhere. He tightens it up,
Speaker 7: minimizes the damage, gives up one earn gets the win.
Speaker 7: And he talked about no, I hired a you know,
Speaker 7: mental performance coach. I did this all this. They're big
Speaker 7: on self examination and they're competitive. I mean, these dudes,
Speaker 7: you know, we forget, man. We see these guys out
Speaker 7: there and they're tall and they're big, and they're you know,
Speaker 7: they they've got you know, great build and they're good athletes,
Speaker 7: and we forget, man, these dudes from the time that
Speaker 7: they were holding a you know, a foam bat, this
Speaker 7: was the biggest dream they ever had.
Speaker 1: And it's real, man.
Speaker 7: And there's a big difference between two commas and your
Speaker 7: paycheck and one and they it's just everything about it.
Speaker 1: It's so much more about you know.
Speaker 7: I mean, we know about the money and the amenities,
Speaker 7: but the personal pride to get there, and so they
Speaker 7: really want to find tune their game. The other thing
Speaker 7: I'll say about these guys is every inch matters. I mean,
Speaker 7: watching Bryce Tiodosio during batting practice in the outfield, you
Speaker 7: can see him with the reps, the mental reps. I mean,
Speaker 7: he's standing there working on a first move. Nobody's hit
Speaker 7: the ball and he's just visualizing it and then all
Speaker 7: of a sudden in the game. You see him chase
Speaker 7: a ball to the corner and leap into the sidewall
Speaker 7: make an amazing catch, and you're like, Okay, the millimeters to.
Speaker 1: Make that play is how that happened?
Speaker 7: Yeah, and he thought he robb It looked like he
Speaker 7: robbed a home run. I watched him time himself out,
Speaker 7: look like he robbed the home run last week, and
Speaker 7: actually the contact with the wall jarreted out. But you
Speaker 7: could see these things are everything to them.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a love it. Yeah, it's it's such an
Speaker 1: interesting life lesson. It really is, because we as the
Speaker 1: you know, just the just the consuming public, as people
Speaker 1: that watch games or go to games, or if you
Speaker 1: watch movies or if you listen to music, like you
Speaker 1: learn about the band, you learn about the athlete, you
Speaker 1: learn about the actor, and then because you have no
Speaker 1: frame of reference for who they are, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this must be their first album, and then you read
Speaker 1: about like, no, they've dropped fifteen albums since two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. They're just becoming famous twenty years twenty two
Speaker 1: years later because they continue to toil. And I just
Speaker 1: think it would be so easy. And you do see
Speaker 1: a lot of minor league baseball players hang it up
Speaker 1: because they don't feel like they're ever gonna get that shot.
Speaker 1: And the drive to keep working all for that one
Speaker 1: moment is always something that I just respect so much.
Speaker 7: Oh it is so because the thing I love about
Speaker 7: baseball is it's an everyday game.
Speaker 1: It's an every day game sometimes people.
Speaker 7: I mean, we worked in the NBA and there was
Speaker 7: a good friend of ours that said to us after
Speaker 7: a postgame show one days, like, that's the thing is.
Speaker 1: Like you have a game every day. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the beauty this thing.
Speaker 7: If it doesn't go well, we got one tomorrow, it's
Speaker 7: good news. If it does go well, hey, let's do
Speaker 7: it again tomorrow. Like it's it's all about like recommitting
Speaker 7: yourself every day to being the best version of yourself
Speaker 7: that you can be. It's never just another game, it's
Speaker 7: never just another inning. It's never just another ab And
Speaker 7: I love that about the work that they put in.
Speaker 7: And honestly, it's it when you're around that it impacts
Speaker 7: you for sure. It impacts you the way you work out,
Speaker 7: It impacts you in your relationships, like you think of
Speaker 7: different ways to create the proper alignment in every part
Speaker 7: of your life.
Speaker 1: These dudes are champions, man.
Speaker 7: I mean, I I don't know if they'll I mean,
Speaker 7: we got a guy that was the winning pitcher in
Speaker 7: Game six of the World Series in twenty twenty, you know,
Speaker 7: the Victor and Gonzales.
Speaker 1: We have dudes that want gold gloves. We have guys
Speaker 1: that did some incredible stuff.
Speaker 7: And you're thinking, man, somebody may not remember that, but
Speaker 7: let me tell you the people that do and the
Speaker 7: people that know you know you're a champion, dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's interesting, and we'll catch a break real quick,
Speaker 1: Like how many years did Steve do it? How many games?
Speaker 1: Twenty nine years? He was over four thousand, four thousand games.
Speaker 1: And I would go to other markets and I'd just
Speaker 1: be driving around in my rental car and I'd turn
Speaker 1: on a baseball game. I'd beg, Steve's better than this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, And but you know, to do something for
Speaker 1: twenty nine years, over four thousand games, and it's the
Speaker 1: same thing as a player. I'm sure Steve if his
Speaker 1: phone rang one day and it was the Dodgers or something,
Speaker 1: that's a bad example because they had Vin scull or whatever.
Speaker 1: But if that's a Major League Baseball call up for
Speaker 1: an announcer, your life change is the same way a
Speaker 1: player does. It's kind of the same dynamic. You know.
Speaker 7: You just respect the fact that you keep going even
Speaker 7: when the call doesn't come. I think Steve had I
Speaker 7: forget a handful of call ups like he and some
Speaker 7: with the Angels. He did something with the Blue Jays,
Speaker 7: and you know, and he had different series that he covered,
Speaker 7: and I was so happy for him, and you know,
Speaker 7: you couldn't help it to be ever, that's like a
Speaker 7: call up for him.
Speaker 1: It was only thirty of those spots.
Speaker 7: And so that guy brought it every single day, even
Speaker 7: after he knew it was very unlikely it was ever
Speaker 7: gonna happen. Yeah, and he still brought every single Nobody
Speaker 7: brought it like he didn't.
Speaker 1: That's a real lesson. That's why with this job, I
Speaker 1: told people it's personal. You know.
Speaker 7: People are trying to say like, it's never personally, Yes,
Speaker 7: it is. This one's personal because of the connection I
Speaker 7: had with him, the connection I had with the team,
Speaker 7: the connection I had with individual people, my family history
Speaker 7: and how it weaved into it. And there's a responsibility
Speaker 7: with that job not just to be great at and
Speaker 7: perform well, but it's everything behind the scenes, the cultural part,
Speaker 7: the camaraderie part, the leadership part.
Speaker 1: It's you. You bring it every day.
Speaker 7: And so Keith Johnson, the manager of the team, and
Speaker 7: I have talked a bit about that too, because he
Speaker 7: was around Steve a lot, and around Steve is a player,
Speaker 7: he's around Steve is a manager, and it's like, yeah, No,
Speaker 7: he brought it every day and I'm gonna do that too. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and we'll bring it differently, but there's a standard there
Speaker 7: and I love that Steve had it and I'm honored
Speaker 7: to follow into it.
Speaker 1: Soal League Bees have a new hive opening week. It's
Speaker 1: rolling tomorrow through the thirteenth. It's the inaugural season at
Speaker 1: the ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan. Every
Speaker 1: game is gonna have giveaways you just kind of outlined,
Speaker 1: So check out SLBs dot com for more information. More
Speaker 1: with Tony coming up next with six Gears, we'll do
Speaker 1: a little bit on the local scene, maybe some college
Speaker 1: basketball and football, maybe some jazz stuff. Tony Parks is
Speaker 1: live in studio, the voice of the Salt Lake Bees,
Speaker 1: and a number of other things. Anybody doesn't like Tom Penny,
Speaker 1: I don't know that would be tough. He's like vanilla
Speaker 1: ice cream. I mean you kind of everyone likes the
Speaker 1: scoop of vanell ice cream sometimes, right, exactly, many rest
Speaker 1: in peace.
Speaker 7: He may not be your fave, but I've never heard
Speaker 7: anybody who's like, oh, Tom Petty sucks.
Speaker 1: Tom Petty has some incredible album, some incredible songs. And
Speaker 1: for a guy that kind of had a monotone voice
Speaker 1: without a lot of range, gotta give him a lot
Speaker 1: of credit. I do, for sure, for sure, for sure,
Speaker 1: outside of being the voice of the Salt Lake Bees,
Speaker 1: you wear several different hats. What's the latest? I can't
Speaker 1: keep up with all your jobs. What are you doing now?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 7: I finished up with all the college basketball stuff with ESPN.
Speaker 1: Loved it.
Speaker 7: Conference tournament was awesome. Did the Big Sky again this year?
Speaker 7: Had you know a good number of games on ESPN
Speaker 7: two and ESPNU and you know Joe Cravens, and I
Speaker 7: just once again that there's nothing like having a great teammate.
Speaker 7: He's an outstanding teammate. He's a really unselfish player. You
Speaker 7: as a broadcast team, and I mean you worked with
Speaker 7: Gordon for all those years. You guys really built something
Speaker 7: great where there was there was a great camaraderie.
Speaker 1: I think the listener always really appreciated it. I know
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 7: The bizarre left field humor of Cordon was outstanding. Joe
Speaker 7: Cravens has that, I mean just has it, man, and
Speaker 7: so he would always have ways to make fun of me.
Speaker 7: That was just perfect right touch. You know, Tony, I
Speaker 7: I'm on't you. You know when I was hard on
Speaker 7: my players, that was yeah, it was tough love, but
Speaker 7: they knew I loved him. Now with you, it's just
Speaker 7: it's tough. You know.
Speaker 1: He just always have.
Speaker 7: These little things that were fun, and so he doesn't
Speaker 7: take himself so seriously. And then people would say, well,
Speaker 7: you're the are you like the Bill Walton. No, that
Speaker 7: dude is prepped and loved Bill prepped. And the inside
Speaker 7: of the game was great and the humor, yeah, so
Speaker 7: I did a ton of that. It was a blast
Speaker 7: in some utes games as well Utes women's games throughout
Speaker 7: the year on ESPN Plus. So really had a great
Speaker 7: time with it man throughout the year. So the college
Speaker 7: basketball stuff was in the rearview mirror and then now
Speaker 7: just some production stuff all around, and then enjoying toddler life, right,
Speaker 7: little Sophie, how old self?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: She's seventeen months, seventeen months and she's fun You better
Speaker 1: enjoy it, dude. I know you're a blank and they're gone.
Speaker 1: She's just a blast man. Connor is turning twenty four
Speaker 1: in August, Like, yes, I have a twenty four year
Speaker 1: old sign in August, So you better enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: say it all the time, you know, it's funny. There's
Speaker 1: an intimacy to radio that's a little bit different than
Speaker 1: any other medium. It's one of the reasons I like it.
Speaker 1: You get a little bit of it with podcasting. But
Speaker 1: Chris Russol Mad Dog talks about this all the time,
Speaker 1: how the intimacy of live radio as a expression in
Speaker 1: the medium that it is. There's a more intimate connection
Speaker 1: to your audience because you are literally hearing me talk.
Speaker 1: This is not prepared I have notes, you know me,
Speaker 1: I do the work, but this is unscripted live communication
Speaker 1: where I'm talking into this microphone and wherever you're listening,
Speaker 1: it is coming through your radio and you're hearing exactly
Speaker 1: what I'm saying in real time. It's nothing like that.
Speaker 1: There's an intimacy to this thing. It's different. And people
Speaker 1: over the years has said, what is it like working
Speaker 1: with other people in radio? And I always say the
Speaker 1: same thing. If you get along with a person and
Speaker 1: if you have good chemistry, there's nothing better than doing
Speaker 1: that every day for four hours with somebody who you
Speaker 1: like and you get along with and you have mutual respect.
Speaker 1: There's nothing better than doing it with a good partner.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing worse than doing it day to day
Speaker 1: with somebody who you just want to strangle in the
Speaker 1: same studio. So yeah, I just whether it's Joe Craven's
Speaker 1: or whoever it is, you know, if you have the
Speaker 1: right partner, there's there's a magic and an intimacy to
Speaker 1: this medium that you don't get anywhere else. You really don't.
Speaker 7: I think you're spot on with that, and there's nothing
Speaker 7: like it. When the magic really hits, when it's there
Speaker 7: and the listener looks forward to it, it's another great episode.
Speaker 7: It's like a part of their daily routine and you
Speaker 7: feel that and you sense that, and I've had that
Speaker 7: before and there's nothing like it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: I had a show that lasted what almost ten years,
Speaker 7: and that's.
Speaker 1: What we had.
Speaker 7: It was really, really great and having that is a
Speaker 7: part of the everyday thing. Then you look forward to
Speaker 7: going you know, you're not sure what's gonna happen, like
Speaker 7: a guy like Gordon.
Speaker 1: I mean the curve balls were incredible.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, asked frank Is Sola the question where
Speaker 7: he asked, or all they'll be hookers and.
Speaker 1: All the hookers I forgotten about whoa I forget it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're talking about freak.
Speaker 7: I said, Oh, I wouldn't go to a Washington Wizards
Speaker 7: game unless you had a limo and this and that.
Speaker 7: You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you need a full dinner
Speaker 7: and this and that, and Gordion comes out of nowhere
Speaker 7: goes are there gonna be hookers?
Speaker 1: And just had a left field. I'm like we were
Speaker 1: talking about the Knicks or something and Gordon asked, if
Speaker 1: he's hiring hookers, Lrden, what are you doing it? But
Speaker 1: the way so there's two parts of this.
Speaker 7: The way you played off of so when people ask
Speaker 7: me like did you enjoy doing the impersonations and this
Speaker 7: and that, and I said, it depends on who I
Speaker 7: had with sure, and I had a coach who was
Speaker 7: terrific with it. You were outstanding. You were really really
Speaker 7: good at knowing how to play off of U because
Speaker 7: then it would keep it light, fun and moving. But
Speaker 7: I've been on the air, like I was on somewhere
Speaker 7: like North Carolina Stull.
Speaker 1: Lou Holtz and I was going and they full on.
Speaker 7: Correct me, like, hey, I coach, Yeah, just so you
Speaker 7: know that's actually North Carolina. I think you got that wrong.
Speaker 7: It's like, well where do we go now? Right, Like,
Speaker 7: so there's a there's a way to play off of
Speaker 7: one another. Joe has that ability as a basketball announcer.
Speaker 7: Gordon had that beautifully as as a co host, and
Speaker 7: I thought you did as well. And to your point,
Speaker 7: it becomes something the listener, like, it becomes a part
Speaker 7: of him. That's when and then also the authenticity starts
Speaker 7: to show more in the show host and the fun
Speaker 7: that goes in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that nothing that beats him? Yeah? And Gordon
Speaker 1: was such a great sport because I just used to
Speaker 1: crack him over the head, you know, and he would
Speaker 1: play because Gordon's a very sharp guy and he's a
Speaker 1: very good rider, and he's very good, very sharp guy.
Speaker 1: But he was a very good sport. Whenever I just
Speaker 1: crack on him over I forgot about the Isola thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because we I remember we were
Speaker 1: We did a lot of jazz preff and postgame shows
Speaker 1: in addition to working with each other day to day.
Speaker 1: And the CHOC stuff was like so good because I
Speaker 1: didn't know you had a good KOC before we started working.
Speaker 1: And for our listeners, KOC at the time was jazz
Speaker 1: executive Kevin O'Connor, not the ringer Rider or whoever that
Speaker 1: guy is. And Kevin had kind of phased himself out
Speaker 1: of the organization like Dennis Lindsay was kind of in.
Speaker 1: And I just remember like your KOC rants where you
Speaker 1: would quote like TLC waterfalls to puk and I would
Speaker 1: stop you, like, KOC, that's TLC. You can't use that.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't pretend like that's your own. You
Speaker 1: need to stop. And it made those late nights so
Speaker 1: much fun. You know, we had Britton who would fall
Speaker 1: off chairs and Jake would stop. I was those were
Speaker 1: fun days.
Speaker 7: They were great days, and I enjoyed it because it
Speaker 7: was it was lighthearted. The best part of the KOC
Speaker 7: one that was the only one where we got directed, Okay,
Speaker 7: you have to stop doing that, right and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 7: we make it pretty obvious it's not him, because I'd
Speaker 7: literally go, you know, we're gonna line up every possible
Speaker 7: draft pick we have him due to Krispy Kreme challenge
Speaker 7: and which you ever one come finish it and hit
Speaker 7: a three point?
Speaker 1: You know that's that's the guy that goes to the
Speaker 1: top of the draft board. Clearly not something is your
Speaker 1: voice sounds just like his? That was the issue we.
Speaker 7: Would get people in not in the league necessarily been
Speaker 7: in the market, Yeah, who would say like I heard
Speaker 7: him last night talking about this whole thing, and like
Speaker 7: how Tupac inspired.
Speaker 1: Him, right right, right right.
Speaker 7: And finally the organization had to say, look, man, we
Speaker 7: know it's funny, we know it's a spoof, but enough
Speaker 7: people are actually thinking Kevin O'Connor is coming on the
Speaker 7: postgame show ye talking about this.
Speaker 1: Just dropping random lyrics or talking about what he wants
Speaker 1: for Christmas, you know, just weird things like Nadies Walkman
Speaker 1: had said, yeah, so good whatever, Yeah.
Speaker 7: And it was so blatant, but it just it got
Speaker 7: to the point where they had to shut it down.
Speaker 1: It was fun though, you know it's funny because I've
Speaker 1: often thought about you know, I'll get people all the
Speaker 1: time like, hey, you're going to Jazz games this year?
Speaker 1: How many games have you been to? And I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was because we were at basically all
Speaker 1: of them for seven straight years. You know, with some
Speaker 1: exceptions here there. It's a it's a different ask to
Speaker 1: do that pre half in post game when they're bad.
Speaker 1: Like we started working together, I think it was Ty
Speaker 1: Corbyn's maybe Ties last year was my first year on
Speaker 1: the pre aff and Pels maybe tis first year. You
Speaker 1: did the luckout year. Okay, yeah, so the playoff year
Speaker 1: out yeah, yeah, And so you know, there was not
Speaker 1: a lot of hope with that team. And do respect
Speaker 1: to guys like Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, they're just
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connor did the best he could by parlaying the boozer,
Speaker 1: you know, Booze leaves for Chicago. The Jazz got a
Speaker 1: trade exception, so Kevin used it to get Al Jefferson.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like, let's put a band aid
Speaker 1: on this till we can figure something out, which they
Speaker 1: did with Hayward and Favors and that group started to
Speaker 1: go forward. But Ties last year Quinn's first year. Those
Speaker 1: were long nights. I mean it was tough to make
Speaker 1: that very interesting. I can't imagine what it's like trying
Speaker 1: to polish this turn.
Speaker 7: No, it is tough too because that team, at least
Speaker 7: they were trying to win.
Speaker 1: It was what's the next move? What are you trying
Speaker 1: to do? The hard part is it's clear what they're doing.
Speaker 7: The challenge is now that you know what they're doing,
Speaker 7: this has never really been a part of what the
Speaker 7: Jazz do, so then you have to be like, hey,
Speaker 7: this guy's looking good.
Speaker 1: Here, this is going well there?
Speaker 7: I mean trying to figure out like like to speak
Speaker 7: positively on it and then also be aware and cognizant
Speaker 7: of clearly what the organization's doing.
Speaker 1: I've said it before, love it, hate it.
Speaker 7: They have a vision for long term future success like
Speaker 7: the Celtics just had last year.
Speaker 1: This was the start of it.
Speaker 7: What was fun about those nights and what made it
Speaker 7: really special was the people that we would have and
Speaker 7: listeners who were part of a team that didn't win
Speaker 7: a ton and you know, you weren't sure exactly what
Speaker 7: was going on.
Speaker 1: They had a lot of fun listening to Koc.
Speaker 7: There was nothing funnier than the authentic human element version
Speaker 7: of Britton Johnson. When he would randomly be like, yeah,
Speaker 7: you'd ask him something, he'd go in the mic and
Speaker 7: they'd be like, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I think, wait, are we on air? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Right now? Yes, talking to that microphone on air right now?
Speaker 7: And we have been because he would sit there and
Speaker 7: watch TV yeah and blank out, and then you would
Speaker 7: ask him something and he's.
Speaker 1: Like, well, I don't know, well hold on, are we
Speaker 1: on air?
Speaker 7: And you're like like those moments like he was so
Speaker 7: intentionally not intentionally funny, then it gave it a human
Speaker 7: element to the whole thing. And the one time, I
Speaker 7: mean I had several moments with him where I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 7: the breaking news, you know this and that the other
Speaker 7: Derek Favors is going to play tonight.
Speaker 1: He's back. You know, I said, the ankle feels good.
Speaker 7: Whatever it is, you know, alongside Britton Johnson and Tony
Speaker 7: Parks Britain. You know we have this, we have this,
Speaker 7: we have that, and it's the Jazz and Calves. You're
Speaker 7: on a you know, Saturday night. He goes, yeah, no,
Speaker 7: it's interesting. Now do we know if Favors is playing
Speaker 7: or I'm like, well, I just announced the breaking news.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, he would get distracted, kind of like that
Speaker 1: dogging up that saw squirrels. Because I could, on a
Speaker 1: number of occasions, like you just outlined, I would kind
Speaker 1: of bring us back in. I would set the scene, Heyward,
Speaker 1: this whatever, and then i'd ask him a question. He'd
Speaker 1: be like, I forgot what you asked me. He just
Speaker 1: just completely forgot the entire thing. And of course when
Speaker 1: he fell off his chair and we had the audio
Speaker 1: and I just plowed right you did. It was quintessential you.
Speaker 1: It was quintessential Jake. Jake's laughing, you're the pro that
Speaker 1: just and Britt and his six' ten six eleven frames sprawled.
Speaker 1: Out it was. Fun but you, know it's it's just
Speaker 1: it's a tough Ask tony as far as what they're
Speaker 1: doing this. Year and AS i say all the, time
Speaker 1: AND i get some flat from some of the guys down,
Speaker 1: there the dude listen to some of the stuff we.
Speaker 1: Do it just. Sucks it's such a tough. Ask, now
Speaker 1: As i've been saying all, year it's probably the right
Speaker 1: course of action based off of their failure to see
Speaker 1: exactly how they needed to handle this when they Traded
Speaker 1: bear and when they Traded. Mitchell like this whole narrative
Speaker 1: they've tried to further over the past few, weeks, like,
Speaker 1: hey we haven't been rebuilding because we've been tearing down
Speaker 1: for three. Years i'm, like who is buying. That you
Speaker 1: started rebuilding when you Traded donovan and you Traded rudy
Speaker 1: and a really smart head coach didn't want to work for,
Speaker 1: you and a really smart general manager decided he was done.
Speaker 1: Too that's the. Rebuild that's when it. Starts if you
Speaker 1: took three years to tear it, down you did it.
Speaker 1: Wrong so they're finally doing it. Right it's just really,
Speaker 1: hard you know, Me i'll watch basketball at three. Am,
Speaker 1: yeah BUT i this is a tough one stomach to watching.
Speaker 1: Them this year has been really, DIFFICULT i think this.
Speaker 1: One and that's Why i've told the.
Speaker 7: Fans if you're the person who, says, Look i'm not
Speaker 7: going to spend my money until you get serious about moving,
Speaker 7: upward that doesn't make you, arrogant doesn't make you, selfish
Speaker 7: doesn't mean you're a bad, fan doesn't mean that you know,
Speaker 7: well don't.
Speaker 1: Come around when this team starts.
Speaker 7: Winning, Well, no this is a, business and this is
Speaker 7: about money for.
Speaker 1: You it's about money for.
Speaker 7: Me If i'm a, fan you, know AND i. Have
Speaker 7: WHEN i was In, chicago we were the same. Way
Speaker 7: we talked, About, okay The bears do, this they're dysfunctional,
Speaker 7: here but you, know you're going to the games and
Speaker 7: you're spending the money and you're this and, that AND i, thought.
Speaker 1: Right and if you, don't it doesn't make you less
Speaker 1: of a. Fan for.
Speaker 7: Sure when the McCaskey family just completely botches everything they're.
Speaker 7: Doing so When i'm watching what's happening, Here i'm, like, no,
Speaker 7: no in anyway you make the. Decision this is really
Speaker 7: unfamiliar territory because even when The jazz weren't, good you were, Like,
Speaker 7: okay here's what they're trying to, do here's what they
Speaker 7: could be. Doing, Okay quinn's first, year you remember they
Speaker 7: finished what sixteen and seven their last twenty three games
Speaker 7: something like, that and you're, like, wow they BEAT i
Speaker 7: remember they beat Like Tony parker in The spurs one,
Speaker 7: night Beat Russell westbrook AND okc and they had like
Speaker 7: this stretch of winning where you're, going, man they're winning
Speaker 7: With Bryce cotton And Chris johnson And.
Speaker 1: Jack what was that dude's. Name, oh it's gonna drive
Speaker 1: Me Jack. Jack he's a big, center Big Notre dame.
Speaker 1: Kid ah.
Speaker 7: Man he was like a fan favorite for fifteen. Minutes
Speaker 7: Andy Jack, Cooley Jack. Cooley, yeah, yeah the winning games
Speaker 7: with you, know, yeah just a bunch of dudes out.
Speaker 1: There you'd See quinn had some. Juice it was.
Speaker 7: Outstanding so you're, Like, okay there's a, future it's right
Speaker 7: around the corner with.
Speaker 1: This. Yeah, no it's. Tough it's tough because now.
Speaker 7: You're waiting for a draft pick to be a, splash
Speaker 7: to win some, headlines to do.
Speaker 1: This you know.
Speaker 7: WHAT i was in agreement with The Rudy donovan thing
Speaker 7: BECAUSE i just felt like they were so far out
Speaker 7: of alignment that there was a trust issue altogether somewhere
Speaker 7: there and you should start over. ANEW i did not
Speaker 7: think they would be quite in this position three.
Speaker 1: YEARS i really.
Speaker 7: DIDN'T i REALLY i THOUGHT i, one maybe, two and
Speaker 7: then you have all the assets and enough to work
Speaker 7: with that you could move up in drafts and you
Speaker 7: can have the culture of defensive mindset and going forward
Speaker 7: with the principles kind of Like quinn, did where you
Speaker 7: start to see an upward.
Speaker 1: Search So i'll always, wonder and this is just simply anecdotal.
Speaker 1: Hypothetical it's not, real it doesn't, matter but all always
Speaker 1: wonder If danny decided to do The donovan deal and
Speaker 1: not The ruty. DEAL, a Does quinn? Stay? Okay and
Speaker 1: b what does that look? Like because if you do
Speaker 1: The mitchell deal and you bring in marketing and you
Speaker 1: get you, know four or five draft picks and swaps
Speaker 1: from from The calves and you get a bulk of
Speaker 1: draft capital that, way and you don't do the God bear,
Speaker 1: deal Does quinn? Stay Does dennis? Stay and the answer
Speaker 1: to both of those questions might be, no BECAUSE i
Speaker 1: just don't think they wanted to work for this new ownership.
Speaker 1: Group And i'll let them answer that in their own
Speaker 1: time and whatever way they prefer to do. It but
Speaker 1: if we play the hypothetical where you do The mitchell
Speaker 1: deal and you get marketing and you Keep, bogdanovich You Keith,
Speaker 1: Conley Royce. INGLES i mean at that Point joey was
Speaker 1: a little bit. Older he'd hurt his. Acl you, know
Speaker 1: we used to talk About royce like he Was Bruce
Speaker 1: bowen from nineteen ninety. Ninety he just WASN'T i don't
Speaker 1: know how BIG i was on, him but you get the, point,
Speaker 1: like so you Have, gobert you have, marketing you Have,
Speaker 1: bogdanovich you Have, conley you, know then the other bit
Speaker 1: pieces that you, have and then you utilize The mitchell
Speaker 1: trade to get the draft capital that you need to
Speaker 1: keep kind of building around the. EDGES i don't. KNOW i,
Speaker 1: mean that's probably still you, know nothing more than a
Speaker 1: top six or seven seed in The, West so it's
Speaker 1: not like there's a lot of upboard. Trajectory but based
Speaker 1: off of how bad it's been and how unwatchable they've
Speaker 1: been for three years, NOW i Think i'll always kind
Speaker 1: of wonder what that looked. Like if they Trade donovan
Speaker 1: and then Keep, gobert then you Give donovan what he
Speaker 1: wants clearly clearly clearly didn't want to be here. Anymore
Speaker 1: you keep a guy that's still really good that wanted
Speaker 1: to be, here And, rudy and then you figure out
Speaker 1: ways to kind of supplement that, group and your bulk
Speaker 1: would Be, gobert Market, In, Conley. Bogdanovitch it's not a championship,
Speaker 1: team but it's not THIS i think it gives the
Speaker 1: fans at least something hold on. To, Okay, so AND
Speaker 1: i don't think you were entirely wrong that my person
Speaker 1: is this perception based on you, know other people that
Speaker 1: you get to know and talk, to AND i Know
Speaker 1: jeff talk to a number as. Well my perception is
Speaker 1: the reason they moved both is because whatever the issue, was.
Speaker 7: Each of them had a problem in this the trust
Speaker 7: issue that. Exists there's no way you can look at
Speaker 7: that roster and how they underperformed and say that there
Speaker 7: wasn't a trust. Issue clearly there was something that was not.
Speaker 7: Wrong they had no business being that bad defensively at,
Speaker 7: times being a one.
Speaker 1: And done in THE nba.
Speaker 7: PLAYOFFS i, mean they were built with a Defensive player
Speaker 7: of the, year budding, Superstar All star point, guard a
Speaker 7: guy that'd been To game, six man of the.
Speaker 1: YEAR i, mean come, on, man some a dead eye.
Speaker 7: SHOOTER i, mean you're looking at real weapons, here and
Speaker 7: they it wasn't gonna. Work so my thought was when
Speaker 7: they traded, BOTH i thought it was a good move
Speaker 7: because whatever the issues, were say with one of, them
Speaker 7: like each of them had their. Faults if you move,
Speaker 7: one keep the other the other is always going to
Speaker 7: feel but their part.
Speaker 1: Of this issue was not a.
Speaker 7: Problem it's going to be impossible to convince them, that
Speaker 7: yes we moved, them yes we kept, You yes we want,
Speaker 7: you yes we believe in, you but you still got
Speaker 7: to change. This this was toxic or this was, bad
Speaker 7: or this was hurtful to the. Team you are never
Speaker 7: going to convince them of that because the results of
Speaker 7: the situation they, stayed the other guy was, gone and
Speaker 7: the perception is that guy was the, problem not.
Speaker 1: Me the reality is each of.
Speaker 7: You more than likely contributed to this issue that even
Speaker 7: A hall Of fame caliber coach in my, opinion which
Speaker 7: IS i think What quinn is, Like he's a.
Speaker 1: Mastermind i'm a huge fan of.
Speaker 7: Him that was the WAY i looked at it was
Speaker 7: that if you kept, one it would be impossible to
Speaker 7: convince them to get rid of the part that was
Speaker 7: a part of the to get for them to get
Speaker 7: rid of the problem issue that they contributed.
Speaker 1: TO i get what you're, saying AND i think ULTIMATELY
Speaker 1: i under understand why they landed on the decision to
Speaker 1: move on from both of, THEM i do, think and
Speaker 1: the timing here is interesting AS i think back on.
Speaker 1: IT i think When quinn said to, Them i'm not doing.
Speaker 1: This you, know it was always interesting to me that
Speaker 1: dog And pony show they had where the, post you,
Speaker 1: know the press conference when they were announcing That quinn was,
Speaker 1: leaving how he just thanked The millers profusely and walked
Speaker 1: over to them profusely and gave them like that Was
Speaker 1: quinn's chance to Give gail her flowers and The Miller
Speaker 1: miller's her. Flowers if you go back and listen to
Speaker 1: that and watch, it he didn't say anything About, danny
Speaker 1: didn't say anything About. RYAN i think when the ownership transition,
Speaker 1: changed AND i have some insight On quinn running practices
Speaker 1: and folks from the new ownership group showing up and
Speaker 1: kind of announcing their arrival at, practices and how this
Speaker 1: was going to be the new normal that even before
Speaker 1: the season was, Over Quinn's i'm not interested in this,
Speaker 1: right wrong and. Different i'm not interested in, This. Okay
Speaker 1: ryan and his group have a different approach than The
Speaker 1: miller's hat and only time will tell to see if
Speaker 1: his approach is actually going to. Work at some, POINT
Speaker 1: i think it's only fair to say that the approach
Speaker 1: right now has bred bad, results AND i think it's
Speaker 1: bred some Awkward jersey announcements and things around the periphial
Speaker 1: and certainly things behind closed doors THAT i do know
Speaker 1: about That i'll choose to keep to. Myself AND i
Speaker 1: do understand why ultimately they did land on the decision
Speaker 1: to move on from. Both LIKE i, SAID i think
Speaker 1: the quing call That i'm out expedited their decision making
Speaker 1: to break the whole thing. Down here's my, issue that's
Speaker 1: when you broke things, down not. Now don't sell to
Speaker 1: the fan base that it's it's taken us three years
Speaker 1: to break it. Down. Now one didn't and that's on
Speaker 1: you if it, did because what you're, saying because you
Speaker 1: always have to translate between the lines to get to the,
Speaker 1: truth what you're saying is you did a bad job
Speaker 1: initially of deciding on a direction because you know where
Speaker 1: no man's land is in THE, nba right in the,
Speaker 1: middle and that's the group they Had will's first. Year
Speaker 1: then they decided to break it down In, february and
Speaker 1: in a, way it was kind of the group they
Speaker 1: had year. Two and then they break it down after
Speaker 1: the deadline so they can maintain their draft. Capital that
Speaker 1: is a series of bad. Decisions when you're running a
Speaker 1: basketball team in THE, nba you either go all, in,
Speaker 1: okay or you're all out so you can rebuild. QUICKER
Speaker 1: i think they essentially wasted two and a half. Years
Speaker 1: that's my.
Speaker 7: Opinion that's WHY i Wanted AND i don't even Know
Speaker 7: Will hardy all that, well But i'm a huge. Fan
Speaker 7: i've watched him, Work i've been up close to see
Speaker 7: him at, work AND.
Speaker 1: I really like.
Speaker 7: HIM i really really like, Him and that's WHY i
Speaker 7: thought he should beginning an, extension because he overperformed and
Speaker 7: then you tore it, down overperformed, again tore it. Down
Speaker 7: now there's this future of when are you going to
Speaker 7: start accelerating winning at a high. LEVEL i don't want
Speaker 7: him in the situation where you, know he now has
Speaker 7: to turn from forty four point third quarters in the
Speaker 7: blink of an eye and forty eight point you, know.
Speaker 1: Dashing defensive issues and stuff like.
Speaker 7: That it's hard to get people to hold themselves accountable
Speaker 7: on that end of the floor if they can clearly
Speaker 7: see what's going, on and if you think they're, agents.
Speaker 1: Like, hey get in there and take a, charge prove your,
Speaker 1: worth you're.
Speaker 7: Wrong, no protect, yourself be, careful put, it put the
Speaker 7: ball in the, basket you, know increase your worth and stay.
Speaker 7: Healthy so it's really hard now to, Go, okay, guys.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start. Winning, now it's time to start digging
Speaker 1: in deep. Culture. Culture.
Speaker 7: Culture, no, no because you have no base for, That
Speaker 7: like what's the jazz?
Speaker 1: Culture what is you taugh jazz? Culture right? Now it
Speaker 1: is undefined and it is work in.
Speaker 7: Progress even when this team wasn't that good twenty six
Speaker 7: wins or you know whatever it was in the year
Speaker 7: you AND i were doing it where they didn't win
Speaker 7: much with The Jamal tinsley and.
Speaker 1: Company when he said they're gonna shock the world Was
Speaker 1: John lucas three ever shock in the, word like we're
Speaker 1: gonna come, Out we're gonna shock the. World AND i was, like,
Speaker 1: no you're. Not you might win thirty, games nobody's getting.
Speaker 7: Shocked, Okay but but you AND i were talking about
Speaker 7: that back. Then but there was at least, okay there's
Speaker 7: a culture, here there's an, identity there's some, definition there's
Speaker 7: some direction to this situation, here it's not.
Speaker 1: There that's WHY i Wanted hardy to have an.
Speaker 7: Extension let's you in my, opinion they owe it to
Speaker 7: him to be fair to him with a long term.
Speaker 7: Vision so when you start to cycle that, way he
Speaker 7: gets some time to weed out some more of that
Speaker 7: to get them to where they ultimately want to go.
Speaker 1: Heart, mind and soul in the proper. Line AND i
Speaker 1: share your optimism About, WILL i really. Do and it's
Speaker 1: not just because of What i've seen since he's been.
Speaker 1: Here it's Conversations i've had with people that have known
Speaker 1: him for, years like he coached With Jeff Van GUNDY usa.
Speaker 1: Basketball Will hardy could get a job in pro basketball
Speaker 1: tomorrow if he decided to leave The. Jazz my fear
Speaker 1: is because, Look, tony if you look around at The
Speaker 1: west right, now it is so freaking. Stacked it's not
Speaker 1: just at the. TOP i, Mean Oklahoma city is, good
Speaker 1: and they're, young and they've got a grip of draft.
Speaker 1: Capital they're gonna be awesome. Forever the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is The jazz are not A cooper flag away
Speaker 1: from being even close to fine in this. Conference the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is they are a marathon away
Speaker 1: of being back to where we're used to seeing them
Speaker 1: more often than, not which is at least competitive in
Speaker 1: The Western conference landscape and offering fans hope as some
Speaker 1: of their young players. Develop my fear is if they
Speaker 1: can't get something done this offseason and next year looks
Speaker 1: like this year because they want the thebansa kid or
Speaker 1: one of The boozer twins or, whatever and then we're
Speaker 1: dealing with the same thing next. Offseason if that doesn't
Speaker 1: breed tremendous talent for will to work, with what does
Speaker 1: he do after five years here walking into gym's to
Speaker 1: have a gunfight when he's got a switchblade in his back.
Speaker 1: Pocket he simply can not keep up with his peers
Speaker 1: in the coaching world because he doesn't have. Players what
Speaker 1: does he do a five years past and they haven't
Speaker 1: given him. Talent that's a great.
Speaker 7: POINT i had this conversation with a family member the other.
Speaker 7: DAY i, said, look it worked In. BOSTON i got.
Speaker 7: It it took twelve. Years by the, way it took twelve,
Speaker 7: years it was long.
Speaker 1: TERM i got.
Speaker 7: THAT i understand it was four years and not a lot.
Speaker 7: Happening but then they had the draft picks that they,
Speaker 7: had multiple that they landed on with dudes who started to.
Speaker 7: Emerge but they were in maybe it was the fourth.
Speaker 7: Year Maybe i'm wrong it was the fourth or fifth.
Speaker 7: Year they're in the second round of the playoffs IF
Speaker 7: i remember, Right like they're actually like competing really. Well
Speaker 7: you could see, direction you could see and you, know
Speaker 7: it took a lot of. Patience it. Worked it was
Speaker 7: a long term. Plan blah blah.
Speaker 1: Blah there's also the chance of this that it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Work and if it, doesn't, man you're The wizards of The,
Speaker 1: WEST i mean The Washington wizards of The Western conference
Speaker 1: And Larry market and Is Bradley.
Speaker 7: Beal really sucks because this fan base HAS i got.
Speaker 1: It they didn't win a.
Speaker 7: Championship they put together a great formula to put themselves
Speaker 7: on the. DOORSTEP i Thought Dennis lindsay did a great
Speaker 7: job to put together the. FORMULA a top flight coach
Speaker 7: cornerstone pieces, right you, had you could see.
Speaker 1: It and what happened is the leadership of those.
Speaker 7: GUYS i know they were not stocking them alone, necessarily
Speaker 7: but your key cornerstone. Pieces there were issues there was
Speaker 7: stocking them alone that were not to that. Level, okay,
Speaker 7: well some of those things are out of your control
Speaker 7: when you're A, gm all, Right so there's a different
Speaker 7: way to. Go, well they flushed all the way out
Speaker 7: and said we're going to do this totally. DIFFERENT i, Thought,
Speaker 7: OKAY i respect, that but you're gambling on the fact
Speaker 7: that you're going to be right with. This, yep and
Speaker 7: you've got the, assets you got, this you got all
Speaker 7: these wonderful.
Speaker 1: THINGS i got.
Speaker 7: It but, yeah hearing that was one of those Where i'm, Like,
Speaker 7: okay there's no promise this thing's gonna work.
Speaker 1: Either, no it's predicated on a lot of. Luck, like
Speaker 1: that's a tough plan to sell to a fan. Base
Speaker 1: now if the luck falls into, Place and again to your,
Speaker 1: point which is well taken and founded in, information in,
Speaker 1: fact we all understand that this is a long game.
Speaker 1: Play the problem is you didn't start the long game
Speaker 1: three years ago when you traded a twenty five year
Speaker 1: old in his prime and a twenty eight year old
Speaker 1: still very effective. Defensively that's a massive risk for a
Speaker 1: team that plays in Saut lake to move on from.
Speaker 1: Pieces do we all understand why they did, It, yes,
Speaker 1: yes but it was the failure to implement the plan
Speaker 1: immediately and then treading water and then now you're doing,
Speaker 1: it AND i just have to wonder if we would
Speaker 1: see more traction in a positive direction if they actually
Speaker 1: started the plan three years ago when they traded away
Speaker 1: their clutterstone.
Speaker 7: Exactly because the one THING i thought we would see
Speaker 7: by this time identity.
Speaker 1: Culture clear. Mindset there's a clear feel.
Speaker 7: Vibe, okay this, player he may not be A hall Of,
Speaker 7: famer but he represents the, mindset the attitude what we're looking.
Speaker 1: For you can feel that in the locker.
Speaker 7: Room you can sense that there instead Of, wow this
Speaker 7: is a great stretch of play for this.
Speaker 1: Guy, here he's, young he's, this he's. Young he's. Young he's.
Speaker 1: Young that's.
Speaker 7: Great and there's flashes and there's, moments And i'm not
Speaker 7: saying that it's all, negative BUT i still don't see
Speaker 7: clear cut identity.
Speaker 1: Culture AND i did think we'd see that by.
Speaker 7: Now i'm not saying they can't find And i'm not
Speaker 7: saying this plan isn't gonna, work But i'm not gonna, say,
Speaker 7: well look What boston, did copy paste here we.
Speaker 1: Go Oh, no there's no promise for.
Speaker 7: That, no there's not at all no promise for, that
Speaker 7: Because philadelphia did this, forever AND i get it that
Speaker 7: they've had some threatening years and things like. That but,
Speaker 7: man this this thing where they at right now during this,
Speaker 7: uh there's time a year teen and sixty. Three right
Speaker 7: now they're twenty three and fifty.
Speaker 1: Five philly is Oh, Philly, yeah, yeah The jazz are
Speaker 1: sixteen and sixty.
Speaker 7: Three and again we know twenty three and the fifth
Speaker 7: of remember with the embide, stuff and they flattened out
Speaker 7: for a long. Time they didn't win a ring in
Speaker 7: this and right now they've got all sorts of. Disasters
Speaker 7: so it does have to come together just. Right it
Speaker 7: does take a long, time and there's no guarantee it's
Speaker 7: gonna work.
Speaker 1: Well and there was a generationally special player available In
Speaker 1: Victor wimnyama three years ago after they decided to move
Speaker 1: Off mitchell And gobert a couple of years, ago and
Speaker 1: they they had this team that was middling and staying
Speaker 1: competitive in winning games and to what. End and somebody
Speaker 1: over there, said, well we were trying to, tank but
Speaker 1: our coach is too, Good AND i, said who coaches The?
Speaker 1: Spurs like what are you talking? About The spurs traded
Speaker 1: away a twenty five year Old All star two And
Speaker 1: Dejonte murray and a bunch of other pieces because they
Speaker 1: knew that this kid In france could change their entire.
Speaker 1: Organization so WHEN i was fed the line like our
Speaker 1: coach is too, good we can't, Tank like who coaches The?
Speaker 1: Spurs what are you talking? About, like we'll end it.
Speaker 1: There but, ultimately this is a test of a pain
Speaker 1: tolerance for a basketball market that simply is used to
Speaker 1: seeing at least a team that shows they're moving in
Speaker 1: the right. Direction AND i can't lie to, listeners AND i,
Speaker 1: can't you, know tell you That Isaiah colliers, this or
Speaker 1: can't To george's that or. WHAT i honestly don't. KNOW
Speaker 1: i have question marks about pretty much every player on the.
Speaker 1: Roster AND i do feel like they have a, really
Speaker 1: really good, coach BUT i am a little bit nervous
Speaker 1: to see what he does if they can't give him.
Speaker 1: Talent all, Right, Tony i'm taking up too much of your.
Speaker 1: Time BEFORE i set you, Loose let's hit the bees
Speaker 1: stuff one more. Time SLBs dot com for tickets opening
Speaker 1: not opening, day but the home opener is. Tomorrow and
Speaker 1: so tell our listeners what you want to. Know, WELL
Speaker 1: i want you to know.
Speaker 7: That you're you're gonna get a terrific experience when you go,
Speaker 7: there everything's leveled up in every single.
Speaker 1: Way that's what's.
Speaker 7: Happening and you know WHAT i think is really cool,
Speaker 7: too is Tonight Jeff reeves being honored there with The
Speaker 7: Utah Sports hall Of.
Speaker 1: Fame i'm headed over to. That you're going to that tonight, too,
Speaker 1: right my head, basketball my high school basketball, coach head,
Speaker 1: Coach Mike maxwell's being inducted, tonight so we'll be over.
Speaker 7: There that Former Bountiful brave head Coach highland Ram, Alum i'm.
Speaker 1: Correct And. Tony as you, know historians often say that
Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety Seven Bountiful braves the greatest high school. Basketball,
Speaker 1: NOW i don't say. THAT i know one. HISTORIAN i don't.
Speaker 1: KNOW i want to be, clear BUT i don't say.
Speaker 1: That but people who study it know the numbers and
Speaker 1: break down. Analytics they often say THAT i don't think
Speaker 1: they had the. Depth that guy doesn't have enough good
Speaker 1: players coming off the. Bench that FAIR i know one of.
Speaker 1: Them i'm excited to catch up with our. Teammates it's
Speaker 1: gonna be really.
Speaker 7: Cool but, no With jeff being honored for, that and
Speaker 7: then look when the fans go, there you're gonna love.
Speaker 1: It because now it's a it's a new, experience it's
Speaker 1: a new.
Speaker 7: Standard all of that is going to be top, shelf top,
Speaker 7: level And i'm excited, for you, know something that's, new
Speaker 7: something that's. Historic now remember it's not just historic because
Speaker 7: you're going to this minor league stadium that's. New but
Speaker 7: there's the anticipation Of Major League baseball being in the,
Speaker 7: future being a part of what's going. On love what
Speaker 7: the organization is doing in terms of their their fast
Speaker 7: forward vision on doing everything that it takes in their
Speaker 7: control to be in the very best possible position for
Speaker 7: something like this to happen. Someday how long would it
Speaker 7: take for it TO i will never, know because there's
Speaker 7: a ton of dominoes that. Fall but you, know there's
Speaker 7: those who, say, boy this would be, nice and then
Speaker 7: there's those who put so many things into action to
Speaker 7: say we are more serious than, anybody and we're willing
Speaker 7: to invest what it. Takes AND i think that's been
Speaker 7: fun about this. Offseason i've worked for a minor league
Speaker 7: baseball team for a long. Time this doesn't feel LIKE
Speaker 7: i work for a minor league baseball. Team that's excellent
Speaker 7: with the way they invest in what they're. Doing it's
Speaker 7: always what is major league caliber? Level what does it
Speaker 7: take to get?
Speaker 1: There do? It And i'm, like, wow love. It this is.
Speaker 7: Great we'll be on CAM yu tomorrow night if you
Speaker 7: if you can't make it out to the, game we'll
Speaker 7: be ON camyu AND kJ as a series of thirty
Speaker 7: eight different games this.
Speaker 1: Year very.
Speaker 7: Nice so we talk, about you, know not being able
Speaker 7: to make it. Out we hope you enjoyed the. Broadcast
Speaker 7: we know a lot of people in this market love
Speaker 7: baseball And i'm happy to be a part of.
Speaker 1: IT SLBs dot com from More. Info they've got a
Speaker 1: great ticket deal going on right. Now the weather looks
Speaker 1: great for opening, week which is always. Good, tony my my.
Speaker 1: Friend great to. See, Okay, hey thanks you as. Well,
Speaker 1: man you look, Good thank you. Sir All. Right college
Speaker 1: basketball is going to crown their national champ. Tonight Florida
Speaker 1: Gators Houston cougar's coming up six Fifty Mountain time ON
Speaker 1: cbs at The alamodome In San. Antonio you, KNOW i
Speaker 1: have not done my. Diet my yearly diet tribe on
Speaker 1: the silliness of playing basketball in a football. Arena it's so.
Speaker 1: Dumb it's hard. TO i was gonna, say if you've
Speaker 1: ever tried to shoot on a bucket in a makeshift
Speaker 1: on a makeshift court at a football, facility the sidelines
Speaker 1: are jacked up that your depth perception is. Off it's
Speaker 1: it's for. Football it's not for. BASKETBALL i mean every
Speaker 1: year we do this because we want as many, fans
Speaker 1: because you're trying to make. MONEY i get. It but
Speaker 1: for the product itself and for the, players it's it's
Speaker 1: not conducive to play in high level basketball.
Speaker 3: Any stadium or, arena and basketball players will will relate
Speaker 3: to this that doesn't have like equal backgrounds right on
Speaker 3: the different. Hoops you'll have wacky field goal percentages early
Speaker 3: maybe the first, games not not the second, games but first.
Speaker 3: Half it takes guys time to adjust, to like you,
Speaker 3: said different site lines in, arenas And i've you, Know
Speaker 3: i've seen it really really play a. Hand what's funnier
Speaker 3: to me is like when they played the game on
Speaker 3: THE i think it was a naval ship and guys
Speaker 3: are just air bawling for the warm ups until like
Speaker 3: halfway through the game they finally dialed.
Speaker 2: In.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man it really does affect the way you play
Speaker 3: when you can't really see what's going on behind the.
Speaker 1: Hoop tonight's prize picks line, up, Baby you ready for?
Speaker 1: It all, right here's what we're.
Speaker 3: Doing.
Speaker 1: Okay on prize, picks you pick more or less on
Speaker 1: player staff. PROJECTIONS i HAVE. Lj cryer for less than
Speaker 1: seventeen point five. POINTS i Have Walter Clayton junior for
Speaker 1: more than twenty. Points by the, way one of my
Speaker 1: favorite players to watch in all of college. BASKETBALL i
Speaker 1: actually told you, this And i'm mad at myself BECAUSE
Speaker 1: i did not trust my instinct for whatever. Reason every
Speaker 1: TIME i Watch florida this, Year i'm, like they're, awesome
Speaker 1: AND i didn't even pick them to make The final.
Speaker 1: Four That clayton junior, KID i love watching him play.
Speaker 1: Man he's stone cold.
Speaker 3: And kind Of on an opposite, NOTE i told myself
Speaker 3: IN i want to say Mid, FEBRUARY i was Watching
Speaker 3: houston play AND i, said you, know they may not
Speaker 3: have the best player on the on the, floor they
Speaker 3: may not have the fifth best player in the, country
Speaker 3: but they're gonna outrun everybody to a national. Championship and
Speaker 3: THEN i went With auburn instead at the last second
Speaker 3: BECAUSE i second guessed. Myself and, Hey houston is still here.
Speaker 3: Standing and again it's it's their. Versatility, yeah they got standout,
Speaker 3: players but it's it's kind of the the bi committee
Speaker 3: thing that they're just. Relentless so fun to.
Speaker 1: Watch milo's use on more than twelve point five, Points
Speaker 1: Thomas houk less than nineteen point five, points rebounds and,
Speaker 1: Assists Elijah, martin who's a beast of an athlete more
Speaker 1: than twelve point five, Points Juan Roberts houston's big more
Speaker 1: than twenty, points rebounds and assists. Combined none of this
Speaker 1: is anything you should pay attention. To Price picks has
Speaker 1: just asked me to do. It so there you. Go
Speaker 1: who you got before we say? Goodnight who do you
Speaker 1: think wins the?
Speaker 5: Game?
Speaker 3: Oh, Man i'm Gonna i'm gonna go With houston due
Speaker 3: to WHAT i just. SAID i you, Know i've had
Speaker 3: a feeling that they, physically it feels like their. Effort
Speaker 3: like not saying That florida's going to come out here
Speaker 3: and lay an. Egg that's a team that's going to
Speaker 3: play really. Hard BUT i just haven't seen anyone match
Speaker 3: the intensity Of houston all year. Long AND i think
Speaker 3: that when you can do that for a five month stretch,
Speaker 3: Man you're probably going to do it on the day
Speaker 3: of The National, championship AND i Think houston does that,
Speaker 3: tonight AND i Think kelvin gets himself a national. Title we'll.
Speaker 1: SEE i will take The Florida gators only because of
Speaker 1: the show. DYNAMIC i have no idea what's going to.
Speaker 1: Happen it is a one point. Spread i'm not usually
Speaker 1: good at feeling out of bracket because it's an exercise of,
Speaker 1: futility but mine was done pretty, quickly SO i Think
Speaker 1: florida gets it done, tonight BUT i don't feel good about.
Speaker 3: IT i think they have the best player on the,
Speaker 3: floor and if it comes down to a possession or
Speaker 3: two game late final, minute then you, Know i'll lean
Speaker 3: Towards florida BECAUSE i think that's when big players make big.
Speaker 3: Plays BUT i got.
Speaker 1: Hot houston's got. Something you're not wrong about. That by the,
Speaker 1: way are you watching The White? Lotus not?
Speaker 3: Yet still? Early Remember i'm gonna wait until like four
Speaker 3: seasons are ON hbo and Then i'll.
Speaker 1: Go, okay all, right, well THEN i will say. Nothing
Speaker 1: maybe last night was the season three finale and uh,
Speaker 1: oh there's three.
Speaker 3: Seasons, Yeah i'll just watch, it Then i'll go.
Speaker 1: Watch first of, all it's, awesome it's really, entertaining it's
Speaker 1: very well. Written Mike white created. It, uh he is
Speaker 1: obviously a very creative. Guy AND i gotta SAY i
Speaker 1: didn't see any of that coming last night for all
Speaker 1: The White lotus. Fans the ending very much got me off.
Speaker 1: Guard and that's the most entertaining type, ending very, breaking
Speaker 1: bad ish where you're not getting you, Said Mike.
Speaker 3: White who is? That is? That like other shows that
Speaker 3: we would? Recognize is there A Mike?
Speaker 1: White you might know him As Sarah silverman's boy a
Speaker 1: friend In school Of. ROCK i think It's Ned, Shleebley Ned,
Speaker 1: sneebley That's Mike. White it's honestly the only because he's
Speaker 1: not really an. Actor he's more of a director and
Speaker 1: a producer and a. Writer, OH i want to, say
Speaker 1: the only Thing i've ever seen him in Was school Of?
Speaker 1: Rock is that gooby Boyfriend Ned schleebley or whatever who
Speaker 1: Dated Sarah. SILVERMAN i think that's the only Thing i've
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 2: Him that's.
Speaker 3: Right this is actually a fun. FACT i heard a
Speaker 3: long Time Ned neebley like wrote a lot of the
Speaker 3: jack Like school Of. ROCK i think Our nacho. LIBRE
Speaker 3: i THINK i think he's involved in a lot of that.
Speaker 3: Stuff so there you. Go fun, Fact Ned snebley.
Speaker 1: The only Thing i'd ever seen him, in And Sarah
Speaker 1: silverman was not very nice to him In school Of.
Speaker 1: Rock IF i Was, Ned i'm. Out oh, Yeah i'm
Speaker 1: going to start the band With Jack. Black, Anyway Weird show,
Speaker 1: today we did learn that the plural of octopus is.
Speaker 1: Octopi we didn't learn. That we did not learn that
Speaker 1: you are you are going against? Science i'm you are
Speaker 1: you think you know more than? Scientists, well, look based
Speaker 1: off my social media, feed a bunch of my college
Speaker 1: friends think they know more than, scientists very, epidemiologists and
Speaker 1: now they're terr eff, experts which is. Amazing here we
Speaker 1: go the same morons THAT i went to school. With but,
Speaker 1: ANYWAY i just feel more comfortable saying octopi than. Octopuses that's.
Speaker 3: Fair you'd say octopedes as.
Speaker 1: Well all, right, Anyway Weird Show, Porter before we get
Speaker 1: out of, here what comes our way on hopefully a
Speaker 1: more Normal tuesday.
Speaker 3: SHOW a lot of hoops on A Tuesday. Show Tony
Speaker 3: jones stops by the. Program tim McMahon for OUR Nba Daily,
Speaker 3: assist and then of course as we wrap up the
Speaker 3: college basketball, season we have to get our Guy Ken
Speaker 3: Paul mroy on the show and coming off a, win
Speaker 3: how about?
Speaker 7: IT.
Speaker 3: Rsl Kurt schmidt joins the. PROGRAM i know they got the,
Speaker 3: w but you're gonna have a lot more questions For
Speaker 3: kurt as well off the.
Speaker 1: FIELD i am Putting kurt's feet to the fire. Tomorrow of,
Speaker 1: course he joins us after a, WIN i, tease love the.
Speaker 1: Guy we'll see if they're able to make some signings
Speaker 1: prior to the window. Closing all, right we'll get out of.
Speaker 1: Here special congratulations in my high school basketball Coach Mike
Speaker 1: maxwell being inducted into The Utah Sports hall Of fame.
Speaker 1: Tonight going to go stop by and pay my. Respects
Speaker 1: special thank you To Josh, Furlong Tom, Haberstrow Bell, frasier
Speaker 1: And Tony parks for the sound you missed from the.
Speaker 1: Show the website IS espn seven Hundred sports dot. Com
Speaker 1: our mobile app is THE espn seven hundred app that's
Speaker 1: available in The App store on The google Play. Store
Speaker 1: and then our, podcast which we are hoping that you
Speaker 1: will support because it does help us out it's called
Speaker 1: The drive With spence check its whatever platform you, use we're.
Speaker 1: There just do a search whatever that platform asks you to,
Speaker 1: do if it's a, follow if it's a. Subscription and
Speaker 1: then if you sandize things in the comments and you
Speaker 1: give us all the stars they allow, you it helps the.
Speaker 1: Program if you like what we, do we'd appreciate your. Support,
Speaker 1: Reporter i'm spent saying, tonight enjoy Some National championship college basketball,
Speaker 1: action a LITTLE nba hoops, too and we'll talk to
Speaker 1: you on A Tuesday drive and as all as you
Speaker 1: can find it right here ON espn seven hundred AND
Speaker 1: i have you TWO. Andefm we are proud to be
Speaker 1: part Of UTAH'S Espn radio network