Back to Brady on the wing, guarded there by Clay Brady close one.
Up, gets it to go with the fowl how Baucher Brady.
Spin and Utah gets the win. Here today Finals four, Utah ninety nine in Arizona State seventy three.
Really cool moments over the weekend, as the son of Craig Smith was able to get a and one opportunity. Brady's a good free throw shooter, so bummer that he was unable to convert that free throw. But the voice of the Utes, who was on the call as our guest on a Monday afternoon, Bill Riley, sir, how.
Are you Spence. I'm doing well. How's your monday?
Good man? That was kind of a fun little moment, right.
I would imagine there were probably a few eyes in the crowd that weren't necessarily dry after watching that.
Yeah, it was. I mean, anytime those guys, you know, the bomb squad, the backup guys get in. You know you want those guys just chuck it. Man, you've been you'll on the floor very much. Put that ball. I know that you would have never hesitated, but put that ball up. And when Brady got the opportunity, there you know, it was just it was really really cool. So I
was happy for him to get that bucket. Would have been cool for him to hit the free throw to get him to one hundred, but still a nice moment.
Yeah, I bet Craig actually cracked on when he got homes that kid, you got to make the free throw. But last time we spoke, Bill, you were in Orlando, I believe, waiting for the team to fly in and it's been one week since the news broke that Craig had been let go. So now that you've had a chance to spend some time around the team, how do you think they're doing, How do you think they're holding up, and how do you think the news is landed with them?
I think surprisingly well, Spence. I mean again, changes are never easy, but mid you know, in season changes are especially tough. But they didn't get off the great start against Arizona, but they competed, played Arizona almost to a dead dead even in the second half, and then they came out Saturday and it was it was you know, it was I don't know, maybe because there was a little bit of time between the change in leadership and everything else, but they just seemed to play loose, and
they looked like they were having fun. Now, you know, winning is always much more fun than losing and beating up on Arizona State because you know they were not very good. Saturday is fun too, But there was just a looseness of bunch about the group on Saturday and a lot of high fighting and smiles and all that stuff. So yeah, I think they're dealing with it as well or better than you could probably expect.
So I've drawn this parallel coup couple of different times when the football team moved on from coach lud and Mike Pajakian took over as the play caller. Mike's first media availability, he was very honest. He said, look, this is Andy system, and you know there's nothing I'm going to do at this point in the season to change what he's implemented. And so I wondered if coach Eiler would change anything as far as what Craig has already put in because it's just hard to make changes at
this point of the season. But one thing we have seen is more minutes for Keanu. Kiano does right and athletically that kid matches up. So your thoughts on the improved or I should say accelerated minutes for Keanu. And have you seen anything else that coach Eilitz tried to do that's a little bit different than what Craig was trying to do.
I think, And he said this in the first pregame chat we did at Arizona and he reiterated it again on Saturday, Spence, he was going to reward hard play and effort with more minutes, and so maybe that's why you saw Kana Dawes getting more minutes. Kano is he is a talent Spence. I think he's going to be a guy that whoever the new coach is that comes in, really puts the full court press on to keep this kid around because he is really good and I think
his upside is there. But you've seen more minutes the last couple of games for Mason Madison as well. You know, Mason's a guy that's well traveled, he's a senior, but he plays really hard and he's given Josh good effort and his minutes have gone up a little bit too. So I don't know that, you know, philosophically or strategically, they've done a whole lot different. You know, when they don't throw the ball all over the gym, and they
valued the basketball, keep those turnovers down. They've been competitive all year long and they did that obviously guess Arizona State. But I think the one thing that he has done is really rewarded guys that have really busted their butts and given good effort.
How big is Josh Eiler.
He looks like he's just like a big strong He looks like a football coach.
Yeah, he's about six five sixty six. He played basketball league. He was a walk on at Kansas State and that's where he connected with Bob Huggins. So that's and he was with Huggins for a year at Kansas State as a grad assistant and then fifteen or sixteen years at West Virginia with it. But he had Josh is a big guy. Yeah.
I couldn't really tell the first time I saw him, like, who is that football coach on the sideline?
That's a big boy.
But so look, if I you to get weird for a moment to expand your imagination, like the Long Beach State coach last year was called into the office of his boss and told that he was going to be relieved of his duties, and they marched on to won their conference tournament and went to the NCAA Tournament. No part of me is predicting anything like that, but March is wild in college hoops. Rest of the way, you know,
win one for the gift for type approach. How do you think the rest of the year and then into the Big twelve tournament's going to look for this team.
I think they're gonna play really hard. I think they've got a really good chance tomorrow night in the Senior Night game, because they played really hard at West Virginia there again downfall Spence. I sound like I'm repeating myself here, but they turned the ball over and were really loose with the basketball. It's hard to do that against good now West Virginia is it's hard to describe them because they're eight and ten in conference play, but they've got
some good wins, Their net records pretty good. They should probably be a little better than they are, but they're not bad. They're a fringe tournament team, but you can't do that on the road anywhere. So if they value the basketball tomorrow night, they've got a chance. Because that game was a single digit game to West Virginia made some free throws late, and then by US rivalry game, they've already beaten BYU once. Now BYU is playing really
good basketball right now. But you and I have both been around long enough to know rivalry games are funny things and if you make some shots or another team isn't making some size So I think they've got a really good chance in these next two games, and then they're going to be somewhere depending on you know, if they go oh to two, one and one two and oh, they could be anywhere from a seven seed and get a buy which is a long shot because it's other teams have to do some stuff to a nine or
a ten or an eleven seed. So they're likely still going to play on that first day of the tournament in Kansas City. But if they're in that ten eleven range, you know they might be playing a TCU, a team they beat on the road this year already, or a
Baylor team that they played really tough. So again, I don't have any hard and fast predictions, but I know that this team, when they value the basketball and rebounded pretty well, and you've got a lot of seniors that I might be playing their last games, they could have a chance to win a few games here in the next couple of weeks.
So you're reference Kanto Kunta Does who right now is a sophomore, And I would imagine with his kind of incremental growth, you'd like to see what it looks like when he's actually fully baked as a player. So I think you'd like to have him back. Ezra is a junior, he's shown growth. I think that's a talent you wouldn't mind having in your program. And then I guess the other player would be Jay Jake Wally And who's a sophomore. You know, Caleb Senior, Losson Senior, Gave Masons, Shrob Jams
is a junior. Who do you think this program is going to make a full core press to try to get back on the roster for next season.
Well, obviously that depends on the higher and how they value these guys. But all those guys that you just mentioned, I you know, Ezra Sar is averaging almost twenty points a game at about seven rebounds in his last five games. He's playing at a really high level. He's also beginning to hit his free throws. And I'll tell you, Mike Shipe. Mike Sharup jobs when he is Like the other day he had fourteen points and six assists in that win
over Arizona State. I like his talent too. While Lean and Dawes, if you could keep and again, it's hard to say in this day and age of college basketball because these guys all you know, have the wandering eye. But whoever the coach is that comes in, if he could retain those guys you were just talking about, that's a really nice base to work with and some good young players to build around in what you do in recruiting and the portal and high school and transfers and
everything else. So you know, I think whoever the guy is is going to have to evaluate the talent for sure. But if you could keep three or four of those guys you mentioned, maybe that's a long shot. I don't know because I'm not any of those guys. But if you could keep three or four of those guys, I think you'd be in pretty good shape with a good base to start from for whoever the new staff is.
Yeah, And ultimately, you know, if you get two or three back, or if you get zero back, it doesn't you know, it doesn't change the fact this roster needs a massive upgrade. Now, the good news is, in this day and age, you can do it within a year in an expedited way that you weren't able to prior to. And I know a lot of people don't love the transfer portal. And we'll see what the house versus NCAA
settlement brings. If these players are going to be asked to sign contracts where you stick around for two years with an option for a third or whatever.
Nobody really fully knows.
But I wonder if you have any insight on recruits that were, you know, ready to play for Craig and talent there was ready to play for Craig and whether or not this program is you know, and when when Mark decided to move on from Larry, they lost a grip of good players, a lot of talent. Are we expecting the same thing an exodus of talent either on the roster or on the way to play here with with Craig losing his job.
Honestly, I don't know either way. Spence the on the roster stuff, I don't know. They've got the one kid, Krevin. They Frank Jackson's little brother committed. He's a Salt Lake Community College player. Everybody remembers Frank Jackson played in the NBA and obviously at Loan Peak, and in some of my conversations with Craig would he never got specific with me about who they were targeting. He just said they
felt good about some people they were talking to. And I don't know if that was, you know, potential transfers, or if that was high school kids or what it might have been. So I'm a little bit more in the dark on the recruiting side of things right now. And to be very fair, I think a lot of people are in that same position. There's a handful of programs that go out and you know, sign some of
these top ten, fifteen, twenty high school kids. But I think a lot of these guys are coming in and saying, Okay, we're going to use the portal to rebuild this thing. I used tj Otzelberger as an example at Iowa State when he took that job. When he left UNLV and took that job, I think Iowa stated at two or three wins the year before, and he came in and in that first year he lost a ton of talent
at Iowa State and brought a bunch of transfers. In the next year they were competitive, and then the year after that they were, you know, competing for the big twelve titles. So if you do it right in the portal and mix that with some high school or developmental kids that are in your program, you know, the right person could turn it around pretty quickly.
I know that you are unable to comment on the majority of the stuff surrounding the coaching search, but I will ask you, are you aware of any sort of time frame that Mark and maybe President Randall have in mind before they want to land because you can't slow play, you know, you.
Got to have your guy in play.
So are you aware of any time frame that is preferable for the athletic department?
Yeah, the perverbial sooner rather than later is always good. But I haven't been told any any certain timeline on any of that stuff. So I think the one of the reasons why the change was made a week ago today was to get a jump start on it, get head start on it, and really get ahead of the game. And so I think they probably again would just assume, having done it a week ago, are probably down the road at least a little bit on it.
Tell me what in conversations you have with people around town, friends of yours, you know, people that care about Utah Athletics, away from your job as the voice and director of broadcasting. Because we have a bunch of different options, We have a bunch of different avenues, We have a bunch of different concepts and theories about how you can go about this. What do people say to you about what they hope this hire looks like in order for them to support this program.
I think, and maybe I said it with you, or I've been on your show and Scott's show and Sean's show. But the people I talk to and you and I
have some common friends, they're older guys. They're not old guys, but they're older guys now, and they can remember when Utah was really good consistently at basketball in the late eighties, in the nineties, the early two thousands, and most of the guys that are friends of mine, that are Utah grads or ties to the Utah program are just wanting to get that glimmer, wanting it to be I just think there's a lot of Utah fans Spence that are
on the precipice. You know, when that guy. When that coach gets in there that you really see turns the corner a little bit. I think it opens the floodgate for support, and I think that people are just are itching to get back to the Huntsman Center. And I've just had a lot of people that are you know that that are really anxious to see who the guy is here that is hired, because I think there's a lot of people that really want to get back out. It's your point. I think you brought it up with
me a week ago. There's no reason you can't be a football at a basketball school. Lots of schools do it well, and I think there's a lot of people that are just like, ah, I can't wait to see who this is because I really want to be back at the Huntsman Center and seeing that great brand of basketball that I saw when I was in college or in high school.
Yep, yep.
And if there's a coach that's hired that's able to build this thing up where they win and they play entertaining basketball and it's somewhat consistent, I'm entirely confident this community will show up for that. I wondered because I hadn't had a chance to ask you this. I believe it was Florida States. I think there are three or four big programs who have canceled their spring games. Nebraska, I think is doing it. They're just not doing spring football.
They're doing spring football, but they're not doing spring games anymore. Do you think this is something that could seep into the culture of college football where we just see a lot of teams doing away with it.
Yeah, I do. I think you know Florida State did. Nebraska did. I think they use the guys of renovations to their stadium for doing it. But that's a big deal. Nebraska gets eighty thousand people because there's nothing else to do in Nebraska, but they get eighty thousand people for their spring game, so they cancel their spring games a really really big deal. And there was somebody else. You're right there at USC.
Yeah, that's right.
So I think we'll probably see more of it. I know that Kyle Whittingham didn't have any plans to do it this year. I was talking to some people today
and he's still good doing that spring game. I think we may end up getting to a point spence where it's not so much the game that's important, but it's a spring gathering to where people feel like they get to connect to their football program in the spring, whether that's a scrimmage, whether it's a practice, and then you get to have kind of a fan fest after practice, because to be very fair, most of these spring games
are just glorified practices. Anyway. They might go for a quarter or a quarter and a half and then it's kind of like a you know, and they hold a lot of guys out. So I think fans like to come to the stadium. If they were watching a high end practice, I think they'd be okay with that too. But I do know at Utah there's no plans at least while Kyle Whittingham is coached to cancel it right now, all right, I know.
You got to go.
But before I say, you lose, since we're in the football space, spring camp, the utes is Thursday, March twentieth, BYU already in action. The twenty two Forever game Saturday, April nineteenth. Fifteen practices over the course of five weeks. Just give me a couple of things you're hoping to learn about a team that's going to look a lot different than it did a year ago.
I think I want to see, first of all, Devin Dampier because I, like everybody else, has watched lost of lots of New Mexico tape from a year ago, and he's he appears to be a really dynamic football player. I want to see how quickly and maybe it doesn't happen in the spring in fifteen practices, or maybe it does. You know, Jason Beck's offense takes with a lot of
new faces. You know, the offensive line is going to be pretty much the same, but the receiver room's going to be a lot different, the running back room's going to be a lot different, and the quarterback position is going to be a lot different, and they're not going to play as many tight ends. They've already said that his personnel is a lot more eleven personnel instead of thirteen personnel. So I'm really curious to see how all
those moves being pieces on offense work. And you don't get to see a lot defensively because they don't do a lot of big hitting. But I am just a little curious to see how the corner spot looks and how they fill in some of the voids on the defensive line. Losing some guys to transfer into too graduation. So those are a couple of the areas I'm curious with. But I think I'm gonna be like a lot of people. I'm gonna have my eyes on what the offense looked like.
And you know, Kyle was really pointed in saying, hey, you can't have one of these really super intricate, thick playbooks anymore because you don't have two and three and four years to you know, integrate guys into that offense and learn it. So to that point, let's see how quickly Jason Beck's offense allows players to assimilate to it. So that's kind of what I'm looking at.
Well, it's always good to have football to talk about. So just a couple of weeks away, Roles, appreciate the time, buddy, have a good week.
Okay.
By the way, what's the what's the vibe about Utah basketball on the Asian Posse group text?
You know what, let me kick the tires and I'll get back to you. That's a very important question I had not considered.
Bill.
Thank you for reminding me. I'm going to send the text now we'll do Thanks Ben, all right, Bill Riley, The
Utah men's basketball Coaches Show will be tonight at six