FRI POD @SpenceChecketts on #SBLIX w/ NFL champ, Runnin' Utes @CoachCSmith_, Jazz, USU, PGA + more

All right, what's going on?

Drivetime Friday afternoon, seven minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

Pretty temperate, pretty warm.

It's about thirty eight thirty nine degrees, little cloudy here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Might have some snow up in the mountains this weekend, maybe early next week as we are preparing to turn our calendars to February. Gratulations, good work everybody, you made it. And it's weekend time. Congratulations, Happy Friday. A good sports weekend ahead, a lot of pro basketball, a lot of college basketball. We have the Utah women in action tonight. It's against Arizona just after

I'm ready to do it today. I know, I know. It's been a.

Tough year, tough, well, tough three years almost to cover this Jazz team, unseerious about winning. But a couple of interesting storylines I think are starting to emerge, So we'll get to it on the show today. Minnesota started running away from the Jazz after Julius Randall got hurt.

You're next fan.

One of the five Nick fans in the market, two are actually on the show, which is weird.

You understand why that actually hits.

Minnesota was not playing very well, Julius Randall got hurt, and then they ran away from the Jazz. So we'll talk some Jazz basketball, We'll talk some NBA basketball. Latest on the NBA trade deadline, the All Star reserves were released, and of course, as it happens every single year, the ringing of hands, the wailing and gnashing of teeth for the snubs. Gotta love the snubs, So we'll get to

The Chiefs and the Eagles.

And it's always interesting to listen and watch to some of the coverage between the conference championship and the Super Bowl to see how people kind of make this interesting. The only real storylines of pro football right now are coaching staffs that are being filled, and of course some coaching staffs they still have holes. NFL free agency begins in March twelfth, if you want to dig into that. There are a lot of conversations going around as far as what can be next in pro football. So Happy

We'll start things off today.

One of the best to ever do it for the Utes and a Super Bowl champion himself to help Burgess stops by in the three o'clock hour. The head coach of the Utah men's basketball team, Craig Smith, will be our guest at three thirty.

And then it is the triumph in return.

After spending weeks and weeks and weeks in a skimpy bathing suit under the sun, well, I don't know if that's true, but Richard Smith has been gone traveling the world enjoying the sunshine. He is now back in studio.

The trade deadline right around the corner.

Our guys spent forty years in the Utah Jazz front off, so what's going on behind the scenes.

What are the conversations sound like.

And I'll ask Smitty about the jazz player who I am ready to say I am on board with.

I have been waiting and we're going to talk about that player today.

So Spencer Nelson, Terrell Burgess, Craig Smith, Richard Smith, Me, Spence, check ITTs, all of you, the great listeners, Happy Friday, and that.

Guy Utah outlaw expert.

As we learned during the five o'clock hour yesterday Porter Larson on a Friday, how many sports talk radio shows can do twenty minutes on outlaws from the state of Utah dating back to the eighteen hundreds.

Probably not very many. Probably not very many. We could and we could do more. I got like another several hours, but we'll talk sports today. Well we'll leave that for like a podcast or something.

Well, I mean, ultimately it was topical because the Utah Hockey Club announced that the utahle Laws were going to be an option for the name, and we had to educate the peeps. I'll tell you what on why that actually works.

If they name the team.

If that gets the name, I'll do like a full, a full deep dive and I'll like tell some stories that I've heard some cool stuff.

What we'll do if Okay, So here's the deal. Here is our commitment and our pledge to you, the listeners. If the Utah Hockey Club becomes utile laws during one show, we will book zero guests and for four hours I will just ask porter questions about utile laws from the seventeen.

Or eighteen hundreds. That is our pledge to you. That works for you, I'm on board. Ok maybe a couple guests.

We'll do it for like half the shows, maybe like an hour segment.

Yeah, see, you don't want to do four hours where you're the one talking. M m yeah, how's it feel?

But my concern is that if we do it on this space, we got to take commercial breaks.

Oh you want four hours?

No commercials, We'll do like a separate thing. Okay, no video, all right, just the informative deep dive.

Fair enough.

So if you missed that segment yesterday, I actually learned a lot from that dude in there. Whose third cousin is Billy the Kid or is it Jesse James.

I don't remember Cassidy Buch Cassidy, well one of them.

So utile Laws we'll see with the High Hockey Club is named after you all go through the motions of having your votes not counted but your emails captured by a qual tricks and then they're just gonna do whatever they want anyway. First guest today will be Spencer Nelson. But the ESPN seven hundred Cash Kickoff is here. It's time for your shot to win one thousand dollars in cash to pay your bills. That's dollar to five oh

It's your one stop shop for.

All your tailgating needs online at Standard Restaurants Supply dot Com or they're convenient location here in downtown salig City, Utah.

It's time now for your opening tip.

Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's number one sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurants Supply, your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.

Utah Jazz welcomed in some old friends last night to the building. The Minnesota Timberwolves rolling in in town. Minnesota, of course, a team that is interesting for us to cover here for a few reasons in the market, namely, the jazzone a lot of their draft capital, including that draft pick this year. And you know, Minnesota, unlike Cleveland, is a team that's been a little bit up and down.

They've been a lot better as of late.

And you know, that pick at one point looked like it may be a lottery pick. I never believed that that was going to be the case, but Minnesota was really up and down.

They had some injury issues.

Our guy Mike Conley did not play last night, and Mike, when he has played this year, simply looks like a point guard that is, his age doesn't look like it's really working for him much anymore.

Joe Ingles barely plays for them.

But covering Minnesota is always fun because of all the former Jazz players on that roster, and then the potential of the Jazz me maybe in a sneaky way, grabbing some good draft picks from Minnesota as a result of the Gobaar deal over the next four or five, six, seven years. So last night a couple of fun storylines to see the crowd chant for Joe Ingalls near the end of the game. I mean, Joe was one of

I mean, that's one of the things you always look back on with that group.

If Hayward would have stayed and everything else fell into place, that's a team that throws punches with any team in pro basketball. But while he never became p kward, you know the OKC series where he really took Paul George out of it, got in Paul George's head, evolved into a really dangerous outside shooter, broke Jazz records for three point shots made, and was a capable defense of a player because of his length and because.

Of his intelligence.

Certainly not an athlete doesn't move laterally and he's not gonna dunk on you. But I thought that was a really cool moment. Sounded like the fans gave Rudy Gobert a lot of love, and Rudy deserves it. His nine years here, I don't think he'll ever fully give the credit for the type of guy he was in the community and the type of impact he had on winning for Quinn's group. So nine years here, I don't think he sold his home. I think he still comes here

Now, like, give me a break with that.

Walker still has a marathon in front of him to even be in Rudy's cul de sac.

Rudy is a four time Defensive Player of the Year.

He is a Hall of Famer, and last night Walker had a really rough game. Walker's had a really good year, but head to head against Gobert, it didn't even look like a fair fight.

Rudy goes for sixteen points.

He had nine boards, He had five assists and four blocks, six of eight from the floor, four of six from the line. Walker one of six from the floor. He did not shoot a free throw. He did have eight boards, couple of steals, zero block. Shots didn't really affect the game much. I don't know how much of it is knowing that you were traded for that player and you're going to try to prove people wrong head to head,

The flow of play.

He's a two way player, He's a big kid that can really guard. And he took eighteen shots to score thirty six points. That's a rare thing in pro basketball. Six of nine from three, six of seven from the line, thirty six points, eleven assists, six sports three block shots for Anthony Edwards, who dominated the flow of play in

Okay, the Jazz.

Actually we're up twenty five to ten, marking it hitting some shots and we'll get to Keyonte and but ultimately Minnesota looked a little bit disjointed. And it's not funny that Julius real got hurt, but it's kind of there. There's a little bit of irony that after Julius went out with the injury after ten minutes, Minnesota went on this eighteen or two run. You know, they brought in

We saw for the most part, for the first.

Time in a long long time, almost a first choice group for Will to pick from to play in that game, and so starting lineup John Collins, Lowry Markin and Walker Kestler, Colin Sexton, Isaiah Collier was that was the starting five. Drew Yu Banks, Kyle Philipowski, Bryce sense About, Jordan Clarkson, Kiante George all got more than double digit minutes off the bench.

So Will went with ten players.

Clarkson and Keyante went for twenty five and twenty seven minutes. The rotation is going to be interesting. The Jazz have the third most starting lineups in pro basketball. A lot of that is tanking, a lot of that is Hey, Larry, how's your ankle. He's like, Oh, it's fine. He's like, no, it's not, Sorry it hurts. You're not playing tonight. But last night was kind of a first choice group. So I was interested to see a how they would play against a really good team in the West and be

They have other picks.

We'll see what they turn into, but right now, that's not a trade that's lopsided on the Jazz side of things. And then the Mitchell trade brings a bunch of different pieces, including Larry Marketing. And I've said throughout the course of this rebuild, i feel like the Jazz have found one thing, and that one thing is Loarry Marketing.

And I'm ready to tell you that I think they found another thing. Okay, are you ready? I am. Do you have any guesses on what you're confident about?

What you're There's a there's another player that I think the Jazz have found that actually is starting to show some things that I think are real in pro basketball. I've always said, right, so far it's Lowry, and I have questions about everybody else.

And I'm ready to say I think they found another guy.

It is not Bryce Sensible, it is who I think is there not only their new starting point guard now, but potentially an answer to that position moving forward, in Isaiah Callier. So Isaiah has thirteen starts on the year. Will Hardy over the past three four four games now has brought Keyante George off the bench, and to start

He just isn't.

Never played point guard. We've already talked about this. He doesn't have league guard tendencies. Who I think Keyante is when he's fully baked and everything is kind of you know, it turned out the best possible scenario for him is a dynamic, combo scoring guard off the bench, and that's I think what Will's is starting to see as well.

You know.

He ultimately was the twenty ninth pain in the first round, second to last pick, and I think, you know, the Jazz were seriously considering not even making it, you know, not even getting involved. But when Isaiah fell, much like bry sense about the year before, I think they did their calculation and feel like there was enough there to

He has to improve his outside shot.

He's about a twenty seven percent three point shooter, but these numbers are just solid twelve points nine assists, six boards against Golden State twelve points, eight assists, only one turnover. The turnovers are problematic for every guard that the Jazz have, including this young point guard. He just has lead guard tendencies that nobody else has outside of Patty Mills, and that would have been awesome ten years ago, but it does nothing for us now against New Orleans overtime twenty

Certainly they have something in Lowry.

That's why they maxed him out, and ultimately, if they can surround him with some help before his prime is over, then we'll actually see what it looks like. I think it's safe to say Walker Castler has played himself into the future of this franchise, and I think it's time.

To say Isaiah Isaiah Callier has.

A chance to be something in pro basketball that I'm not sure I saw early on. He is a big body kid that can really get downhill, finishes well at the rim, and at least he's big and strong enough physically on the defensive side where he provides some pushback at the at the point of attack.

It's much better than Keyante, much better.

So I'm ready to say today and we're gonna get some thoughts from our guests that I think Isaiah Qullier may have played himself into a situation where we have to analyze him as part of the future. Improve on

Happy Friday, my friend, how we been.

H Spence check. It's so good to be talking to you. It has been a long time.

Hey.

Of all the introductory things you said, the one I'm most proud of is being your partner on the pre half in post that was it? The overseas YadA, YadA, YadA YadA, Britton Johnson's friend. That doesn't matter as sent to me. But the fact that you said I was your partner on the pre half and post touches my heart.

Well, that means a lot. You're lying, but thank you for saying that. But I need to start here because I don't know. Man, I just want to let you know that I'm reading this book about anti gravity, okay, and it's impossible.

To put down. It's not funny. It's not funny. It's not funny.

It is funny.

Hey, all of your listeners, Okay, they're shaking their head and laughing at this same time, they're like speds, How could you say that joke on their But yet they love it. Everyone loves a good dad joke. I love that joke. Great, great material we like.

Yeah, we need to we need to give our listeners context. You know, when you do late night postgame radio, you get a little slap happy, and so our guy Spencer and Nelson would entertain us with dad jokes that did not land oftentimes with Britton Johnson, but I always appreciated them.

I appreciate that. Thank you will. I mean there is a certain amount of intellectual horsepower required to truly appreciate it dad joke you and I have that. Britt is just different. He's just built differently. Don't they have T shirts hashtag built different?

They do.

I love Internet or intellectual horsepower. Every time we do, every time we talk, you drop something that I steal from you.

So I'm stealing that.

I like that. Yeah, great, great phrase. Intellectual horsepower is a good one.

How's your world, man, what's going on with you? What's what's the deal these days?

Man?

Life is good, working and family and I mean, you know, the Drill kids are getting older, which I'm grateful for. But at the same time, I don't want them to leave the house, which when they were kids, I would little I would have thought that was that wouldn't be the case. But now they're teenagers in their blast to hang out with, so that's really good. And then the Aggies are rolling, So still doing radio for the Aggis and that's been a lot of fun. And man, living the dream.

It's been good, very nice. So let's do We'll do some local college hoops.

I want to jump around a little bit, and we'll start with Utah State, but we'll start with their question from a thirty thousand foot view before we get into topics in a vacuum? What is it about the basketball culture up there where it's almost like like my next gig, Spencer, I want to coach Utah State for one year and then cash in on a big on a big contract

I am more than happy to put a good word in to you. I don't know if it goes any far, but here's the reality. The spectrum is magical. US has a great tradition. I mean, we go back to Stu. But you know Craig, Ryan, Danny and now Jared. But I will say we've got to give the administration a lot of credit over the last four hires. Like Craig's a great basketball coach, and I know you toass how it struggles and that kind of stuff, but he is

No, one hundred percent, And obviously I was being a bit facetious, but just seems like coach takes over and boom, everyone has questions, and more often than not, the teams near the top of the conference, they're either qualifying for or threatening to be an NCAA tournament team. And it's just wildly impressive because the basketball culture in Saul Lake is rich with history, but it's been a rough stretch

Mentor.

Bob Huggins a great coach, but you never knew if you didn't know what Huggy Bear was gonna do night in and night out. Jared doesn't strike me as that type of guy, but as you've been able to get to know him, both on and off the floor. What makes him who he is as a coach and a person, and schematically, how does he like basketball to be played?

So I think, you know, as a person, he comes off and everything I know. I mean a family man. He's got a wonderful family. He's got daughters who are involved in sports and getting involved in the community, and just really good people. Zero ego. Like that's probably the first thing the first time I met him, he just came across as extremely down to earth and zero ego,

And also their shot profile appears to be a modern day shot profile as far as what the numbers tell you need to do to win basketball games. Of the ten or eleven guy Spencer, he plays, you know, more than ten minutes a night. Seven of them seem like they can shoot it from the outside. And you know, it's not like they hunt it in the way that the Celtics do, but it does seem like offensively, the shot profile is a modern day approach to analytically winning basketball games.

Is that kind of driving with what you're seeing?

Totally?

Yep. They got a bunch of shooters, now, some of them better than others. Absolutely. Carson Templan went on a streak and he struggled. Maybe who they thought was going to be the best shooter in the year. Tucker Anderson has really struggled. He's a conundrum in the sense he's shooting like I don't quote me on this, it was like seventeen percent from the three point line at home and then like thirty six on the road. And last year he shot high thirties coming from Arkansas. So he's

Right, Spence.

They shoot, They don't hunt it crazily, but they they got the guys to be able to shoot it if it's open, and they move the ball so well that it's open often enough that they're putting up a good number of threes.

All right, let's move over to uts now in Craig Smith, who, as you referenced once upon a time, was up in Logan did a.

Really good job.

Craig as won wherever he's been and this is year four for Craig, and I think it's a five year contract, so look, the pressure is real and he knows this. We're gonna have Craig on the show in just on an hour from right now. And you know, there are pieces on this roster that individually at times I really really like, and you know, I'm gonna ask Craig about his rotation. He's tinkered quite a bit with a bunch of different starting lineups, a bunch of different rotations. Gabe

A fair fight, like it was just rough.

And so look, it's a tough conference obviously, But what do you make of I'll say, what you know whether or not you feel like there's progress being made down here, and what you know about Craig, do you feel like still this is the guy to get this thing back to where it needs to be.

Great question. So just a couple thoughts. When I saw Utah was finished last pick to finish last in the Big Twelve, I laughed, No, Craig Smith is going to finish last. Team is going to finish last. He's just too good of a coach. And I know people will be like, well, they're not winning a lot. You may not have the guys or the horses to finish in the top three, and they don't. They obviously don't. But his guys are going to play hard and are going to be well coached, and they're just not going to

And you know he is going to get a chance to see this thing through next season because, according to Cassel reported today, the Utah Athletics reported a seventeen million dollar deficit this past year. Now, you dig into the numbers what they receive from the state and it's not necessarily like, hey, we only lost seventeen mil and the football team and the basketball team are still profitable. But ultimately, I don't think they're going to pay Craig to not

But let me.

Follow up with something you kind of alluded to, because, look, the bottom line is, in the modern day and age of college athletics, whether it's football or basketball or even other sports, you have to have your collective in order to be able to attract talent and be able to

That's my opinion. Give me your thoughts on that.

Yeah, I'm with you most every night. Maybe not every night, but most every night in the big twelve given right now. Now, when I heard the numbers, and I don't want to say publicly because I don't have anything verified, I was actually pleasantly prize at the number that I heard that Utah had for their collective. I was like, Wow, that's more. Now it's a matter of just allocating it to the

Yes?

Is it more than the number that you hear up in logan yes? Type of things. So it's the collective matters. What you're paying dudes matters. And that's a whole nother conversation. But you're right, you have to go get it. And I may have said this to you before, but it's interesting. I had this kind of epiphany moment where in Europe. It's funny I played with a bunch of different guys in Europe and the same is true now. Is I still stay decently connected to it? There are not a

Right now, Let's move down to provo here and talk about a coach that certainly has the horsepower because the collective is stepped up. According to reports, both yeg or Demon and Canon Catching's are seven figure players for Kevin Young and Cannon had a really nice game against Baylor in Provo, but prior to that it didn't look great.

You can tell why pro scouts love yeg Or.

I mean he's really long, he's really big, he's got a good feel, he can see over the defense, and he's averaging six assists a game.

Three point shot hasn't been great.

For him, but you can see why scouts love Diegor and over the past few games they've started to figure some things out. Mostly it's a make or miss team in a lot of ways, but three straight wins after that loss to Utah, they've won four or five. I think Ken Palm has them of like thirty eight in the net and thinks they're going to be an NCAA tournament team. But I mean, talk about a coach that

Yeah, expectations mean everything.

Right.

Going into the football season, I think people had really low expectations and Colonne blew it out of the water. Going into the basketball season, extremely high expectations and they've done well. But because those expectations are so high and the dollar figures you here throwing around, you're like Okay, that's going to happen. I think Bill finish Well, I think toughness and physicality have been an issue. I'm sure they're addressing it and that they've got to address it

Last thing, your thoughts on the number one prospect not just in the class next year, but according to a lot of advanced scouts analyzing aj Debanta, he's probably the best prospect in three or four classes. And I always get a kick out of seeing people learn about BYU in real time. So he goes on first tag with his dad and announces BYU is the landing spot, and Steven A.

Smith has never looked more confused.

But they are going to have four or five months for the price of seven million dollars a generational prospect down in Provo.

What do you think about that?

Yeah, that the amount of buzz and the amount of hype. I mean I was messaging with birds, you know, leading up to that, and they all along thought that they were a serious contender, and he felt like it was going to come down to them and k State and KU. I guess Kansas made a huge run at the end, but they felt like they had a legitimate chance and sure enough it wasn't delusion whatsoever they did. And huge get.

You know, Spencer, you're a father, so chances are you make breakfast at times for your kids.

Is that correct?

I do.

I Actually, you'd be proud of me. I'm making smoothies for my kids every morning.

Nice moothie. Nice.

Well yeah, yeah, but yeah, I make breakfast.

Okay, No, I'm just saying, like when my son's in town, I like to make eggs for breakfast. And I just realized something recently, and I just wanted to share with you that you really have to watch what you say around those egg whites because they just can't take a yolk.

It's not funny. It's not funny.

It is hey. And you know what I was gonna say to you, I don't know.

I didn't know.

I didn't know how to make a banana split.

But guess where I went.

Guess where I went to learn how.

To make a banana split.

I don't know where'd you go?

I went to Sunday School.

Oh man, Okay, now that's good. That's quality. That's quality. That's quality stuff.

That's that's what George Costanza calls leaving out a high note, my friends, I'll set you loose.

Always a pleasure to hear your voice.

Be well, Okay, Bence, you're the man. Appreciate you and keep up the great work. It's an awesome show.

Thank you, sir.

The great Spencer Nelson pro hooper overseas was a great player in college at Utah State.

Always appreciate his time.

Itching closer and closer to Super Bowl fifty nine between the Chiefs and the Eagles, the final football game of the year.

Never a bad time to talk football.

Friend of the show joining us now one of the best to ever do it at the youth Super Bowl champ. Great to have Terrell Burgess back on the program. Terrell, Happy Friday, man, How are we doing?

Happy Friday?

Thank you?

I'm doing well.

How are you?

I'm well, I'm well. I appreciate the time. Appreciate the time today. So let's obviously, you know, we'll get to some ute stuff and we'll do some you know, the latest with you, But I wanted to ask you, just from your vantage point as somebody who's done this on the highest of levels, what stands out most about the way the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes specifically has been able to kind of change our approach throughout the years, to simply figure out a way to win, no matter,

From your vantage point, what impresses you the most?

I think just their ability to find ways to win, just like you said, I think, and I'm not no football guru. I'm just you know, a young kid that's

So the AFC Championship game, Buffalo gets the ball with about three and a half left in three timeouts.

Did you think they were gonna get it done?

Did you think it was finally going to be Josh a chance to break through or did you feel like that was the Chiefs game kind of all along?

I thought Josh and the boys were going to do it, to be honest to you. When I saw the clock at when the when the Chiefs had hit their field goal, I said, Oh, that's too much time. There's no way the Bills don't score here. But because I felt like they were driving all game, I felt like they had a better command on that game than the Chiefs did.

It.

From my point of view. But I guess you know I was wrong, and the Chiefs maybe the Super Bowl, but yeah, no, I definitely thought Josh and them, we're going to score and win the game.

So the easy thing for lazy media people to say is because Josh Allen hasn't broken through, and because Patrick Mahomes is only twenty nine, it's gonna be tough for Josh to ever get it done. And luck we've seen it trelle in Pro football, Peyton Manning. I think it was oh to six versus Tom Brady to start his career, and he eventually broke through and got a couple you think. See, I just feel like Josh is too good to never actually get it done.

And you never know what's going to happen with the Chiefs or any other team.

But what are you willing to say about Josh's chances to at some point maybe break through and get a Super Bowl or maybe multiple.

Oh yeah, no, I definitely think he's got the ability.

I think if you.

See the way he's played this year, in over the last few years, just as a whole, he's got the capability of breaking through. I think they just I think they have the pieces.

They just got to get.

Over that hump, whatever that hump is. I'm not the person to make that decision, but I think I think he'll break through. And it obviously won't be this year, it could not be next year, but I'm sure by the end of his career. And I'm not saying like ten years down the road when he's finishing it's gonna be his last year. It could happen in the next

I'm also contractually obligated to ask you about Lamar Jackson if we're gonna do lazy media narratives Torell, because of course it's the same thing with him, right, like, potentially could win another MVP, which would be three, and then playoff time rolls around it, and look, there's no shame in going up the Buffalo and nearly beating.

An awesome team.

But got the same question about Lamar as somebody who's played against him and is familiar with him, do you think he ever breaks through and gets his.

I do think that he does. I think for some reason, I don't know what it is about the Ravens. They've they've usually had had a good defense, and now I'm not gonna necessarily say it's their offense their defense at not making it. But I definitely think, just like Josh, I think he's definitely gonna break through. The Ravens will break through. It just is I don't know what it's gonna take right now, obviously, like I'm sure there will be guys that retire from the Chiefs in the next

All right.

Let me ask you about your impressions, because you know, Jayden Daniels was out here in the Pac twelve footprint, which is dead unfortunately there's no such thing now, but you know I'll use at Arizona State before transferring LSU, winning the Heisman and then bursting on the scenes. Were you surprised to see how poised and mature he was all year. What'd you make if you're one in Washington With Jayden Daniels.

I remember when we were recruiting him to come to Utah, and I knew that he wanted to play right away, but we obviously had Tyler still there and we had a couple of quarterbacks in the room, so I knew it would be tough for him to play early at Utah. But I remember when he was being recruited and I was like, Oh, this kid's pretty good. But we played him with he was at Arizona State. He was young, but needless to say, I wouldn't say I was surprised.

So I thought Philly would beat them, but I thought it would be close, and it was not close.

Philly overwhelmed them.

And look, it was a great accomplishment for Washington and Jayden Daniels. The Washington organization has not been to a conference championship game in thirty three years, So if he was able and they were able to get that done, they would have been way ahead of schedule.

So I'm not surprised to see Philly in this spot.

But what stands out most to you about an Eagles team Terrell did a lot of people believe is the most talented team in all of pro football.

I would have to say, well, we could just go based off the the NFC championship game. And this is something that you know, a good friend of mine, Scout, used to always talk about and one of my high school coaches just always say this, but like, the line of scrimmage is a very important thing in football, and I think the Eagles just found a way to win the line of scrimmage. They they ran the ball very well. I think they had what six rushing touchdowns in that

You don't want anything to be a cakewalk, all right, Terrell Bird just the safety Okay, You're you're standing there in a running back is broken free from the line and you have to tackle either Sae Kwon Barkley or Derrick Henry.

Who are you choosing who's tougher to deal with?

I don't really.

I wouldn't say that I fear either of them, but I mean.

I don't know.

I mean, they're both really good running backs. I'd probably take I would take either of them, whichever.

One there you go.

I mean, like, if I'm being honest. One thing, this is another thing Sky used to always say, was limit the damage, So I would They haven't made a man to run with that leg, So that's where I'm shooting, and I would just do my best to not get hurtled at the same time.

I like that, all right.

Chiefs Eagles super Bowl fifty nine, Kansas City is a one point five point favorite.

The line hasn't moved. I thought there would be money one way or the other.

But it opened up at one point five and that was five days ago and it stayed a one point five. Here's how I'll pose the question. I'll start here, the Eagles win super Bowl fifty nine.

If what.

The Eagles win super Bowl fifty nine, if they can if they can run the ball the way they've been running, the Eagles win super Bowl fifty nine, and not saying that they can't pass the ball win. They definitely can pass the ball win. But if they run the ball and they find a way to get let's say, one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards rushing, I don't know, collectively, not just by one person. I think I think it'd be pretty tough for the Chiefs to win the game in my opinion.

And the Chiefs win Super Bowl fifty nine, and we see a three pat.

If what the Chiefs win super Bowl fifty nine, if they can, like on contrary to what I just said, contain the Eagles in their rushing game and play the way they've been playing in the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter of the last few years. I think their ability to play well late in their games in the last couple of years and the last three Super Bowls they won in the last five years, their ability to play late in the game and play well has really

What are you doing these days, Torell Let's I'm sure you fans would love to hear an update. I know you were with the Bills and you were placed on injured reserves, So what's what's what's life like for you right now?

And what are you hoping comes next?

Yeah, I'm still in California's still training.

I'm healthy.

I had a few workouts this season, but there's nothing nothing, nothing stuck through, still playing, you know. So I've had a little bit of communication with a couple of teams, but you know, until until things are set and stone, nothing really happened. So just training them in California right now, looking to to find a place to live outside of California, because I love this place. It'll always be home, but

Who do you keep in contact out this way?

You know?

Without this way?

We have a lot of your former teammates on Zach was on not too long ago. Who are your YOUTE teammates that you continue to talk to and stay in contact with?

Honestly a lot of them, Okay, I keep it. I still talk to Zach. I talked to Julian for two I guess two big names. I talked to Soup here and there a lot of TJ. Green, Philipia, There's there's a lot Sampson, Nakula, There's a lot of guys that I still talk to from from Utah.

CLC.

Mariner, I don't know's there's a lot. I'd say that I stay in contact with a lot of guys just because we we had a close knit bond at Utah and it'll probably continue for the rest of our lives.

What are your what are your thoughts on?

Since you and I last spoke, there was a lot of conversation about what would happen with coach with after a rough year, and he's announced that he's coming back for your twenty one. What's your reaction to your former ball coach on the sidelines for another year for these Utah.

I'm happy for him. I didn't think, if I'm being honest, before last season, I thought that would probably be his last season, not that I knew anything under the table or anything. I just was thinking like that'd be his last season. But once we fell short to BYU, I think I don't think in my opinion, from my point of view, I don't think he would have allowed himself

Since you and I last spoke as well. It's been a minute. A coach you know very very well. In Morgan Scalley, it was announced that he is the contingency plan once Kyle decides that he wants to do something else with his time.

That job is Morgan's.

I would imagine you have some thoughts on that, Troe, what do you think about the plan here?

And so I'm happy for him, I have. I have a lot of respects for him. He's not only a great coach, but a but a great person as well. And I feel like I learned. I learned a lot from college. I think, I don't know. I couldn't say enough good good things about him, And I'm excited for his future and his family and when he gets a chance to take, uh take the reins as the head coach at Utah, I'm sure I'll be there, just like I am there now, you know, still supporting them and seeing them do well.

Have you ever thought about media? You're you're you're pretty good at this, you know. And I and terrelle I interview. I know, I know you're only twenty six and hopefully you have a lot of football left to play, But I interview a lot of former players, and I'll say I've interviewed a lot of your former teammates, and I'll just say gently at times, it's hard for me to drag answers out of them, but you're really.

Good at this. Have you ever considered that maybe down.

The road, I've considered it. I think it's I think it's very I have a lot of respects for everybody in the media from I think my right after my rookie year, I did the spring game, and I worked with some of the guys from the PAC twelve and calling the spring spring game, so being able to see it from that view and talking to you and just being on the radio and things. It's like, I don't know. I think I just have a lot of respects for the profession. I think it's really cool. It's not something

Yeah you're no, you are, and believe me, I can tell when players are good at it.

I can tell when they want to do it.

And I can tell when they're on the phone and they're scrolling through their mentions or they're swiping right or whatever. So your present and I appreciate that. I want to move over here because, as I reference, we talk to a lot of your teammates, and for my money, Torell, your twenty nineteen Utah team may have been the most talent and I mean this now, I mean seriously, like top to bottom, it could have been the most It could be the most talented Utah football team in the

Yeah, I think I think the more we talk about it, and the more people talk about it, it just makes it that much worse that we weren't. We didn't get a chance at the to you know, Oh, I guess we did get a chance. We just didn't do it, so I'll put it that way. But yeah, I think we talked about it a lot and we know, but it's hard to have no hardware and say that you were

Before I set you lose.

And I do have to apologize to all the former players who I asked this question too, and I've asked you inmates. We asked Zach a couple of weeks ago. You know Terrell Burgess, you know, good looking, charismatic kid, Utah football player, senior year, really really good. I don't know, man, two hundred three hundred K or something like that, Like do you ever look at this? You know what I'm saying, Like, do you ever look at what college football is now? And go, man, I was just a few years too late.

I know, it's crazy because I was just talking about this as one of my friends about how like, oh, yeah, our parents just had us too early. But yeah, I mean it's crazy to even think about it. I'm happy for the for the players now. I think I've always thought that college football players deserve to get paid, so

I think my senior.

Year maybe I would have made a little bit, but you know, hindsight's always twenty twenty and we'll wi ultimately never know that. But I'm not bitter about it. I'm really happy for them, and I just I hope it continues to just grow the sport.

Where do you keep that Super Bowl ring?

I don't know if I should be saying that on the rag fair. You're in California. It's here, It's in a safe space, it's in a lock box here in California, something I don't really take out very often. But it's something also to whoever asked, so it's a great accomplishment. I'm just happy to be a part of that team.

Good stuff.

Hey Drell, Thanks for the time. Man, have a great weekend. We'll get you back on soon.

Okay, yes, sir, thank you. I appreciate it.

Rel Burgess really really good player for Utah twenty nineteen, his senior year just completely blew up.

Drafted by the.

Rams one hundred and fourth overall, third round twenty twenty.

Unfortunately broke his ankle, injured reserve.

But he does have a Super Bowl ring that Super Bowl the Rams won when they beat the Bengals. Spent some time with the Giants, spend all the time with the Commanders, most recently with the Buffalo Bills, and then he was way We've a little bit into the season. So now he's back in California training and trying to get in shape.

Hopefully gets a chance.

He's only twenty six years old and obviously a really good player and an excellent player for Utah back in the day. Appreciate Threll Burgess the time on the program.

All right, roll along on the program today.

Time to talk some Utah men's basketball. The Utes have been able to grab a couple of wins in Big twelve Play, three straight wins and a couple of els to Houston and Baylor. Been a nice home win against a really good defensive team in Cincinnati, hitting the road at Okay State. Our next guest good enough to give us some time. It's rare for us in the afternoons because they practice. The head coach of the Utes, Craig Smith, on the program, Craig, how are you, sir?

I'm doing great, Spence, how are you?

I'm doing well. Appreciate the time.

It's pretty rare for us in the afternoons to get your time, so we appreciate it.

So let's start just big picture.

Now, you guys are twenty games in over all, your nine games in in the Big Twelve.

What do you like? What are you working on? Thought with your team through twenty games?

Greig, And it's hard to believe we're already at this point, you know, play Oklahoma State, like you said, two o'clock on Saturday, and we'll be halfway through conference playoff already. So you know, it's gone really fast. There's been some really like any season, there's you know, there's been some

You mentioned something there that that kind of peaked my interest. My ears perked up, my intendants went off when you said, you know, we're not necessarily playing the way.

I want to play or I want to coach.

And I always find it interesting when I am watching a team that's coached by a guy who I like and respect, like you. And I can remember when Quinn Snyder was here coaching those Jazz teams when Rudy Gobert kind of evolved into this defensive stopper and they started him next to Derek Favors and they didn't have a great offense, but Dennis Lindsay used to say, look, if they score seventy were fine scoring seventy two, and they took the air out of the basketball. And I always wondered, like,

Well, it certainly as a head coach. You know, it's really interesting. You've got to be who you are. There's so many ways to win in basketball or football or volleyball or whatever it might be. But I think as a head coach, you've got to really have the security there of who you are, what you believe in, try

So I want to talk conceptually for a minutes to some of the concepts surrounding Gabe.

And you know, I.

Talked about this on air last week and I got a little pushback. I'm not saying that Gabe is Stephan Curry. Okay, I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is Steve Kerr oftentimes talks about, Hey, I want Steph to shoot five to seven quote unquote bad shots a game, right, Like, I don't mind him forcing up some shots because every night every team, he is the first page on the scouting report and Greg, as you know, everybody sells out to make sure Gabe doesn't have space and when he

Well, what's wrong with them is everybody's gapping them. Everybody's blitzing them.

Theyre running two and three at them, right, So just conceptually, how are you trying to get Gable little space so he can you know, knock down the shots?

So you need him knocked down?

Well, sense, how much time do you, guys?

As much time as you have, Craig, there's a four hour radio show, my friend.

That is a it's a very it's a great question and very insightful. Quite frankly, you know, as a coach, right, I've always been I want our guys on on both sides of the ball, but on offense, really playing aggressive in attack mode. I don't ever want our guys where they feel paralyzed, where they're looking.

Over their shoulder constantly.

You know what I mean? Is this a good play? Is it not? Because then I think, I just think I've just been around guys like that, and I know what happens, and so I'd rather have to have rain them back a little bit than you know, go the other way. And so listen, I've coached game for three years. This is my fourth year. I know he is. I know who he is. He's certainly the alpha, so to speak, or option one A whenever the one's getting ready to playoffs.

I just know it.

And the other night he showed some real signs, went to the free throw line eight times seventh grade, made a month or shot with under two minutes ago to put us up to it's just a matter of time with Gabe. And then he just looked like, you know, sometimes when you got a you know, a fifth year senior, they feel like they got the weight of the world

So on the other side, and you kind of alluded to, my follow up is obviously and we'll just stick with the Warriors parallel, even though people online are going to yell at me saying I'm comparing Gabe to Seth Curry. But ultimately, you know, it's not just about a shooter like Gabe and the attention that he mandates. It's also the space that that allows your other players because of that gravity.

So how do you take advantage of that?

Because you referenced that times maybe the shot selection has been great. You know Hunter in the BYU game took advantage of some space to knock down some big time shots. So when Gabe is mandating all this attention and there's all this space due to that gravity, how does that benefit your team and how do you take advantage of it?

Oh, it's huge. I mean obviously he is the respect of all of our opponents and they're going to put their best defender on him every game. Best tournamentter defender is on him every game when he comes off of ball screen, they're almost always blitzing them or trapping him. And so now that creates the scene because on offense, when you can get two guys to the ball, you're creating an advantage. It's all about advantage disadvantage, and you're

So I referenced the BYU game. I was there with some family. It was just man. You know, I was a student at the U, And I told you, Craig, the first time I interviewed you after you took the job, I was not going to bring up Rick Majerius every time you came on the show.

So I'm not going to do that.

You did tell me that, but you can't get I'm used to it.

But I'll just say this.

I mean, when I was a student in the late nineties, we planned our weeks around basketball games, and the BYU crowd for the first time, in my opinion, felt like I was back in school, you know, twenty twenty five years ago. And you said after the game, fans impact winning, and you are absolutely correct. So give me your thoughts on what it was like that night in the building to feel it like that, and what it would mean your program if we could get that going more often than not.

Well, I mean a ton and like, listen, we all have responsibility. I have a responsibility as head coach. Like I think we have a very exciting brand of basketball to watch. I think we have a lot of just great people in our program. But also no fans want like sustained success and to win. And you know that night and there's and there's been some of those nights.

I know you got to go. So if you want to be super quick with this question, be super quick. But it was the one I wanted to. I want it to end with because there are pieces Craig on this roster, and it seems like every night I watch it's like, oh, Keanu just showed me something I hadn't seen before, or maybe myro little needs to get more run, or while Lean's down the starting like and then Ezra has really evolved. I mean that BYU performance was incredible.

Well, you know, it's a great question, very fair. I feel like we're very very sound on our top seven guys. You know, since we won four out of six for the most we've been pretty steady with who we're playing now, there's certainly been you know, the Houston game, guys got out of kind of got out of hand. After a while.

Sounds good. Well, thanks so much for the time. Best of luck in league play. I think it's been a pleasant surprise for a lot of people to see you get the wins you've been getting, and you got some winnable ones coming out, Craig, So save travels and we'll chat toom.

Thanks for having me on, Spance. I always appreciate your time.

He's the pride of Norwich, Connecticut and an adopted son of Salt Lake City. After forty years with the Utah Jazz, there's no one better to talk some hoops. Richard Smitty Smith is back on the Drive on ESPN seven hundred.

Well, he lives, he lives. It's been way too long. I thought he'd ditched us. I thought he decided that he was done with the media portion of his long and prosperous, well decorated career. But after weeks and weeks and weeks broad with a little sunshine on the Ocean, Richard Smith has triumphantly returned live in studio for the next hour. You look tanned, you look rested, You look twenty five years younger.

Really, where you been, man?

Really?

Where you've been?

First of First of all, I don't know what Porter is doing with this with this intro.

Is that Johnny Cash? Is that old old Johnny Cash?

That was uh there was you two with Johnny Cash?

Oh, yeah, the Wanderer.

It was.

Appropriate, It's it's appropriated.

It was a reach.

Yeah, No, I think it was perfect. Where are you doing, man? Where you been? What's going on? Man?

No, I've been out of out of town spends. We had a great, uh great cruise in the in the Caribbean for a few weeks. I had a terrific time and it was nice to see sunshine in eighty degrees and and you know, One of the best parts of having a trip like that is, uh, is every now and then you're you're sitting near the pool, You're sitting up in the sunshine. You look at your phone and you get on the weather app and says Salt Lake snowing and twenty three.

Yeah.

Now you just rubbing it in and you're not endearing yourself to anyone around here.

This is why I'm doing that.

Yeah.

Now, Now the flip side is you get off the ship to go to the airport to come home, and you said, what am I doing? Why am I? Why am I going back to do this? I don't know, but for me it was because I missed the Spence check Its show on the Drive with Porter Larson, and and my I was I had to get back here because I was getting a little anxious. I was starting to twitch a little bit. And uh, but here I

So you expect me to believe the only reason you left the Caribbean the warm weather so you could come, you know, slepping on air with me.

I have no other reason to do it but to come back and talk to you. So this is it, and we can talk about the jazz and the trade deadline and all the other and and and maybe even get in a vote to vote for what the name of the hockey team is supposed to, because I'm so I'm.

So engrossed in that, I can't believe it.

Do you have? Okay, let's start there.

Porter and I educated the people yesterday, mostly Porter because he loves the genealogy on the fact that Utah actually does have a very rich history when it comes to Outlaws. Of course, Order's third cousin is Jesse James or Butch Cassidy or who is it again, it's but Cassidy. There you go, Yeah, no, I do. Now it's turning into a bit so. Butch Cassidy is literally Porter's third cousin.

What do you think? Well, first of all, I'm wondering any any other hockey fan around the country, anybody who's involved in the NHL, would they accept a team that's called the Utah Outlaws relative to what most people's view of the state of Utah is around conservatism and the LDS, church and and whatever whatever, clean cut people and.

All that kind of stuff.

And then they're sitting there in North Carolina or Florida or wherever, and they're going now they name their team the Outlaws. The Utah oh am, I supposed to believe that the Utah Outlaws.

Well, we have a team named the Jazz, and we don't have any jazz music in the city.

You got that.

There's nowhere you can go to listen to jazz and saut lake. Yet our basketball team is the Jazz, I know, or you know.

The one that's the most egregious to me, Spencer never gets mentioned is the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sure exactly, you know and so but you.

Know obviously, But having said all that, I I'm with you. I'm in your camp one hundred percent. I said this back back when whenever, and I still I'm still in that camp that if I had a vote, which obviously I don't, I would be voting for Utah Hockey Club. I love it that it's it's nice and clean, and I like the logos they've gotten, the color scheme and everything.

So no, I'm with you.

And if you go to the next two home games for the Utah Hockey Club starting to not against Columbus, you can go through the exercise where you can pretend to vote on this situation and simply give your data to qual Tricks. And they're gonna do whatever they want behind the scenes anyway. But they are presenting the facade of a fan vote. It's not a real thing. But

And you know, we're not gonna do a lot of hockey.

But I do find myself, you know, could she kind of laugh and shake in my head when the Rangers coming to town, or the Blues coming to town, or Alex Ovechkin is here, Sidney Crosby is here, Like, it is pretty remarkable that they were able to get this thing done with only a few months turn around.

Well, that's that's the miracle. Spence and and Ryan Smith and his group at SEG like how they came to an agreement with the NHL from from March, putting in a a letter of intent that they wanted to try and purchase an expansion team at some point to the next month in April, with Gary Bettman coming to Ryan Smith saying, hey, can you uh do you want to get involved like next Tuesday? And they go, what what

It's just it really is a marvel that they've gotten.

It to this point so quickly, and you have to give them a lot of kudos for that.

No doubt, no doubt.

All Right, since you and I last spoke, several interesting scenarios haven't folded, not just in Jazz Land, but in the world of pro basketball. You know, you were one of the first people I thought of when the alert came down on my phone that the Jazz had made a trade. Now players are not involved, but it's an interesting thing to consider. There are six teams smitty in pro basketball that own a tremendous amount of draft capital moving forward over the next five to six to seven drafts.

I think it's Detroit.

Maybe there's one other team that has So there are six teams total. They control multiple picks throughout the course of the next five to six to seven drafts.

So let's dig into the deal.

Then let's talk about whether or not you think this is going to become commonplace. So Utah sends three picks, three first round picks to Phoenix. All three picks are the least favorable of their picks, Minnesota's pick and Cleveland's picks. So they obviously have done their calculation on the Cavs certainly, and they've said this year that's going to be twenty nine to thirty. Two years from now, they're probably going

Yeah, and and and you're exactly right. And the reason you do that, the reason you have, you know, this famous phrase of assets accumulation is because you're trying to get as many many chips in the pile if you will, uh that you can. And then when something like this comes up, and we've talked about this before on the show,

Is, sign a free agent, those kind of things.

But then there are other things that that affect your organization along the way that you have no control of that just come at you and you have to be ready to be able to react in a way that you feel can benefit your organization. And this is one of those times. So the Jazz accumulated a bunch of draft picks over a bunch of years. You know, when are they going to use them, How are they going to use them? Who are those picks gonna be? You know,

So what happens.

Phoenix is desperately trying to figure out a way to get Jimmy Butler from Miami. The big roadblock is because of Bradley Beal, who is the most tradeable ASCID or at least the one that they would like to be able to move, who has no trade clause, which is very unusual in the NBA. Very few players get that in their contract. But that was something he negotiated when he was in Washington. Why they would do that, who knows, but that was a decision they made. Now Phoenix has

This year, they're struggling to just.

Hopefully get out of the playing thing if they can get in the top six.

But that's not what they're supposed to do.

They believe they're supposed to be one of the top two, three four teams in the West. It's not working out to this point in time. So they're struggling like, Okay, now what do we do? So they the only thing they can figure out at that moment is can we use an asset way in the future, meaning the twenty thirty one unprotected first round pick, and get multiple assets for that. The Jazz are waiting in the weeds. They come up, they raise their hand in the classroom. Yeah,

Be more valuable way down the road. Will it be?

We have no idea, is it something we might use two years from now in another move, we might do that, but we've got something we feel is a little more

So there are constant rumors surrounding the Jazz, as there are this time of year with a lot of teams. But I referenced, oh, by the way, the team I forgot with additional draft capitals Houston. Then it's Charlotte. So there are sixteen. Charlotte has eight, first, Houston has nine.

So that's difficult. Sam Presty's done a hell of a job.

But every time somebody talks about this trade deadline, they talk about John Collins potentially to Sacramento.

They talk about Colin Sexton.

You know, the Lakers are the worst because every player that's available that might fit Ins, like, hey, Lakers in on Collin Sexon, I don't know, no idea. And then obviously Jordan Clarkson's another name. What are the conversations behind closed doors Jazz front office right now, Wanne, what to do with some of these pieces with twenty seven million in cap space and a bunch of draft capital too, Like, what do you think they're discussing prior to February sixth.

Well, first of all, they've gone in this season right with the idea that they're going to try and develop.

All these young players.

And whether you believe they're doing that or not, whether they're making progress or not, you know, everybody has an opinion about that. The bottom line is they're not winning, and they're not going to win this year. So they recognize that. So they're going to try and do anything that either helps them moving forward in terms of a draft asset or maybe a good young player if one comes available, or to try and shed some more money.

So they don't.

Care if they have John Collins the roster a week from now. They don't care if they have Jordan Clarkson on the roster a week from now.

It doesn't matter to what they're doing now.

So if they can find a place, a landing spot for any of those kind of guys, I've become I was partially, but now I'm all in spence on being a Colin Sexton guy. He's the most efficient player the Jazz have this year to this point. He's played the best, he's played the most consistent. He plays with force, he plays with energy. I like the way he carries himself on the floor. He's one of the few guys who brings energy and some level of toughness to the to

Let me follow up, since you reference Colin Colin Sex and you like what he's bringing. He's twenty seven years old, or excuse me, twenty six years old. And I always kind of chuckle because we talk about Colin and John as if they're in their late thirties, because they're not Keyanta or Isaiah or whatever.

Like.

He's still very much a young player that's entering his prime. His splits on the year about eighteen and a half points three boards for assists, and when you look at the shooting percentage. He shoots forty eight percent from the floor, he shoots forty two percent from three, and takes almost four to threes a game, which I never thought it would be his deal. So he's put in the work, he's improved a lot, and we always have this debate. And I have a couple of other names. I want

I think Walker is too.

Is there a debate in that front office room, like, hey, maybe Colin is part of this too, based off of what you've seen.

Sure, I would say definitely, because what he's done, He's always been a tough guy.

He's always brought energy.

His issue early on in his career was his turnover rate and also his susceptible shooting. Now you look this year, and again it's half a year, so we see how the rest of the year plays out. But on a team that's struggling, a team that's having trouble with winning games, a team that's having trouble finishing games when they're in the fourth quarter and it's still, you know, in the balance,

He can be galunted on to make a play when you need to make it. He's one of.

Those guys who just plays hard every night and has improved his shooting to the point where you say, well, now that's serviceable, meaning he can help a good team in terms of how he plays. He's not going to be the main guy, but he can be a third or fourth or fifth guy on a team that is trying to uh, trying to have some level of sustainability of winning.

So you might be able to move him. Maybe you do, but at his.

Age, the way he's improved, he looks to me like a guy that's the kind of guy I would want to have around, not only because he's shown that he can get better, but because of the energy he brings. Jazz don't have a lot of guys on their roster who when they come on the floor, you go, Okay, Now, now we're gonna see something that's for sure. We're gonna get it up into a guy. We're gonna run a guy down from behind. We're gonna step in and try and take a charge. We're gonna push the ball down

See, that's what they're trying to see.

About all these other young guys they've drafted last two years, or any of those guys, whether it's a Kiante George or a Sensaba or a Collier, they're all young guys. Can any of them show that they can make those incremental steps of improvement like Sexton has here in the first part of his career to show that they can contribute to winning. That's what they're trying to find, you know,

Okay, so let me kick the tires with you on a rotational decision Will has made that I think actually means something. I mean oftentimes, like maybe Drew Eubanks gets another ten, I don't give a rip. It doesn't really matter if like Walker's out, is it going to be Philip Philapowski is going to be? You bet like you know Sphie makay Luke against Johnny Jus saying all right whatever. But over the past four games, Kyante is coming in off the bench and Isaiah Collier has started now thirteen times.

If he's going to be around when you're trying to win.

And I believe Keiante's role in pro basketball is it going to be a lot like Jordan Clarkson's has been. Colin Sexton is in this, you know, kind of same type or of role for a good team, a guard you can bring it off the bench that can score. Kyante is one of the worst defensive players on the team and their second worst in defense at all of pro basketball, and Will has been very front facing about we need more from Keyonty on defense. He's just not

The shooting splits are.

Just not good, no matter if he's started coming off the bench, about forty percent from the floor, twenty three percent from three. And on the other side, I'm starting to like what I'm seeing from Isaiah in a way that I don't think I was expecting. So thirteen games as a starter now for Isaiah Callier, he's at eleven points, eight assists, three and a half turnovers, which was way

So attack this from both angles.

What we've seen now from Isaiah as a starting lead guard and what Will is trying to do by bringing Kiante out bench.

Yeah, well I think that first of all, the Collier kid, he's a young kid, but he's always been a point guard, so he's always had the ball in his hands.

He's always been making decisions. Now. When he was.

Sixteen seventeen eighteen, he was the bully on the block. He was bigger than the other kids, so he could blow by guys, he could overpower guys, he could get in the lane, he could get to the rim, and he's always had a decent feel for finding guys on the move. Early on in this year, he's been very

Out quick follow up for catch a break.

Is it possible to be either a league guard or a complimentary wing and play big minutes for a team that's trying to win.

If you can't shoot it from three in the modern day and age of the NBA.

No, that's a that's a good point, and and that and that's one of the things that he's, uh, he's gonna have to improve on. He's gonna have to show because the teams are gonna sag off. The teams are gonna go under on that pick and roll. They're gonna flatten it out at the line. They're gonna say, hey, you make that eighteen footer, you make that twenty three footer, you know, you put it up over the top and show us he can do it.

So far he's unable to do that.

That's one of the things he's gonna have to get better on if he's gonna get any kind of sustained run, you know, as as a lead point guard in this league.

All Right, we will catch you quick breaks Mandy's liven Studio coming up next. Some old friends were in town last night, Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles, Mike Conley, Nikhil, Alexander Walker. We'll talk about the Jazz t Wolves game, look at to the schedule that lies ahead, and maybe do some other NBA trade deadline stuff. But sat out for the ESPN seven hundred, one thous thousand dollars cash giveaway. Get

Can you do that real quick? I'll give him you a pick.

So some breaking news that should have come through us here, but RSL will add Nick Romando's name to the stadium Ring of Honor at America First Field against DC United on June the fourteenth.

Nick he started his career. I think no, he just played for DC.

Then RSL traded for Nick Romando after their starting keeper Scott Garlic retired to take a real estate job.

I'll just say it wasn't the story. Yeah, he got a real estate gig, Scott Garlic.

Yes, No, I'll never forget it. This was kind of my intro to MLS. We're in a staff meeting and the general manager of the time gets a tax.

It's like, hey, you're starting keeper.

Scott Garlic has decided to retire because he got a job in real estate.

I was like, wait, what, m well's come a long way.

It has, but we had to pivot trade for Nick Romando, who became the wall of the Wahsatch and so he'll have his name on the Ring of honor.

So excited for Nicky. You got a hot Nick Romono tech.

He says that that is so well deserved.

He was such a stable force for ourself for over a decade and you know what a great guy and still in the community, active in the community.

And that's a great and deserving honor for Nick.

Can you imagine sitting in a meeting with Scott Laden and the brain trust back in the day and suddenly you get a message that Antoine Carr is retiring because he got a good job selling homes.

Hey now, but the question would be, well he got into a Scott got into real estate? Was that making more money than he was making for RSL?

And this was MLS in two thousand and seven.

I mean absolutely, and I believe it's worked out very well for Scott, who's a very smart, very nice guy.

Yeah, I mean, so, you know, hey, that's all. That's all part of the real world stuff. And you know it was another generation ago, of course. But you know, back in Jerry Sloan's day when he was playing in the sixties and seventies, most of the star players in the NBA had other jobs in the off season that they did to supplement their income because they didn't make

A whole nother world.

It sure is.

I mean, can you imagine getting a phone call and it's like, hey, would you like to buy some car life insurance? This is Larry Marketing from the Utah. So I'm trying to supplement my income.

Hey, hey, hot Rod. Hot Rod left the Lakers and retired in order to go work full time for Converse in the mid sixties because he could make more money working for convert.

That's wild man. That's wild all right, we won't do anything on the All start. Let me just ask you this the new All Star Game format where it's gonna be these All Star players from either conference broken up into three teams and they're gonna have a little mini tournament and the fourth team will be the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge.

Does this do anything at all? Do you think it raises the interest?

I only bring it up because for NBA fans at a certain age, all Star Weekend, once upon a time was awesome.

You know.

You had Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins going up against each other and slam dunk contest. You had Larry Bird winning three point shoo shooting contest. You had two All Star teams that played hard. And when the greatest basketball players on Earth show up and play hard, I am of the opinion that it's the greatest game. We just don't see it like we used to.

Yeah, well, it's I don't know what this new format is going to do. I don't know if any you know. One of the things is when when I was younger and you'd watch the All Star Game, there there was some affinity for the guys in the West or the guys in the East, and you actually rooted for them. Now it's just a mishmash of guys. It's in uh, you know some you know, level of exhibition that's not

And all that kind of stuff. You know.

But but it's that, you know, a few of those guys will get in any way, because some of the guys who got voted in.

Has always happened.

Somebody has an injury, somebody decides at the last minute, I'm not going to play because I got a rest for the second half.

Or whatever.

So a few of those guys will probably get in any way at the last minute, but it's always an interesting argument at this moment in time, several days after it's announced all the reserves, like who didn't make it and who should be in.

So the Minnesota Timberwolves rolling to town last night, whenever one of our former players comes into town, it's fun to kind of talk about in reminists or six former players or several former players, certainly, but let's kind of go down the list here. And you know, when the Rudy Gobert trade went down, the narrative around the NBA

They've been better as of late.

Rudy when you look at the numbers more or less has been the same player for them as he was for you.

A little bit of a.

Dip, but you know, as somebody that was there when you drafted him and got to know him and watched him evolve from this gangly kid who could barely run up and down the floor to the best defensive player of this generation.

How should we look back on the nine years when we had Rudy here?

Well, you know that was a team that that that grew together. You know, Rudy came in, he spent two different stints in in the G League, like you a little known Trivia Spence his first G League coach when when and one of my jobs at that time was with the Jazz was to go with our players if they got assigned to a G League team, to make sure they assimilated okay, and they were the team was going to use them the way the Jazz wanted to see improvement and blah blah blah and all that stuff.

All right, let's keep going down the list.

And I thought one of the really fun moments last night was at the end of the game because Joe Ingles at the age of thirty seven with a surgically repaired knee. I even said postgame last night, after four minutes, my knee hurt. Like he is probably at the end of his career, and you know, he really will go down in history as one of the more beloved, kind

You know, we can't do it.

It doesn't mean anything, but you needed somebody to fill that spot. And Joey, I think, became a better player than I ever thought he could be. And the OKC series where he's messing with Paul George and shutting him down a little bit. So he rolls back into town last night as he probably exits stage left after this year to go down his life and kids when they and the kids are in Orlando, they stayed there as

No, he was Joe, Joe came in. He was a very good player.

You know, one of the main stays of the Australian national Olympic team. UH for a lot of years played over in Europe. Was you know, had had a few good years over in Europe. Played actually with one of the Jazz front office guys, Uh now Sean James. They played together over and over in Tel Aviv and and Uh had a couple of great years and they're great friends. And Joe came over, tried to get in the NBA,

The other thing about.

Joe is that he brought an unusual mixture of toughness on the floor and getting into guys heads on the floor, but then coming off and getting on the bench and joking, having fun and making light of situations on the bench with his teammates to keep everything loose and fun for them, and and he was that way in the locker room,

Let me ask a follow off about Joe because and I'll tell you off air where this came down. But somebody with the organization heard me on air talk about what a locker room leader he seemed to be, what kind of like a glue guy he seemed to be. And I can remember somebody asked Gordon Heyward who his best friend was on the team, and he said Joe, which I found kind of interesting. And then during the whole Rudy Donovan thing. It felt like Joe was kind of the only one that was kind of like, dude,

Yeah, no, well Joe, Joe remember people forget that that in the Gordon Hayward summer when he left, Joe was also a free agent, right, and Joe went to Joe was in l A and uh Dennis and a couple of guys went to l A met with Joe and said, hey, we have a meeting with Gordon uh In in a couple of days, you know, but we want you to come back. We want you to make sure you know, uh, you know what what we're trying to figure out here,

Yeah, And I've always just kind of wondered exactly what's real and what's not because I know at times maybe he could great on people with the ability I suppose to be very witty and sometimes very sharp, and we live in a state where some passive aggressive tendencies exist and sometimes people get their feelings hurt.

Was Is there anything there?

No?

But but Joe was great. Joe was you know what you saw out there? On the floor. That's who Joe was, in the locker room, on the plane, you know, at the hotel, on the road whatever. You know, Joe is a genuine guy and that's why everybody, everybody on the team liked him. The coaches loved him, they loved working with him. He understood and he was a good connector

So no, I got it. I got it.

And Joe would go and Joe would you know, would wait to day or later in the day or whatever, would be on the plane and and and he was a guy who could talk to the other players and and and uh rationalize with them about what was happening and and you know what they needed to address as a group. But he had that status, right, he had that standing. You know, people people know him as a guy from Australia and you know, a good player for the just but he's a big time guy and a

Meaning the NBA, and then be able.

To have that kind of a standing within a team and within a team that was good and a team that was competitive every night, and to be able to find that niche where he he created value for himself both as a player on the floor in the middle of a game and also off the floor as a team leader, recognized you know, by by his peers as such, you know, was it was a big deal for us at that time.

One more player, with all due respect to Nikhil Alexander Walker, who's actually played well in Minnesota, really could not get off the bench while I was here very much on a Quinn. Let's talk about Mike by Conley, who did not play last night and who sadly this is the first year I've watched him, and I've thought, okay, all right, it might be time. But you know, as I always say, play till somebody tells you can't. If somebody wants to

Pick and roll.

Since you got you, you know the deal you guys made the trade. Take us through that when you realize, like, okay, we've got something. If we can find the right vet expat, the process will do it. And then how you landed on him.

That's right and and and Mike was a was a very good player obviously in Memphis for over a decade. Uh, there was an opportunity to to to go ahead and get him. The price was we thought at the time it was a little high, uh for what it was. But but we had to we had to look at everything.

He came in, Oh, our group made that move.

He became He became an All Star his only All Star appearance. While while he was with the Jazz UH, he instantly became a leader. You know, we we we knew his reputation around the league. We knew that he was one of the all time great guys UH that that other players just rallied around. And he just had that certain low spoken, kind of low energy charisma, if that makes any sense, that people gravitated to and and and he was just one of those guys that fit

It just, you know, you can't do that. Some teams get hot.

Okay, Miami got hot a few years ago out of the eighth spot and had a couple of things fall their way, and all of a sudden, they're in the NBA Finals.

Okay, they did that.

The Jazz had had better teams, had winning teams, had best reckon in the league, blah blah blah whatever, and they stumbled a few times in the playoffs, and and then other decisions were made from there about that. But Mike Conley played such an important role and stabilizing that team at a time when that's.

What that group needed. And he was really good for us in that period of time that he was here.

You know, to your point, and I discussed this all the time. And it's not just an NBA thing. It's an NFL thing, it's a Major League Baseball thing, it's a hockey thing, it's a soccer thing.

Like winning is fleeting, success is fleeting.

And you have to enjoy when you have the opportunity to just get Like in the NBA that always say do you have a shot?

You have a shot this year?

In the years that you can answer that question clear eyed,

Know, well we you know, and I can tell you Spence, the those of us who are privileged enough and lucky enough to be on the inside and be part of those things as they were happening, our group never took those things for granted, and we never we never thought that we were smarter than the next guy.

Or knew more than somebody else. You know.

We recognize that it was all about getting the right players, in getting the players to work together, getting the right coaching group, whether it was Jerry Sloan or whether it was Ty Corbyn, whether it was Quinn Snyder, getting the right guys and with a group to work together to

Now.

Yeah, we do have a couple of recent examples of smaller markets being your cousin who drove up to Idaho and bought a lottery ticket, came back and won the thing with Jokicchen Denver and Giannis and Milwaukee, and we'll see what Luca does in Dallas, and we'll end with this.

You know, Lowry is not.

Any of those players, but he's the best player on this roster. And we've topped about this over the past couple of weeks. And Tom Haberstrow, who joins ushow every Monday, has some data on this. When teams and okase he did this with Shay and Lowry's not Shay. I'm not saying that, but when teams ask legitimate star players to be part of this process, which part of it is you're not playing every night, And part of it is, hey,

Yeah, but it's the danger is if you have a guy who's not buying into what's going on right right and with lowry market, and all signs point to the fact that he understands, you know, he was here, he had a chance to play out as a as a free agent and uh and choose where he would want to go the second half of his career. That's how

It's a lot of it has to do with his background.

And his upbringing, you know, in Finland, and and some of the similarities of living in Salt Lake and outside of Helsinki and all those kinds of things which are real life things, but his family likes being here. He knew what the deal was when he signed the extension. He knew that it was going to be some growing pains, and he bought into that. And that's what you need. You need a guy who who understands the landscape and is willing to be part of that with you. Yeah,

Smitty, great to see, my friend.

Welcome back to the real world where it's not a greas and sunny every day and you don't have little drinks with umbrellas and all you can eat food. So welcome back to Islamita with the rest of us.

It feels like that spence whenever I'm with you. That's that's the vision I get, the.

Great Richard Smith. Before we catch a break.

It's time now for our you went to golf PGA Tour updates, and that's brought to you by our good friends of course, that you went to golf for. They've got a bunch of deals right now prior to the season, which we'll get going here pretty quick.

Out to Ping.

The new G four to four zero driver delivers faster ball speeds along with Ping's game changing forgiveness. The G four to forty irons are designed for more distance and control it you went to golf. It's five sixty East, twenty one hundred south. Happy Friday to you. Congratulations, you made a weekend time, big old deep breath. You got out of bed every day right, probably didn't feel like

BYU will travel do UCEF three.

Their next four games are on the road, so they'll see UCF tomorrow and then they're back home against Arizona next week on the road against Cincinnati and West Virginia. BYU with their recent run of play after that lost to Utah. They've shot up to thirty eight in the net according to ken Pom, and they're five and four in conference fourteen and six overall.

That's good for tie with Baylor.

Right beyond Houston, who has not lost a conference game, Arizona eight and one, Iowa State, Texas Tech seven and two, Kansas six and three. Then it's BYU and Baylor at five and four. The Utah crag Smith will join us coming up at about fifteen minutes right now, hit the road to take on Oklahoma State after beating Cincinnati at home.

Then you've got to go steal a couple on the road.

Utah did get one on the road early at TCU, but three of their next four games are on the road, just like BYU. But their only home again Colorado, was very winnable, so at Oklahoma State winnable basketball game home against Colorado. Colorado might be the worst team in a conference. Oklahoma State two and three in conference play. Then they're at West Virginia and at Cincinnati. They've already beat Cincinnati. Cincinnati's two and seven in conference. West Virginia is good.

Now is that a true report?

Is that Miami planting that story to leverage the situation to get a better deal. Who knows, but Jimmy Butler and de Aaron Fox now dearon Fox is a really really talented point guard from Sacramento, and ultimately they've decided to move all along from him, according to reports. But nothing nothing new as of now when it comes to news, tangible news on the NBA trade deadline.

Of course, we are just.

About ten days away, nine ten days away from Super Bowl fifty nine. We had Terrell Burgess on earlier. Terrell's really really good at the media stuff. He was with Buffalo earlier this year. He was part of that great twenty nineteen Utah football team and he suffered an injury was released. He is now out back in California, trying to stay healthy to get potentially another shot to play

But we talked some youute.

Football, we talked some college football, we talked some Super Bowl, some pro football with Terrell Burgess earlier, and then we just did an hour in studio with Richard Smith, who is now back in town after a number of weeks on vacation. So I always appreciate Smitty stopping buy to do little Jazz. Jazz were in action last night against Minnesota.

If if you hold on to.

Everybody outside of Mitchell, what does that team look like? A lowry marketing Rudy Gobert front court. You know you had Boyan Bogdanovitch. You don't move on from him. You keep Royce O'Neil, you keep Mike Conley, even Joe. I guess Joe was heart of the time. But you know, whenever these players roll back into town, it's kind of interesting to do some of these exercises to see what it would have been like if you decided to do things a little bit differently. Does Quinn stay if they

Not sure what that would look like.

I thought somebody made some good points about Colin Sexton, because we ultimately talk about Colin oftentimes as a much older player, because he's not as young as sense of Ba or Kyante or Philipowski or call youer or whatever. He's twenty six years old and he's in the midst of yet another pretty efficient year. He has become a forty two percent three point shooter, and he does bring energy in a way that really no one else on the roster does.

Sorry, that's just kind of how it is, I will say.

And we talked about this a little bit earlier that Isaac Callier he's got some juice in them that I'm not sure that I thought that he did. When you look at his splits over his thirteen starts, he's about eleven points. He's about eight assists. You love the eight assists. His turnovers are problematic, just like Kantes are. But he has league guard tendancies and vision and feel that Kiante

Twenty seven minutes to play.

I had twenty three points on seven shots, which is ludicris and I played twenty seven minutes, So that's kind of a rotational change that I do think actually means something.

Go Beart eight Walkers Lunch.

Last night, the head to head matchup between Walker Kestler and Rudy Gobert was very one sided. Rudy kind of did last night, when Rudy does more often than not every single night. Was sixteen points, nine boards, four blocks, but he did add five assists. I don't even I wonder how many times Rudy Gobert had five assists in a jazz uniform. My guess is you could count on

That was a pretty one sided matchup.

For the media brigade out here that believes Walker Castler is in Rudy Gobert's.

Category, just stop it. Maybe one day he gets there.

But I know there are a lot of people that cover the jazz right actual things on paper for outlets to cover. The Jazz that made the point that Rudy and Walker were similar, Walker was far ahead of him in certain areas, like that's a silly thing to say. Gobert, four time Defensive Player of the Year. He is a Hall of Famer no matter how you swing it. So Jazz welcomed in some old friends last night. They've lost

Now is option number three. Porter.

If I had to ask you two guests right now, when the dust settles and they just decide to do whatever they want to do anyway, the name of the hockey club here locally will be on I.

Think if you ask me right now, I believe they are moving in the direction of the mammoths. The mammoth, sorry no plural. There I think mammoths would be better, to be honest, that's another conversation about how this whole process has gone. But I think they're inching in that direction. But like I said yesterday, the process, I don't like how they've done it. I don't like how they've been a little I think not transparent in what they're doing

Utah Women welcome in Arizona's and I to the Huntsman Center here in Salt Lake City. If you're looking for something to do, head on up and support the lady who are fifteen and five on the year Arizona fourteen and eight. That game is on TV on FS one, and of course you can hear the game on our radio station. Right after we say good night at about six o'clock tonight, it's time now for our PGA Tour Leaderboard, brought to you by friends that you went to golf

Eight under par. This is a jam pack leaderboard.

Sam Burns, Ricky Fowler, Scottie Scheffler, they find themselves at seven under par so right in the mix. Jason Day, Hedeki Matsuam at five under man. A lot of big time players out there today. Ludvig Aber by the way, after a rough day with Drew and Wyndham Clark at three over is third to last. So some of the better players also struggling. So should be a fun weekend at the AT and T Pebble Beach pro Am at Spyglass Golf Club in Pebble Beach. So there you go, Stepstrawks,

And then Miley?

Is it?

Do I have the broadcasters corrector yes? Tyson?

Miley Tyson ewing on the call and uh kicking tipping off, uh right about six thirty. But we'll we'll hand it over to him at six fifteen or so for a little pregame.

All right, there you go, there you go, so happy Friday weekend time. Little Utah women's basketball coming up. The men are back in action. We caught up with Craig Smith today, which we don't get to do all that often. But a little road trip to Oklahoma State count up tomorrow. That is a one o'clock tip time, and then BYU will play an hour later on the road at UCF. Then Utah the Utah Jazz play an hour after that. Wow, three o'clock start for the Jazz and the Magic coming

To that, that's the main question. But I'm with you on on the call your stuff. I think there is some promise there. I don't know if I've heard heard Deer Smithy mention it, but he plays with such a good pace right now, not all the time. There are certain units that he works well with, there are certain units that he doesn't. But he plays with a feel of the game in the half court that sometimes it's tough to replicate. It's tough for young NBA guards to have that at all. So I'm with you there. I

There's promise there.

I'm with you.

So the Jazz are back in action tomorrow. I'll tell you what.

Every time I fire up one of these Senior Bowl media members accounts, they're talking about Karane Reid and Junior Tafuna. So a couple of you shown out pretty well. Fun to visit with Terrell Burgess early on in the show, kind of revisit that twenty nineteen team. The Porter and I both think is among the most talented teams, maybe the most talented team that I've ever seen here in the state of Utah, just on paper. Not a lot of news right now in the world of college footballs you would expect.

There's recruiting lists.

Of course, there are the way too early projections with a twelve team CFP in the top twenty five that we kind of have some fun with on the program. We'll do a lot with the Super Bowl coming up next week, super Bowl fifty nine, which, by the way, we'll be on this radio station. We are the home of the biggest and best college and pro football games right here in the market. Kansas City is still a one point five point favorite, and the over under hasn't

A Monday edition of The Drive, we'll talks men daily assist with our guy Tom Haberstrow, some utes with our guy Josh Furlong. We'll talk about that Utah Hockey club.

And I got to ask Bill about the upcoming match up between the Utes and the Jayhawks. My man's gonna be calling a Jayhawks game. I'm not sure every thought he'd be doing that, So we'll get to that with Bill as well. Congrats to Nick Romando Is announced today the Knick's name will be in the Ring of Honor at America First Field with the other legends for RSL, and we will say good night special thank you today