FULL WED POD @SpenceChecketts on National Signing Day, Utes OC search, Jazz/UHC latest + more

Right, what's going on?

Drivetime on a Wednesday afternoon, about eleven minutes past the hour of two o'clock. Another pretty warm day for a December Wednesday afternoon. It's once again about forty five degrees in sunny here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. And as it is every single day, it's going to have you along for the ride. Spence check. It's behind the mic. That's portal Larsen behind the glass. It is a jam

It's still a big deal, but the transfer portal has changed.

Kind of the way this day lands juxtaposed to the way that we used to cover it back in the day. There's still so many ways to add talent and unfortunately, so many opportunities to lose talent as a result as a result of the transfer portal.

It's a little bit different.

Now, transfer portal twenty days, it's a little bit smaller than it used to be, as the powers that be in college football try to corral all of the issues surrounding this great sport that we all love. But we'll talk some signing day to day on the Utah side of things, on the BYU side of things, national implications as well. Obviously, the CFP rankings released last night while we were still on air, and it's always kind of funny.

On the show.

The thunder are really really good, but the Jazz did themselves no favors. Tied an NBA record for turnovers and a half with nineteen in the first half, and they finished with twenty nine turnovers. OKC scored forty five points offset turnovers, and it was not good. Continues to not be good, but probably by this but we'll do some jazz on the show ultimately. This time of year, right around Thanksgiving, thereabouts twenty games played by most teams. They'reabouts

Do they add to the group.

Do they think they're in a situation where they can actually compete for something pretty special? Fun game last night between the Warriors and the Nuggets. TNT had a double dip, And there's plenty of NBA action going on tonight on this Wednesday. One more day until the NFL is back a couple more days till college Football Championship weekend BYU basketball got thumped last night. Watch that game they took on Providence. They went east and they they got thumped.

But I mean, it.

Really wasn't even close all game long. So college basketball here and the first iteration of the net rankings are out. Providence won eighty three to sixty four BYU now, who has lost two of their last three. And that is a team that a lot of people thought could make some noise in the Big Twelve. Utah hoops will have a very interesting preseason challenge coming up on Saturday. Utah's preseason schedule is let's see it's soft.

I guess as hell.

I'll say that one loss to Mississippi State, They're gonna take on Saint Mary. Saint Mary's, of course, a very very good college basketball program, will be in Salt Lake City on Saturday nights. And then will you kind of wait for Utah to get into Big twelve play and hopefully Craig has some tricks up his sleeve. That team has picked to finish last in the Big Twelve. So a little bit of everything going on right now across

Maybe Ryles can shed some light on that.

Today Richard Smith live in studio for an entire hours made He's gonna roll by and we'll do some jazz, some NBA and kind of understand exactly what this team is and what they'll look like moving forward.

There.

Every time one of these NBA riders releases a piece on the trade deadline and the potential movement prior to the jazz are involved. Talked about this with Timmcman yesterday and we'll get Smithy's take on it today during the three o'clock hour NBA Daily Assists style was Zach Harper. Then Ali Mata stops by from the Utah Hockey Club friend of the show, Utah Hockey Club player will talk.

About the start of the season.

It's been up, it's been down, It's been a little inconsistent, which is what you would expect from a young team. And what's the plan for their week off? Like an entire week off here in the market. So Bill Riley, Richard Smith, Zach Harper, Ali Matami, Spence check its all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter Larson. On a signing day Wednesday, it does hit different than

Is that fair to say?

Yeah, I mean you're still adding players to the roster. You're still you know, adding talent to the pool that you have. But Spence, you you also don't know how many of these guys are going to actually ever be in your locker room, how many of them are going to decommit and then getting an NIL deal with you know, another Big twelve school and you don't see him again. That's just the reality of this new landscape of college football.

And look, it's always just exciting to players are always really popular when you've never seen them play. I always get a kick out of signing day when it comes to the coaches and the fan base. Then you kind of see them player, they take off and you're disappointed. But it is good content because of course Utah football, by football very topical.

So we'll bring in Ryles today.

To kind of get us up to data what's going on with Utah football program. But before Bill hops on courtesy of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, it's your tailgate headquarters. You get everything you need to make your tailgate epics. Standard carries everything for your tailgate needs. Stop by their location of thirty five hundred Southwest Temple or online at Standard Restaurant dot com. On a Wednesday, 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 Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.

So still a waiting word on the Utah football side of things for who the offensive coordinator will be. I'm starting to wonder if we're actually going to get anything official about coach Wit either coming back or retired. It sounds like you might just come back and never anything. I mean, he is under contract. It might just be a scenario where nothing needs to be said and he comes back as the head coach. I'm kind of leaning more and more in that direction as of right now.

But it is early signing day.

For Utah football, for BYU football, for all of college football. Transfer portal will officially open on the ninth. I mean, we've already heard a bunch of players who have put their name in the transfer portal, giving them some time to negotiate essentially deals now to try to get some nil money before they decide where they're going to play. And unfortunately that's driving everything because hey, we do Live in.

America Capitalism High five.

But last night during the five o'clock hour of the show, and it's always funny, Like can remember when I first started the show over five years ago, and it was twenty nineteen when Utah football was really good five o'clock hour of the program CFP release and back then, you know BCS. It's different in college football playoff now twelve twelve teams expanded and the only thing people wanted was to hear the rankings release live, so we would try

I think that's a lock. Now.

The one caveat here is if Clemson beats SMU, what does the committee do with what I perceived to be an SMU versus Alabama situation? And the more you kind of dig into it, the more and more I believe that they are going to put Bama in even if SMU loses, because the fact of the matter is if SMU loses to Clemson coming up in the ACC Championship game, and I feel like the ACC is the world of the p four conferences. I know a lot of people

This really is bad.

News for Ole Miss, South South Carolina and then Miami. But I don't think, like I've listened to a lot of people today say Miami has a case.

I don't think they do. I really don't.

You know, Miami with a couple of bad losses and it is how you're playing at the wrong time of year for Miami much in the same way as it was for bringing me on BYU. If they would have had those two losses earlier in the year and time to rebound and put together a streak of wins to end the year like they did to kind of start the year, we might have a different conversation about BYU

That would be awesome.

Alabama Notre Dame for a first round game, then Indiana Georgia to advance on to play the teams with a buye to start. So CFP rankings released, even though there's no local flavor anymore, still fun, still very topical because we have Conference Championship weekend coming up this weekend.

Risk of the Mackfield put Montgomery three receivers on the right hand side, Utah showing some pressure. Now they back away from now they bring a safety up, four man rush, risk looking surveying, throwing down the field and it's intercepted at the forty, at the fifty, at the forty, at the thirty, a convoy.

To the end zone and a touchdown. It's a buy a bond with a pick six and his final game as a US.

Wow, Well it's U not eleven o'clock circa four or five months ago.

It is two thirty on a Wednesday afternoon.

Hopefully we brought a little nostalgia to the listeners today as the voice himself, the Voice of the Youths, Bill Riley, stops by on a Wednesday afternoon.

Ryle's happy Wednesday. How you doing.

Spend some good things? Going good on a Wednesday. I don't know what's gone faster. The fact that I've been off the air, not doing my show for four or five months.

Or the football season.

It feels like the football season went by really glad. I know it wasn't the season anybody wanted. I get that part of it, but it just felt like it was like the Southern Utah or the Baylor game just the other day.

I can't believe the season's over.

Yeah, I mean I talk about it all the time.

All we do when football is gone is complain and wait for it to come back, and then we're like miserable when it's here and then it's gone. It's like you need to enjoy it even when the season isn't what you hoped it would be, because it does come and go really quickly.

Yeah.

I've always said, it's the season we wait longest for and it goes by the fastest. Nobody ever said, man, that NBA season just flew by. Nobody ever said, oh, that NHL or that baseball season flew by. But we always talk about football season like it was a blink of.

An eye, no doubt, no doubt.

So Ryle's on a Wednesday afternoon, I have to ask you Early Signing Day hot or not?

I would say not.

I feel like the transfer portal has overtaken National Signing Day?

Does that make sense?

In the old days, we were all about the signing day and press conferences and who. I just feel like everybody is like, Okay, that's great, but most of these kids aren't even going to play for a couple of years, if or even with our program in a few years. The transfer portal opens next week.

Who can we go out and get Yeah? No, I'm with you there.

I wonder how many of our listeners have any sort of context or frame or reference as to why I'm posing the question that way, But we don't need to dig into it any further.

I will ask.

You it spent yeah, a different time.

It was a different time, for sure, in a lot of different ways bill a different time. But I'll ask you, I'm not going I mean, I've got the list in front of you. We're doing kind of just live tracking here instead of going down the list, I'll just ask you, is there any buzz about any of these young players that Utah has locked in that you're hearing about up on the Hill.

No, I mean it's kind of quiet today to be really fair. Again, I just think even schools and universities they're publicizing it, but it's just not quite what it was. It's very interesting to me that the quarterback they landed, not the kid from southern California, but the Texas State commit flipped just a couple of days ago.

You know, does that have anything to.

Do with a potential offensive coordinator flip? And then the Thatcher kid, the linebacker, who I think is going to be a really really good kid too. I like him a lot as well. But it's it's just so hard today. It used to be home which one of these guys is going to play next year? You know, what are they going to be in a couple of years, And now it's just kind of like, Okay, I hope they stick around to develop because college football's become such a

Now?

Yeah?

Yeah, well okay, So let's just move on from it then, because there's really nothing to dig into. And as I tell our listeners, we'll continue to update John the breaking news that comes down if any of us rolls our way, but we do. We are at a spot now we're waiting to hear who the play caller is going to be next year as far as the OC. The offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, who was the name that was kind of floated out, ends up at Oklahoma after doing a really good job on the polue.

So I'll just ask you any buzz you're.

Hearing anything about any names, any idea when we may hear an announcement.

I think, well, I think it's the priority right now. I mean I think the longer this goes, it feels more and more to me like Kyle Whittingham's coming back.

I don't know, anything.

I honestly, people have I've been bombarded all day long with text messages for the last four or five days. Kyle's been very hush about it. He told me over the weekend when we're in Orlander, he goes, hey, I'll let you know if something changes. I'm like, great, thanks. I haven't heard anything from him, so so I think if we're going to play the car you know, it's

Stuff that you're reading.

I do know that this name, the mac Leftwich name from Texas State is somebody I even heard a week or two ago when our Buckle's name was starting to come up too. He runs a really good offense. It's they balanced offense. They throw it quite a bit, but they run it as well at Texas State.

He's one of.

Those young and up and coming former college quarterbacks. Really done some good things, one of those hot young names. And people say Texas State. Well, Texas State's a pretty good program, and he's had a lot of experience and he's recruited Texas So I think that's a name to keep an eye on. And then there's some other stuff out there as well. I mean there's a guy at Tulane to people like a lot. They've mentioned the ULV coach, although he might have plans to go bigger or try

So you I want to follow up.

You touched on coach Wit, But I want to follow up because of course, as you know, I mean, if I'm getting text Ryle's, I can't imagine what your phone is sounding like and looking like with everybody really wanting to know what's going to happen. And I started the show off today surmising that because there is no news, I do believe that means he's coming back. And I suppose the exception would be if he hasn't decided. But that seems pretty anti Kyle to me. He's not a

Yeah, just because he's talked so much Spence about doing what's best for the program, because it's it's his program. He's done. He's sunk twenty years as head coach in thirty years of his life at the University of Utah, he is more synonymous with this football program than probably any player that played for him over the last twenty years. And he's talked in the last couple of weeks about whatever his decision is, he was going to do the

I don't know.

I don't think that's the case. But you know, it's not as if you just started thinking about it Friday after the game. It's probably been something he's been mulling over for a little while. So the fact that we're sitting here on Wednesday and we've really heard no news, I'm kind of with you. I don't know this again, no news you know, officially to Bill Riley. But my inkling would be because he's talked about doing what's right

Yeah, I'm with you on that, all right.

There was a rumor yesterday that Noah Flafida was hitting the transfer portal.

That has been dispelled.

Noah's father told the ESPN that he's staying at Arizona. I only bring it up, Bill, because yesterday I was just kind of talking aloud about the possibility of you tie hitting the transfer portal to find a quarterback. You watched every game up close, You called all these games up close. Do you feel like the answer under center is in the room or in the transfer portal?

I think you probably have to go find somebody. Spence, I do.

I think I like some of the stuff I saw from Brandon Rose.

I do.

And Brandon's got a couple of years left of eligibility. But you know, I to me, and it's really going to be up to the new offensive coordinator, whoever that happens to be, to evaluate with his room.

Look.

But I think the head coach knows they have to have somebody, you know. I think Isaac Wilson could still be a terrific quarterback. But Isaac Wilson was thrown into a tough situation as a true freshman, and I think it takes a little.

Time to marinate.

Hey, look at Dylan Ryola Spence who's at Nebraska. He was supposed to be the second coming of Patrick Mahomes this year and he's just been okay. He's had a lot of downs and ups. I just think it's tough at the power forward level as a true freshman without any game experience to come in and be successful. So I still think I'm still a guy that thinks Isaac Wilson could be a big quarterback. But I think redshirting for a year and maybe sitting back and looking and watching would be very beneficial.

I think that was the plan.

I think the plan all along was sit and learn from Cam Rising for a year, but obviously that went sideways. So to me, I think you're probably going to shop the portal and try and find somebody.

So as of now, I believe, at least from what I understand today, and certainly pieces of news I could have missed. But is it only Jalen Glover who said the transfer portal from the utes or anybody else they've lost.

I feel like the.

Only name I've heard of note has been Jalen and he left prior to the end of the season.

Yeah, I think I saw a couple of notes that some not frontline guys, some guys that were maybe reserve players. Maybe it hit the portal, but yeah, you're right, there's been nobody of note that has hit the portal. In fact, you've seen some of the guys on social media, the Spencer Fanos and the cam Calhouns and the smith Snowdens, some of these really good, young, talented cornerstone pieces kind of reaffirmed they're coming back. In twenty five, Logan Fano

Well, that's excellent news, and obviously there's plenty of time. The portal officially opens on the ninth. So here's how I'll pose the question to you, Bill, what gives you the most confidence that this year was an anomaly and a moment in time as opposed to the new normal for Utah.

Football because we haven't seen dips like this. It was back to back. I mean a year ago. You know, I teach the class up at the U and I had one of the kids in my class the other day make a presentation on Utah football and what it was, and he brought up an interesting stat. Had Utah football's offense simply averaged twenty four points a game this year,

It just hasn't been like this.

I think injuries and attrition and and a little bit of bad luck haved befallen this team. The defense was still outstanding. They were in every game in the fourth quarter, with the exception of I think the Colorado game where they were double digits down there. But besides that, they were in every game. Just some pretty average quarterback play. This year, Spence and Utah would have been I'm not

Leads me to Cameron.

Of course, when Coach Witt was asked about Cam potentially coming back for year number eight, which is just it's so crazy to think about the potential, but that's the deal now, Kyle said it's up to him. I wonder what Kyle would do if Cam called him and said, hey, I got to talk to you and rolled into the coach's office and said I've thought about it. There's some Nile money out there, and I've decided to come back

Itself That I don't know, because I don't.

It's hard to you know, after back to back seasons, we're Cam. I mean, Cam's been here five years and he has been hurt season ending injuries in three of those five years. We all forget the COVID year where he hurt his shoulder in that USC first second game of the year, and then of course you had the end of the Rose Bowl, and then he missed the entire season and then this year too. That's a lot of track record of injury to bring back. I'm not

You know the other thing, Bill and I don't know how much meat is on this bone, but I did hear several people surmise last year that the fact that Cameron was coming back potentially may have scared some quarterback prospects to play, you know, wanting to come play here because they simply didn't want to be as backup.

Those are just rumors.

I have no idea, But I think the other side of it is, if Utah wants to be aggressive in the transfer portal to go get one of these topshell off qbs to be here for a year or two, it might just be better for both parties to say, hey, thanks for the memories, but you walk that way, I'll walk this way and we part in love type thing.

I mean, that's just kind of what my gut tells me.

Well, yeah, I mean, if you're if you're serious about shopping in the portal for a bit, nobody that's no Noah fa Fido or John Mattier is coming here that they're coming here to be the guy that that's what they're coming here to be. They're coming here to be the starting quarterback and they've got a chance to you know, again, everybody, I understand you've got to win the job in fall camp blah blah blah. But but it's the unwitten wink wink. As long as you show up and play hard, you're

Yeah, the only time will tell.

Okay, one more football thing, then I want to do a little basketball with you. We got Saint Mary's on Saturday, which should be an interesting test for Craig. And look, I honestly don't know if there's anything to hear, but I do know that BYU year one of the Big twelve talked a lot about the lessons they learned in

Is there any meat on that bone?

I think there's small lessons Spence, and I think it's more specific to opponents or venues or styles of play. But to be fair, I don't I don't think that the Big I think the Big twelve was very competitive, but I don't think it was any better a league, or certainly at the top, than what Utah saw for thirteen years in the Pac twelve. I don't think there was a roster adjustment or a talent level. I don't think there was a disparity in talent between the two

You saw both teams up close. Who do you like?

Iowa State Arizona State coming up Saturday in Arlington.

I think I like Arizona State. It kind of feels like a team of destiny this year. It kind of feels like Kenny Dillingham has found something there.

I like Levit a lot.

That being said, I did say this, I think Iowa State is the most balanced team Utah played this year, may have been the best team on both sides of the ball. But I think Arizona State's kind of playing with the purpose and they've got that proverbial you know, that that that the horseshoe up their rear end just a little bit, getting some breaks and playing hard. And I like Kenny Dillingham too, so I think it's gonna

A issue, all right.

Last thing that I'll set you loose Saint Mary's roles into town Saturday night. Should be a fun preseason test for Craig's team. They're six and one through seven. The one l is to Mississippi State. I've been intentionally watching a lot of Big twelve basketball, and I know Craig, and I love this about Craig's attitude. He wants to challenge, Well, he's going to get the challenge, because, my goodness, it is deep, and even even the teams that aren'tranked in

I've been saying this for a while.

This is a this is a good team.

I think they're gonna outplay their preseason expectations by what. I don't know yet, but they're six and one right now.

Spence. They lost.

Their one loss was a neutral court loss in Mississippi to Mississippi State. But I do maintain have lost and Lovering played that game, they would not have lost that game. They got beat seventy eight to seventy three. In that game, they were playing four guards and they had they were small ball all day long in a bunch of foul trouble. I think they're seven to zh If they have that now, they're gonna need Lovering and a little bit of Zach Keller.

They're gonna need their size.

And their big boy bridges on Saturday because Saint Mary's is tough. They're eight and one. Their only loss was to ASU and a close one. They leave the nation and offensive rebounding. NBA fans out there will be interested. The great sharonas Marshall Owe. His son Augustus is the stud for this Saint Mary's team. But they're balanced and it's what Randy Bennett always does.

Spence.

He's got a bunch of big bodies that will just bang in the front court and got good guard plays. So this will be the best non conference game for Utah by far, and the best game of the Huntsman Center till Big Twelve's play begins in Utah's got great depth and they can really shoot it too. They've got five guys who can shoot it, a couple of guys coming off the bench.

But to me, the one thing if they can keep.

Saint Mary's off the Saint Mary's has twice as many offensive rebounds as their opponents this year. They lead the nation in offensive rebounding. You can keep them a little bit off the offensive glass. I think they could beat Saint Mary's. I think it'll be a great game though.

All right, my guy, I appreciate the time on a Wednesday, still waiting for you to roll in the studio and hang out with us at some point, so let's do that soon.

Okay, sounds good, Spence, thanks all right.

The Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley, brought to you today by Big O' Tires, is their extended Black Friday.

It ends on December the eighth.

You're bringing Zach Harper today little NBA Daily Assist style Ali Matza, who just was called up to represent Finland from the Utah Hockey Club.

We'll stop by a little.

Bit later on as well. Start things off with the Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley. It is early signing Day, a day that does not hit near the way it used to as a result of the transfer portal, because so many of these kids who have signed the play for these local teams may never even play here because they could get an offer to go elsewhere. A transfer portal officially opens up on December the ninth, but a

How are you? Let's turn his mic on? No, there we go. It probably works better for your ratings.

Well, I mean, as I often say, my Christmas wish as a radio host is the ability to control microphones in the studio.

But that's probably too much to How are you. How are you, buddy?

We're doing great. Yeah, we're doing just a beautiful day outside. And we had a great Thanksgiving weekend last week, as as I know you did back east and with your family and uh, you know, it's all good.

Good to be back east.

And for you, you spent the holiday vacationing in the happiest place on earth.

Was this was big time spent. We were down.

We were down to Disneyland for four glorious days. And I'll tell you what, when you're in the middle of Disneyland and I did not know this. This is the first time that Linda and I've ever done this with some friends. But they when you're there, you if you don't know anything else that's going on in the world, you would make the assumption. Well, I guess in the United States, they don't have the traditional family get together around the table at home now anymore. Everybody just goes

Yeah, and it was.

But the weather was good and we had a fun time. It was a different experience for us. And yeah, yeah, we had a lot of fun. It was great.

So we'll get to the Jazz in a moment, because my goodness.

But I wanted to ask you this today, and you know, I want to be very clear here. I don't know what coach Wit is going to do. I just feel like, because there has been no official announcement, it leads me to believe he's coming back. I mean, right now, it's early signing day. They're so busy with recruiting and transfer portal and such. I think if he was going to

Yeah, when you have a year like the youths had this year, I think the most important thing for them is to be able to step back and take a deep breath and and get a little perspective.

On on what happened.

You know, when you were in the middle of that that tornado that they were in, and and that downhill slide in the in October November. Uh, you know, a lot of things come at you and and you have a lot of different thoughts about any time anything goes wrong,

Yeah, And I'm with you there. And Kyle also doesn't strike me as a wishy, washy guy. I mean, He seems to be a pretty pragmatic person, where like, if he knew he was going to leave, I think he just would have told everybody and then moved on right to whatever's next. But you do have some context with college coaches that you know over the years that have just elected to not deal with the new reality of college athletics. And we've seen examples in college football. Nick

It's like, yeah, you know what, I don't think I want to deal with this.

So while I do believe Kyle's coming back, part of me wouldn't blame him if he's like, you know what, this is a new game. It's not the game that I signed up to coach. It's not the business that I signed up to lead. Because as a college football coach, you're a CEO. You're not just a coach. There are so many layers, and yes, now a lot of them have general managers and guys that can help him out

Where some of them just don't want to deal with it.

Yeah, well that happened, I know, last week with Mac Brown in North Carolina, a longtime coach and won a

In terms of his career plans.

Because he just thought, you know, he saw this, all this stuff coming and said, I don't want to I don't want to deal with this, and especially at a place like Weaver State, which is a mid major, which you know is gonna have trouble competing with nil kinds of stuff, you know, with with the biggest programs and and that kind of thing. So I'm surprised that that

Signing with you.

Utah, Yeah, thanks a lot, Okay, okay, and then a month from now he says, oh, I changed my mind. I'm going to USC instead, you know, like they can do that, and so it really doesn't matter.

And so that's the hard part I would think the coaches.

Are dealing with is is how do we get somebody how do we then hold on to them because there's really not a contractual type situation at this time in college at college athletics where you can get a commitment and then have it be binding and have to have someone have to stay like you do in the professional ranks, where you signed contracts.

Yeah.

And you know, we had a guest on yesterday named Matt Brown who writes a college football newsletter called Extra Points, and Matt is a very bright guy who essentially creates content to help people understand the new business of college football, like college football issues off the field, and right now, it's it's it's pretty crazy that essentially the nil contracts or whatever you want to call them, are created by legal teams from member institutions. There's no uniformity, there's no

Well, I think that.

I don't think the fans are going to have a problem with it as long as your your team gets the guy that they want. I mean, it's but you know what's interesting is I saw I think a couple weeks ago, uh, one of the ESPN broadcasters had done a recent game with Williams and Amherst uh Division three football programs back in Massachusetts the you and I are familiar with, and Uh, they don't have scholarships, they don't have all this kind of you know, n I L

I can't go to b y U games.

But you know, these guys are just you know, they're they're getting paid like money, and they're getting paid more than I work at my job, and their eighteen year old kids playing basketball or playing wide receiver on the football team, whatever it is. And I don't know how much interest I have in that, especially if they keep

All right, let's move over to some NBA stuff, and I have a big picture NBA topic before we get into some jazz stuff. And I'm really interested to get take because the highest rated television NBA Finals nineteen ninety eight.

You were there, I was there, Jazz Bowls.

At its peak, it was essentially thirty five point eight million viewers that Sunday night game, which is a twenty two point three rating, So thirty five point eight nine million viewers is a massive, massive number. The highest rated NBA Finals game from last year was Game four Celtics MAVs nine excuse me, eleven point four to three million viewers.

Is it basketball or football?

And while football was the answer then continues to be the answer. Now the gap is huge. The other night one point nine mil for the TNT, that was the biggest number TNT pulled the other night, one point nine mil. That's down seven percent year over year. Why do you think people are tuning out NBA basketball games? Why do you think the ratings are dipping so hard?

Well, I think there's a couple of reasons spents.

Right on the surface, One is that there are so many other options now, and and the generation now that's younger than we are been brought up with accessibility to anything they want any time they want online uh and streaming services and so uh. Getting people to focus in on one thing, you know, like an NBA game, Even if you're a basketball fan, you have so many other

Did they force you to do things?

We talked about this and one of our earlier segments as if you're a good defensive team, you want to try and be the protagonists. In other words, you wanted to try and dictate to the offense what they're doing. That's what oka See did last night to the Jazz, which resulted in the Jazz having twenty nine turnovers, which resulted in forty five points off turnovers for okay See.

Yeah, the Warriors calvs.

Era, the Lebron versus Steph era, the ratings were pretty healthy, you know, they approached seventeen eighteen, nineteen mil nothing has touched ninety eight when Jordan was in his last year in John and Carl, and they were so compelling. And I hate to be the old guy that yells into the microphone, but there was just something about that era

It's like.

I'm gonna take the dog for a walk, you know, like there's just something about it that is not as compelling as it was when I was growing up in the nineties.

Well, and I think Spencer again to date ourselves, right, you're talking about games are almost thirty years ago, so you're talking about a different generation, and you're talking about all the things that happened between then and now relative to access of information through the Internet and laptops and your phone and all those kinds of things. It's interesting that nowadays, what does the NBA do and what have they done.

For a while?

They market the star players and they hope that you will tune in on a Tuesday night to see Kevin Durant, you know, go up against Lebron James. Oh oh, they're both out tonight. Oh that's right, they're not playing, you know, for whatever the reasons. And so you know, there goes your hook. If you're the NBA. It's it's just that there are a lot of games there. There's a lot of content, and there's a lot of that's accessible to

It's just it's just a different era.

And and look, another part of that equation for me, when you're talking about peeling back the layers, is that when you look at the you look at the bench of any team in the NBA now, and they've got more guys in pullovers than they have in uniforms. Right, so they've got seventeen coaches and analytics guys and whoever, whoever. Those guys aren't doing whatever it is they're doing, and the end product on the floor is not any better.

One more thing, we'll catch a break. We'll do our second segment pretty jazz centric. Do you think this NBA Cup idea? And I want to be clear, like I applaud the effort. I applaud and I respect trying to do something different, I really do. I think the NBA does that as well as any league. The NFL doesn't have to adjust anything right there top of the mountain. Major League Baseball might bring a golden bat to the equation.

Well, I think one of the things is that they're trying spence. It's going to take a little while for people to hook on to it, but it's the whole Cup thing to try and get interest in November and juster in the early months of the season when when you're struggling to get get attention from from fans and and especially in the TV viewing and uh, and what what's part of the approach you're taking now is what

The product is still the same.

You know, the the eight teams, Uh, they're they're gonna go into the quarterfinals next week of the Cup. You know, all four teams in the West are different than they were last year, so that those fans get pulled into it a little bit, you know, and and uh, and then they have the whole Vegas vibe with it at the end, you know, and where they'll be playing the Semis and the final four, so to speak, in in Vegas in a few weeks, you know, will hold I I don't know, it's it's it's better than that than

All right?

Coming up next with you a jazz centric UH segment with Smittie. I want to get his take on a conversation that we've had all week about the potentially most to an exciting prospect of the six young players, first and second year players. We'll see if he agrees with a take that was handed out on the show this week. Smitty Today brought to you by Advanced Window Products, the number one rated window company in Utah.

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Rush and from the factory to your front door in eight weeks or less.

At eighth one eight five zero ninety one hundred.

Richard Smith live studio forty years with the Utah Jazz Front Office. He's gonna bring in Howard Beck today. We made a little bit of a pivot. Zach Harper is busy, one of my favorite riders, the hippist NBA rider out there, Howard.

Beck from the Ringer.

And then Ali Mata, who is a player for the Utah Hockey Club, just was called up to represent his homeland of Finland. He'll be playing some hockey for Finland. So interviewed Dolli before really nice kids, stay tuned hockey fans. That comes your way in about an hour from right now. Oh, smitty,

Well, you know, it was interesting with Paul when we when the Jazz drafted him, he was we got him in the middle of the I think it's the number forty seven pick, in the middle of the second round. And he came in that summer league, he did okay, you know what was anything special, came into training camp, he was you know, really uh, you know, in all honesty in terms of our group, was just another guy there. You know, is he gonna is he gonna make the cut?

You go, well, you know, he seems to.

Work hard, and he kind of, uh he kind of does this a little bit, and you know, does that. And then he said, he said, but you know, probably maybe his best attribute at the moment is, uh, I don't even know what his voice sounds like, because I heard him say one thing, and and and so so Jerry goes and only the way Jerry could so so that's pretty good, you know. And so he was saying, you know, well let's keep him because we don't have to listen to him complain or anything, you know, Okay, yeah,

Yeah, more of a role player for you guys early on, and then after Booze bounced and Darren was traded. He was kind of a main cog with those Al Jefferson years, you know, seventeen points eight boards in twenty ten, played all eighty two three of his first four years for you guys, but didn't start mini games up until kind of the second iteration.

But he reinvented himself after he left.

Here were you surprised to watch him shoot like thirty eight percent from three and kind of expand his horizon.

He left the jazz.

Yes, yeah, I mean, but that's you know, to his credit. You know, that was something that that the coaches talked to him about and and and about being able to get be a little more versatile with his offense and be able to step out.

And he was willing to do it.

And he had enough of a touch, you know, shooting wise and the free throw line that he could extend it out a little bit. And again it wasn't a high volume, but it was you know, him taking smart shots. And most of the time he was the kind of player who would who would just go with the flow of what was happening in the game. In otherwids, he

Get him more opportunities.

So, look, fifty years of jazz hoops has bread a lot of simple, simply very loyal jazz fans. Right Like we were talking about this through the Utah Hockey Club prism, the novelty appears to have worn off, and the past couple of home games there's it's not as full as it was opening night when I was there first couple of games. And some of it's gonna depend depend on opponent,

So what do you make of? And look, the problem is, and you and I both know this.

Of course this is by design, but we can't turn on a mic and say, hey, they're trying to lose.

We'll talk to you tomorrow. We have to kind of unpack it a little bit.

It is a tough ask of a community to show up night in and night out and road games. Turn on your television. Yes we're a cold weather city. You want something to do at night, you turn out a jazz game, go to a jazz game. I get all that, but there has to be some sort of pushback from a lot of fans who are watching this product night in and night out and say, what are we doing here?

You know what I mean?

Yeah? Sure, well I think what's happened. I think the first couple of years here of the U of the Ryan Smith and his group ownership group, uh, taking control of the team from the Miller family.

Uh, they've made a lot of changes.

Obviously, if they've made changes all the way across the board, you know, with the the team itself, with the coaching staff, the front office, the building, the uniforms. I mean, they've changed everything from A to Z that they can think of, trying to get it younger, trying to get it hipper, trying to get it more mod you know, whatever, whatever

Getting any better. They've been worse.

They've invested a lot while they've invested a lot in in young guys, and uh, that's that's the route they've chosen to go for whatever their Their rationale is they believe they can build that up. They've got to hit on the right draft picks. You know, the you know, we we just played a team last night, and okay, see they're showing how you can do it if you hit the right guys, uh and the add guys in,

You know.

The the you know, uh.

Several of the top five, six, seven teams in the NBA right now, if you include okay, see, if you include Houston as a young team, if you include the Orlando Magic, all these teams were bottom feeders spence three, four, five years ago and they've all built up by drafting smartly and and and and putting together a roster that makes sense. The Jazz are trying to do that. They've got a bunch of draft picks they're trying to play.

Uh.

The the the.

Defensive end is very worrisome to me because the defensive they have not gotten any better from last year to this year. Statistically, they're in the same they're bottom five in all these different categories. And you watch them last night, they play defense. The defense is very lazy. And I'll give you two examples from last night that really struck out of me. The last play of the first half, they come down, Okay, see as the ball they're walking it up the floor to get the last shot with

And that's why the Jazz is.

Sitting, you know, with the third worst record in the league at four and seventeen, and with a lot of road games coming up here in December.

So Cody Williams, who's the highest pick they made this last draft and number ten out of Colorado, get some time early on.

It didn't look great.

It looked well, I'll be honest, it looked bad. He badly needs to get stronger. He's only nineteen years old. He will fill out, he will put on weight. Time will tell what.

He will be. I'm not ready to annoint or dismiss at all.

Taylor goes down will Alects to start Cody, and you're watching, You're like, dude, this is not it's not working. So they send him down to the G League to develop. Now that's what the G League is for so I get it. And to your point, all of these guys, maybe outside of marketing and the Vets could utilize some G league minutes. We'll get to Walker in a minute, who,

Well, that's again, that's that's what the game plan that they have for for for these guys that you know, they're they're bringing him in and they're throwing them to the wolves and they they're saying, hey, go figure it out. And uh, you know, with the Williams kid, I don't know. I don't know what he's gonna end up being. Maybe he's gonna be, you know, a top level player. Uh you know that obviously that that stuff remains to be seen.

I don't know. He's uh and that's the way he plays.

Maybe the Jazz took him thinking, oh, we can develop him to be some some form of his brother. Who's we're talking about Jalen Williams who plays for Oka See who's developed quickly in the NBA as a very good main guy on a team, on a winning team, who makes winning plays.

But you haven't seen that from Cody Williams.

Chante George has played somewhat okay in spurts for the Jazz. Again, for me, it seems like they're trying to put a round peg in a square hole with him. I don't think he's a point guard. They seem like they're trying to make him one, or they believe he can be one. I think he can be more more of a small scoring two ala Jordan Clarkson, And then you can cheat with him in games and in little spurts by putting him at one when you have other matchups that you

Well, and there is also a fine line between young players learning tough lessons and learning bad habits and suddenly this is who you are because I can remember, you know, when Kevin O'Connor, when Booze left for Chicago trade exception Minnesota bringing Al Jefferson and that's when Paul Millsap went

Well, one of the dangers is that you get used to it, and there is there's not a lot of accountability for what what the end result is. In other words, you know, I make mistakes, I throw the ball out of bounds, I have five turnovers. I have three of them, or or what we would term unforced turnovers. They were

At plan B or Plan C or whatever.

It's going to be because we didn't make the right decision in this regard, if that's if that's what it comes to, but making the same mistake over and over again and not correcting it and not being held accountable for it in some regard, it's just, uh, it's tough to watch. It's tough to understand how a team gets in these positions. But look s MESSI. The Jazz aren't the only team. There are a lot of teams that deal with this from year to year, and a lot

I don't know.

Maybe it can get worse, you know, obviously it certainly can get better, and it needs to get better. But how how long that takes to happen and how you go about doing it is going to be interesting. Last night, the second quarter, the Jazz come out of the of their their their time out and their their second uh. Their starting line up for the beginning of the second quarter, mkaylik U Banks, Sensible, Jusang Collier.

Stop it.

That's that's the starting five in the NBA game last night. That's supposed to be the starting five for the Stars G League team on Saturday night. I mean, come on, are you kidding me? And then I didn't understand this part. And again maybe they were working on something. Sometimes coaches do this near the end of games that are out of hand. I understand if that was the mindset. I think they were playing a zone for a couple a couple of possessions. Maybe that's what they were kind of

Maybe they were.

They were trying to do the thing with the with the zone defense or trying to see how these I don't know, but that's all part of it.

But it's hard.

It's hard to explain to fans who are paying money that, you know, we're just we're just practicing with this stuff now and we're asking you to pay full price, you know, to uh to watch that live. That's that's a tough sell that they've gotten away with so far, and it's going to be interesting to see how long it goes on for before there's some you know, kind of pushback from fans of saying, hey, when when are we getting better? When when is this going to happen? You know, what

Will end on a positive note, because there's not a lot of positive things to talk about with this current iteration of the Jazz. But I will say Walker has been very good in the fifteen games he's played. He's at eleven points, eleven boards, nearly three block shots. His rim protection is elite. The opponent field goal percentage against him at the rim is not good, which is good.

For the Jazz.

I want to see that free throw percentage job fifty eight percent from the free throw line, but seventy four percent.

From the floor.

And just looking at him watching him play, he looks bigger, he looks stronger, and I think I would say he's been the main bright spot for me through fifteen games. I mean, one of the debates we keep having is who's going to be here when the Jazz are actually legitimately good and a serious team, serious about winning. Walker seems to have maybe played himself into that conversation throughout the first portion of the season.

What have you seen from Walker Kesseler, and I would agree with you.

And this is his third year, right, so at the beginning of his third year, he looks like he's developing into a comfort level where he understands what he can do and what they want him to do and not trying to do too much. Right, you know, he's averaging twenty nine minutes a game, averaging eleven points, ten rebounds, almost three blocks. If you were to say, hey, we would take that, We would take that for the next seven, eight, ten years and put that in our lineup and have our big man do that.

Okay, we'll lock that in. Okay. Now we lock in.

We've locked market in in Okay for on a long term deal. So now we got two of those guys that we like that we're comfortable that they're they're gonna be those guys and those positions. Now we're trying to find out, you know, what the other ones are and where they're coming from.

But I like what he's done.

I like the fact that the game looks like it's slowed down a little bit for him, that he feels comfortable being on the spots that he's in, and he's he's delivering, and he seems to me just to be playing a little more comfortably out there, which is what you want to see. And that's all part of the

It's beeny great to see him.

My friend, did you have a favorite ride in Disneyland?

Hey, we went on.

We went on It's a small world that can't be your favorites, and we broke the ride. We were sitting there for fifteen minutes because they couldn't figure and we're going, wait a minute. All these other rides are spinning and jumping and throwing you in the air and doing all this stuff.

And we're on the slowest ride that you can be h and.

The right brakes and we're in limbo for for fifteen minutes. But you know, look, I spend my days of going through those things where they're throwing you around and jumping up and down.

And you're swinging you around or whatever.

I used to enjoy those, but I'm I'm like the fair weather fan going to the game right now, I can't do those anymore. I did them, but I realized, Okay, that's exactly right.

Yes, it's as small as as a seasoned Disney vet. It's a small world. Is the ride you take when you need a nap between all the other one. Thank you very much. Yes, there we go. Hey, great to see you. Okay, I've been great. Richard spent forty years with the Jazz front office. Howard Beck's gonna roll by from the Ringer. Got to tell you about my friends at Prize It's the best place to get real money

Things like that. It's very very easy.

You've got Ali Mata on the show today from the Utah Hockey Club. Utah Hockey Club is off all week long, back in action coming up on Saturday. Ali's been called up to play for Finland, his home country, so exciting news for him. Bill Riley joined us earlier Richard Smith forty years with the Jazz front office, but time now to bring in Yes, like it or not, he is the hippus NBA rider out there. Always good to chat with Howard Beck on a Wednesday. Howard, Happy Wednesday, sir?

How you.

Bence?

How are you?

I'm uh, I still protest. I'm not that hip, but I will put on the best possible version of that for your audience that I can.

Howard, We've been over it all. The NBA writers are nerds. It's not like that big of a compliment. I mean, you know, ultimately, you know you don't have a lot of challengers on the list, you know what I mean.

It's a it's a low bar. And you did bring me into the war on drugs, which I appreciate.

Yeah, I need you like that. What does Thanksgiving look like for Howard Beck?

I gotta know, Well, we uh have a standing tradition of going to the Thanksgiving Day parade, even though for most of my life I was sort of anti parade. Parades are a little silly frankly, especially on TV, but being there in person, it's different, Like it is kind of magical and you're you're out there with a lot of other you know, people, like literally thousands of other people.

Yeah it was, it was.

I was actually back in your neck of the woods back in Fairfield County. Spent a little time in Manhattan, but good to be back on the ground. And you know, we're not going to do a lot of jazz because there's just not a lot to talk about with the Utah Jazz right now. But I'm just going to ask you generally speaking, you know, watching them last and look, okse is awesome.

They're really good.

But the Jazz are twenty sixth in offense, they're thirtieth in defense.

They're four and seventeen.

And there's a fine line between teaching young players lessons via competition against the varsity and then allowing losing to seep in as part of your identity.

What's the danger because.

They, you know, they said at the start of the season, justin Xantag Danny Ings, they said player development were playing the young kids, and they're playing the young kids, they're getting their heads kicked in. What's what sort of danger is there with this approach as far as you know, wanting to make sure that these young some of them very talented players, don't become completely accustomed to getting their heads kicked in every night.

That's funny because I've thought about this a lot, and I've had conversations with people occasionally about this, and it is something I kind of want to dig deeper into at some point, just the psychological side of this and whether teams, how much they grapple with this. I mean, look at the Wizards right now, They're two and seventeen. They've lost fifteen games in a row. None of it

So the G League is designed for development, and I understand that. And look, I think there are a lot of players on the Jazz roster the kid utilize some minutes in the G League, but the highest draft pick they made last year was Cody Williams at ten, and you know, after Taylor Hendrix broke his leg, will elected to start Cody and it just looked horrible.

There was really just.

Nothing there at all on either side, offense or defense. And look, there are players that have spent time in the G League. There's the Rudy Goberts, the Pascal Siakams, the Danny Greens, the Jonathan kaming Is. So I'm not saying that this should overly concern Jazz fans, but as a top ten pick, you just hope that he shows a little bit more.

Eddie's nineteen.

I mean, look, like I said, just a kid, But what do you make of that dynamic a top ten pick now, you know, spending time in the G League in order to get some minutes, as opposed to him learning next to the rest of the young kids that are still up with the Jazz.

People have I think, very different philosophies about this around the league. Some people feel like, you know, if you're not playing at the NBA level, if you're not in the rotation, then you're better off just getting as many reps as you can, and if you play in the G League, at least you are getting a chance to

Last Jazz related question that we'll move on, because ultimately, you know, there are some vets on the roster that I think could help out contending teams down the stretch. And I'm not a John Collins guy, but I'll say that John's played pretty well early on in the season.

They do, it's gonna be So the broad answer here, before getting into the details of it, is, I don't know how the second Apron and all this new CBA

So moving off the Jazz specifically, this is somewhat related, but I do want to ask you about the Timberwolves. This is the year where the return of the Gobert and Mitchell trade start paying dividends for the Jazz, namely a first round pick from Minnesota this year. And of course, the Jazz are doing everything they can to hold on to their own draft capital so they don't have.

To give it away to OKC like everybody else.

But are these early average performances from Minnesota troubling. Is there a chance maybe the Jazz actually luck into a decent draft asset from the t Wolves this year.

I think the timber Wolves are going to be okay. I was not a big fan of the trade, the cat trade from their side of it, because going from Towns to Randall was a clear downgrade. And you know, everybody loved what Devingenza did for the next last year, and he hasn't quite found that same rhythm with Minnesota. But you needed the Devincenzo piece of that trade to be so good that it made up for the downgrade from town to Randall. And so I'm not entire I

Excuse me, Yeah, I tend to agree with that.

Now, the piece of draft capital that's coming their way that will not be good is Cleveland, and I wanted to you know, it's kind of a funny dynamic here, Howard. We've never really seen one of our star players leave here and go like kill it. Like Darren after he was traded did not have great years, as you know, with the nets. Unfortunately Gordon Hayward snapped his leg in half. But Donovan this year and look, he has questions to

He's been awesome? Yeah, I mean, he's just been great. Are jazz fans rooting for him weirdly?

Or are they?

Are they like resentful that he's having this kind of success.

I think it depends on the jazz fans. You ask, and I you know what, I'll just leave it there. There's definitely we could take a few steps deeper into that category, which we will not. I very much cheer for him because he's a good kid, and I appreciated the time he spent here. I was disappointed that it ended prematurely, but you know, I'll just speak for myself. I watched the Calves because I cheer for Donovan.

Yeah, he's been awesome. And look, I've known Kenny Atkinson for years, going back to when he was assistant coach for Mike Antone with the Knicks, and then when Kenny was out here coaching the Nets, and I've got, you know, really high regard for him, and I thought, you know, I was curious to see, given that they didn't make substantial changes to the roster, was Atkinson going to be able to come in take a team that has Again,

Yeah, I'm in the Boston and everybody else camp myself, But I do want to ask you about the Knicks, you know, watching them run Orlando off the floor last night. Orlando's been a fun story this year. And I, you know, like you, I was not a huge fan of Minnesota trading for Randall, but I'm not a big Cat guy either. With the way that Thibodeau likes to coach, although thom has had Cat before and I would say the results

They're fine, right, Like they've been up and down, They've they've got a little bit momentum recently. They certainly like blowing out Orlando last night. Like, no, no discredit to what the Knicks are or have accomplished, but like you realize the Magic have been in New York at that point for like a week.

Yeah, that's right, Yeah, because it was.

The weirdest thing. I don't think I've ever seen this in all my years of covering the NBA. They were here for two games against the Nets Friday and Sunday, so they came in like before Thanksgiving and then like by the time they played the Knicks last night, like you know what happens when players are in New York for too long. So anyway, the Knicks are really good, and I think Towns has Towns and Brunson have found their stride together. I think the challenge for the next

Can they get there?

I don't know. And then we're waiting on Mitchell Robinson right like he's presumably due back maybe in January, But like the Knicks have not exactly been very you know, straightforward about all that we don't know when he's coming back. When Mitchell Robinson does come back, can he stay healthy because he's been hurt almost every year of his career,

Like?

Those are all really interesting questions and I don't know the answer to them. But again, the Knicks are in that group of teams that really really good, great talent. I don't know if there's enough there to beat the Celtics four times for sure.

Howard, thanks for the time, my friend. Thanks for hopping on. I'm glad you had a great Thanksgiving and have a good week. Man with chat soon, Okay, appreciate It's Ben's talk soon.

All right, my guy, Howard Beck from the Ringer.

I'm telling you, if you're an NBA fan, he's the best in the business at Howard Beck does most of his posting on Blue Sky these days, but he still is on Elon's X or.

Twitter, whatever you want to call it. We'll get back to some.

College football conversation coming up in the five o'clock hour. It is the early signing day for college football does not land the way that it used to back in the day prior to the transfer portal, so stay tuned for that. But let's do a little hockey now. The Utah Hockey Club is off actually all week. Good to have Ali Mata back on the program on a Wednesday.

Ali, Happy Wednesday, sir.

How you doing really good?

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate the time today.

So how rare is this for you guys to have this amount of time off. You don't play again until Saturday. I mean, this must be kind of a nice break for you.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty rare.

I think last six seven games we actually we've had quite a stretch. I think it might be the top of a season we just got through. And having four days you're kind of recess, see where you're at and work on a couple of things.

So i'd probably bury the lead.

Some exciting news came down today that the Finnish Ice Hockey Association has announced that you're going to play for your home country at the Four Nations face off in February. So I have to say congratulations. Tell us about this, tell us about this tournament. What does it mean to you to be called up to play for Finland.

Yeah, I mean, thank you.

That's that's awesome. It's always an honor. It's going to be probably the first time since the World Cup two thousand and seventeen, best against best. I think everybody's excited. Hockey world is excited about this. I think Austin's players were really excited. Fans are excited. It's been a while since we've seen seen the best players but put their national team jerseys on and go at it.

So is this this tournament looks like it's gonna be February twelfth through the twentieth, and it is Canada, Finland, Sweden and the US. Is this the tournament that you played in before? Is this your first experience with it?

You know, just the first time they're doing it?

Oh gotcha?

Okay, we used to be a part of Olympics. Twenty fourteen was the last time the NHL players went to Olympics. So after that, twenty seventeen, they made up World Cup of Hockey, which is kind of similar concept. Couple more teams and now finally they're trying to trying to bring back more, uh more best best the national team hockey was.

Who's the biggest rival for Finland, who's the biggest hockey rival for you guys.

I think it's always been Sweden being neighbors, and we've had We've had some tough, tough matches against them, we have tough loss we actually had some really good big wins against them. It's kind of a love hate relationship we got. I actually any sweetish guy. I know, I like him a lot, but whenever you play against them, there's something different about it.

Love it, love it.

I wonder what your experience has been like Ali out here in Salt Lakes since you were traded in October. How do you like the market, how do you like the city?

I'm loving it. I think city is awesome. I had actually no idea what to expect because, like you don't, you don't really hear anything about it. Nobody's been here before and there there there wasn't a team. Usually when you get traded you get a little idea what the city is like, all the little things, but you kind of have to start from the scratch and kind of figure it out on your own. I'm loving it. I think there's a good, uh good atmosphere here, Organizations great.

Does it remind you of home at all?

I mean, Finland is a four distinct season spot and it does get cold. Does does Salt Lake remind you of home at all?

Yeah?

With the with the seasons wise, yes, and I missed I missed the winter, so this is this is nice. At the same time, you do get a lot of sun, which we know we don't really do, and finnel over the winter, so that's a big plus two.

I'm assuming you guys aren't allowed to ski, is that correct?

Yeah?

No, no, I've I actually grew up skiing a little bit back home. But since I started taking hockey seriously, I've I've dropped that. Maybe maybe when I'm done, I.

Like go back to Do you miss it at all?

Yeah?

Yeah, especially in a place like this, when there's so many runs close to you, you definitely want to go out there and do it. At the same time, I really like hockey too.

Yeah.

I was gonna say I'd give up skiing if I could be a pro athlete, So I think it's the right right choice for now. Hey, I wonder how you would characterize I mean, you've been in the league for a while, you know, you want to Stanley Cup, and it did seem like the team needed some help on defense, which is why they made the trade. How do you

But it has been a little bit up and down.

Ali, from your vantage point, how'd you characterize the progress of the hockey club so far?

Yeah, I think you're right. I just I think we played better than the results are indicating. Sometimes a night we just can't find a way to cancer move find a way to win those one goal games or we haven't lately. And I'm actually really confident we can we can change that. We're playing good hockey. There's obviously things we want to get better at. Overall, it's it's going in the right direction. And I think the trust and confidence in this room, like how could we can be

So when you guys win, when you're playing well, what stands out? What do you do well when you guys are winning games and what do you feel like you struggle with when the results aren't going your way?

Well, I think we're tough team to play against, honestly, Like I don't think we give up a lot of time and space. It feels like when you play against us, it's just feels that we're coming and on top the whole time. There's not a raw room make plays. And when when things kind of break down, I think we're giving Autoland rushes. I think it's just that offense off

Is it challenging to have the goalie situation be split like it is?

Or do you like that you have two options behind you?

I think you like that. It doesn't matter who who's in that you know you're trusting them. You know they're gonna make the saves for you to go and win the game. Uh, They're always going to give you a chance. So I think it's a it's a big advantage.

All right, Dolly, Before I set you loose.

You know, we we've had a bunch of hockey club guests on the show, and you know, obviously following the team, it feels like most people believe that you have the talent on the team to maybe compete for a playoff spot down the stretch. Now, like I said, it's been a little bit up, been a little bit down. But you know, like the Dallas game, you put like thirty six shots on goal, just one needs to find the back of the net and maybe you have outperformed you know,

Yeah, I think we all do.

But at the same time, like I don't think you go over any game, especially a team we have. Every game you go into, you know you can win at You just got to play play your game and play play your best game.

That's it.

I think, just the confidence we have that when we do that, we're gonna more often than not. When and like you said, it's been up, up and down. I think the results haven't been what we wanted. There's things we want to fix, and definitely like these four days, like we talked about it, really big thing to like kind of reset and look at look at your game and go back to their details and what you had and then but at the same time, like I just

Okay, OLLI, thanks so much for the time.

Once again, a big congratulations representing your country coming up in the Nation's face off.

Best of luck the rest of the season. We'll love dave on again soon.

Okay, all right, thanks for having me.

Have a good guys, all right.

Ali Matza he has been around the NHL for quite some time and won a Stanley Cup.

He's thirty years old.

He was traded UH for a third round pick in October when it became pretty clear and certainly some injuries came into play for the hockey club, but they definitely needed help on the back line, so he was with the Red Wings and then they traded him to the Hockey Club for a third round pick.

That was on October the twenty ninth.

Has been called up to represent I did not know this was a new tournament. Silly me for asking him if it's the first time he's played in it when it's actually the first time the tournament has taken place. So good stuff. Seems like a nice guy, really good player. A couple of assists on the season so far. He has used in some of the powerplay situations. Hockey Club had a game on Monday, a loss against Dallas, no games all week, and then a back to back situation

In the country.

Now, as we've talked about all day, this day hit a little different. Back in the day when really it was the only way to add talent and such. But now with a transfer portal, a lot of these things have changed. You know, there's no guarantee that these young men are even going to play for the college is they signed with because NIL and the transfer portal have changed it, they could get offers, they could get more money elsewhere, and ultimately they could never even set foot

But apparently he's in sau Lake.

Any inside as to whether or not this should be the guy we're focusing on.

Now, Yeah, Well, I'll just give you my insight on kind of this whole story and how it's played out, and go back to last Wednesday, last Thursday, maybe, and Utah of course was preparing for their game, but they were also in the throes of an OC search.

Ben R.

Buckle is a name that, of course we know now is with Oklahoma and Utah was essentially zeroed in on Ben R. Buckle Spence to the point where there were people in that department that thought it was done right, that it was that close with some of the stuff with our Buckle.

Of course, Oklahoma.

Comes in, he heads there and at that point, from what I understand, attention was shifted not to resuming the search but directly to mac leftwitch right, And from what I understand, yeah, that's something that they're trying to get along the across the finish line in the probably the next twenty four to forty eight hours. As we know,

So we've heard a lot about and Coach Wood has kind of alluded to certain things as far as the type of offensive coordinator he's looking for to call plays for the squad coming up next year. What sort of boxes do you think he wants checked? Because I wondered if there would be more of like an out of the box high or not the typical higher that we've

Yeah, No, I mean the offense that the Mac Leftwich runs is one that it's balanced, right, So that is is one that Kyle Whittingham in Utah from their ethos, they're going to look at that is at least a good candidate, right, A guy that can win in multiple ways, whether it's on the ground, whether it's through the air. But he also runs a little bit of a pro style spread offense when it is a passing down say that.

Four to seven Sports overall team rankings, Utah ranks forty sixth in the nation, which is seventh in the Big Twelve. Last year, Utah, according to two four to seven, had the fortieth rank class in the country. BYU finds itself fifty fifth in the country, twelfth in the Big twelve, five spots below Utah with their twenty twenty five recruiting class. But this could change. I mean it changed last year. I think BYU jumped into the top forty last year

All right, what's going on? Drive at five.

Time, your commute home on a Wednesday afternoon, gets rolling right now. It's been a nice day today, about forty five degrees, sunny and clear, although we do have a little inversion situation settling in which you know is the deal. Happy Wednesday to you halfway through your work week, and then one day closer the weekend, one day closer to pro football, two days away from championship weekend in college football, don't forget we are your home of the NFL in this market.

Should be a good Thursday night game.

Hard to believe that it is Week fourteen, but that indeed it is potentially fantasy football playoff time maybe for some of you. The Packers and the Lions coming up tomorrow night prime video. Right now, Detroit's a three point favorite for a little Thursday night action to get Week fourteen rolling. Then a bevy of really really good college football games throughout the weekend, starting on Friday with the Mountain West Championship UNLV and Boise, and then all day Saturday.

Run your game on Prize Pick so early.

Signing day today again does not hit the way that it used to. And Utah, according to two four to seven Sports, has the number forty six class in the country. That's good for seventh in the Big Twelve. On the other hand, BYU as of right now number fifty five in the country, and that is twelfth in the Big Twelve. As we've talked about all day, there's simply is no guarantee that any of these young men will ever end up on campus because of the new reality of college football,

So that's just kind of my gut feel.

As Coach Wit has talked about during his media availability, he and Morgan are in lockstep with this hire. When it comes to the offensive coordinator, somebody taking over for Andy Ludwig, who stepped down after some struggles when he came to the offense on the side of things for the University of Utah and look the cruel reality for Utah football this year because of the dominant performance of

These are projections.

Obviously Iowa State will have something to say about this, but the Big twelve champs lated to play potentially Penn State. Obviously, Penn State has a game against Oregon. Oregon's the favorite out of the Big ten. Penn State pulls an upset that would kind of throw a monkey wrench at everything. Tennessee would be at the shoot to take on Ohio State, which would be a lot of fun. A first round matchup between Alabama and Notre Dame and then Indiana and Georgia.

I'm sorry.

We can complain about it, we can yell about it. There's brand bias. There always has been, and that's the way this thing is designed for powerful television executives to get the most incendiary TV show on their network.

That's what they want.

The winner of Tennessee Ohio State would advance to play Oregon. The winner of Arizona State Penn State would advance to play Boise State. And that's kind of the scenario as of right now out of the world of college football. So it is a busy, busy news cycle. Even though the season is over for the University of Utah, the offseason, one of the most important offseasons in Utah football history, is going on right now. A bunch of news about

Texas comes in at number three.

It's Ohio State at four, Alabama, Kaitlin Debor at five, Michigan comes in at six, Auburn jumps up to number seven, LSU at eight, Texas A and M at nine, Florida at ten, you have to scroll all the way down to I haven't even seen it yet. The number one Big twelve recruiting class as of right now is TCU. They come in at number twenty, so their number number twenty and the number one ranked Big twelve recruiting class. You got some breaking news for us on early signing day? What is what do you got.

For signing day? What do you got?

As you mentioned Utah their their top offensive prospect that they had landed over the course of the day was Wyatt Becker the quarterback. Well, they just landed another four star on the offensive side, racing. Guillory is a running back who had offers from Old Miss. He had some other sec offers and they went and nabbed him out out of Texas. It's actually a big get for Utah on racine Guillory he can really run. You watched it says fast he is, he is quick.

No.

Look, I just get a kick out of days like today where you hear from people and you know, my favorite thing is listening to the coaches being interviewed after signing day is done, like, yeah, we got everyone we wanted. Well, you're the seventieth rank recruiting class. You didn't get everybody you wanted, maybe some of them, but everybody kind of gives you the same walking line.

So yeah, racing is it? Gillory?

Is that Gillory? Okay out of Texas? Yeah, his final two Utah and Old Miss. So I don't know if that's a flip, but that obviously is a good sign b YU. At this point, no four star recruits. According to the rankings out in front of me BYU, their recruiting class as of now is number twelve in the Big twelve and number fifty five in the country. Now, last year BYU was also ranked in the mid fifty and they made a massive jump adding some late ads, they jumped up into the forties. So look, today is

But early returns right.

Now, I guess you have to surmise that the nil stuff pretty good situation for the Utes because as of now, really only Jalen Glover, is that your understanding? Port I just have not seen any announcement of any player as of no. And look, Jalen Glover this year was like the third of the fourth string running back. But byus of now has lost four players to the transfer portal, some good ones as well, and I think Utah has only got got with one. And it's not like Jalen

Yeah, as of now, Jalen Glover is the only contributor that has entered the transfer portal. You've got to go back to deep, deep into depth chart. The lely tua fatto fua nice job is your other your other one that has entered the transfer portal. That's the two for the use of Okay, so no harm, no foul there.

Cody Epps has entered the transfer portal for Brigham Young ass has Jackson Bowers, Michael Harper who at one point was one of their better defensive players, but he had a knee injury that.

Kind of knocked him out. And then Miles Davis.

The best name for a running back really in all the college football. Maybe it's just how I think if my running back was Miles Davis, he'd get all the carriers.

No, I mean it is the best, the best name there, Miles. If you're in football. We can go back to is it Friday night Lights, the Booby Miles guy. It's it's just a good name. It's just a good name. It's an excellent name.

So obviously, if any of the breaking news comes our way before we sign off at six o'clock, we'll bring.

It to you.

Shout out to Miles Davis, phenomenal trumpeter and also very good running back for BYU, Miles Davis has left us. He's not dead, he just endered the transfer portal. So BYU looking for maybe some the running back. But shout out to the actual Miles Davis. He passed away way back in nineteen ninety one. So there you go. All right, I've been waiting all show to ask you a question that I think you're a uniquely qualified to answer.

Uniquely qualified. Yes, you'll see why.

So there was a video that went viral today on social media of some gentlemen who I believe were fishing and a brown bear, a very large brown bear, started running up river and it was an impressive specimen. And attached to the video is like, I guess black bears aren't as dangerous, so you can engage with them.

The saying was like.

Brown bear laid down, black bear fight and white bear.

You're going, yeah, you're dead.

Fine, So it is if because you're a gentleman that spends a lot of time in the wild. You enjoy hiking, you enjoy the enjoy the outdoors. You were in God's Country up in Summon County. Let's say you're on a solo mission. I'm talking cut off T shirt, bandana, camel pack, just you out there, real, real Christopher mccandles stuff. Yes, you are into the wild. Which one animal would you most not want to see? As you turned around and realized the animal was like fifteen yards away from you.

Yeah, it's a it's a tough on because I mean, this is a a one that's been posed to me many a times. And you mentioned the polar bear, right, that's one that is You're done. It's two thousand pounds, it's the size of a bowl, but it has teeth that are longer than your fingers, right like that, there's just no way around it. But for me, it always comes down to like things I could actually experience. I'm not trudging around the Arctic, right, I'm not just around

The video of the brown bear was like I saw that actually overwhelmingly impressive.

It was like a specimen running up the river.

That's kind of what I was getting out with the Mountain lions. I don't think a lot of people who haven't seen them up close and personal don't realize that they're not little kiddies. Those are monsters. Like I've seen one in the Canvas area that Spence. I thought it had escaped from the zoo. It was like a Serengeti type,

Utah Women take on Utah State tonight. Utah women's basketball coming off a big upset of Notre Dame. The Utah women are six and two. They're five and zero at home. This game is at the Delta Center of Utah State. One and seven oh and three, so not a very good team. So you're gonna hear that coming up in just a little bit here on the radio station as you're home of the Utes. But Porter, before we get out of here, what comes our way on a Thursday show on.

A Thursday edition of the program, As you just mentioned, you taught women's basketball in action tonight, well tomorrow, we'll hear from Gavin Peterson, the head ball coach for Utah women's basketball, of course taken over for Lynn Roberts in

All right, there you go. That'll be a fun Thursday show. Join us for that.

With that, we'll say good night for a Wednesday, and a very special thank you to Bill Riley, Richard Smith, Howard Beck, and Ali Mata for any of the sound you may have missed from the program today. Go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile apps. You can take us on the go wherever you go. It's the way I listen to our radio station. That's the ESPN seven hundred out that's available in the app store. Or the Google

He supporter. I'm Spence saying, I enjoy your Wednesday evening.

We'll talk to you on a Thursday Drive right here on ESPN seven hundred