Utahs at Michale tomorrow without their head coach Greg Smith. Of course, let go so appreciate Bill stopping by Sean Mooney, Zach Harper, but time now one of my favorites, Roxy Bernstein, my buddy from the PAC twelve network. On the show on a Tuesday, ran King of top five Counting Crows song question Mark.
Oh, absolutely top five. I would say, you know, it's Spence live. That might be my favorite song they play live.
It's actually what I was gonna say live. It's hard to beat that song live for sure.
Yes, that that song live, just the way they have tuned it over the years, it really resonates and it waits a ball. Look, everybody loves mister Jones like it's funny. I've had these discussions with Adam over the years, like when you get to his level, right, when you have number one type hits and songs everybody knows when he plays the show, there's probably five songs you have to play, right, Like for them, it's mister Jones. I think it's rain
King maybe hanging around long December. It's funny. Adam doesn't necessarily see it the way I do. But are you agree with me? Like when you go to see a band like that, there's like there's staples that have to be in the catalog for that night, wouldn't you say absolutely?
I just love that you call him Adam, Like we're just having a conversation about your friend named Adam. For our listeners, it's Adam Durretz. He's the lead singer of Counting Crows. He's one of Rocksy's best friends.
And you know when he's putting the set list together like before a show, because they change it every night. It's not the same show. Like there are certain songs they'll play on each tour that they're ready to play, and there's some songs that aren't in the bag if you will, like you know, like a golf bag analogy there.
But out of the songs that they have for that particular tour that they've either been working on at sound check, I've learned my place spence over the years because sometimes if I ask for a song, he's not going to play it just because he can piss me off. So and so we have learned over the years that we just kind of okay, all right, and not chime in, you know, not even show any emotion if he says he's going to play a song that we really want to hear in that particular night at some point though
there's a few our buddies. We've told him we want to design one set list before you retire. We have to have one, and he says we'll see so, which probably means no.
That's cool though, I mean, because you know, obviously a child of the nineties, man, I love the Crows. It was a long December for Craig Smith, and he won't be hanging around anymore.
Nice there you go, good, good segue, good tie.
And you know, ultimately I'm gutted for a good man, for your first and foremost. And I know you got to know him, but your reaction when you heard the Craig Smith had been relieved of his duties around.
Here, disappointed for him, because, like you, I have an affinity for Craig. I think he's first off, he's just a terrific dude. He's a fun guy to talk to,
to be around. I mean, I'll just get like a random text from Craig, like I'm doing some game and he'll just text me like because he's watching, and like I've hit him up on certain places where I go, Like, for example, his connection to the Dakotas right now, I was going out there for NCAA hockey tournament and I hit him up and he was like searching for a couple of places to send me to. So I had a pretty good connection with him that goes back to his days at Utah State, and it really is. I'm
sad for him. I'm disappointed for him because I do think he's a heck of a coach. I really do think Craig is a good coach. I understand the move from Utah's perspective. I'm not saying I agree with it, which Mark Harland felt he needed to do, but just the first thing that comes to mind sense is by disappointment for Craig.
Yeah, and there's a personal element to these stories that I don't think we do a good enough job of covering in the media because we're so like, all right, what's next and what went wrong? Like he's a good man with a good family and a five million dollar parachute helps, but it's hard when you lose a gig that that you care about, and I know how much you cared about it, So when it comes to what
could be next for this program? Roxy, It's interesting you're familiar with our market, and I kind of go back and forth with the dynamic here because there are a lot of people that simply just jump to we need a former ute, We need somebody who's familiar with the program. We need somebody who's familiar with the challenges and the oddities. Honestly speaking, that this market poses that don't really exist
in many other places. As much as I love it here, I know that there are things that you have to traverse that can be a little bit complex. Do you think it has to be a Utah guy or do you think Mark Harlan goes the way of trying to find one of these young candidates at a smaller school that's done a really good job, or maybe somebody has been out of the game. Like, what's your take on what could be next around here?
At certain places, I do believe you need that connection. I don't think Utah is one of those places that I think Utah has had enough success, enough tradition, and enough history that they can bring in somebody from the
outside if you will. And look, a lot of times, if you hire a coach that doesn't have that connection to a specific program, then you hire an assistant on your staff that fits and understands the landscape, like for example, mile of Moderate cal Right, there are so many hoops and so much political red tape you have to deal with at a place like cal that you have to have an understanding of what you're up against. And I think the same can be said for a place like Stanford.
Utah is not in that same boat. To me, I think Utah is a place where you can bring in somebody that doesn't necessarily have that connection because of the tradition and the success that this program has had in the past. And you look up the rafters and you see the likes of you know, a Keith van Horn's name up there, Andrew Bogan, Andre Miller, all these great players that have come through, and like, for example, you know, Rick Pajeris came through and had a lot of success.
I don't believe that for me, that wouldn't be a prerequisite as far as who the next coach of the University of Utah men's hoops team should be.
I do think and I have said, and I haven't necessarily always been on this train, only because I am well aware of when guys have an opportunity to live that NBA lifestyle, they don't necessarily want to go back to the college days. It's not all tried and true. Calipari Patino BYU hired Kevin Young. But you know, there's some former utes in pro basketball right now that are
very respected and highly thought of. And I want to ask about Alex Jensen, who's a lead assistant for Jason Kidd in Dallas, and Alex was Quinn Snyder's lead assistant here in Salt Lake. He worked for Will Hardy for one year and essentially that was just like he's under contract and they liked him, so you can hang around Will. I don't think everyone's gonna have him on a staff.
But five years ago, when Mark decided to fire Larry Koskoviak, the name Alex Jensen surfaced, and I said on air, I don't think he takes it because I thought at the time he was going to parlay his tenure with the Jazz into a head coaching opportunity in the pros that has never come. And so five years later, I think Alex might be more inclined to answer the phone that he was, you know, not too long ago. What are your thoughts on Alex Jensen as a potential candidate to replace dreg Well.
I'm familiar with him to an extent, but one thing I do know is Jason Kidd thinks the world of him, because, as you know, I went to college with Jason. I'm still friendly with him, and I've asked him about, you know, guys on his staff for example, and he raves about him, says he's a phenomenal coach, just a great person to have on the staff and be around on a daily basis.
And that's a ringing endorsement from somebody like Jason Kitt And as you look at the landscape now, it's ever changing landscape spence of college out We're just seeing more and more pro people have a connection and maybe looking to get into the college game. And whether it's for example, on the football side, with guys like Andrew Luck and Ron Rivera that are going back, they're not coaching, but
they're going to be around the game. But with this nil and roster management we're seeing these days and free agency that is taking the college basketball land landscape by storm, it could possibly help having somebody with that pro experience and look, Kevin young down at BYU not only is having success this year, but let's face it, there's a lot of money right with BYU basketball, and to be able to acquire the talent that they have and the
great freshman for example, demon and catchings they have this year, it took a lot of money to get those guys. And next year with de Bantha comes in, it's a huge amount of money that he's getting paid to go to BYU. That's the landscape you're operator now, and you have to find those resources. You have to find the revenue.
And I know fran Frascilla put out a tweet, you know, my colleague at ESPN about the commitment that Utah financially needs to make and I'm not exactly sure where their NIL is, but my guess, just just knowing where some of the league is that they're probably in the bottom third as far as money that they're having their NIL collective for basketball. Does that change? I think that when you look at the scenario, you have to explore the entire landscape of where Utah basketball is at right now.
You make this move with Craig Smith, that shows me that you're committed to winning. Well, there's more ways to show than just making a move like this that you committed to having success with your basketball program.
Roxy Bernstein calls Adam Durretz Adam and Jason Kidd Jason just so you know you do you? Jason and Adam have like a text threat Roxy.
They're on separate tech threats I have And by the way, I actually call him Jay Kid usually.
Now, now there we go, give me the what's what's the mount rushmore of your most famous friends?
Oh? I mean those are the top of the chain right there. I mean, certainly, Adam. Are you familiar with the actor Eric Dane?
I know who Eric Dane is.
Yes, Eric and I grew up together and we're still very close. In fact, we are fantasy football partners on our league that all our buddies grew up with.
Wow. Very impressive.
Yeah, that's another one.
Very impressive. What do you tell me what you're expecting? So Josh Eilert's the interim head coach and they're at McHale tomorrow and they're going to play an Arizona team that's probably a little bit grumpy. So Utah's first game without Craig is ada McHale against Arizona. How do you think these young men respond. They've got to be gutted. You know, you sign on the dotted line to play for a coach, your parents trust the coach to take care of the son. We know the deal. So how
do you think they're going to respond? What are you expecting the McHale tomorrow night?
First half, Arizona's going to be a little grumpy. Yes, that might be the understatement of the year because the way they lost that game to the UI the other night. They're gonna be extremely ticked off hitting in it this matchup, But I'm not sure. You never know what you're gonna get, right.
It's easier to assess where a professional team is at after a move like this, whether it's a major league team that fires a manager mid season or an NBA team that makes the move like this, and they usually come out and respond because they take it personally and the connection that they have to Craig Smith. You wonder how it's resonating in the locker room right that. Do
they feel they let Craig Smith down. It's certainly an emotional charge group right now, and you can't blame these are eighteen to twenty two, twenty three year old kids, and they're going to feel some empathy for Craig. They're going to be upset, and probably some of them are looking in the mirror wondering what could I have done better that could have kept Craig here. And so I would expect a team that's going to be emotionally charged. They're going to come out and ready to go tomorrow night.
I fully expect that it's a good group of kids, and I think they'll try to play honestly for Craig tomorrow night, that they know they let him down, and in this way they can turn the page and help honor their coach by going out there with a high level performance against a terrific team in Arizona. Yeah.
Well said. And in order to be fair to Craig Roxy, I've asked all my guests this week this question, I'm going to ask you the same question. And I don't want this to come across as callous and I'm not trying to knock on the group, But you referenced where's the nil, where's the collective? What's the deal with that?
We don't fully know? Catchings and demon reportedly are seven figure kids down at Brigham Young and aj Debants is getting more than five million dollars to play five months of basketball, So we know they've got a ticking down there, but whether it's nil and sadly, this also does fall partly on Craig. This team was picked to finish sixteenth in the conference for a reason. There's just not a
ton of top shelf talent on that roster. And I actually think there's an argument to be made that Craig did a good job coaching a group that didn't necessarily have the raw talent that some of the other teams had to a situation where they did overshoot expectations based off the preseason poll. But as a guy that caused a lot of these games, how would you articulate what you believe the talent level is on this roster this year?
The talent level is just like you said, near the bottom of the Big twelve. And there is a reason why they were picked in that position. For example, they don't have a dynamic point guard that could set people up. It was an offense that was able to score points because of ball movement and connectivity. Yes, Gate Madsen was the guy they were looking to to hit the big shot,
but it wasn't. They didn't have that dynamic playmaker that they've had in the past, so that I think Craig came up with a good system that gave them chances for success. But at the same time, I get it when you're assessing your program, when you're Mark Harlan, you're the administration the University of Utah, you take a whole broad scope of it and you want the talent level better. There's good players in the program. I think Ezrasar is
a really nice player, lost and lovering. I think it can be a really good player and it can really control a game of times from inside. But it just didn't seem there was the broad talent with his program. It's funny is I've also talked to some NBA people about Jake Wallen and there is a lot of feeling amongst the NBA people that he's got a chance maybe in a year or two, to be on the radar as far as the NBA team. So, but it's different
kind of talent that they have with this group. But it just from when you look across the board of the Big Twelve, I just don't see the high level talent that Baylor has that Houston has, that Texas Tech has that. I think this is a down Kansas team, but they still have a lot of high level talent, and same with teams like Kansas State for example. So I think unfortunately, when you examine the program as a whole, I think that that's what the administration came back to.
So you've got BYUASU, let's move over to BYU. So they'll be down at ASU tomorrow and back to back wins over ranked teams. First time that's happened. I think it's thirty seven years. They've won four straight. If you kind of expand back, they've won eight of their last ten. And when they make shots, they are a problem, and they are the type of team that is built. Should they find fire at the right time, which they're finding right now, they're the type of team they can go
to the NCAA tournament and do something. I'm not saying this is a Final four team, but with the ability to make shots, when they are knocking down shots, when they're limiting turnovers, and when they're just hanging on the glass, they don't necessarily have to rebound teams because offensively they're so dynamic. It feels like you know, Demon's their best
pro prospecs, but Richie's probably their best college player. And I've been tremendously impressed to see them settle in the way they have because it didn't look great early on, and Kevin's never done this before, so you have talent on paper. If it doesn't work early, people are gonna wonder if you can coach well. The late returns as well, I should say the returns as of late are that you know, this is a team that looks to be dialed in, ready to roll down the rest of the
stretch of the season. What's your take on where we find ourselves right now with Brigham Young.
They seem to be peaking at the right time, and that's what you want come latter part of February and into March, is you're playing your best basketball, and they are, and this team I think has gotten better and better
in the crazy team spense. You don't see teams that have eleven man rotations at this time of the year, but BYU does and they all do something to help the team, and I think that's helped the chemistry with that group and getting used to a new coach in Kevin Young, tweaking the system a little bit where they shoot a lot of threes. You mentioned Richie Saunders, but he's not alone and he's made some moves along the way,
like inserting Trevinell into the starting lineup. I think was a nice move for them to help space the floor and getting fu Seni Tria to accept the role in Dallen Hall coming off the bench because those guys had been starters, and it's a credit to them. It's a credit to that locker room that they're able to embrace what Kevin Young is doing. And they're catching teams at
the right time. They caught Kansas the right time. Kansas was really after losing the game to Utah and they seemed a little bit dysfunctional at the time, to be honest with you. They got to get right game against Oklahoma State on Saturday. Then they bounced back and won a tough one at Colorado last night. But they're catching teams at the right time, and I think they're catching Arizona State tomorrow night. Potentially at the right time considering
some of the injuries that ASU has. Jayden Quainton's got hurt in his last game. They're outstanding freshman. We're not sure if his status tomorrow night. And they just kicked BJ Freeman off the team who was their leading scorer. Yet they went out and won without them. So that's it's going to be interesting to see this matchup tomorrow. And Arizona State has not played well at home. They've been a better road team for whatever reason.
Who do you think the second best team in the conference is?
Who is the second best? I'm still gonna lean toward Arizona, I know, even they've they lost last night. Houston to me, has separated themselves and I do really like Iowa State, let me tell you right there. But there's something about this Arizona team. I'm anxious to see how they recovered tomorrow night against Utah after the way they had a real, real tough loss against BYU the other night.
Can I ask you a couple of hockey questions before I set you loose?
Yeah, all right, let's move over.
Yeah, let's move over to the Four Nations face off. You know, one of our weekly hockey guests is Neil Smith, who was the you know, the general manager of the Rangers and a high level scout for the Red Wings and had built some of the best rosters that we
saw in the nineties. And we had Bill Armstrong on yesterday, and you know, it was funny with Neil, he said prior to the start of the tournament, I asked him we had him on the week that week, and I said, Okay, we got a little bit of break with a hockey club and we've got four Nations coming up? What do you think? And He's like, I'm out on it. I'm not like excited for it at all. And then of course we had him on last week and to his credit,
he ate the appropriate crow. You know, Roxy, It's kind of a lesson man like, sometimes the best things in life just completely catch you off guard. And I was so wildly entertained, and as a NBA guy who was disgusted with a product that employees basketball players that don't seem to like to play basketball as of late, I loved watching the Four Nations. So give me your take on that tournament and what do you think it does for pro hockey domestically?
Aside from the three fights and nine seconds in the first US Canada game, it was still tremendous theater, yep, and unbelievable hockey and just the reacts to the players that were playing and the speed of these games. That was the thing that really jumped out to me, is the quickness, and it's showing you that the game is about speed. Now, yes, okay, the Kachuck brothers flawed, and so did JT. Miller, but they also have a lot
of speed and talent. And it was evident and I think it's only a precursor to how good the Olympics could be. Now. I don't think that we'll see a situation like we had with these fights, especially in the Olympics, but it does make for great hockey to watch, and I think we were treated to the best in the world at the best, and it was evident that it meant something. That it wasn't just lip service. Oh we're gonna go there and compete, We're going to play hard.
It was clear that it meant the world and national pride was on display and they wanted to win desperately for their countries. And the only thing that would have made it a little bit more intriguing. Can you imagine if Matthew could Chuck had fought Sam Bennett. He made the Florida like right off the opening face off If that wouldn't signify how much it meant, I don't know what else would.
And I love the back and forth where the Canadian, you know, the Hagen kid was like, we do it for the flag, they do it for the cameras. It's like, you like, the whole thing was awesome. Let me ask you about our local hockey club and I'll set you loose. You know, they're about where I think most people thought they would be, but with the chance to maybe catch either Vancouver or the Abs for a wildcard spot. They got Vancouver the other night they beat him, so nice
little four point swing. Chicago's in town tonight twenty three, twenty four games left on the show bill. Armstrong yesterday said it's twenty four game sevens like points are at a premium. I think we got a shot to maybe see a little playoff hockey in Salt Lake this year.
There's a chance. Yeah. I wouldn't rule them out. And they've recovered from some of the injuries that they have dealt with, certainly on the back end this year, with missing Schondersey example, until recently for the entire season and Marino being out for an extended period of time. They got to get hot and the margin frere in Bill Armstrong is exactly right. They have to treat every night like it's a game seven. And after they dropped the game to La on Saturday, bouncing back with a good
win against Vancouver. And the other thing that was key about the win against Vancouver spence it wasn't an overtime or shootout win. It was in regulation. So a team you're chasing Vancouver, they didn't get a point. And in these matchups, when you're playing Calgary, these teams you're chasing, you're battling with, they can't be three point games. You've got to win it in regulation to make sure that
the other team is not keeping pace with you. Because if you're trying to catch them your points behind, well yes you gain a point on them, but you're not really doing the job. And that's the way they have to step into it, and they have to take advantage of the schedule. The Blackhawks are a team that they need to handle that they need to put any doubt away early in this game, and that's the way they
need to approach it. Then they have to be in that mentality and somehow if they can sneak in these are the teams that are dangerous come to Stanley Cup playoffs. We've seen eight seeds before in the NHL come from way back and win because they're in playoff mode already, and that could be an advantage for them should they be able to get to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Roxy, you are the man, my friend. I appreciate the time. Safe Travels have a great call tomorrow night.
Okay, thanks Bett anytime.
But Roxy Bernstein one of the best, one of the nicest guys in this business, a business devoid of kindness. Roxy is one of those guys at Roxy Bernstein is where you find them on social media. Will be on the call tomorrow night for by UASU