Big Week Man Big Week Utah BYU football. Of course, it's funny to hear the different time frames of what both universities considered to be the start of the rivalry. EYU does not count the first number of years because they lost all of those games. BYU's the presidential candidate that calls voter fraud when they lose and celebrates when they win.
Utah is a different timeline.
It's just it's a different thing altogether, which is pretty interesting.
The Jazz are in action tonight as well.
Our next guest covers the Jazz, the Nuggets, the NBA, the draft, a bunch of stuff for the athletic But once upon a time was a humble beat reporter for Utah football, so we have some good perspective on everything.
Tony Jones on a Thursday, what's up to yo, yo?
I'm good man, all right, So let's get a little Utah BYU stuff from you, as a resident of our state, as somebody who's covered both these teams. What's this week bring for you? Like memory of covering these robbery games? What does b YU Utah football mean for Tony Jones?
I mean it's one of the apexes in college football one of the best traditional ribbraries in college football. It's it's certainly, you know, a week that everybody looks to around here and locally, and you know, it's it's one of the it was a shame when the rivalry went away, and I'm glad it's back, and you know, these are these are are the weeks that that everybody This is the week that kind of everybody in the state looks looks towards the jobs. The Utah Jazz they galvanized the state.
But I mean other than the Utah Jazz, I mean, you know, the state is pretty much you know, factioned in the too, like are you you know with the team down south or you with the team up north? And you know, it's it's it's definitely one of the crown jewels of every college football season for me.
So as I've been talking about, based off the data that we have, if both of these teams on Saturday do what they've done so far this year, it could get bad for Utah. Now the rivalry game brings an interesting wrinkle. The line is three by us, a three point favorite. What's your guy tell you? What do you think we're gonna see you.
Know, you know, I think my head tells me that you know, this is a two touchdown game. I just you know, I mean, Utah can't score. They haven't been able to score all year. BYU scores and not only does BYU score BYU stop.
Shoot.
You know, that's one of the that's legitimately one of the best defenses in college football. And you know, if Jay Hill's not up for some awards at the end of the season, something is wrong. And at Jay Hill isn't up for for some for some head coaching gigs at the end of the season, something is wrong. He is completely turned around that defense and he has made that defense of one season one of the best defenses
in college football. They fly around, they get after you up front, they have a great, great, great linebacking corps, and they have one of the better secondaries, uh in the Big twelve. Certainly it's not college football. So you know they it's it's a bad matchup if you're Utah. You know, if we're looking at the tape that that Isaac Wilson is is put on tape uh for for
this season. Uh, because you know that defenses is rough on quarterbacks anyway, and you know what I've seen of Isaac Wilson is that you know, he hasn't read the field, he doesn't make reads as well, he doesn't see the field as well. Those are some of those are typical freshmen, uh freshman issues. But at the same time, you know
that that seems like a bad matchup. But on the other hand, you know, the rivalry teends that to do things that you know, even when the matchups the last lot is on paper, you know, these games tend to end up close. So I'm hoping for, you know, a close game either way down the stretch. But you know, obviously this is this is a game that not only has huge implications locally, but it has huge implications in terms of the Big Twelve, and it has huge big implications nationally as well.
Last thing, then we'll get to some jazz, because I'm really curious and I do think this rivalry has gained a lot of attention that it didn't have prior to But I think it's about to even get more attention because we've never had BYU and.
Utah in the same P four conferences.
It's different than the whack of the Mountain West Conference, and you're an East Coast guy like I am. I mean I can remember since of course South born here have ties here living back East, when I wanted to watch Utah BYU basketball and like Big Monday, Big Whack Monday on ESPN, it started at midnight Eastern time because their TV slot was ten o'clock Mountain time. So you know, the exposure hasn't been there in a way that it's
about to be. So I do think it's about to receive more of the credit that it deserves for being an elite rivalry. But one of the interesting dynamics TEA is that only nine of Utah's one hundred and twenty five players have played in this game, and only I don't know what the number is for BYU, but it's about the same. It's not very many players. And if you pull up these rosters, it's California and Texas and
Virginia and Canada. I mean, these these these these recruiting footprints are different than they were back in the day. You're an out of state or what what would you say to you know, mute players, b YU players that didn't grow up here about when you realized exactly what this game is about?
And you know what they're in for coming up on Saturday night.
Well, I think you know, that's the unfortunate byproduct of obviously the game going away for a few years, right, Like you know, and you know, there's so much to unpack with your question. Like you know, when I first got to the state, it was like it was it was a cute little ribbalry, right, but it wasn't anything like you know, Army Navy, Notre Dame Miami, like some of the old school traditional rivalries that you know, gained
attention on a national scale. And I think a lot of that was because you know, back in I came to the state in two thousand and eight, you know, both of those teams were in the Way Conference then, and you know, and then you know Utah went to the Pact twelve and you know b Yu went independent for a while. So you know, it was it was one of those things where you know, as Utah kind of gained a footing on the national stage a little bit, the rivalry you know, got more and more attention because
of that. But you know, it's it's one of those things where I think right now that it's every bit respected as you know, some of the some of the old school traditional robberies that we celebrate every season, uh as as you know, as a whole in college football. You know, I will say this, I would be really really shocked if you know, it doesn't matter, if you
know these kids have never played against each other. I'd be really shocked if they haven't been conditioned to, you know, not like each other from the time that they stepped on campus. I mean, one of the staples of you know, being recruited uh to to b YU or being recruited to Utah is the fact that you know you don't like the other and you know, are you If you're a b YU kid, then you're not a Utah kid. If you're a Utah kid, then you're not a b
YU kid. Uh shout out to Francis Bernard obviously, who played both who played in both spots. But you know, I think you know, it's it's one of those things where you know, I don't I don't think that you know that's going to have a real on you know the intensity of what we're gonna see on Saturday night. I think that Utah knows that this is their super Bowl.
Considering everything that's going on in the first eight games of the season, and BYU knows that, you know, if they get over this game, they're gonna be They're going to be significant favorites and for the rest of the season and the rest of their games, and they're going to have a real shot to go on defeed it. So there's a lot of stake on Saturday night.
All right, let's move over to the Jazz and I usually do the whole let's start from thirty thousand feet and then get into the vacuum.
But I'm gonna do the opposite because I.
Want to start out our interview by giving Keyante a little credit for what he did in Chicago, because it's been rough for him. It's been rough for him for a while. This is not a shooting slump. This is a player that hasn't shown that he can make shots. And he was only eight of eighteen, but he was aggressive. He got to line. He had six to twelve from three at nine assists and only two turnovers, thirty three points in thirty nine minutes.
He was so good.
So what stands the way I'll frames it today, Tony, When Keyante is good like that, what what's different?
What stands out to you?
When he has a game where he looks like he's legitimate pro prospect.
You know, I think it stands out. What stod out to me in Chicago is that he was making the right reads. And you know, for so much of this year, you know it wasn't. I mean, obviously, but let's let's keep it one hundred. You know, the shot has been bad and the percentages have been awful, and you know there's a lot, there's been a lot to be concerned about, right but you know, for me, it was more than the percentages. It was more than the shot the shot quality.
It was you know, he wasn't shooting when he was supposed to shoot, and he wasn't passing when he was supposed to pass. And I'll go back a little further than Chicago and Denver. You know, he started to kind of break through. He had sixteen, you know, he made he made some really good reads off the dribble. And I talked to him in Denver and I said, hey, you know this is you know, maybe this is something you know, a little bigger for you. And he said, yeah,
you know, it's about time. You know that I got something to fall, and you know, I'm going to put together a good game. And you know, Long Behold on Monday, on Monday night, he put together, you know, the game of his career. He had thirty three points, he had not assists, he was in complete control. You know, the shot diet still needs to get better, right Like I think he's got to get cleaner looks from above the yard.
I think he really needs to find a way to to get to the basket a little bit more consistently and to finish once he gets there. And I think he really needs to develop a floater that he can rely on, that he can rely on consistently. And you know a lot of that's going to in time. But you know, when you see a game like that, when you see a thirty three and nine, you know, those those aren't numbers that are easy to easily accumulated if you're not a really good player and or if you
don't have a lot of talent. So we don't know whether Kiante George is ever going to develop into a really good player or not. And you know that's the jury is still very much out on that. But you know, if you're a jazz man, a game like that thirty three and nine tells you that at least he has a really he has a lot of talent. He has a significant amount of talent, because you just don't fall into those numbers. Those aren't flup numbers, even it's just
for one game. So you know, I think if more than anything, it gives you a little bit of hope that you know, he can find some consistency, you know, and you then kind of snaps you back into reality and says, hey, this is still a second year, and this is still very early in the second year. And then he snapped back into a little bit more of reality and realize that he's never played point guard until
he's gotten to the pro level. So you know, there's all kinds of context into what the roller coaster of Keante George has been through the first part of the second season.
We'll stick with the young players because well, I think John Collins deserves some credit, and he was so good against Chicago.
We know the deal here.
John's like the perfect player for this roster because he makes a ton of money and more often than not, he's not overall a great player, but he has so many snapshot moments and there's a reason why he played himself into that contract and you see games like Chicago and you're like, man, he was physical. Yeah, he was really good on both ends, and certainly twenty eight, thirteen and five. But we'll put that aside because I want
to ask you about Cody. I thought that was like the first grown up game that we've seen from Cody Williams, and he's going to be. It looks like, according to the decisions we've seen from will so far, the main benefactor of the thirty minutes that have been left on the table as a result of Taylor's injury. He went for thirty minutes against Chicago, eleven points, five boards for sist, no turnovers in thirty minutes.
So to me, that was probably from my prison.
So if it's only seven games, but that was the first kind of grown up game step in the right direction I've seen from Cody Williams.
Yeah, I mean in more than that. I mean they were you know they he was running the offense for a couple of possessions. If you put Cody's basketball IQ and I don't want to say I kind of don't want to say this because I don't want to insinuate the Kyante doesn't have a basketball iqu because I think he does. But if you put Cody's basketball iqu into Keyante into kyante physical abilities, I think you have a
hell of a basketball player. And you know, I've been high on Cody, you know, since you know, watching him last year at Colorado. I mean, he's a guy that you know, for me, I don't think he has a real weeks in terms of skill. He can dribble the ball, he can pass the ball, he can shoot the ball, he can defend uh, he can defend multiple positions, he
can play multiple positions offensively. And you know, to me, his weaknesses are I don't know that he knows how good that he is or how talented that he is. And he's got to get a lot of physical strength, Like he has to gain twenty pounds, he has to gain a lot of muscle and there's you know, room on his body to get you know, to to put on you know that kind of that kind of weight and still maintain the athleticism, the bounce and and the
first step that he has. But you know, he can do a lot of things on the floor, and you know, he's you know, I want to I want to see him stop being so much of a floater in terms of you know, he can go real chunks of the game without putting his imprint on the game. Because I think that he can put his imprint on the game from possession to possession when he really puts his mind to it. And you know, and I want to see him.
I want to see him be more aggressive off the dribble with the basketball because when he gets downhill, he's really capable of bending the defense. And when he bends the defense, he's really capable of making the right the right decisions from there in terms of whether they're shooting and passing. Now, some of that has to do with the lack of the strength. You know, he can still get bumped off of his drives pretty easily at the pro level. But you know, I just want to see him.
He's talented enough to I just want to see him try stuff this year, Like, you know, I want to see him come down. I want to see him, you know, try to mix people off the dribble. I want to see him try to go to the basket, and I
want to see him trying to dunk on people. I want to see him be aggressive, take you know, do stuff that he know only doesn't do it like this is the perfect team and the perfect season for him to just try to expand his game with game reps as much as possible, because I think he's talented to do most stuff on the floor that a wing does.
I don't know that he's going to be a star because I don't know that he's ever I don't know that he's ever going to get the aggression that's necessary to go out and average twenty five and seven assists and five remoules a game. But I'm pretty sure that he's going to be a valuable player, valuable rotation player for a long time at the NBA level.
So the other player that looks like he's going to benefit from Taylor's injury will be Kyle Philipowski. And I'm a little bit curious to see how Will handles this because right now, defensively, he doesn't have the lateral quickness. Now he's got good C six eleven, so, you know, but oftentimes he's cotton switches. It looks like they're identifying him intentionally to try to get the right switch on him.
So defensively it hasn't looked good for Kyle. I'm not sure if it ever Will, But we know his skill set at Duke and how complete it was, So the question is does that translate since Taylor's injury. Twenty five minutes against Sacramento, he had twelve points, eight boards, went two to five, from three to five to ten from the floor, twelve points, five boards against San Antonio. He bat against Denver and Will saw it pretty quick, so
he played eighteen minutes, two points. But again the defense, the defensive side of the floor is an issue with him against Chicago seventeen minutes, seven points, five boards, a couple of assists. There have been a lot of bright moments for Kyle. Looks like we're going to see a lot more of him. What has stood out most to you so far?
I just think a versatility stands out, you know, the fact that he can do things at least from two levels, Like he can do things at the rim, and he can do things from above the arc. You know. I like that he can get to the basket off the bounce, even from the four spot, which you know typically means he's trying to take you know, quicker players, there's smaller players off the bounce, and he's certainly been able to do it. From the five spot in a few mini
states that he's played at the center spot. I think because because of what you said, because of what you said in terms of his defense, which is an issue, I think that I think that his best outcome is that he becomes one of these centers that you know obviously can't defend, but it's so good offensively that it kind of makes up for it. Right, And you know that, you know, he becomes such a mismatch of offensive because that's that this is an extreme example because we're talking
about an all time in here. But you look at Nako is a bad defender. I know that, you know, analytics people will try to point to his analys to his analytics and and and try to argue otherwise. Look, you know, I watch him play a lot of nights. He's a bad defender, and but he's so good offensively, and he's so good on the boards that it really just doesn't matter how how good or bad bad that he defends. So Kleslpowski and this is not a comparison
to Jokics. In his own way, he has to figure out a way to get good enough offensively that you know, on some levels, you know his his defense didn't matter. Let's so let's on a let's go on a real smaller scale. Like you know, Kelly Olynik in most regular season instances, you know he's a bad defender, but he's so valuable offensively in terms of being able to to uh be a hub offensively and you know, score and play make for others that you know he makes him
makes his bad defense matter less. So that's the thing with Kyle Silopowski. How good can he become offensively to where you know, we say, yay, he's a bad defender, but you know, it kind of doesn't matter. And you know, if the jaz can can build around that and build you know, enough defenders around I don't know if you want to build around Colsi Lapowski, but if the Jazz can build enough people around Calci Lapowski that it makes
his defense not matter as well. So those are some of the questions that I have for him.
All right.
So, as I have said all along, and you can only operate based off of what the front office and the staff say out loud. And so when they're talking about development, the biggest indicator as to whether or not this new iteration of Jazz management and coaching can develop players, is going to be Walker because he is in year three now under Will and you know the other players, Kyante year two, Bryce year two, and then.
A lot of rookies too.
But this is year three for and so if you can develop players, Walker will stand out one way or the other. And for the most part, Tony he stood out and played really well. He had a rough game against Golden State, he had a rough game against Sacramento. He was awesome against Chicago, he was really good against Denver opening night. Probably the best player for the Jazz outside of market in and he was solid against Dallas. On the season, we're looking at about let me pull
up his splits real quick as my computer refreshes. On the season, Walker is about ten points, twelve boards, and if you round up, it's three blocks. He's ten points, twelve boards, three blocks. I think he's fourth in the NBA and rim defense. That's the opponent's field goal percentage at the rim when Walker is the main defensive player. So a few rough games, but my biggest bright spot for the Jazz so far has been Walker Kessler.
I think it's been like an eight plus start. What do you think.
I mean? I think You've been terrific, and you know, I think he's one of the best rent protectors that we have in our game. You know. But the thing that I've been encouraged about when you watch watch Walker Castle, I think he's rebounding the ball a lot better. Thought he's the average rebounder last year, and I think that he's gotten better at that. And you know, and I think that you know, people are finding him as a
as a vertical lot threat. You know, he's really dependent on the play, probably more than any player outside of Lowry on this roster. He's dependent on how the point guard play is, you know, because you know, when he's getting it downhill, when he sets the screen, you know, and when the guards finds him, it's he's he's going to he's he's gonna score, and he's he's going to score at the basket and you know, and if that
doesn't happen, then he looks really pedestrian offensively. But you know, he's got so many strengths in terms of being able to protect a I truly think he's one of the best five rim protectors in the league, you know, But he's also really athletic. He runs the floor really well. Uh, and he's done a lot of his damage and limit and limited minutes. I think his minusload has increased a little bit as the season has gone on. But you know, his minus load was was was pretty split with with
John Collins uh at the beginning of the season. Now you know Taylor Hendricks being out, that's that's helped a lot because John has started to soak up a lot of the minutes at power forward, uh, particularly against Chicago. So Walker and John have been playing on the floor on the floor together a little bit more. But you know, he's he's just really been a lot better and he's been a lot more confident. He's in uh, such a better head space mentally than he was, uh than he
was last season. Last season he was just in a kind of a mess mentally, and I think that he's gotten a lot stronger and more focused mentally going into this year. So, you know, and this is you know, this is a huge season for him. This is not a you know, it's not a contract year for him, but it's kind of like a contract year because the Jazz have to have to decide whether or not they're
going to pay him by by this summer. You know he's going to be extension eligible, so the Jazz have to decide whether they're going to extend him or whether they're going to allow him to go into a restricted free agency the following summer. So this is a kind of a big year for Walker and the Jazz, uh and we're gonna find out a lot as this year goes on and as we get into next summer, whether the Jazz truly see Walker as a long term piece or not.
Last thing, before I set you loose, you had a assignment that was away from the Jazz and your name was up there with Sam Amy and David Aldridge, who were that's that's heavyweight man. Those are two of the best NBA riders that we've ever seen. And our guy was on the assignment with him as well. So unpack what happened in Philly. It's a situation with Joel Embiid shoving a columnist in the locker room, and you were one of the guys that was in charge of writing a really big story.
All right, So I'm gonna give you a Tony Jones fact.
Oh well, that okay, Jack Jones kind of an oxymoron military.
Yes, here, So here's a Jackie Jones. Fact she was, so the columnist in question, his name is Marcus Hayes. He works for the Philadelphia Inquirir Well, Marcus Hayes. Once upon a time was young and a burgaining columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News. My mother, Jackie Jones was his boss.
Wow.
Yeah, she was his editor. She was a city editor at the Philadelphia Daily News when I was in high school, which is why we moved to Philly, and he was one of her writers. So I was just, you know,
it was just kind of coincidental. And I've never met the guy, which is kind of crazy as well, but you know it, so essentially, long story short, Marcus wrote a pretty inflammatory column about Joel Ebad's lack of availability and his lack of durability, and within that column he wrote an excerpt that talked about Joel's brother Arthur, who who tragically passed away about a decade ago, and Joel
was very upset. So what happened was Joel the previous The day before the locker room Frankas called out Marcus in inavailabibility and essentially said that I've done too much for the city of Philadelphia for a commists to write this about me and the Inquirer. So Marcus went to the Philadelphia the Sixers game the very next day, the very next night, to apologize to Joel, and the Sixers knew that Marcus was there to apologize, and he went up to him in the locker room. He tried to apologize,
and Joel did not accept the apology. To put it kindly, there was a verbal altercation, and so Joel basically shouted at Marcus, nobody gives a bleep what you write. And then Marcus looked at Joel and he said, but you do, and that set Joel. That's what set Joel off, and that's when he pushed Marcus and that's when everything kind
of faded to black. So the Sixers apologize to Marcus Hage for for the incident, and obviously the n b A uh suspended him be And you know, basically, Uh, the Sixers season is kind of going off the rails so far. Uh, they're one and six on the season. They just lost Tyree Maxi to a hamstring strain. Uh, he's going to be out for a couple of weeks. So they have Lakers tomorrow night, and I'm out in La I'm going to cover that. I expect him to lose that game. So you know, if they lose that game,
they'll fall to one in seven. Uh. And you know, in it's kind of all bad. Joel's serving his suspension. He'll be out tomorrow night, and he'll be out and he'll be out on Sunday as well. And his season debut is expected to be Tuesday in an NBA Cup game against the next So that's kind of the story of the Philadelphia seventy six is as of right now in a nutshell.
The NBA Cup. Baby, it is here, all right. Tell him, Tell everybody where they can go get your work.
You can find me at the Athletic. You can find me on Instagram at t Jones Athletic, and you can find me on Twitter at t Jones on the NBA.
Thank you, my friend with chat soon.
Okay, thanks my God.
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