All right, let's get it.
Drive us on Monday afternoon, twelve minutes past the hour two o'clock.
It is cloudy, it is chilly, looks like we're gonna get some rain.
It's gonna be a little bit of a rainy slash snowy week as we have welcomed in the month of March, but as it is every single day, it's going to have you along for the ride. Spence Jackets beyond the Mike, Porter Larson behind the glass today producing the program.
Happy Monday to you.
Hope you had a fantastic weekend, jam packed weekend in the world of local.
And of course national sports.
We got a lot to do on this Monday afternoon after a nice little springtime type week I should say, weatherwise last week, little chilly, little colder this week, but it is still early March, so hopefully had a fun weekend, got outside, enjoyed. The weather is a nice sixty two degree Sunday afternoon, and on the program today we will review the weekend that was in the world of both
college and pro basketball. The IDEs of March is upon us BYU continues to say hot the Utah Men were able to get a win and the Utah women beat BYU here in saul Lake be a half court. Heave an incredible moments and now we are on too conference tournament time. On the women's side, the Utes will be the number six seed in the Big Twelve. BYU comes in at number twelve. Big Twelve Tournament style. BYU is able to beat West Virginia on Saturday night at the
Marriott Center. Now they've got a big game coming up tomorrow in Ames against Iowa State. They win that game, they'll probably get the one of the top four seeds in the Big Twelve tournament, which leads to a double.
Buy into the quarter finals.
Final game of the regular season for both Utah and BYU men's hoops will be against each other down in Provo on March d eighth. University of Utah men, welcome in West Virginia coming up tomorrow night. Head up, heading up to the Huntsman Center and say thank you to these young men who have had a very emotional couple of weeks.
We'll get to the latest with the.
Head coaching higher and the potential candidates and where we're at now with the Utah men's basketball program. Good piece up in the Salt Lake Tribune Jason Batakia, a couple of good pieces on Utah men's hoops, doctor Gabe Madson about how he found out the news that coach Coach Smith had been let go.
Really cool piece on Ezrasar in his background, his.
Family and getting to know him a little bit better. So go to sltrip dot com for all the latest. Spring football is upon us down in Provo, not quite yet here, but obviously college football topical right now, so we'll get the latest college football storylines. We had a bunch of local boys at the Combine show out. We'll kind of give you an update in that direction. Some
NFL news. T Higgins has been franchised for a second straight year, and we are high speed ahead to the NFL Draft, So we'll get to all the latest as far as the pro football and college football news. Right I'll Salt Lake with a breath of I should say, a sigh of relief for a fan base that was a little bit nervous after a rough start. RSL was able to win their home opener against Seattle at America First Few.
We'll do a little soccer on the program today.
The Utah Hockey Club lost to the Devils are back in action on Thursday against Detroit Points at a premium as the Wildcards still a very legitimate possibility. So a lot to do on the radio show today. Thanks for being a part of it. We're going to start off with Tom Havershrow NBA Daily Assist Style Jazz lost to the Pelicans, Thank goodness over the weekend jazz. Welcome in the red hot Detroit Pistons. When's the last time you were able to say a sentence like the red hot
Detroit Pistons nineteen eighty eight? Not sure, but the Pistons are in town. Old buddy Dennis Lindsay is part of the Pistons front office. So Jazz in action tonight kind of the only local product in action.
All the college hoops.
Will take place tomorrow, and then the Utahey Club out off for a bit, so Tom Haberstrow our first guest.
Right out of the gates.
We'll do a little RSL with Donnie the Birthday Boy himself.
Brian Dunseeth rolls by, the Voice of the Utes.
Bill Riley is our guest in the four o'clock hour, and then Sam Monson stops by do a little football with Sam An entertaining fun guest excited to uh to catch up with Sam today we'll do some NFL drafts, some NFL combine and with Ryle's we'll do a little utes football and some and some basketball of course, and a busy, busy Monday show to get your week started out the right way. Tom Habershow, Brian dun Seth, Bill Riley,
Sam Motson, Me, Spence Check. It's all of you, the great listeners and that guy who, like me, did not see any of the Oscar nominated movies.
Port I want oh for ten man?
Wow?
By the way, when did we start nominating ten I call them films. It's not a big deal, right, When did we start nominating ten films for this award?
I like to call them cinematic adventures?
Oh?
Nice one upper in there. I don't know about when they or how much they nominate. I've never been like an award show guy. We've we've we've talked about this, but I expected you to see at least some of those movies. It's it's kind of in my wheelhouse to see them two years later once they arrive on streaming. But no, I thought I thought you would. You'd be all over it. Maybe we'll have to get our guy Brady on the line.
The Movie Zone. Shout out to Brady.
No, I feel like the only people that have seen more than like two or three of these films.
Again, let's keep it above board here. Thank you. Nominated for the award.
Are people in miserable relationships they don't want to talk to each other, so they just go to a movie.
If you're single, you're just you're not going to see these movies.
You're like going and doing stuff where you're you know, we racked up.
You don't feel like you need to escape from your life. Okay, I'll just put it like that.
I think, you know, maybe not everybody's a who's a movie buff, but there's probably something there.
No, I think most people it's like it's like Disney adults. We'll get to it later on, but our first guest is going to be Tom Haberstrow. But before we get to Tom, courtesy if our good friends over at Prize Picks on a Monday afternoon, it is Tom Now for your opening tip.
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Prize Picks run your game all season long, all right, So recap real quick the basketball action over the weekend, and you know, ultimately we're still kind of waiting to hear more inform me on the situation with head coaching job for the University of Utah on the men's side of things, But they were a to able to get a win over Arizona State, and you just kind of felt happy for this group of young men who clearly have been through a very emotional roller coaster.
As I've referenced at the top of the show.
Our buddy Jason Battakio from the Salt Lake Tribune wrote a good piece on the player reaction to Craig losing his job. Where were you when you heard? What kind of were your thoughts afterwards? And Gabe Mattson and some others were interviewed, really cool piece on Ezra. Sorry, Ezra was really good against the depleted Arizona State team that essentially had five scholarship players and played six players. Even
Bobby Hurley's kid got eight minutes. I'm hearing a lot of rumors and rumblings around the Arizona State men's basketball program that they're going to get rid of Bobby Hurley, you know, with what Kenny Dillingham has done on the football side of things. Arizona State's like I've always believed, kind of like a sleeping giant. They should be better in both basketball and football consist only than they have been.
But a cool moment for the UT, says Brady Smith. Got in the game.
Craig's son had an and one opportunity, and Brady's a really good free throw shooter. So when I saw it, I'm like, he's gonna knock down the free throw, but unfortunately missed it. He had a big smile on his face and it just kind of made you feel good, right for a program that's been through a bunch. So they were able to get a win against Arizona State. Obviously, we're kind of waiting to hear, like I said, more
information on the situation with the head coaching job. I was happy for that group, though, happy for coach Eiler, Josh Eiler, to get a win. And now look the IDEs of march in college basketball. It's taught all of us that you never know what could happen. The program is escaping me. But there was a coach last year it was informed that he was going to lose his job, and he went on to win his conference tournament and
went to the NCAA tournament. Right, So, look, I'm not going to sit here and predict that Utah is going to run through the Big twelve bracket. We've got West Virginia here in Sala coming up tomorrow, the final home opportunity for these young men to play in front of fans of the Hunts. It was long beach date. Okay, so the long beach date head coach was told he was fired. They went on to win their conference tournament then advanced the NCAA tournament.
Right, Yeah, Don Monson, I think the head coach. I wonder how often that's happened. But we're in a space where it's more of a possibility than I think probably ever before.
Yeah, like I said, I'm not predicting it.
And part of me feels like that game at BYU coming up on March the eighth could get really really ugly because BYU is playing some really high quality basketball. Right now, all of the signs and everything that I've heard and the people I've talked to seem to indicate that Alex Jensen is the top candidate and as I was able to report last week based off of two different sources, Alex is in the final year of his contract as the assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks.
Is that Germaine in the situation.
Not entirely sure how far these conversations gone.
You know, I've heard that they have met, they have talked to each other.
Apparently, according to a couple of ports, there was a meeting in Los Angeles with Alex Jensen. Not sure if Andre Miller has been contacted about being an assistant just yet. But whoever it is is going to be building this thing from the ground up, and if any news breaks, of course we will bring it to you. And as we've discussed and we'll continue to discuss, regardless of who the candidate is, they're all going to be asking the
same question. If it's Alex Jensen, if it's Andre Miller, if it's Richard Patino, if it's Bryce Drew, They're going to look at Mark Carlin and Taylor Randall and say, what are the economics of.
Your program right now? What does it look like?
Are we keeping up with the ability to pay players what we need to pay them in order to get them to come here.
Love it or hate it, man, that's where we're at.
So no tangible news in that space over the weekend, but happy for the youths to get that win. Happy ultimately for coach Islert and those players to experience a win, and we'll see what they do the rest of the way. The best game of the weekend was the Utah women's game against BYU. Now BYU has this rising star, this freshman, Delaney Gibb freshman went for thirty six, ten and five. She was thirteen of eighteen from the floor, five of seven from three, and you know, of course, the attention
is on the half court shot. Mad Wilki hit there at the end. It was her only three of the game, but it really was jan on a couple of different occasions. John Neekins tied the game in regulation with a big time three after BYU was able to take the lead by three. This would have been a big upset for BYU on the road. Utah is a much better team. And then Yanna was able Jihanna was able to hit a couple of free throws in overtime. Johna went ten
of ten from the line. Maya went nine of ten, so those two combined nineteen of twenty from the free throw line, setting up Maddy Wilkie's half court heave, and what a moment. Maddy will never forget that for the rest of her life. And it was cool to see kind of the dog pile and the team going crazy. Utah women advanced to the Big Twelve Tournament where they will be a top six seed. BYU will be the twelve seed on the women's side. On the men's Bringing
Me Young continues to roll. They've now won six straight basketball games. They embarrassed West Virginia. They dog walked him down at the Marriott Center. That game was over pretty quickly. And the nice thing if you're a BYU fan is they didn't shoot it very well.
They did not make a three in the first half.
Now you knew at some point a team that really is that proficient offensively was going to start knocking down shots, and they did in the second half. They hung fifty two points on West Virginia in the second half and seventy seven points against West Virginia.
That's the most Dave allowed in Big Twelve play.
But this really was the Trayory kid Fos Traior off the bench West Virginia for some reason decided to guard him one on one, and when you get food space on the block, he is impossible. He's got excellent footwork, great patients can finished with both his right in his left hand. He went nine to eleven from the floor. He had twenty points and ten boards. Richie Saunders once again named Big twelve Player of the Week, but he only had thirteen. This was kind of a defensive effort
for bringing me young. But you've got to love that they didn't necessarily rely on just knocking down a bunch of three. And they've got a massive game coming up in Aames, taking on Iowa State, and if they win that game, they're going to be a top four seed in the Big twelve tournament. I don't think they can catch either Tech or Arizona.
They're a full game behind them.
They would need a little help, but a top four seed in the Big twelve tournament gives you a double buy in the quarterfinals. And at this point, not only is BYU a lock for the NCAA tournament, they might even get a top four or five seed, depending on what happens the rest of the way. Utah Jazz and Action Tonight they're taking on the Detroit Pistons. Got a loss, so a way to go against the Pelicans over the weekend. Jazz are essentially resting most of their vets. We know
what time it is down the stretch. They're just losing games to up that lottery position. If they're one of the three worst teams in basketball, they will have a fourteen percent chance to the number one pick. It goes down incrementally from there. If you're number four, it's like twelve and a half percent. Number five is like ten or whatever. But you want to be one of the bottom three, and the jazzer right on pace for that. I timed the Uncrustable perfectly today, just.
Like you could not have done it better.
I'm not sure if it's like twenty minutes twenty five minutes, but if you can get it when the jelly is still a little bit cold and it's like a little crunchy, o oh, man, knocked it right out of the park. I usually save until three, but I tried something new today and I think I'm onto something grape Yeah, oh yeah, okay, I'm all in on the grape man. Like I've now only started to buy only grape. I don't buy the strawberry. Really,
I haven't tried it. There's like new flavors, but I'm all in on the grape.
There is quite a few. There's like a honey one. I mean, let's be clear, it's not anything groundbreaking. This is a peanut butter and something else sandwich. There's honey ones, there's strawberry Jaanda. The Uncrustables though they don't.
Miss well, I'm just afraid that they're, as the kids would say, they're doing too much. They're trying too hard. Just stick with the basics, at least that's my opinion. We've got Doney on the program today. RSL was able to get a win. The Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley stops by Sam Monson for or some football.
But on a Monday afternoon, it's always going to start a week with.
My buddy Tom Haberstrow to talk a little pro basketball.
Tom. Happy Monday, buddy. How we doing?
Oh?
I'm doing great? Fcch Champion Staples Wreckers. You're talking to an alum of the raining champion FCAC Staples Wreckers. That's right, that's right, Spence. I had that in my back pocket before I came on.
You know, you don't have to rub that in.
I'll just encourage you to go look at the box score from nineteen ninety six at Staples High when your boy just took Pete Van Sicklin and Ernie Vverina to school.
Well, I don't know if you know this, and it is for another time, but the suburban teams in the FCAC are now raining. They're now dominating the FCAC, which is very different than when we were growing up. But I digress. That is another topic for another conversation. And I am here in Portland. I am in studio for this four game trip that the Blazers are on the road and they're state just finished up a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime. It was an amazing game.
And the reason why we have Pearl Jams starting up is because I am here in the Pacific Northwest coming to you live from Portland, Oregon.
I love it.
Are you a fan of the PMW as those of us out here like to call.
It, Yes?
Yes, And it's there's such a great food scene and people are very friendly. It's just there's like so here at the hotel, there's a you know, a purel dispenser like a hand sanitizer dispenser, and it says spread joy not germs. To me, that is Portland in a nutshell. Is there's just on something as just random and basic as a hand sanitizer machine. They gotta make it weird.
They got to make it fun.
Spread joy not germs.
Worse to live by, keep Portland weird, man, I'm telling you, I've got buddies up there. And if you watch like propaganda news, you believe that the city is dead.
It's not. It's very much great.
Do not watch the news and believe what they tell you, just go and experience it. How often are you able to get up there, because usually you do all this stuff via zoom right or in the studio in your house.
Yeah.
Yeah, I come up a couple of times a year. And I got a cousin, one of my close cousins here in Portland, so it's always great to come. The food scene is outrageous. I have that Top Chef podcast, Pack Your Knives. If you're a big fan of that show on Bravo Top Chef, you can listen to that. And I got to eat at one of these Top Chef restaurants. Called Cohn, Gregory Gordat and like man, every time I come to Portland, I'm just blown away at the food scene, the beer scene, like all the arts
here in town. It's just a great I love coming here. Besides, you know, this is the only pro sports team in the four major sports here and they really care about their Blazers, and I know Salt Lake you guys are experiencing this too. Is just like they're adding you know, they're adding an NHL team there, and I gotta imagine, does this mean that the Jazz lose some of their real estate in the sports conversation. I'm wondering, I'm curious.
It's a good question.
And you know, I've often drawn parallels between Salt Lake City and Portland. You know, they have an MLS team, and their soccer fans are very intense and it's a really cool soccer experience like we have here right now. The hockey club's presence has not seemed to dilude the fan base when it comes to attendance for the Jazz. You know what's interesting, Tom, is we got some TV ratings data a couple of weeks ago, and when you know,
the Gobert Mitchell Quinn teams. When they were at their peak, the Jazz were second in the entire league in local NBA ratings.
The Warriors were one. And this was like two three years in a row.
And now the Jazz are like third to the bottom and they have the second worst drop as far as ratings go locally. So there's information available to indicate people aren't watching the games at home as much as they typically do. But I think I've been to maybe nine or ten games, and every game I've been to, and look, I will admit to being a snob.
I only go to the games where the good teams.
Are actually playing on the other side because the Jazz, you know, we know the deal. But every game I've been to tom that Arena has been packed. The Jazz fans continue to show up. At least from my vantage point.
Yeah, and Blazers fans too. Is that even though they are going to this rebuild, the attendance is strong, and we just on the broadcast side, have the highest increase in year over year audience numbers. The ratings have increased by I see something like sixty percent. And you know, the team right now has the second best defense in the NBA. The Blazers do since they made this lineup
change Shade and Sharp out of the starting lineup. Timani Kamara is a beast and Will Hardy has talked a big game on to Monic More loves that guy, and it reminded me, you know, like the Jazz they would
love a player like that. And I've always said that Tommani Kamara is like the Walker Kessler of the Rudy Gobert trade, is like a kind of like an afterthought, a throw in that people aren't really excited about at the time of the trade because they don't they're not familiar with his game, and then later on they're like, oh, like long term, like Walker Kessler's, he's a real piece.
Like he's a really good young player in the same way that Tammani Kamara, who's this All World defender on the wing, second year player for the For the Blazers, he's like the real gem of that Damian Lillard trade, where it's like, yeah, he's not as good as Drew Holiday right now, but down the line, if the Blazers can get Tomani Kamara to develop on the offensive end, they've got a real like Jimmy Butler type Derek White type and at the time just a second round pick.
No one thought anything of it, but just like Walker Kessler, a real deal player.
I'm glad you brought up Walker Kessler because I wanted to revisit a topic that you and I covered to start the year and having kicked it around lately, because it's just been difficult to create interesting narratives for a team that's un serious about winning.
And you know, Jaden Springer's side a three year deal.
I don't know if that means that they're super high on him moving forward or they just need players on the roster, but to start the year and to start the season, for me, whenever I would go on a different radio show or a podcast, I'd get pretty much the same question, which is who's around on the team when they're good? Again outside of marketing and look, they have a lot of work to do to make sure that they're good in the next four years, or they have lowry like they are more than one or two
pieces away. But just generally speaking, I mean, Walker clearly has played himself now to that conversation, He's been so good this year. If there's one real positive development for Jazz basketball, twenty four to twenty five. It is Walker Kessler, so I am more than willing to put him on that list. But if we look at this group of first and second year guys Keante George and we take Walker off the table and we place him next to Lowry,
is okay, we know we've got something with you. With you two, Heantay has been better since well we asked him to come off the bench. There's a lot to like about the progress Isaiah Callier has made. You can't shoot twenty five percent from three and be a lead Garden Pro basketball. Taylor Hendrix's hurt, We'll put him on the shelf. Cody Williams, it does not look good at all.
So if you look at these first and second year players, if we say Tom that Lowry and Walker are around, is there anybody else you're willing to put in that category as of now?
Not right now, No, I don't have the confidence yet. I'd have to see more of Cody Williams. He looks just too thin, too unsure of himself. He looks like a child out there a lot of times. And I think without Jdubb, I'm not so sure I'd have the optimism JDub being Jalen Williams's older brother who's an absolute star in today's NBA who had forty plus points and just the Oklahoma City Thunder are not where they are without Jay Williams. But Cody Williams hasn't inspired me to
make me believe that he's a real deal player. But you know, look, last year, we had a lot of questions about Scoot Henderson and I kept coming back to the point that he's super young, and it's hard to grade these guys when they're nineteen, when they're twenty years old, and that's what I think is the deal with you know, Cody Williams is that when he started the season, he was nineteen, and I just don't think he's there yet.
I don't think he's an NBA player yet. But these guys, we need to grade them in year three or year four. And Walker Kessler is another example of he had a good, good rookie season, but to really see what they're gonna be, you need like three or four years before you make that evaluation. And Cante George, I'm not there yet. Cody Williams not there yet. Isaiah Collier, like you said, has to be more efficient, but you really love the playmaking
and the attack mentality that he has. But for me, it's Walker Kessler and Larry Markinhan.
All right, just for our jazz fan listeners who are very interested in the current landscape of these prospects rising up draft boards. Now, ultimately the bottom three teams will all have about a fourteen percent chance, and the Jazz should be in that bottom three. We'll see what happens, but they're clearly trending in that direction.
They're resting their vets every night.
It seems to me Tom that it is Cooper flag and then there is a massive gap between everybody else. But are we going to have people like some of the ziggers when people zag, like when Wembin Yama was available, and people like well, I kind of like Scoot, You're like, no, it's stop doing that. It's him, right. Is there anybody else that's in the Cooper flag cul de sac or is it Cooper flag and then everybody else in this draft process, Yeah, it's.
Cooper flag and everybody else. To me, you know, some of these guys. I got to see Duke in person a few weeks ago at Cameron Indoor and Maleley walk, the big man seven foot two, he's he's going to be a really good NBA player, but he's not even
in the same stratosphere as Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag, the fact that he's averaging you know, twenty two nine and five per thirty six minutes, you know, to keep the grade on that scale for all players in college basketball, no one has the productivity, no one has the upside. And by the way, he's the youngest guy in the class.
That's what I don't think people realize.
He's eighteen years old and doing this. He just turned eighteen, so he's not only the best player in college basketball. And dude, like the dude from Auburn, right, he's like twenty four years old. They're in the same conversation for Player of the Year. And I'm just sitting here, like they play two different leagues. Like the fact that that guy, as good as he is, he's like four or five years older than Cooper Flag. So what are we doing here?
I know this isn't like who's the number one overall pick should get the Player of the Year, but it's just amazing to me that Cooper Flag is playing head to head with a guy who's like five years older
than him and still putting up extremely good numbers. Look, you know, the Blazers fans, they're kind of in this very difficult position is they know that Cooper Flag is right there in the next year's draft pool, and yet the Blazers are one of the best teams in the NBA over the last month, and so it is this kind of like, I just hate that. This is the conversation for the NBA is like, when you have a good team, I don't want to have to be like, yeah,
but they're missing out on Cooper Flag. And that's a tough thing. With the incentive structure as you've lived it there in Utah is there should never be a system in place that makes fans feel bad about winning. And
that's unfortunately what we've created with the draft. And even though they've done those those flattening of the eye to curb tanking and to disincentivize teams from trying to lose, it's still unfortunately a big part of the conversation is whether teams like the Phoenix Suns or the Miami Heat the Golden State Warriors, should they really go for the playoffs or should they tank for Cooper Flag, and unfortunately we are still in that conversation no matter what the
league has done in the recent years to curb tanking.
One more Jazz thing here if we operate off a fun hypothetical and say, okay, finally, Lady Luck shines on Salt Lake. Finally, the Utah Jazz received the lottery luck that they've never received in the history of this organization. It's crazy that they've only been to the lottery nine times for a team that plays their basketball in Salt Lake City. They've never moved up, They've only stood pat or moved down. And they are able to grab that
number one pick. And we enter next year, Tommy with a front line around here of lowry marketing, Walker Cashler and Cooper Flag. First of all, tickets would be flying off the shelf and they would be very popular. But second of all, from a basketball standpoint, we got something now right, Like that's now something the fan base can say, Okay, now here we go.
I can see a future.
And I don't think that those three guys can't play together. I mean, you look at Cooper Flag. He's kind of a Luca in the sense that.
He is Ah.
He's a hub of your offense and is marketing in the hub. I don't. I don't think Mark I like and marketing as a tall clay like Klay Thompson. He's an amazing shooter, but he's not a guy who's gonna be ball dominant and running the offense and playmaking for everybody else. That's Cooper Flag. Like I see, that's the vision for this dude, is like KG. Like KG was a guy who is the hub of the Minnesota Timberwolves
at his peak, and yeah the Boston Celtics. KG wasn't that guy, but man like peak KG, he very much was a point big And I see the same thing with Cooper Flag. So if you have Walker Kessler and his rim protection and then you have the weak side help protection that a Cooper Flag gets you overnight, if they can find, you know, some shooting around those guys overnight, the Utah Jazz would be a playoff team. I firmly believe that is the impact the effect of Cooper Flag.
Let me ask you, just because you'll be good with this, you live there.
I've always wondered, so, Durham, what's like a two hour drive from Charlotte's roughly.
Something like that.
Yes, So is there anything that would turn Charlotte's or just that area North Carolina into a pro basketball market in a way that we haven't seen, Like Charlotte's gonna be one of the three worst teams I think, along with Washington and Utah. If the Hornets get number one and they put Cooper Flag next to you know, next next to ball, is that is there anything that will turn that that area into a pro basketball market that
we haven't seen so far. I thought it was going to be more of a natural fit than it seemed to have been.
It would one hundred percent put people back in the seats for the Charlotte Hornets. The whole city is ravenous for something to cheer about.
The city just.
Got an MLS team, right, They've got this LaMelo ball kid who's like just turning the corner and trying to be a winning player. But the roster they're breaking it down to the studs with the new ownership. And you have to remember, the Charlotte Hornets had the longest sellout streak in NBA history at one point. They were a huge market in the in the nineties. During the nineties
with Larry Johnson, Alonzo Morning Muggsy Bogues. They were huge, and especially so in the local market, and it was impossible to get a ticket to go see the Charlotte Hornets. So it's there. There is this kind of this this this sense that we've got a huge fan base of basketball with UNC with the Tobacco Road right here, that if Cooper Flag, coming from Duke, can come here in Charlotte and be the face of the Charlotte Hornets, it'll change everything.
And he is a very very.
Serious basketball player in the way that there are a lot of questions around LaMelo Ball and how serious is about winning. He's never been on a winning team. That's not the case of Cooper Flag. There are no questions about his desire to be professional, desire to be a winning player and to do all the little things to
win basketball games. And the other thing I will say, the Utah Jazz and the Charlotte Hornets are very similar in this sense where they always feel like they are the bridesmaid, never the bride when it comes to the draft lottery. I'm going to remind the listeners here the Charlotte Hornets and the Bobcats history in the NBA draft, because it's crazy all right, number one. In the Dwight Howard draft, who do they get at number two? It was a Mecca Okafer. The Charlotte Hornets could have had
Dwight Howard, but instead they got a Mecca Okafer. In the Shaquille O'Neal draft, of course, the Charlotte Hornets didn't get the number one overall pick even though they are the one of the worst teams, and they ended up getting the number two pick when Victor Webbin Yama was the number one overall pick. The Sewtt Hornets ended up at number three. In of course, the Anthony Davis draft, they couldn't get number one. They ended up at number
two to get Michael kid Gilchrist. The fall off between these generational bigs and the number two or number three guy that the Charlotte Hornets ended up getting has been outrageous.
It is it.
The fans always say, you know, there's something that the league will not let us get the number one overall pick, because look at this slew of generational bigs that come through the NBA, and we always seem to get the number two pick. And hopefully for Hornets fans, that changes.
Hopefully for Jazz fans that changes, but there's only one Cooper flag, and unfortunately those fan bases can't get they can't all get Cooper flag, and so for many many fan bases, this is just gonna be another year losing.
That is brutal.
I don't think I've ever heard anybody articulate that draft history before. That's a baby's breath away from several franchise pieces. Goodness, all right, Tom, let's move off the jazz now and let's get some big picture thoughts about what's currently happening in the league.
What are you willing to.
Say about where the Lakers are at today and winning six straight games, Luca kind of taking over as the centerpiece against the Clips the other night, and Lebron really certainly not looking near his age. Are you willing to say that they need to be put in the category with OKC And I'll say, Denver, maybe that's your Tier one in the West.
Are they a legitimate threat come playoff time?
Now?
I've got OKAC in its own tier out West. I got Denver and the Lakers in that set, and the Golden State Warriors in that second tier.
So out on.
Tomdfinder dot com, I tear out the Contenders by five star, four star, three star, two star, one star ratings, and this morning just released my newest title Tiers. The Lakers are upgraded to a four star status. And I look at their performance with Luka Doncic and it's all about Lebron looks rejuvenated, Like he looks like prime Lebron right now, in the sense that he's trying a lot harder on defense. He's everywhere defensively, he's running out in fast fast breaks,
his transition game. It looks like they breathe new life into Lebron. And Draymond Green said this about Jimmy Butler the acquisition. Right after they got Jimmy Butler, he said, we're gonna win the championship. You said it over All Star Weekend, And it's because of belief Capital b belief. And in some ways I see the same corollary for the Los Angeles Lakers as Lebron believes, I think he gets Luca on his team and he believes like he is the one, Like Anthony Davis is great, but he
ain't Lucas Ajic. And the way that they have chemistry out on the floor is insane. They have been nineteen assists from Luca to Lebron already by far the most the assist recipient of Luca's assists is number one is Lebron. And the crazy stat from Dean Oliver, who's you know, the godfather of NBA analytics, who wrote the Bible of NBA analytics called Basketball on Paper. He works for the
ESPN's analytics department. Now he runs it, and he just tweeted out that the shot quality of Luca's assists to Lebron before he shoots the ball, an average player would shoots seventy six percent on those shots. Think about that, Luca is finding Lebron in spots where the average NBA player would shoot seventy six percent, And of course Lebron is way higher than that because he's Lebron. But do you know how hard it is to get defenses to forget about Lebron James or miss him or lose him,
or not even lose him. Just Luca can can place the ball in Lebron's hands and ways that no one else can't. Like when you look at those touchdown passes that Kevin Love used to throw to Lebron in Cleveland, Luca's doing it like three times over, like every time that Luca gets a rebound, now defensive rebound, Lebron's running down the floor and getting a wide open layup. And that's what's scary about this is that Luka Doncic is already has way more chemistry than Dwayne Wade, than Chris Bosh,
than Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. It seems like he has way more chemistry with Lebron James than any of those guys had. At nearly lightning speed. Lebron's already got this in like five games playing with Luca, So I think I think they're in the four starts here because they don't have the bigs that I think is required to beat, you know, all the teams that they need to beat in order to get to the NBA Finals.
But on Basketball Illuminati this week, we had Brandon Payne on who's Steph Curry's trainer and one of the great coaches skills coaches in the NBA, longtime shooting coach. He was just talking about how he thinks that the Lakers are every bit a championship contender as the rest of them. Calves Okac in Boston, I might not go as far to say that, but I think they're just in a tier below the Oklahoma City Thunder because of that chemistry between Lebron and Luca.
All Right, before I set you loose, I'll ask you a similar question. But we move over to the East and on Friday night in Boston, Donovan Man, when Donovan cooks like that, it's just a lot of people around here kind of missed those days. But he went for forty one, and the Calves stormed back in the second half than they took care of the Celtics. And look, the Cavs winning is not new, but they're fifty and ten, they've won ten straight and they're seven and a half
games out of Boston. At what point do we stop with the whole Boston and everybody else narrative and start to talk about the Calves in a more serious way, especially with the trade they made that you've talked about grabbing DeAndre Hunter, which kind of went under the radar because you know Luca was traded.
Yeah, DeAndre Hunter, I think could be the missing piece from thirty two points yesterday against the Blazers, where you know Tamani Kamara was busy locking down Darius Garland four sixteen shooting from Darius Garland and here comes DeAndre Hunter, like, oh, I can carry this offense down the stretch. They didn't have that before the trade. Now they have this piece DeAndre Hunter, who's a big wing. I think he's I think he's a four. He's a natural four in today's
modern MBA. And so they can go small like they did a lot in that game yesterday with Jared Allen on the bench and Ammably at the and that dynamic is huge. I'd picked the Calves as the favorite out of East right now. They're forty three and oh with
a lead going into the fourth quarter. They have not lost the game with the lead, and going into the fourth I think the stat with thirty eight and one after a lead in the first quarter, so going into the second quarter with the lead, they've only lost one game this season. They're just they're Relentlesskenny Atkinson's done a great job there and I think Cleveland is right there
in that top tier. If you go to Tomdfinder dot com you can see my tiers, my title tiers that I do every week, and I haven't changed.
It's Cleveland.
It's okay seeing it's Boston and then everybody else. I think Boston's really good, but man, Cleveland's coming for them, and I really believe that they should be on the same title tier as Boston.
The raigning champs staying at the Nines, No, I'm.
Staying at the highest regency by the Convention Center.
Well go, what's that restaurant that have at the Nines. That's a good spot. You got to hit that up.
Yeah.
So the chef there, Gregory Gordet, he opened up his new restaurant after Top Chef, and that's the one that I went to when I first got Okay is con and the Nines restaurant up top is very good. But the chef behind that has now has his own restaurant and it is.
It is awesome.
And the Blazers the Blazer There's probably something like this in Utah and Salt Lake where like the jazz players and the jazz proNT office guys love to go there. That's what this restaurant is is it's called con K a n N by Gregory Gordet. And that's the spot in Portland. If you want to hit up a really good restaurant if you're visiting, go hit up con If you can get a reservation.
All right, my guy, where can everybody? And by the way, here that's Vaulters. It's the Italian restaurant Vaults. That's where all the NBA guys like to go. So next time you're in Salt Lake, hit that up. But before I set you loose, where can everybody go?
Find your work at Tom haraschro on x Tom Thefinder dot com, Yahoo Sports. In the Blazers broadcast, we got a Philadelphia seventy six is tonight, very exciting. No Joel Embiid and who knows about Paul George.
All right, buddy, thanks for the time. Enjoy rip City and we'll chat soon. All right, thanks, be right great, Tom Haberstrow, we will catch a break. We've got one hour down. We have three hours to go. All right, We've got Ryle stop on by today. Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley, set your alarms for four o'clock, so about fifty minutes from right now. We'll do some Utah men's basketball with Bill. We'll do some Utah football with Bill. As we are high speed ahead to spring ball. We're
gonna have coach Wit on the program. By the way, coming up on Wednesday of this week coach Wit will stop by, so stay tuned for that. Sam monson later on for a little NFL drafts and combine chatter as well. But URSL, hopefully for a moment, calmed the masses with a two miller result against Seattle. It was the MLS home opener for the lads on Saturday. Our next guest was on the call, and he is celebrating a birthday I believe today. Yes, Brian Don Seth, happy birthday, buddy boyppreciated.
Yesterday was my birthday, but I appreciate it nonetheless. One man, thank you so much.
So you're you're what forty two? Is that right thereabouts?
Yeah?
Maybe six years ago? Uh?
Okay, No, unfortunately forty eight years old, man, And I don't know. It's weird. I can't be the only one out there in radio land who still thinks they're twenty three, twenty four but then wakes up with like a crank in their neck, their back hurts, and somehow, you know, they've got some foot issue out of nowhere. Yeah. I'm young and dynamic in my mind, and I'm I'm beat up and old in my body.
You're preaching the choir man, I pulled my hamstring in the shower, just trying to apply you know, body wash.
How old?
How old?
Was a bright eyed and bushy tailed Brian Dunsath when he first landed in Salt Lake City.
Oh I was I think I was twenty six?
Wow?
Yeah, I think I was twenty six, twenty seventh somewhere there.
Okay, man, you've been you've been around these parts. I know you left for a moment, but you've been back. You're basically a local, Donny by, now, aren't you.
Oh dude, I represent the eight oh one really really well. I uh, I do it every I do what everybody from Utah does. When somebody speaks high of this beautiful state of ours, I tell him it's horrible that they'd hate it, and don't even think about visiting that you wouldn't like it.
Just to keep all the rip wrap away.
No, I I'm throwing through my kid.
You know.
My wife Jade went to Skyline, went to Westminster. My boys are going to Churchill in Skyline. I'm not going anywhere. Man. I love thee one.
That's good living here, There's no doubt.
All right, Donny, Let's start with a little good before we dig into potentially some bad What if anything did that result and you and our guy Max on the call, what what.
Did that result do?
Just to kind of calm people down to nil in the home opener as far as MLS play goes, Yeah.
I would say Spence and I agree with you to an extent, but I would say it was actually more important inside of that locker room for a group of players. You know, listen, they're missing forty two goals in twenty nine assists. If you go back to calendar year talking about Chijo Rongo, Anders Domez, Anderson Julio and Matt Crooks.
You know, the beauty in that is when those type of players leave, there's a you know, there's a huge upside to it, which means inside that locker room there's a great opportunity for young players to fill that vacuum, not only on the field, but maybe more importantly from a leadership perspective. On top of that, I think for Pablo Mastroni, when you're looking at a Jago and you're looking at the old two players that our young dynamic
have similar player profiles. One of these guys for going out on the international market, one of these guys you got to find somebody who could be that next you know, Halvrosapario, and that's t Jo Rongo. On top of that, I
thought defensively at times they were pretty poor. In the first couple of games, I thought they were rock solid in the back with Cabral the relationship between Justin Glad and Philip quinton A Mecca and Brian o'hada pick it up right where they left off, and I thought there was a tweak and I'm not sure too many people notice this, but I think it could have outstanding ramifications going forward, and that was making Diego Luna the undisputed
playmakers centrally underneath either Peel or a Jago and sliding Diego Gonzalvez out to that left hand side. And what it signifies the new sets is that Diego Luna has the keys to the Ferrari and maybe Diego Gonzalvez, who hasn't lived up to expectation so far, maybe a little less pressure and a better opportunity to kind of hide in the shadows and pick up some really important vacated speed spaces with work ethic in the running that Diego Luda has been doing in that number ten position.
So I want to throw something at you that Jason, Jason Cris throwed me when cause you referenced Diogo, who was brought in last summer during that transfer window and is technically, I think, the only DP now on the roster. And to your point, there just haven't been enough bright moments to say, Okay, that's our guy, that's our DP, and Jason said the very same thing happened at the start of Javier's career, Javier Morales's career here in Salt Lake, where you know, you know the story as.
Well as anybody. Jay takes the gig.
He's having a tough time getting anybody to let him sign players, so he just takes a flight to Argentina and finds Javier, finds Fabian and of course Mattias Mantisia, which didn't work out as well.
But is that Is that a good experience.
In parallel to drop on for RSL fans like, yes, Diogo has struggled, but so did Haave and Hobby, for most people, including me, is the best player who's ever played here.
It's a good food for thought, training, exercise, a couple of different things here at the time Hobby came in to play that number ten position.
Remember, he was.
Diving all over the place, he was always on the ground, and we were concerned that there was a physicality issue. But Hobby still could play Diogo. You know, for whatever reason, Matt Crooks was preferred over Diogo, and we could talk about adaption, and we could talk about time, we could
talk about what I feel was the failure for me. Also, I'd like to get the job done way quicker than indeeded to deed, similar to Chico getting into market, you know, three weeks prior to even his availability to start training. You know, Pablo quite likely preferred Matt Crooks and chi Cho Wrongo together when healthy, and he preferred Anderson's Julio
with Diogo because of the positioning. I take what Jason's analogy is, and what I'll do is, I'll hopefully add to it that if Diogo consolved is anywhere near as productive and important that Pavier Morales was to riale Se Lake, well then you've got an iconic tent, not just for
the present but for the future as well. But as I say that, I wonder out loud for Diogo if ultimately he's a player that thrives on having guys that are also leaders amongst him, and having guys that are as talented, if not more talented, because during his time
that was certainly the case at Benfica and Copenhagen. A guy that was going to start each and every game, but a guy that, maybe like Albert Rusknak during his tenure here at Riale Sa Lake, you didn't have to lean on him as much as maybe the observance of being a designated player is in Major League Soccer.
So tell me, Donny, from your perspective and the inside knowledge you have, what is fair to say about the front office the ownership group right now, because you know, with all of the moves they made, and you know we could go over all of them. It's chie Sho to San Jose, it's moving Andress on your reference, Matt Crooks and oh everything. The number that I've been told is they pocketed you know, between fifteen and seven mil,
which is great. I mean, and I understand that the Ondress thing is now proof of concept, but if you're a fan of the club, you're expecting that money to be reinvested into the club to get top shelf talent. And if we're honest, that just hasn't happened yet. What's fair to say about the process in your opinion, Yeah.
There's a couple different factors. And I'm no apologies for Real Salt Lake, to be clear, because I think every team has certain things happened throughout the course of their one year plan, their three year plan, their five year plan, which is everything's great until you get punched in the face. Rsel got punched in the face on a couple different occasions and whatever it was, however, we kind of finalize
the Chicho Orongo departure. The reality is, from a financial standpoint, Rial saw Lake is an organization took a four and a four million dollar bath on what the output was for what they paid for him versus what they ended up inevitably getting as a distressed asset moving him to San Jose. Anderson Julio had a big option yere and at that age and at that price, the club certainly felt as though they could maybe not upgrade, but upgrade
in potential, which is what I think they've done. Although you've gotten rid of one of the you know, the most physically dominant in transition moments in Major League soccer. And Anderson Julio to stretch the field, and we certainly saw that and do that in Week one, getting the week the game winner on the road in Houston. Matt Crook's family didn't settle. You know, a similar story happened up in Vancouver where a designated player named Stephen Armstrong.
I would challenge anyone to think about being by themselves with a young family across you know, a different in a different continent and thinking about that and having to do the player right, well, it might not do the club right. And then finally Elias Manuel, who was supposed to come over from New York Red Bulls, which I personally wasn't a huge fan of. But in the midst of that trade there was draft picks and there was a certain amount of general allocation money that was acquired
in this offseason. And I think for Manoel who agreed to the move and then decided that he didn't want to agree to the move, two things will happen. One, you actually got a better return for what you even sent to New York Red Bulls for Manuel, because you're gonna end up getting around a million dollars from both the FOCO in Brazil for a player that never even showed up in market and number two. And this might sound harsh, sense, but if you've got a guy that
doesn't want to be here, good riddance. There's no reason that rialso Lake should have to convince some guy why he should be coming to Salt Lake. Beat it like, it doesn't matter if we're talking Major League Baseball, we're talking NHL, we're talking NBA, like, this is a great place to live. And if you don't want to be a part of what's happening out here, kick rocks. And that's that's exactly what happened.
So there's h it's been.
It's been a hefty offseason. I think a couple of things caught him off guard. But the window's not closed. You have significant funds and hopefully you know they've identified somebody that will continue to push this group forward in a manner in which they will be significantly better then maybe where they're at right now. But dude, for thought, that goal from a Jago two goals and two matches, Hopefully that doesn't skew what the immediate need is of the club.
And I want to I want to get to him in a moment, but I'm glad you brought up Manuel because I wanted to kick the tires with you on this dynamic and whether or not it's something that maybe we should talk about more than we do because we talk about it all the time. Through the prism of pro basketball in the Utah Jazz, I mean, I could give you a number of examples. Some people know about like Derek Harper and Ronnie Sychlee other people, other others don't.
People don't really know about, namely like a Kevin Love. There was a trade on the table to bring Kevin Love to Utah when Donovan and Rudy were here, and he said he's simply through his agent. He informed the front office. I don't want to live there. I'm not
going to play for the Jazz. I don't feel like we experienced that much on the soccer side, but are we starting to because and look, I know that harkening back to you know, two thousand and five to twenty ten is a fool's errand with how different the league
is now. But my prism when I was with the club is meeting people like you and Kyle and Chris Brown, and I could keep going like transplants who came here and ended up loving it here because of our soccer community and the support that you guys had.
Is it a new day where maybe.
The club is running into the issue of people not wanting to live in Salt Lake City. To your point, if you don't want to, like, okay, get lost, we'll figure it out. But I just I don't know that I've heard many examples of it happening. Now we have one with a kid that I think they were hoping would come here and play.
Well, yeah, I think there's twofold number one. I think we have to acknowledge that in football, worldwide, football, worldlife, soccer. It's a different dynamic here in Major League Soccer that effectively the players are league employees. They're not team employees. So usually it's a loane, it's a buy, or it's a sell. You know, you've got three different situations you can find yourself in. Here at Major League Soccer, it's different. You know, the club is the club, but you're still
technically league employees. So that's a unique dynamic in which when players outside of the United States have experiences for the first time, they think they're signing with the club unbeknownst to them. You know, they're at any moment the club could trade you and you have no say. It's one of the reasons why I came to rials La from being in Sweden was because I got traded down to Dallas on trade deadline day. General manager quits, head
coach gets fired. I'm in an option year, and neither the two knuckleheads who took charge were telling me either they were going to pick up my option or they were going to trade me. And when the LA Galaxy wanted me, they refused to flat out trade me. So I got caught in no man's land with a contract that no one would pick up, and yet I couldn't sign with anybody because my rights virtually didn't didn't exist.
Now that's a very difficult two thousand and four conversation versus twenty twenty five, But the reality is it's still a culture shock for some of these players to try to contemplate and wrap their heads around the idea of at any moment, I could be traded through no fault of my own, even when my kids are settled, I've bought a house and you know everyone's in school, So fast forward to that. Listen. I think the reality is and We're a very insecure Utah state, right, especially when
it comes to our sports. I think when people hear the name Real salt Lake, if they're not aware of it, they're gonna have to do a quick Google search and
figure this out. Number two, I think they'll be aware of the Mormon culture, the universities, you know, the sporting ventures, you know, Utah Hockey Club and the jazz and then as they dig a little bit more into it once they show up in market, I think they're going to be overawed by the quite you know, by by the ridiculous beauty and you know, the how how incredibly nice
everybody is in Utah. So I don't know, to your original question, we could potentially be in a situation like that, but I honestly think it's a bullet dodged for Real salt Lake when it's all said and done. I told you he was a substitute off the bench in an MLS Cup final. I wasn't really sold. I didn't think he was an upgrade Dan with some Julio. Oh what do I know?
So let's move over now to the group of strikers that are on the roster. Before I ask you about potentially what's next, And they did sign a player Jesus Brea, who I'd known nothing about, and honestly, I don't know any think about any of these guys.
I'm learning all about him.
But I will ask you about the Yago kid because that was a really nice finish. Now, the second leg against Sara Diiano, he did have a goal, but he had like seven that he just should have tapped in.
He had so many chances. But I feel like there's something there.
I don't know what it is, but he's a big, physical kid with good speed and he does have both of their goals. So you know, before we get to what's next, what's your take on whether it's Barea or Peel or Forrester and what you've seen so far.
Yeah, so Jago, You're right, he had back to bad goals. He could have had multiple goals against Heartiano. He took that goal extremely well. I actually said during the broadcast in the goal call that he took it early. And I think that's one of the things that surprised Stephen Fry as the goalkeeper was coming off his line. A different player profile than what Peole has. Right forstar Rajago going through went to Duke University. Since some time at Nashville,
he's got some familiarity with the league. Despite being a young striker, you can see there's high, high level potential. He's got a body type that's kind of Mama du Diallo for the MLS. Sikos out there the MLS after darkers that are listening to and if you're out there, you're epic. Peol is a young twenty year old from you know, Southwest Australia. Five goals in eleven games for his club before he comes over. He had that one potential redirect from Katrani's ball was a little bit behind
him so he couldn't get it cleanly. But both of these guys body types are similar and yet they play dramatically different to one other. And then Barrera from anything that I've seen, college kid worthy of a high level
draft pick. You've and remember there's because of the transition from the presidency, there's some paperwork issues that are being worked out in real time, and unfortunately for some of these work permits or green cards, Rialsa Lake is like many other teams in Major League Soccer and in the sporting landscape where things aren't getting done as fluidly as
maybe they did under the previous administration. So I think there's going to be a little bit of a rotation, not in a bad way, but more of an addition to the roster as this kind of gets leveled out and calmed down and you see the certain paperwork that
was planned on getting done and dusted. But I only saw Johnny in in two training sessions, and I can tell you that there is some great potential for this young Spaniard pathless travel kind of like yesper Laffelson coming to the United States to get his college education and then playing professional soccer, which yesper Loffelson should be starting, by the way for San Diego on Saturday for San Diego FC. Former rsler, But yeah, high, high level potential.
So I think when we're talking about the roster Spence, I probably should say this. I don't think this is anywhere close to being the best roster for Rialsol Lake, as it's obviously in flux, but I would say position for position, you've got two legitimate starters in each position, and it might be the most competitive position for position roster that RSLO has ever put together.
Yeah, there's some definite depth in certain areas, but there just doesn't seem to be depth or quite frankly, top shelf quality up top. So let's move over now to any insight you have about a striker potentially on the way. Now, Kurt was on the show last week and he said that they're working on it, like they are actively talking
to people. And you know, I know that the fans are just simply a little bit front because I've heard you and Max on the broadcast talk about this arms race in the Western Conference where these teams are spending millions and millions of dollars on high quality players. And to your point, there's depth in a lot of places. The new keeper seems to be a really experienced dude,
but you've got to do something up top. So do you think reinforcements are on the way and do you have any idea what that looks like?
So there's always a couple different ways to look at this, right, there's different mechanisms. Do you want a designated player? Do you want a target allocation money player? Do you want to you twenty two initiative player where it's effectively a designated player type under the age of twenty two. Do you want to use general allocation money. There's a new mechanism called cash per player in Major League Soccer. That's what saw Luco Eclosta leave Cincinnati and go to Dallas.
Evander leave Portland and go to Cincinnati. Yoblich leaves LA Galaxy and go to Sporting Kansas City. And here's the other wrinkle in dynamic I've always been intrigued on and I've never really had clarity. What's the role of Ryan Smith in this conversation with regards to the monopoly money that both he and David Blitzer have. You know, we're acutely aware of both having the sporting umbrella in multiple leagues and having the sporting umbrellas with particular with David
Blitzer worldwide. When you think about the investments in the clubs in the Bundesliga, the Premier League, Danish Super League, down in Portugal, I mean, list goes on and on, and what is the valuation and the ultimate amount of money that you're willing to spend not only on transfer
fee but effectively the weekly wage, the yearly wage. So I guess what I'm trying to say spent is there's a lot of ways to crack the egg the question is what kind of egg is going to be cracked and is it just going to be a singular sunny side up or are we cooking with an omelet. That's uh,
that all remains to be seen. But my problem, and I'll take this from more of like an Apple MLS analyst perspective, it's tough to be It's tough to try to tell everybody that you're taking Counky CAF Champions Cup serious when you have such a unique history in that tournament and it's your first time back in a long long time, and that's the roster that you put together
three weeks ago to head down to Harry Giano. I think there's way more questions than answers, and for a really turbulent offseason, I think that's the point that frustrates RSL fans when you think about, as you referenced, Hobby and Nick and Kyle Nat and the good old days under Jason, but even when you think about Albert Rossmok or dom Domi or Crylock, Jefferson Savarino, now cheat Show, you know, now Andres Gomez, now, Anderson Julio, you know you've got a fan base that really believes in its
players and believes in the club, but they need to believe in the club long term and who's going to be those next long term players that and maybe potentially make themselves those iconic faces and names that RSLO has always been used to referring to.
All right, last thing, Donny, that I'll set you loose, And this is tapping into Brian Dunseth, the Apple TV analyst. The Houston Donamo played into Miami and Lino Messi did not make the trip.
Because he needed to rest.
The Donamo sent out a post on social media and suffice to say, fans that had shelled out a bunch of money to see Messi play in Houston were besides themselves.
The Donamo did what it code.
They've offered some free tickets, but this it's just part of the deal, isn't it. I mean, you can't expect him, at his advanced age to be healthy every single week. But I find this an interesting topic because you know my view on this, and I do view this from an old school MLS perspective. When Beckham came to the league, everyone, all of us in the league at the time, said Okay,
when do we get him here? And I feel like, as long as Messi is playing, every team in MLS should have the opportunity to have him in their city. But if he needs rest, he needs rest, right. I guess it's just part of the deal. But I understand the fan frustration.
Yeah, they certainly didn't need him last night, and h and Houston anyway, and they enter Miami smashed them. I think it's the timing that surprises everybody, because you're talking about load management at game three, Game four and such early start of the season. But also remember this is an inter Miami team that kind of bounced around the world in preseason because they were monetizing the Max Messi effect.
I've got a real problem with people taking shots at the Houston Dynamo spence because those from the outside looking in are refused. But they're taking cheap shots, obviously, but also refusing to acknowledge that when people would hate trips to Barcelona, to the city of Barcelona, they would also try to coincide that with Barcelona playing at home when Lionel Messi was playing at the Camp new I was
guilty of it. I convinced my beautiful wife Jade, on our ten year anniversary to stop in Barcelona on two specific days so I could watch Lionel Messi and then say to her, oh, no, I just wanted to introduce you to Lionel Messi. So I got away with it.
What people don't understand, or at least what people have failed to take into context, is when Lionel Messi is popping around the United States, it's effectively the same as when Pele was at the end of NASL with the New York New Jory or New York Cosmos, when David Beckham was with La Galaxy, or say in particular, when any of your favorite teams from abroad come to the United States. Maybe not so much Tottenham, but you know big clubs like Man United and Barcelona and Juve.
Unnecessarily people will spend.
People will spend monopoly money to go see their team because spence it's cheaper and it's easier than getting on a plane flying abroad, spending the money on the flight, spending the money on the hotel, spending the money on the food, spending the money on the tickets. So what you're creating with Lionel Messi is a once in a lifetime effect to see the Peles or the Diego Maradonas and if you're you know, if you're an introvert, you're
a messy person. If you're an extrovert, you're a Ronaldo Christiano Ronaldo person to see one of these players that are quote unquote the best players of our generation. So bravo to the Houston Dynamo in recognizing that in that moment there's an opportunity and the disappointment of all of those fans in the state of Texas or flying in from other states to go to Houston, to go to Show Energy Stadium to see the Houston Dynamo play host
inter Miami. They recognize that there are a lot of people only coming for Lionel means, not even for inter Miami, just for Messi. But they also recognize that Spence, let's give them an extra ticket and see if we can get them back in the building. And while they may be a Messi fan, they may even be an inter Miami fan, maybe we can be their second favorite team.
And I think that's what they did. Anybody tries to argue that it was naive, that it was inexperience, that it was silly, that it was dumb, they're as silly and naive to think that this wasn't a moment where the Houston Dynamo recognized that maybe, just maybe they could get a lot of crossover fans that were there just for MESSI but hopefully can be you know, short term and long term Houston Dynamo fans going forward.
Is it Tito Max simply because his cocktail is Tito soda line?
Is that as simple as what it is?
No? No, it's too Max. Oh sometimes, but Spence, so I can promise you he is Tito Max.
Everyone's okay, fair enough.
This whole time, I'm like, it's he must just dig about casoda now I know the deal. Okay, all right, all right, but man, happy belated, always appreciate the time.
Hope to see you soon.
Okay, it sounds good bye, all right.
The Great Brian don Seth.
RSL gets a win over the weekend against Seattle at home.
San Diego is the next opponent coming up.
There's no midweek games for a minute because RSL bowed out of Conker CAF Champions Cup action in a pretty pathetic fashion. So it's let's see, We've got San Diego then a road game at Houston back against Dallas and then on the road against Minnesota.
That's your March schedule for the soccer club. All right.
Coming up next the latest with Utah men's basketball coaching search. Who are the candidates? How close is it to being done? Is Alex Jensen on the way. We'll get to that, But Donny brought to you today are good friends at
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I always got lyle stop them by today.
Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley's going to be our guest coming up at about fifteen minutes from right now. Speaking of the Utes, time now for your chance to win tickets to the final Utah men's basketball game of the season. West Virginia rolls under the Huntsman Senta tomorrow night for a seven o'clock TI. You can hear that game obviously here on your home of the Utes, and you can watch it on ESPN Plus. So text three excuse me, Text utes to three three nine eighty six
for a chance to win Utah men's basketball tickets. Text utes right now to three three nine eighty six for your chance to win Utah men's basketball tickets.
After Ryles stops by, Sam.
Monson will join us, we'll do a little NFL combine and we'll do a little NFL draft with Sam.
Are local boys over the weekend, Brent, excuse me.
Last week combine Indianapolis, Frank Keithy did not participate in the drills, but both Karne and Junior Tafuda did himself a big time, big time favor. Last week at the combine, Tyler Batty showed pretty well with the bench pres didn't run all that well.
Jalen Royals from.
Utah State Top ten wide receiver type prospect Jackson Dart has kind of shot up draft boards. A lot of people think you might be the third best quarterback. I wouldn't mind, you know, the analysis even being a little bit more favorable. It's interesting to follow the news cycle when it comes to the NFL Draft at this point as to are people high on cam Ward Titter Sanders. I've heard a lot of people say Jackson might be even a better prospect than those two.
The only time will tell.
T Higgins has been franchised for the Cincinnati Bengals for the second year in a row. So we'll do some football in the four o'clock hour. Latest on the Utah men's basketball coaching search. So, as we talked about last week, it looks like Alex Jensen is going to be the number one target.
Nothing official.
I think they will interview a number of different candidates that's my guest.
Honestly, don't know.
I mean, I would not mind if Mark Harland has landed on Alex Jensen as his number one target, if you go all in on Alex. I just don't know where Mark's head is at. You know, Taylor Randall, where is he in this process? And is it all about
finding a former ute? Is it all about finding somebody that will invigorate the community, or do you want to have a more of a classic type college basketball higher in you know, the image of a Richard Patino or a Bryce Drue, you know, coaches that have done a good job kind of at smaller schools, and then you kind of go in that direction. Obviously that's what Mark did as it pertains to the Craig Smith Higher which
of course ultimately didn't work. So Craig has been let go, as we reported one week ago today actually that news came down and now the candidates seem to be in the same spot as we were a week ago. Kind of throughout the course of the week, the Alex hire is going to be a you know's if that's the direction.
It'll be interesting to watch him operate as a head coach in college and are there things to be learned about what Kevin Young has done down at BYU with how well they played since he kind of settled in. BYU is ten and two in their last twelve and they've won six straight.
But ultimately, none of this is about a vacuum.
None of this is about just a couple of weeks of good basketball. All of this is about laying the foundation for success that can last years, right and the complication, the complication, the complicated part of the modern day of college basketball. Like college basketball has always had turnover. One and done's great freshmen or somebody that takes a huge leap between their freshmen and sophomore year and they simply
decide to go to the draft. So turnover is always a part of the college basketball scene.
That's why for any program to put.
Together a decade or more of great play and advancing NCAA tournaments and extreme success on the winning side, and a culture that simply just breeds despite the turnover, the ability to implement what you want even though you have new players year and you're out.
Those are those are rare breeds.
That's why the term blue blood exists and the Dukes of the world or the Carolinas back in the day, or the Kansas is more often than not not good this year.
But you know, teams that have the ability to.
Win year and year out at a high level despite having to teach new players exactly what they are expected to do in your program. It's kind of what you know. I've always liked the way Kyle just bottom lines it. And by the way, Coach Waitea's going to join the show on Wednesday of this week where he says, look, we just need to know that you understand what we're asking you to do and you're physically capable of doing it. I mean it just you can be as reductive as
doing that. So I understand you know right now the potential exciting feel in the community if Alex's is the guy, but if you're Mark Carlin and if you're Taylor Randalls, specifically if you're Mark, there's pressure to get this thing right. And because there's pressure to get this thing right, Mark will do his due diligence and make sure that he
has the right candidate. Not to excite the community for one day, not to make sure that you know, season tickets suddenly take a spike for one moment, but to make sure that finally somebody will take this job.
And if we're honest, it has been since Rick.
It just has been since Coach majeris for somebody to take this job and have it for longer than a few years and have winning basketball and exciting basketball year in and year out.
You know, Ray JACCOLETTI, Jim Boyle In.
I thought Larry was the guy, and I think there's still a case to be made that maybe he was. To be honest with you, but you know, there's no use in talking about it now. And Craig took the job with a lot of fanfare, a lot of excitement based off of kind of the path that he had taken. But whoever this guy is, Mark will be. He will be intertwined with him. There will be no way to separate it because you know, the one hire Mark Carlin has made on the revenue generating sports side has been Craig.
He did not hire Kyle, and this succession plan to have Morgan takeover for when Kyle stepped aside honestly pre dated Mark.
So what will this hire be?
And I can promise you if Mark Carlin sits now with Alex Jensen, and they have a number of interviews and Mark just doesn't feel like Alex either wants to do this thing in a way that will last consistently for a number of years, and feels like there's another candidate that he sits down with. It kind of energizes him and presents a plan. Quite frankly, because that's what
these interviews are. Mark Skinna just ask whether it's Patino, whether it's true, whether it's Alex, whether it's Andre, whoever's across from him. Mark will ask him, what is your plan to rebuild this thing? And make no mistake, that's what this is going to be. I don't know how many of these players on the roster for the basketball team right now. We'll be back, and honestly, I hate to say this, I don't know that that's a bad thing.
You know, most of their better players, you know, upperclassmen. I think you'd like Ezra back. I mean, Ezra's been really, really good. He's a junior Keanu DAEs over the past couple of games. Look, I don't I'm not going to speak for Craig. I'm not going to speak for Josh Eiler.
It just feels that Josh maybe thinks Dawes should have been part of the rotation a little bit more because he's received more minutes over the past couple of games, and honestly, athletically he kind of stands out among his teammates quite Frank Ezra's a good athlete. Kianda is like an elite athlete. He's only a sophomore. I don't think you'd mind have having him coming back. Hunter Erickson, who's a BYU transfer, He's a senior, so this is it
for him. Of course, as we kind of go down the roster, Caleb is a senior, the transfer who started his career here and he, you know, never received a bunch of consistent run. Josh Grant, who joined the show last week, kind of painted a picture where he thought Caleb should be playing more minutes lost and lovering as a senior. He's had a great career obviously. Gabe is a senior all time leader in three point shots. May just knocked down his three hundred to three against Asu Mason.
His brother also a senior. Sharrob Jams is a junior, and that's really about it. Oh, Waleen Wallian's a sophomore. I think you like Walen back, so on the roster right now, maybe Jake Walleen, Ezra Sar and Keano Dawes are the players you're looking at to potential.
Kick the tires to get him back here.
But if you want him to come back here, first of all, that will be up to the head coach right whoever takes over. But it also will be up to the administration on the collective side to make sure that the checks that they're writing or what they need to be in order to inspire top talent to come here. I'm not fully sure what the current situation is as far as recruits. They were in the fold to play for Utah next year, but obviously they would have signed
to play for Craig. How many of them have decommitted, How many of them have completely decided they're going to change direction?
You know, I don't know. I mean, I mean BYU is a little.
Bit different because there are a lot of kids that grew up wanting simply the BYU experience. And whether it's Mark Pope or Kevin Young. You know, Richie Saunders and Dollen Hall had scholarship offers to go play in Lexington for Mark Pope and Kentucky, but they wanted to stay in Provo, but they also were paid to stay. I don't know that Utah has that same type of dynamic with players just wanting the Utah type of experience. There are some certain certainly Utah men. Nate Orchard talks about
this all the time. You know, when they was a basketball start Highland, a football start Highland, he had a grip of offers and he wanted the Utah experience. Morgan Scaley, Utah man, Highland high football star, one of the Utah experience.
So there are some out there.
But how many basketball recruits right now that we're in the fold to potentially play for Craig next year simply just want that Utah experience And they don't care if it's Craig Smith or Richard Patino or Alex Jensen because ultimately what it comes down to. And I've talked about this and I'll continue to talk about it because I
think it's only fair to Craig. This is a roster that badly needs an infusion of top shelf talent, whether that's through the transfer portal, whether that's through you know, freshman commits, whatever your avenue is, you got to go get talent if you want to compete with the top shelf in the Big Twelve. This team was picked to finish sixteenth in the conference. There's an argument to me, argument to be made that Craig actually did a good job with a roster that's devoided talent. But when you're
the head coach, you have to wear that too. Now, the good news is in this day and age of college basketball, with the transfer portal, you can up your talent very quickly and you can turn things around within one off season. So that should give you some hope. But you got to get the right guy. You got to fill out the bench. And are you looking at
the pro model Brigham Young used. And if you hire Alex Jensen, longtime NBA assistant coach, like Kevin Young longtime assistant coach, do you follow the model where Alex's bench is littered with kind of ex pros, G League guys, NBA assistants. Do you go the strength and conditioning route. Do you grab somebody who's in the pros? Do you grab the NBA nutritionists? Everything BYU has done with their basketball program has been first of all supported economically on a very intense level.
In a way that I wasn't sure we would ever see.
But second of all, they have decided to go all in on the message to young players, like, look, you know Kevin, and Kevin talks. Look, I respect him. He's a good coach. He talks about how he came from the NBA every time he has a chance. And here's why you can sit across from aj Demants and his father and say, I coach Kevin Durant, I coach Chris Paul, I coached Booker. I can teach your son what he needs to be an NBA player, and Alex can do the very same thing. Alex can say I coached Luka Doncic,
I coached Kyrie Irving. I helped develop Donovan Mitchell, I helped develop Rudy Gobert. I can teach your son what he needs to learn to be one of those dudes. And that matters. Of course it does. I mean BYU signed the best recruit in the country last year. So we'll see what direction we go. Nothing official as of yet, but it does feel like all the signs are pointing towards Alex Jensen back.
To Brady on the wing, guarded there by Clay Brady close one.
Up, gets it to go in the fowl.
Help boutcher Brady Smith and Utah gets the win. Here today Finals four, Utah ninety nine in Arizona State seventy three.
Really cool moments over the weekend.
As the son of Craig Smith, I was able to get a and one opportunity. Brady's a good free throw shooter, so bummer that he was unable to convert that free throw. But the voice of the Utes, who was on the call as our guest on a Monday afternoon, Bill Riley, sir, how.
Are you Spence. I'm doing well. How's your Monday?
Good man? That was kind of a fun little moment, right.
I would imagine there were probably a few eyes in the crowd that weren't necessarily dry after watching that.
Yeah, it was. I mean anytime that those guys, you know, the bomb squad, the backup guys get in, you know you want those guys just chuck it. Man, you've been you don't get on the floor very much. Put that ball. I know that you would have never hesitated, but put that ball up. And when Brady got the opportunity there, you know, it was just it was really, really cool. So I was happy for him to get that bucket.
Would have been cool for him to hit the free throw to get him to one hundred, but still a nice moment.
Yeah, I bet Craig actually cracked on when he got home as a kid, you got to make the free throw.
But last time we spoke.
Bill, you were in Orlando, I believe, waiting for the team to fly in. And it's been one week since the news broke that Craig had been let go. So now that you've had a chance to spend some time around the team, how do you think they're doing. How do you think they're holding up, and how do you think the news is landed with them?
I think surprisingly well spent. I mean again, changes are never easy, but mid you know, in season changes are especially tough. But they didn't get off the great start against Arizona, but they competed, played Arizona almost to a dead dead even in the second half, and then they came out Saturday and it was it was, you know, it was I don't know, maybe because there was a little bit of time between the change in leadership and everything else, but they just seem to play loose and
they looked like they were having fun. Now, you know, winning is always much more fun than losing and beating up on Arizona State, because you know they were they were not very good. Saturday is fun too, but there was just a looseness of bunch about the group on Saturday and a lot of high fighting and smiles and all that stuff. So yeah, I think they're dealing with it as well or better than you could probably expect.
So I've drawn this parallel couple different times when the football team moved on from coach lud and Mike Pajakian took over as the play caller. Mike's first media availability, he was very honest. He said, look, this is Andy system, and you know there's nothing I'm going to do at this point in the season to change what he's implemented. And so I wondered if coach Eiler would change anything as far as what Craig has already put in place, because it's just hard to make changes at this point
of the season. But one thing we have seen is more minutes for Keanu. Kiano does right and athletically that kid matches up. So your thoughts on the improved or I should say, accelerated minutes for Keano And have you seen anything else that coach Eiltz tried to do that's a little bit different than what Craig was trying to do.
I think, And he said this in the first pregame chat we did at Arizona, and he reiterated it again on Saturday, Spence, he was going to reward hard play and effort with more minutes, and so maybe that's why you saw Catta DAW's getting more minutes. Kano is he is a talent Spence. I think he's going to be a guy that whoever the new coach is that comes in really puts the full court press on to keep this kid around because he is really good and I
think his upside is there. But you've seen more minutes the last couple of games from Mason Madison as well. You know, Mason's a guy that's well traveled, he's a senior, but he plays really hard and he's given Josh good effort and his minutes have gone up a little bit too. So I don't know that, you know, philosophically or strategically, they've done a whole lot different. You know, when they don't throw the ball all over the gym, and they
value the basketball. Keep those turnovers down. They've been competitive all year long, and they did that obviously guess Arizona State. But I think the one thing that he has done is really rewarded guys that have really busted their butts and given good effort.
How big is Josh Eiler.
He looks like he's like a big strong He looks like a football coach.
Yeah, he's about six five sixty six. He played basketball league. He was a walk on at Kansas State and that's where he connected with Bob Huggins. So that's and he was with Huggins for a year at Kansas State as a grad assistant and then fifteen or sixteen years at West Virginia with it. But he had Josh is a big guy.
Yeah, I couldn't really tell the first time I saw him, like, who is that football coach on the sideline?
That's a big boy.
But so look, if I asked you to get weird for a moment, to expand your imagination, Like the Long Beach State coach last year was called into the office of his boss and told that he was going to be relieved of his duties, and they marched on to won their conference tournament and went to the NCAA Tournament. No part of me is predicting anything like that, but March is wild in college hoops. Rest of the way, you know, win one for the gift for type approach.
How do you think the rest of the year and then into the Big twelve tournament's gonna look for this team.
I think they're gonna play really hard. I think they've got a really good chance tomorrow night in the Senior Night game, because they played really hard at West Virginia there again downfall Spence. I sound like I'm repeating myself here, but they turned the ball over and we're really loose with the basketball. It's hard to do that against good now West Virginia is it's hard to describe them because they're eight and ten in conference play, but they've got
some good wins, Their net records pretty good. They should probably be a little better than they are, but they're not bad. They're a fringe tournament team. But you can't do that on the road anywhere. So if they value the basketball tomorrow night, they've got a chance. Because that game was a single digit game to West Virginia made some free throws, late, and then by used rivalry game.
They've already beaten BYU once. Now BYU is playing really good basketball right now, but you and I have both been around long enough to know rivalry games are funny things and if you make some shots or another team is making some size So I think they've got a really good chance in these next two games, and then they're going to be somewhere depending on you know, if they go oh to two to one and one two and oh, they could be anywhere from a seven seed and get a buy which is a long shot because
it's the other teams have to do some stuff to a nine or a ten or eleven seed, so they're likely still going to play on that first day of the tournament in Kansas City. But if they're in that ten to eleven range, you know, they might be playing a TCU, a team they beat on the road this year already, or a Baylor team that they played really tough.
So again, I don't have any hard and fast predictions, but I know that this team, when they value the basketball and rebounded pretty well, and you've got a lot of seniors that I might be playing their last games, they could have a chance to win a few games here in the next couple of weeks.
So you're reference Kuanto count of Daz, who right now is a sophomore, and I would imagine with his kind of incremental growth, you'd like to see what it looks like when he's actually fully baked as a player. So I think you'd like to have him back. Ezra is a junior. He's shown growth. I think that's a talent you wouldn't mind having in your program. And then I guess the other player would be Jay Jake Wally and who's a sophomore. You know, Caleb Senior lost and senior
Gave Masons Sharb Jams is a junior. Who do you think this program is going to make a full core press to try to get back on the roster for next season.
Well, obviously that depends on the higher and how they value these guys. But all those guys that you just mentioned, I you know, Ezrasar is averaging almost twenty points a game at about seven rebounds in his last five games. He's playing at a really high level. He's also beginning to hit his free throws. And I'll tell you, Mike, Mike sharof Joms when he is like the other day, he had fourteen points and six assists in that win
over Arizona State. I like his talent too. While Lean and Dawes, if you could keep and again, it's hard to say in this day and age of college basketball because these guys all you know, have the wandering eye. But whoever the coach is that comes in, if he could retain those guys you were just talking about, that's a really nice base to work with and some good young players to build around in what you do in recruiting and the portal and high school and transfers and
everything else. So you know, I think whoever the guy is is going to have to evaluate the talent for sure. But if you could keep three or four of those guys you mentioned, maybe that's a long shot. I don't know because I'm not any of those guys. But if you could keep three or four of those guys, I think you'd be in pretty good shape with a good base to start from for whoever the new staff is.
Yeah, And ultimately, you know, if you get two or three back, or if you get zero back, it doesn't you know, it doesn't change the fact this roster needs a massive upgrade.
Now.
The good news is, in this day and age, you can do it within a year in an expedited way that you weren't able to prior to. And I know a lot of people don't love the transfer portal. And we'll see what the house versus NCAA settlement brings. If these players are going to be asked to sign contracts where you stick around for two year years with an option for a third or whatever.
Nobody really fully knows.
But I wonder if you have any insight on recruits that were, you know, ready to play for Craig and talent there was ready to play for Craig and whether or not this program is you know, and when when Mark decided to move on from Larry, they lost a grip of good players, a lot of talent. Are we expecting the same thing and actodus of talent either on the roster or on the way.
To play here with with Craig losing his job.
Honestly, I don't know either way. Spence the on the roster stuff, I don't know. They've got the one kid, Krag they've had Frank Jackson's little brother committed. He's a Salt Lake Community College player. Everybody remembers Frank Jackson played in the NBA and obviously at Loam Peak, and in some of my conversations with Craig he would he never got specific with me about who they were targeting. He just said they felt good about some people they were
talking to. And I don't know if that was, you know, potential transfers, or if that was high school kids or what it might have been. So I'm a little bit more in the dark on the recruiting side of things right now. And to be very fair, I think a lot of people are in that same position. There's a handful of programs that go out and you know, sign some of these top ten, fifteen, twenty high school kids. But I think a lot of these guys are coming in and saying, Okay, we're going to use the portal
to rebuild this thing. I used tj Otzelberger as an example at Iowa State when he took that job. When he left UNLV and took that job, I think Iowa Stated had two or three wins the year before, and he came in and in that first year he lost a ton of talent at Iowa State and brought a bunch of transfers in the next year they were competitive, and then the year after that they were, you know,
competing for the big twelve titles. So if you do it right in the portal and mix that with some high school or developmental kids that are in your program, you know, the right person could turn it around pretty quickly.
I know that you are unable to comment on the majority of the stuff surrounding the coaching search, but I will ask you, are you aware of any sort of time frame that Mark and maybe President Randall have in mind before they want to land because you can't slow play, you know, you got to have your guy in play. So are you aware of any time frame that is preferable for the athletic department?
Yeah, the proverbial sooner rather than later is always good. But I haven't been told any certain timeline on any of that stuff. So I think one of the reasons why the change was made a week ago today was to get a jump start on it, get a head start on it, and really get ahead of the game. And so I think they probably again would just assume, having done it a week ago, are probably down the road at least a little bit on it.
Tell me what in conversations you have with people around town, friends of yours, you know, people that the care Avaluuta Athletic away from your job as the voice and director of broadcasting, because we have a bunch of different options, We have a bunch of different avenues, We have a bunch of different concepts and theories about how you can go about this. What do people say to you about what they helped this hire looks like in order for them to support this program.
I think, and maybe I said it with you, or I've been on your show and Scott's show and Sean's show. But the people I talk to and you and I
have some common friends, they're older guys. They're not old guys, but they're older guys now, and they can remember when Utah was really good consistently at basketball in the late eighties and the nineties, the early two thousands, and most of the guys that are friends of mine, that are Utah grads or ties to the Utah program are just wanting to get that glimmer, wanting it to be I just think there's a lot of Utah fans Spence that are on the precipice, you know, and that guy when
that coach gets in there that you really see turns the corner a little bit. I think it opens the floodgate for support, and I think the people are just are itching to get back to the Huntsman Center. And I've just had a lot of people that are you know that that are really anxious to see who the guy is here that is hired, because I think there's a lot of people that really want to get back out to your point, I think you brought it up with me a week ago, there's no reason you can't
be a football at a basketball school. Lots of schools do it well, and I think there's a lot of people that are just like, ah, I can't wait to see who this is because I really want to be back at the Huntsman Center and seeing that great brand of basketball that I saw when I was in college or in high school.
Yep, yep.
And if there's a coach that's hired that's able to build this thing up where they win and they play entertaining basketball and somewhat consistent, I'm entirely confident this community will show up for that. I wondered because I hadn't had a chance to ask you this.
I believe it was Florida State.
I think there are three or four big programs who have canceled their spring games. Nebraska things doing it. They're just not doing spring football. They're doing spring football, but they're not doing spring games anymore.
Do you think this is something.
That could seep into the culture of college football where we just see a lot of teams doing away with it.
Yeah, I do. I think you know, Florida State did. Nebraska did. I think they use the guys of renovations to their stadium for doing it. But that's a big deal. Nebraska gets eighty thousand people because there's nothing else to do in Nebraska, but they get eighty thousand people for their spring game, so they cancel their spring game. Is a really really big deal. And there was somebody else. You're right there at usc usc All.
Yeah, that's right too.
So I think we'll probably see more of it. I know that Kyle Whittingham didn't have any plans to do it this year. I was talking to some people today
and he's still good doing that spring game. I think we may end up getting to a point spence where it's not so much the game that's important, but it's a spring gathering to where people feel like they get to connect to their football program in the spring, whether that's a scrimmage, whether it's a practice, and then you get to have kind of a fan fest after practice, because to be very fair, most of these spring games
are just glorified practices. Anyway. They might go for a quarter or a quarter and a half and then it's kind of like a you know, and they hold a lot of guys out. So I think fans like to come to the stadium. If they were watching a high end practice, I think they'd be okay with that too. But I do know at Utah there's no plans at least while Kyle Whittingham is coached to cancel it right now, all.
Right, I know you got to go.
But before I say, you lose, since we're in the football space, spring camp for the Utes is Thursday in March twentieth BYU already in action, the twenty two Forever game Saturday, April nineteenth. Fifteen practices over the course of five weeks. Just give me a couple of things you're hoping to learn about a team that's going to look a lot different than it did a year ago.
I think I want to see first of all, Devin damp Pier, because I, like everybody else, has watched lost lots of New Mexico tape from a year ago, and he's he appears to be a really dynamic football player. I want to see how quickly and maybe it doesn't happen in the spring in fifteen practices, or maybe it does. You know, Jason Beck's offense takes with a lot of
new faces. You know, the offensive line is going to be pretty much the same, but the receiver room's going to be a lot different, the running back room's going to be a lot different, and the quarterback position is going to be a lot different, and they're not going to play as many tight ends. They've already said that his personnel is a lot more eleven personnel instead of thirteen personnel. So I'm really curious to see how all
those moving pieces on offense work. And you don't get to see a lot defensively because they don't do a lot of big hitting. But I am just a little curious to see how the corner spot looks and how they fill in some of the voids on the defensive line. Losing some guys to transfer into too graduation, so those are a couple of the areas I'm curious with, but I think I'm going to be like a lot of people. I'm gonna have my eyes on what the offense looked like.
And you know, Kyle was really pointed in saying, Hey, you can't have one of these really super intricate, thick playbooks anymore because you don't have two and three and four years to you know, integrate guys into that offense and learn it. So to that point, let's see how quickly Jason Beck's offense allows players to assimilate to it. So that's kind of what I'm looking at.
Well, it's always good to have football to talk about. So just a couple of weeks away, Roles, appreciate the time, buddy, have a good week.
Okay.
By the way, what's the what's the vibe about Utah basketball on the Asian Posse group text?
You know what, let me kick the tires and I'll get back to you. That's a very important question I had not considered.
Bill.
Thank you for reminding me. I'm going to stand the text.
Now, will do? Thanks Bence.
All right, Bill Riley.
The Utah Men's Basketball Coaches Show will be tonight at six. So if you want to get to know Josh Eilert a little bit more, stay tuned. Right after we saygo I, Bill's gonna have the Coaches Show with Coach Eilert.
As a big man's big dude. I was watching a coach.
I'm like, that looks like a football coach on the sideline, So stay tuned for that.
Coming up.
On the other side, though, we're going to bring in Sam Monson to cover some football, some NFL combine, NFL Draft stuff.
Bill brought to you today by our friends.
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More information can be found online at Burt Brothers dot com. Kind of a quiet night here locally, most of the college basketball stuff gets rolling tomorrow. West Virginia in town for Senior Night for the Utah men's basketball team. Head on off to the Huntsmons Center to support these young men. I've had some tough news with their coach being fired over the past couple of weeks. BYU has a big one at Iowa State in Ames and then the Jazz are at action tonight against the red hot Detroit Pistons.
I don't know the last time I was able to say that sentence out loud.
But let's see a little more football.
NFL Draft is riding around the corner April twenty fourth through the twenty sixth, and it's gonna be inside and around lambeau Field where the Packers play.
Our next guest is in front of the show.
It's been a minute, but Sam Monson back on the Drive on a Monday afternoon.
Happy Monday, Sam, how are.
You doing well? How about you?
O'm good man. I appreciate your time.
First of all, give me your thoughts on what you think the draft's gonna look like like when you how are they going to like logistically, how is this gonna work? Because when I look at the NFL website it says it's going to be inside and around Lambeau Field.
What does that mean?
Yeah, it's a good question. I think they're kind of basically taking over a block or two right outside the stadium and kind of creating the entire thing from one end of Lambeau to facing a way for it down down that kind of tidle town little stretch of road there. I think it'll be a pretty spectacular looking thing once they've got it all done and arranged.
Huh interesting, well out of the box thinking. I guess you got to like that. So Sam, from your vantage point when it comes to analyzing the combine what is real and what is just for TV entertainment, it's always interesting to me as far as how much of this is just kind of a show and how much of this is actually real when it comes to what you see these players go through. How much of this is think you know, things you think are actually tangible and we can learn from.
Yeah, well, the NFL does a really good job of turning everything in the calendar these days into some kind of TV event and some kind of Muth's watch entertainment. You know, It's not like it used to be, where it was just the season, the postseason, and then everyone went away for nine months, you know, and came back again did it all over again. Now the NFL calendar is almost three sixty five days a year, and they're really good at making an event out of everything. But
there's substance behind it as well. And that's not to say it's all of the puzzle. And I think NFL teams everybody has gotten a lot better at not getting too carried away by workout numbers and letting it override all of the other data points that you have and all the other information in particular you know, the tape
and your evaluation from scouts. But it is a piece of the puzzle and understanding, you know, a lot of the athleticism work is about thresholds and does this guy that you think is a good player and has you know, good tape and attributes that you want to buy into, does he have the measurables that you know, year's worth of data have sort of said, if he's above this threshold, it can play in the NFL, or if he doesn't.
If he falls below those numbers, you know, then you have a discussion to have about whether you want to start chasing exceptions or if you just write this guy off even if you liked him beforehand.
Give me a couple couple of winners Combine winners. Some players you think helped themselves the most in Indianapolis.
Yeah, I mean I think there were quite a few of them overall. Nick em and Wori, the South Carolina safety, I mean, he had one of the best performances of any player at the Combine. Absolutely spectacular at you know, six three, two hundred and twenty pounds to jump a forty three inch vertical and have the kind of numbers across the board that he did, speed numbers and all those kinds of things. That was a spectacular performance by
him and can only be propelling him upwards. I thought a couple of the edge rushers that we thought would run well did James Junior from Tennessee, Schamar Stewart from Texas A and M Those guys were supposed to be impressive athletes and they were today. Barn the Texas do what all defensive bank For him to come out, I mean, he's getting a lot of comps to Bryan Branch, the former Alabama star defensive bank who's now become a great player for the Detroit Lions. Baron ran a four to
four flat. I mean Branch slipped into the second round because he ran in the four to five. So for Baron to go out there and put that kind of time out there shows that he can be a genuine player pretty much any spot in the secondary.
On the other side of things, a couple of players that disappointed that didn't have a great week to have some work to do if they want to improve their stock.
Yeah, I don't think there were too many that had really rough days. Dean Walker, the Kentucky nose tackle. He didn't run a forty, but his jumps were pretty pedestrian. He wasn't as big, I think as kind of he was during the Seas, So either he was never that big in the first place, or he's lost weight and lost signs, you know, presumably to try and show that he can be a really good athlete, and hasn't yet put that out there. So for a guy whose tape
is up and down and is inconsistent. But the billing on him the book was he would be a spectacular athlete and the guy you want to buy into because of that. Didn't really show that or hasn't really shown that so far between the Senior Bowl and the combine ten Johnson from Oregon not necessarily a bad workout, but he showed up at one hundred and fifty four pounds, which I think everyone kind of knew, you know, we knew he would be in and around that size, but
his kind of composite workout was it was weird. I mean, he ran in the four fives, which is a bad time for a guy that size. His ten yard split wasn't spectacular, but he ran a three cone that was properly elite six to sixth type of three cone. So he's the classic quicker rather than fast type of player. But also he then showed that he had the fastest miles per hour figure of anybody during the drills, And
that's a new sort of aspect of the combine. These days you're seeing some of the tracking data being put into effect and live action, and not during the forty but during the actual receiver drills. As Johnson was the fastest guy out there running a go route. So just a strange sort of profile of a guy who you know looks quicker than fast, but then does show that when you actually get him doing football things, the playing speed is probably a lot better than that four or five number.
Most importantly, Sam, were you present for the Ian Rappaport, Jordan Schultz back and forth? I mean, the biggest story to come out of the combine by far right.
It was. I was telling my wife that during the week that you know, this is all anybody is talking about today, and that's not a great endorsement of what's happening during the week, that this.
Was such a big story.
Sadly, I think I missed it by about forty five minutes. I had been at that Starbucks on the way by, and then forty five minutes later I see that this story had gotten down and I can't believe that. I mean, this is where it's like Grand Central Station, It's where everybody is for a lot of that combine. Meetings take
place there, all this kind of stuff. So it must have happened in front of you know, ten fifteen journalists, and not one of these guys has tracked down the CCTV footage, the security tape to show us exactly what happened. I'm disappointed in my journalist colleagues.
I'm with you and Sam over the years, as you stop by, you seem like a really friendly guy. But I will ask you, have you ever had a beef with another media member that has led to like an in personal tercation.
I don't think so, actually, I think. I mean I've had some sort of you know, Twitter spots with people, but I don't think it's ever led to the point where when you see them in person it's been a major problem as we I don't think I've ever reached that stage as well. I do wonder if part of it is because people ascume him. I'm like five two because I'm standing next to Steve Palazzola most of the time and he's six', Ten SO i get to may, LOOK i get to MAKE i get made look like
a child on the. Regular But i'm, actually you, know five, Eleven SO i wonder if it's a surprising thing when people see me in, person, like, oh he's not actually that small a. Guy he's not not a little guy that we thought he.
Was And i'm actually going back and forth in my head about. This does The irish accent disarm? People, Like, oh he's really? Nice or is it like, wait maybe he's like An irish street, Fighter like what what does that do for?
PEOPLE i, mean The irish accent is pretty much gone now, anyway SO i don't think.
That helps or hurts either.
Way, UNFORTUNATELY i need to ham it back up with This dublin game coming this. SEASON i need to now as the TIME i need to tap back into The irish.
News fair, Enough, hey before we get TO i got a couple of questions, about you, know the top of the drafts and quarterbacks and. Such but you, Know Jackson dard played his high school ball. Here he was a really kid at a corner canyon, kid and you know he uh he went ONTO usc and then of course transferred On Old miss and had a hell of a hell
of a college. Career uh wanted him to stay, here of, course and maybe play for the you or B. Yu but when you have AN sc offer and that's what you, want that's where you.
Go tell me what your analysis is of.
Him i've read a lot of people who are saying that he's, drifting you, know rising up draft, boards and and so before we get to you know what you think the top of the draft's gonna look, like what's your what's your take On Jackson?
Dark, YEAH i think he is rising up, boards AND i think he's got a lot of kind of he takes a lot of the boxes the things you're looking. For the statistical profile is very. Good you, know he's got multiple years of very good uh production and performance at All, miss albeit in an offense THAT i think is conducive to that kind of good play that helped
him out. There but he's got some impressive performances and he's got a really good odd Season and that sounds kind of silly to, people you, know nothing's happened really, since but he's the guy that went to The senior. Ball you, know that's a week of this is in an all star setting that carries weight WITH nfl, teams AND i think he impressed people throwing at the combine as. Well SO i think everywhere he's been in this pre draft process he's enhanced his his kind of standing a little.
Bit so you know a guy where there's definitely an open question once you get beyond those top two quarterbacks Cam ward And Shedher, sanders like who's the next guy and how high do you take? Him there are going to be teams that don't get their shot at those top two guys and still need a. QUARTERBACK i Think Jackson dart is in with a chance to be a lot of people's next.
Guy how do you analyze those Two Fador, sanders Cam. Ward it's, funny it feels LIKE i Guess i'll use the term polarizing when it comes to the quarterback class this, year and namely those.
Two is there is there one you prefer over the? Other? Salmon if, so, why?
YEAH i mean they're very different, quarterbacks SO i think you're going to find the league quite split on. THEM a lot of people are going to gravitate towards Cam ward because he's the guy with the special. Traits he's the guy with the bigger, arm the better, athleticism the spectacular plays on his highlight reel and a lot of THE nfl is going through guys like. THAT i, mean think Of Josh allen And Patrick, mahomes you, know and these are guys with those highlight reel spectacular traits that
can make amazing things. Happen And Shador standers is more of The i'm not comparing him to this, player but he's more in The Joe burrow style of, quarterback which is a guy that didn't have amazing. TOOLS i, mean People Joe burrow went number one overall and was a fairly clear cut number one overall, quarterback but people questioned whether he had a strong enough, arm whether his arm
was good enough to go at that. Stage chador, STANDARDS i think is in the same kind of world where his tools don't wow you, ironically for you, know a kid Of Deon, sanders one of the greatest athletes of all time at any. Sport standers doesn't have amazing, traits but he's he's an accurate passer and layer the. Ball he's got a good, touch he's got a good deep, ball and it's kind of the mental aspect and just
the feel for playing the. POSITION i think that people will gravitate, too if you're A shood Or sanders, fan so you, KNOW i like his. Tape part of, ME i think is leaning Towards Shoudhar, Sanders BUT i think it very much depends what style of quarterback or what style prospect you tend to gravitate.
TOWARDS i feel like most of the mocks Have Abdul carter off the board at one To. Tennessee do you agree with, that and if, not which direction do you think they?
Go certainly a lot of.
Them.
YEAH i, MEAN i think a lot of people bought into this line that The titans were putting out, there which is we're not going to pass on a Blue chat prospect at the top of the. Draft then, critically that doesn't preclude a. Quarterback it just means that if they take, one they've already endorsed them as a Blue chat. PROSPECT i think, that's you, know the kind of smoke screen or the kind of not quite misinformation but ambiguous
statement teams tend to make around this. TIME a lot of people jumped on that and, went, well they're going to pass in a, Quarterback they're going to, take you, know the best player in the draft, otherwise and That's. CARTER i think they could end up taking Cam. Ward you, know it wouldn't shock me if they drafted him and, said with his, traits with his, ability with what he did to That miami, program he is a blue check quarterback and that's the thing the team needs more than.
Anything so, Ultimately Travis hunter oftentimes has referred to as the best player in college. Football and obviously we're out here In big twelve country Formerly packed twelve, country and we Saw travis up, close you, know a. Ton if he's the best, player why isn't he going off the board of? One and what do you think his floor?
Is?
Sam, YEAH i.
Mean it's a great. Question generally, speaking if you're not taking a quarterback at one team's team sort of lean towards a couple of. Positions it's edge, rusher its offensive, tackle and they sort of view those as the safe draft picks at those at that. Spot BUT i think you're right that we in TODAY'S, nfl at the passing game what it, is we should be asking more and.
More if you.
Think different positions are, special why are they not in consideration for number? ONE i made that argument back When Sauce gardner was coming out you, know if you think he's that, special why are we not talking about a cornerback in number?
One?
Overall they can have that kind of. Impact hunter is a totally unique player in this draft and in pretty much any. Draft he is a legitimate two way, player not the way we've seen from players in the, past where they're a, cornerback but they'll play a little bit on offense and you, know just enough to kind of we can call them two way. Players Travis hunter was a full time guy on both sides of the, ball and that doesn't. HAPPEN i, mean it hasn't happened since
like the. Sixties it's completely. Ridiculous and what's more insane is THAT i think he's the best player in the draft at each one of those. POSITIONS i think he's wide receiver one AND i think he's corner. One SO i think thirty two teams are.
Going to treat that.
Differently some of, THEM i, think are going to see him just as a wide, receiver that's what he is to. Us some of them are going to see him just as a Corner some of them probably have two Different Travis hunters on their draft board and just rank him as two separate players and figure, out you, know we'll figure which way the board, lands what our needs look,
like and will adjust. Accordingly and THEN i think you're going to get a smaller group of teams that are willing to entertain some kind of two way playing style for him going. Forward the easiest way of doing that is to draft them as a corner and have him play a kind of package of offensive. Plays BUT i
think there are other ways of doing it as. Well and, LOOK i think there's a bunch of different ways of looking at, that BUT i think one of them is you can say it's cut in half his chance of being a. Bust you, know if he doesn't work out at one of, them you can move him to the other side of the ball and give him a second shot at a. Career SO i think you're he's a safer draft pick than players typically are a wide receiver or a.
Corner BUT i think you're.
Right there is an argument That hunter is the best player in this. Draft there's an argument that he's the best player two steparate positions in this. Draft and if he is actually capable of playing a unique two way, role that is theoretically more valuable than any other player in this draft outside of quarterback as. Well so if you're not if you don't believe the quarterbacks are worthy of those top. Picks, AGAIN i Think Travis hunter is absolutely in the argument to go number.
One If travis is adamant that he plays both sides of the, ball do you think that sours certain teams on?
Him i'm sure there are certain teams that wouldn't be into. That, YEAH i think there are definitely teams that are, saying, look even, NOW i mean SO i thought it was a bigger problem in twenty twenty, three but even on his twenty twenty four to, tape on both sides of the, ball you can see plays where he looks, tired, Right and that's so if you're a team thinking about playing him two ways in any, capacity what you're asking yourself is what kind of rest can we get? Him like
how the workload he had was too? Much how can we scale that? Down what can we get it down to and will be manageable at that? Point SO i think that's definitely a potential. Issue if he's there would be teams THAT i think just don't want any part of that and think it's not worth the. Risk it's not worth the hassle, of you, know trying to get him to learn two different sides of the ball and try to juggle meetings that typically would take place at
the same time. Otherwise you, know there's a lot of kind of logistics that would go into try to get him to play both sides of the. Ball i'm score some teams just don't see the need or the you, know the person that's most enhanced by the two way thing Is Travis. Hunter and if you're a team that just needs a wide receiver and don't necessarily need the cornerback, stuff you, know there's not much in it for you really to try and just do it Because Travis hunter wants.
It but for the teams that, DO i think that's the challenge is not letting him do it at, all but figuring out what the best way of doing it is so that it's not an overall detriment to his play on either side of the.
Ball If tennessee Goes carter at, one what Does cleveland do it.
Too it's a great.
QUESTION a lot of IT i think depends obviously on their evaluation of these. Quarterbacks BUT i think for them this is a gift that they did not expect to.
Have they made arguably the worst personnel move that's ever been made in the history of the game with This Deshaun watson, deal between the trade for, him between the baggage that he came, with and between the contract that they handed, him which is still being treated as like an anomaly by the rest of THE nfl that has not been precedent that has not been used to create the next wave of fully guaranteed quarterback, contracts WHICH i
think could have happened at one point in THE. Nfl they have still used that as like a mistake and a desperate act by a team and ignore it essentially when it comes to precedent that has crippled this. TEAM i, mean they are still stuck with that. Contract watson is now injured with an achilles injury, again and even when he wasn't, injured he looked like he couldn't be starting for,
them that they needed to move on. Anyway the only way out of that deal is a cheap enough quarterback that you can have starting for you and sort of make that pay and go away and allow you to carry that contract and for it not to ruin everything. Else the easiest route to that is a quarterback at the top of the. Draft so you, know if they Love Cam, word if they love Shedhar, STANDERS i think it would be crazy to pans on one of those guys given this. Opportunity so if.
We operate off and, again nobody knows how this is going to go, down we're all just. Guessing but if It's carter, one let's say It's ward. Two we land on The giants at, three and The giants need a, quarterback but they need a lot of. Things what point do you Think Travis hunter has to go off the?
Board, well think THE x factor in all this is what happens before the, draft, right because we've got free. Agency we just dealt with This Matthew stafford will he won't eat, drama and he's gonna stay with The. Rams but these are all the dominoes that affect the.
Top of the.
Draft, Right first of, all it Was. Stafford THEN i think the next domino becomes what happens With Sam. Darnold does anybody at the top of the draft get? Him does a team saddle themselves With Aaron rodgers for one more year or two years and go with? HIM i think these are things that can affect who's going to go at the top of this. Draft, ultimately you, know specially As hunter, is you don't pass on a quarterback that you think can be a starter or can be
the guy the future of your. Franchise For, hunter the quarterback position is, paramount it's. Everything so if you think you have one of those, guys you have to take, him regardless of who's still on the. Board if you've determined that the quarterbacks are not worth, it or that they're not those guys and you're going to pass on a, quarterback, whatever THEN i think anybody in the top five can realistically make a case For Travis, hunter and in, fact
pretty much any team in the. DRAFT i mean, again this is a guy that might be the best corner and wide receiver in the. Draft at the same, time literally every single team in the league needs at least one of those two. Positions so at that, point if you're not taking a, quarterback he's absolutely in the top three of every single draft.
Board who is The Sam monson candidate for the awkward Green Room Draft day, slides the most overhyped player that has the chance of sliding all the way down to the end of the first round that we're all going to watch feeling bad.
For so a big part of that is always the stuff we don't, know you, Know it's the off field, Stuff it's the character concerned.
Stuff it's the things.
That teams have access to that we don't necessarily have access to on the. Outside AND i know, already you know there's some rumblings about things.
That that will affect.
That kind of, thing you, Know James Pearce, JUNIOR i think a lot of teams have some kind of off field red flags for, him and that's WHY i think you're seeing him start to drop on draft boards at the. Moment for a guy THAT i think otherwise would absolutely be seen as as a top tier pass rusher and a top tier guy outside of, That i'm not sure that anyone immediately jumps out as like this guy is definitely gonna.
Slide where do you.
Think i'll ask you About shador like floor For shador is? What AND i know to your, point there's a lot that could happen between now and the draft In.
April you, Know i'm A jets. Fan i've told you that.
Before, sam a long Suffering jets, Fan they're sitting there at seven and they need a. Quarterback who do you think the first team is going to be, like, yeah we. Can't you, know this is where we have to Draft. Shador he's not going to slide any further than.
THAT i think That jets team or That jets pick probably is his, floor just because, again if we're talking about the teams that even if they start picking up quarterbacks and free agency and trades and, things it seems unlikely that every one of those teams in the top seven would take care of the quarterback position before the.
Draft so you, know if Cam ward has gone somewhere in those first, picks The, raiders The, JETS i would imagine at least one of those teams is still without a quarterback at that, point AND i doubt they could pass On shud Or sanders at that.
Spot what do you think happens With Darnold's and you, know, again out here in this footprint we Saw sam playoff close number of, times and as A jets, fan, actually when they Drafted Sam, DARNOLD i, Thought, okay finally we have the guy WHO i think can get it. Done and by the, way If I'm Dion i'm not sure THAT i want you to or In New, york AND i say that as A jets, Fan but you, Know sam has resurrected his career and he has this chance to have like a second. Half but you, Know Baker
mayfield type. Run where do you think he? Lands what do you think that looks?
Like?
Sam he? Does BUT i think at wants A Baker mayfield type of contract is, well because those last two games were so terrifying for any team that would want
to buy into. Him he was spectacular for most of the season and it looked like he had completely changed and he was a different, player And kevin O'Connell had worked his matchic again and then it was almost like a switch got flipped and he went all the way back to seeing Ghosts Sam, donald you Know New York jets nightmare against The patriots And Bill belichick for those last two, games which by the, way were the most
important games The vikings played all season. Long SO i think he's definitely earned himself a ton of money and he's earned himself a starting job next. Year but nobody is not going to be aware of. That you, know that is going to need let anybody who wants to Give donald the next, chance so you, KNOW i think his contract is probably going to have to reflect that the way the season. Ended it's not going to be the, big big money contract that maybe he was on course.
FOR i think it should be some sort of middle class quarterback. Deal you, KNOW a team like The colts would be an interesting landing spot who seemed to have not so much soured On richardson but decided they just can't rely on him right, now whether it's injury or playing performance so. Far you, Know donald could step onto The, COLTS i, think and make that team a playoff football team pretty much right out of the. Gate The colts
would be an interesting. SPOT i think The raiders would also make some sense With Pete carroll and presume coach who knows how to take some of the pressure off of. Quarterback those are the two SPOTS i think That i'd be most interested in for.
Him surprised That stafford ended up back with The rams a lot of noise around.
Him, NO i think that's the spot that made the most. SENSE i think they were basically trying to get everybody else to set the market for. Them my hunch is the two sides were reasonably far apart in terms of
what they. WANTED i think The rams probably think That stafford doesn't have that much long, left And stafford wanted a bit more guarantees or assurance or duration on the deal than they, did so they basically gave him the permission to, go you, know go talk to other, people set the market for, us come back to, us and then we'll figure out if we can get it. DONE i think that's more what this, was rather than a concerted effort by either side to move on from each.
Other forty Nine ers Sent Deebo samuels to the, commanders and it just it feels like this is a trade that could do a lot for the, commanders, who After terry, McLaurin had a pretty precipitous drop Between terry and whoever you think their number two or number three was or. Whatever and you, Know i've talked about this quite a. Bit Sam Jayden daniels was out this way To Arizona.
State he actually almost was a. You he nearly played here In Salt lake for The university Of, utah AND i am still floored that he did that year.
ONE i, mean he TRANSFERRED lsu obviously won The.
Heisman BUT i wonder what your thoughts are on the rookie season Of Jayden daniels and what Adding Deebo samuel.
Means, yeah he.
Was, spectacular and he was getting better throughout the. SEASON i, mean that's the thing he. Was he didn't just say to start off hot and cling onto. It by the end of the, year he was getting better and better and looking more and more assured as the season went, on and in the. PLAYOFFS i, mean he looked like the kind of quarterback that could take them to something completely. Unprecedented So i'm all for surrounding him with weapons and
seeing what he can do as quickly as. Possible and the debo deal is the perfect kind of opportunistic deal where that's what having a ton of cap space allows you to. Do you might not have been targeting guys like.
That you might have been trying to find somebody in free, agency but the forty nine ers are in a different spot of their kind of salary cap life cycle and they're trying to shed, contracts and you, know for a fifth round, pick you can pick up a guy who's been one of the most dynamic and difficult to defend offensive playmakers in THE nfl.
Over the last few.
Years all, Right, zam before he said you, lose you, Know philly wins The Super bowl and you look At jalen at twenty, six Say quanted twenty, EIGHT Aj brown at twenty, Seven DeVante smith at twenty. Six you, know they've got the bulk of their best skill position players still smack dab in the middle of their. Prime and of course we'll see what the offseason. Brings they've got a really good young. Defense Jalen carter's twenty. THREE i
could go up and down the. List is there a chance that we're seeing the start of what could be a pretty fruitful fun run For eagles?
Fans, oh there's absolutely a. CHANCE i, mean it's really difficult to repeat to do anything like that in THE. Nfl The chiefs and The patriots have kind of broken everybody's perspective of how difficult it is to have that kind of sustained. Success, obviously the common tread from those two teams is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all, Time Tom brady and Then Patrick. Mahomes The eagles don't have.
That you, Know Jalen hurts is, good but he's not, great but they do have the best roster in THE nfl right now and a chance to have the same thing again next. Year and if you're going to have a good rather than a great, quarterback that's what you need to still be able to make those of sustained runs year on. Year BUT i think you're. Right the core of that team is in their, prime if not. Younger they had an amazing draft by the looks of
it last. Year they're very good at reloading and coming back younger and, better AND i think they're absolutely a team that would be seen as probably the favorite in THE nfc going into next.
Year, Okay, sam where can everybody go to find the podcast and all your?
Work?
Yeah check The mic is the PODCAST m see anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube as.
Well thank, you, sir have a great. Week love to get you on. Soon, okay.
Anytime take it, easy all, Right.
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Right final segment of the program for This monday. Afternoon it's always good to Get monday in the rear view. Mirror so congratulations about that final segment today brought to you by my friends At Overtime cards And.
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There all, right good, stuff good. Stuff so not a lot of local stuff going on. Tonight most of the college basketball action gets rolling tomorrow on the local side of. Things but in college, Hoops duke and Wake forest are playing right now if you want to Watch Cooper flag and Then houston And kansas at The Ftida. Center of course it's called The Ftida, center so typically a big, matchup still two big. Names we'll see If kansas can
make it. Interesting every TIME i Watch houston, PLAY i just feel like they're so much better than every other team in The Big. Twelve The pistons are in town to play The, jazz the red Hot Detroit, pistons and we got a good night OF nba, action including The warriors in. Action if you want to see a Little Steph curry rockets in. THUNDER a little bit later on
The kings take on The. Mavericks let me ask, you Mister Lebron James stan see WHAT i did, there, kids you would understand is it time to say The lakers have to be at least considered as a serious threat to EITHER okac Or cleveland Or boston Or.
Denver they've got to be in that. Tier Right if you.
Would have asked me this the day they made that, TRADE i would have said. Yes and that's obviously a lot of faith In lebron And, luca BUT i just there's no way you can have those two on the floor healthy in the spring and not be mentioned right. Now there are some things they've got to figure. Out
obviously the front court is one of. Them but you see the synergy that they have and the amount of the BASKETBALL iq that's on the floor when both of them are or when you can stagger time with, them and what it does to an, offense what it does even defensively communication, wise those guys are really smart on that.
Side Although luca physically is not a great defender, man there is just a lot to like a lot to, like and as they get to know each other more and know how to play off each other a little bit, more that's something that only gets. Better, Right, so if Healthy, spence which is when you're relying on a guy who is almost forty one and a guy who we know has question marks about his day to day, routine his.
Let's, say.
Motivation or dedication to basketball outside of the actual hoops, part that is a question you can still. Ask but if those two are healthy and we are entering the, postseason especially if they have home court and maybe a top two seed in The, west, YEAH i wouldn't count them, out to say the.
Least every possession ends with a good shot when those two are on the. FLOOR i MEAN i watched The clippers, game and just like every other player on the floor not Named luca And, lebron if you're in the right, spot you're just gonna get an open. SHOT i would be concerned with Starting Jackson hayes and Having Alex lena's your.
Backup yokhich is gonna go for a, million but it looks really, dangerous, man when those two are, right which is not a, surprise all, right that will do it don't forget coming up on the other, Side it is The Utah Men's Coaches, Show Bill, riley interim head, Coach Josh Eiler porter what comes our way on A tuesday edition of the.
Program on A tuesday edition of The Drive, spence we'll cover all of our, bases but zero in on some hoops as. Well tim McMahon for YOUR Nba Daily. Assist it looks like we'll chat with a, Friend Tony jones on A tuesday as. Well Aaron falk of The Salt Lake. Tribune haven't spoken With aaron for quite some, time so we'll be good to catch up with. Him and Then Josh furlong's weekly hit giving us the latest on The
UT's Lady utes obviously a big. Win And Josh, eilert in his first weekend as the youths head, coach gets a w overa.
Issue there you, Go so join us for A tuesday drive with. That will say good night very, special thank. You tom Haberstro brian Dun, Seth Bill riley And Sam monson kind of jumped, around did a little bit of everything as we like to do on the. Program if you missed any of, it you can go to the, website which IS espn stuff at under sports dot. Com make sure to download our mobile app and take us on the. GO espn seven hundred app is available in
The App store The Google Play. Store, then, finally for what we do in our space for four hours every, afternoon become a, subscriber a, supporter a, follower whatever they call it on your preferred podcasting.
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Check it's just do a, search hit the follow, button the subscribe, button leave a rating and a. Review if you give us all the stars and say nice, things it actually does. Help, Reporter i'm spent saying to, night enjoy Your monday. Evening You Tom Men's coaches show coming up on the other, side talk to youmrow right HERE audiespn seven hundred ninety TWO nfm proud to be part Of UTAH'S Espn radio.
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