Monday afternoon, thirteen minutes past the hour up two o'clock.
Beautiful day, beautiful April day.
It's about sixty six sixty seven degrees, clear and sunny here in downtown Salt Lake City, utahter a little bit of a cold front closed out last week. We have a great week of weather in the forecast. So Happy Monday to you. Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Hope you had a great weekend and ready to get back at it on this Monday afternoon. And as it is every single day, it's good to have you along for the ride. Spence check, it's behind the mic, Porter Larson behind the glass today.
And since you and I last.
Spoke, we had a really fun weekend of NBA playoff basketball that continues tonight with a double header at Madison Square Garden the Pistons in the Knicks. We'll tip off at five thirty on Turner Sports. Then your late game is the Clippers and the Nuggets. So we'll get to some NBA playoff takeaways, we'll get to some of the conversations that are kind of going around around the landscape for pro basketball. Of course, to Utah Jazz another spring
with no playoff basketball here in Utah. That makes three straight years, and you might want to buckle up and hold on for the ride, because I don't think it's
happening anytime soon. On Friday night, it was the final iteration of the play in Tournament, where the Heats send Quinn Snyder in, the Atlanta Hawks packing for the off season, and then the Memphis Grizzlies, despite a forty piece from Anthony Davis, took care of the Dallas Mavericks, which of course means Alex Jensen is free to allocate his full time job to the University of Utah men's basketball program. Transfer portal is open in college Hoops, and it is
open for another forty eight hours. In the world of college football. Speaking of college football, was up at the spring game over the weekend at rice Eco Stadium. Fun to catch up with some of the coaches, some of the administrators, and.
Some of the players. A lot of former players in the.
House Britton Covey, Zach Moss, Devin Lloyd and others. So fun weekends, fun to taking a little college football. There's some transfer portal news on the BYU side of things. Not great news for BYU football, as Harrison Taggart and Keelan Merrion have announced that they have entered the transfer portal. Typically on the Monday after spring football ends for a program, you do hear about some players deciding to leave, and good news for you fans, we have not heard any
of that at least so far today. If anything comes down, we'll let you know. Talked about this with Sean during cross talk. Of course, the coaches will conduct some exit interviews as these players will now kind of be left to their own accord for a while. Talk to Jason Beck and Morgan's Scully coach with on Saturday, and it's all about recruiting now for the coaches to take advantage of this trunk cad to transfer portal see if they can add some talent to the roster. It is NFL
Draft week, so very exciting week for NFL fans. There's not a lot of local buzz, but there's some junior tafunuk for Anne reed Brand, Keithy, Caleb Loner, players like Tyler Batty kleb Etn and Jacob Robinson from Brigham Young. So we'll get you ready for the NFL Draft. We have one of my favorite NFL guest today. Still feels like the draft begins at two after Tennessee goes.
Cam Ward at won, but left to see how it goes. So a lot to do.
Another rough weekend for Real Salt Lake after a very fun, exciting historic week last week announcing that the Miller family has purchased the controlling interest of RSL. They welcomed in Toronto, who had not won a match all year, and won a match at America First Field in Sandy one.
Nil your final.
A very controversial red card handed to Diego Luna, the young superstar for RSL.
I am told inside.
Sources little birdie que little bird, just the cutest little bird. Sometimes he can get grumpy, but he's the best little bird that ever existed. They have informed that they are going to appeal to the league the red card that was handed to Diego Luna. Alex Katranas took the mike postgame and was very unhappy because this has been a string of bad calls. Now, look, I'm not one to utilize the officials as an excuse, because the fact of the matter is the play of RSLs not being good enough.
They do have a striker on the way, I'm told he'll be on the ground nother little birdie let me know in the next twenty four to forty eight hours. It's a little RSL on the program as well, a lot to do Monday Afternoon style.
First guest right out of the gates to.
Break down all the NBA playoff storylines, and there's a myriad of them. As Tom haberstrow right out of the gates, he'll join us. We'll do some Utah football basketball, some Red Rocks too. It was a rough second and third routine, disciplined for the Red Rocks. They finished fourth in Nationals. But Josh Furlong, we'll stop by today. We'll get you ready for the NFL Draft with Ben Solak, rising star front of the show from ESPN, and then Brian Dunseth will stop by to talk all things RSL on this
Monday afternoon. So some football, some basketball, college and pro little RSL. Utah Hockey Club and Bill Armstrong addressed the media their postseason media availability as the Stanley Cup playoffs have but gun and pro hockey. Justin Thomas wins the RBC heritage as well at back in the Winter Circle.
So Tom Habers show Josh for.
Long, Ben Solak, Bryan don sef Mee, Spence check, it's all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter Larson Monday Afternoon.
Yo, give me one NBA playoff takeaway.
I know there's a mirror like OKC is freaking terrifying. Yeah, give me one NBA playoff take away from the weekend.
That that might be the one is that I thought the West was wide open because I haven't seen them do it yet. Right now, we're one game, min we're one game, but Oklahoma City looks like the eighty two games, right. Sometimes you sometimes you don't get that. Spence. Let let's zoom in here a little bit. I'm a Knicks guy, We're a jazz market twenty thirteen, twenty twelve, Knicks Quinn Snyder late late Jazz.
Right.
They were really really good rosters eighty two games, fifty fifty five, close to sixty wins some of those teams. But they were never built for the postseason, like physically how their roster was put together. They weren't built for the postseason. And I wasn't sure about okay see. But the one takeaway I think from that is the one that obviously stood out to you. Is that they are. I think maybe what we think they are, maybe trust them on.
Them so deep man, like everyone on that roster can play, including former youth Brandon Carlson. All right, so we'll do all the NBA playoff angles and storylines with our buddy Tommy Haberstrow on a Monday. But before it gets tom, courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks, it is time now for your opening tip.
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Nineteen point five points four Kawhi Leonard. Then finally less than nine point five rebounds and assists for Jamal Murray. As the NBA action resumes tonight, All right, just a couple quick players off takeaways and we'll do more on this with Tom Haberstrow coming up. You know, on the Friday before the playoffs, you kind of talk about the predictions, what you think the league is going to look like who you think is going to advance, and certainly the
West continues to be much deeper than the East. The East has some good young teams that are rising up. So just some quick thoughts. On Saturday, we saw the Timberwolves going to Los Angeles and just physically pushing around the Lakers UH one seventeen to ninety five. And Minnesota. Chris Finch is their head coach. He's been around the block for a long time. JJ Reddick. This is his first go around as a coach in the postseason, and when Minnesota is healthy, there's a lot to like about
that roster. But really, the way they've got about their construction is finding a bunch of big, physical wing defenders.
They can really get.
Up and cause problems for dominant offensive wings on the other side. And of course the Lakers, their bread is butter with two of the most exciting players and intelligent players this generation, of course, Lebron and then Luke Adancic. Luke went for thirty seven, but you know what Minnesota did. They essentially allowed Luca to be a scorer and they took away his ability as a facilitator.
He had one assist and that was by design.
It was almost like they're gonna let Luca do his thing and then they're going to try to crowd the other players. Lebron looked a little disconnected. I'm not gonna lie, which was a little bit surprising. And JJ Reddick talked about this post game that the Lakers were just not ready for the Minnesota Timberwolves physicality. You know, as a Nick fan, I'm not a big Julius Randall guy. But Julius is a big, imposing wing, and when he is kind of determined to at least give you effort defensively,
he can change the game. I'm just not a big fan of his ball stopping offensive tendencies. You're not going to get a Jaden McDaniels eleven to thirteen, three or three from three game more often than not, twenty five points, nine boards. But he did a really good job on Lebron and then Ant made some big shots down the stretch twenty two points, nine boards, eight assists. You know, it's interesting for Jazz fans Chris Finch sat Rudy Gobert for big stretches.
Where have we seen heard that before? Playoff basketball?
When the other team goes small, oftentimes it is better to sit go Beart so that it's less than the Quinn never really latched onto I don't know that he ever believed in it, but nas Reed came off the bench.
It was awesome with twenty three.
They have got great depth and they're healthy right now, and you know, with Luke and Lebron, I would imagine the Lakers are going to find their way back into the series. And I'm not saying it's over, but that was kind of the main takeaway I had from Saturdays till the Nuggets had a great comeback against the Clippers, and you got to give Russell Westbrook a ton of credit with his defense down the stretch, fourth quarter, overtime. That's going to be a barn burner. I wouldn't be
shocked if we went seven. But a great, great game one between the Nugs and the Clips went to Denver. Now the series that everybody seems to be talking about and we are. You referenced, oksee beat Memphis by fifty one. Okay, so like I know, John Moran came out after the game, so we're not going to play that poorly. Again, I don't think this has anything to do with the Grizzlies.
I think this is all about how historically spent SEC Oklahoma City is and has been all year, and they probably just don't receive a ton of attention because they play in a market that nobody really wants to visit,
nobody really gives a rip about. But I went to the OKC Jazz game, the final Jazz home game of the season, and I sat with our guys, Smittye and Scott Layden was in town as well, So sat with those two and Scotty and Smitty just marveling at the depth of OKC and how every player on that roster can play high level NBA basketball. I mean, Shay Gilgess, Alexander was a wallflower. He didn't do much at all.
He's their best player by far. He needed thirteen shots to score fifteen points and they beat Memphis by fifty one points. So, of course OKAC has been historically special all year. Probably should have given them a little bit more credit entering the postseason. Of course, some of these Western Conference teams will have something to say about it. But Oklahoma City is the overwhelming favorite to roll out
of the Western Conference. And if you haven't watched them all year, you probably are now intered to just how good they are. But the series that everybody seems to be talking about is Golden State Houston. So real quick here that that was a case. And I talk about this all the time, and I do try to bring our NBA coverage back to the local scene and through the prism of what we can learn about this roster construction project that the Jazz are going through right now.
But I say this every year, and it's not some you know, this is not brain surgery, This is not rocket science here. But when it comes to playoff basketball on the road, that's when superstars remind you who they are. Playoff basketball on the road, Okay, young players always played better at home and certainly come playoff time when it's a half court offensive, slow it down battle and officials tend to swallow their whistles. You have to have dudes
that have been there before. You have to have dudes that are not afraid of the moment on the road. And I like the Rocket's physicality. I like their size. They actually caused Golden State a ton of issues when emy Udoaka went with Steven Adams and Alprim Shangun when they win big. Golden State struggled and Steph was cold to start, but it was like Steph and Jimmy Butler were both waiting for their moment in the third quarter
and the fourth quarter. At the end of the third they couldn't hit a shot, but fourth quarter time was Steph and Jimmy period. Okay, so there's a lot to like about this young rocket squad. I'm and Thompson man. For all the conversation about how he was going to lock down Steph Curry, that was not the case at all.
Shan Gun was the only one who really played well.
Now Van Vliet will not go four of nineteen, two of thirteen from three. But when Houston's offense breaks down in the half court set, who are they? I have no idea because Van Vliet is not a guy that can beat you off the dribble.
He's more of a volume shooter. Jalen Green was over his skis.
I heard a lot of people pick Houston in this series in Golden State. To me, at least for one night, showed everybody why once again in the playoffs you have to have superstars that show up on the road. All Right, we'll do more with Tom Harstrow coming up Playoff Style, but want to welcome in a very special guest live in studio, Tally and Corey from Courtland Roofing.
Gentlemen, Happy Monday. How are we doing good? How are you? I'm good? Thank you for the time.
Basketball fans at all football fans. What's what's your what's your sport of choice?
All sports? All sports?
Yep?
Okay, are we talking utes? Cougars like utes all the way?
Okay, very nice, Well, nice to meet you guys, Thanks for coming in studio. So Tally, I'll start with you. Let's talk about your spring special. What would you like our listeners to know?
So with any roof.
Replacement, we are going to give you a give you free seamless gutters on the with that roof replacement.
So free seamless gutters for the lame and those are rain gutters.
Rain gutters, yes, and and that's a that's a big offer, right like free rain gutters.
What sort of value are we talking about there?
A couple thousand dollars, a.
Couple thousand bucks okay, so spring sale. Okay, So Corey, we'll move over to you. What do they have to do to take advantage of this and actually get the free rain gutters.
Yeah, so they just need to call us by the end of the show today schedule and appointment will come out do a free inspection of the roof and and look at the rain gutters and and if we do a full roof replacement for them then yeah they can. They'll take advantage of that and get free ring gutters.
Very nice.
So Tally, tell me about your company this big picture. How long you guys been in operation? What do you want our listeners to know.
We've been in business for twenty years, family owned, locally owned. It's really important to us to take care of people. And your roof is an important part of your home. Basically takes care of all of your assets, for sure. It's on the inside.
Now this time of year.
Corey will go to you on this this time of year as the weather starts to get warm, and this is your I'm a layman here, this is your business. I would imagine folks are kind of analyzing the damage that the winter has done right to try to see if this is a good time to get some roof repairs.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah?
Absolutely, Spring is a big time because we've just gone through winter. There has been damage, and we do work with a lot of insurance companies, so a lot of times people have wind damage or even hill damage and we can come out and assess the roof and we can let you know if it's worth filing the claim. And so we take you through the whole process and work directly with the insurance so you don't have to.
Talk about Tally. The warranty.
Folks love warranties, and you guys have what you perceive to be one of the best warranties in the business.
Fair to say, Yeah, the.
Great warranty, labor warranty, the manufacturer warranty. We use Owens Corning products. There's a fifty year limited lifetime warranty associated with that and we're not going anywhere.
We'll take it care of you, all right.
So it's Courtland Roofing my guys, Tally and Coreyan Studio.
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The spring sale gets you free rain gutters and a replacement roof. The roof is not free, but the rain gutters are free. It is a value of several thousand dollars. So get ready for the wet weather by calling our experts for a free inspection and take advantage of the spring pricing right now. So call the schedule the consultation during the show today and you get free rain gutters, which is a massive, massive added value for you. And here's the number. Call right now at eight oh one
six one five five five six zero. That's eight o one six one five five five six zero quarter.
Young man.
It's not often that you directly violate a by law of the radio show.
Do I need to remind you?
No, it's not It's not often that you violate one of the tenants of the show. Need I remind you our rule when you decide to go with the greatest live act and history of music, Dave Matthews Ben no hits? I know, yeah, we we subscribe to the Andy Bernard rule about Dave.
What's going on with you? I know, I know?
No hits. As you said, it was very last minute. It was very last second. I had like three seconds to throw a song up. I had to throw a Northeast jam band up for you and Tom fair enough. I don't know, man, all good? Is this a hit?
It's the only song they've ever won a Grammy for, so it's like the hit but you know what, it's all right Monday Afternoon style, NBA Playoff style. Tom Haberstrow batting lead off on the show, Tommy Happy money man.
How are we doing?
So?
You prefer him to do number forty one or something?
There we go, Tom, talk to you know. I love when you talked dirty about Dave. Tom, I appreciate that. Yes, indeed that would and live preferably obviously not the studio recording.
Yeah, yeah, I prefer I think number forty one might be my favorite lab Jimmy thing or a two step I can get with any of those.
There we go, There we go.
All right, Tom, I'm gonna ask you the question we started the show off with NBA Playoff basketball over the weekend. The one major takeaway for you is what if you had to kind of hone.
In on one thing.
Physicality is back, Spence, Physicality is back. I did this study over at the Finder the last couple of days. I've been kind of looking at this because I think it was during the Lakers game Jay Billis pointed out that they hadn't been called for a foul and like four minutes into the second quarter, and he was noting it, and then I tracked it for all the games. It was the fewest few attempts for an opening weekend in
the NBA Playoffs. Ever, an average of seventeen free throws per teen per game is the lowest we've ever seen in the playoffs, and it isn't particularly close. Last year it was an average about twenty one, and this year it's seventeen eighteen right in there. So last year was the lowest and now we're about fifteen percent lower than the previous low. And so what we're seeing is, you know, the physicality that the Warriors are able to play with on Jalen Green and with Fred van Vliet and Shane Goon.
That's the difference. They allowed eighty five points in that game, and Imo Udoka said after the Ames, He's like, we held the Warriors to ninety five points. That's a win, Like normally that is a win. But we couldn't get our offense going. And a lot of it is because the Warriors were more physical. And what JJ Reddick and Lebron James said after they lost the Minnesota Timberrlves is
we need to be more physical. And the Pistons they got run out of that gym at Madison Square Garden because they were not playoff tested, they weren't ready to play bullyball, and Kate Cunningham shriveled up. And so if you go to Tomdfinder dot com you can see historically free throw attempts in the playoffs go down, but especially so this postseason where teams are not really getting to the line at a high rate, and I think it has huge implications for this postseason.
All right, so let's tackle some of these one by one, and we'll start out this way with the Western Conference stuff before we moved back east. As we continue the conversation, so Denver clips, I mean, the West continues to be ridiculously deep. There are gonna be some really good teams are going home. The Clippers entered the postseason on fire.
And as I talked to you last week about whenever Kauai is healthy for an extended stretch, we all do the thing where like, oh, yeah, that's who that dude is. And I've always kind of been like, you can have Russell Westbrook guy. And I don't think there's anything sustainable about what we saw from him Game one, but he does have the ability to bring energy that really puts him in a category that is very, very small, and that's what I've always respected about him. His defense down
the stretch was great. That was a hell of a basketball game. Give me your take Clips Nugs Game one, and how do you see that playing out?
Man?
I am not a huge Russell Westbrook fan, like I have never been. I just think that his stat sheet is really impressive and his energy is really impressive. But in terms of winning plays, like, I'd rather have a lot more players in today's era than Russell Westbrook. I think a lot of it is empty calories. And man, that performance on Saturday was awesome. Down the stretch, he
was great. He had a lot of he smoked some layups, you know, but he got to every rebound, offensive rebound after offensive rebound, deflections, big plays, passes like he made so many winning plays down the stretch. And if we can get that guy every game, I think the Denver Nuggets can win this series. But if we can't get that guy, then there's just not enough weapons on Jokic's side. I think the Clippers win this series.
Still.
I thought that they were gonna win this one handily, and then the Nuggets stormed back and they could not generate good offense the Clippers and the winning, the energy, the winning plays, they were all done by Russell Westbrook and the Denver Nuggets, and you know that tilts the scales. I mean, I just I never thought we would see Russell Westbrook at this age be the high energy guy making the right play at the right time. But he did, and for that Game one, I was really impressed with
him down the stretch. Now you're there's good stuff and then there's bad. Russ Right, there's the five to seventeen shooting where he's taking jumpers where they're begging him to shoot, and he has them clutch shots. But I don't think that you're gonna be able to rely on that going forward. Like you said, it's unexpected to get that kind of high performance from Russell Westbrook, and you're gonna need the
complimentary players Peyton Watson, Porter Junior, Christian Brown. You need those guys to show up in Game two or else. I think the Clippers are the better team. I think Jokic is the best player in this series, but I think with James Harden with Zubots, who I think handles Jokic as well as anybody, I'm not saying he's a stopper, but I think Zoo is as good of a defender on Nikola Jokic, and the analytics back that up. I think they have a good shot at winning this series,
a better shot than the Nuggets. But Russell Westbrook, man, he had lightning in a bottle for those last couple of minutes and he was awesome. I can understand why they're so many. Russell Westbrook stands out there because all you remember the good ones, and in victories, you remember the good ones and you forget all the mistakes and all the dumb passes and all the smoked smoke putbacks
and all that. But when there's more than there are downsides, man, Russell Westbrook is awesome to root for it, and that's what he was in Game one.
Not excuse me, I'm not an emotional man, Tommy, but I will say somebody who was courtsied for Marcus Camby giving Jeff Van Gundy a black eye and Jeff Van Gundy holding on for dear life of Alonzo Morning's leg. Watching Jeff Wressell with Nikola jokicch for the basketball, it made me somewhat emotion. What brought it here to my eye, I gotta say, well, you.
Know what's weird about that is he had a similar thing with Matt Ishbia. Do you remember this, Yeah, yep, ball goes out of bounds and into the stands and it's Matt Ishbia, the owner of the Phoenix Suns, and Ishpia, who played as a walk on at Michigan State, was like, nah, I'm not giving you the ball back, and Yokich there was like an altercation. And then if you remember, Mark Dagnall, the coach of OKC, tried to like have this hack where they had one of his players I think it
was I think it was Dylan Jones. He had one of his players stand at the scorers table to check in and then not check in because they could not stand how quickly the referees would give Jokich the ball on out of bounds like on made baskets. Yokich would get the ball so quickly, and the thunder thought that is not right, Like they got to like give the ball. He has to pass to the referee and get the
ball back, and they're not ruling that correctly. So dag Nault would send a guy, a bench guy that he had no intention of going to the game, but would send him to the scorers table because he wanted Jokic to not get the ball so quickly out of bounds. And then so this is like the third time that this has happened. And of course you got Powell, who's a Jason Powell, who's the trainer, the head athletic trainer for the Clippers forever, and Jeff Van Gunny now getting
with Yokich. This has become a thing. This has become a thing, and it just delights me to know end that like the only way to stop or slow down Yokic is to just hold on to the ball for a nextra beat and then you'll finally get your way.
You think Jeff gets another head coaching job, Maybe he doesn't want one.
I don't know.
He's done such a great job, and I'm biased, I would admit it. But do you think that will be There are opens openings and there will be more.
Do you think Jeff gets a look?
I think he does. I mean, you look at you know, just getting back into the game is half the battle. And I think you know he did some Team USA for the Select team for a couple of years. I think it's getting actually within the NBA circle, I think is gonna dramatically improve his chances of getting a job rather than trying to hold out for a head coaching gig. You know, this is a weird league. Man like JJ Reddick went from hosting a podcast to becoming the head
coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. There is no straight line path to becoming a head coach in the NBA. And it's just, you know, these owners, I don't think they know what they want. And I think there's gonna be an owner who wants someone with that name recognition, who's a brilliant basketball strategist, who's a guy that has been around for decades in the league. And I think
you're gonna see his name in some circles. Whether they hire him or not, I'm not sure what the exact right fit is, but you're telling me Sacramento or Memphis with the interim coach there, you're telling me that with Denver having I think Michael Malone is kind of in that Van Gundy tree, So I'm not I'm not totally sure they would hire Jeff Van Gundy, but I do think that he'll probably get another opportunity at some point in the next couple of years.
You reference JJ Reddick and look, I don't know how much the narrative of, hey, this is his first playoff series as a head coach, so Game one was kind of a bad look for him. They did try to go small, almost exclusively, and of course out here in Salt Lake City watching Rudy Gobert have to go to the bench when the Lakers were going small, you know, we all have memories of that, and nas Reed stepped
in and had a really, really good game. I was a little bit surprised that Lebron didn't seem to engage physically, because Minnesota, when they're healthy, they've got a ton of just big, physical wing defenders. And I'm not a huge Julius Randall guy because of course, plenty of years in New York where the ball just stalls with him and he had seven turnovers, and offensively, you know there are always going to be issues. But when he's engaged, he's
a big, strong dude. So it is Jaden McDaniels, so his aunt, and they kind of let Lucas score and they were fine with that, but they took away his ability to facilitate he i'd one assist. So look, Lebron and Luca are both generational, they're both brilliant.
So I'm not saying this is over.
But takeaways from te Wolves Lakes Game one, how do you think it plays out?
They need to be better shooting. I mean, when you have the Timberwolves get hot, like Julius Randall's not going to shoot for a sec from downtown, right, that's not going to continue. Jada McDaniels isn't going to shoot three to three from downtown. You get basically at twenty one points on threes from those two players. That's not replicable. But what also is it replicable is you can't have basically Luca the only one hitting threes in that game.
And that's something that the Lakers have to figure out. If you're going to go small, you better hit shots from downtown. The certainly aren't going to play bully ball and just get the guy in the post and just score at will inside the paint. They need to figure out a way to get the others. I'm talking ruy Ashramura, I'm talking Gabe Vincent, these other scorers. I mean, Dorian
Finney Smith has to be a three point threat. If he's going to be out there, because if you're not defending, you've got to be able to do something on the other end, and they weren't defending. The Timberwolves. Scoring one hundred and seventeen points on the surface doesn't seem like an egregious defensive game. That game was Neanderthal. That was an eighty six possession game. One hundred and seventeen points allowed on a eighty six possessions. That's one hundred and
thirty three defensive rating by the Lakers. If you're gonna play DFS, if you're gonna play small, and you're gonna go with Ruy and DFS and Luki Lebron and Austin Reeves yet better be defending at a high level. But they couldn't stop the Timberwolves. And yes, a little bit of that with some unsustainably good three point shooting, but that is one of the worst defensive outputs that the Lebron led team has ever had, one hundred and thirty
three point defensive rating. They got to be better defensively, more locked in, more physical, and that's what you heard from JJ Reddick. They got to bring more physicality and he's not going to call out Lebron by name and Luca by name. But they've got to be better defensively, and that is just absolutely putrid defense, one hundred and thirty three points every one hundred possions of allowing game one.
So I went to the Jazz OKC game, mostly because it was the final home game of the season for the Jazz and just an excuse to go down there. And you know, I sat with Richard Smith, forty years with the Jazz, and Scottie Laden, who of course was the GM here GM in New York, and they were just marveling at how every single player on Oklahoma City's roster seems to be able to play at a really high level. I mean guys that you've never really even heard of, Guys that maybe even you know, big time
NBA fans don't really know all that. Well, look, Shay went four to thirteen, had fifteen points, and they beat Memphis by fifty one. Like it's pretty it's pretty terrifying, Tom, And look, I know you know this, and so do I because we watch the league and we cover the league. They've been historically great all year with their net and we know what they can do on defense and look, Memphis is not a world beater, and obviously they're in only because they want to play in so I don't
want to overreact, but that was pretty overwhelming. Watch OKC just toy with Memphis game one. What were your takeaways.
I've been saying this all season, man, you know it, I U OKC is gonna run away with this thing, and game one Memphis proved at least for one game against the eight seed when they had thirty six hours before tip off. I'm talking Memphis after they on the playing spot that proclamation by me earlier this season and say that this OKAC team is something else, that they are one of the great ones and they're gonna win
this thing easily. That looked smart for a night. Now I will say this to your point, it's not sexy or it's not kind of gonna draw any sort of eyeballs to just say they have a lot of high IQ players. But what's so interesting about this team is they had one finalist for the awards. One finalist. It was Shay Gilders Alexander for MVP. He probably will win it, but you're talking defense. Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Coach of the year, none of them have Okac's
name on it. And this was the team that had the largest point differential in NBA history. They blew out teams by more than any other team in NBA history this year sixty eight wins, fourteen losses. But the way they just just destroyed teams was on a level we
haven't seen. And they are not a team that had more than one appearance on the major NBA awards this year, And it just goes to show that, like this is a team that's the head of the snake is Shay Godris Alexander, but they have so many high IQ, high performing players like you said, and I'll point out that Jalen Williams leads the team in triple doubles this year.
And it's not that Jalen Williams, right, the other Jalen Williams, the one who comes off the bench, the backup center who I will remind you wasn't even a first round pick. Jalen Williams from Arkansas. This dude has three triple doubles this year and he's the team leader in triple doubles, not Shay or Jalen, that guy against the Blazers earlier this year is covering the game. I was working the game and I was like, I think he's gonna get
a triple double. And this guy is like their tenth best player, So like this this team is so deep. Aaron Wiggins. He's kind of this guy that if he was on the nets this year, he would have averaged twenty five a game. That's how good he is. He's already got a forty piece this season, and in ways that a lot of good scorers this year haven't had a forty burger. The Thunder are great. They play as well, disciplined, as smart. They're gonna be this team that because of
the referees. If this sticks, if the referees reward physicality, the Thunder might stand to gain more than anybody. And I know people are gonna say, hey, shay goch is Alexander a foul merchant. He leads all guards in free throws per game. I get it, but you don't realize if this Thunder defense, that's already by far the best defense in the NBA, if the referees are gonna officiate and let things play, dude, it's gonna be It's gonna be a bloodbath every single night. Against Thunder lou Dort.
You could call a foul on lou Dort every single time down the floor, case and walls, every time that Isaiah Hartenstein, every shake goes of Alexander, the way he swipes and and gets into every passing lane. They could call a foul on every player on this team every time down the floor. They are that physical, there's that menacing.
They're that brutal to go against. And if the referees are going to swallow the wristle their whistle in the postseason, like, I don't know how you're gonna score against this team. And I feel bad for John Moran and the Memphis Grizzlies because I don't think they had a shot. But
this is a warning. This is a warning. This is a This is a warning shot for the rest of the league that they took it easy on Memphis and they still couldn't score it more than eighty points if they tried for the whole game, if they played all their guys the whole game, I don't know if Memphis would have scored sixty. And so this is a team, the Thunder that is if this whistle continues, this is
gonna go back to nineties basket. We're going to see a lot of wins by thirty plus and the other team is not going to score more than eighty.
Which should be good news for a team like the Houston Rockets. So let's move over to Golden State Houston for a moment here, because I heard a lot of people, a lot of people and yes, Charles Barkley, but you know, over the years, I've always reminded people that that is an entertainment product, and Chuck is the one that guarantees everything and oftentimes is wrong, and I love him. Charles is great. I will die on that hill, but he's
not alone. A lot of people thought Houston, with their size, their length, their physicality, they would beat Golden State round one. Maybe they still will, but you know, for all the Aman Thompson is going to have Steph Curry and jail conversation yea had Steph had his moments where he struggled. I don't know if we can be as reductive as saying superstars win games in the playoffs on the road, because that's what they do and that's who Steph and
Jimmy are. When Houston's offense breaks down to the half court, Tom, I don't know who they are.
I really don't.
I mean, Shangun is awesome, but I don't need another isolation. Fred van Vliet dribble it through my leg seven times and then chuck up at contested three. Jalen Green didn't look ready, Tarry Easton didn't look ready. And again a young team with physicality and length. They did find something when they went Steven Adams and Shanngun together. And maybe they just have to muck it up with their bigs. But takeaways. Game one, Golden State Houston, how do you think it plays out?
Yeah, they don't have shooting, they don't have I mean, if Fred van Vliet or Jalen Green don't have it going, they are gonna have to be in this kind of slug fest. And unfortunately, Draymond Green loves playing in the mud. You know, this is a guy that loves when it gets grimy, when it gets physical. That's where Draymond Green wants to play. And that's exactly playing into the Warriors' hands.
Jimmy Butler, same thing. Like when it comes to just muck it up, defensive minded bully ball, I just don't think you're gonna win that game against the Warriors. If you're gonnat the Warriors, it's by getting stops and getting out in transition and scoring in the open court. But as soon as it gets into the half court, the Houston Rockets are in a very big disadvantage. And Jalen Green, I think might be one of the most overrated players in the league because I don't think his stuff will
work in the playoffs. I think in our eighty two game regular season he can get you twenty twenty five points. But in the postseason, I just say he's too small, too too weak in order to really thrive in the postseason. And I think his trajectory he isn't at a point right now where he can be a winning player in the playoffs. It's only one game, but he has a lot of bad habits as a score inefficient scorer, and
I worry that. You know, the Houston Rockets are going to be the number two seed and might get swept here. I don't think it's going to be a sweep. I think the Warriors are a really good team, and I've put them on my top tier of title contenders. This week. I just put out an article because if the physicality is gonna be where it is. They got to muck
up the game. Dylan Brooks has to figure out a way to not only muck it up, but also be able to hit a bunch of threes, because if they're not gonna get good half court offense from those guys, they just don't have a shot. They really don't. And you said it like Shane Goon's a good player. But in order for this team to be a top tier winning, you know, number two seed in the Western Conference and being a team that's gonna win at the highest levels,
they need better offense than what they had yesterday. And what I will say is this, the Golden State Warriors are great. They are a great team. And still the defense is amazing in the half court. The look the Rockets half court efficiency the five offensive rating in the half court sixty five. That's atrocious. That's in the fourth percentile according to Cleaning the Glass dot Com. You can't
beat the Warriors in the half court. You have to get turnovers and you have to play up and down in the half court, I mean in the open court. There's no way that this is sustainable for the Houston Rockets. And I suspect given emy Udoka how he always likes to push the envelope. I suspect they're going to come out with some extremely hard fouls in game two and try to set the tone because they can't win without
that edge. And I suspect you're going to see a very physical Emay Doka squad come in game two.
Last thing, tom bit of a non sequitor.
But we'll leend on this because I genuinely am just curious. Remember the Great Dumbin Dummer Comedy nineteen ninety four.
You and I were in high.
School when when Jim Carrey playing Lloyd Christmas just gently put his finger on the mouth of Mary to tell her to stop speaking.
Do you remember that scene?
Yes?
Every time.
Every time Nico Harrison talks, I just want to gently walk up and just put my finger over his mouth and like, buddy, just please stop?
What what? What?
After everything has happened, and after you know, a couple of post uh, you know, season media availability uh sessions with Nico Harrison, where are you at with that entire dynamic and a fan base that appears out for blood wanting this dude fired?
Where are you at with Dallas Now?
I kind of feel like we're like watching zeep. Yeah, you know, like, how can you screwed up this badly? Like how can you be surrounding yourself with people there? Tim McMahon just had this report today for ESPN. Tim McMahon had this report. I didn't realize this, but they fired Casey Smith, their longtime head athletic trainer, who says close to Dirk Novitsky and Luka Doncic as anybody like he is. He is kind of one of the untouchables
in the organization, the head athletic trainer. He's also like leading the trainers Association like he's He's beloved in the NBA community. Nico Harrison fired him and then hired someone in his place who is not certified, Like how do you do that? How do you fire the most beloved guy in your organization and replace him with an amateur?
And the response that that Tim mcmahnon his reporting found was well, he he Casey Smith was too negative and someone told U Tim McMahon, a team source said, Nico Harrison and I'm paraphrasing here wanted a cheerleader and that's what he got in this replacement, a yes man. Basically, it's like this. This sounds like the office. It sounds like a workplace comedy the way that this is gone.
And I'm with you. I think that the only way that this can bring peace to the Dallas Mavericks is either the owners sell or the owner's clean house top to bottom. I just don't see it any other way. It gets worse as the day goes on. So, yeah, I'm with you. When Jim Carrey is that is what
I'm looking I just saw a cliff. I don't know if this is if this is really what happened, but Yahoo Sports twitter account just shared a video of Nico Harrison walking off the podium and getting locked out of the facility, like he could not open the door from the press conference. He got locked out, and I'm just like, this is this is a lampoon. This has gotten to
be a lampoon a front office. And that's when you know you've gotten to a place where you're you're sitting here wondering is this are we are we watching like a comedy at this point, because it is a comedy of errors at this point, and I just I just don't see a way out other than to clean house.
Yeah, it's every time he talks. Man, it's awkward and it's not getting better. Tom, appreciate the time, buddy. Where can people go find your work?
Tom Thefinder dot com? Also check out the Big Number on Yahoo Sports. Every Thursday I riff with Dan Devine about a stat that you have to know and we discuss it at length every Thursday on Yahoo's Sports. Hey, appreciate it, Spence, and next time maybe we'll get some number forty one.
There we go, love it great. Tom Haberstrow joins us on a weekly basis. Always appreciate Tom time. The link to all of his work is up on his Twitter page. It's just his name at Tom Haberstrow. All we're gonna switch gears. We're gonna talk to Utah spring football and Auburn commit is on his way to play cornerback for the Utes.
We'll do some basketball, some Red Rocks as well.
Courtland Roofing, Utah's reroofing and repair experts with over twenty years of experience, and my friends Tally and Corey join me live in studio once again. All right, Corey, we'll start with you. What's the process that listeners go through? They call you estimates. What's the process that you guys go through to help them understand what you guys are about.
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Basically get them scheduled.
We're usually we booked out about a week or two so we can get the roof done. We usually get the roof done in a day, so we're not bothering the homeowner. Oh yeah, So that's essentially the process of getting your roof taken care of.
Tally, let's talk about why it's important too. I mean, it sounds obvious if you have roof issues and you don't get them fixed, it's a big problem for your home. I'm not a builder, but I would imagine that's it. To say, why is important for people to get this done? Sooner rather than later.
You know, spency.
It always happens that the issues arise at the most inconvenient times. Now's a good time to take a look at it, to have it assessed, to get on the schedule, and to plan ahead and to protect those things that are most important.
Talk talk to me Corey about the warranty. People love warranties if they're gonna have worked one on their home. You guys offer a great warranty.
Yeah, yeah, So we offer a lifetime warranty that protects the homeowner in case of any you know, warranty issues where the shingles weren't manufactured properly. But we have an amazing product in the Owens Corning Duration shingle that we do on most of our homeowners' houses, and so it is backed up by the best warranty in the in the country.
Tally, tell us about flexible payment options. You know, listeners maybe tune in right now thinking I don't know that I have the budget for this right now, but you work with people.
Yes, yeah, there's there's some flexibility there. The biggest thing is is, you know, take advantage of this opportunity to have us come out and take a look at it. There's all kinds of different ways that we can help them accomplish their goal, which is to get on a new roof and obviously to take advantage of the free gutters that go along with that roof replacement.
Now, let's Corey, we'll end with you the special that you have. The reason you're in studio today is you don't offer this special very often and listeners need to know that this is a great opportunity.
So I'm packing for us.
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Listeners, literally saving thousands of dollars. Now here's the good thing. All you have to do is call and get on the schedule. So if you have budget questions, if you have scheduling questions, that's fine. If you need it done immediately, you should call it. But if you anticipate it, maybe needing it done in like a month or two, that's fine as well. All you have to do is get on the schedule and you'll get the free ring gutters
and literally save thousands of dollars. So pick up the phone right now and dial eight oh one six one five five five six zero eight oh one six one five five five six zero eight oh one six one five five five six zero. You know, I told you I almost got emotional watching Jeff Van Gundy wrestle with Nikola Jokics for the basketball Well, I almost just got emotional during this intro because I'm I'm very proud of you.
You have redeemed yourself since we were already talking about dumb and dummer after the faux pas, you know, first bump you you came back strong man.
So good job.
It's quite the deep track, uh number forty one.
I'm all I like it, though, I'm also proud of myself. Do you want to know why was that?
So?
You see that uncrustable sandwich? I do, It's unopened.
You didn't try to push it down last thirty seconds.
So I went out to speak to our clients who are in studio to see how they're enjoying their experience.
And I came back in.
I looked at the clock, and I'm hungry indeed, and I wanted to eat my incrustable, but I realized Josh Furlong was on the phone, so I did not open it and tried to, you know, shove it down in twenty seconds.
So I'm proud of you, and I'm proud of me.
Today.
I was gonna say, we've went, we've We've kept Josh waiting, I think long enough.
Now, Yeah, let's bring him in. Josh Furlong, Happy Monday, buddy. How are we doing?
I'm doing well.
I mean, you can get you're incrustable if you want. I'm not gonna you know, we can take some time.
You know, Josh, you're a really good radio guest.
So maybe I'll just ask you a question and then you pontificate for like five minutes and I'll just eat a sandwich. How about that?
Good?
All right? Brother?
Spring football? I saw you up there. The beer looks phenomenal, by the way, and look, you know every year Spring game, it's just as you and I have talked about, it's kind of an excuse to talk football, is an excuse to talk to you. It's but were there anything any Josh for long takeaways that you think we're actually real that Utah fans would be interested in on this Monday.
Yeah.
I mean, I think this one was harder than most, just simply because they paired it back a ton. I mean, it was a perfect opportunity for Kyle Whittingham defense to score points. I mean, I think that works. But I mean I think there's definitely things to take away. I know there's you know, a lot of players that didn't play, especially the frontline days. But I think the biggest question in my mind was, you know, what does Devin Dampier look like? You know, can he run an offense? You
know in the Big twelve? That kind of stuff? And not that we got a bunch of answers from that, especially as this team started slow. But I think, you know, you've got enough of an understanding of what.
He can do.
You can see how he kind of processes information, even if it is a vanilla offense, you can kind of see how he works.
And I think you can leave that.
Feeling optimistic, you know. I mean, I know a lot of teams do that coming out of spring, that they feel optimistic. But I think just based on where Utah was last year and just kind of the down and the dumps and everything that the Utah is in. This is a great sign of progress, and I think, you know, there's there's a lot of opportunities for Utah. But with that said, there's still some things that you can to
work on, and most readily available is wide receiver. Wide receiver needs to catch the ball and there's far too many drops for a vanilla type offense to to really give a lot of fans optimism. But at the same time, you know, those things happen. You know, those things can be corrected. They're not the worst things in the world. But I mean, if you can't get those things to work,
then it's going to be a trouble. But I think just looking at stuff, you know, some of the passes that Dan Peer made, especially that one to Zach Williams. He made a couple to de Luca Calderella, one being a touchdown and he's got great touch on the ball. The one to Zach Williams especially, I mean, that was perfectly placed. It was a brilliant pass. You know, it doesn't matter what kind of defense that that was. You know, you were able to see some good things from him.
Some you know, I left it, you know, filling wanting more But at the same time, I think there was enough that it kind of what the palette, so to speak, and gave Utah fans an idea of what he could be. And I think that says a lot for what Utah can have is going into the seat of knowing how bad it was last year.
How tall is Devin you were standing next to him for an interview. How tall is Devin damp here?
That's a good question. Five eleven maybe five ten. I mean you could push six foot if you have cleats on his stuff. But yeah, I mean he's not a tall guy by any means.
I wonder what your confidence level because a lot of Devin's damage last year New Mexico was with his legs, and you know, the big twelve is going to be a step up, and the numbers through the air weren't great, you know, the tds and interception ratio with his arm
weren't great. But with what you've seen so far, and with what you have learned in your conversations with his staff, how confident are you that he can replicate, replicate, excuse me slash improve his production even taking a step up in competition.
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of optimism about you know, where he can go in terms of his completion percentage. You know, I got to see a few of that in the spring session where they allowed the media in, and then obviously we got the spring game, and by all accounts, you know, he was sitting his receiver as well, he was seeing the targets.
Well.
You know, he did throw one an interception that I remember, but I mean it was it was more of a defensive play than anything. But I think more than anything, based on Kenneth, how this has gone is he has
a phenomenal offensive line in front of him. And so maybe you know, I can't say that I've sat there and I've watched all of New Mexico's games and the tapes and to see how his passes were gone or different things that way, but I think you're going to see an offensive line that's going to absolutely help him give him the time that he needs, give him exactly you know, kind of the space in the needs Utah
and theory. I mean, you'd have to hope that they have a better wide receiver corps than what New Mexico had, and so I think just the options alone give him the advantage and then you get him the opportunity to be in Jason Beck's offense a little bit longer. You know, he's got his quarterback coach that's come with him as well. You know, I think everything is kind of lending itself
to him progressing and making that jump. But you know it's going to be a completely different ride, you know, going against Mountain West defenses versus the Big twelve defenses, and it's not that he can't make that jump and he's obviously going against Utah's defense on a weekly basis. You know, it's it's still TBB right, Like it's real leavey for you and I to talk in April and say, oh, yeah, everything's going to be better, But you know, we all
know how this goes that. You know, you can have a lot of optimism and have a lot of excitement about it, but it has to kind of bear fruit in the fall. So I think everything is tracking that way.
I think, you know, everything is good. It's a clear difference in kind of who he is compared to the rest of the quarterbacks in that room, and I think you know, you have to be optimistic about that and know that you know, everything is lending itself that way, and even if not, I mean he's able to do enough. There's enough assets around him that it's not going to be the end of the world.
After bringing me on wrapped up there spring ball, Harrison, Taggert and Keel and Marion announced they're hitting the transfer portal. And typically when spring ball is over, that's when you
get the news who's moving on, who's staying. And I'm just wondering, Josh, throughout your conversations with the staff, whether or not, you know, if we are planning now for potential contributor contributors excuse me, not just fringe guys that maybe not even are going to play, But are you anticipating in Utah football losing any players over the next I think forty eight hours before the window closes.
Yeah, I mean there might be a few. I haven't heard of any, you know, impact players necessarily, you know, Utah has to cut down its roster and so there's going to be some of those things where it's either natural attrition or it's Utah kind of saying hey, we're not going to have a spot for you once this happens. So, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that
would happen. There's always you know, a guy or two out there this this level in the world where you know, nil is going to come calling, and maybe there's some things out there that that attract someone. But I think by and large, you know, if you take coach with by you know, face value, I think he has a good handle of of what's going on, and he seems to think it's not going to be too crazy. Based on what I've heard. I also agree with him. You know,
those things change. There's a few players that went into the portal and fall that had locked themselves in and seems like they were going to be a contributor this year, and then they left. So you know, it's crazy. We've got till Friday until the portal closes, and so we'll see what happens. But I think the core of what you've got at Utah is going to be relatively intact. It's more of just guys maybe looking for opportunities to go elsewhere or try to get more money or whatever that may be.
So we'll see.
But I don't I don't imagine that we're going to get that now that I say that we're going to get an influx of people, and you know, we're going to look back on this like there and it's given mess us up. But no, I think it's I think it's not going to be too bad.
What about additions.
I read that there's a cornerback on his way from Auburn. I know that they had the Micah Hudson kid in town as a potential addition as a wide out. So any update or inside about potential additions that you talk could make prior to the window closing this week?
Yeah, they did.
They get the J. C.
Hart kid from from Marburne that he committed this morning, So that's going to add some depth to the cornerback room. They'll continue to look for more pieces just to kind of have more depth there so that they can get it. The Micah Hudson thing was interesting. He actually didn't end up visiting. There were some issues that prevented him from coming, and it sounds like the predictions are that he's going
to go back to Texas Tech. So I know there was the some coaching staff that we're really interested in trying to get him, whether they went down there to talk to him or what. You know, that one seems like it's probably out of the way. But Utah is going to have to go for a you know, a high end receiver. They're going to have to put their name in there, put the name and a hat for a lot of these guys to see what they can do. I think there was enough shown from what Utah has
that they'll be okay this season. But if they could find at the very minimum one more that can really pair with Zach Williams or kind of be the guy himself, I think that would help them. You know, that's going to be a big emphasis. Utah has been pretty active in the defensive tackle room transfer portal. They've been They've been putting out some feelers for a bunch of different guys and putting in some offers. So I think you're going to be active in kind of those three positions mainly.
But Kyle said on Saturday, they're not necessarily looking for a position necessarily. It's more just trying to find guys to improve. So, you know, if there's a guy that comes in that's that's you know, a better tight end or a better quarterback, you know they're not going to find better than Devin Dampier. But if you can find somebody to be you know, add more depth or whatever that may be. They're gonna they're gonna look at it.
So those are the primary focus areas. But they're going to find anybody that they can that can be contributors, you know, whether it be this year or down the down the.
Rum wonder, Josh, if you've heard anything or uncovered anything about the future of spring football for Utah the forever twenty two game for Utah. A lot of major college football programs, among them Nebraska, Texas, USC, Oklahoma others have simply canceled their spring games. They have that it's no longer a thing around campuses. And some of these campuses, like Oklahoma, at their peak, they would get fifty sixty
thousand people at their spring football game. So a lot of programs around the country doing away with spring football.
Do you know what the plan is for the Utes?
Ye?
As of right now, it sounds like Utah is still is going to plan on going. I know Kyle, he's interested in many different options.
You know.
The whole Deon Sanders situation of wanting to play other teams or whether it be FCS teams coming in that intrigues him and that's something that he'd be open to. I think Utah has also kind of put themselves. I wouldn't say put them in a box necessarily, but calling it the twenty two forever game, Frand has discontinues that. You know, I don't want to say it's a bad book, but I think, you know, this is something that allows people to remember those guys and helps that legacy move on.
And I think you know they're going to be continued to be contrade, excuse me, continually be cre native with how they change their spring. You know, the fact you're trying to showcase the offense, emptfense and try to do different things that way. I think they can keep it without giving away too much. I think they've gotten better at understanding what they can limit so that you're not giving too much for opposing teams to kind of find
guys through the portal or whatever that may be. But as of right now, it doesn't sound like there's any intentions to change it. You know, I think the coaching staff would prefer to have a closed scrimmage so they could actually work through stuff that they want to work through and not feel like they have to water it down. They're not a big fan of having to water it down as well, but that's kind of the nature of the sport. So I'm sure it'll go through some evolutions, but I don't have.
Of right now.
I haven't heard any plans to change kind of the current structure of what you touch them.
One more football question, we'll get a basketball at a Red Rocks question, and then we'll set you loose, Josh. You know again, it is April, and it's really hard to analyze what anything is going to look like come fall. And I hate to ask you just kind of like an intangible feel good question. But I have heard Coach Wit and a couple of coaches I caught up with on Saturday all say the same thing, which is the energy in the building is better than it has been.
It's just more positive than it has been. And that shouldn't be taken as a knock on anyone. And I think we can all understand the stress the past couple of years have taken on the program simply because of lack of health and ambiguity around player availability, and then a really really tough year one in the Big twelve. Do you believe them when they say that the energy,
I guess the kids say the vibes are high. Do you believe the coaches when they say that leading into the upcoming year two four A into Big twelve play, Yeah.
Absolutely do.
I mean just being around them there is a completely different fill. I felt like leap into the viewing sessions that we had, there was a lot more juice, you know, with this team, there was a lot more kind of a fall fill where everybody is trying to get better. Immediately, it wasn't you know, we've got this down the road. Was this matters right now? And so you're getting a team that obviously feels like they need to be improved,
but more or less like they're all having fun. You can see it in their faces when you talk to them. They're having fun. That's not to mean that they're you know, casual and how they approach things, but they're definitely doing things in a way that was you know in the start contrast to last year. And I think part of that is is Utah tried so hard to remain on top and so there was a ton of pressure and
then you kind of started slipping with some things. Guys started not feeling like they needed to do certain things because they've been there before, right your two time reigning packed up champions. You know, maybe we don't need to listen to this or try as hard. You know, we know we're gonna be pick number one. We've added this depth, so that naturally means that we're gonna be there, and you kind of start believing your own press. I think
you kind of starting to see a slip. And so I think, you know, all the horrible stuff that happened for Utah last year really kind of galvanized this team, even though half of this team wasn't even here. I think that culture and that mindset of you know, we're not gonna let this happen again, and we got to be hungry for what we want has really permeated throughout the entire team. So I've definitely seen it. The players have spoken a bunch about it, the coaches have done it.
But you're also getting coaches that are different. I mean Mark Atuaya, I mean he brings in a whole other level of intensity and personality that we just didn't get with previous coaching staffs. Right Like, he's out there on social media being active, He's trying to showcase kind of how the program is. And I think that transcends down to the players as well, but they feel like that they can beat themselves while still playing at a high level for Utah. So, you know, if the vibes are immaculate,
we'll call it. It's been really good and I think things are going well for Utah. And you know, obviously we'll have to see what happens when adversity comes. But I think right now Utah is in a much healthier and better place than they have been in the last couple of years.
The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night, which means Alex Jensen is now free and clear allocate all of his time and energy to his job as.
The head coach for the youth.
So give us a little bit of an update, Josh. Well, then I'll ask you about the Red Rocks for a set you loose Jakai Howard fourth transfer portal commit an Auburn kid. I believe they still have seven roster spots available question Mark, and we're still kind of waiting to hear whether or not there are more additions to the staff. So now that Alex is on the ground full time, let's get an update on Utah men's basketball.
Where are we at with it?
Yeah, so there are seven spots that they can do. But the reality is is that that's the number that's up from from what they've always had. Usually, Utah can have thirteen scholarships. With this impending house case, that would push it up to fifteen total players. Yeah, you can count that they have that with their walk on and stuff. But you know this is, you know, they've got the bulk of kind of their roster, so to speak, and they're they're doing well with the eight players that they have.
This Jakai Howard kid that just committed from Auburn. Utah doing really well with getting those Auburn guys lately in both football and basketball. But he can jump out of the gym. I mean, he's athletic, he's you know, a guy that has tremendous upside. It seems like, you know, Utah has really kind of identified a type that they want to go after. They want to be able to run the ball, you know, high upside, get into guard play,
and things have gone well there. You know, I don't know that anything necessarily changes drastically because Alex Jensen can be here more more fully, he entrusted his coaching staff, you know, whether that be Rafael Chilius or anybody else, to really kind of take the lead in the recruiting front. And they've done really well even with him not being
here full time. So I don't think things drastically change, but I think it now helps maybe whether you be closing deals or just really having a better understanding of kind of where Utah needs to go. But this is a team that I think, you know, you're starting to see the pieces, You're starting to see things come together. They do need some more depth players, and they do need some more guys that can kind of sit there, but you have to like the eight players that Utah has.
There's a lot of upside. There's a lot of youths still there, that's still some experience that that allows Uta to be able to move forward and grow and at least make a more competitive jump than maybe in the year's past.
All right, before I said, you lose rough event for the Red Rocks after a great start. I mean, it's such an incredible streak forty nine straight appearances. But Oklahoma again, they've established themselves as the dominant gymnastics program. Utah finishes fourth I believe after a really strong start. So how did this kind of unravel for the Red Rocks?
Josh, Yeah, this has been.
An interesting situation for the Red Rocks because you know, the last five years they've been in that last day. You know, four of those years they finished in third, and they really wanted to be able to finish more than third this year. And based on their semi finals of getting the top score out of all the teams, they were the real likelihood that Utah could get a championship. But for whatever reason, you know, they just kind of
crumbled on on Saturday. And you know, they're not massive things, but in gymnastics, all it takes is one little thing and then it starts kind of trickling down to others, and especially when it's you know, your veteran gymnast, somebody like a Grace McCallum who's making mistakes that she traditionally
doesn't make. It kind of you know, Rocks a lot of players or athletes, you know, and where they're they're trying to come in there and do what they need to and you just saw something you know that you don't usually see. I don't know what it is, you know, do you need to bring the phage in and kind of bring out some purses in the dunky or whatever.
I mean.
The fact that they're getting into the top four it every year is a remarkable feat, but it's been really tough for them to get over the edge and really get there. So, you know, I know, this this shock to the team. They didn't expect us at all. Carlie Dochendorff is a great coach and she's been able to do really well with his team, and she truly believes that she's in the right spot to be able to win a championship. But they've got to find kind of
that mental edge. Maybe it's finding a way to peak at a little different time so that you can get there instead of earlier. But you know, it's an unfortunate thing for Utah. It's been thirty years since they've won their last national championship, and yet they continue to get there and they're right in the mix every year. It's just you know, at this point, it feels like you're
always the bridesmaid, never the bride. So one of the times they're going to potentially get it, but unfortunately just fell up short this year.
Josh, you're the man, appreciate the time today, have a great week, and we'll get you back soon.
Okay, sounds good.
Go get that in prestable and they'll be fine.
Oh my mouth is watering, my man, Josh Furlong today stops by courtesy of our friends at Advanced Window Products, where you can get twenty five hundred dollars off when you buy ten windows or more. It's a local Salt Lake company operated by our guy, Nate Orchard, the mayor of sac Lake City, and a guy played pro football for a number of years. Of course, Jake Weber's partner. Friends of the show, they've been in studio, I've done remotes with them. They are great people, and here's the deal.
You get twenty five hundred dollars off when you buy ten windows or more, and all you have to do is get on the schedule. So give them a call at eight oh one eight five zero ninety one hundred. That's eight oh one to eight five zero ninety one hundred, eight oh one to eight five zero ninety one hundred, or visit Advance Windows dot com. It's twenty five hundred dollars off when you buy ten windows are more this spring, all right, We've got Ben Sollak stopping by to start.
The four o'clock hour of the program.
We'll do some NFL Draft with Ben today, one of our favorite NFL guests. Some NFL offseason news, the draft right around the corner. Love Draft week. Not a ton of the local buzz like there typically is. There's the Tyler Batty Kid, Caleb Etn, Jacob Robinson from Brigham Young. There of course is Junior Tafuna, corenne Reed Well, Brent Keithy, Caleb loner is getting a lot of attention, Mackai Bernard. Uh So we'll get with Ben and then we'll do a little RSL with Ryan duns At. A tough match
for the for the lads over the weekend. They lost to Toronto at home. A red card for Diego Luna that has been challenged by the club. They're appealing Diego's red cards, so hopefully Diego will be able to play in San Diego coming.
Up this weekend.
But Porter, wouldn't you consider yourself a bit of an outlaw? Is that fair to say?
I think, uh, I think that's for others to decide.
Spencer, I mean, you're related to Jesse James we've been over this right.
Oh and the sun Dance Kid.
Technically they're related through marriage.
Okay, So you do not consider yourself an outlaw.
I guess outlaw is just someone who does things that are illegal.
So maybe, oh well, okay. And I like to.
Speed, I like to park illegally. I like to defy parking publicly, defy parking police.
Okay, so Porter is a bit of an outlaw. We do have a new client on the show. They're They're They're called Outlawed. Is still an excited to welcome in the welcome them in a new partner on the s ESPN Sports Network. It's Outlawed Distillery, a homegrown grain to glass, nitty gritty whiskey, vodka, rum, and moonshine. Wow, moonshine, moonshine Distiller out of Monday, Huh Moonshine Distillery right here in Salt Lake County. Outlaw Distillery, Utah grown with so much history here of cowboys.
Outlaws, mining, and more.
Outlaw has everything on the spirit spectrum for their spiced rum, vanilla bean rum, Outlaw coffee, rum, honeybourbon, barrel proof whiskey, vodka, moonshine. They have it all, and they're embracing the Outlaw name by being rebellious and making some very unique spirits that aren't being seen or created by any other distilleries in Utah.
Passionate group, we're happy to have them on board.
So if you want to try their spirits, you can either find their bottles in the local liquor store or you can book a tasting, and that's the best thing to do, So tell them that I sent you. It's about an hour and a half and you get to try all their spirits and you get to keep a shot glass as a souvenir. So get your tour and tasting booked at outlawdistillery dot com today. They opened in twenty fifteen as the fourth distillery in the state of Utah.
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expected places of course here in Utah. So our good friends at Outlaw Distillery get your tour and tasting booked at Outlawdistillery dot com today.
Tell him, I cens you.
They're gonna hook you up with a shot glass and we are going to send somebody, one lucky listener to play little golf, a free round of golf to Glenmore.
So it's our Festival of Tease giveaway.
We are doing it every day this spring, sending you to a different golf course every single day. So we'll send you to Glenmore today at eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred eighty seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
Text in you know what? Text in your favorite Outlaw?
There we go of all time? Who's your favorite outlaw of all time? Is it Billy the Kid? Porter's this? You're related to Billy the Kid too?
Or No? I don't think so.
Is it Billy the Kid? Is it Butch Cassidy? Is it Jesse James? I don't know that I know any other Outlaws?
Do you? Come on?
Harvey Logan, the.
Great Harvey Logan never gets any love.
Kid Curry, Kid Curry flat Nose Curry his cousin.
You're making that up eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred text and your favorite aut porters going to send you to play golf at Glenmore. So we'll do a little draft with Ben Solak, will do a little RSL with Brian Dunseeth. So when it comes to the local prospects, you know, it is interesting up at the spring game on Saturday. Our guy Britton Covey in the house, our guy Zach Moss in the house, Devin
Lloyd among others. And of course when those three are present, it makes you remember often times Utah football, you know, entering draft week seems to have a little bit more buzz than this group.
Now, Junior Tafuna.
When you look at some of the draft grades, Porter, Junior, coren A Brandt and Caleb.
And Makai Bernard in the mix as well.
But most of the youths this year have like six seven round draft grades. What do you make of the potential for you know, Utah football players maybe potentially hearing their name called than the draft, or you think most of these guys are undrafted free agents?
Yeah, I mean you're gonna see I would say mostly undrafted free agents. I do think that Junior Tafuna gets his name called kind of mid draft mid draft range. Karennie Reid and Keithy I think have a opportunity to get drafted as well. There's a there's I think a couple fits for bran Keithy where if he's available at a certain time, a certain team will pick him. He may not be very high up on like the overall tight end board specifically because of his injuries and whatnot.
But if you'll remember going into what would have been two seasons ago when we thought bran Keithy might play, he was the NCAA Division One leader at the tight end position in every receiving stat category before he came back, before he tried to come back from that knee injury, So they kind of know what he's capable of. They want to see if you can still do it, because Spence,
it has been two years now. On the bran Keithy's side, if he performs well and looks good in all of their workouts, I think he has an opportunity to get drafted. Same goes with with karnnie Reid, maybe amid to late round pick from there, Dori and singer Mackay Bernard some
of the other guys you mentioned. They may get some undrafted free agent or mini camp calls, but I don't necessarily think they'll they'll hear their name on Sunday, unless again, there's a super specific fit that that really liked them going through the process.
Britain Covey free agents.
I will allow Britain Covey to reveal his plans when.
The time is right. And Zach has one more year with Cincinnati.
Yeah, obviously, both those guys going through a really tough year trying to stay healthy, both of them dealing with actually somewhat similar situations as far as the nagging injury goes. So that's number one with their offseason this year, and then number two is is, yeah, figuring out what comes next for for each of those guys. But Zach is a is under contract with the Bengals. He got a multi year deal into uh into last offseason, which is
huge getting into the the the NFL. Uh uh, the NFL's four year when you get paid after your career.
What's the word, I'm I'm blanking looking for the NFL pench tension.
He's uh, he's locked and loaded down.
You gotta get it, man.
I always, uh, I always feel bad for a guy Britton Johnson, not Britain Covey, because Britton Johnson was just like a couple of months away from getting an NBA pension and unfortunately, uh, you know, but made good money overseas and.
There are stories like that.
You know.
It's one of the more under talked about because I don't think fans give a rip to have pension talk on sports soccer radio.
But that's uh, I mean, that's a life changing thing.
If you can play long enough, if you're ten years long enough where suddenly you're paid the rest of life has stipend every month to live.
It's one of the benefits.
Utah football did land a commit for their twenty twenty six class.
Preston Pitts is his name.
The Utes had a bunch of commits, or I should say a bunch of prospects in town over the weekend
for that spring game. And the good news about this Monday, and we'll have to see how the week plays out because the transfer portal is open in college football throughout the course of the week, and usually what has happened ever since the transfer portal became a reality of this sport is that when programs end their spring session, players know exactly what sort of hand they've been dealt, whether or not they're going to play, whether or not they
have received a better offer from different schools. And BYU wraps up their spring ball and they hear pretty quickly that Harrison Taggart, an Oregon transfer as a linebacker, had a really good year for Jay Hill's defense last year, is getting gone. He's in the transfer portal, as is Keelan Marion, who is a dynamic wide receiver and a kick returner as well. So some bad news for BYU today,
But nothing on the Utah front, which is really good news. Now, nothing yet, Okay, So coach with Morgan Scalley, Jason Beck, they're going to have their exit interviews as the players will kind of be on their own for a little bit when it comes to springball ending and you know, kind of the things that the coaching staff is asking of them. And then after the exit interviews, potentially we'll hear something. But no news in that direction today for
Utah football, which is really really good. Cooper Flag has declared for the NBA Draft. I don't know that anybody is surprised about that. Of course, the NBA playoffs roll on tonight with a couple of games double header. You're going to see the Nicks and the Pistons at MSG,
and then it is the Nuggets and the Clippers. So the next day that is interesting for Jazz fans will be made the twelfth, when we find out the lottery order and whether or not that fourteen percent chance for the Utah Jazz will bring them the number one overall pick and hopefully Cooper flag they cannot fall in further than five, they will have a top five pick, and the Jazz as a result of I'm sure nobody was
paying attention to this, and I don't blame you. The NBA draft tiebreaker was today and the Jazz learned the fate of their two second round picks. So the Jazz second round pick this year, which is thirty first, goes to Minnesota, and that's part of the goat Bear deal. So aw's of right now, the Jazz will have the forty third overall pick in the second round and the fifty third overall pick in the second round, So those are second rounders, you know. In the second round, it's
hit or miss. Of course, we have had some good second round picks around here, namely Paul Millsap, the best player in pro basketball.
Nicolea.
Jokic was the second round pick as well, So we know the fate for the Jazz in the second round. Now we wait for me the twelve to find out what their lottery selection is going to be. And don't forget, we're gonna have great draft coverage for you guys that night, myself, Bill Riley, Gordy Chase, and Richard Smith.
And there's a chance we're going to be out and about on location.
So if you want to watch the Utah Jazz draft, hopefully the next superstar for the market, stay tuned for more information the NFL Draft week. We are your home at the NFL Draft here in the markets.
Not a ton of.
Local buzz, little local buzz though, But let's bring in our next guest, one of my favorites to top football with on a Monday afternoon, the rising star himself, young man Benjamin Solac.
Ben, Happy Monday, sir, How are you.
Well you Ben?
I'm good? So what's this week going to look like for you?
I would imagine that you are hitting it hard yeah, yeah.
But it's pretty much anybody who might have a chance to go decently earlier, just kind of right casting into the into the dark and hoping you find one more guy. And then Thursday and Friday I'll be on for ESPN on the on the Digital show, on the YouTube show. So yeah, so the goals and everybody who goes in the first three rounds, we'll see how far I get.
How how much of a sure thing is cam warded?
One sure thing in terms of willing it happened, is a good pick.
So I'll just ask you both, okay, so like you never know what the smoke screen stuff, is that going to be the pick at one?
And if so, what's your opinion on it?
Yeah, I think it's definitely worth it. One not much reason to the times to be playing a game there, and they didn't really add a quarterback and croagency and so it'd be a foolish bait and switch because they'd have no where to throw the ball in twenty twenty five. I think it's a good pick. I think certainly if cam word we're out in last year's draft classes. Remember he declared for last year's class and then rescinded a
declaration got the nil money transferred to Miami. If you're ound last year's class, he would not have gone one, he would not have gone two. It would not have gone to break right. I don't think there's a prospect of the caliber of Jane Daniels, drake Man, Caleb Williams from last year's draft. With that said, quarterback in the draft is kind of like a weirdly binary thing. You're either like good enough to be a very early pick, or you're not right. You're either like a top five
guy or somewhere in the second round. You know, we kind of don't have oh, you know, the twentieth best player of the twenty fourth best player being a quarterback. You either worth that early pick and you're getting that rookie contract, or you aren't. Mccathon Wardy certainly is. I think he would have gone around the Pennix McCarthy knicks range last season had he come out improved a lot in Miami. Has a very pro arm, makes a lot of high difficulty throws. He's got a good amount of
knucklehead in him. Make some dumb mistakes, but that's not an uncommon thing for coming out of a rookie quarterback coming into the NFL, and coaches know how to work around that. So I expect me to be a good proble. I'd like to pick some the science is.
There intrigued at too.
I've had a number of draft guests that say, the draft really begins at two after ward? Is off the board of one or is it Travis Hunter? What do you think happens in Cleveland?
Yeah, at this point, I would be stunned if it's not Hunter, And I think it's pretty clear that they prefer him. To add Dual Carter. I think it's pretty clear that they're willing to take him over any of the other quarterbacks in this draft. And so Hunter, to
me is the expectation. I think teams will call and continue to call about number two overall, number three overall, just because those aren't quarterback picks and they might want to be repositioning and getting one of Travis Hunter Abdul Carter. Those two guys are kind of the only two, you know, elite prospects, blue chip prospects adjective you want in this year's draft, and so you'll continue to hear trade buzz potentially over the next couple of days. That always kind
of happens as we get close to Thursday. But I think if the Browns say't make.
The fake, they're going to stay at take hunor does that dual Carter then land with the Giants. I mean they were out in our not market, but our time zone watching Shootoor Sanders work out last week.
But what happens at three, I.
Would expect it to be a bull Carter. It's not the most perfect fit you ever solved, just because they have Brian Burns in the building, they have Taveon Thibodeaux in the building. They have bigger needs than the defensive line in general. But with that said, like I said, I think it's pretty much a top two player class, right. We talked about just ranking it without ranking the QUARTERBACKSS
Travis Hunton. Just have Dull Carter. The Dants are gonna have the position and get one of those two players, and then you have a great problem to solve, which is how do we get all of our good pass rushes off the field. You know, that's a nice problem to have. Taveon Thibodeau was a first round pick for
them in twenty two out of Oregon. Coming out on this fIF year option has not been picked up yet, so he's still a tradeable asset as well, even though the team wants to say, hey, we have a lot more snaps for your young pass rusher, will come take him off your hands. And so I expected to be Carter and then yeah, they if they played Carter Thibodeau and burns all of them for twenty twenty five, trust me, it's not gonna feel like, oh no, we makes it
the pake. It's gonna feel like, wow, we've got a deep stable of passers here that'll help you win games early. It will certainly help you win games late in the season as well.
Since I mentioned shador, I swear every guest I've had on a top draft is giving me a different answer. So what's the Ben Solac take? Where do you think should or Sanders Lands?
I think he's going to be drafted somewhere in the back half of round one. I think it's gonna be taken somewhere in the Teddy Pickett, Teddy Bridgewater, Lamar Jackson, Johnny Manzel range right that. Hey, you know, we've kind of like you a little bit more as maybe an early day two guy, but we want the fifthyear option, so we're going to trade up to go get you.
That to me is fair on shred door Sanders. I think in the beginning of the draft process, when we started talking about him and people said, oh, he's next to camp Ward, he's going to be in contention quarterback one, I thought that was too lofty. And now as we get excuse me, as we get closer enough day one and day two here people say, oh, maybe Jackson Dart is QB two, Maybe Tyler Shuck is QB two, maybe Javen Milroe's QB two. To me, that's too far. Depends
on too far the other direction. I think Sanders is clearly the best, the next best in that bunch, But I think Dart, I think Milroe. I think Sanders all the chance to go late day one, early day two, and I think you'll see if none of the Steelers there twenty taking shud door Sanders, and I think you'll see one of the Browns Giants of Saints trading up from that early second round to go get him at the end a round one.
We'll just follow up with your opinion on who Sor Sanders is as an NFL quarterback.
I think he can be a acceptable starter for you, right, I've heard, I've heard him compared to Geno Smith. I don't think that's picture perfect. I think Geno a little bit bigger, a little bit more physical, like the pocket a little bit more and just in general a little bit more accurate in the downshill throws than Sanders is. I think Tua is a little bit better of the comparison. Now, Sanders much better creating the two as much better scrambler.
He's a little bit like tool with a jet pack right two on caffeine, like he could do stuff when he moves, you know. But in general, that that quick release, that ability to throw his anticipation over the middle of
the field. Maybe not the best vertical ball thrower because your arm kind of dies on you a little bit, but that ability to work your to twenty yards, be highly accurate throwers and antsicipation and give your receivers constantly chances to make plays on the football in the tight areas. I think I think he can be in that range of a quarterback. And again, you don't really want to
draft that top ten. You want a higher feeling. But if you feel like you're a good offense and you have good weapons, and you can plug each other rookie contract quarterback, you could do worse than the should or Sanders.
Jackson Dark played his high school football out in our state, and it's been fun to kind of watch him make his way throughout his career as a collegians. I'll ask you kind of the same question, your opinion on who he is as a pro. And you referenced a couple of landing spots, what's the most likely spot for Jackson Dark?
Yeah, Jackson darts got that whip like release right. That release is a very very fast Aaron Rodgers while making him a very good RPO quarterback. He he doesn't need to be connected to the ground to zip that ball in there, can throw from some weird platforms, and then he's a cost son of a gunman. He is tough as nails. If he needs to hang in the pocket for an extra half second, take a big shot together, let a receiver get open, he will do it every
single time. So he's a highly competitive player. He has them some translatable skills in that ole Miss offense. You did not see NFL pros. You did not see NFL processing right, Some of that is Dark. Some of that is the nature of the offense. So there's a lot of projection involved. When we thought about taking Jackson Dart from the college level to the NFL level through a lot of vertical routes that were wide open, right, it was one of the highest quarterbacks in terms of rate
of targets wide open down the field. College had an all of last season. And again, if you can get a lot tighter in the NFL, the margins are going to get a lot thinner, So can me Dart as a project quarterback. Dar's a sort of guy that I want to draft and then maybe start in year two after he's had a year to activate himself to an NFL playbook, long NFL play calls, NFL routes, so on
and so forth. I think the Saints that I've clearly been a little bit more interested in Dart over the other teams, and also makes sense for Dart because they can play Derek Carr for another year if he's healthy, they can play Spencer Rattler, who played for them a lot last season, for another year and bring Dart along slowly. That Kellen Moore offense a lot of quick throws, a lot of RPOs. That's where you want Jackson Dart to be, and so to me, projects player most of the player
that i'd like to take on day two. But if he goes that Drew lock range right forty three overall early second round pick, that's kind of the quarterback tax right there.
In ten years, Shodor Sanders Jackson Dart, who will have had a better career.
I would bet on Sanders, but I would personally not like to make a bet, you know there at all. I think when we start talking about these quarterbacks who go later than the top ten, destination is destiny, right, Asking that again in two weeks, when I know which team each one went to, I'll give you a much more confident answer because I'll like the offensive infrastructure, I'll like the coaching staff, the opportunity for development, right, kind of like, hey, you already know if a quarterback is
drafted by the Jets, that guy going good. Sorry, sence, but like that's just kind of the nature of them, of destination being destinied. So right now, I don't feel great about making a pick on either one. But if you tell me, hey, you know, one of these guys gets drafted to be the developmental quarterback in Los Angeles with the Rams by Matthew Stafford. Yeah, I'm gonna take him to be the guy who's going to develop nicely. He's got the right bedrock around him to grow.
Now you're born is well taken. If destination is destiny, the Jets are destitute.
I know that.
But since you brought it up, what do they do at seven? What do you think they do?
So? I think if if armand Membu the right taskle out of Missouri excuse me, remains on the board, and to me, that's the best marriage of need, a team fit overall prospect value, that'd be the player that I would circle for. Then you remember Aaron Glenn and Danner Engstron and they're both coming from Detroit. What was the first thing Detroit did when Dan Campbell got there, Brad Holmes got there? Take a tackle, Penny Sewell, we're are building this thing from the trenches. So to me, that
that would be my expectation. Now Membo is becoming a hotter and a hotter name for the Raiders at six, and I'll tell you if the board falls with Mason Graham off the board at five to the Jaguars, Membo off the board at six to the Raiders and then presumably Will Campbell as well, the left half of als. You go in to the Patriots at four. That board sucks for the Jets. That's a really, really, really tough draw.
You start talking about taking a tight end top ten Tyler Warren or Colston Loveland Man, that is lofty for a tight ending. So talking about the rest of the corner class, Will Johnson and j. D. Baron, and those are not guys who are traditionally top ten picks. This class is not very top heavy. It does not have
a lot of elite talents. So some of these teams in the back of the top ten are going to just be dealt really tough boards because there's gonna be players who usually go like fifteen o'verrow and that's it. And you can see that happening to the Jets. And so I like Membo the right tack ont of Missouri for them. If he's not there, I would expect effort on a trade back because I just don't think the board is gonna come nicely to him.
We finally heard from Aaron Rodgers, and thank God for that.
I wonder Ben, how you digest did the story they Aaron told about his meeting with Aaron Glenn, and does that shed any insight any light on the approach that Aaron Glenn is going to take as the head coach of the Jets.
All I know, Aaron Rodgers complained about having a fly to New York on his own dime and then getting stiffed. Aaron Rodgers also made like forty five million dollars last year. I mean it just it falls on such deaf ear to me. I to be completely frank, I could not believe that we were doing it again as a football media in a football consuming public. Aaron Rodgers merges from the silence to go on the Patmack of the show and everybody live tweeting what he says. I couldn't give
two hoots. Aren't we done with this?
Since he has he has not played well, he has not shown an interest in doing what is necessary for the team that he quarterbacks to play well, and he's now refusing to participate in free agency in like a normal way, which I understand because, like you know, takes.
Power of the player's hands. I want to be control my own destiny. That's great, go do it over there. Don't then hop on on your curated television show and complain about how people are talking about you. You're the one who's doing differently. Of course people are going to report on it. What do you think this works? So, like you know, Rogers for the Steelers, Rogers retiring, I don't know and did did did Glenn stiff him in
the approach? In the free agency conversation all I want to come back, maybe, but I can't pull Aaron Glenn for that. I don't know how anybody in the league has patients for Aaron Rodgers in twenty twenty five. So to me, you know wherever he ends up before he ends up Harbor long he plays, however long he plays. And I'm sure kill Hill inform us of that in his own due time.
Well said.
And I won't even ask a follow up because I think he handled everything I wanted to ask you there.
Which is which is totally fine.
I do want to go back to Travis Hunter, though, because Andrew Berry, the Browns general manager at the combine and said that they view him as quote a receiver primarily first, whether it's Cleveland or another team. Are we going to see Travis Hunter play legitimate like big time snaps on both sides of the ball.
I think you will see it happen in at least a few games, because I think that the team that drafts Travis Hunter will want to entertain the idea and support the idea in the way that like you know, when you when your ten year old starts doing card magic, you're like, yeah, go for it, dude, Like you know, this is probably not going to become anything, and like this is a little bit awkward and weird, but like, you know, kind of we want, you know, we want
to be a positive force for you. Right, So Travis Hunter comes into the league. He's a total rookie. He says, I can do something that hasn't been done in twenty
five thirty years. All right, man, go for it, and like you're gonna give him some snaps a receiver, give him some snaps a corner, and then you're gonna leave with him in three weeks and say, hey, listen, you know, like we've got GPS tracking data says you know, you're not moving as fast in the fourth quarter as you do otherwise, We're going to try to bring your corner steps down. You try to reach a middle ground with him, he's very clearly committed to at least giving it an effort,
and I think you have to. You're going to draft the player, you want to keep him mentally engaged, you have to at least entertain that effort to some degree. Now, the Brown saying they think him as a receiver, to me is very it's a smart way to go about it, because it's much harder to be a full time receiver and move light at corner then it is to be
a full time corner and moonlight at receiver. Because if you want to play fifteen fast at receiver, I can just on the sideline tell you, hey, you know we're at third and seven. We're calling this you're running this route. Quarterback in the in the in the pocket, in the huddle.
Excuse me.
You can tell you hey, remember it's an eighteen yard dig. You know. It's easy to kind of plug and chug you there. At receiver at corner, Well, you got to know what happens if they motion. You got to know what happens if they walk out under center play action, was they they move it this way three by one. There's so much more that can happen on any given play. So if you want a guy to become one position full time and you kind of want to discourage him
from doing the second position. I would put him full time at receiver and then have him experience some of the challenges of trying to moonlight at corner as opposed to flip flop of it. So I think you're going to see Travis Hunter end up being a full time receiver for the Browns end of his rookie contract, second year whatever. But I think they'll they'll take.
The tires on.
I'll see what he looks like as a two way player.
Who's throwing on the ball, who's going to be undershenter in Cleveland.
If they draft Hunter, I would love them to draft standers because this is, in my opinion, under talked about in the process. The connection between Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter for collegiate players is very impressive. Right, These guys have been throwing, pitching, and casting each other for four seasons. Jackson State, Jacksonville State, excuse me, into Colorado. You know we've seen top ten picks a quarterback, sort of top ten picksure receiver. We watched Tua sort of Jayleen Waddell
and and Vaque Smiths. It looked nothing like this, right, Caleb Williams are not killables seeing Rome do their our teammates now, they aren't previously, but we've seen these combos and in terms of the way they had just roused from the fly, the way that Shador throws to him back shoulder, the way that he trust him in contested situations, like they have a very good relationship. So to me, if the Browns get Hunter at wide receiver, it would move Sanders up my draft board for them. And so
I like Sanders as a Browns quarterback. They also seem like they're interested in shuck as well. The Louisville kid. I would expect those of the two names I look at for Cleveland.
I will not ask you if Aaron Rodgers will play for the Steelers, but I will ask you what their situation is under center and how they kind of solve this issue. If it's not going to be Aaron, who's going to be the quarterback for the Steelers.
Yeah, I think that they absolutely have to take a quarterback with one of their first two picks. Remember no second round pick because of the dk met cap trades. They have their pick at twenty and then they have a mid third round or if you don't think the guy in the first round, I think it's pretty much non negotiable. You have to see the guy on day two.
I think that they are taking a long, hard look at Sanders because I think a month ago they didn't think Sanders was going to get to them a twenty. Now it looks like that's a lot more likely. So to me, I think Sanders is something that they're zeroing in on. I'm not confident if they like him or dislike them out of the direction, but I think they're doing that legwork now and I think that they've you seen them engaging Jackson Dark and you see them engage
with Jaln Milrowe as well out of Alabama. Those, I think are the three names that I would if someone's going to sneak in around one they're in the back half, those are the three that I would circle. So I think it's going to be a rookie. I think, honestly, it's going to be a first round pick at rookie, and it's going to be one of those three names. If it's not that pick at twenty in they passed.
Then on day two they got to get active, and they got to be willing to trade free for Peck still getting you cannot walk in the next season with just Mason Rudolph and hoping that you get Aaron Rodgers. That seems like an awful team building planned to me.
Urban Meyer did a zoom call with one of our local TV stations and Utah State plays their football just off the road in Logan, so he had a front row seat to watch Ashton Genty all year and Urban was, i'll say effusive with his praise for Ashton Genty out of Boise State. What's the Ben Solac take on his pro potential and where do you think he's drafted.
Ashton Jenny's an excellent, excellent prospect. I don't think he's at the level that Take One Barkley was when he came out of Penn State Ezekiel Elliot when he came out of Ohio State. Those two players went two and four, respectively. But in this draft class, he's certainly one of the three four best players in the class and you expect him to go top ten. This is everything you want in a bag of chips in terms of a running
back prospect. He's going to do a really good job of the NFL turning pnutration plays into two yard games, turning two yard games into five yard games five or games in a ten yard game. You're going to do exactly you want an early drafted running back to do. Be going to take a high, high number of volume, a lot of snaps, be able to catch the football, carry it twenty twenty four times a game, and deliver consistent running and then explosive plays as well in the
open space. So is everything that you want. He's probably not going to be the fastest running back in the league, but besides that, it's all gravy. So my expectation is six to the Raiders, five to the Jaguars, ten to the Bears. I would be stunned if he gets outside of the top ten, and I'm honestly if he gets past six with the Raiders and he's available seven, eight,
and nine. Would not be surprised to see a team trying to tree up in front of the Bears to go get the guy, because he'll be viewed then as a blue ship player who's falling. Cowboys at twelve want to go move up get their future. Zekal Elliott would not bother me at all.
With the remaining a few minutes, Ben I have you, I will ask you about a couple of teams locally that are of interest. And since my producer is a lifelong suffering Dallas Cowboys fan, I believe they have ten or eleven picks if I remember correct. So what do you think Dallas needs to come away with as far as when the draft is complete?
How do you think they handle their business?
Yeah? Ten picks of the Cowboys. Six of the ten are Round five and later, which to me indicates the team that's going to be willing to trade up, that is going to be willing to sell some of those picks to make moves. Now that they've been most paired to wide receivers right, namely Matthew Golden out of Texas, been a little bit of Tetero McMillan out of Arizona, but I think Golden is chalking out for them as wide receiver one. So wide receiver is a big need
for them. Three down running back is clearly a need, right. Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders the only additions to a really empty room at this time. Now, it's a good class for three down running backs. They don't need to go there round one to go get that player. I would say Day two is probably what they're hoping to target, and then corner is in need. You know, you have a good player in Trayvon DAGs and a good player in Deron Bland. Gigs come back from a pretty major injury.
Drown Bland is entering our contract. Your depth got tested in a real bad way last season. They struggled a lot to cover and they're ever consistent. Nickel corner Jordan Lewis is now Jacksonville Jaguar would be a free agent pick. So to me, I've got three corner positions that by twenty twenty six I might not feel good about any of them. So I would also expect decently early pick on the corner board. Again, I don't think it's gonna be around one. I think it's going to be a receiver.
But day two, it's a very good class for corners. On Day two, a lot of developmental guys. But excite the Cowboys to go there.
Niners have eleven picks, as you point out of your piece, it's a big draft for them. Of course, they have to pay their QB, so they've got a lot of holes. How do you think San Fran handles this week?
They've just lost so many snaps on the defensive line. And now with you know, Drey Greenlaw and Tellano Whufanga are both gone to Denver, Trivarius Ward to the corner is left for Indianapolis. They are just bleeding snaps on the defensive side of the ball. To me, I'm using all eleven picks, not all eleven, but a lot of my eleven picks and taking that shotgun approach. Right, I want to make a lot of selections and just pour
those resources onto the defensive side of the ball. I want to be able to add multiple pass rushers to support Nick Mosa, right, I want to be able to get up developments a linebacker behind Fred Warner, a guy who takes them outside corner. Snaps it to al Bernardo Green like, you need to inundate the roster the defensive side with you, because the way you survive Rockberdy Contract Part two is by being cheaping up on defense to
then spend the money on offense. So that to me has to be the approach.
Last one, Ben, I'll set you loose after this. I know you're busy, but there there's reason for optimism in Denver for the first time and quite some time after the rookie season of bonicks. And they they've got twenty in round one, they've got let's see seven overall picks. From what I'm reading here, how do you think Denver handles this week before it sets you loose?
So Denver's and the Rumored is one of the only teams that's kind of interesting and willing and trading up, which I think is I think it's sharp. I think it's gonna be an easy year to trade up because everybody else wants to trade down, so I think that the price is gonna be pretty cheap. They should be adding splash players on offense. Right, they did a really nice job scraping it together and Sean Payton finding clever ways to work around, you know, Marvin Nimms Junior and
Gavanti Williams and Julie mcgloughlin and Adam Troutman and Lucas Kroll. Right, they have like just like bodies. Little Jeordan Humphrey just did Cortlandt, who was kind of a tenth pole the whole offensive operation. And other than that, they were just kind of scrounging it together so you have depth. Now it's time to have impactful players. Let's that guys who cause problems. Right in free agency, they kicked the tires
and the wide receivers. There was a very bad receiver class, and then Evan Ingram was their addition at tight end. Two year contract. It's not that big of a financial commitment and Ingram is not the playmaker that he used to be. So to me, I'm looking at Omarion Hanson, the running back out of North Carolina, both the top tight ends, Tyler Warren out of Penn State Coastal Lovelant of Michigan, and then at the top receivers as well, matcw Goldan out of Texas and teder Roe mcmillo of Arizona.
I'm saying, listen, if I need a trade out, all trade up. I want an impactful, three down, scary guy guy. When I go to play January football, playoff football, the opposing defense has to worry about this dude. I compare him with Courtland Sun. Become that much more dangerous on offense and make a big move, make a big splash, go attack it that those offensive knee positions that'd be a plan for Denver.
Ben, you are the man, great stuff. Excited to follow your work this week and be good man, keep it up.
Okay, thank you, take care.
I had the great Ben Solac over DESPN.
That guy has been coming on our show for a long long time.
Ever since he was just a kid in this business.
It's been really fun to watch his stock row and he does great work. There aren't a lot of well, there isn't a lot, I should say local buzz with the players available in the draft. You know Utah with Junior Tifuna, Karene Reid Brand, Keithy Byu with Tyler Battie, kayleb Btn and Jacob Robinson. I've got a mock pulled up right now and I don't see any local players off this mock board until one ninety nine where kayleb Btn is.
Off the board for the Chargers. So we are your home of the NFL Draft in the market. Don't forget.
It's such a great event and it's a great time to be hopeful if you're an NFL fan. Junior Tafuna off at two forty eight to the New England Patriots, so that to be a sixth round. I believe RSL is in San Diego, coming up on Saturday. After another loss over the weekend, Always a pleasure to catch up with our next guest, RSL original, the Legend himself, Brian dun Seth. Monday Afternoon, Donny, Happy Monday, buddy.
How are we doing.
I'm doing well. It's good to see that the word legend isn't being used as descriptively as possible. I mean, you calling me a legend. I don't think I checked any of those boxes.
Man, lies, you are lying on the program.
My question, Donny, is when somebody, when somebody says, do you when Don Garber says okay, Brian dun Seth, who scored the first goal in RSL history, do you correct them or do you just let it go?
I can tell you the christ.
So I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
He was so sensitive. No listen, Hi. I told Jason. I was like, do you realize how many times I've corrected people over these last twenty years? That you scored the first goal, I scored the first home goal.
It was what did you do it today?
And I was like, you know what. I was just going to enjoy a super surreal moment of hosting, you know, the Miller group coming in and the commissioner looking over at me and saying that, and all like the heads at the same time. It was like a movie and like the all of the people's face has just turned towards me, and Garber's looking at me, and I was just like, yeah, this is this is a movie. This is a surreal moment. But yeah, cool. Nonetheless, I ended up ben milling him later for the shout out.
I thought it. I thought it was great. I thought it was great.
And look the snapshot of you planting the flag and Rice Ecles never gets old, man, every time I see that clip of Clint sending in the cross and You're getting your head on it and planning the flag. I mean, it really was a moment that signaled the arrival of this club. And now we're twenty plus years later, which is wild that you and I have been doing this for as long as we have.
But let's start with.
Some of the positive vibes and positive news before we get to the tough stuff. And I just wonder how you digested the new cycle last week, where the Miller family has taken over the controlling stake of ownership of RSL and the Royals.
What do you think this means for the group?
Yeah, listen, I think a lot of us, none of us were naive and recognizing that Ryan Smith's attention was a little bit different following the acquisition the Utah Hockey Club and we hadn't really seen him tweeting about it or talking about We all saw Laker Utah Royals for the better part of the year. So when I heard the whispers a couple of months ago about the Miller's scale, Miller and the company itself interested in the acquisition of
Real Salt Lake, it checked a lot of boxes. You know, I go back to the time when you know your dad was able to start Real Salt Lake, and when Dave's paying five million dollars and we're seeing the expansion fee coming around three fifty to four hundred. Now you know there's a lot of money left on the table.
And to see kind of the momentum ship from the sale under Deloy Hanson into David Blitzer and Ryan Smith and now for David Blitzer to kind of step back still have a lot of the sport being controlled to soccer control. But similar to his investment, whether he talked about Crystal Palace, you talked about Augsburg, you know, you
talk about in Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA. You know, a part of him really does enjoy being a minority owner and allowing kind of and I'm of the firm belief that having a local owner with primary ownership is important because there's something and that's that's not to disparage anything that David Blitzer and his group has done, because it has been extraordinary since the sale and Deloye walking away.
He's done a great job and a lot of great things, and the infrastructure in the atmosphere, even he upgrades to the stadium. But I do think there's something special about having people that understand the market, understand what this city wants, and you know, having someone that's fully invested in this team is going to be or these teams are going to be important because it's not just real sal Lake
and Utah Royals. It's also real monarchs. It's also the academy, you know, it's the infrastructure of the training facility, all of those things. So I think it's and as they continue to bet in, my hope is sooner rather than later we'll see an influx of funds and investments that continue the development of the nuclear arms spending in Major League soccer, and as I said to you, I think a couple of years ago, I think his expansion slows down.
We're going to see multi billion dollar owners continuing to invest in clubs already owned by multi billion dollar owners.
I wonder, Donny, if you've been able to garner an insight or in your conversations, if you understand how the dynamic will work.
Between the Blitzer Group and the Miller group.
Is it is the line of delineation as clear as the Miller's handling the business side and Blitzer handling the soccer side, or is it a little bit more convoluted than that.
Yeah, I'd assume it's a bit more convoluted. But what I would say is that because of the Blitzer sporting network specific to soccer has already been in play. There is a benefit for the Millers to slowly figure out ways how to sorry about my son's game, and they're they're good now leading to.
Know against the city.
No, I think what it does is it allows the Millers to kind of bet in and understand from the business side what's happening, but then also having great education
of what the soccer side is. You know, I am of the firm belief that I don't think it would be in any way, shape or form a bad thing for someone like Dave, you know, date check Its to come in and somehow be involved and then allow the soccer people to make soccer decisions similar to the success that we saw back in two thousand and nine through twenty twelve, you know, specific to hiring Guard, hiring Jason, hiring Robin, and building out that roster and allowing just
the soccer to speak for itself, and then you know, if there's failures, there's consequence. But yeah, I think we're going to see an evolution over the next couple of years of what that looks like. You know, I am not of the belief having not been in the conversations and being in the room to understand completely what this
all looks like. But in the short term, I think there's enough of a of an educated personnel in charge right now to allow you know this this quote unquote handover of power in real time.
One more thing, and then we'll move over to some results and some additions that are on the way. And hopefully more that we don't know about on the way as well. But what has been you know, as the kids would say, vibes are high, and you know, the start of the season has been great, but your your connections at the club with both RSL and the Royals, does it feel like this ownership transition is being met with a ton of optimism?
Yeah, I think it is, I really do. I mean, there's no one that's come out publicly and said anything different. There's nobody that has mentioned to me and either my hosting opportunities or being around the trainings that it speaks to anything different. But again, I think you know this and I know this. We're not naive. I mean we're dumb,
We're not naive. I think we've seen the transfer of power from different organizations and clubs and different sporting ventures that you know, there's always going to be a little bit of havoc, a little bit helter skelter, a little bit of confusion because ultimately we're looking at the variation
of responsibility. So that's all fine and dandy, but there is going to be you know, there's there's going to be some time for everyone to kind of figure out who ultimately is in charge, who's making the decisions, and then you know the responsibility of failure is going to be in there as well.
All right, now, we have to talk about the current form of the club, which, if we're hotist, is not good. So three wins, six losses, eight goals scored, fourteen a loud minus six. The goals allowed category is kind of inflated by two really bad performances. But my first question, in this kind of non secuitar direction that we've gone to, what is fair to say about the calls that have gone against the club over the past three or four weeks.
You go back to the FC Dallas Challenge for Peel, and anybody that has played at a high enough level will tell you that that was a player protecting himself in a moment in which Patrickson Delgado was about to do him and by doing him, I mean might gonna put his foot through his ankle. And I think he recognized in that moment he needed to protect himself, and I think there was a gray area of a conversation
that should have been involved. That doesn't just have to be that, hey, this is violent conduct, this endangers the safety of the opponent. No, this is a guy saying, like, you know you're not going to kick me right now, I'm going to protect myself. The Daniel Lovett's forearm shiver elbow to the face of Marchuk should have been a red.
I'm not surprised based on the referees' personality and history that maybe his arrogance in the moment wasn't open to the idea of having someone in a booth in the Dallas, Texas area send him over to the monitor to overturn his call. Love It should have seen a yellow card right after that for a second yellow challenge at a bare minimum. And then finally they're amongst my constituents that call games. So this isn't coming from a real Salt
Lake Homer or for my love for Diego Luna. There's not a pundit in the world that would look at Diego Luna untangling his leg from Petrosso wrapping him up and think that in any way, shape or form, that's
violent conduct and Spence. I texted our good friend Trey Fitzgerald immediately as I was sitting in the Delta Lounge in Seattle, flying home from calling the Seattle National Game, and I said Hey, just let me know when the appeal comes through that Diego is going to be available for next weekend down in San Diego, because that was one of the when you have Drew Fisher's var sending you to the monitor with his experience, one of the most respected managers in this league, for this. Now it's
three nilo for this not to be downgraded. For Sergei demian Chuk to go over to the monitor, have to look at it from four different for you know, maybe what two minutes from multiple different angles in any way, shape or form to think that that is violent con for a player to untangle his leg from a player on the ground, it's just lunacy. It's crazy. To me.
I don't understand it. And the problem that I have with this is also double jeopardy since because RSL was a better team and that listen, they lost the game, right, they gave up the goal.
They deserve to lose a game.
That being said, they played down to man for the better part of thirty minutes. They were the better team. They should have scored multiple goals, they should have come back, and now you lose the player in real time, arguably one of the most dynamic number ten playmakers not named Lino Messi. In Major League soccer, you don't have them for the better part of thirty minutes. You're playing a man down. You don't get the points on the day.
And now my hope is that we hear the announcement that he's got oh shy almost just for dang, and then we get the announcement that he's going to be allowed to play next weekend. I feel like that's incoming. Yeah, it's just tough. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and all of the small things that are going wrong, a lot of it a real So they need to figure out. I'm looking for leadership. Who's responsible in terms of pulling
everybody up by the shorts. Who's the guy theoretically that's willing to punch somebody to change the and manufacture the momentum because right now this team needs something. They've played well, but they're not playing well enough, if that makes sense to UH to be where they need to be in the nuclear arms race of the Western Conference playoff.
Ers, Little Bertie Que Little Bertie, my source at RSL inform me earlier that the red card has been appealed based off of your knowledge of the interworkings of MLS.
What are the chances that it gets rescinded.
I could see it being with the with the with the three person I don't know which we're calling it, uh, the three person panel, if you will. I don't think there's anybody that looks at that and says that that's a violent conduct worthy red card. I think it is a three mil in favor of that appeal going through and Diego Luna's red card being rescinded and him being reinstated for availability in San Diego. And again this is
me coming from an analyst perspective. I could not believe what I was watching in real time.
I know you alluded to and maybe the answer to my question is what you already said as far as the arrogance of the official, But watching the red card in real time, you couldn't really tell because Diego was standing over him, and it's like, all right, well, did he do something farious on him?
I thought he must have, you know, I'm watching it. I thought he must have stepped on him. Yes, he must have stopped on him, right, really should the angle from behind and he pulls his leg out and then he kind of like leans in like what are you doing? It was more of that, not like diego, listen, diego.
We're all young, dumb, naive at moments like you're talking to a guy that almost cost the United States a spot in the Olympics because I saw blood red and I reacted And it was just in that split second, like my Southern California upbringing, like I just I saw red. Myth This wasn't that. This was like what, like why are you wrapping up my leg? Like let go? Like that's what that was to me, right.
But but my point was in real time, it's like, okay, well that looked like it could be something aggressive. Then you see the replay and there's nothing there. So my question, Donny is how do you watch that replay and come to the conclusion that it needed to be read like what is that just arrogance?
Like how do you do that?
I don't know. I mean, I think maybe maybe the more easier conversation is maybe that's why he's not one of the consistent reps at the highest level when it comes to All Stars playoffs, MLS Cup finals. You know, we've got we've got some great referees in pro in Major League soccer. I was actually having a conversation with one of the referees that Max Rados and I ran
into while we're up in Seattle. There's some really fantastic referees, but as the evolution of the game goes on, we forget that some of the best referees are aging out, so we're gonna get some younger referees that have worked their way through and have deserved opportunities. But again, the pace of the game, the speed of play, the decision making, and then the influx of you know, you have ego, you have arrogance, you have experience, you know, the idea
of var and the intervention of technology is fantastic. But at the same time, there's still a human error and a lot of these guys you could show them one play and you could say red or no, and half the room will stay red, half the room will say yellow.
So there's still an element of human error involved. And for me, the game in Nashville and the game against Toronto, those were both I don't know if it's arrogainst lack of experience, or just maybe self belief in the call, but you know, two mistakes that I think should have gone in a different direction.
All right, Doddie, it's getting late early.
You know, this is a slog this is a marathon, this is not a sprint. MLS schedule is intense, and you know, I've seen some of the best clubs that we've had here get off the horrible starts and some of the worst clas we've you know, like good stars can lead to bad seasons, bad starts can lead to good seasons. It's a roller coaster ride. But through nine matches they're eleventh. Ty was Saint Louis on nine points. I'll ask you this before we get to some potential editions.
What have you seen that you've liked? What are they doing well as of now, even though the start has not been great.
Oh, you're talking specific to rilsa Lake, correct. Yeah. I think Diego Luna playing in the number ten position has the pure playmaker with Diego Gonzalveez on the left, has afforded both the players the ability to shine. It takes maybe pressure off the Yogo to be quote unquote one of the number ten's, and allows Diego to kind of find the game because he's a guy that can absolutely kind of sniff out opportunities. I still think of Mecca
and Ojeeda are really really strong in their partnership. Pelacios hasn't shown nothing. Plasco hasn't shown the consistency or performance or the the recognizing and critical moments of where he needs to be. That may be just a rhythm thing or a lack thereof. Haa Haafa has been fantastic in goal Cabral. I think he's a fantastic addition. But to be quite honest, I think there's more questions than answers.
I don't know who the best number nine is. I really don't know what the true level of Dominic Marchuk is. I see glimpses, but I don't see any consistency. The right back spot is wide open for opportunity. When Kobe Henry's available, I think he easily competes for one of
the starting spots. And whether you're talk about Junka or Katrantis at left back, that turned into more of a competition than I ever expected to be so based on the lack of results and the losses, take away all the conversations about referees and monumental moments going against we also alate, I still think there's more questions than answers. I think he probably have competitive wise, roster for roster,
spot for spot. One of the deepest, if not the deepest team for Real Salt Lake we've ever seen built. But they certainly aren't close to having their difference makers even from what we saw last year. This is a completely different group than we saw in twenty twenty four. And I'm waiting for waiting. I'm waiting for the vocal leaders. I'm waiting for the guys to kind of step up from a physical standpoint, no nonsense me versus you, I'm
going to destroy you. And then the technical side of guys, they can put away chances because every and I don't know about you, but every time I watch Real Salt Lake, I feel like they they're generating three to four fantastic goal scoring moments. And the game against Nashville is a perfect example where Mark took before he scores. He should have had two or three more, Peel should have had one. This team needs to be more clinical and maybe a part of this quote unquote lack of investment was a
byproduct of this ownership turnover. But they got to get back on track and by Wednesday, you know, that's the close of this first window. Hopefully they they can find the right guy that makes the most sense.
For this team, and that's where we'll go next.
Before I set you loose so you can get back to your boys game, Fabricio Romano, who breaks a lot of worldwide soccer news, reports that RSL has agreed in principle to sign Robert Bozanic, ki striker who has been in Portugal.
I'm donnie.
I'm not going to tell you I've been grinding on Portuguese you know Portuguese soccer tape. I don't know much about him, but tell us about this new striker. I'm told this should be on the ground of the next twenty four hours or so.
Yeah, I won't pretend to know what his level is. I'm aware of him. I know that the conversations have been going on for quite some time. I'm confused as to why it's taken this long, similar to Diogo Consalvez acquisition, when you were able to get Chico Rongo done so soon. Remember, the Blitzer group owns either outright or a big part of Esterill in portsg so they will be very familiar with this player. I know he's a national team player.
If you look statistically, he's not outrageous in terms of scoring goals. I think he's only got a handful of goals over the course of the season. Hopefully he's impactful enough. It's given him plenty of time to bet in over the course of the season, considering we're only nine matchdays in. But the question is how much of a different profile does he have compared to the two strikers three strikers
if you include his speeta as well. We'll see, But sooner rather than later, let's see what he's made of. Get him on the field and hopefully in terms of fitness, sharpness, game you know, the game awareness, he's coming in and can immediate least step onto the field and you know, make an immediate impact. The team certainly needs somebody that can finish off some of the great chances that they've created so far in the first nine matches.
Last thing, and I'll set you lose. Are you aware of it?
Any other impending acquisitions additions to the group before the window closes on Wednesday?
No, that's the only one. Oh uh, maybe let's put it that way. Maybe there's I've heard some whispers and if it does come to fruition. I think it would.
It would.
It would certainly help the team in positions that are necessary for competition for the starting spot. But yeah, I mean the other part of this is, you know, real Salt Lake has a certain amount of money available as they continue to evolve and make these moves. I'm looking at the summer transfer window of how aggressive can they be,
especially with you know, the Miller's coming in. That's a big part of this equation that I think is going to be an unknown for all of us is to try to understand the true nature of financially what this roster is going to look like. Because weekend we are you know every month or so that we talk every couple of weeks spence where we're constantly watching and trying to figure out a way to negotiate what is this
nuclear arms spending in Major League soccer? Because if you're really going to go out and spend money and find like the Latte lost in Atlanta or the Kevin Dankees in Cincinnati. And I know this is going to sound crazy that your your one hits though misses, you're gonna be with him at twelve to fifteen million dollar rage
at this point, so things are significantly different. That's why I think having billionaire investors alongside billionaire owners are incredibly important for the evolution major lege soccer because you just can't afford to sit still anymore.
Donny, good stuff. We'll let you get back to the game. And I appreciate the time, but it'd be good.
Okay, Yes, Skyline four zero winners over park City up here, so a big, big result there. O.
My god, Bri, I've done seth RSL legend RSL back at action against San Diego coming up this weekend. Hopefully Diego Luna will be on the pitch. They have appealed the red card. We'll see if it's send it before we catch a break. My guys, Tally and Corey Liven studio from Courtland Roofing on a Monday afternoon. All right, Corey, we will start with you. I know we've talked about this,
but radio is not linear. So why is it important if if there's a listener right now that knows they have a minor roof issue, why is it important to get that issue fixed sooner rather than later.
Yeah, that's a great question.
And to start off, if we do do a repair we will, uh, we'll basically give back that the cost of that repair to do a full roof replacement down the road, so we we can help assess the situation. Now, we can take a look at the roof, see what needs to be done. If there is a repair that needs to be done, and then let's say the roof still has you know, a year or two of life. Will deduct that cost that we charge you for the
repair towards a full roof replacement down the road. So it's just it's just important to get things taken care of now so they don't get worse over time.
Tally, we haven't talked about this, but you offer discount for seniors, military, teachers, and first responders as well.
Talk about that program you guys have.
Absolutely it's a straight acut across ten percent discount and that would even go in addition to the offer that we're providing today of the free gutters with any full roof replacement.
So very cool, Very cool, Corey. Let's talk about the process. Listener gives you a call today. What happens next?
Yeah, So first step is we want to schedule a time to come meet with the homeowner, take a look at the roof, assess the damage or just assess the roof and let you know, hey, yeah this roof has a couple of years of life, or no, the roof needs to be replaced, or if it's just a small repair.
So we want to assess the roof, give you an estimate, and then take and then go over some options with you including pricing and payment options and things like that to make it the most affordable we can possibly make it.
Tally, peace of mind is important when people are getting worked done on their home. You guarantee your work with a great warranty. Let's hear about that.
Absolutely, we use mo Owens Corning products, phenomenal brand with their warranty. You have our labor warranty and we're going to take care of people as if they were family.
Very nice, Corey, You guys are in studio because you're offering a very special deal. But it doesn't last forever because it is a big deal. You're saving listeners thousands of dollars. Let's hear about it.
Yeah, So for today only, we are offering free rain gutter replacement when we do a full roof replacement. So if we come out look at the roof, and we do the we do a full roof replacement. We will offer a free rain gutter replacement with brand new five inch seamless gutters and down.
Spouts, literally saving thousands of dollars. Now here's the cool thing about this offer. If you're listening driving around time making your commute home and you're thinking, yeah, I need work done right now, of course, call immediately. But the good thing is if you anticipate maybe needing work done a couple of weeks, or are you thinking about selling your home, if you get a new roof, you're.
Gonna up the value. You're gonna make more money when you sell the house.
And if you call today and get on the schedule, you lock in the deal where you get free rein gutters. So either scenario, need work now, need work later, just call today and get on the schedule. The number is eight oh one six one five five five six zero eight oh one six one five five five six zero. Could make an argument that the album every Day is not one of Dave's best. This track is called so Right off the Everyday album in two thousand and one.
It's not a big deal.
Did you google search Dave Matthews band, Deep tracks. I want you to be honest, you did, didn't you? Maybe this is this is this is a deep track.
I would say it's a deep track, a deep track off one of their lesser listen to albums.
Nonetheless, yeah, it's uh, you know, I think Dave was going through some stuff. I think my guy was going through rough time in the early two thousands and so the song were we all? Well sure, I mean two thousand and one, you know, rough year for a few reasons. Uh, the song every Day did come off the album every Day, which is one of his hits in a great song live, but so right, deep track off an album not a lot of people know about.
I cried a lot and one I was a small, small child.
Well, there was a lot of reasons to cry in two thousand and one. Maybe we don't need to get into that.
How old? How old were you in two thousand and one?
Seven?
All right?
Six?
Yeah?
Six or seven?
Okay? Fair enough? So Little Dave Dan the program, all right.
NBA Playoffs double header tonight, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs four games tonight.
So it's a fun time of year. Of course.
Stanley Cup Playoffs are a ton of fun if you are new to golf, if you are new to hockey, they do not have Stanley Cup playoffs in golf, but they do have the RBC herotage Justin Thomas back in the winner circle. But if you are new to hockey in the market, I would encourage you to check out some of this action. It is intense, like the overtime games in Stanley Cup playoffs are wildly intense. And I gotta say the early returns of NBA basketball in the
postseason has been a lot of fun. It sounds silly, but when basketball players actually care about playing.
Basketball, the sport is really cool. So there you go.
Fun stuff today with the Utah football spring game over the weekend, the transfer portal open in both college and I should say both college basketball and college football. We are expecting and getting some information on the house first NCAA settlement that will provide a little bit of clarity on what college football administrators kind of have their disposal to try to build out programs.
So a lot going on.
RSL is expected to welcome in their new striker, Robert Bosinika, over the next forty eight hours and hopefully he'll be able to alleviate some of the issues that have been plaguing the club, and they just cannot score goals. And if you're not a soccer fan, here's a little soccer analysis. If you can't score goals, you're not going to win games. Boom, there you go. So ours will be back in action
coming up on Saturday against San Diego. So we do have a little soccer that we'll discuss on the program too. Of course, the ownership transition complete last week as the Miller family have taken over the controlling ownership interests of Rayastal Lake and the Utah Royals as well. NFL Draft week, of course, the local prospects will be tracking them. Really for the Utes, I think the highest rate of prospect is junior Junior Tafuna Karen Karena Reid is still trying
to get healthy. Bran Keith, you once upon a time, was thought to be the better NFL tight end prospect before uh before Dalton kind of took over, Daldon Kincaid, Caleb Loner getting some intrigue, McKay Bernard on the b YU side of things, Tyler Batty, Klee, Btn and Jacob Robinson are the names to watch out for. But it is a fun week as far as the NFL Draft goes, going home to watch watch our knicks.
Yeah right, that's uh, that's top of mind. Today was a little I wouldn't say distracted, that would be a disservice, a disrespect to my family. Uh, but busy with Easter stuff over the weekend, so kind of I played catch up on a lot of the hoops. Uh, you know, weeknight, gonna settle in and watch good show rsl Utes, Jazz, We talked Outlaws, we talked Dave Matthews band. So very full Monday. Yeah, I'm happy about it.
Very full Monday.
Indeed, all right, before we get out of here, we're gonna do a little best of and then it's time for the Clippers and the Nuggets. You can listen to a game on the radio station Porter What Comes Our Way on a Tuesday edition of the program.
On a Tuesday edition of The Drive, Tony Jones stops by to talk to some jazz NBA action. Of course, he'll be covering the Nuggets throughout their postseason run. Tim McMahon talking to MBA on the Daily Assist a whole hour with Richard Smitty Smith. So we're diving deep into the NBA Playoffs tomorrow to start the show, and then catch up with John Kimball for some RSL to finish the show. A busy week for them in their own right.
All right, some good stuff and of course we will get you ready for the NFL Draft on Thursday, Green Bay, lambeau Field, so stay tuned for that. Well, say good night special thank you today to Tom haberstro to Josh Furlong, Ben Solak and Brian dun Seth for any of this sound you missed today. Website is ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile app and take us on the go. The ESPN S one hundred app is available in the App Store the Google play
Store for free. And then, finally, for what we do in our space every afternoon for four hours, check out our podcast page.
It is called The Drive with Spence. Check its.
It's available wherever you get your shows, Apple, Google, Stitcher, Spotify, your preferred catcher. Just search for our show, The Drive with Spence check its, follow along, hit subscribe, give us a good rating, say nice things in the comments and a good review and it does help.
Reporter.
I'm Spence, Sega night and enjoy your Monday evening. Hope you had a great Easter weekend. We'll talk to you on a Tuesday edition of the program, and as always, you can find it right here on ESPN seven hundred ninety TWOEFM. We are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.