MON POD @SpenceChecketts w/ @TonyParks801 on Final Four, FLA vs HOU, Jazz homestretch, Bees lead off + more

the ride. Spence Jackets beyond the mic. That's Porter Larsen beyond the Glass today, jam Pack Monday Show. Happy Monday too. Hope you had a great weekend, a lot of great sports action to get to We will crown a college basketball championship tonight in San Antonio, Houston and Florida. After Saturday night's drama, a epic collapse by the Duke Blue Devils allowing Kelvin Sampson to advance the national championship game.

Houston is going to try to win the first national championship in the history of that storied basketball program that includes the like Akeem Olajuan and five slam Agema, So Houston's trying to get it done out of the Big twelve. Florida representing the best team in college here, excuse me, the best conference in college basketball the SEC after they were able to take care of the number one overall

seed Auburn on Saturday night. So six point fifty is your tip time at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. CBS will have the coverage for you. Florida has not won a national championship since two thousand and seven, the second title day won in a back to back stretch under Billy Donovan with Jokim Noah and now Horford and Corey Brewer, one of the best college basketball teams really

in the two thousands. If Florida wins tonight, it will be their third national championship since the year two thousand, which would tie them for second only behind the Yukon Huskies. So college basketball will crowd a champ tonight. We'll talk about Saturday's action where if you are a Duke fan, that one hurts. If you are a Cooper flag, if you're the Kinnipple, if you're John Shier, that loss on

Saturday Night's gonna untch you for a long time. Of course, the immediate reaction is does this change the plans of Cooper Flag. I can't imagine that it does, but that conversation is taking place. And can you imagine a few Tad Jazz who are one in nineteen in their last twenty basketball games and have three wins since the All Star Break luck into the number one overall pick this

year and Cooper Flagg goes back to school. I can't even believe I'm saying that out loud to into a microphone, But it was such a collapse and it was not Cooper's flag, Cooper Flag's fault. It was not Cooper's fault, but a lot of conversation about what this means for him and what it means for Duke moving forward. I

thought KNK Nipple was really good. I thought Duke was the better team to start off the game, but Houston was able to outscore Duke nine to zero in the final thirty five seconds of the game and they march onto the national championship. Speaking of college basketball, the latest on the US top men's basketball situation. Ezrassar is now in the transfer portal that broke over the weekend. While we were off there, Alex Jensen opt on Sewan Show today.

We're gonna have AJ out at some point, So if you miss that, you want to hear from the new head coach of the Utes. ESPN seven hundred Sports dot Com is where you go, So check that out there. Good conversation that AJ had with Sean earlier in the in the day part earlier today on the radio station during Shawn Show, speaking of Utah Jazz. They got smoked by the Hawks. They just lose to everybody, because of course that's the deal. It is really tough to watch

if you are continuing to watch. If you're not a basketball sicco like I am, like a lot of people in this business are, and you're still watching, credit to you or find a new hobby. One seven to one thirty four, Quinn Snyder's Atlanta Hawks hung one forty seven on Will Hardy's Utah Jazz. The Jazz have given up one hundred and forty or more points in three straight games. That's only happened three times in Jazz history and has

not happened in a number of years. This is the worst team we've ever had here, There's no doubt about it. Try to focus on the positives exercise and futility. I guess Kant had a career high high five as they'll call you, with his eleventh double double. There's nothing to like about the team. There just isn't. I don't know what else to say. So they're doing this intentionally. You

see what they can do in the draft. So we'll get to the latest in the NBA as we are high speeded to the stretch run of course happening now and the playoffs right around the corner light night of NBA basketball. They usually just make way for the National Championship game Sacramento and Detroit, Philadelphia and Miami. So a couple of a couple of NBA games tonight, but of course all eyes on the college basketball National Championship seventeen

days away from the NFL drafts. I don't know if it's a smoke screen, but cam Ward is now moving towards your consensus number one pick latest with shid Or Sanders, Austin genty where he gonna go, and a lot of rumors surrounding the draft, which is less than three weeks away. So always a good time to talk a little NFL draft and a little offseason NFL Football spring football for both Utah and by U rolls on a spring football scrimmage for the Utes that was opened to some media

members on Saturday. And you know, Devin Dan Pierre looks awesome, Date Johnson's fast. You know, spring football. What are you gonna do? But it's a nice, nice excuse to talk about spring football and where Utah football finds themselves prior to year two in the Big Twelve. RSL gets a win. Look at that, Maybe they don't need a striker, Maybe Diego can score all the goals two niligans La Galaxy.

Over the weekend in America First Field, the Galaxy are, you're defending MLS champs, but they have not won game all year long, and RSL sends them home with a two zero loss in both of those goals scored by Diego Luna, who over the weekend was honored as the Utah Male Athlete of the Year at the STATA Sport Awards. So congratulates to Diego and RSL with a much needed three points. We are about two and a half weeks away from the summer. Excuse me, the primary transfer window

closing in the spring window. It'll open up again in the summer, and still no word on RSL bringing in some reinforcements for Pablo and his staff. There will be an announcement, I'm told, in the coming weeks, and maybe even less than that, about this ownership transition becoming official. We'll get to some of those storylines as the Miller family is about to take over the business interest side

of RSL. Ryan Smith will be out entirely, which is probably a good thing, and then Dave Blitzer will maintain a portion of ownership, and of course being part of that Blitzer umbrella is a good thing. So all the latest on the RSL side of things. Utah Hockey Club is getting set to finish off their year and what a year it's been. It will not culminate in a playoff appearance, but it's been fun to have hockey here

in the market. Seattle's going to be in town coming up tomorrow for a seven o'clock drop of the puck. Alex Ovechkin is all time leading goal scorer in pro hockey history. And yeah, we haven't even talked about the biggest week potentially in the world of professional golf all year long. It's augusta week. It's Master's week rain knocked

the players off the course today. The par three is set for tomorrow and round one excuse me, Par three is set for Wednesday, and Round one of the eighty ninth playing of the Masters Championship at Augusta Golf Club and Augusta, Georgia will be Thursday. Scottie Scheffler, Roy Macelroy, your two favorites. We'll get to Augusta storylines throughout the course of the show. So, like I said, a little

bit of everything, there you go. The table is set for some college basketball, for some NBA basketball, for some NFL draft, or some Utah Hockey club, for some RSL soccer, and some Masters golf. How about that? Did I leave anything off?

first guest. Right out of the Gates. Josh covers the youths for our friends over at Kiss so I we'll do some Utah spring football, some Utah basketball. The Red Rocks are going to the Nationals for the forty ninth straight year, which is pretty remarkable, So Josh will stop by for all things Utah Athletics, NBA Daily Systyle with Tom Haberstrow, who caught some strays on the show last week after comparing Cooper Flag to Kevin Garnett. His buddy Zach Harper hopped on the show and it took Tom

to task a little bit. So let's create a beef between Tom and Zach today. At least that's the goal. Belle Frasier, one of our favorites from the trip. She covers the Utah Hockey Club. We'll do a little NHL with Bell and then Tony Parks, the voice of the Bees, longtime radio host in this market. We'll be live in studio as we are now in the midst of baseball season.

The Bees have made a move, and we'll do just a bunch of different local storylines with my I got a TP coming up on a Monday, So Josh for long. Tom Haberstrow, Bell Frasier, Tony Parks, Me, Spence check Ats, all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter Larsen producing booking the show on a Monday. You know, you and I never played for a paycheck. You and I never played for anything that anybody cared about. But

you didn't. You don't have to be an ex pro to remember a loss or a shot you missed or a catch you dropped when you were playing competitively that you still think about to this day. And look, Cooper Flag is going to go on to be a great pro. I'm all in on him. There are very few holes in his game. That's the type of loss that if you're Konko Nipple, if you're Cooper Flag, if you're John Shy, or if you're the Duke Blue Devils, that one doesn't escape you. Man. That was a epic folding of the tents.

the elation of the night that time. But man, it's got a it's got a sting, especially when you make a few mistakes right when a player comes down in like the McGrady situation, just makes crazy shot after crazy shot. That's one thing. When you have a technical, when you have an over the back foul, when you have a kind of self imposed errors, Man, it's got a sting. And yeah, Duke Duke is out of it. It's a It was a crazy one to watch.

first guest right out of the gates. But before we get to Josh, courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks, it is time now on a Monday, for your opening tip.

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All right, so we've got Houston, We've got Florida tonight. For all the marbles, Vegas believe this is going to be a very very close game. The game opened up as Florida as a minor fi MIAs won and it has now moved to Florida minus one point five. According to bet MGM. The over under is one forty one point five, So Florida a just a scoach of a

favorite Tonight should be a really, really good game. This is only the fifth time in college basketball tournament history that the two teams playing for national championship are both number one seeds and both won their conference tournaments. The other four times this took place, the game was decided by single digits. All of those four games were very, very close. I'm not expecting any type of a blowout.

Florida is looking to win their first national championship since the second national championship Billy Donovan won back in two thousand and seven with really one of the most underrated college basketball teams in the history of the sport, with Al Horford and Jochem Noah and Corey Brewer. Really good teams under Billy Donovan. Of course, he is now with the Chicago Bulls. He's parlayed his college success into a

lot of money in the pros. So Florida if they win tonight, it'll be their third national championship since the year two thousand. That's tied for the second most behind the Yukon Huskies. And they're led by this Walter Clayton junior kid who is stone cold, I mean talk about ice water in his veins, does nothing but hit big shots. He is by far their best player. They've got a lot of good bigs, and both these two teams tonight really really rebound well, specifically on the offensive end. So

that's something to watch out for. Is Florida was able to beat the number one overall seed, Auburn Tigers, who went away from Johnny Broom in the second half. Johnny had fifteen points total, but he had twelve points with

eighteen minutes left in the game. He only had three points in the final eighteen minutes, and they just started chucking up threes and they started panicking a little bit, and Florida just kind of held steady and they rode Walter Clayton Junior and his ability to just make big shot after big shot after big shot, off to catch off the bounce going right, going left, a lot of high pick and r ball screen action to get him loose, a lot of dribble handoffs, because they have a lot

of bigs that are really, really skilled. So Todd Golden's thirty nine years old. You guys might remember him from

the West Coast Conference days to coach San Francisco. If Todd wins tonight, if Florida wins tonight, Todd will be the second youngest head coach in college basketball history to win a national championship at the age of thirty nine, the only coach that younger would you know if he wins, Actually, the only coach that is younger on record to win a national championship was Jim Valvano, who's thirty seven years old with Big T thorough Daily and the NC State

wolf Pack back in the day. On the other side, Calvin Sampson at the age of sixty nine, if he wins tonight, If Houston wins tonight, he will be the oldest coach in the history of the sport to win his first national championship. So, of course we are now a big twelve foot print once upon a time of

pack twelve foot print. And so I've watched Houston play all year, and there are times, and of course oftentimes, if you're a radio host in Salt Lake City, you're gonna approach this through the paradigm of what it looked like when the local teams played against this team. And watching Houston play both Utah and BYU this year, I just I felt bad for the Utes and the Cougars when they played the Houston Cougars. It didn't look like

a fair fight. When Utah went to Auburn, excuse me, when Utah went to Houston, they lost seventy to thirty six, and it honestly wasn't that close. That game was over within five minutes. I can remember watching the game and the announcer referencing the stat where at one point, I think the Utes had eight turnovers and three baskets. Houston is big, their physical, it's a veteran group. We'll get to this in a minute. I think this is one of the reasons why they're able to beat that young

duke team. A bunch of big, strong adults, a bunch of ground ups in the room, and veteran players that have played a lot of college basketball. But in the two games they played against BYU, it wasn't any better. I mean they smoked BYU eighty six fifty five, and then in the Big twelve tournament it was seventy four to fifty four. And BYU was good this year. I mean, that's the scary part. Houston and BYU it looked like JV versus varsity and BYU was a Sweet sixteen team.

That's how physical, that's how imposing, intense, and quite frankly prescient, Houston seems to be on defense, which is why watching them hang in there and then ultimately capitalize on the mistakes of this youthful Duke Blue Devil team really wasn't much of a surprise if you've been watching Houston all year. What was a surprise is the absolute epic meltdown by the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday night. And there's no other way to put that outscore nine to zero over

the final thirty five seconds of the game. The Scion James kid, who's a good player for John Shier, Like, at what point are you going to try to let somebody else inbound the basketball? Like let con Kinipple try it. CON's a physical, strong kid who doesn't seem to be afraid of the moment. And poor Scion on those two turnovers down the stretch that ultimately cost him the game, he just looked rattled. Now, one thing, and we'll catch

a break here in a moment. But one thing I want to push back on is this conversation that's become too tiered since Saturday night. And number one, is this an indictment on Cooper flag? No, it's not at all. Cooper had their only bucket of the final I think nine and a half minutes that corner three, The over the back foul that they called on Cooper Flag was an atrocious call. And yes, was he part of the

group that melted down. Of course, And as I said earlier when I was talking with Porter, I don't care what if you ever played sports, It doesn't matter. Like even if you never played anything that really matter. Chances are you remember a game that maybe you missed a shot, you made a turnover, you lost when you shouldn't have. This loss for Duke is not going away anytime soon,

and honestly probably ever. Like if you're sigh On James, you're gonna remember those turnof If you're Cooper Flag, do you want this to be your last game in college? And of course the conversation has turned into does this motivate Cooper Flagg to come back to Duke? Now, the side of the argument that makes sense is that Cooper is a young eighteen year old Okay, So that's one of the things that came into play here. LJ. Crier,

Juan Roberts. These guys are in their mid twenties. These are twenty three year old players that have been playing for a long long time. They are five, sometimes almost six years older than Cooper who reclassified and should be a senior in high school. Cooper Flagg should be getting ready for prompt or did prom already happen? I don't know. Cooper Flagg should be getting away, you know, getting ready

for graduation from high school. Reclassifies, goes to Duke as a freshman, and the reason I bring up his age, okay. Juxtaposed this to the Richie Saunders conversation, does Richie Saunders come back to play for BYU? Right? So, over the next few weeks, Richie is going to go through the pre draft process where he and reps his family as agent or whoever. We'll talk to NBA teams and they'll ask, Okay, what's your what are your thoughts on our guy? Do

you think he could be drafted? Are you interested in drafting him? I don't think he's a first rounder? Okay, but is he a second rounder? And he's is he the type of second round pick that you like enough that if he falls to you, you're gonna give him a three or a four year deal. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen with second rounders, and if Richie gets the feedback that he can start his NBA career now, I very much believe he has no choice but to go do that because he's twenty

three and he's coming up on twenty four. So the reports are BYU wants Richie back and they're willing to pay him seven figures and that's great, Okay. So if Richie goes through the draft process and he doesn't get positive feedback, go make a couple million bucks and play basketball for Kevin Young and go try to win a Big twelve. No issue with that. But if he has a chance to start his NBA clock, he's got to go do it now because of the age of twenty three.

Because what you want to do is an NBA player is proved throughout your rookie contract that you have earned it to be able to be paid even more as a second contract guy, third contract guy. That's when the generational wealth starts filling in. Okay, So two different timeframes. Richie Saunders, twenty three, if you have feedback that says you can play NBA basketball, I think you got to go do that. Cooper flag Young, eighteen year old, if he wants to wait another year because talk about nil.

I don't know what Duke's nil situation is. But if Richie Saunders is a two two and a half three million dollars a year guy, what is Cooper? And if you're Duke, are you willing to put together a package that's like ten mil next year to bring him back for one more season because he's good enough? And you know the other thing to keep in mind here is the Malu watch kid and then Conk Nipple. All three

of those players are thought to be lottery picks. Do those three get together and decide, Okay, Duke, this is what's going to cost you to have all three of us for one more year. And we're willing to come back for one more year because we're all teenagers, as opposed to getting the clock rolling on my NBA contract to get the second year, you know, the second contract coming my way as a max player for Cooper flag

well year one as a rookie. Even if you're there not number one pick, Duke could probably pay Cooper more money for one year to bring him back than he could get his first year as a pro. Now, I find all of this much ado about nothing because I just believe that if you're a generational player like Cooper is and you've stayed healthy, I think you've got to

go get it started. That's my opinion. And maybe I'm being selfish here because the last thing I would want in the second week of May is to be sitting there when it's lottery night and Lady Luck finally shines on the Jazz and they grab number one overall and then Cooper announces that he's going back to do Can you imagine that? Would that be the most Utah jazz thing of all time? So yeah, just throwing that out there.

But Houston and Florida tonight for all the marbles. Just before seven o'clock on CBS, as March Madness will conclude, Collish basketball will crown it's national champ tonight on the men's side after the Yukon women got it done over the weekends. Gino rim It's twelve and won in national championship games. That is a mind blowing stat. Houston Florida tonight, six fifty Mountain Time on CBS Florida as of now, is a one point five point favorite represented the SEC.

Of course, Houston out of the Big twelve and Josh Furlong will join us right out of the gates. And Josh, if you've been watching Big twelve basketball all year long, you're probably not too surprised to see the Houston Cougar's playing for the national championship. Is that fair?

that that Houston brings. So it should be a really fun matchup. I mean, the fact that they can even beat Duke was was pretty remarkable. But love it so, Uh, you can't ask for anything more in a in a championship game.

have you. I don't care what Cooper Flag goes on to do the rest of the way. And I think he's got I'm all in on him. I think he's awesome. Conka Nipple, the Malawatch kid, Like, that's a team full of stars. I don't know, Josh, that you ever quite forget a loss that Duke, A loss the likes of which Duke suffered to the hands of Houston. That was one of the most epic collapses I think I've ever seen.

only one that was able to generate anything, and so when he didn't, you know, they really had nowhere to turn. And suddenly you've got a Houston team that got momentum and it all changed.

I think it's May twelfth, if I remember correctly, and Lady Luck shines on the Jazz they grabbed number one overall, and then Cooper Flag announces he's going back to Duke. Can you imagine the reaction in this city.

the age of nil now, man. I mean, I think you know, he can obviously go get paid a fairly great wage at Duke, and if he really wants to get that national championship, you know, good for him. But you know he'd be crazy not to. In my opinion, I mean, I think, you know, all it takes is

an injury to derail things. At least if you're in the NBA, you've derailed it and you're in the NBA, so you know it would be crazier things would happen, But it would be the Jazz luck to have that happen where they get the number one pick and then everything goes to crap.

a cently the background is he knows Raphael Chilias. But Utah Lands, who, according on three, is a four star transfer with a composite ranking of nearly ninety two out of one hundred. So again I'm not overly familiar. I've just been reading about him or watching some highlights. He's a pretty impressive young six to three sophomore. What do you make of this piece of the puzzle that Alex Jensen and his staff were able to dial in.

and Utah seemingly found that with Tams Brown. You know, he's a guy that you know, averages about twenty point six points per game, five point six rebounds, three point two assist, So he seems like he can do it all and is kind of a contributor of the offense more than what Utah's had.

can do a lot of things at guard play. You know, he's a combo guard, so you know, I'm curious to see how much he'll have the ball in his hands or if he'll be the guy that they set up. But I mean, you still need great guard play, and

especially in the Big twelve, you need that. So I think this is Alex Jensen working early to be able to work on those connections with with Chilias, but also it's being able to address the needs that they've seen in the past and kind of his mindset of he wants this team to be able to run fast, we have some tempo and be able to do that, and the best way to do that is with guard played.

I don't know that this is surprising, although you did join us pretty quickly after the news came down that Craig was out and the rumors were swirling that Alex was going to be in, and you made a really interesting case that essentially Josh, with two decades a Big twelve experience, might be a guy that Alex looks at. Josh rolled in a studio a few weeks ago, we spent some time together. Seems like a great guy. Moved his family out here, I believe three children, and this

business oftentimes is unkind of family dynamics. So what are your thoughts on the news that you know? And I have no idea if AJ even talked to him, but Josh Eilert will not be returning in any role next year for Utah basketball.

whatever reason, Josh Eilert didn't kind of pad them out there. I mean, I think, when you know, I made the case that if you're going to bring Josh Eilert on, it's mostly because of your ability to be able to scout the big twelves and being able to understand what goes on there. But since those conversations that we had, you know, I've kind of heard that there was a little bit more waffling there, especially with.

that gives you a leg up. But look, I mean, I think there's so many different guys that you can go to. I don't know that it's a huge miss if you don't take any of these guys, but I think, you know, these are guys are going to have to fall in line with what the way Alec Jensen wants to do it. And you know, for whatever reason, it seems like Josh Eiler just wasn't the fit there. Whether it was his own choice or whether it was Alex's.

You know, I haven't heard anything but that direction, but you know, you wish him best.

how this thing kind of takes shape. But do you have any information on the progress or maybe lack thereof and filling out the staff.

And then outside of that, he's you know, trying to find some connections to the state of Utah, trying to find a good connection that will allow you to be able to whether that be recruiting or just being able to kind of have that that guy that's been in the state in people's homes or whatever that may be, that that is kind of recognizable that way. So you know, he's definitely being intentional with this. This isn't something where he's trying to hire a staff immediately so that they

can get going for this next year. He's definitely looking long term, right. I think he's not trying to just kind of put a band aid over something real quick as he's dealing with, you know, what he's at in Dallas. He's definitely trying to be intentional. I mean, he said as much in his inturgal press conference, right Like, he said that he was going to take his time, he was going to do it, and you're you're definitely seeing that. I think, you know, he wants people to buy into

his process. He wants people that are going to to maximize kind of his potential, especially if he is going to take that small staff, and I've heard the same thing. I don't think he's going to blow up the staff and make it some massive thing. You still need your directors of operations, you still need more assistant coaches, you need some other things that way. But I think he really attacked it hard and showed kind of his hand by getting Raphael Chilius as an assistant coach and then

getting Wes Wilcox as a general manager. He showed kind of the direction he was going where this is going to be my focus. I'm going to focus on the recruits. I'm going to go from the NBA style and go from there. So I don't know that he feels the need to necessarily get something immediately, especially because he's got those proven guys that are able to kind of be in the system already.

look at and maybe they still are. But can you shed some light on this information and whether or not Ezra is still considering maybe staying here in Salt Lake.

fifteen feet. Great guy around the rim, but outside of that, his game is pretty limited. So I think, you know, they want him. They want him to be able to be a complimentary player to probably Keanu does. Especially since Keanu has shown that he can be a bit more of a well rounded player, maybe his upside is a little bit better, and so if they can get him for the right place, one hundred percent they're gonna take him.

But I think at this point, you know that if if the market's not there, Keanu is the guy that they're going to build around. He they've clearly made an emphasis that, you know, they wanted to be able to have him as kind of their their focal point of

this team. And so if you can build around Keanu and you can have other players that can kind of work in that system, that helps, and whether Ezra fits in that or not, I you know, I would be surprised if he comes back, just based on everything and kind of how this roster, you know, even though it's not a large roster, but how this roster is taking shape, I would be surprised if those are two players that

really kind of complement each other in the game. They have kind of a similar skill set outside of Keanu having a better shooting outside of the post. So, I you know, I know fans really got to love Ezra, you know, I think he was a great guy that spoke well, he was a great guy that fought for the team. But I think at this point, unless the price isn't right, you know, I think it's time to move on from.

do it's best for him. But I know that they're really interested in him and want to see him develop. But I know a school up north that is is absolutely pushing hard for him. So whether that comes down to money or kind of a better fit, whatever that may be, you know, he's going to be a hot commodity at least in the state alone. And you know, whether Utah gets him or not. You know, it can be a loss, but I don't think it has to be.

They needed more out of him from an outside of shooting perspective, and so if he does come back, I think that's where you'd see them definitely grow and try to push his game because he's got he's got a tremendous upset as well. I mean, he gets into that post, he's able to rebound to the high rate, but they do need more shooting from the outside to make his game translates a little bit better with what Alex wants to do.

a ton of weight, you know, just size. He's a smaller bodied guy right now, but he's got one of the best balls that that any of the quarterbacks have. You know, he's starting to make tremendous strides and so you're starting to see Bird kind of pushing Isaac a little bit. Isaac obviously needs to rebuild that confidence that he had after kind of just taking out last year based on having the whole offense on his shoulders and

and it just not going well. But by it, Marge, I mean, I think this team, it's it's making the right progressions that it needs to make right. I think one of the questions about this this offense specifically, is that there wasn't really going to be a huge passing game. And you know, there's there is an emphasis more in the run game. As you know, over the last few years,

they've wanted to push more of the passing. But I think Utah's utilizing this in a very effective way where they're being diverse and how they run the ball and as such, they're being able to use that to be able to open up a lot of these receivers. And you know, right now, there's not like a standout guy in that wide receiver room that says, Okay, it has to be that guy, you have to throw it to him. It has to be you know, whoever it is, whether

it's Dorian Singer or whomever it was. You know, now it's much more of a spread it out distribution, and there's a lot of guys factoring into that and included in that as the tight ends. You know, Lennon King and Dallan Bentley who who had a great scrimmage, they're

factored in there. But I think the way that Utah is setting this up where they're going to put the run emphasis there, well, they're still kind of making it a multi dimensional situation, whether that be with Devin Dampierre who can pass a run, whether that's with Nate Johnson or even Hunter Andrews. Hunter Andrews has got some tremendous speed and we're starting to see kind of his potential.

This offense can be really fascinating, and I'm really curious to see how this continues to develop over the offseason because I think they could be a very potent offense if these things continue.

need more guys, more bodies there. Defensive ends, you're going to be okay, the defensive tackles you're going to need a little bit more. And then outside of that, I mean it's just kind of best player available. I mean, corner would be nice to be able to add another guy and that to be able to more depth. But I think your big focus going into the transit portal is going to be a wide receiver defensive tackle.

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flabbergasted at that call. And look, he missed the shot there at the end, But He'd made those shots time and time again, so I don't think that that was a bad shot. What really stands out to me is Malowatch having zero rebounds in over twenty minutes of action and that Duke had no rebounds after the four minute mark. That's insane. And some of that falls on Cooper Flag for sure, but it's one game. It's a huge game.

And if the Duke Blue Devils went out in like the second round or then the Sweet sixteen, I would have a lot harsher words to say for Cooper Flag and John Shire and Duke. That was an epic collapse. But I wouldn't put this put this all on Cooper Flag, and it wouldn't change my evaluation of him.

basketball for years. But the way they went out, I'm not sure a loss like that ever fully leaves you.

it seems. I mean the text that I got from all my buddies in North Carolina, it was the duke shirt with the dad Ratcliff with the gun to his head, and I was sitting there being like, that feels like we're in a simulation now, because how is White Lotus picking the one team that has the most depressing most I can't believe that just happened loss, the most brutal loss of the tournament, and it happened right before the finale of White Life, which feels like we are part

of this simulation where it's all connected in some way, just like in the White Lotus season finale. No spoilers, but that was one of the big themes, was how we're all connected in some way, and that finish by the Blue Devils did feel like this was preordained somehow that it would promote the White Lotus season finale that was last night. And I'm still gathering my thoughts on both the Duke loss on Saturday night and White Lotus

on Sunday night. But both of them felt like big events in the year twenty twenty five, and.

eighteen year old. He turned eighteen I think three and a half months ago, and a taste in your mouth like that to leave college maybe something that motivates him to come back because of his age and five years ago, this is a conversation we would not even be having. However, I could actually foresee whether it's you know, Cooper, Kahn, k Nipple, the Malawatch kid, all three of them saying, look, we know we're lottery picks, but we're all young, we're teenagers.

And if Duke wants to step up with an NIO package that will pay them more for one year than what all of them could make as rookies in the NBA, to run it back and try to get john Shire's first national championship, I guess I would say stranger things have happened based off the current landscape, and I'm sitting here shaking my head because I'm now imagining a scenario on May twelfth when the NBA lottery is held and the Jazz get number one, and then the next day

Super Flag announces that he's going back to Duke. I do not know what it would be like around here.

is just making more salt in the wound. And I think when you lose in the final four in epic fashion like that, there's only one way to forget that whole thing and to make those wrongs right is to win it all the next year, and just with a one and done style format of the NCAA tournament. I just I don't see the upside there being worth it, because in the NBA, you can make the argument that like a team's that much better than everybody else in

a seven game series. You have a better shot of asserting your dominance in a seven game series, not in a one and done where something flukey can happen and everything collapses like a house of cards. So I think before that Cooper Flag championship or the Final four loss, I would say there's better odds if they win at all, that he would come back and do it again like

Jokim Noah and Al Horford did. Then if they had this cataclysmic loss in the Final four, and I would just say, there's also this dynamic of dabansa next year where if he Cooper Flag comes back, and Canipple comes back and Malawatch comes back, there's an excellent draft class coming through next year that they're going to have to be competing for draft picks next year, and not only competing for draft picks or draft slot, you're competing for

millions of dollars first year salary or at least rookie scale salaries. So I think the risk for Cooper Flag actually got even higher in deciding to come back. So I agree with you, I don't think it's gonna happen, and I think it's even more of a long shot, A long shot that turns into even more of a long shot. If they lose that game in horrific fashion. I think it's I don't even I don't think it's

gonna happen. But you know what, stranger things have happened, like blowing a what was it a nine point lead with a minute twenty left? What was the what was the largest gap there probability? I think it was that six point lead with thirty two seconds left.

over and over. They were trapped in the corner. They overcame a Houston player reaching over the end line to try to swap the ball out of I think it was Nipple's hands where Duke got a teck and possession, like the pion. James kid is a really good player, just looked panicked to trying to inbound the basketball. I honestly, Tom, I have tremendous respect for Duke basketball and John Shire. I thought their coach let them down down the stretch.

Ever since that that loss happened, I've never forgotten it, Like I've always in my head, no matter who it is who's playing no ten point lead with a minute left, his states like I wanted to be fifteen and this is the same sort of game. Well, I will for a long time look at a six point lead differently with thirty three seconds left NBA or college basketball, because that just happened in one of the biggest stages. So look, I think it's been a rough collapse for the Duke program.

You know, when you talk about losing to NC State a year ago, and then losing to UNC and then losing here. It's been a really tough road for Duke. But I am not crying for them as as a wake forest, a lump based here in Charlotte who grew up a tar Heel fan. I'm not shedding any tiers, but like you, I had Duke winning it all and maybe that was an emotional hedge for me.

couldn't it be dominated more down the stretch. But because some of these guys are you know, fifth year seniors and twenty two year olds, twenty three year olds in some cases, like I'm not sweating it for Cooper Flag, but it does give me a lot of excitement, you know, a lot of debate going into the draft that otherwise wouldn't have been there if he had run the table. I feel like we would just be running out of things to say about Cooper Flag because he's that good.

And now we can actually, you know, to a little bit of me dow on that bone of is there something that we're missing, because I think it is healthy. A little bit of a little bit of doubt or a little bit of criticism is healthy for a prospect where the bar isn't so high that he cannot physically, you know, reach those expectations. Because the only one that's ever done it, in my opinion, is Lebron James. And

I mean it's just hyping someone to that degree. We did it with Zion Williamson, we did it with Anthony Davis. Cooper Flag, to me, feels like as big of an American prospect as we've had in decades. And Wenby doesn't count because I don't think America really knew what we were talking about with Wemby because he was French and because he hadn't played college hoops over here. But this feels like Cooper Flag losing in the final four. It feels like it might be some healthy adversity for him.

Maybe I'm just I'm Roase color glasses year, but I think for Utah the I do not see Cooper Flag returning to Duke for another year, even if let's say another team that he's not super enentuies about. I think the odds of him returning actually decreased after that catachclismic loss.

whole thing. Whereas all four of these teams that were in the final four, you wouldn't be surprised if anyone made the distance, and that kind of intrigue and that kind of those stakes felt bigger with the final four being all the top seeds basically, And I would say it's the same thing for the NBA. As much as we don't as much as we say and claim that we want parody, I think what fans really want secretly is Steph Curry going against Lebron James for the eighteenth time.

I think people want that, they want rivalries. They want brand names, household names in the end, and there's a little hipster in everybody that wants Hey, wouldn't it be cool if it was Memphis versus Indiana in the NBA Finals this year? At the end of the day, I think Boston LA or Cleveland LA in the finals more people would care about that than if it was even Okay See. I feel like people would want to say, it'd be great to see Okay See up there Cleveland.

What a great NBA Finals that would be. But at the end of the day, that would draw half the audience of a Lakers Cleveland or a Lakers Boston series. And the same thing goes for college basketball. We want the blue bloods, we want the big name programs, we want the number one seeds there at the end. But I can understand the argument that the Cinderella is the fact that we didn't get really any Cinderellas into the Sweet sixteen or close to it. I can understand.

the way they think about the game. But any concern at all as we only have a handful of games left, four or five for most teams, with where Oklahoma City finds themselves, there's just a couple l's, is all.

the ninety six Bowls or the twenty seventeen Warriors. Like you need to have an outrageously hot shooting night in order to topple the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you can sit here and say like they they exploited a weakness, et cetera, et cetera. But it's a make or miss league, and that means the same for Okay seeing the rest of the team is that if the opponents, like the Lakers in the Houston Rockets, are gonna shoot lights out

against you, they're gonna win. They're gonna win every once in a while against the Thunder, But in a seven game series, I don't see the Lakers hitting twenty two threes on fifty five percent shooting from downtown. And if they do that, then yeah, they're gonna win the series against Oka. See, but I just don't see that being sustainable.

there's some wins over bad teams in there. But you know, every time Kawhi is healthy and every time he decides to be engaged, we're all reminded of like, oh, yeah, that's who he is when he decides if basketball is important and he actually is healthy. Are you buying any of this? Are they a legitimate threat to do some sort of special thing come playoff time?

it over the weekend. I wanted to know when Luca and Lebron are on the floor, or when Fred VanVleet and Alburn Shangoon are on the floor, or John Morant and Jaron Jackson Junior on the floor, Haliburton and Siakam. Basically, when each team has their star players on the floor, what is the point differential? How much do they outscore

opponents with their stars on the floor. And the fact of the matter is the Clippers have the best on court net rating for their stars on the floor, meaning when James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are on the floor for the Clippers, they're outscoring opponents by whopping thirteen point two points every one hundred possessions. You look at any star collection in the NBA for all the title contenders Cleveland, Okay,

see Boston, Lakers, Minnesota. You look at when the Cleveland Cavaliers have their four all stars on the floor, and I'm counting Jared Allen there too, Carlyn Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. They're at plus ten. Kawhi and James Harden and Zubots on the floor, Norm Powell on the floor, Derreck Jones Junior, when Harden and Koi are on the floor, they're at plus thirteen. No one else is higher than that.

And that really shows that when those two are healthy, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, they're going to compete at the highest levels. And I mean against okay, see I mean against the Lakers, I mean against anybody. And one thing that's interesting that kind of got obscured by the huge Lakers win yesterday. Is that Lebron James and Luka Doncic have the lowest star net rating among all the title contenders. They're barely above zero, barely above zero. And

that is interesting. I know that it's an you know, Luka Doncic just got acquired, he's working back from his injury. But most of the title contenders have their stars. When they're on the floor, they blow out opponents by doubled

and the Lakers are a huge outlier in this. That Lebron James and Luka Doncic are basically breaking even when they're on the floor together, and that, you know, one game sample size of yesterday barely nudged them above the mendos or the break even line, And that's really interesting. No one else is in the same territory as Lebron and Doncic on the floor. They've got to figure out

a way to maximize those two guys. And last night was incredible and Austin Reeves has been great, But it is interesting that the Lakers there have been some blowouts that they've been enduring since that trade. Is this is a source of concern for the Lakers, and definitely a source of appreciation for what Kawhi Leonard and he's healthy, and James Harden and he's healthy.

does not happen very much. Yeah, and then after that, they're also fourteen and three in their last seventeen with some good wins, including a win over the Nuggets, and I could keep going, you know, two wins over Denver. So are you buying the recent surge from Minnesota? Are what are their chances to make some noise come playoff time? As that's right around the corner.

deep and they're good. And nos Red I think is the better option. That's to Rudy Gobert in crunch time and in the postseason rather than Julius Randall. But that's a good problem to have, like when you got two studs there. And I'm lower on Julius Randall than most people, But when you have the option to have a stretch five or a stretch four like nas Red instead of a bully like Julius Randall, if you need to go one on one and a guy to get you a bucket,

probably lean towards Julius Randall. If Anthony Edwards is, you know, fatigue down the stretch or dealing with foul trouble, don't want to get a charge against them or anything like that, you got options. And this team with doctor Deevin Chenzo also stepping up his game, being one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA over the last couple months. This team is a four star contender. I still think that the Golden State Warriors are in a tier above

along with OKC, Boston and Cleveland. I've got four teams in the five star tier. And that loss yesterday by the Golden State Warriors, Aman Thompson, what a performance by the Houston Rock is to absolutely shut down Steph Curry. It's it's going to be an absolute dogfight in the Western Conference. I'm not ready for it, Like I'm I'm already stressing out by all the good teams that are gonna get eliminated in this playing tournament. We're looking, I'm

telling you, this is crazy. We're looking at the possibility of the Lakers getting the number two seed in the Western Conference or being eliminated in the play in tournament. That's that's what the next week is gonna tell us, because they have the opportunity to get the number two seed or the number eight seed. And if you're in the number eight seed, your two losses away from being

eliminated from the playoffs before they even start. And that's where we're at with the Lakers, they can be anywhere from number two and number eight. And that's just that's that goes for Minnesota, that goes for Golden State, that goes for Houston Memphis. It's going to be crazy and I can't wait for it.

me just say, do not copy these picks. None of us know what we're doing. Okay. The ones that present themselves as experts are just trying to sell you something. I'm trying to take care of a client. So I'm about to send out my prize picks. Lineup. I've got a little parlay going on for the National Championship game tonight. Tony Parks Live and studio in a bit, but joining us now. Belle Frasier, Salt Lake Tribune Bell, Happy Monday.

How are you good? How are you? I'm well. Are you one that likes to risk a couple of ducats here and there on sports? You ever bet you ever get involved in any of this stuff?

I very much know that you are not. But I am old enough to remember back in March of nineteen ninety four when Wayne Gretzky set the record for goal scored, and he has held the record since March of nineteen ninety four, and once upon a time, bell it felt like people talked about this like they talk about John Stockton's assist record now, like there's no way anybody is ever passing this, and Elvechkin does it put this into context for us?

high skilled game. But there's definitely less space out there, and goalies are better and they have bigger pads, and so I think everyone just put it in the back of their mind that Gretzky would forever hold that record, and Obskin defied all odds, and I think people were questioning it the past few years when he slowed down and the Capitals looked like they might be going towards a rebuild of sorts, but over the summer they retooled.

They brought in some guys and other guys like Dylan Strom who assisted on that goal with Tom Wilson, have just had really good seasons and from getting swept by the Rangers in the first round last year, the Washington Capitals might win the President Trophy. Probably will, so I think that definitely helped with the fact. But yeah, an incredible achievement. Definitely had goosebumps watching that happen. I think if you're a hockey fan or just sports fan in general,

those moments in history are really cool to witness. And congrats to him. It's been a really fun race to watch.

They would need the teams around them. To lose and the Saint Louis lose at the exact opposite, so that definitely hurt Utah's chances. But I also think no matter how well the club has been playing down the stretch here, it's those games in October, November, December, when they were still figuring things out, when they were giving up late leads, when they were losing in overtime and didn't have a

full healthy roster that's really caught up to them. You think about the amount of games that have slept went through their fingers this season, and it's the same for any team not making the playoffs. But it's hard to write off a game early and early on in the season when those points would mean a lot right now, but I don't think Utah Hockey Club fans should be that upset. The expectation this year was to just have a better season and then last year keep the rebuild going,

and that has happened. Young stars have played well, the new veterans have played well, and they kept themselves in it until the final stretch of the season. So I think that was the goal for the front office and next year will probably be you know, the official push for their first playoff berth since the COVID bubble.

they done well? Winning three of the last four bell since they came back from that road trip that wasn't great?

rallying speech right now. He said, they're blocking out the outside noise and all they want to do is play and play well. So I think for them, even if you're not playing for the playoffs right now. You're playing to win and build momentum for next season. And the Winnipeg Jets were really good measuring stick for Utah the way they dominated and handled that game. That's the number one team in the NHL. And while Utah will not see them in the first round of the playoffs this year,

they might next year. And I think it's a good confidence booster to know that you can play that shutdown of a game against a team that is a Stanley Cup contender. So they're still motivated and there's a lot of guys playing for more. I talked to Nick d Simone today, who has been their seventh defenseman since January when he got claimed off of waivers, and he might go in tomorrow because John Marino is day to day with an upper body injury, but he's on an expiring contract.

Nick Duke stad Is, Michael Karconi is, So guys in there are playing for the next deal. They're playing for a lot more than playoffs too, So I think there's still a lot of motivation in there and they want to give their fans a fun end to the first season, even if it's not a playoff birth.

to continue to grow? Are there places you think additions need to be made? How do they take that next up, the next step next year? So we actually do see Stanley Cup Hockey and Salt Lake.

So I think they feel comfortable with what their core will be moving forward, and then you also have to balance they have a lot of prospects in the pipeline. Everyone's excited about Tijiginla col Bodan if they can get Simischev and Daniel boot to come over from the KHL next season, So those guys will probably spend some time in the AHL, but you definitely have to mark your window of when you want them to make the transition, but I do think Utah needs some reinforcements up front

before those players are NHL ready. We've talked about this for a while, but someone in their top six that just has a scoring punch that can put away the backbreaker in a third period, who can extend the lead, and even a top six center as well. I think you're just looking for a little bit more edge, flair consistency in that top six that Utah maybe hasn't had throughout the season. So they definitely have their main pieces,

but I think if they could bring someone in. We've talked about them being in the Mitch Marner stakes, who knows if that will actually happen. Sam Bennett's a center from the floor, the Panthers who won a Stanley Cup with Kevin Stenlin. You know, you never know the perfect fit. But they have a lot of cap space this summer,

so I imagine they'll go through all of their options. And then Utah brought in some of its biggest players like Sergachev and Marino last summer through trade, so Utah has some players that haven't lived up to expectations this year. They also have a lot of draft picks and prospects that they could bundle, So I don't think people should only look at free agency for where Utah might impact the roster. Could definitely be through trade two. That's something

general manager Bill Armstrong did. But yes, I think for them to turn the corner next year to make the playoffs, they're going to need that sharpshooter or a legitimate top six center, just something to kind of bolster them there.

the Utah Hockey Club. The worst home team in the East actually is the Rangers. Sorry for you and I Ranger fans. Eighteen wins at the Garden, which is pathetic, but seventeen wins at the Delta Center for the Utah hockey club, and from my vantage point Bell, but you're the expert. Two things, poor home performances and then also inability to close out games that you're leading going into the third period. Is that a maturation process? Are you expecting that to be better year two in Salt Lake?

game on the ice. But I think you've really seen that start to shift in the second half, and they've been able to close out games. They've been able to come back from deficits. You know, they've come back from three nothing deficits and games to fourth over time in a shootout. So I definitely think you're seeing them believe in their own process a bit more. And then Once you start winning on home ice and you get the crowd behind you, it just builds that momentum and you've

really seen that here in the past. But I think it was also important that they didn't freak out a lot of those games they were losing on home ice in the beginning. It was only by a goal or two, so it wasn't like they were getting blown out every time they came to Salt Lake City. So for them and a young team who's growing, they always talked about taking the good from the games, even if it was

a loss, and I think they stuck with that. They didn't write every loss off as a terrible performance, and it's got them to winning on home ice now, and it's definitely something I imagine they put a big emphasis on going forward as the new market here continues to grow.

He runs the fan page. He started showing up to the games with a broccoli like hat face mask thing on, and a bunch of other people started wearing the broccoli hat, so broccoli seemed to be the vegetable to represent the Malka or the team. And then yeah, after the game whatever two nights ago, raw real broccoli was on the ice. So we'll see. That's the first time it happened. We'll

see if it continues to keep happening. But it's really cool, you know, without a team name, without much hockey history, fans have found their own traditions. And I'll always think of Utah Hockey Club when I see broccoli now too. So that's been a really cool subplot to the season, just seeing how fans kind of make their own hockey culture before the official branding is released.

eighty two games in the early two thousands. NHL starters are playing fifty tops games a year. So it's great that Famelka is getting this teching on him. They have a lot of data on him on how he needs to recover and if he can handle long stretches, which he's proven he can, which makes people feel good about his contract. But like you said, the hope is that

Connor Ingram is able to come back next year. He has one year left on his contract, that he's healthy, that he's ready to go, and then I think you feel really confident in a Vmelka Ingram kind of duo there that Ingram would be able to come in when the Milka needs the rest or just split up the workloads. But I think it's definitely something the team needs to think about. If Ingram is not able to return, they're going to have to go out and look for another goalie.

They have good prospects, but none of them are kind of the fortified, certified backup that you need. I think you've seen that that they don't trust it because they have Ma Milica for twenty games straight. So the simplified answer is they're going to need someone else as well, and we hope it's Connor Ingram.

process for basically all of the names. It's more than a dozen names, so Scorm and Blizzard and names that obviously are not real contenders are still active under their ownership on the trademark website, so that way, if everything's active and they don't kill any trademark applications, then you

can't tell which one they're going to go with. But the only three logos other than the Utah Hockey Club and All a Girl season logos that are registered on the trademark website under SEG Hockey are the Mammoth Outlaw and Utah Hockey Club slash Yetti logo that they represented during the fans survey that were leased. So although they've

extended all those names, don't worry fans. The ones he voted were still the top three and it sounds like they're going to announce the name sometime around the NHL Draft in June, So no real updates. I mean, the news this week was that they just extended all of them, so the news was that nothing has been eliminated essentially, But yeah, I would keep an eye out for NHL Draft June when the season ends for an official announcement.

twenty five plus minutes. Tonight took on a leadership role, gotten the assistant captain a on his jersey a couple months into the season. So I think he's been everything they needed him to be. Clinton Keller. I feel like there's no explanation needed there. He is Captain Clutch. He's carried this team throughout the last seven to eight years before he even had the Captain c and his production has been Barnun and then Jamelka. We've talked about it.

Bill Armstrong even said it. He saved their season when they were in a really tough spot. So I think all three of those guys are deserving of it, and we'll see what fans think and what the higher ups pick.

It's not octopuses that sounds or octopedes. No, it's OCTOPI. Sorry, saying octopuses on air honestly sounds like I could get kicked off air. It sounds inappropriate.

on a number of different games and projects. So on the mic, good coworker, off the mike, dear friend, Tony Parks live in studio. Hello, my friend, how are you?

something like that too. Everything we're trying to do with our TV product, you know, to the limits that we possibly can find.

that come with it. This isn't to be disrespectful to the old ballpark. That place will always be emotional to me. So when people say, well, is it kind of mixed feeling, He's like, well, no, I mean, it was a wonderful tribute to be a part of the last year at

that ballpark and the first year at this ballpark. And what happens is just like any situation you've ever had if you're you know, moving out of a home that was personal to you and emotional to you and had memories and all of that, and you move to your new house and you go, well, that there, there's some reasons why we moved here, and we really enjoy this. So for those who are disappointed that the Bees moved to a different place, like, there are so many things about the experience there.

also comes down to progress. And we all understand what the Millers are trying to do with their big picture viewpoint. And you and I wor you still work for the Millers. I worked for them for seven years. I can speak to their professionalism. Steve Starks is a great friend and a mentor in a lot of ways, and huge. You know, is there anybody that cares more about doing good in

our community than Gail? Probably not, right, So I understand the disappointment, but I think when you take a step back and understand the thirty thousand foot view of what the Miller Company is trying to do for our market with a project eventually bringing major League baseball here, even though you may not love it because you don't live close to the ballpark, it's probably a necessary step.

matter of them being cruel or selfish. It is simply a matter of Okay, now they own their own place that they purchased by the way, that they built, and that they have in a neighborhood that they like, and they're setting that up to obviously be something that would be their minor league team if a major league team ever happens to arrive.

the utes, if it's rsl IF. I get a friend and I'm using air quotes around friend that I haven't talked to in years, and he hits, yeah, like, hey, you got any hookups? I say, I copy the website and I text them the website Utah, youthes dot com, SLBs dot com. But yes, I mean, folks are excited, right the buzz is.

that people traffic flow moves really smoothly through here. How do we know that if somebody's confused, they can immediately identify someone that can help him right away, like within twelve feet. I mean, they get into the fine details of this. It's been awesome, uh, to kind of watch that process. I know it's not doesn't sound like the most exciting thing, but as you think about it from a fan experience, and I know I'm going to be in the booth, but the fan experience still means a lot to me.

And Steve says to me and he points this way. Steve points this way. He said, there's a player over there named Mike Trout. Go interview him today because he's leaving next week and he will never come back. Ironically enough, he came back for a rehab assignment. But you get the deal, Like Steve knew that Mike was generational. I'm not saying, is there a Mike Trout on this roster? But you know, field players, pitchers, batters, who are some names to watch out for for the Bees this year.

then swipe tag them real quick. I mean, just when you get into the If you're a big hardcore baseball fan, you're gonna love this group because you can see them get into the fine, fine millimeters that make the difference between winning and losing.

I've never heard of this guy before. He must have just started playing pro golf last week, right, And then you read about him, it's like this is his one hundred and eightieth start on the PGA Tour. He was a corn fairy guy. He's been on the tour for fifteen years, and he actually finally broke through. And I had an experience with my friend's brother. His name is Adam Rosales. Adam toiled in the minor leagues for like

a decade. Yeah, I remember, And Adam was the type of guy where it's like I think a lot of people just would have quit, because literally for nine or ten years he was with Sacramento and he would come into town and we go watch and play against the bs. And as he entered his like late twenties, early thirties, we're kind of like, all right, Adam's just going to be a minor league play in a triple league baseball, which is great. You know, that's an amazing level to

get to. He eventually got a bunch of call ups and spent about six or seven years playing in the majors. But if you were only a fan of like the A's when they called at him up or Arizona when they got him, You're like, oh, he must be a young No. He toiled for like a decade before he got his major league baseball called what kind of in

your experience? What kind of people are these players that are continuing to toil in the minors with the hope that at one day you get a you know, a moonlight gram field of dreams one at bad You know, what's it like? Kind of getting to know these guys, that's who our manager is. I mean Keith Johnson had that.

you know, we forget, man. We see these guys out there and they're tall and they're big, and they're you know, they they've got you know, great build and they're good athletes, and we forget, man, these dudes from the time that they were holding a you know, a foam bat, this was the biggest dream they ever had.

of a sudden in the game. You see him chase a ball to the corner and leap into the sidewall make an amazing catch, and you're like, Okay, the millimeters to.

interesting life lesson. It really is, because we as the you know, just the just the consuming public, as people that watch games or go to games, or if you watch movies or if you listen to music, like you learn about the band, you learn about the athlete, you learn about the actor, and then because you have no frame of reference for who they are, you're like, oh, this must be their first album, and then you read about like, no, they've dropped fifteen albums since two thousand

and three. They're just becoming famous twenty years twenty two years later because they continue to toil. And I just think it would be so easy. And you do see a lot of minor league baseball players hang it up because they don't feel like they're ever gonna get that shot. And the drive to keep working all for that one moment is always something that I just respect so much.

you for sure. It impacts you the way you work out, It impacts you in your relationships, like you think of different ways to create the proper alignment in every part of your life.

same thing as a player. I'm sure Steve if his phone rang one day and it was the Dodgers or something, that's a bad example because they had Vin scull or whatever. But if that's a Major League Baseball call up for an announcer, your life change is the same way a player does. It's kind of the same dynamic. You know.

basketball and football, maybe some jazz stuff. Tony Parks is live in studio, the voice of the Salt Lake Bees, and a number of other things. Anybody doesn't like Tom Penny, I don't know that would be tough. He's like vanilla ice cream. I mean you kind of everyone likes the scoop of vanell ice cream sometimes, right, exactly, many rest in peace.

time with it man throughout the year. So the college basketball stuff was in the rearview mirror and then now just some production stuff all around, and then enjoying toddler life, right, little Sophie, how old self?

You get a little bit of it with podcasting. But Chris Russol Mad Dog talks about this all the time, how the intimacy of live radio as a expression in the medium that it is. There's a more intimate connection to your audience because you are literally hearing me talk.

This is not prepared I have notes, you know me, I do the work, but this is unscripted live communication where I'm talking into this microphone and wherever you're listening, it is coming through your radio and you're hearing exactly what I'm saying in real time. It's nothing like that. There's an intimacy to this thing. It's different. And people over the years has said, what is it like working with other people in radio? And I always say the

same thing. If you get along with a person and if you have good chemistry, there's nothing better than doing that every day for four hours with somebody who you like and you get along with and you have mutual respect. There's nothing better than doing it with a good partner. And there's nothing worse than doing it day to day with somebody who you just want to strangle in the

same studio. So yeah, I just whether it's Joe Craven's or whoever it is, you know, if you have the right partner, there's there's a magic and an intimacy to this medium that you don't get anywhere else. You really don't.

of him. That's when and then also the authenticity starts to show more in the show host and the fun that goes in that.

And the CHOC stuff was like so good because I didn't know you had a good KOC before we started working. And for our listeners, KOC at the time was jazz executive Kevin O'Connor, not the ringer Rider or whoever that guy is. And Kevin had kind of phased himself out of the organization like Dennis Lindsay was kind of in. And I just remember like your KOC rants where you would quote like TLC waterfalls to puk and I would stop you, like, KOC, that's TLC. You can't use that.

You know, you can't pretend like that's your own. You need to stop. And it made those late nights so much fun. You know, we had Britton who would fall off chairs and Jake would stop. I was those were fun days.

Like we started working together, I think it was Ty Corbyn's maybe Ties last year was my first year on the pre aff and Pels maybe tis first year. You did the luckout year. Okay, yeah, so the playoff year out yeah, yeah, And so you know, there was not a lot of hope with that team. And do respect to guys like Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, they're just Kevin O'Connor did the best he could by parlaying the boozer,

you know, Booze leaves for Chicago. The Jazz got a trade exception, so Kevin used it to get Al Jefferson. It was kind of like, let's put a band aid on this till we can figure something out, which they did with Hayward and Favors and that group started to go forward. But Ties last year Quinn's first year. Those were long nights. I mean it was tough to make that very interesting. I can't imagine what it's like trying to polish this turn.

It was quintessential Jake. Jake's laughing, you're the pro that just and Britt and his six' ten six eleven frames sprawled. Out it was. Fun but you, know it's it's just it's a tough Ask tony as far as what they're doing this. Year and AS i say all the, time AND i get some flat from some of the guys down, there the dude listen to some of the stuff we.

Do it just. Sucks it's such a tough. Ask, now As i've been saying all, year it's probably the right course of action based off of their failure to see exactly how they needed to handle this when they Traded bear and when they Traded. Mitchell like this whole narrative they've tried to further over the past few, weeks, like, hey we haven't been rebuilding because we've been tearing down

for three. Years i'm, like who is buying. That you started rebuilding when you Traded donovan and you Traded rudy and a really smart head coach didn't want to work for, you and a really smart general manager decided he was done. Too that's the. Rebuild that's when it. Starts if you took three years to tear it, down you did it. Wrong so they're finally doing it. Right it's just really, hard you know, Me i'll watch basketball at three. Am, yeah BUT i this is a tough one stomach to watching.

Them this year has been really, DIFFICULT i think this. One and that's Why i've told the.

could be. Doing, Okay quinn's first, year you remember they finished what sixteen and seven their last twenty three games something like, that and you're, like, wow they BEAT i remember they beat Like Tony parker in The spurs one, night Beat Russell westbrook AND okc and they had like this stretch of winning where you're, going, man they're winning With Bryce cotton And Chris johnson And.

deal Does quinn? Stay Does dennis? Stay and the answer to both of those questions might be, no BECAUSE i just don't think they wanted to work for this new ownership. Group And i'll let them answer that in their own time and whatever way they prefer to do. It but if we play the hypothetical where you do The mitchell deal and you get marketing and you Keep, bogdanovich You Keith, Conley Royce. INGLES i mean at that Point joey was

a little bit. Older he'd hurt his. Acl you, know we used to talk About royce like he Was Bruce bowen from nineteen ninety. Ninety he just WASN'T i don't know how BIG i was on, him but you get the, point, like so you Have, gobert you have, marketing you Have, bogdanovich you Have, conley you, know then the other bit pieces that you, have and then you utilize The mitchell trade to get the draft capital that you need to

keep kind of building around the. EDGES i don't. KNOW i, mean that's probably still you, know nothing more than a top six or seven seed in The, West so it's not like there's a lot of upboard. Trajectory but based off of how bad it's been and how unwatchable they've been for three years, NOW i Think i'll always kind of wonder what that looked. Like if they Trade donovan and then Keep, gobert then you Give donovan what he

wants clearly clearly clearly didn't want to be here. Anymore you keep a guy that's still really good that wanted to be, here And, rudy and then you figure out ways to kind of supplement that, group and your bulk would Be, gobert Market, In, Conley. Bogdanovitch it's not a championship, team but it's not THIS i think it gives the

fans at least something hold on. To, Okay, so AND i don't think you were entirely wrong that my person is this perception based on you, know other people that you get to know and talk, to AND i Know jeff talk to a number as. Well my perception is the reason they moved both is because whatever the issue, was.

This you, know it was always interesting to me that dog And pony show they had where the, post you, know the press conference when they were announcing That quinn was, leaving how he just thanked The millers profusely and walked over to them profusely and gave them like that Was quinn's chance to Give gail her flowers and The Miller miller's her. Flowers if you go back and listen to that and watch, it he didn't say anything About, danny

didn't say anything About. RYAN i think when the ownership transition, changed AND i have some insight On quinn running practices and folks from the new ownership group showing up and kind of announcing their arrival at, practices and how this was going to be the new normal that even before the season was, Over Quinn's i'm not interested in this,

right wrong and. Different i'm not interested in, This. Okay ryan and his group have a different approach than The miller's hat and only time will tell to see if his approach is actually going to. Work at some, POINT i think it's only fair to say that the approach right now has bred bad, results AND i think it's bred some Awkward jersey announcements and things around the periphial and certainly things behind closed doors THAT i do know

about That i'll choose to keep to. Myself AND i do understand why ultimately they did land on the decision to move on from. Both LIKE i, SAID i think the quing call That i'm out expedited their decision making to break the whole thing. Down here's my, issue that's when you broke things, down not. Now don't sell to the fan base that it's it's taken us three years

to break it. Down. Now one didn't and that's on you if it, did because what you're, saying because you always have to translate between the lines to get to the, truth what you're saying is you did a bad job initially of deciding on a direction because you know where no man's land is in THE, nba right in the, middle and that's the group they Had will's first. Year then they decided to break it down In, february and in a, way it was kind of the group they

had year. Two and then they break it down after the deadline so they can maintain their draft. Capital that is a series of bad. Decisions when you're running a basketball team in THE, nba you either go all, in, okay or you're all out so you can rebuild. QUICKER i think they essentially wasted two and a half. Years that's my.

just at the. TOP i, Mean Oklahoma city is, good and they're, young and they've got a grip of draft. Capital they're gonna be awesome. Forever the fact of the matter is The jazz are not A cooper flag away from being even close to fine in this. Conference the fact of the matter is they are a marathon away of being back to where we're used to seeing them more often than, not which is at least competitive in The Western conference landscape and offering fans hope as some

of their young players. Develop my fear is if they can't get something done this offseason and next year looks like this year because they want the thebansa kid or one of The boozer twins or, whatever and then we're dealing with the same thing next. Offseason if that doesn't breed tremendous talent for will to work, with what does he do after five years here walking into gym's to have a gunfight when he's got a switchblade in his back. Pocket he simply can not keep up with his peers

in the coaching world because he doesn't have. Players what does he do a five years past and they haven't given him. Talent that's a great.

a long term. Plan blah blah.

that you're going to be right with. This, yep and you've got the, assets you got, this you got all these wonderful.

still very effective. Defensively that's a massive risk for a team that plays in Saut lake to move on from. Pieces do we all understand why they did, It, yes, yes but it was the failure to implement the plan immediately and then treading water and then now you're doing, it AND i just have to wonder if we would see more traction in a positive direction if they actually started the plan three years ago when they traded away their clutterstone.

Spurs like what are you talking? About The spurs traded away a twenty five year Old All star two And Dejonte murray and a bunch of other pieces because they knew that this kid In france could change their entire. Organization so WHEN i was fed the line like our coach is too, good we can't, Tank like who coaches The? Spurs what are you talking? About, like we'll end it.

There but, ultimately this is a test of a pain tolerance for a basketball market that simply is used to seeing at least a team that shows they're moving in the right. Direction AND i can't lie to, listeners AND i, can't you, know tell you That Isaiah colliers, this or can't To george's that or. WHAT i honestly don't. KNOW i have question marks about pretty much every player on the.

Roster AND i do feel like they have a, really really good, coach BUT i am a little bit nervous to see what he does if they can't give him. Talent all, Right, Tony i'm taking up too much of your. Time BEFORE i set you, Loose let's hit the bees stuff one more. Time SLBs dot com for tickets opening not opening, day but the home opener is. Tomorrow and so tell our listeners what you want to. Know, WELL i want you to know.

Them i'm excited to catch up with our. Teammates it's gonna be really.

future being a part of what's going. On love what the organization is doing in terms of their their fast forward vision on doing everything that it takes in their control to be in the very best possible position for something like this to happen. Someday how long would it take for it TO i will never, know because there's

a ton of dominoes that. Fall but you, know there's those who, say, boy this would be, nice and then there's those who put so many things into action to say we are more serious than, anybody and we're willing to invest what it. Takes AND i think that's been fun about this. Offseason i've worked for a minor league baseball team for a long. Time this doesn't feel LIKE i work for a minor league baseball. Team that's excellent with the way they invest in what they're. Doing it's

always what is major league caliber? Level what does it take to get?

the silliness of playing basketball in a football. Arena it's so. Dumb it's hard. TO i was gonna, say if you've ever tried to shoot on a bucket in a makeshift on a makeshift court at a football, facility the sidelines are jacked up that your depth perception is. Off it's it's for. Football it's not for. BASKETBALL i mean every year we do this because we want as many, fans

because you're trying to make. MONEY i get. It but for the product itself and for the, players it's it's not conducive to play in high level basketball.

Half it takes guys time to adjust, to like you, said different site lines in, arenas And i've you, Know i've seen it really really play a. Hand what's funnier to me is like when they played the game on THE i think it was a naval ship and guys are just air bawling for the warm ups until like halfway through the game they finally dialed.

Four That clayton junior, KID i love watching him play. Man he's stone cold.

Standing and again it's it's their. Versatility, yeah they got standout, players but it's it's kind of the the bi committee thing that they're just. Relentless so fun to.

the intensity Of houston all year. Long AND i think that when you can do that for a five month stretch, Man you're probably going to do it on the day of The National, championship AND i Think houston does that, tonight AND i Think kelvin gets himself a national. Title we'll.

you think you know more than? Scientists, well, look based off my social media, feed a bunch of my college friends think they know more than, scientists very, epidemiologists and now they're terr eff, experts which is. Amazing here we go the same morons THAT i went to school. With but, ANYWAY i just feel more comfortable saying octopi than. Octopuses that's.

Tonight going to go stop by and pay my. Respects special thank you To Josh, Furlong Tom, Haberstrow Bell, frasier And Tony parks for the sound you missed from the. Show the website IS espn seven Hundred sports dot. Com our mobile app is THE espn seven hundred app that's available in The App store on The google Play. Store and then our, podcast which we are hoping that you will support because it does help us out it's called The drive With spence check its whatever platform you, use we're.

There just do a search whatever that platform asks you to, do if it's a, follow if it's a. Subscription and then if you sandize things in the comments and you give us all the stars they allow, you it helps the. Program if you like what we, do we'd appreciate your. Support, Reporter i'm spent saying, tonight enjoy Some National championship college basketball, action a LITTLE nba hoops, too and we'll talk to you on A Tuesday drive and as all as you can find it right here ON espn seven hundred AND

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