Sean Mooney college basketball analysts or the University of Utah men's basketball team just hung up on me.
Sean, he did? That was real.
I was ready to give him this really kind, nice intro, and he just slams the phone down. And who, by the way, has a dial tone when they hang up anymore? Sean on the landline? What is this nineteen eighty five? I mean, aren't we all on cell phones?
Yeah? Still there, Sean Sean Mooney US.
I wonder if he has a rotary phone, like one of the nobody all the younger listeners who are vaping right now.
I have no idea what I'm talking about.
When's the last time you got hung up on like that where there's a dial tone so you even get Sean Mooney back on.
Yeah, he might have one of those. You mentioned it, those those rollly phones, the rotary phones.
Yeah, the dial You know, there was a day and age kids when your phone rang and you're actually excited about it at the house, you know, like you're at the house the phone rings, like oh maybe it's somebody really fun, really cool family member or friend. Now the phone rings and it's like, I don't know anybody who call me anymore. But Sean Mooney on a Wednesday, Sean, are you there.
My friend?
I'm here, Spence. I'm so sorry, man.
It totally cut out right when you ask me, how are you I'm going to vote for the mammoth. I'm voting for the mammoth, even though I didn't get a vote.
Fair enough. Well, if you go to the game, you get a vote. No you don't, but they're gonna pretend like you do. I gotta I gotta ask you this right out, like when you hung.
Up on us. We heard a dial tone. Are you on a landline?
No, I'm on my cell, but I meant my work and this coverage here is bad. I've been out in the parking lot, so okay, okay, Sean here, I'm not under rotary. I swear even though I'm from Ogden. You would think I would have a rotary.
I don't have one.
You're an Otown guy.
Yeah, brother, absolutely, I'm not. I'm not Northeast High School. I heard about your Marcus Canby experience. I listened to the Caim Palmory interview.
Very good interview, by the way, thank you, sir. Yeah, it was forty seven to ten at halftime. It it didn't go well, Sean. It's so when I watched Utah play against a team like Houston, I just feel bad for them because I know what that's like.
You do.
And did you hear what Jay Billis said on national media was about Utah playing Houston.
What do you say?
He said it was like clubbing baby kills. Oh wow, I died when I heard it. I'm like, come on, Billis, it did appear like that a little bit.
It was ugly.
It was.
Now, you were a very good player, but did you ever run into a situation where you're like, Yep, I've reached my level. I cannot play this game anymore if those guys are going to play like that.
Yeah.
Absolutely, But it was after college and like my strength as a player was I was a good defender, good rebounder, and I was actually playing against a kid in the Mill Creek Pro am who played at Saint Mary's that I actually trained. So I'm a personal finish nur spence, you know that. And he went for Lake thirty eight on me and I'm maybe thirty four. And that was it. I went home and I told Christina that's it.
I'm done.
Well you made it to thirty four, right, I mean that's uh, it's a lot longer than most of us.
Felt pretty good about that. Yeah, I feel pretty good about that. Yeah.
I've been being sixteen, going to five star basketball camp and just staring across and suddenly it's do you remember god sham, god sham god?
Wells oh, yes?
Remember here?
Like, come on, man, I could not. The drill was one on one.
You just have to get to half court, and then you have to try to stop the player from getting a half court.
He picked me three times. I called home.
I'm like, so, I guess I'll lean into broadcasting or something, because this isn't gonna work.
You know what I mean.
Listen, if you're going to be put out by someone at sixteen, that's someone to be put out by Spence. There's nothing to take a stick out right there. You shouldn't feel bad at all.
No, fair enough.
You made me feel better, but it just was depressing him. Because when you're young, you're dumb, and you think you're gonna be the starting point guard for the Knicks.
You do, you have no idea right that life in reality hits harder sometimes than you want it to.
For sure, for sure.
All right, before we get to the game last night in a vacuum, let's analyze Utah basketball through twenty games now, twenty games in the season, four and five in conference play, when they win, and what do they do well when they lose?
What stalls and goes wrong?
Yeah, so obviously when we turn it over. We even turned it over last night, right, And it's so frustrating because our team understands that people are turning our turnovers into easy buckets. That's been the case all league long, so that on both sides. Typically when we win, we shoot it a little bit better. We shot it well last night against the team Cincinnati, who's you know, well known for their defense. Obviously, b why you did the same thing, put up eleven for fifteen from the three.
We are not doing that. But we shoot it well when we win, and we turn it over too much when we lose.
Okay, Well, you know that's a formula, certainly when it comes to college basketball that will dictate wins and losses. So let's get over let's get over to last night. You know what, No, let's not get it to last night because I haven't talked to you. I haven't talked to you since the BYU game, and I wanted to kick the tires with you on because I was I was,
my dad, my brother, and my little niece. We all went up and I gotta tell you, Sean, I'm looking around and I ran into some college friends of mine at the game, and we all said the same thing, like, man, this feels like when we were here when Rick was the coach and when we planned our weeks around you know, Utah basketball game.
So let's start with that atmosphere.
And Craig himself saying after the game, Sean, fans impact winning and I guess, I guess it's not realistic to expect it's going to be like that every night because it hasn't been like that since. But what did you make of the crowd, the atmosphere for Utah BYU, you know, last Saturday.
Yeah, and first of all, thanks for coming and bringing everybody. And we agree, both Bill and I agree. You know, I got to be down there on the floor for part of that in the early nineties, and it was never a game when it was impact like that. The energy was always like that. Just the must section alone, you saw it. It was all the way to the Raptors. But I think there's always so much intrigue between by you and us. How we know that we understand this environment.
It's always going to be good. The game almost always is going to be good. I heard Ken Palmray predicted we'd win by one. I mean, come on, that's crazy. I think that game just brings out, arguably the joy of what our state used to be. And really, I've got to give you away a credit because I think it's there. I think they still have pack houses. You know, Salt Lake may have too much to do. I don't know Ken pointed that out, but it was really fun
and we want to get back there. But I do think that the product has to be NCAA tournament level maybe to get fans back in the stands.
What do you think, Spence, Well, it's interesting, Sean, because if you go back over the history since Rick left the program, you know jack A Leetti had a good team. I mean, obviously Rick recruited Boget, we know that, but
Jim had a couple of pretty good teams. The Luca Dertca Luke Neville team, I think there was an nc tournament team and Larry had two really two or three really good teams, and for whatever reason, ever since Reck has left, the attendance has been as inconsistent as to play like even when Ray or Jim or Larry had.
Some decent teams. I was at a lot of those games and the fans just weren't.
It.
Honestly is baffling to me.
I don't have an answer to it, because it can't be like, hey, we're a football school. Now now look football's over, you can go to a basketball game Like
that doesn't jibe with me. And so if Craig's able to build this thing up in the Big twelve where and your reference to Ken palmmeray interview when he dropped like, hey, if you can make this tournament two like of every five years, I just kind of went, oh, but maybe, I mean I'm spoiled because those teams that you know, you played on and you were around, they didn't just go to the tournament every year. They made runs, They
went to final fours, they almost won national championships. So yes, I agree with you that if the product was consistently
NCAA tournament worthy, maybe more people would go. But it's kind of like I've landed on the space where I feel like, if you're a member of the Utah community and you care about Utah basketball, maybe you need to do your part a little bit too and just go because you know this, If you're being recruited to play the school and you show up to a home game and there's fifteen hundred people there, you're just like, no, thanks,
I want to play in front of fans. You know the Sean players want to play in front of fans.
Absolutely no, I agree with you.
And it's been interesting Spence because as we travel around the Big twelve, Baylor is a good example. They put it together, a new modern field house and it's.
Seventy five hundred.
TCU has a field house seventy five hundred. That number may be kind of the ticket. I'm not saying change the Huntsman Center, but they're filling those up well, and the fans were loud and crazy, and even for our fan spent, if we get seventy five hundred and ninety five hundred, that's lower bowl and that's a good crowd.
It can be really loud.
And I agree with you, don't change the Huntsman Center. I mean, it's historic. We are are such an underrated basketball market. I mean, we have the we're the home of the highest rated basketball game in the history of pro basketball. That's Jordan's last game against the Jazz Huntsman Center. We could talk for hours about the history, but magic and bird right, I mean, so don't change the Huntsman Center. I will say I think the building could use a little love.
Yes, I don't disagree in particular. You know, one of the thoughts that I think, I would say that administration is tossed around and I'm not speaking for them. I've just heard this, you know, is trying to create an atmosphere that's a little more party like and meaning you know where you go get the hot dogs in the Crimson club room. Maybe you create some kind of connection with a local eatery and a local distillery or brewery.
And I know this is a taboo subject to some extent, but if we could sell beer, you know, there's an outside chance that that would bring more fans.
I'm just saying out loud.
One hundred percent.
And maybe let's not have hot dogs that taste like they were Costco's throwaways from April, like they you do. Like I'm sorry, man. The concession situation is subpar. I walked by and this poor young lady was selling like granola and water set up on like a table that looked like she brought from home. And they just need to update the facilities.
Now.
It's probably tough because if they are going over their budgets and they're talking about, okay, well we're not bringing in enough revenue with ticket rip and merchant food and bever whatever, and Mark and his group have a lot of budgetary decisions to make. And of course the football program brings in the revenue, so you're going to invest
in the football program. And we should say those basketball facilities are very very nice, but the Huntsman centered itself Sean, I just think needs to be a bit modernized as all.
Yeah, no, I don't disagree in your spot on a space, do you understand what you're talking about. I mean, it's easy for me to say this is how we should do it. I'm not the one in charge of the of the finances or the ledger, and they do have a lot on their plate. I agree one hundred percent
with that. I also think that you know any business owner and their business owners in essence, you know you you sometimes have to figure out a new approach and maybe a new marketing style in order to make make a product that people do want to come and your and your your points are well made. I think about just revitalizing what we have.
Tell me what the feedback is, because you know, the funny thing about doing this job, the job that I do every day talking on air for four hours or our community is oftentimes I do share feedback from simply my ecosystem, my prison, my echo chamber, which honestly is probably my twenty or fifteen ten or fifteen twenty best friends from college who love Utah and they'll hear me talking about something on the show and they'll call me later, text me later like, Hey, this is the way I
feel about Coach Wit, this is the way I feel about the basketball program, this is the and and so I'm fully acknowledging it's not an accurate representation of everybody who loves Utah athletics. But in your ecosystem, the people that you surround yourself with, and we have some mutual friends. I'll give Brad Bruso's shout out because he texts me every time you're on the show. What is the feedback
you hear about Utah basketball. What do they say, Are people still invested or are they kind of tapped out?
It's a really good question. Yeah, and you're making a really good point. We do have our own echo chambers, and obviously mine includes, like yours, people who really care about Utah basketball, which I love, and they're all invested in. I think they're all in that same kind of.
Vein where over the years they.
Have stopped attending games as much and for various reasons. And these are people that die blied. Excuse me, they don't die, they bleed red. They give their heart and soul to the program. And I think your point is, well, maybe maybe we need to revitalize that in some way. But I think people are frustrated. I think they want our team to go the NCAA tournament, and that's a that is a fine desire. I want that as well, and I don't I don't like the two out.
Of five years spence. I want five out of five years. I mean, I don't.
Want it to be unrealistic, but I want roster construction and I want our Utah basketball to be meaningful again. I'm not saying it's not right now, but I want it to be meaningful like that for us, our chambers and other people outside us.
Well, and it's it's a good point, and I think the truth of the matter is right now. It's it's not meaningless, but it doesn't mean to the community what it meant to us. And you can't you can't sell nostalgia forever. But my experience up there as a student was colored through the prism of Keith van Horn in whack tournaments, hitting game winners. It was watching Keith be the number two overall pick. It was uh it was Final Four experiences. It was Andre Miller, it was Mike Doliak,
it was Britton Johnson. It was a Red Bowl away from winning a national championship because it ran out of gas. And so because of that experience, Sean, I walk into that building and it means something to me, and it's but it's different because I don't know how many young Utah fans walk into the Huntsman Center and have the same meaning.
Right, Does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense. I mean I couldn't.
I'm the right person to be having this discussion with because I feel the exact same way. The legacy that was left for us as athletes in that Utah basketball era is very strong, and we all are connected and will forever be connected to that legacy. And whether or not you liked majerisis style, there were certainly things he said that were inappropriate, unexcusable, but his genius for what he did and what he represented in terms of just
basketball became a part of who we all are. And every time we walk into that Huntsman Sent, every time I walk into the Huntsman Center, I have a sense of pride and community and joy, and I want that to be something for these young kids just like you do. I want that exact same thing to exist for the kids that are growing up and watching athletes now.
I so badly wish there was some sort of medical technology, science technology just to bring Rick back, to have him, to have him react to like the modern day and age of social media and cancel culture and players on their phone at halftime, Like how do you think he would handle what college college athletics is today?
I mean, like it's either Rick sway or the highway.
And so I do think, like I listened to Kelvin Sampson, I think Kevin Sampson is a good example of a coach.
That's a little bit like Rick.
He demands the same level of attention to detail. You have to be assimon sound. He said it in his press re spense. And this can happen in today's modern day because it's happening. Kevin Sampson's an.
Example of it.
I think Nate Oates says it, but Kevin Sampson said, kids want to come to our program, they want to be a part of who we are. That is definitely something that Rick I think would still list it as long as he see some of the dumb things and or didn't like acknowledge that he said some of those dumb things.
Yeah, I think he survives.
Yeah, And to your point, his brilliance would allow him to survive if he was able to adjust to the modern day and age, because they strictly as a tactician, as an ex as and O's guy. Uh and he look, I've said it before, I'll say it again. I think he gave his life to basketball. I think it actually may have cost him his life, right, because that's you're right, yeah right, yeah, good.
There's no question that's exactly right. I mean we would we would say expense that ninety five percent of what he thought about was basketball and five percent was food.
Yeah yeah, and you're not yeah, and you're not even trying to be funny, because that's that was kind of the deal.
And I know he had friends here there.
I know he had relationships here or there, But if you talk to people that really knew him, that's all he wanted to do. He wanted the coach, You wanted to watch tape, you wanted to grab some pizza. That was kind of his deal.
Those were they and he and it was legit. It's just who he was, you know. And like he had a great coaching staff when I was there, and to some extent, I think coaches head grew just a little bit and it kind of got things out of whack. I think personally after the ninety eight game, after the National Championship game, he maybe you should have moved on. You know, I'm glad that he didn't, but I think it was probably time. He was a builder through and
through and maybe it's harder to sustain. That's my take looking back at it.
You know, I don't know what this says about me, but living in a Marriotte with room service sounds really nice.
I think I could do that. I'm not gonna lie.
No, I could totally do it if you and I would be more coouth. We're not going to, you know, show up without our clothes on when we opened the door. We wouldn't, I mean, Spence, I speaking for myself. I'm just assuming now we may be dancing when the door opens, but that's a different story.
I can commit to wearing pants. I can commit to wearing pants down for sure.
Thank you. I can too.
Hey, So tell me what do you think Craig is pitching? What do you know?
What is the recruiting pitch right now? Because ultimately the bottom line is this. I think Craig's a really good coach, and I think he's a really good man, and I'm charing hard for him. I just think more often than not, they're still not entering gyms with the same talent level as most of their opponents. He's got to get dudes, he's got to get horses.
How does he do it? What's his pitch to come play? Utah?
Yeah, I mean I think his pitch is his personality.
I agree with you. I really like Craig. It's been really fun working with him. He's genuine. He he doesn't pull punches. He says what he means to Austin particularly, you know, you're going to get some coach speak from coaches, like in post game interviews that kind of stuff, because there's so much emotion. I think he pitches togetherness. I think one of his big things is community and trying
to create that community. You know, the big emphasis with this team was actually trying trying to be connec that they may not be more talented or talented as some of the Big twelve, but they wanted to be connected.
And I think you're.
Still seeing that. You're seeing a team that's connected, even though there's some players that aren't playing as much. And that's going to always happen in a season.
All right, before I say you loose, let's talk about the game last night. It was a good one and Cincinnati preseason top twenty five.
They're two and seven in conference.
But man, do they guard and they make it hard, and I thought the youths did a good job for the most part of staying poise, knocking down some free throws. There was untimely turnovers for sure, but ultimately I want your thoughts. Let's start here we'll do a couple of things. There's a lot to like about Kantadas, and it seems like he's been in and out of the rotation, but strictly from an athlete standpoint, physicality, explosive standpoint, feels like
there's a home for him. You know, Ezra had some foul trouble last night. But what do you make of this continuing kind of project that Craig is going through to try to figure out the lineup of the rotation he wants to land on.
Yeah, you heard me I said about Keana Does. Thanks for listening. Yeah, I really like Keana Does. He came in he at twelve and nine. My favorite thing about Kanah Craig said that he's young, but one of the things he does really well, if you notice, beenss he finishes around the rim with great concentration. Ye, he doesn't. She doesn't struggle when he gets around the rim, and he made some really tough shots last night. But it's his rebounding. I love his rebounding. You just you can't
put a price tag on that. And then as Man, I'll tell you what. When as gets going, it's hard to stop him. And he got it going early and then he had this situation where he got that technical and he kind of got in his own head and just made some kind of lazy passes. And you know, it's not my position where you bring him back in,
but he did get it going. And when they went to as is the five and coach alluded to this last night, we're pretty hard to defend because Keanu does is more like a guard really than he is a big and he cuts well and he finishes well. So I like him both, and I think you're gonna see more of that. You know, Austin is doing a great child.
We're running our offense throw but it's hard on him and they're starting to put more pressure on him on those dhos, the dribble handoffs and the handoffs and the passes. So you may see us go small more in our lineup.
Give me a thought on Gabe because the easy thing that the easy thing that people point to is like, wait, he's a shooter that has horrible shooting percentages. I continue to point out if you're watching games, you know that teams are just simply selling out on him and Utah's success in my opinion moving forward will be can Hunter Erickson knock down some shots based off of the gravity. You know, can Mike or whoever it is, Ezra can
Jake knock down some three. So for youth fans that have been critical on their most important offensive player, where's your current take on Gabe Madson.
First of all, it was really nice to see gave hit that first three. Bill and I are just as invested as you, you know, and we really want him to have success. And man, for any fan out there that wants to come and try and play against a big twelve team where you're the number one person they want to stop, good luck. That's all I'm gonna say. Last night, Gabe Matson did a great job with Lawston. I don't know if you noticed the two man games
that they had. They had really good action and it was effective, in particular against Cincinnati the way they played those on ball screens. But then Gabe mats and Hiss the big curl to a shot, a jump shot, fifteen foot jump shot and makes the free throws. Gabe's our guy. He's not Brandon Carlson. Brandon Carloson, with seven feet tall,
could post up demanded a double. Gabe don post up doesn't demand a double, but gave demands doubles on the outside, and we're starting to use him more effectively, I think, and he's just going to I think he's going to continue to have a better and better game spence as we move into the second half of Big Twelve.
Play all right, Sean, before I said you lose, it's interesting to look at it like this. Okay, So they get the win last night against Cincinnati, and now the next four you're at Oklahoma State, you're home against Colorado, you're at West Virginia, you're at Cincinnati. The road stuff in the Big Twelve is going to be tough no matter who it is. However, after that, that's when it's Kansas. That's when it's case stay like, it gets really really
tough after the next four games. So what, I know, you want them to win every game, but over the next four what should you fans be looking for before the schedule gets extremely difficult.
A couple of things. One, Oklahoma State, we've got to win a TCO. I think TC is a better team Oklahoma State. Olahoma State doesn't shoot it as well. I think we have a legitimate chance to go in there and still on I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but I think we can. We need to out rebound that team. They're a very good rebounding team. We did a good job on their big guy Bugatti. Hopefully we can continue to do that and then play them as drivers and cut them off and wall them up defensively.
And then I think, I mean, Colorado is we should be at home. That's just the reality. They're not as good this year. So you know, I'm I'm wouldn't be surprised if we come out of this on its three game winning straight. And then of course I think Kansas comes to down.
Yes, indeed, and that will be quite the test. Sean, thanks for the time, man, Appreciate it, and we'll get you back on soon.
Be well, okay, thanks, Bence, have a good afternoon, all right.
Sean Mooney one of the nicest dudes.
Man.
He always puts me in a good mood. Appreciate his time.