THU POD @SpenceChecketts on 4 Nations Face-Off, Runnin' Utes/Big 12 hoops, Jazz back from All-Star, RSL + more

All right, what's good.

It's five time on a Thursday afternoon, about ten minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

It is snowy, it is cold.

According to forecast, the snow will let up in about one hour from right now. But our resorts are getting stomped and we are getting stomped down here in the valley and the benches, which is of course good for the folks that enjoy such things. But as it is every single day, it's gonna have you along for the ride. My name is Spence check its I host this radio program. That young man is Porter Larson. He produces it, does a lot of other things for too.

Not just a producer.

He books the guests and sometimes comes in with hot takes off the top rope. Maybe we'll get some hot takes from Porter today on a jam Pack Thursday show. The Utah Jazz will begin the second half of the NBA season taking on Oklahoma City coming up tomorrow, but the NBA is back out of in full force. Utah Hockey Club will be back in action on Saturday, but of course the hockey world is focused on the Four Nations Final tonight.

Talk about that game.

It is in Boston, a great domestic hockey city without the hockey history that Montreal has, but the diehard hockey fans out.

In full force.

We'll have the Four Nations Final matchup for you here on this radio station after the Craig Smith Coaches Show tonight, which will be in at six o'clock. So a lot of eyes, a lot of the ears, a lot of attention on the world of pro hockey tonight, so we'll get you ready for that game. We'll talk about that game on the program and then you can hear it on this little old radio station. RSL Cocky Caff Champions

We will give you the latest with.

The conference commissioners meeting, namely Greg sank and Tony Petiti because it was excuse me, only the SEC in the Big ten, no Big twelve rep, no acc rep, no group of five rep. A lot of rumors and some things that we actually do know tangibly coming out of that meeting. So, of course, as the home of the Utes in a college football market, we have one on college football at the time. The Utah State Aggie's absolutely curb stomped San Jose State last night. Utah stayed in

He's been in media now for about fifteen years.

Has a number of different podcasts, does a bunch of work with the Lebtard group down in South Beach there.

So we'll bring a mean on today. Then we'll do a little.

Sports court with our guys from the law firm of Handy and Handy. So a busy show on a Thursday afternoon, Andy Larson, Ken Pomeroy, Amino Hassen, little sports court today, we'll say good night and time for the Craig Smith Coaches Show coming up at six o'clock tonight. And then at seven o'clock tonight you'll hear the remainder of the

I don't think so.

I don't think I pay enough attention to Canada or USA hockey to give you an actual hot take.

Here's here's one.

There're gonna be two breaks during the game that are gonna go too long. I'm gonna get sidetracked. Uh, and then I'm gonna forget it's happening. But I'm gonna dial in for the end of it. Hopefully, hopefully Team USA pols it down.

That is not a hot take. That is a prediction that will absolutely happen.

I listen, and I know I'm gonna have to get used to it. We've got hockey in the market now. It is still the one thing.

I know. It's a me problem.

I know it's an ADHD problem, but it's it's almost like the All Star Game we saw on Sunday, minus the bad basketball. Every game where you take those breaks and for someone like me, man, yeah, you forget, you forget. You're watching hockey, not tonight though not tonight.

Yeah, No, I understand.

My higher thing with any sport I watch is it has to be on the DVR, and so I turn off all my alerts, okay, and I let the game kind of run. It helps with hockey, yeah, and it helps with everything I can get through an NBA game in like an hour. Get through an NFL game and like an hour and a half. Or college football. Unless I'm attending a game, I do not watch it live

They're not. They're just boring and they're too long.

Well, and part of me like feels a little guilty for it, Like, oh, you know what if I was in nineteen sixty when I couldn't re fast forward through a baseball game. Well, in nineteen sixty they sat down and watched a baseball game and didn't have an hour of commercials during it, right, So I don't know, we're we're adjusting it.

Well, in in nineteen sixty, we didn't have seventy five different things to take our attention away from whatever else we're watching at every single moment. Oh it's a commercial, Twitter, Instagram, social media. Oh it's a commercial email. I'm gonna flip over and watch Severance for a minute because I losted it exactly. It's ridiculous, man, Like, we are a society that has an attention span issue. And I'm not judging

Except I just messed all that up.

Yeah you did. Thanks a lot of pout, all right. Andy larsh is our first guest right out of the gates. But before we get to Andy, on a Thursday, courteousy of our good friends at Burt Brothers, it is time now for your opening tip, all right. With over thirty years of experience in nearly thirty locations, Burt Brothers, as certified technicians, bring expertise and professionalism to every interaction industry,

We had figure skating in our venue.

Of course, the Russian judge scandal that rocked the world, but the ability in the chance to go see USA Canada in hockey in the gold medal game was one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. And you can already feel that tonight is something substantial now.

I don't know.

I've listened all morning the couple of different hockey podcasts we had Neil Smith on yesterday as the Four Nations face off final is tonight. Reminder you can hear it

We wouldn't miss this.

And I do think there is an absolute lesson that the NBA could take from the NHL when it comes to commitment to your craft, understanding why you do what you do. You do what you do for the people who support you, namely the consumers who buy tickets and

You know, Boston is a great hockey city.

Domestically, we don't have the history of hockey that Canada has. Canada is the winninges hockey country there is. I do think they'll expand the four nations moving forward now that they've seen how awesome this is. I think Germany's gonna be involved. Russia on paper should be involved, but hey, you know, we'll leave that to the side. You guys understand why Russia has not been invited and probably won't be for a little while.

But this should be a fun one tonight.

So Connor Hellabuck has thought to be the best goalie in the world right now, he's the US goalie and he'll be between the pipes. Both of these teams have great goalies now. Jordan Binnington. He's a bit of a polarizing guy, and I wouldn't be stunned by the way if the two goalies fight each other tonight. I don't think we're going to see like three fights right off

They need to be on the ice.

But Jordan Biddington was the goalie for the Saint Louis Blues in twenty nineteen, and that year he went into Boston and led the Blues to a game seven win and a Stanley Cup. So Jordan Bidnington knows what that crowd is like tonight. I'll be anxious to see what the crowd looks like. As far as the split between Canada fans and US fans, the ticket prices have absolutely skyrocketed as a result of the attention that this tournament

So it's at six o'clock.

All right.

Utah Jazz are in action tomorrow. Gokse is the opponent. The second half of the NBA season kind of got gone last night.

Lakers have lost.

Now excuse me to the Jazz and the Hornets back to back games with Luca and Lebron. Our next guest covers the Jazz and other things for the Saul Lake Tribune on a Thursday afternoon. We welcome in Andy Larson, Andy, Happy Thursday, buddy.

How are we doing?

I'm good man, How are you?

I'm good? I was beer bar last night. Most important question.

The RSL Conker CAF Champions Cup watch party vibes immaculate.

As the kids say, the vibe are good.

You know, Look it was not a strongly attended watch party. They're probably I don't know ten fifteen RSL fans player, but to watch a nil Mill draw and where nothing happened, and so I would say the vibes were were probably pretty mid.

Let's be honest.

Mid vibes at beer bar. Wow, don't sell rimando.

Look, beer bar.

Had nothing to do with this. This is it's it's it's a great location to watch a game. But yeah, I mean nil mill with in a it was. It was not the peak of watch parties like you and I have been too.

For example, fair enough, fair enough.

So after that performance, have you changed your expectations for better or for worse for this club this year?

I mean, I guess a little bit worse. Look, Coasta Recan teams aren't very good, and ideally you would be promoting more ideas and having better chances than I think RSL had during that match. And I mean I watched the Cincinnati Motagua match after that. That's the hun Duran club and they just they you know, Cincinnati bought that game, and to a degree that ARSOL didn't now didn't have Diego Luna, didn't have Justin Glad for most of that game, you know, And the biggest thing is they didn't have

Last RSL question, I am told that reinforcements should be expected. I don't know when. I don't know what it looks like. What do you hope it looks like? And when do you hope it comes down?

Yeah, look, it's got to be a striker and Eliath Manuel didn't want to come to RSL again. It's disappointing that a replacement hasn't been found more quickly, you know, given that now you are playing in Champions League play, Champions Cup play. I guess it's disappointing frankly that they didn't find a bigger player after they knew that the teacher was going to be moving on, you know, pretty

Right all Star weekend? Andy, goodness, gracious, what was your interest slash consumption level and your takeaways?

Yeah, I mean, honestly, pretty lowly. Tried to take some time off and but you know, it also just seems like the exact the exact opposite of must watch television, right, Like even in the sports world that I you know, love watching sports, Like why is an average sports fan watching the NBA All Star Game with its tournament and all of it's Kevin Hart skit and you know, giving awards to Charles Barkley and the inside the inside the NBA T and T crew when that show is still

So are you old enough to remember when the All Star Game was fun?

Yeah?

Okay, yeah for sure. I mean I remember being a big part of growing up, being like eight, nine, ten years old and watching the All Star Game and it seems really fun and cool then right, like it seems like these superheroes in my brain, and some of that's just because I was a kid. But we're coming together and playing in this this game. You know that that had everyone I had ever heard of in it, right, So yeah, you know, it was better to look And

Do you have any ideas to make it, you know, consumable, because ultimately I understand your point about other leagues and dealing with their All Star stuff, and but the Pro Bowl was never good, Like the Pro Bowl was never good, And the NBA All Star Game for like thirty years was the best pick up all you know, pick up basketball game that you could find in the world because the best players showed up and played high level basketball.

Again, I haven't heard of one that I think makes a real difference, you know, like if you they've done so many they've tried so many things, right, Like the one that gets me is that they you know, literally said gave you know, I think it was five hundred thousand dollars to the winner of the game to charity.

You know, home court.

Advantage in the NBA finals. Let's say, I don't think really cuts it, because we see teams tank out of those positions you after year or just not you know, maybe not tank but load manage out of those positions you after year because they think, hey, being the third seed or the fourth seed in the playoffs is fine compared to being the first seed. It just doesn't matter that much who hosts that game Southern at the end of the series. So I'm fresh out of ideas. I

So, p K Suban, you know the Four Nations Finals tonight, Canada taking on the US.

It's on our station.

After the Craigsmith Coaches Show, he went on a couple of different platforms today. On ESPN, he was doing the rounds and he just eviscerated NBA players and he utilized his platform as an opportunity to express to consumers. If you are interested in watching a sport, if you are interested in watching a game where the league employs people that actually care about their craft, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, you should watch hockey.

Because hockey players play through injuries.

They play for the flag tonight and for their club as opposed to simply individual glory. And it's pretty unanimous, man Like, it's pretty much across the board, whether you're talking about Connor McDavid or or you know one of the local guys here, Dylan gun Through. It is a different brand of athlete, it's a different brand of care.

I mean, I think it's a mix of balls. And I think like the NBA players not caring generally is kind of overstated. Like Kevin Durant, did you watch that Court of Gold documentary?

I did. It was awesome, It was awesome.

Yeah, Kevin Durant cried about the idea of playing in the Olympics, right, like and that in that documentary and it clearly meant a ton to him, right And Like KD is not someone who I think is like an outlier in terms of caring about the game. Like I thought it was really clear that the Olympics really mattered

Uh.

And it's just the team that is preventing them from doing so. And I think that to me is like, Okay, you need to change the incentives of the sport a little bit. Where in hockey, you know, for whatever reason, those seven game series are not foregone conclusions, even when it's a one seed versus the seed. I mean, we've seen eight seeds make tremendous runs for the NHL playoffs in a way that we just have not seen NBA playout. The NBA eight seeds make those runs generally, you know,

Yeah, I think PK was probably utilizing the moment to make a larger point to get more people to tune into hockey, and a lot of it was performative, but I think a lot of points that were made are very fair And yeah, and you're not wrong ultimately to bring in the dynamic of not just teams but the league. And I always bring up agents behind the scenes wanting their clients to get to that second, third, fourth, sometimes

Frankly, yes, I'd agree with with all of that. And I think the kind of too big to fail idea does apply to the NBA a little bit right now, where you know, the the despite the TV ratings being

I can't tell you how many buddies are I have that are lifelong NBA fans that are just like disenfranchised with the whole thing.

It's just I don't know.

But to your point, you know, they'll email you their P and L statement with their middle finger and say, what's our problem?

Like, We're doing fine, and I get it.

One more question in this space and then we'll do a little jazz before I say you lose. What's your opinion on? And I'm not a Lebron hater. I've sounded like it this week, but I'm not. I mean, I don't know that we have an example of another athlete that was anointed at the age of like sixteen or seventeen, who lived up to every expectation and superseded most of them. The story of Lebron James is phenomenal and always will be.

But you know, I'm watching.

The intros and they I think it was on Shacksog team and they introduced every player, and then they go to Lebron and he's in street clothes and we all find out like he's not playing. Now, there are a lot of ideas we're having. Amina El Hassen on coming up in the four o'clock hour his podcast with Tom Haberstrow Basketball Luminati. Their theory is he was silently protesting the young players playing on Sunday. I do not have

What are your thoughts, I'm worth dealing.

I feel like you kind of covered it. Lebron absolutely should have said that he was if he didn't want to play or didn't feel, you know, like that he was going to play, should have said something earlier. So demonts the bonus could have been in that game, and frankly honestly did it with Anthony Edwards, who also did not play for an injury. If we're you know, we should be fired of both of those guys that if

I yeah, have.

A I have a significant problem with that.

I don't.

Yeah, it doesn't mean I'm a Lebron at or it doesn't mean I'm an Anthony Edward. Peter. Uh, It's just it's.

Just, you know, not cool.

I did not mean to take the good points with that was embedded into my question, Andy, I just know you're a smart guy and you could bounce off of it.

But yeah, I mean, like it's just a bad look. Uh.

Is there anything and this is me reaching for a topic. Is there anything Keanta can take away from that weekend? I mean, I suppose if you're going to be around your peers and they're the players in the world, that has to be a good thing, right.

Yeah, probably, I mean probably. I'm interested in talking about this. So the jazz practice at three o'clock, so really quite soon here, and then once they're done with practice, we'll go over and talk to both Kiante and I think we're talking to Lowry market In as well after practice, and I will ask him that question because I'm curious too. Yeah, what he took away from it? I kind of wonder if like playing as reasonably well as he did in the Rising Stars and even on Sunday like may give

Fair enough, all right, do you want to give me a hot Jaden Springer take. I guess Jazz fansher at least get to know the new player on the roster.

I mean, he's a ten ten day guys who's going to be on the game and the on the team for the next five games.

I believe it is.

And then but yeah, I mean kind of has struggled to find a consistent role in Boston and Philadelphia can defend a little bit. We'll see kind of. Yeah, if if he gets playing time over the likes of Johnny Jusing, etcetera. I you know, if everyone's healthy, I'm I'm curious which way will Hardy will go with that? But yeah, you know he's the fifteenth man on the roster.

All right, before I say you lose make the final what twenty eight games? I believe it is the final twenty eight games for the Jazz. Make it interesting.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's the same thing as we've done all year, right, Like it's whether or not the young guys are building blosstore if they if you feel comfortable kind of jettising them for a shot another player like the Jazz did with out tragic Boji last year. Right, So you know it is there something there with Bryce Sensaba or is there not? Is there something there with

A up team.

We got a stacking days drop for Andy Larson. My man was down in provo listening to Kevin Young.

Weren't you?

I was, Do you see Kevin recognize me in that press conference? I thought that was kind of funny.

I did not see that, but I'm happy for you that our guy Kevin Young recognized you.

Did you have You've been.

Watching too many NBA games with a question like that. I was like, Yeah, maybe I'm out of my depth.

Peer.

Well, I don't know if you know this, but Kevin spent some time in the NBA. If you didn't know that, all you gotta do is ask him.

Yeah, and everyone else around the program too.

But hey, look, I actually.

That was fun.

Oh dude, it was amazing.

And uh just yeah, the degree to which b way you tore apart canvas. You know. I was coming in expecting a good game, but not a eviserration like that.

Yeah, no doubt.

Ken Palms Live and Studio coming up next, Andy, So we're gonna let you go enjoy the weekend.

Will chat soon. Thanks buddy, and you.

Lars covers the Utah Jazz for The Solid Tribune writes a data column really interesting piece up that Andy did on Daylight Savings, smart kid man whatever, Andy right, writes, I like to read because he's kind of a north star for us.

So I appreciate Andy time today.

We'll be there for a second stop, but I have to learn when it's this whole era and genre of the punk pop, we can't sing, so we're just gonna yell a lot of aggressive pauses there, So I had.

To wait let him breathe a little bit. This is a good one for that, that question I have for you the other day. I think two fives aged well, they're still they're still pretty good.

But it's definitely one of those.

Bands that I listened to a lot, maybe early two thousands that don't doesn't get much run anymore.

Yeah, Food Fighters is aged well.

I saw them in concert here last year Ken Pomeroy's live in studio.

Do you mind if I ask you al you are? Yeah, yeah, fifty two.

Okay, so you're a little bit older than I am, but you remember obviously the nineties. That's like the deal we grew up. We're both Jet xers. Porter asked me this week. I thought it was a good question. How has the music that you liked in the nineties aged? And I think it's fair depending on the artists. I mean, any do you still listen to the music now, Ken, that you did in the nineties.

I do, sadly, I do, you know. I tried to stay up with the times and in a number of different ways, but music has not been one of them. Big Food Fighters guy, by the way, for sure, Like, yeah, it's I think it's aged pretty well.

But then they released some newer stuff right kind of. Yeah, they did not too long ago. Yeah, I wasn't a big pan of that.

No, when I was at the show, I was just waiting for them to get to you know, the stuff they did in the nineties and then you know, right when the decade turned, they had a couple of good albums as well. Nobody listens to us for our music takes Ken, So I appreciate your time, Ken Pomroy live in studio. As my nephew once asked me, Uncle Spence, what is a Ken palm? Well, a Ken palm is

Yeah, I mean, I'm more fascinated by the Kansas situation than the BYU situation. Out of that game, it was, yeah, as you said, pretty stun just the way they lost. Obviously, Kansas was coming off the loss to Utah, which was not necessarily stunning, but certainly surprising, and just.

Had no juice at BYU.

You know, we talked about this off the air, but you know Bill salv right now, he's running a line about there that has a four and a five that basically don't shoot. So the space thing's a little bit of a problem. And in that game, he decided to start up the four and the five and then also his back up four, so he had three guys in the starting line they couldn't shoot.

He just leaned into this, you know, nineteen eighties style.

Basketball, and they got off to a terrible start and it just got got worse from there.

So and it's funny, you say, the Kansas side of this is a little bit more interesting topically because the day after the game, I listened to three different college football podcasts.

Gary Parrish has one up. Gary's the front of the show.

So I listened to him, and all of them started with what the hell is going on with Kansas? As opposed to giving BYU their flowers? So I'll ask you what the hell is going on with Kansas? Bill Sell Well of twenty two years. His first twenty years, he never lost six league games, eight league losses. Last year already at seven. Zeke Mayo, AJ Storr, Ryland Griffin. Their three transfers, Zeke has played well, the other two haven't been great. What what's going on?

Like?

This does not look like the bluest of blue bloods in the Big twelve, which by definition they very much are.

Right, Yeah, well, yeah, you kind of nailed it there.

He's missed on some transfers, didn't have a great, you know, freshman class coming in, relying on some extent to Hunter Dickinson, their you know, fifty year center, who is you know, he's a fine player, but again more of not necessarily a most dynamic center out there. And so that's all kind of led to this situation where, you know, their

Line, so I didn't realize that that's wild.

Yeah, so it's just a it's an awful combination. And their defense is still pretty good. It was not good against BYU. It was that was there by far their worst defensive game of the year. Their defense, though generally has been pretty solid. They lead the Big twelve and two point percentage defense, which is a great sign for your defense. But offensively they just are are you know, not good enough to reliably hang with the best teams in the league.

So I did not know that their defense normally is good because against BYU it was atrocious. I mean, look, if Trevinell couldn't shoot it, he'd be blogging for Kassel about BYU basketball. He's like twenty seven, and it's the one thing he does, and he does it very well. He scored a thousand points, he's now in their top five and three point field goals made.

And my man was wide open.

And I think even the look on his face, I didn't know if Kansas was going to his own because Trevin would just run to the corner and you kind of look around. He's like, I'm wide open. Just throw it to me and I'll shoot it. So they didn't check the player in Trevinell where the one sentence on the scattering report is make him put it on the deck because he can only shoot it. I thought Richie made some tough shots. But how much of that blowout

Right, Yeah, you know, you played really well. I don't want to downplay that.

You know, you don't beat a Kansas team by thirty, you know, when you're just playing average ball. But there were certainly some major breakdowns by Kansas defensively, And I mean by you put that kind of pressure on a defense, you know, they do have that great space and they

Years as far as I have data going back.

So you know, it was it was really I don't think people realize, but you know, really a historic performance going against the Kansas defense.

Yeah, it's the it's tied for the worst loss that Bill's had at Kansas in twenty two years. It was the worst loss that a preseason AP one team has ever suffered ever in history of college basketball. So what now are you willing to say about Brigham Young now after they've gone let's see seven and two in their last nine, three straight wins, including both wins over the Kansas teams, Case State and Kansas. They're going to be at McHale coming up in a couple of days at Arizona.

They've got five games left.

There's a chance they win twelve league games, which would be really really good year one Kevin Young. So it feels like they're high speed out of the tournament, and it feels like maybe they could be a bit of a problem because when they are knocking down shots, Ken, they are tough.

That's a good team.

What are you willing to say about what you think BYU's chances are to make spring fun?

I guess is how we'll ask it? Right? Yeah?

I mean it feels like a theme that we've encountered before with BYU, even going back to last year.

Yes, yeah, rightah absolutely, but even.

You know they've had seasons before that where you know this is when by US at its best Historically, It's like they play this style, right, they played this kind of way under Mark Pope, where they you know, take a lot of threes, and when they had shooters and had that spacing, the offense looked great and it looked like it should do some damage in the tournament, and yet the results were never there. So, you know, I do think there's a chance for something good to happen.

I am curious to see what happens against Arizona. You know.

I have a pet theory that when you have a game like by you just had where it comes a little easy, like clearly like BYU is not thirty points better than Kansas, you know, on a consistent basis, otherwise they be the best team in college basketball, right, Like, I just.

Wonder how a team comes back from that.

Do they really believe they're that good or did they understand that Hey, we you know, we face a team that was a little bit beaten up and mentally down, and you know, we're gonna have to play at a very high level to hang with Arizona. It's gonna be if they if they can do that, I mean, they don't have to even beat Arizona to impress me, but

One of the wildest things that's happened would be you first couple of years in the Big Twelve, they're two and l against Kansas and basketball, and they're zero to two against Kansas and football, which is so wild more impressive feat dog walking Kansas on your home floor and nearly beating in by forty are going to fog last year and getting to win, Yeah.

It's going on the road and getting a win.

The one thing that the Big Twelve has is great home environments, and we've seen that really with the local teams right like bui Use lost twice at home. You thought was lost twice at home, so there's only been four losses at home and Texas stuck actually has two of those. So that's one thing that the league has whether it's you know, Kansas or or Iowa State or now Arizona, Kansas State. I mean, there's a number of places where it's it's very hard to win. And I

Any good team in this league is extremely impressive.

For somebody that uses his calculator to pay rent. Can you explain to me how one approaches building a model for home court because I'm I'm picturing you like Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room writing algorithms on his window. I don't know if that's accurate, But how does one go about the process of building a model to explain home court advantage in college basketball?

Yeah, so it's just a matter of going back in history and kind of figuring out what stats matter to predict like future home court advantage, which it's it's fairly like simple to identify those things. Like the main thing is points, you know, like if your scoring margin at home is better than your scoring marginal on the road, it's probably indicative that you have a good home court advantage.

How does the marriage Center stack up with your model? It seems like it's becoming it. Look it was always well, not always, but more often than not, the Marriage Center, because BYU has had a lot of really good teams, has been pretty loud. It feels like over the past, I don't know, maybe it was the Fordet thing, something sparked the basketball community down there. The game ops they do a really good job. So how does the marriage center score with your model? As far as the home

Well it's good. Yeah, it's really good. You'd be surprised to note though, that you thought comes at number five. So wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait does that.

Just credit the model at all? Wait wait wait?

The University of Utah, who play their basketball at the Huntsman Center, have the fifth best home court advantage in the country.

Yes, so so a.

Lot of I neglected to mention another important factor in home court advantage. That is altitude, which obviously have around here. But but yeah, that's the way, that's the way it checks out. It's obviously not entirely due to fan support, you know, yeah, I'm not getting kind of sellouts up there right now.

But but it just.

Goes to show you that they might not truly have the fifth best home quarter of vantage spans. I'm not going to like die on that hill, but they do have above average home quarter advantage. And as we've seen this yere in Big Twelve play like you know, it's not a vintage Utah team, and yet at home, you know, they're six and two in the Big Twelve, like they played all the games at home, they be you know, buying for a league title, right, what.

About the spectrum Utah State, which which feels like, in my estimation, potentially the best home court advantage in the state.

But I do look, mine's anecdotal.

It's on feel, it's on the crowd, it's on the noise, right, I don't have any data to back up my take that the spectrum is as tough a place to play as I feel like maybe anywhere.

But what does your model say about Utah States on court?

It has them at number eight, So yeah, extremely respectable as well.

So according to the Ken Palm model, Utah has the best home court advantage Utah State two and BYU three, I mean they're essentially within the margin of ara of the model.

You know, they're essentially even, and they're all very good. Who's number one? Number one's West Virginia, Oh, Morgantown. Yeah, so you know, decent fans apart. Not an easy place to get to. That's the thing about home quar advantage too. You know, like Kansas checks in at sixteen. I think people would say, like, oh, Kansas has the best home court advantage, but they have a very good home court advantage, but they also a very good team, Like that's part

So Utah also played Kansas. They also played Kansas State. The Kansas Jayhawks rolled into the state of Utah and played two games where they never let right, that's wild, right, They didn't lead for a second against the Utes, and they didn't lead for Look, the BYU game was it was eight zero after ninety seconds and Bill self called the time out and Kansas never counter punched, right, And the Utah game was a little bit more back and forth.

Ken What are you saying, right, Yeah, for sure. I mean I think that was always the thing with the youth that we always talked about, is that they're you know, they're obviously not higher end Big twelve team, but they should be good enough to pick off some of these teams at home. And it was a little disappointing, you know, when Baylor came here and the game wasn't very close.

Is the conference down to what you expected?

I mean, I think at the start of the year you reference the SEC as one. The Big Twelve is too. It feels like the Big Twelve of this point might be three. Yeah, the Big Doves three in my ratings, just behind the Big Ten. But you know it's close. And we know you discussed how the SEC just absolutely.

Tore through a non conference play and.

Is establishing a different standard for how good a basketball conference can be. I think it's probably well, I don't know, but I think it could be a one year type of blip for them where they should come back down to earth. In fact, I'm kind of rolling around some ideas in my head about how the SEC is maybe even a little bit overrated based on the results this year.

But yeah, the Big Dolve's third.

But it's like, you know, they've been number one, you know, number one or number two like the last twelve years of my ratings, and mostly number one in that time. So yeah, it's a little bit of a step down from that standpoint, but it's still an extremely strong lead.

So I referenced by you, you know, feeling like they are high speed out of the tournaments and they're gonna be ranked in the top twenty five out imagine coming up next week. What about the postseason potential for the UTES because barring some crazy run in the Big twelve tournament, you know, I don't know that the nc Double A tournament is gonna be on you know, on the table

Yeah, I think the only thing they can do is win the rest of their games. Yeah, you know, that would that would probably be it. Yeah, They're gonna have to you know, prove themselves a little bit more on the road, so you know, they like the Cougars have a road game against Arizona on the docket and then obviously they got the return trip to Provo. If they if they won their last five games, they would definitely be in the conversation. The real issue is, like, you know,

Now, maybe they play a lot better.

You know, the stranger things have happened in college basketball, although not many stranger things, but that would be the scenario. But they're just so far off the map right now that yeah, they need to they I don't think they can afford any more losses.

Utah State nearly beat San Jose State by a cool half one hundred last night.

It was a bloodbath.

But they have lost to New Mexico twice now, so New Mexico has that lead over them in the conference. It's a one game lead at this point. So before we catch a break, let's wrap up the local story lines with where you're at right now on the Aggies, who are twenty three and four overall, and they're thirteen and three in Mountain West Conference play, which is good for second.

So give me your thoughts on Utah State. I mean, yeah, still still love where the Aggies are at. You know, they did had a really good performance down in Albuquerque.

You know, lost to New Mexico late, but.

You know, really, I think leading most of that game in the first thirty minutes and then you know, New Mexico just just finished them off.

But that's not a bad loss at all.

And you know, they got an interesting stretch coming up now where they host San Diego State this weekend. You know, they beat the Astags down there, so to get a sweep of San Diego State, another team that's getting tournament consideration.

That would be huge just to kind of cement their profile.

I mean, they probably the Eggs probably need to win two of these last four games to feel pretty good about getting into the tournament. Certainly winning three of the last four would do it. And so they had the two home games with the Astags and air Force, and you know, air Force hasn't won a game in conference play, so they should win that, and then the road games

And you know, again.

Another scenario where the Mountain West typically underperforms in the tournament. So I don't know what the future would hold for the Aggies in the tournament, but I do have their offense ranked at fourteenth, right, so we won't discuss their defense, but the offense certainly good enough to win some games.

All right.

Coming up on the other side, we'll kind of expand out of the state's footprint talk some big picture college hoops. We will get Ken's take on some of the prospects Jazz fans can watch down the stretch. To have a little bit of hope while the jazz continue to lose for you know, maybe at some point to consider when they could be good again. So Ken Palmeroys live in studio. I mean Al Hassen rolls by in the four o'clock hour. We'll do a little sports court later on, but it's

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You're gonna get to a you went to golf PGA Tour updates, don't miss the fifty percent bonus trade in event wow, bringing your current clubs to You went to golf and receive fifty percent bonus trade in value towards new twenty twenty five golf clubs. Are you still doing any golf stuff, Ken pump Uh, like physically playing golfer for a while, golf analyzing golf?

Right, Yeah, No, I haven't done that in a few years. Basketball has just consumed everything. But that was fun. It was fun going back and analyzing, like shottling data and stuff like that.

For these pros, that was a neat data set.

And you are a player to get out and swing a club from time to time.

I'm a player, Definitely, there you go. That's see. I like the confidence Ken.

Right now, it's the Mexico Open at Vedanta World Round one is in progress. Don't know how many the heavy hitters are in this tournament, but we'll give you a quick look at the leaderboard.

Our guy Harry Hall. You know where Harry Hall is from. He's from Northern Ireland.

Wow, what, I've never even heard of him. Well done, seven under par. Jeremy Paul is seven hunder par as well. I'm looking for notables. Not a lot of big dogs in this tournament yet.

Yeah.

Okay, well, well anyway, go head to you went to golf. I think I'm gonna get a new putter, not gonna get new clubs. I think I'm getting a new putter. Think I'm doing the tailor made spider, the Scottie Scheffler special.

It doesn't help. I'm just gonna worn you. I know, but you tricked yourself anto thinking it helps? What do you swing? Kind of clubs to swing? What do you got?

I think I got some Mazuno's, Mizuno irons and Callaway driver that's.

In a bag.

Miszouno irons are solid. That's a good set of golf clubs. I'm excited for the snow to melt so i can get out and swing head down to Arnie's tournament in Orlando coming up in a couple weeks, So excited for that.

Ken Palmeroy live in studio.

Enough golf talk, let's get back to some college basketball talk.

Actually, let's do a little let's do a.

Little prospect watch for Jazz fans that are gonna watch the final twenty eight games of the Jazz and we all know what time it is. It's no secret they're not even shy about it anymore. And so we're hoping that for the first time in Jazz history, we get a little lottery luck. Ken, the Jazz have been in a lottery nine times that have never moved up. My

Uh?

I don't know exactly how to describe that. I mean number two is Dylan Harper, who is very good as well. There is a difference there. I mean, I think Cooper Flies a clear number one, Dylan Harper is a clear number two. Uh, there may be more of a grating two and three than there is between one and two.

Let's put it that way.

So let's just have a little fun and say the Jazz are able to lock into the number one overall pick.

It's it's Cooper. Yeah, it's auto auto draft at that point. Okay, up on auto draft and go home, except the Jazz can't go home. They do have another first round pick, so I'll have to stick stick around. But uh, yeah, I mean it's uh, I mean, Cooper Flag is just phenomenal, right, Like he's averaging twenty points a game for one of the best teams in the country and he's barely eighteen years old, and uh, he's not. It's not a one

But that's a it's a little more of.

A empty nineteen points, you know, it's a little more of a selfish nineteen points, right he's bainlely super talented, and he's surely and probably gonna be awesome. But Cooper Flag is he just you know, he can handle the ball all he has great vision, he just has great feel for the game. And on top of that, he's a skilled scorer really from all three levels. So he does everything and he's still got you know, he still.

Has not entered the prime development years of his life, do you.

And I don't love comps. I never have because I think it puts a unfair idea in fans' minds and I think it sets players up to fail.

So I'm not a huge like, hey, he reminds me of this. He reminds me of that.

But for Jazz fans and aren't dialed into Duke basketball, is there an NBA player that you think he kind of plays?

Like?

Yeah, I'm actually with you on the comp thing, partly because of what you say, Like, I think it's kind of it's kind of a weird thing to compare somebody does somebody else?

Like could you imagine that in your own profession? Spence?

You know, like, right, you get compared to Steven A. Smith or something. I don't want that. Well anyway, yeah, so that's sort of the and but the second reason is that I actually am not very good at comps, right, That's fine. My encyclopedic knowledge of historical players is somewhat poor when it comes to like the fine I think the the the attributes that we're looking for here to make you know, a decent comp And we've seen people on TV, you know, Jalen Rose most notably perhaps in

Let's put it that way, all right, fair enough, fair enough. So, if you're a Jazz fan, be dialed in on Duke basketball. And speaking of Duke basketball, Ken, since you and I last spoke, Duke has elevated themselves to the number one team in your model. So what has happened over the past couple of weeks because Auburn I think is stayed clean. They beat Damma. I think last time we spoke, you had Auburn at one. Now Duke is a one, Auburn is at two. What exactly is flipped? Well, I mean

Uh, you know here in the last few weeks, whereas Duke really has not.

They did lose the Clumson on the road a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise they're they're doing to the ACC what Gonzaga has typically done.

To like the WCC.

And that's kind of the storyline here headed headed into the tournament, is like there's gonna be questions about Duke against quality competition. They do get a very extremely rare

So great, great showcase for that.

But but that's the story with Due, Like they've looked great, the competition has not been so great. The a SEC is historically bad this year. Uh, that may benefit Duke. I don't know, like the somethings that I feel like you played a week league like in Zaga, you know has proven over the years is consistently getting you know, barely deep into the tournament. I mean a number of sweet sixteens in a row. You don't have that, like physical wear and tear playing against these weaker teams. We'll

Does Houston have a peer in the Big twelve?

I mean, I have your model in front of me, I have your rankings in front of me, but I ask it because every time I watch Houston it just feels almost unfair. I Mean, we talked about the ute game where I'm watching it, Like, if you didn't know anything about these two teams, you turn on the game, you'd be like, why are they playing an exhibition game with one team that clearly has talent and size and strength that the other teams. It was like, Utah barely

Well, first, let me just say we need to give equal opportunity here. Houston also beat BUYU eighty six to fifty five, so let's I forget I mean a little bit earlier in the year.

Similar.

I truly feel like every time I watch them, I'm like, it's unfair. They're a lot better than their peers. I think they've won something like eleven straight road games and commerce play so wild. Yeah, so we're talking about how tough it doesn't to win on the road, but uh, they they do it somehow, And you are right, I mean that they've always the Houston team under Kevin Samson has always been characterized by maximum effort.

You know, five guys on the floor given one hundred percent.

They're not necessarily the mot skilled team, but you know they're gonna give a ton of effort, and they make up for a lot of their lack of skill offensively by getting a bunch of offensive rebounds. And that's true this year. They're still ninth in the country and offensive rebound percentage. The thing about this year's team is that they're fifth of the country at three point shooting. Like this is a team that you know, you watch their

Now.

It's really reminiscent of like the twenty nineteen Virginia team where you know, Virginia under Tony Bennett for years and years had a great defense and we're you know, disciplined and did all the things that coaches want you to do, and their offense was extremely ugly and then they suddenly put together a pretty talented offense and ended up winning a national title. And this is really the opportunity here for Kevin Samson to to kind of duplicate that because

Yeah, he plays eight guys more than fourteen minutes a night, and six of the eight shoot it from three and four of them, what excuse me, five of them shoot better than forty percent.

So that's wild.

An eight man rotation for Calvin Sampson, and I think Kevin plays eleven for BYU. Is is there a prefer like I can always remember pat Riley as the Knicks were approaching the playoffs in practice, he would yell, I want my eight.

Who are going to be my eight? Right? And so that's kind of the old school mentality.

When you're playing tournament basketball or playoff basketball, you trim your rotation because so much is at stake. In the NBA, there's a little bit of a different trend. Steve Kerr has been playing ten to eleven sometimes small guys a night, we've seen it from Will as well. Is there a new understanding of how many minutes you want each player playing? And is Kelvin's approach of kind of old school eight man rotation an outlier these days, which is just.

Date that might be a little bit short, but you're not seeing a lot of guys the college level playing ten or eleven. And I we should point out even Kevin Young, like the other night, Kennon Catchings really didn't get off the bench. So even though there may have been eleven guys in the box score, like you know, ultimately he decided to go with Tray Stewart for a lot of the minutes there, and Catchings the guy who was starting early in the season, you know, suddenly he

The rotations are are going to shrink.

So I would imagine, you know, if we see BYU in the tournament, you know they're gonna get They're gonna find their eight guys that they really like, and if there's foul trouble, they know they can go nine or ten. Deep, but for the most part, you want your best guys out there, and you know, Kellen SAMs doesn't have much of a choice as rotation drops off pretty pretty badly after after eight guys.

So that's why you see the minutes distribution for that team that you do.

Craig's rotation for the utes seems to really depend on the opponent. They're really there's not a ton of consistency. I do think he's settled on his five and Jake Wallen has played better than I thought he could. He had a double double against Kansas, he had twelve boards. But it really does depend on the night. And sometimes I watched Keano does and feel like he needs more minutes and could they use you know, myro Little's ball handling a little bit more. Is it really predicated on

It seems like it seems like there's a little you know, positional bias there as well, like they're a little more loaded in the wing category and so they can go a little deeper into into that well as opposed to the big category.

You know, he mentioned like lovering being kind.

Of left on the floor and in crucial moments to despite the fact that he's kind of a liability from the free throw line, and I think he's just like clearly the best option there for other reasons, and so Craig alects to kind of kind of go that direction.

But for the most part, there's some interchangeable parts.

There and so he can he can mix and match things as the game situation requires.

Tell me what you've seen from Mark Pope in his first year in Kentucky. I mean, obviously that is for our listeners that aren't totally familiar. If you think of the craziest fan base, well whatever sport that you're thinking of, Kentucky basketball fans are that for college hoops, Big Blue Nation, they are wild.

And the majority of the.

Reaction after Mark was hired was not positive because I think Mark was either their fourth or fifth choice. From what I read and obviously John Calipari. He did a great job of acquiring talents, not such a great job of winning consistently. He did win a national championship, of course, which you have to give him a lot of credit. And it hasn't been great for Calipari year one in Arkansas. But what about year one for Mark Pope in Kentucky. I would call it a success.

Yeah, as you mentioned, he did get hired a little bit late because they were looking at other candidates. There's a pretty high profile courting of Scott Drew in there, but ultimately settled on Mark and you know, it's worked out pretty well. I mean, I think there were some questions about the roster coming into the season. He didn't really get high profile transfers. I would say he got a bunch of good transfers and he's, you know, ultimately messed those guys together pretty well.

He's dealt with some injuries.

They've been out a couple of starters and Jackson Robinson and Lamont Butler in the past few games and still are are hanging on. They swept Tennessee this year. You know, they're just seven and six in conference. But it's also a brutal conference, and they're going to easily make the tournament and get a decent seed, and if they can get healthy, you know, they'll be a pretty dangerous team

So I'm a child of the Big East ken as you know, going to the biggest tournament's preseason Big East tournaments. It was the Ray Allen Allen Iverson battle back in the day with Georgetown and Yukon. I was there for Mello's preseason Big East Tournament when he's a freshman at Syracuse. So I got to ask you about the Johnnies. Our moral compass. Rick Patino has taken over that program, and say what you want about him, the guy can coach Kenny I mean Davon Smith, right, he's former uts. There

This year, Well, their defense has been extremely impressive, number two in the country, number six in the country in two point percentage defense. Really kind of a makeup, you know, similar to say Houston, where it's like not a not a sexy offense, but you know you're gonna get maximum effort out of these guys, and not necessarily big vertically,

They have four losses this year.

Okay, one by two points, one by one point, one by three points, and one in double overtime.

Wow, that's wild. They're pretty close to being undefeated. Guys like that's a yeah.

Rick Bettino certainly still say what do you want about the guy? Obviously a value higher for Saint John's one of the best coaches in the game.

All right, before I say you loose, I'm not gonna say this is a hot take because you have them highly ranked in your model. But Auburn the number two team in the country, number one team in the SEC.

How close?

Every time I've watched Florida this year, like you know, and maybe I'm not paid enough attention because my thought is, like they should be talked about more, Like every time I watch them, they look elite.

Are they a legit threat to Auburn and the SEC?

I think they're a legit threat to like they should have national championships type goals.

Let's get that way. They're not.

They're on the level of those top three teams. But they're the next team in line, which has been consistently really good this year. To go ten and three in conference play, again in the best conference and maybe the history of basketball is is pretty impressive. So they all, they got all that going for him. And again a team that, unlike those top three, kind of came out of nowhere. Mean those top three teams that I'm talking about, they were all top three in my preseason ratings.

Florida was twenty six in my preseason ratings.

I think they were like twenty in the AP But anyway, those team that people thought would be good but not great, and maybe people are waiting for them to, you know, come back down to earth, but there's really been no sign of that.

Three twenty five games.

All right, Ken, we are eight days away from March, which is wild and I can't wait because you know, basketball, golf, all the things I enjoy.

It's really awesome.

So for people that are about to fill out brackets, your family's going to send you an email, Your work's going to send you an email. I utilize your stuff every time I sit down to do mine. Let's be clear, there's no perfect model. If there was, Ken would be a billionaire. What about an island by now? But how can people go get your work?

They can just go to Kenpalm dot com and sign up for one year of a subscription. You get access to a whole bunch of great data on the team and player level, and it's good for twelve months, so it's not just for the end of the tournament, but you'll be able to use it well into next season.

All right, Ken, Good stuff man, good to see? All right? All right?

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Our next guest front of the show.

But it's been a while, it's been too long, A mean, Al Hassen back on the drive on a Thursday, I mean, happy Thursday, sir.

How you been doing well?

Doing well?

Can complaint.

There you go, appreciate the time.

So let's get your reaction to the news of the day today, Victor wiman Yama will miss the rest of the season with a blood clot. Blood clot in his shoulder. Now, my first my first thought, I mean, was Chris Bosh. I hate to say it, but it just was. Now, this is in his shoulder, not his lower leg. We've seen Aman Thompson deal with this, brandon Ingram deal with this, and a lot of Spurs fans probably be pretty nervous about the news.

What's your reaction.

Yeah, I was taping my show Oddball with Izzy Gutierrez when the news broke, and he was the one that had to kind of remind me of brandon Ingram and and Thompson because originally my first thought was Chris Bosh. And then a good friend of mine, John Shoemate, who passed away not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago. Actually, he was a top five pick in the draft. He a storage career at Notre Dame, but his career was first like interrupted several times in the clotting, and then

So, based off of what I was reading, this is an instant shut it down entirely for six month situation, based off of the medication that you have to take right away. Because a blood cloud is not a sprained ankle. You have to take action immediately to make sure that you're taking care of just as a person less loan a basketball player, what do you think this process is going to be like, Because if it's a six month shutdown, he's going to be knocking on the door just to

Well, frustrating. It's got to be frustrated for sure, because one of the things that you really enjoy doing, you're not going to be able to do.

Yep.

You know. The conversation that is he and I had was, you know, these kind of live events kind of take one or two paths on people impacts on people. One is the this is another challenge, and I'm going to teach this challenge and I'll come back better than ever and kind of you know, this almost determination that comes

What do you think?

And I'm chuckling because I'm just picturing. Look, San Antonio twenty three wins and the Jazz have thirteen. The Pelicans have thirteen. So there's still a major gap between where the Spurs are now and some of the worst teams in the league Washington with nine wins.

But what do you think the Spurs do now?

Do you think they completely just like shut it down and try to get another top lottery pick in a draft that's absolutely packed, Like, what's the rest of the year look like for the San Antonio Spurs?

Oh, Spencer, are you asking me if the Spurs are going to play Capture the Flag?

Yes? Are you exactly what I'm asking you?

And the San Antonio Spurs the team that went to the Western Conference Finals in nineteen ninety five and had the MVP of the league and the next year won fifty five fifty six games, and then the year after that had an unfortunate injuries in a franchise player just happened to be the same year that this can't miss that to wake for us, it's coming out. And then they got them, and then and all of a sudden they were good again with the best player generationally, probably

If you want my third eye to be open, I'll ask you if this is really a blood clot, bro I can go as deep as you want.

Nah, I'm sure the Spurs, though, you know, moved fine. They would never they would never step something up.

Oh goodness, gracious, you know it's us. It's cruel because I feel like the Jazz should have done what they're doing now a few years ago when this kid was available, you know, But instead the Jazz decided to be fine being average for a couple of years, and they had some late lottery picks and these kids just really haven't

It is.

It is remarkable, right, that every time there's a generational talent youse, guys just happen to have like the the on ramp to being terrible, terrible at the right time, and not terrible for too long. Right, you don't have to deal with a whole lot of terrible in pan Antonio. They're just gonna be terrible for this small window, and it seems to work out for them.

It sure does. It sure does.

So whether it's intelligence, timing, or luck or accommodation of all three, you gotta give them a lot of credit. But let's have a little fun now with the Utah Jazz, and let's say, for the first time in jazz history, the Jazz actually get lottery luck. The Jazz have been in a lottery nine times and they've never moved up.

I'll just leave it there.

Uh, then we're kind of onto something, aren't we Like if this this entire process leads to that maybe this fan base has something to latch onto.

Yeah, I just want to point out how staggered I am. He said, the Jazz have been to the lottery nine times in their in their franchise history.

Yeah, and I've never moved up.

I mean like, okay, never moved up. Feels like, oh wow, that's that's kind of tough. But so only been there nine times? Yeah, yep, pretty remarkable. I mean it's and by the way, three of them, so thirty three percent of them, we're in that right now. That's that's very, very, very remarkable. No, you know, obviously, you know, Cooper Flag is a kind of talent where you could thirty teams

Well, look, I think the answer to the job security security question is Danny has tremendous job security. I mean, Ryan has been front facing about how much of a fan he always was of Danny, because Ryan's a big BYU fan, and then obviously Danny goes on to do great things in pro basketball. This was born out of a fan relationship between the owner and the executive far

Work on the ground. But here's here's the question.

Based off of the dynamic, Ryan fancies himself as a basketball guy. He's in the meetings, he has input, and I can tell you that both Dennis Lindsay and Quinn Snyder had just one meeting with ownership. It was like, nope, I'm good in your history around the league, meddaling owner to think they're basketball people.

How does that typically work out?

Well, it's funny that you mentioned that the relationship with between Danny and Ryan was born out of a fandom, because to answer your question, that's some think of another owner GM combo that was born out of a fandom

I am.

I am. I'm cool, right, And as we all know from high school, the guy who announces he's cool not really cool. Right. The cool guy doesn't have to announce he's cool, he just is. And typically these owners who think they know what they're talking about are not. They don't know what they're talking about. I'll give you another example, A current example is Matt hb in Phoenix, who I

One more jazz thing, because you're good at this and you can make it interesting. There's not a lot of things topically with this roster that I really care to ask you about, because we all know the deal, we all know what they're doing. But this is a fan base, as we outlined with nine lottery appearances, it indicates that

We could keep going.

It is a fan base that's used to winning and is championship thirsty. What's a reasonable expectation during this process where it is askedet accumulation, You hope a young player two pops, then you hope you get lottery luck. I mean, that's as reductive as I can be about what they're trying to do. What's in that reason expectation to this fan base is to win. Winning basketball might be back in Salt Lake City.

Well, I think then we have to define what winning is. Is winning winning a championship? I don't know, maybe never I that's something that everyone has to come to grips with, every fan in the league except for the Lakers, So how do they keep doing it? But everyone else you have to come to grips with. If your thing is my destination championship, you gotta be ready that you may never see that destination. So what do you want to

So well, I want to move over here.

Have we had Tom Haerstrawn and Zach Harper on this week and so we've talked to friends of yours, coworkers of yours about All Star Weekend, And I think I'm just now resigned.

Look, for thirty years or forty years.

It was the best pickup basketball game in the world, and it was awesome, and it wasn't every year, and they didn't play hard one through forty eight.

I understand that.

And the reason why I still bemoan what it's become is I miss that what it once was. Is there any going back or at this point is it just going to be an undigestible weekend regardless of everybody yelling about how bad it is.

There is a going back. Unfortunately, the guy who is going to do that for us is out for the rest of the year with a blood clout. Hopefully he's fine next year, but it starts in the locker room.

Yeah, yeah, well said all right, buddy, before I say you lose. I have not been able to catch up with you since Luke Tancic was traded to the Lakers, and look, man, I like everybody else, the alert popped on my phone and I said, no, not real, no chance. Like everybody else, I texted everybody that I know in the league to try to make sense of this and we can't. I guess we can be as reductive as that. Nico just didn't like Luca and like Zad, I guess

Yeah? I saw a DM at All Star weekend and the first thing he asked me was what do you think happened? Because he couldn't figure it out. We're all kind of in the dark, search and trying to make sense of nonsense. If we're going to be perfectly honest here, I don't know. I think the stuff that has come out recently clarify some of it, is that some of it is Nico. Nico basically grew up in the NBA

Why Man?

I still I still whatever. I actually kind of marinate on it. I'm like, I still can't believe you do this with a twenty five year old global superstar, not just transcending talent, global superstar. But we'll see how it plays out. Man, Hey, it's been too long. It's great to hear your voice. I'll set you loose, have a great weekend.

Okay, thanks a last night, all right, Amino?

Hassen spent a number of years in NBA front offices with the Knicks and the Sons, and he's been on the media side of things for about fifteen years now. Busy Guy one of those guys that has like seven different podcasts at darth Amine is where you find him on social He is a Star Wars fan.

Hey everyone, this is junior to fun. I'll call friends. Defensive tackle for the University of Utah football team and football. My teammates and I work as a team. Very successful when everyone does his part and the team comes first. If you get injured in an accident, you need a legal team that works together with you and puts you first. The lawyers a handy in handy, have an experience, a dedicated team of experts helping people who have been injured

Handy and handy, big firm experience, small firm. Attention all riz, It's time to check in with Preston, Handy and Garrett Handy of Handy and handy for sports court.

Handy and Handy are your accident and personal injury attorneys. Ready to assist with any related questions. You may have visit them online at Handy Law Utah dot com. Big firm Experience, small firm attention. Now let's get out to Sports Court on the Drive with Spence. Check its on Utah's number one sports talk ESPN seven hundred.

It is Sportsport Time.

We do it every Thursday right about now with our good friends over at Handy and Handy Note Garrett. Today it's just our guy Preston on a Thursday afternoon. Preston, Happy Thursday, sir, how are you.

Hey, Spence? Happy Thursday? How are you?

I'm well.

I appreciate the time today. So we'll start out with a situation where Donald Trump's transgender athlete band is now facing a f DROL lawsuit. Looks like two teenage girls from New Hampshire are legally challenging the executive orders.

Preston, so fill us in here.

Yeah, so we know, we know that a few weeks ago there was an executive order signed by President Trump entitled keeping Men out of Women's Sports. And this is no new issue. This is something we've talked about a number of time on Sports Court, and as a result of these issues, states have enacted a lot of laws, including the state of Utah, and a lot of these laws essentially there's indicating that transgender women should not be

All right, Moving over now to Ball versus White Sox. The former trainer from the White Sox has it looks like this discrimination lawsuit has been restored now from what I'm reading, Preston, what do we have here?

Yeah, so this is a t that he was kind of there's some downsizing going on with the White Sox organization, and it looked like he was going to be let go and he was claiming some age discrimination and things like that, and so the White Sox they came to him and said, hey, you know, we'll essentially pay you and buy you out. They so they entered into an agreement, and the agreement basically said that he would be paid some of the terms that he would be paid for

Moving over now, this is interesting Georgia, Alabamail their NIL bills could face legal challenges because a couple of bills in those states to exempt college athletes and IL income from state taxes. Now they're facing a little bit of pushback here, but this is something that I think could add ramifications following this far reaching beyond these states of Georgia and Alabama. If this stuff is kind of pushed through. So what's the latest here, give us an update.

Yeah, so there's no legal challenge to it yet, but they're pushing these bills, and essentially these bills, they would exempt college athletes from paying state taxes for income they earn from NIL money. And looking deep into it, the states of Florida, Texas, Tennessee and other states they don't

Moving over to a story out of the world of pro football, the Arizona Cardinals have won a lawsuit that was brought by their former VP, Terry McDonough.

So this was just ruled upon, I believe today fill us in.

Yeah, So, Terry McDonough was a high official VP of player personnel with the Cardinals and he got into a little bit of a mess with some of the uppers and he, you know, and about some burner phones and things like that, and you know, it looked like he was going to get let go, and so he made claims that he was being let go because of age discrimination and breach of contract and things like that. And the Cardinals, and I don't think they dispute this. They

All right, final one for today, And you know, I hate to dispense any advice to burglars who potentially could be listening to the show today, but maybe don't post pictures of the things that you stole from the house that you stole them from Joe Burrow's. Last week, picture surfaced of the guy who stole the merchandise from Joe Burrow's house.

He posted pictures of himself.

Online wearing Burrows like Jersey and his chain. I believe his die in Shane and now the burglars in the case of both Travis Kelcey and Patrick Mahomes situations have done the same thing. And obviously the Feds are on the case. What can you tell us about this. It looks like it's becoming a trend, and not a very smart one.

No, I think it is a trend, and I think what's interesting, as you mentioned Joe Burrow, we talked about last week, and this week it comes out this happened in October. But both Mahomes and Kelsey their homes were broken into in October. And what is happening is this Chilean ring of burglars. They are identifying when these athletes are going to be out of their homes. They know that they're going to be on the road in a game, and in both these cases, Mahomes and Kelsey were out.

Absolute morons, you know, my goodness, gracious all right, I prest him before I set you loose on this Thursday. For any of our listeners have any legal questions, how can they get ahold of you over at Handy and Handy.

Yes, Spence, we love coming on here with you and talking about these interesting legal issues in the world of sports, even numbskulls who are posting things on social media. But we'd love to hear from anyone out there and help you with your legal issues, especially if you have a personal injury case. Give us a callity zero one two sixty four six six seven seven or jump on our website at Handy Law Utah dot com.

Preston, thank you, my friend. Have a great weekend. It has always go us.

Thanks past all.

Right's Preston Handy for the law firm of Handy and Handy. What is going through these idiots, numb skull dull brain like the one thing you just didn't need to do and you would have.

Been able to get away with it.

Is not post pictures of yourself online wearing Joe Burrow's chain or wearing Patrick mahomes jersey in his watch like this is look. I mean, let's start at the beginning. Rule number one, don't do that. Rule number one, don't steal from other people, and don't burglarize homes. So let's just start there, and there's a period at the end

It doesn't seem like quite the uh, the smartest strategy, right. I think the picture one of them posted had Joe Burrow's jersey and it had like the authentic official NFL game warn thing on it. Some of it was jewelry that was like custom jewelry. Right, you're not gonna find it in a store somewhere. It's made for a specific person. You're not gonna be able to hide it.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your free time. But if you do decide to dabble in b an e. Yeah, maybe don't take pictures.

The official stance of the show is to strongly encourage people to not do this. Okay, that's the official stance of the show. Sorry, But ultimately, as he said, if you are going to dabble in this potential new hobby, maybe don't do that. It kind of reminds me it's

Dude, It's not that hard, wasn't it? His dad? His jealous dad is that wasn't that? The story really I think so. I honestly don't remember who posted it.

I just was laughing because he's like, it's not me, because the first video was only a dude in a gas mask smoking a bong and tonsil and his raps.

You're like, it's not him, it's not me.

Yeah, I do, I do remember that, but I think it came out later that. The way it got out was someone in his family that was like not stoked that he was successful.

I don't know.

I just know the next day the video came out of him removing the gas mask and it's like, that's you, dude, And at that point he's like, yeah, I guess it's me.

And he still got drafted and he's still awesome at football.

But you know, all right, snowy and cold Chilli Thursday afternoon slash evening, five o'clock hour of the program gets wrong right about now.

Don't forget. We are one hour away from.

The Four Nations Face Off Championship live in Boston, and we're also one hour away from the Craig Smith Coaches Show, So keep in mind. We will join the Four Nations Face Off Championship in progress here on the station coming up at about seven o'clock, but it will get going at six o'clock right after we say good night. But Craig Smith, Bill Riley the Coaches show for you, so stay tuned for that five o'clock hour of the program. Tonight is brought to you by our good friends at

I don't know that.

I'm not reporting it because the Spurs are very confident that this is an isolated thing and that's something that could cause long term issues. But we'll have to see Victor women Yama out for the rest of the year. Has been shut down San Antonio right now twenty three and twenty nine, so they're technically still in the mix.

With their win. With the US win.

Over Canada on Saturday of last week on the fifteenth, they ended a bunch of notable Canadian hockey win streaks. They had won twenty six straight hockey games with Sidney Crosby in the lineup, they had won thirteen straight games. When it comes to playing against other NHL players, they had won seventeen straight best on best games.

And that's what tonight is.

So we'll see how it goes down. Both Construck brothers are going to play. Both of these teams have excellent goalies. Both of these teams have big time motivation as far as you know, wanting to get this done now. Saturday's game was in Montreal. Montreal, of course, has a one hundred year, one hundred plus year hockey history Boston, where the matchup will be tonight, is a excellent domestic hockey city, and by all accounts, this is one of the toughest

There's not a ton going on tonight.

There's a little bit of NBA action, there's some college basketball as well, Jazz and action tomorrow. No real local teams in college basketball action tonight. I would imagine this is going to pull a big number, maybe even close

It's a little soccer that way.

But these guys tonight showing up and playing with passion, playing hard and playing for as cliche as it sounds, what's on the front of the chest, not the name on the back of the sweater, right, playing for your country, playing for the flat, playing for pride, and not wanting to lose to those dudes. I do not anticipate that we will see a bunch of fights right out of the gates. I don't think that's going to be the case.

They need to be involved.

And that's why most hockey teams have enforcers that aren't.

Very good at hockey.

Quite frankly, if I could be a little harsh, like Spicy Tuna, our guy Lim O'Brien was, he a fourth string forward and he's brought on basically to throw hands because you don't want Dylan Gunther or Clayton Keller sitting in the penalty box. But you're okay if our guys, Spicy Tune is chilling over there for a few minutes. So Conter Hellibuck is the goalie or the Team USA, and right now he might be the best goalie in

It's pretty rare.

Then on you know the ESPN shows like Get Up, First, Take whatever it is that they delve into hockey storylines unless there's absolutely nothing else going on. It was like in the A block for Sports Center, like the B block for some of the big time ESPN you know, you know products the shows they run throughout the course of the morning to get you ready for the world in sports and talk about things topically, and everybody was talking about the four nations faceoff. So the championship game

Real quick.

I found this interesting and we brought it up a little bit earlier because, of course, the college football landscape in this market is something where people are always in a tested in college football storylines. Well, Texas and USC have joined Nebraska in canceling their spring games. So Steve Sarkisian, who just signed a new deal by the way, indicated that this is a time that he is now going

Look, I get it.

I'm not pushing back on it, and certainly if your coach, wait, if you're the University of Utah, the past couple of years have led to a lot of PTSD when it comes to the health of your roster. So if you want to take a break from the spring game as a result of wanting your players to be right for the season, I'm not sure anybody would have a big

Of college football.

The final segment of the show for this Thursday, you'll hear from Bill Riley Craig Smith talk a little Utah men's basketball. It's been a positive stretch for the Utes. They've played well, a couple of wins over the Kansas teams. Still blows my mind that Kansas, the Kansas Jayhawks rolled into the state of Utah and took two wells and never let didn't lead the Utes for a minute, didn't lead the Utes for a second, nor did they lead

This year.

They have an elite national championship contender in the Houston Cougars and then maybe a secondary threat in Arizona, Iowa State, Texas Tech, two solid teams. Ken Pom likes them at Ken Pom and Studio so UT's back in action. We'll hear what Craig Smith has to say about his team coming up with the Craig Smith Coaches Show, and then just a reminder following that we will join the Four Nations face Off final in progress between Canada and the

I don't know. We'll have to see.

I mean, san Antonio not that far out of the lottery when it comes to the top end of the lottery, because so could they get another bit of lottery luck and at a good piece next to Victor Weman Yama? All right, porter, before we say goodnight, am I reading that Zach Martin is retiring from the NFL?

Oh?

Wow?

You know what.

I don't blame them, no, like you might as well. But hell of a player. I mean one of the best offensive linemen of all time.

I mean you spend a decade in the league. I know that's not like seen as a super long career based on some of the things that we see athletes doing around the world. But playing nine years as one of the top offensive linemen in in the league, and playing nine years where you don't miss a lot of snaps,

I think, well, in offensive linemen don't play longer than a decade more often than not. And Zach Martin nine time Pro Bowl selection in eleven years.

Wow.

The only Bob Lilly, Larry Allen, and Jason Witten have more Pro Bowl selections in the history of the Dallas Cowboys.

So pretty impressive there, All.

Right, Porter, before we get out of here, it is time now for the Craig Smith Coaches Show, then the Four Nations Championship match up between Canada and the US. What comes our way on a Friday edition of the radio show.

On a Friday edition of The Drive, we'll cover all of our bases, starting it off with a little RSL, some preseason stuff, some Conker Calf chat with Kurt Schmid of Real Salt Lake. Howard Beck stops by of the Ringer for the NBA Daily Assist. We'll talk some running utes with Sean Mooney, some PGA tour with Paul Pugmeyer, and then working on a hopefully a Utah Hockey club player or front office member. Is is the plan to

I've got US four Canada three? Whoa are I scoring? What do you got?

I've got uh No, I haven't even thought about it.

We'll just throw something nobody knows. Just throw something out there.

I'm going three to one USA.

See you just did copious amounts of research. Three one US. I'll take four to three US. Let's do it, all right, Craig Smith coach the show coming up next special thank you today, Andy Larson, Ken Pomeroy and aminol Hassen. For any of the sound that you potentially may miss from the show today, you can go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com, download our mobile app and take us on the go. That ESPN seven hundred app is available in the App Store and the Google