What is going on.
Let's get a drive time Tuesday afternoon, fourteen minutes past the hour, two o'clock. Beautiful, beautiful spring light conditions outside about sixty eight degrees, little cloudy here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. But as it is every single day, it's going to have you along for the ride. Spence Check, it's behind the mic. That's Porter Larson beyond the glass today producing the program on this beautiful, beautiful Tuesday afternoon.
The world of college basketball crowded national champ last night.
We'll get into the game today.
The Houston Cougar's just fumbled the bag, as the kids would say. And the Florida, the Florida Gators are your national champ. Sixty five sixty three. He was point scored in a national championship game since twenty fourteen, and Florida comes back once again from a twelve point deficit against one of the best of not the best defensive teams
in all of college basketball. Todd Golden, at the age of thirty nine, is the youngest coach to win a national championship since Jim Valvano wanted a thirty seven in nineteen eighty three. Of of course, big t thorough Bailey, NC State Wolfpack and unbelievable ride back in the day. But shout out to Florida out of the SEC. They get it done over a Houston team. Who if you were a fan of Big twelve hoops, you watched Houston snatch the souls of teams all year long, including Utah
and including BYU. So we'll get to the college basketball storylines. And speaking of BYU and speaking of Utah, we have news for both of those teams. Players entering the NBA Draft, players entering the college Basketball Transfer Portal. We'll get that to you throughout the course of the show. Today. Utah Jazz are off tonight. They've got only a handful of games left. They're going to be welcoming to the Portland Trail Blazers coming up tomorrow. And then it's okay see
coming up on Friday. Final opportunity to get to a Jazz game before we get to the offseason. NBA basketball this year is just while the business of pro basketball this year is just bizarre, as Michael Malone, after ten years in charge of the Denver Nuggets, has been fired five days left in the NBA season. As far as the calendar goes to determine playoff seeding, and Denver's right in the mix.
Now.
They've lost four straight games, are eleven and thirteen since the All Star break. But once upon a time in pro basketball, if you're a generational superstar in your twenties, you were not traded, and then Dallas trades Lukadancic. If you're a really good young head coach with a rising team, chances are your job was safe.
And then Memphis moves on from Taylor Jenkins.
And if you're a head coach that brought a city a championship that hasn't seen a championship in nearly fifty years and you're the most successful head coach in the history of an organization, typically you keep your job. And Michael Malone is out of a job. Denver right now is the four seed. They do have a tough schedule to close out the year. But news that has just shaken the landscape or pro basketball. Michael Malone out as the head coach of the Denver Nugget. So we'll get
to the latest and we'll talk a little. Utah Hockey Club as well as the Seattle Kraken are in town. Tonight to take on the Utah Hockey Club. Handfull of games left. The playoffs won't happen around here this year, but potentially moving forward as the foundation has been set RSL. As as the current situation stands, we are about two and a half weeks away from the primary transfer window closing.
RSL got a result last weekend over the La Galaxy with a couple of goals from Diego Luna, So Kurt Schmid's going to stop by today we'll get all the latest with the Reale salt Lake stuff prior to this window closing. Will RSL make an addition They're going to take on Nashville coming up on Saturday. That's a six and thirty Mountain time start. Plenty of soccer left, but talent needed. If Raale sal Lake is going to make
anything of this year. We are, i believe, fifteen days away fifteen sixteen days away now from the NFL Draft to some draft stuff. Of course on the program today, all the latest with the offseason news in the NFL and of course spring football up on the hill for the University of Utah down south for BYU as well, So a lot of storylines the salt Lake Bees open up their brand new ballpark.
We have Tony Parks and Studio yesterday.
Go to SLBs dot com The homestand starts tonight and goes over the next handful of days with an excuse.
Me with a number of different giveaways.
So if you're looking for something to do, is the weathers and I set out and support the Bees and their new digs out South. So a lot to do on this Tuesday edition of the program. It's great to have you with us. We'll start things off today with Tony Jones from the Athletic Tony stops by. He covers well right now, he's covering the Denver Nuggets. When the Jazz are a serious team. He covers the Utah Jazz. We'll do a little NBA Draft with Tony as well
some NCAA tournament. Get his thoughts on the latest news surrounding BYU and Utah basketball players leaving for the draft and players entering the transfer portal.
Good day to have Tim McMahon on the program. Covers the NBA for.
ESPN, Ken Palm Ken Pomeroy will put a little bow on the college basketball season. Get Ken's takeaways from Florida winning their third national championship since the year two thousand. That's second in all of college basketball only to the
Yukon Huskies. And then the aforementioned Kerk Schmidt stops by for the latest on the RSL roster construction project and hopefully we'll get an update from Kurt on maybe players on the way, So Tony Jones, Tim McMahon, Ken Pomeroy, Kurt Schmidt, the Spence checkets all of you, the great listeners, and that young man Porter Larson on a Tuesday afternoon. NBA is bizarre this year, dude, Like that really bizarre.
The last piece of news I thought that I would get today is that Michael Malone, after ten very successful years and the only coach the Nakola Jokicic has ever had, has been relieved with duties five days before the playoff seating is set.
It is beyond bizarre.
The timing is is maybe the craziest part, you know. And we've heard rumblings, we've heard things here and there about some some drama with you know, behind the scenes stuff in Denver, but man uh to to part ways with your head coach, a head coach who won an
NBA championship less than two years ago. Man, that is uh, that is a drastic move to make with five games remaining in the season, And I just wonder what we don't know yet, because that's that's kind of the story there is that there's clearly tension behind the scenes with the with the Nuggets. But who is that between is it? Is it Nicola? Is it?
You know?
It?
Is it front office stuff? Obviously we know that the GM is going to be parting ways as well, so a lot going on in Denver. I'm much like the Luca Dodges situation, eager to hear more because I clearly can see that there is more u to this story.
There has to be, because the entire thing is catching everybody off guard. But Tony Jones covers the Nuggets for the athleteck and timmcmahon is dialed in as well, So we'll bring them in to get a little knowledge as far as what's going on, and we'll talk about the final handful of games in the world of pro basketball. But before we do all that, on a Tuesday afternoon, courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks, it is Todd now for your opening tip.
Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's number one Sports Talk Now into the studios of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the drive is brought to you by Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run your game with Prize Picks.
Interesting listening to the reaction from folks kind of break down March Madness and the NCAA tournament that is now behind us, I thought it was fun. I'm on record and I've said this for years. It is potentially my favorite individual sporting event that we have on the sporting
calendar every year. With the exception of a World Cup cycle or an Olympic cycle, or if the Jazz are in the finals or something like that, March Madness consistent brings it consistently is entertaining, consistently brings a ton of attention, and it is the main reason that basketball remains a revenue generator. Not on the level of football, which is on its own level, but basketball brings in money because
of the tournament that now just ended. So the Florida Gators win the national championship last night, sixty five to sixty three over the Houston Cougars out of the Big Twelve. Now, as I referenced in the intro, I watched the Houston Cougars snatch souls from teams this year, all year long, including our local teams. Utah went down to Houston earlier in the season and they lost seventy to thirty six,
and it wasn't even that close. At one point you tied eight turnovers and three baskets BYU, who was a really good team this year, a Sweet sixteen team, one of the top shelf teams in the Big Twelve, didn't even look like they belonged on the same floor in their two opportunities to play Houston eighty six fifty five down in Houston, then the Big Twelve tournament seventy four to fifty four. Like Houston all year long, just suffocated
teams defensively. They had a veteran roster, Guys that have been transfers on a number of different occasions, Guys that have been together on a number of different occasions. Guys that have played in final four games in Big NCAA tournament games.
LJ.
Cryer leaves as a senior, as a prolific scorer. Juan Roberts leaves as a senior with an incredible career behind him, and they're going to lose a lot, but they have one of, if not the best transfer classes coming into college basketball next year.
We'll get to that.
There's already preseason top twenty fives out and I saw one today where Houston's at the top.
So Kelvin Samson's not done here.
At the age of sixty nine, Kelvin Sampson would have become the oldest said coach to win a national championship, but it was not to be because Todd Golden, this young coach who was at San Francisco not too long ago and quite honestly looks like the team manager, found a way to get this Florida team to fight and come back all year long. As I referenced to Porter prior to filling out my bracket, I should have trusted my gut because every time I watched Florida this year,
they looked amazing. They had a game against Tennessee when Tennessee was the number one team in the country, where they beat them by thirty. Okay, we could continue to tell they beat Auburn, who was the number one team overall one point. They smoked a and m they ran away from Bama, they killed Missouri, they beat Bama one oh four to eighty two in the SEC Tournament, and so Florida all year long was one of the best
teams in college basketball. But when they went down twelve to Houston last night, I almost turned on the White Lotus Finale just to watch something else, even though I've already seen it, because no part of me believed that any team was going to be able to come back from twelve points down in the second half against a team that has the physicality, the defensive pressure, and quite honestly, the experience with these upper classmen like the University of Hou.
I thought they were just gonna suffocate them and it was not gonna be close. Walter Clayton Junior, a Final four most Valuable Player, did not have a point until fourteen to thirty seven left in the game. He hit his first three point shot with three minutes left in the game. Like, if you're Kelvin Sampson, that game fit the script that you were praying that it would for you to win your first national championship and then become a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's still gonna be
a Hall of Fame coach. But it's just different when you're a champ, when you're a national champ. As I referenced in the open, Todd Golden becomes the youngest head coach to win a national championship in college basketball since nineteen eighty three when Jim Valvana was thirty seven years old, bringing that NC wolf Pack team to the national championship led by one thorough Bailey.
I got a big t and Florida's gonna lose a lot.
That's a different team as Elijah Martin is gone, Walter Clayton Junior.
Is gone, Will Rashard is gone.
They've got a lot of players that were basically their best players this year that will leave. But Houston, this is one of those games. And I talked about with Sean during crosstalk. Emmanuel Sharp is a really good college basketball player. I don't know what his pro prospects are, maybe an overseas guy that can cut a paycheck. And he did an excellent defensive job on Walter Clayton Junior for about thirty minutes or so. They are not in
this game without em Manuel Sharp. But those back to back turnovers to finish the game and the final possession when you don't even get it on the rim. That's the type of stuff that stays with you your entire life. When the stage is that big and you're playing for a national championship and you have.
It in the bag, that game was done.
Houston went their final four possessions without a shot, four turnovers, den the game. I mean there are losses and then there are those types of losses that never fully leave you. And they just could not run anything down the stretch. I thought the length of Florida really got to them. They went away from Juan Roberts in the post after he had a little bit of success. I don't know
how LJ. Cryer does not have the ball in his hands to finish off the game over the final few possessions, and it looked like the final possession that ended in Emmanuel Sharp having a jump shot contested by Clayton and then he had to drop the ball if he was a little bit more patient. They were running a misdirection than a ball screen to get the ball to LJ. Cryer on the right wing because he's their best shot maker. He had nineteen last night. But ultimately Florida gets it done.
They are your national champ and March Madness comes to a close. All right, we'll do some more college basketball because there's some news about the University of Utah, and there's some news about BYU that we'll get to. Some players leaving for the drafts, some players entering the transfer portal. I referenced the way too Early Top twenty five that Jeff Borzello released today. We'll get to that because Houston
is at the top. BYU is in the top twenty five, but not near as high as I thought they'd be. So we'll get to some of that coming up on the show. But before we catch a break, do want to tell you a boy. My friends at Prize Pick, springtime is here and baseball season is officially underway. Don't miss your chance to add your favorite players from the diamond and your.
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dollars lineup. The Denver Nuggets have fired Michael Malone after ten years on the sidelines and bringing Denver their first championship in nearly half a century. Our next guest might have some insight on this. Tony Jones Happy Tuesday, sir, How are.
You uh wow right? Like Happy Tuesday? Thanks for having me on. That was a great walk up song. Just just a lot going on.
A lot going on, Tony.
And I'm old enough to remember when you were good at your job in the NBA, you got to keep it and when you were a twenty five generational player, you wouldn't be traded. Luka Doncic is a Laker, Taylor Jenkins is looking for employment, and Michael Malone after a decade of high level coaching and a guy who I
like and respect a lot. I mean, his dad, Brendan Malone, was an assistant for Jeff and Gundhy in New York and so we got to know the family, and of course Michael was back with the Knicks for a little bit as well. Help us understand this, Tony, like, why, how did this go down? And what what's your take on the way they went about their business.
So I'm going to probably go against the grain a little bit, but I'm not surprised that this happened at all. I am surprised about the timing. I think the timing is is definitely the most shocking part of it. But I talked to a store yesterday for about an hour, and when I got off the phone with that source, I called Sam Amick, you know, my good friend, and Kylie got the athletic and the first thing I said when he picked up the phone was you had the Nuggets.
They want to fire Michael Malone. And I'm surprised that they did it twenty four hours later, you know, But I'm not surprised that at the firing at all. Things where things have been kind of coming to a head for a while. This has kind of been brewing, and you know, and I think I'm surprised at the timing, and I'm surprised that everybody went. But this was the
very definition of a power struggle. And Josh Cronky, the Nuggets owners, just apparently said, both of you guys can lead the building at this point, and that's what happened.
And for our listeners, when Tony says, both of you guys, Calvin Booth is the general manager, and he was also informed that his contract will not be renewed. So they are getting rid of their head coach, Michael Malone and their general manager Calvin Booth. Now I can understand getting rid of Calvin Booth. Like I have said, and I believe this to be true, that Denver has failed Nikola Jokicy. The Kronkeys are not an ownership group that wants to spend the way that Joe lacub does or some of
the other owners like a Steve Balmer. They do not want to be a luxury, tax paying team. They have, in my opinion, the best player in this generation and a player that when he's done, will be among the best players ever to play. But I didn't view this as a coaching issue. I know they've lost four straight, but to me, Jamal Murray's hamstring is a bigger issue
than Michael Malone's coaching. Jamal hasn't played in five games, and if you take okayc off the table, Denver's right there with everybody else and maybe a team that could challenge Oklahoma City because we've seen them do it before. So your point about the power struggle between Calvin Booth and Michael Malone well taken. But they're both gone. Why not just get rid of Calvin Booth and keep Michael Malone around?
Like?
Can you is this a locker room issue? Is it a player issue? Like what exactly led them to doing this to their head coach?
I understand the GM. I don't get the coaching thing.
Well, because Michael Malone lost the locker room. And when I say he lost the locker room, that includes Nicola Yok he lost Nicola Yok and and and he lost the locker room as a whole. And uh so you know that's one of the reasons why you know, coach Malone also got fired as well. I have you know, some things brewing that you know that will be written pretty soon in the athletic. Uh in terms of specifics
about you know, how Malone lost the locker room. But I can tell you from a broad sense through my sources that Malone lost the locker room. And you know there were there are several things in terms of in terms of Calvin, there are several things that went into his hiring as well, you know, one of which was, you know, the contract UH to Jamal Murray because of
the their ability factor. And it wasn't that the contract to Murray, it was that the contract was was really expensive and it was really player friendly, a little bit too player friendly for for the cronkys taste in that, you know, along with you know, a couple of the missteps like given the technology a four year contract when we're not even sure he's an NBA player, you know, spending three second round picks to get off of UH, to get off of Reggie Jackson, you know, player options
to ruffle Westbrook in Dario Sarich. You know, things like that that you know, have hamstring the Nuggets. I mean, if you look at what the Nuggets have going forward, you know, it's it's pretty bleak in terms of in terms in terms of assets, right, Like they have one tradable first round pick, which is twenty thirty one. They're twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty nine first round picks. And this is going to be a big shock to everybody here. They belong to the Oklahoma City Thunder because
the Oklahoma City Thunder everything belongs to Oklahoma. So you know, there's no assets, there's no money. You know, it's gonna take whoever comes in and and gets the GM job. I mean, there's there's not really a cupboard to work with. And part of this I think is on the Crockys. It is, and you know, they made it really certain, they made it really certain you do not want to go into the second option. I mean, we do not
want to go into the second apron. So Calvin Booth was in a large part working with what he had, which is what led to where we see the roster right now. Because like let's take for example, the Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics, like, we can go into the to we can go into the the tax, we can go into the apron re sign you know, Jason Tatum re sign, Jalen Brown extend, you know, offer an extension to Drew Holliday and the people around them, and we'll we'll pay
the tax. We're fine. We just want to put we want to put the best product in the floor as possible. And I think that Calvin Booth has been hamstrung in that. But at the same time, Calvin Booth made mistakes like the Zekenology contract. That's a legitimate mistake. It's untradeable, you know, and it's four years and you know, the the the Reddy Jackson trade eight you know, because he because he.
Had a player option.
You know, that's three second round picks. Those are three Those are three picks where you can either use it for a trade or you can, you know, try to go and get you can try to go and get rotation players. You can. So I think Calvin Booth hit on the margins in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three in order to win Denver on the championship, to win Denver a championship, because he went and got Bruce Brown, he went and got Jeff Green. Those are hits on
the margin. But he also lost Contavious Carwell Pope the free agency. He also gave the achnowledge that contract, so he also missed on the margins. Ever since they lost the championship, so it's been a really mixed back.
There three games left for Denver.
Last thing here, you know, because as I referenced what I tried to do with all my NBA guests and have all year. Once it became obvious that Oklahoma City was playing at a historic level. The conversation has to become okay, like who keeps Mark dagnalled up at night?
Who are the teams that he worries about?
I still put Denver in that category because they have that dude. They have a guy that we've seen do it before, and no one ever does it by themselves. Michael didn't, Kobe didn't, Lebron didn't. But Jokic is as close to anybody that we've seen carrying the team to championships in playoff runs. So what do you think best case scenario is for Denver as the playoffs are only three games away?
Now?
Well, I mean, I still think their best case scenario is the championship. Like you said, they have NICOLEA. Jokic. When you have that guy, you're gonna have the best player in every series and you're gonna have a punch of chance. But you know, one of the things that Josh Conky said publicly today was that he wants to see the joy back, and there are reasons for this,
but this team is not playing with joy. This team is not with energy, and you know, I think and that's part of the reason why Malone no longer has a job, and you know, I know I can't I can't really go in the specifics, but you know, there's some some things that have been at play internally, you know that of cost this, you know, so you know, the hope is that you know, we start they start with you know, one thing, right, come out Tomorrow night,
play with energy. They lose the sacrament on Lamorrow night, there's a real chance that they're going to fall into the playing the playing. You know, this is a team that was second and third in the Western Conference for much of the second half of the season, and you know, now we're talking about, you know, a one game scenario of the Sacramento and if that doesn't work out for them, you know, they're you know, there's a real real chance
that they're playing on Tuesday next week. So you know, I think I think the first thing, you know, in a macro sense, in a micro sense, is to come out on Wednesday and play with energy and play with force against Sacramento and then just kind of take it from there. You know. But the Nuggets that at their peak, I mean, this is still you know, if they get Jamal Murray back healthy, of course, this is still one of the best starting five in the league, one of
the most efficient starting fives in the league. You have Yokis playing at an insane level. The guy's going to average a thirty point triple double this season. This is truly one of the best, you know seasons anybody has had an NBA history offensively, you know. So there's still you know, a puncher's chance to win any series that they're in. I was in Oklahoma City, you know, three
weeks or a month ago or whatever it was. I mean, it all kind of goes together, you know, where they caused the Thunder real issues and they beat the Thunder on their home floor because the Thunder could not figure out a way to deal with NICOLEA. Jokis. So you know he's going He's an ultimate mismatch. He's the ultimate superstar in this league that we have in our league today.
You know. So if you have that guy on the floor, you have a chance to win any series that you can play that you're playing.
All right, Moving off the nugget stuff, let's bounce around with some local stories. It was announced earlier today that Yegor Demon is going to lead BYU and he's.
Going to start his pro basketball career.
So when you look at a lot of the mocks, he's still a lottery pick. Some have him as a top ten, some of them have like mid lottery. He's very young, he's very raw, So anybody that will take a fire on him is hoping that he learns how to shoot it consistently. Some of the decision making stuff improves, and he responds to forcing physicality better than he did
at by you. There's a lot to like from a scouting perspective, just simply how big and long he is and how creative he can be with some of the distribution. But now that we know it's official, uh, Dollan Hall's in the transfer port transfer portal B. Why you need to point guard? What do you make in the news today that Jegor Demin is leaving Provo.
I think he had to because he's going to be a first round pick, and you know, you you know, people talk about, well this Cooper flag going to go back to the Duke. Of course he's not going to go back to Duke. And people say, oh, well, you know in the age of nil you can recruit that money. No, you can't. You don't go into the draft. You know, for you know, season one or season two, Uh, you don't go in the draft at eighteenth for season one a season two, you want to go into the draft eighteen.
And so by the time you're twenty three, you're on a second contract and you're making one hundred million dollars. And then by the time you're twenty eight, you're on a third contract and you make another one hundred million dollars. And then by the time you're thirty three, you do the same thing. And then guess what you're You know, you've made a half a billion dollars over the course of your career. You know, So the sooner that you start your clock, the better for your career, the better
off you'll be. And if you're going to be a first round pick, and like you said, Jego is going to be a first round pick because there just aren't many humbo size six foot nine playmakers that are available. And you know, as you look at Josh Giddy, right, and you look at how raw he was coming out, look at him now and look at how he developed, and look at how well he's playing for the Chicago Bulls, And that's where you see what Yegor Deman can be like his his ARC type. His ARC type is literally
playing for the Chicago Bulls right now. So you know, Jegor comes into the league, he hits the weight room, he falls in love with the weight room, he falls in love with the process. Then you know, by the time he's twenty two to twenty three, twenty four years old, you really have something there.
So with Dallan Hall entering the transfer portal, Kevin Young needs a point guard. Or maybe they run it back with the Dawson Baker kid because right now, you know aj Aj Debonsa technically is a wing. Maybe they can run their offense through him because he is that skilled. Then the Xavion Stanton kid or they're getting from Vegas, I believe, is a center.
What do they do with that league guard spot? Any thoughts.
You can try to taw Dollan back into the fold, which you know, no no intel for me there, but I would think that it might be a little bit easier to talking back into the fold now that you know he would no doubt be a starter. And you know, let's let's put it this way. Jaegor is a lot more talented than Dylan, Like he's a better player but Dolan is a better fit with a Javancer in my opinion, than Yegor is because Jaegor for him to be effective,
he needs the ball in his hands. I don't think Dollan needs the ball in his hands as much h to be effective. And what you what I'm getting at here, is that what you want if your b YU is you want the ball in aj Devance's hands, or you want the ball in richie'sunders hands as much as humanly possible next year, Like that is, you know, immediately Richie's Thunders and aj Devancer are immediately one of the best duos in college basketball. And you know, Adadavanta is a
playmaking wing. He's a playmaking whatever if he's a shooting guard or a small forward, he's a playmaking wing. And I think Dallan can can can playoff of both of those guys. Uh add side for the position. I mean, he obviously has side for the position at defense for
the position. Uh and you know, just kind of be a connector because I think Dollan's more of a connecting type point guard, Like you don't really want him, you know, being your dominant ball handler, but as a connector, as a guy who's who's you know, making secondary players off the dribble, like you really want him uh in that role as well, and I think that he can thrive in that role.
All right.
So on the Utah basketball side of things, you know, it still is a little bit quiet as far as you know, Alex continuing to fill out his staff. We don't really know what the rest of the staff is going to look like. Alex Hopton with Sean yesterday and had some interesting things to say about, you know, the type of staff he's looking for. It's not going to be as big as some of the other, you know, the other staffs in college basketball. So we're still a
waiting word on, you know, on Andre Miller type. The transfer portal continues to bring news. Mike shrav Jamps is now officially in the transfer portal, Kano Dawes is back to play for AJA coming up next year, Jake Wallen is in the transfer portal. In addition to some other pieces, Mire a little found a landing spot. So we're still waiting to kind of learn exactly what Utah basketball is
going to look like next year. You know, you were good enough to kind of talk talk to us about Raphael Chilius, the guy that you know and you played with back in the day. And apparently this Fairly Dickinson transferre Terrence Brown has a direct relationship with coach Chilius, and he was one of the top ten scorers in college basketball last year twenty one points, six boards, three
point two assists. Shout out to the Great Northeast Conference that you're familiar with, where Fairley Dickinson, you know, obviously is located. Any insight on this, uh, this transfer that AJ was able to grab. According to on three, he's a four star transfer with a composite ranking of ninety three point.
Two out of one hundred.
So we have two pieces of the puzzle, now Kiano Dawes and now Terrence Brown. Any insight as far as what type of player Terrence is.
Well, because I'm a basketball sico, I have watched Terrence Brown play, you know, my question for you know, my question is how is he going to adjust the big twelve physicality? But he's explosive off the dribble. He can shoot the ball, he can score the ball. He can score the ball and in multiple ways. He can score it at three levels. He's obviously proficient from three. He can get into the lane and get off the floater. He can get all the way to the basket off
the dribble. You know, it's it's going to be interesting, uh from size, from a side standpoint, you know how he adjusts to you know, the physicality and the athleticism of the big twelve. You know. But he's a good a good addition. And what you want is somebody who's dynamic off the dribble. And what you want is somebody
who can create most importantly basketball advantages. And and you know, at least in the Northeast Conference, there was no better UH player in that conference than Terrence Brown that career creating a basketball advantage off the dribble.
So we kind of await word as far as what the staff and the rest of the roster will look like. But let's end with a little Utah jazz, Tony. We haven't talked a lot of jazz with you lately because if we're honest, there's just not a lot to talk about.
Everyone knows what time it is.
They have three wins since the All Star break, there one and nineteen in their last twenty.
We know what they're doing. We know what they're trying to do.
But what I'll ask you today that I have been ashti in a while is with these grit with the grip of young players, and with the young players, I will remove Walker from the equation because I think we all can agree that Walker has played himself in the future plans of this organization. But I want, I just want to kick the tires with you on this group of young players. And we'll remove Taylor Hendricks because of
course that he's hurt. But Isaiah Collier, Kyle Philipowski, of course, you know, will include Keyante in the mix, Cody Williams in the mix. Right cents upon the mix of these first and second year players, who do you feel has played their way to at least consideration to be around here long term, to be a piece of the puzzle when the Jazz are actually interested, interesting and serious about winning again.
I will probably say Kyle Philipowski is the most likely because he he's the most unique. Uh he's you know, six eleven and seven foot Uh he you know, he obviously shoot the ball from three. It's funny because, uh, you know, some of the conversations with the Jazz two years ago, and they were like we're gonna bring Cal. This was after cost poss freshman or a duke. We're gonna bring Cal counsel Powski in. We're gonna bring him
in for a want workout. We're definitely considering him, uh with our you know, our initial first round pick and that year was number nine, and that's the pick that that became you know, Taylor Hendrix. And I was like, you guys are crazy, like dude thinks like you know, I didn't like him at Duke, and now that I've seen him, you know a little bit more up close.
I mean, they were absolutely right. Like he's he's kind of a mismatch offensively, Uh, he's, you know, so much tougher than I thought he was when he was at Duke. He's a lot more athletic than I thought he was
when he was at Duke. You can see the development from you know, when he was drafted to now and you know, I think this guy has a chance to one day be an offensive I don't know about offensive engine because those guys are like twenty five points a night, but he, you know, I think he's got a chance to be a pretty significant offensive player in this league. Now, defenses is another story. You know, he can't really defend, and he's got to get a lot better at that.
But you know, he's like really kind of a walking mismatch. Like you know, he's he's too big and strong and quick for fours, he's too quick for five. You know, he can space you out, he can go off the drubble, he's got counter moves. He's really crafty and cerebral. He's very tough, and he's got a lot more athletic pop. And then you know, you you give him credit for it. Looks like a choir boy, but he's definitely, Uh, he's definitely a really tough kid. He's what I would imagine
and I hate to bring this up. I don't want to be blasphemous, but he's what I in today's league, and you know, and I think that, uh, he's he's been really really good for the Jazz in his in his rookie year, and I think he's got a chance, uh to be here for for a long time.
All right, Tony, I know you're busy. We'll set you loose. Keep up the good work. I appreciate the time.
Okay, no problem. Appreciate you, my guy.
Tony Jones covers well the NBA for the athletic He's on the Nuggets beed right now, and he and Sam Amic with a piece up today concerning the shocking firing of Michael Malone with only three games left in the season and Denver is the four seed.
Uh So there you go.
You get Tony's work on his Twitter page at t Jones on the NBA. Brought to you today by our friends at IFA Country Stores. You can visit their team of pro turf and landscape consultants that help provide products and services to local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks, and other city properties throughout Utah. It's the same knowledge and care that they share with you about your yard only at i f A and online at if A dot co Op Weather's warm.
Got to start thinking about that lung.
Next on the drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily Assists.
McMahon, vanmcmanating on the land, Texas flood As tickets, Mud He's and Man McMahon McMahan, the Manken.
Tom Roy will stop by coming up at about an hour from right as we will put the college basketball season a bed. The Florida Gators are your national champ But shockey news in the world of pro basketball today, after a decade of very high level play, including a championship in Denver, Michael Malone has been fired by.
The Kronky family.
Our next guest probably has some thoughts on that.
Tim. I'm old enough to know.
I'm old enough to remember that if you were a generational player at the age of twenty five, you weren't traded, and if you were a really good coach, you could keep your job. But Michael Malone, Taylor Jenkins, Luka Dacic, this league is wild. We're all reacting to this in real time. But what was your initial reaction when you heard that the Kronkeys have moved off of Michael Malone?
So my initial reaction was, well, I guess we know who won the power struggle between Michael Malone and Calva Booth and then oh no, they're both gone. So they ended up both losing the power struggle. So you know, I mean, you're making this decision with three games less than a regular season. To me, the guy is the winning his coach in franchise history. He won a title two years ago. You know, the most playoff wins in franchise history. He at least deserved a playoff run to
be able to try to save his job. But Josh Croncky came to the conclusion that you know, as I was told, the way he explained to the rest of the coaching staff was, you know, the plane was going down and he was going to do whatever he could to try to save it, and they might not have a safe landing, but they're going to try. And he felt like the only way to do that was to fire them alone and basically tell Captain Booth, hey, thanks for your services, but they're no longer needed, you know,
not going to do his contract. He's out now. And you know, essentially this power struggle between the coach and the GM ended up costing both of them their jobs and the Nuggets are going to win the best player in the world. Try to salvage the situation right away.
I have no insight personally on where this power struggle began or why, but I can connect dots between some what I perceived to be puzzling roster construction decisions, and also financially, the ownership group clearly did not want to allocate necessary funds to keep some of their key pieces. But what was the impetus of this booth verse Malone thing? Where did this start and why did it get so bad?
You know, I mean it's a pretty typical power struggle between coach and general manager. General manager wants coach to play young guys. Coach wants to rely on debts. You know. Look, they losing Bruce Brown and the way the title run. That was a simple problem, like they were. You know, there was a CBA math thought they couldn't pay him anything close to what he got. That's understandable. You know, Michael Malone wanted Jeff Green. The front office didn't want
Michael Malone to keep playing Jeff Green. They wanted to play Peyton Watson. They lowball Jeff He's gone. You know. KCP was another case where you know, the front office said, no, we want Christian Brown to starting lineup, and Malone wanted to keep KCP. You know, Christian Brown, by the way, has had a very good year as a starter. Z ignag. He's another one. It's a young player who honestly hadn't done a whole lot, but got an extension from the
front office. Malone didn't want to play him, you know he so there's a lot of that kind of stuff, and then you know you've got pride and you've got personalities here, and you know, Malone is not exactly what I would describe as a delicate flower. When he's not happy, you will be very well aware of it. He's very confrontational.
And Calvin Booth, I was told, was kind of the one person who fought back against Malone, and again they ended up being they threw a bunch of punches and you know, they both got knocked out.
So Tony Jones, your buddy from the Athletic Key and Sam amck are reporting that Mike Malone, Michael Malone, let's call him the name that he prefers, lost the locker room, and that includes Nikola Jokic, which, look, I'm not questioning Sam or Tony. I wouldn't do that to them, just like I wouldn't question you when you tell us things based off your reporting, we use them on the show.
It's just that that doesn't feel like a Jokic.
Thing to me right now. We have seen some emotional outbursts lately. They've lost four straight. I would put that on Jamal Murray's hamstring as much as anything.
They are eleven and thirteen since the All Star break.
But what do you make of that dynamic that maybe Michael Malone's players were even fed up with the way he was approaching things.
I was told that Malone looks. You always hear that when coach gets fired, especially good season. Right, you'red the same thing with Taylor Jenkins in this I was told the same thing. I was told the players had quit on him, not necessary that Joker had quit on him, but Joker. What I was told directly was that Joker had tired of Malone's ego. You know, I don't. I don't know for certain that this was a decision that
was run by Joker before it was made. But if it wasn't, that would surprise me, and I would think I would be pretty a pretty strange way to operate a franchise. But based on what I've been told by people who were involved, you know, with that franchise, people that work for the Nuggets, they don't think this is going to be a decision that necessarily upsets Joker, and they were pretty confident saying that they wouldn't be upset into Jamal Murray very interesting.
You know, ever since Oklahoma City established themselves as the clear favorite and best team in the West and maybe the league, I've asked you and mcminimon all of our NBA guests that we have on who keeps s mart dagnalled up at night? And on more than a handful of occasions, the answer has been the Denver Nuggets.
Do you think this change is that?
Are they still a gitman threat even with all the chaos that's gone.
To tell me how Jamal Murray's feeling come playoff?
For sure?
I mean that, honestly, that's the answer. I was told that Murray and Jokic both really do like David Adaman, who's going to be the interim coach. You know, maybe there's this is a situation where those guys kind of rally behind a coach who they'd like to get the job on a permanent basis, And you know, we'll see how all that plays out. But look, the Nuggets are going to have the best player probably in any series
that they play in. I mean, you know, maybe Luca on any given series, could be better in Joker, maybe Shane any given series, But I like the Nuggets dogs there that's going to at least give you a fighting chance. But Joker can't do it alone. He can't be the only star. They need Murray playing at the kind of level that he played out during that title run to have any hope of making a deep run of the West.
So the La Clippers have entered the group chat man. You know, whenever Kawhi Leonard is healthy and for a long stretch and decides that he's invested, we're all reminded of like, oh, yeah, he is one of those dudes and has been for a long time. They went on a stretch where they were like two and six in their previous eight and then I think they're eleven and three in their last fourteen, including winners of four straight
and eight and two in their last ten. I know that we're all supposed to just say the Clippers are going to clip, because we've been conditioned to believe that, But their recent run doesn't feel like nothing.
What do you make of it?
There's definitely not nothing. And look, they kept their heads well above water even walk Kawhi was out for a big stretch of the season, and they've had They've had a lot of guys who've had great years, who have played better than I think people anticipated they would. Norman Powell has been awesome all season long. I mean, Zubats has had a phenomenal year. You know they have. I think they ran third defensively, you know, or they are at least the top defense. Zubots has been phenomenal there.
You know, getting Chris done has really helped him bringing back the tomb. James Harden doesn't have the prettiest shooting numbers, but he's been extremely effective, you know, operating that offense. You know the fact that the Zubots and Pale, these guys are having career years. I think Harden's got something to do with that. Tyler's a hell of a coach, and so is Jeff Van Gundy. And Jeff Van Gundy's
fingerprints are all over that defense. And so look, do I think that the Clippers are going to win the West?
No?
Do I think They're going to be, you know, a B word to match up with in the playoffs. I absolutely do.
And for equal time, I'm going to ask you about another team that actually recently has the very same trajectory. Minnesota win I think three and five over an eight game stretch, and they're twelve and four. I believe in their last sixteen winners of five straight, seven and three in their last ten. It seems like every week we have you on, I'm I'm asking you about Denver and the Lakers, and of course, of course Golden State with
that run with Jimmy Butler. But has the recent run of play for Minnesota changed your mind about what they can do this year in the playoffs?
Again, They're They're a tough matchup. You know, their biggest flaw all season long has been closing games, and that's been an Ant issue. You know, Ant playing hero ball down a stretch and there have been examples are recently down to stretch of games where you know Ant was making the right plays, Ant was making good decisions. If Ant has matured in that regard, you know, if he's turned a corner and that fast of the game, you've got to respect the front or I'm sorry the Timberwolves.
I know they were a Western Conference finals team last year, and you know, he's one of the fallow top played eight or ten players in the league. Definitely one of the most talented players in the league. And you know they've they're fixed right now in defense. But you know, they've got the ability to be one of, if not the best decent well, I'm gonna say the second best defense.
I don't think they can be as good as the Thunder defensively, they've got the ability to be absolutely elite on that end the floor.
So I'll just bottom line it, because, like I said, every week we ask you about that's the Thunder and everybody else? Who would you put at the top of the list right now of the group of teams that is everybody else as we currently stand today.
You know, I had to do this for an ESPN dot com thing that ran earlier this week, and I put the Nuggets and then they fired their coaching GM. So I mean, honestly, dude, I could make a case for the Lakers. I can make a case for still the Nuggets because primarily of Joker. I can make a case for the Houston Rockets they're the two seed. You know. I can make a case for the Warriors. So I
guess that's a long way of saying that. It's like that, I PA it believes Red Rocks has they a final r p A. There you go, and that's kind of where I am with this one.
Well, as long as you only have two of those things, because they'll hit you pretty hard.
I'll tell you that much that yes, they are all right.
What what does Matt Ashbia do and the what do the Phoenix Suns do this offseason?
Tim?
I mean, I was having dinner with some buddies last night and we were talking about the Jazz and how long it will take until they get back to at least a decent level of respectability and winning. And you know the fact that there's a team with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and of course there are issues beneath the surface as opposed to just giving you names on paper. But they are of course out of anything special this year. They are in salary capel. What happens in Phoenix this offseason.
Well, they will have a lottery pick that goes to the Houston Rockets. They will most likely fire the coach again for the third straight year, and they'll go three for three with that under Matt Eshpia. You know, I don't know, Maybe they like the championship proven the coach and maybe they hire Michael Malone's available. All of a sudden, they will almost certainly trade Kevin Durant, where I don't think they're going to get anything close to what they
gave up for him. He's going to absolutely have to say and where he goes, and they will attempt to retool that roster around Devin Booker and continue to be absolutely all in. Now, is that the path that I would advise? No, it is not. Have they asked me for my input? No they have not. I asked them for what their plan was, and that's the plan that they laid out to me.
All right, last thing, I will set you loose.
I now you got a busy day, and I will ask you just a general question about the Jazz because you know I can get into the black magic and stretch at times to make topics interesting. But they're one in nineteen and their last twenty. They have three wins since the All Star break. Last three games they've given up one forty plus. But none of it matters because we all know the deal. Just what are you anticipating
this offseason? Like, what what's the general approach? I don't think we're gonna hear Danny Ainge give a pressure where he talks about big game hunting ever again. But what do you think the general approach and obviously the first piece of the puzzle is the pick they get come May. But for jazz fans out here that are curious, and they're thirsty and and the patience is running thin, what's the off season have in store? Yeah?
And the big game hunting thing really surprised me last year because I didn't like, you think you're a player away and you're a rebuilt away. And obviously that's the route that they've taken. And look, man, we all understand. This whole year has been lead up to the lottery and if they land fifth in the lottery, it's going to be awfully depressing. If they land first, then you know it's gonna be cast for celebration, and you know,
souddenly things are looking up. Not that they'll be a playoff team or anything next year, but they'll have a clear franchise cornerstone and the guy to build around. But look, this is it's still I would say, the the very early in a rebuild. And I think you can argue that the rebuild was delayed more than it should have been. You know, they kind of half rebuilt for a couple of years. They're full blown rebuilding now. You know, you
hope you get lucky in the lottery. You hope that all that work that you did to earn the best odds pans out for you. It's sure I hadn't been a whole lot of fun to watch, or I'm sure for anybody in that organization to live through. And honestly, like we talked before the deadline, I thought that that, you know, whether it was Colin Sexton or Jordan Clarkson, John Collins.
At least one of those guys.
Would get moved and have all those discussions again this summer. And you know, this is a team that I think you're trying to build to be in position to be good, you know, in twenty six and twenty seven and for a little while after that, but you're still a ways.
Away, Yes, sir, all right, buddy, set you loose, Thanks for the time, be good all I appreciate it. Tim McMahon covers the NBA, you know, like Tony from the Athletic. Tony covers the jazz when they're interesting, and Tim covers the jazz when they're interesting, and neither of them are covering the jazz this year.
So we'll see what the off season brings.
Of course, the lottery will be the first step to understand through which prism they'll approach the rest of the off season, whether it's Cooper Flag. Hopefully at least it's in the top three or top four. I don't think they'll fall further than that, but it is a lottery, so you never know. All right, Tim stops bout today courtesy of our friends at IFA Country Stores. The weather is warm outside. If you look outside, the sun is shining.
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All right, before we get to the local stuff.
As far as some announcements of players entering the transfer portals, some announcements of teams or excuse me players leaving the team to try their hand in the NBA Draft. The Florida Gators were crowned the national champs of college basketball last night on CBS sixty five to sixty three. An incredible comeback, and Florida came back all year long, all tournament long. It's kind of who they were after going down twelve to Houston.
Twelve points to Houston is like twenty five or thirty to other teams.
I mean, this is a big, physical, defensive basketball team that likes to take the air out of the ball, slow it down.
And when they went up twelve, I thought it was essentially over.
But Emmanuel Sharp, who is a really really good college basketball player and did a really really good job on Walter Clayton Junior for the first thirty minutes or so of the game, had two of the most shocking plays down the stretch that you are going to see in a basketball game. This was as much about the Houston Cougars collapsing flat on their face as it was about the Florida Gators capitalizing, seizing the moment, and making enough
plays down the stretch to get that win. It was a great basketball game to culminate what I thought was a really good tournament. I think we all probably prefer, you know, more buzzer beaters, more overtime games. There weren't very many of either of those, and there were no Cinderellas zero. Okay, Cinderella to me has to reach at least the Sweet sixteen to be deemed a Cinderella team on a run, and there was not one Cinderella in the final sixteen.
Teams.
Do not sell me on Arkansas. It's a ten seed. John Calipari has a team coming back. His top six players are coming back. He's adding three really really good transfers and recruits. They're a top ten team next year. We'll get to the way too early, top twenty five.
We'll let you know where BYU is Utah. Of course not in there as of now, but porter I was talking about this with Sean during cross talk, and Sean shared a story as a high school football player when he had an opportunity for a very easy pick six and he pumped faked, pump faked, and ended up essentially not deciding what to do and then ultimately didn't make the play. And I'm sorry if you're em Manuel Sharp you will be he's seventy five years old, because I
don't know that he's an NBA guy. I think Emmanuel Sharp is a guy that could maybe make a little bit of money playing basketball overseas or something like that. But there's a chance that that's the final time that Emmanuel Sharp will be playing in a basketball game that has that much at stake. And I am not bringing this up to pile on the kid, because honestly, I feel horrible for Emmanuel Sharp, who had a really, really
good year. He is a junior, so he will return to Houston next year, so maybe they have a shot to get back to where they were. But this stuff is so fleeting, and I was thinking about this today through the prism of Denver firing Michael Malone. I mean, if you're a Denver Nuggets fan, the past five six years of Denver Nugget basketball, it's been the best stretch you have ever had.
Shout out tr Don Danissel. This has been.
A dream scenario for a market that is very similar to Salt Lake. It's similar to Salt Lake in size. Denver's a bigger city than we are. They've got pro baseball, they've got Pro football, it's a I think it's a top fifteen to sixteen market something like that. We're top thirty, so they're bigger than we are. But as far as the you know, the geographical proximity, the challenges of attracting
players to play there in free agency. You know, I've always kind of taken a little bit of solace in what Denver has been able to do as somebody who badly wants the jazz to be good again.
Make the jazz good again? You know what?
Hu interesting, not great? Make the jazz good again. You know what, let's just lean into it. Print the shirts, make the jazz. Should we say great again? Or should we say good again? Because it's baby steps?
Well, my take there would be the jazz haven't.
Been great ever, No, because if you're great, you win a championship, you win one.
Now, let's be clear they were. That was a great roster maybe, but yeah, I think greatness greatness for acquires a trophy, in my opinion, at least at a team level.
Okay, I got it. Make the jazz almost great again? Mtja GA.
I like the acronym. It's very simple, easy to easy catch up.
Well, if we're going to start a movement. We need an acronym you do in order to print the shirts, print the hats, and then make All we have to do is convince people that this is a real thing.
Come up with a bunch of.
Conspiracy theories, maybe an act, some tariffs on some free agent signings.
I think we're onto something here.
Let's go Kevin Malone the office. A few words, do good, few words, do trick, very nice.
Jazz good again, jga jga, jazz good again. Make the jazz almost great again like they were in the nineties. Look, I'm an idea man. Okay, we're work shopping on air here. Okay, but back to the original point. A number of examples lately in the NBA I think should give jazz fans some home hope about where the jazz can be. With a couple of savvy moves and you knock out you know, you land on the right draft pick, no matter where
it is. And then suddenly, if you land on the right draft pick and you start to develop young players the right way, other players will want to play for you. We saw that here not too long ago, when Dennis Lindsay expedited the growth of the jazz by trading for Mike Conley, one of the most well respected, efficient pick and roll ball handlers of this generation.
That's who Mike is.
I mean at his peak, of course, not the player that he once was from Minnesota, but at Mike Conley's peak, he was one of the best lead guards in the NBA, and certainly his reputation as a member of the community, his reputation as a leader in the locker room, made that savvy move by Dennis Lindsay expedite the growth of this team to the point that they were. You know, Mike Conley missed three away from advancing in the postseason. Maybe fully healthy, they look different in the playoffs, but
obviously that's revisionist history. And then there's Giannis in Milwaukee, where the Bucks want a championship in a city where not a lot of players care to play. A lot of examples as of late, as far as you know, if you're a Jazz fan, to look at that isn't simply Lebron going to Miami, or the Lakers getting just another start because that's what the Lakers do, or the Celtics just being the Celtics. There are some examples that have risen up and Denver's one of them.
But back to the point, like this stuff is.
So fleeting, and when you're in the moment as a fan, you feel like the success in the run will last forever because it feels like something's been built and then it's sustainable, and then you're stunned when it goes the other way, you know.
I saw coach Win last night. He was at the Hall of Fame dinner.
My high school basketball coach, Mike Maxwell was inducted in the Utah Sports Hall of Fame, and I saw Kyle for a minute. Oh, by the way, porter, you should know. Kyle said to me, whenever you want me on, just let me know.
Kyle Whittingham.
Kyle Whittingham as opposed to Kyle who I don't know.
Coach Wit said to me, Hey, whenever you need me, just let me know a hop on whenever.
So we're gonna we're gonna hold it two that.
Which I responded, be very careful what you promised, because I will call you tomorrow to join the radio show.
But he was very nice.
But it made me think like Utah Football Big twelve preseason picked to win the thing. Everybody thought, both locally and Ashley that this is the team that will win the Big Twelve and go to and expanded twelve team
CFP and Utah football. Basically since the early two thousands, it's been about a twenty year stretch of mostly really really good years, and so last year caught everybody off guard because to me, it was a reminder of how fleeting this stuff is, and how is a fan you've got to enjoy when it's good, because it is never good all the time.
It is cyclical.
I'm sure there were youth fans that felt like Utah was never going to lose to BYU again after coach Wit had basically created what perceive what everybody perceived to be a very sizable talent gap on the roster and went through a stretch where Utah was winning like every single year. It's a generation still of Utah dominance over BYU. But I said during that streak, I said during the run, like, you know this won't last forever. These things are cyclical.
These things are fleeting and windows closed so quickly. Like if you're a Denver Nuggets fan today, you are shaking your head. If you are Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars, today you are waking up going what the hell happened? We were right there, which brings me backporter to what I've talked about with Sean during crosstalk today, because there's no other way to spend this and again, I am not bringing this up to pile on this young man.
I'm sure Emmanuel Sharp is having a really rough day.
And I always find this interesting because you don't have to be on the national championship stage to remember that one moment where you missed the shot or you made the turnover, Are you blue the defensive assignment? Are you dropped the pass, or you fumbled the ball, you missed the tackle that led to the game winning play, and ultimately you are the reason your team lost. So I told the story earlier, and I am forty seven years old. This happened to me when I was sixteen, just high
school basketball. Massive comeback against a rival school and had a really good fourth quarter, and then I had an opportunity to win the game and I actually got free. I had like a five foot bunny and instead of using the backboard, which you should have done, I tried to float it in and I shot a little flutter. I'm like Oh that's good. Around the rim, boom falls out, buzzer sounds.
We lose.
That wasn't for any It was a high school basketball game.
It wasn't toun to me.
I should have I should have two hands, two feet that I was a two footed jumper. There are still times where randomly, my dumb bing bong brain will remind me, like, hey, do you remember when you missed that game winner against Wilton? This was nineteen ninety five, And if that sticks with me, our guy, this poor guy, Emmanuel Sharp is going to be seventy five years old remembering the two turnovers he made to lose the national championship. It would have been
Houston's first national championship. They had five slam a Jama, they had chem Olajuan take them to three straight final fours. Kelvin Sampson sixty nine years old, you win that national championship.
You are a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Do you have a moment or moments that still seep into your consciousness when you were a wide out at Summit?
Where was it Summit High School? South? Is there a North Summit?
There is? Don't don't make that mistake.
Oh wow, wait is there beef between North and South Summit.
Oh very much. So that's that's like bitter rivals. Did you ever ow Summit camus Coville, North Summit?
Yeah?
Were you ever tipping over any cattle that North Summit had just to say in your face, I'm just wondering what it's like up there.
What's the I mean, there's they're small town rivalry stuff we never got into. I mean by the time came around, it was I guess Facebook beef.
I don't know Fase beef.
But but yeah, there's uh, there's there's rivalry, uh rivalry stuff going on up in up in that little valley. I will say, personally, like individually, in a in a big time moment like that, there there's not much that stands out. I had. I had my probably biggest like blunder individually. Was I had a technical foul on a dunk that I missed. Yes, I hung on the No, I hung on the rim on a dunk that I shot off the back of the rim and went out
of bounds. I missed it, and then I remained on the rim and got a technical lost us like four points on the possession. But I will say relating to what happened to Houston. My my last experience playing playing high school basketball was one where, uh, we were like, we were the favorite team. We were one of the with the top teams in the state. We came in against shout out to our guys down there in Gunnison in the middle of no where. They came up and
played really, really well. And at the end of the game we had the ball with a chance to win it, and on the inbound we had an awesome play drawn up. Shout out to my coach, Dusty, awesome play drawn up. And not gonna name any names, but we had a missed communication miss I'm not saying any it was, but it went through someone's hands. The Gunnison just picked it up,
scooped it up and kind of sealed the game. But it was one of those moments where it was a anti climactic finish where your team had it in the grasp of their hands and then all of a sudden, your career's over like that really like in ten seconds, it goes from oh, hey, we're gonna be playing in the next round, We're gonna be playing for a state title, and then ten seconds later, because of kind of a you know, a botched play or a miscommunication with what
the play was supposed to be. We're headed home, and it ended like that, and obviously not the stage of the Final four, but yeah, I relate to it in that way.
The emotional toll that it takes and the scars that it leaves, because look, you know what this was like, and I'm sure a bulk of our listeners know what this is like as well, Like if you listen to sports talk radio and if you watch games, there's a good chance at some point you played. And at some point all of us probably were delusional and young and dumb to believe at some point we would be these guys that are playing in college and in pros.
I mean, that certainly was my dream.
And what it means that much when you're that young, if you don't, like I can even remember, this is wild to even bring up.
I was at a jazz basketball camp.
I think I was ten, and I'd made it to the finals of the free throw contest where you get a trophy if you win the free throw contest. There we go, and I can remember the night before because it was a week long thing. I used to go with my cousins. Shout out to my cousin Chad, and my cousin and Jay. May my cousin Jay rest in peace. He sadly passed away. But the three of us used to go his birthdays tomorrow. Wow, I'm glad I brought that up. But the three of us used to go
to camp together. It was a week long thing. That is when John Stockton famously told us to get the hell away from his car, which broke my heart as a ten year old, but that's who John kind of was.
But I made it to the free throw final.
I was really pumped and I blew it like I had made eighteen of twenty to make it to the final round. And it was me and some bro and I could not sleep. I was nervous as I'll get out, and I think I hit like thirteen of twenty, which is not close enough to win it. He went like seventeen of twenty and won it. And I cried like a baby all the way home because I lost some free throw freaking contest. I'm ten years old and I
still remember. It's there's just something. I'm not a psychologist, but there's something about the emotion that goes into the sports that you play when you're young, because it just feels like it means so much. As you age, you have perspective, but in the moment, it feels like you have low everything all at once.
I think that's the entire point to it. Is your perspective when you're fourteen years old you're playing sports, is that this is everything. And to give you an idea, spence, put yourself in those shoes right back when you were seventeen, eighteen years old, and then imagine that that continues for four or five years, right, your everything, that perspective you have when you're eighteen nineteen, it's still going on when you're twenty five, you're twenty six, you're in the NBA,
you're in high level college basketball. Imagine how much that feels like, right, Imagine the pressure that that gives you versus me playing a two a basketball game in North Sampete, Utah. Right Like, it's it's gotta be that times eight million when it comes to the feeling that these guys are dealing with the pressure that these guys are dealing with. And yeah, when we're doing radio twenty years later, we have some perspective that you know, it was just a game.
It was just our teenage years. But you don't have that when you're living it. And that is true when you're still keeping that dream alive in college and beyond that.
Yeah, got it for a manual sharp and still stunned as to what I witnessed last night. And we'll get with Ken Palmer about this in a little bit, But a twelve point lead for Houston, based off of how I saw Houston shut off everybody's water all year, felt like it was insurmountable. I give Todd Golden a ton of credit and those Florida kids a ton of credit for just sticking with it and staying in the fight. You know, they do say style makes styles make fights.
Sometimes that's a little cliche, and I think if you're Calvin Sampson, you've got a lot of self reflecting to do, even though that dude's been the game for a long time. You can't even get a shot off in your final four possessions. You can't even get a shot like four turnovers in a row. The only thing that could have allowed Florida to win was a combination of the ability of them to stay in the fight. But Houston had to lay a big egg, and they did, and that
makes this one tough. So we asked you to text in nice things about Porter to go play golf.
I don't think we can do this anymore. This is sure. Well, I think people are really uh hamming it up.
I think this is I don't think this is a healthy exercise for your already inflated ego.
You don't think these people are being completely you know, right down the line, they're not being completely honest. You think they're you know, you think there's some motive behind it.
Well, we've got a couple of issues here on the text line, and Porter will pick somebody to send a Glendale for a little free golf.
That's our festival of tease. Now that's bring us here. We'll hooking you up with some golf. Uh.
One texture said Porter is the best mid day sports radio producer in Utah.
Let's be clear, this is afternoon drive.
I I did middays for quite some time, so maybe it's still okay.
So you're you were the best in that space, but now that you're in this space, you're no longer the best.
Is that?
What they're saying both, I think is what their health can be true great knowledge of sports and likes's opinion.
That's a good one. Thank you.
The best thing about Porter is he gives us small town boys a good name. There we go, the goat producer of the drive true JP. Yeah, get him out of here, Brady, Sorry, Brady? Wow, Okay, all right? Numbers numbers, Hey, you're not wrong. The ratings are the ratings, Oh, Porter Larsen, is it obnoxious like James Peterson?
Oh?
Wow? Was that James texting?
That was rude?
Porter always keeps the vibes up. That's not true.
I will say that one might not be. I don't always keep the vibes up. Sometimes I'm counterproductive in that regard.
How would you describe your vibes as the kids would say?
You know, are the vibes high with you? Are you a riz? God? Like Bill orm You got some riz?
It depends on the day. I think. My I'm not bipolar. That would be a diagnosis you'd need. But the vibes are, you know, up here, up there, down there. My grandmother just a little really inside baseball here.
Snowboarder, is that your mom?
No, my mom was a snowboard My grandmother was the one that had multiple personalities, but didn't tell her whole family.
Until she sounds like a hoot man, I want to hang out with her.
Yeah, we didn't know about this until I found her medical records after she died. I'm like, oh, there we go. I'm not on that level. But my vibes are you know, maybe here and here depends on the day.
Yeah, there's another My vibes depend on the day. I try to bring good vibes to the drive. But sometimes you land after a long forty eight hours in Vegas from seventy degree weather and you have to dig your car out in April, your vibes were really low that My vibes were admittedly bad that day. So I'm trying to bring good vibes. And then finally somebody text in I love Porter.
There we go.
Do you know who that is? No?
Should I call their number?
Yes? You know what new segment idea on air?
You text in good things about Porter, then we call you and bring you on air. Another one spilled in Porter does good. Dog on at people like him? Porter does good. That's somebody from South Summit because they said dog on. I'm just messing around, So keep those texts coming in, say nice things about our guy Porter and we'll send you to play a little golf. All right, two hours down, two hours to go. We will put a little bit bow on the college basketball season. Oh
may have buried the lead. Sorry, got distracted. Jegor Demon is leaving BYU for the NBA, and Mike Sharrav Jamps has elected to enter the transfer portal from the University of Utah. There's some other local stuff that we'll get to maybe kick the tires with Ken palmeray about this and then don't forget ourself, fans. We are two and a half weeks away from the primary window transfer window closing. In the world of Major League Soccer, our reinforcements on the way.
Kurt Schmidt's gonna.
Stop by today. Been a couple of weeks since we've caught up with Kurt Main. Roster construct for our local soccer club RSL's taken.
On Nashville this weekends.
After getting all three points against the LA Galaxy at the home behind the brace from Diego Luna.
Brace is a.
Soccer term for two goals scored in one game. I just don't want to get you know, I don't want to confuse our did you know that before I told you that a brace was two goals.
I'm actually pretty good with the terms. Okay, you know, ask me about some schemes and strategy getting a you know, ahead of my skis on that one. But you give me the soccer terms un locked in.
All right, brace two goals, diego.
Luna becomes the youngest RSL player to tally fifteen goals and fifteen assists. The kid is really good. So we'll bring in Kurt to talk a little RSL. But the world of college basketball crown and national champ last night, Lorda Gators their third title in the two thousands, which puts them second behind the Yukon Huskies. Our next guest is our college basketball north Star Life north Star for honest Ken Pomeroy on a Tuesday Ken Palm dot com.
How are we doing, Buddy, doing great spence, Just kind of reflecting on the season that was. In my position, it always goes by pretty quickly. I know for other people in the game they think it takes forever, but for me, it just flies by.
So when we last spoke, you had escaped the chilly cold weather of Salt Lake in exchange for I.
Believe Calgary is that where you were when we last spoke.
That's that's correct.
And where do we find you now? Ken? Where's your location?
Still in Calgary?
Still in Calgary? Who spends that much to do? You want to tell us what you're doing?
Or no, it's not that exciting. I mean I can, I can. I can work you through the back, working through the thought process if you want.
Yes, I want all of it.
Ken, We've got four hours of radio to do, so build the space, sir.
Well.
I So here's the deal. I'm as you know, I'm kind of self employed, you know, work on my own, can work remotely in cases where I'm not self employed, and it's just really productive for me to like get away from you know, distractions and stuff at home, and you know, my life situation allows me to do that. So so that's mostly the h that's mostly logic.
Yeh.
Look good for you. I'm not judging. I wish I had that type of freedom. I'm very jealous of my friends that are in the same position you are, where they can be like I'm just going to Bali for ten days because I can work from there. So hey, look, Calgary's beautiful. I have a brother in law from Calgary. He and my sister were married up there, So I'm not judging. I just for me, Ken, if I had the opportunity to get away, I think I would choose a beach.
That's just that's just me.
Yeah, And I mean I'm not judge you either, Spens Like, I get how people. I get why people would want to go to a beach, and I can appreciate that. But the beach is not my my life style.
So okay, there you go, Hey Tomato, Tomato, Ken, let's move on. Are we judging the Houston Cougars for that collapse? Let's start in a vacuum, then we'll pan back. And I was actually thinking about you when Houston went up twelve, because I believe, with your metrics, this is the best defensive basketball team in college basketball. And not to be redundant there, but I watched them snatch souls from Big twelve teams this year, and when they went up twelve, Ken, I thought, that's curtains.
So what do you make.
Let's start with the Houston side of how they collapse down the stretch.
Yeah, I thought so too. I thought the walls were closing in on Florida, and you know, Florida dies a few bullets to get to the championship game, and then I thought this was it for them, Like you say, I seems like Houston was, you know, it was on mission after closing out that dude game. The way they did they're pretty much fire around also under especially defensively. The way they kind of figured out how to you know, essentially take Walter Clayton out of the game.
I mean.
That was that was the one thing that you didn't really think was possible, and they had done it up at that point. So at that point, yeah, I thought
that the game was over. And there were a couple of things that went against One was that both they're big man ended up getting four fouls, you know, shortly after taking that lead, and so they had to play small for a little bit, and some of that you know, length that has propelled them to having the number one rated defense was on the bench, and in Florida was able to get me a little bit of flow offensively. That was the main thing. But the other thing was,
like houston offense was pretty brutal all night. I mean, you got to give obviously credit to Florida's defense, but really, you know, you go back to even the Duke game, and Houston's offense was not great. Now, they did make threes, and that kind of, you know, covered up what was an awful two point shooting night for them against du They only made thirty three percent of their twos against Duke. They only made forty one percent against Florida, and it's
just hard to overcome that. And that's been the that was the story for Houston all season long. You can look at their profile, almost everything is good or accessible except the two point shooting, which was just absolutely dreadful. And it was, you know, kind of a minor miracle they were able to go as far as they did.
They ultimately finished the season ranked two ninety six and two point percent, so in some ways, an incredible coaching job in Helvin Sampson to get to the last game of the season with that kind of number.
So a lot of attention today on poor Emmanuel Sharp, who is a really really good player and as a junior, and we'll get to what Houston has coming back next year.
I want to talk some big twelve in a moment.
I mean, the way too early top twenty five stuff that Borsello wrote for ESPN dot Com today. Yes, Houston is won as a result to who they could potentially return and then a grip of transfers.
So we'll get to that in a moment.
And look, my sincere hope for Emmanuel Sharp is that he comes back as a senior and as an opportunity to kind of redeem himself because they're not there without him. He was the main point of attack defenseman on Walter
Clayton Junior. He was the guy that was tasked with guarding potentially the best league guard in the tournament and the final foremost outstanding player, and Clayton Junior did not get his first point until about fourteen thirty seven left in the game and didn't hit his first three until
there was three minutes left. I mean, I thought Sharp did a really good job on him, and he had a good, solid tournament, but down the stretch, back to back turnovers, and I don't know what exactly the deal was when I went back and watched the replay Canada, the final play where Sharp rose up and then it was a really good contest by Walter Clayton Junior that caused him to simply have to drop the ball or else it would have been a travel when you watch
the action on the strong side, it was a misdirect and a ball screen for LJ.
Cryer.
But Emanuel Sharpe just either ran out of time or wasn't patient enough. And I'm not saying it's all on him, but what do you make of four straight possessions to finish the game for Houston where they didn't even get a shot, Like, that's wild to me.
Yeah, that is unbelievable. Yeah, for a team that you know, generally, like the one thing you could say about Houston was that, you know, they they wouldn't panic. You know, they they're a very experienced team and they're going to at least execute properly. They have their limitations offensively, and we you know, alluded to that, but certainly, Yeah, you watch that final play.
I mean it's a little it's a little reminiscent of like the I mean, this is for the real olds out there, but you know, the eighty three title game. There are people making all these comparisons to that game, and final possession in that game was similar in the
sense that it was like just terribly executed. Ultimately it turned out to work in that situation, But yeah, you rewatched that last possession for Houston, and it's like people are sort of like trying to set screens but not really committed to it, and so obviously nobody's getting open. And then yeah, Manuel Stricks just kind of left with a choice there, and in the moments he made it.
Really that choice. To me, I think you had the you know, in the moment, you just have to like let that thing fly, throw your leg out, do something, draw some contact. Of course the official to make a call. But yeah, overall, the execution down the stretch by Houston was pretty dreadful.
Now to your earlier point, you know, you can't talk about these things without acknowledging both sides of the coin. What did flor to do can to turn it on in the second half defensively after going down by twelve, because even going into locker room, I just had this sense like Houston's a better team, this is that this is their time. Were there specific adjustments that Todd Golden made in the locker room at halftime or in the second half that caused so much chaos for Houston.
Yeah, I don't know they were necessarily specific adjustment. I mean the first half they actually were fine. Defensively, like they you know, Houston wasn't scoring at will on them, they were getting a few offensive rebounds. And I think that's where Florida cleaned some things up in the second half, really preventing more offensive rebounds and also taking care of the ball offensively to prevent Houston from you know, operating against you know, not a set defense when they did
get the ball. But I think that's the one thing that you know, I was really kind of impressed with with Florida. In the end. You look at the box score and I think you will see Houston had fifteen offensive rebounds and they're like, wow, that's you know, that's a great game for Houston. But actually there were so many misheh that in the end it was a Poppins. The rebounding crecenter thirty two percent, which is below Houston season average. So so you know, preventing those second chance
points certainly helped. Houston had a you know, miserable day shooting, and you could put together I mean, I hate to say it, but you know, just among us a private company here, I mean Milo's us, and you could put together a highlight reel for him in that game of just some incredibly missed shots. I mean just missing everything multiple times. You know, that was an issue as well.
And I don't like Florida, you know, maybe sped up Houston a little bit, but man, a lot of it is just like Houston, you know, not coming to play when it came to the three point shot. And you know, as we mentioned, they they're really deficient on two pointers. And where they've been able to overcome that is by having guys like Sharp and LJ. Cryer and using him, you know, make some threes. And that just didn't happen last night.
Todd Golden, at the age of thirty nine, becomes the youngest head coach to win a national championship since Jim Valvano in eighty three when he was thirty seven years old. And if you didn't know any better and you were watching the postgame celebration, you would have said, why are they interviewing the team manager? I mean, he looks like a kid, and he's got his hat on backwards and
he's enjoying the moment. How has he been able to do this after a brief stop I think it was San Francisco and just in a few short years, how have they been able to build Florida into a national champ.
Well, it's they've just done a brilliant job of creating a roster. You know, they've been able to get some useful transfers, and you know, he ended up building a team like we saw but Houston, like we saw with Auburn, that's a very experienced team and you know it had like championship experience some extent. You know, Elijah Martin really playing a key role for this team coming over from
Florida Atlantic. In addition, you know, they had you know, more front court depth probably than you know, any Power Conference team, and they just hit on these guys like you know, some of these guys I think people became familiar with in the tournament. You know Thomas Howe, for for one, I mean he comes off the bench for this team, and you know he'd be starting for probably most SEC teams, but for this team, he comes off
the bench. And that's just a you know, a statement on how much depth this team has upfront and how they were you know, able to kind of exploit that against Houston, and Houston you know, got into foul trouble up front. They didn't have guys they could go to and they had to go ahead and play small. Florida really didn't have to do that over the course of the season. So it was really a you know, a great job in building a roster and just a phenomenal run.
You know, I don't know, I don't know what else to say about it. It was you have to be impressed. I mean, I remember when Golden took the Florida job, and I mean I had heard through you know, secondhand channels that he wasn't even like, yeah, he was a little hasn't it taken? He wasn't sure like if that was the jump that he wanted to make. And I obviously I think he made the right decision. He worred through the math and realized, yeah, you can actually have
a lot of stress Florida. You proved it pretty quickly here.
I know you're not a scout, but you are a basketball guy that watches these games all year long, and it's you know, it's so interesting, Ken, because watching this tournament really my whole life. There are so many great individual tournament performances or even seasons by guards and players that turn out to just be excellent college players, and they just don't have the size or the speed or the strength to get it done in the pros.
And we have local examples of that.
The number one example might be Jimmer, who was an incredible college player and that ride was so fun. I don't care if you don't like byu. Jim Ermania was a real thing. That was really cool, and he was incredible to watch in college. And I could name a grip of play Randolph Childress. We could go on and on and on. And I don't know where I'm at with Walter Clayton.
Junior as a pro.
But after watching just the Stones to take and make big shots I was reading today, I think it was Givoni that compared them to Ben Gordon, who turned out to be a combo scoring guard in the pros with a long career including a sixth Man of the Year after a really really good career at Yukon. But what do you think Walter Clayton Junior did for his pro prospects? And do you think he's a long term NBA guy?
Yeah, that's a great question. I a lot of what you are saying, I would echo like, I'm not totally sure either. He's obviously a very good college player. He has some some vertical athleticism, you know, the tricky He's a little on the older side, so you know, kind of the challenge I think a modern day you know, evaluation of these players in the draft is that so many of them are, you know, a little bit older than they than they were five to ten years ago.
So I don't know.
I mean, I think I'm probably a little more negative on him than maybe the consensuses. I think there's certainly the opportunity though, like clearly, you know, you couldn't help it, but watch him through this tournament and it's not like Florida had an easy path, Like they had a very difficult path, and they were constantly in these very challenging games, and he would make play after play. You know, he's
a very good shooter. There's some questions I think on the on the defensive end that you know, if he could answer those, that would really enhance the stock. But you know, teams are going to obviously be focusing on that and put them through the ringer on that over the coming weeks.
Before we get to some local storylines, let's remove ourselves from the vacuum of the National Championship Game and pan back a little bit because I have not been able to talk to you since we saw. Like if Houston's collapse was a eight out of ten, Duke's collapse was a ten out of ten against the Houston Cougars and Sion James is a really good player, and I'm not
piling on any of these young men. I think if you're John Shier, you have to realize that your guy is peeing down his leg every time he's trying to inbound the ball on the baseline and figure something else out. I mean, you know, nine to ozhero run over the course of what the final forty seconds. I've heard a lot of people pile on Cooper, which I think is unfair. I thought that over the back call was atrocious. He hit their only bucket of the final I think nine minutes.
It's wild that they went nine minutes without a bucket. Proctor couldn't get it going. I like the Konk Nipple kid. I wondered if they should have kind of allowed him to inbound the basketball, but their inability to simply handle pressure to the point of just getting the ball in bounds, just like Houston and Emmanuel Sharp will remember the loss from last night Sion James and the Duke Blue Devils are gonna wear that one for a long long time.
That felt like it's stung. Did you digest that one?
Oh?
No question?
I mean yeah.
I mean this Duke team was kind of poised to, uh, you know, etch themselves among some of the great teams in college basketball history. And in order to complete that, you have to, you know, you have to win it all. And they were trying to do that. I mean, yeah, to blow you know, blow the kind of lead they had against a team that you know, almost that Houston's offensively challenge. Obviously they can make some threeson that was
partly what they did. They come from behind, but you know, it really seemed to me like Duke was there came a point there, I don't know, eight nine minutes ago where Duke got kind of tentative. You know, like if you watched like the Alabama BYU game, Like when Alabama got ahead, they just kept playing, right, they just kept chucking up threes, and Duke, when they got ahead, really
got tentative. They started passing on open threes. You know, Flag did that at least once, and you know Cnipple did it once, and I think Proctor did it once and you go back and watch those possessions and you know,
they look they look kind of nice. On one hand, like all these guys are being so unselfish, you know, they're making the extra pass, but then they keep making the extra pass, and then Cooper Flag would get it and have to like, you know, throw up a turnaround you know, shot from the elbow, which like if anybody can make it, he can, but those are difficult shots and they weren't falling, and to me, that's where the
avalanche kind of started. Obviously, not being able to get the ball in bounds is an issue, and I don't know what I don't know what John Shire is feeling. You know, remember that like football player, but he was running it seemed like you know last year or two where everybody would line up on the base line and you know, run down the court and then cut back like Duke was trying to, like, you know, have everybody come to the base line. And Houston was pretty easily
able to defend that. So that was the issue. And then you also bring up the Cooper Flag bow, which you know, we shouldn't we shouldn't forget people just kind of like dismissed that. But that game was so physical over the last two minutes and they kind of call that foul on Cooper flag And if you actually go back and watch the replay of that, Juwan Roberts is the one boxing him out when the whistle blows, Like Juwan roberts instinct is that he thinks the fouls on him.
He's like, he's kind of like throwing up his arms, like, why are you showing the whistle And yeah, it's actually on Cooper flag. And so you know, if they don't call that ballet, Houston still probably has the ball and has a chance to win. But that obviously made things a little bit easier for for Houston to.
Pull it out.
So yeah, that was, you know, a wild game, and I think, yeah, one that's gonna it's gonna hurt for a long time to do Seaons.
The Auburn loss to Florida wasn't as epic of a collapse, but it kind of felt like in a way, Auburn also allowed Florida to steal that one from them. Like my takeaways from these games in the Final four is credit the team certainly that stayed in the fight and found a way to win, but every team that won seemed to get a little bit of a gift from
their opponent. They went away from Johnny Broom, who had third team points with sixteen minutes left and had I think two points the rest of the way, and it felt like he was their one clear advantage, not just getting buckets but also creating space for his teammates.
And Florida again comes back, they were down.
And they outscore Auburn forty one to twenty seven in the second half. What do you make of the way the Auburn Tigers went out?
Yeah, I just thought Broom was He was so banged up heading into that game, and I don't think people really realized how bad the elbow was. He was able to work through it and you know, be reasonably productive, but I mean, overall, one of his least productive games this season. And you know, ultimately, like Auburn's constructed a little bit different than Florida or Florida's you know, they got Walter Clayton, but they got a lot of other like guys that can contribute, you know, and high volume
if they need it. Auburn really doesn't have that, Like they they play through Jannibery where the night room is not productive, they don't have anybody else that they can rely on to pick up the slack, any kind of all hands on deck to do that. And you know guys like Denver Jones and Chad Baker, Baker Mazzara tried to do that in that game, but you know, ultimately
just wasn't quite enough. And really, like that's the thing when you look back to on this Florida run, like you know, people are gonna maybe forget about the fact that you know, multiple games here Florida was was trailing really on the wrong side look like the win probability draft. They were times where they were significantly on the wrong side of fifty percent in their last three games, and they were able to you know, pull each of them.
Out, all right.
A couple of local storylines can and shout out to the Northeast Conference, shout out to the Central Connecticut Blue Devils. But my question is about a player who's now trans to play at the University of Utah from Fairleigh Dickinson FDU and it is the first transfer portal addition from the outside count of DAWs back to play for aj next year. But Terrence Brown one of the top ten scores in college basketball twenty one points per game and was a leading scorer for FDU and I believe the
leading scorer in that conference. And according to on three on three Sports, he is a four star transfer with a composite rating of ninety three point two out of one hundred. I'm not going to tell you I was grinding on FDU tape this year, but your college basketball savants, any insight on this young man who's now going to be in Salt Lake City playing for Alex Jensen or Raphael Chillis Chileus next year.
Well, I'll confess I haven't broken down tape on him. I will tell you, like somebody making that big of a jump, like some of the scoring will transfer. But you know, you see this a lot of times at that level where you know, the pro gets a guy who's just like, you know, a someone to say, like you know, fairly take it was probably low major, right, like they're below mid major. So you get a guy who maybe you know was a mid major type player at your school and he just kind of dominates the ball.
And so that's the story with Terrence Brown. Like he you know, obviously a big time scorer, but also just dominated possessions for them, you know, at the ball all the time. And I assume his role will change a little bit at the big twelve level and typically you do see, not typically, but almost all the time, the roles for these guys shrink. The question is how much will is shrink? Will you know, will he still be a go to guy at Utah? I would be a
little skeptical of that. You know, he's he probably just ends up and I don't think it'd be like that's still a true role player, but something in between. You know, he's gonna be a guy second, third, fourth option. I think on a average big twelve offense, like that's kind of what you should be shooting for there. And so it's gonna be up to say, Jada, you know, fill in uh, you know, around him with other guys that
are gonna be able to score. Because if you if you let him play the role that he played at a fairly ticket, that probably won't.
Go well well said, if I asked you about this, forgive me, I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, But Kiano Dawes has decided to return to the you to play for Alex and his staff as well. What sort of news do you think that is for Utah fans?
I think good news.
It's a it's a bonus really, you know. I mean we talked about it last time where you know, you you shouldn't be surprised if they completely turned over the roster, and uh, they won't be turning over the roster. And you know, Keanu's again he was a role player last year, so he probably think is to be a role player this year. But you know, a guy that that can provide some offense for for the team and.
Uh, you know, I don't know where he.
Ranks in the offensive pecking order after the roster is constructed, but U you know, he should be a guy who you know is in that like mix to be you know, second, third, fourth, leading score or something like that. If they can again find some talent to kind of build around, and if he ends up being the leading scorer, then you know, it's probably a situation where you know, Utah's in the in the bottom quarter of the league next year.
All right, before I say you lose BYU with some news over the past week and they need a point guard. Dallen Hall is in the transfer portal and Yegor or Demon is going to the NBA. So give me your thoughts on on both those those storylines. What sort of NBA careers ahead for this this young man Diego Demon and what does Kevin Young do? Look, they're going to be fine based off of the reports about the nil perse they have down there, but they do have a hole in the roster.
Now, ken do what do you think goes down here?
Yeah, I mean they should be fine, Like, yeah, so they have a hole in the roster, but I mean, welcome to college basketball. That's like, you know, three hundred other teams right now. I mean, the fact that they don't have five holes on the roster is you know, put the head of a lot of teams. And as long as they kind of maintained that core of Richie Saunders and Katakata primarily. You know, Dawson Baker coming back
will help out as well. Obviously, you know de Bonsa, I don't know if you call him the centerpiece in this whole operation, but you know he's going to be a significant contributor as well. So I mean, just from that standpoint, like, they'll be fine and they'll you know, they'll Kevin Young will find guys to fill the roster that I think we'll make this team, you know, at worse, let's say a borderline top twenty five team. I think
with you know, Kata, Saunders and Devonsa. Just from that standpoint, the team should be really good. To me, it's like you don't want to like gig Or. I think we all knew was leaving even though the year was disappointing. Like he came. He came to Provo for one reason and that was ja launch his NBA career, And so it's not surprising that he's leaving and Dallen Hall leaving, you know, I think in a vacuum not too surprising either.
I mean, YU doesn't suffer from the transfer bug as much as other schools for for obvious reasons regarding the church, and so you thought maybe maybe down Hall would come back. But in a normal situation, with the year he had, not terribly surprising he's leaving either, And it kind of gives by you an opportunity to, you know, go out
and possibly get something better. I mean, I think, you know, point guards out there to see what they what they're coming into with the three guys, I just mentioned as the core of the team. Like you know, it's gonna be very attractive. So I don't think it's going to be a problem here to find a you know, an above average big twelve point card.
All right, Ken, before I set you loose, one more push on the website. How can people go get their work to support you so you can go work in Calgary.
Exactly, that's what it's all about. And uh yeah, Kenpalm dot Com. So it's twenty five bucks for twelve years or twelve years months of Yeah, well that's a special deal for right now now twelve months of data. So we have beside the twelve months because it means youp buy now, you will of course get all the data through the entire sity next year, which is what really matters.
All right, my friend, thank you so much for the time all year long. And we'll set you loose and we'll chat soon.
Okay, sounds great, Ben, Thank you.
Kenpalm dot com is where you go. I'll remind you that the top eight teams in ken Palm's rating all made the Elite eight, and the top four teams in ken Palm's Raiding all made the final four.
The man knows what he's talking about.
It looks like they have better weather at Augusta today.
It's Masters Week, Part three.
Contest will be tomorrow that starts at ten am Mountain Time. You can see it on ESPN Plus. I guess you can see it on Disney as well if you have the Disney app. I guess Disney's getting into golf. So we'll do some Masters throughout the week. We'll get you ready for the tournament coming up at Augusta National. Get back to some of the basketball and football storylines. Mike Malone has been fired as the head coach of the Denver Nuggets. Rarel salt Lake is back in action. Coming
up on Saturday. They hit the Roadie tick on Nashville. They'll be back home to take on Toronto the week after that after getting all three points over the weekend against the LA Galaxy. Our next guest sporting director, decision maker, intelligent soccer minds and a good time. If you want to grab some dinner, hang out Kurt Schmidt Tuesday afternoon.
Kurt, how are you, sir?
I'm good.
It sounds like you are in transit somewhere. Where do we find you on this lovely Tuesday.
Yeah, yeah, in transit, heading heading home, and I gotta get on the phone when I get there, So was lucky to squeeze in.
Well, I feel lucky you made time.
Do you have to get on the phone with a potential signing or two that you are trying to get across the line prior to the transfer window closing in about two and a half weeks.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's definitely related.
So okay, fair enough, follow up?
Where are we at in this process?
You know, the last few weeks, it's been Jason, it's been Tony, it's been uh, Pablo a couple of different times. And since you are the guy and the buckstots with you, Yes, I know it's a collaboration. You guys are talking together in a room, you know, ourself fans chomping at the bid. Are we getting close to getting these things across the line?
Yeah? Yeah, we're getting close, you know, not sleeping a ton trying to trying to adjust my body clock to to try to match the European time change a little bit. But we're getting close a little bit, a little bit every day. Obviously we all want it to go a little bit faster, but it takes what it takes.
Well, Since you alluded to your body adjusting to the European clock, I imagine you are speaking with players that play there soccer in Europe.
Is that fair to say?
I can't believe I let that slip.
Europe's a big place, Kurt. There are plenty of soccer teams over there. I mean a lot of.
People wonder because look, I could read you the rumors that I see online, and I've got three strikers in front of me that I'll play an MLS that you've been linked to. But you're speaking the players internationally or are you speaking to players domestically too?
Yeah, I mean there's not one option, right, So we've got a couple options. There are some options in the league.
You know.
It's teams are in an interesting spot. We're right around that time where you know they've got what they or they think they know what they've got after the early games of the season, and we're coming up towards the trade deadline, so you're going to start to see some
movement within the league. So that may impact things as well, you know, But what we're looking for is is a tough spot, you know, a tough position to kind of fill always from within the league, you know, I think there's a few good candidates that could take a step and be contributors, but you know, it's it's a tough position to fill internally and usually have to go abroad to get to get someone.
In there, as you know hurt.
And now we'll tell our listeners the primary transfer window closes in two weeks, so we're looking at a hard deadline of April to twenty third. What's realistic to expect as far as making these additions prior to this window and then the process of getting them on the ground and how long it takes to get them acclimated to the system, and what's reasonable to expect when we could actually see them playing significant minutes and hopefully helping you guys out.
Yeah, I mean, there's obviously the deal, you know, the deal and time it takes that to get done, which is where we're at right now, and hopefully finishing that up. There's the integration process, which you know can't be forgotten. I think the the you know, that's usually three to four weeks, depending on a few different factors that are of our hands. And then you know, your comments about getting acclimated and adjusted to the system. That obviously is
the thing that takes probably the longest. You know, we play with with a little more structure maybe than a lot of teams where we might be recruiting from, and so it'll take teams take players a minute to you know, do enough video and get on the same page with their teammates and the coaches and fit in. But we still think a guy can come in and have an immediate impact and create danger and help us right away.
How many players are you hoping to have signed before April twenty third?
I will I will say, I'm I'm really hopeful we get one guy in. If there's another one that we can do, we'll do it. You know, we're we're keeping our ears open, our eyes open to what's out there, whether that's internal trades or abroad. You know, obviously we have an international player limit which we are always kind of bumping up against. So the odds of an additional signing being domestic or quite high, So.
Of course everybody is surmising that. And for our listeners if you're just tuning in, Kurt Schmid is with us. So if there's one player across the line is it safe to say that that player is a striker.
Uh yeah, sure, it's pretty safe.
Okay, definitely an attacker, and it's someone that can play center forward for US. I think, you know, Ari and Forster have done well. You know, even hayesus has come on there and done well. There's still young players that you know, we'll have their up and ups and downs. We believe in all all through those guys, you know, but I think sometimes it helps to have more experienced player come in and you know, shoulder some of the burden, some of the load and and you know, teach those
guys as well and help those guys develop. So we are development of love as you know. So we're gonna keep developing those guys. But yeah, we need to add a little more experience in that part of the field.
If there should be a secondary player added, what position would that secondary player play.
That's a great question. Likely in the attack, but not closed off to anything. I think some of it is is finding a good opportunity and something that we can we can exploit, but likely looking to add some more
competition in the attack. I think our competition in the in the middle of midfield and in the back line has been has been good early in the season, you know, but upfront is where we you know, we haven't scored as many goals, and our competition there is and maybe quite quite as good as it is in the back.
Right now, are you satisfied with the goal opportunities that are created? Because it's one thing to have a pure goal scorer, and certainly we've had a few on this team, and one is recently last year as Chico that was able to put away a lot of chances.
But you can't put away chances that they're not created.
So are you satisfied with the creativity the attacking ability of your players right now that are providing the chances that hopefully these new players will be able to finish happy?
Yes, satisfied? No, you know, it's it's obviously just the math equation, right, You've got to score more than you let in. So if you want to win games, do you either got to let in fewer goals or score more. So I look at it, you know, as yes, we do need to create higher quality chances in in more games. We need to create higher quality chances than we can see in those games. I think defensively, you know, we can we can tighten things up as well, and I
think we've been a little unlucky. We've also conceded some some quality chances on the defensive end as well, But those things are always intertwined. And I know that you know, if we're able to finish of some chances that we're creating earlier in games, that lightens the load on those guys. So I want to do both. I want to increase the chances we the quality of the chances we create, and decrease the quality chances that we concede. But I think those things are interdependent.
So as somebody who is acutely aware of the difficulties that decision makers like you face when it comes to getting these deals done, I know that I'll ask you about the delays as to why this has taken place, and we could go in a million different directions. So ultimately, how would you characterize and articulate to RSL fans why these signings have not been able to be completed yet?
Yeah, I mean, look, it takes at two and in this case three to tango, right, You've got to get us another club and another player all on the same page at the same time to get a deal done, and we're only in control of one of those three parties, so we are at the whim of other parties a lot of the time. And and and sorry, they'll train a thought.
But when we when we go out.
And we're talking to these clubs, you know, they have their own motivations. Okay, they could they could be motivated to sell or not their windows closed, which we seees in advantage sometimes in MLS that our windows stays open so long, but it can also be disadvantaged because as we go and talk to clubs, they you know, if they've got a player who's performing for them in that moment, they don't always want to let that guy go if
they can't replace him. So we're kind of battling battling those that pushful.
It has been reported pretty widely widely excuse me, first by Sportico and then ultimately the Salt Lake Tribune and others, that there is a what I've been told is an eminent ownership shift where the Miller family is coming in to take the business interest on of the team. Ryan Smith will exit stage left to focus on other things, and the Blitzer group will maintain whatever control they maintain.
The natural follow up, Kurtis, has this ownership stuff in this transition, has this delayed your ability to make some of these decisions and get it done.
I'll just tell you that I'm I'm far too worried and busy with with trying to get some signings over the line to comment to you about any ownership situation.
Fair enough and smart answer, But I do want to go back to what you referenced because I think I think Ralpha cabral has been really, really good. And as you referenced earlier, you know, it's a math equation. You've got to put in more than you give up. And maybe lost in the attention on the attack is you guys have given up eleven goals, which is third worst in the West.
Are we focused too much on one.
Area of your team when maybe there's other areas that we need to be honed in on as well.
Yeah, absolutely, I do think we need to tighten things up in the back. But as I said before, the things that those things are interdependent. So on the one hand, there's a psychological opponent where if you feel like, you know, if you're playing center back or goalkeeper or you know, anywhere in the back line and you feel like your team can score a goal, you play with a little more confidence and maybe you're a little loose or less tense,
and that helps you play better. Uh, even if that that guy doesn't score, but if if you're worried about that potentially you know, and maybe we miss a good chance or two, and now it shakes everybody a little bit. So from that standpoint, there's a psychological component. Defense is also a team game. Rafa, I think Rafa has been you know, very good despite despite the stat you mentioned.
I think he's played really well. He's led the back line, he's been good in possession, He's made some good says. But you know, there's ten guys in front of him that also have have a responsibility to limit the chances that that we give up so that Rafa doesn't have to be as good or have to do as much. And so we need to we need to work on both of them.
So of course, uh, you know, a lot of attention right now on Diego, deservedly so with his recent UH national team call ups, his kind of cult uh you know, uh status there, with his ability to play through injury, and that Oakan knows and was named the Utah Male Athlete of the Year got a brace for you guys against the Galaxy, becomes the youngest RSL player to tally fifteen goals fifteen assists. Uh, and it's only it's only
good news as you reference your developmental club. And as Jason said on the show last week, we're a club that, uh, you know, we don't necessarily ride a check for ten.
Million dollars for a player.
We develop a check and then sell that player for ten million dollars. I would imagine, Kurt, your phone has to ring all the time about this young man.
Yeah, look, Diego's doing doing great. How much my phone is or isn't ringing in relation to him, you know, is not really the point. I think the club, the club values him a ton. I value him a ton.
I know the coaches value him a ton, and and my goal is to keep him here where he's performing at a good level as long as we can, you know, and how long that is is you know again, like I said, as long as we can keep the ear and he's happy here, you know, we're happy to happy to keep him intemp So you know, all that other stuff is you know, we don't want it to become a distraction, either for us or for him, or for
the fans or anybody. Let's just you know, the point is to enjoy him while he's here and have him help us be as successful as possible.
But also by your own admission and the admission of others. The point is, in addition to keeping them happy and keeping them playing well, the point, the other point is to continue the club's ethos and belief that you are a team that identifies young talent, develops that young talent, and then moves that young talent on if you can,
you know, get the right price. So what are what are the uh the plates that you're juggling and spinning around above your head as you're balancing out what the right thing is to do for a player that is on record saying that he wants to play in Europe and as the chief decision maker for a club that is on record saying this is what we do.
We develop young and then we sell.
Yeah, we developed, We we buy or you know, draft or bring the academy young players. We developed them, and yeah, we sell them, but we don't, you know, we don't need to sell all of them. We do need to sell some to keep the sort of cycle churning and the cycle going. But every situation is different, right so Jego situation, it will be different and is different from Andreas or Fodel or anyone else that we're talking about.
We're also a club, you know, and as I'm you know, working on the team and the roster and building things up that you know, we we do need to have some uh some pillars of the of the group right that that can be on the team for a long time. And right now you've got guys like Oheita. You've got guys like a Mecca to two guys that play in the middle of the field that you know, I think
could be could be longer term players here. Brian has already been here, you know, a few years, and I think when I got here, you know, it was sort of the end of U or we're coming towards the end of a cycle where we you know, we had Demeir and we had Albert, we had Marcelo. You know, we had some good veteran guys that has sort of you know, eight out or left the team, and now
we've got to replace that aspect as well. And as you know, as as you pointed out, as Uson pointed out, we're maybe not going to go buy you know, six seven, eight, nine, ten million dollar guy to fill that role, but we think we can develop guys into that role as well. So the player development aspect, you know, has has more than one logical endpoint.
So let's get an update, progress update in your opinion or lack thereof, wherever you're at with it. For Diogo, who on paper is your only designated player, and you know, the breakaway against La you got to at least make the keeper make a safe, you know. But but I will give him credit because he's the one that won the ball back and provided the secondary assist on Diego's
first goal. But I just think in that spot, you know, with all the attention and fanfare he received when he was signed, I think there are people that are wanting more.
Where you at, Kurt, with the progress of Diego.
Yeah, I think he's playing really well this year. I think he's facilitating the game a lot. You mentioned the first goal. Second, you know, he facilitates uh in the in the possession for the second goal as well. And you know, him getting those chances is a huge positive. You know, when we look at recruitment and scouting and
evaluate players within without the league. We you know, we look at things like expected goals and expected assists and is this guy creating chances that are a flight quality? Is he is he taking you know, is he taking shots of a high quality? And you know those are areas where Diogo's done all right this season and the execution needs to get there. And I think, you know, when he continues to create those chances, I do think
he's going to finish them. You know, he's obviously got the one goal this year arguably should have uh, you know, the second one for you know, second one should have been in LA against La one hundred percent. But I know he's a team guy, and he's nobody's harder on Diogo than Diogo for for missing a chance like that. But I I'm just I'm I couldn't be happier to see it manifest itself in him fighting to win that ball back and create our first goal, to help us
score the second goal. And he's a team guy, and I know he's he's certainly far happier that we went, that we win the game, then he is upset that he missed the chances.
One spot, Kurt that I've felt and this this is just you know, this is something you're gonna have to walk me through because I just I like Alex Catranis, and I think there's a lot to like the Alex and Sam battle at that spot.
I think, you know, it's one thing when you guys.
Had the Conka Calf Champions League kind of schedule sneak up on you where you're gonna have a bunch of midweek games. But when that went out at the table, I just figured that spot was Alex's. And there's nothing wrong with a healthy competition, But what do you make of that battle and how it's kind of played out?
I think, yeah, competition is the watchword, right It's he's he's had that position. Last year, he didn't have as much competition for that spot. You know, this year Sam came in to kind of help us out in two spots that left center back and left back and help us through fix your congestion. One was in Concast Champions League, hopefully another as a as a run in Leagu's Cup. But yeah, right now, when it's one game a week,
it's it's competition. And when we have competition between two guys that can both start in this league at the same position. That's gonna make each of them, you know, perform at the top of their game. So I think Sam's appearances Sam starts or something that's gonna motivate Alex and sharpen him up. And I thought he had a good game on Saturday, and I know that's gonna do
the same to Sam. And I think if we have those two guys pushing each other as hard as possible, it's gonna make us as good as possible, regardless who starts, right. So that's that's the goal when we strive to build that depth and competition. And as I said earlier, I think we've done a good job of that along the back line.
Healthy are you guys heading into the weekend in Nashville.
Picked up a knock or two that we're still working on obviously, you know Kobe Henry last week. This week, you know, maybe maybe one more. Uh, it's a little too early to kind of say, gonna gonna have to see how the next couple.
Of days a go.
All right, before I say you loose, Uh, I've heard that Nashville UH Soccer specific UH Stadium is pretty is pretty cool.
Is this your You've been there before, haven't you?
Yeah?
Yep?
What's your what's your favorite visiting venue? What's what's the best atmosphere? If I take our spot away here, what's what's your favorite venue to go watch a game?
AP?
I won't, I won't pick one. I mean, I think I think places like Portland, like l a. C. Even like Minnesota, Austin, when those places are alive, they're they're really they're entertaining to watch, and they're they're intimidating atmospheres to to play in as a as a visiting team, and I think they're just as a soccer fan, they're just you know, like a wonderful place is to watch
a game and to experience a game. I know there's a few others that I'm missing, and you know, apologize, I guess, but there's some really good atmospheres, and I think, you know, from a stadium standpoint, there's obviously been some really nice stadiums built recently within the league. You know, we were just in Minnesota. That's a really nice stadium.
You know, Nashville is certainly one of them. You know, I mentioned also already with they're one of them, as well, you know, so there are some you know, there's some nice stadiums in the league these days. So it's really it's a pleasure for the for the players, and it's a far cry from back in the day when when this thing.
Started up, no doubt.
All right, buddy, safe travels will set you loose because you have more important phone calls to make, namely in Europe.
Thanks for the time about with chat too perfect Thanks men Ert Schmid, sporting director for Real Salt Lake.
Two weeks away from the primary transfer window closing.
All right, wrapping up the program for.
This Thursday afternoon, thirty fifth anniversary today, people's instinctive travels. Great tribe call quest album not their best album, not their best album, but a great album. Midnight Marauders, I don't know, reasonable minds can disagree. Thirty five years old makes me feel little. I don't think I kicked the tires with you on some pretty exciting breaking news. Ted Lasso is coming back for season four.
Oh really, don't.
Pretend like you're excited. You are our resident. That show sucks, guy Order.
I don't know if I said that order verbatim.
You're being a revisionist historian.
I thought that the uh, the uproar about the show was a little out of hand, maybe a little excessive, But as you pointed out during that, uh, I think that folks needed, uh, you know, needed some good vibes at the time. Yeah, and he provided that.
Yeah, it was COVID.
It's subsided a little bit. So I think we were both right because you look at it now, and you know, people aren't losing their minds over what is ay find Jason Sudeikis sitcom.
Nobody was losing their minds at the time. Our options were Tiger King, Cable News Fair, or Ted Lasso.
It was a breath of fresh.
Air for a world that was ending and melting right before our eyes. And you had to be a thief of joy. That's what you were. You're a thief of joy.
I just sucked that, I know, talking about it as if it were like like a genuinely groundbreaking piece of cinematic art who said that I'll go find stuff for you.
That's a little silly.
See to me, it was just simply like a feel good show that had some funny moments, and Jason Sadaeikis is a funny guy.
I agree with you Okay, I don't hate it.
Glad we landed on the same spot. I still haven't seen it, but you never want to wait a second. You can't criticize it if you haven't seen it.
I haven't seen the four seasons again. I watched the beginning and it was just like, you know, it's fine, it's funny. I'll be honest. I thought that the it was a little like forced, like some of the writing was a little corny. And that's what usually gets me with with shows. It's usually when I check out.
But hey, teach, I always need that reminder that you don't like fun things. Sometimes I forget and then you remind, Like you don't play fantasy football. Certain you don't like holidays, You hate kids. You don't like puppies.
I love puppies.
You do love puppies. Yeah, you don't like kids.
I like some kids.
You don't like very many kids. You don't like holidays.
I like some holidays.
And you don't like ted Lasso, and you don't play fantasy football?
That one?
You know, what do you like that's fun? Give me a fun thing that you like besides seeing a rare bird in nature? Who take that off the table?
Shine. Okay, you know, collective sporting events give me a good, good, good good feel.
I thought you were gonna say collective soul. I'm glad. I'm glad you said collective sporting events.
That's good fun things. I love some tennis. Actually playing tennis.
Tennis is fun.
I like getting out out for a you know, a good hike. Flowers. I love flowers.
You love flowers.
I'm a plant guy.
You love flowers and birds.
Uh.
You love it when our textures compliment you did blackmail you for golf?
I do like that.
I guess butter you up for golf. Uh so that happened today? All right.
Last thing, Bobby Marx RNA Show wrote a piece concerning Luka Dacic and what every team could have offered if Niko Harrison did the thing where you're like, I don't know, maybe just let everybody know he's available and take the
best deal instead of shipping to the Lakers. Here's what Bobby Marks outlined that the Jazz could have offered for Luka Doncic, John Collins, Isaiah Callier, Taylor Hendrix, two twenty seven first round picks, a twenty nine first round pick, and yeah, there you go, So it would be five picks, five first round picks, John Collins, Isaiah Callier, Taylor Hendrix.
Where do I sign?
You make that deal seven days out of seven and twice on Sundays. But of course Nico Harrison decided not to let you know the NBA know that he was about to trade a generational global superstar at the age of twenty five. Mike Malone fired today as the Denver Nuggets head coach. Since shockwaves across the world of pro basketball. Busy night in the NBA, Busy night in hockey, the Utah Hockey Club. Welcome in the Seattle cracking for a seven o'clock drop of the puck at the Delta Center.
Kind of the only local thing going on. Jazz back of action tomorrow taking on Portland. So there you go, all right, port Before we get out of here, what comes our way? On a Wednesday edition of the radio show.
On a Wedday edition, the program will catch up with Andy Larson from the Stall Lake Tribune, as we do each and every week. NHL Behind the Glass with our guy Neil Smith. The Stanley Cup champion Zach Harper will stop by the program that is your NBA Daily assist for a Wednesday, and we're gonna catch up with Carly Daukendorf, the head coach for Utah women's gymnastics. They're going to the Nationals for the forty ninth maybe fiftieth straight year.
Some pretty impressive stuff and always good to catch up on that side.
What's the one gymnastics discipline you think you could do without training?
Oh, here we go, you've got an answer. I was a gymnast for the young parts of my life. My mom thought it was gonna help me with all the other sports I probably did. I can still do a back handspring. That's impressive. Yeah, I would break my leg if I tried. I haven't tried probably like eight or nine months, so I probably shouldn't say that. But last time I checked, I could still do it backhands So.
What are you saying the floor exercise would be your thing? Is that the deal? If you had a pick one? Because I'll be honest, I am amazed at all of the disciplines that gymnasts do, Like it doesn't register in my brain is like, yeah, you could go do that.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that there's one that like actually really specifically would play into to what I would do. I always like the bars.
The uneven ones fair enough.
I'm kind of like a jungle Jim kiddo, so I'll go with.
That one fair enough. By the way, low End Theory is Tribe's best album. I just want to be on record. It's not Midnight Marauders, Brandon, do.
Not add me?
All right, Well, say good night special, Thank you, Tony Jones, Tim McMahon, Ken Pomeroy, Kurt Schmidt.
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