TUE POD @SpenceChecketts on Runnin' Utes next move, Jazz vs Blazers, Big 12 hoops + more

All right, let's get a drive time Tuesday afternoon, fifteen minutes past the hour, two o'clock. Another beautiful day man, about fifty two degrees in sunny here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. And as it is every single day, it's gonna have you along for the ride. Spence Check it's behind the mike. That's Porter Larsen beyond the glass.

This program is called The Drive with Spence Checkets.

We do four hours of radio every single afternoon, and it's good to have you along for the ride. All right, good guest list today, a lot to get to today. Game day for the Utah Hockey Club. They welcome to the Chicago Blackhawks. Points at a premium fun conversation with Bill Armstrong yesterday, general manager.

Of the Utah Hockey Club.

They're back in action tonight, so the push for the wild card is on for the hockey club. Utah Jazz took an l last night to the Portland Trail Blazers. They're gonna be off tonight. They're back in action tomorrow taking on Sacramento. Really good game last night from Kyle Philipowski. Pretty good game from Bryce sent Siba Keyante tried to get them back in and at the end. But it was not a great Kyante night after a really good Kiante game against the Houston Rockets. But we'll do a

The Lakers and the Mavericks.

Luka Doncicic taking on his old team in Los Angeles. We'll get to some storylines surrounding that game. Do some big picture NBA as down the stretch we come. And I've got to say, as the guy who pretty consistently over the past number of well years now has cracked on this product to pro basketball where it employs basketball players that don't seem to enjoy, you know, playing basketball. Over the past few nights, there have been some really

We'll get to the latest on this, and.

I've had a couple of conversations over the past twenty four hours from folks up on the hill with folks up on the Hill and boosters donors reaching out talking about what's next for Utah basketball. So we'll get to that and the latest with the candidates that most people have already talked about. If you missed the Josh Grant interview from yesterday, I would highly encourage you to go listen to that up on our podcast page, which is

I guess is how we'll that.

With BYU football and then we'll do somebo College basketball is BYU is high speed ahead of the NCAA tournament.

It looks like, barring some late season collapse.

Richie Saunders named the Big twelve Player of the Week BYU with a massive win at McHale. So it's kind of a quiet night locally outside of the hockey club. But tomorrow's packed. Utah is at McHale to take on Arizona Sacramentos in town to take on the Jazz and BYU back in action as well as they're gonna take on Arizona State on the road. BYU in the top twenty five for the first time all year. Utah State with a tough roady at Boise, so a lot to do on the program.

RSL back in action tomorrow.

It's the second leg of their CONKYCAFF champions Cup opening round matchup against Aridiano. This one is here. It's out in Sandy. It shouldn't be right there, but hey, let's get a parking lot instead. So it's out in Sandy. Head on out RSL dot com to support the lads.

All right.

Our first guest right out of the gates Sean Mooney. We'll do some Utah basketball right away with Sean, who played at the U and now is alongside Ryles for the call for U tome nd Hoops. So Sean will be our first guest today. NBA Daily Assists was Zach Harper. He rolls by on the program as well. And then we're gonna bring in Bill Voice himself, Bill Riley on the program. We'll get Bill's thoughts on Craig's dismissal and

We'll keep you up to date on that me Spence check. It's all of you the great listeners.

Happy Tuesday, beautiful day outside, and it's going to have you along for the ride. And that guy Porter Larson rocking the beanie with fifty degrees today.

It is a little warm feeling.

All right.

Yeah, I guess I didn't get outside too much before I came outside, threw the beanie on, and then yeah, ran outside in mid February, and it's an another beautiful spring maybe summer.

Day, Yes it is.

We were able to avoid the the the mud ponds at the park today. Duke, the station mascot, Duke who is here today? He cannot say no to a mud pond and he's white, yes, so it doesn't. It's not a great look. So we were able to avoid that today. But a fun day at the park with the dog. Hopefully you guys are able to get outside enjoy this warm weather. It will not last all that long, all right. Sean Mooney our first guest right out of the gates today. But before we get to Sean, pry to see if

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All right, So, you never know in this business when a story's going to come down, and you kind of throw out the run down and you do the show based on the topic and the news of the day today, and ultimately the news came down that Craig Smith has been relieved of his duties as the head coach for the Utah men's basketball team. Craig was in his fourth year. We've talked about it. You know, the results. We could be reductive and say you didn't win enough, and that's

You know, on the football side.

Of things, you could make a very fair case that last year was just a moment in time and this whole scenario where BYU has risen up to be a legitimate Big twelve football contender in Utah last year kind of fell backwards. You could make a very fair argument that the data indicates that might just be a moment right not necessarily the reality you can't do that with

It's Ryan Smith, it's Danny Ainge.

I'm told they have nine seven figure donors and they all care about basketball. They paid Kevin a lot of money to lead the NBA. The reports are they have two seven figure players this year, and Cannon Catchings and Yegor Demon and they have the best high school player in the country coming to Provo next year. To the tune of more than five million dollars for five months

Of pressure to make sure you get this higher right.

You know, we talked about this when Tom Homo announced that he was retiring down at BRIGHAMIONG after twenty years. As they're ad Broco, Metadal, Dave Rose, Kalone, Satake, Mark Pope, Kevin Jung. I mean, that's basically five for five right for hires and Marx hires Craig and it didn't work, and so it's so for one, he didn't hire Kyle. And I think the you know, the succession plan of Morgan in place for Kyle was already in place before Mark got here.

So I'm sure Mark's feeling a little bit of heat.

He's got to get this one right because the one higher he's made, and this is the revenue generating sports. There are other hires he's made in sports that don't generate as much revenue that have been fine, but basketball and football is what pay payser bills, and that's ultimately how you're judged from Mark seats.

So we'll see what happens.

Of course, Alex jen And is the name that everybody's honed in on, and as I talked about yesterday and we'll talk about with both Sean Mooney and Bill Riley today. Five years ago or so, when coach Chriscoviak was let go and Alex's name came up, I was adamant that

Right, we could keep going, but those are kind of the.

Roses if if you will, when it comes to that iteration of the Jazz and the players they were able to develop. Sadly none of them stayed here when they had the ability to choose where they wanted to live. But Alex was credited with really helping Rudy develop. When Rudy came into the league, he could barely run up and down the floor. Dennis Lindsay on My show, Jazz General Manager said Rudy was treated like a quote circus freak at the draft combine.

Nobody knew what to do with him.

And of course the bulk of the credit goes to go Bear, but Alex was the guy that was working with him every day. He went from a Langley baby giraffe to a Hall of Famer with the help of Alex Jensen. You add on to the fact that they want a ton of games, and when you win, you're going to lose assistant coaches. And Quinn did with that group quite a bit. I could name you a bunch of names, but none of them would probably land. You

This is I have not talked to Alex. I've reached out to him.

Alex was perfect for the Jazz because he's very close to the chest, close to the vest.

He doesn't share much. He's a pretty quiet dude.

So we'll see a lot of people have already leaned into this idea of Alex Jensen as your head coach and Andre Miller as your assistant. And I'll say this, I'm not usually one that says you've got to win the press conference, but I think in this situation.

In scenario you kind of do.

I think you need to show this community that you're willing to spend what you need to spend to keep up with that school down south that's spending a lot of money to build a powerhouse college basketball program and get.

In the game. Man.

And if it's Alex Jensen and Andre Miller, I would imagine the ticket reps up on the Hill would receive quite a few phone calls right after the press conference. And of course the more important thing is how do you build a program, But at least for one day. If that's the direction, you garner a lot of good will in this community, and the buzz would be pretty palpable.

Do almonds go bad? Do almonds have an expiration date? Honestly don't know.

Do almonds go bad?

Yeah? Maybe google that.

I think I'm gonna say yes, But I think you're gonna have to like try to or like introduce moisture to the to the situation. I think they stay good for quite some time.

Oh right, Yeah, I need to get to the store.

Nobody gives a rip about this, but I was leaving in a rush today.

Needed a snack.

I've had this bag of almonds in my drawer for at least two years.

Oh, it's cracked. I'm eating them. So I'm just wondering if I'm in trouble.

I think you're fine, all right, but you know I'm not a doctor. I did stay at a holiday in last night, though.

Sean Mooney, we know that Sean is a very proficient dancer in basketball. Mind, do you have any knowledge on the shelf life of almonds?

Sean?

I think you're just fine. I mean, come on, they've been around for a centuries, They're going to be around for a centuries from here on out. You are nut.

We know that.

Oh wow, Sean, that's good. That's good. I'll tell you what. Tell you what doesn't have a very long shelf live? College basketball coaches?

What?

Wow? Did I just make that transition?

Good? It was? It was good.

So Jean out know, if you had a chance to listen to Josh yesterday on the program, Yeah, goodness, and hey, I love it.

I love the honesty.

I don't know that I'm completely aligned with him all the way, but let you start there. What are your thoughts on kind of the salient clear eye analysis Josh gave us yesterday?

Well, First of all, like I love JG. So I was an athlete with JG. He obviously is everything you said he was Spence. I mean, he's as good a player probably as we've had at Utah, really really talented, and I love how he's not pulling punches. He's just out telling you exactly what he feels. And I think like most of what JG had to say was was accurate. And the thing I love the most about what Josh said yesterday and what I heard the most Spence was his passion. Can you hear the passion he has for

Just initially, Okay, well said, let me follow up with this, And here's where, Honestly, Sean, I'm not really sure where to land because I'm not privy to any of these conversations about what Josh was was kind of out outlining yesterday of alumni trying to contact Craig to get more involved, and part of me, if I'm being honest, part of

Yeah, I mean, I don't have any specific knowledge. Jag definitely, Josh definitely spoke as if he did have specific knowledge about that. I don't have that knowledge. I do know, and you know this. One of my close friends, my best man, Tommy Connor, was on a coaching staff at Utah. Two coaching staffs, Coach Majerison, coach Criscobiak, and so I do know from conversations with Tommy that often alumni reach out and sometimes you can talk to them, and sometimes

Right, So before we get to and we'll talk Alex, we'll talk about other candidates, let's discuss Sean, your opinion on exactly why this went down when it went down. The timing still is a little and I've had some conversations that is give me a little bit more clarity, But the timing is still a little bit like, I don't know, do you let them just finish out the season And you know, they're already paying Larry and now they're paying Craig.

They're paying two coaches not to coach the team.

And you know, and Sean, we can be reductive, and I'm sure Craig, who's a honest, straight shooter, what's I didn't win enough so we can just lean into results period. I've been told that there is a booster element to this. People did not love the direction of the program. You compare to what BYU's building and how they look right now.

A lot of people up here are not thrilled with the direction. So what's your take on why this went down and when it went down?

Yeah, I mean I would say that there and Josh shit this on the head that I think in his what he talked about Last year, the Oregon State loss was a tough loss for us, and this year the UCF loss was a very tough loss. We had just that glimmer of hope. I mean, I was on your show saying that we're going to go three and two, and I really believe that, you know, and then you have that tough loss way of nineteen turnowds. We don't play the way we want to play. As far as timing,

You know, I'm glad you ended your answer with that, because there was luck. And I very much like Craig, and I do think he's a good coach. I don't think this will be the final chapter of his coaching journey. He's still very young, He's wanted places he's been prior to and I do feel bad for Craig, and I feel bad first fan. You know, a nice five million dollars, so parachute helps, you know. Yeah, my father wasn't a coach, but he was an executive in sports for thirty years.

I wanted to hammer it home.

But yeah, one of the things Sean that I thought of pretty quickly was oh, okay, good, this standard is not okay with decision makers up there because it's been way too long since we've had to It's twenty sixteen was our last tournament team.

I mean we're coming up on a decade.

We should have the standard in this city that our basketball team either goes to the tournament every year or is knocking on the door every year.

I truly feel that way.

I absolutely agree with you.

And to go back to that twenty sixteen, one of the interesting thoughts about the end of Larry's coaching career, it was the Pac Twelte wasn't as strong as we would have hoped it would have been. Right, So they end up in the top four four years in a row, and I think they only make the tournament one of those years. So that's kind of a mix of bad luck and being in a league that maybe didn't get the same kind of attention. Now, the Big twelve is

And we'll get there.

But before we do, tell me about conversations you've had with Josh Eiland. I don't know, Josh. I would imagine we'll get him on the show. I know that he was a interim head coach prior to a West Virginia. I don't really even know what the nature of his relationship was with Craig. But what do you know about the interim head coach Josh Eiland.

Yeah, no, quite a bit, right, And so we've had the opportunity to spend time with the coaches. He's a Kansas kid from a small town family man, really really well respected everywhere we go in this league, either the rest or the other coaches. I just had a coach in our last game at UCF stop me as we're walking out and say, hey, make sure you say hi to Josh. Josh didn't make the last game because he's sick. Coach Ilt didn't make the game. He's a straight shooter.

Well, and he also coached under Bob Huggins, So you know, he probably, as you know, probably probably has a lot of a lot of great stories about coaching under Bob. So I don't think Josh is a candidate. I don't know this. We'll see what he's able to do. So before we move into what's next, what do you you know, we're all recalibrating now, right, So what do you expect on this team moving forward?

After these players have lost the coach.

I feel like most of them liked playing for I don't have any inside information there.

Yeah, no, I think it's the craziest thing ever. I mean, this is basically all Bill and our sound engineers. Though you're guys, though we've been talking about, right, what's gonna how's the team going to respond? I mean, I don't think the team had any idea this was coming in, so I'm sure they're a shot. They flew home after UCF, so we're actually in Tucson right now waiting for them. They're going to come in to day at five forty five.

Well, that's good, that's good.

And we'll see how they respond because I mean, you know, I certainly I think it would be difficult as a young player to lose the guy who you came to play for. And maybe a little rally around Coach Eyler will have to see. But let's move on to what's next.

Like you know the list.

So let's talk about that portion of this pool before we get to the names that everybody's already talking about. If you're Mark Harlan, even though you're hearing the Alex Jensen's, the Johnny Bryants de Andre Millers of the world, do you try to go that route to get a more conventional hire as it pertains to the macro view of college basketball that typically happens that ride of passage, or do you not look at that route, because that's essentially what you just did with Craig.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I absolutely think you look at that route. I think you look at it all. You would be remiss, Spence, if you and I were hiring for a job in our business we would try and find the absolute best person for that job.

I mean, there's no.

Question that a Utah alumni if they can, if they can meet the requirements to coach. I mean, that's a natural fit for so many people. But there are some great coaches out there, and I agree with you. I think the greatest thing about college basketball is that story of working your way up. That's one of Craig's stories. It was a good story, right. I want that for whoever comes in next. I mean obviously we you and I and the people and the fans out there that care.

So now let's move over to the names that people are excited about. And Sean, I'm not usually a like, hey, let's win the press conference. Guy, Like, there's so many things that are so important in the long run and playing the long game of building a program.

But I think in this case you might need to a little bit.

And I do think a Jensen as head coach, Andre Miller is assistant coach announcement inundates the department, the ticket department up there with people interested in actually getting behind this group. I just think it's a basketball community that has nearly been flatlined for way too long, and so.

Let's invigorate it a little bit.

And I do think an Alex Jensen head coach andre Miller assistant coach would really excite this basketball community.

So give me your thoughts on that.

Yeah, I mean obviously, I told Bill. I mean so one of the things that I had when I first got this job last year being the voice of the youth sidekick was Sloak DeMarlo Slocum and Chris Burgess. I both understood slow coach with Tommy and Burge was a player from a jurist, There's like this automatic affinity, so like I often got my keys from Burge and tried to understand what we're doing based on what in Burge

Well played? Look, I hope they are. We'll find out maybe an hour from now. You know what, I haven't even what what about Birge? What about Chris Burgess? I mean, is that a phone call you make?

Why not? I mean, and again, like these are solely my opinions. I am not, you know, giving you like the guy that I think it is. But I'm just playing with you. Yeah, heck, yes, you give me a call. I mean, Chris Burgess, they're a great coach, he understands. Utah, Well he's been there twice.

Now, Yeah, no, that's right.

And you know, I don't fault anybody for parlaying success into a better contract and a better job, which he's done a couple of times and maybe this is a part where you take over up here, So.

Let's move over now.

Let me ask you about Johnny Johnny Bryan. Josh didn't seem to entertain that very much. I like him, I always have. He's always been really good to me. When I was with the Jazz and he was over there as an assistant working with Donovan, I often kind of picked his brain about Donovan's process. And Johnny's also credited with the evolution and the growth of Gordon Hayward. Now he's the associate head coach for a really good team.

I just think he's going to get a head coaching job in the pros.

Now Josh leaned into the dynamic of HM being more of a developmental coach. Well, that's kind of Alex's gig in the pros. Alex was a g League head coach.

I get it.

So what are your thoughts on the potential of contacting Johnny Brian to see if he'd be interested in coming back to his alma mater.

I mean, absolutely, I understand what Josh is saying. I don't. I mean, Johnny Briant's a great development coach, but he's an associate head coach in the NBA. I mean, again, let's open the list to everybody. I'm not the one that has to go through that list, right, You're not the one that has to go through that list, but there would be no reason not to. And then you want to get him in an interview, and you want to know what he's all about. I mean, he sounds

All Right, before I set you loose, you know, it's just I'll just tell you my opinion. Okay, my opinion is watching Utah basketball this year, I feel like Craig was entering Jim's with less talent than the other head coach most of the time.

That's my opinion.

Now, the problem is, this isn't the pros where the general manager and the VP of basketball ops are building your roster. If you're the head coach, you're responsible for the talent on your roster as well. So that also comes down on Craig, at least partially. So my question, Sean is whoever this coach is?

Okay?

So if we played the scenario out a little bit, and let's say it's Alex and Mark calls Alex Jensen and Alex picks up the phone, I can promise you Alex is gonna want to know what shape are we in with Nil? What shape are we in with the collective? Am I able to keep up with my peers? Can we get talent based off of the economics of the program right now? The infrastructure around the coach has to be as sound as ever in college basketball these days?

I agree with you.

I mean, I think from a talent standpoint, having now been all the way to the Big twelve, we have talented kids one of our rules, and one of my rules through the last twenty five years, is how many of those kids could play next level? And if you look at some of the teams we're playing, the Big twelve is actually not as talented at moving kids to the NBA as the PAC twelve was. Last year. I think the PAC twelve had nine players and the Big twelve had four.

But the Big twelve has a lot of really good.

College basketball players, which we need. Alex Jensen, Johnny Bryant, my goodness, my brain just stopped. Andrew Miller. I mean, these guys are going to have a connection to money and the potential of creating a larger annail budget that possibly another cook coming from a smaller school would not. So that can make a big difference and that may be a big part of what the decision is for the administration.

All right, John, last thing, you know, Michaeale Arizona. That's the first game that the kench Eiler has to deal with here in Arizona's going to be grumpy after getting got by breaking me on.

So tell me what you're expecting tomorrow night.

Is the Utes invade a really tough place to play in college basketball.

Yes, Spence, and listen.

If you haven't been down here, I'm I'm We're gonna get you a ticket. You need to come down and watch a game here. It's a great place to watch a game. Here's what I'm expecting. If our energy is good and we can defend them in transition. This team

So very nice, very nice, all right, Sean, Well, I appreciate it. Man, have a great call. Thanks for the time. Say travels.

Thanks brother.

How good day, Sean Mooney. I'll be on the call with Bill Riley.

The Utes invade Michale tomorrow to get Arizona team, who's going to be very grumpy after what happened against BYU. Speaking of Bill Riley, sets your alarm four o'clock today. Riles will stop by the voice of the Utes. After that, it's roxy Bernstein. But after a quick break, we'll do some MBA with Zach Harper Sean Mooney. Brought to you today by our good friends at Advanced Window Products.

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I'm trying to bring you up.

It's not working. Well, you're not gonna bring me down.

NBA Daily Assist Zach Harper, Tuesday afternoon. I'm bragging about fifty two degrees in sunny? What's it like where you're at?

I had to turn the air conditioner on because it's played eighty All.

Right, never mind? Uh? Are you in La proper?

Like?

Where's home for you?

I'm in I'm in Sherman Oaks. I'm in the valley.

Oh, hipster just over the hill? Yeah, okay, right on, man, it's not hipster. I'm poor.

I'm the money to live out.

Where's the uh is it? Silver Lake? Where do all the hipsters live?

Silver Lake?

Little Rock? Locally, he's like all that. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I refuse to live east.

That happened, all right, fair enough, fair enough, all right, Zach. There's a game in Los Angeles tonight. I don't know if you've heard about it.

I think where I'm at with it is Lucas saves the whole, like try to drop fifty form when he's in Dallas? What do you what do you think tonight?

Looks like, Yeah, he's only like really played one good game, right, He's only I think played three games total, but he's only played one good game. He's looked rough in the in the other ones, and so like, I don't think this is one for him. Like, I know he played really well against Denver, but I don't know that you expect a rhythm and a chemistry with his teammates that kind of allows him to just go out there and

What is your way?

Too early takeaway on what you think this thing can look like this season? I mean, the interesting thing is the jazz song twice right away, and it didn't look great in either game. I think Luca dropped thirty two against Denver, and so we do have one. We do have one good game from Luca. I still believe there their lack of just even decent big men on paper, let alone in execution, is gonna cost them. But you know, with these two, it's certainly gonna look really, really good

Yeah, I mean, I think there's gonna be times where it looks really good offensively, right, and there will be times where the defense does look fine. But I think it's gonna be more smoking mirrors than than actually something that works in the playoffs, because I mean, when's the last time you found out a team signed Alex lenn and you're like, oh, that's really good for them, right, because that's where they're big man situation, Like Jackson Hayes

Yeah, that's kind of where I've landed. And you know, matchups, injuries, you never know. It could have come playoff time. But I mean, look, man, when they were here, Walker Lowry and John Collins got whatever they wanted, Like, they had no pushback for the Jazz front line. If they're struggling with the Jazz front line, they're gonna struggle with other front lines.

Yeah. I mean it was like that was the thing. Is the first game Luca didn't play well, and you're like, yeah, but the Lakers one because it's the Jazz, right, And then they went to Utah and I was like, oh no, this none of this looks good. It was to the point where I didn't even start watching the game at first. I turned it on because I looked at the score

Yeah, yeah, no, it was really bad.

Let me let me get one jazz topic in here, because I do think there's one one thing rotationally that Will's done that actually is real. I mean mostly this is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

We all know that.

So like, ultimately, whether Kyle Philipowski is starting when Walker is hurt is not okay, great, and Kyle actually played pretty well against the Blazers. But we have seen Keyonte now kind of embrace this role off the bench, and we've seen Isaiah Collier as a starting point guard. He's about to break John Stockton's record for assis as a rookie. Now, John played behind Ricky Green, so it's not like he

Yeah, I mean kind of what we were talking about with Kiante for a little bit is the same. I field about like the shots mostly look good, don't really go in right, But I like his size. I do think it's important to note that this was like one of the top prospects in his in his class, uh in high school, and then he went to USC where apparently they're just trying to destroy anyone's pro prospects the last couple of years because it just doesn't look good. And so I do think he I don't think he had

I am going to reach and stretch to try to make a topic out of potentially nothing. But I have seen kJ Martin play well in NBA games before, and he is he got a start for the Jazz and he's kind of the one tangible piece the Jazz received when they were the condu. It's all these deals going down and he's still young and he can I mean, he can fly.

Man, He's a really good athlete. You've seen him play.

Do you think there's a chance that they bring kJ Martin in with the opportunity to look at him and he might be around for more than a minute?

Absolutely? Like he's I think for years A mean, al has and I have been like, why isn't Justin holiday rich right, Like, why isn't he getting like these big deals because we've watched him he's like he's this really nice three and D guy, shoots the ball well, doesn't

So after the news broke about women Yama, I was bosh right. My first thought was Chris bosh And you know, all the information we receive, uh, and we talked to Habershaw about this yesterday seems to indicate the Spurs are confident that this is just a little bit of a blitz. And you know, with stuff like this, I'm not going to be the media guy that looked at web MD and he's gonna break down what a blood cloud means. But you gotta shut him down and make sure he's

They should?

They will?

I mean they might. We're to be in a race of Philadelphia, but yeah, like they should. I mean, this is you know this it's not exactly nineteen ninety seven all over again, but you know, you could see see some similarities there. You know that you like, it's a different timeline and everything, but you know there's once Wendy went down, like I was kind of wit you. I was, I'm like, all right, as long as he's okay, great. It doesn't seem like his you know, long term career

Yeah, not to be insensitive if they drive Cooper flag popably, like just wheel me out there.

Okay, I'm coaching the team, right.

You know, people will be in line to coach that team if they're able to grab him. Can you imagine the reaction from the league and the Salt Lake City because look, man, I feel like it's our time. Okay, I'm gonna go goonies on you. I feel like we've earned it all right. Every time we've been in the lottery, We've never moved up, never won a championship, haven't had

Absolutely. I mean, like I've been in these, you know, group chats with people are like where we know, where should Cooper go? Where should the NBA want Cooper to go? And I get it, like you could want him to go to San Antonio. You could want him to go to you know, New Orleans. I guess so that seems like a disaster. You could want him to save one of these bad franchises. Who's just kind of meandering all the time, like a Charlotte or a Washington or whatever.

I want to cater to the audience here for a second. Let's put our let's put our thinking caps on. Let's get into our imagination space and picture an opening lineup next year of Walker Keshler at Center Lowry Marketing at Power Forward, Cooper Flag at Small Forward. Then they make a deal for Grady Dick at the two and TJ McConnell at the one. I mean, come on, box office, we have just fixed the Utah Jazz.

Look. Everyone made fun of David Kahn when it was like Kevin Love and Pekovich and Loup Bridden Now and Alexi spid and Andre Kiirlenko. Everyone made fun of David Kahan. But I bet they'll love Danny Inge and love Justin Zannik if they figured this out.

No doubt.

Jimmiferdat out of retirement coming off bench and we are dialed in, man, do you think.

Do you think? Do you think he can he can get away from from nothing right now to get a job with NBA.

Isn't he doing three on three?

Does that is that year round? I don't thought that was once every four years? Does a half court over there? Go go represent ive?

I don't know what Jimmer is doing these days. I know he lives in Colorado. I mean, he made enough money and maybe he's just yelling.

He's not in the Big Three right and he's not playing in China anymore.

I don't think so. By the way, have you watched What's that?

I just saw it on the DVR because my DVR is like every time I turn it on and it's like you seem to like sports or here's a sport feel it's like one on one.

It's a one on one tournament. Have you watched any of this?

No? No, I'm at a point in my life I watch NBA or w NBA basketball. That's what I watch. I don't even have time for college anymore.

All right, you're not watching any shows, but you gotta watch movies for the pod, right.

Well, yeah, I watched movies. I mean, look, I've almost bringed whatever episodes of Love Is Blind or here like. Look, I'm doing other things. I just I can't. That's stuff where I can turn my brain off, right right. This is like if I'm gonna have to pay attention to another basketball league, I can't do that.

No, I'm with you. I'm with you there.

But we are fixing the Utah Jazz one good white player at a time, so we'll have to see if it goes down.

All right.

Do you take anything from Minnesota's come back last night? I mean, Oka see rested chet and they lost Hartenstein in the second quarter, but Minnesota was able to come back from twenty four down, which does not happen very often.

Did that do anything for you?

Either tell you about Okac at all or maybe Minnesota playing a bit better.

I mean, I think we're seeing a lot recently of Minnesota. Just like, hey, when Julius Randall's not out there, it looks a lot better, right, Like, it looks a lot better. And so like you know, Nazrita is headed for a big payday and and I think, you know, I think Minnesota is in a pretty good place, especially considering them and had really much recently. Like I think they're in

If you were putting a sizeable amount of money on who comes out of the West, like for me, I think I think I bet on Denver right now, even though okay, see, by every metric is the best team in the conference. Playoffs are different, and every time I hone in on Jokic, I'm like, yep, he's still the dude.

Yeah, I would also put my money on Denver, And look, I get like, during that what was it, eight or nine game win streak, whatever it was, people were like, oh, it's a soft schedule for sure, but this has gone beyond that win streak, Like, this is a team that has been pretty dominant since I think it was I think on my date right, I think it was December seventh, was when Yokiics dropped a career high fifty six and they lost to the Wizards and they dropped to like

I didn't anticipate doing any Pistons talk today, but they've won seventh straight. And what I try to do here with the Jazz for our listeners is look at teams that not too long ago were in the spot and Detroit is kind of one of them. Orlando's another one. But you know, Caid Pollo, they've got stars that we don't have here, But what do you make of what has been a pretty impressive turnaround. They've won seven straight,

Yeah, I mean, look, they were one of the worst teams I've ever seen last year. Yep, and I during pretty much the entirety of that season. But once we got through halfway through that that you know, twenty eight game, losing the streak, I kind of had this feeling like, I don't really think Monty Williams is given us all here, and wouldn't it be great to get fired with seventy

I agree, man, I think he's an elite coach. I really do.

I just wonder if the Jazz don't get any lottery luck and if they if they don't, like if the Jazz this year fall to like the fifth pick or the sixth pick or whatever, missed out, miss out on the top three or four dudes, same thing next year, and then his contract expires. What does he do if we're sitting here two years from now, none of this

Yeah, And I haven't heard anything like about his frustrations or anything like. I think he seems pretty happy there. I think he likes the organization. I think he wants to build long term. He seems like that kind of guy. So if I'm his agent, I would be like, well, it hasn't really worked out in terms of getting him the players he wants, so he's gonna need a lot of money to stay right, Like, I think it just

I agree with that.

But the interesting thing is, you know, with the way these guys are wired like and money makes everything taste

Yeah, I just, I mean, you're right. I just I also think they're wired with a love of ego that and I don't even mean that in a pejorative way, but like they're wired in terms of ego of like, oh yeah, we'll figure it out here, right Like they're not They're not out of talent, Like there is talent. There's more potential on that roster than anything really tangible.

Speaking of Philly, what what what do you do?

I mean like they got und you got they got undressed by the the bulls hung one on them.

What are they lost? Eight straight? Like like what how do they? How do they get out of this?

Okay? Surgery? So you give you give Joel embiid surgery tomorrow and you say, hey, we'll see in September, Like, well, you're gonna rehab, you're gonna get in great shape, You're gonna get the rest you need, You're gonna get the rehab you need for this knee surgery. And and you just shoot for for next season and maybe even bring them along slowly into the start of next season. Like the awards, the sixty five game rule, all that stuff

Did you watch Cobra Kai.

I watched like three seasons of it, and it just even for me, it got too ridiculous.

Oh I thought it would be right down your alley. It is horrifically awesome.

The first season is right up right up until the end.

Man that they somehow someway find a way to be horrifically awesome until the very end.

I'm surprised you didn't finish it.

I mean, I got to the point I've had people like, oh, you gotta finish it, and I am a completionist on some level, So there's part of me that wants to. But I mean, we had like karate gangs in the valley in la that's where the story goes. Keep the bloods and the crips. But karate Dojo's what are we talking? Like? What am I watching?

You're missing out on Daniel Laruzo being kidnapped and put into a cage with snakes and he escapes by picking the lock.

Yeah, I heard, I heard Terry Silver comes back, which I do like that because Karate Kid three is super underrated. But like one, I've had this. I've had this take for a long time. Nobody is with me on it, but it is. It is a fact. The Jaden Smith Karate Kid is better than the original. Oh stop it and guess what. Jaden Smith, as terrible as he is, is a better actor than Ralph Macchio. Go watch Cobra Kay and tell me Ralph Macchio is any kind of decent actor. He's terrible.

I'm not here to stand up for Macchio's actor shot doing.

No, that's what you're doing.

I'm not, but I will not stand for the slander of the original Karate Kid, which was a gem of a movie.

No offense to the amazing Pat mur either rip. Give me Jackie Chan all day.

Okay, Jackie Chan.

Whoever played Daniel's mother in the first one, Give me Taraji p Henson all day?

Okay, Okay, that's fine.

The tough part about Cobra Kai for me, like Larusso's daughter would get her ass kicked against a five year old like she is not you know, like you know, like and they try. She's like the baddest female karate fighter on the planet, Like you know, she couldn't fight a way out of a wet paper bag. But it is unbelievably entertaining, horrifically until the end.

You need to finish it, man.

I don't. I don't know if I have that in me. How alseome I I mean, I'm just gonna I would That's the problem, is I fire? I like turn Netflix on. I mean, I either have a new terrible season of Love Is Blind that I can't stop watching, or just go to like Seinfelder, I think you should leave and just would rather watch those again.

Okay, fair enough, fair enough, there's not enough time to watch all the things.

I get it all right, Before I set you loose?

Are you buying any of this Golden State Warrior reborn again, hype that they could be a problem come playoff time after the Butler deal, and they've won three straight.

Yeah, I mean they won. They won three straight. I think are five and one with Butler in the lineup. I'm not I'm not not buying it. I'm actually writing about this for for the newsletter tomorrow. It's a free newsletter's called the Bounce Get at the Athletic dot com slash abouts one of a few things we do for free. I'm I'm I'm trying to figure out if I buy it and everything like, Look, it's coming out of Draymond's mouth,

Yeah, he's one of those dudes. There's no argument there, And I just cannot believe. At least admit you were emotional when Miggy Miguel Diaz was paralyzed and learned to walk again and came back and won the fight.

At least admit you were emotional for that?

Is that science?

Oh no, no, no, no, dude.

It's one of the things about that series that's so amazing, the audacity they have to do those things that are so unrealistic. You know, he's basically dead, and then he'd learned how to walk again. Suddenly he's winning karate fights again.

It's see, children are psychopath.

Yes they are, Yes they are. Now there's no doubt. All right, Well, if you finish it, let me know. It doesn't sound like you will, but nonetheless act Thanks.

For the time, brother, appreciate it.

Zach Harper from the Athletic appreciate his time. He's brought to you today by our good friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology. They've got a grip of deals for you guys right now. As a client on this show and you as a listener, you should take advantage of all

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Max yacht Rock Documentary.

You know, turn me on to it was come, it was c K. Bill Simmons produced it. And uh, I'm not a huge like yacht rock guy. What was that funny that Bill Simmons producing?

Its?

Just it for some reason, Bill Simmons producing a yacht rock commercial or or yacht rock documentary.

Just it's interesting.

Yeah, his company, Like say what you want about Bill Simmons, he finds a way to create content people like. I know, people don't love like his personal approach or podcast, but in our industry, Bill Simmons is kind of like a pioneer.

He's he's content king.

Yeah, and look as far as his personal like podcast delivery, I'm not a huge Bill guy, but you gotta respect like, well, you're not a Celtics fan. True, it's fine. And Rosillo, Ryan Rosillo used to be a friend of the show. We rarely get him on anymore. I mean he still does a good job on his portion of it, but the Simmons stuff sometimes can be tough to digest. But as far as his ability to kind of see around corners with with projects, I mean, no hate on this end, man.

Yeah, there's there's a zero to argue with or complain about there. Like the NBA, he'll just say, hey, look at the look at the results, look at the pocketbook.

Yeah, that's the bottom line.

And you know, like it'd be one thing too uh to be Bill Simmons and kind of get in your feelings about people not being a fan. But then I think he just goes to his mansion in Manhattan Beach and records a podcast and he's doing just fine.

Yeah, he knows what he's doing there. There is.

Kind of a old guard way of sports media where even if you are a fan, that's not part of your coverage, right, And I think that Bill is okay kind of blurring those lines and there's no like, there's no guilt there and he doesn't pretend to not be that. So yeah, yeah, you have to respect it. And he's clearly clearly made a lane and more more than a lane.

Yeah.

He produced de Andre the Giant documentary, which was awesome. He is one of the masterminds of ESPN's thirty for thirty. Yeah, I mean, he was one of the guys that kind of created that. He's one of Emmy's peeble I mean, you know, but this, this yacht rock documentary was interesting because I've never really understood the origin of it. I never really understood like which bands are yacht rock which

Did you watch Obra Rock Tied a new one?

Well, it's it's a series.

Oh that's right. I haven't seen it then, though.

So are you old enough to remember Karate Kid any of that stuff?

A little bit? I've I've definitely seen the original Karate Kid, but I was I was a tyke.

All right, we haven't heard from you porter, excuse me. We're gonna get to this BYU story in a moment. We didn't get a chance to talk about it yesterday because the Craig story, uh was kind of all over the place, and I honestly am not sure where I land on this. I kind of changed my mind, and I think it's dependent on the situation. I thought Josh Grant yesterday, you know some very clear eyed, salient points. Clearly had some things you wanted to get off his chest,

That don't exist in other places.

And if you don't know how to do that, it's probably a difficult place to live. S talking to Shan about this during crosstalk, But I think at times we get blinded.

Certainly on the college side of things. The Jazz are different.

It's a pro basketball team, RSL Pro Soccer team. You don't really need to operate around the complications of the community as much because you're more insulated if you're.

In a pro situation.

But we always kind of do this thing where as soon as a job comes open, it's got to be a Utah guy, it's got to be a BYU guy. BYU is different because it's more unique, I'll just say that than the University of Utah's as the standards and stipulations that you have to be able to uphold and live up to if you want to work at that institution more often than not, right, so I understand, like, for instance, when the ad job comes open, their president.

Far as who you think should get the gig.

You know, I don't think it has to be someone with that connection, right. And obviously you mentioned the fact that this may be kind of a booster driven as far as the timing and the way that this all went down, maybe that leads to they're already being some of those names you mentioned, Alex Jensen, Johnny Bryant, Andre Miller. Maybe those are the guys that those boosters specifically want to be on that list. But I do think you

And you know, it's it's interesting how the sport of college basketball and the ecosystem of college basketball has changed in a way where once upon a time, whenever we would have these conversations about whether or not a pro coach wouldever look to go back to college, you talked about how, you know, do you want to change and

I think that's one of the issues with the NBA right now.

It does feel like it's leaned into operating like a Fortune five hundred company that just wants to provide value for shareholders as opposed to caring about the consumer. And I know people are a little afraid about that with college athletics, but it is what it is.

And it's changed.

It will continue to lean into this because there's so much money to be made and that's just the deal when you live in a capitalist society, love it or hate it. We don't know how much of a downgrade and lifestyle would be for an Alex Jensen to go from one of the lead assistants in Dallas to be the head coach at the University of Utah. But I'll say this before we get to this BYU stuff. The thought of having Andre Miller on your bench and walking inother gyms, that's instant credibility.

That's really cool, Right, And if let's just for instance, say that's the higher you make, you can then go and let Andre be the face of your program and delegate the menial stuff, the ted stuff that really does require a lot from a head basketball coach. And you have a GM of sorts. Right, we're seeing different positions that are are you coming to the forefront of college sports? And that's probably gonna be part of the equation when

If Mark Harland called you and asked you to be the head coach, would you try it?

Hell?

Yeah, you just go, you just go do it?

Why not?

No? I mean I like it, but you might be mad with a little pushback.

Oh, I'm going to get fired within. Like, let's be clear, if I was the head of anything that would be a ship that is. And not to say I'm not confident in myself. I'm just talking about, like as far as constructing like a culture and organization, a whole team.

I'm not the guy to look too.

There, don't you? Don't you produce the show and book guests on the show.

It's one radio show, though, Spencer.

Aren't you in charge partly of building the culture of the Drive with Spence Jackets money?

No, that's you, my friend.

Oh No, I mean, I mean I'm but I'm not doing all the lifting. You got to help me out a little bit.

I fill out timesheet and make sure you know we have a guest this hour, this hour, this hour.

You're the culture builder. That's a lot of pressure, right, But that's why they pay you the big bucks. Oh, they pay me some bucks. Okay, they pay me bucks to pay some bills. Which is nice in this business. I'm just glad that you would say.

Yes, Oh, no doubt about it. I Spence.

I used to landscape and do electric electrical for a living, so.

Yeah, yeah, I'll take that child.

As long as we're not making a living with our hands, we're doing okay. But I don't know that that call is coming. But I'm glad that you would take Mark, take on the challenge. You do have my number.

Mark, hit us out, Mark, and I know you're listening.

Mark.

If you're sicking me criticizing you for four hours every day, make me your basketball coach and I'll stop.

I promise.

There you go. All right, Josh Grant.

Josh, my man, Josh Grant, all right, before we catch a break. Didn't get a chance to do much of this yesterday, but Kevin Reynolds saw Lake Tribune the trip did some good reporting about BYU football players. They're claiming that their nil collective was cut. The pay was cut before their season last year, which of course was awesome. They were eleven and two and smoke to Colorado and the Alamo Bowl, and they're a really good team. Caliney did a hell of a job. So I view this story.

But sl trip dot com.

They quote Isaiah Bagna, who was a defensive end and then Crew Wakely. Crew Wakely left that program with an axe to grind man, there's no doubt, and they talk about a meeting that was held at the beginning of the season someone named Min Kim.

I do not know who this person is.

He is the leader of the Royal Blue Collective, or one of them, and he is the CEO of a company down south called Neutra cost.

I'm sure that's above board.

And I guess he held the meeting and said, quote, according to Isaiah Bagney said quote, I'm not here to pay your renter bills. I'm not here for any of that. You guys are entitled greedy asking me for money, and then announced there would be changes to the collective because the team went five seven the year prior to and missed a Bowl game for the first time since twenty seventeen. According to both these players, the collective was cutting everybody's pay.

He was mad that Chase.

Entered his own individual NIL deal, which is weird to me. With desret at first Credit Union, which is a competitor of a donor for the Royal Blue Collective mountin America Credit Union, and they go on to talk about the contracts that were signed. Apparently there were what is called a non compete, which my understanding.

By the way, the letter of the laws, those are.

Now illegal, But you weren't supposed to go outside of the collective to get your own NIL deals. That feels a little unfair to me, and that also feels ignoring like the spirit and the letter of what NIL is supposed to provide these young men and women their ability to simply go out and profit off of who they are. It's the same economic rights that you and I have had our entire life. So ultimately where I landed after reading this story and kind of marinating on the topic

You know.

Prior to the five and seven season, the team was broken into tiers. Top tiers players made five thousand dollars a month, second tier players two thousand dollars a month. The third tier was five hundred to one thousand dollars a month, and very few players made over five grand a.

Month, but a few actually did.

According to Bagna quote, over eighty percent of the defensive starters were cut. The starters were down to one thousand dollars, some of them were even on eight hundred bucks. And ultimately, the other takeaway I had here is a hell what a hell of a job from coloone Satake and his staff and Jay Hill and I got a rod to have an eleven to two season and go to the Alamo Bowl and smoke Colorado and finish in the top fifteen with a roster of players that apparently were really

Stuff like this would go away.

So you kind of feel bad for the players, but you understand on the other side the collector trying to figure it out, and ultimately a coaching staff that was able to rally these guys for a hell of a year. Man one of the best of PYU football seasons. They've ever had quite frankly, Well, all right, so you're just gonna rub it in, So you're gonna use the one example of a band I like when I was sixteen that has an age.

Well, that's what you're doing here.

I know that was the theme that we were we were talking about. I actually kind of liked Blues Traveling. I know they they got some interesting sound, some corny stuff in there as well.

What's the is it?

Kingpin to the movie Collen Brothers. Excellent movie.

That may be part of it. But yeah, actually I actually kind of.

Like well Forward Tour nineteen ninety four, Dave Matthews Band, Fish Alman Brothers, they were all there, and Blues Traveler was the headlining.

Now that's how big they were in nineteen ninety.

I would have spent a lot of money to be at that show.

It was a good show man, all right. Time for the voice. You know what that means? Bill Riley Tuesday Afternoon, Ryle's Happy Tuesday, sir?

How are you get you blue?

A couple of Blues Traveler stories?

Please do?

I paid three dollars in college at the Bottleneck and Lawrence to see Blues Traveler, and then also in nineteen ninety nineteen nineteen ninety five, Blues Traveler was the headline band at the Lakewood Amphitheater at Atlanta, and Dave Matthews opened for Blues Traveler in Atlanta.

Yeah. Yeah, that's how big they were. Man, that's how big they were. They were massive.

Porter posed a question to me earlier last week, which is, how has my music in the nineties aged to this day?

What are your thoughts on that?

Uh, it's funny you say this. When I was flying to Orlando the other day, I had kind of a nineties hits channel on. I was listening a little Big Head Todd in The Monsters I had. I had the gin Blossoms radio going, Hey, I will I will stand on the gin Blossoms Mountain and die on top of the JiTT They had some bangers in the nineties. I like Big Head Todd the Monsters. I think the nineties has aged. Okay, maybe not the greatest music decade, but I'm still on board with it.

How about you?

I'm on board. I just love that you just use the term bangers Ryle's. I appreciate that. I mean, at least at least you didn't say that It slaps. That's the other thing that kid The kids say.

Right, yeah, something like that.

But I think the nineties it's been okay, I think it's aged. Okay, but you know, I'm old, as you've said for you know, twenty years. I'm old.

I've apologized.

Okay, I've seen the errors of my ways because you're not that much older than I am. All right, but it was a fun bid back in the Bill and Spence days. Now that I'm aging, I feel.

Bad, Bill, but we still love Shep like he's a little brother.

Right, even though he's older.

All right, Let's move over now, obviously to the news that broke prior to the show yesterday, about an hour before we started the show. Excuse me, I get the alert that Craig has been really of his duties. So the timing is interesting, and you know, talking to some people, I'm sure you have as well about why exactly this went down when it went down, Bill, So what was your reaction when you heard the news and why do you think they decided to do it?

Now?

I was caught off guard, Spence. I was somewhere over West Texas, flying from Orlando to Tucson, and I had my WiFi on and I was doing some work and I just scrolled the old Twitter machine to check headlines, and I saw Jeff Goodman's story pop up, and then my phone began to be explode, you know, thirty three thousand feet. I was surprised by it. I mean, I was just the timing of it caught me off guard.

So ultimately, there's always a personal side to these things. There's always an element of how this affects people that I think we tend to ignore in the media because our job is to cover the story. But look, you know, my father wasn't a coach, but he was an executive and we uprooted multiple times throughout his career.

And that's just the deal.

You get into this industry and you take these jobs oftentimes knowing that you're going to be fired.

You're hired to fire to get fired.

There are very very few coaches, executives, or even players that have a super long run in one spot.

It's just a transient existence.

And I think Craig's a really good man, and I do think, you know, when it comes to his ability to drop game plans.

I think he did a good job this year.

My opinion is the talent on this roster, but you know it wasn't necessarily up to par. They were picked to finish last, and I actually thought he did a good job coaching up roster that was a little bit voyden talent at times juxtaposed to who they were playing against. So you have a front row to all these games, all these seats. What do you have to say about the job he did just as a coach.

But to your point, first and foremost, Craig Smith, for the three and a half almost four years I've worked with him, has been awesome to me, the same way Larry Christoviac was before that. So you'll hear no Craig Smith slander from me at all. He is a great guy, excellent human being, And to your point, too. I think he's a good basketball coach as well. Yeah, did they outperform with their preseason expected at least to this point

So tell me about Josh Eilert, my man's about to coach at michale I mean goodness, gracious, dude, like, and you know it's going to be a grumpy Arizona group based off of what happened with them against BYU. So tell us about this interim head coach and what are you expecting tomorrow night in a really, really tough place to play.

Well, the good news for Utah is Josh Eilert's been in this position before because he was the interim head coach last year at West Virginia, so he had to make the rounds in the Big twelve last year when Bob Huggins was let go at West Virginia and he rode the title of interim head coach much of the year last year. He's well liked by the guys. The team likes him a lot. He knows the league. He's been part of most of the game plans this year

Do you have a feel, all, Bill?

And we had Sean on earlier any referenced the players were going to fly in, so maybe you haven't had a chance to kick the tires. But you know, I would imagine that a lot of these young men, and I don't know this because there are people pontificating on the possibility of did you make this decision right now based off of some players that may be unhappy that you want back next year. But my guest would be most of these guys are bummed out that they just lost their head coach.

I mean, it's different than in the pros.

You know that your coach is hired to be fired, and you don't sign necessarily only play for a coach. In college, you know, when you're recruited, your parents are trusting this person to take care of you, and you sign, oftentimes to play for the guy that recruited you, So any context or idea of how these players have reacted to what has to be tough news for at least some of them.

No, I haven't seen them yet, kind of like Sean, we're both down here in Tucson. They're scheduled to arrive a little bit later on this afternoon, so I'll have a better feel tonight and tomorrow when i'm shoot around and around them a little. But to your point, I

By what happened.

But you know, now now you rally up and see what you can do, and you know, if your competitors, you want to go out there, no matter who's coaching you, and.

See what you can do against Arizona.

So, like I said, I don't have a feel for where those guys are right now, but probably will later today or tomorrow.

I know a lot of these decisions are made above your pay grade, and if there's anything you just want to straight punt on, please let me know. But do you think Josh has a chance to coach his way into this job?

I don't that that.

I don't know, uh, just because like you said, it's above my pay grade, and I don't know what kind of conversations they may have had with Josh, so I can't. I just I don't feel comfortable in my position just not knowing and again having been kind of out of the pocket down here in Orlando, or Orlando, Orlando and Tucson. Make a comment on the coaching, you know, kind of

Did you attend the Magic Kingdom and did you wear Mickey ears?

Well?

No, I did not, And I think you and I have had this conversation about adults who go to Disney parks by themselves.

It's very odd and off putting.

There's so many things I want to say right now, but yes, you and I are on the same page.

And look, let's just stick here for a moment.

It's strictly budgetary, okay, Like the amount of mony that you're spending to do this. You could go to Hawaii, you could go to Europe. Like, why is it saving the cash to ride? You know, it's a small world for the seventy fifth time. It doesn't make sense to me.

It makes no.

I mean I took my kids when they were younger. We had a good time, but that's what you kind of take one for the team when you're a parent and you get that experience and then you move on. So I did not visit Epcot or the Magic Kingdom when in Orlando, nor did I visit the old Magic Home either. What's what I don't even know what it's called these days.

It used to be, I guess it.

Was like it was one of those MLMs that was big in the nineties.

They had the name of the arena.

But we were way at UCF's West sixty By the way, sixty thousand studentssow at UCS. It's the second biggest campus in the country.

Wow, I did not know that, all right. Moving from one Josh to another, Josh, I don't know. Did you have a chance to listen to Josh Grant on the show yesterday?

I didn't. I was flying when he was on, but I heard I heard he was.

He was.

He was quite passionate in his in his desire for what he was looking for.

In the next day, coach, Yes, he was very salient, he was very clear eyed, he was very direct and even said that he was very excited that the news came down when it did. And it leads to a conversation Bill just philosophically, because ultimately, you know, when it comes to historically speaking, the way that college coaches the

So that's one route for Mark to take.

Now you could argue that he just took that route with Craig being at Utah State after South Dakota State and then rising up the ranks. And then the other route is the route people around here talking about, and that essentially is Alex Jensen as the head coach. Potentially Andre Miller is coaching the G League as an assistant, or Johnny Bryant, who's an associate head coach for a really good basketball team in the pros with the Cleveland Cavalier.

Again, back to what I was saying before, I'm not sure. But what you have to look at when you're making this decision now is I don't think either path spence is a bad path to take, because as you said, there's good options on both of those paths. But what you have to look at, especially in particular with Utah right now, is who's going to be able to come in and, you know, get kind of jumpstart the program

We know this.

It's not like when Rick was here. You know, football and all these sports. The head coaches are CEOs now. So you've got to find a guy who you think can also build a staff and surround himself with good people because the job of a head coach is so much more intricate and complicated now. You're more of a CEO. You're still coaching, but you have lots of other duties now, So who's the guy that.

Could best do that?

And that's what you know, Mark and his search committee's challenge is going to be.

I do think and I talked about this with Sean earlier. I am not a you gotta win the press conference guy, Like watch Nick Sirianni's opening presser for the Eagles and you're like, dude, can even can he string a sentence together?

They just want a Super Bowl.

All that matters is the long game at the end of the day, and then somebody coming in here that can recapture past glory in his own way in the modern day and age of college basketball, because there's no going back.

You've got to look to the future.

And even invoking the name of Rick mcjeris is unfair because that was a tremendous run.

But it shouldn't just.

Scare people away from having that standard around here. This is a proud basketball state, it's a proud basketball market. And while my initial reaction was sadness for Craig and his family, because I know what that's like, my secondary reaction was, Okay, somebody up there finally said this is not good enough, okay, and we need to change our standards for what our basketball team is. There's no reason that you can't be both a basketball and a football school.

You should that should be the goal. Can absolutely be both of those things. And again, the standard is different today, but it's not different. Meaning your standard should always be to compete at the highest level. To be in the school like Utah with the resources it has and the support and the tradition that has, shouldn't be going nine and ten years without being in an NCAA tournament. And I think that's what Mark and the powers to be at the.

You have said.

You know, they want to do everything they can do to reset that standard, to get it back and make sure basketball is a top priority. Yeah, football is the big dog on every campus.

It is.

We know that from a financial standpoint. But you just rep of three or four schools that are succeeding at a very high level in both and yes, you can absolutely do that. That's what the expectations should be. And I don't you know when fans don't you should want to have the standard that was in the Majeris era.

Yeah, no, I agree with you, So back to the whole, Like, I don't really think you have to win the press conference all the time. I do think in this case, this basketball community could use a little injection of life, and I do think an Alex Jensen Andre Miller Ben. I mean, imagine walking into a gym with Andrea as your assistant coach, Like, that's instant credibility, that's instant respect.

Well, I think if that were the case, that people would would just they would love it again. That would be a connection back to the bygone days. But it's people that they you know that they've they've known for a long time. And again that's that's another component of all this fans. It's not just you know, it's not just it's re engaging your fans and making your fans excited to come to the John M. Huntsman Center again, excited to talk about Utah basketball again.

You know, the program has not been in the dumps. It hasn't.

It's been solid, but it hasn't been to the standard where where fans and and folks that run the department want it to be. But if you had that kind of connection to a bygone era, I think it just it's kind of the cherry on top if you will and really would re engage a lot of fans.

I've got one football question for you, but before we get there, find basketball question. How much of this I don't know, rising juggernaut, I guess I'll say that they're

Yeah.

Again, not being in those meetings, I don't know that, But what I do know is you never want to fall behind your rival. You never want your perception to be that you're behind your rival. So to whatever extent that would be, I don't know, but you always if your rival is doing something, you want to be able

All right, before I set you loose. Brankeithy Karene Reed junior TOFUNA, currently at the NFL Scout Scouting Combine as the guy that called all their games. Got to know him. What kind of pros do you think these youths are going to be well.

The chief thing is interesting just because the health, I mean, how healthy is he don't I don't know what his draft stock is going to be only because but again the combine and then the individual workouts can certainly help. I think Karenni Read and Junior Tafuna are going to be pros. I mean, I think Karenni is going to be one of those guys. If he's not a starting linebacker, he's going to be a guy that's in a linebacker rotation,

I think both those.

Guys are our pro players, probably have a five to seven to eight year career. And with Tiethy, it's just hard to predict because of the injury situation. But we know Brand's athleticism and his ability at the position, and he's not a traditional tight end. He's not that inline blocking guy. But he's a guy that's really good in the open field. He's got really good hands, and I think he'll be on somebody's roster if he stays healthy.

All right, Ryles, Well, thanks for the time man, Safe Travels. Safe Travels have a great call.

Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Thanks buddy, Thanks man, all right, special thanks.

To Bill Bill Riiley, Voice of the Utes Top five live in Tucson, Utahs at Michale tomorrow without their head coach Greg Smith.

Of course, let go so appreciate Bill.

Stopping by Sean Mooney, Zach Harper, but time now one of my favorites. Roxy Bernstein, my buddy from the PAC twelve network on the show on a Tuesday, ranking a top five Counting Crows song question Mark.

Oh, absolutely top five. I would say, you know, it's since live that might be my favorite song they play live.

Well, it's actually what I was gonna say live. It's hard to beat that song live for sure.

Yes, that that song live, just the way they have tuned it over the years.

It.

Really resonates and it waits a ball. Look, everybody loves mister Jones. Like it's funny. I've had these discussions with Adam over the years, like when you get to his level, right, when you have number one type hits and songs, everybody knows when he plays the show, there's probably five songs you have to play, right, Like for them it's mister Jones. I think it's rain King maybe hanging around long December. It's funny Adam doesn't necessarily see it the way I do.

But are you agree with me? Like when you go to.

See a band like that, there's like there's staples that have to be in the catalog for that night. Wouldn't you say absolutely?

I just love that you call him Adam, like we're just having a conversation about your friend named Adam. For our listeners, it's Adam Durretz. He's the lead singer of Counting Crows. He's one of Rocksy's best friends.

And you know when he's putting the set list together like before a show, because they they change it every night. It's not the same show. Like there are certain songs they'll play on each tour that they're ready to play, and there's some songs that aren't in the bag if you will, like you know, like a golf bag analogy there.

That's cool though, I mean, because you know, obviously a child of the nineties, man, I love the Crows. It was a long December for Craig Smith, and he won't be hanging around anymore.

Nice there you go, good good segue, good.

Tie, and you know, ultimately I'm gutted for a good man for you first and foremost. And I know you got to know him, but your reaction when you heard the Craig Smith had been relieved of his duties around.

Here, disappointed for him, because, like you, I have an affinity for Craig. I think he's first off, he's just a terrific dude. He's a fun guy to talk to, to

Yeah, no, one hundred percent.

And there's a personal element to these stories that I don't think we do a good enough job of covering in the media because we're so like, all right, what's next and what went wrong? Like he's a good man with a good family and a five million dollar parachute helps, but it's hard when you lose a gig that that you care about, and I know how much you cared

At certain places, I do believe you need that connection. I don't think Utah is one of those places that I think Utah has had enough success in tradition and up history that they can bring in somebody from the

Be I do think and I have said, and I haven't necessarily always been on this train, only because I am well aware of when guys have an opportunity to live that NBA lifestyle, they don't necessarily want to go back to the college days. It's not all tried and true. Calipari Patino BYU hired Kevin Young. But you know there's some former utes in pro basketball right now that are

Drag Well, I'm familiar with him to an extent, But one thing I do know is Jason Kidd thinks the world of him, because, as you know, I went to college with Jason. I'm still friendly with him, and I've asked him about, you know, guys on his staff for example, and he raves about him, says he's a phenomenal coach, just a great person to have on the staff and

Roxy Bernstein calls Adam Durretz Adam and Jason Kidd Jason just so you know, do you do?

You?

Do you?

Jason and Adam have like a text threat, Roxy.

They're on separate text threads that I have And by the way, I actually call them j Kid usually.

Now, now there we go.

Give me the what's what's the mount rushmore of your most famous friends?

Oh?

I mean those are the top of the chain right there. I mean, certainly, Adam, are you familiar with the actor Eric Dane?

I know who Eric Dane is.

Yes, Eric and I.

Grew up together and we're still very close. In fact, we are fantasy football partners on our league that all our buddies.

Grew up with.

Wow. Very impressive.

Yeah, that's another one.

Very impressive. What do you tell me what you're expecting?

So, Josh Eiler, it's the interim head coach and they're at McHale tomorrow and they're going to play an Arizona team that's probably a little bit grumpy. So Utah's first game without Craig is a McHale against Arizona. How do you think these young men respond? They've got to be gutted. You know, you sign on the dobted line to play for a coach. Your parents trust the coach to take care of the son. We know the deal. So how

First off, Arizona's going to be a little grumpy.

Yes, that might.

Be the understatement of the year because the way they lost that game to be Ui the other night. They're going to be extremely ticked off hitting into this matchup.

But I'm not sure.

You never know what you're going to get, right. It's easier to assess where a professional team is that after a move like this, whether it's a major league team that fires a manager mid season or an NBA team that makes the move like this, and they usually come out and respond because they take it personally and the connection that they have to Craig Smith. You wonder how it's resonating in the locker room right that do they feel they let Craig Smith down. It's certainly an emotional

Yeah.

Well said.

And in order to be fair to Craig Roxy, I've asked all my guests this week this question, I'm going to ask you the same question. And I don't want this to come across as callus and I'm not trying to knock on the group, but you referenced where's the nil, where's the collective? What's the deal with that? We don't fully know? Catchings and demon reportedly or seven figure kids down at Brigham Young and aj Debants is getting more than five million dollars to play five months of basketball.

The talent level is, just like you said, near the bottom of the Big twelve, and there is a reason why they were picked in that position. For example, they don't have a dynamic point guard that can set people up. It was an offense that was able to score points because of ball movement and connectivity. Yes, Gate Madson was the guy they were looking to to hit the big shot, but it wasn't. They didn't have that dynamic playmaker that

So you've got BYUASU. Let's move over to BYU be down at Ashue tomorrow and back to back wins over ranked teams. First time that's happened. I think it's thirty seven years. They've won four straight. If you kind of expand back, they've won eight of their last ten. And when they make shots, they are a problem. And they are the type of team that is built. Should they find fire at the right time, which they're finding right now, they're the type of team they can go to the

It feels like, you.

Know, Demon's their best pro prospect, but Richie's probably their best college player. And I've been tremendously impressed to see them settle in the way they have because it didn't look great early on, and Kevin's never done this before, so you have talent on paper. If it doesn't work early, people are gonna wonder if you can coach well. The late returns as well, I should say the returns as of late are that you know, this is a team that looks to be dialed in, ready to roll down

Young, they seem to be peaking at the right time, and that's what you want come latter part of February and into March, is you're playing.

Your best basketball, and they are, and.

This team I think has gotten better and better in the crazy team spens, you don't see teams that have eleven man rotations at this time of the year, but BYU does and they all do something to help the team, and I think that's helped the chemistry with that group and getting used to a new coach in Kevin Young, tweaking the system a little bit where they shoot a lot of threes. You mentioned Richie Saunders, but he's not alone, and he's made some moves along the way, like inserting

Who do you think the second best team of the conference is?

Who is the second best?

I'm still gonna lean toward Arizona I know, even they they lost last night. Houston, to me has separated themselves and I do really like Iowa State, let me tell you right there. But there's something about this Arizona team. I'm anxious to see how they were covered tomorrow night against Utah after the way they had a real, real tough loss against EYU the other night.

Can I ask you a couple of hockey questions before I set you loose? Yeah, all right, let's move over.

Yeah, let's move over to the four Nations face off. You know, one of one of our weekly hockey guests is Neil Smith, who was the you know, the general manager of the Rangers and a high level scout for the Red Wings and built some of the best rosters that we saw in the nineties. And we had Bill Armstrong on yesterday, and you know, it was funny with Neil.

Aside from the three fights and nine seconds in the first US Canada game, it was still tremendous theater, yep and unbelievable hockey, and just the reacts to the players that were playing and the speed of these games. That was the thing that really jumped out to me is the quickness, and it's showing you that the game is about speed. Now, yes, okay, the Kachuck brothers floud and

Now.

I don't think that we'll see a situation like we had with these fights, especially in the Olympics, but it does make for great hockey to watch, and I think we were treated to the best in the world, the best, and it was evident that it meant something. That it wasn't just lip service. Oh we're gonna go there and compete,

And I loved the back and forth where the Canadian, you know, the Hagen kid was like, we do it for the flag, they do it for the cameras. It's like, you know, like the whole thing was awesome. Let me ask you about our local hockey club and I'll set you loose. You know, they're about where I think most people thought they would be, but with the chance to maybe catch either Vancouver or the Abs for a wildcard spot. They got Vancouver the other night they beat him, so

There's a chance. Yeah, I wouldn't rule them out. And they've recovered from some of the injuries that they have dealt with, certainly on the back end this year, with missing Sean Dursey example, until recently for the entire season and Marino being out for an extended period of time. They got to get hot and the margin Frere and Bill Armstrong is exactly right. They have to treat every night like it's a game seven. And after they dropped the game to La on Saturday, bouncing back with a

Roxy, you are the man, my friend. I appreciate the time. Safe Travels. Have a great call tomorrow night.

Okay, thanks bets any time.

But Roxy Bernstein one of the best, one of the nicest guys in this business, a business devoid of kindness. Roxy is one of those guys at Roxy Bernstein is where you find them on social media. I'll be on the call tomorrow night for byuasut.

Do you have any.

Like for real famous friends? Roxy Bernstein rolls on the show. He calls Adam Durretz, Adam Jason Kidd, j Kidd, do you have any like uber famous friends?

Any anything stand out?

I will not like mention the sports guys that I've gotten close with, right, Like Britain is genuinely one of my closer friends away from football. I would have to like the only real close connections I have in that regard are I've talked to you about some of the country music folk, right. Culter Wall is a connection that I made a long time ago. I've known him since he was and I was like nineteen twenty years old.

You need to let me know next time he's in town, because you've won me over. I want to go see him perform.

That is his manager is the guy that is my actual connection, right, it's through him, but I've known him for a long time, as well as some of that kind of circle of underground country, non radio country, if you will. That's probably it. Right, We've talked about the country stuff. I've had run ins with many A listers and whatnot, but none of them are my friends, especially vjsing.

I need what's the deal with that dude? Like he has such a bad he's really a jerk, right, he has such a bad reputation.

And I've dealt with golfers and very wealthy people who expect a certain level of service, right and try to provide that, but it didn't seem to matter what you did. You could have, like, I could have shined that guy's shoes with my tongue, and I feel like he would have been like, now you miss a spot.

But you know, I'm glad you didn't do that. Each of all, I'm glad you didn't do that. I imagine you ran into some entitled folk up there. Yeah.

My goal is to have a friend as famous as Adam Dirretz that I can just call Adam, just referring him as Adam.

Adam and j Kidd hanging out on a weekend.

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Luka doncic over under forty five point five points.

If you would have set forty, I'd go over, But I'm going to go under with the forty five.

I think he'll wait to just try to score like one hundred and fifty until they're actually in Dallas, right, because that the scene when Luca is back in Dallas is going to be really fascinating because he's gonna have a lot of fans in that arena that have his back right over the MAVs. So I'm picturing him like hitting a bunch of step back threes in Dallas. And like Niko is probably not even at the game tonight, I'm not sure that he goes full throttle.

Luca, You're you're gonna get like Jimmer and Utah vibes where for some reason the team and the have wrong colors is cheering for the white guy shooting from forty feet beyond the three point line. Yep, yeah, it's gonna be weird. It's going to be weird. The the one that comes to mind is like Russell Westbrook, because that

So some good NBA hoops on tonight.

It's out of a quiet night locally, tomorrow we're smacked, jam packed locally with a bunch of action. Hockey Club is taking on Chicago tonight, so a big game for them. Every game down the stretch is big for the Utah Hockey Club. Jazz will be an action against the Kings. The Utes are at McHale to take on Arizona RS valid action against Aridiano tomorrow, so little soccer as well.

All right, Port, let's get out of here. What comes our way On a Wednesday edition of the show.

On a Wednesday edition of The Drive, we'll cover all of our bases. Halfway through the work week, halfway closer to the weekend. Chris com Ronnie stops by for an entire hour, as does Richard Smith. We're gonna we're gonna have some in studio stuff with those guys tomorrow. Josh Furlong joins us for the latest in the University of Utah men's basketball coaching search and of course on a game day as they visit the McHale Center, and uh Neil Smith for behind the Glass. We'll go from there.

There you go.

Special thank you today to Sean Mooney, Zach Harper, Bill Riley, and Roxy Burns for the sound you made miss from the show today. Website's an option. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile app and take us on the go. That ESPN seven hundred app is available in the App Store of the Google Play Store. And then finally for what we do in our space every afternoon for four hours. If you guys