Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sean Mooney on the Runnin Utes, Tonight at No. 15 Texas Tech, Takeaways from loss to BYU, Alex Jensen establishing his culture + more

Transcript

Sean Mooney on the Runnin Utes, Tonight at No. 15 Texas Tech, Takeaways from loss to BYU, Alex Jensen establishing his culture + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He's the Sean O'Connell show. You were Home of the Best,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Inside of Yours Utes.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to OC from the Murder Chevrolet Studio
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FMS today.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: On you in the space.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Not getting much easier for the running Utes. Top ten
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: BYU team at the Huntsman Center last time out. They're
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: on the road at number fifteen Texas Tech tonight seven pm,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: TIPS six thirty pre game on your Home of the Utes,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Sean Mooney, who's.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: The color analyst on those radio broadcasts alongside the Voice
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: of the Utes, Bill Riley, He's going to join us
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: here in a little bit the walk.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Shawn's continue.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Back to the text line at eight seven seven three
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: five three zero seven hundred. I was asking at the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: beginning of the show, how you prioritize these final couple
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: days of the transfer portal knowing that yes, names are
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: in there, and you can even after the portal closes,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: you can still pull people out. So I guess your
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: priority is keeping people from entering their name in the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: transfer portal. But what position on offense and what position
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: on defense. I put a poll question up on Twitter
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: for both. I left quarterbacks off on the offensive side
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: and on the defense, it's D line, edge linebackers, defensive backs. Look,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: we know what you lost. We know that some of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: these losses were painful. We saw what you've retained so
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: far from your own roster. But every team in the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: country is shoring things up with names in the transfer portal.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And the transfer portal right now has three thousand and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: thirty two players. According to on three, fifty of the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: three thousand and thirty two players appear to be committed
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: somewhere else. Thirty three players have withdrawn their names from
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the transfer portal, but that means that there are still
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: roughly fifteen hundred guys looking for a new spot.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Fifteen.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: There are fifteen full team's worth of players in the
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: transfer portal that are hoping for a phone call from
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: a place like the University of Utah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Wows up.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: All right, we're hoops heavy today and lucky enough to
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: welcome Sean Mooney back to the show. It's been a
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: while since we talked with Sean Mooney, so it's a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: walk Shawn's edition.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Mister Mooney, how are you like it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I'm get Jehan, how are you man? That number is
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: astounding that you just talked about in the transfer portal.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Isn't that wild?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: And by the way, easy man, the history we have
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and the sample size is relatively small, but historically this
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: transfer portal is going to close and the cycle is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: going to kind of wind down, and there's gonna be
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: over a thousand guys Sean who were mostly the bulk
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: of them were on scholarships somewhere last year and said no,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the grass is going to be greener elsewhere and end
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: up holding their own bag.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Man, it stinks.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's It's something we should be talking about.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you're talking about it because and you know,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the athletes need to hear that if they're not paying attention.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild because one thing that we've learned about athletes,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: and especially about really young athletes, is we have a
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: really hard time with learning from other people's mistakes, Like
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: you have to kind of feel the pain yourself to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: internalize it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And that's really really unfortunate.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, even in the NFL, even I'm telling you
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: things you already know, but when you see guys, see you, guys,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: they go to these rookie symposiums and everyone's like, hey,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: watch who you surround yourself with. Hey, keep your money right,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: don't be spending like crazy. And then there's one hundred
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: guys every year who blow it all. It's crazy.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: It's crazy. Yeah, I know.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Utah has a program called Elevate You that is trying
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: to do that very thing for the athletes, and you
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: just hope that they actually buy in and or listen
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: right when they when they're you know, coached, or talk
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: talk someone talk to them about what they need to
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: be doing.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about this Utah men's basketball team.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: You're beloved running uts They they're coming off a tough
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: one where I don't like moral victories, especially when you're
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: talking about basketball at the power flod level. But man,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: you kind of had to be proud of some of
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the things we saw from Utah against a really stacked
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: BYU squad. You're playing in a high pressure environment against
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: your rival school, and you're doing it for the first
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: time in the Alex Jensen era. Unfortunately, did not end
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: in a win. But let's let's stay on the positive
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and then we'll get to some of the negative. Maybe
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: what was your favorite thing about that game, the most
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: positive takeaway in your mind.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, for me, it's how we started the game,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: because you know, number one, when the energy's in the building,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: it's just a different environment, right, the Hustman Center Specials.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: The must was in full force there from top to bottom.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: But our kids, and like b what you is good? Right,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: we know how good they are. And I thought our
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: kids competed, and I thought they competed throughout the game,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: but in particular, maybe at the thirty minute mark, twelve
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: minutes left in the game, they were up by eight,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: I think, and they could have been ugly, and it
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: wasn't you know, we drew close, We drew in within
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: a fraction of really giving ourselves a chance to win
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: the game. Unfortunately, we didn't get a shot off at
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: the end of the game. I know the kids, the
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: coaches would have loved to at least had an opportunity
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: to get a shot up. But I like how we
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: compete a showan.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So I probably spent too much time talking about this
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: the other day, and I'm going to spend too much
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: time talking about it with you. But there was a
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: moment in the game James of Conquo goes up as
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: aj Debonsa, arguably the most famous guy in college basketball
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: right now, is barreling down the lane and goes up.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: For a poster dunk.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Right We've seen it at every level of basketball sean
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: where you could very easily, as a defensive player, you
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: could turn that down and you could just be like, no,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not doing this. I'm not being put
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: on this poster. I'm not taking this risk. We've seen
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: it in the NBA, we've seen it in college basketball.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: You see it in the AAU. And I thought that it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I thought that it was important. I thought that it
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: meant something. It didn't win you the game, but I
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: thought that it meant something that he took on that
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: challenge and successfully blocked that shot. But even if he
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: hadn't successfully blocked it, I would have been like, Okay,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: that's that's an Alex Jensen influence in real time. That's
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: your head coach saying no, we don't we don't make
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: a business decision. Right there, you go up. If you
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: get posterized, so be it, but we're going to play defense.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I love a shot, and I love that you bring
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: down went out because James was really good in this game,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: and he needs to be good, you know, because we
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: to be able to even play with big twelve teams,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: you got to have a big rebound and it's going
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: to attack penetration.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: And he was funny.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: He came over to the scorers table after that play
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: and someone on the scorers table asked him, you know
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: what he was thinking.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: He's like, I had two choices.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I was going to be on Sports Center or I
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: was gonna make it hard on him, and you know,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: he did. And then if you saw his face afterwards,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: he kind of gives that big blow of air out
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: of his mouth and he's like, oh my gosh, I
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: can't believe I just lost a j Debonsa.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Because you know that kid Ajdabusta.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: You've been watching him when he when he his gathered
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: dribble shall he takes like fifteen feet on each step.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: He's just different, man. I mean, he's really special. But
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: you're right, and James was a big difference maker. And
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: James has been a difference making in the last couple
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: of games. And we were just talking to Alex today,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: we just interviewed him and hey, we're talking about James
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: in this.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: Game tonight, Texas Tech man.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Is he going to be important and our whole team
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: is important, but our bigs have to be good. They
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: got the best player, best post player in the country
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: probably in JT.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: Toppins.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't get any easier. We're gonna get into
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the Texas Tech matchup here in just a second. Don
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: McHenry and Terrence Brown carried the bulk of the scoring
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: load against BYU. Is that something we're just gonna have
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: to get used to it and seeing the rest of
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the year.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna have to get used to it. I mean,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: there are they are scores. Don McHenry is especially efficient.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: TV is a score through and true. You know, he
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: likens himself his model is role model would be Alan
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Iverson and you kind of see that in him. He's
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: not very heavy, but he's tough minded, definitely score first
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: mentality and one of his biggest strengths has always been that.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: And one of the things that he's going to be doing,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: I think to make our team even better is being
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: a pass it and then get it back and score
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: as opposed to score first in the first side. But yeah,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I mean right now, KD. You know is really important.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Obviously he's close to a double double, but from a
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: consistent standpoint, you're not getting consistence going out of him.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: Say do the same thing. I really like our freshman
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Candle Sanders, but we don't have that third player, Sean,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Just like you said, yeah, we got to get used
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: to Tving and Don being our guys.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: What we talked about Keanu Dawes at the end of
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: last year, how important he was to retain on this
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: roster as you're making kind of a new start with things.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: You don't want to see a complete clean slate and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: just to disconnect from everything that's already happened.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: But what does he.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Need to do in this particular program under Alex Jensen
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: in order to maximize and get himself where he needs
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: to be, because he's a better player than what we've
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: seen from him in these last couple of games in
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: my mind.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, Sean, you're right, And I think the biggest
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: thing for KD this year and Alex is amazing. So
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: one of the things that he does with his players
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: is he tries to give them confidence. He doesn't detract
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: from them shooting, and he wants KD shooting. And now
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: when you look at Kd's stats from three, he hasn't
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: shot it well this year. He hit a big shot
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: against Washington and has hit a couple others, but in
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: general hasn't shot it from three to one. It makes
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: it harder for him because as in our offense, you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: you're not going to get a mid post catch. You're
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: going to get catches one of the guards drive, but
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: you're not going to get to kind of catch where
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: you can go to work with it. So if he's
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: not shooting as well, it makes it a little bit
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: tougher because they are going to defend him as a driver, right.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: But to his credit, you know, he doesn't get his
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: head down. He continues to shoot it and hopefully some
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: of those will go in, and you know, if they
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: go in, it's going to change things for him, and
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: then he's going to have to adjust when he drives.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: He drives right a lot, puts his head down. He's
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: doing a little bit better job of that. He's probably
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: our best passer, which is great.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: He's just got it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Still has a lot of upside, but like you said, Sean,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: he's trying to figure out what to do and how
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: to do it efficiently.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: Inside our offensive scheme.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Sean Mooney's my guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: You can hear him later tonight right here on these
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: air waves alongside Bill Riley as he's doing the color
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: analyst work. Utah will be taking on the number fifteen
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. We'll get to that match
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: up here. And just second, Alex Jensen in the first
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: year to this point, does it look like you thought
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: it was gonna look? Are there any surprises for you?
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Has he been kind of how you thought he would be?
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Coming back home? Give me give me your thoughts on
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: his job so far.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I will. Yeah.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: So, first of all, I want to establish it when
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: you're in the brotherhood of former Utah basketball players, even
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: if you don't know know each other, you loosely know
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: each other. And so it's been really nice for me
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: as a former player to just hang out with Alex
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: and spend time with him. He's a great guy, just
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: like you would expect that he is. You know, he's
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: easy to talk to. We don't just talk basketball, we
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: talk family. I think that it has been hard. It's
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: been a challenge on a lot of levels. You know,
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: the NBA is a lot different than college basketball, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you're kind of getting to feel for that. He's getting
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: to feel for that. He stayed really consistent Sean, So
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: that's what's been really nice. Like the athletes don't have
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: too much on their plate. He's kept the offensive structure basic. Defensively,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: you know, if we only man, we only defend man
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: and man obviously we double. But I think he's trying
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: to establish and he is establishing, you know, his own
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: personality in this team. The one thing I think that
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: I would say has been difficult for this team is
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: the voices. So Alex was a really good communicator, and
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: coach mcjeris's teams, you had to communicate at a high level.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: You had to use your voice.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: We don't have that right now on this team. There
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: are some guys that are communicating but not at a
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: high level, and that is going to make them better
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: as a year goes on. That's the one thing you're
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: going to see from his teams as he has his
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: feed under him and he moves forward, because you're going
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: to see he'll recruit kids. They're going to be really
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: good to communicating and all that means is just understanding
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: what you doing on defense and talking to each other.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: So that's what I expect more than anything, is that
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: we'd be very good defensively, and we haven't been very
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: good tovestigate this year.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Is that.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: A tactical problem or is that a technical problem? Is
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: that just a you got to build that slowly from
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: a culture standpoint.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: That's a that's a really good question. And I mean,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I want to say that you don't have to build
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: that slowly from a culture standpoint, but the reality is,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: and maybe Sean, I'm certainly not an expert in this matter,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: but but you and I spend all day talking to
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: people and we communicate, you know, it's part of our job.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I do think that not everyone's built like that. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe then what it is is understanding when
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: you're bringing athletes in, uh, you know what they're going
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: to be like from a communication standpoint. You often get
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: a bill for that when you're talking to them, but
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: when they get out on the floor it can be
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: a little bit different. I think it's a function of
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: them getting the reps in with their voice and getting
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: better with their voice if they can do that, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: then believing right like you got to believe that it
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: makes a difference. If you don't believe it makes a difference,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: then maybe it doesn't. And we're in a we're in
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: more of a transactional environment than we've ever been. And
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: that's just the reality in college athletics, meaning that you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: maybe you know, being best friends with the guy that
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: you go to school with.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: Is not going to happen because of the circumstances.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing in the college football world Indiana doing
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: things that none of us ever believed the University of
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Indiana would do on a football field. And it's not
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: like they're not a talented team.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: They are.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, they have the Heisman Trophy winner, and they
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: got all these guys that were in their fourth and
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: fifth year of college football experience. But from an objective
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: evaluation standpoint, they're not the biggest, the strongest, the fastest.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: They are the best team.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: And I know football basketball is apples and oranges sometimes, but.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Is Utah going to be able to do it? Not
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: this year?
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Probably, but to do it that way where you're just
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: even though you are not the best, the most talented,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the tallest, the longest, the fastest, you are a better team.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Is that how they're going to have to do it
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in this modern era.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I believe absolutely. It's a great example actually, because you
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: have cohesion and alchemy. You have a team in Indiana
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: that obviously they appear to like each other.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: And I think football is tougher than basketball by leaps
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: and bounds in terms of being cohesive because you have
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: so many moving parts. Basketball is much easier. And I
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: will say our team has definitely become more connected defensively.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: You're going to see us double a lot today JT
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Toppin and we're going to double Walter Watson, one of
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: my former teammates. He plays on this team, and how
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: we rotate out of that double and how we communicate
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: can really make a difference in terms of how successfully
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: are But I think that's what we're going to have
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: to be.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: That's what Majieri's teams were, That's what Alex knows, that's
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: how he coaches, that's what he's doing with them in
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the shoot around. It's it's I agree, Yeah, I think
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: we need to be that style team and that's how
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: we're going to be successful.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Sean Moody for another couple of minutes here on the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show. So let's get specific on tonight. You
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: have a really tough post program like you're talking about
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: with Texas Tech. You don't necessarily match up the best
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: way physically with this team maybe, so how do you
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: approach it?
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, so we're gonna I won't give away our
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: game plan, but you got to pick your poison with
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: this team because they've got really good shooters and they
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: truly go inside out, and they don't just go inside out.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: They do different things like if you remember D five
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: from last year, Darren Williams, Lawan watches him this year,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: but they basically because they go inside out with JT.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Top and they can get wide up and shots on the.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Opposite side of the floor.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: So how we double if we double with our hands
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: up and try and take away the opposite pass and
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: take it away early because Top and sees the double.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: He's really smart, he's been there for a while. And
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: then when we close out, we got to close out
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: like their shooters and make them drivers, right, So I
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: think you'll see that tonight and then really tonight, it's
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: just about matching their intensity. Texas Tech. They play at
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the high level intensity they're coach mccasly and says we're
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: tougher than anybody. They preach that they've got probably the
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: best guard in the league, and that's saying something. Christian Anderson,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: he's really really good, especially have to pick and really
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: seven assists a game. If we can match their energy
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: shot and I mean it's not easy to do, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: if we can do that and play with them in
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: the first half, just like we did with Buau, you know,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: I think we can be competitive with them.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I'm supposed to feel as an
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: observer about things like momentum and how much it matters
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: how you played last game versus you know, carrying it
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: into this game. Like again, last game was a loss,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: but you probably learned a thing or two about yourself
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: and your teammates and how hard that that game was fought.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: And now you're going on the road in another really
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: tough environment where you are a big underdog again.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Can you build momentum in a situation like these.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you absolutely can, but you have to believe it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: And that's what's tough with the team right now. I
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: think we're three and eight over the last eleven games,
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: but they continue to compete, which you want to see
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: as a fan. You know, I expect to see you
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: expect to see it, and yeah, you can build momentum.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, we just played a really good team b YU.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: We played Arizona, who maybe the best team in the country.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: You know, it's arguable. And we've been competitive up to
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: three three of the four halves. So yeah, we can
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: be competitive, and it'd be really nice.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: To break through. Now it's really hard to break through
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: on the road.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: But I mean, yeah, we can definitely bring what we
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: had at the BYU game into this game, and if
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: we don't, I'll be disappointed.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: All right, big picture thing I wanted to pick your
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: brain about. But looking forward to this, how should we
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: feel about Lucas Lagrita being on this roster and how
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: should we feel about going up against guys that were
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: in the G League a couple of years ago. I mean,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: it's such an odd thing that the NCAA in college
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: basketball is trying to find the fixed four and making
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: these announcements that I don't know if they're enforceable or not,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: but it's it feels almost like Luke was added to
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: this roster somewhat begrudgingly because you're like, well, if everyone
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: else is doing it, we got to do it too.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: How should we feel about this?
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, well, first of all, let's just try and
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: make it less deep. We'll make it less pro fun. Well,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: well we're gonna say that we're I'm first of all, Lucas.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you got a steam Shawan. He
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: made two passes in the ten minutes he got to play,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: and unfortunately he got hurt and he's not going to
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: be with us for probably four weeks. Uh, but he
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: made two passes or were high level passes. We've been
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: bringing uh, you know, the.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Pro player from international.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: For a while to college basketball. We just haven't done
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: that here. And I understand that that that's a little
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: on savory. But if the kids apparently have not got
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: a ten day contract or had a contract with an
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: NBA team, then of course there were Whether we want
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: to admit this or not, we are a pro a
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: pro style league now in college Is that not correct sans?
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, any anybody who is in the at the power
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: for a level right now is either getting compensated or
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: is very close to.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Being compensated just by proving in our coaching staff. They
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: deserve it. So these are pros.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're pros. And Lucas he's I mean,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: he's a really nice addition. And like my friends text me.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: My buddy Brad Russa text me and he's like, you know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: is everyone doing they said, all the cool.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: Kids are doing it? So yeah, I mean, and I'm.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Excited to watch Lucas play, and fortunately we're not going
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: to get to see him. And we got another shooter
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: out right now, Jacob Patrick. And we're a little thin.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: If you notice, a couple of our players that we
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: were kind of expecting to play quite a bit this
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: year have not played one the launch with the team,
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: Choppamore and Jacai has not played as much. So you know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: we need we need some additions. We're in on the guardland.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: There are only four guys down there actually shooting around
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: right now in the shoot around.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: The the big picture on the Big twelve slate, I mean,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: and this is the best conference in college basketball in
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: most people's minds, and Kansas Kansas still a top twenty
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: five team. But they're like, yeah, turns out everyone's good. Now,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: So how are you handicapping the big twelve to this point.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, for me, I haven't seen Iowa State play
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: as much, but I'm going to go with Arizona by
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: and large. I just think that they're the deepest team.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: I think you got Jay and Bradley, who is a
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: senior who's been there for a long time.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Barry's is an NBA.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Player, co Pie's an NBA player, and they've got the
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: dog of all dogs in mister Owaka. But Ottoburger teams,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Iowa State teams, and then I haven't even mentioned Houston
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: and they're ridiculous. Kingston Fleming for that team. If you
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: have a Seena Sean, he's a freshman league, the freshman
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: class this year, it's off the charts. But our top
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: six teams, I put him up against the SEC or
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: the Big ten, the Big ten maybe top to bottom,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: the best league like if you look at it, but
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: we're right there in our top six.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: Teams fur them to win the national championship.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: February tenth is when you'll see Houston. February seventh is Kansas.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: So the Big twelve slate is not exactly friendly from
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: a scheduling perspective. No, but Sean Mooney will be on
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: the call tonight. He'll be on the call the rest
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: of the way alongside Bill Riley. Sean, I'm glad we
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: got a chance to catch up and appreciate you giving
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: us your thoughts, Sean.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Really appreciate Next next to your voice, brother talking in.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Soon, Sean Mooney. You can hear him.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Six thirty pre game seven o'clock tip off, Utah versus
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Texas Tech