Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Matt Muehlebach on March Madness, Arizona the favorites to win the national title (?), Alex Jensen's 1st year with the Runnin Utes + more

Transcript

Matt Muehlebach on March Madness, Arizona the favorites to win the national title (?), Alex Jensen's 1st year with the Runnin Utes + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:06
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0:17
Speaker 1: We're out and about today. And by the way, I'm
0:19
Speaker 1: not Sean O'Connell. Do you remember my voice. I haven't
0:23
Speaker 1: gone that long. I'm filling in today, Bill Riley in
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Speaker 1: Wassatch Front Kiya today, Riverdale Road, seven seventy West Riverdale
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Speaker 1: only had a few people come in and shoot for
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Speaker 1: them right now. We're gonna give them away at two o'clock.
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Speaker 1: So whoever makes the shots between now and two o'clock
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Speaker 1: win those post Malone jelly roll tickets. They'll be at
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Speaker 1: Rice Ecle Stadium coming up this July. Our one is
1:01
Speaker 1: done into hour two. We're gonna talk some Utah football
1:04
Speaker 1: and read some of your text messages. I'll give you
1:06
Speaker 1: some of my thoughts on spring football again. It's the spring.
1:09
Speaker 1: It's all general stuff, but the beginning of the Morgan
1:11
Speaker 1: Scalley era coming up. We're entering year two. We're coming
1:15
Speaker 1: up on year two, first full year of the Alex
1:17
Speaker 1: Jensen era at the University of Utah. I thought we
1:19
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about that and the March madness
1:22
Speaker 1: that's going on right now. I got to see him
1:24
Speaker 1: a couple of times on the road this year, which
1:27
Speaker 1: was great. Or he came to The Huntsman too. He
1:30
Speaker 1: is now an analyst for Peacock Sports since the Pac
1:33
Speaker 1: twelve network is no more. My friend and fellow Royals
1:37
Speaker 1: span so it's only appropriate to have him on on
1:39
Speaker 1: opening day for baseball as the Royals play the Braves tonight.
1:42
Speaker 1: Matt Mulebach, what's up.
1:44
Speaker 2: Maddie, Hey, Bill, how you doing man? Thanks for having
1:47
Speaker 2: me on.
1:47
Speaker 1: It's good to have you back on. And plus I'm
1:49
Speaker 1: back on the radio today for the first time of
1:51
Speaker 1: a couple of years. I had to have some of
1:52
Speaker 1: my old my old favorites come back on and do
1:55
Speaker 1: the show with me today.
1:57
Speaker 2: That's awesome. You're gonna have Yogi Roth and let's who
2:00
Speaker 2: else Yogi was.
2:01
Speaker 1: Yogi's in Japan. I was literally Yogi was gonna do
2:05
Speaker 1: the next segment, but Yogi's in Japan right now. He
2:07
Speaker 1: shot me a text like fifteen hours ahead of time.
2:10
Speaker 1: He's like, I'd love to do it, but I'm on.
2:12
Speaker 1: You know, Yogi, when it's not football season. That dude's
2:15
Speaker 1: travel in the world with his family.
2:17
Speaker 2: He's out, he's doing They did like the Walk of
2:20
Speaker 2: what was that Portugal or Spain? That big walk he
2:23
Speaker 2: did he did, uh huh. He did a movie on it.
2:26
Speaker 2: He's an eclectic guy.
2:27
Speaker 1: Mand We debuted. That was years ago. We debuted the
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Speaker 1: movie here in Salt Lake City and tons of football
2:34
Speaker 1: fans came out. I still have the movie poster that
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Speaker 1: he signed. It was really cool.
2:38
Speaker 2: That's cool, that's super that's awesome, man.
2:41
Speaker 1: So how are you? I mean, Matt for those that
2:43
Speaker 1: don't know, was an outstanding guard for lud Olsen at
2:46
Speaker 1: the University of Arizona back in the day. And I've
2:50
Speaker 1: said this from the beginning of the Year and then
2:51
Speaker 1: when I saw him in person, it just reaffirmed it.
2:54
Speaker 1: Arizona's the best team in college basketball. Does that mean
2:57
Speaker 1: they're going to cut down the nets in a couple
2:58
Speaker 1: of weeks. No, it doesn't, because as Matt knows that
3:00
Speaker 1: well because he played on some really good teams. But boy,
3:03
Speaker 1: they flexed last night. They looked really good against a
3:06
Speaker 1: good Arkansas team. How are you feeling about the Cats
3:08
Speaker 1: right now, Matt?
3:10
Speaker 2: You know, I feel good. You know, I think they are.
3:14
Speaker 2: I think it's them or Michigan or the two best teams.
3:17
Speaker 2: But as you pointed out, that doesn't always mean you know,
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Speaker 2: you're gonna you're gonna get to the Final four and
3:22
Speaker 2: or win it. And they got a tough they got
3:25
Speaker 2: a really tough game tomorrow, and it's you know, basketball
3:28
Speaker 2: is not you mentioned baseball and our royals. I mean
3:31
Speaker 2: they're always saying baseball, right like, the momentum you get
3:35
Speaker 2: is as good as you're the pitcher the next day.
3:37
Speaker 2: And in basketball, I think there is more to momentum.
3:41
Speaker 2: But at this stage, I mean, you know, Arizona, Purdue,
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Speaker 2: they're in the Elite A. Purduees one seven in a row.
3:48
Speaker 2: They just beat Michigan last week or two weeks ago,
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Speaker 2: so you know this, the one thing I fear for
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Speaker 2: them is they played so well last night. I mean,
3:57
Speaker 2: they they like spanked Arkansas. They they they they had
4:01
Speaker 2: them in knots and and and you you you know,
4:05
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm a sports guy and the next athlete
4:07
Speaker 2: you worry sometimes is they're a leutdown after a great
4:10
Speaker 2: game like that, because they really played well. And I'll
4:14
Speaker 2: say this, it was kind of interesting. You know, Purdue
4:17
Speaker 2: played the Arizona a couple of years ago. Now different players,
4:20
Speaker 2: and you know, but some of the players are still
4:22
Speaker 2: there perdue of course, had Zach Edy and they took
4:26
Speaker 2: it to the Wildcats two years agoing to neutral site
4:28
Speaker 2: in Indiana, and uh A Lawyer had five threes. I
4:33
Speaker 2: think Brayden had had four. And they really kind of
4:37
Speaker 2: they had them in knots. Because of that offense. They
4:39
Speaker 2: run and and and you know, Arizona's much bigger, they're
4:42
Speaker 2: more athletic. There's some things you'd you'll you'd love as
4:46
Speaker 2: an Arizona fan in this matchup. I will say this, though,
4:49
Speaker 2: Purdue is the number one ranked offense in the country,
4:53
Speaker 2: number one, and it's for a reason. And and you know,
4:56
Speaker 2: they played in the Big Ten. It's not like they're
4:57
Speaker 2: coming from a bad conference. So I think it's gonna
5:00
Speaker 2: be a really good game. I mean, I think I
5:02
Speaker 2: think Arizona wins that game like six and a half
5:05
Speaker 2: seven out of ten times. But you know, look, you
5:08
Speaker 2: never know. It's it's and I'll say this last thing.
5:10
Speaker 2: I'll say in the Elite eight, it is to me
5:13
Speaker 2: the scariest game of the of the year, because you
5:17
Speaker 2: are one game away from kind of immortality. You make
5:20
Speaker 2: a Final four. Pretty much any school, it's your immortal.
5:24
Speaker 2: You go up on the rafters. Other than UCLA, they
5:26
Speaker 2: only hang you know, championship banners, but you're up on
5:29
Speaker 2: the rafters. They'll remember your team for one hundred years.
5:33
Speaker 2: But if you lose that game, they forget about you,
5:35
Speaker 2: you know, two days later. So it's the weirdest game.
5:38
Speaker 2: And so it's obviously a huge game in Arizona. It's
5:42
Speaker 2: been a while since they've been to the Final four
5:44
Speaker 2: that it's sort of like they need the monkey off
5:46
Speaker 2: their back.
5:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, they never made it in the Sean Miller era.
5:50
Speaker 1: In fact, I think the last Final four Arizona made
5:52
Speaker 1: you correct me, if I'm wrong, I think it was
5:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, wasn't it Wasn't that the last
5:57
Speaker 1: Arizona Final four?
5:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. They lost to Duke in the final
6:02
Speaker 2: in that in that game, some incredible talent on both teams.
6:04
Speaker 2: But that is and you know, it's funny you bring
6:07
Speaker 2: up Sean Miller. I mean that the city was was
6:10
Speaker 2: freaking out here in Tucson because they're just thinking, oh
6:14
Speaker 2: my god, you know, the ultimate irony, Sean Miller never
6:17
Speaker 2: gets them there, you know, he leaves the program and
6:20
Speaker 2: then and then then then they have to play Texas
6:24
Speaker 2: to get there in the final four, and Sean's in
6:27
Speaker 2: their way. But I was I was hoping. I was hoping,
6:30
Speaker 2: you know, for Arizona's sake, they played Texas because I
6:32
Speaker 2: just think Purdue's much better. And and that's off to
6:35
Speaker 2: Sean for what he did to get that team as
6:37
Speaker 2: far as they did and get him a bucket or
6:39
Speaker 2: two away from the Elite eight. But it'll it'll be
6:42
Speaker 2: a tough one. I mean, all these teams now at
6:44
Speaker 2: this you know, isn't it amazing? Bill, Like how chalk
6:47
Speaker 2: the tournament is right now?
6:49
Speaker 1: And how except Iowa? I think except Iowa.
6:52
Speaker 2: Except Iowa that was at fourteen of the top seventeen
6:57
Speaker 2: kin Palm teams made the Sweet sixteenth. It's one of
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Speaker 2: the most incredib double chalk things I've ever seen. And
7:02
Speaker 2: I think one of the differences I'd like to hear
7:04
Speaker 2: you you know, you're of course the NIL is changing that,
7:07
Speaker 2: and I think there's a lot of objectivity around that.
7:10
Speaker 2: I think the other thing is this the kin Palm
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Speaker 2: site and these metrics sites have have have identified the
7:19
Speaker 2: team so well that now the committee has such an
7:23
Speaker 2: easy job of seating teams. And for years I think
7:27
Speaker 2: we've seen some really bad, egregious seating because people just
7:31
Speaker 2: don't know other teams, they don't have enough time to
7:33
Speaker 2: see them, they don't really know how good they are.
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Speaker 2: But the kin Palm site and the others, I think
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Speaker 2: really like do it so well. The seating is just
7:42
Speaker 2: as excellent this tournament, and so I think that's the
7:45
Speaker 2: reason you'll see these weird you know. Five years ago,
7:48
Speaker 2: Tommy Lloyd played Houston in the Sweet sixteen and they
7:52
Speaker 2: were Tommy was a one seed with Arizona's his first year.
7:56
Speaker 2: At the end of the year, Houston finished the years
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Speaker 2: of two in Kin Palm two the number two team
8:01
Speaker 2: in the country, and they were a five seed. They
8:04
Speaker 2: were completely misseeded and so they'd beat Arizona in that
8:07
Speaker 2: sweet sixteen. But you're not seeing that as much now.
8:09
Speaker 2: And you know, hats off to Kim pomp to kN
8:12
Speaker 2: palm Roy for putting that together, because it's really done
8:14
Speaker 2: a great job with the tournament.
8:16
Speaker 1: Ken Pomroy Salt Lake City native. Ken lives right here.
8:19
Speaker 1: We occasionally see him pop up at Utah games. So
8:22
Speaker 1: shout out to Ken Palm. He's done a fantastic job
8:25
Speaker 1: and he's I mean, he's become synonymous with college basketball analytics.
8:29
Speaker 1: There's no that about that tonight's games. Let's do that
8:31
Speaker 1: real quick because I do want to ask you about
8:34
Speaker 1: Utah basketball as we go into year two of the
8:36
Speaker 1: Alex Jensen era. But tonight you've got two ones and
8:38
Speaker 1: two two's playing a six to three of five and
8:41
Speaker 1: a four. So what are your reads if you're looking
8:44
Speaker 1: at upset. I don't think you could call any of
8:46
Speaker 1: these up. Well, maybe one of them could be an upset,
8:48
Speaker 1: But as you look at these games tonight, you're you're
8:52
Speaker 1: kind of feel for the Duke of Saint John's Michigan, Obama, Yukon,
8:56
Speaker 1: Michigan State, Tennessee, Iowa state matchups.
9:00
Speaker 2: You know, I think Duke's gonna win, but I will
9:02
Speaker 2: say that's that's one where I could see an upset
9:05
Speaker 2: I was in. I was in San Diego last week
9:09
Speaker 2: and saw Saint John's play because they were in the
9:11
Speaker 2: same pod as Arizona, not the same bracket, but it
9:14
Speaker 2: was by the way, it was so cool to see Patina,
9:16
Speaker 2: like he roams the sideline, is like such a gangster
9:19
Speaker 2: in his suit and just like he's super cool. And
9:22
Speaker 2: they play so hard though they played really hard, and
9:25
Speaker 2: I think that'll give Duke problems. Duke's had a little
9:27
Speaker 2: bit of some injury stuff, but I think over at
9:30
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I think Duke's just better.
9:32
Speaker 2: And but I think that'll be a good one. I
9:34
Speaker 2: would not be surprised if Saint John's wins that I
9:36
Speaker 2: think Michigan's gonna roll. I thought some people have said
9:39
Speaker 2: they'll struggle with the way Alabama scores and so forth.
9:43
Speaker 2: I just think Michigan's too good. The other one, I
9:46
Speaker 2: love the Michigan State Connecticut that's just a coin toss.
9:48
Speaker 2: I mean, it's gonna be like, that's.
9:50
Speaker 1: Gonna be like first team to fifty five might win
9:53
Speaker 1: that game.
9:53
Speaker 2: That's right. That's that's a preview of of of Utah
9:58
Speaker 2: football coming up for this year. So it's going to
10:01
Speaker 2: be incredible. The offensive rebounding, the screen set, and that
10:05
Speaker 2: game is going to be incredible. I think Iowa States
10:08
Speaker 2: got to That's an interesting game for them because Tennessee
10:11
Speaker 2: has the same style and Iowa State without I think
10:16
Speaker 2: Joshua Jefferson is not playing, if I'm not mistaken.
10:19
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that yet. He was. They were calling
10:22
Speaker 1: him a game time decision. But even if you're a
10:24
Speaker 1: game time decision, you're probably seventy seventy five percent best.
10:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a that's a scary one. If
10:31
Speaker 2: I'm always stated, I think that's I know they're favored,
10:33
Speaker 2: but I think it's more of a pick them because
10:35
Speaker 2: of the way the two teams play you and I
10:37
Speaker 2: I was, in fact, I was doing that Utah game
10:39
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake when I was State was there, and
10:42
Speaker 2: I think they're talented, they're good, but what really drives
10:45
Speaker 2: them is their defense. They play insane. They're Houston Es
10:49
Speaker 2: how they play defense. And but Tennessee is exactly how
10:53
Speaker 2: Tennessee plays. So I think that's going to be a
10:56
Speaker 2: match of exactly the same styles, and so that'll be
10:59
Speaker 2: a fun game. In terms of the score, I think
11:01
Speaker 2: it'll be that's going to be down to the wire.
11:03
Speaker 1: I there's something about this Iowa State team and the
11:07
Speaker 1: fact that what they did in that last round of
11:10
Speaker 1: thirty two. They play so hard, they guard so well.
11:15
Speaker 1: Those two freshmen guards are terrific. I think they shoot
11:18
Speaker 1: it better overall than Tennessee does too. And if they
11:22
Speaker 1: can get Jefferson, even if they can get fifteen minutes
11:25
Speaker 1: out of Jefferson on the floor, but if they got
11:28
Speaker 1: by Tennessee and got him healthy in the Elite eight,
11:30
Speaker 1: I like that Iowa State team a lot.
11:32
Speaker 2: Matt.
11:33
Speaker 1: I know Jefferson such, I mean, he's the lynchpin to
11:36
Speaker 1: everything they do, but they functioned really well without him
11:40
Speaker 1: in that last game.
11:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I saw him play. I saw him
11:44
Speaker 2: play here in Tucson. But you go back to when
11:46
Speaker 2: they played Arizona in the Big twelve. I mean they
11:49
Speaker 2: were tied with seven seconds to go. So to your point,
11:52
Speaker 2: and Lipsy, by the way, Lipsey's one of the great
11:55
Speaker 2: great stories. Four year guy played at Ames High School.
11:59
Speaker 2: You got to root for guys like that.
12:01
Speaker 1: Well it's an anomaly now, first to have a guy
12:04
Speaker 1: for four years, but to have a hometown guy for
12:06
Speaker 1: four years, We're not gonna see that very much anymore.
12:10
Speaker 1: I think Arizona's got a kid that's from Tucson that's
12:12
Speaker 1: a transfer, but he doesn't play very much, but he's
12:15
Speaker 1: back for the program. And is he a kid from
12:18
Speaker 1: Harvard or something that came back to play for them?
12:20
Speaker 1: Is that what it was?
12:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, they brought a kid in kind of like their
12:23
Speaker 2: backup point guard, like almost like their third point guard.
12:27
Speaker 2: Really good kid goes went to South Point High School
12:29
Speaker 2: here in Tucson named Evan Nelson. I think he played
12:32
Speaker 2: four years at Harvard. So really good story. But you know,
12:36
Speaker 2: Arizona's interesting because they do have three outstanding freshmen. But
12:40
Speaker 2: you know, Jaden Bradley's a third year guy at Arizona.
12:44
Speaker 2: You know Crevass is a third year guy at Arizona.
12:49
Speaker 2: So that del Riso is a two year guy at Arizona.
12:52
Speaker 2: So they do have they have a little bit of
12:54
Speaker 2: balance between the transfers and in between the freshmen.
12:58
Speaker 1: I said this maybe I said it to you. I
13:01
Speaker 1: told my partner Sean Mooney all year long. I've even
13:03
Speaker 1: told Wes and Alex because we talk offline all the time.
13:07
Speaker 1: I think Tommy Lloyd's building philosophy is the perfect philosophy
13:12
Speaker 1: for college basketball today. He's got two or three core
13:16
Speaker 1: guys that have been in his program, Jayden, Bradley Krevas,
13:20
Speaker 1: that have even Delorso a little bit, have been there,
13:22
Speaker 1: so they know what it is. They're good players too.
13:24
Speaker 1: Then he brings in two or three really good transfers,
13:27
Speaker 1: and then he supplements it. And granted it's Arizona, so
13:30
Speaker 1: you're gonna get five star guys, but he's got three,
13:32
Speaker 1: two or three really good freshman Burry's Pete and I
13:36
Speaker 1: think Karschhenkoff is so underrated before what he brings them.
13:39
Speaker 1: He doesn't demand the ball, he guards, he whatever. But
13:42
Speaker 1: I think it's the perfect mix of young transfers and
13:46
Speaker 1: program guys, and I think that's one of the big
13:48
Speaker 1: reasons they're so good this year.
13:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree hundred percent. I mean, no reason to repeat.
13:54
Speaker 2: I agree with what you're saying, and I've added to that. Though.
13:58
Speaker 2: One thing that Tommy did I mention that Houston game
14:00
Speaker 2: they lost. So in that game they got they got
14:04
Speaker 2: beat up by Houston, right, they got kind of man
14:06
Speaker 2: handled and and they I think Tommy recognized that and
14:10
Speaker 2: he knew. A year later, he knew they were going
14:13
Speaker 2: to the Big twelve, and so he built the team
14:16
Speaker 2: for the Big Twelve. And I've said this. I did
14:18
Speaker 2: a couple of their early games, and in fact, a
14:21
Speaker 2: couple of people thought I was crazy, but I said,
14:23
Speaker 2: this is the biggest strongest Arizona team I think in history,
14:28
Speaker 2: in this history of the school. And you know, a
14:31
Speaker 2: guy like a Walka off the bench who played at Tennessee,
14:34
Speaker 2: you know, he could easily play for our Chiefs.
14:37
Speaker 1: You know.
14:37
Speaker 2: I'm in fact, I've I know some people in the
14:40
Speaker 2: front office there and I've actually, like not even jokingly, said,
14:44
Speaker 2: you guys need to look at him, like seriously, look
14:46
Speaker 2: at him for defensive end or tight end or whatever
14:48
Speaker 2: it is. But they're just so big and strong. They
14:53
Speaker 2: just physically, you know, they wear teams down to the
14:56
Speaker 2: point of like, I think that's why if you watched
14:58
Speaker 2: the game last night, Arkansas kind of lost their cool
15:01
Speaker 2: and I think they got frustrated because they just because
15:04
Speaker 2: they got manhandled by a bigger, stronger team. And that's
15:07
Speaker 2: what Tommy's done a great job. And I'll say this too,
15:10
Speaker 2: like you know, I'm I'm a I'm a Pack ten
15:13
Speaker 2: Pac twelve guy, you know, to heart forever because that's
15:16
Speaker 2: where I grew up and that I mean, that's where
15:18
Speaker 2: I played, and that's that was my that was what
15:20
Speaker 2: I knew. And but the Big twelve has been a
15:23
Speaker 2: godsend for Arizona basketball. It's it's it's leveled up, not
15:28
Speaker 2: just not just the talent, but like how you put
15:30
Speaker 2: teams together. And I've always said this for years. You know,
15:33
Speaker 2: Luke put together and he won a title and went
15:36
Speaker 2: to four final fours and was crazy successful, but his
15:39
Speaker 2: teams were more of a Ferrari than an off road
15:43
Speaker 2: you know, f one point fifty. And if you look
15:46
Speaker 2: at the tournament, the tournament's a rock fight. The tournament's
15:50
Speaker 2: tom Izzo and Michigan State and offensive rebounding. And that's
15:54
Speaker 2: kind of what Tommy's put He's kind of melded a
15:57
Speaker 2: Ferrari and a f one to fifty together, and so
16:00
Speaker 2: I think that's the that's the blueprint for a great
16:03
Speaker 2: tournament team.
16:04
Speaker 1: All right, As long as we're talking about building teams,
16:06
Speaker 1: let's close it down with this. Alex Jensen will be
16:09
Speaker 1: heading from year one to year two. They got a
16:11
Speaker 1: little bit of a late start. Obviously. We all know
16:14
Speaker 1: the portal officially opens April seventh, but it's been you know,
16:18
Speaker 1: it's like the NFL and Free The talks have been
16:20
Speaker 1: going on for months and planning and things like that.
16:24
Speaker 1: They're better equipped heading into year number two. You've got
16:27
Speaker 1: to see Utah a couple of times in person. Roster's
16:29
Speaker 1: clearly going to be quite a bit different next year.
16:32
Speaker 1: I think where where does U talk what? You know,
16:35
Speaker 1: if you're putting together a little checklist, Matt of becoming
16:39
Speaker 1: a more improved Big twelve team, where would you start with?
16:43
Speaker 1: You tel, give me a couple of bullet points or
16:44
Speaker 1: a couple of areas where they need to upgrade this offseason?
16:49
Speaker 2: You know, I think I think I'll start with the
16:52
Speaker 2: where I really liked him. I just, you know, had
16:54
Speaker 2: some time to talk to him. Yeah, I think I
16:57
Speaker 2: had three or four games just understanding that he's there
17:01
Speaker 2: for a reason, right, He's there to Utah to stay.
17:03
Speaker 2: He's not there as a stepping stone. He's building it.
17:07
Speaker 2: You know the right way. And I think that's to
17:09
Speaker 2: your point answer your question. It's you've got to get
17:12
Speaker 2: a few guys now that'll start being in the system
17:14
Speaker 2: for a year or two. Just like we talked about Arizona, right,
17:17
Speaker 2: Bradley three years and he's your point guard. That's the
17:21
Speaker 2: type of thing you need. And I think you know, look,
17:23
Speaker 2: I mean I think I just mentioned Arizona. I mean
17:25
Speaker 2: the bigger, stronger team you can build off of. You know,
17:29
Speaker 2: I think Utah struggled defensively in the Big Twelve. I
17:32
Speaker 2: mean that was the area that probably was the biggest area.
17:36
Speaker 2: I mean, look, Alex knows how to coach, he knows offense.
17:39
Speaker 2: And I think the other thing too. You know, he's
17:42
Speaker 2: been in the G League, he's been in the D League,
17:44
Speaker 2: he's been an assistant in the pros. He's kind of
17:47
Speaker 2: been all over the place. He's you know, as a
17:49
Speaker 2: player that played overseas. I think those kind of things
17:52
Speaker 2: are really good for this era of basketball. Eric Musselman
17:56
Speaker 2: once said the G League rosters don't change by the day,
18:00
Speaker 2: they changed by the hour. And I think I think
18:04
Speaker 2: Alex will be prepped for that, right, He'll and he'll
18:07
Speaker 2: learn like like Tommy Lloyd's in his fifth year, and
18:10
Speaker 2: I think every year Tommy, I've talked to him after
18:13
Speaker 2: the seasons, he's learned like one thing that he took away,
18:16
Speaker 2: like I got to fix that or I got to
18:18
Speaker 2: fix this right. And I think that'll be what Alex does.
18:21
Speaker 2: It's not not that he has to learn basketball, it's
18:23
Speaker 2: just how do I build my team? How do I
18:25
Speaker 2: keep building culture, you know, in the right way. He
18:28
Speaker 2: was obviously a Majeris guy. Culture, disciplined fundamentals, doing things
18:33
Speaker 2: the right way means a lot. And so you're just
18:35
Speaker 2: trying to recruit as much as you can players that
18:39
Speaker 2: fit those roles. And now he has more time to
18:41
Speaker 2: do it. He can see people, you know, he's got
18:43
Speaker 2: a little more time to insert his system in terms
18:46
Speaker 2: of the system and the process of how do I
18:49
Speaker 2: build my team, And that's that's almost as much now
18:52
Speaker 2: as coaching is. And so I think he'll be better
18:55
Speaker 2: at it this year and he'll just keep getting better
18:57
Speaker 2: every year.
18:58
Speaker 1: It's good time to be Matt Mulebach because Matt is
19:02
Speaker 1: a fan of the Ears of the Wildcats. That's his
19:03
Speaker 1: alma mater. They're the best team in college basketball. Uh,
19:06
Speaker 1: he's a fan of the Kansasity Chiefs like me and
19:09
Speaker 1: our guy Patrick Mahomes was throwing the other day. We
19:11
Speaker 1: saw some video of him throwing. He's gonna be ready
19:14
Speaker 1: for opening day. And we've got the best all around
19:17
Speaker 1: baseball player not named sho hey O Tani in baseball
19:21
Speaker 1: playing for the Kansas City Royals and Bobby wit and
19:23
Speaker 1: they opened tonight with the Braves.
19:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bobby baseball man. It was how much fun was
19:27
Speaker 2: that watching him in the World World Silks or whatever
19:30
Speaker 2: and his defense and his all around play. And I'll
19:33
Speaker 2: tell you what the Royals, you know, Cole Reagan's I
19:35
Speaker 2: think goes today against who's the Braves?
19:39
Speaker 1: Sale Chris Sale, Sale.
19:41
Speaker 2: Chris Sale. That's going to be an hope of a start.
19:43
Speaker 2: And they've got some pitching so uh and and by
19:46
Speaker 2: the way, Bill, we could talk for another hour and
19:48
Speaker 2: our ear fans wouldn't wouldn't love this, But she she
19:51
Speaker 2: she's free agency. They killed it in free agency. I
19:54
Speaker 2: loved what they did.
19:55
Speaker 1: They got the they got the back they needed, and
19:57
Speaker 1: then they filled in nicely with some really good players.
20:00
Speaker 1: And if fifteen's healthy and ready to go, and they
20:02
Speaker 1: draft well in a couple of weeks. We'll be back, Matt.
20:05
Speaker 1: We'll be back.
20:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right. We will be back. And like
20:09
Speaker 2: you said, Patrick throwing that that feels good. So yeah,
20:12
Speaker 2: all systems go for me though. It's it's it'd be
20:14
Speaker 2: a pretty big game tomorrow for Arizona fans and their alumni,
20:19
Speaker 2: so it'll be it's scary, but it's fun. It's fun
20:21
Speaker 2: to be in the mix.
20:22
Speaker 1: Hey, good catching up with he was great seeing you
20:24
Speaker 1: this year. Thanks for coming on the radio with me today.
20:28
Speaker 1: Maybe i'll grab you on the podcast Crimson Quarter podcast.
20:31
Speaker 2: It is off.
20:31
Speaker 1: Some Big twelve basketball coming up once everything kind of
20:34
Speaker 1: settles in a month or two in the in the
20:36
Speaker 1: portal on the basketball side.
20:37
Speaker 2: Thanks Matt, Yeah, I look forward to it. Thanks Bill.
20:40
Speaker 1: There he is Matt Matt Mulebach, NBC Sports and Peacock
20:44
Speaker 1: College Basketball and Big Twelve insider with us here on
20:47
Speaker 1: the Shat O'Connell Show today