Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Bill Riley on Runnin Utes basketball, Tough stretch for the team, Going back to Allen Fieldhouse + more

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Bill Riley on Runnin Utes basketball, Tough stretch for the team, Going back to Allen Fieldhouse + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:03
Speaker 1: Your tune to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
0:06
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two.
0:10
Speaker 2: One half n.
0:21
Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
0:23
Speaker 3: on FM. We welcome in the Voice of the Utes,
0:26
Speaker 3: Bill Riley, a conversation brought to you every week by
0:30
Speaker 3: Handy and Handy at handy Law Utah dot com.
0:33
Speaker 2: Bill Riley, how are you, sir.
0:35
Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell. I'm great, sir, How are you? What's going on?
0:38
Speaker 3: You know, just hanging out talking all things really NBA
0:41
Speaker 3: heavy today with some jazz news about surgery happening and whatnot.
0:46
Speaker 3: But let's get into some other hoops and Running Utes hoops.
0:50
Speaker 3: It's been a dark stretch, six Big Twelve Conference games
0:55
Speaker 3: in a row, now dropped by the Running Utes. Up
0:58
Speaker 3: next will be a City Cincinnati road trip. And look
1:02
Speaker 3: the competition in the Big Twelve. We knew this was
1:05
Speaker 3: going to be tough. Kansas and Houston and back to
1:08
Speaker 3: back weeks. That's a that's a nasty thing. But uh,
1:12
Speaker 3: give me a sense, like put your finger on the
1:14
Speaker 3: pulse of this team and where things are at right now?
1:18
Speaker 1: Well, like you said, it's it's losing six in a
1:20
Speaker 1: row is not good. And what's been interesting in the
1:23
Speaker 1: six game losing streak, Sean is they've played well at times.
1:27
Speaker 1: I mean, there were stretches in that game Saturday at
1:29
Speaker 1: Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse where they're neck and neck with
1:31
Speaker 1: the Jayhawks. There were stretches in that BYU game in
1:35
Speaker 1: Provo where they're neck and neck with the BYU Cougars.
1:39
Speaker 1: They held Houston twelve points under their season average and
1:43
Speaker 1: gave the number three team in the country. You know,
1:46
Speaker 1: some pits at times, but that's it. It's been at times.
1:50
Speaker 1: But then you've got a loss to Arizona State at home.
1:53
Speaker 1: I lost to Oklahoma State at home, where you kind
1:56
Speaker 1: of feel like if they had brought the same effort
1:58
Speaker 1: they played with, say against or against BYU, they might
2:03
Speaker 1: have won those games. So I know there's some frustration.
2:06
Speaker 1: I know Alex, you know, he's a coach and he's
2:10
Speaker 1: a winner. He never lost a game at home as
2:12
Speaker 1: a ute, so there's some frustration there. I mean, they
2:16
Speaker 1: knew that this was not going to be their best year.
2:19
Speaker 1: It's the first year. But I you know, to your
2:21
Speaker 1: point when you're one in ten in conference play and
2:23
Speaker 1: you've lost six in a row. There's some frustration there,
2:27
Speaker 1: and this is not that's not going to be an
2:28
Speaker 1: easy road swing Cincinnati. Are they great? No, But they
2:32
Speaker 1: just went on the road last night and beat Kansas
2:35
Speaker 1: State on the road by almost thirty, So they're going
2:39
Speaker 1: to be at home. They've won, you know, five games
2:42
Speaker 1: in conference play. Then you've got to go play at
2:43
Speaker 1: West Virginia. And West Virginia is a good team. It's
2:47
Speaker 1: not an easy road swing coming up here for Utah,
2:49
Speaker 1: and you hope maybe you're on the road together, you're
2:52
Speaker 1: way from campus, away from distractions, maybe you kind of
2:55
Speaker 1: circle the wagons up just a little bit. But they
2:58
Speaker 1: need to find some positivesvity and be able to channel
3:01
Speaker 1: that here on the road.
3:02
Speaker 3: You need positivity, you need progress. Nobody is expecting them
3:06
Speaker 3: to be world beaters in Alex Jensen's first year, especially
3:09
Speaker 3: given the state of the roster and things like that.
3:12
Speaker 2: But you want to see progress.
3:15
Speaker 3: Where is the most likely spot in your mind for
3:17
Speaker 3: that progress to show, maybe even as early as this
3:20
Speaker 3: road trip.
3:21
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, don't turn the basketball over. You can
3:24
Speaker 1: do that. They've rebounded the basketball better than they did
3:26
Speaker 1: early in the season. But the other thing you've got
3:29
Speaker 1: to do, and they did this in stretches against both
3:32
Speaker 1: Kansas and Houston. They've guarded better. And if you can
3:37
Speaker 1: play with that same intensity, you know, this shop defense,
3:40
Speaker 1: it's a want to. It's an effort thing. It's mostly
3:43
Speaker 1: that in most sports. Football is the same thing. It's
3:46
Speaker 1: a want to. It's an effort thing. Offense is different.
3:50
Speaker 1: But if they bring that same type of effort they
3:53
Speaker 1: played with for say, ten or twelve minutes at Kansas
3:56
Speaker 1: or ten or twelve minutes the other night against Houston
3:58
Speaker 1: on the defensive and in the Big Twelve Conference, it
4:01
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you're playing Kansas or Houston or BYU
4:05
Speaker 1: or if you're playing Baylor or Colorado or ASU. You've
4:09
Speaker 1: got to bring the intensity and energy because even the
4:12
Speaker 1: teams toward the bottom of the standings are good teams.
4:15
Speaker 1: There aren't many, if any nights off in the Big
4:18
Speaker 1: Twelve Conference, so you've got to make it a thirty
4:21
Speaker 1: five forty minute effort every single night, not just picking
4:24
Speaker 1: your spots you're in there.
4:26
Speaker 3: Well to that point, I mean, you've seen a lot
4:29
Speaker 3: of these teams home or away. Now you've seen the
4:34
Speaker 3: number one team in the nation a couple of times BYU.
4:37
Speaker 3: You're in state rival that put a lot behind this
4:39
Speaker 3: basketball team and just had to snap their own losing streak.
4:43
Speaker 3: How do you handicap the Big Twelve Conference in maybe
4:46
Speaker 3: those top four top five teams right now, because it
4:50
Speaker 3: is a good league.
4:51
Speaker 1: I think it's a definitive top five team Sean and
4:55
Speaker 1: then there's a middle section. BYU was in that group,
4:58
Speaker 1: but they've, you know, they've fallen on some harder times.
5:02
Speaker 1: I think that they've been exposed a little bit in
5:04
Speaker 1: league play. They've got an outstanding top three, but after
5:08
Speaker 1: that they're a bit deficient. I think they missed Austin
5:11
Speaker 1: Baker coming off the bench. I still think the best
5:14
Speaker 1: team in the league is Arizona. Even though they lost
5:17
Speaker 1: the other night on Big Month and they lost at
5:19
Speaker 1: Kansas in a one possession game late, I still think
5:22
Speaker 1: they're really good. I think Houston didn't play their a
5:25
Speaker 1: game in Salt Lake the other night, but I think
5:27
Speaker 1: they're the second best team. The hottest team in the
5:30
Speaker 1: league right now is Kansas. They've beaten Arizona, They've beaten
5:33
Speaker 1: Texas Tech, they've beaten BYU. In this stretch, and then
5:37
Speaker 1: I think Iowa State and Texas Tech are right there too,
5:39
Speaker 1: so that's kind of a top five. Then that middle
5:43
Speaker 1: tier has BYU in it. I think they're the best
5:45
Speaker 1: team in the middle tier. UCF's having a surprisingly good
5:49
Speaker 1: year with Johnny Dawkins this year, and then West Virginia,
5:53
Speaker 1: and then I think there's a tier of another four
5:56
Speaker 1: or five teams, and then you right now, Utah and
5:58
Speaker 1: k State are kind of toward the bottom because they've
6:00
Speaker 1: had their struggles. But I think there's five teams that
6:04
Speaker 1: I think could be Final four teams. And I think
6:07
Speaker 1: there's two teams that I think could win the national
6:10
Speaker 1: championship in the Big twelve. That's Arizona and Houston.
6:15
Speaker 3: You've been a voice of the youths for a really
6:17
Speaker 3: long time now, and you've gotten the call games football, basketball, baseball, whatever,
6:21
Speaker 3: and some pretty iconic arenas, venues, stadiums. Is it surreal
6:28
Speaker 3: when you're at you know, Allen Field's house where it
6:30
Speaker 3: all began for you?
6:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was kind of weird, not weird,
6:35
Speaker 1: but like maybe surreal's the better word. Like you said,
6:38
Speaker 1: I hadn't called a game there since I was a
6:40
Speaker 1: student when I was a senior, we called five or
6:43
Speaker 1: six basketball games for the student radio station in that building.
6:47
Speaker 1: I've been back for a few games over the years,
6:50
Speaker 1: but not very many, but it was it was weird
6:53
Speaker 1: coming back and seeing everything. I saw a lot of
6:56
Speaker 1: people that I knew Sean that I either went to
6:59
Speaker 1: school with or were professors of mine. I saw my
7:01
Speaker 1: broadcast mentor a guy by the name of Tom Hedrick
7:05
Speaker 1: after the game. He is ninety one years old and
7:08
Speaker 1: still sharp as attack. But it was it was a
7:11
Speaker 1: unique experience going back. I wish, you know, Utah could
7:15
Speaker 1: have given a little bit better closer game, but they
7:17
Speaker 1: hung in there. They didn't get blown out or anything
7:19
Speaker 1: like that. But it was it was fun to be
7:21
Speaker 1: back and see a lot of folks that I had
7:23
Speaker 1: known from years gone by and make some you know,
7:25
Speaker 1: kind of reconnect just a little bit too.
7:27
Speaker 3: How do you assess what's going on with Darren Peterson
7:30
Speaker 3: at Kansas. I mean, they talk about him as maybe
7:32
Speaker 3: the number one overall pick. He might be the most
7:34
Speaker 3: talented guy in college hoop right now, but there's an
7:37
Speaker 3: availability issue, and you know, it's I always question when
7:42
Speaker 3: we're talking about guys in that situation. If the injuries
7:45
Speaker 3: start to pile up, or the illnesses start to pile up,
7:48
Speaker 3: I don't know that I want to invest a lot
7:50
Speaker 3: of trust in him.
7:51
Speaker 2: If I'm drafting near the top. How do you how
7:54
Speaker 2: do you handle that?
7:56
Speaker 1: I don't. I talk to people when I was at Kansas,
7:58
Speaker 1: and everybody's you know, kind of like it's a mystery
8:01
Speaker 1: because the things that bother him are not things that
8:04
Speaker 1: you show up on an X ray or an MRI.
8:07
Speaker 1: It's cramping. You'd figure after ten or twelve games, you'd
8:11
Speaker 1: be able to figure out what's going on with that.
8:13
Speaker 1: And then the other night against Arizona, didn't play in
8:15
Speaker 1: that game. They beat the number one team, but he
8:17
Speaker 1: had flu like symptoms. It's a really strange situation. The
8:22
Speaker 1: weird thing is they played great the other night without him.
8:25
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not cry for Kansas. They've got four
8:27
Speaker 1: or five star talent all over the place. They're a
8:29
Speaker 1: really good team. They could make a run deep in
8:32
Speaker 1: the tournament. But I'm not sure that they're good enough
8:34
Speaker 1: to win a national championship without Darren Peterson. So it's
8:37
Speaker 1: one of those conundrums. Hey, yeah, we played hard. We
8:40
Speaker 1: reward the guys that are behind it are really good too.
8:42
Speaker 1: But if you want to reach that ultimate destiny, I
8:45
Speaker 1: think if you're Kansas, you probably have to have the
8:47
Speaker 1: guy that's going to be number one or number two
8:49
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Now, if I'm an NBA team, I
8:54
Speaker 1: would be I would want I would want extensive medicals.
8:58
Speaker 1: I would want my doctors to examine him up and
9:01
Speaker 1: down to figure out what's going on with him and
9:04
Speaker 1: if there are ded things that could linger into the NBA.
9:06
Speaker 1: The other thing that is a little bothersome if you're
9:09
Speaker 1: if your Kansas and Bill self is Peterson's really good
9:12
Speaker 1: and he's smooth, and he makes it look so easy.
9:15
Speaker 1: But sometimes he kind of fades away and you don't
9:18
Speaker 1: see him, but then he steps up in big moments
9:21
Speaker 1: where a guy like to Bonsa down a BYU seems
9:23
Speaker 1: to be there for thirty five forty minutes every.
9:26
Speaker 3: Night, Bill Riley my guest here for a couple more
9:29
Speaker 3: minutes on the Sean o'connall show. How cool was it
9:32
Speaker 3: to see conorro tool of all former uts, get himself
9:35
Speaker 3: a rank.
9:37
Speaker 1: Speaking of guys that were injured all the time, are
9:40
Speaker 1: not always available, conorroa too, You know, we always talk
9:43
Speaker 1: about Sean those guys, those what could have been guys,
9:47
Speaker 1: and Connor had a solid you know. It wasn't like
9:49
Speaker 1: his career ended or anything like that, but he was
9:52
Speaker 1: always there was always a nagging injury with him, and
9:55
Speaker 1: he missed a lot of time. But when he played,
9:57
Speaker 1: he would always flash and show you, you know, and
10:00
Speaker 1: then he'd be missed a couple of more games. I'm
10:01
Speaker 1: so happy for him because he was I think he
10:05
Speaker 1: was a street free agent or maybe he was drafted
10:07
Speaker 1: really late by Seattle. But there he is, playing special
10:11
Speaker 1: teams and contributing into Super Bowl. I thought it was
10:13
Speaker 1: really cool.
10:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I echo what you said. You know, there's
10:17
Speaker 3: all the there's plenty of guys any year you can
10:19
Speaker 3: look at a guy like, oh, he should have done more,
10:22
Speaker 3: He could have done more, And for him, it was
10:23
Speaker 3: always stuff kind of outside of his control keeping him
10:26
Speaker 3: off the field at the University of Utah. And that
10:30
Speaker 3: much more impressive to make an NFL roster when you
10:33
Speaker 3: don't have the body of game tape, all that work
10:36
Speaker 3: and stuff, and so yeah, I pretty cool to see him. Look,
10:39
Speaker 3: I don't want to ever see the Seahawks win a
10:41
Speaker 3: Super Bowl, especially at my Niners home field. But to
10:45
Speaker 3: see someone like Connor O'Toole, who didn't get the gratifying
10:48
Speaker 3: college experience that he probably expected, now have a ring,
10:51
Speaker 3: that's it's pretty neat.
10:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you wonder if a guy like that
10:56
Speaker 1: makes his way onto the team via special teams, and
10:59
Speaker 1: you know, as deep as the Seahawks are, maybe they're
11:02
Speaker 1: not able to keep everybody. Maybe he could kind of
11:05
Speaker 1: crack the too deep and be a rotational guy on
11:07
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the football two for them.
11:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see how it plays out the rest of
11:11
Speaker 3: his career. But he's got a ring now, so he
11:14
Speaker 3: doesn't have to worry about that. The list of uts
11:18
Speaker 3: invited to the NFL Scouting Combine came out, and it's
11:22
Speaker 3: no big surprises. I mean, I didn't know that logan
11:25
Speaker 3: Fano was going to get that invite, but obviously there's
11:28
Speaker 3: at least one team that wants to see what he's
11:30
Speaker 3: capable of.
11:30
Speaker 2: So you've got your two tackles.
11:33
Speaker 3: You've got Dallan, Bentley, Landerbarton, Logan Fano all heading to
11:37
Speaker 3: Indianapolis for the scouting combine. Who do you think flashes
11:41
Speaker 3: the most in the Underwear Olympics.
11:44
Speaker 1: That's a good quest. I mean, the tackles are going
11:46
Speaker 1: to be great. I mean I think both. I think
11:49
Speaker 1: both Spencer and Caleb are going to be really, really good.
11:54
Speaker 1: I really think Dallan Bentley could be a guy that
11:58
Speaker 1: really really flashes and kind of catches some people's eyes.
12:03
Speaker 1: He had a great year this year, and he showed
12:06
Speaker 1: some athleticism after he caught the football. I think Bentley
12:10
Speaker 1: could be a guy that might might really catch some
12:13
Speaker 1: eyes and move up the draft boards. I think they'll
12:16
Speaker 1: all do well in the interview portions, but in the
12:19
Speaker 1: underwear Olympics, as you like to call it, I think
12:21
Speaker 1: a guy like Dallan Bentley might do really well.
12:23
Speaker 3: What about you, Yeah, I think he's gonna have actually
12:25
Speaker 3: an awesome NFL career for the same reasons that you
12:28
Speaker 3: just stated. You know, I think that the NFL is
12:31
Speaker 3: gonna look kindly on the fact that he he came
12:34
Speaker 3: to the University of Utah. He was not the feature
12:37
Speaker 3: tight end in the offense, but he still decided to
12:39
Speaker 3: stay to develop, to build his body, et cetera. I
12:42
Speaker 3: think that, you know, that's going to bode well for
12:44
Speaker 3: him because he put in the work at Utah. He
12:46
Speaker 3: ended up finishing out with a really great year, and
12:49
Speaker 3: he's got the trades. He's a good blocker, he's a
12:51
Speaker 3: big physical body, and yeah, like you said, some athleticism
12:55
Speaker 3: after the catch. So I think Dallan Bentley could be
12:58
Speaker 3: really interesting. I also mention yesterday, if you're Lander Barton
13:02
Speaker 3: and you're going out there to this thing, are you
13:06
Speaker 3: are you bothering to run maybe a couple tight end
13:08
Speaker 3: drills because because he didn't, he just doesn't have the
13:12
Speaker 3: lateral quickness that NFL teams might be demanding to play
13:17
Speaker 3: at every down linebacker, but we only saw very brief
13:20
Speaker 3: flashes of it.
13:21
Speaker 2: He's a prototypical tight end body.
13:24
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, teams because he's got a
13:27
Speaker 1: little bit of tape, not a ton, but he's got
13:29
Speaker 1: a little bit of tape as tight end. I think
13:32
Speaker 1: teams might look at him that way. What he does have, though, Sean,
13:37
Speaker 1: is that super high football IQ at linebacker, and he's
13:43
Speaker 1: a very physical player too, So I think, you know,
13:47
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting to see. Maybe somebody looks
13:50
Speaker 1: at him, brings him to camp, drafts him, and looks
13:52
Speaker 1: at him both places. But I still think he's got
13:54
Speaker 1: enough on the linebacker side of things with the high
13:57
Speaker 1: football like you and with the guy you know, with
13:59
Speaker 1: that that physicality and that toughness to where he gets
14:03
Speaker 1: a look at linebacker as well.
14:05
Speaker 3: Our conversation with Bill Riley is brought to you by
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Speaker 3: Handy inhandyhandylaw Utah dot Com. Preston Garrett Handy been partners
14:12
Speaker 3: with this show when Bill was hosting it and obviously
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Speaker 3: now when I'm hosting it. They're a big part of it,
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Speaker 3: bringing Bill on every week. And it's always better to
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Speaker 3: not have to use them, but it's great to have
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14:23
Speaker 2: Bill.
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Speaker 1: Well, if you do have to use personal injury attorney Sean,
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Speaker 1: Com Thanks, Bill Thanks, sean talk to you.
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Speaker 2: Soon the voice of the, You It's Bill riley