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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 6-1-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: He's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
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Speaker 1: Willis on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
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Speaker 1: b ESPN seven m a proud part of Utah's ESPN
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Speaker 1: Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Happy Monday, body, Welcome to the Shat O'Connell Show on
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Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM. Glad
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Speaker 2: to have you with us here on Utah's number one
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Speaker 2: sports start talk. We've got college women's College World Series happening.
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Speaker 2: We've got French Open Tennis continuing this week. You've got
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Speaker 2: the NHL Stanley Cup Final starting and of course the
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Speaker 2: NBA Finals as well.
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Speaker 3: Lots to get to.
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Speaker 2: We're gonna have some interesting news in the NFL world.
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Speaker 2: It sounds like if you were listening to the Rich
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Speaker 2: Eisen Show leading into this show. There's apparently a strong
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Speaker 2: and potentially momentous rumor buzzing around NFL circles. So it's
1:22
Speaker 2: been silly watching some of the NFL headlines circle and
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Speaker 2: swirl around. Jackson Dart because his teammates didn't appreciate his
1:37
Speaker 2: apparent support of the current sitting president of the United States.
1:40
Speaker 2: I mean, there's all these weird things happening and it's
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Speaker 2: time to get to football sooner than later. But we've
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Speaker 2: got plenty of basketball, plenty of hockey still left to play,
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Speaker 2: and of course the spring sports in the college world,
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Speaker 2: with the College World Series and the Women's College World
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Speaker 2: Series are interesting. RSL continues an interesting season, and in THENWSL,
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Speaker 2: your Utah Royals are the number one team in the
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Speaker 2: league right now if you've been paying attention to that.
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Speaker 2: So look, we're lucky to live here in this beautiful state.
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Speaker 2: It is a gorgeous early summer day. We live in
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Speaker 2: a postcard and we should all focus on the gratitude
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Speaker 2: we have for that, even if it's just a deep
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Speaker 2: breath in a The San Antonio Spurs over the weekend
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Speaker 2: Saturday night primetime Game seven matchup, just like the NBA
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Speaker 2: scripted at Baby, they get SGA, they're reigning MVP two
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Speaker 2: time back to back MVP and Victor Wembin Yama, the
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Speaker 2: Air Apparent, the Future, the Alien, the next big star
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Speaker 2: in the NBA squaring off in Game seven, and the
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Speaker 2: San Antonio Spurs merge victorious from that, I have beaten
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Speaker 2: this horse to death, but man, it is going to
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Speaker 2: be a daunting task in the coming years to be
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Speaker 2: able to get past the San Antonio Spurs. If they
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Speaker 2: remain healthy and full strength for the eighth straight season,
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Speaker 2: we will have a new NBA champion. And of course
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Speaker 2: the New York Knicks have been waiting in the wings
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Speaker 2: wondering who it's going to be. Well, it's New York
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Speaker 2: versus San Antonio. And I know San Antonio is like
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Speaker 2: the mid major television mark or whatever, but they have
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Speaker 2: all the appeal, all the star power that anyone could
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Speaker 2: ever ask for. This is a premium matchup in the
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Speaker 2: NBA Finals, and it's easy to just say, well, yeah,
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Speaker 2: it's Victor Wembinyama and he's a freak, and that's why
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Speaker 2: they're in there. And of course that is a massive
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Speaker 2: part of the recipe that he's the main ingredient in
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Speaker 2: that recipe of the San Antonio Spurs.
4:01
Speaker 3: He's the star of the show.
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Speaker 2: He's clearly a leader on this team despite his youth,
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Speaker 2: and you saw the outpouring of emotion when they did advance.
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Speaker 2: In the postgame interviews, he talked about how he feels
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Speaker 2: like winning. For him, it's not just something that he wants,
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Speaker 2: it's a need. It's something that drives him it's a
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Speaker 2: survival instinct almost for Victor Webber Yama, and quite frankly,
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Speaker 2: I love hearing that, even if it's hyperbole, and even
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Speaker 2: if that's him just gassing everything up and exaggerating.
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Speaker 3: I love hearing that from a superstar athlete.
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Speaker 2: I love somebody that in his early days as a star,
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Speaker 2: before he's cashed in on what will eventually be MVP status,
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Speaker 2: before he's firmly established himself as the number one player
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Speaker 2: in the league, and he's way up there. He's very
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Speaker 2: close to that conversation, but he has not yet put
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Speaker 2: himself on that pedestal alone. Hearing him talk about how
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Speaker 2: he's driven not just to be great, not just to
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Speaker 2: put up big numbers, but to win is just It's
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Speaker 2: beautiful in an NBA where we spent two decades with
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Speaker 2: guys talking about how it's a game, it's a business.
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Speaker 3: Yes, I want to win, but this I know he
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Speaker 3: wants to win.
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Speaker 2: But that Victor Wembin Yama and the San Antonio Spurs
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Speaker 2: are ushering in potentially a new era of NBA basketball
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Speaker 2: where we get some heated rivalries back, where we get
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Speaker 2: a little bit more stank on some of these big
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Speaker 2: time games. And I think this New York San Antonio
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Speaker 2: series is going to be really interesting. Another factor here
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Speaker 2: in this one was the turnaround that you saw the
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Speaker 2: San Antonio.
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Speaker 3: Spurs cap off.
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Speaker 2: I shouldn't say cap off until they've actually won an
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Speaker 2: NBA championship, but they put themselves on the short list
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Speaker 2: of teams that have improved drastically from last season to
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Speaker 2: this season with again a team at full health, with
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Speaker 2: the development of players and pieces around Victor Wembinyama. He
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Speaker 2: is the headliner. But where would they be without Castle?
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Speaker 2: Where would they be without Daron Fox? Where would they
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Speaker 2: be without Champenny? Right, this is a team that has
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Speaker 2: done some really, really nice things in accessory to Victor Wembinyama,
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Speaker 2: and the season they had last year was indicative of
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Speaker 2: all that. Yep, you've got some really interesting things going on.
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Speaker 2: But I don't think anybody would have said the San
6:42
Speaker 2: Antonio Spurs are NBA Finals bound if we're talking, you know,
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Speaker 2: in like February of twenty twenty five. It feels to
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Speaker 2: me like they are very much ahead of schedule. And
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Speaker 2: that is again it's a daunting, daunting thing for everybody
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Speaker 2: else in the NBA. Oh see, if I may I
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Speaker 2: did not see may I did. I didn't say that
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Speaker 2: they would be NBA Finals team. I didn't envision that,
7:13
Speaker 2: but I did in our when we did our season predictions,
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Speaker 2: I did say this team will be a top three
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Speaker 2: team in the NBA and Victor women Yama will be
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Speaker 2: the MVP. I wasn't right about the MVP, but and
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Speaker 2: I didn't see sixty wins or NBA Finals birth. But
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Speaker 2: I did see a huge leap from this team. I said,
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Speaker 2: if Deer and Fox had some injuries last year, Wembia,
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Speaker 2: of course had some injuries last year. I said, those
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Speaker 2: two guys are healthy, they could be in for a
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Speaker 2: big year. I feeling pretty good about that. They all season.
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Speaker 2: I've felt really good about that. From the time Wemby
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Speaker 2: had that like forty and fifteen game against the MAVs
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Speaker 2: to start this season, I'm like, Okay, MVP looked pick
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Speaker 2: looks pretty good, and then the like, their leap looks
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Speaker 2: pretty good. Now they've exceeded that completely, going to the
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Speaker 2: NBA Finals and maybe winning an NBA championship. Do you
8:04
Speaker 2: do you know how many wins off the top of
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Speaker 2: the end, you know how many wins they had last year?
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Speaker 2: It was four thirty four wins last year. They finished
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Speaker 2: the regular season with sixty two wins this year. That
8:15
Speaker 2: is leap is probably not even the right way to
8:17
Speaker 2: say that. That is that's a short flight. Yeah, it's
8:21
Speaker 2: not just a jump. That is like you you went up,
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Speaker 2: you you bungeed that thing.
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Speaker 3: That was a Yeah.
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Speaker 2: One of the reasons why I felt so good about
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Speaker 2: them being a top three team, fifty plus win team
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Speaker 2: and Wenby being an MVP candidate this year and then
8:37
Speaker 2: making a deep run at the in the preseason was because,
8:42
Speaker 2: like I said, they didn't have Fox for a lot
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Speaker 2: of the last part of the season. Wemby missed basically
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Speaker 2: the whole last half of the season with the blood
8:52
Speaker 2: clot issue. They probably would have been a forty at
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Speaker 2: least a forty win team last year. If they have
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Speaker 2: one of those guys the rest of the season, especially
9:01
Speaker 2: if that's Wenby, right and maybe and they make the
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Speaker 2: play in tournament, who knows after that? So I was thinking,
9:07
Speaker 2: And then they drafted Dylan Harper this year. We all
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Speaker 2: knew he wasn't going to be a starter. But Stefan
9:13
Speaker 2: Castle was the Rookie of the Year last year from
9:16
Speaker 2: rookie of the Year to a guy who could you know,
9:18
Speaker 2: you're picking high enough that you're kind of potentially in
9:21
Speaker 2: that Rookie of the Year type conversation, And obviously his
9:25
Speaker 2: role was a lot different, but everything was lining up
9:28
Speaker 2: for that. You can argue that that's probably better for
9:32
Speaker 2: Dylan Harper's long term prognosis in his career. The fact
9:35
Speaker 2: that he was brought in to be part of a team,
9:38
Speaker 2: not the thing that draws and drives a team, which
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Speaker 2: is going to be one of the difficulties of you know,
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Speaker 2: certain draft picks not actually probably not one and two
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Speaker 2: this year, I don't think, which is interesting because whoever
9:52
Speaker 2: the Utah Jazz pick, and we think it's probably going
9:55
Speaker 2: to be Darren Peterson from Kansas, he is not going
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Speaker 2: to be expected to be the motor that drives everything.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: He's being put into a system and onto a team
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Speaker 2: where he's got to be an important part of it.
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Speaker 2: But he is not the only like ticket seller, right,
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Speaker 2: Like Cooper Flag getting dropped into that situation in Dallas
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Speaker 2: was kind of like we've hit a full reset here,
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Speaker 2: and yes, there's some some talent around you, but this
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Speaker 2: is like you need to be the one that pushes
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Speaker 2: this team forward for the next several years. If AJ
10:30
Speaker 2: Debonci goes number one to Washington, they did some work.
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Speaker 2: And I don't think that their situation is as good
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Speaker 2: as the Jazz situation, but they did some They did
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Speaker 2: some work to you know, bring in guys and then
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Speaker 2: sit them down benchum tank, even with these veteran all
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Speaker 2: star caliber players on their roster. So I think even
10:49
Speaker 2: AJ Deboncea, the number one overall draft pick, is going
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Speaker 2: to be allowed to be at least like Robin to
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Speaker 2: somebody else's batman, whether I mean Ad and be healthy
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Speaker 2: ever again. Man, that's a year to year thing with him.
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Speaker 2: It's you almost even say healthy ever again, Like he
11:06
Speaker 2: better never be healthy in his whole career just because
11:08
Speaker 2: he's had very few seasons, right you could characterize as
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Speaker 2: fully healthy. But they also have even if Ad is
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Speaker 2: his street close his alter ego for the for the
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Speaker 2: whole season next year and for the rest of his career,
11:21
Speaker 2: they brought in Trey Young, who is a capable veteran
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Speaker 2: leader himself. So you're right, like he's he's not gonna
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Speaker 2: have AJ's not gonna have quite that pressure whether he
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Speaker 2: goes to Washington at one or the Jazz trade up
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Speaker 2: where he falls at two and he's with the jazz
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Speaker 2: like he's not gonna have that. That that Wemby and
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Speaker 2: Cooper flag of head. By the way, there's Did everyone
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Speaker 2: know about the billboard? I didn't until I saw it
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Speaker 2: in your notes. I looked it up and I did
11:52
Speaker 2: everyone know about the Utah wants a debonza the billboards
11:57
Speaker 2: wants a debond? Jazz fans wants it bosa on I
12:01
Speaker 2: fifteen on the billboard? Uh like a campaign, an advertising
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Speaker 2: campaign to trade up for aj campaign. I was driving
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Speaker 2: past and I didn't see, like, what company this is?
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Speaker 3: Actually? You saw it on the road.
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Speaker 2: I saw it on the road, Okay, not not on
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Speaker 2: social media, No, I was.
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Speaker 3: I was driving down.
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Speaker 2: I was driving down to uh Pleasant Grove last night,
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Speaker 2: and I'm like, what the the bat?
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Speaker 3: So did you see it? Did you see it in
12:28
Speaker 3: Utah County?
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Speaker 2: Or was it because the what I okay, what I
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Speaker 2: saw on on uh on social media it's said it
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Speaker 2: had sugar House in the corner.
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Speaker 3: Okay, so I wondered if it was in sugar House.
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Speaker 2: No, so I I saw the sugar House thing?
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Speaker 3: Is that like an advertising company?
12:48
Speaker 2: Is that a is there a brewery that wants to box?
12:54
Speaker 3: I need to know.
12:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred,
12:58
Speaker 2: Cause again I'm driving on the free I can't like
13:00
Speaker 2: pull over and be like, what in that bottom right
13:03
Speaker 2: hand corner Sugarhouse? What it's small enough that you if
13:07
Speaker 2: you're unless you're staring at it the whole way until
13:11
Speaker 2: you pass it, you're not really really you can't do.
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Speaker 3: That, all right, unless you're in the passenger seat.
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Speaker 2: I don't want I don't want people squinting and veering
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Speaker 2: off to the right trying to get closer, all right,
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Speaker 2: And I I do, I do feel like I need to.
13:25
Speaker 2: I need to put this out there, despite the pun
13:28
Speaker 2: that was not me. I did not commission the billboard.
13:32
Speaker 2: They could have been, but any I don't think the
13:34
Speaker 2: Jazz are going to trade up to get AJ. I
13:36
Speaker 2: wouldn't be surprised if there's more conversation, if that that
13:40
Speaker 2: flame is lit at some point. And I don't even
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Speaker 2: know if they're gonna have to because the Washington Wizards,
13:48
Speaker 2: just like everyone else, is going to find some reason
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Speaker 2: to fall in love with Darren Peterson at the top
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Speaker 2: of this draft, and the agents for Cam Boozer are
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Speaker 2: working very, very very hard with some journalists around the league,
14:02
Speaker 2: even some highly reputable journalists around the league, to say, hey,
14:05
Speaker 2: Cam Boozer is in the mix at number one and
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Speaker 2: number two as well, which none of us actually believe.
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Speaker 2: We got the news last week that AJ and Darren
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Speaker 2: Peterson are only going to do individual workouts for Washington
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Speaker 2: and Utah.
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Speaker 3: Those guys, oh, those.
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Speaker 2: Guys are going to do their individual workouts for the
14:25
Speaker 2: top two Franchise's that Memphis, which, by the way, is
14:29
Speaker 2: I totally understand why that's what you're doing as a
14:32
Speaker 2: camp as a player, It's gonna be hilarious if there's
14:36
Speaker 2: a team out there that is like that, we're not
14:39
Speaker 2: thinking about, that, we're not talking about that is just
14:42
Speaker 2: massively in love with one of these guys that then
14:45
Speaker 2: offers some incredible haul to try and move up to
14:47
Speaker 2: grab one of them. See, that is a trade that
14:51
Speaker 2: I can see Danny and Austin Ange making. Is a
14:55
Speaker 2: trade to move back for some kind of hall of
14:58
Speaker 2: draft picks, not the not the trade to move up
15:04
Speaker 2: where you are having to give up some kind of
15:06
Speaker 2: a haul. You know what's funny is I don't I
15:09
Speaker 2: was I was kind of like beating the drum of like, hey,
15:12
Speaker 2: your owner loves this guy, go get this guy. If like,
15:15
Speaker 2: if you're the owner of a team and you have
15:19
Speaker 2: cultivated this path for this individual, and you have a
15:22
Speaker 2: relationship and you know his family, and you feel like
15:25
Speaker 2: he is not only going to be a part of
15:26
Speaker 2: your franchise for the first five years, but he's somebody
15:29
Speaker 2: who could be a cornerstone for ten or fifteen. Because
15:32
Speaker 2: of that. I mean, when when the Jazz came down
15:36
Speaker 2: at number two, I was one of the people that's
15:38
Speaker 2: just like, well, hold on a minute, why not try
15:41
Speaker 2: to go up to number one? And then the more
15:43
Speaker 2: you read with Darren Peterson, the more you talk to people.
15:45
Speaker 2: We've done a couple of interviews, Like the skepticism that
15:51
Speaker 2: I had watching Darren Peterson's college career, I think is
15:54
Speaker 2: mostly absent in NBA circles. I don't think there's a
15:58
Speaker 2: lot of NBA front office people, and we haven't spoken
16:01
Speaker 2: with the Angels, so their opinion matters more than anyone else's.
16:04
Speaker 2: But it seems like the skepticism that I think I
16:08
Speaker 2: and other college basketball fans seeing how bizarre his year
16:13
Speaker 2: was in Kansas and being like, I don't want to
16:15
Speaker 2: be part of that. It seems like in the NBA circles,
16:19
Speaker 2: the assumption or the conclusion has come. People have come
16:22
Speaker 2: to the idea that, like, you know what, he just
16:25
Speaker 2: wasn't really cut out for the college thing. And yes
16:30
Speaker 2: there is the cramping that apparently was a very real issue,
16:34
Speaker 2: and they feel like they figured that out, which again
16:37
Speaker 2: I I don't know, man, I'm not a doctor, but
16:40
Speaker 2: that whole creatine thing made no sense to me. In
16:43
Speaker 2: any case, it feels like a lot of people have
16:47
Speaker 2: sort of cleared those doubts and they're ready to say, no,
16:50
Speaker 2: we're good. And Darren Peterson is going to be a
16:53
Speaker 2: franchise changing player, Whereas if I watched him, you know,
16:58
Speaker 2: in November for can this, I am very skeptical of
17:02
Speaker 2: that because of his lack of availability what seemingly was
17:06
Speaker 2: imperfect communication between him and his head coach. None of
17:10
Speaker 2: that is being held against darreon Peterson right now. So
17:14
Speaker 2: he's going to be a franchise pick. But again, if
17:18
Speaker 2: he goes number one or number two, that player is
17:21
Speaker 2: not going to be given the same task that Victor
17:24
Speaker 2: Wembinyama was expected to shoulder for the San Antonio Spurs
17:27
Speaker 2: where it's like, look, you have generational abilities, and we
17:32
Speaker 2: want you to manifest those and prove them to us,
17:35
Speaker 2: and we want you to do it right now. And again,
17:40
Speaker 2: the San Antonio Spurs did a really great job of
17:43
Speaker 2: surrounding him with exactly what he needed.
17:47
Speaker 3: And they It's not like it has been easy for
17:50
Speaker 3: the Spurs.
17:50
Speaker 2: I mean, they got as lucky as a franchise can
17:52
Speaker 2: get in winning the lottery that gives you Victor Wembinyama,
17:56
Speaker 2: but then you had the unexpected or the not fully
18:00
Speaker 2: expected changeover in power from Greg Popovich health related reasons.
18:06
Speaker 2: They had to do that succession plan I think a
18:08
Speaker 2: lot quicker than they really wanted to his successor. By
18:11
Speaker 2: the way, Mitch, Papa Mitch, he's in his first full
18:18
Speaker 2: season as the San Antonio Spurst head coach.
18:20
Speaker 3: He's in the finals.
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, he he coached all but five games last year,
18:24
Speaker 2: just to be clear there. So he's in his technically
18:27
Speaker 2: his first full season, but this is his second season
18:30
Speaker 2: and for all intentsive purposes, which is still massively impressive,
18:34
Speaker 2: still very impressive, And so San Antonio had to do
18:38
Speaker 2: some things that were imperfect, finding a way to fit
18:44
Speaker 2: everybody in that locker room into the same.
18:49
Speaker 3: Into the same vision. It's not as simple as I
18:54
Speaker 3: want to make.
18:55
Speaker 2: It as a fan just saying well, you got Victor Weibiniamo,
18:57
Speaker 2: so you're golden. Yes, there is some of that, but
19:02
Speaker 2: we have seen plenty of generationally talented basketball players not
19:07
Speaker 2: win championships, not be good teammates, not have an easy
19:11
Speaker 2: time integrating, not not having the guys around them integrate
19:14
Speaker 2: and follow well, all that kind of stuff. So I'm
19:18
Speaker 2: impressed with san Antonio. I'm impressed with their turnaround, and
19:21
Speaker 2: it's not the best one we've seen in NBA history,
19:23
Speaker 2: but it's it's up there.
19:24
Speaker 3: It's close, it's very close.
19:27
Speaker 2: I do feel like, again, talent wise, they were a
19:31
Speaker 2: much better team than their thirty four wins would have
19:35
Speaker 2: suggested last year, and makes that makes it different than
19:40
Speaker 2: some of the other like thirty plus win turnarounds that
19:43
Speaker 2: we've seen, like the one that I can think of off
19:45
Speaker 2: the top of my head two Phoenix Suns ones actually
19:48
Speaker 2: Steve Nash five team coming from Dallas as a free agent.
19:53
Speaker 2: They had a thirty something win turnaround. That team not
19:59
Speaker 2: massively not massively talented on the not talented enough. On
20:05
Speaker 2: the margins, they had Sean Mary and they had a
20:08
Speaker 2: young Amari Staudamaier, and they added Steve Nash, but not
20:12
Speaker 2: beyond that, not talented enough. Steve Nash elevated the rest
20:15
Speaker 2: of the rest of that group, right, including those guys
20:18
Speaker 2: the Charles Barkley going to the Suns in the early
20:21
Speaker 2: nineties when they went, when they went to the finals,
20:23
Speaker 2: that was a that was a huge turnaround as well
20:26
Speaker 2: for them.
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Speaker 3: So the largest turnaround ever in NBA history. Do you
20:29
Speaker 3: know what that is?
20:30
Speaker 4: Uh?
20:31
Speaker 3: Do not? Is it thirty one wins? It's forty two wins?
20:35
Speaker 5: Oh?
20:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pistons.
20:36
Speaker 2: Last year it was the seven eight Celtics gotcha and
20:41
Speaker 2: had had almost one of those two last year.
20:44
Speaker 3: I think you have the Spurs.
20:46
Speaker 2: The Spurs in ninety seven ninety eight added thirty six
20:50
Speaker 2: wins after they tanked, after they shut David Robinson down
20:54
Speaker 2: early to get them. There's the theme here, right in
20:57
Speaker 2: that case, it was acquiring Tim Duncan and then reactivating
21:01
Speaker 2: effectively David Robinson, which is good, and you brought up
21:04
Speaker 2: I think the most important point here when we try
21:07
Speaker 2: to attach this, we try to localize this look. We
21:09
Speaker 2: saw a big, fat important turnaround from Utah football last year.
21:14
Speaker 2: And because of all the postseason tom foolery and the
21:20
Speaker 2: drama and the changeover with the coaching staff and the
21:23
Speaker 2: recruiting issues that came with that, I think how impressive
21:27
Speaker 2: and important that was for the team and for the
21:31
Speaker 2: program got washed away because the perfect ending was no
21:37
Speaker 2: longer a perfect ending, right, Kyle Whittingham decided, I'm not
21:41
Speaker 2: going to walk away on this incredible turnaround note, And
21:44
Speaker 2: I kindt of understand why. I think if he would
21:46
Speaker 2: have beat BYU, maybe he walks away, maybe he's done,
21:49
Speaker 2: maybe he's fully satisfied. If they would have beat EYU,
21:52
Speaker 2: then they would have at least been in the conference
21:54
Speaker 2: championship game. They probably had a better chance to win
21:57
Speaker 2: it than anyone else. But Texas Tech was not to
22:00
Speaker 2: be denied, at least in the Big Twelve. So like
22:02
Speaker 2: it was almost it was almost the storybook ending. But
22:06
Speaker 2: I mean, that is one of the greatest sports turnarounds
22:09
Speaker 2: we have ever seen. I'm giving you all these NBA
22:12
Speaker 2: sort of like, oh, yeah, that was those seven oh
22:15
Speaker 2: eight Celtics. Remember that, and you probably remember it, but
22:17
Speaker 2: you don't have an emotional attachment to it. You don't
22:20
Speaker 2: care about it unless you're a weird Celtics fan living
22:23
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake City, Utah. That turnaround from your University
22:28
Speaker 2: of Utah football team last year was one of the
22:32
Speaker 2: most important turnarounds we've seen. You could make an argument
22:35
Speaker 2: that Urban Meyer's first year, right, I love Ron McBride.
22:40
Speaker 2: I mean I love Ron McBride Because of him, I
22:44
Speaker 2: actually got to have a real college football experience, and
22:47
Speaker 2: without him I wouldn't have and I am eternally grateful
22:49
Speaker 2: to him. So nobody was happy when he got fired.
22:54
Speaker 2: But then when Urban Meyers showed up, and suddenly your
22:58
Speaker 2: team becomes nationally relevant. And after being kind of like,
23:01
Speaker 2: oh man, what are we gonna do next, your team
23:03
Speaker 2: becomes nationally relevant. In Urban's first year, ten and two
23:06
Speaker 2: wins a Liberty Bowl, and suddenly people are like, wait,
23:09
Speaker 2: what is going on in Utah? And obviously that started
23:14
Speaker 2: James if you're watching on the YouTube with the Brian
23:16
Speaker 2: Windhorse post what is going on in Utah? And then
23:20
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, right, an undefeated team and suddenly
23:24
Speaker 2: Utah football is like, whoa, that was a turnaround season.
23:29
Speaker 2: That was the same players, right, this was not exact
23:37
Speaker 2: equivalent to what we're seeing in these NBA circles.
23:40
Speaker 3: But it was, it wasn't. It was a new coaching staff.
23:43
Speaker 2: But in those days, back in those days, children, you
23:46
Speaker 2: couldn't bring in a whole new roster when the coaching
23:49
Speaker 2: staff was new. That was Urban Meyer coming in and
23:52
Speaker 2: coaching Ron McBride's guys coaching Morgan Scalley and Sione Pua
23:57
Speaker 2: and hey, sorry about your health, Brett Elliot. But all
24:00
Speaker 2: of a sudden, Alex Bleepin' Smith is there. And this
24:04
Speaker 2: kid named Eric Weddle is a nobody freshman that people
24:08
Speaker 2: didn't think was a big time recruit and maybe he's
24:11
Speaker 2: going to be an NFL Hall of Famer. And that
24:13
Speaker 2: was public enemy number one for the University of Michigan.
24:16
Speaker 2: And I can't wait to talk about that here in
24:18
Speaker 2: a few minutes. But that was a massive turnaround this
24:22
Speaker 2: past season for Utah football, massive massive turnaround, and for
24:27
Speaker 2: the San Antonio Spurs heading to the NBA Finals. It's
24:33
Speaker 2: more of a like strategic by design. This is kind
24:38
Speaker 2: of what we hoped and expected would happen turnaround, but
24:40
Speaker 2: it is still incredibly impressive, and it's something that matters
24:44
Speaker 2: to you as a fan of sports here in the
24:46
Speaker 2: state of Utah, because this is what the Utah Jazz
24:50
Speaker 2: are going to try to achieve and they're not going
24:53
Speaker 2: to be patient about it. You shouldn't let them be
24:56
Speaker 2: patient about it. They're not going to wait. They're not
24:59
Speaker 2: going to rest next year. The governor chip is off,
25:03
Speaker 2: the tanking stuff is done. This is the season that
25:07
Speaker 2: the Utah Jazz want to have. The one that the
25:09
Speaker 2: San Antonio Spurs just completed is the one that the
25:12
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz want to have. Now, you could want in
25:15
Speaker 2: one hand and you know what in the other and
25:16
Speaker 2: see which one fills up first.
25:18
Speaker 3: But there is a.
25:21
Speaker 2: More realistic picture here now with the San Antonio Spurs
25:26
Speaker 2: being removed from it. Here for just a second, for
25:29
Speaker 2: just the Utah Jazz, a twenty plus win improvement over
25:34
Speaker 2: maybe a thirty plus win improvement over next year is like,
25:38
Speaker 2: it has to be twenty plus wins. Thirty plus wins
25:41
Speaker 2: would be a great turnaround season, would be something that
25:43
Speaker 2: we would have real cause to celebrate over. Would be
25:46
Speaker 2: title contention, wherey twenty plus wins is like is right
25:50
Speaker 2: on track.
25:50
Speaker 3: You're in the playoffs.
25:51
Speaker 2: You're absolutely you're in the playoffs at least thirty plus wins.
25:55
Speaker 2: Now we're talking about all right, now we can have
25:56
Speaker 2: an expectation for this team, and again, those expectations all
26:00
Speaker 2: have to be tempered and colored by the fact that,
26:02
Speaker 2: you know, Oklahoma City is still going to be looming
26:04
Speaker 2: out there. Chet Holmgren is going to be dealing with
26:08
Speaker 2: a years long, you know, worth of regret and embarrassment
26:11
Speaker 2: over what happened in Game seven, and the San Antonio
26:14
Speaker 2: Spurs ain't going nowhere. But if you can parse things
26:19
Speaker 2: out and just say, well, what about what the Utah
26:21
Speaker 2: Jazz like you need. It might not be forty two
26:25
Speaker 2: games like we saw from the seven of eight Celtics.
26:27
Speaker 2: It's not going to be thirty six games like you
26:29
Speaker 2: saw for the ninety seven ninety eight San Antonio Spurs,
26:33
Speaker 2: but it better dang well be twenty five to thirty
26:36
Speaker 2: for this Utah Jazz team put around forty five ish wins.
26:41
Speaker 2: If it's somewhere in there, forty five to fifty wins
26:46
Speaker 2: trying to see how.
26:47
Speaker 3: This is the.
26:52
Speaker 2: So the Pistons last year were trying to put themselves
26:56
Speaker 2: in this same one, the same category, and they tweeted
26:59
Speaker 2: out on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. So it's
27:03
Speaker 2: an old list. Now it's a year and a half old,
27:04
Speaker 2: but you could put the Pistons on it. But the
27:08
Speaker 2: top ten single season turnarounds in NBA history Celtics with
27:13
Speaker 2: a forty two win improvement, Spurs with a thirty six
27:16
Speaker 2: win improvement, the ninety nine two thousand Lakers thirty six wins,
27:21
Speaker 2: the eighty nine ninety Spurs.
27:23
Speaker 3: I hate that the Spurs have now done this three times.
27:26
Speaker 2: I know they got thirty five wins better four to
27:29
Speaker 2: oh five Suns, James, you just referenced them thirty three
27:33
Speaker 2: win improvement seventy nine eighty the Celtics improved thirty two wins,
27:38
Speaker 2: and so Utah Jazz.
27:40
Speaker 3: Next year, I need you in this category, okay.
27:42
Speaker 2: The sixty nine seventy Milwaukee Bucks plus twenty nine wins,
27:46
Speaker 2: the eight oh nine Miami Heat plus twenty eight wins,
27:50
Speaker 2: the seventy four to seventy five Nuggets plus twenty eight wins,
27:54
Speaker 2: the twelve to thirteen New Jersey Nets twenty seven wins,
27:57
Speaker 2: the thunder in two thousand and nine twenty ten twenty
28:00
Speaker 2: seven wins, and the eighty eight eighty nine Sons plus
28:03
Speaker 2: twenty seven wins. Yeah, those are some big turnarounds. And
28:07
Speaker 2: your Utah Jazz. I'm obviously using the Spurs as a
28:11
Speaker 2: comparative context here. They're not going to be the Jazz.
28:14
Speaker 2: I don't expect to be in the NBA Finals next.
28:18
Speaker 3: Year or a sixty win team in the regular season.
28:21
Speaker 2: But if we're talking about improvement, if we're talking about
28:25
Speaker 2: all right, what is supposed to happen when you stop
28:28
Speaker 2: deliberately tanking and start winning well, if you have talent
28:31
Speaker 2: on your roster, which this Utah Jazz team does, and
28:34
Speaker 2: that is obviously a common thread in all those top
28:36
Speaker 2: ten teams that I just named when it comes to
28:38
Speaker 2: their turnaround. This is a Utah Jazz team that has
28:41
Speaker 2: better pieces. And what did you say about the Spurs
28:44
Speaker 2: last year, James, Their talent was not in accord with
28:48
Speaker 2: the wins that they had last year.
28:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, they had bad injury luck with their two best players.
28:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Utah Jazz had bad injury situations. It
28:56
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with luck, but it was deliberately
28:59
Speaker 2: bad situation.
29:00
Speaker 3: And by the way, so did the Washington Wizards. I
29:02
Speaker 3: don't think the Wizards are quite as well set up.
29:05
Speaker 2: I think They've got a lot of depth questions that
29:07
Speaker 2: they're gonna have to continue to figure out. I think
29:10
Speaker 2: the Jazz are in a much better situation there. I
29:12
Speaker 2: don't think. I know the Jazz are in a much
29:14
Speaker 2: better situation there. And you're you're gonna get this Walker
29:17
Speaker 2: Kessler deal done. It sounds like to the tune of
29:20
Speaker 2: twenty five to thirty million dollars a year, which according
29:23
Speaker 2: to all of our conversation with Gordy Chaz, that's kind
29:26
Speaker 2: of a bargain for Walker Kessler if he doesn't tear
29:31
Speaker 2: his or terrors shoulder. I don't know what the actual
29:33
Speaker 2: shoulder injury was. If he doesn't have this season ending
29:35
Speaker 2: shoulder injury five or six games into the season, and
29:39
Speaker 2: he duplicates what he did the year before or or
29:43
Speaker 2: improves on it and is an All star, maybe like
29:47
Speaker 2: he's absolutely making over thirty million a year. So you
29:51
Speaker 2: don't want a guy to be You don't want one
29:53
Speaker 2: of your young players and maybe a future star at
29:57
Speaker 2: least a very important starter for you to have a
30:00
Speaker 2: season ending injury that early in the season and lose
30:03
Speaker 2: a development year like that.
30:04
Speaker 3: But it helps him financially, it absolutely does.
30:10
Speaker 2: So Utah jevs twenty seven wins and then we're good.
30:14
Speaker 2: Add twenty seven and then I won't complain. Yeah, and
30:18
Speaker 2: you'll be at least a play in team, probably a
30:20
Speaker 2: playoff team in that case.
30:23
Speaker 3: All Right, we got to take a break here.
30:24
Speaker 2: Dan Sorenson, Managing director, Ute Zone publisher, joins us.
30:29
Speaker 3: Some big news for you Zone. They're switching spots.
30:33
Speaker 2: Yout Zone is moving to On three, we'll talk about
30:36
Speaker 2: the how and the why, and of course take a
30:38
Speaker 2: look at the latest on the recruiting trail and a preview,
30:41
Speaker 2: much too early preview of the upcoming college football season
30:44
Speaker 2: with Dan Sorenson. Next on The Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN
30:47
Speaker 2: seven hundred and ninety two.
30:48
Speaker 1: Oneff, that's me and Connor. It's not Sean O'Connell's show.
30:55
Speaker 1: You were home of the best Inside of your youths.
30:58
Speaker 1: Let's get back to woe see from the Murdoch Chevrolet
31:01
Speaker 1: Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to one A f.
31:04
Speaker 2: AMI, Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Some breaking
31:14
Speaker 2: news from the NFL, as Rich Eisen was hinting towards
31:19
Speaker 2: and alluding to but didn't actually report on and I
31:23
Speaker 2: started the show doing the same thing. We know what
31:25
Speaker 2: the breaking news is as we're about to get the
31:29
Speaker 2: Dan sos s Dan Sorenson of Ute Zone, the Los
31:33
Speaker 2: Angeles Rams have acquired Miles Garrett in exchange for Jared Verse,
31:41
Speaker 2: a twenty twenty seven first round pick and other considerations.
31:45
Speaker 2: Holy Moley, the best pass rusher currently in the NFL,
31:51
Speaker 2: has been acquired by the La Rams. They are going
31:55
Speaker 2: all in on trying to win another Super Bowl while
31:59
Speaker 2: they still have a stafford.
32:00
Speaker 3: Wow.
32:01
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that more a little bit later. Dan
32:04
Speaker 2: Sorenson had some breaking news of his own regarding you Zone,
32:09
Speaker 2: and we'll talk with him about that and other things.
32:10
Speaker 3: Dan, welcome back to the show. How are you doing it?
32:13
Speaker 6: Well?
32:14
Speaker 3: How are you doing I'm doing all right, man.
32:16
Speaker 2: You know, it's a fun day when something like that
32:18
Speaker 2: drops into your lap while you're doing sports talk radio.
32:21
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Look, this can be the the doldrums of summer, right,
32:24
Speaker 4: So getting news that's interesting and exciting, especially if you're
32:27
Speaker 4: a Rams fan, you can't ask for more than that.
32:31
Speaker 2: Let's talk about your news though. Youth Zone is moving
32:34
Speaker 2: to on three. How did this come about? The how
32:37
Speaker 2: and the why? Walk me through it.
32:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, so you know, those of us that have
32:42
Speaker 4: known us, for those people that have known us for
32:44
Speaker 4: a while, you know, they know that our specialty is
32:47
Speaker 4: recruiting and talking about some of those insider things that
32:51
Speaker 4: happened from our roster management perspective, and there was an
32:54
Speaker 4: opportunity that arose for us to align with ON three
32:58
Speaker 4: and join them as a network, and it was a
33:01
Speaker 4: really easy call. Look that they're one of the fastest
33:03
Speaker 4: growing sports outlets that there is, the things that they're
33:07
Speaker 4: doing to cover things like nil or the new world
33:11
Speaker 4: and landscape of college football, the transfer portal, both on
33:15
Speaker 4: the basketball on the football side. We've watched them grow
33:20
Speaker 4: over the years and been really impressed with the engine
33:23
Speaker 4: that they've built. And then when they started to get
33:25
Speaker 4: some of the heavy hitter national analyst guys like Brandon
33:29
Speaker 4: Huffman and Greg Biggins and Alan True, it became a
33:32
Speaker 4: really easy decision. So we made the move over and
33:36
Speaker 4: we're really excited about it. We feel like this is
33:39
Speaker 4: an opportunity for us to help us grow the site
33:42
Speaker 4: in the community. I mean, we are the largest online
33:45
Speaker 4: community for University of Utah fans, and we've the most
33:48
Speaker 4: active certainly and we've been that way for almost twenty years,
33:52
Speaker 4: and so this is a partner that we think can
33:54
Speaker 4: take us well into the future. And we're really excited
33:57
Speaker 4: about it and people that want to jump in and
34:00
Speaker 4: join us. Over the next forty eight hours, we got
34:02
Speaker 4: seventy five percent off of an annual subscription, so thirty
34:06
Speaker 4: bucks will basically get you a year's worth of access.
34:09
Speaker 4: And we're doing all kinds of.
34:10
Speaker 6: Things in terms of.
34:13
Speaker 4: Reporting and things on recruiting, visitor weekends and stuff like that.
34:18
Speaker 4: So people that are interested, we'd love to have you
34:20
Speaker 4: come join the conversation.
34:22
Speaker 3: Love it.
34:23
Speaker 2: Hopefully this is exactly Hopefully this ends up being exactly
34:27
Speaker 2: what you and everyone else out there at you zone
34:30
Speaker 2: wanted to be. But now let's talk about this University
34:33
Speaker 2: of Utah football team. I was just ranting and raving
34:36
Speaker 2: about how you know, last season was one of the
34:39
Speaker 2: best turnarounds we've seen in Utah football history, and it
34:43
Speaker 2: kind of got lost in the postseason shuffle for obvious reasons,
34:46
Speaker 2: right the changeover the coaching staff, the recruiting fallout that
34:51
Speaker 2: happened because of that, And I know you guys have
34:53
Speaker 2: been on top of all of that, but in your mind,
34:57
Speaker 2: is this team, especially from a recruiting stand point, both
35:00
Speaker 2: out of the transfer portal and on the high school front,
35:04
Speaker 2: are they prepared to heading into this twenty twenty six campaign,
35:09
Speaker 2: capitalize on the turnaround that last year represented and continue
35:13
Speaker 2: to improve and to build upon that drastic turnaround for
35:17
Speaker 2: me a year ago.
35:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really think that they are, and I do
35:21
Speaker 4: for a couple of reasons. Number one is, look, it's
35:27
Speaker 4: frankly last year and the year prior are the best example,
35:31
Speaker 4: but college football, especially the quarterback position matters probably more
35:35
Speaker 4: than any other position. And when you have strong and
35:38
Speaker 4: competent quarterback play, you're going to be positioned to win
35:41
Speaker 4: a lot more games. And that sounds like a note
35:44
Speaker 4: bringer thing, but it really mattered. And so even with
35:48
Speaker 4: Devin Dampier playing most of the season hurt last year
35:51
Speaker 4: and then Bird Ficklin emerging as a threat and somebody
35:55
Speaker 4: that was a capable backup, that was the real catalyst
35:59
Speaker 4: that drove Utah win double digit games last year. So
36:02
Speaker 4: the fact that yeah they went out, they lost a
36:05
Speaker 4: few guys in the transfer portal, Yes, they picked up others,
36:08
Speaker 4: but I think the biggest story is who they hung
36:11
Speaker 4: on to and the fact that both Dampier who had options,
36:15
Speaker 4: Berg Dicklin had options, they were able to hang on
36:18
Speaker 4: to both of those guys, and they've got as strong
36:21
Speaker 4: a quarterback room as they've had in a long long time.
36:24
Speaker 6: Now.
36:24
Speaker 4: I'm not saying any of those guys are going to
36:26
Speaker 4: be better than Cam Rising at his peak was or
36:29
Speaker 4: Tyler Huntley at his peak, but the room in general
36:32
Speaker 4: is deeper, and with the type of offense Utah is
36:36
Speaker 4: looking to play, there's a real opportunity for those guys
36:39
Speaker 4: to make a splash and put up some numbers, and
36:42
Speaker 4: if that happens, this football team's going to win a
36:45
Speaker 4: lot of games. Yeah, there's a lot of guys on
36:47
Speaker 4: defense that they needed to replace, and I think that
36:49
Speaker 4: they did a fairly good job of that via the
36:51
Speaker 4: transfer portal, especially at the cornerback position and the defensive
36:54
Speaker 4: tackle position. But the fact that they've got those two quarterbacks,
36:58
Speaker 4: they've got guys that I think you're going to be
37:01
Speaker 4: able to put up numbers and points on the board
37:04
Speaker 4: this fall. I think that that's going to go a
37:06
Speaker 4: long way to helping Morgan Scalley come out of the
37:08
Speaker 4: gate and win a lot of games. If the offense
37:12
Speaker 4: plays well and the defense plays up to part even
37:14
Speaker 4: for what they did last year, I think the floor
37:18
Speaker 4: is double digit wins with this Utah team. The national
37:21
Speaker 4: media won't agree with me because of what was lost,
37:24
Speaker 4: but when you watch it and you see what they've got,
37:27
Speaker 4: there is absolutely potential for that.
37:31
Speaker 2: Dan Sorenson, our guests here on the Sean O'Connell show
37:33
Speaker 2: talk at all Things. Ute Zone is now switching over
37:36
Speaker 2: to On three. They've got membership specials right now to
37:39
Speaker 2: celebrate the changeover. Take advantage of that, get great coverage
37:44
Speaker 2: on your favorite athletic program up here at the University
37:48
Speaker 2: of Utah. All right, So again I'm skewing some of
37:53
Speaker 2: these questions towards the newcomers because you had to rebuild
37:56
Speaker 2: this roster with some attrition, some graduation. Obviously, the offensive
38:01
Speaker 2: line was it a huge part of what they were
38:03
Speaker 2: able to do last year. And you and I talked
38:07
Speaker 2: during spring ball about, you know, Kelvin Obot and what
38:10
Speaker 2: he represents, the body he's got, and how quickly he
38:13
Speaker 2: can grow into this. It sounds like he might start
38:18
Speaker 2: at guard and then maybe bump out when he's more
38:21
Speaker 2: ready to play tackle. Is that what you're getting as
38:23
Speaker 2: well from the coaching staff and your insiders.
38:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's absolutely what I'm getting. And we saw it
38:29
Speaker 4: a lot in the spring, and they talked about it.
38:33
Speaker 4: The coaches talked about it towards the end of the spring.
38:35
Speaker 4: But it's when you look at what that offensive line
38:39
Speaker 4: is going to look like. Zarawe Williams looks like he's
38:42
Speaker 4: going to be the starter at left tackle. Frankly, the
38:46
Speaker 4: right tackle position might be the most interesting. And I
38:48
Speaker 4: know that you asked about Obot, but the most interesting
38:51
Speaker 4: battle this fall between Isaiah Garcia and Cedric Jefferson. Jefferson
38:55
Speaker 4: being the transfer that came in from Montana State, but
38:58
Speaker 4: Garcia had a great spring, and even post spring, I've
39:02
Speaker 4: been hearing a lot of things about how he's grown
39:05
Speaker 4: and he's getting ready, and you know, he was a
39:07
Speaker 4: four star kid coming out of high school and and
39:09
Speaker 4: he's had a lot of injuries since he's been up
39:12
Speaker 4: on the hill. But he's a guy that's going to
39:14
Speaker 4: have an opportunity to really make us splash this fall
39:17
Speaker 4: and potentially unseat the transfer that everybody expected to start.
39:20
Speaker 4: So with those with those guys battling it out at tackle,
39:24
Speaker 4: it makes sense that Obot would be pushed inside the guard.
39:27
Speaker 4: He's right now, he's battling solotoa Mooi as at left guard,
39:33
Speaker 4: and I think that that's what we're going to see
39:34
Speaker 4: heading into fall camp, and it's going to be really
39:37
Speaker 4: interesting to see, you know, which of those guys comes
39:40
Speaker 4: out ahead. Moi is of course a senior. He's played
39:42
Speaker 4: a lot of football, probably more snaps for the youths
39:44
Speaker 4: than anybody else on that offensive line. The fact that
39:47
Speaker 4: Obot's even in the conversation says all you need to
39:50
Speaker 4: know about a true freshman that has all of the
39:53
Speaker 4: potential in the world. So the fact that they're going
39:57
Speaker 4: to try to get him on the field, whether he
39:59
Speaker 4: starts or not, he's going to be that first guy
40:01
Speaker 4: off the bench, kind of like what we saw with
40:03
Speaker 4: Keith Olsen last year, and they can probably plug him
40:07
Speaker 4: into basically four of the five spots if somebody goes
40:10
Speaker 4: down or if they need to shuffle things around. So
40:13
Speaker 4: I think that whether he starts or not, we're going
40:15
Speaker 4: to see a lot of Kelvin about this fall and
40:17
Speaker 4: they're going to get as many reps as possible. But
40:20
Speaker 4: he's absolutely going to be in the game. In terms
40:22
Speaker 4: of trying to win that starting spot and and you know,
40:26
Speaker 4: be one of the few and the rare that can
40:29
Speaker 4: be a potential true freshman starter on the offensive line
40:32
Speaker 4: for the Utes.
40:35
Speaker 2: Recruiting is the business that never sleeps. You know this
40:37
Speaker 2: a lot better than I. How is this next class
40:40
Speaker 2: shaping up for Morgan Scalley? His first for me, his
40:43
Speaker 2: first real class, because you know there's not going to
40:46
Speaker 2: be all of this frenzy and insanity around the coaching changeover.
40:51
Speaker 3: How is his next class shaping up?
40:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's starting to shape up fairly nicely. They don't
40:57
Speaker 4: have a lot in terms of commit menciats. They've basically
41:01
Speaker 4: got three guys that are committed. Jonah Miley, who's a
41:05
Speaker 4: local running back, a kid that he's a number twelve
41:10
Speaker 4: player in the state of Utah this year. It's a
41:12
Speaker 4: really loaded class once we got him in the state.
41:14
Speaker 2: I don't mean to interrupt you, Dan, shout out by
41:16
Speaker 2: the way to Jonah Miley. His his dad, Marcus Miley,
41:21
Speaker 2: was my teammate at Weaber State University, got a Super
41:24
Speaker 2: Bowl ring with the Saints and is just an absolute
41:27
Speaker 2: monster of a football player that if the transfer portal
41:31
Speaker 2: existed back then would not have finished his career at
41:34
Speaker 2: Weber State. So this is a this is a legacy
41:38
Speaker 2: type player that again his dad would have been at
41:41
Speaker 2: a Utah or at a Buyu or somewhere like that
41:44
Speaker 2: if transfers were so free and accessible back then.
41:47
Speaker 3: Didn't mean to interrupt.
41:49
Speaker 4: Oh no, And that's awesome. And look and it makes
41:51
Speaker 4: sense when you look at Jonah, you know, he's a
41:53
Speaker 4: chip off the old block. He's outstanding athlete, very strong
41:57
Speaker 4: running backs. We had a great physique, an amazing mentality
42:02
Speaker 4: and attitude. He's he's a kid that you fans I
42:05
Speaker 4: think are going to love. But so Miley's committed at
42:07
Speaker 4: running back. Tiki Peoples is a defensive tackle out of
42:11
Speaker 4: Arizona sixty four to two sixty five. He's committed. Jack
42:15
Speaker 4: Henderson is an edge rusher out of Idaho. The number
42:18
Speaker 4: one player in the state of Idaho this year, so
42:21
Speaker 4: Kelvin Obot was that last year. The Utes are doing
42:24
Speaker 4: a lot of great work in the state of Idaho.
42:26
Speaker 4: But Jack Henderson's committed, and so they've got a good start,
42:29
Speaker 4: but there's a lot of work to do. Of course,
42:32
Speaker 4: beginning last weekend with it was the first big official
42:35
Speaker 4: visit weekend for the UTEN for Morgan Scalley, they had
42:38
Speaker 4: eleven kids on campus and then for the next three weekends,
42:41
Speaker 4: we're going to see double digit kids on campus every
42:44
Speaker 4: single weekends they try to fill out this class. But
42:47
Speaker 4: a lot of the work that's going to be done
42:50
Speaker 4: for this twenty twenty seven class is going to happen
42:53
Speaker 4: in the next three weeks, So we're going to see
42:54
Speaker 4: a lot of commitments across the board, not just at
42:57
Speaker 4: Utah but other places, and it's going to be interesting
43:00
Speaker 4: to watch the dominoes fall. But they've got a good
43:03
Speaker 4: start in the sense that they've got three guys that
43:05
Speaker 4: they really want that we're very high on their boards,
43:08
Speaker 4: and they've got a chance to go in and really
43:12
Speaker 4: fill out that roster and bring in some high caliber kids.
43:16
Speaker 4: Every single kid that they're bringing in on official visits
43:19
Speaker 4: has multiple P four offers. A lot of them have
43:22
Speaker 4: multiple P two offers. They've got a lot of talent,
43:25
Speaker 4: and it's you know, you really have to respect Joe Garazzio,
43:29
Speaker 4: the new GM and and the whole recruiting staff. Mason
43:34
Speaker 4: Yeller Cooe is the director of scouting that whole recruiting
43:37
Speaker 4: class or staff. They've done a great job at scouting
43:42
Speaker 4: and identifying guys that are going to be programmed fits
43:44
Speaker 4: from a scheme perspective and from a culture perspective, and
43:48
Speaker 4: so it's going to be interesting to watch things play
43:50
Speaker 4: out as they start to land commitments. I don't think
43:53
Speaker 4: we're going to see a rush on those commitments for
43:56
Speaker 4: another week to week and a half or so, but
43:58
Speaker 4: we're going to start seeing the domino fall relatively soon.
44:02
Speaker 2: How much is the behind the scenes kind of craziness
44:06
Speaker 2: with this private equity deal? A part of recruiting conversations
44:10
Speaker 2: are families and you know, high school coaches are the
44:15
Speaker 2: people that this team is recruiting asking about aware of
44:20
Speaker 2: what's going on with the private equity deal and Utah Football.
44:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of the deal in and of itself,
44:28
Speaker 4: not so much. The conversations when it comes to recruiting,
44:32
Speaker 4: they look like, well, there are a couple of factors
44:36
Speaker 4: that play into that. So number one is it is
44:40
Speaker 4: being talked about in the sense that, look, there is
44:42
Speaker 4: going to be assets to help us as we're raising
44:46
Speaker 4: more NIL, giving more opportunities for you to make more
44:49
Speaker 4: money as you're playing at the University of Utah. Will
44:52
Speaker 4: have this professional arm these people that are doing business
44:55
Speaker 4: development deals and that are working those things out and
44:59
Speaker 4: to get you a greater earning opportunity if you're a ute.
45:03
Speaker 4: And so that is something that's directly relatable to them
45:07
Speaker 4: and their situation. And what that looks like is they're
45:10
Speaker 4: weighing out all of the other factors that come into
45:13
Speaker 4: two playing for a school, from scheme fit, to whether
45:16
Speaker 4: they like the coaches, to whether they fit in to
45:18
Speaker 4: where the school is, to how much they'll make in nil.
45:22
Speaker 4: So that's a factor there. So that the fact that
45:25
Speaker 4: you talk and say, they've got this apparatus that's being
45:28
Speaker 4: formed that is absolutely committed to helping them to maximize
45:34
Speaker 4: their earning potential with whatever they can make beyond the
45:38
Speaker 4: revenue sharing that they get from the school. That's a
45:42
Speaker 4: big deal. The other thing that they're looking at is
45:47
Speaker 4: less about some of the solid news around it, but
45:51
Speaker 4: more the implication where when you look at this and
45:54
Speaker 4: this private equity deal, well, why would a partner come
45:57
Speaker 4: in and invest this money into Utah Athletics unless they
46:02
Speaker 4: saw a path to get paid back And the most
46:04
Speaker 4: logical path to get paid back is is a potential
46:07
Speaker 4: inclusion in any sort of pee to expansion. So I'm
46:10
Speaker 4: not saying that they're that kids are getting promised that
46:13
Speaker 4: that's going to happen, but people that are paying close attention,
46:16
Speaker 4: they know that it's a potential thing. If, if, and
46:21
Speaker 4: when that happens, you know, this is a partner that's
46:24
Speaker 4: going to try to help make that kind of thing happen.
46:27
Speaker 4: And so the possibility that Utah might be included in
46:31
Speaker 4: that upper echelon of college football is definitely a conversation
46:36
Speaker 4: that's happening behind the scenes as these kids are having conversations.
46:41
Speaker 4: So and once again, I'm not saying the Utes are
46:44
Speaker 4: making promises or saying that this is going to happen,
46:47
Speaker 4: but it is something that's being considered.
46:50
Speaker 2: The spring meetings in the big Tent in the SEC
46:55
Speaker 2: had a lot of like veiled threats in there. Right, Well,
46:59
Speaker 2: I don't like, if we don't like what's happening, we
47:02
Speaker 2: might look elsewhere. We might think is doing something else.
47:05
Speaker 2: And obviously they're the power players. Did any of the
47:08
Speaker 2: statements or the conversation coming out of those two spring
47:12
Speaker 2: meetings lead you to believe that maybe changes could be
47:16
Speaker 2: coming sooner than we expect. In the college football, as
47:19
Speaker 2: you mentioned P two expansion potential.
47:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean personally, that's if I tried to read
47:25
Speaker 4: between the lines, That's exactly the way that I looked
47:28
Speaker 4: at it. Now, look, that may be wishful or naive
47:31
Speaker 4: thinking on my part, and I have a vested interest in,
47:35
Speaker 4: you know, the utes being as high profile as possible,
47:39
Speaker 4: but it really did feel that way. You know, we
47:43
Speaker 4: know that there was the legislation that was introduced in
47:45
Speaker 4: Congress last week, and when you read through it and
47:48
Speaker 4: some of the provisions that are in that legislation, there's
47:52
Speaker 4: no way that that's going to have a chance to pass.
47:56
Speaker 4: And because of that, you know, you saw the sword rattling.
48:00
Speaker 4: I'm the sec from certain elements of the Big Ten,
48:03
Speaker 4: and really, I mean we're seeing some interesting forces at work.
48:08
Speaker 4: The way that the system has unfolded, it really is unsustainable,
48:13
Speaker 4: and not just for the G six programs, which you know,
48:18
Speaker 4: if you're a fan of one of those programs, I
48:19
Speaker 4: really feel for you. It's got to be frustrating to
48:22
Speaker 4: watch college football and what it's evolved into, especially if
48:26
Speaker 4: you love like a Utah State or a Wyoming or
48:29
Speaker 4: any of those.
48:29
Speaker 6: Types of programs.
48:30
Speaker 4: But look, the G fours and even the p twos
48:33
Speaker 4: are having a hard time between making sure that they've
48:36
Speaker 4: got the funds available for what's dictated by the House
48:39
Speaker 4: Settlement to the arms race that we're seeing. You know,
48:43
Speaker 4: when you're seeing college football players and college basketball players
48:48
Speaker 4: making significantly better money than NFL and NBA players, something
48:54
Speaker 4: is absolutely broken. And I'm not saying that players shouldn't
48:58
Speaker 4: earn as much as they possibly can, but the system
49:02
Speaker 4: isn't sustainable. And frankly, they're risky and killing the golden goose,
49:07
Speaker 4: and so it's not surprising that you're seeing them the
49:11
Speaker 4: SEC and the Big ten talk about these things and
49:15
Speaker 4: frankly make the veiled threats, and I think that they're
49:17
Speaker 4: going to make good on those threats. I do not
49:20
Speaker 4: see this model lasting long. I do think that there
49:24
Speaker 4: is going to be a breakaway and some schools are
49:28
Speaker 4: going to be included and some are going to be
49:29
Speaker 4: left out. And for for football fans in the state
49:32
Speaker 4: of Utah, it's the hope is that the utes are
49:36
Speaker 4: are are one of those that are included, and it's
49:40
Speaker 4: this is an area in or region that deserves to
49:43
Speaker 4: have that type of that level of football. You see
49:46
Speaker 4: what's happening in the high school ranks, and and you
49:48
Speaker 4: see what the colleges have done and the success that
49:51
Speaker 4: they've had, and and so you would hope that that
49:54
Speaker 4: that they're able to get in with whatever that expansion
49:58
Speaker 4: looks like. But I do think it's coming sooner than later.
50:01
Speaker 4: I don't think it's going to wait until the next
50:03
Speaker 4: TV contract round is negotiated. I think with the way
50:08
Speaker 4: that the arms race is, it's too much weight for
50:12
Speaker 4: the system to bear, and cooler heads are probably going
50:19
Speaker 4: to prevail. That also may be wishful thinking, but that's
50:21
Speaker 4: the way I'm looking at it.
50:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be holding my breath for about the next
50:26
Speaker 2: two and a half years to see exactly what happens here.
50:29
Speaker 3: But we're only a few months away from Utah football.
50:32
Speaker 2: Returning, and that's when we don't have to worry about
50:34
Speaker 2: any of this offseason stuff exactly.
50:38
Speaker 4: So Yeah, fingers Crossed will have a fun and favorable distraction.
50:45
Speaker 2: Shout out the promotion you're doing at you Zone and
50:47
Speaker 2: the transition to on three one more time if you
50:49
Speaker 2: don't mind, oh you bet.
50:51
Speaker 4: And really appreciate the opportunity to look you Zone were
50:54
Speaker 4: moving to on three rivals. We could not be more
50:57
Speaker 4: excited about the news. Literally hundreds of people have already
51:01
Speaker 4: been subscribing this morning, and so we're getting just a
51:05
Speaker 4: ton of momentum. And yeah, people can for the next
51:08
Speaker 4: forty eight hours. They can sign up a year subscription
51:12
Speaker 4: for seventy five percent off and they can join us there.
51:15
Speaker 4: If you're a longtime subscriber, follow us over. If you're
51:18
Speaker 4: a former subscriber, we'd love to have you back. If
51:21
Speaker 4: you've never subscribed, we'd love for you to come and
51:23
Speaker 4: see what we have to offer and join the community.
51:27
Speaker 4: It's you know, we do the whole hashtag team fun
51:29
Speaker 4: there and we try to keep things fun for youth
51:31
Speaker 4: fans and we intend to do the same moving into
51:34
Speaker 4: the future.
51:36
Speaker 3: Dan, appreciate your time. Thank you, sir, Thanks so much.
51:40
Speaker 4: Man, have a great day and we'll talk soon.
51:44
Speaker 2: Dan Sorenson, publisher Over there at yout Zone. Of course,
51:48
Speaker 2: they have now transitioned to on three, staying on top
51:51
Speaker 2: of all the recruiting stuff as they always do. Go
51:55
Speaker 2: check them out. Seventy five percent off the subscription. Take
51:57
Speaker 2: advantage of the deal right now, all right, a quick
52:01
Speaker 2: hot lunch as the show rolls on. It's the Sean
52:04
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM.
52:14
Speaker 1: You're tuned to a Sean O'Connell show for the Murdoch
52:17
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
52:21
Speaker 1: one a half, Am.
52:26
Speaker 2: I have great news for anyone out there who might
52:28
Speaker 2: be struggling financially, anyone who's worried.
52:31
Speaker 3: About you know how you're gonna pay off the house.
52:34
Speaker 2: All you have to do is predict accurately the championship
52:40
Speaker 2: or near championship results in multiple different leagues. Okay, should
52:45
Speaker 2: be easy enough, James, I don't know if you caught
52:48
Speaker 2: this story. I don't know if all of you out
52:50
Speaker 2: there caught this story. It was pretty well publicized heading
52:53
Speaker 2: into Saturday night, and even on Friday was talked about
52:57
Speaker 2: some so an individual that was, you know, engaged in
53:02
Speaker 2: the old sports wagering, which we have talked about at
53:05
Speaker 2: nauseum here on the show, had a four leg parlay
53:10
Speaker 2: that heading into Saturday night was either going to yield
53:15
Speaker 2: a massive, massive return always going to be an ultimate disappointment.
53:20
Speaker 2: And when this happens, when you have a parlay with
53:23
Speaker 2: significant payout, there's always these betting apps or even private
53:28
Speaker 2: parties will offer you a buyout on your.
53:33
Speaker 3: On your result. Okay.
53:35
Speaker 2: So this individual had laid down a four leg parlay
53:40
Speaker 2: predicting that Michigan would win the NCAA Championship in basketball, okay, check,
53:50
Speaker 2: that the New York Knicks would win the East check. Okay,
53:59
Speaker 2: that the Santa Antonio Spurs would win the West check.
54:06
Speaker 2: And there was a fourth leg. I gotta remind myself
54:09
Speaker 2: what the fourth leg was. The fourth leg was, Oh,
54:13
Speaker 2: come on Internet, the fourth leg of the part.
54:17
Speaker 3: I had it in my mind, the golf thing. Oh no,
54:23
Speaker 3: of course.
54:23
Speaker 2: It was the US men's hockey team winning the Olympic
54:25
Speaker 2: gold medal. Okay, so that was the first of the Okay,
54:28
Speaker 2: so yeah, check? So all four that's incredible. So this person,
54:34
Speaker 2: this person obviously was probably doing okay or is it
54:37
Speaker 2: just extreme degenerate because they put twenty five hundred dollars
54:42
Speaker 2: down on this parlay? Who Now, you're not a seasoned better.
54:47
Speaker 2: If I asked, like somebody like Jeff Schwartz, what do
54:49
Speaker 2: you think this parlay is going to pay out? He'd
54:51
Speaker 2: probably give us like a pretty accurate number. If I
54:55
Speaker 2: told you four leg championship level parlay.
55:00
Speaker 3: Totally predictive.
55:01
Speaker 2: You have to put this in before anyone has competed
55:04
Speaker 2: for any of these things, right pre Olympics in this case,
55:07
Speaker 2: and twenty five hundred dollars down, What do you think
55:10
Speaker 2: the payout is if you hit all four?
55:15
Speaker 3: Is it over a million? Like? Is it that much
55:17
Speaker 3: you said you said you could buy a house with this?
55:19
Speaker 3: It's one point seven million dollars.
55:21
Speaker 7: Gosh.
55:22
Speaker 2: So obviously the three had already cashed heading into Saturday night.
55:28
Speaker 2: So he's off at that point, Like you like you
55:30
Speaker 2: as you set this up? Whoever he whatever betting sportsbook
55:36
Speaker 2: he put this through, offers him a buyout. So the
55:41
Speaker 2: the four leg parlay is set to pay one point
55:44
Speaker 2: seven million dollars. He had a buyout option when uh,
55:49
Speaker 2: the series, this burst Thunder series was tied to two,
55:52
Speaker 2: he could have sold his ticket for five hundred grand, which, man,
55:56
Speaker 2: that's tough to that's tough to turn down. Five hundred
56:00
Speaker 2: is pretty good even if even if you're like, I'm
56:03
Speaker 2: gonna get one point two or whatever that one point
56:06
Speaker 2: seven what yeah, one point two less with grand, you
56:11
Speaker 2: still come out with five hundred grand. That'd be hard
56:14
Speaker 2: to turn down for me. Now, how about this. It's
56:19
Speaker 2: two to two in that series, five hundred grand? You
56:23
Speaker 2: say no, as you know, okay, see goes up three
56:27
Speaker 2: to two in the series.
56:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, with a blowout win in game five. Yeah, the
56:31
Speaker 3: buyout offer comes again. It's like deal or no deal.
56:35
Speaker 2: Ooh, Now the odds are stacked against you right now.
56:39
Speaker 2: But we're still gonna give you two hundred and ninety
56:41
Speaker 2: three thousand dollars. Okay, so a little less than the
56:44
Speaker 2: initial All right, this person said, nope, I'm riding with it.
56:50
Speaker 3: Now.
56:52
Speaker 2: Spurs win Game six, it is now tied three to three.
56:56
Speaker 2: Here comes another offer six hundred and twelve thousand dollars
57:00
Speaker 2: and some change at that point. You gotta just ride
57:04
Speaker 2: with it, right, especially coming off of a Spurs win,
57:06
Speaker 2: Even though that's the highest buyout offer yet, that's that's
57:11
Speaker 2: a million over a million less than what you get
57:14
Speaker 2: if the if the Spurs do what they did on
57:18
Speaker 2: Saturday night and come out with the win, did not
57:22
Speaker 2: sell told DraftKings to take their offer and put it
57:26
Speaker 2: somewhere else, shove it one point seven million.
57:30
Speaker 3: Dollars on the four leg parlay you good deal?
57:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's and Howie Mandel calls you with one of
57:40
Speaker 2: those beautiful ladies holding a.
57:43
Speaker 3: Brief, and Markle shout out to her. She was one
57:46
Speaker 3: of them. That's right. At one point, pre pre suits.
57:51
Speaker 2: One point seven million dollars for US, a gold batal,
57:57
Speaker 2: Michigan winning the national championship in colle basketball, NIX winning
58:02
Speaker 2: the East, Spurs winning the West. That's that's incredible, and
58:06
Speaker 2: with how dramatic that last leg ended up being that
58:10
Speaker 2: guy I mean, I can't imagine how badly he was
58:14
Speaker 2: sweating that West Finals series out. That series went about
58:20
Speaker 2: how I expected it to, but I had no money
58:23
Speaker 2: on the line. The only thing I had a different
58:25
Speaker 2: I had, OKAYC winning Game seven at home, I would
58:29
Speaker 2: have lost.
58:30
Speaker 3: I would have lost all that money if I made
58:31
Speaker 3: that parlay.
58:32
Speaker 2: By the way, I I definitely would sell the first time.
58:38
Speaker 2: The five hundred grand fire guaranteed. I would have too. Yeah,
58:43
Speaker 2: and I would have sold.
58:44
Speaker 3: I would have sold when the Spurs were tied again
58:46
Speaker 3: three to three.
58:48
Speaker 2: See, I would have sold before that because five hundred
58:52
Speaker 2: grand is a good chunk of change.
58:53
Speaker 3: There. I didn't know, not not.
58:57
Speaker 2: I don't know enough about the betting world to know
58:59
Speaker 2: that they would have offered me a lesser buyout in
59:02
Speaker 2: the middle of the series like that.
59:03
Speaker 3: But here's the thing.
59:07
Speaker 2: This person is obviously in a position where they're making
59:09
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred dollars bets, which is either you have
59:13
Speaker 2: a lot of money already or you are.
59:15
Speaker 3: Just trying to get yourself out of a hole.
59:18
Speaker 2: You need to call You need to call the numbers
59:20
Speaker 2: that are at the end of every gambling article, because
59:23
Speaker 2: that is one thing that's hilarious text hope and why
59:26
Speaker 2: my guys one a hundred gambler on a hundred bets off.
59:31
Speaker 2: There's like a bunch of different ones. If you have
59:33
Speaker 2: a gambling problem, you can call these hotlines. So this
59:35
Speaker 2: person EI there is already rich enough that they can
59:38
Speaker 2: make a twenty five hundred dollar bet just kind of
59:40
Speaker 2: on a whim, or there's somebody who needs to call
59:43
Speaker 2: those hotlines.
59:44
Speaker 3: But one point seven.
59:45
Speaker 2: Million dollars on a twenty five hundred dollars bet that
59:48
Speaker 2: my friends is a little ROI we can all get
59:51
Speaker 2: on board.
59:51
Speaker 3: That's that's awesome. Hats off, Hats off to them.
59:55
Speaker 2: I do hope that they're not a degenerate and end
59:57
Speaker 2: up risking this money that they just upling it down. Now,
1:00:02
Speaker 2: I got the Knicks winning the championship, all of it.
1:00:05
Speaker 2: What if he just left the Knicks and the Carolina
1:00:08
Speaker 2: Hurricanes All East Championship hockey in it and basketball. I
1:00:12
Speaker 2: mean he's playing with house money now he just lets
1:00:16
Speaker 2: it ride on Knicks, Hurricanes or Vegas Vegas, San Antonio
1:00:21
Speaker 2: all West yikes, by the way, home of both the
1:00:26
Speaker 2: NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. ESPN seven hundred
1:00:30
Speaker 2: and ninety TWOFM hockey starts tomorrow, nic Old Chick at
1:00:34
Speaker 2: one to help us preview that, and uh and then
1:00:38
Speaker 2: NBA starts Wednesday.
1:00:40
Speaker 3: Give me a big week here. I was waiting for
1:00:42
Speaker 3: you to ask the most important question here. Who is
1:00:44
Speaker 3: this person? Yeah? Who's the person? Just kidding, it's not
1:00:50
Speaker 3: It's Jeff Schwartz. Jeff, come on the ship.
1:00:52
Speaker 2: Jeff's like, I'm not coming on your stupid show anymore.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go spend this one point seven million dollars. Yeah,
1:00:58
Speaker 2: crazy DraftKings parlay four Leger twenty five hundred dollars turned
1:01:03
Speaker 2: into one point seven million. But the more intriguing part
1:01:07
Speaker 2: of that story for me is that you have to
1:01:10
Speaker 2: believe so much in your picks that you turn down
1:01:13
Speaker 2: guaranteed money along the way, and I, my friends do
1:01:17
Speaker 2: not have that much conviction of my predictive abilities. I'll
1:01:20
Speaker 2: tell you I would have taken the five hundred grand.
1:01:22
Speaker 2: I probably would have. I probably would have let it
1:01:25
Speaker 2: ride at two to two and then it's and then
1:01:30
Speaker 2: I don't know. I might have been tempted to buy
1:01:32
Speaker 2: out down three to two. To take the buyout down
1:01:35
Speaker 2: three two. Think of that, You're you still get almost
1:01:38
Speaker 2: three hundred grand, and like it's just your You're you're
1:01:43
Speaker 2: betting on the whims of Is Victor webin Yaba gonna
1:01:45
Speaker 2: feel good in this next game once you're Once the
1:01:48
Speaker 2: Spurs tied it and send it to game seven, though,
1:01:50
Speaker 2: I think I'd be like, you know what, I gotta
1:01:53
Speaker 2: be okay with losing this twenty five hundred because I'm
1:01:55
Speaker 2: only one game away from winning one point seven.
1:01:58
Speaker 3: I think I just let it ride.
1:02:00
Speaker 2: That's where my that's where my gambling mentality is just
1:02:03
Speaker 2: wrong and why I can't do it the way that
1:02:05
Speaker 2: some of these other people do it. Because for me,
1:02:08
Speaker 2: I'd be like, wait, I didn't lose twenty five hundred
1:02:11
Speaker 2: dollars by saying no to this, I lost six hundred grand.
1:02:15
Speaker 2: Yeah by saying no to this. See and and really,
1:02:19
Speaker 2: this guy's probably like, it's only twenty five hundred bucks.
1:02:21
Speaker 2: I'd be like, no, it's not. It's six hundred and
1:02:24
Speaker 2: eight thousand or whatever.
1:02:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:02:26
Speaker 2: I'm the bad game show guy with in that sense too,
1:02:29
Speaker 2: because I'm always because everyone's like, you, you lost the
1:02:34
Speaker 2: on the five hundred thousand dollars question who wants to
1:02:36
Speaker 2: be a millionaire or whatever? You you didn't take the
1:02:39
Speaker 2: deal and it was the wrong briefcase deal or no deal.
1:02:41
Speaker 2: You end up getting way less. You lost this much.
1:02:43
Speaker 2: And I'm always like, no, they lost nothing because it
1:02:46
Speaker 2: cost them. They lost the cost of the plane ticket.
1:02:49
Speaker 2: Like they they they made money no matter what.
1:02:54
Speaker 3: Here. Yeah, that's a good mentality to have. That's how
1:02:56
Speaker 3: you're supposed to be.
1:02:58
Speaker 2: Best investing advice I ever got was because you know,
1:03:01
Speaker 2: you always like, oh my gosh, I should have held
1:03:03
Speaker 2: this longer yea, or I should have invested in this
1:03:05
Speaker 2: instead of this, and it's like I made a thousand
1:03:08
Speaker 2: bucks instead of ten thousand bucks.
1:03:10
Speaker 3: Best advice I ever got. You can't lose when you win.
1:03:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you got the thousand bucks, Yeah, maybe you
1:03:15
Speaker 2: could have had ten thousands somewhere else, but that was
1:03:17
Speaker 2: never yours. You didn't lose it. I actually you know
1:03:20
Speaker 2: who who had that mentality? Remember when Eric Weddle got
1:03:23
Speaker 2: Brendon Sourcepee. Remember when Eric Weddle got screwed out of
1:03:26
Speaker 2: a million dollar performance bonus. Oh yeah, in his NFL
1:03:30
Speaker 2: career if they had if they had made the playoffs
1:03:33
Speaker 2: and there was a penalty that took away an interception
1:03:37
Speaker 2: that would have ended the game, and so he ended
1:03:39
Speaker 2: up losing the million dollars and people were like, oh,
1:03:42
Speaker 2: you lost a million bucks.
1:03:43
Speaker 3: He's like, no, I did. I never had that million bucks.
1:03:46
Speaker 3: That's a good perspective to have.
1:03:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, And now, listen, I've never been in that situation
1:03:52
Speaker 2: to where I'm like to where I'm like, I I
1:03:55
Speaker 2: don't know. So I'll say this, I don't know if
1:03:58
Speaker 2: if it's me, if I will if I have evolved
1:04:01
Speaker 2: enough to be like I never had that, like in
1:04:04
Speaker 2: a game show or whatever. This scenario, the game show
1:04:06
Speaker 2: scenario I brought up, But watching other people.
1:04:08
Speaker 3: Do it, I'm like, did he never had that? It's fine,
1:04:11
Speaker 3: here's she never had that. That's fine. I I Am
1:04:14
Speaker 3: not that evolved I'm like, that was fine and I
1:04:16
Speaker 3: locked that all right. We got understandable.
1:04:19
Speaker 2: Gotta take a break, uh, blockbuster trade in the NFL.
1:04:24
Speaker 2: The Rams are going forward again, and I'll tell you how.
1:04:27
Speaker 2: It's a Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and
1:04:30
Speaker 2: ninety two one FM.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: Feely out of the loop. Let's catch up on today's
1:04:38
Speaker 1: biggest headlines and the Daily News Dug where we flush
1:04:41
Speaker 1: out the biggest stories of the day on the Sean
1:04:44
Speaker 1: O'Connell Show and Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven
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Speaker 1: hundred ninety two one FM, brought to you by Vally Plumbing,
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Speaker 2: make an appointment without even getting on the phone. You
1:05:26
Speaker 2: heard this in James Peterson's report, Serena Williams is back
1:05:30
Speaker 2: in pro tennis forty four years old, and she's going
1:05:34
Speaker 2: to be competing in doubles next week. I don't think
1:05:38
Speaker 2: we're gonna see Serena take it like a serious crack
1:05:41
Speaker 2: at a real Grand Slam type comeback.
1:05:44
Speaker 3: But there are people like her.
1:05:49
Speaker 2: That in their respective sports are always like always, always,
1:05:55
Speaker 2: always going to be competitive, even against other pros. Now
1:05:59
Speaker 2: we will say that Serena has lost it if she
1:06:02
Speaker 2: doesn't go out and dominate. We will say that Serena
1:06:05
Speaker 2: is not what she used to be. And that's probably
1:06:08
Speaker 2: true if she gets beat in anything. But like we're
1:06:14
Speaker 2: seeing this on social media, allows this now right where
1:06:17
Speaker 2: like it was a Chad it was Chad Ocho. Sinko
1:06:22
Speaker 2: was like running races against college kids the other day,
1:06:26
Speaker 2: that's right, and he's faster than them. He's in his
1:06:30
Speaker 2: mid forties or he's forty plus, and people are just like, yeah,
1:06:33
Speaker 2: I can beat you. Now you're old and you're watched,
1:06:35
Speaker 2: And it's like there are some people that are so
1:06:38
Speaker 2: elite when they're in their prime that we lose perspective
1:06:42
Speaker 2: on how large the gap is even when they like
1:06:44
Speaker 2: come back down to earth.
1:06:45
Speaker 3: They're still better than the rest of us, and that's
1:06:48
Speaker 3: probably what.
1:06:48
Speaker 2: We're gonna see from Serena Williams. Anytime she wants to
1:06:52
Speaker 2: compete in anything, I want to see it. I want
1:06:55
Speaker 2: to at least know the result, because I think she
1:06:57
Speaker 2: is the best female athlete that has ever the face
1:07:00
Speaker 2: of the planet, and it would be really cool to
1:07:04
Speaker 2: see her do other sports as well.
1:07:05
Speaker 3: But tennis is her thing. Yeah, and obviously.
1:07:10
Speaker 2: Doubles tennis at the Grand Slam level or otherwise not
1:07:14
Speaker 2: near as high profile as singles tennis. But she's a
1:07:17
Speaker 2: fourteen time Grand Slam winner alongside her sister Venus as
1:07:22
Speaker 2: a doubles player too, in addition to twenty three Grand
1:07:26
Speaker 2: slams as a singles player, so she's got a better
1:07:31
Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons why she's making the
1:07:33
Speaker 2: comeback to doubles is one it's it's easier when you
1:07:36
Speaker 2: have a teammate, right, easier to play tennis when you
1:07:38
Speaker 2: have a partner there.
1:07:40
Speaker 3: But also she's got a it for that reason and
1:07:45
Speaker 3: other reasons.
1:07:45
Speaker 2: As a forty four year old who hasn't played in
1:07:47
Speaker 2: four years, she's a good enough She's been a good
1:07:51
Speaker 2: enough doubles player, to be like, I can win a
1:07:53
Speaker 2: I can win some tournaments this way. Maybe another Grand
1:07:56
Speaker 2: Slam is doubles. I don't know if I can do
1:07:58
Speaker 2: that in singles.
1:08:00
Speaker 3: Let me try.
1:08:00
Speaker 2: Let me try to have a second, second, second career
1:08:04
Speaker 2: as a as a primary doubles player.
1:08:07
Speaker 3: I have no doubt she's gonna be awesome.
1:08:09
Speaker 2: I want to see, uh, like, if you put me
1:08:11
Speaker 2: and Serena Williams out there on as a doubles team
1:08:14
Speaker 2: in a little mixed doubles, how.
1:08:16
Speaker 3: Good you guys could be?
1:08:17
Speaker 2: Like her greatness certainly makes up for my deficiencies almost
1:08:21
Speaker 2: all the way. Could we win not against like a
1:08:24
Speaker 2: great pro team, but could we win against like a
1:08:27
Speaker 2: like a average ranked below one hundred doubles mixed doubles team.
1:08:32
Speaker 3: Just I get Serena Williams and they get like two
1:08:35
Speaker 3: actual tennis players.
1:08:36
Speaker 2: She's like, let me serve the whole time you be
1:08:39
Speaker 2: up at the net, or I don't know what would
1:08:40
Speaker 2: be the better thing.
1:08:41
Speaker 3: Just she just just please return one shot per game
1:08:46
Speaker 3: and we can win. It's a cool story.
1:08:50
Speaker 2: I don't I'd be very curious to see if she
1:08:54
Speaker 2: parlays this into a singles a return to the singles game.
1:08:58
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if that's gonna happen, but I think
1:09:00
Speaker 2: she could do really well at this age with this
1:09:03
Speaker 2: much time in between matches at doubles for sure.
1:09:07
Speaker 3: All Right, this is a much more relevant story locally.
1:09:09
Speaker 3: This is interesting.
1:09:11
Speaker 2: Jamal Collier, who's an ESPN NBA insider, is reporting that
1:09:15
Speaker 2: Kevin Young, BYU basketball head coach, is a candidate for
1:09:19
Speaker 2: the Chicago Bulls job. Johnny Bryant's name has also been
1:09:23
Speaker 2: mentioned in that that same category. Here's the thing, like,
1:09:27
Speaker 2: we'll focus on the Kevin Young, Johnny Bryant if he's
1:09:31
Speaker 2: in a If he's a candidate, go interview, take that job,
1:09:35
Speaker 2: get yourself in there as a head coach.
1:09:36
Speaker 3: See what can happen.
1:09:38
Speaker 2: Do we believe that Kevin Young wants a kind of
1:09:43
Speaker 2: crappy NBA coaching job. I think that he was already
1:09:51
Speaker 2: well on his way to getting head coaching opportunities in
1:09:55
Speaker 2: the NBA when he was a Phoenix lead assistant. He
1:09:58
Speaker 2: had a great rapport with He had an incredible reputation
1:10:02
Speaker 2: amongst even star players in the NBA. And that is
1:10:06
Speaker 2: like half the battle now in NBA coaching circles. I
1:10:11
Speaker 2: think that Kevin Young is compensated the way he's compensated
1:10:15
Speaker 2: because everybody knows that he has these opportunities coming. I
1:10:20
Speaker 2: don't think outside of like the San Antonio Spurs or
1:10:25
Speaker 2: the Denver Nuggets, or maybe the Utah Jazz or whomever,
1:10:29
Speaker 2: what like a team that is at least on the rise.
1:10:35
Speaker 3: And in playoff positioning at the very very least.
1:10:38
Speaker 2: I don't think that he's taking a rebuild type job
1:10:41
Speaker 2: in the NBA over BYU. The resources, the opportunity, and
1:10:47
Speaker 2: I can't speak from experience, but it really does. For
1:10:51
Speaker 2: a lot of these coaches at BYU, it really is
1:10:54
Speaker 2: a bit of a calling in addition to being your job.
1:10:57
Speaker 2: They take that, A lot of them take that very seriously.
1:10:59
Speaker 2: They get to be part of the mission statement at
1:11:02
Speaker 2: Brigham Young University, to be part of the church run university.
1:11:06
Speaker 2: That matters to some of these people quite a bit.
1:11:09
Speaker 2: And I just don't foresee if I'm a BYU basketball
1:11:13
Speaker 2: fan right now, I'm not looking at the Bulls job
1:11:16
Speaker 2: even if they interview Kevin Young as something that's gonna
1:11:19
Speaker 2: steal my head coach away. I'll say this, what do
1:11:24
Speaker 2: we always say with NFL jobs, even guys who leave
1:11:28
Speaker 2: great college situations to take a lesser situation. In the NFL,
1:11:34
Speaker 2: there's only thirty two of these, and there's only thirty
1:11:38
Speaker 2: in the NBA. Kevin Young worked really hard before taking
1:11:43
Speaker 2: the BAU job, dedicated his life to a chance at
1:11:48
Speaker 2: becoming an NBA head coach one day, seemingly. I if
1:11:56
Speaker 2: he's the lead candidate for the Bulls job, I think
1:11:58
Speaker 2: he probably takes it because there's only thirty of those jobs,
1:12:01
Speaker 2: and if he if it doesn't work out for him,
1:12:04
Speaker 2: if the Bulls are just unsalvageable as a franchise at
1:12:07
Speaker 2: this point and they stay in rebuilding mode after you
1:12:10
Speaker 2: know how many years he would be at the helm
1:12:13
Speaker 2: of the Bulls. If he took this job, he won't
1:12:17
Speaker 2: necessarily be able to go back to BYU, although I
1:12:20
Speaker 2: think that would probably be a possibility, But he'll be
1:12:22
Speaker 2: able to get a big time college coaching job probably
1:12:26
Speaker 2: any time. You don't know when you're gonna get as
1:12:31
Speaker 2: a first time as it would be first time head coach,
1:12:33
Speaker 2: you don't know when you will ever get another chance
1:12:35
Speaker 2: at the head coaching job, So I think he probably
1:12:37
Speaker 2: takes it.
1:12:37
Speaker 3: If he's the lead candidate, we don't know that. By
1:12:41
Speaker 3: the way, we don't know if he's a.
1:12:42
Speaker 2: Lead candidate, if he's just one of the candidates that
1:12:45
Speaker 2: the report is he is being considered. I think that
1:12:50
Speaker 2: if you're BYU, I think you're safe unless it's a
1:12:53
Speaker 2: much more obviously appealing job where he could go work
1:12:58
Speaker 2: with a big time star, could go work with a
1:13:02
Speaker 2: conference contender, or someone at least on their way in
1:13:06
Speaker 2: a very kind of direct path to something like that.
1:13:09
Speaker 2: They've got a really good situation going on at BYU
1:13:12
Speaker 2: right now, and he is one of the top paid
1:13:14
Speaker 2: coaches in all of college basketball, according to what information
1:13:19
Speaker 2: we can get about Kevin Young.
1:13:21
Speaker 3: By the way, just going to the.
1:13:22
Speaker 2: Johnny Bryant thing, I'm somewhat surprised with the way the
1:13:28
Speaker 2: conference finals turned out for Cleveland. Johnny Briant is Cleveland's
1:13:33
Speaker 2: assistant coach right now. I think he's the lead assistant.
1:13:39
Speaker 2: I'm somewhat surprised that they decided to continue on with
1:13:43
Speaker 2: Hanny Atkinson. I only say somewhat because they did make
1:13:47
Speaker 2: it to the conference finals for the first time in forever,
1:13:50
Speaker 2: first time without Lebron in forever too. And that's not nothing,
1:13:57
Speaker 2: but just getting swept in the fashion that they that
1:14:00
Speaker 2: they got swept in, and then like and Johnny Bryant
1:14:03
Speaker 2: being having a really good reputation as an assistant coach,
1:14:07
Speaker 2: being Donovan Mitchell's guy from the time he was a
1:14:10
Speaker 2: rookie in Utah. He was the guy who worked with
1:14:12
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell personally to make him into the player that
1:14:16
Speaker 2: he is. I'm I kind of was like, maybe this
1:14:20
Speaker 2: is Johnny Bryant's time after their season ended. Maybe Donovan says,
1:14:24
Speaker 2: hey promote Johnny already, but they're sticking with Kenny, and
1:14:29
Speaker 2: maybe he takes this Bulls job if if he's a
1:14:32
Speaker 2: top candidate, or if Kevin Young turns the Bulls down,
1:14:34
Speaker 2: maybe he takes it. I don't know that Donovan Mitchell
1:14:37
Speaker 2: is liked right now in Cleveland enough to say, hey,
1:14:42
Speaker 2: this is what I want. Yeah, I mean, I really
1:14:46
Speaker 2: don't know, because sometimes like that, there are some franchises
1:14:50
Speaker 2: where clearly the star players are pulling the strings and
1:14:54
Speaker 2: they've kind of earned that right even if you don't
1:14:56
Speaker 2: like it.
1:14:57
Speaker 3: There are some places where you're just like.
1:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, am I gonna tell lebron No to
1:15:03
Speaker 2: hiring JJ Reddick if that's what he wants, probably not,
1:15:06
Speaker 2: because there's just not anyone that can look him in
1:15:10
Speaker 2: the face and say no, no, no, I've got better
1:15:12
Speaker 2: championship credentials than you I've got. If if Phil Jackson
1:15:16
Speaker 2: is running your front office in LA, he's gonna be like,
1:15:19
Speaker 2: you do the playing, I'll do the decision making stuff.
1:15:22
Speaker 2: But right now in LA, there's not anybody with that
1:15:25
Speaker 2: level of sort of cachet over Lebron's. You kind of
1:15:29
Speaker 2: have to have some of that, and Cleveland also kind
1:15:31
Speaker 2: of doesn't have that. But James Harden, all he can
1:15:35
Speaker 2: say is I've made an All Star team a bunch
1:15:37
Speaker 2: of times. And you can look back at him if
1:15:39
Speaker 2: you want to pick this fight, he can be like,
1:15:41
Speaker 2: uh huh, and you've never won anything of import so
1:15:44
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna listen to you on this. And Donovan Mitchell,
1:15:47
Speaker 2: and I've told you many times, I'm a Donovan Mitchell fan.
1:15:50
Speaker 3: I like his I like him same thing.
1:15:53
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell is starting to develop that reputation also, so
1:15:56
Speaker 2: if he comes in and says I want that, you
1:15:59
Speaker 2: go sorry, dude, dude, like you don't get to dictate
1:16:03
Speaker 2: these things. There are very very few players in the
1:16:05
Speaker 2: NBA who really deserve that right if anyone does. There
1:16:09
Speaker 2: are very few that you can make the argument for,
1:16:12
Speaker 2: and Donovan Mitchelle ain't one of them, so.
1:16:15
Speaker 3: You're probably right about that.
1:16:16
Speaker 2: I'll say this, I'll call back to this summer that
1:16:20
Speaker 2: Rudy and Donovan got traded. Quinn Sneyder resigns as head
1:16:23
Speaker 2: coach as well. They hire Will Hardy before both those
1:16:26
Speaker 2: trades take place.
1:16:28
Speaker 3: Right.
1:16:32
Speaker 2: Before the rumor of Donovan's getting traded, Rudy got traded,
1:16:36
Speaker 2: and right before the rumor of that's happening. Well, actually,
1:16:40
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Before Will Hardy gets gets hired as head coach,
1:16:45
Speaker 2: I'm like, Johnny Bryant's a finalist, and knowing he was
1:16:50
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell's guy, I'm like, Johnny Bryant's the head coach
1:16:55
Speaker 2: because they want they at that time were thinking they
1:16:58
Speaker 2: want to still build around Donovan Mitchell. Right, he doesn't
1:17:04
Speaker 2: get chosen, And that was my first indication, like, oh
1:17:07
Speaker 2: my gosh, Donovan Mitchell is probably getting traded because you
1:17:12
Speaker 2: we didn't hear any reports of this. Just intuitively, I
1:17:14
Speaker 2: was like, Donovan Mitchell's telling the front office, I want
1:17:18
Speaker 2: Johnny as head coach. He had to have been. Intuitively,
1:17:20
Speaker 2: that's my thinking. He doesn't get so he didn't have
1:17:24
Speaker 2: that cachet with the Jazz. He may not have that
1:17:27
Speaker 2: cachet with the Calves. But it is interesting that Johnny's
1:17:31
Speaker 2: still looking for his first head coaching job.
1:17:33
Speaker 3: Maybe it's the Bulls.
1:17:36
Speaker 2: Billy Donovan was apparently being paid six million dollars to
1:17:41
Speaker 2: be the the Bulls head coach.
1:17:45
Speaker 3: Roughly six million.
1:17:48
Speaker 2: We keep hearing that Kevin Young is kind of in
1:17:51
Speaker 2: the top five range in college basketball, and there's a
1:17:57
Speaker 2: there's a pretty hefty spread between the fifth highest paid
1:18:01
Speaker 2: and the number one paid coach in college basketball. It's
1:18:05
Speaker 2: a two point eight million dollar two point six million
1:18:07
Speaker 2: dollar difference. Excuse me, but if he's in the top five,
1:18:11
Speaker 2: let's say he's making seven million dollars. You don't have
1:18:17
Speaker 2: to move your family, you don't have to leave to
1:18:21
Speaker 2: go coach the Bulls. But you can and you're in
1:18:25
Speaker 2: the Pros. I just it's not as black and white
1:18:28
Speaker 2: as it used to be. Where you want to go
1:18:31
Speaker 2: coach pro if you can all we're gonna take another
1:18:34
Speaker 2: break here. I wanted to get to the Eric wed
1:18:37
Speaker 2: Eric Weddle. This is better because we'll have a full
1:18:39
Speaker 2: segment to talk about just this. Eric Weddle made some
1:18:42
Speaker 2: comments that upset Michigan Wolverines football fans. They're not the
1:18:47
Speaker 2: kind of comments that you think, but they shouldn't. They
1:18:52
Speaker 2: should probably also upset you as a Utah fan potentially,
1:18:55
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why. It's the Sean O'Connell Show
1:18:57
Speaker 2: on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two NFM.
1:19:00
Speaker 3: Send us some piano mass.
1:19:04
Speaker 1: He's the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of the
1:19:07
Speaker 1: best inside of your utes. Let's get back to OC
1:19:10
Speaker 1: from the Murder Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety
1:19:15
Speaker 1: two to one app AM.
1:19:30
Speaker 2: Now, John Nicole Chick's gonna join us in about ten
1:19:34
Speaker 2: minutes to preview the Stanley Cup Final. Tuesday night is
1:19:38
Speaker 2: the first game of the Stanley Cup Final. We are
1:19:40
Speaker 2: your home of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the radio
1:19:43
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two NFM, the ESPN seven
1:19:46
Speaker 2: hundred app Nicole Chick here in just a few minutes,
1:19:50
Speaker 2: all right. Eric Weddell got some flax and blowback from
1:19:54
Speaker 2: Michigan fans because he went on a podcast, the Zero
1:19:57
Speaker 2: to sixty Podcast, and he he said when asked about
1:20:01
Speaker 2: Bryce Underwood, the Michigan quarterback. Now, remember, as we've talked
1:20:05
Speaker 2: about with his son is a top recruit in the country.
1:20:10
Speaker 2: They were invited out to a lot of spring football camps,
1:20:14
Speaker 2: unofficial visits. I don't think any of them were officials
1:20:16
Speaker 2: yet for Gage his son, where you know, they got
1:20:20
Speaker 2: to go to Georgia, they got to go to Michigan,
1:20:22
Speaker 2: they got to go all over the country because first
1:20:25
Speaker 2: of all, Eric gets to go those places. Anyway, as
1:20:29
Speaker 2: you know, a highly respected NFL veteran with a lot
1:20:33
Speaker 2: of relationships in football, and also you.
1:20:35
Speaker 3: Know, his son is a big time recruit now.
1:20:36
Speaker 2: So he was asked about seeing Bryce Underwood in person,
1:20:40
Speaker 2: and this was the quote, mark my words, I was
1:20:43
Speaker 2: out there for springball. Don't be surprised, surprised if the
1:20:46
Speaker 2: backup is playing early because that Underwood kid, I don't
1:20:50
Speaker 2: think he could throw or play quarterbacks.
1:20:52
Speaker 3: So we'll see. He goes on.
1:20:55
Speaker 2: He extrapolates the point and he says quarterbacks should be
1:20:58
Speaker 2: taught to play quarterback from the pow at first, to
1:21:00
Speaker 2: be an athlete. Second, and a lot of young quarterbacks
1:21:05
Speaker 2: they start out by, you know, playing football the way
1:21:08
Speaker 2: they did all their lives. They played backyard football. It's
1:21:14
Speaker 2: why Johnny Manziel wasn't successful in the NFL. It worked
1:21:17
Speaker 2: in college for most players, it doesn't work in college.
1:21:22
Speaker 2: And you have to remember that Eric Weddle views all
1:21:25
Speaker 2: things through like the comparative lens of playing against Tom Brady,
1:21:31
Speaker 2: playing against Peyton Manning, playing with Philip Rivers for so long,
1:21:35
Speaker 2: playing against elite, elite, elite quarterbacks. He knows what it's
1:21:40
Speaker 2: supposed to look like, and when the ball doesn't come
1:21:43
Speaker 2: off the hand the right way, when the mental processing
1:21:47
Speaker 2: isn't done quickly enough, he recognizes it in a way
1:21:50
Speaker 2: that you and I and most coaches, by the way,
1:21:53
Speaker 2: never ever ever would.
1:21:57
Speaker 3: So of course Michigan.
1:21:58
Speaker 2: Fans are just like, who is this guy? Why is
1:21:59
Speaker 2: he saying this about our dude? Because that's how we
1:22:02
Speaker 2: would react if some other teams. Great Fred Warner was
1:22:07
Speaker 2: just like, I think this Devin dam Pier kid stinks right,
1:22:10
Speaker 2: The Utah message boards would be lighting up. Even but
1:22:12
Speaker 2: even like if we were to trade legends, Michigan legend
1:22:18
Speaker 2: talking about Devin Dampier if it was Tom.
1:22:21
Speaker 3: Brady, we'd be like, why are you talking about Utahs?
1:22:24
Speaker 3: If it's guy. You're just like, shut up, he's our guy.
1:22:29
Speaker 3: What are you talking about? You don't know anything about.
1:22:30
Speaker 2: It makes total sense even though Eric Weddle is who
1:22:33
Speaker 2: else as a Utah fan. Here's why you should like
1:22:37
Speaker 2: this statement either. Okay, and this is me getting really
1:22:41
Speaker 2: out on the limb. But if if Eric Weddle is
1:22:46
Speaker 2: looking at this kid who's paid seven million dollars a
1:22:50
Speaker 2: year by the University of Michigan to be their quarterback,
1:22:54
Speaker 2: and he's saying, well, that kid's really good, that's the
1:22:58
Speaker 2: next Tom Brady, it makes it less likely that his
1:23:03
Speaker 2: son is going to play.
1:23:05
Speaker 3: Quarterback at the University of Michigan. His own son.
1:23:08
Speaker 2: Now, there's a lot of people who assume that Gage
1:23:11
Speaker 2: is just going he's going to be a safety in college.
1:23:15
Speaker 2: I'm not ready to do that. I'm not ready to
1:23:17
Speaker 2: say well, because his dad was a safety. I think
1:23:20
Speaker 2: it's actually it actually makes a lot more sense from
1:23:23
Speaker 2: a personal standpoint if you don't play the same position
1:23:26
Speaker 2: as your dad, because then the comparisons are not nearly
1:23:30
Speaker 2: as direct. But then if it's your best position, then
1:23:32
Speaker 2: you go ahead and play that position. And it is
1:23:34
Speaker 2: it is right now, it's his best position, his instincts,
1:23:38
Speaker 2: his physicality is willingness to play the game away that
1:23:42
Speaker 2: a lot of young guys don't want to play it now,
1:23:44
Speaker 2: like that's his best position. But also right that if
1:23:50
Speaker 2: you have an option to be a quarterback and he
1:23:54
Speaker 2: is going, he's gonna get offered for both. Right, Maybe
1:23:57
Speaker 2: not at Michigan, maybe at Miss because it's Kyle Whittingham
1:24:01
Speaker 2: who's the head coach. They're like, yeah, dude, you're you're
1:24:04
Speaker 2: gonna play on defense. Jay Hill's like, we like you.
1:24:07
Speaker 2: You could throw the ball pretty well, but you're gonna
1:24:10
Speaker 2: be a safety here, and maybe we bring back the
1:24:13
Speaker 2: Wettle package for you with that. He's big, so maybe
1:24:17
Speaker 2: he ends up being a linebacker. I don't think he'll
1:24:18
Speaker 2: ever get that big, but maybe he does. In any case.
1:24:24
Speaker 2: That that was where my mind went with this. Just like,
1:24:26
Speaker 2: wait a second, because if Michigan wants Gauge as a quarterback,
1:24:31
Speaker 2: and Gauge wants to play quarterback, that might be they
1:24:34
Speaker 2: might come down to whichever school lets him play quarterback.
1:24:37
Speaker 3: Right.
1:24:38
Speaker 2: This happens sometimes where guys are great two way athletes,
1:24:43
Speaker 2: they are great two sport athletes, they're great whatever, and
1:24:45
Speaker 2: the school that gets you is the school that lets
1:24:48
Speaker 2: you play the position you want to play. We've heard
1:24:51
Speaker 2: plenty of these stories about like, yeah, well we wanted
1:24:55
Speaker 2: Cole Bishop to come play safety here, and this other
1:24:58
Speaker 2: school wanted him to be wanted him to be a
1:25:02
Speaker 2: wide receiver like a slot receiver. So he came here
1:25:04
Speaker 2: to play for us because we told him he could
1:25:06
Speaker 2: do what he wants to do, especially at quarterback. There
1:25:09
Speaker 2: are plenty of guys who have that story where they're
1:25:12
Speaker 2: just like, yeah, I ended up going playing for a
1:25:14
Speaker 2: smaller school because they would let me be a QB
1:25:17
Speaker 2: instead of going to play safety at the bigger school.
1:25:19
Speaker 2: I think Gage Weddell is going to have an opportunity
1:25:22
Speaker 2: from big schools to play quarterback. The biggest schools are
1:25:25
Speaker 2: gonna want him to play safety, and I don't know
1:25:28
Speaker 2: which one he's gonna want to do. And I know
1:25:30
Speaker 2: that his dad's going to give him advice, but they're
1:25:32
Speaker 2: not going to force him one way or another. So
1:25:38
Speaker 2: also we know that this coaching staff, this one that
1:25:42
Speaker 2: used to be at Utah and is now at Michigan,
1:25:46
Speaker 2: they're pretty good at communicating with kids, communicating with families,
1:25:50
Speaker 2: reading what that kid wants. And one of the ways
1:25:53
Speaker 2: that they will get a commitment. One of the ways
1:25:56
Speaker 2: that Kyle Whittingham got people to commit and play for
1:25:59
Speaker 2: the University of Utah is they would he would say, yes,
1:26:03
Speaker 2: of course, you're gonna come play off You're gonna come
1:26:05
Speaker 2: play D tackle here. Yes, you're yes, you're gonna be
1:26:09
Speaker 2: a D lineman here. And then they come and they
1:26:12
Speaker 2: play D line for you know, they're a good young
1:26:15
Speaker 2: defensive lineman, and that seed gets planned. Maybe you'd actually
1:26:19
Speaker 2: be better if you move to offensive tackle. Sam Tevy,
1:26:21
Speaker 2: what do you.
1:26:21
Speaker 3: Think of that? That's something you never considered. No, I'm
1:26:24
Speaker 3: gonna be a D lineman. I'm ann D lineman. I'm
1:26:26
Speaker 3: a D lineman.
1:26:26
Speaker 2: I'm gonna we got some pretty good depth of D
1:26:28
Speaker 2: line here. Maybe it'd be better for you to be
1:26:30
Speaker 2: an offensive lineman, right, I mean, this staff was so
1:26:34
Speaker 2: good at this all the time. Chase Hanson, you're a quarterback, man, yeah,
1:26:39
Speaker 2: give us from the airport quarterback. Of course you're a quarterback, Yes, quarterback,
1:26:44
Speaker 2: come play for us, Come play quarterback for us.
1:26:46
Speaker 3: Quarterback. Hey, uh, you could be a really good safety
1:26:52
Speaker 3: and then linebacker. What do you think, Chase, what do
1:26:55
Speaker 3: you think the quarterback thing?
1:26:57
Speaker 2: You're good, you might have an NFL few sure if
1:27:00
Speaker 2: you switch over to the other side. I'm not saying
1:27:03
Speaker 2: that it was ever done deliberately deceptively, but these coaches
1:27:09
Speaker 2: have a good knack for getting a read on what
1:27:12
Speaker 2: a kid wants to hear and letting him hear that
1:27:16
Speaker 2: when he needs to hear that, and then being like ah,
1:27:19
Speaker 2: But I say it mostly tongue in cheek because I
1:27:25
Speaker 2: don't know how serious the interest is from the Weddle
1:27:31
Speaker 2: the younger to go to Michigan in the first place.
1:27:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, he doesn't have a.
1:27:35
Speaker 2: Deep tie with with that program except for now the
1:27:39
Speaker 2: coaching staff is there. I don't think money is going
1:27:42
Speaker 2: to be the big decision making factor for him. I
1:27:45
Speaker 2: think that you know, where his sister goes to school
1:27:49
Speaker 2: is a bigger saying. It's a similar thing with Michigan
1:27:54
Speaker 2: now as it is down south at BYU, because he
1:28:00
Speaker 2: knows that coaching staff well too, because Weddell knows everybody
1:28:03
Speaker 2: on that staff really well as friends with them. So yeah,
1:28:07
Speaker 2: it's it's a similar proposition there. But I would think
1:28:09
Speaker 2: that maybe more of a poll to BYU than there
1:28:14
Speaker 2: is to Michigan. But who knows, And I still firmly
1:28:18
Speaker 2: believe the strongest poll is to the University of Utah.
1:28:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that, and you can go.
1:28:24
Speaker 2: I mean, there's recruiters out there, there's recruiting insiders out
1:28:28
Speaker 2: there who are picking this like his brain directly as
1:28:31
Speaker 2: often as they can. I I have not even had
1:28:34
Speaker 2: these conversations, but I'm just painting my own imaginary picture.
1:28:40
Speaker 2: Eric Weddle is not impressed with Bryce Underwood. It's a
1:28:44
Speaker 2: perfect Weddle thing too, to just be like this guy
1:28:47
Speaker 2: that everybody loves, he's not that good. Well, it's it's
1:28:51
Speaker 2: why we love him, because when you have a certain
1:28:54
Speaker 2: credential as an athlete, you can say those things right like, yeah,
1:29:00
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going.
1:29:01
Speaker 3: To be that good.
1:29:01
Speaker 2: And by the way, he doesn't even speak in a
1:29:05
Speaker 2: filtered manner about the Utah quarterback situation.
1:29:07
Speaker 3: No, he was. He was one of the first.
1:29:10
Speaker 2: Scott Mitchell was too, but they were both kind of
1:29:12
Speaker 2: in lock step last year, like start Bird. And that's
1:29:16
Speaker 2: while Devin dan Pierre is putting up good numbers, it
1:29:20
Speaker 2: just beating great football. They just beaten Cincinnati like forty
1:29:23
Speaker 2: to ten, and like start Bird already, it's crazy.
1:29:27
Speaker 3: But this is that's our guy. He doesn't. He doesn't
1:29:29
Speaker 3: think Bryce Underwood has what it takes.
1:29:32
Speaker 2: Would be surprised to see the backup playing early because
1:29:34
Speaker 2: he thinks that that Underwood can't throw.
1:29:39
Speaker 3: I do love I do love that he said.
1:29:43
Speaker 2: What he's he taught gauge to be a quarterback first,
1:29:47
Speaker 2: as an offensive player. You're an incredible athlete, he knows that.
1:29:52
Speaker 2: But throw from the pocket, learn how to learn how
1:29:57
Speaker 2: to get through your progressions, read the defense, know the
1:30:01
Speaker 2: offensive plays before you just before you go. You know
1:30:05
Speaker 2: I'm gonna bail and get a first down here.
1:30:07
Speaker 3: I do love that. That's that.
1:30:09
Speaker 2: He expounded on it and said that's what you need
1:30:13
Speaker 2: your quarterback to do, and he's not sure Bryce Underwood
1:30:16
Speaker 2: has learned to do that. It's kind of like why
1:30:18
Speaker 2: Lebron James is what he is, because when you look
1:30:22
Speaker 2: at Lebron James's fundamentals as a basketball player, he is
1:30:26
Speaker 2: exceptional at being a basketball player, and then you just
1:30:30
Speaker 2: put all of those skills into one of the most
1:30:33
Speaker 2: impressive athletes that the human race has ever seen.
1:30:38
Speaker 3: Right. There are plenty of guys who are like.
1:30:41
Speaker 2: A Zion Williamson who's just like Holy cow, Look at
1:30:44
Speaker 2: that athleticism, look at that explosiveness.
1:30:48
Speaker 3: Basketball skill. Yeah, we'll teach him the rest of that,
1:30:51
Speaker 3: but he's got this.
1:30:53
Speaker 2: It's like you're you can get by in sports like
1:30:57
Speaker 2: football and especially sports like basketball, those two sports, more
1:31:01
Speaker 2: than anything else, you can get by just on your
1:31:04
Speaker 2: body in those sports.
1:31:07
Speaker 3: The same is true in combat sports in like mma.
1:31:09
Speaker 2: Definitely you can get by on physicality to a certain extent,
1:31:13
Speaker 2: but there's always going to be a gap between the
1:31:16
Speaker 2: people who actually know the skill at an elite level.
1:31:20
Speaker 2: And of course, just like everything else, if you are
1:31:23
Speaker 2: a great athlete who also has great skill and also
1:31:26
Speaker 2: has great work ethic, you're the best.
1:31:29
Speaker 3: You're the one that separates from everybody else.
1:31:32
Speaker 2: But in football, if you're just a great athlete, you
1:31:35
Speaker 2: can get a long, long long way. If you're just
1:31:38
Speaker 2: a great athlete with a great work ethic, you get
1:31:40
Speaker 2: even further. If you're just a great athlete with a
1:31:44
Speaker 2: great work ethic but you don't have skill, there is
1:31:47
Speaker 2: going to be a ceiling. And those skills, especially a quarterback,
1:31:52
Speaker 2: matters so much. That's why the guys that are like
1:31:55
Speaker 2: that end up being safeties. In linebackers, Chase Hanson, we
1:32:01
Speaker 2: all love Chase Hanson. He was never a particularly skilled quarterback.
1:32:06
Speaker 2: He was the best athlete on every team in every sport.
1:32:09
Speaker 2: He was ever on growing up. So when you're a
1:32:12
Speaker 2: little leaguer in a high school or they'd make you
1:32:14
Speaker 2: the quarterback, and you're great at it to a certain extent,
1:32:18
Speaker 2: and then you get to a level where it's like
1:32:21
Speaker 2: now you also have to have the skill. You also
1:32:23
Speaker 2: have to have the right arm angle, the right release point,
1:32:26
Speaker 2: the right processing of what an opposing defense is doing.
1:32:30
Speaker 2: You can't just be like, oh, I'm fast, I'll pull
1:32:32
Speaker 2: the ball down and run anyway. Festival, the Tea's still
1:32:36
Speaker 2: going on, powered by the Utah Golf Association, brought to
1:32:39
Speaker 2: you by Mountain Home Services.
1:32:41
Speaker 3: Here on the Sean O'Connell Show and on the Drivers
1:32:43
Speaker 3: Pence check.
1:32:43
Speaker 2: Its, we will give away a free round of golf
1:32:48
Speaker 2: later in the show in forty ish minutes. All right,
1:32:52
Speaker 2: I'm a little late getting to Nick Olchik, but we're
1:32:54
Speaker 2: gonna preview the Stanley Cup Final next on ESPN seven
1:32:58
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety twofm.
1:33:07
Speaker 1: Not you were listening to about Sean O'Connell show, your
1:33:12
Speaker 1: source for the best utes football coverage, here's oc from
1:33:15
Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred then.
1:33:19
Speaker 3: Ninety two to one a half am. Where you got
1:33:22
Speaker 3: me say.
1:33:28
Speaker 2: Game one of the Stanley Cup Final, Vegas Knights versus
1:33:32
Speaker 2: Carolina Hurricanes is tomorrow. You can listen to it right
1:33:35
Speaker 2: here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
1:33:38
Speaker 2: The television broadcast will be on ABC Carolina. The favorites
1:33:43
Speaker 2: in game one, if that matters to you, joining us
1:33:46
Speaker 2: to talk all things hockey and especially the Stanley Cup Final.
1:33:49
Speaker 2: Nickolchik Utah Mammoth analyst who of course also does work
1:33:53
Speaker 2: for Sports USA, was on the Eastern Conference Final there.
1:33:57
Speaker 3: Nick, Welcome back to the show. How are you see?
1:34:00
Speaker 6: Great to be with you. Very exciting time right now
1:34:05
Speaker 6: with with the Stanley Cup Final just a day away,
1:34:10
Speaker 6: and I know the excitement, the anticipation is growing. And
1:34:13
Speaker 6: having uh having covered the entirety of the of the
1:34:17
Speaker 6: Eastern Conference Finals. UH, and that was that was quite
1:34:21
Speaker 6: the series. UH. Plenty to talk about, but great to
1:34:24
Speaker 6: be with you. Hope you're doing well and and and
1:34:26
Speaker 6: by the way, I gotta say, I'm a big We'll
1:34:29
Speaker 6: get Choga fan, So I love the intro song, There
1:34:32
Speaker 6: down a feeling. That's one of my favorites. They just
1:34:34
Speaker 6: we just missed, missed the best part of You'll get Choga.
1:34:36
Speaker 6: That's where it's at.
1:34:37
Speaker 2: That is the only downside when you're using great songs
1:34:40
Speaker 2: as as radio bumpers.
1:34:42
Speaker 3: You can't let them get into where you need to
1:34:44
Speaker 3: get them sometimes.
1:34:45
Speaker 2: Exactly well, because we'll start with Carolina, because you know
1:34:49
Speaker 2: you were just covering them so closely, and you know
1:34:52
Speaker 2: this is this is a team that was red red
1:34:56
Speaker 2: hot in the first couple of rounds, and obviously Montreal
1:34:59
Speaker 2: gave him a tougher tak but ultimately the Hurricanes pushed
1:35:02
Speaker 2: through and find themselves in the final.
1:35:06
Speaker 3: Uh, what makes you believe that maybe they could win it?
1:35:12
Speaker 6: The Hurricanes are a team that will matter the day
1:35:15
Speaker 6: of the week, no matter what month it is, whether
1:35:17
Speaker 6: it's regular season or playoffs. They know exactly how they're
1:35:20
Speaker 6: going to play, and they're suffocating. They force the opposition
1:35:25
Speaker 6: to drag them into the deep end and and and
1:35:28
Speaker 6: they don't let them breathe. They don't take their foots
1:35:30
Speaker 6: up their necks. As soon as they've they've got them
1:35:32
Speaker 6: in a position where there's a lead, where they can
1:35:35
Speaker 6: dictate the pace, especially at home. And you know, with
1:35:37
Speaker 6: the Carolina Hurricanes, I mean they have long been a
1:35:40
Speaker 6: team for the last bunch of years that just hasn't
1:35:43
Speaker 6: been able to get over the hump to the last
1:35:45
Speaker 6: three seasons. In the Eastern Conference Final, they lost, of
1:35:48
Speaker 6: course to the Florida Panthers, and I look for them
1:35:51
Speaker 6: right now. Finally I got the sense that that I
1:35:54
Speaker 6: don't know if I would say relief is the word,
1:35:57
Speaker 6: but but they finally said, okay, phew, now we proved
1:36:01
Speaker 6: what we knew all along, is that not only are
1:36:03
Speaker 6: we a great team, but a team that can have
1:36:05
Speaker 6: a berth in the Stanley Cup Final. And talking a
1:36:08
Speaker 6: lot of the players, I mean, there is, and rightfully so,
1:36:11
Speaker 6: a supreme confidence.
1:36:12
Speaker 3: Of this group.
1:36:13
Speaker 6: And to me, it's the players that are most important, Yes,
1:36:18
Speaker 6: because they're going out and getting the job done, But
1:36:20
Speaker 6: to me, it starts and ends with their head coach,
1:36:22
Speaker 6: Rod Brindamore. And I heard a pretty fascinating and mind
1:36:26
Speaker 6: blowing statistic when I was in Raleigh heading into into
1:36:31
Speaker 6: Game five, and I had read that Rod brindam Are
1:36:34
Speaker 6: going into Game five, had taken part in either as
1:36:37
Speaker 6: a player or a coach of ninety seven of the
1:36:41
Speaker 6: Hurricanes ninety nine career playoff wins, dating all the way
1:36:44
Speaker 6: back to the year nineteen ninety nine. So I mean
1:36:47
Speaker 6: he has had his fingerprints, He has had his footprints
1:36:51
Speaker 6: all over the blueprint of the entire Carolina Hurricanes and
1:36:56
Speaker 6: franchise history. And so now with that winning Game five,
1:36:59
Speaker 6: now he's taken part in ninety eight of the one
1:37:02
Speaker 6: hundred wins in their franchise history. So just pretty special
1:37:06
Speaker 6: considering his tenure both on the ice and behind the bench.
1:37:10
Speaker 6: And when I had a chance to ask him at
1:37:12
Speaker 6: a morning skate before Game five, in typical Rat Brendamoor fashion,
1:37:18
Speaker 6: the first answer out of his mouth had nothing to
1:37:21
Speaker 6: do with himself. He just says, it has so much
1:37:24
Speaker 6: to do with the people, the other people that have
1:37:26
Speaker 6: been here for years, the other people that have been
1:37:28
Speaker 6: around with the team from the very beginning. And I
1:37:30
Speaker 6: think that's the culture. It takes everybody. And it's no
1:37:34
Speaker 6: different on the ice. I mean, Caroline Hurricanes have four
1:37:37
Speaker 6: lines that can roll and four lines that can be dangerous,
1:37:41
Speaker 6: four lines that can score, and you look at them
1:37:43
Speaker 6: on the back end with the likes of arguably a
1:37:47
Speaker 6: top three US born defenseman and Jacob Slavin, who who
1:37:50
Speaker 6: had a tough game in Game one, but responded in
1:37:53
Speaker 6: Games two through five and was back to the unbelievable
1:37:57
Speaker 6: defensive defender that he has been his entire career. I
1:38:01
Speaker 6: think Jalen Shackfield is another guy that really impressed me
1:38:05
Speaker 6: as a right handed, punk moving defenseman. He's not afraid
1:38:08
Speaker 6: to be physical. But the one guy that really stood
1:38:10
Speaker 6: out I think in a huge way is KeAndre Miller.
1:38:14
Speaker 6: And when he came over from the New York Rangers,
1:38:15
Speaker 6: things that had gone a little sour for him up
1:38:17
Speaker 6: in New York needed to change his scenery. Everybody was
1:38:20
Speaker 6: wondering is he going to be the defenseman that there
1:38:23
Speaker 6: was a lot of potential around, and especially in the
1:38:26
Speaker 6: Eastern Conference Finals. I think he took not just one step,
1:38:29
Speaker 6: but a couple of steps to becoming one of the
1:38:32
Speaker 6: better defensemen in the league and knowing that that's the
1:38:34
Speaker 6: guy that can he can put you on your rear,
1:38:36
Speaker 6: he can put you into the third or fourth row,
1:38:38
Speaker 6: but also, you know, be reliable on his own zone
1:38:41
Speaker 6: to be able to move the puck. So I just
1:38:42
Speaker 6: think when you look at their four lines, do you
1:38:44
Speaker 6: look at the defense corps. And lastly, in terms of
1:38:48
Speaker 6: this team, Freddie Anderson has not only proved that he
1:38:53
Speaker 6: truly is one of the best goalies in the league,
1:38:55
Speaker 6: but he has found a way to stay healthy. And
1:38:58
Speaker 6: you know, we're continuing to send our out our condolences
1:39:01
Speaker 6: and well wishes to him because the the incredibly unfortunate
1:39:05
Speaker 6: passing of Claude Lemieux. Claud Lemieux was actually Freddie Anderson's
1:39:09
Speaker 6: agent and he had to play the next day after
1:39:12
Speaker 6: finding out the news that that Claude Lemieux had passed,
1:39:15
Speaker 6: So you know, he's he's playing with a heavy heart,
1:39:17
Speaker 6: there's no doubt. But from the goaltender on out, this
1:39:19
Speaker 6: Carolina Hurricanes team, they're a well oiled machine. They're a
1:39:24
Speaker 6: shooting machine, and you know what you're gonna get from
1:39:26
Speaker 6: them each and every night. And that's one of the
1:39:27
Speaker 6: things I'll see that that makes them hard to playing it.
1:39:29
Speaker 6: You could you could know exactly what they're gonna go
1:39:33
Speaker 6: at you with, and sometimes you still can't stop it.
1:39:36
Speaker 6: Because of how well conditioned they are, and considering the
1:39:39
Speaker 6: fact that they have steamrolled through the playoffs having only
1:39:43
Speaker 6: lost one game, and of course those two series sweeps
1:39:45
Speaker 6: in round one and two.
1:39:48
Speaker 3: How close to healthy would you call this team?
1:39:50
Speaker 2: Because we saw that, you know, attrition that happens, and
1:39:53
Speaker 2: I know that no team is without its pumps and
1:39:56
Speaker 2: bruises this deep into a season, but we saw that
1:39:58
Speaker 2: attrition really become a big factor in the Western Conference
1:40:02
Speaker 2: Final for Colorado.
1:40:03
Speaker 3: So is this Carolina team pretty healthy? Yeah?
1:40:06
Speaker 6: I would say that they are. That they are pretty
1:40:09
Speaker 6: darn healthy.
1:40:09
Speaker 4: Uh.
1:40:10
Speaker 6: No, no major uh, no major players out to speak of.
1:40:15
Speaker 6: And I think Oz hit the nail on the head.
1:40:17
Speaker 6: I mean, no, nobody's healthy this time of the year.
1:40:19
Speaker 6: And early in the series, Caroline was kind of wait
1:40:22
Speaker 6: for some of their big boys to pick it up,
1:40:24
Speaker 6: waiting for some of their their top offensive guys to
1:40:27
Speaker 6: come through with some production. And then as a series
1:40:29
Speaker 6: went on, sebashidah uh his name started to appear more
1:40:34
Speaker 6: and more on the box score. Same with with Andre Schetchnikov,
1:40:37
Speaker 6: who had a big overtime winner in the in the
1:40:39
Speaker 6: Eastern Conference Final as well. So while yes, the old
1:40:42
Speaker 6: adage of no one's healthy this time of the year
1:40:44
Speaker 6: remains true, uh, this is a team that's rearing and
1:40:46
Speaker 6: ready to go with the with pretty much the full
1:40:49
Speaker 6: complement of their rosters trying to capture their their second
1:40:53
Speaker 6: Stanley Cup in two decades.
1:40:55
Speaker 2: Well, there's you know, there's the recency of how closely
1:40:57
Speaker 2: you were watching that Eastern Conference final with Carolina. But
1:41:01
Speaker 2: you're also intimately familiar with this Vegas team because of
1:41:05
Speaker 2: you know, the playoff series against the Mammoth and obviously
1:41:07
Speaker 2: a team in the West that we see more often
1:41:09
Speaker 2: than we see teams like Carolina. This, this Vegas team
1:41:14
Speaker 2: got past what was all year long the best team
1:41:18
Speaker 2: in the NHL. They made Colorado look mortal, and I
1:41:21
Speaker 2: know the injuries definitely played a factor there, but Vegas
1:41:25
Speaker 2: took advantage of its opportunities in that Western Conference final
1:41:28
Speaker 2: and here they are on the precipice of another Cup,
1:41:32
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to get your overall thoughts on
1:41:35
Speaker 2: how well it has worked out for them basically since
1:41:38
Speaker 2: that Utah Mamma series.
1:41:41
Speaker 6: Well, in Vegas Gold, the Knights are a team that
1:41:44
Speaker 6: I mean, they have proven time and time again that
1:41:47
Speaker 6: they're gonna do whatever it takes to win. I mean,
1:41:50
Speaker 6: that's with with players, shipping players and are out. That's management,
1:41:56
Speaker 6: it's making tough decisions, it's it's fire your Stanley Cup
1:42:01
Speaker 6: winning head coach Bruce Cassidy with less than ten games
1:42:04
Speaker 6: remaining in the season, and all of a sudden, here
1:42:07
Speaker 6: comes John Tortorella and, as he put it, essentially and figuratively,
1:42:14
Speaker 6: slapping his team in the face, saying, hey, I'm not
1:42:16
Speaker 6: coming in here to change anything. I'm coming in here
1:42:18
Speaker 6: to remind you of what a great hockey team you are.
1:42:21
Speaker 6: And look at them now, so you know it has
1:42:24
Speaker 6: been an amazing run for John Tortorella there in Vegas.
1:42:28
Speaker 6: And whether there were injury issues this year for the
1:42:32
Speaker 6: Golden Knights, whether they've got really, really, really poor goaltending
1:42:36
Speaker 6: for the vast majority of the season, that was a
1:42:38
Speaker 6: contributing factor as to the lack of their success and
1:42:41
Speaker 6: why they were teetering towards the last third of the
1:42:44
Speaker 6: season as to whether they would make the playoffs or not.
1:42:47
Speaker 6: All of a sudden, now Carter Hart, who was hurt
1:42:49
Speaker 6: during the majority of that time, is back, and he
1:42:52
Speaker 6: has performed in a huge way for his team and
1:42:55
Speaker 6: has been I'm happy to say, as big of a
1:42:58
Speaker 6: reason as any why Vegas is where they're at right now.
1:43:03
Speaker 6: And by happy to say, I mean that's just that's
1:43:05
Speaker 6: just a fact. I mean, you can make a case
1:43:07
Speaker 6: that the Vegas Goal of the Knights are playing a
1:43:09
Speaker 6: few more games in the series or aren't where they are.
1:43:11
Speaker 6: It's not for for Carter Heart's performance. And look, it's
1:43:15
Speaker 6: not just it's never just one guy, of course, but
1:43:17
Speaker 6: I mean you look up and down their roster, and
1:43:19
Speaker 6: how about the playoffs for pabldorfiev, I mean it took him,
1:43:23
Speaker 6: I think it was three games to get his first
1:43:25
Speaker 6: goal in the opening round against the Utah Mammoth. Now
1:43:28
Speaker 6: he's got ted Jack Eichel sixteen assists and the guy
1:43:31
Speaker 6: that I think if you're a you're hockey fan, if
1:43:35
Speaker 6: you love the game, you want to see players do
1:43:37
Speaker 6: well and succeed. I think anybody that has that mindset,
1:43:41
Speaker 6: that mentality, you're happy for Mitch Marner. Look, things went
1:43:44
Speaker 6: the way that they did in Toronto, it just it
1:43:47
Speaker 6: just didn't work out. Now all of a sudden, he's
1:43:49
Speaker 6: got a new lease on life in Vegas, part of
1:43:52
Speaker 6: a team that that obviously now very much as Stanley
1:43:55
Speaker 6: Cup contender. And look at what he's done leading the
1:43:58
Speaker 6: Vegas Goal of the Knights with twenty one point because
1:44:00
Speaker 6: on his day and even on a day where maybe
1:44:03
Speaker 6: he's feeling it halfway or he's fifty percent, he's still
1:44:07
Speaker 6: one of the most elite two way players in the
1:44:09
Speaker 6: entire national hockey So up and down this roster O
1:44:11
Speaker 6: see Silllar to Carolina. They can play an the way
1:44:15
Speaker 6: you want. They got forwards that are crashers and bangers.
1:44:17
Speaker 6: When when you think about Nick Daubt and Keegan kolas Are,
1:44:21
Speaker 6: you have that superstar factor of course as well with
1:44:24
Speaker 6: the likes of Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner. You can
1:44:27
Speaker 6: go on and down the list, and then the back
1:44:29
Speaker 6: at puck movers, guys that can that could be physical
1:44:33
Speaker 6: and go back on pucks and get him quickly out
1:44:35
Speaker 6: of their own zone. When you think about Shay Seed
1:44:37
Speaker 6: or Kayden Korzak has had a nice playoffs as well,
1:44:39
Speaker 6: and then now they've got a goaltender that has given
1:44:42
Speaker 6: him a chance every night and then some on a
1:44:44
Speaker 6: lot of their occasions so far in the postseason. So
1:44:47
Speaker 6: this is going to be a heck of a series.
1:44:49
Speaker 6: I don't see it being a short series considering I
1:44:51
Speaker 6: think that there's some real similarities in between these two teams,
1:44:54
Speaker 6: meaning that they can adapt game to game. If it's chippy,
1:44:58
Speaker 6: they have the personnel to thrive in those moments. If
1:45:01
Speaker 6: it's overly physical, they can handle it. If it's a
1:45:05
Speaker 6: game that turns into a bit of a running gun game,
1:45:07
Speaker 6: they got no problem playing that either. You got two
1:45:10
Speaker 6: goaltenders that have been feeling all playoff long, and superstars
1:45:14
Speaker 6: that on both sides seem to be heating up at
1:45:16
Speaker 6: the right time. I just get the sense that this series,
1:45:20
Speaker 6: in this Stanley Cup Final, has all the makings to
1:45:23
Speaker 6: be the opposite of quick. I think this could end
1:45:26
Speaker 6: up being a series that goes at least six games,
1:45:29
Speaker 6: seven games, and give us an epics Stanley Cup Final
1:45:33
Speaker 6: here in twenty twenty six.
1:45:36
Speaker 2: You and I have talked about this before, and you
1:45:38
Speaker 2: just referenced Heart and what he has done in the
1:45:40
Speaker 2: crease for Vegas so far. And is there a way
1:45:44
Speaker 2: to explain it when a guy just figures it out
1:45:47
Speaker 2: in gold, because I mean, this is not exactly how
1:45:50
Speaker 2: his entire season was going injury notwithstanding, it's not exactly
1:45:54
Speaker 2: how his entire career has gone. I don't know how
1:45:56
Speaker 2: many people would have said that's the guy who's going
1:45:59
Speaker 2: to be as responsible as anyone else for a Cup
1:46:02
Speaker 2: run for Vegas. I mean, I know that John Tortorella
1:46:05
Speaker 2: had a lot of confidence in him. Is it that
1:46:07
Speaker 2: partnership that helped figure this out?
1:46:10
Speaker 6: I think that could very well play a huge role there.
1:46:12
Speaker 3: Oc.
1:46:13
Speaker 6: I think that's a great point. And those two know
1:46:15
Speaker 6: each other back from their Philadelphia days when when John
1:46:18
Speaker 6: Tortorello was coaching the Flyers and and Carter Hart was
1:46:20
Speaker 6: breaking into the NHL there and trying to establish himself
1:46:24
Speaker 6: as a as a number one, as a guy that
1:46:26
Speaker 6: belongs in the National Hockey League, and obviously all of
1:46:29
Speaker 6: the the off ice issues that went on for Carter Hart,
1:46:33
Speaker 6: you know, and now all of a sudden, he's back
1:46:35
Speaker 6: in the crease. And and look when you look at
1:46:37
Speaker 6: the numbers, when you look at the stats, when you
1:46:40
Speaker 6: look at how he's played, the one thing you cannot
1:46:43
Speaker 6: deny is how important he has been for the Vegas
1:46:46
Speaker 6: Gold the Knight's reaching this moment of being in yet
1:46:48
Speaker 6: another Stanley Cup.
1:46:49
Speaker 3: Buy.
1:46:50
Speaker 6: So, I think I'm going to be completely honest with
1:46:53
Speaker 6: you and that I don't know the bulletending position as
1:46:55
Speaker 6: much as I do maybe the mentality of a player,
1:46:57
Speaker 6: But I think it's just like anything in life when
1:46:59
Speaker 6: you're surrounded by people that want you to succeed, that
1:47:02
Speaker 6: are there for you, and this, of course, it helps
1:47:04
Speaker 6: to have some familiarity. Like the point you brought up
1:47:06
Speaker 6: with with John Tortorella, I think all of those elements
1:47:11
Speaker 6: create an environment where a player can thrive. And when
1:47:15
Speaker 6: a player's mind and mental is thriving, then all of
1:47:18
Speaker 6: a sudden.
1:47:27
Speaker 3: We lost Nicole Chick.
1:47:34
Speaker 6: Some both sides that are hitting full stride at the
1:47:37
Speaker 6: exact moment where you would write it and script it
1:47:41
Speaker 6: if you possibly could.
1:47:43
Speaker 2: So I'm prone to, you know, flights of fancy and
1:47:47
Speaker 2: being revisionist in my history. But if Vegas ends up
1:47:51
Speaker 2: hoisting this Cup, I'm never going to get over the
1:47:54
Speaker 2: fact that this Mammoth team was fifty two seconds away
1:47:58
Speaker 2: from going up three to one. Yeah, yeah, And and
1:48:02
Speaker 2: I know that that's just how sports are. It's why
1:48:04
Speaker 2: we love them, it's why we hate them. Right, But
1:48:07
Speaker 2: is there anything we can read off of Vegas's success
1:48:11
Speaker 2: about our Utah manmon.
1:48:13
Speaker 6: Okay, I'm gonna give you this SoC and it's gonna
1:48:16
Speaker 6: be pretty straight simple and to the point. Did we
1:48:20
Speaker 6: know Vegas is a good team? Yes, going into the
1:48:24
Speaker 6: to the first round. Did we know that it was
1:48:26
Speaker 6: going to be a battle, Yes, But I think Vegas
1:48:30
Speaker 6: going to the Cup final, considering how their year ended,
1:48:34
Speaker 6: opens up two doors. First door is I wonder that
1:48:38
Speaker 6: if the coaching changes that were made late in the
1:48:41
Speaker 6: year by both Vegas and the New York Islanders. Obviously,
1:48:43
Speaker 6: you know, on the Islanders didn't end up where they
1:48:46
Speaker 6: wanted to be, But for Vegas, you know, you wonder
1:48:49
Speaker 6: if that becomes more of a common theme as the
1:48:53
Speaker 6: years go on, if management doesn't like how their team
1:48:56
Speaker 6: is spiraling, as opposed to allowing the administration and the
1:49:01
Speaker 6: current head coach to try to fix it. You know,
1:49:04
Speaker 6: is firing a coach with less than ten minutes left
1:49:06
Speaker 6: to go or left to less than ten ten games
1:49:09
Speaker 6: left in the season. Is that going to become something
1:49:11
Speaker 6: that we see very well could be. But the main
1:49:15
Speaker 6: point to make, I think with this is just get in.
1:49:19
Speaker 6: Just get into the playoffs and it doesn't matter. Just
1:49:23
Speaker 6: just get in and you never know what can happen.
1:49:26
Speaker 6: Your goaltender could catch fire, your top guys can reach
1:49:30
Speaker 6: a level that made me you never thought. An unsung
1:49:33
Speaker 6: hero can could help lead you all the way to
1:49:36
Speaker 6: where you want to go. So I think really it's
1:49:38
Speaker 6: those two interesting parts when you think about when you
1:49:41
Speaker 6: think about Vegas and how they've gotten to this point,
1:49:43
Speaker 6: is that, Yeah, Tortorella came in and you helped rescue
1:49:46
Speaker 6: the season for them, made sure that they gotten into
1:49:48
Speaker 6: the playoffs, and now the rest is history. And so,
1:49:51
Speaker 6: of course, yeah, if Vegas would have lend lost in
1:49:53
Speaker 6: the second round, we could be sitting here and kicking
1:49:55
Speaker 6: ourselves and saying, I can't believe we lost to the
1:49:57
Speaker 6: team that only one or that ended up losing the
1:50:00
Speaker 6: following series.
1:50:01
Speaker 3: No, Vegas.
1:50:02
Speaker 6: Vegas is the hell of a team and on their
1:50:04
Speaker 6: day they are one of the better teams in the
1:50:07
Speaker 6: entire league. And so for Utah, I think they're exactly
1:50:09
Speaker 6: where they need to be, which you've loved to have
1:50:11
Speaker 6: won the first round. Yeah, of course absolutely, But you
1:50:14
Speaker 6: look at the year over a year's success that the
1:50:16
Speaker 6: Mammoth have had. Head coach Andre Turney's winning percentage has
1:50:20
Speaker 6: increased each of the last six seasons. I think that's
1:50:23
Speaker 6: only been done by two other coaches in NHL history.
1:50:26
Speaker 6: So this team, they're going in the right direction, And
1:50:28
Speaker 6: so can you sit here and the pills a little
1:50:31
Speaker 6: bit easier to swallow because you lost in Round one
1:50:34
Speaker 6: to the team that's now buying for a Stanley Cup. Yeah,
1:50:37
Speaker 6: I guess you could maybe make the case, but with
1:50:39
Speaker 6: how hungry those guys are, with how upset the Mammoth
1:50:42
Speaker 6: players and staff were having lost, Yeah, that's just the
1:50:47
Speaker 6: way that the cookie crumbles. But you know that that's
1:50:49
Speaker 6: going to be something that drives them to have even
1:50:52
Speaker 6: better summers and to come back next year and make
1:50:54
Speaker 6: sure that when they do make the playoffs, that think
1:50:57
Speaker 6: the next step is to win Round one up and
1:51:00
Speaker 6: the arm.
1:51:01
Speaker 2: Last thing before I let you go, and I know
1:51:03
Speaker 2: you were still working for Sports USA, so that that
1:51:06
Speaker 2: takes the bulk of the attention. But we saw a
1:51:09
Speaker 2: lot of these Mammoth prospects still playing in juniors and
1:51:13
Speaker 2: having a lot of success up in Canada and Gabe
1:51:16
Speaker 2: Smith especially just dominating up there, and you know this,
1:51:19
Speaker 2: this is the pipeline that eventually will be on NHL
1:51:22
Speaker 2: ice for the Utah Mammoth. So against the backdrop of
1:51:26
Speaker 2: the improvement that you already alluded to with the first
1:51:28
Speaker 2: two seasons, and now you know, maybe some of these
1:51:32
Speaker 2: guys rounding closer to NHL form I mean, how how
1:51:36
Speaker 2: much different do you think their roster could look next year,
1:51:38
Speaker 2: even if it's fourth line guys, you know these young cats,
1:51:42
Speaker 2: I mean, is their room with what we saw last
1:51:45
Speaker 2: year and and what's coming up the pipeline?
1:51:48
Speaker 6: And you see, you you hit the nail on the
1:51:51
Speaker 6: head because now all of a sudden, there's gonna be
1:51:53
Speaker 6: some real competition and there's going to be some contracts
1:51:56
Speaker 6: that are up, some players that are going to be
1:51:59
Speaker 6: this summer under the free agents, meaning that that they
1:52:01
Speaker 6: don't have a contract. And is Bill Armstrong and Chris
1:52:05
Speaker 6: Armstrong and their staff are they going to choose to
1:52:08
Speaker 6: resign some of those guys? But all of a sudden,
1:52:10
Speaker 6: now you're gonna have some spots for mammoths, top prospects
1:52:15
Speaker 6: to come in and make a difference. To me, what
1:52:17
Speaker 6: an incredible year Fritigs again, laws seemingly all you ever
1:52:20
Speaker 6: saw were highlight real goals, were him setting points records
1:52:25
Speaker 6: and leading his team in points and just having an
1:52:29
Speaker 6: incredible year. And that's to me a guy that that's
1:52:32
Speaker 6: going to be a difference maker. And at least from
1:52:34
Speaker 6: what I've seen in camp, both in development camp last
1:52:37
Speaker 6: year into main camp last year, he's finally healthy after
1:52:41
Speaker 6: the two lower body procedures, and he came back and
1:52:44
Speaker 6: he had one heck of the season that to me
1:52:47
Speaker 6: a sorry from Tris from where he was drafted for
1:52:49
Speaker 6: sever draft pick by the Utah formerly known as a
1:52:51
Speaker 6: Utah Hockey Club. I think this kid's got an incredible future.
1:52:55
Speaker 6: And you know, Caleb Denoye is another one the first
1:52:59
Speaker 6: round picked last season. Really seems like he's gonna end
1:53:02
Speaker 6: up being the complete two hundred foot center that that
1:53:05
Speaker 6: any team wants as a number one or a number
1:53:08
Speaker 6: two up the middle. And obviously, with the steps and
1:53:11
Speaker 6: evolution that that Logan Cooley has taken on the last
1:53:14
Speaker 6: couple of years, He's only going to get better. And
1:53:17
Speaker 6: I'm really happy you brought up the name Gabe Smith
1:53:19
Speaker 6: because I've had some people tell me that that they
1:53:23
Speaker 6: think he is going to be better than that anybody
1:53:26
Speaker 6: really ever projected, because of the size, because of the
1:53:29
Speaker 6: jam that he plays with the ability to produce and
1:53:33
Speaker 6: to score and to really kind of do everything. And
1:53:35
Speaker 6: and when you look at the Mammoth roster, you've got
1:53:38
Speaker 6: some size in the bottom six, yes, but you know
1:53:41
Speaker 6: when you look at the top six, you know could
1:53:43
Speaker 6: they get a little bit more beefy there, could they
1:53:45
Speaker 6: get a little bit bigger? Yes, And so all of
1:53:47
Speaker 6: a sudden, now you've you've got a guy like Gabe Smith,
1:53:51
Speaker 6: who you know who could at some point he'll maybe
1:53:54
Speaker 6: make his way and talk his way into that conversation
1:53:56
Speaker 6: and play his way into into that type of role.
1:53:59
Speaker 6: So you know, the great news is is that these
1:54:02
Speaker 6: guys are are getting incredible experiences as they had on
1:54:05
Speaker 6: their playoff runs and Memorial Cup runs, and that's only
1:54:08
Speaker 6: going to help them when they get to the National
1:54:10
Speaker 6: Hockey League get continuing to learn what it's like to
1:54:12
Speaker 6: play in those in those those those events moments and
1:54:16
Speaker 6: where your seasons on the line, your games on the line.
1:54:19
Speaker 6: It look nothing like the National Hockey League. But the
1:54:21
Speaker 6: more times as a player, as a person that you
1:54:24
Speaker 6: can test yourself in the highest stakes moment of that
1:54:28
Speaker 6: time in your life, I think that's only going to
1:54:31
Speaker 6: be a valuable experience that those guys can can rely
1:54:33
Speaker 6: on and uh and move on. But the good news
1:54:36
Speaker 6: is you don't need me to tell you. All you
1:54:38
Speaker 6: got to go do is is search online for top
1:54:41
Speaker 6: prospect pools in the Utah. Mammathar are unanimously among the top.
1:54:45
Speaker 6: And so the president is very much in the good
1:54:48
Speaker 6: hands with the guys that are currently on the roster
1:54:50
Speaker 6: and the guys that haven't even more a mamateur as yet.
1:54:54
Speaker 6: Those are the guys that everybody should really be looking
1:54:56
Speaker 6: out for.
1:54:57
Speaker 3: So what's the what's the Nicole Chick summer plan here
1:55:00
Speaker 3: in Utah?
1:55:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's actually going to be a pretty busy summer. Uh,
1:55:05
Speaker 6: some travels going on. Was like, was was so awesome
1:55:09
Speaker 6: to be to be part of the Eastern Conference final
1:55:12
Speaker 6: coverage UH with Supports USA larry Ton who is the
1:55:18
Speaker 6: head of that, and of course his white Nancy too,
1:55:20
Speaker 6: who I'm just so honored to be able to to
1:55:24
Speaker 6: work for them, and to get a chance to work
1:55:26
Speaker 6: with a couple of who I think are some of
1:55:29
Speaker 6: the best in the business, Johnny Forestland doing play by
1:55:32
Speaker 6: play and Jimmy Fox doing color. It was it was
1:55:35
Speaker 6: so much fun to be with those guys and and
1:55:37
Speaker 6: two incredible humans off of the air and just as
1:55:43
Speaker 6: good as as what they do on the air. Hall
1:55:44
Speaker 6: of Famers in my opinion. So it was great to
1:55:47
Speaker 6: to start a couple of the warm months here working
1:55:50
Speaker 6: with those guys. UH, and and please I think you
1:55:54
Speaker 6: guys recovering it there on that you guys are carrying
1:55:56
Speaker 6: it right on the ESPN seven hundred at the final. Yes,
1:55:59
Speaker 6: that's right, Okay, yeah, exactly. So Johnny Forsm will be back,
1:56:03
Speaker 6: and then my dad, well, actually Eddie Olczek will be
1:56:06
Speaker 6: we'll be doing color as well, and then Billy Jaffe,
1:56:09
Speaker 6: who did the West sideline reporting, he'll be coming over
1:56:12
Speaker 6: and having your coverage there. So it'll it's abound to
1:56:14
Speaker 6: be an entertaining final as far as the radio commentary goes.
1:56:18
Speaker 6: So everybody just just please tune in and Sports USL
1:56:22
Speaker 6: have everything covered for you. But but O see quickly
1:56:24
Speaker 6: you asked in terms of the summer, definitely gonna be
1:56:27
Speaker 6: based here out of Utah and playing in a couple
1:56:29
Speaker 6: of softball leagues. I'm a big, big baseball guy in
1:56:31
Speaker 6: the summer, So anything I can do to remind me
1:56:34
Speaker 6: of maybe one dream I had at one point a
1:56:37
Speaker 6: plane on the baseball diamond in the majors, living out
1:56:41
Speaker 6: that partial dream on the softball fields. So got that
1:56:44
Speaker 6: going on. We'll try to get back home and see
1:56:46
Speaker 6: my family in Chicago. I got a trick down in Florida.
1:56:49
Speaker 6: In July and my best friends actually getting married. So
1:56:53
Speaker 6: I've got his wedding to attend, his bachelor party to plan,
1:56:57
Speaker 6: and I'm actually officiating a wedding as well. About it,
1:57:00
Speaker 6: it'll be yeah, yeah, So a lot of planning, a
1:57:03
Speaker 6: lot of a lot of times of fun to be had.
1:57:07
Speaker 6: But I'm excited to spend a good chunck of time
1:57:09
Speaker 6: here as well in Utah golfing and as I mentioned,
1:57:12
Speaker 6: playing softball and just trying to squeeze everything that I
1:57:14
Speaker 6: can out of out of the great summer here in
1:57:16
Speaker 6: the great state of Utah.
1:57:17
Speaker 3: Well, hopefully sooner than later.
1:57:19
Speaker 2: You're also going to have a Major League Baseball team
1:57:21
Speaker 2: here in Utah, if the recent reports are to be believed, so.
1:57:25
Speaker 6: That would be that would be pretty special. I'm a
1:57:28
Speaker 6: guy that bleeds blue because of the Chicago Cubs. But
1:57:31
Speaker 6: I can tell you what if if if Major League
1:57:33
Speaker 6: Baseball comes here to Utah, I will be they will
1:57:36
Speaker 6: be instantaneously my number two competing with number one. So
1:57:40
Speaker 6: we'll see how it plays out, but that would be
1:57:42
Speaker 6: be pretty special to have three of the major sports
1:57:45
Speaker 6: here in the Salt Lake area.
1:57:47
Speaker 2: Nick, appreciate your time, Thanks so much. Enjoy the summer.
1:57:50
Speaker 2: We'll chat again soon anytime.
1:57:52
Speaker 6: We'll seeking up the great work you guys. Have a
1:57:54
Speaker 6: great rest of the day.
1:57:55
Speaker 2: Nicole Chick, Sports USA and Utah Mammoth Hockey Analyst. He
1:57:59
Speaker 2: was on the Eastern Conference Finals for Sports USA and
1:58:04
Speaker 2: as he said, his dad will be on the Cup
1:58:07
Speaker 2: Final which begins tomorrow right here on ESPN seven hundred
1:58:10
Speaker 2: and ninety two one FM, your home for the Stanley.
1:58:12
Speaker 3: Cup playoffs in the NBA Finals.
1:58:15
Speaker 2: Also, all right, quick update on the latest pertaining to
1:58:21
Speaker 2: Utah Athletics and the outro Capitol private equity deal. There's
1:58:26
Speaker 2: a lot of handbringing, a lot of worry, a lot
1:58:28
Speaker 2: of craziness going on right now.
1:58:31
Speaker 3: I think we need to talk about it.
1:58:32
Speaker 2: It's the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred and ninety
1:58:35
Speaker 2: two one FM.
1:58:41
Speaker 1: Youtune to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet
1:58:45
Speaker 1: Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one AFM.
1:59:00
Speaker 3: All right, A lot of people were texting me this.
1:59:06
Speaker 2: A Salt Lake Tribute article about the changes coming to
1:59:11
Speaker 2: the Utah Athletic Department. As on Friday, the layoffs in
1:59:17
Speaker 2: the athletic department began. Now part of this is you
1:59:21
Speaker 2: have to remember that there's a new company, Crimson Brand Partners.
1:59:28
Speaker 2: Crimson Brand Partners is the entity that will be managing
1:59:33
Speaker 2: the infusion of capital from outro capital. Assuming the deal
1:59:37
Speaker 2: gets finalized and everyone does assume that it will go
1:59:40
Speaker 2: all the way through. The layoffs began, and this is
1:59:47
Speaker 2: one of the things that everyone sort of laments when
1:59:51
Speaker 2: we're talking about private equity deals. This is one of
1:59:53
Speaker 2: the things that people have a hard time supporting about
1:59:58
Speaker 2: private equity and it gets involved in legacy institutions and
2:00:03
Speaker 2: athletics and things that you're more accustomed to seeing and
2:00:07
Speaker 2: hearing about as passion projects, or it becomes a very
2:00:12
Speaker 2: profit driven and numbers oriented game, and there's a negative.
2:00:16
Speaker 3: Connotation that comes with that.
2:00:18
Speaker 2: And we've talked about that since the beginning, since this
2:00:21
Speaker 2: deal was announced months and months ago. It was always
2:00:27
Speaker 2: part of the plan to process some Utah Athletics employees
2:00:31
Speaker 2: over to Crimson Brand Partner employees. The releases, the information
2:00:39
Speaker 2: that the employees in question got did inform that many,
2:00:46
Speaker 2: if not all, will have an opportunity to interview for
2:00:50
Speaker 2: similar positions with the new company. Now I'm not telling
2:00:56
Speaker 2: you to feel good about that, because oftentimes that comes
2:00:59
Speaker 2: with a reduction in pay, or it comes with a
2:01:06
Speaker 2: compromise benefit or something like that when we're talking about
2:01:09
Speaker 2: private equity involvement. But I think that the initial reaction
2:01:14
Speaker 2: to it is incredibly understandable, but also is an incomplete story.
2:01:19
Speaker 2: We don't know exactly what the final product is going
2:01:23
Speaker 2: to look like. And when you compare two things, you
2:01:25
Speaker 2: should compare the final product to a final product, right,
2:01:28
Speaker 2: You should compare the most recent iteration of Utah Athletics
2:01:32
Speaker 2: department to whatever the final hiring process for Crimson Brand
2:01:37
Speaker 2: Partners looks like. But this is where again you had
2:01:41
Speaker 2: to anticipate if you were part of the process, part
2:01:45
Speaker 2: of the decision making process in getting involved with this,
2:01:49
Speaker 2: this landmark deal, this new infusion of capital, this thing
2:01:54
Speaker 2: that you just have not seen in college sports previously.
2:01:59
Speaker 2: Part of your job is to anticipate what the reaction is.
2:02:01
Speaker 3: Going to be. And this was one of the most
2:02:04
Speaker 3: easily predictable things. When you started to.
2:02:08
Speaker 2: Separate people from their employment, when you started to downsize,
2:02:11
Speaker 2: when you announce a reduction in force, which was the
2:02:16
Speaker 2: wordage that Mark Harlan announced. There are people who are
2:02:22
Speaker 2: going to be like, this is why I didn't want
2:02:23
Speaker 2: private equity involved in my athletic department.
2:02:27
Speaker 3: So again, I am going to hold off judgment final judgment.
2:02:34
Speaker 2: Until we know how many of these people are transitioned
2:02:37
Speaker 2: to a new position, what those look like, if those
2:02:40
Speaker 2: end up being comparable in terms of salary, in terms
2:02:44
Speaker 2: of benefits, things like that.
2:02:46
Speaker 3: You can't you can't just read the headline.
2:02:49
Speaker 2: And again, Jason Battakio does a great job and gives
2:02:52
Speaker 2: as much information as possible, but you don't know the
2:02:55
Speaker 2: information until it's done. It sounds like the folks were
2:03:00
Speaker 2: informed their separation date will actually be June thirtieth, so
2:03:03
Speaker 2: they're going to be working for the next month, and
2:03:06
Speaker 2: then all impact and employees will have an opportunity to
2:03:10
Speaker 2: interview for a similar position with CBP, that's Crimson Brand Partners.
2:03:14
Speaker 2: So if you have an opportunity to interview, it doesn't
2:03:18
Speaker 2: mean that there's a one for one ratio of new
2:03:21
Speaker 2: jobs available, but if all of you have an opportunity
2:03:24
Speaker 2: to interview, no reason to panic.
2:03:26
Speaker 3: Yet.
2:03:26
Speaker 2: I hate seeing people lose jobs. It is like one
2:03:29
Speaker 2: of those like very grown up things that you're just
2:03:31
Speaker 2: like oof. That is it's tough to swallow. It's a
2:03:36
Speaker 2: difficult thing. It's something that, depending on what field you
2:03:38
Speaker 2: work in, you probably worry about all the time. Right,
2:03:41
Speaker 2: we work in a business in sports entertainment that is
2:03:45
Speaker 2: anything but secure. It is a very, very fickle business.
2:03:50
Speaker 2: It's a difficult thing to know whether or not you're
2:03:52
Speaker 2: going to have a contract next year, whether or not
2:03:55
Speaker 2: you know your side gig is going to exist next year.
2:04:00
Speaker 2: So I just I don't like when people have to
2:04:03
Speaker 2: worry about these things. And I don't like that these
2:04:05
Speaker 2: headlines and they are national headlines, by the way, because
2:04:08
Speaker 2: this is a national story that Utah was the first
2:04:12
Speaker 2: to take this venture into a fully fleshed out partnership
2:04:18
Speaker 2: with a private equity firm. This is in USA today,
2:04:24
Speaker 2: this is in national public The New York Times is
2:04:27
Speaker 2: reporting on this. It's not normal for the New York
2:04:31
Speaker 2: Times to be reporting on job changes in the University
2:04:37
Speaker 2: of Utah Athletic department. But you're under a microscope right now,
2:04:41
Speaker 2: and it needs to be handled very, very very correctly.
2:04:44
Speaker 2: So fingers crossed with some optimistic confidence that it will
2:04:49
Speaker 2: be handled as correctly as possible. Yeah, I'll just second
2:04:54
Speaker 2: what you said. About It's not really the time to
2:04:58
Speaker 2: be unleashing a if you are very critical of private equity,
2:05:03
Speaker 2: if you are one that's like, this is why, this
2:05:07
Speaker 2: is why I hated this deal when it was announced.
2:05:10
Speaker 2: It's not necessarily the time to do that because of
2:05:14
Speaker 2: what we're talking about. How what you said about these
2:05:19
Speaker 2: people who are who are Yes, they're losing their job
2:05:24
Speaker 2: right now, we'll have a chance at a similar job
2:05:28
Speaker 2: in a different department. Basically CBP different technically a different company,
2:05:32
Speaker 2: but it's in all intent, all intentsive purposes, it's a
2:05:35
Speaker 2: different department within the University of Utah athletic department. I'm
2:05:41
Speaker 2: not naive enough to think that all these people will
2:05:44
Speaker 2: will get their same or similar job with CBP. Some
2:05:48
Speaker 2: of these people are they're losing their job now, they're
2:05:50
Speaker 2: not getting one back, which sucks. But I just I'll
2:05:55
Speaker 2: just echoe and say that's the time that we need
2:05:57
Speaker 2: to If anyone's ready to to throw out tons of
2:06:03
Speaker 2: criticism on private equity being part of college athletics, that's
2:06:07
Speaker 2: probably the time to do it. Let's wait and see
2:06:09
Speaker 2: how this flesh is out.
2:06:11
Speaker 6: Well.
2:06:11
Speaker 2: The unfortunate reality is there's a lot of unknowns here,
2:06:14
Speaker 2: but Utah has one extra layer of unknowns when it
2:06:18
Speaker 2: comes to and we talked with Dan Sorenson earlier on
2:06:21
Speaker 2: the show about this. There's a reason why this step
2:06:26
Speaker 2: was taken, and we're seeing now some of the reasons
2:06:29
Speaker 2: that are a little bit less fun to acknowledge. Part
2:06:33
Speaker 2: of the reason why this partnership was explored is because
2:06:36
Speaker 2: the athletic department has been operating at a deficit for
2:06:39
Speaker 2: a couple of years.
2:06:41
Speaker 3: Right, and you don't want to continue that.
2:06:45
Speaker 2: The state auditor said, well, there's no obvious plan to
2:06:47
Speaker 2: improve these this you know, operating income moving forward.
2:06:50
Speaker 3: Well, that's what Ultra Capital is supposed to be doing.
2:06:55
Speaker 2: That's what they're bringing to this, not just their capital,
2:06:58
Speaker 2: but they're bringing operational expertise. They're bringing in, we think,
2:07:03
Speaker 2: hopefully some sort of a plan on how to improve
2:07:07
Speaker 2: the operating income of the athletic department. And of course,
2:07:10
Speaker 2: the big picture reason for that is because you want
2:07:13
Speaker 2: to be able when new changes come and another shakeup
2:07:17
Speaker 2: happens in college sports. You want to be able to say,
2:07:21
Speaker 2: we're in a really good spot competitively, that's gonna be
2:07:24
Speaker 2: that's gonna matter a lot, and we're in a good
2:07:27
Speaker 2: spot from a financial standpoint as well, although I don't
2:07:32
Speaker 2: know how much that's gonna matter. If if the Big
2:07:35
Speaker 2: Ten wants you, they're not going to say, oh, well,
2:07:39
Speaker 2: they're forty million dollars in debt, so we don't want
2:07:41
Speaker 2: them anymore. That's just not how UCLA, that's not how
2:07:44
Speaker 2: it's gonna work, right, didn't matter to them with the Bruins.
2:07:48
Speaker 2: I mean, I promise you when Rutgers was added to
2:07:51
Speaker 2: the Big Ten, their books were not in a good place.
2:07:55
Speaker 3: So there's a lot more to it than that.
2:07:58
Speaker 2: But you just I'm not ready to throw any stones
2:08:02
Speaker 2: at any glasshouses until we know what it is actually
2:08:05
Speaker 2: happening up there. There's too much uncertainty for me to
2:08:09
Speaker 2: just say, well, I know that private equity is a
2:08:11
Speaker 2: hot button thing and I don't like that, so I'm.
2:08:14
Speaker 3: Out right, we're not gonna do that.
2:08:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just this and with this particular thing, with
2:08:20
Speaker 2: these layoffs is what they're being called, it's it's a
2:08:24
Speaker 2: transitional the transitional process that they're in starting Crimson Brand
2:08:30
Speaker 2: Partners from scratch, and so it's just let's just let's
2:08:34
Speaker 2: just hold off on some of the criticism until we
2:08:38
Speaker 2: see what the process yields is is just what I
2:08:41
Speaker 2: would caution one last segment, we'll do a little cross
2:08:48
Speaker 2: talk close out the show next ESPN seven and ninety twofm.
2:09:04
Speaker 1: As you were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show for
2:09:06
Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
2:09:11
Speaker 1: two to one.
2:09:11
Speaker 3: A f am.
2:09:15
Speaker 2: Scary movie coming to theaters Friday, ESPN seven hundred and
2:09:18
Speaker 2: ninety two on a FM. Want to send you to
2:09:21
Speaker 2: see it? First Text movie to three three nine eighty
2:09:24
Speaker 2: six for your chance to win tickets. Time for little
2:09:27
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Speaker 3: Spence Check its host of the drive. How was your weekend?
2:09:58
Speaker 5: It was good, mediocre, golf, watching games, relaxing, spring cleaning.
2:10:06
Speaker 7: Tell me if you can relate to this?
2:10:07
Speaker 5: Okay in our business, you get a lot of free
2:10:11
Speaker 5: stuff you don't want, t shirts, sunglasses, and over the years,
2:10:16
Speaker 5: I've accumulated a lot of just stuff I don't need.
2:10:19
Speaker 5: Yet I don't I haven't thrown it out, so in
2:10:22
Speaker 5: my basement, Like if you walked into my basement, you're like,
2:10:25
Speaker 5: are you a hoarder?
2:10:27
Speaker 7: Like, what's up?
2:10:28
Speaker 1: Man?
2:10:28
Speaker 7: So I finally decided to attack this pile.
2:10:31
Speaker 5: Truly, I've been just dragging with me every time I've moved,
2:10:35
Speaker 5: you know, one house, one apartment, now this house. And
2:10:40
Speaker 5: so I tackled that over the weekend. It's going to
2:10:42
Speaker 5: take some time, man, It's going to take some time.
2:10:45
Speaker 2: Yes, we came to the realization that the closet that
2:10:50
Speaker 2: my wife and I share has reached critical mass if
2:10:53
Speaker 2: you cannot put another thing in it. And so the
2:10:57
Speaker 2: local Deseret Industries is going to have a bunch of
2:11:00
Speaker 2: PFL shirts sooner than later.
2:11:02
Speaker 5: True story. When I moved from my Sugarhouse home, it
2:11:07
Speaker 5: was the same deal. I had a garage flow of
2:11:09
Speaker 5: just crap and some of it wasn't crap. I just
2:11:11
Speaker 5: had to get rid of it. Yeah, So like eight
2:11:15
Speaker 5: trips to the d I shout out to my friends
2:11:17
Speaker 5: who came over and held me that car load after
2:11:19
Speaker 5: car load after car load, and about two weeks later
2:11:23
Speaker 5: I went to I think it was a jazz game
2:11:24
Speaker 5: downtown and a person experiencing homelessness.
2:11:29
Speaker 7: That's what we're supposed to say these days.
2:11:31
Speaker 5: Totally wearing a golf shirt that I took to the
2:11:33
Speaker 5: t I's like, great, you got five bucks.
2:11:35
Speaker 7: I'm like, no, I gave you that shirt, so we're good.
2:11:39
Speaker 3: That's yeah.
2:11:42
Speaker 2: I wonder what it is about human nature where we
2:11:45
Speaker 2: we have this tendency to accumulate all that stuff and
2:11:49
Speaker 2: then a need to get rid of it and then
2:11:51
Speaker 2: immediately restart the process of accumulating more stuff.
2:11:54
Speaker 7: It's a great point. I do two things.
2:11:56
Speaker 5: I say, in my mind, I paid for that, I'm
2:11:58
Speaker 5: not getting rid of it, or all look back and
2:12:01
Speaker 5: want to know that you know I had that experience
2:12:04
Speaker 5: in ten fifteen years, or like, hey, can I resell
2:12:07
Speaker 5: that at some point? The problem is like now the
2:12:10
Speaker 5: gen Z kids are dressing the way we did in
2:12:12
Speaker 5: the nineties. If I would have held on to my
2:12:15
Speaker 5: Abercrombie dude, I had a grip of af stuff, man,
2:12:19
Speaker 5: I would be able to offload that stuff and make
2:12:21
Speaker 5: some serious cash.
2:12:22
Speaker 3: That's a shame that you didn't.
2:12:24
Speaker 5: It's flawed thinking though, Like I paid fifty bucks for
2:12:27
Speaker 5: the shirt, so I'm going to keep it in the
2:12:28
Speaker 5: basement because I'm never gonna wear it, you know, So
2:12:32
Speaker 5: tackle that over the weekend.
2:12:34
Speaker 7: But yeah, pumped me on air today. A lot of
2:12:36
Speaker 7: stuff going on, man, A lot going on.
2:12:38
Speaker 2: Yep, we now have an NBA Finals matchup between the
2:12:41
Speaker 2: San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks. Massive, massive
2:12:45
Speaker 2: turnaround and improvement for the Spurs from last year as anticipated, right,
2:12:51
Speaker 2: but we're in a situation where the Utah Jazz by
2:12:55
Speaker 2: design put themselves in a, you know, a bad situation
2:12:58
Speaker 2: this year, so they could turn it on next year
2:13:01
Speaker 2: and there'll be a draft pick to add to that.
2:13:04
Speaker 3: It was a thirty four.
2:13:05
Speaker 2: Game improvement win improvement for the San Antonio Spurs from
2:13:08
Speaker 2: last year to this year. And I started the show
2:13:12
Speaker 2: today saying like, all right, I don't expect the Jazz
2:13:15
Speaker 2: to make a finals run next year.
2:13:17
Speaker 3: However, they should be twenty five plus wins.
2:13:21
Speaker 2: If they're doing what we think they're doing over what
2:13:26
Speaker 2: they had this year, and they're now gonna turn the
2:13:29
Speaker 2: tap back on and these guys are actually going to
2:13:31
Speaker 2: play and you're gonna get aj Debansa or Darren Peterson.
2:13:35
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it and saying, all right, we went
2:13:38
Speaker 2: through the top ten in the history of the NBA,
2:13:41
Speaker 2: the top ten single season turnarounds and things like that,
2:13:44
Speaker 2: and a lot of those were teams that went from
2:13:47
Speaker 2: like nothing to something important. Again, I think you're gonna
2:13:52
Speaker 2: go from nothing to something marginally interesting, like a play
2:13:57
Speaker 2: in situation. But if it's not a twenty four to
2:14:01
Speaker 2: twenty six, twenty eight game improvement over last year, I
2:14:05
Speaker 2: don't know that this plan is going to have felt
2:14:07
Speaker 2: like it was worth much.
2:14:08
Speaker 5: So they won twenty two games this year, right, so
2:14:11
Speaker 5: twenty five would be forty seven, and that feels about right.
2:14:16
Speaker 5: You know, a lot of people, you know, after the
2:14:19
Speaker 5: Jaron Jackson junior trade and then after the Jazz grab two,
2:14:23
Speaker 5: a lot of local media went a little nuts about
2:14:26
Speaker 5: what to expect next year. You know, top four seed,
2:14:30
Speaker 5: home court advantage in the Western Conference. To be a
2:14:32
Speaker 5: top four team next year, you are counting on a
2:14:35
Speaker 5: lot of teams taking massive steps backwards, and then the
2:14:39
Speaker 5: teams that are kind of in your cul de sact
2:14:40
Speaker 5: not taking the same jump. You are, so I've kind
2:14:43
Speaker 5: of quit, Like my expectation is Portland Charlotte this year
2:14:47
Speaker 5: forty four wins, play in tournament.
2:14:50
Speaker 7: I think if you can do that, that's a massive win.
2:14:52
Speaker 5: The problem about anybody in the West talking about making
2:14:55
Speaker 5: a finals run is as long as this kid is healthy.
2:14:59
Speaker 3: I don't know.
2:15:00
Speaker 7: Look name drop. Time ran into our.
2:15:03
Speaker 5: Guy, Steve bo Jakowski, Jazz assistant coach, little hot yoga
2:15:07
Speaker 5: over the weekend, sweating some decisions out, no big deal,
2:15:11
Speaker 5: and I say to him, I said, man, Wemby is here,
2:15:13
Speaker 5: isn't isn't it?
2:15:14
Speaker 7: He goes yeah, and he's not going anywhere for a
2:15:16
Speaker 7: long long time.
2:15:17
Speaker 5: And then we were just talking about He actually took
2:15:20
Speaker 5: some time to I'd appreciated it because I talked to
2:15:22
Speaker 5: him about I thought Mike Brown intentionally started using cat
2:15:27
Speaker 5: at the top of the key to plan maybe to
2:15:30
Speaker 5: play the Spurs in the finals and therefore get Wemby
2:15:33
Speaker 5: away from the basket. But what the Spurs do, and
2:15:35
Speaker 5: WO just kind of walking me through this, they invert
2:15:37
Speaker 5: their defense, so he's basically always around the rim. Even
2:15:40
Speaker 5: if you have a stretch five, they'll put Stefan Castle
2:15:44
Speaker 5: on Kat and let Wemby kind of shade Josh Hart
2:15:48
Speaker 5: a little bit. And the problem is he's so long
2:15:50
Speaker 5: that if Josh Shart's in the corner shooting a three
2:15:52
Speaker 5: and Wemby's in the key, he can close out and
2:15:55
Speaker 5: make you think twice because he's just that long at
2:15:57
Speaker 5: least alter the shot.
2:15:57
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's wild man.
2:15:59
Speaker 5: So look, I'm pumped that the Jazz will be serious
2:16:02
Speaker 5: next year, and I'm excited that Will Hardy will have
2:16:05
Speaker 5: permission to play his best players every night. And you know,
2:16:09
Speaker 5: this does have a little bit of a when the
2:16:11
Speaker 5: Warriors were kind of durant Steph Clay. It has that
2:16:15
Speaker 5: feel for like everyone's playing for second for now, as
2:16:18
Speaker 5: long as that kid he's twenty two years old. Yes,
2:16:20
Speaker 5: he just went on the road a game seven and
2:16:22
Speaker 5: won in a building that's impossible to win in.
2:16:25
Speaker 7: Now, Yes, okayse was hurt.
2:16:26
Speaker 5: That was a generational moment for who now is this
2:16:30
Speaker 5: Generation's that dude, Lebron, Mike Wilt, whoever he's here.
2:16:34
Speaker 2: One of the best sports documentaries you can find is
2:16:37
Speaker 2: something It's called Facing Ali, and it's Muhammad Ali's not
2:16:42
Speaker 2: in it, but they talk to all of the guys
2:16:45
Speaker 2: that fought Muhammad Ali, and it's I mean, it's all
2:16:48
Speaker 2: up and down talking about the you know what losing
2:16:51
Speaker 2: to him did in their careers, the few that were
2:16:54
Speaker 2: able to beat him, what it did for them where
2:16:56
Speaker 2: they're at now. It's a fascinating thing. But every time
2:16:59
Speaker 2: I see somebody like this come along, and you don't
2:17:02
Speaker 2: see it very often. And we asked this question last week,
2:17:05
Speaker 2: how many dudes are not going to win a championship
2:17:08
Speaker 2: because Victor webbin Yama is alive And I'm looking at you,
2:17:13
Speaker 2: Cooper Flag, I hope I'm not looking at you, Ace
2:17:15
Speaker 2: Bailey and aj Debonsa, But you have to look at
2:17:19
Speaker 2: it and say, man, because we saw John and Carl,
2:17:23
Speaker 2: two of the most reliable, steady, incredible players in the
2:17:28
Speaker 2: history of the NBA, even their highest aspirations and dreams
2:17:33
Speaker 2: turned away because of Michael Jeffrey Jordan. So yeah, Victor
2:17:37
Speaker 2: Wimbanyama is going to be that boogieman for a lot
2:17:39
Speaker 2: of people.
2:17:40
Speaker 5: Patrick Ewing, Sean Kemp, Gary Payton, Charles Barkley. Right, I mean,
2:17:44
Speaker 5: so many great players in that generation and all of
2:17:47
Speaker 5: the players I just named got to the finals, they
2:17:50
Speaker 5: just lost to that guy. Lebron has ripped rings off
2:17:52
Speaker 5: of people's fingers. It's what the generationally special players do,
2:17:56
Speaker 5: and it's why four years ago I really wish the
2:18:00
Speaker 5: Jazz would have done what they did this year to
2:18:03
Speaker 5: potentially land that kid, like congrats on your thirty wins
2:18:07
Speaker 5: or whatever you got that year, and like the number
2:18:10
Speaker 5: ten pick, but everybody knew, like, whoever lands this unicorn
2:18:15
Speaker 5: has a chance to take over this generation now. As
2:18:18
Speaker 5: we saw with the Warriors when they played the Raptors
2:18:20
Speaker 5: in the finals, Steph gets hurt, Durant gets hurt, Clay
2:18:22
Speaker 5: gets hurt, Kwai gets his ring. Things happen, one offs happen,
2:18:26
Speaker 5: But it cannot be understated the significance of that game
2:18:30
Speaker 5: seven win, because I think the Knicks can win a
2:18:33
Speaker 5: couple games, but I don't think they can beat them.
2:18:36
Speaker 5: I think it's I think it's his time, and I
2:18:38
Speaker 5: think it's his time to mark the start of what's
2:18:40
Speaker 5: going to probably be his generation.
2:18:42
Speaker 2: Well you know what I love about where he's at
2:18:44
Speaker 2: right now, and who knows if he stays here. And again,
2:18:47
Speaker 2: health when you're seven foot five and two hundred and
2:18:50
Speaker 2: twenty pounds is going to be a question at some point,
2:18:53
Speaker 2: But how much he cares right now, Yep, like he
2:18:56
Speaker 2: cares a lot. Yeah, he is a dude that manifests
2:19:01
Speaker 2: visibly nightly the things that we want from our professional athletes,
2:19:06
Speaker 2: where I don't mean to be reductive. The NBA lost
2:19:11
Speaker 2: a little bit of that edge for a while where
2:19:14
Speaker 2: guys wanted to rip each other's throats out, and he does,
2:19:19
Speaker 2: which is really cool to see. I wish he was
2:19:21
Speaker 2: on the Utah Jazz. I hope the Utah Jazz have
2:19:24
Speaker 2: eleven players like that next year. But wemby being the
2:19:28
Speaker 2: guy that he is and weeping his eyes out because
2:19:31
Speaker 2: he he made it to the finals.
2:19:33
Speaker 3: That's pretty cool to see.
2:19:34
Speaker 5: Absolutely. It's another thing that weoji brought up. It's not
2:19:38
Speaker 5: just how he plays, it is his mentality. It is
2:19:40
Speaker 5: how much he cares. He actually changed the All Star Game.
2:19:43
Speaker 5: For years we said what can they do to change
2:19:45
Speaker 5: the All Star Game? The answer was him because he
2:19:48
Speaker 5: came out and he played hard, and those older Vets
2:19:51
Speaker 5: were like, I don't want to get punk by this kid,
2:19:53
Speaker 5: so I need to play hard too.
2:19:56
Speaker 7: In so many ways, he's exactly what pro basketball needs.
2:20:00
Speaker 5: A lot of it is because he grew up elsewhere,
2:20:02
Speaker 5: so he's not buddies with the other twenty two year olds.
2:20:05
Speaker 5: All these kids now honestly start playing together when they're
2:20:08
Speaker 5: twelve and thirteen, because that's when we start noticing the
2:20:11
Speaker 5: next level, right, So especially this class aj Darren Boozer.
2:20:16
Speaker 5: Boozer played with Caleb Wilson on the same team. Like
2:20:19
Speaker 5: they all know each other. So if you go to
2:20:21
Speaker 5: an NBA game, after the game, even the team that
2:20:23
Speaker 5: gets smoked, they're over dapping it up.
2:20:25
Speaker 7: What's up, dude? What are we doing afterwards? To see
2:20:28
Speaker 7: it as your mom.
2:20:30
Speaker 5: That's not how it used to be because these kids
2:20:32
Speaker 5: didn't used to grow up to playing together.
2:20:34
Speaker 7: We didn't have this aau system.
2:20:36
Speaker 5: So this kid grows up overseas and he's just watching
2:20:39
Speaker 5: things from Afar and he doesn't give a rip about
2:20:42
Speaker 5: having dinner with you after the game. He wants to
2:20:44
Speaker 5: beat you, he wants to cut your throat. Then he
2:20:46
Speaker 5: wants to watch you die. And that's what my kad,
2:20:49
Speaker 5: That's what Kobe had. I don't know that Lebron has
2:20:52
Speaker 5: ever really had that. He's just generationally awesome. He is
2:20:54
Speaker 5: a throwback, and he's also something that we simply have
2:20:58
Speaker 5: never seen before at that par He plays like a
2:21:01
Speaker 5: guard and he's seven foot a million.
2:21:04
Speaker 7: It's wild, dude.
2:21:05
Speaker 5: So for all of the excitement for the Jazz or
2:21:08
Speaker 5: anyone else in the Western Conference as a result of
2:21:11
Speaker 5: what's happened this offseason, because they are so far ahead
2:21:14
Speaker 5: of schedule and by the way, Dylan Harper Stefan Castle
2:21:18
Speaker 5: like their wings outside of dearon Fox and Harrison Barnes
2:21:21
Speaker 5: are kids and top two teams with future draft capital
2:21:26
Speaker 5: Oklahoma City, San Antonio like it is going to take
2:21:30
Speaker 5: a perfect confluence of events for anyone not the Spurs
2:21:34
Speaker 5: or the Thunder to win the West for like a decade.
2:21:36
Speaker 7: Dude, that's where we're at.
2:21:39
Speaker 3: Yay, I know.
2:21:40
Speaker 2: Sorry, stay tuned for the drive. Thanks for listening to
2:21:43
Speaker 2: the Shot O'Connell Show. We'll do it again tomorrow on
2:21:45
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.