Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Red and Blue: Jonathan Tavernari on Dybantsa's first triple double, Shouldn't he be the No. 1 pick (?), Big 12 play next week + more
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Not of all the rings. You know you're the math
- 0:09Speaker 1: of mind.
- 0:10Speaker 2: You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
- 0:13Speaker 2: Murdoch Hunting Studio. I'm ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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- 0:30Speaker 2: Here's a great way to test whether or not Running
- 0:31Speaker 2: Run Rudolf is one of the greatest Christmas songs of
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- 0:37Speaker 2: Man, watch him start moving, all right, just watch him.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Time for some
- 0:45Speaker 1: red and Blue. We go behind enemy lines.
- 0:48Speaker 2: We talk a little BYU Athletics with our BYU Insiders,
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- 1:13Speaker 1: JT.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Jon at the Tabernardi's kind of have to join us
- 1:15Speaker 2: this week as our BYU insider.
- 1:18Speaker 1: JT. How are you, sir?
- 1:20Speaker 3: I am fantastic talk about being behind enemy lines, my
- 1:23Speaker 3: friend Sanaquin, My goodness, gracious.
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- 1:29Speaker 2: Man, Like people who go down to take a test drive,
- 1:34Speaker 2: they have to. They have to just brave the you know,
- 1:37Speaker 2: going all the way through Utah County to the South
- 1:39Speaker 2: reaches and seeing all the BYU flags, all the BYU.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Stickers on cars.
- 1:45Speaker 2: But it's worth it for some of the great deals
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- 1:49Speaker 4: Hey, man, I totally get it.
- 1:51Speaker 5: You know.
- 1:51Speaker 3: It's almost like you know, Utah fans going to Utah
- 1:54Speaker 3: County as they see y on the mountain. It's like
- 1:56Speaker 3: Proto and Sam, you know, staring at mordor you know
- 1:59Speaker 3: what I and so I get it, man, I totally
- 2:02Speaker 3: get it.
- 2:03Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
- 2:05Speaker 2: I want to ask you something I keep hearing stuff about,
- 2:08Speaker 2: you know, potential number one pick aj debonsa likely top pick.
- 2:15Speaker 2: AJ Debonsa a guy who could eventually be one of
- 2:19Speaker 2: the top picks in the NBA draft aj Debonsa and
- 2:22Speaker 2: when I watch Ada Debonca play, I'm looking at it going,
- 2:25Speaker 2: why are we saying potentially this this dude is going
- 2:28Speaker 2: to be the number one guy? Am I wrong in
- 2:30Speaker 2: that assessment?
- 2:32Speaker 3: So, I, you know, not just sound like a complete homer.
- 2:36Speaker 3: I do understand why people say the same thing about
- 2:40Speaker 3: Kim Boozer. And have you had a chance, Sean to
- 2:43Speaker 3: watch Kim Boozer this season?
- 2:45Speaker 2: I've only watched like eight minutes of Cam Booser, I think.
- 2:49Speaker 3: Yeah, And so I get why they say the potential
- 2:52Speaker 3: number one pick because you know, in all fairness, cam
- 2:55Speaker 3: Boozer is playing like a Derek Favors the Marco's cousin
- 3:01Speaker 3: type of player right now in terms of he is efficient,
- 3:06Speaker 3: he is solid in the low post, He's unstoppable.
- 3:11Speaker 4: So I understand why people say.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Potential because you're never going to know how that ping
- 3:16Speaker 3: punk ball drops, right, I get it. And so but
- 3:20Speaker 3: to your point, Sean, you have games last night. You
- 3:23Speaker 3: know I was working that game with you know, our
- 3:25Speaker 3: family of networks, YESPN, And he has a thirty point
- 3:31Speaker 3: triple double with thirty three points, ten rebounds and assists,
- 3:35Speaker 3: and you go like, who in their right mind, you
- 3:39Speaker 3: know who, you know what in the Nico Harrison are
- 3:43Speaker 3: we doing here if not saying that he is the
- 3:46Speaker 3: unanimous number one pick? And so I agree with you, you know,
- 3:51Speaker 3: being present yesterday as all of that unfolded, and you.
- 3:56Speaker 5: Know, to an interesting perspective.
- 3:57Speaker 3: I know we're going to talk a little bit more
- 3:58Speaker 3: on the show about how by you you know, played
- 4:01Speaker 3: Eastern Washington compared to how Utah did.
- 4:05Speaker 5: But the last couple of games AJ has had.
- 4:07Speaker 3: To put BYU in his back almost for them to
- 4:11Speaker 3: win a game.
- 4:12Speaker 4: Against a lesser opponent, but none.
- 4:14Speaker 3: Oftheless seeing him doing it in person and so effortlessly,
- 4:19Speaker 3: it is a sight to see.
- 4:22Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about this Eastern Washington team that did
- 4:24Speaker 2: play against Utah and BYU.
- 4:26Speaker 1: They gave more than one hundred points to both teams.
- 4:29Speaker 2: And I don't know how many times you is gonna
- 4:31Speaker 2: score one hundred points this season. It's not gonna be
- 4:35Speaker 2: an incredibly common occurrence. BYU looks like they're a little
- 4:39Speaker 2: bit better right now, but I don't I don't see
- 4:41Speaker 2: them scoring one hundred and nine a lot of times
- 4:43Speaker 2: this year, especially this week in the Big Twelve play.
- 4:46Speaker 2: I mean is Eastern Washington just that bad defensively?
- 4:49Speaker 3: So interesting enough, I you know, I think that they
- 4:53Speaker 3: are a team that just runs a lot. Their tempo
- 4:56Speaker 3: is you know, around the one hundred ranking in a country,
- 4:59Speaker 3: which is really really good. And uh, you know, I
- 5:02Speaker 3: think it's one of those times. You know, I watched
- 5:04Speaker 3: film on the Utah game, and I.
- 5:07Speaker 4: Know that Utah has had, you know, somewhat of.
- 5:09Speaker 3: An odd start to the Alex Jensen era. But it's
- 5:12Speaker 3: me Sean, it felt like one of those times that
- 5:14Speaker 3: you thought just things just clicked, and for Eastern Washington,
- 5:18Speaker 3: things did not click. And so whereas for by you
- 5:23Speaker 3: you know, the offensive power that they have with a J. D. Bonsa,
- 5:27Speaker 3: with Richie Saunders and with Robert Right the third and
- 5:31Speaker 3: then less night, they had a fourth player, which is
- 5:35Speaker 3: Conard Davis Junior. You know a little bit of controversy
- 5:38Speaker 3: surrounding him earlier in the year, but those four players
- 5:42Speaker 3: really stepped up yesterday. And obviously, you know, the you know,
- 5:46Speaker 3: the Three Kings as you know, they're they're about to
- 5:49Speaker 3: be called, you know, the Big Three for BUYU. It's
- 5:53Speaker 3: interesting that a fourth player stepped up and they played
- 5:56Speaker 3: so well, and comparing that to the buy to the
- 5:59Speaker 3: you game, Eastern Washington shot the ball much better against
- 6:04Speaker 3: BYU than they did against Utah, you know, and so
- 6:07Speaker 3: but obviously you know, with you know, the red and
- 6:09Speaker 3: blue going across enemy.
- 6:11Speaker 5: Lines, you know, to the segment.
- 6:13Speaker 3: It is interesting to see the comparisons of like, hey,
- 6:15Speaker 3: how do they play Utah? How do they play BYU?
- 6:18Speaker 3: And I think you're spot on. I think BYU themselves
- 6:21Speaker 3: may not score through you know, one hundred points in
- 6:24Speaker 3: a game in the conference in many times, you know,
- 6:27Speaker 3: out of the eighteen games, I would be surprised if
- 6:29Speaker 3: they get to be a hunter port mark, you know,
- 6:32Speaker 3: you know, in six of those games.
- 6:34Speaker 5: That's just my honest opinion.
- 6:36Speaker 2: Look, the record for BYU is excellent right now. It
- 6:39Speaker 2: feels like, uh, maybe with rare exception, and perhaps Eastern
- 6:44Speaker 2: Washington is one of those games because like you said,
- 6:46Speaker 2: AJ had to shoulder maybe more of a load than
- 6:49Speaker 2: people are comfortable with. But it looks like this BYU
- 6:52Speaker 2: team is kind of getting what they wanted out of
- 6:54Speaker 2: some of the commits, obviously from AJ getting right to
- 6:58Speaker 2: come in from Baylor. It looks like this roster is
- 7:01Speaker 2: kind of producing the way we thought that it would.
- 7:03Speaker 2: But but now we start to find out right January third,
- 7:07Speaker 2: you get into conference play, is BYU basketball at the
- 7:11Speaker 2: spot they need to be rounding into the Big Twelve,
- 7:14Speaker 2: which I still think is the best conference in college
- 7:16Speaker 2: basketball absolutely.
- 7:18Speaker 3: You know, I think a lot of a lot, you know,
- 7:20Speaker 3: football is king you and I know that for both
- 7:23Speaker 3: of our schools, you know, and I think there's a
- 7:25Speaker 3: lot of talk, you know, surrounding football.
- 7:28Speaker 4: About you guys should have been in and b YU.
- 7:31Speaker 3: And Notre Dame and you know we all hear about
- 7:33Speaker 3: the SEC. Well, Sean, we get to the demintely, you know,
- 7:39Speaker 3: Bragg that the Big Twelve is the SEC of basketball,
- 7:43Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, like the SEC of football
- 7:45Speaker 3: for basketball, we get to say that, and so very
- 7:48Speaker 3: interesting enough, I will actually say that I don't think
- 7:51Speaker 3: b y U is where they wanted to be or
- 7:54Speaker 3: that where they hope to be, you know, basketball wise,
- 7:57Speaker 3: you know, as conference play starts, and the Eagle for
- 8:00Speaker 3: that is simple. B YU has had to rely heavily
- 8:05Speaker 3: on their top, on their big three, and simply because
- 8:08Speaker 3: of injury, you know, uh, they was supposed you know,
- 8:13Speaker 3: one of their point guards, Nate was supposed to be uh,
- 8:16Speaker 3: you know, the main kid off the bench, to be
- 8:18Speaker 3: able to give Robert right the third the transfer for Bailer,
- 8:21Speaker 3: a lot of a lot.
- 8:22Speaker 5: Of rest that's not happening, and he's out for the season.
- 8:26Speaker 5: Then the next man up.
- 8:27Speaker 3: Dawson Baker, a senior, experienced senior who's had to overcome
- 8:32Speaker 3: a lot of trials. He was stepping up, you know,
- 8:35Speaker 3: to a big time road had some really big games
- 8:37Speaker 3: for b y U all the way up to you know,
- 8:40Speaker 3: the game after they played Upon where Dawson came in
- 8:44Speaker 3: and almost helped by U wieled them to win. And
- 8:47Speaker 3: then Dawson has us has a season a season end
- 8:50Speaker 3: injury with an a cl and so I personally don't
- 8:55Speaker 3: think they are where they need to be because sure
- 8:58Speaker 3: you can win, you know, you can win a lot
- 8:59Speaker 3: of games of a Big three. But for this BYU
- 9:03Speaker 3: team to achieve the goals that they have, and you know, honestly,
- 9:07Speaker 3: if they don't make to the sweet sixty, I think
- 9:09Speaker 3: this season is a failure. I know it's crazy to hear,
- 9:12Speaker 3: but you know, in this day and age of NIL,
- 9:14Speaker 3: how the roster has been constructed and the expectation around
- 9:18Speaker 3: the players and the caliber of the players.
- 9:21Speaker 5: Especially now that they even added a.
- 9:22Speaker 3: G League player in Abdullah and so you know, to me,
- 9:27Speaker 3: this BYU team needs at least another one consistent player
- 9:33Speaker 3: to be able to you know, to have and reach
- 9:35Speaker 3: the heights that they're hoping to reach.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Last year, Richie Saunders was the guy that had to
- 9:41Speaker 2: do a lot of heavy lifting, and it that's been
- 9:45Speaker 2: spread out right now. Aj is sort of the main
- 9:48Speaker 2: driver with the scoring. Rob Wright is more than capable.
- 9:52Speaker 2: Is Richie Saunders in an appropriate level of emphasis, in
- 9:56Speaker 2: an appropriate role in this BYU season for you?
- 10:00Speaker 3: You know what's crazy, Sean is is you know all
- 10:02Speaker 3: of the things that you just shared about Richie and
- 10:04Speaker 3: all of the accolades that he had last year, you know,
- 10:09Speaker 3: first Team All Big Twelve, you know, a borderline All
- 10:12Speaker 3: American in the conversation for Player of the Year. His
- 10:17Speaker 3: numbers are better this year. That's what's scary about this
- 10:20Speaker 3: VYU team, right in a good way, in a bad way,
- 10:23Speaker 3: in a good way because here you have Ajd Bonsa,
- 10:26Speaker 3: who is second in the country in scoring, had you know,
- 10:30Speaker 3: the youngest player ever in NCAA history to have a
- 10:33Speaker 3: thirty point triple double, breaking all of these records setting
- 10:38Speaker 3: the bar so high.
- 10:39Speaker 5: And nonetheless, you.
- 10:41Speaker 3: Know Richie is still better than he was last year.
- 10:45Speaker 5: Now.
- 10:46Speaker 3: The reason why I say that this is incredibly you
- 10:48Speaker 3: know this is you know scary good and scary bad.
- 10:51Speaker 3: Is you know that I just shared the good the
- 10:53Speaker 3: bed is if one of those guys go down, Sean,
- 10:57Speaker 3: the conversation that you and I will be having you
- 10:59Speaker 3: will be extremely different. You know, it is going to
- 11:04Speaker 3: be a you know, a near one eighty experience for
- 11:07Speaker 3: the b YU team. That's how heavily they trust.
- 11:10Speaker 4: On you know, their well, not trust, but that they.
- 11:13Speaker 3: Are counting on on those guys to make it happen
- 11:16Speaker 3: now and so but you know, a player like Richie Saunders,
- 11:20Speaker 3: you know, it's it's a conversation that it's even worth having.
- 11:23Speaker 3: And I won't go too much into football because you
- 11:25Speaker 3: probably know more about soccer show than I know about football.
- 11:29Speaker 3: And and and I will say this, you know Tom
- 11:33Speaker 3: Brady has hinted about this, and we're seeing with with
- 11:36Speaker 3: Philip Rivers being you know, having the time to develop,
- 11:40Speaker 3: having the experience, you know, having the opportunity.
- 11:43Speaker 5: To slowly grow into a row.
- 11:46Speaker 3: Where wrenessing that with our own eyes with Richie Saunders, right,
- 11:49Speaker 3: and and in this day and age of nil where
- 11:52Speaker 3: you can start at a Division three, you can move
- 11:54Speaker 3: through Division one, you can move to a North Carolina
- 11:56Speaker 3: or a Duke just and continuously to make more money.
- 12:01Speaker 4: You know that.
- 12:03Speaker 3: Development is going away of understanding the program, of understanding.
- 12:07Speaker 5: Hey, you know, I'm staying here.
- 12:09Speaker 3: I know how the coach works, I know how the
- 12:11Speaker 3: offense works, I know how my environment works. It's one
- 12:14Speaker 3: of the reasons that made the majeris ear so special
- 12:17Speaker 3: that you know, there was that continuation, there was that process.
- 12:21Speaker 3: And so to me, Richie Saunders is a big time
- 12:24Speaker 3: by product of you know, one of the last you
- 12:26Speaker 3: know Mohicans to go through college for the four years
- 12:30Speaker 3: and staying at the same place.
- 12:33Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is.
- 12:34Speaker 2: I mean half of me applauds the idea that you
- 12:37Speaker 2: can climb the ladder if you were under recruited out
- 12:40Speaker 2: of high school or wherever, and you're better than the
- 12:44Speaker 2: level that you're competing at.
- 12:45Speaker 1: I love that guys can move up.
- 12:48Speaker 2: Look, I also took advantage of the fact that you
- 12:49Speaker 2: could move down if you needed to. I had to
- 12:52Speaker 2: do that in my career, but I don't love what
- 12:56Speaker 2: you're talking about. And I echo the sentiment of I
- 12:59Speaker 2: think a lot of people now that you don't have
- 13:02Speaker 2: to go through any kind of crucible, any development. You
- 13:07Speaker 2: don't you don't have to learn the systems the way
- 13:09Speaker 2: that you used to, and that I think that's to
- 13:12Speaker 2: the detriment of the sport in a lot of cases.
- 13:15Speaker 2: Individual teams benefit from it, certainly, but I don't know
- 13:18Speaker 2: that it makes the sport better.
- 13:20Speaker 3: And to you and to this point that you're going,
- 13:22Speaker 3: you're one hundred percent right, and we're totally aligned on this.
- 13:25Speaker 4: I mean, look at Anny Hardaway.
- 13:27Speaker 3: I don't know if you saw just on the news
- 13:28Speaker 3: that Anny Hardaway is now finding players, you know.
- 13:32Speaker 5: For breaking team rules, for being.
- 13:34Speaker 4: Late, for missing practice, and you know.
- 13:38Speaker 3: The concept of college athletics has changed so drastically.
- 13:42Speaker 4: Right, I've always been.
- 13:44Speaker 3: In favor of paying players, you know, and in full transpiracy.
- 13:48Speaker 3: I am not one of those guys that you know, says, hey,
- 13:52Speaker 3: I'm jealous that I didn't get to play in an
- 13:54Speaker 3: era that based players.
- 13:56Speaker 5: Absolutely not, because I became who I.
- 13:59Speaker 3: Am because of the hardships and trials I had to
- 14:02Speaker 3: overcome a YU and you know, like at a certain
- 14:05Speaker 3: point where I had a million dollar contract offer to
- 14:08Speaker 3: leave early and I decided to come back, and I
- 14:10Speaker 3: was able to write my name on a lot of
- 14:12Speaker 3: the record books at UYU. And it's just such a
- 14:15Speaker 3: different situation now. And you know, I don't know where
- 14:19Speaker 3: your thoughts are, but to me, it is it wouldn't
- 14:22Speaker 3: be complicated to attach changing the business in the model
- 14:26Speaker 3: of NIL and attach it to education. I mean, is
- 14:30Speaker 3: this a collegiate league or is it a semi pro league?
- 14:34Speaker 3: Because if you know, like just for a second shot,
- 14:37Speaker 3: I know we're going a little bit too long here,
- 14:38Speaker 3: but can you imagine if aj debondser today would not
- 14:43Speaker 3: pass a class and he would be rooted ineligible for BYU.
- 14:47Speaker 3: Can you imagine what would happen? Like it's it seems
- 14:50Speaker 3: infendable that someone that's getting five six, seven million dollars
- 14:54Speaker 3: in NIL would potentially miss a game because he didn't
- 14:58Speaker 3: do his homework. I mean, you know, either you continue
- 15:02Speaker 3: with the athletic model around universities in a collegiate level
- 15:06Speaker 3: and you attach NIL somehow to you know, your development
- 15:10Speaker 3: and your improvement, you know of getting grades and passing classes,
- 15:16Speaker 3: or you should the whole thing down because you know today,
- 15:19Speaker 3: the way it is, it's just not working and I
- 15:22Speaker 3: don't think it's a sustainable model.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Well, I don't disagree with you there, and any suggestion,
- 15:29Speaker 2: any solution I think really could have been implemented over
- 15:33Speaker 2: the twenty or so years that the NCAA tried to
- 15:36Speaker 2: fight it instead of realizing that this was coming and
- 15:39Speaker 2: it was an inevitability. Instead, they were battling, battling, battling lawyers,
- 15:44Speaker 2: were trying to push back on having to pay players,
- 15:47Speaker 2: and they could have spent all that time, energy, money,
- 15:49Speaker 2: effort into putting systems in place that kept college athletics,
- 15:55Speaker 2: like I don't know, looking like college athletics. But instead
- 15:58Speaker 2: they were just trying to hold all the money themselves.
- 16:00Speaker 2: Now where where we're at, and we can't unring the bell.
- 16:02Speaker 2: But that's a that's a topic for an offseason. We'll
- 16:05Speaker 2: get to that another time before I let you go. Uh,
- 16:08Speaker 2: what does Christmas look like in the Tabernari household? Is
- 16:11Speaker 2: it like, is there a Brazilian flavor on it? Or
- 16:14Speaker 2: have we fully commercialized you into an American Christmas?
- 16:17Speaker 4: Well, so Shanta comes to Brazil on a surfboard.
- 16:22Speaker 5: Riding a wave with a Hawaiian.
- 16:24Speaker 3: Shirt because you know it is one hundred degrees downing
- 16:27Speaker 3: Son Paulo.
- 16:28Speaker 5: Right now, of course, and so and so, you know.
- 16:31Speaker 4: We have a few traditions are where we have a.
- 16:33Speaker 3: Really big Christmas Eve dinner and also a Christmas Day lunch.
- 16:38Speaker 4: That's something that you.
- 16:39Speaker 3: Know Americans will usually do a big Christmas Day lunch Brazilians,
- 16:43Speaker 3: do you know. We've adapted a lot of traditions from
- 16:47Speaker 3: my wife's family, you know, who grew up in Georgia
- 16:50Speaker 3: and moves here to Utah. But one of the things
- 16:52Speaker 3: that I would say, Sean, you know, from being Brazilian
- 16:54Speaker 3: married an American gal, we really miss Italy, you know,
- 16:58Speaker 3: for you know, I was there for my career for
- 16:59Speaker 3: ten years, and I know you talked to some of
- 17:01Speaker 3: the other guys that played overseas. I really miss the
- 17:04Speaker 3: little Christmas markets, you know what I mean. And so, uh,
- 17:07Speaker 3: you know, I can't wait for the lights to be
- 17:10Speaker 3: back in all the grin splendor in Salt Lake. Although
- 17:13Speaker 3: going to the Grand America it's fun, but you.
- 17:15Speaker 4: Know, we try to corporade a.
- 17:17Speaker 3: Little bit of everything, and you know, but you know,
- 17:20Speaker 3: no Hawaiian Christmas shirts in my household anymore.
- 17:23Speaker 5: I can tell you that.
- 17:24Speaker 1: All right, JT. Have a merry Christmas.
- 17:27Speaker 2: The same to you, your family, everyone you're celebrating with.
- 17:30Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, sir as always.
- 17:32Speaker 3: A happy Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays for everybody.
- 17:36Speaker 5: Thanks for having me.
- 17:37Speaker 2: Jonathan Tabernari WYU basketball legend for a Little Red and Blue,
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