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Sean Mooney on the Runnin Utes, Senior night tonight vs Colorado, Glass floor for Big 12 tournament + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: As you were listening to the Sean O'Connell show from
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Speaker 1: the Murdock Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
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Speaker 1: two to one af AM.
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Speaker 2: Sixteen oh man, that roasted garlic parmers on burger from Burger.
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Speaker 3: Fusion SPS, as.
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Speaker 2: The cool kids say, also the garlic parmers on dipping sauce.
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Speaker 2: Today they brought in the appetizer. It's the mozzarella cheese cubes.
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Speaker 2: Think of a mozzarella stick, but make it actually delicious
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Speaker 2: instead of excessively breaded, low quality. This thing is fantastic.
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Speaker 2: Burgerfusion at Charlie Square. All right, we go from red
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Speaker 2: and blue. We did the blue with Jonathan Tabernari. Now
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Speaker 2: we got the red with Sean Mooney, color analysts on
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Speaker 2: all the Utah radio broadcasts for running ute hoops.
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Speaker 3: Sean Mooney, welcome to the show. How are you down, O'Connor?
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Speaker 3: You're making me hungry. I just heard the back half
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Speaker 3: of that. Where are you eating? What is that?
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Speaker 2: Burgerkager Fusion. It's a new burger spot in Trolley Square.
1:20
Speaker 2: You have got to try this place. Everything they have
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Speaker 2: brought us is excellence so far.
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Speaker 3: I'm going I'm going I'm doing I'll do it tomorrow night.
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Speaker 3: I don't think I can do it tonight. I've got
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Speaker 3: a little game or something going on. Our Utah has
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Speaker 3: a game Senior night.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, senior nights, and I wanted to start there. What
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Speaker 2: a what a strange and complicated legacy to leave if
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Speaker 2: you're somebody who's been in this program, and obviously a
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Speaker 2: lot of these guys haven't been here for all four years.
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Speaker 2: Senior nights all across college sports and especially college basketball
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Speaker 2: are so different now, but you know, you still you
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Speaker 2: got a bid farewell to the home floor and in
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Speaker 2: a lot of ways to your career when you're in
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Speaker 2: these situations.
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Speaker 3: So just set the stage for me. Yeah, that's right.
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Speaker 3: It does feel so weird, right, So my era in particular,
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Speaker 3: you know, most athletes were at an institution their entire career.
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Speaker 3: They're lucky they stayed healthy. Obviously, tonight we have James
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Speaker 3: of con Quo and Don mcchanery are two seniors we
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Speaker 3: know for sure don't have any eligibility left, which is
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Speaker 3: saying something in and of itself, and they've been they've
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Speaker 3: been well traveled, both of them. Yeah, it's just different,
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Speaker 3: and I think Sean's for fans, that's a weird thing
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Speaker 3: because they're they're getting more used to it, but I
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Speaker 3: think it's still not their favorite thing. I'm speaking for
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Speaker 3: fans in general, because it's more fun to see an
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Speaker 3: athlete to stud an athlete develop through three years at
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Speaker 3: the same institution. So yeah, it's a weird night. But
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Speaker 3: to Don and James credit, I think they did a
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Speaker 3: really nice job this year in the face of tough circumstances.
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Speaker 3: Anytime you're losing, it's hard man. And I just talked
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Speaker 3: to Don's family down in Tempe. They're great. They were
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Speaker 3: wonderful to spend some time with. Don has been a
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Speaker 3: good leader, He's a kind a kind person. James has
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Speaker 3: been a great leader. He's gives you everything he's got
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Speaker 3: every night. So hopefully some fans come out and say
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Speaker 3: goodbye to him.
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Speaker 2: And obviously final home game on the Huntsman Center floor
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Speaker 2: in Alex Jensen's first head coaching year, which again is
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Speaker 2: a you know, a thing in and of itself.
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Speaker 3: It's been a.
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Speaker 2: Complicated year and he has handled it, I think with
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Speaker 2: you know, various levels of a plumb. I like the
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Speaker 2: way that he's a direct communicator, I know that's been
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Speaker 2: incredibly frustrating for him, but we're going to look back
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Speaker 2: on it when the season's actually over. We can look
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Speaker 2: back on the home run at least, and it has
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Speaker 2: not been a particularly dominant home stand all season long.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I would say he would be the first
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Speaker 3: person to tell you. I can't speak for him, but
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Speaker 3: he'd be the first person to tell you that he's disappointed,
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Speaker 3: you know. And there are lots of levels of that,
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Speaker 3: but I think the number one level is, you know,
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Speaker 3: early in the season we were talking about he himself
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Speaker 3: had never go from you know, an athlete that's crazy
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Speaker 3: in and of his self talking about, you know, for
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Speaker 3: your career at the University of Utah, never losing a
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Speaker 3: game with the Huntsman Center, to you know, the first
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Speaker 3: couple of games, first half, you know, five, six look
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Speaker 3: pretty good and then it's been rough. Since then, it's
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Speaker 3: a rough year. And Yeah, I think now they have
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Speaker 3: a better understanding, the staff and Chris Jensen, of what
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Speaker 3: the Big twelve is, of what college basketball is, and
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Speaker 3: maybe even more so about the type of student athletes
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Speaker 3: that they're going to bring into the program to run
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Speaker 3: the offense and the defense that they want to run
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Speaker 3: and you know, yeah, hopefully Sean, you and I and
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Speaker 3: the rest of us can look back at this year
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Speaker 3: and say it was a learning experience.
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Speaker 2: Well, there there is always you know, we've we've used
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Speaker 2: every cliche possible right when we're talking about a rebuild,
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Speaker 2: it's like, all right, are we are we tearing down
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Speaker 2: the old house? Are we laying the foundation? Are we
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Speaker 2: just doing the concrete work?
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Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 2: But there has to be a starting point in all
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Speaker 2: of these processes. And it's a complicated process.
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Speaker 3: Now yeah, so yeah, how complicated has it been?
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Speaker 2: And is it the start you were hoping for?
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Speaker 3: No? Heck no, it's not the start I was hoping for.
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Speaker 3: It's not to start anybody was hoping for. And I
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Speaker 3: say that, and I think I say that with the
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Speaker 3: same energy that coach Jenson would say it with. Right again,
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Speaker 3: I can't speak for him, but no, I mean I
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Speaker 3: even said to suspence at the end in the Crown Tournament,
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Speaker 3: Shiney and I called that game together that I thought
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Speaker 3: the one hallmark that because Jensen was going to bring
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Speaker 3: and he did this with the can't can't charge the
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Speaker 3: D League G League team did he coached was a
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Speaker 3: you know, a solid defense. I don't honestly think you
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Speaker 3: have to be superiorly talented to be good defensively, and
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Speaker 3: we haven't been. We have gotten better as the year
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Speaker 3: has ended. I think communication is a big key effective communication,
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Speaker 3: and I think that he is transparent and that's going
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Speaker 3: to bode well for him as a coach. And the
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Speaker 3: staff is it's a really it's a nice staff to
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Speaker 3: hang out with. Coach Chill, Coach Schiller, Coach Daniels. I
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Speaker 3: think they're given it, they're all but yeah, no, I
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Speaker 3: think this year has been a disappoint I know from
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Speaker 3: my standpoint, Sean, you can appreciate this man when you
6:34
Speaker 3: get to the end of the game and you're asking us.
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Speaker 3: First of all, it's hard to interview a coach at
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Speaker 3: the end of the game, regardless of winner or not.
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Speaker 3: But when they're losses, it gets harder and harder, and
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Speaker 3: you can only come up with so many, you know,
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Speaker 3: kind of in between statements about what happened, really like
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Speaker 3: the last game, af you he just I asked the
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Speaker 3: question and he just basically said, yeah, I know we
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Speaker 3: were really selfish and I'm not gonna initially pose that question,
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Speaker 3: but yeah, obviously this has not been the year that
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Speaker 3: I think anyone wanted.
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Speaker 2: So moving to the Big Twelve at large, right, I
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Speaker 2: mean your place in this conference. You have to color
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Speaker 2: it with realism and say, all right, yeah, in order
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Speaker 2: to get from where this team is right now, which
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Speaker 2: is not exactly impressive, to where you want to be,
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Speaker 2: it is a steep and potentially very long climb. We
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Speaker 2: watched a Big Monday game last night and Arizona claims
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Speaker 2: the regular season title, and the distance between where Utahs
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Speaker 2: at and where they're at right now is it's a
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Speaker 2: massive gap. But that's true of even teams at the
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Speaker 2: middle of the pack, and even pretty good teams in
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Speaker 2: the Big Twelve right now when we're chasing Arizona. How
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Speaker 2: good are the Wildcats right now?
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Speaker 3: Oh, Sean, I mean, they're exceptional. So we got to
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Speaker 3: see them the first game of the year, and so
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Speaker 3: I'm now, you know, eighteen games later. Of course I've
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Speaker 3: watched them, and I follow Immy Lloyd. I have the
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Speaker 3: pleasure of being friends with some people that are involved
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Speaker 3: at Gonzaga on a pretty in a really nice way,
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Speaker 3: so I kind of have known a little bit about him.
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Speaker 3: And then, of course, being in this basketball world, you
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Speaker 3: know it hard not to appreciate what Mark Few has done,
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Speaker 3: and then Tommy Lloyd comes down to Arizona and just
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Speaker 3: continues to do it in Arizona, I mean across the board.
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Speaker 3: I think they playing away in Frankfurt, Schilli said of
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Speaker 3: last night Shine, you heard it. They play in a
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Speaker 3: very physically intimidating way, not intimidating like you're scared of them,
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Speaker 3: but they just demand what they want to have happened.
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Speaker 3: They demand it with their physicality, with their bodies, the
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Speaker 3: way they play, and they don't you to me like
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Speaker 3: they're team that's really connected and they have the right
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Speaker 3: kind of college pieces, not necessarily next level. Now Braidon
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Speaker 3: Barry's next level code, Pete Karchenko, they may all be
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Speaker 3: next level and Jade and Bradley a senior guard. No,
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Speaker 3: I think they have the whole packaging. I say, just
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Speaker 3: a couple weeks ago, it goes through Houston and guess
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Speaker 3: what it doesn't shine, it goes to Arizona. Good on them, man,
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Speaker 3: I like them a lot.
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Speaker 2: Who is the biggest threat to the Wildcats as we
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Speaker 2: get to Big twelve tournament and then NCAA is a
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Speaker 2: different thing.
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Speaker 3: So starting with the Big twelve. Yeah, I mean like
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Speaker 3: it's got to be Houston, I Alway State, Kansas, Texas Tech,
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Speaker 3: even with Texas Tech having lost GT topping. And I
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Speaker 3: think the reason those three those four teams that I
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Speaker 3: just mentioned are there is because of their defense. At
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Speaker 3: any given night, you know, you've got to be able
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Speaker 3: to defend Arizona, and Arizona is really tough to defend
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Speaker 3: because they're old school, right, they score in the paint.
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Speaker 3: And then when you have a guard like Braydon Berrys
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Speaker 3: who is off the charts good next level player, and
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Speaker 3: a senior guard like Jane Bradley and makes them even
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Speaker 3: more effective. And then when delar So, when Cope goes down,
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Speaker 3: I a'lsoon you see delar So who can really shoot
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Speaker 3: it and stretch it, and his defender has to stay
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Speaker 3: with them in a little better. But those those four
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Speaker 3: teams that I mentioned can do it because of their defense,
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Speaker 3: and then they're and then their leadership. You know, they
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Speaker 3: all have really good leadership. Kansas is like they're gonna
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Speaker 3: gel like and when they gel, they're really good, and
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Speaker 3: in particular I think because of Meloyn Council. But any
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Speaker 3: of those teams are going to compete with Arizona in
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Speaker 3: the Big Twelve Championship. But I want to say this,
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Speaker 3: I don't care what the tournament says. Regular season champions
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Speaker 3: are who I'm going to hang my hat on every year.
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Speaker 3: I wish we didn't have a tournament. I know that's
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Speaker 3: not the right thing for me to say, but I'm
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Speaker 3: a Kach mcjeris guy, and I think it's silly. You
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Speaker 3: just want to through the whole regular season determine your champion.
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Speaker 3: I know why we do it, Sean, but that's the
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Speaker 3: team that should, you know, be the regular season champions
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Speaker 3: and the only champions.
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Speaker 2: The tournament is going to be played on.
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Speaker 3: An iPad. Basically, it's no man, I don't have enough
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Speaker 3: to your listeners.
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Speaker 2: I don't have an unbiased opinion on this because I
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Speaker 2: my friend invented and owns the patents to this version
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Speaker 2: of it on your Yeah, so it's like I'm rooting
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Speaker 2: for this floor to be a success for his sake.
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Speaker 3: But yeah, you know you played high level basketball.
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Speaker 2: Tell me the challenges, tell me what you like about it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, okay, Sean, that's cool that your friend invented it,
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Speaker 3: and I hope, I hope it just takes off. It's
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Speaker 3: so for the listeners who don't know, Basically, we're going
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Speaker 3: to be playing on a glass floor that's under lit,
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Speaker 3: and so it's going to be able to show the
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Speaker 3: home teams all of their normal insignia and branding, and
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Speaker 3: then it's going to have like its own show underneath,
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Speaker 3: just like you said, like an iPad, and like what
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Speaker 3: I've heard directly from players who have played on, it's
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Speaker 3: only people that I know that have actually played on
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Speaker 3: under our women's team, and they said it was fine,
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Speaker 3: that it felt sticky, like one of the nice things
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Speaker 3: about a wood floor is it's sticky. And then I
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Speaker 3: see have an even bounce. Everything I've heard is it's
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Speaker 3: going to be grippy enough and the bounce is good.
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Speaker 3: The bounce is even, and then it's got enough of
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Speaker 3: space scene underneath it, so it's got a little spring
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Speaker 3: in it. I'm the jury's will be there, we'll be
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Speaker 3: on top of it, and we'll be I'll be able
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Speaker 3: to tell you more next week, but I'm interested. It's
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Speaker 3: going to be better than the floor last year. In
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Speaker 3: my opinion, I thought it was too busy, and I
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Speaker 3: think it's going to be really cool to see what
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Speaker 3: they decided to do from a light show standpoint.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Big Twelve announced that wind Decks is the
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Speaker 2: sponsor of the floor, which makes sense a glass floor,
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Speaker 2: smart glass cleaner. So yeah, they're you know, full on
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Speaker 2: commercials running on the actual basketball floor while timeouts are happening.
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Speaker 2: It's it's a new era of branding for certain, for
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Speaker 2: the Big Twelve and everyone else who plays on it.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, I'll be curious to pick your brain about
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Speaker 2: that after you've seen it up close and maybe got
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Speaker 2: a chance to bounce around on it.
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Speaker 3: They will. Yeah, I'm excited to see it myself sewn.
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Speaker 2: All right, Well, I have a good call on Senior
12:58
Speaker 2: night and we'll chat again very soon.
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Speaker 3: Thanks Sean, Okay, thanks to appreciate thanks shoving me on.
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Speaker 3: Talk to you bout. That's Sean Mooney.
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Speaker 2: When he joins us, we affectually referred to it as
13:08
Speaker 2: the walk Shaans because he was walking I was walking
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Speaker 2: on at Utah walk.
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Speaker 3: Shots get it? Do you get it?