Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Ari Temkin on Big 12 basketball, Who's the best team in the conference (?), What does the loss of Richie Saunders do to BYU's expectation...

Transcript

Ari Temkin on Big 12 basketball, Who's the best team in the conference (?), What does the loss of Richie Saunders do to BYU's expectation... · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Belong with me, yemy, and I can tell it one
0:07
Speaker 1: belong with me.
0:12
Speaker 2: This it's by Sean O'Connell show.
0:14
Speaker 1: You were home of the best game, side of your use.
0:17
Speaker 3: Let's get back to WOC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
0:20
Speaker 3: of ESPN seven hundred ninety two one am.
0:25
Speaker 2: We're gonna get our attemcon on here in just a second. Uh.
0:28
Speaker 3: The the world of realignment never slows down in college sports.
0:34
Speaker 2: I'm sure you saw over the weekend that.
0:37
Speaker 3: Sacramento State is joining the MAC, climbing the ladder from
0:41
Speaker 3: the fcs UP into Division One Football and paying a
0:46
Speaker 3: heck of a lot of money to do so. They've
0:47
Speaker 3: got to pay an eighteen million dollar entrance fees, six
0:50
Speaker 3: six million of which is due this year. They take
0:53
Speaker 3: no revenue from the MAC, which doesn't exactly have huge
0:56
Speaker 3: revenue anyway, and they have to pay for visiting teams
1:01
Speaker 3: to fly to California to play them because the MAC,
1:05
Speaker 3: of course is a Midwestern league, and so sax State
1:09
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, we'll pay for you to fly out here.
1:12
Speaker 3: They must have some kind of billionaire donor I'm not
1:14
Speaker 3: aware of at Sacramento State, because financially it seems like
1:18
Speaker 3: it doesn't make a ton of sense, although I don't know.
1:21
Speaker 3: Maybe if you jump in and somehow qualify for a
1:25
Speaker 3: playoff berth even then how.
1:26
Speaker 2: Would that it doesn't make sense.
1:30
Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neal is there acting basketball GM. I'm sure he
1:33
Speaker 3: puts a lot of hours a week into that job. Anyway, Realignment,
1:37
Speaker 3: it never stops, baby, college sports never stops.
1:41
Speaker 2: Our next guest is a big friend of the program.
1:43
Speaker 3: He's joined us through all a football season and now
1:46
Speaker 3: basketball season. Ari Tempkin coming off the long weekend. Welcome Mario,
1:50
Speaker 3: how are you?
1:52
Speaker 1: I'm great man, how are you doing all right?
1:54
Speaker 2: Sax State to the MAC? React, Kili Brennan.
1:59
Speaker 1: Mariano leave sax State to become the officsive coordinator of
2:02
Speaker 1: Colorado and all this time he could have led Sacramento
2:06
Speaker 1: State into the MAC. You know, it felt all joking aside,
2:10
Speaker 1: like the MAC was kind of the one conference that
2:13
Speaker 1: was never going to give in, was still going to
2:15
Speaker 1: be regional. I mean, it's like perfect in terms of
2:19
Speaker 1: the composition. And now they've I guess for survival, have
2:24
Speaker 1: gone well beyond that Ohio Illinois region all the way
2:29
Speaker 1: to Sacramento, California, so like the MAC was great because
2:33
Speaker 1: we knew it. We've seen it. I mean, we knew
2:35
Speaker 1: Toledo and Acrid and northern Illinois and you know, eastern Michigan,
2:40
Speaker 1: and I mean like we've always known the geographic spot
2:44
Speaker 1: and footprints, and it feels like the one that's kind
2:47
Speaker 1: of always stayed true. And yet now here we are
2:50
Speaker 1: with all of those regions in Michigan and Illinois and
2:53
Speaker 1: Ohio and California.
2:56
Speaker 3: Very strange, very strange, indeed. But let's talk about the
3:00
Speaker 3: Big Twelve Conference. The Big Twelve Basketball Conference is drunk
3:03
Speaker 3: and needs to go home. Even at the top, you've
3:06
Speaker 3: got all these really good teams Houston, Arizona, Iowa State,
3:11
Speaker 3: Kansas all in the top ten right now. Texas Tech
3:14
Speaker 3: and BYU are top twenty five teams. And you've got
3:18
Speaker 3: you know, the West Virginia Mountaineers causing problems for a
3:22
Speaker 3: couple of folks. TCU will harass and harangue you every
3:25
Speaker 3: now and again. Who right now, though, is the best team?
3:29
Speaker 3: Is there a clear best team in the Big Twelve.
3:32
Speaker 1: No. I think one thing that's clear is there's a
3:35
Speaker 1: best five, and depending on where the teams play, is
3:40
Speaker 1: going to go a long way in deciding who wins
3:42
Speaker 1: the game. I mean, home court advantage is very real
3:46
Speaker 1: in college basketball. And you know, I've set all season
3:50
Speaker 1: like you've got to you got to take your business
3:52
Speaker 1: at home, win your home games, you know, and then
3:54
Speaker 1: split on the road to give yourself a chance to
3:56
Speaker 1: win the Big Twelve. And I think what we're seeing
3:57
Speaker 1: is that playing out in real time right now. I
4:00
Speaker 1: love the way the back twelve, the Big twelve has
4:02
Speaker 1: backloaded its schedule because we're getting seemingly final four matchups
4:06
Speaker 1: every night. You know, we had we had Michigan, or
4:09
Speaker 1: rather Houston and Iowa State last night, which was incredible,
4:13
Speaker 1: lived up to the billing. And then you know, we
4:15
Speaker 1: get Arizona and Houston on Saturday, and then Arizona turns
4:18
Speaker 1: around on Monday and goes to Awnfield House. So you know,
4:21
Speaker 1: just when you thought you had both the things figured out,
4:24
Speaker 1: it goes in a completely different direction. You know, the
4:27
Speaker 1: top five teams of the Big twelve, Texas Tech, Houston, Kansas,
4:31
Speaker 1: Iowa State, and Arizona, they have combined those five to
4:36
Speaker 1: go seventy and oh outside quad one. All five of
4:41
Speaker 1: those are also top sixteen in the net and top
4:44
Speaker 1: sixteen and the Ken Palm. The ACC, the SEC, and
4:48
Speaker 1: the Big East combined have five teams in the top
4:53
Speaker 1: sixteen of the Ken Palm and top sixteen of the NET.
4:56
Speaker 1: The Big Ten is the only conference that comes close.
4:59
Speaker 1: They have five teams in the top fifteen of those
5:01
Speaker 1: two categories. But I would say that the Big Twelve
5:04
Speaker 1: is still better due to the fact that Michigan, Michigan State,
5:09
Speaker 1: and Illinois all have losses outside of Quad one. They've
5:12
Speaker 1: loss es in Quad two. Again, the top five teas
5:14
Speaker 1: of Big Twelve are seventy and oh against Quad two,
5:17
Speaker 1: Quad three, and Quad four opponents. So you know, there's
5:20
Speaker 1: a ton of ways to spin it, but this conference
5:23
Speaker 1: is loaded. It's perfect the way this thing has, you know,
5:27
Speaker 1: shaken out in terms of the schedule with it being backloaded.
5:30
Speaker 1: And I just I don't think these losses hurt the
5:33
Speaker 1: Big Twelve in the same way they might have maybe
5:35
Speaker 1: earlier this season. Like I don't think Houston losing last
5:37
Speaker 1: night hurts them, you know, especially given Houston just wants
5:41
Speaker 1: to get to the South Region to play Sweet sixteen
5:43
Speaker 1: and the lead eight games in Houston, So you know,
5:46
Speaker 1: as a two seed, they're fine in that South region.
5:49
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it's we're gonna see a lot
5:51
Speaker 1: of this, and you know, I guess I could say
5:54
Speaker 1: that OC until somebody else wins it. Houston's won this
5:57
Speaker 1: conference two years in a row, so I go with them.
6:00
Speaker 1: But I mean they looked beatable. They obviously lost last night,
6:03
Speaker 1: and you know we've seen Iowa State in Kansas split
6:06
Speaker 1: their home and home. You know, Arizona's now lost two
6:08
Speaker 1: straight Texas Tech. This stat is incredible. You know, Duke,
6:13
Speaker 1: Houston and Arizona have six losses total on the season.
6:17
Speaker 1: Texas Tech has given those three teams three half of
6:20
Speaker 1: their total losses. So those are three enormous wins the
6:23
Speaker 1: Texas Tech has, including on Saturday at Arizona. So that's
6:27
Speaker 1: just kind of the way it goes right now. In
6:29
Speaker 1: the Big twelve, it is loaded, especially at the top.
6:32
Speaker 3: All right, Tim, can I guess here on the Sean
6:34
Speaker 3: O'Connell show, what can you get out of claiming national
6:38
Speaker 3: supremacy in college hoops? Obviously for the Big ten in
6:41
Speaker 3: the SEC battling it out to say they're the kings
6:44
Speaker 3: of college football, that that has a certain amount of
6:48
Speaker 3: power and financial you know, gain from from having that
6:52
Speaker 3: status in college hoops? What can the Big Twelve if
6:56
Speaker 3: you can successfully win a national championship position yourself as
6:59
Speaker 3: they now crowned Kings definitively of college hoops? What could
7:04
Speaker 3: it do for the conference in a big picture standpoint?
7:08
Speaker 1: A great question, and you know, I think the short
7:11
Speaker 1: answer is, I'm not really sure. Longer answer though, I mean,
7:15
Speaker 1: obviously doesn't mean a ton relative to football, because we
7:19
Speaker 1: know that football is driving the bus. But what I
7:22
Speaker 1: can tell you is that you know, this freshman class
7:24
Speaker 1: is absolutely loaded, especially in the Big Twelve when you
7:27
Speaker 1: look at aj Debonza and Darren Peterson and Coo Pete
7:30
Speaker 1: and Kingston Flemings, And I do think that playing in
7:34
Speaker 1: the best league in America means something to incoming freshmen.
7:37
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not going to change next year. Kansas,
7:39
Speaker 1: you know, is in very much. So is the favorite
7:42
Speaker 1: Peers to land. Tyron Stokes is their won player in
7:44
Speaker 1: next year's class. So I think, like big picture OC,
7:48
Speaker 1: it definitely shows, you know, the the ability for this
7:51
Speaker 1: conference as a whole to sell to freshmen stud you know,
7:56
Speaker 1: NBA going freshmen that you can come to the Big
7:59
Speaker 1: Twelve and playing the second best league in America besides
8:02
Speaker 1: the NBA. You know, aside from that, it'd be very
8:05
Speaker 1: interesting to see how these the TV ratings shakeout. You know,
8:09
Speaker 1: I'd imagine last night's Big Monday did a really big number.
8:12
Speaker 1: You know, the college basketball right now is seeing incredible
8:15
Speaker 1: growth year over year in terms of their audience, and
8:18
Speaker 1: the NBA is almost having the inverse, And I think
8:21
Speaker 1: those two things could be related. I think there are
8:23
Speaker 1: a lot of people that have tuned in to watch
8:24
Speaker 1: college basketball this year given how good the freshman classes.
8:27
Speaker 1: And again that's a lot of that's centered on the
8:29
Speaker 1: Big Twelve. So yeah, I mean, look, this is a
8:32
Speaker 1: conference that historically was carried by Kansas in that brand,
8:37
Speaker 1: and you know, now when you look at Arizona has
8:39
Speaker 1: a huge brand, and you know, so they bring that
8:42
Speaker 1: to the table. But then beyond that, I mean, you've
8:44
Speaker 1: got great basketball. I Aowa stayed as a consistent winner
8:47
Speaker 1: in basketball. Texas Tech has been a consistent winner in basketball.
8:51
Speaker 1: You know, I mean Houston under Kelvin Sampson has been
8:53
Speaker 1: a consistent winner in basketball. So you know, I think
8:55
Speaker 1: you've sort of have a combination of great brands that
8:57
Speaker 1: are going to draw huge audiences in conjunction with you know,
9:01
Speaker 1: three elite programs right now at sort of the pinnacle
9:04
Speaker 1: of their success.
9:09
Speaker 3: How big a loss is Richie Saunders for BYU in
9:12
Speaker 3: your opinion.
9:13
Speaker 1: Oh, it's it's huge. It's I mean, it's going to
9:17
Speaker 1: completely sabotage their season. I mean, and you have to
9:20
Speaker 1: mention that in conjunction with the fact that this team
9:23
Speaker 1: had depth issues. They are three hundred and fifty first
9:26
Speaker 1: in bench scoring BYU. They're three hundred and sixty three
9:29
Speaker 1: teams a Division one. They're three hundred and fifty first
9:32
Speaker 1: at bench scoring. So like this was an issue. Before
9:34
Speaker 1: the Saunders injury. They were a big three and couldn't
9:38
Speaker 1: really get much scoring outside of it. Now they're a
9:40
Speaker 1: big two. I also think, you know, Kevin Young's got
9:43
Speaker 1: to figure out some things defensively with his program in
9:45
Speaker 1: this offseason, because you know, once again, this is a
9:47
Speaker 1: team that needs to score eighty ninety points to consistently win.
9:50
Speaker 1: And Saunders is a guy that very underratedly was averaging
9:53
Speaker 1: just less than two steals per game this season. So
9:56
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you had on defense, which wasn't much,
9:59
Speaker 1: Saunders was giving it to you. So yeah, I mean
10:02
Speaker 1: and that not to even mentioned the leadership, the fact
10:05
Speaker 1: that you know he's been around the program as long
10:07
Speaker 1: as he has, like all that stuff is irreplaceable. So,
10:09
Speaker 1: you know, just a devastating loss for BYU and what's been,
10:13
Speaker 1: you know, a pretty disappointing season.
10:17
Speaker 3: When we talk about whether or not the the disappointment
10:21
Speaker 3: of the season is something that changes strategy, I mean
10:24
Speaker 3: it's not just a BYU question. It's for every team
10:28
Speaker 3: that swings big from an NIL standpoint of recruiting, transfer,
10:33
Speaker 3: portal standpoint, whatever, and it doesn't bear the fruit that
10:37
Speaker 3: you hope that it would. And again not just BYU basketball.
10:41
Speaker 3: We see teams do that. Texas Tech did this in football.
10:43
Speaker 3: They made it to a playoff and had a disastrous
10:47
Speaker 3: showing in that playoff. What is the response to that
10:51
Speaker 3: disappointment you think for most of these teams in the
10:53
Speaker 3: Big twelve, especially the Big Twelve teams that don't have
10:57
Speaker 3: the same level of financial windfall coming from a conference
11:01
Speaker 3: television rights deal.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean I think look
11:07
Speaker 1: specific to BYU. You know, we know that b YU
11:09
Speaker 1: has spent a lot of money on its roster, and
11:11
Speaker 1: you know, these last two years they've they've kind of
11:14
Speaker 1: you know, crashed at the biggest moments of the season.
11:17
Speaker 1: I still think Kevin Young is a really good coach.
11:20
Speaker 1: I just think culturally speaking, he's got to change. I
11:23
Speaker 1: think he's got to take a long, hard look at
11:24
Speaker 1: this program in the offseason and figure out a way
11:26
Speaker 1: to get them, you know, more physically and more defensive
11:30
Speaker 1: oriented from a cultural standpoint, because you know, again, like
11:34
Speaker 1: when I watched Houston and BYU, even with BYU at
11:36
Speaker 1: full strength, like this is it's a tie game coming
11:39
Speaker 1: down the stretch, and you know who's going to win
11:41
Speaker 1: because one team just has a culture of physicality and
11:44
Speaker 1: defense and the other does not. And it's an offensive
11:47
Speaker 1: team and that's just the culture that that they have.
11:49
Speaker 1: So I you know, again, I think Kevin Young is
11:52
Speaker 1: a hell of a coach. I think he's going to
11:53
Speaker 1: be successful. I think he's going to be, you know,
11:55
Speaker 1: a coach that could win a national championship, a BUYU.
11:57
Speaker 1: But they've got to figure out defense, because you can't
12:00
Speaker 1: be that bad on defense. I've expect to win six
12:02
Speaker 1: games to the n Sibley Tournament, you know, I think
12:04
Speaker 1: with everybody else, I mean, Case State's a good example, here,
12:07
Speaker 1: Case State has spent a ton of money on their
12:09
Speaker 1: roster and you know it's not it has not been
12:13
Speaker 1: very fruitful for them, to say the least. And you know,
12:16
Speaker 1: so now they're going to be spending close to nineteen
12:19
Speaker 1: million to buy out Jerome Tang the rest of his
12:21
Speaker 1: contract after giving him an extension after his first year
12:24
Speaker 1: when he went to the Elite eight. You know, Kansas
12:26
Speaker 1: is having success in the portal this year, but when
12:28
Speaker 1: you look back the last couple of years, they've been
12:31
Speaker 1: hugely disappointing from a you know, roster management talent standpoint.
12:34
Speaker 1: They've had a lot of talent, they haven't gotten the
12:36
Speaker 1: buy in. I mean, they had you know, so much
12:38
Speaker 1: talent last year and that team was super disappointing. This
12:41
Speaker 1: year was the exact opposite. You know, Melvin Counsel is
12:43
Speaker 1: a guy that sort of came out of nowhere and
12:46
Speaker 1: you know has become like a cult hero for this team.
12:50
Speaker 1: So you know, look, you're going to get bites at
12:53
Speaker 1: the apple, You're going to swing and miss. There's all
12:55
Speaker 1: different components that go into success, and we obviously know
12:57
Speaker 1: that in covering athletics like it takes more than just
13:00
Speaker 1: skill and talent to be good. There's you know, there's
13:03
Speaker 1: got to be, you know, a level of buy in.
13:05
Speaker 1: There's got to be the right pieces have to fit.
13:08
Speaker 1: So you know, again it's not just a straight line
13:11
Speaker 1: between you know, spending and winning. You've got to spend
13:14
Speaker 1: the right way. And I think we're seeing some coaches
13:16
Speaker 1: and teams that are doing it and some that aren't.
13:19
Speaker 3: You mentioned Kansas State, and yes they're on their way
13:22
Speaker 3: to potentially expensive legal battle. They for those who are
13:27
Speaker 3: just tuning into the Kansas State drama, they have fired
13:30
Speaker 3: their head coach, Jerome Tang for cause. And Tang and
13:34
Speaker 3: his attorneyes say it me ranting in a postgame about
13:39
Speaker 3: how these players need to do better is not cause
13:42
Speaker 3: for a firing. How long, complicated, et cetera. Could this
13:47
Speaker 3: situation get to? What do you think the ultimate outcome is?
13:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the ultimate outcome here is that Trump Tang
13:53
Speaker 1: gets paid every single dollar that he's owed. And you know,
13:56
Speaker 1: Kansas State should probably limit the amount of agg on
13:58
Speaker 1: its face and there to look across the state at
14:01
Speaker 1: Milele Mater and the mistakes that they made under Jeff
14:04
Speaker 1: Long with David Beatty as evidence of why they shouldn't
14:08
Speaker 1: drag this out. You know, if you recall when Jeff Long, who,
14:12
Speaker 1: for my money, had the worst tenure of any athletic
14:14
Speaker 1: director in the history of the Power five when he
14:17
Speaker 1: was at Kansas. I mean, just look at his wake
14:19
Speaker 1: of destruction ineptitude in three years as the administrator a
14:24
Speaker 1: d at Kansas. But I digress. He wanted to hire
14:26
Speaker 1: his buddy Les Miles. He wanted to fire David Baty
14:29
Speaker 1: and didn't want to pay the buyout, and so he
14:31
Speaker 1: thought he'd get cute and creative and fire him for cause.
14:34
Speaker 1: And you know, they tried to basically say that, oh
14:38
Speaker 1: he was cheating. They self reported cheating and that wasn't
14:40
Speaker 1: even a fireball for cause offense. So basically this thing
14:44
Speaker 1: played out legally. They still had to pay the full buyout,
14:47
Speaker 1: they had to pay their lawyers. Then in the court
14:49
Speaker 1: of public opinion, they looked atrocious. They'd egg on their face.
14:52
Speaker 1: So I mean, there's just no way this ends with
14:55
Speaker 1: how case State wants this to. I think what they
14:57
Speaker 1: had here as a president that simply did not want
14:59
Speaker 1: to pay nineteen million to fire Drome Tang, and they
15:02
Speaker 1: could not continue with Tang because of how bad it
15:04
Speaker 1: was this year, and so they were probably trying to
15:06
Speaker 1: find a way to at least get out of some
15:08
Speaker 1: of it and maybe negotiate a smaller buyout. But drum
15:12
Speaker 1: Tang has no reason to accept anything less than when
15:14
Speaker 1: he's totally owed. And that's why you hired Tom Marris,
15:16
Speaker 1: because that's exactly what he's gonna get.
15:19
Speaker 3: It's, uh, it's going to be interesting to see how
15:22
Speaker 3: that thing plays out. Ari Arizona BYU tomorrow. Do the
15:27
Speaker 3: Kougs have a chance.
15:31
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean anytime you've got a guy at
15:35
Speaker 1: the talent level of aj Demansa and Rob Right, you
15:37
Speaker 1: got a chance. But with the Arizona coming out two
15:42
Speaker 1: streat losses, yeah, it feels like that that's a slim chance.
15:47
Speaker 1: And you know, look, the style that Arizona plays like,
15:50
Speaker 1: it's antithetical to how modern basketball is played right, where
15:54
Speaker 1: teams are pace in space and shooting threes. I mean,
15:57
Speaker 1: they are not a high volume, high percentage three point
15:59
Speaker 1: shooting team. They beat you with bully ball, they're physical,
16:02
Speaker 1: they win you on the glass, they win inside. That
16:05
Speaker 1: does not play well onto BYU's weaknesses at all. We
16:08
Speaker 1: just talked about, you know how Houston just out physical
16:10
Speaker 1: them down the stretch, and it just feels like they
16:12
Speaker 1: need a team of more Kiva Catas than they have.
16:16
Speaker 1: And so, I mean, they're gonna get more of that
16:18
Speaker 1: from Arizona, and especially a team that's coming off two
16:20
Speaker 1: straight losses after being starting the season twenty three. And oh,
16:23
Speaker 1: so he got a shot. You've got an NBA talent
16:25
Speaker 1: who's gonna be the number two overall pick. You know,
16:28
Speaker 1: I would, I would imagine on your team. And Rob
16:31
Speaker 1: Wright is I mean, he went for thirty nine wherever
16:33
Speaker 1: the other night, So yeah, shot when he got those
16:35
Speaker 1: two guys. But yeah, I just think the physicality, the
16:38
Speaker 1: rebounding of the defense is gonna be too much an
16:39
Speaker 1: overwhelm BYU.
16:41
Speaker 2: All Right, it's always great picking your brain. Appreciate your time.
16:43
Speaker 1: Sir, take care of ceeb well brother.
16:46
Speaker 3: All right, Timkin Big twelve today on tune in Radio,
16:51
Speaker 3: really really great encyclopedia of knowledge on all things college
16:54
Speaker 3: sports and the yeah, the Kansas State thing. We could
16:58
Speaker 3: have spent a lot more time on the head today. Yeah,
17:02
Speaker 3: we talked about it last week. Jerome Tang was like, Hey,
17:06
Speaker 3: it's an embarrassment the way these guys are playing. You
17:10
Speaker 3: got to earn this uniform, all these like angry coach
17:15
Speaker 3: cliche stuff. Kansas State was like, well, it's not going
17:19
Speaker 3: very well. Let's use that as cause to fire him.
17:24
Speaker 3: He's held like fourteen million bucks or something.
17:29
Speaker 2: Not smart.
17:32
Speaker 3: One last segment to come a little cross talk with
17:34
Speaker 3: Spence Check its what are we giving away this week?
17:38
Speaker 3: Breaking Benjamin is taking over the Utah First Credit Union
17:41
Speaker 3: Amphitheater September thirtieth. We'll have a topical trivia question for
17:45
Speaker 3: you in order to give those tickets away. It's a
17:49
Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM