Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sean Mooney on Michigan's national championship, Transfer Portal open, Recruits joining the Runnin Utes + more

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Sean Mooney on Michigan's national championship, Transfer Portal open, Recruits joining the Runnin Utes + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: If you were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: two one half.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Am, It's time for two walk Shawns, Sean O'Connell and
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Sean Mooney combining forces here.
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  Speaker 3: Talk a little hoop Sean Mooney, Welcome to the show.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: How are you shout out of him? Good? I like
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: the Walkstimes. We got to coin that and go on
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: the road with it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: My brother, we need to print some T shirts whatever.
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  Speaker 4: Right, I like it. Well, at least we'll like it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: It need be our wives, and they may be the
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  Speaker 4: only two, but at least we'll enjoy it.
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  Speaker 3: I'll make my wife buy a T shirt that she'll
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  Speaker 3: never wear. It'll be great.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, good, that's exactly right. You got to get the
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: right kind of T shirt, right, Oh my gosh.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Depressing. All right, let's talk a little hoop man.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Michigan National Champions and look, it was a good game.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: It was a fun game to watch.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I was a little worried with how dominant Michigan has
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  Speaker 1: been throughout the course of the tournament that it was
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: going to be kind of like the Michigan Arizona game
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  Speaker 1: was I was looking forward to that contest and then
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  Speaker 1: it was a dud.
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  Speaker 3: But National Championship game delivered.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and look look at Dusty May's I mean,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: talk about doing it in style with the new type
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  Speaker 4: of NCAA basketball, with all transfers and the best player
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: in their team exil y Exel comes from UAB before
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: that Arizona Western. I mean, come on, obviously, what Dusty
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  Speaker 4: Mays did this year in Michigan is something really really special.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, they had a point guard that I
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  Speaker 4: thought was the best point guard in the tournament. I
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  Speaker 4: wouldn't have said that before I saw him dismantle Arizona.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I'm biased with Jaden Bradley, but Arizona defensively couldn't defend
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  Speaker 4: Mara at the rim. And you know, yesterday saw Connecticut.
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  Speaker 4: I loved the game because it was it was a
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  Speaker 4: dog fight defensively, which is my favorite kind of game.
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  Speaker 4: I know a lot of people don't like it, but
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  Speaker 4: Connecticut defended mar really well and what a game man.
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  Speaker 4: And I'm not I'm not a like Dan Hurley. I
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  Speaker 4: think he's either you're either podd or cold on that guy.
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  Speaker 4: And I've usually been pretty cold because he seems arrogant
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  Speaker 4: to me. But gosh, he's a good coach and he
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  Speaker 4: did a good job with the team that had a
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  Speaker 4: lot of success.
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  Speaker 1: On when Solo Ball banked in that three point shot
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  Speaker 1: to bring it back within four, and you see, you
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  Speaker 1: see him kind of like, I mean, it's as intense
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  Speaker 1: a moment as you're gonna find in a basketball game,
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  Speaker 1: and the camera goes over to the huddle and he's
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  Speaker 1: looking at his player.
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  Speaker 3: Just like, Wow, you banged that one. Man.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, all right, maybe this guy. Maybe there
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: is some likable stuff in there with this guy.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, like there's obviously likable stuff in this regard,
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  Speaker 4: Like it feels like his athletes really like him, and
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  Speaker 4: he seems genuine, you know when he's talking to them
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  Speaker 4: and like that, look you that's a really good moment.
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  Speaker 4: Because I saw that as well, and he looked like,
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  Speaker 4: come on, Solo, did you call glass? I mean, he
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  Speaker 4: he he seems to be like that kind of coach
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  Speaker 4: and obviously he's fiery, and I think the thing that
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  Speaker 4: I haven't liked about him is just because he seems
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  Speaker 4: to whine a lot on the sideline. But frankly, you know,
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  Speaker 4: that's his job, it's not the athlete's job. And and man,
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  Speaker 4: that team, they're really good. I listened to the pressure
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: this morning and just listening to Caravan Hugh, you know,
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  Speaker 4: is the opposite of that. The new athlete who's transferred.
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  Speaker 4: He's been there the entire time. They obviously really liked
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  Speaker 4: each other, And obviously that always has a lot to
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  Speaker 4: do with success in any any part of life, but
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  Speaker 4: in particular in a in a team sport.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Uh, We're going to get to the Utah promise, but
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  Speaker 1: I want to I'm asking a bunch of big picture stuff. First,
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  Speaker 1: Mike Malone, I love it comes back from NBA basketball.
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  Speaker 1: It's the first time in twenty five years he'll be
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  Speaker 1: coaching college ball. He's never been a college head coach,
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  Speaker 1: and he gets one of the big blue blood jobs
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  Speaker 1: in the land taking over this North Carolina program.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think of that? Higher? What do you
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  Speaker 3: think of his chances for success?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a Mike Malone fan. I love what
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  Speaker 4: he did at the NBA level. Defensively, I thought his
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: teams have always been exceptional. I mean, what a higher
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  Speaker 4: that seems to be a Press Conference winner. So you know,
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  Speaker 4: some people would argue, and they may be the people
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: in logan, they would argue this that you don't need
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: to win the press conference, you just need to win
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  Speaker 4: the battle. During the year, we'll see whether Mike Malone
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  Speaker 4: came to it. Obviously he's going to have the resources.
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  Speaker 4: U NC is a great I thought Youbert Davis following
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  Speaker 4: a legend is about as heart a gig as you
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  Speaker 4: can get. No one wanted to follow Rick mcjeris when
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  Speaker 4: he left, and you know, in suit it may be
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  Speaker 4: hard for Mike Malone, but I mean, I like his style.
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  Speaker 4: I think he's got good empathy just from watching him
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  Speaker 4: interact with his athletes at the NBA level. What do
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  Speaker 4: you think, Sean.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'm curious to see how it works out.
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  Speaker 1: I'm of the opinion now that pro coaches, even if
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  Speaker 1: you've been gone from the college game for however long,
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  Speaker 1: I think pro coaches are going to do well in
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  Speaker 1: college basketball because it's a pro game, right. I think
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  Speaker 1: there used to be a greater separation between the two.
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  Speaker 1: And you know more about this than I, but you
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  Speaker 1: had to be of a certain ilk, you had to
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  Speaker 1: have a certain communications style, you had to know how
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  Speaker 1: to handle these grown men that are making big money
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  Speaker 1: and adult decisions and a lot of college sports, you know,
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  Speaker 1: five ten years ago was about relating to the kids
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  Speaker 1: and babysitting in some respects. And now, I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: just saw a team win a national championship with all transfers.
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  Speaker 1: Like you made the point, right, It's like, if you
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  Speaker 1: can handle free agents in the NBA, you can handle
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  Speaker 1: college basketball now, because that's what it is.
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  Speaker 3: So I think you'll be fine.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And to your point, I think it is more obviously,
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  Speaker 4: you know, you have to handle that, and they become
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  Speaker 4: more of a transaction, and I think maybe that's where
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  Speaker 4: they really separate because I still think that I know,
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  Speaker 4: the NBA on an average is pretty young, but I
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  Speaker 4: think these kids are even younger, and so they I
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  Speaker 4: still think they need some love and they you know,
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  Speaker 4: that's one of the downfalls I think coming from the
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  Speaker 4: pros coming into colleges. You know, they're they're I mean, listen,
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  Speaker 4: let's be real. Always, athletes are only good when they
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  Speaker 4: can do something for the program. Whatever that is got
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  Speaker 4: to be something. And then I think you need to
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  Speaker 4: be kind of nice to them, even though they're making
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  Speaker 4: a lot of money. And I think you need to
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  Speaker 4: treat them not like a transaction. So and then I
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  Speaker 4: think the big thing between the pros and college obviously
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  Speaker 4: is at the defense. Right, So in the NBA you
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  Speaker 4: got to stay one third of the court defensively, it's
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  Speaker 4: a lot different. And also another really big difference is
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  Speaker 4: look at the big Sean. I mean, watch that game
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  Speaker 4: last night. Man, it was high low. You use your
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  Speaker 4: bigs on the block. You get a lot of option
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  Speaker 4: out of going inside and using bigs. And we know
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  Speaker 4: in the NBA it's not a big game those bigs.
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  Speaker 4: All they've got to do is be able to defend
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  Speaker 4: the smalls and the pick and roll. And if they
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  Speaker 4: can't defend the smalls, it's a Smalls game. Then you
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  Speaker 4: don't stay in the NBA unless you have a great
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  Speaker 4: NBA skill set.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Sean Mooney is my guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: talking a little college hoop.
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  Speaker 3: How much I don't like to be overly reductive.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: It's part of the hazard of this new landscape in
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  Speaker 1: college sports where money drives everything. How much of Michigan's
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  Speaker 1: success this year can be attributed to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: they have, you know, among the top ten asset pools
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  Speaker 1: in all of athletic departments across the country. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's what the football program is going to bank on.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: But this basketball national championship, how much credit do we
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: give to the boosters?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's such a good question. Man. Like I'm old school,
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  Speaker 4: so I understand that I have to live in a
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  Speaker 4: modern day and that I have to say that you
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  Speaker 4: have to give let's let's let's give it fifty percent.
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  Speaker 4: Because if Dusty made doesn't do what he does and
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  Speaker 4: does it well, which is he's an effective communicator. I
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  Speaker 4: think he talked a lot about his habits and a
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  Speaker 4: lot about when you get your habits done, then you're
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  Speaker 4: going to have success, irregardless of what happens. Obviously how
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  Speaker 4: he set it up. The team bought into it as
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  Speaker 4: a team. And no matter how much money you have,
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  Speaker 4: if the team doesn't buy into what you're selling, I
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  Speaker 4: don't think it matters at all. As a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 4: you could have all the money in the world. But
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  Speaker 4: if the coach isn't a good leader. And I mean
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  Speaker 4: what I mean by a good leader is he's an
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  Speaker 4: effective communicator and people know their roles and they understand
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  Speaker 4: how they're going to have success as a team, not
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  Speaker 4: just individually. I don't think you win without that, and
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  Speaker 4: I think Curly and Dustin Mays are good examples of that.
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  Speaker 1: All right, now, let's talk about this transfer portal that
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: opened today in college hoops. Yeah, there's you know, some
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  Speaker 1: some important Utah names that have I guess we've known
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  Speaker 1: now for a couple of weeks about guys like Kadu.
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  Speaker 1: The intention was there, and now you can officially do it.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, on the flip side of this, Alex
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  Speaker 1: Jensen and his staff have to replace what's leaving, and
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  Speaker 1: they also have to find a way to upgrade, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: they have to do that against the backdrop of what
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  Speaker 1: we just talked about, you know, a question about asset
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  Speaker 1: availability and things like that. So what do you Where
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  Speaker 1: are you right now with the transfer portal? Transfer portal
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  Speaker 1: opening for Utah men's basketball.
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  Speaker 4: A couple of places. One. I'm glad they moved it
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  Speaker 4: to the end of the NFC tournament. There's only a
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: fifteen day period, which is kind of a not doesn't
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: make a big difference, right, so you can get your
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: name in there. Obviously we caba a couple of years ago.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: The last minute that whole thing went down and Burgess
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  Speaker 4: left and Kiba kind of went with him. I you know,
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: obviously we really wanted KD last year, so I'm sad
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: to see Kadi go. I loved what TV could do
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: as a high volume score would have probably been better
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: for our team if when he broke the paint he
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: passed a little more. That he's going to have a
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: good ride somewhere. Ebie, you know, never really got it
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: going album. We didn't see him. Chapa and Jakai we
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: know about them. Josh was headed out. You know, I
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: think the transfer portal is really interesting because you really
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: do have to go out and you've got to find,
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: in my opinion, you got to find point guards, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: you got to find some that have been pretty good,
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: not only defensively but also distributing the ball and being playmakers.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Especially in our system, Sean, if you can't playmake out
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: of what we do, the offense we run, it's really
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: tough and you got to playmake off its kind of
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: two foot stops and the paint and our short dribbles
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: or nash dribbles. These are just different ways to create
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: an advantage when you draw two players. And then we
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: got some bigs coming in that we're gonna really like.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: You know, we're gonna love the kid from Austria, Finn Shot,
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: who's been playing on the senior men's team with Yaka
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Pertl and Jackson Johnson. The Utah fans are going to
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: be excited. Another six foot ten, six foot nine kid,
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: four star recruit. And we got Katoa coming out of Layton,
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: the really good athlete, and all the Utah fans know
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Katowa's names. So we got some players coming in that
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: are going to help us. I'm excited about.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, the Katoa family has already given you Tah
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: some good athletes. Older sister was an excellent player. So okay,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So coming off the year that Alex Jensen and his
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: staff just had where look, we knew that we're going
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to be growing pains. You and I have already talked
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: about kind of like how we digest the season that
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: happened inside that inside that facility, maybe inside the locker room.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Are they saying, all right, let's let's ball up that
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: first season and throw it in the trash and start over.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Are they saying, here are the things we liked, and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: here are the things that we have to get rid of,
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  Speaker 1: Like what is the way forward against the context of
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the season that just happened.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean a couple of things that if you
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: look at us statistically, you know, we're really bad defensively.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: I think we're one of the worst defensive teams in
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: the in the Power for So we got to get
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: better defensively. Number one, we got to get better defensively.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: And then I think in Chris Jensen's mind, this is
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: just me thinking through what I've seen. You know, he's
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: looking for playmakers that you know not they can drive
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: and then do something with that drive, either finish or
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: make the appropriate play. So again, like I think that
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: they don't want to ball up the season to throw
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: it away. Obviously, you never want to have that those
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: that type of scene. So the worst season Utah had
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: in fifty years in conference, we don't want to repeat that.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: We want to learn from it, and I think we will.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: You know, that's the that's the hope. And now Chris Jansen,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: coming from the NBA, knows what the Big twelve is
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: all about. You've got to have some bigs. You've got
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: to have some bigs that can rebound. You've got to
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: have a big that can be either in drop coverage
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: and pick and roll, or it can hard hedge and
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: then get back. So I think, you know, the two
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: priorities are our point guards point guards as many as
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: we can get, and then bigs that can help us defensively,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: you know, either in drop coverage or hedging or coming
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: out and doubling the ball and then getting back from.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: A pure number standpoint, how many guys do you need
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to bring in out of this open transfer portal we've got.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: I did this match just to look at it, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: we obviously you know, there are probably going to be
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: some more transferport activity, so we can figure it out
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: when that happens. My guestimate is that we mainly have
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: two players left. That's just my guess. It doesn't mean anything.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: It's not informed by the coaching staff. It's just my guess.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: So we'll need quite a few. We'll need twelve. I
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: just mentioned the ones that we have already signed, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: we've got two, four six signed. Let's say we have
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: two left, that's eight, so we're gonna need you know,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: another six players in the transfer portal.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, Now go back to you know, your your fondest
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: playing days when it's you know, three or four guys
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: integrating to a group in an offseason or whatever. And
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: can we even imagine I know that, Like in football,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: we talked about, Hey, fifty percent of this team is
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: brand new.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Colorado had like seventy four new guys.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your uniforms are same, but your team is totally different.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, like sound thinking about it like so,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: and I think you probably know this, and some of
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: your listeners probably know this. There's something called the personality test,
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: the Myers Briggs personality test. Let's just like try to
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: figure out the personalities of ten new players and then
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: figure out how they actually learned, you know. I mean,
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: so that's part of the art of effective communication is
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: understanding the personalities you're bringing in. And obviously you want
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: to find energy givers if you can not energy takers,
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: and then you've got to figure out how they learn
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: because they all learn differently. Football, by far is the
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: hardest sport from my perspective, because you've got so many
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: players that have to be on the same page and
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: be cohesive. They may not like each other, but they've
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: got to be cohesive. And basketball, it's really obvious when
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: you've got one or two players that are not on
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: the same page. So yeah, it's it's going to be hard.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: And he talked Chushians and talked about continuity and keeping
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: players and building them, and you know, this is going
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: to be a tough lesson because it could be that
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: we don't have a ton left for continuity. Hopefully we
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: have some left to help, you know, propel this next
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: team forward.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess I don't know if it's a silver lining,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: if it's a good thing or a bad thing, because
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: everyone can upgrade. Also, people can get worse as this
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: transfer portal does its thing.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: You look at the rest of the Big Twelve.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: You know BYU has at least one player in and
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I've seen a couple of Kansas some Kansas State. The
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: conference was excellent this year and incredibly deep. It was
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: competitive at the very very top. You had teams that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: were threatening for national championship runs. What do you think
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the transfer portal is going to do from a net
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: net to the Big Twelve conference?
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm not even gonna that's almost an impossible question
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: to answer. But if I was out there, I'd want
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: to come plain the Big Twelve. So I think they've
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: got that cashet and then we just added some really
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: good coaches to the Big twelve. Calhoun, who I stuck
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: my size fourteen in my mouth last time I was
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: on your show, said I didn't think he was going
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: I was wrong. That happened like an hour later. I
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: should have just listened to your Sean, this is the
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: walk showns. Come on? What am I thinking?
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Come on?
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: And then you got Randy Bennett, who who's the Saint
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Mary's who's now at Arizona State. So I mean, like,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: there's some really good defense into minor coaches that are
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: being added to the league, and I'd want to play
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: in the Big twelve and a heartbeat, you know if
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: I could. So I think it's only getting to get better.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: I think it's going to be that positive.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I think we threw in a blurb about Randy Bennett
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: coming to Arizona State and haven't really fleshed that out.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He was an excellent coach at Saint Mary's and that
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: was an overachieving program for many many years under his tutelage.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: What can he do at Arizona State because that is
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: a school that has kind of recommitted itself to athletic excellence.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: And I know there's a question about the sustainability of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that in the Valley of the Sun. But we saw
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: with football what happens when you get that team rallying
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and the community rallying. Can he do the same thing
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: in basketball?
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: He absolutely came. We tried to get him when doctor
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Chris sil was here. We definitely wanted Randy Bennett, and
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: he didn't bite. It wasn't the right job for him.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: He'll be great. What's gonna happen is he's going to
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: bring like two or three big guys from Australia that
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: are like seven foot two, seven foot three, that weigh
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: three hundred pounds. They're gonna sit on the block, They're
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: going to offside still get every offense or rebound. He's
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: got to have better athletes than he's ever had, and
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: his system is really hard to defend. And I'm sure
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: Mikey Lewis is coming with him an All WCC performer
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: and he's a really good coach. So Arizona State all
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: of a sudden, it's going to be a different team.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's going to be even tougher than they
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: have been. They're gonna be even tougher than they have been.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: When you look at the way the season played out,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and obviously we just talked about the newly crowned champion,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the Michigan Wolverines. You know, we spent a couple of
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. Is just like, oh, Cinderella is dead? Is
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: this the product that we like? And then during the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: regular season, it was just like, man, I don't know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: it's better. It's better now because you're in the Big Twelve,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: but regular season basketball and how much interest and how
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: many television raidings and stuff? Is college hoops a good
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: place in Sean Mooney's mind?
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: May well? Okay, so just from a basketball standpoint, there's
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: really good basketball happening. I personally like it more than
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: an NBA until the NBA gets to the playoffs. If
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: I had my brothers, I'd have them shorten their season
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: to sixty games, and it actually be more fun to
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: watch during the regular season. But Cuban said, is just
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: for the fan experience, right, College basketball to me is
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: still great because you have great strategy and tacticians taking
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: place every single game. From the coaching standpoint, I do
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: think the fans are and rightly so, they're frustrated with
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: the lack of continuity and the lack of connecting to athletes.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: I've heard that a lot, and I understand it. It
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: is harder, and so I think that has hurt college
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: basketball and will continue to hurt college basketball. You know,
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: hopefully we can college basketball can figure that out and
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: create a new system so kids will be want to
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: stay and it will work better for them in terms
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: of getting into degree and getting connected to community. As
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: far as the basketball goes, it's the best I've ever seen.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: And for another vision, Sean, just because statistically, they're literally
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: more good athletes than there ever have been, because there
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: are more people in this world, and if one percent
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: of them are college athletes, there are a lot more.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: So we're seeing really high level athleticism and high level
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: shop making and playmaking across the board in college basketball.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: And now you have access to the whole world.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Like the guys that used to be stuck in Serbia
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: or in Mozambique that never saw the light of day,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: now we see them on college basketball rosters when they're
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: eighteen years old.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, look at Illinois, man, Like, what does Shack say?
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: If your name ends in an itch, you can shoot it. Well,
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: he's right, He's right, man. But you know what, Shawn,
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: this year are American players at their freshman class, they
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: were peasant shoulders above everybody else. And there's some good
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: international players, but maybe they didn't flesh out quite the
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: same as the American players this year.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Is that is AAU doing something better than they used
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to do?
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: Is it?
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: Can we attribute that to anything concrete?
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I don't know. It's a good question. I'm like, if
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: I had my way of looking at it, I would
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: have the kids play less. I don't know if the
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: AAU circuit has changed. I know this. I heard this
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: from some of our coaching staff that there were teams
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: that were being paid a million dollars to go play
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: in tournaments this summer, which is crazy, but you know
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: it's going to make its way down all across the board.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Hopefully they play less and they do other things, you know,
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: other types of training. I think kids are playing too
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: much in this country just in general. But I don't know.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: I can't answer that question. I wish I could. But
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: all I know is this last was I got to
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: see it up close and it was really good.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Shawn.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I always appreciate your insight man. Thank you so much
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: for joining me on the show today.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: Thanks Jan fre Steved, you have a good day. Brother.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: That's Sean Mooney and together we are the two Walk Shawns.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: You can hear him well. I guess next season. Now
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: as a color analyst on the Utah basketball radio broadcasts