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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 3-25-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:08
Speaker 1: He's The Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
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Speaker 1: Willis on Utah's number one sports talk and Homa b
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Speaker 1: ESPN seven and ninety two to one af M, a
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Speaker 1: proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.
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Speaker 2: Heavy Humpday, Everybody, Welcome to a Wednesday edition of The
0:39
Speaker 2: Shan O'Connell Show. Happy to have you with us.
0:43
Speaker 3: Fun show lined up, Isaac Shade Lockdown College Basketball joins
0:47
Speaker 3: us in half an hour, Doctor Joseph Errington, We're all
0:54
Speaker 3: going to be educated about the NCWA Nationals, the National
0:59
Speaker 3: Collegiate Wrestling Association separate from the nc DOUBLEA. You haven't
1:05
Speaker 3: heard about University of Utah wrestlers anytime recently because you
1:10
Speaker 3: haven't had a program and officially sanctioned NCAA program at
1:14
Speaker 3: the University of Utah. But doctor Joseph Errington representing the
1:19
Speaker 3: Utes at the NCWA, we'll talk about it at noon
1:23
Speaker 3: and then between the pipes with Adrian Denny as we
1:26
Speaker 3: discuss more of the Utah Mammoth as they make a
1:29
Speaker 3: playoff push. With the regular seasons starting to wind down
1:32
Speaker 3: here in the NHL. In the NBA, we got some
1:37
Speaker 3: news that I think a lot of us knew was coming.
1:39
Speaker 2: We'll get there.
1:41
Speaker 3: College basketball, the carousel with coaches is spinning in earnest now.
1:46
Speaker 3: Hubert Davis at North Carolina is out. We'll talk with
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Speaker 3: Isaac Shade about that because he hosts the Lockedown tar
1:52
Speaker 3: Heels podcast.
1:54
Speaker 2: But I mean that's on.
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Speaker 3: The other side of the country, and still the ripples
1:58
Speaker 3: could be felt all the way here in Utah. I
2:01
Speaker 3: don't think Alex Jensen is going to be affected by it.
2:04
Speaker 3: I don't think ky you Kevin Young down there at
2:07
Speaker 3: BYU is going to be affected by it. But North
2:10
Speaker 3: Carolina is gonna go big game hunting. They're North Carolina,
2:16
Speaker 3: all right. You've heard names already associated with that job.
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Speaker 3: Brad Stevens apparently in the running for five minutes and
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Speaker 3: then out of the running. Billy Donovan potentially could be
2:27
Speaker 3: coming back to college hoops. I've seen Tommy Lloyd's name
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Speaker 3: associated with that job. I don't know how much it
2:35
Speaker 3: makes sense for him to suddenly become a traveling man,
2:38
Speaker 3: a wandering man, after spending two decades trying to build
2:42
Speaker 3: something at Gonzaga before finally taking his oat head coaching opportunity.
2:47
Speaker 3: He's also got a lot of work to do here
2:49
Speaker 3: in the Sweet sixteen.
2:51
Speaker 2: We're going to be at Big Willie's.
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Speaker 3: Presenting sponsor of the Sean O'Connell Show for the round
2:55
Speaker 3: of Sweet sixteen tomorrow. It's going to be a really,
2:58
Speaker 3: really fun show down there, and of course we want
3:03
Speaker 3: you to come down grab some of the hot lunch.
3:05
Speaker 3: We want you to grab a drink special if that's
3:08
Speaker 3: what you're interested in. They keep them under four dollars
3:10
Speaker 3: every single day. Maybe we can shoot some pool during
3:13
Speaker 3: one of our commercial breaks in the Number one Pool
3:15
Speaker 3: Haul in Utah and uh by the way Trivia tonight, James,
3:19
Speaker 3: are you a How I Met Your Mother fan?
3:22
Speaker 2: Oh? My gosh, yes, I can't believe.
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Speaker 4: The two TV shows they've had recently are like two
3:30
Speaker 4: of my favorites, or at least ones that have come
3:33
Speaker 4: out in the last fifteen to twenty years.
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Speaker 3: I have not watched even forty seconds of How I
3:39
Speaker 3: Met Your Mother?
3:40
Speaker 2: So you know how I knew that you didn't?
3:43
Speaker 4: You didn't get my Robin Sparkles reference when we were
3:46
Speaker 4: talking about things were stealing from Canada.
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Speaker 2: I'm sorry I don't.
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Speaker 4: Those who did were probably rolling, They were loving.
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Speaker 3: It, They were loving Those who understood the reference. Love
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Speaker 3: the reference. I'm sure it did you How I met
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Speaker 3: your mother trivia tonight at Big Willie seventeen seven, half South.
4:01
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to try to find a way to
4:03
Speaker 4: sneak away and and pop my head in there.
4:06
Speaker 2: Did you like friends? Yeah? At all?
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Speaker 4: It. I would say it's similar how much your mothers
4:14
Speaker 4: is similar to friends, similar kind of dynamic. I like
4:18
Speaker 4: it a lot more than friends. Okay, so all right,
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Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know if there's a Venn
4:22
Speaker 4: diagram of people that who like friends also like how
4:25
Speaker 4: much your mother. Maybe there's not, but to me it's.
4:29
Speaker 2: A similar vibe. I just I prefer how much your mother.
4:31
Speaker 3: When we get into the summer months and we start
4:34
Speaker 3: doing some of our start bench cut, we're gonna have
4:37
Speaker 3: to do sitcoms.
4:38
Speaker 2: We never We didn't do that last year. I think
4:41
Speaker 2: we did it with HBO shows.
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Speaker 4: We didn't do any sitcoms, and HBO shows were not
4:46
Speaker 4: my alley at all. Sitcoms I'll do a much better
4:48
Speaker 4: job with. Although I have caught up on almost all
4:52
Speaker 4: of those. I have not watched Sopranos yet, but I'm
4:55
Speaker 4: almost finished with the Wire. Okay, and finished Game of
4:58
Speaker 4: Thrones and the.
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Speaker 2: Wire is unbelievable. Unbelievable.
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Speaker 4: It's one that is heavy enough that I have to
5:04
Speaker 4: like take breaks from it. Yeah, fair once in a while,
5:06
Speaker 4: but I do. I am very much at Wendell Pierce,
5:10
Speaker 4: who plays Bunk loving Love Bunk loving Bunk McNulty is
5:16
Speaker 4: like McNulty is like that lovable, like.
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Speaker 2: A whole guy. The anti hero.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, anti hero that you somehow still cheer for because
5:25
Speaker 4: he he has some integrity as a cop kind of thing.
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Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm loving I'm loving The Wire so far,
5:31
Speaker 4: although it's taken me longer than most shows I've binged
5:34
Speaker 4: because it's like, Okay, I got it.
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Speaker 2: I gotta take a couple of nights off here with
5:37
Speaker 2: the Wire. Uh. I just Dominic West is the guy
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Speaker 2: who played McNulty, and I was like, wait, what else
5:45
Speaker 2: has he been in?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know, I don't know if I've seen
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Speaker 4: him in anything else. Oh see, And it's been like
5:51
Speaker 4: twenty years since The Wire ended.
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Speaker 2: He is uh.
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Speaker 3: He has a small appearance in Star Wars Episode one,
5:58
Speaker 3: the Phantom Menace.
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Speaker 2: Is he really that predates The Wire? Right? Or no?
6:02
Speaker 2: It's about the same time. I could not have.
6:05
Speaker 3: I could not have pointed about. So we're gonna have
6:07
Speaker 3: to look for him. He's in Mona.
6:09
Speaker 4: Lisa smiles, heat char char beings. He is in three hundred, okay?
6:17
Speaker 4: Is he a spartan in three hundred.
6:18
Speaker 3: We're gonna have to go back, and we're gonna have
6:20
Speaker 3: to do like a full, a full breakdown of everything
6:23
Speaker 3: that he's been in Downton Abbey.
6:25
Speaker 2: I haven't also down. I've also not watched Downton Abbey.
6:29
Speaker 4: I have not, although lots of people loved, I don't
6:33
Speaker 4: know if it hasn't ended yet.
6:34
Speaker 2: I don't.
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Speaker 4: I don't even know, but I know that that's a
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Speaker 4: popular one. I cannot picture just because I know him
6:41
Speaker 4: as McNulty, I cannot picture him as a Downton Abbey character.
6:46
Speaker 3: You're telling me he played Jean Valjean in Les misrab
6:50
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen twenty nineteen mini series. Come on, all right,
6:56
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, I'm out of the loop more
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Speaker 3: than I thought I was when it comes of this
7:00
Speaker 3: kind of stuff. In any case, I don't know how
7:02
Speaker 3: we got off on that tangent. But we've got a
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Speaker 3: fun show lined up for you. Let's the NBA is
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Speaker 3: going to expand. Every one of the shams is on this,
7:12
Speaker 3: every one of the experts, everyone who's talking about it.
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Speaker 2: Has said it's a matter of when, not if.
7:18
Speaker 3: The NBA has decided to at least mull over the
7:21
Speaker 3: idea of expansion, with Seattle and Las Vegas being the
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Speaker 3: cities most likely to have their bids accepted. All thirty
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Speaker 3: owners voted in favor of exploring Las Vegas and Seattle expansion.
7:35
Speaker 3: All thirty owners, including Ryan Smith and Ryan and Ashley Smith.
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Speaker 3: And here's here's what you should expect from professional sports
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Speaker 3: owners in the NFL, in the NBA, in whatever. Like
7:49
Speaker 3: this is why we need the Miller family, the Smith family,
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Speaker 3: whoever has the kind of money figure out a way
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Speaker 3: to start putting mansion bits together for an NFL team
8:02
Speaker 3: in Utah, because even though it's far fetched in a
8:04
Speaker 3: long shot, one thing we can count on from these
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Speaker 3: owners in professional sports is they won't done money. Okay,
8:17
Speaker 3: seven to ten billion dollars is the expected range for
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Speaker 3: the expansion fees for Las Vegas and Seattle, right, so
8:29
Speaker 3: let's take the low end of that, shall we. Let's
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Speaker 3: say together fourteen billion dollars in expansion money comes in
8:43
Speaker 3: the other thirty owners get four hundred and sixty six
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Speaker 3: million dollars each.
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Speaker 2: When you divide it up.
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Speaker 3: And I'm sure there's administrative cost and there's whatever. You know,
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Speaker 3: you peel off the player's revenue for this small side.
9:02
Speaker 2: Hustle kind of money.
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Speaker 4: If if someone comes to you all right and says, hey, we.
9:11
Speaker 2: Know the neighborhood's already full.
9:14
Speaker 3: We know that that weird triangular lot at the end
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Speaker 3: of the street that is just a drainage ditch right now,
9:21
Speaker 3: and we put the playground in there. We know that
9:24
Speaker 3: that's not ideal, but here's what our plan is. Okay,
9:28
Speaker 3: we're gonna sell that and let someone build a home there.
9:32
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's gonna make the neighborhood slightly more crowded,
9:35
Speaker 3: and yeah, you lose a little bit of green space.
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Speaker 2: So I guess there's some minor.
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Speaker 3: Inconveniences for you as a homeowner in this subdivision. But
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Speaker 3: we need your approval to vote on us building that home,
9:47
Speaker 3: and you're gonna be like, man, the neighborhoods already crowded enough,
9:53
Speaker 3: Like we already have too many cars parked on the street. Weirdly,
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Speaker 3: as I describe this, my mind is picturing daybreak specifically, Okay,
10:02
Speaker 3: I don't even live there.
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Speaker 4: What if the Klopex move in? I know, I just
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Speaker 4: I'm not. I don't really need there to be another
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Speaker 4: home at the end of the street.
10:11
Speaker 3: Oh, we forgot. We left out this. It might bother
10:15
Speaker 3: you slightly. It might inconvenience you just a teeny bit,
10:18
Speaker 3: like when their relatives come over on the fourth of
10:21
Speaker 3: July and make too much noise.
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Speaker 2: You might not like that. But we're gonna give you
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Speaker 2: four hundred and.
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Speaker 3: Sixty six million dollars to be part of this approval.
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Speaker 4: They have to They have to pay the subdivision seven
10:36
Speaker 4: billion dollars just for the right to build a home there,
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Speaker 4: and we get to split that.
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Speaker 2: Do I have to do I have to help them
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Speaker 2: build the home. No?
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Speaker 3: Do I have to help them secure financing in order
10:47
Speaker 3: to give us this money?
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Speaker 5: No?
10:51
Speaker 2: Do I have to do anything except kind of watch
10:53
Speaker 2: how it plays out. No, that's all you have to do.
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Speaker 3: And you're gonna have to, like attend the welcome barbecue
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Speaker 3: and shake their hands. Oh, then, yes, I approve the
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Speaker 3: new home being built on Penny Parade. Drive down there
11:08
Speaker 3: in daybreak. Utah, No, you know what?
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Speaker 4: On second thought, we don't even go in the backyard anyway,
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Speaker 4: So it's fine.
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Speaker 3: Just haven't built it right back there. They didn't ground trampoline,
11:21
Speaker 3: the kids won't use it anymore. Build a house there. Look,
11:25
Speaker 3: the talent pool in the NBA is already excessively dilute. Okay,
11:31
Speaker 3: we have right now a half dozen teams that are
11:35
Speaker 3: at this point in an absolute embarrassment to the competitive
11:39
Speaker 3: integrity of the NBA. The Utah Jazz, unfortunately, are one
11:45
Speaker 3: of those teams right now, adding another Utah Jazz and
11:51
Speaker 3: another Washington Wizards at this particular moment, is like, is
11:56
Speaker 3: this something we really want to do, And every single
11:59
Speaker 3: one of the owners said, yep, we do want.
12:04
Speaker 4: To do that, including the owners of the utauch ass
12:06
Speaker 4: In the Washington Wizards, which.
12:08
Speaker 3: By the way, I am not criticizing them at all,
12:12
Speaker 3: because every single one of us would do the exact
12:15
Speaker 3: same thing. It is the easiest money any one of
12:19
Speaker 3: these individuals, any one of these ownership groups will ever
12:23
Speaker 3: make you just say, oh, I just have to let
12:26
Speaker 3: you sign up for the same country club I'm at
12:28
Speaker 3: and I get a grip of money.
12:31
Speaker 6: Sure, all right, I'll see you on the cart path, buddy,
12:37
Speaker 6: welcome to the billionaire Boils Club, Like, oh, you bring
12:41
Speaker 6: it back a heritage brand, the Seattle SuperSonics.
12:44
Speaker 3: I remember those days. Dettla Shrimp, that's my guy. I'm
12:48
Speaker 3: gonna bust out the.
12:48
Speaker 4: Vintage jersey Ryan Smith's like they were our rivals. So
12:52
Speaker 4: we're gonna hate that, but yeah.
12:54
Speaker 2: We love that.
12:55
Speaker 3: I mean, at the end of the day, it's the
12:58
Speaker 3: biggest no brainer for the owners. That is kind of
13:01
Speaker 3: a well, does it really serve the fan base? It
13:05
Speaker 3: certainly serves the fan base in Seattle, and it's good
13:08
Speaker 3: to see them. Seattle is a great city. It's good
13:11
Speaker 3: to see them get another franchise if that's what they want.
13:13
Speaker 4: Like cool, when they long since solved the the venue
13:20
Speaker 4: problem that they had that caused that Clay Bennett used
13:24
Speaker 4: as an excuse to move the team to Oklahoma City
13:27
Speaker 4: with climate Climate Pledge Arena as they they updated that thing,
13:32
Speaker 4: which was the old Key Arena a long time ago.
13:36
Speaker 4: So they do not have any issues that the league's
13:39
Speaker 4: going to be like, Okay, you got to fix these
13:41
Speaker 4: things within these years. Just plug and play. Absolutely, here's
13:47
Speaker 4: the thing.
13:51
Speaker 3: NBA owners want the product to be digestible, exciting, international
14:00
Speaker 3: universally loved, accepted, So you can tell yourself, oh man,
14:04
Speaker 3: we're bringing in another couple of major cities. Las Vegas
14:08
Speaker 3: is a growing sports market. We've now, i think, sensibly,
14:14
Speaker 3: gotten rid of the idea that, like, you can't put
14:16
Speaker 3: anything in Vegas because it's going to get too dirty
14:19
Speaker 3: in Vegas because that's where all the casinos are. It's like, dude,
14:23
Speaker 3: sports betting has been a part of the landscape for
14:25
Speaker 3: one hundred years.
14:27
Speaker 4: I got fifty casinos on my phone. We're fine.
14:31
Speaker 3: We now have a casino in our pocket, literally if
14:35
Speaker 3: you have a smartphone. Right, So, I think again, good
14:40
Speaker 3: for Las Vegas, wonderful. That's such a weird transient market
14:45
Speaker 3: when it comes to like its actual population. I think
14:49
Speaker 3: that one of the best things that can happen to
14:51
Speaker 3: Las Vegas as a community is to have brand new
14:57
Speaker 3: sports teams that nobody grows up being a fan of
15:00
Speaker 3: these sports teams, like the Raiders are they don't count, okay,
15:03
Speaker 3: because there's Raiders fans in Oakland, there's Raiders fans in
15:06
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, There's Raiders fans kind of dispersed all across
15:09
Speaker 3: the country.
15:10
Speaker 4: Vegas and Salt Lake Vegas has been in LA sports
15:13
Speaker 4: market because it's only like four hours away, right for
15:16
Speaker 4: the longest time. So I'm sure they already had a
15:19
Speaker 4: lot of Raiders fans because there's a lot of Raiders.
15:22
Speaker 4: There's been a lot of Raiders fans in LA because
15:23
Speaker 4: they're a brief time in LA.
15:25
Speaker 3: But even if you go to like a Raiders game now,
15:28
Speaker 3: is probably forty or fifty percent Las Vegas people.
15:32
Speaker 7: Max.
15:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true.
15:35
Speaker 3: The Golden Knights, those are hard tickets to get, okay,
15:39
Speaker 3: And yes, you've got the corporate sponsor, the high roller,
15:42
Speaker 3: casino guests, things like that.
15:44
Speaker 2: So it's not the same as like a Utah Mammoth game.
15:48
Speaker 3: But there's a real hardcore contingent of Las Vegas sports
15:52
Speaker 3: fans who are like, oh, we got our own team,
15:54
Speaker 3: we got our own thing. I moved here from Phoenix,
15:56
Speaker 3: I moved here from Denver, I moved here from San Francisco,
15:59
Speaker 3: I moved from Boise, I moved here from Houston, and
16:02
Speaker 3: now we get this thing that is ours, is uniquely ours.
16:06
Speaker 3: That's what an NBA sports franchise can be, should be,
16:09
Speaker 3: hopefully will be in Las Vegas.
16:11
Speaker 2: So again, good for you, Las Vegas.
16:14
Speaker 3: I'm glad when people get something that they can care about,
16:16
Speaker 3: and they can. But the NBA and these owners that
16:20
Speaker 3: all voted on the approval are going to have to
16:22
Speaker 3: address the fact that you have now further diluted and
16:26
Speaker 3: already dilute product.
16:29
Speaker 2: You don't have.
16:32
Speaker 3: Thirty teams full of competitive NBA rosters right now. How
16:37
Speaker 3: are you gonna make for thirty two. You don't have
16:41
Speaker 3: thirty great teams, you don't have thirty competitive teams. You
16:46
Speaker 3: don't have enough elite level basketball players to fill out
16:50
Speaker 3: the rosters that already exist. And now you're gonna add
16:53
Speaker 3: two more franchises, and then ten years after that you're
16:56
Speaker 3: probably gonna add two more, and then ten years after that,
16:59
Speaker 3: if our overlords have deemed us worthy, we'll still have sports,
17:03
Speaker 3: then maybe you'll add some more. We'll probably watching robot
17:07
Speaker 3: basketball at that point, who knows.
17:09
Speaker 4: But it's just gonna be simulate, computer simulations, same franchise.
17:13
Speaker 3: I'm really really curious because again, these reports are not
17:16
Speaker 3: NBA reports yet. This is not yet Adam Silver telling you, hey,
17:20
Speaker 3: guess what good news everybody. Seattle super Sonics are coming
17:24
Speaker 3: back and the Las Vegas Aces Craps. I would love it.
17:33
Speaker 3: So much if they were the Vegas Craps. The Dice
17:36
Speaker 3: I don't know. Yeah, well dice isn't the isn't the
17:39
Speaker 3: plural of dice die? Oh yeah, let's Vegas die. That's
17:43
Speaker 3: a stupid name. The clubs I don't know. I mean yeah,
17:48
Speaker 3: because cards and because clubs.
17:50
Speaker 2: The Vegas clubs. There's a lot.
17:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like a triple on tandra because you could
17:56
Speaker 3: have like you could find me in the club type club,
18:00
Speaker 3: you could have the clubs from the cards. You can
18:02
Speaker 3: have just a good old fashioned blunt object that you're
18:04
Speaker 3: bludgeon people with.
18:06
Speaker 2: Club them. That's a club. That was my that was
18:09
Speaker 2: my joke when it was Utah Hockey Club. We're gonna
18:11
Speaker 2: club them.
18:13
Speaker 3: So who knows what the naming thing will be. That
18:18
Speaker 3: sneaky is one of the harder things about Las Vegas. Yeah,
18:22
Speaker 3: I mean aces Aces has already taken. That's a brilliant
18:26
Speaker 3: that's a brilliant name. Great job by by Mark Davis
18:29
Speaker 3: and the w n B A. You want to you
18:31
Speaker 3: want to generate some revenue. If you're Mark Davis, you
18:37
Speaker 3: sell that name to the NBA franchise.
18:42
Speaker 4: I feel like the pr would be pretty bad, though,
18:47
Speaker 4: look another case where we where we're just treated as
18:50
Speaker 4: second class.
18:53
Speaker 3: We all watched the footage of the Las Vegas Aces
18:56
Speaker 3: victory and w NBA Championship victory parade.
18:59
Speaker 2: All right.
19:00
Speaker 3: If if the NBA is like, we'll give you a
19:02
Speaker 3: hundred million bucks for that name, and you're Mark Davis,
19:06
Speaker 3: I mean, this is Mark Davis we're talking about.
19:08
Speaker 4: I wonder if he because a lot of the wn
19:11
Speaker 4: the WNBA owners are the owners of the NBA teams
19:14
Speaker 4: in the same city. I wonder if Mark Davis will
19:17
Speaker 4: be the one to be like, I'll just yeah, it's
19:19
Speaker 4: gonna be. I have the basketball team. It'll be my
19:21
Speaker 4: team too. It's like, yeah, well, here's the thing. He
19:24
Speaker 4: paid a million dollars for the Las Vegas Aces.
19:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be. This is seven billionaires.
19:30
Speaker 3: He paid one million dollars for the Las Vegas Aces
19:34
Speaker 3: and now they're worth like three hundred million or whatever.
19:37
Speaker 3: It's gonna cost seven thousand times that minimum in order
19:42
Speaker 3: to get an NBA franchise into Las Vegas, and like
19:46
Speaker 3: you said, minimum, probably more than that set when they
19:49
Speaker 3: hit so funny, I do this. My wife and I
19:53
Speaker 3: have the bad habit. We're we always were constantly looking
19:56
Speaker 3: at real estate. We both like the HGTV Fixer Upper
20:00
Speaker 3: type shows, right, so we're always just like up on
20:04
Speaker 3: Zillow or the Utah real estate app. I'm always looking
20:07
Speaker 3: at Hawaii Central trying to find likes looking at Waco, like, hey,
20:11
Speaker 3: this ISP, dude, you know what you can get in
20:13
Speaker 3: Waco for like fifteen dollars.
20:14
Speaker 2: It's insane. It's ridiculous. Fifteen dollars.
20:17
Speaker 4: It's ridiculous in Texas in general, just the kind of
20:22
Speaker 4: the housing prices. You're like, are you really like Dion's
20:26
Speaker 4: giant estate was only a couple million.
20:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's beyond painful to see when home prices
20:34
Speaker 3: of skyrocketed in the state of Utah, and with the
20:37
Speaker 3: current interest rates, you're looking at like what a mortgage
20:39
Speaker 3: payment would be on just a regular home.
20:41
Speaker 2: You're like, Okay, well, what if I was willing.
20:43
Speaker 3: To do this in like San Marco, Texas, And it's like, oh,
20:48
Speaker 3: for my thirty five hundred dollars a month mortgage payment
20:52
Speaker 3: in Texas, I can have forty two acres upon a
20:58
Speaker 3: six bedroom house, a barn with an apartment over the
21:02
Speaker 3: top of it. It's like it's like wait, how does
21:05
Speaker 3: the building material not cost more? But in any case,
21:09
Speaker 3: we have this bad habit where we get lost in
21:11
Speaker 3: these like real estate things, right and the range right
21:14
Speaker 3: when you start to get to when you're getting to
21:16
Speaker 3: these like freak properties, like I'm looking at beach houses
21:20
Speaker 3: on the north shore of a Wahoo. Hope everyone out
21:23
Speaker 3: there is doing okay, by the way, flooding, devastating, terrible.
21:27
Speaker 3: You get sucked into this vortex where you're like, ah, well,
21:31
Speaker 3: this one is one point five million dollars and this
21:34
Speaker 3: one is only one point eight million dollars, And you're like,
21:38
Speaker 3: wait a second, because I'm saying point five instead of
21:45
Speaker 3: five hundred thousand, I'm losing sight of the fact that
21:48
Speaker 3: the difference between one point five and one point eight
21:51
Speaker 3: is three hundred thousand dollars. When Shams puts out a
21:55
Speaker 3: report that it's gonna cost seven to ten billion dollars
21:59
Speaker 3: in order to expand and own one of these NBA franchises,
22:04
Speaker 3: you have a tendency, at least I do, of going like, oh,
22:07
Speaker 3: the difference between seven and ten is not that huge.
22:12
Speaker 3: We're talking about seven to ten billion dollars. So the
22:15
Speaker 3: difference between the low end of that and the high
22:18
Speaker 3: end of that is three billion dollars, which is like
22:23
Speaker 3: the net worth of the richest person in Utah. It's
22:26
Speaker 3: insane what kind of numbers we're talking about here, but
22:29
Speaker 3: those are the numbers that are driving this decision that
22:34
Speaker 3: again is just being reported on as an eventuality. It's
22:38
Speaker 3: not official yet.
22:39
Speaker 4: It's like the report is basically saying they're gonna vote
22:42
Speaker 4: on it.
22:43
Speaker 2: That's basically what.
22:44
Speaker 4: They already voted, or they did vote or whatever, they
22:47
Speaker 4: voted unanimously approved to look at the proposals for expansion,
22:53
Speaker 4: like they're gonna vote on eventually. What I mean is
22:56
Speaker 4: they're gonna eventually have a vote on Vegas and Seattle.
22:58
Speaker 2: That's what this. That's what they're doing.
23:00
Speaker 3: Like every single NBA owner signed up for the timeshare presentation.
23:06
Speaker 2: They're all willing to go and look at it.
23:09
Speaker 4: Free night, free night in Seattle, free night in Vegas,
23:13
Speaker 4: or you just have to sit through the presentation.
23:15
Speaker 2: Oh look at that.
23:16
Speaker 3: They got these cool little cucumber finger sandwiches. Not even
23:20
Speaker 3: paid attention.
23:21
Speaker 4: To the thing you bring up, Yeah, as the hypothetical,
23:24
Speaker 4: they're sitting there and they're like, oh, look at that.
23:27
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that I could somehow stand to gain
23:31
Speaker 4: four hundred plus million dollars out of this expansion. Thank you,
23:35
Speaker 4: by the way, I thought of you when we had
23:38
Speaker 4: the luncheon chalk talk thing, because I was like, he
23:41
Speaker 4: would have he would have destroyed this cafeteria. He would
23:44
Speaker 4: have been all over, he would have sampled everything that
23:46
Speaker 4: they have, and they had a lot of options, I'll
23:48
Speaker 4: tell you.
23:49
Speaker 2: In that cafeteria.
23:50
Speaker 3: It's a big problem for me when I'm at events
23:52
Speaker 3: like that where you probably should ignore the food and
23:56
Speaker 3: just focus on professionalism and conversation and like listen to
24:01
Speaker 3: what's being said.
24:03
Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, you can eat that, you can finish that.
24:07
Speaker 2: Are you gonna like?
24:09
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many fancy dinners I've been
24:12
Speaker 3: to with potential investors and PFL people and like network
24:18
Speaker 3: executives when we're trying to get a deal done and
24:20
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be there putting on a great face
24:23
Speaker 3: for the company, and like, Hey, this guy is our
24:25
Speaker 3: play by play dude, this guy was one of our champions,
24:28
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, hey, did have you tried the lamb?
24:31
Speaker 2: This guy? We're very super proud of being one of
24:34
Speaker 2: the faces of these lamptops at have you tried them?
24:39
Speaker 2: It's like, dude, get out of here.
24:41
Speaker 4: You makes you very relatable, though, See, I don't think
24:43
Speaker 4: it does for those people.
24:45
Speaker 2: I think those people for the you and I is
24:47
Speaker 2: this is very relatable.
24:48
Speaker 8: That's true for the people listening to the show, hopefully
24:51
Speaker 8: it makes you relatable.
24:52
Speaker 2: But for the people who are.
24:54
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, we might be writing one hundred million dollar
24:57
Speaker 3: check in order to give you some television just abution deal,
25:00
Speaker 3: and I'm just like.
25:01
Speaker 2: Have you tried to jellybean?
25:03
Speaker 5: They have?
25:04
Speaker 2: I don't think they love that.
25:06
Speaker 4: We do have a new sounds just finishing posting new
25:10
Speaker 4: sound from from practice Morgan Scally, Bert Ficklin, a couple
25:15
Speaker 4: other players from from yesterday's practice.
25:17
Speaker 3: Including an announcement that spring football game dead.
25:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was It was very like so one of
25:26
Speaker 4: the one of the it might have been Sammy Mora.
25:30
Speaker 2: I'll have to go back and listen. Maybe we'll play
25:32
Speaker 2: it later in the show.
25:33
Speaker 4: You guys will hear who asked the question, but one
25:35
Speaker 4: of the one of the reporters in the scrum said,
25:38
Speaker 4: will there be a spring football game this year?
25:40
Speaker 2: What's your plan there?
25:41
Speaker 4: Because typically underwent there's been there's been, at least in
25:46
Speaker 4: recent years, there's been, Hey, here's the entire schedule for
25:49
Speaker 4: all of spring. There's the days that media will have
25:51
Speaker 4: availability for us, here's the days that you'll be able
25:55
Speaker 4: to watch some of practice whatever, and then it and
25:59
Speaker 4: then part of that is like the spring the twenty
26:01
Speaker 4: two forever spring game will be April whatever. So we
26:05
Speaker 4: haven't had that yet. It's been a week to week
26:09
Speaker 4: thing as far as the schedule, which is fine. They've
26:11
Speaker 4: given us plenty of notice. So anyway, it was it
26:14
Speaker 4: was a thought like, hey, I wonder if there's not
26:16
Speaker 4: gonna be a spring game, and Morgan. Morgan removed all doubt.
26:20
Speaker 4: He said no spring game. The reasoning he gave was
26:24
Speaker 4: not anything like the paranoia that we've heard from other coaches,
26:28
Speaker 4: and makes a lot of sense. There's no there's no
26:31
Speaker 4: second transfer window, so transfer port a windows, so there's
26:36
Speaker 4: not much reason to be as paranoid anymore. But he
26:41
Speaker 4: said the reason he gave was basically, we're still we
26:47
Speaker 4: were with all the new happening with coaching staff and
26:50
Speaker 4: all the new players. We want to have that extra
26:52
Speaker 4: practice instead of having a game kind of thing.
26:55
Speaker 2: So we'll see how that goes.
26:56
Speaker 4: He did say also that they're in lieu of a game,
27:00
Speaker 4: they will have some kind of fan appreciation event. Will
27:03
Speaker 4: find out more about that as we get closer to it.
27:05
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
27:09
Speaker 3: I in the past have lamented the loss of spring
27:13
Speaker 3: football games at various other programs and been like, oh man,
27:18
Speaker 3: this is like, it's a fun tradition. A lot of
27:20
Speaker 3: times you see former players come back, you see like
27:24
Speaker 3: it's it's a casual sort of family day. I like,
27:28
Speaker 3: you know, when I became a dad, I like taking
27:29
Speaker 3: my kids to the family friendly sort of game. You know,
27:33
Speaker 3: if the price is right, it's free most of the time.
27:36
Speaker 3: Or they had donations for the twenty two Foundation, things
27:40
Speaker 3: like that.
27:40
Speaker 2: Twenty two forever and at the end of the day.
27:45
Speaker 3: The new rules in college football, including the closure of
27:47
Speaker 3: the second transfer portal window, they still haven't protected rosters.
27:54
Speaker 3: Tampering is still going on out there right now. Utah's
27:59
Speaker 3: best football players are still occasionally getting overtures from Hey,
28:03
Speaker 3: I know you can't transfer can do the transfer portal thing,
28:08
Speaker 3: but there are ways around this. You could sue, we
28:12
Speaker 3: could find some legal action, etc.
28:13
Speaker 2: Etc.
28:14
Speaker 3: Like you're not fully insulated and so if you're a
28:19
Speaker 3: brand new head coach who's already, let's be honest, who's
28:21
Speaker 3: already lost some premium talent to the transfer portal because
28:25
Speaker 3: of a coaching exit situation.
28:28
Speaker 2: You don't want to risk anything else.
28:32
Speaker 3: I know that's not the only factor, but that is
28:34
Speaker 3: a significant factor, and it's one that even a sort
28:38
Speaker 3: of purist like me, if I'm allowed to call myself that,
28:42
Speaker 3: who had love for spring football games, has to just say,
28:45
Speaker 3: all right, they're not actually important. You're not actually gaining
28:50
Speaker 3: much of any kind of significance out of those reps
28:53
Speaker 3: as a player. The coaches get a lot more value
28:56
Speaker 3: out of the practices and the scrimmages that are happening
29:00
Speaker 3: in the spring football camp, and they do out of
29:02
Speaker 3: the actual fan showcase of the spring game. And we're
29:07
Speaker 3: just gonna have to accept a new way of things.
29:10
Speaker 3: So I think it's a good decision by Morgan Scalley,
29:12
Speaker 3: even if it's one that in the past I would
29:14
Speaker 3: have been like, come on, just play a spring game.
29:17
Speaker 2: You can't do that, Oh, just come on anymore.
29:20
Speaker 4: Because there are sharks and wolves and jackals circling at
29:26
Speaker 4: all times. You can't afford to let any sort of
29:29
Speaker 4: like Zach Williams situation present itself, you just can't. And
29:36
Speaker 4: I do like that he has thought of what the
29:39
Speaker 4: things that you talked about that you always enjoyed about
29:42
Speaker 4: the spring game, and I think that many Utah fans
29:44
Speaker 4: and college football fans feel the same way. He's thought
29:48
Speaker 4: about how do we still have that without having the
29:52
Speaker 4: game and so whatever. This fan appreciation event that he
29:56
Speaker 4: alluded to to us yesterday after practice sounds like will
30:00
Speaker 4: accomplish that sort of thing. Fans will be able to
30:04
Speaker 4: have access to some players. I'm sure a lot of
30:07
Speaker 4: alum alumni will will show up the same way that
30:10
Speaker 4: they've always done spring games too. We'll see, we'll see
30:13
Speaker 4: just how well it accomplishes what you were talking about
30:16
Speaker 4: the things that you love about the spring game.
30:17
Speaker 3: You know what would be incredible is if he surprised
30:21
Speaker 3: all of us and the fan appreciation event was just
30:27
Speaker 3: full pad, full go, gnarliest possible practice you've ever seen,
30:32
Speaker 3: just a bloody Tuesday.
30:34
Speaker 4: He's just yeah, he's just he's he's pulling one over
30:37
Speaker 4: on us. Out it won't be anything like a spring game.
30:41
Speaker 4: We'll get to have access to the program.
30:44
Speaker 3: It's just Devin Dampierre versus Bird Fickland Team Bird versus
30:49
Speaker 3: like just just full go the most intense hardcore thing
30:55
Speaker 3: you've ever seen, and they do it for just ten
30:57
Speaker 3: minutes and then everyone hangs out. That'd actually be awesome.
31:01
Speaker 3: We'll support whatever it is. Morgan, all right, gotta take
31:04
Speaker 3: a break here. As I already promised, Isaac Shade locked
31:07
Speaker 3: on College Hoops, lockdown, Tar Heels is going to join us.
31:10
Speaker 3: Hubert Davis is out at North Carolina. That is a
31:13
Speaker 3: blue blood program, that is a big domino to fall
31:16
Speaker 3: in a coaching carousel. How far out do those effects extend?
31:21
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that, about the Sweet sixteen and much
31:24
Speaker 3: more with Isaac Shade.
31:25
Speaker 2: It's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to.
31:27
Speaker 3: You by a friends at Big Willie seventeen seventeen South Main,
31:30
Speaker 3: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
31:36
Speaker 1: You attuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
31:39
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
31:43
Speaker 1: one af Am.
31:45
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show.
31:46
Speaker 3: Here college Hoops once again in the forefront of all
31:50
Speaker 3: things with March Madness in the Sweet sixteen round right
31:53
Speaker 3: around the corner, and even as all of this real
31:56
Speaker 3: basketball is happening, the coaching carousel begins its spin. I
32:02
Speaker 3: guess we're now mid spin in college hoops. Isaac Shade,
32:05
Speaker 3: host of Lockdown College Basketball and Lockdown Heels, joins us.
32:09
Speaker 3: Now we've got a lot to discuss, the tournament, coaching moves, etc.
32:14
Speaker 2: Isaac Shade, Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
32:17
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. It's so good to be with you. Man.
32:20
Speaker 2: As you said, there is so much going on.
32:22
Speaker 9: Thankfully the NCAA pushed the transfer portal opening back this year,
32:26
Speaker 9: we'd have that spinning as well right now.
32:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad we've got I think some improved transfer
32:32
Speaker 3: portal rules and windows in both college football and college basketball.
32:37
Speaker 3: But it is going to give us plenty to talk
32:39
Speaker 3: about when we get there. Let's talk about the biggest
32:42
Speaker 3: news in the world of college hoops right now.
32:45
Speaker 2: With Sweet Sixteen games.
32:47
Speaker 3: Right around the corner, one of the blue blood jobs
32:51
Speaker 3: is open right now, North Carolina moving on from their
32:55
Speaker 3: head coach, and obviously that upsets the apple cart in
32:59
Speaker 3: the college basketball world. What are your thoughts? When did
33:02
Speaker 3: you find out about this? Give me, give me the
33:04
Speaker 3: full breakdown.
33:06
Speaker 9: My thoughts are that as sad as it is to say,
33:09
Speaker 9: because like the humanity of it, right, you always hate
33:12
Speaker 9: to see people lose their job and then everyone affected,
33:15
Speaker 9: from families to other staff. Unfortunately, it was time to
33:19
Speaker 9: make this move for North Carolina, and I think it
33:21
Speaker 9: is the right move. There are two things that are true, Sean,
33:26
Speaker 9: is that number one, Hubert Davis is a very good
33:29
Speaker 9: and decent man who loves his players will, who operates
33:33
Speaker 9: his program with with morals and integrity. But also true
33:39
Speaker 9: is the fact that Hubert Davis has not lived up
33:42
Speaker 9: to what one former player this weekend told me is
33:44
Speaker 9: the Carolina standard.
33:46
Speaker 2: It has not been there in his five years.
33:49
Speaker 9: Carolina has had a top five seed in the NCAAA
33:52
Speaker 9: tournament just one time, and so unfortunately we have to
33:56
Speaker 9: hold both those things and at the end of the day,
33:59
Speaker 9: if the win't there, it's time to move on. So,
34:02
Speaker 9: as somebody that is usually a proponent for taking it slow,
34:07
Speaker 9: this is the right time and you got to make
34:09
Speaker 9: this move. So I'm glad Carolina did. It was weird
34:12
Speaker 9: and you asked when I knew about it. It started
34:15
Speaker 9: to become a thing pretty quickly after Carolina bowed out
34:18
Speaker 9: to VCU in the first round last Thursday. Epic collapse,
34:22
Speaker 9: the biggest first round collapse by the way in NCAA
34:24
Speaker 9: tournament history, caused Carolina to lose their last three games
34:28
Speaker 9: of the season, and it escalated very.
34:30
Speaker 2: Quickly from that point.
34:31
Speaker 9: Started to hear some rumblings about it Friday, but then
34:34
Speaker 9: it did become official on Tuesday evening.
34:37
Speaker 3: You said a phrase in there that it doesn't just
34:40
Speaker 3: happen at North Carolina with blue blood football programs, basketball programs,
34:45
Speaker 3: baseball whatever. You hear terms like this the North Carolina standard,
34:50
Speaker 3: like you have to live up to that if you're
34:52
Speaker 3: the next head coach, You had to live up to this,
34:54
Speaker 3: if you were Hubert Davis, and he didn't and that's
34:55
Speaker 3: why he was fired.
34:57
Speaker 2: What is that standard?
34:58
Speaker 3: It's not realistically you got to be in the National
35:01
Speaker 3: Championship Game every single year, But what is the bar
35:04
Speaker 3: at a place like North Carolina? What kind of success
35:07
Speaker 3: do you have to have in order to keep this job.
35:11
Speaker 2: That's a great question, Sean, because yes, in a.
35:13
Speaker 9: Tournament that is a one game off thing where you
35:16
Speaker 9: have to win six in a row, it's unrealistic to
35:19
Speaker 9: expect to win it.
35:20
Speaker 2: Every year.
35:21
Speaker 9: But if we're taking let's say a five year sample size,
35:24
Speaker 9: because that was coach Davis's tenure. In that tenure, North
35:27
Speaker 9: Carolina should make at least one Final four, if not
35:31
Speaker 9: to and be in the second weekend, So like at
35:35
Speaker 9: least six Sweet sixteen excuse me, four out of five
35:38
Speaker 9: years from a postseason standpoint, which, let's be honest, that's
35:43
Speaker 9: what we judge it all based on. That's where it
35:45
Speaker 9: needed to be the problem for coach Davis though as well,
35:48
Speaker 9: is that it wasn't really ever fully there in the
35:50
Speaker 9: regular season ever, which goes back to what I was
35:53
Speaker 9: saying about North Carolina only having a top five seed
35:56
Speaker 9: in the tournament once in coach Davis's tenure.
36:00
Speaker 2: So the combination of those two things not enough.
36:03
Speaker 9: In the regular season one ACC regular season championship in
36:06
Speaker 9: his tenure, and not enough tournament success either. And when
36:11
Speaker 9: you combine those two things, that's just too far a
36:14
Speaker 9: hill to climb.
36:16
Speaker 2: So who's next?
36:17
Speaker 3: I mean, you hear when the carousel starts spinning and
36:20
Speaker 3: you see a North Carolina job open. This is the
36:23
Speaker 3: kind of school, kind of program where nobody's name is
36:26
Speaker 3: off limits, right, So who is a realistic short list.
36:32
Speaker 2: That's a great question.
36:34
Speaker 9: One of the ways I've kind of framed it is,
36:37
Speaker 9: as you think about the attributes that make this person
36:41
Speaker 9: number one, you can't do what you just did with
36:42
Speaker 9: Hubert Davis.
36:43
Speaker 2: You have to.
36:44
Speaker 9: Get someone who has high level, high major D one
36:50
Speaker 9: experience and has won at that level. You can't go
36:52
Speaker 9: get somebody else without experience. Again, Also, there's a lot
36:56
Speaker 9: of talk.
36:56
Speaker 2: Right now, Sean about Carolina family.
36:58
Speaker 9: There isn't that per right now that is blood family,
37:02
Speaker 9: right There's no Roy Williams.
37:03
Speaker 2: That's like the clear and obvious, let's go get him.
37:06
Speaker 9: So the thing I've been saying pretty regularly is that
37:09
Speaker 9: family doesn't have to be biological family, meaning in alum
37:12
Speaker 9: I think there are some people that could be adopted
37:16
Speaker 9: family that feel very Carolina to me.
37:18
Speaker 2: And the issue is, as you just said, you know.
37:20
Speaker 9: You're a top three, top four program in the country,
37:23
Speaker 9: and you look around and you say, is Hubert Davis
37:25
Speaker 9: the top four coach in the country.
37:27
Speaker 2: I think the answer is unequivocally no. And so as
37:30
Speaker 2: you said, no names are off limits.
37:32
Speaker 9: Over the weekend, I had the chance just fortuitously to
37:35
Speaker 9: be with Gordon Hayward, former Utah jazz player, of course,
37:38
Speaker 9: but legend at Butler, Brad Stevens' name obviously is going
37:43
Speaker 9: to come up.
37:43
Speaker 2: So we discussed that.
37:45
Speaker 9: Brad Stevens has already removed his name from this search.
37:48
Speaker 9: So the other four names that are rising to the
37:50
Speaker 9: top right now three sitting head coaches and one former
37:54
Speaker 9: college head coach. Interestingly, those three college coaches are all
37:58
Speaker 9: still dancing right now, which is going to be a
38:00
Speaker 9: nice segue in just a second here. But it's Tommy
38:03
Speaker 9: Lloyd at Arizona, It's Dusty May at Michigan, It's TJ
38:07
Speaker 9: Alselberger at Iowa State. And then beyond the three of
38:10
Speaker 9: them that are still coaching, it's Billy Donovan, current Bulls
38:13
Speaker 9: head coach who might be leaving Chicago, And so that
38:17
Speaker 9: that's a name as well. I like any of those,
38:20
Speaker 9: The one that jumps to the top of that list
38:22
Speaker 9: for me, though, is Dusty May.
38:24
Speaker 2: I think he's onner.
38:25
Speaker 9: His comprehension and understanding of the transfer portal is elite.
38:30
Speaker 9: He operates in a way that feels very Carolina to
38:33
Speaker 9: me in terms of you think about Roy Williams with
38:35
Speaker 9: multiple bigs that he liked to play. Look at who
38:38
Speaker 9: Dusty May has had as his starting front court each
38:40
Speaker 9: of his two years at Michigan Vlad Golden, Danny Wolf
38:43
Speaker 9: last year. This year, you've got Morez Johnson, Big Ten
38:46
Speaker 9: Player of the Year, Jacks Alendeborg and Adaimarra.
38:49
Speaker 2: And it just makes sense to me. He's been able.
38:52
Speaker 2: He made a final four at a mid.
38:54
Speaker 9: Major program in FAU. I think Dusty May would be
38:57
Speaker 9: a slam dunk higher. But I'm not sleeping on those
38:59
Speaker 9: other guys either.
39:01
Speaker 3: So if this conversation was happening fifteen years ago, we'd
39:05
Speaker 3: be like, Hey, yeah, I mean, you're going to North Carolina.
39:07
Speaker 3: You're going to be able to get the best players
39:09
Speaker 3: in the country every single year, and now you just
39:12
Speaker 3: got to coach them up. Is it that automatic now?
39:17
Speaker 3: Because you're competing with I mean, BYU suddenly is a
39:20
Speaker 3: major financial player in the NIL space, allows them access
39:23
Speaker 3: to players that two years ago weren't coming to Provo.
39:27
Speaker 3: And I assume I'm making a lot of assumptions that
39:30
Speaker 3: North Carolina is ready to deploy not only the best
39:33
Speaker 3: coach they can find, but also significant resources and a
39:37
Speaker 3: booster base, and I mean, the greatest player ever. Maybe
39:40
Speaker 3: Michael Jordan getting involved to try to get player talent there.
39:44
Speaker 3: But is it that cut and dry in North Carolina.
39:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, both sides of that are great questions, Sean.
39:50
Speaker 9: On the does the Carolina brand, does the argyle carry
39:54
Speaker 9: the same level of distinction it would have done fifteen
39:57
Speaker 9: years ago as it would have done at Kentucky or
40:00
Speaker 9: Kansas or Duke, for example, And I think the answer
40:03
Speaker 9: is somewhat. There is still that notoriety of those blue
40:06
Speaker 9: blood programs, but the playing field has certainly been leveled,
40:10
Speaker 9: as you just alluded to with what all the money
40:13
Speaker 9: was able to go out and do to land aj
40:15
Speaker 9: and bring in Rob Wright and retain Richie who hopefully
40:19
Speaker 9: has a great healing recovery poor guy. And so I
40:22
Speaker 9: think there is still the level of Carolina matters, but
40:26
Speaker 9: it has been mitigated, certainly on the financial side of it.
40:29
Speaker 9: What's interesting, Sean, let me remind you that not this
40:32
Speaker 9: offseason for football were just finishing, but the one before
40:35
Speaker 9: North Carolina went out and dumped a truck of money
40:38
Speaker 9: in front of Bill Belichick and then dumped another truck
40:40
Speaker 9: of money to invest in football and his assistant coaches,
40:44
Speaker 9: and so now basically a year and a half later,
40:47
Speaker 9: you got to go back to all these donors and say, oh,
40:50
Speaker 9: we need you to pony up again. Now, hopefully there
40:53
Speaker 9: are some some different donors you can get to, including
40:56
Speaker 9: his Royal Airness that you just mentioned. By the way,
40:59
Speaker 9: a quick plug for Locked on Tar Hills had a
41:01
Speaker 9: great Michael Jordan Dean Smith's story on yesterday's Lockdow on
41:04
Speaker 9: Tar Hills.
41:05
Speaker 2: Go check it out. But that's a big question.
41:08
Speaker 9: With the money for me is are you having to
41:11
Speaker 9: go back to some of those same deep pockets you
41:13
Speaker 9: just went to about eighteen months ago when you brought
41:15
Speaker 9: in Belichick.
41:17
Speaker 2: Interesting.
41:17
Speaker 3: Isaac Shade is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
41:21
Speaker 3: We're not always going to talk North Carolina basketball, but
41:23
Speaker 3: it is a massive job and a big domino that
41:27
Speaker 3: will probably fall first and then who knows how far
41:30
Speaker 3: the ripples go out across the college basketball landscape. All
41:33
Speaker 3: of this while, of course, we are on the verge
41:36
Speaker 3: of Sweet sixteen basketball and March Madness continues. The conversation
41:40
Speaker 3: has been going on for a few years about Cinderella
41:43
Speaker 3: being dead, the transfer portal and NIL killing that, and
41:46
Speaker 3: there's no mid major in the Sweet sixteen there's no
41:49
Speaker 3: true Cinderella in the Sweet sixteen. But for you, who
41:53
Speaker 3: is the underdog in this field of no more underdogs?
41:57
Speaker 2: I like that you called it no true Cinderella, Sean.
42:00
Speaker 9: Some conversations we had this weekend as part of Amazon
42:03
Speaker 9: fire TV's bracket breakdown was do we need to start
42:06
Speaker 9: rethinking who Cinderella is?
42:08
Speaker 2: Because, as you said, with the money where.
42:11
Speaker 9: It's going a lot of these guys when they don't
42:14
Speaker 9: want to be the ninth man on Kentucky's bench, they're
42:17
Speaker 9: not going down to the mid major level. They're going
42:19
Speaker 9: to lesser known basketball entities like a Nebraska or a
42:23
Speaker 9: Texas or a Vanderbilt, which have kind of shown out
42:26
Speaker 9: in this tournament. And so it's almost like, obviously those
42:28
Speaker 9: aren't true Cinderellas as you so accurately defined them, but
42:32
Speaker 9: they are the current Cinderellas. For me, it's got to
42:35
Speaker 9: be Texas. To answer your question directly, who is an
42:39
Speaker 9: eleven seed? They came out of the play in and
42:42
Speaker 9: have now won three games.
42:44
Speaker 2: It's interesting, Sean.
42:44
Speaker 9: The at large play ins started back in twenty eleven.
42:48
Speaker 9: Since then, at least one of those play ins has
42:52
Speaker 9: won two games or more. In the tournament every year
42:55
Speaker 9: but twenty nineteen and twenty twenty five, So this is
42:58
Speaker 9: not a new phenomenon with Texas doing this. But again,
43:01
Speaker 9: you see it with these like middling high major schools.
43:05
Speaker 9: They've got great talent. It's just they didn't necessarily put
43:08
Speaker 9: it together at the same level they needed to during
43:10
Speaker 9: the season.
43:10
Speaker 2: But as I look at.
43:11
Speaker 9: The makeup of this Sweet sixteen, it is clearly the
43:14
Speaker 9: Longhorns that are the odd man out.
43:18
Speaker 3: Okay, we have this conversation in the football season about
43:21
Speaker 3: all right, which conference gets to claim supremacy, and it
43:24
Speaker 3: feels like because of recent national championships and depth of
43:28
Speaker 3: the conference, now the Big Ten gets to tell the SEC, hey,
43:33
Speaker 3: we're the kings of the college football world right now.
43:35
Speaker 3: Is the same true in college hoops at least in
43:37
Speaker 3: this twenty twenty five twenty twenty six cycle.
43:40
Speaker 2: And do you mean in terms of the Big Ten
43:42
Speaker 2: getting to do it?
43:43
Speaker 9: Yes, Well, I would say yes from a quantity standpoint.
43:48
Speaker 2: I would say no from a quality standpoint.
43:50
Speaker 9: Here's why the Big Ten has not won a national
43:52
Speaker 9: championship since the year two thousand sean when Michigan State
43:56
Speaker 9: won it. It's a literal quarter century drought for this conference. However,
44:02
Speaker 9: they do have six of the remaining sixteen teams in
44:06
Speaker 9: this field, and there are a couple of them that
44:08
Speaker 9: obviously are very legitimate contenders, headlined by Michigan and Dusty
44:13
Speaker 9: May's program.
44:14
Speaker 2: That funny enough, we just talked about earlier.
44:17
Speaker 9: However, when you look at it, like, if you were
44:19
Speaker 9: to offer me the Big Ten or the field to
44:22
Speaker 9: win this championship Seawan, I would still take the field
44:25
Speaker 9: because the field would include Arizona, who for me is
44:29
Speaker 9: the deepest and most complete team in the country, and
44:31
Speaker 9: my national champion pick. You've got Duke, who just got
44:34
Speaker 9: pat Patrick goangba back. There's rumors that Caleb Foster might
44:38
Speaker 9: be able to play this weekend. I don't see it
44:40
Speaker 9: recovering from a fractured foot, like come on no, but like, yes,
44:45
Speaker 9: there are multiple Big Ten schools.
44:46
Speaker 2: That could do it.
44:47
Speaker 9: I still think that it will be another year of
44:50
Speaker 9: that Big Ten drought. So while Indiana is now a
44:53
Speaker 9: football school, the Big Ten is not yet back to
44:56
Speaker 9: being the dominant basketball conference.
45:00
Speaker 3: Sweet sixteen. Now, who is the most surprising early exit
45:03
Speaker 3: for you? I mean, obviously North Carolina belongs in that category. Here,
45:07
Speaker 3: people thought that BYU, even despite the injuries, could account
45:11
Speaker 3: for themselves a little bit better than they did with
45:13
Speaker 3: the first round exit. But was any one of those
45:16
Speaker 3: those first weekend exit's a true shock for you.
45:20
Speaker 9: I mean, it's the no duh right in front of us.
45:23
Speaker 9: But it's got to be the Florida Gators. And it's
45:26
Speaker 9: not just because of Florida, although it is like Florida
45:28
Speaker 9: was playing at such a high level. The front court
45:31
Speaker 9: was dominating everyone throughout the back end of the season,
45:35
Speaker 9: But it's.
45:36
Speaker 2: The Florida and the fact that they lost to Iowa.
45:39
Speaker 9: Who Bennett starts is phenomenal, and Ben McCollum is one
45:42
Speaker 9: of the great young coaches. He just keeps winning no
45:45
Speaker 9: matter what level he's at. In the past three years,
45:48
Speaker 9: he's gone from the D two level to Drake to Iowa,
45:52
Speaker 9: and he won an NCAA tournament game at both Drake
45:55
Speaker 9: and now two at Iowa, and he had won four
45:58
Speaker 9: national championships at the D two level. All of that said,
46:01
Speaker 9: there just hasn't been enough around Bennett Sturts where I
46:03
Speaker 9: thought they'd have any chance against the overwhelming talent and
46:08
Speaker 9: size that Florida has. And so that one was truly,
46:12
Speaker 9: truly shocking to me. I could not believe it.
46:16
Speaker 3: You already told us who you think your your championship
46:20
Speaker 3: pick is, But what does the final four field look like?
46:23
Speaker 9: Here's the nice thing, Sean, I'm usually awful at brackets
46:27
Speaker 9: because I end up overanalyzing it and then soccer moms
46:29
Speaker 9: who were picking based on team colors usually end up
46:32
Speaker 9: beating me.
46:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
46:33
Speaker 9: Fair, but at least so far, my entire final four
46:38
Speaker 9: is still intact, and so I'll I'll just tell you
46:41
Speaker 9: who I have there for that. Obviously, Arizona is the
46:44
Speaker 9: team I have coming out of the West, and then
46:47
Speaker 9: joining them on that side I had I had picked
46:50
Speaker 9: Iowa State in my bracket. Obviously, that was before the
46:54
Speaker 9: Joshua Jefferson injury. Even without him, I still think they
46:57
Speaker 9: get by Tennessee coming up here on Friday evening. But
47:01
Speaker 9: now I have to take a serious look at Michigan
47:05
Speaker 9: or Alabama on the other side of that Midwest bracket.
47:08
Speaker 9: Michigan is playing at such a high level, and if
47:10
Speaker 9: they're going to continue to hit multiple or double digit
47:13
Speaker 9: threes like they did against Saint Louis, I mean it
47:15
Speaker 9: might be over. But for the sake of my bracket
47:18
Speaker 9: and the integrity of it. I'll continue to rock with
47:20
Speaker 9: Iowa State coming out of the South bracket. I have
47:25
Speaker 9: actually Illinois upsetting Houston in Houston this weekend, and I
47:29
Speaker 9: originally had them over Florida. I think they could get
47:32
Speaker 9: by Iowa or Nebraska, although that Nebraskaball storyline is one
47:36
Speaker 9: of my.
47:36
Speaker 2: Favorites of the tournament.
47:38
Speaker 9: And out of the East, I actually have Michigan State
47:41
Speaker 9: as the three seed coming out of that beating Yukon
47:43
Speaker 9: this weekend or coming up here on Friday and then
47:47
Speaker 9: getting by either Well. I have Saint John's upsetting Dukes,
47:50
Speaker 9: so I have Michigan State getting by Saint John's in
47:52
Speaker 9: the Elite eight. So my final four would be Arizona,
47:55
Speaker 9: Michigan State, Iowa State, and Illinois.
48:00
Speaker 2: Cannot wait for another great weekend of college hoops. Isaac.
48:04
Speaker 3: Always appreciate the hard work that you continue to do
48:06
Speaker 3: and when you give us a few minutes.
48:08
Speaker 9: Thank you, sir, Thanks for having me Sean, Let's have
48:10
Speaker 9: a great second weekend.
48:12
Speaker 3: That's Isaac Shade, host of Locked on College Basketball, Locked
48:16
Speaker 3: on Tar Heels as well. You can follow him on
48:18
Speaker 3: Twitter at Isaac Shade. That's s c H A D E.
48:25
Speaker 3: Lots left to get to here on the Sean O'Connell show.
48:27
Speaker 3: Obviously we're rolling. It's ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
48:30
Speaker 3: one FM high on.
48:42
Speaker 1: You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
48:45
Speaker 1: Murdoch Houndai studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
48:49
Speaker 1: one a FM.
48:50
Speaker 2: Some where you got me Thursday? How lunch is brought
49:01
Speaker 2: you today?
49:01
Speaker 3: My friends over at Big Willies, seventeen seventeen, South Maine.
49:07
Speaker 3: The tater kegs are something that you truly need to
49:11
Speaker 3: experience for yourself if you're a tater Tot fan. The
49:14
Speaker 3: tater keg is, like Patrick from Big Willies explaining for
49:18
Speaker 3: us yesterday, it's like it's like a tater tot on steroids.
49:22
Speaker 3: It's got cream, cheese and bacon and halapanio crammed into
49:28
Speaker 3: the same like a little minced up, chopped up potato
49:32
Speaker 3: that makes your tater tot but far more substantial. And
49:38
Speaker 3: you can get the tater kegs as a side, or
49:40
Speaker 3: you can get them miss their own order, but you
49:43
Speaker 3: need to get them seventeen seventeen, South Main. Tell them
49:46
Speaker 3: that Sean O'Connell and the Sean O'Connell show.
49:48
Speaker 2: Sense you a.
49:50
Speaker 3: Short segment, We've got doctor Joseph Arrington, University of Utah wrestler. Yes,
49:56
Speaker 3: I said that, right, you're gonna question like, wait, what
49:59
Speaker 3: what do you mean competing in the NCWA Nationals National
50:04
Speaker 3: Collegiate Wrestling Association. We'll get to that here in just
50:07
Speaker 3: a few minutes to start off hour number two. Very
50:09
Speaker 3: much looking forward to that conversation. But because this is
50:13
Speaker 3: a short segment, one of the most interesting headlines that
50:16
Speaker 3: came out not necessarily sports related, although you can use
50:21
Speaker 3: this to attend a sporting event, as I guess, we'll
50:23
Speaker 3: connect it. James, I don't know if you saw this,
50:25
Speaker 3: but United Airlines is offering now a new class of seat.
50:32
Speaker 2: We're all familiar with the.
50:33
Speaker 3: Poor man's first class, right where you're on a long
50:36
Speaker 3: flight and you're on one of the wide body jets
50:40
Speaker 3: that has the rows of three, and magically, gloriously, miraculously,
50:48
Speaker 3: you somehow get the two empty seats next to you,
50:54
Speaker 3: so you're maybe an aisle seat and then middle seat,
50:57
Speaker 3: window seat.
50:58
Speaker 2: Nobody sits there.
51:00
Speaker 3: Your window seat, middle seat, aisle seat, there's nobody there, right,
51:04
Speaker 3: the poor man's first class, and so what do you do.
51:06
Speaker 3: You flip up the armrests and you stretch yourself out.
51:10
Speaker 2: Right.
51:10
Speaker 3: Well, now United is going to be selling whole row seats,
51:16
Speaker 3: but they're gonna one up it instead of just having
51:21
Speaker 3: regular seats. The footrests are now so adjustable that they
51:27
Speaker 3: come up and create a flat bed. Right, So the
51:33
Speaker 3: footrest comes up and you have seating now in where
51:37
Speaker 3: the empty space of the footwell used to be. So
51:40
Speaker 3: you've got a little lay down bed situation in your
51:43
Speaker 3: own row. They're going to sell this now. The price
51:48
Speaker 3: is really gonna be the whole question here. If you
51:50
Speaker 3: are a family traveling with young kids, and you now
51:55
Speaker 3: have an opportunity on like a six eight ten hour flight,
51:59
Speaker 3: if you're trying to go overseas with a little kid,
52:01
Speaker 3: you just can't do it because your kid can't lay
52:05
Speaker 3: down to sleep. And if your kid doesn't lay down
52:07
Speaker 3: to sleep, and they're crying and freaking out, and it
52:09
Speaker 3: makes the travel experience miserable. So now you have an
52:12
Speaker 3: opportunity to do this on a full row seat where
52:16
Speaker 3: you can lay down. You have the whole row, right,
52:19
Speaker 3: so you and your two kids, or you and your
52:21
Speaker 3: one kid are sitting in the.
52:22
Speaker 2: Row, especially just one kid.
52:24
Speaker 4: They're small enough, you could sit on the end of
52:28
Speaker 4: this row and they could still lay down.
52:30
Speaker 3: Or even you just lay down next to each other,
52:32
Speaker 3: and United is gonna roll out a mattress pad for you.
52:35
Speaker 2: They're gonna give you pillows.
52:37
Speaker 3: It's like bringing the full business class lay down seats
52:41
Speaker 3: to the people.
52:43
Speaker 2: That's actually amazing.
52:45
Speaker 4: Again, if it's not gonna completely break the bank.
52:49
Speaker 3: So I did a little digging, right, because like a
52:52
Speaker 3: business class seat to Europe is gonna be at least,
52:57
Speaker 3: at the very very least, it's gonna be six thousand
53:00
Speaker 3: dollars round trip. Okay, per seat. That's for one person
53:05
Speaker 3: to sit in. That's tough. That's a big ask for
53:08
Speaker 3: anybody to afford, right, And that's on the cheapest, cheapest end.
53:12
Speaker 3: It's usually closer to ten grand per seat for the
53:15
Speaker 3: full laydown experience. All Right, Apparently the early overtures here
53:22
Speaker 3: are it's probably gonna cost anywhere from two to five
53:25
Speaker 3: thousand dollars round trip for the full this is row seat.
53:29
Speaker 2: For a transit transit land like a Transatlantic flight.
53:33
Speaker 3: Now I'm I'm my whole thing here is flying to
53:38
Speaker 3: Hawaii can I get this thing flying to Hawaii for
53:42
Speaker 3: less than three grand. For less than three is probably
53:47
Speaker 3: like where I'm like, Okay, is it worth it to
53:50
Speaker 3: pay that so my kids can lay down and sleep.
53:53
Speaker 3: That's still a big ask, But it's not the six
53:57
Speaker 3: or seven or eight grand to do the full lay
53:59
Speaker 3: down seat in Delta one or United Polaris or whatever.
54:03
Speaker 3: They're trying to bring that luxury experience, that premium cabin thing,
54:07
Speaker 3: but to the main cabin and make it a little
54:10
Speaker 3: bit more accessible, a little bit more affordable. Again, the
54:13
Speaker 3: pricing is going to be the whole key here. But
54:16
Speaker 3: the poor man's first class is now being made official
54:20
Speaker 3: by United Airlines and apparently New Zealand air has done
54:23
Speaker 3: this for years, and United like they patented the whole
54:27
Speaker 3: like seats folding up from the.
54:29
Speaker 2: Bottom type of thing.
54:30
Speaker 3: So United is now licensing it and it's going to
54:33
Speaker 3: be exclusive to them in North America at least.
54:35
Speaker 4: For I mean, let's hope Delta gets on the train
54:39
Speaker 4: at some point to us being a Delta hub.
54:41
Speaker 2: Here's my plan, Delta.
54:43
Speaker 3: You beef up your trade table to the point where
54:46
Speaker 3: now it's so powerful you could just lay that thing
54:49
Speaker 3: down and you got a little cot for the kids.
54:51
Speaker 4: You don't even have to license. It's just it's a
54:54
Speaker 4: different thing. It's just a different thing. The foot rest
54:57
Speaker 4: isn't coming up. The trade table is coming down, baby.
55:00
Speaker 4: You got to make a trade table. Absolutely. By the way,
55:05
Speaker 4: we've tried, like every problem.
55:06
Speaker 3: My wife bought those like stupid inflatable ones where you
55:10
Speaker 3: blow them up and you put them down in where
55:13
Speaker 3: your feet are supposed to be and you try to
55:14
Speaker 3: lay a kid on them, and it just it kind
55:17
Speaker 3: of works, but it kind of doesn't. This is I
55:20
Speaker 3: applaud you United for trying to make this thing happen.
55:23
Speaker 4: There's a handful of United flights that go out of
55:26
Speaker 4: Salt Lakes, so we'll be able to utilize it here.
55:29
Speaker 2: Like one of the best.
55:31
Speaker 3: If you can't make the Delta direct to Honolulu, you
55:34
Speaker 3: go San Francisco on United. Yeah, and a quick cop
55:37
Speaker 3: to San Francisco and then weirdly enough, it's like six
55:40
Speaker 3: hours to go directly to Honolulu.
55:42
Speaker 2: It's also six hours to fly from San Francisco to Honolulu. Yeah,
55:46
Speaker 2: that is weird.
55:47
Speaker 4: Like what it's the it's like the fault. They have
55:50
Speaker 4: to follow the curvature of the earth kind of thing.
55:52
Speaker 4: They're not just doing straight lines places. Shouldn't you be
55:55
Speaker 4: able to directly subtract?
55:57
Speaker 3: However long it took to San Francisco to San Francisco
56:00
Speaker 3: to why but you.
56:02
Speaker 2: Can't thought it's like a fifteen minute shore.
56:04
Speaker 4: There was actually a speed limit from San Francisco, a little,
56:07
Speaker 4: little known speed limit for the planes.
56:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't know. It's wild anyway. So not necessarily
56:13
Speaker 2: a sports topic.
56:14
Speaker 3: But I am traveling a lot, and I would like
56:17
Speaker 3: to be able to travel to some of these cool
56:19
Speaker 3: destinations with my kids, and this might be the thing
56:22
Speaker 3: that makes it possible. Gotta take a break. That's the
56:28
Speaker 3: Hot lunch brought to you by Big Willies at seventeen
56:31
Speaker 3: seventeen South Maine. Doctor Joseph Arrington, University of Utah wrestler
56:36
Speaker 3: competing at the NCWA Nationals. We'll talk about all of
56:39
Speaker 3: it next on the Sean O'Connell Show ESPN seven hundred
56:42
Speaker 3: and ninety two one FM.
56:47
Speaker 1: It's a Sean O'Connell show. You were home of the
56:50
Speaker 1: best inside of your use. Let's get back to OC
56:53
Speaker 1: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of the ESPN seven hundred
56:57
Speaker 1: and ninety two to one half am.
57:13
Speaker 2: All right, do me a favor.
57:14
Speaker 3: All of you who have social media, go out grab
57:16
Speaker 3: your Instagram. Okay, you have you Underscore wrestling search it,
57:22
Speaker 3: give them a follow. Sean O'Connell show here on ESPN
57:26
Speaker 3: seven hundred and ninety two one FM. Like many programs,
57:31
Speaker 3: especially those in the Western United States, Utah's official NCAA
57:36
Speaker 3: sanctioned wrestling program is a longstanding casualty of Title nine
57:42
Speaker 3: legislation that made a bunch of schools have to figure
57:46
Speaker 3: out where you were going to balance out your athletic
57:48
Speaker 3: department on both sides of things, and wrestling was one
57:51
Speaker 3: of the first things that went away at a lot
57:53
Speaker 3: of places. UVU does have an NCAA sanctioned wrestling program,
57:57
Speaker 3: but Utah still has wrestling. WA Nationals are tomorrow, Friday
58:04
Speaker 3: and Saturday in Bossier City, Louisiana, and University of Utah
58:10
Speaker 3: wrestler Joseph Arrington, student at the fox Echoles School of Medicine,
58:15
Speaker 3: is kind of enough to join us participating in wrestling Nationals.
58:20
Speaker 2: Joseph Arrington, Welcome to the show. How are you will?
58:23
Speaker 5: Thanks you for having me having meet you.
58:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, nice to meet you. Look, I'm I'll just start.
58:28
Speaker 3: I'm a little embarrassed because as someone who's you know,
58:31
Speaker 3: pretty deep in the combat sports world and pays a
58:34
Speaker 3: lot of attention to folk style wrestling, at least more
58:37
Speaker 3: than most people do, I am still relatively ignorant to
58:42
Speaker 3: the NCWA and the nationals and what you're competing in.
58:46
Speaker 3: So if you don't mind educate us all and do
58:50
Speaker 3: me a little favor on how you got involved in
58:52
Speaker 3: just exactly what this whole thing's about.
58:55
Speaker 5: Sure, yeah, that's no reason to be embarssa. It's very common. So,
59:00
Speaker 5: like a lot of people know, Title nine pass and
59:03
Speaker 5: it was an effort in the government to try and
59:06
Speaker 5: balance things out, and unfortunately, collegiate wrestling was a major
59:11
Speaker 5: casualty in that I was even checking the brackets and
59:15
Speaker 5: the program. It ended at the University of Utah in
59:18
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty and I believe it was in two thousand
59:21
Speaker 5: that it ended at BYU, and then shortly after two
59:24
Speaker 5: thousand was when UVU started at their program. They weren't
59:28
Speaker 5: UVU at the time that it so yeah, with all
59:33
Speaker 5: of this happening, it was in the nineties that the
59:35
Speaker 5: National Collegiate Wrestling Association said, hey, you know what, I
59:39
Speaker 5: see a niche here, I see a gap. Let's dive
59:42
Speaker 5: in and try to help a lot of people. And
59:45
Speaker 5: that was something that we were seeing here in Utah
59:48
Speaker 5: and to other states. How there were people who were
59:52
Speaker 5: being forced to either choose to stay in their states
59:56
Speaker 5: because they wanted to stay close to friends and family,
59:58
Speaker 5: there was a specific program at their state university that
1:00:01
Speaker 5: they wanted to go to or or hopefully make it
1:00:06
Speaker 5: onto the selective UVU NCWA program or like what most
1:00:11
Speaker 5: athletes do, shop around and have to leave because the
1:00:15
Speaker 5: choices here were limited. So the NCWA works to fill
1:00:19
Speaker 5: in that gap. And so in speaking with the presidents
1:00:23
Speaker 5: of their organization, Jim Guayunta, he was telling me that
1:00:27
Speaker 5: about ninety two to ninety three percent of the teams
1:00:31
Speaker 5: in the programs are funded by their schools. That they
1:00:35
Speaker 5: just they don't do it officially through athletics, they do
1:00:38
Speaker 5: it through other means. But there are the few seven
1:00:42
Speaker 5: percenters so that our self starters and have to fund
1:00:46
Speaker 5: everything themselves because they are I mean, there's no in
1:00:50
Speaker 5: between at those universities. University of Utah on campus, we
1:00:55
Speaker 5: are officially labeled as a club sport, but under the
1:00:58
Speaker 5: NCWA band or they don't see us as a club.
1:01:01
Speaker 5: There actually was a team that has showed up with
1:01:04
Speaker 5: singlets that said club wrestling, and the NCWA pulled in
1:01:07
Speaker 5: this side. I say, okay, we understand why you put
1:01:09
Speaker 5: it there, but here, under our federation, you're not a club.
1:01:13
Speaker 5: You are an official collegiate team. And then there's the
1:01:15
Speaker 5: whole bureaucracy in politics of internal funding and labeling on campuses.
1:01:23
Speaker 5: So the NCWA is working just like the NAIA and
1:01:27
Speaker 5: the NJACA and everything. There's different federations within collegiate wrestling,
1:01:33
Speaker 5: and the NCWA is working to fill in a specific
1:01:37
Speaker 5: gap that is needed so that people can stay home
1:01:43
Speaker 5: if they want to go to the university actually wanted
1:01:45
Speaker 5: to go to, instead of outsourcing and stuff to other states.
1:01:50
Speaker 2: You're a local, right, You're a West High person, West
1:01:53
Speaker 2: High graduating in that correct.
1:01:54
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, I graduated in two thousand and five from
1:01:56
Speaker 5: West High School.
1:01:58
Speaker 3: So I mean, look, you're you're three years younger than
1:02:02
Speaker 3: me and you're still you're still at it.
1:02:04
Speaker 2: You're wrestling, and look I love it.
1:02:07
Speaker 3: Why though, I mean it had clear it's clearly not
1:02:11
Speaker 3: like a glamorous thing. You're not doing this for the accolades.
1:02:15
Speaker 3: You're not doing this because you know, Rice Cycle Stadium
1:02:18
Speaker 3: is full of fifty thousand people shouting your name on
1:02:21
Speaker 3: a Saturday, Like, like, why, especially at this stage of life,
1:02:25
Speaker 3: when you're.
1:02:26
Speaker 2: You know, doctor, why why do it now?
1:02:30
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, definitely. So in my twenties and whatnot, I
1:02:36
Speaker 5: had my number one sport in high school was wrestling.
1:02:39
Speaker 5: I had thought about pursuing it, and at the time,
1:02:42
Speaker 5: I was ignorant. I didn't know about titlemine and when
1:02:44
Speaker 5: had happened, and so I thought, oh, maybe I'll try
1:02:48
Speaker 5: out for lacrosse team at the University of U TIH instead.
1:02:51
Speaker 5: But shortly after high school I ended up finding the
1:02:55
Speaker 5: love of my life. We ended up getting married, and
1:02:58
Speaker 5: I thought, hey, you know what, athlete, I can't dedicate
1:03:02
Speaker 5: the time right now. So there, so I started doing
1:03:04
Speaker 5: marathon running and the like, was trying to stay in shape,
1:03:09
Speaker 5: and my wife and I were building up our family.
1:03:12
Speaker 5: I was working on my career that babbling in different things.
1:03:19
Speaker 5: And then a few years ago I thought, I, hey,
1:03:23
Speaker 5: you know what, my family is pretty well established. We're
1:03:26
Speaker 5: in a good space in our life. I'm gonna pivot
1:03:28
Speaker 5: back to what I originally wanted to do. I wanted
1:03:30
Speaker 5: to become a physician scientist, so I started pivting back
1:03:35
Speaker 5: a guy accept the PhD program at the University of
1:03:38
Speaker 5: tel School of Medicine. And this is shortly after the
1:03:43
Speaker 5: COVID nineteen pandemic and quarantine, and I had some extra poundage.
1:03:49
Speaker 5: I was weighing more than I ever had in my life.
1:03:51
Speaker 5: I was at three hundred and five pounds. I didn't
1:03:53
Speaker 5: feel happy, I didn't feel good, and my first thought was, oh,
1:03:58
Speaker 5: maybe I should go back to marathon running by I
1:04:00
Speaker 5: know that my joints can't support that at this weight.
1:04:05
Speaker 5: And then just wrestling kept popping into my head, kept
1:04:08
Speaker 5: popping into my head, and so I thought, hey, you
1:04:10
Speaker 5: know what, I'm going to investigate and see what the
1:04:12
Speaker 5: wrestling sitution.
1:04:12
Speaker 1: I knew that.
1:04:13
Speaker 5: I knew there was a club on campus. This is
1:04:15
Speaker 5: pre NCWA was just a club of guys who had
1:04:18
Speaker 5: meet up and go to Probo High School a couple
1:04:21
Speaker 5: of times a week to wrestle there. So I reached
1:04:25
Speaker 5: out to the student government and said, hey, interested in
1:04:29
Speaker 5: wrestling you what can I know about it? And so
1:04:31
Speaker 5: it's funny you mentioned that a few months ago, a
1:04:34
Speaker 5: young woman by the name of the Neessa Dileego had
1:04:37
Speaker 5: reached out to us and she elevated the wrestling program
1:04:41
Speaker 5: to the NCWA. And right now, you guys are on
1:04:45
Speaker 5: a mandatory hiatus when you're making a new organization like that,
1:04:48
Speaker 5: but you guys can start officially practicing come August and
1:04:54
Speaker 5: be an official club team under the NCWA, and I thought,
1:04:59
Speaker 5: oh fantastic. I reached out to them, got to know them,
1:05:02
Speaker 5: and I thought, you know what, it's my time to
1:05:04
Speaker 5: start getting in shape. And over that summer, so it
1:05:08
Speaker 5: was like the last week of May until mid August,
1:05:12
Speaker 5: I dropped forty pounds. I was out waylisting and wrestling,
1:05:17
Speaker 5: doing these drills on my own running and I showed
1:05:20
Speaker 5: up and I was in relatively. I was in pretty
1:05:23
Speaker 5: good shape for especially from where I was, and I
1:05:27
Speaker 5: just kept working out and I was just starting to
1:05:31
Speaker 5: get back into that love of the sport and remembering
1:05:34
Speaker 5: why I loved it. And the first the first few months,
1:05:37
Speaker 5: I was fifteen years rusty. So I have some videos
1:05:42
Speaker 5: that I'm very embarrassed about of me standing there trying
1:05:45
Speaker 5: to remember how to grapple and get that motor memory
1:05:49
Speaker 5: back in there. But it was worth it and I
1:05:52
Speaker 5: just kept grinding that first season. I ended up finishing
1:05:55
Speaker 5: the season at two hundred and thirty pounds. But I mean,
1:05:59
Speaker 5: we're not an end CWA sport and whatnot funding wise,
1:06:03
Speaker 5: so our resources were limited and we ended up having
1:06:06
Speaker 5: the ability to pay for our membership fees, pay for
1:06:11
Speaker 5: some uniforms, and also pay for one tournament for us
1:06:14
Speaker 5: to go to. Went well, and I thought, hey, you
1:06:19
Speaker 5: know what, I really want to dedicate into this. So
1:06:21
Speaker 5: I spent the next so this is the end of
1:06:23
Speaker 5: my official second year. I spent that off season really
1:06:27
Speaker 5: working out hard. I put on about by the time
1:06:31
Speaker 5: the season started, about thirty five pounds and was at
1:06:36
Speaker 5: the strongest I'd ever been in my life. When the
1:06:38
Speaker 5: season started, I was benching three hundred and sixty pounds
1:06:41
Speaker 5: and I was still pretty good cardial wise, and I
1:06:43
Speaker 5: felt pretty good. And even though our resources are still
1:06:48
Speaker 5: not where we want them to be, and part of
1:06:50
Speaker 5: it has to do with the nil lawsuit, the U
1:06:53
Speaker 5: and had spoken with us and saying that they were
1:06:56
Speaker 5: very interested in our program and funding it more, but
1:06:59
Speaker 5: because of that law suit, it was stagnating their plans
1:07:03
Speaker 5: for us, and so I thought, hey, you know what,
1:07:05
Speaker 5: when those plans roll back around. I want to be
1:07:08
Speaker 5: able to kind of liken the Iron Man movie. The
1:07:12
Speaker 5: villain of the film says, hey, Tony Stark was able
1:07:15
Speaker 5: to go with a box of scrapped in a cave
1:07:18
Speaker 5: and build this. I feel like we're kind of that
1:07:20
Speaker 5: that scrappiness over at our team. And we worked really
1:07:25
Speaker 5: hard and we had a lot of people have some
1:07:27
Speaker 5: really great seasons. We had one guy play eight in
1:07:30
Speaker 5: the qualifiers this last few weeks, and then I qualified
1:07:34
Speaker 5: for nationals myself, and yeah, it was just a fantastic
1:07:39
Speaker 5: opportunity and I feel back in shape and also a
1:07:44
Speaker 5: better balance in life. It's not just I'm studying medicine
1:07:49
Speaker 5: right now, studying my PhD research and performing that spending
1:07:55
Speaker 5: time with my wife and kids. But then I also
1:07:57
Speaker 5: have this time that I'm able to dedicate to a
1:08:00
Speaker 5: sport that I thought I'd never have the opportunity to again,
1:08:03
Speaker 5: Which is another one of the differences between the NCWA
1:08:07
Speaker 5: and the nc double A is that the NCWA just
1:08:10
Speaker 5: looks at eligibility years. There's no taking clock once you
1:08:15
Speaker 5: graduate high school. So one of the cool things is
1:08:18
Speaker 5: we have a few teams in the nation. I believe
1:08:22
Speaker 5: Tarleton in Texas was the first and Menlo in California
1:08:27
Speaker 5: is the next. That the NCWUA has spoken with the
1:08:32
Speaker 5: universities and the nc Double A and they have branched
1:08:36
Speaker 5: off to have two teams on each campus. Now both
1:08:39
Speaker 5: of those universities have both an NCWA and nc Double
1:08:44
Speaker 5: A team. From what I understand, they practice together and
1:08:47
Speaker 5: they do everything together. But they and they go to
1:08:49
Speaker 5: a lot of the same open tournaments. I mean like
1:08:51
Speaker 5: I was invited to an MCUAA tournament this year, and yeah,
1:08:56
Speaker 5: so there's a lot of cross pollination that that happens
1:09:01
Speaker 5: between the two the two divisions and leads, and they're
1:09:05
Speaker 5: they're working to build each other up and and build
1:09:08
Speaker 5: up the sport on campuses and and really help light
1:09:11
Speaker 5: light that fire that used to exist at the collegiate level.
1:09:16
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for all that context and really cool.
1:09:20
Speaker 3: The the preparation for like you've got this national that's tomorrow,
1:09:26
Speaker 3: in the next day and the next day, right, what
1:09:28
Speaker 3: is the what is the preparation Like when you know
1:09:32
Speaker 3: you're you're heavyweight wrestler, correct, but for now, yeah, you
1:09:37
Speaker 3: big bodies in the room to work with, do you
1:09:39
Speaker 3: get are you able to study film on your opponent
1:09:43
Speaker 3: in the bracket. I mean when you look at n
1:09:45
Speaker 3: c double A wrestling, it's a big time operation like
1:09:48
Speaker 3: NCAA football or basketball is. And like I said, I
1:09:51
Speaker 3: don't know a ton about how the NCWA handles itself.
1:09:54
Speaker 3: So like, are you able to find film to evaluate
1:09:58
Speaker 3: your opponents and stuff?
1:10:00
Speaker 5: Yes, for a lot of them. Unfortunately not everyone, but
1:10:05
Speaker 5: yes for those of you who aren't. In the note
1:10:07
Speaker 5: about the wrestling domain, there is this website, this organization
1:10:13
Speaker 5: called Track Wrestling, and in association with Slow Wrestling, a
1:10:17
Speaker 5: lot of the times tournaments get recorded and posted on
1:10:21
Speaker 5: the website. I myself have a subscription to Flow Wrestling,
1:10:25
Speaker 5: so I was able to go and see the majority
1:10:30
Speaker 5: of my opponents and look at their styles and do
1:10:34
Speaker 5: some film work on them. There were a few who
1:10:36
Speaker 5: were obscure who actually I was one of them. People
1:10:41
Speaker 5: didn't have any film on me, They didn't know anything
1:10:43
Speaker 5: about me, and because I'd gone to only a small
1:10:47
Speaker 5: number of tournaments due to our lack of resources and
1:10:49
Speaker 5: other programs are that way. But the grand majority are
1:10:53
Speaker 5: going to be very big, both open invitationals and NCWA only,
1:10:59
Speaker 5: and we are able to there to get film and
1:11:01
Speaker 5: look at that. As for bodies in the room, that
1:11:04
Speaker 5: that has been a little bit of an issue for me.
1:11:07
Speaker 5: We do have a in total, we have four guys
1:11:11
Speaker 5: who are heavyweights on our team. However, now that I
1:11:16
Speaker 5: bolt up, I'm the largest guy in the room, and honestly,
1:11:20
Speaker 5: in practice, I don't get the best look of being
1:11:23
Speaker 5: able to I mean, I'm I'm wrestling to some guy
1:11:25
Speaker 5: who weighs like two hundred and thirty two hundred and
1:11:27
Speaker 5: forty pounds, and I'm easily able to pick him up,
1:11:30
Speaker 5: walk around with him, and uh, it's it's it's it's
1:11:35
Speaker 5: not quite realistic for when I go up against the
1:11:38
Speaker 5: heavier guys in a match.
1:11:40
Speaker 2: Well, the reason I asked that question me off a
1:11:42
Speaker 2: little bit.
1:11:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, the reason I asked that question is I thought
1:11:45
Speaker 3: in the MMA world for a long time and that
1:11:47
Speaker 3: when you get when you get to the upper weight classes,
1:11:50
Speaker 3: that becomes you know, one of the hardest parts about
1:11:53
Speaker 3: especially important matches like the ones you have coming up
1:11:55
Speaker 3: in nationals is you got to you got to do
1:11:59
Speaker 3: your best and you what you're actually going to see
1:12:01
Speaker 3: in competition, And just like in every other place, big strong,
1:12:06
Speaker 3: fast people are harder to find, and when you're dealing
1:12:10
Speaker 3: with limited resources here, I imagine that's even more true.
1:12:13
Speaker 3: So I mean, how do you how do you fill
1:12:15
Speaker 3: that gap? Is it with weightlifting? Is it with you know,
1:12:20
Speaker 3: shark tanking where you're getting fresh opponents that you get
1:12:23
Speaker 3: the biggest guys you can find, and then you handicap
1:12:25
Speaker 3: yourself by making them go short rounds while you stay
1:12:28
Speaker 3: in for long rounds, Like, how do you try to
1:12:30
Speaker 3: fill that voice?
1:12:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is some of what I've been and our
1:12:35
Speaker 5: coach have been helping employ. There be tides that I'll
1:12:39
Speaker 5: be I'll say, Okay, I'm going to put myself in
1:12:42
Speaker 5: an extremely bad position. You have great favor and so
1:12:46
Speaker 5: then we start wrestling from that position. So I have
1:12:49
Speaker 5: to build myself up in preparation for the qualifiers. My
1:12:52
Speaker 5: coach went and did this very heavy drill with me
1:12:56
Speaker 5: where they had a few guys rotating in and out
1:13:01
Speaker 5: and I had no rest. They would just go and
1:13:03
Speaker 5: I would start on bottom. They would grapple on top
1:13:07
Speaker 5: and ride me and whatnot for until I escaped, and
1:13:11
Speaker 5: then I'd immediately drop back down and somebody else would
1:13:13
Speaker 5: jump on me and we'd go again. And then after
1:13:16
Speaker 5: that was done, they would they would have two guys,
1:13:19
Speaker 5: one on each shoulder, be one of them was over
1:13:22
Speaker 5: two hundred pounds everywhere I was aboute hundred and eighty pounds.
1:13:25
Speaker 5: They would lean in on me and put weight on me,
1:13:29
Speaker 5: both of them together to try to stop me from
1:13:31
Speaker 5: being able to stand up. And so we trying to
1:13:34
Speaker 5: be inventive and do what we can. I was talking
1:13:37
Speaker 5: to the coach recently for the upcoming season, I'm actually
1:13:42
Speaker 5: going to be going and purchasing some body weight guests
1:13:46
Speaker 5: and just trying to get as heavy as possible and
1:13:49
Speaker 5: be doing a lot of grappling and training and sparring
1:13:54
Speaker 5: work with added extra weight on myself, just to better
1:14:00
Speaker 5: simulate how it is not just working with my own
1:14:04
Speaker 5: body weight. That has been probably the number one struggle.
1:14:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we wish you luck. Are you Are you
1:14:11
Speaker 2: in Louisiana right now?
1:14:13
Speaker 5: No, I'm on my way there. We've packed, my wife
1:14:16
Speaker 5: helps pack up our kids, and we're making a road
1:14:20
Speaker 5: trip of it, stopping out a couple of places along
1:14:22
Speaker 5: the way, having fun with it, and showing up tomorrow morning.
1:14:27
Speaker 5: We should be arriving tonight for Wayn's tomorrow morning.
1:14:32
Speaker 2: Well, good luck, and I really appreciate that.
1:14:35
Speaker 3: This is really cool. I'm glad I got to learn
1:14:38
Speaker 3: a little bit about it. I'm going to do what
1:14:40
Speaker 3: I can to support the team moving forward, because yeah,
1:14:44
Speaker 3: like I've been in the martial arts world for a
1:14:47
Speaker 3: long time, and wrestling, as you're well aware, is the
1:14:51
Speaker 3: ultimate foundation for a lot of really good things in life.
1:14:55
Speaker 3: So I applaud you for getting back into it and
1:14:58
Speaker 3: choosing the most difficult hobby that anyone could possibly find.
1:15:02
Speaker 3: Clearly you're a glutton for punishment, but I applaud you.
1:15:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I really appreciate it. And the whole thing
1:15:09
Speaker 5: is just a huge one. I found out that I'm
1:15:11
Speaker 5: the first U of You wrestler to make it to
1:15:15
Speaker 5: be representing the you at the national collegiate championship stage,
1:15:19
Speaker 5: whether whatever federation it may be. I was just really
1:15:23
Speaker 5: honored to say, hey, man able to fill that role
1:15:27
Speaker 5: in there and be a part of the U of
1:15:29
Speaker 5: U legacy and represent and I'm going to try to
1:15:31
Speaker 5: represent the US BESTEMM.
1:15:32
Speaker 2: Good luck, keep us posted and we'll chat again soon.
1:15:36
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
1:15:38
Speaker 3: Joseph Arrington, University of Utah heavyweight wrestler headed to Bossier
1:15:43
Speaker 3: City Louisiana for the NCWA Nationals, the first wrestler to
1:15:48
Speaker 3: be representing the U at the national College championship level
1:15:53
Speaker 3: since you lost your program in nineteen eighty.
1:15:56
Speaker 2: So before this man was born.
1:16:00
Speaker 3: He's a class at two thousand and five, which means
1:16:03
Speaker 3: he would have been born in nineteen eighty six or later.
1:16:08
Speaker 2: It's it's an incredible story.
1:16:10
Speaker 4: And I also want to peel back to Curtin a
1:16:12
Speaker 4: little bit here and how we were able to get
1:16:14
Speaker 4: him on the show. I've mentioned before. Being in this business,
1:16:19
Speaker 4: whether you're running the station like I do, or you're
1:16:22
Speaker 4: a producer like you I also am, or like Porter
1:16:25
Speaker 4: Larson is, or you're a radio host, you get on
1:16:29
Speaker 4: these lists, these pr lists. Somehow they find your email whatever,
1:16:33
Speaker 4: and you get Honestly, it's a lot of spam. But
1:16:37
Speaker 4: every once in a while you get someone who finds
1:16:40
Speaker 4: your email, like doctor Joseph Arrington and he says, hey,
1:16:45
Speaker 4: I'd love to tell I'd love to be able to
1:16:46
Speaker 4: tell my story. Here's a little bit about me. Gave
1:16:49
Speaker 4: me a chance. I researched it a little bit, like, Yeah,
1:16:52
Speaker 4: this guy's legit. He actually is the first guy since
1:16:55
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty to represent the University of Utah at the
1:16:58
Speaker 4: at NCAA Nationals or NCWA, whatever it might be. And
1:17:05
Speaker 4: he's almost forty years old he's doing this, and he's
1:17:10
Speaker 4: a medical student, and he is a doctor already at
1:17:14
Speaker 4: the University of Utah. So anyway, really appreciate Joseph for
1:17:19
Speaker 4: reaching out. And I knew it was. It's right up
1:17:22
Speaker 4: your alley.
1:17:22
Speaker 2: O see.
1:17:23
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, be able to tell a story about
1:17:26
Speaker 4: a collegiate wrestler who's almost your age competing in a
1:17:30
Speaker 4: national tournament like this, competing for a national championship, I'm like,
1:17:33
Speaker 4: oh yeah, oh see would be all over this.
1:17:35
Speaker 3: By the way, I know, wrestling for a lot of
1:17:38
Speaker 3: people is not their best their favorite spectator sport because
1:17:42
Speaker 3: there's a lot of there's not a technique to it.
1:17:46
Speaker 3: If you're raised in wrestling or you wrestled as a kid,
1:17:49
Speaker 3: you recognize things and you can see things and it's
1:17:52
Speaker 3: a lot more fun to watch. There's there's, by the way,
1:17:54
Speaker 3: a new professional like Olympic Style Folk Style Wrestling League
1:17:58
Speaker 3: on Fox Nation that's starting to get it's called RAF's
1:18:01
Speaker 3: starting to get like some real momentum. A lot of
1:18:04
Speaker 3: MMA guys are competing in that as well. So wrestling
1:18:08
Speaker 3: is having a bit of a moment in twenty twenty
1:18:11
Speaker 3: six that none of us really anticipated. But wrestling is
1:18:17
Speaker 3: the hardest thing you can do. It is miserable to
1:18:21
Speaker 3: train for wrestling. Now it's glorious when you get to
1:18:24
Speaker 3: compete and you get to win, especially, but it is
1:18:27
Speaker 3: so prohibitively difficult, and it is the thing that makes
1:18:31
Speaker 3: most people shy away from it. Women's wrestling is becoming
1:18:35
Speaker 3: huge now. There's girls wrestling teams in the state of
1:18:37
Speaker 3: Utah that didn't exist when I was in high school.
1:18:40
Speaker 2: That probably didn't even exist when you were in high school, James.
1:18:42
Speaker 4: No, I don't know that we had a girls like
1:18:46
Speaker 4: girls on our wrestling team. But you heard of people
1:18:49
Speaker 4: in the same region, like schools in the same region
1:18:52
Speaker 4: with competing with the boys.
1:18:54
Speaker 2: Kind of thing, which has been That was about it.
1:18:57
Speaker 4: That was about it when I even when I was
1:18:59
Speaker 4: in school, Yeah, we had.
1:19:00
Speaker 2: That like girls.
1:19:01
Speaker 3: There would be the occasional and it was usually like
1:19:04
Speaker 3: the daughter of a coach. It was usually a gal
1:19:06
Speaker 3: who came from a family that was really dialed in
1:19:09
Speaker 3: on wrestling. We had a few come out for our
1:19:11
Speaker 3: wrestling team none of them actually stayed for the entire
1:19:14
Speaker 3: season for obvious I mean, for totally understandable reasons. Now
1:19:20
Speaker 3: we've got a full division of high school girls wrestling,
1:19:23
Speaker 3: You've got high school girls wrestling championships, You've got great
1:19:27
Speaker 3: coaches and great programs supporting girls wrestling as well. And
1:19:32
Speaker 3: this University of Utah for lack of a better term,
1:19:35
Speaker 3: club team also has women competing on it. But Joseph
1:19:39
Speaker 3: Arrington representing the University of Utah at the national level,
1:19:43
Speaker 3: so good luck to him and his whole family taken
1:19:46
Speaker 3: the road trip.
1:19:46
Speaker 4: I mean, I know they're not flying, they're driving to Louisiana.
1:19:51
Speaker 3: This is like, it's the opposite end of the spectrum.
1:19:54
Speaker 3: And I mean this in a complimentary way. When you've
1:19:57
Speaker 3: got basketball players and football players that are at their
1:20:00
Speaker 3: university and pursuing their sport largely because of the millions
1:20:04
Speaker 3: of dollars that are now pouring into their bank accounts
1:20:06
Speaker 3: because of it, you also have this people who are
1:20:10
Speaker 3: just like passionate about the sport and competing and doing
1:20:13
Speaker 3: it for no other reason than because the glory of competition.
1:20:17
Speaker 3: Like this is someone who loves the sport, So I
1:20:19
Speaker 3: applaud him and everyone who's supporting him, and we will
1:20:23
Speaker 3: be supporting him the rest of the way. And it's
1:20:25
Speaker 3: a good reminder too.
1:20:26
Speaker 4: We talked about we're talking about a specific club team
1:20:30
Speaker 4: at the University of Utah that has been elevated in
1:20:35
Speaker 4: the ncwa's eyes to you know, you're not just a
1:20:38
Speaker 4: club team for us, but at the University Utah officially
1:20:40
Speaker 4: a club team. There's so many of these that for
1:20:44
Speaker 4: whatever reason, for various reasons, cannot be NCAA sanctioned sports
1:20:50
Speaker 4: at NCUBA universities like the University of Utah.
1:20:53
Speaker 2: This is just one of them.
1:20:55
Speaker 4: I know at my alma mater down in Saint George,
1:20:59
Speaker 4: Utah Tech, there's been a club rugby team that's competed
1:21:03
Speaker 4: for the club national championships a lot. There's so many
1:21:07
Speaker 4: of these that we just don't care to know about
1:21:11
Speaker 4: us mainstream sports fans that just the same passion, a
1:21:16
Speaker 4: lot of the same athleticism as the guys, like you said,
1:21:18
Speaker 4: on the football team, on the basketball teams, on the
1:21:21
Speaker 4: soccer teams, but they don't have the same funding, they
1:21:25
Speaker 4: don't have the same recognition.
1:21:27
Speaker 2: They're doing it anyway.
1:21:29
Speaker 4: And it's still a chance for these athletes to do
1:21:33
Speaker 4: what they've always loved. And yeah, hats off to doctor
1:21:37
Speaker 4: Errington chasing that and hopefully he makes it pretty far,
1:21:41
Speaker 4: maybe wins the national championship for the University of Utah.
1:21:44
Speaker 3: You mentioned rugby BYU has men's rugby. They were national
1:21:50
Speaker 3: champs a couple of times. Cal is like the legendary
1:21:55
Speaker 3: collegiate rugby program in the United States. Utah has had
1:21:59
Speaker 3: some really good year Arkansas State randomly had a South
1:22:03
Speaker 3: African coach who brought a bunch of talent over. But
1:22:06
Speaker 3: it's fun to follow some of these, So good luck
1:22:08
Speaker 3: to all the U wrestlers out there. Sorry about our
1:22:12
Speaker 3: previous ignorance to your your plight, your struggle. Daily dump
1:22:16
Speaker 3: is next here on the Sean O'Connell Show. A reminder,
1:22:18
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1:22:25
Speaker 3: look at how well James and I are doing right
1:22:27
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1:22:30
Speaker 3: no need, it's unnecessary. You just assume that we're doing awesome.
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1:22:50
Speaker 3: You ever gone to the doctor and had them look
1:22:52
Speaker 3: at the wrong part of your body? Well, if you're
1:22:55
Speaker 3: a professional athlete, that should not happen, Yet it did.
1:22:58
Speaker 3: DESPN seven hundred two.
1:23:00
Speaker 1: Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
1:23:06
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1:23:10
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Speaker 1: ninety two to one Half Am brought to you by
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1:23:42
Speaker 3: I am truly truly confused as to how this happens. Okay,
1:23:47
Speaker 3: I am beyond concerned that this is possible. You know,
1:23:53
Speaker 3: killing embape is James Real Madrid superstar.
1:23:57
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, only one of the most well known athletes
1:24:00
Speaker 4: in the world that he He and Messi had like
1:24:04
Speaker 4: one of the greatest duels of all time in that
1:24:06
Speaker 4: World Cup final in Qatar.
1:24:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:24:08
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm a little bit disappointed in him.
1:24:11
Speaker 3: He was supposed to be at the PFL fights last weekend.
1:24:13
Speaker 3: He's come to PFL fights before, twelve of his Real
1:24:17
Speaker 3: Madrid teammates were there.
1:24:19
Speaker 2: And he didn't show up. So I'm a little I'm
1:24:21
Speaker 2: a little myth to Killing and Bape right.
1:24:23
Speaker 4: Now, Hey, Killian, we know you're listening. Oh see's mad
1:24:26
Speaker 4: at you? Yeah, all right, Dijon must have I don't speak.
1:24:37
Speaker 2: Now.
1:24:37
Speaker 3: I give it a little more grace to killing and
1:24:38
Speaker 3: Bape because he's dealing with a misdiagnosed injury.
1:24:42
Speaker 2: Did you hear about this? Have you seen this? I
1:24:45
Speaker 2: missed this story.
1:24:46
Speaker 3: That's crazy, legitimately flummoxed as to how this happens. In
1:24:50
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, Killian and Bape back in December, had
1:24:55
Speaker 3: an MRI on his knee. It came back negative for
1:25:02
Speaker 3: anything any serious injury. He plays three more big time
1:25:06
Speaker 3: games for Real Madrid and Man.
1:25:09
Speaker 2: His knee still hurts. There's gotta be an injury.
1:25:13
Speaker 3: Somehow, some way, they managed to scan the wrong knee
1:25:18
Speaker 3: and got the results on his healthy knee, which is
1:25:22
Speaker 3: the reason why he played in three more.
1:25:24
Speaker 4: Games and thankfully didn't do that much more damage to
1:25:29
Speaker 4: his knee.
1:25:30
Speaker 2: Partial PCL tear. And now now he's out. I how
1:25:41
Speaker 2: does this happen? Please? Eight seven seven three five three
1:25:45
Speaker 2: zero seven hundred. Should we get doctor Arrington back.
1:25:48
Speaker 4: I'm not the biggest Yeah, I don't know what his
1:25:50
Speaker 4: specialty is.
1:25:51
Speaker 3: I'm not the biggest genius when it comes to anything
1:25:54
Speaker 3: in life. But I've had MRIs before, and you're not
1:25:59
Speaker 3: unconscious for an MRI on your knee, Okay. Nobody was like, uh,
1:26:08
Speaker 3: that's the wrong knee, Like what, how do you examine
1:26:15
Speaker 3: the wrong knee? He's a world level superstar. I know
1:26:23
Speaker 3: when you're going in for surgery, the surgeons deliberately and
1:26:28
Speaker 3: obviously mark which knee or which part of your body
1:26:35
Speaker 3: they're going to operate on. I've only gone under the
1:26:38
Speaker 3: knife a couple of times, and in all three cases,
1:26:43
Speaker 3: the doctor comes in and they ask you, before you're
1:26:46
Speaker 3: under the influence of anesthesia or whatever, hey, what are
1:26:49
Speaker 3: we what are we operating on today?
1:26:50
Speaker 2: What are we doing today?
1:26:51
Speaker 3: Because unfortunately there have been cases where with operations, some
1:26:57
Speaker 3: wires get crossed and you cut the wrong leg open,
1:27:02
Speaker 3: you will operate on the wrong shoulder. You're like, hey,
1:27:04
Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong with this shoulder. Oh crap, we're supposed
1:27:08
Speaker 3: to be doing the other one. Sell this back up
1:27:09
Speaker 3: real quick, which is a lot more understandable when somebody
1:27:13
Speaker 3: is under anesthesia and can't talk to you and can't
1:27:16
Speaker 3: be like, hey, doc, it's my left knee.
1:27:19
Speaker 2: How does this happen?
1:27:22
Speaker 8: Killing Embappe is as big of a deal, or a
1:27:26
Speaker 8: bigger deal for Real Madrid as like Luka Doncic's for
1:27:30
Speaker 8: the Lakers. Real Madrid is one of the legitimate heritage
1:27:39
Speaker 8: sports brands globally. They've got fans in every corner of
1:27:44
Speaker 8: the world, they've got revenue coming in from the farthest
1:27:48
Speaker 8: reaches of human civilization, and they can't get a doctor
1:27:53
Speaker 8: to look at the right knee, the correct knee, I
1:27:55
Speaker 8: should say on their superstar this is so crazy. If
1:28:07
Speaker 8: you're the doctor, if you're well, I guess you're not
1:28:09
Speaker 8: even a doctor, right.
1:28:10
Speaker 2: You go to those places, it's an imaging center. How
1:28:13
Speaker 2: do you not. You're a technician. Yeah, so I've only
1:28:19
Speaker 2: I've done I've done MRIs.
1:28:23
Speaker 3: There's localized MRI machines right where you just like stick
1:28:27
Speaker 3: your arm in, stick your leg in. If I'm not mistaken,
1:28:30
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that wasn't the case. I'm assuming that they
1:28:33
Speaker 3: put him in like the whole tube and just pointed
1:28:36
Speaker 3: the tube like the point of the focus at the
1:28:37
Speaker 3: wrong leg.
1:28:38
Speaker 4: I have not had an MRI done, So what I'm
1:28:42
Speaker 4: picturing is Michael Scott putting his uh packaged foot that
1:28:46
Speaker 4: he burned on the on the George Foreman grill, sticking
1:28:50
Speaker 4: that into the MRI as you're in the MRI machine,
1:28:53
Speaker 4: as Dwight's getting getting his head examined because he had
1:28:56
Speaker 4: a concussion. That's what I'm picturing when you say that
1:28:58
Speaker 4: sometimes you just stick your leg in there. By the way,
1:29:02
Speaker 4: it's a very claustrophobic experience. I can imagine they put
1:29:06
Speaker 4: you in that tube and then it makes this crazy noises.
1:29:09
Speaker 4: The magnets are like spinning around and you gotta stay
1:29:12
Speaker 4: completely still, and they put this like cage around your
1:29:16
Speaker 4: head that is just hovering an inch or so above
1:29:20
Speaker 4: your nose.
1:29:21
Speaker 3: So for me, someone who is a little bit prone
1:29:24
Speaker 3: to claustrophobia. I gotta keep my eyes closed because if
1:29:27
Speaker 3: I open and see that, like I am in this
1:29:30
Speaker 3: tiny little shoot, starts to bother me a little bit.
1:29:34
Speaker 4: Get I get a little bit of that claustrophobia. Not
1:29:38
Speaker 4: anything extreme, but yeah, I feel like I'd have to
1:29:41
Speaker 4: do the same thing. You have to trick yourself into
1:29:44
Speaker 4: into thinking that you are not about You're not just
1:29:48
Speaker 4: have the walls about to crush you kind of thing.
1:29:50
Speaker 3: Okay, So they do have compact limb specific MRI machines, Okay, okay.
1:30:01
Speaker 2: Instead of being.
1:30:01
Speaker 3: The giant tunnel where you lay down on the little
1:30:03
Speaker 3: gurney thing and then they slide you back in there,
1:30:07
Speaker 3: it's like a small version of that where you just
1:30:10
Speaker 3: stick your arm in or you stick your leg in.
1:30:13
Speaker 3: Apparently that's not what they were using, because if they were,
1:30:17
Speaker 3: you would think killing and bape would be like, that's
1:30:20
Speaker 3: not my sore leg.
1:30:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd be like, oh yeah, this one.
1:30:23
Speaker 3: The swollen one is the one you gotta be looking
1:30:25
Speaker 3: at there, you know, the one that looks like it's damaged. Also,
1:30:30
Speaker 3: here's another thing, right, I know that there's insane amounts
1:30:33
Speaker 3: of money on the line.
1:30:35
Speaker 2: But you're the team.
1:30:40
Speaker 3: You send Killing and Bape, one of the biggest stars
1:30:43
Speaker 3: in the sport period. You send him for an MRI
1:30:46
Speaker 3: to look at a problematic knee. Comes back and says, hey,
1:30:52
Speaker 3: there's no structural damage. Your knee is just sore. Credit
1:30:57
Speaker 3: to Killing and Bape for saying, like, it still hurts,
1:30:59
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna play because what I'm worried about is
1:31:02
Speaker 3: was their structural damage. It's not like the doctor telling you, oh,
1:31:07
Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong with your knee makes it so your
1:31:08
Speaker 3: knee doesn't hurt. He was continuing to play based on
1:31:13
Speaker 3: the assumption, based on the information he got that oh,
1:31:16
Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong. You don't have ligament damage in that knee,
1:31:20
Speaker 3: you don't have tendon damage in that knee. You're just
1:31:24
Speaker 3: you're just in pain. So credit to a superstar for
1:31:27
Speaker 3: still playing through it. But man, that's a big mistake.
1:31:30
Speaker 3: That is something that you do not want to be
1:31:32
Speaker 3: a part of the misni diagnosis.
1:31:35
Speaker 2: On Eddie like to say the least, there could be
1:31:38
Speaker 2: a lawsuit coming.
1:31:40
Speaker 3: That's a There was millions of dollars proposition if there
1:31:43
Speaker 3: was any structural, additional structural damage that happened to his
1:31:48
Speaker 3: knee as a result of playing on it like this,
1:31:50
Speaker 3: like in Bape's people are like, you're gonna pay for this.
1:31:56
Speaker 3: Uh I, I don't know how many times this year
1:31:59
Speaker 3: we're gonna be talking about Carter Bambler.
1:32:02
Speaker 2: Okay, he is a see this story. This is incredible story.
1:32:06
Speaker 3: This is a really cool story, much cooler than misdiagnosing
1:32:10
Speaker 3: the wrong leg of an international soccer superstar.
1:32:15
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:32:16
Speaker 3: This is from a couple of days ago. The the
1:32:19
Speaker 3: Texas Rangers have Carter Boumbler. Uh, he's pitching in the
1:32:26
Speaker 3: last spring training game. Okay, and Skip Schumacher goes out.
1:32:34
Speaker 2: Visiting the mound and we know that usually means yeah, he's.
1:32:37
Speaker 4: The new Rangers manager. I believe this is going into it.
1:32:40
Speaker 4: He'll be going into his first season as the Rangers manager.
1:32:44
Speaker 4: Manager comes out of dugout pitching change right. Yeah, you
1:32:47
Speaker 4: know usually they pick up a phone in the dugout.
1:32:50
Speaker 4: Are they signal with one arm or the other to
1:32:53
Speaker 4: the bullpen? Send me the right he send me the
1:32:56
Speaker 4: lefty whatever.
1:32:59
Speaker 3: He comes out of the out after Bombler has sat
1:33:04
Speaker 3: down too. Kansas City Royals in the fifth inning, Okay,
1:33:09
Speaker 3: the catcher comes out all four infielders come in, first base,
1:33:14
Speaker 3: second base, shortstop, third base. Little parliament happening on the
1:33:19
Speaker 3: mound right there, young young pitcher.
1:33:22
Speaker 2: You're just like, all right, I guess I'm done for
1:33:24
Speaker 2: the day now.
1:33:24
Speaker 3: He's been pitching well, so he's probably not like, ah,
1:33:26
Speaker 3: that's dang it.
1:33:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, he said in the post game, He's like, I
1:33:31
Speaker 4: just I put these I got these first two outs
1:33:34
Speaker 4: the inning pretty quickly. I was surprised to see Skip
1:33:39
Speaker 4: come from the dugout.
1:33:40
Speaker 2: I wasn't expecting it. I was like, why is he
1:33:42
Speaker 2: coming out here?
1:33:43
Speaker 3: He got on the mound, and this is where the
1:33:45
Speaker 3: manager pulls a really cool thing. He runs out on
1:33:48
Speaker 3: the mound last spring training game and tells this young guy, Hey,
1:33:51
Speaker 3: guess what you made the opening day roster.
1:33:55
Speaker 4: That's pretty cool. And it's like a movie scene. He's
1:33:58
Speaker 4: a rookie. This is his first time. I don't know
1:34:00
Speaker 4: if it's his first spring training, but this will be
1:34:02
Speaker 4: his first time making and an opening day roster a
1:34:05
Speaker 4: really cool way.
1:34:06
Speaker 2: To do it.
1:34:07
Speaker 3: So if his teammates are there, they congratulate him, and
1:34:10
Speaker 3: instead of coming out of the game, he's now got
1:34:14
Speaker 3: the news that his baseball dream making it to the
1:34:17
Speaker 3: Bigs being on an opening day roster.
1:34:21
Speaker 2: It's for real.
1:34:22
Speaker 4: Did you watch the clip of the Rangers broadcast? I
1:34:26
Speaker 4: did not, so that's pretty fun too.
1:34:29
Speaker 2: So the.
1:34:31
Speaker 4: Broadcast team, played by play color guy, they don't know
1:34:34
Speaker 4: for sure what's going on, but they inferred exactly correct
1:34:38
Speaker 4: what's happening. They're like, okay, so Skip Schumacher coming out
1:34:43
Speaker 4: to the mound, I guess they're going to make a
1:34:45
Speaker 4: change here, basically is what they're saying.
1:34:47
Speaker 2: And then and.
1:34:48
Speaker 4: Then he leaves with the guy staying on the mound
1:34:51
Speaker 4: and they're kind of patting him on the back. They're like,
1:34:53
Speaker 4: hold on, I think he just told him that he's
1:34:56
Speaker 4: made the opening day roster. Now we don't know that
1:34:59
Speaker 4: for sure, but what a cool way to do that.
1:35:01
Speaker 4: And they were they nailed it, so they must have
1:35:03
Speaker 4: gotten some kind of someone in their ear saying yeah,
1:35:05
Speaker 4: this is what's happening.
1:35:07
Speaker 2: But pretty cool. Uh, pretty cool on the broadcast too.
1:35:12
Speaker 2: So they asked about it after the game.
1:35:14
Speaker 3: Skip Schumacher said, you want to make it as memorable
1:35:17
Speaker 3: as you can. I'll never forget when I got called
1:35:20
Speaker 3: up the exact moment the exact game in Memphis, Tennessee,
1:35:25
Speaker 3: it was like the most amazing time. I was just
1:35:27
Speaker 3: trying to think of a special way to tell him.
1:35:29
Speaker 3: And again, these are like these beautiful things in sports,
1:35:32
Speaker 3: and we get distracted by the bad stuff. We get
1:35:35
Speaker 3: distracted by the numbers and that. But inside, even the
1:35:39
Speaker 3: biggest star athlete that you've ever seen, at one point
1:35:42
Speaker 3: they were a little kid with a dream to be
1:35:44
Speaker 3: a pro basketball player, football player, soccer player, baseball player,
1:35:48
Speaker 3: hockey guy, whatever. And what a cool thing for a
1:35:52
Speaker 3: manager to acknowledge that and to be like, all right,
1:35:55
Speaker 3: let me find a special way to let this kid
1:35:58
Speaker 3: know that his dream came true.
1:35:59
Speaker 4: And kind of prank him at the same time. Yeah,
1:36:01
Speaker 4: to be like, hey, I'm coming out to the mound.
1:36:03
Speaker 4: You're done for that? Just kidding, And actually you're not
1:36:07
Speaker 4: done at all. You're not done with this big league
1:36:10
Speaker 4: roster either.
1:36:11
Speaker 2: So cool.
1:36:13
Speaker 3: Schumacher got a bunch of texts after including from Denny Schaeffer,
1:36:17
Speaker 3: who was the triple A manager for Memphis when he
1:36:21
Speaker 3: pulled Schumacher out of a game June two thousand and
1:36:24
Speaker 3: five and told him he was being called up by
1:36:27
Speaker 3: the Cardinals. So hey, remember when I did that to you?
1:36:33
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's pretty cool.
1:36:35
Speaker 4: Man, those those multi like that, that connection that you
1:36:40
Speaker 4: still have over, you know, a couple decades later. That's
1:36:45
Speaker 4: also a cool thing about sports. Like I don't know
1:36:47
Speaker 4: how often skip and this skipper still speak. That might
1:36:53
Speaker 4: have been the first time in a very long time,
1:36:56
Speaker 4: but the fact that hey, I just saw you do this,
1:37:00
Speaker 4: and maybe we haven't talked in a long time, or
1:37:02
Speaker 4: maybe they talk all the time, it's very comfortable just
1:37:05
Speaker 4: to reach out. Whatever the case may be. The fact
1:37:08
Speaker 4: that that connection can still be made is also a
1:37:10
Speaker 4: very unique thing that happens in sports.
1:37:16
Speaker 2: Pretty cool.
1:37:18
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1:37:23
Speaker 3: the duck can solve most of the problems you're gonna
1:37:26
Speaker 3: find in your home.
1:37:28
Speaker 2: Before the problems arrive.
1:37:29
Speaker 3: Have them come out, do a diagnostic check on the
1:37:32
Speaker 3: air conditioner, on the swamp cooler if you still got
1:37:35
Speaker 3: one of those. On the ventilation system in your house.
1:37:38
Speaker 3: It's heating up fast. It was cold for a while,
1:37:40
Speaker 3: now it's heating up fast. In the state of Utah.
1:37:43
Speaker 3: And of course they can always take care of your
1:37:44
Speaker 3: plumbing issues as well. All right, A Tank race update,
1:37:49
Speaker 3: and then we'll do some between the pipes with Adrian Denny.
1:37:53
Speaker 3: It's the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven ninety two.
1:38:05
Speaker 1: By Utah Jazz are at a race to the bottom
1:38:07
Speaker 1: of the NBA. It's tied to check in on the
1:38:10
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz and the NBA's tank race.
1:38:36
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean o'conna Show.
1:38:38
Speaker 3: Adrian Denny is going to join us to talk a
1:38:39
Speaker 3: little hockey coming up here in just a couple of minutes.
1:38:42
Speaker 3: But right now, a tank race. The Utah Jazz with
1:38:46
Speaker 3: only one three home games left in the season, less
1:38:51
Speaker 3: than a dozen games overall, where are they at in
1:38:54
Speaker 3: the tank standings? Because of course you need that draft pick. Baby,
1:39:00
Speaker 3: how's it looking, James Peterson? All right, so only one
1:39:03
Speaker 3: game that factored into the tank race. Last night Kings
1:39:07
Speaker 3: were playing in Charlotte and the Hornets left no doubt
1:39:13
Speaker 3: one four to ninety OHC. So Sacramento couldn't help out
1:39:18
Speaker 3: the Jazz there they're the jazz is best chance at
1:39:21
Speaker 3: cracking that top four, which, as I mentioned the other day,
1:39:27
Speaker 3: is the only way the Jazz are guaranteed to not
1:39:30
Speaker 3: have to give their pict dos to Oka se because
1:39:33
Speaker 3: you only you can only drop four spots.
1:39:37
Speaker 2: Farther than where you finish.
1:39:39
Speaker 4: Okay, so right now they're fifth worst, which means they
1:39:42
Speaker 4: have a very small chance if the season ended today
1:39:46
Speaker 4: at getting the ninth pick, which would then be okaye
1:39:49
Speaker 4: okc getting the ninth pick.
1:39:51
Speaker 2: So anyway that.
1:39:52
Speaker 4: It's not looking good for the as far as their
1:39:55
Speaker 4: chances to catch the Kings, especially last night. Kings couldn't
1:40:00
Speaker 4: help him out. They follow the Hornets one ninety tonight,
1:40:04
Speaker 4: it's the Ultimate tank game. It's the Jazz, It's the Wizards.
1:40:07
Speaker 4: It's at the Delta Center. It's on k Jazz. Get
1:40:11
Speaker 4: excited or maybe you know what, maybe don't watch it
1:40:14
Speaker 4: and check get excited to check the score later.
1:40:17
Speaker 3: Ace Bailey has ankle sore on us and it's gonna
1:40:19
Speaker 3: be like Rice sense of Bob broke his head. I
1:40:24
Speaker 3: don't I don't know what You're just like, can we
1:40:28
Speaker 3: option a couple? Can we tend to a couple of
1:40:29
Speaker 3: guys just for this game?
1:40:31
Speaker 2: But please, we.
1:40:32
Speaker 4: Don't need you for the other nine days. Actually no,
1:40:35
Speaker 4: that's fine, I'll stay for the night. No, no, well,
1:40:38
Speaker 4: I mean I'll do. We have to pay you for
1:40:40
Speaker 4: the other nine days. But but you but go home.
1:40:43
Speaker 3: Is there an NBA equivalent of the emergency backup goaltender
1:40:47
Speaker 3: that you can use in the NHC quarterback where you're
1:40:51
Speaker 3: just like MM. Turns out the guy that was the
1:40:57
Speaker 3: ball boy but not the ball boy, the guy that
1:40:59
Speaker 3: brushes the sweat off of with that little like sham wow.
1:41:04
Speaker 2: You know that guy wants to play. You just call
1:41:06
Speaker 2: him up, all right?
1:41:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the one of the kids with the
1:41:10
Speaker 4: brooms with the mops. Yeah, yeah, you're making your NBA
1:41:14
Speaker 4: debut tonight, buddy kid.
1:41:15
Speaker 2: How many years you've been out of high school?
1:41:17
Speaker 5: Two?
1:41:17
Speaker 2: All right, you're good, You're eligible, You're eligible. Day, let's go.
1:41:22
Speaker 2: Let's go.
1:41:23
Speaker 6: Oh.
1:41:24
Speaker 4: I hope that never happens. Actually, you know you'd say
1:41:27
Speaker 4: that we say that as a total joke, but I
1:41:30
Speaker 4: hope that we don't get to that place in the
1:41:32
Speaker 4: NBA where we're giving farcical NBA debuts out like that.
1:41:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably not. It probably won't get quite that bad.
1:41:39
Speaker 3: But the point stands, the Utah Jazz really need to
1:41:43
Speaker 3: try to stink it up over this stretch because, look,
1:41:47
Speaker 3: I know that I might be an outlier and an anomaly.
1:41:50
Speaker 3: I know that there are a lot of people with
1:41:52
Speaker 3: a ton of trust in the NBA draft lottery system
1:41:56
Speaker 3: and thinking like, oh, it's unmanipulatable, manipulable, manipulatable.
1:42:02
Speaker 2: I don't know what's the correct way to say that. Manipulatable.
1:42:06
Speaker 3: Look, it happens behind manipulated. It happens behind closed doors
1:42:11
Speaker 3: for a reason.
1:42:12
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, but also in front of like forty people.
1:42:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, forty people who are like, hey, we're giving
1:42:19
Speaker 3: you and you only exclusive access to this, just so
1:42:23
Speaker 3: you guys know how cool and how awesome this process.
1:42:28
Speaker 2: Can't you can see? Can trust it? Clearly? You can
1:42:31
Speaker 2: see it's above reproach. By the way, have this delightful
1:42:34
Speaker 2: Virgin Pina Colada. What do you think?
1:42:38
Speaker 3: Like, I mean, come on, I don't trust it. You
1:42:41
Speaker 3: can if you want to, but if you've already been
1:42:45
Speaker 3: made an example of by the NBA as the team
1:42:50
Speaker 3: that got more severely punished for your tank than any
1:42:53
Speaker 3: other team got punished for their tank, which the NBA
1:42:56
Speaker 3: has already been like, you guys are.
1:42:58
Speaker 2: The ones who are falling on this.
1:43:00
Speaker 4: You're the ones that have done it the absolutely worst way.
1:43:03
Speaker 4: By the way, Brian Windhors was on rich Eisens show
1:43:08
Speaker 4: yesterday in the hour leading into this show ten to
1:43:11
Speaker 4: eleven here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety t one FM,
1:43:14
Speaker 4: and he.
1:43:17
Speaker 2: He said, the Bucks are doing things wrong.
1:43:19
Speaker 4: They should have tanked when when Giannis first got injured
1:43:23
Speaker 4: and I'm like.
1:43:24
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, what's going on? A two
1:43:26
Speaker 2: weeks ago I did. Everyone in the NBA was just like,
1:43:29
Speaker 2: how dare the Utah Jazz do this?
1:43:31
Speaker 4: What's going on with Brian Windhorse fingers thing I did?
1:43:35
Speaker 4: I'm like, come on now, this is ridiculous. But there's
1:43:39
Speaker 4: a couple other games happening tonight that factor into the
1:43:42
Speaker 4: tank race. Pacers Lakers five o'clock nets at Warriors eight o'clock.
1:43:47
Speaker 4: The standings Pacers are in first sixteen and fifty six,
1:43:50
Speaker 4: Wizards in second, sixteen and fifty five nets just behind them,
1:43:54
Speaker 4: seventeen and fifty five, Kings nineteen and fifty four and fourth,
1:43:58
Speaker 4: Jazz right behind them twenty one and fifty one, and
1:44:02
Speaker 4: then MAVs and Grizzlies couple games behind the Jazz there.
1:44:07
Speaker 4: Like I said, the only hope is to be able
1:44:10
Speaker 4: to catch the Kings, but the Kings aren't really cooperating.
1:44:12
Speaker 4: Right now, so hopefully so it looks like the Jazz
1:44:15
Speaker 4: are going to probably finish fifth worst, and then you
1:44:19
Speaker 4: just got to hope and pray and get all your
1:44:22
Speaker 4: lucky charms out to make sure that that that pick
1:44:25
Speaker 4: does not end up being the ninth pick, which it
1:44:27
Speaker 4: technically could be from the fifth position. So that's your
1:44:29
Speaker 4: tank grace update, great, grand wonderful. Come on Wizards tonight,
1:44:36
Speaker 4: let's go.
1:44:40
Speaker 3: We should do so we do We used to do
1:44:42
Speaker 3: the obscure mascot challenge.
1:44:44
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we haven't done that.
1:44:46
Speaker 3: Well, we're past the obscure mascots because of my poorly
1:44:49
Speaker 3: timed vacation. However, uh, maybe we can bring it back
1:44:54
Speaker 3: with the obscure NBA players that are gonna be actually
1:44:59
Speaker 3: involved in the Jazz Wizards game. I'll just throw out
1:45:02
Speaker 3: random Eastern European names and you could tell me if
1:45:04
Speaker 3: it's a real NBA player or not.
1:45:07
Speaker 2: I actually love that.
1:45:09
Speaker 4: That might be great with that might be great for
1:45:12
Speaker 4: Gordy's segment tomorrow too. Whoever, the Jazz is next bad
1:45:16
Speaker 4: opponent is you can quiz Gordy on that tomorrow.
1:45:19
Speaker 2: The problem is Gordy will get all of them correct.
1:45:22
Speaker 4: Gordy's like, actually, I watched this guy play on that guy.
1:45:25
Speaker 3: I know his coach from the Level three team in
1:45:29
Speaker 3: Croatia that he played for. You Damn, Gordy. Fordy knows everybody.
1:45:33
Speaker 2: He's unstumpable. He's like the Schwam. You remember that guy. Yeah,
1:45:37
Speaker 2: the Schwam.
1:45:38
Speaker 3: All right, we go between the pipes Adrian Denny. A
1:45:44
Speaker 3: reeling Edmonton team found a way against the Utah Mammoth.
1:45:49
Speaker 3: But they're in a solid spot for the upcoming playoffs.
1:45:52
Speaker 3: How do they stay there? We'll get to all of
1:45:54
Speaker 3: it with Adrian Denny. Next, it's the Sean O'Connell Show
1:45:57
Speaker 3: on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
1:46:07
Speaker 1: You are listening to a Shan O'Connell show, your source
1:46:10
Speaker 1: for the best utes football copy. Here's oc from the
1:46:14
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two
1:46:18
Speaker 1: to one alf M.
1:46:33
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back to the Shat O'Connell Show.
1:46:36
Speaker 3: Welcome in our Utah Mammoth insider Adrian Denny. Between the
1:46:41
Speaker 3: Pipes brought to you by Aladdin Industries and Valley Plumbing,
1:46:44
Speaker 3: Heating and Cooling. The truck with the duck you can
1:46:48
Speaker 3: go check your progress on the ESPN seven hundred million
1:46:51
Speaker 3: dollar Bracket Challenge.
1:46:52
Speaker 2: No one's gonna win the million.
1:46:53
Speaker 3: Dollars, but Adrian Adrian's bracket is looking pretty good. Just
1:46:59
Speaker 3: in the official ESPN Hosts and Regular Guest category. You're
1:47:04
Speaker 3: right now tied for second, but you've got Florida going
1:47:10
Speaker 3: out in the next round. The only two people above
1:47:12
Speaker 3: you have Florida heading to the final.
1:47:14
Speaker 2: Four, So I think you're looking pretty good.
1:47:18
Speaker 10: That was one high seed that I had exiting before.
1:47:23
Speaker 10: Maybe they were scheduled. And I get a lot of
1:47:26
Speaker 10: flak at this time of year because my brackets usually
1:47:31
Speaker 10: do pretty well and I'm pretty chalky, and it's I
1:47:37
Speaker 10: play the percentages in life, and you know, I don't
1:47:43
Speaker 10: go out and have ten upsets in the first two days.
1:47:47
Speaker 10: I picked some spots. I had Utah State beating George Washington.
1:47:52
Speaker 10: I thought BYU would be an early exit. The funny
1:47:57
Speaker 10: thing is, of see, when I filled out the bracket
1:48:01
Speaker 10: last week, I did it before the first four games,
1:48:04
Speaker 10: and I thought North Carolina State would beat Texas. So
1:48:08
Speaker 10: it's NC State slash Texas that I had advancing, but
1:48:14
Speaker 10: I thought it'd be n C State and Sean Miller
1:48:18
Speaker 10: and the Longhorns took care of BYU in the first game,
1:48:21
Speaker 10: and I thought that that might be that might be
1:48:26
Speaker 10: a matchup that the team that beat b YU could
1:48:30
Speaker 10: could go a little further there. But I thought it'd
1:48:32
Speaker 10: be NC State and not Texas. I thought Texas A
1:48:35
Speaker 10: and M would beat Saint Mary's. Just we're looking at
1:48:38
Speaker 10: you know, we're looking at rosters here, and SEC roster
1:48:41
Speaker 10: is going to beat a West Coast Conference roster, especially
1:48:46
Speaker 10: with the new program the Eggies have.
1:48:47
Speaker 2: So that's, uh, it's kind of my thought process.
1:48:51
Speaker 10: I love college basketball, just with hockey this year and
1:48:54
Speaker 10: the playoff front the Mammoth have been on.
1:48:56
Speaker 2: I've been watching a lot of hockey on nights.
1:48:59
Speaker 10: I typically watch a lot of college basketball, especially late,
1:49:03
Speaker 10: so I didn't feel as connected. I didn't feel as
1:49:05
Speaker 10: great about it. But I had some I had some inklings,
1:49:09
Speaker 10: and those, uh, those came came true early in the
1:49:12
Speaker 10: first first round or two.
1:49:13
Speaker 3: Well, let's focus to let's focus on hockey, because obviously
1:49:17
Speaker 3: that's where your greatest area of expertise lies. I've been Look,
1:49:21
Speaker 3: I've been gone for a while, and I thank you
1:49:24
Speaker 3: to the Utah Mammoth for kind of keeping it right
1:49:26
Speaker 3: down the middle four four and two over their last ten.
1:49:29
Speaker 3: I would have been really bothered if I missed like
1:49:31
Speaker 3: an incredible nine game run, or if I on the
1:49:34
Speaker 3: flip side, I guess it would have been glad if
1:49:36
Speaker 3: I had missed some kind of tragic downfall. But they're
1:49:39
Speaker 3: in a really healthy spot right now with the upcoming
1:49:42
Speaker 3: playoff push that you just referenced. Last night, not their
1:49:45
Speaker 3: best five to two loss to a relatively short handed
1:49:49
Speaker 3: Oilers team.
1:49:51
Speaker 2: What went wrong last night?
1:49:53
Speaker 10: Three minutes and forty seconds of a game that was
1:49:57
Speaker 10: one to one, and the Mammoth threw the first power
1:49:59
Speaker 10: play and and Edmonton immediately comes back twenty four seconds
1:50:04
Speaker 10: into the Utah power play and scores shorthanded. Mammoth came
1:50:07
Speaker 10: back and tied it, but then eight seconds later you
1:50:09
Speaker 10: got Connor McDavid who made it three to two. Un
1:50:11
Speaker 10: less than three minutes after that, Edmonton made it four too.
1:50:14
Speaker 10: So kind of a rocky three minutes and forty seconds
1:50:18
Speaker 10: for Utah that took a game that they had taken
1:50:20
Speaker 10: a lead in Edmonton tied it. Carl la Melcha probably
1:50:23
Speaker 10: had a couple pucks in that game. That he usually
1:50:27
Speaker 10: saves v tech Manachick came in and played the third period.
1:50:31
Speaker 2: The Mammoth.
1:50:32
Speaker 10: We were pretty good defensively, but they felt like they
1:50:36
Speaker 10: were playing too much defense in the game, especially in
1:50:38
Speaker 10: the third period, which kept them from possessing the puck
1:50:42
Speaker 10: and getting some some scoring chances.
1:50:47
Speaker 2: So it was an okay game.
1:50:48
Speaker 10: And I think in the NHL, you win a game,
1:50:52
Speaker 10: and you know, the consensus is you're the best team
1:50:55
Speaker 10: in the league.
1:50:55
Speaker 2: You lose a game, you're the worst team in the league.
1:50:57
Speaker 10: I think I think maybe Utah's best game, and they
1:51:00
Speaker 10: played last week was Anaheim, the one game they lost,
1:51:02
Speaker 10: and I think in hockey it's fifty one, forty nine,
1:51:07
Speaker 10: fifty two, forty eight, fifty to fifty. I think the
1:51:11
Speaker 10: matchups are that close, especially when you have twenty four
1:51:15
Speaker 10: of thirty two teams in the NHR right now either
1:51:17
Speaker 10: in a playoff spot or within striking distance.
1:51:21
Speaker 2: So it's an okay game. It was. It was just okay.
1:51:25
Speaker 10: They're never happy when when they lose, and and Edmonton
1:51:30
Speaker 10: played pretty good. They're they're not where they are record
1:51:36
Speaker 10: wise at this point in the season. Generally, they're they're
1:51:39
Speaker 10: in second place in the Pacific Division, which has gotten
1:51:41
Speaker 10: a lot of flak for being the worst division in
1:51:43
Speaker 10: hockey in the last decade. But they've still got Connor McDavid,
1:51:47
Speaker 10: and they've still got that Stanley Cup Final DNA from
1:51:50
Speaker 10: the last two seasons. And they could not have gotten
1:51:53
Speaker 10: out of Edmonton fast enough after a home stand that
1:51:58
Speaker 10: saw him close it out by getting out scored by
1:52:01
Speaker 10: Florida and Tampa Bay getting shut out by the Panthers,
1:52:04
Speaker 10: getting beaten five to two by Tampa Bay.
1:52:06
Speaker 2: And there's just a lot of noise there.
1:52:08
Speaker 10: And Connor McDavid had some comments, you know, basically said
1:52:13
Speaker 10: ask the coaching staff to a response to a couple
1:52:17
Speaker 10: of questions. He was salty. Their coach Chris Nablock with salty.
1:52:22
Speaker 10: I think they were just happy to get out of Edmonton.
1:52:23
Speaker 10: And you know, they've still got that championship pedigree that
1:52:28
Speaker 10: they can put together and played pretty well. They had
1:52:30
Speaker 10: a good game plan last night. Their game plan was
1:52:32
Speaker 10: to keep the mammoth away from their goalie. Their goalies
1:52:35
Speaker 10: have struggled, so they did a good job of that.
1:52:39
Speaker 10: Mammoth were held in the teens on shots, which isn't
1:52:42
Speaker 10: entirely portrayal of what happened because they missed a lot
1:52:46
Speaker 10: of nets and Edmonton blocked upwards of twenty five shots,
1:52:50
Speaker 10: So good defensive effort by Edmonton. Of course, Mammoth weren't
1:52:54
Speaker 10: weren't happy because they didn't didn't win the game.
1:52:56
Speaker 2: Was just okay. The game goal four.
1:52:59
Speaker 3: Hundred and wor all one in that game for Connor
1:53:02
Speaker 3: McDavid in his career, and he downplays everything when he's
1:53:05
Speaker 3: talking talking about his individual accolades and things like that,
1:53:09
Speaker 3: and look, he's he's gonna when it's all finished, he's
1:53:12
Speaker 3: gonna go down as one of the all time greats.
1:53:14
Speaker 3: So we probably don't need to celebrate every little milestone
1:53:16
Speaker 3: along the way for him.
1:53:17
Speaker 2: But still a big milestone.
1:53:21
Speaker 10: Yeah, And goals thirty nine and forty and the big
1:53:25
Speaker 10: goals right eight seconds after you tie the game up,
1:53:27
Speaker 10: like just momentum, Like that's that's that's one thing that
1:53:31
Speaker 10: the Mammoth are battling right now. But to have Connor
1:53:34
Speaker 10: McDavid on a Tuesday and Alexandro Vetchkin coming in tomorrow,
1:53:38
Speaker 10: that's that's a fun week for hockey fans. And I
1:53:40
Speaker 10: think you know, everybody can appreciate watching number ninety seven
1:53:44
Speaker 10: and in the Grade eight. But gosh, like I think
1:53:49
Speaker 10: Andre Turney said a number of times, like best player
1:53:51
Speaker 10: in the world, referring to McDavid, And he can put
1:53:56
Speaker 10: a team on his back and take over, and he's
1:53:59
Speaker 10: just does every things so well. He's so fast. Him
1:54:01
Speaker 10: and Logan Cooley two of the fastest three skaters in
1:54:04
Speaker 10: the NHL this season. We saw last night and Edmondson
1:54:08
Speaker 10: was missing Leon dry Sidle who's out for the rest
1:54:10
Speaker 10: of the regular season. Their second leading scorer, who's well
1:54:12
Speaker 10: over a point a game. They hadn't been playing great,
1:54:15
Speaker 10: but you're you're always kind of worried about him. They
1:54:17
Speaker 10: always seem to put together a good stretch during the
1:54:21
Speaker 10: year that just kind of pushes him over the top.
1:54:23
Speaker 10: That a sixteen game winning streak a couple of years ago.
1:54:26
Speaker 10: Then won more than three in a row this year,
1:54:29
Speaker 10: but they hadn't lost more than three in a row
1:54:33
Speaker 10: more than more than two times. So I saw a
1:54:37
Speaker 10: game from Edvonton and Connor McDavid. You know he comes
1:54:40
Speaker 10: to town, you know he's gonna do something big, because
1:54:42
Speaker 10: he does something big every night. We saw Sidney Crosby
1:54:44
Speaker 10: Scoregle one overtime last year when he came in and
1:54:47
Speaker 10: Alexandrovetchkin got hurt. Last time he was here November eighteenth
1:54:51
Speaker 10: of last year, So see him tomorrow with the CAFs.
1:54:56
Speaker 10: But another special player who could be coming to Salt
1:54:59
Speaker 10: Lake for the last time. Some retirement speculation about the
1:55:03
Speaker 10: Grade eight.
1:55:04
Speaker 3: By the way, when you're a Utah Mammoth fan and
1:55:07
Speaker 3: the other great players in the league, in the NHL
1:55:10
Speaker 3: are playing against your team, they're they're gonna play, you're
1:55:13
Speaker 3: gonna see them. That's not always the case at the
1:55:16
Speaker 3: Delta Center when the Jazz are playing. So another reason
1:55:20
Speaker 3: why being a hockey fan is a lot of fun.
1:55:25
Speaker 3: You and I haven't had a chance to really dive
1:55:28
Speaker 3: into the Weiger acquisition and the effect that he's had
1:55:33
Speaker 3: in his first impression games in that Mammoth uniform, So
1:55:37
Speaker 3: I want to throw that at you a little bit.
1:55:40
Speaker 3: First of all, the decision to make make the trade
1:55:43
Speaker 3: and acquire him and then of course fit so far, easiest.
1:55:47
Speaker 10: Trade I think Bill Armstrong has ever made. He had
1:55:52
Speaker 10: draft picks stockpiled three second rounders that he had acquired
1:55:56
Speaker 10: from from other spots over the course of years making trades.
1:56:01
Speaker 10: A kid playing college hockey. Jonathan Constanya, who had quite
1:56:05
Speaker 10: a quite a road to uh ultimately make it to
1:56:09
Speaker 10: the NHL and play for the Mammoth probably not gonna
1:56:13
Speaker 10: happen for for him the beach being a third round pick,
1:56:17
Speaker 10: there's a lot of a lot of bodies to get
1:56:19
Speaker 10: through in addition to the current roster that Utah has.
1:56:21
Speaker 10: So Calgary liked him. They're they're looking to grow from
1:56:26
Speaker 10: within with with young talent. It just made sense for
1:56:28
Speaker 10: everybody and for Utah to get Wiger, who's in year
1:56:31
Speaker 10: three of an eight year contract. He wasn't having a
1:56:35
Speaker 10: great year in Calgary and nobody was. But really, since
1:56:38
Speaker 10: he's gotten to the Mammoth, his analytical numbers have gone
1:56:42
Speaker 10: through the roof, and so have Mikhale Sergachev's who's playing
1:56:47
Speaker 10: with him. Sergachev's numbers looking the best that they have
1:56:50
Speaker 10: all year, and and wigers like it's good deep but
1:56:55
Speaker 10: solid offensively too. He's joined the second power play unit
1:56:57
Speaker 10: but top five in the NHL and block shots and hits.
1:57:02
Speaker 10: So it's it's the player that's also a heart and
1:57:05
Speaker 10: soul guy in the locker room. And we heard from
1:57:07
Speaker 10: him after the game last night. You're like, yeah, this
1:57:10
Speaker 10: is why everybody loves this guy because he's you know,
1:57:14
Speaker 10: he delivered the message honestly, but in a point like yeah,
1:57:19
Speaker 10: but it's it's nothing to panic about. It's it's one
1:57:22
Speaker 10: game and we'll we'll move on. So he's a great story.
1:57:25
Speaker 10: Seventh round draft pick and Florida didn't have a seventh
1:57:29
Speaker 10: rounder when they drafted him in twenty thirteen, and one
1:57:32
Speaker 10: of their scouts went to their GM Dale Talon, who
1:57:34
Speaker 10: was ready to pack up for the day and get
1:57:37
Speaker 10: out of Dodge because the draft was ending and they
1:57:39
Speaker 10: didn't have a seventh rounder. He's like the leaguer kid,
1:57:42
Speaker 10: the weier kid, and they drafted him, and you know,
1:57:46
Speaker 10: here he is tenth year in the NHL, one of
1:57:48
Speaker 10: two players from that draft from from Florida, Alexander Barkoff,
1:57:51
Speaker 10: their captain the other one. So it's a good, good
1:57:55
Speaker 10: seventh round pick. But he's you know, defied expects all
1:58:00
Speaker 10: the way. And his first couple of weeks here is
1:58:03
Speaker 10: you can imagine when you get traded and you've got
1:58:07
Speaker 10: a wife in Calgary and he newlywed and got the
1:58:10
Speaker 10: house like he got a no trade clause, like he
1:58:15
Speaker 10: is being credited with getting Calgary a new arena like
1:58:19
Speaker 10: mayor of Calgary. So no trade clause waved it, and
1:58:22
Speaker 10: it's he had a couple hours to make the decision,
1:58:25
Speaker 10: but he's been here a couple of weeks and it
1:58:29
Speaker 10: sounds like that he's just fallen in love with Utah
1:58:31
Speaker 10: and loves the team and it's excited to be here
1:58:34
Speaker 10: for the foreseeable future.
1:58:36
Speaker 3: Well we when the news came down. That's something I
1:58:39
Speaker 3: heavily focused on. The new the no trade clause and
1:58:42
Speaker 3: the decision. I know it's old news now, but the
1:58:44
Speaker 3: decision to say yeah, I want this waved.
1:58:48
Speaker 2: I don't think that.
1:58:49
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think that the Mammoth are the
1:58:51
Speaker 3: only team he would have done it for. But that
1:58:52
Speaker 3: list is incredibly short, and for the Utah Mammoth in
1:58:56
Speaker 3: the second year of the club's existence here in Salt
1:58:59
Speaker 3: Lake City to already have that reputation in the NHL,
1:59:02
Speaker 3: I will hammer this point whenever we have an opportunity
1:59:05
Speaker 3: to at That is a big deal to be a
1:59:08
Speaker 3: preferred destination for athletes who only have had a brief
1:59:12
Speaker 3: window of kind of get to know you time with
1:59:15
Speaker 3: your club, and obviously you haven't won anything significant, won
1:59:18
Speaker 3: anything big yet, but to me, that's important, especially given
1:59:22
Speaker 3: the context of professional sports in the state of Utah.
1:59:26
Speaker 10: Especially when the tone is set by the players that
1:59:29
Speaker 10: you have that have already inked long term extensions. Dylan
1:59:34
Speaker 10: gunned their last fall eight years started this year over
1:59:38
Speaker 10: the summer. Corralva Malca, I shouldn't say over the summer.
1:59:42
Speaker 10: For hand, he signed a five year contract last March.
1:59:45
Speaker 10: Jack McBain a long term deal last summer. You had
1:59:50
Speaker 10: Logan Cooley signing an eight year contract right after the
1:59:55
Speaker 10: season started to kick in.
1:59:56
Speaker 2: Next year, JJ Pitturka gets traded.
1:59:59
Speaker 10: To the Mammoth and part of that was him signing
2:00:02
Speaker 10: a five year contract to be part of it. So
2:00:04
Speaker 10: when you have your core under extended contracts and Michael
2:00:11
Speaker 10: Carconi just signed for two years, that's a bargain. By
2:00:15
Speaker 10: the way, that's a very team friendly deal. And you
2:00:19
Speaker 10: can equate that too another guy who's been here for
2:00:23
Speaker 10: a couple of years. Family clearly likes it. Family's clearly comfortable,
2:00:29
Speaker 10: he realizes this is this is a good thing.
2:00:31
Speaker 2: He signs.
2:00:32
Speaker 10: So when you're when your players you have on the
2:00:34
Speaker 10: roster are all making that commitment, and then you have
2:00:37
Speaker 10: an opportunity to to bring in a player like Wiger,
2:00:40
Speaker 10: and your players have already made the sale. Uh that
2:00:43
Speaker 10: that's a that's a huge benefit.
2:00:46
Speaker 2: While it was away Schmaltz also.
2:00:48
Speaker 10: Dick Smaltz, Yeah, right after we got weaker, Yeah, two
2:00:51
Speaker 10: weeks ago.
2:00:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:00:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, eight eight million dollars a year for eight years,
2:00:55
Speaker 3: I mean, and he's obviously he's been incredible this season.
2:00:59
Speaker 3: Good year, lifelast year, incredible year this year. So like
2:01:04
Speaker 3: you're gonna make the plot knock on what. I think
2:01:06
Speaker 3: this team's gonna make the playoffs this year? And I
2:01:08
Speaker 3: think that that's gonna be the expectation in the bar
2:01:10
Speaker 3: that we set moving forward. And it appears that as
2:01:15
Speaker 3: you round into that form of your team, there's not
2:01:17
Speaker 3: gonna be a ton of questions about, all right, well,
2:01:21
Speaker 3: who's gonna be on this roster next year? How are
2:01:23
Speaker 3: we going to replace this person next year? Feels like
2:01:26
Speaker 3: the timing and the roster construction is kind of coming
2:01:29
Speaker 3: together nicely for Bill Armstrong and Company.
2:01:32
Speaker 10: And there's a strategy to it, right, they're signing these guys.
2:01:37
Speaker 10: But David Ludwig, the assistant general manager for the Mammoth,
2:01:40
Speaker 10: in his office, he's told us he's got slates and
2:01:44
Speaker 10: whiteboards everywhere that are forecasting next year, the year after that,
2:01:51
Speaker 10: five years from now, eight years from now. Okay, what's
2:01:54
Speaker 10: it gonna look like? How does this fit into the
2:01:57
Speaker 10: future with these guys that we're gonna need to he signed,
2:02:00
Speaker 10: which now is pretty short list ultimately, right, and prospects
2:02:06
Speaker 10: coming up first rounders that you want?
2:02:08
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, even would you talk about the prospects
2:02:10
Speaker 3: even the guys that are like Monkton had another great season,
2:02:14
Speaker 3: won a championship, right, and you've got Tija Ginla and company. Like,
2:02:18
Speaker 3: even the young guys, you're seeing some really nice things
2:02:21
Speaker 3: before they get to Mammoth uniforms.
2:02:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:02:23
Speaker 10: Caleb Dnoye signing the three year entry level contract on Monday.
2:02:28
Speaker 10: Monkton winning the regular season in the Quebec Maritime Junior
2:02:32
Speaker 10: Hockey League fifty ten and two with two shootout loss
2:02:36
Speaker 10: and go back for them.
2:02:37
Speaker 7: Is that right?
2:02:37
Speaker 2: Yep? Yep?
2:02:38
Speaker 5: So.
2:02:39
Speaker 10: Dnoye was the MVP of their playoffs last year, so
2:02:42
Speaker 10: he played his best hockey in the playoffs, averaging one
2:02:45
Speaker 10: point seventy four points per game. The Mammoth have another
2:02:49
Speaker 10: point of game prospect there. Gave Smith a fourth rounder
2:02:52
Speaker 10: from twenty twenty four. So Dnoye signing that deal got
2:02:58
Speaker 10: a Ginla well over a point of game Colbo Dwaine.
2:03:01
Speaker 10: The Mammuchu signed Michael Robble, their goaltender of the future.
2:03:04
Speaker 10: He's six foot seven and there's there's some some stories
2:03:10
Speaker 10: out there today is he signs hissential level contract and
2:03:14
Speaker 10: he's going to start in Tucson in the American Hockey
2:03:17
Speaker 10: League right now. He just finished college that he might
2:03:20
Speaker 10: be the best goalie in the world that's not in
2:03:24
Speaker 10: the NHL. So wow, you got you got him. And
2:03:28
Speaker 10: we talked to him last week on our podcast, Mammoth Daily,
2:03:32
Speaker 10: and uh yeah, fun, fun kid. But another check in.
2:03:36
Speaker 10: It's where we get our goalies. Gravel, Melka, v Tech,
2:03:38
Speaker 10: Manacheck and Michael Robble. Second round pick in twenty twenty three,
2:03:43
Speaker 10: so we talk about all the first rounders drafting a
2:03:46
Speaker 10: goalie in the second round. High that's that's uh, that's
2:03:50
Speaker 10: a choice draft pick. That's that's higher than you usually
2:03:55
Speaker 10: draft goalies. So excited about him too, coming up.
2:04:01
Speaker 3: Getting down to crunch time here fifth in the West
2:04:03
Speaker 3: right now for this Utah Mammoth team in the playoff picture,
2:04:07
Speaker 3: and I don't want to say comfortably, but as close
2:04:10
Speaker 3: to comfortable as you can be for now, got a
2:04:12
Speaker 3: big road trip coming up, like you already referenced. Uh,
2:04:16
Speaker 3: You've got Ovechkin and Washington coming in on Thursday. If
2:04:21
Speaker 3: I keep it to that home game and then the
2:04:23
Speaker 3: three Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver on the road, opportunity for.
2:04:28
Speaker 10: Points here, yeah, and for Utah being in that first
2:04:32
Speaker 10: wild card spot. They've got a three point lead on Nashville,
2:04:36
Speaker 10: they have a six point lead on LA who's the
2:04:38
Speaker 10: first team out.
2:04:39
Speaker 2: Just need to keep banking points here.
2:04:41
Speaker 10: Right, I mean the percentages right now from various websites
2:04:46
Speaker 10: moneypuck dot com, the athletic ninety five percent that they
2:04:50
Speaker 10: make the playoffs. They want to stand the first wild
2:04:52
Speaker 10: card so they can play the Pacific Division champion, which
2:04:54
Speaker 10: looks like it is going to be Anaheim. They've got
2:04:56
Speaker 10: a five point lead on Edmonton and not have to
2:04:59
Speaker 10: play the Colorado Avalanche. Plus, if you play Anaheim and
2:05:02
Speaker 10: you beat them, then you get the two three team
2:05:04
Speaker 10: in the Pacific in Vegas Edmonton versus two top five teams,
2:05:10
Speaker 10: the winner of Minnesota and Dallas.
2:05:13
Speaker 3: So tough, and obviously you got to get past the
2:05:16
Speaker 3: Abs and if you wanted.
2:05:17
Speaker 10: To make it there, so wanna I want to stand
2:05:20
Speaker 10: in the first wild card. But as long as they're
2:05:25
Speaker 10: banking points, they're really the only team in the NHL
2:05:29
Speaker 10: right now that's you know, kind of solidified into their spot,
2:05:34
Speaker 10: unless you know, they just stop winning all together, which
2:05:40
Speaker 10: you know is going to be a positive. And the
2:05:44
Speaker 10: fact that they can, you know, manage the lineup going
2:05:47
Speaker 10: into the final week or two of the year a
2:05:49
Speaker 10: little bit, give Themelcha some rest. Vaniteck's played pretty good too,
2:05:53
Speaker 10: So I think they're they're in a good spot, and
2:05:56
Speaker 10: I think they're comfortable, they're confident. They weren't happy with
2:05:59
Speaker 10: last night, but they've been great at responding and bouncing
2:06:02
Speaker 10: back all season, long after after game they don't they
2:06:05
Speaker 10: don't win, just just as you heard from Mackenzie Wieger
2:06:08
Speaker 10: last night. Just pretty level headed, even keeled. But they've
2:06:12
Speaker 10: done a good job. They took advantage of January with
2:06:14
Speaker 10: that seven game homestand they've been really really solid on
2:06:18
Speaker 10: the road too, And I think they're confident and ready to.
2:06:22
Speaker 2: Make this move.
2:06:23
Speaker 10: But gosh, it's sure nice not having to watch the
2:06:28
Speaker 10: scoreboard every single night and thinking, oh no, if la
2:06:34
Speaker 10: ties this game and get a point. That's tough, and
2:06:38
Speaker 10: now you're really worrying about yourself. Just kind of just
2:06:41
Speaker 10: need to banks of points here and stay in that.
2:06:43
Speaker 3: Spot outside of the mammoth world. The Rangers were held
2:06:48
Speaker 3: to nine shots on goal last night.
2:06:53
Speaker 2: That is bad. That's low.
2:06:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like historically low.
2:07:02
Speaker 10: They have had some moments. Another disappointing year for them.
2:07:07
Speaker 10: They had one four in a row at at one point,
2:07:10
Speaker 10: but yeah, that's uh. And it was like four through
2:07:14
Speaker 10: thirty eight minutes of the game, like they had a
2:07:16
Speaker 10: big third period of seed to get five shots and
2:07:21
Speaker 10: get to nine's That's one thing, you know, teams that
2:07:24
Speaker 10: aren't in the playoffs, you don't really know what you're
2:07:28
Speaker 10: gonna get because they don't feel any pressure. And so
2:07:31
Speaker 10: sometimes teams like Chicago they know they're out, but they've
2:07:35
Speaker 10: got young talent that's just out there having fun that
2:07:39
Speaker 10: they can be teams like the Rangers that I don't know,
2:07:46
Speaker 10: bad year, but they still have talent that can, you know,
2:07:52
Speaker 10: sneak up on you and have nights where they put
2:07:55
Speaker 10: up nine shots on goal at home to drop to
2:07:57
Speaker 10: nine to eighteen and seven Addison Square Garden when are we.
2:08:02
Speaker 3: Going to see the Utah Mammoth in one of the
2:08:05
Speaker 3: Global Series games we get a winner classic Obviously it's
2:08:11
Speaker 3: been we're going to get a playoff playoff team, hopefully
2:08:15
Speaker 3: in the second year of the club's existence.
2:08:17
Speaker 2: So I know I'm being spoiled here.
2:08:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, but Caroline and Seattle are going to be playing
2:08:23
Speaker 3: in Finland next season for a couple of games. We
2:08:26
Speaker 3: see this with the NFL, we see this with the NBA,
2:08:29
Speaker 3: we see this with Major League Baseball doing their kind
2:08:32
Speaker 3: of overseas outreach. And if you're a Mammoth fan and
2:08:36
Speaker 3: you want to see the world, that's a great excuse
2:08:39
Speaker 3: to just follow the team and go play wherever they
2:08:41
Speaker 3: could play.
2:08:43
Speaker 10: So two things. If you do that, it costs you
2:08:47
Speaker 10: a home game or two. So that's one thing. But
2:08:49
Speaker 10: number two, you've seen the pride that seg takes in
2:08:57
Speaker 10: showcasing their brands and their team in Utah to the world.
2:09:03
Speaker 4: Uh.
2:09:05
Speaker 10: I every night that that were at the Delta Center
2:09:08
Speaker 10: and I look down and watch the Mammoth in those
2:09:11
Speaker 10: rock black jerseys and the Mountain blue and the Salt white,
2:09:14
Speaker 10: I'm like, gosh, these these are beautiful. So I think
2:09:20
Speaker 10: that they would really you know, be be admired and
2:09:26
Speaker 10: sell a lot of merchandise overseas because it's new and
2:09:30
Speaker 10: it's and it's unique.
2:09:31
Speaker 2: And again seg is just totally embraced, you know, growing
2:09:37
Speaker 2: the game in Utah, but beyond.
2:09:42
Speaker 3: I'll make a suggestion because I haven't been there yet
2:09:46
Speaker 3: and I want to go. You've got a strong check presence,
2:09:50
Speaker 3: as you said, especially in the crease, especially in goal.
2:09:53
Speaker 3: So I don't know, maybe if you're trying to maximize
2:09:56
Speaker 3: both ends of this prospect little uh, little one or
2:10:01
Speaker 3: two games over there and check you.
2:10:03
Speaker 10: Yeah, and you've seen it with you know, like the
2:10:06
Speaker 10: Florida Panthers going over to Finland and uh, you know
2:10:10
Speaker 10: guys guys that they have on on their roster playing
2:10:15
Speaker 10: home games.
2:10:15
Speaker 2: Seen it with.
2:10:16
Speaker 10: Guys in in uh Sweden taken taking players home. So
2:10:21
Speaker 10: definitely seems like it has has an angle when they're
2:10:25
Speaker 10: scheduling the games in in those various various countries. I
2:10:29
Speaker 10: can't can't speak for anything because I don't you know.
2:10:32
Speaker 3: I'll do the campaign as uh, since you're a real professional,
2:10:35
Speaker 3: I'll just do the campaigning.
2:10:37
Speaker 10: Uh yeah, but you know how you know, the the
2:10:42
Speaker 10: way that this team and an organization and ownership group
2:10:45
Speaker 10: is embraced, you know, spreading the wings and sharing.
2:10:50
Speaker 3: This coming from the text line from Ryan on the
2:10:53
Speaker 3: text line, any update on Barrett Hayton.
2:10:56
Speaker 2: No, we have not gotten an update on him.
2:10:58
Speaker 10: He got hurt in the the first two minutes of
2:11:01
Speaker 10: the game. Jack McBain went in for a hit with
2:11:07
Speaker 10: Edmonton's vacili Pod Colson and it's kind of an awkward
2:11:10
Speaker 10: collision there with Barrett Hayton, so he didn't play the
2:11:13
Speaker 10: rest of the game, went immediately to the locker room.
2:11:15
Speaker 10: The update we got was upper body injury, questionable to return.
2:11:19
Speaker 10: And then after the game last night, Barrett told us
2:11:22
Speaker 10: that if you evaluated further today, So no update there.
2:11:26
Speaker 10: But the Mammoth did call up Daniel Boot from the
2:11:29
Speaker 10: Tucson Roadrunners an hour or two ago, so Big the
2:11:32
Speaker 10: Big Boys back on his way up here.
2:11:35
Speaker 2: I liked that well.
2:11:36
Speaker 3: I liked what we saw from Daniel, and I mean,
2:11:38
Speaker 3: I know that it wasn't always pretty, but you got
2:11:41
Speaker 3: to develop and you got to let guys like that
2:11:43
Speaker 3: get a chance on NHL ies as there expected to
2:11:47
Speaker 3: be there soon enough. Adrian, It's always great to catch
2:11:50
Speaker 3: up with you, especially after the long absence.
2:11:52
Speaker 2: So good to see him, my friend.
2:11:54
Speaker 10: Great to be back man, Thanks for having me, and
2:11:56
Speaker 10: see you next week. We'll be in April. Next week.
2:11:59
Speaker 10: That's the of the playoffs beginning.
2:12:02
Speaker 3: Wild and most importantly, knocking on wood that your Utah
2:12:06
Speaker 3: Mammoth should firmly be in that playoff picture. We are
2:12:11
Speaker 3: so ridiculously lucky to have this coming together with the timing.
2:12:16
Speaker 3: You get a franchise and then the next year potentially
2:12:19
Speaker 3: they're in the playoffs. That's it's not quite what Vegas got,
2:12:23
Speaker 3: but it's almost there.
2:12:24
Speaker 10: Ten games left, ten games to wrap it up. Probability,
2:12:28
Speaker 10: so balls in their court.
2:12:30
Speaker 3: Adrian Deddy Between the Pipes brought to you by a
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Speaker 3: Ladin Industries and Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling.
2:12:35
Speaker 2: Look for the truck with the duck.
2:12:39
Speaker 3: A little conversation about Utah springball, Spring football coverage brought
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Speaker 3: to you by Big Willies, Game Day, Men's Health, Berger Fusion,
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Speaker 3: then we'll have some topical trivia to give away Wu
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Speaker 3: Tang Clan tickets and a little cross talk. It's the
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Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM.
2:13:07
Speaker 1: Your Team's about Sean O'Connell's show from the Murdoch Chevrolet
2:13:10
Speaker 1: Studio of ESPN seven hundred at one half.
2:13:14
Speaker 6: M so Utah Football News.
2:13:20
Speaker 3: We actually got this email yesterday, but it was after
2:13:23
Speaker 3: the show, and.
2:13:26
Speaker 2: It's a it's.
2:13:27
Speaker 3: A scheduling announcement that is good for the state of
2:13:31
Speaker 3: football but is potentially bad for Utah football. Those might
2:13:37
Speaker 3: sound like contradictory statements, but the reality of the situation
2:13:41
Speaker 3: is all things going well. Uh Utah State is it
2:13:46
Speaker 3: is it bad team to have to play right, It's
2:13:48
Speaker 3: a no win situation. The Aggies when they're at their
2:13:51
Speaker 3: best are hard to beat.
2:13:54
Speaker 2: And I think that the coaching staff Bronco Mendenhal is
2:13:57
Speaker 2: put together up there and Logan is a really quality one.
2:13:59
Speaker 2: I think they're good.
2:14:00
Speaker 3: Talent acquisition is another prospect that they have to deal with.
2:14:04
Speaker 3: Hopefully their new alignment in a reorganized and rebranded PAC
2:14:10
Speaker 3: twelve conference helps them with that. But Utah football has
2:14:15
Speaker 3: a two for one and we're pushing this thing out
2:14:19
Speaker 3: now seven years or so, but they've got a two
2:14:22
Speaker 3: for one announced against the Utah State Aggies again. It's
2:14:26
Speaker 3: against the best judgment of a school like the University
2:14:31
Speaker 3: of Utah to play an in state rival that is
2:14:33
Speaker 3: going to treat that game as a super Bowl. But
2:14:37
Speaker 3: I applaud the athletic department, I applaud Mark harm and
2:14:40
Speaker 3: I applaud this coaching staff, anyone who's signed off on this,
2:14:44
Speaker 3: because it's the right thing to do, even if it's
2:14:47
Speaker 3: not in your best interest from a pure Hey, let's
2:14:52
Speaker 3: get the most winnable games, and if we're gonna take
2:14:54
Speaker 3: a risk, only take a risk that actually means something
2:14:57
Speaker 3: for us. Now, you should beat Utah State every day year.
2:15:00
Speaker 3: It should be a non game every year. Now we've
2:15:03
Speaker 3: seen it played out, and of course it doesn't always
2:15:06
Speaker 3: play that way. The gap should be growing between Utah
2:15:10
Speaker 3: and between the Aggies, but again it doesn't always play
2:15:14
Speaker 3: that way. Especially now that you've got a little bit
2:15:16
Speaker 3: of flux with the coaching staff. Obviously this will be
2:15:19
Speaker 3: more settled when we're talking about the games on this
2:15:23
Speaker 3: particular announcement. So the twenty thirty one game has been
2:15:28
Speaker 3: moved up to twenty thirty. There's a twenty twenty six
2:15:32
Speaker 3: game in Salt Lake City and a twenty thirty one
2:15:38
Speaker 3: game in Logan, and then twenty thirty three, the Aggie's
2:15:42
Speaker 3: back in Salt Lake City. So the twenty thirty one
2:15:47
Speaker 3: game has been moved up the twenty thirty one. Excuse me,
2:15:52
Speaker 3: the twenty thirty one game has been moved up to
2:15:54
Speaker 3: twenty thirty that's at Utah than the next year, in
2:15:57
Speaker 3: twenty thirty one it'll be in Logan, and then twenty
2:16:00
Speaker 3: thirty three. So after a hiatus, Utah State comes to
2:16:05
Speaker 3: Salt Lake City again in twenty thirty three. Who knows
2:16:08
Speaker 3: what this thing looks like five, six, seven years from now,
2:16:12
Speaker 3: but that's when these scheduling announcements happen. And good on
2:16:16
Speaker 3: Utah Football for putting this on the slate. Even though
2:16:20
Speaker 3: you could fill it in with a Fresno State, you
2:16:24
Speaker 3: could fill it in with a Colorado State, and you're
2:16:28
Speaker 3: getting a Pack twelve opponent and a reorganized Pac twelve opponent,
2:16:31
Speaker 3: but not one that's going to treat you like it's
2:16:35
Speaker 3: the most personal contest out there.
2:16:36
Speaker 2: That's what Utah State is going to be.
2:16:38
Speaker 3: Every year that older brothers it's and whether one is
2:16:41
Speaker 3: the big brother one's a little brother becomes much more
2:16:45
Speaker 3: of a moot point on actual game day. Again, Utah
2:16:49
Speaker 3: should be comfortable and fine to win games like this.
2:16:52
Speaker 3: It is absolutely the right thing to do to play
2:16:55
Speaker 3: these games. In state rivalries, regional rivalries should be preserved.
2:17:01
Speaker 3: And the conference realignment gave you the BYU football game back,
2:17:06
Speaker 3: that was the right thing for the Holy War. This
2:17:10
Speaker 3: one is not gonna be protected by conference alignment. This
2:17:13
Speaker 3: is one that you could dismiss, you could ball up,
2:17:15
Speaker 3: you could throw away. BYU and Utah should both be
2:17:19
Speaker 3: playing Utah State as often as they can. And it's
2:17:22
Speaker 3: not gonna serve BYU or Utah the same way it
2:17:25
Speaker 3: serves Utah State.
2:17:26
Speaker 4: But they should do it absolutely, And yeah, this this
2:17:31
Speaker 4: would be a good thing. I was gonna jokingly bring
2:17:34
Speaker 4: up because you mentioned it's gonna mean a whole lot
2:17:36
Speaker 4: to Utah State because it's a chance to knock to
2:17:39
Speaker 4: knock off an in state giant, right, And it's not
2:17:43
Speaker 4: gonna mean a whole lot to Utah. I remember when
2:17:46
Speaker 4: they played two years ago, was it the first year
2:17:49
Speaker 4: in the Big twelve? And Brant Keithy was asked, what
2:17:53
Speaker 4: do you know about the Battle of the Brothers, And
2:17:54
Speaker 4: he said, I didn't even know it was a rivalry.
2:17:57
Speaker 4: So like, that's the way, because it had been a
2:17:59
Speaker 4: long time since Utah had played, and they're obviously not
2:18:02
Speaker 4: at the same level anymore group of five versus power
2:18:07
Speaker 4: four now, But that's that's what it's gonna be like
2:18:11
Speaker 4: for Utah. I was gonna joke that, are we sure
2:18:14
Speaker 4: we want to give Bronco Mendenhall a chance to knock
2:18:17
Speaker 4: off Utah and get that get that bone, have that
2:18:20
Speaker 4: bonus kick in.
2:18:21
Speaker 2: And also the.
2:18:23
Speaker 4: He's still got he's still got that BYU, the BYU
2:18:27
Speaker 4: in him like I did I see red I want
2:18:30
Speaker 4: to take him down kind of thing. But this is
2:18:32
Speaker 4: twenty thirty twenty thirty one, twenty thirty three. Bronco may
2:18:36
Speaker 4: not even be coached there at that time, so probably
2:18:39
Speaker 4: doesn't apply, right, I mean.
2:18:41
Speaker 3: It thinks, go, well, Bronco's not going to be coached there. Yeah, right,
2:18:46
Speaker 3: but who knows anyway, I I like to see it
2:18:50
Speaker 3: because all of these like uh, you know, in state things,
2:18:54
Speaker 3: all these regional things, they're just like they're sacrificed at
2:18:57
Speaker 3: the altar of cash in a lot of these con
2:19:00
Speaker 3: text and oh no, that's pressure that we don't need.
2:19:03
Speaker 3: All that's that's a lose lose situation in my self interest.
2:19:07
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna play the Aggies. Play the Aggies. So
2:19:11
Speaker 3: well done Utah Athletic Department. Well done Utah Football for
2:19:14
Speaker 3: making sure you've got this one.
2:19:16
Speaker 4: And and speaking of Utah football, update, latest sound from
2:19:20
Speaker 4: spring practice. Yesterday's sound is up on the website ESPN
2:19:24
Speaker 4: seven hundred sports dot com. Also the ESPN seven hundred
2:19:27
Speaker 4: app Morgan Scally spoke to us, had that announcement, We
2:19:32
Speaker 4: talked about no spring game this year, but there will
2:19:34
Speaker 4: be some sort of fan appreciation event that I guess
2:19:37
Speaker 4: we'll find out more about later. Also had Bird Ficklin
2:19:42
Speaker 4: talk to us, Brandon Pegan spoke to us, and then
2:19:47
Speaker 4: the other new another new receiver, Kyrie Schulz, stopped by
2:19:51
Speaker 4: post practice. So ESPN seven hundred sports dot com to find.
2:19:54
Speaker 3: That before we take a break and do a little
2:19:57
Speaker 3: cross talk. Sarah Todd and Porter Larson are fieling in
2:20:00
Speaker 3: for Spence check Us today, so that'll be a lot
2:20:02
Speaker 3: of fun.
2:20:02
Speaker 4: We'll talk to them here. Sarah Todd radio host debut.
2:20:06
Speaker 2: I love that.
2:20:07
Speaker 3: I think really that even though she keeps snubbing us,
2:20:11
Speaker 3: I'm still a big fan she did.
2:20:12
Speaker 2: Sarahton to be fair.
2:20:14
Speaker 4: She did come on last minute when Trey j was traded,
2:20:17
Speaker 4: that's right. The other times when we had more time
2:20:20
Speaker 4: to book. It's that's coming out.
2:20:22
Speaker 3: It's not in my character to acknowledge the good things
2:20:24
Speaker 3: about people. It's only to point out the flaws. Okay,
2:20:27
Speaker 3: that's but before we get there. I just with this
2:20:30
Speaker 3: announcement of the Utah State games, it was like they
2:20:33
Speaker 3: they sent out a little refresher of the non conference
2:20:35
Speaker 3: games that are coming on the Utah slate. Twenty twenty
2:20:38
Speaker 3: seven is gonna be awesome with that kickoff Classic Miami
2:20:43
Speaker 3: the Battle for the U. We still got to get
2:20:45
Speaker 3: ray Lewis on to agree to that or real you yeah,
2:20:49
Speaker 3: uh it's.
2:20:50
Speaker 2: Miami Wyoming and ray Lewis. You know you got the
2:20:54
Speaker 2: connection there.
2:20:54
Speaker 3: I know, I know that's on me. Twenty twenty eight
2:21:00
Speaker 3: Utah Tech the James Peterson.
2:21:02
Speaker 2: I'll appreciate you're right before you mentioned my school, James
2:21:06
Speaker 2: Peterson Bowl, and then against Nevada, we're gonna beat you guys.
2:21:09
Speaker 3: A trip to Camp Randall potentially for all the Utah
2:21:13
Speaker 3: fans out.
2:21:13
Speaker 2: There that jump around. That's a that's a fun one.
2:21:16
Speaker 3: Weaver State and at Arkansas State. How's that feel? Oh see,
2:21:22
Speaker 3: it's fine. I'm not bothered by it. Twenty thirty Utah
2:21:26
Speaker 3: Tech again.
2:21:27
Speaker 4: I can't believe they're actually playing them twice in a
2:21:30
Speaker 4: three year span.
2:21:30
Speaker 2: It's great.
2:21:31
Speaker 3: And then and then UCLA that's that's the dumb one.
2:21:35
Speaker 3: And then Utah State the aforementioned Utah State game that
2:21:38
Speaker 3: got moved up. Twenty thirty one at Utah State, and
2:21:43
Speaker 3: then you're hosting LSU, all right, and then twenty thirty two.
2:21:47
Speaker 3: Put it on your calendar. Start saving your dimes right now.
2:21:51
Speaker 3: As long as Valley Baby, as long as our computer
2:21:55
Speaker 3: overlords allowed us to us to live that long going
2:21:58
Speaker 3: to death Valley, speaking of death at LSU, Come on,
2:22:03
Speaker 3: that's like the ultimate road trip.
2:22:04
Speaker 4: So lane Kiffin just got a ten year deal, so
2:22:07
Speaker 4: he'll still be under contract. Do we think he's still
2:22:10
Speaker 4: coaching by the time Utah plays LSU twenty thirty one
2:22:13
Speaker 4: and twenty thirty.
2:22:14
Speaker 3: He'll be on his fourth LSU sorority girl girlfriend at
2:22:18
Speaker 3: that point.
2:22:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably, he'll still probably be there.
2:22:23
Speaker 4: That'll make it even better if Utah can can sweep
2:22:26
Speaker 4: the LSU games while Lane Kiffin is the head coach,
2:22:29
Speaker 4: make it even better all right.
2:22:30
Speaker 3: Cross talk coming and of course we'll give away some
2:22:33
Speaker 3: Wu Tang Clan. It's a Sean O'Connell show, ESPN seven
2:22:37
Speaker 3: hundred ninety twoe FM.
2:22:40
Speaker 1: What you're listening to? The Sean O'Connell Show from the
2:22:44
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
2:22:48
Speaker 1: one a FM. Lie like this, I'm a shan take.
2:22:57
Speaker 3: It back to seven and all right, wo tank, it's
2:23:00
Speaker 3: coming to the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater on September
2:23:04
Speaker 3: twenty ninth. I've got two tickets if you can answer
2:23:07
Speaker 3: this trivia question eight seven seven three five three zero
2:23:10
Speaker 3: seven hundred. The Utah Mammoth are currently in the first
2:23:15
Speaker 3: wild card spot in the Western Conference standings. If the
2:23:20
Speaker 3: playoffs started today, who would their first round opponent be
2:23:25
Speaker 3: in the NHL playoffs? We talked about it earlier. I
2:23:28
Speaker 3: know you were listening to every single word I said
2:23:32
Speaker 3: very carefully. So just regurgitate that information eight seven seven
2:23:36
Speaker 3: three five three zero seven hundred and get yourself some
2:23:40
Speaker 3: Wu Tang Clan tickets. Reminder, this Friday, wassatch front key
2:23:44
Speaker 3: of Bill Riley, Yes, the voice of the Utes, Bill Riley.
2:23:48
Speaker 2: He's hosting the Sean O'Connell.
2:23:49
Speaker 3: Show, and you can go hang out and test drive
2:23:53
Speaker 3: a tell you ride while you talk to Bill Riley.
2:23:57
Speaker 2: Crosstalk is brought to.
2:23:58
Speaker 3: You by our friends over at It's window products eight
2:24:01
Speaker 3: one eight five ninety one hundred lifetime warranty on their windows.
2:24:06
Speaker 2: Tell the Moose he sent you.
2:24:10
Speaker 7: Doing the show. Yeah, I just saw Bill up on campus.
2:24:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:24:14
Speaker 7: We kept the intro just in case.
2:24:16
Speaker 3: It's gonna be great because Bill Riley is gonna have
2:24:20
Speaker 3: to keep saying the Sean O'Connell Show, right when he
2:24:25
Speaker 3: sat here for twenty years and did this and he
2:24:28
Speaker 3: has no muscle memory to call it anything other than
2:24:31
Speaker 3: the Bill Riley Show.
2:24:32
Speaker 7: I bet you he calls it the Bill Riley I
2:24:34
Speaker 7: bet you he does intentionally or on accident over under
2:24:37
Speaker 7: two and a half. I'm gonna go one, okay, just
2:24:40
Speaker 7: because he's a professional, he's gonna do it on accident
2:24:42
Speaker 7: once and then he's gonna go from there.
2:24:44
Speaker 2: That's cool, all right.
2:24:46
Speaker 3: That's the voice of Porter Larson, who's going to be
2:24:48
Speaker 3: filling in with Sarah Todd on the Drive with Spence
2:24:52
Speaker 3: Check its today. That's a Drive with Spence Check Its
2:24:56
Speaker 3: hosted by Port Larson Sarah Todd.
2:24:57
Speaker 7: That's I think three. We can we can brand it.
2:25:01
Speaker 7: You know, it's just drive. You could just call it
2:25:04
Speaker 7: the Drive. Yeah, it's dry, all.
2:25:06
Speaker 2: Right, wonderful.
2:25:07
Speaker 3: Uh, no official announcements yet, but at NBA, Sarah, the
2:25:14
Speaker 3: league's going to expand Seattle and Las Vegas and already
2:25:19
Speaker 3: dilute NBA product, diluting further because every owner is going
2:25:24
Speaker 3: to get four hundred plus million dollars out of it.
2:25:27
Speaker 11: Your thoughts, I mean, I think it's time to do
2:25:31
Speaker 11: it in the sense that Seattle has deserved a team,
2:25:36
Speaker 11: sure since they lost a team, and so I think
2:25:40
Speaker 11: that it's time to do it in that sense. The
2:25:43
Speaker 11: Las Vegas thing is whatever. I mean, they were always
2:25:46
Speaker 11: going to get a team, and the infrastructure has been
2:25:47
Speaker 11: there for years with the Summer league being there. I
2:25:50
Speaker 11: don't really care about the dilution of money or revenue
2:25:54
Speaker 11: that anybody's going to get, And there is enough talent
2:25:58
Speaker 11: to go around, Like there is just more talented players
2:26:02
Speaker 11: in the NBA than I think anybody really realizes. There
2:26:06
Speaker 11: are plenty of players who, if given more opportunity, I
2:26:09
Speaker 11: think would kind of rise to the ranks. Interesting and
2:26:12
Speaker 11: so I think that while it seems like it would dilute,
2:26:15
Speaker 11: I just think that it's going to give more opportunity,
2:26:17
Speaker 11: maybe more parody.
2:26:18
Speaker 2: Who knows. I also could be wrong and it could
2:26:21
Speaker 2: just crash and b to be horrible.
2:26:22
Speaker 3: I mean, while I'm like, ah, do we really need this,
2:26:25
Speaker 3: I also am excited about it because the sports fan
2:26:28
Speaker 3: in me is still a little kid right where you like,
2:26:31
Speaker 3: I want to see Seattle SuperSonics uniforms again. I want
2:26:34
Speaker 3: to know what the branding for a Las Vegas team
2:26:37
Speaker 3: is going to be. Like, I want to see what
2:26:39
Speaker 3: kind of rivalries emerge. I Like you said, Seattle deserves
2:26:43
Speaker 3: to have a team, and that's one of my favorite
2:26:45
Speaker 3: cities in America. I want there to be another thing
2:26:48
Speaker 3: to do when you're in Seattle. You don't need any
2:26:51
Speaker 3: more things to do when you're in Las Vegas. But yeah,
2:26:53
Speaker 3: I mean it's funny because, like the business analyst side
2:26:57
Speaker 3: of things, you're just like, I don't know, is it
2:26:59
Speaker 3: kinda really improve the product? But you get a real
2:27:05
Speaker 3: like grassroots thing for a Vegas community that is largely transient,
2:27:11
Speaker 3: and now they all have something they can root for
2:27:12
Speaker 3: together like they do with the Golden Knights. You get
2:27:15
Speaker 3: that in the NBA world, and then of course Seattle
2:27:18
Speaker 3: we get the resurgence of Sean Kemp.
2:27:22
Speaker 7: And I agree with Sarah, there's there's not an issue
2:27:24
Speaker 7: with the delusion of talent. The league is as talented
2:27:27
Speaker 7: as it's ever been, maybe more so than it's ever been.
2:27:31
Speaker 3: You're both saying that, and we have we have teams
2:27:36
Speaker 3: every night, and we're gonna have.
2:27:39
Speaker 2: Tomorrow.
2:27:39
Speaker 3: We're gonna have this again where you've got a bunch
2:27:42
Speaker 3: of dudes that nobody wants to watch play professional basketball
2:27:47
Speaker 3: playing like.
2:27:48
Speaker 2: Ten of them are gonna be on the floor at
2:27:50
Speaker 2: the same time.
2:27:51
Speaker 7: You're not wrong. It's not a talent issue, though it
2:27:53
Speaker 7: is a league incentive issue sure, for why those guys
2:27:57
Speaker 7: are on the floor rather than the first four or
2:28:00
Speaker 7: five six guys on the roster.
2:28:01
Speaker 5: Right.
2:28:03
Speaker 7: The talent in the league, as it does with the
2:28:06
Speaker 7: evolution of humans, I think, is just getting better and
2:28:08
Speaker 7: better and better. It's the leagues. It's on the league
2:28:11
Speaker 7: now to figure out how to in a time where
2:28:16
Speaker 7: they just released the salary cap. They went down this
2:28:18
Speaker 7: year for the first time in almost a decade, and
2:28:21
Speaker 7: it did so because local markets, local media, corporate money,
2:28:27
Speaker 7: are pulling out of the NBA, So now you're going
2:28:30
Speaker 7: to add two teams in leagues that have not had
2:28:33
Speaker 7: a local market. That is where I think the issue is.
2:28:36
Speaker 7: That is where I think that the NBA has a challenge,
2:28:39
Speaker 7: not with the talent, but with getting the talent on
2:28:41
Speaker 7: the floor and getting the talent on the floor consistently
2:28:43
Speaker 7: enough to keep local markets engaged. That's the issue.
2:28:47
Speaker 11: The NBA has those examples that you give, right, like tomorrow,
2:28:50
Speaker 11: the Jazz are going to play the Washington Wizards, right,
2:28:52
Speaker 11: and that's not a game anyone except for me will watch.
2:28:55
Speaker 11: And that's you know, there are going to be ten
2:28:59
Speaker 11: guys on the court that no one knows who they are,
2:29:02
Speaker 11: basically kind of in casual NBA fandom. But if all
2:29:06
Speaker 11: of the players on those rosters who should be playing
2:29:08
Speaker 11: were playing, then we wouldn't be having that conversation. Then,
2:29:11
Speaker 11: like if you get into you know, no one wants
2:29:13
Speaker 11: to watch the Wizards anyway, and like there's problems with
2:29:16
Speaker 11: other teams like that. Who you know, the Jazz have
2:29:19
Speaker 11: been tanking for four years, but there's other teams that
2:29:21
Speaker 11: have been miserable for many more years than that. That's
2:29:24
Speaker 11: not about dilution of talent. That's about mismanagement and bad deals.
2:29:30
Speaker 3: Each owner is going to get roughly four hundred million dollars.
2:29:33
Speaker 3: And the one thing that's cool about this is the
2:29:36
Speaker 3: excuses you make about like why you're not investing in
2:29:39
Speaker 3: your team. Harder to make those excuses when the league
2:29:44
Speaker 3: is handing you that check. So hopefully there'll be some
2:29:48
Speaker 3: better incentives for ownership groups which will or will not
2:29:53
Speaker 3: before I get out of here, will or will not
2:29:55
Speaker 3: include Lebron James of one of these expansion teams.
2:29:58
Speaker 11: What do you think probably eventually, Yeah, I don't think
2:30:02
Speaker 11: this time. Probably, I think that he I think maybe
2:30:04
Speaker 11: within the last couple of days he said that he
2:30:06
Speaker 11: wasn't going to pursue that.
2:30:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, he says he's but what do you you talk
2:30:11
Speaker 3: about wanting to do it for ten years and then
2:30:13
Speaker 3: someone says, well, it might happen soon, and the first
2:30:17
Speaker 3: time you're like, nah, I.
2:30:18
Speaker 2: Don't believe you. I mean, I don't think.
2:30:20
Speaker 11: I think eventually one hundred percent he will be part
2:30:23
Speaker 11: owner at least of an NBA franchise, but just maybe
2:30:25
Speaker 11: not Seattle or Vegas.
2:30:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see. Stay tuned.
2:30:31
Speaker 3: Sarah Todd Port Larson holding it down for the next
2:30:33
Speaker 3: four hours on the drive.
2:30:36
Speaker 2: I anticipate it will be glorious.
2:30:37
Speaker 7: Of course, we got some hoops talk, we got we
2:30:40
Speaker 7: got plenty to get to. We got some Utah football sound.
2:30:42
Speaker 7: Oh see, we just interviewed everyone involved with the Utah
2:30:45
Speaker 7: football program up on the hill.
2:30:47
Speaker 2: Good.
2:30:47
Speaker 7: So you'll hear from Colton Swan, you'll hear from coach mcgiven,
2:30:51
Speaker 7: Sharif Shah Pep talk that you always like you. We'll
2:30:54
Speaker 7: get to all of that, and then of course Kevin
2:30:56
Speaker 7: Reynolds talking some college and pro hoops, Ben Dolliver talk
2:31:00
Speaker 7: and some hoops and uh and we'll go from there.
2:31:02
Speaker 7: Can't get out of here without mentioning that shirt though,
2:31:05
Speaker 7: what do you mean it's it's awesome.
2:31:07
Speaker 2: That's a great shirt.
2:31:09
Speaker 3: Shout out to my wife forgetting me this Utah Mammoth
2:31:11
Speaker 3: shirt that features a skating skeleton zombie thing.
2:31:17
Speaker 4: Something of the sword next to a.
2:31:20
Speaker 7: A wooly mammoth.
2:31:24
Speaker 2: Let's be honest, the wooly mammoth is the cooler of
2:31:26
Speaker 2: the mammoths.
2:31:27
Speaker 7: The wooly mammoth is the cooler of the mammoths.
2:31:29
Speaker 3: So like even though the Colombian mammoth is the one
2:31:32
Speaker 3: that we find here in the state of Utah.
2:31:37
Speaker 2: Don't let the truth get in the way of a
2:31:38
Speaker 2: good story.
2:31:39
Speaker 7: That being set, you want some mammoth stuff, because I
2:31:41
Speaker 7: know you're a fossil guy. We've talked about this a
2:31:43
Speaker 7: little bit.
2:31:45
Speaker 2: This is fossil guy.
2:31:46
Speaker 7: This is one of the only places where previously big
2:31:50
Speaker 7: like Bonneville was where you could find both Wooly and
2:31:55
Speaker 7: Colombian mammoths in the state of Utah. So pretty cool.
2:32:00
Speaker 7: There's awesome you can find down in Fairview. There's like
2:32:04
Speaker 7: one of the most complete mammoth skeletons anywhere. Yeah, and
2:32:09
Speaker 7: it was found at like eight thousand plus feet elevation,
2:32:11
Speaker 7: the highest elevation any mammoth has ever been found out
2:32:14
Speaker 7: here treading the slopes.
2:32:16
Speaker 3: I'm actually very disappointed that we do not yet have
2:32:21
Speaker 3: at the Delta Center a full mammoth display, a full
2:32:24
Speaker 3: mammoth skeleton like authentic tusks.
2:32:26
Speaker 7: Even if it's that one down there on.
2:32:28
Speaker 3: Alone, it's a like, all respect to Fairview, it's going
2:32:32
Speaker 3: to be seen a lot more often if it's at
2:32:34
Speaker 3: the Delta Center. All Right, I know a guy who's
2:32:39
Speaker 3: in Alaska right now. Guy digging, digging up, just miss thousands,
2:32:48
Speaker 3: thousands of bones from the ice age, and many of
2:32:52
Speaker 3: those are mammoth bones and tusks and whatnot.
2:32:55
Speaker 2: You could probably make a phone call and be like, hey,
2:32:57
Speaker 2: can I have one of those? Right? Can you loan
2:32:59
Speaker 2: me one?
2:33:01
Speaker 7: One more fact, the Colombian mammoth, Yeah, more closely related
2:33:06
Speaker 7: to our current day elephants than it is the wooly mammoth,
2:33:11
Speaker 7: and would resemble it more so than the woolye one.
2:33:13
Speaker 7: They weren't these big, hairy creatures walking around. They were
2:33:15
Speaker 7: just a larger version of what you see in African
2:33:18
Speaker 7: Asia right now.
2:33:20
Speaker 3: And you're both familiar with the efforts to reintroduce the
2:33:25
Speaker 3: wooly mammoth to the animal kingdom.
2:33:28
Speaker 2: Obviously, Yeah, can't wait for that to happen.
2:33:32
Speaker 3: We'll talk about it on the Sean O'Connell Show when
2:33:34
Speaker 3: it does. Stay tuned for the drive and join us
2:33:38
Speaker 3: tomorrow at Big Willie's. Well, we'll be doing my show
2:33:42
Speaker 3: from Big Willies at seventeen seventeen South Maine Sweet sixteen
2:33:46
Speaker 3: Basketball and all that.
2:33:48
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred ninety one FM