Texas-UConn Preview, SEC Schedule Revealed, Cowboys Look to Bounce Back

Jake Herman hosts the program as Texas travels to Hartford for a tough test on the hardwood against No. 5 UConn. Craig Way and Jason Kinander help preview the matchup, plus hear soundbites from Sean Miller throughout the show. Then, Tommy Yarrish from DallasCowboys.com discusses the Cowboys' matchup with Minnesota on Sunday night. Plus, new details on Sherrone Moore's firing at Michigan, a look at Texas' 2026 SEC football schedule, and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Happy Friday, folks, and welcome to another edition of the
Craig Ways Show here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Jake German with you live here in the
Austin Studios and joining us right off the jump here
from Hartford, Connecticut, the voice of the Longhorns, Craig Way. Craig,
you're staying nice and warm indoors as promised, getting ready

(00:24):
to call Texas at number five. You gotten tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, good to be nice and warm because it has
been in the twenties this morning, the early thirties, low
thirties here temperature. But you know that's a great thing
about basketball, You play them indoors. So tonight at People's
Bank Arena. Went over there earlier today with the team
during shoot around as they were starting to put together
their preparations for a tall task. And I take you

(00:49):
on the fifth rank Dukom Huskies.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Do you feel like you're fully into basketball mode yet
now that football season is winding down save for the
cheese at Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I think, you know, maybe the first few days
of overlap, like in early November. Remember the Longhorns actually
started this basketball season more than a month ago. It
was November fourth, the game at Duke, so we're, you know,
five weeks into it.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
And between that, I'll tell you one.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Thing, if it was like a slow rise, and then
going to MAUI really put you in basketball mode because
you had three games in three days, and plus Jay,
you know, doing the women's games as well as the
men's I've already done. Let's see, the women are eleven
and oh and I've done all but one of those,
so that's ten of those. And the men here are

(01:42):
seven and three and I've done all but one of those.
So yeah, so it's you know, twenty games. I've already
called basketball already. So if I'm not into a doubt,
only I ever will be.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, let's snap you out of it for just one moment,
because last night on the SEC Network, the Texas Longhorns
twenty twenty six football schedule was announced. What were your
reactions when you saw the way those dates kind of
unfolded because we already knew the opponents, right, it was
just about when.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, I think that was that was the key.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
It was you know who who they were going to
play and where they were going to play. And I
think The first thing I thought of when I saw
it was, Wow, they're playing Arkansas again at home, and
they're playing them on the same weekend that next to
last weekend of the regular season. I think that you know, obviously,

(02:33):
we know the Oklahoma game is going to be the
second Saturday in October. We knew the Ohio State game
was coming the second game of the season sandwiched in
between the Texas game, Texas State game, and the ugs
A game, So we knew those things were happening.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
It was going to be the other breakdown. And it
is kind of.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Interesting, Jake, in that they are playing almost not quite,
but almost exact actly the opposite of what they did
last year. This past season, you know, when they didn't
have a single home game in the month of October,
all of that, and they now have three consecutive home

(03:13):
games in the month of October. Is kind of interesting
to have that with the back to back Ole Miss
and Mississippi State games in there.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
To open conference play at Tennessee is quite the challenge.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
And obviously they're gonna have to finish the regular season
on the road in College Station at Texas A and M.
But I think it's more of a balanced schedule this
time around, going in the twenty six than it is
to twenty five. I always feel like it tilts a
little one way or the other if you played more
than two consecutive games on the road or at home.

(03:48):
And most of the time the schedules adhere to that,
but in you know, with this big ballooned SEC, there's
gonna be some schedule. I don't know if you're regular
is the right word, but uncommonalities and playing four consecutive
games away from DKR. I know, they were the designated

(04:09):
home team for the excuse me, Okluma game this past season,
and they'll be the designated.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Road team, so it'll kind of fall into that deal.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
But playing three consecutive games at home after, you know,
playing four consecutive games forty two days away from DKR,
those are uncommonalities, and it's a little more uncommon in
twenty twenty six because of the three straight home games,
But otherwise it looks like britty standards schedule.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
We'll get some different perspectives on that as the show
progresses here this afternoon, We're with you from two to
five right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone
and the Free iHeartRadio app Craig Sean Miller grew up
in Big East country, and you talked a lot about
that with him during Longhorn Weekly which aired last night.
We'll hear an excerpt from that later on in the
show today. How much is his familiarity with the opponent

(04:57):
and the region maybe shaping this matchup tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, he had some success against Yukon last year, you know,
when he was with Xavier, so he noticed that plus
going up against him all those years, and that was
one of the things we talked about on the program.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Uh, and when we had go raftery On.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Uh, just talking about the the difference in in how
it is for him and the difference in how the
Big East.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Is constructed now.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
So it is it is quite a bit different than
when he was playing in the late eighties with Pitt
and you had the you know, the Big eastes we
knew with Pitt and Seaton Hall and Boston College. Uh,
you know those teams and Pitt and Boston College of
course are in the ACC now and then having Georgetown
and Saint John's and Sarrahcus having all of those teams, uh,

(05:49):
in the what what used to be the other Big
East before reconstituted, so it's a different place in time,
but he's very familiar with coming over here to the
state of Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
He's fami.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh, you were playing in this building in fact, as
they're played in this building in the People's Bank Arena
last season when they got to win. This is the
first time Texas will have played a game in this
building in twenty five years. It was January, well almost
twenty six years, because it was January of two thousand
the last time Texas played in this building when they

(06:20):
lost to Yukon.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
So it's a little bit.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Unusual, certainly for long worn fans and maybe some other then.
And obviously the players haven't played in here before other
than Dylan Swain and Lasina Treor was out with an
injury last year so they didn't play. He traveled with
the team, but he didn't play. But for Sean Miller,
it's pretty familiar country.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
You know, in your short time you've spent with Sean Miller,
what's he like in the lead up to these type
of big games from what you've observed, Uh.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
He's he's pretty calm, but I'll tell you he's very
studious about what he's doing. I was watching and I've
spoken often about what's impressive to watch him teaching the game,
even as he's coaching really hard and working all that
kind of stuff in games and the practices, and that
was on display again during the shoot around today.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And then when it was over, I walked downstairs.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Our broadcast positions canna be elevated like it is in
so many places, and I'm walking downstairs from where Cameron
Parker had been setting up our equipment where we're gonna
broadcast from. And when I got down to the floor,
I saw the team kind of walking off the floor
at the end of the shoot around and they're putting
on their changing out of shoes and putting warm ups

(07:34):
back on. And I looked down the bench and I
saw Sean Miller just sitting there in an involved conversation
with Kenda Weaver and they were talking about things, and
I saw him, you know, in motion. So he's he's
always teaching. He's always doing that as part of the
coaching thing. So but he's but he's fun to be around,

(07:55):
and we had a we had a good chat.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
You know.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mentioned to him when I got on the plane
yesterday that about The only thing we did not get
into on this week's edition along one weekly was the
fact that Bill Murray's son.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Is that the comedian, the actor Bill Murray.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
His son is an assistant coach on Dan Hurley's staff
at Yukon. And I said, hey, that was about the
only he goes. Let me tell you something. He's a
really good coach. And then he told me something I
did not know. He said he was a GA for
me at Arizona, a graduate assistant. Wow. And started off there,

(08:38):
and he said I can tell right away that he
had great basketball IQ and great acumen and that he
would become a good coach.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
He said, he'll be a head coach someday.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
We're expecting to see Bill Murray at the game tonight
because he goes to a lot of the Yukon games
with his son on Dan Hurley's staff.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Well, Craig, we can hear your call of the game
with coverage starting at sixth already tonight right here on
AM thirteen hundred. The zone logoings are pretty sizable underdogs.
If you had a couple of quick hitters on where
they could work to pull an upset, what would those
look like?

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Well, Basically, they're gonna have to slow down the play
of the guards and forwards, most notably Alex Caraban. I
think that's that's gonna be a real big challenge for them.
They're gonna have to deal with Caravan, who comes in
averaging I'm looking at it now, fourteen points per game.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
He's a six eighth senior.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
He's he's a bit of a matchup problem, and that
might be a Daylan Swain matchup there. I think also,
you know solo ball was going to be important. He's
averaging fifteen points per game. And then the big guy inside.
I think that Manus Foka Titus can hold his own against.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Terrace Reid, the transfer from Michigan. I think he can
do it.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
But the guy does average fifteen points in eight rebounds.
So even if you cancel him out, they've got to
find answers for Silas Demory at the point and then
solo ball and and Alex Caravan in order to have
it said, they've got to be able to neutralize those guys,
and then they're gonna have to make shots like you
do on the road. You're just gonna have to if
you're gonna pull a surprise.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
And most importantly defend without fouling. Yukon is probably a
deeper team right now, it looks like on paper than
Texas is.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Absolutely, And they've had problems with the foules of late,
and Sean talked about that the other night, even in
a pretty easy victory over Southern.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
He mentioned many too many.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Just unnecessary fouls, I think is the way he described it,
too many unnecessary ones.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
And they will have to stay to that, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
And part of when they've had problems with the fouls,
Monospokatitis has gotten into foul trouble.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
He has got to stay out of foul trouble tonight.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, especially against the bigs that Yukon will have. Craig
stay warm, have a great call. We'll be listening six
thirty to night for the start of coverage right here
on AM thirteen hundred zone. Thanks for stopping by, you bet.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
And listen now. You know. We'll get back late tonight.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I've got a high school state semifinal telecast tomorrow. But Sunday,
Texas women big challenge from Baylor. It's in for Orth
It's hit noon and probably what's gonna happen is that
game's going to be at noon and we'll have it
for folks almoston eleven forty five air, and then Texas
Volleyball will be playing in the Elite eight and it
might go right after that, I think on television at

(11:28):
two o'clock they either go at two or six, Texas
sweeping in the end of the day in the Sweet
sixteen up for Gregory Gym, and they're waiting on the
winner of the Wisconsin Stanford matchup.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
That's is going on right now.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
How about the student showing up for an eleven am start.
That was fun.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Hey listen if a meet, well, school's out now, so
unless you've got a final.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, it's impressive for them to be there.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Craig, we'll be listening in tonight. Thanks again.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
All right, thanks.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
I want to thank Craig Way for stopping by giving
us his preview from Hartford of Texas and yukon later
this evening. Back on the show now, our good friend
Jason Canander, host of the Hook Them Hoops podcast, part
of the Field of sixty eight network, also reporter at
WIBW in Tapeka. Jason, what's going on? Thanks for making time.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
Yeah, of course, Jake excited to talk some Longhorn hoops today.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Big night, excited, certainly a big night. I think we
last spoke after the Duke game, right that first matchup
of the year in Charlotte. Let's start here. How much
has your opinion of this Texas team changed since then?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, it's dropped a little bit.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
MAUI didn't go the way that I think any of
us wanted it to. As people who follow the program,
the Arizona State game is rough. Some calls didn't go
their way down the stretch, and Texas lost that game
on the backs of a brilliant performance by.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Moe odom blew out.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Seaman and as they're supposed to, and then picked up
a really good win against NC State.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
The issue with the enc State win is that.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
That is their only win that means literally anything in
non conference play, and so between the Duke loss and now,
I expected them to win MAUI and the Virginia game,
and they won neither. So my opinion on this team
has dropped a little bit.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
So among our concerns that we shared before the season,
kind of talking about what had us excited, what had
us a little bit ambivalent? You were all over this.
I said this team's going to be balanced. They've got
lots of different guys that can share the load. And
you were the one saying, well, you know, hold your
horses because I don't know who the alpha is among
these guards. How much has that impacted this team so

(13:53):
far this season?

Speaker 5 (13:55):
I still don't know who the alpha is among these guards.
I mean, treman Mark hasn't had to start to the
season that anyone expected him to. Dalen Swayn's been pretty good,
but you know, can we even consider him guard fully?

Speaker 3 (14:07):
He guards, you know, stretch forward most of the time.
So Dalen Swayin I think has been the best.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
Scoring option not named out of spoken Titus sim Wilcher
has starting to come on, which I think.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Is really important.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
That's a guy who can really shoot the ball, and
so if you can get him going, get him really
more than five or six shots a game. I think
he can be a really valuable piece. Not as the
lead guy, but I think he can be a really
valuable piece. We've seen Jordan Pope kind of heat up
and then cool off, and then heat up and.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Then cool off, and I don't really know what to
think of it.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
I never considered him to be one of the top
two or even three scoring options on this team.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
So you know, I guess the production that they get.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Out of him is good. But yeah, Jake, they need
to find an alpha. They really need to find an
el fun I think it's Daleen Swayne.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Dalan Swayne has faced Yukon and Sean Miller. You'll hear
him talk about this a little bit later in the program.
He's faced Yukon already five times in his career. Sean Miller,
coaching in that conference, even just growing up in that
region of the country, has a lot of familiarity with
this Yukon team. How much do you think that impacts
the matchup tonight? Is that a potential advantage for Texas

(15:24):
as a road underdog today?

Speaker 5 (15:27):
One hundred percent. God blessed Rodney Terry. But I feel
a lot better about Texas going into this game than
I would with Rodney Terry at the helm because this
is a head coach in Sean Miller, who has coached
against Yukon twice a year for the last four years
and has won multiple times. And so you know, we
talk about kind of any given game type of thing,

(15:49):
and yeah, Texas are you know, they're given almost fifteen
points tonight.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
They're pretty solid underdogs.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
But they could win because Sean Miller has beaten Yukon
before with a less talented group than his current Texas team.
He's beaten better Yukon teams than this one. Maybe that's
the only positive variable going in Texas's direction tonight, but yes,
it's absolutely an advantage.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Absolutely, all right, Jason, I'm talking with Jason Cannander, host
of the Hook Them Hoops podcast, on the Field of
sixty eight.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
Now.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
We can also talk to his co host, Tommy Rish
a little later, but on a different subject. Today, it's
time to talk about defense because this Texas team, Sean
Miller has been very outspoken about the defensive effort, needing
to improve, the fouling, needing to stop. How do you
kind of diagnose the defensive struggles right now for Texas?

Speaker 5 (16:42):
They seem effort based to me in a way, because
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Maybe I think when you see.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
Effort based problems on defense, sometimes it's because those players
aren't getting what they want on the offensive end, and
so maybe that's part of it. Is Texas's disconnect on
the offensive side is kind of seeping into their defensive game.
And the players are giving less effort because of that.
Because the personnel is solid. I mean, Kendall Weaver is
a great on ball defender. Dalan Swain can guard positions

(17:12):
one through five. Madus Foketitis needs to play more physical
and he really needs to refine his approach on.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Defense down low. He is a foul machine.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
If there is a big game in SEC play, when
he's got four fouls in Texas's up or down by
one or two possessions in the last two minutes, he
is going to be driven right at every single time,
every single time, and.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
He needs to get better about it.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
He can.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
He's a talented kid.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
He's only a sophomore, so you hope that that's part
of his game that develops. But yeah, I mean, I
think part of its fundamentals, but most of it is effort.
And the good thing about that is you can fix effort.
It's not a personnel thing. It's not a lack of
talent thing. There are good defenders on this team who

(17:59):
play solid minutes. They just haven't really shown it yet
this year, which is frustrating, but it doesn't mean they
won't show it at all.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Longorns right now, outside the top one hundred in defensive efficiency.
Yukon's played five games against opponents outside the top twenty five.
Guess what, They're five to zero, with wins by an
average of thirty two points. So that's the kind of
tall task facing Texas tonight. How can they kind of
flip that defensive script, specifically against the Yukon team standing

(18:25):
across from them this evening.

Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, so this is a Yukon team that forces a
lot of turnovers.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
So Texas needs to protect the.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
Ball on the offense, and then that obviously means not
committing offensive files. We saw very often in the Duke game,
Texas committed several charging files, and so you know, for
Texas to play more controlled on the offensive side of
the ball will help them out defensively. I think that
if you can control the paint. Yukon, that's what their
best at. On defense. They limit opponents to one of

(18:57):
They are top twenty in opponents field goal percentage from
two point shots and their top fifty on their own
field goal percentage from two point shots, So they own
the paint. If Texas can own the paint tonight, they
will win because I do think that they have the
personnel in this game between Vocatitis and trouore to run

(19:17):
with Yukon if some things fall their way, if Terris
Reid gets into foul trouble, if Eric Riba doesn't have it.
I mean, that's kind of a good thing about this matchup,
is like, if you can get Terris Reid off the court,
if you can get him to pick up two falls early.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Which is not the most difficult task in the world.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
He is as much of a fall on machine as
Vocatitis is, then you're kind of able to play matchups.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
A little more.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
And Eric Riba might be one of the only big
men in high major basketball who is softer than Vocatitis.
And so Texas has a chance. If they rule the paint,
they have a chance. And Dalan Swayne plays a big
role in that too. He's going to be guarding Alex
Caraban tonight, i'd think, and you know, if he can
lock down Alex Caraban, and because Caravan's been the X

(19:59):
factor in the was top twenty five, top you know,
top tier wins for Yukon, I think Texas has a shot,
but they gotta rule the glass, they gotta roll the paint,
and uh, we'll see what happens from there and make
their free throws too.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Okay, following up on the bigs and the battle for
the paint. We saw this in the Southern game, a
two big starting lineup with Madus Vokatykas and Vocatitiscuse being
Lasina Troy out there together. Do we see that in
hard for tonight? Do you want to see that as
someone on the Texas side of things?

Speaker 5 (20:32):
I really hope so, because those two are good basketball
players for different reasons. Titis might be Texas's best offensive player. Heck,
he might be one of the best offensive big men
in the country right now. Well, Sina Trauera is a
physical defense first rim runner. Texas hasn't had that really
in years past, and so if they can play those

(20:54):
two guys together, especially against a team like Yukon who
has the size advantage at least on.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Paper, you know Texas has a chance.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
They really do. I don't think that they're gonna win
this game. Heck, I don't even think it's gonna be
close at the end. But I said on our hook
Em Hoops podcast episode that aired this morning that I
think Texas is gonna lead this game at half because
I think that they're gonna have a good game plan
that they're going to execute, at least in the early going,
and Yukon's just gonna be the better team in the
long run. But yeah, if they play that two big

(21:24):
man rotation, which I'm obsessed with, I think that they
have a better chance to win than if they don't.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's so interesting. We'll see if that pans out. It
was an experiment. I think that Sean Miller just wanted
to see for a few moments and then kind of
pulled the plug on it early in the Southern game.
And who knows, maybe he was dissatisfied with what he saw.
Maybe he didn't want Dan Hurley to see any more
of it.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see. I mean, you know, it's
gonna be tough for Texas in some of these matches
because they don't have really much of a traditional four.
It's gonna be tough for them to get away with
only playing one big a lot of the times. Is
especially Ifvokatitis is going to be so foul prone. I mean,
somebody's going to need to pick up those minutes. We

(22:06):
haven't seen a lot of Nick Cody. You know, we
talked about the effort based issues on defense. You know,
he's probably at heart of that at times, unfortunately, and
you know, guy like Sean Millers is still trying to
unlock the potential of some of the young guys on
the roster. I get it, but you need the five
guys on the court who are going to give you
the best effort and most.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Importantly, the best chance to win.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
And I think playing both Okatitis and triore as starters
tonight and down the stretch gives you that chance.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
You know, there's not a lot of teams in college
basketball that can feel great about their chances playing a
road game at Yukon. But you look at the context
of this game in Texas the season, they're not going
to play another power forward team until January when SEC
play starts. Does that add a little bit of heightened importance,
maybe even a little bit of pressure to this game

(22:55):
as Texas has one last chance to make a non
conference statement.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Yeah, I mean, and it's really difficult when you I
really try not to say must win game. They're double
digit underdogs, but you can't. You know, they need this
one if they want to accomplish the things that Sean
Miller and the staff had on the whiteboard before the season.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
They need to win this game. They at least need
to be close. They at least need to look up
to part in this matchup.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
They really need to come out with energy and show
that they want this, because that was the issue in
the Virginia game, and that was what frustrated me the
most was Virginia wanted it more. Virginia is not a
more talented team than Texas, and in fact, a lot
of those players on the Virginia team were recruited by Texas.
Jacari White was one of Texas's top targets in the
transfer portal, ended up going to Virginia and then lit

(23:45):
up the Loghorns on the Moody Center court.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
That should light a fire under this team, and.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
It's tough to see the effects of that.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
When their next game is against Southern.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
All respect to Southern, they're a really top tier at
swack program, but not fitting competition for Texas. So I
think tonight we'll really see how they respond to the
Virginia game. Oh boy, this thing better be close. It
better be close. I'm not expecting a win, but they
better be close.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
He's Jason Cannander, host of the Hook and Hoops podcast
on the Field of sixty eight podcast network. Do get
do we get an emergency pod if Texas pulls this
upset tonight.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
I've covered high school hoops tonight, so unfortunately not. We'll
talk about it next week and then we'll do our
SEC previews, so I'll certainly be talking about it online
and watching it myself while I'm out at work.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Tonight, though I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
I'll be tuned and you can also follow Jason on
Twitter at WIBW. Jason, thanks for stopping by. Let's do
it again.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Tune yes, sir, Jake, appreciate you. Bro.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
All right, that's Jason Cannander talking some Texas basketball. We've
got lots more to discuss in our preview of the
Longhorns trip to Heartfirm.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
We've already heard.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
From Craig Way, just heard from Jason Cannander. We're gonna
hear from Sean Miller a little bit later on in
the program, but up next Inconceivable before we start the
next hour with notes on Texas's SEC schedule. Plus we'll
get to NFL later on in the show today as well.
Thanks for listening on your Friday afternoon This is Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone and the free iHeartRadio app.

(25:13):
And we'll be back in a few moments. All right,
our second hour of the program on this Friday afternoon,
Jay kerrman in for Craig Way. We talked to Craig
from Hartford earlier on in the program. He'll be on
the call for Texas's men's basketball matchup with the fifth
ranked Yukon Huskies. They have won two of the last

(25:34):
three national championships and they will be looking to improve
to ten to one against the seven to three Long Horns.
A little bit later on right here on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred Zone six thirty the start of the
pregame coverage. We also invite you to join our show
via the text line. You could text the word Texas
followed by your message to eight one five three zero.

(25:55):
Seapals says for Texas volleyball, Tory Stafford had no errors.
Texas has beaten both Wisconsin and Stanford, but gotta get
this one Sunday.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Hook them.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, Longhorns took care of both of those teams earlier
in the season, Texas with a three to two, five
set victory over Stanford that was one where they narrowly
avoided a reverse sweep, winning sixteen to eighteen to sixteen
begg your pardon in the fifth set, and then Texas
took care of Wisconsin on the road earlier this season

(26:26):
with a resounding straight set victory. First set was close,
but after that the Longhorns went up to Madison and
took care of business there. So they're waiting the winner
of that. As for Tory Stafford, a six seventy nine
hitting percentage. That is a video game number as far
as a volleyball player is concerned. We're gonna hear a

(26:47):
little bit now from Jared Elliott who's just wrapped up
his post match press conference talking about Tory Stafford, and
he was asked as it's the type of game that
he and coach Jared Elliott when he recruited Tory Stafford
from Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:05):
I think the expectations that this program is set. I
think my memory serves me right. I think this is
eighteen out of the last twenty Elie eates. So we
know how to identify the right talent and then we've
got to be able to obviously develop them and bring
them into a culture and they got to want to
be a part of that. But yes, this is what

(27:25):
I mean. It was not only Toy, but it was
Ramsey as well. Those were two big key components. We
had to show up our back court. We had to
get some more higher kill percentage, we had to get
some better play out of our systems of what we
were doing. And obviously Tory was the most efficient outside
hit her in the country. And there's a reason that
I left my vacation to come back and see her,
and this is the reason why.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, I bet he's glad that he did. Jared Elliott's
team into the Elite eight. They've done so without dropping
a set thus far in the tournament. Now, Coach Elliott
said it with Expectations eighteen the last twenty Elite eates
comes pressure and he was asked Coach Elliott about embracing
pressure and how that's become so important to his time

(28:10):
at Texas and the type of personal impact that this
job has had on him.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Full of it because here.

Speaker 6 (28:17):
But when I got here, I had dinner with Rick Barnes,
and Rick Barnes told me, you coach long enough, you're
going to get fired. So that's added some memory for me.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
And I don't.

Speaker 6 (28:31):
I lose a lot of sleep because I'm just always
worried about only part. I think one of the challenging
things as a coach is you're either working to be
able to develop it and you're trying to get to
a program to.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
A certain standard.

Speaker 6 (28:39):
And then when you reach the standard, our standard of
final fours and national championships, so you know, those are
the expectations. Anything short of that is obviously a tough season.
It's not that it's a bad season or anything else.
I mean, this is such a magical run that we're
on right now. This has been a really special groove.
But my responsibility here when has hired me twenty five

(29:01):
years ago, was to have this vision and I have
not let off the gas with it. It's but it's
aged me. It's luckily I have an incredible wife that
supports me and lets me do all the things that
I need to do with the time standards that are required.
But I take so much joy in it because this
was my dream job and so it's a really special
place to be and I get to coach incredible young

(29:24):
woman like this. But I mean, our culture is so fun,
and you know, I'm fifty seven, but I feel like
I'm forty with these guys just because they keep me
young and have a good.

Speaker 7 (29:32):
Time with me.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
And you could tell that when you watch and play.
I got to go watch the Sweet sixteen matchup. It
excuse me the Round of thirty two matchup against Penn
State last week at Greg Gree Gymnasium, and Number one
I was thinking, God of a joy the Greg Gree
Gymnasium's environment, while we can. There's a beautiful new volleyball facility.
I don't know if you've seen the renderings or drawings

(29:54):
of it, the CGI graphics that's in the works that
will combine sort of a smaller volleyball arena with some
student housing attached to it. So I was thinking Number
one got to appreciate Gregory Gymnasium while we can Number two.
The only downside to the Longhorn sweep over a Penn

(30:15):
State team that dealt with some key personnel issues during
the season at high expectations, Texas took care of business
pretty swiftly. The only downside was that it ended so quickly,
with Texas doing its job in a routine three set fashion.
Might be in for a little bit of a tougher test, though,
especially if they see Stanford again on Sunday, Wisconsin leading

(30:36):
Stanford two sets to one, set number four in action
from Gregory Gymnasium. So that's the latest on Texas volleyball
last night on the SEC network. Little by little, painstaking,
month by month, eventually we got there. The schedule was
revealed for Texas football in twenty twenty six. Now we

(30:56):
already knew who the home and away opponents were for
the Longhorns in SEC play, but now the dates have
been slotted in. Here's the schedule if you didn't watch
it last night. The Longhorns opened the season with Texas
State at home on September fifth, then on September twelfth,
Texas hosting Ohio State, the return trip for the Buck

(31:18):
guys after Texas started the season up at the Horseshoe
in Columbus this year. That's followed up by UTSA at home.
Jeff Trailor's team to come to Austin. Conference play starts
the following week, September twenty sixth, and it's the first
road trip for the Texas Longhorns after their first three
games at home. They will go up to Niland Stadium

(31:40):
to take on Tennessee. Arch mannon getting to play at
his uncle Peyton's old stomping grounds, and that will be
the Longhorns SEC opener and their first trip to Niland
Stadium in a series that dates back to nineteen fifty one.
It'll be their fourth matchup overall against Tennessee, and all

(32:00):
three of the prior meetings took place at the Cotton Bowl.
It'll be the first time these two teams have played
since nineteen sixty nine. Holy smokes, that'll be a fun
filled SEC opener, but a pretty challenging place to go win.
Texas will then be at home for all of October

(32:21):
save for one game, and that's the Red River Rivalry
against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl after an open date
October third, so Week five, Texas gets the bye. That's
an early buye compared to where it could have been,
and remember, teams only get one by now conference wide
to the SEC with the league going to a ninth
conference game. After the open date post Tennessee, it'll be

(32:45):
the Red River Rivalry at the State Fair in Dallas
against Oklahoma. The next week Texas against Florida. A chance
for the Longhorns to avenge the loss that kept them
out of this year's college football Playoff. That it'll be
Old Miss on October twenty fourth at DKR, and then
Mississippi State comes to town on Halloween. Could be a

(33:09):
costume party at DKR to close out a stretch of
three consecutive home games in three back to back weeks
in October, following the Red River rivalry Florida Ole miss
Mississippi State. Here's where it gets really tough at the
start of November. Remember no more bye weeks after Texas
is week five by the Longhorns will travel to Missouri

(33:31):
on November seventh, to LSU on November fourteenth, that'll be
the week after Alabama's there in Death Valley. Then they'll
return home to host Arkansas. That was one of Craig's
takeaways when he saw this schedule is that Arkansas coming
to DKR again. A little bit of a quirk there
back to back years for that old Southwest Conference rivalry

(33:54):
to be played at DKR. And then on Friday, the
Cotton Holdings lone Star showdown Texas at Texas A and M.
So a few takeaways from this Longhorn schedule. Number One,
it's tough. I mean for the Longhorns to dodge Alabama

(34:15):
and Oklaho, to dodge Alabama and Georgia, that's one thing, right,
You're you're not gonna play the two kind of big
bullies of the SEC over the last few years and
the two conference championship participants from this season. But they'll
play Texas A and M and Oklahoma like every year.

(34:35):
You add Tennessee and LSU to the mix, even ol Miss.
We don't know what they're gonna be with Pete Golding,
but you can make an argument Texas A and M, Oklahoma,
Tennessee and LSU, those are teams maybe three through seven
in the hypothetical SEC power rankings going into next season.
Texas plays all of them, and none of those games
are in Austin, so you dodge out of you dodge

(35:01):
Georgia if you want to look at it from that perspective.
But maybe three through seven, you could argue three through
eight or nine are all lined up to try and
get you. No Kentucky, no South Carolina. Those were two
teams that power rated near the bottom of the SEC
this year. Obviously, Texas will play Arkansas like they do
every season, and the early buy means eight straight weeks

(35:25):
of football to close out the year, and three of
the longhorns final four games will be on the road.
That does mean, though, a pretty home heavy schedule early October,
where Texas was not home once this season, part of
a streak of four consecutive games where Texas played away

(35:46):
from Austin, and those were games where the Longhorns did
not play their best. This season, it's different at home
for three consecutive dates in October, and all four of
their games during the month take place in the state
of Texas. Matter of fact, seven of the Longhorn's first

(36:12):
eight games will be played in Texas, and they don't
leave Texas but one time until November, and that's, of course,
the exception being the trip to Tennessee in Week one
of SEC play September twenty sixth. So as far as
travels concerned, I know Craig will be happy about this.

(36:33):
You can bet to Steep Sarkisian's pretty happy about it too.
A much friendlier schedule from a travel in road weariness
standpoint for Texas, at least in the early part of
the season until the trips to Missouri LSU and Texas
A and m three of the final four weeks of
the season. We talked about the schedule with Evan V

(36:54):
from Inside Texas earlier this week. He told me to
look out for this, when do you see the teams
that have new coaches, Because ideally, Evan said, you want
to face the teams with new coaches early in the
season because they're not who they will be yet at
that point. In other words, there's an adjustment period, the

(37:18):
roster turnover, the coaching staff turnover early in seasons, and
you have to look at the difference of where a
team is at the beginning of the season and where
they might be at the end. As far as that goes,
this was not a favorable draw for Texas because LSU
under Lane Kiffin is their third to last SEC game.

(37:41):
That's November fourteenth. Of course, they'll host ole Miss. Sorry,
they'll travel to ole Miss. LSU in Oxford at ole
Miss to start SEC play for both schools September nineteenth,
three of the college football season. A lot of folks

(38:02):
already circle in that game. And then you look at
teams that have new coaches. Florida and ole Miss as
well as Arkansas John Summer all taking the job at Florida,
Pete Golding, the defensive coordinator promoted from within at Ole
miss after Lane Kiffin's departure for LSU, and then Ryan Silverfield,

(38:23):
who takes over for Sam Pittman at Arkansas. All four
games against teams with new coaches will be in the
back half of the season, So maybe that's a downside
of the schedule draw for Texas. If you want to
look at purely results from last year, Texas and Mississippi

(38:44):
State the only teams that are playing nine Bowl eligible
teams from twenty twenty five in twenty twenty six, So
even though Alabama and Georgia are not on the schedule,
there's a high floor to the teams Texas was paired
with this season in the SEC play. And then there's

(39:05):
that early buy Some folks will say, maybe it's well
timed right after a trip up to Neiland Stadium right
before Oklahoma, who will have a buye also going into
that game, those teams will be on equal rest, But
it might be a buye that you want later in
the season, especially as the road schedule picks up. Last

(39:28):
night on SEC Now had a panel debating, Okay, who
got the hardest straw who got a favorable draw. Cole
Kublick SEC Network analyst had this to say on why Texas,
in his mind, actually got the hardest schedule.

Speaker 8 (39:46):
The Texas Longhorns are going to be my most difficult
schedule in the SEC. And we talk about playoff teams
Ohio States, but the majority of the regular season as
the number one team in the nation, you're going to
play an in state team first and third, with the
Ohio State sandwich in between, and Jeff Trailor's.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Team on September nineteenth.

Speaker 8 (40:05):
That's as physical of a group of five team as
you're going to see. You're in Knoxville going to Oprah
or going to the Cotton Bow to play Oklahoma with
Florida team that got you last year. After that, and
look at that finish to the season at Missouri at.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
LSU, Arkansas at A and M.

Speaker 8 (40:20):
All of those games have meeting three out of the
last four on the road. That feels like an impossible
task for Steve Sarkesan's team.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Certainly a schedule that will be among the five or
ten hardest in the country for Texas next season. So
pointing out some of the potential upsides, potential pitfalls, It'll
be fun to watch how that all unfolds up. Next,
we'll give you the latest on fired Michigan head coach
Sharon Moore, who was charged with three crimes today, as

(40:50):
well as Michigan's latest rumored coaching candidates as their search
as well underway. Later, we'll hear from Sean Miller as
Texas prepares to take on Yukon. Right, you're on Sports
Radio A. I'm thirteen hundred zone. Back here on Sports
Radio A. I'm thirteen hundred zone. We followed this story

(41:12):
all week long. Sure own Moore fired on Wednesday afternoon
because of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member at Michigan.
That's a Longhoard's opponent in the upcoming Citrus Bull. On
New Year's Eve, today, Troy Moore was arraigned, and the
update to this story is that he's facing three criminal

(41:33):
charges as his arrangement. Friday revealed some more details about
some of the hours after Moore was fired. Really an
upsetting story in a lot of ways. More of charged
now with a felony third degree home invasion. Michigan head
coach also facing two misdemeanors. A former head coach and

(41:54):
those misdemeanors include stalking in a dome domestic relationship as
well as breaking an entering. Bond was set at twenty
five thousand dollars and the prosecutors said today that Shoan
Moore in the hours after he was fired, And remember
Nicole Auerback reported this he was fired without any HR

(42:14):
or security present, that more enter the staff member's apartment,
threatened to harm her and himself. And yeah, he appeared
via zoom today at his arraiment wearing a jumpsuit. It
was definitely a bizarre site to see. So Michigan as

(42:35):
they tried to move forward their latest coaching hot board.
According to On three and Chris Ballas is reporting, here
are the candidates that Michigan is looking at as they
potentially moved very quickly to fill this head coaching position.
A lot of folks don't view interim head coach Biff Pogey,
who will coach the Wolverines in the cheese at Citrus Bowl.

(42:57):
A lot of them don't view him as a long
term solution there. So Kaylen de Boer's name keeps on
coming up. And remember he's coaching the Crimson Tide against
Oklahoma in the first round of the College Football playoff
in Norman on Friday night. We'll have plenty next week,
Craig and I will preview those games along with some
special guests. But Kayln de Boer, it's unlikely we hear
anything from him in the next week or so. A

(43:20):
lot of folks say he's not the type of guy
that's going to pull a Lane Kiffin right and leave
his team in the middle of a playoff push. Now,
he is someone with very close ties to his staff.
Remember Ryan Grubb was with him in Washington. That's his
offensive coordinator. Now he's back in Tuscaloosa calling plays for
Ty Simpson and that offense. A lot of speculation that
the staff could follow Debor wherever he goes, But right now,

(43:44):
Kaylen de Boer already at one of the more covenant
jobs in college football. It's not necessarily an enviable position
to follow Nick Saban, but it's a challenge that Deboor
was certainly eager to take. He does have some ties
to Ann Arbor. He was the OC at Eastern Michigan
back in the mid twenty tens. Sources in Seattle have
told the Wolverine dot Com that Kaylindeboor was eyeing the

(44:06):
Michigan job back in January of twenty twenty four, before
he ultimately chose Alabama a few weeks later. So look
untill we see a denial of this from Kaylin de Boor.
He's very much still a possibility, I think, But I
find it hard to believe that Alabama wouldn't match whatever
offer Michigan can provide. The Wolverines might have deeper pockets

(44:26):
when it comes to Niyel, But folks in Alabama who
have been around him, some reporters who were with him
when this news came out, they seem to think that
Debor is staying. Put Kenny Dillingham on this hot board.
I brought him up yesterday as well as on Wednesday

(44:48):
afternoon when Cameron Parker and I first reacted to this news.
Dillingham the Arizona State head coach. Now, I talked to
a source out there who says that Arizona State's Kenny
Dillingham's dream job. That's kind of an open secret. It's
been the job that he's wanted for a long time.
It is his alma mater, and it doesn't really seem
as though he wants to leave. But there's a lot

(45:10):
of buzz around what Dillingham could do with the nil
support that Michigan has. Is just in a different league
from Arizona State. He's got a good track record of
developing offensive talent. He was at Florida State for that
team that got some would feel wrongfully left out of
the College Football Playoff after Jordan Travis's injury. He took

(45:31):
Bo Nicks as a transfer from Auburn. Really helped him
get better as the offensive coordinator at Oregon. And then
Sam Levitt, who suffered some injuries this year, and now
he's in the transfer portal. Not going to play in
Arizona State's bowl game, but he certainly got better under
Dillingham's tutelage, and that Arizona State team gave Texas a

(45:52):
real run for their money in the College Football Playoff
the Peach Bowl last year. From the University of Washington
is on the board now. He was the wide receivers,
quarterbacks and passing game coordinator back in the mid twenty
ten's on Jim Harbaugh's staff. He's got a big buyout
ten million dollars next year. Jedfish is just fourteen and

(46:16):
eleven since taking over at Washington he got that job,
replacing Kaylin de Boor moving from Arizona. He's got a
reputation as a program builder. There's also Jesse Minner, who
he brought up yesterday, the former defensive coordinator under Jim
Harball who's now the Chargers defensive coordinator. There's some timing
issues there, both with a show cause that Minner has

(46:39):
with the NCAA for recruiting violations and the fact that
the LA Chargers are likely going to go to the
playoffs after their win over the Eagles on Monday Night Football.
So there are some timing questions there surrounding Jesse Minner,
who might be up for some NFL head coaching gigs.
So all of those guys have their own benefits and drawbacks. O.

(47:00):
What I kind of had about this is that Michigan
might be inclined to distance itself from itself with this
hire and go completely outside the boxing. That's what part
of what makes Calen Deboorr And Kenny Dillingham appealing candidates
compared to some of these former Harbaugh assistants. Because right

(47:20):
now the athletic department in Brilden a scandal. We heard
yesterday John Bacon, the Michigan historian talking about the Washington,
DC white Shoe furnam. It's going to come in and
investigate the athletic department, find out who knew what when.
This is the third party that's going to come in and
try and make some sense of this situation, because obviously

(47:41):
there's some questions surrounding the handling of this whole thing,
as rumors start to circulate that perhaps Ward Manual or
other folks around the program and the athletic department knew
about the potential of this inappropriate relationship for Surean Moore
for a long time now, like others have stated, it's

(48:03):
impossible to act on a rumor without fact, and for
whatever reason, on Wednesday, the victim in this situation came
out and said changed her account of what had happened,
and at that point the evidence became overwhelming and that's
why Shroan Moore was ultimately let go. So a guy

(48:26):
like Dillingham or Kaitlin de Bull or Eli Drinkwitz, who
has no connection at all, might be the kind of
fresh start that this Michigan football program's looking for. Other
names on this list Clark Lee, who obviously just signed
a big, big fat extension at Vanderbilt. I think he's
happy there at his alma mater, and Tommy Reese NFL

(48:48):
source is saying that he's interested. He's never been a
head coach. He was a quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame,
the offensive coordinator there, and then spent the one season
at Alabama. The offensive court for Nick Saban's final team
in twenty twenty three. Is the offensive coordinator of the Browns,
been there since twenty twenty four. Responsible for some of
the razzle dazzle the wildcat work with Quinn Shawn Judkins

(49:11):
that has drawn some mixed reviews over the course of
the year. They just named Shedor Sanders by the way
their started the rest of the way. So that's one
more new name on the Michigan hot board that we're
going to keep an eye on. Let's see on the
text line, remember you can join the show by texting
the word Texas followed by your message to eight one
five three zero. Seapals says Texas gets the o Lin

(49:34):
set running backs to help arch key defensive position set
could be a Burrow lsu type season In twenty twenty six,
barg major injury. You know it's easy to see the
similarities I think between what arch Manning did this year
and what Joe Burrow did earlier in his career. Remember
that season before the season and that ended. If you
remember with a prolific performance and come from behind fashion

(49:58):
with Burrow and company beat U. You see f and
what I believe was the Fiesta Bowl. And if through
Texas right now, you're hoping for a Bowl game performance
that carries over the momentum, that builds the momentum forward
into next season. But we'll see what the injury and
opt out situation looks like for the Longhorns on both
sides of the ball, and that one appreciate the tech seep.

(50:19):
How when we come back, we'll talk Texas basketball. Here
a little bit from Sean Miller as he previews the
challenging trip to face number five Yukon later on this evening.
This is the Creig Way Show on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred Zone. Back here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred the Zone. This is Maggie Rogers with the kill

(50:43):
kills like Tory Stafford had nineteen up without a single
error today. Congratulations to her and the rest of the
Texas volleyball team. Moving on to the Elite eight Sunday
at Gregory Gin that'll be going on, I think right
after Texas Women's basketball. Coverage of that one starts at
eleven forty five. The Longhorn Women Vick Schaeffer's team, number

(51:05):
two in the country, taking on fourteenth ranked Baylor in
Fort Worth Dickey's Arena. You can hear that one right
here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone Again. Coverage
starts at eleven forty five. Quick news item. Utah's head
coach Kyle Whittingham just announced that he will be stepping
down after this season concludes. This comes from Adam Schefter.

(51:27):
He will still coach in the team's upcoming bowl game.
I believe Utah is playing in the Las Vegas Bowl
coming up this this bowl season. So for Kyle Winningham
has been one of the most consistent coaches in the
history of the sport. Twenty one years as the head

(51:50):
coach at Utah, they're winning. His coach in program history,
guided the Utes to three conference championships, including that undefeated
two thousand and eight season They beat Alabama in the
two thousand and nine Sugar Bowl. That was the year
before Alabama's first national championship under Nick Saban, and then
of course the back to back Pack twelve championships in

(52:11):
twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. Whittingham said it's
been an honor and a privilege to lead the Utah
program for the past twenty one years. He's grateful for
the relationships forged with all the players and assistant coaches
that have worked hard and proudly worn the drum and
feather during our time here. So that's another high profile
college job that comes open at the end of this

(52:36):
college football season and what will be probably looked back
at as one of the wilder coaching carousel seasons in
the sport for some time, and again maybe that becomes
the norm in this new world of name, image, likeness,
transfer portal and all the realignment that's happened around college football. Okay,

(52:56):
over to the hardwood where Texas takes all on Yukon.
Sean Miller asked a couple of days ago in his
pregame press conference about the offense's flow, what he feels
where he feels that is at And this question came

(53:17):
from our own Mike Callage, host of the Morning Kickoff
with ww Hall of famer Mark Henry every morning from
seven to nine am, right here on thirteen hundred the zone.
He was asked about running the offense versus taking the
open shot when it's there and where he feels the
offense is at from a flow point of.

Speaker 9 (53:34):
View, I think what you're saying, from my perspective is like,
you know, in offense, you know, it should it should
look smooth, you know, and when when you're really playing
great offense, it's like everybody seems to be in a rhythm,
and rhythm starts with like roles. And to your point,
you know, we have a couple of guys on our team,
and I'll give you three of them, sim Wilcher, Cam

(53:56):
Heidi and Jordan Pope that I think have separated themselves
in the three point shooting category. You know, if you
look at their respective careers, especially Heidi and Pope, and
then you look through ten games now here this season,
you know we want those guys to create shots. We
want to create shots for them, and when they're open,

(54:16):
there's no doubt about it, we want to be able
to take them. I think conversely, if I didn't name somebody,
that doesn't mean that we don't believe in them.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
You know, it's just Dylan Swain is the example.

Speaker 9 (54:28):
You know, Dyalan doesn't need to shoot six threes to
be a really good offensive player for us. He just
has to take the wide open ones that present themselves.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Will live with the percentages.

Speaker 9 (54:38):
But what he has to do a great job is
find those other three and get to the paint and
attack and be able to find modess. So, you know,
if you think about it, like everybody being more committed
and more and more, I think clearly clearly.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
Defined on what is my role on offense.

Speaker 9 (54:55):
Now as I've learned tremon Mark, you know, I believe
that we can get more out of Tremont. I think
it'll happen for him. And you know, Mike, one thing
that we've really had to overcome with Tremon early is
you know, he wasn't able to participate with us for
the first almost five months that we were together. I've
only been here eight, so you know, we're so new

(55:19):
to each other and he's so new to all the
things that we're doing. He's watched, but he wasn't able
to participate. But just watching him, you know, he's so
efficient inside the three point line.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
If you look at his field goal.

Speaker 9 (55:31):
Percentage from two you guys know him from a year ago,
like his ability to shoot pull ups. No, we want
to put him in a better position to get to
those spots more often. And in terms of the three
point shots for him, you know, just take the wide open,
uncontested one. But he can really be I think, a dominant,
more important player, a better overall offensive player if if

(55:55):
we can get him to do what I think he's better.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
At more often.

Speaker 9 (55:58):
And you know, look, no doubt there's times in our
offense where we have to be more clear in those
types of things, but I can assure you we're working
hard to get there.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
This Yukon team is deep, and you'll see that tonight
when you watch the game. Alex Caravan fifty year senior forward,
part of those two national championship teams. They've also got
a junior guard, Silist Demory, who's maybe not shooting at
the best to start the season, but he is a
pest on defense and an outstanding rebounding guard, great distributor,

(56:32):
kind of straw that stirs the drink at times for
this Yukon offense. So what are Sean Miller's thoughts on
facing that high low combination, as well as playing at
People's Bank Arena in Hartford as opposed to this game
being in stores.

Speaker 9 (56:47):
Yeah, I mean Excel Center in stores, you pick it.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
They're both very difficult.

Speaker 9 (56:53):
Excel Center is more of an NBA NHL arena in
terms of how it's constructed, you know, big, old and spacious,
but most importantly it'll be a sellout crowd. And those
Husky fans have been a part of you know, Yukon
basketball for man thirty forty years right now, of watching
great great players, teams, coaches in big time games, so

(57:17):
they know what college basketball is.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
You're dealing with a.

Speaker 9 (57:20):
Rabid, passionate fan base, whether it be in Hartford or stores.
So it's just a bigger crowd in Hartford, so we
know that. And look, when you play Duke in Charlotte,
I'd like to call that game neutral, but I would
say I'd call this our second row game.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
You know.

Speaker 9 (57:39):
So, but that's what you're going against in terms of
the crowd and then just the players.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
Yeah, Alex Caravan.

Speaker 9 (57:48):
Not a lot of players are in their fourth year
when they've won two national championships, and Alex has been
a starter and a fixture on really all four teams
that he's played on, and I'm sure that when his
time ends at Yukon that he'll go in the rafters.
Is just the epitome of a winner. Great respect for him.
You know, Silas, I think is a great addition to

(58:10):
their team. We coached against Silas and the n I
T two years ago when he was at Georgia, and
you know, we were at Xavier, and you know I
saw him firsthand. You know, he just got a great
physical presence and body strong, can really score from two
and I think gives Yukon that physicality at the point
guard that maybe they didn't have as much.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
A year ago.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
One more from Sean Miller here a little bit of
a different type of question. And broadcasts have tried this
going with a miked up coaches perspective on a broadcast
so we can hear what the coaches are saying down there.
I think Sean Miller's predecessor at Xavier, Travis Steele, was

(58:54):
one of the first coaches to participate in that. I
think it was a game against Butler. I can remember
vividly watching on TV, hearing the coaches conversations and kind
of wondering Is this how they talk every game? Are
they kind of censoring themselves or they work in the
officials a little bit less because they know the conversations
are televised here. He was asked if fans could see
what you see from the sideline, how could they enjoy

(59:15):
the game more or maybe experience it differently.

Speaker 9 (59:18):
I guess the way I would answer your question is
just you know, I think the thing about basketball is,
you know, every play matters, and you know, from the
opening tip to the final buzzer, you know, there's really
not a single play that means more than others. You know,
a lot of times in close games, you know, the
reflection is on the last shot, the last play. You know,
what a masterful play that was coming out of a timeout,

(59:41):
or what a great shot block that was to win
the game.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
And I understand that.

Speaker 9 (59:46):
But in basketball, you know, it's such a fast game
with five players playing offense and defense that just like
you have to really stay in the moment. And you know,
one of the things that we really try to do is,
you know, break the game of forty minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
It's into ten four minute wars.

Speaker 9 (01:00:02):
And why say four minute wars is you know there's
a media time out at the first dead ball after
each four minute segment. That's in every game that you watch.
And if you think about good teams, great teams, they
have a way of being really consistent in each of
those four minute segments. Like you know, even if a

(01:00:23):
team makes a run on them, which can happen, they
usually will respond and in that next four minute segment
they get they get off the mat and they and
they win it five to four. And that's what I mean.
They're like these mini games of four minute wars. You know,
you win one six to nothing, you lose one eight
to six, you tie one five to five.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
But through my eyes, the team who.

Speaker 9 (01:00:47):
Wins the most of those four minute segments will win
the game, not the majority of the time, almost all
the time. So I think what we're trying to be
is like out can be consistent, how can you play?
A great example is at Southern we had four turnovers
in three minutes first three minutes of the game. Good

(01:01:08):
teams don't have four turnovers in three minutes at home,
no way, right. But to our team's credit, you know,
we basically then played thirty seven minutes with about nine
So if you think about it, in that context.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
The good is we fixed it. We didn't dwell on it.

Speaker 9 (01:01:30):
We didn't let it continue something that didn't work in
that first four minute segment. The rest of the nine
segments we played, we were much much better at taking
care of the ball. But you know, for us to
be the best we can be, we don't want to
start off at home in the first four minutes and
at four turnovers, just like on Friday Night. That's a
recipe for disaster on the road, hostile crowd, really good team.

(01:01:53):
You got to get shots at the basket and come
out of the gates protecting the ball. So I think
we're looking for consistent effort and consistent play throughout the game,
not a team that goes up and down and up
and down.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
And that's really how I try to see it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Yeah, interesting breakdown there on a kind of off the
beaten pack type of question. Hey, one correction before we
had to break Utah does have a succession plan in
place for Kyle Whittingham, of course, stepping down after twenty
one seasons. His final game will be the Las Vegas
Bowl against Nebraska longtime defensive coordinator Morgan Scaley. According to
Pete Dammel, is the coach in waiting, and that was

(01:02:31):
the school's plan. Transition from the jump, we'll wrap up
the second hour of the show and transition to some
NFL news next right here on sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Okay, Jay Kerman in for Craig today.
He's getting ready for the call of Texas and Yukon

(01:02:52):
up in Hartford. Let's talk a little NFL football to
kick off our third and final hour of the program.
We appreciate you jining us here on AM thirteen hundred Zone.
Starting off the second weekend in a row without Texas
football feels a little weird. We'll see the Longhorn football
team in action on New Year's Eve in the Citrus Bowl.

(01:03:15):
But last night on Amazon Prime, the Thursday Night football game,
a shocking upset. The Atlanta Falcons go to Tampa and
beat the Buccaneers. They trailed by fourteen points with ten
minutes to go in the football game, but two touchdown drives,
an interception, and then after Atlanta went for two. You

(01:03:36):
know that's the new analytics move, going for two when
you're down eight late. The mathematicians, the analytics whiz on
the sideline says, well, it's unlikely that you get enough possessions, right,
even if you even if you come back from that

(01:03:57):
deficit with that little time left, what are you going
to play for a tie? So the logic says, go
for two. Atlanta missed their two point conversions, so they
had to go down the field again in the final
minute of the game, including a third down and twenty
eight conversion that caused Mike Evans to storm off the

(01:04:17):
field into the Tampa locker room en route of setting
up Zeing Gonzalez for a game winning field goal as
time expired. Kirk Cousins threw for one hundred and thirty
four yards in the fourth quarter. We talked about Kyle
Pitts eleven catches, one hundred and sixty six yards, three touchdowns.
He earned a payday last night. Kyle Pitts entering a

(01:04:39):
contract year, twenty five year old tight end, first round
pick out of Florida, maybe starting to put it all together,
filling in for the absence of Drake London, but just
crushing for Tampa, who now sits behind Carolina, no longer
in control of its own destiny in the NFC. South

(01:05:00):
vaulted up into what would be the number four seed
because they have the division lead. Tampa is seven and
seven and Carolina is seven and six. Those teams, I believe,
do meet again coming up down the stretch, a game
that might ultimately decide a playoff spot. Yeah, that's next
week in Charlotte, the Buccaneers at the Panthers, and then

(01:05:27):
in week seventeen they'll play in Tampa. So those two
meetings ultimately will decide the division. That's the silver lining.
If you're a Buccaneers fan, you still have a chance
to take that control back. But right now, Carolina, if
they win out, they are in and the Panthers get
the Saints. This week, the Falcons overcame a record penalty night,

(01:05:50):
and it's always funny to hear Al Michael's on the
call when flags pile up because he can pile up
the snark alongside it. But nineteen penalties, some of that
snark was warrant last night and Atlanta Falcons record the
most of an NFL game this season, including thirteen flags
in the first thirty seven minutes, and they were big calls.

(01:06:11):
Hold wiped out along Bejon Robinson run. They had a
illegal contact call when they would have gotten off the
field one of the Bucks' first half drives. That drive
later ended in a touchdown, so the penalties piled up.
The Falcons win probability to drop below five percent in

(01:06:32):
the fourth quarter, but they were trailing twenty eight to fourteen.
But a twenty nine to twenty eight comeback win for
a Falcon team that's already eliminated. Good for Kirk Cousins
and company going on the road to get that done.
So the uh the Buccaneers drop now to the wrong

(01:06:53):
side of the bubble in the NFC. Among those teams
in the hunt but not currently in the playoff make
sure are the Dallas Cowboys. They'll face the Minnesota Vikings
in what's pretty much a must win game. The Cowboys
are two games behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC
East two and a half games. I beg your pardon
with the tie O. Yes, a game and a half.

(01:07:15):
The Eagles eight and five, the Cowboys six, six and one.
If Dallas goes four to zero in their final four
games of the season, the Eagles could lose twice and
the Cowboys would supplant them. So Brian Schottenheimer was asked,
what is it? What is the challenge? Rather of keeping
the focus on this week when you know you have

(01:07:36):
a long road in front of you having to win
four times to make the playoffs.

Speaker 10 (01:07:40):
Yeah, all you can do is keep talking about it,
right and keep you know, we're trying to throw a
perfect practice. That's the goal every time, week, one week,
ten week, whatever. We tried to throw a perfect practice
yesterday we didn't. It was really good, but it wasn't perfect.
So let's go out there and see if we can
throw it today. Probably won't, but let's try. And so
I think the messaging when it starts in April, you

(01:08:03):
stay consistent to it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
You don't say, oh man, we're four.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
I meant to say four games away there about yesterday's practice,
though Dak Prescott went out of his way in his
availability to say, yeah, it was a great practice. Brian
Schottenheimer the follow up, why was that?

Speaker 10 (01:08:19):
The way you guys worked, the effort, the energy pretty crisp.
I think that, you know, just the execution was good
As a third down day, which I think is going
to be important in this game. They're obviously very good
on third down defense, and we need to get off
the field ourselves as a defense to keep the time
of possession in our favor.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
One of the keys to that it's going to be
getting better play out of the linebacking Corps. Brian Schottenheimer
was asked about Logan Wilson, who they traded for from
the Cincinnati Bengals at the deadline, a move that was
overshadowed in some ways by the Quinn Williams signing by
the return of the Marvey On overshow and who, by
the way, has no limitations. This week, he was asked,

(01:08:58):
will you see more STAPs from Logan Wilson this week,
maybe in Kenneth Murray's place, and what have you seen
from him on filming? In practice?

Speaker 10 (01:09:06):
I think, you know, when we went out and got Logan,
I mean we were trying to just do what add depth,
add talent, add you know, playmaking ability to the linebacker position.
First thing I would say is it's great to have
Demo back. Demo is going to be, you know, really
without any limitations, which is great for us. I think
that's awesome. But the first thing that jumps off the
film with Logan is his ability to dissect things, the
ability to now communicate at a much cleaner level. Like

(01:09:29):
you come in you have to learn Spanish or French
or whatever it is, and now he's able to communicate
it at a higher level. Both guys are going to play,
you know, Canine and here very different and so both
guys have things that we like. And I think at
the end of the day, you know, whether it's thirty
snaps and thirty snaps again, that doesn't matter to me.
It's more about finding the guy that's got the hot hand,

(01:09:50):
the guy that maybe's playing more consistent. There's that word
again for you, Clarence. But at the end of the day,
you'll see him both out there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
Brian Schottennheim are looking for more consistency out of George
Pickens between Ceedee Lamb's concussion that's limited him in practice
this week. By the way, he's expected to be a
full go on Sunday night when the Cowboys take on
the Minnesota Vikings and George Pickens you just didn't quite
look like himself in the loss to Detroit on Thursday.
Will Ceede Lamb and George Pickens put these kind of

(01:10:20):
concerns injury whatever you want to call them, to rest.

Speaker 10 (01:10:24):
Oh, yeah, no question again. Both those guys have been
great this week and I think you know. Again, like
the thing with us is we came out of the
game and again, I didn't call my best game. I
didn't coach my best game, and that's why you come
out of the game and you're like, man, what could
I have done better? But at the end of the day,
George has been dialed in, and again the trajectory would

(01:10:45):
tell you that he's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
Going to have a very good performance this week.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
One more from Brian Schottenheimer the challenge of facing a
Brian Flores defense and the multiplicity they can present when
you're playing Brian Floores shot. He was asked, how much
of feeling out process is there early on in the game?

Speaker 10 (01:11:03):
Yeah, again, I think you know, Brian does a great
job of changing up. He's very game plan specific. He'll
have some wrinkles for us that we haven't seen. You
use the term, it's an old term. Say hey, guys,
bring your playbook to the stadium. Basically what I mean
by that they don't bring the film. Shoot, we don't
have physical playbooks anymore. It's all iPads. But you know,
bring your rules, you know, and you gotta have rules,
and so okay, if this looks like this front or

(01:11:23):
if it looks like that. We got to block it
that way because he's going to have things that you
did not see on film. And I think that's why
he likes the veteran players, because they can handle that.
Sometimes young players can't handle that. And so it's gonna
be one of those games where we have to do
a great job of trusting our rules but also communicating,
which is why I think playing this game at home
is an advantage for us.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Sunday Night Cowboys Vikings. We'll talk a little more about
it with Tommy Yarish if Dallascowboys dot Com right after
the break here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The
Zone and a free iHeartRadio app. Thank you on a
Friday afternoon, and excited to be joined now by our

(01:12:05):
good friend Tommy Yarish from Dallascowboys dot Com. Cowboys Action
Sunday Night against Kevin O'Connell, JJ McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings.
Tommy excited to get your thoughts on this matchup, but
first just wanted to get your thoughts on what this
kind of extended lead up has been like after the

(01:12:26):
Cowboys came into Detroit with momentum, but like you told
the morning kickoff guys Monday just kind of had it
off night at Ford Field.

Speaker 11 (01:12:35):
Yeah, it just didn't go well, Jake, And you know
it's certainly one that they're trying to flush. It was
a fourth game in seventeen days. They harped on that
a lot. This team needed the kind of mini bye week,
if you will, just because obviously in that time period
you get pretty banged up. And it was good for
some of those guys to get a full week of

(01:12:56):
practice in, to get some time off and finally be
on a normal kind of Sunday to Sunday schedule again.
And you know they're certainly hoping to kind of right
their wrongs a little bit in this Minnesota game, and
one that certainly.

Speaker 7 (01:13:10):
Means a lot to them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Yeah, what kind of adjustments do you expect from Brian
schotttheim Er, Matt Eberflus and this staff.

Speaker 11 (01:13:19):
Well, for one, I think they're going to run the
ball a little bit more. I think they haven't been
as efficient the last couple of weeks as they as
they would want to be. Really relying more on some
big runs as opposed to keeping the offensive schedule and
winning first downs is something we talked a lot about
this week being able to set yourself up in manageable

(01:13:40):
second downs, third down situations Sunday did really do a
good job of against Detroit and would like to get
back to and then defensively, I think you might see
some movement in the linebacker room. Sounds like we're going
to get some more of Logan Wilson this week to
marve on Overshown has had his restrictions lifted physically, so
he's going to be able to be fully. I don't

(01:14:02):
know if unleashed is the right term or not, but
so I would I would say those two things are
probably the biggest things to expect.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Yeah, as far as injuries go, it sounds like Ceedee
Lamb's ready to go. But Tyler Geiton going to miss
this game against a Brian Flores led defense that provides
all sorts of different looks in terms of a pass rush.
Is that going to be a potentially impactful absence there
up front?

Speaker 11 (01:14:27):
It could be. Yeah, absolutely, I think you know, Nate
Thomas had a game where he probably wants to burn
the tape last week, and I would expect Brian Shott,
Nhamber and a company to be ready for that, I
would I would think that they probably send whether it
be tight end help or Javante Williams has been pretty
good as a pass protector this year over there to
help Dak Prescott's blindside. But you know, at the same time,

(01:14:47):
Dak Prescott's thrived under pressure, He's thriving the blitz this year,
so he's gonna be ready for those moments, and they're
going to be ready to get the ball out quickly
if they need to.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Could those kind of quick passing plays open up the
run of a little bit? I know this sounds like
deja vous for folks that have followed Longhorn football all year,
but this Cowboys rushing attack just Tommy hasn't quite been
the same over the last few weeks, is what we
saw the first part of the season.

Speaker 11 (01:15:11):
Yeah, it all goes back to that efficiency I was
talking about earlier. They haven't really gotten as much of
the four or five yard games as they would have
liked to and they were doing earlier in the season.
Has kind of been closer to that two or three range.
They had I think their second lowest yards per play
on first down this past week, and so that forced

(01:15:32):
you to throw the ball a lot, and you know,
with the weapons that Dallas has, the receiver position and
when you fall behind the game like they did against Detroit,
you're going to need to throw the ball a lot more.
But they certainly want to establish the run better, and
they have a really good scheme with alvinsive coordinator Clayton
Adams kind of meshing his concepts with Brian schottenheimers and
so I would expect them to lean pretty heavily on

(01:15:54):
that again in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
We're talking with Tommy Yarish from Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
The Cowboys take on the Viking at seven twenty pm
Sunday Night football coming up this week, and while the
Cowboys have the second most improved offense in football this
year under Brian Schottenheimer, Minnesota's offense has had one of
the biggest dropoffs. I mean, when you turned on the

(01:16:15):
tape and when this coaching staff does you know, why
has that been the case and how much of JJ
McCarthy's struggles really affected everything that they've tried to do.

Speaker 11 (01:16:27):
Yeah, I think that's certainly a big part of it.
You know, they're going through rookie growing pains and it's
just happens that JJ McCarthy's growing pains have been very painful.
You know, obviously you never want to have a negative touchdown,
interception ratio is a completion percentage is not great. And

(01:16:48):
you know, he's just been super inaccurate on some of
his throws and has made some more decisions. And if
there's one guy that I would bet on to write
the ship for a quarterback, it is Kevin O'Connell. But
you know, sometimes these things take time. We've seen it
all over the league with some of these recovering projects.
I mean el O'Connell has done multiple of them, especially

(01:17:08):
with Baker Mayfield, so ercue not Baker.

Speaker 7 (01:17:11):
Man Sam Dargle. So it takes time.

Speaker 11 (01:17:14):
And I think it's just going to take time with McCarthy.
But I don't think the time is now.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Hey, if there's a defense to get back on track against,
it might be Washington. We might have seen a little
improvement from JJ McCarthy in that sense. How can the
Cowboys make sure that he doesn't take any momentum from
that game into this one of there's specific things you
like about the Cowboys defense matching up with Minnesota.

Speaker 11 (01:17:39):
Well, the biggest thing I think is that McCarthy has
struggled against soone coverage a lot, and the Cowboys run
it at the fifth highest rate in the league. I
think McCarthy's completion percentage of close to fifty percent, I
think it's the second worst of the worst the league
against zone coverage among starting quarterbacks. Sodalla's going to have
their fair shared opportunities on some of these it throws

(01:18:00):
or maybe confused throws from McCarthy to finally get a
turnover they've been longing for. It got four games without one.
Ryder Schoendheimer's not happy about the fact that they're negative
eight and the turnover margin at all. I think they've
got a chance to get multiple through the year. I
guess there's a lot of vikings offense on Sunday, and
it's because they're sold and coverage, which has been something
that's really fit them more than has helped them over

(01:18:23):
the course of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
How much do you think the lifting of restrictions on
Demarve and over Shan will elevate this defense?

Speaker 11 (01:18:34):
I think it helps, you know. I think it helps
that he's going to be out there at some of
those fust telling us today.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
That allows them to be out there more of the five.

Speaker 11 (01:18:41):
Man fronts that they've really leaned on a little bit
these last couple of weeks now that they've got three
premier defensive tackles.

Speaker 7 (01:18:48):
But at the same time, I think.

Speaker 11 (01:18:49):
You've seen some of the physical strains so far this
year from overshown and just kind of getting ready and
getting back.

Speaker 7 (01:18:55):
Into full shape. So hopefully this ten day break is.

Speaker 11 (01:18:58):
Something that's kind of allows that to go out in
the window, because you know, we're getting a pretty tired
version of a saf count and he's got to get
there's a ramp up period that goes into it.

Speaker 7 (01:19:08):
And playing football games.

Speaker 11 (01:19:09):
So it sounds like he's past that and it sounds
like he's on track to head back towards the fort
that we saw him in previously.

Speaker 1 (01:19:17):
Talking with Tommy Yarish from Dallas Cowboys dot Com, special
teams played a big part of the story in Dallas's
lost to Detroit. Cameron Parker and I were kind of
talking about their woes in terms of kick coverage. Do
you expect a lot of changes in strategy from Dallas?
It changes in personnel on that part of the game,
because for a team with you know, arguably the biggest

(01:19:38):
weapon in the kicking game and all of the NFL.
It's a little surprising, I think to see them struggle
so much in this area.

Speaker 11 (01:19:46):
Yes, and yes, I think you're going to see more
personal probably change than you will schematic change. It just
it just wasn't good.

Speaker 7 (01:19:55):
I mean, and such.

Speaker 11 (01:19:57):
Tams coordinator Nick Doors and you know, talking about average
and getting.

Speaker 7 (01:20:01):
Off the blocks is what they needed to do better.

Speaker 11 (01:20:03):
Didn't really dive into any of the issues beyond that,
but those certainly were the two biggest issues. And then
you know, talking about the biggest weapon in the receiving
in the kicking game, they've got a couple of them
in Brandon Aubrey, but the other one beeting Cavante Turpin.
And here I think you look at the last two weeks,

(01:20:25):
he's had both of the fair catch the legal penalties
and it just hasn't been great. And all around, special
teams has been kind of a struggle for the Cowboys
this season. So they certainly need to find their footing
in this game against Minnesota because they put together some
poor performances over the year.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
Certainly, one of the questions that you'd like to see
Dallas find some answers to coming down the stretch of
this season. And look, if you take the playoffs out
of it, and we'll get to that in a second,
what other kind of questions do you have that this
team might be able to answer over the next few
weeks as you kind of zoom out on this Cowboys season.

Speaker 11 (01:21:04):
I think one this is really for the short future,
is how does George Pickens respond There's a lot of
chatter about his play against Detroit. How does he respond
to that? How does he finish out the rest.

Speaker 7 (01:21:16):
Of the season? What does this defense look like? You know?

Speaker 11 (01:21:20):
Can they stem together some tips of sick performances? And
then we can use the back half of the schedule
and match the front half as opposed to, Okay, how
do they do pre posts, quit and Williams trade and
comparing contrast and see where some of the issues lie
after that, and then kind of what we've been talking
about earlier, what about this run game? What do they

(01:21:41):
need to get the run game yard? Those are probably
the three things that I'm looking at.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
Yeah, and those things you could argue maybe the biggest
separators between the Cowboys being on the right and wrong
side of the bubble, But correct me if I'm wrong.
I think the divisional path right, trying to overtake the
Eagles by winning out and hoping for two loss that's
probably the most likely way this Dallas team could surprise
some people and make the playoffs.

Speaker 11 (01:22:07):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I don't think a ten six
and one team in Dallas would get in. They would
probably need that eleventh win, and even still with this
year's NFC, who knows that that would help them. So
that Green Bay game or as the Cardinals game might
linger and really sting them. But yeah, you never want

(01:22:29):
to be in a situation where you're counting on somebody
else to determine your playoff status. And you know, they
knew were going into the Destort game that they controlled
their own destiny and if they had won out the
rest of the season, they'd probably be comfortably in. But
that's not been the case. And you know, now they've
got to handle their business while also kind of looking
off and glancing to the side before or after games

(01:22:51):
to see how Philadelphia is doing.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
And again, the Cowboys get Minnesota at home on Sunday night. Philadelphia,
they get a favorable match up in terms of the
Las Vegas Raiders. If the Eagles win that game, their
probability of making the playoffs climbs to ninety five percent,
according to NFL's Next Gen Stats. Tommy, before we let
you go, speaking of long shots, Texas basketball on the
road at Yukon tonight, we talked to one of your

(01:23:16):
co hosts on Hook Them Hoops, Jason Canander a little
earlier in the show. I know you both picked Yukon
on the podcast, but is there a way you think
Texas could keep this one tight up in Connecticut tonight.

Speaker 11 (01:23:29):
Yeah, a lot of prayer would be the first thing
that I would suggest.

Speaker 7 (01:23:33):
But now they're going to need their best offensive performance
of the season.

Speaker 11 (01:23:37):
You know, they're going to need a really strong game
from book A Titus down low against the stout Yukon
interior group. That's that's the big They're strong, they're physical,
and Shawn Miller is gonna have to coach his best game.
You know, Dan Hurley is one of the best of
the business. He's the championship coach of the championship program.
He's going to have to be on his p's and
qs tonight and be able to counter all the different

(01:23:59):
looks that Hurley and Husky give him so obviously always
room for my horns, but I'm not feeling good about
this one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
He's Domi Yarish, a multi sport source of knowledge at
our our friend from Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Thanks for
thanks for checking in with us. We'll talk to you
again soon.

Speaker 7 (01:24:19):
All right, many time you guys have ad with all Right, we'll.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Hear a little more from Sean Miller coming up as
Texas hits the road. We'll hear his conversation with Craig
from last night's episode of Longhorn Weekly. Normally that would
air again tonight, but because Texas men's basketball tips off
at six point thirty, we'll give you a little bit
of a segment for you in case you missed the
airing last night. Sean Miller gives some thoughts on yukon

(01:24:44):
why it's so important to pay attention to detail against
Dan Hurley's team, just like Tommy said. We'll talk about
that coming up here on Sports Radio A and thirteen
hundred The Zone. Thank you're on a Friday afternoon sports
radio AM thirteen hundred to Zone. My name is Jay Kerman,
the producer of the program, filling in for Craig today.

(01:25:07):
He'll be on air less than two hours from now
in Hartford when the Texas men's basketball team takes on
number five Yukon. We're gonna hear from Craig in just
a moment. His conversation with Sean Miller, part of last
night's episode of Longhorn Weekly. But first I want to
get to a great text. Indiana volleyball coach Steve Aird, who,
of course Texas swept earlier today to move on to

(01:25:28):
the Elite eight, had a striking resemblance to one of
the classic James Bond villains for those early Bond films.
Though he wore warm ups instead of a nerew jacket,
didn't sit in a wheelchair, and wasn't stroking a large
white cat on his lap. He was evil. To look
at good thing the Longhords won today, or we'd have
to call for Double Oh's seven to investigate gate. I

(01:25:51):
looked up a picture. It's a good text as a
super villain look to him. But of course the number
eighteen overall seed, excuse me, fifteen over all seed. Indiana
fell in straight set fashion today to the Texas Longhorns.
We can tell you their opponent will be the Wisconsin Badgers,
who took out Stanford three sets to one. So that
match will be on Sunday at Gregory Gymnasium. Texas and

(01:26:16):
Wisconsin going on near the same time as Texas women's basketball,
So a busy day on a Sunday for Texas Athletics.
Song coming back from Break was m J. Linderman's TV Dinners.
A lot of us will be having TV dinner tonight
watching this Texas team take on Yukon. Coverage starts right
here on AM thirteen hundred Zone at six thirty. Here

(01:26:39):
is a segment from Craig's conversation with Sean Miller previewing
the Huskies matchup.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
From the frying Pan to the Fire. I mean, you
played a really good Virginia team than Southern this week
and now the fifth ranked team in the country, the
Connecticut Huskies and playing in Hartford. And I know in
your time in the Big East you have coached teams
that have gone up against you in both of their arenas,
both GAMPAM Pavilion and at the Mall.

Speaker 9 (01:27:04):
Yeah, both and and Danny Early what he does is
if you ever have success with him at one of
those venues, he changes it the next year.

Speaker 4 (01:27:12):
I think he would tell you that. But you know,
they're both difficult.

Speaker 9 (01:27:16):
You know, Yukon, when you think of them, they have
an incredibly ferocious and passionate fan base. Whether the venue
is on campus and stores or whether the venue is
in Hartford, you're going to get a great husky crowd,
a crowd that loves their program and understands what winning is.

(01:27:36):
You know, with their national championships, they've won national championships
really spanning through I believe three decades now, and and
that's that's the standard there.

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
When you go in, you know, it's an intense environment.

Speaker 9 (01:27:49):
You're playing against an incredible team, really good coach, and
you have to be ready to compete at the opening tip.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
Yeah, what really strikes you about this this particular Yukon tea, Well, I.

Speaker 9 (01:28:00):
Think going from where they were a year ago, they're
better on defense than they were last year. They were
just really really skilled and good on offense, and they've
been really good on offense, but defensively they weren't up
to the standard that they had been in their two
previous national championship years. I think through the transfer portal
and just getting their team their roster right, this year.

(01:28:25):
They have a defensive team. They can disrupt you, they
can block shots. They played with the amazing effort and
it's a challenge to score on them. And look, they're
still really good on offense. Maybe not quite as good
on offense as they've been, but better on defense. But
you add both up, they're one of a number of

(01:28:45):
teams can win this year's national championship.

Speaker 4 (01:28:48):
And we have great respect for their program.

Speaker 2 (01:28:50):
It's Caraban been there like eleven years now, it seems
like he's been there a while.

Speaker 5 (01:28:53):
Well.

Speaker 9 (01:28:53):
I caught him as his freshmen, so we played him
seven times and he was in all seven games. Unfortunately,
somehow got an eighth game coming. So no doubt he's
a terrific player. He's a throwback like Swayin when you
consider that, God, the guys won two national championships. He's
in his fourth year, he's a four year starter. He's

(01:29:14):
a New England kid. He's an amazing competitor, smart player,
and they don't get any better than Alex carabin Is.

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
It also, when we were talking about Dylan last segment,
for a guy like him, it probably doesn't hurt or
it probably helps him. The fact that the devil you
know that he's going up against these guys, doesn't it.

Speaker 9 (01:29:35):
Yeah, I mean Dalen's played them five times in two years,
so yeah, he knows what it is and that certainly
can be helpful. And look, I think that you know
a staff, you know, you know what they do really well.
More you play against the teams and programs, I think
you know the must haves or the have nots.

Speaker 4 (01:29:54):
You know you just got. If you're gonna win, you
have to be able to check the box. In this area.

Speaker 9 (01:29:59):
We have that advantage, but they do too. You know,
they know how we play. But we've had some great battles.
I think one of the most proud moments of my
time coaching is in their first national championship under Dan Hurley.
We beat them both at Yukon in stores and at home.
We had a really good team too. That would have
been the team that lost to Texas and the Sweet sixteen.

(01:30:21):
But to beat them twice in that year was a
tall order when you consider I don't know how many
they lost five or six and they won it all
in dominant fashion.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
So last year we had two great battles.

Speaker 9 (01:30:32):
We played them in Hartford, lost in double overtime, and
we beat them in the Centas Center, So we've had
some great games against them this year. With our team
and our group going up there and their team and
their group, we're gonna have to play really well and
really hard to.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
Have a chance to win.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
In this modern age of everything that we see in
documentaries in all and profiles of coaches, fans of college
basketball have gotten to see what an intense guy Dan.

Speaker 3 (01:30:57):
Hurley is does he does?

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
Would he fit the old culture of the Big East
with the way he coaches since he played in it
as well?

Speaker 3 (01:31:06):
Obviously?

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
Yeah, I mean Dan is an amazing coach.

Speaker 9 (01:31:09):
Like I think that sometimes you know, the focus when
you watch him or people talk about him is you know,
his in game intensity and maybe getting on the officials,
but just in terms of the tactical part of the game, defense, offense, culture,
practice environment, he's the best of the best.

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
He really, he really is.

Speaker 9 (01:31:32):
And when you play them, you know, you have to
beat Yukon. They're not gonna have that night where they
just don't have it. That just doesn't really exist with
the personnel.

Speaker 4 (01:31:42):
They have and the way they do things. So you
have to be up to the task.

Speaker 9 (01:31:46):
And but he's he's a terrific coach, amazing amount of
respect for him and what he's built and done at Yukon.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
A couple more soundbites from Sean Miller, This from his
Zoom Press conference earlier in the week. He was do
you want more quad one non conference games like this
Yukon challenge?

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
Moving forward?

Speaker 4 (01:32:06):
I think you have to have balance.

Speaker 9 (01:32:07):
You know, if you look at the SEC, you're going
to have plenty of great Quad one opportunities, both home,
on the road, and also in the conference tournament. You know,
I think that, you know, we know that through history
that we're in, if not America's top conference, certainly one
of them. And I think, just you start right there,
how many quad one and great opportunities true road games,

(01:32:31):
true home games are you going to have that are
already on your schedule because of the conference you're in,
And then from there, you know, I think you have
to have balance.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
You know, you can't just go.

Speaker 9 (01:32:41):
One complete way, whether that be just you play nobody.
We don't certainly don't want to do that. But I
also think you have to be careful, you know, playing games. Look,
if you're going to schedule Yukon, you better be real good.
You better have a great team. You better have experienced team.
You're like, look, we can win the national championship.

Speaker 4 (01:32:59):
We have all ducks in a row. Everything is good.

Speaker 9 (01:33:02):
It makes zero sense to play that game home and
away and pick them as a game. If you don't
feel that way, and I would say ditto for Duke.
If you're going to take on Duke on national TV
in game one, then you look at your own program
and say, we're the best version of ourselves.

Speaker 4 (01:33:18):
We have built this program.

Speaker 9 (01:33:20):
We can go toe to toe in any program in
the country, because just to play the game to play
it makes no sense.

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
So we're looking for balance.

Speaker 9 (01:33:28):
Look at at Yukon Charlotte against Duke, going to the
Maui Invitational in Virginia, the team we drew at home.
Those are all really really good teams, and those gave
us a lot of opportunity and most importantly what we
be the best and most ready we can be for
the SEC. So I think when you pull up non

(01:33:50):
conference scheduling, A, you got to know who you are,
and then I think, B. You have to give yourself opportunities,
but you also want to make sure that you're getting
ready in a lot of different ways for the beginning
of conference play, some of which is confidence, right.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
Confidence.

Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
Finally, what is the defensive effort that Sean Miller has
been asking for? Look like? And what will it take
tonight against Yukon? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:34:17):
Look And sometimes when a coach talks a lot about effort,
it's like it's made to feel that your team's not trying.
I do not want to say that, that's not what
I'm saying. But what I really can say clearly is
what a player and a team thinks is effort. Oftentimes
they're not even close. And I think, especially when you're
trying to play with pace, you're running the court, you

(01:34:39):
want a lot of ball movement, player movement on offense,
and you want to be tough minded together group defensively.
It takes a lot, and it takes Like anything good,
it takes time. And you know, I think we have
a couple of individual players. I'll give you Tremon Mark
is one example where I think if you really put
the ball on him and watch him on defense, I

(01:35:02):
think he's giving more of himself every game. I think
his deflections, his ball pressure is toughness. I think his will,
his mindset, determination are all in a really, really good place.
For him to just keep giving us more and more defensively.
The unfortunate part of defense is you're only as strong
as your weakest link. And at the end of the clock,

(01:35:25):
when a guy jumps for no reason and fouls the
offensive player, all that effort that you saw through twenty
three seconds or Tremon Mark gave is negated. And we
just have too many plays like that. And it's up
to me as the coach to improve our team in
that fouling and just whether it be a breakdown on

(01:35:47):
or off the ball, we just have to keep coaching it,
coaching it and coaching it and incrementally get better.

Speaker 1 (01:35:54):
So the thoughts of Sean Miller, Texas Yukon later tonight. Okay,
some breaking news out of the Texas football program. After
well just a few days after parting ways with running
backs coach Chad Scott, Texas has hired Jabbar ju Luke
from Florida to lead the running back room into twenty

(01:36:14):
twenty six and the future. He has been at Florida
since twenty twenty two, but has lots of Louisiana ties.
He's a New Orleans native and has previously worked at
LSU and Louisiana Lafayette developing some running backs like Leonard Fournette,
Elijah Mitchell, Trevor etn. Notably Jaden Baugh, who ran for
over one hundred yards against Texas in that loss. The

(01:36:37):
Longhorn suffered in Gainesville earlier this season, so Texas has
filled its running backs Coach Vacancy and Jabbar ju Luke
headed from Florida to the forty Acres. All right, we
need to break and then we'll wrap up the show
next with a preview of the first couple of Bowl
games rolling in right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred Zone