#92Noon! 11am Hour 4/16 Kevin O'Connell

PA is joined by Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell from TCO!

Episode Transcript

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Join us for a pre draft Fridayfootball feast this week at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Savage Stores open at eight ahead ofa live nine and noon broadcast with
PA and Charge. Join us forfootball Wings and prizes. Cafe dot on
QWR calendar for more info. WelcomeHere is Kevin O'Connell, head coach of

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the Minnesota Vikings, joining yours trulyPaul Allen shortly after eleven from Twin Cities
Orthopedics Performance Center and UH day twoof the off season workouts and weeken small
change in front of the National FootballLeague Draft. Now, good morning,
how are you, Good morning,sir, Good to see you. How
are you guys? Pretty well?Thank you? With the players hopping and

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skipping and conditioning and everything that's goingon with the eight in the morning stuff
like that, Like do you goin there for that, like to watch
the whole thing and not allowed to? Oh, you're not not allowed to.
Yeah, they glad you said that, because I was in there five
minutes wondering where you were. Yeah. No, we're coaches are not allowed
on the field for the first twoweeks, not even on the field.

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The field. Now you know therethere there are windows in this building.
So if it wasn't you know,pouring rain right now, maybe there'd be
some windows. But no, we'renot allowed in there. That's why,
you know, I know yesterday talkingabout Josh Hanks and Tyler Williams, they
basically control the first couple of weekshere as we prepare these guys for the

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next phase, which then we canget on the field in phase two,
we kind of split the team upoffense, defense. We're on the field
at different times of the day.That way, you know, I can
be you know, having a littlebit more of a role with the defense
as they kind of build the techniquesfundamentals, start building the defense, and
we do the same thing offensively,a little bit more of a passing kind
of camp feel to it at thatpoint, but we do start putting in

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our offense from a standpoint of therun game and and and how we marry
it all up and try to builda system. Uh the the rumor has
it or did you go to theMasters this weekend? I did? What
was that? Like? It wasmy second time I was actually there In
twenty nineteen, Tiger had just bogeiedwhole five and we were, you know,

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near the T box on a wholesix went on to birdie whole six
and win the tournament. So Ithought I would have that impact on him
again. Unfortunately, Scotti Scheffler hadanother thing going. But it was phenomenal.
It's such an unbelievable place and gota chance to, you know,
meet a lot of great people,spend some time with Jim Nantz and Scott
Van Pelt and just kind of takeit all in. So it's my second

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time there, hopefully not my last. You Van Pelton nance who's the tallest.
I think Van Pelt. I thinkhe certainly feels like it, you
know, and he's I've got alittle bit more hair than him for now,
so I think, you know,I think SVP's got it. But
those are we could make a heckof an older windentlemen's basketball team. When
you talk to Jim Nantz, andI know you've talked to him many times,

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but do you ever become mesmerized,like when you shake his hand,
like, say, you see himat the field house. He was here
last year. It's a Friday,and I got here early from Buffalo Wild
Wings before practice was over, andthere he was, and it's walking up
with that big, imposing presence andhow are you or how or hi Kevin
or like like how he does itinitially with the with whatever the signature of

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line is. I mean, that'sjust doesn't it move you when you hear
that. Yeah, I was witha couple of my closest friends and he
walked up and hit us with thehello friends, And that was about all
she wrote. You know, Jim'sJim's fantastic. Anytime they come to town
to do our games, I alwaystry to spend a little extra time with
them, just you know, nobody. You know, there's very few people
just as respectful but just so smart, wealth of knowledge, been around so

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many great people, and you know, in professional sports, so huge jim
Nance fans. I am. Isadly missed the press conference yesterday here because
we were doing nine to noon.It was excellent timing, by eck,
excuse me. It fell right aroundyou know when nine to noon was on
the radio. So let me guessyou drop names like you were given names
yesterday at the press conference, rightlike rookie names and stuff. And of

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course I wasn't there and I missedit. Names, I mean name gave
it all up. No, We'rewe did not you didn't miss it all
at the podium. I'm sure Vikingsfans would probably agree. Anybody who you
know checked in that not much andthat you know, not much came out
of that, but that tends tobe uh. You know, it was
the start of the off season pressconference. I think I made a note

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of that in my opening statement,and we didn't speak about it again.
Yeah, we spend most of ourtime talking about this funny little thing called
the draft, right and off thatit can get here anytime now, right.
I mean, you've been through enoughof them, but you got two
first round picks and and you knowit's the draft coming up a week from
Thursday, with certain elements where it'sstrong or where it's not strong. Just

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doing your job. But it's differentthis year, your third year, and
you could just go ahead and gethere anytime now, right, It absolutely
can. But the good thing isour players are back. I always enjoy
that week before the draft because Iat least know, you know, I
can take some peace in knowing ourplayers will be back in the building and
getting around those guys always energizes you, gets you ready to roll. You

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really feel like it's you know,turning the page to twenty twenty four and
starting to build our team, andthe draft's going to be an exciting time
for Vikings fans. It certainly willbe for you know, for our aspect
of building what we hope to bethis year and beyond and looking forward to
it. It's been a great process, you know, Quasi and his staff,
our coaching staff, you know,kind of putting it all together,

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working side by side. It's beenreally good. Now we just you know,
unfortunately, the draft is a scenariobased kind of stretch of three days
where you've got to be ready fora lot of other teams, you know,
making some similar decisions on how they'regoing to build their teams as well.
And that's why we go through theprocess the way we do, and
we have to have a plan ofattack regardless of how it shapes up.

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Starting the night on Thursday, Kevin, I would imagine having the players back
for the offseason workouts, whether youknow you can be in the building,
you have to use a Belichick Hubbletelescope to watch it from ten miles away
or what or just staying away ishelping you sleep because you have other things
to think about. I mean,do you like run first round scenarios through
your mind or draft scenarios all thetime. You do, especially you know,

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considering you do that anyway, whenyou have one first round pick,
mind you you've got two, youknow, separated by twelve picks. And
there's a lot of players in thisdraft. I think this is a very
very strong draft at particular positions,but also just throughout. You know,
you go back and you really talkto these guys, and you find a
lot of these guys were in collegea year longer than maybe they would have

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been had COVID not happened, andthey could take recruiting trips. A lot
of these guys were guys that wentto schools without ever stepping foot on campus
because of the world and what itwas like at that point. Then they
transfer transfer rules and all that kicksin. So now you've got players that
they quite honestly have developed and maybeturned into better versions of themselves than would

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have been the case had all thosecircumstances not existed. So you're really evaluating
a deep class the age. Imean, I've talked to players that turned
twenty one a month or two ago. I've talked to guys that could be
twenty six by the middle of theirrookie year. So you're talking about such
a range of guys where they areand their football journeys, and trying to

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figure out not only what that lookslike now, but what it will ultimately
be, you know, when theybecome what we hope they do as Minnesota
Vikings. Maybe you know, maybemaybe the ultimate wild card is thrown into
the first round of the draft andall of a sudden you end up with
Rock Bowers and it's like just mashon teams with tight ends. First down
left of Bowers, first down rightto Hawkinson, touchdown over the top to

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Johnny Munch, and that becomes theidentity of the Minnesota Vikings into Rock Bowers.
Is the bomb, by the way, But I don't know. I
think that would throw the proverbial monkeywrench and a lot of conversations a lot
of people have been having in andor outside the building. How how does
the foot the football methodology part ofthe equation help you? Oh, you

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want to talk about Brock Bauers.I didn't think you did. Yeah,
I was. He's a He's aheck of a player, There's no doubt,
no doubt. I think just overall, you know, it all starts
around your football philosophy, how youwant your team to play. And that's
an evolving thing because I think backon you know, our first year into
our second year here, and youknow, I truly believe in many many

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cases that you know, with NFLplayers, you got the right kind of
guys, you're going to get whatyou emphasize. And so I put a
lot of time and energy and thoughtinto building parameters from a standpoint of understanding
how important our culture is in thisbuilding. But then you get to play
style. You guys are gonna hearme talk about the word play style.
The words play style, I shouldsay a lot this year because I think

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I truly think year three now we'vegot systems play in place. Brian Flores,
you know, doing what he didlast year coming in here and really
transforming the mentality of our defense.We want to continue to build upon that.
Offensively. We really feel like atthis point we can build an offensive
system based upon some of the additionswe've made. A guy like Aaron Jones

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adding to your team, getting backhealthy again with Jets and Jordan and TJ's
working through his process right now andthen just continuing to solidify, you know,
our identities as a football team andthen play style of understanding how important
ball security is. And we learnthat the very very hard way and with
something we do emphasize. But youknow, clearly a part of being a

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coach that is still growing and developingand trying to be the best version of
myself is I've got to continue tofind ways to reach this team and emphasize
the things that are important. Hmmm, soft and warm the quiet store kind
of like that right there, Fireit up, it's gone. Now that's
there, must deserve a press conferenceor something that's generally music that's played before

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press conferences. But took me backto I thought it was like an awards
ceremony where that answer went a littlelong and you were trying to wrap me
up. Well, why would yousay your answers go along? They tend
to do that. Well, Imean, no, are you kidding me?
It's the best, don't change anddon't let anybody ever tell you it's
the best or the worst, eventhough I just said it's the best.
But just that that music that's alittle smooth jazz instrumental piece there triggered me

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to be like it's soft and warm, the quiet storm k f A and
it's Kevin O'Connell, coach of theMinnesota Vikings with the R Shirley Paul Allen
and off the football methodology piece,you have what are known as simulations.
OKAYC doo Famensa talked about it lastweek and in the outside of the building

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we call them mock drafts. Andyou know, but they're obviously fans or
people aren't running through eight thousand scenariosup to the draft. But is it
fun? I mean sound it soundsfun. It sounds like the kids the
kids game portion or the fan gameportion of high end business. Yeah,

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it is, because you think abouta lot of scenarios, right, and
how do we come about that information. We have guys in this building,
in our analytics department that can formulatethings that you know, we can click
a button and have simulations run basedupon all of those of that information that's
out there that's giving you, youknow, percentages on things likely to happen,

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and we can play out the likelyscenarios and then we can play out
you know, teams moving up,moving down, whatever it may be,
and we understand based upon studies ofwhat other team's needs are because you got
to in a lot of ways,you got to know your opponents even during
draft season, because you have toknow where people are likely to go with
their selections when you're projecting what kindof players could be available at eleven or

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twenty three or anywhere else we couldend up picking, and a lot goes
into it, and then that's whereyou get the great dialogue, the discussion
player fit. How we see thisguy maybe being a better version of himself
as a Minnesota Viking, then maybegoing to another team. Maybe it's scheme
base, maybe it's where they're at, yeah, you know, in their
football development, and then ultimately howthey're going to fit in with some of
the other critical pieces that we feelvery strongly about within our locker room already.

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When that when that music popped inthere for a second, did you
hear how quickly it was eliminated?I mean, how about the quick twitch
or the producer Nordo. I mean, you're in the quick twitch business,
you look for it, you payfor it, you drafted. How about
that quick It was no different thanyou know, resetting to a backside in
cut, you know, finding findinga way to move the chains on a
third and eight. Overcoming coaching ina lot of ways is a is a

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very important, you know, avery important talent in this building that was
beautiful with with the simulations or asthe fans would say, the mocks and
button push, and it all happens, not moving cards or anything. Do
you you or anybody ever like wakeup? Not in cold sweat like fashion,
but like, we haven't talked aboutthis team moving up enough and nobody's

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talking about it. And we allclaim we don't read here or watch anything,
but we all read here and watcheverything, and we don't talk about
this enough. And this player atthis spot is not very good. So
let's think that even though he makesa lot, they might you know what
I'm saying, Like, does thatever happen? I think the biggest thing
is, you know, there's I'vebeen a part of some drafts where some

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very very strong takes and narratives reallydrive through the whole draft process and you're
just watching the tape, you're doingyour evaluations, you're meeting these players,
and you don't see it the sameway. And ultimately, in the end,
a lot of times, you knowthe thirty two teams tend to see
it a little bit closer to eachother than maybe some of the things that

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are out there. And I know, I know a lot of these mock
drafts and things are coming from youknow, little whispers here and there and
inside information, but in the end, we nobody knows what's really going to
happen. There may be some prettyyou know, pretty strong things feelings about,
you know, the first pick inthe draft, after you know what
type of position. There might beruns on early in the draft, but
in the end, the draft's goingto start, there's gonna be some things

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that we didn't expect to happen.How we handle that and how we ultimately
come out with the best possible selectionscomes back to the process at which took
place over really long before these lasttwo three months. That's when us as
coaches really get involved throughout this offseason. But Quasi and his staff have been
building up to this really since theday last year's draft ended, and you

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know, in some cases even beforethat. In our world, whether here
at Twin Sages or the Eedix PerformanceCenter I'm talking about the radio show or
just football fans is we talk aboutso much, so frequently and sometimes it
will hone into an a topic,at least what we perceived to be an
a topic. But through the conversation, you know, there are things that
just don't get mentioned that I thinkshould not be swept under the table.

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And this one about your team isno matter how you analyze the defense,
the Brian Flores defense from A throughthe end. So if it's like,
all right, there goes Mike Evansand now we got this in Philly,
and then we got Keenan Allen whoand then it tightened, you know,
So from the outside I'd be like, all right, it went quick twitch

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for all of them, but hey, it takes a little bit, that's
my opinion. Then at the endof the season, you know, you
got players playing more than they've everplayed in their lives. So if legs
got tired a little bit, that'sunderstandable too. But in between there was
a lot of good, so muchgood in my estimation that like Harrison Phillips,
Jordan Hicks, cam buying them,Josh Mittellus, let's go up,
Jonathan Boeler, let's go on andon. They had the best seasons of

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their careers and for long patches.So now the next year with this tricky
thing and with that leader. I'mnot gonna be like Evans and black Man.
I'm not gonna put names on it. That's going to happen because I
don't think a lot of people sawthem in the building. You probably did,
but a lot of people on theoutside didn't see a lot of that
coming. But it was fact.It's going to happen again, you know,

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with those who have been in thissystem for the second year yep,
and whatever players you draft, dependingon how quickly they can get it,
because it is complicated, I wouldimagine it is. And ultimately what I
was most proud of is just theway our defense and really Flow in his
staff a year ago, kind ofmorphed and change their style throughout this season,

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presenting different looks, different type ofmentality to how Flow called it,
and really trying to do whatever ittook to try to give us a chance
to win that particular game that particularSunday. I think as we go into
year two of Flow's defense, thehope is we continue to you know,
kind of really strengthen that identity ofwhat we want to be as a Vikings

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defense, but also you know,getting a situation where we can truly by
adding a few more pieces here andthere, some of the great pieces that
I thought we added in free agency, we can continue to attempt to dictate
through scheme and our players on thefield of allowing them to play fast,
physical, going to come back tothat that play style thing again and ultimately
continue to grow from year one toyear two. I'm looking forward to it.

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And uh, two quickies left.I got a game here for you.
OPI you like it? Uh?The uh the the NFC North,
I mean, I'm not breaking newshere. It's getting tougher by the second.
It definitely is. I mean it'slike it's I'm not going to go
best division in football. Bit thea FC Norse pretty good, and you
know you have the Chiefs over thereand stuff in the AFC West. But
man, our division are Our divisionis becoming quite the meek rinder, isn't

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it It is? And you lookat you know, some of the things
people have been able to do acquiringtalent and you know, having some real
draft capital over the years in inone way or the other, whether you
know what Detroit's done to build uptheir team and really build some a strong
core of players along their fronts andadding skilled players and doing the things that
they've done. And then you lookat obviously Chicago's in a in a prime

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position to continue to make the mostof you know, some pretty serious assets,
and the transition from Aaron Rodgers toJordan Love up in Green Bay and
what he was able to really turnthat offense into, especially down the stretch
and through the playoffs, it's goingto be very competitive. Ultimately, we
have a lot of confidence that wecan build a team to be competitive,
and we know the games are goingto be close, and when games are

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close, you got to play goodfootball. You got to play smart.
You got to have that situational feelof how you're going to try to either
close out a victor or a leadyou may have, or chase it down
in the end like we did intwenty twenty two. But ultimately, we're
going to have to build a teamthat can play for four quarters, not
do the things that lose games beforewe ever give ourselves a real shot to
win them. Is probably the mostimportant thing. And we're going to be

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transitioning, you know, with awith a new quarterback. We're gonna be
transitioning with some new players on defense. So that's where I've really challenged our
coaches from the first moment we getin front of these guys as of yesterday,
to be building. You know,the mentality of this spring is about
teaching, learning, the development ofyounger players. There's the growth and the
addition that we've had with free agencyin the draft, but ultimately, by

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the time we come to training camp, our guys need to be ready to
compete. They need to be readyfor a physical training camp and build this
football team to withstand not only ourdivision. But once again, it just
seems like it every year you gota heck of a schedule out in front
of you. When you finally getget a look at that thing, we
got to be ready to go forseventeen games and see where we fall.
I pulled a to close. Ipulled a draft analysis piece YEP of a

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quarterback from a draft YEP from NFLdot Com. Okay, so I didn't
go any out, you know,outside wild ones. I went to NFL
dot Com and this quarterback is notyou. Okay, So I'm gonna give
you some hints, some clues,and let's see if you can figure out
who this is. Okay, youin yep. Number one. The report
loves his size, arm strength,accuracy, pocket mobility, poise, poise

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and field reading capability. Is itin which draft? Is this? Are
we going back for? I saida quarterback in a draft, So we're
not going back to Sammy Baugh.Slinging Sammy Baugh is not the answer.
Number two says his wind up isan I soore, but has velocity to
mitigate additional release time. Makes itsound like he needs to start working out

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of the stretch. I didn't geta chance to answer number one first.
No, No, these are alljust clues. It's an answer to one
person. Oh my goodness, Okay, I'm ready. I'm ready for number
three. I think I know wherewe're going with this. Clue Number three
completion percentage unaffected by blitzes. Andit might be one of the ones this
year. I mean it could bethe four everybody in the universe talks about,

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or the next two, or thenext one, or the guy who
throws the ball eighty yards and playeda Tennessee. Can I make a guess?
You want to make a guess rightnow? You're sure? Okay?
Well, Clue number four is grandfatheris named dick Hammer. That's his name,
Sam Donold. Uh, come on, man, how'd you figure that

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out? Yeah? We do.We do a little bit of what anything
like Drake May, JJ McCarthy,Caleb Williams, Spencer Rattler, the Alex
Smith. You know it was.I would have guessed Sam, after did
the dick Hammer give it away?No? No, that's the third clue.
After two, I was thinking,Josh, Yeah, but that's his

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grandfather's real name. By the way, this is not from some weird web
do this NFL dot com. Hisgrandfather was a USC basketball player, unbelievable
athlete. Yep, you knew that. I did, well, this sucks,
Olympic volleyball star and one one ofthe original Marlborough man. Of course
you knew that. Totly cow.And then I didn't think you would get
it. And then I was gonnasay, he's currently on your team and

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he's in the building right now.That was clue number five. Okay,
well, just just off this thiswind up thing. I mean they're making
they're making him sound like a formercy Young Award winner. What like,
what's the wind up? I mean? Yeah, so come as at a
thing. I'm out of USC there. You know, there was you know,
depending on how you viewed certain throwsthat Sam would make. There were

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some times where that uh, youknow, that release and that motion was
maybe a little bit longer. Butlike with a lot of you know guys
in this league, the game speedsup. You start to play, hopefully
in a rhythm based offense where youcan tie your feet knives together and anticipate
throws and do some things where you'replaying on your time clock and not the
defenses. Sam's had the ability toreally I think that's one of the things

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that jumped out to me. Itwas limited tape, no doubt, from
his year in San Francisco, butI thought he really got efficient with his
lower half. He really got ina place where he could He looked to
me like he was in a truegrowth stage even at this point in his
career. And and and I sawa lot of good things that I cannot
wait when we are allowed pay toget out on the grass and start coaching

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these guys. Sam's going to besomebody that I'm just excited to work with.
And I've always been a fan,and I think quarterback environment is a
huge thing for all of us thathave ever attempted to play the game,
and NY time I get to bein a role where I get to try
to help that for all the guysthat play quarterback for US, completion percentage
unaffected by BLITZA is that's pretty cool. I appreciate you all the time.

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Yeah. I go back to thatyou played against Ohio State. I believe
in the Cotton Arnold. Yeah,and you were Washington quarterbacks coach, passing
game coordinator, and so you're lookinghard at him, right, and whether
it was you know, it wasthe full gamut of that Ohio State defense
and not a lot of them wereblocked that night. And he stood in
there and stared down the barrel makingthrows, and I just remember that's That's
always been something I remember about it, because you can learn a lot about

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guys when circumstances yeah are not Let'sjust call him less than ideal, right,
mister extram. Let the record showthe final two minutes of this interview.
We're all courtesy I was Kevin O'Connell, So I hit my thank you.
I appreciate you, ma'am. KevinO'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota
Vikings. Curly Harris on Cameron.You'll see that debt of Vikings dot com.
That's Eric Nordquist and I'm Paul Allen. Today is a coach's covenant,

(23:59):
and when we return, we're goingto replay the interview to start the show
with Timber wolfshead coach Chris Finch.You're listening to kfa N before we go.
I got the cash thing the fanombig deck dot com. I'm gonna
give you a shot to put agrand in your hand with the National Cash
Contest. Head to Cafe dot comand the keyword green for this hour.
The keyword is green cafean dot Comkeyword great. Welcome back nine to noon,

(24:30):
getting Nardo out in Egan out oft c O. But we're gonna
listen back now to how he startedthe show with Wolves head coach Chris Finch,
where Pa started with drats on theseason you've had so far, Thank
you very much, appreciate it.But it's been a great year. Certainly
has taken another big step forward,you know, in terms of former identity

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consistently performing at a high level everynight, young players getting better and better,
you know. So we got agreat foundation to keep building and we're
excited about this playoff opportunity and youknow, and and a chance to kind
of push forward, even you know, in a in a landscape that's not
been as kind to you know,to the Minnesota's basketball scene as we would

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like in the last years and years. But three years in a row in
the playoffs, you know, it'snothing that we should take for granted.
Yes, sir, very well explained. And speaking of the Suns, I
have some Phoenix stunts, suns Steamthat I know you're just dying to hear,
right, my intel and Steam intoa playoffs series? Are you ready

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sure? In Phoenix's last four losses, Grayson Allen is shooting thirty two and
a robust four of twenty nine fromthree I present that asking how key is
it to put Allen on bad shootinggames given the others on whom they rely.

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Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I mean they you know,
with the with Booker and Durant inparticular, now Bell seemingly finding his crew.
They got a lot of guys thatcan create and make their own shot.
So anytime you they're they're gonna bea handful. Anytime you can get
a chance to affect the guys thatare in the supporting cast. You gotta
do it, you got we gotto do a better job of that.

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He's he's done. You know,he's done a good job of hurting us
in our matchups with them, anduh, we've got to be more mindful.
But we've paid a lot of attentionto the others and sometimes these are
the decisions that you make, anduh, we've gotten burned, no doubt.
Uh. Secondly, is it fairto say with the three high at

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times super high enders they start Uh? Is it is it an absolute that,
like with Booker, Durant and Beale, that they all can't flourish,
like at least one has to bedefended, say into a bad game.
Yeah. I think that's a goodassessment. And we've been able to kind

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of impact one of them, youknow, one way or another. For
most of the games we've played.It's just been the overall group where we've
really gotten hurt. Paul. Itstarts the starts of the game against Phoenix.
All three times for us have beena disaster for one reason or another,
and we had eleven turnovers in thatquarter on first quarter on Sunday in

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Phoenix two weeks ago, we starteddown fifteen nothing, so we just with
a team with that much firepower,it is really hard to play from behind
because their shot making is such soelite that even when you close the gap
to eight or seven or something likethis and you feel like you're in striking
distance, they can hit two orthree tough shots in a row, even

(27:52):
if you play great defense on themto push that league back out to twelve
fifteen and give themselves enough breathing room. So we got tighten the game up
from the beginning, and to me, we've not been able to do that.
And it's excellent you said that.I mean the last time yet you
guys beat Phoenix, you outscored themthirty five twenty five in the first quarter.

(28:14):
So I mean you know that thisseason they're a plus forty in first
quarters of games against you guys.So the fast start it may be cliche,
but like Saturday, I mean,with that crowd and everything, it's
a must starting Saturday, right,no doubt about it. It's uh,
it's you know, it's playoffs.Of course, physicality has got to go

(28:36):
up, the desperation's got to goup. You know, we got to
get that building and that crowd intoit right away with our intent and in
the way that we're going to playfrom the jump, and you know,
that's that's what we've played and workedall season for, is to have this
game to open the playoffs at hometo maintain I'll give yourself an opportunity to

(28:57):
create an advantage with home court advantageand maintain that through a series and through
a run. So this is what'scome down to. Uh, do do
you mind sharing the pros and consof like your big lineups against Phoenix?
How do you feel about that?Well, you know, I think we

(29:18):
got to do a better job andI got to do a better job of
taking advantage of the big lineup ballon the offensive end of the floor.
And there's different ways we can dothat. Obviously, we can try to
get the ball down inside a littlebit more. We certainly got to be
bigger and better on the offensive glasskind of punish some of those those lineups
matchup wise on the defensive end ofthe floor, We've got to be creative,

(29:38):
you know, We've got to.We've done a good job of kind
of figuring out games throughout the season, executing them from game to game,
and we got a little bit ofa a library of things we feel like
we could we could do with ourbig lineup against their lineup. Uh,
they like to play you know,small or more spread lineups with all the

(30:00):
shooting that they have. So we'vegot a week to kind of brush it
off those things, get get goodat them, and put them into play.
How how generally speaking, Chris isplayoff officiating compared to say the regular
season, Uh, you know,it's quite different. I would say,
you know, they they hold theirwhistle for sure a lot more, but

(30:23):
you know, to be fair,since the All Star break, they've been
kind of refereeing that way anyway,they've kind of I think held their whistle
down the stretch here at the lasttwenty five games of the season. You
know, you're not going to playfor fouls in the playoffs, and nor
should you expect to play for fouls. And if you're playing for fouls,
you're not gonna you know you're not. You're probably playing the wrong in the

(30:44):
wrong mindset. So you know,we gotta we gotta be a little bit
tougher and a little better in ourfinishing. Playing through Contact Initiative is initiating
smart contact at the defensive end ofthe floor and being able to utilize more
fiality there for sure, And andand off that, Chris Chris Finch,
coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, nineto noon Wolves and Suns Sunday at Saturday

(31:07):
at Target Center to begin the postseason. That's super cool. When when when
when you watch back stuff or watchgames, and and and off the the
the foul calls or lack thereof,Like when you're watching games or you watch
them back and you see all typesof players all over the league complaining about
fouls. How often are the playerstelling the truth? How often are the

(31:32):
players right? I mean it's likemost things, I would say it's probably
fifty to fifty, you know,But yeah, it's it's referees an incredibly
tough, incredibly tough job, particularlyin the game these days, with with
how fast it has become, youknow, how fluid it is now.
You know, it's not as predictable. These plays that happen are you know,

(31:56):
kind of oftentimes come out of nowhere. So yeah, but we can't
be relying on that from time fortwo more from some Booker in game comments
last season to beal the other day, plus plus more I mean we we
we have a really physical series cominghere, don't we. I would hope.

(32:21):
So that's what we need to makeit. We need to make it
a real physical series. Uh.And we need to set the tone early
and often. And and did didyou feel Sunday? Like I'm watching the
game Sunday and granted they jumped you, and you know, then we then
we had some other things take place, but like that, they came out
just incredibly physical. You know.Is that something like you know, you'll

(32:42):
show your guys and they'll be like, yep, got it, Yep,
got it. Yeah, I mean, we're gonna we have a lot of
different video sessions during this week.Which is the benefit of having you know,
clinch the the playoffs, being inthe top six is you get a
week to prepare the benefit of beingin the three position is you know who
you're preparing for. Uh, youknow, even for the week starts.

(33:06):
So these guys will be given alot of different highly digestible messages and video
sessions you know that we feel willpoint to some things that we need to
do to be successful in this series. That's terrific. Last one and Nurkice
for the Suns I mean, Iguess I'd forgotten this. Yeah, you
guys had Nurkice and Yolkic in Denverlike seven years ago. Why why didn't

(33:30):
that stick? I mean, that'sa pretty good one too. Well,
it was we played it together,you know. Actually we started the season,
I think we played the first fifteento twenty games, one at the
four, one at the five.We played two big and as a season
then for grats, uh, itwas kind of about the time when everybody

(33:52):
started playing more small lineups. Jolkic'semergence was clear. Nurcage was two good
of a player to be a backup, you know, and Tim Connley at
the time, I know he itwas a very very difficult decision for him
because I was there and we hada lot of discussions about it as a
staff to move on and trade himto Portland for some picks and pieces,

(34:20):
and uh, he you know,he flourished up there. You know,
he got to the role where hecould actually start to become who he was
always going to be. And thenyou know, obviously with Jokics the rest
of his history, but there werewe were spoiled to have two really skilled,
talented young bigs at the same time, and you know he had to
make a choice what what and andand off that. I mean, you

(34:43):
spent a fair amount of time inEurope playing and or coaching. But like
like European bigs, I mean backto Demontes's dad are Vetas Demontes is an
elite passer, and you know we'retalking about Nurkice and Jokic. I mean,
like, like how do they raisetheir bigs to be such good passers.

(35:05):
Well, a lot of their developmentstructures when they're young kids, it's
all positionless, you know, soif a kid is big, you know,
they don't just do big guy thingswith them. They teach. You
know, everybody does the same drillsover and over all the way through really
up until you know they're about eighteen. Everyone does the same post footwork,
everyone does the same perimeter handling.Everybody does the same you know, short

(35:30):
sided playmaking things. It's so everybody'sskill level is being brought along, you
know, at the same but atthe same time. And obviously people can
you know, a well rounded gameregardless of whatever I think sometimes in you
know, at least when I wasgrowing up, I can't speak to how
it is now. So much.But when I was growing up and someone

(35:52):
was big, you planted them nearthe basket, you tried to throw on
the ball, and you teach thema jump book right, and the rest
of the skill lagged behind, youknow, until they were able to either
have it innately and get a chanceto show it or move to another environment
where somebody recognized and was able tobring it out of them. But you
know what I experienced when I wasin Europe was looking at a lot of

(36:12):
the development structures, is that it'skind of like everybody was treated like you
are treated when you first learned toplay basketball. All the kids are doing
all the same thing, but theyjust kept doing that all the way through
to their you know, club professionalclub structures. And then you get a
German big named Dirk Novitski who's goingto shoot a thousand three pointers a day

(36:35):
and be like, I'm never passing, I'm just I'm just going to get
to the basket, then get tothe line and shoot three pointers. And
it worked beautifully for that. Ahofhey man, you're terrific. Best of
luck this weekend. We'll talk nextweek. All I appreciate it. Chris
Finch with PA to open the shownine to noon one final segment with pa
at TCO. That's meant final segmentA night and Noon brought to you by

(36:58):
Casey's a dear friend, je Nelsonwith a Vikings Entertainment Network, somebody I've
known for a decade and large changeall the way back to Winter Park.
What would you describe how would youdescribe your like, what's your title and
what you do here? Technically I'msenior manager for motion graphics for the Minnesota

(37:21):
Vikings, but I also do aton of stuff with the audio and podcast
and so I produced some of ourshows the Tailgate with Siamonson. That's kind
of our passion project that we'd loveto do stuff with. And started off
kind of helping as the producer editorfor Minnesota Vikings podcast and have kind of
transitioned away from some of that,but I'm also on the show helping out
Gave and Tatum every week and it'sbeen awesome well. With the Minnesota Vikings

(37:43):
podcast, yours truly will be partof that. We're going to record about
ten minutes from now. Gabe Hendersonis the other co host, so Jay
is the one you will hear withthat at Vikings Dot com But really the
purpose to have you in here tochat for a couple of minutes involves two
things. First and foremost, Nordohas been pining to ask you or somebody

(38:04):
of your variety, of somebody behindthe scenes, who were we always are
texting when we're coming here. Makesure the studios open, everything's working out
well. It involves that microphone rightthere, that nice mic. Yeah,
did I break the microphone like twomonths ago? Technically no, okakay,
I think that so personally I willnot hold you responsible for breaking the microphone,

(38:27):
thank you. I think that therewas probably a loose bolt that was
having an issue, and so therewas when it got touched, it basically
just exploded. I was the lastperson. I was the last person to
touch it. Right there, yougo. But it's just like when you're
a little kid. You know,you set it up, it's already broken.
You set it up, but waitfor your brother or sister to touch
it. Yeah, and then itfalls apart and you're like, what did
you do? You know, it'sjust the way that it's been at this

(38:49):
Well, I did plenty of that. I was actually one of my first
memories as a kid was on myfourth birthday, unwrapping my presence before my
mom woke up. Yeah, andthen trying to rewrap them, so you
can imagine what that looked like.Older and wiser, I just left the
microphone there and just pretended i'd evertouched it. I just left. So,
I mean, honestly, we justwe had to buy parts to fix

(39:10):
it. But it was one ofthose things that after the fact that it
happened, we're like, all right, I'm sure that I will not blame
Nardo as the person who officially didit. Okay. And secondly, and
I've been meaning to tell you thisfor a little while because it's I know
you really like MMA, you reallylike UFC yep. Okay. Did you
attend UFC three hundred, Yes,Yes I did. Oh wow, it

(39:30):
was okazing. You were there forthe Holloway bits o. Yeah. Yeah.
Here's the point is, like I'vefollowed it from Afar, as you
know by our conversations. Yeah,my son Derek and his friends are so
into it. So he had aUFC three hundred party and invited Dad to
come hang out. So I watchedI'd say three or four of them,

(39:51):
the Holloway punch unbelievable, Yes,but the previous one two ninety nine.
I mean, I'm you know thisagain, I'm new to this. Okay,
So you UFC snobs, don't youknow, don't go to Hayton Sean
O'Malley's unbelievable. He's an unbelievable fighter. You see him roll out there.
Forget the hair, forget everything ancillaryabout him. I mean, holy col

(40:12):
does he want to whoop somebody's assfor sure? And the thing about him
is that he's somebody that he startedkind of at the lower level, but
even when he was in his kindof preliminary fights within the UFC, he's
you can tell he's a superstar.So in general, he's somebody that is
appointment viewing at this point, andhe is a headliner, especially like in
two ninety nine. I think thenumbers go baffle for him because he is

(40:32):
that kind of charisma. He's almostlike early stages of Connor McGregor. He's
that kind of level at this pointfor the UFC. Here, mom maam,
thanks for having me on the podcasttoday. Okay, thanks guys for
having me on. That's that's oldschool best goal. That's a longtime friend
Jane Nelson, who was Gabe Hendersondoes the Minnesota Vikings podcast. You'll get
that later this week at Vikings dotcom, and they asked me to be

(40:53):
the guest. Thank you Nordo,thank you Brett Blakemore, and to thank
you Vikings Media Relations. Likewise forAaron Freeman with the Wolves, for Chris
Finch for Amplifying nine to noon fromTwins City's Orthopedics Performance Center. Bye bye
podcast Today's Paul Allen Shaw or listenback to previous show and interviewsite going to
the iHeartRadio app or kfan dot com