Sean O'Connell Show w/James Peterson & Bryan Brown - Full POD - 6/20/25

James and Bryan talk with Parker Van Dyke on his time playing basketball with the Utes, overseas, and in the G League, Tony Jones on the NBA Finals going to game 7 and NBA Draft talk, and Sean tunes into his own show to air his greivances, and talk PFL fights tonight!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome into Sean O'Connell's show, You do the OC thing,
Happy Friday, Jersey Friday. As you can see on the
YouTube channel at ESPN seven under Sports Utah. You can
also see my co host today, Brian Brown Brown Bear.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
How's it going man? This is gonna be fun. Like
Isaac Austin, I'm just happy to be here today. I
think I use that line every single time I come
in and do radio with you.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Happy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's just one of those burned in memories from childhood
where he stood up in a press conference and just said,
I'm just happy to be here, just happy to be here.
I'm just happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm also here so I don't get fined. Yes, one
of those are Sewn Lynch too. So two of the
great one liners in sports press conferences. Beck and Neck.
We've got We've got an outstanding guest list line up
for you today. Normally we have the Voice of the Utes,
Bill Riley. He's on assignment. He's on assignment today, so
not able to get with him. But you saw me

(01:16):
tweet out we've got should we say that? Can we
say this about him? Running Utes legend? Parker Van Dyke
certainly Running UT's great Parker Van Dyke.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I texted my my Utes group chat that I was
interviewing the legend tomorrow and any questions that they wanted
to ask to forward them to me. So with it,
and he's hit one of the most memorable shots in
recent memory for Utai history.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I did. I did tweet that out Utah fans uh
check check that tweet out at ESPN seven hundred is
probably the easiest way to find that. I want to know.
Obviously not it's obviously not a moment with the amount
of success the running Uts have had all time, It's
not a moment that's gonna outrank an sit away tournament
moments that we've seen. But in recent running ute history,

(02:04):
where do you think that ranks. I think it's I
don't know that there's a bigger moment than that, especially
because they haven't been to the instaway tournament in forever.
That's what I was going to say, is.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
There haven't been a lot of real bright spots up
there lately, and he was That was such a part
of it. Is just it was such an incredible shot,
It was a game winner. It was at poly Pavilion,
a very historic place. It was at a point in
time where Utah was really struggling to have anything good
going in the Pact twelve. But also it's just like

(02:35):
you said, it's one of the more memorable moments in
the last decade for Utah. And when I look back at,
you know, thirty plus years of being a Utah basketball fan,
it's it's one moment that didn't make me cry, unlike
the nineteen ninety eight National Championship game.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
So cry in a bad way. Yeah, you have tears
of joy, plenty of that in Utah basketball history, and
as far it was a successful, really successful, part of
it was this might have been a tears of joy
moment for a lot of Utah fans. It was not
only like buzzer beater from nearly half court at Polly

(03:12):
Pavili Noike, you said, but down twenty three in the
second half and capped off the comeback, capped off by
that also one of Bill Riley's great best calls football, basketball, whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
He's had a great career afterwards, too, And I'm excited
to talk to Parker about that and his experiences having
gone overseas and then gone on to play for the
Austin Spurs. Last year and just how this you know,
his his entire stretch as a ute, he was kind
of the last bastion of guys who stayed for four
years and to start and finish his career as a

(03:44):
University of Utah running ute. I think that's a really
unique aspect of his story as well. So people can
bicker with us about the legend status.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
On today's show, he's he's a legend PVD at eleven thirty.
You mentioned his his pro career so far, obviously no
NBA time yet, but doesn't mean it's not an impressive career.
I mean he's played. He hasn't had to not play
a year since he left college like he's had. He's

(04:13):
always play. He's always been on a team. He was
in Mexico, he was in Estonia, he was in Germany
for a couple of years, he was in Spain, and
then I it's seemingly, I don't know, no disrespect to
those other leagues, Seemingly he's worked his way up to
the G League, one step away from the NBA, which
I'm not gonna rule out. Maybe he makes it. T

(04:36):
J McConnell highlights on the on the TV right now.
He could be a three point shooting TJ McConnell, unassuming
role player who does something good for an NBA team.
I'm not gonna rule that out at some point in
his career, because he's he's uh, He's consistently moved up
the ladder in his pro career so far, to the
point where he's he's really he's one league away from

(04:57):
the NBA, in the G League playing and I'm sure
he's thrilled to be playing in the United States.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's a sense of accomplishment for a guy that I
don't know very many people expected this from him. If
you looked at that team, he's likely not the guy
that you expected at this point in time to still
be playing for.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, certainly not the go to scorer you know, certainly
a key player, key leader for those teams, But you
looked at those kind of players we tend to see
as like, Okay, he's gonna have a college career m
and then and then maybe not much of a pro career.
He's proved everyone wrong with that, anyone who thought that
thought that way wrong, myself included. So I'm excited to

(05:36):
talk to him about his pro career so far. We'll
of course, talk to him about his memories of that
shot that we talked about against UCLA. Get his reaction
to Alex Jensen, the the great alumni higher that Utah
has made the roster is complete as well, and then
and then some NBA Finals thoughts with him as it

(05:58):
is a Game seven happening on Sunday. For that series,
we'll also talk with Tony Jones. We love Tony Jones.
Of course, more NBA Finals talk with him, Jazz Draft talk,
get his thoughts. He's been covering the Sixers this year too,
so he's probably got some good insights on Ace Bailey,
the Ace Bailey situation where he inexplicably cancel the workout

(06:22):
as the as not the probably the consensus third best
player in this draft. Canceling the workout with the team
that has the number three pick. It feels weird, so
he probably got some good insights on that. That's Tony
Jones at twelve. And then the great OC. The host
of this show, Scott Mitchell, who typically fills in for him.

(06:42):
You've probably heard Brian. He likes to say, HIOC, welcome
to your show. We have so we'll do We'll welcome
into his welcome OC to his show. He's calling PFL
fights in Wichita, semi final fights if you're familiar with PFL.
If you're not familiar with PFL, they have like their

(07:03):
regular season is like a tournament style thing all the
way to a championship. They're in the semi final rounds
at this point, in which Tah will give them a
chance to talk about that. And also, what are some
grievances like we do every Friday. You got some grievances ready,
I got some grievances with this weather right now? Okay, okay,
save it for one thirty. All right, Well, there are some grievances.

(07:24):
We want to hear your grievances as well. Eight seven
to seven three five three zero seven hundred. Start sending
those in give us, give us a call around one
thirty today, same number to call us. And I definitely
have some grievances as well. Oh C he's been doing
start bench cut too, so I'm gonna ask him, Hey,
do you want to do a start bench cut with
us here? And we'll see what today's will be. So yeah,

(07:47):
that and more coming up on the show. Wanted to
start out. We'll keep the Utah we'll get to the
NBA Finals Game seven. So excited for that as as
you all can see watching on YouTube. Got the Pacers
jersey on today. Not a Pacers fan Reggie Miller, loved
Reggie Miller, but I am kind of pulling for this
Pacers team too this year. Just totally separate from that.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Speaking of the group chat, that is one that's been
percolating a little bit on mine is this Pacers team
is extremely likable.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
They are, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (08:19):
And my like it tugged at my heartstrings a little
bit the other day because Brian Carlson, father of Brandon Carlson,
was at the game cheering for the Thunder, one of
those people that always wants to cheer for fellow former
youths as much as possible.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
And so that's a that's a good point. We forget.
I I have forgotten about that, even though I knew
he was still on the Thunder because he doesn't play
all that much. And Dylan Dylan Jones, well great, great,
he got some time yesterday in the in garbage time,
got it got you know, forced a ejection on James Johnson.

(08:55):
You would have thought, I mean expected coming from jo
is that in the stat sheet forced ejection on our
opponent play.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
It'll just be a stat I think, like the stats
that we don't necessarily keep but probably should.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, file that one under whoever's guarding Draymond Green on
a given night is the all time leader with that, probably,
except that the refs give them all kind of leeways,
so maybe not. I digress, So we'll get into we'll
get into our thoughts on that, more of our thoughts
on that. But I wanted to start out with some
Utah football conversations. Seventy one days till kick off, Brian,
and I know no one, you know, there's a few

(09:32):
better to have these kind of conversations with than the
great Brian Brown. So I'm excited that you're on the
show today to talk about this stuff. So seventy one
days still kick off at UCLA August thirtieth. It's it's
on Fox nine o'clock start. We all know that if
you want to see down to the second, head to
the website ESPN seven hundred sports dot com if you
just want to know, if you just want to keep

(09:53):
up with the days, that's why we got the countdown
clock on the station for you. We're in summertime radio.
So this is that means when it comes to Utah football,
we're coming up with scrambling to come up with ways
to talk about this team that doesn't sound that don't
sound tired, and it kind of sounds pretty original and

(10:13):
and keep get gets you guys thinking about how you
how you feel about this this upcoming season. So, Brian,
I thought we'd do with that in mind, I thought
we'd do a little most trusted, least trusted part of
Utah of the Utah football this season. Here's the we're
doing position groups, and then I added coaching staff as

(10:34):
a category as well. So with that in mind, Brian,
let's start with your most trusted, most trusted part of
the Utah football team.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
So this is if we were taking all of OC's
money and investing in the Yeah yeah, okay, So if
that's the case, very off brand for me here, But
my most trusted group on this team right now, including
the coaching staff, is the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Wow. See, I would think that I would think that
the coaching I almost didn't put coaching in there because
it would seem like a default twenty years with the
with basically the same staff, obviously different guys Chuff went
in and out, but twenty years with Morgan's been there

(11:23):
a while now as defensive coordinator. A bunch of other
guys former uths have been on the staff for a
long time. So you you trust the O line more
than you trust Witten company. I think there's some it
is a new era in college football. I think we're
all very aware that.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I could probably go for an hour airing my grievance
is about the things that I don't like about this era.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's being said coasting next Friday too, So you can
save that.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
We'll space it out. Yeah, we'll buckle up, folks. Depencil
that one in on the calendars. I got a lot
of a lot of a lot of things for you
people to hear about.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Numbers, the college, state of college football, my address, my
state of the Union, college football, more bands. That's the
number one thing that we need.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
But I do think when you look at this Utah
football team, where the program is at, there is so
much change that that has really fought against what this
program was built on. Right, this is a program that's
been built on developing players, fundamentally finding guys that are
kind of diamonds. In the rough and fitting them into
a certain program, allowing them to develop over two, three,

(12:32):
sometimes even four years. You look at a player like
Terrell Burgess who is still in the NFL, that only
one season at the University of Utah, and and really
that's what they're that was there. They wanted to put
him on the poster. That is exactly what they love
and exactly what they wanted wanted to promote, like, hey,
you're a three star athlete, you're playing at this position,

(12:53):
come here do this for us. Right junior tofuno linebacker
in high school, comes in, finishes his career the University
of UTA is a defensive tackle. And college football today
does not look like that. It is shopping in the portal.
It is big budgets, it is all these things. And
at the end of the day, it really requires talent
still to win at this level, as it does at

(13:16):
almost every level. We can debate if that's still true
and in the NBA with the way what the basers
have done, but you have to have talent, and I
don't know that this Utah team has the level of
talent that they are used to in the sense of
we've had guys in the program that we've developed, that
know the Utah way, that play fundamental football, that fit

(13:38):
into this defense fundamentally, that you know, a brand new
offense upon the hill. And look, you've got one of
the most exciting players in college football. It is worth
the price of admission. Just go watch Devin dan Pierre play.
There's a lot of question marks about how long can
he stay healthy, you know, the transition for him from
Mountain West competition into the Big twelve, all those kinds

(13:58):
of things. So I can't bet, you know, I'd have
a hard time betting my own money on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Let alone.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
OC's right, But there's just a lot of question marks
on this staff still. And you know, I was up
at watching the seven on seven tournament just because I'm
a high school football junkie and that's why I spend
most of my Friday nights is calling high school football games,
and so I want to get to know those players.
And the one thing that I felt as I was
talking to staffers and people around the program was just

(14:25):
how concerned, not concerned, how aware they are of how
bad last year was, and how dedicated they are to
fixing it.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's a good point because I think a lot of
fans and I think the good amount of media and
we're maybe led by us here. Home of the utes
have been lured into the line of thinking that oh,
just get just just stay healthy and be fine, but
that there there may have been more issues in that

(14:56):
and we don't know until we have a healthy team
and there and maybe still struggle a little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
When writing was a thing. I wrote an article for
the Salt Lake Tribune just as a fill in. I
think I think Newman was out because yeah, yeah, pregnancy.
Out with the pregnancy, not him. But you know something,
you understand well, I just went up to the spring practice.
They opened up a spring practice, and my biggest takeaway was,
as long as cam Rising is healthy, this team will

(15:22):
be great.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Otherwise there's a lot of questions.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
That was two years ago, and that was the general
theme for that for that program, that team for a
two year stretch. Now we're into the post cam Riising era.
We don't really know what this team is anymore. Do
they still have the defensive you know, prowess. It's always
going to be a strong defensive team in the sense
that that's where Kyle's gonna put all of his eggs

(15:46):
and you've got Morgan Scalley and and there's no knocking
those two. Like their resumes are set in stone. They're
great at that's part of it. Can you do the
plug and play thing with you know, all the corners
that you've brought in now are this is the safety
and developed the way that everybody really thinks it is.
I like Rabbit Evans, I like tal Johnson. Tao Johnson.
When he was coming out of high school, I always

(16:06):
thought he was a better athlete on the offensive side
of the football. So learning the safety position has been
a transition for him and we've seen that as he's
kind of bounced around from corner to nickel and then
finally to safety.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
And a great year. Ye safe, you last year.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
I've deviated really far from like most trusted to least trusted.
Yeah you started out saying O line. Then I started
knocking the coaching staff a little bit. Now I'm out
here like picking at the safeties. But that's the overarching
point that I want to make here, is that this
is a team that we don't know as much about
as we have in years past. Honestly, I think that's

(16:42):
a good thing in the sense of, like the doors
of the program have really tightened up.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
It's quiet up there.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
And in years past and you've heard things leaking out
and heard conversations about, Yeah, we think this guy's great,
we think this guy has a chance to do this and.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
That or other.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
They've just basically what wrapped everything in bubble wrap and
gone to work. And I think that's a really positive thing,
you know. But at the other on the flip side
of it, it's if I'm setting expectations out here for people,
I'm not going to put my name on the line
for anything outside of the stuff that I haven't already
seen in that I don't already know. And that is
why the offensive line is number one, because I know

(17:15):
how good Spencer Fano is. I also know how good
Caleb Blomu is and how strong he was throughout the year.
He was a little more up and down in the
sense of like lacking the consistency, but his highs were
really high and he really finished the year strong.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
And I know.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
The hardest part about offensive line play, especially when you're
in my business, you're trying to explain to other people
and they want to know everything that you know.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, it's probably the thing that's most invisible to football
fans is offensive line. I think probably even more than
defensive line. I think people might say that line of scrimmages,
but I think offensive line more so because you're it's
so easy just to follow the ball and they never
have the ball. So it's like you miss all of

(18:04):
the great the all of the great footwork, the great
you know, this is what this is what a good
run block looks like. This is what a good pass
block looks like. And it's very complex. It's a it's
a pretty complex thing, especially because it's not something that
people pay that close attention to unless they're an offensive
lineman or offensive line guru.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Right, And I'd love to teach everybody from the twenty
five years of experience i've had a playing, coaching and
analyzing the group. It's just never gonna happen. You know,
you're never gonna see the game through my eyes. But
what we can talk about is what you're seeing. And
I think a lot of Utah fans last year, so
pockets collapsing and pressure on a quarterback and a quarterback
that really wasn't comfortable back there, or escaping and.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, it's funny like Isaac. And this is not to
knock on Bryce and Barnes anyway, but Isaac has seemed
to going into it based on his high school tape
and his athleticism that you could just tell he has
before he stepped in the pocket. He seemed to be

(19:06):
a guy that would be that would be able to
handle that with his mobility, would be able to handle
those kind of situations. And I and I bring up
Bryce in Barnes name because he's he's more athletic than
you think, but he certainly struggled to get away from
the rush in the times that he had to start
uh and playing games. So you would have thought that

(19:27):
when you had to turn to Isaac that wouldn't have
been as big of a problem, But it certainly was
last year for Isaac. And I know a lot of
that is in experience. Guy was a true freshman, Like
you can't expect him to just be able to avoid everything,
but you I expected him to be able to use it,
use his athleticism a little bit better than he did.

(19:47):
And I think some of that too was the system
that he was in.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
And yet the kind of athleticism that Bryson you know, exhibited,
for example, he's very downhill runner. And you saw the
times where they started getting him going downhill, you know,
the second half of the Washington State game. He's a
lot more productive. Same with Isaac. You've got to figure
out what his you know, athletic ability is, and you say, hey,

(20:11):
avoid it. You got to you got to deal and
channel it somewhere that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
And I think, uh, you know, he's he's a little
undersized as a quarterback.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
We don't need to get into breaking down that much.
But yeah, I mean the plan is he's not going
to play much this year, so we hopefully we don't
have to focus too much on.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
And the guy who is going to play has all
the athleticism. He can go outside, he can inside, he
can run between the tackles, he can do boots, you know,
he can scramble.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
He can escape. He has the experience, the college experience
now to be like this is how I can avoid
this kind of pressure that's coming to that. Isaac just
didn't have to, yep, one hundred percent. And and so
I think all that is to say that the most.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
And this is such a like an oxymoron in the
conversation where my most trusted group is the offensive line,
but really the key component in past protection is the
quarterback every single time. And so if the quarterback is
not operating at at one hundred percent in terms of
getting the protection where it needs to go or being
aware of what the protection is doing up front, if
you're you know, putting the calls on Jaron Kump, for example,

(21:13):
that's that that's a huge that causes issues, right And
so I think sometimes there were plays or moments where
Isaac's head was swimming so much last year. So I
guess what I'm trying to say here is I know
it saw it looked ugly and at times it was
really ugly.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
It is better than it probably looked. Number one.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Number two, I think that the biggest thing that I
love about this Utah football team, this offensive system that
they've brought in is the versatility in the running game
is so much better. And versatility means they're not running
inside zone from under center double tied every single first down,
you know, And I know why, and he led did that.
It was because you had to set up the play
action and all the downfield.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Throws and the action was such a huge part of
Bloodwig's offense, huge, huge, And that's really how they were.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
They were so good at scheming explosive plays in the
sense of, like, hey, you're going to be able to
complete a twenty yard pass just because of how the
offense is designed and all that stuff was built into
it in the sense of, like we can get ten
to fifteen explosive plays, and that's, you know, a big
thing in what they believe, how they view the game analytically,

(22:19):
and so when you didn't hit on those every single
time with reliability the way that Cam did, it really
bogged down the offense. And so it made the run
game look even worse because you're running that run play
as much to set everything up and we're down a defense.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
But then what do we do when the run game
looks bad? Or who do we blame first? Not the
running back, We blame the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Offensive line. So I'm not arguing with anybody who's saying
it looked bad last year. It did, and it was
look at the record. You know, at the end of
the day, it is a results based business. Yeah, But
I think my confidence level is that I know Jim
Harding wants to run different stuff in the run game.
I know he wants to get out and move. I
know they're going to do that more. We saw it
in the spring game.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
We got the offense that it's gonna allow him to
do that. Yeah, screen passes.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
You know, you've got really athletic guys on the front,
on the front five. I think you're finally, you know,
a guy like to know a TONGII who in the
past we saw slid out to tackle, is finally playing
in a natural position and guard. And that was one
of OSes, you know, start bench cuts. That kind of
cut me a little deep because he had Bulls, Gary Bulls,

(23:23):
Spence Fano, and Darren Paulo, And in my head, I'm like, well,
Darren Paulo is the obvious cut because he was never
really a tackle.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
He was a guardle along. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
So all that to say, like, that's why I trust
this group, That's why it would be the place where
I would invest all my all my thousands of pennies, all.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
All of us s's, all of os more than thousands
of Yeah, exactly. So I love that. Love the explanation too.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go with you too, I know,
I I know, I kinda I want at you a
little bit of about really you're not you're not picking
the coaching staff, but I I think I trust the
ligne the most too, because you've got you've got two

(24:08):
tackles who could be that could be the best two
tackles in college football this year. That's what's that's what
people are talking the way people are talking about Spencer
Fano and Caleboma and if they're not they're gonna, you know,
if if they live up to the expectations of how
well they're gonna play, they're gonna be they're gonna be
one of the best tackle combinations in college football. And

(24:30):
that that part is obviously so important to pass protection
and you know, getting things done on on uh on offense.
It's it's those two tackle spots you mentioned, you mentioned
the other experience they have on the line too. It's
it's one of the most experienced position groups, if not
the most, certainly on the offense and on the entire team.

(24:52):
So it's hard not to trust them the most, even
more than the coaching staff m hm at this point,
I think, And and part of that is you have
to take in a out big part of the coaching
staff is brand new offensive guys, the one side of
the ball is the same, the other side is not so.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
But the one holdover previously from that offensive staff is
Jim Harding.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Right, and that count Freddy, But yeah, you got who
also tight ends also figure into the blocking and the
blocking part of things too with the offensive line. So yes,
that I'm with you on that one. For me, the
least trusted part is still wide receiver. And I don't
know that. I don't know that it can't be the

(25:34):
most the least trusted part of this team until we
see that whatever whatever new receiver that's supposed to be
awesome performs and and ideally more than one, right, but
at least one guy shows that they can be the
number one guy we I think Dorian Singer absolutely would
have been that last year. He showed that he showed

(25:55):
flashes of that even with the very unidea quarterback situation,
so he would have been we wouldn't be talking about
how oh receivers let us down again if if they
had an ideal quarterback situation. But then Singer's gone too,
so you're starting over in that regard, So that that

(26:15):
for me is my least trusted.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Had Dorian Singer won his appeal. How much does that change?

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I think completely changes it for me. I might see,
I might say, I might say something like special teams
is least trusted because that there's so much turner, there's
so much turnover on who the returners are. Every year.

(26:45):
We it feels like we the team has there's been
a huge dittraction from the Matt Gay Andy Phillips days
where and Hackett Wishnowski days where it was like that
was the you know, some years, the best part of
the team other than the defense. It's been suspect since

(27:08):
those days. For even in the Pactal Championship years, you
could not totally trust the kicking game and sometimes that
punting game and the amount of the amount of breakdowns
they've had in kick return over the past few years too.
That's probably where it would go if Dorin Singer has

(27:29):
had been able to get that extra year of eligibility.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
This is another question that I have for you, because
I agree with you. My least stressed position group as
the wide receiver group. Are we putting Nate Johnson in
his wide receivers?

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh, that's a good question because he he's technically gonna
play everywhere. Right, he's gonna probably take some handoffs, he's
gonna play wildcat quarterback, and then he's gonna line up
his receiver. I suppose. I suppose because he he will
get a good amount of time in that athlete role
as as receiver, he would count yes and no.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
It still.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I still don't know that he's a great wide receiver.
I know he's a great athlete, and I know he's
capable of doing a lot with the football, and so
that part of his game has me excited to see
how Jason Beck, who is a known creative when it
comes to you know, getting guys the football and running
plays and things like that. Uh, that part of it
does have me thinking at the very least like, Okay,

(28:33):
I'm curious, but if what I saw in the spring
game is translates into the fall, meaning he's still learning
the wide receiver position, he is the great hope for
that group right now. You know, I like Dadrin Zipper,
Creed win More is fine. You know, nothing from my perspective,
I didn't see anything out of him that has me

(28:54):
just you know, salivating to see what he can do.

Speaker 6 (28:56):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
The guys that they've brought in I'm curious to see
how they do. They're a little bit of the last
chance YUI kind of wide receivers, and so.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
What third fourth school for some of these guys. Yeah,
I loved Autotia in high school, and I still need
to see him really buckle down and develop into the
player that I think he is capable of becoming. Now.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
I do have a lot of hope that Mike as
Simon can make that happen. I think Mike A. Simon's
a really really good coach. I think he's a breath
of fresh air for that room. I think the fact
that he knows Jason Back's system, that they've worked together
is all positives and so in that regards like least confident,
but maybe the hope and the optimism for where that

(29:40):
place could be.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Is the highest.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Okay, interesting because I kind of know what I'm getting
with the offensive line group. I don't know so much
about the wide receiver group. I have a pretty good
idea what I'm getting with the quarterback group. Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Maybe high, high upside, even though the least amount of
confidence I don't disagree with that. Coming up on The
Sean O'Connell Show, James Peterson, Brian Brown filling in for
OC today. He's calling some fights in Wichita later today.
We'll get him on the show at one point thirty
to talk about that air. Some grievances. We're gonna have

(30:16):
the we decided it ronin UT's legend. Parker Van Dyke
gonna join us. You're gonna hear the highlight of his
iconic three point buzzer beater in the comeback against UCLA.
We'll talk to him memories about that, his his pro career.
He's he's worked his way up to the G League
this last year and a reaction Alex Jensen Higher and

(30:39):
so much more. Ronn and Yuts talk with Parker Van Dyke.
Next on The Sean O'Connell Show, James Peterson, Brian Brown
filling in for OC on Utah's number one Sports Talk
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one. IFM proud to
be part of Utah's ESPN Radio, You're tuned to.

Speaker 7 (30:55):
The Sean o'connells Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of
ESPN seven.

Speaker 8 (31:03):
You're come.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Bairfield said, we get to the front board four seconds,
three seconds back to Vandyke decree up.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
Oh my god, the Youth's.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Winning at the buzzer. Can you believe that they win
it at the buzzer?

Speaker 5 (31:19):
Oh my good you do wind it at the buzzer.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
They beat the Bruins down twenty ry the second half.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 9 (31:30):
Parker Van Dyke plays.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
The hero in West One.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
How can you not smile when you hear that clip
that's Parker Van Dyke. Of course, you heard it over
and over again from Bill Riley. There game winning three
at the buzzer against UCLA twenty nineteen at poly Pavilion,
Curtsey Youth Sports Network in lear Field. At the time,
Bill Riley, Jimmy Soto on the call. Jimmy just laughing

(31:57):
in the middle all over Bill's call, which is makes
it even better. You love that, Just the genuine reaction
from the great Jimmy Soto. That shot, as you heard,
capped a twenty three point second half comeback for the
Running Utes. They win by one on that great shot.
We have We've decided Running Utes legend. Parker Van Dyke

(32:20):
on the line with us. Parker, it's a pleasure to
have you on. It's first time. I don't think we've
ever met in person. So it's great to meet you
over the phone here and great to have you on
the show. Thank you for coming on.

Speaker 10 (32:34):
It's great to me on guys. Thanks thanks for having me,
and thanks for taking a trip down memory lane. That
was It's pretty cool. That's an unforgettable moment and unforgettable
game that I don't know if, I don't know if
my life will get any better after that. Really, that
was a special, special moment. And it happened to be
on coach Tommy Connor's birthday, so it was just a

(32:56):
lot going on that day.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Wow. Yeah, at all time, I mean we were talking
about this. I'm not sure that because of all the
NCAA tournament success that Running Eats program has had all time,
maybe it gets lost in those things, but certainly in
the last ten years, an all time great moment in
running Ute history. How did that feel to it when

(33:18):
it happened, and how's it feel going you know when
you hear it again like you just did now knowing man,
I did that.

Speaker 10 (33:28):
I mean, it's you know, for me as a Utah
kid growing up in Salt Lake City, as a Utah fan,
going to all the games, it was a dream to
play for the Utes, and part of that dream was
also to try to try to etch my name into
the legendary history of Utah basketball that we all know
and love, you know, the Billy McGill's and the Verne

(33:51):
Gardners and the Danny Rains and Van Horn and Andre
Miller and so you know, I wasn't the type of
player of those guys, but I was able to have
a moment that kind of puts me in the history
of Utah basketball, which for me is so amazing and
it's worth worth everything for me because I was I'm
such a fan of the history of the program, and

(34:12):
so to have at least a moment that will be remembered,
you know, in the Utah basketball history books is very
special and you know something that I'll always.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Be grateful for. Parker.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
You talk about historical context, and you also played at
the local high school that has a pretty deep history
of great players. One on one tournament you Josh Grant
and Troy Bolton, who's walking out of that with the title.

Speaker 10 (34:41):
Well, if we're talking fictional Troy Bolton, he's pretty tough,
but real life Zach Effron, I don't think has a chance. Man,
Josh Grant would be tough, and he's got the size
advantage on me, so but I would take I would
take high school Parker Van Dyke versus high school Troy
Bolton and Josh Grant later on. Josh was probably a
better player than me, but high school versus seventeen year

(35:03):
olds of versions of us, I would take myself, but
Josh probably would contest that.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
So I want to follow that up because I think
that that question is so much in jest, but I
also think it kind of encapsulates just how far you've
come as a basketball player. And you mentioned, you know,
you talk about the great players in the history of
Utah basketball and it's a very long list, and you
know all those names that I recognize the fact that
you can name off somebody like Billy the Hill McGill.
That tells me a lot about you know, your knowledge

(35:30):
of that. But I also want to talk about your
development a little bit as a player. You've come so
far from the University of Utah to where last year
you're playing in, in my estimation, one of the second
the second best basketball leagues in the world. What has
that journey been like for you to leave Utah. I
know that there probably weren't a lot of people out

(35:51):
there believing that you could do this. To now having
accomplished that much.

Speaker 10 (35:56):
It's been an incredible journey, and I'll tell you what
it's arts from. You know, the foundation that I was
able to create at East High School and then going
into the University of Utah. I was able to play
with such great teammates and such a great coaching staff.
They kind of laid the foundation for me. And I
think a lot of people forget, like when you're in college,
you're still pretty young. I mean, you're still young in

(36:19):
your basketball journey. And so when I finished at Utah,
I knew my best basketball was still ahead of me,
that I was still I had a lot of potential
and still was kind of progressing. You know, I wish
I played in today's game, where I feel like players
are playing for seven or eight years. I only played
for four. But I just thought I still had a
lot of runway left in my career. And you know,

(36:41):
I've been fortunate to have some great opportunities in Europe
and then the G League, like you said, where I've
been able to showcase that, and so it's been great.
I mean there was times that wasn't great though. There
was times I wanted to stop. There was times I
wanted to quit. You know, I had some rough times
during COVID and but was able to keep pursuing and
keep pushing and kind of using those things that I

(37:02):
learned at the University of Utah from you know, how
to persevere and how to be coachable and things like that,
and just keep going. And as I kept going, I
was rewarded with doors and opportunities. And it's been a
it's been a very special career and I really had
a great experience last year in the G League playing
for the Austin Spurs and playing in the Spurs organization.

(37:22):
So yeah, I'm just extremely grateful for it, and a
lot of credit goes to the time I spent at
the Universe of Utah for preparing me for for the journey.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
We're talking with Parker Van Dyke here on the Sean
O'Connell show, me James Peterson, that guy Brian Brown filled
in for OC today on the show. What what tell
us about your experience? What what that was like playing
in Europe? Because we hear the stories about how intense
and how different the fan bases can be over there.

(37:53):
How it's so it's very the the diehard part of
the basketball fandom over there is a lot like the
soccer fandom over there. We've we've heard some crazy stories
from other people. What was your experience in Estonia, Germany
and Spain.

Speaker 10 (38:09):
A lot of great experiences and a lot of I've met,
you know, a lot of great friends have come from
those experiences and those teams. You know, a big adjustment
Americans have is just living over there, is just moving
over there, living in Europe and adjusting and adapting to
the new cultures, new places, you know, different languages, things
like that. That's that's a big part of the challenge

(38:32):
is just trying to find trying to be happy while
you're living over there and kind of embracing the differences
between European Europe and America. And then, you know, I
think a big, a big thing. That's a little it's
a big adjustment over there is in the States, you know,
we played three four games a week. You know, we're

(38:53):
constantly playing games. We don't practice as much. It's more
you know, game centric. Over there, you're practicing five six
times a week and playing one game a week, and
that is so that's a little bit of a grind
where I call it an eight month long football season.
You're over there practicing Monday through Friday. You'll play Saturday,
takes Sunday off, and then kind of run it back

(39:14):
and that's that that can be. That's a grind for sure,
and that's different than Americans are used to. The positive
of that, though, is is like you're saying, the fan,
the fan devotion, every game is a big game is
very important because you don't play as much. So that's
where it does have a little bit of a football feel.
Every game is a big deal, every game matters, and

(39:36):
so it makes those games very very intense and a
lot of fun, especially in Germany. Germany has great fan bases.
Just about everywhere I played in Germany had really really
good fan bases. So a lot of fun to play.
And it's it's special to continue to play in games
that matter and play in high competitive games against good players.
And so the opportunity to continue to do that after college,

(39:58):
even if you don't make the NBA is is a
special opportunity for American players.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, I would think so does it would? I know
you said you're you're practicing a lot more so maybe
maybe you're gonna maybe this answer this would be no,
But did you feel like you were you had more energy,
you were fresher for each game since you've played about
one game a week instead of multiple.

Speaker 10 (40:19):
Yes and no, And because sometimes those practices would would
wear you down, you know, and so all of a sudden,
by you know, you're practicing every day and these aren't
like practices usually usually they're pretty hard practice. You know,
you're going five on five, you know, physical and long practices,
and so sometimes if you didn't do a good job
of preparing yourself, taking care of your body, as sometimes

(40:40):
you'd be pretty you'd be pretty beat by the end
of the by the end of the week and when
that game would happen. And so over time, though, you
kind of get used to the schedule, and if you
have a good coach who has a good understanding of
how to manage the week and manage the players throughout
the week, you know, because the goal is to be
your best, at your best and the freshest when you

(41:00):
get to the game. But if there's any overseas players listening,
they know that that's not always the case. But that's
something you kind of that's a learning curve you you
have to take on as a player, as a professional,
like I got to make sure I'm at my best
for game day, regardless of what's happening throughout the week.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Parker, You've had a varied experience in terms of your
basketball career. I'm going to redirect this a little bit
up to what's going on in the Hill right now
at the University of Utah. And while I don't expect
you to have a breakdown on every player on the roster,
I do think you have a unique understanding of the
challenges the program faces and kind of the direction that
it should trend in as they move forward. What give

(41:41):
us your thoughts on, first of all, Alex Jenson as
the hire as head coach, and then what you would
do maybe if you were in his position in trying
to rebuild what's been a really proud program.

Speaker 10 (41:55):
Well, I'm super excited about Alex Jensen that hire. Actually
was able to meet him surprisingly for the first time
earlier this week, and I you know, I think he's
a great coach. In my mind, he was the only
higher for the you that it needed to happen, So
I'm so glad it did. You know, the program needed
a Utah guy like Alex who has his experience and

(42:16):
has his resume, but also has a connection to the
glory days of Utah basketball. You know, the fan, the
Utah basketball fan, that's what that's what they remember, that's
what they reminisce about, is the days of Majeris And
you know, Alex was a center piece of those teams,
and so to have a Utah guy connected to that
era is so important. And there's a level of excitement

(42:38):
I think around the program that there hasn't been for
a long time because of that. And so that's something
that's so big about him being, you know, the new
head coach. And you know, I'm super excited for this team.
It's a it's a brand new team, but it seems
that we seem to have a level of talent and
level of athleticism that we haven't seen for a while.

(42:58):
And so I'm excited for these group of guys. My
thing that I hope can happen with Alex at the
Helm is that the players coming into the program and
the current players truly understand where they are. They understand
how special the University of Utah is, how much rich

(43:19):
history we have and that it means something to have
success as a Utah basketball player. That when you have
success with Utah across your chest and you have the
opportunity to put your name in the history books with
these great names that I've mentioned before, that means that's
really special and that means something. And so I hope
that Alex can sell that vision to these players to

(43:42):
get them to want to stay and to want to
come here because they want to be a part of
that history. And that's something that's going to be a
really hard sell because in today's game, people are you
know you, people are free agents after every year and
they're taking more money. And I understand that that's part
of the business and I think it's great for players.
But if we can find a way to get these

(44:02):
players to buy into the great culture and the great
program that we have, that'll get guys to stay. I
think that'll get guys, that'll get the top local guys
to come and want to be a part of it,
and that'll help build something because that's what Utah basketball needs.
They need guys who are there for two or three years,

(44:23):
and that's how you're going to compete at the highest
levels when you've got guys who have been there for
two or three years. And so for me that was
something that helped me out last guys and beat out
guys I think while I was there is because for
me there was no going anywhere else. They wanted to
have success that you. I didn't want to just have
success as as a college basketball player. I wanted to
have success at Utah because it meant something to me.

(44:46):
So if we can help the current and future players
embrace that vision, which I think Alex Kankisse is the
Utah guy, that's something that will really help the program.
And I think that's something the fans want to see,
is they want to see the same guys we're in
the same uniform for two or three years.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Love that, uh, Parker, And I think every every Utah
fan running utes fan that specifically that's listening to this
shares that same vision that you have and we certainly
do here on the Home of the Youth. So got
to let you go. We really appreciate your time, Parker.
Let's let's definitely do this again. When when Shawn's back
in the air chair, we'll have to get you on.

(45:23):
You guys can talk a little bit too. Sound good.

Speaker 10 (45:26):
Yeah, we'd love to love to be back on. Appreciate
you guys having me on and excited for the future
of Utah basketball.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
One thing, Parker, just before we let you go, I
know you've got a basketball camp coming up. Did you
want to provide that a little bit.

Speaker 10 (45:40):
Yeah, I've got you know, in the summers, when I'm
home for the off season, I usually run basketball camps,
and I've got a you know, probably the biggest and
best basketball camp I've put on yet. I'm doing it
at my alma mater, East High School. It's next week
Monday through Wednesday, So that's the twenty third through the
twenty fifth, nine to eleven am in East High School.
And I'm super excited to be able to run that

(46:01):
for you know, all the kids in all the kids
in the area, and to be able to give back
the community. And I, like we've talked about, I've had
I've been so fortunate and so blessed with a great
basketball career. I've had great coaches, and so it's my
goal now to take those things I've learned and pass
them on to the community and help the future generation,

(46:21):
you know, benefit from some of the coaching and some
of the things I've learned so that they can, you know,
they can build their careers. And so I'm really passionate
about that and I'm looking forward to that's that's next
week at East High School twenty three to twenty fifth.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Is there a place that parents and kids need to
sign up? You go to sign up?

Speaker 10 (46:39):
Yeah, the best way to sign up is on Instagram
that I've got a link in my account at Parker
Van Bike Are at PVD Camps five. Those are my
two Instagram accounts. You can find a link in the
bio there to sign up, and it's for kids from
third grade all the way up through high school. And
you know, I'm a big believer in camps. I grew
up going to a lot of camps, but I think

(47:01):
the camps need to be they need to be ran
the right way. And one message I would like to
share to all kids who are coming or who might come,
is you don't go to camps just to get better,
because the reality is you're not going to get better
in a two or three day camp if that's all
you do. You go to camps to learn how to
get better. And so I'm hoping to teach kids the

(47:24):
tools that they can learn in my camp to then
implement for the rest of the summer, because that's where
you really separate yourself as a kid. Is Okay, yeah,
I'm going to camps, I'm playing games, I'm on this
AAU team. But am I taking what I learned? Am
I applying it and using it when, you know, on
my own time? And so that's something I want to

(47:44):
try to help give a message to the kids is
thank you for coming. It's great that you're here, but
now take what you've learned, and hey, go do it
on your own, going to a gym with your dad
or with some friends, and go work on these things
on your own, because that's what's really going to help
you separate yourself and become a great player.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Couldn't have said it better Parker as a guy who
grew up in camps. And also one of the reasons
I probably didn't have much of a careers because that's
all I did. So that's a good and had fun
doing that and then thought, hey, I don't need to
work anymore. I did this at camp. So a great
message there, and be sure to head out to Parker's camp.
Give the details a little bit after we do, let

(48:20):
you go here Parker once again, so thank you for
thank you for coming on, and definitely we'll need to
do this again soon.

Speaker 10 (48:27):
Awesome anytime, guys appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
So that's that camp. By the way, he said, Monday
through Wednesday next week at East High School. To go
to his instagram, he say, at Parker Van Dyke Instagram,
and he's got a link there for any parents out
there that got kids who love basketball or you just
want to get him to try another sport, head over there,
sign up and go check that out next week. I

(48:51):
can't imagine getting much better instruction in this area then
from a guy like Parker Van Dyke. We gave you
his resume. He talked quite a bit about it. I
got the link pulled up right now. Should I just
go ahead and sign us both up? Let's do it.
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
I need to I need to work on my skills,
so let's let's go. I know he said that it
was grade school at the high school. Uh, I feel
like I think that I think like a grade school kids,
so high school level maturity over on this end.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
So but seriously, go check that out parents out there
and kids who want to get better at their game,
learn how to get better, and then you got to
do the work the rest of the way to get
to actually get better.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Learn from me people spoken spoken by somebody who's like
proven that right.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Yeah, absolutely, uh so, Yeah, awesome stuff from Parker Van Dyke.
Hot Lunch is next, Brian and uh it's ours. It's
kind of RSL related, related to RSL's big star right now,
he's killing it in the Gold Cup with US men's
national team. We'll talk about that next in the Hot Lunch.
This is the Sean O'Connell Show. I'm James Peterson. That's

(49:56):
Brian Brown filling in for o c Here on Utah's
number one sports stock s ME in seven hundred ninety two.

Speaker 7 (50:06):
You're listening to the Sean O'Connell show for the Murdoch
HOUNDI Studio of.

Speaker 8 (50:12):
Hundred and am.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Hot Lunch time on the Sean O'Connell Show. James Peterson,
Brian Brown filling in forro Ce today. You'll get to
hear from oc later in the show. Don't you worry
about that it's one thirty layer some grievances with him.
Talk PFL that Tony Jones coming up a few minutes
from now, talk a lot of NBA Finals, NBA Draft
with Tony Love love having Tony on the show. But

(50:39):
for the hot lunch, I wanna go a little soccer
talk here on the Sean O'Connell show. I know something
we don't do a whole lot of but Gold Cups
underway right now, Brian Brown. And there's a local guy
just who's making an incredible I guess not first impression,
but an incredible impression on head coach Maurice Poachattino and

(51:02):
US men's national team. Yeah it's I mean, it's I
don't know if by the way, Yeah, for anybody who's
in the know with RSL right now, it's pretty obvious
who we were talking about, right And I'm not I'm
not gonna go ahead and say that I'm a big
time soccer guy, but I do follow it enough and
obviously listen to the station, and so I listened to

(51:24):
oh S's more hockey, Spence a little more soccer. Yeah, definitely,
so you get a lot of that good stuff.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
I think the interesting conversation around him has been, you know,
once the Miller family took over, what was going to
happen to those good young players, and they came out
and said pretty staunchly, didn't say him by name, but
we want to keep our good young talent here.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
We don't want to sell them to help our bottom line.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, Like, which what a novel concept if you want
people to stay interested in your franchise.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
But listen that that way of doing things in the
last two last couple of ownership groups for ourself, that's
in line with what happens in the soccer world. Like
you you, which is one of the maddening things for
someone who for people who aren't lifelong soccer fans as
you try to get used to that so used to

(52:17):
the sport, is that also you don't just keep your
good players all the time because they're good players, like
not necessarily, it's part of the strategy of the front office.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
And I do think some of what happens in soccer
should translate to other sports, Like I wish the NBA
would adopt a loan system because I would have loved
to see Laurie Markinen get loaned out for a year
last year and go play for a contender and see
what he could have done. Because the Jats clearly weren't
interested in winning. Uh, But that's one of those we
can say that for next week when we have you know,

(52:49):
four shows and no sports going on to talk about
lots of draft prep.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Yeah, oh boy.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Maybe maybe some airing of grievances for next Friday too.
But Doego is such a interesting player to me because
he's really the only reason to watch Ursel right now
in the sense of, like the.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Respect to some of the other young talent they've they're
developing some of the young players really well, and I
know that the results they want and Diego it just
jumps off the jumps off the pitch as you watch him.
Oh you love that, huh soccer guy over here.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Yeah, waiting for you to use into touch a in
a sentence coming up here you and coach last. But
I think it's it's it's part of being a sports fan,
and that's that's really so hard and frustrating, is that
everybody's competing to win a championship and you do have
to take steps back at a time. And I think

(53:43):
the ownership transition eventually will be a good thing. But
right now RSL missed out on some opportunities. They had
some bad luck come come their way with the last
transfer window, you know, had a deal set up that
fell through. Wasn't entirely on them, uh, And so this
team right now is a little uninteresting. Now they are
starting to bring up some of the younger players from

(54:05):
the system, you know, the guys that they've they've developed,
and so it's fun to see them on the field
now and and seeing what they're able to do. But
I think really what you have is you have a
pillar now in Diego Luna, who's a very marketable player,
a very good player, kind of has shades of like
Kyle Beckerman.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
In the sense of not salad play, but in the
sense of like me. This is a guy that a
lot of people have underestimated and once he gets, you know,
up the ladder, people realize, whoa, he's really good. Well
he's it's a different leadership style to different personality from Kyle,
but he's that kind of dynamic leader that that Kyle
grew in to be for for RSL certainly nowhere near

(54:46):
down the road in his development that Kyle ended up
being is a legend of the of the U of
the franchise and and the captain right are Derek Jeter.
Here at the captain. But he's he's doing that in
his own way, which which is really cool, Which is
part of what, uh, going back to what I said
about the US men's national team, it's part of what

(55:08):
Pochettino loves about him. He loves his attitude. He loves
how positive he is, he loves how how much energy
he brings to himself and the group and it and
it permeates the rest of the group. And that's what
you know. Jenny taft Fo from Fox Sports had a
mid game sideline report talking just about that. The other

(55:29):
thing we if you're a soccer fan, you heard this now.
It's almost becoming apocryphal story over the last couple of
months of how he smashed his gout, his nose smashed
up in a game against Mexico earlier this year, and
he told he told Pochatino, get me back out there,
and then once they got it cleared by the medical staff,
he got him back out there and he played, which

(55:49):
showed so much toughness doing that. Pochatino said, he's got
big you know what's in the postgame show. In the
postmatch show, so it was, uh, he's made quite the
impression and it's really cool to see. It's really cool
that the rest of the world, if he continues this
trajectory and makes the World Cup roster and in this
Gold Cup, is going to has a chance to see

(56:12):
what we have already begun to see here locally about Diego.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Luna, do you feel like he's a lock for the
World Cup roster because I feel like he's getting that.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
A lot of smarter soccer people than myself are saying that,
so I trust them. It feels far enough out that
I'm not totally sure enough myself to say that's going
to happen set in Stone. And there's other veterans from
the last World Cup cycle that are gonna a right

(56:41):
that aren't playing in the Gold Cup that are gonna
be on the team too, So I think it still
remains to be seen. But I feel pretty good about
the A lot of the other soccer analysts who have
who've been who put went out of the women and said, yes,
he's a he's a World Cup player. I feel pretty
good about that at this point.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Yeah, And that's a nice building block to have if
you're a RSL right now, because I think one thing
is everybody striving to be better great players want to
play with other great players. And so if you have
a player like Diego, you know, and I think you
talk about his attitude, I think there are other guys
on the roster that could benefit a little bit from

(57:19):
sharing his attitude. Uh And and you know, again, you've
got younger guys in the program that the team is trying.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
To bring along and and bring up and introduce, you know.
And it's good that they're getting some playing time now
where he's away as well, right, but when he comes back,
they're going to see a different level of his investment
and attitude and leadership and everything else.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
And so it's it's nothing like in a season where
there hasn't been a lot of positives, like if there
was some sort of development where like Deontay George had
been called up to like a USA Select team for
Jazz fans or Taylor Hendrix for example.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
But like Walker did play for the World Cup team,
the basketball World Cup team and then had it subsequently
had an off year last year, but then rebounded, you know,
more than nicely this past year. If he'd if he'd
just been able to show that show what he did
this year in year two, there would have been a
lot more excitement about Hey, he was look at what

(58:19):
he did with the World Cup. What look what this
did for him. I think we can still say that,
but it was far enough or move that it didn't
feel like it benefited him all that much.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
So I feel like Jazz fans would have been excited
if something like that had happened this season.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
Absolutely, Isaiah Collier getting the rookie assist record, that's fun.
I think everybody kind of understood after a little while
that was like, well, stock was only playing twelve minutes
a game as a rookie, so like maybe it's not
as big a deal and it just wasn't a lot
to promote. Like that's really the angle that I look
at from this is is like we're talking like something
that I can enjoy because it is the hot lunch segment, right, Yeah,

(58:57):
that's gonna make me feel good and be tasty as
a fan. It's hey, there's something positive with my team
right now. And you know, it is a kind of
kind of a tough era right now in the Utah
sports landscape where a lot of these teams are in
rebuild mode at the same time, but at the same time,

(59:17):
to know that there's a player out there like that,
and and you know, I think that's the exciting part
about the draft for me is that the Jazz could
potentially get you know, I have my hopes that they
somehow finagle a deal to get up to get VJ edgecom.
But you know, good luck with that, because I think
the NBA the secrets out on him. But for RSL
to have a player like that already in in in

(59:38):
the stable, in the in the in the fold, and
to see that national recognition too, I think that's big
for Diego, the thing that keeps running through the back
of behind. Did you see him go to the and
Or premiere?

Speaker 1 (59:50):
I miss that. It's a good clip. I totally miss that.
I have to look that up. But yeah, there's a
hot lunch segment there. Diego Luna show out for US men,
for US men's national team. Excited to see him the
rest of the Gold and the rest and the team
and the rest of the Gold Cup. They certainly got
themselves a young franchise pillar that is our sl ESPN

(01:00:12):
seven hundred and ninety two one FM welcomes Nate Jackson
to Kingsbury Hall speaking of University of Utah, November seventh.
Tickets are on sale now and listen to The Drive
with Spence Jackets the rest of this week and the
next week as well for your chance to win a
pair of tickets. Tony Jones on the other side, Game
seven NBA Finals, We've yet to talk about it. We're

(01:00:34):
gonna talk all about it with Tony Jones. Were less
than a week away from the NBA Draft as well,
What do the Jazz do that? And more with Tony
Jones on the other side, This is the Sean O'Connell
Show on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred
ninety two one FM.

Speaker 8 (01:00:58):
Sean O'Connell Show, Home of the Best Side Up uigeat.

Speaker 7 (01:01:02):
Let's get back to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
PESPN seven hundred ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Forty five seconds.

Speaker 10 (01:01:13):
You go past Stolan by Halliburton, how about Tyres Halliburton.

Speaker 7 (01:01:17):
Oh, look that's ok with the jab Haliburton delivery in
game sets twenty point lead Indiana.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Hey, that's Pascal Siakam's poster dunk in transition off the
Halliburton Steel Pacers dominant win last night in the NBA Finals.
They're up thirty at one point win by seventeen. Courtesy
ESPN Radio. Mark Kesterscher on the call Game seven Sunday
nights in Okasee. I love that we're getting the Game

(01:01:48):
seven in the NBA Finals. UH can't wait for it.
Covered starting at five, we'll have it for you here
on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM, brought
to you by Budweiser and Bud Bud Light. We are
your home of the NBA Finals. UH so excited to
talk more about this with Tony Jones from the Athletic Tony,

(01:02:08):
what's going on?

Speaker 6 (01:02:09):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
What's going on? How are you doing great? Uh? Got James,
You got me, James Peterson. Brian Brown filling in for
OC today. Thanks for coming on, Tony. Your thoughts on
Game six Pacers big bounce back win, obviously.

Speaker 6 (01:02:24):
Big route, Yeah, I mean obviously the you know, a
big bounce back win for them. You know, I was,
you know, reasonably certain that that the Pacers would play
really well. I was pretty shocked at how poorly Oklahoma

(01:02:45):
City played. You know, I thought that, you know, given
the fact that you know, they were uh, you know,
on the cuff of of you know, their first NBA
title in Oklahoma City. I thought that, you know, they
would play a better game. It turned out that they didn't,
you know, but you know, Indiana's been you know, as

(01:03:07):
resilient a team as we've seen in the playoffs. So
I mean, you know, I did not think that they
were going to go quietly, but I did think that,
you know, the Thunder would play much better. And you know,
I thought that we were going to have a much
closer game than then it turned out. I didn't anticipate
that blowout.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
At all, Tony.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
This series has had a lot of adjustments, and I
think you've seen a real chess match between two very
talented coaches and Mark Dagnall and Rick Carlisle. Did you
see anything last night that makes you think maybe the
Thunder or in bigger trouble going into Game seven than
previously thought?

Speaker 6 (01:03:49):
Well, I mean the big adjustment that Indiana. You know,
first of all, I'm not surprised that this game is,
this series is going seven. I take this series to
go seven and before the series started, so I'm not
surprised that this is this is where it is. I
thought that these were two even teams. I know, the

(01:04:10):
consensus didn't have it that way I thought that, I know,
the consensus was that, you know, this would be you know,
one of those uh this would be a blowout or
a short series. But I didn't think that this will
be a short series at all. What I did think.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
In terms of.

Speaker 6 (01:04:33):
What I did think in terms of adjustments that that
helped the Pacers last night was you know that they
finally kind of sold out against Shay Gills as Alexander.
They finally you know, put five guys in the lane
defensively and actually forced the ball, you know, beyond the

(01:04:54):
three point line and made guys make shots beyond the
three point line. And that's the first time that in
this series that we've seen that, uh. And I thought that,
you know, that was something that Oklahoma City wasn't anticipating.
And you know, obviously they went like one for their
first sixteen from three point range, you know, but I

(01:05:15):
think that that's one of the things that you know,
you kind of have to do against this thunder team.
You have to you know, make Shay Gills with Alexander
and Jalen Williams see bodies in the lane. And I
thought that for the first time in this series they did.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
That last night, that was definitely something that those two
in particular were able to do almost that will through
the first five games was get was getting the lane
and we I mean, I've got Jalen Williams going in
the lane. That's ridiculous. Scoop lay up with both Hans
he does. Just burning the back of my head as

(01:05:51):
you as you talk about that, Tony, I wonder if
that was not I mean, it's not intentional the whole
something back that you might have success with. But maybe
was that something that Rick Carlisle late in the series
is like, I've do you think he's Is there a
chance he's going I know we can do this later,

(01:06:13):
but I don't want to show it too early. Is
that Is that maybe what happened here with with that
adjustment they made, or is that just like no, like
I'm done watching him go through the lane. We need
to make this adjustment now.

Speaker 6 (01:06:24):
Well. The danger of selling out, you know, I mean, James,
you play basketball, You're a shooter. You know the danger
of selling out is that you're giving up wide open
threes right like, you're giving up you know, not only
good looks for you know, NBA players, You're giving up
good looks for anybody. And you know, the thing that

(01:06:48):
helped Indiana obviously last night is that you know, they
just the thunder just didn't make those shots. But you know,
at some point, you know, you had to figure out
a way to just kind of make it a little
bit more difficult for for s g A and make
it a little bit more difficult for for Jalen Williams.

(01:07:11):
You know. And the danger of this, you know, is
that if you play the same way on Sunday, if
you're Indiana, you know, those role players for Oklahoma City
are more much more likely to make those shots at
pay Con Center than they than they were on the
road in in Indianapolis. So, you know, I think it's

(01:07:32):
got to be you know, I don't think you have
to adjust all the way back, but I think it's
got to be more of of a balance.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:07:41):
You know, obviously, if you're Rick Carlisle and you're the
Indiana Pacers, if you you know, employ the same kind
of defense, you're going to have to anticipate, you know,
the Lou Dort and Aaron Wagins and and Alex Caruso
making a lot more of those shots, and you're gonna
have to take a lot more punches. You know, at

(01:08:02):
the end of the day, this was a thirty point
game at the end of the third by the end
of the third quarter, and you know, and I think
that there were there were a number of reasons why
we got uh to that point. But you know, it's
going to be interesting to see what the film says
for Indiana and you know, how they adjust to what

(01:08:23):
they did in Game six and you know what the
what the defense will be with for Game seven.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Tony, I want to make a joke about TJ McConnell
being the best player in this series, but talk about
a little bit just how his style of play has
impacted this and and kind of in contrast to where
you know, Okayse, he's so hypercentric around SGA, but Indiana
has been able to do this with a variety of

(01:08:54):
players stepping up and not always being you know, the
Tyrese Haliburton show.

Speaker 6 (01:09:00):
Well, it's a good believe it or not, it's a
really good matchup for TJ McConnell because his style of
play is I'm just going to beat you into the
lane off the dribble, and I'm just going to get
to my spot. And that's the style of play that
you want a guard to have. Against a pressure defense.
Oklahoma City pressures all over the floor. They you know,

(01:09:23):
they get up into your shorts. And against that kind
of a defense, you know, it's it's hard to run offense,
and it's hard to run sets, and it's hard to
go through you know, your your sets offensively and you know,
go through checks and balances and you know, and go
through you know, and you know, go through different go

(01:09:45):
through different things. You know, sometimes against you know, teams
that just get up into you, you just go buy
them and you get to the basket. And that is
the best thing that TJ McConnell does at an NBA level.
At an NBA level, he's not somebody that you really
want to actually run an offense. That's why he's coming

(01:10:06):
off the bench, you know at the NBA. You know,
at the NBA level, the reason why he's been in
the league for ten years is that he can get
paint touches off the dribble. So against this matchup, you know,
when okay see goes out and they you know, and
they challenge you, and they challenge the dribble. You know,
mcconnald's just going by him going by people, and you know,

(01:10:27):
because of the style of defense you know that you
know they employ is basically you're just going by one
guy and you're getting to the basket or you getting
to your spot in the mid range ten feet away.
And that's why McConnell's been, you know, so effective in
this series because you know, the way Oklahoma City defends

(01:10:49):
is right up his alley as a player. You know,
if you watch this series, it's been more difficult for
Halliburton to run an offense against you know, the Thunder
than it has been for McConnell to just go ahead
and beat the Thunder off the dribble. You know. The
one thing I like about say, Gil's Gilgess Alexander is

(01:11:12):
that you know, he's he's ball dominant, but he's not heliocentric,
or he hasn't been always heliocentric. You know, it's been
more you know, he's ball dominant, but you know, they
figure out ways to get other people involved, and you know,
and that's probably you know, one of the best traits
that SGA has, you know. So it's been a really

(01:11:35):
good matchup and you know, I think it's been you know,
pretty easily the best final series that we've seen since
twenty sixteen when when that series against Golden State and
the Cavaliers went seven games, you know, and I think
it's been a really good showcase for the NBA as
a whole.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
I wanted to ask something jazz related in that, but
you mentioned at the very end, I think this has
been one of the best series, uh that, like you mentioned,
in almost ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Do you feel like this is the beginning of a
different version of the NBA And.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Are there lessons that not only the Jazz but other
teams can take from this contest in terms of how
to build a championship roster.

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
Well, team building is a lot different because you know
the CBA. You know, because of the new CBA, you know,
you're just not going to be able to to team
building a way that teams are built in the past.
And you know, a boy that I mean, you know,
having you know, three top heavy players, you know you
can have it, but it's just you know, probably not

(01:12:45):
going to work at this point. You have to have
depths in this era to to to win a championship.
I think that that was proven this year. I think
it was proven last year with Boston. You know, and
their top evy teams uh in in this league. You

(01:13:05):
know that that you know ran out of gas at
some point. You know, the the Denver Nuggets when they
won a championships, you know, they were nine deep. You
know this year they're about seven deep. Uh And you
know they kind of ran out of gas against Oklahoma
City in the second round. You know, if they had

(01:13:26):
two more guys that were playoffs that will playoff playable,
they would have been more fresh in for for Game
seven and then they might may have had it. They
very well may have had a chance to beat Oklahoma
City in that Game seven. You know the thing that
you know stand out with Oklahoma City and the Indiana

(01:13:48):
Pacers are two things. Number one, those have been unequivocally
the two best teams in the league since January. And
you know, second, you know they're been the two deepest teams.
You know, both of those got both of these teams
go ten deep, and you know, not just ten deep
in bodies. You know, the New York Knicks and the

(01:14:10):
Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah, they put bodies on the floor,
but those aren't playoff players. Those aren't players that you
want to play in a rotation in the postseason. You know,
Indiana has ten guys that are playoff players that are
sixteen game players, and the same goes for Oklahoma City.
And I think that that's the going to be the

(01:14:31):
new waves of the league. If you want to win
the championship, you're going to have to do it with
as much with depth as you're going to have to
do it with top every talent.

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
Yeah, that's something that's that stood out to me as
I've watched as I watched this playoff run. You mentioned
your New York Knicks, they probably had among their eight
man rotation that they that they stuck with for the
entire regular season and most with playoffs. Going into that
Indiana series, I mean, you could argue they were much

(01:15:05):
more talented than a than all but maybe a couple
of the Pacers top eight. But the Pacers had a
couple more guys, right, And that depth seemed to matter
a ton and and we saw that in the Western
Conference with OKC as well play out. So that that's
been the thing that stood out to me, is like,
it's the amount of guys you got and it's not

(01:15:25):
necessarily that what your top end talent is going forward
seems to be the thing that's gonna win a when
help you win out in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
Transitioning to the NBA Draft, because we're a week away
from that, Tony, You're covering a couple of teams, including
including the Jazz sixers as well with top five picks.
But I want to start with the with Sixers angle
here too, that also may have something that may may
end up affecting the Jazz what they do at five two.

(01:15:57):
Ace Bailey made headlines and you you wrote about this
as well, about canceling his workout with the Sixers. I'm
just curious what you think that means for his draft stock.
Does that mean if he's available at five, because if
the Sixers say, Okay, you don't want to interest in us,
we'll we'll pick someone else. Is that Is that a

(01:16:18):
guy that you think the Jazz would be interested in
taking because he does seem to have a very high
upside and star potential, but he's also got there's a
lot of question marks is too, and a lot of
reason to think that he won't end up seeing that potential.
I just wonder what the fallout might be with this
Ace Bailey stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Well, the the canceling draft workouts and all that stuff.
I mean, that's let me keep it real, that's inconsequential.
You know, if teams want to draft you, it's not
gonna a guy canceling the workout isn't going to stop
a team for drafting. What the thing that are making

(01:17:04):
teams wary of Ace Bailey isn't you know how he's
handling you know, the pre draft process. It's, you know,
what his floor is as a player and what his
feeling is as a player. It's the people that are
around him. It's the interviews that he's given him when

(01:17:26):
you know, everybody got to interview him at the Combine,
so you know, and that's that's the other dirty, low secret.
I mean, people could say, hey, you know, he's not
working out for the Sixers or he hasn't yet worked
out for the Jazz. Well, the Jazz interviewed him. The
Jazz interviewed him at the Combine, The Sixers interviewed him
at the Combine, The Spurs interviewed him at the Combine,

(01:17:47):
The Hornets interviewed him at the Combine. When you go
to the Combine, you know those interviews are mandated, so
you know, these people have seen him and they've talked
to him. You know, the advantage of getting him into
your building is you get to go to dinner with him,
You get to sit down with him and his family,

(01:18:08):
You get to you know, watch him go through a workout,
things like that, you know, and those can be you know,
those can be tiebreakers. But you know, ten years ago,
Dante Exsham refused to work out for the Utah Jazz
because the Jazz has Trey Burke and you know, those
guys played the same position Dante Axham at the Combine.

(01:18:30):
At the Combine interview, we asked him about the Jazz,
you know, whether he would go work out for the Jazz,
and he turned out not to work out for the Jazz.
And ExHAM told us, he said, why would I work
out for the Utah Jazz. They have Trey Burke at
my position, Like he said it publicly. And guess what,
the Utah Jazz drafted him because when they got to
the fifth pick, they they they concluded that Dante Exsham

(01:18:58):
was the best player on the board. So you know
it the eighth barely gets to the third pick, and
you know, the Philadelphia seventy six ers conclude that he's
the best player on their personal board, they're going to
take them, and if not, they're not going to take them.
You know, the thing that dots pre draft workouts at

(01:19:20):
this point is that you know, agents try to steer
and try to manipulate the process to get their guys
into the best position that you know, they perceived to
be possible. So, you know, and that's why you see
some of the shenanigans go on that that you see
right now. That's why you see you know, teams you know,

(01:19:41):
trying to get guys into their building. You know, that's
why you see you know, kind of all of this
back and forth, you know, because you know, agents you know,
want to get their guys uh into the position where
you know they're they you know, perceive where they're going
to have the mo opportunity. But once you get drafted,

(01:20:02):
you are that team. You you are with that team
most likely for seven to eight years under that team's control.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:20:12):
And that's why you see a lot of this stuff
in the pre draft crop process because they know that,
you know, there's no control left once a team drafts
that person, so you know, it's it's just posturing, you know,
with Ace Bailey and you know the things, the things

(01:20:32):
that are you know, scaring teams off on Ace Bailey
isn't you know whether he's going to work out for
for them or not. It's a whole bunch of other things,
you know, Uh, with him as a player, and you know,
with some of the people he has around him off
the floor.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
I know that everybody wants to know what the Jazz
are going to do with the fifth pick, and I
don't think the Jazz even though at this point, so
I'm going to switch over and ask what would you
do if you were in charge of this whole situation, Tony,
with that fifth pick?

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Would you trade? Would you be looking to move up?
Or are you standing pat hoping that somebody that that
you like falls to you at fifth?

Speaker 9 (01:21:13):
Well?

Speaker 6 (01:21:13):
I mean I think that, I mean the I mean
the Jazz has you know, some idea what they're gonna do.
I mean, they're gonna you know, I think that you know,
a lot of the options are open. I mean they're
taking phone calls. You know. Uh, if there's something that
you know presents yourself to trade up, you know, they

(01:21:34):
won't hesitate. I don't know that they're gonna trade back,
you know, but I mean, I think that you know,
that door isn't closed. But you know, if they they
make the pick, you know, they have a board. Uh,
they've been getting guys in and you know they've been
they've been working guys out, you know, and they're they're

(01:21:55):
gonna make a board and they're gonna they're gonna take
the best player available on their board once they get
the five. I mean, I know that they you know,
I know that Aceh Bailly is in their conversation. I
know that Trey Johnson's in that conversation. I know that
Jeremiah Fears and Conker Nipple and even come on my
watch are in those conversations at all. The thing with

(01:22:20):
with with the fifth pick is, you know, I think
that you know, the dominoes, some dominoes will fall at
three and four. I don't expect V. J. Ask them
to be available at the fifth pick. You know, we'll
see what happens with the rest of the board. But
you know, I think that it's if you are Jasper

(01:22:41):
and right now, you can reasonably expect these three names
to be off the board by the time the fifth
pick rolls around. Cooper Flag, Dylan Harper, VJ. Ask them.
I think that right now as a Saturday, you can
expect those three names to be off the board one
way or the other. Once the fifth pick starts. We'll

(01:23:01):
see what Charlotte does it for, and we'll see what
Philly does it three in terms of what Charlotte does
it for, because I don't expect Ashkramb to last past
the fourth pick. You know, so if you know Can
Nipple goes off the board on the fourth, the fourth
pick to Charlotte, assuming that you know v Jaskom goes
three to Philadelphia, then you know the Jazz are picking

(01:23:24):
between Ace Bailey and Trey Johnson and Jeremiah Fears. And
you know, Kamala mala. Watch if you know, if Trey
Johnson goes off the board at four, then you know
the board goes to you know, Ace Bailey or or
or Tonker Nipple or or Jeremiah Fairs. So you know,
it's it's it's probably you know, reasonably narrowed down the

(01:23:49):
three or four names at this point, and it's just
a matter of you know, who's going to be available
for the Jazz. Once they pick.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
Tony, You're gonna let you go on that man reallyppreciate
your time and the inside an NBA Finals NBA Draft.
We'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 6 (01:24:05):
Man. Thank you for joining us, no problem, Thanks for
having me.

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
Tony Jones love Tony just a wealth of knowledge on
the game and great insight because he played for a
long time into how some of these guys think, and
you showcase that here with us. Just now, by the way,
speaking of NBA Draft ESPN seven hundred ninety two one
FM's NBA Draft Show featuring Spence check Its, Gordy Chiaza,

(01:24:33):
Richard Smithy Smith. I mean, how about that line up
there talking hoops for you on NBA Draft that's live
Wednesday and Thursday night. Jazz have two picks in both rounds,
So we're gonna do two nights of a live draft
show for you starting at six some both nights. Show
is brought to you by Angora Solutions, Budweiser, and Bud Light.
You're not gonna hear better insight than from guys like

(01:24:56):
Gordi Chias and Richard Smithy Smith who were in those
war rooms for years, a couple of decades, a few decades.
When it comes to Richard Smithy Smith, so excited for
that show next week. One of these days, we got
to get a guy like Tony Jones to sit on
a panel too for a draft night. Maybe he can
be the shams and give us a little oh jazzer

(01:25:17):
picking here, little insights there. That's the problem with a
guy like Tony, though he's in such high demand, everybody wants.
That's a good point. Yeah, I want to watch the
finals with Tony, right like, play pickup hooops with Tony,
watch the games, whatever else, start your engines. ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two one FM is excited to announce

(01:25:38):
the first ever Monster Jam World Finals, first ever one
coming to Utah. That's July fourth and fifth, fourth of
July weekend. We'll be giving away tickets next week here
on the Sean O'Connell Show. Tickets are also available at
Ticketmaster and Brian, don't you do what Porter did yesterday
and ask me who my favorite Monster Jam driver is?
I know the copy that's it? Okay, Grave Digger Grave

(01:26:02):
You see, I knew you were into this stuff. Come
on and you're gonna ask Yeah, totally not my world.
But but Porter mentioned Grave Digger is one of his
favorites too. Who's the one he also blinking now he said,
there's one that did tricks. Uh for a long time.
All of them do tricks. That's there. There's one that

(01:26:22):
did less of the smashing into things anyway, some of
them flips and I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
I want to white with red and blue trim. Yeah,
it's there's a YouTube rabbit hole to go down with
Monster Jam that is incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
So they're coming to Utah for the first time. If
you're into if you're a lot more into Monster Jam
than I clearly am, get your tickets a Ticketmaster right now,
and or if you want to hold out and get
some free tickets, we'll be given away on the show
next week. Most it'll be me and Brian giving away
those tickets so Brian can give you more of his knowledge. There.
Do we need to have like a tank update but

(01:26:59):
with my Jam next week on Sir Jam Tank Race Update. Yes,
Uh jeems back, let's go. Speaking of uh, speaking of NBA,
I thought we'd do a little because every year I
tried to do this, do this with Porter, we kept
running out of time. So we're gonna we're gonna try
it again here with you Brian. Every year when the

(01:27:20):
new team wins the NBA Finals. We do the same thing.
We we do the same thing. And it's and Porter
brought up yesterday, it's about every sport, but particularly in
the NBA. Could that be a could this be the
beginning of a dynasty? It's like the guys are all
the guys on that team are are like over thirty
five years old. Probably not, uh, but we do it anyway.
So I thought we'd play on that a little bit,

(01:27:41):
would do a little buyer sell NBA potential dynasties based
on the past few winners of NBA title and you know,
if you've gotten if you think it might be another
team that hasn't won yet or isn't on this list
that I give you, uh, feel free to do that.
Text us your thoughts on that too. Eight seven seven

(01:28:02):
three five three zero seven hundred buy Er cell NBA
Potential Dynasties Next on The Sean O'Connell Show with Me,
James Peterson, Brian Brown. Utah is number one Sports Talk
ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. We are proud
to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 7 (01:28:18):
You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show from the
Murdoch Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
one half.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
M buy Er Cell, NBA Potential Dynasties, James Peterson, Brian
Brown film in for OC. You'll get to here from
OC an hour from now, about forty five minutes from
now air some grievances talk PFL with him, NBA Finals

(01:28:47):
and more. But I want to I gotta bring this
to the air because we were just talking off air, Brian.
How did we not ask Tony Jones about how he's
feeling about seeing Tony Bradley on the floor or an
NBA Finals games? You know how it just didn't even
think about.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
Its Junia's Men's Mental Health Month and I both big
believers in taking care of your mentals.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Take care of your chicken. Go go see someone. If
you're listening and you're you're not feeling so hot, go
see someone. Talk about what's going on in order. Yep,
you need something to check in on your friends with,
ask him how they feel about Tony Bradley. Hey, you
probably saw on Twitter when the playoffs started and Tony

(01:29:30):
Bradley was getting some minutes because of some injuries. Tony
tried to ask our guy, Eric, Eric Walden shout out
to Eric Walton, we miss you, buddy on in the
sports media scene. Happy for you that you've escaped the jungle. Yes,
we're we're happy for you, but we also miss you.
See so it's it's a weird dichotomy there. One of

(01:29:51):
the best guys that took so much cheat sometimes on
social media for no reason. It's true, so it's probably
a good thing from in that regard that he's he's
been able to take a break from that. But he
but they had the now famous bet famous in jazz circles.
Tony Tony Jones saw Tony Bradley at jazz practice one
of the first times and he said that guy's give

(01:30:12):
me a ten year pro and Eric Walden said bet.
And then the bet was, if there's any year that
he did not play one game, we're done. It had
be ten consecutive years. Well that last year was that year.
They already paid off. He already paid off the bet.
But now he's back in playing an NBA finals. So
Tony tried to tried to go, hey, well, can we

(01:30:33):
can I get my money back for the steak dinner?
And Walden said absolutely, not yes, So there you go,
h consolation prize. I guess for Tony Jones that Tony
Bradley's back in the league and and doing pretty well.
I wouldn't say thriving, but doing pretty well in his role.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
He had a rough, rough, rough, little segment there against
Isaiah Nstein where he's got fould and then got flopped on.

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
He's still very much a fringe NBA player, even though
he's getting minutes in the NBA finals. Uh. Speaking of
NBA Finals, I tease this NBA buy or sell NBA
potential dynasties. And this is kind of tongue in cheek
because I hate the thing that we do National media
especially does Oh the Thunder, We'll say Thunder won the championship?

(01:31:24):
Is this a dynasty? Pacers won that? Could this be
a dynasty? Not every championship team is a dynasty newsplash,
but we're gonna we'll do it anyway. There's been six
different NBA champions or is this a seventh straight year
that there's a different NBA champion? So let's start with
this year's team Thunder or Pacers. Brian Brown, whoever wins

(01:31:49):
on Sunday? Will that do you see that team being
a dynasty. If it's the Thunder, yes, if it's the Pacers, no,
my thoughts exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
Yeah, I know that's groundbreaking insight, and thank you. That's
why you come to ESPN seven hundred is for this
kind of update. But I think the Thunder just have
a war chest of assets to where it. And I
go back and forth on lou Dort because I like
hoop heads, like the Twitter sphere, the NBA Internet. We'll

(01:32:22):
just cover it all. Yeah, they love lou Dort, and
so you hear a lot about loud Dort, and I
kind of get sick of hearing about things really quickly,
and so I've kind of gotten sick of lou Dort.
And every time I want to go to Twitter or
what's Blue Sky or whatever and fire off my million
dollar thoughts, I want to tweet about something loud Dort's

(01:32:43):
done that's like bad.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
He comes up and makes some ridiculous play and I'm
just like, well, there was in the Nuggets series, I
think Game five or whatever, he hit like he had
like twelve straight points when they couldn't, when no one
else could hit a shot. And that's not a guy
who's necessarily known for hitting a three point shot, like
he has those moments out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
Yeah, and then he makes like extravagant plays and always
good on defense.

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
So the question for me, if that one really becomes
at what point is his value to the Thunder more
than it is on the open market and can they
afford to pay him because he is so valuable that
the franchise or do you have enough because at one point,
I think there was a debate that Caseman Wallace could
be the guy and you could let lou Dort walk.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
Well, especially if you're able to hold on Alex Caruso, right,
who's not old himself. And because you have two of
those three guys on your team, you're at Shay's great defensively,
h J. Dubb Jaylen Williams is really good defensively, You're
probably okay if you have to let Lou Dork go. Yeah,
And so I think the question is do you have

(01:33:51):
enough in your war chest and can you play this
shuffle to where you're getting those key players from year
to year?

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
You know, can you find to Tony Bradley, you know,
and I'm not saying that Tony Bradley's the tipping point
for the Pacers, like he's out there, but can.

Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
You find that key player, you know, Isaiah Hardenstein for example,
every year that's going to help you be the better
team so that you can continue that dynastic run. Because
I think that was that's why dynasties are so hard
to do, because you need.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
That, and I think that was something that the Warriors
really lucked into during their dynasty. Is yeah, they were
able to find a guy that was pretty good Kevin Durant, but.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
They also able to backfill with guys with veterans or
young players that you didn't expect a whole lot from.
So it's a good point by you. I have the
same thoughts Pacers. I don't see being a dynasty. I could.
I absolutely could see them winning Game seven, but I
don't know if they win another championship in a long
time after that thunder, I can see them rattle off

(01:34:56):
two to three in a row potentially, or three and
four years, three and five, because not only do they
have the treasure trove of assets, but I think Alex
Caruso is their oldest player. He's not even thirty like
they are, so chet Holmgren has not even touched his potential.
Yet he's like not even part of the offense right now,

(01:35:17):
and yet he's one of the best players in this series.
He has MVP potentially, he's not even close to it yet,
so and he's probably going to get close to that,
if not fulfill that at some point. So Thunder I
absolutely see is a potential as a real potential dynasty
Pacers not so much if the Pacers end up winning
tomorrow Celtics. And I'll start with this one. If you

(01:35:40):
asked me after last season, I would have said yes,
because they had all the things. They're older than this
Thunder team, but they had the depth that this Thunder
team has that we talked about with Tony, who seems
to be the new thing that you really need to
win championships in the league. Is just a lot of depth.
And they have the front end talent that's really young

(01:36:02):
to do that, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown. But the second
Apram's gonna get this, gonna get these guys like they
may not be able to keep two three of their
of their top eight to nine players this offseason. You're
talking about Drew Holliday, chrisops porzingis also Porzingis may not
play enough in the playoffs to help them to help

(01:36:24):
them go over the top against a team like the Thunder.
So at the end of the championship season last year,
I would have said, yes, Now, I'm not so sure.
I'm with you on that one. And I think injury
really changed Escape in terms of well, they certainly not
winning next year without not playing with Tatum ablutely.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
And I think had he stayed healthy, they had a
chance to win the title this year. And so if
you get another title at that point, like new ownership
has no choice but to run it back.

Speaker 1 (01:36:54):
Yeah. Now that massive tax bill looming is just like
it's not this isn't hockey where the injured guy gets
taken off your cellar taken not count against the cap,
like like the way the Florida Panthers benefited that with
Matthew could Chuck. So yeah, and that's.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
I think with this like we're seeing more and more
of these Achilles terrors and that's frightening. I mean, it's
good that guys are able to come back from it,
but with that starting to happen, you wonder if and
we're what ten years away from the next collective bargaining agreement.

Speaker 1 (01:37:27):
So it's not like anything's gonna change anytime soon for them.
But I just have my doubts about the Celtics and
what they look like going for.

Speaker 2 (01:37:35):
You're either gonna have Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum, so
you're gonna be in good shape, but not to the
point to where they're guaranteed dynasty.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
So the other champion in the last three years is
Denver Nuggets. I think it's pretty clear that they're not
gonna be a dynasty. I I almost laughed out loud
when people started to ask about that team being a dynasty.
And it's not because it's not ridiculous to think that
when you have the best place in the world you
can win a few in a row. That's not the

(01:38:03):
reason why it's laughable. They had a hard time finding
an eighth man in that championship team. With that championship team,
it's what makes that championship so remarkable. They played like five, six,
I guess seven guys and that was it. And now
they they lost a couple of those guys. They lost

(01:38:24):
Contavious Caledo Pope, they lost Bruce Brown, who was great,
They lost Jeff Green and they we've seen that they have.
The young guys that they've tried to replace those those
vets with are just not it for at least under
Michael Malone. It's probably part of the reason why he
was canned, and that's.

Speaker 2 (01:38:41):
It was without a doubt. I think the strife between
front office and head coach. And you know, Peyton Watson.
I think he's a good player, but I don't know
that he's played enough. And you could see that in
moments during the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:38:53):
Where the only one of the guys that he came
off the bench in that championship team, the only one
of the guys that has stood up to Hey, yeah,
that guy we can bank on is Christian Brown. But
you're five deep with Christian Brown. You need you need
bench production. I'll win championships. I also don't know dynasty
for sure, how good you can be when Michael Porter

(01:39:14):
Junior is your third or fourth player. Yeah that yeah,
that contract is not aged well, even though he's been
a good contributor, is not age very well. The highs
are there, like when you see it in action and
you see how good he can be, but.

Speaker 2 (01:39:28):
It's it's the lack of consistency and I think the
injury this year really limited him stepping up in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
But it just I'm gonna sell on that one too.
Do you have another team? I don't think there's another
team and that we can think of if the now,
if the Pacers win the championship, if they win Game seven,
then the thunder would be that other team. Can I
throw one out there? Okay? I just I don't know
that I can get with the Spurs because they have

(01:39:57):
yet to make the playoffs at all. If they, I
suppose I would look at I'd be more willing to
look at the t Wolves as a as a potential,
for example, because they've been to the Western Conference finals
the last couple of years. At the very least, I
don't believe they're going to be a dynasty, But at
some point I'm with you, like, especially if they're able

(01:40:18):
to keep Deer and Fox paired with Wemby and whom,
and this bloodclot stuff isn't going to be a recurring
and other injuries aren't gonna be a recurring thing. Knock
on wood for Wemby. Yeah, it feels like it's a
dynasty waiting to happen. I just I don't know that
it happens next year the year after. That's where I
am with the Spurs. But and the other option is

(01:40:40):
maybe there are no dynasties in the current CBA. Maybe
the second Apron has killed dynasties, which I don't think
is necessarily a bad thing. My argument would be is
that's a good thing. Yeah. Live nine Events presents the
twenty twenty five Granary Live Concerts series, powered by my
Nightingale College and Murdoc Conde. Utah is number one Hyundai Dealer,

(01:41:01):
also proud sponsor, Proud studio sponsor for us here at
ESPN seven hundred ninety twoe FM. Experience outdoor concerts in
the heart of downtown Salt Lakes Granary District. Find more
details on ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. We got
a PGA Tour leaderboard update coming up. On the other side,
it's the Travelers Championship. Was Tony Fenow after a rough

(01:41:23):
first round, able to get closer to and eventually making
the cut. Here is he gonna play the weekend? We'll
find out next on the Sean O'Connell show. I'm James Peterson.
That's Brian Brown. Utah is number one Sports Talk ESPN
seven hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 7 (01:41:41):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:41:50):
Coming up on our three of the Sean O'Connell Show,
James Peterson, Brian Brown filling infro ce Today. We're gonna
talk with those see about a half hour from now.
He live in Wichitabo to call some PFL fights. We'll
talk to him about that air some grievances. Get your
grievances ready eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.

(01:42:10):
That's the same number to call us as it is
the text. We'll read your text. We'll take your phone calls.
Unburden yourself on a Friday, like OC likes to say,
but it's time for a PGA Tour leaderboard update. They're
at the Travelers Championship. Is brought to you by you
went to Golf Dominate the tea with the titleist GT
medals and experience faster speeds with longer, straighter drives. Now

(01:42:35):
that you went to golf, olivi Abanion behind the Glass
has our leaderboard update. Take it away, Obie awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:42:41):
Justin Thomas is In is tied for first for Scotty
Scheffler and they are at nine under. Justin has finished
for the day and Scotty is it through seventeen. And
then Denny McCarthy is seven under and he's finished for
the day, and then Nick Taylor, these are all in
third place. Taylor is at seven under as well and

(01:43:02):
he's through fifteen, and Austin Ekro is at seven under
through ten, and then Tony Finow is sitting at sixty
seventh at six over through twelve. Oh, this has been
your PGA Tour leaderboard update, brought to you by You
Went Too Golf.

Speaker 1 (01:43:17):
Thank you, Olivia, great job again by you. That's our
that's our wonderful producer. Olivia opinion. Uh yeah, Tony is
not gonna make the cut. That's unfortunate for for us
around here. I love Tony Finow and the local guy
and listen, I said this at home watching him as

(01:43:38):
he was in contention Brian for the PGA Championship. I
said it for me and my fandom, it might be
Jazz NBA Championship as the thing I want most and
number two, Tony f now winning a major at this
point and anyway he's not doing it at six under,
not making it six over and not making the cut.
He wouldn't, he won't, that won't. That won't make the

(01:44:01):
cut in a major championship either. Not today. Yeah, yeah,
but we're all pulling for Tony. It's not gonna happen
at the Travelers this weekend. We'll see if he can
get back into contention before the British Open coming up now,
just a couple weeks away from the next major. So

(01:44:22):
that's your PGA Tour leaderboard update from the Travelers Championship.
On the other side, about three minutes from now, we
are going to talk I want to get we'll circle
back to what we talked about with our most trusted
least trusted. There's a bit of an update. Jordan Reid
from ESPN Draft Analysts had some things to say, some

(01:44:44):
really good things to say about Utah's offensive tackles Spencer
Fono kle Lomu that Brian Brown was able to find
for us. So we'll talk about that. And also, Brian,
you haven't had a chance to weigh in on any
of OC's start bench cuts yet, so I want to
go through some of those with you and get your
takes on who you would start bench and cut so

(01:45:05):
far from the Utah football greats from either Pac Twelvey
era or before on. Here on Utah is one Sports
Dock ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM. This
is the Sean O'Connell Show. We are proud to be
part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 7 (01:45:21):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
one AM.

Speaker 8 (01:45:30):
Here for his second camp. Rhalter with a good ball.

Speaker 1 (01:45:37):
Chris Richards, that from Tmusa's win over Saudi Arabia. The
only goal from that Gold Cup game last night, Chris Richards,
you heard it there, game winning goal for the US
men's national team Gold Cup group stage helped them clinch

(01:46:00):
into the knockout stage in the Gold Club. So huge goal,
huge win for US men's national team. That's courtesy of
Fox Sports. I may have agrievance in about you know,
twenty minutes here about Saudi Arabia being part of Conker calf,
but well we'll save that for like what is what

(01:46:22):
is that? Brian? Let's get to what you found you
were you were. You're scrolling through Twitter throughout the show,
doing what you need to do to see if any
breaking news. Doing a great job of multitasking, Brian, and
you found a nice note from one Jordan Reed ESPN
NFL draft analyst. That should be something that should get

(01:46:44):
a lot of Utah fans excited.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Absolutely, and shout out to Josh for Long, who wrote
an article posted, uh well sorry, he retweeted quote tweeted
a tweet for Matt Miller.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
So we're in the tweet seption zone here tweet sception.

Speaker 2 (01:46:59):
But Loong said you to offensive tackle Spencer Fauno and
Caleb Bloman getting some additional love here, but so is
safety Tao Johnson, to which Jordan Reid quote tweeted, want
to see him continue to add to his frame. But
Utah OT Spencer Fano was the most consistent tackle that
I watched on tape of the twenty twenty six group,
which I think that coincides with the PFF grades that

(01:47:19):
we've seen all off season. He follows that up with
Lomu has lots of potential skill set is very similar
to Colt's ot Braden Smith as a prospect. So Jordan Reid,
you and me handshake emoji, yes, most trust Also Matt
Also Matt Miller, Josh Furlong. We've got like five person

(01:47:42):
handshake or emoji here.

Speaker 4 (01:47:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47:45):
Uh, getting weird with the tweet sception going on or
exception if you will. It's always twittered to me the
same to something, not saying to oh what are we doing?
That's amazing, No, seriously, really encouraging to hear a guy

(01:48:08):
who does it for a living, analyzes draft prospects for
a living, couple of guys really saying those kinds of things.
I mean, Braden Smith is a heck of a tackle
to be compared to if you're Caleb Bloma.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
That's exactly the kind of comp and and the kind
of correlation that you want if you're kayleb because really
his biggest strengths is a tackle or his athleticism, his aggression.
He does have a lot of power for his size,
and by that I mean he's he's underweight, He's not
even three hundred pounds. He's getting there, but he's just
not built like you know those He's not an Orlando

(01:48:44):
Pace type tackle where you're six eight three point fifty
plus and just sitting there, you know, stopping.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
Everything he is.

Speaker 2 (01:48:51):
He's a mover, he's great with his feet, he's good
at getting his hands on people. He's really good in
the run game. But he's not, as my Mak would say,
not a lot of sand in the pants. There's a
little lighter which listen, Uh, you know you want to
talk about golfers. He's a heck of a golfer too.

Speaker 1 (01:49:09):
Okay, So if you if you want to play both worlds, yep,
if you want to play both worlds, you know you're
okay being two eighty five two ninety and being able
to go, you know, shoot two three four under par.
Can you imagine no PGA Tour because you obviously you
don't see guys like that on the PGA Tour. I
mean John Daly, who's way smaller, stood out because he

(01:49:31):
was a bigger guy, but not that big like that
would be That would be awesome to see Caleb bow movie.
The NFL thing didn't work out, I'm gonna try to
I'm gonna try to be a professional golfer instead. And
with that framed, it's just it would I mean I
would watch every week just to see someone. It would
look like a freak of nature playing.

Speaker 2 (01:49:52):
Golf, it would, and and he does stand out on
the golf course as he does everywhere because he has
a legitimate sixty five long arms all that kind of stuff.
But I think the ultimate dream for him would be
starting left tackling in pro ams all through the offseason.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
And listen, he even great golfers are not good enough
to be on the PGA Tour, So I'm not saying
that we know he'd be good enough. Anyway, it's a
fun thought to see it's out there playing golf. Really,
what it is is it's a testament to his athleticism.

Speaker 2 (01:50:22):
Yeah, people, and then you know, outside of barstool beef like,
people his size are not supposed to be great golfers.

Speaker 1 (01:50:29):
It's just there's so much weight to get around.

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
And as someone who is not a great golfer and
certainly has tried to be as a large human like,
there is a lot of fighting against you. You know,
you say what you want about John Day, like the
man was is something different. But anyways, the thing for
me is just it's the dexterity, the flexibility, the twitch
that he has the ability to get the hips around

(01:50:51):
all that kind of stuff. There's such a good correlation
with what you do on the offensive line. And to
do all that and still have strength aggression, you know,
be heavy when you need to be heavy, and by
that I mean be able to stand up against the
bull rush. This is why people should turn it onto
the YouTube because I'm over here, put my hands up.
You know you're doing this dropping my post leg you know,
like I'm fighting the bull rush right now. Now stand

(01:51:13):
up and show it to us. Yeah, that's do we
have an intern that wants to be tackling that mean,
like we can do just demonstrations in here.

Speaker 1 (01:51:20):
Let's do it. Uh no, it anyway, encouraging, encouraging thoughts
there should should get you excited if you're a U
tough football fan about Spencer Fano cal Blomu and this
offensive line. And again it's it's another reason why they
should be looked at as the most trusted part of

(01:51:41):
this Utah football team. And if you want to say
outside of the coaching staff because you trust the coaching
staff more, that's fine too. But among the players, this
is this is the group that feels like the surest thing.

Speaker 2 (01:51:54):
Let me say this about the coaching staff too, like
it feels blasphemous to say that about something like Kyle
whitting him.

Speaker 1 (01:51:59):
I mean that as a slide at all. I just
just to say how trustworthy this offensive miny looks.

Speaker 2 (01:52:07):
People in their thirties and their forties struggle with change.
Kyle Whittingham's in his late sixties and he's had to
change more in the last few years than probably any
point in his career. Now that being said again, I
was up at the ut Shoot seven on seven tournament.
I still got chills when he rolled in on the motorcycle.

Speaker 1 (01:52:27):
And it's just like.

Speaker 2 (01:52:29):
I mean, I've been around Kyle like I grew up,
going to camps where he was coaching. You know, he
still has like a little bit of intimidation factor on me,
you know, but a lot of it is just because
he is so cool and so all the stuff that
I talk about, it's very stuff in the marginie, you know,
in terms of like this is a man that knows

(01:52:51):
who he is, knows what he's a able accomplishment, His
will drive determination is off the charts.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
Like I mean, he's just one of those people that
just naturally attracts attention and he looks even cooler when
he does it on a motorcycle, right, And so the
stuff about the coaching staff is not so much tongue
in cheek about like I don't think they're capable. It's
just that's just a lot to ask of anybody, you.

Speaker 2 (01:53:16):
Know, like I, as I've watched my parents get older,
for example, you know, and even if as I've gotten older,
like I can't rally like I used to, and and
you know, go out all night and then sleep for
two three hours and then pop up the next day
and just and go. And it's not like I was
out partying all the time anyways, like you know. But

(01:53:36):
I'm just saying, like even my late nights where we
were getting pizza at three in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:53:40):
The recovery time is needed. You need a lot more
recovery time. My eight hours of sleep is the most
precious part of my day. Like that is like I am, yeah,
diving into bed trying to get to that. So the
point I'm trying to make is is just asking a
lot of them.

Speaker 4 (01:53:55):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:53:55):
Granted, I think a lot of the shift you know,
they've aptitude well, and it's clear some of the So
I've said a lot of things for a long time
about like you know, pushing guys so hard and the
hard works factor, and you've got to get guys to
stay healthy throughout the course of the year. I think
that's starting to change a little bit. I've pushed about,

(01:54:17):
you know, recruiting local players more, and they are going
heavy after a few different local guys, especially in that
twenty twenty seven class. I do think you're going to
see some offers coming out for some of the guys
in the twenty twenty sixth class that you maybe hadn't
seen before, maybe hadn't considered they hadn't considered to be
good enough. A lot of what I saw at the
seven on seven tournament was confirming in the sense of

(01:54:39):
like Utah High School football is a lot better than
maybe people in or around the program initially thought. And
that was proven because you know, Davis beat Liberty High
School out of Nevada, and Liberty is considered one of
the pre eminent programs in Nevada out of state. You know,
so when you're seeing Utah kids shout out to the darts, yeah, man,

(01:55:00):
they're gonna be good. I don't want to diverge into
high school football, but we can do that next week
if we want. To but the level of football in
state is really good and it's only going to get
going to get better in twenty twenty seven and twenty eight,
and I mean every year. I say, like I remember
two years ago, I was like, man, this twenty twenty
six class, it's special.

Speaker 1 (01:55:19):
It's gonna be hard to match it. And now all
asond I'm looking at twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine,
I'm just like twenty six looks like a puddle compared
to the lake of talent that's coming in. So all
that is to say that as they're starting to make
these changes, I see.

Speaker 2 (01:55:36):
You know that the potential for the program to really
grow through all this because I think when you get
at home kids, you have a better chance of keeping on.
And like Parker mentioned that in our interview with him
about the basketball team, you can sell the program to
the local kids with a historical part of it. You know,
it was fun to see on social media when we
posted the highlight.

Speaker 1 (01:55:55):
You know, I forgot that it was Parker van Dagger
after that, I know, yeah, and the gift, uh, the
pac Tweld lady going wow at the end, I forgot
that we've gotten that gift in the gift sphere because
of Parker, you know, so you.

Speaker 2 (01:56:08):
There is that part of you know. I think Nate
Orchard is a great example of this. If you stay somewhere,
you put your roots down.

Speaker 6 (01:56:15):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
We used to say at Cypress when I was a
coach theater that the grass is greenest where you water it.
That's a really strong selling point for a lot of
these recruits. Stay in Utah, build your brand, build your
reputation here, and it's going to pay dividends down the
road for for you know, in essence, for decades to come.

Speaker 10 (01:56:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
I think for for Nate it's you know, from a
business perspective, it's been huge for he and his group
over at Advanced Windows.

Speaker 1 (01:56:38):
Yep. Shout out to Advanced Windows, proud sponsor the station,
friends of this station as well, and to the mayor
of Sac Lake City of course Nate Orchard. Yeah, and uh,
going back to that slight too, that's like tangent you
you just introduced with uh, because I'm I'm a I'm
a tangent guy too. With the Parker van Dyke and

(01:57:02):
the tweet I sent out, I was kind of thinking
that I'd get a lot of negative stuff from Utah
fans if we got from the responses we got saying
because I said, where does this rank in recent years,
and'd be like, well, I thought I thought it was
gonna skew negative to be like, hey, nothing good has
happened in the last ten years. But I guess this

(01:57:23):
was awesome too, you know, but this is something that
Utah fans are really proud of, which I was happy
that we got the positivity that we got, because it's true.
We're not playing for great regular season moments at the
University of Utah. No college basketball program is. They're playing
to get to the Ncway Tournament and have those great
moments in March Madness. But that was such a great

(01:57:48):
singular moment, and I love that Parker's so proud of
it as a guy who grew up and went to
East High, grew up the shadow of the University of Utah,
a big University of Utah fan, and no so much
about the history. I love that he's proud and he
and he feels proud enough to say even though it
was not in the biggest stage in the sport, it

(01:58:10):
still is a memorable moment in among in a program
that has had so many memorable moments, you know. So
I I love that, that's what it brought out and
brought it out in people as we as I tweeted
that out to try to get some engagement there. Appreciate
everyone for responding to that as well. Eight seven seven

(01:58:33):
three five three zero seven hundred if you want to
get in on the conversation on the text line as well,
real real quick in the next few minutes here, Brian
OCI's been doing start bench cuts. I want to go
through some of the ones we've already done, speking. Yes,
I will review what my takes are in that, and

(01:58:54):
then I'll give you a chance to give your takes.
So he started out with kickers. That's Matt Gay. Actually
I think you start with punters, but we'll start with
the kickers. Matt Gay, Luis Dakota, Andy Phillips, start bench cut.

Speaker 10 (01:59:06):
Go.

Speaker 1 (01:59:07):
I so I got to echo what you guys said yesterday.
It's it's Matt Kay for me start uh Louis on
the bench and some serious apologies to Andy. I know
you guys called him automatic Andy.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
I want to call him Andy automatica Andy Automatic, Yeah,
like the Grammatica brothers.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
And yes, also Academia yeah, a little bit of college football. Yeah,
I like that, Andy Automatic He's a gentleman and scholar absolutely,
and we know listener of the station. So our apologies,
Andy Phillips, you had we had to cut one of
them and this is this is a hard exercise to do. Unfortunately,
you're the guy if you want to call in and

(01:59:46):
air your grievance about that at eight seven seven three
five three zero seven hundred. We'd love to talk to
Andy automatica on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
I do feel a little justified by the fact that
Matt Kay is an NFL kicker currently and so that
speaks volume fold champion too.

Speaker 1 (02:00:00):
He's done all right for himself.

Speaker 6 (02:00:01):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
It's not bad for a walk on from UVU guy
who thought he wanted to play soccer professionally for a
long time until until what less than ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (02:00:10):
It's a lesson out there for everybody that football is
for everyone. Yeah, even soccer players. You're welcome here, even
soccer players. It's like Gordy says, you know, hug your
point guards, hug your kickers, hug your punters.

Speaker 1 (02:00:22):
So yeah, Matt gay louis Andy in that order, and
that was mine, that was mine as well, you you
mentioned I think Porter had Louis start, bench, Matt Gay,
but punter's mine. My mine went in this order. Start
Tom Hackett, shout out to Tom. We love Tom Bench,

(02:00:47):
Mitch Wishanowski, Mitch Wish and uh cut Louis Sakota.

Speaker 2 (02:00:53):
So the argument for Louis would be if you if
you start him, you get the duality of like kicker
and the punter.

Speaker 1 (02:01:01):
Right. Well, that's why I that's why I got him
on the bench so he can be He's a backup
punter too. Mitch.

Speaker 2 (02:01:07):
I think had the bigger leg and that's why he
spent so much time in the NFL. I mean, he's
he kicked extra points for a few games for the
Niners this year. Man, it's a bummer that he got cut,
but I understand it because you know, he's got a
back injury and and there's probably some concerns with it,
and the forty nine ers needed to solidify that position
going into this year. So I hope, for one, I

(02:01:30):
hope he gets healthy. I hope he is healthy. If
this is the end for him, it's been a great career.
I think he's done more than anybody ever expected. Congratulations
the reason that I would go Tom as my starter,
and this is like picking children, which I don't have children,
but I have I have like favorite candies, so I mean,

(02:01:50):
I think that's kind of like, yeah, or favorite pizza toppings.

Speaker 1 (02:01:55):
I don't know. The reason that I would go Tom
was his ability to pin upon it within the five
yard line and the way that he could pinpoint the ball.

Speaker 2 (02:02:03):
It was like hitting a lob ledge. And I don't
know if you ever golfed with Tom, but he's an
incredible golfer for a lot of the similar reasons that
he was an incredible punter, and so that would be
my reason that I would I would start him.

Speaker 1 (02:02:16):
You know, he's also the only guy on this list
there was a back to back gray guy winner and
Tom hard hard to bench let alone cut that guy.

Speaker 2 (02:02:26):
Tom got a raw deal too with the NFL stuff,
because you know, I think it's interesting. So the new
forty nine Ers Special Teams coach was the special teams
coach with the Jets, Utah native from Colville, Utah. His
name is escaping me right now, but I guess that's
why we have the Internet, so you can look things
like this up. You keep talking, but uh, he and

(02:02:49):
he and Tom. He was a big believer in Tom's ability,
but the Jets at the time, Brant Boyer. Yeah, so
Brant Boyer was a big believer in Tom's ability. That
that's part of the reason why he went to the Jets,
why they brought him in. And for whatever reason, there
was something some sort of roster issue where Tom got
caught up and in the fact that they couldn't carry
two punters and two kickers because they had an injury, okay,

(02:03:12):
and so they couldn't carry him through camp. I think
he would have won that job otherwise, uh, and probably
would have won out, you know, and it could have
had a ten year career. And this is you know,
I think Jake Murphy is another example of this where
sometimes you get it become a numbers guy.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
Yeah, and it's just it's unfortunate. Like it seems like
speaking of of Andy Automatica, it seems like that's what
his NFL story was too. It's just a numbers thing.

Speaker 2 (02:03:36):
It's part of why and this is stupid, but it's
part of why I believe so heavily in like the
UFL and the AAF and spring football and developmental leagues.
It's why I think that if if we're truly going
to go to this pay for play model in college sports,
and I'll let the you know, the experts out there
correct me in terms of what I'm saying with regards
to that. But if we're really going to go to

(02:03:58):
all these lengths to make it, you know, a money
driving sport, you know, and it's always generated revenue, right,
but it's never been a profitable kind of thing. Ah,
then let's let these guys develop for a few years.
Like Parker was talking about that earlier in his interview too,
you know, he said, if I had six or seven
years to develop like some of these guys, I probably

(02:04:19):
would have been better. And he chose to serve an
LDS mission for two years, and so maybe that's set
him back a little bit in his developmental curve. But also,
like I think we're seeing it with the Pacers too,
guys develop a different, different will.

Speaker 1 (02:04:33):
Will Hardy has been a Utah Jazz head coach has
said this in multiple press conferences. He is he strives
to be the kind of head coach that does not
give up on players. Look at what he's done with
Colin Sexton, and I get it. Colin John Collins too. Ye,
Colin Sexton probably even more so. But John Collins was
looked at as when Quinn Snyder couldn't get much out

(02:04:53):
of him when he's at he was like, we're gonna
trade you for Rudy Gay who hasn't played by the
way and a second round pick, and now he's He
was a guy who was very desirable on the trade
market this this past season. Didn't end up getting a
deal done, but I think he does.

Speaker 2 (02:05:11):
Asking price was high, yeah, and that was the bottom line,
and they knew they could hold on.

Speaker 1 (02:05:15):
That's a credit to will Hardy and his coaching staff
and him being him that mindset of like, I'm not
going to give up on players.

Speaker 2 (02:05:22):
Some guys developed later, and it's he has the luxury
of doing that right now because the Jazz are not good.

Speaker 1 (02:05:28):
Not trying to win, yep.

Speaker 2 (02:05:29):
And so your hope is that, like that's the benefit
of a guy like Cody Williams who has not shown
anything to this point. And I wasn't super high on
him when the Jazz drafted him. Anyways, I watched a
bit of him at Colorado and so it wasn't any.

Speaker 1 (02:05:42):
More of a measurables guy. Than a than like you
what he showed.

Speaker 2 (02:05:47):
People talk more about his ceiling than what he's actually
done to your point, right, so there's not a lot
of tangible evidence with him, but your hope is that
the Jazz are open to developing him and doing the
things that are necessary. All this All this is is
to talk about the fact that like, I think that's
I mean, it's a fun game. Like kudos to OC
for taking the Mary whatever kill game, you know, and

(02:06:11):
adapting into football like, yeah, very clever. Yes, not surprisingly
for Sean, but uh, I mean that's the interesting part
about when you look at some of these names and like,
I think Mitch came into a better situation because of
what Tom did, right, and so he was able to
excel a little bit there, like had Tom had another
year or two to develop.

Speaker 1 (02:06:32):
You know, you see it all the time.

Speaker 2 (02:06:34):
I can't remember it's it's the Birmingham Stallions kicker just
signed with somebody too. I'm getting older and there's so
much information out there it's hard to always keep it straight.
I'll remember Bran Boyer for the rest of the week
now though, So yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1 (02:06:47):
Uh. By the way, Birmingham Stallions like stealing names much
so Birmingham Geez, different color scheme. But they also did
not they didn't do full state ahead. They did not
it that is safe. That that hashtag is safe. I
got so much, so much heat for that hashtag. And

(02:07:08):
it's just like it was such a like it's still memorable.

Speaker 4 (02:07:11):
It is.

Speaker 2 (02:07:12):
It was not like and everybody knows like the number
one choice, Like, so this is behind the curtain a
little inside baseball for everybody. We're sitting in the room
and and like giddy up, like horses up, you know,
like all the august or are up there on the board,
and I'm like, what about full steed ahead? And Everybody's like, eh, okay,

(02:07:32):
And so it's kind of like in the middle of
the pack, and I'm like, look, this is fine. And
then as you start looking at like giddy up and
looking at the images associated, it's like, oh no, absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:07:43):
For one, I mean, the Kramer gift is fine. The
other stuff, yeah, it is all.

Speaker 2 (02:07:48):
All I will say is that the world is a
very interesting place when you start diving into nooks and
crannies of the Internet that you never looked in before.

Speaker 1 (02:07:54):
Yeah, be prepared for that. Whatever that whatever, that entails
for you careful with the rabbit holes you go down.
And so really what it came down to is it
was the only one that we we we knew we
could kind of own the space. And so all that
being said, Birmingham Stallion has been around with USFL. I
think that was part of the reason why the AAF

(02:08:14):
the Alliance chose that. But there's a lot of nostalgia
associated with that. I could talk for days about my
times with the Stallion.

Speaker 6 (02:08:23):
It was.

Speaker 1 (02:08:24):
It was the best six months of my life. Absolutely,
we won't get to the we don't have time to
do these last two start bench cuts, your your takes
on this, but but hey, it was it was good.
We wandered through something awesome. Anyway, you guys nailed it
yesterday though.

Speaker 2 (02:08:39):
That was the like I was listening and actually is
watching on the YouTube stream at maybe next week I'll
start wearing what was the guy from thirty rock that
would wear the hats?

Speaker 1 (02:08:50):
Oh yes, yeah, and we'll start wearing weird hats and
people can pick up.

Speaker 2 (02:08:54):
I will give you a candy bar of your choice
if you hit us up on Twitter with whatever hat
I'm wearing next week.

Speaker 1 (02:09:00):
Ooh love that? Yeah? Love that. Brian Brown will be
back Tuesday through Friday. You get he and I on
the Sean O'Connell show as OC is out again next week. Uh.
Speaking of OC, we'll talk to him next in about
three minutes. But before we do that, start your engines.
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM is excited
to announce the first ever Monster Jam World Finals in

(02:09:23):
Utah July fourth and fifth. Will be giving away tickets
next week right here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Brian
and will be giving those away. He'll give you He'll
give you his favorite outside of Grave Digger, of course,
his favorite Monster Jam drivers To'll give you all the
knowledge there. Tickets are also available at Ticketmaster. Oc is
next will air some grievances eight seven seven three five

(02:09:46):
three zero seven hundred. Send them in on the text line.
Give us a call. We'll make Olivia work here answer
some phone calls. If you call us, she's shaking her head. Uh,
make her work even more now that she's shaking her head. Agrievances,
unburden yourself with the host of the show, Sean O'Connell. Next.
I'm James Peterson. That's Brian Brown film in for oc

(02:10:07):
on Utah's number one sports talk ESPN seven hundred ninety
two one FM YouTube.

Speaker 8 (02:10:14):
The Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch Vrolet Studio.

Speaker 10 (02:10:17):
Of the tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of craevances.

Speaker 1 (02:10:27):
I got a lot of problems with your people. Now
you're gonna hear about it. Unburden yourself. This is the
time every week on The Sean O'Connell Show we are grievances.
We go into the weekend feeling much lighter and we
have a better weekend because we because we aired our grievances.

(02:10:49):
And this week we get to do it with the
host of this show who is in Wichita, Kansas calling
PFL fights. Oh see what's going on?

Speaker 4 (02:10:59):
Man Shames? You know, just getting ready. Rehearsal is about
to start for the show tonight ESPN and ESPN plus
three weight classes at my final action. Gonna be a
lot of fun all right.

Speaker 1 (02:11:14):
By the way, I got to do the Scott Mitchell thing.
Oh see, welcome to your show.

Speaker 6 (02:11:17):
Oh yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1 (02:11:20):
Brian Brown with me filling in for you today. Brown Bear,
the Brown Bear is here. Do you want tell us
more about this main is, especially his main card. Gosdy
helped me with the pronunciation Rabadanov versus Kevin Lee.

Speaker 4 (02:11:41):
Yeah, Rob Adanav got you. Rob adv the twenty twenty
four PFL lightweight champion. He jumped back into the tournament
this year, wanted to go back to back. He trains
at that Kobeb Nomaga Madov camp, which has produced so
many absolute monsters in the sport of mixed martial arts
in Augustan, Russia, which I know is one of your

(02:12:01):
favorite regions of the world, James and yes and yeah.
So he's, uh, he's looking to advance to a championship.
He's got to get the win over a very experienced
guy in Kevin Lee, who's making a return to one
hundred and fifty five pounds. He's been fighting at one seventy.

Speaker 1 (02:12:17):
Tough pronunciation on the on the American guy there, Kevin Lee.

Speaker 4 (02:12:22):
Yes, Kevin Lee also a tough one, really really tough guy.
Former All American Collegiate wrestler and h He main evented
a couple of cards in the UFC, But now he's
maybe he's starting off his PFL journey. And when you
get an opportunity to jump in kind of last minute.
He got to call about a month ago. Usually it's
a good thing, right, it's something super exciting, and then

(02:12:44):
you look at what he's up against with God you
Rob Adanov, and it's like, oh, that might not be
the gift that he thought it was, because God, he
hasn't lost in like eight years.

Speaker 1 (02:12:54):
All right, there you go. Tune in starting at three
point thirty. Right, the undercard starts thirty ESPN, ESPN Plus
I having Witch Talk Kansas getting some good wheat shocker.
Uh witcha shockers gear. I'm sure you know.

Speaker 4 (02:13:11):
Yeah, obviously I'm gonna just stock up on shockers gear
for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:13:18):
I wanted to. I wanted to also give you the
opportunity to if you wanted to introduce another start bench
cut or did you want to wait for when you're back.

Speaker 4 (02:13:28):
Uh No, we're gonna wait till I'm back. Okay, start
bench cuts. Because I've I've I've had I've run into
a situation on a couple of you know, because now
we're we're out of the kicker and punter and that
kind of realm. So now now we're getting into ones
where it's like, not only do you have to make
the decision on start bench cuts, but with a little
bit more depth at these other position groups you got

(02:13:49):
to make I gotta make tough decisions on who to
even put on the pole, so to speak, because you know,
like d tackle, for example, there's four or five guys
that probably belong in each era for doing pre pack twelve,
you know, pre power five era and then obviously the
more modern era, and it's like who do you cut? Well,
not only who do you cut, but who do you
leave off the list entirely? So what do you do more?

Speaker 1 (02:14:12):
Yeah, you've got enough prospects at some of these positions
where you can start bench cut, like multiple groups, right,
like group one, Group two, group three.

Speaker 4 (02:14:20):
Yeah, like I've actually thought about that, like group Okay,
So like detackle because there's there's two tackles on the
field together most of the time, right, So like, all right,
who's start bench cut for your nose tackles, start bench
cut for your three technique, Like just to give us
two starters, so to speak. But man, there's a lot
of there's a lot of talent that's come through the

(02:14:40):
program when you go back even twenty five years for
just since two thousand and even if you just go back,
like you know the whatever it is twelve years since, no,
I guess it's fifteen now, going into the fourteenth or
fifteen season and Power five Football, Power four Football, So yeah,
there's decisions to be made.

Speaker 2 (02:14:59):
I I just want to say thank you for joining
us right now, because as someone who's done like live
streaming before, I know how stressful a TV day can be.
So like that, and we're getting a Dogistan Russia shout
out as someone who lived in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (02:15:12):
Like my day has been made UC so thank you
so much for that. So it actually on ironically is
one of Brian Brown's favorite regions of the world.

Speaker 6 (02:15:20):
It is.

Speaker 1 (02:15:20):
And I've got a little storage been at home with
some Stallion surprises that I'll have to leave in the
studio when I come in next year.

Speaker 6 (02:15:27):
For you, I love that.

Speaker 4 (02:15:28):
That's amazing. Well, you're you're definitely gonna want to tune
in then. Right at the top of the main card,
because there's a young lady named Katarina Shakhlova who is
Ukrainian who's got an opportunity to advance to a championship
bout in the women's flyweight division. So you're definitely gonna
want to tune in for that.

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
Yeah, I'm looking at the card right now. She's from Doniet,
which close here and dear to my heart. Okay, I
was gonna say it sounds like you're familiar with that place.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:15:58):
What I want to ask you too, Ocie, what do
you think of we're getting a Game seven in the
NBA Finals. Were you able to tune into Game six
last night?

Speaker 4 (02:16:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:16:08):
It was.

Speaker 4 (02:16:08):
We had wrapped up the weigh in show, and it
was they were probably, you know, halfway through the first
quarter and Indiana was already building it, you guys, you
guys know, a pretty impressive lead at that point. Yeah,
and I was like, oh, look at this, the Pacers
are actually going to try and make this a thing,
even with an injured Tyrese Haliburton. And then well we
all know how it played out. So yeah, I think

(02:16:31):
this might go down as one of those you should
have killed me when you had the chance moments for
Oklahoma City. But I'm excited we get a game seven.

Speaker 1 (02:16:39):
Yeah. Absolutely. We Also we're going to put you on
the spot because Utah just got you. Just Utah just
got to commit Brian Brown what's the tight end commit?
Wanted to get the full breakdown from OC.

Speaker 2 (02:16:50):
Yeah, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on on on
Bear Fisher, the three star tight end that committed about
forty five minutes ago.

Speaker 1 (02:16:58):
You got a breakdown for us on that one.

Speaker 4 (02:17:00):
I don't have a breakdown on three star tight end commits.
I will say this, So everyone now Utah football with
the tight end position is starting to develop a reputation
that they've already had at corner, at running back, at
defensive tackle, at defensive end, at safety, because that tight

(02:17:21):
end position is where you've had some super high level
college players, which of course translates to big dollars now.
And then of course you know you got like the
Daltonton Caves of the world that are making their case
in the NFL as well. So it's pretty cool to
see another position group that Utah starts to become synonymous with.
So good for Freddy and good for the tight end room.

Speaker 1 (02:17:40):
That was very good. That was very good, filling on
something you had no idea about. Great job O. See
a terrific professional there.

Speaker 4 (02:17:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:17:46):
So Bear Fisher six five, two thirty five out of
Queen Creek Arizona. He's a twenty twenty six commitment, rated
eighty three by the twenty four to seven website rating system.

Speaker 1 (02:17:58):
By fairly high three star.

Speaker 2 (02:18:00):
Yeah, and then good sized tight end probably going to
be an inline guy. I haven't watched a ton of
film on him, to be honest, but I think Tosi's
point about the tight end position at Utah, predictions of
its demise may be overestimated, you know, because they're going
to use tight ends, they're going to use multiple offensive linemen,
they're going to do some really creative things, and there's

(02:18:20):
a lot of good talent in that room still, so
something to be excited about.

Speaker 1 (02:18:24):
Maybe next time you should estimate me Utah tight end properly.

Speaker 2 (02:18:30):
That's my grievance for today. The downfall of the Utah
tight end room is false.

Speaker 1 (02:18:35):
So uh, speaking of grievances, O, SI, I know you
got a couple here. You always do hit us with
one of your a grievances you want to hear.

Speaker 4 (02:18:43):
Well, look, I'm starting to get probably a little bit
redundant on all my travel related grievances.

Speaker 6 (02:18:49):
But I walked in.

Speaker 1 (02:18:51):
You're you with the travel me with the traffic ones.

Speaker 4 (02:18:54):
Yeah, specifically with crosswalks, the traffic stops, traffic lights for them,
Like I, James, I'm not lying. I was like, you
know what, I'm not going to do a travel grievance
this week. This one I have to do.

Speaker 1 (02:19:06):
Though.

Speaker 4 (02:19:07):
I walked into the room, and the thermostat variance, especially
during the summer months, is all across the board.

Speaker 1 (02:19:16):
Right.

Speaker 4 (02:19:16):
There are some people who like to keep it super low.
There are some people who don't mind if it's too
hot in the house. They'll keep it like seventy eight
it was. I mean I landed very late. I landed
like midnight and it was probably seventies outside. I walked
into the room. They had the thermostats. I guess it
would have been the previous occupant of the room, or

(02:19:37):
maybe the service staff the hotel maids sixty three sixty three.
It was way too cold, fridge like frigid, right, And
I was like, holy cow. So you know that's an
easy problem to fix. Minor grievance. Day are there and
after a travel day, what do you want to do?
You want to take a quick shower, right, I turn

(02:20:00):
on the water. I wait a minute, stick my hand
in there. See if it's warmed up. Still hasn't warmed up. Okay,
so I turn it up a little bit higher, a
little hotter, Like, all right, I don't give it another
minute or two. Put my hand in there again. Two
minutes later, it's still freezing cold. No hot water in
the whole hotel. Oh no, So now I have a

(02:20:21):
cold room and a cold shower, and I'm travel travel grows, right,
you get that weird film on you after traveling? Yeah,
so I jump in and take a cold shower. I
was like, ah, whatever, first world problem. This is all
one giant collective grievance, by the way, and then and
then we the PFL operations staff does a really really
good job letting everyone know what's going on with the venue,

(02:20:44):
with the hotel, with everything that affects people during fight week.
Keep in mind, this is the fighter hotel that had
no hot water for a day while people were trying
to cut weight. And then today, Hey, sorry, everyone, the
elevators in the hotel are not working. So you're all
gonna have to walk down the stairs to get to

(02:21:05):
the shuttles that are going to take you over to
the event. No problem, except I'm on the fourteenth floor.

Speaker 5 (02:21:11):
Joe.

Speaker 4 (02:21:11):
Oh no, so if they don't get these things fixed,
I'm gonna be hooking it all the way back up
when we return late tonight. And if there's no hot water,
So grievance against the hotel for just completely mismanaging the situation.

Speaker 1 (02:21:26):
Valid grievance that sounds terrible as first world problems go.

Speaker 2 (02:21:31):
That don't even know that's like a first world problem
because like I said, I lived in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (02:21:35):
It was near third world there, and elevators never worked.

Speaker 2 (02:21:37):
So like we may be like using a lot of
validity over here on my side of the of the microphone,
is OC.

Speaker 1 (02:21:45):
All right, Brian, do you have a grievance for us?

Speaker 2 (02:21:48):
My grievance is just heat in general, so like lack
thereof on the OC side of things. Yesterday I thought
I was gonna melt for just walking from the door
to my car. Just too too early in the year
for this kind of heat.

Speaker 4 (02:22:04):
With the sun.

Speaker 2 (02:22:07):
I know it's a real surprise for a Ginger like
myself to be angry at the sun, but here I am.

Speaker 1 (02:22:13):
Well, the good news is that gingers now have souls. Right, Uh,
it's been it's been decided. There's a lot of news
on the internet about what gingers are these days that
I'm not real comfortable talking about on air. I probably
shouldn't have brought that up. There we go. My grievance
is with in this on a Jersey Friday. It's very
it's it's very appropriate. Did you guys all see the

(02:22:36):
Oilers air quotes fan who changed his jersey to a
Panther's one in the middle of Game five. They aren't
even facing elimination yet.

Speaker 4 (02:22:47):
That's that's gotta be one of those plants, you know,
how Like every once in a while at a jazz
game there'll be someone that the jazzbery goes and sprays
like silly string and dump. It's gotta be one of those, right.

Speaker 1 (02:22:58):
It seemed fake to me, But I'm like, how do
you how do you catch that on national How do
you how do you sit that close and be doing that?
I don't know. Grievance someone who's very passionate.

Speaker 4 (02:23:10):
About Yeah, the grievance is valid either way, because it's
either completely unforgivable if it was authentic, or it's just
stupid to do when you're talking about Stanley Cup's final
game if they staged it.

Speaker 2 (02:23:22):
So double grievance and that's my My part of the
second part is is like, that's way too much effort. Yeah,
I'm just gonna live with the shame if my team leaves, Like,
that's so much easier. I have to go to a
bathroom or somewhere and like change my jersey. We're even
wearing two jerseys. Too hot, it's too hot for two jerseys.

Speaker 1 (02:23:40):
Well, back to the heap, Go back to the heap,
Olivia Benyon, our producer today, do you have a grievance there?

Speaker 3 (02:23:48):
I can only just agree with everything Brian is saying.
I absolutely have agreevance with the sun for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:23:55):
It's the worst.

Speaker 3 (02:23:56):
It's too hot, it's too much. I get a rational
angry when it's too hot.

Speaker 1 (02:24:02):
Yeah, that that's that's that seems to be a shared
family trait. By the way, we all share a similar
skin tone as well, so that may play into it. Yeah,
Olivia's sister, my my lovely wife also starts to break
down in a lot of ways when it gets too hot.
So that doesn't surprise me at all that you're too
Oh got a grievance from the text line, You guys

(02:24:23):
ready for this one grievance? How is it possible that
Disney can have a nearly tremendous stock pilve classics for
these live action remakes that they turn out okay at best,
and dream Work and dream Works can do one and
I feel comfortable saying it's the best live action remake
ever made. Get your crap together, Disney.

Speaker 4 (02:24:42):
Okay, Oh that's in reference to the How to Train
Your Dragon yeah came out.

Speaker 1 (02:24:48):
Yeah, I have heard good things about that one.

Speaker 10 (02:24:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:24:51):
I haven't seen it, so I can't make any kind
of judgment, but I can say that I am firmly
against the Disney live action remakes. So I will I
will go at least that part of the grievance.

Speaker 2 (02:25:02):
It feels unnecessary. I I don't have children, so I
don't see a lot of these movies in theater. Yeah,
so like, uh, that that's my grievance. Maybe is like,
let's make a space for adult men who are okay
feeling feelings to go watch movies like Leelo and Stitch
live action so that I can cry watching that one

(02:25:23):
like I did when the cartoon came out.

Speaker 1 (02:25:26):
I love it. That might have been a little too
much for this segment.

Speaker 4 (02:25:30):
It's it's airing of grievance is not confessional. All right,
two different things.

Speaker 1 (02:25:35):
I'm still learning first time filling in. It's his first one.
He'll get another chance next week. Uh oh see, enjoy
calling the fights there in Wichita. Enjoy Whichita and I
hope that they fix your water in the ac and
elevator situation.

Speaker 4 (02:25:53):
So do I or else I'm going to be complaining
about it like a first world diva when I get back.

Speaker 1 (02:25:59):
Or we'll send you sure to just get you up
and down those stairs.

Speaker 4 (02:26:03):
Yeah, then then he would air agreevmance that you know,
I'm not exactly a fighting wait anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:26:08):
So, I mean if they you did say, guys trying
to cut Wait, maybe this is the hotel being like
if we put if we put everyone on the fourteenth floor,
it'll help them cut wait. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:26:20):
Yeah, maybe maybe they're playing chess. Well, the rest of
us are playing checkers.

Speaker 1 (02:26:24):
Absolutely. Hey, thanks, o Cie, have a good have a
good time there in which stuff?

Speaker 4 (02:26:28):
All right, thanks, rolling down, guys, tune in tonight later.

Speaker 1 (02:26:31):
All right, that's Sean O'Connell, hosts of the show, joining
us from PFL semi finals Witchdock, Kansas again three point
thirty is when the undercard starts the main card Goasti
Rabodanov versus Kevin Lee. That you can watch everything on
ESPN and ESPN Plus didn't have a new start bench cut.

(02:26:54):
He's gonna save that for when he's back in studio. Brian,
which well soft well sooft. I figured he'd thought about
the show while he wasn't hosting. I don't know, but
I guess it's fine. He's got another show to think about,
and it's a pretty big one. That's a good point. Yeah,
this is one of those I feel like I've experienced

(02:27:16):
the world and like the fringes of things, so like
I've the fringe experience of being on TV, you understand
a little bit of what's going on. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27:22):
Yeah, he's got big things to worry about and that. Honestly,
that car does look pretty awesome tonight.

Speaker 1 (02:27:26):
I might have to definitely need to, definitely need to
tune in, especially if you're a if you're a UFC guy,
tune in some PFL fights. There's nothing else going on
sports World tonight either, so right Stanley Cup would be
Game seven, but that but the oilers couldn't pull through,
so nothing oilers. There you go, Spence check its and

(02:27:47):
cross Talk is next, and we'll we'll set the scene
for the drive which is which is next on the
on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM. We
are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 7 (02:28:07):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and.

Speaker 1 (02:28:16):
Cross Talk Sean O'Connell's show. It's getting crowded in here.
Typically it's two people cross Talk. The other day it
was three because we had a couple of co hosts
filling in for Spence. These same two Porter and Tony
Parks Port of Arts and Tony Parks welcome.

Speaker 9 (02:28:37):
I think this room's a little too small for the
four of us partners.

Speaker 1 (02:28:42):
This is like look good to see you, goodness, spider
Man gift, but like four of us we're talking. We're
going down memory lane. Tony Parks by about Reggie Miller
because I'm wearing the Reggie Miller jersey. If you're tuned
into ESPN seven at ESPN seven and Sports Utah on YouTube,
you don't even need me to say that. With those
that aren't wearing the Reggie Miller Jersey in honor of

(02:29:03):
the Pacers, forcing a Game seven, which I know we're
all excited about, even though Porter's shaking his head. He
wants a game seven. I want to the game seven. Yeah,
cheering for the Pacers is the line too far. I
know people say it's the two best words in sports.
Actually it's the two best words in sports media. Yeah,
this is true. It's not like game blouses. Personally, I

(02:29:24):
know what that means. I gotta win as a fan.

Speaker 9 (02:29:26):
I know players probably don't. I mean, Game sevens are fun,
but for a player, that has got to be the
most like pressure filled, anxiety filled situation you could ever face.

Speaker 5 (02:29:38):
Do I'm telling you, it's different. I've been in an
NBA locker room before a Game seven, and it is.
It's real, like you, I'll never forget walking in Game
seven Jazz and the Clippers. I go into the locker room.
Rudy Gobert is changing his socks. He goes, he allows
me to interview him. I always do quick, sixteen ninety seconds.

(02:30:00):
He knows I'm quick, so I get in there and
I'm telling you, he did not hear a word I
said in the interview, like he was staring straightforward, right,
Joe Johnson staring straightforward, Ready, Joe Ingles was the loosest,
but everybody in that game seventh thing and the feeling
on the court.

Speaker 1 (02:30:16):
So I sat right behind the baseline.

Speaker 5 (02:30:19):
Everything about the competition, everything about the first six games
compared to that seventh game, it was different.

Speaker 1 (02:30:23):
I'm telling you Game sevens one that was round one
and that the.

Speaker 5 (02:30:29):
Right and I just I love it, man, I just
I think it's it's so great that this series comes
down to one. We had a clear favorite, we had
a clear dog. They weren't monumental underdog.

Speaker 9 (02:30:38):
Was that Denver you're referencing what the game seven?

Speaker 1 (02:30:42):
The Jazz No No Jazz Clippers twenty seventeen, Gordon Hayward's
is awesome. That was the resurrection of Joe Johnson. Wasn't
it the game where he went off?

Speaker 5 (02:30:53):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (02:30:54):
What is my favorite news?

Speaker 5 (02:30:55):
Because people were like, Okay, what do you think their
chances are to beat the Warriors? And I was like,
all given an eight chance to leave the series to
win a game, well, thanks.

Speaker 1 (02:31:05):
For the vote of confidence. Yeah, I'm gonna keep it
real here, guys. It's over. That was awesome and it's over. Yeah,
I wanted to. I mean, you guys, you guys seem
to call each other. I know we expected this the
Bee's hat from Tony Park's Voice of the Bees, but
we also got Brian brown With sporting the Obey Haas hat.
Brownie's my guy man, Brownie is my guy way to delivery.

(02:31:26):
I didn't even know that Tony was coming in today.
I could just feel the vibes that I was like,
I need to wear this hat come Sunday.

Speaker 5 (02:31:32):
Las of Bay House celebrate everything that is here in
the state, wonderful connection with the Hispanic Latino community. And
we have the Sunday brunch that is the Porter Larsen
Special as we call There we go, it's a twelve
oh five twelve we we now have a twelve oh
five first pitch, which is perfect for the brunch time.

Speaker 1 (02:31:49):
Why did we get a feeling that your Sunday brunch
is normally on a mountain side somewhere.

Speaker 9 (02:31:52):
Well, that happens first. Yes, obviously they got to get
down for the you gotta get down in time for the.

Speaker 5 (02:32:00):
Expand this bar menu really is what delivers five star
rating from anybody I know who's ever done it. So
get your tickets SLBs dot com. By the way, the
weather seventy degrees and.

Speaker 9 (02:32:10):
I say this weekend, it's like, yeah, after a cool
down yesterday, by the way, technically spring June nineteenth, the solstice,
I think it's tonight. It was one hundred and three
degrees in So that was fun.

Speaker 1 (02:32:26):
That's rough. Porter, We're gonna put you on the spot.
Oh no, give us a breakdown of bear Fisher, the
new three star tight end commit for the University of
bear Fisher.

Speaker 9 (02:32:37):
Give me, give me that guy's name, and you need
nothing else.

Speaker 5 (02:32:42):
I would have to believe Porter Larsen personally recruited saftly.

Speaker 1 (02:32:46):
I don't need to see it. Ounce of film.

Speaker 9 (02:32:48):
If your name's bear Fisher, yes, guard right, yeah, sure,
play guard.

Speaker 1 (02:32:54):
Could be you know, six five two thirty five tight end.
He may be at guard weight by the time the
season starts.

Speaker 9 (02:33:00):
That's fun.

Speaker 1 (02:33:00):
Yeah, we gave see the same treatment. By the way,
in the hey break down. What's cool though? What's cool though?
Queen's Creek Queen Creek.

Speaker 9 (02:33:09):
I can't say I've seen him play, but I would
recruit him based off of his name.

Speaker 2 (02:33:13):
This is where like the recruiting side of things has changed.
So much is I'll watch the tape on somebody once
they commit. It used to be I would watch anybody
that Ute is going after.

Speaker 1 (02:33:24):
And it's just, I mean, you just never like it's
so much work to put in now for guys that
may not last through the month. Yeah, it's but Bear
Fisher sounds like I think Porter has sold me on
the fact that, like, you gotta hold on to this one,
even just for like, uh imagine the crossover deals.

Speaker 9 (02:33:44):
Exactly, get some deals with some folks like a there
you go, call us not quite travel a thousand pigs
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:33:54):
But yeah, well that'd be a little bit of smelling.
Tell us what's coming up on the Drive? You got
it's Tony and Porter sitting in for Spence today. Indeed,
what's going on in the Drive today?

Speaker 9 (02:34:07):
Well, we got an w A Finals Game seven on Sunday,
so that'll be the bulk of the show today. But
we'll we'll tie in some local stuff there. We'll get
the update on the on the Bees and talk some baseball.
We will give you guys some updates as we get
closer to the cut, some PGA stuff, so we'll we'll
kind of cover all.

Speaker 5 (02:34:26):
Of our bases figuratiforately and literally. It's going to be
a blast man. Love of hosting with Porter. Love seeing
you guys here today, My guy Brownie. They don't come
better in this guy right here. Love his breakdown, love
his analysis. But anybody who knows him as a person,
you should absolutely love the fact that he is on
your airwaves has a chance to bring it.

Speaker 1 (02:34:44):
So I loved hearing you throughout the early afternoon today.
I'm going to make sure the bank keeps that payment
going up. Yes for that, please do.

Speaker 2 (02:34:51):
It's been going on for years now, but now we
go back even beyond days at a different radio station.
But I mean, I just anytime I see him on
the sidelines, it makes me happy because it means football
season is going on.

Speaker 1 (02:35:03):
Absolutely calls on the radio and all that stuff. So
it's good time. Absolutely coming in too. Oh yeah, so
all right, all right, Rooster's Brewings, stay tuned for that.
That's gonna be quite this segment. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:35:17):
When I travel by the way, last place I go
Salt Lake Airport. Right before I go get there early,
why so I can hang out at Roosters, watch the game,
great food.

Speaker 1 (02:35:26):
Money.

Speaker 9 (02:35:26):
I look at you absolutely every time we're not even
paying him to do that.

Speaker 1 (02:35:31):
He just loves the place that Speaking of hearing Brian
Brown's voice on the airwaves, OC is out again next week,
so we're gonna do a best of show on Monday,
some recent some of the best of recent guests and
from the Sean O'Connell Show. The rest of the week
it will be me and Brian Brown holding it down
for OC. So that's coming up next week on the

(02:35:53):
Sean O'Connell Show. The Drive is next on ESPN seven
hundred ninety two to one FM. Stay tuned for that.