Top 3 Stories of the Day: Utah Jazz get their NBA Cup Schedule | Big 12 Conference to Mandate Inj…
It’s time to break down the biggest stories of the day. This is the top three stories of the day on kslsports.com. 975 the KSL sport. Jacob 975 the KSL sports zone. Jake Scott Ben Anderson. It’s time for the top three stories of the day. KSLsports.com. It is sponsored by our friends at Jbrooks Jewelers. Cherish your love with Jbrooks Jewelers. Explore their expertly crafted engagement rings made from the finest materials. Jbrooks Jewelers. Where do you want to start today, Christian? Number one, yesterday the Jazz learned their NBA Cup schedule and then coming out later today, we’ll get the full season schedule. Jazz, uh, difficult pairing. Now, I did have somebody point this out to me on Twitter, which is accurate. Every pairing is difficult when you’re the worst team in the NBA, which the Jazz might be. Uh, and the other really bad teams for the most part are in the East, Washington, Brooklyn. New Orleans might be the other really bad team in the West this year. But, uh, the Jazz in season cup, the NBA Cup, the Emirates Cup, uh, are paired with reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Back-to-back conference finalist Minnesota Timberwolves. The Phoenix Suns, who again, I’ve told you I’d like their off season. Got rid of the old maid. got off KD who I think is maybe more of a distraction than he is provider at this point. Got some interesting young pieces. We’ll see. Uh but he also plays Sacramento. Sacramento shouldn’t be good either. But you know, not that I expected the Jazz to win a lot or any of these NBA Cup games, but that is their pairing and they begin early in the season. Halloween Jazz will play the OKC Thunder. Ben, uh, you know, cats, uh, in the wall might be a theme of the show because we have another topic to get to that, uh, I want to bring this up, but I did not think that the inseason tournament was necessarily cat in the wall for the NBA, which I don’t know, do we have to explain cats in the wall? A solution to a problem that does not work and fact makes the problem worse. Um, I did not think it was that. I kind of like the idea of it. I like the idea of it in soccer when RSL does it. I I actually think it’s kind of cool. And so I was really open to this one. I gotta tell you, it’s it’s meowing a little more like a cat. I had a tough time. I saw your your your news on this, your article on this yesterday. I I went through I I read through it, but man, I it felt manufactured like I was drumming up interest, and it kind of is confusing. And the way it adds games to the other parts of the schedule is confusing. The the floors, I get the purpose of the floor, but I don’t know if it actually accomplishes that purpose. Do you think the the Vegas semi-finals and finals has become a spectacle? No. So, is it just a waste of time? Maybe it doesn’t add to a problem, but is it just a waste of time? What I actually think it’s doing that is beneficial, but the NBA can’t say it, is it gives teams some extra time off in December, unless you’re one of the two or four finalist semi-finalists that go to Vegas and get to compete in this tournament. Every other team ends up playing like two games over eight days, nine days. You basically get a mini break earlyish in the season, but kind of breaks it up into like trimesters, right? You go late October to mid December or early December, you get a little break and then December to February and then you get a little break for the All-Star game and then you make the push for the for the for the playoffs. I actually think that’s the benefit of it. But the NBA can’t advertise it’s rest season. So they have packaged it this as this NBA in season tournament and you know can you do you remember offhand who has won it? I mean if you read my article yesterday the Lakers uh Lakers won it. the first one. The first one and the Bucks won last year. That’s right. Um but no, it doesn’t matter. What’s cool about, you know, ConAF and inseason soccer tournaments is ideally you’re playing teams that are peers or maybe even a little bit above you or leagues that are similar but you’re not going to play but different. So you get experience with different players, different countries involved that actually does have a chance if you’re playing in the US for you know uh nationals of those countries to come out and support their team that they wouldn’t see otherwise. I think that is cool and it’s inherently built into soccer, but I’m with you. I don’t think this has been Adam Silver’s best cat in the wall among several. See, I actively hate the play. And I like the playin tournament much more than I like the inseason tournament. I actively dislike the playin and this I’m more much more indifferent about because it really doesn’t other than adding confusion, it doesn’t really create any further problems. So, I’m I’m pretty indifferent about it, but I I was not excited to see like who’s in their pool. Sure. And I don’t think I’ve ever been that necessarily. So, I don’t know. That’s why I bring it up. I agree. It does add a little bit of extra interest when you’re kind of getting into the second or the third and the fourth game, you only play four games in these pool because it’s six, five team groups um in group play. When you get to that third game and the fourth game, you kind of start doing the math a little bit of like, well, if they win this by x amount of points, they’ll advance. Or if they win this game by x amount of points, they could advance uh and still, you know, qualify. It’s the winner of the six groups plus two wild cards, uh, end up making it to the the next round, the tournament round. Again, it’s confusing. I get it. Sounds confusing. It does add a little interest in those games, and I don’t think it necessarily makes the product worse, but I don’t think it makes it way better. So, the nerds like it? Yeah, the nerds like it. But the nerds who like that sort of Well, if this happens and then we buy three like No offense, uh well, he’s probably our most prominent nerd in the sports media. Like Lach, I’m sure loves it. I wonder if he likes it. Have him on and talk to But Lock loves that sort of nuance. He does, you know. He does. Well, let’s keep an eye on what’s going on between Houston and Sacramento because of this by this and this by this, you know. So, but I wonder like we talked about um MMA fans, you know, following the Paramount Plus, like are there enough nerds to prop up that event to make it interesting? You know what I mean? To bring the audience to it like, “Oh, I got I can’t do anything this weekend, guys. I got to watch this.” And again, you know, one of the problems is you reward the players. Players, if you win, you get a half million dollars, each player does on the team. That’s awesome. Do fans care the players are making more money? No. No. But you do have to incentivize the players. The fans want the players to care. That’s the point. But maybe you need to incentivize the fans. And what I mean by that is like give them half a million dollars. Yeah. It’d be great. Uh or give the team who wins the 31st pick in the draft, right? Like it’s not a firstrounder, but it’s the next pick and then fans are like, I want my team to win. We get a free first round draft pick essentially. This is the logic though that gave us uh allstar winner gets home or gets uh homefield advantage in the World Series, which right? And then are you aiding the Oklahoma City Thunder who are going to be the best team anyways to really try and get another first round pick and then the rich just get richer. There’s a there’s a push back to all of it. Okay. So he gets another first round pick because of this stupid thing. You can it you could see it. Absolutely. So maybe the best answer is to take don’t put another cat in the wall. Yeah. Putting cats in the wall. Right. So that’s what I’m saying. Is this worth the energy? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Because I don’t think it’s hurting anything. It’s not a detriment, but is it helping? It’s not really. I don’t know. We could get David James to look into the TV ratings for, you know, comparison sake for November pre in seasonason tournament and post inseason tournament. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know if it moves the needle, but I think it is built in rest and that’s it real plus. Uh, so yeah, quit throwing the soft players under the bus, dude. That’s essentially what you’re saying is these guys are so putting soft, they need an extra couple of days, a week off. Yeah. In the middle of the season. then do something else. Fine. That’s fine. Have that be the case. Somewhere Charles Oakley is like these soft players. All right. What’s next? The rest of the schedule, by the way, comes out in like an hour and a half. The rest of the full season schedule. Jazz will play on the 22nd. Whole opening night is the 21st. Big news coming out of the Big 12 yesterday. The conference is going to be mandating injury reports. All right, Ben. This is a cat in the wall. Okay, this solves nothing. Okay, so actually I take that back. The only thing this does solve is the the problem that uh Petro and the Fox crew had with Kyle Whittingham. This does solve that. Coaches have to come clean three hours before the game. But what it does not solve, Ben, is the well, we’ll see if he plays this week. We have no idea. We’ll let you know if it’s season ending. This doesn’t solve any of that. You’re just going to know that one player is not going to be playing three hours before the game. That’s it. As opposed to 30 minutes. It’s not even that long. It’s not even three hours. It’s not. I thought it was. I uh our friends at Arizona Sports, our sister station, says for football, reports will be issued daily beginning 3 days before game day with a final update 90 minutes before kickoff. 90 minutes. Yeah. So, this solves nothing. No, it doesn’t. Wit’s just going to hold his hand until 90 minutes before. Everyone’s going to be questionable. Cam Rising would have been still questionable the whole season. Yeah. But again, instead of blindsiding the TV crew, yes, when the kickoff happens, you’ll know 90 minutes before, which doesn’t change anything, right? The difference is you think uh Cam’s going to run out onto the field and what was the game? And it was Bari. Who was it? Who? Because it wasn’t Isaac Wilson. I think it was Bryson Barnes. We were talking about it against Washington State, right? And they had no idea and they were totally unprepared. So you don’t get that very last second Cam Rising’s out there throwing the ball around in pregame and then somebody nobody’s heard of which we’ve heard of Bryson Barnes obviously but they hadn’t walks onto the field. I guess you won’t see that. But they don’t necess Do they have to name a starter? They just have to update an injury report, right? They just have to say if someone’s going to play or if they’re available. You have to say they’re going to play. What does that mean? Similar to NFL where it’s, you know, there’s going to be probable, questionable, and I think doubtful. Yeah, if you followed the NBA for the last five years, you know all those words mean nothing. Walker Kesler was available every game last year. The Jazz rested him for a rest. So, this does not solve anything. But, you know what it does do is it gives Brett your Mark and the conference commissioners the ability to go, would you guys get off my back? Yeah, I’m trying. I put in the injury report. What do you want? I mean, it’s just a giant dodge. And unfortunately, and I hate this, and I do think this is part of it. I think it has to do with gambling. Well, if you’re gambling on that, you’re dumb. But they are. I pro the time I gain the most followers right now in social media more than the draft, which I go really deep into all season long, is leading up to Vegas summer league because I tweet out injury reports that the NBA doesn’t. So, the NBA night toight or game to game on their website has to put out the injury reports because teams have to do this. And all the gamblers just go to the NBA site to get the updated report which comes out every hour on the 30, the bottom of every hour all day going up to the games every single day so the gamblers can find it. Well, they don’t do it for summer league, but if the media wants to do it, we get sent a text and I’ll report it and I’ll put it out. I will gain 100 followers leading up to summer league because the gamblers just want that information and I get DMs about it over and over. So yes, that is purely what it’s for. I promise you that’s who it’s for or that’s who cares at the very least. They care more than anybody. My point was not that they care. I understand that was that this they they don’t have any new information. This is not giving them anything. I would hope not, but I think they’re looking for any edge they feel like is their advantage. They do get it or not. I don’t care either. That makes no difference to me. This will not satisfy that complaint. If that’s what the complaint is, is somehow we have to fill in the gamblers. This will not do that. The only person this is good for, the mouse and the and Fox’s broadcast teams. That’s basically it. That’s who it’s really going to help. It’s not even It’s not even good for the pregame show host. No, that’s who it’s really going to help. You’re right. Is the people actually in the booth who have 90 minutes to say, “Okay, it was this guy or this guy. I watch or even graphics people or something like that.” Yeah, they’re loving it. But outside of those dozen people, it doesn’t do anything for anyone. If if you’re making a bet two days before the game because the first injury report said this guy is probable, I wouldn’t believe any of that. Well, no, of course not. If you’re doing it that No, you’re talking about the the bet 90 minutes before the game. When that final report comes out, those people will be happy. Now, does that mean I’m with you? Does it mean they’re actually going to play? Right. They might just be available. I promise you, I knew games last year when the Jazz weren’t going to play certain players that were listed as available. The Gamblers didn’t know. Oh, it’s how the Jazz reacted to getting fined. That was their that was their Perry was like, “No, he’s available.” Yeah, you could tell before the game if guys were or were not going to play based on what they were doing, regardless of what it said they were available. So, I’m with you. It’s a stupid way to bet on it. I wouldn’t bet on sports, period. But that is who cares. Now, who is it actually going to help? It will help the broadcast team. Who cares? the Gamblers. I don’t think it helps them. And if you’re just Yeah, it may not help them, but they do care. Uh, all right. What’s next? Number three, BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanavasa. Ready for a big year. I had it a goal last year. I didn’t achieve it. I’d love to reinstate that goal, and that’s to, you know, have a QB sack every play. Um, I think the NFL looks for people that are pass rushers as well as run stoppers, and I try to cause havoc. Um I may not be the terminator of the play but I try to determine where the play goes right and so uh just having a natural and big presence on that field every play though I may not make the play just being patient within my technique and u bringing that defense along bringing the best out of everybody you know that for most players I think would be a lot of lip service but for a defensive tackle you can actually do all that well you can’t get a sack every possession no no no but but create havoc and all this stuff if the other team has to block you with at least two players, then you are dictating what the play is going to be. Yeah, you are dictating what is going to happen. There’s a reason Hood Natada was so valuable to some of the best defenses that have ever played football because Will Fork’s numbers are not impressive, but scheme against him. You have to block him with two players at least. At least. And that determines what you’re able to to call. I mean, that position is so important. um he can have a tremendous amount of impact if he if he plays well and and it may not be from a numbers perspective, but it may be BYU finally has a double digit player with double digit sacks or Isaiah Glasgar and Jack Kelly just run wild just feast all year and they should because Keo Tanavas is awesome if he holds up his end of the bargain. Yeah, which he is. He’s been really good. He did last year. So that’s the thing from that tackle position that you can really impact things so much because you’re the initial point of impact. If they they have to stop you first and if they can’t do it with one player then that is a huge advantage because all of a sudden the ability uh to block downfield has been significantly limited. So, if he lives up to that, I mean, BYU’s defense, as long as they, you know, as long as they can keep the outside locked up with some decent corner play, BYU’s defense should be awesome. Yeah, absolutely. BYU’s defense shouldn’t be a question mark at all. Those linebackers, that linebacking group is going to be insane. So, that should be a real strength, I would guess. And I don’t think they’ll be, were they bottom 25 last year in pass rush? I don’t think that will be the case. Not if Tonavasa holds up his end of the bargain. And again, that might not mean he’s getting the sacks per se, but uh who was playing tackle? Was it one of the when Nate Orchard had his huge year, was it one of the low two low? It might have been. Yeah, it wouldn’t have been Star at that point, but it would have been LOL. LOL possibly. But I mean, Utah’s had a list of them, including Ke. It could have been Lucky Fu. It could have been. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. The list goes on and on. But how many of you know is Nate uh hopefully thanking the the guys in the middle because he got a lot of single coverage that year? So, we’ll see. All right, stay tuned. We’ll have more coming up next. It is the Jake and Ben Show.
Top 3 Stories of the Day: Utah Jazz get their NBA Cup Schedule, Big 12 Conference to Mandate Injury Report, Keanu Tanuvasa primed for a big year at BYU
