DnA Sports Recap
a 60 minute sports podcast where we discuss the Utah Mammoth, Utah Football, Utah Jazz, Major League Baseball, and any other interesting stories in sports.
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DnA Sports Recap
Utah Football Schedule Breakdown, Utah Jazz Targeting Austin Reeves, WBC Finals Recap
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🏈 Breaking down the Utah Football 2026–2027 schedule — key matchups, trap games, and season predictions
🏀 Should the Utah Jazz make a move for Austin Reaves this offseason? We analyze the fit, cost, and impact
⚾ Recapping the FINAL games of the World Baseball Classic — biggest moments, standout players, and what it means moving forward
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You are looking live here in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, here at DNA HQ. On today's episode, we have Let's Break Down the University of Utah's football schedule for the 26-27 season. Should the Utah Jazz target Austin Reeves this offseason?
SPEAKER_01And let's break down the final games of the World Baseball Classic. All that and more, my name's Darren. That is AJ, and this is the DNA sports recap. Roll the intro. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It definitely is. It definitely is. Another uh pre-show. Cheers. Absolutely. Cheers to you. Boom. Cheers to you guys. Lots to talk about today. We have Greg Hawkins, channel legend, Greg Hawkins, jumping in the chat already. Love to see it. It says, How about that WBC final? Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's coming. That's coming for sure. As a reminder, folks, if you're watching this on our live stream, please feel free to jump into the chat. Let us know where you're watching from. AJ wants to know your favorite color. Um, as long as it's red. If it's not, I don't care. Pretty much. Pretty much. Uh, and again, folks, if you are watching this on our live stream, uh, this is available after the show. It's also available as a podcast where you get your audio, as well as if you're listening to this on the audio podcast. We do this live stream every Wednesday evening, 7 30 mountain time. So be sure to check us out. Come hang out. Yep. All that good stuff. Um, all right. We you want to get into it? Yeah, let's do it. All right, let's do it. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit about your University of Utah football. As a reminder, folks, we did just launch a channel specifically for your University of Utah football called Utah Football DNA. All of our Utah football content will be posted here on this channel. So if you're listening to this on our live stream, watching on our live stream, or listening on our podcast after, a link to Utah Football DNA will be in the description down below. So be sure to check it out in the description. Make sure you smash that like button for your boy AJ right over there, slap some engagement, and uh yeah, consider subscribing if you're here for your Utes. Absolutely go Utes. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, let's go ahead and jump into it, man. Um is this the right one? That's the right one. Okay. Sorry, you mentioned the other one, so I just want to make sure I was doing the right one there. All right, so we got another comment here uh from uh friend of the channel. Here, we got McKinley Cutler saying, uh, what's up with the jazz? Really going into full tank mode. Might not even pass up the kings. Yeah, that's a great conversation. We're actually gonna talk about that game as well. So everybody all on the same uh page here for our content this week.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely great work, guys. We did way to study your notes before you jumped in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is those are college. Very much appreciated, yeah. Um, all right, let's go ahead and first jump into it, man. What we wanted to talk about today when it comes to the Utes was we wanted to kind of break down the schedule, man. Yeah, absolutely. So uh let's see here. What we're gonna do here is start with game one, right? Yep. Which is uh, let's see, that's gonna be the first game, which is gonna be against Idaho. Yep. Okay, so again, folks, let us know what your thoughts are in the comments down below. Uh, what your feedback is regarding um our picks on this. Let us know if you think we're wrong, if you think we're right. Either way, we're still gonna have a good time in the comments. So uh join us, chat with us, let us know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02All right, yeah, do it.
SPEAKER_01All right, so week one, uh, we have Idaho, right? So this could be the University of Idaho. This is simple.
SPEAKER_02This is this is a straight up warm-up game, my friend.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this is get some reps in type of game. Uh, what I see from this one is this is try some stuff that you would normally not use and get your depth in there as early as possible.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Uh clearly there's a talent gap here. Idaho has signed some entertaining uh players, specifically running back uh Ferrari Williams. He's 5'10, 220 pounds. He had 1100 rushing yards last year, which is also awesome name. Yes, very awesome name. Um, but yeah, other than that, that's really kind of the only player I see coming out of Idaho that'd be kind of fun to watch. Other than this, again, we're just gonna see what the youths are gonna throw out there again, get the depths depth out there and try and uh see if we can get some uh game speed reps for these guys.
SPEAKER_02So you're gonna say that's gonna be a Utah win.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a pretty simple Utah win on this one.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. Uh next game is gonna be Utah versus Arkansas. Um, this game's September 12th at Rice Eccles Stadium, so home game. Uh this game reminds me a lot of the UCLA game from last year. Um, you're you're playing against uh a power conference school who's kind of in the bottom end of their conference, and actually they are in the very bottom end of their conference. Um they they were 2-10 last year and were 0-8 in conference play in the SEC. So Arkansas really struggled last year, but it's gonna tell a lot about how the season's gonna go, right? It is a power four school with with players from the SEC who have SEC recruiting. Um, but I mean to summarize this, this game's at Rice Eccles. The home crowd's gonna be there first. You know, I mean, to bring in a power four opponent into Rice Eccles, it's gonna be loud, it's gonna be crazy. I'm gonna predict a Utah win.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's gonna be like the first real game. I mean, no offense, I ho, you know, University of Ho. No offense. Um, but yeah, I agree with you on that one. That's gonna be that's gonna be a fun, fun atmosphere for sure. Um, so week three, we have Utah States coming into town. Yeah. Again, another home game. This is uh kind of a repeat there. A lot of my games are home games, by the way.
SPEAKER_02I know, and a lot of mine are away.
SPEAKER_01Um, so this one's gonna be an interesting game. Um, not just simply because of uh the play on the field, but it's gonna be interesting. Utah's clearly gonna win this one against Utah State. But what I'm actually really excited about is how the all the fun connections that they have uh with the University of Utah. Obviously, you have the new OC, Kevin McGivin, uh, as Utah uh was with Utah State last year. Uh they also brought over four-star uh wide receiver Brendan Pagan, uh, who led Utah State uh last year with 60 receptions and 926 yards, including five touchdowns. Um Utah State's going through a significant uh roster overhaul overhaul right now. Um but I do think that they have some good additions to that team. Uh Seth Wilfred uh from Auburn is a big one. You also have uh Chewie Wade from OK State. Those two will solidify the offensive line. Fun game for sure, but uh Yeats will take this one. Uh, I just think it'll be a fun one to watch just simply because it's gonna be a lot of Utah State's influence on Utah. So it's just gonna be kind of fun to see how that all plays out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And there'll be some fun banter in that one because Utah State fans always show up. Um, you know, that that the opposing fan section in the Utah State game is always full. So to have them there, it'll be loud on you know that southwest corner of the field. It'll be a fun one, but uh I wouldn't expect anything other than a Utah win. Um so I think we I believe we have a bye-week in week four, right? It's week five. Week five. Okay, so the next game, September 26th at Jack Trice Stadium. So Utah is on the road at Iowa State. This is gonna be a tough home test for the new head coach, Jimmy Rogers. Uh, he was the head coach at Washington State last year. He left after just one year with the program. Um, and then he took the Idaho, the Iowa State job because Matt Campbell left. And when Matt Campbell left, he took pretty much the whole roster with him to Penn State. So he when you take that many talented guys that you've done a really good job recruiting and kind of made that Iowa State program what it was over the last few years, you're looking at a rebuilding year. Um, Jimmy Rogers is a great head coach. He won an FCS um national championship with South Dakota State. So the guy, the guy who knows how to win football games, I do believe he's gonna be overmatched in this one. You Utah's gonna show up with with three games where they've got the offense rolling. Um, and I do believe they come out of um Jack Tri Stadium with a win on September 26th.
SPEAKER_01Nice. I like it. I like it. Um, week six, we have again this is coming after the bye week, so week five, the Uds have a bye week. Going into week six, again, a home game, and this one's gonna be versus Kansas. Uh, this one's gonna be a little bit closer for me. Um, KU uh does have a bit of a quarterback battle going on right now. It's assumed that uh uh Cole Ballard wouldn't be expected to take over uh for Jalen Daniels uh after his departure, but you also have Chase Jenkins and Isaiah Marshall to contest there um in spring and fall camp. So we'll see what happens there. On the offensive side, uh we got uh wide receiver Cam Pickett and uh transfer Nick uh McMillan uh as key contributors on the offensive side. Uh they also have defensive lineman uh Draden Punt uh that's new to the squad there, is a player worth note on the defensive side. I still got Utah winning this one, um, just simply because these teams are in similar positions as far as like quality of program-wise, in my opinion. Yeah. Uh the issue that I'm running, and again, simply because of the the transition period is I would I would normally pick Utah way over Kansas, but again, with all the transition we talked about last week with this team, I think that kind of levels the playing field a lot. However, again, this one's gonna be at Rice Eckles, so I'm gonna say, you know, that's gonna make the difference, and Utah's gonna come in with a win against Kansas.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think so. The Rice Eycles is home field advantage for sure. It's it's loud and it's rowdy, and um the fans have the ability to affect opposing offenses.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, we have our we have an established head coach that's been here for 20 years, our offensive coordinator is from Utah State. Um, you know, he's you know relatively local to the program, you know, and it's I don't know, the defense, yeah, there's a whole bunch of change on this team, absolutely. But a lot of it is Utah centric. A lot of it is going to be people that are already with the program. We have our our QB number one. This team doesn't, at least not yet. Yeah. And so that kind of leaves a lot, plus the home field advantage. I'm leaning Utah on that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the next week uh is October 17th, and the Utah is at Colorado at Folsom Field. I I think the big thing to remember with Colorado is they they had some short-lived days of this flashy Colorado team that could, and I'm air quoting here if you're listening on the podcast, play with anybody. And those days are really gone. Um, Colorado looked pretty bad last year. And even after getting Caden Salter from the transfer portal, that was their their big time recruit that they got from Liberty, who was supposed to just come in and you know, not miss a beat on the offense after they lost Shador Sanders to the draft. Um they just struggled to move the ball. The defense played horribly. It it was really bad. So they've got another quarterback battle. They've got five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, um, who is it's not Lewis. I don't think his name's Julian Lewis.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, we'll fix it on the screen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and then he's gonna be he's gonna be competing with uh Utah transfer, Isaac Wilson, yeah, at Colorado. So um those guys were battling for the for the starting spot, and Wilson is already showing promise. He's actually um getting pretty high praise from the coaching staff already, uh, which is really cool to see. So Colorado always plucks a few really good guys out of the transfer portal. Every single year they have a few spots where it's like this guy's gonna be the difference maker. I don't know if they're gonna be consistent enough throughout the season to take Utah even at home. Uh, I'm gonna take Utah and a win on this one as well.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha. Yeah, no, no arguments there. Um again, it's clear, you know. No, I I just yeah, that one's a clear, pretty much a clear shut one on me there for me for sure. I'm with you there. There was that first year where they came out the gates hot and they everybody bought into the hype, and then it just really fizzled out at the end.
SPEAKER_02Well, and then Oregon absolutely bus rolled them on national TV never on that scene. And and I mean it was I it's been downhill since Oregon just ran them over, you know, and they're they're all the talk about how good Colorado is, and I mean it's Oregon, right? Like if you don't show up, they're going to truck you, and that was exactly what happened. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, then we have week eight uh versus Houston. Again, another home home game here. Uh Houston is still rebuilding. Uh they do have quarterback uh Connor Wayman. Uh he is returning for his final year of eligibility. Uh that should provide some stability on the offense. Um if you if Utah gets out to an early, you know, early, you know, if Utah gets out early, we might see the five-star recruit uh for for them, which is uh Keysen uh no, sorry, K Sean Henderson. Hope I'm saying that first name right. Keyshawn Henderson um in the second half, uh, which would be really really cool to see from Houston. Uh he was a five-star recruit, so that would be really awesome to see him out there. Defensively, they have uh Carlos Allen Jr. who uh plays you know a little bit standout for me. Uh, I think he's gonna be a player worth watching for sure. But again, still rebuilding versus Utah's more reload approach versus rebuilding. So I'm gonna take this one. Uh you win this one at home.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Nice. I I agree. I think uh that program has has some work to do. Houston, they're kind of up and coming. They spent a ton of money in the transfer portal. You know, we just talked about it um in our top five rankings. Make sure you guys check that video out if you haven't already seen it. They spent a lot of money, they could be at the top end. I don't see them as as fresh as they are coming into Rice Call Stadium and taking that game.
SPEAKER_01No, no, I agree. I did have them ranked in in my video last week um ahead of Utah. Um I believe I did, didn't I? Yeah, I think you did. I think I did. Yeah, but I don't see them beating them head to head just simply because, again, here at home, Utah's more established. Tough place to play. I just think Utah's gonna take that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So okay, so the next week is October 31st at Nippert Stadium, which is at Cincinnati. Um, Cincinnati hit the hard the transfer portal hard. They had 22 recruits, um, including fresh or including JC Fresh and the Redshirt senior quarter, who is a redshirt senior quarterback, and Liam O'Brien. Doesn't that name sound familiar? It does. Spicy tuna? It does. But Liam O'Brien is actually senior from Penn, which is an Ivy League school. He's also a quarterback. Interesting. Um, so Cincinnati, Cincinnati started last year on fire, right? They looked good. Um, and and I mean, realistically, everyone was thinking this team's gonna be playing for a Big 12 conference championship this year. Um, that starting quarterback who took them all that direction ended up, you know, transferring to Texas Tech. So they're gonna be forced to kind of rebuild some offense. I I'm really curious to see how Cincinnati looks after such a strong beginning to the season. Um it'll it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. I'm gonna take Utah on this one in a close game, actually. I'm not saying they blow these guys out. Um, but I think I think Utah wins this one in a close one on the road at Cincinnati.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Okay, I love it. I love it. Um, I actually agree with you on that one too, by the way. Yeah. I don't think I don't think Cincinnati beats them, even with those a row game. Uh week 10. So this is one everybody wants to talk about week 10 versus BYU. Uh for me, it's the most important game on the schedule for the University of Utah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and for where we're at, you know, we just had a comment that the UCD go undefeated. Uh McKinley commented that the UC go undefeated uh before the BYU game for an 8-8 uh or eight eight-no, eight-no holy war. I agree. I agree this will be nationally televised. Um, it'll be on everyone's TVs on every single channel. Um, so yeah, absolutely. Go into it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so again, state this will be a statement win for Utah, but it's a must-win for BYU. Yes. Uh, if they want to compete for a big for a Big 12 championship or be in the college football playoff, they cannot lose to Utah on in this game. Uh BYU has uh Bear Buckheimer coming returning uh after. Did you just say Bear Buckheimer? It sounded like Buckheimer.
SPEAKER_02It's Bachmeier. Did I say Buckheimer? It sounded like Buckheimer. I'm just like, what are you talking about? Uh anyways. Bear Buckmeier. Bachmeyer. Here we go. That was uh it sounded funny.
SPEAKER_01It made me laugh. Okay, Bear Buckmeyer. You know, wouldn't be the first time I said it wrong. So uh so I've heard it both ways. There you go. There you go. Love it. That's it. That's worth that. That's a bit show too. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Okay, so those YouTube algorithm, that's apple juice. It's good stuff. Uh, so again, so with BYU, they have uh Bear Buckmeyer returning after his breakout season last year. You expect him to have uh another leap forward, not necessarily a leap, but he should still progress from last year. Uh backed with uh running back uh LJ Martin, who is a top 100 player in the early rankings right now. Um I also like their tight end uh transfer they got from USC, uh Walker Lions. Uh he was a nice reload there. And you also have the O line, you got Bruce Mitchell who was all conference last year. Uh Gentry is also expected to be uh has experience at tackle uh as well. Um looking forward to seeing what uh uh Kyle Kyler Casper is gonna do on this team. Um down south. He is uh you know an Oregon transfer, 6'6 Oregon transfer. So um there's a lot to be seen on the BYU side that thing is gonna make this one interesting. Uh I can overstate the uh departure of Jay Hill on this one. I think um Utah shakes off this 0 3 holy war and gets a win this time. I agree.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I it'll be uh we'll know really or we'll know four or five games in how Utah's gonna look. Um I'm excited for the the offensive pairing with Devin Dampier and you know the new offensive coordinator Kevin McGevin. I think it's gonna be kind of a match made in heaven. I think they're gonna have some stuff up their sleeves specifically for the BYU game that we will not see. Um I also agree that it will be a Utah win this year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just statistically, if you look over the time frame over this rivalry, unless there's a huge change, yeah, Rush, a huge swing, it's usually one side will get three wins in a row, and then or it's a just uh a massacre for ten years. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm uh anticipating this is gonna be a little bit more back and forth. I think these teams are a little bit more evenly matched than have been. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's why I think this one um could go, uh this one should go Utah's way, just simply because again, again, there's there's some changes there, and again, there's just as many changes on the Utah side, but again, we just reloaded with a lot of more Utah guys, so I think that kind of makes a difference there for us for sure. Um, all right, so who do you got next?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so the next week coming up is Utah at Arizona at Casino del Sol Stadium. This game absolutely terrifies me. Um, this is on the road against a really good Arizona team. Um, you just played and won an emotional rivalry game against BYU, and the Utes are just feeling unstoppable at this point. But I could see some missteps on defense in this game. And with Noah Fafita out there, that this dude's just he's known for carving up Utah defenses. He finds holes, he runs, he just he does it all. Utah defenses do not play well against Noah Fafita because this dude is that good. This is going, in my opinion, this is going to be the first loss of Utah season against Arizona. Um, in a close one. I mean, I I think it's could be decided by a field goal or less. Um, but I'm gonna say Utah, Utah versus Arizona after the rivalry week, we could we see our first loss from Utah.
SPEAKER_01All right. All right, yeah, that's uh that tracks. Uh I think I think you're pretty spot on there. Um it'd be tough to see them. I I mean it's not impossible, but yeah, I think I think you're spot on on that analysis there. Coming off of a high of a great win against the the rival and then going in against a a better team and immediately getting, you know, punched in the mouth a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think that's definitely we've just seen this too too many times, right? Where they go out there and they get behind 14-0 in the first quarter, and it's like now they're playing comeback the whole time. And I'm not saying Utah doesn't have it in it to win some comeback games, but ended up losing 21 to 17. Yeah, I mean it's funny because I actually had it 24-27. You know what I mean? So I mean, I could see it being that close of a game and and just you know not being able to make it a late a late turnover or something like that. So gotcha, gotcha.
SPEAKER_01All right, I got week 12 versus TCU. Uh this one's on the road, right?
SPEAKER_02I I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yes, maybe I have it versus TCU, but I'm pretty sure this one's on the road. So I just think I'm on my notes. I can have a right. That sounds right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That sounds right because their last game, I think, finishes out at Rice Eclescles, so against West Virginia, which is my next one. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I just put it in my notes versus, but I think it's on the road. So uh correction there. But anyway, so um there's always now here's my theory. Uh I've been following the youth a lot closer as as we analyze the team than I did as a fan, basically just watching the games and just you know, enjoying it and just checking it. Yeah. There's something I've noticed over the last couple years is there's always going to be a loss on the road that I expect this team to win. Yeah. Happens every year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, Carter Stadium is always a tough place to play. Uh the Horned Frogs are, you know, are a tough team to play at home. You know, Jeremy Payne is going to be um the highlight of that offense as he continues. Um, you know, as if he continues what he did in the second half of last year. Um, you also have Ken Seal. Um, he's projected Seals. Sorry, there's an S on there. He's projected to be the starting QB. Um, I like the fact that he's gonna be, and he also has a stupid, you know, some stability in the wide receiver room uh with Major Everhart. Uh there's lots of experience on the defensive line with like Marcus Steele as well as uh Ansel Dean Mabah. Hopefully I'm saying that right.
SPEAKER_02Mabopi. Mabopi. I don't know. I just made it up. I like that. There's no vowel at the end of there.
SPEAKER_01So both me and ESPN got that one wrong if that's the case. Um, but like I said, this team always loses one on the road that I think they should win. And in my mind, this one could be that game. Um, now you could easily take this and swap it with BYU. Um, and if they lost BYU game, I see them winning against the Horned Frogs.
SPEAKER_02Maybe their one losses Arizona.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, again, I don't think this team comes out only one loss, unfortunately. Uh so again, I'm just picking them. Again, they're just always that one, and it's always comes at the end of the year uh where the defense is just kind of beaten up and and stuff like that. Just kind of really ran through um its paces because it spends way too much time on the field, at least over the last couple of seasons. Um, hopefully that changes this year. Uh, but yeah, I see that being a potential loss as again, just statistically, as I've seen in the last several years, one of these always comes up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I totally agree. Um, that's gonna be a tough game at TCU. I think if they do lose the game at Arizona, their chances of winning a TCU are better. Agreed. Because it this is not a two-loss and two-week team, especially coming into the end of the season where they know they got to win. Um, and I'm not saying they don't potentially lose one of those earlier games, but I think if they do lose the Arizona game, I see them playing much stronger against TCU than if they win the Arizona game. Um but to finish the season, it is Utah versus West Virginia. That is at Rice Eccles Stadium. Um, Nico Marquillo Marquillo announced that he is transferring to Northwestern. He spent four seasons uh with the Mountaineers. But uh but West Virginia got some good transfers. Uh they got an Oklahoma transfer named Michael Hawkins Jr. They also got a guy named Scotty Fox Jr. Uh Rich Rodriguez has he's finally getting his feet underneath him. They didn't have a great season last year, but he's not a guy you count out for too long. He's he's coached too much, he understands it. He's kind of getting his recruits in there and and building the program that he wants to build. Um, so that this could be a really solid middle of the pack kind of team this year that could sneak that they could really just sneak up on anybody. You know what I mean? Like that that's the kind of team that West Virginia could be this year. Um, but not Utah, not not in this situation, not in late November, where Utah knows that they're gonna need every single win. Um, I'm gonna predict Utah and a landslide on this one to finish the season out. And, you know, with with our combined con with our combined prediction, that puts him at a 10-2, 11-1 type team, and right in the mix for a Big 12 championship game.
SPEAKER_01Agreed. I do think this conference is stronger this year than it was previously. Oh, it absolutely is. And I do think the University of Utah has a better schedule than they've had the as far as their time in the Big 12.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. This is this is the most program-friendly schedule that they've had in a couple of years.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Yeah, for sure. Even go back to the Pac-12 days when you know Oregon, Oregon State.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington. You're like, we can't get any break. Like I thought this, I thought this was supposed to be split into divisions, and these guys, we got we gotta get all the tough ones from the North Division.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's gonna be interesting for sure. Uh, I agree with you there. Uh, I believe the line for Utah is eight and a half, I think. In West Virginia, no, for schedule for their rate their oh wins, yeah, overall right now.
SPEAKER_02I would take the over.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we're both on the over on that one. Um, not necessarily just because the home ridges, just simply because off of what we talked about, straight the schedule. I mean, honestly, if they lose, if they beat Arizona, there's no chance they're losing a TCU, and this could easily be a 10-and-one team. Yeah. You know, uh Did I do that right? 11 and 1 team.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. Our math is great. Utah math, guys. Um, but again, the same thing could be the opposite. They could easily lose both both games and lose a Waverly and be uh what? Eight and three. Eight and four, yeah. So like, yeah, so it's definitely can swing either way. But honestly, I still would take the above um above that line for sure. We want to hear from you folks. Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments down below when it comes to the University of Utah. Uh, again, as a reminder, folks, we did just launch a channel specifically for your University of Utah football called Utah Football DNA. This is a channel that we dedicated specifically to your Utah football club. So if you have not yet, smash that like button on this channel, subscribe to it. Man, I just completely lost it all there. If you're watching this on our live stream, check out in the description down below. We have Utah Football DNA down there. Make sure you check out that channel if you're following us for our youth content. And if you're listening on the podcast, uh the link to that will be in the description down below as well. Yep. All right, man. Do it, subscribe, like, share, comment, all that good stuff. We'll be giving away some of his season tickets once this channel hits a thousand subscribers. Clear with my wife. All right, let's go ahead and talk a little bit about Utah Jazz, shall we? Yep. All right, man. So let's go ahead and jump into it. Uh again, folks, as a reminder, we did want to remind you about our channel specifically. Get it dedicated to the Utah Jazz called the Utah Jazz DNA. All of our Utah Jazz content will be posted here on this channel. So if you're watching this on our live stream or you're watching this on our or you're listening to this on our podcast, um be sure to check out in the description for Utah Jazz DNA. A link to that channel will be in the description down below. So be sure to check that out. Uh, we'll be giving away a jazz jersey once this channel hits a thousand subscribers.
SPEAKER_02Notice it's centered this week.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you're welcome. Nice job. Uh you gotta love it. You gotta love it. Um we got a comment here from Greg Hawkins challenging.
SPEAKER_02It's weird because I can actually hear this, I can see the sarcasm in that comment, Greg. Oh, for sure. That's insane.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. It is, it is. Um, so we did have uh a few things we want to talk about when it comes to the Utah Jazz this week. Um, so now AJ, there was probably on Monday, we had probably one of the most pointless games in basketball history. Yes, yes, two really bad teams.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we had the playing really bad players against each other.
SPEAKER_01Yes, the last team in the West is taking on the second and last team in the West. Yeah. But not all is lost, AJ. Not all is lost. No, not at all. We had something to watch uh in an embarrassment of two teams who are trying to lose a basketball game. Uh, we had Cody Williams, who scored a career high uh in Sacramento that night. Uh he had 34 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, one steal, one block in 38 minutes to play. Uh, that's good for 12 for 17 from the field, 60%, and with a three from seven uh from three, which puts you at uh 43% uh from downtown. Still was a negative eight on the plus minus. Uh, but that probably has something to do more to do with the loss and the fact that he did have three turnovers in the game. Um, again, they did lose this game, so that's good. Uh that kind of makes up for the loss.
SPEAKER_02Which is pretty incredible. They lost to the worst team in the NBA.
SPEAKER_01Right. So it kind of counteracts that Golden State game.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the one that the game they had no business winning.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So this kind of counteracts that one. So appreciate that, guys. Uh, but yeah, what are you what are you what are your thoughts there on Cody Williams? This is the guy you picked for them to draft. I did. I called this one. You did call this one, and you also, when I was kind of down on him last year for his lack of development, you're just like, give it, you know, let's take a beat, let's give him some minute. I think you were kind of spot on on that guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, Cody's Cody's been getting better every single game. It's like it's been really nice to watch him just get better every single game while he's out there. But we just haven't seen that really over the top kind of improvement, like like we keep kind of keep expecting, right? Like we keep thinking, this is gonna be the season where Cody just gets over the top and he has kind of a Keontae George type leap. But Keonta George's leap happened in year three. So maybe next season, you know, maybe that's the kind of that's that's kind of the threshold. I mean, these are both one year in college guys where the game is much faster, the players are bigger, faster, stronger. I just I think my biggest concern is the minutes are gonna be much harder for Cody to come by next season with some of the lineups that we're actually projecting right now. Um, so I mean, I it's not that I don't think he deserves spot, like a spot with some of these reserve minutes, because but but the question I kind of keep asking is like is he gonna be a defensive player? Is he gonna be an offensive player? Like, where is he gonna earn his his minutes out there because he hasn't shot the ball fantastic? Um yeah, I mean I I I I really I'm just I'm curious to know. So um, and I want you guys, yeah I want you guys to leave a comment, jump in the comments, let us know. What do you think? Do you think he's gonna be a defensive or an offensive player? Um the thing is his blocks, his steals, his defensive rebounds, those are all up. But but his three-point pursuiting is down almost two percent from last year to this year. So he has taken a lot less threes, which is a good thing, but on the flip side, um, I mean, the the good news is that his field goal percentage is about 15% higher, and he's taken 65 more shots than he took all of last season at this point in this season.
SPEAKER_01So that's a big change from the last time we talked about Cody Williams.
SPEAKER_02Shot selection is massive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Last time we talked about Cody Williams was um we did a video on him a couple weeks ago, and his three-point percentage was up from last year. Right. So that means he's had a couple bad weeks.
SPEAKER_02Had a couple bad weeks. And but I think some of the problem is is you have a good week where you shoot five for seven from three, all of a sudden you get a little hot-handed, you think, here we go. I found my stroke. Right. You know, and then you go one for ten, and that that'll kill your stats real fast. Um, so he, yeah, he just he just needs to answer the question of is he gonna be a defensive player or an offensive player? Because that's what I keep asking myself. Where is he gonna kind of grind out his spot in that in that lineup next week? I think if he doesn't take a leap on the defensive end of the floor, he's not gonna see NBA time like you, like he's hoping. Um I think he's always gonna be able to get shots because he has great size, he has a knack for getting to the rim, he can score from anywhere. But if you're a revolving door on defense, um, with the guys that Utah has next year in that lineup, with Jaron Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler and Laurie Markinen and even Keontae George has been good, um, you're you're just gonna stick out. You just don't have a chance. So those that's kind of my thoughts on him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think, well, you know, that the stat line that kind of jumps out to me there is that there is seven rebounds. More importantly, there's seven assists on this as well. Yeah. And keep in mind, it is against Sacramento, the worst team in the National, and sorry, in the National League, the Western Conference, right? So this is a really bad team. And they basically, if you watch the game, you pretty much was you know, a path to the basket whenever he wanted it. But you still see those seven assists, you still see that that elite play that he came out of the gates with. He had 20 in the first quarter.
SPEAKER_02Still keeping his head up, making the right passes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not exactly 20, I think it was like 16, but you get my point. Might hear it in the comments. No, it was actually, you know, yeah, every time. Uh, but yeah, so I just I don't know, man. I'm actually thinking he's gonna get a similar conversation that Keonta George got. You know, we talked about it. Bryce Sensobaugh might need that chat. I think this is something that Williams needs as well. It's like, look, if you're going to not be a locked down corner three-point shooter, you need to improve on defense.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And he needs to improve greatly. Uh, so expect to see that kind of same conversation. And when he comes into um October of this year, we'll see what happens. He did put on the weight this year. He looks much better. Yeah, he put on the weight for the floor. He looks like an NBA player now. Yeah. And I I agree 100% that he's putting the effort. So let's see if we see that on the on the defensive end. Uh it would just really you don't want to miss on this guy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, this was we've already had you know, Taylor Hendricks that we didn't necessarily not that he was a miss. Unfortunately, his time with Utah was barred by injury. Keontae George definitely turned it around, right? Isaiah Collier, you know, he's doing exactly what we're expecting from him, right? But you don't want to have another miss in this tank. Right. Uh on the draft, in my opinion. So hopefully he gets a good one. Especially not with a 10 pick. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. With a lottery pick, you definitely don't want to. Yeah. Uh, we got some comments here from McKinley Cutler there. Uh says here, I'm just happy that Cody is showing something. Uh, he looked like a total bust last year. Yeah, agreed. I think if he gets uh some more uh muscle and plays with good players, he could develop into a good three and mostly D. I like that. I agree, and that's a great spot for him. Yeah. Especially a 6'8. Yeah, his size is there, yeah. And then and all the intangibles are there. You know, we just gotta you just need to see the effort. I also think that he's got good handle for a wing, uh, could see some uh valuable third and fourth options as the ball handler, as a distributor for the team. Yeah, you're definitely seeing that a lot from the game last last uh for from that game on Monday that he they basically were just passing it to him at the half court and letting him kind of go to town. You were seeing him kind of as that, you know, uh Joe.
SPEAKER_02Like, what do you look like is the primary option?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, he got he got the ball. Yeah, and then he was basically kind of like ISO, distribute, do what you gotta do. They weren't necessarily plays that were ran for him, it's basically just handed it to him. Very much like kind of like a Joe Ingalls with a little bit more offensive uh approach, where he basically could be, like you said, that the Joe Ingalls is just like three, three, three, three. He would just run the he would just run the ball and then run the offense and try and pass it. If no one moved, then he'd shoot a three. Yeah. Which is great. So if he could be a lockdown three person, I love Joe Ingalls. Yeah. Slow-mo Joe for sure. Uh we want to hear from you folks. Let us know where your thoughts are in the comments down below when it comes to that. Um Cody Williams breakout night in an absolute garbage of a game. Thank goodness we lost. You know, I still hear, I mean, you still do you still hear from people like, oh, I can't believe this team's losing. Like, this is the home stretch, guys. I hope if there is a way for this team to basically just say shut it down.
SPEAKER_02If we just forfeit the rest of our games, we're we're not flying anywhere.
SPEAKER_01We're taking an early offseason. And we still wouldn't even be the worst team in the NBA.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, with like 15 games left. We still wouldn't be the worst. Yeah. So like it's definitely in a position where you, you know, you got to be all in on this, guys, because the the run is coming to its end when it comes to this, and we just need to see it through, come out the other side uh better, and you know, in October we'll be ready to hit the ground running. Um totally agree. That's kind of what we what we want to think on there.
SPEAKER_02So speaking of October, there's an off season between now and then.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um, yeah, let's go ahead and talk about that. So, with all the talk about tanking and trying to look ahead at greener pastures, we wanted to start that conversation about who the Jazz should be targeting uh this offseason. Uh on March 10th, SI posted an article uh by Jared Koch. Uh at least I think that's how you say it, you know, Coke Cotch. I've heard it both ways.
SPEAKER_02Um I've legitimately heard that one both ways.
SPEAKER_01Utah Jazz emerge as a potential suitor for Lakers often Reeves. Um Austin Reeves. Um now we've seen we all seen the jersey swaps, right? And so let me ask you this, AJ. What are your thoughts when it comes to Austin Reeves and should Utah pursue him as a free agent, as a restricted free agent this offseason?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I mean my thoughts of on him as a player is the dude's a great player. Um he's unfortunately been in the shadow of the LA Lakers. Um kind of, you know, he's like this forgotten piece that the Lakers that really need to be successful. Obviously, you've had LeBron there since the 2020 season. They had Anthony Davis and traded him for Luca. Um but this guy's really solid. I mean, he shoots 30, almost 37% from three for his career. Um he averages 4.4 assists and almost four rebounds. And that tells me that he's that everywhere guy that is kind of just willing to do whatever it takes to win basketball games. That is kind of what they're what they're needing. But you know, like I think about it, it's like, are we ready to sit Keontae? Do we do we play him next to Keonta? You know, Reeves is 6'5, Keontae 6'4. I mean, that's a nice size backward if you play them together. Um then it kind of gives you a great change of pace if you got Isaiah Colliger on off on the floor with one of them as a primary ball handler because Reeves is more a two-guard than a one-guard anyway. Um but yes, you you absolutely, if you have a chance to sign Austin Reeves, you go out and get him. Um you think Keontae, Reeves, Markinen, Triple J, and Walker Kessler on the court at the same time. I mean, can you imagine? Like that's that is a solid defensive lineup. You got great size from the front court to the back court, and if you sign Austin Reeves, you immediately put the Jazz in the conversation of one of the top teams in the West next year, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01I think that's a good opinion. I'll tell you one thing, AJ. I am glad. Before we get onto that, there is one, you know, you said the forgotten player of the Lakers, right? I'll tell you one, you know, that might be in the national aspect of it, but you know who hasn't forgotten about Austin Reeves? The Lakers. If anything, the Lakers are seeing Austin Reeves and Luca, and they're kind of forgetting about LeBron. Like they're kind of they're kind of just done there, right? Yeah. Um, they're done with that hot whole franchise being handcuffed to LeBron on whether or not he stays or goes or what his decisions are and clutch sports and all that. So yeah, there's definitely and the also don't forget that the the ownership of the team now is the same ownership as the Los Angeles Dodgers. Right. Lakers fans, if you're watching this, which I doubt you are, but if you are, this team is the worst it's going to be for the foreseeable future.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The the with LeBron.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01I'm not it doesn't matter. LeBron or not, the this team is not going to be ran like it has been for the last 10, 15 years. It is now under the same ownership as the Dodgers. The Dodgers will make this team into an incredible team.
SPEAKER_02Make the Lakers great again.
SPEAKER_01Uh you said it, I didn't. You know, it's a California team, so I I don't know if that's really a thing, but that's they're even having, you know, uh the front office for the Dodgers go in, consult for the Lakers, you know, and help with that team. So, you know, it's it's one of those things where you're gonna have a situation where that team is going to get better, not worse, uh, regardless of what happens with LeBron. They're just it's just not gonna happen. Yeah. Um, so, and again, I also want to kind of say I'm kind of glad that we're not in traditional media, AJ. You want to know why? Because you can say all the things that they can't say. Yes, and literally two days after this article was posted that we're talking about on SI.com, the same writer from that posted that article also posted, Utah Jazz, Austin Reeve hopes may just have been shot down. Literally two days later. So um, let me just tell you this quote here from uh that we have from that same SI writer. Uh the law set, and this is coming from um this is coming from information, inside information from um, let me just read this off here. Los Angeles Lakers play plan to offer Austin Reeves a five-year $240 million contract this offseason once he hits restricted unrestricted free agency. Um, this source is told Lakers Daily. That's the source. Uh Reeves will decline, hit will decline his player option next season, which will make him an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Uh that sources said. So the Lakers have no fear in losing their talent, uh losing the talented, undrafted guard uh who wants to spend the his entire career in purple and gold, sources said. So, with that said, um five years, 240 million dollars. Are you paying that for Austin Reese? No, sir. Okay. And if you do that, okay, like you the point you mentioned, are you what are you gonna do? You're gonna start him over Keontae? Because he's a point guard. His his best that's kind of what I was saying. Yeah, yeah. After all the development that Keontae did over the years, are you starting him over him? You know, what about Ace Bailey? You know, I mean, yes, definitely over Ace Bailey, right? But you do that, you're giving up the big advantage that Utah has over most teams at the NBA, which was length in the starting lineup. Yeah. You have Keontae at the one, ace at the two, and then, you know, if you do resign if you do sign him, and you do go with that, let's say Keontae George and Austin Reeves at the front court, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, then you're not re signing Walker Kessler.
SPEAKER_02No, no.
SPEAKER_01As far as contracts, yeah, you're done. You're you're into the second apron at that point. Yeah. And I don't think the Utah Jazz are willing to go into the second apron for Austin. Austin Reeves. I don't think so. I don't know if maybe if this team, you know, on paper, possibly. I mean, maybe it's possible, but I seriously doubt that there's a chance they're going to sign Burkins. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, and then you can't do that because you just traded for a triple J and he needs to be the power force. So who's the center? Walker Kessler. But you don't re-sign him because you signed Yusuf Nurchik, Nurkic. Okay, so and again, whole story that we need to talk about that later. Uh that one's gonna be next week. Uh, but yeah, even though that's let's all even though let's say they do, let's say they send Kessler, Markden, and Reeves, and they're all in the starting lineup, right? First of all, the payroll is gonna be insane. Uh, we're gonna have one of the highest payrolls in the NBA, uh, which I don't think honestly, man, that is way too white of a starting lineup. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Okay, hear me out on this one. Okay, Utah cannot say that. Oh, absolutely I can't. Absolutely I can't. Not traditional media. Again, not traditional media, but that is way too wide of a lineup for Utah. Okay, you find if it's in Boston, fine if it's in LA, five in Minnesota. I don't care. You can't have the majority of your starting lineup be white in Utah. You already are having a hard enough time in this market getting players to come here. If they are you if you spend a whole, what, two or three seasons where three-quarters of your team of your starting rotation is white guys, that's not gonna do well to help that that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_02Not to mention $120 million a season.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly. So it in my opinion, not only is it yes, it makes sense, but it's gonna be a huge financial commitment. I could be sold on this one, I really could be. Um, but yeah, but again, if this team is trying to make itself relevant uh for long-term sustainability and you want to have free agents come to Utah, you can't have three-quarters of your starting lineup be white, dude. It's just not gonna work.
SPEAKER_02You see, that's a solid point. It's more like 60% of your starting lineup, not necessarily 75.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Forgive me. Forgive me on that one. But yeah, I'm sorry, that's just a concern of mine that if you do that, uh we already get cracks about it. The this the the the everything audience is already majority white in the arena, you know. It's just like just would not be a good look if we were trying to, you know, bring free agents here.
SPEAKER_02Okay, fair enough.
SPEAKER_01I do like Austin Reeves though. Oh, I think it'd be great. Yeah. I think it'd be great. And it also would just kind of be frustrating because why do we spend all this time tanking if we're just gonna go sign the top restricted free agent anyway?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because that's always an option for us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I love it. I love it. Uh, did you hear what the league is doing, by the way? About what? Uh so there's a meeting that's coming on in uh about a week or so on the 24th of March, uh, where they're gonna be talking about uh proving bids for two expansion teams in Vegas and Seattle. I did see this. Yeah. So franchise fees for these. If you hear the numbers, I think it's in the neighborhood of seven billion. Seven billion for Seattle, ten billion for Vegas.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Billions of dollars, AJ. Billions, and that's with a B. That's just the fee you have to pay to have a team.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Not to mention, you know, you know, building a stadium and outfitting a team and payroll and yeah, there's just a whole bunch of that.
SPEAKER_01And it's just it's just crazy. And they're gonna have to be conference realignment. There's a whole bunch of talks on this. Especially because both teams are in the west. Yeah, both teams would be in the west, which means another team would have to move to the east that is currently in the west. And the current prediction is it's gonna be in Minnesota. Yeah, it would make the most sense. Yeah, even though um even though uh New Orleans is technically close farther east than Minnesota, but Minnesota's flights are like four hours away from like 16 different like six teams in the Northeast. So yeah, it makes better sense for it to be them. Yeah. Um but yeah, I just think it's crazy, man. Expansion in the NBA's coming. You know, it's gonna be and again, this isn't this isn't them just talking about it. This is them agreeing on bids for those two teams. Right. You know, and they're accepting there's only chance that the only chance that Seattle may not get a team is because the NBA doesn't like that there's not gonna be a competing bids because there's only one ownership group that's wants a team in Seattle. So they're like, well, hey, you know, Nashville, do you want a team? You know, so they're gonna start doing something like that. But yeah, man, it's coming. Seattle Supersonics will have the right, sorry, the Seattle team will have the rights to Seattle Supersonics and all the records and everything that that team had. So the early years for Durant will all go back to that that team. That's really cool, actually. Yeah, similar to how Utah Mammoth got our team. If there was an expansion and Phoenix got another team, all the Phoenix uh coyotes stats and everything and records would all go deferred back to them. So it's kind of interesting. Uh, we want to know what you think, folks. Let us know where your thoughts are in the comments down below. Uh, let's hit some of these comments for sure. We've got one from uh McKinley uh Cutler who says no way that we get Reeves. We already have uh two max ish guys, yeah. Yeah, and we need to think about Kessler and Keontae's next coming contracts. Yeah, he is a he is up for contract extension this summer. Keontae will be, yeah. So uh unless you are willing to take discounts, which not gonna happen. Absolutely. Maybe Kessler, because he is up for contract extension, he was out all year, so there might be kind of like a a chance.
SPEAKER_02I think he still knows his value, though. I don't think he's a max contract guy, though. No, I don't think he knows his max. I don't think he's that, but I I do think uh I don't know, I think he's gonna be chasing as much as he can get.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Yeah, agreed. Uh we also have another comment from him. He said with getting minimum of 35 million a year, wouldn't be surprised if he gets uh a Lari 40 million dollar contract for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh we also have uh another one here uh wrapping up the comments there from McKinley. I saw the Jazz are taking flyers on uh Tyus Jones as a veteran point guard. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_02I could see a Tyus Jones veteran point guard backup off the bench.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you kind of really gotta let give Keontae the keys to the kingdom after this season, right? Oh, absolutely. You gotta give him the starting unless again, unless you have somebody like uh Austin Reeves or some other elite point guard coming in here that's an all-star. Yeah, you know, you kind of gotta let him have the keys to the kingdom at that point. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02And he deserves it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, agreed. And we got also another one here from Greg Hawkins. Is Vegas even profitable anymore?
SPEAKER_02It's like a discount Macau.
unknownMacau.
SPEAKER_01Some of us haven't been to Macau. Greg Hawkins, I don't know. Nope. I can't say that I know anything about Macau.
SPEAKER_02I can also not say that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, fair enough. Uh but yeah, uh, you're right. I there's so much emptiness in there. They're talking about the level of discounts and everything that are being offered for hotels and how people just simply aren't doing the Vegas thing anymore, man. Uh, so yeah, I agree. Is Vegas profitable and is there gonna be enough local interest in a team for an expansion NBA team? It's probably just because all again, we've talked about this previously, McKinley. You're right on with this as well. Like they this league is in bed deep, in bed deep with the betting houses. Yeah. So I think that's gonna be a huge part of it. Keep the casino people happy, right? Absolutely. There's like five different ownership groups interested in the Vegas team, only one interested in the Seattle team. So it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02It's crazy to me that the Vegas sports have taken off so much where for years there was nobody you weren't even allowed to play in Vegas.
SPEAKER_01No, because they didn't want to have that stigma of sports betting. Yeah. You know, and again, we're saying now we're just all in. Now we're just all in. The money's there, and everybody is just kind of realizing how much this is, you know, a problem. Um, we have a couple four Kidney Lee uh comments from McKinley before we jump subjects here. We have we should bring back uh maybe we should bring back Mike Conley, uh, mostly as a player coach. I would love that idea, man, but from what I've seen, he's he's still playing well, but not he's not quite he's slowed down a lot. Yeah, this year hasn't been great for him. Yeah. I love me Mount Mike, dude. He he's uh he's the dude. Uh but yeah, I I don't think we go that direction, man. We're not bringing this team's done with that. If we were to do that, that would be something we did a year or two ago. So like mentor Keontae.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Kind of like how we brought in Joe Ingalls to mentor Dante, you know, just have another Ozzy on the team, and boy, did that change things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean that's that ended up being the it turned from the the Dante Exom show into the Joe Ingalls show. We ended up keeping XM way or uh Joe way longer than we kept Dante.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. As a reminder, folks, we did just launch a channel specifically for you, Utah Jazz called Utah Jazz DNA. All of our Utah Jazz content will be posted here on this channel. So if you're watching this on our live stream uh or you're listening to our podcast after the fact, be sure to check out Utah Jazz DNA. A link to that description, sorry, a link to that channel will be in the description down below. Yep. Um, all right, man. So what do you say we jump into one more conversation here before we let people get out of here and let's talk a little bit about Major League Baseball? Let's do it. And not as a reminder, as an announcement, we did just launch a channel specifically for Major League Baseball called Major League DNA. This is a channel dedicated for all of our Major League Baseball content. Yes, we finally did it. We have a sub channel for baseball. Uh link to that channel will be in the description down below. Not yet, because it's not on the card, but it will be in there going forward. So you're watching this after the fact, a link to that will be in the description down below. Uh so be sure to check us out. Major League Baseball, Major League DNA, all of our baseball content will be posted here. So be sure to check it out. A link to that will be in the description down below. We'll do uh another jersey giveaway. What do you say? Oh, yeah.
unknownOh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Should do it. You should do it. Check it out. New channel. New channel. Check it out, guys. All right, let's go ahead and talk a little bit about the World Baseball Classics, shall we? Yep, absolutely. All right, so let's first talk about how lucky, man, that the fact that the USA was even in the final game in the first place.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I mean, yeah, they everything had to roll their way to get into to get into that finals game. And it looked like they were gonna give it away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02But I get really, it looked like they were gonna give it away. They weren't playing great baseball. Um, for a team that was as offensively supercharged as this team was supposed to be, it didn't look like it against the Dominican Republic. No, it did not. Like, you shouldn't be winning any game two to one when you have the best hitters on the planet, just riddled through your lineup.
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely, man. And I I I agree with you on that one. More to come on that here in a minute because I want to break down um basically just Utah USA basketball all all together. USA basketball too? Yeah, let's do that too. Um USA baseball. Um, AJ, what's the cardinal rule in all sports? Uh don't lose. Well, okay, that's one of them. Um, but never let a game be decided by the officials. Yes. Yes. You'll hear that from every coach, every postgame, like, hey, we shouldn't have left it in the hands of the civil in the officials. Never let a blown call end your tournament. Yeah. Uh just don't put yourself in that position. So there's a lot of people complaining and and and whining about the fact that the DR lost because of a blown call strike. Uh, which, sure, that was a ball. Uh, do I think you the USA would have lost that game after that walk? No. You know, you haven't really been able to stream it together against the US either. There's more likely a chance that that was gonna be a ground out, pop-out, something else like that. Uh, you did need to have something happen. Is that like zooming in and out and autofocusing?
SPEAKER_02It it looks like it.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what's going on with our camera, man. That's crazy. It just keeps doing that every time we move. I don't like that at all. Yeah, we'll have to we'll have to fix that somehow. Um click the not auto-zoom button. Is there is there a way to do that? Like, seriously, because that is absolutely how long has that been going on? Yeah. Anyway, um so back to back to the baseball there, man. When it comes to it, I just you never want that to be the the reason your team doesn't advance is because you left it in the hands of the officials, and that's exactly what the Dominican Republic did. Uh, did USA luck out and have the have the ball fall basically the plays fall their way? Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree on that one. Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean they definitely it's funny that this game came down to the point that everyone was like, we should have had ABS. With this game, we should have had ABS. There wasn't a ton of complaints before this game, but every person that was a fan of the Dominican Republic is like, if the ABS would have happened in this game, that wouldn't have happened.
SPEAKER_01True. But there also would have been a few calls overturned because if you were really watching that game, you would see there's several times that that low strike was called against the US as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, you kind of need to read the rat, kind of read the umpire and know what he's calling, what he's not calling. Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that on that one as well. Um, but yeah, man, let's go ahead and move on over to the finals, shall we? Yeah. AJ, who knew? Who knew it would be easier to invade a country than it is to beat their baseball team? I don't know if anybody knew.
SPEAKER_02Um hot dang, man. Seriously. Like but once again, when your only offense is a Bryce Harper, Bryce Harper, who damn near lost the last game for us.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for showing up in the tournament, by the way, for the last game, man. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but but when your only offense is Bryce Harper hitting a 432-foot absolute bomb, but why do you gotta wait till the eighth inning?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, he did have two hits in this game. So literally everybody outside He never advanced past first. Yeah, literally, yeah. Everybody outside Bryce Harper in this game didn't do anything. Yeah, you know, I believe that the rest of the team was one for 24, and Bryce Harper was two for four.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, three there was only three hits for USA in this game.
SPEAKER_01Yes, three hits total against that, against uh Venezuela. Yeah, uh you know, again, appreciate Bryce Harper. Thanks for showing up. Uh, unlike our captain um Judge, who went 0 for 4 with 3 K's, AJ. That is so brutal, dude.
SPEAKER_02I mean, and and for being as star-heavy, right? Captain Judge was supposed to be the man to help us lead the help lead us to the promised land. After the last WBC, like, okay, Japan gets out. We're like, we're we're we're on the freeway to the World Baseball Classic Championship. And we couldn't make it happen. Um I mean, Venezuela looked tough though, man. I mean, their pitching looked good, their hitting was clutch enough, you know. They got they got some they got some swings that that fell the right way, and oh man, that was that was a brutal game to watch as a USA fan. I'm sure as a Venezuela fan, it was probably awesome.
SPEAKER_01I like it. We're gonna talk about a little bit about this. So um this kind of bridges things, bringing Mike Conley back to the Jazz is like bring is like the Cubs um brought Justin Turner in to pinch hit for lefties again for Michael Bush. Uh, yeah, that's very much the case. And actually, a very similar decision making for this USA Baseball Club, uh, where they should have done a little bit more than that, man. Like they definitely needed to do a little bit more than they did. Uh, I definitely want to hit a few of these here first. Friend of the channel, Tammy Price. Love the dude channel. Thank you very much, Tammy. Thank you, Tammy. Appreciate. Uh, be sure to like and subscribe to the new channel for sure. Please do that. Check it out.
SPEAKER_02Everybody that's watching right now, please go like and subscribe.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh, we also have uh comment here from Greg Hawkins. Aaron Judge is so on clutch. Uh, yeah, man, I'm gonna have to 100% agree with you on that one. And I'm you know, yeah, what Greg says from Tammy. Love it, love it. Um, so love the next comment. Let's see here. We have our um we have our all our world lineup shut down by like a 17-year-old and an electrician.
SPEAKER_02Both these guys are like, You used to play? You're from Venezuela, you're out. Yeah, you're you're out there. Nice, you can play shortstop, right? Perfectly. Yeah, after this, we're gonna need you to work on the lights. They've been yeah, they've been flickering flickering just a touch.
SPEAKER_01If you can just maybe maybe look at those in the clubhouse for sure. Never rely on judge when the lights are the brightest. Uh truth. Schwarber didn't do great either. Uh, yeah, man. I'm gonna have to kind of what all that says here uh to me is let's go ahead and break down uh the U.S.'s team here, right? So overall, the story for the U.S. is that the offense just never woke up for this team. Never. You got the win over Mexico is five to three win, win over Canada, five to three. Okay, both of those teams really weren't much of a competition for this team. You should have had a lot more runs than five. A lot more runs. Um the two to two to one win over the over the Dominican again, two runs, AJ. Two runs. The Dominican Republic did have decent pitching, but you only scored two runs. That's all you can muster against, you know, their bullpen wasn't great. But anyway, and then you lost to Italy six to eight. So the only time you put up more than five runs, you lost. You know, it's just like maybe that was the key, dude.
SPEAKER_02They needed to score less runs to win.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I my takeaways from this team, Team USA, is you know, Bobby Witt was amazing, by the way, in the field. Like, seriously, these games could have been a lot worse. Yeah, Bobby Witt made some fantastic plays. If it wasn't for Bobby Witt, this team would have been out faster than Japan was, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh, which is also a crazy story. Japan not even making it to the semifinals. That's that's weird. Uh, yeah, so Bobby Witt was amazing. Uh DeRosa should not be a coach for this team. Uh, there was a few key things here that didn't make any sense for me. One was the fact that, okay, you know, Will Smith was definitely the better option. He had the better tournament than Ky Raleigh. But once he went 0 for 3 in this game, once he had three at bats and there wasn't anything going on and he wasn't a hot bat. Switch him out. Why didn't you put Kyle Raleigh in? Yeah. Big dumper, man. Give him a couple of bats. What's the worst that can happen? Put him in as a DH. I don't care. Do anything to get the offense going. You you put him at catcher, man.
SPEAKER_02Like, because you Oh yeah, I guess you just put him in a catcher.
SPEAKER_01Because regardless, he's a switch-hitting catcher agent. Yeah. So it doesn't matter who they pitch. There's no situation where Will Smith, after that game going 0 for 3, you don't put in Kyle Raleigh. You know? You got Alex Bregman, who you benched the the night before for uh oh gosh. Uh place for Baltimore. Um it's gonna kill me. Um gosh, Gunnar Henderson. Gunner Henderson's not my strong point. Yeah, it's okay. So you put in you bench bre you bench Bregman against the DR for for uh for I just said his name and I forgot it again. Gunnar Henderson, and then you put in Bregman in the final, and again, once he had his third at bat and the team wasn't getting anything going, why don't you switch over to Gunnar Henderson again? Do anything, yeah. You did with Pico Armstrong, you put him in the outfield, right, and gave him a couple of bats. Unfortunately, he didn't do anything uh worth noting, like even though he carried, you know, he did hit the two bombs for team USA and the eventual loss to Italy. But like at least, you know, they did something there, but there's so many different opportunities that you could have swapped out some players after their third at bat. Almost every player in this lineup got five at bats, man. And I'm just like, okay, what's going on here? Why are we not switching these players out? So for me, that's why I don't think DeRozo should be the head coach anymore. But man, it really feels like this roster, to Greg's point, was built by the front office of the Yankees. Right. This really felt like that. It feels like we need names, we need stars. Yeah. Nobody on this team isn't the man on his own team. Right. There's nobody on this team that's gonna lay down a bunt for the guy behind him. I don't even know if team USA even bunted at all to this tournament. I highly doubt it. At least not in the pool play or the knockout rounds. Um, this was a great team, it was not a complete team. That's my opinion on Team USA.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's absolutely what it was. It it was a great team. But but they were not out there playing for each other at any point.
SPEAKER_01It was everybody out there playing for themselves, and I definitely think they were playing for like camaraderie team USA, but they all felt like they had to be the guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they all well, they all wanted to be Pete Crow, Pete Crow Armstrong. They wanted to hit the home run to put him up two runs and go back in and celebrate. And I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I I never saw like a sack fly. I never saw really like any of that small ball, edge, you know, high IQ baseball type play from this team, and that all stems for the management for sure. Speaking of which, AJ, um, you know what we don't have to wait for? The WBC. We don't have to wait another three years for more international baseball. Yeah. So um baseball is coming back to the Summer Olympics, uh, which is great, right? Absolutely. Uh before we get into that, we have one more conversation. Comment here from uh friend of the channel, Temmie Price. USA can just mess um USA was just a mess all the way through. Catcher's uh catcher not fist bumping his teammates while uh was a big story rather than the team's performance. Uh it may have meant a a lot of them, may have meant a lot of them to win, but that didn't show. Yeah, did you hear that controversy there? Oh, that's all you saw. Yeah, that's literally was it. Just you know, yeah going up uh gosh, uh going up to Cal Raleigh. Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_02But did you see that he'd asked Cal before the game?
SPEAKER_03Huh?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he told he told Cal before the game, hey, I'm gonna go get a fist bump, is that right? And Cal's like, don't do it. And he's like, I went up to him knowing he wasn't gonna fist bump me. He's like, it was just messing with him. I guess they're really good friends off the field, so he was he was totally just doing it bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, then he told him off in four languages in a press conference after.
SPEAKER_02No, that was a different guy. That was because there was two different no Cal Raleigh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Cal Raleigh didn't fist bump uh what's his name? Um from he was on Team Mexico. We talked about him a lot. Oh gosh, his name is escaping me, was traded from the Marlins to not the Marlins, from the Rays to the uh Seattle Mariners. Oh gosh, his name is just right there. Uh he's the one who did that whole standing and folding his arm thing. Yeah, that's the guy that everybody's talking about. How you go in to fist bump him, and then in the press conference after the end of the state.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that was that was the one the one that the one that he talked to him before was the guy played for Team Canada.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. Oh, you're talking like uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02You know, because it was it was two different guys, because after the first one was the guy from Mexico. Yeah, but he didn't fist bump. That one was all over the news, and then the other guy had already seen that and was like, I'm gonna mess with them. I'm gonna go up to him, and but he'd talk to him before the game was like, I'm gonna try to I'm gonna try to get a fist bump from him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's crazy. And Cal's like, don't do it. Yeah, when that's more the talk versus the performance, Tammy to your point, exactly right. Yep. Um, but yeah, it's gonna it's gonna kill me that I can't remember the guy's name. Anyway, um, but yeah, so speaking of which again, there we're not gonna have to wait three years, it's gonna have to be two years because uh baseball is gonna be back in the Summer Olympic Games starting in 2028. Um, do you know where these games are taking place, AJ?
SPEAKER_02I believe that's gonna be Los Angeles, California. So that means where are those games gonna be played? In the United States of America.
SPEAKER_01In California. In so where are the games gonna be played? Dodger Stadium? That's right, buddy. Dodger Stadium. I I wasn't sure about that, but Olympic Games played at Dodger Stadium. Way to go, AJ. Whoop whoop whoop. Wanted this to be a Dodger title, and he couldn't even put that together, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_02I was like, California, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so yeah, so again, this is just one more year before the next WBC. Yeah. Right? So we're gonna have uh Olympic baseball in LA, and it's gonna be played at Dodger Stadium. Gonna be awesome. So with that said, AJ, um we're gonna have baseball, you know, and it's gonna be since baseball been on an upswing for like the last three or four years because of the last WBC and this one, and with the greatest World Series that we've seen in a long time with the Blue Jays, and then the year before that, Dodgers Yankees, you know, that was also the highest rated World Series before this World Series of 2025.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Baseball is on the upswing, man. It is absolutely love to see it. Will the upcoming Olympics, though, um hurt the WBC's interest in that tournament going forward?
SPEAKER_02So I think if it was gonna hurt it, it probably would have hurt it this year. Um with because the WBC is used as one of the one of the qualifying events for the Olympics. Okay. It's one of three qualifying events for the Olympics. So you have to finish top two in WBC, Premier 12, and there's another qualifying tournament that you have to finish to qualify for the Olympics. The USA, because the games are because the U.S. is the host nation, the USA automatically gets a bid to the Olympics this year. So players didn't so much have to worry about not being qualified for the Olympics or having to go to another international tournament, which usually these international tournaments are limited to amateurs, minor leaguers. That's who usually plays in these tournaments for the USA. It's usually not major league baseball players going to, you know, since but before last year, that's that was who you saw was minor leaguers. Um so it's it's really interesting to see if you know, knowing the Olympics are coming, and there's a lot of teams, there's a lot of guys that have already said they want to play on the Olympic team. Great honor. You want to go win gold for the country. That's getting an Olympic gold medal is something that baseball players haven't got to do for a long time because I believe they stopped doing the baseball as an Olympic sport in 2008.
SPEAKER_01Uh 2020 was the last one.
SPEAKER_02Oh, 2020, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So 20 oh 2020. So they took it out for 2020.
SPEAKER_01It wasn't 20, it was played in 2021, though, but it was the 2020 Worlds, uh 2020 Summer Olympics. Because of COVID, they couldn't play it that year, so it was in 2021. It was in Tokyo.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um But yeah, so I mean, USA's gotta see. I mean, they're they're going to qualify. So that's good. They'll be in it.
SPEAKER_01Um they also finished top two, by the way, so they'd qualify for that anyway. They double qualified, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Even though they didn't technically do host country and qualified. Yeah. So, but I think I think moving forward when when the Olympics are not gonna be here, that's when it'll be interesting to see. Because at that point, when the next Summer Olympics, and I'm not sure where those are at, they're gonna have to finish top two in one of these tournaments to be qualified for the Olympics. So hopefully it doesn't kill the WBC. I mean, I think it's still gonna be the biggest tournament, you know. Like I've never heard of the Premier 12.
SPEAKER_01No, me neither. I think, yeah, I kind of right, I'm kind of right there with you there. There's a few things that I kind of wanted to bring up on that. First is gonna be, you know, good point on the qualifying on that. But if you look to other sports like uh soccer and basketball, does the does FIBA not have any interest because of the of the Olympics, the Summer Olympics? Like, do people not want to watch Team USA in the Olympics? Yeah, I mean because of FIBA, or does people not watch FIBA because of the Olympics?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I mean no, the answer is absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the only time this is gonna have an impact is gonna be domestically in the US. I think the only reason why people wouldn't be interested in the WBC is because just like Bryce Hopper's comment, well, this isn't the Olympics, right? Yeah, but for the longest time, this was the only time that baseball had uh an international tournament that people could compete in and for all eyes to be on this game, and I think that the last two years they've done last two terms they've done very well, which is why there's interest in bringing it back in 2028. Um, but again, I just think that there's there's a chance that there's the only impact it's gonna be is gonna be domestically because of the fact that um, you know, we only like we care about the Olympics, we care about winning gold, we can, you know, you know, we care about the USA when it comes to the Olympics, may not necessarily in this context, but I also think that baseball fans don't like the exhibition tournaments and may see a little bit more legitimacy in the in the Olympics, but I would think overall, internationally, when it comes to baseball, there's gonna be no impact.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. It's just it's just the sport has grown so much and evolved so much. Um, and for the record, 2032, the Summer Olympics are going to be held in Brisbane, Australia.
SPEAKER_01That'd be crazy.
SPEAKER_02I want to go. I've just always wanted to go to Australia.
SPEAKER_01What what better reason to watch Olympic baseball? Like and subscribe to the uh Major League DNA folks, and we will do some live coverage there uh in Australia.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna need you guys to do a lot of subscribing and a lot of watch hour watching.
SPEAKER_01You know, hey, you know, it's all free content for you. Yeah, you know, it doesn't cost you a dime. Um, but yeah, anyway, so yeah, I think it's super awesome that the baseball is gonna be back in the Olympics. I also think it's not necessarily gonna affect the WBC. Uh, we may see some interest lag in here locally, but I think if they do something like player-wise, if you want to be on the Olympic team, you need to be on the WBC. Yeah, I think you have to. You have to commit to the WBC either the year after or the year before. I think in my opinion. I think that would be a requirement. Um, by the way, side note, um before we get into before we get out of here, uh, do you know the last time uh the United States won an Olympic gold medal in baseball? I might have this in my notes. No. Okay. It was in the year 2000, it was the Sydney Games, Australia. Oh, we're coming back. We're coming back, baby. Well, we should win it in in 2028.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Do you know who is managing that team? I don't. Tommy La Sorda. An actual, you mean an actual baseball manager? Yes, who was the manager of the Dodgers. Yes, exactly. So Tommy La Sorda, manager of the Dodgers, beats uh heavily favored Cuba 4-0 in that game where the pitcher uh pitched a shutout. Uh, and then he campaigned hard for the team to get a parade when they came back home. And sure enough, we gave that team a parade when they came back home. Damn right. Which is super awesome. Uh, rest in peace there, Tommy La Sorda, uh, up there with uh Vin Scully, uh, watching these teams win World Series back to back. It's gotta be a lot of fun up there. Uh, but yeah, I just think that's funny. The next time that baseball is being played in the W in the Olympics is gonna be when they're played at Dodg Stadium. The last time the team USA won gold was when the Dodgers manager was managing the team. Yeah, that's crazy. A little fun, fun factoid there for you. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, we also have another comment here from uh channel legend Greg Hawkins. We have baseball rocks. That's awesome. You nailed it, Greg. You did, you did. Uh, as a reminder, folks, we did just launch a channel specifically for Major League Baseball called Major League DNA. This is our channel dedicated to all of our baseball topics that we discuss will be posted on this channel. So if you have not yet, check it out in the channel. Check it out in the description down below. Not this week, but going forward, it will be in the description down below. I actually think I forgot to attach all the channels in the description down below for the live stream. It's fine. You know where to find us. It'll be there. Uh, link to Major League Baseball will be in the description down below going forward, so be sure to check it out. Uh, we'll be giving away another jersey when this channel uh is uh monetized once we hit a thousand subscribers. So be sure to check us out there. Um long time coming, man. We talk a lot of baseball on the channel, and uh we kind of want to just you know be able to allocate that a little bit better.
SPEAKER_02So absolutely, and we and we talk uh a wide spectrum of baseball. Um, we hope you guys enjoy it. Make sure you like, subscribe. If you're watching on YouTube on any of our short videos and you see this one clip, make sure you know this whole thing is available as a podcast wherever you get your audio.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. So, as a reminder, folks, this was an episode of the DNA sports recap. Um, if you're watching this on our channel, if you're watching this on our main channel, be sure to subscribe to the channel. We are still trying to uh give away that first $500 that we earn in AdSense revenue on this channel. So if you've not yet subscribed to the channel, hit that notification bell. Again, we're giving five subscribers each $100. Once we hit that number of $500, we're gonna be giving that away. So make sure you subscribe to the channel uh so you don't miss out on the giveaway. Yep. With all that said, my name is Darren. That is AJ, and this has been the DNA sports recap. Till next time.