Utah Sports Cast

We are still several weeks away from college basketball taking center stage, and it’s about that same amount of time until the next major Utah sports team begins their season (Real Salt Lake). So this time of the year the Utah SportsCast is almost all about the Utah Jazz, and we have a lot to say about the team and their recently reacquired position atop the Northwest Division. Then we spend some time with Utah’s D1 college teams, and do some advanced scouting on their chances of making either of the postseason tournaments.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Johnnie Bryant

2. Kyle Korver

1. Andrei Kirilenko

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 55 – Utah vs. BYU Redux

2008-01-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

We tried to divide our time between the Utah Jazz and College Basketball in this week’s podcast, but we ended up talking about all sorts of things, including European soccer, small college mascots, and Zach’s cell phone number. It was a bit more unusual than usual, if that makes any sense. As a bonus, if you have ever wanted to be a part of the Utah SportsCast, you will want to listen to this episode - please download us or go to iTunes and subscribe!

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Sam Burgess

2. Paul Millsap

1. Matt Harpring

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 54 – Have the Utah Jazz solved their problems?

2008-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

This week in the podcast we address the recent four game home winning streak by the Utah Jazz, and debate whether that is sufficient to consider the crisis averted (hint: it’s not – not yet, at least). We also induct The Guy Who Looks like Demi Moore’s Husband into the Top 3 for the first time, and go through the local college hoops scene. All this among much, much more, as always.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Kyle Korver

2. Ashley Postell

1. Deron Williams

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 53 – Utah and BYU win Bowls, End Seasons

2008-01-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

It’s been a little while since our last show, and while I enjoyed the break, it didn’t do anything for my podcasting skills. I would like to apologize in advance. If you are somehow able to only listen to Zach, you will be fine.

We spend most of our time this week talking about the Utah and BYU bowl games, even though they took place a few weeks ago. Both teams won, which was the outcome we both predicted and hoped for, and they were fitting conclusions to good seasons. Utah had a bit more exciting of a second half against Navy, while the Cougars did all of their damage to UCLA in the first half. Both games were competitive until the very end, so they were thrilling, if not satisfying.

As fans, we are anticipating bigger and better things next year. For Utah, they will be returning a big portion of their offensive line, Brian Johnson should be healthy, Darrell Mack and Matt Asiata could form a potent 1-2 punch, and their best offensive player, Brent Casteel, will be back from injury. Defensively, they will be hurt by significant losses: Martail Burnett, Gabe Long, Steve Tate, Joe Jiannoni, Molokai Mokofisi, and Kyle Brady, among others. A few emerging stars will return, such as Stevenson Sylvester, Paul Kruger, and Brice McCain. Incidentally, I hate to write this here, but I feel like I need to at least one more time: I hope McCain gets a few extra reps covering other teams’ best receivers on long throwing situations. Sorry. I just had to get that out of my system, again.

BYU will have most of their offense back, including their very potent tandem of Max Hall, Harvey Unga, and Dennis Pitta. Austin Collie is expected to return as a deep threat, and Travis Bright should be fully recovered from the broken leg he suffered in the UCLA game. They will be losing all-purpose receiver Matt Allen and a few others, but should have enough good underclassmen to increase their production next year. However, and like Utah, they will take their most serious hits on defense. It would be enough to lose Bryan Kehl – perhaps the best athlete on the team – and Kelly Poppinga among the departing linebackers. But BYU will also graduate Quinn Gooch, Ben Criddle, Corby Hodgkiss, Kayle Buchanan, and Dustin Gabriel, which accounts for nearly their entire playing defensive secondary.

I am tempted to say that Utah’s losses will be less significant than BYU’s, and that the power could shift in the conference next year. After all, Utah will have a senior quarterback behind an experienced line, and perhaps a bit of an easier job of retooling on defense. However, BYU is now the two-time defending conference champ, and Coach Bronco Mendenhall proved this year that he can adjust his plans for player departures. Under a lesser coaching staff this would have been an average season for the Cougars, but Mendenhall and his cohorts simply did not let that happen. BYU has not lost in the Mountain West Conference since November 19, 2005, and at the end of this season, they have to be the favorites to win next year.

There is more to be had in our podcast, including a little about college hoops and the semi-pro team that plays in the Energy Solutions Arena.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week (a cumulative list):

3. Austin Collie

2. Brian Johnson

1. Bronco Mendenhall

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 52 – Bowling Week and Bad Jazz

2007-12-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas Season Status as been officially changed from “Right Around the Corner” to “Practically Here” at the Utah SportsCast, so we figured it was about time to do a little shopping for some of our favorite local sports figures. We made a list of everyone we talked about this year, and what we thought they would either like or need. Some of the gifts were pretty easy to find (a box of tissues for Larry H. Miller, for example, or an English-Portuguese dictionary for Freddy Adu), but the others proved a bit more challenging. Here are some of the highlights:

We started our holiday gift giving with the Utah Jazz, and Jerry Sloan was first. For Christmas he will receive Long Overdue Kudos, for producing one of the most remarkable careers a head coach has ever had in the NBA. There is a curious reluctance among basketball insiders to give Coach Sloan credit for his body of work. It is often mentioned that he has never won an NBA Championship as a head coach, although plenty of others have won awards like Coach of the Year without the hardware.

When USA Basketball used to change head coaches in the 20^th Century, it was always the previous team’s first assistant that was given a chance at the helm. Remember who had come up through that system and was due to coach the national team when they decided to disregard the long-standing accolade and just give it to Mike Krzyzewski? Does anyone believe USA Basketball would have made such a drastic change if the next coach had been Phil Jackson or Pat Riley, instead of Jerry Sloan? Incidentally, how many NBA Championships has Coach K won as a head coach? A little respect from the national media will do a lot of good for Coach Sloan this year.

Next on the list is Andrei Kirilenko, and we are giving him a Reliable Jumpshot for Christmas (or whatever they celebrate in Russia). This is basically the only thing AK really needs as a basketball player, as his lessons with Jeff Hornacek do not seem to have borne fruit yet. We want to give him a little jumpstart, and turn Kirilenko into that third offensive option the Jazz desperately need.

For Matt Harpring we would like to offer him a free Turning Back of the Clock. Of all the problems Harpring has dealt with this year, the most pressing seems to be the slow, steady creep of his odometer. Perhaps an extra year or two (kind of similar to what the NCAA does for medically ineligible athletes) would heal a lot of persistent pains and rejuvenate the hardest working man on the team.

Paul Millsap is next, and for him we have picked Four More Inches of Height. Millsap is a talented, strong, and determined player who can be very good for an NBA team, preferably the Jazz. However, being just a little bit taller would take him to another level. Do you think he comes up with some amazing rebounds and unbelievable blocks now? Wait until he is as tall as Dwight Howard. We almost gave him a Great Nickname as his Christmas gift, but we thought he could make good use of the height upgrade now, and save that for another year.

For the BYU Football team we began with Bronco Mendenhall. This was an obvious choice, and something we know he really wants. We would like to give Coach Mendenhall A Few More Non-Conference Wins as his Christmas gift. The conference hasn’t been a problem for the last few years, and he seems to have the Utah rivalry figured out. So the only thing he really needs to take this program to another level is a few more wins in the non-conference schedule. Of course, there will be a whole new set of arguments from the national BCS apologists when the Cougars go 12-0 next year, but at least BYU will be a part of the conversation.

We think Max Hall will make good use of the Quicker Decision Making Ability we are giving him. Hopefully it will keep him from being dismembered in the pocket as often as he has in the past twelve games. In addition to concern for his personal welfare, he should also be able to find smaller passing seams and hit more receivers, which will be nice. It was either that or A Mustache, which would make him look more old-school, but we wouldn’t want him to have Honor Code issues.

Bryan Kehl won’t be playing for the Cougars next year, but we are giving him a gift anyway. He will be getting More National Attention, which has been sadly missing for an athlete of his caliber. Not only will this benefit Kehl as a football player (not to mention his soon-to-be-bulging bank account), but an NFL team will find themselves with an exceptional, adaptable defensive player. With his size and speed, Kehl could be one of the scariest safeties in the league, or a tough, blitzing linebacker. Congratulations, Bryan, and you’re welcome.

[Note: Here I wanted to give Harvey Unga the gift of Becoming the Starting Running Back for the University of Utah, but Zach vetoed the idea, rather dramatically. Sorry, Harvey.]

We started our list for the University of Utah football team by giving Kyle Wittingham a Season with No Significant Injuries. Every coach knows that being hurt is a part of football (the game does involve wearing armor and hitting other people, after all) but Coach Wittingham seems to have had unusually bad luck in that department last year. There are plenty of theories as to why: some people think it comes from over-practicing, and others claim it is really under-practicing. We say: no worries either way. With this gift, no Utah player will miss significant time due to injury, and then we can really evaluate the season, without disclaimers.

The gift of Durability for Brian Johnson was an easy call. We wanted to give it to him during the first half of the first game this year, when he was trudging into the locker room with an injury. This was after just a quarter-and-a-half of competitive football in a little under two seasons. But we didn’t have that kind of foresight, and besides, Christmas was still a few months away. When Johnson came back he was tentative at best, and looked like he thought every hit may be his last. A little dose of durability should give him the confidence he needs to have a great senior season.

Brice McCain was a bit difficult to shop for, and you know there is always at least one on your list. I wanted to give him a Time Machine, so he could go back a few weeks and properly cover Austin Collie on fourth and 17, but that wouldn’t really solve the problem (and I imagined another nixing coming from Zach). We finally settled on The Ability to Stop Making Rookie Mistakes, which should be beneficial in the future.

We also remembered Jason Kreis, the head coach of Real Salt Lake. We are giving him Greater Public Support as his gift, which will help a lot as he struggles in the coming years. We considered giving Coach Kreis More Offensive Weapons to help him win over the soccer-ignorant masses, but instead we just went right to the source.

Finally, to Nick Rimando of Real Salt Lake we would like to give a Reliable Back Line. The best defender RSL has had in their brief existence (Eddie Pope) is now retired, and he was overburdened as it was. Having one of the best young keepers in the league is great, but he needs to be making one or two great saves per game rather than five or six. With our gift of talented defenders, he doesn’t have to be miraculous in order to get a clean sheet here and there.

That’s it for the holiday gift highlights, and thank you for reading. Please download and listen to our show for previews of the Poinsettia Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl, a little ranting and raving about the woes of the Utah Jazz, and a little bit about local college hoops.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Ronnie Brewer

2. Lee Cummard

1. Jaycee Carroll

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 51 – A Bad Luck Sports Week

2007-12-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

As promised (or threatened, depending on how you look at it), an open letter to the Brigham Young University football team:

Dear Cougar players, coaches, and administrators,

First and foremost: congratulations Champs! That’s two in a row, after not having won one for a few years. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Fans in other conferences would have liked to see their team chase bigger dreams after a good season, but you guys have your priorities in order. Besides, that makes two straight undefeated seasons in your conference, which is pretty impressive, and looks good on a resume.

Of course, it would be nice if you could win a few of the higher-profile non-conference games, and get a shot at the real prizes, but don’t worry too much about it. Besides, the Las Vegas Bowl loves having you, right? It’s the closest bowl to Provo (if I’m reading my map correctly), so everyone can come down and see it. Besides, nobody wants to travel during the holidays, even if it is New Orleans, Pasadena, Phoenix, or Miami. Get a nice, early bowl game and be home in time for Christmas. That’s wise of you.

I should start by thanking Coach Bronco Mendenhall and his excellent program for putting things together. There is a coaching sweet spot where at the end of the year your fans are somewhere between Overjoyed About A Fantastic Season and Wish They Had Done Just A Little Better. Coach Mendenhall has found that hard-to-reach place for two seasons running, and good for him. That spells “job security” and “managing expectations,” right? Hey, the flippin’ stadium is named after the last coach who was consistently good, and Bronco has already learned the scowling reticence bit. A win or two against some of those mediocre Pac-10 and C-USA teams would probably help the legacy, though.

As a fan, it was nice to see Bryan Kehl have a good senior year. He will certainly go down as one of the most athletic defenders to ever strap it up for BYU, and could almost have played any position on the field. In fact, a few times I thought it was too bad he wasn’t playing every position, particularly when Tulsa’s receivers were 15 yards behind his buddies in the defensive secondary. Oh well, like the old saying goes, you can’t win them all. Besides, BYU’s stars have always been on the other side of the ball. Good luck in the future, Bryan, we hope to see you in the NFL. We are really, really, REALLY going to miss you next year, when the fans will be hoping that opposing teams elect to neither run nor pass against the defense.

Hey, speaking of offensive stars, how about that Max Hall kid, huh? It isn’t easy to step into the Legendary BYU Quarterback position, and he did it pretty well, for an underclassman. Naysayers and doubters thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it, but he looked comfortable in the pocket. Sure, that comfort led to a few rip-roarin’ hits and ugly interceptions by some lucky defenders, but he’s young (that’s “young” as in age, and not a comparison to “Steve Young”). Besides, if they ever hold an “NCAA Quarterback Who Looks the Most Like Comedian Will Farrell” contest, he has to be a finalist, at the very least.

The real revelation of the season was Harvey Unga, who even set freshman team rushing records. We were every bit as excited about him this year as we were last year when it was Fui Vakapuna making the headlines. Now, Fui’s numbers may have dropped off a bit in 2007, but that’s okay, he’s still an exciting player, right? I would like to offer a word of advice to young Harvey, though. You may want to avoid two things in the off-season: (1) Your Sofa, and (2) Buffets. Given your 1,000+ yards and solid freshman season, we will expect nothing less than the Greatest Running Back to Ever Wear Blue out of you. We want you to help erase the painful memories of Luke Staley’s Senior Season That Never Was. So, you know… no pressure and good luck with that.

Well, that’s about it. We sure hope you figure out something for that missing Nevada game that will be winnable and impressive to voters. Obviously, we would like to see you steer clear of any Division II teams, but you already know that. Ohio State can play cupcakes and still end the season highly ranked, but BYU cannot. Even if we, the fans, think you should, sometimes.

With more hopefulness than you might expect,

Nate N.
Co-Host, Utah SportsCast

There is plenty more in the podcast, particularly considering that we really didn’t talk much about BYU football. So, tune in for our quarter-season grades for the Utah Jazz, and a few words about college hoops.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Luke Nevill

2. Trent Plaisted

1. Deron Williams

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 50 – Time to Go Bowling

2007-12-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Utah SportsFans and thank you for listening and reading. I would like to apologize for what will be a very brief blog entry this week. Not that anyone besides me reads them (well, Zach does), but I still wish I had time enough to offer something better.

Next week we will return to regular posting with an open letter to the Brigham Young University football team. Until then, please enjoy our podcast efforts. As always, there is plenty to (hopefully), including a big win for the Utah Jazz, BYU’s season ending win, and even some local hockey.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

T-3. Harvey Unga

T-3. Jan Jorgensen

2. Andrei Kirilenko

1. Carlos Boozer

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 49 – The Morning (or Mourning) After

2007-11-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

An open letter to the University of Utah football team:

Dear Utah players, coaches, and administrators,

First of all, and on behalf of Utah fans everywhere, I would like to thank you for a good season, and for a series of entertaining football games. We are uncomplicated when it comes to our expectations, and you have certainly exceeded mine. Congratulations on tying for third in the Mountain West Conference.

The fans of other teams in other conferences would find it odd that three wins short of the conference championship qualifies as a “good season,” but that is how we roll around here. Utah fans are content if there are more wins than losses, and the team ends up in a third or fourth tier bowl. Besides, they may be headed to San Diego for the Poinsettia Bowl, and that is one fantastic city.

I was a bit disappointed that you had a chance to beat The Team to the South and choked it away in the final minute (again!), but no hard feelings. Those pesky Cougars are pretty tough, and they have been ranked both years, so it’s easy to see why you may have been intimidated. Of course, UCLA was ranked as well, and you managed to obliterate them from the field, but this isn’t the same situation. Better luck in 2008, when you get them on The Hill.

Thanks go especially to Coach Kyle Wittingham and his staff of football experts. It was a bold season strategy for your team to look really good in some games and really poor in others. I don’t know as much about the sport as you guys, so from my perspective it just seems like you didn’t prepare the team properly. But, you won seven games in a row and were a blown defensive coverage away from beating your arch-rivals, right? So whatever you were doing was clearly working well. Besides, we don’t expect championships as fans of Utah – 5-3 in conference sits well.

Speaking of the blown defensive coverage, I would like to thank Brice McCain for being an NFL prospect. I heard this several times from several different national commentators (well, the Versus and CSTV guys, but still), and it really raises the credibility of the program to have such high caliber players. I would think a professional-level player wouldn’t leave the other team’s best receiver to try and cover a poor-running quarterback who stands a zero percent chance of shambling for 18 yards, but that’s just my take on it. I am sure a high-caliber football mind, like yours must be, knows better.

I also want to give kudos to Louis Sakoda, for being the very best player on the team. Usually when the kicker/punter is the most clutch player on the roster it can be a bit nerve-racking (See BYU circa 2003-04), but you pulled it off. Maybe when Brent Casteel comes back from season-long injury next year he can give you a bit more competition for that title.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Brian Johnson! We heard a lot about your good decision-making skills in the pre-season, and you didn’t disappoint. Well, except for the times when your decision was to attempt a pass of over 20 yards. As a fan, there is something disheartening about watching a ball sail eight feet over the head of a wide-open receiver, but don’t worry about that. At least they were incomplete and not interceptions (usually), so we weren’t as upset as we could have been. Besides, you still have that senior season to finally live up to your potential.

Anyway, that’s about it. There were some great times this season, and I am already looking forward to next year. Maybe one of these years you guys can go back to being consistently strong on both sides of the ball, although it is great that you are considered a “defensive” team. It would also be nice if you could challenge for the Mountain West title sometime, rather than losing it in a week four shutout at the hands of the worst team in the conference. But these are small, nitpicky things, and only suggestions. Besides, it’s only been a few years since Utah was a national football power, and we don’t want to be greedy fans.

Thanks again, and good luck in your insignificant bowl game! Here’s to a good 2008!

With no bitterness whatsoever,

Nate N.
Co-Host, Utah SportsCast

There is much, much more in the podcast, including the big rivalry game, the Utah Jazz, and college hoops. Visit us next week for an open letter to the BYU football team.

Our All-BYU Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Max Hall

2. Jan Jorgensen

1. Austin Collie

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 48 – The Rivalry Show

2007-11-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

The much-anticipated Rivalry Week is finally here. Utah’s next scheduled game is in Provo, Utah against BYU, and vice-versa. Within a week the hype will be silenced, the preparation will be over, the plays will be run, the dust will have settled, and one team will stand triumphant over the other. I could not be more excited.

Both Utah and BYU stretched their winning streaks to seven games last week, with significant wins over conference teams. Utah played at home, fending off a motivated New Mexico team with defense and luck. The Lobos had looked bad-to-shaky in past weeks, and were still fighting for the postseason. Utah was still swaggering after a dominating win over Wyoming, and with BYU looming on the horizon, was in danger of a potential let-down game.

As has been the case in the past few weeks, Utah’s defense was the best squad on the field for either team. To be fair, New Mexico also has a good defense, and the offenses for both teams have been somewhat hit-or-miss this season, but it was the consistent play on defense that secured the game for the home team. Utah benefited from a few special teams mistakes by the Lobos, notably fumbled punts, and also managed a defensive touchdown as Koa Misi returned a fumble toward the end of the fourth quarter. The final score was 28-10, which means Utah’s offense was only responsible for three touchdowns. All things considered, that was probably not the best way to prepare for your in-state rivals.

Meanwhile, BYU was in Laramie to take care of a fading Wyoming Cowboys team who had lost two of their last three, including the surreal 0-50 drubbing against Utah. The Cougars had not looked their best in past weeks, with offensive question marks and a shaky defensive secondary, but seemed to right the ship against the otherwise hapless Cowboys. Max Hall was shaken up by another big hit (note to BYU’s coaches: that’s something you may want to work on), but returned to close out the game and key a 35-10 victory. For the record, Wyoming has now been outscored 85-10 in two weeks, and lost three of their last four.

In terms of offense, BYU looks solid. Hall still makes a few bad decisions and throws a few bad passes per game, but he looks solid going into the big game. The excellent backfield pieces of Harvey Unga, Manase Tonga, Joe Semanoff, and Fui Vakapuna anchor a formidable running attack, as well as contributing to a good overall passing game. The defense has played well, and it’s difficult to argue with allowing only 10 points on the road, but there are some holes in the secondary.

Our best guess is that the game will be won between Utah’s vaunted defense and BYU’s potent offense. Even more specifically, it will come down to Utah’s quick defensive line against BYU’s solid offensive line. However, we made almost those same exact predictions last year, and after a crazy, exciting game, realized we were simplifying things a bit too much.

So our best guess is probably that it’s anyone’s game. Will Kyle Wittingham’s big-game passion trump the clinical detachment of Bronco Mendenhall? Can Utah’s underrated running game evade the overexposed linebacking corps of BYU? Is Utah’s brave, powerful defense up to the challenge of BYU’s self-important, overrated offense? Am I allowing my cheering interest to compromise any objectiveness I may have had? The answer is yes to all of those questions. [Note: I am a fan of Cougar Football as well, but during rivalry games I have to suspend my usual trying-to-sit-on-the-fence trick. After this week I will be back to root for the Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl.]

I typically write that we have much more in the podcast, but in fairness, there isn’t much. We are all about the rivalry this week, although we do mention some of the other noteworthy items, including Utah State’s first win of the season (as reflected in our Top 3, below).

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

T-2. Brian Johnson

T-2. Max Hall

1. Rob Myers

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 47 – A Week of Winning

2007-11-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

On the surface, this was a pretty good week for the Utah SportsCast. The Jazz swept all four of the games they played since our last show, BYU won a critical conference game in Provo, and Utah completely outmanned their hapless opponent. That is a 6-0 combined record for the “big three” of this point in the sports season, and a fan could hardly ask for more than four game, five game, and six game win streaks, respectively.

However, results do not always tell the complete story, and there is a deeper level of concern for each of these teams. The Jazz are off to a quick start at 6-2, but the wins seem to have come against lesser competition (although I still say Cleveland is a good team), and the two losses at by the only good conference teams they have played. BYU has a perfect conference record and only two early-season losses, but their offense didn’t look great in the second half against TCU. They still won, and their defense secured the game in the second half, but they did so without much scoring support.

Then, there was the Utah game.

I am the designated Utah fan here at the Utah SportsCast, and while I don’t have a fancy t-shirt indicating as much, I consider myself an invested follower of the team. I mention this because I have also noticed a vague and uncertain negative emotion – centered on the team – that bubbles up in me on occasion. I usually just ignore the feeling, and have never bothered to understand it, but it all crystallized early in the third quarter of the Wyoming game: Sometimes it’s hard to be a Utah fan, because sometimes they behave despicably.

The latest example was the nationally-covered brouhaha between Kyle Wittingham and Wyoming coach Joe Glenn, but this isn’t the first time I have felt that way about Coach Kyle’s program. Every time a Utah player jumps up to strut around after a big play, I cringe. Each camera shot of Utah’s bench horsing around on the sidelines or laughing at the other team causes me to turn away. Any on-field mocking conversations cause me to shake my head in disapproval. Don’t get me wrong, it is just a game and I think players should be passionate about it. I like the excitement that comes after big plays, and I don’t have a problem with not being buddies with the other team. But Utah’s brand of attitude sometimes comes across as mocking, and that is intolerable, in my opinion.

Worst of all is when that despicable behavior comes from the top. I could not have disagreed more with Coach Wittingham kicking onside when they were up by six touchdowns. After the game he made a lot of growled excuses about still playing in the third quarter and responding to guaranteed victories from Coach Glenn, but that point was made when it was 40-0 at halftime. Winning big without going out of the way to embarrass the other team would have been a more powerful statement; instead, the Utah coaching staff came across as petty and vindictive.

The commotion is beginning to fade now that both coaches have apologized, and the Mountain West Conference has publicly reprimanded the obscene gesture. But deep down inside, anyone who watched it live, saw it on replay, or heard it described felt that Joe Glenn was justified in his one-fingered opinion. But that is the burden of being a Utah football fan: sometimes you have to deal with despicable behavior from your team and coach.

As always, we have much more in the podcast, including more about BYU’s big win, a good start for the Utah Jazz, and local college basketball.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Gabe Long

2. Max Hall

1. Andrei Kirilenko

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 46 – BYU Wins, Utah Rests, and the Jazz Split

2007-11-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

It was good to have Brigham Young University back on the field after their rescheduling bye. It was only the second home game for the Cougars since September 22^nd, and they hosted the bottom-dwelling Colorado State Rams. As predicted, suspected or hoped-for, BYU won by a large margin: 35-16. The Cougars are now undefeated in their past 12 conference games.

Max Hall saw a return to earlier excellence, which, according to Zach, was the second most important thing BYU had to accomplish this week (winning being the first, of course). The entire passing game was the most potent part of the Cougar offense, racking up 355 pass yards with two receivers going over 100 yards, and seven different receivers touching the ball. The running game was more subdued, perhaps by design, although five different players rushed for positive yards (the punter being one of them). The team rushed for around 100 yards total.

The defense looked good at times, like when they held CSU to one field goal for three first-half trips inside BYU’s 20 yard-line, but they were not impenetrable by any standard. The secondary was still a bit shaky, and if the Rams running backs could get beyond the defensive line, they usually picked up decent yardage. It is true that most of the scoring came against second string competition, but the level of effort from the first team may not have sufficed against a better team.

All in all, it was a good opportunity for BYU to get back on track for the concluding games of the season. They have a much more stringent test coming up Thursday, November 8^th against TCU, who is coming to Lavell Edwards Stadium following a 37-0 demolition of New Mexico. The short week for both teams should minimize the impact of strategic preparation, and the respective talent of each team will be exaggerated. Whether that translates to a BYU win will remain to be seen, although it should be a good opportunity to extend their streak.

Please check out the podcast for much more, including a preview of Utah vs. Wyoming, and some Utah Jazz Talk.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Jan Jorgensen

2. Deron Williams

1. Max Hall

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 45 – Continuing the Winning Ways

2007-11-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of sports, which should be evident by the fact that I voluntarily wake up at 4:45 AM once a week to participate in this podcast. I have a reasonably broad range of sports I enjoy following, as well as some specific teams or players within that range. The same is true of Zach, I know, and I suspect could be said of most other sports fans in the world. We enjoy sports, we follow them, and for the most part we have more than one team/sport we follow.

These are very pedestrian, general facts about sports fans, of course, and I only mention them because 2007 has been an unusual year for Zach and me. As purveyors of a “sports media outlet,” we watch and analyze sports much more than we did as everyday fans. Our once-casual “catch that game last night?” conversations have now become in-depth breakdowns of games, players, and leagues. We discuss interpretation of rules, quality of coverage, and socio-cultural impact. This is all on a very amateur scale, of course – the Utah SportsCast is just a free-time activity for us.

To add to that pleasant confusion, both Zach and I have become soccer fans in earnest during the past year. We have outlined some of this in a new blog/podcast experiment we are trying to produce (visit at The Beautiful Podcast), so it doesn’t require mentioning for this blog entry beyond the fact that we now have new teams and leagues to follow. This just means more items to digest from our already groaning smörgåsbord of sports.

To summarize, we are in a position where we have many different sports and teams to follow, with a semi-legitimate reason to do it. With that in mind, it’s not a surprise that I follow sports as closely now as I did as a teenager (I suspect the same is true for Zach, but I can’t speak for him). I suppose I could count the sports I follow, along with the associated leagues and teams, but that’s probably unimportant and I would miss some anyway. The short answer: A lot.

So I was very surprised, in the midst of some fantastic sporting competition, when I realized that I have a single favorite team – one that stands above all other teams in all other sports. It does so in spite of my recent obsession with soccer, and in spite of an exciting year for local college football. Two NFL teams I enjoy are doing well this year, and “my team” in that league looks playoff-worthy, but it’s not one of those. It’s not even a national team, and there are few times I enjoy being a sports fan more than when I am following Team USA in anything.

No, my all-time favorite team to follow is the Utah Jazz.

[Note: The reader may have expected me something like “the Human Team” as my favorite, and me to praise the Beauty and Complexity of competition as my highest ideal. That probably would have been more philosophical and meaningful, and I wish I could write it here, but it wouldn’t be true.]

I came to this realization two nights ago, and as mentioned, it was really quite surprising. I was watching them win their season opener against the Golden State Warriors, and it occurred to me that I invest more emotion and interest in the success of the Utah Jazz than I do any other team. Further compounding the strangeness for me is that I am not really an over-the-top fan of the NBA, certainly not more than other sports leagues. If I don’t have a rooting interest, I would probably rather watch a random game from the NFL, NHL, NCAA Football, or Barclay’s Premier League.

It could be that the Jazz were my “first love” as a young sports fan – the team that got me interested in sports to begin with. Maybe it’s because they are the only local team of genuine national significance (sorry Real Salt Lake, and Major League Soccer). Maybe it’s because I really like basketball players and coaches with ties to the state of Illinois. I don’t really know. But I am certain that I am more anticipatory, I celebrate more plays, I bemoan more bad calls, and I am more superstitious about the Utah Jazz than any other team. There are other individual games that may reach that high status for me (Utah versus BYU in football, for instance), but as far as daily interest goes, nothing touches the Jazz. That may not be crucial to me as a fan, but it was nice to find out where my heart lies. Needless to say, I am looking forward to the 2007-2008 season.

There is much more to enjoy in the podcast, which took a few unusual turns this week. Hopefully, it will make for entertaining listening. If not, well, our iron-clad guarantee holds true: you will love this podcast or your money back.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Steve Tate

2. Ronnie Brewer

1. Carlos Boozer

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 44 – Winning Streaks on the Wasatch Front

2007-10-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

I should start this blog entry with a disclaimer: I didn’t watch either the Utah or the BYU games this past week. It wasn’t a lack of interest, but I had other, previous engagements during both games. I did catch a bit of each on the radio, and read the post-game articles, but that was it. I only mention this in the interest of full disclosure. Well, that, and it gives me an excuse when all of my thoughts and opinions are more foolish than usual.

Anyway, I had written Utah off for the year as recently as the afternoon of Friday, October 5^th, just prior to their win over Louisville. At that point they were a shaky 2-3, and already with two conference losses. Their only wins at that point were a bizarre rout of UCLA that seemed to have come from another team, and a very pedestrian showing against Utah State.

On that same afternoon, BYU was 3-2, and undefeated in two conference games. Their two losses were non-conference away games, and they were looking every bit like the team to beat in the MWC. They had beaten Air Force, who started strong, and opened the year with a nice win against Pac-10 Arizona.

Since that afternoon, Utah has rolled off three wins in a row – two of them on the road against teams that were projected to be their respective conference champions. BYU has won twice, both in games where they were favored. There are a few similarities at this point in the season: both teams have won four games in a row, each with two wins at home and two on the road. Both teams have five total wins on the season. Both teams have a win and a loss against Pac-10 schools.

However, Utah seems to be playing better football than BYU, at least at the moment. Last Thursday Utah held on for a big conference road win against TCU, and the next day local radio shows were buzzing with talk of the “swagger” returning. Two days later – and in spite of beating Division 1-AA/Championship Division/Whatever Eastern Washington by five touchdowns – the Cougars did not impress their fans or the local media. The consensus seems to be that Utah is coming together as a team, and BYU may be losing their focus a bit.

The Cougars have a significant advantage in conference record (BYU 3-0, Utah 2-2), even though the overall standings are fairly close. Utah is still alive in the conference race, although they would need BYU to lose at least once before the Utah/BYU game, and then beat the Cougars in Lavell Edwards Stadium, accompanied by Air Force losing both of their remaining conference games. That is an unlikely scenario, to say the least.

For BYU, all they need to do is keep on winning; which could be prove difficult considering they have to play TCU at home and Wyoming on the road in the weeks leading up to the Utah game. The unplanned bye this week may help them refocus and heal some nagging injuries, but it will also extend their regular season a week longer. If their level of play doesn’t improve, it could be disastrous. The final conclusion for both teams is far from clear, and the season is much more interesting than it was on the afternoon of October 5^th.

We have more about BYU and Utah in the podcast, as well as a bit about the end of RSL’s season, and even some preseason Jazz talk. We also rolled out a special edition “Top 3 from Real Salt Lake” to commemorate the very forgettable season:

Our Top 3 from Real Salt Lake:

3. Eddie Pope

2. Nick Rimando

1. Robbie Findley

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Martail Burnett

2. Harvey Unga

1. Steve Tate

Finally, we want to extend our thoughts, prayers, and best wishes to everyone in Southern California who has been misplaced by the wildfires.

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 43 - For reals this time

2007-10-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Listen here

There's been a year or more of UtahSportsCast episodes. I suppose it was bound to happen that I put the wrong file up there eventually. It's all fixed now, just click the "listen" link above and you'll get the right show.

Sorry about that folks!

Episode 43 – A big win for Utah, yet another loss for RSL

2007-10-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

To begin, I would like to present a quote from this very blog as posted last week. It was the latest version of my developing opinion about the University of Utah football team:

If they lose big this Friday at Louisville (as, unfortunately, I am expecting) then the “mediocre” definition will probably stick. If Utah manages to keep the score close and look good (or, in another shock, win), then we may have to back to the drawing board.

So, I was shocked (as predicted) when Utah not only beat Louisville 44-35 at Papa John’s Stadium, but looked pretty good in the process. They dominated the first half and scored enough in the second half to hold off the best quarterback in the NCAA. A big loss would have answered more questions than the highlight win, so I find myself again at the proverbial drawing board.

In one way, this game was even more impressive than the UCLA tilt because everyone watching that knew it was a world-class fluke. Not so much that Utah won, but that they dominated every aspect of the game. They took a top-ranked team and made them look like the biggest cupcake they would play all year. It didn’t help that UCLA gave up halfway through the third quarter, but the damage was done by that point.

The Louisville game was much different. Again, Utah dominated the first half, but Louisville brought it back to as close as six points in the fourth quarter. It was a fight to the end, in other words, before Reliable Louie Sakoda booted a 46 yard clinching field goal with about 90 seconds left. The running game for Utah was spectacular, behind Darrell Mack’s 163 yard, 3 touchdown performance. Brian Johnson threw for 312 yards and added two more touchdowns (one passing, one rushing), with no interceptions.

Utah’s line played great on the defensive end, controlling the line of scrimmage and holding Louisville to just 26 total rushing yards. Unfortunately, that opened the field to the Cardinals’ Brian Brohm (the afore-mentioned “best quarterback in the NCAA”), who lit up Utah’s secondary for 467 yards and four touchdowns. He was sacked three times in the game, which doubled his total sacks on the season, but some of that had to do with his two best receivers being out for the game. As a fan, I would be curious to see how different the game would have been with those star receivers playing. Then again, if Utah had Brent Casteel and Matt Asiata, it would have made a difference, as well.

It was a great, exciting win, and Utah looked good in the process. However, it also reinforced the inconsistency theory, and created more questions about the team. Utah has now won three of their last four, including two in a row (their first winning streak of the season). Two of those wins came against teams that had been ranked in the top 15 at one point in the season. The one loss was an embarrassing shut-out to one of the worst teams in the conference (UNLV’s only other win, ironically, was Utah State).

So, was the Louisville game the beginning of a long winning trend? Was it a sign that the UNLV game, like the UCLA game, was something of a fluke? Is the real Utah team now emerging, ready to challenge for a bowl game (and with a lot of luck, the conference title)? Or is this yet another tantalizing hint of what could be? A peek at how talented and explosive the offense really is, when they have consistent playcalling? Is another bumbling loss just around the corner?

I would like to say that I have stopped guessing and analyzing, and that I will just take each game as it comes. That would be completely untrue, but I do wish I could say it. Utah plays San Diego State at home and TCU in Dallas for their next two games. One of those games should be relatively easy and the other a tough contest, although the way this season is going I’m not so sure which is which. Time will tell… I hope.

There is much more in the podcast, as always. Well, maybe not much more, but it’s more entertaining, anyway.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Brian Johnson

2. Tim Toone

1. Darrell Mack

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 42 – Uninspiring wins from BYU and Utah

2007-10-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Zach and I were able to get together last Saturday and watch both Utah vs. Utah State and New Mexico vs. BYU. It was not the first time we had watched games together, of course, but it’s pretty rare that we have a chance to do it. It was good to see Utah get a cruise-control victory in the driving snow. It was also nice to find out that BYU could stumble a bit against a motivated opponent, and still pull out a win. After the game we celebrated by playing a few rounds of FIFA ’06 on my Xbox. A good time was had by all.

The problems surrounding the University of Utah have been ground up by the local media (including us, if we qualify as “media”) for several weeks, now. It started as a bad luck story with key players out with injuries, turned very bright for one week, and now seems to have settled into understanding. My current diagnosis is that Utah is just a mediocre team that played dynamite for one week. Under this theory, the “inconsistency” I have mentioned before is changed to read “mediocrity.” Yes, they put up 34 points last Saturday, but that was against a below-average team. Not to mention Utah State scored 18 in the process.

We should have a handle on this team after five games, but the anomaly of Utah/UCLA still looms large. If they lose big this Friday at Louisville (as, unfortunately, I am expecting) then the “mediocre” definition will probably stick. If Utah manages to keep the score close and look good (or, in another shock, win), then we may have to back to the drawing board. I am tempted to hope for a loss, just so we can finally figure this team out. Of course, my internal fan won’t let me make that mental jump.

The bigger story this week was BYU’s timely win at New Mexico. Watching the game as a somewhat less passionate fan (I couldn’t wear one of those “Fully Invested” shirts – it just wouldn’t be right) I can say that New Mexico has good athletes, they scouted BYU well (point courtesy of Zach), and were excited and prepared. The Cougars, on the other hand, did not play a great game. The offense had trouble moving the ball, the defense seemed confused much of the time, and they were relying on athleticism and big plays to win.

Where it becomes good news for Cougar fans is they still managed to win. The score was close at the end, but BYU played through a bad week, on the road, and pulled out a victory.

I don’t know whether to credit superior talent or better coaching, because I don’t think BYU is much better in either of those categories. After the game, UNM head coach Rocky Long said BYU deserved to win, but they are not a better team than New Mexico. I can’t say I completely agree with that, but the difference in talent level is much closer than blinkered BYU fans may think.

Not having seen any other New Mexico games this year I can’t evaluate their relative level of play. It could be that they stalled a bit, as well. Regardless, I wonder if Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s emphasis on mental toughness and discipline made the difference against New Mexico. BYU has been an oft-penalized team this season and has turned the ball over with disappointing frequency, both of which are always pointed to as a lack of discipline. The penalties and turnovers were still there, but it could be that his young team finally understood what Mendenhall has been yelling about all this time and won the game on sheer determination.

There is much more in the podcast, including a conversation about the Utah win, more on BYU and a vaguely-interested discussion of Real Salt Lake.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Derrek Richards

2. Bryan Kehl

1. Darrell Mack

Thanks to our listener who submitted a reader e-mail this week! We hope to hear from many more in the future. Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 41 –The winner lost, and the losers won

2007-09-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

There is almost always something interesting going on around the Utah Sports Cast, with the possible exception of that slow, dull time in mid-summer when we half-heartedly cover baseball while waiting for a blockbuster Utah Jazz signing. The rest of the year is split between football and basketball seasons, so we don’t generally have a problem finding things to talk about.

At this time of the year (early fall) the primary teams/sports we follow are Real Salt Lake, The University of Utah football, and Brigham Young University football. I mention this because last week these three teams tallied one win (Utah) against three losses (BYU and RSL lost twice). This week the “Big Three” went 2 – 2, with RSL splitting two games, BYU winning, and Utah losing. The one team that won last week had their collective heads handed to them, and the teams that lost managed to find some victories.

So it is being a Utah sports fan. Our teams are often mediocre – enough so that flashes of real, legitimate success are remembered for a long time (what BYU fan doesn’t smile at the simple mention of the year 1984?). More often than not we have teams that look fine one week and shaky the next. In that sense, September has been a very typical month in Utah sports.

The ultimate expression of this inconsistency was displayed during the past two weeks by the University of Utah. They started with a significant, career-defining win over a nationally ranked opponent one week, followed by a pitiful shutout loss at the mercy of a team that was at the very bottom of division-one football last year. Utah went from looking like a great, underrated team with a potent offense and an iron-clad defense to being throttled by one of the conference cupcakes.

To give UNLV their due, they do seem better this year from last; and they were prepared, motivated, and eager for the game. All the same, the Utah team that kicked UCLA to the curb would have blown the Rebels all the way back to Dixie. Not that history has much to do with it, but this was the first time Utah had lost to UNLV since the Ford Administration. That provided motivation for the Rebels, and left Utah without excuses.

I suspect Utah will win another few games. In fact, they may have a winning streak sometime in the season that will bring their record to more respectable numbers. Then, like every other Utah Sports fan, I will be predicting brighter days and bigger victories to come. I will probably even write about it on this blog. Then, with another bottom-tier bowl in the books, I can look forward to 2008 with much more optimism than the situation deserves. Not that I mind -- that is the life of a Utah sports fan, after all.

In other news, BYU played well and looked pretty good. I’m not trying to ignore that, but the stuff we have in the podcast about them is very interesting and I wouldn’t want to spoil it.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Kyle Brown

2. Travis Bright

1. Harvey Unga

Thanks again for listening and reading! Please feel free to contact us at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 40 – A mixed week of results

2007-09-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the temperature for Utah sports was hot, cold, and lukewarm, all at the same time. The University of Utah football team was very hot, and looked virtually perfect as they trounced 11^th ranked UCLA 44-6. Real Salt Lake managed a lukewarm 0-0 draw against Toronto, but considering they were down a man for most of the game and playing in Canada, the effort was hot. BYU’s offensive statistics were hot (they got in the end zone seven times), but the rest of the team was lukewarm at best (they still lost by more than a touchdown), and the special teams were downright cold. Utah State, sorry to say, is neither hot, nor cold. Following a 54-3 drubbing at the hands of the Oklahoma Sooners, the only word to describe them is: bad. Not bad that they lost to the #3 team in college football – bad that the overwhelming defeat was expected by everyone.

The question lurking in the midst of all this is: which of the many teams we have seen are the real ones? Is Utah the team that is capable of demolishing strong Pac-10 opponents? It wasn’t just a loss, either – Utah beat them in every possible way, and made UCLA hang their heads. Or are they the team that can’t manage more than one touchdown against a lesser-talented (but very hard-working) Air Force defense? Which BYU will take the field next Saturday – the team that worked over Arizona? Or will it be the team that racks up lots of offensive yards but also lots of penalties and turnovers? Even RSL has had flashes of brilliance in the midst of their dismal season. At least Utah State is consistent, even if it is consistently awful.

The upcoming games will provide interesting tests for the two biggest college programs. Utah’s game will not be as much a test of athletic ability as an indication of preparation and concentration. The same team that can wipe out a significant Pac-10 school should have no problems with a bottom-of-the-pack conference foe. If Utah does play well and beat UNLV in Las Vegas, then we have reason to hope they could recover from a shaky start and produce a good-if-not-great season. The injuries have been significant, but Utah has shown that they have enough talent to make up for the missing players.

The Cougars have a bit more significant of a test, hosting Air Force this Saturday. The Falcons are on a tear right now, having beaten the other two “elite” schools in the Mountain West Conference (Utah and TCU) in the past two games. If they could knock off BYU, that would complete the task and put Air Force as the standing favorites to win the conference. Among the problems BYU will face is that Air Force runs an unusual offense designed to keep opposing defenses off-balance. If that sounds familiar, consider this reminder: Tulsa 55, BYU 47. BYU’s defense has been questionable since the Arizona game, and their special teams are just bad. Field position is important when facing a ball-control offense like Air Force, and the Cougars have had their struggles winning that battle. On the other hand, the offense is still high-powered enough that they may just be able to outscore the Falcons. The bottom line is BYU needs to win this game, and if they can do it with convincing defense, the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a freight train after all.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Nick Rimando

2. Darrell Mack

1. Robert Johnson

There is much more on the podcast, and we hope you check it out. We would also love to hear from you at comments@utahsportscast.com.

Blog Only – A losing week for Utah sports

2007-09-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

It was a rough stretch of days for fans and followers of Utah’s major sports teams. Real Salt Lake lost on the road against the Houston Dynamo as a follow-up to their first winning streak (2 games) this season. Utah lost in two ways, not only dropping the home opener against Air Force, but losing their best offensive player – Brent Casteel – for the season to a knee injury. Utah State lost to Wyoming, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed the team for more than a month. The Salt Lake Bees lost the conference playoff to the Sacramento River Cats, ending their season. Even BYU – the team I am counting on to provide some interest for my fall sports season – lost a tough away game to ranked UCLA. Like I said, it was a rough stretch.

Because of my own personal loyalties and interests, the toughest of these losses for me to digest was Utah 12, Air Force 20. Not because of the Falcons, who, in my opinion, are one of the most disciplined and respectable teams in the NCAA, but because of Utah’s poor play and blown opportunities. It is true that they have opened the season with a stretch of very unlucky injuries, but they have enough depth of talent that playing a middle-of-the-pack conference opponent like Air Force at home should result in a win.

Instead Utah fans were subjected to a game that could have been taken from last year’s campaign. The offense was shaky due to a terrible performance at quarterback, which was augmented by poor play-calling. The defense struggled to keep the team in the game, but never really had a chance to catch their breath because the offense was so anemic. Their tackling became very sloppy and the linebackers played the entire second half back on their heels (Air Force rushed 63 times for 334 yards). Utah’s best-looking drive came at the very end of the fourth quarter, but they failed on three straight downs to score from inside the five yard line.

There is plenty of ammunition for finger-pointing. Tommy Grady’s statistics improved over the previous week, but most of his positive numbers came on one unsuccessful drive. For most of the game he had trouble with long passes, short passes, shovel passes, pitches, quick handoffs, hot reads, outlets, and screens. He managed the long, reaching handoffs okay, most of which were quickly stopped by an energetic-if-undersized Air Force defense. He completed a pass here and there, and seemed surprised when it happened (I might have made up that last part – maybe it was just me that was surprised). He gave up two interceptions and looked uncomfortable for most of the game.

The coaching staff deserves some of the blame, as well. I am not adept with football strategy, by any measure. As I have said before on the podcast, any play calling knowledge I may have comes from playing NCAA Football on my Xbox. I have no experience – on any level – with team or game management. However, in spite of my towering ignorance, I know it’s not a good idea to call a long-developing wide receiver reverse on third-and-1 during a critical drive in the fourth quarter. Especially if my running backs were producing, as Utah’s had been at the time. However, that is exactly what Utah’s offensive coordinator called. As one might expect, Air Force was already playing up – anticipating some sort of dive or keeper – and blew up the play for an eight-yard loss. Utah punted on the next down.

I believe coaching is a lot more difficult than most people understand – that the men and women in various coaching positions sacrifice their health, their other prospects, and their family lives for a generally thankless career. I’m sure Andy Ludwig – the offensive coordinator at Utah – is a very nice man. I know he is old buddies with head coach Kyle Wittingham, and they have a great working relationship. But that doesn’t do a thing to address the team’s problems; namely that there is no imagination to the offensive play-calling. I don’t write that because I can do better, or I know what needs to happen. I write that because I watch a lot of football, and I know a bad offense when I see it.

It can’t be easy to lose three of your five best offensive weapons in the first two games of the year, and only hope to get one of them back for part of the season. It would be very discouraging to have your best offensive lineman go out for the year before the first game was played. There may be a lot of head-hanging and feeling-sorry-for-themselves going on during Utah’s practices, and I can’t say they would be unjustified.

But the point of having depth charts and constantly recruiting talent is so there is someone ready for these scenarios. Even though the fans and the team are disappointed at the injuries, there are a few players who should be thrilled for the opportunity they now have to show what they can do and help the team.

If the coaching staff can call a good game, keep opposing defenses guessing, and tailor the plays to the available players, then there is still hope for the season. At this point, an average team would be tempted to concede the season and use the time to develop their younger talent. A great team, however, would – and hopefully will – rise to the occasion.

There is plenty more to hear in the podcast, including discussion of the BYU game and our top three in Utah breakdown.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Louie Sakoda

2. Max Hall

1. The Salt Lake Bees

Thank you very much for reading and listening to the Utah SportsCast! We would love to hear from you, either by commenting on the blog or sending an e-mail to comments@utahsportscast.com.

Episode 39 – The Triumphant Return of Football

2007-09-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Listen Here!

America’s true national pastime is back, and if I might speak for sports fans around the country, it’s about time. With college football kicking off last week and the National Football League about to start regular season play, it feels a bit like the cool end of a long, hot summer.

The teams followed by the Utah SportsCast played this last week, with Utah kicking off their season at Oregon State. This game was most noteworthy – from a Utah fan’s point of view – because of the significant injuries to Utah players. Starting quarterback Brian Johnson went down with a separated shoulder, which is expected to keep him off the playing field for 3-5 weeks. He did manage to play almost two whole quarters of football before returning to the injured list, so that was a nice treat for fans. With any luck, he may be able to start in a few games this year.

Also bitten by the injury bug was Matt Asiata, who was Utah’s big pickup among Juco transfers. He was going to be the featured running back this season, before a routine tackle broke both bones in his lower leg. It was one of those potential career-ending injuries, but fortunately, he is expected to recover. It won’t happen anytime soon, of course; but at some point, in the distant future, Asiata may play again.

With two star players out, and the Utah offense terrorized by a big, fast, talented Oregon State defense, they were lucky to escape with only a 24-7 beating. Brent Casteel scored their only touchdown, hauling in one of Johnson’s early passes. He was also about the only player in red who seemed to be able to match speed with Oregon State.

Two days later, the story was completely different for BYU. Not only did they manage an injury-free game, but they discovered another potential star running back, their brand new quarterback looked good, and their defense was smothering (to say the least). The visiting Arizona team managed a touchdown in the final quarter to avoid the shutout, but still went home on the wrong end of a 20-7 loss.

Cougar fans may have a lot to be excited about this year, as they seemed to have room for improvement, in spite of playing a solid game. If they can play a respectable game against a ranked UCLA team this week, it may be the start of another great season.

So to recap, injuries and lack of depth cripple Utah and they lose a winnable game. Yet another stud running back and an awesome defense drive BYU to an impressive win. If you switched jerseys on the teams you might wonder if it’s 1994 all over again.

There is much more to enjoy (we hope) in the podcast, so please listen! We welcome any and all feedback to comments@utahsportscast.com

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Brent Casteel

2. Nick Rimando

1. Harvey Unga

Thanks again to our sponsor, ZAGG Inc., for their support!

Episode 38 – The long wait is over...

2007-08-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

Listen Here!

Summer in Utah is hot.. Temperatures vary based on geographic region, but 100+ degree days are common in just about any part of the state. In the southern half of Utah, particularly the southwestern section, it isn’t unusual to see 110+ degree days, sometimes for weeks in a row. It’s usually a dry heat (for example, right now the temperature in Salt Lake City is 91 degrees with 28% humidity), which is less oppressive than heavy, moist conditions, but leaves one feeling a bit dried out by the end of summer.

I mention this because autumn has always been my favorite time of the year for a variety of reasons, and I am very excited to see the end of August/start of September this year. The growing crispness in the air is nice, and a welcome respite from the heat. But the cool nights and changing leaves also means football season is upon us – and that is a very good thing.

This week all three of Utah’s NCAA Division-1 schools play their opening games. The University of Utah travels to Oregon State, Brigham Young University hosts Arizona, and Utah State University welcomes UNLV. The Utah SportsCast aspires to support and report on all local athletics, although we tend to feature those we follow as fans, namely Utah and BYU. We extend our apologies to Utah State for not giving equal time, but we are trying to cultivate a rooting interest. So, hopefully we will have more on the Aggies in the future.

[Incidentally, it would help if USU could provide a better program. I’m not trying to be overly critical, and we’re not waiting for the bandwagon to come around or anything, but more than one win would be nice.]

Anyway, Zach and I have been looking forward to the big preview show all summer, and you can find all the good stuff on the podcast. Here are a few of my thoughts, in addition:

Utah: This year should be a small improvement over last, although I wouldn’t expect anything dramatic. Another year under the belt is bound to help Head Coach Kyle Wittingham and his team. I don’t think they will contend for the conference title this year, but they should still make a late-December bowl game.

Should be strengths:

Wide Receivers: Brent Casteel, Utah’s most explosive offensive player, should benefit from playing with the very mobile Brian Johnson. If the quarterback is a running threat it could keep safeties and linebackers back a step, which would give Casteel more space in which to operate. Derrek Richards (last season’s leading receiver), Marquis Wilson, and Brian Hernandez will be other key targets in Utah’s deep, talented receiving corps.

Offensive Line: This was predicted to be a weakness last season because of the youth at nearly every position. They played much better than expected, and so, in theory, should only have improved. They graduated an All-Conference tackle, but are returning the majority of last year’s line. Zane Beadles at left tackle should be one of the standouts.

Linebackers: Utah will start three seniors this year, including Joe Jiannoni, who was one of the backbones of last year’s defense. Kyle Brady and Malakai Mokofisi are the other two starters; Stevenson Sylvester – a freshman standout last year – should also see plenty of action.

Special Teams: Louie Sakoda will be returning as both punter and placekicker. Last year’s Mountain West Conference Special Teams Co-Player of the Year was a critical component in several key wins last year, including the win over TCU. Utah doesn’t have specialists as punt returners and kick returners, but they should be better than adequate.

Could be weaknesses:

Running Backs: Darryl Poston is coming back for his 10th season (or something like that), although he was not very effective last year. Darrell Mack will redshirt this year, which should mean more carries for junior college transfer Matt Asiata.

Tight Ends: Matt Sims and Colt Sampson traded duties last year, and they both return for another year. Both are valuable as blockers, but neither is a great target at receiver. A different, mobile quarterback could boost the value of the position, however.

Defensive Line: Martail Burnett is returning, and Gabe Long is expected to be around for the full season. But graduating two all-conference linemen would hurt any team, and the rest of the D-line seems to be relatively young and inexperienced.

Secondary: It doesn’t matter how good the replacements are, losing a consensus All-American will hurt the team. Steve Tate is the only senior in the secondary, although all of the projected starters have at least one year of previous playing experience.

The big question mark:

Quarterback: It’s been around 22 months since Brian Johnson was carted off the playing field with a wrecked knee. His physical condition is reported to be excellent, but he still hasn’t taken a snap in regular competition in over two years. He is an intelligent, poised player, with a strong arm and good running ability. If he has a great year, Utah could do very well. If he is inconsistent and shaky, it will be a long season.

BYU: It’s very difficult to imagine the Cougars will have as magical a season this year as they did last (unless you are a supporter, of course, and then there is no difficulty whatsoever). Bronco Mendenhall’s program is running along smoothly enough, but too many key players graduating is likely to spell fewer wins in 2007.

Should be strengths:

Running Backs: BYU graduated one of their all-time greatest backs last year. Applying the same logic as used above, it would make sense that this could be one of the shaky points of the offense. However, they are returning Manase Tonga and Fui Vakapuna, both of which are strong, exciting runners who had great seasons in 2006.

Wide Receivers: This has been a strong suit for the Cougars for several years, and should continue to be this year. Matt Allen and Bryce Mahuika will be primary targets, as well as Austin Collie, the former Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year.

Linebackers: Bryan Kehl and David Nixon are returning to anchor a squad that graduated their all-conference leader last season. In spite of that, this is one of the deepest and most talented facets of the team, and will be a noteworthy strength.

Secondary: Returning quality players like Dustin Gabriel, Quinn Gooch, and Ben Criddle will help BYU’s defense win a few games for the team. This was the embarrassing weakness of the team as recently as pre-season last year, but they have improved dramatically.

Could be weaknesses:

Quarterback: Max Hall has a lot to live up to, and is going to struggle at times this year. It’s that simple. He is reported to have a strong, accurate arm and great decision-making ability, but he has never taken a snap in an actual collegiate-level game. He will probably have flashes of greatness, but the coaching staff will also have to figure out how to lessen his negative impact at times.

Tight Ends: BYU’s tight end was almost as critical as the quarterback last year. Also like the quarterbacks, both the starter and the backup graduated in this position. This has been a traditional strength for the Cougars, but the youth and lack of previous playing time will be difficult to overcome.

Offensive Line: The team has been through some struggles with their O-line in recent years, although 2006 signaled a return to good form. They will struggle to replace a departed all-conference tackle, and will suffer from protecting a less-savvy quarterback. Guards Ray Feinga and Travis Bright are the only projected starters with more than one year of experience.

Defensive Line: If BYU has defensive struggles it will be at the line, where they are likely to start three sophomores. The 3-4 defense minimizes the role of the line somewhat, but they still need to plug the middle on runs and provide some pressure on quarterbacks in the pocket. Last year they relied on linebackers to do much of that, so an improved D-line would really help the overall plan.

The big question mark:

Special Teams: Special teams had a very significant negative impact last year. Missed field goals in two early games were the difference between their excellent 10-2 year and what could have been: A perfect 12-0 season and Cougar Immortality (as well as a likely BCS Bowl bid). They don’t seem to have improved on any level, but their new, freshman kicker is named Mitch Payne, which should sound familiar to fans. If he is anything like the previous Payne, it could be a step in the right direction.

Episode 37 – Summer Break is nearing an end…

2007-08-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

The first few weeks of August are interesting times in the life of nearly all American sports fans. Regardless of which sport (or sports) you follow, there is likely something to capture your attention. Among other things, the playoff races are beginning in earnest in Major League Baseball, the PGA Championship is contended, and most European soccer leagues begin their seasons. Football fans start to see preseason games and news reports, and basketball fans can watch the off season trades and summer hoops leagues.

This has also been an interesting summer outside of the competition, on both the national and international stages. The subject of cheating in sports has been a major topic in the past weeks, between Barry Bonds chasing a hallowed record, the free-fall of the Tour de France, and the game-fixing of at least one NBA official. PGA legend Gary Player even said he believed some tour players were taking steroids. My reaction was probably similar to others’: I first laughed at the idea that pro golfers would take steroids, and then stopped and realized it was not as outrageous as I would like it to be.

I am afraid this will be a tip-of-the-iceberg situation. The Tour de France was an embarrassment to the world of competitive road racing, but the governing body is doing the right thing by being aggressive against cheating. I wonder how the NFL would fare if they adopted a Tour-style program with regards to blood testing. If all the players on the various winning teams were tested each week, how many suspensions would the Commissioner have to hand out each round? Would the National Football League – the most financially successful sports league in the world – survive the purging that would inevitably follow? Would Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association (the number two and three most financially successful leagues in the world) endure any better?

It could be that we, as fans, are not concerned that athletes are accelerating their muscle development and growth with illegal and dangerous drugs. I wonder how many people watch a balloon-headed home run hitter or a lightning-fast defensive back and really care whether they come by that skill naturally. I know most of us wish steroids and blood doping was not a part of sports, but we have a hard time summoning outrage about it (and I am as guilty of this as anyone). Does our dislike for Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s record have more to do with his admitted doping or his dislikable personality?

I am not sure if the steroid conversation will dim as football season approaches, but it wouldn’t surprise me. There is enough of an issue now that it won’t disappear, but soon there will be more results to discuss.

There is much, much more in the podcast, including Real Salt Lake’s recent unsurprising loss, the release of the NBA schedule, and some guesswork about how the Mountain West Conference will stack up this football season.

Special thanks to our sponsor, ZAGG Inc.

Please contact us at:

Episode 36 – Not much is going on, to be honest

2007-07-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

We are now almost two weeks into July, and the sports year (as I choose to observe it) is just about over. Almost all of the sports I like to follow are in their off-season right now, Utah sports in particular. Fortunately, we will soon be celebrating the New Sports Year with the beginning of football season, which is only about six weeks away. Until then, I have at least one Utah sports item that will have to tide me over.

At the top of the very short list is Real Salt Lake, who would be much more exciting if they would just win a few games. I have been a casual soccer fan for about 15 years and a legitimate fan for the past three years. This means I am still getting used to The Beautiful Game being a part of my regular sports rotation, but I’m excited about it. However, in the last year or so I have made what feels like a Soccer Breakthrough, and my interest level is now teetering on the brink of “big fan.” If this is the case, and I continue to progress along those lines, then I could graduate to “soccer hooligan” in 5-7 more years.

The genesis of this personal escalation came with the expansion of Major League Soccer into my home town. I probably would have been happy to labor along as a casual follower for many more years – watching the World Cup and the Olympics, checking on a game if I happen to channel surf past it – but then a tier one team became headquartered a few miles from my house.

Unfortunately, RSL has not given me much of a reason to be a fan this year. They have taken several large steps backward from last year, when they just missed qualifying for the playoffs. The addition of Freddy Adu was supposed to improve their midfield play and make the team better. The results have been much worse, and they have been losing or jettisoning players as they go. In fact, they are currently on par to post the worst season in MLS history.

There are plenty of theories as to why this is happening, and we have considered a few of those in our podcast/blog. But the point I am trying to make here is that in this year, my Soccer Breakthrough year, RSL could have sewn up a lifetime of good will and impassioned fandom from me. It wouldn’t have even taken a championship or anything, but a few exciting wins would have done the trick.

While I know the issue of my interest level in the team is strictly a personal deal, I believe it’s symptomatic of a greater problem facing RSL. I’m sure they want to win games just as much as fans want them to, but they are losing potential fans by not producing victories. Some games have been very close, and they have lost or tied in spite of playing very well. But that may not translate to the sports fan who is trying to drum up some interest in soccer. That casual observer will just see the failures, and probably not come back to see more.

I guess it’s not too late for RSL to turn things around this year, but I don’t see any reason why they will win more than one or two more games before the season ends. A team that has managed one win in 12 games probably isn’t about to roll of seven wins in a row. They are not yet “mathematically eliminated” from the playoffs, but almost certainly “realistically eliminated.”

Meanwhile, my summer of soccer is being fed by the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Copa America (where the US National Team embarrassed itself) the U-20 World Cup (where Freddy Adu is playing extremely well), and my new favorite team, Hammarby IF of the Swedish Allsvenskan. (A team I have paid attention to for a few years, but rose up this summer to take what could have been RSL’s place as “My Team.”)

[By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone I know who has had to endure my blathering and gushing about Hammarby these past few months. I can’t seem to help doing it, and even the UTAH SportsCast has been inundated now. My sincerest apologies.]

That’s about it for this blog entry, although there is much more good stuff in the podcast. We discuss a lot more about the Utah Jazz, who are chasing free agents right now, along with some draft pick consideration. Please tune in and check it out!

Thanks to our sponsor, Zagg Inc., the makers of the invisibleSHIELD. Please visit them at invisibleshield.com and protect your new iPhone today!

We would love to hear from you at:

In fact, Zach promised to read aloud, on the podcast, every listener e-mail that we get between now and our next show. I am still uncertain why that is incentive to write, although listener comments are bound to be more enlightening than us, right?

Episode 35 – A win; for Real

2007-06-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

Listen Here!

We issued the challenge, and Real Salt Lake delivered. We promised to mention RSL on our podcast if they won a game, and they made it happen. It took them over 90 days of the regular season to get it; but win they did, so we suspended our summer furlough to make good on our part of the bargain.

This has not been a good year for RSL, as we mentioned in earlier podcasts and Zach described in his last post. They had actually won two games this year prior to last week’s victory over DC United, but neither counted for their league record. So to finally get that monkey off their backs is bound to be a good thing. At 1-5-6 they are still in the basement of the league, but who knows? Perhaps this is a turning point. I wouldn’t bet my house on it, but I will try to remain optimistic.

It’s easy to blame the horrifying season on the departure of certain key players, although that probably doesn’t tell the whole story. It didn’t help that keeper Scott Garlick decided to retire shortly before the first game, for example, but the lack of offense has been their primary problem. With that in mind, the decision to give Jason Kreis a permanent seat on the bench was a bit puzzling. This was followed by trading last year’s leading goal scorer, Jeff Cunningham.

The most recent deal sent veteran Chris Klein to Los Angeles, which doesn’t leave very many big-name, big-reputation guys on the team. Combine that with Eddie Pope’s announced retirement and Freddy Adu (who came to RSL primarily to play for fired coach John Ellinger) pining for the European leagues, and the team seems headed for a more of the same.

But, the recent win may have given fans a glimmer of hope for the future. Robbie Findley, who was acquired in the Klein deal, scored two goals in his debut with the team. Forward Alecko Eskandarian swapped places with Cunningham, and he has shown flashes of his lauded ability while coming back from a concussion. Nick Rimando seems to be getting comfortable in the net lately. So, the foundation of a winning team might be there. They are last in the conference (and the entire league), but only one team in the conference has fewer losses than RSL. It is not outrageous to think they could climb right back in the race if they can put a winning streak together.

The greater question is: will they? Real Salt Lake has only scored 11 goals in 12 games this season, which is pretty stingy even for the Western Conference where leader FC Dallas has 19 goals in 15 games. It could be worse, though. Three different teams in the Eastern Conference have scored 20+ goals in their first dozen games (New England 24, New York 24, Kansas City 23).

It would be nice timing if RSL made the playoffs this year. The dispute over the stadium has polarized a lot of potential fans, and a successful campaign might soften a few hearts. Even more important is the long-term success of soccer in this market. There is a great deal of potential between strong youth programs and immigration from soccer-loving parts of the world. Even the interest generated through returning LDS missionaries is significant. There is an opportunity to create a strong center of soccer here, and RSL is a major part of that.

Does that mean soccer in the greater Salt Lake City market will fail if RSL only wins 4 games this year? Well, probably not… but I think we stand a good chance of finding out.

There is much more in the podcast, including congratulations to the Utah Blaze for making the playoffs. We discuss the upcoming draft and mention a few names that may be on the back of a Jazz uniform next year. I could write some of them here, but I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.

Our Top 3 in Utah

3. (tie) Ryan Dennard and Orshawante Bryant

2. (tie) Alecko Eskandarian and Jason Kreis

1. Robbie Findley

We were very indecisive this week and ended up with two ties. Not only that, but we were knocking a little rust off during this show, so it may not be up to our usual standards. Please feel free to let us know how ridiculous you thought we sounded at:

comments@utahsportscast.com

Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone Corporation!

Real Salt Lake -- some random musings

2007-06-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Real Salt Lake won its second meaningless match of the year last week, as it defeated the Chinese national team with a mark of 1:0.

Now, whether this does anything for the team's confidence as it takes on FC Dallas tonight at Rice Eccles remains to be seen. It sure would be nice to see Real win one game this season. This season is reminding me of watching the 1996-97 BYU basketball team go 1-25... except RSL has yet to get that one elusive win. Perhaps we can drum up the Utah State basketball team from that same year to give RSL the lone victory it seems to be lacking. (Utah State was BYU's lone victory, if you didn't grasp that.)

Not that RSL has lost every game. In fact, they've amassed a grand total of 6 points in the scoring system... all on draws. The official record as of this writing is 0-3-6. Is that much better than 2-7-0? The point total would be the same, however it might feel good to outscore an opponent, at least once in a while.

I bring all this up because the sports season in Utah is on its downswing as we wait for the NBA draft and the Rocky Mountain Review (or is that Revue?). I'm sure watching CJ Miles, Ronnie Brewer, Dee Brown and whomever the Jazz pick this year rip up the "competition" in the summer league will be worth a podcast or two. In the meantime, we'll deal with Sandy Stadium construction and the surrounding politics (I hope they come up with a better name than that... someone is bound to kick in some dough for naming rights. Heck, for $20 I'd be willing to kick in and name it "UtahSportsCast Stadium"... got a nice ring to it, dontcha think?), which would be a lot easier for the tax-paying public to swallow if the team would win a freakin' game... too much to ask?

Thanks, Jazz!

2007-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

This week the storybook that was the 2006-2007 Utah Jazz season came to a close. While they didn't go all the way and take home the championship, they did do a whole lot better than anyone would have predicted when the season started back in November. We were pretty sure at the time they'd make the playoffs, probably around the 6th or 7th seed, behind only Denver in the Northwest Division. Some even held out hope that they'd make it to the second round, although that was considered by many to be somewhat "homerish" and by most to be euphamistically optimistic. No one thought they'd be in the Western Conference Finals, one of only 4 teams in the NBA to still be playing at the end of May.

A 51-31 regular season, division champs and a deep playoff run cements this season as one of the all-time greats for the Jazz. It wasn't the finals, but it was the best season they had in a long long time. And it's been extremely fun to watch (and painful, at times, too!)

I'm looking forward to many many years of really good Utah Jazz basketball to come.

Thanks Jazz!

Episode 34 – A likely end to a great season.

2007-05-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

I hate to give in to my fatalistic tendencies, but I’m pretty sure the Jazz are finished in the NBA playoffs. Sure, they could win Game 5 in San Antonio (a place they haven’t won in this century) and force a Game 6 back in the Fallout Shelter, but sooner or later they will lose again to the Spurs. They just don’t have the horsepower to take three in a row from Duncan, Parker and Ginobli.

Not that any of this is a stretch to write. I am not aware of a single media person, national or local, that would seriously give the Jazz a shot at making history and coming back from their current 3-1 deficit. In fact, after the debacle of game four, every single person on ESPN seemed to find it laughable to think that San Antonio wouldn’t close things out in Game 5. I mean that literally – the anchors and commentators were laughing at the very idea. I know I am being the stereotypical small market fan by writing this, but I found it irritating and even a bit disrespectful. Ignore the breakout season and forget the playoff victories against Houston and Golden State: The Jazz have become a laughing stock.

Of course, now my anger has dissipated (somewhat), and I can consider things in a slightly more rational light. For starters, I don’t really think the ESPN talking heads were trying to discredit the accomplishments of the Utah Jazz with their scorn, but rather reacting to a strong win by the favored team. I also happen to agree that the Jazz will lose Game 5, but I’m certainly not laughing about it.

Also, I am making an effort to remember what I like about the San Antonio Spurs rather than wallowing in the bitterness that came from watching them shoot 25 free throws in the fourth quarter while the Jazz shot two. I can respect the argument that Utah wasn’t as aggressive as San Antonio in the fourth quarter, but that level of disparity only comes with truly one-sided officiating.

I always dislike blaming the officials for losses, but Utah was within a point and rolling when the third quarter ended, and suddenly San Antonio began a relentless march to the free throw line. Yes, the Jazz lost their composure and started complaining, but it’s impossible to disconnect the influence of the officials in the fourth quarter. Even the national media guys were saying things like: “There were some questionable calls, but the Jazz have to play through it.” I agree with the point, but that doesn’t make it any less disheartening when it happens to your team.

So, what are the odds of the Utah Jazz going into the AT&T Center for Game 5 and shooting twice as many free throws as the Spurs, including an overwhelming, backbreaking margin in the fourth quarter? Ten Gazillion to One? Do any of the laughing sportscasters on ESPN want to comment on that? Credit the Spurs for playing hard and keeping their composure (although it’s pretty easy to do when all the breaks are going your way). Theirs was a legitimate win by a superior team, without question. But you have to question the officiating when the road team makes more free throws than field goals in Game 4 of a Conference Final playoff game.

In further news, the Utah Blaze ended their long losing streak, Real Salt Lake still hasn’t won a match, and the Salt Lake Bees continue to play baseball. We talk more about these things in the podcast, of course, but only a little.

Our top 3 in Utah:

3. Carlos Boozer

2. Siaha Burley

1. Deron Williams

Congratulations to Booz and D-Will on their invite to USA Basketball!

Thanks again to our sponsor, ShieldZone Corp.

We would love to hear from you – please contact us as comments@utahsportscast.com

Episode 32 – Into the Western Conference Finals

2007-05-17T11:11:00.001-07:00

The Utah Jazz are the first NBA team into the Conference Finals. Please give me a moment to savor that.

(Savoring)

(Still savoring)

Thank you, and please excuse me. I really don’t want to get too carried away with “Jazz Fever,” but it’s a nice feeling to enjoy that once-forgotten emotion. It’s safe to say the Jazz have exceeded all my expectations this season, and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to maintain my standard attitude of guarded pessimism. I will freely admit to predicting a first round exit for Utah, and suspecting a second round loss, as well. Now that they made it to the Western Conference Finals, Jazz Fever has infected me and I am positively giddy with optimism. Of course, the next series is the one they are most likely to lose.

Still, I think I will be okay with a loss. To be one of the last two teams still alive in the exceptionally difficult Western Conference is a feather in any team’s cap. Consider the bottom three teams in the Conference: the Los Angeles Lakers (with arguably the best player in the NBA), the Denver Nuggets (with the Defensive Player of the Year, and two legitimate MVP candidates) and the Golden State Warriors (the best team in the NBA over the last three weeks of the season). NBA writers and talking heads are making frequent use of the phrase “playing with the house money” to describe how they think the Jazz should approach this next series. While I find it amusing to hear everyone gravitate toward that one expression, I can’t disagree with the concept. They have already done more than anyone really expected them to, and they have nothing to lose.

That could make the Utah Jazz more dangerous, but is likely to make them mistake-prone, I believe. If Jerry Sloan decides to stray from the formula that got them here just so the Jazz can “play with the house money,” I don’t see them being much of a threat to either San Antonio or Phoenix. Perhaps a better interpretation of the concept would be: “We, the national media who has not paid attention to the Utah Jazz all season long, has no real idea how good this team can be. Therefore they cannot possibly pose a threat to the favorites in the race, and so they have nothing to lose. It’s been a nice season for an up-and-coming team, and they might as well go out and play hard, because it doesn’t really matter anyway.”

My interpretation (and I’m thoroughly under the influence of Jazz Fever, here) is that the Jazz have a good shot against either team. I can’t bring myself to predict a victory – old habits die hard – but it wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing to lose? Of course the Jazz have something to lose! They are eight wins away from the first NBA Championship in franchise history!!! Just because they are an unlikely conference finalist doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take advantage of the opportunities presented. Don’t get me wrong, it would be a very difficult road through San Antonio and Detroit (not certain, of course, but in all likelihood), but why not fight for it, at least? The Utah Jazz won two of four from San Antonio and three of four from Phoenix this season (and two of two from Detroit), so it’s not as if the Jazz have been outclassed. I know the playoffs are a different story, but the Jazz might be playing their best basketball of the season.

So I don’t think the Jazz should be content to just “play with the house money” and act like they have nothing to lose. I think when they step onto the court to start the next series they need to see themselves as legitimate title contenders. If the Jazz should lose in seven games then they will have played hard and simply lost to superior talent. But if the series is over in four or five games then they will have let something besides basketball decide the outcome.

And if they play as hard as they can, keep their wits about them, and get a few lucky bounces? Then the Fever may be carrying over into another round of the playoffs.

There is much more to hear in the podcast, which you can find if you scroll down to the previous entry. We do mention other things besides the Jazz (Real Salt Lake, the Utah Blaze, the Salt Lake Bees), but it’s basically a Jazz playoff show.

Our Top 3 in Utah for this week:

3. Carlos Boozer

2. Andrei Kirilenko

1. Derek Fisher

There is much more I could write about how awesome those three were in the past week, but again, we cover much of it in the podcast.

Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone Corporation!

Episode 32 - The Jazz are through to the Conference Finals!

2007-05-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Listen Here!

The Utah Jazz made it through to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1998 with a win over the Golden State Warriors, clinching the best-of-seven series with a mark of 4 games to 1.

More info on the podcast, and a better blog entry to follow. :)

Episode 31 – The Electrifying Utah Jazz are into the second round

2007-05-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

I must be getting old. At least, I have arrived at that conclusion following the first playoff series with the Houston Rockets, and the first game with the Golden State Warriors.

Many years ago – when my passion for the Utah Jazz was forged – I would not have come away from a hard-won series with the same positive feelings that I currently have for the Houston Rockets. The Jazz had to win two elimination games in a row, including a game 7 in Houston, and it was a pair of tough, physical games. I was hoping for a good game and an honorable showing, but to be honest, I didn’t expect a victory. When the Jazz won, it was dramatic and tough medicine for the losing team to swallow, but I thought the Rockets handled everything with a great deal of class. I wrote this last week, and it continues to be true: I have become a fan of the Houston Rockets.

I figured the second series would be a different story. Golden State is a younger team that likes to play fast and loose basketball, and with a great deal of emotion. The sort of team, in other words, that rubs the entire Utah Jazz playing style the wrong way. Philosophical differences would lead to practical differences, which would make for fireworks and bulletin board quotes. This may still happen, and I would expect a very thrilling series even if it doesn’t explode into full-blown “heated rivalry” status. But there is something I can’t shake about it. I am starting to like the Golden State Warriors, too.

This is unprecedented (for me, at least). It’s not as if I am tired of following the Jazz, or have become any less faithful as a fan. But I think I like the Warriors, too. I shouldn’t be surprised, because there is a lot to like about them. I like Matt Barnes’ hustle and Jason Richardson’s teamwork. Al Harrington came out of a slump to be the most dangerous person on the floor in game 1, and the curious redemption story of Stephen Jackson (along with his top-notch play) is intriguing. And who doesn’t like Baron Davis? They have a lot of personality similarities to the Jazz, right down to the brilliant and gruff old coach who likes to play possum with the media. The bottom line is: unless something changes drastically, I will probably end up as a fan of the Golden State Warriors, regardless of the series outcome.

Maybe I shouldn’t consider it getting old, but becoming a bit more mature. Mature as a sports fan, and mature as a human being. I don’t know if that sounds better in my ears, but maybe my mom will be glad to hear it. I’m still rooting for the Jazz to win, though, in spite of my recent emotional breakthrough and in defiance of some excellent and intriguing points made in an article by Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News (which were similar in spirit to comments made by other fans of the Warriors). Either way, it shapes up to be the most interesting series of all the remaining NBA playoff matchups.

There is more still in the podcast, of course, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Our top three in Utah for this week:

3. Andrei Kirilenko

2. Carlos Boozer

1. Deron Williams

Thanks for reading and listening to the Utah SportsCast! We also want to thank our sponsor, ShieldZone Corporation, for their help and friendship.

Episode 30 – The Jazz are still alive

2007-05-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

The 2006-2007 season for the Utah Jazz has been a roller coaster ride ever since they tipped off against the Houston Rockets, and they have carried that trend right into the playoffs. After losing their first two playoff games in uninspiring fashion I was just hoping for a token “W” so they didn’t get swept by McYao and Company. Then, the Jazz win two in a row at home and look good enough doing it that I start to consider how to fit the next round in my busy schedule. Just when I start thinking about how Deron “Slick” Williams could contain Baron Davis, the Jazz lose a critical nail-biter after a fourth quarter collapse. I suppose a case could be made that I am investing too much of my emotional well-being in a group of overpaid professional athletes, but I don’t care. I’m on the ride, and even enjoying parts of it.

The Utah/Houston series has been excellent in my opinion, even though the only arguably consistent performers have been Carlos Boozer and Yao Ming. Tracy McGrady has had some great games and Williams has been decent, but it has been tough on most of the other players. I have also been impressed with the level of respect the players and teams have shown each other. Win or lose, there have been compliments in the media between teams, and a great deal of sportsmanship, comparatively speaking. Don’t misunderstand, I know both teams are determined to win, and it has been a very physical series; but there have been no technical fouls called and a pleasant absence of cheap shots. If this keeps up through the remaining game(s) – certainly possible, if not outright probable – I may just find myself a fan of the Houston Rockets after everything is said and done. Not to replace the Utah Jazz, of course, but more in the interest of branching out.

This is a big step for me. I don’t think I have ever watched a playoff game or series involving one of my favorite teams and had my opinion of the opposing team actually improve. I may have felt grudging respect or thinly-veiled pity, depending on the outcome, but not actual admiration and appeal. I’m not sure what all of that means, but I think it’s a good thing, right?

One other big news item came out right as we were getting this ready to go, and that was the coaching change at Real Salt Lake. John Ellinger, who has handled the team for the first two seasons, will be staying with the organization and direct the soccer operations. The new head coach is team captain Jason Kreis, who is retiring as a player to take over running the team. In addition, Steve Pastorino has resigned as General Manager.

I’m sure these changes have come as a result of the disappointing beginning to RSL’s season, particularly as they are fighting a political battle as well as on the pitch. Dave Checketts really, really, really needs them to play well right now and prove their place in the sports landscape, but two draws and two losses just isn’t going to cut it. RSL hasn’t scored a goal that counted in MLS standing since April 7^th, and seems to be doing their level best to prove the doubters correct. I suppose a change in coaching could turn the season around, but I’m not sure how permanently removing one of their most consistent players will really improve things. I suppose time will tell.

Our Top Three in Utah for the week:

3. Jerry Sloan

2. Mehmet Okur

1. Carlos Boozer

There is much more in the podcast, including an explanation/justification of our Top Three, so please check it out.

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Episode 29 – Limping into the playoffs

2007-04-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

I titled this blog entry “Limping into the playoffs,” which was, of course, a reference to the Utah Jazz. However, I think a more apt title would be: “Dragging themselves soldier-style through a big pile of garbage on their way to a first round playoff drubbing at the hands of the Houston Rockets.” Unfortunately, that would not fit on the header line.

On the surface things don’t seem that bad, as the Jazz actually went 2-2 this last week (as predicted by Zach during our last show). One of these wins even came against the league monster Dallas Mavericks, which should count for something, right? Wrong. I question the “marquee victory” against Dallas because the Mavericks were coasting after locking up home court advantage throughout the playoffs, and really had nothing left to prove. The second of those two wins came against the Portland Trailblazers, who did not have Zach Randolph or Brandon Roy available, were not going to make the playoffs or get a decent lottery pick, and were planning their summer vacations during timeouts.

Unfortunately, the other two games were played against teams who looked like they had something to fight for, namely the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets. I’m not sure if those games helped Phoenix and Denver in their playoff positioning, but I hope they amounted to something good to someone, because they ruined the Jazz’s chances of securing home court for the first round. Especially difficult to watch was the 98-126 home court butt-kicking administered by the visiting Phoenix Suns. The only time the Jazz had a realistic chance in that game was during the tipoff. One dunk and two layups later the Jazz were down 6-0, and things went downhill from there.

So, now they get to play in Houston for the first two games, all thanks to an end-of-the-season slump. On paper the Jazz have a decent shot of beating the Rockets, but they certainly have a tough job ahead of them. Zach and I rambled our way through a long position-by-position matchup during the podcast, and although I don’t want to spoil things, we concluded that the Jazz have enough talent to give Houston some trouble. But they would have to start playing decent basketball again, and/or hope Tracy McGrady develops acute near-sightedness. Barring one of those two things, the Jazz might be in for a short-but-long few games.

As always, we talk about much more than I write about, so please check us out! Besides more about the Jazz, we share our vague opinions about the Utah Blaze, Real Salt Lake, and Spring College Football, among others.

Top 3 in Utah:

3. Andrei Kirilenko

2. Gordan Giricek

1. Joe Germaine

We would also like to thank ShieldZone Corp, the makers of the invisibleSHIELD, who are one of our sponsors. In fact, the founder and entrepreneur of the invisibleSHIELD team can be heard at the very end of our podcast, if you are still paying attention at that point (and if Zach didn’t decide to edit him out).

Thanks again, and we would love to hear from you!

Episode 28 – Once again, everybody is losing

2007-04-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

I had not put the math together until Zach mentioned it on the show, but the Utah Jazz have lost 10 of their last 15 games, including the last four in a row. That is the worst of the news, but not the end of it. One of those games was a three point loss to the Sonics that came after the Jazz gave away a 20 point lead in the FOURTH quarter. It gets worse still. Last Monday’s working at the hands of the Golden State Warriors removed the Utah Jazz from that critical fourth spot in the Western Conference Standings. Now Houston would host that series, while Utah looks like they might not win so much as a single playoff game.

We, as fans, have gone through this sort of up-and-down stuff more than once during the season. The Jazz seem to have a propensity for streakiness, which is certainly a symptom of the overall youth of the team. I don’t like playing the “young card” as an excuse, but this is more of an explanation. I am certain Jerry Sloan does not condone losing (regardless of the experience level of certain key players), and neither should the fans. We are the ones who support the team, after all. Larry Miller may be the owner, but without fan money there isn’t much to own.

I would hope this team has one last winning streak in them; one that could carry them out of the regular season and into the second round of the playoffs. Before the season began I might have been satisfied with the idea of just a playoff appearance, but not any more. Last year, the Jazz finished at 41-41 and missed the playoffs. This year that same record would probably get the Jazz (or any team) into the postseason, so just making the playoffs after a decent step of improvement won’t cut it. I don’t think they have to win the whole thing, but I do think they should win the first round. Hopefully the team can get back on track at home against the Nuggets at home tonight.

Real Salt Lake kicked off their season with a heartbreaking 2-2 home draw against FC Dallas. To draw against a good team isn’t too bad, but to give up the tying goal in the very waning moments of stoppage time is tough to take. Jeff Cunningham scored two goals to kick off his quest for the Golden Boot (top goal scorer in MLS) and Freddy Adu started his first game in the red Xango shirts.

There is much more in the podcast, but as usual, I don’t want to spoil it. Please check it out and let us know what you think!

Our Top Three in Utah for this week:

3. Brandon Wood

2. Ronnie Brewer

1. Jeff Cunningham

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Episode 27 – Gearing up for the playoffs, Spring sports are starting

2007-04-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

The Utah Jazz are 2-1 since sewing up the meaningless Northwest Division of the Western Conference, which includes a close win in Houston and a butt-kicking by the San Antonio Spurs. Should the Jazz keep winning two for every one loss over the course of their remaining nine games (a reasonable conclusion), they would end up with a 54-28 record. That would be better than all but seven of the great Jazz seasons of the past, and should cement this team’s place among the all-time Utah lineups.

It won’t, of course, because one year doesn’t really prove a thing to these stoic fans. Besides, this team has done very well without significant contributions from one of their All-Stars (Andrei Kirilenko), a tendency toward poor defense, and the most comebacks of 10 points or more of any team in the league. There seems to be a lot of room for improvement, which should be encouraging for Jazz fans and downright scary for the rest of the NBA. I cannot say for sure whether Utah will ever run through the league like Dallas is doing this year, but I see no reason why they could not be a legitimate title contender within a few years.

That having been said, I cannot imagine it happening this year. Not even in my wildest fan dreams. Beyond having to get out of the brutal Western Conference (Utah will struggle with any of the potential first round matchups), they have no playoff experience and a tendency to turn the ball over. I think this team has a chance to be pretty good if they can keep the core together, but that will ultimately require a lot of money. Deron “Slick” Williams only has one more year on his rookie contract, and he is bound to require some significant financial compensation when the big market teams call. They will need to find or develop a better shooting guard, and maybe even a backup big man who can play a little defense in the paint. We, as fans, complained for years about the complete lack of offense at the center position, and that has been nicely resolved in the form of a sweet-shooting, hot-handed baller named Mehmet Okur. Now it would be nice to see some defense when Memo is getting his rest. Keeping this meteoric rise going will test the flexibility of Larry H. Miller’s wallet, I’m afraid.

The Florida Gators won the National Championship, which I think is the exact same thing I wrote about two months ago. Two teams have never met for the football and basketball championships in the same year, and Florida dominated both games. Maybe there is something to drinking all that Gatorade, after all. I am glad that Florida earned this one on the court, rather than having it voted on for the length of the year. It does make me wonder what the national basketball championship would have looked like if left to the press and the coaches. Probably quite similar, given both Ohio State and Florida were highly ranked. But imagine all of the March Madness being replaced with a single game, as decided by heavily biased vote. The system needs to be changed.

There is much more in the podcast, including a bit of discussion about the Utah Blaze and Real Salt Lake. We even mention Spring Football, which is exciting, but only serves to remind me we have five long months of baseball until the season starts.

The Top Three in Utah looks like this:

3. Siaha Burley

2. Deron Williams

1. Carlos Boozer

Thanks for listening, and please visit our sponsor, ShieldZone!

BLOG ONLY: Northwest Division Champs!

2007-03-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

Due to some illness and unfortunate circumstances, Zach and I were unable to get together to record the Utah Sports Cast this week. However, the world continued to turn, and there was plenty of interesting stuff worth mentioning.

To begin with, the Utah Jazz won the most meaningless division championship in the history of the franchise last night. The combination of a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves and a loss by the Denver Nuggets sewed it up for the Jazz, who won their first division title since the year 2000.

I call it a meaningless championship because the NBA has taken the luster out of winning the division title. With the new seeding rules in place, all the division crown basically does is guarantee a spot in the playoffs, and does not assure any form of home court advantage to the victor. Gone are the days when the Jazz would win the Midwest division and guarantee themselves at least the third seed in the playoffs and home court advantage for their first round matchup.

To be honest, I am just fine with that rule change. I don’t have a problem with the teams being seeded according to where they finished in the conference, instead of just as division champs. Granted, it may hurt the Jazz this year if they collapse to the point where the Houston Rockets catch them, but it also has the potential to help in future seasons, assuming they continue to improve.

In addition, while there is still potential for movement in the playoff seedings, all evidence points to a first round matchup between the Jazz and the Rockets. The winner of that series would play the Dallas Mavericks, in all likelihood. This is a thoroughly frightening road to the Western Conference Championship, if I am being honest. Houston is playing great right now, and even if they manage to get past T-Mac and Yao, the juggernaut of the league is looming in the wings.

But, even at this early point I feel safe in declaring it a successful season. They reached the playoffs, grabbed a Division trophy (even if it is meaningless), and should end up somewhere north of 50 wins. If the Jazz can continue to build on this success they should be solidly among the top teams in the league next year, rather than just crashing the party like they are now.

The other big news of the week came when the University of Utah named Jim Boylen from Michigan State as their new men’s basketball coach. Coach Boylen was the chief assistant for Tom Izzo before accepting the job for the best and most historically significant basketball program in the state (right, Zach? Right? Hello?). The new coach said it was “a dream come true for me to become the head coach at Utah,” which sounds great, but is probably what anyone would say under the circumstances.

I am intrigued by the new coach, and interested to see what he can do with the program. He has coaching experience in both the NCAA and the NBA, and came across as very passionate about the game and about developing the players. Again, what else do we expect a coach to say during his introductory press conference? But, it’s encouraging to us as fans, and should spark some renewed interest in the team. He is clearly on a pretty short leash, if the events of the past few years are any indication. As an added plus, and no disrespect intended to the former coach, but Boylen is a lot easier to spell than Giacoletti.

The top three in Utah looks like this:

3. Jim Boylen

2. Andrei Kirilenko

1. Carlos Boozer

Now, I didn’t really discuss this with Zach, and he may be impelled to submit his own top three, which would be cool. I chose the new coach because his acceptance of the position and his encouraging words roused some immediate interest and life into the program. I went with AK because his play has been much improved of late, and he has been a significant contributor to the Jazz winning four of their last five. Boozer was my top guy because of his return to earlier season form, including the Malone-esque 41 point performance against Washington.

Thanks again to ShieldZone Corp. for their friendship and sponsorship! Please check them out and buy an invisibleSHIELD. If you feel so inclined, I would also encourage you to check out the blog.

Thanks for reading! We will be back with the podcast next week.

Episode 26 – Everybody seems to be losing…

2007-03-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Sports fans in the state of Utah seem to be going through a feast-or-famine cycle this past year. All of the major teams have displayed phases of impressive winning followed by phases of equally impressive losing. Some of the teams have done more of the former (The Utah Jazz, BYU football and basketball) and others more of the latter (Utah Basketball, USU football), but they have always been in a state of flux, to an extent.

This is one of the universal truths of sports, of course, and part of what engages fans about it. Teams that are up will fall; teams that are down will rise. Good players will come and go, wins will stack up and losses will stockpile. The most obvious example of this at the moment is the Utah Jazz, who celebrated their recent six-game winning streak by losing four in a row. They managed to right the ship last night by beating a red-hot Golden State Warriors team, but, again, how long that lasts will remain to be seen.

Of course, such a dramatic slide in the second half of the season raises a few concerns. The fan base of the Jazz is comprised of knowledgeable people for the most part, although we have a tendency to panic whenever we perceive any waver or wobble, no matter how slight. Now, there is nothing slight about a four game losing streak – particularly the way Utah lost some of them – but I think it might be a bit early to start jumping off the bandwagon.

Jerry Sloan, among others, has mentioned the overall youth of the team as a likely culprit for this most recent hiccup. I would never question the proverbial wisdom of Coach Sloan (and I’m not really right now) but I think it is about time to put the “young team” argument to bed. I mean, Deron Williams has only started around 100 games as a professional and is already one of the two best point guards to ever wear a Utah Jazz uniform (perhaps a bit of exaggeration right now, but will not be in another year or two).

In other top stories, BYU did not fare well against two different organizations this last week: 1) Xavier University and 2) The officiating crew at the Lexington regional. I try not to blame losses on officials (although it happens from time to time), and the Cougars certainly had their chances to win, but it was basically a road game for BYU. I really don’t think a professional officiating crew ever goes into a game intending to call it for one team, but they do tend to let their own emotions (or the emotion of the crowd) get in the way of things. I think there were some warm and fuzzy feelings on behalf of Xavier in the matchup, and it certainly didn’t help the cause for BYU. Worse still, they just might have had a shot at Ohio State, from the looks of things.

Utah State suffered an ignominious one-and-done in the NIT, losing in Michigan to the Wolverines. I guess that ends this year’s quest for the Aggies to become the 66^th best team in the country. The future looks bright, though; USU has had the most consistent basketball tradition in the state for the past several seasons, and I think the program is safe in Stew Morrill’s hands.

The Top Three in Utah:

3. Deron Williams

2. Paul Millsap

1. Carlos Boozer

There is, as always, lots more in the podcast. Please check it out, and please visit our sponsor, ShieldZone. Thanks for stopping by, and come again soon!

Episode 25 – March Madness, Utah Jazz playing very well

2007-03-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

NOTE: We would like to apologize for the outrageous length of this week's offering. We really, really had fun putting our brackets together, apparently. I hope it is as much fun to listen to...

We are back after a short hiatus, with apologies for missing a week. We had a few administrative details to take care of, which caused the layoff. It’s not a very interesting story, so I won’t bore anyone with it, but needless to say we are glad to be back.

The big news of the week is the beginning of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, which we all know as March Madness. I was excited to see the BYU Cougars snag an invitation, and while the seed is probably a bit low, I think it’s within basic acceptable range. I don’t think it would have been outrageous to see them in the 5 to 7 seed area, which they very likely would have gotten had they won the Mountain West Tournament. But, a team from a so-called Mid Major will never get the benefit of the doubt, seed wise. Observe the #15 Nevada Wolfpack (28-4), who should be somewhere around a 4 seed get dropped to a 7. That is the same seed, incidentally, as the Indiana Hoosiers and the Boston College Eagles, who both finished the season unranked and with 20-10 and 20-11 records respectively. The other number 7 seed? The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, who won the MWC tournament with a 28-6 record and a #19 ranking. I think that’s pretty convincing evidence of Big Program bias, by a committee made primarily of Big Program honks.

Anyway, at least the Cougars are in and can play out their own destiny. Even if they get past Xavier (who basically gets to play a home game in Lexington, Kentucky which is only about 90 miles from their home base in Cincinnati, Ohio) they will have to beat Ohio State to make it to the Sweet 16, so I’m not seeing it happen this year. Either way, it has been a good year for the program. They were a little up and down in the beginning, and had a hard time on the road for a while, but they finished the season in grand fashion. Whether the Cougars will be able to continue this next year remains to be seen; they are losing quite a few good seniors.

I have no idea what to expect from Utah next year. Coach Ray Giacoletti resigned/was forced out, and sometimes a new coach and new program can give a team a little life. They have some young players to build around, and there seems to be talent there, but whether that translates into winning will probably depend on the coach.

I just finished watching the Utah Jazz self-destruct in the second half against the Miami Heat, which was marginally difficult to watch. They have been playing very well of late, so I can give them a pass for one game. Miami started shooting very well and the Jazz went ice cold, which just seems to happen sometimes. I don’t know the variances and vagrancies of being an NBA player, so I won’t pretend to understand why. The Jazz are still 7-3 in their last ten games, this loss ending a six game winning streak. They have a fairly rugged road week ahead, playing in Orlando, in Philadelphia (who has won 8 of their last 10), and in Cleveland, where Carlos Boozer is likely to be booed once or twice. Then they will be home to play Golden State, who are only a game out of the last playoff spot in the West and recently kicked the trash out of the Juggernaut Dallas Mavericks.

It’s tempting to predict the Jazz will slip into one of their patented late season slumps, and lose all four of those games. However, I think this is a different team, and I don’t think they are going to slide this year. I am basing this theory on hopes for tough inside play from Boozer, sharp shooting by Okur and Giricek, hustle plays from Kirilenko and Harpring, and leadership from Williams and Fisher. If all of those things come together they way they can, the way we’ve seen this year, it could be an interesting late Spring/early Summer around here.

There is plenty more to hear in the podcast, including us filling out our brackets (thrilling) and discussing the tournament in general.

Our top three from Utah for this week:

3. Keena Young

2. Jaycee Carroll

1. Randy Rahe

Thanks again for listening, and please check out our awesome sponsor, ShieldZone! Their invisibleSHIELD is the ultimate screen protector, and comes with a Lifetime Replacement Warranty.

We would love to hear from you!

Episode 24 – The Jazz are fighting through some injuries, College hoops are wrapping up

2007-02-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

The Utah Jazz had some struggles with their personnel this last week, and the “big four” (Boozer, Okur, Kirlenko, Williams) did not play a single game together. They played three games between our last podcast and today, and at least one of those four was out for each of the games. It could have been a potential 0-3 disaster, and instead it was a respectable 2-1 showing.

If we, as fans, have learned anything about those particular four Jazz players, it is that there are players who can do a respectable job of filling in for three of them. Booz, AK, and Memo are not replaceable, exactly, but between Harpring, Fisher, Millsap, Giricek, and a recently resurgent Araujo, the job will get done. However, the Utah Jazz are 0-2 in the last few weeks when playing without Slick Williams. Now, no disrespect is intended to Fisher, who is everything the fans hoped for and then some, but he does not run the offense at the same level as Williams.

With seven of the next ten games on the road, the Jazz need Williams back, and his status is still questionable for the time being. Sacrificing a few games to make sure his injuries do not linger is the right thing to do; so if he needs to sit, then so be it. As a fan, though, I will be hoping D-Will makes it back as soon as possible.

The University of Utah was 2-0 in their games this last week, with victories over New Mexico and San Diego State. This should be a cause for happiness, but ends up being more frustrating as a fan. This Utah team seems to have a great deal of unexplored and wasted potential. They have beaten some very good teams, and they have lost to some very bad teams. There is no consistency to the effort, and I am not sure if all of that can be blamed on the youth and inexperience. To be sure, they are a very young team, but a lot of successful teams win with freshmen and sophomores. By now all of these key young players have college experience and should be coming together. Hopefully this 2-0 week was a sign that we can look forward to better days, and not a simple fluke. (After all, Utah was 0-3 for the three previous outings…)

Brigham Young had an unusual week, one that started bad and ended very well. After a brief stint in the top 25 they absorbed a bad road loss to San Diego State. Now, losing to the Aztecs in San Diego is hardly disgraceful, but it was never close for the Cougars, and they were subsequently dropped from the polls. Then, they came back to beat Air Force at the Academy, which is an even harder venue in which to win. The victory guaranteed them a share of the regular season Mountain West championship and solidified their “bubble” status for the tournament. They should be picked to play regardless, but there have been bigger snubs in the history of the NCAA. Hopefully they can just win the MWC tournament and get the guaranteed spot.

Our top three for this week:

3. Gordon Giricek (but could have been Rafael Araujo)

2. Paul Millsap

1. Derek Fisher

For further explanation of the top three, along with more stuff in general, please listen to the podcast.

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Please feel free to comment at the bottom of this blog or send us an e-mail. We would love to hear from you!

Episode 23 – All-Star Accolades for several Jazz players, Cougars, Aggies playing well

2007-02-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

This last weekend was the NBA’s All-Star extravaganza, which helped contribute to a long, strange few days for me. Since the first tipoff of the 2006-2007 NBA season I haven’t had to endure a single weekend without at least one Jazz game, until this last one. Granted, there were a few Jazz players (and one Jazz Dancer) to check out during the All-Star weekend, but it all came at a cost.

To begin with, I watched Deron “Slick” Williams and Paul “No Nickname Yet” Millsap in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and 5K Fun Run last Friday. Williams started the game and played very well for the short time he was in, but ultimately emerged from Las Vegas with an injury I heard described as a “mild groin pull” (as if that could ever be “mild”). This would lead to a DNP for him in the next Jazz game against the Portland Trailblazers, which the Jazz lost. Now, the Jazz still may have lost the game (they still had Memo, Kirilenko, Fisher, and Millsap, among others), but it’s hard to imagine Williams and Boozer wouldn’t have helped.

Speaking of Mehmet Okur, he certainly didn’t tear up the stat sheet at the All-Star game, but that was okay with me. In that particular game, with those particular players, and in that particular city, I think it was still more of an honor to be chosen than anything else. I continue to be impressed with Okur, and not just because he has played in every single game since signing with the Jazz. I thought it was a bit of a travesty that he wasn’t invited to the three point shooting contest, but that little snub is okay. He probably wouldn’t have won unless someone was able to convince him it was the fourth quarter of a game.

A much bigger snub of Memo came when the NBA announced it would be sending a team to Istanbul, Turkey for training and a preseason exhibition game against Efes Pilsen (Okur’s former team) next year. Naturally, rather than choosing the Utah Jazz and their Turkey-born star player, the NBA selected the Minnesota Timberwolves to conduct that exhibition. Just to be sure, I checked the roster of the T-Wolves, and found out what I suspected all along: their closest connection to Turkey came at Thanksgiving last year. (Incidentally, I think I mistakenly said the San Antonio Spurs were the team making the trip to Istanbul in the podcast. Sorry.)

Now, I don’t have a problem with Minnesota representing the NBA, but why wouldn’t they involve the Jazz, who have the first NBA All-Star from that country? (Another good choice would have been the Orlando Magic, with Hedo Turkoglu.) The Jazz organization and players were similarly burned with a nearly identical trip to Moscow, Russia last year. Rather than sending Utah with their Russian star Andrei Kirilenko, the Los Angeles Clippers were invited to go. More than anything else this seems to be a tacit admission that the NBA has no interest in allowing the Jazz organization to represent the league, particularly as they consider global expansion.

Well, there’s much more on the podcast, including a few things about the local colleges, but I wouldn’t want to spoil that for anyone. Please tune in and check it out!

However, I would like to mention our Top 3 stars of the week in Utah:

3. Jaycee Carroll

2. Tom Holmoe

1. Mehmet Okur

We had some very good reasoning for each of those choices and some thoughts on Honorable Mentions, but again, you will have to tune into the podcast to hear them.

Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone Corp, for their support!

As always, we welcome any comments or contributions.

Episode 22 – All of the local teams are playing well, so life is good, right?

2007-02-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome (back) to the Utah Sports Cast. This is Nate, and I have returned from Disney World/fixing my stupid broken heater to resume the blogging duties. I would like to thank Zach for writing an excellent post and keeping everything running smoothly. He really is the brains behind this whole thing; I am just privileged to be along for the ride.

Anyway, the Utah Jazz have won five games in a row, as of last night. I know that wouldn’t be significant news if this was the Dallas Sports Cast and we were talking about the Mavericks, but five games happens to be the second longest win streak for Jerry’s Kids this year. They are in the middle of a nice resurgence to the upper echelons of the NBA, having won 10 of their last 15 and secured the third best record in the league and the Western Conference. Aside from the juggernaut Dallas and the outstanding Phoenix clubs, the Jazz have the best record in the NBA. (This is kind of a dumb thing to say, because every team could say they would have the best record if it wasn’t for all the teams ahead of them.)

The part that fans and media are finding most impressive about the recent five game winning streak is that the Jazz are getting it done without All-Star, MVP Candidate Carlos Boozer. (Note: I have to confess it feels good to write that about Booz. I had my doubts after his somewhat rough start and the missing year of basketball.) The Jazz are 5-1 during his injury absence, and getting it done with exceptional teamwork and elevated play by certain key players, like Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko, and Derek Fisher. Of course, the lion’s share of the credit should go to Mehmet Okur, who has been outstanding. His 29 point performance against the Knicks last Sunday while battling stomach flu should be rightfully honored among the best efforts ever turned in by a player wearing a Jazz uniform. He was named the Western Conference Player of the Week during our missing week, which was very well deserved.

Along those lines, Jazz fans are waiting breathlessly to see if Memo or Deron Williams will be picked to play in the All-Star game due to some unfortunate injuries. Steve Nash and now Allen Iverson will not be competing, so David Stern has some deciding to do. At least one national NBA writer has mentioned his opposition to either of the Jazz players being chosen, but I believe at least one of them will. I also happen to think it will be “Slick” Williams, although I would probably prefer to see Memo go if only one were chosen. No disrespect intended to the future star point guard, but he will almost certainly get more chances to be an All-Star. I don’t know for certain that this would be Memo’s only serious consideration and I hope it isn’t for his sake, but it could be.

The Utah and BYU men’s basketball teams are both in the middle of winning streaks, although Utah’s (2 games) is a bit more modest than BYU’s (6 games, and 14 of the last 16 incidentally). The Cougars have become one of the three best teams in the Mountain West Conference, and currently have the best conference record at 9-2, although Air Force (8-3) and UNLV (8-3) both have better overall records (and both are nationally ranked, incidentally).

As for Utah… well, there’s always next year. They actually should be better with a year of experience for their very young team, but they will have their work cut out for them. Besides, the women’s gymnastics team is awesome again, and that is the most entertaining Huntsman Center ticket on The Hill.

Our three stars of the week:

3) Paul Millsap

2) Keena Young

1) Mehmet Okur

As always, we considered many others, but decided on this three. If you have any thoughts or comments, we would love to hear them! Please feel free to contact us, as always.

Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone! I would heartily encourage everyone to check out their homepage, the blog articles, and the invisibleSHIELD in general.

A pause between episodes

2007-01-31T14:36:00.000-08:00

Due to life happening, the Utah Sports Cast is on a brief hiatus. Our next audio episode will be posted on Tuesday, Feburary 13th. Hopefully by then Carlos Boozer's knee will be well on its way to total recovery, and it won't turn into a pulled hamstring, or stubbed toe, or whatever else may have been wrong with him in the past. Is it too much to ask for one -- just ONE -- complete season out of this guy? I mean, for $60+ million, is that really too much to ask?

The Jazz continue to get beat on buzzer-beaters by opposing all stars. This last loss to New Jersey on Monday night marks the 6th loss this year by 3 points or less. By contrast, the Jazz have only won 4 games by the same narrow margin, and only one in January. There is cause for hope, however, as the Jazz are "in" just about every game, having only lost twice this season by more than 15 points (102-132 to the Lakers and 106-83 to the Spurs). We shall see how well "the Replacements" can do in Boozer's absence, but take heart folks -- this time, we've still got Deron Williams running the show. It is cause for optimism, I promise.

The BYU-Utah rivalry continues this evening as the two men's basketball teams face off in the Huntsman Center. Odds and common sense say the Cougars should win this one going away, however, Utah's been hot lately, and anything can happen in a rivalry, as we all found out last November.

Hang in there, folks, we'll be back with great audio content shortly. In Nate's absence (in DisneyWorld), I, Zach, will be writing some blog posts and trying to keep the tradition alive. Please continue checking back.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

Episode 21 – A great week for the Jazz and Utah, BYU maintains

2007-01-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

I am a fickle sports fan. Not that this is confession time or anything, but I should at least admit the truth. I was very discouraged by the play of the Utah Jazz when I wrote this blog last week, and while I would never jump off the bandwagon, I was not particularly enjoying the ride.

However, this week was a very different story and I am once again euphoric about watching my beloved local NBA team. After four straight losses the Jazz have bounced back to record four straight wins, and the first three of those came on the road against some of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. The one home game among them was last night against the Pesky Minnesota Timberwolves, which looked a lot like a potential loss if any of the Jazz Killers got fired up. Fortunately, only one of them did. Dazzling 2-guard Ricky Davis went off for 32 points on 10 of 16 shooting, including 4-8 from behind the three point line. I say fortunately, because nobody else on the Timberwolves played very well, and the Jazz pulled out a tougher-than-it-looked victory, 106 to 91.

The Utah Jazz have some more potential losses coming up this week. I use the expression “potential losses” because even though their next game is at home against the team with the worst record in the league (Memphis Grizzlies), anything can happen. Besides, if years of watching the Jazz have taught me anything, it’s that the Jazz are perfectly capable of losing games they should win. In fact, my brother (who pointed this out to me at a young age) created a maxim for this phenomenon: “Play with crap, play like crap.” So, there are no gimmes for this team.

The University of Utah Men’s Basketball team had a spectacular week, pulling off a miraculous victory against league elite Air Force and then squeezing one out against Wyoming four days later. Luke Nevill was awarded the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for his contributions, and Utah seemed to right their listing ship a bit. Of course, they need to win at least one or two road games this year before I would declare any confidence in the team, but at least they are taking baby steps.

The BYU Men’s Basketball team managed a 1-1 record for the week. They started off by beating Wyoming in the Marriot Center (thanks for warming them up for Utah, by the way), and finished the week by getting thumped by the Rams in Fort Collins, Colorado. Zach mentions on the podcast that nobody from the team had a week worth mentioning (or something like that), so I will follow his lead. The Cougars have a tough week coming up, traveling to the Pit to take on New Mexico (always a tough place to play) and then hosting Air Force. They should be able to manage another 1-1 record for the third week in a row, but with their own road woes to worry about, it may be a rough week for BYU fans.

Our three stars of the week:

3) Luke Nevill

2) Deron Williams

1) Mehmet Okur

We also passed out some honorable mentions to Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko, who is suddenly resurgent after a few weeks of feeling underappreciated. As Zach pointed out, we may have to go to a five-athlete format if this sort of excellence continues. For more on the top three, please listen to the podcast!

Thanks a bunch to our excellent sponsor, ShieldZone Corporation! Visit their website at www.shieldzone.com and protect your digital life.

Episode 20 – The Jazz and the Utes lose in a determined fashion, BYU splits

2007-01-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

This will hopefully be short and sweet, mostly because the week that was has been the complete opposite of “short and sweet” for pro and college hoops fans in Salt Lake City.

First of all, the Jazz have not played this poorly on defense in about 10 months. The offense is playing well enough on paper, as they scored 105, 114, 110, and 111 points in consecutive games. But there is something critically wrong when a team coached by Jerry Sloan scores that well and still goes 0-4 for the week.

We discuss this subject ad nauseam in the podcast, so I won’t say much more about it. Wednesday night they will be in Michigan to take on the Detroit Pistons, and I don’t much like their chances. In fact, they have four rough games (three on the road and one at home) until our next podcast, and I am starting to wonder if they will tack another 0-4 onto their record. Although, to be fair, I am a notorious Jazz pessimist so you should probably take anything I write with a grain of salt.

The University of Utah men’s basketball team continues to lose. Well, because the posting of this came a day later than expected, let me amend this slightly. After losing six straight and nine of their last eleven games to such college hoops powerhouses as Albany (at the Huntsman Center, incidentally), the bottom-dwelling Utes went ahead and upset #13 ranked Air Force last night. I just can’t figure this team out. I suppose the youth factor is significant, and there have been a few close conference losses, but their record stinks and they have lost big to bad teams. They also happen to be 2-0 against ranked opponents this year, with Washington State at #21 in this week’s ESPN poll (although WSU was not ranked when they played). I have no explanation for this. If you have any reason why this should make sense, please let me know at nate@utahsportscast.com. I would appreciate the peace of mind.

The BYU men’s basketball program is looking pretty good of late, although they dropped a tough game to UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center. This came after a decent win over TCU in the Marriott Center, both of which brought their overall record to 12-5, 2-1 in the conference. They also won last night against Wyoming at home, as long as I am updating information. This makes them 13-5, 3-1, obviously, and looking strong. We have both been impressed with the great play of Keena Young, who is picking up the slack for the disappointing Trent Plaisted.

When the time came to put together our top three in Utah for this week we ran into a few snags. First, nobody on the Utah Jazz really was rising to the top, although Mehmet Okur was considered, along with Carlos Boozer. Both players have had decent numbers, but Okur had a few poor games and Booz was disappearing in the fourth quarter. Nobody on BYU really stood out, and we just laughed at the idea of putting a Utah player on the list. Eric Weddle from Utah’s football team was formally named a Consensus All-American this week (only the third Ute to earn that honor), and that was certainly worth mention. But, we decided to point out some of the standout athletes who compete for the women’s teams. They certainly don’t get the attention they deserve in our podcast/blog, and there were some impressive performances:

3) Morgan Warburton (Utah Basketball)

2) Jennie Keele (BYU Basketball)

1) Kristina Baskett (Utah Gymnastics)

If you want further information on why we selected these three, I would direct you to the podcast. I don’t want to spoil everything with the blog, after all.

Thanks to ShieldZone Corporation, our most excellent sponsor!

You can reach us at:

Our apologies...

2007-01-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

We're not sure quite why, but for some reason iTunes is not updating with Show #19. The show is available for download if you click the "Listen Now" link in the blog post, or by clicking the button at the top of the page.

We're working to get this problem fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for hanging in with us.

Zach ~ The non-techy tech guy.

Episode 19 – The unexpected BCS Champion, Pro and College Hoops

2007-01-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

We missed the show last week due to illness (Zach was on the IR last Tuesday), and I was shocked at how rusty we were after just one bye week. Needless to say, the show is very average-to-poor this week, with both of us coming in virtually unprepared. Even Ohio State looked at us and said we should get our act together and show a little heart.

Actually, I shouldn’t throw both of us under the bus in this confession of mediocrity. Zach (“Mr. Automatic”) did just fine, as he always does. But I just stunk up the joint. I was everything Jerry Sloan hates: disinterested, lazy, and podcasted like I didn’t even want to be out there. He would have broken three or four clipboards today.

So, I guess I cannot fairly recommend listening to this particular show. There are some amusing parts, and maybe the whole thing would be good for a laugh, but consider yourself warned.

That having been said, I will shake off this mini-slump and be back in top form next week. When I talk about the Utah Jazz I promise not to be distracted by open internet windows. When we bring up the Top Three in Utah I will be sure to engage myself in the conversation, rather than just wait for it to be over (not to keep going back to Jerry Sloan, but he calls it trying to end the game rather than just continuing to play). I double promise not to make any more accidental obscene references when referring to Ray Giacoletti.

In short, tune in next week… You are welcome and invited to listen this week, as I said before. In fact, maybe you can get some sort of value out of it. We did talk about the BCS Championship Game, which was cool, and we shared some thoughts about the unlikely ending of Boise State’s Cinderella Season. Speaking of college sports, we talked a bit about both Utah and BYU’s basketball programs, and the vastly different directions they are going right now. Then there was the discussion of the Utah Jazz, who are still playing well enough to be one of the NBA’s top teams. We really need to decide at what point its okay to just consider them a good team. Now? After the All-Star Break? April?

We also had a good Top Three in Utah, so the week wasn’t a complete loss. Here were our choices:

3) Paul Milsap

2) Keena Young

1) Deron Williams

We also gave an honorable mention to Carlos Boozer, but he didn’t make it on this week’s list, for some reason. Oh well, he’ll probably be back next week.

Okay, so I guess it wasn’t that bad, although it sure felt like it. Just, keep the mediocrity in mind and try not to judge too harshly. Thanks (and apologies, I suppose) to our awesome sponsor ShieldZone!

You can reach us at any of the following addresses:

Episode 18 – Bowling for Christmas was good for Utah and BYU, the Jazz are still winning

2006-12-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

All right, this may be a bit brief because I will hopefully be hearing from my dentist any moment now. I’ve got a bad-and-getting-worse toothache that is not responding well to pain killers, so I am trying to get my appointment moved up a day. With any luck, I will be called up to “the show” (I would assume dentists call their fine work by some cool nickname, like almost all professions) and have to leave for some pain relief.

However, until that sweet moment comes (and I’m not crazy about going to the dentist, but knowing how good it will feel once the whole thing is over with is nice in anticipation) I will try to provide some information about the prior week in sports. First, the Brigham Young University Cougars took their win streak, the conference title, and the rejuvenation of a once-proud football program, and bet it all on the Las Vegas Bowl. The Oregon Ducks were the middle-tier representative of the Pac-10 conference, and they seemed confident in a win. There were plenty of storylines to add intrigue: Gary Crowton playing a program he once ran, a few Oregon players bumping chests with a few BYU players during some pre-game festivities, and the Oregon coach seeming to discredit BYU when he had an opportunity to say something nice.

With all of that in mind, I believe it’s significant that BYU came out on top, in a big way. The final score was BYU 38, Oregon 8, and the game was every bit as lopsided as the score indicates. To be fair, Oregon looked terrible and certainly should have been able to conjure up something better than what they showed. But, also to be fair, BYU could have let their attention slip and kept the Ducks around. Instead, the Cougars played a strong game and whipped the trash out of a Pac-10 school.

BYU’s offense didn’t look great in the first quarter, but after shaking off some layoff doldrums, they came alive in the second quarter and never looked back. John Beck played well, as did Johnny Harline, who was second on our “Top Three Utah Stars of the Week” for this week. The offense provided some decent numbers once the receivers stopped dropping passes. Oregon managed to put together one good scoring drive in the second half to keep from being shutout, but the game was never in doubt once the Cougars got things going.

The defense for BYU was exceptional, and as Bronco Mendenhall pointed out, probably should have been more acknowledged in the time leading up to the game. Cameron Jensen and David Nixon set the tone in the first quarter, and the secondary stepped up a notch. It was a well-called defense that basically won the game for BYU. The offense provided their signature firepower, but the D did all the dirty work.

Meanwhile, because I am still waiting for the dentist to call, the University of Utah looked to improve on their impressive bowls won streak in the Armed Forces Bowl. They went to task against a tough Tulsa Golden Hurricane team that was ranked high nationally in both offensive production and defensive stoutness, and came out with a win, Utah 25, Tulsa 13. In a somewhat similar fashion to the BYU/Oregon game, there wasn’t much scoring from either side in the first half, and Utah led at the break 9-7. That baseball-esque score was due to the prominent right leg of Louie Sakoda, who kicked three solid field goals in the half.

Utah scored on the first possession of the second half and basically went on from there to win. Tulsa played hard until the final possession, and it was close in the middle of the fourth quarter after Brett Ratliff threw an interception and Tulsa scored a touchdown on the ensuing possession. However, with the score 19-13 in Utah’s favor, Eric Weddle came into the game for Ratliff and ran the ball on seven of eight plays until he scrambled in untouched for the final touchdown of the game. It was appropriate, then, when the All-American Weddle intercepted Tulsa’s final pass of the game and simply put his knee down to put the final touch on a great win.

Utah should be improved next year, in spite of losing their offensive leader in Ratliff and defensive leader in Weddle. They showed in a few games this year they can play hard enough to compete with anyone on their schedule (BYU was probably the best team they played all year, after all). If they can solve some of the very significant inconsistency issues and establish a decent running game, they might just contend for the conference championship again. But, we have another nine or ten months before we really have to worry about that again.

Still waiting to get the call… I have an appointment tomorrow, but the discomfort is becoming pain fast enough for me to try and sneak in today. No complaints, though. My dentist and the staff there are superb, and I am confident they are doing whatever they can to squeeze me in.

I might as well discuss the Jazz for a moment. Perhaps I can be more intelligent in my comments than I was on the podcast this morning, when the combination of sore tooth and pain killers had me scrambled. Seriously, you should check it out. It was hilarious.

Utah went 3-1 since our last show, which improved their record to 21-8. They did have a disappointing road trip, however, when they lost to New York (covered in the previous podcast) and Charlotte. They should have probably lost to Atlanta, as well, but they erased a 21 point deficit in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter and outscored Atlanta 40-13 en route to a victory. The final record for the entire road trip was 3-2, which is still a winning record, but a truly elite NBA team should have won at least one more of those games.

But, the Jazz continue to play pretty decent basketball, all things considered. Both Zach and I agree that Deron Williams is starting to come into his own, and is establishing himself as an elite player. Carlos Boozer would be getting more MVP run in a bigger market (even though he is getting it even here) and Mehmet Okur is hitting some legendary three pointers. The “Money Ball” (as play-by-play guy Craig Bolerjack insists on calling it) from Memo has been a deadly weapon in the past few weeks, as it provides a big shot in the arm for the Jazz and a dagger to the opposing players. I am incredibly impressed with Okur’s ability to light things up during the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

I would also like to mention Andrei Kirilenko, as he has had something of a rough week. He was coming on strong for a few outings, but in the last two contests he saw his blocked shot streak come to an end at 28 games, and last night against the Clippers he was knocked silly by Corey Magettee’s elbow (not a dirty play or anything, just one of those things that happens). He was declared to have a minor concussion last night, and would be evaluated further this morning. No word yet whether he will be available for Thursday’s big game in San Antonio, but we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Now that I mention it, Matt Harpring was also absent from last night’s game with the stomach flu. Wow, between AK (concussion), Harpring (stomach flu) and me (evil tooth), it could be a rough day or two for Utah sports. Although this blog went all right for me, but when I put the uniform (my clothes) on there are no excuses.

The Top Three Stars in Utah (for the previous week):

3. Louie Sakoda

2. Johnny Harline

1. Mehmet Okur

Honorable mentions to John Beck, Eric Weddle, and Deron Williams. (Incidentally, Hot Rod Hundley has taken to calling him Deron “Slick” Williams on the radio call. I am not a big fan, and neither is Zach)

Thanks for listening, and please visit our sponsor at ShieldZone.com!

Episode 17 – The big bowl preview show, and some stuff about the Jazz

2006-12-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

The College Football Bowl season is finally here, and two of the local interest teams are off to play in their third-tier bowl games. I am excited to see both Utah and BYU play one last game against decent opponents, but the rest of the bowl season doesn’t carry much interest for me. The entire NCAA D1 postseason football program is so screwed up that even the vaunted “BCS Championship Game” has only one story line in which I am genuinely interested: will Urban Meyer get his championship?

Let me clarify one thing about that: I’m actually not concerned about Urban’s hopes and dreams. I am, however, curious to see if he bolts from the Florida program after potentially accomplishing what he said he wanted to do there. Will he try his hand in the NFL? (Which would likely be a disaster – NFL players would neither be intimidated nor impressed with him.) Will he try staying with a program long enough to win with his own recruits? I would be interested to see if his system carries out over 10 years, and not just in a relative short-term situation.

I have read that fellow Utah lovers at Utefans.net sometimes refer to the former football coach at Utah as “Rban,” because “There was never really any ‘U’ in Urban.” I am not sure if I completely agree with that sentiment, although I think it’s absolute genius and mostly correct. If Urban Meyer had come to this program and lost big two years in a row rather than win big, he likely would have been fired. The argument for loyalty to a program is very one-sided and always in favor of the academic institution. Nobody would have hollered about loyalty if they were running him out of town on a rail, in other words.

Instead, Urban won big for two years in a row and landed three head coaching gigs for his staff (Kyle Wittingham and Mike Sanford, along with himself). Yes, I would have liked to see him stick around for another few years and try to match the program-building prowess of teams like Louisville or Boise State, but I can’t fault a guy for going somewhere that he would get a really, really, really big raise. I mean, for comparison, even I would be willing to give up my Utah Fan status and adopt BYU Fan status for the right price. It would cost much less how much Urban got paid to leave (hint, hint).

Okay, so I probably wouldn’t do that, but send me your bids, anyway. I can use them for future negotiations.

The Cougars will strike first bowl blood when they take the field against the terrifying Ducks of Oregon in the Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl. Brent Musberger and Craig James will be calling the game for ESPN, and kickoff is Thursday, December 21^st at 6:00 PM, Mountain Time. I called this game a “third-tier” bowl game in the first paragraph, and that was not meant to demean either the BYU program or the bowl. But it is definitely not among the top-tier (Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar) or the second-tier (Gator, Cotton, Holiday), but falls into that vast sludge of unimportant, uninteresting bowls that are only watched by fans of the participating programs.

In all honesty, what will it really matter if BYU wins or loses the game? I mean, the fans always want to see a win and will be very disappointed if the Cougars don’t break their 10+ year bowl win drought, but there just isn’t much on the line. Without an all-encompassing playoff system (which isn’t about to happen anytime soon), there is nothing very significant about BYU’s postseason appearance to pique the nation’s interest. The very best thing that could come out of this is BYU wins big and the offense looks great, and then maybe John Beck gets drafted in the fourth round instead of the fifth.

It’s a different story for BYU fans, and they will have quite a few story lines to follow. The great big story is the “reuniting” of coaching buddies Bronco Mendenhall and Gary Crowton. The offensive coordinator for Oregon will try to run his balanced offense down the throat of his former team and defensive coordinator. BYU will try to respond by blowing up Oregon’s offense and “John Beck-ing” the Ducks into submission. Oregon had early success and were ranked as high as 11^th before collapsing a bit in the later part of their difficult Pac-10 schedule. On paper, this looks like a pretty evenly matched game to me, but I would give the slight edge to BYU. Their momentum from a nine-game winning streak should be thoroughly snuffed by the four week layoff between now and the emotional Utah game, but they are also probably the better team.

Utah and Tulsa’s seasons have been surprisingly parallel. Tulsa has a better overall record (8-4 as opposed to 7-5 for Utah), although both teams are 5-3 in their respective conferences. Tulsa was 7-1 (with their only loss coming against BYU) prior to a tough stretch at the end of the season where they lost three of four. The Golden Hurricane won the last game of the regular season, however, to break a three game losing streak.

The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will take place on Saturday, December 23^rd between the Utah Utes and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Tulsa has a very efficient quarterback and excellent receivers which will test the vaunted Utah secondary. They pass more than they run and their total offense is ranked 20^th in the NCAA. In addition, Tulsa’s passing defense is ranked 6^th in the NCAA, which should make for an interesting evening for Brett Ratliff and the Utah offense.

I suspect the BHAF Bowl will be a close, hard-fought game, and I would be hard pressed to confidently predict a Utah win. However, Kyle Wittingham and his coaching staff always seem to get the team ready for big games, and they are riding a 5 game bowl winning streak. I will guess a win for Utah (hope for a win, at any rate), but they are likely to face a tough road to victory.

Oh, and the Jazz are still winning the majority of their games, and have been playing enjoyable basketball (in certain games) of late. I am tempted to criticize them after last night’s pitiful effort, but since their last two losses have come by a total of two points, I will give them a pass. You can hear more on that in the podcast, though. This is pretty long already and I wouldn’t want to spoil all the fun.

Thanks to ShieldZone Corp. for their friendship and sponsorship!

Show 16 – An interesting week for the Jazz; Utah and BYU with some rough road losses

2006-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

Between an atypical scheduling week for the Utah Jazz and our unorthodox Tuesday-to-Tuesday recording days, there were only two Jazz games for the Utah Sports Cast this last week. That could reasonably be combined with the two facts that college football season is basically over and college basketball is still in the opening phases, and it might equate to a slow week for Utah sports fans.

It wasn’t, of course. But it might have been.

The Jazz dropped a tough game in the Target Center to the Pesky Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, 103 to 110. Minnesota got an all-star caliber performance out of Kevin Garnett (31 points, 14 rebounds), which will not surprise anyone. What did raise some eyebrows was the 28 point explosion by guard Mike James, including some clutch free throws in the waning minutes.

I couldn’t help but wonder as I watched the impressive performance if we were witnessing the emergence of a new Jazz Killer, as we have seen on occasion in the past. Most fans are familiar with the players, if not the concept. Jazz Killers are decent-to-good basketball players who always seem to be automatic against Utah (really good players, like Kobe Bryant, can hardly be called Jazz Killers - they are more Everbody Killers). The first one I became familiar with, as a fledgling fan, was Vinnie Johnson of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s Detroit Pistons, who always seemed to just tear up Utah. Sometimes they were foreign-born big men like Vlade Divac or Arvydas Sabonis, and other times it was a quick perimeter player like “Fast Eddie” Johnson, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, or Jon Barry. On a few occasions Utah has traded for the Jazz Killer in question (Jeff Hornacek and Derek Fisher), but otherwise the only thing a fan can do is dread the spot on the schedule where a lesser star will have their way on the scoreboard.

A much brighter spot for Utah was the dismantling of the formidable Dallas Mavericks in ES Arena, 101 to 79. In fairness, the loss had as much to do with Dallas’ shooting woes (they missed plenty of open jumpers and three pointers) as Utah’s smothering zone defense. But, as I like to give credit to the good play of opposing teams, it’s only fair I mention the Jazz played very hard and fought on every possession of the game. Carlos Boozer was an absolute monster, with 31 points and 11 rebounds. Matt Harpring, Andrei Kirilenko and Deron Williams also stood out, and the Jazz improved their overall record to 16-5. The victory also meant the Jazz have not yet lost this year to any of the impressive teams from the state of Texas (Mavs, Spurs, Rockets). I wouldn’t expect that to continue for the rest of the year, but it’s a nice plus for the first quarter of the season.

The bigger story of the game was it marked Jerry Sloan’s 1,000^th coaching victory, a feat only five coaches in the history of the NBA have accomplished. There is no way to put that in any perspective in a few sentences, so I won’t try. It is interesting to note that Jerry Sloan is the only member of the 1,000 win club that has not been named Coach of the Year at any point in his career. In fact, of the top ten coaches by wins, only Sloan and Jack Ramsay (#10) have not won that particular honor. One argument used to be that any coach could win with the Hall of Fame-type talent Sloan had in John Stockton and Karl Malone. However, that didn’t stop the league from giving Pat Riley the award when he was coaching the Showtime Lakers, or Phil Jackson with the Jordan Bulls. There is a bit of a groundswell already this year for Jerry Sloan, so it will be interesting to see if that finally translates into the long-deserved award. My guess is Sloan will be snubbed again in favor of Brian Hill in Orlando, but there are a lot of months between now and then.

One last interesting thought: if the Jazz can keep winning and actually maintain the best record in the NBA for another quarter of the season, Jerry Sloan will be the head coach for the Western Conference All-Star team. I personally think it would be hilarious to watch Coach Sloan simmer with irritation from the bench as street ball invariably takes over the game. On the other hand, maybe he enjoys watching Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant throw alley-oops to each other.

There is much more in the actual podcast, including our thoughts on some big news for Real Salt Lake. I would write about it, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone…

Thanks again for listening! Please visit ShieldZone.com and take care of some Holiday shopping.

Episode 15 – The Utah Jazz are cooling down a bit, sort of, and NCAA hoops is just heating up. More on the BCS

2006-12-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Utah Jazz are in the middle of a little bit of a slump right now. Actually, it might be more accurate to say they are in the middle of playing the basketball we thought they would play; although their season opening hot streak might have made most Jazz fans rethink expectations. It may sound funny to say that, considering they are 15-4 right now and still maintain the best record in the NBA, but there is some justification for it.

Since our last show the Jazz have gone 3-1, including a big win over San Antonio. This is a good week of basketball, of course, but the one loss may have counted for more as it was to Kobe Bryant and whichever four players the Lakers put on the floor with him. More on that game in a moment

In their recent victory over San Antonio (which would be a marquee win for them no matter what time of year) they got off to a slow start and didn’t shoot well for the entire game. However, the fact that Carlos Boozer, Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko out-rebounded the Spurs by themselves was impressive, and Boozer played tough defense against one of the five best players in the league in Tim Duncan (no credit was awarded from Duncan, however, who complained about the lack of calls). But Jazz 83, Spurs 75 was the final score.

The next game was pretty ugly for Utah, who watched as Kobe Bryant smirked and swaggered around the court on the way to a 52 point performance. I would love to say something negative about Bryant’s game, and I guess I could point out his pedestrian assist numbers (3), but the simple fact that he shot the ball 41 times (FG and FT) and made it 31 times is undeniable. When your star player makes 76% of all his shots and scores 52 points, your team stands a pretty good chance of winning.

I did find it interesting to read about Phil Jackson, the coach of the Lakers, making some interesting accusations against the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan, and the officiating crew in the days leading up to the game. In short, he accused Sloan of intimidating the officials during Los Angeles’s previous visit to ES Arena, who then took center Andrew Bynum out of the game for the Lakers with phantom calls and traveling violations. It was just a typical game in Utah, according to Jackson, who conveniently ignored the following items:

The Jazz out-rebounded the Lakers 45 to 27 during the game in question
Utah had a better field goal percentage than Los Angeles, 54% to 48%
The Jazz had more assists than the Lakers, 28 to 16
The Lakers shot 21 three pointers to the Jazz 12 – and they were taking more outside shots than the Jazz; in spite of this, the Lakers shot 37 free throws and the Jazz shot 30

So for that game, the Jazz hustled more than the Lakers, passed the ball better (or at least more), and shot a better percentage. In addition, the Lakers shot more free throws in spite of not going to the basket as often as the Jazz. But, it was the officials bowing to the will of Jerry Sloan, and the typical Utah home cooking that was to blame. It wasn’t that your team was outplayed; they just got screwed by the officials.

However, I believe the next game, in Los Angeles, was more to his liking. It’s remarkable that he accuses the officials of being intimidated by Jerry Sloan (and paid a hefty fine for saying so) but his remarks intimidate the next officiating crew, probably more than Sloan’s in-game woofing does. I would suspect this is the real reason behind all of the talking, to make sure they get the benefit of the officials the next time around. The free throw margin in the big loss was more pronounced: 44 for the Lakers to 31 for the Jazz.

On that same note, the Jazz didn’t lose because the Lakers shot more free throws. They lost because Kobe Bryant scored 30 points by himself in the third quarter, without missing a single shot. The rest of the Lakers made some contributions (I think the whole team only missed two or three shots in the entire quarter) and you get a complete butt-kicking in Los Angeles for the Jazz.

They came back and won against the Seattle Sonics, with Mehmet Okur dropping in the winning three-point bucket with a little over a second on the clock. This was another game tainted by controversy, as Andrei Kirilenko seemed to throw the ball out of bounds with 27 seconds left and the Jazz down by two. The Jazz got the benefit of the call and went on to score on a bucket to keep them in the game.

It was another one of those games where the Jazz had tons of more points in the paint (52 to 32), meaning they were going inside all game, but the Sonics happened to shoot more free throws. The Jazz also had more rebounds and assists. However, the Sonics have two all-star caliber players in Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, and the two combined to tear up Utah and lead the Sonics to 37 points in the fourth quarter. In this game, the Jazz were more lucky than good.

I completely understand the frustration of believing your team lost a game on a few missed calls, and I don’t blame Seattle for being bothered by it. I have seen plenty of games lost by the Jazz under the same circumstances (in fact, I saw a possible NBA championship lost under those circumstances). It’s easy to be positive when you are on the winning side of that equation, but my new philosophy is that it all balances itself out, sooner or later. The officials in the NBA are neither good nor consistent, so the all-encompassing, all-pervasive suckiness is a sort of pattern. In other words, a win for the Jazz will be balanced by a loss-they-should-have-won later in the season.

Anyway, so that’s my new philosophy and I’m trying it out for the first time right now. I can’t say I expect it to last, but it’s working for me this second.

There were more sports this week besides the Utah Jazz, including a blowout win for the Jazz over Milwaukee, but I have to save some things for the podcast. Besides, this has gone much longer than I intended it to. However, I had to complain about the NBA officials, and then break out my new philosophy of tolerating the officials. That sort of duplicity and hypocrisy takes time to develop.

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Episode 14 – BYU’s dramatic last second win against Utah, the Jazz keep winning

2006-11-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

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Well, I can’t pretend to be overly happy about the outcome of the Holy War, but I think it was one of the most exciting games I have watched in a very long time. Certainly the most thrilling game of the season for either team, I believe. To begin with, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to BYU for their nail-biting win. I am a genuine fan of both programs (although I do side with Utah when the teams play), so I won’t pretend to do a post-game Cougar bandwagon jump, but it was a nice win for the program and there were a lot of exorcised demons left on the battlefield of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The play of the game, of course, was John Beck’s scrambling, out-of-time heave across the field and into the end zone, where Johnny Harline was waiting to do a double-knee, rock-and-roll guitarist victory slide. It was one of those plays where all the coaching and practice go out the window and it comes down to improvisation and playmaking. I was very impressed, to say the least, and that came even as I was having my still-beating heart ripped out of my chest. John Beck was 28 for 43 for 375 yards and 4 touchdowns, and was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Offensive Player of the Week for his contribution.

The Cougars now have the Las Vegas Bowl and a still-unknown opponent to prepare for. In a season like this it really is a tragedy there isn’t some sort of fair system in place for the college football postseason. I don’t think BYU would have a shot at winning a championship, but whey shouldn’t they have a shot at playing for one? This is one of those subjects we go on and on about here at the Utah Sports Cast, so I won’t belabor it now (I will probably do sometime later, however). In that vein, however, Zach has come up with a pretty stupendous playoff bracket that would benefit just about everyone – not that it does any good, but it made him feel better about things.

Next year for the Cougars might be a bit more challenging in certain aspects, as they are losing quite a few key, significant players on both sides of the ball. When the heart-and-soul of both your offense (John Beck) and your defense (Cameron Jensen) are leaving, and lots of the predominant supporting cast is going with them, you will have some work to do. BYU certainly has some talent in their depth chart, although with a completely unproven, untested quarterback the offense might be interesting next year. I suspect the offense will probably be a bit like the Utah team from this year: flashes of brilliance and a few regrettable, forgettable games.

I think there were some encouraging things for Utah’s program that could be taken from the game. A close loss, particularly when the team had a very real shot at winning, will never sit well. However, Utah played the best team in the conference to a virtual draw, and in some cases even outplayed the Cougars. Without question (in my mind, anyway) the Utah football team deserved to be on the same field, in the same breath as the conference champs. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a bunch of questions left, such as: where was this all season? There were flashes of this sort of great offense/powerful defense team at times in the year (against TCU, for example), but a team playing with the same potency of last Saturday probably doesn’t lose to New Mexico, and certainly puts up a better fight against Wyoming. Even the UCLA and Boise State games would have been more palatable, if not potential victories.

Utah now has a presumed bowl game to look forward to (my current guess is the Poinsettia Bowl) but until the invitation comes through that’s not a sure thing. In addition, they can start gearing up for next year, which should be a bit better than this year, if anything. Utah had a pretty young team this year, which could explain some of the inconsistency, and they will have some experience back at some key positions. Significant losses in the defensive backfield (Eric Weddle, Eric Shyne, Casey Evans) and on the defensive line (Paul Soliai, Kelly Talavou, Soli Lefiti) will be difficult to fill, but the 2007 Utah team has some great prospects.

I would also like to give a little well-deserved love to the most vilified player on the team: Brett Ratliff. He is 9-5 as a starter and did everything he could to win the game against BYU (his numbers were eerily similar to Beck’s: 25 of 41 for 376 yards and 4 touchdowns). Yes, he has played a significant role in some of the losses, but he has also played some great football during the past 14 games. Utah should have some decent options to step into his shoes (Brian Johnson, Tommy Grady), and with very few outgoing seniors on offense, it could make next year’s team very interesting, indeed.

Finally, the Jazz have continued to roll, and improved their overall record to 12-3. They finally dropped the second game of a back-to-back series last Saturday (every Friday and Saturday in November have been game days for the Jazz) and to be honest, they didn’t look very good in doing it. It was just one of those weird, flukey games that all teams have from time to time. Don Nelson did what he does best and called an unusual, unexpected defense (which should have been illegal many times over) the Jazz were not prepared for, and they finally showed how young they are.

It didn't help things when the Jazz couldn't get a whistle inside to save their lives, but that’s a typical evening full of horrible NBA officiating. Incidentally, I am not blaming this loss (or any other) on officials, because they absolutely, completely suck on both sides of the ball. Sometimes the suckiness benefits your team, and other times the suckiness goes against them; but all teams in the league have to learn to work around the ridiculous, egotistical officials. Here’s a question for a thoughtful reader: would the NBA be just as good and probably have fewer player vs. player confrontations if they played pick-up basketball rules and called their own fouls? I say yes.

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Episode 13 – The Rivalry Special (oh, and the Jazz look pretty good, too)

2006-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, let me say that when I try to be dispassionate and subjective, I see nothing but a win for BYU. There are a few factors I think I can see that make me believe it won’t be a blowout, and I will discuss those. But I think there is a very high probability on BYU winning (around 75%)

However, this blog, this show is not about being dispassionate. I consider myself a BYU fan, and I am a dedicated follower of the team. But I am the token Utah guy around here, and I still bleed Crimson when they take the field against each other.

That having been said, I would like to offer my take on the game to come in the form of a team vs. team comparison. I would welcome any spirited debate on the subject, provided the reader is aware he or she will be incorrect. With no further ado, the breakdown:

Offense

Quarterback

Edge to BYU. Beck is the Cougar star and the reason BYU has gone on a tear for the majority of the season. Conversely, Ratliff may be the reason why Utah lost a few of their games, particularly the Wyoming game, which was the ugliest loss of the year (not because of Wyoming, but because the offense sucked that bad). Ratliff plays well when properly motivated (he did share a Player of the Week honor this year, remember), but the coaching staff doesn’t seem to have figured out exactly what that motivation is.

Running Backs

A definite edge to BYU. Brown was not the 1,000 yard back they thought he would be, but the emergence of Vakapuna and Tonga gave BYU the most potent running attack they have had since Luke Staley quit early to collect an NFL paycheck. Darryl Poston has been okay, but most of Utah’s best running plays have come from Ratliff, Brent Casteel or Eric Weddle.

Receivers

Edge to Utah. Every BYU fan I know would swallow their tongue to hear me say that (Zach? Hello, Zach?), but it’s the under-used, under-valued part of Utah’s offense. I’m certainly not saying BYU’s receiving corps is bad; in fact they are a very talented bunch and there are a lot of options for Beck. But BYU’s most reliable receiving play has been Curtis Brown out of the backfield, followed by the tight end in the middle of the defensive zone (more on tight ends later). The leading Cougar receiver (Matt Allen) has 25 catches and 3 touchdowns on the year, compared to 45/6 for Derrek Richards or 33/7 for Brent Casteel. The numbers don’t exactly bear out because BYU’s offense is imaginative, varied and powerful, but if Utah had a quarterback with the ability of John Beck and the running game of Brown/Vakapuna/Tonga, this wouldn’t seem so outlandish.

Tight Ends

Big edge to BYU. In fact, this would probably be the biggest edge to any one team in any of these categories. Aside from John Beck, Johnny Harline would likely be BYU’s offensive MVP this year, with a lot of big catches in a lot of big games. Daniel Coats has not had the stellar career his first year or two seemed to promise, but he is an excellent option and performs very well when thrown to. In contrast, I’m not even sure who Utah’s starting tight end is, and I’m a fan of the team. (Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s Colt Sampson. At least he wins the award for Coolest Tight End Name in the rivalry matchup.)

Offensive Line

Even. Utah’s offensive line has allowed one fewer sack than BYU’s for the season (to this point, anyway), and that’s without much of a running game to keep the other team’s linebackers back a few steps. In addition, Utah’s line was supposed to be young and untested while BYU’s was supposed to be good this year; with the senior stud tackle (Jake Kuresa) and better experience at the guards. That having been said, there are reasons why the Cougars have had a great running attack this year, and a lot of the credit has to go to the line. The offensive line has been a team strength for both programs this year.

Defense

Defensive Line

Edge to Utah. This may be the category where Utah has the biggest advantage, although both teams have some great linemen. Utah’s Kelly Talavou and Paul Soliai are fantastic in the middle, and Martail Burnett and Soli Lefiti have been strong on the ends. BYU’s three man front has been great as well, but the defensive line has been the backbone of the Utah team.

Linebackers

Edge to BYU. I considered for a few moments calling this a draw, because Utah has plenty of strong players in the middle of their defense even though BYU’s defensive strength is in the linebacker corps. In the end, though, the combination of such players as Cameron Jensen (BYU’s defensive MVP, in my opinion), Bryan Kehl, David Nixon and Aaron Wagner are just too convincing. Utah has Joe Jiannoni – who is as good as any linebacker in this comparison – and a lot of young talent, but BYU has the definite edge here.

Defensive Backs

Edge to Utah. This might seem to be an obvious choice, as Utah has the all-everything backer in Eric Weddle, but BYU’s defensive backfield was much better than advertised this year. In fact, Quinn Gooch and Ben Criddle (among others) had excellent years for the Cougars, and compared very well to Eric Shyne, Casey Evans and the crew from Utah. However, Weddle does give Utah the edge, and like Cameron Jensen on BYU, can change a game from the defensive side of the ball.

Special Teams

Kicking

Edge to Utah. Louie Sakoda has won a few games for Utah, and BYU has lost a few games due to kicking errors. It’s pretty much that simple, although there are lots of contributing factors. Sakoda has been named the Mountain West Conference Special Teams Player of the Week three times this year, most recently when he made a winning 37 yard field goal against Air Force this last week.

Punting

Even. Sakoda punts very well for Utah, averaging 43.5 yards per, and he was directly responsible for Utah’s field position win over TCU this year. However, he has also punted 53 times this season. BYU averages fewer yards, 39.5 yards per punt, but they have also only done it 32 times. So, Utah is better at punting, but BYU is better at not having to punt, and that should amount for something.

To sum this up, Utah has a better defense overall, but BYU’s offense is dominating teams right now. If Utah’s offense can provide some support in the way of possession time and scoring, they might have a chance to give the Cougars a scare. I really don’t expect much of a game, but the rivalry has a way of equalizing things, and most of the games have been pretty close in recent years. The early odds makers have BYU as 10.5 point favorites, and that sounds about right to me. I know BYU fans think that sounds terribly low, but they are a little high on the sweet smell of success right now, and I can forgive them for that.

It’s a shame the best season start ever for the Utah Jazz has to take place during this week. The story is lost in the shuffle around here, but to sum up: Deron Williams is playing inspired basketball, Carlos Boozer is continuing his impressive beginning, and everyone on the team (with the possible exception of Rafael Araujo) is playing at a very high level right now. We will catch up with the best team in the NBA (right now, anyway) in upcoming weeks, but if you have not jumped on the Jazz Bandwagon, it’s a good time to do so right now.

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Episode 12 – Utah wins to keep their slim conference hopes alive and BYU wins to secure at least a share of the conference. The Jazz continue their h

2006-11-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

The smack is really starting to flow freely here at the Utah Sports Cast, now that we are just two skinny weeks away from the annual Utah vs. BYU Rivalry game. This morning Zach and I spend about fifteen minutes instant messaging each other about John Beck’s abilities as a quarterback, and although I was being very complimentary for the most part, the whole session still had that faint taste of vitriol. It was like we were incapable of taking or receiving compliments about each other’s preferred program, even when that was the intended point of the conversation. Both of us were caught up in the rivalry, even though we were still trying to be objective. It was crazy, it was fun, and it only promises to get better for Utah and BYU fans as the weeks progress.

Brigham Young clinched at least a share of the Mountain West Conference championship this week with a horse-whipping of the Wyoming Cowboys, 55-7. They also moved up in both polls, and if you read any of the online stories about it, you will read about so many different polls and rankings it will make your head spin. It’s safe to say BYU is about 24^th in the nation right now, regardless of poll. With a win over New Mexico in the ED (Lavell Edwards Stadium) the Cougars can clinch the conference and likely boost their ranking even farther.

John Beck received the “John Beck Memorial Offensive Player of the Week” award from the Mountain West Conference, which is the fifth time they have given it to him this year. Frankly, Cougar fans, can you honestly tell me he DESERVES to keep winning that particular award? I mean, all he did this week was complete 77% of his passes, going 20 for 26 with 313 yards, throwing two touchdowns and running for two more. That’s it! Plus he became the all-time passing leader in the young Mountain West Conference and number two on the list of BYU’s all-time greats, behind only Ty Detmer. And still, the MWC just keeps shoving that award down his throat. I mean, come on, how about spreading the wealth around a little? Oh yeah, the rest of the offense looked unstoppable and the defense was awesome. In a nice little plus, the Arizona Wildcats beat the Cal Bears in the Pac-10, which not only makes that loss look somewhat more respectable for the Cougars, but keeps the Las Vegas Bowl rematch potential alive.

Utah’s offense came out of the bye week with a vengeance, racking up 526 yards of total offense on their way to a victory over Colorado State. Brett Ratliff, Brent Casteel and Eric Weddle were just a few of the noteworthy contributors on offense, although the impressive game called by Andy Ludwig saw nine different rushers and eight different receivers with the ball (although some of the rushers were also receivers, and vice versa.) Utah’s defense seemed a bit rusty and porous at times, as they let the Rams rush for 148 yards even though that was supposed to be the weak spot for CSU’s offense. The final score was Utah 35, CSU 22, although there was one just-so-we-feel-good-about-ourselves score in the final minute of the game for Colorado State. It’s interesting to note that all but one of Utah’s games this year (New Mexico 34, Utah 31) have been relative blowouts, which means Utah fans have seen a lot of garbage time touchdowns this year, either for or against their team.

The Utah Jazz continued their torrid start, going 2-1 in the previous week to improve their record to 6-1 overall. They dropped their first loss to New Jersey in a game where Carlos Boozer curiously didn’t play the entire fourth quarter, but went on to weather a decent run by Boston and 57 points by Michael Redd in Milwaukee to win both of those games. The Jazz have been impressive and are winning in many different ways this year. They have already had a blowout, several close games where they were forced to execute properly in the final seconds, and a few “hold-on-for-dear-life” situations. The rookies are getting quality minutes and making quality contributions, and Boozer and Williams are consistently good. Not to mention Fisher, Okur, Harpring, and most of the rest. On a sad but expected note, Andrei Kirilenko’s ankle problems have resurfaced and he will be out for a few games tending to a sprain. X-rays were not able to confirm that his ankle is, in fact, made out of porcelain, but Jazz fans everywhere are beginning to wonder.

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Episode 11 – BYU makes good while Utah dominates their bye week. The Utah Jazz start the season with a bang

2006-11-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Utah enjoying a well-deserved bye week left the field open for BYU to make all the statements they could about football dominance in the Mountain West Conference. Not that Utah has much to say about it, if I’m being honest. Even as the token Utah guy here at the Utah Sports Cast, I have to admit BYU’s efforts are becoming very convincing. They returned to the national rankings, checking in as the #25 team in the Associated Press Top 25.

The Cougars dominated the Colorado State Rams 24-3 in a game that was unexceptional for BYU, at least when using the previous few games as a yardstick. I suspect it was as close to a letdown game for the offense as we are likely to see for the rest of the season (or, at least until the Utah game, when the rules are all thrown out). It may sound strange to say such things about a team that gained over 400 yards against the 15^th best defense in the nation, but the scoring and the offensive firepower was not what we have come to expect of Bronco’s boys. Of course, CSU’s excellent defense might have had a little to do with limiting the Cougar offense…

BYU’s defense was tremendous, holding CSU to one scant field goal and 151 yards. Cameron Jensen was named the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Week. Next up for BYU is another excellent defense belonging to the Wyoming Cowboys, in a game where they can wrap up the Mountain West Conference Championship for the first time since 2001.

Utah dominated their bye week, practicing a whole bunch, letting some of their injuries heal, and getting some practice reps for some of their younger guys. Brian Johnson was named the Mountain West Conference Practicer of the Week (according to Coach Wittingham, anyway). This week Utah will try to build on their previous game as they tackle Colorado State. [Note: Most Utah fans would rather not admit this, but I can say it: we are grateful to BYU for softening them up for us. Not that we needed it, of course.] Utah can become technically bowl-eligible with a win, but the coaching staff feels they need to win at least two of the next three to guarantee a place in the postseason.

We were pleased to have Josh Nelson – the blog writer for JazzBBall.com – with us this morning as we recorded the show. The Utah Jazz have jumped off to a very quick start, with consecutive victories over Houston, Phoenix, Golden State and Detroit. At least three of those teams (and, in some publications/websites, all four of them) are projected to be playoff teams this year, which is a good sign for the Jazz. Carlos Boozer was named the Western Conference Player of the Week and has been a dominant force early in the season. Derek Fisher has already performed some late-game heroics and it seems like a few new players are stepping up each game. Better still, six Jazz players are averaging double-digit scoring and Andrei Kirilenko isn’t one of them (yet). Of course, it’s early in the year and there will be some disappointments, but the early returns are very promising.

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Episode 10 – Utah gets back to their winning ways and BYU continues on a noteworthy tear. The preseason comes to an end for the Utah Jazz

2006-10-31T08:50:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty good weekend around the Utah Sports Cast, as both BYU and Utah posted big wins. While these victories over questionable opponents had significance in several ways, they also served to brighten the rivalry picture as it draws another week closer. Conference races and bowl berths are nice and all that, but what’s really important is my ability to run a little more smack at Zach without feeling like I’m stretching it too much.

To begin with, Utah scored a much-needed victory over UNLV, bringing their recent two game skid to a merciful end. Granted, it was still only their second victory in the past five games, but it’s somewhere to start, anyway. Quarterback Brett Ratliff was named Co-Offensive Player of the Week for the Mountain West Conference, sharing the title with BYU Quarterback John Beck. Ratliff passed for four touchdowns and ran for one, in what was probably his best game since the Emerald Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. Nearly every aspect of the game looked great, which was to be expected when playing the dog of the league at home. But, it was a well-needed victory going into the bye week, where they can now build on something rather than try to pick themselves up again.

BYU traveled to Colorado Springs and took Air Force to the woodshed, reinforcing their claim to the title of best team in the league. The emergent, vaunted running game was slowed a bit as Curtis Brown had the stomach flu and Fui Vakapuna was still rehabilitating his ankle, but John Beck helped make up the difference. The Senior Quarterback was named Co-Offensive Player of the Week with Utah’s Ratliff, due in part to the MWC’s contract with BYU to present him with as many honors as possible (Ha ha! Just kidding! Sort of!). In all honesty, BYU looked fantastic and heads-and-shoulders above Air Force. The defense in particular played very tough – Bryan Kehl was all over the field and the D-Line controlled the line of scrimmage for the entire game. Add that victory to Wyoming’s loss at TCU, and BYU is in a very secure position atop the conference right now.

The 2002-2006 Baseball Season came to a merciful end this last week, with the St. Louis Cardinals stomping all over the Detroit Tigers, 4 games to one. Apparently this was a pretty significant surprise for baseball fans, as the Tigers (coming out of the allegedly superior American League) were slated to demolish the Cardinals. However, this being baseball (the only sport I can think of where the athletes actually appear to be LESS interested than the fans) anything can happen. Congratulations to St. Louis… You managed to lose 78 games in the last six months (an average of three games a week or so) but are still the champion.

This upcoming week is the beginning of the Utah Jazz’s regular season, and we are both excited about the possibilities this season. We will have a more comprehensive preview in the coming few weeks, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say: get your name on the list for playoff tickets.

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Episode 9 – The Cougars pick up where they left off (good), as did the Utes (bad). Plus a little about baseball and the Utah Jazz

2006-10-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

It can be a little difficult at times being a Utah fan discussing sports with a BYU fan, particularly during the college football season. Utah has had a good run the past few years, but that tide seems to be swinging back in BYU’s favor. Some Cougar fans are even trying to play the “payback” card; meaning BYU fans are now getting even with Utah fans for the few seasons of obnoxious Utah dominance. Of course, what those Cougar faithful fail to realize is Utah still isn’t finished with payback for the previous decade of obnoxious Cougar dominance. Of course, Zach and I are fans enough of each program that we can find the peaceful middle ground. Right, Zach? Hello? Zach?

BYU looked pretty good in a victory over league whipping-post UNLV. As with any victory over a vastly inferior opponent it’s difficult to gauge how well they really played, but it was a very decisive victory. John Beck had another astronomical passer rating and is beginning to garner a little bit of national attention for his performance. Curtis Brown played very well, as we expect from him when he plays a poor team. Fans of the Cougars (as I certainly consider myself) would like to see him run as hard against better teams. A hard running Brown might have made a world of difference against Arizona and Boston College. All of that speculation aside, the Cougars are decisively in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West Conference, thanks to their butt-kicking of UNLV and Air Force’s loss to San Diego State.

Utah lost ugly. Again. I don’t really know what more to say, except this was a different brand of ugly loss from what we are accustomed. I suppose I should also say New Mexico played hard and deserved to win the game, because that is certainly true. Utah was well in control of the game at the half, and even had a lead in the fourth quarter, but could hang on to none of it. The offense looked better from previous weeks, and even though Brett Ratliff will clearly never be John Beck, he looked better. (Yes, I just compared Utah’s quarterback to BYU’s, even though I am the token Utah guy. Take heart, Ute fans: next year we will be saying: “Max Hall looks pretty good, but he’s no Brian Johnson.”)

Here’s one last interesting salvo in the Rivalry War (which is still heating up, I think, in spite of lackluster Utah performances). I learned about a conspiracy theory being cooked up by my friends at the Ute Fans message boards that Kyle Wittingham is on a secret mission for his alma mater (he was a linebacker at BYU, for those of you who don’t know) to undermine and demolish the Utah Football Program from within. Now, I don’t really believe that, and to be honest, I don’t think anyone at the Ute Fans boards does either (although it’s pretty fun to talk about). I have long thought Coach Wittingham is a good coach that might need a few years but should get this program rolling. However, I do like a good conspiracy theory, and my eyebrows were raised by one of his comments on the weekly press conference: “There's a lot of jockeying for position in the conference right now. Except for the Cougars. They're sitting there on top right now, unblemished.” (I added the italics and boldface, obviously.) Doesn’t that seem like a little too positive a thing to say about your rival? Did you catch the gushing about the glorious Cougars like I did? Did you read the same exclamations of perfection in his choice of words? Did you… Oh, never mind. Conspiracy theories are stupid.

The World Series is underway between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The series is tied 1-1 as I am writing this, although not without controversy. If you have been avoiding your television for the last 24 hours let me catch you up to speed. Kenny Rogers (the pitcher for the Tigers, not the purveyor of delicious roasted meals) had some sort of mystery goo on his pitching hand, which the Cardinals noticed, and the umpire asked him to wash off. Rogers claimed it was just mud, which is an excuse that might fool a blind person who had never heard of pine tar. Of course, because it’s baseball and sports broadcasters need any excuse to spice the game up, it’s been headline news on every SportsCenter broadcast and local lead-in. Man, I will be glad when baseball goes away for another year.

Well, that’s about it for the blog part of the Utah Sports Cast. Please e-mail us and let us know what you think. You can reach us at comments@utahsportscast.com or individually at zach@utahsportscast.com or nate@utahsportscast.com. We would love to hear from you, and thanks for listening and reading! Of course, you can also comment on this blog at the bottom.

Finally, thanks again to our sponsor, ShieldZone!

Episode 8 – Utah gets demolished in Wyoming and BYU dominates their bye week. The season is over for Real Salt Lake and the Jazz are just heating up.

2006-10-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

The Rivalry Smack took a serious blow this last weekend and we are both slightly concerned about it. However, as Zach keeps reminding me: all the rules are thrown out in rivalry week, even if one team is 11-0 going in and the other 0-11. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but probably not by much.

What happened to hurt the rivalry was Utah lost a conference game to Wyoming in Laramie. The final score was 31-15, although both of Utah’s scores came after Wyoming was up 31-0 and they coasted to a much-easier-than-the-score-looked victory. Utah’s defense played fairly well, all things considered, but the offense flat out stunk. Brett Ratliff and the boys have only scored three offensive touchdowns in the last three games, which is not going to cut it in any conference.

BYU congratulated themselves for an impressive bye week. The Cougars and their fans have decisively determined that they will win the conference without another loss and have petitioned the Commissioner to just break out the trophy now and let them advance directly to the bowl game. Okay, to be fair, BYU is looking pretty good now. They seem to have solved some of the problems with turnovers and penalties that have hurt them in the past few years. Whether that is an upward trend or just a nice blip on the radar remains to be seen. Without a doubt, they will win a lot of games if they keep playing as well as they have been.

Real Salt Lake was bumped out of any playoff contention when Colorado and Houston played to a draw on Saturday night. RSL’s own draw on Sunday became just for show. Jeff Cunningham won the Golden Boot for scoring the most goals, along with tying for the most assists. Unfortunately, because RSL failed to take advantage of opportunities at the end of the season, he will not get any serious consideration for MVP. Oh well, I guess all that’s left to do is shut off the lights and turn the keys back into the University.

We also talk about the Jazz preseason and some other fun things in the podcast, which I would hate to spoil for those who both read and listen. We appreciate everyone who has been downloading the show, and please let us know what you think about it!

Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone! Check them out at www.shieldzone.com, and read the blog at www.shieldzone.com/blog.

P.S. – I have the news on in the background and I just heard there may be a chocolate shortage soon – workers in the Ivory Coast are burning cocoa beans and crops to protest their low wages. It’s probably a good time to stock up – even if there’s no shortage, you don’t want to take that chance, do you?

Episode 7 – A big win for Utah and an expected win for BYU. Real Salt Lake is still in the playoff hunt, plus other headlines

2006-10-11T08:08:00.000-07:00