Andrew Crowley Talks Utes Hoops on ESPN 97.7

Andrew Crowley Interview - Runnin Hoops Podcast

Transcript

Andy: Let's start actually with last night's game that had nothing to do with Utah: BYU vs. Arizona. Arizona looks like the best team in the country. I just love that they don't shoot threes; they just manhandle people down low and play like a Majerus team with all these bigs. They don't care about hooking up bad shots. What did you think about last night's game with Arizona and BYU?

Andrew: Yeah, what a wild finish, first of all. You know, I mean, it looked like Arizona was going to really just kind of go in there and handle their business. They kind of wilted there at the end, but then they had enough. Arizona's super impressive looking right now—probably the best team that Tommy Lloyd has had there in Tucson since he's been there. They are very, very complete. They didn't get anything out of their 7'3" center, Motiejus Krivas, and still managed to go in there and score 86 points to win the game. Now they're certainly positioned to be the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament. We’ve got a long way to go until we get there, but they look every bit like a legit contender this year.

That was a crazy finish. Credit BYU for battling back. It looked like it was just one of those nights where AJ wasn't hitting and they were going to get hammered; they were down by as much as 20 and they battled all the way back.

Let's go to Utah's game against BYU. I listened to the Runnin' Hoops podcast after this one, and probably the biggest headline was Jensen saying that these guys kind of gave up at the end. When you were watching it, were you having that same kind of reaction? Like, what's going on? Where's the fire in this rivalry game on the road?

Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as to say that they quit or that they gave up. To me, it just kind of seems like the moment maybe overwhelmed them a little bit. I think for a lot of these guys, it's their first exposure to the rivalry on the road. That's obviously a very tough environment for any team to go into, and then you put the rivalry on top of that.

But I'm not the coach. If the coach is sending that message in the post-game, I think there's a very direct reason for that. I think this was far more about what happens next for Utah going into Oklahoma State, Arizona State, and some of these more winnable games. I don't think it necessarily was just about what they did against BYU.

So, Utah I think is like 1-6 right now in conference play, but it seems to me like Jensen's got them improving and playing better. At the beginning of the season, they had some of those embarrassing losses, but they've been better. I mean, going back to the first time they played BYU at the Huntsman Center, that was an awesome game at home. Are you seeing improvement as the season progresses in Jensen's first year?

Yeah, for sure. One of the things I've said on my show and other places is that this is a very offensively resilient team. They're not afraid; they don't back down from anybody on the offensive side. The big thing that's going to determine how many wins they end up getting down the stretch in Big 12 play is whether or not they commit on the defensive end. That was the big message that Alex sent to his team after the BYU game. Terrence Brown had some audio where he was expressing some frustration and saying, "Hey, we need to really lock in," and Alex came out and said, "Hey, then guard your guy. Take some pride on the defensive end."

The team is definitely improving offensively. Keanu Dawes had a career high against BYU; Alex has been trying to get that out of him all season long. I think if you can get that out of Keanu Dawes, Terrence Brown and Don McHenry are going to do their thing. If this team can lock in a little bit more on the defensive end, they're going to win some games down the stretch.

Are there some markers of "Majerus-type" stuff that you're seeing from Jensen? This is probably a good example of him talking about defense and caring more about that. I know that their frontcourt is banged up, and if they had some of those guys, their defense in the interior would probably be better. But do you see some of that Rick Majerus style in Alex Jensen’s coaching?

Yeah, I do, a little bit for sure. I think the biggest thing is that when Alex talks about himself as a player, he acknowledges that he wasn't the most talented guy on the roster, but he did his job and he did it as hard as he could. I think those are some of the markers that we're starting to see with some of these players.

You made the point that they lost their interior rim protection during the first practice of the season, which moved a bunch of other guys up a few seats. You’ve got guys who are not necessarily playing in the roles they were supposed to be playing when the season started. But I do think those guys giving that effort is one of the hallmarks of what we're seeing through Alex. With the injury stuff, that defensive lockdown is going to be the next thing where we see those markers.

I was listening to your game with Steve Bartle on X, and I loved the back-and-forth you guys had. One of the things he said—or I think you brought up—was about the timing. If we had a Brandon Carlson-type on this team with the backcourt scorers that we have, he said this would be like a Sweet 16 team, but you just don't have that this year. That kind of surprised me, not realizing that this team could be good enough if they had a bona fide all-conference type scorer in the frontcourt. Is that one missing piece? Am I representing that correctly?

Yeah, I certainly think they'd be better. I don't know about Sweet 16 good, but the point we were making is: Man, we spent four years with Brandon Carlson just wishing they could get a point guard and a scoring guard that could help ease some of his burden. Now they've got that, but there's no legit seven-footer in the frontcourt that could help this team out.

I think they'll get there. Alex and Wes Wilcox, the General Manager—the big thing for them this season is they're going to walk out of year one knowing exactly what it looks like to get what they need to compete in this league.

What is your perspective on the new deal that Utah made several months ago with private equity? How excited should Utah basketball fans be about implementing some of those resources in the very near future?

I think everybody focuses so much on the NIL piece of it, which is going to be huge. Having more money to build a roster is going to be a significant part of that. The other thing is when you've got a private equity firm, these guys are looking for an ROI. That means getting people out to the games, and that means improving the game-day atmosphere: concessions, entertainment, all of that stuff in order to sell tickets to the Huntsman Center.

I think the private equity deal is going to help in every single aspect of Utah basketball. We've talked about this on your show before—that place has been a library the last couple of years, but the fans are slowly starting to come back. There are a lot of organic, grassroots efforts by fans on X and other places. Now it's a matter of the school, the program, and this private equity money investing and making that a place where people want to go.

I love seeing some of Utah Twitter making strong pronouncements like, "All right, the excuses are over. I'm heading up this Saturday. Who's coming with me? Carpool!" I know you're in on those conversations. It was also heartening—I don't know if you saw Bobby Hurley for Arizona State in a post-game. He was like, "This place sucks. I can't win here. I have no chance in this place." I'm like, oh, I didn't realize Arizona State was this week!

Locally, we tend to hammer Utah because we're constantly comparing them to the Marriott Center, but it might be more of a general trend in college basketball. In a lot of these places, getting the kids out to the games has been a struggle for a lot of people.

Oh, for sure. I've seen that Bobby Hurley movie before with other coaches where they all but drop their pants at the press conference to try to get moved on from. And then, of course, they responded with a win over Cincinnati the next time. So, maybe we need more calling out of the fans.

Okay, so Terrence Brown has been the guy, along with Don McHenry. Forecasting forward, if Utah completes the season kind of where they are now, what is your view of these guys' commitment to the Alex Jensen vision and the rebuild of Utah basketball? I know it's impossible to know because anything can happen in the portal, but what type of guys are these? How did Jensen get them, and do you anticipate them locking down here in Salt Lake for a couple of years to try to make this happen?

Terrence Brown is going to be the interesting one because he's obviously going to draw a ton of attention and interest if he remains a top-ten scorer in college basketball. I think the biggest thing for Terrence Brown to succeed next year, whether it's at Utah or someplace else, is he's got to have a facilitator and play off the ball a little bit more. Utah needs to get him a true point guard that can help him really open up his game.

He got to Utah through a connection with Coach Phil "Chill" Richey, one of Alex's top assistants. He seems to like Utah; he seems to be connected to the community in Salt Lake. I think it's a little bit like the Deivon Smith situation a few years ago where if he comes back to Salt Lake City, he probably stands to be as marketable as he would be anywhere, if not more, just because everybody knows him. But he's going to draw a lot of interest from bigger programs, so it'll be interesting to see if they retain him.

Don McHenry is a fifth-year guy, unfortunately. He had a year in Hawaii Hilo, which I love to say doesn't count. They've got to find somebody in compliance that can get him another year. Find me the eligibility—that's all I'm asking! Get Diego Pavia's lawyer on the line.

We're talking with Andrew Crowley of the Runnin' Hoops podcast, the best podcast about Utah basketball in the business. The Utes' next game is against Oklahoma State. Like you mentioned, maybe the next few are more winnable contests. What are you going to be looking for in this matchup against the Cowboys, Andrew?

Well, I think the fact that they've got a week to prepare for Oklahoma State is good, especially coming off of Alex sending a pretty strong message in the post-game about the defensive effort. I think we're going to see if those messages are resonating with the team based on the effort we see against Oklahoma State on Saturday.

The Cowboys have a really dynamic backcourt. They've got a lot of guys who can score the ball, and then they've got a guy from your neck of the woods who played at Southern Utah a few years ago. He put up 20 on the Utes in that barnburner in the Huntsman Center back two years ago, I think. It’s certainly a winnable game, but it’s probably going to be another high-scoring affair. It's a little bit like the TCU game a few weeks ago where if they can hold them under 80 points—even if it's 79—they have a good chance to win.

Even in the loss to BYU, they still shot the three-ball really well—like 67%. It was crazy. Has that been fairly consistent this year, the three going down?

Don McHenry has been their most consistent three-point shooter, followed by Terrence Brown. They have a wing from Germany named Jacob Patrick, who's a really good shooter, but he's been out with an injury since the Mississippi State game back in December, and there’s no clear indicator on when he's coming back. Keanu Dawes has historically been a decent three-point shooter but really struggled this year; however, he came out against BYU and was 4-for-5. Then Kendall Sanders, the freshman, has that corner three locked down. So there are certainly some guys that can hit the three. When you're playing a team that can score like Oklahoma State, you're going to have to knock some of those down. You hope they can do that at home.

Talking with Andrew Crowley here, Runnin' Hoops podcast. If you're a Utah Utes fan and are looking for the Utes to try to revive the peak of the late 90s, they’ve got the coach and they've got the podcast with Andrew Crowley. Tell us about the pod. I know you've got connections with tons of people—former players, coaches, sources within Utah. For people that might not know about what you're doing, Andrew, tell us about your podcast.

Yeah, so it's @RunninHoopsPod on Twitter, and you can find the Runnin' Hoops podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I've been doing this for five years now. We went all the way through the Craig Smith era, for better or for worse. That may have been a cry for help to stick with it at that point! But yeah, we’ve got Alex Jensen in town now. He’s got a lot of his former teammates who are excited and energized.

Now it's just a matter of getting more engagement and getting more people interested in the product. It’s a chicken-and-egg thing, right? A lot of people want to see good basketball before they jump in and support, but at the same time, you've got to support it so they have a home-court advantage. So, download the podcast—Runnin' Hoops. We have a good time on the show.

All right, I love it. That’s Andrew Crowley, Runnin' Hoops podcast. Thanks a lot, man. We'll be talking to you again soon later on in the year, I'm sure.

Thanks, Andy. I appreciate it.

All right, quick break. We’ll be back right after this.