Utah Sports Cast

Listen Here! 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.

Listen Here! 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.

Listen Here! 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

Listen Here! 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

Listen Here! 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.

Listen Here! 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 t

Listen Here! 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 wi

Listen Here! 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 22nd, 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

Listen Here! 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

Listen Here! 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 5th, 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 te

Listen Here! 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 dom

Listen Here! 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

Listen Here! 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, leg

Listen Here! 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 11th 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 i

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

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,

Listen Here! 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

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 g