Runnin' Hoops Podcast
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Runnin' Hoops Podcast
Episode 335: Runnin' Utes Non-Conference Schedule
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The Runnin' Utes non-conference schedule is set (unofficially) a full breakdown! Plus, transfer grades on the four incoming players via the portal for Utah. And, more bleak offseason previews, a Majerus anecdote, and Utah WBB intros + much more!
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Superchicks is giving you a chance to put its only season chicken wrap. As always, you can chase that down with their frozen custard flavor of the week. And you can find the nearest Super Chicks to you online at Superchicks.com. And remember, it's chickswithanx.com. On this episode, the Run and Utes non-conference schedule is complete unofficially. I'll break it all down for you. Plus, another college basketball site puts Utah in the basement. I'll let you know who and what they said. And where did Utah's for transfers grade out? I'll have that for you as well as some intros to the newest members of the women's basketball team, recruiting talk, and a Rick Majera story, courtesy of Seth Davis. All that coming up on this episode. But first, I wanted to remind you to follow the podcast over on X at Run and Hoops Pod or on Instagram at Run and Hoops. It's the best way to make sure that you are up to date on all things run and ute and to give me feedback on what you might want to hear on Yield Podcast. Also, you can rate, review, and subscribe to the show over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get a podcast. We are at 78 five-star ratings on Apple, which is outstanding. But I know that there are 22 of you out there that can help push it to 100 or more by the time Utah tips off on November 2nd. I believe in you folks. So help me out and rate and review the show. What would be amazing is if I just woke up one day, hit refresh on the podcast, and boom, we were up to like 80 or 90 ratings.
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SPEAKER_01Okay, Brand, Michael Jackson didn't come over to my house. But it's just a bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's lead off with some Utah women's basketball here on the show. And the women's basketball team's socials have been putting out some get-to-know-you's for the players. So we're going to cover a couple here each episode as we roll towards the season. Up first, we've got Filipa Barros, who I'll remind you was ranked as one of the 20 best women's basketball transfers into the Big 12 conference this offseason. I quote from the Utah Peace on Filipa. Barros, a Vermoim Maya Portugal native, joins the Utes after spending four seasons at California Baptist. In her final season at CBU, Barros averaged 11 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists per game. She led the team in rebounding steals, assists, and three-point percentage. She helped the Lancers win the WAC championship title while earning tournament MVP to help CBU to its second ever NCAA tournament berth. Why did you choose Utah? I chose Utah because of the style of play. It's very fast. They like to share the ball, they like to shoot threes. It's similar to the way I used to play at my old school. When I came on a visit, I really liked the people. The girls are cool, the coaches are very welcoming, and that had a major impact on my decision. Also, one of my best friends from Portugal, Ines Vieira, played here and she told me great things about it. What's something about your basketball game that you are really proud of? I would say my rebounding skills. I'm a point guard, and being able to rebound is a huge skill in that spot. What's something about your basketball game that you are working on improving? Finishing on a basket in different ways. So that's Felipe Barros. And then up next we'll go to Lena Girardi. Quote: Girardi, a purchase New York native, joins the Utes after spending the previous season at Oklahoma State. While at Oklahoma State, Girardi played in 28 games and averaged 15 minutes a game, shot 43.6% from the field and 39.8% from beyond the arc and 83.3% from the free throw line. She averaged 7.8 points per game and 2.1 rebounds per game. Girardi posted a career high 29 points against Langston on November 6th, 2025. The 29 point performance included nine made from deep. Girardi is joining the Utes as a sophomore. Why did you choose Utah? The main thing was the people. People are really important to me. This is a relationship process to me and making sure I was going to be around good people. So the team, coaches, and support staff. The second thing was the opportunity and the system. I like the way that Gavin saw me fitting into the system. It was a lot like how I played in high school, being a three-level score, playing ultra aggressive, and getting to rebound. I loved the vision he has for the program and how I can fit into it. What is something in your basketball game that you're proud of? Probably my three-point shooting. A lot of people questioned it coming into college, but a lot of people didn't think I could shoot. When I was in the portal, a lot of people kept saying, We want your shooting. And it was from a lot of people who didn't even talk to me when I was coming out of high school. What's something in your basketball game you want to get better at? Definitely my defense. That's been my main focus for me. If I'm not the fastest and strongest, it's lean, it's learning angles and understanding my opponent when I play them. So there you go. We'll continue to preview some of the new women's basketball players here since the program is putting out content about them. Turning over to the men's side of things. Don't worry, we'll get to the schedule. But first, we've got a bunch of other things to get to before we do that. So on our last episode, I gave you a bunch of scouting reports on the guys that Utah has coming in. So we're going to go a little bit deeper here on this episode as Matthew Winnick at Matthew Winnick over on X of Basket Under Review has put out his 2026 transfer portal rankings. You may recall that he did this last year as well. And it's basically a look at every single team's transfer class and how they stack up with the rest of their league and a comp, other things like that. Here is his methodology. Quote Each player is graded using a combination of analytics and film, considering the players' entire career, how they fit into their new system, and what role they are expected to play at their new stop. The requirement to be included in this analysis is having played at a D1 school for their most recent college stop and having played at least 10% of team minutes in any D1 season. All players are graded relative to their league and level, which is why all mid-major teams and power five teams are intertwined. I'm not saying that one portal class is more talented than another. I'm saying that one is graded higher than the other relative to the D1 level. So there's the criteria, fairly straightforward. He's got a formula that he uses. And if you go to at Matthew Winnick, you can see all of that. Utah only had four players that qualified for this evaluation. So consider that as we get into these ratings. Now, first we're going to take a look at the Big 12 as a conference, and the teams are rated on a scale of 100, right? So basically your typical grading scale. The top team in the league in terms of transfers is Iowa State with a 92.4. The Cyclones are ranked eighth of the 365 teams here in college hoops. The rest of the league is as follows Texas Tech, 89.4, the 41st ranked team. Arizona State, 89.2, the 44th ranked team. Houston, 88.2, the 53rd ranked team. TCU, 86.8, the 71st ranked team. Cincinnati, 86.4, the 77th ranked team. BYU, 85.3, the 104th ranked team. Baylor, 82.9, the 145th ranked team. Oklahoma State, also 82.9. They are ranked 146th. Arizona, 81.9, the 161st ranked team. West Virginia, 81.5, the 165th ranked team. The 184th ranked team.4, the 274th ranked team. So a bit of a drop there from Kansas to Kansas State and the rest of the league, which of course includes Utah, who I haven't mentioned yet. UCF, 72.3, the 285th ranked team. Colorado at 70, the 298th ranked team. And finally, Utah, 67.7, the 310th ranked team in college basketball out of 365. As a league, the Big 12s scores average out to 82.0, which puts them fourth out of five among the power five. Again, these aren't straight rankings, but the quality and the impact that the players might have in their new spots. So how did Utah's four transfers individually grade out? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's start with Jackson Holcomb. He gets a B grade. His player archetype is a versatile forward. His comp in the league is Joshua Jefferson. I will take that. His role, a starter. And here is what he had to say about Jackson. Quote, Holcomb was absolutely brilliant for two seasons on two awesome UVU teams. And his uniqueness is what made him so good. But it's also what concerns me moving up to the power five level. He made eight threes on 42 attempts across the two seasons and was a 63% free throw shooter on volume. He's a 6'7 forward who cannot shoot, but everything else is incredible. He had absolutely good on-offs as a star and a role player, is an excellent passer through both self-and-off-ball creation, and is a truly special defender who is both versatile and aggressive. That said, the rim finishing was meh last year, and he isn't truly an above-the-rim guy. He's played six career minutes against a power five, and we don't really know how that may fall. Also, UVU's D was so aggressive and unique the last two years. I'm unsure how good it all looks on a normal, less aggressive D. The passing should stick, and he's clearly a wing player, but I think it will be a bit of a transition. Close quote. So a little bit of a mixed bag there, but Jackson Holcomb comes in as a B plus. He's the highest rated of the four transfers that Utah had this offseason. Up next, we go to Tayson Chapman. He gets a C. His player archetype is Guard Shooter. His comp in the league is Brennan Mehausen. Roll starter. And here is what he had to say about Taysen. Quote, finally took a leap in Big Ten play last year after struggles as a freshman in last year's non-con. Was money on deep on a decent volume with a bit of added connective passing, good guard size, and is an okay defender. Was a strong recruit, and there could remain some untapped upside. His role may be too large on this Utah team, but I don't think he sucks. Close quote. Okay, so he doesn't think he sucks. So there you go. Up next, we go to TJ Birch. He gets a C. His player archetype is a defensive guard. His comp in the league is Brock Harding. His role, key reserve, and here is what he had to say about TJ. Quote, Birch did lead the entire country in steel rate. He also had a giant positive defensive on-off for Wright State. He's also 6'1 and 160, and that is such a giant disadvantage for a guy that isn't a great shot creator and was just above average as a passer in the horizon league. The offense is going to be a very real issue at this level, and the defensive statistics are great, but I can just envision teams hunting him for mismatches all the time. I get the idea of bargain hunting via rate stats. I just don't know how capable he can be on that end. He did have five steals against UVA, but UVA didn't have any issues scoring. I really like Birch. This is just too high a leap, close quote. So again, a little bit of a mixed bag and kind of a negative scouting report there on TJ Birch. Sort of a belief here that he doesn't think that TJ can make the leap to the Big 12. And then finally, we've got Malik Goma, who gets a D. His player archetype is rebounding big. His comp in the league is James Aconquo, player that we're all very familiar with here at Utah. His role, key reserve. And here's what he had to say about Malik. Quote, Goma is a good two-way rebounder, but that was in the big sky and the whack, not the Big 12. He's very undersized for the five, far too low on skill to even think about the four, and he's a total zero as a rim protector and finisher. Not really any upside because of the lack of size. His 14 points against this Utah team last year was his third highest output of the year. This front court is entirely thin, and it's a bad thing that he's slated for tons of minutes. Close quote. Now, I'd probably push back on this evaluation a little bit, but that's for another day. I'll just say this. I think Malik is going to be better than James was, which I understand that that's a low bar to clear, but his sheer aggressiveness should get him minutes this season and should help Utah on the offensive and defensive glass. Now you don't need him to be a primary or even secondary scorer. So his role is going to be very clear and very defined. And he just needs to go out there and do it. But I don't think that you can teach the level of aggressiveness that he has had, yes, at lower levels, but I don't think you can teach that level of aggressiveness in a player that is a fifth-year senior the way that James Aconquell was last year. So I'm going to push back on that evaluation just a little bit, but there you go. Another not so great evaluation of our new guys. Again, I totally understand what's being said here about all four. And in a vacuum, I might agree, but I suspect that each of these guys is being brought in to play a very specific role on the team. So we'll just have to see how it all plays out. As a curiosity, I looked at how the transfers out of the program were graded. We're not going to go through their evaluations or anything like that, just straight grades here. Terrence Brown was a B, Keanu Dawes was an A minus, Sedu Treore was a C. Jacob Patrick was a B. Get out of here with that. Kendall Sanders was a C minus. Jekai Howard a B plus, and Choppa Moore a B. Again, they're evaluating these guys based on how they fit in their new system, their new team, and their new level. Jekai Howard is at LIU, which is in the NEC conference. Choppa Moore is at McNeese, which is in the Southland. So you have to take that into consideration with these evaluations, but neither of those guys has shown any kind of interest or passion in playing basketball thus far in their careers. Now, for a positive evaluation of one of the guys on our roster, we've got Kevin Sweeney over at SI with his 100 things to know about the 2026 season. And Utah gets one mention in this article at number 52, and it falls under the category of top 10 international prospects. Quote, the hype surrounding Noam Yakov blew up after strong showings in Chicago at the NBA Combine and the G-League Elite Camp, flashing his elite pick and roll playmaking ability and flair as a passer. That came after a monster year with Oostanteed in Belgium. He should be the star of Alex Jensen's second season as head coach at Utah. Close quote. Now, on our last episode, we played John Rothstein's Big 12 Power Rankings, in which he had Utah at the bottom after spending 10 minutes recording a motivational speech to the Cincinnati fan base after picking their team 12th, which was not only unnecessary, but a bit uh what's the word? Self-aggrandizing. On top of that, and I didn't mention this, but it made the rounds on social media. But he put out a graphic ranking the teams in the Big 12 one through 14 in terms of a power rankings. Now, the problem with that, of course, is that there are 16 teams in the Big 12. And so he left Kansas State and Utah off his graphic completely, which was very, very exciting for a number of different fan bases in the Big 12, as you can imagine, primarily BYU fans being right there at the top. Oh, they could not get enough of John Rothstein's graphic, but I digress. So we now have a second offseason look at the Big 12, this time from the Field of 68 podcast. And the natural question here is did Utah fare any better? Well, no. But I'm gonna play a few clips for you here, nonetheless. First up is former basketball coach Norm Roberts on some of the biggest losers this offseason. Take a listen.
SPEAKER_03I thought there were three teams. You look at Colorado, you look at Utah, and then you look at uh K-State. I thought they all brought in good role players, but can those role players step it up in the Big 12? You know, you you're getting guys who average 4.9 a game or 5.6 a game who are probably solid players, but can they step it up and be stars and take you to another level? I think those teams are gonna rely more on their system, the coaching ability, strategy, how you're gonna play, how you're gonna maybe, you know, play against a high-heared team, slow the game down, play the US style. Obviously, Coach Alexander's a great coach. He's gonna get guys that fit his system. Pat Boyle has done it year in and year out where everybody thinks they won't be tough, and they are tough because he does a great job of them. And Coach Jensen is just skinning off this night. He's just starting his career. And it's it's hard to bring in those pieces after you lose so many guys. Like all those schools lost everybody.
SPEAKER_00So a little bit of a mixed bag there from Coach Roberts. He talks about how he felt like Utah added a number of good role players, but no stars, but then adds that teams like Utah are gonna have to rely way more on system and coaching, which I think was always going to be a staple of Alex Jensen's teams. And so, you know, while Utah didn't necessarily add stars, again, under the traditional banner of transfer portal stars, they did add a number of solid players, and there are guys with high upside like a Noam Yakov that may be able to come in here and elevate the entire team. One other clip I wanted to play you from Norm Roberts here. He's talking about Kansas and former running mute, Keanu Dawes, as being an X Factor for the Jayhawks. Take a listen.
SPEAKER_03It's gonna be Keanu Dawes. If Dawes is aggressive, if he's aggressive, he's extremely talented. Extremely talented and unbelievable half leader round the grid. If he's aggressive all the time on both ends of the floor, that's really going to help their team.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Norm. That's basically the book on Keanu Dawes. If he can be aggressive all the time on both ends of the floor, he's got a very high ceiling, but the key is getting him to believe that he can do it. Do I think Bill Self and an Uber talented Kansas team can help with that? I do. But KD still has to make that decision. That is for sure. So then that takes us to Jeff Goodman and his bottom four of the Big 12.
SPEAKER_01I'm going to start with the bottom group of four. Okay, because I think that's the easiest for me to do here. And in whatever order you want to put them, but I'm going to get Utah last, UCF second last, Colorado third, and then Kansas State. Those are my bottom four.
SPEAKER_00Now on the plus side, Goodman and the field of 68 had the decency to at least put Utah on the graphic in the 16 spot versus Rothstein. But still, I think there's two things that we've learned from some of these offseason looks. One, a lot of these folks rightfully spend a ton of time on the top to middle of the league, and they just kind of mail it in on the bottom of the league. Two, Alex Jensen, Wes Wilcox, and everyone involved in the basketball program have a ton of work to do, not only in changing the product on the court, but also changing hearts and minds off of it so that Utah isn't looked at as a team that's not even worth looking into. It's a tall task, to be sure, for Alex Jensen and his staff. So I want to pursue it. Now, one area where Utah appears to be making some inroads is 2027 recruiting. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the guy to go to for deep recruiting insights. There are people who are paid to do that and do it well. Guys like Steve Bartle over at KSL, Sammy Mora, and John Leone over at Ute Zone and a few others. So any recruiting info I share is likely to come from sites that I subscribe to, and the info is out there for everybody to consume. I do my very best to retweet any offers that Utah has out there. But again, that's about it. That said, two recruits recently provided updates on where Utah stands with them. Let's begin with Antonio Pemberton. I quote from Jamie Shaw's recent catch-up with Antonio quote, Antonio Pemberton is ranked the number 45 prospect overall in the 2027 Rivals 150. The six-foot point guard at Masters Academy in Massachusetts played this summer with the Mass Rivals on the Adidas circuit. Pemberton averaged 27.3 points per game on 38.5% shooting from three during the circuit's Palmetto Championships. My relationship with him is really good. Me and Coach Chills call every day. Me and him are very close. It's beautiful out there in Utah. I had never been, so just being in the mountains in that area, it was all really beautiful. Their facilities were amazing. I love their gym. It's kind of an old school gym. So I like that a lot. I want to go to a program that is a family-oriented brotherhood and that is a winning program, close quote. Now, one other thing I'm going to mention here about Pemberton is that he is blowing up right now. He's getting all sorts of big time offers. So we'll see if Utah can hang in there with him. But he's talking about them on a national stage with programs like Michigan State and Kansas and others. So I think that's a very good sign for Utah here being able to stay in the mix with Pemberton all the way to the end of this thing. I don't know if they're going to land him. I don't know how you could have any confidence that they will land him. But again, the perception on the recruiting ranks is beginning to change about Utah basketball. And that's a great place to start. We also got an update on Lone Peak's crew, Fotheringham, who is a four-star prospect according to On3 and Rivals and other sites. And I believe he is the top-rated prospect in the state of Utah. He released his top five on Instagram last week, and it is as follows Utah, Utah State, UCLA, USC, and Arizona State. So in the mix for Fatheringham with a long way to go. All right, when we come back, we will dig in to the Run and Ute's 26-27 non-conference schedule, plus a Rick Majoris anecdote from Seth Davis that you won't want to miss. We'll do all of that right after these words from one of our sponsors. Hey everyone. Well, if you can believe it, we are rounding the corner towards back to school time. And if you've got a husband or dad or son that you want to outfit with something fresh this school year, check out FlyFitT's. 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All right, well, for the first time this offseason, it would appear that a reasonable search for contracts up the U did yield some results as Foya Machine, Alex Rzinski at Whiskey Business on X was able to procure some men's basketball game contracts, which ultimately gave us the final three games of the non-conference slate, as well as a date for the run and mutes game against Washington. We'll start with the final three games that we didn't know about. Utah will open the season on November 2nd against Long Beach State. Best I could find, the last time these two teams met was back in 2000. A game Utah won 61 to 54. Long Beach State is coming off of a 10-22 campaign. We'll talk more about them in just a minute. Utah will also host Portland on December 16th in the Huntsman Center. The pilots and running uts last met in 2011, a 72-67 victory for Utah. And the final new game, the last game before Big 12 play, Utah will host Air Force on December 29th. Now, Utah has a long, long history with Air Force having been conference mates with the Falcons and the Whack and the Mountain West. Utah owns a 15-8 series edge, but those Pesky Falcons are on a two-game heater sweeping Utah back in 2011, which takes us to the only game that we didn't have a date for, but now we do. Utah will host Washington on November 14th. This is a return game of a home and home that will likely be the Run and Ute's fourth game of the season. So that's a nice test right out of the gate for Utah after getting their legs underneath them in a couple of non-conference by games. The Huskies have former Utah assistant Andy Hill on the staff, so it'll be a homecoming of sorts for him. Hill coached at Utah for many, many years under Larry Kriskoviak. The Huskies previously had some other former run-in-utes assistants, but those fellas appear to have moved on. Washington beat Utah last year 74-65 and finished their season 16 and 17. And so now we've got unofficially an entire non-conference schedule for Utah. So let's break the whole thing down. Well, they've got an exhibition at home against Oregon. We don't know the date for that game just yet, but very likely mid-October. Exhibitions on the road at Nevada on October 17th and at UNLV. That's to be determined. And then we get into the regular season slate. As we just mentioned, they will open on November 2nd against Long Beach State in the Huntsman Center. They will then play on November 5th, just a few days later, against Towson out of the CAA. Then on November 10th, they will host Weaver State. On November 14th, the Washington Huskies come to town and their fellow state mates, I guess we would call them, the Eastern Washington Eagles, are in the Huntsman Center on November 17th. So those are the first five games before the multi-team event, the MTE, which is the Charleston Classic, which takes place between November 20th and 22nd. And if you remember from our last episode, we know their opponents, we just don't know which date they will play each team on. They're going to play Minnesota and Virginia Tech in the Charleston Classic. When they get back from the Charleston Classic, they will be at home once again, taking on California in a return game of a home and home on December 2nd. Then on December 9th, they will host Cal Baptist. On December 13th, they'll host Abilene Christian, December 16th, Portland, December 19th, Sam Houston, December 22nd, Southern Utah, then a break for the holidays, and then on December 29th, they will host Air Force during the middle of the week. And then at the end of the week, they will very likely be opening Big 12 play, probably on the road, but I don't know, just a guess. So we're not going to wait until they officially release the schedule. We're going to break this all down now. I've got a few thoughts. As you know, I'm a bit of a scheduling nerd, so how a team puts its schedule together is quite fascinating to me because of what it communicates about the coach's belief in the team, what they're trying to accomplish. So I'm going to give you the raw numbers here for each team from last season. And look, most of these teams are going to have massive turnover. So there's that as well, but you've got to have something to go off of. So we'll jump right in here. November 2nd, Long Beach State. They finished 10-22 last year, ninth out of 11 teams in the Big West. They were 257 in the net, 233 at Ken Palm, and 252 at Torvik. This is a program that was breaking in a new coach last year after firing longtime head coach Dan Monson, who ended up at Eastern Washington, also on Utah's schedule, but we'll get there. Also, they are no longer called the 49ers. How about that? They are now just called the beach. November 5th against Towson. Towson finished 19-15 last year and seventh of 13 teams in the CAA. They were 160 in the net, 157 at Ken Palm, and 174 at Torvik. If they could hang on to those numbers this season, that could be a very tricky second game for this run-in-utes team that's trying to pull a bunch of different pieces together. November 10th against Weaver State finished 16-16 last year and sixth of 10 teams in the big sky. They were 203rd in the net, 202 at Ken Palm, 209 at Torvik. This will be the second straight season that Utah and Weeber State square off. And we all remember what happened last year. Don McHenry at the buzzer to force overtime and Utah hanging on in the extra period. The Wildcats will have a new leader on the bench as Caleb Canales takes over for Eric Duft. So it'll be interesting to see what he brings to the table. Like our coach, he has got a ton of NBA experience and credentials. November 14th against the Washington Huskies. They finished 16-17 last year and 7-13 in the Big Ten, which was good for 13th in that league. They were 55 in the net, 52 at Kenpom, and 53 at Torvik. They lost Hans Steinbach to the NBA draft, and they had some other turnover as well. This will be Danny Sprinkle's third season at Washington, and he's yet to have a winning record. So there's some real pressure on the Huskies heading into this season. Regardless, this is likely a quad two game in your building and a real chance to make some noise early on against another Power 5 opponent. For what it's worth, the Huskies were picked 14th by John Rothstein in his Big Ten offseason breakdown. No word on whether or not they made the graphic, but I'm guessing that they did. November 17th against Eastern Washington. They finished 14 and 19 last year, third in the Big Sky Conference. They were 204 in the net, 171 at Ken Palm, and 158 at Torvik. And then we get to our Charleston games. We'll start with Minnesota. The Golden Gophers finished 15 and 18 in year one under Nico Medved, who came over from Colorado State the previous offseason. That was good for 11th in the Big Ten and earned them a trip to the college basketball crown, where they lost a fellow Big 12 team Baylor. Minnesota was 82 in the net, 82 at Kenpon, and 61 at Torvik. The Gophers return 53.7% of their scoring production from last season per John Rothstein, but were picked 15th in his Big Ten offseason preview. So just a spot behind the Washington Huskies. Remember, there's 18 teams in that league. So that takes us to the other team that we will face in Charleston, unless something changes. Virginia Tech. The Hokies finished 19 and 13 last year and 11th in a less than stellar ACC. They too have a big chunk of their production returning from last season, 39% of their scoring production. That's third most in the ACC, which may mean that this is a hot seat year for their head coach, Mike Young, who has gone four straight seasons without an NCAA tournament bid. Can you imagine going four seasons without making the NCAA tournament? How embarrassing. They finished 56th in the net, 60 at Ken Palm, and 58 at Torvik. I don't know if we've got an official preseason ranking from Rothstein or the Goodmans of the World on where they would sit in the ACC, but I did see one that had the Hokies as high as sixth. So this could be a very good team in what is likely a tournament or bust year for Mike Young. December 2nd against California. The Bears finished 22-12 last year, with one of those wins being over our beloved Renan Newt. It's a nine and nine in ACC play, which was good for ninth. They were largely considered to be a bubble team for a good portion of the season, but ended up in the NIT where they won their first game but lost their second. They finished 72 in the net, 75 at Ken Palm, and 73 at Torvik. I will have more on the Bears in just two shakes of a lamb's tail. December 9th against Cal Baptist. This is another repeat opponent from last season. The Lancers finished 25-9 last year, which was good for second in the whack. They knocked off Utah Valley in the conference tournament title game to get to the NCAA tournament. So Jackson Holcomb should have revenge on the mind when they visit Salt Lake City this year. They lost to Kansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament and subsequently lost their coach, Rick Croy, who had been with the program for 13 seasons. He is now going to be an assistant at Arizona State with Randy Bennett. They finished 98 in the net, 105 at Ken Palm, and 105 at Torvik. But I would expect this to be a total rebuild there in Riverside, California. They also moved to the Big West this offseason along with Utah Valley and Sacramento State. December 13th, against Abilene Christian. They finished 14 and 19 in the whack, which was good for dead last in that now defunct conference, which will now be called the United Athletic Conference moving forward. They were 248 in the net, 245 at Ken Palm, and 259 at Torvik. December 16th against Portland. They finished 15 and 19 last season, which was good for 10th in the 12-team West Coast Conference. They were 223 in the net, 206 at Ken Palm, and 205 at Torvik. December 19th against Sam Houston, yet another repeat opponent from a season ago. The Bearcats put a bit of a scare into the running Utes in route to a 22-12 season and a second place finish in Conference USA. They played in the NIT but lost in the first round. They were 109 in the net, 111 at Ken Palm, and 109 at Torvik. December 22nd against Southern Utah. The T Birds finished 10-22 last season, which was good for fifth in the whack. Don't get too excited because that was just a seven-team league. They were 272 in the net, 252 at Ken Palm, and 271 at Torvik. And then finally, December 29th against Air Force, our former Mountain West foe who finished last season 3-29 and 0-20 in Mountain West play. Not very good. Yeah, not a typo or a misprint. Big time yikes. That abysmal season led to the dismissal of head coach Joe Scott as well as the athletic director. The Falcons finished 350th in the net out of 365 teams. They were 345 at Ken Palm and 343 at Torvik. Not very good. Hopefully they've got nowhere to go but up. But man alive, what a rough season for the Flyboys. So there you go. The unofficial 14-game non-conference slate for the running uts this 26-27 season. I've got some thoughts. First, I'll just say I know scheduling is difficult. I'm not going to pretend like it isn't. However, my immediate thought about this schedule is that it gives Utah absolutely no margin for error. You've got 14 games, and only four of them are against Power 5 teams. Now, a couple of these by games could move from a quad four territory into a quad three territory like a few did last year, but that ultimately doesn't matter. Like, I don't think it's going to really do anything for you. You're going to have beaten who you were supposed to beat. And when people look at your 14-game non-conference schedule, they're going to be like, my gosh, that's the sisters of the poor outside of a couple of power five teams. And so Utah is really going to have to do well against that schedule. My next thought about the schedule is that it in no way prepares the team for Big 12 play. Like none of these guys on the team this year have gone through the Big 12 grind. And there's a very real possibility that Utah wraps up the non-con against a terrible Air Force team and then has to go right to Lubbock or Tucson or Boulder. How are they possibly going to be ready for those Hornets nests when they've not given themselves any real tests in the non-con? They had a real opportunity here to have two Power Five home games, two neutral power five games, and two road power five games, or at least another neutral power five game, and they elected not to do that, which just in my humble estimation is not wise. As an aside to that, it doesn't tell me that they feel like they're ready to compete for anything. I mean, look, it's not vastly different than BYU's schedule or Kansas State's schedule or Iowa State schedule. But as I said before, they can't have close games against any of these teams like they did last year, or they'll be in the exact same position metrics-wise as they were last year. Now, again, I get that you got to try to schedule some wins and give the team an opportunity to gel and build some momentum, but I'm just not sure you're gonna learn much about the group on the whole with this non-conference slate. Let me play a clip for you of Dan Hurley, Yukon coach, talking about scheduling. And I'm playing it with the understanding that Yukon is Yukon and Utah is Utah at this very moment. But this comes to us from the Ion College basketball podcast's summer shoot around series with Matt Norlander. Take a listen.
SPEAKER_02I actually, the the scheduling thing really for me was like uh, you know, like we you don't know what the league's gonna look like. You know, like you don't know what that, I mean, we we've obviously um, you know, I I think we're we're coming off of a year or two where you know we haven't had probably the volume of quad one, quad two games in Big East conference play, right? So that I think, you know, it was a reason why we've been a little bit more, you know, we've been more aggressive with the non-conference schedule, although I do believe this year it's gonna be a much stronger league. I think the new hires and the commitments the program's made are gonna make the the conference you know play a lot more difficult. And uh so that's part of it. I mean, the other part of it too is it's dollars and cents, really. I mean, it costs you money uh to pay uh a low major or a mid-major to come and play you uh at home, right? It costs you money to to pay them to come play you, whereas when you play one of these big non-conference games, you make money. And now that we're paying the players, now that we're in web share, you know, it makes sense for us as coaches to play games that are going to not cost your school money, but make money for your school so that the coaches and the players, you know, are you bringing in revenue, not taking money away from the school. So I I don't, you know, like You don't get penalized for losing games uh like the ones that we're gonna embark on in a non conference. You know, like you don't you don't have to win every one of them. You just gotta win your fair share of them. If you do that, you put yourself in great position, not only getting in the tournament, but from a seating standpoint. So uh you you obviously gotta believe in your team, but you know, I hate coaching buy games. I'm I I feel worse the day I wake up to play those. Um because you you know you're worried about motivating your team and and these guys could be sleepwalking, or the fans at home gonna be brutal and disinterested. You know, I'll take those those seven games uh over the by games anyway.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, a couple of things here. In the NIL era, you should be looking for opportunities to make money, not spend money. Again, I'm sure arenas around the country are far more interested in playing Yukon for games than Utah, but I don't think it's a huge stretch to think that Utah could get a game in Vegas or downtown Salt Lake again or someplace like that, play away from home, get a couple of neutral games, and give yourself just a little bit better opportunity and maybe make some money versus spending the money, which if you add up those, I mean, what what essentially amounts to 10 buy games at home, if you figure that they're you know $90,000, $95,000 in that range, you're talking about a million bucks at the end of the day that you're spending on these buy games where there may have been some opportunities, or you could have explored some opportunities to make some money rather than just pushing money out the door for what you hope to be easy wins, but you never know. He hates buy games. That makes sense. A lot of downside there if you don't play well, or heaven forbid, lose to hello, Cal Poly. Finally, you aren't gonna be penalized for playing tough games. I think this is the big one for me. If you've got a schedule that's just a little bit more balanced and even a little tougher, you're not gonna get penalized for losing to good teams. But I've never been a fan of the scared scheduling model that seems to have been adopted up on the hill and has now gone through three different coaching staffs. So, you know, again, a lot more time to break this down, especially once we get a better idea of what the rosters are gonna look like for all of these teams. But yeah, 14 games, four against the power five, those games are critically important for Utah. So we'll just have to see here how they end up doing. Long way to go before we get there. But hit me with your thoughts over on X at Run and Hoops Pod on what you think of this schedule. I can tell you the national guys think very little of it. Now, one of the things that would help Utah in terms of getting wins would be beating teams that are expected to take a step back. And Tristan Freeman over at Hoops HQ has put together a list of 10 teams that are likely to take a step back, and a couple of them just happen to fall on Utah's schedule. First up, the Cal Bears. Their 25-26 record, 22 and 12, 9-9 in the ACC. Here is what Freeman had to say about Cal. Quote, the Bears overachieved last season thanks to successful transfer pickups, with four players averaging 13.8 or more points per game. All of them are gone, and the incoming portal class leaves a lot to be desired on paper. Their top scorer looks to be six foot three sophomore guard Michael Cooper, who averaged 13.4 points per game at Wright State. Coach Mark Madsen has done a good job overall at Cal, but barring some unexpected breakout production, there's a good chance they're going to take a fall down the ACC standings. So again, Cal is in the Huntsman Center on December 2nd. Am I going to call that a must-win here in July? Yeah, I think I am. You gotta beat the Bears in that game on December 2nd. The other team of note for purposes of this conversation, the UCF Golden Knights. Their 25-26 record was 21-12. They were 9-9 in the Big 12. Quote, all four double-digit scores are gone from last year's NCAA tournament team, leaving a new crop of projected featured players to watch. One is Dior Johnson, a six foot-three senior guard who averaged just 2.9 points per game at UCF two seasons ago, but is coming off of a 24-point per game campaign at Tarleton State as its sixth man. But can the Knights be a postseason team if Johnson is their best player? Close quote. So those are the two on Utah's current schedule that are noteworthy. You think we need one more?
unknownAll right, we'll get one more.
SPEAKER_00Ah, yes, the Utah State Aggies are friends to the North. Their 25-26 record, 29-7, 15-5 in the Mountain West. Quote, the Aggies are in a similar situation to St. Mary's, losing their head coach this offseason. Yes. New head coach Ben Jacobson brought back Mountain West Player of the Year and 6'3 senior guard Mason Falsliff, 16 points per game. But the move to the Pac-12 makes things harder for the program, which now has to play against Zaga at least twice. Utah State should still be in the postseason mix, but winning close to 30 games is unlikely. Close quote. So yeah, the Aggies are going to be a fascinating team to watch here this season. Mason Falslev is legit and may easily have the title this season of the best player from the state of Utah in college hoops. But can Ben Jacobson keep things going up there in Logan? That is indeed the question. All right, one last thing to get to here on our way out the door. Seth Davis over at Hoops HQ has put out a new series of articles called That Time When. And it's just basically stories from his career and his times in college basketball. And the first article he put out was called That Time When Rick Majoris Bared All. My relationship with the brilliant coach began with a memorable encounter in the Salt Lake City hotel room he called home. So this is not very long, so I'm just going to read the whole thing to you. It's behind a paywall at Hoops HQ, but I pay for it. So I'm just going to share with the audience here. It was the fall of 1996, and I was in my second year on staff at Sports Illustrated. My job title was Reporter, which put me at the bottom of the editorial totem poll. But I was on the poll, damn it. And though I spent most of my time fact-checking other people's stories, once in a while I drew a really cool writing assignment. Now for the first time, an assignment required me to get on an airplane. The destination, Salt Lake City. The assignment, preview the Utah Utes. The target, Rick Majeris. It was a big target, literally and figuratively. Majoris was 5'10, and if he wasn't 400 pounds, he was very much in the neighborhood. He was also a brilliant basketball coach who was entering his seventh season as the head coach at Utah. The Utes were coming off of a sweet 16, and with many of their top players returning, they had high expectations, hence my trip to Salt Lake City. Majoris was not only a big target, but a moving one as well. He was energetic, distracted, and hard to pin down. He was also charismatic, funny, mercurial, and always hungry. A lot of coaches say they live for the game, but Majaris took that to extremes. He wasn't married and had no children. He didn't even have a house, a condo, or an apartment. His full-time residence was the Salt Lake City Marriott. He must have accumulated more Marriott points than any human in history. I landed in Salt Lake City, picked up my rental car, and drove straight to campus where the youths were having practice. It was amazing watching the man work. Over the years, I've watched more practices than I could count, but I don't know that I saw any other head coach master the craft like Majeris. He was intense, insightful, and really, really tough. His appearance was unkempt, his language salty. After practice, I watched him conduct a video session and I was mesmerized. It was like he had his own language. I had never met Majaris before, and I assumed I was all set up to interview him, but after I met with a couple of players, I approached the big man in the hallway. I'm sorry, but I'm going to the jazz game, he said. You're only going to use a few sentences, right? How about I just give you a few sentences? Well, I demured. I came a long way to see you. I was kind of hoping for a little more than that. Tell you what, Majoris said. I've got to go home and get changed for the game. Why don't you ride with me and we'll talk along the way? Sounds great. I said, Thank you, coach. You're Jewish, right? Yes. You want a bagel? No thanks. We walked out of the arena and climbed into Majaris's SUV. I turned on my tape recorder and we talked on the short drive to the hotel. We continued the interview as we entered the lobby, rode the elevator, and entered Rick's room. You might think he had a palatial penthouse, but it was just a standard suite with a bedroom, living room, and bathroom. Rick was still in his Utah practice gear when we got into the room. He continued to talk about his team as he unzipped his jacket and removed it. He kept right on talking as he took off his shoes and socks and then his shirt, his pants, his shorts, and finally his underwear. There stood Rick Majoris, a man in full. Gee, I hope I'm not embarrassing you, he said. Not at all, coach, I replied. That was the truth. It was unexpected, to be sure, but as we say in the journalism dodge, I was getting good shit. Majaris kept right on yapping while he showered and got dressed for the game. I walked out with him, watched him get into his car, and thanked him for his time. That was my most memorable encounter with Majeris, with just about anyone, really, but fortunately it was not my last. I had lots of reasons to talk to Majeris over the years that followed, not the least of which was his teams were always good. Rick was generous with his time, his insights, and his company. There was nothing like walking into a restaurant with Majeris and his pals and spending the next couple of hours stuffing our faces and talking ball. When the waiter came over, he would always say, just keep bringing us food, I'll tell you when to stop. When you were around Rick, you laughed a lot, you learned a lot, and you ate a lot. Majeris was a classic Faustapian character and a man of many dimensions. He was not easy to play for, however. For all his shtick, he could berate his players with the best of them. Quite a few did not like him, and many did not stay with him. Those who did got a coach for life. Majoris's single-minded devotion to the game was not always healthy for him, but it was the only way he knew how to do the job. The game consumed him just as he consumed everything else. Majoris left Utah in 2004 claiming he needed to take care of his personal health. Later that year, he accepted the USC job after the school fired coach Henry Bibby mid-season. He held a press conference, but a few days later he backed out, again, citing his health. He spent three years working for ESPN before taking over at St. Louis in 2007. He left that job five years later, and in 2012, he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Majaris was a brilliant coach and one of the most interesting people I've been around. That story in his hotel room has been my go-to after dinner speech story for years, and it crushes every time. That day served as my welcome to journalism moment, but it was also the start of a beautiful friendship. It was an image I can't unsee and an encounter I won't ever forget, nor would I want. Whatever anyone might say about Rick Majoris, it was refreshing to be around someone who had nothing to hide. I miss the big guy. So there you go. A very interesting, uh entertaining and colorful anecdote there about Rick Majeris from Seth Davis. This again serves as a great reminder if you haven't jumped into the My Life on a Napkin recording that I did a year ago. Get in on that. It's an entire reading by me of his book that he wrote. It chronicles his life, his career, and the final four-run that he did with the Run and Utes. That was certainly a labor of love for me. That is for sure. Anytime we can get some good Rick Majoris stories, we will take them. But that's gonna do it for this episode of the Run and Hoops Podcast. I want to thank you as always for listening. Please give me a follow over on X at Run and Hoops Pod. Let me know what you think of Utah's schedule this year and anything that you've heard on the podcast. But more importantly, please rate, review, and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get a podcast. Of course, you can support our efforts over on Venmo at Runin' Hoops. But until next time, I'm Andrew Crowley. This is the Run and Hoops Podcast. And as always, go you know,