Utah Jazz Coach Will Hardy’s Viral Timeout Rant | BYU Wild Comeback at MSG | Jake & Ben
Where are you at on uh on leaked recordings of people? Oh, I love it. Yeah. Are you Are you good with it? Morally speaking, you’re all right with it. Um no. And in fact, as somebody who does this quite often, you know, uh I I tell I have to tell somebody like I interviewed an artist. The Jazz basketball thing was on on display uh during the Cup games recently and I you know, I called him and said, “Hey, just so you know, I’m I have to let you know I’m recording this.” I talked to some people. Yeah. I just I so I I have to play above what’s the word I’m looking for? Above the uh I don’t even know the word I’m looking for. Uh I I have to make sure I I’m not uh playing underhanded here recording people’s conversations. Uh well Pat Craft, the athletic director at Penn State, was was talking to the football team. Uhhuh. And someone recorded it and then leaked it. Uhhuh. And then he was he had to apologize for it at the introductory press conference to uh uh for Matt Campbell. Now, I’m not really comfortable with leaked recordings either. However, I I do find this interesting because he spits some truth and puts a lot of other universities on blast. Okay, which is kind of funny. Uh here’s the quote from the recording. I’ll just I’ll just read it and I’ll have to censor some of it later on. says, ‘I want you all to know this, too. If I don’t get this right, speaking of the coaching hire, if I don’t get this right, my career is over. Understand that. If I don’t hire the right person, my career is over. So, it’s very serious to me. If I don’t hire the right person in two years, they will fire my ass and I don’t get another ad job. How could you bleep up Penn State? Yeah. And then he goes on to say, Michigan bleeping stinks. Bleeping joke. cheated their bleep off. Whoa. And then it says, “That’s real, by the way, what they did.” And he says, “Oregon bleep quarterback was shaking in overtime, but we have to win those bleeping games.” And it comes uh with you guys and a plan and a strategy to go and bleep and beat Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman. Bleep them and then go and beat Ohio State in the national championship game. In another part of the recording, he also called Oregon or basically Eugene quote a bunch of exploitative weirdos. And then that uh that was leaked and he had to apologize and uh Dan Lanning actually responded to it in kind of a funny way. Let me bring that up. Dan Lanning, the head coach of the Ducks. I just think you kind of have to assume that you’re going to be recorded, especially if there are is more than one person there. Uh Landing said no response. Pat’s trying to do the best job he can for Penn State, but I heard it. It was good.” I had the same somewhat dilemma and I got asked about it in my mailbag, so I wrote about it. Uh, and it’s up at kslports.com right now of what should Jazz fans make of the Will Hardy viral video of him yelling at his team to bleeping play harder. And it wasn’t just that. What was your response? The fact that he did it in public makes it fair game, right? And that actually if you’ve been to a lot of games, it’s not uncommon. And in fact, as we said, Jerry Sloan could, you know, lace it together with the best of them. So, this is language that is, I guess, appropriate in that environment. You know, it’s not something I would ever say to you or anything like that, but it’s not uncommon that that happened there. But, I also felt a little weird to be behind a bench recording it with a phone, tweeting it out. I did. It did irk me for some reason, even though I think it’s totally legitimate. Will Hardy’s It It goes back to your New York Post. If you don’t want it in this on page six, don’t do it. Think Will Hardy doesn’t want that to end up on video. Oh, he did it in front of 20,000 people. Yeah, that’s totally unwill. So, I have no problem with the kid actually recording it and posting it. But I do think it you should have some context of like, yeah, that is how people talk, especially in this this this world. Well, that’s not news to anybody. Apparently, it was because it goes viral, right? Like apparently it does something where it’s it it feels like a break in the pattern enough that people wanted to see it. Well, yeah, because it’s watching a coach Mother Goose’s team over and over again is salacious. That’s why it went viral. Anybody’s surprised that a coach would be cursing his team? I I I don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s why it went viral. I would hope not. I mean, I think it went viral because it got caught on video. Okay. I think that’s fair from that close and you could hear it that I don’t think that’s no different than most huddles in the NBA. I would agree. At least at some point. Mhm. during the season with some coaches. I don’t know why Jazz fans would even care. No, because it didn’t go viral cuz like, oh, look at the shame on this coach. It went viral cuz like look at this maniac angry coach. Yeah, there’s also context of them being a bad basketball. Yeah. Yeah, there is. There there’s more to it. But I I initially when I got the question, I was a little irked almost to write about it of like it felt almost like you were breaking the code of what you were recording and you’re not. He’s doing it publicly. So, it’s totally fair game, but it’s not like he was abusing anybody, I don’t think. No, not at all. Maybe verbally a little bit, but that’s come to you’re come to expect that with sports. I think that’s not outside the bounds for most people. 100%. How about that comeback last night? Huh? The great Cougar comeback of 2025. No, you have to say the great Cougar comeback again cuz that’s all this team. The great Cougar comeback again. Another great Cougar comeback. That’s all they do is make these just crazy wild comebacks at the end after just dreadful first halfs. I mean, it’s I don’t know, Ben, are they playing with their food? Is it I think a little bit. Yeah, I think they’re slow to get off the mat. Um, it’s amazing. Look, being able to do this is a good thing. I’m not trying to say that that’s not accurate. Like, not hanging your head, not allowing a 20point lead or a nine point. Was it 21 last night or 23? I think it was Was that it? Whatever it was. Yeah. What? Not allowing these deficits to bury you. It was 21 at a half. Okay. Is a good thing. I think it got up to 22 in the second half, but neither here nor there. Um, not allow not giving up when you you’re down this big is a good thing and ideally can uh develop some muscle. And Clemson’s a fine team. It’s not the best of the Big 12, but it’s a fine team. Yeah, it’s a it’s a competitive team. They did the same thing with Yukon. They ended up only losing by two. It’s their only loss of the season. You just got to be careful doing this though, you know, because eventually you are going to run into teams that don’t give up these leads once they build them. Houston’s not going to give up this lead. Iowa State’s not going to give up this lead. Arizona’s not going to give up this lead. And other good Big 12 schools probably will not give up this type of lead. So, yes, it’s amazing they can do it. It’s awesome that AJ Debons are so talented that he can have 22 points in the second half after a bit of a slow start himself. Kada is incredible. He’s just a really valuable player to have. It’s nice that you can win without Richie Saunders playing great. was he two of 11 last night. Not shoot well at all. Not his night. Um so if you can do that, that’s excellent. And then the fact that I think Rob Wright’s probably been better than I had expected shooting the heck out of the ball, which was his big issue with Baylor. He really loved to dribble and he really loved to shoot and he wasn’t great at shooting. He’s done a much better job of that. So his growth is has been really important. Well, a gamewinning three is pretty good. Hitting a buzzer beater at MSG, right? To to win it is pretty awesome. So that No, that’s great. They are what are they nine and one now on the season. Yeah. I just wonder if it’s a sign they’re vulnerable cuz they’re not going to be able to get away with that stuff. I mean, they’re playing good teams, so maybe they will, but I would imagine on a night in and night out basis in the Big 12, you’re not going to get away with giving up big leads and then reeling them back in in the second half. So, totally. I don’t know if that’s a sign of weakness or a sign of Again, it’s better to be able to come back than not. Sure. But you would rather not have to come back. You don’t want to be down 20 twice already in the year with the top 10 team in the country. You want to outscore them 45 to 21 in the first half. Yeah. Yep. And put them away because they will quit. Yeah. Right. Uh BYU’s next four games or nothing. Kind of wrapping up the end of the uh December schedule. And then you start getting into Big 12 play, which will get very interesting.
Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy went viral after cameras caught him unloading on his team during a timeout during the Jazz’s 131-101 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jake & Ben react to the clip, debate whether fans and media should be allowed to record these moments, and explain why the video blew up across social media.
Jake & Ben also break down BYU’s 67–64 comeback win at Madison Square Garden, including AJ Dybantsa’s massive second half, Rob Wright’s growth, and what these slow starts mean heading into Big 12 play.
Topics Discussed:
🔥 Will Hardy’s viral timeout rant
🏀 Why the Jazz clip took off online
🔵 BYU’s 21-point comeback at MSG
🌟 AJ Dybantsa’s dominant second half
🎯 Early concerns for BYU heading into conference play
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