Larry Jewell

3, 2, 1. That was Dixie versus Snow again. Coach Neil Roberts. That's always kind of an anxious night. It sure is. It doesn't matter what the win loss records are or what the situation is. Whenever Dixie Snow play, it's a lot of fun. Dixie's got the championship wrapped up. Snow may or may not be going to the regionals. Well, that's hard to say. It depends on a lot of different circumstances. But at the present time it looks like Bricks will be second in the conference. Yet they're in our region. So the possibility of either a tie with Trade Tech and Snow, depending on who wins and who loses, even an outside chance of Snow and ceu. If CEU can pull off the Miracle and sweep both on the road, that would be. That would be a miracle. Your ball club is playing as well as it has all year. Last couple of weeks we have. In fact, the last month we already played quite well and we're shooting the ball well. We're quick, we're aggressive or intense and they worked hard and deserved that and I really feel comfortable with them right now. Hopefully it will carry into the night. I was checking back through the records. 5, 7 over the first 12 games, 103 over the last 13 games, and you have a four game winning streak, your longest of the year so far. Well, we, I hate to say this, but early in the year we were playing outstanding basketball teams and were playing well at the time. And when you play outstanding basketball teams consistently and especially consistently on the road, it's really difficult to have a string of wins tied together. Yet we are starting to play well and I think that experience of having played those team early is starting to play off the road victories. Last week it was a case of Dixie really just demolishing the other teams doing everything both ends of the court. Well, we shot the ball extremely well and everyone was playing, everyone was contributing. It wasn't one or two guys trying to carry the basketball team. It was a total team effort. Whenever you get that type of closeness, that type of relationship with the players, usually you have that situation. I was surprised we scored so many points because on the road sometimes it's difficult to do that. Earlier this year you came up with your first victory at Ephraim since you've been a coach at Dixie. Now coming back this way, you have a chance to sweep the two. Well, last year we got swept. They won both ball games. They beat us here early in the year and of course later on in the year they beat us up there. And this would even out the series since I've been coaching here at Dixie. Excellent program. We can expect one of our hardest, toughest basketball games tonight. Ronnie Baglin has great respect among the coaches as far as his technical ability. Yes, he has and always will have. He gets the most out of his players. He puts the emphasis on the part of his game that it takes to win and at times isn't the flashiest situation. In other words, 20 foot jump shot doesn't work in Abe Aikelin's offense yet that usually doesn't work with a winning team anyway. And they play aggressive on the boards, they play aggressive defensively and that's what it really takes to be a winner. Some of the individual matchups tonight, Dixie versus Snow, how do you look at it? Well, I don't know who Snow's going to start. In fact, I don't even know who they're going to play because they have played a lot of different people. They've started a lot of different people in their last three ball games. So as far as matchups are concerned, it's hard to say because they'll be moving people in, out so much. I would imagine he'll go with these older kids that have had experience because of the importance of the ball game to him, which will put Applegate in the center against Lyles and Lyles didn't have an opportunity to play much against Snow. It was his first game back after sitting out for six weeks and didn't really play very well. But I'm sure that he'll be a different basketball player tonight. Tim Fulmer will probably go against Miller and Miller is having a good second half of the year. And then Chris McMullen and Greg Hill and that's a pretty good matchup as well. Guard, line. I imagine they'll go with McClary and we'll match up Benson with that and Bernardo will be the other guard and we'll match up Tarkanian with that. Chris McMullen did a super job against Greg Hill at Ephraim Hill. Hardly even got the basketball, got no points. Well, at the time I believe he was averaging 13, 14 points a ballgame and he shut him out and that's all you can ask. And I really think that Chris is one of the more accomplished freshman basketball junior college players in the United States. He's had a pretty consistent year. He struggled a little offensively early, but that struggle seems to be over. Hopefully it carries us through tonight and also through the playoffs because Chris is the reason we're playing a great deal better right now. Dixie Snow, obviously you want to go 9:1 on this season. You'd like to get the victory against Snow. What other things do you want to have come out of this ball game in preparation for the regionals? Well, I think that preparation for the regionals at this stage, it used to be way back, I don't know how far back, but I used to hear this when I was younger as a player, not necessarily as a coach. They'd say, well, sometimes a loss just before the state tournament is good because it wakes your team. I find it difficult to realize how a loss is beneficial. You can learn a lot by not playing well if you play well enough to win. I think loss is a very negative thing, and I don't want to go into our regional play, which I feel like we have a legitimate chance to win this year in Arizona with any negative feelings. And that's why this ball game is so important here tonight for people looking ahead. Apparently it will be from all four corners of Arizona, the matchup that begins tonight. Well, that's exactly true. You have Masons, Mesa, you have Central, you have Eastern and Western. Now, that's really covering it. But they play the first round tonight and it's Mesa against Central, Eastern against Western, and fortunately only two of those will go, so the winners will go tomorrow, and we'll have an opportunity to go down and watch that play. But it's being played at Mesa, so they've got to be considered the favorite. Who do you look to be right off the top of your head to be the second team? I would say Western. They finished second in their conference. And personally, I'm against playoffs such as that. I know it's becoming a trend and I don't know if we can stay away from it. But you work for three months to win your conference, then you have to go put it on the line again. And last year, down in the region play, Pima finished first, Central finished second, Mesa was third and Yavapai was fourth. It ended up the first two teams were Mesa and Yavapai, and Yavapai ended up fourth in nation and won it all. So you can really. It's a good incentive for the teams on the bottom, but I don't think it's a positive thing for the thing with the team on the top because they can lose so much after so hard of effort to get there. Your ball club preparing for this game tonight? The kid's attitude, have you been able to sense it very much? Well, it's a loose basketball team and they Continue to stay loose and I don't want to change that. We had an excellent week practice and that's usually indicative of their attitude towards basketball game. They realize the significance of it. You know, we as people from Dixie and also, you know, being from Southern Utah, you realize the importance of the Dixie Snow matchup. But most of our players are freshmen. We only have one player that returned off of last year team. So the rivalry really isn't such. I don't think they felt it that much in the snowball game up there, which is probably to our benefit. But I think that through the course of the year and also the feeling in St. George now that they realize that this is what it all is. In fact, one of our players said, I can't believe this community. As far as the community is concerned, the whole year is based on one game. And that's probably true with a lot of people. The pressure is there. Yes, it is, always will be. Whenever these two teams match up, it will always be there. Coach Neil Roberts, good luck tonight. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Larry. We're talking with Snow College head basketball coach Ronnie Veglin. Coach, this year a little bit of a disappointment for you. Well, our overall record is decent, but you know, our conference games, we've had a chance to win all of the ones we've lost and we just haven't been able to pull it off. And it's been different things at different times. So yeah, the conference is a disappointment to us. This is one of those seasons that produces ultras then so close. Well, I don't know. I think I've been in it long enough that I can roll with the punches and realize that sometimes that happens. It seems like it happens to all coaches and all programs and I guess it's our turn. Your ball club. Let's evaluate some of the ball players this year. Brian McCleary, back off of Mission, super athlete. Well, Brian is a super athlete and he was a great player for us before he left on his mission, but he come back at about 10 pounds lighter and then early in the year he sprained both ankles and had a hamstring pull. And he's just getting back to the point now where he's maybe ready to play. Mike Bernardo, a good shooting guard last year. Mike is doing a good job. He's making baskets for us. He struggled with his ball handling at times, but he's a good solid guard and he always gives that threat of the breakaway speed up front. Your size isn't quite as big as last year, but you still have some good ball players. We've been happy with the way Brett Applegate's come along and Dave Miller from Manti has done a good job. And then we've used Greg Hill and Mark Sindel in that small forward role. And yes, it is a smaller team than what we've had in the past. Greg has shown a good shooting touch again like he had with Gunnison. Greg is very effective against zones. We use him against zone defenses to shoot and he's a. He's probably our best shooter at 17ft. Your ball club, bench wise, you look at it, how do you evaluate? Well, I think we've got one of the best benches in the conference. We've been able to take our bench and put them in a ball game. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I started them for two ball games and they played very well and we won the ball game. So maybe I'm just playing the wrong players. A couple of ballplayers that did very well against Dixie and E from Mark Sindel, Mark Lee, they're both good athletes, they're both good players and they're good solid kids and they're doing us a good job. And when they get it going, they're hard to handle. Your ball clip matching up against Dixie, how do you look at it tonight? Well, you know, I don't know if we can match up with Dixie. They're a little bigger with Ken Lyles, of course, and Fulmer's a tough player to handle. Defensively, we'll struggle matching them up. Tarkanian's a hard guard to handle. He's a hard working guard. He drives well. That's our biggest problem with Dixie is we can shoot it well enough most games, but defensively we'll probably have a tough time with Dixie. There is still an outside opportunity. I know this is something you don't like to think about, ending up in a tie for that second position in the regional playoffs. Do you know what would be taking place if there should happen to be a tie between Snow in either Utah Tech or ceu? Well, it just depends on what happens this week. If Dixie beats us and Provo Tech was to win both ball games, Provo Tech would tie up with us. If CEU is to win both ball games this weekend and they're capable, then they would tie it up. So, yeah, I don't like to think about it. I think the decision is going to be made Sunday morning. If it isn't a tie, then Sunday morning we'll decide what's going to happen Monday. Would you prefer a playoff? Oh, I think I would because the main, the main reason we're just like everybody else. We have a financial crunch going on. And if we were to have a playoff game, say, in, in a Sanpeque county area, we could maybe make 7, $800, maybe $1,000 to travel to Arizona. If, if Provo Tech was to beat us in a playoff, they could have the money to go because, you know, it's, it's tough to find money to make those trips. Your ball clip tonight, how will you start? Well, we're going to go with Mike Bernardo and Brian McClary on the guard line. We're going with Brett Applegate and Dave Miller and Mark Sindel. Coach Ronne Beglin, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thanks. We'll need it.