Jamal Shead was at my work today for a photo shoot for a new NIL deal that he just signed. After he finished the photo shoot, I was on the sideline and he came over and we started talking. At one point, I was just picking his brain about Big12 basketball.

I asked him who the toughest matchup is in the conference (neutral court). He said BYU is their toughest matchup because of the style of offense that they run. He said it is really tough to prepare for them on a short week because you can’t apply prep that you have done for other teams. He gave the example of transition defense where you are taught to protect the key and not give up layups. BYU doesn’t go for layups, they want to shoot the three. He then smiled and said every single player on the court will make the shot too. He also said that they were lucky to have a whole week to prepare for BYU.

I asked him who the biggest trash talker is. He didn’t really have anyone come to mind. He said that no one really talks trash to him because he grew up playing with or against a lot of the players. He finally said a player from Kansas State (I didn’t recognize the name). #5 on their team.

I asked him which away game is the toughest in the conference, and he said Kansas. I asked him if he saw BYU won there last night and he said he did see that. He wasn’t surprised because one of their starters was out. He said Kansas has four really good players but didn’t have a strong bench.

I asked him who he would play for if he didn’t play for coach Samson. He said Colorado State. He really liked their coaching staff and that they recruited him heavily out of high school.

Overall he was a really nice guy! He took time to get pictures with a lot of the people there, and was genuine and down to earth.

I wished him luck the rest of the way and told him to take it easy on “my Cougars” if they play again.