Steve Bravera and Jay Gonzalez. They have their eye on the ball on tucsum
Sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeart radio.
Wam Hey, welcome back to on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now we have at least with breaking news.
Maybe it's working. It's not working. I don't know why. Okay,
oh, you don't have it on the right one got the ball on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Now you got it. They have their eye on
the just a cause you didn't know where you were. Yeah, you might
want to hit that other that will turn that one off. Just remind you.
So we're gonna start with Jay's on the water right, Yes, the
Siguaro Cougar war it's this one doesn't our Soarrow doesn't have a G in it.
It's an age worrow. The Swarow in Phoenix has a G. I
don't We always had to deal with that. You don't want to confuse that.
The Swaw Cougars basketball are in the state championships against Deer Valley and it's
on in two days, right, Phoenix, the State four A championship did
you find out. I know it's been a while, they've won a few.
You know, they won a few state championships. Dick McConnell, the
will time winningst uh high school basketball coach in Arizona State history, was the
Swar coach for a thousand years. He was also a driver's head coach,
driver's head teacher. He was one of those guys that would you know,
you'd see those those gory movies and h'd scare the hell out of you.
But but uh, they're in my my cougars, my mighty Cougars, and
soccer just won their four state championship in a row. That's the point that
was some point went fourth state championship row. But I'll go back to the
Cougars. I want to make a point. I was thinking of this.
The Swara High School fight song is the same as Ohio State, so is
it. I remember being in high school and I knew the sware a fight
song. Right then I watched an Ohio State game and I see the band,
I'm like, they stole our fight song? What the hell is going
on? So they haven't won the last one in two thousand and two thousand
and one, twenty four and four this year. Yep, and he won
four state titles. Has yeah, I'll buy deck McConnell all one. But
yeah, and they beat they beat a LA North North Gilbert. But they
were the number one seed s four seats, so it was that was a
huge upset. That was like the upset you know the Arizona when they were
a four seed beat the one seed to get to the So just for some
context there. But yeah, my cougar's in the state championship, looking forward
to it. Yeah, we might have him on the show if they pulled
off. We'll see, and then somebody we do gotta get on the show
at the South Point Boys coach wolf Gang Weber state championship. He is the
godfather of soccer in southern Arizona, probably in the state waitingess he coached my
kids and fantastic band from Germany. Wow, a lot of titles. It's
a fantastic coach. Are you gonna call Kelly Pierson tell her she can't come
on? No, I was gonna wanna text her, though, I'm gonna
text her ship. I said, good, we don't have to talk to
those little dudes. But you know, because all she does is win that's
all she does the first time she hasn't won in four or five years.
Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, no, it's uh Italy. Yeah,
I'm I'm looking forward to, uh hopefully getting the Sowar couter's coach on.
And of course, yeah, that's awesome. And then, like you said,
the soccer was lost in that stagey, but that's what the high school
is doing good out here. Well yeah, it's they're known for those at
least soccer basketball first time in a long time. Yeah. And and again
we for for our listeners out there wondering why we haven't gotten the Sunnyside wrestling
coach on. We're working on it. Yeah, they were out. I
guess I was told that Audrey Mann has finished third in I got a bronze
medal in that competition. She was down in Mexico, in Mexico and not
Poco. Yeah, so she's working working her way towards the qualifying for the
Olympics. And that's where they were last week. Yeah. And then Reagan
Shockley is packed twelve Freshman of the Week. I think it was the second
week in a row. Yeah, yeah, back to back. She's a
center fielder. If they you know, remember all those great teams that Arizona
had always had a great up the middle. They were very strong middle,
you know, really strong, uh Caitlin Lowe, right, Uh, a
whole bunch of them, Yeah, just one after the other. Sure.
They all look the same too. If I recall just Fast could hit,
could hit, Yeah, just you know, they were lead off hitters and
just man right messed up the other teams badly. Sure, and they're having
a strong season so far, sixteen and one, sixteen and one, sixteen
to one. Let's temper that by realizing it's not the Pact. Well,
yeah, but I mean still sixteen of course could beat alternative, right,
yeah, it does beat the alternative. And baseball yesterday rallied from six to
zero against San Diego in in the from the first inning they were down sixty
zero, and they beat San Diego ten to nine. Yeah, to avoid
a sweep. I think it was. Yeah, so we've had come back.
Yeah, you know, again, they've got stuff, but they're both
of the conference seasons for both of those teams start really quickly. They don't
get a bunch of yeah, a bunch of bunch of games in the tournaments
and stuff. And softball you can play like two and three games in the
day, but their conference seasons get started pretty soon. Guess what, it's
March at the end of the month, the end of the week. We're
busy. It's it's and it's it's Mark, and then it's March April,
and then you're pretty much done with school. Let's go to the show at
High Corbett. I could do that. That would be cool. I'll set
up a table up in the seats up there and you know, loaded up
on the Yeah, hang out, maybe call the game a little bit.
That'll work. I mean I'm in for that, all right. Hit the
ball game. Yeah we haven't done that. All right, man, let's
get on that. We've never done that, so we already know. He
accepted the award, but no went and got the Football Writers twenty twenty three
Offensive Freshman Player of the Year award yesterday. I think for him, I
think, uh, is the criteria different in football than it is for basketball
for retiring jerseys, because that came up last week in terms of Facebook and
Twitter and blah blah blah. Why there's a difference. I think if you're
a player of the year, so you get what you get, the ring
of Honor. Yeah, that's no doubt, no doubt. But uh so
the ones like Ricky who has there's only a handful of retired jersey. Okay,
so that's a different that's different, right, and I don't know what
that's That's what I was asking there. That's it. Yeah, that's a
different deal. But no, but wait, basketball is totally different. Yeah,
you have to have player of the Year like this, uh in national
at the nash no level, or did something significant like Steve Kerr was the
comeback Player of the Year or honorable he knows, Steve Kerr won the most
courageous that one, something like that, So that was it. So you
have to be something like that national Player of the Year. So Noah might.
I don't know what the criteria is for that, but he will be
on the on the the Ring of Honor for that, because Christian CaCO just
got the Ring of Honor, right, ring of Honor, right, Yeah,
he's not as not as yeah, because he was he was a defensive
Player of the Year in the Pac twelve, which they've kind of watered it
down. There's a lot of people on that ring of one the Pack twelve
though. Yeah, yeah, Okay, yeah, that well that yeah,
we without a doubt that you know, he's in the Ring of Honor.
Now it says I'm looking at the criteria for Ring of Honor for football Conference
Player of the Air, Freshman of the Year, and Defensive Player of the
Year. Uh and for football only packed uh packed a major national player of
distinction. Uh for example, Heisman National Championship most Valuable not the same player.
Yeah, so he's but if he's got if Conference Freshman of the Year
gets you in the Ring of Honor, then National Freshman of the Year gets
you in the Ring of honor? What else? Uh? That's it except
for you got You guys were wondering the four Arizona players in the combine.
So there's Yeah, it is only four of them. It's Jacob Cowing,
Jordan Morgan, Taylor McLaughlin, and Michael Wiley. Okay, so more than
they've had in a long time. So give me the name slowly because I
don't pay attention. Jacob Cowen, Jordan Morgan, Tanner McLachlan and Michael Wiley.
Who's going to go first to the draft Morgan first round? And then
give me the order. Give me the order. I think of the of
the remaining three. Michael Wiley's got the best chance to be a really good
NFL player, But because he's a running back, you'll get drafted later.
I think Tanne mcglockall get drafted. I love the way tight ends are hard
to come by. He's a Don't you think he was an unsung guy this
year? How valuable he was? I don't think he was unsung. He
got a lot of I think you media guys gave him a lot of attention.
I thought, I don't know, certainly in the in the uh you
know, the games, you know, he got like he got a lot
of play. I thought, see, and I didn't because of Tim mac
and some of the others, because just because of that. But he had
a fantastic year, uh in a in a at a program where tight ends
were relatively ignored for years. Yeah, I know, But but tight ends
now becomes such a big part of the game. When you think guys like
you know, Travis Kelcey, uh, George Kittle, guys that came before
them, what's his name, the homie from cal he's in the Hall of
Fame, played with the Conzults. Yeah, Downy Gonzales can think of his
name. He has your last name. He spells it with a Z.
He doesn't really have my life, is that? Yeah? You Hispanics,
he always did, are always criticizing names and stuff. Okay, here are
the requirements for jersey retirements college football. Receive a National Player of the Year
award, does that? You know, foot Freshman of the Year. Receive
a major National Athlete of the Year honor, have been inducted in the National
Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame. So, and then be most outstanding
player in you know, in the in the sport. Okay, so there
you go. And he's still got some time. So yeah. And so
the jersey the numbers that are retired jerseys not numbers, right, because there's
a difference, because you can't you can't not have numbers. Art Lapino,
Ricky Hunley, Chuck c. Sildaryll Lewis, Rob Waldrip, Steve McLoughlin,
Teddy Bruskie, Chris McCallister, Antoine Cason. That's a good list, and
I can't I can even give you why that's a good list. You know,
three of those guys, uh, Hall of Fame. Uh, four
of those guys College Hall of Fame, Right, Honley, Cecil Waldrop Bruski,
Darryl Lewis, and Antoine Cason for the Jim Thorpe Award, McAllister for
the Mostly to Two Special Teams Award, UH Steve McLoughlin for lou Grose.
A Placekicker award. Maybe a Freshman of the Year doesn't get you that you
got to be like the best player. Well this is national I know,
I know. But does it have anything to do with what you do after
you leave? No? No, not not for jersey retirement. Ring of
Honor does if you're in if you're in a major league Like Kenny Lofton got
his basketball jersey retired because he played ten years in Major League Baseball. Yeah,
and who's about and list guys, BJ BG, t J McConnell.
He's going to get his jersey retired once he gets not his jersey retired.
His he'sn't getting the Ring of Honor because he's been in. He's gonna have
been in the league ten years, right, And that's how a lot of
them have gotten in LUTs times. Yeah, they've been there fronto. Okay,
they seem ten years for t jerready, I know, seems like five
kissing the court doesn't seem that long. Well, okay, look at look
at basketball. Okay, they got I guess a different criteria. But Steve
Kurz is because he got the Crery Just Athlete of America, Sean Freshman Player
of the Year for Bibby and Jason Gardner, Miles Simon for final Foremost Outstanding
Jason Cherry, and Shawn Elliot Financial Player of the Year. So Steve Curz
doesn't have anything to do with his nine championships all about Arizona that he would
have been in because of the NBA. But he's Yeah, but his jersey's
retired. That's a step above ring. Yeah, all right, but he
let wear twenty five personally. Well, again, the jerseys are retired,
right, but not the number number on the back. Just look, the
U of A has got two numbers that they're not gonna let anybody elsewhere.
Elliott's thirty two in Curage twenty five. Yeah, I think I think Baby's
ten. They'll let somebody wear that probably. I think somebody has. Gardner
has twenty two, that's probably been out there. Jason Terry's thirty one,
Miles Simons thirty four. I think all those numbers are are in play,
but I think thirty two and twenty five they're probably You're probably not going to
see anybody wearing those numbers. That Hey, let's take the break. It's
four thirteen right now. Fourth thirteen can get to about four to seventeen.
Ish. I told them to call in at four seventeen. Okay, so
we got a minute. Let's let's take this. Let's take a minute so
that we don't we're not taking because we also got to make because they're gonna
be We're gonna have two people on this on this call, which we've never
done before. We might go a little longer if we have to have anything
else on your on your list it okay, So we own the show.
We can do whatever we cap except for the except for the top of the
hour. Right up. People continue to ask me what's up with that blank
spot? I know to tell them what can't be help you here? The
blank spot at the top of the first hour, that's where that's that belongs
to iHeart National. So if they don't fill that up with ads, we
don't have any ads, right so, and then uh, podcast real quick,
and then you can always follow us on the podcast. Now we cut
that stuff out. We cut We cut all the iHeart ads out of our
podcast. We just leave our ads on this. We appreciate if you don't
fast forward to those because we like people to know our sponsors to to get
the benefit of that. But we are you're gonna go out. You can
go to uh Apple Podcasts, you can go to Spotify or the iHeart iHeart
website, iHeart app and catch our podcast. We'll post it every single day.
So we have a lot of people who go to A lot of people
go to that. Thousands of people go to that. Yet to the numbers,
that's what the numbers say. That's the numbers. Tell us. All
right, Okay, now we're gonna take our break a Da Barnes and Jada
Williams Arizona women's basketball. We'll be joining us at the same time. This
will be an adventure. We'll see how that goes. So let's stick around.
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WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacobsauce. Now
on the phone. We have Idea the fashionista Barnes and Jada the banker Williams.
Thanks right, Yeah, that's a good one. You know, she
playing those banks. She's been working on the hall week she's been calling the
shot way. Well, it certainly was last Friday night. Let's start there,
do you, because you know, I mean, come on, you
guys, go up and beat Stanford seven players. They will keep talking about
that, but they just kind of going into that what the hell happened that
night? Well, I don't know, I think just well, so it's
funny we went there. We knew it's gonna be a really tough weekend,
Like no one wins that Stamford. We just knew, but there was zero
pressure for us. You know, they have the pressure. They're trying to
win the conference. A little fis very tight race, so they had pressure,
and I think we just played and put ourselves in a good situation.
Made they made some huge plays down the stress, and then Data decided to
go off, but she said, decided to wait the fourth quarter to make
it interesting, and then things just fell our way. But you know,
honestly a lot of people are like, oh, Cama Bring didn't play.
But to me, it's worse than a great player doesn't play. The reason
why is because when you have such a deep team, people really step up.
Players are in different situations. Someone gets to start that hasn't been starting,
and people rally and that people want to prove they can win without a
great player. So sometimes I think it's more dangerous, no question. I
think you hit on a great point. No pressure. When you have that
with you, you can play free wheeling and you play more relaxed. We
see it on the men's side. How do you use that to your advantage?
Well, you can play free and I think we started off the game
pretty well. We just made some plays and usually Stanford the type they really
hit shots and pull away. Hannah jump was hitting stopped in the first half,
and I think that we made some adjustments and overplayed some situations and she
didn't give them any shots, and we did a good job on the boards.
I just think we just found a way, and I think that's what
this team is all about, finding a way, playing together, just playing
hard for forty plus minutes, and that's what they did and it helps us
on the game. So, Jada, you know, tell us about that
fourth quarter. You know it was it was nuts. Uh, you know,
you guys were trailing the whole game pretty much, But tell us what
you know what kicked in uh, you know, going towards the end of
that game. Honestly, I just think we all walked in there believing we
wanted to win. So when it came to crunch time, it wasn't just
me, Like everyone was denying pass we were getting stills, we're getting deflections.
I think everyone just really stepped up in those big moments. So I
think it kind of gave us a lot of confidence and it kind of showed
us what we can where we can be in the posted. Yeah, that's
the word I wanted to use. You guys must have felt confidence. But
for you, had you been in a zone like that at any point in
your career or maybe so, I mean when you play the big teams,
you step up, you feel a different type of I don't know confidence that
I just feel like you just feel more prepared and stuff. I think when
you played the ranked teams and the rank players, it just I don't know,
you kind of go into a differ. So I would say I've been
there before, but I just think I was prepared and my teammates were prepared.
So for mere side Jada, and let's let's get into this just a
little bit because it has been such a big issue. You look down the
bench. There aren't a lot of players over there. How are the players
deal staff and players? The bench there's like two players and there's like seven
stats. But you don't have any more eligib I know you wouldn't want to
well, and you can't throw Salvo out there, so we know that too.
No, I can't, he can't play. I can just sell them
for tickets. But you know, you guys, look down the bench.
You know somebody, you know somebody in the middle of the game, you
know, turns an ankle or whatever. What's going through the player's minds with
all of that stuff going on, and and what how do you guys take
that and how are you dealing with all that on a you know, game
by game basis. Honestly, I think we take it personal when somebody gets
hurt. Like for instance, when we played cal we had like three people
get hurt in the first half. So I think everyone just stepped up big
and I think we took it personal to win game for that person. But
I think we have small numbers, so we know we have to be careful
to be smart. But at the same time, we're all united, and
I think that just goes a long way. So did how do you condition
them? Or it's already to the point where they're already conditioned because you can't
overwork them in practice and you can't you got to putty monitor your minutes during
the game. Yeah, well, okay, I can't monitor monitor during the
games because we can't win if people don't play a lot of minutes. So
that's like out the door. But what we have to do, like today,
I'll give you an example. Today, we need to work on some
stuff. You know, it's a Tuesday we play on Thursday. I guess
so many people we had live for practice today five two to what you do
people, it was like, well, we can't practice today. So honestly,
we've been doing a good job of resting. If you look at us,
we look like a fresh the fresh are team in a lot of these
games. So credit to Chris Allen and Bar for keeping us healthy, Chris
for giving us a good shape, and we don't look worn out in games.
I mean, we are tired, but I think they have such a
tough mentality and there their troopers, their dogs, so you know, like
ocal warriors. I think that they just have a will. And what's funny
is when we were kind of dropping like flies against Cal they were like rallying
more like as Mary got elbowed. The game was one of the most physical
games I've ever been a part of. It was it was good, it
was fun, but like someone got elbowed in the face, someone got elbowed
off the ball, like there were intentional fouls, and like they rallied more.
They're like, all right, you want to play like this, let's
go. So I love to see that because that's how I am. And
that was fun. They were like they they bucked up. They womaned up,
not man when things were hard. I love to see that. So
I mean, in your lifetime as a player, either as a player or
a coach, have you been a part of anything like this, you know,
where you know everybody's just got to hang on and and you know we
don't have you know, just start the number of players that you need for
something like this. Yeah, I've never been a part of something like this
as a player or a coach, But I think that's what makes it challenge
me. I think you have to love the hard stuff, and it's a
challenge, it's festal, and I think it's an amazing story. And like
when I look back, I talked about this at this event I did today,
Like hindsight's always twenty twenty. I thought we'd be a little bit deeper
this year. Remember we started the season with twelve players, right, and
but someone quit and then someone got removed, and someone got hurt, you
know whatever, So just various factors. Then now we have seven and eight
in the walk on she's no our sets and stuff, but she can't really
play it, so it's really seven. But like I didn't anticipate this,
so I scheduled a really hard non conference. Looking back, I wouldn't have
done that, but I didn't know the situation would be like this. I
scheduled way too hard because if we would have won the three or four or
more games in a non conference, going to the tournament wouldn't even be a
question and we'd be a top ten team the whole year. So, like,
that's kind of an unfortunate thing for this year, right right. You're
you were great on social media two days ago. You posted something with the
celebration after cal You said something that struck me. They fight, they love
each other, and they had my back when I had to make tough decisions
in the best interest of the team. Can you elaborate, Yeah, well,
anything any big infidense to have that we know about internally that obviously the
public doesn't know about. They've always rallied and a lot of stuff. They
really wanted this, Like they wanted me to make these decisions, and they
rally behind them, and like, and it's hard making a decision to the
part ways of someone during the year. That's a very hard decision for a
lot multiple reasons. And they've always believed in it and they backed me on
those tough decisions and I respect that a lot, and people don't and what
do they say, like you know, you're moving over twelve inches? Is
really hard being a head coach. It's very easy to say I'll get rid
of this person, do this, do that part ways, but like you
have to explain to parents, there's so many layers of stuff. But they
supported all that and they said, hey, whatever you decide, we're going
to we go for and we have your back. And I think that's just
a true team and a team you want to coach in go to war with.
So do we absolutely have to ask you and you can answer as much
this as you want. But Kaylen Gilbert, she was here, she wasn't.
She was here, she wasn't. How much can you tell us about
about the situation with her and how it came to, you know, a
final realization that you said yesterday on a radio search show that she's not coming
back. What what can you tell us? Well, I think there's just
a lot of there's various things that happened throughout the year, and there's decisions
you have to make as a coach whatever is the best interest of your team,
and those are hard decisions to make that they're necessary, and that's what
that's leadership, and that's why leaders Leadership is hard. And I think that
when you have a team, you have to you have to simulate to a
team, and you have to sometimes, you know, you have to sacrifice
yourself sometimes. So I think that this team is a true team, is
the cohesive unit of seven. They were moving in the right direction and you're
either on the bus or you're off. And if you're off the bus,
I'm way into you from the backland though, And if you're one of us,
we're going together doing the right thing. So I wanted certain people on
the bus, and I have the right people and the right culture and a
great team and a great group of people that love each other and want to
do the right thing. So that's what I'm rolling with. So I don't
know if you knew know this, but we had Candre on last week and
you know, he had his time as an intro a d and he says
to us I wanted to say. He says, Adia, I think this
is the best coaching job she's done there, and I looked at Jane.
I think that's a pretty strong statement given what's going on and then you pull
off the win, and I'm thinking, Okay, I agree. How would
you how would you respond to his assessment of you this year? Well,
I think that so before I made some decisions, like he was one of
the people I talked to yesterday and who I because he's been through so many
situations are similar. But sometimes it's good to get input, you know.
But I think that you always wrong, Like culture is everything any business,
any team. If you don't have the right culture, you're not going to
win. So I think that you have to do what's right sometimes in it's
hard, and I think coaching has been harder this year because we don't have
depth like we're good at, like developing through the year and making adjustments and
getting better throughout the year. That's been a challenge because we can't practice the
way I want to. Whether it's because no practice players, there is a
ten people to go, so there's been so many times we haven't been able
to practice stuff, and we're better when we do that. So I get
credit to the players being able to apply stuff from watching it, being able
to focus mentally. And remember three starters are freshmen, right, so freshmen
are freshmen. Freshmen don't have the experience. They've never played this, they
don't know these pressure games in college, so like it's not easy. So
I give credit to them that just going out and not being afraid of anybody,
not being afraid of making mistakes, and going out and putting their hearts
into it and like stepping up when we're down. Think about it, losing
five players this year and losing half of our scoring. If you look at
the players leaving Maya Solly and you look at Kalen, that is half of
our sevenths, like we were average almost seventy fours. Yeah, that's half
of our scores. That means other people have to step up in typical situations
and I don't think that's easy for a freshman. So this is really going
to pay dividends in the next couple of years. So you have something well
real quick, Jada, So you know you're in here as a freshman,
what were your expectations in terms of how much you were going to be asked
to do right? And how much of that is you know, are you
comfortable with right? Because you're playing a huge role. We're talking about you
because you you know, you had that game you had against Stanford. You've
won a couple of awards because of that, but what were your expectations?
And then as the season developed, how are you taking all the things that
were going on? If I could ask you that real quick, everybody,
including freshman want to come in and play right right play now, you guys
are playing, not just a little, a lot. Honestly, I feel
like I've been on many different teams where my role was different, So I
feel like my expectation to come to college was to work as hard as I
can and to earn whatever. I didn't want anything given to me or nothing,
but I knew that I wanted to come in and definitely take the leadership
role because I knew that's just who I am, and so being that leader
regardless if they needed me to score or be a leader, or have assist
or play defense, whatever it was, I knew I was going to do
it because that's the type of person I am and I'm competitive. So throughout
the season at the beginning, people say I struggled, but it wasn't about
scoring for me. It was about what can I do to help my team
win? So honestly, I would just say I step up to the plate
in whatever role I needed to take on. I'm going to do that for
my teammates. So the DA said the word culture a couple of times.
You know, as as we were talking about this, and you know,
you've got seven players. Now you know who you are. I know you
brought in another. You've got a high school a player who's coming into it
to help you remember the player. The player that came in played with Data
in the eighth grade. Oh you know, they played high school backball.
She just happened to be attending Arizona as like a four point zero student,
and we just secruited her, like, hey, you haven't played a couple
years, you want to come out. They're just familiarity there. Well he's
only he's not but she's actually good and she's not in basketball. Stay,
but I think he's a player that will play here. Okay, well we
want to get back to that in a second, but let's talk about the
culture Jada, that that the coach is talking about in terms of the players
you've got left. You know, Idea said, they're together, everybody's on
you know, everybody's on the same page. Which do you kind of feel
like the air has cleared a little bit for you guys now with with you
know, as we head into the last stages of the season, then okay,
let's just play some basketball. Yeah. I think we're at the point
in the season where we can't have any distractions because that does affect the game
and THEFX how we play with each other and how we interact with each other.
So we're at to the point of the season where we would just rather
play with less people and play with people that want to play together and that
want to win and all have the same end goal, which is to make
it as far as you can. So, Coach, dumb question. I
don't know if you remember this, but maybe three or four years ago you
were on the show we talked about and I stupidly said, oh, you
ve you're right now, how does it feeling? You laughed at me,
and he said, what a dumb question, which which, of course it
was right before you went to the championship game. How difficult is it?
And I've said this before, it's tough to get there to the top,
but it's even tougher to stay there. How has that been? Oh,
I think it's really hard. I think just nowadays with the climate of women's
basketball and basketball in general, with so many transfers and different various factors.
I think it's just hard to sustain success and keep your core just because of
money and just different things. But I think that there's no doubt in my
mind that we'll get back there. And I said, we're gonna win it.
I don't know when, but it'll happen. I think that. But
it starts from having a core group that staying together longer and building off that.
So I think this is the start of something special and it's really going
to pay off down the thrust. And you know, we're playing in the
toughest conference in the country starting three freshmen, which no one else is doing,
and I think that's overlooked a lot. But I think it's really going
to pay off next year in the year after. I mean, look at
UCLA a great example. They took some lumps and took some punches last year.
But now those freshmen that are sophomores now they play like seniors, and
so I think we're going to see the same thing and I'm excited for the
future. Now I just have to get some great pieces, not to replace
them, to like compliment them and just help our strengths, and we have
a good group of young kids that are great kids that other people are going
to want to play with, and I think are just the foundation for a
great culture and a winning plow and a winning team. Yeah, all right,
So you got some games coming up this week, big ones, and
after you're going, I mean again in your situation right now, you're going
Thursday Saturday instead of Friday Sunday. But tell us a little bit about your
expectations this week and what you're trying. Obviously trying to win, but you
know, how are you going to win? Well, we've won the last
six Satay were I think we're hot right now, and we've slept the last
two weekends, so I really feel like that we have a chance to win
at home. And I think this is we play very good at home.
We're very confident at home, and I think that we can upset some teams
at home this weekend. I think that we would have a chance to have
success this weekend, and I think that having success this weekend will solidify our
face in the tournament. No doubt. They're two top ten teams that are
really good, but we're also playing really good and we're not scared of it.
Here right now, we have momentum, and at this time of the
year, the most important thing is you have a momentum, a little bit
of luck, you're playing at home, you win games, and then you
continue your momentum to the packs off tournament NCAA tournament, And I think we're
at that spot right now. Go well, okay, okay, see I'm
a guy who doesn't believe in momentum. Well, to me, I'm not
guarantee at sweep, but we have a good chance to win some games.
I know we're almost at the end of this. Let me ask you something,
another dumb question for me, coach, Coach, I see Juju plays
for USC and she's a very good player. But let me tell you something.
To me, you you she plays like you. I don't know if
you see the same similarities. But it's very methodical, very good, smart
decisions. Do you see some of you and her? Well, I would
side and I would say that you haven't seen my highlight video have been that
good? But no, I think you're saying she plays like our team style.
No, no, no, you you personally? Yeah, I was
okay, that's a compliment. No, I was not near that good,
but no, she's she's just she's a really good player with good size as
a perimeter player and a fearless score. So reminds me of some of a
keelthy plument. Sounds like high volume, but can make suce you know,
so hard to guard because she's always on that tack mode. But I think
that there's pros and cons, Like just think about us a couple of years
ago. We were very air eycentric, right, so if you can like
slow her down a little bit, like the other players aren't used to having
thirty fours, so I think you can like win and you can lose games
by that, and that's kind of how we were. So to me,
that more dangerous teams are the teams like Stanford where it's like four people average
fifteen and like, you know, I think it's but I think she's young
and still get to that. I think still learn is to get older,
to involve her teammates a little bit more because it'll help her win, Like
she'll win a championship that way. But I think right now it's like she
tries to do it a lot herself, which she's really good and she's making
them win. But I think that I think her game will evolve because she's
a really good player and she's special. Okay, well then we're going to
see you here this week. So coach, thank you, Jada, thank
you so much for coming on the National Player of the Year to play National
Player of the Week. That's regrets that, Yeah, we should have been
Okay, you need you need to talk about this. There is no way
we should not have been the ESPN team in the league. But do you
look at all that we were the game the win of the league. There's
no way we should have been a team of week for sleep in thaty welee
lept against two really good teams, one number three in the country. That
was kind of be us. Now. The other thing is we want to
pass the house Thursday and Sunday. It's a doubleheader. We want ten thousand
plus people. We need, we need help. We know Tucson has the
best sixth man in the country, the right people to show up and show
out there you go, they'll listen to you, they'll be will they will
Okay, I'm happ to get on Twitter has more followers than be Safe.
When you're on Twitter, Twitter is I just got to start out to talk
crap because everybody's talking crap about my roster. All right, thanks again to
the both of you. Good luck this week, I thank you, thank
you. She's right, she's gotta be careful with that Twitter thing. I
know, I know. All right, we got to get out of here
real fast. We're gonna have a short segment coming back. But would love
to hear your thoughts on all of that, So stick around. If you're
an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years.
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down all the excess at alls. It's Steve Rivera and Agan Salves. This
is an Eye on the ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back
to whying the ball here on Fox Sports torteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's
Jay at the least with us, got ten minutes. I you guys want
to call, you can yell at us for the interview or Mike's for the
interview with the deal, got a text saying that they agree with saying to
agree with and Andrea that this is the best coaching job she's done. And
it's got to be the most difficult, certainly has to be the most challenging.
Yeah, because of you know all the things. But you know what
somebody like like a d and we all know that Ada lacks no confidence,
right. I Mean she's got all the confidence, but you know the things
that she's accomplished and those kinds of things, and she's assured of herself and
she she's making the decisions as she said that she thinks are best for the
team in the program, and you know, and that's the way they are
and those decisions have led to where they are. But she's willing to,
you know, to go with it, right, And it's in spite of
what's it's at the detriment of the team as a whole. She got rid
of well, I don't know the phrases, Gilbert no longer there. Whether
it's mutual or or whatever. It's obviously you're thinking, well, she's pretty
a good player. Yeah, it's gonna hurt think about how often? And
that was that was the question I was asking, you know, when you
clear all of that out and now it's just okay. Now it's you know,
more like their road ahead. So Hi, you're on the air and
eye on the ball. Hey Jay, Hey Steve, how's it going good?
Done? Done right? Yeah? So's I could here, I could
hear I could hear the steam coming out of Steve though after the four times
Ida said, you talked about that they're on a good run. They don't
have Mom they're on a good run. No, they're on a good run
and they make good adjustments. It's not like they're steam rolling or they're doing
the same thing over and over right, exactly because go ahead, Because well
Sunday they had to deal with the injuries. Elena turned an ankle, and
then and then as Mary got smacked in the mouth, and they just kept
coming and they were up by twenty ath a half. You know, I
think something that I noticed too, and I think it either a Deer or
Jada mentioned it that you watch them at the end of the game, they
don't look tired. They don't look like they're out of gas. You know,
you think they have to be, but they don't. They certainly don't
look it. You know, you don't see anybody dragging, you know what.
They seem to still be playing hard. They're playing hard, and they're
playing hard during the game too. It's not like they're saving it for the
end of the game. It seems like there's a lot of fight in this
team. Yeah, you have to like that, And I think that's why
it looks this is probably Ida's best job at coaching job is because of that.
I mean, these there's there's no letdown. Have you seen them play?
How often have you seen them play? I I try to catch them
on the on the on the PEC twelve network. I haven't seen them live
this year. And I was hoping I could score some tickets for Thursday.
Well you better, you better get them back. They're hoping for ten thousand
on Thursday. Oh man, that that thing is going to be jumping.
And hey, how eloquent is the freshman Jada Williams. Yeah, I noticed
that very good, very very well. I mean they interviewed her after the
game, after the Stanford game, and I was like, holy moly,
this little girl's talking like a machine gun, because he was. I could
hardly hear her, she was talking so fast. But she said she said
a lot of words in a short amount of time, and it seemed like
they were all very well thought out. And I was like, wow,
this, you know, No wonder she's playing so well is that she's she's
got that, she's got the intelligence behind that, and she's very impressive.
Well done, Thanks for the momentum and the call. Get some tickets done,
and and and and show up on on Thursday. It's not it's not
Thursday. Then on the weekend. All right, man, thanks for colling,
Thank you. Yeah, got about five minutes for you can take another
call or two, that'd be great. Down said it four times. I'm
gonna tweet, you know, tweet Now, who's the coach who's not right?
Just because you said it doesn't mean it's true. She said, that's
all they need right now. Okay, you don't buy it if they're on
a good run, which is great, I'm not. It's not a criticism.
I just don't believe in the word. It's just this is what it
is. Every when it was a nice run before they played Washington, nice
run and momentum right, what what the hell did that mean? Not a
damn thing. Well, I didn't. Nobody ever said momentum guarantees that you're
gonna win the next game. No one ever said that, right. Nobody's
ever said that all you're seeing is that you have. It's not you're on
this role, you feel good about yourself, you're on this roll. Another
word, and that is that is momentum. And sometimes momentum always has to
end. Right, Nobody's not. Yes, it is. Even those undefeated
U c l A teams of the seventies, they didn't have. They didn't
have momentum through the whole year. There were some games that they probably didn't
play so well. But you can have. Momentum is a thing. It's
like a flame for a little bit and it eventually will die. But if
you have it at the right time. You see, you've probably never gotten
like on a on a heater. No, no, like on the golf
course. No no, I played poker. You go on heaters or not
on heaters, no difference. But that's that's the luck of the cards.
But when you're doing something physical like playing golf, I understand what you're saying.
You know, I just want to go on a roll. You you
could use your momentum word all you want. Whoever you believe in ghosts.
What's the difference between going on a roll and moments? That's my word,
my road. You're going on a roll. You can use momentum because it
doesn't exist. Google the word and see what it means. It's Google the
word and tell me what's the definition. It's more about inertia than it is
about But people don't know what other word to use besides roll or moving forward.
No, but not, it's it's a word that people use just because
they use it. They have no other word to use. They're on a
nice roll, everybody. I was on a nice role, golf, same
poker, same when you you go on a heater. Perfect word. I
don't like this word definition exactly. That's not what I mean exactly. You
kind of understand what I'm saying. No, well, this it's more about
it's physics. Like correct, that's what it's correct. I mean, I
guess it's physics. So now you understand a little bit more what I'm talking
about. Well, no, okay, Well, momentum in the sense that
we're talking about it isn't a physical physical no, get inertia. Momentum is
a feeling. Yeah, I don't disagree with what you're saying because you believe
in that. It's like believing in ghosts. Either you do or you don't.
I believe in ghosts, and this is not a ghost. You use
the word. I get it. I understand why people use it. I
like it. I just don't believe it because you like it. I No,
I like the word role. They're on a nice role. They have
some nice momentium. I've seen Arizona basketball who had a great momentum and then
they lose in the first round, so their momentum wasn't real. It wasn't
real. I like this what they said. And an object or a thing
with momentum is going to be hard to stop exactly. And guess what happens.
It stops sometimes sometimes sometimes it does sometimes there's something more powerful to stop.
It can't be kind of pregnant, either you were or you aren't.
But you can't kind of have momentum. Yeah, that's true. You can
either you do or you don't. That's that's my argument. I hope I
get that. But you understand by the definition of the word, by the
definition of the word like in physics, but that there's a lot of words
that we say that we don't use the dictionary definition of it. That's my
point. People use this word because there's no other word for it except for
role. They're on a nice run, the nice run heater in a different
Sportum is almost like you can't describe it likes just so they use the word
momentum exactly. Okay, I don't know, people, shut up. You
know, I'm just happy that you're on my side on this one, because
yeah, because you know, what you know why it's the right. We've
been on our side, so you know that doesn't do it anyway. If
I convinced her she could use the word role, we're on a nice role
right now, but we didn't have time to do that. Maybe at the
next Right now, she's on Twitter now, Hey, good job. This
was fun, and thank you Adia Barnes for joining us today. Hey,
Gregorian talking about the a D. I can't wait for it to get here.
Get her on the show. I don't know what we think and we'll
have a lot of fun with that. So great. All right, thank
you everybody for being here. We'll be back tomorrow. Patrick Finley joining us
talk about Caleb Williams and uh uh and the NFL and Hold Rabino getting ready
for the game, so we'll be sure to be here. Thanks for thanks
for being here, and talk to you tomorrow.