Steve Raverera and Jacob Salis. They have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson
Sports Stage shaft, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to Eying
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jake Manlist
with breaking news. This Eye on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. All right, So to start us off, the women's final game
had eighteen point seven million viewers, peaked at twenty four million, which was
almost four million viewers more than the men's final. I watched it. Did
you watch it? Well? Were we were in the room? Yeah,
it was on at the arena. Yeah, but we we actually went to
a sports bar to watch the Friday night game the Iowa. Yeah, I
watched it somewhere. Can remember work Kai game. I've never gone to a
sports bar to watch it's basketball. There was a lot of people watching it.
Yeah, the place was jammed. It was so it was so full
of people that we're sitting there waiting for glasses of water. And finally we
asked the server to come over. She says, well, we're so crowded,
we don't have any clean glasses right now, You guys gonna have to
wait to walk. That's how many people were at this. Yeah, more
than any more viewers than any college basketball game since twenty nineteen in terms of
viewership. Yeah, that's crazy any men or women. Here's the thing though,
we were talking about this is whether they can sustain it, sustain that.
Yeah, yeah, last night I think it was Nancy Lieberman who's talking
about that. Well, we've come a long way. People are watching,
and I'm thinking it's the kid and Clark. Ye, what happens when she
leaves? Yeah, what's going to happen? Right? Although basketball has changed
for women because it's a change, she was such a catalyst. Yeah,
but you're amazing. People are watching, either pulling for her or not pulling
from and that helps the viewership. No questions, no question when you when
you yeah, I was of them, one of them because you want to
see her. Just see what she does. I think she's gonna elevate to
u w nbah she could totally. And just what all of these girls and
these women have done this year for just women's sports in general, it's amazing,
Like they've all been such catalysts for people turning into women's sports, Like
they're such amazing athletes. She did it on the national level. Every just
want to have a girl or woman who did the same thing. Here,
Harry McDonald's exactly. She created this what we see today because she was one
of those dynamic players who could just do so many things. And you say,
wow, yeah, well you know and and I mean, and here's
here's the difference. And again we've said this before, is that you know,
the women in the sport root for each other, right whereas the men
they're just bitter souls that just hate and hate. And I'm saying that because
of what Don Stately said after the game about Caitlyn Clark and how much she
has meant to the sport and how much she appreciated. But Caitlin Clark did
for the sport, and she's accurate and she's one hundred percent. But to
your point of the women doing that, I've read a number of things how
the w n b A is saying, come on in, come on in.
Well yeah, no, and it's and it's not that it's not a
positive thing, right, Well, yeah, that's the players who are saying,
how come I I didn't get mine? So we're gonna make sure that
you know, you know what the score is, and I get that,
But when was the last time you heard a coach say the things about a
male coach say the things about a male player that that Don Staley did.
Now, look, Matt Painter said, I mean, Dan Hurley said some
nice things about Zach Deedy, but he didn't say, Zach Edy you changed
the game, You're you know, yeah, I mean there's like a level
of you know, he didn't call him the goat like that. Don Staley.
Well, I'm just saying there's a level of respect with the men,
but they're not lifting each other up right the woman. Also, when was
the last time you saw outside of d that guy Lebron didn't come to college.
He didn't go to college. Michael Jordan's so many years ago, Kobe
was not a college guy. When did you hear that guy that was just
a the player of the year a couple of years was Iowa? Where's he
the big guy? The big guy in Iowa? What's I don't even know
his name. That's that's my point. You don't have one of these generational
players like that outside of d where you know what I'm saying, where you
can say, God, that guy was good and he changed the game?
Who was it? Who's who's it been? Yeah, you're right. I'm
just thinking about like the first round draft picks and previous years, like they
were good, they didn't change the game. Well, and people are even
saying Zach Edie is pretty much done. Yeah, to make two time National
Player of the Year and then he might not even get it, you know,
make it in the NBA. Yeah, Well the guy before him didn't.
I mean, he's in the de league I think, but whatever his
name is, forgot his name already. Anyway, That's very cool. I'm
very happy for the sport. You know, we've gotten the taste of it
here totally. It's become a big deal, and it's it's remained a big
deal. Right, They're still getting seven thousand a game, you know,
the women's games. So yeah, it's it's cool. You hope it,
you hope it lasts, but you never know. Women's basketball for sure here
is like part of the culture. Yeah, it has become it has become
that. Yeah, all right, Well, speaking of Arizona, some Arizona
baseball news. Arizona baseball is on an eight win streak eight game win streak,
right, now they beat Stanford four and oh on this road trip and
twelve to one in the last game. So they're now eighteen and thirteen.
They've won five on the on the road in a row, the longest road
winning streak since twenty nineteen. Yeah. I mean, they got off to
a terrible start in their in their non conference and I know they're playing some
good teams, but they you know, they're eighteen and thirteen. So when
you think about the fact that they won eight in a row, they were
ten and thirteen. Yeah, so they were not It was not going about
I can do that, mass I have. I have that club in my
bag. I didn't even consider doing the maths. But you know, they're
tied for first place in the conference. Yeah, you know. And I
think did Michael lev tweet out that Jay Johnson was never ten and five in
the league the whole time he was here. He never had that good record
after fifteen games. So there's that. I just won a national championship.
But there's that. And Cam Walty was named one of the Top Cats of
the Week as he worked seven scoreless innings, struck out eight players, and
earned the win in Arizona's first shutout of a PAC twelve opponent. Since did
you you know we wanted I told you we want to saw him play U
C l A. They've got some good players. Okay, they were impressive.
They looked good fundamentally, they were you know, they they did things.
But their catcher. Have you heard about their catcher who happens to be
a homie Something Guzman, Xavier Guzman. Look his name up, Something Guzman.
Nobody's stolen a base on him this year. He's like ten for ten
or he was going into like going over the weekend. At some point he
was ten for ten throwing guys out. Feel like a new Daniel Susac.
Well, dany I know Daniel Sussac never was ten for ten and throwing guys
out. So, uh, he's a he's a fire plug of a dude.
He's a very husky, big solid dude. And uh and he just
he's just throwing guys out left and right. Don't even try a Donna's Guzman
so mm hmm. Build like a big dude. Yeah, he is a
big dude. And he looks like he looks like if you're if you're coming
home, don't try, don't try and run him over. I know it's
against the rules anyways, but just just go the other direction, Just go
the other director. They're good to the diamond for the third time this season.
Reagan Shockley is the packed twelve Freshman of the Week for Arizona Softball and
Arizona Softball is twenty four and twelve and ranked twenty four. And she had
a grand slam right in the Was it her that hit the grand No,
it was as Alice Skaggs had a grand slam in the Utah game to win.
Yeah, oh yeah, and then Carrie's school scoop in Arizona to win
to win the Utah Series with the point four batting average, two home runs
and five RBI. Yep, Karl, Who's who was Bobby Garcia our first,
our first intern. He was, She was his heart throb. He
was in love with her, your first ever intern. Yeah, first ever?
Wait, that was before we screened him, Yeah, before you were
I've heard it. I brought him over. I brought him over with me
like a puppy from uh the from the Sugar Skulls where he was in one
of our internship He was good, very good. All right. Well,
that's all I have for breaking news. But Steve and I were just talking
about this men's college basketball way too early, top twenty five for next season.
All sorts of news outlets have been releasing their lists, and so this
is Sports Illustrated. Duke is number one on like most of them. Why
if Cooper Flag Cooper flag, five star recruit. They just lost the They
just lost the guy two years sophomore guy, five star guy. He just
declared too. Mitchell is Mitchell Mark Mitchell. He's leaving. Oh that's not
good. That's no good. That's not good for me. Okay, so
he's yeah, he's good. But I mean they're getting Cooper Flag and even
still like they have returning talent that I mean talent that they're going to stay.
I feel like I do. They stay a lot. They don't,
well except for Mitchell except guy, I don't know. I always State is
number two on this. This is a very strange one. This is a
ahead. Yeah. Then Kansas, then Gonzaga, Yeah, yukon five,
Wildcats are six. Yeah. So they range from six to twenty because on
the other list on USA Today Sports, I talked to Torres yesterday. I
think he was gonna put him at eight. So it's gonna be it,
it's gonna be Well. The thing is, it's April ninth. We don't
know what the rosters are gonna look like. I know, I know anybody.
I've been updated since exactly No, because they was they were doing it
all last night and the I'm thinking, okay, you have how many things
can happen a month? First? So I have one? I have what
are you done? Yeah? So I have one and this is gonna surprise
you. Uh. There's a report out of Japan. It looks like that
Reggie Geary is interested in going back to coach Al Reggie Yeah, which you
know, he was very good as a coach and he they made his mark
out there. And even the climate that Ubey who kind of makes sense Yeah
yeah, well yeah, a little concern maybe if he you know, things
are going over there, why not? So have you ever had that?
Just today this morning, I've just seen this. I think it was no
no, no, no, be in to Hong Kong, which is kind
of like, yeah, from different in terms of I know, but in
terms of what kind of what the city looks like, this this big tall
city with all these buildings, very cool. Yeah, so he was yeah,
so he looked like he wants to relaunch his pro coaching career. So
we'll see what happens. I'm looking to get back into coaching in Japan as
is, and that's my main priority. Wow, okay, right, all
right, right, well good luck, yeah, good luck, good luck.
You know, the time difference is going to make it hard for him
to be on our show. We have to finally, replacement is like sixteen
hours? Is that what it is? No, it's it's less than that.
Really, when I the times I went to Shanghai to China was fourteen
okay, so it's maybe fourteen or yeah. So one of one of my
guys, one of listeners, Luca Garza, Iowa remember him? Oh that
was him? Yeah, yeah, he says, I guess he's with Minnesota.
He could be on a roster and maybe with the D League unless I
heard he was in the D League. But Luca Garsa, I think he's
one of our guys too. One of your homeies is Garza, Yeah,
is a Hispanic name. Whether he's like legitimately homie. Right, well,
there's one in the wood. Some are back there right right. Thank you
the person who sent me this note, appreciate it and thanks for listening.
Yeah, we do appreciate you listening always always. Yeah, well we got
two minutes. Let's talk about the cattle party thing real quick, okay,
not surprise, no, no, it was a bad marriage. Eventually it
had come to an end, come to an ed both sides, and both
were sleeping in separate bedroom the whole bit. Both sides were saying, you
gotta go, Okay, I will, you don't go? Yeah, and
no thirty three the million dollar payout right, he'll make his tons of money
here. I just don't know. Jay. Well, he was his system
wasn't working. He's got well, I was just gonna go to that spot
right there. But guess what, it's a system that we have now he's
got well, no, this is but no, he was a different system.
He was still doing the one and done system. It's not working,
no, no, no, but it's now one and done now almost with
everybody. Oh why yeah, but he was going out to get trying to
do this with freshman yeah yeah, no, no, no, no,
everybody's got to have guys like Yukon had guys who've been around the block two
or three times. Sure, sure, and and can and and we'll go
in and and be willing enough to make it all fit together instead of saying
I gotta get mine. Well, guess what his his His system's not gonna
I don't think he's not gonna change the system. I think he's gonna continue.
He's seventy. I think he's seventy sixty something. He has to,
but I don't know if he will because why are players going to play for
him anyway? Because they're gonna be one and done and they want to go
to the league. Here's the question, Jay DeAndre Ayton, who was one
and done? Right? He went and done? Did he get better here?
Did did he by coming? By coming here? Did he become an
NBA? No? He was the same guy there at the years he was
he was gonna go no matter. Why didn't Sean Sean hadn't haend nothing to
do with it. Steve at the when they were in when they were in
the Bahamas, he talked to some kids and told him he was going to
the NBA at the end of the year. To my point, these one
and don's go there with the intentions of staying for nine months, collects some
mail, another, collected money, but they don't get better at the school.
Now they're already NBA players the time or any did any of those guys
Josh Green's ich Nagy uh uh Mannion, Nico mannon the other guys that the
guys that were on the on the team with with with Aighton were all the
same guys when they left. Sure, no, no question, everyone,
no question. They didn't get here and get better. They just they were
one and done. So yeah exactly. And the same thing at Kentucky.
They're just rent the room and didn't get out in nine months. Hell out
of town, Yeah exactly. There's not that colored party made it better.
Yeah, all right, we're out here for this segment that we're going to
come back. We've got Matt Mordeno. We'll get his take on some of
the you know, what's going on there recruiting wise and the portal and stuff,
some of his thoughts on these UFA guys who are leaving. So stick
around for Matt Modano from Goeyzycats dot com and right we'll be right back.
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Steve Bravera and Jake and Salez they have their Eye on the Ball on
Tucson Sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live. I mean I
had radio whaf Hey, welcome back to eyeing the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen to fifty. M Steve, He's Jake, and now we have our
guy, Matt Mordeno from Goasycats dot com. How you doing that? Doing
great, Steve, Thanks for having back guys. Sure, hey, I'm
sure all the comings and goings don't surprise you in the least, not at
all. I mean, I think it's our yearly tradition now right. Three,
If you get attached to any player, probably shouldn't do that. And
why is to kind of keep an open minder in the time of year because
rosters are changing and you know, maybe your favorite player is not going to
be part of your team the next season. So all pretty typical. I'm
probably only going to continue to get even more hectic as these weeks go on
and these days go on and kind of Norman in college sports these days.
So how difficult or or or how easy is it to find out stuff about?
You know, where are guys going, who's recruiting, who, who
needs who? Those kinds of things? Is it is information? I mean,
I think some guys like to put stuff out there. Other guys like
to keep it to themselves. I mean, uh, how do you how
do we you know, keep kind of how do we track all this stuff?
Yeah, by and large, it's on the transfer portal side. It's
much different than the recruiting side. Recruiting side with high school prospects, junior
college prospects, it's a lot more readily available, people willing to talk about
it, more kind of coming from the teams themselves. The transfer portal stuff
is very quiet. A lot of what you're hearing is very filtered and is
being put out sometimes in deliberate ways and for deliberate reasons. And then some
things you just never hear about, and then that player is now transferring you
know, and it's one of those things that the transfer portal aspect of it
all is very much under wraps, and it's kind of always been that way
since the portal was first kind of brought to everyone's mind and were brought into
existence. There just isn't a lot out there viable information about what teams they're
looking for, what they're doing, who's visiting where. It's very very quiet,
and teams are doing that on purpose because it's it's a quick process for
one, but they don't want other teams to know who they're looking at because
then they can go, you know, in this same age, make an
offer to a player, let's say, and then you know, pull that
player away from a from a different situation. So you have to kind of
take everything with the grain of salt. What you hear is not the entire
story in a lot of cases, and there's a lot going on behind the
scenes that a lot of people don't know about it and not are not in
tune with. Even at my level, even in the reporter level, it's
a lot is kept under wraps by teams in the transit portal situation. It
seems to me it's like the swap meet. You're going to the swap meet,
You're going to use cars. You know, I'll pick that car and
you know how many miles does it have on it? Did it go through
some crashes? I'll do that. So, Matt, because I'm in the
percentages. How much of it is legitimate transferred to go play to play somewhere,
or is it because of the money. It all depends. I mean,
it's it's very it varies between player and situation all that, But I
think you'd be hard pressed to ignore the fact that the money is part of
it. I'd say maybe sixty percent if you want a percentage just not accurate,
that's not you know, there's no numbers to back that up necessarily.
But yeah, I mean that's what it feels like, is that, you
know, probably forty percent of the guys are looking for a better situation,
a better opportunity. You probably hear about those guys a lot more. Yeah,
you know, Ivy League guys looking for an opportunity to play at a
high major program, or some guys that were, you know a little bit
further down on the depth chart at some schools trying to get into a more
prominent position, and maybe some younger players who didn't they didn't get to play
as much as they thought they were and so they're looking to, you know,
step on the floor somewhere else. And so you know, those guys
probably make up forty percent and then the other sixty percent are players who are
looking for an opportunity to make some money and capitalize on a really strong season.
And so you've seen a lot of those guys come up over the last
month or so. During the NT double A tournament, you know, Alabama
had one of those guys as a top transfer that you know, had options
to play anywhere in the country, and so you started to see that quite
a bit as well. But it is kind of like the saught me even
that, you know, sometimes you see that thing early early in the day,
it's swap me. They're like, I'm gonna keep my eye on that.
I don't necessarily love the price. I'm not in love with that object
or whatever you're trying to buy, but I might come back and circle back
around to it. And you see that a lot of times as well,
where maybe a team misses on somebody and you know, circles back and says,
you know what, now we do have you know, this type of
money to off and you're you are a priority for us now and so very
interesting and I do like that analogy just swaught me. A lot's been made
about how how Daniel Hurley built this team from I'm not gonna say scraps because
that implies, you know, pieces that weren't won and elsewhere. Yeah,
he went, he went out and got guys and rebuilt a team that you
know, had lost a bunch to the uh, well to various things.
How much how much of of what coaches are doing now in terms of pulling
their teams back together is luck? How much of it is skill? How
much do you think? I mean, obviously the ones who do their homework
the best are the ones that are going to you know, succeed. But
still you've got to be pretty lucky to get go out and get five new
guys and have them all to come together well enough to go win and after
championship. Well, absolutely, that's I mean you have to look at as
being part of the equation. I think evaluations are super super important for these
teams that are winning, and right now it's one team you know that's winning
the last couple of years. Evaluations are vital to this whole process, and
you have to you have to be right on those and it's difficult because in
a lot of instances you're not able to kind of do your due diligence like
you would in a normal kind of recruiting era, where you can have a
year or two to really watch a player or a prospect you know, develop
and you get to know him in a lot of different ways. A lot
of these transfer situations and recruitments are playing out in a matter of days at
times, and so you just don't have a ton of time to learn every
aspect about these players, about their background, about what they you know,
what kind of makes them tick, and is what's going to make them eventually
will help you win a title. And so there is luck involved. I
think you know that you can't overlook that, and but I think you back
that up and you have to build up the other aspects, which are the
evaluation and the development part of it, and the team cohesion and chemistry part
of it. Those are things you obviously can look at and try and do
your best at. But I think if you can kind of build those things
up as much as you can and learn about those players as much as you
can before you get them on the floor together. That luck kind of takes
care of itself. But you can't overlook that part of it. And sometimes
it is just, you know, everything kind of comes together in the right
way. And you've seen now with you kind of the last couple of years.
So we know what Arizona is losing with the guys declaring, but they
have some very strong player is coming in. I think there are a number
were they what do they rank with you guys? And one specifically the one
that just committed but hasn't signed, who might declare early, you know,
might come here early. He's a player. Yeah. I mean they have
a very good recruiting class. I don't think people are talking enough about it.
I think when people are looking at Arizona next season, they are not
discussing the recruiting class that they're bringing in enough. I don't think in times
have change, and obviously kind of me and this industry have seen it change.
There was a lot more emphasis on high school recruiting when I first started
this, and a lot more wanting to a lot more people wanting to know
about every single move that is being made on the high school recruiting, and
that's become a little bit more of an afterthought now because of the transfers and
because of the immediate help you can get. And I understand that, but
I don't think you can overlook this recruiting class. You have to give them
their respect because there's a lot of talent. You know, Carter Brian is
a McDonald's All American somebody who I think has kind of played into a different
role over over his high school career and you know, how to play more
of a big man role just because of his size. But he's going to
settle in as a small forward lay on the wing and I think that suits
his game a lot more. And I think he's going to only continue to
get better once he gets to Arizona. You know, Josnson on the New
the new recruit that you're mentioning is likely in your classes. Well, we've
already moved into the twenty twenty four rankings. It feels like a foreground conclusion
that he'll be ending up as a player that comes in this year. And
you know, I've only had a chance to see him on a couple occasions.
And one thing that you know about that you can you can tell you
about him is that he's a score. He's going to be able to fill
it up at kind of all three levels and is able to you know,
really score at a high level. And I think that's something that is only
going to add to this group. I really like kind of what they've done.
Emmanuel Steven, the big man that they got, uh kind of went
under the radar. He wasn't the highest he's not the highest rated prospect in
his class, but it sounds like there's a lot of excitement internally from Arizona
about what he's going to bring to the table and you know, his his
ceiling as a player, you know in the front court, which is going
to be needed now based on you know what Arizona's lost so farthest offseason,
and I think that's where you're gonna continue to see them really kind of target
some players and really trying to figure out what they're going to do in the
front court because they have some room there now after this week and so we'll
see how that all plays out. But yeah, the recruit class is really
really good and I think you can't overlook, you know, any of those
players that are incoming as a freshmen, But do we know enough right about
what Arizona is going to have next year? For some of these polls that
are coming out, one that we were just talking about that has Arizona eighth
next year, we don't even know what they're going to look like. You
don't know who anybody's gonna look like. And so yeah, I mean I
understand, I understand driving, you know, you know, the web traffic,
the website traffic, and trying to get people to have eyes on your
work, and I understand that as much as anybody. But yeah, I
mean, I think it's just it's so early to determine what teams are going
to look like. That's something you have to revisit in June and maybe even
July when teams start to really kind of understand who they're going to have and
get players on campus and and all that. But yeah, I mean,
there's going to be so much that changes again in the coming days, in
the coming weeks with teams. There's going to be players that you're like,
oh, I didn't even realize that they were looking at potentially leaving or going,
you know, into the portal when war ball could be one of those
examples. I don't know how many people thought that, you know, the
transfer portal is going to be the path that he ended up taking, and
so, you know, I think there's gonna be a lot of players like
that, and he's coming days and weeks as everything to kind of settle in
and the season is now efficiently over and everyone can kind of look ahead to
steer. I think you're gonna see a lot of teams that are that are
trying to figure out what they want to do. And so it's really difficult
right now at this point, you know, in April or whatever we are
now to you know, say that, yes, this is what the team's
gonna look like, because it's just they're all going to look very different.
And so I do think Arizona has a lot of nice building blocks, but
there's so much still to be determined for this team. And we still don't
know what Tommy's gonna find in the Alps for the Balkan Mountains, because he
pulls off stuff that we don't even know about. Yeah, absolutely, I
mean there's always the international aspect of it all, and you know, some
of those players have not arrived on campus until August, and so until a
right before school starts, so again a lot to be determined, you know,
and you can't really make any true judgments about Arizona or any other team
right now at this point in time. Yeah, so we saw you in
They we saw you in l A A quick trip, right. They should
have beaten Clebson. They didn't. Not a shock I think for both of
us and how Clemson played. Let me ask you a loaded question three years
removed three years here of Tommy Lloyd is uh, how do you like him
as a coach? I thought I thought just in review of the game and
watching him coach that he he he didn't he didn't bench coach very well that
game. I think if there's one thing that you can point at and be
critical of is that, and it's it's one of those things, the fine
line. It's really difficult to do. But one of the reasons that it's
such an attractive place, I think for players and transfers and everybody is that
he allows his guys to freedom. And you know a lot of players just
talk about that. Sean Miller, I know, you know, Steve and
I and Jay maybe too, but you know you hear that out showing me
like I don't know that you're watching the same kind of kind of angle,
same game that that I'm watching. I know that they get a lot of
freedom, but with Tommy what there's a lot of freedom within this team and
with what they're allowed to do, and he let them, you know,
kind of shoot their way out of that game and it just didn't work out
right. You know, a lot of coaches would have put the clamps on
and said, like, you need to go to the basket in that game,
because as everyone saw, that's what was working. And so I think
sometimes that works against him a little bit because you can't you can't both can't
be both guys. It's difficult to do that. He can't be the guy
who says, hey, yeah, we're gonna play with a lot of freedom,
and a lot of guys have played with a lot of freedom and kind
of shoot themselves out of situations, you know, during the regular season,
then once in punch time go oh no, now I'm somebody else. Well
it's so I think I was just gonna say that's his go to, solid
move right, go play yourself out of it. It's like he doesn't have
another go to. It's it's like Jay Bean and us being parents being by
eleven o'clock and if you're not in by eleven o'clock, you're going to be
disciplined. And then to come in at twelve and we don't discipline them,
and that's kind of an extreme example. But he had no go to change.
I mean, you know what I'm saying, it's play it yourself out
of it, go fast, and that didn't work. No, And I
think that's again I think if there's one thing that you can look at,
it could be you know, maybe hypercritical level with him and how he approaches,
and it is that. But it is difficult to be you know,
kind of two guys in one situation there because you're selling players and other recruits
and other players are watching you. And that's a big selling point for this
program right now, is that they have freedom and their coach isn't going to
be you know, on their throat for every single thing that they do.
And so when your kind of program is built around that idea, it's difficult
to then flip that. But it definitely has not helped them, I think
in moments on the court. I think that's happened a couple of times now
that these last few years and there have been moments, you know where that's
worked, and that mess it has worked, and then they've been able to
shoot themselves out of games and players haven't gone you know, down in the
dumps because they had a bad game, because they're able to kind of,
you know, teenis shooting eventually get their way out of it. But man,
it would have been they needed kind of someone stirring there at that moment
to just be like, hey, you need to go do this thing or
if not, I'm going to pull you from the game. And it just
wasn't there. And so I think that was the biggest thing that I saw,
the biggest takeaway I had in that game. But we'll see kind of
what adjustments he makes and if there is kind of a divergence from that normal
kind of path that he goes, you know, if it comes down to
that again next year. Yeah, it's just you know, we we Steve
and I were talking about, you know, the fans and how they they're
just still having trouble getting used to this whole idea about how things change,
you know, from season to season and and that kind of stuff. I
just feel like, I don't know, I mean, how are we going
to get through these things without going on social media and seeing these people losing
their minds over you know, the roster rebuilding, the transfers and stuff.
There's a guy who sees it more than us, and that's this guy,
because people in recruiting go crazy too. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
it's the normal. I mean, it's why have a job, to be
honest. I mean, people want to know what's going on with all these
things, and then you have to kind of try and you know, we
through it all and try and make sense of kind of everything that's going on.
There's multiple layers to kind of every single recruitment, every single situation,
and you know, sometimes there's misdirection being involved, and so there's a lot
to take in. And so I think the advice I would have for fans
is just to kind of enjoy the ride as it goes along, because you
just know that things are going to change every year, at least for the
foreseeable future. For now, it's not going to be any different, and
every year there's going to be a lot of roster turnover everywhere. Every program
is going to change. Your favorite player, like I said, could be
playing somewhere else next year, could be playing for your arrival next year.
And so it's one of those things where you just kind of have to get
used to it. You have to, you know, just kind of appreciate
things as they go and just understand that the college game is changing in so
many ways. Yeah, well, Matt, thanks a bunch. We appreciate
your time. Yeah, absolutely, anytime. Guys, thank you. You
don't you know, another guy said this and we know this basketball is changing
and blah blah. Right, it's no different in football, no different football,
except that we're in the in the instant gratification here with Arizona lost a
guy to a s U. Yeah, no, I know, Steven,
it's but what what I guess what what gets me is that, you know,
just figure it out, you know, figure out that this is how,
this is how we're gonna at The people complained about the Yeah, they
need something to complain about it, they will. Yeah. No, I
mean, Jay, don't tell me how to think they're gonna say. Let
me let me think on my own, let me vent my all my want
because it's frustrated. Let me say, I said, Anthony a note today,
I'm making this public. This my job sucks and it's not my job.
It's not my because I love my job. It's just me. It's
just why your job has become Yeah, reading this stuff and I don't even
know why I do it because I don't have to. But we're talking about
it. I know we're and we're sitting here, we're talking about it.
We have a show because yeah, right, right right, you know the
people out there one here, Okay, you hear what those butt heads said
on the radio, and then they go on and they blast us on you
know, on on social media whatever Facebook or our Twitter and whatever it is.
What do they say, all publicity is publicity? Yes, not always,
man, not always. Just love us, call us, call us,
and here's your chance that call us. We're gonna go to break yeap,
and then we'll have some maybe people call it a call five to zero
four one six seventy four. Bright back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball
fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take
a look back at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.
It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led
them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his
twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from lut is an insight to
how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one email me at
Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hey, this is formal
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to you on the ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay and at least with us today we
have thirteen minutes. You guys, want to call. Here's a call right
now? Well look at that. Hi, you're on the air and I
on the ball. Yeah, I had this question and want to make a
few points. Sure, what's your right? Right? What what do you
got on your mind? Right? So, so I wanted to coment on
on the Clinton game, okay, and how Tommy Lloyd. Uh, it
doesn't make him a bad but he definitely should have made the decision to go
inside. I mean, I think we'll make it too complex and I want
to learn from that mistake because it definitely was a mistake. But that does
not make him a bad coach. And then I wanted to ask a question
about Bolling. Uh what's the guy's name? Uh? Conswerring? Is there
a that they're just testing the water to steal what's out there? And you
so you if they can match what he's getting and they returns because it's a
different environment that we're working and they're they're looking for money, Well, you
know what a good question. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.
But according to well, if you read a red Ballow's statement, is he's
gone? It was kind of almost definitely in fact, hasn't said anything Yeah,
so we'll see with that. But that's a possibility. And that's a
good question. They've done that before. Yep. Would Ballow see it was
obvious that he needs another year, He definitely no matter where it is,
okay, And with that relationship with Tommy Lloyd, I just I mean,
he could have did it here or he could do it elsewhere. It's gonna
benefit them by the way. Sure, well, the thing is to me
and this is just my impression that it's it was a mutual decision. Crevous
crevas is moving up. Uh. Henry is a very good player, so
he has people to replace Ballow and maybe he just said, you know,
okay, you can you can go and spread your rings somewhere else. And
that's the thing. That's the thing that we don't know is what was the
conversation. Sure, you know, it sounds like based on these two you
know guys, well five guys now that have entered the transfer portal, that
Thommy's kind of letting guys know, this is your role next year. Now
if you want, if you can accept that role, you know, by
all means stay, But if you want something else, then you know,
maybe it's a good time for you to go find an opportunity somewhere else.
And that's that's how I've envision what's going on right now in the program,
and probably every coach does that. I don't know what coach that's going to
beg anybody to stay. Well, it's like the it's like, well,
I don't think you can say with this ray, so will you asked the
question did you want them to stay? Oh? I would love to stay
because you cannot replace what those other teams are been fitting from that experience.
And those of the teams have three four year player some five. Yeah,
and if you want to with chemanship, you have to somehow get to that
point. And also, I don't know if I agree with Creevius being able
to he will not be able to duplicate what ballowed followed. Babo could have
averaged a good fourteen fifteen points a game, but he couldn't shoot free throws.
I mean he would have easily, yeah, but previous will not be
able to duplicate that. In my opinion, he will not be able to
duplicate that productivity. And he is not that hard. No, No,
I agree with you, but I think that Tommy has a system or or
has a has it you know, the guy next up could be Henry could
be the new guy coming in. Let me also ask you. You said
that Bobo needs another year. He could have three or four years. He's
just not going to play in the league. Well, you know, whether
he plays international or he plays NBA. I think it could be a good
role player. He just needs to extend that push shot or to develop some
sort of a shot away from the baskets and he will play definitely play international,
but he could be a solid role player in the NBA. Man,
I think he could. Well. I think that Coloco's better. In my
opinion, Coloco is better. And Coloco just even despite his illness or whatever
he has, it is not in the league, if that makes any sense.
Apples to apples, and there's so many, so many guess okay,
I think, yeah, okay, Well, Ray, thanks for calling the
first time you've called good stuff. Right. I appreciate the call. Thanks,
Ques, appreciate it. No, I mean there's there's a million different
ways to to look at it and look at this, to analyze it or
whatever. You know. Why is Balo leaving? Is it because he knows
that his opportunity isn't as what he wants it to be. As Tommy Lloyd
said, Umar, you know, we've done as much as we can with
you. We're moving on to did Tommy say, Look, we have X
amount of money to offer this position and we think you know, Crevis has
a you know, the future is our future. We're going with him.
You know, it's a good this is a good time for you to go,
you know, go find your opportunity. So many things and we don't
get to be in the room when those things. Sure, you're right,
so many things could be the option. Yeah, we'll see. And Boswell,
who knows. I just think and this is the honest truth, that
that they that they're they're finding their place somewhere else's best for them. If
I'm Boswell, I don't want to hang around for the same reason Kirk Criesa
didn't hang around. You know, he's in that he's in this position and
it's a thankless position because unless you unless you you yourself. Colin Boswell lead
this team into the final four wearing crap down your neck. Yeah right,
right right. They did it to Kirk Crisa. They and you know,
look, Kirk Cesa, brit A lot of that stuff on himself, just
like personality. But Colin Boswell didn't do that, no, no, but
he let's say, hemmed yeah, and then he kind of fed himself into
it. But Boswell did some things at the end that we saw, you
know, visually, what are you doing? What are you doing? You
don't go out late that night before a game and blah blah blah, and
that was on him. He shot himself in the foot. Yeah no,
I I I hear you, even on the floor, like during the game.
Her just had such a bigger sure present well even for Kyle his president
was kyl of his presidence was missing shots, even even easy shots. You
could see that, oh he doesn't have it today. And you knew right
away that he didn't have it today. But I'm talking about like not even
during the play. Like Her just had the biggest personality you know. Yeah
he did try and like lead the team almost. Yeah. He wasn't that
guy. He wasn't that guy when you're really good, you can but he
wasn't dead guy. And the and then the thing was that sometimes he showed
like he was yeah then when he wasn't always that guy. Yeah people do
yeah, yeah, there you got another call this high are on the air
and eye on the ball. Hey guys, he says the shrank and uh,
I'm done with basketball. What is the first football games? I can
tell you? Yeah? Yeah, you know me. See what are you
gonna do until then? Yeah, Frank, I don't know. I'll probably
gripe about the basketball season like everybody else getting in Yeah, well here's the
thing that uh maybe this is obviously to other people, but you know,
I'm not as smart as other people. So here we go. So I
was really disappointed, obviously with everybody else when they lost to Princeton last year.
So I didn't watch hardly any games except maybe Duke or something in November
and December until the Pac twelve started because I try to stay away from that
because I mean it's crazy. I mean the first games, you know,
like at first games, Jay Billison, he says, oh, this is
the final four team, this is Final fourteen, and you know it's so
crazy to start saying that, and then the and then the rankings come out
and Arizona's number one pretty quickly in the year or so, I try to
say it, but you know, sooner or later, you know, I'm
kind of drawing in it looks like a team is jelly. They win the
conference and then things fall apart. But so I was thinking back to the
football season. It was a good season. I ended up great, but
I was very satisfied. We beat as U and we won the Alimi Bole.
But in basketball it seems like if you don't make it to the final
four, the season's a failure, very much. So. Yeah, So
I think if Arizona had made it into the final four this year, which
I thought they would, you know, I would have been I would have
been happy, not totally satisfied, because I think you're only satisfied when you
win the whole thing. Of course, we saw that one time. Man,
we want it back again. Yeah. You know. The one thing
that I heard day, and I don't know because people know I cover the
team and have for a long time, it says, how could they blow
it again? They had the perfect path? How could they blow it again?
They had the perfect path? There's no such thing. Well, they'll
talk about the perfect thing, you know, but there's no such thing.
Anybody along the line can beat you well, and Arizona's perfect path through La
is never a perfect path for that too. So Frank, thanks for calling
uh one other thing. Uh yeah, so uh, I'm afraid that if
Ballo stayed another year. I mean, I really like the guy and I
think he's been good, but I'm afraid that, you know, the the
ships are down, he's going to miss those street throws. I mean,
he's had plenty of time to learn how to shoot tree throws. So I'm
afraid if he stayed that would be faced for the same thing. You guys,
totally agree with you, Totally agree with you, Thank you, thank
you, Frank. All Right, here, here's the thing with ball J
and and at least he's probably been one of the more popular players in the
last fifteen years. TJ McCollough. The other guy was being the other guy.
I think that's why some people are surprised, because they showed him a
lot of love right and back. Yeah, you know, very affable,
very friendly, very friendly always. Yeah. Yeah. Outside of that,
well thanks for thanks, thanks for coming drive home safely. But again,
look, these guys are now basically professional, right, so they need to
they need to understand that piece of it too, that a coach has to
win and the coach is going to go is going to create the environment and
get the players that he thinks can help them win. And if he doesn't
think that you get give him what's needed, then he's going to ask you
to go find another place to play. Now, he may help you and
do everything he can and to you know, to recommend you to somebody and
whatnot. But when a coach is making decisions saying, Okay, I got
to pay somebody X hundreds of thousands of dollars, well I'm gonna give that
X hundreds of thousands of dollars to somebody who's gonna help me get to the
final four. And if you're not that guy anymore, then you're not that
guy anymore. Well, we talked about this, I think it was Frank
Bush or whatever. We've talked about it since that if you're gonna unionize it
and you're gonna be employee, you're gonna you're getting paid to work, and
you're gonna have to deal with the things that come with that, right,
and one of the things that comes with that is perform. You might not
have a job because you did perform. Well yeah, yeah, yeah,
welcome to the real world. Yeah, Now it's now it's a little different
than let's say our world, where you know there are some there are some
places you go that you have to be you have to kill somebody before they'll
fire you. Yeah, this is not that. But on the other hand,
you know, a coach gets fired if he doesn't produce, and he's
only going to produce if he's got the right people. Correct, he or
she's got the right people in place. And if you're not the right person
who your coach thinks is going to get you there, then your s os.
It's a fine dance. Now you're you're recruiting. You're gonna help me
win the title. A year later, you're not going to help me win
a title. Okay, Hey, good show, Thank you, good stuff.
Welcome back, Steve. Yeah, we should let people know Thursday and
Friday Dame is running off again, so there probably will not be a show
Thursday and Friday. Haven't made that decision yet, but it's looking like we
may just be off again for two more days and then then we'll get in
here and make this happen. You need a vacation. I'm so tired.
Your vacation was working all right, Thanks for being here. We'll be back tomorrow.