This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen to fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
z R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Riverta, He's Jagan Zaliz. We got our guy Kevin in for the first
two hours for every day we this is on that show to this week.
So if you guys want to call us find us here about that Steve Broo,
Yeah, well I was gonna say it for the first fifteen An're gonna
here for two hours, right, You're not gonna skip out on us the
whole show. Thank you very much. Good show today. We have planned
yes, our disclosure and full disclosure. We spoke to Desiree Reid fancois.
We had everybody, not everybody but media people who were wanted it got a
one on one time. So we did record an interview with her about a
thirteen minute interview that will play as the second segment where we normally have a
guest. We put it on as our guest list you know, she's our
guest, right, we recorded it, and yeah, and as a good
interview, and you know, trying to get some insight into into her.
You know that she doesn't have a lot of time who she is on the
job yet, but we had you know, we asked some questions just trying
to get to know her. So we play that after the three fifteen break,
and then we want to soothe your savage beasts for the college basketball rust
whatever's left of it with Corey Williams, who gives his insight to whatever he's
seen so far well to this point in the college basketball world, he's been
out there covering a lot of games, asking what the hell is going on?
What the hell is going not just with Arizona but everywhere. He's been
all over the country, in the West Coast mostly. So I ask you
both this, how's your trust level today? You know it's it's not any
different than it was before. We already got to call her. Let's take
this. Yeah, are you guys taking calls? We are? You're on
the air. Hello is this Jay? And Steve? Hey Jay, Hey
Steve, This is Can And I wanted to know how many how deep in
the in the bench. Do you think will go in Vegas and also in
the march? Man? Is how many players will we see action? No
different than what you've seen eight did you go? Eight? Eight? Nine?
Man, No, you're not going to see Philip. You're not going
to see Maurice short of a blowout, yeah, yeah, but in quality
time, Yeah, he's going to go with these guys. He's this is
not the time to test that taking any chance. Yeah, why do you
ask? I was curious if there's any thought or possibility if we run into
teams like we've lost to about possibly starting to play a full court press,
if we get behind to try to get back in the game, which would
require some additional people. No, that's that's not happening. Well, they
press, okay, you know they press some I don't. I don't.
They're not. Here's the deal. They're not going to change what they do.
They've been doing what they've been doing for you know, the whole season,
and they're they're not you know, they're not going to change that up.
You know, the the losses that they've had or you know, have
been bad, but they're still the better team on the court pretty much every
time. They're not they're gonna make the other team change what they do.
Okay, thanks guys, thank you for the call. Thank you. Thanks.
This kid's first time calling that. I appreciate it. But no,
I mean, you know, getting back to your question, right, the
trust level is the same, and it would have been the same had they
won or lost. They can still lose to anybody, and and they did.
I was initially. You saw how pissed off it was on our on
our text thread, you know, Saturday night. I can't remember, well,
there was an F bomb in there. I lost my mind, but
I lost my mind because I was so mad that they blew uh a parlay
for me, you know what. The funny thing about it, and that's
what pissed And then when I realized that's why I was mad, and really
nothing has changed about them, I was better. Well, you're you're speaking
about somebody something of the subject to Uh. There's another guy on Facebook because
a friend of mine, and he's the more realistic guy, and he says,
you know a lot of the people who are complaining and bitching and blah
blah they lost is for that reason. They have money on them, right,
and they're complaining. Guess what don't put money on him. Don't put
it on him, and you'll have a better life. Well, and I'll
be at the game, So that'll be the last time I do that,
right, you know. But you know a road games, you know a
fair game, right. And it was an obvious win. I just wanted
it was an obvious right. All they had to do was win the game.
They didn't even have to cover. It was obvious win. But it
was not so obvious. We we We're not going to say that we predicted
this, but going into this season, going into the weekend, we think,
Okay, good game, bad game. It's always the up for a
game. And the one thing I've said on this show more than anything is
the one thing I've learned about being in sportswatter is the emotions of kids when
they play and if they're not specific to basketball, if you're not up for
a game. And this was Loot's teams too, because I'll take this one
or two guys they don't show up, they don't show up, and it
affects everybody. Give you one example Utah nineteen ninety eight. I'll give you
more examples if you want to, right, how do you and and the
question is I get why they were not up for this game. Yeah,
I don't like it. I think I think it's it's bad form, but
I get it and I understood it. I wasn't happy about it, but
I was like, you know, in the end, nothing was going to
change, you know, tennis. You know, Tennessee had won, Tennessee's
on the Tennessee's got that one seed. Now what's changed is maybe they've dropped
one more spot to the this according to Lenardi, they're the second two seed,
and maybe they could have gotten the one seed. But those guys,
it's just like we're one or two, we're gonna We're gonna play whoever we
play. So that struck me as odd. The way they played kind of
not really okay, did that it struck you as odd? Kind of not
really well, no, kind of not really well. Yeah, because they
thought they would want to keep sure the momentum keeps, you know, stay
hot, play well and not. But then on the other hand, it
was the second game of the road, was the last game of the regular
season, they clinched the league. You can see how a twenty year old
dude or twenty two year old dude would go out there and pooped a bit.
Yeah, so okay, so, uh did you read my column?
You didn't? I know you did. Did you get a kind of I
can win a little snarky, but but it was truthful. So so then
then I listened to Tommy. Did you listen Tommy? He was He was
like, oh, okay, no, nothing to see here. Stuff happened,
stuff happens, will be okay. I was kind of like taken aback
by his almost nonchalant and I think that upsets people. Yeah, he doesn't
get upset about losses like that. It seems like fans get more upset than
he does about losses, right, very much. So I just thought it
was kind of like he's done that most of the year or two. You
know, all you guys will get over it, blah blah blah. But
but for that one, I'm thinking, yeah, you know, he maybe
a little more fired. But I'm not the coach and he's I'm not Tommy,
and we're all different. We all react to death or lost differently,
right, But it was kind of surprising to me in as much as they
just didn't play well, and they haven't played well and in four or five
six games such as these Yeah, and you know, and you know immediately,
you know, I started getting text messages from people who listen to the
show pointing out that, you know, three lots they lost the three worst
teams in the league. Correct, how does that happen? For the exact
reason we talked about emotional If you're not emotionally up, you just show up.
If there was a basketball come on, we can go through and I
have the media guy here. We can go through every NCAA tournament game and
explain things. How will they happen and why they happened? Who your question?
The judge Busher in nineteen ninety, Yeah, how does that happen?
Does it happened? We weren't ready. We weren't ready. We did we
didn't. My transition to that we didn't take this game serious enough. I
think Lude is still looking down here mad at me. Yeah, but it
and that translates to me is we didn't take this game serious enough that we
had to care. And that's the issue with Arizona basketball, right because it
out of the basketball. They're blue bloods right there for every game and they
should win every game. Right. Okay, we'll talk more about that.
Anybody want to call. We still have time. We're hoping to gets your
calls. We can't get the calls from during the Desiree trans first of all
interview, but throughout the show we can. We can do this our last
week, the last show of the week. Right, where are you going?
I'm going to the backbuff Tournament. I'm going to Disney. No,
I'm not going to Disneyland. Disney. We're both here tomorrow for the tournament.
As we've mentioned, Unfortunately, we can't do a show from there,
just the timing does not work for us, So we're off the rest of
the week. It will beat You'll have here to the national feed. Then
we'll we'll come back on Monday to kind of break down, not on the
tournament, but you know the bracket. The bracket will be out on Sunday.
Yeah, and in between this, we had promised something on Friday that
we kind of spaced out because we have a good show today. Our twelve
or Memories of the Pac twelve, and we'll do it football basketball, and
we'll randomly kind of throw them in there when we have a chance, you
know. So if you guys have any throughout this whole time, give us
a call. Let us know what you think of what yours were. You
don't pack twelve titles big games. Be advised that Steve and I are old,
and so our memories are probably going to go way back. Yeah,
probably before I know, it's certainly before Kevin was born, but before.
A lot of good thing is our listeners are old like us, so they
have a lot of great memories back in the good old days. I mean,
it goes, it goes way back, right, And no memory is
a bad one, just it's your memory. It's just yeah. I mean
the things that stick out to me are all things that came out. You
know, we've got a long time. We got to take this collar.
Hi, you're on the air and eye on the ball. Hello. Hello,
oh no, okay, go ahead. Hello, Hello, you're on
the air. Yeah, Hi, oh okay, Hi Jay, Hi,
It's Kevin ke and Lehman. What's up. Well, I gotta tell you
I was watching the game. I was out of the country, but I
found a way to watch it. I have to tell you this because I
go back to the I think, guess was the Washington State Games, and
I listened to your analysis of it, and I thought, and these guys
are better than those go falls on ESPN. And I'd love to know what
your analysis of that game was. It was obviously sloppy and all that,
but I mean, how do you do that? Well, I'd love to
know what your insights are. No, stay on the phone, because who
better than you? Then talk about psychology? I think we should ask you,
right and let me ask you for my valuation? Is any because it's
it's emotions psychology. They had already won Thursday. They celebrated like crazy in
the locker room with their banners and the water and the craziness and Richard Jefferson
and Okay, you know what do we play for on Saturday? You've been
around Arizona basketball long enough Kevin to know that there was a little kind of
walks differently, he talks differently, and they think they're going to show up
at USC and everything's gonna be hunky dory, and it doesn't work that way.
It just doesn't. So I'm thinking over confidence killed the Cats on this
one. Well, I don't use I don't use four letter language, but
I'm going to you can bleep this out n I L Yes, you're right,
it's only three letters. But you know what people forget is these kids
are making a ton of money. And nobody in the U of A is
going to tell you how much money that eighteen year old is making and how
much Bollo is making. But they're making a ton of money, and so
what you just said, Yeah, they're out parttering, partering, parting the
word right, and with Richard Jefferson and all the celebration. I get it.
I mean it's let down, trapped plus but yeah, it's beyond me.
When your coach says your next game is going to really test your maturity,
I would say, we got a bunch of toddlers out there when of
the money's on the line and it scares eleven heck out of me, It'll
be interesting to see. I'll give you one more thought of mine. And
if they if they end up winning the Back ten Championship, uh, you
know the tournament. What a tournament? And then they turn around, Uh
I think, well, I think there'll be a one seed if they win
the tournament. No, I'll have to distribute with you. I think that
one seed is gone. May be the first number two seed, but no,
there's there's no way. All right, Well, let's just remember that
and we'll see what happens. Okay, because I love you guys, you
call me and ridiculed me, We'll have you back on this show. Thanks
Duck, Thanks Duck. All right, Kevin, you appreciated enjoying yourself.
Thank you. I think he's more qualified to tell us what, you know,
what might have happened over there. I mean, I mean, we've
been watching sports for years and you've seen teams do this. You think teams
don't do it, but they do. They do it, they do the
best teams do it. You know, good teams do it, and and
and you know, how do you explain Purdue losing to Fairly Dickinson last year?
They obviously didn't take Fairly Dickinson seriously. Virginia or the time Virginia lost
as a one seed, they didn't take that team wherever it was. They
play Arizona and against you know, a couple of times, and no matter
what, even if it is the NC Double a tournament, they think of
they're looking at the team that's in front of clearly, and so you know,
I think I think it was a simple matter of they went out there,
they didn't take this game seriously because they just didn't. I mean at
the first TV timeout, I'm like, oh no, this it had a
bad feel to it. You've coached, I know what level it's at,
so it's a different level, but you've coached. If the kids think they're
better than they are and they play against a team they think that they can
crush, sometimes they don't play. Yeah, I mean, come on,
I'm sure we got run ruled by some bad teams. It's both in BASEB
politics, and you've been able to beat teams that thought the same of you,
that that thought the same of us. It happens. It happens.
Yeah, at any level, any and every level, for any level,
girls and guys, girls, guys, pro college, high school, very
much, little, wherever. And it's unexplained. It's unexplainable. But that's
the explanation. Yeah, it's it. It's it all right. Uh uh.
Coming up our interview earlier today with the Desiree Read francois, the new
athletic director at Arizona. She's been on the job about a week now,
so didn't We weren't able to get a lot of what's going on, but
just some of her plans and the things and who she is and who she
is and the things that she she has in the work. So when we
come back, it'll be our recorded interview with Desiree read Francois. Stick around
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This is I on the Wall with se Rivera and Jay Getzalez, Fox
Sports fourteen. Hey, welcome back to I'm about here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jigsawsk Now we have desiree Reed francois the
new ad at juve A. How are you. I'm doing very well.
Thank you very much for having me. Who would have imagined thirty some years
ago this young woman here going to school while school and joining the U of
A Colors is now the ad? Who would have ever thought that it is?
It's a dream come true. It really is. It's very special to
come full circle. And you know I've mentioned and I've talked to you a
lot of it just feels like I'm coming home. We spoke to you.
I spoke to you in Sacramento a year ago, almost to the day Arizona
played out there and Missouri played out there, and you're the AD at the
time, and I'm thinking, Wow, what a dynamic woman. And then
when the job came open, I'm thinking, Uh, there's a girl.
And I didn't mention who she and I tould sur friends, but she said
Missouri, they're doing really well athletically and and everything else. She'd never come
here and here you are did you how much thought did you have to put
into it to come? I talked to the football team this morning and I
asked them how many of you had other opportunities? And they raised their hands
with their fairly level athletes. And I'm in no way saying I'm gonna lead
level athletes. I'm going to be very very clear enough. And I said
but, and I pointed it at Noah and I said, well, why
did you choose to stay here at Arizona? And he said family? And
then I pointed to another young man and he said love. And I said,
you know what, we shared that in Common, Missouri, the University
of Missouri, the people were incredible. My student athletes were incredible. My
son is a student athlete there, and you're right we were. There was
some really good momentum in the athletic department. So the University of Missouri,
the people were so very spell and we had a lot of great momentum.
I was not looking to leave when doctor Robbins called me about this. Initially
I thought it was a call about I was. I was speaking to the
law school on that on that Sunday Monday. Is something that I'd been planned
six months in advance, and when he talked to me about the role,
my my first blush in my heart just said, yes, you need to
do this. The University of Arizona, like I said in the press conference,
they the College of Law. And when Willie Jordan Curtis, my former
dean, when she showed up at that press conference, it was I felt
like I was twenty two again and I this was a heart move and just
like the football players, and they were talking about family and love. That's
that's why I came back. So you know, it was a while ago
that you were actually announced to be the the ad You've only been on the
job a month, But what do you I mean a week? Excuse me,
but what do you know so far about the job and is it shaping
up to be what you thought coming in? I look outside and I see
those banners, and we have twenty two national championships with our last one I
think in twenty eighteen with women's golf. The University of Arizona has an incredible
championship passed. We have a lot of success. What men's basketball is doing,
what football has done. Women's basketball, I think they have a thirty
four net and I hope that they that they get selected for the NCAA tournament.
I just saw women's tennis on Sunday and they beat University Nevada Areno,
and we've there's so much greatness here. There's such a storied and championship pass.
I was here in ninety seven when we won the national championship, and
so what my job is is to come in and build build a model business.
I don't want to just balance the budget. We've got to build a
strong infrastructure. We've got to make sure we have the right people in the
right spaces. They understand their job, responsibilities and what success looks like,
and we're giving them the resources and then we're holding them accountable. We've got
to build an athletic department team so that we can continue to have that success.
These are challenging times and athletics across the country, not just here at
the University of Arizona, but everywhere across the country. And how we will
tackle those challenges is if we have a very strong athletic department team. So
you ask me, I think about what I was surprised about and what I'm
excited about are our students. You know, Caleb Love has spent a little
time with him in Los Angeles, and he's a really incredible young man.
He is a great teammate. He's a caring young man in the isis space
and then Noah's and I look forward to getting to know our student athlete and
hearing their hopes and dreams. I want to work with our coaches and make
sure that they have the resources and support they need to be successful. I
look forward to going in an athletic department team. So about Children of weeks
ago, when you were announced as the new AD. I start to a
colleague of vahe Grigorian who you know? And I know a colleague of mind
form a colleague of mine, and I said, what's she about? He
sent me this. She is a sports force of nature and a very delightful
person. How can you be two with the scene? Well, like,
first of all, he's been very very kind. You can be strong and
be kind. They are not mutually exclusive. I am driven by a purpose
of providing student athletes with a championship experience, a holistically championship experience. But
I don't have a lot of tolerance for nonsense. And I shared that with
the staff that you know we're going to do things the right way. I
look for people of high character, and you know, every team that I've
ever been a part of, you got to put your team first. You've
got to be selfless, you've got to be smart, and you've got to
be incredibly hard working. So I think it's if you're guided by your purpose,
then you don't have to have you can withstand the challenges. And in
terms of I don't know if you means by force of nature that that we
drive things, and we drive pretty hard, but but we do because we're
guided by a higher calling. As you begin to tackle the financial situation that
you have here, you know, where do you start on something like that
that just seems so big. Well, in addition to that, we had
the doctor ns on it go ah and ask that question. Well, doctor
Robins said, you thought it could be fixed in eighteen to thirty six months.
How aggressive is that? Or is that something that you're on board with
and that you think is doable? We absolutely are. What we're going to
do is so my first step. So when I first got here, I
told the staff, I have five priorities in three to five special projects in
this first quarter and the first one is our people. The second one is
university partnerships. We can't fix this by ourselves, so I tend to work
with I am working with President Robins John Arnold in my university colleagues, but
also we need to be great partners in athletics. The third thing is I
have to analyze the budget, and so I've been working a lot on that
and looking at where our financials are. But also it's not just building to
balance the budget. We've got to build the infrastructure to have that model business.
As an athletic director, you're a CEO of a one hundred and fifty
million at the other place, one hundred and twenty million dollar company with an
altruistic purpose within the framework of we're one of I think there's eighty one campus
units, but we're a very visible campus unit, and so we have to
embrace that responsibility. So I look forward to building that business model with both
a short term and then longer term goals and expectations. But we're going to
analyze every single one of our departments and our profit centers and then look at
our cost centers and figuring out figure out is this now I'm pointing him up.
I want to ask the next question and figure out is the way we're
doing it? Is this the best way to do it? Or are we
doing it because this is how we've always done it. You talk about the
model business, how different is that today than maybe two years ago, five
years ago, ten years ago. The intercollegiate athletics landscape across the country is
changing at an incredibly rapid pace. I would argue the fastest pace that we've
ever seen in the history of college sports, specifically when you look at name,
image and likeness, revenue share, litigation, conference re alignment, television
contracts. Yeah, the lawsuits are coming rapidly, but you know what,
it's a beautiful game. We're providing access to higher education and we're providing some
of the best leadership teachings that you'll ever have in your whole life. The
experience you have as a student athlete will take well. So we have to
not get away from our core purpose. We have to recognize their challenges.
We've got to have a great team, a great infrastructure, and then we're
gonna we're going to take those on head on. Well, let me ask
you, obviously, a dynamic person, the person you've been a student athlete,
been an ad you've been an attorney. What did you want to be
when you were a little girl. I wanted to be the first female GM
in the National Football League with the forty nine ers. And how did it
come to this? I realized that working in athletics is part of my DNA
growing up. I'm not a great natural athlete by any stretch. I'm remarkably
uncoordinated, but I work really hard. Athletics is a place that I can
compete. And it was okay. You were. You weren't told to not
you weren't told to you know, keep your opinions to yourself, but you
were. I you were encouraged to compete. So that's why I love athletics.
And also I wouldn't be sitting here in front of you all if it
wasn't for my dad was an eighth grade English teacher and my mom was a
school secretary and she and she uh uh worked part time. I come from
a a very lower middle class family, but it was because of education that
I'm able to do what I do. And so I s believe in the
power of higher education to transform lives. So when you so, when you
met with the administration here when you first got here, and obviously the man
I think that was the word you use. I can't remember what it was
specifically. How did they receive you should I don't know how to How was
I received? I'm looking at our stuff. Uh. You know, I
think champions of champions rise to the occasion. If you are someone that wants
to revel in mediocrity, if you are someone that just wants to do just
enough to get by, uh, if this is not gonna be the place
for you. If you are someone that says, hey, I want high
expectations, I embrace challenge. I am gonna work and I'm gonna prove that
that I that I am the best at what I do in this not only
in this entire conference, but an entire country. If that's what you're looking
for, and you are gonna love it here and this will be the dynamic
uh work environment that you will thrive. But if you're looking to revel in
mediocrity, it's gonna be a struggle. Last question, with all the uncertainty
you mentioned the second ago. You know, in athletics, the possibility of
student athletes becoming employees, uh, those kinds of things. How how can
you manage this recovery that you need to manage. I mean, there's so
much uncertainty. There's uncertainty, but and there's a little bit of chaos.
But you know what that brings. It brings opportunity, and that's what we're
about. You know, when Name, Image and Likeness first came on board,
instead of complaining about it, we said, hey, you know what,
let's look and let's make it a competitive advantage. And you know,
we were pretty aggressive in my prior place, and you know, worked with
our legislature and created a law that was remarkably competitive and and it really helped
our programs. So I'm not saying that we're going to necessarily change the law
here. I would never mean to get out in front of our legislature and
certainly not my president either. But we're going to look at everything we're doing
and making sure that what we're doing is the best in class, and if
it's not, then we got to figure out why not. And I just
don't want to always do things just because we've always done it that way.
Well, thank you very much, as rightful, hope to see you more
on the show. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Fare down. I
found her to be very intriguing, honest, very bright. Obviously you don't
becoming really smart. Uh. And let me see this. We we've talked
about this internally with us, and I don't think i'm miss speaking. I
think that people in that building will have to up their game. You're gonna
have to be on their toes and you're right up there. Game is a
good way to put it in that she you know, she said, I
mean, I'm I'm I can I can be nice, and I can be
all those things. But I'm gonna, you know, basically, she said,
in a nice way, I'm coming in here to you know, make
some changes and and and if you want to come up, yep, you
got. If you're gonna come along for the ride, then you better be
prepared to work hard. Let's let's take a break. We can take the
break now and then come back and talk more about this. Yes, and
then we take some calls. Yep, let's talk about There is a lot
to talk about, So stick around and come back. We'll kind of recap
all that she said, so we'll be 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,
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he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve
dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal wild
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Breaking down all the exes and olls. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salviz.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve,
He's Jay. You got Kevin with us for another fifteen this hour and
then we'll get to breaking news on the other side. But one of the
things that I thought was, oh, there are a lot of things that
were interesting. She's a former athlete, and I asked this question, and
you know this, Jay all the time when I ask former athletes on how
do they compete? And she talked about wanting to be the GM, Right,
that's what they do. I mean, you have to find things to
get your juices. There has to be a fire. You golf, you
play a little, you double a little wink wink on on sports betting.
You know that's kind of your competition. I played poker, poker. I
love I loved being the day to day beat writer because you compete. I
compete against the star. Start competing against me. I love to. You
know what I'm saying, we did you find you find ways to compete.
And this is how she's done it, being attorney, being very aggressive.
You know what I'm saying, right, No, and and and and that's
why she is where she is, okay, because she is a competitor.
She takes on challenges. She talked about, you know, the you know
this challenge at Arizona being an opportunity. And when you approach things like that,
that's how you get to the jobs that you get to, and that's
how you're successful at them because you accept those challenges and you take them head
on instead of trying to find the easy way out. So the fact that
she's doing that is is a big deal to Arizona. They need somebody like
that. Yeah, no question, And I think that President Robinson has chosen
the right quession for that. And not to say that Dave didn't get a
chance to do that, but he just felt that there was a needed to
be a move. Well, you can see you can see why. You
can see why when Robin's doctor Robins says, we needed a different direction.
When you talk to her and see her approach and what she's got on her
plate versus what Dave's sort of had on his plate all these years, you
understand that the day, okay, Dave was great for what he was being
asked to do. But now they they've gone into this period where they got
this financial situation that's got to get fixed, and maybe Dave's not the guy
to do that. You know, they need a person like like her.
You know, we were talking off air that that you know, the folks
that Michael Center are gonna have to be to use a rich rich They're gonna
have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it's gonna get uncomfortable over that
very much. So, uh and yeah, there's and it should it needs
to. Sure. Well we've been around long enough to know that. Yeah,
And look a lot of them know it too, right, And I
say them as like this species out there. But you know, the people
and maybe maybe a lot of a lot of the folks that machayl will will
have a will appreciate that. We say, okay, now, I know
that when I'm working hard and doing stuff and getting things done, that there's
some appreciation, maybe even a reward for that. And you know, and
and the and the and the look the athletic program is is a really one
of the you know, it's a great program. It's a really good program
for you know, uh, Division I athletics. It didn't get there because
there were a bunch of slackers throughout the years at McHale I gotta. I
got a text from somebody who also talked to her today, uh, and
this is what they sent me. I get the sense that she is not
afraid to tell hard truths and she won't suffer fools. So there has to
be a lot of nervous athletic department staffers there waiting for her decisions. Or
maybe there's a lot of athletic the department staffers are going I look forward finally,
or yeah, I'm looking forward to yes, someone pushing us this way.
I could think that again, there's so many of so many of the
people at Michael were athletes and hopefully you know they're saying, you know what,
I'm looking forward to having a person like that. Yeah, let's take
this call. Hi, you're on the air and on the ball. Hey
you guys, this is Gabe. How's it going you guys, Gabe,
how are you? We're doing well? Oh you must be, you must
be critically go ahead, Sorry, I'm doing fine. I'm just kind of
a little bit dumbfounded by why do the Arizona loose to a trash university's spoiled
children team? Well, you you've been here enough this year alone of why
they've done it four or five times to the same type of team. Yeah,
they didn't they sing. Their energy was not there they I mean clearly
they They beat U C. L A on Thursday and so they secure a
conference bed. But regardless, you should you should annihilate USC because they're only
good at one single spot and that is not men's basketball. I'll let you
guys figger that out. But anyway, yeah, whatever, alright, Well,
better they better play if you If Arizona plays against USC in the patrol
permit, they bear, put down the hammer and blow them out one hundred
points because losing to a trash university of spoiled children. Nah, now that
is good in men's basketball or USC is the opposite? Are good? Their
human seaco matter bad? Well, Gabe, thank you as usual with your
commentary. We appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Gabe. We always think
that the world of you. Thank you anytime bear down E was gonna Oka.
So, Jay, let me ask you this. I was thinking this
when he was speaking. Do we know how good Arizona is? We know
how good they can be? Do we know how bad they are? We
know how bad they can be. So we kind of know what we do.
We know both ends of it. And the thing is and and and
the problem is that it's a mysterious to which one is going to show up
the problem? Kevin? Who doesn't have that problem? Kevin, Kevin,
you've made the observation that I've said, a long time. What do you
think about the tournament and how it'll settle for them? I was saying,
it's really interesting as an Arizona fan to go through these kind of tournaments because
you almost get more confident in your in your team as the tournament goes on,
which is kind of the inverse experience for most teams who face inferior team
in the first couple of rounds and they feel really confident about making it to
the third round. But once you get to the tougher time competition, excuse
me, it gets a little shaky. For the fans, they're like,
I don't know if you can beat the uncs the produced but when your Arizona
are like, oh, the hardest thing we got is you know McNeice.
So if we can get past McNee who knows the ceiling is the proof your
observation is perfect, because that's just what's given. It was onto troubles right
throughout the years. But let me say two years ago, uh, two
years ago. Sometimes, Jay, and you've seen this, sometimes they just
ran into a better team, Yes, Houston, who would have Houston was
better that day and if they played ten times, they might beat them six
out of the six and Houston team got to the final four. So there's
no shame in losing to that team. Right, you happen to run into
him in the sweet sixteen instead of the lead eight, but yeah, sure,
sure, and that happens. It's the other stuff that you think.
The mcnique states, then you're thinking, well, this should be easy.
The problem is they think that. They think that, and it goes back
to the statistic we brought up, like I don't know how many weeks ago
about their record in big attendance games versus record in small attendance games. And
I know USC is like a historic school for various reasons, but that's not
a very big game. I know it's the last game of the pack twell
regular season, but they just won the regular season title, so yeah,
I don't know, Well they get the games wise, the bigger, the
better the team is. Yeah. No, I again, it nothing changed
Saturday. Initially it did for me, but don upon further reviews, then
upon further reviews, like we already knew this about this team, and and
nothing's changed. Here here's you know, talking to all all the things that
you run through your brain. But look, you know, let Arizona fans
feel a little easier by the fact that to this day, Tommy Lloyd still
hasn't lost two games in a row. So there you go. You know,
I know people are worried about USC coming out of you know, come
playing Arizona playing USC in the that first game, because they're they're they're in
that bracket that they take. They're playing the winner of Washington US and people
saying, God, here comes the us See again, just like Stanford,
you know in past years and whatnot. So there was Alas a five to
eight favorite two in the tournament. Uh, this week, I might I'll
say they'll win it. You us C go ahead, It's take this call
high. You're on there and on the ball. Yeah. Jay, First
of all, you did a great job in calling the Alabama Tennessee game.
What do you say, Well, no, last week you called it on
the air. You said he was going to Alabama or Kentucky. Excuse me,
Kentucky was good Tennessee. Anyway, long, I'll get to the point
number one, nil and these transfer portals, you have no consistency of leadership
on the floor. They're a great team to get all the potential in the
world, but there hasn't been anybody that when you have guys that have played
together two or three years, that real floor leader that can get in their
grill and not always be the coach. And I think that hurts a lot
of teams, not just there as a right rick. So you've you've watched
enough games to know years in fact, So who have they had in the
past that was that guy and that got him far? There's only been two
or three in in my time. I mean that was Pre and I l
and that's Pre and I L. Right, look at Miles Simon, Okay,
I mean Miles was a Flora leader. Jefferson was a leader. No,
no, no, I'll give you. I'll give you the three that
I have. Richard was not in fact, he was more Jason Gardner.
But it's Miles who You're correct, TJ. McConnell, right, and and
Johnson Nick Johnson, those three in the last fifteen years, I would say.
Other than that, no, well we haven't had a Judd Burchelar.
We haven't had that mentality where the kids have played together long enough more than
you. That's a really good point. Yeah, no, that's a really
good flying Who are gonna go to down? You don't, right, because
well, the last the last how many years, they're Arizona's best players have
been guys who have come in here for a year. You know, Caleb
Love, you know, you had Caleb Love that you know for for a
year, you had uh Courtney or Amy for a year, you had uh
dere Aiden for a year, a bunch of these guys who commit, you
know, the the whole uh Josh Josh, uh Josh Green uh uh you
know uh uh Nico Mannion for a year, And you're right, they don't
get to grow and get whatever cohesiveness or whatever you want to call it,
you know, to have guys like that who you are seeing as floor leaders.
To your point, Rick, that's that's that's exactly it. I think
it's pre n I l but to your point, it's true. Yeah.
And here's the other quick thing. I think this is where coach should go
to Ballow and say, listen, you are you've been here now two years.
You need to grab these guys by their shirt sleeve and shake the hell
out of him so that he coaching skills and Ballow, you are the leader
out there. You need to take ownership of this floor. And I think
that Baba would do that if coach would put that kind of pressure on top
of them. So, okay, Rick, thank you for calling. We'll
talk about that in second Thank you, Rick, Okay, good day.
I think in theory, and hear me out, Jay, in theory,
I think that's okay. But we are already thirty some games into the season.
How how can you doesn't make the leader when you have three weeks.
Maybe they're supposed they're supposed to be here by now exactly, And I feel
like kind of Boswell could be that, but he went through that space in
the middle of the season where very much some of that might have And so
people, I think they're looking to Caleb Love for that. Yeah when you
go one for ten, Yeah, and you know whatever, for whatever reason,
he played his worst game of the year. Maybe Keishah Johnson is a
guy more maybe more than Ballow because I think heshad Johnson can be more vocal,
he can scare the crap out of guy and speak authority. Two have
been to hire, right, But again, these they're all you know,
Caleb and Keishat are both one year guys. But Jay, you're already,
like I say, thirty seven games into this, all of a sudden,
you can't take charge when when what's behind you, the seasons already behind you.
You know, wh where's Pally Larson on this? On the on the
leader meter? Right? So let me tell you what I was thinking over
the weekend. Just to spite you, they played their ninety seven throwbacks.
They look pretty good. Did they play well? And two you have two
final four guys that have been there. What they all happened to that?
You know what, you just need an e racist game from here from all
of that. Okay, you just need an eracist game from all of that.
It's like, you know, it's the next thing. They did look
good in those things, look good good at their bud Cat But you know
a kid, Yeah, you're talking about Arizona. Okay, you're talking about
Arizona not playing well. Guess what the other team wants to beat the crap
out of you. And they played very well. And look again, ye
Alice and and Isaiah call here get to play against Arizona. This was their
one shot at Arizona and they and they came out and played well. And
and then as a tournament to your point, Kevin, it's the McNeese states
the first time at you guys, we're going to show that we can play
the game too. Yeah, and they have. There were so many things
in play on Saturday, and they all came to fruition and so and it
added up to a So let me ask you, we have too many stuff.
So you and you already have said that you put some money on the
money line easy. What were you thinking? What were you thinking? Because
because this Vegas loves these games, because it's an obvious win. I think,
what was the thinking during the games? No, no, no,
what were you thinking before you made the bet? I just I thought even
if they came out flat, that they would win. It was a no
brainer. And that's and that's how, that's why, that's why I just
that's why it was just just win. I didn't I didn't like the line.
I wasn't gonna bet the line. Arizona. You know, this is
not a two foot pot, but not a twelve foot pot. Imagine if
you're the player thinking this, because guess what they're thinking this too, to
show up, we'll play. We beat them already by a bunch, Yeah,
show up. It doesn't work that way, No, it doesn't.
It just doesn't. It doesn't. And then that's that was my thinking,
that this was a you know, just a game that even with the celebrate
that Arizona was good enough that even on a bad day, they could beat
this team. And Vegas loves you guys, yeah, because no, no,
no don't they because they say it's it's gotta not smart money. It's
it's the shark's money or whatever they call it. The smart money. Guys,
No, there's no such thing. Some people always say you're supposed to
bet the spot and not the line, some people the whole thing. But
that's to your point as well. Yeah, m but it happens more than
you know, or we know, just until you get until you're affected.
You say, what the hell was I thinking this? You would think the
team and more consistency. Though I know your thing is no, momentum doesn't
really exist, but consistency is a real thing that does being very much so,
you would think that they want those habits of just doing what you're supposed
to do, game in, game out, And that's weird psychology things.
I mean, more so than losing the US. Consistency is a good word
because that does exist. Yeah. Yeah, and this team, and that's
what people are looking for, and then when they don't see it, they
lose their minds. Even though they had won eleven out of twelve, ten
of eleven, I think, yeah, only to Washington State. They still
wont ten out of twelve. That's still pretty good. Yeah, But the
way they want to exactly again. And then when you mix in that,
the fact that three pack twelve lots three worst teams in the league should scare
you. Of course it does. And maybe it scares the players enough to
say, okay, no more. How many times? How many listens learn
maybe? And you put you with their kids? Man, it takes a
lot of lessons to learn. If you drink all the milk and you put
it back in the refrigerator, throw it away. Don't put it back in
the refrigerator. Don't drink out of the cart either. All right, let's
take our break. We're gonna come back breaking news. A lot of stuff
going on in the NFL today, So Kevin will be right back with that.