This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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Welcome to I on the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's jagan Zaus got our guy Kevin in the house today for the first
fifteen minutes. Who will just have open lines if you want to give us
a call. A lot of things going on, obviously, big game tomorrow.
Tommy Lloyd was talking to the media today. Yeah, missed it.
Couldn't get over there today, had stuff to do. It was funny because
I was gonna go and I didn't have a chance to get there because I
was at my other place. He talked about a home court advantage, and
I thought it was a good question. I was gonna ask him similarly similar
But this year, specifically, all over the country, it's very very hard
to win on the road. It has it's been for whatever reason, Arizona
has fallen victim into that. I would not be surprised Jay if they if
they split this weekend. If you would have told me this two months ago,
I'd say, no, what are you talking about. We're thinking,
we're thinking, remember we were thinking they can win all their games. Possibly,
Well you can't. You can't. You know the funny thing about it,
Jay and I don't. Back in the day, Arizona was not Arizona
yet when you covered them in eighty eight, they were just becoming. They're
becoming Arizona. But they were damn good. They were damn good. Lost
one right on the road. Obviously when I covered up. The toughest places
to play were the places like this year when they have two people in the
gym. Yeah, they never got when they never got up for these games.
Well at that time though, when they were becoming that particularly I'm talking
about the eighty eight season, every the arena was full, every yeah,
because every time they showed up, they showed themselves a lot away. Yeah,
even at even at Washington State. Uh. The the second year that
I covered them, it was the final four year. You know, they
it wasn't sold out, but you know, basically Cosseum is huge. It's
too big for that place. There aren't fifteen thousand people in Pullman. They
had the arena's fifteen thousand people. That's I was joking, but uh,
you know, every you know, every arena was jammed. It was it
was sold out. All their games were all their road games were sold out,
and and the fans were you know, were nuts. But you know
there are times and there are you know, like that, that COVID season
had to be really hard. Yeah right, you remember that. But no,
I agree with you, Steve. You know they when when when there's
no field, no atmosphere. I mean, people talk about home court advantage
and how tough it is to be on the road, but it's tougher to
be on the road and not have anybody care. That's and that's it.
That's it. I remember going to Oregon State to watch the games and they
would lose that game, play out of their mind against Oregon because it was
a game, you know right, it was a game. Uh look,
Duke, how tough is to play State at How tough of the place is
it there? And they show up, they show up, They go to
Stanford, few people in the gym. They stink it up. Washington State
some pretty as we'll find it out. Now, Washington is better than what
we thought. They would be, but the stadium was not full or the
Ferna was not full or close to it. Yeah, but you know when
the when when Arizona goes to Colorado and Utah, I mean, that's an
event over there. Yeah, so that'll be those places. So that right,
So it's it's tough. I mean, you know, again, people
talk about how hard it is to play in front of these crowds, but
it's hard to play in front of no crowd. Oh very much so,
yeah, very much so. I remember the Miami of Ohio game, first
game with the n C Double A Tournament, ten o'clock game, eleven o'clock
game. Nobody in the gym, nobody really Arizona guy beat in the first
round. And one of those first round games. You think, what the
hell? Yeah, I hear you, I hear you, and and uh
it's uh, you know, that's why, you know, in Arizona seems
to play well in those situations, right, they go to those venues.
I mean, they went to Duke and they you know, and I mean
that's probably going to be the hardest place that they will play this year.
Is for you know what, their second game of the year, and they
went in there and won that game, arguably playing the best game that they've
played this year. Probably, yeah, it's certainly in the probably in the
discussion Alabama, Alabama, they played so well that you did, you know
whatever on a neutral court. But that's just kind of like the human human
mind, you play tricks on you, yeah, because you play out of
your mind, right when you have a big crowd, and everyone notorious for
that. You just go back through those years and you play out of your
mind. So that was just the thought. And here they are. Yeah,
but this is a big weekend for them. You know, they can't
fall on their face and go do something dumb at Oregon State. They got
to go take care of business there and set themselves up for a big game
with Oregon. And again, who thought that these were going to be big
games? We didn't that the way they were playing going into the conference season,
we thought, you know, nineteen and one, twenty and oh you
know, and how stupid was that? And to your point, j I
was looking at the eight people. Just like the teams above us. There
are only two teams between us and number one that are undefeated in the conference,
though those teams are Yukona eight and Oh in Auburn at five, and
oh in Auburn, who thought? Who thought Auburn was gonna be? And
even Yukon at number one has a conference loss, Perdue has two and yeah,
so it's just been tough going in these conferences. Yeah, a lot,
a lot of parody this year, it seems. Sure. Yeah,
they talk about that all the time. But even at number eight. Let
me let me ask you your eye tests, your eye tests, both of
your guests. Are they the number eight team in the country. I think
they. I think they are, but they're just not playing like it right
now. Okay, Okay, that's a good answer. But I think the
way they're playing right now isn't really who they are. I think they're kind
of in a in a little bit of a ditch and trying to figure out
how to get out. So if you could vote, well, here's the
problem. You haven't seen the other guys too. So they're kind of eight
by default. They're kind of made by they got to number one by default.
Do I think they're a top ten team? Yes? I do.
Okay, are they Okay? So I think they're a top five team.
That's I don't know. Well, they're not playing like they're not playing like
it, and they're not playing like the top ten team, And that's kind
of what I was asking. You know, they're not playing like that,
but I think they ultimately are that because I think they've got the guys to
be that. So so the narrative Nation State, let me say, let
me say this. I'm sorry. I think they're I think they're a number
one seed, but I don't know if they're gonna get one of those years
because of the way they're playing. And they've been playing like this for a
stretch. It's not it's not been a one offer. It's been a stretch
now well that they're playing like go to the athletic because you read that all
the flip and you guys read all this stuff. The national narrative on Arizona
is not that because they've seen them play out of their mind, right,
but they haven't seen them played out of the right. They didn't see him
lose to Washington State. They saw him beat Alabama, and they saw him
beat Duke, and they saw him beat Michigan State. So wat I've seen
what I've seen. What I need to say. If you read this the
narrative, it's like these guys are great. They're not. You know,
they're better than last year. They're better defensively, they can numbers that grow
whatever, those none of them. And then but this is guys, you
haven't seen this team lately and they just wrote the story yesterday. Yeah no,
I I yeah, I'm hearing yeah, I uh, but you know,
Steve, I mean it's you know, what do you say about Kansas?
What do you say about anybody? Saying all the same things every there,
And that's what I'm saying. They say these teams they're losing a game,
and people think it's that's who they are now because they've lost this game,
they must not be very as good as we thought they were. Well,
you're gonna lose games. Yeah, I'm suting with the guys on Twitter
or Facebook. But but it's kind of like a misnomer. They're not.
They're not the team that people think they are. But they're not that bad
either. Right. Well, again, they were so impressive and you know
in the in the non conference season that you thought all things were possible.
And then and then then there's the added uh impression that everybody has of the
of the PAC twelve that the packed tall is not any good. Well,
maybe it's better than people think, you know, I mean the other day
when I told you that, somebody said it's a five, it's a it's
a five. Uh that they could get five teams in the tournament? He
thought, what the hell? Yeah, you know, how do you think
now? Three or four? Three three four? Maybe name then Arizona,
Oregon, Washington State, maybe Washington State. I don't know what Stanford has
done recently. I know they got beat recently. You know, Utah,
how good is you know, is your tiny good? I don't know.
I mean, you know, two a week after you talk, got got
its face kicked in over here. They beat UCLA by fifty and then u
c LA went up to a s U and one. You know when they
you know, I mean, is a SU a tournament team? You know,
they didn't look like it at the start, but they certainly looked like
looked like that recently until they lost last Thursday to you to u c l
A. Yeah, who had been playing horribly. Yeah, it's crazy,
it's crazy, but it's a fun time because it's the best time. You
don't know what's gonna happen. Who would have thought, uh, if a
U gets to the final four. San Diego State gets out of four wins
it all. That's why college college basket the Yukon did not. You know,
I was at the regional that that Yukon went. You know, I
worked the West Regional last year that Yukon won. Yukon didn't look like a
national championship team to me until they won the regional and I thought, holy
hell, I think these guys are gonna win it. And then they did
because they looked they were mean. They were really mean, really mean physical
team. Okay, and that's Arizona's not that team. They can they have
that. I've covered how many teams, and they've always had it in them,
but they never But but let me say this, they're better than they've
been in that category. See, I thought that I thought they were that
against Duke. I thought they were that against against uh Michigan State. I
thought they were that against Alabama play. And actually, where where they've lost
their games has not been because they haven't been physical inside, because they haven't
guarded the outside. All the games they they got beat from outside, not
not from a being overmatched you know under the basket or or you know being
you know physical. In fact, they got they they got finesse, they
got out finessed in those games. You know, Stanford, Washington, State
of Florida, Atlantic, their guards beat them, their guards beat Arizona,
and so you know, uh, I think they are I think they I
think they're let me put, I think they are better built for the NCAA
tournament certainly than they than they have been up to. Now that's not that's
not a question. That's you're accurate as well. But now that you've had
fifteen sixteen games whatever games that are seventeen games, are they as physical as
you thought they would be given what you saw in the past. And because
because guess what, Johnson isn't that guy anymore. He hasn't been that guy.
He's kind of regressed a little bit. Well, he's he's he's had
less less of an impact on games more recently. Right in fact, everybody
has. Yeah, but yeah, I mean you know, yeah, to
his credit, yeah, everybody has. Yeah. So no, you know,
it's it feels like it feels like they kind of backed up a little
bit when the when the PAC twelve season started, and now they're kind of
working their way back. And I think a big step there was not losing
the UCLA game on set right. Well, that that there was a big
step that they took. Within the game they were playing. They played terrible
in the first half, played not so great early. I mean they came
out awful to start the second half, right, fell by seventeen again.
Yeah, and then all of a sudden they just you know, it's like
it's like a load got lifted off and somebody said something and said, oh,
I get it, and then they went off. Well, the UCLA
had something to do with that. They collapsed, they did, But why
did they collapse? Both? Did they collapse? Because there I want you
to hold that thought because next time something happens, I'm asking you that reason
was that they did they win the game or did the other team lose the
game? Right? But but you know, and and look, the Arizona
got so physical with them that Mick Cronin lost his mind and blamed the game
on the refs. So Arizona, all of a sudden, Arizona went back
to being the physical team and needed to be and did that to be U
c l A. Now you say, look, they're not a few.
I mean I told you you remember I texted you right before the airport,
this is not a good airport team. They do not look like they've got
good players. And I'm talking about just what you see in the layup line
and warm up and stuff like that. When you texted me that, were
you on that text to the airport if we saw you coming from the airport,
Are you an airport guy? No, I'm a terrible airport. A
terrible airport does open yourself up to being very self aware. I'm a I'm
a Greyhound team airport. And they look good in the half when you said
that, and they were killing them and they were killing them. Yeah,
you know, well that because I replied, well this airport, not airport
team looks pretty. They look pretty, and they did look dang good.
So it was that that was funny. All right, Okay, today we've
got Michael Lev's coming on. He did a column today on on Dave Heikey
and just kind of sort of you know, he keeps his thoughts sort of
an old school guy versus what, you know, the kind of and he
had Mike, Michael had some really good thoughts on what this next athletic director
needs to be. And I thought that was really interesting stuff, So we'll
talk to Michael Lev about that, and then you're gonna leave us for the
second hour. Yes, you're gonna go play in the sandbox with your other
uh long time old farts sports writer guys and do some n cua A tournament
stuff. So it'll be just Kevin and I and the second half we're gonna
have John Pearlman on f C two so on. They're gearing up a lot
of stuff, getting ready to get going there. You have the special I
think the cup thing coming in right, so talk to John Prolin about what
they're going what's going on over that f CP sid So stick around Michae Lev
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they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station shat Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to joining the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacin Sauce. Now on the phone,
we have Michael live from the Arizona Daily Star. Michael, how you doing?
I'm doing all right, gentlemen, How are you fine? Thank you?
Have you cut your breath from all the week's worth of craziness? Really,
and I'm not really expecting to anytime soon. We got baseball and softball
right around the corner and kiss the season all good? So how stunned.
Were you Monday afternoon, nine minutes till five when that email came across.
Did you have any inkling that something like this was in the offing? Well,
a little inside baseball for you. I wasn't stunned at all, because
I had heard about it about an hour earlier. The problem was that I
couldn't get a second source on the record in time to break the stories.
So it was a little upsetting just from a you know, personal professional standpoint.
I'm more so upsetting because I really liked Dave Heike, and I feel
like he got a raw deal to a certain degree. It feels like a
little bit escapegoating going on here. We'll see what that you know, financial
report looks like. That's supposedly coming out tomorrow morning. I've heard kind of
mixed things about that. How big of a deal that is. But you
know that that probably won't reflect well on the athletic department, and he was
in charge of that. But I kind of go back to, well,
you know, who's in charge of the whole school, you know, and
that particular person seems to be escaping any sort of major consequences so so far.
Yeah, we'll just leave that one at that right. No, No,
that's the first thing I thought, if you're going to get rid of
Hike, how could you not get rid of the president? And I thinking
maybe, uh, in time, that's likely to happen. Uh, you
know, in our days. I'm sure you've already done this with Michael.
Uh you've already pre wrote that story just in case. Well, that one's
kind of above my pay grade. That's the whole Uh yeah, that's a
new story. Yeah, story, that's the whole university. You know,
that's not just that's just not sports, but it obviously impacts sports in a
major way because this particular president was very involved in athletics. Yes, really,
the only person who's above the athletic director at the university is the president.
And we have no idea how the next president, whoever that is,
whenever that happens, how that person will feel about athletics. Yeah. Yeah,
And and well, I mean you'll you'll have to you'll have to vet
that, You'll have to find that out because that's such an important part of
who universities are. So you had some interesting stuff in this column this morning.
It's in the Arizon Daily Star, talking about the A D job that
or the type of a d that Dave Hickey is and has been and continues
to be versus what you think is needed going forward. It's got to be
more of a have more of a business maybe even a business background, but
you know, more of a CFO type is what is what you said,
Explain to me what you know your thoughts on on those two things. Yeah,
I've been hearing for a while now that you know, the way we
think about college athletics has changed. The whole business has changed, and it
has become more of a business. It's like running a little corporation unto itself.
So you have to bring in somebody who's got some experience with raising money
and managing money, you know, on a pretty high level. You know,
our colleague John Wilner, who writes the great Tach twelve hotline column.
I think it's just going to be called the Wilner Hotline once the conference is
no longer here in a few months. But he does great work. He
released a list of six candidates and they're all sitting athletic directors. I'm not
totally sure that that is the direction that they're going to go. You know,
if you want to truly kind of reimagine and restructure what an athletic department
looks like. Maybe you have to go a little bit outside the box,
you know, and hire somebody who's maybe more from the corporate world to do
that, and then you know you have someone underneath you who kind of is
more deals with the coaches, deals with the athletes, etc. If you
go the other way and you hire someone who's maybe more traditional, I think
that person needs to bring in a CFO type, a money manager type,
who can kind of bring the athletic department into the twenty first century. A
statement that I'm making in the year twenty twenty four, which seems like it's
a little too little, too late. But they don't have a choice because
I know for a fact that the athletic department has been running deficit and that
has not really changed or improved over the last few years. And whoever comes
in is going to have to figure out a way to dig out of that
hole. So I read your story. I liked it. I think you
did some good observations. Good guy, good guy. You know, I
know you grade the team. You did when you covered the team. How
would you have graded Dave's overall performance in a great because I know you talked
about the good and the bad. Oh gosh, what a good question.
I would say, like a be somewhere in there he gets dinged significantly for
the Kevin Sumlin higher in situation. I don't think that was entirely his call,
you know, to to hire coach someone, and that's a that's a
group decision. There's others involved in that, but that's on your resume,
and that's a pretty that's a pretty bad one. They they swung and missed
with that particular hire. On the flip side, Uh, jed Fish was
a good hire in a vacuum, right right. I know he left after
three years directed uh the entire program in the process, you know, so
that was a really big deal and a good hire. I think Brent Brennan
is going to prove to be a good higher. I'm a fan of Chip
Hail. I know not everybody is. I think he's gonna do really good
job here with you of a baseball Caitlin Lowe, I think the jury is
still out on that one. I think going to the Big twelve will help.
I think you also have to grate on a curve a little bit because
of all of the stuff using a politically correct term there that Dave inherited when
he took over the job. No, the Ie investigation and all these sort
of off field issues with Orlando Bradford and Craig Carter, and that was a
big mess that he had to come and clean up, you know. And
he's taken a lot of heat along the way, and he was okay with
that. You know. It's kind of like kind of like sometimes how Roger
Goodell takes the heat for the for the owners in the NFL. He was
willing to do that, willing to do that to the very end. He
was very loyal in that regard. He was a very good soldier in that
regard. And I respect them for those reasons. No, I get you've
got b B plus. I agree with you. It's like firing your Milwaukee
he Bucks coach. Shepter second best record in the league. What the hell?
What how did this happen? But you know you talked about the president
and I think we all know that did did you did you think he?
Again? I don't. I don't know how much he could handle the Sean
Miller, you know, the the investigation of all that, I mean that
was kind of like just a thing that was hanging on to him. I
mean, there wasn't a whole lot he could do one way or another other
than said, you know, weight around and stuff, right, I mean,
and the President said, over my dead body. Yeah. So I
mean, uh, you talk about how he handled it, but I don't
know that he could have been handled any differently than the way it was or
I mean he had to deal with there was a lot of negative publicity associated
with that. I'm sure that Shawn Miller himself was not he to deal with
during that time. And you're talking about a coach pretty powerful and successful who
was already in placed when Dave got there. They had to figure out how
to handle that from a media and pr standpoint. They had to figure out,
you know, should we self imposed sanctions if so, you know,
when, if so, what should they be. So there was a lot
there, you know, associated with that, and it just did a lot
of like harm to the school's reputation along the way as well, and he
had to kind of figure out how to navigate that and kind of you know,
turn that narrative around. Well, that's the funny thing we talked about
this yesterday in the overall reputation of it. I'm not a grad Jason grad
and s how do you? I asked you, how did he feel about
being in alum with all the back just a black mark on it? Have
you heard anything from people saying this just doesn't look good? I heard from
a booster last night says, TWUSN doesn't have much and we have the university
and now we don't have this. I mean, are you talking about FBI
invest No, No, it's just all the drama. That drama, all
the drama. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, yeah,
I mean it's been a soap opera, to be sure, and it just
sort of feels like every other day there's a new plot twist in that soap
opera. I don't think it's great. I think that like the problem with
our gosh, with our society, with media today social media is that people
just sometimes see a headline and then they get an impression about things like the
two hundred and forty million dollars shortfall or deficit or you know, accounting error
or whatever. I think had been misconstrued in a lot of ways. All
people really know, oh my gosh, what a bunch of screw ups down
there at Arizona. They somehow lost two hundred and forty million dollars. There
are some people who think that's that's entirely the athletic department too, which obviously
isn't true. So I don't think there's really any like long term damage.
But it would be helpful get someone in place running the athletic department who's good
in the pr in public relations of the media realms as well, who can
you know, it's been a narrative and maybe get get people talking about something
else, something positive. But I think was pretty good at that. But
he was also kind of a straight shooter, you know, for better or
worse, James, I appreciated that, but you know, maybe that wasn't
the most effective type of voice to have. And in some of these times,
well, Jay, we talked about you've been in that business. It's
but Arizona historically has been more reactive than proactive, right with that, Yeah,
no, for for for eons. I mean I mean that that's sort
of been it's uh, you know, it's it's a way of doing things.
It's always been a reactive group. And then that's kind of what you
know, what we're seeing now. So, Michael h knowing what you know
about you know, all the sports you've covered, whether it's been you know,
college that fils and stuff like that. You've got Brent Brandon, who's
hot, who got hired by a guy who just got fired. And then
now you know Arizone needs to find an athletic director. But do they need
to find an athletic director before there's a new president. Because let's assume that
you know, I love Bobby Robbins, I really do. I really like
the guy. One smartest people I've ever met. He's done a lot of
great stuff, you know, in the community and for the university. It's
been a rough couple of years on him. I could imagine that, you
know, maybe his time here is coming to an end. Do they need
to wait for something like that to happen before they go get an AD or
do they need to get an AD right now? That's a good question.
My understanding with regarding Dave's dismissal was that it came out of the blue,
was not expected in any shape or form. I've even heard the term blindsided
thrown around. I would like to think that Bobby Robbins knows what the future
holds for himself. Yeah, you know, maybe he doesn't. Maybe Abor
is gonna drop that kind of bomb on him tomorrow or in the near future.
But you definitely want to have what I guess I would call like institutional
alignment. You know, you want everybody to kind of be on the same
page. You don't like to have you know, like the football coach was
hired, and then you have an athletic director who didn't hire the football coach,
and then you have a president who didn't hire the athletic director. I
mean that people are just not on the same page, right if that's if
that's the case the sequence of events, So I don't think there's a huge
rush to hire someone to be the a D At this point. They can
probably write it out for at least a few months and then you know,
we'll kind of see where things stand with with Robbins at that point. Yeah.
No, among you said that Wilder had his list. Do you have
a list? Do you have a list? I don't have a list.
No. And is Erica on that list to Wilders? I know it's she's
on the list. She is not, was she was? I can tell
you real quick it's Utsay's Lisa compos Boise states, Jeremiah Dickey, Utah's Mark
Carlin, which I don't think is going to happen to buy him out,
Villanova's Mark Jackson who used to work at USC, New Mexico's Eddie Nuniez,
Nevada's Stephanie Rempy. And I think one of the themes for Wilner, and
I think this is really smart, is maybe you look at some of these
smaller schools because those athletic directors know how to get the most bang for the
book. Yeah, no, I agree. The Novada one I thought was
I saw that name yesterday, which is a good one, right, Okay,
I agreed. I mean I think, you know, talking about going
in a different direction, like person of color, a woman, that would
be a different direction, to go to a different voice, a different way
of maybe looking at at the world. I don't think that would be a
horrible idea. A former former athlete year so she knows, she knows the
system, she knows the school. Okay. Else, I saw you,
as asked Tommy Lloyd, this about Ballow with the free throws, right,
that was you? Right? Interesting? Interesting because I've had some questions with
him. He kind of gave me the snake eye last time. I asked
him about it if he was concerned about Ballow's free throws, and he says,
well, he's shooting them better and he's getting people in foul trouble.
I don't know about that. And then Bollo comes with his seven for nine
or whatever it was. Uh, do you think it was a one off?
I hope not. I think I don't know if I've talked to you
guys about this before or elsewhere, but I mean I've watched him shoot in
warm ups and his form is pretty good, and I think he just gets
nervous during the games. I think he rushes a little bit. He looked
like he was really taking a time getting nice extensions on his shot. And
it's think it helps too to just see the ball go through the net a
couple of times. You know, it's just from a confidence standpoint. I
think it's really like with him and maybe he got over that mental barrier against
U. C l A. Yeah, Well, the shot is certainly different.
The shots got more arc to it, a lot more arc to it.
I think it's still he still flips it off his handle. I'm right
right. I'm analyzing his shot. It's it's not a it's not a soft
shot. There's a lot of spin to the shot. You know, some
of the great free throw shooters. I think you just see that Bob barely
rotates his his you know, he's still Maybe it's because he's got such big
hands, but the shot certainly does look different, and it looked really different
because more of them went in, uh than than than had been going so
well. I mean, I can say I can tell you this, it's
a big deal, no question. I mean, it's not going to make
a big deal out of it because he doesn't want to put extra pressure on
him. But you know that teams are going to do hack a ballo no
point in time in critical situations, and he's going to have to either knock
those free throws down or he's not going to be able to be part of
the final five crunch time down the stretch of the season, no question.
I've been saying that for a while. Totally agree with you, because if
he's crucial, he'll have to be in the game. Yeah, I totally
they need him in the game. Thank you, Michael, As always,
Thanks so much, Michael, appreciate it. Hey, guys, you're right,
totally agree that last a separate exactly on the money. Yeah, if
he's gonna play, he's got to hit those shots. Yeah, if he
were they, I mean yeah, they he needs to be in the game
at the end of the game. But he needs he can't be a liability,
liability. Yeah, all right, Okay, let's take our Breakwady to
come back. We'd love to take your cause. Five two zero four one
six seventy four to forty. You still got some reaction to yesterday's interview with
Humberto Lopez. Would love to hear that as well. Five two zero four
one six seventy four to forty Ware back 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
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Steve Rivera and Jagin Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports
Chef Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live. I mean iHeartRadio. Wam hey,
welcome back to my on the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera, You're Jenkins Sauce and you we what do you wanna do first?
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Terms of Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash football terms jay the so the
Niners and Lions is still minus seven, the Niners are favored, and then
the Ravens are now favored by three and a half point three and a half.
Okay, that's bumped up a half of points. Yesterday you think it
would almost go down because money would be coming in, but I guess not.
Okay, you when they hunt next step to really you pot cattle pot
okay podcast. Hey, we also want to clarify something right, so right,
if you haven't heard our interview with Frombert to Lopez, it's just interesting
stuff mentioned in there. How many a lot of people have Yeah people,
yeah, we we We looked at our numbers and nearly a thousand people have
downloaded the podcast since yesterday, So you know, obviously, you know,
we we struck a nerve at least topic of conversation. Blon, You're getting
a very prominent booster on the show. Just talk about how some things go
Comberto Lopez, local philanthropist, businessman Arizona booster talked about how how important football
and Arizon Athletics him personally. He's a great he's the graduate of the u
of A. He's lived here, uh you know since he came here in
the eighties, so very important. But in there he mentioned that how important
it was to keep really the servite guys and basically we're talking Jacob Manho no
fa Fida and Detroy McMillan needed to stay. He personally signed a contract with
t ma ac Uh and in mentioning those other guys, I think there's been
some misconception as to did did he did he have contract with all those guys,
and it got got sent out on on social media that that Bert Lopez
signed all three of those guys. He did not. We got a clarification
from him. He has a contract with and he did say t mac is
getting he could have gotten more money elsewhere. He said, he's a good
kid. He advised him that you know, anywhere you go, you're kind
of starting over ride it out here, you know, and and and and
you know, keep this thing going. He'll mentor him, right, he's
done that. He says he loves him a good he's a good kid.
He'll mentor him. Having a mentor like Bert Lopez, whether you're in business
or whatever, you can't go wrong there, you know. Steve and I
have known Burt for a long time. So but anyway, we just wanted
to clarify that whom BERTA. Lopez does not have contracts with Faffita or with
Manu, but somebody else I'm sure does right now, and they'll do one
fine. Right So we'll see what happens with with the rest of the kids,
because some are still going yeah, some are coming back. Uh.
You'll have some of that on Breaking News, correct, right, well,
yeah, and a lot of coaching the news as well. Yeah, a
ton of coaching news for Breaking News, and me and j will get into
that second half, right, Okay, okay, and what do you want
to call? We still have about eight minutes for this segment. Five two,
four, one, six, seventy four forty good those numbers on this
podcast, like you are huge right now, really huge. We're probably gonna
grow up, grow even more. Yeah, We're we're We're very excited about
what we're seeing. Uh. I think we mentioned this for a little bit
yesterday. You know, we went to look back at our fourth quarter numbers,
and y'all are listening to us out there. And I love that the
fact that you're out there listening to us, whether you're listening to us while
you're out on a walk, or you're listening to us live, or you
know, you're going back. A funny one that I mentioned to Steve.
We had a ton of downloads on Christmas Day. It's like you guys missed
us, You missed us, he said, It's Christmas Day and I don't
have eye on the ball. I need to hear something to wrap their unwrap
their gifts from There were hundreds of downloads on Christmas Day. So let me
ask you a quick question, because we had live on with this question about
going outsecore or out. I think that we've gone out for eighties all this
time. It would it be wise to stick in the Arizona group or pool
or go out? You know, there's some advantages to getting somebody from inside
because they know the ropes, they know the boosters and those kinds of things.
They know the skeletons where they let's let's be let's be let's offer saying
take this call. Oh you're on the aaron Ie the ball. Hey,
guys, what's up is Vic? What's going on? Man? Hey?
So I wanted to circle back to basketball and me and Steven over this a
couple of times about the non shooter Jill. I think that that's the biggest
problem they have. They not asking for a Salem or a Steve Kerb,
but they don't even have a Gabe York type of guy that can nail that
that outside shot. Vic. They don't Vic can let me tell you some
of you already wrong. You know what, they have shooters, they don't
have makers'. Wait wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait a minute,
Wait a minute, Wait a minute. You cannot mention Gabe Yorke in
a sentence with Steve Kerr and Selim Stodermri. You cannot. That is a
that is a sin. You need to go to church. You need to
light a candle and throw like a quarter in the box. Okay, I
got you, I got you. But but the one thing I wanted to
ask you guys and get your opinion was you guys, go through history.
I know you guys are as older than me, but all through history that
everybody that's won a championship both almost pro and and uh in college and had
a batman in Robin you have your magic Kareem and Bird and McHale and Parish
and Thomas and those guys, and this team does not have a batman and
robins. You guys, you're right. No, you're right. I knew
you're gonna go here with it because Jason had Gilbert right, Uh, Jason
Hew Gilbert h Kerr correct that Kalid had Damon and vice versa. No,
and then Miles had baby. Yes, observation because look at you. The
Batman and Robin should be Love and Boswell and that's not a batman and anybody.
And we thought that's what it was going to be, and it hasn't
been like that. It's the first month. Yeah, Boswell is not which
everyone is Robin. Robin has like not been around Vic. You have more
time on your hand. But that's a great observation. Yeah, Like I
said, you go through history and everybody had one of them. Yeah,
no, no, you're right, you're right. Yeah, it seemed like
it seemed like there was like a batman and a bunch of robins, but
not one leg that stands out. You're right two thousand and one, Jason,
you know there was Richard and Luke. It was just a group of
batman and robins. There's no one two punch the big brain on Vic Man,
Holy cow, Vic doing anything but the last thing is on real quick
on this football deal. Man. I think it gets better every day with
all these guys he's hiring and guys saying and you know, obviously if if
prisek and Uh and the other kid twenty three stayed, that would be a
big feather in his cat. But so Via, did you listen did you
listen to Umberto yesterday? Yes? And you guys, I'll be honest,
man, not because I'm talking to you. You guys have had some great,
great guys with a with a prior football alumni coming on, Brett,
Barrett and all those guys, and they have been fantastic. All right,
Bretto, And I'm gonna tell you a little secret. This is kind of
weird. But I went to the food thing and it was because of you
guys. You said, hey, Jay said it. If you're you know,
if you want these guys to stay, get out and support it.
So I go down the ninety nine cent store and buy a bunch of corn
and green beans and and took a big box over there, and and Humberto
came up. I was like third in line to get a picture, and
he shook my hand said hey, I'm glad you came. And I'm like,
what the heck? Man? That was cool. So then I'm leaving
and he put his arm around me and said, hey, I just want
to tell you I appreciate you coming. And I was like, man,
I said, I'm retiring this year. Can you part a little n I
l from from from Umberica for sure. Big but but but the thing about
Tamac was the best that I liked, very very eye opening to say he
had a contract with him and uh about the mentorship and all that that was.
That was eye opening on my part. Cool Okay, well, thanks
for listening to as always. You got it. You guys are great.
Take care, Thank you. Cool. No, No, he makes a
good point. You know, you're like you know with with I mean early
in the season it was Caleb and Kylon. Those guys were just they were
unstoppable. And and Kylin's in a slump. And I don't know if it's
a I don't know if it's a it's certainly not. He's not that bad,
right, He's a good player. He's just not playing well and and
and he's trying to figure it out. We're trying to figure it out.
Uh and and if he gets it figured out again, watch out. You
guys were mentioning that it's it's love and Boswell that that's been the Batman and
Robin duo. Is that just because of the way that they played in the
beginning of the season, Like Jay mentioned, because coming into the year,
I honestly saw Ballo and Love as like, Okay, maybe they could do
something inside out with these two. It doesn't necessarily have to be it.
It just has to be two guys who are out there that there's a rhythm
between a couple of guys, you know. And and as as as Steve
mentioned, you know, it was it was the two guards back on the
ninety four team with with the Khalid Reeves and and Damon Stottamayer, you know
those two. They had Joseph Blair and he was and he was a factor
inside. But that game, that team was the team. It was because
of the two guards and and and I kind of felt like that's what we
were gonna see. And we saw early and and yes, Ballot is you
know, he has to be a force inside Pally Larson as we keep finding
out when he plays great, the team is a whole have a lot better.
Keisha Johnson had been doing a lot of great stuff, and it's kind
of all it's like somebody let the air out of it or something. Yeah,
it's like slightly inflated, deflated a bit. So yeah, and I
believe this whole hardly one impacts the other. Yeah, Love and Boswell for
whatever reason whatever. Yeah, okay, guy, all right, we're here
at the top of the hour. We're gonna take our break. We're gonna
go to breaking news when we get back. A lot of a lot of
news coming out of the Arizona football program, and uh and then we'll take
well, well then oh, Steve's gonna leave, so uh he might be
back. Steves he's walking out the door as we speak. He's got to
go get on this thing. So we'll be right back breaking news. Stick around.