This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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R TWU SA at iHeartRadio Station. Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm
Steve Rivera, He's jagin Zaalace and with us today we have Kevin the recent
graduate. Kevin, how are you, everybody. I'm good, I'm tired.
I'm good, tired from what long weekend? Good weekend, but long
weekend? Oh good to be twenty three exactly, invincible somewhat. Yes,
Wait till you get arrange and you just pop those mids. I hope you
get to this age. Hey. Hey, a lot of things going on.
Uh, you know, I want to revisit we have a pretty good
show today. Uh, and I'm gonna We're gonna ask Mike Candrea who's at
the four to seventeen hour. I think he's still in the ad kind of
office, right. I think that's check. Yeah, Yeah, I think
it's yeah. Because I've seen a lot of stuff today on the internet about
the season that Arizona has had Arizona athletics. We've talked about it often,
about our eight point whatever. But you saw my text I sent. No,
you didn't see what I spent. I sent eight point five. Yeah,
and I think I think that could be a fair Yeah, it's climbing
for sure. I was going to ask you what you thought, Why did
you send that? Or right after the right after the baseball game? Okay,
Oh, but you hadn't waited for the softball No, so this is
before softball. So you're just gonna stay at eight point five eight. It's
my like eight point six now, okay, because that can get a nice
little bump if they get in the College World Series. Yeah. So,
I mean that's pretty good. Everyone wants to know, over everyone. A
lot of people who are posting want to know, is this the best year
in a while or ever or whatever. I still go back and I don't.
I'm not a historian like that, but ninety eight was pretty darn good.
Ninety eight was done good. And we'll talk about that with Crendrea because
he's gonna say, you know, we're a bunch of fools for rating it
so low, because he's inside the house. Yeah, but it has been
a pretty good year overall. Well, but remember we're also throwing in the
financial troubles that the that the department is having the agent you know that you
know, if you fired an a d uh, you know there's a new
one and it's that kind of balances out. But you know, there's some
off field issues that I think are affecting the grade that we're giving. At
least I am. Yeah, and I even I don't know if I included
that in my thing. I was just more about sports, but they definitely
it's an overall thing. So so why not, right? Uh so I
fight a five after the weekend and everyone's still alive. Yeah, no,
and uh you know, I mean Arizona surprisingly goes in and wins. When's
that regional in SEC country they've been they played really well, they've been successful
against SEC schools over the years. Yeah, and you know, look,
I still I still don't believe that they've got And we can talk to Mike
about this. The pitching staff that they need to you know, to win
a title, but the way they're piecing it together, taking a one game
at a time, they're giving themselves a chance, right, you know,
I mean they beat Arkansas two to one at their place, and they use
three pictures in that game, and they're beastically using three pictures every game,
and so each picture only has to come in and throw a couple of nice
innings, you know, and keep them in a good spot. And they
win that game two to one. And then Arkansas went and got bludgeoned by
Villanova. Then Arizona bludge in Villanova, and now they're in the Super Regional.
So you know, most you know, champions have an ace, you
know, a Jenny Finch and Alicia Hallowell, a Terreon mo At somebody like
that. Arizona doesn't have that. And even the three pictures that they do
use, none of them are ever dominating. But they get outs and they've
been getting outs, and there they are where they are now. Yeah,
so so here we are. That's why I wanted to get him on and
talk about his situation for the year, you know, as you can continue
the job. But obviously softball, you haven't heard people completingly about the coaches,
no either of them Chip, you know, and then you know Arizona
baseball, I mean, holy hell, that's that Saturday night. That was
about as exciting as no, didn't go Steve, I tried to stay away.
Okay, thank you, because Friday. Friday was not a good another
good day. Yeah. So we I had an event I had to go
to and we left there about six fifteen and we were going home down Broadway
and for a like a instant, I thought, should I hang it right
over here on Randolph Way and go to the game, And they thought,
nope, I'm going to leave it as it is. And we got home
and we watched it and you know, went nuts at the end, and
it was so cool. You know, those are moments that I know you
you said, look who's getting sentimental on my comment on Twitter? But you
know, Steve, as an Arizona fan, we haven't had a ton of
those. I mean, there's been some championships, all the championships off sure,
all the great things that you know, basketball has done, the handful
of things football has done. But you know we've gotten our hearts broken more
than we've succeeded. Right, And to see Arizona that you know, as
I say a lot of times in games, like I say, that's a
game we never get to win the game in Arizona never gets to win.
Yeah, and it looked like they were going to lose that one, and
then they come back and do that, you know, in the night in
the ninth inning. Well, and here they are gonna play again. Well,
they're playing in the tournament now, right, their own tournament. Yeah,
but to win the championship, you know, forget the tournament. I
don't care what happens in the tournament. I mean, you'd like to say
if Fairs on the wins that maybe they get to hold. That's the only
thing that's at stake. They're packed twelve champions and I saw some odds today
that they were seventy five to one to win it. The Cultural Series,
which is you know what it is. There's a lot of teams eligible.
I guess Tennessee and the Texas A and M are the top two teams.
Well See and Baseball is the opposite. I think they've got the pitching to
make a long run. I mean, you know, that game was essentially
one because they're their Day three starter, you know, went into the ninth
innie and and put and and and kept uh and and and kept them in
the game. And so they've got pitching. It didn't show Thursday and Friday
last week. But they've got the pitching, and then they've got the offense.
Again, they don't have the one guy hitting twenty some home runs,
but they they're they're They're a team that I think has a lot of pieces
that they can make a nice little run well, and they gotta get hot,
lucky and all that good stuff. The healthy you get to have some
of the you know, they said they've got the the guy who batted ninth
on on Saturday night going into the game, had five at bats the entire
season, you know, and he's struck I think he struck out three times.
They're center fielder again, he's he's a guy who hasn't played a ton.
So they're they're hurting, but you know they're they're they pulled it off
on this weekend. Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air
and I on the ball. How's it going today? What's up, Brian?
That was the most amazing thing Saturday night to be there. Yeah,
you guys go every game? What uh give it? Give us the field,
the fan support on both teams. I get Warregon State fans a lot
of credit too, because there was a lot of them. There were a
lot of them there. Yeah, it was. It was electric. I
mean it was no no one leaving was shocking. Yeah, so people staying
for the whole game, and people stayed a lot after the game. Yeah,
you know to watch the celebration on the field. What was it crowd
like about? I think it was forty six hundred. I think forty nine
for the it was forty nine for Saturday, forty ninth Saturday or Saturday five
thousand Friday, and forty six on Thursday. Yeah, that's what I think.
That's what it was. So give us a give us the field,
give us, give us the watch, give us the goose bumps on from
Saturday night. Oh gosh it was. I mean when they scored that run
in the ninth, I'm going, oh my god, got to be kidding.
It's like nothing can go right for this team. Yeah, and then
you know, explaying gets hit by the pitch, you know, and then
the next guy gets on. You know, they can't bun. You know,
it's kind of surprised that on the bunt that Brandon Rodgers couldn't bun because
he had bunted so well, right, you know the previous games. But
when when Samuel hit that ball, I thought every I think everybody thought it
was it was out yeah yeah, but it is based the deepest part of
the ballpark. Yeah, but uh it was. I mean the fan just
I mean from utter disappointment ten minutes earlier to just accel. I mean,
it was just so exciting, cool, cool, cool what happened? Yeah?
Good, good for them and good for Chip, right, good for
Chip. I mean, you know, I mean to what people got to
realize that team had to live in crap kick out of him for two days
and for him actually bring those kids back and to play the way they did
on Saturday night, it was was just incredible. He did it. He
did an amazing job. And you know what, you know, the fans
should be proud of the way he coached this team. Yeah that's considering they
were picked up any ninth in the conference. Right, Well, that's good.
Yeah, thank you, Brian, appreciate it got our men on the
street, right, and you know, he and his family they sat on
the third base side, so they were on the side for all the Oregon
State fans. There were a ton of them on Thursday night, or a
lot of them, because usually there's like a handful behind the behind the dugout
or next to the dugout, the visiting dugout. They they they had a
good amount of people over there, and that's got to suck to go all
the way home after losing that game on Saturday. But they're fine. They're
good. They're good. They're really good. Right, So no, the
next the job is to try to win this and see what happens. Yeah,
and you know, look for Oregon State to be in the college worlds
here too, because they're pretty damn good. And I mean, again,
they beat the hell out of Arizona twice, right, and I mean just
beat the hell out of them. And then as he said, you know,
and as Brian said, for Arizona to come back and hang on and
just win the one game that they need to win. That was that was
pretty cool. That's a fun weekend cool. And then all you know,
so again sot All goes over there and takes care of business, right,
and they're black where they're back where we're kind of used to seeing them.
And we'll talk about that with with Kendrea and his thoughts on coaching right and
the job she's doing right, all right, And then at three fifteen,
we've got ed Rosberg. He was on that nineteen eighty championship team as a
freshman, playing with Francona in that group that that won that College World Series.
Yeah, we'll talk to him about all some of his thoughts on on
you know, this time of the year for those guys. You know what
that was like, right, and you know he's been in baseball, he
watches him, he praises them, and we'll see about the quality of team
you have to have to get there, right to win it. Sometimes it
just again Andy Lopes did it with a couple of good teams. Yeah.
Uh and got hot too. Yeah. I mean, you got to have
the right pieces, right and and you know one of those is you got
to have some pitching. In Arizona's got three starters, the air quality and
you know, the longer they stay in the game, the more effective the
bullpen can be. I think you only have to go two or three,
you know, deep into the bullpen and you know, sitting your guys pitching
situation. So you know, you see that they're you know, regardless whether
they won the league championship, I mean, they're gonna feel better about them
so that they did. But they you know, I think they're gonna have
a shot to make a decent little run. You really hope they get to
host because that makes a huge yur h. That'll be in two weeks probably,
Yeah, yeah, after this. Yeah, you've got this tournament starts
tomorrow. Arizona doesn't play until Wednesday. Okay, when did they start tomorrow?
Yeah, it starts tomorrow. I think you said that. All right,
anything else NBA Finals, You've got part of you a lot of stuff
for getting all that stuff. Definitely a couple of Arizona players in the that's
true, three of them. Three of them, let me see, No,
Yeah, you know who to Denver had two more? Yeah, so
you're you're obviously ghost Yeah, you're obviously ghosting me when I sent you the
text on that as well? Which one that I said? Just just the
fact that I thought I thought about taking I thought about taking the two home
teams. I didn't even do it, right, I didn't bet on the
games. I just thought about it. They both got powerful. He can
just move things around with his thoughts. That's crazy. How many how many
times can the wolf tell me he's gonna blow the house down and blows them?
I get that text all the time because moved out the neighborhood. Now
I got to move away. See that text, I've already to the text.
Let's move on from this text. Yeah, I mean, I said,
I said, really, it was about ten minutes before the who went
first? The Pacers went first? Right? Yeah, the Pacers? About
ten minutes before the Pacers Nicks came. I was coming home from Low's because
I was doing some some uh some honey and and uh. I pull in
the pull into the driveway and I look at my phone. The games about
to start room, and I looked at the two leg parlay, and I
was trying to debate do I go money line or do I take the spreads?
I thought, what are you doing? You're you're not even watch it.
You're working in the yard. You're not going to watch the games.
And even if you weren't working in there, you're gonna watch the golf,
right, So I didn't. I thought, you're degenerate a few bits because
you're not even gonna watch the game. And so I didn't. I didn't
bet. And then they both got their black kick the game last night.
Holy cow, it was incredible. Hunk on the road. Yeah, the
NBA dough is you have a big lead that doesn't really matter. But no,
you're You're right. I think the way I would have gotten, I
would have lost because I would have had Denver. But I really like Indiana
or Indianapolis because I would have been the opposite I would have I would have
taken in New York. Yeah, Indiana for some reason is very good,
thick and score. They're not going to be Boston though, I don't.
I don't think, at least well, nobody thinks they are. So they're
like uge under huge underdogs. Yeah. Yeah, but it's been pretty good
to this point. I don't. I don't haven't watched much of it because
I have no really rooting interest, although it's good to see and everybody kind
of following t J McConnell get a lot of run if you're not a U
A ting a lot of money too. Do you got to go at the
end? Yeah, he's getting he's getting a ton of run. Did you
say that he and JJ Redick are pretty close, very close. In fact,
JJ call him my brother, Yes, right, and said hey at
the time when he saw him kissed the court and all the how's he going
to be a pro? How's this guy going to be nine years later.
He's one of the better guards out there. Yeah and yeah, you know
I didn't Hanson have the He's played the most games of anybody from that group
that was in that draft that he didn't get drafted. Oh really of the
yeah, well, oh no, it was it was. It was a
Pac twelve. It was the Pac twelve All Conference team. He's got more
games in the NBA than anybody else that was on that Peck twelve conference.
Well, who was the Yeah, we gotta go, Well, who's the
Pac ten Player of the Year? Pack twelve Player the Year? Because at
the time he was being considered for it, and it was kind of a
kind of a surprise that he didn't get it. I'll look fifteen fifteen was
uh and uh and here he is, right, I wonder what the other
guy does. We'll check. We'll check Tyrone Wallace? Who who who kind
of one your guard? Tyrone Wallace fifteen fifteen fourteen, Oh sorry, as
player of the week. We'll find it. We'll find it. We gotta
go, we gotta go. We're gonna come back. We're gonna have Ed
Bossburg nineteen eighty uh College Roll Series champion with Arizona and get some of his
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details. Steve Rivera and Jagen Salez they have their eye on the ball on
Tucson's sports stig Jet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I'm the iHeartRadio wapp
Hey, welcome back to my the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Riverta. He's Jiginsauce. Now on the phone. We have ed brosperg
Arizona Baseball nineteen eighty to eighty three World Champion, World Series Champion. How
you doing it. I'm doing great. How you guys, we're doing well?
Thank you for coming on today. We wanted to talk about the Cats
and see what else is going on with your life, But you must be
pretty proud of what's going on with you a baseball you know, it's exciting.
I went to the middle game, the game that was kind of a
blowout. I wanted to see Clark Candiotti pitch. I got an opportunity to
meet him at the alumni event. I was very impressed with how mature he
is, you know, and it's exciting. It reminds me a lot of
men creating. When we had to win one out of the last three games,
and we lost the first two to ASU, and then I don't know
if you remember, we blew him out, like twenty two to three.
But I got to tell you that I was watching a third game on television,
listening to Wes clements to the game, and I had to turn it
off. I was got so nervous. Late the game we couldn't score,
and then I had to follow that. We ended up winning on a walk
off, so it was it was very hard to watch. I just got
a little nervous. And I'm not even part of it anymore. Well,
but yeah, you were probably like a lot of fans. It was hard
to I watched it, and I'm just you know, as you said,
getting frustrated, you felt they had some chances. Every time they did they
hid into a double play or something. But you know, and again they
score on the top of the ninth that you go, this is what this
is what always happens to Arizona unit. You get that close to taste it
and then they don't get it. But when you see this team you said
they did, did they remind you of anything? Did they look like any
of the teams that you remember in the past where it's one of the ones
that you played, or they remind me of a little bit of nineteen eighty
the Cardiac Cats, you know, coming back and win, and how fitting
for them to win and have to score two runs in the bottom of the
ninth. So there's a little days out going on here. I tell you
what, one of my happiest moments in the last three or four years was
when Chip was hired at the U of A. Chip is a tremendous hire.
He's a baseball U of a legend, and I'm just pulling for this
guy that he can win a championship and be part of a nineteen eighty six
team that won and then and then bring him home like coach Kindle did three
times. Hopefully, hopefully they'll roll into the Pac twelve tournament. But I'm
very impressed with him, and they're solid. I was very impressed with Oregon
State. They got a great team as well. I'm sure you've seen Kenya
before other than the Friday game, and you said you came away pretty impressed
with his maturity. What else did you see? We had his dead on
last week. I just I'm I'm impressed with the way he bounces around.
He's he's a physical specimen six with four But I think the most thing that
I was impressed with is how mature he is. He's just a very very
mature guy, very respectful. I'm just impressed is Cam Walty. I mean,
how could you not be impressed with what he did that last game?
I mean that was that was incredible. How how well he pitched, he
kept him in the game. And but again, they got a great lineup.
You know, they got a good balance of speed, they got a
pretty solid bullpen. You know, they just they're exciting to watch and I
think they really it was exciting to see all those people come out and watch
that. I know they've been getting really big, good crowds. But that
was exciting to see how big the crowds were this last weekend. When you're
thinking back to that that nineteen eighty team, what was one of the characteristics
or a couple of the characteristics that you think it had. As you know,
you talked about some of these things that this team has that you guys
had that you that you thought put you in a position to do what you
did. There had to be something two or three specific things about that team
that stick out. Well. For one, you know, I was a
senior in high school and I watched them go to Williamsport the year before,
and I knew that they had a lot of great talent coming back with Leopards
and bus Clements and Clark Christ and of course Frank come into leading the way.
And then you have like a Jeff Morris, and you had Greg Barger
who started the season as a starter and ended up being in the bullpens a
great closer. I think that was one of the real keys for that nineteen
eighty team was you've got to have a bullpen that is dependable and that'll bring
it home for you. And Greg Barger was phenomenal. Ron Sismondo, you
know, pitched a great game in the World Series as well, but just
really great balance of veteran leadership like Francona and Clark and West Clements. And
then you know, myself, I came in there as a freshman and it
kind of reminded me a little bit what Walt Cam Walsey had to do that
last day was to win that game to bring the Fact twelve title home.
I was called on to pitch the first game or second game of the World
Series after we had lost to Saint John's, and you know, thank god
I was maybe a freshman. I didn't get a chance to think about it
too much, but you know, that was a tall order for Cam and
look what he did. He came up big and pitched a phenomenal game and
got them to right to the end where they could walk it off. Last
thing. So are you nervous back then, if you're too young to know
any better, if you're a nervous if you're nervous Friday night, Saturday night,
you know, I think what really helped me, steve my little league
background, pitch it in the World Series as an eleven year old, I
think, you know, and then pitching at Southpoln High School, pitching in
some big games. But I think you're always going to be nervous before you
throw that first ball. But I think once you throw that first pitch that
the jitters seem to go away, and it's just you try to tell yourself
it's just another game. But I think playing for some great coaches along the
way, like I did with Ralph Lannik with Cactus the League, you know,
I got a chance to pitch, you know, in a big stage
as a young kid, and I think that really helped me. When I
went to the U of A. So Arizona they've got finished the regular season,
they go on to a tournament, a conference tournament now before they in
his place? Would you have liked to have had a conference tournament back in
the day. I don't really see really what it benefits, especially if you
win the title like they did. I mean, I would love to see
Arizona be able to host a regional. I mean, hopefully if they can
win the Pack twelve tournament, maybe they can host the Reach. I don't
know how it works, but I don't I think it benefits those teams that
are not on top. They need you know, to find some way to
get into the tournament, but I don't It's like a team like Arizona.
I don't see how it can really benefit them. They already won the Pack
twelve championship. But again, I think more baseball can necessarily help you because
it gives you more confidence. You know, they won that big game.
But I don't know, I don't know how you guys feel about it.
I think for college baseball it's dumb. I mean, you know, arms
are tired, you know, as he said, I mean, what do
you you know, what are you trying to prove? So I think I
think for college basketball they're great because there's such a you know, spectator thing.
I'm not so sure about baseball. You know, it just seems like
this time of the year, the probably the most important thing is rest,
you know, to get ready for the for the for the playoffs. Right
That's that's that is a really great point. And I think, especially as
the starting pitcher, I think these guys have lost some innings, but I'm
really impressed with, you know, the way that new pitching coaches come in.
Mister Vance has done a phenomenal job and turned them around. And kudos
to them ship for bringing him in here. Because let's say that to be
successful in baseball, pitching is paramount, and you know, and you've got
to have starters. You've got to have relievers, you know. And the
thing that we had, I think at Arizona in nineteen eighty is we had
really good starting pitching. We had, like I said, Greg Barger in
the bullpen, and we played great defense. Clark pressed up the middle,
Ronnie Quick played second base, Donny Hyman was a great catcher. You had
Johnny Moses in center, and Dwight played right, and then Frankcona played left.
We had really a great defense. That was a really good team.
Did you stay have you stayed close with many of them? You know,
we talk, We talked once in a while. I'll hear from donniy Hymen.
I was, you know, the last time I saw Donnie Hyman was
at the reunion this past string, and I just can't believe how great he
looks. He has his aged at all. So we do we run into
each other. I know, Johnny, Johnny or Jeff Morris is still scouting
Clark. Scott Stanley's still scouting. Clark is scouting. So those guys are
still involved in the game. And and I tell you what, I think
Wes Clements does a really good job doing the play by play. I was
very impressed listening to him. So let me ask you something about about pictures,
because you know you mentioned Clark Candiotti, and you know that throws in
the mid nineties. First, you don't tell me how hard do you throw?
But how are you throw? But how how do you think these guys
are throwing so hard these days? I asked Tom Candiotti that, and you
know, he went into you know, you know, leg strength and all
these other things. But it's just that so many of these guys throw mid
to upper nineties anymore. How do you think that's happened? I just think,
can you look at the size of these guys. Look how big Clark
is. Clark is six foot four, But if you look at Cam Walsey,
he's not a huge guy. He's I think he's six foot I'm not
sure about his velocity. I didn't notice how hard he was throwing. But
you know the thing that I always we always talked about the injuries and why
are people having injuries? And I think the number one reason is that all
these guys are throwing max effort on every pitch. And you know, if
you think about Greg Maddox watching him pitch, he didn't put max velocity on
every pitch like these guys are. And I think if I always equated to
like running your car at one hundred miles an hour all the time, your
car is just not equipped to do that. So your arm is not equipped
to throw the ball max effort on every pitch. And that's why I think
the change. I was watching that pitcher on the second game of the City
who did a number on Arizona. He had a great change up, he
had a good fastball. He mixed up his pitches, and I think that's
the success, is mixing up your pitches. And I think it's kind of
a dying art nowadays. You think you look at all these guys that they
want to go max effort every pitch, But the guys that have had great
success over the years. Look at Trevor Hoffon. He saved six hundred games
and he had a great change up in his fastball at the end was not
spectacular, but he had that change up that was bugs bunny. Yeah.
Well, and as you get older, you have to go to a craftier
type of thing. I think that's who you were, right. You were
more crafty. I was crafty and I did have the ability. Coach Wain,
I give him a tremendous amount of credit. When I got to Arizona,
he taught me how to throw the changeup. I never threw a change
up before I got to Arizona, and I think the change up really helped
me. It helped my fastball because you know, people that throw the good
change up, the fastball comes even more of a weapon. So I was
I really had the ability to keep the ball down, and I think that
was my success rate formula was keeping the ball down and having a good change
up. I had a pretty good slider, but I think keeping the ball
down and if you have a great in feel like we did at Arizona,
you're gonna have a chance to win some games. Again, those are some
great names that you mentioned that we're on on that team, and you know,
they all come back to me when you start running them down. You
know, Dwight Taylor, Johnny Moses, all those guys. That that was
a hell of a team and that you guys were fun to watch. It
was a lot of fun and it brought back a lot of memories watching,
Uh, you know, this team this past weekend. I think they have,
you know, a lot of the same you know, ideas and the
same talent, and you know, it's the passion. They're very passionate guys.
They get excited. And that's why, you know, if you look
at college sports, it's fun to watch because the guys they get excited.
They they're very passionate about it, and you know, it's fun to watch
it. They're like little kids out there. And that's kind of how I
felt like when I was talking there. Does it seem like forty some I
don't want to say all of it forty or something years ago. No,
it doesn't. And I tell you I, you know, like I was
telling you guys every time I come on here. I have a great job
working at DBAT. It's an indoor facility over by the Tucson Mall. I
get a chance to still throw the ball around pretty much five days a week,
and it keeps me young. And I really have some really great kids
that I get a chance to work with. There's some really young talented kids
here in Tucson, and I'm hoping that we'll go to the University of Arizona.
You know, we have a good, good nucleus of talent here in
this city, and I'm hoping that they will realize how much fun it is
to play in your hometown, like I was lucky enough to do. Yeah.
No, great, Well, thank you, Ed, appreciate your time.
You got it, guys. Thank you love your shoe. Great,
thank you Rosberg former you Vegue Star series champ, Little League Chance, a
fresh college champ. I mean he you know, I think he downplayed a
little bit. He had a huge role on that team. You know,
he came in as a freshman. He was a starter all year long,
and he was good. You know, he was really good. Yeah.
It takes some Kohonas to do that, it really does, and he had
them and he you know, he was and again he was the local guy,
right, he was. He was very fun to watch. So google
Kohonas. Anybody to c A j oh. Google might want to Google translate
it. C A j oh got on it. Okay, let's go all,
let's take our break. We'll come back. We'd love to take your
calls, your thoughts on both Arizona softball and baseball over the weekend would love
to hear for you five two zero, four, one, six, seventy
four, forty We're right back. If you're an never knowing a men's basketball
fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take
a look back at the Loudolsen 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 twenty
five years as Arizona's beloved coach, Lessons from Loot is an insight to how
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 while
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two zero four nine two zero seven four eight or Picture Rockspooling dot Com,
chips rosy Cheating and Plumbing streaming live Monny iHeartRadio Whap. This is I on
the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey,
welcome back to my I on the Ball here, Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, you're Jay. You got Kevin with us today and he called
you got him now? Fourteen minutes left in this first hour five two zero
four, one, six seventy four forty. That was good to talk to
Ed. Yep, yep, he's always good. I was good. Yeah.
He never played the Chip graduate eighty six right his year. Yeah,
so he was maybe a freshman. Maybe he was a freshman, no trip
graduate eighty seven. So maybe he was a player of the year in eighty
seven, eighty seven, eighty six, five eighty four. Maybe he would
not have played with Maybe he would not have played because that was last year.
Was eighty three, eighty three, Okay, I played eighty three,
eighty eighty one, eighty two, eighty three. Yeah, Well, so
Chip would have come in right after him. Let me let me say this.
I'll say this publicly even though it doesn't matter. H congrats to Dave
he Key, I mean he was involved in this. Uh, in unfortunate
situations with him getting released or or let go or whatever word you want to
use. Uh. And because he played a big part in this, he
hired these two coaches. Yeah, I mean the coaches were his higher.
Tommy Lloyd was his higher, you know. Uh, for what it's worth
of Jed Fish was sort of his higher. And that it was his watch,
you know, I mean a lot of people say that that was you
know, what's his name, Bobby Robbins. You forget? What are you
talking about? Bobby? We haven't forgotten you. I'm sorry, we know
you're still here. No, you know again, you know, it's it's
it's a feel good it's a feel good department right now with all these you
know, with with Clancy Shields, with Jim Anderson, with with with Laura
Ianello, with you know, all these coaches who were who are doing well.
You know, Jim Anderson and his guys will start in the n cub
A tournament. Uh uh the championship tournament this week. So no, it's
you know, it's it's yeah, this this is all that I get it.
They butchered the finances of everything, But what are you gonna do?
You know? And again we said, not to minimize you importance of it,
but there's a lot of there's a lot of athletic departments in this big
a trouble, if more sure than Arizona. No. We talked about that
and asked Dr Robins the question that says, how come it seemed like everybody's
in Not everybody, but a lot of the schools already says, well they
are that you just haven't heard about it. Yeah, so yeah, and
part of it was because Arizona's thing was campus wide. It wasn't just the
athletic department that was that was having issues, right, and it involved both,
with one borrowing money from the other, right right, right, So
you know, but yeah, you know, give it up for Dave Hickey
for bringing these folks in. Chips done a nice job. Look, Chips
thirty year in the league and he won the league, won the champions Well,
now it's to your point of last week, and I'll give you this
point. He could become the first guy. Yeah, he would be the
first player of the year and coach of the year in any sport in Pac
ten Pac twelve history, which is crazy. I hope you get. If
he doesn't get it, we got a problem, Yeah, of course,
right, pick to finish ninth, win the league, yeah, uh,
and winning in the fashion that they did. How do you not give him
coach? If you didn't vote for him for Coach of the Year, then
you're just a big, big giant pud, big jump pudd. I don't
think that's ever been said on the show. I don't think it's ever been
said anywhere. Mark that down. I don't think you need to hit the
dumb so called webster. Yeah, look it up, you'll find it.
I think that's not one of the words for the dumb, but I don't
think. Well, it might be, but it's gone now. It's too
late. The button would be way too late for that. Okay, if
you want to call us, please do five two, four, one,
six, seventy four forty. We had Brian Collen, right, he was
at the game. Yeah, at the game in uh uh in Tucson here.
Yeah, anybody went to softball Give us a call. Yeah, I'm
not sure. Who have you listened to? Brian Jefferies' call on that was
cool? Yeah, you know, just uh, you know again the best
there is out there, and that that was also very cool. But you
know, It's funny because we you know, we watched it live on you
know, on on on on TV, and then halfway through the celebration,
I had to run it back just because we were yelling right when you hit
the ball, We're like yelling. So I wanted to actually kind of watch
it without any disturbance going on. How was the how was the voice on
the TV? It was a good call. It it was a it was
a really great call. But you know, like like Brian said, you
know, it came off his bat. You thought that ball's I'm laying on
I'm literally I'm laying down on the couch and as soon as he hit it,
I'm off the couch and I'm up. I don't know the last time
I moved that fast. I was out an eventimes kept my eyes on Twitter
here and I saw everybody. It was crazy going on Twitter. There was
a spectacular moment. I mean, you know, and baseball is like that,
right, It's it's like a it's like a slam dunk to win a
game or whatever. You know, he had, you know, the one
hit in a flash of an instant. He changed everything. It's not like
a you know, a drive in football. You go down and it takes
you ten minutes to go down and score a winning score. I mean,
it all happened in a flash. And the you know, going from zero
to one hundred in excitement is what's cool about that. And I mean it
was just a great, a great moment. And like I said, you
know, I keep I just keep saying, Arizona just never ever gets to
win that game. It's just not you know, that's not how it happens.
And and and the fact that they did it's cool. I think your
luck, I think your luck as a fan at u of a will change
a lot. And in the next couple a few years, Yeah, because
of the Big Twelve, right, you'll have more success, right, and
more and more big moments. Well, Arizona will be a power in baseball,
okay, because the two baseball powers from the Big twelve Oklahoma Texas,
and they're gone softball too. I think it's the same thing for softball Texas
or leaving as well. And uh, you know, and then you get
to football and again the two powers of the league are gone. And that's
not to say they aren't really good teams. By I think Arizona is more
on a on a level in all those sports with the teams that remained in
the league, and just from day one in the Pac twelve pack ten Pac
twelve, Arizona was far behind, you know, UCLA, USC, Washington
and then later Oregon. Let me ask you this, I mean, you
were probably a kid in eighty twenty impression, at what point did you think
that Arizona had caught up finally, even though you beat them a time or
two, they were like number two in the country. Well, early on,
I thought Arizona could compete. I never thought in football that they caught
up. They never caught up. In football, they just had a few
good years, beat those teams, you know, a few times, but
Arizona never got up, got up into the neighborhood on a consistent base football,
football wise, whatever. They never did. Baseball, yeah, because
you know, baseball, Arizona was as good as there was in you know,
in the six pack and so on. You know, they won they
won three national championships, you know, while in the Pac twelve. They
also won one while they were in the whack. So I thought baseball and
obviously basketball, basketball, they just lapped everybody, including U C. L
A. Yeah, they just lapped everyone. But and then you know,
the same thing goes for softball. You know, U C. L A
was the king of it all and then Arizona came along. But Arizona never
never got to level ground in football. I feel like going in to the
Big Twelve, they're on level ground. Yeah. No, I agree with
the top of the league. But now there's a whole bunch of them up
there who are the same. Right Kansas State, Uh, you know,
Texas Tech for grabs is totally up for grabs. And uh so that's to
me, that's gonna be one of the most interesting things about being in the
in the in the Big Twelve is that you know, we'll go into each
season thinking Arizona's got a chance. Yeah, I don't. I know a
couple of people, I won't say a few, a couple of people who
have given up their basketball tickets, and I'm saying to them, why would
you do? Yeah, this is the best time to have those tickets.
Yeah, given the circumstances of I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure.
I'm not sure they're soured on it. I'm not sure if they're way
more expensive, but they will be more expensive given the prices for the you
know, trying to make up, but I'm thinking, why would you do
that? This is the perfect time to have those. It's kind of basketball
is going to be better than it's ever been. Duke's coming in. The
Big twelve is coming coming in. If I had the money, basketball is
going to be because from day from day one in the in the Pack twelve,
Pack ten packed off. It was very top heavy with Arizona and U
c l A. Occasionally Cal would be good for a year, Stanford was
good for a few years. Oregon got good for a few years, but
you know, three or four teams d been to the league and then it
was crap after that. The whole time, the whole right, you know,
the whole fifty forty five years. You know, the back half of
the league was terrible. In the Pack twelve, right in the Pac ten,
you know, the Washington State, I mean, Washington State was awful.
Sometimes they were just awful, more and more awful than not. Right
mostly, you know, Oregon State was really bad a bunch of times.
ASU was bad the whole time. I mean, once in a while they
had a good team, but overall ASU's time in the Pac twelve and the
Pack ten was not good. By the way, Let's go back to the
question I asked you about the McConnell just to clarify things, twenty thirteen,
fourteen fifteen something, the MVP was Young, right, twenty fifteen Joseph Young,
Joseph Young from Morgan and McConnell was a close second, if that makes
no sense. And then that was the two thousand and fourteen to fifteen year,
right right. And then it was twenty thirteen and four team that was
the Nick Johnson year. He won Player of the Year, and that was
the team that lost in a very close game in the Elite eight. The
twenty fifteen team got to the lead eight as well, but they got manhandled
by Wisconsin in the Elite eight a that one, so we look confusion as
to what teams, which teams were which? Kay, Yeah, Well that
that McConnell had a handed. The guy's got he's got to be thirty ish,
right, thirty, has got a few more years left, he's got
these good contracts and he's doing well. Yeah, and they made a lot
of money. And in fact, Jay, having covered the team, it's
gotta be like thirty two thirty is thirty one, been in the league nine
years, so he red shirted a year, remember that. So he left
here at probably twenty two, twenty three years old. Gold star for you,
j thirty two years old. And that's why I can do nineteen ninety
two. I can do some math, some math. And in fact,
I was just going to say that of all the players all those teams,
he was the most uh not affable. But we we talked to him a
lot compared to him because Sean would didn't make him avail. He was an
incredibly mature dude. Yeah right, I mean he came here as an old
soul when he got here as a transfer from de Kaye. He was you
kind of felt like he was an old soul and he was. We talked
about you know, when you talk you couldn't remember he had played with Stanley
Johnson and I couldn't have one game in the I think it was it was
a Hawaii tournament. There was a classic. Yeah, another Hawaii tournament where
you know he you heard him on the on the court. Yeah it's Stanley
Johnson. To shut the hell up, you know, I remember, and
you just felt like, no matter how good you think you are, Stanley,
you're not in charge on the court. Sure, it's it's it's TJ
McConnell. Sure. In fact, you know Stanley, as good as as
he was, he wasn't that good compared to the rest of them. The
funny thing about is when when when TJ came here, I was with Louke
at one point and he says, you know, hotly, the best guy
on the team's not even playing. I don't even think he would be DJ.
Right, he's not even playing. This is what are you talking about?
Yeah, he's just practicing with the team right now. It's we'll call
a little guard. And I'm thinking, really, because they were pretty good
there, and then they he wasn't the best guy. I mean, right,
he was the best guy, but he couldn't play. Yeah, yeah,
no, And then you're thinking, and then everybody has, you know,
hindsight twenty twenty. Oh, we knew he'd be able to play.
Stop. There's nobody, nobody in this town who thought TJ McConnell was going
to make it in the NBA. Yeah. And if you if you say
you thought so, your your big fat, only one dude. And he
was probably doing it because he was his coach, right, yes, because
he's gonna say and we were all thinking, what do you do think it?
Yeah, yeah, come on, and he's outlasted all of them.
Yeah, uh yeah, except for except for Denver Denver, Oh yeah,
because there were teammates and he left the year before. Yeah yeah, but
yeah, I mean he's you know, it's just uh, you know,
he's he's I love I love that story. I love the guys who do
that, right, the guys that uh, you know, defy the perfect,
perfect way to put it, that defy the odds. You know,
he's I mean, he didn't even look like a great basketball Playnyon Walke.
He was not a good airport guy. You're right, because it's just sort
of a slow guy that didn't have He had a terrible outside shot, very
rarely made it. But he ran the team and and and he had all
those other quote unquote intangibles, the i Q, the intangibles, the leadership.
He feared nothing and still doesn't you know all those things. Insert this
name for that name, Steve Kerr, right, right, insert this and
just who believed in himself exactly and uh and and now here he isn't you
know, nine years into the leagues in the conference finals. Uh, you
know, you'd love to see him get one. That would be so cool.
Yeah, which would be another upset. Yeah. Good, Well they
got the ceth Tics. Yeah, Celtics are pretty good. I think they're
gonna win at least two. I think they'd win two. I think the
over under for games that that series will go it's five and a half.
Yeah, I was. I was actually just looking at the bracket and the
Celtics have won their last two series four to one, and I was wondering,
what are the odds they get another four to one, because they're they're
that much better? Yeah, they could think, Yeah, they certainly could.
Okay, okay, let's take our next break. We're gonna come back.
Kevin's gonna step up to the plate with some breaking news and hear what
you got, and then we'll take youre. Oh. Then after that,
we're gonna have Mike Andre will join us and we'll talk some Arizona souft fall.
So be sure to stick around.