Stringy Live. I mean iHeartRadio. Who This is I on the Ball with
Steve Rivera and Jay Goobnzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back
to win the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, he's
Jay. Now we are breaking news. So hope it's not broken up.
This is I on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Okay.
As we briefly mentioned at the top of the show, the PAC twelve
Women's All Conference of wards have been handed out today. There is some Arizona
presence in it, but starting with the big awards, the Player of the
Year and Defensive Player of the Year is Cameron Brink from Stanford, who's like
thirty five years old. I think she did not play when Arizona beats Stanford
that day, right, she was out that day. But she was on
that team that Arizona beat or play again in the National Chamchampionship. It's been
around a long time, but she was the Player of the Year and Defensive
Player of the Year, as you admir as you might expect, Juju Watkins
the Freshman of the Year, UH sixth Player of the Year to Mayor Gardner
from Oregon State, the most improved player, Kiki Iriaffin from Stanford, and
the coach of the year Terror Van Derveer from Stanford, and the other coach
of the year Stanford. It's a good Okay, I know they're obviously good.
She can win it all. She can win it all the time.
Yeah, I guess who finished first, second, third, who fin a
second? I think, I think what Arizona. I mean Arizona, Stanford,
U C l A, Utah, Colorado. I believe us c Okay,
I believe. Okay, there's I'm asking questions I should ask because I
don't know the answer. We'll get We'll we'll we'll get We'll get back that.
But anyways, from from an Arizona standpoint, Helena PuO on the first
team, which is nice. Nice. She's a fifth year player, first
time, first time on the All on the All Pac twelve team. She
uh she's on there with There's two four time selections on that team. Charlie
Slager Walker from Washington State and Charisma Osborne from UCLA, both on it for
the fourth time. Cameron Brink from Stanford Alissa Peelee from Utah on for the
third time. Here's an interesting note for for Arizona women's fans. Aaronet Vondley,
who transferred from Arizona to Colorado, was the first team. I'll pack
twelve on there. Juju Watkins obviously on the first team as well. Honorable
mentioned was as Mary Martinez, so she got she got some votes, and
then Helena Pueo second time on the All Defensive team. There was one Cameron
brink Is, a three time selection to that and honorable mentioned for All Defensive
Team, also as Mary Martinez. And then the All Freshman team got Jada
Williams, the little point guard who really took over for Kaylen Gilbert. She
hit the she was on our show, hit the two bank shots in the
Stanford win. She was on the All Freshman team. And then two players,
two players from Arizona were honorable mentioned All Freshman Brave counting out and Skylard
Joe. Okay, a lot of a lot of names out there, you
know, for a seventh place team. Not bad, not bad. Yeah.
So anyways, all right, this is that this has got actually gotten
kind of funny because I think I mentioned to you when when when this came
up. So some renderings have come out of the Oakland A's Stadium. Yeah,
it's going to be built where the Tropic Canada Hotel is across the street
from the M Jim Grant Caddy Corner from New York, New York, and
then across the street on the other side from No. No from the ex
Caliber right basically in the area of the Mando Lay. So these renderings have
come out and you look at them. It's got this weird dome thing,
see it, you know, And I said, my first reaction was,
that's the Sydney Opera House. Somebody stole the plans to the Sydney Opera House.
Uh, the one, the thing that you see all the time in
the the tourist pictures and stuff. And sure enough, s I did an
article about how fan reaction has been. Somebody built is gonna build the Sydney
Opera House. It doesn't look a little bit in Vegas. Look a half
shell roof. Yeah, well that's what I mean. You look at it
from the side, it's it's those roofs in the in the in the at
the Sydney Opera House. And it was the screens on the side and see
the right, it's kind of weird. Yeah, yeah, Like I said,
have screens on the other side to the front office. Sports Uh posted
the drawings of it. It's a one point five billion dollar ballpark and it
looks like it's kind of open air, but it's gonna have shade. I
would, I would imagine it's I can't even imagine stee that they're actually gonna
build this. It just looks like too much. Wait, it's in Vegas.
I know you have you seen the sphere the sphere I'm gonna go see
the sphere of that. Yeah, I mean, come on, what haven't
you seen in Vegas? That's strange? Yeah, or or over the top.
Now, I hear you, I hear you. But that's that's the
running joke on everybody that's that's reacting to that, like somebody's moving the Sydney
Operas kind of like my kids were shocked. Maybe I don't do you know,
it's maybe don't know. That's the original London Bridge Lake Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. We talk about there. You
want to learn bridge. My kids go, wait what yeah, yeah,
the Lounder Bridge, like the real under bridge, I said, the real
under bridge, the original under bridge. They took it apart and moved it
to lake. Why would they do that because somebody had the money to do
it, and they did it, and they built a city around it.
So the same kind of thing. So people are they just moved. They're
moving the Sydney Operase and making it a baseball stadium. See, it is
kind of weird, but it's I'm sure it's gonna look cool if they build
that. You have to be okay, Okay, I'm gonna go see the
spear though I haven't seen the sphere. Yeah, sat in when we were
over there in November, and what was the what was the design? That
was a lot of Formula one stuff Okay, the week before the Formula one
so it was a last but just a lot of different things, the moon
and you know what. Anyways, all right, but it was it was
very funny. What did I have? So? Uh oh? Caleb Love,
one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award, saw that it goes
to the back college basketball is top shooting guard. So one of the top
five here's at that position. Ye'll, he's gonna he's gonna make some All
America teams. Whether they's second, third team, I don't know. If
he's the first team All American the other the other. The other four guys
UH in the running with him are R. J. Davis at North Carolina
where everybody believes he's the guy, Kevin mccullor at Kansas, Antonio Reeves at
Kentucky, and Tyson Walker at Michigan State. Those are the five finalists,
four part of the Jerry West UH Shooting Guard of the Year. So let's
see if you get something like that that that would get him in the Yeah,
in the ring of honor with just one year under the BELTI year zone.
Did you see that Purdue plays Illinois tonight on the road at Illinois.
I'm taking Illinois and it's a two. You're gonna if you do, you
have to take give them two and a half. Yeah, so I would
agree with you on that. Yeah, Illinois pretty darn good. And again,
man, those road teams going to you know the road right right profile
a last well in effect Purdue obviously for their for their seat. Uh you
see, let's excuse me. Did you see I watched a little Princeton last
night? Their Princeton, Man, I think they're twenty six and three.
Uh. Uh, good luck to who ever has to play them again because
they have a year of experience under them from the Bensabloy. They're the same
team pretty much, and they're methodical as all. Hell. Yeah, good
luck. I came across the highlights of the time, the upset U c
l A yeah, the tail end of that, the back door and the
peak uh pekill yeah peek carel Yeah. And you know the little old guy
that was on the side with like a little like Yoda maybe yeah, you
know, on the sidelines and winning on that back door cut for the winning
basket and watching l go down. I'm sure you haven't seen the replaces of
Arizona getting beat, but I don't watch that. It looks better TikTok.
They know it's better than it looks sounds better that Arizona. Getting back to
the conversation we're having about women's basketball, Fox Sports is saying that women's basketball
on the Fox games that have been on the games have been on Fox,
women's basketball has averaged more viewers than their men's games. Yeah. Yeah.
If there's one one a group that's gonna miss Kate and Clark, it's Fox
Sports because he's held She's helped with the with the ratings. I had to
have that conversation again with some guys, uh this morning. You know we're
talking. I just I heard him talking about how you know Kaylyn Clark,
she's gonna go to the w n B A. She's gonna take a pay
cut because all this money to making. Guys. Guy, she's on state
farm commercials. She those are going with her. Well, she just got
a new one today because she's gonna botherbly be the number one girl being drafted.
Uh. And she's gonna go to Indiana. She's got signed with the
the post sponsor of the Indiana UH stadium, I forgot where he was.
The arena name is gonna They just signed her. You're gonna make more money,
guys. You know, let's not that's that guy kind of don't.
She wasn't getting paid out of the nil collective in Iowa. She's getting paid
by corporation who she's plugging their stuff. Don't cry for Kate, don't cry
for exactly. That's that's a really good point. So I thought that was
very interesting. Jason Sheer reporting that Bill Walton is back. He'll be doing
both Arizona games with Dave Passion this week. So some fans are happy.
Some fans are this Bran Jeffers is gonna be you know, tuned in in
somebody's living room with game on. This is gonna be last hurrah probably because
of the Conference of Champions is going away. Yeah, he'll do some ESPN
stuff. Yeah, but I'm talking Conference of Conference of Champions. Yeah,
this is it. And I'm sure we'll see him next week at the at
the Back tournament. Oh so he's doing it this weekend. No, he's
got two games the Arizona UCLA this week and then we'll see him. Well,
we'll catch him next week. Yes, I'll be there for that.
That's sort of that's like I kind of run out of stuff. Oh,
okay, we got four minutes. Okay, let's talk about this college football
staff. Okay, so last week, late last week, a proposal spilled
out that they that mainly driven by the SEC and the Big twelve, in
the Big Ten that even before we've gotten the twelve team playoff, but they
want to go to fourteen teams, right. They want three automatic bids for
the SEC and the Big Ten, two for the ACC and the Big twelve.
So that's ten of the bids right there, one for the group of
five the best group of five team and then three at large. But then
and people are like, okay, not bad, but you know, why
are we changing it when we haven't even played at one time? Then we're
leaked out that the Big ten and a fourteen team tournament would require two first
round by two teams will get a first round by, and the Big Ten
and the SEC want those automatically. They want to get the number one and
two and two seed automatically regardless of what the season looks like. Their champion
could have two losses and the ACC or the Big twelve champion could be undefeated,
and yet the Big twelve gets one, I mean, the Big ten
gets one, and the and the SEC gets the other. Now people are
losing their minds. What the hell are you doing? Right? Powerships,
power trips than they want to say. They're saying, you're obviously don't give
one crap about whether or not this playoff is legit. All you want is
more power and more money. Right, And people are pissed now, right
and saying, and there's a lot of thought that if the leagues, like
the ACC and the Big twelve basically say we're not we're not giving you that,
that they'll break up football, that SEC and the Big twelve will go
off and play their own championship and call it the national championship. That it's
as close, that's closer to happening than it has ever been because of this.
Sure, we'll see what happens. I don't think it'll work. I
don't know. What do you think the fourteen team thing? Fine? Do
that, sure, but not but not the fact, you know, the
big fove of the a CC should love that because now you're top two teams
are automatically in the playoffs. Why why have they said why fourteen and not
sixteen? Just make it easy for eight and eight in boom in fourteen because
you know they're going to go to sixteen and they mentioned go to twenty four.
Yeah, then you know what I'm saying. It's just what it is.
I don't know. That's strange to mean that numbers just strange. Did
you see that the Dartmouth College men's basketball team has unionized? They did,
and that both coming up thirteen to two. Good, be careful what you
wish right right now. You're now you're gonna be a employee. You're gona
be employed, or you're going to kill the team, right, yeah,
you know. Okay, Now your employees guess by employees of what you know,
the programs kind of at that level, should just be happy that they
have a sport, right you're artments, you're getting a great education. Be
happy that you've got a sport to play. Right now, you want to
get paid for that, you know, I get it if you're at U
C. L A or Arizona or Ohio State or Kentucky or whatever. But
at Dartmouth you're not. You're not bringing in that kind of jack. Yeah,
you know, and they don't even get scholarship. Settle things. Here's
a here's a statement in there. Dartmouth has already indicated it will appear the
appeal to the decision by the n l RB to recognize the players as employees
who are eligible to join a union. Again, be careful what you wish
for, because you may you just may not. At that level, you
just might not have a basketball program if you want to be employees, or
your tuition becomes it's so different nowadays, right, So let's go, we
gotta get gotta get Joe. They're not thinking all right, Joe Levano,
the head coach at South Point. The girls south Point Girls team two out
of three years winning the four A state championship, including this year, so
we'll talk to him about their run to a championship. Stick around. The
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Breaking down all the exes at OHS. It's Steve Rivera and Jacin Salvinz.
This is I on the Park on Fox Sports fourteenth Divy. Hey, welcome
back to Why the Ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Sive Rivera.
Here's Jagins Sauce down the phone. We have Joseph Louvno the South Points
girls basketball team champions, State champions. Joseph, how are you, Steve?
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. This is your second one,
right, this is our second day championship second three years and it was
our third trip in four years. Nice, What what the heck are you
doing there? What's your secret sauce and doing so well? Uh, the
secret is hard work and really great kids that buy in and want to come
in and be selfless. You know, I heard you guys talking a little
bit ago about the women's game and on Fox how the numbers have climbed,
and you know, Caitlin Clark does have a lot to do with that,
but a lot has to do with the fact that the women's game is it's
a little different. It's it's a little more team oriented. It's it's a
little more old school basketball. It's a little bit more about the week and
less about the me and my kids are are kind of doing that to the
tea. So we have a lot of talent and kids that make sacrifices for
individual awards and individual accolades so they can chase championships. That's an interesting perspective
because we're talking. We talked to Mike Bibb in the first hour and we're
asking him how has the game changed, you know, at the college level,
you know, the men's game, and you know, he had some
different ideas and different things. But you just mentioned, you know, with
the girls game, particularly at the high school level, it's not like,
Okay, we got one great player and that's all we need, and you
know, and teams go off and win championships. You mentioned that you've got
you know, you put together a team of a bunch of good players.
How has that evolved over time? Have you seen how that has happened over
time? Is it just because girls are getting more interested in playing, Girls
are just playing longer, they're playing younger, those kinds of things. What
is it? Es definitely the hazard have not. It's becoming more and more
kids that are getting into it younger and developing saying with the game. And
then you know, you watch all these podcasts with Gilbert Arenas and various athletes
and they're saying the same things about how some of the au could sure some
of that games games, games, games culture is kind of ruining the games
on the men's side, and if you look at it, some of the
best players in NBA now are all foreigners and why And you know, the
women's game is still a little bit more old school, where there's a lot
more focus on the fundamentals there's a lot more focus on the team games.
And you can see that. You can see it translating in various things.
I mean, look at Okay, we use this as an example, like
Cavin Clark. Yes, she just said the scoring record, all time college
scoring record, which is amazing. That the woman also has one thousand career
assists, which is incredible as well. So it's it's a little different.
So, you know, we we we focus a lot on the team game.
You know, if you come to one of our practices, we work
a ton on team defense, a ton on transition, a ton on our
team offense. You don't see us spending a whole lot of time on individual
skill development, even though we do that on the offseason, and it is
important, it's incredibly important, But you're not going to see us run clear
outs or high ball screen basketball. You know, we just don't believe that
the long term that's going to be effective against three teams. So we work
on the team game and our motion offense, and our team our team defense,
and our ability to pressure the ball. And it's none of those things
can be done without talent. You know, we have incredible talent. We
have what I believe is probably the most talented junior class, potentially the most
talented individual class at one school. Ever. We have seven kids who have
the potential to play college somewhere in that twenty five class twenty twenty five class,
and three or four of them potentially at a high level. So they're
they're incredible, but they're selfless that they give up the individual accolades so that
they can chase the gold ball. So let me ask you, because I
know you from a different organization, so have you always coached the girls' teams?
Uh? Well, let me ask that first. I started this seven
a half years ago at Southpoint. A friend of mine was the head coach
at the time, and he brought me and his assistant. So I was
really fortunate that he gave me the opportunity and kind of opened the door.
And when he stepped down, I was very fortunate that Phil Gruenfelder and administration
at that point gave me the keys to the car, and so I was
gonna go here with it. And you don't have to answer if you don't
what Jay here has coached boys and girls, right, and I think there's
a noticeable difference, right. So that's where I kind of wanted to go
with it. Have you coached the boys at all and is there any difference.
I coached boys when I was young, I right out of high school
when I was doing some youth stuff, and I get to be around the
boys a lot and just watch them. There is a difference. There is
a difference. But you know, I was watching I was watching the playoffs,
and uh, especially on the boys and girls side, and the good
boys teams like Perry. Perry men's basketball just won the Open Division their second
year in a row, they won the Open Division and they have they have
CoA Pete who's you know, he's an Arizona recruit and he's he's a you
know, top five, you know, recruit of that class. And if
you even though they're so talented, if you watch Perry, that's a team
game. Like they're playing team basketball. They're really moving the ball, and
the best teams are doing that. So yes, there's a difference. There's
obviously a difference in athleticss them overall, but the best teams that are playing
team basketball and team defense, and uh, that that's where the difference doesn't
go away. What a concept, right, When do you play team play
team ball. I mean, that's what basketball is all about, supposed to
be, supposed to be. So, so just tell us little bit about
how your season went along. You played in the tournament early in the year,
lost game, and then when on a stretch, last one in in
in in Nevada, and then you get into the open division tournament. Just
did you know going in you guys are going to be this good. I'm
guessing you kind of expected that with you know how you talk about your talent,
but at some point in the season, it's kind of like, Okay,
we got a really good shot at winning state, the state championship.
Uh yeah, I mean we are. We are very blessed with talent.
Yeah, we have. Like I said before, we have seven or eight
kids right now that are fielding offers, some different schools at different levels.
We we had high expectations. We are. Our season here is nearly year
round. We take only about two months off. We we do lots of
things between strength training with Carl Garrett and lots of off season stuff. So
it's been a long, hard season. One one of the things that we've
pride ourselves on, especially the last four years, is we've consistently been a
top ten team in terms of strength of schedule in the state, which is
hard when you're in Tucson because that means you have to travel a lot.
So we go to Phoenix quite a bit, We go to California quite a
bit to play games so that we can keep so we can challenge ourselves,
and that that helps quite a bit. Arizona added an open division in basketball
last season, so this is the second year. We were actually the number
three seed in the open division, and we got upset by six A school
Value Vista in Phoenix, who had won several consecutive six A state championships,
and so we were upset a little bit. We were trying to strive for
that open division, but it all the way to set up. It allowed
us to go back into our own conference and win state championship and our side
of school because we only have twelve hundred kids in our school, and I
mean we're competing against schools that have thirty five hundred and in the Valley area,
and you know, winning state championships is difficult. It's not easy,
and we were blessed we are. Not only do we have great talent,
I kind of strongly believe I have the best coaching staff in Southern Arizona,
if not one of the best in the state. And I got some great
experience and we do our homework. In the last since since nineteen ninety,
so the last thirty four years, there have been one hundred and ninety state
championships in Arizona. So of large schools, so a thousand kids are more
enrollment. So one hundred and ninety state champions in those thirty four years.
Well then girls, and only eighteen of them come from Southern Arizona, so
eighteen out of one hundred and ninety potential championship. So it's hard, it's
difficult, and we're competing not just with bigger schools, but we're competing with
Phoenix, and Phoenix is growing. And I was talking to athletic director and
if you think about it, in the Tucson area, the large Tucson area,
that is, in the last thirty years, there's been what three new
schools, three or four new high schools total. In the Phoenix area there's
been twenty maybe they're thirty new high schools. And you can't compare that basketball
wise, So if you have to get the kids that want to kind of
make those sacrifices and come and play for us and do that. But it's
also having the mindset to be tough enough to work because those bigger schools in
the Phoenix area, they do basketball year round also, but they also have
basketball class and they have the seventh period, and they have kids that you
know, focus on one sport. And you know, I have fifteen kids
on my roster this year on bo varsity level, and seven of them are
multi sport athletes. So we have track players and volleyball players, and so
we're competing. The odds are against us a little bit, but we're lucky
that the last few years we've been able to compete for championships. So so
let me ask you good and we're talking to Joseph Lono, the South Point
girls basketball coach. For you state champions for the second time in three years.
You know this thing with the open you know, you go play in
the Open division, or you get eliminated in the second round, then you
turn around and go play in the four A. That seems like a weird
transition, right, you know, you have the disappointm appointment of the loss,
then you've got to turn around to kind of get your stuff together to
still you know, then you've got hey, well we still have an opportunity
to win a state championship. Tell me about that that transition and what that
was like, especially you know when you thought you had a shot at winning
the the Open division then then you get eliminated, and how you were able
to get your team back up to go off and win the state championship.
You know, it was it was a humbling, difficult day for two days.
We took us about two days to recover. And luckily that lost happened
on a Thursday, and then we had a Friday practice to regroup, and
then I kind of gave us the weekend off to reset and we we've then
played to the following Tuesday. So we had one practice to kind of regroup
a refocus, and that was tough. And my kids, my kids want
to compete at the highest level and they want to prove it. But when
we went and saw the film of Value Vista, so Vallee Vista, they're
a powerhouse in the Phoenix area. They won I forget I think five of
the last six six championships that they'd been tough for a long time. When
we went back and watched the film against Aalavista. They shot nearly sixty five
percent from the field against the against US, and we shot forty percent.
And we didn't play poorly. We played one quarter poorly, but the other
three quarters we outplayed them and we played really well. It's just that we
couldn't make a bucket when we actually needed to, and they kept hitting from
deep and we cut the lead to one three different times, and they hit
bank in threes and they hit shot. That's sometimes how the game goes.
So once we saw that film and sat down and broke it down and talked
to our kids about it, it kind of put things in perspective that this
is a game that things may not always go your way and we have to
always do our best to try to make things go our way. And once
we kind of saw that and change our mindset, it was easy for us
to get going. And after that, the whole conversation was the four A
gold ball only belongs to us. So we didn't even celebrate any of the
wins leading into the championship game. We didn't even talk about it. All
we did was show up at the mindset that that four state championship was going
to be ours no matter what. Well, you certainly look by the score.
You look, I think you were mad at that first round of the
four A game. If you're a seventy two to fourteen, it's like,
Okay, that's a state tournament game. That's not you know, some regular
season game against a team that's not very good. I mean, how did
you guys come out in that game? Well, Peoria had made an upset
the week before, so Pure was actually like the twenty four seed and then
they had snuck into the sixteen seed. And you know, like I said,
it is a little bit of the game of the hats and have not
and we have that have And we came out focused and playing great defense.
The second game against East Mark, they were a really good team, really
strong, really well coached team. They gave us some fits until we really
got going in the second half. And and our our our kind of mo
o, like what we hang our hat on is our team defense and uh,
and that's where we've sunk swung games at times and uh. And then
the STEMI final game against Australia Foothills, we just had a great pregame,
a great discussion beforehand, and my kids came out ready to roll against Australia
team that had done some really good things. They had. They had they
had I forget how many wins they had on the seat, and they had
something like twenty nine wins and like three or four losses, and they had
they had come down the week before and beat Sowarro on their home court,
so they were kind of motivated. And we kind of punched them in the
face early and never even gave them hope and and they kind of stopped playing
by midway through the second quarter. So, uh so we just had that.
All the credit goes to my kids. My kids are incredible the way
they're Uh, they lock in, they focused, they buy in, they
believe, they work their rear end off and when they do that, they
execute. And in the championship game, if you look at the first half,
we were kind of doing the same thing. We were kind of rolling.
And then two things happened right before halftime. Uh one of my best
players, Hannah Williams, suffered a knee injury. She went down hard and
that changed the game. And then we also got in foul trouble right before
the half ended. So so that second half we were kind of playing patchwork,
so that that we we we didn't we weren't ourselves that second half in
the championship game. We were having to navigate this a little bit, being
a little short handed in foul trouble and uh. And then also their kids,
their kids who some times the moment gets big for them and it's tough
to score sometimes when you feel the pressure. But to their credit, they
were tough enough to hold on and win that game by ten. Yeah.
Okay, one quick question, quick answer. So I don't know if you
heard the Bibi on the show first hour, he takes his teams who used
to take his teams to California, play with some of the tough teams,
maybe get beat or whatever, but it hardened him or the team for the
playoffs in the Arizona Leagues. You from believing that too, apparently playing hard
and then coming back and maybe take your lumps. Absolutely, you know,
I got into this crustier game a little bit older, so I'm not chasing
wins, and I hate when we win by twenty thirty forty points. I
mean, I like them at times, especially when they're against good teams,
but we want challenges, so we're not afraid to lose my kids. My
kids kind of buy into that too, where they want to be chance,
they want to play tough teams and they have that mind at So like this
summer we played Sierra Kenyon, who's like the number two or three team in
the country right now, I believe. Uh. And then uh this uh,
this past Christmas, we went to California and two of the four teams
that we faced in that Christmas tournament ended up in the CIA finals. Are
like, California is a little different, so they have different levels, but
they all ended up high level playoffs in California, and you know, you
know, we went too and two when we went there, So we're,
uh, we're not we're not afraid to face tougher competition and challenge ourselves,
but we're also capable of winning some of those games. So it's fun.
It's fun with these kids to be able to accomplish that. And kids like
Tealia Henderson and Hanny Williams and Alison Even and then we had to transfer Sidney
Anderson, who came in Who's Who's Who's got some offers for Division one schools
and she's done a great job. And Jordan Watts, if you see her.
She she's a lifetout shooter. So we're a talented group and we have
some freshmen and jac Nelson and arikoleash who who are going to keep our future
bright? I hope and keep this rolling. Thank you, Joseph, appreciate
your time. Congrats, thank you, teach you guys, thanks for having
me. Thank you. That's a lot of fun, very insightful. That's
teams that aren't afraid to take their lumps, right and and and and you
know, and they build program. They don't have a team. This is
a program. I hate to use this reference because I covered the guy November
December. You take your lumps, maybe maybe you win some tournaments, loot,
and then you find out who you are in March exactly. Sometimes they
weren't the same team. They were not, but it's like like Tommy,
at some point, those wins have to mean remember when that scheduled, the
Arizona schedule came together. We're going, what are you doing right? Right?
Right right? But in the end you're gonna think, Okay, that's
gonna get that's gonna what are you doing? What it did? It maybe
kind of fall Falseley gave him expectations that were not capable of doing it so
well, if Duke shows up on the court against them in the NCAA tournament
or Alabama or anybody, hey we got that. We know, yeah,
we know what we can do. All right, let's take our last record
to come back. We'll take your calls. We'd love to have him five
to two zero. 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
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This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox
Sports fourteen to fifteen. Hey, welcome back, joining the ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Ja Gonzalaz. We got
twelve minutes, went a little over. It was good stuff by Joseph.
Yeah, yeah, congratulations philosophies. Yeah, congratulations to those guys again talking
about how the game has changed, right right. Look, girls basketball,
high school bab was just getting started when I was a CUB reporter our late
seventies, you know, covering hig school basketball, and they, you know,
God bless them, they were trying to play. But I mean,
you know, these girls that could barely dribble it, certainly couldn't shoot you.
No games were you know, fifteen to ten and things like that.
To see how the game has evolved to the point of having a Kaitlin Clark,
you know, doing what she's doing is is tremendous to see that that
has happened in our lifetime. Well and imagine how far it's going to go
from here, Oh yeah, because it's probably still in its you know,
early stage. Again she gets to the end WNBA, that's gonna be good
for everybody in the w NBA sure to you know, to have that kind
of attention and you know if they're if there are players out there in the
WNBA, we are going to be a little resentful of Kaitlin Clark. All
you have to do. And this is almost a crazy comparison, but when
you think of what Tiger Woods did for the game of golf right and the
money that they're playing for now, the Rory McElroy guys are playing for now
because of Tiger Woods right now, women's basketball has been building towards this with
some of the players that I mentioned Kate and Clark is another brick on that
I'm sure, foundation sure, I don't think that's that's going to create interest.
To stretch what you just said, It's it's true, you know,
she's having that much of an impact. She is the women's version of Steph
Curry for you know, you know, State Farm and the other endorsement companies
that she's endorsing are going to have Women's w n b A on their radar,
but maybe they didn't before, right, And and that's going to again
create more and more opportunities that they go along and then these then these ladies
start making, you know, the kind of money that they're not gonna ever
make the kind of money that the NBA got there. You know, they're
not making fifty million dollars a year, but you know they're going to be
making you know, it could be have a chance to make some very healthy
money and make a really good living, a life changing living for themselves.
Right, No, I get it, I get it. Hey, we
got time, we got ten minutes. If we want to give us a
quick call, please do. We'd appreciate it. Five to two oho for
one sixty not to hear from everybody or anybody. Yep. So I was
I was mentioning that we need to get John Wilner on the show Packbub hotline.
He put out a column today on George Klafkoff and his you know,
his term and the pack weelve ended last week. Yeah, and you know,
no comment, no nothing, he was just gone, yeah, okay.
And then you know, John just basically, you know, ran down.
Just you know, here's a guy who you know, everybody thought he
was the guy. Remember when he got hired right now, people thought,
you know, they were impressed and stuff, and now he just never grasped,
you know, what he needed to do. A Pack twelve fell apart.
Let me ask you a question, and if we do get him and
ask him the question. Okay, So how much how much fault is the
PAC twelve now PAC twelve as a group, the powerful group that it was
Packed ten to PAC twelve? Uh at fault? Uh? They had two
strikes, two strikes yeah, uh with the with the main GUYOT Larry Scott,
and then they came in with the savior of supposed savior that was not
that right. So those two dudes didn't do it right and poop on them.
Not the right guy. But a lot of it has to do with
the people who hired the guy, right exactly. And that and that's kind
of the point of Willner's of Willner's column is that yes, the you know,
the universities themselves have a lot of blame on their hands. But he
said, according to sources, that that that he's got that claff Cooff kinds
of thinks none of this was his fault. He said, how can you
how how can you, as the commissioner of the PAC twelve, who watched
one hundred year old league crumble on your watch, how can you think this
you you've got you You're not to blame for any of the sins of the
father. The father doesn't always the sins. I'll read straight from John's calming,
says In other words, claff cop It says. Sources said claff Coop
blames the collapse entirely on the president's poor leadership, the difficult circumstances he inherited,
and the school's refusal to accept the deal place before him. In other
words, Claffcoff believes he did his job. If the schools weren't satisfied with
Apple's offered for a few mean only deal that distributed twenty five million dollars annually,
the potential for our subscription targets are reached, well then that's their problem.
Not yes, so if he really believed I did what I was supposed
to do yet to still fell apart, He's even for more. I said,
you couldn't be more wrong, right, Well, there's two guys that
really kind of put this thing in the ground. Learry Scott of course the
most visible guy. Yeah, the most guy to blame. And I'm sure
no one's ever spoken to him or did a story on him since he's left,
right, because well to track him down and say, how much do
you think that you were involved in all this? In the demise? The
thirty million or what was that money that they talked, the cable bill or
whatever it was fifty million? What what? And then here the kids,
the pac twelve kids, the teams are suffering to eat. Yeah, you
know, it was like all of our could have another you know, they
look at the situation everyone's in with the highest paid commissioner and all that other
in the every tower or the Golden Tower, whatever tower. It's the nice
tower spending more than you needed to. The crumble tower is what it is
now. Yeah, no, I you know again, I you know,
I try not to let my mind go to what's happened, but when I
do, I'm really bummed about this. I really am. I'm really bummed
about how turned out look in the end with Arizona in the Big twelve.
Is that a better place for them in terms of winning championships and stuff like
that on a national level, Yes, it is. They're not you know,
they're not having to compete where against teams where they have just inherent disadvantages
like USC and US play. So yes, in the end, you know,
Arizona could be in the in the College Football playoff next year, you
know, and in the Pac twelve you just didn't. You don't think that,
right, So yes in that regard. But you know, I'm sixty
five years old almost, you know, I mean in my mid sixties,
and I grew up with this league. Sure I was so excited when we
got in it. Sure, right, I was so excited when we got
in it. All the Pac twelve or Pack ten, Pack ten and Pac
twelve sports baseball, basketball and football, even softball and all the sports and
thinking we're part of something as an area Arizona fans, part of something really
big. And while you're always felt like that, yes, over the years,
you know, as you know, the East Coast bias and stuff,
you know, it was it would wear on you. But in the end,
we still love being a part of something like the PAC twelve and the
fact that it's just gone. It's just I get it. You know,
you grew up in it. I didn't. I didn't. So I just
know what I've been through thirty five years of it. Sad because you're many
great teams to see you were never a part of it as a fan,
No, no, no, I was. I was part of it as
a fan growing up. You know, Yes, there was that period of
time I was. I was a writer, you know, covering sports and
sort of being you know, very uh, you know, even handed and
and and I can't even think of the right word for it, but you
know, I just I didn't have a rooting interest. But outside of that,
that was a five year period. Outside of that, in my life,
I've been a big fan of the of the of the of the of
the conference. You know, I rushed the court when when Arizona beat beat
UCLA in nineteen seventy in nineteen seventy nine, you know, watching Arizona beat
number one USC in nineteen eighty eighty, in nineteen eighty one, who talked
about you know, it's a thing, you know that you're bringing this up.
I texted somebody I won't say who Texas. But I want to get
maybe Joe Nell's on here, who was who got you were? He was
there? He was one of the original ones, right, yeah, you
know, and I think I think of those times, you know, the
first time Arizona beat UCLA in in Larry Smith's first year in nineteen eight you
know, U c LA comes in, here's number two in the CME.
We're playing the number two team in the country. How cool is that?
Right? Right? And we're and we're in the conference with that, right,
you know? When we had two years earlier it was by U and
Wyoming in New Mexico and Utah. I was just gonna say that that feeling
of beating New Mexico wasn't the same. It wasn't the same as when when
when Arizona beat U c l A, you know, in that nineteen eighty
season and then you think you've been arrived kind of yeah, yeah, you
know, And so it was kind of like it was great being a part
of that. And then to see that it after this year, poof,
it's gone. It's just all gone. And to me, it's really gonna
hit when we finished this packed tournament, right, you know, there's still
baseball. Sure, sure, sure, sure, But the Pac twelve Tournament
what it became in Vegas sort of a you know, it's like this is
it? Sure? This is I get it. It's and it's a it's
a fire sale now. Yeah, it should be a fun fire sale this
weekend. Next week, we're gonna we're gonna go over there. We're gonna
have a great time. I'm gonna try not to do anything stupid with my
life. My family is gonna be there. They won't allow you to be
stupid. Jay. Where's Jay? I think I think purposely because my wife,
she's come to this, you know, pretty much the last several years.
She normally comes in like Thursday. You guys, she's coming in on
you wan't want to check your butt. I think she might have put a
GPS staple one. She's coming in on Wednesday. Yeah, I've only got
I only got one night there before she gets there, which is probably a
good thing. Yeah. Will you be working? Yeah, and I will
be working. Those first two days are grind. Actually three days tuesdays also
grind. But so yeah, I you know what, I don't have time
to get in trouble when I work this day. Okay, Okay, well,
thanks you. It was good show today, Mike Bibby. You'll put
it on the you'll put it on the podcast. What the podcast will be
up Look for us over the iHeart website or on the iHeart app, search
Eye on the Ball, also searching the Ball on Spotify, search Eying the
Ball on Apple Podcasts. I'm actually gonna stay here at the station and get
that thing posted so it'll be up within the Okay, we have to get
Yeah, Roadrunners Happy Hour coming up right after we're off the air, but
the podcast will be up up right away, and you can follow us,
please follow, you know, subscribe to those those up on all of those
venues. So if you listening to us right now, do us a favor
and maybe we'll do you a favor if you follow on Facebook or Twitter,
send some maybe requests that you'd like for us to interview right and if we
can pull it off, we'll try. Don't go crazy with it, but
you know, two Sun connections and we'll try to get them on. Yeah,
we're gonna be around a lot of basketball people at the packcuff Turn and
we'll get to that week. You know, we'll get we'll get reporters and
and broadcasters and maybe some coaches and players and stuff like that, and start
lining some stuff up and you know, get some big reaction to the Packpuff
season being you know, the the con the Sinaros. Yeah, okay,
cool, Malterierrie. Now maybe we can get mister Walton. We've had him
on before. Yep, we got two questions in fifteen minutes and he'll be
back. I already got so we said that Walton was doing the two Arizona
games this week. Already got a big no. He'll be fun on a
text message. You haven't heard him in the Okay, that'll be fun.
All right, Okay, thanks for being here today. We'll be back tomorrow
with more great guests, and uh be sure to come back and we'll uh
we'll break everything down for yourself and see you tomorrow