This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio WIP just Surgery.
I on the Ball, boy, it's me right that Mike. For Steve
to say something, he's not here. Welcome back behind the Ball on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jay Gonzalez normally in the side Jair over there,
but Steve is out today and the Sammy's running things and ID know, Sam,
I don't put that on you. You didn't cue me to say something,
So welcome back. We've got Sammy here with breaking news. This is
Eye on the Ball, breaking news, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. That's new,
that's new. That's see. That's I'm off a little bit. Okay,
well yeah, okay. So we talked a little bit about Yukon,
the number one team in the country on the road at Creighton and they got
thumped Creting eighty five, Yukon sixty six. Some other top twenty five teams
were in action last night. Tennessee took care of business on the road against
Missouri. It was a little it was a little ugly, but again we
they're on the road. You win that game. Interesting thing there that the
new ad her kid plays from Missouri Way. That's why the press conference was
at nine o'clock in the morning. She could watch the game. So she
so, her kid was he was here, oh so, and and her
husband was here. So then they all flew back to get him there in
time for the game. Oh wow, he's a player the team. I
don't know if he plays or anything, but he's on the team. He's
on the team. So Tennessee squeaked one out. Baylor the eleventh, the
rank team in the country on the road at BUYU lost lost, seventy eight
seventy one. San Diego State nineteen threan team in the country on the road.
Utah State lost lost. Texas Tech took care of business by one point
at home against TCU, good game. And then San Francisco at Saint Mary.
Saint Mary's one of the hottest teams in the country. Actually they're first
in the WCC, which has been ran by Gonzaga the last however many years.
They squeaked it out without their leading score at home seventy to sixty six.
So an interesting night in college basketball last night and tonight. Some more
top twenty five teams on the road. Illinois, Duke, Florida, Dayton,
Kentucky, Colorado State all in the top twenty five on the road tonight.
So we'll see, you know, I'm gonna parlay just all the road,
the home team, all the home town in that one. I'm gonna
go. I'm gonna go big. I'm gonna go big on that. It's
tough because I don't know even this. This was a little bit later,
but some of these teams are kind of heavily favored on the road, right,
And so Illinois seven and a half, Duke seven and a half,
you have Dayton three and a half, and Kentucky six and a half,
all on the road, all favorites. It doesn't make a ton of sense,
but I guess Vegas knows way more than us. They do. They
do, and I've always thought that. But you know, again, as
you said, if we've learned nothing now, so we've learned the winning on
the road, particularly this year, is really damn hard, no matter who
you are and who you're playing. And I wrote it down, it's like
in theory, if you're so good, if you're one of the top twenty
five teams in the country. Sure, you should be able to go on
the road against a quote inferior team and come out with a win, but
that just hasn't necessarily been the case this year. Right It's you look at
Kansas's track record on the road and it's it's not good. And Kansas is
one of the best teams in the country. And Purdue on the road at
Ohio State just fired their coach. Dogfight, they lose, and they lose.
You come last night, it's it that was ugly. Did you see
Danny Hurley walking off the walking off the court, he turned it off.
He said something bad to a fan. He said something like all he didn't
say I'll kick your ass, but he said I'll knock your head off or
something like that. And he said something like that to a fan on the
way out. It runs in the Hurley blood. What can you say.
They are passionate about the players, their teams, and sometimes yeah, you
know, you just go yeah, okay, you know. And look,
I sit there at the Arizona games and I see I see Bobby Hurley and
he's uh, oh, he said, I will knock you out, you
know. And the stuff that our fans say to Bobby Hurley, and I'm
like, I wouldn't have. I got to respect him for the fact that
he just doesn't go up into the seats and wail on somebody, and in
fact, I know he has to hear it because they're right there, and
he just doesn't react to it. And you gotta have some respect for that.
No matter what you think of Bobby Hurley, what you think is a
crybaby where you hate the way he acts on the on the on the sidelines.
You know, you just don't like him because he went to Duke.
I mean, whatever the reason is, you certainly have to respect that.
When coaches come on, you know, come here like that and the fans
are on him, and look, I'm gonna say too, with the fans,
nobody cusses at him. Yeah, you know, they don't call him,
you know, no f bomb, but they chop at him all day
long, and they chop at them all day long, and it's it's you
know, packing, packing, pecking, packing, and to not react to
some of that stuff, you got to have a lot of respect for these
guys. I have a I have a question for you, who's more not
crazier or whatever, who's more animated Mick Cronan or Bobby Hurley. Bobby Hurley
is more animated, the arms flailing and and and stomping on the Mick Cronan
more serious, is serious and grouchy as all hell. Okay, you know,
Hurley gets upset. He's coaching his guys. He's flailing his arms,
he argues calls. You know there there were a couple of calls that I
and he rightly argued and then we're like, what the hell? There was
one where Ku Kyle Boswell goes into the lane and he slips. It was
a travel. It was clearly a travel, and they didn't call the travel
and he lost his mind over that. Three trips up and down the court.
He's still you on at the rift about that being a travel. That's
what Bobby Hurley does. Mick Cronan says things that you go, wow,
you shouldn't be able to say that to a referee, right he called He
called the you saw it. You can read his lips. He called the
referee in m effort in the in the in the Utah game the other night.
You don't do that. He can't. You know, I'm crazy.
I want to tee him up when I see that. So when you say
animated, you know, Bobby is more demonstrative, you know, animated Mick
Crount is just giant steaming turn. Yeah. Fair, Okay, Okay,
that's that's that's what I was That's what I was thinking. The answer.
Yeah, I just I just want to make sure. So that's your college
basketball breaking news. Just a little bit golf breaking news. Charlie Woods,
son of Tiger Woods, has entered a pre qualifier for the Cognizant Open in
here in Palm Beach, Florida. So he's fifteen years old, say fifteen,
fifteen years old. Well, he's trying to beat his dad, who
played in a PJ Term Tour event at sixteen, right, yep, sixteen.
So we'll see. That's that's something to keep rye on in the golf,
in the golf for how much have you seen him play? You know,
I mean a dec amount I see damn good. I mean have you
seen the side by side yes, Em and Tiger. Yes, it is.
It is unbelievable. It's uncanny. It's it is. It's two peas
in in a pod and he has a great swing. So we'll see,
that's something to keep Ryan in the NFL post Super Bowl World, justin Field's
unfollowed the Bears on social media and quote, he just wants it to be
over. In terms of the Caleb Williams the draft, right, who are
they gonna trade? What are they gonna do? And honestly, I don't
really blame him. I mean, they drafted him with a top ten pick.
He was supposed to be their guy, and he hasn't played like a
top ten pick. But he's shown some signs, right and so and why
hasn't he? Right? How much of it is the people that are you
know, the guys that they've got him surrounded with and stuff like that.
You know, I mean, you know why is Brock Purtty so damn good?
Well, Brock Purtty so damn good because he's pretty good. But he's
got guys sure, right, you know, so I can I can understand
the frustration. We're gonna have to get Patrick Finley on. He covers that
he covers the Bears for the sometimes he's a buddy of ours, and get
engage that conversation with him, you know what what he thinks might happen.
But you know, it's it's a it's a soap opera when it when it
comes to that kind of stuff, you know, back back to when you
when when when uh, the Packers you know, drafted Jordan Love and pissed
off Aaron Rodgers. Their relationship was never the same, you know, to
the point where he's left. So you know, so we'll see, Yeah,
we'll see. And then the last thing show, hey, Otani came
out saying he wants to get at least fifty preseason at bats, spring training
at bats? Is that a lot? I don't know. I mean spring
training A lot of guys just try and get some reps in, stay healthy.
I don't know if fifty is a lot, Like he played three innings
back twice, and are you gonna are you gonna go down and see him?
Well, we thought about it, we looked into it. We couldn't
find any weekend games where the tickets weren't already like a hundred bucks, So
we may just wait and go see him in you know, regular season.
I'd love to. I'd love to go catch the spring training game, but
between doing the show, I can only go on weekends. Yeah, exactly
right, And and we've we looked into tickets for those and it's not working.
Yeah, no, I don't blame. He's someone where you want to
see you like I do. Well, I saw him with the Angels a
couple of years ago, and I was really upset with him because he batted
four times and hit like a lame ground ball single up the middle, and
that was it. I wanted to hear the sound, right, the sound
of of you know, him hit a rocket. You know, I was
a little pissed. You'll believe me, You'll hear. I've been to Dodger
Stadium one time in my life, and uh, I think Cody Bellinger hit
like a third inning home run and you would think the World Series they just
won. It gets loud. So no, he's yeah, I can hardly
wait, and we're we're already planning a probably a July trip up there to
catch a couple of games and see you see what that what it's all about.
But yeah, I did, Like I said, I did see him
that one time, and I was really disappointed in him. There you go,
But at the time I didn't think he was I don't know he's gonna
be a Dodger or so I'm not disappointed anymore. I'm ready. It's gonna
be fun. You know, I watch I literally I watch probably at least
a piece of probably seventy five percent of the Dodger games. You know,
we buy the MLB package, and so I'm sitting at home, I get
home from the show whatever, if it's on, I put it on and
do my work, and so I watch a lot of that stuff. So
it's gonna be fun to be able to watch him, you know, in
those games every day. Gotcha, I can't wait? All right, are
you ready for this? I'm gonna do my NBA second half storylines in under
three minutes. Okay, let's go, right. The New Orleans Pelicans can
point can point zion get them to an NBA finals? Who's nos? Luka
Don Fitch and the new look Dallas Mavericks. Will they get out of the
playing game? The Los Angeles Lakers Golden State Warriors currently ninth and tenth.
Will they or will they not? Be? Playoff teams? Not playing teams?
Playoff teams? The Phoenix Suns my home. Can the Big three A
stay healthy be lead them to an NBA finals? The Clippers, I have
one word, It's health. The Denver Nuggets have the best player in the
World. Will Jolkic win his third MVP? Oklahoma City Thunder the youngest current
current competitive team. Can the youth get them to an NBA Finals? The
Minnesota Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert, Klar Anthony Towns. Will it work in the
playoffs? We may never know? The Boston Celtics the best record in the
NBA. Can they get over their playoff woes? The Cleveland Cavaliers are currently
twenty one and three in their last twenty four games. They can they stay
as hot as they have been? The Milwaukee Bucks Doc Rivers is three and
seven in his first ten games, and Jiannis does not seem to be extremely
happy about that. Three more teams, The New York Knicks Madison Square Garden
is begging, begging for an NBA Finals appearance. I can't imagine what that
would look like. The Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Joel Embiid, was the
front runner of the MVP, is hurt. Can he get back and be
as healthy as he was before to lead them on a playoff run? And,
last, but not least, the Miami Heat, the team that seems
to just waddle their way into the playoffs every year. Can they do it
one more time. Wow, Steve, I did Wow, j I did
that in a minute fifteen seconds. That was awesome. That was a rundown.
I feel like I've learned so much about the NBA in just the last
couple of minutes. How many how many games have those three guys played together
for the Suns since it's you know, this season, so bial just the
last game kind of tweaked the same thing, but they they have played I
want to say, twenty two games. I know in their first eighteen games
they were thirteen and five, so the sample size is beginning to get a
little higher. And all the all the immediate results are really dang good.
Yeah, they have a five man lineup. They're starting five that is in
the top three in offensive and defensive efficiency. So I like where they're at.
Just need to be healthy, and I don't know if I don't know
if my sanity is ready for the NBA playoffs. It's what I care about.
It's one of the things I care about most really. Okay, wow,
okay, all right, Well, look, you know, as somebody
you know who's lived down here all you know, all my life, I'm
aware of the Suns. I don't live or die with the Suns. But
when they're good, and when they're you know, when I see him in
the playoffs and I'm pulling for them to get you know, I wanted to
win an NBA championship. I mean I really wanted back when Barkley was there,
I really wanted to see them win one, you know, and then
when Kurt took over his GM and stuff like that. But I root for
him. But I learned a lot more from you just now than I've known
about them all season long. But you know, good luck to them.
Hopefully they can get something done. All right, We're gona take our new
break. Craig Everson, the head foot basketball coach at the Gregory School,
small school one A, won a state championship over the weekend, his third,
the school's fifth. We're going talk to him about winning that title again
and what it means to him, what it means to the school, and
what it means to you know, one A basketball. It's small school basketball.
But you know, I want to saw them play and they were pretty
damn good. They looked like a state championship team. So we'll talk to
Craig about that as we start wandering through state champions in the high school high
school playoffs, so stick around. The Windows Depot is more than a Windows
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your free evaluation today. Steve Rivera and Jagen Salads. They have their eye
on the ball on Tucson Sports. Stay Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Welcome
back on Bagging on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host for the day,
Jay Gonzalez, my partner in crime. Steve Riveras is out on a
different assignment for today. He'll be back tomorrow. I've got Sammy the interron
here running things, and now on the on the on the phone, we've
got Craig Eberson, the head basketball coach at the Gregory School, one A
school one A state basketball champions. Craig, you know, I know it's
your third time, but it still has to sound really dang good to hear
that got a great ring to it. Thanks for having me on. I
appreciate it. We appreciate you being here. You know. When i've you
know, I continue to follow. You know, my kids all went to
the Gregory School, saying Gregory back in the day following my son was on
the basketball team got to state semi finals. I've always kind of paid attention
when I heard that you guys were going into the state tournament. You were
in terms of your I don't know how you how you phrased this, but
you guys were eighteen and oh in the games that you count for, you
know, towards your rankings, undefeated. I had to see what this looked
like. And I went to saw your first round game and I was,
you know, really impressed. And I'll just tell you what I thought I
saw was just more than the you know, the offense here, the relentless
defense that you guys played. Was that sort of where you were hanging your
hat or how did you how did this team develop into the team it became,
Yeah, this one, It's really been a number of years in the
making. A lot of our kids came through up through the middle school ranks,
and we've had, you know, we've had some decent talents, but
the senior group was a was a group that really really really hung their hat
on defense, and you know, had been for several years and we just
couldn't quite get our scoring up to par until you know, the last last
year or two we've started to emerge a little bit. So we've we've been
a defensive team for several years here, and we knew we were going to
be a strong defensive team and and then we added enough offense to kind of
put us over the top this year. Explain to me you talk about,
you know, several years of putting this team together, and you go to
middle school. You know, we know the Saint Gregor, the Gregory School
has always had you know, middle school program and all that kinds. When
do you start seeing these kids and you know, both at the school and
and do you get them, you know, do you get them outside summer
camps things like that. So five of my kids, uh were in fifth
grade, and that was my very first year at just at the end of
the fifth grade season, and so I started training them that summer in summer
camps and and you know, fall training and et cetera. So I kind
of try to train year round, especially for the kids in our school.
And so I was lucky to have five of them, you know, stay
with us through high school. We got another couple of them in eighth grade.
So I think about, you know, eight of our fourteen were you
know, with us since middle school in some pacy or another. And then
of course, you know, kids at the end of eighth grade decide which
high school is to go to. And we were fortunate enough to get a
couple of you know, really nice ball players that came in and and that
that had some good skill and then you know, just kind of had to
integrate them into our way. Well let's talk about then, your way is,
you know, you build it in for you know, for quite a
you know, quite a period of time, and so what does that mean
to a player And how do you instill that how do you get them to
say this is the way we're going to do things. Yeah, at the
core, the core of it really is, you know, I'm from the
I graduated from Wisconsin. I'm a big ten guy, and I kind of
say, if we can play a big ten defense in West Coast offense,
I'll be pretty thrilled. And so the defense is a must. And we've
played symbol of Man de Man and this year we really had you know,
probably eight six or eight guards who could on ball defend. That was you
know, it's difficult we've had in all my years. And so what you
saw that night was right. We we just kind of pressure the ball and
and so you know, it's a lot of ball pressure. It's a lot
of you know, team five guys stop the ball from scoring. Uh.
And then the second piece of it for me is you know, really developing
the kids into skilled basketball players. So we don't we don't run a lot
of sets, we don't run a lot of patterned offense. It's I try
to teach these kids how to play basketball and and build their skills. And
so it's a lot of skilled building from fifth grade on. It's a lot
of layups, finishing at the rim, euro step, you know, rondo
catch and shoot, you know, get to the middle, fine guys be
able to knock down shots. It's a lot of skilled building over a lot
of time. And we were lucky enough to have a group of kids who
just really worked there both us. So I don't I don't really know your
background, but you came you said you're from Wisconsin. You came here from
where and you coached where else. Yeah, my whole career, I've been
in a business professional and I was looking to go into a second career after
my kids got out of high school. And so I did coach in Wisconsin
three years as a as an assistant to a JV team, and I coached
a lot of au travel ball. I was affiliated with a club program up
up in Wisconsin that you know, was fortunate enough to we put probably one
hundred kids into different universe these at different levels Division one, two, and
three and you know, kind of train them year round and help them get
into school colleges to play ball. So I've seen a lot of high caliber
ball players and kind of know the target on how how to you know,
build them into you know, elite players. And so that's what what we
try to do here. And I took I took our basketball academy philosophy and
I brought it down here into the Gregory School. Sounds great, So what
do you what do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to you
know, coaching one A one A kids. I mean, I mean there's
still talented players or just at a small school, is what has been my
thought all along. But you know, you still have to put together a
team. You've got fewer players to you know, to choose from what what
where do you think all of those things, Uh, how do you think
all those things work towards, you know, putting together a team like you
put together. Yeah, it was you know, typically in my first few
years, we never really had a rotation that could go much more below six
or seven, you know, and because of you know, the depth isn't
there at a small school, and you know, we're we're lucky to have
good ball players, let alone how many of them we can get. But
this year, you know, it was just a it was kind of a
perfect storm of of my senior group having done so much work to become good
ball players, and then an influx of younger kids who really already could play.
And and you know, in some ways, our seniors provided all a
lot of the defense and the roles, and our our younger, our underclassmen
did most of the bulk of the scoring. Talking to Craig Eaverson, head
coach of the Gregory School Hawks, one a state champions this last weekend talking
about your season is okay at some point in the season, maybe it was
before the season, you know, the way you're you know, you're saying
you everything was coming together. You know, did you go into the season
thinking not not its state championship or bust, but we should get there.
Yeah? Probably right right as spring started, in the first day we completed
from last year, we all thought we had a pretty good chance to be
a very good team. And I would say we all kind of thought there
would before teams that could could win it all, with North Valley being the
favorite still they had won it last year, and then Babo and Desert Christian
were better than us to start the year. They definitely were. They were
they were, you know, ranked ahead of us last year, and they
returned all their great players. So we probably went into the season thinking we
were fourth. There's a lot of you know, people who said we were
five, six, seven because they didn't know much about us. But we
felt like we'd be a top four team. And then it was about us
to see how much better we could get every day and see if we couldn't
overtake those three teams. Well and and well, first of all back when
I was you know, you know at the you know, my kids were
at the school Desert Christian was a two A team and so they've dropped back
down to one A. That that surprised me when I saw that on the
schedule. And Bob Kaev you just you know, Barbara Kave, you always
came in with, you know, eight guys who could shoot from three and
that is that still who they are, Yep, that's who they are.
Yeah, And I saw what but I saw you I saw a lot of
guys throwing it from three, uh, you know in the game that I
saw and then you know, we saw that that I think Jackson Dickinson hit
a three pointer that was basically the game winner for you guys. Tell me
a little bit about the offense that you put together with these guys. Yeah,
so we we have some nice eyes on the team, three kids like
six four six, five, six five, So we really had to pay
more attention to using kind of a high low. I watched a lot of
Tommy Lloyd stuff last year because they do a great job of the high low.
We don't run exactly their offense, but we have a little different spacing.
We run a Villanova offense. But we can run high low out of
that, and so it's a lot of attack the basket, attack the middle
through either dribble penetration or post touches. We had great post play this year,
and we actually started out the season shooting really poorly for probably twenty games
and just couldn't figure out how to knock down the outside shots. And we've
really worked on it. For example, we were shooting twenty three percent from
three point range halfway through the season, and I think we shot forty the
rest of the way. So it was a real blessing for us to kind
of add to the offense, a real change. Okay, so you probably
know I'm going to ask this, but you know, three state championships.
Rather than ask you which was your favor, I'm gonna ask you how were
the those three state championship teams the same and different? You know, what
similarities did they have? And then where were they where were they really different?
Yeah, So the only thing that matters about three is just the the
group of young men each of those three years that got to experience the this
this success and and you know, have kind of a lifelong memory. That's
really what's the most important, and so we don't really talk a lot about
any of the other ones. You know, we're just happy to have this
group be able to experience the you know, coming up on top and be
the best. If I had to compare, the first team was ultra talented,
and we we had to figure out how to be a team that was
more ulter talented than us, and we were able to do so. But
it's kind of just between the two of us that year. The second team
was was you know, maybe even though at the beginning of the year we
couldn't figure out how to score without Addison Moore, and then we kind of
came together and we ended up being as good, if not better than the
first team. And this year it's very similar to the first year's team,
I would say, because they just kind of broke through and we didn't know
whether it was very uncertain whether we could do it or not, and so
it was you know, the boys just did a fantastic job of taking it
over the top. Yeah, well, Craig, we do appreciate the time.
Congratulations. It's awesome to see you know, obviously, you know we're
here. We love to see the Tucson teams win these things because it's we
know, you guys put in a lot of hard work, you know,
and whether your one, A six, A five, a whatever, we
know everybody has to work hard. So congratulations to you, Congratulations to the
school, and congratulations to your guys. Like you said, they're gonna have
a lifetime memory with this, and it's a it's awesome that you can help
them help them get to that. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah,
thank you, all right, Greg thanks a whole bunch. Okay, Craig
Averson, head coach at the Gregory School. One A state championships and boys
basketball. Very cool, Sammy, you were in you were a high school
athlete. I was. I was a high school basketball player, and we
never we never got one of those. We lost in the state semifinals to
a team we beat our second game of the season. It was heart wrenching.
We would have gone on to play Pinnacle and Nicomannon, Jordan Maynes,
Spencer Ratler, those guys in the and who we had beaten earlier in the
season. So we lost two games that year, one two team in Washington
and state semifinal game to Mountain Point. I remember it like it was yesterday.
So it's it's really cool that those guys want to stay championship, something
that sadly never got to do. But yeah, yeah, no, you
know I can imagine. Yeah, you know, I mean I got my
kids were all went to the Gregory School and they were all you know,
two of my kids were three sport athletes. One was a two sport athlete.
You know, they got to final fours, you know in volleyball,
basketball, we got to one in baseball, and you know, your your
heartbreaks sucks. Man. There's literally like to this day, there's it's I
still remember every game, like every season ending loss, Yeah, going home,
not going to practice the next day, going to school, seeing the
guys that you went through a season with your coaches. And then I mean,
as a senior, it's the worst you can It's done. You go.
You have the rest of your year as going to class whatever it may
be. But then you're off to college if you and then as a freshman
sophomore, junior, it's like you get back to work. It's like to
those kids, I want to state championship. As a freshman sophomore junior,
it's like all you want to do is do to do it. Again,
so right, it's it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's very cool. And
look, you know I just again as an advocate of you know, play
all the sports, right, you know, and at at the Gramary School,
you know, we had to have those athletes play all the sports.
You know, you had to play three sports because you only had X number
of athletes. You needed them all and you know, the specializing was just
not in the in the cards over there, you know at that time.
You know, during my son's years, the best basketball player was also our
best baseball player. And he was the best soccer player. Yeah, and
and and you he ended up getting a college you know, college scholarship to
go play college basketball. And you know, you see that thing, and
you just see again over and over just if you're a good athlete, you're
a good athlete, and all those sports they help in their other respectives.
Right, if you're a good football player, you have that edge competitiveness to
go play basketball, right, and and it just goes, it goes through
all the sports. So the more you play, the more more fun you
have. You and then you go off and do a radio show. It
a couple of old guys, so fun still having a good time. All
right, we're gonna take our last break. We'll be back. We'll love
to take take some calls. Five to two zero four one six seventy four
to forty. Get ready for that Washington State Arizona game tomorrow night. Should
be a good one. So stick around and we'll talk about whatever you want
to talk about. Five to two zero four one six seventy four to forty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
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Salez they have their Eye on the ball on Tucson Sports dig Chef Fox Sports
fourteen to fifty, streaming live on the iHeartRadio wam falcing back time in the
balling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacob Zaliz, my partner in crime
normally is gone today Steve Rivera's He's up in Phoenix working on a media project
related to the NCAA tournament, and we'll probably have some discussion to that at
some point when it's all cooked up and ready to go. I've got Sammy
the intern here running things and adding to the conversation, doing a great job
of it. So Samuel, you know, uh, we were talking.
I think, uh, you know earlier in the earlier in the show where
you use the word under the radar for Arizona, who is ranked fourth in
the country. So I don't know how under the radar they are, but
I kind of agree with you in that. You know, they lost a
couple of games and people just kind of, as you said, forgot about
them a little bit, and and they're creeping back up in the in the
rankings. You know, they had the sweep at the at the Mountain Schools
and now they're they're fourth in the country. But they're not you know,
a. Yukon was looking like unbeatable until last night. So we were talking
about who would you pick ahead of them to win the national championship. Yeah,
there's some of it. Was thinking about a little bit, and then
I went into went into some numbers on it. I think the only team
that I could see winning a national championship before Arizona is still Purdue. I'm
still on the Purdue wagon. I think they have the best player in the
country. Zach e Ed is probably the most unstopped player in college basketball.
And they have really good guards. And I know that lost against Ohio State,
they didn't look as good as they are, but you saw how good
they can be in the game against Arizona. Yeah, and that's a team
that's the only team right now that if I were filling out my bracket I
would pick before U of A to win the national champion. Wow. Interesting?
Okay, Well, the odds makers have even today after that horrible loss
by Yukon last night, They've got Yukon with the favorite at plus five hundreds
or five to one, followed by Purdue at seven fifty or seven and a
half to one, Houston at eight fifty, and then Arizona at twelve.
So they got one. Yeah, that's actually a good number. I like
it. It's not gonna get any It's not gonna get any higher unless we
lose tomorrow, right, we lose a crummy game at ASU, win the
Pac twelve tournament or something like. I don't see that number getting any higher,
even if we do have one loss left in US And like you said,
the teams, the teams ahead of them, I think it's really really
hard to repeat as Yukon. For Yukon, you have the pressure of you're
the defending national champion. There's a large target on your back. And to
be frank, they're a very good team, but they're they're not as good
as last year's team. They lost some really good players to the draft,
and that that number is really low. It's it's hard to repeat. And
in Houston's case, they lost Marcus Sasser, who's arguably their best player,
and they still they don't do it efficiently enough on the offensive end to meet
for for me to be like they can win the national championship. And Purdue,
similarly to the U of A, I guess in the last two years,
have not had good March Madness success. Right, They lost as a
sixteen seed last year. Okay, so you got the schedule. The Arizona
scheduled reads Washington State tomorrow. Obviously Washington on Saturday, and I think that
I think Lev made a good point of that. You know, they're going
to put a lot into this Washington State game. It's going to be a
quick turnaround, you know, the potential for coming out flat, you know,
could be high. Wednesday, they go to a s U you never
know. Then they come back the following Saturday against Oregon, and then they're
on the road for UCLA and USC pick a loss in there or two.
I think the the Oregon game at home, even though we don't lose at
home, and the U c l A game at u c l A,
they don't have a ton to play for. Cronin wants to win on his
home floor. I think that would be the one that I would circle and
be like, if we were to lose, it would be at UCLA.
At UCLA that you know, after what I've seen from them, and I
saw them lose that game to to Utah. That is a way less daunting
road trip than I thought, you know, going in even halfway through this
season. But you know, and then the UCLA game is Thursday night,
so that's not the last game. It's the it's the Thursday game. Then
they go to go to usc yes tomorrow, I mean, got it's at
home. But it's probably the best team left on that schedule. Well,
they're certainly the best team left on the schedule, no doubt about that.
And they already beat you, So you have the the team that's beaten them
before. I mean they beat us at home last year, Yes they did.
That was a weird team that was down as one of the weirdest teams
because there were so that team and there's so many times that they just looked
uninterested in in uh A a specific game, and that was one of them.
Yeahah, that night, that was one of them. They look like
they wanted to be anywhere but there. And it made no sense to me
because they were playing for so much. They were playing for a number one
seed through the whole through the whole season, and you know, they ended
up with A with a two. But it made no sense to me that
they that that it was a sort of a through the uniform on the on
the floor kind of game. And here here's my case for why U of
A's I mean, I think perdue. But if you were to pick U
of A to be the National Tighter contender, you would say, A.
They're eight deep, sometimes nine, right, they're starting five, all averages
double digits. They can all anybody on the floor at almost any given time,
can score sixth in offensive efficiency and seventeenth in defensive And if history tells
us, you want to be in the top twenty and both both to be
a National Tighter title contender. And the only team that has a lower number
is yukon their second offensive and twentieth and defensive. So that number is really
close. And as much as we love, as much as we're the number
one offense in the country score the most points, our defense is as not
as good as anybody's in the country, but we defend a lot better than
people give us credit for. They do and people do that because they see
the offense and think, well, you're you know, you're an offensive team.
They're not, you know, because the real one of the and I've
said this before, one of the reasons their offense is so good is because
their defense is so good. Their offense feeds off of that. You know,
they get out in transition. You know, Tommy talked about the importance
of finishing and being in transition and and you know, doing those things that
again, you know, when they when they go down on a basket basket
like, that's because they you know, they got a rebound where they got
to turnover and they made it, you know, and and they get down
the court and and that's why that offense seems so good. Yeah. So
often when you average nine steals a game, like U of A does,
that's going to lead to almost fifteen to eighteen just layups. And that's where
I mean the scoring number is high with all five starters average in double digits.
That's I would love to know another team in the country that has that
doing that. And then you have a guy like Jayden Bradley kJ or yeah
kJ Lewis who come off the bench and are amazing they're both they're both part
of you a's best five man lineup, right, And we talked about the
stats Love and Jaden and he's he's one of the guys like Caleb that our
experienced guards, right, and you everybody knows every People don't realize that they
don't because he's knew here. Yeah, Caleb was an International Championship up twenty
points against Kansas. If you know college basketball, you know what happened.
You don't happen after that, Kansas came back, they win the national championship.
But Caleb Love has been in the biggest games any college basketball player can
play in. And Jayden Bradley it wasn't a lot of minutes because the Alabama
guardroom last year was great, but he's been in a lot of high level
games too. So having those guys and even even Kylon we talked about minutes
played, He's played big minutes. Yeah, and those three got in LA
two ballow knows and keyshad was just in a national championship too. Like if
you're if you're defending this team, you give all those reasons. They've been
in huge games, right, Well, and then a question is going to
be crevous, right, you know, if you're in a situation Babo gets
in some foul trouble in a game or something like that. You know,
crevaus is a is a true freshman. How ready is he? You know
for this picture. He's he's been up and down, He's had some you
know, there been times you got, okay, he's getting it, and
then there's been other times you go, he's not getting it. We'll see
if we'll see how reluctant Tommy is too with his leash, because we've seen
a little bit that you can play at the five if if push come to
shove, if you think crevas isn't ready for the spot and Baba has three
first half rous you can go to key Shot at the five and play small
and kJ can play the four pla and then you have the two guards.
So he hasn't necessarily had that great luxury of last year when ballagun foul trouble,
Zoo would play the five. But he wasn't. He wasn't a five.
Five has that toughness to goa He wasn't even as much of a five
as as key Shot is right, I agree, I mean the Azulis was
a four leaning towards a three three. But that's just how a skill set
was, right. He knows the best player. He would take some jumpers,
even though I love him, but he he was a gifted offensive player
that he wasn't he wasn't a five. Like you said, he's more three
leaning than than the five. So Tommy does have some of that at his
disposal of some coaching decisions that in the first round, if Krefus isn't ready
for a tight a tight game, and you can go to key Shot who's
been Okay, I was just in a national championship, right, So there
there is some that's that's my defense for why Arizona there's only one team I
would pick ahead of them. Get convincing me to throw something down on him.
I still haven't. Well, one twelve hundred one twelve hundred plus twelve
hundred is is a good number. It's a great number. Okay, Okay,
you're let's let's say you've got like a real job and things or than
you know, you're you're professional and you dabble in some gambling, but you're
a ten, fifteen, twenty five, maybe even up to fifty dollars gambler.
Sure, how much would you put on Arizona? I mean I would
put one hundred bucks on him? Would you put fifty bucks on him?
So let's just let's just do it as this, Like if my unit normal
unit is ten and say that's what it is now. But if I were
if that were my profession, and say my normal unit was one hundred bucks,
I would put I think it's a two unit play. Like if you
put I'd put two hundred on it. Okay, you get put two hundred,
you get almost twenty five hundred back. Right. I think that's a
good I think it's good, a good value. It's as good as a
value out of those four teams, I would say, Right, juve A
hasn't made a deep run in some time in a while, there's somewhat do
with a new coup quote unquote new coach. Maybe he breaks through and you
have you have the guys that are ready to do it. Yeah. So
I think and this isn't me being a huge airs on a fan. I
think guys and analysts should be talking more about this team's potential to be a
national champion, to get to the final four. Their plus two fifty,
that's not a great number. Right, No, it's not like I look,
when you look final four, you gotta you want to look more in
that plus five hundred or above range. So I'm assuming like Creighton's there,
Duke is there, five to fifty, Marquette is five fifty, Kansas is
four to fifty. Yeah, Kentucky's what's Auburn? Auburn is a four hundred
plus four hundred, yeah, plus four hundred, Yeah, you got you
kind of plus one ten. So basically an even money bet. Yukon,
Purdue, Houston, Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, Auburn, Alabama.
They're playing their finding. Kentucky's another team where they just they just went to
Auburn and gave it to them. Yeah. I think Cow's got those guys.
They're young, but they're they're really good. Yeah. Yeah, I
mean this year we always say it, but this year, more than most,
seems like a year where you really don't know what's gonna IDEA you could
do three or four brackets and have three or four different champions. Yeah.
Last year was we kind of thought we knew what was going on, and
we have had four teams that wow, okay out of nowhere. So we'll
see all right, hey Sammy, nice job today, appreciate it. Thanks
to Craig Everson, Michael lev for joining us today. Steve will be back
tomorrow. We are going to have the beat writer for Washington State from the
Spokesman Review, Greg Woods, will join us. We can preview the game
and so be sure to come back tomorrow. We'll be talking some more Arizona
basketball, So see you tomorrow.