This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R, TWU SA and iHeartRadio Station Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera. Jagan's allis is out. We happen to have Matt Ryndlsson from
formerly of KVOA. Matt, how are you? Steve? Great to be
here, longtime listener, first time guestos Saturday in studio. Ilread hate your
voice on the radio. It's much better than mine, too. Professional Ben
Henry, how are you, Henry? I'm good. Good to have you
in the show. We should have a little fun. Jay is gone.
Don't tell him I said that we should have a good time. Jay listen
when he's gone. I don't know if he's on the beach right now,
but he's headed there in Mexico. Let's see if they let him back into
the country, it goes back. See what happens for that. Good have
you, Matt? How you been I've been great. You know, it's
been been an interesting month, but you know, I've been keeping the tabs
on Arizona sports. So great to be here and great to talk about.
You got your feet wet here in September October, right, and then unfortunate
things happened, obviously. Have you been able to at least enjoy the city
while you've been here. Absolutely, you know, it's been so much fun.
And I actually arrived at the start of the football win streak, so
that was an absolute blast. And also being a part of the basketball season
as well, which we have some basketball news today that we'll get to of
course, but baseball season, softball season, all of it's so much fun.
But also enjoyed the city as well, so much so far, and
play a lot of golf, a lot of hiking. I just I love
it here and underdegree temperatures are really close to my heart. I like it.
So, you know, you and I spent some time together in La
It just happenstance with Brian Peterson obviously at the Western Regional, and I found
out you were twenty eight years old, and I started to cry T shirts
and stuff older than you. So you have a nice future ahead of you.
You just got to find that place, yeah, Yeah, you know,
it's it's a matter of fighting my time a little bit right now,
and you know, excited about what's next, but in no rush after you
know, kind of an interesting path the past year led me to where I
was supposed to be here, and you know, what things happen. I
feel for other people across the country that maybe had more roots or you know,
families to think about and everything like that. I'm just a lone wolf
right now. So We're gonna see where the winds take me and just excited
and grateful for the experience that I've had here so far. Okay, great,
great, great, We're so Matt's gonna be with me today. We
have Henry men in the phone working on the board. If you guys want
to call five two oh four one, six seventy four forty the first hour,
we'll have the oh, most of the phones open because we have a
busy show this afternoon. But let's get to the breaking news. I'm sorry,
Henry, We're gonna take this from you because it is kind of breaking
news. We've been waiting for a while on this with Caleb Love decided to
return. Absolutely, it's huge for Arizona basketball because you get the raining Pac
twelve player that you're back in the fold and a position where you didn't really
have an answer going into this offseason with the starting two guard. Okay,
so now you are. You are the head coach. You're Tommy Lloyd,
and I'm giving you that authority. You're you are Tommy Lock. What do
you hope to see from Caleb Love this year? Well, I think you
have to look at a team and a roster that is not going to be
distributed the same minutes wise as it was last year. Caleb Love was bald
dominant in a lot of situations and what scored over nineteen points a game,
but was not maybe the most efficient at times that oh for nine clip from
three in a sweet sixteen game. And then you're in your business, you're
known for the low your last haircut, and in his business, you're known
for the last game you play, right, and when you shoot like that
the guys and he shot like that every now and every now and again.
And if you're a shooter, what's the one thing you don't want to do?
Shoot like that every now and again? Right? So I think his
role you saw said bald dominant, he's more of a two. Yes,
any so now they have to find his one and he has to be a
better two, right right, am? I not right? But it's Jaden
Bradley a better fit at the one than Kylin Boswell was last year because we
saw the hot and cold streaks with Kylin Boswell as well, and we didn't
see those cold streaks with Jayden Bradley. He was much more of a two
way player at that point composition. And maybe he can be somebody that's a
more effective distributor every time down the floor as opposed to just those highlight reel
passes. Henry, you were going to say something with Caleb. No,
No, okay, I thought you gonna say something right before. But okay,
so you said maybe he'll be a better ball distributor. The maybe is
maybe not. I mean there's some doubt and that maybe not that you say,
but maybe he is that doubt. So he has to do that too.
So Uh. The one thing that that happened last year that I saw
Caleb was kind of ball dominant. To me, that's too much of a
ball hoggish And I don't want to use the word hoggish, but I just
did. Uh. And and Bradley and kJ were fantastic get together. Right.
You know, they brought him, they brought him back in the Clemson
game, specifically in other games before that, Henry, Yeah, I was
just gonna say people forget that Jaden Bradley was the starting point guard for the
Alabama team when they were the one two years ago. Right, and I
talked to people from Alabama at that LA Regional and they said they were excited
about what his prospects were, but also a little disappointed with maybe some of
his inefficiencies his freshman year at Alabama. He was pretty efficient last year for
Arizona, especially down the stretch in the Pac twelve tournament and NCAA tournament,
playing some huge minutes against Dayton in that round of thirty two game. If
he can show that at a consistent level, that's a big deal. My
only concern with the two with Love and Bradley together in the laneup, they
both love to have the ball and they love to get to the basket.
There's three other dudes on the team that made the ball too, so it's
going to be how much are they going to have the ball and use it
to score? Because once Bradley gets it, that's either downhill and a shot,
and I know both of them are going to be combined for seven assists
game. That's going to probably need to improve with each other and for the
others. Yeah, and there are a lot of positives with Love coming back.
There are you know, a few negatives as you as you might have
mentioned as well. But I think the big thing and when you look at
basketball at a high level, and I know it's a very different game between
the college and the program, but a lot of aspects reflect each other on
that. You neque closers in the college game, and there was nobody last
year that's on this current roster that showed the ability and willingness to close games
and take the big shot like Caleb Love did. So if you were bringing
in maybe a Josnsnan, if he was an early enrollie, would he be
someone who was ready to elevate to that role? Is kJ lewis a good
enough shooter to elevate to that role? Is Jayden Bradley a good enough shooter
to elevate to that role? We know what Caleb Love is from a closer
standpoint, and he has hit some huge shots in his career between North Carolina
and Arizona. Right. No, if you make that point, you win
that point because he is he is the closer. If you're going to go
to a guy he didn't do it against the Florida School in Vegas, but
he has that potential and that he had some big shots too. But he's
going to be known for that. Oh, I see this on your resume,
mister Love. You didn't do well against Clemson? What was up with
that? You know what I'm saying. At the end of the day,
he says, how come you couldn't finish that game? Until he does,
we will sit and wait. You mentioned it's all about your last haircut,
right right, and it is for him. This team is going to be
loaded. We all know that it's going to be fantastic for the Big twelve.
How and this is why Tommy Load's going to pay pay five million dollars
a year. How did you get them to play together? And how much
of the bench is he gonna use? How do you use as many guys
as you brought in? I mean, the three portal pickups they got are
all guys. They can play legitimate minutes on this team. Trey Townsend,
the Horizon lea player of the Year from Oakland, probably a starter at the
four position, probably that replacement for Keyshaw Johnson. Toby walk is going to
play some minutes. That's probably a reserve forward role. Anthony del Orzo from
Campbell is going to be a shooter off the bench. How many minutes can
he play? Can they ride the hot hand as well when you have a
ten man rotation, and some of that will pay itself down throughout the season.
But non conference is going to be really interesting for this team, especially
with like a home game against Duke and McGale. I mean, it's gonna
be a fun year. It's gonna Bero Henry and I'm sure you're not concerned
or whatever the word is with Bobo leaving, with Boswell leaving and some of
the other guys leaving, I think they're gonna miss some of Pelly's playmaking ability.
That's we don't know the guys who left the purpose on purpose. Yes,
yeah, I mean Ballow it's gonna hurt sometimes. Just I thinks still
needs like another year to fully get into what Ballo was. But Boswell,
I think Bradley was just ready to replace him and be a better player than
he was. Yeah, I think you haven't seen Have you seen Henry play?
I think was here when you were here, right, you were a
freshman. Yeah, yeah, but you saw Henry play as a freshman.
I think he's gonna be fantastic. He's got more he's more of a four
than he is a five, and he can swing it outside. I expect
big things from him as well. So the game is a lot deeper than
the last years. The thing about it is does it matter to Tommy?
You know, on paper, yes, but if Tommy doesn't use them.
But at the same time, at the point we have to call a spade
of spade, and the fact that they had really really strong injury luck last
year, and very few other teams in college basketball were is unnicked and brudes
as Arizona was pretty much the entire so they didn't have to go to the
bench. I don't think one starter missed the game because of injury. Yeah,
I mean Kyland went out a couple of games with that shoulder injury.
You know, we saw Pella get nicked up and Caleb get nicked up,
but they didn't miss games. I mean the props of the training staff for
that too. We'll see what happens with that, So good news. If
you're a Caleb Love fan and the Arizona basketball fan, I know that I
have some friends and in my mind too, Caleb's got to kind of be
more of a team player. And that's just me saying this than he has
been in the last year. And I think what he wanted to do,
he said all the right things last year, what I was really impressed with
and what I wanted to try and find with my lineup. Questioning a lot
of times with Caleb was is he committed to being the full, well rounded
player or is he committed to being the guy? Is he committed to being
that a that star? And I think his assist numbers, his assist at
turnover ratio is willingness to play hard nosed on ball defense showed so many things
in that he was willing to adapt to this Tommy Lloyd's system and become a
better player and evolved and he did. He went out the rebounds too.
Tommy wanted some more all around play. He did get it. Now he
has to be just more efficient, more efficient. You know, if he
takes twelve shots, hit seven, you know, hit seven eight, you
know, be efficient with this don't take nineteen right, you know, I
think one one game Tommy said, okay, you got twenty four. Let
the other guys kind of join in, you know, ye, we don't
need you like this all the time. And they needed almost at too many
times last year. They needed him to shoot somewhat of that volume of shots
because it was the games where Pella was struggling, the games when Pella Larson
was playing well, I mean you had times where he you had a really
well distributed scoring effort. One thing, one particular game that comes to mind
for me is the blowout over ASU at home. If they can get more
games like that where they distribute and keep the scoring balance. They were at
their best when all five starters scored in double figures, and I believe they
did that double digit times last year. So let me tell you something real
quick. Another breaking news up came just now because Caleb came out or came
back. Sondan is now going to issue Oh wow, what a change massive
the dominoes. I've started, YEP, because players want to play, and
Bobby Hurley has an out great recruiting class up there as well. They got
to I believe the number two center in the nation for this year's the best
recruit ever. Yeah. Yeah, And so now Sondan is I mean,
he's reclassifying, I believe to this year. I don't know if he had
fully made that decision yet, but I think his plan was to reclassify.
And when he reclassified, he got ranked also as a top thirty recruit in
the nation. So he's going to issue a issue. Has a couple of
good players up there with the it's gonna be fun, It's gonna be fun.
That's not a that's not a surprise because there had been talked that if
something happens here, he could go somewhere else. The love domino fell and
it took with him a pretty good recruit. But Arizona has a really good
recruiting class coming in well, Carter Bryant, Jamuri Phillips, Emmanuel Steven.
I mean, this is a crewp that can come in and all contribute and
all play right away. And when you add those guys to these transfers,
it still is ten deep with or without son On. Yeah, Okay,
anybody want to call us, please call us At the third segment that we
have time, we only have like two and a half minutes before we get
to our guests, and we're loaded with guests today and Matt's our in host
guest, in house guest with a co host. We're gonna have Jim Rosborough
from Pema College and women's basketball program, obviously long time assistant. We're going
to talk a little about mister Bill Walton. He was close to Bill,
and we'll talk about some of the Loot staff, you know, part of
the book, the recent book that I wrote, and his time at the
Pima. There's that. And then we're gonna have Randy Acetta from Run Tucson
at the four to fifteen hour. He has a big run this weekend.
If anybody knows' running it's Randy locally. He's been doing it for a long
time. A big event on Saturday night. And then the Chip Hal We're
going to have him. We had him on last week. He's coming back
for today's show. Is the four to forty time slot to talk about this
weekend's big games? Big games? Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, And it's
funny because they faced Grand Canyon, right, Grand Canyon has been a pain
in their ass right right, and look looking forward to kind of all the
games this weekend. Do you want Baseball called this the most loaded regional in
the field, which is incredible because I mean they do have the best four
seat Grand Canyon is a dangerous team. But you know, West Virginia sneaky
team in the Big twelve. Dallas Baptists been top twenty five all year.
Beat Arizona in Dallas earlier this year. But Arizona you want in the tournament,
Well, this is who you have to play. Yep, good luck,
Welcome to the dance, to the dance. Okay, we're gonna take
a break here, come back and get a hold of Jim Rosborough and talk
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is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back Tojoining the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. Jay is out today. Today we have co hosts
Matt Reynoldson with us CA. Now on the phone, we have m Ronsborough,
former Arizona basketball coach, now with PEMA Community Women's Basketball. Jim,
how are you really well, Steve? How are you guys? We're doing
well, Thank you very much. You kind of enjoyed Tucson right now.
It's in the one hundred degrees for the first time this year. Hey,
are you great? No, it's not bad. I think I just mentioned
to you. I did have a knee replacement here just about a month ago.
So I haven't been outside jogging or anything else. Don't intend to be.
It's not been too bad inside working on my knee and so on and
so forth. But you're right, it's hot. You need to just stand
yourself up, get on the ping pong table and play a little. That's
all. Yeah, I'll help. Hey, sad news. I want to
say sorry and condolences because you you were very close to mister Bill Walton.
Yeah, Steeviee was. He became a pretty good friend. We had Luke,
as you know, for five years, and Bill was a wonderful basketball
parent. He never interfered. He never questioned why I was Luke not playing?
He never questioned why he's getting the ball more anything about it. He
was really, really, really a good basketball fair. And then you remember
the times because you were at the games. He'd sit down in the student
section at the south end of the gym at the time and stand up cheering
up and there and in the student section and the other thing. Cow many
mention this meet yesterday they were looking over on the east side of the Stateum
and there was a long line up the stairs. I mean twenty your thirty
people lined up on the stairs and they looked over and it was they were
waiting for Bill Walton to sign autographs. And they continued to watch Steve and
he took a few seconds with every single person asked about him, signed whatever
they wanted, and really showed a personal interest. And that's you know,
you've seen all the tribute the last you say, that's what he was.
He was just really, really a good basketball friend and friend of many.
And I had a little personal deal with him, Steve. He was fairly
vocal about the fact that he would like to have seen me replace Lute.
That kind of endeared me to him a little bit too. So, yeah,
he was a good friend and somebody I really trusted and liked. Well,
one of the last times or one of the last times I spent a
lot of time with him, And I think you put this together, helped
put it together. Was that the night at the Realto I think it was,
and when he spoke and he got on the band he started playing the
drums or something. It had to be nine years ago. Do you remember
that night now? Yeah, I remember it exactly. And the whole thing
was it was posted some sort of panel discussion, Steve, and you know,
if you were there, you know what happened or anybody. There was
one question It went to Bill and that was the end of discussion. He
talked for I don't know what, ten twelve minutes or something and just went
on and off. Turned out to not really be a panel discussion that turned
to be turned out to be a lectures from Bill. Well, I do
remember the night very very well. Yeah, right, we have Do you
want to suppose the absolutely jem. I think one of the biggest things that
we've heard the past few days about Bill Walton is not just the the memoriam
of his career or you know, even his broadcasting career, but it was
what you said that he did make time for people, that he did care
and I think that that's one of the best legacies that anybody can leave sports
or otherwise. You know, you mentioned in your anecdote just what a great
human he was as far as just caring about others and taking time for people.
But you know how much did he it kind of mesh that into his
work, would you say? Well, I mean one thing, just ins
in the side now here, We've talked for two or three or four minutes
and we haven't mentioned his basketball career. What. Yeah, probably better known
for being such a good guy, you know what I mean. I you
know, and a lot of people didn't like the fact that he'd get on
the air for the Syracuse versus Arizona game here and start talking about the biology
center up nor to some roots on a tree or something. I mean,
he went off on tangents and the best ones were with Dave Passion where he
was dumping popcorn on Dave's head and he was eating a cupcake with a light
candle on it. Month But that was all part of personality, part of
the show, part of the warmth, and you didn't have to work,
and you could change your chan if you wanted to. But he was really
entertaining and it kind of expressed itself in that warmth. So I think he
messed his career if this is what you're asking his career and the type of
personality he was, and it just wasn't all about him being a great basketball
player. It was more about him really being a good, caring person and
involved in the world where, you know, trying to do a better job.
Ever everybody he met. I think you're a little older than him.
I'm being kind to you, Jim there, but could you talk about how
good of a player is? This is not a comedy show, Gude.
That's why I love you, Jim so So. I watched A thirty for
thirty a couple of times now when it came out originally, and then again
on Sunday night or Monday night when he when he passed, and fantastic,
I'll watch it a third time because it's so good. Uh. And the
one thing. I don't think that people realize just how good of a basketball
player he was. Right, he was. You know, Luke had some
of that see the court, passed the ball to the right person type of
thing. Could do You remember when you were younger and he played. How
good of a player he was? Well, I mean, you know,
I, like you guys, followed basketball and I think it was against Memphis
that he went twenty one for twenty two in the national title game. And
you know, you you heard about those guys at UCLA and right when we
were getting started in the profession being I guess me, you guys are too
young. But you know the big streak that Notre Dame beat I think they
weren't eighty eight in a row. And all you heard at college basketball was
UCLA John Wooden, Bill Walton, the famous one. Bill. I came
in and said, coach, I'm not gonna cut my hair. John Wooden
said, you're not practicing. So next thing, Walton was out getting his
haircut. Yeah, you know, because it was my profession because I'd grown
up with basketball. Of course you knew about Bill Walton. He was,
along with Kareem the two biggest names of the time and so yeah, we
knew right away about him and kept track of his career and everything else did
did and maybe real quick to the point of I don't think I'm exaggerating here.
Luke had a little of his dad in him in terms of seeing the
court, know, and you had him at the high post, right,
so he get the ball to the right people. Yeah, if if there
was a zone, and you could ask anybody in town now that followed basketball,
if somebody was in a two three zone or one two two zone,
or even a one three one, you could just count on Luke Walton come
into the high post. He was a single zone breaker. And even out
with our girls, I mentioned Luke's name and try to get them to do
anything like he was doing up at the high post. He was smart and
and I don't know if you heard the other day, Shaquille O'Neal was talking
about it all and he said, well, and I talked to Luke,
and one good story I did hear about Luke about how good he WASKI.
O'neo got traded to Orlando, I think, and the next thing he was
telling me Orlando brass, you guys got to get Luke Walton over here.
He's the only guy that gets me the ball. Well, that's how Luke
was. He knew where his bread was buttered. He was a smart player.
You saws, both of you guys saw him. He was really,
really, really a smart, smart basketball player and got a lot out of
his physical attributes. He was really a great player too. Jim, I
want to ask, how much do you think both Bill and let's so Bill,
but more so Luke in this style of play was maybe ahead of its
time because you see the current NBA and these points centers taking over the league.
Nicola jokicch should be the prime example of that and his passing ability,
but people consider Bill Walton one of the best front court passers in league history.
Luke Walton obviously played at the high post and was able to take a
part of two three zone. How much has you know, as you look
through kind of the recent history of basketball, I'd say recent, but probably
sixty or seventy years of basketball, how much has that kind of been sort
of a blueprint for history repeats itself in the form of this point center and
someone that can really open up the floor in multiple ways on a basketball court.
If you've been watching some of the highlights on there. And Bill may
not have been up at the top of the key where Jokich is, but
Boyu was making some great passes. I think there's one when he's with when
he makes a no look to a cutter behind him, he gets a rebound
or something or no look that Larry Bird. I mean, he had a
great, great sense and he was more maybe eight to ten to twelve,
the great offensive rebounder and at maybe eight ten twelve. He wasn't up top
like Jokis, but he was, if you want to say, point center.
He was an awful good passer and gave him another guy that they had,
and he was a good shooter. Now you again, you've watched his
shot was a little bit funny. Boy he made him and he was a
good shooter. And then Luke same type of same type of thing, great
great feel for the game up there, great passer, made everybody look good.
And that's really what Jokics and some of these guys do. They're making
people look good. So is it a repeat. It's kind of a repeat
inasmuch as they're getting the ball due to play at the big players now and
they're making good passes and not just right down at the loock. So I
think that's pop. They have pretty good thought. So, Jim, I
want to ask you. I heard area I'm gonna talk about this, and
it may have been old or so. You've been in the business a long
time. He said, college basketball players have gotten more physical, better athletically,
all that, and they look very good playing the game, but many
of them don't know how to play the game because they don't practice the game.
Would you agree that? Agree with that? And they might have individual
skills, but when they put them on a team, they don't know how
to pass the damn ball. Now, you two guys were involved pretty closely,
and I've told you both probably many times. I really like working for
loud Olson. And today I was talking with Josh Pastor and we were going
back and talking about how thorough Loot was the teacher. And I know for
sure, Steve, you were there a lot of practices. Everything was taught,
everything was precise on time, and so on and so forth. And
then somebody I heard today this is a pack then coach that went to another
school and that his kids when they got into the pros because he had some
good they were the worst passes the worst. They knew nothing about the but
you do. You're you guys are exactly right. You got to work,
excuse me, work on your game, work on your sield, work on
your shooting. It's all. Absolutely everything you do is based on repetition,
right right. If you're not going to get in the reps, you know
you're not going to be a very sound player. So these guys that came
to here and I galloned them all, they can get on me if they
want. If they were lucky to have somebody that's the man that keeping the
fundamentals and how we were going to do things. Well. One of the
things that I know because having covered u A for so long, is that
when Arizona players under Loot and you and you left the program and went to
the NBA, they were very NBA ready because they knew what to do,
where to go. They have the fundamentals and they knew basketball. Yeah.
I mean, and me maybe not so much now as I am out at
PEMA rather than on a big stage, but we hear that all the time.
Players came in and you can talk about let's say, or Jason Terry
or any of these guys, and they knew basketball, they knew where to
be, they knew help side, they knew pressuring shots, they knew everything
that you can think of because those were things demanded and things that we're taught
here. And so again, these guys should feel awfully lucky. And it's
the same for du beause some of these other really good teaching programs. You
go there, you're talk fundamentals and then you're going to have really a good
chance to have a good pro career. But it's all in the teaching,
and it's all and what is demanded, that's all, and what is tolerated,
and you got to get it done. Yeah, no question, Jim.
You've never stopped developing players as well, though, and I think that's
one of the unique opportunities you get at PIMA. I want to ask you
about one specific player. Obviously, you guys had an incredible season this year,
you know, finishing in seventh place in the NJCAA National Tournament, but
you had a first team All American as well, one that dropped forty three
in your final game. Riley Waller headed to San Jose State. She developed
so well with the Aztecs. What can you say about her development and how
is that a picture of how you want to bring athletes into Pima and develop
them as individuals and as basketball players. Well, you're exactly right. Forty
three pointer is in the top five or six games. I've only seen a
couple, maybe seeing you were there. I don't know for sure, but
a guy named Derek Murdoch from Providence came in years ago and went over forty.
One of the guys I think from Michigan, the Fab five might have
gone over forty. Reeves went over forty. Damon Stotdomayer a couple of times.
And those are the only people I've seen go over forty. And then
here's Riley Wall about five to four. It's the absolutely tough as nails,
really one of the better players all that I've seen, just tough as nails.
In the game where she got forty three, I think she went twenty
for twenty two from the free tow line because they were just following the the
Jesus out of her. They couldn't get the ball away from her, they
were pressing, they were doing everything. He was making threes. It's really
one of the really really good games. And so now I'm going to pray
and see our staff and God and everybody. But it's exactly what she was
taught to do. Keep the ball in the middle of the floor, get
your jump shot, move it, come back, and get it move in
our motion offense. So everything that happened to her for the forty three point
game was what she's been taught, what was demanded, what we wanted her
to do. But on top of everything else, she's really really good player
too. He's really really a nice girl, just going to be a sophomore
in college for crying out loud, comes from a wonderful family and deserves to
be a first team All American. And I think this is maybe the fourth
fifth or sixth row and a year in a row where we've had the first
team All American. But she is really, really, really a good player.
Yeah. Yeah, well, Jim, I appreciate your time. Be
well, take care of that knee. Well do good to talk with you
guys, stay cool. Yeah, thank you you, jaj be Will Jim
Rosboro. We have some quick breaking news before we take a break. Jamari
Phillips's tea committee. Yeah. I even just said it last last block is
that's you know, he'd be part of the rotation but you know he's uh.
They're saying that Texas is a possibility there Maybe usc He'll have a lot
of options to talk more about this on either side, the revolving door continues.
If you're a heresro a men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful
for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era.
In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love
through the eyes of twenty five former players, 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 his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach.
Lessons from lut 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
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the first sign of trouble. All today five two zero four ninety two zero
seven four eight or picture rockschooling dot com, rosy cheating and plumbing, breaking
down all the exes at all. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salvas. This
is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Heay, welcome back
to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Heez,
Matt Reynoldson and we got our guy Henry in for the rest of the
day. Thank you Mattick for being with me. Glad to be here.
Those why fast, doesn't it? It does, especially when we have a
lot of news like we have. It's good to talk to him. Covered
Jim and I since I got here. I was twenty three year twenty EIGHTISHU
and I covered the bestball team for a long time. And the best thing
about talking to Jim is that he can put things into words as far as
you know, a bigger picture and he can just talk ball with you as
well. So, I mean, that's a great thing about talking to a
coach like that as you get into the x's and no's, but you get
into the bigger picture as well. And Jim's great at that. He's saw
he was Salot's right hand man for a long time. A long time.
Okay, uh, Hey, like we talked about right before we left,
Phillips, it's gone, yeah, jam Uri Phillips. We talked about depth,
right and the talent it's still there. It's still there, still there,
it's just in different forms. Yeah, there's a there's a lot of
carousel turning today, so kind of just recapping all of our news. Just
before we went on the show, Caleb Love announced he's returning to the U
of A. Uh. Joe Sonsen on the commit from He was a top
five recruit in the twenty twenty five class, reclassified to twenty twenty four,
was committed to Arizona. Quote tweeted Love's announcement and said love this and then
twenty minutes later decommitted and went to ASU. So Joe Sonson, I'm no
longer in the fold and Jamari Phillips also no longer in the fold. Back
coming down this past half hour, the roster turned Steve, what's the one
thing that students Well, now, with nil, there's two things. Probably
what's the two things now that kids want to do when they get to college.
They want to play play and they want to get paid be cano because
those are the two. Now before it was I want to come and play
and right away. Yep, no is how much do you get to pay
me to play? Right? But you have you still have a five star
forward committed to the class and you know, four star center. So I
mean, you got a couple guys in Carter Bryant and Emmanuel Steven that are
going to be impact players. And you know what, Steven might be behind
a couple of players right away. But my goodness, Carter Bryant, if
you saw him in the McDonald's All American Game, you saw some of his
high school tape out of California, I mean, this kid is ready to
come in and contribute right away. All kJ okay, okay. So now
that you know that both of you guys his time, now you know that
love is coming back. But you lost these two kids. Grade me,
I think it's probably a B plus, you know, I mean, I
think it hurts to lose a guy like Phillips, who I thought was a
very you know, high caliber player, high ceiling player, especially as a
shooter. But you know, that was something that's going to happen, and
it always sort of felt like it was either love or synd On right especially
with his decision to reclassify. If he had stayed in twenty twenty five,
and we knew that he was okay with staying in twenty twenty five. Different
ballgame, but he wanted to reclassify. And I think, real quick,
I can get your grade. Well, we'll get there in a second.
I think that Boswell Buswell's decision had a little of love in it too,
right, exactly, especially with Bradley coming on so strong in a tournament,
right and us seeing kind of the inconsistency throughout the end of the season from
Boswell. Oh, Henry, I'd give it. I mean, I'm kind
of biased because last year's maybe my last year, but I'm giving it an
a. I'm trying to win now. I know Tommy can get good players
in the portal and the I'm not worried about the future right now. I'm
trying to get the best players we can. So you sold the farm to
get the thing done today, exactly. Okay, did you see the posts
by Boswell and his physique. Yeah, yeah, it looks great, you
think, and you're thinking yourself, how come you couldn't do that too?
Bunch of legal piets, I guess that's it's it's addicting, you know,
you get down there, right we yep, and that was only with a
thirty days span. That's what you said, right, right, right.
But it's also if you want to take stuff serious, guess what you do,
you take it serious. And a lot of these guys do that in
the off season. To be honest with you, like, the off season
is a time. From covering the NFL for three plus years. That was
one of the things that I noticed coming back into organized team activities or OTAs
as they call them, or mandatory mini camp in June every year, is
that these guys look stacked and the quarterbacks looked stacked. Y. You don't
see quarterbacks ripped at the end of the season because you know they're in playing
shape. They're in you know, they kind of get that gut a little
bit. You focus more on the football specific workouts in the off season.
You're lifting heavy and you're getting shredded. And that happens with NFL and college
basketball team and the one of the big reasons why that is because they're getting
paid to play and you better be ready or someone else behind you is going
to take your job. Exactly somebody's working in the gym behind you at all
times, and here they are, so I don't know. I don't know.
I like your thought, Henry, I agree with your thought, but
I'm not gonna be sold on your thought because because now you have to really
do it, you have to really get by, get to the lead,
get to the final four, because if it doesn't happen, it's for not
well separating today, Steve, I don't want to get your thought on this.
What do you think of this transfer portal class? Because you pull the
Horizon Ly Player of the Year in Trey Townsend, who will I think everybody
thinks we'll be a starter coming in right away. And then forward depth in
Tobya Waka from Tennessee, guy who's played a lot of power five basketball.
And then a really strong, sharp shooter in Anthony del Orzo, guy who
can pour in twenty points a game and get just really hot from deep.
I'll bet you, I'll bet you your first paycheck, when your next paycheck,
that he won't score twenty points of games. There's a guy that's coming
back that's going to take a lot of the shots. It's like lut when
he like Michael Jordan. Who's the only guy to prevent Michael Jordan from scoring
more than sixteen points a game or averaging sixteen points a game. Who can't
tell you his coach his coaches? Coach lut was the same thing with Sean.
Sean had the free reign when he had a chance to go free reign,
but Luke didn't want anybody going crazy. Everybody was a team type of
thing. We'll see if Caleb averages nineteen twenty points a game, that means
that he's still the same Caleb Caleb Love. Do you want the same Caleb
Love putting up sixteen seventeen shots a game. Maybe you don't. Maybe you
want it more that sixteen or fifteen point mark. But I think one interesting
thing about last year's roster construction is we kind of get wrapped up into this
traditional roster construction for college basketball, and what do most high level college basketball
teams have. It's a shooter coming off the bench, one of the lethal
shooters that can come in and get hot and drop four or five threes.
Henry, Welcome to the ball. You're on the air grafter near you,
guys. This is a Gabe less diminished voice. Gabe conciding how you guys
are doing good? Good, Gabe, what do you think about today's news.
I'm very happy in regards to Caleb Love coming back. So so far,
so good, but the means so. The one thing that I was
gonna call in regards to is a passing Bell Walton. You know I express
this on the show quite often. I wasn't too big of a fan in
regards to Belle Waltson with his daily tenantics in regards to how he does when
he was announcing the Arizona gamespod, I'm just gonna, well, my my
condolences for the Walton family and I and we I think we gonna I think
when we got we are going to miss him very much. And this is
coming from a person who surely has his fair criticism in regards to Bill Walton.
Yeah, I think to be fair, Gabe, you're not alone with
that. I said, uh, yesterday there or so after he had passed
that. Uh there he had his critics and you you, yes, you
were one admittedly, but nobody nobody disliked him. You know, everyone loved
him. They just didn't like how we handled things on the radio. But
even then even them are saying we loved him. Yes that makes any sense
because you loved him, you just didn't like what he was doing. Yeah,
when he when he talks about the flauna and the fauna of the Norn
desert or anything like that, I mean I would to be I mean,
if he would be doing a podcast with with a person who studies wildlife,
subscribe to that podcast because my major is zerology and I'm gonna get a master's
degree in that, so so I'll be the first person to talk to listen
to Bill Watson talk about the floora fauna, about about any different eco system.
But my pet tree is you're supposed to do a basketball game. Dude,
come on, can you at least just talk about the game. Yeah,
you make a good point. I mean it did feel like a podcast.
Well gave thanks for calling. I hope you get better take an alogy
pay you bear down the Arizona Go Cat. Thanks. We were talking about
what we're talking about the roster construction or well you're your shoot off the bench.
They probably have that. They probably they didn't have that last year.
I mean because you couldn't trust kJ Lewis from outside last year. And I
think he's really developing his jumps out. Maybe in the off season. He
has that capability. Jane Bradley has that capability, but neither showed it at
a really high clip from deep last year, and it showed all year,
well not all year in January January on, because November December looked very good.
I think they wanted Polias Moraskus to play a bigger role. If you
had asked Tommy Lloyd before the season, no question, they very much wanted
Poulias Moraskus to play a bigger role, be that sniper off the bench.
Maybe Delorzo is that guy because he's proven it at the college level if you
can play defense, because Moroscos could not, and he could shoot it though,
So there's a nice little trade off I think with Moroscos leaving and Philly
b you know, leaving with two new guys coming in, Henry, I
hope you do get your president as your senior year and get at least to
the final four. It would have been nicer in Phoenix, all right,
Henry, Yeah, final four, Henry, you got to be about twenty
one twenty. It hasn't been since two thousand and one they got to the
final four, So you were not even born, say, wouldn't you like
to go out on university and celebrate it next year? Wouldn't have been quite
as fun without being arrested, Without being arrested exactly, dude. But I
know you're a good kid, Henry. You're not gonna be doing it any
crazy jumping on cars and stuff like that. So we'll see see what Tommy
does. Now. The balls in Tommy's court, it is because he has
a loaded ten, loaded the roster. What's he gonna do with it?
Yeah, and then we talked about the rotation a little bit earlier. How
does that ten shrink to eight or how does that twelve shrink to ten?
Kind of as they go out on November December. Okay, so Sott,
you want to play. You're you're the tenth guy and you're pretty good.
You can be happy. Depends how many minutes I get, you know,
it depends if there's a there's thirty minute starters or if there's twenty minute starters.
You know, if you're the if you're the tenth guy, you know
you're getting five to eight. Maybe you're a tenth guy for a reason.
Yeah, so you gotta have to make really good on that minutes or you're
gonna be unhappy. Right I'm checking right now to see what the h to
see what the minutes distribution was last year for for Arizona individually, I think
Caleb Love led the team in minutes. He did at thirty two point two.
I'd like to see that maybe around twenty eight. You know, Pelo
Larson had thirty minutes a game. That was that was a pretty good number
for him, somebody who can do it all. But I'd like to see,
you know, some of those starters a little closer to twenty eight,
maybe six minutes. Boswell was he let's say twenty seven point one twenty seven,
and that was maybe too much. Bradley about eighteen ish twenty. So
Bradley got up there, and so I'd kind of like to see Jaydon Bradley
maybe be one of those highest usage guys because I don't know if you truly
have a one behind Jayan Bradley to come off with about j kJ was a
little bit shorter than that. He was eighteen pointeen, and then Crevis at
twelve point two. Okay, so you're looking at if they're gonna be about
twenty four twenty six, that means they're going to be blowing out teams two
potentially. But I mean it depends how much you can trust your second unit,
because if they mesh their second unit more than just putting all three guys
in at the same time like they did a lot last year, it's a
different different look. Need I remind you what conference are getting into? Yeah,
so he's gonna play his best dudes to win those games. Ye deep
conference. So if you're the tenth dude, met like I said, you're
not gonna be in those games much because there's a reason why you're the tenth
dude, right, right, So there's the there's that trickery, right if
that's the right word. Who am I going to play? How much do
I trust him? And I know he's good, but and if he's not,
if he's not happy, it was nice knowing you because we live in
the world of I'm out of here if I'm not happy, Right, But
you know, I think Tommy Lloyd does a very good job keeping people engaged
throughout the season. I know there were some issues with Boswell last year with
you know, some of the some of the conversations, some of those tough
conversations and of the things the broadcast camera cop between them. Well, guess
what. Guess what if you're the coach and your player is not doing what
you ask of him, guess what you do you coach him? Yep,
you had a boss or I had a boss. We all bosses. Guess
what if you don't do what they're asking, Guess what they do they tell
you, or guess what you don't work for them anymore? That's called And
now in the nil, guess what you're getting paid X amount of money,
which is not just a small X amount of money. You're getting paid to
do this and do it very well. If you don't do it very well,
guess what you gonna get replaced? Right right? And we could see
we could see college. We could see this team evolve in such a different
way than this past year's team did because it was starting five same at the
beginning, the same at the end. We could see a guy, a
guy like Carter Bryant in those first couple of games against you hadn't even mentioned
his name Western Tech State play five minutes a game, and then you could
be starting a March Basters game by the end of the year. These players
develop, especially under staff like Tommy Lloyd has at Arizona. Do you think
can you guys are both young, the kids, I know, we're generational,
and I you know, I used to be this way too. The
kids understand that now cause you're getting paid very well, don't screw it up
and you have to work your ass off to because you're getting paid a lot
of money. I think there's a lot of factors that kind of involved with
that. And Henry, you might know a little bit more on the one
to one level how much AAU has affected that as well. But I mean
this AAU culture has created sort of an American basketball culture where people look out
for themselves very much summer league level and even to some extent at the high
school level. And so this could be their first real opportunity, you know,
even some guys that have transferred to this could be their first real opportunity
to play on a cohesive unit, to play for a culture like Tommy Lloyd
has established in Arizona that is very team forward. How does that translate to
all these guys. I think it's different for every guy, and they're not
used to that culture exactly. You know, I'm used to be the guy
I am the guy on the team that they relied on to score. What
do you mean to tell me, I'm not that guy anymore? Right,
right, when we talk so much about Tommy Lloyd's offensive teams, but this
is a guy that harps and harps and harps and harps on defense. I
mean, Arizona was so efficient defensively last year. And if you want to
come in here and you don't play defense, you're not gonna play. Henry.
We gotta go, We gotta go, Hendry. I hope you didn't
take any of your breaking news that we take a lot about it. So
we're gonna take a break. Now, come back, get the Henry's breaking
news, and then we're gonna have a couple of great guests on the other side.