Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. They have their eye on the ball on two
Sons Sports Stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean I heeart
radio Arm, Hey, welcome back to our on the ball here Fox sportspurteen
Cookie on Steve's Jay. Now we have some breaking news. Oh we do
well? Yeah the music as I on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty eight. All right, well, I was the lead with something
else. But then you reminded me of this because I saw this this morning
and the number of media reports, including one from Justin Spears over Theears on
a Daily Star, that Lewis Holmes was one of the top recruits ever really
at Arizona. He was the number one junior college recruit that back in two
thousand and six. St. Mike Stoops has passed away at thirty eight,
thirty eight years old. So no no word on how or what or anything
like that, but that Lewis Holmes, and you know, what's a guy
that you know, we use him as an example of a guy who just
didn't materialize too great recruits and stuff like that. And you know, we
joke sometimes and we criticize sometimes but you know you feel bad. And here's
the guy that you know only lasted thirty year's not very long man. That
is way too young. Whatever happened, it's way too young. Our our
condolences to his family and friends and and and so on. UM. A
tough thing too, a tough thing to go through. UM all right,
UM we mentioned uh the US Open. Uh two players shot sixty two sat
in a US Open record. Uh Ricky Ricky Foller and Xander Shaffley. So
we'll see what what that? What that um translates to tomorrow when these guys
come back and play the same course all over again. Here's a weird story,
not a weird stor just another unfortunate story. Beyond Sanders? Have you
seen this beyond Sanders? But who's been having, you know, a long
time issues with his left foot, long long ago, had his big toe
and second toe amputated because of blood clots. Now he's looking at some sort
of a surgery to fix a toe that he's calls dislocated. But he's being
told, this is a reported out of a sports illustrator being told by his
doctor, if we do the surgery that you're asking us to do, there's
a chance you can lose your foot all together, so that he's missing some
football work. Yeah, camp. Yeah, And so he says he's got
no feeling in the bottom of his bottom of his left foot and he's got
constant pain, and uh, his doctors have said this is a risk.
So we'll see what what he decides to do. You know, I've seen
a thing where he was on with somebody talking about his foot, and it's
just it's just really bad. Just one of those things as an athlete,
you know, your feet back covering basketball, I remember the players being told,
you know, take care of your feet, uh, you know,
and where the right shoe and don't do anything stupid because your feet are the
most important thing you got going for you if you're an athlete. If your
feet are messed up, it's hard to be it's hard to be. Well.
I remember with the Luke when he first came in as a freshman and
all that he got hurt in his ankles, and you're thinking, oh,
no quote because so no obviously, because that's right, and he overcame that
and then he had a great career, right um you mentioned um um.
Trevor Bauer. The picture of the Dodgers got got accused of another sexual assault
by another another female. Um Connor McGregor now is being accused of sexually assaulting
a woman at a basketball game. Um it's a night the same night he
knocked the mask, not the same night he knocked the maskcot out Game four
of the Finals in Miami, And it doesn't go into details as to what
the assault may have consisted of, but it's been reported due to the Miami
Police Department, they are investigating it. He's denied y the allegations, but
apparently he's been He's being accused of some sort of a sexual assault that was
done at the arena and that I have no idea how you how you pull
that one off, but apparently h something is alleged to have happened there.
So anyways, um USC, because they don't have enough good things, has
announced that they're they're putting millions of millions of dollars in building a new football
performance center, a three story performance center with a roof deeck on top,
and adding a full length field to their practice facility, which is right there
on campus, just north of the LA Coliseum where the store, the where
the campuses and they're also going to make do some work on or some enhancements
to Dato Field, which is their baseball stadium right next door, and then
also their Rowlinson Stadium, their soccer stadium on the other side of the baseball
on the other side of the football facility. But again, millions of dollars.
I think we're Ryan kartch had it. Welcome to the Big twelve,
big ten. Um. God, I'm looking for the dollar amount. It's
some I can again, it's always a ridiculous amount. But you know,
like I said, they don't have enough nice things. So we're going to
do that. Our friend Mark Harland. Yeah, So the Utah Athletic director
was named the Athletic Director of the Year last year, has gotten his contract
extended at Utah through twenty twenty eight. Good guy, good good administrator he
is, and you know what, and just a fun guy too. He
takes he takes a joke, and he gives a joke. So he's he's
he's a lot of fun. We get to visit with him every year.
Uh, when he was down here for basketball this year, he came on
the show and he just always a lot of fun. I ran into him
at the PAC twelve tournament gave him, gave a bunch of grief about how
low the youths were seated in the tournament and having to play on Wednesday,
and we had fun with that. But Marks everything. Yeah, Mark,
Mark's a great guy. And you know, I'd be interested to pick his
brainness too, you know what's going on in their mind, because you know
when you're talking about they they're all talking about Colorado going to the Big twelve.
Well, I'd rather take Utah twelve. Things consider, woun't you?
Yeah? I think it's considered. Yeah, So anyways, so interesting.
But Mark Harland has signed a contract that would keep him at you take through
June thirtieth of twenty twenty eight. Um, the view of a volleyball schedule
is out and they've got a tough schedule. They're doing some things like apparently
like Tommy Lloyd is in basketball, Rita Stubbs replacing the longtime coach Dave Rubio.
They've got they're gonna have it looks like they're gonna have at least nine
teams on their schedule, including the PAC twelve teams, and nine teams on
their on their schedule that we're in the NCAA Tournament. Three of those are
non conference teams, UM Wisconsin which was in the lead, eight Iowa State
in Miami, which both UH were seated. UH. They were seated a
third and seventh last year or so. Some good, some good volleyball coming
in. It's gonna be a tough schedule for UH. For Rita Stubbs in
her first year as the head volleyball coach at Arizona UM. All right,
Steve a thousand days, a thousand days since what not? Not one thousand,
ten thousand days, ten thousand something related to the NFL, ten thousand
days related to the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl yep, ten thousand days six nineteen
eighty six, ten thousand days. That's a lot of day. You could
go, h nine thousand and seven hundred. Stop. I know where you're
going to stop. Well, that's my point. You get a perspective,
win a national title ninety seven. Oh, it's just like yesterday. Shut
up. Stop. And then two thousand and one, the last time they
played Final four, Blue, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I t eat that
up for you. I'm really sorry I eat that up for you. Didn't
even come to my brain and teed it up, and they're not gonna get
there anytime soon. We're not gonna go home to New Mexico with my boys.
I tell him, God, you guys are delusional, delusional. They
hate me all right. Arizona Baseball picked up a left handed pitcher out of
the Portal kid out of Pepperdine had a four to fifteen r a fourteen starts
last season of Pepperdine's will be a one year player because he's had four years
at Pepperdine. So they'll be joining the staff. Look, guys, see
opportunity at Arizona, right They need pitching, sure, apparently, I think
this is according to Michael lev this is the second pitcher that the Wildcats have
picked up. So but you know, pitching help, pitching help. On
the way um getting back to the US Open. Ricky Fowler, who was
plus five thousand to win the US Open heading into the tournament, is now
down to plus six hundred after shooting the lowest round in US Open history.
I'm probably thinking that's not a good beat. No, I'm probably pig.
I mean, you gotta thinks he's he's gonna go back to you. I
mean, I don't see him winning it, but he's certainly put his name
in the bogs, all right. And then today by coming back and beating
UHU the Oakland A's and in Oakland, the Tampa Bay Rays are the first
team to fifty wins this year. That's a a big number. They're really
good and it matters in October. It does matter in October, but they
are really good. Right now, did you see I saw at your posted
something uh Arizona's odds to win the Pac twelve in for both football, yes,
plus fifteen hundred seventy five to one. Wore what what tourter? They
fall in the old twelve, the one of the favorite twill. I bet
they're like eight ninth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, well you
know again, until you do something right, they're gonna say you can't right.
I mean that, that's it's it's really uh not not shocking to me.
Um, not shocking at all. But well let's say, let me
let's look at some conference winners. Um, uh USC obviously the favorite,
but with Oregon right behind them, but they've got Stanford last, Colorado second
to last, ASC, third to the last in Arizona. I'll accept that
that Arizona is ahead of just a seu Colorado and Stanford, but I still
think they're gonna be better than cal who knows about Washington State? Um,
you know, and then if then, if you're a head, if you
got up ahead of those two guys are right in the middle of the pack,
and you should be in line for a bulking I'm not gonna put any
money on Arizona winning the conference. No, so what's the over under?
I'm gonna take the unders. Let's see. Let's see where they're at now.
Arizona is currently at five. Yeah, I would take it over.
That's a better. They gave you money last year. Yeah, he gave
you money least I got it at five. Oh, you did get it.
I think it's good. I did get it. That's the safer.
But I took you over even the Kissing Diner and win three. Hey she
was also at five. Yeah, I don't know. If that don't five.
Colorado is at three and a half. I'm going under. I'm gonna
put that matches, but you don't ten bucks on the under just to say
I had it. I don't know, and they might pull they might pull
some stuff off. Yep, ye, all right, Um, let's see
what else did I have? Okay, big game Boomers come out with a
couple of couple of rankings the last few days. One was a couple of
days ago he ranked the quarterback coaches the top fifty quarterback coaches. Ye had
Jimmy Doherty as only Jimmy Dorty and at twenty five, which I thought was
pretty good. You know that you recognize that's interesting because who's the quarterback coach?
Is he is quarterback? No? I know, I know, I
know, But how much is just jedding putting in that nest because of offensive
coordinators? Well I think I said, Wow, I mean Jimmy Jed's the
offensive coordinator, but Jimmy Dorty is the quarterback. You know, he's teaching
these guys how to be a good quarterback. Anyways, and then today came
out with the top fifty wide receiver coaches in college football. Kevin Cummings,
Arizona coach is seven. Wow, he's only got the only coaches ahead of
him Oha State, Washington, Tennessee, Oklahoma, TCU, and USC.
Now that probably says as much about the players that he's got as as the
coaching, right, But yeah, Jimmy Kevin Cummings on up as up at
number seven among the top top receiver coaches in college football. And it's pretty
good. Look, here's the thing about that. But all that, Steven,
you know, it doesn't make there's none, It doesn't make a difference
whatever. What does make a difference about, though, is that this stuff
is out there and Arizona is getting visibility. You know, the program that
really hasn't done anything in what however, any year, whenever, whenever rich
Rod left. Yeah, yeah, so years, it's been a while.
Yeah, So there's no question. I mean, if there's a thing that
that Jed has done, he's gotten more visibility, he's gotten more excitement going
on. And I think people at you a at least the people I talk
to and honestly or otherwise say that he's stepped it up. And he's kind
of demanding in terms of getting what he wants right. He's already raised a
ton of money to make it a better facility, and he's he wants to
improve everything right. And you know what, and if you're seeing you're if
you're seen as a guy who does the work and it's just not talking smack
all the time. I want this I want that, I want this,
I want that. But not doing the work, then then that doesn't work.
Yeah, anybody doing that. Yeah, but if you're seeing a guy
that's putting in the work, agree and and and really dug in, you're
okay with that. Right If you're all in everything, every way, right
effort, talking, doing, blah blah blah, more power to you.
I mean, you see Jed at other teams events. You know, he
made his whole football team go to a tennis match the other day. Remember
my kids hate when I say the other day because this was months ago.
But yeah, exactly. But he, you know, doing stuff like that
where he's having his guys support everything else, just trying to bring a whole
atmosphere, so just not football, the whole program. That's you know,
it's easier for you to go along with him on stuff like that, no
question. If he's bought in, everybody else will follow. Yeah. All
right, that's all we got for the breaking news. Um, we've got
a guest coming up. We've got Wendell Neil, who opened or hope He's
gonna have some great stories for us. I wonder who he's gonna tell us
has the biggest head in the history of college. That cowguy, that cow
guy. All right, let's take a break. Will be back with Wendell
Neil, a longtime equipment manager at Arizona and Uh. We'll hopefully get some
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Dreamy Live, I mean my Heart Radio. Wa. This is I
on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Hey, welcome back to our the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty Young Steve
rother P Chickens. Also now on the poone, we have Winded O'Neal.
You equipment operations guy. I guess former you the equipment operations guy. How's
that sound? Windell? Well, you know, fortunately I'm still on the
payroll. I'm on vacation before I h start, you know, start my
retirement. So right now I'm just enjoying some downtown All sounds good. So,
uh, you know we were talking at the top of the show,
were talent on our listeners that you were coming on, you know for the
job that you do, that you've had for you know, all this time
at Arizona. You got to see a lot of things that we don't get
to see and we don't know about. You know, with the you see
the players in a way that not a lot of people see him. But
you know, you have you have stories. But what you know, what
are the kinds of things that stick out to you about the job that you've
had, you know, in the equipment room at Arizona all this time.
What are the things that are sort of highlights for you? Well, you
know, obviously just working at a great program like Arizona. You know,
it was really you know, even though I spent ten years at Washington State,
which is, you know, also a great program. Uh, I
just my ten years at Arizona. I just always I mean at Washington State,
I always just looked at the Arizona as sort of a almost too dreamy
to be true, you know. I remember going to the basketball games it
was too and having looting those giants come in and I'd be like, boy,
sure would be nice to be at a place like that where they just
win all the time. So I would say one of the things that sticked
out, you know here the Arizona's being an Arizona basketball fans not what it's
all cracked up to be. You know, the expectations are almost too much.
And you know that's what I have found mostly about being an Arizona Wildcat
is we just have a lot of expectations here and as opposed to the three
other universities I worked at before I got here. But that's what sticks out.
It's just, you know, sometimes you know, you're right, I'm
behind the scenes. I'm right there in the locker room. I'm with the
guys, I'm with the coaches, with some of the head coaches. I
was in every single staff meeting, so you know, you're about as in
the middle of it as there is. And then I listened to shows like
Yourself show you guys do. I listened to it when when I could leave
work early enough. But uh, you know it's I think sometimes just the
expectations didn't match what we had in the locker room or what was going on.
That's that's very good insight. What brought you here, Wendell? You
were at Sam Houston State right before and then yeah, what what was the
appeal? And and I guess did you come for live and good? Was
livinghood good at the time? Well, so, uh, you know,
I was very fortunate. You know, I was twenty two years old when
I got my first full time head job. And ironically enough, for all
the great Wildcat fans that are listening, everybody knows here in Arizona knows the
name said Dempsey. Yeah, so said to the one that actually was the
ad that hired me at University of Houston, my alma mater, right after
I was a student. And uh, but then you know, Uh,
as time went on, I went in business with my wife's brother, which
we won't go into. But so I was out of it for a year
or two. But yeah, I went to sam Houston State. And while
I was at sam Houston State, I got a phone call from a guy
named Jim Ivan Goood and uh said Dempsey had recommended him to me. So
that's really how I ended up at Washington State. Uh, Doctor Dempsey and
another guy recommended me to Jim Ivan Goood. They were he brought me up
for an interview and I was there for ten years with Jim, and then
when Jim came here, we stayed in touch and there was an opportunity here
and fortunately enough I was able to become a Wildcat back at ninety eight.
I bet you you have a ton of del Conte story for me up at
Washington State, and you I don't even I don't even recall that name del
Conte guy. That's okay, So we joked because Josh Passenger tells us a
story that you know he came. He came to Arizona for the nineteen ninety
seven season. He won the national championship in his first year. I think
you came here your first season, and your first year in Arizona was ninety
eight according to the bio on on that right, So your first season in
football, they go twelve and one. Were you thinking this is going to
be easier? No, no, what Josh says, Oh god, this
is going to be easy after the first one? Yeah, So what did
you think after twelve and one? Football scene? Like, Okay, I
am in the right place, well talking about stories. Uh, you know,
I thought I was pretty special, is what I really thought. Because
my last year at Washington State, we went we played in the Rose Bowl
against Michigan. We were packed ten champions, and uh so then mister Lyvelan
Good hired me and I came here. We went twelve and one, and
if you know, all the Wildcat fans remember we really should have gone to
the Rose Bowl that year, you know. And and you know what,
I was fortunate enough to get to know Dan Patrick and back then he was
still an anchor on Sports Center, and I don't know if you guys were
called, But he would finish every show with did you know? Yeah?
Right, And so he really became big buddies with Ryan Leaf at one of
these award shows or whatever, and so we got to talking a lot and
he called me and he said, Windell, if you guys end up going
to the Rose Bowl, I'm going to finish the sports center. Did you
know? And that I was the equipment manager at Washington State who hadn't been
to the Rose Bowl in sixty seven years. And he goes to Arizona and
they'd never been to Rose Bowl and he's the equipment manager for them. Man,
he jeamsed it. He didn't blame Dan Patrick for all that. Well,
now I have somebody to blame, okay, because I didn't until now.
And I still hate the fact that Arizona didn't go to that Rose Bowl.
So you know, are there what about certain guys that that you know,
you dealt with? It came through either funny guys, fun guys.
I was telling Steve, you know who had the biggest head in among Arizona
football players during the time that you were doing stuff? I mean stuff like
that. I mean, who were some of those guys that are highlights to
your guys that you remember the most. Well, I got to make sure
I'm careful here because of these uh personal law you know, the laws about
you can't be telling. One of the things I went through. You can't
share with people their shoes size. And you know it's ridiculous. But uh
but some galas that said, you know, the question I get more than
anything. So I went over to baseball five years ago, right, and
I would say the eight out of the ten questions was they all want to
know about Gronkowski. So you got to play your work with Gronk, you
know, And how was he? And you know, Gronk wasn't real needy.
You know, he never asked for a whole lot. He didn't what
we call come to the window, which means when someone comes to the window,
they need something. So he never really came up mashed for anything.
And uh and you know he's really a smart kid. And they would saying,
well, was he crazy? I said, you know, he just
acted like a twelve girl. That's that's really the best way to describing you
know. Uh, he's just silly all the time. And uh, a
lot of you know, fun to be around, but you know, they
were just thinking that he was probably a handful and he really wasn't. He
was really a pleasant, funny guy. But Gronk is one that will always
stand out, you know. But there's just you got lifelong friends, you
know, uh that I can't believe it, you know, as I was
getting some a lot of calls and texts recently when when I made a public
that I was retired, and man, some of these dudes are like forty
eight years old, you know. Now a lot of those are from the
Washington State days. But you know, it just tells me that I'm getting
old. I guess that's why you're retiring. What are you gonna miss the
boss? Uh? You know, it's probably gonna be And I know it's
it's like the cliche, but it's that locker room. You know, the
camaraderie, and it's the people. I won't miss the long days and you
know, days and days and days before you get a day off, and
you know a lot of people say, well. I actually had one of
the parents of the baseball players text me and just said, hey, thanks
for taking care of my son. And he goes, let those people know,
I want your job and people had no idea. Like just recently,
on that last home series against USC one day, I worked nineteen and a
half hours and that that included sleeping in one of the recliners in the clubhouse.
So I had to, you know, because I had a quick turnaround.
So when people find out how many hours it takes to do the job
correctly and write, you know, it's just that's why the family thing really
came up. You know. It was almost like these drug or addiction interventions.
You know, it's like it's time to start making some family events that
you know it's it's time. But it's funny with I'm sure that given the
choice, uh, you do it all over again. Oh, no doubt,
no doubt. Listen, the memories are wonderful. Uh. You know,
I've had quite a few people say, man, you should write a
book and tell all the stories you know, And the problem is you you
know, uh, you don't want to, but you too, you gotta
you can't name names, you know, because you don't want to do that.
But no, I would do it all over again, no doubt,
even though I missed like thirty nine thanksgivings in a row. And uh,
when I say missed Saintsgiving. I never passed up the mill, you know,
but you know, just time with family. You know, you'd be
like you worked on Thanksgiving, you came and you ate and you know,
went back to worker and you know, but I do it all over again,
spending Christmas and hotels, you know, at a bowl game, you
know, and you know, all three of my grown kids now you know,
they wouldn't change it. They thought it was the greatest life of all
time. Did you so over time? Did you pretty much or at least
an arizone? Did you pretty much do all the sports? I mean,
did you do football? Did you do basketball? Y'aficer? Did baseball?
Do you do a all? Or no? We're always assigned to a sport.
No, not really. Uh. You know, of course with I
worked, I was fortunate enough to work for mister mister Livagood, uh most
of the time at WSU until he left. And then when I first got
here, and you know, I can remember within the first month of being
at Washington State, UH WSU baseball play hosted CAW on ESPN and the game
started like ten in the morning. O John Ohlrud was on that team and
Bobo Braden was a coach. Well, Bobo goes, hey, how are
we going to get our uniforms? We're gonna get here really early in the
morning. While I was getting there at five in the morning anyway, just
trying to figure things out. And uh, I remember mister Livagood had me
come to his office and and I thought, oh my gosh, what did
I do? And he goes, listen, I didn't hire you to do
all the work. I hired you to make sure all the work got done.
You have assistance, you have a lot of student help. Your job
is to make sure it all gets done. So all those years at Wazoo
and here, with the exception for the last few years over at baseball,
I was giving up a lot of the other what they called associated ad responsibilities.
But I just I did work day to day baseball for five years,
and I worked day to day football for twenty years. But I had a
lot of help over at football, and I just oversaw. I had like
seven assistants that you know, like you know, people that worked the other
sports, and they did all that day to day and they just reported to
me. So my job was just to support them, you know, encourage
them, give them the resources and tools to be the best equipment man and
they could be. So that was that role. And then I did do
a lot of day to day stuff with football and baseball. Did you or
can you say any any kind of cute stories about missing equipment or bad cleads
during the game, or you know, maybe I'm missing a helmet. I'll
give you one. Just un busketaball two thousand and one I think it was.
There was one one of the best teams in the country or two thousand
with Jason Gardner. They were in La. They he forgot his jersey and
then they had to go back and try to ship one in from from U
A in a day. It was just kind of cre chaotic. Anything like
that happened that you can kind of say with equipment or or stuff. Stuff
that happened. Here's a good one. Here's a good one. And this
is an Arizona story. But now I was at Washington State. So we
played Arizona up in Pullman and my one of my managers said, hey,
this jersey was in with all the towels and lo and behold it was Chris
mills Erse and uh, you know, so immediately I started making phone calls
I was good friends with George Berger, who I actually replaced here, and
I was like, how do I get hold of you know, where they
staying at blah blah blah, and I don't remember how I finally found out
where they were staying. So I found out the hotel. I called that
hotel and they said, sorry, but the everybody's at dinner. There's uh,
you know, you know, the only person taking a call as a
head coach. And so I called and Loot Olson answers the phone and I
was I was like, uh, oh, coach, Uh, this is
one goal at Washington State. He goes, let me guess you got a
jersey with Mills on the back of it. And I said, no,
wonder you guys beat this all the time. You can read my and he
goes, no, I heard about it, and so I told him I'd
already cleaned it, and I asked him where. I'm just trying to find
out where to send it to. And we had a courier send it to
their hotel so he could wear it at the next game against the Huskies.
And you know, lud Olson sent me the nicest card, thanking me.
I got a Christmas card from there, on. And then when he introduced
me to his first team, I mean my first year here to their team,
he told me he told the team that story about me making sure we
had our our jersey for the next game, he says, so he was
destined to be our equipment guy one day. So how in the world did
that jersey getting to your area? Well, they left, so the managers
went in to pick up all the towels that the team uses the shower after
the game, and evidently Chris Mills through the jersey in the stack of towel.
And so luckily that manager was, you know, nice enough to return
it. A lot I've listened in my forty plus years, I know a
few of people that would have just kept that and just said, hey,
it's missing, especially the All American great player he was. I've had other
I've had other teams come to play us or something and Naper got something.
You have to lend them stuff. And I always sort of kept it quiet
because I didn't want the coaches to think I was given ammunition to the to
the opponents. So so when do we talk about the PAC twelve PAC ten
back in the day. Now they might move who knows what's going to happen.
Are you one of those guys that kind of want them to stay because
you've been in this league forever and maybe have some sentimental value to it.
Yeah. You know, listen, when I was a student manager at University
of Houston and we came out when I was at Houston and played us LA
so long ago USA LA was still playing at the coliseum, and I just
always thought to Pac ten and act that was about the time it went from
Pack eight to Pac ten because that was like seventy seven or seventy eight when
I started as a student. But yeah, I've always had just I just
think this is the premier, you know conference, and you always thought the
Rose Bowl was the greatest, saying that will probably be the highlight of my
career being able to be in a Rose Bowl, and so you know,
it's there's a big part of me, you know, that wants it to
stay strong and vibrant. But I love this since I love you, of
a I will be a Wildcat forever. Even though I graduated from University of
Houston and have worked at other schools. I mean, I've spent almost half
my life theater, and I want I want the Wildcats to be financially able
to still compete at a national level, and that may mean I have to
go to another conference. Now, obviously I'm the laundry guy, so I'm
the last guy to know what's gonna happen. Well, but uh, we
have a vote. Yesterday we talked about the UH people voting for another another
stasion Rose Bowl or Final Four? Which one are you going to vote for?
Okay, what should you rather set? Uh? Golly, that's a
hard one. Uh, because I've been to a Rose Bowl uh, and
it's it's the most surreal thing I've ever been a part of, just because
I was, you know, such a Rose Bowl fanatic. You know,
that was the game everybody watched. And I remember telling my wife, I
said, you know, y'all can go ahead and bury me. Now I've
been to the Penn you know, and I would love for Wildcat fans because
let me just say this, I love our fans. I love this place.
I love Tucson. Uh. I feel like they deserved that experience.
Uh. Plus we've been to final fours, you know. Not long after
I got here, I was able to go uh to the Final four in
Minneapolis, and UH see us get cheated out of that game. But I'm
not gonna. I don't think they can get I don't think they can get
the laundry. Gay for saying a comment about but I don't know who knows
they find everybody anymore? Go ahead, go ahead. Well I'm with I'm
with you, Wendell. I'm with you. A rose ball is it's not
it's no question. We gotta we gotta get one, Wendell. I'm running
out of time. So and now now I blame Dan Patrick for Farzana not
getting not getting that one back in the day. So yeah, and what's
that about that? It's funny. I don't think we've talked ever since that
phone call. Yeah, he knows better. Well, you should be mad
at him, for sure. I know I am. Now he's one of
my favorite guys. I love listening to that guy. Well, he's really
good. Yeah, we appreciate all this time, Wendell. Thanks, enjoy
the retirement. Don't be a stranger. I'd love to see you. She'll
see you around McHale or wherever. And now you have plenty of time to
listen to us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now you don't have to
get off work to listen to us. Just listen to us every day,
no doubt. Hey, guys, thank you so much for the opportunity,
and we appreciate what you guys do. And because this place is special on
you guys do a great job. Thanks so much fun. We do appreciate
it. Y'all. Have a great night, you do. What are the
good guys? You know, I'll tell you what a good boy if you
could sit down around. I know Fundel's a beer drinker. If he is
sitting sitting around with a couple of beers. And here's some racer. I
love the Chris Mills story. That's a that's a great one. All right,
let's go and take our break. We went long, so we'll be
right back. We'll have a few minutes. We'll take some calls. Five
two zero, one, seventy four, forty. We'll be right back.
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It's Steve Rimera and Jacoon Summits. This is I'm the Ball on Fox
Sports four Team Theory and welcome back to join them all here on Fox Spots
Sport Team Trikie. I'm Steve Ribra, You're Jacon Balls on the handy dead
turning the microphone. No am, you got about nine minutes and if you
want to call, please do. Maybe you guys have a story for us
that you haven's kind of done, kind of cute involving the Arizona player getting
some equipment or something like that. Like it's funny because I you know,
your shoe story, right, because right, I couldn't go into all of
that, but like how often these guys took took their shoes or whatever.
My son got Channing Fries shoes at their last at his senior day. Um,
you know, and just you know, Channing was, you know,
coming off after the celebration and my son was standing there because they would always
go over there to get you know, headbands and wristban he's got He's got
Channing fried shoes which were bigger than he was and they're still sitting up in
his in his old bedroom now right. He's one of the good guests too.
Stuff like that. Headbands and wristbands were gross. You could wring them
out, You literally could ring them out. They would. He would always
get uh, they would always try to get uh uh Seleem Stardomyer's headband because
he wore different. He wore win every game, and they'd always get that.
He'd come in hand him, don't hand it to me, you know,
just keep it. Put some gloves. Holy cow, gross stuff stuff,
but yeah, you know stuff. It would be tough for him to
write a book unless he got the permission of the guys. Yeah, wow,
anyone what happened in the locker room stays in the locker room. He
would he would have there's a lot of guys out with him and Steve Condon
from back into Condo man, my favorite from with Condo and I don't even
know why this happened, but we were at we were at Washington State,
and um, I think something happened that Elliott and Kurt and uh Anthony Cook
weren't on the team bus going to want going to practice. They were going
to It was, you know, the day between games, and it was
like they weren't in trouble or anything. I think that they were. I
think they were doing some school stuff and interesting and they and Condo reaches out
to me ask me before if you know, because you know, I had
a rental car, could I give him a ride to the arena? And
I did, and so current now Cook and Elliot are sitting in the back
seat of the car and as I'm driving, Steve Condon, who's the trainer,
he's having to tape their ankles before on the on the ride over,
so Steve is he's leaning, you know, he's in the front seat,
leaning over the backs. He taping their ankles, and all of a sudden
he started to get woozy. He thought he was gonna yak because he was
getting gar sick, you know, from having to do all this stuff.
And he taped their ankles. Everything was okay. No, they weren't in
trouble. I believe I believe they had like they had to take a test
or something like that, or there was a class that they had to do
some school work with and and condor couldn't think of another way to get a
ride to the arena, and I had to. I had to give him
a ride to the arena. Um I was going to their practice anyway.
They used to allow us to do that. Yeah, I remember those stuff
a long time ago. Yeah, but you know, the guys would have
a lot of great stories. Is Justin Kakowski? Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, did loot and he did Sean Miller Son there, yeah, yeah,
but again and those are the guys. And I know, you know
they always get at thank that, you know, the end of the season
and stuff like that. But you talk about guys that I shouldn't say guys
people who make you know, Emily at you know who does who has women's
basketball? Uh? You know Brian Brigger, who does you know men's basketball?
Now? You know he's talking about how people don't realize how many hours
they were Brian Brigger after after a men's basketball, every men's basketball game home
or away, he posts a picture of when he gets the uniforms washed,
so like us, and you see that he posts something at three o'clock in
the morning. So they get back from wherever they've chartered to, they land.
He gets it. They all get to go home. He goes to
the equipment room and he washes the uniforms. That gets to you got to
sit there to wait for the washer and dryer to be done. Totally get
it. Totally get it enough to make myself, you and me sounding like
this. But we go to the games. Where you go to the games,
you're you're different than me. You go to games, you're working during
the games, but you can go home and have a margarite or do whatever.
It's like us. And you were here at a time or two where
the game, the work starts after the game of the game, and you're
there, everyone's having a celebration Toddy or whatever dinner, and you're trying to
think of what's a good lead? Yeah, what's a good lead? Steve?
I tell you in the in the end, That's where one of the
big reasons that I got out was that my friends who I love doing football
games with and stuff like that, my friends they were going off and going
to the going to bars or whatever after the games are over, and I
was working and then I'd meet them and they're like they're leaving and when I'm
getting there, you know, and I got sick of that. I hated
that. Sure, sure I wanted to be a fan, right, that
makes sense, trying to make sense, but as you can tell, you're
a fan, and I'm not exactly yeah, but but grateful for the team's
I've come. And you know what, again, I've said a million times,
I am so happy I did what I did. Yeah, you know,
yeah, Well to this, to the thing that Window talks about,
u A, I've been doing it for a long time. I have never
once. I don't think cover the losing team here are you a football?
Didtomy didn't have a lose team, right, because I mean cover Rom the
first year? Uh? And then I went to Looton he never had a
losing team. And then Sean's team, uh didn't And I didn't really cover
it as much. But there was never you know, when you go you
know, and you know this outside of death, Outside of death, there's
no miserable place to be that I'm losing the locker room. Yeah no,
and I was in some bad ones. I was in that eighty eight locker
room. She rose Mont, Rosemont. Yeah, after I was in the
eighty nine locker room and you you seen that Sean Elliott hugging his mom outside
the locker room. I was in that locker room. Uh you know,
uh man, you know that's a that's a tough place to be, especially
when you're looking to get quotes and they're looking at you. Why are you
asking me the stupid questions? Yeah, I remember, I remember, h
Yeah. I think it was Chuck Cecil throwing a chair. Um uh,
his his buddy h Gary Constant and missed a field goal seven and that would
have beaten Washington. The game was a tie, but they led us into
the they led us into the locker room, and everybody made a bee line
for Gary Coston because Chuck Cecil was pissed and you threw it at us,
at us, and he fling he flung a chair across the locker room.
You know, I don't remember what he said, but I just remember there
were a lot of expletives about kind of you know, leave the guy alone
kind of thing. Yeah, but you know, we were we were doing
our job, but he was you know, that was his that was his
teammate, and he didn't want to see that happen. So you know you
saw those things. Yeah, so no I it uh yeah, I mean
you get and that's what I love about, you know, even what I
do now, you know, whether I'm working at the back twelf tournament or
a regional or doing stats at Arizona, getting down there in the guts of
the place, you know, and seeing the stuff that that that happens.
And yeah, we don't get to do that very much anymore because it's kind
of things and you know, yeah, but you know, but even sitting
in a in a you know, a post game press conference, right,
you hear everything. Sure, only some of that gets out, sure,
right, but you hear all. You know, you hear all of it.
It's a little more sanitary now than it used to be. You know,
you don't you don't go into the locker room. You don't get to
go into the locker room and see that, you know, whether it's the
tears or the celebration or whatever. But that was a that was a good
part of it. That was a really good part of it. Sometimes it
was hard, but you know, you really and that's where you got a
sense of who these guys kind of sure, sure, the one time that
it was nothing like that was you remember when they lost a book Noll.
Yeah, you you went in the locker room. That's when the locker room
was still open. At the end of the games. You knew that that
season was over. Yeah, they had, they had they wanted no part
of the n I it lost the first round. Let's skip the hell on
a dodge and call it a day. Remember that it looked like that on
the court. No, No, exactly. That just kind of verified the
whole situation. So it absolutely looked like that on the court. That game.
That's a game that that's a game that where you say, you know
what, these guys you don't want to be They did that to be there.
There were a million places they would have rather been that day, and
that was not that. That was not one of them. But no,
I you know, and again, the jobs that we've had, those are
the things that we get to see that they're average fan doesn't get to see.
And I'd be grateful for doing that for she's forty years, asked Wendell
Um, he wouldn't all these things that he misses, missed the Thanksgivings and
Christmass. He would do it all those knock. Yeah, he's not giving
them back. And I still remember I was covering the sun Bowl there the
eighty five sun bowlt Arizona went. They sent me as a third rider and
I had to go get my credential from Jack McGruder. And this this game
was like the day before Christmas or right after Christmas. It was right before
Christmas, and I think it was on Christmas even fact, and I want
and I knocked on Jack mcgruder's door and he's got his family there, and
they put up Christmas lights in the hotel and I thought, you know,
they spent their Christmas there. Yeah, it's what I want to call him
about this real quick because we gotta go Final four two thousand and one,
I think it was or ninety seven. Other Indian in Indianapolis, just ninety
seven. Uh, it was Easter Eastern Day, Sunday, good Monday.
It was. You were there the only place open after writing Hooters, So
we have got Easter Sunday at Hooters. You should have seen the creepy Easter
bunny we saw that year. They had an Eastern, then an Eastern and
Easter Brunch in our hotel and that Easter Bunny was the creepiest Easter bunny I've
ever seen. All Right, they Wendell Neil, thank you very much.
Good luck on your on your retirement. Brian Jefferies, thank you as well.
We'll see you guys tomorrow