This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalaz on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R two SA at iHeartRadio Station Goo. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jagan Sauce. We have ant least today you remember your name. At
least that's kind of you. It's a good it's a good starts. I'll
go a great start. Great, welcome to Tuesday. I think we have
a pretty good show today. I don't want to jinxit, but heah,
yeah, we're gonna have a someone from Saint Lewis and then we have a
Dea Barnes and Jada J. Williams right on the show. At the same
coming off a National Player of the Year award, she was named that she
was named Nasty APS Player of the Week the week. Wow, yeah,
which never happens, and well it's the first year they've done this, but
hey, she did a great job that she had done. Yeah, it
just came over about an hour ago. So I'm sure if you had that
on your breaking news, but you can talk about it, right, So
yeah, we're looking forward to that. We'll ask Ada some questions and see
what she says. I know, I know Jade already tweeted this on her
on her feed, but you know we do need to ask her if she
called bank. We're going to go there. Yes, yeah, I guess
Friday night was what let's say it. That's why she's ona because of those
two shots, right. You know, it's when when you've been in those
I'm sure you've got I know you miss a lot of things, but you
also when you get hot, it's like you get up momentum and you can
say boo and it works. Look, I've got a couple of holes in
one as bad as I am. We got two holes in Okay, yeah,
so that see the stuff happens. Stuff happened. That must be the
moment blind squirrel, blind squirrel dude. Now, and I will say,
it's been twenty plus years since I had one. A moment stopped. It's
shocked. It was finite. I haven't been able to get any momentum since.
Right, So you're getting it. See it doesn't work, Well,
it's finite. Yeah, but you got a little while. It's one step
to that door, step to that door. Okay, no, cool,
A lot of things going on. Big game tomorrow obviously in in in Tempe,
and it's hard to say it's a big game, but every game is
big because they want to win. They have to win all these games.
I don't think they want to take any chances, uh that that Washington State
will lose another one. All the games are at home, and there's only
three of them left. Arizona needs to win all its games and that's the
only way they can be sure that they win the league. Uh. And
plus again, they're playing for a one or a two seed right now that
in most places they're still on the one line. I think, you know,
so in North Carolina, which is kind of buying for it to North
Carolina, they almost lost last night at home. So it's it's not just
Arizona's world, it's other people's world. Yeah, you know, yeah,
I mean other people are gonna lose games. And then there's still the conference
tournaments and all that kind of stuff. But you want to get to the
regularly to be a one seed, you got to get to the regular seed
into the regular season and say you're the conference champ. I think, yeah,
you know, I'm a I'm a I'm a strong believer in that.
I've been one. On the football side, it said, if you don't
win your conference championship, you can't be in the playoff. But obviously I've
a ruled one that. But uh, you know, I think it matters
it certainly. If I'm in the room with the with the with the basketball
committee and I've got two teams that are about even, one's the conference champion,
ons you're easily going with the conference champion exactly exactly. So I think
it's important as you should go with the player of the year from the team
that does the best in the conference, unless unless it's somebody who's so outstanding,
I mean, so damn good, so hiad and shoulders above everybody else
that you can't help but give it to them. And there's nobody like that
in the league on any of the other teams that you can say they should
they should be over the best player on the best team, and that's how
up and then to that to your point, that has happened. But sometimes
the best player is because he has to carry that team, you know,
j T and that's example. He became in college player there because he had
he was the guy. Yeah, but he was you know, I mean
he was so good they had to say, regardless of what your team has
done, you're so damn good. You need to be you need to get
this, you know, and and I requite you know what's happened, you
know over the over the years with the Heisman Trophy. You know, there
are times when they give it to the best player and the best team.
But when the best player on the best team is not in the East,
they give it to who they think was the best player, and that just
pisses me off. You're gonna set me off again. But in this case,
Caleb Love, you know, he I'm not gonna say he's carrying this
team because they got so many other really good pieces, but he's first of
all, he's better than everybody else. And then he's on the best team.
And then and you know, Dad Boyle tried to make a case for
kJ kJ Simpson, like stop right, right right, And that's what we
talked about last week. Remember there's that guy, but the other the other
kid who's going to be at for number one draft pick. I didn't see
a number one draft pick either time that I saw Colorado Arizona dominated them.
Yeah, yeah, no question. They may be good, but not this
year, not for the not for the required game. There's nobody so good,
so good that they should be over you know, Caleb Love, who's
the best player on the best team, right right? Okay, So and
the next two hours is uh is idea and uh oh wait? Well,
first we got uh buddy of mine from Saint Louis the Kansas City Star.
He's a columnist for them. He he's the one that introduced me to uh
to Desiree a year ago now for the tournament, and I was very impressed
and I never thought she would come here. But we'll talk about that.
He thinks highly of her. Uh and just circumstances, because there are other
circumstances buyouts, I don't know, I saw story yesterday or so buyouts and
what it all means the uh, the oversight committee, blah blah blah.
Right, So we'll talk all about that in about eighteen minutes. Okay,
cool, okay, cool, Anything else going on with you, guys,
No, you know, just uh, it's been a busy day for me,
you know, just doing stuff. Your other jobs. Yeah, you
know, we're we're starting to approach deadline. On our our magazine. A
couple of good stories by Steve rivera coming up in biz Tucson that'll come out
and come out in April. One on Corbett's the pickleball place. I guess
it's sports. Youre lated, we can talk about that. Have you been
to Corbett's. Yeah, yeah, it's nice. Have you been. I
haven't been there, but I've heard really good things. It shot it not
shocked me. It was pleasantly really nice. Yeah, it's big, it's
spacious, a lot of TVs. I've not been for the pickleball. I've
only been there for the food, which which is I drove past it.
Yeah, super spacious. Yeah, they have the courts inside and outside,
but I've only drove past it. But I don't see any tables anything.
Just have all that. There's a lot of a lot of room inside and
tables in a patio and stuff like that. But it's very cool, right.
And then the other story was h Tim Mecca, a cyclist, cyclist,
very very very big Arizona booster. Yeah, he's one of the fathers
of the year. So Steve's written a profile and him they'll be going out
and uh, okay, yeah, enough about me, let's move on.
Uh And you're trying to get a job, trying to get a job.
You four years a five for you? Hey, if I could stayed there
for ten, I would have stayed in Ure for ten. Man, the
real world sucks. But you look at me like, what the hell?
Kind of questions that are obvious? You're going to miss this place. I
am. I am going to miss it, but I'm excited for to start,
you know, my career and start my my real life. But I
have no idea where that's going to be, what that's gonna entail. Okay,
okay, you might end up finding a job in PR or something.
I don't want to do that. But okay, because you're a media girl,
you're a median person. Yeah, okay, okay, well anything else?
Big games last night, coach the coach storming thing continues to be continues
the big news. I guess they some conference calls with some of the big
players, and you know, I sent you did you see my thing?
From Richard Jefferson. I didn't really. I didn't like I watched that because
he's the one that said billis is full of it. You can't legend you're
not gonna corral your two thousand people. Like I played a top program and
when we got beat by an underdog, they store on the court and he
said, and that the parts and they did, and stuff happens. You
remember the one that happened football this year of some guy got plastered by some
dude, some prominent guy, and he was in full pads. Blah blah
blah. If you're gonna be if you're gonna act foolish, you're gonna get
foolish prize, right and and that and yeah, and that's the thing I
mean, I think you have to you have to look at look if you
if you want to run on the court, then you know you could tell
the buzzer you're you're risking yourself. Okay, sure, and but but you
know we're such a litigating society. You can you know, I could see
you know, somebody somebody running on the court getting a forearm shiver and breaking
his jaw. You'll see the player probably or the school. Probably they'll sue.
They'll sue the school for not keeping him off. You know what,
maybe we get cough on the show and say give him that Sinnario lawyer and
say what would happen? Yeah, you know, or or or the flip
side, you know, can if Kyle Fieldpa they say it's a spring,
He's gonna be fine. Yeah, sure, that's that's he's probably got beat
up in a game. And yeah, but let's say he blew out his
knee and his NBA career is does the school have some does Wake Forest have
some liability for that? Yeah? Yeah, And that did an interesting conver
Guys, you think they should band court storumming? Sure? Thing is the
thing is? I think they should, but I don't think they can.
But how Yeah, it's it's the how that's going to be the take.
Yeah. I think for football it's like much safer because it's such a bigger
space. And I rushed the field at Arizona before and you have to like
hop over the thing. It takes a while. But in basketball it's like
they're on the court two seconds after the buzzer. You're not the only one
he in seventy eight And how was that no problem? Did? I didn't
run into any any any anybody else any other players? That was it big?
There was a big court storm. Yeah, there's pictures of it that
you go back in the in the in the Actually, you know, I
field stormed one time too, That's what I'm saying that Arizona. But I
said, Arizona. Back in my day, there was like about a three
foot high chain link fence at the bottom, not the wall they have.
I was five foot one and I could get over that and with no problem.
Really, yeah, so it happens. But but you know, you
have the guy in one of the field storms this year, a guy who
went over the wall and blew out his knee either hipped over something or something
else when he hit the ground. There was another guy hit the goal postion
I think fell fell in h So you know what, you know, what's
the liability there for for a school or whatever I think for this is getting
so much attention because it's Duke too, which I guess it was a small
If it was a different school, this would not But it's Duke. We
said that yesterday, We said that yesterday things happened to when things happened,
clearly not happy. It's after the Arizona game. My mom's like, doesn't
even care Arizona one. She's like, oh my god, this happened.
Yes, I met your mom the other day. Yeah, the game nice.
Yes, I've forgotten to say. Oh what about those duchies? Yeah,
that's for another day. She probably would have been stressing out. We
were checking the score as Arizona playing. Okay, what else day? Anything
else going on? Softball? Baseball? Uh, that's coming up here soon
this weekend. Well, no, I mean, and I know we we
we talked about it late in the show yesterday that you know, Kaylin Gilbert's
not coming back, right, and so you know, we'll see I'm sure
to be able to say something that we'll say because we have to ask her
something. But you know what, what do you you know, what do
you do with that? Right? Okay? Uh? And she's done well.
There as a lot of questions, a lot of weird questions to ask
her, and Jada will be on here as well. Anybody what a call?
Please do? Five two four one, six, seventy four forty We
have about three minutes before we go to break and then we'll get here.
Gregorian out of Saint Louis So and the tournament's uh three weeks away, right,
tournament and PAC twelve is three weeks away. Three weeks from tomorrow tomorrow,
Today, Tomorrow, Tuesday, tomorrow, so Wednesday, could you go
up on a Wednesday? You go Tuesday, I go Tuesday. I going
on Tuesday to get ready for one, so I might have a get show
on Tuesday. You'll have an leave Wednesday, no show Wednesday, Thursday or
Friday, because we're not gonna be able to do our show from Vegas.
Yeah. Yeah, and then the week later is the PA the n C
Double A Tournament. Yeah, okay, okay, anything else as far as
I know. I mean, you know, I've been so out of pocket
today, Steve. I you know, you know it could be dark outside
and I wouldn't know. I mean, you know, the sun could have
not come up and I wouldn't have known it, because in fact, I
did get up before the sun came up today because of my words. But
uh, now you know, you know, big game, Borrow, it's
a big deal. As he said, Arizona's got to just win those games.
I saw, I saw that, and I'd even mentioned this idea.
But I'm not sure how. Tommy Lloyd went on Van Pelt last night,
and I don't know if you saw that or not. It was tweeted out
and he asked him about Boswell and it's it's almost and I said this yesterday.
I think Jay, it reminded me when Tommy talked about it, and
when I asked him about the incident on Saturday, he was almost apologetic that
he had to get on him, right, I do it out of love.
It's unfortunate, but I have to do it. And look what he
just said or somebody that was said, I got to tell these guys to
play. Yeah, you know, you know what I'm saying. It's it's
a different generation now. And he said the same thing last night, and
then he and then he said that, Oh, by the way, Boswell
sent him a text apologizing for what he did. And I'm thinking, this
is this is what we live. This is different than what I used to
do thirty years ago, twenty years ago. You know, you yell at
a kid, your dad, I'm a dad. No apologies. Just listen
to me. Yeah, just do what I ask you to do. It's
you know, it's for the benefit of both of us, Yes, exactly,
the all. Uh, this hurts me more than it hurts you.
I brought you into this world, took you out. You've never heard that.
I'm sure you count it exactly. So no, I I uh no,
I mean it's interesting what how things have become between coaches and players.
You know, you think back to Frank Cush punching his under the you know,
under the helmet and those kinds of things. Yes, but you could
do those things back then, and he just happened to get caught. And
you know, the read kid on the on the tape. No, it's
a different generation. And we'll move on. So let's take the break.
Now we get about thirty seconds, so we'll take the break, get ahold
of Vagry and talk about uh Desiree read Yes, Yes, Francois, Yes,
Ray read Francois, and just his experience with her over at Missouri.
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on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgeon I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to I'm the BBAU here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jaginsaus. Now on the phone, we have
Vajea Grigorian from the Kansas City Star columnistair a longtime friend. Baja. How
are you. I'm good. I'm glad to be with you. Guys.
You've been a very busy man in the last few months covering the Kansas City
Chiefs. We'll get to that in a little bit. But who would have
thought, I do, only eleven months ago seeing you in Sacramento after not
seeing you for a while, and then this woman comes up to our conversation.
I'm thinking, who is this woman? And you say, oh,
this is the Missouri ad and I'm thinking wow. And then she said she's
from you know, work in Tucson, And I'm thinking wow. And then
I'm thinking, would she be a good person for a job here that heke
left? And I'm thinking, she's not leaving Missouri. What did you think?
Well, there's a lot to all this, but but but it is
I had forgotten that you'd met her that day. That is so interesting.
Now in hindsight, you know, there's there's a few things going on here,
some of which I'm surmising, some of which has been reported. But
I think, you know, there is there is a tug for her to
go back to some of her roots here. But I also think that there's
just been some for lack of a better term, kind of obnoxious action by
the border curators with you know, creating oversights and things like that that I
think are intended to maybe have a little bit of a chilling effect on her.
And as you'll come to see in the in the weeks ahead. She's
a very dynamic person, very principled person. She does not need somebody riding
herd over her. And I again, i'm sort of surmising this from from
one of the policies they created and things like that. I don't have primary
knowledge that you know, she was offended by that, but my goodness,
where I come from, you get a great person to work for you and
you let them go. Yeah. No, that well, and that's the
thing, you know, because we're sitting here in Tucson and she said,
you know, I'm home, and I like, but you know, there
has to be a whole lot more to you know, when you're making it
a decision like this is a life decision for somebody, you know, you
know, with her family and the whole bit. So you know, I
don't think there was anybody who suspected it was just that. Yeah, and
look so yeah, there's some fluid fluid parts and all this. She does
like a challenge, and I understand it to be a challenging time there.
But it's interesting right as I understand that she's not going to be paid quite
as much and obviously at least the thought process right now is that you're leaving
the stability and even the thriving aspect of the SEC for you know, a
great institution that that's in a time of flux. So it on paper,
it's really probably not what you would draw up. I don't think. Yeah,
yeah, no question. I was wanting to ask her about you know,
you're having great success right now football, basketball, you know, why
come? And then that's when she set her heart. It's a heart move
things like that. But I think you hit it. And the question was
asked from somebody else about the oversight committee and if that played a part,
of course, she said no, yeah, And and you know she's I
think too gracious and dignified to to take that on even if she does feel
that, and I don't Again, I don't know that she feels that.
It does. It just strikes me that there's more than meets the eye.
I guess that's the best way I can put it. And but I would
say Missouri's losses is Arizona's gain. I mean, I think you know,
she's somebody that in the just a few years I've known her, is somebody
you can talk to about any number of things. She's very smart on the
issues. She likes to listen. Uh, you will, you will learn
or if you haven't seen or heard about this already, I mean she will.
She will seek out student athlete experiences. I mean she'll be getting to
know. However many student athletes there are there, they'll know her and she'll
know them and it and it will be sincere. So I think you'll be
if you weren't already struck by her presence that way, I think you will
be over time. Well, let me we want to I guess I want
to go there because you know, obviously, when when somebody comes in like
that, in a position like that in Tucson, Arizona. I mean,
she's a big deal here in town. Every athletic director you know has been,
you know, dealing with boosters, dealing with old guys in the media
like Steve and I you know, just all those things that she's going to
have to do. You know, where her strengths as far as that goes.
Who you know, who's gonna who's gonna have who's gonna have the best
impression of her when she gets when she gets here. Well, okay,
so I say this, I'm not sure she's exactly easy to work for because
she's very demanding, but she's also a get it done person. But I,
at least as I understand it, well, I shouldn't say it that
way. I mean she told me. I mean, she gets up about
three point thirty to run, and she's as soon as she's got something on
her mind. She's texting staff members at three thirty or four in the morning.
Now mercifully, I think they've learned they don't have to respond at three
thirty or four in the morning. But she's a she's always percolating. So
I I think that, uh, you know, she'll she'll sharpen things,
she'll she'll uh she'll bring a human touch, but she'll be very practical too.
And you know, I don't want to claim that I know all the
issues that are having to be dealt with there. I just know it's been
a difficult time. So I think that, uh, she'll be a person
of action, no doubt. She's been there three years. From Vegas.
Did she have or how much of the influence did she have with the the
football and basketball successes? Recently, Well, she hired Dennis Gates, and
you know Dennis that hire looked a lot better a year ago. Right now,
Missouri's zero to fourteen in the SEC. But I do think Dennis is
an exceptional coach in many ways. And I think they just, you guys
know, in the nil transfer portal era, if you're if you're the coin
of the realm, is that then things can go go awry. They do
have a top five recruiting class next year coming in. I assume they'll do
much better next year. And I think if you're around Dennis Gates, you'll
understand why you could have faith in him. I think it was a very
shrewd hire. And you know, Dennis is fairly young, only run a
program for about three or four years at Cleveland State, but she had had
him on her list as far back as when she was at I think at
Virginia Tech. If she's she's had a lot of different jobs, doing a
lot of different things that are kind of the mortar of of why she's so
capable. She did not hire the football coach, She inherited him, and
you know, she was maybe facing a tough situation if they hadn't made a
turn this year, but they made quite a dramatic turn and she had to
she had to let go of the previous basketball coach, Conzo Martin, which
I bring I bring up because Conzo's just a prince of a man, a
wonderful guy, and just couldn't seem to get it turned at Missouri, and
Desiree had known him for years, she had interviewed him when he was hired
at Tennessee when she was working there. It was very difficult for her.
And that's why I bring it up. I mean, she'll she'll do what
she has to do, and even in hard cases like that. Yeah.
No, Well, and and that's the thing, you know, you get
it into a job like that, and you have to have the stomach,
you know, to be able to do those things. Some people have it,
some people don't. You know, some people, some athletic directors will
let a coach hang around and hang around and hang around because they don't want
to do, you know, make the hard call. Others will you have
the quick trigger? Where do you think she sits on stuff like that?
Because the big question that that happens is that they just hired a football coach
that she didn't hire. She's coming in, She's true, she's inheriting a
coach who has yet to coach a game here in Arizona. Yeah, and
I look, I don't think that that bodes ill for the coach or anything.
I just think that she'll want to get to know him. She'll want
to see how this works. I don't. I don't think she's the sort
of person who would just say, well, I didn't hire him, he's
not my guy. I don't. I don't think she will think that way.
I do suppose he's auditioning in a new way for a new boss.
But I don't. I don't. I don't think to myself, boys,
this has to be a problematic. I mean, obviously, a couple three
years into it, I guess you'll you'll get a feel for whether it's a
harmonious relationship and how things are going. But I think I think he'll feel
supported, uh and uplifted even I really believe that right well, by your
scenario and people who've spoken, she's very visible. She'll be out and about
talking to a lot of people. A lot of teams. Have you spoken
to her, interviewed her since she decided to come here. No, I
was in Costa Rica on vacation, and I just I just sent her a
text and told her I was sorry I would miss her, but you're right,
she'll be very visible, to the point where you wonder if there's two
of her, because she's she's really everywhere. And I don't know if you
would have noticed this last year, Steve at the NCAA tournament game, but
I remember sitting I was kind of sitting behind the Missouri bench, and at
one point I saw her over there picking up howels behind the bench, So
she was she was pretty directly involved. Of course, her son there's a
walkout on the Missouri basketball team, so maybe she won't be quite as uh.
I don't know if it's his towel he wasn't playing, but she'll be
She'll be very very present. What was the surprise factor over there? That
she would leave an SEC school and come to a place like Arizona that won,
As you mentioned, it's got some serious financial challenges. But two it's
you know, it's headed over the big big twelve, coming out of a
conference that fell apart. Well, you know, we're people going, what
the hell is she doing? I don't think that. I think it was
more like the way I put it. I think people are like, well,
what don't we know, right, there's got to be more to this
than we know. And I look, I think it's been you know,
sort of behind the scenes thought for a year or two that the university curators
for wielding I don't want to say meddling. I mean it's their their job
to to you know, oversee the university. But I think we're in the
middle of more things than than you might want or expect if you're the athletic
director, including I think maybe some contract matters and some things like that.
And I guess I can't say I was startled. I was surprised and you
know, disappointed. I think she's been really good for the school and good
that's good for the state. But I yeah, I think if you've been
following kind of closely, you wouldn't be you know, jarred. It's just,
uh, you still like to fill in the missing pieces of why this
was the move now right right? And maybe lestlie Uh. I think it's
no short order that she's a very good recruit not recruiter, but the she
gets money pretty easily from the donors or not easily, but she goes after
it. Yeah, I would think that I don't you know, I don't
have a ledger on me. I don't I don't know exactly how she she
did, but I mean there have been some really significant donation. Gosh,
I think there was just a sixty two million dollar one. Don't hold me
to that. I was out of the country. I can't remember if it
was Missouri or one of our other schools. But she's had some really good
success with that, and UH, I would expect that the longer she's rooted
somewhere, the more she'll have an influence on that ass. Yeah, okay,
So how are you liking what's going on with the with realignment? You
got some new teams coming to the sec UH Oklahoma and and UH in Texas,
teams that you're probably very familiar with. What's the word over there in
Missouri? How that affects them? Well, it's kind of funny, just
I laugh at the idea of Texas, only because Texas was at the epicenter
of why all these people left the Big Twelve to begin with, so particularly
Texas, A and M. But there was a long time feeling in the
Big Twelve that it counts out too much to Texas. When when the Big
Eight in the Southwest came together, you know, all of a sudden,
the offices were moved to Texas, not to Kansas City, and the commissioner,
you know, was not out of the Big eight, and it became
sort of this feeling like, well, Texas is wielding way too much influence
the institution, particularly, not the state necessarily. So it's just a funny
twist on it. I think that it's ongoing musical chairs. I mean,
I really wanted to think that the twenty eleven, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen
barrage of movement would be sort of sealed in place for a long time.
But I think it's like that expression, the only thing that is constant has
changed, and I find it a little, I don't know, disillusioning,
But how can you even be disillusioned anymore? Right? I mean, everything's
about everything's about commodification, you know, and how do you leverage this into
money? And how do you leverage that into money? I don't know how
much of that does or doesn't help the student athlete, I don't, you
know, with weekday travel and all these sorts of things. And then again
they're better subsidized, I'm sure, but it just feels like the arms race
and between that and the portal and nil. It's not what we knew as
college athletics. I mean, if somebody had told you some years ago that
you know, you could you could outright pay players instead of just hide it.
And and the gambling was gambling and pot. We're we're all legal everywhere.
If you think, you know, the world is the world is ending,
right, I mean, every once a while I come across a movie
or an old TV show where those things come up, right, you know
that one's like, you know, please gamble. We want to be affiliated
with this anyway, I digress. But no, and let's pay the play
Let's pay the college players, you know, and we're also paying the college
players to play, right. Well, you know, I saw, I
saw, I saw an incident you were talking about, you talking about the
dragonet in nineteen sixty five. What are we going to do when they legalize
all this stuff? Well, okay, well here we are. And by
the way, the world does ended on Friday, So have fun. Well,
thank you, Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you very much.
Good to talk to you. Yeah, hey, listen anytime. I'm glad
we can work it out and look forward to see you down the road.
Hope it's not so many years in between. Three. Yes, true,
very true. Thank you, by I appreciate you. Okay, all right,
okay. Vi Grigorian Weather one of the great columnists in the country,
very quol Kansas City Star. So I wanted to read him. Uh yeah,
go back and see his stuff on you know, on Missouri athletics and
some of the issues they've had. All right, stick around, we're going
to be back. We'll take your calls five two zero four one six.
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Steve Rivera and Jacin Solins they have their Eye on the ball on Tucson's Sports
Stage Chat Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I in the
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Iim Steve, He's James at least
with us today fourteen minutes. If you guys want to call, please do.
What were your thoughts on just the thoughts on Desert Ray. I'm hoping
I'm looking forward to having her on the show with time or two. Yeah,
yeah, we gotta when she gets here, right, said March third.
Well, we'll put on our request right away, right away, right,
And then the month is going to be very busy for both really being
on the road for for us for a while. We're gonna be kind of
hitting miss on the show, kind of hit and miss each of us.
You know, we're both gonna be up at the PAC twelve tournament, right,
so we'll have three shows that we won't be able to do there and
then you'll presumably be at the first and second round whoever Arizona is. But
I'll be here, so we'll keep the show going and maybe we'll bring InAlAs
in every day. I'm coming yet I need a job. Well, it
doesn't pay very well, and no matter what you think, you better up
state of student. Presuming Arizona gets to the Sweet sixteenth, Steve will be
on and again the next week, so I'll kind of hold things together.
Then we'll know, and then we'll both be gone for the final four,
whether Arizona is in it or not him talking about it exactly, but but
we'll both be at the final four. I'm working Steve is while Steve's working
too, so so, you know, as much as we'd like to be
on and be able to talk about all those things while they're going on,
unfortunately we have work a lot to unpack. Yeah, very much. Just
come back so we'll be worth it. We'll keep you up to date on
We got some fun stuff coming up this week. Tomorrow we're gonna have Patrick
Finley. He's the beat writer for the Bears, uh covering the Bears for
the Chicago Sun Times and old friend. He was at theirs of the Daily
Star. His brother Ryan was the sports editor here for a number of years.
Now he's in San Diego. Or We're gonna talk to Patrick Field because
well, I am interested. What are they gonna do with Caleb Williams?
You know, is he going to get the Is he gonna be the first
pick? Is he not? Is he going to trade the pick? What
is? What is Chicago? And everybody's looking at Chicago as to what they're
going to do. So we'll get some of Patrick's Pat's insights on that.
He's at the he's at the combine. At the combine. Yeah, and
there's a few Arizona players and a bunch of guys who aren't doing it,
including they say that not only is is Marvin Harrison Junior not going to the
combine, He's not going to do a pro day, he's not working out,
he's not doing anything. I'm like, okay, how do you jeopardize
your status as the number largely the number two pick? He can be enduring
private private workouts for Do you have that list of who's but it was Williams
one obviously no, no, no, but just don't say it now.
Can you use it for a breaking news Yeah? Yeah, yeah, great,
yeah, pull that out. Well there was there was no one from
as. There's like six guys. Yeah, maybe, and it's the most
in a while, I think, given the talent, which is great,
which is great. You can see the talent getting better. Yeah. So
anyway, so we'll see. You know, did you see the schedule for
football football spring? Have you seen that yet? It came out last week.
So it's going the spring games April twenty seventh. That's pretty late into
the year. Yeah, it's probably gonna be a hot, nice hot day.
Yeah, but it's starting later on in next month at some point.
They're charging to get into it. They're charging to get into the game.
Right, Yeah, nothing's free. You want not, it's not. And
you know, look, oh we have a collar coming in. Let's take
that. Hi, you're on the air and eye on the ball. Hey,
gentlemen, So let's say with the experts here, this is the second
time they share. The schedule is done now, so we're issue tomorrow night,
right, Oregon at home? No Oregon State correct, right, because
they already played Oregon State. Well we only get Oregon State one time time.
Yeah. I want to say, we'll straighten us out next year,
next year where there's gonna beating next year. So I get kind of sad.
I wondered, like Matt and you block Cory Wings. You think those
gentlemen will land on your feet. I mean hopefully, like some network picks
them up, No queste, no question. They're they're both very good at
what they do, and they and they you know, they they do work
for the other networks already, you know, uh, you know, I
mean, uh, Matt was on the game uh on on Saturday, and
that was the CBS game or is it Fox? That CBS announcement? And
I wonder who Bill Walton, who's the Conference of Champions. I guess it's
gonna be the big whoever U c l A goes Now the conference, I
don't know. Uh, well, it's a conference and champions not counting U
c l A. Because they're gonna have a tough time. Let me let
me ask you real quick. Who is this? What's your name? Gary?
Derek? So do you like Bill? There's either those who like him
who don't like him. Where do you stand? Okay, I'm gonna catch
him. I'm gonna catch some I'm gonna say heck on the radio for this.
But I actually kind of haven't seen him last couple weeks. I kind
of missed him, I guess is the NBA All Star Game, which is
the biggest waste of time ever. I don't even why anybody watches that.
More like, come on, Bill, I guess you know he wants to
the NBA guys. But I missed him a little bit. Yeah, he'll
he'll be I'm sure he'll be in Vegas in a full force. How many
times have you done that in your life? Right that you think somebody's been
annoying as all hell, then they're not hearing where you're going in a minute,
man, this is something in my day is missing. I gotta miss
though, selling out of pen. I'm a fan, so I'm sure some
people aren't. But I just you know, like I said, I hopeful
of our guys laying on your feet next year. And this guy's gonna be
a weird deal man. You know, we'll see I hope for the best,
gentlemen. I just want to check with you guys there. Appreciate it,
Derek, thank you for calling, call anytime. Thanks for listening as
well. Yeah, appreciate it. You know it is going to be interesting.
But you know, I'm what I'm interested in knowing seeing is how long
the newness is going to carry this, right, the newness of being in
the Big twelve. How long people will be enthusiastic about it, about the
new team, Oh, the new road trips, the new you know,
the basketball. You know, the first basketball season is going to be great.
Okay, what's the second one going to be? Like? Are they
gonna be? Holy hell, we're getting the hell beat out of it.
I don't want to be I don't want to be in this league anymore.
So. I was watching the Baylor TCU game last night, late last night,
and uh, I'm thinking fans are gonna go berserk because they're physical.
How can they don't call thousand? You know, you know the fans are
gonna say they're beating us up. How one's no one's calling it. I'll
take you back, you know. So the first the first game Arizona game,
basketball game that I was the beat writer, Arizona was playing in the
preseason. N I t at u n lv okay, okay, this this
is eight the eighties, six eighty seven sees so this was this was over
Thanksgiving nineteen eighty six. And and somebody made a point, and I remember
where I got it from, but we knew that the refs for that game
were from the Big twelve or the Big Ten at the time, it was
the Big Ten. The rest from that game were in the Big Ten.
Right out of the box. I mean, in the first thirty seconds,
was losing his mind over fathers that weren't being called right and that we were.
And I'm like, that was a follow in the pack. In the
pack, that's a follow, then, that's why. And and I remember
there was this one ref in particular who looked like he looked like a guy
who stole cars in a movie. I can't say it any other way.
He had this big wave of a big head of hair, like a big
bowl of hair, and couldn't have been three. Four minutes into the game.
We basically told Luke shut the hell up and sit down. This is
how we call the game. And Louke was unhappy. And it's like,
these are fouls where we play and why aren't they You brought this up yesterday?
And the point was it has the PAC twelve prepared them for the tournament?
What did you say? No? And no? And it's it hasn't
prepared him physically either either, because the fouls are called different, right,
And and these guys okay, however, many of these guys are here on
this team next year. They haven't played week in and week out in games
like that. The first game we saw last year, we were at the
game TCUC. Who's the first TCU first round? No no two years ago?
Two years ago? Remember we not no, No No? Was the
second game TCU, And you're thinking, what the heck is going on?
They're physical, They didn't Arizona do much and they just weren't used to it.
And they survived that game. A week later, they got mad,
they got beat up by a better physical team. How many times did that
happen in the NC Double A tournament over the years, all the time?
How many times did you right? You know, they just weren't physical enough
for the type of play, that's all the time. You know. What's
funny about that to me is that the Packed ten slash Pack twelve refs would
go into the n C Double A tournament and ref like all the other refs.
They wouldn't ref like they reffed when they were reffing Packed, Pack ten
and Pac twelve games. It surprised the hell out of him. You know,
I don't know if he could talk about this, but let's try to
get Chris reff Tatler on. He's the head of the I don't know how
far he could go, but I don't remember. I think we might.
I can't remember the answer, but I think we did ask him do refs
ref differently in the different conference? And where does that come from? I
don't I have We'll no idea what he say because we don't remember anything from
yesterday. But no, but Steve, this is it's to me, it's
this is. This is gonna be at least in basketball. One of the
most interesting things about moving to the Big twelve is how the air, how
Arizona, the game that Arizona Basketball plays will change because of that, no
question, and fans are gonna go berserk. But I can also already see
and no one can see it on the radio. Hold, I'm gonna do
uh Kelvin uh the coach of TCU uh Bill Solf, Come on in,
there's exactly come on in. Yeah, we're looking forward to and and the
fans who moaned and grown at the ticki tag files that Pack twelve calls right
now, they're gonna go, wait a minute, that used to be a
foul. Why isn't it a fall tonight? It's gonna go. It's gonna
be fun. Yeah, it be fun. I'm looking forward to that part
of it. Going back to my original point though, give me interesting to
see how long that lasts or how quickly Arizona fans get used to. Yeah,
that's how the game are going to be. Well, it's a game.
Whether they like it, it's good. And we've seen this because Arizona
doesn't play a physical game. It's a finesse camp. They're gonna if Tommy
goes after guys more like Keisha Johnson. Uh. Then than Philippe. Yeah,
or Rich and you know what I'm saying, it's a different style because
he's got to survive that league. Yeah. So we'll get there when we
get there. We'll get that when we get there. I'm looking forward to
it. Yeah, me Too's a lot of basketball left to be played.
Sure, Tom is not even thinking about No, got a call. Let's
take this call real quick. Hi, you're on the air and eye on
the ball. Hey, I was gonna say that's I think that's the number
one reason we haven't done it much since nineteen ninety seven is work. We're
too soft in all honesty, and that when when the big tournament comes,
we're not used for physicality. You know, I think back to Duke in
Arizona in two thousand and and you know Gardner got fouled and Pack twelve or
back then back then. Sure, yeah, that fall would have been a
technical if it was that Michael, Yeah, jumping out of guys get kicked
out. Yeah, Bann. So So who's this is this? Uh?
Who's this? J r? J? We've had? Well, I re
agree with you, No, I mean how you know, look to me
though, I think going through that so that there's no question about what you're
gonna see in the in the tournament. I think that's gonna help Arizona.
Oh yeah, yeah, And I think that's one thing that got as a
community and radio and everyone across the board. And he's a prep up fans,
especially the ones, you know, the outskirts that that drive on in
and are used to softball, not softball softball. I say, JR,
real quick, how far do you think Arizona's gonna go this year? Yeah?
I don't know. I feel like it's it's very waded down across the
board and only three solid teams. So I think if we make it passive
first, we again, uh you know, anything goes from there. I
think we just got to not play down the competition. Yeah. And and
you know you got a scholarship and in il money, aren't it you know?
Right? Right? Well, you it sounds like you've been around a
long time, because that's exactly how I feel, exactly how I feel.
Thank you, Jared, all right, Jair, I appreciate the com man.
Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, you know again, I mean that
that kind I remember, just remember that conversation coming up, you know,
every at the end of every season. Were they prepared to that that the
that the refine changes for Arizona and are they prepared for that? And I
think I think we're gonna see some more. Well, look at the Sears
Conference. Who's the toughest team in the league. Do they have one?
Well, Arizona? Is that that tells you a lot. Don't touch me?
You know? Again, you know the and there's so many times we're
sitting there at the table, you know, and a guy puts a hand
on someone and you go let him play you calling that, you know,
And I get the feeling. I've always had the feeling that the PAC twelve
official, the conference office says this is how we're gonna call games right in
the pack because let's let's admit this, in non conference games, it works
against the teams that come here, to the point where, again when I
was covering the team, George uh uh uh John Thompson wouldn't come here to
play with Pack ten repts. Of course, of course they said we're not
coming. The reason why and they and they they uh uh whatever, they
didn't do it. Yeah, well they didn't, you know, live up
to the contract that they had Arizona went and played there, but they wouldn't
come here. Now, all right, let's take our break. We're going
to be back. Uh Analys is loaded up with breaking news and then uh
then we'll have uh Idea and uh Jada Williams from women's basketball. So stick around.