This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart Radio while just
surgery. I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to the ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. No. We
have said with breaking news. This is I on the Ball. Breaking news.
All right, we'll start off our breaking news here with Tommy Lloyd being
named the U eighteen USA head for the summer. I think it isn't actually
you nineteen. You know they corrected it, well, did did they?
Yeah? The oh no, they put you nineteen. They crack, So
it is you got it. Sorry. That's a big time, big time
though. That was quick for him. Yeah, yeah, three years and
three years shows kind of a lot of respect for what he's done well exactly.
I mean that, you know, people recognizing that, you know,
he's a pretty good coach. Just last year, about ten months ago,
no one thought he could coach. Ten months ago. It was uh oh
yeah, yeah, ten time flies, man. I was thinking it was
just earlier this year. No, we're in February, two more months.
I thought we were still November. Sorry, Yeah, but now you look
good for him. And again you know he's gonna get He's gonna he's gonna
get or I should say, some really good high school players are going to
be exposed to Tommy Loyd. Oh yeah, you know he's gonna be able
to build really obviously he's gonna have to build relationships coaching them. So yeah,
yeah, that's a that's a very cool thing. Was it was ua
team team that was the one that Colin Boswa played on here ryeah, Yeah
that's true. Yeah, one of those before yeah, last summer, yeah,
last summer. Yeah, Okay, moving into more sad news, Carl
Weathers passed away. Apollo Creed Many Apollo Creed. I can't believe. You
know, the studio's a mountain of a man to remember those first movies there,
you know, you know one of those guys that you know for us,
you know you and I I mean I was in high school when when
Rocky and and you know, just he was always that guy that was out
there, right. I mean, he wasn't in a ton of movies.
He wasn't a ton of movies that I saw. I've seen most of the
Rocky movies. It's all of those, you know, he was in the
Predator movies. I didn't see any of those. Then the whole the Happy
Gilmore you know movie with with with Adam Sandler, but just a guy that
you just had to appreciate that he just looked like a guy, right who
who you know, don't I know, but but he seemed like just a
guy. You know, I don't know, but you know to me meaningful
to me because of you know, to me today to to this day,
rock I can think Rocky is one of my top two or three movies of
my lifetime, you know, really and certainly yeah, certainly my top sports
movie. Who would be what would be the other time? Like the Guy,
god Father? Uh, stuff like that. I have some movies that
I watch all the time. Do I think they're the best movies, you
know, but they're entertaining to me. But like the Godfather, you know,
one of the all time great movies. I got Father. I can
sit through Rocky. They always have them on Vice. They're always it was
it was on this morning. They don't get tired, you don't get tired
now and you can pick it up at any point and you take lines from
the movie, even the Creed stuff now, you know, and if you
forget, you know, the guy was an NFL player for a couple of
years, played with the Raiders, and so yeah, you know I missed
the guy, you know. I mean I I was really heartbroken when they
killed him in Rocky four. If he dies, he dies, Damn Russians.
Yeah, Carl Weathers, uh, you know, love the guy.
And it's sort of like again a sign that our guys Steve that we grew
up with are all. Yeah, there's a lot of them. There's a
lot of them, a lot of them. And Keith Richards lives on.
I checked my pulse every morning. It's a good little bit. But you
know, it's one of those things where you you say, you know,
a guy like Carl Weathers, you know, good physical shape all his life
and stuff like that. And Keith Richards, man, he's still out there
kicking it. Father time hasn't found him and not Hey, yeah it doesn't.
Father time doesn't want to get near him. So there you go,
all right. Moving into Arizona basketball news, Lonarady updated the backtology to day
to day and Arizona is a two seed in the West as of right now.
Yeah, so the fans would love that their first and second round Spokane
Angeles, right, Yeah, well, no, that's the that's the West.
That's a West. Yeah, Spokane or Salt Lake. Okay, they
love him in Spokane, they do. I would be It's just it could
be hard to get to. Yeah, we'll see. I don't know.
I don't want to take that drive if I have to. What's the furthest
that you've had to drive or to cover to drive to Salt Lake five six
years ago he drove to Salt Lake, Joe six six hours of Vegas and
another six hours to Salt Lake and came back. They did really well.
That was the year of the kid, the Kid the l A kid who
went and declared Stanley Johnson, Stanley Johnson the rest of you know. No,
no, it went to Sacramento to last year. That yeah. Brian
Peterson and I Brian Joe all the way. Thanks, thanks Brian. So
sticking with the basketball, there was a sellout last night. Staying on that
topic of the game, I wanted to ask if you guys saw the comments
from Mark Manson about about the environment. Okay, it was kind of like
the same question that Justin did. Justin asked to Cronin, and Crownin said,
you go ask Sean, go ask you know he it was a snarky
route to Justin mad say so instead of going that way, Mattson, you
know, praise p wex, but what what Arizona's created here talks about how
he's gonna miss the PAC twelve and so basically a complete opposite of what the
response was, highlighting what a turd mc bro talking about his buddy Luke Walton
and Sean was here and you know there's a lot of great players that have
come through here. Blah blah blah. Again once again mc cronin has respect
for no one and it's not shocking. But look, you know a guy
like you know, matthe and who played and you know he played at Stanford
at a time when you know they had some battles with Arizona. Yeah,
no question, and and so certainly, you know you would expect a guy
to have a guy like him who's been here during those times they have a
level of respect for you know, for Michale. Yeah. Interesting, I
didn't I didn't, I didn't see the comments. But good. They want
to talk to him party specifically to see what he would say to I don't
know, I forget who asked. The guys behind us were nice to him
last night, you know they, I mean they were vicious on you know,
was here. You know it's here to You saw him at the end,
and I wanted to say, we should have had him on. Was
J John? Because he's gone. Yeah. Yeah, he came up and
was talking to you. I was trying to get his attention. He was
at the scores table talking to those guys and it was talking to Tom Donaldson
and I was trying and I want to say, J J, we need
to get you on the show. But I didn't get a chance again two
years ago. Yeah, he was there last night. Moving into the what
we kind of mentioned earlier, the SEC and Big ten have announced the Joint
Advisory Group, made of president's chancellors and ads of the two conferences. So
this is where they take charge of everything. And not to mind them be
in charge of everything as long as they include the rest of us, right
if they don't try and break away and it's just them too with crap team
football teams like Vanderbilt and Rutgers and and you know the you know those teams
that you know, aren't deserving, but because they're in their conference, they
get to come along for the ride. Yeah, you know, I just
you just hope that whatever they decide to do and however they're gonna run it,
that you know, it's available to most everybody. And I guess that's
why I'm so nervous about all that is because there's almost sort of a kind
of a middle of the pack program. You know, they're not usc they're
not Washington, they're not Oregon, and you know they could get kicked to
the curb and most people outside of Arizona wouldn't really care, you know.
So, uh well, we'll see, we'll start to see what their discussions
are and what they decide to do. Yeah. So, moving more into
the NFL stuff now, Cliff Kingsbury landed a job as the Raiders offensive coordinator.
I want his life, right if I screw up, I want to
fall forward every time. I mean, it's already set up for him to
get paid from home again, right man? Oh from what are you talking
about? They're gonna he'll get he'll get his contract and then if things don't
go well yeah yeah, yeah, and they'll pay I get you the yeah,
it's the it's the Kivan O'Neill contract. Yeah, you know, go
and send a big one and get fired in two years and still get paid
and still get paid well, you know. And related to that, there's
a lot of discussion speculation that Chip Kelly interviewed for the couple of times,
interviewed twice, and that he's trying like hell and I just read an on
three article that he's trying to get the hell out of there Washington. He
wants that, he's interested in the in the Washington Commanders offense coordinator. He
just doesn't want to deal with all the sure he wants. He wants out
of l A. Talked about that, you know, And the on three
article they just read said that basically U C. L A screwed up by
not just going ahead and firing him at the end of the year. Yeah,
I think a lot of people thought that that they should have just fired
him, because now if he leaves but say in a week or two,
they're screwed for next season. So as they hit in to the big Yeah,
he's not saying this, the writers are saying. Everybody else is saying
that he's really trying to get out of l a h. Then he look
and he's been he's been vocal about Yeah, you know, all the chaos
and the strap that they have to So he came up with some pretty good
ideas, right what to solve or how to solve? Yeah, but that's
so far away and any of that is so far away from happening that he
just wants the hell out of there and just go go coach football. And
so the thing about it with him, the think about with him Jay,
he's about al righty, he's about l'out older. He hasn't had had a
lot of success after he left Orgon a few years back. Yeah, but
think about it, Steve. If he goes somewhere and all he has to
do is run an offense, he doesn't have to be the head coach and
it's not all on him, I bet that would be as he's made all
the money he could he's ever gonna need. So why not go get in
the job that you actually are going to like? Your good like? But
would you be any good? Would you hire him as an offensive coordinator?
Yeah? I think I would. I'm sure if I don't need him to
go into If I don't need him to go into parents living rooms or boosters,
you know, events and stuff like that. If all I need him
to do is draw plays and call an offense, why not I yeah,
I would. I don't know, I don't know if I I think he's
better than Cliff Kingsbury. Yeah, as an offensive coordinator. Good point,
good point. But I wouldn't hire him either, like you just wouldn't hire
because he wouldn't want to bring around your girlfriend or something. Probably probably you
know, if if you were to knock on my door, Steve, I
would be if you have an extra room. My wife was really disappointed,
was really disappointed. He got fired from Texas Tech the year before they came
here. Who's your hunt? Let him right in because by the way,
your bags are passed, our seats are on the we're on the visiting side.
And I'm like, he's going to be like right there and my wife
is going to be with and then shouting distance of it. Oh cliff fliffy,
cliffy god. Okay, speaking of offensive coaches, Dave Canalis, the
new head coach for the Panthers, I thought it was he had a great
quote. So when they asked him about Bryce Young and what he wants to
do, and he said, we are going to become what Bryce Young is
great at. Right, And I feel like a lot of times with these
coaches they try to too much to control over the offense rather than playing to
their strengths. Right. And one example that comes to mind is the Khalil
tate for me, exactly this quote here, you notice, coach to your
talent. So of course isn't that the number one thing you should do?
The thing about it? With today's world? And I know we're all getting
old except for you, Sam. You said, is that the coaching is
on the thirties, thirty six, thirty two? Very young teams are going
young, younger. I mean this new coach at Michigan, he's under forty,
he's like thirty. Well, who's outside of hardball he's the new older
guy. But there's who's the Seattle guy? He's pretty young? Oh that
McDonald, I think he's what thirty six? It's kind of like the Josh
pastor, Uh look yeah, where that is? This is definitely the most
that we've seen as far as young coaches. Right, So it's not would
you hire Bill Belichick right now? Yeah? Exactly exactly. Bill. You
know you made your money go away. Yeah, that's also on TV.
I do even want him to be a consultant because then his fingertips are on
everything and everything and that and that. Yeah, and that becomes the you
know, the narrative for your team, and that's I think one of the
reasons. Well they didn't hire Himah yeah, I hired Chip Kelly before I
d Belichick. You know what, so what I what? I agree with
you? Oh, Cliff, Yeah, It's super interesting with Bill Belichick though,
because now you start to ask yourself, is he going to coach again?
Because in the NFL the window closed, right, and he's seventy two
years old, is it? So now he's not going to coach this year,
So by the time you need him to coach, he's seventy three.
Do you want that guy? You know? The only other option to be
college. But can you even imagine dealing with the I'm not going to go
deal. He's not going to go coach in college there unless he goes to
like I heard something, unless he goes like a Division III school or something
like and just wants to coach for the sake of coaching to have something to
do, right, But he's not going to go coach. He's not going
to coach you know I or Penn State or you know somebody like that.
Who you know who needs a coach Washington State or cal No, not when
the rosters or somebody who just made the point of Yesteray they're trying to get
out to be a price. Yes, yep, okay, we gotta go
you anymore? Oh that was all I had? All right right here,
Matt Mulbach will be coming up. Well, he he was on the call
last night for a pac club Networks. We'll ask him, Pat, Matt,
could you do during that eight minutes? Hey? Your number Air.
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Solis they have their Eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station CHET Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to Joining the Buck here know Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera Agan. Now when the phone we had Melba
Matt meil Buck who has his eye on the ball as well. How you
doing that? I'm doing awesome. How you guys doing Friday? Happy Friday?
You're busy? You were at the game last night? Uh? What
were you gonna ask him? Out of fun? How did you spend the
eight minutes that you were not on? Oh? Yeah, how yeah,
I'm sorry. I didn't really do much. I watched the game and and
somebody uh then I then I looked at Twitter. Somebody suggested I, uh,
I live stream, and so I started to live stream and then we
popped back on. So did you so you knew you knew you were off
the air? But that did you you knew you were off the air?
I didn't know at first. I think it took a minute or so.
Our our monitors, I think they called me ISO monitors pros and I still
not heard. My understanding was the power went out somewhere well, so like
like like like in a huge way like either in San Ramon or somewhere else
where the feed was was being sent. So well, you know that the
joke was that the Pac club didn't pay its power bill. That was the
joke. Well, I'll tell you, you know, I get it.
You know, the PAC twelve has been a punching bag for sure. But
the sad part of the unfortunate part is the one thing that the PAC twelve
has had. People don't realize this, but and ironically, this is why
the whole power going out was ironic because the production value has been top notch.
You know, we have yeah, really good announcers, incredible like truck
people and back end people and you know, producers, directors, the whole
thing, camera people. Like it's as good as any as anybody. Now,
we don't have the resources that you know, Monday Night Football has or
something like that. But you know, but that's that's what was so frustrating,
is like we've done such a good job from a production standpoint that then
that went out Unfortunately. It's sort of bad luck. Yeah, are you
do you already have plans for what's gonna happen with you after this year?
Yeah? You know, I've been talking to both ESPN Box and UH and
certainly talking about you know what it would look like next Sure, I actually
I just did. As you know, Steve, if you helped me,
thanks for helping me out by the way, you helped me out on some
of my knowledge and info in the five oh five in Albuquerque. I did
a I did a reno at New Mexico game last Sunday, which is a
great game, by the way, really really important game for the Mountain West.
Is good and there's some good teams, and I've got a couple of
f S one games coming up with Arizona, so it's gonna be nice.
I got the Arizona State at Arizona game, and I've got the what is
it Washington State at Arizona game on f S one, so you know,
kind of getting my foot in the door there, which is which is kind
of the plan for next year. All right, So you were on the
call last night, just general impressions, what you saw compared to what you've
been seeing from Arizona. Well, I thought the Oregon game was the was
the most important game of the year. Like it just felt like they weren't
themselves the last few weeks. They had some weird results. Obviously, Stanford
shot it well on the road. You know, they didn't look good at
a couple of times. And then the Oregon State game was you know,
even if you play bad, you figure that the game Arizona wins. But
Oregon State hit a ton of shots. I think they hit like kind I
want to. I can't remember the exact stat but it was like seven shots
under five seconds of the shot clock. They also found Oregon State I think
like five to seven times under five seconds to the shot clock. So,
you know, I'm not sure the game was was really it was a little
bit of a you know, unfortunate game for them. But I thought Orgon
was incredible and I thought they carried it over last night. To answer your
question, Jay, it just felt like the momentum was really good. I
thought they were as connected last night as I've seen them all year. Yeah,
no question, all right, you totally agree with you. What do
you what do you like most about them? You know, I think they
have eight really good players. I don't think this team has a you know,
Sean Elliott or a Mike Bibbie or a Derek Williams per se, but
you know what it does have is eight really good players, and you can
make an argument all eight of those guys they will be playing professional basketball after
they're done. Where I don't know, like, you know, are there
a few NBA guys possibly are there some European players. I think that left
to see whether all shakes out. But I just think they're They're really good
at every position and deep, you know, eight guys deep. On top
of that, I would say that I do love their size. I mean,
they have that really good size. They can really hurt you inside.
And I guess the third thing I would say, I mean just there's a
bunch of things. I mean I love Caleb Love is a go to alpha
and I think, you know, we haven't seen a guy probably like that
since Derreck Williams that was that kind of well actually been Mather, and I
would Matrons started to become that by his you know, that second year,
especially towards the end of the year. But I love what he does in
big games, and he showed it in the Oregon game. He showed it
in the Duke game. And I think going into the NCEBLA tournament, that's
the kind of guy you want. Yeah, no, I hear, you
know, we were talking earlier about the fact that and what Tommy said was
that it was nice to see. And I think it was a question from
Steve, so I've got to give him credit for that. It was nice
to see Arizona, you know, play so well and dominate in the game
where Caleb Love didn't have to go off for twenty five points or thirty points
that you know it, you know, everybody got in on it. Now,
I think that's a great point. And you know, it leads me
to another thing I like about them, which is they have a great balance
of older guys and younger guys. You know, you think you think of
Caleb, you think of a key shot who played the national championship game,
Kela Larson has played a ton of games. And then you know, you
really mix that in with some young studs and and because of that, to
that point, you know, all those guys, almost every guy in the
top eight can score twenty points, right, that's really rare, you know
along across college basketball. Yeah, no question, but you talked about this
this You may have just answered my question. But do you think you need
a guy like Sean Elliott or Mike Bibby or or a kolid reeves to kind
of take control, and you have that in Caleb a little, but you
said they didn't have one, that you need a guy like that to guide
them in the tournament. I think you do. I think you do,
like I think historically, I mean, I think you need an alpha.
And you know, Miles Simon wasn't as we know it wasn't Sean Elliott or
might be in terms of the draft and the NBA success right, but in
college he was. And so I think you need that at the college level
at least. I don't know, you know what Kayla's going to do after
and you know where he ends up. You know, is he a pro?
Is he a ten year pros he not a pro like we'll see.
I certainly think athletically he can be, and he gets to the rim when
he wants to. He really can defend way more athletic than I ever thought
he was, you know, watching him the last couple of years. But
I do think you need to go to guy like like we saw. Look,
Derek Williams took that like literally willed that team over Duke and the whatever
that was the fifteen years. You know, Bibby, Bibby, well,
Simon the year they won it, right, you had those go to guys
and reads Instadham. I are ninety four. You know, we had Elliott
in eighty eight with all the other good players. So I mean, if
I go through, I have I have kind of like a top five or
six things you need to make a final four, and and one of them
is you got to have pro players. I mean, you know, historically
having two, three, four multiple pro players is at the top of the
list. And they don't have to be NBA players. You're just saying pro
players. Well, I guess I am saying NBA like I'm not saying,
you know, three three guys that could play in Australia. I think I
think you need a couple of NBA players, and I think there are there
are a couple of NBA players on our team. The crazy thing about it,
I'm not sure I have in my mind to guarantee NBA players, right,
you know, I think I think, like I said, I think
there's eight guys. You could make an argument at some point you can play
in the NBA, you know, and we'll just see, We'll have to
say, see how they developed. I think, you know, it might
even make the argument kJ Lewis is at the top of that list and he
comes off the bench. So it's a it's a pretty talented team. It's
just like in the past, like I said, they weren't there weren't guys
who just said okay, Elliott's and the pros, you know, and I
guess after that we didn't really know an eighty eight and who the other pros
were. You know, it wasn't a guarantee that Kerr or or a Cook
or or I guess Cook probably was at that time. But you know,
in two thousand and one, we knew, we knew for sure that Mike
Bibby was a pro. You know, we knew Jason Terry was, we
knew Michael Dickerson was, and we probably knew you know, Lauren Woods was.
Yeah. Interesting now, I yeah, you know, And you make
a great point about the eight because I think people fans and look fans,
they're twisted anyways, and we know that. But I keep I keep ragging
on him, you know, But but when you see that, yes,
Caleb Love, you know, he's had this stretch of game where he's,
as you say, he's he's been the Alpha. But you know, you
know what, what we saw, at least definitely earlier in the season was
that they were good all over the place. And as you say, you
know, if there's eight guys, to me, that's a all have a
lot harder to play against than a team that's got one or two guys.
Yeah, no, no, no, no question about it. And and
we saw last night, like like you you guys pointed out Caleb didn't really
they need him, and they it was it was a pretty pretty easy game.
They just played so well as a team. I thought key Shot looked
really good, followed look as good as I've seen him. He just looked
dominant in the post. And Caleb, you gotta go back to when he
had thirty six at Oregon. I really felt like he did that within the
offense. I mean, he didn't really do anything that was you know,
you thought, oh, he's just taking over and you know, hogging the
ball. It was it was a nice you know rhythm that he had a
nice pace. And I'll tell you what, that's the other thing what I
do love about telling me is he really does a good job of constantly reminding
those guys that it's about team and pass the ball, move the ball.
You know, it's the moment he senses somebody's getting out of the team concept.
He gets on him and he is He is a really good you know,
you know meter for that and understanding where that when that comes up.
No, it's interesting you say that because we are as we watch the game,
we see Caleb with the ball, and heck, we can either go
fifty to fifty that he's going to take the shot or not take the shot,
because I'm betting he's taking that shot. What that I lost that I
bet that he'd be taking the shot that Caleb Yeah, you know, he
talks about you know, he tells Caleb this. But but if I'm betting
that Caleb is going to have the ball and at any point in the in
the possession, that he's the one that's going to take the shot because he
wants to take the shot, he does, and he's he's ultra aggressive.
He's a he's a born scorer. I mean, he's I kind of when
I saw him originally, I didn't see enough of him. I thought he
was a shooter and he's not. He's a score. He gets to the
rim, he finishes, he does shoot it. He's not afraid to shoot,
you know, a twenty eight footer. But and and but he just
he hunts his points. He hunts shots. Yeah, I didn't tell me
he used that word last night and he was not hunting shots because because no,
that was last that was Saturday, that he did not hunt shots.
No, No, Once he gets the ball, same with Bradley Man.
When you get Bradley the ball, you may not get that ball back.
They well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you something about Caleb that's pretty
interesting. Last year he was one to one assist ratio and this year I
don't have in front of me. He's not two to one, but he's
he's getting close to two to one. And he's a he's an extremely willing
passer. It's it's just that he has also no problem you know, being
He's aggressive, right, and he's going to take it and if the opportunity
is there, he's gonna shoot it. If not, he'll get rid of
it. You know, he'll he'll he'll find guys and I just I really
just like watching him this year. He's been an awesome addition. So they
got Stanford. I think he's probably the player of the year so far.
Now we got a long ways to go, right, It's hard to say
that, you know, early early February, but you know, at this
point, to me, he's been the pack call player of the year.
Well, and there's quite a distance between Arizona and the rest of the packings.
In spite of the fact that they're, you know, in a bunch
at the top of the at the top of the standings, you just still
feel like Arizona's just way better than the rest of the league. Yeah,
I mean, I think Colorado at home, you taugh at home? Right,
I think I thought Oregon, you know, there was a there was
a question in my mind could Oregon be just as good as Arizona because they
have really talented players. And that's why I go back to that game last
Saturday. I thought it was in a way the biggest game of the year.
Yeah, yeah, okay, Well, I appreciate your time as always.
Hey, thank you guys, Try and stay busy. Man, great
coverage team, Man, what what do you guys think of this team where
they're at right now? Don't ask Steve He's he's a downer. Steve's he's
a big downer. We don't ask him questions like that. He'll he'll find
he'll find something bad to say. You know, it's the hot girl with
a blemish on her nose. Wait, that's that's that's Sidney Crawfords, the
little on the side of her cheek. Well, in that case, they're
doing really well. Thanks. Thanks, you have a great weekend. Yeah,
I'm not gonna let you answer that question because you'll just you'll just rag
on something and then you go to flowery. Oh, there's you know,
I'm gonna find that balance. All right, Okay, let's take our last
break. We're gonna come back and we'll take your cost there four one,
six, seventy four forty you know, I you know, I'd like to
know out there, who are the revenge people right who want to kick somebody's
ass because they kicked yours. You're one, I'm one. I absolutely am
one. I hold those gradues up, stick around, we'll be right back.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
nearly forty years. Now. Take a look back at the Ludolsen era in
my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of 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 dot com.
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A Team apply online today at a Team security dot net. Steve Rivera and
Jagon Salez they have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson's sports stag chef Fox
Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live IM the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome back
to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's jacin zaw Scutder guys sid for thirteen minutes. If you want to
call us and talk about being spiteful, that's spiteful. Just enjoy revenge?
Spite? What's the word for that? Give us a call five to two
zero four, one forty. If you're of like minded Jay here, you'd
be pissed and you want to kill Stanford? Yeah, I mean, why
not? Right? No, Steve, No, just win baby. But
I get it. I get it. I think that they are going to
do that. We won't know this spread until Sunday or Saturday night, but
I think they're gonna be ready. You'd like to think that they would be.
I mean, yes, you know it is it wasted energy? Probably?
I think if I had a chance to ask Tommy and I should have
asked them this question. Anyway. Okay, so we know one of the
deficiencies once this team happened, right because we didn't have we didn't have any
idea of what the flaws were. Then we see them. It's defending the
perimeter. Blah blah blah. And they have pretty good players, right,
yeah, pretty good players. How difficult? Tellmy, we saw what happened,
and it's happened a few times. How difficult is it to defend on
the perimeter. I'm sure you'll become a little stark starky again. But but
but effort, man, Okay, don't you think that they would have that?
You would think, right, No, you would think, but that's
solvable. Yes, it is solvable because you either show the effort to get
the hell out of the game exactly. And we've seen at least three games.
Yeah, when the four games? Probably when was the first one of
Purdue of Florida, Atlantic, Stanford, Stanford, Oregon State and Oregon State.
Yeah. So if you don't have the it's all about effort, you
think, I think it is. See, but you're not Tommy, So
I can't really look. I don't think Tommy is running a system, running
a defense that can't cover the perimeter. I think if they're not covering the
perimeter, it's because the guys aren't put in the effort to government community.
You know. I don't think Tommy gets out coached from the standpoint where it's
a glaring like that that he didn't know what to do against Stanford. I
think he knew what to do, they just didn't do it. I'm I'm
okay. I know that you're right that he's not getting out coached as far
as I know now. But one time, two times, three times he's
getting he's not he's not coaching well enough to get his guys to do what
he needs them to do. And that's what he says. It's on me,
right, I got to get these guys to you know, But I
don't think what he's designed it's not so much schematic, right, it's it's
what he's designed as a defense I don't think is the issue. It's the
issue of the buying effort and and and going out there and doing that.
And that's all part of exactly exactly. But when I say he's not getting
our coach from a standpoint of he can't figure out what to do, he
knows what to do, figuring out how to get his guys to do that
game in and game out. He doesn't know that they're paying more than three
mini they're paid, right, And and when you've got you know, you
know, these these young guys who for whatever reason, you know, lose
track of what the hell they're supposed to be doing. Yeah, you know
you're gonna get beat or you're gonna have a tough time with that. We've
seen, I know it's called recency bias. And we see this and the
kids in the in the press room, our kids, you know you're going
to and their kids, they know what happened yesterday, maybe five years ago.
This has been going on for years, and I've talked about it all
the time. I started covering the team for Religiously in ninety one, and
I've seen it all over. How do you else do you explain East Tennessee
State? How else do you play Santa Clara? Exactly? They just it's
not that the universe running. It's not that they weren't ready. They just
didn't. They didn't go out there and do what they're exactly capable of doing.
Exactly, And it's simple as defending. Yes, it is. It
really is. I mean all those games that they lost or because they didn't
have the offense to win the game, Sure they lost those games. The
players, they didn't go out and do the work. The hardest thing to
do is to play defense. You know in college basketball, right, everybody
can go out there and dribble and shoot and score and have fun doing that.
But you got to do the thing on the other side. And and
that's the hard part. That's the part where you got to grind and want
to be able to do that some players and some programs take pride in the
defense that they play. There's don't. I think Tommy's kind of in between,
and that they have so much fun on the offensive side of the ball.
I think they take they're a little pride in their defense because it helps
them do what they want to do offensive so much what they do offensively depends
on what they do defensively. But there are games, there have been games
where that thing hasn't clicked in a specific game. Yeah, and you talk
about that, and I also talk about okay, who we got this week
Stanford the first time. Okay, right, we'll be ready. We got
this, we got no, no, exactly exactly we got this. And
when you realize that have time, Oh crap, we may not got this.
Yeah. Now by that time you've already been slapped around. If that
happens at halftime, it's too late, very much so, because you can't
just recreate. But by that time, the other team's got their confidence up,
they're playing well, and they're on the court thinking we can beat you.
And that's half the battle. Yes, except for one example already this
year U c l A. Right when they didn't show up in the first
half and they work their butt off, But again, what was the difference
there defense that you know that game was at Michale, Oh, when they
had to turn on the turn on the defensive Spigott they did, and he
talked about that right when they when they had to turn it on and realize
we're gonna lose a game at home to freaking u c l A. The
last time we're gonna play him here, they they turn and they were able
to do that. That's harder to do when you're playing in front of five
thousand people, you know, at at an arena. You know, I
watched u c l A game they played organ Stic the night they beat organ
State. It was Wednesday night. There was nobody there even if you see
the game, Like, guys, guess what. People are not going to
worry in the Big ten. Are not going to be intimidated by coming to
play at u c l A. You know, And and there were six
seven, maybe eight thousand people at this game. Like so you know,
you're you see, now, if Arizona's at UCLA, the place is gonna
be full. But if Arizona does at u c l A what it did
here, they're gonna lose the game. Yeah, okay, so you say
again, last night was last night against Rogan State and they struggled last night.
Yeah, I'm thinking, where was I? But I was because I
was, Oh, you're right, you're right, you're right. I got
home. By the time I got home, the a SCU game was over.
I listened to that on on on on my phone in my car on
the way home. Then I got home and I put on the UC.
It was a glose, was tied. It was tied at fifty four at
one point. That's why when you said two this, I thought it was
Wednesday night. I said, that wasn't real. It was last night,
agains Steve. That's you know. I got up when I was puttering around,
you know, could you help us across the street. There had lunch
on the way over here, and I remember what it was, so it
was burgers. Yeah. Uh, you know, okay, if you guys
want to call in, please do we still have a little time five to
zero four one six seventy four forty game on Sunday? Women play as well
that day. They got a su at noon at noon on maybe with maybe
you know what I saw TCU did this? Yeah, because they forfeited a
couple of gags. They forfeited a couple of games they didn't have, they
were out of players. Just take this call. Hi are on the air
and I on the ball. Hey guys, this is done. How you
guys are doing? What is that done? Save us from ourselves? Say?
Okay, well I want to save j. J is still on that
football sugar high or something. Because which which loss was okay? Washington State,
Oregon State, or Stanford? I think Stanford is the most okayest one.
What do you mean by none of them are okay? What do you
mean by okay? Well, oh, guys, it's not that bad.
It's no deal and blah blah blah. You know, part of playing games
is you win the games you're supposed to win. Yeah, well, I
guess what we were saying, don is that you're going to lose road games.
Now. The three road games that Arizona loss to me were three road
games. If you lose an Oregon, if you lose even at UCLA,
you know, you go okay. Well, you know, oh you lose
a Colorado or you tell you okay. But the ones that they lost were
not okay. I don't at least, I don't think so. I don't
well, I don't think so either. I mean, I mean having three
losses in the league. You know, it's part of being in the league
is coaches. Even though the rosters turnover so much much, the coaches know
how each other coaches. So there's that familiarity right there. So you're gonna
get that. But at the same time, if you've got all these guys
that are supposed to be really good, then those those things should not happen,
right, No, I agree, Yeah, I agree, So none
of them are okay. And I because I mean next week when when when
we go to up in the Mountains, I mean, if they split that,
I mean that's gonna be you know what, that's gonna be not expected,
but not a surprise. That will be okay. If they go get
they go get one of two, you know, at two, playing against
two teams that haven't lost their home I think that's as much as you can
expect. Yeah, I agree with that. But if they go up there
and they win both of those, then I would say, okay, they're
back. I mean, because last night they were up by twenty at the
break and they win by twenty six. That to me is not okay,
Baly, that should have been a thirty thirty two point win, easy,
That should have been six more points at least because of what you saw in
the first half exactly. Yeah. So I don't know if you beat him
in twenty minutes, if you beat him a point a minute in twenty minutes,
I don't disagree. I don't give me beat him by four No,
no, no done. I think that's that's a you know, your eye
test. No, not necessarily, but because because human endeavor, you have
to put that in there. You've already gotten beat, you've already gotten beat.
You're gonna kind of lack, You're gonna, you know, slow down
a little. I understand what you're saying. But it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way. It used to work that way when you
had a roster of you had the guys that were going to be coming up.
And now we don't have that anymore. Don't You have guys that have
been proving themselves all week in practice, and here's their chance to do it
with the lights on. And that's what you don't have. And that's that's
one of the things of the new the new college sports that I don't.
I don't, I don't like. I don't disagree with you, especially here
because when Loot's time and I hate to go back to But that's what I
know that their second team was pretty talented, and that's how they became,
you know, that's how the thing worked. They were the second team.
They got their butt kicked against the first team, and they would be ready
to play in a year or so. So I don't disagree with that philosophy.
But you know, thirty two, okay, you're already beating the by
twenty two. You know, you know that they're in their mind they're not
going to play as hard as they did. Don did you give the points?
Is that? Is that what's going on right here? Or you're worried
about the hiking points spread because you know here here's the story. I was
so excited for sports betting when it came out, and I even downloaded the
MGM, but I never signed up. Yeah, yeah, smart, there's
too much homework to do there, really is now, it's for real.
I was terrible in high school to do homework, so and and then I
could never I could never put money on my own teams because it's too emotional.
I hear it. Hey, don we appreciate it. Man. We
got to get you, got to hit the road. Thanks for the call,
as always, Take care too. You understand what I'm saying. You
can't sustain that when you're up by twenty you come on the second half.
All you're trying to do is let's finish it. Yeah, all right,
let's hit the road. It is another fun week. Thanks Jacob, Jacob,
Jake Fisher, may about for being with us today and everybody else that
we had all week. Follow the pod, listen to it over the weekend
if you missed anything this week, and we'll see you on Monday.