Steve Rivera and Jagen Salez. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports Stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeart Radio Lambday.
Welcome back to I the Ball Hero, Fox Sports fourteen fifty from Steve
Rivera, He's Jagansaus. Now we have Henry with breaking news for the first
story. Dan Hurley and Yukon have agreed to a six year, fifty million
dollars contract extension that will go through twenty thirty six years and fifty million.
Can you do that math? And the Lakers offered him I think sixty or
seventy millions. He's better he's better off doing exacutive Yeah, you know,
I mean, he's he's the you know, he's the he's the master of
the universe over there. Yeah. You know. All you can do is,
look, you get hired in the NBAT. Sometime at some point you're
gonna get fired. And is that job the best job you want to have?
The Laker job. That drama, that drama. Now you have to
coach kid. Now you're stuck with Yeah, you're stuck with Brownie James,
right. Yeah. No, it's like dating a hot girl. And realizing
something. She's not very fun. She has words. Shit, you know
you can Okay, that's your problem. But you I know what you're saying.
I know what you're saying. No, I I yeah, I mean
why yeah, I mean you know, why would you not just want to
stay where you are? Yeah? I'm making Come on, what's what's eight
eight million, nine million dollars a year to eleven million dollars a year?
It's sixty for five six years for fifty million. Yeah, all right,
that's that's that's crazy numbers. Eight eight point something eight point two eight point
three eight million a year to coach college basketball. But nobody's got any money,
Steve, nobody's got any money. And then you got to pay the
kids, right, nobody's got any money. Nobody's got any money. You
gotta pay the coach, and now you have to pay the kids, and
good luck with that. This is going to hell. I mean honestly,
Huh, we're gonna have the ads and uh, it's a problem that it's
what they call it. Some guy said, it's like flying the plane and
your building it at the same time. Yeah, yeah, how you coming
apart? Get the duc date? God got all right? The MLB announced
the All Star Game pictures and reserves yesterday. The All Star Game is a
week from tomorrow. Where's that Texas. We've had this conversation before. Do
you watch it anymore? Very infrequently? I can't remember the last time I
watched it. I don't know the players. That's it. And by the
way, your Dodgers screwed me this weekend? Did they did? They did
me partly partly back to back party with those guys on Friday and Saturday and
then and then and then and then I didn't play him yesterday and they got
their ask kick. Well, maybe they'll kid is kind of coming around.
I was all over it. I was all over it. I hate the
Dodgers. I didn't like him before I really hit him. She was just
for like a ten dollars party. O god? Okay. Five of the
eight Homer and Derby contestants have been announced. Gunner Henderson of the Orioles,
Alec Bohma the Phillies, Bobby wit Junior of the Royals, Pete Alonzo the
Mets, and Marcello Zuna of the Braids. Heard of three of those guys.
If the game was in Dodgers Walker would win it if it was in
Dodgers Dadum, Hugh killed the Dodgers. Oh god, he just he obliterated
them. That was not fair. He wasn't even named it. Also,
he's been terrible other than that, other than playing the Dodgers. Yeah.
The next story. The Sugar Skulls lost to the Arizona Rattlers forty four to
thirty seven yesterday to fall to two and twelve on the season, and the
last home game in the season would be this setter. Oh okay, I
was gonna say, Jay, what do I what do I know about the
indoor league? But Mike is that coach? Will we'll be back? Yeah?
Yeah, I mean they they fired good coaches after good season. There's
you were my attorney. That's exactly the point. Yeah, yeah, right,
yeah, because the guys, as much as you like him and as
much as I know them, they don't like losing rights as much as Yeah.
I mean, you know, when you're doing twelve, everything's everything's it's
not it's not just well, we've had a bunch of injuries. There's things
going on that that team is obviously not right, you know, not playing
together, not doing things or not. It's not just your roster. It's
not having bought into whatever. It's not just your roster, your things going
on. It'll be interesting to see what happens because Billy backed the coach's you
know, he's been a good coach. He was pretty impressive on the show.
But he's already over. Well, they got two games left. Their
last home game is Saturday, and then they go on the road. Apparently
it was over ten weeks ago. Been wow, that what I think?
It's how many to tell you that is in a row, like seventh seventh
straight? And they had been in a lot of the games, right,
and they just kind of blow there. Yeah, they're all close games and
they yes, well that was the thing. They were in position to win
several of those and you know, Blue Blue leads in the fourth quarter.
Yeah, there's a lot to be said for stuff like that happens, all
right. The Heat took on the Kings yesterday and the California Classic. Hel
Larson had nine points, five rebounds, and six assists and Key Shawan had
thirteen points and three rebounds. Yeah, that's the game I saw. Because
we're gonna try to have the guys that cover the game. Yesterday, it
was kind of seems like Saturday, very impressive. But everybody's impressive because you
don't know anybody. Yeah, you know, nobody on the rosters against These
guys are playing against guys at their level. They're not playing against other NBA
players, right, So you got to you gotta take that. But if
you show well, you have an opportunity to have a chance, opportunity to
make the game, make the team. If you're one of the better players
that they see, Yeah there, they'll keep you around. So it's important
for them to do well and we'll see if we'll see if you know that
works for for Pale and for key Shot. The last story got Georgia got
a six eleven offensive tackle Jozari Jackson to commit it which a six eleven off
not a basketball player. He used to play basketball. Now he's playing offensive
line. I don't know how that's gonna work. It's like, I mean,
you can be too tall, right, I don't know, too tall.
Jones was pretty good, but he was a defensive he was what six
nine? Yeah, I don't think. So what was the guy? Who's
the guy that we had on the show that was a fantastic gonna be in
one of my guys from not Australia, but uh uh he had started he
was played for Juba under Rich Rod. Oh Peter Hanson, no no,
no, no, no, under under Rich Rod. Uh from over South
South Africa. I think it was uh he had started his own company.
He didn't even know how to put on pads. He was a shot.
But oh, I'm never gonna remember, you know, but he was great.
He was great, and he was like six eight sixty seven, gut
on the the the well, yeah, with our six eight and six seven
guys, but six eleven, what's what's that? That's fine? Yeah?
Ed too tall with six nine. Yeah, and that was as tall a
player as there as it was. And they called him too tall for a
reason, right, because the six nine was too tall to be playing,
to be playing pro football. I think that he would tell me because he's
one of my guys. I forget his name. Why why it's not a
surprise, I forgot his name. But if you could play, you can
play, he's your Yeah, well, well again, it all depends on
things like you know, feet, your agility, you know, how well
do you move six eleven guys? You know, you just wonder can they
move as fast? As you need to move to be a quality uh you
know, a quality linement. That that's the question I would have you know,
can you move your feet? Are you just too big to move and
be able to a basketball player? Right? Former, So you know he's
got some Well we've seen some slow lanking back. Well that's been a few
year. Yeah, there's been a few year. Yeah. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know how that's gonna how that's gonna work,
I don't know. I've GIFs you to see what that looks like.
You'll be like a big giant, you know, oddity, we'll see.
That's all I got. Okay, well you go ahead and bring the Oklahoma
State thing because because that happened. That happened a little before we had coach
on yesterday, Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon was arrested. I let me
look to see exactly what it was for. But he posts a statement this
morning about it. So he's a he's Oklahoma State Charnie Dickie's there. He
couldn't, he said, you know, he's not allowed to talk about stuff
like that. He couldn't. What did it matter to us? Right?
It was on June thirtieth, there was a didn't actually say what he did,
but he got arrested. I think it was a d U. I
probably something like that, all right. I just the Big Twelve interview schedule
or was just posted and Brent. Brent will be last on Wednesday, so
he'll he'll come on at one twenty our time on Wednesday, so we'll be
able to record that and we'll play at the first thing, first thing on
the show. They start tomorrow. We'll start tomorrow. The Big Twelve.
Commissioner starts with remarks at ten o'clock in the morning, and then you got
TCU there every twenty minute, so it's t starting at eleven o'clock. TCU,
Kansas State, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Utah, as U, and
Oklahoma State. And then on Wednesday they started eleven o'clock. It's Dion Sanders,
Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia, b y U, Central Florida,
Baylor, Houston, and then Arizona. So we're in the beginning of July
and we've been doing this a long time. Jay, does it seem god
these years as you get older, I'm told that years go faster. Yes,
does it seem like already because it's already here. Yes, and we
just finished basketball. Yes, we're gonna we're old. Yes, the clock
is going fast, man, because we just last year, wasn't it two
three years ago? Home was COVID and we were dying to have bad football
four years ago and you said five games, we'll take five games. Yeah,
we'll take five games in the United the game or whatever instance uh man
goes by. You know, the best thing that happened to Arizona was that
COVID happened because we didn't have to actually go to the stadium and see that
season, okay, and then we didn't have to sit through a seventy to
seven and then it got the coach fired. So really, if you want
to talk about a school that benefited from COVID, that Arizona was one of
them, because that was a mess of a year. It was awful to
go through and all the things that we were going through, and then to
see that season unfold the way it did, and then they say we can't
do this anymore, and they got rid of him. And here we are,
man, We're going into this year thinking there's one's got a chance to
win a conference. Yeah, win a conference and get in the national place.
Did you have odds are there on winning the conference? Odds in the
conference? Yeah, because that's gotta be bigger than eight eight to one.
Don't you think to one? That's not about benef it's eight to one.
I'm looking nice, nice long shot with a chance because there was a chance
there might be like ten percent. Yeah, let me see, Yeah,
here we go conference winners in the Big twelve. Let me scroll down a
little bit on that Utah Here it is Big twelve Utah plus three twenty oh,
so the numbers are going to be big. Yeah. Kansas State at
plus three eighty okay, Oklahoma State seven fifty oh wow, Central Florida a
nine hundred, Wow, Kansas at nine hundred okay, Iowa State at one
thousand. Well, I do Arizona, Arizona at one thousand. I would
bet at fifty bucks to win five hundred and fifty Arizona at one thousand.
That's that's not a great bet, but it's a pretty good bet. Ten
to one, Yeah, ten to one, even though Utah three and a
half three three, three point two to one. Yeah, there subordered one.
Don't you think they're gonna win this? I mean their best chance to
win this. This is not the PAC twelve. Yeah, no, it's
not. It's not because had the Utah, had there been a PAC twelve,
wouldn't Utah be one or two in the league? No, who would
they have been? Well? I think Oregon, Oregon, Oregon, Oregon,
USC then probably Utah. Okay, still three and half because Washington's got
a lot of Yeah, Arizona would be picked up there, but I don't
think they'd be picked ahead of Utah. No, I bet Arizona would have
been picked like fourth. I would put their fifty bucks on Utah and fifty
bucks on Arizona. Arizona in a long shot, fifty bucks still eight eight
eight and on the wins. We agreed. We agreed that the seven and
a half is a should do it. Eight is you're gonna get your money
back. And that's Central Florida game, right, didn't we say that that
was the key? I bet you they beat them, soundtral Florida. Yeah,
that they beat Yeah, that's gonna that's gonna be a game that's gonna,
you know, say a lot about where they wind up. I'm looking
for Arizona. It's still probably eight and a half or eight. I'm sorry,
Arizona is still eight eight on DraftKings, but we got them at seven
and a half. And I think it was fan duel. That's where I
picked him up at seven and a half. So you know, uh,
look, here's here's the thing, Steve, and this is this is unusual
for Arizona fans. Arizona's in the mix, right, They're in the mix.
Are they the favorite? No? But is it in conceivable? No,
it's not inconceivable. It's actually conceivable that they could win the league.
You know, we're going into this thinking and what was the last time you
said that? Twenty fifteen? Coming out of the twenty fourteen season, and
that was and and you know, it all went to crap as it always
does for Arizona early on with injuries. Oh okay, that kind of so
you asked, you know, you answer that question, was the last time
how often have you said that? Not very Yes, well after the four
after the four ten win seasons, and then they went to crap after that.
Yeah. No, no, you have to beat that trend this year
exactly. And that's why I told Brent Brandon, you better not screw this
up. On the he had him up. We did pressure, all right,
so we got to get Let's take a break. Michae Levy be joining
us. We'll wrap up some of his thoughts from his column on the PAC
twelve and it'll nostalgic here and then we'll put that away for forever. So
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Act. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to eyeing the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacob Zauz. I won't
I phone. We have Michael liv of the Arizona Daily Star. Michael,
how you doing good? How are you guys? We're doing well. We
wanted to track you down last week, but you were too nice to or
enjoy the enjoying the weather up in the mountains. Now we've got you in
the heat again. Uh, do you have time to reminisce about your column
from last week? Of course they said you bought a tier to was brought
a tier to my eye, for sure. You know, just all that
stuff, Michael, But you know, you know, I talked about it
the other day, and I mean your your thoughts on all of that and
how you're how you've kind of come, you know, because you were USC,
you know, covering USC before here, so you've been a part of
this league all this time. So you know what led wanting to write a
column like that, I guess, is what I want to ask. Yeah,
well, I haven't been a part of the Pac twelve as long as
some other people, but I very quickly felt like I was part of the
club when I started to cover USC, when I moved from the Midwest to
the West coast and kind of discovered this cool thing called Pac twelve football.
It just had kind of its own unique feel to it, right, Like
the games were on late at night, and it was a different style of
play than a lot of the rest of the country, and it's just like,
you know, it felt like something that we could call our own US
West Coasters if I might, if I might put myself in that category.
The reason I decided to write it was because I think there was a perception
that Arizona and the other four Corner schools were leaving for the Big Twelve on
July first. There's some social media posts that kind of intimated that that was
the case. It's not actually what's happening. It's actually all get second that
it becomes official. But it's happening right the wheels earned motion here. I
mean Big twelve media days start tomorrow and those schools are all going to be
there, whether they are officially in the conference or not. I just felt
like it was a good time to express some of my feelings about this transition,
which I figured were shared by a lot of other people as well.
Okay, what were your greatest moments as you remember? I mean many,
I think that as as an Arizona Beat reporter. Nothing could possibly top that
Kholio tape game at Colorado. I was lucky enough to be there to witness
it in person, and it was just I was like speechless, you know,
like it just kept happening over and over and over again. It just
could anyone ever play a better, more dominant football game than he did that
day? I mean, besides rushing for over three hundred yards and he's twelve
or thirteen passing and the one incompletion was a drop, absolutely dominant, kind
of out of nowhere, unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. That was
that was That was probably my number one even even you know, in all
the all my days covering USC, never seen anything quite like that. And
I did witness a USC UCLA game that scores fifty to a thing. This
was Matt I think it was Matt Barkley's junior year, and they really had
it rolling, you know, with Marquise Lee and Robert Woods and all those
guys. That was dominant from a team standpoint, but it wasn't dominant from
an individual standpoint quite like what Koliot did that day. And older, Yeah,
when when you when you think about all this and how not how it's
happened, but just the fact that it has happened. You know. Yes,
those of us who have been around the PAC twelve and PAC ten,
you know, we're sad and all that kind of stuff. And where do
we lock that up? Right? You know? You know what I'm saying.
You know, I want to keep that in my memories, but I
don't want to dwell on it because there were some great times and there were
some hard times. You know, especially if you're an Arizona fan. Where
do you put it right what you said, it aside and say, okay,
forget about it, we move on, or how do you handle that?
Yeah, it's it's a good question, because at some point we do
need to move on and move forward, right Like, Yeah, kind of
counterproductive in a way to just keep reminiscent reminiscing about how things used to be.
I do realize that with the new n say video game will have apparently
some sort of commissioner type option where you can make your own conferences in leagues.
And I'm sure a lot of people are just gonna put Humpy back together
again, you know, and recreate the PAC twelve and recreate the old big
ten or or whatnot. But once I think once the games get going and
Arizona is competing against these new rivals and you maybe win the championship or two
in the Big twelve, that people will the memories will start at fade at
that point. I would also say that it's not that strange for Arizona,
Asu, Utah, and Colorado to be in the Big twelve, right,
I mean collet when Utah weren't in the pack last twelve for very long,
like a decade or so, Arizona and Arizona State forty five plus years.
What is weird to me is like what the Big ten is? What the
ACC is? You know, where we're just completely throwing geography out the window
for what purpose. I'm still not totally clear that none of that will ever
make sense to me. I've said it but many times on social media,
like it will never not be stupid to me that USC and UCLA are in
the Big ten. Right, So let's say we have about ten minutes or
a few minutes to talk about what you're looking for in the next few weeks.
So with Arizona and just the league, we were just talking about some
odds I don't know if you're a betting man, which I hope you're not
because you're smart, but usually not. Now, Utah is a three point
twenty five a chance to win the league as the favorite, and Arizona a
ten to one. Yeah, I like those odds for both of them.
Well, I think you're getting better odds, Yeah, exactly if you bet
on Arizona, right then if you bet on Utah. I think that the
Big Twelve in both football and men's basketball, it's going to be rough,
like it's going to be a battle Royale. I think that, like the
teams in basketball are going to be better sort of national conference, national title
contender type teams. I think the stat that I had in my column was
four of the top seven in CBSA's like latest way too early rankings and men's
basketball was from the Big Twelve, and Arizona wasn't one of those four.
So that's kind of what you're getting into their football wise, I think a
lot of parody, a lot of teams that could win the league, which
makes for a very exciting conference slate. Once that gets going, I think
there's going to be a ton of toss up games and it's sort of you
know, it's a taste thing, right do you prefer Do you prefer like
that where kind of anybody can win, that's sort of like how the NFL
is, Or do you like it when there are a handful of dominant teams
that are the same year in and euro out, like Alabama and Georgia right
in the SEC. I kind of I kind of prefer what what we think
the Big twelve is going to be like, where there's maybe half a dozen
teams that could win the league and every game is going to matter, and
there's going to be a ton of sort of you know, coin flip type
games that will determine the outcome at the end of the day. Well,
when you're when you're Arizona, you like this because you know you've seen,
you've been on the other side of it where you know, Washington, Washington,
Oregon USC just dominated the league and you really we're up against up against
it, you know, going into every season with those guys having to deal
with them, you know, and then you know, to your point about
you know, when you have a top heavy league like that, you know
you've got Oha State and Michigan and everybody thinks the Big ten is a great
conference. They're really not, you know, they're really not. They've got
two great teams, two great programs. Wisconsin's really good. I was pretty
good. Michigan State is good sometimes, but they've sucked recently. It's not
a great conference. It's just got two great teams that makes people think it's
a great conference. And they're making all you know, they're you know,
making the rules and making all the money. You know, the SEC goes
a little deeper, but not that much deeper as well. So you know,
I kind of like where Arizona's going because you know, for long suffering
Arizona fans who've never I mean, I know, they've tied for conference championships
but never really won one out right to go to a rosebo or whatever,
I like. I like Arizona's chances in this league. Yeah, I do
as well, especially with the work that the coaching staff has done to keep
the team intact and then also supplements what they had very quietly. I had
a really good transfer portal season, if you will. I feel like not
a lot of like big names, none of no quarterbacks, none of that
kind of thing, but what they needed, you know, receivers, linemen
on both sides of the ball, defensive backs, et cetera. So it
would really be something if Arizona were to win the Big twelve in football after
never winning the Pack ten Flast twelve in football. There's a lot of competition
out there. I could rattle off probably half a dozen teams that I think
have a shot at at Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State,
keep an eye on UCF. They're kind of my They're kind of my
sleeper that's not being talked about enough. And then you guys mentioned Utah too,
which is just gonna I mean, they should have no trouble making the
transition from the Pac twelve to the Big twelve. It's not going to be
like when they went from the Mountain West to the PAC twelve and they had
to kind of change the way they did things a little bit. In terms
of having enough depth, having enough talent to compete with the big boys.
They're going to be the big boys when they first get there, and I
think Arizona is well positioned to compete right away as well. I'm assuming you're
not going to be in Vegas tomorrow. Maybe you are, but did you
vote for the media poll? Okay, I did not vote for the media
poll because I don't like to vote for things where I don't feel like I
have enough knowledge. At this point, I'm just still I'm still learning,
you know, I'm still learning these big twelve teams. I don't have the
same kind of I don't have the same feel for them that I developed for
the PAC twelve teams over the years. As far as Vegas goes, I
poorly planned my vacation or perhaps brilliantly planned my vacation to overlap with both twelve
media Days and the MLB Draft. So I'll be actually missing both of those
events, but will will be well represented in Vegas justin spears. My colleague
will be there, someone else might be there from our staff two, among
many many others. I'll be monitoring the events from the Midwest. But I
don't know. Do you guys think that was a good good vacation planning.
Excellent vacation planning, excellent springs exactly. That's okay, plus plus this is
too early, though, I like okay, I like the way, you
know, it's giving us something to talk about these next couple of days.
It's a little ar it's about two weeks too early in my mind, Hell,
I don't want to be doing this interview right now, Mike. I
want mikel I want to be doing this interview. I'm happy to be talking.
He knows exactly so so Michael, So what are you maybe looking forward
to hearing tomorrow or seeing or whatever? If you are going to pay a
little attention, I would say to me, like, the most the most
interesting man in Las Vegas, as he kind of is everywhere he goes,
is Deon Sanders. It's been like another off season full of different headlines,
another off season where they completely transformed the roster in a way that is unconventional
to say the least, and a lot of people are questioning whether it's going
to work. So I want to hear what Dion has to say about his
team, about the way he's going about building this program, whether he's in
it for the long haul, et cetera. To me, he's the guy
that I want to hear the most. Although there's a lot, you know,
there's a lot of interesting characters that we're going to kind of be introduced
to here, as well as some familiar faces. I think Mike Gundy is
another one who always seems like he kind of speaks his mind, yeah,
you know, and then doesn't hold back. And he's got a lot of
like a lot of starters returning to a team that did really well last year.
So maybe that's another one that I would throw into that group of people
I'm interested to hear from. Yeah, I feel like I I you know,
like over the years, I kind of really stop watching the Pac twelve
media days except to hear what the you know, the Arizona guys had to
say. I feel like I need to see this one, right, get
to know these coaches a little bit who they are, right. I couldn't
even name all the coaches in the Big twelve right now, but you know,
find out you know who they are and what you know, what they
sound like, and what we can expect to hear from them, especially the
teams that Arizona's playing. This Kansas State game that's a non conference that's a
non conference game, but it's still, you know, one of the featured
games of the Big Twelve because of you know, two of the favorites for
the league. How big how important is this game to Arizona? Do you
think right at this stage? Well, of all, I would say that
it is unfortunate level that they weren't able to cancel this series because they you
know, they essentially have to play a tenth Big Twelve game, right and
not only that, it's like one of the best teams in the league,
and this year it's on the road, so a lot a lot of challenges
presented by that. The good news is, you know, if they lose
that game, it does not hurt them in the Big Twelve standing. So
and I think they might very well lose that game. It's on. It's
going to be a Friday night game in Manhattan, and that crowd is going
to be nuts, and that's a really physical team, kind of a Utah
type of team that they're going to be playing. They will Arizona will have
played New Mexico and and a you beforehand, you know, all due respect
to them, not on the same level as Kansas State. So this will
be your kind of welcome to the Big twelve moment, even though it's not
officially a Big twelve game. I think we'll get a really good game of
what this Arizona team is all about that night, and it'll give them a
good idea of the improvements that they need to make. Before they start Big
Twelve play officially, and conveniently enough, they have a bye week afterward to
kind of work out the kinks and heal up and so forth before starting that
conference gauntlet. So in some ways it's regrettable that they're playing that game,
but in other ways, I feel like it's a nice sure, you know,
it's a preview of what's to come, and it's kind of well positioned
on the schedule too, where it's the end of your pre season schedule and
you have a week off the following week. We got to go real quick
though. The fifth place finish. Did you like it? Did you think
it is fair? What do you think? Totally reasonable? But I think
the ceiling is higher. I think they could definitely finish in the top two
and make the Big twelve championship game if things go their way. I agree.
Okay, thank you, Michael, very good. Michael, appreciate and
enjoy your vacation. Yeah, don't let guys like us horn in on your
vacation anymore. Just take the rest of the week, but we'll catch you
when you come back. Yeah, indeed, take care, guys. Ples
Michael lev obviously from The Daily Star, we got to go as good.
We get one more segment. Okay, let's take our break. We'd love
to get here hear from you five to zero, four, one, six,
seventy four, forty. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you
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Team security dot net. Breaking down all the exes and ohs. It's Steve
Rivera and Jacin Salvez. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth.
Hey welcome back to wind the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Pja got hit me with us fifteen more minutes. When we're done for
the day, give us a call five two oh four one six seventy four
forty five to two oh four one six seventy four forty we'd love to hear
from you. How was your weekend? I agree with lev in terms of
the fifth place. I think they're going to finish higher than that. That's
why I wouldn't mind thinking that they have a chance to win it all at
ten to one. Yeah, that's pretty good. Probably. Yeah. I
mean here, here's the thing, and if you can just get into the
pack into the Big twelve championship game, yeah right, that's a win.
Right. If you get into the Big twelve championship game, now you got
your shot. So he really just finished first or second and you got a
chance to win it to win the league. Right, And I think that's
a possible and that's a doable thing. Yeah. Yeah, you know,
is you talk, you expect you tire to be there. You do.
But after that, you can you can throw Arizona in with all those teams
and realistic I think that he was. You know, he's funny because he's
realistic about a lot of things. He didn't vote because he didn't have enough
information, and he's in the business. Yeah, I mean, I was
gonna ask you just now, of the sixteen teams, how comfortable you are?
Are you about talking about sixteen of them? Right, I'm talking about
I'm comfortable, but talking about four Arizona, Asu, Utah, Colorada,
and Colorado, and what do you know about them? Right? Right?
You would know some things, but you know enough to you know enough to
get us in trouble. And I guarantee you you're not unlike the other guys
out there right talking about And that's my and that's my point about why I
think Arizona finished fifth in the voting, because there's probably a number of those
guys who voted in there who don't really know Arizona. Said, I can't
put Arizona over over Kansas or Oklahoma State because I don't know enough about them.
Yeah, right, very true. So I think that had something to
do with where they finished in the voting. In the end of voting doesn't
matter, we always say that, but you know, still you like to
have a sense. Look, I like the fact that I'd rather be Arizona
being picked to finished fifth and you been picked finished last. True, And
I would rather have Arizona fifth and I would have them second, right,
And I say that because Arizona plays better with a chip on his shoulder,
Yes, and then always has yes, And here you are and yeah,
I'm with you on that as well. I mean again, you know the
two years that you know, they were top five teams and stuff like that
going into the season and they went into the crapper immediately. Well, that's
the funny thing. I was just gonna ask you because you know the history
of it. So because because the crapper is always coming after doing really well.
After the year they did really well, they were the expectations were pretty
high, right, Yes, so the expectations are high, but not crazy
high, right, and and the right, and there's some uncertainty because of
the new coaching staff, right, so it's like okay, yeah, you
know, you know, yeah, we like the coaching staff from what we've
seen so far, but we don't know, uh, and we don't know
you know, what's Brent Brinon going to be like on the sidelines. You
know, you got you know, he's not calling the plays. You know,
Dino Baber is gonna be calling the players, calling the place. You
know, Dwayna Keene has got this defense, Now, how's he going to
be different? You know, this is the this is the third uh defensive
coordinator since uh no, the fourth right, no, third since from the
time Jed Fish got here, because he had he had yeah the first year
he left, the first done uh Brown, Yeah, yeah, the sack
master, the guy, and then then they had uh uh he left,
uh Johnny Nancy That that sounds right. I know his last name was Nancy.
I can't remember it, but you know, was he two years?
I think so? Yeah, and then he went to Texas and then he
went to Texas. So you know, this is the third defensive coordinator in
four years for this group of guys. That's a little tough, you know.
So but again, we all, you know, the familiarity that we
all have with Dwayne and Kina makes us comfortable that you know, as fans,
we think that Arizona's defense is going to be pretty decent because you like
what he's done here in the past. You talk about tougher and I'm just
gonna be devils get here for a second. Tough on the kids because they
have to get new acclimated too. So so you have kids, I have
kids. Uh, kids are tougher than we give there, they're smarter,
they're tougher, and it's like they're people going through divorce. Don't say this
in front the kids. The kids know what the hell you're talking about.
You can close the door and still they know what you're talking about. And
actually, at the end of the day, they say, parents, why
didn't you get divorced a long time ago? We know you hated each other,
you know, saying the kids are way more resilient than we give them,
especially athletes who have been through this before. Oh, he's working on
his fourth and fifth defensive coordinator officers, I guess what they just want to
play, Tell me the play name and blah blah blah, and I'll be
there. And you know what, they've forgotten so much by the time you
get around to the next season, or even if it's even if the defense
is the same, there's still some things that you gotta you gotta brush up
on. Part of the problem, Jay is our questions. You know,
Okay, this is your fourth defense score, and is it tough to what
are they gonna say? You know, it's a little bit different, but
but I got it. Yeah, And we're just looking for a story exactly,
and we just want to hear what they say. Are you saying that
are the in this? No, we're the obvious jerks in this. We're
not jerks. But we're we're searching for a story, hoping that they're creating,
trying to create it. We're trying to create a story and hope there
maybe isn't one exactly. And that's part of the media's fault. Now,
probably it is me fault because you do we come on, how many times
did your boss? I know my boss time or two? Sis asking this
question? This is it's a dumb question because it doesn't apply. And you
just asked the question, so goods what you gotta do the question? That's
the question? Now? I agree, you know, we'll see I think
you know, you get them in the spring, you work, you know
by the time they roll out, roll them out, even you know the
first game, you know, you get, you get the glitches out,
and then you beat the hell out of NAU and then you go to Kansas
State and you're ready to play them and that's all you want, right,
you know, you don't want to be showing up at the at the Kansas
State game and still not have an idea of what you're doing. I think
this is a coaching staff that will They have an idea of what they're doing.
They know what they want to do, and I think they all know
what they got. They're so experienced. Well that's so they didn't get to
this point because they're dumbies. Right, They're still coaching because they've been pretty
damn good coaches. Well, let me see this. I've covered some coaches
that were kind of not ready for this. Just three four years ago.
We had one here who got paid a lot of money to get the hell
out of Dodge. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know how he made it
to this point. Yeah. I mean, you could have asked for more
from Jed Fish than he gave you when I'm telling you the coach before him.
That's what I'm saying to the When you think of the depths that Kevin
Sumlan took this this program to and we're only three years later, well the
fourth season. Since then, you're talking about, Hey, they can win
the league, right, right? You know, I mean that the flip
on that was was dramatic, and I'll always give Jed Fish credit for that.
You know, he came in here and he fixed this. Yeah,
and in a quicker time than you think, because I remember that in a
You game and it was what second third game into the season. He looked
like a defeated man, like what the hell did I get? And you're
thinking he was like his face, his body was like I don't know what
I'm doing and you're thinking, then we're thinking, at least I'm thinking,
do you know what you're doing? Yeah, because he looked he looked like
he had lost his dog in a fire. Yeah, yeah, No,
that's what happened. It was the third game because remember they be they lost
b y U and got slaughtered by by San Diego State here uh and then
then the NAU thing happened and it was awful. I remember walking out.
I was I couldn't remember if I was more you were pissed, hurt or
or pissed. I think I was pissed, and it was really pissed,
but and I don't remember being all that pissed at Jed. I was pissed
at someone, Yeah, because because of the mess he left behind, right
that it was so bad that Arizona lost then. Yeah, and the thing
about it, Jay, they were months removed from a seventy to seven loss.
Yeah, to put in perspective, Yeah, no, absolutely, I
mean, yeah, you were here. You had to be here. That
was my freshman year. Yeah, what are you thinking? What the hell?
Why did I come here? You were? My dog has got lots
of the fire. I could be in New York City. I could have
gone somewhere else, would have been more fun to go to a football game.
Yeah. And again because because I'll go back to the Macovic years.
Right when when Mackovic left, I thought it's going to be ten years,
right, right, So and and it was and so Macavic left after the
two thousand and It took four, didn't it it. Yes, Stoops didn't
have a winning season until I think it's the fifth season or something like that.
Yeah, I thought it was his fourth, but you're probably right.
I have to go back, Yeah, because you know, it took a
while. And even even then, Steve, you know, they still weren't
great for you know, I mean they finally had that one year, the
you know, the best year that they had ended poorly when they got beat
by Nebraska and the Holiday Bowl. But that team was was you know they
if they beat Oregon in that overtime game, you know, game day was
here in the whole bit, they win that game during the Rose Bowl,
you know, so that team was his best team and it ended bad into
and a year and a half later he was gone. So it you know,
it just I don't know here I'm looking. It was, you know,
it was his fifth year was when he had a winning season. He
went three eight, three, eight, six, six, five seven,
then a couple of eight and five seasons and then he went seven to six
and then he was one of five and got fired. So you know it,
you think that, you know, their best years were, you know,
in Stupis's time, we're eight and five. They were ten to three
last year in the third season. So you couldn't have asked for a quicker
turnaround. Really, when you think of the debts that this program was at
no in fact, in fact, uh, when we say this every now
and again, being realistic, anybody who has bad words for Fish should kind
of temper those a little because relaxed, because he did a great job getting
to Arizona at this point, didn't leave in a bad way. Were but
you know, you know, you had a great time with him. And
if you think he was here for any longer than it took to get a
much better job than you, than that you were the one that didn't really
Yeah, you're the one that didn't really see the the you know, the
situation. You know, but by that day he got here. But I
loved you. You're telling me you're leaving. I loved you. You said
you loved it here. Well, I did until they offered me seven and
a half million dollars to go there. Yeah, and so I went there
and that and that's fine. You know, I'm fine with it. And
anybody I know, most people I know, would have done the same.
Heartbeats in a heartbeat. So okay, okay, now we move on and
we have Brendan, and we'll see what he does. I think he's gonna
do fine because demeanor is exactly what you need. He's not yeah, he's
not high, it's not low. Yeah, yeah, he's just you know,
I got a job to do. I'm gonna do it, and I
think I can do it well. And I and I like this program and
I and I'm you know, he's putting his heart into it. He really
is, you know, and I think that, uh, and that's what
Arizona fan wants. I hope, I hope we get this right here in
the next few days. If not, you know, a few days,
and if not, early next week because she'll tell us about the tickets.
I don't know what the enthusiasm is. You you have a better gauge.
I don't really know. I mean, I think there's a lot of buzz
for this this team for this year. I mean, we know what the
ticket prices are this year and stuff like that. So I think it's fine.
I think people are going to I think people are gonna be out there
this year. I think I'll bet you there's high forties for the opener,
you know, forty seven, forty eight thousand New Mexico, you know,
probably more like mid forties for than AU game. And then you know,
then they're off for you know, their next two games are on the road,
you know, and so if they don't fall flat on their faces,
and you know, they could lose, they could be two and two coming
back when they come. You know, they could lose to Utah, they
could lose Kansas State very much, they could be two and two. But
if they don't just get obliterated at in those two games, and look,
and then let's say they win one of those games, and now you're three
and one with a win over a ranked team because both Kansas State and you're
trying to be ranked, then you're going, okay, you know, all
things are possible. Well, that's the thing. I think we talked about
that with the Mississippi State game last year. If they have a chance,
they had a chance and they didn't win it, and they were still kind
of competitive, not kind of they were they were and and then you thought
you got to and you thought you should have won the damn game. You
don't turn the ball. And then a week or sold it whatever weeks later
USC and you had them on the ropes. Yeah. Uh. And then
then when that one, I mean, there's that year was so many little
things that just could have happened. Yeah, Okay, a good show on
the day back. We have a couple of minutes left, but it's still
a good show. It has been fun. Uh. Tomorrow, we're trying
to get some people from the from the first day of the media day and
Wednesday, will try to do the same as mentioned. Uh, you know,
Arizona's not on the not on the agenda for tomorrow. You we're gonna
hear from and you can see this on watch this on ESPN you and on
the Big twelve channel on on ESPN Plus. But tomorrow you've got TCU so
Sunny Dyke's, Kansas State coach Chris Climban, Cincinnati coach Scott Satderfield, Texas
Tech, Utah a s U, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State, and
then you got Arizona is the last team up on Wednesday. So it's a
two day, two day media day. There's some stuff as mentioned, some
stuff on ESPNU. You can guess you can watch the press conferences live if
you want so well on ESPN. Yeah, oh really ESPNU. Okay,
all right, cool, Okay, thanks for being here. We're gonna be
back tomorrow and all week, and I think Steve not gonna be for most
of the summer. Right, I'll be gone. Well, I'll tell you
great, I have things to do. You do. Okay, thanks for
being here. I hope everybody had a great last weekend and you're gonna have
a great week this week. So we'll see you tomorrow.