This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zales on Fox Sports
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Kati z R two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera. He's Jagan Zallas. Got our guy Kevin in for the day
you survived Vegas. Sorry if you missed us, but that's on you.
Which why should you miss us? Well, you know, it was a
interesting week. It was fourth We were off four days. Right, you
were there a while. I was there a while. Party sooner than we
thought. But it is what it is when it comes to college basketball.
There was one of fans should already know that you never know? Well,
yeah, you know, and I you know, I because I was working,
I to stay there till the end. So on Saturday, you know,
out and about I ran into a lot of Arizona fans were really pissed
off. So let me ask you. Let's go there. So how many
people were in the stadium for the championship game? They announced seventeen or for
the championship game. I you know, I never looked up that I will
How did it look? It felt like it maybe eleven eleven, so a
lot less than they announced seventeen to five for its eighteen twenty twenty happy Yeah,
there was seventeen to five on on Friday. It was a salot.
Thursday was a salot. But on Thursday the upper deck on the ends they
had covered with curtains, so they had really reduced the capacity. Friday there
were seats, but they announced seventeen five and it looked like seven Friday.
It was fantastic. The fans were behind them, right, YadA YadA,
So okay, so it's half full And then I was wondering. In fact,
they put it in my story after they lost, who was going to
stay and who was going to leave because their team had lost, so a
lot of people came back for the championship game. Yeah, well you didn't
see a lot of Arizona. You didn't see a lot of red. Now,
I will say that I was joking with a friend of mine who was
there, you know who, an Arizona fan who went to the game with
her husband and they were there. She had an Arizona sweatshirt on. But
it was a great sweatshirt with Arizona logo. It wasn't Red. I was
making fun of her. I said, Okay, she's a little understated with
the with the Arizona with the Arizona logo. But you know, there were
some you know, like my family, who all had tickets. None of
them went, didn't go, None of them went on and couldn't get rid
of them. Probably didn't even try, Yeah, because it's who's gonna find
them? And you already had tickets, right for Colorado and Oregon. But
good for good for Colorado and Oregon. They played out of their minds and
now they're in the n Cuba Tournament. Oregon partly had to win it to
get in, and they did, but Arizona just didn't look good for the
final twenty minutes. In fact, they looked pretty bad. And now there's
always hope because there was another season. Yeah, yeah, so you know
it was it was well, I'm gotting back to the point I was gonna
make about you know, Saturday. You know, I just ran into a
lot of Arizon fans. We're really upset, and I'm kind of like,
are you upset just because they lost, or are you upset because you think
because of this loss, they're gonna suck in the NCAA tournament. And that
was most of the answers, like, oh, they're they're terrible, they're
going out. You know, they're not gonna make it past the first weekend.
And I'm like, well, that doesn't mean that I'm gonna give you
this because it's the Jagan's always approach, given that you already told me they
recently bias, right, and I'm not giving this grief grief about it?
Uh, grief about it. I missed that. Yeah, I started giving
it too because it's recently. Buys, they played really well on Thursday,
right, and you're thinking, Wow, the team is back, Right,
the team is back. This is gonna be a breeze. They'll get the
PAC twelve title and go and do whatever. Right a day later, right,
they're yeah, I mean it's like, what's wrong with you? Exactly
right? And here's the thing. We saw the way in twenty eighteen,
the way they ran through the tournament. They looked unbeatable and they got smoked
in the first round by a bad team. Right, So none of it
means anything. You should be used to if you're an Neverson fan, you
should be used to it. Enjoy the great moments, yeah, and don't
be surprised if you had a bad moment of two. But none of it
means anything, Steven. If they if they'd have won the tournament, it
doesn't mean anything exactly. The fact that they lost the tournament doesn't mean anything
now exactly. You know, I, like everybody else, was pretty unhappy
with it, with the way, you know, with the way it ended
for them. But I'm gonna say I was angry more because I'll just have
a little money on them, a little bit, not a lot. Well,
you know just what I did. You had no chance to cover if
that's what you did. Yeah, because they were not gonna cover up while
they were gonna and then they did it ten minutes left. That's the thing,
you know, there's they just gotta survive the game, and they couldn't
do that. It just goes to show you how much they depend on Love
and a player or two. Also, Kylin and and Love were absolutely horrible.
You know, the thing about it is not that this gives you hope,
because I'm not sure he'd do it. But if he takes those two
out and puts in Bradley and and and the kid, the kid kJ Lewis
kJ Lewis that they're going to be fine because they made that comeback with those
two kids. Yeah, but they didn't play that well either. No,
but but they made the comeback. They were down double digits, they closed
it to within three or four or whatever it was, and then they just
didn't win. But this team, this team needs Guess what if this this,
if this radio show was being held in in North Carolina, Houston and
whatever the other Purdue, they'd be saying the same thing, what what the
what the hell? I mean, look at his soon they lost by thirty?
What the hell was that? I mean, if you're Houston, are
you pulling out your hair more than Arizona fan is right now? Well,
I thought they were good enough. I still think they're good enough to win
the title. They have no every team's flawed, even Connecticut to a third
degree. But every team's flawed. And if you get to their flaws and
you pick at it and pick at it, they're gonna go down. Houston
can't score. They're fantastic on the defensive, right, they pester and they
do all these things, so they make you feel uncomfortable, but they're not
a good scoring team. Conversely, Arizona, even though Tommy wants to convinces
they're a good defensive team, they can score. I can defend all that
great, even though the numbers are there, right, you know, because
that's what happens. No, I mean, yeah, again, it's just
a matter of I mean, who do you trust in the NCAA tournament?
Nobody? Do you even trust Yukon because to me, I'm thinking, you
know, we see all this. You know, to me, Yukon is
nineteen ninety eight. Arizona right right, right right, defending champ, the
best team in the country all year long, you know, and then something
happened. Yeah, right, Oh, you know, nothing is guaranteed.
I think they are the favorite to win it all. Yeah, they are.
You know what the price is on that? There was one of if
you want to get there, thirteen to one. Yeah. I think I
think I saw, didn't I see three fifty or something like that. I
mean it's pretty low. Wow, Well, it's very low. Yeah,
And that's not I don't think that's a good price for them. I'm three
fifty. But you know, Arizona's up fifteen hundred or will they win it?
Probably not, but if they make a good run, they're going to
make everybody happy. Look, I'm trying to look this up. The announced
attendants that on Saturday, the championship game in the PAC twelve was twelve nine
twelve, so kind of realistic to what you thought, right, I thought
I thought eleven to twelve. So well, you get very secret when they
panned the crowd accidentally or whatever. You can see spots where there were no
the upper deck that was three quarters full. On on those seats that they
opened up for Friday, where there were three quarter full on Friday, they
only sold those for a day. There was nobody up there, so I
went to I went to deliver a couple of books up in the rafters Friday
to some fans. They were everywhere, They were everywhere. It was.
It was a showing like they haven't had before. You know, this was
it. This was the one that they had to get to. And they
were there and it was loud and it was exciting until the very end,
and then they it was quiet because they because they got beat. And that's
you know what I posted on on our on our social media that the fans
showed up, but the team should not. So let's go there too.
Because everyone's thankful or grateful that the Arizona team was going to be out west.
We've seen this story before. We've seen it many times before. Uh,
it doesn't mean anything to me. It doesn't matter they go to l
A. If they happen to get to la they'll have a lot of fans
there. What does it mean not a whole lot, right, It just
means that they have a lot of fans because they haven't actually been very good
on the West. They haven't played well on the West. In fact,
they've been disappointing in the West exactly exactly. And and you know it's just
I mean, you know everybody, you know, everybody gets to bring their
fans. And what people don't realize is that the that the the first round
of the n CUAA tournament is a very hard ticket to get because you know,
every there's eight schools at each side, they all get X allot on
them. That that that's most of the tickets. So there's very few public
tickets on sale. Now will Arizona fans grab them? They're gonna grab some
of them. But there you know, everybody gets a shot at those tickets,
right, No, there'll be there'll be a lot of fans from Arizona.
There's no question. It's not too far. Uh. Even though it's
far, it's not too far. And then they're expected to get past these
next two rounds, whether they do or they don't. I think if they
lose the next two rounds, it's a huge disappointment. Oh of course,
it's huge. Dec don't get out of the first weekend, it's it's a
mega disappointe. And then there, of course some people people were pushing on
Facebook. Then questions have to be asked of Tommy Lloyd. I'll stop what
questions? Yeah? What questions? What questions? You know? I got
a response from one of our buddies. I have your questions for you.
Okay, really I'll be quiet. But if they get to the lead eight
in the final four, uh, it'll be a worth a season, worthy
of of who they are. No. Yeah, Jay, at this point,
because of the loss, they think they are going to be happy if
they get out of the first week. It's been twenty three years. This
doesn't happen by lucky or whatever it is. You have to be good at
this, they've been twenty it's been twenty three years. Hold are twenty three?
Yeah you were born probably, Oh so you were You were born the
same month they last went there. Yep. Does that feel like a long
time? I mean it's my entire life exactly. Most of the people at
Ubay, yeah, I mean they've experienced the final, almost all of them.
Yeah, they've never experienced a final for us as students or lovers of
the Wildcats. It's kind of crazy think about, isn't it to me?
It is people, Well, it's a birthright. None necessarily blue blood,
yeah, blue blood. So oh yeah, let's talk about our show.
I think it's gonna be a great show, a great show. We got
Sean Elliott, who the best ever man, best ever at Arizona. He's
going to join us today. We asked him a while back and we wanted
to tol him. We wanted to talk to him about one this being the
last PAC twelve tournament and with you know, the meaning of that to him
is somebody who you know who played in the tournament, who had an impact,
had an impact on the PAC twelve at one time, was the was
the career scoring leader until Don McClain passed him. Just all this the death
of the PAC twelve. What that means to an athlete like him who is
so high profile for the PAC twelve. And then we'll talk about the NCAA
tournament. Right, he had the yead. He was in the first final
four team that had Final four run next year, very disappointing, and that
they didn't get out of the or they lost in the sweet sixteen. You
know, they were ranked number one in the country. You know, those
two kind of contrasting ends, and that was the end of his career at
Arizona and just what the n double A tournament means to him now. So
we're gonna have him and then we're gonna get We brought in Jody Aaylor is
gonna be a three fifteen guests, just a ton of Jody's He's always all
over social media. But you know, stuff going on with the Cardinals,
the NUBA tournament. You know, how much does the n Cuba Tournament mean
to fans up there since they don't ever have a team that goes no,
no, no, And it's a big city. No, it's not nosy,
right, but the final four is up there, So just all of
that just you know, just from things from going on right now from a
Phoenix perspective that Jody always is is great to put out. And then tomorrow
tomorrow, right, we've got Charles McClelland, the chair of the NCAA tournament
committee, So we'll ask him our questions about the bracket and the tournament.
You'll join us. A lot of heat they are and I'm not sure what
they take a lot of heat every year, So we'll we'll talk about that.
And the heat is because Yukon's bracket. If you're the best team in
the in the tournament, why are you getting so much heat from other schools
in that area? Right, Well, it's just the way it goes.
It's because they and he'll he'll be able to explore it. I think it's
because while on the one hand, it's like, Okay, you want to
give the easiest road, but you also want to keep teams in their areas,
and there's just a bunch of good teams in that region. Right.
Having spent some time on that, I mean, that's why exactly right,
that's why Arizona's in the west. Right. Sure, people are saying,
okay, if North Carolina is the number four, the fourth number one seed,
and Arizona is the second number two seed. Why are they Why does
North Carolina get Why it doesn't North Carolina get the first first, the number
two the other number two seed, and like well, because they wanted to
put Arizona in the west and north the West was the only place where North
Carolina would go because they were the fourth number one. Things like that.
People don't know when't how it is. But my leage it plays a big
part now and obviously strength to schedule all that. So yeah, you'll have
thought I'm not going to be here the rest of the week being in Salt
Lake with the team along, rule ahead. My road is the road through
the final four. It's a road here really is tight. And then and
then also join us tomorrow b Ryan Ratkey, who called the last PAC twelve
tournament for Westwood one Sports, and he's he's got the call in Spokane for
the first and second round. So great lineup. A couple of guests.
Our friend from Sports Cards, Showtime Sports Cards, George Modis will be my
uh guest host tomorrow and Wednesday, and Steve's absence so I won't be doing
this here by myself with Kevin or I guess, and the least tomorrow,
but well, you know, i'll have a guest host with us. We'll
kick some things around headed in. Haven't decided about Thursday. I actually stay.
There was something I wanted to propost to you on that one, so
we'll well, you're gonna be up there, but with it, with it
it being an eleven o'clock game, I'll be ready for Well, I was
thinking that if it's an eleven o'clock game, if maybe we can get you
just to do it by phone for the eleve o'clock that is tweve o'clock here
right, two o'clock. Well, it's gonna be tight because I'll be writing
eleven o'clock there, so it's ten o'clock here. Yeah, no, it's
eleven o'clock. Here's twelve o'clock over there, So two it'll be tight.
But we'll figure it out. Okay, we'll talk more about that. All
right, let's go and take our break. We're to come back. We've
got Jodyayler coming up talk about a lot of the stuff going on right now
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com to schedule your free evaluation today. Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez they
have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty
streaming live. I mean I hid Radio laps Hey, Welcome back to aling
the ball here on Fox Sport fourteen fifty. I'm Steve he's Jay. Now
we have Jody Eaylor from Fox Sports nine ten and Phoenix. Jody Howire you
how you doing? I'm good. I'm honored to be the opening act for
Sean Elliott. I feel like I'm like the last generation that kind of really
remembers Sean Elliott's pure greatness. You of aba so excited to be here.
Great to have you all that information up in the valley. Do you can
you hell that there's a Final four here in three weeks? Not really,
But to be fair, you couldn't really tell that there was a Super Bowl
three weeks out either. You know, there's just so much going on all
the time up here, and everyone kind of stays in their own little suburb
and so it's it's not like I would expect it to be this fever,
but it's definitely publicized, Like we know the final fours in Phoenix. People
are aware. But I am kind of curious to see as we get closer,
how the sort of hype and buzz is crest. Well, I guess,
and this is going to be you know, the what would you call
me? Just the the upty two Sonan. You know the fact that Asu
is not in not in the tournament all the time. So it's not a
thing I imagine up there like it. It's certainly not like it is here
where people live and die with the dang tournament is. Does that have anything
to do with how much interest there is in the tournament up there? Do
you think no matter where you are, people are fired up over it.
No? I think that's right. You know. I remember being in Tucson
when Michale was hosting some tournament games, and like the whole town was buzzn't
about that day the day before about that's the first and second round, you
know, So I think I think up here, yeah, I mean,
ASU is not really a thing. Gcu is is becoming a thing, and
so there's legitimate excitement around like that program. But they are a twelve seed
and so it's not like it's capturing the whole city. But I think it's
just it's just, you know, there's so much that goes on here.
There's there's the Super Bowl, there's the WM Phoenix oap in now, there's
the Final Four, there'll be the Women's Final Four, there's the Fiesta Bowl,
and so everybody gets excited the day of, but there is sort of
normal sea to just having huge events after a huge event, you know what
I mean? Yeah, yeah, And there's that place is so widespread now
it takes you an hour to get across town, just you know, just
to get in the car and go. What's your topic of conversations today or
this week? Cardinals and Suns And you know, obviously I'm the U of
A alum, so I talked you of A and the Long Beach State matchup
and what's at stake. But I mean, I'm curious you guys are in
the no pun intendent here, the eye of the storm here when it comes
to college basketball and U of A. But I think I probably watched less
college basketball this year than any year of my adult life. And I've certainly
watched as much U of A Basketball as I could. Outside of U of
A, I didn't have a lot of interest in watching random no name dudes
and transfers on random programs, and I just feel like it's it's a pretty
steep decline for college basketball. Do you guys feel that at all? Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know. I've I've watched a number of
things because it's been so I don't say water down because it's not wanted down.
There's just so many teams that look alike and not like anybody can win,
and if you don't have Yukon, good luck with that. Yeah.
I sort of compared it to like baseball fandom when I was a kid,
and even as an adult, like I could name the starting lineup for every
baseball team and Major League Baseball pretty easily, and then when we sell platoons
and you know, teams realize they can shuffle guys up and down. Now
it's impossible to know who's sitting clean up for half the teams in baseball.
So I just think there's just a complete overload of chains and player names.
And even this year it could be a great final four. I'm not sure
how much momentum that carries over to nation. Like look at the NBA draft
right now, it's like the top six dudes are Europeans or G leaguers.
Most people, I don't think could name the five best players in college basketball.
So I do think that there's a college basketball has obviously an issue that
they need to figure out, but it's not their problem. It's college athletics
in general. Yeah, no, I hear you, So let's uh let's
let's move on a little bit because there's so many things going on. You
want to talk about the Cardinals. Yeah, you brought up the Cardinals first
of all draft wisers, you know, all the stuff that's going on with
that. But I first want to talk about the Casitas. Oh yeah,
what the hell is that? That is? That is? Uh, you
know, they're they're trying to get creative. I guess I was joking today
that feels like the idea of Cliff Kingsbury left on the way out, like,
hey, how can we make our stadium look like old town Scots stale
in the pool, and like, oh, great idea, Cliff, here
you're fired, but we'll steal your idea. I I honestly don't really know
what they're going to do with that. I I feel like it's like a
lot of things that sometimes happens up here. It's done with the right intentions,
but might ultimately create more embarrassment than it does success. So it's sort
of the extension of the pool and in the outfield of Chase Field, which
frankly, you know, surprisingly became a pretty big hit and less of an
oddity, and maybe this opens that door. I just think you know,
there's teams like Jacksonville and Arizona and maybe one or two other teams that would
even think about doing this. So it's they got space, they got tickets
that they could I guess consolidate into some very very expensive on field suits.
But it's it's strange, Well, the Raiders have a disco, right or
they got a nightclub in their end zone, so, you know, I
guess maybe this is for the retirement set that's in, you know, in
in in Arizona that you know here, you know, go get a recliner
and what and watch the game. I watched that video that they that they
made. I watched it over and over and over again to see what is
this and and it just I mean, it was fascinated by it. But
I'm like, is that really something that they tested it out that's going to
sell. I think the idea is they're catering. There's a lot of money
up here, like a lot a lot of money, and they know that
there's a lot of people that don't want to go to a professional sports game
and it with the average fan and deal with the average fans drunkenness or the
average fans blah blah, blah. I mean that's where you and I and
most people I know are most comfortable. But people with an extraordinary amount of
money want to want to feel extraordinary. They want something unique, and so
they're catering the bandwagon rich fans, and that's what they're trying to sell this
to. It's not the average Cardinals fans then, you know, not in
their defense, but the marketing to get people to go to live sporting events
has to evolve because people are more and more and increasingly likely to not go
to games. So it's at least something unique. But I'm curious how it
works. I'm just curious. It's always been simple in my book about getting
people to the stadium. That's when thing go. Yeah, and that,
which has been a challenge for the Cardinals over the last thirty five, really
continue to be yeah yeah. I mean for the foreseeable future. I think
they're true headed in the right direction. So I do think success is going
to come. I think next year will be a competitive, fun, interesting
season, barring injuries obviously, and then I do think this team is set
up to potentially be very good and in a year, two years, three
years that they could sustain. So it might work that way. So are
are they said on the draft? I mean, everybody's talking about Harrison.
I mean, is he the guy? Well, yeah, there's that.
There's the Cardinal fan that believes that he's got to take Marvin Harrison Junior.
There's a lot of trauma from passing on to Rell Suggs or a Trane Peterson
and you just got to take the star. I'm of the opinion if you
can trade down and stockpile picks this year and next year, that's ultimately what's
in the best interest of the organization. It's so funny, guys, because
every year but the drafts go through this process where we're just one hundred percent
convinced that all of these pre draft rankings and projections are one hundred percent right,
and then every year we're proven that nobody knows anything really about the draft
and that so many things are wrong. So I like to operate from the
margin of their perspective, and in order for that, Cardinals take at number
four to work with govern Arson Junior, like he flat up has to be
great, like great, great, like Larry Fitzgerald Hall of Fame great,
which he could be. He could also be pretty good or just good or
not very good, And I think trading down in stockpiling picks just make the
most sense honestly, even though it's not nearly a spun or or marketable.
Well, what do you think they'll do? Well? I think the Minnesota
Vikings offer two firsts and a future first, and they could effectively amass five
first round picks in the next two years. I think they will do that
deal, and I think that's what the NFL is expecting right now. I
think that's what all the reporting has been. I think if it's anything short
of that, they're going to have to have a real, real tough conversation.
Ultimately, I think money offs import is the kind of GM who wants
to trade down. And I think the Cardinals will interesting, okay interesting,
So potentially, what do you think? And it's only what march here?
Potentially? How good can they be or not? So bad can they be?
Well, you know, Aeron Donald's out of the division, so that's
a good thing. The forty nine ers probably are gonna have something to hangover
after another disappointing finish to their season. The Seahawks are in total transition.
The NFC was bad last year, and I think it's it's probably going to
be about the same level this year. So I think the Cardinals next year
could reasonably expect to be competing for a wildcart spot in the December. You
know, a lot of that will come down to injury luck as scheduling luck.
But I think next year, anywhere between seven and nine wins feels like
the right amount, and I do think they'll compete for wildcat spot. I
think they'll play meeting for football. If I had to guess right now,
you know, if we assume full health for Kyler Murray, I'd probably take
them to go nine to eight, And it really just comes down to the
last week or two. That's where I I think they're aheaded this year.
Mister mister optimistic Jodie right nine one. Who when when teams do things the
right way, I'm happy to give me credit. It just happens, So
happens in most of the states. The teams just do the wrong things all
the time. Okay, so we're we're several days past the Pac twelve tournament.
You saw a coach get fired going in while in the middle of it,
or maybe going into it. We saw we saw Dan Monson get fired
on Monday and then got his team into the n C Double A Tournament.
What's the situation Bobby Hurley? Anything, anything buzzing over there, and you
can't say you're wishing that he get fired and then get fired and then take
the issue to the final four. Yeah, he's effectively. I think the
expectation is this is really a situation where neither party has any better options,
but if they did, they'd probably pursue it. I don't think Bobby Hurley's
in demand, although there's a slew of job openings and the crickle down effect
has just begun, so I don't think he'd be up for any of those
big ticket jobs, but some of the openings that will be created, he
might be. He's got the contract that he needs to get finalized and actually
signed a year after agreeing to it, and so I think this story is
a little bit to be continued because I don't know that he is using a
position to commit any more resources to Bobby Hurley, and Hecy's got a pretty
good recruiting class coming in next year. But I just think both sides right
now are at the spot of like it's kind of empathy, right, Like
I like living here and they don't want to have to worry about basketball,
so they're just probably keep going in the same direction and hope for different results
next year. Well, it's funny you use the word apathy, and you've
been around a long time here and there. You can count what maybe five
coaches in your hand since you were a kid, and none of them have
worked. Do you think anyone would work? And we both know that coach
matters, who could they get? They want to go there for the apathy
that they have. I think what works now? And I think someone could
work at ASU because there's so much transition every single year. I think this
is like the Kenny Dillingham model, the Jetfish model. If somebody just comes
in and just works their butt off and they don't care about what the name,
brand recognition is. They just do everything they can to recruit recruit.
Actually puts programs like ASU in basketball and U of Vane football in a much
better competitive situation than the traditional structure, which was if you don't have historic
success or you don't have a history of prescedure, probably never going to win.
So if I were ASU, I'd be looking to follow the Kenny Dillingham
model. Even though he's not produced much on the field yet. But it's
that kind of coach, new, young fresh connected to high schools in a
deep way that I think could work because listen, the Big twelve is going
to be a big adjustment. But like if we just if we bottom line
and say, hey, this, can ASU basketball ever be like U of
A or U c l A. No, could ASU basketball be equivalent to
b YU or Houston or Kansas State? Then the answer should be absolutely all
right, man, who do you have in the NCAA Tournament. I'm still
I'm still sitting on I have. I'm just folk like long beat State terrifies
me. Any any any movie about like college conflict is the world against the
administration. Now you've got this team that's just like United against a log Peay
State administration. I know there are almost three touchdown underdogs, but I do
worry a little bit about that that magic. Although Arizona should win comfortably and
in to me, a Baylor Sweet sixteen matchup would be fascinating, right,
Baylor and the Sweet sixteen would be kind of wild? Yeah, I agree
with one last question before we go, An thing short of a X would
be a disappointment. Final four, Oh I think so you know they found
him, they found yeah, showed up. How would you answer that?
Because there has to be the standard has to be the standard, right How
old are you? Thirty something, forty two, forty two? So you
were nineteen years old and here at school when the last was the Final four?
Oh yeah. I ride on Fourth Avenue after the Duke National Championship game,
and then I was in the office of Ryan Radkey at another radio station
for the Illinois loss. That was partially my fault for jinxing the game and
changing up the routine. But I'm just tired of any other outcome other than
a Final four. Obviously, like a tough game, buzzer beat or whatever.
But final four to me, with this team, with this experience,
it's so rare. I know they've got some vulnerability shooting and with boswell,
but I really think you've got to you got to expect a Final four for
a team that showed what they've showed how good they can be at their best
this year as the Final four caliber team. Okay, you're a man,
hard to drive, hard man. Okay, you guys, sweet sixteen,
you're just in there. We're happy with a win overloading. You're too close
to the situation and to see the boards. And to me, they're seeded
to get to the to the Elite eight, you know as the number two
seeds. So you know, if they lose to North Carolina in the in
the in the Elite eight, you can't be pissed off at that. But
if they don't get to the Elite eight, I think you go, Okay,
that was a disappointment. And by the way, none of this,
I think, if it happens, reflects poorly on Tommy Lloyd. I'm not
at that point. Jobs at stake. Obviously, loude Olsen had his questions
to answer and the questions just get louder. But yeah, I agree Elite
eight and is kind of the baseline. But I'm just all ready for this
team to take a step into the back into the big leagues. You and
everybody else there were a whole bunch of them in Vegas, and I can
tell you that, Jody, thank you very much. Hey, guys,
love chat and appreciate your time. You will thank you saying here, Jody
Taylor nine ten Phoenix. If you're up there listening, Yeah, good stuff.
He's always good twoson and Guy so twoson, Guy up there, you
know, kicking it in Phoenix, and he does a great job. So
all right, let's take a break word to come back. We'll take your
calls five to two zero four one, six, seventy four to forty.
You've also got a lot of a lot of clips from Tommy's press conference after
the bracket came out yesterday, so we'll start playing some of that, but
we will take your calls five to two zero four one, six, seventy
four to forty. If you're an Arizona man's basketball fan, you know it's
been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudolsen
era in my new book, Lessons from Lout 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. Want one email me at Steve Robera ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Team Security dot net, streamy Live, I Mean iHeartRadio app. This is
High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Hey, welcome back to the ball here at Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, He's Jake. You got a call? Yeah, gonna take
this call. Hi, You're on the air and I on the ball.
Good afternoon you guys. This is a Gabe. How are you guys doing?
We're doing well. Gave did you survive the weekend in no victory?
I was irritated from my hap on on Friday. So it's just Arizona didn't
really give it there to be motivated to win it. So yeah, hopefully
hopefully they can be motivated to win this games in March. But if not,
then I seen there is criticism to be have about whether Tommy Lloyd can
motivate uh the players too to go to go to go on a run.
Do you think you can just say I'm hoping. I hope I am wrong,
but let's just see what happened. Do you think it begins and ends
with motivation? Yeah, if you if you're not, if you're if you
don't really give a sugar, honey, I see about what's going on,
then you're not motivated to play play your ass off. Okay, what if
I told you though, Gabe, that lude Olson lost in the first round
in his first three n cua A tournaments at Arizona. We I mean,
what did he just fail down? Hold on? You know, I mean
you know you're saying, well, if the in the first round again born
in ninety five, Okay, that's what I'm saying. But I reckon.
Ye I know that Arizona one in ninety seven, but I was. But
my point being that Luke got here and didn't didn't win an nc double A
tournament game until his fourth year. Should they have thought about getting rid of
him after the third year? You're awful? Okay, Yeah, you goteles.
That's all I'm saying. Gabe. You know, look, I I
hear you. Fans were frustrated. I saw a bunch of them in Vegas.
They were all upset. But in the end, you know, if
they won or lost this tournament wasn't gonna matter. It wasn't gonna have,
you know, decide what they do in the n C double by the way
game. So I weve mentioned this before you came on. So if you
do have questions about whether he's the guy, what do you ask him with
those questions? Well, I mean in regards to the media people, I
mean, like Bruce pa Pasco. Good you media guys, ask how can
you motivate the guys to get up for the games? And the other thing
and the other thing is well, this is my question to YouTube, was
was was Kylin Boswell gamboling or playing blackshack? Well? Apparently he was and
yeah, and Tommy addressed that, and we're gonna play those those clips here
in second. So I'll tell you what. Keep listening to the show.
We've got a bunch of stuff from Tommy that I think will get to some
of the questions that you have about this team going into the tournament. Sound
good? Okay, all right, thanks for calling. They gotta give some
sugar. Did he say sugar honey? Yeah, sugar honey. It was
coming and I was scared. All right, Okay, Tommy Lloyd did have
Oh we got another call. Let's take this call. Hi are on the
air and I on the ball. Hey, this is Frank and I have
a very fearless forecast for you on the cats All right, let's hear it
all right here it is the cats Men are going to lose in the first
two games, or they'll go to the final four one or the other.
Nothing between either one. They could win, they could lose the first game.
I think I'll win the first game, but they could lose a second
game. And if they go there, if they win those two, I
think they'll be focused and make it to the final four. Wow, Okay,
I don't. I don't. I like your little theory there. That's
a legit. That's a legit theory. Frank, Okay, we'll take that.
We'll put that in Heyrank. Yeah, well we got you, we
got you, no, thank you. Well, well, okay, we'll
keep that one in mind. So well, you know, I want to
ask you something, you know, and I don't want to take I don't
want to take Cassu with Steve again, buddy age, But you know,
you say keep, you know, keep you don't be surprised. They'll be
surprised. You're going through this before. And they'll be disappointed. Well every
time, and I've been through these a long time. I'm disappointed every time.
And sometimes they would they lose, I wonder or too. It's very
diheartening, But I don't know. I had a very visceral feeling, uh
in this last game, like we were let down, like we expected more
from this team. So that's just an emotional thing, you know. Uh,
you know, how did you feel? Uh? Jay, you were
there? Yep, he was there too, Yeah, No, I was.
I was angry. But then when I started thinking, what did the
loss really mean? Frank, I have a soul for you. Take two.
Yeah, I was there. Of course you don't read me, Frank,
I'm disappointed in you. Take two. I don't care. Pills and
call me in the morning. You'll be fine. Okay, Well I'm about
to take kilas better. That's even better. Yeah, Frank, uh no,
it to me that the game ended up really doesn't mean a whole lot.
And you'll hear again. We're gonna play some clips from Tommy Lloyd and
you'll hear exactly how how they took it. So keep listening to the show
and we'll get to that. So thank you for calling. All right,
Thank you guys. All right, So we do have a bunch of clips
from Tommy from his He talked to me after the bracket was announced yesterday and
sounded a particularly chiper. I don't know if you had had a couple of
union where they did the thing or what, but he he but he was
the same he's been this, He's always been that way. He doesn't.
I know, as a coach, you gotta feel like crap, But for
some reason he doesn't. Either he doesn't show it, or Arizona fans or
just lose their mind. Friday night, he doesn't. Friday night, he
didn't know. I sat present, which is great, which is great for
people like us who asked the questions, and he did Thursday night. He
got a little testy when the question is defense. Oh, you got to
remember that, it's where the top three blah blah blah, and we're kind
of like surprised. Well, the question never came him up. He brought
it out himself. Yeah, all right, here's well, here's his his
first some of his first remarks about about how, you know, how he
feels going into this, uh, going into the tournament starting on Thursday.
Yeah, I feel good. I feel good. You know. You know,
hey, at the end of the year, you're gonna play hard games
and and you know you're gonna win them, you're gonna lose something. We've
been fortunate to win some of those games, and you know, then you
get into tournament and you lose one. So you know, we're playing the
handword dealt. I think we're well rested. I know we're definitely healthier than
we were last year. So you know, I think we're ready to be
in attack mode. I mean, we're ready to have a good week of
preparation and and go out and play a good long beach date team and let
it happen. So so, and that's just who he is. That's how
he answers the questions. So what's the best what's the best way Arizona's gonna
get through these games? How should they play? They just have to play
better, Steven He said that on Thursday night. Remember he asked him,
you know, what was the difference between the way you played you s c
last Headay? He said, we didn't do anything different. We just did
it better. And that's all they have to do. The guys have to
play better. Kylein Boswell and and Caleb Love can't both have a bad game
in the same in the same game like they had on Friday night. There's
a thing though, that there's an opponent they have to play right, who
will play out of their minds right? Oregon did that right second half with
the big guy two guards. The two guards were fantastic. The freshman guard
was fantastic. So they have they have something at stake two, right,
and Fally Dante of Oregon was what fantastic was what DeAndre Ayton was in his
tournament. He was just there wasn't anything anybody could do with that guy.
Even Colorado couldn't do anything with that guy. And it was just that's what
it was. But he did is what reminded me of what DeAndre Ayton did
in the in the tournament that that they just walked through mentioned. You know
Love and Boswell, they both had a terrible game. I had a fan
behind me screaming at Caleb Love. I had actually turned around town. You
can't yell at him like that. The bench, right, he was right
behind the bench. He's leaning over the bench, yelling the cababi he's coming
out, you suck, you suck, you suck. And I turned said,
you do realize that Arizona is this good because of that guy? And
I got him calmed down. So he was behind you was right behind him.
He was yelling, well, he's leaning over the rail. He's yelling
in my ear, and I couldn't take it anymore. I'm like, and
he's yelling at Tommy too, And I said, those two guys are why
Arizona is going to be a number two seed in the tournament and quit being
that fan putting money on this team. Well, and now the other thing,
I found out who he is and I was told local yeah, and
I was told he probably had a lot of money on Arizona. And there
was that, and you know, and when you think about the fans who
were pissed, probably pissed more about that than about the fact that theah and
got sold on. Tell this guy said, you're you're acting like an idiot.
Stop, he calmed down. You have to tell me who they is.
It's it's actually a very funny story. But here's what time he had
to say about what Kyle and Boswell and and Caleb Love have to have to
do. You know, hey, we're it's tournament time. So we trust
them, We believe in them. There's no pressure on them. They don't
need to do anything, you know, other than what they've done consistently for
the most part all season. So you know that that's how games go,
that's how seasons go. You lose games, and usually when you lose games,
you know, some guys don't play well, so you know, we
just got to get them back on track. But it's nothing that I'm really
stressed out or losing sleep about. No, I don't think he does that.
No, these two guys, Look, there's a lot of requirements to
be very good in the tournament. One is getting lucky, one is being
healthy. And guess what guard play? Right? Your guard play Arizona one.
Because they had two pretty good guards. Maybe Simon Terry is a reserved
Dickerson who had They were pretty deep at that position. Now that they have
to play to their level of expectations. And look, while they've had bad
and a couple sometimes they've had both bad games at the same time, they've
played great more or at least very good more often than not all season long.
And the one that's been the most inconsistent has been buying Colin Boswell.
So let's get to the issue. We only got about a minute, but
we'll play this clip real quick quick. Colin Boswell, there's a photo of
him went out on social media. Play he's playing blackjack in Vegas. He's
uh, he's he's underage, so somehow he got on the blackjack table.
I have no problem with the fact that he was playing blackjack, unless he
was playing blackjack at two o'clock in the morning. But tom Tommy was asked,
what are you doing about this? Do you know about it? What
are you doing? And here's what you had to say about the Boswell situation.
We're aware of it and and we've handled it internally. And that's all
I got to say about that. You know, we got have a strong
culture and you know, but but again I say, we're not perfect,
but you know, we love Kylon and you know I have no worries moving
forward. See that's the whole that's disappointing to me, in the sense that
if you're you're you're in a team with me, Kevin and our interns were
a team, right, right, and one of us screws up somehow,
Yeah, you'd be disappointed. Sure as a teammate, sure wouldn't you be
disappointed? And possible knowing that he's doing this. It all depends on if
what he did. Let's say they've got free time, okay, an hour,
two hours to go do whatever you want, walk the strip, right
whatever, If he did that in that time, I got no problem with
it. Okay, Yeah, but okay, you mentioned this earlier. He's
eighteen, nineteen years old. Now there's an issue, I know, But
I know that I was trying to get on blackjack tables when I was eighteen
years old and up in Vegas. I wasn't Kyle Boss right. And it's
a bad luck. Yes, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be curious.
That's a bad luck. You and I I have been journalists to that degree.
I'm interested. We gotta get heartbreak. You got ten seconds what the
internally what they said right played because he played right right. Well, I
don't know if we'll ever find that out. Ye Hey, we gotta go,
we gotta take a break. We'll be back with breaking news.