This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jakinszlis on Fox Sports fourteen
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the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera. You're jakin's as
Good afternoon, everybody. I'm here, man, you're here. It's been
a long day already. You know, it's it's only Tuesday, man,
and I feel like we're Thursday and I haven't gotten, you know, anything
done. We're getting grumpy here, we can already. That's what I told
you last week last year, is we get older to get grumpy. So
only two were complaining about that. I was She's the B word. Yeah,
that was the That was the subject of one of our podcast segments of
a few days ago. You want to go back and look at our our
talk about when you get old, you just get grumpy and and is that
just a part of this part of it? Yeah? I think it is.
Sometimes be a lot of callers who are older. They should let us
know. I think they're grumpy too. Yeah, I agree. Hey,
welcome to Tuesday, closer to next week in the in the kickoff. Oh
right, Yeah, there's a lot of football talk on the air man.
Just you're talking talking about games, talking MC games. You're pretty excited.
I know that for a fact. Your Dodgers are are doing well. They
keep winning. I think they've lost two games in the month of August.
They're like seventeen and two or something like that. They're on the roading,
you know exactly how No, I think, well, I think I think.
I'm pretty sure it is. I haven't looked today. I don't remember,
you know, because I lose track games like that. But I can
tell you in about two seconds. They Yes, they're seventeen and two.
They lost they lost one to San Diego back in the first week of the
month, and then they lost last week a game to Miami, and that's
all they've lost. Man, And so they're running away with their division.
Yeah, as usual. I still think that they're gonna have a tough time
beating the Braves in the play. Yeah. The Bradders lost one surprising yesterday
to the Myths. Yeah. How do I know, Well, I just
know I think we know why, you know exactly exactly. Yeah, but
the Dodgers are on the road. They're in Cleveland for three and then Boston
for three, so we'll see how that goes. And then they get back
into LA. They've got a three game set with the Diamondbacks and then a
good I don't know if you call it important, but certainly something that'll house.
They've got a four game series with the Braves in Dodger Stadium. Let's
getting to the nitty gritty time too. It is for there's stocking for position.
I've been looking at the schedule. I don't like this schedule where everybody
plays everybody, both in the American League in the National League. I'm looking
at the Dodgers schedule, and and mind I'm talking about the Dodgers as a
contender right a team that's in the hut there they're September schedule. The Marlins
are on it, the Nationals are on it, the Mariners, the Tigers.
They're playing all these teams that they shouldn't be playing in a in a
pennant race, you know, in the home stretch, because you should be
playing the teams that are in your division. And that's how it used to
be. If you want to play those teams, fine, but go play
those teams earlier in the year. When you get down to the home stretch,
it should be all the teams in the same divisions playing each other,
because that's how you keep a pendant race exciting by knowing that. Look,
if the Padres are three games back to the Dodgers and they've got six games
in September with the Dodgers, you know that's what you want. But you
know, the Marlins, the Nationals, the Mariners, and the Tigers should
not be on the Dodgers schedule their National League West schedule in the month of
September. You know, yeah, they got you know, they got the
Giants, the Rockies, you know, San Diego. But they've got more
games against teams not in the division than in their division in September. That
I don't I don't like. I don't like Making League Baseball doing that at
all. Send the letter you got the Nacho's change gonna be this? Well,
that was Dave Higgy because he's our for him, he listens to it.
I'm waiting for some quotes from Dave. He listen, Come on,
Dave. He was a little busy for a while. He was, and
that's why I gave Hi leave. I saw him, you know, SU
saw that Saturday at the scrimmage and he was out there. Yeah, chicken
hands because his babies. I told your publisher said, where's the where's the
Tommy Lloyds? Right? He said, well, he's trying to get some
quotes from Hikey. He's been a little busy. He hasn't a little busy.
Changing He says, yeah, I know, I know, I gotta
get it. I said, yeah, you read it out of time,
Yeah, right at that time. Okay, so the publisher has that makes
more sense, Yeah, makes more sense. So someone else. Uh,
we have a lot of stuff going on with little tidbit stuff right, yet,
a lot of stuff. It's gonna bean. I've got like a whole
lineup of breaking music. Some of it we can talk about now if you're
watching, like there, there's not in it. There hasn't been an official
announcement, but I don't know if you've seen this the basketball, the basketball,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw it. A very interesting thing
that Arizona is apparently lying down up to play in the twenty twenty fourth Battle
for Atlanta. So who else is there? Well, we've talked about how
bad that was the last time Arizona played there. But interestingly, I'll go
through the list. Indiana should be fun, Louisville should be fun. Craighton
should be Oklahoma should be fun. Yeah, Davidson, Okay, Davison's always
Then West Virginia, which you could see them play her Crease it could be
there if he's there for twenty years there. And then Gonzega, Gonzega,
you know, you know that they're gonna set up a matchup for those two
guys to play each other. We've been waiting, baby, We've been waiting
somehow, maybe not in the first round, right, but to kind of
set it up in a way that they're likely to see each other maybe in
the you know, in the second game next year. Right, that's twenty
twenty fourth, I would be in November of twenty twenty four, which is
interesting because Arizona will be in the Big in the Big twelve West Virginia.
This is somewhere somewhere up above. I'm gonna say that Lute is smiling and
saying, God, look at this. They're doing what I used to do
with great preseason member then its and the Hawaii where they played the best teams
and then they do well, Hey, hey, there's no better team in
November than Arizona. There's no Mulligan in the field that maybe maybe Davidson,
yeah maybe, and they've always been good. But you look at the Arizona,
Gonzaga, Indiana, Louisville crighton West Virginia, Oklahoma, David and I
don't know that any tournament's gonna be. And then you jump into some other
non conference right because Duke comes here Alabama? Do they give their second Alabama
game this year? Okay? So they have a couple of other ones.
Michigan State's just neutral one time. I don't because they played in California.
And then they go into the pack the Big twelve, which is gonna be
fantastic. There's a guy that in the breakfast club that I work with.
He's from Kansas, huge Kansas. Yeah, came up today to meet came
up to me to day and said, we're gonna be playing. Did you
tell him Sleem's gonna be playing He's coming back just for that game. No.
I laid off of that because I hate to get Slee Pross. I
hated with that guy did here. I know what he did. Hear,
but just that he wasted his Yeah, he should have been. He could
have been. He should have been somebody. Yeah, no question, no
question. So hey, we have a kind of a basketball related day to
day a little bit. Craig McMillan. Uh, you all know him from
the first Final four team. He's also here for the lude Olsen Fantasy basketball
camp that you and Mike Vader are doing over at Sporty Chances he'll be coming
in this week and uh, you know, just pick his brain, talk
to him about, you know, stuff going on with him. He's a
coach at Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa College in Northern count doing it forever,
been doing it forever. Yeah, I'm in a way he's stuck around asking
that's a good question. I never asked him that. But he's comfortable.
He's comfortable. He's got a great life. He's he's the most chilled dude
and a low key kind of chill forever. Just loves his Life's a good
fisherman. Uh if you saw you read some of the book. Right,
So he's only invited Loot and the guys to go fishing, right, And
we'll ask him about stuff like that, you know. Uh, funny stories
about them fishing and then and the second hour. I'm looking forward to this
U. But we have Uster, the dad of Raymond, very proud dad,
right, the kid who committed to Alabama change his mind, decided to
go to Arizona. Yea, y are from southern California, right, right,
So it's not like he was a Tucson guy came back. I mean
he he has. He could have gone to Alabama, sure, decided not
to. He's here, he's he's looking like he's got a real good chance
to start ye big again. We you know, we remember when we had
Roy Lopez and we had his dad. Exactly what kind of like kind of
like, what's this like? Is it exactly get to have your kid go
through this? Right? And he's a coach. He was here over the
weekend to see his son playing the scrimmage. I'm very proud of his dad,
his son, and he drove back in the storm. We'll talk all
about that. You know, guy who's kind of be gonna be here a
long, right, he's gonna he's not gonna miss a game here. We
talked to Chester Burnett like this two members, right, I'm sure he's not
gonna miss a game here. It'll be interesting to see how many games he
goes on the road. Certainly the USC game, probably go up to Stanford
for sure. Uh see if you know, he'll maybe go to Washington State.
Uh and uh, of course I'm sure he'll go. He'll be at
the a SU game. But a dad very again as you said, very
proud of his son. Uh the day he's like he has a football coach,
so uh, you know, near and dared to his heart that he's
kid is about to embark on a college football career here. Yeah, I
mean so, so it'll be fun talking about that and just maybe what his
son's was thinking when he came to play here, you know, and him
being a former coach, you know he gets I mean, you know he
gets talked to their dads. Right, you're an athlete, you talk to
your dad. It'll be interested to hear what what what Robert will share with
us in terms of what his son has seen sure at the u of A
in this time that he's been there, just kind of kind of where things
stand for him. So that should be fun, fun conversation. I hope
you'll stick around for that. Yeah, of course, we'll take your calls.
Five two O five two o four one six seven four forty. I'm
trying to figure out what the heck the pill been our number three years.
It's kind of it's right there up on the wall. We're gonna be three
years next week. Yeah, in September, we'll see one second it's the
twenty second second. Yeah, but now you know and oh we also follow
up on that. You know, always if you're listening now, you don't
need to listen today's podcast. But if you miss the show, you can
always go to the podcast. We're on the iHeart website. Also, we
try and get it posted every night on our Twitter and pretty popular and uh
Facebook feed. So yeah, a lot of listeners to the podcast. We'll
get thousands of listeners to the podcasts. Yeah, party more show than people
who listen to us live right. Because of the time constraints, which is
very cool. You can listen to us anytime, you know, if you
want us to put sleep we're pretty sure sure we can do that. You
want to get to us on a brisk walk, put us on in the
morning if you didn't catch us the night before, whatever, But you can
always catch our podcasts and we post that every day the Gibberish Show. It's
uh, you know, Steve, you know it's funny because when every day
I posted, I see, like the previous podcast, the stuff that we
talk about, yea, the things that we talk about, you and we
talk about We've talked about this before, you know. We talk about stuff
that just average guys are talking about right now, locals, right locals.
You know, we don't sit there and prepare you know, weekly, no
gigs, kits and stuff like that. We're talking about what what's the conversation
today? That would take to its work? It would take a lot of
It would take a lot of work plus plus. You know, I think
we have knowledge, Steve. I think we had to give ourselves some credit
for having some knowledge. We just don't have some names that were we forget
the names. But that's just a small flaw what we do and the way
we go about business. But I think, uh, I've been wanting to
say this for a long time. And we're just here to have a conversation.
You know, that's what radio shows like ours should. You have conversations.
We're not here to report the news, you know, I mean,
we do breaking news, but it's to create another conversation. So we're here
here, We're here for conversations. We want to have conversations with you.
If you want to give us a call five two zero four one six seventy
four forty. If you want to reach out to us on on x now
informally known as Twitter, if you want to reach out to us on Facebook,
you know, we'll respond to you. Well, well, you know,
if you if you text, if you have to have our cell phone
numbers, if you text us or email us during the show, we'll run
with that stuff. Just uh, just here to chat. And that's uh
that that's kind of how we get our listeners and people. I think people
like respond to that and they like that. So and you're texting with somebody
right now exact So, yeah, it's one of our buddies getting grumpy.
You hit that mark years ago. Wow, Yeah, he's one of our
buddies. I'll tell you. I think you do have to take that as
do I yea, it is what it is. I had to have I
had to have a chat with my family because they said that you will always
sound mad. So yeah, they used the word aggressive. I'm like,
I'm not trying to be aggressive. I'm you know I'm talking to Maybe I
talk loud and aggressive, but I'm not just me. That's because ricks like
that. Gene is not so much like Gen a little less and wait less.
Wait you have to wake up as a dude. Yeah, well,
you know what he's as a cop. He saw a lot of stuff,
so it's hard to rattle. He's probably more Columbo than he was anything else.
It's hard to make him think that, uh something is a really bad
situation. Situation. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, no one's dying on
this show. There was some stuff. I try to grab it. I
try to grab it up with some Facebook some some big game boomer stuff.
I don't know if you saw. Did you see some stuff? I've been
going through it the stuff like all day, but I haven't haven't seen anything
in particular just to college basketball program tiers over the last past decade, past
decade. Yeah, of what I keep seeing our lists of wins by college
basketball programs, and Arizona at the top of those. I mean, I
guess they of course they haven't gotten to final fours and stuff, but they
wont a hell of a lot of games. Yeah they did, no question,
Sean, Sean did that his schedule was kind of weak, but you
know, he won a lot of games until until he end, but he
won a lot of games in the Pac twelve two. Yeah he was,
he was, Yeah, he was okay, he was okay. Well,
the last couple of years not so much. I know, he was syd
losing streaks unheard of, look, and they were really well. And that's
there's a reason why he's not the head coaching because it was stuff like that
going on. Right, So I don't know, all right, so let's
let's take our break where and come back. It's gonna be Craig McMillan,
form Arizona Wildcat now junior college coach in Southern California, Northern California. They'll
be here for the Fantasy basketball camp this weekend, so we'll just talk.
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Steve Rivera and Jakin Summits. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports
fourteen different. Hey, welcome back to Win on the Ball. Here a
Fox sportsporteen Cutty on Steve Rivera's jackinsas now on the pol we have Ci filling
you, a who star from back in the day. Craig, how are
you? And they're good? How you doing? We're doing fun? You're
making another trip to Tucson. Huh yeah, looking forward to right. Yeah,
you have a full lot of fun in the lud Olson camp, you
and the guys, Joe Turner and and all the rest, Eddie and yeah
everybody. So sorry, Craig, you're gonna come down and run these guys
like you run your basketball team or you know, we don't want you going
easy on these guys, especially if I'm not in there. They're dealing with
a lot of ice bags and day two, we don't want to run them
too hard. Yeah that's true. I mean, Craig, Craig has been
here for a while. So the first day, a couple of years back,
tell maybe three or four years to go back, Reggie was kind of
running the show and oh man, it wasn't pretty. This is what we
paid to do. What they were they were crushing it. But it's a
lot of fun, right, Craig, Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
If you ever read, you put him through this, Kaliston actually not
gonna be a lot of people back have him. Go easy on him.
They think he thought that you're still twenty years old, twenty five years old.
That's not the case. That's not the case. So how are things
going up in Santa Rosa. Everything's good. We're getting reading in the second
week of school. We got tryouts going on for the team. I like
our group and I'm excited to get started. Ask him your question, Well,
it's so, Craig, how long have you been there? It's you
know, at Santa Rosa. This is my third year, twenty third year?
Is that? I mean, you're just happy there. Have you thought
about going to you know, maybe going to a major college the first ten
years. It's not crossing my mind of looking to do something else. But
I'm close close to retirement and I like what I do. I like where
I live, and I have a lot of good friends up here, and
I don't plan on trying to pursue anything different in my career now. Just
being comfortable for you to to to do that job, Yeah, yeah,
all right, cool, Yeah, I mean yeah, so so tell us
tell us a little bit about just your twenty three years doing doing this job.
What's kind of been the thing that's kept you doing it? I guess
it's the way the way to put that. What What are you enjoy about
coaching basketball? I like teaching fundamentals. I like uh, I like living
in this area, a lot of good friends in this area, like a
coaching staff, and it's just been a comfortable job for me. And enjoy
the competitiveness of it. Yeah, a lot like your dad, right,
Yeah, obviously a coach's son who who did this? Did you kind of
think that you're going to end up doing this when you were, you know,
twenty five years younger, You know, I'd initially planned on trying to
stay at the major college level. After a while that and seeing the lifestyle
and everything kind of, you know, maybe look into some other options.
Yeah, of course. Okay, how much of a how how much are
you like or unlike your head bet your your Arizona coach from back in the
day. Yeah, you know, I like to say I'm very similar in
a lot of ways because I have a lot of respect for how he ran
everything. A lot of things you know we do or you know, based
upon things he did, and we've made changes over twenty three years. I'm
sure if coach Olso we're still coaching, he wouldn't be doing things exact same
as he used to. Everything evolves in the game changes and approach has changed,
but the fundamentals are basically the same. And you know, we tried
to stick with the fundamentals. And you know one thing you told me when
I got the job here, he said, remember, you get good guys
and they'll find a way to get the job done. You get knuckleheads,
I'll find a way to screw things up. So I've tried to stick by
that, and whenever I've strayed from that has come back to bite me.
So I need to wake up call every now and then. That's very true
though. It's very true. I think that's in life too. If you
get some people in business and all that stuff, just as you surround yourself
with you know, good people, knuckleheads, you end up with doing knucklehead
things yourself a lot of times. Yeah, yeah, so hey, let's
talk about your your your life here in Tucsons. So tell me, had
it not been for Had it not been for Pete and probably Eddie and Steve,
there would have never been a Craig coming here, the first McDonald's all
American, you know, it was. The whole recruiting process is different back
in the day. It was the first year they had early signing, and
I didn't sign it early, and I was intrigued by Arizona and then Coach
Olson and the staff and what they were selling me on what they're going to
do. But they've been so people don't realize. I mean, you guys
realize that. People don't realize now how bad Arizona was. Oh, we
didn't. And if they hadn't shown some progress that first year, that was
a year with Steve and Rock and Pete and Eddie were there, if they
hadn't shown some progress and they weren't very good at the beginning of the year,
and about mid season they got together and started playing really well on the
stretch, but they hadn't made that progress and they finished the season last and
the back. Then again, it would have been pretty hard. It's hard
to decide to go there when you think about, you know, what sold
you, what was it? I mean, they're like the number one thing
on the list. He said, Okay, because of this, I'm going
to go there. I think it was just the fill for the players,
the campus, the facilities, the I like Tucson, I like the U
of A. And I thought they were going in the right direction. I
think they'll show in the book you talked about your dad that he reminded you
a little about your dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, old school approach,
they both, I think. I think Coach Olson and my dad both
fans of John Wooden and did a lot of things try to emulate the way
John Wooden ran his program. What were some of your first impressions when you
got here, you know, what did you think of the city, What
did you think of the campus? What did you think of that? You
know, people like the desert. Used to go vacation in the desert in
California some when I was young, and I like the desert and the winter
climate and uh and one other thing that I remember back is really selling me
on I think for my Stern Burns song, they told us how much the
town was into basketball back when Snowdon was coached. We had some pictures and
stuff of sold out crowds and stuff, and they convinced me that they were
going to get get to go on and get the vibrants back in the program
and it was going to be a big The fans were going to really support
the team, and I was excited about that possibility. And they did and
they did, so it came. It came to fruition, no question,
no question. So let me ask you, how did the shot change your
life or did it? Nah? You know that shot didn't change my life.
Just the fact that the program was getting turned around going in the right
direction was an exciting time to be part of the program. So, uh,
you know, I didn't. I started covering the team your junior year.
That was the year without Steve Kerr. But a lot of people feel
and I even remember Billy Packard actually had had, you know, a comment
in that game you had at Georgetown that you guys looked like you were a
Final four type team in the making that eighty six eighty seven year, the
year without Kerr. What were some what were some of your thoughts that year?
We're just kind of wondering, God, we're just maybe we're not going
to quite get there, you guys, you know, I mean, you
finished second in the pack in the Pac ten. But you had some tough
losses. You know. That was in four years up out of Arizona.
I think we overachieved three out of four years. We did not overachieve that
year. We just chemistry wasn't right, wasn't perfect. We lost a lot
of close games. I mean, it just seemed like and it wasn't just
us, and other teams beat us on unbelievable shots. Were just kind of
a we're kind of snake bit that year, and we didn't you know,
we didn't take care of the ball well enough, and there were some other
things and getting Steve back that last year helped a lot of it. And
then everyone else be in a year more mature, and I think going through
the losses the previous year and one make sure it didn't happen. So I
think we're a little we worked a little harder. We're probably a little hungrier
than and maybe we had going into the previous year. Was it a hard
year, I mean it was a tough on you guys. Oh yeah,
My junior year was a terrible year. We we barely made the playoffs.
We got beat in the first round again, just like we lost a bunch
of our games. We had a lead and got the hit other shot I
think to put it in overtime, and then got beaten overtime against huts Tap
and it was no. It was not a good year. And we learned
from it and we got better. And you know, everybody has those kinds
of years, and that was my one one out of four years and has
on it. It was a tough year. So so let's talk a little
about Loot. One of the reasons why you're coming butt up as a fisherman
as a fisherman, because that was the fun part of the book with you.
He you guys, you would invite them to go to northern cal all
the guys, you know, and Loot being Loot, he kind of knew
everything about fish right without knowing about fish, you know, he is he
has done quite a good of fishing, but you know, with his schedule,
he didn't get a chance to fish all that off, and but he
likes fishing and had gone on some fish and chips are in there, and
uh, I think I told the joke. I joked one time that you
know, the first year he was up there, we were catching some salmon
and I was driving the boat and He's like, Craig, I think we
should go up here and go around in there inside the where the birds are
diving there. I think that's gonna be a better spot. So I've been
fishing here for like forty years and he's gonna tell me where to go on
the first tip. You're just coaching you, man, You're still coaching you.
And I'm sure you listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was
funny. That great photos too, ball the guys hanging out with their coach.
I do. I guess it's hard for me to picture loot out there,
you know, out there. I never I never realized. And Luke
came up here the first time. Bergman and Tolver picked him up at the
airport and they were driving up here and Tom likes, I don't know if
you've heard of the Restroot River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. They it's like
a microbrewery, and Tom like sepire this. They stopped for lunch there and
Tom and Bergman had a few beers and Luke was way anxious to get up
to Alby and try to go fish. And they didn't get up to Alby
and until like six third in the evening, dinnertime and cocktails, and Luke
didn't want to eat, you to want to drink. He wanted to just
go out fishing there. So I took him out with like maybe one other
person for an hour before dark, and he caught a salmon that night and
he got back in missed dinner. But he's all fired up because most of
the time would just go out very early, right, he would go out.
He would go out, and he would not want to come back until
we limited, or he didn't want to come back until until there was no
more daylight, right, little life, right, Yeah, yeah, I
mean I see him as the you know, the the wine and cheese guy
at the uh you know, at the at the nice restaurant, not a
guy who's gonna you know, dig in and you know, be out there
on the you know, on the lake for hours and hours. He's a
hardcore fisherman, interest a lot of fun. Alber didn't like that, Becaustober
was fighting off sea sickness the whole time, or he was hung over.
Probably know a lot of fun, a lot of great memories. So when
you when you look back, what do you think, Just what a great
life you guys had, uh, with your coach. Oh yeah, you
know, it was just not just the coach, it was the whole,
all the teammates who had a special group of guys as That's why we still
enjoy getting together for unions and stuff like this. It's whole, the whole.
This camp we're doing this weekend, it's about and everybody. And you
know, all the guys to go to the camp are kind of like members
of our group. Now they've become the same guy's been coming back several years.
We all keep in touch outside of the camp too, and uh look
forward to to hanging out and having a good time. Well, you know,
a little bit ago, when we were talking about you know, your
your long, your long career at Santa Rosa, you mentioned that you just
didn't like the idea of that lifestyle. But then you see Ker, you
see Frazier, you see even Luke Walton, you know some of these guys
from Arizona who who've been in that, and you go, you're just shake
your head and go, man, I am really glad. You know I
did what I did that was perfect for me, even you know, to
each his own. Well, you're mentioning the guys in the NBA. I
never had and I didn't play in the NBA, and I don't have much
experience in the NBA and the games different approaches in versity. I never really
had a strong desire to try to pursue coaching or doing anything in the NBA.
I don't think I had the background. It would have taken a lot
of work. I was more into the college game. But you don't see
those guys coaching major college basketball either. They change realizes that you know,
he's got a busy schedule, but it's nothing like Tommy Lloyds with all the
recruiting and fundraising and all the stuff he has to do. Well, he's
Tommy's one of the guys that you'll see this weekend probably. What what do
you think about the job he's done? Phenomenal? Phenomenal? How could you
do much better than he's done? Right? What's been the two years?
Had two great teams? Right, So let me ask you, because he's
done fantastically well, sixty some wins and five losses or whatever the t and
you still have people here kind of complaining about, yeah, well you did
this and you did that. Well that goes and people that's goes to a
ter when you've had a program that's been as successful as Arizona had, that
goes with the territory. But you know, you're trying to compete against all
the teams that we've had over all those years and stuff like that, trying.
Most people in Arizona realize it's just a small percentage to get all the
noise for complaining about things. Most people realize, what a good job he's
done. Well, do you have to deal with that up there or no?
Well, you know it's a guy, a really good coach. It
coach a long time out of the league. Steve coaching media was the name
coach at the Apple Valley College. He said. The bad thing about you
know, junior college basketball is not that many people care, he said.
But the good thing is not that many people care. Ride in your wheelhouse,
baby, that's true. Well, we'll see. We have a group
of people a good following here and they're very supportive and kind of unique Virgunia
College situation. Yeah, sure, of course, of course, Craig will
see you here in a couple of days. Okay, we'll get talking to
Thanks, appreciate it. Thanks one of the good dudes. Yeah, still
kind of just chill, right, but you know a little more talkative than
he used to be. I mean I did like a you know, his
senior year that that eighty eight year when when we went up to the Bay
Area and I went over to his hometown and interview some people there and stuff.
Then I got him. I got to sit him down at the at
the hotel and we probably talked for two hours and I probably did eight five
percent of the talking. Yeah, you know, you're you're it's like you're
pulling quotes out of sure, you know. But he was a you know,
good kid. Loved him, loved work, you know, you know,
working with him. He was just a guy who came and did the
work and you know, and loved being doing what he was doing. Yeah,
the one thing that these guys we'll take a break, but one thing
they enjoyed so much. Just you know, as you get older, and
I'm sure you deal with your kids, they get older and they appreciate you
more as you get older and or not. But but it's not a coach.
It's not a coach student anymore. It's it's kind of like you're one
of the families. Right after it's all said and downe right after it's all
said done. And that's why these guys hang around. They are yeah you
big old family like that. They love brought it back together with each other.
Yea, all right? That great, Thanks Dan, Thanks again to
Craig mcville. We'll be back in a few minutes and we'll take your cost
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net streaming live. I mean iHeart radio, Aham. This is I on
the Ball with Steve Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifth days.
He welcome back too, on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, You're Jay Because you didn't know for twelve minutes. There's what
a call. Yeah, I went a little long pick. You know,
I brought up that that eighty six eighty seventh season because I know we remember
Craig McMillan from the eighty eight you know, the final four year him,
Kerr, Elliott, Anthony Cook call those guys a Joe Turner, everybody.
They had a tough year in eighty seven. And you know, and I
had a chance he had first hand. You know, that was my first
year as a beat reporter. They lost a bunch of games that they had
big leads in the second half and blue games right including as he said,
the you know, it was the last year that you could be in the
tournament and host a first and second round, and they were hosting and and
uh. And you know, they had like a I think a fourteen point
lead in the second half against Utah, blew the lead. Tim Hardaway HiT's
a three pointer. Uh, I actually hit a two pointer. It looked
like a three. Uh. There wasn't instant replay, but they called time
out, talked about it among the refs, and and uh called it a
two and uh and then the instant replay showed that he did in fact step
on the line, game goes into overtime and then they lose. Anyways,
and it was a tough year for them. But I think in a lot
of ways, as you know, as Craig thinks, I think said I
had to set them up for the next year because they did not want to
experience any of that again without questions. I mean with Steve bean Out,
who the butterfly leader, right, he was the like the the stone or
what do you call it, the cornerstone of the team, and they didn't
want to disappoint Steve. Imagine how things would have checked, How would have
been different, Everything would have been different. Everything it wouldn't have been because
that wasn't a final four team with Steve Kerr because his because his knee.
But even if hers on that team, right, and they're not going to
the final four. Seanny Elliott was a sophomore, you know, Kenny Lofton
was a sophomore, Anthony Cooke was a sophomore. They were still pretty young
and and you know, and if Kur had Kerr had played that year,
yeah, they might have gone to the you know, they would have gone
to the NCUBAA tournament, might have even won a few games, but I'm
not sure that that team would have been as good as they were. So
that was your first year covering the team, right as a helper? Right,
No, I was the bright Okay, So I have some questions for
you those and then you didn't you years the next year to eighty six,
eighty seven, eighty seven, eighty eight. Oh, you were the main
guy in eighty seven eighty Oh, I didn't know that. I thought Downs
was or snow Mike Downs came after me. Okay, so let me ask
questions. So you how old were you? Thy six? So uh twenty
seven? Really young? How was it and how and how was it?
And what were your impressions of Luke before you took the job? I was
intimidating something. Yeah, of course, I'm not gonna say that I was
overly intimidated by him. Look, I you know, I had covered news
and I had seen a lot of crap too that I was sure my brothers
right. But you know he was already a big deal. Yeah, no
doubt, he was already a big deal. Uh. And and this is
actually a really funny story. When I when I actually introduced myself to him,
I met him. Uh, we were on a football road trip is
Arizona plane at UCLA that year and we were tailgate and you know, you
tailgate on that golf course, and we were parting around and well, my
wife and I my soon my eventual wife and I. She was on the
trip with me. We were we were playing around and I don't remember what
we were doing. We ended up wrestling on the grass, okay, and
we're kind of and I rolled, I got in a roll away and I
look up and there's Luke looking down at me. He's standing right there,
like, okay, these two people are wrestling on the ground. What the
hell is going on? And I look up and I say, I coach
Tom Jay Gonzalez, I'm gonna be covering you guys this year for the Star.
That was my introduction to Luke. But he was, you know,
he was very easy going with me. He knew I was a rookie.
Uh And I told you one of the things that I did was that I
kind of followed Bomb Moran's lead, and so I wore a coat and tidy
gate okay, okay. And he would always stop me and ask me where
I got that jacket or like I think he appreciated because I think he felt
like I was helping represent his team, so he was always commenting on on
on stuff like that. So he was very easy. So did you want
off the beat after two years? I went and off the beat after that
final four year for two reasons. One was I was exhausted. Yes,
you know the amount of work it took to cover the eight years, you
don't get off. You know, there's no right I had. I had,
I had. I had Christmas Day off and one other day from back
then. Practice started October fifteenth. So from the day practice started until I
was flying home from Kansas City from the final four, I had two days
off. You're you're preaching to the choir, right. One of those one
of those Christmas Day I had to fly, you know I had to fly.
They had a January second game at New Mexico. I did you know?
I went, You know, I had those eighty eight Yeah, and
and right after they became number one in the right, they become number one.
They were undefeated. And you know, I flew home on Christmas Eve
from Washington State. I mean all that stuff on the way home from Kansas
City. Two things were happening when the Cardinals were moving, We're coming to
town. And the Star had already decided that Jack McGruder, who was the
football writer, was going to go up to Phoenix and cover all the Phoenix
sports, so the football beat had opened. I said, I want to
do football. So that's why, Yeah, I wanted to football. I
mean, I was exhausted and I really didn't like all the travel, but
I wanted to cover football. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. The
reason that's the question because I was if you're twenty seven, you're you're talking
to loot, You're kind of intimidated. You know what, you have to
stand your ground, right, And I'm sure you had a lot of fun,
but it was slow to work. It was it was a blast,
and you know what, and I got to go to the Final four,
right, It was kind of like, how is it ever going to get
better than that? Now? As the as the as the football beat writer,
I was the backup guy on basketball, So for two more years I
still sort of covered the team. I did all the home games, I
traveled for the NC Double A tournament, I traveled for the Pac ten tournament.
I still did some stuff with basketball, but I didn't want to be
the beat. I wanted. I wanted to football, you know, because
that's ultimately why I became a sportswriter. I wanted to travel. It's a
better schedule. Yeah. And my well, my first year covering football,
I think was your first year eight in the in the the eighty eight season.
It was the eighty eight basketball season, right, yeah, because I
think that's when we first got to know each other. Yeah, eighty eight,
the first year they didn't go to they didn't go anywhere, right,
and then they went to Hawaii, and then they went went to they went
to the Corper Bowl in eighty nine, the first Corper Bowl, and then
I got off the beat after that. And then the worst playoff game they
could ever be, Well, the simp them and the where did they go
to San Diego when they showed up and they didn't show up with s Donna
Kasu and San Diego. Oh that was that was like nineties. No no,
no, but I'm talking about Then we went to Hawaii, they went
to Hawaiian hallt got shut out for the first time in one hundred thousand games,
I mean since the time I had been born. That was that was
a season of ofis no, no, no, The gun tell me the
gun. Oh Melvin Smith. Right, so that was that time of year,
all that stuff. But that that team with George Malula, remember they
got beat that, They got the hell beat out of him twice in a
row by Washington. They came back and beat him in ninety two. You
know it's a good old Gold College. Okay, Hi on the er and
nine in the ball. Yeah, hi guys, old guy John the streamer
who was challenged to uh pick up the Middle East? Uh yeah in Israel
stuff. But it all worked out and it was great, and Bruce Pasco
was great. But I'm calling thank you for the great interview with the great
Craig McMillan. What a humble guy. I mean, why challenge uh what
he could be or what more he could be? He's living a good life.
Yeah yeah, after twenty or more years getting too graduate degrees. Uh
humbly to uh get you. You have a basketball seats when all the old
people wore red sweatshirts. And I wasn't an old person. But uh,
what was the big game I saw? I can't remember where he did the
lay up to win? Yeah, they called that the mcshot where he uh
he got he got a loose ball and laid it in at the buzzer to
be Oregon State, who at that time, Oregon State was the Arizona of
the Pac ten Sure the ball landed in his lap. Well, I taught
at Tucson High and I was in the gym when Oregon State was practicing.
Uh, in the Tucson High Jim to play U of A. And what
was their coach's name again, Ralph Miller, Ralph Miller Miller. So forgive
me, forgive me. I'm older than you guys. Your memory fades the
way, but I'll never forget Craig McMillan shot and uh, thanks for your
coverage. Well, thanks, we appreciate that. Thank you for the call,
thanks for listening to Yeah, appreciate it. You know, think about
Craig. He was, as he said, he was the first McDonald's All
American. He could have come here and acted like big man on campus.
Ben, you know, I'm the guy he was, and he was never
that guy, even the even the eighty eight season. You know, you
know, all of those pieces fit right. They couldn't have done that without
any of them. They couldn't have done it without McMillan, couldn't have done
a cook all those guys. But you know, he was the guy who
had been here for you know, four years, showed up as as as
the guy that kind of as a recruit got everything going. I mean,
if there you know, if there's no Craig McMillan, there's no Sean Miller.
That's that's exactly. He could have been that guy who just said,
look at me, I'm the guy. He was never that. He knew
his role right away. He got either coming off the bench or doing what
he did. Because and it starts with Pete and Eddie and then Steve of
course, and then Sean and then McMillan and all these guys. It was
a perfect scenario for Luke. Yeah, you know, and when you when
you talk about that team, you know, and Steve Kerr he was the
point guard. But he wasn't you know, he wasn't really quick, and
he wasn't all he was a great shooter, but he ran the team.
He was very smart. But a lot of how he ran the team and
how he was able to run the team was because of McMillan, right right,
Well, it's funny I think you remember this, Uh, this is
part of the book with with uh with oh god, uh the other guard,
the other guard from California got the music, my my music guy kept
up Harvey Mason. God, I'm like, I can't believe you couldn't pull
Harvey Mason. I just pulled Ralph Miller. You couldn't pull Harvey Mason.
I just tell you, Harvey so so so. Harvey is saying. The
one thing that they didn't want to do when they played this disappointed Steve point
Steve, disappointed Steve. You know, they didn't they play hard for loot,
but they didn't want to disappoint Steve. And that was a good reason
for that, because one Steve again, not a guy who was saying I'm
you know, I'm the guy. There's a guy who went out there,
had high expectations for himself, got to those expectations and made sure that everybody
else understood the same exit. How do you get a group of guys and
this is you know, Tolbert's the mule box right the curves, all those
all those dudes who have the kind of same like in mind. I mean,
can you imagine trying to keep Tom Tolbert kind of no in check,
zeroed in on what you guys are trying to do could do it, you
know, and you know you hear the story about about the the the Elite
eight game against North Carolina and how Luke had to say, what do you
want, Tom, what the hell do you want? You want to go
home? Tom said, I got you, I got you, got the
layup and then he and then he plays, plays his ass off in the
second half, his money beat the hell out of North Carolina and they're in
the Final four. Okay, we gotta go, we gotta go. Oh,
we do gotta go. All right, we're gonna take a break.
We got back. All kinds of breaking news all over there, all over
the place, a lot of a lot of little stuff, nothing huge,
but good stuff. So we'll be right back.