This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jakonsalis on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services. Hey sure your most prized possessions katz R
two side at iHeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jagon's oss. Gotta got Jason in today because I sputtered to the
end of the road for the week. I don't know what you guys.
I'm fired up, Steve. I'm all excited at juice. I'm ready to
go golfing in the morning. You're sick. It feels like I lost forty
pounds when I know I haven't. You know, it's fight funny should say
that, because when I golfed the other day, I told it golfed on
Monday afternoon, or yeah, Monday afternoon, just on a whim, just
that morning and say hey, let's go this afternoon. We got one one
fifteen tea time when played, there was nobody out there but us. They're
smart. I lost four pounds. Well that's I'm sure all water. I
got back on the scale today and I got those four pounds back. I
see, I see you try that drink, and well, I got to
drink, had a couple of donuts. I was jonesy for the donuts.
See, you shouldn't be afraid of my threats to tell your wife what you
eat, because you tell her on the end. I know you know we're
now. She loves you anyway. She's not listening to because we were.
We've got the kids, so you got the kids. Okay, but remember
there's always a podcast. I know she doesn't go to Are you kidding me?
She doesn't go to the podcast. She goes like, I hear you
enough. I'm not gonna go hear you on the damn podcast. Don't listen
to Jay, listen to our podcast every day if you're not listening normally.
Yes, I'm fired up, So I gotta go drop some more, you
know, go drop four pounds again and then come back and make it up
with a big steak or so's that's it, diet of golf. Hey,
welcome to another day. But we're gonna talk about a lot of stuff locally
and uh in Phoenix right uh. And and I've been wanting to have this
conversation for a while there's a lot When we had Jay Perry who was who
was the head of the Phoenix committee for the Final Four a while back.
There's a lot goes into the putting on the Final four. Uh the it's
in Glendale next next year or you know, in in March. Um and
Doug Tamara who is the sports information director at the Arizona State uh Arizona State
is the host school, so he's got to run the media operation, and
there's a lot that goes into doing that and how you handle these hundreds of
media who come into one place or they're all a bunch of spoiled brats who
expect all these things like free food and parking and all these things, and
all the logistics that go into running this media operation. That's why we get
into the business man exactly free food in the parking. So Doug, Doug
good a good friend. Um, he invites me and some other guys that
I know to come and work the Final Four for free, which we do
because we enjoyed working with Doug and work in the Final Four. And so
he's going to come in and talk about just they're getting started, you know,
at least starting to put the pieces together. Of the actual operation,
and so we're going to talk to him about all that. He's a great
guy, even though he's an ASCU guy. He's a hard follow for me
on Twitter because you know, in order to follow him, I got literally
all the all the ASU stuff. But uh, a really good guy,
a real good friend, and we've known him for a long time and he's
been he's been at the ASCU for thirty years, which goes back to when
you know, we were covering sports and stuff, so um been around a
long time, but really good guys. We're gonna talk about some of the
backstage stuff that goes on at the Final four from the media operation standpoint.
So I thought it would be an interesting conversation all that too. I'll would
be the spoiler. There's a bunch of geeks. There's a bunch of excreting
pretzels and bananas and asking dub ask questions popcorn don't forget the popcorn and sodas
and becoming more than well. And then there's the there's the um the drinking
cup police that don't let you on the floor with the cup that doesn't have
the double A logo on it. Some very funny stories about that all those
all these exciting things that they don't need to know. There's there was one
time a guy that nearly cried because we didn't let him take his bag of
potato chips out on the floor because it was their logo. Yeah, there
was a bag of lays. He wanted to take a big time bag of
lais out onto the paper. You got to put those in a paper couple.
I can only put three chips in a couple. That's the way it
goes. Those are the rules. Is very upset with us. But anyway,
so a lot of stuff that goes on there, So I think it'd
be an interesting conversation for our listeners to just hear about, you know,
what's going on back there, and then when you're watching the final four,
just think about how the media stuff gets done. And we're talking everything from
uh, you know CBS and t and TBS and every or whoever does the
does the games all the way to handing out you know, stats to people
and how the stats get done and that kind of stuff. So a lot
goes into it, So that would be fun conversation. Yeah, okay,
uh, yeah, it's only in nine months, I think, Yeah,
it's come much man. It look, it comes fast, it does.
It comes fast, it does. And then in the second hour, someone
near and dear to my heart to Carter gear right. Uh for a south
point sell point. She's kind of like the the secret sauce behind. I
was gonna say I was my over under on the first time, you're gonna
say secret was at least going to be into her interview. Okay, so
you got way under on so secret sell point success. They're churning out,
they're churning out great athletes. Um. Uh, you know, particularly in
football, and uh, she's obviously has because she's a she's a strength coach
for the whole athletic program, not just football. And uh, she you
know, a former Olympian, she was, she's a Hall of Famer at
the at the U of A. Uh and doing some obviously doing some great
work over itself. And let's not forget the best student and the best the
all time best athlete to ever come out of Sana Fania, Mexico. Saying
a lot, let me say, let's say a lot. I played there,
so I know I number two, number two, okay, my list
in my list. It says a lot about you about her I'm not joking
about her. She's fantastic when you're talking about somebody who's been in the Olympics,
the Olympics, the NCAA champion, all that suff yeah, yeah,
yeah, okay, And she did in the neighborhood. You know, it's
been years since I chatted with her, since back when she was at the
Obey, so it'd be good to get catching up with that. She went
home for a while to work with the U and m's people and then decided
to come back. It wasn't hot enough in Nomen Creoki apparently. Okay,
Hey, so that's that's our schedule today. I welcome back, Jason.
We missed you, Thank you. We had a couple of screw ups,
but we're okay. Who you Yeah, we cover. We left the phone
microphone on and so we were taught. We were talking to uh to mat
Mourdano during the commercials yesterday, you know, yeah, okay, what else
is going on, guys? Victor Embanella debut debut tonight. If he's not
being arrested by Britney, not the new The news about him is what's happened
with the Britney Sports. He's not being arrested. What was the last time
you were wanted a domograph from a cube blonde? It's never happened, as
it never exact. Yesterday was yesterday? Have you ever has anybody ask you
for your Yeah? Yeah, but I've written my books. Oh your books,
I forget you. But okay, outside of a book signing like at
a basketball game or you know, or something like that, outside of your
book signing, maybe maybe maybe maybe a long time ago. No, no,
I got asked once. No contact. I was that It was the
eighty seven NC double a first and second round here here, yeah, here's
the one that was in michale and a guy that I had worked with I
did an internship at Juvenile Court, and I mean I was working there.
I was not in the juvenile I was actually working there and he was a
lawyer and uh, you know, I've worked with him and we kept in
contact. We sort of you know, side the well he had he had
bought the UM the media guy that year's media guy UM and and Dick Vital
was here I think doing that doing that set of games he was doing or
he was doing a set again. Maybe it wasn't the regional you know what
it was eighty eight, okay eight and he and that's what it was.
It was Dick Vitell was here doing a game. He had bought the Media
Guy, because I can remember signing the Media Guy. So he had gotten
Dick Vitel's autograph, and then somehow he thought my autograph would have value to
the media guys. You diminish now it's worthless exactly. So he asked me
for my autograph on the cover of the Media Guy that I signed it.
If you're listening to that guy. Whatever happened today was Mike. I still
remember. I'm not gonna give his last name embarrass him, but I did
get asked for my autograph at that. You know, that's a that's an
exciting story. Eight. You know, want something right next to die.
Somebody on the radio yesterday, I don't know where or when, a different
show. As I was watching, listening, coming in or leaving, he
says, well, we have some information back in nineteen eighty eight or something
like that. I'm thinking, what a lot that was a long time ago.
Does it feel like a long time ago? Not as long ago as
the fields to other people? Eighty eight? You done it? You don't
because that's thirty five years to me. To me, Steve, you know
that that time in my life was not that long ago, but it was.
I mean it was. But but in terms of when I think about
that time that year, yeah, I have really memory memory because it was
important to you. It was. It was my first year. It was
my best time as a as a reporter and sportswriter. That the eighty eighties
little they know, you get out of it. I got out of it
because of it, right, Yeah, you were old your death, like
forty seven. Um yeah, he was just nine at the time. Nine
years old. Doesn't that make you hold feel old? It doesn't you know,
because yeah, you get out a chair here and you're oh god,
and I got a bed. I'm thinking what am I doing getting up?
Um? No, that's just old it. Here's a you're a funny story
because we were thinking about the fact that when seven seven seventy seven July seven,
nineteen seventies, okay, supposed to be the lucky Lucky his day of
the century. And we talked to me, buddy of mine, we're texted,
you remember where we were? Acting? Said hell, yeah, I
remember. We were at seven seven seven seventy seven, the summer of nineteen
seventy seven, I had just graduated from high school, and you know where
we were a mood of gray Hund Park for that reason, for that reason,
but couldn't bet or could you hold? Well, we did we we
we had gotten we had gotten the ticket sellers to know us, and we
were a friend. The first time we went in, a friend of us
was all enough to bed. Then we started bed and we would just go
to the same person they let us bet. So, yes, I think
it was probably a nice place. Then it wasn't very nice place. Yeah,
it was. It was as much in terms of the building and the
facility. It was a much nice place. In twoun Grahould Park, they
only ran in the summer because at that time the law, the state law
was you only had x number of racing days per county. So in p
MA County they used to bow the racing these two son Grahold Park. So
in the summertime amode of Greyhound Park is just on the other outside of p
MA County, on the other side of you went to them one. So
it would go to a mottel in the summer time, just passed Green Valley.
I've never seen they have a great hound park. There was. Oh
they knocked it down over when they changed that law. Then it was year
around racing and Tucson and they ended. But never you wanted to bet the
dogs in the summer, you had to go to a model about it.
Thirty five minute drive from here. Hello, my name is Jay, and
I'm so they were they were giving out these these coins that said seven seven
seventy seven. And the buddy of mine that I was talking to you today,
he said he still has his. We were thinking forty six years ago
today that we were down there. Yeah, okay, seven seventy seven.
And the funny thing was in the seventh seventh dog in the seventh race was
the favorite of course, must have been what he sucked? Everybody bet the
dog. Oh I know, well, I know he didn't. I know
he didn't come in the money because we all bet it too, and we
know we didn't win that race. So but everybody beat it because you know,
probably a bunch of people bad it. Just had ticket because I was
back when you got the little tickets and yeah, yeah, sure, yeah.
So we went off on the tent things we didn't we like we always
go off on tennis. Yeah, no, I was. I was.
I was well, no, I was. No, I was old enough
that by that I was. It was eighteen. It was thirteen at that
time. At that time, you had to be eighteen, right, So
it wasn't twenty one, and I no, I wasn't quite eighteen. I
was a month away from But the guys, some guys I was with,
were obviously eighteen. But you looked like we were. Well I looked like
I was twelve, But we were, you know, we were betting before
we were old enough, just because we got to know ticket takers. So,
kids, Gonzalez, kids, if you have anything you need to get
now, refer to this dad. Well you did it when you were statue
of limitations, many limitation. Yeah, but I mean seven seven seventy seven,
not seven seven twenty three. Okay, your dad wasn't even born.
No, No, I was recovering from a double broke my leg in two
places, trying to steal home and in an All Star game. Oh yeah,
yeah, place thirteen thirteen, Yeah, summer of the broken. Yeah,
my femur and then my ankle. Would you do steal at home?
And I know, but would you do run into the catch you know,
yes, yes, and you know back in the day they dug into the
home plate was I don't know, like a hole, well exactly kind of
spiking got in the hole and it kind of twisted me around. My dad.
I love my dad. My dad's the best. I said, no,
it's not broken down, or your son, we'll take you over.
So he took me home and it was so much pain. They took me
to the emergency. It was broken into Hispanic, Hispanic father who loves don't
I don't have insurance, Please don't be did that with my daughter. Man,
she fell out of the tree and she said her arm hurt, and
I said, we'll take you to We'll take you to the doctor. After
the USC Arizona game, Yeah, she uses that on me all the time.
It's it's a requisite. Remember was a nine game we Arizona was at
USC and I played him the week after a su well anyways, oh yeah,
yeah, I remember that game. We were watching on TV and she
kept saying her arm hurt and says, okay, well just give me a
minute, and the game endo we twitty emergency room. Her arm was broken.
She had surgery the following Monday. Father of the year he did not
win Father Tha and he's still trying to recover from the Hey, let's take
the break and get on the phone. Right We'll get the Doug Tamara from
a SU and uh Final four, so we'll be right back. For more
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you, breaking down all the exes and owns. It's Steve Rivera and Jakin
Summits. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to our on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jenkins Awesome. Now on the phone, we have
Doug Cameral from Arizona State Sports Information. Doug, how are you good?
Guys? Good? Good, good to have beyond the show, Thanks for
having me on. Jay Is has a little clean next yer. He's cry
at a time or two giving the issue connection. But we're not going to
talk about that, so I can't stand seeing Jay cry So, so you're
a busy, busy man. This is not your first rodeo with the Final
Four. No, it's not. I'll tell you what I've been. Um
lucky enough that about fifteen years ago I was placed on the Final Four committee
by Bill Hancock and then when Dave Warlock took over. There's about six,
six, seven eight of us that running each Final Four from the media relations
part of it, and so I have a lot of experience doing in it,
but again doing it obviously in two thousand and seventeen. You know,
we have done this before. Arizona State hosts a lot of major events.
We look forward to this one. Um. You know, the world has
changed since twenty seventeen when we did it last time. But we're all in
on all those changes and excited to do it. And you know, we're
just coming off hosting the Golf Championships for three years up at Greyhawk here in
two twenty six we actually host the women's Final four downtown. Um, so
we we're in the middle of a really busy period. Wow, that's crazy
that all that additional stuff. I mean, did you kind of sign up
for that when you got to ASU? Like what thirty years ago is.
But we're hearing Yeah, yeah, we weren't hosting Final four is but uh,
you know we We've hosted a lot of things through the years, but
yeah, this Phenix is kind of blown up as far as a place to
go. I mean, you know, people throwing the fist the balls and
the Super Bowls and all those kinds of things, and we do it.
We do it. I think we do it really well. Um. You
know, where we live, the weather allows us, like Tucson allows us
to host a lot of softball and other events, and it's kind of in
our blood. That's what we do. So um, you know, we
enjoy it. Um. I know the restaurants and the bars and the taxis
and the ubers and the rental car places are really happy that we do these.
It's when you you bring that up. And I brought this up to
the executive director of Jay right, which, yeah, Jap Perry. The
one thing and you've been too many I've been to a number of them.
Um. The one thing I don't like about Phoenix, and this is just
me being Steve, and the or is that they're separated. You know,
Glendale's the Final four obviously, but then everything's downtown. It's not like San
Antonio where it's one spot. I know, and I feel that, you
know, I feel the same thing. That's the one bummer about our place.
Um, you know, you wish things could be closer and for the
women's Final four and twenty six that actually will be right, you know something
like that. And yeah, that's that's the tough part. I think we
get around a lot. I do know this that Monday night traffic to the
stadium from the championship game is a little rough. I will tell you one
thing that everybody loves is with us being on I know we say, mom
standard time, but let's let's be honest. It's Pacific, right, I
mean we're three hours behind the East coast. When that ball tips at six
o'clock local time, everybody in everybody that works the Final four is so happy
it's not nine twenty East Coast right. Absolutely. It's just that that's really
a big breath of fresh air for everybody that's involved with the Final Four because
you know, when we do it in Atlanta and Indianapolis, I get which
time's on there on because they're on like seven of them like us. Um,
you know, it's it's tough. It's tough. I mean nine twenty
tip East Coast when you're on site, that's not a lot of fun.
Yeah, so this is a good variety. So so it takes a lot
and a lot of time to put to put a final four operation together.
You as you said, you've got the media part of it. So what's
you know, what's on your plate today? And you know maybe in the
next several weeks or a couple of months that you've got to you've got to
get get going on. And then you know, how how did things ramp
up you know into uh, into the actual event, right, and and
you know the first thing for us, for me is to read over the
manual and see what's changed since twenty seventeen. UM. You know, you're
you're allowed so many volunteers to help you with all the media media roles.
UM. One of the things is you know, getting all your volunteers credentials
photo id UM cleared through security because you know, you just don't, I
don't just give them a list and they give me, you know, string
passes. This is a process, UM. And then we'll start visiting the
stadium UM and just going over where things go and you know, some of
the things won't change from year to year or from seventeen to twenty four,
but there there are some big changes that they made. Um. A little
A little thing for the media is you know when when they go to the
locker rooms for media interviews, you know they're pretty close um to each other.
Um, there's not a lot of walking once you're in the dome.
UM, so that helps. UM. But yeah, there's there's there's all
kinds of things like that that we you know, the Final four committee will
come in town. We still got to find a media hotel. Um.
You know, we'll do our best to find a marry out to keep everyone
happy. Um. But you also you also got to find one that's you
know, if you can get a media hotel that doesn't acquire a media shuttle,
that's a big that's a big release, you know. I mean,
you know one of the little things you think about is you know, when
you put the media shuttle, you got to have bus people to drive those
and those are volunteers. So you know, you got it for five or
six days. You got to come up with volunteers only to drive the media
shuttle. So there's all kinds of little volunteer opportunities that are available to people
all over the valley. I mean, how many volunteers does it take to
do this? You know, for what I do, it takes probably forty
to fifty. You probably overall it probably take This is just a strict estimate.
I'm going with about probably five hundred. I mean, you know,
if you're talking, you know, you're talking the whole week volunteers downtown at
the festival downtown, the different things that you do, I mean part of
the final four processes, you put in a new basketball court at one of
the local elementary schools. There's all kinds of little events that go along with
it that you do that are really really cool. It's also a chance for
Phoenix to you know, brag about itself. Um you know, the bid
process had a video and things from different people talking about it that you know,
it wasn't just basketball. It was Anthony Roeblis, it was our national
championship wrestler and such an inspiration to many. And you know, we we
had Bill Walton talking about Phoenix, you know how great it is. Um.
So it's it's a big, big process and we're we're excited to host
it again. I assume that they're paying you tons of money just for hazard
pay, just for just for hazard pay. Don't get ahead of my jokes
now, don't get out a bunch just for the fact that you have to
do with Beg Meddo. Uh yeah, well yeah, well we're pirate fans.
So you know, usually around that time it's the opening day of the
season, so we both think we got a chance to make the playoffs.
There's always hoping. There's hoping that in the early April you got happy beg
Neddo. And by the way, the hotels, of course, everyone's an
insight joke is some Mere points, best sports writers, either SODA's, free
food and Marriott Points. That's all we live for. That's exactly. You
know what's crazy now everybody's looking to those AIRB and b's, you know when
they do these kind of long trips and we do catch a break, you
know, around the first week April, the hotels and everything go down.
You know, that's one of the reasons, you know, when we when
we try to host women's basketball we've done it, or wrestling or other events
in March. It's it's really hard to get hotels. But that first week
in April kind of lightens up a little bit, so we do catch a
break there. What makes you the most nervous about getting everything done? Are
there certain aspects of the stuff that you've got to arrange or is it just
wondering are we going to get it all done? I tell you it's it's
not so much. It's just that you really don't want it to take away
from your your regular job, right. I mean, you know, when
I'm going to our meeting in Glendale in October or September, and you know
our football is, say that's on a Friday afternoon or a Thursday afternoon,
and you know you've got a football home game coming, and you know you're
preparing for that. You know you're away from your ASU job, right,
Um, And and for that week, you know I'm not an ASU sid,
I'm I'm you know, the media director of the Final four. And
I got a fantastic assistant named Connor Smith that um will be working right alongside
me. And he's a lot younger than me and has a lot more energy,
So he'll be doing a lot of the stuff that that I would would
try to do but run out of gas. Um. But that's that's my
main concern is, you know, we have a lot of sports going on
here in March and April, and you know, I don't want to lose
track of making sure that we all do our jobs for them as well.
So you've been to another You've done this ten times. I think, what
did you say? You know what? I started in an O five and
m This will actually, when you count them all up, this will be
my twentieth final four. It'll be my nineteenth of working as a member of
the NCAA committee, and then my twentieth one was actually I was the intern
at Cincinnati in ninety two. U traveled with Basketball Lucky Enough with Nick van
Exo and Coach Hugg and squad to the final four. We lost to the
Fab Five, but we actually stuck around and I got to watch Duke beat
Michigan for the national title with Bobby Hurley. So there's a there's a full
circle. Yeah. I tell Bobby I was in that. I was in
the arena when you won the national title against the Fab five, and he's
like, what, wait a minute, you were in the Metrodome. Uh,
yeah, this will be my twentieth. Yeah, So I was gonna
say, among those, which has been your your your favorite? Uh,
your favorite? I'm thinking back, you know the one when Butler missed a
shot at the buzzer. Yeah, um, bubbler being the home team being
there like in that Indianapolis, that was just wild to me. I just
Jim, Jim McGrath was on our committee and he had to jump off the
committee because he was his team was in the thing. And then to see
Butler almost pulled that off was just thrust incredible. I mean it was it
was just the shot. I was actually watching the shot on the video board
because I was at the bench and I couldn't see the other court because the
court is raised and I was down below. So I turned and watched the
shot on the video board and like it was like a split second late,
but you saw it. I didn't look like it was going in, like
you look back, you look up, you look back, and it was
like, oh my god, that's right online. So yeah, that was
that one kind of sticks out and then, um, probably any of them
in the New Orleans just because it's such a great place. And I got
to see Kiss concert next to the hotel one night, so U some sometimes
simple things make it, make it fun. So so this one coming up,
you know, and you were talking about some of the differences and stuff
like that. It was that dude to like some of the COVID and things
that are doing differently. What what what are some of those things? You
know, And it's probably slipped back a little bit. I mean, you
know, two years ago, they didn't have locker room access at you know,
at the Final four. Um, you know, there's there's there's just
such a bigger emphasis now on digital. You know, I always say it
this way after the game. You know, normally I'm on the floor,
um, helping with postgame interviews, and there was like one postgame interview and
now there's like seven, like between all the TNT and the TBS and the
CBS Sports and the you know, the radio now uses video and there's just
so many things going on you can't get out of the way of a TV
camera now. Um, So just all that stuff's been magnified as to as
to how much you have to do. Um. The COVID stuff's probably gone
away, but um, you know there's there's still some measures that they take,
you know, behind the scenes to make sure you're okay. Um,
but just the way the world's changed in seven years. I mean, you
know, there's there's just more expected of you when you host. You know,
that's the bottom line, and you try to try to stay up,
stay the pace. So let's transition real quick. We have a couple of
minutes to your new job. You've moved over a one seat and now are
the head guy there. How has that been for you? It's been good
for me. I got a really good staff, including um, Jeremy Hawks
in our office, who's a U of A grad for Tom Tuttleston and uh,
he does a fantastic job. And I also have Steve Rodriguez in our
on our staff who's actually a two son guy. So we got so bud
and our office and came on both. Kenny Dillingham has been absolutely fantastic.
Um, I think we're in I think both our football programs are in good
hands in the Pact well right now. I think they're they're doing the right
things. The energy is there and Kenny Kenny was the perfect fire hire for
us at the perfect time. What do you what do you like about him?
Because that's all you hear is good stuff, right, Uh, you
know, yeah, doing the work and all that kind of stuff. He
gets it like he got here. And first of all, he didn't have
to explain to him the good and the bad and the tough and the heart
of Arizona State. He understands it. I also, I just love the
energy he just he's just getting after in every way. And I had a
good chance to spend about two hours with him the one day at the Golf
Championships. He came up and we just showed him around and I could tell
that he cares. That he invests in every person that he meets. He
doesn't just shake a hand and walk away. He wants to get to know
the person. He wants to know what makes them a Sun double, a
year that graduated where, you know, etc. And he just he's just
been really good to be around. And I also love that he hired a
staff that has about four or five former head coaches in some way, whether
they be high school or you know, college. He caned. He doesn't
claim to know it all. He doesn't claim that. He doesn't claim to
come in here and say this is how it should be done. He's come
in and say this is how I would like to do it. What you
know Is that the right idea? And that's been really really refreshing. Yeah.
Nice, So I agree with you. There's a lot of to look
forward to for a shot football off the wall question, how would you like
to be Don Sanders s id Man. There's a lot going on there,
there's a lot. But you know what, good for Colorado. They're on
the map. You know, they're doing some some stuff that they made,
they felt they needed to do. And I tell you what, like when
we host them in October, there'll be more people buying tickets for that game
than they would have been if he's not their coach. So um, you
know, I think as as a PAC twelve school, you hope he does
well. You hope to beat them. There you go. Yeah, that's
it in a nut shout. Well, thanks a bunch, dog, Doug,
looking forward looking forward to it. Man, Well, I gotta say
forks up here. I'm like, I can't say those two words. So
you got to take care of anytime you need me on any to talk ask
you or anything. You give us a holiday, all right, we will,
Dog, thanks a much, appreciate it. Well, thank you to
Let's take a break. We're a little over, but that's a good conversation.
Yea very good. Okay, we'll be right back. If you're an
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on the iHeart Radio WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to One
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's
jaken'zaws. Be about thirteen minutes. If you guys want to give us a
quick call. Five two zero, four, one, six seventy four forty
give us a quick call and let U snow what's going on? Tell me
again? How how many final fours have you covered? Eighteen? Just a
year I did when I was a three paper the paper might one that I
went, Okay, When why would they send you just because they just felt
because of the basketball fans here in town? Yeah, and then H Hatfield
Hatfield, and then h Hatfield and then when might just just agreed and then
they sent me to It was this cool one? Which was your favorite?
Good question? When when when you say eighteen? When when? Uh,
nineteen ninety one, my first one in Minnesota. I think he was one
of the Duke ones nine, the duke Uh right, Well, I was
ninety two. That was I was gonna say that was that was in New
Orleans. That's when he called the time out and there had no time outside
Okay, that one was a pretty cool one. Um. It's hard to
say, but I agree with him, San Antonio, New Orleans. The
destinations were that's what that's what made it for you. Yeah, yeah,
Becau as opposed to the team's right right right Indiana playing with with Bobby Knight
thinking ninety five. I can't remember what year was. Uh, those eighteen
My last one has been the the Shoe one, that one, the one
twenty seventeen. Yeah, but there's a lot of fun because you get to
see all your colleagues and you're fine, you know Wilner, some of them.
Oh the because I told you the Ray Roods, the story when it
was really stormy in Indianapolish a bunch of sports writers in the building and it
was like bad, like the tornado type thing, and just, oh god,
this is the night that I'm gonna die. And they're gonna say,
um um, Jim Nace and fifty other sportswriters died tonight. I've never mentioned
your name, you Yeah, who's there? I don't know, and I'm
interviewing you now, right, So in those eight you know, how have
you seen in those eighteen years how it evolved? Because clearly a bigger deal
now to day then even the one in ninety seven, because the one in
ninety seven in Indianapolis, that was before they were put in the court in
the middle of the statia, right where it was on one end, and
so it was basically fifty thousand people could go right now you get seventy.
I was going to ask him that because you were there and I was there.
I think there was like seventy two thousand people in Phoenix, and yeah,
yeah, it's almost too many people. Yeah, I would did not
and be the guys with the tickets at the top because you could barely see
the bottom. Yea, um, but that's not my money, so they're
spending it. We had you had the perfect seat, you right there.
No, I didn't have a perfect doing your stuff. I was. I
was a flour photo marshal, which meant I was in charge of making sure
that photographers didn't get on the floor. But you know what are the photog
You know how the photographer sit on the end? So I was just responsive
the three D are the three D deep. But as you know, a
Doug mansion where I sat was on the floor and the court is raised.
I couldn't. I did not watch the game live. I watched it on
And that's the one thing I don't understand because it's a risen floor, it's
a race floor, and it's like if you fall off the edge, right,
I sat behind the photographers show on the floor. You can't you only
see the legs the game. Let see the legs. I see nothing.
I had just had to watch the game. Sometimes that's the best place to
watch the game because you can't see the game. And we had seats,
you know. I was on the not on the sideline, but on the
end zone end zone, and and a little far away away. And I
didn't like that. It was too many people did, too many media were
too far away. But you know, and and here here's the thing is
that you know, I like if you go around by where the benches are,
you know, the benches are on the floor, and then you know
the court and you look you see the seats behind them. You know,
in the first those aren't the best seats. You know, if a player
stands up, you can't see and the court is up, so you really
can't see. Like it like where I sit at say the PAC twelve tournament,
I'm behind the bench, but I'm I'm kind of a button. So
they stand up and they block, but I can still see pres because you're
raised right when they stand up in front of you. At at the Final
four, you can't see. But I also did. I also did something
at that at that Final four is I I took the elevator and went to
the top to see what it looked like from the top of the sea.
And I'm like, how do you see? You don't see the game.
You're you're gonna watch it on the screen. You're there, but you're gonna
watch it on the screen right for a big price. Now That's how I
felt. But otherwise it's a lot of fun. Like I said, unless
your team is in it. Unless your team is in it, because then
you don't eat or sleep, you know, when you're just too busy.
I told you that we ate at tutors for for Christmas Easter Easter Sunday because
there was nothing else open. After writing pipe stories a day, all of
us, it's just were It's not a whit. Yeah, I know that.
The Final four and uh again in eighty eight, I mean, you
know, all all my buddies were going out to the bars and stuff,
but I was covering the dam. By the time I got there, they
were going home. People don't understand that. Yeah, you're trying to figure
out a lead. And they were well compared to that one. And you
know this better than me because I didn't cover eighty eight. But it's the
venue is totally different. Then. It was what how big? Oh that
well that was the last time. Well, there was only one more,
but they said after this year. It was one of the they said,
after this year, all the final fours are going to be in stadiums.
Yeah, they did have one in Charlotte, but other than that, they've
all been in stadium since then. And the reason they had it there in
Kansas City because it was the fiftieth anniversary and that's where the first one was.
That's why they had it there. It was it was like fifteen thousand
seats. It was mcay and that's the final four. Well they said that
two in eighty three when Albucruze held at the pit remember eighteen, and they
said, well, this is not gonna take it anymore. Five years later
they're doing it again. They said, yeah, they did it there,
but because I do know that, Uh, the next one in eighty nine
was in the Kingdom. Yeah, and that's when you know, but that
was when they would put the court at one end, put up some temporary
bleachers this one side, then the horse shoe you know, around the other
side would would be the rest of the seat and then be able to get
forty thousand people in there. Right. No, No, I was in
Indianapolis in nine, San Antonio, all these places. No, it's it's
a great event. Obviously, have a lot of fun, all the tourists
from all everywhere. Well, you know what got me was the fact that
it's the final four, right, you walk in there. This was when
I work because I went as a spectator to the Indianapolis, right, you
got that field, right, I went to it as a spectator, so
I will, you know. But working the one up in Glendale in twenty
seventeen, you know, we had to work the day before the games and
for those practices, and my job was to be standing on the court,
up on the court during the practices to make sure that the photographers were we're
not going where they weren't supposed to go Sunday on the Sunday on on Friday,
on Friday before the Saturday game Friday, because that's open media, opened
media, the pub the practices are public. They come and practice for an
hour. And so I actually did stand on the court, uh and just
monitored the photographers. That was my job. Sure, so Sunday and that
was cool. I work on Sunday. Probably not because we didn't have to
do didn't have to do anything. We didn't have to do it because the
yeah they got to practice on the court, but no media got to go
got to go into practice school. But on that Friday, I remember walking
out to the to the floor into the state and for the first time,
and I thought, Okay, this is really cool. This is the final
four. This is a big deal. You know. You walk out there
and I got up on the I got up on the floor, you know,
and Jim Nance and all those guys in there because they're they're they're doing
interviews and they're preparing their stuff for the next day, and like, you
know, and see all these guys and I'm standing next to them, right
and it was very cool. Yeah, I just thought it was really need
So just the spectacle. Yeah, the final four, Sure, I think
that was I hadn't been to one and I was seventeen. The last one
before that was two thousand and nine when the paper closed after that one,
and I had seen the change it was, especially when they put it in
the center and then let more people in, right, you know, I
can't remember. I think it was fifty four to sixty thousand for Indie if
I'm correct. You know they have the big thing, the big poster ninety
seven one, um, and then two thousand and one was in Minnesota.
But the final four in a issue or in Phoenix was massive, And I
think, God, this is what it's come to. Because if you're gonna
sell the tickets, people are gonna buy them. Yeah, oh yeah,
oh yeah. But I wouldn't buy a ticket that's way up there, because
how are you going to see it? Yeah? Um, I'm looking at
the Sorry was looking at the wrong Um. I should have it in the
media, just the other people. But it's crazy. If you ever want
any has a chance to go, it's a great place. Hey, Arison,
And here's the Piers A. Rub In twenty seventeen. I was working
for Fox Sports Arizona at the time. No one one of the media people
and a su they had a chance to get there. I mean this was
this is the one they had, the final foreign Phoenix. They could have
got there. They had one of the better teams. You got beat too,
Xavier. Remember they gonna beat to Xavier. H when the Arizona Oh,
I said a su yeah Arizona. No. I was pissed off that
they didn't get there. I'm still mad that they didn't get and then we
but you realized that how they beat Xavier. They were good. Yeah they
were after the fact, after I calmed down after they lost his Xavier and
I you know, we saw that Wait a minute, you know what,
they weren't going to beat Gonzaga they even as good as they were. And
I don't know if that would have been more or less disappointing. Um that
they you know that that that Gonzaga was uh you know it was gonna be
that that hard to beat because everybody thought, oh, yeah, you know,
this is Arizona's thing. You know they can beat uh, you know
they can beat uh Gonzaga. And I'm like, I don't know, man,
I don't know that team was really That team was a bunch of old
guys. Yeah right, and Arizona was, well, you know, they
had it not been for cheer, not patching the ball, the marketing,
and they could have maze maybe gun maybe if a few times. Yeah,
absolute, I'm still trying to find that. But that the attendants that box
score for which one for for for ninety seven and it's like fifty four if
I remember. Uh, that's how it's changed the most, and the distances
from one place to another, because and you've been there in New Orleans and
in San Antonio, it's all one great party place. How was yours when
they went the when the girls went to the women went to San Antonio the
final four, I think your son was still Yeah, that was COVID.
There was nobody there. Oh that's right, you know, but they had
there something. They're like a couple of oh they had some no, because
it was like James went, James went, and some remember sometimes when James
went, he got in the car went or one of our callers, Are
you right? I guess, I guess I think it was they left.
It was still limited though. Yeah, James, if you're listening and give
us a quick it was forty seven twenty eight at the ninety seven final forty
seven, see less than fifty thousand. I thought it was like a little
sixty thousand and fifty four thousand, uh, and then that's almost then in
twenty seventeen, what about two thousand and one, by twenty seventeen at seventy
seventy seven, seventy seven. What about two thousand and one when Arizona went
and played Duke that I think that was like fifth That was in Minneapolis,
right right, um, And that was still when they still had it up
against the thing was forty five nine forty five. Well, I just remember
Minnieapolis being freezing. Yeah, oh no, wait a minute, wait wait
wait no, then oh that's that's something else. Yeah, so then they
open it up. I seventy two thousands, a lot of people, seventy
seven. And I do remember sitting there during the game, you know,
and I'm sending in my seat below the courts. I'm not watching the game,
and I just remember looking around to get a feel for how many people
were here. And I thought, well, imagine this. Do you remember
the Fiesta Ball and you were there, right? Did you you went as
a fan? Right? Which you guys? Oh yeah, in twenty four
what was the tenants there? It wasn't seventy two thousand. I don't know.
It had to be. I'd say fifty thousand at the most. I
was. I was in the media with the media at the time and a
lot of people there. It was. Remember that night, it was cold,
it was freezing. It was cold. It was cold in the room.
Well they didn't close the doors. Sixty six sixty six thousand, so
that was pretty good. Yeah, I don't remember it being that much.
I just remember being cold. It snowed that night. Yes, it snowed
the day before, and then it snowed that night. It snowed on on
the way home. Yeah, on the way home. It was we had
we we charted a bus to take our crowd and pulling and getting into twoson
just because we got into the town. It started just right. Okay,
So we're gonna take about you. I'm sure you have a lot of a
break. We'll have. I guess you have a We're gonna talk to Carter
Garrett in the second half, and then we're gonna have a thing, a
question. We're gonna do a really fun thing in the in the last in
the last second where the athletic has put out a college football fan survey.
So we're gonna we're gonna answer the fan survey. Well, there's a bunch
of funny and interesting questions that we're gonna answer, so we'll do that,
and if you want to call in during that and give us some of your
opinions, we'd love to do that too. So we'll be right back with
breaking news.