This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
c R two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station Yet. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Iron the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jay Gonzalez. Got our guy Kevin in today. Welcome to Monday.
A lot of stuff going on, a lot of things happen over the
weekend. I'm trying to save some stuff for breaking new news, breaking news.
Maybe we won't. I don't know. Good luck with that, but
a lot of things going on. In fact, the breaking breaking news is
you're gonna have to become more hip, oh yeah, you know, and
not breaking hit. Yeah you know. Asked me to name one Snoop Dog
song, Well, and I don't have one, and juices that's one.
That's the one. Okay, that's okay, I got one that's like one
of the original ones. I mean, yeah, I you know, he
could he could come on. You can put something on right now and I
will. Oh no, you wouldn't know. You you dropping like, yeah,
you know, no, I don't we get Well, we're gonna have
kim A Dare to give you some heads up. I want this is my
team to Turner what Turner was to Jason. Yeah, I mean I obviously
know who he is. I know, you know, I know, I
mean, you know if you walked in the door and say what up?
Snoop? But but I don't know his stuff. Yeah, game on commercials
all the time. We'll talk about that. Yeah, with the Corona and
said, we'll talk about that with the second hour obviously the new sponsor for
the Arizona Ball with kim A Dare at the four seventeen uh time, that'd
be great. We haven't had her on and since it's the since the BO
game, probably right. Yeah, So and then there and then at the
beginning there. I woke up this morning and thinking, I thought about textis
late last night and he said, no, I better give him some time
arrest Thatt Lern And he said, yeah, when when you want me to
come on? Because we had wanted him after the turn and we kind of
like, you know, let the things marinate and then he's not that busy
right now. I don't think. I don't know. I'd love to get
into the ins and outs of you know, his job of you know,
uh, he's in charge of he's the national coordinator for men's basketball officiating for
the NC Double A. So whatever that entails. I'm not I don't know
that he's the guy that actually schedules, but you know, I think but
he's more or less kind of puts it together. Yeah, he's got to,
you know, make sure guys are getting evaluated and doing their jobs and
whatnot. And we'll find out more about that, but I'm interested to know.
Okay, so you had this stable of PAC twelve officials. What happens
to them? We know that they all work a lot of different conferences,
but now you had these officials who are working, you know, the primary
officials for Packed twelve, guys that we know, right, Michael Irvin and
and uh and and and some of those guys, Kevin Brill and all those
guys who some of us know by name. How do they get dispersed or
do they get dispersed around the other leagues based on where these their teams have
gone, right? And what will happen now with the changing the right conferences?
Right, because there's not fewer teams to officiate. There's still going to
be this probably the same number of games, but they're just it's it's now
broken down into four conferences instead of five. You know, who becomes a
Big ten official, who becomes a Big twelve official, who becomes an ACC
official, and you know all these guys that you know, conceivably or theoretically
the guys who refereed the PAC twelve probably lived out this way. So what's
how does that change travel plans for them and stuff like that. So it'd
be interesting to see how Chris is putting all that together. M okay,
but uh, Chris the local guy for those of you who don't know,
went to high school here anythink Rincon. You know, I've known him for
one hundred years playing you know, city league or reg you know, softball
leagues with him or against him. I should say, teams that you know,
leagues that he was in, known him for a real long time.
He's been he was a Pack twelve for the longest time. And uh,
now you know, he became the national coordinator of officials, so sort of
a year round job, not not a you know, just doing basketball during
basketball season. So we'll see what he's up to. Okay, no,
that'll be cool. Uh, and talk about other things as well. Uh,
everybody, have a good weekend. You were you were out for a
while. I'm happy to be breathing outside air. Steve, who knows I'm
good. I'm good. Kevin, you don't have to, you know,
don't kiss me on the lift, but you know you planning to do.
That was my one goal today. But I was. I was mentioning to
Steve that I I didn't breathe outside air from Tuesday night when I got sick
until Saturday morning when I got out to go golfing, And and I didn't
have a solid meal in that time as well, until lunchtime on Saturday.
What was the first solid meal you had when you could have a solid meal?
Oh, it was off the charge, probably arguably the best post golf
tournament lunch ever, because you know, you go to go. It was
the it was the Autistic Society Golf turn Artistic organization golf tournament, charity golf
turned down in two BAC. Normally, you know, you get you go
to the lunch, you get a burger and dog. You know it's maybe
some potato salad and you know a cookie, right, It was legit ribs,
barbecue, chicken, coleslaw, beans, and then these great peanut butter
cookies you and it's unbelievable. He didn't get sick, and I was a
little well. I literally I got in line. I thought, got shit,
should I go yard or should I go easy? And then see how
it goes. I went yard. I piled my plate like I do at
a Mexican wedding. I mean, I just I I had a mound of
food on my on my plate and I ate every bit of it. And
it was so good and I felt good. And I got home and threw
myself on the couch and it was great sound. It was good. And
so my game was back. My game was back. Jay has returned off
the IR. Yeah. They went to the doctor today, had my doctor
appointment. They said, I'm doing great. I'm headed in the right direction
on all my stuff. He lost all that weight in the last week.
She said, she says, keep doing what you're doing. And I'm saying,
you have no idea what you just what. You just gave me a
license to do. And I just did it. I did I went yard
on Saturday. That was so good. Thanks to all those guys. Great,
a great event. They had three nines and every foursome was sold.
They went over two hundred golfers on Saturday down to two bat They made it's
a weekend event on beautiful day. It was a little breeze. It was
breezy enough to make it nice and cool. Probably last couple of holes the
breeze kind of stopped and it warmed up, But for most of the day
it was It was a really really nice day. A lot of great sponsors
down there. It was a it was a great tournament. And UH.
I was invited by my friends Larry Lucero and Suan Welch. They had me
join their group and I had a great time. Did you did you screwed
up or did you improve? The No? We you know we we we
you know what. We went out there just to play because we knew we
weren't gonna win. UH, and we had fun. Hit some good shots,
hit some bad shots, We made some putts. Got another one coming
up this weekend. National Football Foundation as their tournament this weekend. That one's
coming up. Maybe we get uh try and get Tim Kishen. Well,
I'm out there. I think theyer hassee is the tournament director. But one
of those guys too. I think it's I mean, you know, I
don't know if they're still trying to self force it. I think it's full.
But you know, they're they're doing a lot of good stuff with that
tournament as well. They do good trump. Okay, a lot of things
going on. The tennis did really well, Baseball fantastically well, everyone fantastically
well. Golf, women's women's golf is playing today. They're playing today.
Yeah, women's tennis got beat in their first round match. Oh okay,
they got They got skunk by Oklahoma for zip, but that was expected.
Oklahoma's ranked Arizona was. I mean, well, we talked to Ryan Stotland.
I mean, they wanted to get in, they wanted to win,
but they hadn't been in in ten years. They think they were just you
know, they were happy to be there and uh and uh you know,
but they got they got beat by a good team. So they went up
to uh I think they were at Oklahoma and they and they lost. So
yeah, they were out. Okay, we'll talk more of baseball basketball later.
I thought some there's some obviously comings and goings on at you they as
they get prepared to kind of slashing. Got got in a little chewy on
on Facebook today because there's a group of the Wildcat Arizona Wildcats basketball group on
Facebook and they posted something about this Purdue game that's not get you know,
the sup that they're not gonna play and kind of put wow, you know,
I'd like to know the backstory on this, And then there was a
bunch of people, Oh, they don't want to play us, and it's
crap that we went and played at their place and they they won't come and
play at our place. Like, folks, Relax, it's a scheduling issue.
It has nothing to It has nothing to do with somebody not wanting to
play somebody. Arizona needs X number of home games. If they play this
game, they don't get X number of home games, so they're not playing
it. What when one guy goes on and says says, oh, they
they lost their one good player, so now they don't want to play us.
I'm like they were in the National championship game. I think they had
more than one good player. Is Arizona basketball people? Yeah? Basketball?
See now you understand my frustration. You're on Twitter, I'm on Facebook,
and you know it's it's like I have nothing better to do but go on
these things and run. You know. Yeah, I saw it and I
thought, you know, I don't want to engage it. But these people
are you know, they're they're like going off and you know, ripping on
Purdue for not winding to play. Guys, it was Arizona who said they
can't play the game Purdue wants to play, you know, and it's a
schedule anything. It's not that Arizona doesn't want to play. It can't play.
Oh then some guy says, well, maybe we can schedule u CLM
Like, no, they can't play. They can't play another road game.
I'll see it right now. In fact, a good friend of mine who's
is the one who posted it. She's like a super fan and kind of
like I call her Paulianna because you know, the world is ending and she'd
still find some great things about it. She might even be listening now because
she knows how I give her grief publicly, I mean privately, because it's
always you know, it's always sunny outside. It could be downpouring in monsoon,
but it's suddy outside, and this team know, you're exactly right,
it's not. It's not anybody else's problem, it's Arizona's problem. Yeah.
Well, Andy Katz put something it looks like something on social media saying that,
you know, there was that the you know, it was one of
the great non conference games last year. They both would like to schedule return
game, but it won't happen. The Wildcats have scheduling issues then, you
know, and that's fine. I wonder what the rest of the story is.
But then all these people go on there and say, oh, they
don't want to play. I'm like, it's not bad. They do want
to play us, and Arizone wants to play. Then they just can't.
Does it make my uh my analysis of Arizona fans any clear to you?
I yeah, you know, here's the thing. I engaged it under the
I I on the ball to on Facebook, so they think it's you.
No. No, one time, one time you did respond to somebody a
friend of ours, and he came back to me later in privates. Why
would you say this to me? Study I don't control the social media side.
It's all Jay, And normally I changed that and I just I hit
I hit it, and they was there. And then I thought I thought
that I had taken off and put him back under under my mind, and
I thought, no, just yeah, I'll have to see what you want.
I'll have to see if I can approve this. But if you're if
you're saying exactly, I agree. I mean, it's not it's not an
their part of it's Arizona's problem. Yeah, I mean it'd be a great
game to have, you know, I mean it would be a game,
certainly, it would be a game that, depending on when it is that,
I would consider going to Vegas to see if they could play it.
But they can't, so I said, relax, everybody. Yeah that was
me, blah blah blah. No, that's fine. Yeah, And to
think about it is you're the voice of reason, which is a shock and
nobody, nobody's liked or said anything about it. And it's ended there.
Yeah, then ended the conversation. And that was the goal. It's like,
okay, guys, everybody just look at this and now let's stop the
conversation because it's not about anything other than Arizona can't play that game. I
couldn't help myself. Steve couldn't help I had an extra ten minutes. I
sit there, I meet I meet my lunch. I got some I got
some chicken soup and the carnessid of the burrito and I'm read I'm flipping through
social media and I saw it and the keyboard is right there in front of
me, and I went after it. It was whispering to it was say
something, say something for all who are thinking that you could do something bad
in your life, and don't worry. The world is ending. Jay is
the voice of reason here, so you know the world's ending. That's that's
a scary thoughts. It's a really scary But to the voice of reason,
possible anything can happen. You just never ever know. You never know.
Anyways, that's fine, So I got to let you know because Okay,
somebody gives you crap. That was me. That's fine. It was me
hit my head and forgot what I was doing. But that's not that's not
out of the realm of possibility either. Yeah my head, that's true.
That could I could have fallen. Okay, no, cool, So you
know a little bit, we're about to go to break and then we're gonna
go with Chris Rasta rast Tadder. Yeah, he'll he'll be Injurie. Well,
it's always a fun conversation because when you talk to somebody like Chris,
we don't the media doesn't get to talk to those guys enough to kind of
get background on some of the things that go on, you knowe myths and
and things that we think we know that we don't know, and that that
kind of stuff. It's it's a professional We wish we didn't know anything about
them, right, because then that means they're doing their job and they're just
doing their job and just like an umpire or or you know, one hundred
years ago, I got to do a story on there. Remember Bob Garibaldi,
okay there, I got to interview him for a story when he was
here in town forever. He had the record with you at some points,
No, no, we know, but he told me, he says,
don't ask me this, this, this, this, this, because I
can't. I can't answer, he said, I'm not. It's not that
I'm not going to answer, he says, I can't. I've been told
him not to answer. And that was fine, and it was it was
a Q and a that I that I did with him. And you know,
but one of the things was the myth of the makeup call he said,
he said, there's no such thing, you know at that time.
So it was stuff like that that I made it interesting. It's no such
thing. It's kind of like a players playing harder for another player than it
was. But that that was the one question that I did want to ask,
and he said, he said, Look, he said, and maybe
he maybe it is, maybe there is, but he just said, he
said, there's no such thing as to make a call. You make the
calls that you see. He said, Now it just may happen that we
make a call and the next one goes the other way, but there's no
such thing. And that that. It was those of things, and it
was a fun conversation. I had fun doing that. Okay, all right,
let's take our break with back. Chris Rastadter, the National men's basketball
Coordinate coordinator of officials, will be with us and we'll talk about n C
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery.
I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to Iron the Ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's jacin Zaus. Now
on the phone, we have Chris restat Or, the NCAA Coordinator of Officials.
How are you doing, Chris? Going great? Going great, Steve.
Thanks, how about you, guys? We're doing fine. Let me
do something just because you were official, boom, just to make you just
to make you feel at home, Boom. You can't call you to do
that, to do that when I was at games, just to make you
feel like cold, you know, you don't feel more comfortable, Steve.
That that I mean, Chris, that was completely completely unplanned. I had
no idea. That was kind of what we didn't talk about it. He
just did it know what to tell you, to tell you? Okay,
we don't hang up on us, Chris, we need you. So,
hey, how's it going? And in another year at your position? Right?
Two years now? Three years? Ye? Two years? Then are
you glad you made the switch? Good question? You know, Steve,
I really enjoy what I do. Back that I didn't even say I love
what I do. I love my job. You know, every day has
its or every job has its days, right, but I really like what
I'm doing. And how long can you officiate? You know you think you
think at times you know I'll be around forever. And there's a reality is
you know, you know a lot of time that's with all of us.
So what is the what is the main part of your job? What would
you know if you say, okay, the main thing that I do that,
I say, you spend the most time on what is that? That
is? Uh, teaching and developing referees. Okay, yeah, I think
my biggest job is to get us all to referee you're basically the same way,
to see the floor the same way, and to just you know,
elevate our thinking. Uh, you know, just make us better referees and
and try to develop the young ones and you know, turn them in the
final four referees, you know, I mean, that's that's a passion enough
of doing it? Is this not that this is a new concept, but
in your position, is it was there somewhere, uh, someone in the
seat before you? Or is this kind of the way they're going going with
the job now? No, there's always been a national coordinator. No,
but for those same visions that you're you're talking about trying to be consistent and
all that, Oh oh I'm sure. Yeah. I mean we all want
to be we all want to see consistency across the country. But let's face
it, every every conference is kind of you know, every conference is different,
They play a different brand of basketball in a different style. So you
know, the Big ten, for example, is officiated with the same rules,
but the game is so different than the SEC for example, where they're
up and down and the Big ten is more of a half court set.
So so the style is different, which lends itself to different you know,
call selection if you will, you know, but but you're still with the
same rules. And I guess, guys, for me, it's like an
approach, right, how we approach the game and you know, in a
common sense sort of way and disciplined with our mechanics and our coverage and our
whistles, and to think like minded in those terms. You know, a
foul a foul you can sit in you you can watch a game. Okay,
that's the voul. I get that, But to do it within the
context of the flow of the game and the entirety of the game, there's
it's just something we talked about a lot. Well. That brings up kind
of an interesting thing because you know, as and I particularly remember this,
you know, covering the team and then you know later just you know,
paying attention. You know, it seemed like that PAC twelve team, you
know PAC twelve games were officiated a certain way, and then the NCUBA tournament
would start and the same PAC twelve official now doing an NC double A tournament
game. Was it seemed to me, was not calling a foul or making
a call in a NC double A tournament game, then maybe he made in
a PAC twelve game, which led me to believe that the PAC twelve had
some influence on how they wanted games officiated. Is that not the case?
Do the conferences say we want to we want a little tighter officiating than say
maybe the Big twelve or the Big ten, Because it seemed like you're go
into the NC double A tournament now the game is more physical and you're not
getting calls that you were getting when you were in the league. Is that
a myth? H good questions here, I'm talk to your attorney. Hold
On. I think it goes back to kind of you know, styles of
play within the league. Now every conference and and and conferences now around the
country are all part of consortiums or you'll have you know, one coordinator officials
at the top with maybe a leadership team of two or three and they handled
four or five, six, seven conferences that they oversee, right, So
so there was somebody different in the West Coast, somebody different in the East,
somebody different, you know, in the southeast and Midwest, that type
of thing. So, uh, look, when when I was reaping back
in then, you know, back in the day, you got to know
where you're bread is buttered, right, you know. And and I made
my bones on the West coast later in the Big twelve, but mostly in
the Pac twelve and up the web down the West coast. So I did
what that supervisor wanted. But when you get to the NCA tournament, now
it's now it's the national coordinator that he's the he's the top guy. You
know, Here's how I want you to referee this player these games. And
and I guess when I talked about consistency, but my message is the same
no matter where I go. So if we all kind of buy into that
messaging and and and and look at things the same way, and again,
you know, like mindedness of how we approach it, there shouldn't be a
big difference from you know, what you do in your conference too. When
you amen NCAY tournament, what happens, though, guys, is is you'll
get Arizona against Michigan State. Okay, well, those styles are are vastly
different. So you know, when those forces meet, h it's not as
easy as you know, refereeing the games referee. You know, every night
they play the same way. So that's I think the dynamic that comes into
play that that may you know, suggest to you we're calling it differently.
Right, So the one thing that you always hear, or at least I
do. You'll say, all those PAC twelve refs, those PAC twelve reps,
but it's a group of PAC twelve refs because they're covering the Western Athletic
Conference or the in the Mountain West now the Gonzagas Conference. It's all the
West coast, the West coast right now, is there a lump sum like
maybe fifty sixty you have a choose from, you have a choice from.
You know, I think in each consortium there's well over one hundred referees in
each consortium. And I'll say this even more so back when I was reping
guys. So they travel all over the country anymore. You know, I
know where there was that story about Higgins a couple of years ago where you
know, they showed his travel for one week and it was literally you know,
on the West coast to the midwest, Texas to the East coast,
and you know, and then back to this house. So guys referee all
over the country more and more and more, so you'll see the same referee
in three or four different consortions, not just three or four different leagues within
one consort, three or four different consortions. So I think that's the lending
itself to more consistency across the country. Okay, so speaking speaking of those
now with realignment, are you having to realign or somebody having to re align
all those consorts? Right? Because now there is no PAC twelve. So
now these guys who've been refing the PAC twelve, some of the teams they've
been reffing are gone to the Big ten. Some have gone to the Big
twelve, couple have gone to the ACC. There's two that are left out
on the West coast. How's who realigns that and how is that getting done?
Yeah, the commissioners have that is outside of my purview. Okay,
I'll tell you that. Yeah, it doesn't matter to me what they do.
But they've already realigned. So now now the Mountain West has gone into
the Big ten consort that supervised will be assigning officials in the Mountain West Conference.
Wow. Uh and the PAC twelve guys now assigning games in the Big
twelve. So there's been some change you know there. Uh, you know
the the cal Stamford or under the ACC guy, So he's going to use
guys who are out west because you've got to get some local people to cover
games and just you know, emergency situations or you want to bring them into
your staff. So there's there's been a shake up, I guess you could
say with staffs and alignment and and and all that, and it's it's ongoing.
So what you talked about having a great life now and you enjoy your
job, what makes for a good year? Is it less complaining from people
who send you letters or or what what makes it? You know what I'm
saying. It's like I go saying, if you're like an offensive lineman and
you don't hear any penalties or no one's yelling at you, you've done pretty
good. That's a pretty good night. Huh. Yeah. I still get
my letters. I enjoy it. I don't reply, but I get I
can email. This is how they come out and write the letter in market.
I get a lot of emails. My look. Ultimately for me,
uh, you know, we walked off that court Monday nine, and we
all went out to dinner and had a good time at talk and I'll tell
you nobody was talking about the officiating for most of the NCAA tournament. And
and to me, that's a success, that's a win, that's a win
for us. I bet you couldn't tell me right now who referee that came,
No, Higgins, No he did not. He was a semi finals.
I think I can't. You're you're right, I can't remember. I
can't remember if there's like a I know the PAC twelve rests, right,
I don't know their names, but I know them by face. You would
know, you would recognize one guy who worked to find before I'll give you
you know some guys that worked in the semis or the finals, the nine
guys. No, bit, you can't. And and to me that's a
win. Yeah, you know, that's part of the messaging. It's to
be a referee that you have to It takes a certain person, you know,
with a certain character and personality, and everybody's a little bit different,
but but you have to have a little bit the ego to so to do
what we do, and under these conditions that we work in, you have
to be pretty self confident right to do what you do. But but there's
a line to understand. The game is not about us. The game is
about the kids and the student athlete, and they have to come first.
You may you may think when your career ends, you know, they're going
to quit playing basketball games because you're not anymore. Yeah, yeah, I
found out real quick. Yeah gone, So yeah, I didn't have imagined
in a while. Yeah, I don't have a referee anymore. Care I
guessed, never got that memo. It's my guy. Okay, so so
okay, just to get into the technical last, So the consorts, they're
the ones that schedule their conferences, right, So you don't schedule conference during
the regular but you're the one I do not, But you're the one that
schedules once the tournament starts. I schedule the NCAA Tournament, the n i
T tournament, and then I also schedule some uh you know, some Hall
of Fame games, pre season stuff. You know some of the MTE events.
Are you I'll sign those games and talking about developing, so I'll bring
in some some of the lesser experienced referees and put them in those situations and
watch how they work and talk to them and work with them, and you
know what I do. So what do you do during the basketball season?
Then what do I do? I travel? I travel as much now as
I did when I was Yeah, yeah, you just go see guys,
did you see? And yeah, scout. I sit in the crowd,
I sit and watch I scout, but I go in the locker rooms.
We talk, we break down the you know, a couple of plays,
talk about it, and then I'll move, you know, going our way.
I'm going to the next game. The great thing about now is if
I'm sitting in the airport and they cancel my flight and I'm like, whatever,
I'll just go home. You're not still scrambling. Yeah, I don't
have to go. Yeah, he's just steps to me and I kept some
popcorn. Yeah wow, okay, Yeah, so you have having fun.
I'm having a blast. Yeah, really, I really. I mean every
now and then, you know, you get into situations You're like, okay,
I got to deal with it. But that's okay. It comes with
the territory, and sir, how tempting is it to shoot back at some
of those emails and stuff that you get. Sometimes I want to sometimes because
because they come at you differently. You know, some guys they just let
you have it, right, both barrows. This is the worst. You
know, I'm ruining college basketball, you know, Okay, But then other
people come to you like, look, I've refereed for thirty years and blah
blah blah, you know, and and it's almost polite, and you kind
of want to respond, but I don't even know if they're real. You
know, with all this stuff going around, I just leave it alone.
Right. Well, some of you guys don't have egos like you. So
if you guys said an email, well all right, we haven't pay,
you'd be one of the few, right that would reply. So we do
have to actually pay attention to the game. That's not gonna happen. That's
gonna happen. Thank you man, Thank you, Chris. Hey, Chris,
thanks a bunch man. Have a great summer you're talking to Thank you
much. Love of fun is Chris rast start of the national co coordinator of
of officials for men's basketball. Well his job is a little different than what
I thought it was. But you know he's still got he's more corporate guy.
Well. See, the thing is, you know his job is to
make sure that refs are good refs, and that's that's an important thing because,
as you said, people lose their minds when they think a game has
been officiated poorly, whether it's the n b A, whether it's a little
league game. And you'll never you'll never make everybody happy, ever make him
because if you're doing it and you're you're officiating in Tempe, someone from Arizona's
always upset, right, and if vice versa, they hate us, right,
and you know they hate Arizona fans, right, Arizona fans. And
he's, as he said, to get out of the final four, and
all the conversation was about the games and not about the officiating. Sure that
was a winner, and that's very true, because what's the one thing you
at the Final four? What did you hear the most? I'll tell you
what I heard, just how good Connecticut was, you know, okay,
but nothing about the official I'll supersede that with how bad the games were.
Oh the games were terrible. Yeah, oh yeah, the games were awful.
And then but it was because Connecticut was so damn good. They just
couldn't. They were not enjoying all the watch and yeah, and you thought
the championship game would be a good game if it was Purdue Connecticut, and
it was it was another bad game. But officiated, well, nobody complained.
And there you go. And that's what you as he said, that's
all right, let's take a break. We'll be back. We'll take your
calls five, two, zero, four, one, six, seventy forty
anything you want to talk about. Lots of stuff going on. Stick around.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudelsen era. In
my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love through
the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight
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Lessons from Lout is an insight to how he built the program into a national
powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot Rivera ninety five at gmail dot
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someday right get there to Steve are. I don't have to tell you it's
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today five Q zero four nine two zero seven four eight or Picture Rockschooling dot
com, Jiprostudying and Plumbing. Steve Rivera and Jacob Salis they have their eye
on the ball on Tucson Sports. Stay yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty say welcome
back to Iying the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, You're
Jay, and your Kevin got fourteen minutes. If anybody wants to call us,
please do. I'd like to hear from you as always be good to
here for you on a Monday. How was your weekend? Did you hear
anything the big party I want to say the Centurion Centurions. No, it
was pretty good. I guess I didn't see too well. It was at
the teacher I've been in years. It's the first one I've I've missed.
That's why I asked. I heard you're one of those. Yeah, I
just I just kind of got there was a lot of things going on in
the derby. I've gone to to the second the TCC the Motley Crue group,
and I had a party to go to, so I was you know,
yeah, so it was too busy. Yep, No, I didn't.
I didn't hear anything about it. But probably is a good thing.
You know, like nobody that we know got arrested or anything like that.
Okay, there's the that's again. If you don't hear about it, then
it's probably a good time. Yeah. Like Chris just said, if you
didn't hear about some degenerate stuff going on, then then you know it was
good. Yeah, okay, okay, Yeah, And if you want to
call five two o four one six, seventy four forty you would like to
hear from you A lot of stuff going on. Some Arizona football again picking
up a player. Yeah, I don't know if you're going to talk about
this and breaking the ball, I'll get it out anyways. Women's golf,
the first round of the of the Las Vegas Regional is over. They're playing
it at the Spanish Trail Country Club, Up and Up in Vegas, and
Arizona is tied for six. There are two strokes behind fifth place Baylor.
It's a twelve team regional and the top five teams advanced to the national tournament.
So there are two strokes out of that they've shot six over today.
It's Arkansas shot eight under, Florida State, five under Purdue, four under
UCLA, three over Arizona four over, I mean Baylor four over than Arizona.
This is this is the women Arizona women in the West Region in the
Vegas regional Vegas Region. Okay, so how many regionals do they have.
There's there's six. Okay, there's six. The top teams five five teams
from each regional go so there's thirty teams that go to the championship. And
uh that the championship is a really long it's like a week long event.
Because you play a bunch of you play, it just takes it takes a
long time. But it's a it's a you know, Arizona, they got
a shot at it. You know, they're not out of it. There.
They're not Xavier who's twenty two over par and in last place. So
it's a you know, right, they're right there. So they did good
today. Cool anything else? So we need to talk about golf space based
yeah, Tennis, goa, there's a whole schedule of stuff and we can
we can bring it up during breaking this. But I just got you know,
I'm a I'm a Wildcat Club member, Steve, So I get this
email with it this week and airs on ethic. I did get. I
haven't taken it, but he did get Remember uh, when when Desiree read
France while she talked about surveys and she likes doing well, I got a
Wildcat Club survey. Okay, I started it and immediately wanted my email and
and stuff, and I was going to open it up to see what they
were asking. But I was going to actually have to do the survey to
see what they were asking. So I'll go, I'll probably do it and
I'll let you know what they were asking. So I read No, I
read Bruce's story over the weekend about Tommy. He had touched him last week
about to get together. There's one again tomorrow, all right, I'm on
basketball obviously, and he talked about the departing of Uma, right, Yeah,
did you read that story? And just how was it was nothing that
we didn't already talk about in speculations. Yeah, it was mutual, you
know, once he's done, the previous is ready to come up and read
more. The next guy be the next guy. It was probably best for
him to go to spread his wings a little. He talked about that the
reported or legend or one point, but he said, I'm not talking about
that. That's what he said. Nobody talks about that. All these numbers
are just being thrown around, right, good, there's no confirmation of it,
correct, correct. Uh, you know there's this money out there.
But I thought it was kind of funny because it was typical Tommy, you
know, uh, throughout the whole thing. You know, we're gonna reflect
and we're gonna try to do better, YadA YadA. I mean there was
nothing that you didn't kind of already figure out. Yeah no, I yeah,
everybody, but but it was it was very smart of Bruce to go
up there, get him before the first thing, and then be able to
come up with a story. I ever talked to him when you know,
one on one, when nobody else was there to true bugging. So that
was true. He'll still get the question tomorrow, but yeah, no,
he's already had this. The one thing he didn't mention or didn't talk about,
maybe he did was boswell, yeah about you know the reasons behind that,
I really don't care. But it was party, party, a party
of the ways as well. It's one of those things that people just want
to know because they're nosy. Yeah right, no, yeah, And the
thing is it's pretty for the best for all sides. Yeah yeah, but
but you know it's you know, it's Sarsona basketball and something significant happened,
so we want to know. And that's Arizona fans. Oh by the way
too, you know Facebook things up yesterday or the day before, there was
somebody did you see this complaining how the the or you can have women's basketball?
We can talk about this the transfer card lately. So some guy,
some older dudes, because I go back and see who they are, who
they are they are, So he says, how come how come this wasn't
reported? And how come wasn't reported right away? And blah blah blah,
how come women's doesn't get no transfer portal? Is transfer portal either? They
want to decide to say it because the coach is not saying it. It's
all about the individuals decided to do that, and nobody reported this and how
did this happen? YadA, YadA, and I'm thinking it's this is what
the world's coming to. Now, you're not gonna get There aren't reporters that
can get go in there and go to idea, Okay, idea, who's
who else is transferring? Right? It doesn't work that. It doesn't work
that way anymore. I mean, like the whole thing about jayde and Bradley,
right, nobody knew that he had declared for the NBA draft except you
saw it. Until you saw it, until somebody said, here's the list
of NBA draft. So he says, guys and and and he was on
the list. So he says, this happens all the times in football.
Somebody says something happens in his reporter right away, and he said, basketball,
just as the way it is, when do we find out that the
guy's in the transferport when they usually usually when they announced it or they've leaked
it to somebody, and he gets and he gets it, and nobody goes
in there. There aren't investigative sports reporters who are calling up the football office
every day to say, okay, who's in the transfer port of today?
It doesn't work that way. I was like frustrated this guy was persistent,
the guy people were explaining it to him, and he wouldn't take it.
He wouldn't. That wasn't the right answer. He insisted that there was the
reason why this was happening. Open up another baggage, I think, can't
come on, Well, that's the whole thing. It was an older dude.
I'm thinking, don't. This is what the world has come to with
people at any age worried about this, demanding we know now everything there is
to know about a basket. There was not enough a transparency that I love
that word, because the coaches need to tell you now what they're eating for
lunch. When has there ever been transparent? In fact, he was worse.
I mean it was. It was much more transparent in the eighties and
nineties than it is today. But it was never transparent. We didn't know
everything we needed. We didn't know in eighty eight and eighty nine and eighty
seven that Sean Elliott was thinking about transferring. Yeah, that he didn't that
he was so upset with how things were going that he didn't want to be
here right. We did not know that. We did not know that Harvey
Mason when he was on the court didn't want to disappoint Steve Kerr. We
don't know those things because we're not A we're not supposed to know B.
We've never known those things. Well. In fact, I'm trying to get
Defendi Annabam to come on the show. He has a fantastic story. He's
a big We have had him on two months ago, three months ago,
it's been longer than that. Yeah, maybe even a year ago. And
I was seen on not TikTok, but on an Instagram and I'm thinking,
I didn't know your story. I gotta get you on. So I tried
to remember last week I told you I was trying to get it, and
I says, I can't tell you now, but I'll tell you where we
get it. And he hasn't. He has a respondent. Keybody knows.
I want to talk about it, but it was just and I won't say
it now, but when I get him on, it's just a fan backstory
of how he ended up coming here and how we grew up saying, how
do we not know he was here four years and he was one of those
stories that we didn't know and it's yeah, and look you know what there
and today with the control now that exactly specifically, the athletic departments keep over
their players and their coaches. You're just gonna know less and you're only gonna
know what they want you to know exactly. If they don't want you to
know something, then you're not gonna know. And that's the way it is
because you don't get to go You don't get to go to their practice and
then go get a player and take them aside and go talk to him.
True. He used to be able to do well. True. Nowadays,
if they get hurt, twisted ankle would break an ankle whatever, Because you
don't go to practice, you you only get what they tell you. And
unless the guy or the girl who twists the ankle reports that says, oh
man, I missed up today. Whatever, Because that's back in the day
you were chasing Michael Bates, we were changing Michael Baits, and recruiting was
just so crazy. We sit by the phone and wait for a phone call
to get the call back. Now they're just put it on Instagram and say,
hey, I've just had a transfer, I'm going here, I'm going
there. They break their own stories exactly, makes it very easy creating their
own news in one way, it's easier, but another way, in another
way, Steve First, I would hate to be a newspaper reporter right now.
There's very few one the twenty four to seven aspect of it, but
also that we need to know everything aspect of it, every little detail.
And if you don't get every little detail, somebody like this guy is pissed
at you because you're not getting every little detail for them. You know what,
you go find out? Yeah yeah, well and you found out maybe
a half hour too late or a day too Yeah. How is that affecting
your life? Yeah? I don't know, because you know again, you
know, you and I, right, we went through this. You know,
I do my stuff and I do whatever it's been. But every day,
as the minute the Tucson citizens came out, I grabbed that to see
what I got my ask kicked on or whose ass I kicked? Right,
and because I wanted to know did I miss something? And that's how you
knew. Now it's like every fifteen minutes something could come out that you've missed,
and people expect to know now what happened fifteen minutes ago instead of the
next day. And that's what made the journalism world or the news business here
in this town a pretty good one. There was really just because you had
two gatekeepers fighting with each other. And now we saw last week what happened
on a Channel four, and I'm sure it's going to happen somewhere other other
places or they're just cutting staffs and cutting staffs and it's not for the best
for people who watch TV. Yeah, I think it's a really under the
radar aspect of newspapers and what people are missing. But people said, well,
you got you. Guys are terrible anyways, we don't want you.
Well, you know what you got you. There was fierce competition between the
two newspapers. Everybody wanted to get the stories and because of that, reporters
worked harder. They did they right, They cultivated sources, you tried to
you. Your goal every day was to get a story that you knew the
other guys did and because of that, you got better news, you got
better information. And that's what's missing right now because now all the information is
coming directly from the U of a. Pemic College or the Arizona Bowl or
whoever right who broke the air Zona ball story. Airzon a ball right exactly.
No, you're right. It's funny because we have this show here and
your voice is different than my voice, and we sometimes many times disagree.
Right, so your story is different than my story or perceptions. About ten
years ago, I was at an event, maybe a boxing event, and
some guy who is maybe twenty years younger than me came up to me.
He says, mister Barrell, I've been reading yourself I as a kid.
Let me ask you a quick question, and I said, go ahead.
He says, how could you and be at the same event and have two
totally different perceptions? I said, it's just how we how we kind of
see things. You just always see things you just do. Or or a
story that I tell often two people would read the same story and come out
of it with different things, and and and the demonstration of that was was
it was like it was after Larry Smith had been gone for a little while,
and Greg, you know, it was always in his notes and stuff
like that. And in the same day, in the same day, the
Arizon Daily Star ran side by side two letters to the editor from a Greg
Hanson column that he had done on Larry Smith while he was at USC and
one said, Larry, Greg loves Larry Smith so much? Why doesn't he
go to USC with him? And the other one said, Greg hates Larry
Smith so much? Why don't you just leave? And they read the same
story. They read the same column. But it's true, it was and
that's a that's a one story. And I how that story to this day
because I laughed when I saw that. Well that's back when the sport the
sports section had Sunday letters to the editor and and two people read the same
thing. And one thought came from that thought they Greg hated Larry Smith,
and one thought that Larry loved Greg loved Larry Smith. That's crazy. So
that that's that's the world we live in, we used to live in,
or whatever. Because it's just so when I read that, I'm thinking,
where's this guy's so important? Yeah, well, yeah, you know,
and and and again it's a it's just a whole different deal, you know.
And Steve, as a PR consultant over the last you know, a
few years, I've been advising people, you know, you guys make the
news. Now, you don't have to be in you know, you don't
have to get in the newspaper, you don't have to get on TV.
Create your own news and that's what that's what that's what they're doing. And
that's why. That's why the news business because now people are like me,
are choosing where they're gonna get their news from. You follow whoever you follow,
and you find directly from them the things that you want to know.
I mean, I follow a bunch of newspapers and stuff like that still because
I follow you know, writers and stuff. But but you know I I
you know, I follow the Arizona Bowl. Well no, exactly. Well,
here's the point of people watching our NBC compared to Fox or you know,
they want to hear what they want to hear. Exactly. You go
to my my my Comcast directory, and you don't see Fox News as one
of my favorite You can't find them on my director because because I'm a CNN
guy. Yeah, okay, let's cool. All right, let's get out
of here, take a break. We're gonna come back and we're gonna breaking
news with Kevin