Steve Rivera and Jacin Salas. They have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson
Sports stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty, Hey, welcome back to on
the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, you're Jay got Quin
with us and you have breaking news from you, they says, Eye on
the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. All right,
here we go. A lot of stuff, a lot of transfer portal news.
But I'm gonna get to that in just a second. But the NCAA
Men's tennis bracket was just announced. Arizona who won the Pac twelf tournament for
the first time with Clancy Shields the three. They've won three PAC twelve regular
season championships, but they had not won the tournament championship. They beat Stanford
for that on Saturday. Automatic bid also there they are now. They are
the nine seed in the sixty four team bracket. They will be hosting uh
A first and second round here in Tucson, May third and or fourth.
Uh We'll we'll get there. We'll get the final schedule, but we do
know that they are in the bracket. They'll be they'll be hosting uh the
first round to be playing Boise State and then if they win, they take
on the winner of Pepperdine and Auber. Where does Stanford end up in that?
The party a little head of them seed wise, Let's see, I
don't uh a s U as I see as US in the tournament? Who
else is in there from the PAC twelve because on the bracket, because l
is in because what they did was unbelievable. Yeah, so first time the
championship has been outside of California, right, Uh, looking has got to
be in there, right right? Sure, I'm just I'm just racing down
the bracket, but I'll I'll keep looking, but don't see them looking at
back to that. Yeah, we'll get back to it. But they definitely
got Oh, there they are. They are in the This doesn't listen East
West, They're they're in a regional where they are well, they're in a
region with a S in the in a region with a s U. But
Oklahoma is the seeded team in their bracket, the eleventh seed. Uh,
they would if they were to win their first round against SMU, they take
on Oklahoma or U tr Okay, but that The n cua A Tournament starts
on May third, and fourth, But congratulations, can glance the shields.
We're going to have them back on the show tomorrow. It's a big deal
for him to uh, to have won that. I think it's kind of
like the missing piece of what he's been doing here and uh and so a
big deal for them. And so they'll be hosting a first and second round
next week. Still the best coach on campus in this weekend, I guess,
yeah, it's started the fourth Yeah yeah. So anyways, all right,
let's go to Let's go to a bunch of answer portal stuff starting with
let's starting with basketball. They got a big guy out of out of Tennessee,
Toby Owaka. He's a six to six big man. He was sort
of a he was a reserve playing thirteen minutes a game at Tennessee. There's
a the picture that Arizona put on its website or not, maybe it wasn't
Arizona who put that on there. Oh Joe Tipton, whoever that guy is.
He looks like a big dude. He's a big key shot Johnson kind
of look. You have him at sixty six. I had him at six
eight, but Twitter, he's making six eight six eight two fifty, So
he's a big guy. Probably not the I know, we don't think Keisha
Johnson was a great shoot, but he'd had you know, he developed a
shot towards the end. Uh five point one points, four point six rebounds
a game playing thirteen minutes. So uh, it looks like a very physical
guy in there that that. You know, Arizona needs three plus two guys
like this in the last ten days. Yeah. Yeah. On the football
side, a whole bunch of stuff going on. Guys going in the portal,
guys coming out of the portal. Uh. A surprise to me.
Kevin Green Junior was very active in the in the spring game. Has entered
the portal today. Well, that's a little shocking to me. He's got
three years of eligibility to remain. I thought he was you know, he'd
be the next guy up, right, he'd be the one of the targets.
You think he was the next guy up and to replace what did he
announce that? Yeah? And did he say anything in his announcement? It's
uh no, he's can announces the brotherhood, YadA, YadA, YadA.
With that being said, I would be entering the transfer portal. So Kevin
Green gone or or maybe well in the portal in Kevin Green in the portal,
who we saw I'm trying to go back. Okay, there Jordan Washington,
who who talked about the running back certainly you know, I'm sure he's
headed to uh headed to uh chill, Seattle. So the guys in the
portal, there's there's seven guys in the portal in this fifteen day spring window.
Joe Borjon the lineman, Bill Norton, the defensive lineman who committed to
Texas. Defensive backs, DJ Warrenew and Will Eurich, you Rich Cameron Hawkins,
a long snapper in Jordan Washington and Kevin Green. On the other side
of it, they picked up a wide receiver out of Old Dominion named Raymelo
Murphy. He's got two years of eligibility. This ed rusher Chase Kennedy out
of Utah, which is interesting. You get a guy from Utah, he's
got three years of eligibility to left. And then they got a lot offensive
lineman from from Oregon named Michael Wooton. He's got three years of eligibility to
left. So guys that look like you know their positions. It's a it's
a union station as they would say a total of seven guys have come have
come from the Portal to Arizona in football. So Stevett, you know again,
man, just interesting stuff. A little more on Chase Kennedy. He
was he was a three star from Texas. He had offers from Kansas State,
Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Houston among others. This according to Goaisy
Cats, he could he committed Arizona on on on Sunday night. He did.
He did red shirt his freshman year at at at Utah and played some
last year and so he's got some time left to play. UH. The
the the receiver Ray Melo Murphy got twenty eight passes for five one hundred yards
and three touchdowns at Old Dominion last year. That according to Matt Morino,
So I'm trying to give these guys some credit because they do the reporting and
we put no good. We just spit it out. We were talking about
those guys that at UH at the practice member playing. So those four guys
over there, it was it was it was Michael lev Justin Spears, UH
station cheer and Brian Peters. I said, we were just talking about those
four guys. But then you said there are guys we need they do.
They do a lot of our work for which is which is what they do.
So it's great. But anyways, some some fun news from UH kind
of I guess you would call it call it family news. John Feena's son
now playing at UH at South Point Roman UH has got has been offered by
Arizona. He was after the spring game. So John uh well Roman announced
announced it, but John Feene also retweeted it. There's some pictures of of
of those guys on on social media, so good, good for good for
John Feena and his family. Maybe they can keep this one here as opposed
to UH the one who got away? And is that U c l a
mm hmm, all right, A lot of the well we're we're gonna just
to remind people we're gonna have solid bookman from p h n X Phoenix Sports
talk about the I have I have an adjective for the Sons, but who
got swept by the by the Minnesota Timberwolves. I know that there were a
lot of people going into that who thought the Sons had a chance to take
Howard, to take Minnesota. Howard heals me in another dinner, and they
didn't even come close. I'm gonna diet Howard, but I'm gonna eat a
four game sweep. They are out. They got beaten last night. You
know, makes you wonder, you know what, there's more, there's more
to the story because we've covered the school, we covered schools and teams right
right, and we don't always get the story or we know the story.
We just can't write the story And there's gotta be more to the story in
this one, you know, and and you get you have a guy like
KD, KD and and Booker. I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry.
Everywhere KD goes, they underachieved everywhere they go. I'm not saying it's
all on here. I'm just saying he's not the guy that well people make
him out to be interm He's being the guy that can bring your change.
Here's here's the thing that I've noticed or done for years now. I don't
care how much talent you have, because people have talent. If they don't
play well together in the sandbox, you're telling means nothing, right. I
didn't, I didn't. I didn't actually see the video of this, but
somebody, somebody tweeted that there was video that that Bradley did not shake hands
or get or he kind of left left hanging on a on a high five.
I saw it. But he did answer a question to that, saying
he was just frustrated and there was nothing there. He just was upset that
he was not playing to his liking and he kind of slapped the hand,
and he slapped everybody else's hands. Okay, So so it kind of makes
sense because they removed him in the fourth quarter of the team was struggling and
he was struggling, so he was like frustrated with himself, and it's it's
it's kind of obvious but also obvious to his explanation. Yeah, it's Uh,
I don't know. I didn't see it, so I don't know why
I even broad No, I saw it. It was it was noticeable.
But yeah, all right, and then uh up the road uh uh a
s U landed out of nowhere the number eight UH recruit recruit, a five
star center who decommitted from Kentucky with the coaching change, and says he's coming
to a s U. Did you see somebody tweeting this about that? Maybe
he got it confused with you. Well, that's no, I'm thinking maybe
he got confused as to which Hurley was recruited there, and then he's he's
going to get to su Wait wait, wait, where's Dan Hurley? Excuse
me? Sorry, Bobby, I have to tell you I thought you were
the brother. Sorry, I can't go there anymore. Said that you saw,
you saw what he's doing. He's gonna have a documentary done about the
basketball program. Okay, whatever you think will work. But that was that's
a good get. It's a huge it's a huge get. Yeah, it's
a huge guy. If it really does materialize, he needs about five other
guys. Yeah, but I I I'm sorry, I just it's hard for
me to imagine why a player of that caliber would go to a program that's
just a tough program to be in. Your guys, leave than the jay
You're six ft nine, You're fantastic. Jay On, Bobby, you want
to start something, you want to be the legacy guy to start my program.
You'll be the guy. You know if you be If you are the
guy, this town will love you forever. Yeah, that's here here,
by the way, here's a Chick fil a bag for the gosh. Well,
I don't have to even do it that way, say you know what,
see that car over there, to the car, the car and check
the glove compartment. There's another one like that on the other side. What
congratulations to Bobby Hurley to get a guy like that. I mean, everything
you read about this kid is that he's I mean, first of all,
the the highest ranked big player commit ever for a s U. You know,
he's their team at right, So you know, good on him,
and uh, all right, man, welcome to you. You know,
well, I'm sure he'll be welcome to Tucson whenever he had whenever here.
But you know he needs more guys. Yeah, oh, just uh just
coming across from Justin Spears, Joe Borjon, one of the guys who jumped
in the transh reportal is going to San Diego State. Okay, okay,
it's kind of a lateral, but they want to play. I mean,
they want to play in maybe just the program itself wasn't what do you want?
All right? Also, coming across the women's tennis team, you have
a women's tennis is in the n C Double A tournament as well. I
don't have a I don't have a seed or where they're going or anything like
that, just that they're in so oh, they take it back here it
is they play Oklahoma. They're in the Texas A and M bracket and we'll
play Oklahoma. They're going to college station in Texas. You have you didn't
lead with this or have something Philippe, Philip or my guy going to going
to your Lobos no logo? But who's my guy? Who's the guy that
called it? Is not Richard Richards? They Oklahoma guy. Who's the guy
that calls us from New Mexico? Oh, Richard, it's Richard? Yeah
okay, Richard? Yeah yeah, yeah, but he's here now. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a great gat. I think I love the way he
plays. Yeah, we did. We did like him a lot. Perfect.
It might be a really good fit for them at I'm sorry he wasn't
my lead breaking Yeah no, I said there's one more too, and I
oh, then there's Philippe. Yeah, Philippe or of eaching and going to
New Mexico. In fact, I never tweeted, and I tweeted they're gonna
love him. Yeah, they don't love that. I agree, I think
they are. He should. He could be turned into the Ruben Douglas of
this work. Let me finish my statement the Ruben Douglas who could score,
you know, because they you know that happened twenty some years ago, and
we all know what I'm in the Ruben. But he's a fantastic player over
there because he had free reign, more free rank. Yeah, all right.
One final piece, kind of a kind of a jab in the side.
Charlie Pelacio's who is a transfer from Arizona playing at U c l A
in for the three game series against Arizona where they were UCLA won two out
of three. Chose name backed off player of the week. Oh yeah,
yeah, and that was That was a tough situation for both baseball and softball
this SEK because they have both games. One. We have to mention that
after getting a PENU softball coach back of Kido's on on the show on Monday,
they've lost four in a row after twenty six game Mister j Rule,
you're the kiss of death. Steve, You're the kiss of death. All
right, let's take a break. We're gonna come back. Saw Bookman from
phn X Sports will come in. We'll talk about the Phoenix Suns of what
happened to them. I'm sure got some strong feelings about that, so we'll
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have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sports stig yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty
streaming live. I mean I hid radio WAPs. You know what you didn't
do? What didn't I do? We have a guest? Oh we didn't
call them, did well? Tix? See this is where you guys coming
to place? This is on you one you were supposed to tell us to
color. Yeah, Holy how sid guin? What deck are you guys doing?
Come on, Steve, I'm looking at you. You're looking for better
the phone we got busy? Well, all right, Steve's texting solid bookman.
We were supposed to have called him, and when you started the show,
he said, this is the guest time. Is this is the guest
time. I've lost my head. I'm doing having to do too many things,
Steve, I'm sitting here and I'm thirsty too. You're angry. Okay,
that's it, but but well we'll welcome here you go? Is this
soul? Thank you man, thanks for calling mister bookman. Sal We were
supposed to call you, but Steve forgot. No, No, the guy
with the phone, I forgot. That's Jay. So let me saw what
the heck happened up in Phoenix. Oh man, where do you start?
You start? What do you want? Since the beginning of the season,
Yeah, you know, just all uh all just combobulated. No chemistry,
no connection, no attention to detail. You can't just roll the ball out
with those big three and think everything's gonna be all right. The Big three,
I mean they didn't even play that many games together, right, I
mean, it just didn't. It just didn't materialize into what it was supposed
to be. No, they they made it look far more difficult than it
needed to be. But that's also partially on the thought and the structure of
the of what their coaching straft presented. You know, the coaching staff didn't
do a good job of putting players in the right positions and clearing up roles
and understanding exactly how to utilize this uh, this this three tome really and
they couldn't figure it out amongst themselves. And you have a lot of redundancy
amongst those three in terms of mid range scoring and ball handling, and it
just became problematic. So you started with your evaluation. Has anybody written that
at any time? When I was up in Phoenix for the Final four and
then other things, it was kind of like it was a story that nobody
wanted to write because because maybe it wasn't true. But I guess it's true.
I just think that there was this belief that they would it would eventually
click, it would eventually get together, because these guys were just too good
for it not to and it ultimately made a lot of us look foolish.
Obviously it didn't. You know. It was something that we had talked about
several times at least on our pH Next sunshow about just the lack of connection
and connectivity. But you know, we just against the Timbrels. Specifically,
it was the one team in the league where it looked like they were able
to figure it out, and then we got to the playoffs and it was
a completely different story. So, uh, finn reaction to this, I
mean, are they, you know, pointing the finger at anybody in particular?
You know, Kate because you know he's been around, you know,
I know they love Devin Booker, you know, Bradley Beal was supposed to
be all these things. Is there somewhere that the fingers being pointed more than
others? I think if there was one finger being pointed in a singular direction,
it would be Frank Vogel, and then after that, Honestly, I
do think it would be the moves that were made. You know, I
know a lot of people are pointing to Chris Paul for Bradley Beale and dah
for nurkit Chen Allen, But those are those aren't really? I mean,
those really aren't. You had to do those deals at the times that you
did them. You know, DA's time in the Valley was running out.
He wasn't happy here. He wanted more touches, and I think people just,
you know, in the moment, people forget about that, and they're
like, oh, well, you know, it's always revisional's history. When
you're talking about those cop things, I think they both needed a press start.
And when you're talk about Chris Paul, Chris Paul was aging. He's
like thirty eight years old. He's going to be thirty nine this year you're
talking about, you know, and he's never he's always been injury riddled in
the play offs, and you're putting all your hopes on him to try and
solve this whole thing, and it wasn't. He just wasn't gonna happen,
and so they had to move on. And if you told me it back
then, and if you told me now that you were going to be able
to get Brad Beal for Chris Paul, you do that all day every day.
So it's just you know, when it doesn't work out, it doesn't
work out, and sometimes it just happens, but you don't go back and
change that. So you were a senior. I think when in Buffalo DeAndre
the Trier and Alkins, you saw that they kind of didn't like each other,
right, we kind of knew that not anything was ever written because you
know, maybe for the same reason you thought they fixed itself. It didn't.
What about these three? Did they like each other? I mean,
I think though I believe so, I believe they liked each other. I
know, Kevin and Devon are pretty close, and you know, they hang
out and Bradley Beal is a family man, so he doesn't hang out in
the same circles as two single guys, you know. But I think for
the most part everything I ever ever heard and seen, yeah, they like
each other. Were they just not good good enough to rest with the rest
of the staff, with the rest of the roster. Yeah, again,
I just don't think that the staff did a very good job of a really
you know, structuring the offense to make it as efficient as possible. And
I think you had you have two guys that were playing out of position,
trying to play point guard and set everything up in Devin Booker and Bradley Beal,
and I think there was a time or two where they just overthought and
they made it more complicated than it really was. And then sometimes you're you're
pinning Kevin Durant in the corner as a decoy, and that was problematic,
you know what I mean. So it just never felt like this team was
connected on at every single level as they should have been, and I do
blame the coaching staff a majority for that. So so there's often talk about
the so called windows right that that teams have, that there's a certain you
know, you've got a certain roster, you've got a certain amount of time,
you know that you need to win a championship and or do you know,
do you know move along somewhere and if you don't, then people start
to move on. Where is that Is there more time left in that window
for this for this Sun's team, or do we start seeing big changes,
you know, for next season? I mean you could see, you could
see a change. But I do think that if they got a new coaching
staff and maybe we're able to make some subtle moves here and there just to
show up the roster, they could they could flip the script, but you
needed to. You need a coach that's going to pay attention to the details
and hold guys accountable. And I don't know if necessarily these players really bought
into everything Frank Volbeill was trying to sell. You know, when you're talking
about controlling that locker room or or having at least a voice in the locker
room. The head coach has got to be the premiere example of that.
And I just don't feel like that really resonated with this team. Uh.
I feel like these guys were too independent to buy into whatever Frank Volber was
trying to push to them, and it ultimately failed. It's funny because I
saw that story this morning about his tantrum in the locker room I don't know
what maybe a couple of weeks ago, and they kind of said, this
isn't you. How can you make your point when this isn't you. Yeah,
you gotta be that guy from the start. You can't be that guy
in the eightieth game of the season, and that's when it happened. You
know, Frank Vogel is a nice guy. And I think if you if
you asked the players you know what they thought about Frank Vogel, that would
be the first team that they said. It wouldn't be about like, oh,
he's a masterminder, he's a genius, and you know he knows how
to set us. But you it's none of that stuff. It's always he's
a nice guy. Is he the right guy? Probably not? And I
think that's why he's going to see the Suns move in a different direction.
At least I would guess, Well it is uh. I mean he's got
to They just brought him in. He's got a five year contract. I
mean uh. And it's not so much about the money but about you know,
giving giving some time or whatever. But you think it was that bad
that that that the owner will say, nah, that this isn't gonna work
and make a change. I mean, I think there's just some some systemic
issues that won't be cured with time. You know, It's it's do you
believe in the system? Like this guy came in to be a defensive coach
and show up the defense inside of the ball and they for the for the
longest part of the season, they were in the bottom fifteen and defense and
like, okay, so what do you really bring to the table And it
definitely was an offensive execution. Okay, well is it management? Do you
believe in the vision? And I don't think these players believe in the vision
of the future because they're already complaining. So you know, if if your
superstars are already complaining, that's not going to get any better with time.
Yeah. No, it's it's funny. You know, we all know Steve
Kurr and how he handles those those superstars. As you put it, it's
tough. I mean, Arizona Phoenix had three. How do you keep three
of those guys happy? Oh man, it's almost impossible. But you know,
listen, I think Steve Kerr figured it out. You got to you
got to speak to them, you got to be six skinned yourself, and
you got a reason with them. And I think the reason coaches fail a
lot is because they don't really teach the why, even to the NBA player,
like you have to teach the why, like this is why you're doing
this, because this is ultimately going to lead to business and this right.
And when players don't buy in, it's because they don't have enough information on
their end to see what the coach sees and their vision in my in my
you know, humble opinion. So I think when you're talking about these guys
and the and their ability to succeed before Frank Bobili even got into the foray,
they can't have their own why. And unless you come in here and
change that, they're never going to listen to you. Do you do you
like what Kevin Durant brings to the table to a team, any team,
right. And we saw him in Golden State with some of the Oklahoma say,
you know what he's done with with with the Suns. Do you like
him? Is he good for the for any you know, any team,
right? In terms of all the things that come with him, good and
bad. I like Kevin Durant. I think he's a tremendous basketball player.
I think he's going to be you know, he's gonna go down as one
of the greatest scorers of all time. I think that the one knock on
Kevin Durant that keeps coming up that I would agree with is it's not just
about leadership. It's about imposing your will and getting everybody to conform to what
you're doing because you do it at the highest level. And I don't think
he really challenges his teammates to get to that level because he feels like he
leads by example quietly, and I don't think that necessarily works all the time.
At some point in time, you've got to you've got to you've got
to insert your will, and I don't think he does that enough. And
especially for somebody that's supposed to be, you know, an all time great.
It's funny. I know last year they had the same criticism. I
guess the depth was not there, YadA, YadA. And then I saw
I watched the games recently and I see Isaiah Thomas on the sideline, you
know, doing the cheerleading stuff. And I think, Isaiah Thomas, here's
a kid who was I covered him back in the day at Washington and before
the paper closed. I'm thinking, that's how bad the bench is. Oh
yeah, oh yeah. And they only brought him in for the locker vibes,
which should tell you that should be the biggest knock on. Frank Vogel
is like you already are struggling in the locker room and you have to bring
a guy like it and to try and you know, mend those senses and
make sure everybody's on the same page and keep devised higher. That should already
tell you that you're you're already six feet under before to even start. No
exact good example, if if I just total speculation, if you had to
pick one of the Big three that might not be here next year, is
there one or do you think all three of them will be back? I
think all three of them will be back. But if I had to guess
one of them to be gone, it would be KD because he's the easiest,
wanting to be able to trade and get some assets for Devin Booker has
been the face of this franchise. You trade Devin Booker right now, you're
going to lose half the stam base and they're gonna lose their mind. And
also, like Devin Booker is twenty seven years old, he's he's almost you
know, eight years younger than KD. You know, why would you trade
somebody who has more time on his contract, who has a little bit more
to room to grow and it's just getting into his prime. Uh, to
keep it in favor of Kevin Durant. Now, the one that they should
trade would be Bradley Beal, But that contract is so outrageous that nobody's gonna
take that on for the next three years just because so I would say it
be Kevin Durant. Yeah, that makes sense. On the phone with the
Saul Bookman from Phoenix p x X, you you was it fun. I
mean cause you're you guys have a different website. It's kind of like a
pro suns thing is it fun when you're covering a team like this. Uh,
this was the worst basketball team or the worst season I've ever covered in
my life. And I covered the SBI Arizona team. You know, need
on that, you know, And that was miserable at first. But at
least there was some fun moments towards the end of the season before they flamed
out against Buffalo, you know what I mean, Like the Pat twelve Tournament
was fun as hell. This team, man, I can't recall one great
moment where I was just like, man, yeah, that was that was
fun. You know, it was miserable all year. It looked like the
players were already also miserable season. Nobody was really having fun watching this team.
It was a chore to say the least. Yeah. So I mean,
why would anybody believe that it would change in the playoffs, That's what
I couldn't get. I don't know, man, It just felt like,
you know, maybe they were ropid doping everybody, but the team we didn't
expect to be rope adoping everybody was Minnesota, and they rope adoped as great
as anybody could because they just let the Suns beat them against the Ropes in
the in the regular season and they came out and just knock them out in
the playoffs. So you know, congrats to them. They deserved it.
Yeah, even though you guys, well Phoenix is way over the way over
the tax issues and all that. What can they do. I mean,
they're still gonna have a bad bench. Yeah, they're gonna have to like
again, they're gonna have to get creative with trades. They got to hit
in the draft. They have one draft pick this year in the first round,
twenty second. Overall, they don't have any wiggle room to really improve
this roster to much. They asked some assets that they get trade away to
replace certain players. You know, nasire little still got a sizeable contract that
they can get rid of if they want to try and bring him somebody else.
But for the most part, you kind of stuck with what you got
unless you trade one of the big three away to show up this roster.
So you know, there's a there's a lot of bleakness going on in the
in the valley right now, but you know, we'll see where it goes.
So you covered uh misterton here, I did too. You saw him
over there for a number of years. What do you think he's thinking right
now. I mean, I'm sure there's a part of him that's a little
happy that you know, they they failed in the first round without him,
But you know, knowing da, he's probably not even paid at toutch to
the idiot you already, you know, just having a good time, you
know, in the Bahamas or or at home, not even paying any mind.
It is. So he's a he's a pretty loose guy in terms of
like, you know, he's always been a happy, go lucky guy.
And that was kind of one of the knocks on him up here unfortunately that
I did not agree with. And so he's just he's kind of like uh,
perfectly aloof if he if he can put it anyway, right right,
Well, he's probably stuck at the house because of snowstorm in Portland. Yeah
yeah, Ice is still there. Thank you, Saul, appreciate you.
Thanks a much, man, No problem, guys. Thank Yeah. So
it was great and he was honest, and he was honest because it was
very obvious. Like I said before, when I was up in Phoenix for
two weeks, I'm thinking, where is this optimism coming from? Well,
we beat Minnesota in the series. YadA YadA, we can do it again.
No, even like Howard, you heard Howard. Howard was optimistic.
He was they're gonna beat them, and it was not even close in the
third game, Game three was they just kind of xiled it and they had
a train to catch or something. All right, Well, not that we're
encouraging you to go to one of our competing shows. But David Kelly twelve
ninety's got he's gotta a poll up. Do the Suns win an NBA title
with this corps of Big three? That's a question, and the answers are
yes, give it time or no, blow it up? Blow it up.
It leads by seventy three percent. Yeah, but you can't blow it
up. As he said, there's two Yeah, you can say let's blow
it up, but you know there's no way to do it. Dad.
Can I go to the Disneyland? Son? We don't have enough money?
Dad? Can we go to News? No, you don't have enough money.
You just can't go because there's no money. Exactly. All right,
we're gonna take our last break. We'll take your calls if you have some
comments on the Suns. Howard, where are you would love to hear from
you? Five, two zero, four, one, six, seventy four,
forty right back. 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
Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a
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net, extreamey Live, Honey, iHeartRadio WAF. This is I on the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome
back to I on the Ball Here Fock Sports fourteen fifty m Steve, He's
jank, have fun with us for thirteen more minutes on your mister MBA's perspective
on the Sun. Okay, you what do you think why at the Suns?
Yeah, like Saul said earlier, it's it's something we're just gonna have
to sit with for a while. Not a lot that we can fix.
We'll see what we can't do with this upcoming season. But it was definitely
hard to watch all season. You could just kind of tell that they did
not like each other. Something was off. Whether it be coaching or compatibility,
it was something was off. It reminds me of the DeAndre Aiden senior
year. We saw it. There was one ball, three stars and they
all wanted that ball, and the bench was okay, they were good and
they showed they could be good. Right, Yeah you got good at time.
Yeah, they just dominated. But this is my one takeaway. Although
solos very good, you can't have a coach at any level who's a good
guy or a good girl. Good guys and good girls don't win championships they're
too good. You have to be a pain in the ass at some times.
And if you don't have that in you, how are the guys gonna
play for you? Right? It's too it's too easy for guys to maybe
on a given day not put out the effort, you know, and not
It comes down to what's the a word that we use all the time,
accountability. Right If a coach doesn't hold players accountable, then how can you
expect to you know, in a tough time have the guys that do what
you need to do to win a championship where sometimes just win a game.
Sure, and we've covered those guys. I know a couple of those guys.
You can't be nice. You could be respectful, but not nice.
You know, I have a few friends of like that. You just can
you get back to, you know, you ask him about the Dick Tomy
years. As nice as guy as he was, and as almost like a
father or a grandfather figure out on the field, if you were not doing
your part, he busted your ass, sure, and we saw him do
that. There was also a time or two when he was a little father
flying again. He would kind of bring people and kind of smooth them over
and will give you another chance. And that sometimes didn't work either, right,
But you know what I'm saying. He was good to your point.
Yes, there were times there were times when here here's the thing. He
gave guys the benefit of the doubt until he could no longer give them the
benefit of the doubt, and and and and coaches. There are coaches who
told a line, as you said, to being a nice guy versus being,
uh, you know, the guy that holds Let's take this call.
Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball. What's up?
Hey on? Then their biggest their biggest mistake was firing Monty Williams. I
thought so too. I thought he was a pretty good coach, but I
think he it was the aiding thing. It was a lot of similar things
here, don't you think. I mean, he took him to the finals.
Man, They said he was a hard ass, but he got results.
He did, and when they fired him, I know, I was
surprised, right because look, I know that that thing went on with with
you and Andre. But they were getting rid of DeAndre eating too, So
why do they feel they need to get rid of both of them? They
should. They should have done the DeAndre thing first, right, and then
one morning how it works and then move on. Yeah, exactly, man,
are you are you? Are you mourning? Are you upset? Well?
How do you feeling about all this? I don't really care. Sometimes
they're not the top of my priority. Well, thanks for carrying it up
to call exactly exactly, thank you, Nico. I want Howard to call
Howard the one that thanks. I'll get out the line. Okay, okay,
all right, we'll see if Howard he's not I'm upset you. Okay,
all right, Nick, I'll talk to you later. Oh yeah,
she did. We're trying to get her on the show this so we're hoping
to get it. Don't do that. Don't do that. Oh yeah,
the j don't do that. He wants to go on that. Every not
everybody suffer from that when they come on the show. Look at Glancy Shields,
he was on the show. He wouldn't want to pack twelve tournament championship.
There you go. He wants to win win on one. That not
automatic. All right, Nico, thanks about the calculator. Yeah, it's
not automatic. I mean, you know sometimes we you know, it's very
right sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. So it was the good the good coach,
the nice coach, you know. Lout Loot was was both at times
more more tough because you want to play hard for it. And he had
rods for that, the rods or Kevin O'Neil or Ricky bird Song or you
know, any of those assistant coaches that he had coming through did they did
the kind of I don't know if you call it the soothing, the soothing,
the kind of the buddy the buddy work. But also those guys too
though, you know, you saw it that those guys also had the whole
They didn't coddle, they didn't coddle players, but they smoothed some of the
things out that you know. I mean, you know, we've heard Sean
Elliott talk about, you know, how how tough that was for him,
you know, and I'm sure if if if Luke didn't have the assistant coaches
that he had, but at that time, maybe Sean Elliott doesn't doesn't stay
there right well, and s Sean Miller, I'm not sure that he had
those guys because they were he was so control, He was so controlling.
Sean was controlling they and the people that played work for him. Was my
impression that it was tough to to say anything otherwise, right, you know,
say, you know, Sean, could you know it was not gonna
work that with Shawn's way or the highway? Is the impression we got.
Now we don't know him we weren't in the locker room, but that's a
sense that we got from from his time. And I think Tommy, Tommy's
like that, I you know't hear the people that Tommy is a little too
true, very true when my story with him during the tournament was how competitive
he he is, and the players agreed. So when you have that,
you're probably let's get this thing done. But I think, you know,
again, let's talk you know, the whole Colin Boswell thing. You know,
the people just felt like he gave Colin Boswell way too much leeway.
Very true, and and and uh, I'm not gonna say overlook things,
but just well we talked about Jaden DeLaura with with with Fish, there's kind
of the same thing, kind of the same thing, a very a very
similar approach in that I'm gonna keep giving this guy, giving this guy chances.
And you know, Colin Boswell started all season long, except for the
one Senior Day game where you know we put in uh a Grant Whiteman.
But you know, it's it's funny because fans want coaches to be hard asses,
but then when they're too much of a hard ass, they get upset
with them. Mike Stoops, Rich Rodriguez, Sean Miller to a degree.
You know that they go, well, what are you doing, You're you're
alienating your players. Well, you can't have it both. You got there's
coaches will find the balance, coaches that are a really good coach. You
know, you watch Danny Hurley on the sideline that loses his mind, but
he's never losing his mind and his players, well, well you saw,
you saw the guy we saw in the final four who's won two championships.
Now very not Bobby Hurley ish, but he still does his things. In
fact, I saw a lot of stories after the fact. He's kind of
a jerk. He's kind of a jerk, but he's winning. But sometimes
you guess what you do. He don't say anything about that because winning fix
things. I mean, I was fine with rich trod being a complete yeah,
well maniac on the sidelines when they went ten and two and went to
the festival, right, But would you say that he's a jerk? Well,
on the sideline, we saw what we saw. But what about on
the sidelines in the blocker room stuff we don't know, we don't know.
You know, to us, he's great. I loved him. Sure,
you know, to the public, he was you know, he's pretty good.
But I know that the public mind on the sideline, just like Stoops
and they would go, what the hell are you doing? And we don't
know enough about Stoops outside of the sideline, right, because he was not
a community guy. He was He was not a touchy, feedy guy.
Rich Trod wasn't either, you know. No, you're right, rich Trod
wasn't either. But he was good with us. But he was good with
us. He was good with the medium. Mike didn't like any of it.
He didn't like doing any of that stuff. No, I I you
know. And and that's why it takes such a special person to be a
coach like Nick sabd. Okay, we've all thought Nick Saban was a brouch,
uh, you know, a very arrogant and grumpy guy, and then
you see him on the Draft show and you think, I like him.
He was good, likable, very likable. But he's not coaching you.
But he's not coaching and he's not he's not trying to win a championship anymore.
And and you know, again, I even heard an interview that he
did. I think it was probably with Dan Patrick where he said his wife
told him kind of why are you such a butt? Heead all the time?
You are and people think of you and why are you like that?
And I mean he listened to it, but he never did anything about it
because he continued to be that if you felt like he was that guy.
But it's a different it's a different You played differently on the office than you
do in real life because he and he won title. Well, and that's
what I say. That is why I know you're a nice guy. I
wouldn't be married to you if you weren't. True. But then I see
you on I see you at the podium and I'm like, who are you?
Well, the media has a wait of kind of pissing people off.
Come on, No, they don't shun it all the time. If you
don't like to go back to Phoenix. Yeah, I remember, you know,
didn't answer questions about things, you know, silly stuff. That's silly.
It's just silly stuff. I mean, it didn't need to happen.
Yeah, But when you're when you feel entitled or untouchable, yep, you
do what you do. You do what you do. Yeah, No,
I I agree, I agree. It's been it's been uh, I have
again, that's why you know, certain coaches succeed, sure, certain coaches
don't those that have quote it. So we got three we got three minutes.
So so who are the coaches here or there that you've said, Okay,
he's got it. Well, I mean, obviously you know Lut's one.
I thought Dick was one. What did Lut have? Luke? Lut
had a presence that you you didn't want to disappoint and that and that was
part of the book. It was you play. You have your grandfather?
Did you know your grandfather? Yeah? I scared. He scared the hell
out. Did you not screw up because he was scared a lot of No,
I just didn't go around. Well you're a bad example. That was
different. What about what you your young have your grandfather? No? I
don't. But did you have my mom? Okay? And you don't want
those eyes? Yes? And you know I had a dad like that when
the eyes and you just didn't want to disappoint them, And that's part of
it. You don't want to disappress. There's there's a thing about disappointing them
out of fear, or disappointing them just because you don't want to disappoint.
No, I think it's the second one to me, not the fear thing,
because my dad didn't do that to me. But you just tell my
parents they're doing a lot for me. Yeah, right, that that was
Luke Okay, right, that wasn't my grandfather. Well Mason did. Mason
Harvey said, I didn't want to put disappoint Steve, and I didn't want
to disappointment And Brock broken Broncoorse said, he's like playing for your grandfather.
You don't want to mess up because you know they do a lot for you,
right, and and that. Yeah, and those those are the coaches
that there haven't been that many of them here that I maybe some of them,
you know, maybe a Mike Andrea was that guy, Frank Bush,
maybe a Frank Bush, maybe a who else, you know, maybe Rick
Lrose was that guy. I think. I think a guy who treads aligned
very well is and Lopez. Yeah, he's a guy, and he I
could imagine and in the locker room losing his mind. Next time we have
a little we'll ask him about it, because he could be that way.
But he was also successful because he had their attention. Yeah, No,
that's right. You know, Andy Lopez is one. You know, like
I think about Jerry Kindall and I'm not even sure where I would put him
in that category. He was kind of the grandfather type and I don't think
anybody was scared of him. But next time we have one of those millers,
you know, when a player walked through a wall, Jerry Kendall,
I don't know. Oh, I'm sure they would for the reasons that we
talked about. Chip hailed that. You know, yeah, what made him
so special as a coach and would you would you run for? They would
say yes, of course, But what made him? What gave him the
why? Yeah? What's the why? Right? Yeah? The why that
is is what's interesting. I don't know. I don't know. But again,
I think you can tell that the great coaches were those coaches, and
the coaches didn't have that were the ones, the ones that do stay a
long time and they win titles, still welcome, and they're the ones that
are gone. And whether you're whether it's with an administration or the players,
all right, good show, we settled it. I think we can.
I think we can started, uh some sort of a consulting firm about how
to be a coaching search. All right, hey, we're thanks for being
here where. We're all set for tomorrow with a couple of great guests including
uh Clancy Shields, Arizona Men's Tennant, so be sure to be back tomorrow.
Will talk to you then