Streaming live on the iHeart Radio Whip. This is I on the Ball with
Steve Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Welcome back in the
Bollingham Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm your host, Jay Gonzalez. My partner
Steve is out for one more day. I've got Adam Gonzalez, former sideat
Arizona here, and we've got Devin working the working the board for us.
So we've got we had a good conversation so far with Jodi Ayler talking about
the Suns, a lot of other stuff going on, and Devin's about to
bring you some more with breaking news. All right, let's start with some
Arizona softball news. As Arizona Softball, as we've been talking about, is
starting the PAC twelfth Tournament against a issue on Wednesday. But here's a cool
stat I saw an Arizona Athletics tweet out today that Eliska ex finished the season
with no errors, a perfect building percentage in one hundred and sixty two chances.
Oh man, That's that's hard to do. That's just hard to do.
I mean, my goal for every game I played in field in my
entire life was to play one game without an error, not you know,
take get three chances and not making air. So one hundred and how many?
One hundred and sixty two, that's pretty good. That's amazing. I
mean, you've played a lot of baseball. How much baseball you played,
Devin, Not really, but Adam, I know, Adam did? I
mean you get those streets hit. That's pretty dark and good. So congratulations
to Alie Skaggs. All right, let's move on this with some Arizona women's
golf seat off today at the NCAA Regionals in North Carolina. As Arizona sits
behind ASU, Florida State, and North Carolina As they're in fourth place right
there, in fourth place, but they just got to finish in the top
five to advance to to advance to the national tournament. So um and they
did that last year. I believe they were in it last year, so,
you know, trying to hang on there and just play well, you
know, get so obviously important to get off to good starts, so good
for them. A couple of players in the top five. I'm not trying
to say I don't I don't know, man, I'm sorry. If you're
listening, you shot a seventy today and you did really well. Her last
name is very long. Okay, all right. Arizona men's tennis advanced from
the NCAA Tucson Regional and we'll be playing Ohio State on Saturday in the ncable
A Superregionals. Good for Clancy Shields. I know Clancy pretty well. I
was kind of their sid, like I oversaw the student that ran in.
But Clancy is a good dude and I'm really happy for him. And they
put in so much work in this. But like the way he went about
it, like culture wise, first you got like the right guys to come
play for him. They all love to play for him. They all love
each other. It's it's it's it's cool to see his vision what you know,
as a coach, when you talk about you know, the culture and
stuff, I mean, what is he trying? What is he created over
there or continuing to try to create In terms of what the program is about.
I mean, do you have a way putting? Does that care?
Yeah? Like really care. They really cares. It's a it's a big
thing. They care about the program. Yeah. Because yeah, and you
would imagine individual sport, Yeah, it's for an individual sport. That might
be harder to because I mean, look, I'm also I'll say, and
I've said it before. I thought they've been some guys that came through the
Arizona basketball program under Sean Miller who didn't feel cared about the program. They
just cared about getting theirs. Yeah, no, they are. It's a
team. It's a legit team. Yeah. And they feed off each other.
They're all friends. That's it's it's cool to see. Yeah, Clancy
was awesome. I was. I was there when he got hired. That
was funny. I was on a I was on a an interview committee or
the job search committee was for for for one of her, an assistant coach.
He asked me to be on it. Oh wow, okay, okay,
well go again and again. We've had him on the show. He's
always great. He appreciates being on the show, which we love, and
he comes on every time we asked him to come on. And he's always
had a lot of good stuff to talk about. And you know, he
details us that. I mean, you know what he's trying to do,
which is and the thing too is he deserves you know, all the athletes
he's getting in a lot of other like Arizona is not known to be a
good tennis program. He stuck it out here. He could have right,
probably somewhere else and probably still good if he wants. But good and good
for he's been. Hopefully they take care of him, you know, because
I know the facility needs some work. The facility needs a lot of Yeah,
I agree with that. Yeah, but did you see that he had
to play against his brother in the first round? No, they played Boise
State in the first round. Brother, his brothers the coach there. Wow,
I didn't see that that. They did well, they crushed both of
them both. They went for zip on both of their opponents this last weekend.
But brothers at Boise State, all right, Well, good for Clancy
Shields all right at Ohio State on Saturday, set on Saturday. Okay,
we'll keep an eye on that. Let's go to some NCAA news with LSU
and Yukon. Finally got their date for when they're going to go to the
White House. Yeah, both on the same day. But sport ceremonies right
May twenty six, Yeah, did you see Um Reese? Um the Angel
Angel Reese. She's now in the swimsuit edition of Sports illustrated and I al
ill exactly exactly. All right, here's a big one that happened over the
weekend. Bronnie James has committed to USC. Did USC and you should like
come to Tucson next year? I don't know one of them. I don't
know that we have the schedule yet, but we're still playing them, right,
But I don't know. I remember it was always like the way the
schedule like, yeah, we didn't always play UCLA and USC twice a year,
right, I don't know what that is next year. I would hope,
so, I mean obviously we would hope. So, um, but
I don't know that. I don't think that's out. Yeah, I don't
think that's been determined yet. The schedule exists. I can tell you that
it exists, but I know it's not public. I don't know that.
You're the one who I don't know, but I can tell you that it
exists. Okay, Well, you're the one that should be telling us whether
or not to playing each other or if they're going to be in tucsons.
I hope, I hope. So. I mean i'd like to think that
you know, you still get USC and you and the UC yeah, you
know playing I wonder home at home next year. I wonder when the next
time after this year, next time Arizon. I don't think Arizon will go
out of their way to schedule USC because right it is, you know,
everybody hopes, uh, you know that that series can continue to continue,
can can continue to be played like that'd be fun to play at the summer
game? Yeah against you sure, and you know, and play at home
at home. I still say, play you know, twice a year,
uh, every year. He can't do that because they got to have their
games. But they shouldn't they. I really do hope that that they do
continue that, and I know everybody, I don't think they will. Everybody
wants it, but I don't know. I don't think they will in football
because yeah, but but the USC wouldn't go out of their way to schedule
Arizona necessarily, right, But basketball, I would like to think, Yeah,
you'd like to think that that would that would keep calling? All right,
all right, let's get we didn't even talk about Bronnie James. And
what are you thinking? Yeah, I mean, have you seen him?
He's a good player. He's not He's not like a when you think of
a top ten kid out of high school. He's not necessarily what you would
think. He's not going out there and scoring forty points on who mixtape.
Right, he's a really really, really good basketball Okay, smart, he's
an amazing defender. UM passes the ball. Well, he can't score,
he can shoot it, So he's he's he knows the game. Yeah,
and I mean right yeah, well yeah, I mean rightly. So,
I mean his dad is teaching him the game. You know when he's just
a really good basketball. He's gonna be good on any team you put him
on, and he's gonna make any team better probably. Yeah, he'll be
one of you. He'll be a good player for us. Have you seen
him? Oh No, he's a He's a fantastic three D wing. He's
got a peer jump shot. His former is impeccable. Um, his IQ
is off the charts. He doesn't have his dad's athleticism, obviously, but
who does, right, He's only six three compared to six eight or six?
Yeah, his younger brother is eight or six. Yeah, they say
his younger brother is really good. All right, I'd I'd like to see
him right now. We'll see him, whether we see him on TV or
see him here. We'll see him and that'll be kind of a spectacle moment.
How do you think he'll handle that? Well, he's going to be
a spectacle now, I mean he'll he'll do well. He's been he's been
in the spotlight since he was I don't know, years old. Have you
seen I don't know if you've you've heard. We've talked about this a couple
of times. That on three uh, that website that it has an nil
value ranks all athletes seven million. He's like the number one a valued athlete
you know, high school, college or whatever. His name is Lebron James.
Yeah, like like he's Lebron James Junior. Yeah, so seven,
it's like seven point one. It's cool and I'm really glad he's going to
college because that was the thing entirely. You hadn't heard anything on like who
are his top schools? Like who's he taking a visit to get? No
idea, right, I kind of I didn't really think about it. I
was just kind of expecting, Oh, maybe he's gonna go play for um,
going the g Leader or something and then going to US. I thought
that was really cool. It's very cool. Probably his dad said, go
get started, man. Yeah, very good. Okay, good for us.
All right. The NBA's all Rookie teams were announced today, with Benedict
Matherin being named on the first team, which is weird because he didn't get
named a finalist for Rookie of the Year. There's only three finalists. He
was the fifth one. But he so he got the fifth most votes to
get Okay, so he just got slided in there. Okay, Well,
good for Ben mather How good did you think he was going to be in
the NBA after during his sophomore ye I said this is a potential star.
Yeah, I was like, this is this is like another Anthony Edwards kind
of guy where I think he could be that good. Okay, he's even
bigger than Anthony Edwards. Maybe not quite the athlete is Anthony Edwards, but
on that kind of trajerk. Did you see him play much this year?
Every Now, what did his game look like compared to what we saw here?
What's doing here? Making shots? A good player? Just good good
athletes. Okay, he's got an MV. And that was kind of the
thing that Jody was going to talk about with Arizona players didn't have a ton
of end guys with an NBA NBA game and he had an m game.
Yeah, so all right, good for Ben Mattherw all right, And after
twenty seven years since Rayal and played at Yukon, he finally received his blaster
degree this weekend. There you go and way to go. Guys have made
a movie and he's got a degree, now, have you. I I
like him. I don't know. I mean I knew he was a really
good player. I mean he just one of those guys, but I never
really saw him, you know, speak or and he's he goes on Dan
Patrick all the time and he's great on there all the time. He talks
about some cool stuff and very open, just talks about his you know,
he was that guy who's kind of he was in the gap between like the
two eras of the NBA, right, Yeah, like he caught. He's
at the end of like you know, the gross two thousands and whatever started
at the beginning of the n Y Yeah. I like him. I've really
I've really enjoyed watching him too. Again, just talks about some inside stuff
that you know, there's some guys that go on some of these you know,
they go talk shows or whatever, and they don't. You can tell
that they're holding a lot of stuff back what you just say. He just
very frank, very comfortable in his skin, very comfortable talking about stuff that
he saw and he did and stuff. So I really, I really enjoyed
watching him, like you know who I like about it, Like Reggie Miller.
I I could not see. Do you like Reggie Miller on TV?
I do, a lot of people don't like him. I think he's saw
it. I think he's for him. A lot of people can't stand it,
a lot of I like him a lot, and I didn't like him,
and I had reason. I mean, I had personal experience with Reggie
millercovering Pac twelve basketball when he was coming out of UCLA. The guy was
a jerk and I couldn't stand him. And what I thought was that he
took on the personality of Walt Hazard, his coach, who was one of
the biggest dipwads ever to coach in Pac twelve. Can I say dip wad?
Sure, okay, And he took on that personality. But over time,
you know, and even early in the NBA, you know, he
did the choke thing and all that kind of stuff. He really he embraced
the village, right, someone's got to be the village. Yeah, somebody,
now, you know he's he's uh you know. I like him.
I like him on on NBA telecast. I like him when he does talk
shows. You know, he stopped and said hi to me at a at
a at the regional in San Jose, um remember a few years ago.
Now, he didn't remember him. I told him who I was. Yeah,
he was kind of like, oh yeah, yeah, but he didn't
you know, you know who I was. But he stopped and talked to
me, and you know, very pleasure. Here's the thing. A lot
of like, here's the perfect example. Chris Rodgers. Okay, a lot
of guys when they're playing their sport, they can be like the worst person
ever, yeah, just ever. But when they stop and they can flip
the switch. Great guy. Yeah, maybe he's one of those guys.
Yeah, Like I played I played pickup basketball to Chris Rodgers a decent amount
of times. Oh my god, it was terrible playing with him. But
then the game's over and you guys talking, Yeah, I don't know.
Wow, you're kind of wired different when you're not just one of like like
a really good professional. All right, all right, let's go to the
NFL with After rumors that the Commanders were trying to leader Andrew Luck kind of
retirement, Coats Colts owner Jim Urzy made it clear that Andrew Luck is off
limits, tweeting out yesterday and I quote, if any Belt team attempted to
contact Andrew Luck or any associate of him to play for their franchise, it
would be a clear violation of the league's tampering policy. Well, are Luck
is still under contract to the Cults, so nobody else can go get him.
Although we're real quick, I gotta, I gotta read this because if
you ever followed the Captain Andrew Luck twitter feeds, it was awesome when he
was playing. So Captain Andrew Luck tweeted for the first time since in like
three years. Are these are the types of tweet Derris's mother, it warms
my beard to write you A dispatch arrived at my home far within the Appellachians,
stating on once again the topic of conversation inside the periodicals fascinating. I
hope he received the basket of salted raccoon tos and lemon mouse cakes. Andrew,
Well, you gotta love that. Whoever writes that is awesome. Anyway.
Sorry, I haven't tweeted in over three years. Go back to that
Twitter feed and go back and read some of those little tweets. They are
awesome. All right, let's take a break. We're gonna have Kenzie Foller
coming on talking about PAC twelve softball tournament coming to Tucson. In a couple
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Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the
podcast on the iHeart Radio while just surgery. I on the Ball Welcome back,
involving on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jay Gonzalez.
Steve Rivera has mentioned is out for one more day, slacking off somewhere.
I think probably on his way back from Vegas. I've got my my son
and partner, Adam Gonzalez, former sid at Arizona along with Devin helping us
out on the board and on the phone. We've got Kenzie Fowler, legendary
pitcher from Arizona who also works for PAC TALF Networks, and we'll be covering
some of the games at the PACTALF tournament being hosted by the University of Arizonas
who wanted to get around here talk a bit about the tournament. Kenzie,
Welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a softball
season, so let's talk all the softball, all softball, all day.
So well, first of all, um, you got the tournament coming up.
It's a it's a it's a first time, it's a it's at Arizona.
Appropriate lead Arizona struggling this year, but you know they're still in it.
But let's first, you know, get into the tournament itself. What
do you think about just the existence of this tournament. Would you have liked
to have had something like this when you were playing? Who does it benefit
and what? You know? Why? Why is it a good thing?
Well? It has different answers as a fan and as a former player.
Kind of putting myself in that position because in the PAC twelve every team plays
everyone in the regular season and you don't see that, and maybe other conferences
that are a little bit bigger, like the Big ten or SEC or even
the ACC. So if you would have told me as a player, you
have to go face these teams again for another weekend, I would have said,
no, thanks, I'm good, let's move on. But as a
fan and as a broadcaster, I love it. I'm so excited. I
think it's been a way overdue. There's so many reasons you can get into
why it's been a much needed addition for our conference, but I think the
biggest one is to get the national stage and to get some extra eyes and
talk about our sport in a different way, just like we are doing right
now. Right So, I think the PAC twelves need some visibility. I
think they need a little bit more respect. It's one of the best conferences,
if not the best conference, every single year, and I think a
weekend like this weekend is going to be a great way to celebrate the tradition,
the success and highlight the best players across the country. Is it Is
it realistic to think that somebody who might not otherwise be in the tournament,
in the NCAA tournament. Good, you know, can pull this off and
you know, win and get a bid and that type of thing. Or
is it do you see this kind of going chuck? Um? You know
it's interesting because you think about playing these teams and even like a team like
Arizona who's been swept by a UCLA or Washington or Stanford. Um, you
know, we have to play a team three times, okay, but if
you just have to play a team once, I think it changes everything and
everything is going to be completely different because it's like that March madness type of
field. Right is single elimination, which I think is the best thing that
you could do in this type of scenario. Um. Not to not to
throw down baseball too much, but I don't. I don't agree with the
format of their tournament where it's double elimination and they don't include every team.
I think that should be revisited. I think that hurts the sport for them
in my opinion. So I love the fact that softball is every team is
in a single elimination and let's fight. Let's go for it and see what
kind of upsets can happen because it's just one time seven innings see what can
happen. Why is Arizona the perfect spot to host the first Pact of tournament?
In your opinion, I think it's so important, Number one, that
a place to host the first one where I'm sure there's going to be some
things that you know, some kings just it's gonna not nothing to say it's
going to go wrong, but it's not going to be perfect. It's the
first one, right, But I think it's so important that a place is
accustomed to hosting tournaments, not only postseason tournaments where we've seen Arizona host Supers
and Regionals almost every year, but regular season tournaments. Arizona is a place
that just the event staff knows what to do, the marketing team knows what
to do. Um, the field is durable that it's very used to having
four or five different teams on the field at a time. So I think
it's it's very important to have a place that knows what they're doing and knows
how to run a tournament correctly. The bonuses are the fan support. The
bonuses are I think it's the best stadium on the West Coast by far,
and good weather. So you put all those things together and it's a It's
a no brainer. From your perspective, what's it kind of like being like
close to the program in terms of like, you know, you played there,
you work as a video Can I call you video producer? Sure?
Yes, you can as a video producer working the PacTel networks. I guess
what's it kind of like being around PacTel softball and airs On Softball. Just
from your perspective, I love it. I love what I'm able to do.
I love how I've been able to stay around this sport. Softball has
been passion of minds. I could throw a ball around four or five years
old. So I love being able to be around this sport in different aspects,
being around the athletes. I love being able to call games. I
wish I could do it full time. I wish our sport was full time,
but um, you know, from February to June, I stay very
busy and then um working my full time job here AARs on Athletics covering our
Olympic sports. But I love any aspect I can stay around the sport of
sofwol, and especially in my alma mater Intis. I did have to tell
my dad when he was explaining kind of to the listeners who you are,
I said, and she's an unreal video producer and helped me a ton of
thank Yeah, Adam. Adam and I have collabed in his former life a
couple of times with some women's basketball highlight videos. Well say, that's the
thing, and I, you know, I I don't know why can see,
but I thought you were like living in southern California because and maybe because
you're working with Pac twelve networks and stuff. And he said, oh,
she's here, And I'm like, okay, great, so so awesome that
you're you know that you're tied to this. So let's talk a little bit
about the tournament itself. You got UCLA who's coming in. They're really really
good. Uh, you know a lot of good teams, as they're always
are in the Pac twelve. But first of all, you know how good
is UCLA, and you know who's got a shot at them? I on
paper and watching them in person. You know, in our sport, we're
in a really interesting place because, on one hand, I will tell you
that I think the sport has seen more parody across the board, across the
country with different conferences mid majors, you name it. I think the talent
is it's way more balanced than we've ever seen it. Yet. While that's
all happening, we've had this team called Oklahoma. I don't know if you've
heard of them, but they just have an absolute hold on our sport right
now. And it's like Yukon women's basketball in their heyday Alabama football, and
we're just in that period where Oklahoma softball is b team to beat and right
now they just will not be denied. So I think UCLA is one of
a handful of teams that on paper, seeing them in person, seeing the
talent, they have the ability to go punch for punch with Oklahoma. Can
they beat them twice? I don't know, but they can definitely to beat
them once and that's for sure saying something. So they've been the most dominant
team in the Paxtwealth Conference by far. I think they will sweep up the
awards whenever those are announced, probably Wednesday morning. I'm guessing they're going to
have the pitcher of the Year, the Player of the Year, in the
Freshman of the Year, maybe a co Freshman of the Year on their team.
And outside of UCLA, there are some really other good teams that are
taking games from UCLA. Washington has taken a game from VCLA, CAW has
taken a game from UCLA. Stanford's played them tight. So talking about what
we were talking about before anyone can be anyone one not to say that Lee
still isn't the best team, but just one time you can do it.
Would you be surprised if anybody but UCLA wins this thing? Or you're saying
what you just said that anybody can lose once. I mean, what do
you think? Oh, I think it's very open not to say that I
still think l is the best team. But we're talking striking while we're hot.
I think a team like Washington, I think they're playing some of their
best softball all season long. Their pitchers looked really sharp last weekend. Um.
I think Utah Utah came up in Eugene last weekend and swept Oregon,
who had been playing some of their best softball, threw a no hitter on
Sunday. Um. And then you can never counot Stanford. Stanford, in
my opinion, as a as a staff, have the best pitching staff,
the strongest arms one through four. Well, you can see four different pictures
and they're all very ace quality. So those are some teams that you just
kind of keep your eye on, and, um, you never know what
can happen, but you know, talent wise and resume wise, they're there.
So unfortunately for Arizona, they're in a position where they're hosting the tournament,
but they've not had a very good year. They're in the play in
game. Uh, you know, they couldn't. They could be gone after
one game or two games or whatever. But you know, it's been a
tough year for Kaitlin Lowe and and the group over at at Arizona. What
have you seen? What what are your thoughts on what's going on over there
and why the struggles this year? Um, I mean you could look at
different things at different points in the season, but I think just big picture
wise, they're very young. I was watching them this weekend play calin Sunday
and I looked down into the field and their entire outfield was freshman. They
had a freshman DP, they had a freshman shortstop, and a freshman in
the circle. So, um, they're incredibly young, and they've been hampered
by some injuries. Of course, they lost call it Carley scooping forward the
probably the biggest part of that Pack twelve stretch with a broken wrist or form
I can't remember, um so that that hurt. And losing Sofia Carroll in
the middle of the season, who decided to just step away for the season.
That's losing or starting shortstops. So there, you know a couple of
adversity things to go through. And then just looking at the stats and the
numbers and the earra is going to be inflated there from the pictures this season,
you know they've had a hard time at times shutting the Pack twelve hitters
down, and it's it's hard to do because in my opinion as a as
an analyst, where I'm calling different games in different conferences, so I get
to kind of see the scope of everything. The past twelve by far has
the best hitters. Yeah, I think some other conferences might have some better
pitching as a whole, but the hitting right now is dominant in the Pac
twelve. So it's a hard conference this season to be a pitcher. And
Arizona, unfortunately for them, they were in so many ballgames where they just
weren't able to get one key hit or or give up one less home run
where you can steal a game two and not get swept and still get those
RPI points against those big time teams. If you're if you're encouraging fans to
come out to the tournament, you know, what do you say to them
about, you know, coming out and what they'll get to see in a
good reason to come out to the tournament. Oh, I'm so glad you
asked me this because I've been thinking about it earlier this week. Should I
tweet something like and I'll call the Tucson and rally all the fans because it's
a very big deal that Arizona and Tucson and Hill and Brand is hosting the
first packball tournament. This is something that is unprecedented. It's never been done,
and so it needs to be done right. And I think it's a
great opportunity for our community, our Tuson community, to come out and celebrate
softball, whether that's you know, of course cheering on Arizona. We want
them to do as good as they can. But outside that, there's going
to be plenty of other games that are going to be played. And I'm
if you're if you're thinking about it, if you're hesitant about coming out,
please come out and support women's softball, support this sport and the conference as
a whole, and the softball I can guarantee you is going to be It's
going to be electric. The talent, the single elimination factor. I think
it's just going to be must watch. Um. If you can't come in
person, of course, tune in on TV. But I would just love
to see the community show up and kind of make a statement like, look,
how look how much we love softball in this city. And you know,
another aspect about that, if if the community shows up and the fans
are in full attendance, you think that's going to help recruits that are watching
maybe on the fence about coming to Arizona. Absolutely, So just a little
something to keep in man, keep in mind for Arizona fans coming out and
watching some softball. And here's the thing. I think, at its roots,
Tucson is a bat and ball town, a baseball and softball town,
and so yeah, I can. I think there's a real chance no matter
who's playing whatever game, there will be good crowds. I mean all these
I mean, you played youth softball, you're my wife played softball, you're
my sister, Like it's crazy, yeah, yep, yeah. And it's
a great opportunity to see some different players. Kind of take yourself out of
that Arizona fandom, if you will, and kind of just observe the other
players, because there are some huge names you want to talk about. Maya
Brady, the niece of Tom Brady, probably going to be Packed twelve Player
of the Year. Bailey Klingler, she's in her senior season. She was
last year's Pack twelve Player of the Year. She'll probably be in the running
for USA Softball Player of the Year. Megan Framo's in her last season as
a Pact Twelves pitcher U the Utah team. There's a couple of home homegrown
talent on Utah's team. Alissa Bomstrom is one of the best hitters in the
Pac twelve and she's from Toothon. So there's so many opportunities that come out
and just watch some really talented ladies and yeah, I think you're I think
you're right on. I think this is a baton ball town and um and
I will say I will also shout out the fans because I know there has
been the struggles for Arizona. I've been really impressed with the fan support and
the consistent attendant. So applaud everyone that's continued to come out and support this
program and supports us. All right, Well, that's a Kensey Fowler talking
about the PAC twelve softball term and it starts Wednesday with the play in game
Arizona against a SU at six o'clock and then a full day of games on
Thursday, four games starting at ten o'clock in the morning. If Arizona were
to win, they would play UCLA at four o'clock in the afternoon. Which
games? Which games do you have coming up? I will have the morning
doubleheader on Thursday, so I will have Oregon State versus Cal and A Washington
versus Oh gosh, it's Utah, Cal, Washington, Oregon State. Yes,
yes, yes, so you take Washington organ State. I got the
brackets, so you know, but you were than like, it's those four
teams. I'm setting them out evenly. I'll figure out who's playing the next
day. There you go, there you go. All right, Kensy,
appreciate you doing this kind of a last minute interview, but I'm I'm glad
you were able to do it. And uh I look forward to either watching
you or seeing you out at the out at the tournament. So thanks a
whole bunch awesome. Thanks guys. All Right, those kensie fother form Arizona
picture. We'll be calling some games for the PAC twelve networks this week.
I agree with her. You know, first of all, two Sunday is
a softball town. It's a baseball town as well. You know, she
mentioned that not only you know, yeah you want to come out, you
want to see Arizona plate, but all of these teams have players from Tucson
all over the place. There's there's so many players around the country. Yeah,
you'd hope that the fans would come out, and even just because Arizona
maybe maybe they don't last till Thursday or Friday or whenever, get out there
and watch. Let's say the PAC twelve tournament was ten fifteen years ago.
Are you taking Alana yeah to the Oregon Oregon State game? Yeah, way
not absolutely, Yeah, Yeah, you want the you know, there's so
much softball here that it's such a big deal that you do. You want
these girls to come out and see how some of these girls compete and there
and they're I mean these teams are really good. It's it's a level of
softball that that not everybody gets. I mean, it's gonna be College World
Series, right. Okay, let's take our last break. We'll take your
costs five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four forty.
We'll talk about anything you want to if you want to go back to the
Suns, if you want to talk about some softball coming up, A lot
of whole a whole lot of other things going on out there. So we'll
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Eye on the ball on Tucson Sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty Welcome back to
in the ballinga Fox Sports fourteen fifty am, your host, Jay Gonzalez,
and Steve is out for one more segment and he'll be back tomorrow. I
have Adam Gonzalez here, former SID sports information director at Arizona, covered football,
women's basketball. He was on the Final four crew, among other things
over there. And then I've got Devin, who's I just found out it's
his last day with us for the summer. Devin's a junior at Arizona,
finishing up his finals and he goes home for the summer. And then you'll
be back. You will be back in the fall, right, we'll be
back, all right, So Devin will be joining us back when school gets
started again. But uh, we're gonna say goodbye to Devin here. And
then we've got Jason who'll be here for I think three days out of the
week during the summer. He lives here and so he'll he'll stick around.
And Noah, as we said goodbye to him last Friday, he's out of
here and he's from Phoenix, so's he'll be leaving for the summer as well.
So it'd be a little different over here for the summer. But you
know, we'll have some guys around to help us make sure we don't screw
up our show every single day. So anyways, um, good conversation with
Kenzie Fowler talking about the upcoming tournament pacton Pac twelve PAC twelve Softball tournament being
hosted by the while Arizona at Hill and Brandon. It just should be a
lot of fun. Yeah, softball tournaments are fun. I enjoyed every time
I wish and if yeah, and I do it tent. They made a
good point because you know, when you think about you get to this time
of the year, arms are tired, bodies are tired. You know.
The the men's tournament has a different format where you're gonna play two games over
a three day period. It's a it's a round robin thing within a unit.
And then you get into a brand you're brought out. Yeah like softball.
Yeah, so fast paved, single animation tournaments go out there, play
a game, onto the next right and so you're if you're if if you're
not in the playing tournament, you win three games, you can't win the
twa for instance, if you if you go to the College World Series and
you win the College World Series where you play in the you're there for like
two weeks. Yeah, Like I went on the last trip when you win
Arizona went and that twenty one and I was like, I don't any I
was just coming off the final form. I was there for nineteen days.
I was like, I said yes to this because I've always wanted to go
to a one time. I don't know if I'm to stay, yeah for
two weeks. Yeah, yeah, it's become a it's become a such a
long tournament. Yeah. I mean it was very cool. Any sort of
baseball fan I would recommend make an appearance. Yeah, awesome stadium. It's
a really cool town. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well that was the
one thing that one of the one of the few. I don't know if
i'd call him regrets because it was something I regretted because it was something that
I did. But I wanted to cover a college World Series. I had
I had covered a Final four, I had covered a National championship football game
up at the Fiesta Bowl. Um, you know, I wanted to cover
a college World Series. And in the eighty nine team um was you know
one the one that the Scots team that was a Scott Erikson team. Scott
Erkson, Lance Dixon JT. Snow Uh, Trevor Hoffman, Alan Zinter,
I mean, just Kevin Long, all guys who played, who played and
or coached in the major leagues. I mean, it was just a huge
team, hands down favorite to win the regional that Arizona was hosting. And
that was back you hosted a regional. There were eight regionals and the eight
regional winners. It's like Super went to the World Series. Yeah, but
it was it was it was still fourteen. It was a it was an
eight team double elimination tournament. No, it's a four team double nation turnam.
Yeah, four team double nation tournament, so only thirty two teams got
in the gut in the tournament, four team double nation tournament. You win
your regional, you're in the College World Series. Arizona's hosting a regional,
hands down favorite. Scott Erickson was eighteen and one or something like that going
into the tournament. Guy played pitch for the Orioles and among other teams,
and they got beat. Long Beach Steak came in here and won the regional
and took off to the College World Series. I mean, I thought,
if Arizona gets in the College World Series, they're gonna win the College World
Series and then they didn't even get there, and it was just it was
a terrible thing. And then they were really bad the next year. The
news they made was the baseball team this year broke the losing streak record that
that team had in nineteen ninety and so that was that was not a fun
year in ninety. So, um, you know, highly unfortunate. So
I I really wanted to go to a college World Series. Cool, it's
a very it's it's a cool deal. M The stadium is pretty unbelievable.
Yeah, it's a big league stum. Yeah, not not in this stands.
They're yeah, well it's not as big a stadium, but it's no,
it's huge, but it's not like a but it's not like a Camden
Yard or something. But it's sure it's twenty thousand or something like something like.
It doesn't have any many stands in the field, right, but like
in terms of facility, oh, it's so nice. Yeah, it's so
nice. Yeah. No, So that was one of those things that I
wish I had I had had a chance to do it, and I thought
I was gonna have a chance to do and then did Now that that would
have been in the old stadium, which had its own charm. Right it
was on the old minor league ballparks. But people loved it. In fact,
when they talked about knocking it down and building a new stadium, there's
some people saying, we love this stadium. Why why would you do that?
Dude? Just you know the purest right, the people who love the
old stuff. This one is really cool. Yeah, so well we'll see
um. But anyways, again, just the thing that I missed, but
look, this is still an opportunity for Arizonner to make a last stand in
the softball tournament. You win this tournament, you you move on. It
happens all the time they did basketball, not right Princeton. Why I was
talking that, I was talking conference championship. That gets hot, Infernament gets
hot and goes to the Well, I'm just saying that, anybody, can
you know in Florida, Atlantic, you know at was different. They were
good, They were really good. They were really good. They're right,
they're right there. There's a lot of those early UH rankings for next year
have come out and have them still in the top. Atlantic was ranked in
the top twenty five entering the tournament. Yeah, so they're gonna there's a
lot of them have them in the top ten going into next year, so
I don't know. Um. Interesting note Brian Peterson speaking of basketball. Brian
Peterson from as Desert swarm A listed the number of with the men's basketball transfer
portal closing on Thursday as of today. You know, people think that all
these guys left Arizona, All these guys left Arizona. Well, five players
left Arizona that includes walk ons, so we know the one big, big
one was Kirk Crissa adamald Ball left so five UCLA had zero, Oregon State,
Stanford USC had four, then Arizona and Utah come along with five.
Cal had nine, ASU had eight, Colorado and Oregon had seven, Washington
had nine. It's a lot of guys leaving a program that rually only has
thirteen fourteen guys. So Colorado is not gonna have an athletic department. So
did player trains for now? Yeah, I mean I'm kidding. Well,
I did see it. I did see well. I did see a note
that that Dion sand and the back and the football team is back up to
fifty nine scholarship players in house, but only I think twelve of those were
there last year. So he's just gonnat and just flipped this whole thing over.
Um. You know. Another one of the conversations I saw as it
related to that was that this only could have been done with somebody like Deon
Sanders. If it had been some other obscure coach that nobody knows or whatever,
had he tried to do this, people would have lost their minds.
But because it's Dion Sanders, he sort of gets a pass. Yeah.
And I don't know, we'll see, like because when you look back at
it, like if you just take out the name Deon Sanders, he coached
uh jack the state, that's it. Yep, that's it, right,
that's it. You never he hasn't coached fps right, I don't know.
I have no idea. It's a it's a whole different animal. Well.
The the the the over under on on Colorado's win, uh all of college
football came out last week, and I think the over under on Colorado was
three, half three and a half three. Let me look this up real
quick. Um, Colorado came in at three. I don't like that,
you know, I wouldn't. I don't think they're I don't think they're gonna
get four, but three you don't win. You you know, you push
the bet if it's if it's two and a half, I might take it.
If it's three. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Colorado is
either gonna win two or three games. They're gonna go to or right.
And that's what I said on Friday. I said, they're either gonna win
a bunch because they're gonna be good, or they're just gonna completely suck.
It's either gonna work spectacularly right one that's one of them. The other that
they're not gonna be a middling team. That's how I think. That's what
I think too. I think they're or you know, it's gonna take it's
gonna take them to the end of the season to kind of come together.
But by that time they like I don't want and said, I don't I
don't see them having an Arizona season that Arizona had this past year, Oh,
flipping from one and eleven to five. I don't see that. Yeah,
Like they're either gonna be No, there's gonna be like better than that,
like seven or eight wins games. Well, there was I saw another
thing and said that the most eight percent of the future's bets on the national
championship in Colorado. Colorado. Sure there because they loved that, because there
are twenty five thousand to one odds. Sure the books love that they do
well, that's what they well. Some one of the replies I started that
when did you just set your money on fire? It's all gonna depend on
I mean, I can't say I've seen Dion's kid play quarterback. It's all
gonna depend on if he's played at Jackson State. I'm saying, one season
at Jackson State, how good is he going to be? Right? Or
is it just he's a he's a sophomore, is he not? I think?
I think? I think you're right. Yeah, it's me a lot
different than playing against Utah's defensive line Arizona's at five and a half. What
do you think over Over? I think over too, Devin Over, I
sure hope over They have some better players, Yeah they're there. They keep
reloading on good players. Yeah, yeah, and their defense has to be
better, doesn't It doesn't thing have to be. It doesn't have to be,
but probably will. There's there's better players. Should it get worse?
In the words of Andy Lopez, Hold on, hold on, hold on,
just trust me here, it gets worse. It will get worse,
I promise you. So don't be too sad about it, because it will
get worse. No. I think they'll be better because they have better I
mean having justin flow in there. He's he's a good dude. I saw
him and seeing him like without pads on. Yeah, oh my god,
relax, No, no, oh my god. I'm like, dude is
twenty twenty one years old, baby, and I'm like, how does a
hard does a guy get like that in that short amount of time. No,
I I think they'll be better. Um, another year in the system,
another year Jed, another year for under Jed's belt. Yea, he's
only gonna get better. Yep. A s was at five under. Yeah
yeah, not just because it's a just because you think, I mean,
it's it's it's it's like Arizona was a couple years ago when they hired the
jedist. I mean, I don't know if Kenny Dilling him is a good
head coach. Yeah, call is at four and a half. I can't
I could not comment. I have no idea. Okay, as a usc
over usc Oregon, usc over, I don't care. What are all nine
and a half USC's going to college football playoff? I think so yeah,
I'm mean Caleb Williams is unbelievable. He would have been he would have been
the number one pick this year. Yeah, number one pick. He's so
good. What about Washington? I almost think Michael Panics is better and Caleb
Williams can do more things? No? What, yep, you have a
radio show, Come on, people listen to you. People listen to you,
and you threw that out there. Take bad take No. I like
Michael Pennis. I do too, IVERY think Caleb. I look, I
saw both of those games, and I thought I thought Michael Panics is better.
Caleb Williams won the Heisman. I know he won. I know he
won the Heisman. I'm more scared of Michael Panics than I am of Caleb
Williams. And Jay's eye test, yeah my eye test. Okay, I
on the ball. Yeah you go all right, uh okay, all right,
well we'll see. I don't know, but look he's still really good.
Oh yeah, right, And they've gotten all these transfers. People are
coming to us. Top players are coming more, top players are coming to
USC. They're going to a big ten. Yeah, the thing Caleb Williams
and the Heisman. I think they're gonna be really good, all right,
which is fun usc being good as fun it is it is, and then
they're gonna leave jerks. All right, that's it. Uh, sorry,
um Adam, thanks for being here, appreciate it's always fun to be here.
Devin. Thanks for all the work you've done for us this uh this
school year, and happy to have you back in the fall. Thanks for
being here today, especially because we were going solo and it was that's never
good. So thank you for all that. I hope you've had fun and
you'll come back. And what would you have said if you were just by
yourself in here? What are you? What are you going to talk about?
I probably would have canceled the show, I said, I'm not doing
that, though. It would have been a spectacle either way. No,
I'm not. I'm known what I would have done. It wouldn't have been
fun though, and it wouldn't have been pretty and it would have been hard.
So but I didn't have to do it all by myself. So all
right, Steve, we'll be back tomorrow, so we'll have We'll be back
with some more great guests. We got stuff to more stuff to talk about
this week. Looking to drag get John Wilner on later in the week to
get some into some PAC twelve news. So be sure to come back and
we will see you tomorrow