Steve Brabera and Jacin Salads. They have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson
Sports Day. Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty, Welcome back to High on the
Bolling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We're getting a kick out of a bobble
head that's come out with Dodgers star show Hey Otani, who celebrated his dog's
birthday today, his first birthday today, and now there's a bobble head out
of a showy with his dog. I don't know. That dog was like
the highlight of the of the whenever they announced he was Yeah, I don't
even know what to say, but I'm not gonna say anymore. All Right,
we're at Ryan's here and he's got breaking news. This is Eye on
the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, I'm gonna
start with a little bit of University of Arizona news. Former Arizona Wildcat start
as Mary Martinez is going to the euro League over in France. She was
drafted by the New York Liberty this past season. Unfortunately, she did not
make the cut on the team. She spent two years at U of A.
She was named the All Pack twelve and Pack twelve all defensive honorable mentioned
by the coaches in twenty twenty four. All right, and she's got a
pro gig in Europe, which is where we thought both her, she and
Helena player Woodland, and that's where they both landed. Both got drafted.
It was great that they got drafted. You know, that's something that you
know that they'll always have. But they both looked like you know, overseas
players, and that's where they both are. So good for them as Mary
was really good. She had some you know, foul issues she was following,
you know, getting a lot, filling out a lot and that stuff,
but she was definitely a good player and so good for her that she's
got a contract to playing France. I love seeing players like, you know,
they're not making it one league, but they're making go to another.
Right, get the opportunity in the showcase and you know what, all right,
and there's a living to be made there. You know, there's some
there's some guys you know, uh in two that come to mind, uh,
Corey Williams, actually three Corey Williams, uh uh, Kyle Fogg,
Joseph Blair, probably a couple of others. Who made pretty good livings,
you know, playing overseas. I think cale Fog is still playing and now
they come back there, you know they're they're set financially. Joe Joseph Blair
is a is an assistant coach in the NBA. Corey Williams making a great
living here living here in Tucson, doing well. You know, Look,
if you don't mind leaving your country and going and playing basketball somewhere, uh,
you know, making a bunch of money and then kind of being set
for life, that's not a bad way to go. Absolutely not. So
we've been talking about the NBA Finals finally being over. Next week is the
NBA Draft on June twenty sixth. A little bit of news just it's it's
been in the news for for a while, you know, James, Bronnie
James, this article that I'm reading from today, I want to get your
thoughts on this. Speculation continues for those two to possibly come to the Suns
come out. I don't see that. I don't see that happening. Honestly,
I don't know. It's you. Well, here's what I here's what
I would hate to see. First of all, lebron is what thirty nine
forty. You know he's got how many years left? Look his greatness,
no question, right, he's still great. He's still at his age.
He's still one of the top players in the league. But your skills don't
get better. They did Tior. So he's on the way, he's sliding
the other direction. You know, if you're a franchise that I don't want
to use the word desperate, but feels like that's the move for you to
get him, so to get Bronni James, so you can get Lebron and
bring him in to play together and sell some tickets. You got to think
about what you're doing with your franchise. You know, are you really trying
to win or you're just trying to you know, put butts in seats because
I can't look. Bronni maybe started a handful of games last year for USC,
a team that wasn't even all that good. We saw him, he
came here, we saw him here, saw him at the Pactoff Tournament.
He was a decent college player, not even a really good college player.
Now he's going to be in the NBA Draft. You're going to take him
so that you can get Lebron to again. If you do that, that
reeks of that does reek of desperation or a lack of direction, a lack
of trying to put together a team that can win a championship. I mean,
to me, you're reading that headline just it kind of tells me that
they're just if they do that, it's just like you said, to put
butts in seats, button seats. That's really, yes, what they would
be doing. It's certainly not trying. You're certainly not thinking you're gonna win
because you got those two guys, right, come on, I don't know.
It's seriously, it's something. There's speculation that that the Sons are interested
in doing that. It's I mean, it's a it's a it's a reach.
But they're still they're saying, oh, there's possibility, can happen.
Oh man, I don't think it's happened. I don't think Sons are gonna
Okay, okay, are you buying a ticket for that? If he if
he's up in Phoenix, are you're gonna go see him? I would have
five years ago. Probably not. You know, look, it'll be interesting,
no doubt it'll be interesting. There's be a lot of attention put on
it. People talk about the Sons a lot. Here's the father and son
playing together, yeada, YadA, YadA. It'll be interesting from that standpoint,
But is it going to translate into winning basketball, which is what the
Sons ought to be doing. When you got guys like Devin Booker, you
know Katie, you know Bradley Beal, you know, you got you've got
a core like that, and all of a sudden, you can say,
well, we're gonna bring in this side show of Lebron and his kid.
If you're one of those three guys, you're going, what the hell are
we doing? Right? It's gonna it's going to overshadow what they're doing right
exactly, and what they did wasn't all that great last year, right,
So I don't know, I think it messes things up, you know,
unless you're the Washington Wizards and needs something like that. You know, one
of those teams, the Sacramento Kings, Well the Kings are actually decent,
right, but you know, I would hate to see it. I'm if
I'm a fan, I would hate to see my team do that because I'm
thinking, what am I paying for it? To go to your game?
To go see an old man and his kid, or am I playing going
to see a team that's trying to win a championship? Which would I which
to I prefer? Well? I like Lebron, he was great. I'd
like to see us win a championship. Right, all right, Well there
that was my thoughts. We'll switch over to a little bit of MLB news.
Mike Trout, he's been on the Angel list for a little while.
I came out today that he's still he's still trying to come back from that
tourm meniscus, You're ack on April twenty ninth, and he's saying that his
progress is going slower than he's then he anticipated. Yeah, you know,
uh, I just feel so bad for him. You know, such a
great player, uh hasn't gotten you know, not been in the playoffs.
He just just talk about having a great player who just their career just isn't
in the end, is not going to be what it can be or should
have been. He has said that he doesn't have an expected return date.
They don't think it was going to be season ending. But to this point
and where what June eighteenth said, he hasn't even started running. He's he's
a ways off and then again, when you're when you're that player, once
you can start going full bore, it still takes a while for you to
get your feet under you right and being you know, be able to get
out and you know, in a major league game and hit and the whole
bit. So it sounds like he's a long way off, even even if
he comes back this year. I mean, the Angels they're not having a
good season. You know, he comes back, he's probably not going to
help them make a push to Yeah, he's not getting into the promised Land.
So that's too bad. You just feel bad for him sticking with MLB.
Another injury related news, Anthony Rizzo. He had a collision the other
day with pictures. Excuse me, try that again. He had a collision
with a Cleveland or a Boston pitcher, Brandon Bernardino, while he was running
down to first base. They collided. Rizzo kind of tumbled a little bit,
and he has a a fractured right arm and he's going to be out
at least eight weeks. He's my first baseman. No, how come I
didn't know this happened. I gotta go straight to my go straight to my
my fantasy. He's still in my line up. Did you got to tell
me these things before three days later? Ryan? Well, you know,
he broke his arm. Oh man, what am I going to do?
Now? Holy cow? It was it was a pretty pretty bad collision.
So, like I mentioned earlier, it's just been a been an injury filled
Well, I guess, oh man, what the heck? Okay, thank
you for letting me know. I gotta get him out of my lineup.
That's what I'm here for. Yeah, I appreciate. Okay, there he's
he's out. Put Justin Turner in there. All right, Yeah, he's
all right. But now I got I gotta, I gotta, I gotta
put him on the eye ol, go get another player. So I've got
somebody else on my bench who can come in when I find out another one
of my guys he's hurt. So all right, And I wanted to ask
you about this not really breaking news, but I was reading a little bit
on possible trade deadline for the MLB. They're saying that Luis Robert could be
a potential prospect for them to go after from the Chicago White Sox for the
Dodgers to go after. All right, Look, yeah, you kind of
at some point, you got to trust the team that they're gonna do.
The Dodgers are trying to win, They're trying to win a world championship,
So if they make a move, I'm gonna believe that it's a good move.
I don't know. I don't know him. I do know the White
Sox suck and that you know that that this guy would probably be happy to
get out of there and go to the Dodgers. Uh. You know,
you like you like a guy who all of a sudden gets that life.
You know, during the course of a season, you feel like they're gonna
come out and they're gonna produce. So yeah, I guess I would be
good with the with a move like that. Uh, they've got to do
something at six to eight weeks without Mookie Bets. They can't just patchwork that
for six to eight weeks ago to get a guy who's going to be reliable,
who's gonna be good, he's going to make an impact, and they
need a shortstop. So I was not ever that fond of Mookie playing shortstop
anyways. He's I mean, he's a look, he's a great all around
player. He's not your typical he's not that shortstop. Who's going to make
the Derek Jeter play right, Who's going to make the Aussie Smith play?
Who's going to make that that the the the incredible play that so many shortstop
make. He's gonna He's made all the routine plays. He doesn't have the
arm, uh you know of a shortstop. You know, he's certainly not
Eli Elie de la Cruz, right, so you know he is an adequate
shortstop. He was a great player, and he just said I'll fill this
if you need me to. He was their best option. So it was
working. But I'd rather he not be playing shortstop. I'd rather be playing,
you know, in the outfield where he's less likely to get hurt.
Yeah, I mean that's kind of what I saw when they made that move,
right, I was like, what do you do? Why are you
can remove him from right field where he's such a good field. It was
just a weird It made no sense. It didn't make a lot of sense
to me. And again, every ground ball that's hit to shortstop that I've
seen, you know, I kind of like, okay, let's see if
he's got this one right. As opposed to when you have a shortstop who
you know is going to make the play. You know, you don't have
that. But unfortunately, the two shortstop prospects that the Dodgers have are terribly
hitters, so they can't put him in the lineup every day. So yeah,
if you know, if they can go get an every day shortstop while
Mooky's healing, and then maybe Mooky goes back to the outfield if the guy's
doing good enough job, so I'd be okay with that kind of I guess
to kind of help you kind of picture Luis Robert. They say he's kind
of similar to Andy PaaS okay a little bit. Yeah, and has been
a stud. You know, he goes, he's he's been going up and
down, but he's he's a he's a really good player. Although he blew
a fly ball the other day the really hurt him in in the game against
against the Royals, But I like Andy Paie is so well, we'll see,
all right, we'll keep an eye on that one. Yeah. I
think I think the reason they're going after him because there's the other guys on
the Dodgers that are struggling, like you know, Gavin Lux, Maxim.
Gavin Lux has been a huge disappointment Maximunts. He is hurt. See that's
the other thing. You know, there's another there's a third baseman that's hurt,
right, and I think James alban is also yeah out yes, yeah,
so you know, no, it's it's uh, I don't know how
well the Dodges are the first place in the division because the rest of the
division sucks. But you know, you know, look, they're they're going
to get to the playoffs. The thing. Be ready for the playoffs,
you know when your division, so maybe you can skip a first round or
whatever, but you know, get to the playoffs and then just see what
happen. Try and be healthy by then and see what happens. That's it,
okay, all right, So just uh, as we were saying,
you know, it's time to get time to get to get fired up for
Big twelve. So I'm looking forward to that and we'll you know, you
know, one of those things is women's basketball. Right, let's see what
you know, what the women are going to be dealing with. Arizona has
been you know, top to attendance in in the PAC twelve for for women's
basketball. Now they're going Baylor's over there, right, there's some yeah,
exactly. There's some teams over there. Uh, so we're going to see.
But you know, the pack toll has been tough too with you know,
with Stanford and UCLA and so on, So it won't be anything new
for them, but it's not going to get a whole lot easier for them.
But we're gonna talk to PJ. Brown, who covers women's basketball for
the Arizon Daily Star, follow up on Ada Barnes press conference last week talking
about her roster for next season. So we'll be right back with PJ.
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com to schedule your free evaluation today. Steve Rivera and Jaken Salez they have
their eye on the ball on Tucson's Sports Stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming
live on the IHIG Radio wapp Welcome back to I'm volume on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm jacon Zalez, my co host Steve Rivera's out today. I
got Ryan here working the board and jumping in on the conversation and on the
phone. Now we've got PJ Brown, Arizon Daily Star rider who covers Arizona
women's basketball for the morning Paper. PJ. Welcome to the show. Thanks,
Jay, appreciate you joining us. Okay, so, last week,
Adia Barnes held a press conference talking about her team heading into the summer.
Uh, kind of ran through all the different players and new players, old
play well, very few old players, right, so just a handful of
players who are still around from last year. Let's start with the Let's start
with the players coming back, because that's, as she said, the core
of her team. You've got. You've got Jada Williams, who became the
starting point guard, had some really nice games at the end of the year.
Skyler Jones did a lot of good stuff. And then you go inside
with with Brea Cunningham and isis bay that core you know, obviously it's important,
but how effective can that core be with all these other new newcomers around
and what's there? How what's their role going to be? How are they
going to handle all of this? Sure, the first thing we have to
remember is Montea do finally gets this step on the court right, right,
So she is considered part of that core because she was in that freshman class
along with Jada and Breya and Skuyler. Okay, so they really have They
all took big jumps last year, and part of it was, you know,
when they went down to sixth and seven players, they had to play
right, so they sort of learned on the job and they got tremendous experience
not only during the season but also at the NCAA tournament. Those two games
they played in and they did some really incredible stuff. I mean, they
beat Stanford right, and they finished off that weekend beating cal So. They
swept in the Bay Area, which was a huge accomplishment. They beat Utah,
They had some really a lot of good games. They had a triple
overtime game that they won. They played sc pretty tight. They lost both
of those games, but they up until that time, they've played USC and
Juju better than anybody else in the league. So they were a part of
all of this, and they've seen that they have that experience and they've already
they had spring training, so like about a week or two after their season
ended, they started spring training and they were all in the gym. Then
they got a break when school ended and they went home. Dia said that
Jada looks completely different. She transformed their body. She's so much better.
Brail looks better. All of them sort of know the drill now, right.
They understand what it's like to play for a DA Barnes. They know
what is expected of them and they come ready so it's not like they're having
to learn on the fly or anything like that. So they're ready. They're
ready for summer training, a lot of development, and they're also when you
look at them, like Jada's a leader. She might not be fully what
you would expect in a leader because she's only going to be a sophomore,
right, but she's someone that idea is mentoring and guiding so that you know,
in another year she will be the team's leader. And the others just
are one year older, right, so they get it. So when they
welcome in these new players, whether they're the three freshmen or the transfers,
they're sort of guiding everybody. It's gonna flow naturally. Ideas brought in some
really like not only talented players, but good for the culture kids who will
also be you know, not questioning things and not doing things they shouldn't be
doing, all of that stuff. They will be cohesive, you know.
It just will all take a time obviously, like every team does to build
that chemistry. A lot of that will come this summer right when they're training
together. So I don't think that I think that this is just an unnatural
time. And and all this time together, right, they spend from like
basically from June first all the way all summer and then they start preseason training,
so one of a lot of time. Yeah. And one of the
things really, I mean, just right at the top is numbers, right,
because you said, yeah, they were down to seven players and you
know, even six a couple of games, and you know, you thought,
somebody gets in foul trouble and they're going to be playing with four.
But just having the numbers has got to be a huge relief for Idea.
She did a lot of work in the portal. There's you know, a
lot of turnovers. As she said, we got to get used to this
because it's going to go like this every year. So you know, we
don't we don't know some of these players. So who do we need to
be paying attention to the most? You think as the things get going here
for this team. Sure, when you look at the transfers, I think
Sinaya Jah they call her Jaw is probably one of the players to keep an
eye on. She's a power, she's a small forward. She'll play the
three in the four, she'll trade off with Montea do and they will be
a strong combination. Idea said that Jah is the is incredibly athletic. I
don't know if she's seen someone that athletic as a Wildcat in a while.
I mean she mentioned that as Mary obviously was athletics, but this is I
think a different level in an efferent style. So she's somebody definitely can to
keep an eye on. There's also, you know, Idea brought in some
shooters this year, whether they were the transfers or the freshman. A lot
of shooters and a little bit of of height height for Arizona as opposed to
I'm not talking about like a like a louren Bets, who's what six seven
or something like that. We're not they don't have anybody like that, of
course, but somebody who's just you know, players who are really solid six
three, six four, who can kind of I guess like isis a little
more like isis, but strong like that, you know, because when you
go and play in the Big twelve, it's a lot more physical attacts.
Well, okay, that's gonna be the first thing that everybody's gonna notice.
They have reps who kind of look the other way, and you know,
there's a lot of stuff going on that that we would be We're like,
wait, what, Well, I watched some of those games last year.
I was like, that's interesting. Well, and it's gonna it's gonna be
it's like that, right, It's gonna be like that for the men as
well. You know, the games are no matter how much they say,
the games aren't ref differently. They're ref differently if you watch you know,
if you watched an Arizona game at a Big twelve venue versus an Arizona game
again it's a Big twelve team in Tucson, they're different. The games are
just different. And I you know, I challenge anybody to prove me wrong
on that one. So it's interesting that it's like that for the for the
women's game as well. So you're going to need some physical people. And
you know, when you think about it, as Mary and Isis came from
the Big Twelve, and they had problems with foul, right, they would
get into foul trouble all the time. And why because they were able to
play that way in the Big Twelve but not in the Pact twelve. Yeah,
actually going back to the Big twelve might be good for Isis, But
she didn't know she was going to wind up back over there. So all
right, so, uh, what do we know about Montea Bay? You
know, I mean, do we know how good she's going to beat Montea?
How do we know how? What does she do? What? What
do we what do we expect from her? A lot? Not to put
a lot on her. I don't want to put a lot on her.
That's a lot of pressure that heng kid doesn't need. But she's a dynamic
player. She you know, she's got length, So on the defensive end,
she's going to be getting tips and steals and probably blocks and all of
that. On the offensive end. You know, she's been working on her
dunk. She's going to be able to dunk it. She can dunk.
Yeah. I wrote a story about it before she stepped on campus. You
know, she came a semester early and at that point she was she thought
she was pretty colm to Donkey, So she at some point here she will
dunk. Wow. Wow. That type of springs and all of that.
And she's very smart. She's got really high basketball IQ so that along with
think about it, she's she was injured all last year, but she's been
practicing with the team for a year and a half, so she knows Idia's
system right very well, and she's going to be able to plug in and
I think, just go, it's going to be a plug and go she
and she's she really at the end of the year, she was getting close
and Ada was like, no, I can't have you lose a year by
playing in three games, right, So she's ready. She wants to get
out there and show what she can do. We're talking to PJ Barnes,
Arizona women's basketball beat writer for The airson A Daily Star. PJ, how
how did a do you come out of that last year with all that happened
during that season, a lot of adversity for her, right, you know,
whatever the situation was, you know, with players leaving and whatnot,
and and especially with you know, at the end of the year, with
what can I think of a Kaylin Gilbert? Just how did she come out
of that? Do you think is it kind of like, you know,
what, Okay, another year, let's move on to the next one,
or you know, anything happened in there that that might have either a hangover
or or you know, affect the upcoming season or affected you know, how
she handles players going forward. How do you think she came out of that?
I think that she's in good shape. I think there's no hangover.
If you remember what happened. The six players who were there came together and
that's when they beat Stanford and Cal and played incredible against Washington and SC and
everybody else. They you know, sometimes you have some bad eggs, right
and the I mean this happens at work too, when people leave when you
have somebody and nobody gets along with them, right, and they do and
they leave and everybody's like, like they take that deep breath and they can
play. The players were obviously happy that it was the sixth of them.
They said to Adea and we got your back, right. They were ready
to go for her. They were ready to play for her and for each
other. They came together as a team at that point. That was very
important. Yes, And I also think that you know, I know they
didn't go like they didn't go to the final four, right, of course,
they you know didn't, And it wasn't a year like that. But
it was actually a really good year because not only did they come together and
play as a team, but at Dia Barnes you could argue that she had
one of her best coaching coaching performances in her time here. Yeah, I
mean to take six players when they were young, I mean you only had,
you know, as Mary and Helena really who had experience and who were
elite players, right, they're professionals. Now, you had really just had
two players like that. Everybody else was a freshman, you know, I
know, you had Isis and Courtney, but they were still new to the
program, right, and both of them added a lot and they had experience.
That was important. But when you think about what she did and how
what she was able to accomplish. I mean, boy, when we found
out she had six players and it was a certain right, it was like
the end of January. People are probably thinking they're not making the nc tournament,
right, And not only did they make the ncl A tournament, but
they had really big wins yep, yep, yep. So it was like
this incredible. It just changed everything. And I think that now going into
this season, you have a big core, that core coming back who experienced
that part of it too, and I think that carries over into this year.
And those are the special kids that Ada all along. She said,
boy, if I can keep those kids when they're juniors, we're going to
do something really special, all right, PJ. Well, as they told
I've been telling the other media media people that are covering Arizona, start boning
up on the Big twelve. Right, there's a lot of new stuff over
there. It's going to be interesting. I mean, again, i hate
what happened to the Pac twelve, but I'm looking forward to all the newness
of what we're going to get it in the Big twelve. Yeah, and
there's some really great athletes to learn about, a lot of great coaches.
I'm a I'm a I really like Nikki Cohen at Baylor. You know,
she has a little bit of an Arizona connection. She drafted Aery McDonald to
the Atlanta Dream and really really wanted to coach her. Yeah, yeah,
and so she got that Baylor job. You know. That's and she really
liked Ay. So that's you know there, and she's a she's a good
coach and a good person. So it will be nice to to you know,
cover them as well as get to know some other coaches in the league.
Ye all right, PJ. Well take the rest of your week off.
We appreciate the time you're doing us today on your you know, during
your vacation. Looking forward to your coverage in the fall. So thanks a
whole bunch, Sarah. Thanks to as PJ. Brown from there is on
Daily Star talking Arizona Women's back. If nothing else, Ryan, it's gonna
be damn interesting, right with a lot of new players. Ada Barnes is
still you know, the coach had got into the NCAA the championship game a
few years ago. I think she's going to be relieved just to have enough
bodies, right. I think that's going to be an interesting thing for her
all right, So we're going to take our last break. We'd love to
take your calls on anything five two, zero, four, one, six,
seventy four, forty. We'll be back with that and we'll wrap up
the show. 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 Loudolsen era.
In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of
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net, Extremely Live Honey, iHeartRadio WAFT. This is I on the Ball
with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Welcome back to
in the Ball Here in Fox Sports fourteen fifth Camp, Jacobs Aalez, my
co host usual co host Steve Vera is out today. I got Ryan here
working the board and joining in the conversation, and I would love to take
your call. Five two zero four one six seventy four to forty. A
lot of stuff going on, as there always is. I'm sitting here lamenting
my fantasy base and after Ryan broke the news to me that Anthony Rizzowyd busted
his arm on Sunday and he was still in my lineup today. So my
first baseman has been persona non grata on my team and as you would expect
him getting my ass kicked. I appreciate you getting me that news, Ryan.
It helps, but you know, I'm sitting here looking at my team
and it kind of sucks, and I'm in the last place in my league.
You know, we don't have any we don't do any of these weird
things like you know, weird things if you finished last, and like getting
a tattoo or having to go spend twenty four hours in a waffle house.
I was listening to this podcast I listened to and a guy who's on the
podcast lost his fantasy football and the deal was he had to go spend twenty
four hours at a McDonald's and did you see that? But by eating stuff
he could take time off of you know, by eating certain things, certain
based on calories and stuff, he could reduce his time. He ended up
being in the McDonald's for eight hours, but what he had to eat to
cut it down to eight hours was you go, I don't know if your
body will ever be the same, you know. But there was that one
guy the waffle house and it was it was you know, what do you
call it? You followed it on Twitter. This was a couple of years
ago. And but then you have these other guys who have to get tattoos
in are like large, you know, like thy tattoos and stuff like that,
for losing their for losing their their fancy. We don't do that,
and I don't. I wouldn't be in it if we did that, because
I'm not. I don't pay enough attention to this. But it's it's still
fun. I have fun. I started doing what we used to call it
rotisseri back in the day I started. I remember the first year I did
it with nineteen eighty eight because I was I was covering airs on a basketball.
They were in Kansas City for the Final Four and it was opening Day
while we were there, and then we had drafted and that was the first
time I had done this, and uh, myself, Greg Hanson and and
Mike Downs who were covering the U of A at that On Monday of the
championship game, we went to the opening day at the Royals. Saw the
Royals play the Blue Jays and I'm playing playing against George Bell who was a
great hitter for the Blue Jays at the time. So I'm against him in
my first ever fantasy baseball team baseball game. I'm at the game and he
hits three homers in that game, of course, of course, so I
was smoked for the rest of the week. So I watched this guy hit
three homers against me, and the picture for the Blue Jays that day,
I was also going against that guy. So the Blue Jays just killed me
that day in my in my debut as a fantasy player. So but memory
a lot of memories from that. It was a lot of fun. I
like a lot of people think that it's kind of change how you watch baseball,
right, I mean I had I'm still a big Dodger fan, but
for a long period of time, I really you know, I just cared
about my fantasy team and and you know you do You said you play football,
right, Yeah, I've done it. It's been six or seven years
since you did it. Oh you don't do it anymore? Why not?
After that like twelve game losing? That was that was enough? Yeah?
I have fun. I do football too, but the football one I do
is just for fun. We didn't even put any money in it. Sure,
It's just we do it to give each other crap during the you know,
watching a game my team sucks or this guy you know scored fifty points
for me, you know that kind of thing. We just we do it
for a lot of fun. My baseball one, we do it for a
little bit of money, not much, but again it's it. It's more
to give you guys, your friends some crap about their teams and stuff like
that. Yeah. The ones I've done, like or did it was it
was just like you know, if you got first or second place you get
a money price, right, It wasn't either, Like, yeah, that's
how we do. That's how we do. Everybody throw I think our I
think our baseball cost is twenty five bucks, right, and it's winner take
all. Uh and and so you know you got to win it to get
the money. It's it's more for fun and more for the conversation. We
you know, we have a we have a text thread that's attached to this
so you can go on there and rip on your players or rip on the
other teams players or whatever. And uh and we we just have a lot
of fun with him, just poke at each other. And that's the fun
of it. Some of these teams, some of these guys who take this
thing so seriously, they put thousands of dollars into it. That that's crazy
stuff. And like I said, they get tattoos when they lose. That's
that's nutty stuff. So anyways, hey would love to take your calls at
ninetything five two zero four one six seventy four forty. I've had a couple
of good conversations today with Troy Hutchinson from goeasycats dot com talking about Arizon,
the recruiting and then got into it a little bit with you know, his
thoughts on on on Brent Brannon. Kind of what you're hearing from the media
here that cover Brandon. He's just kind of a downdoor. It's kind of
a real guy. I keep hearing the words car Sailorman when it comes when
it comes to Jed Fishing. Look, he was a promoter, right,
I called him a kind of a circus guy, you know, just somebody
who's you know, come on in. We're having a great time, you
know, come and spend your money here, you know, come to our
games. We love you coming to our games. And you never felt like
he was in it for the long haul here, and and that's turned out
to be true, right, it turned out to be true. Justin Spears,
you know, talked about how he thought all along, Jed was kind
of had, you know, one foot out the door or just one eye
you know, on other places pretty much the whole time he was here.
And he proved you know, he proved us right when he you know,
took the first big job that came his way and headed out of town.
It'd be interesting to see how he does up at Washington, Brennan, you
know, you kind of feel like he may be here for the for a
while. You know, look, it's been a Watson's We had a coach
like that right since Dick told me, uh, you know, right right
after they had John mcovic. After that he came and messed the whole play,
and you just kind of thought, why is even here? You didn't
even feel like you wanted to coach. Mike Stoops comes to town. He
clearly loved the Big twelve. You know, he never stopped talking about it.
You kind of felt like if a job opened up back in the Midwest
and he was doing well here, he would take it an opportunity. Never
the timing of it. He had a couple of good seasons. Uh,
the timing of it never led to him leaving. He ultimately got fired.
I think got tired of coaching here is what I think, kind of started
to mail it in, particularly recruiting wise. And then we got rich Trod
again. Like Jed, he was this here to do well, to get
himself, you know, get himself back into where he was. I mean,
people forget rich Trod turned down the Alabama job once, right, so
and he and then you know, he ended up going to Michigan didn't work
out there. He wanted to get and he still want He's a Jacksonville State
right now. He still wants to get back up into that, no doubt.
And he's young enough to be able to do that. So he was
never really somebody you thought was going to be here for long. Ale Kevin
Sumlin again, he was just here for the chech. Nobody ever thought he
really was committed to Arizona and then Jetfish. So it's been a while since
we have a guy who've had that feeling maybe this guy might want to stay
here for a while. Yeah, I mean, especially going now that we're
going into a new conference, right, you really need to have somebody that's
going to come in, settle down, be here for several years, right,
get this team established right right? And you know, I look at
Bretton and I don't go, Okay, what would be his next big job?
Right? I mean, there's not there's not anything that jumps out of
you. Jetfish always thought if Florida opens up, he's going to Florida,
Or if u CLA opens up, he's going to UCLA. You know,
Washington, I didn't, you know. It just came along, right and
he was the hot guy, so he got the Washington job. He thought
maybe if Michigan opened up, he'd go to Michigan again if he, you
know, had a couple of great years at Arizona as a as a Turnado
only took one good year at Arizona and and he was gone. You look
at Brent Brendan, you go, where's his next gig? Is there a
next gig for him? He? Uh, you know, uh uh,
he's the Ucla alum. If you see, I don't see him going to
Ucla now in the situation they're in in the Big ten, why would you
go there? I mean you might as well go to you know, to
Vanderbilt, you know, you know, go to a team that just can't
win. Because you say he's going to I think they're going to struggle in
the in the in the big in the Big ten. So you feel like
he may actually stay here for a while, and it'd be great. I
think the fans would love to have him here for a while, assuming he
does well. In the end. You got you got to do well and
and uh, you know he set up to do that, as he as
he said, uh, you know on our show, I give ted Fish
a lot of credit. There's a lot of great players here. I'm happy
to be here. He's in a situation, unlike a lot of situations,
where he's coming into a program that's in a good place that their coach went
to a better place, as opposed to come in to a place where it's
down because the coach got fired and stuff like that. More often than not,
first year coaches are here to fix something. He doesn't have to fix
anything. He's got to take it to a next step. I mean,
just hearing about him and hearing about his like who he is, his personality,
I think he's gonna do well for this Yeah, like you said that,
they're in a good place right now. Right in the end, he
does have to win. In the end, he does have to win.
And really the expectations are high for this team, So he's got to win
this year. Right. If this team goes six and six, people are
gonna go what the hell? Right? Right? I think I think eight
wins is sort of a minimum for people to say, Okay, we did
all right. You know, chalk it up to a transition, guys getting
used to each other, getting used to a new system. You've got a
new coordinators, YadA, YadA, YadA. I think eight wins are sort
of a minimum that fans will will accept and be okay with. If he
goes seven and five, I think people going, well, you're kind of
messing this up, right, unless it has to do with injuries and things
like that. If he goes ten wins again, people go okay, you
know, here we go, this is this is what we expected from you.
Nine or ten wins. I think people will be happy with that.
You know, give being contention at the end of the year to get into
the into the big twelve championship game. And I've said a number of times
because of the twelve team playoff, all you got is get into the championship
game and you're probably in the in the in the in the playoffs, right,
so you know, be in the running for that, you know,
with a couple of games left, and see what happens. And if they
do that, people say, Okay, we're good. We're good with Brin
Brandon, thank you for being here. You know, let's keep this thing
going. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there. Yeah. I
mean, I think you brought up earlier that Arizona needs to be able to
put butts in the seats right, and to do that, they're going to
have to put a good product right, right, So he's got a challenge
of doing that of you know, out of the gate, right, being
three non conference games to really show the fans, hey, we're serious about
being a contender for the long haul, for the long haul, and we
want you to come out here support us, not just you know at Arizona
Stadium, but when you go on the road to these big top right,
you know, we need to be able to show out in Utah, and
it's got to look good. Look, I think I think there's perfectly set
up to be able to play New Mexico in the first game, as opposed
to flipping it and playing NAU in the first game. New Mexico not great,
but good enough that you say, this is a team that you know
has players, right. I mean, Arizona's got their running backs. We'll
see. But what I'm saying is that you know, whatever it looks like
in terms of scheme wise and the way they do things and where the offense
looks good and the defense looks good and stuff like that, if you do
that against New Mexico, you can say, Okay, that looked good to
me. You know, go blow out NAU and then see what happens with
Kansas State and go to Kansas State looking like you can beat Kansas State.
That's all people are gonna want in those first two games. If they do
something stupid and lose to New Mexico, people are gonna lose their minds,
right, right, But you know, I think that just talent wise,
it's gonna be hardfare Zone to lose that game. I know, I get
it. It's only lost to NAU and Jed's first year, I don't see
you know, anything like that happening. I think they take care of business
against New Mexico and people will be happy to see that. And what they
want to see is an is an offense that looks something like what they had
last year. Maybe not scheme wise, but in terms of points, being
able to move the ball, looking like they know what they're doing, right.
I think that's what people are going to look for in that first game
and then the third game you know that's on national TV, right, be
able to show the country hey, right, you know we're real, were
real you want to be you know, in the Rose Bowl, right,
end of the year, right, then the fans are gonna want see Arizona.
Look, Kansas State doesn't light up anybody's isn't gonna make anybody think we
need to be scared of Kansas State because it's Kansas State. Right, if
it was Oklahoma State, maybe a little more, because Oklahoma State has done
some things. But people look at Kansas State and they say, we should
be able to beat Kansas State. Well, Kansastate is pretty damn good,
and they're gonna be considered They're one of the people, you know teams can
that's gonna be considered one of the favorites in in the Big Twelve this year,
Arizona's gonna have to show well, if they don't beat them, they've
at least got to be in position to beat them at the end of the
game. Right, And then you say, well, chuck that up to
being on the road. But they go win that game and now everybody loses
their mind. And then they got to play Utah to that and now it's
it's on. Right, we see what happens. Then they got to go
to Utah for that game, and I think is gonna be picked to win
the league. And so that's gonna be a tough game for Arizona to go
play. But if you take care of business again it's Kansas State. You
can take a loss to Utah. At Utah, you're supposed to lose that
game. Utah is gonna be favored for that game, maybe favored by a
touchdown or more. Even with what Arizona did to him last year. Down
here, they didn't have cam Rising last year. They're gonna have him this
year, assuming he doesn't get hurt. So we'll see. But it's gonna
be an interesting start to the to the year, a lot of newness.
That New Mexico game is really going to kind of set a tone for stuff.
Yeah, Brock, I mean just one thing that there's two ways that
could happen, is like do they lose the game because they shot themselves in
the foot or did they just get beat by a good by team that was
better than in that day? All right, Brian, thanks a whole bunch,
nice job today. Thank you to uh Troy Hutcheson and PJ. Brown
for joining us today. We'll be back tomorrow and we hope you'll join us,
so stick around for more I on the Baltimore. Thanks a lot