This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Ja Gonzalez. I thought today was Thursday.
It feels like Thursday, which was Friday. Hold that good stuff, you
know, Steve had. I had lunch with a bunch of old guys today
and that was your highlight. And you know, I know you're with one
and now that kind of thing I looked. I felt like I was looking
at my future and it's not good. She doesn't look good from here.
Let me ask you this because I'm gonna see some old dudes tonight. I
was with some tonight last night. Are you the youngest dude of them?
Yeah? Except my son was there. But yeah, other than the matter,
how he feels? Yeah, So how do you care for the free
line? How do you feel? How do you feel? I still feel
semi young because you know, I like all these guys. You know,
there's it's my brothers and then some other friends who you know, they're all
older than me. I met, you know, one of them when I
was still in high school. So we were talking about the fact that they
said, dude, I'm sixty four, and he looked at me and said,
you're just at the first stage of old. There's two more steaks.
How old was? Who was? How old was the guys? Okay,
so I'm dealing with that, like, no, see some tonight. The
one thing that gets me and one of them is probably listening because I'll see
him to it. They're cranky. They're just cranky. Yeah, it's not
a it's a weird cranky. It's like a Karen cranky. It's like they're
just tired of the day every day. Yeah, and you could say that,
you know, it's just weird the things that set them off. Yeah,
it's like you have a great life. You're saying a hundred years old,
you're you're made up to this point. Relax. Well, we're talking
about the fact that I understand this is my usual group of football fans,
right, the guys that we tailgate with, you you know who they are,
right, My brothers and and our friends. Ninety percent of the talk
is about health, health issues. Everyone's talking about their health, things going
on with their health, and I'm like, at some point, I go,
can we talk about football? It's something I'm talking about. Then we
talk about football for about three minutes, and then it leads into something about
health health, and and we're finding out there we're we're spending an awful lot
of time talking about everybody's health, and we're not spending near enough time talking
about the football season. No, it's it's a bunch of yeah, I
hear you, and you get you. I hang around that older group,
and it's it's frust to me. It's frustrating. And Steve, you're you're
you're under that Mendoza line of you know you're under sixty years old. You
know, I'm in my mid sixties. Now at sixty four, I think
you can say I'm in my mid sixties and I'm starting to go dang.
A friend of mine, a friend of mine, was Intail from Satefe this
weekend. He was doing some we got together and blah blah blah, and
I was and he has a lot of patience because the situation at home with
his mom and stuff, and I'm thinking I have no patience. I have
like zero, I have like a scale one to ten, it's three maybe,
And I get really like, you know, really, and I'm thinking,
how am I gonna make it? Because I gotta be more patient?
You know, I I you know, I hear you. I I've I
tend to as my wife has said and my kids have said, I talk
aggressively, right, I hear you talk and you always sound like you're mad.
Yeah, I'm not mad. I'm just like now, I'm not mad.
I just talk loud and fast and aggressive. Guilty and I can't help
it. Guilty is charged. Kids, What are you yelling at? What
are you talking about? What are you doing? What? Why are you
mad at me? I'm like, I'm not mad. I don't mean him
sound mad, but you're not even yelling. Hey, I'm having a hard
time convincing them, you know, like my dad would say. He never
yelled. He would saying you'd want to know when I'm met, you know,
yeah, yeah, but he would never ye And it's funny because I
feel like, until he got pretty old, my dad sounded like that.
I always felt like when he talked, he was pissed at something. Yeah.
Well, Rick has that same type of presence we all did. It
seems like we like very because you get it from yeah, from your dad.
You hang out with mis dad kind of relaxed, very impatient too,
but very. You don't come okay, you know whatever. Yeah, it's
well, we don't meet, you know, it's just how we talk.
I'm you know, I'm rarely pissed at things like that, but I know
I catch myself sounding mad or sounding you know, aggressive, and then I
just try and you know, relax my shoulders and try and talk. Yeah,
I can't tell Can you can tell me? Can you relax a little?
What are you talking about? I am? Yeah? Yeah, I
thought, you know, I got my Harvard T shirt on today and I
thought it would be smarter to I want to be a little smarter. Maybe
if I'm a little smarter, I'm less angry or whatever. So well,
let me tell you. You know, one of the things that has happened
over the last twenty four hours is and I didn't know. I didn't get
this memo? Did you about the Big twelve? We should were talking to
all these people in the pectin. I think they just reached out to the
major papers. Oh, Okay, they didn't invite everybody, I think.
I think I think Michelle Gardner was on from the from the Republic. Oh
it was a one. It was a one, yeah right, Justin Spears,
No, no, okay, they did a thing where totally, I
think they invited basically the major news. They did invite all the TV stations.
They invite you and I totally Michelle Gardner, Justin Spears, uh,
somebody from your topic. And that was in Colorado. I think, no
Colorado. Michelle Gardner pointed out, Okay, I saw something. It was
justin Uh Jason Shear said, oh, you know, bret Yarmark talked to
you know, uh the four News, you know papers in the Four Cities.
Michelle Gardner came back and said that, no, they Colorado was not
on the call. Okay, it was. It was just it was a
Phoenix, Tucson and it was just the three of that. Yeah. I
saw some of it. I didn't read it at all. I know,
Justin City posted something. You know. It was just you're just talking about
how they're they're done. You know, they're done. Uh, they're done
expanding, They're not going after Oregon and Washing I mean Kallen Stanford. Uh,
you know they were they were going to be comfortable at fourteen. They're
comfortable at sixteen. That's it, and now it's time to start working on
what it's gonna look like. Mentioned that, you know, they haven't even
set up how teams will be divided up for scheduling purposes and stuff like this.
We're just getting. Of course, it's funny how that happens. You
know, something happens the next day. Okay, what about this? No,
relax, I'm telling people, relax, relax. In time, it'll
come out right, like sure at this time, look but probably by you
know, maybe as seasons and you know, maybe early spring or something like
that, you'll start because you know, they're gonna have to start putting TV
schedules together and stuff like that. He did say that they're gonna stick to
nine football game, nine conference football games, he said at but beyond that
didn't say really what that any of that's gonna look like. It's way look,
it's way immature, premature, and we have plenty of time for that.
It's just the thing that came out though. CBS Sports College Basketball tweeted
this out the top five college basketball games to look forward to after conference realignment.
That number one was arizonic question. You know, don't you think don't
you think that I don't even if it's close, I mean, like that's
the I mean, that's you know, that's Duke North Carolina. Well,
I was just don't jump ahead of me, Jake, let me ask you
good questions. Come on, don't don't jump ahead of me. How's that
sound? Don't you think it's not even a close that the Big twelve basketball
uh league is going to be the best in little country? Yeah, it's
not even close. Yeah, because right now, you know, you know,
Duke is really good. North Carolina's got a you know, got a
championship appearance, you know, a year before last. But to all the
rest of the teams are kind of just you know, they're they're good,
not great. You know when you think of that, Kansas win the national
championship, Baylor's win a national championship, Texas Tech gut in the final four.
Uh, you know, they're yeah, it's it's yeah. I can't
wait another show. And I was talking about that. Can we just start
it tomorrow because it's gonna be fun. You know, I've been thinking,
you know, thinking Steve, because you know, we always talk about how
Back twelve basketball conference just hasn't been a great conference. You know, two
or three good teams everywhere. Yeah, you know, and they's just been
thinking, well, how prepared does that make an Arizona for you know,
making a run in the tournament? Right they run against run up against the
TCU or Houston or last year of Princeton, get get hitting the mouth,
and they haven't been hitting the mouth like that all year long. You know,
they're gonna be playing in this league where every game is gonna be not
every game, but a lot more really tough, physical, hard games.
And you know, being the ever you know, ever to miss that I
am about stuff, I'd like to think that that will get Arizona be better
prepared and be maybe being a better you know, they don't have to win
the league every year to prove that they're really good the way you kind of
have to do in the Pac twelve. Right if you didn't win the league
or the conference tournament, how good were you? Right now? You can
finish in fourth in the Big twelve conference and you're still a really freaking good
team. Yeah, yeah, no question, no question. It's gonna benefit
them. It's gonna be fun to watch. I think the ones that benefit
the most are the fans who have tickets to the games. It's not gonna
be a watered down season. It's gonna be a fantastic season. Maybe in
addition to the non conference conference, you see Arizona's playing this coming year.
No, no, they're saying the first Arizona's first year in the in the
league. They could be playing three top five teens. Yeah, you know,
if you if you got Kansas, They've got Kansas, Baylor Duke and
yeah, and uh came Michigan Baylor. You know, you know, Holy
Kyle, come on, that's that's fantastic. It's fantastic. And you know
what, and nothing that happens in November December and we already do this times
it matters, but it gets you set for what's right, you know all
that. I mean, those games are great and they're good, great TV
games, and you established yourself, you get ranked. All those things.
You know, they count when when they're doing uh bracketing and stuff like that.
But in the end, you know, just going and being strong in
your conference when you're in the Big twelve and again you finished in the top
three or four in your conference, and you're a pretty damn good team,
and and and and theoretically you should be ready, you know, you should
be ready to have to play those games. Let me let me ask you
the tournament. Let me ask you then with this just uh last year Princeton,
given what they went through last year, and no, there's no right
or wrong answer. Were they ready? Apparently not? Was it was it
a one off? Are we don't know? I'd like to think it was.
I think so. I like to think it was because I like to
think that that that Tommy won't happened. Let that happen. It's gonna happen
again. I couldn't tell you when look, Lude had his teams well,
and it happens. It happens, Kansas is lost in the first round.
That's my fourteen. That's it will happen. It's unappointed. But let me
tell you, I don't think Princeton was given enough credit too. And this
is not an elebut they came back and I beat Missouri. I think they
beat Missouri. And that was either either Missouri wasn't ready, which of course
that was on it was pretty good, or Princeton was pretty good. They
were just a bunch of a good, bunch of good, scrappy guys that
matched up. And how many games are they was gonna lose last year without
that one? Five? Maybe six? How many times that game happened?
The when they lost happened every time? Every time? Every loss. Look
like that. Anybody who thinks there should are surprised, shouldn't be every loss.
They had the lead then blew it. Except for watching the state of
think it was. But they had lead and then let the lead go away.
So what was the shock there against the good team? Shouldn't have been,
but it was. It was right. It was more of a disappointment.
It was a huge, huge, Yeah. So but I think it's
going to be fantastic for everybody. I wonder if the season tickets are going
to be jacked up a little bit, Oh price, wife, come on,
because it's a better, better, better season, better games. Yeah,
I mean, it's certainly a better schedule. And then people aren't going
to be coming, Oh, you don't have any good games, and you
know, because you would have to look to the non conference schedule to see
if there were, because yeah, you were gonna get UCLA and you were
gonna get ore again, and then after that who knows, right, right,
and so you really were relying on the non conference games to make the
schedule worthwhile. That's not the case anymore. You're gonna have four or five
really good conference games every year. I'm not I'm not sure what we're talking
about this, but it sounds is a good conversation. So over the last
few years, especially when Sean was here at the end, and they would
say it, I may mean not be right. They say, uh,
okay, I'll have the season go well, we won the Pac twelve tournament
and the title, but we've got to beat wherever it wasn't in the So
is that good? It says, yeah, that's that's good. You mean
to tell me that Arizona is okay with within the PAC ten title, PAC
twelve title, in the in the tournament, that's been exactly okay with that
exactly. Oh we want a lot of No, that's not what this is
about. The season's always been determined by your it's either tournament. Yeah,
yeah, So you can't tell me that that was okay. I mean even
those back to back lead dates when they lost you when they lost to Wisconsin,
right, the first one. Okay, the second one, people are
really disappointed. Yeah, and it wasn't even close to second. Yeah.
Okay, so we got to talk about what's going on today? Okay,
passa callup the news director or sports the anchor at the Channel four is leaving
us. A Desert view guy. Uh so he's a local kids went to
desert Yeah, local guy moving on going to El Paso to become a news
anchor. In our past, what he was a sports guy there. So
he's going back to be uh to get a news anchored. You know,
we'll move up. So he's leaving soon, so we're no would get him
on and uh you're talking about some of his you know, his uh memory,
he's a favorite favorite stories and things like that since he's been here.
And then uh so he's coming up here in a couple of minutes at three
fifteen, three twenty and then in the second hour PJ. Brown, we'll
just talk about what's going on. What's going on women's sports, says she
covers at the UFA big some big news for for the for A. U
have a swimmer today and so we'll uh, you know, so we'll just
talk to talk to the basketball players got hurt, right, she's out for
the Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk for yeah. So so PJ covers all
the all the u of a women's sports for the Star, so we'll just
pick her brain about on volleyball is getting ready to start. Soccer starts tomorrow
at Iowa State. We had Beckamorrow's not yesterday. We were trying to schedule
volleyball coach Urta Stubbs. Uh, it's just not working out. They practice
while we're on the on the air, so that it's not working out.
We'll try and get her at some point during the season when we catch a
break. So in the meantime, let's take our break. We're gonna come
back. We'll we'll be back with Pascala, So let's stick around. For
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they have their eye on the ball. On two psalms Sports Stock Sports fourteen
fifty streaming live, I mean I heard radio wim Hey, welcome back to
II on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's jacking zowsome. Now on the phone, we have Paul Scolof from KVOA
Sports Department now soon to leave. How's your energy, poltoc My energy is
great and even more energy when I listened to to hometown Tucston legends. Well,
Steve Rivera, we've adopted you here in Twosson. This is your hometown
and of course they here Jay and all that stuff. Two guys that I
looked up to all the time writing for the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily start
respectively. It's it's awesome to be here. Thank you for allowing me to
be on your show, Socolo Rivera and Nzalaz. Sounds like an expensive Hispanic
firm. Yeah, it sound like a border law firm, one that's probably
not going to win your mini. Yeah, but we can drink really well.
Yeah. So Paul you're leaving us. First of all, congratulations on
the new gig. You know, I know Tucson is gonna be, you
know, sad to see you go. You're local guys making good, so
we can't get in the way of that. Pataus a little bit about you
know, what's going on with your career. No, I appreciate that it's
been very tough for me. I got into this broadcasting industry in news,
and I kind of just made my way to sports because I've always enjoyed sports.
I grew up as an athlete. I grew up enjoying playing and reporting
sports as well. But I've got into this business doing news and there's you
know, unfortunately sports it's kind of a dying industry as you guys know what
the papers and everything else. And I felt like I had to take advantage
of this opportunity while I could. And I'll be working at the number one
rated station, the ABC affiliate in the al Pazzo too of al Quadez Las
Cruises market as I was fortunate enough to get the job as the main mail
anchor for the five, six and ten PM newscasts. Yeah, that sounds
like a nice gig. I would assume that recently you've been doing a lot
of news here. Uh did that nothing? I already knew you there,
knew who paulsa Calla was. But you've done a few things here. Did
that help you? Know what I mean? I'm sure it didn't hurt.
But I mean, I don't want to say it in a braggadocious way,
but but I when I worked in El Paso, and I worked in that
market ten years ago and I was the sports director, but before that,
I was also I was the weekend sports anchor and I did news during the
week, so I did a lot of news stories when I was in Alpasso.
I really set a name for myself at the time for doing border stories
and border issues, especially with the big drug war going on at the time.
And see alquad is al Paso's sister city with the Pina Lor cartel and
the Huades cartel, and because of that, I I fortunately it was you
know, I made a name for myself there where you know, luckily for
me, I would hope that, you know, the viewers there still remember
me and they respected me as a journalist, and the station has always kept
me on their radar. And even five years ago, when Rick Carbretta,
their their main mail anchor, left, they had asked me that they had
offered me the job essentially, but I but I was under contract and I
didn't even bring it up to my news director at the time, and but
I knew that they're on my radar and and you know they're their main news
anchor left for you know, something bigger and better and uh, and the
opportunity was there and I couldn't pass it up. It's it was hard.
I almost turned it down because this is my hometown and this I bleed red
and Blue University of Arizona. I have so much pride to be at Tusona
in But everybody else in the industry told me, you know what, man,
you are stupid if you do not take advantage of the job opportunity because
main anchor jobs and news do not come up that offense way the SECU second.
Uh come okay, red and blue, when you Crimson and yellow,
Hey, well listen. I was born and raised at Tucson, so so
University of Arizona has always been my team. Man. Yes, I did
go to USC. I was lucky enough to to be able to get good
financial aid and an outside agency scholarships. I went to USC and that's where
I got my undergrad and Spanish linguistics and literature and then journalism. But I
but in the end, I mean, I've always and I hate when USC
plays Arizona because one of my teams has to lose exactly. Okay, so
let's let's run through some stuff because I'm not gonna ask you for your all
time great moment. But there's some stuff that you've covered here in town.
Uh, you know, you whether it was you of a or high school,
you know, some of the stories that have that have stuck out to
you, and then maybe some of the people that that you know will stick
with you as you as you head out of town. You know, there's
just so many stories, and I'm gonna concentrate more on the stuff that we
only find in Tucson because you know, every every market has has the pro
teams, the college teams, the whole nine yards. But I've always just
enjoyed telling stories like you guys do the feature stories with the high school athletes.
To me, those are the biggest deals or things like the Mexican Baseball
Fiesta put together by Mike Fader and many others where pro teams from south of
the border play here in Tucson, and you know, those are things that
we can only do in our border culture type environment here in the Sonoran Desert.
You know, also working with Jeff Scurrin, who's a legendary high school
football coach has has been kind of the one of my highlights. I grew
up, you know, reading articles in the Arizona Daily Star, you know,
great Hampston talking about this legendary guy you know by the name of Jeff
Skurrian winning all these championships, blah blah blah, and then you know a
little do I know. I ended up becoming great friends with with a guy
I covered every day, and some of the big, big memories I had
with him is thus going to Prieto, Sonoro, Mexico, and you know,
he volunteers to help out risk youth and kids out there and donate stuff,
and you know, and I would go there as a volunteer as well
to help, but I would end up bringing my little camera and do stories
on it. I mean, those are some of the just things that I
remember the most of it, more of the stuff that has nothing to do
with pro sports, but everything that has to do with amateur and the community.
You were there, you lived here, obviously, but you went back
there a lot to visit friends, I'm sure, and all that stuff.
So I'm assuming you're gonna do the same now You're gonna come back here a
lot. Oh yeah, no, no, I mean I you know there
there's Tucson is in my heart and soul. And I every market that I've
ever worked in, whether I when I worked in Las Vegas, when I
worked in Southern California, when I was in no past, it was I
made it to two sound at least once a month. I would drive here.
Of course, my daughter and I have my entire families here. I
was born and raised on the South Side Sundayside Unified School District. And and
and yes, the good thing is it's only a four hour drive. And
here's the good news, guys. I am gonna come back many saturdays for
home U of A football games, and it's gonna be such a great feeling
to go as a fan, not the under deadline. I'm picking up a
camera, jumping, walking back and forth a million times up and down the
the field and and really cheering for the U of A like like a true
fan. And and I'll watch you guys be stressing under deadline this sun.
Well, that's Steve. I go as a fan. That's that was that
was part of the deal on this show. I'm I'm I stayed a fan
at least for that part of it. So so Paul, you know,
as you mentioned, you've covered a lot of stuff you love doing the high
school and they know that. You know, you've established a following and a
reputation for you know, for being that guy who you know who brought those
you put those kids on TV, which is you know, you know how
parents aren't they love that stuff you know is there? And then again you
you're a connection to you know, Sunnyside School district. You went to Desert
View. But how have you seen things evolved? I would say, you
know, since you've been here, you know, think about the time you
were in high school and what it was like to kind of what you're leaving
behind from a sports standpoint and coverage and those kinds of things. Yeah,
well, I'll tell you when I was in when I was in high school,
I would look up and I would see the guys like Dave Silver's and
the and the Dan Ryan's and then the Kevin mccaves. I would see him
on TV and say, man, what a great job these guys have and
what a dream you get to cover sports for a living, you know,
in my case, being able to come back to my hometown and report on
the team that I grew up sharing forward with the U of A. I
mean, I'm just I'm simply blessed. But as you know, the industry
over the years has evolved into a situation where you know, you don't get
a photographer as much anymore. You have to shoot your own stuff. And
it is what it is. I mean, we're not saying it in a
woes mayor complaining aspect, but it's a lot more physically and mentally demanded.
It truly is a blue collar you know, this job when it comes to
coverage of sports and everything else. And and also at the U of A,
I mean, I envy you Ja, and I envy you Steve because
you guys got to cover U of A during the glory years, the Two
Thoughts Citizen and Arizona Daily Star, where you guys got to be sent to
the away games. You know, if it was back in the day right
now and you guys are still there, you guys would be in Israel right
now and Abu Dhabi. And you know, I always kind of felt like,
man, that would be great if I could have worked during your guys'
era of sports. But uh, but then you know, but it is
what it is. The sports is evolving, and unfortunately in the news industry,
Fords a semi going down the hill. I mean, look at Kwald
and k Gun. Unfortunately they used to have three people's sports staff, then
it's two. Now they only have one. We're lucky enough to have you
a way to have to but it really is changing when it comes to that
whole dynamics and in sports, and when it comes to coverage or just being
a fan and watching the games. No, you're forward thinking and trying to
move your career forward because in fact, you god one of our great friends
at Channel four, the anchor there. Uh see, there aren't very many
people and I don't want to say your age, but you're over forty five
probably or right there where there. You guys are few and far between.
No, no, no, we I agreed. I mean, there's so
many people that just leave the industry because they say, all right, I
want to nine to five. I mean, there's no secret that that journalism
jobs don't pay that well. I mean, we're not living on beans and
rice. But but I mean you you, it's not an industry that pays
well. So people end up leaving. They go to nine to five.
And that's how I give props to people like Lupita Murdillo, who I grew
up watching on TV every day sticking it out, Guys like Sean Mooney as
well that are still in it. And and I'll let my I'll limit my
age. I'm forty nine years old. And uh, it's funny. I
was just talking to my compadre. He is tuning in right now. But
Paul, Hey, what's up? Man? But anyways, you know,
we were just talking about how old we were, you know, yesterday,
how old we are, and how like we look at somebody else our age
and we think they're old and we wait, said up, they're already in
the world too. Hey man, I grew up watching Yeah, right,
Paul, who's gonna see Lucana? Now, who's gonna see I know?
Wow? You know what I am coaching? Uh, Jenna Fink, she's
doing a great job. Is our is our weekend sports anger, and she'll
she'll be here and there. You know, they'll eventually hire my replace man,
and who knows, maybe you she'll be in that position. But I'm
I'm coaching her on how to say Sawarita and the whole nine yards. But
but it is what it is, you know what I mean, if we
need to learn from anybody, though Jay knows this because he grew up watching
her well Lupi Momudio. She was the first one to ever say marijuana on
camera when I'm wanna that's the way it said. So, so, you
know, do you have is there a game a moment? Uh? You
know something you covered that you know, a number one you know that sticks
out to you a person maybe that you remember the most, you know,
because there were a lot of things in there, you know when you before,
but now just one thing that's going to stick out that that you did
hear You're experienced here, you know it is. That is the toughest question
because I feel like there's so many number ones out there. I mean,
I can say, you know, being on the sidelines went on New Solomons
through that hail Mary. I had just been right there where it was a
few feet away from me and seeing that and feeling that energy and then feeling
the stress right afterwards, zoning, oh man, I only have a few
seconds here to get ready to for my liveshot, or to cover the story
you know that, or just covering the University of Arizona women's basketball team making
it all the way to the National Championship game. But to me, that
was a thrilled because you know, we grew up as U of A men's
basketball fans for the most part, in the U of A women's team has
never gotten the props and the dude that they have, and it's just been
such a treasure to cover coach of Da Barnes and to be on that run
and see you know, super respected journalists like PJ. Brown there as well,
and just to be on that riverwalk even though they lost by one point
to Stanford, you know, that was such an awesome And I hate Las
Vegas. I worked in that market for two years. I absolutely hate it.
But the only time I like it is during the Pac twelve tournament when
the University of Arizona and Tucson just takes over that area in red and blue,
in the whole nine yards. And to me, I remember those things
also because I feel like in Las Vegas you would see a true representation of
what Tucson University of Arizona fans are. Unfortunately, not everybody can afford tickets
or get good, good seats to mchael Center, but when you quote to
Las Vegas, you see people from the Sunnyside district, you see people from
the South Side, and you see the regular two the Rat Mchael Center as
well. But you truly see a true, true variation of what Tucson is
and what our Denigrathics are and the pride we have for you of a So
I would say, you know, covering that the tournaments as well in Las
Vegas. As much as I hate to say it, but I truly despise
in Vegas. I'm not a fan of living as well. Let me let
me give you another memory. So now the good thing is being behind the
desk and be the main news anchors. You don't have to go out and
do those stories. Maybe you will a time or two, but again,
you don't have to run from one venue to the other like you did in
Vegas. I wasn't going to bring it out striped on live camera. That
still goes viral. But but no, you're right. But I'm I'm you
know, I'm not going to be like one of those I call him high
maintenance anchors. That's not me and I never have been. I'm gonna,
you know, it's I'm looking at it as an opportunity. When you're an
anchor and you're doing the five, six, and ten, you you have
producers, you have more help. You're you're gonna get quote unquot photographers more.
But I'm still gonna pick up the camera and go through stories that I'm
passionate about it and I like to do positive stories and and you know,
living in that region, you know, I'll pick up a camera and maybe
I'll do stories on some of the you know, like just you know you're
over there, will cover new U tap into Mexico State. And I'm still
not going to be out of sports. I already told the sports director there
that that I'm gonna, you know, help them with there. They have
a show called Borderland Blitz, which is like the Friday Football Fever. So
I'm gonna concentrate a lot more on doing special reports that I've always wanted to
work on, and now I will have the time to do that because you
have producers and others helping you with the show itself. When writing the newscast
in the whole nine yards, well, Paul, when you go out there
and say hello to Hillary Floren for me, very good friend of mine.
Yeah, A very good friend. And then when you pass Las Crusoes Stubb
by Enmas, you see if my statue is still there, and see if
the birds are still pooping on it. No, I want you know what,
I'm looking forward to being there for that, for that wall of shame,
I mean hall of fame. Sorry about that, Steve, but yeah,
but hey, I always I always thought it was really cool that you
went to New Mexico State and that you grew up in such an historic area
in Santa Fe, in the whole nine yards. I appreciate all the history
of the south border, southwest, all the way through the Camino Real,
all the way to Santa Fe. I know that history, and it goes
all the way down to El Paso Norte. And you know, I'm looking
forward to being in that region again. And I'm gonna make a lot of
trips to UH to Albuquerque because there's what it's like a three hour drive or
something from El Paso when I'm not driving back to Tucson and well, Viva
el Pesso, good luck, No, but always Viva Tucson. I'm gonna
stay this real quick. A lot of people will say, you know,
like I'm more you know there's a saying in Mexico where they say, uh,
someone's more Mexicano than the nopal itself in the practice itself. But I
would I change it up a little bit. I say, you'll so I
am more tooth sown in than not just the cactus itself, but I am
more tooth sown in than the sawaro. And I will continue to be well
Paul. It's it's been great knowing you're having you and we expect to see
you back here. So don't be a stranger, and we'll catch up with
you. So we'k on that ten we'll go up eight mountains, you know,
with the shirt off. No he no, no over there. Yeah,
I gotta figure out a new One's a train up now, Paul.
Good luck and thanks so much. A lot of fun, a lot of
full Paul, full of energy, man, guys, always been full of
it. Was like rid man, I know he wears me out. That's
you know, great pasta colleague. We're gonna miss it, you know.
You know, his enthusiasm is like nobody else had this, you know,
matches. So I'll tell you to tell you a quick pall story. So
he's played in the ludosen thing a few times and he's the only one to
dude, you get thrown out of a get out of a game. You
know who did it because he's he's high energy. Yeah, that's the way
he plays. Dude like bull the China shop up and gets you, threw
him up and the guy who probably should have been thrown out of himself.
Right, that's funny. That's too funny. All right again, Pastakla,
congratulations and best of luck. All right, let's take our break. We're
gonna come back. We'd love to hear from you five two zero four one,
six, seventy four forty or another day closer to football season and some
basketball stuff going on, So give us a call. If you're an Arizone
a man's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for nearly forty years.
Now take a look back at the lud Olson era in my new book,
Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love to the eye of twenty
five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and
the men who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty
five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot
is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want
one, email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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The a team apply online today at a Team security dot Net. Dreamy Live
on the iHeart Radio Act. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I
on the Ball, you know on Fox Sportsport teen fifty. I'm Steve.
He's gay. At ten minutes if you guys want to give us a quick
call five two old four one six seventy four forty good to talk to to
Skala. Yeah, you know, we'll see him around. You're one of
the good guys, right. I wasn't going to bring up the falling down
in Vegas, but that was that was hilarious. No, he got some
good, good publicity. I didn't get on the Today Show because of that,
or you know, I think they showed up. It was on ESPN.
Don't run in your fancy shoes. That's what it is. That's what
you learn now, Hey, real quick, and we talked about it real
earlier earlier on the show. So deon Sanders you saw it now, So
you saw the fight, right, It was kind of nothing really, Yeah,
two guys or three guys fighting each other and then the whole team or
some of the team getting involved, and then a couple of guys who didn't
who didn't, And Dion goes there and says, you know, there's gonna
be a fight, guys, everybody's got to be involved. And I'm thinking,
that's the first thing, you know what, the first thing I thought.
Dick told me and he'd say, what the hell are you guys doing.
I remember being at a at the first day in pads the year that
I covered them at Camp Co Cheese, and it was probably two plays into
it. I can remember Chris Singleton, you know, made a tackle on
the guy and they got up and there was some pushing and shoving, and
then there was another one, and then another one and another one. He
stopped practice and what did he say? Knocked the craft exactly. You're wasting
time. And I do remember a time or two another time says it's not
about this. You guys are teammates. This is gonna cost you a penalty.
In a crucial moment, it was we're here to work, you're wasting
time. Nobody gets anything out of a fight. And as you said,
we're all in the same damn team. He was living. He was a
coming. Did you that was I saw another time too, here in town.
That the when they practiced at the facility where the center is now.
I saw a couple of times he would be pissed, he would be living
over and so I saw this today. I'm thinking this is the total opposite.
And I don't, I don't know if I agree with it because it's
silly. It's his way of doing things, David, it's just amazing to
be on Sanders is, you know, as a player and now as a
coach, has proven that he's not a regular guy. Well, I don't.
I don't know if it's a right or wrong answer. It's just a
different answer. Who knows, you know, who knows what what he thinks
is gonna work in his locker room, right, Because that's the thing.
He's got a bunch of guys that have not been around each other, they
have not played together. What does he got like seventy new guys on the
team? You know, somebody something? You know, I don't know what
he's trying to establish. He's trying to establish something. Look, it's his
team. He gets to do this, and so if he if that's how
he wants to do it, then he gets to do that. I'm you
know, I'm on the Dick Tomy side of that, right, like,
knock it off, yea, you know, there's no there's no good that
comes from it. Yeah, and again it's wasting time now. And if
these things go, if things like that, if he thinks his team bond,
you know, okay, then maybe that's what his team will bond over
that. But there's an also a chance that there's also a chance that guys
will get you know, something like that, and that tension will continue and
then it becomes disrupted. And that's what I'm thinking, and that's what I'm
thinking. And when there is a fight in a game, because you know
there's gonna be that, you have these guys running off the field or whatever
you can't run on. Guess what happened? Suspensions, suspensions, And now
you just don't get it. Don't kind of weird to me that it makes
no sense to me. It makes no sense to me that that the coach
would would encourage guys to get in the fights. I just don't know.
And then the coach should be right there too, he says, I've I've
been there and done that. We'll see what happens, We'll see what happens.
It's just a strange philosophy. It is. But again, Dean Sandres
is, I'm not gonna come a strange guy, but he's certainly a different
guy, and so he's gonna be a different coach. We're gonna have our
guy, Brian and Brian right is it from Colorado? Who's the guy?
Yeah? Bran? How because he got on Brian right here? And that's
why I don't know. I don't want to ask him because he probably asked
him what's this gonna be like and he said he wasn't sure. He got
on him right away. I mean, it says the press commerce last week,
and we'll have him on well again. He has some unrealistic expectations about
how the media is gonna treat him. He wants, he wants to be
treated a certain way, and he's gonna get a little bit of ana be
a little bit of a shock in terms of they're not always gonna say great
things about Don and if he's gonna hate that and kick reporters out or yelling
at him or whatever, that's not gonna fly for very long. Welcome,
well, you're welcome to the real world. Yeah. Well, you know,
he thinks, well, he thinks I'm deon, so you gotta put
up with it. Well, maybe they do, maybe they don't. Well,
Jay, look at here, it's a it's a lovey dovey. Sure,
look at other places like here college town. It's mostly a lovey dovey.
I was guilty of it too, except if you have one or two
columnists that aren't like that. But most of them are kind of in not
in bed with the team, but they would rather see you succeed than not
succeeded. Well, Steve, it's some part of it too. I think
it's so much of the competition has been removed from reporting, right boy,
because now in the airs one daily start doesn't have to worry about getting beat
by on a story. So you can be friendly and you can just cover
things at whatever pace you cover. Maybe you don't look as hard for the
you know, for the for the underneath. You know, you don't lift
the rug you see what's under there because you're not afraid somebody's gonna beat you
one. You know, look in the TV stations and US and the and
the and the website. Guys, we're all we're all friendly to them.
You know what we know that if we start pissing off all the Arizona fans,
people aren't gonna listen to us. And that's not to say that we're
not going to call out stuff. If there's a plane like crap, we're
gonna say there's crap. And we have you know, I mean when when
we thought Kevin someone needed to be fired, he needed to be you know,
we thought he needed to be fired, and we said he needed to
be fired. But you know, we're not You and I are not out
there every day slugging through all the stuff trying to come up with something that
somebody else doesn't have because you don't. First of all, you don't have
that access. Yeah, don't have that access. And there's no needs.
What am I gonna get out of it? And just want to read about
their team and learn about the players as much as they can and hear us
talk about you know, they want for some reason, they want to know
our opinions, like you know, we know more than everybody else. I
wouldn't know, which we really don't, but we've been around long enough to
be able to have perspective on different things. Sure, sure, no,
I think that's one of the reasons I think this is what Bruce said last
week when we had him on and he'll be on tomorrow from Abu Dhabi,
is that they went to get a feel for the team and to let the
readers know who these kids are. Right, they may not get that inside
story, but at least they're with them to tell what's happening. They'll get
comfortable with him, befortable with them, and then as the season goes on.
I mean, this is sort of a tour for Bruce to be able
to do his job. Ben. You know when basketball season rolls, right,
and if anybody who doesn't know this, this is Bruce's team. You
know, forever he and I competed against each other. I did it with
Willner, did it with hobb and all these guys. It was a dual
type of competitiveness. Anybody who thinks that they're competing with Bruce, they're not.
They're not. He's there, he's going, he's there. They're not.
Yeah, no, you cover the team. That's good, but you're
not. You're not there. Exactly no percent agree with you on that.
And you know Bruce does good and you know he's that he's the last guy
out of the arena every night, but a choice choice. I told him
that, we talked about that last time. We gotta get a pizza.
That's shut down, Bruce Waite. But you know, but you know,
Bruce does a good job and we get you know, we get as much
as we can with the access that Bruce has, and we rely on him,
you know, we get him on the show. We read his stuff
and that kind of forms what we know about about the program. And some
of the other guys too, you know, you know, we know who
they are, you know, Troy Hutchinson's and and but here's the thing,
here's the problem. And everybody does this more now that it's a group setting.
You asked the questions. Everybody has the same stuff. And I've heard
this a two or three times now in the last month or so. Everybody
has the same stuff. It's how they right it. It's right. It's
how you present how you present it in what way is the difference? Like
today? Okay, look, you're going to social media and a bunch of
guys who are you're not were not practice, couldn't go to practice? How
you know, we got other things that we have to do. Everybody's talking
about how uh Scotty Graham. Discussion about Scotty Graham, the running backs coach
who made it a point to go to Mike Michael Wiley's graduation ceremonial. What
a big deal that was for both of them. That's sort of the narrative
coming out of out of today's practice, that the closeness that Scotty Graham has
with his running backs and and this relationship that they have. But everybody I've
seen, you know, eight different guys have we did that clip. There's
your problem, Jay, when we were covering back with Bruce and back with
you, and we all had individual time, right, we all had an
individual time our stories a practice would end. Yeah, right, you'd go
get a player, I'd go get a player. Sure, we'd all go
talk to Dick, you know, and you talk to Dick about the conversation
you just had with a player. And so I mean kind of had an
idea. What do you tell the stories were? But they were different.
There were different stories. Every day you had something, I had something without
questions. And that's not to the fault of the local media. It's Arizona
wants it that way. Yeah, no, yeah, they they again controlling,
the controlling the narrative and they do and look again. As a PR
consultant, that's how I've advised my clients is the make your own news.
You don't need the newspaper anymore. You don't need you know, You've got
a Facebook page, you got an Instagram account, you got a Twitter pick.
Create your own story out there and let people pick up on that.
That's how the news has done. The one thing that people have to realize,
it's gonna be mostly one side. It is. It's gonna be one
side. No, that's exactly what it is anymore. All right, uh
man, we're top of the hour already, Steve, all right, let's
take our break. We got a break in new is coming up here at
the top, and then we'll have PJ. PJ. Brown. We'll talk
to some women's sports, which are things again started. Soccer starts tomorrow.
There was a press conference with Rita Stubbs for Bolli Boss, so I'm sure
PJ was there. We'll just see what's going on with the with the ladies
sports over there. So stick around for all that don't believe they just wine,
don't believe they just lie, don't believe they just well