Breaking down all the exes and os. It's Steve Rivera and Jacin Salmaz.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome
back to my Iying the Ball, you know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Ravenna, He's jacins Owis. And now we have Henry with some
breaking news. This is I on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. All right, for the first breaking news. The College Football
Playoff has announced the schedule for the first ever twelveteen Playoff and the first round
games will be played on college campuses starting on December twentieth. And it's interesting
because there are also will be games during NFL games, so it will be
interesting to see how that matches up. Yeah, there was a discussion about
that because, uh, there's three there's a triple header set for Saturday,
December twenty first, and that's the time when the NFL starts playing Saturday games
as well. So that discussion about you know, who's gonna get the radians,
you know, and all that kind of stuff. But you know,
I mean, I don't know what I'm watching right on that day, but
who the money on? Yeah, well, the thing is if I'm gonna
have money on something, I'm gonna have money on that. Look, and
you know, there's a lot of people saying that that college football should be
kind of wringing its hands because they're going to be going up against the NFL,
because you know, college football generally doesn't do well when it's up against
the NFL. But this is the playoff. I think the playoff is going
to be incredibly There's so much attention is going to be paid to it,
especially in this first year. I think the NFL is the one that needs
to be worried about whether their Saturday games are going to get watched in this
first at least in this first year. Yeah, don't you think that there'sh
gonna be enough interest because of the playoffs? Because it is the playoffs and
by that time, well we'll see. It's hard to say here we are
in Yeah, but you know it. Look, you're divving up the you're
divvying up the audience. Right. Either neither one is going to be happy.
I think I should say happy. Both sides are going to lose viewers
because some you know, you're splitting them up. Football fans are football fans
and yes, you've got You know, the NFL fans are a little more
I don't know, I don't even saw you, a little more rabid,
but they seem to be more loyal to the to the pro teams. But
you know, college fan base is huge, it's huge. You know.
They don't have one hundred thousand seed stadiums in the NFL like they do in
college, so I could be interesting to see what happens there. They also
announced that the championship game will be played on January, and we had twentieth
that's so late. That's when they used to play the Super Bowl, right,
But but going on with the rest of the schedule. So New Year's
Eve and New Year's Day are the quarterfinals, so that's when the top the
top four seeds play. New Year's Eve is the is the Fiesta Bowl.
That's middle of the week, Tuesday Wednesday. Okay, so no, so
that week is they pay a week later? No, it's it's like the
ten days because it's ten days from the Saturday, the Saturday first round games
or on December twenty first, and then to December thirty first. It's the
middle of the week. It's a Tuesday night. Is the Festival, which
is the first quarter final game, then another triple header the next day on
New Year's Day, and that will not be up against the NFL because the
NFL doesn't plan on Tuesday Wednesday. Then the semi finals are January ninth and
January tenth, Thursday and Friday night, Thursday night and Friday night, and
then the National Championship on a Monday. So the only time they're gonna be
up against the NFL is that first the first round games. I can't wait
for the I can't wait for the first playoff. I just think it's gonna
be ridiculously nuts. It'll be cool to see it on college campuses, right
and even and that you know, and look, you know, I mean,
there's this little bit of me that thinks Arizona could be in one of
those games. See now, I'm that you are. You are always unrealistic,
guy that you were talking about unrealistic And I said, you know,
I'm too tired. I'm too tired, all right. So next story.
Former Arizona basketball player Chase Budinger will compete in the Olympics next month on the
Beach volleyball team, and he was named the volleyball magazine's National High School Player
the Year back in two thousand and five. Yeah, well, I don't
know if you remember the Shay, but because he was a recruit for basketball
program right back in the day, lou said that he was the all time
best recruit he'd ever recruited and signed. I don't know if you remember that.
It is so he said that, but there also comes with a caveat
in terms of his words because at the time Lout was kind of at the
end of the career. He needed to get some positive feedback and get the
fans getting interest again because Chase came in, Jordan Hill came in, and
Nick Wise came in, so he had to get the people behind him again,
right, And I'm not doubting Chase's ability, but that's a hell of
a statement. That was out of a statement, especially when you thing of
the guys that he had at the time, because Chase Bitinger was no Sean
Elliott. He was no Sean Elliott right right. And he was no Jared
Bayliss, he was no Jared Bess, he was no Mike Bibbie exactly.
So he was he was trying to get people. He was really good,
but he wasn't. He wasn't. I remember when he was a freshman and
I and he had Marcus Williams as a software and I pulled him aside and
we talked a little bit, and says, why don't you just kind of
take control of the games? You know you're capable. He says, he
kind of gave me. He didn't say he didn't want to be putty.
He just kind of gave me a look. And he says, Marcus is
ahead of me. You know, he like he he reserved his abilities because
Marcus was ahead. Yeah. And Marcus was a pain in the neck.
He was a paining god. One of my one of the Arizona basketball players
that I most disliked in the history of the program. Yeah, and not
that he was a really bad dude. He just wasn't a team dude.
He wasn't. He stood again. He was the opposite of everything that Luke
had built him. Very much so, very much so. Next story four
more of the players suspended gambling, alongside two Picada, Marcano revealed Athletics reliever
Michael Kelly, Paudres pitching prospect Jay Groom, Philly's infield prospect Joseph Rodriguez and
Diamondbacks reliever Andrew Saalfrank. Now these four suspended for only one year for just
betting on big league games that didn't involve their teams, right, and not
betting a lot. I mean, like I think it was, Which one
was it? Uh? Michael Kelly, the A's guy, He made one
bet for ninety nine bucks, but guess what bets? Yeah, yeah,
that cost him seven hundred and forty thousand dollars because that's the annual salary.
And he lost for making that one bet. And there was one, you
know, another guy, Yeah, bet of a whole bunch of games,
like you know, but he had like five percent of the success. Yeah,
there's one guy bet twenty nine times twenty eight on Major League Baseball,
four on his team. But he was also on the injured list at the
time. But still, guys, So let me because I don't follow this
as closely as maybe I should or whatever. So if it had not been
on baseball, would you have been Okay, No, you can't bet on
any sports? Well, no, no you can't. You can't. You
just gotta bet on baseball. You can bet on basketball, horse racing and
stuff like, you can't bet on your sport. That's what it is.
But you know, it makes sense again going back to the thing that you're
gonna get caught. You know, you're if you're betting on somebody else's on
somebody else's account or whatever you're doing, they have ways of finding out,
and people are gonna find out. So just don't do it. It's crazy.
And the last story we have, we got the Women's College World Series
starting tonight between Oklahoma and Texas, the final series yep, yep. And
Oklahoma has won the last three championships under coach Patty Gosso. Yeah, so
they're going after the first four peet in forever and ever who's ever happened before?
But Arizona is in that group of Arizona, Ucla and Oklahoma. They
went eight straight, eight straight to the champions championship. Here's winning five of
those. Ye kind of still tells you that Arizona was and is still a
blue blood and still among the elites, but that it's been a while while.
Does everybody cut up? Yeah? Everybody cut up, and that's and
that's what it is. And the two of those teas are headed to the
to the next conference, the Big Big Ten and the Arizona's going to the
Big twelve. Yep, yeah right, uh so Jeff Goodman has reported and
we haven't had any other confirmation of it. So you tried this lightly that
the Arizona Duke game in Tucson this coming season is going to be November twenty
second, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving, which would put it the night
before the Arizona a SU home football game. But that is the case.
What a weekend. I can't I'll send your racking my brain thinking has there
ever been a better weekend of sports at the U of A. Probably in
one, you know, in one weekend like that. Probably not because of
this. No, they're probably not Arizona Duke, Arizona A Football. Yeah,
they played they played Duke in November tenth or something like that. This
it was like second game into the season. And now then it's gonna be
fun. Yeah, it's gonna be I can't wait for that. I can't
wait. Give a prediction. Although it's way early, I think the ticket's
gonna go for a lot of money. I think they will too. Six
hundred at least in the North Carolina game when they came in. Yeah,
yeah, it was like nobody was nobody was going because they were selling them
all. Yeah, no, that's gonna be It's gonna be a hot ticket
for sure, for sure. But it'll be fun. And I'm glad.
I just see they're doing this, you know, good Man he reported this
in a in a thing about you're showing that John Shire, the coach at
Duke, what he's doing. They're gonna play They're gonna play Kentucky on the
twelve on November twelve in Atlanta. They're gonna be at Arizona on the twenty
second, Then on the twenty six they're gonna play Kansas in Vegas, and
then in the middle of their acc season they're gonna play Illinois and Madison Square
Garden. I just wish more coaches would do that, you know. Yeah,
I mean I liked what Tommy Lloyd did last year. Look, it
got him a lot of mileage. You know, he lost a couple,
but he won a bunch of them and they rode that all the way to
a number two seed in the tournament. Well it's funny because and I think
that maybe Bruce I was at the game, but Bruce kind of maybe referred
it later that Tommy won the game, and I asked him a question,
what does this mean? And what does this mean? Tommy to win this
because you said, you know, you got to learn a lot from the
game. He says, well, it's gonna teach it or tell us that
or give us a thing. It doesn't matter that you win in November.
It's what happens in March, right, like everything else, right, and
you prove that, you know, you don't want to, it's not peak,
but every game, every game is a season, and you have to
play like that. You have to play like that all the time. Yes,
yes, so that should be fun. You know, it's funny because
Steve had a lot of time to think while I was done and run.
Oh no, that's no, No, it's fine now, No, this
is you know, it's kind of like, you know Arizona. You know,
Arizona lost its last game the tournament. It's kind of like, Okay,
all the air Zona seasons are over, right, they're all over.
We're in the pack. We're in the Big twelve now right, we're in
the Big twelve. We start talking about being in the Big twelve, you
know, Big twelve football season coming up. It's kind of like, Okay,
we've really slammed the door shut on the Pac twelve. It's ancient history.
Now, not ancient history, but it's history. We're over. We
are now in the Big twelve. Thinking about all of Arizona sports being in
the Big twelve and really what that means, and like, okay, we're
talking about a Big twelve football season, a Big twelve volleyball season, big
club basketball season, Big twelve, you know, baseball and softball. So
we talked about this a couple of days ago, maybe last week, where
you know, these teams the well attended in football, well attended, definitely
well attended basketball, and everyone's gonna come in for a rude awakening in terms
of being on the road. Yes, and you know that the people on
the road who can say come on Spider. Spider said to the fly,
you haven't experienced this. Yeah, Hey, Arizona, this isn't Stanford,
this isn't this isn't hos Pavilion, This isn't a gilt coliseum or five thousand
people show up for an Oregon State game. You get ready and I you
know what to me, but see to me, that's exciting to me,
And I think it's gonna be exciting to the players. How many times have
we said, you go to one of those gyms and you play like crap
because there's no atmosphere. I think they get hopped up notorious for that.
Do you remember because we were both at this game in eighty eight? I
think it was in Oklahoma. I remember they went to Oklahoma. Were both
covered it. It was after because they played they played Oklahoma. No,
you have to be covered. I was like my first year covering the team
because it came back and played in eighty nine. They didn't play. They
didn't play Oklahoma during that during the eighty eight season eighty seven, then it
was my first year, second year covered the team. It went to normal.
We went to Norman. I thought for sure, No, yeah,
yeah, you're gonna have to look that. I was what. I can't
remember the atmosphere. I remember because the first time I went to Norman was
for football. Oh I thought just basketball, Yes, yes, going to
Norman for football. Do you remember much of the atmosphere. I remember being
on the field and the Crown Yeah, the Crown field, But I don't
remember the atmosphere of the crowd. I just don't. I don't know I
thought I thought their stadium was a rinky dingk stadium compared No, that's what
I that's what because we were on the field. Yeah, I expected more
exactly. That's why I asked. I can't remember because it didn't impress me,
or it didn't impress me at all. And I don't know why,
because you walked up and it looked like a high school stadium. That was
just it was weird. Yes, yes, right, yes, you know
they were like they were, but it wasn't a It wasn't a stadium like
a concrete stadium like Arizona's was. It was like bleachers, you know,
but a lot of them, you know, big, big and tall.
But no, I was not pressed by impressed by that at Oklahoma at all.
Nineteen ye idiot. Yeah first, yeah, our first the first you're
covering the team, right, Yeah, So I asked you I thought,
sorry, that's why I asked. I wasn't. I'm sure. I'm sure
things in the league are going to be crazy, crazy football basketball, but
it's gonna be fun. Yeah. But yeah, you know, while they're
staying as much bigger. I'll shoot, we got a call, uh whoever's
call? Maybe that's maybe that's Garcia. Yeah, go ahead and picking all
right, this is I am the ball. Hey you guys, it's Richard.
I heard you talking about Oklahoma, so I thought i'd call it rich
You gotta be real quick because they only got about twenty seconds. A lot
of the Sooners are entering the SEC on July first. Beginning June thirtieth,
the night of Oklahoma's kicking off, the Big Party. Will these celebrations in
Oklahoma City Norman Antulsa bands playing kids festivities for children and families, all day
activities for three days. Well there's only got anything playing for the Big twelve.
Well maybe they need to know, Maybe they need to hear that and
do something. Agree, packed your bags, let's go alrighty man, thank
you, thank you. All right, we got to get out of here,
take our break. We're to come back. Roberto Garcia the new head
coach of the FC two Song Women. As Steve said, it off to
a pretty good start. So we'll talk to him about his program and his
hopes for this team this year. So stick around. The Windows Depot is
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live, I mean iHeartRadio Lab. This is I on the Book with Steve
and Jay Gonzalez on Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to Winning the
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roberta. He's Jay Gonzalez.
Now in the follow we have Roberto Garcia from FC two Son Women,
the head coach. How are you doing, Roberto, Good afternoon, How
are you? We're doing well? Thank you? You're doing very well in
your start. What's going on? I thank god. We've got a very
good young team here, great facilities, great support if the squad has been
great in the locker room. So all momentum headed in the right direction.
So your approach when you got this job, I mean, what's your what's
your approach this? What do you? I mean obviously you want to compete,
you want to win matches in the whole bit. But what's in your
mind, what's the most important thing that you're trying to achieve it with a
team like FC two Son, to be fair, I mean to be fair
when we took over the program. It's getting a nice combination of one Tucson
players, getting a nice blend of youth and senior players, and then two
representing the badge as best as we can. Obviously, there is a heritage
the time behind FC two Son, So making sure that the players understand that,
you know, we play with pride and we wear that bad with pride
and win loser draw, we stick together and the locker room sticks together,
and we move forward as a group. I'm assuming that you do have a
lot of locals on the on the roster, if not most of them,
if not all of them. I would say ninety five percent of our team
this year is local Tucson talent. Easy to choose from because there is that
growing, growing, not trend growing, trend. I guess a very quality
athletes soccer. Yeah, no, absolutely, but you know that's Acose on
youth side is now part of the Girls Academy, which is a national platform.
So a lot of the girls come from that platform. You know,
it's the toughest conference in the country, and you know it prepares them well
to come now play in this environment. And it's been it's been a good
transition. But what attracted you to the position the passion for Tucson. Yeah.
I mean I've been in Tucson now for six seven years and since day
one, it's really there's enough talent in Tucson. It's given the girls and
twos on the opportunity, the women and twos on the opportunity to get to
these levels, to get to these platforms really and show their their ability.
There's been a lot of success in the program. I don't think they won
last year, but the previous years they had any pressure, if that's the
right word. No, to be fair, I'm very clear with the players,
the pressure is not winning. The pressure and how we carry ourselves and
how we move forward together as a group. And being young, you learn,
you make mistakes, but you know this is a long term project,
the long term vision, and you know, it's been fantastic thus far.
So if you had to characterize your team and the type of players that you
have, both whether it's you know, the type of athletes they are or
the type of people that they are. What what what do you think is
the best aspect of of your team? What do you what are they best
at? Or what what do you feel strongest about what they do? As
I said, for me one, with our staff, right, it's we
stay, we stay humble, and we work hard, you know, And
I think the locker room is bought into that, right. And we've got
a nice combination of talented technical players, we've got a nice combination of athletes.
We've got, you know, a nice combination. And they're just all
good human beings, right, And I think that's the biggest, biggest thing
for us. We stay, we work hard, we stay humble, we're
honest, we're good people. And then once we get on the field,
it's easy that the rest is easy. Well, it's easy enough to get
you to being number sixteenth in the country at this point. Are you surprised
by that? Are you acception of it? We're less than we're we're fortunate
to be here today, right, But we don't hang our hats on that.
We still have game to play and we move on. You know.
I think it's a pat on the back for the ladies to see their hard
work is coming through. But I think, you know, we've got two
tough games we play Friday night and Saturday night, and we've got to move
forward. I was in, say, I saw the schedule you guys,
back to back? Is that unusual? And how hard is that? Yeah?
No, difficult, I mean, and we're very lucky. We have
a large, robust roster, you know, so we have plenty of players
that we can rotate into the games and into the system a little bit.
But no, that's usually not normally we usually don't put it back to back.
But it's going to be a tough forty eight hours for us to get
through to try to get two results. I'm curious you talked about having youth
and older players. What you probably have some high school kids sophomores or whatever,
and then what's the oldest. A lot of college kids that have come
back. You know, you're probably early twenties, but we're somewhere between that
high school age sophomore, junior, high school to that mid twenties, and
how's that mix? It must be very good obviously, but it's been great,
to be honest, it's been great the younger players about the college players
that kind of mentor them. So we've been blessed in that. And that's
the talk with the senior players that you're here, you know, mentoring the
younger players that want to be an aspire to be at the college level someday.
So it's been a good it's been a good combination, a good mix.
And I think Saturday night last Saturday, when we played and we scored
the game time goal at the end, that celebration where it was young players,
old player, that didn't matter, everybody celebrated together. That that's where
we are, all right. So Steve, Steve is the soccer guy in
the room. He's got kids that played college soccer. And when I'm not
so, explain to me as a as somebody who I you know, I
watched soccer every four years when the World Cup comes up. Okay, but
explain to me what I would what I would notice about your team or what
I would see on the field about the type of team that you are and
how you play. Yeah, but with with our youth, with our age,
with our experience, we're going to be very tactically set up every game.
Every game will set up tactically a little bit different against the opponent based
on what the opponent. You know, it's a fun little chess match,
but what you'll see is a fun possession style. I'm going to try to
play, you know, high press and defending when we lose the ball in
a nice combination of possession with we want to be creative, dynamic and score
goals. That's the number one thing right there. So Roberto, you've said
you've been here six years, so Jonathan must have found you somewhere, and
you probably know a lot of the girls anyway because you've been around it.
Yes, Sarah, I was brought in six years ago by John Perlman and
Kate Norton. Back then it was a Tank con Verde Soccer Club and then
the merger between TSA and Tank con Verde which became St. Tucson And this
is where we are today. Okay, So you kind of you you know
your players because you've seen them grow up. Yes, Yes, a lot
of the players either I have coached throughout the years or have been a part
of the system, the youth system where I've had some experience with them.
So when when you get players at this level, at this age, what
are the expectations in terms of you know, I guess and for lack of
a better way to say it, you know, how good do they need
to be? Wait, let's say compared to a high school player or whatever
to be able to you know, be on on on the team that that
you're coaching, and what you expect of them in terms of, you know,
just their abilities. Yeah, soccer IQ. Soccer IQ definitely has to
be high. Right. You can be as technically good as you want to
be, you can be technically gifted, but ultimately the soccer i Q your
thought process that that's got to be at a high level to play to play
here? Right? Right? Did you? Having grown up? I will
have been here for a while now, it's not a spire, But you
wanted to coach at this level and what's the future look like for you?
Yeah? Yeah, the future is open. I mean obviously we have an
amazing managed ownership group here with John and the Kyle and the support that we
have here, and I don't know what the big picture, to be fair
is going to be. But in the meantime, right it's trying to really
represent this town on whatever platform and whatever league that we're in as best as
we possibly can. You know, to be honest with you, this wasn't
in the plans and it just happened to work out late in the process and
I was glad to take it. Tell me you have games this weekend so
far, how has the crowd. I know it's going to get hot,
get hot er. How's the crowd been and your fan base? It's been
absolutely amazing. The fans were The fans were our twelfth player last weekend and
got us through that late tying goal, which was a big goal. We
played delcol the five seed in the country, and I'll tell you the fan
where the one that really got the players going at the end there, and
we kept pushing and pushing. It was amazing. No cool. So you
mentioned you've got the Friday at seven o'clock a game for kicking cancer, right,
that's the promo, and then Saturday it's Pride Night against seven o'clock,
both at Keino. Just some of your thoughts on the way all this is
put together and the organization that that you're with and the things that they're trying
to do with you know, the games and do attract fans and those kinds
of things. Yeah, absolutely, I think they're the I mean, FC
Twuson is the premiere program in the city of Tucson. I think, you
know, ownership here puts everything first class, top notch, so left unturned,
you know, and really trying to connect with the community and that kind
of stuff. And that's the tue. That's part of the reason why I
chose to take the position when it was brought to my attention, and I'm
proud and proud to be a part of it. No great, Okay,
how can they find tickets? Just go to the website. They go on
the website and the link is right there, right there. Okay, it's
fantastic. We'll continued success in your first year. Maybe we'll get out there
at some point. It is a bit hot there, Roberto. We'd love
to have you guys out. We'd love to have all our fans and chuffon
come out. Keep pushing these girls. Reality is probably a lot of these
players are known by people in the community because they all local high school kids,
right, So love to have everyone out there. Great, Thank you,
Robert, appreciate your time. Yeah, take care. I do hear
that heat is good for the arthritis, so I must I know. But
stairs at stadium stairs are not travel you know. There are a lot of
stairs at this house that I said not. It's not a double level,
which is like, you know, the the living room, you gotta go
down three stairs. You know, the back porch you gotta go down.
Man. I might have came back with some so with sore kneeses from you
don't. Did you read the book some of it? No, I never
got my hands on it. I never got my hands on it. Yeah,
he had it there. I saw him with it. It just made
a trip. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well he was reading some Liz Cheney
books. There's a lot of political taco there while we were there when the
Trump verdict came out, so she don't even talk about that. I started
to go there anyways, but just you know that some of that stuff was
going on. But no, I didn't. I did not get my hands
on the book. Actually, you know, Richard called didn't at the last
second. I think Arizona Party not deeds to take advantage. But that would
be a cool thing. That would be a cool thing. I think,
you know, again, there's some sort of introduction, right, you know
to the Big Twelve. You know, I was thinking on you know,
on the way in my brain was swirling that you know, we need to
start, you know, maybe throughout the summer, get you know, some
of the Big twelve beat rider stuff in here, just talking about Okay,
what are we looking at? What's it going to be like? Uh not
just you know, not just from a football or basketball standpoint, just being
in the league. That would be uh. I think that's a great idea,
the equivalent of the sky ride. Yeah, yeah, yeah, talk
about you know, what's it like going to you know games that Iowa State.
You know how cold is it could get over there, you know in
the wintertime and you know, I mean look, I mean even yeah,
I mean look the coldest it got was was you know Pullman, you only
had to do that once or twice a year. You know, Seattle would
it would be rainy, but not so freezing that you hated it. You
know, San Francisco it's always cold there, but not not like you know,
you're not shoveling snow. And stuff. You know, so it's like,
okay, you uh yeah, you came around after I was, you
know, gone from covering stuff. But what I think fans are going to
have to understand is that when you head to the Big twelve Menus in December,
January, February, you better be ready to go with some stuff.
Yeah. It'll be different. Yeah, but it's gonna be fun because it
will be different because it's different. You know, I was listening to the
podcast I listened to, and that's what the guys were saying, you know,
on the on the podcast saying whether you like or dislike what's happened with
the conferences. Yeah, you gotta admit that when this season football season starts,
it's gonna be fun. You know, there's gonna be more big games,
right Oklahoma and in Texas, they're gonna have to be playing Alabama and
Georgia and l s U. And there's there's more of these games that are
gonna be gonna be taking place. No, we're kind of get you to
hit his bike. You know, there's gonna be there's gonna be more games
like that. You know, Arizona's gonna have more basketball games that are gonna
be hard and meaningful. And and you know when when the Kansas and Kansas
State and Iowa State and Baylor and Texas Tech come to town, you know
they're not the the glamour schools of the PAC twelve, of the UCLA,
the not usc the cities aren't Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle. But
you know their fans are gonna come here. They're gonna come to these games,
both football and basketball. It's gonna be a whole different deal. No,
it's like I said, you're lucky to have season tickets. Uh,
in whatever capacity, I encourage people to buy them now because it's gonna be
enjoyment. You might go home a loser a time or two, but their
games are gonna be fun. Yeah. I think I don't know if anyone's
asked you guys this question, but how long do you think it will take
either of you to get just used to being in a different conferences, being
like like you've been in the I of think it's gonna take any getting used
to. I think it's just like it is what it is. People know
these schools, right, you know, they know who the schools are.
It's not like It's not like you got moved to a high school conference where
you don't know these high schools. Everybody knows who these schools are. It's
just it's gonna be different. I think it's gonna be very cool. Do
you drive a car here? Nah? Do you have? You had a
herd car on you from New York? Car? You have a few cars.
You have a car, right, I have a car. I was
driving the second car just different than same. Yeah, it just you know,
you turn it. You started differently. You know, the key is
saying is in a different place. You know you have to find the air
condition. It's kind of like a subway, Henry, Yeah, New York.
Let's take a break. Car, Let's take our last break. We're
going to be back. We'll wrap this up five to zero, four,
one, six, seventy forty. If you want to give us a call.
If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era in my
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The A Team apply online today at a teamsecurity dot net. This is I
on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez soun Fox Sports fourteen to fifty.
Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery I on the
Ball. Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball, Yo, Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay half Henry with us for the
next fifteen more minutes. Because when the calls, please do I'd like to
hear from you. I like Henry's countdown. It helps a lot. You
know you can get you got ten seconds, put your damn headphones on and
shut the hell up and get ready to talk. Or man, I think
it was my first time in the so I'm here, what about to make
sure it doesn't happen. I remember that it's New Yorker. Man. It
tells us like it is good what he does. Yeah, yeah, okay,
good. He gives call five two four one forty. Uh uh.
He was going to ask you. And I don't even know if we want
to go here anymore because it continues to be just just an nauseating with with
Kate and Kaylyn Clark. Well he signed to Reice got tossed from a game
last night. Yeah, and now they're saying she shouldn't got David. They
rescinded the second technical. But here's here's the thing, and this is and
I have to be careful what we say right right right now, and I'm
gonna be. But you know this thing where you know, this player just
went up there and just shouldered her and knocked her down because she just you
know, and then said, what does she bring to the table besides a
three point shot? I'm like, well she said that, yeah, but
I didn't understand she said. She tweeted out because you know, after the
fight, they asked her a question about Ka refused to answer, but then
then she responded to a tweet and said, what does she bring to the
table besides a three point shot? And I want to say, here's what
she brings more money for you, eighteen thousand people at those games instead of
five. What are you doing? Look, I'm you don't have to like
her, you don't you even have to respect her, but to try and
to do what you're doing to try and bring her down when she's doing so
much for your game, whether it's a whether it's a it's a racial thing
or not. She's bringing attention and notoriety to your game that you're going to
benefit from in the in the way that Tiger Woods did it for golf.
And the thing about the difference is you hear the golfer say I'm happy for
a Tiger with you, because you know why, I'm making more monsure she
brought to the profile profile. I mean, remember they're getting chartered, the
women w they're chartering to their games now because of Caitlin Clark. And so
why do you feel it necessary to to to to knock her down or not.
Now, if you want to be on the court, garter garter tough,
make it hard for her great, But to do what she did just
because I'm just gonna knock your ass down because I feel like I need to
knock your ass down. Well, that's just stupid, So I it is.
But you know what it is, Jay, it's could being competitive.
Uh, that's not being competitive. If that's being let me tell you it's
being a competitive in a in a competitive underbelly type of way. I saw
these guys because I played against these guys who want to put you in their
place, put you in your place because they're not confident in who they are.
I'm just kind of I'm not a psychologists here, but I'm gonna play
one where they try to make you feel unwinded or needed or whatever. And
that's the way they do it. Eventually, in a year from now,
you know what they're gonna all say, maybe we should not have done this.
I don't did you read a quote from Billy Bill jing King about all
this when Chris I read when Nancy Lieberman said, what did she say?
She said, if I would have been if I would have been Caitlin Clark's
teammate. I would have punched her in the field. That's part of and
that's part of the problem. They didn't come to her rescue. I don't
know if they know even how to not how to do this. But it
was a weird time. The whole dynamic of it was weird because she was
away from the game. But Billy jan King said this was a lot like
when Chris Evertt came in nineteen seventy four. This young young woman who was
in her teens came on the scene and some of the older players, the
veteran players kind of resented her coming on. And she said she's going to
help us make this game, and she did, and she did. I
think eventually, cooler heads will prevail. I'm surprised that the commissioner of the
league hasn't come in and stepped in and say let's play basketball exactly, and
and and and that's what it is. It doesn't continue to be basketball.
Finds will be bigger. And I'm not saying that all these players have to
embrace her from the standpoint of, you know, put in on a p
but why you're intentionally going out there to try to knock her on her but
outside of the course of a game, this formern athlete, did you play
ball at some point? This is a public hazing of the rookie, and
they're resentful of her because of all her successful And that's the word that I
hate, which one resentment. And that's why Why do you resent her?
If you want to play hard and and and and guard her hard and give
her a hard foul, you know, in the course of the game and
say welcome to the NBA, I have zero problem with that. But the
resentment of her when she's doing so much good for your sport, that's the
part that pisses me right right, And it's I think it's gonna be less
or it's gonna diminish as we move forward, because this has brought this much
attention to her, uh, to the whole situation. Actually, But like
we had Rocky on yesterday and I've said, why would you ever have thought
that all these people on forums like this, the stephen A. Smith and
all that stuff would start being talking to each other. Yeah, not just
talking arguing about it because everybody has the solution or has the answer. I
don't think anybody does until it kind of stops. It just it just bothers
me, you know. And then come on, you did you played when
you were you played when you were younger. I don't know to which level,
but you had people kind of say you little punk. I threw it,
kids, I threw it. I threw a kid as a twelve year
old. That's part of the being the competitive rights. But it was in
the course of the game, right, well, that's what I didn't try
to hit him. I just tried, like you know, it was ten
year old kid who thought he was hot stuff and I was pitching against him.
That's what this is. And I said, okay, here, here
we go. That's what to me, that's this. This what she did
was different. She's just standing there waiting for the ball to command and she
goes over and shoves her to the ground. I've seen that was That's different
from her going in for a layup and giving her a hard fight. Two
different things. We've seen this in baseball, We've seen this in men.
I'm telling you is now basketball all types of cheap shots. I mean,
you've seen it now. We just get to see it at the women's level
and we're not used to it. The worst the worst, it's going to
happen again because their teammates didn't even defend her. And that's that's another piece
of thing. I think that'll change. Hopefully that'll change. But we'll see
you've seen it in every man's sports. There is no Now we're just seeing
it in this type of thing and we're saying what, But again, that
would be like you know, uh, you know, back when Tiger was
first started, you're saying, I'm rooting against him because you know, I
want him to break his leg, you know, because he's so good when
you don't realize what the big picture is, what he's doing exactly. He's
your meal tik. Yeah, yeah, he's your meal tic I think.
But eventually, guess what happened. They realized, they realized, and they
appreciated, and they actually root for the guy now that he sucks. Actually,
I think eventually that'll happen. She's a fantastic player, but there's a
lot of fantastic players I see. The resentment is my word, but I'm
not sure that's the right word. But eventually it'll it'll be fine and they'll
move on and I but again go back to that word. I just hate
the resentment. See, but you made a perfect example. You you did
it too in a different type of way, in a different type of way.
But again again to me, throwing a ball highd inside to a ten
year old kid was within the game. Whereas what this player did when she
just went up and knocked her on her ass, when she was just standing
there as opposed to a heart, like I said, a hard foul on
a lamp or something like that, There's there's a line there that got crossed.
Sure, of course, That's what I'm saying, is that if she
had waited to make that statement when Kaylen Clark goes down the line and you
know, gives her to the forearm shiver and she's going up for a layup,
I had no problem with that, No problem with that. What I
had a problem with is that she she blindsides her cheap shots, her knocks
her on her ass just for the hell of it, well, to prove
a point, to make sure who's who's who. But there's a way to
do that in a way. Not of course, I've seen I've seen this.
Being a former athlete, I've seen this at my level. It's the
hazing of a freshman, which doesn't make it right, doesn't make it right.
But that's what these people do, these athletes at fifth level, because
they're really ultra competitive and they want to make their mark of don't f with
me, because this is my until you become better, you know. And
she she's been she hasn't been good in all reality, she hasn't been the
person we thought that she would be. But guess what she's gonna be at
some point. Yeah, no, yeah, I I yeah, just bothered
mete. No, I get bothered me. You're not alone. Bothered me
a lot because it just it just it just runs. You know. Again,
somebody's somebody's trying to do you some good and you're saying, well,
I don't like you, so I'm going to knock you on your ass.
So think about it. It's it's so polarizing, yes and so on so
many levels, and you can go one way, you can go in different
topics of that same subject and and there's no real solution until it stops.
I'm just so, I'm just hoping that the commissioner not hoping, and that's
their job that comes in steps and enough of this they don't and if they're
bitching about their money. But the money they make, they should get fined
a lot of that money, and then it'll probably stop. No I and
I mean complaining, you know not because if you hit them where accounts because
they're saying they're not making enough money, it's just it makes no sense.
It's just like it just it just reeks of somebody who just has no idea
of the big picture. You know, and when you're and when you're in
the w n B A, you should be a little smarter than that.
That's all I'm saying. And that just that just drives me crazy. That
that that that's that's the way we're gonna do this. So anyways, okay,
my thought, all right, okay, no, no, no,
no, your I think your answer is fine. It's not right or wrong.
It's just your answer. That's my opinion, and I don't disagree with
it. There's no right or wrong answer. I think eventually it's gonna subside,
it will ultimately. Yeah, it's kind again, and there's gonna be
a lot of Welcome to the w n b A moments for Kaylin Clark.
And again, like I said, I don't have any problem with most of
those. This one was over the line. That's all, you know,
that's all I'm saying. This one was over the line. Let's take this
Hi on the arn on the ball. What's up? What's up? Jim?
I remember, I think this is a little bit more intense with women
in general. My wife gave me a hard foul every day I was married,
and you and it was mostly for a breathing Well, you know,
we all cross our bridges. And how long did you how many seasons did
you endure? Eleven twelve? He doesn't remember. He had to retire.
That's funny. Okay, So I have a couple of program notes that my
might. This Andy Ramirez that does the weather now is fantastic. She makes
it a joy to listen to the weather and the traffic. What station,
all of these all of these iHeart stations, Oh okay, okay, but
unique to your station they do one thing that is that damn beeping noise on
the traffic watch that makes me reach for the for the channel button. About
like diving back to first place on a pickoff. Well, you're you're talking
to a couple of guys who are so far, so low on the totem
pole where we're just not going to be able to help you with that one.
Somebody tell them that's ridiculous. Okay, all right, you guys have
a right you too. That's what Jim called us about. It's too funny.
I know, we're talking about this in depth situation that talking about being
abused. What's funny, heart foul? That's kind of funny. Heart falls
for twelve years, right, right, So this debate will continue for all.
Well, but the thing about it, it's a it's a talking point
and everybody in the country is talking about and as you said, you know,
at some point it is going to side. Yeah, it will.
But I'm watching. I watched the game of the game in point. I
sat there and watched me geting to the end because I hadn't seen it yet,
and it was it was interesting. Yeah, are you watching, Henry,
I follow it. I'm following. I'm not watching any of the games.
I still don't, you know, Yeah, I mean, you know,
it is fascinating me to see that everywhere she goes there's fifteen twenty thousand
people. I might have time those two teams play though, because that's going
to be a really good game. Sure, sure, with Reese being on
the opposite end to no, it'll be it'll be interesting, no question.
Okay, Hey, welcome back, all right, glad to be back,
and then we'll be back tomorrow. We'll be back tomorrow. I think we're
trying to track down a couple of pretty good guests here. I got a
call from somebody else or a text earlier, so we might be able to
do that tomorrow. Another day, another day, and Steve, let's get
ready to go to the Big twelve. Man, Big twelve. Don't forget
that the Belmont is Saturday? Is that this Saturday? Yeah? Oh wow,
okay, deal will come back and give us some try. I'm not
planning on golfing this Saturday, so I'll actually be able to watch it.
Okay, okay, So thanks everybody, thanks right, thanks for being here,
Henry, nice job on the board. Thanks for keeping us on the
air. All right, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow