Streaming live. I mean I on radio. Wow. This is High on
the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, He's Jake. Now we have Ryan with breaking news again.
It's still not working, you know. I think we had this issue
yesterday. I think we need to reboot that computer. So, okay,
all right, we's it's Tigh on the Ball, breaking news, breaking news,
all right. So we're gonna start with the University of Arizona baseball tomorrow.
They start their tactical tournament taken on Washington down in Scottsdale. Should be
a good match. It should be good. I know, did we I
know we mentioned Chip Hail, but we didn't bring up all the other guys
who made the outpack. Yeah. So Chip Hill was named the Year,
and then six guys were named to the PAC twelve All Conference Clark Candiati,
Brandon Summer Hill, cam Walty, Mason White, Jackson Kent, and Yaron
Caufield. And then two other guys were named to the All Conference Honorable Mentioned,
Amelio Corona and Casey Hens. That's a pretty good group. It's pretty
good. And if you're looking for a reason why Arizona is the league champion,
you gotta look at the fact that all three of their starting pitchers were
named to the All Conference team. I mean, that's you know, that's
what made them who they were. That's why it was kind of surprising when
when Oregon State just abused them those first two games. Wouldn't your year or
two before there is a pitching coach the first year, first year or two
years now, because remember the previous coach was very thought of, highly thought,
but it wasn't working. It wasn't working. I think I think,
I think this is his second second year. Okay, so even then,
because remember they had some pretty good they had it was the guy from Oregon
State, yeah right, and it just it just it didn't materialize for whatever
reason. But you know, I mean, the you've got to give,
you know, the pitching staff a lot of credit for what this team was
able to do. With Candatti, cam Walty and uh and Jackson Kent all
making First Team. I'll packed, I'll pack twelve. They were you know,
and again cam Walty, who went you know, into the ninth inning,
on in the Do or Die game on Saturday night, you know,
is the reason they won that game. So and and these guys are why
they won the Pack twelve championships. So, you know, good for those
guys. And then again Mason White, I just he's not a big dude
and just hits the ball really far. You know, Brandon summer Hill who
had that game winner on Saturday night, and then Garreon Callfield. Those guys
are all really good, so good for them. Yeah, Mason, Mason
White finished with sixty and seventeen homers on the season. So yeah, hopefully
they you know, the pitching shows up during this PAC twelve tournament and then
you know, yeah get that get off rolling. Well, we'll see what
happens. You know, I almost don't even care about the Packed off tournament.
It's just, you know, as we're talking to Ed Vosper, He's
like, what's what's the purpose right right? Other than you have some TV
programming? I guess when are we going to find out if they get the
host the regional? Next week on Sunday or Sunday and Monday. I know
when they announced it, How long is it? It's a two week?
How long is that tournament. This tournament yea, lasts all week until Sunday
or beyond. I'll look it up right now, beyond, because I would
assume that they would pick them right after the tournament. Yeah, if it
is Sunday, I think single tomorrow and it goes through Saturday. Yeah,
so then they'll probably pick on Sunday for the rest of the week because summer
for these guys goes into June. If they do really well and related to
June, school year doesn't end. Yeah. The champion chip game is on
Saturday at seven o'clock. So there's this pool play and then on Friday they
have the semi finals. So there's four teams that come out of pool play
and then and then the championship is not and it's just a four team single
elimination bracket. So the two winners from Friday plan Saturday for the league championship,
for the tournament championship. Good luck to them. Let's stay with University
of Arizona. Switch over to men's singles tennis. Yeah, Number twenty two
Colton Smith defeat number eight Oliver Tart Tarbette Tarbett and well you say his name,
that was today he actually defeated him, and he's moving on to the
next round. Do you face number sixteen already? Yeah? That guy?
Because you want today he becomes an All American I think, didn't I say
that that he becomes an All American in the sport. Yep, he has
the first All American singles or doubles from the Arizona program since Roger about of
Longa. You're in the honors back in two thousand and six, so a
long time. You can just tell you how far this program has come.
Real quick, going back to the Pac twelve a baseball tournament, ASU who
came in really hot. I think they'd won like twelve or fifteen of their
last nine or some thing. And then they were the five seed and they
got beat. They got beat by Stanford, the eight seed in the first
day of a pool. Stanford was eighth. Yes, wow yeah wow.
And then right now a game going on right now, USC is the four
seed, Utah is the seventh seed, and in the bottom of the fifth
Utah is up five to one. Well upset Cities. Yeah, so a
couple of upsets, one upset and another one brewing right now. Hema College
is Chemic College softball is currently in action. Right now in the elimination round
against Trinidad State College. Right now, they're trolling to nothing in top of
the six Oh that was that was zero zero going to the sixth. So
so Trinidad's hit for a couple of that. This that's a double elimination.
And and and Peman is already in the losers bracket. If they lose their
they lost earlier day sevens. If they got beat up a little bit so
they got to their final. God, it's three nothing that they just scored
another run. It's three zip. You didn't talk to them, did you?
On the side. I nothing, nothing. I didn't even think about
him, Steve, Okay, you know this is really hard for me to
try and not put the kiss of death on teams, all right. You
know, like my daughter's going to go to the baseball game. Theirs on
a baseball game up in Phoenix. They're gonna go to the game, and
I'm like, I can't even think about you being there because I'm you know,
because it will kill it bad karma juju. So switching over to the
NBA today, we have the East Conference Finals going on. You got the
Pacers and Celtics going head to head. I looked up some numbers. I
was just curious about the playoff history for these two teams. Boston has been
to excuse me, Boston has been to the conference finals twenty four times.
Industry Pacers have been to the conference finals nine times. They have zero championships,
only one appearance back in two thousand when the Lakers won. So yeah,
they get I'm ruining for the Pacers. I want to see them.
I'd love to see TJ. McConnell get there, right, Yeah, I'm
always routing. But the Celtics are like the far and away favorite, you
know, Yeah, of the four teams left all the money, not all
the money, but the you know, the odds are are all everybody's saying
it's the Celtics, but especially with the teams that are left, because they're
all lower seed. Sure right through the West too, of Minnesota. I
mean the Pacers were a six seed that right quick, I think so,
I think the Pacers were six seed and then the Western Conference finals the three
verses four. You know, so people are all over the all over the
Celtics. I think the Mavericks fifth or is it three five or four five?
Right now? But it's yeah, three five, that's the Wolves and
Mavicks Mavericks, Mavericks, and then one six. Yeah, I mean it's
kind of like this thing is lined up for the Celtics to win a championship.
There's there to lose, exactly exactly. That's really all I had today.
Okay, we'll still got some time some time. Actually, I wanted
to bring on something last week. Didn't get a chance. About the NFL
schedule. What do you guys think about the NFL possibly going to an eighteen
game schedule in the future. Well, they have If they're going to do
that, they have to get rid of some of these exhibition games, right.
I mean, look, if they're going to play those games, they're
making real games, you know. I mean, it's more more, more,
more games to bead on. I guess there's the there's the I don't
know, uh, not being a player. I don't, I don't know.
I mean, God, where does it stop? I mean, and
and the and the the physical toll of this is. I mean already you
know you had running backs who they play two years and then they're they're used
up and they can't play anymore. I don't know, I don't, I
don't I don't think it's necessary. I mean, to me, it would
be a money grab again, you know. But on the other hand,
they're still they're playing game Like I get it. In those games, it's
not the guy, you know, Aaron Rodgers isn't playing in those exhibition games.
To a tongue, Bailo is not playing in those games. You know,
it's guys trying to earn jobs. But but I don't know, eighteen
games seems like too many. I mean they I guess they're talking about the
possibility of having like two by weeks for for all the teams, or like
an all Star break and then and then if you if you're if you don't
get a first round, by what do you gotta win four games to to
win the to win the championship? Or is it three four if you don't
get a buy Vision Championship. Yeah, it's crazy. What do you go
to ESPN dot com? Jay read the top story, the top story about
the Big Twelve settling the Big Big twelve first to agree to Subtle House versus
n C Double A case. What do you deep down? And it talks
about more money coming in from the n C Double A. I have no
idea where they're getting this money, because because it doesn't seem like anybody has
any money about the kids that you cheer, the kids that you cheer,
and the kids that you don't cheer. Making five hundred thousand dollars a year,
Well, the the sort of the the innocence or of the of the
amateur athlete is it's gone. It's overwhet. You know, we talked about
some of you know, what the salary ranges are. We talked about that
yesterday. These kids are not making you know, five hundred thousand dollars,
two hundred thousand dollars, six figures, six figures to play you know,
college sports, and you go it, you know, as a purist,
right, it's distasteful to me. Do I think they should be getting money
and more than they have been getting short, you know, they shouldn't have
to be scrapping to take their girlfriends to a movie. They're bringing in big
money for the NCAA and they should have been sharing it a long time ago.
But on the flip side of that again, you know, going back
to Okay, if your quarterback is going to be making two million dollars,
that's not right for the defensive back who's out there and he's going to make
you know, two thousand dollars, five thousand dollars or twelve thousand dollars,
And again the imbalance of that again is kind of the thing that bothers me
about all of it. I know who it is that down They always calls
me the participation trophy you know, Vic, you know, I'm not a
participation trophy guy. I think, you know, if the quarterback he's got
to take all the pressure and stuff like that, he should make more.
But when he's making you got college quarterbacks who are making eight million dollars a
year and this other guy over here is making might get ten thousand dollars.
I do have a problem with that, And I feel like that belongs in
the NFL, that belongs in the NBA, that belongs in Major League Baseball.
I don't feel like that belongs at the college level. But that's where
we are. So once you read that story, maybe talk about it more
tomorrow. But it's a pretty big deal obviously, revenue sharing into the millions
and the back pay back pay and all that, and a lot more money
in the future with the Big Five a Big four. Now it's just kind
of crazy, just crazy, you know, the kids making Am I jealous?
Probably not. I was never an athlete to that level, but I'm
thinking, wow, wow. The thing that concerns me the most is how
much it's changing college sports. Right, you know a guy like well,
let me tell you, let me tell you. She so Desi Rae,
who just comes in, she's the new ad. She's making one million a
year. You have the president of the university making under a hundred million a
year. You have quarterbacks, and you have running backs making half a mill
close to that. Yeah, and now they're making just as much as the
president's of the ads. Yeah. No, how crazy is that? Or
as much as some of the assistant coaches. Some of its right, some
of the systems, most of these is I mean assistant coaches get paid,
you know, I mean not outside the coordinators. You can pay a couple
of hundred thousand, three hundred thousand dollars. What about now these players are
making that the players making more than the people giving them the money. Yeah.
And here's the thing about that, Steven in the NFL. Yeah,
some of these players make so much more than the coaches. But there are
professionals they'll understand their lot and I'll understand where they are and it could end
right there, you know there Most of them, I would say, not
all, Most of are pretty mature about about what that means and how to
handle that. Now you're talking about eighteen, nineteen twenty year olds with six
figure incomes dealing with the coaches. Maybe they're making more money than them.
How does that affect that relationship. Well, let's talk. We'll talk to
Jim about that as well, just the difficulties. And we talked about jokes
with him, and he's lucky to be out of the profession, so he's
admitted that. But now it's just kind of a it's a landline, yeah,
you know, not a landmine. It's like a nuclear bomb. Do
the whole thing. Well, it's something we gotta go here. We'll get
back with Jim, all right in a second. Yeah, So we'll be
back Jim Living Good, former Arizona ad un l VA D Tucson guy.
We'll talk to him about some of this stuff and go down again, go
down memory lane again about the old pack ten packed off. So stick around.
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all. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salviaz. This is I on the Ball
on Fox Sports fourteenth diff. Hey, welcome back to Winning the Ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roberta. He's Jickensaus. Now on
the phone, we have former UAA D Jim Live and good Jim. How
the heck you doing, Steve and Jay? I'm living life. I'm loving
it, spending a lot of time with kids, grandkids and my bride and
I'm loving it. So I hope you guys are doing well too. I
know you are. I'm sure you're loving it because you're no longer the ad
to and Jay. You guys, and I mean this, You have no
idea how happy I am to be doing exactly what I'm doing right now and
the upcoming I've spent so much time on the phone the last month on just
these items and knowing that we're right around the corner a couple of days from
a pretty big decision being made. A bunch more so, Hey, it's
a great time to be retired, guys, not tired. Oh. We
were just talking like, I would you like to be the a the ad
for a program where the quarterback on the football team might be making twice the
salary of say, his quarterbacks coach and that kind of stuff. I mean,
that would just scare the crap out of me. I just I can't
even fathom that. And I you know, and I know we've talked about
this before, but when you think back so many years ago when this was
all about the backs of jerseys and bookstores right right, and not being kids,
not being compensated, which I've been absolutely wish them all the good fortune
for that, But this thing is so far out of control now. Using
that oldest analogy in the world, I don't know if the toothpaste ever goes
back into tube. No, you're exactly right. I'm curious, Jim,
have you I know that Desiree did not follow you at UNLV, correct,
you had someone in between. See, I've known her a long time and
actually have known her fairly well, and we stayed in contact and that and
so from the un LV days, and actually before that, she worked for
a really factor, really good friend of mine who he and his wife are
just here two weeks ago for a week with us with Linda and Iron Tucson
Dave Hart, who was at that time the AD at Tennessee, and Desrael
worked for him and so and then worked for with Babcock at Technitive so anyway,
yeah, at Virginia Tech. But I've known her a long time both
Missouri unlv in here. Have you guys spoken since she's taken the job here,
Yes, I have several times. And you know, she is a
really good, talented person who is at the right place at the right time.
And I think the Wildcats. I'm not trying to get over positive on
this, but I want to make sure she is exactly what we need right
now. And I'd love Dave Ikey to death, but it's it is a
different time and there's some decisions that are going to have to be made that
she knows this and you guys know this. And in this world of intercles
athletics, somebody is going to be upset all the time. And the amount
of kind of controversy that can go going forward because we're you know, we're
talking about the twenty first of May. There are so many things are going
to happen in the next month, two months, six months, year and
so on that I just don't know. The house case is just one of
many attending kind of things, and guys, I don't know how somebody gets
their arms around that. Yeah, it makes it makes my head spen.
Yeah, it makes my head spin to to try and figure out what's going
on. So I'm just kind of letting it happen and reading stuff. Let's
go back, let's go back aways. Because you came into you came into
the u of a following a guy who had done an incredible job here to
put you know, Arizona on the map athletically, you know, moving into
having moved into the Pac ten, said Dempsey goes off to be president of
the n C Double A. So there was a I mean, there was
a lot in place for you to deal with. But also you're following a
guy who had done an incredible job and was loved here. Was that What
were some of the I guess the challenges of that and how did you embrace
all of that? Jay, It's a great question, and said and June
are still very dear friends, and I know they're going to some health issues
right now and I pray for them for that. But I was very fortunate,
very lucky to come be Arizona when he did. Remember, I've been
there at Washington State right in the Pac ten for a number of years,
so we'd known each other through meetings and certainly coaches, but was said as
well, and so the timing of everything, and that was Linda and I
had always talked to you know, at some point in time, you know,
the Arizona schools, whether it's Arizona or Arizona State, and I hate
to even say that second school, but I am. Anyway, those are
places that we just looked like they were going to be places where lots of
good things could happen. And we were extremely lucky, you know. I
was hired in December of ninety three and we went on a sixteen year run
with great coaches, great student athletes, great university administration, and so we
were very fortunate. But it was a very different time, Jay, than
it is right now in terms of the decisions that have to be made with
regards to whether it's programmatic. Certainly the fiscal part, the financial part unbelievable.
And yet during those days I was very fortunate to follow said yet we
had to make some tough decisions in those early years here as well with regards
to whether it's personnel or finances, and the budget had to be budget balanced.
There was no question about that that was going to be a director from
the board and from the president. So we were here at a really good
time. And I just I really want everything to be great, not good
for the Wildcats, and just I want people to know that, guys,
they are going to have to be some tough decisions made and there are there
are people in place administratively with the university and athletics to make those tough decisions.
Jim, we've talked to you a few times in the past when you've
been on the show about this year here at you of a doing very well
athletically, at least in the programs. We think it's one of the better
times. In fact, we almost give it a eight point five overall,
it's done some well football, basketball, baseball. When you were going back
like in the mid nineties seven, I compare it to back then the glory
days of the Arizona programs. When you were in that time. Did you
have time to say these are very good times, because as we look back,
those were very good times. Stay again and not trying to relocate you
and Jay, but again, great question. You know, the hard thing
about athletics and particularly administration athletics, I don't know that you ever enjoy as
much as you should the exact moment you're in, because you're always thinking about
what's next, whether it's and those were great times that we were very fortunate
with great coaches to win a lot of of the conference championships and win a
lot of national championships. But the nineteen ninety seven at which you've written about
a number of times, Steve and done a very good job of that part
right there. The focus immediately after the Indianapolis win was that team coming back
and all those players coming back and could repeat. So I think, and
not a negative, but I think we don't allow ourselves to enjoy the moment
we're in. We're always thinking about what's next, what's the next thing that's
going to happen, And that's the unfortunate thing. And once you do that,
it's a little bit too late. It's and I know, StEB,
you and I've talked about this for it's about grandkids. We're so lucky to
be able to spend time with our grandkids, much more time when when when
I was working as an ad whether it's Washington State or here, and that
what we do with our kids, we're able to enjoy it. So that's
a great question and I don't know that anybody, I think any ad right
now would answer that probably the same way as they wish they could enjoy that
moment of success. And this is I couldn't agree with you more. This
is a fantastic year for the Wildcats, and it's turning in to be a
fantastic spring for the Cats too. Okay, let's go back to another moment
for you. You're the guy, You're the guy that's got to hire a
basketball coach to replace a legend. How you know, how were you saying,
Luke, please keep coaching so I don't have to do this, or
you know how stressful was that for you? And then tell us a little
bit about how you wound up with Sean Miller. Jay, Again, I
had a little bit of a heads up because you know, during that time
period and certainly Luton and Bobby first used to sit with us in our box
for the back for football games, and so there was another relationship besides just
athletics. So in the last two or three years, you know, I
knew that things just weren't as good as they could be in terms of health
wise, that part of it. So there was no search committee involved.
In fact, the person that I leaned on as much as anybody was Sam
Newton, who had just finished as the Kentucky A d uh that, and
so Sam was a great resource in terms around it. The hardest thing about
that whole thing there is is talking with a great number of people across the
country about who would be a fit, because we're talking about not just one
of the greatest coaches of all time, but we're talking about an absolute as
they should be, a legend in Tucson and a legend in Arizona. That
part of it, the lucky part of it for me, guys and Jay
in this context is I had been on the basketball committee, was going on
the basketball committee, or was on the basketball and so I had a chance
to visit with a lot of coaches around the country, watch practices, watch
what they're doing, and Sean just seemed like an absolute natural fit, not
just because of what he'd done Exavier, but because of his playing career at
Pitt and the people that he was in contact with. So no coaching hire
is ever perfect. Sometimes it can be a great fit one place and a
horrible fit in another. We all know that. But that's where when you
go from that time to present day. That's where I'd give Dave Kiki a
tremendous amount of credit with the coaches that he currently hired there on staff right
now. How long coach? You know, coaching, everybody has an idea
who would be the perfect coaching higher until it does and work out until you
lose. That's like a Mike Tyson. Then you can't find anybody who's going
to let them say, you know, I thought that'd be a good hire.
You can find all kinds of people when that when that coaching hire works
out. And again I've been involved in a number of them. I had
a great coach at Washington State in Kelvin who's still doing a great job at
Houston. So it's a it's an inexact sid it's best and the I just
think it's it's a blessing right now that Arizona has the coaching staff in all
sports that they have and the job they're doing. Yeah, no question.
We were talking about the mid nineties where you know, Director's Cups and all
that, your standouts and all that top fifteen, top ten throughout the years.
Any favorite moment in those times that you probably have a ton of them,
Steve There are all kinds of and I hate to pick out favorite because
that part of you you always tend to leave something out. I think the
biggest part of those my sixteen years here was absolutely the relationship with staff and
the relationship with student athletes and the kinds of things and enjoy. I mean,
we were blessed across the board to be having a lot of great teams,
but we also had a lot of great coaches and we had a lot
of things going on. One of the advantages I think we had at that
time, and again today's world is different than that world in that we had
McHale. We had everybody house in McHale, So I had a regular schedule
thing that was called a walking around period of just walking around McHale, visiting
with our coaches, visiting with staff, visiting with our custodians, just visiting
with people. So those are my favorite moments. That there's championships and all
those things, and those are great, but the favorite moments I used to
love the kickoff at the start of the year, the all student athlete meeting
with all of our student athletes, and you know, we did so many
different kinds of things during the course of the year, we had a malfunction
day where we had games with the whole staff, took part in the we
had a barbecue, and you know, in this day and age, there'd
be all kinds of criticism for getting out of the apartment and doing something that
wasn't absolutely connected with, you know, allowing sports to get better or allowing
teams to win. But those those days were that was important. Staff relationship
was really important. But do you have like a best day that sticks out
to you in your time? You know, I mean, just one best
day? Come on, you got to have one, you know what,
Jay, It's such a great question, and I won't do it the honor
of answering there. There are so many. I mean, when you're when
you're blessed to be the athletic director at University of Arizona and Tucson Arizona,
there are many days, many many more good days than are bad, but
many days that stick out as favorites because that's it. I mean, you
live in a great place, You're at a great school, You're in a
community that cares about the wildcats. So all of those and I'm sorry I
can't pick out something. I just I've always I've been asked that question so
many times, and quite honestly, and you guys, probably both Steve,
you and Jay both know this. I've been asked by a number of people
to do kind of a couple of inside stories, if you will, of
what really went on during those sixteen years, because nothing is ever the same
as it is perceived by the outside world. That's just the way it is.
There are so many things that people would be shocked at, both good
and bad, of how decisions were made, why decisions were made, and
what they were made on based on what perception and what rumors are. And
that was a different world. But Lynda and I and our whole family,
we are blessed to have been here at the u of A for those years
and have a bunch of friendships are still there as we do it all three
we still have the same relationships in the in Las Vegas. And then Pulman
and Washington. Well, you bring up a point I was going to get
back to you on all those memories. Yeah, yeah, come on,
Jim, that's for another day. Just give us give us the inside of
one coaching higher that's all we want, just one coaching. Don't do it,
don't do it. You know what, You're going to laugh when I
say this, But I had a chance to hire Mike Price here and was
told that that would not be good because of what had gone on previously the
year before at Alabama and so on. I still think maybe one of the
best hires ever uh is Mike at Washington State when I hired him from Weaver
State. I mean, think about this, guys, this The Cougars from
Pulman Washington have been to two pro two ghost Bulls under Mike Price. That
just just the complexity of that. And he would have been a great,
great fit here. He's just he's a great coach, but he's been a
great person. And so I I just I don't know that I have any
there's no sexy stories of of this thing or that thing. My memories are
just so great in terms of this wonderful school and this wonderful these wonderful programs
and and you guys. And I'm not again blowing smoke. I don't need
to, because I don't need anything from either one of you, but Steve,
you and Jay have been part of those memories. YEA, well,
thank you so many different ways, and the appreciation of what you've done for
this community and and quite candidly what you've done for me. So that's a
memory right there. Well, thank you, thank you so much for that,
Jem. In fact, our previous guests, mister Pete Williams said,
make sure to say hello to Jim. You helped him with his daughter in
Vegas. He really remembers it and appreciate, appreciated all you did for him.
He is awesome, just an incredible not just a great player, but
a great human being his daughter. But again, guys, those are memories
because now we're getting into at this stage in life where uh daughters and sons
and and candidly in some cases I hate to even say this because it does
date me quite a bit, but granddaughters and grandsons. So it's it's been
a blessing and UH and I hope we get a chance to talk many more
times about the Cats and the great championships that are that are going to be
one going forward. We will, we will, especially in the Big twelve
coming. So Big twelve, you guys, I know you're excited to go
to UH to West Virginia, ips of Manhattan. You're about all those places,
you know, you guys, are you do have a sense of humor.
You've got to have that. I mean, hey, if you ever
been to down and you will been to downtown Cincinnati, you need to be
there. We will be there. Jim, I've been to love It.
Okay, look I have been to love too. And I'll tell you what
not a lot of people can say that, Ja. Those are memories that
you will put on that shelf and you'll say, you know what, I've
been there exactly exactly. Thank you, Jim, Thanks you well any time,
guys for what you do. Yeah, thank you, Jim. Jim
loving good. Trying to put a little dig into us. Yeah, exactly.
The by Jackets. If we're going to West Virginia, I'm not going
to West Virginia. I can tell I ain't tie right now. I'm not
going to West Virginia. My son played soccer there. It was cold.
It was cold. I hope it's a different world, he said, yeah,
totally differently. Okay, we got to go. All right, let's
hit the road for a little break. We'll be back and we'll wrap this
up five two zero four one six seventy four forty If you want to give
us a call, So We're right back. 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 Ludelsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.
It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them,
competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty
five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from newt is an insight to how
he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve
dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal while
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today at a teamsecurity dot net. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WOP. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacinzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to wying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, He's Jay got our guy Ryan in with us for the
next eleven minutes as we close out today's show. Fun show Today, Good
show Today. That's been fun. You know, Jim had has always you
know, very uh diplomatic, diplomatic stuff that you know, kind of grabs
your emotions a little bit, you know, because he's he's so h appreciative
of the time that he's had, with the jobs that he's had, and
uh and and really you know a lot of people, you know, he
would come around and you know, have a great wildcat day and those kinds
of things, and there were probably some people thought, come on, how
real is he? That was him? Well, let's also say we got
a call. I'll bring conduct to this. Okay, let's take this call.
Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball. Hi,
it's Lynn, sweet daughter. Yeah, we mentioned you earlier. That's why
she's calling that you mentioned me. I said to Jim, Oh, I'm
gonna calm, Oh you're famous. Now what do you have for us?
How? Thanks for colling, Thank you both for making me famous in my
house only sure, that's fine. We're not even famous and our I was
going to say, yeah, yeah, we're not, so you know,
it's just such wonderful memories and it's it's devastating to think it's really over.
Yeah, what are some of your friends? I was gonna say, going
back to you know all this time, you know, since nineteen seventy eight,
when Arizona got into the pack, what were some of your favorite times
that you can think of? Moments, games, events, whatever. Oh
I can, I can tell you right off the bat. I mean,
we all went to the Final four in Kansas City and I will never ever
forget that. I mean, it was unreal and I am to this day
still as Sean Elliott groupie. And you know, in those days where you
all talk about you get to know the players, they were out at everything.
Yeah, you got your picture taken, you went and talked to him,
and it was just very amazing. And my dad by then was working
for course and they gave Steve, Steve Kerr the award, the Inspirational Award,
and we were in the room and it was so emotional because you know,
we'd lost and he was very emotional. I'll never forget that. I'll
never forget we I had moved to the Bay Area by then and went down
in nineteen ninety in the Rose Bowl and we played UCLA and d Lou intercepted
that and ran it in the end zone and we beat Ucla in the Rose
Bowl game, went nuts and then the Washington game. How can you not
forget that, you know in ninety two when they came in here and we
did it? Sure, yes, those weren't care time football, baseball you
named swimming, I mean golf. You look at Haley in twenty eighteen.
I can remember I'd never watched Arizon a woman's golf like that. You know,
no, right, yeah, right, no, great memories. Well,
how do you mind asking? How how old were you when they moved
into the Pac ten? I had. I graduated in nineteen seventy six,
so I've been out of college two years, okay twenty three And when we
went into the pack. What were you thinking at that time that, oh
my god, what are we up? Are we nuts? Or what?
I Actually, this is bizarre to say. I've always I worked for a
law firm there, and a lot of them were Stanford and Cal and they
were big football guys and well later on, but not right, and they
I thought I always loved the challenge. I thought it was going to be
incredibly exciting. And I thought people would be shocked by what Arizona could do,
and I think they still are. Yeah. No, I think that's
a perfect example because they did. They did at times, many times you
think there's no way possible, and here they were like lookaball god, yeah
no, you're right, you're right. Well, thanks for calling, thanks
for still listening. Well, thank you. Beare down and I guess I'll
have to get used to the big twelve. It's going to be fun.
It's still be fun. It's gonna be a lot of fun new T shirts.
All right, thank you so much, thank you, thank you.
We'll remember that name. Lynda, who saw we met her just a few
couple of years ago, came to our tail game and yeah, yeah,
no. I think she's consistent with everybody else thinking, well, you know,
what are we getting into? But not really, We're gonna be okay,
yeah, you know. And I regardless of whether I thought Arizona could
compete, I thought I thought it was gonna be fun because all of a
sudden, instead of playing Colorado State eight in Wyoming and utap and at that
time in Utah and New Mexico, it's like we're playing Ucla, We're playing
usc playing Washington, we're playing Stanford. Remember John Alway was a quarterback in
the mid eighties there, and you know John always coming to town. Uh,
you know those kinds of things. You know, Arizona had in after
the seventy nine season they played in the Festival and Dan Marino with the quarterback.
You thought, Arizona, we're kind of in a big time thing now,
regardless of whether we can compete. You feel like you're sort of on
the radar now you're on TV. You know, you know again, you
know they all of a sudden you get a game with Notre Dame. You
know, all that kind of stuff is kind of like, I don't care
how good or bad we're gonna be. We're gonna have fun doing it whatever
it is. If you could let me go back to the gym, loving
good thing what you're talking about, have a great wildcat day and all that,
the cozier year warming, plenty of time and people work maybe sometimes you
know, Okay, you know, but let me tell you something. I
miss those days because we don't see those days anymore gone. And then in
fact brought up a point where we were closer to the players. Maybe not
too close, but we told our stories and we won't see that again unless
somebody opens the door and says, okay, guys, here it is.
Well, well here's the deal. And this is sort of them. We
can't go walk around mchall and just pop into offices anymore. You know,
they don't even know who the hell is used to be able to do that.
I mean, you know, I mean, just walk into Kevin O'Neil's
office when he was an assistant coach, just walked over to the basketball office,
went in and you know, sat down with Kevin O'Neil and Ricky Burt's
like, hey, what are you guys up to? Yeah, you know,
you can't. You got to go through channels to have access to not
just players but coaches and administrators and sure, and so we don't know the
athletic department like we used to know it, right, Like there's a name
that everybody mentioned from back in the day, John Parrot, Right, he
was basically the CFO. He was the chief finance guy. He was in
charge, he was the bookkeeper basically for the you know, and you could
walk into McHale and go to his office and start asking for stuff, you
know, and he'd give you stuff, he'd help you out, and you
know, he wanted to help you out with stuff. And you don't have
that connection anymore. And I think in a lot of ways, I thing
it's worked against you know, because now things like this happened, Like when
things like this financial situation happened, nobody knows why it happened, and nobody
explaining why it happened. It's all you know, you know, kind of
you know, kept under wraps, and you don't look if you came out
and told us, this is why it happened because we spent too much money
on this, this, this, this, and this, But we think
spending that money was good for because we don't get that. It's just like
you've got this financial situation. Nobody understands how it could happen. I don't
know if you remember reading my Goodbye Calumn to Sean Miller and all the things
I wrote. But one of the things is one of his issues was he
didn't get close to anybody here in the media, to just who he wanted
to. He wasn't a close guy. He got He's friendly with a lot
of the national guys. At the end of the day the national guys who
the guys screwed him, right, and he had no one here to kind
of buffer or anything or make it sound less crazy for him. And that's
neither here nor there. But what didn't help him. It didn't help him
because he didn't allow anybody to get close. Well, I've said and I
believe that, I you know, I believe that if you're a coach or
any if you're a job anywhere really and people don't know you and don't know
whether to like you or not like you or whatever, or maybe they don't
like you because they don't know you, and if you start having some trouble,
you don't have the support you know, to keep your job. And
that's exactly what I was talking, right, you know. Look, it
was easy to fire John mcavic because everybody hated the guy. You know after
after a couple of years he was a warm and fuzzy guys. He made
no friends. He made no friends from the day he got here. Kevin
someone was the same way. Even Mike Stoops never got to know the community,
right, So had a couple of tough seasons gone right, you know,
And and again Sean Miller might have weathered the storm if he had more
community supporting, more people who were behind him. He did have the big
booster money behind him to keep him, keep him until that it was it
was pretty much over. Uh No, But people don't know you and don't
like you, right, the voices get louder and louder and louder, and
and you know, it's it feels just like, you know, an example
all uses the coach of Ben, the coach from u C l A.
Ben Holland right, nobody could stand the guy he went. He went to
three straight final fours and ye had a few years later he was fired because
people didn't like him. He was gruffy, was was gruff and and all
that. And it's like, you know, it's just like you gotta build
up, you know, alliances, I guess, I know if that's the
right word. Well, you gotta have people behind you who are willing to
fight for you, and you have to have it's such a long time ago
now because it's not the same. It hasn't been the same since Greg Burn
showed up, you know, uh, and it kind of changed into a
corporate world in that office. I rarely go down there, and I really
know anybody anymore. And I was there every day, every day. Uh
you know who they are. Who's the finance person today? Don't know,
don't know, But everybody knew John parent. In fact, a d's come,
have come and gone since the last time, I mean ads under under
the eighties. I didn't know my name, didn't care to know my name,
which is fine. It is what it is. We gotta go,
all right, gotta hit the road. We're gonna come. We'll be back
tomorrow, hopefully I have some more great guests lined up for you. Keep
going down memory lane like we have been. This has been a lot of
fun, so you sure have been here tomorrow