This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
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Kt z R two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Yet So good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here at Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagansaus got our guy, Kevin Today. Welcome to
the grind on Tuesday. It is a grind. It's a tough job.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is my long, long day I've got.
You know. I get up at five point thirty for this breakfast club
that I work with, and I do all my stuff during it, and
then I got a basketball game tonight. Oh you do have a basketball game
with a woman? Play six. I have no sympathy for you this week
because I'm doing the same thing with other things. I can't wait to be
sixty years old, no, seventy, but I have nothing to do.
But that'd be another time for another discussion. Kevin, you're just starting off.
Good luck to you. Still's hired though, Yeah, I'm just tired.
Uh Hey, a big game on Saturday. I hope the weather holds.
It should be a little rainy, a little raining, not a lot
raddy really yeah, twenty five chants it was. It was before it was
like forty percent chests. That was twenty five. So we'll see what happens.
And what's up with the football program? What are they doing to get
people in the building. Well, I just saw this on Twitter. I
haven't received any email or or anything. Maybe if I go into my season
ticket account, but every season ticket holder at you know, parars on a
football is being offered two free tickets to the game to bring somebody to be
so get another location. Probably, yeah, I'm sure they're not. Probably
sure they're not. You can't sit next to me though, Yeah, but
you know what we see We bring people in all the time. We have
tickets elsewhere in the stadium and they come and sit with us. Okay,
pintint no cool? I guess who that's gonna work. They gotta get the
tay. I can't remember a bigger game in a while. Yeah, well,
you know again, they're you know, they're going after their eighth win.
Who would have thought that we'd get to that all. Got a text
from listener Bill who said he got his last week. So I don't even
know when they did that, but apparently they did. I saw a friend
who did that today said I got two tickets. So I'm thinking, really,
you're not gonna do the game. And now it explains why they're not
going to They're going to the game plus two tickets. You know, I
wonder if I just killed the email. Well for a school not flush with
money, they're giving away tickets. Well, look, you know they look
they got to get people. They got to get people coming to the gates,
right, So if if the way to get them to the games is
to give them a couple of tickets to come to the game, then you
then you take a shot at that. But yeah, I don't know.
I on the one hand, it looks I don't want to say desperate,
but it looks like we can't sell these tickets, we're going to give them
away. On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense to to
say, you know, come to a game, see what it's like,
and then you'll come and you'll come again. So it's hard to play.
I'm asking you and your buddies, those guys that you eat blunch with and
huh and and are giddy, uh so, uh the games at twelve thirty,
and someone sent me a text, I will say, who, what
would have been the perfect time for this game in Tucson, Arizona for you
Wildcat fans? How can we make you happy? I think twelve thirty is
perfect. I prefer a four to thirty game, or yeah, probably,
I think the time slot now you know, it's not three thirty because three
thirty during daylight savings time, which we're not on. So the four thirty
game, that would have been a really good time. I like the one.
I like the twelve thirty and one o'clock games. Yes, they're you
know you have to you have to uh tailgate early in the morning if you
want a tailgate, but I'm not unhappy doing that. I like the twelve
thirty game. You know, yes, you get you get yourself out of
the sack and and go tailgate and all that stuff. But then you know
the game's over at four o'clock. You go have some dinner on the way
home or whatever. You go. You know, you hit the sack at
eight o'clock because you're wiped out and it's been a good day. I love
the twelve thirty games, especially any day game in November. Any time of
the day in November is a great time to have a game. I think
I think one thirty is better than twelve thirty because then on the front on
the on the front end, you don't have to get there at seven thirty
in the morning for your tailgate. But you know, when they announce twelve
thirty, I'm like, okay, cool, I'd rather have that than eight
o'clock at night, right, you know, you know with us with our
tailgate, you know we'll have you know, sort of a breakfast a breakfast
menu we're gonna do, you know, chariso and eggs and menulo and you
know, breakfast pastries, Mimosa's bloody, Mary's Delicious. What work does you
want? Yeah, out a Saturday, Yeah exactly. Get there early,
Yeah, get there early. But we'll be cooking. You know, we
never cook. We're bringing stuff that's already made. But on a for one
like this, you know, we'll cook. We'll have a fun with it.
So I'm looking forward to it. It's it's I think it's I think
it's a really good time And if somebody doesn't like it, well then get
the hell out of it. Well, you know, Steve I mean,
it's funny. I had one of those Facebook memories pop up, maybe it
was last week or so where it was a season where it might have been
during the sumbling years, but it's a season where people were bitching and bitching
and bitching because Arizona had to run the Lake games, right, you were
all they like games, and then they get a one o'clock game. It
was like three years ago, and don't write and nobody showed up, and
I'm like, okay, as I'm gonna set it. Okay, you're fine.
What the hell are you? Right? You've been bitching about the Lake
starts. So we got a day game and you're still not here? What
the hell? Because that's not you. Let's talk about this. So you
know we can't talk. Hey, smart, move with the phone line.
We can see the you've been here forever. Yeah, and Arizonta fans and
I've written this story of a thousand times. I've said this. There are
a bunch of fickle fans. If your win, they'll come. And that's
pretty much every base, but but here it's and they're not from here unless
you are from here, like you Right, you're a rarity. Right,
You're a rarety guess because people who own or who own tickets like you aren't
natives. There are even people from out of town. I mean they're not.
What's the fan base? You got fifty thousand people that can go in
that stadium. The fan base is about twenty two the season ticket fan base,
Yeah, the twenty two twenty two? How How is sad the right
word? Yeah? It sucks, but it's always been there, that's my
that's my point. You're trying to chase. Never more than that, you're
you try to chase something that's always been that way. Ye. That ain't
gonna happen if you continue to show up late to your wedding. Guess what
you're gonna do. You're gonna show up late to your wedding. That's just
what you do. No, it's and that and that's that's unfortunately where you
know where it's been so No, I I you know it. It Uh,
it's just it makes me mad because our fans, our fans always have
to find something to bitch about it. Come on, it's funny last night
on Facebook? Uh, some guy. And this is what we've come to
with Facebook and Twitter. If I didn't have to be I would be disappeared.
But some guy was was complaining. I was complaining. I was used
to b word that the team will looked tired. They looked team last night,
looked they were grabbing their knees and they were tired. Then one thirty.
That's a lie. Shut up. Yeah, I think it's a misinterpretation
of what they were want like not you. I think they're mister looking at
I think they weren't tired. I think they were mentally drunk from a dragon
beating. I didn't even think that they were pretty sloppy to start. Southern
University came out and played really well. You know in the first half.
Yea, Arizona tried to impose its will and do that until the second half.
They won by thirty some point. You weren't here yesterday, but that
went on Friday. May have been a curse because now everything's supposed to be
perfect. It doesn't work that way, especially you played ball right, well,
you didn't play ball was so so. You see this all the time.
You get up for huge games, especially dudes like this dude, these
guys, and I've seen it thirty some years, and then you play somebody
that's not you played down. I think for the first like I think it
was. Actually I noted it. It was until the first media time out.
Arizona was playing kind of its kind of going to the emotions. And
that's what you were talking about, Jay when you said Southern played really hard.
They're gonna play really hard because they're playing Arizona, so like it's it's
not to us to come out and whoop them by thirty like we did.
My whole point maybe in this is is some dude, some dude in a
count somewhere is complaining about the team grabbing their knees and then tired, what
it's something that dude saying that guy should have a be on a diet.
I answer, I shot, you know what, well, that guy must
have had Arizona minus thirty one. Well he got ripped, he got ripped.
No, no, he got ripped. He got ripped by some of
the guys. I know. Because oh, it's always if it's not the
refs, it's something else. If it's not this, it's something else.
I was gonna say. I've been talking to my friends a lot this year
about how fans of any sport, of any team in big are gonna find
things to complain about within that area. I mean, look at the NBA.
The NBA is trying to do in season, tournament, they're trying to
do playing, they're trying to fix problems with the fans have been complaining about.
But as soon as they announced that, what other fans do complain this
is stupid. I don't want it. I know a guy and I'm just
gonna say, I know a guy who thought Loud Olson was incredibly overrated and
not the legend that everybody made him out to be because he only won one
necessarily, I ran into that's the same not the same guy, but the
same scenario. And you can explain what he meant. Some guy about six
seven months ago said and he's just just a normal fan. He says,
Steve, I have some friends and he's a he's an international guy, foreign
guy. And he he says, I have some friends because I was selling
my book right and they bought some books. And he says, I some
of my friends said that he should have had a few more titles. That
I'm thinking, what do you do for living? And he told me,
what are you good at what you do? And if you play it against
other people, don't you think you're gonna get beat every now and again because
other teams have pretty good teams at the same time. Right, Calipari,
what about him? What about coach k They all everyone should have titles,
have more, right, So when do they win more if you're all playing
against the same teams. No, it makes no sense. It makes no
sense to me. You and golf. If I play you in golf,
shouldn't you kick my ass every time? Every time? Exactly? Right?
Then? What it doesn't make any sense. These people who kind of make
observations don't have any don't have all the resources to think about what they're thinking
about. I mean, they're also not going to seek out those resources.
I think if you're if you're watching, you already have your idea. Exactly
if you're watching Arizona basketball, but you're only watching Arizona Verse. Duke only
watching Arizona Verse the top teams, and then he tuned in after we beat
the You're like, Oh, Arizona's got it this year. You just playing
against Southern in the first five minutes, and you're like, but they haven't
seen Kansas, Yeah, exactly seen. They're not gonna They're not gonna go
I'm saying they're not gonna go out and equip themselves with the natural tools sure
to make the decision. Who would have ever thought last year that the Florida
team would have been their team. No one thinks because you never saw them
right, right, and and here we have all these people should win it.
No, not always, not always. And I'm not trying to defend
the Arizona. You could put me in Kansas or you could put me in
Texas. It's the same thing. People don't. People are blinded. They
were blinders and they say, oh, we're the best team in the country.
Okay, sure, just wants your team. Yeah. And if you
if you ask any if if you get a sellout arena at you know,
let's not do you it, Let's do Kansas right, sell out arena at
Kansas. If you went and interviewed fifty percent of the people there, varying
levels of knowledge is what you're gonna find. Like the high level of I'll
say in depth, level of familiarity with the team, it's gonna be pretty
rare. Yeah, you know, so I feel like, yeah, you're
gonna hear it. Yeah, anything your team is good. There's gonna be
a lot of noise. You don't think people in Kansas are some people in
Kansas should should have said we should have more titles every year. I'm sure
they're looking around like, wait, we didn't win it last year. What
what? We're not defending this? What happened? Yeah, what happened.
It's it's just the way. It's just the way life is. It's never
you're never gonna make a lot of people happy. People are unhappy. You're
probably doing something something right. Maybe maybe well I kind of ran into somebody's
Saturday and I came back from Dukin talking about the game and something. Oh
he's he's overrated, And I'm thinking he's been here two years, he's been
here two years. He can't dance. Oh he's what he danced twice?
What he Oh my god. It's the way that we live in the world
we live it definitely the results based thing, right, But everybody, I'm
entitled to my opinion. Go aheadhead, have it a good leg with that.
All right, talk about the show. We got Bruce Pascal coming up.
We're gonna pick his brain on what the hell he thinks he saw at
Duke last week other than and he and he asked a couple of quick,
good questions. You know, Bruce. I loved Bruce because we started to
get her back in the nineties or you know, he showed up later and
he's kind of like the antagonist with his questions and and coach knows this who
he needed him, He needled him and do him last night. But but
the questions he asked kind of need to be asked. His approach might be
bad, but he but he asked the questions last night. He had a
good one, the final question. And I'll have him ask you that because
you probably didn't listen to it, did you? No? Okay, so
it was interesting. Well I did see somebody say why doesn't why doesn't Tommy
Lloyd like Bruce? Well, because it's just poke. It's it back and
forth, right, Okay, that's funny, all right, all right?
So Bruce did gonn join us here in a couple of minutes, and then
we were trying to get some get Javier Morales. They talked to us about
high school sports, but he's busy coaching his elementary school basketball team, so
we're not gonna be able to get him. But lots of stuff to talk
about. We'll use that segment to going deeper into some issues that have come
up over the last week or so. We'll do that after breaking news,
and so we'll get lots of cover, so we'll go through all that,
but Bruce Pascal coming up right after the break. Stick around. For more
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera and Jay Gonzalez on Box Sports
fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to whyan about here at Fox Sports fortune
fifty. I'm Steve, he's Jay got Kevin with us. Now on the
phone. We have Bruce Pasco from The Daily Star. Bruce, how are
you? Yeah? How are you good? Fine? Fine? So?
So were you tired last night? Because some people think the basketball team was
tired? Oh, well me, I'm tired because it was a six o'clock
game. So that's all I can Yeah, I mean I thought it was
great. Yeah, I was a sleep by midnight. So you made this
great observation. We sat together for a little bit, a little bit and
I didn't even think it's think of this, but how it how the game
was important to be played here and not on the road explained Yeah. Yeah,
And I didn't to downplay the other thing because they did have this huge
game. Then they had a late night flight. I wasn't on that flight.
You were, either Steve and they they were up all night and then
they have people telling them how great they are all weekend. That's tough to
deal with. And so yeah, no, I thought it was worth bringing
back the point that this game was originally scheduled to play Saturday Sunday afternoon in
Baton Rouge, and it was part of that PAC twelve legacy series with the
Swax Schools, and they were trying to promote this was sort of a COVID
year idea they came up where they were trying to promote HBCU and awareness and
this and that and anti racism, all this kind of stuff, and Arizona
got in a bind when they decided they wanted to play Florida Atlantic, and
Fox was trying to get them to play it up in Las Vegas, and
Arizona didn't have a home gate available or they needed a home game to finish
out because they have to have eighteen here for that's their their rule for season
ticket packages, and so they can plan their budgets because obviously they make a
lot of money on home games here. So the only way, you know,
Arizona could do it is either cancel one of their big neutral games,
which they weren't going to do, or you know, throw a bunch of
money at Southern and get them to come out here. And that's basically what
happened. You know, I don't know yet how much they paid them.
I've put into public records re quest on September twenty sixth. Still I haven't
got it back yet, so I have no idea, but I'm sure it's
north of the one hundred thousand dollars to get them to come out here instead
of playing the game in Baton Rouge, which made a huge difference because you
can imagine you guys, I mean, Steve and I we were talking about.
I was like, if Arizona had to go straight to Baton Rouge on
Sunday. Not only did they be tired, but they'd also be hearing about
how great they were and the arena was going to be sold out. It's
a little like smaller arena there seventy five hundred students and it's not a bad
team. As we saw in the first half. They got some you know,
they got some aggressiveness and some athletes there. You know, there might
have been a lot of trouble. So it made a big difference in the
game about here last night because it allowed Arizona to sort of, you know,
refocus and recover it half time and sort of you know, come out
and play the way they played. And then they had the support of the
crowd, which has you guys also though intends to be the loudest at Machaale
when the team's in trouble, and they were in trouble last night for almost
twenty minutes for half. Well, yeah, well, you know, you
know how the Arizona fans are, right, so you beat Duke and now
everything. They got to blow everybody out by forty and if you're playing in
a close game, there's something wrong as opposed to yeah, maybe the other
team's playing really well and Arizona's got to figure out how to, you know,
how to defend them and how to score against them. They beat them
by thirty plus, and it's like somehow that still wasn't good enough for a
lot of fans. Yeah, I mean, this is it was exactly what
I thought would happen. I mean, I just thought because of Southern style,
and they Southern crost them a little bit of trouble last year. Granted
it was a different team, largely under a different coach, but but Arizona
struggle with them for the first half last year, you know, and if
you combine that with coming off the Duke Whin, it was an automatic hangover
struggles situation where they just you knew they weren't going to just run out of
the gate. At least I felt anyway they wouldn't. But but I thought
they'd ultimately get it together. They have enough depths. We saw the you
know, Lloyd played for the eleventh final eleven minutes only reserve players and they
still out sports Southern. So they got the depths to where where teams out
and that's what happened. But but definitely the first half was a concern,
but also, you know, it's it's human nature. I mean, you
know that. I don't. I don't think it's a big surprise at all.
I mean, Tommy Lloyd didn't agree when I asked him if it was
mental or physical, and he he went straight to the physical, saying,
hey, this team was good. I you know, maybe who knows that.
I don't know. I kind of thought it looked to me like part
of it was just you know, them them adjusting to having to play the
game. Those one of the things. Because you asked that question. Uh,
it was a fair question, and he's not going to go with an
He's not gonna go with a mental you know that. But but you had
to ask the question anymore. No coach wants to No coach wants to admit
their t wasn't ready. But I didn't think it was really a mark on
Lloyd not having a team rate as much as just human nature. Like you
can only do so much. You can tell these guys you've got to be
ready, blah blah blah, they just be donlv you know, forget about
Duke. They're nineteen twenty year old guys. I mean it's tough, right,
right, and then you that question and then your final question. You
Jay hadn't heard it. We talked about it going up the ramp. Your
thoughts on your final question, Oh, you know, well, I mean
the whole, the whole budget thing. That's why I'm kind of trying to
do some more on this per day. And just you know, I thought,
I just asked him, do you think that the current crisis will affect
your program? Because obviously cutting men's basketball is not an option. I mean,
maybe they could cut the salaries, but if they do too much,
it's market based salaries and that could affect the program, and then the program
potentially doesn't win. Then you then you don't get as much revenue. I
mean, you got to spend money to make money, so, you know,
but I just asked him because I thought maybe they were racing for some
kind of across the board cut in the athletic department. Nobody in the athletic
department is talking about it. I've tried to get Dave. He can't talk
to him. You know, I've been watching. I had like literally spent
today rewatching that faculty Senate meeting where Robbins was blaming a lot of this problem
on the Big Twelve of all things, and how you know, he was
saying that if the big gifts the Pac twelve had taken Texas and Oklahoma and
beefed up to twenty teams, that would have got a big contract and they
didn't get that, and now they go in the other direction and maybe gone
a little more. And he said, it's not a Panaceea, you know,
we're in trouble. So, I mean, he was trying to justify
to the faculty Senate and they and also to the regents that that part of
the problem was they gave him this loan thinking that they would do that in
the context of they had additional revenues coming down the road with bigger media contracts.
For now those media contracts are not going to happen. They're not going
to be bigger anyway, so they they're in a bind. And and so
so I just asked Lloyd if he's saying because literally, I mean, part
of the problem here is that Jetfish and Tommy Lloyd are the only people that
media can even ask about this issue, like everybody else is behind closed doors,
so we have to ask them. And Fish said something the effect of,
you know, we're focused on winning, and and Tommy Lloyd said he
didn't come here to be part of the budget crisis. He doesn't. He
hopes it doesn't affect him, but he didn't. And then when to ask
him, have you heard anything? What have they told you? He said
nothing I want to share with you. So that's that's where they're at.
But you know, it's all doing that context of yeah, we have to
ask them because they're there, but also they make money for this program.
They're probably thinking, you know, like they're both winning, probably more than
than anybody saw it in each case, and they're generating money from the university,
and the university havn'ts problems, so you could see how they might be
saying, hey, it's not my problem, you know, like and that's
kind of the ye by God anyway. Well, part of the thing I
reason I ask is because I saw another post which is stupid. I stupid.
Watch his posts. Someone said the tone, the tone that he was
because he's usually happy, right, yeah, he's usual and he had a
little nasty tone to it. Or I didn't come here to be part of
a budget crunch, right, I didn't get that. I didn't feel that
tone because he's kind of like Bubby every time. But that was a good
question to a to a good question, and the response was what what it
was? It's just a straightforward response. Yeah, I don't know. I
don't know what to think of that, Steve. I think you know,
it's possible that again, if you're him, I'm yeah, you might think
you know, Yeah, me and my staff are making money, but we're
also making ten twelve million dollars for the university. So why are you even
asking me that question? You know? But I don't think he's necessarily like
that, but he was a little bit, yeah, a little bit if
the error in general, And but maybe that's because everybody at U of A
has been told don't talk about anything, you know, and that's usually their
mo o when there's anything kind of controversial out there. Who knows that said,
and Jay, you were there for you. You hung on for a
little while. He couldn't show up till later. And the president was not
in the building. It was not in the in the press conference because he
usually is. Yeah, he was at the game, but he left.
I watched him leave. I was filing my buzzer story and he left right
under us, and and I went down to try and find him and Boone,
he was gone, yeah, okay, let's talk about basketball. Yeah,
let's talk about the game. So okay, top two or three impressions
that you have of this team or you know what you feel you know about
this team already? Well, you know, I mean it's kind of in
a way. I think the main impression is they're they're you know, like
like the previous two Tommulay teams, they're really playing well together. And there's
a lot of guys who can do it. I think, you know,
maybe you know, two years ago you had Ben Matherne, who was you
knew you would be the guy or whatever, and and Collocal was your your
defensive guy around the basket and that was But this is a team with just
you know, a bunch of guys who can, uh you know, can
can really rely on each other depending on what's available out there. And that's
that's the way they're doing it. And I think that's kind of a best
case scenario for them. I don't know whether this will keep up, but
that it seems like a pretty good formula to have so many different ways of
beating you and guys who don't seem to care too much if they're not.
I mean, even Caleb Love has been somewhat restrained. You know, there
was the big questions about him, and you know, among other things he
saw at Duke he didn't shoot well, but he did make some clutch plays.
And then when he went in when he got the ball in the basket
towards the end there, instead of forcing something up, he dished the ball
to to Keishaw Johnson, and Johnson gets an an one and and that makes
you know, that goes ahead and ends up winning the game. So you
know, there's just a lot of I think that's that's the main thing is
sort of that that overall picture that they they're playing together and they're they're obviously
better, uh defensively and and probably you know, so far at least a
little bit tougher, which is something they've been trying to do for you know,
ever since that Houston lost. Well, you know, Bruce, we
talk about this yesterday A lot. I really impressed with Johnson because they haven't
had him or type of guy like him in a while. Yeah, I
thought I actually thought, you know, we all wrote about Cale Love and
he was certainly the player of the game at Duke for the reason because he
hit click sputshots in front of that crowd which is riding him. I mean,
the former tar heel. You saw the crowd around love blah blah blah
after the game. It was incredible. I mean, it's so much interest
in this guy. But arguably the player of the game, well besides Colin
Boswill had the best numbers. But but Keishaw Johnson just that energy guy and
a guy who's kind of fearless, goes in there, doesn't care. He's
been there before, He's been on the highest stage, you know, he
has no fear. And I think last night too, arguably the player of
the game, not only because he was the leading scorer, but just because
he he had that energy and he was the one guy who really jumped out
at you like, Okay, this may be a tough adjustment to come home
and play a different, you know game and blah blah blah. But he
was the same guy. And that's that both pretty well. If you have
that kind of you know, a guy and they seem to like him,
he seems to be kind of infectious like that too, So so that's that's
a good time for them. The other thing we've been talking about is,
you know, the four guards and what that's going to be like, you
know, all year long that you just got four interchangeable guards who are all
physical, can shoot, can score, can drive and do all these things
and you take one out and you bring another one in and he looks exactly
the same, and that that's going to be a thing that's going to be
tough on other teams. Yeah, yeah, and and and and I think
probably better also potentially better defensively too, you know. I mean kJ Lewis
really brings something in there, and he's he's pretty fearless. And and you
know, Jaydon Bradley's really been interesting to me too, because he seems to
be even more so than kayleb Love, really just just doing what needs to
be done, not forcing anything. He's smart player, just kind of and
he seems to be okay with that role, you know, and which which
I thought was also something to watch out for because it was like a five
star player. You know, a lot of times those guys sophomore year five
stars, they're not they're not happy if they're not starting and being the guy,
and he's not. But he seems to be okay with that. Yeah,
no, it's it's really fun to watch those guys. And you mentioned
kJ Lewis, you know, I mean that guy comes in and he's he
immediately, you know, starts having an impact. You know, you see
the defensive how hard he plays defensively. I was noticing that because he was
in that group that played in the last eleven minutes of the game. So
he's in there with you know, with with the second level guys and still
playing as hard as he was playing when he was in there earlier in the
game, right, and they're up by thirty thirty seven, And in fact,
that's that's the thing. I mean, the Reserve did outscore them over
the least eleven minutes, but I think Lewis was uh, you know,
sixty percent of the reason why they did. He was he was pretty good
down that stretch and didn't let up, didn't you know. I mean that
could have been an easy spot for him to just kind of coast a little
bit or whatever. Yeah, okay, anything else. I just maybe the
atmosphere at Duke Uh, he was he had his headphones on all games.
He was listening to I had to my I already have heard hearing damage.
Not about or Jay. I mean like for all these years I've covered the
I mean like literally and then and then the first I think I kept them
off and through the first media time out, but my ears were hurting.
I'm like, I'm not gonna sorry, I'm just I'm gonna have to listen
live, miss out on the experience or whatever. But there because the students
are literally one and a half feet behind my ear. That's not it's not
good. And you know that that was good, but I mean you definitely
could you definitely could feel it. I thought you were listening to Neil Diamonds
or something. Nothing. No, And that's something you can't even put noise
canceling on. That's like it's just like a little bit of a barrier to
keep it from absolutely damaging your ear to being uncomfortable. You've been doing it
again, You've been doing it so long, Bruce, I'm not surprised to
hear. Thank you, Bruce. Thanks a buch Man. Appreciate it,
all right, thanks, thanks, appreciate it. All right. All right,
let's take our break. We're going to come back. We'll take your
cast five to two zero four one six seventy four forty talk about anything you
want to talk about. Big game coming up for Arizona football. Big game
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too, though, anything you want to talk about five two zero, four
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today at a teamsecurity dot net. This is I on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. So Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the
podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery, I on the Ball. Hey,
welcome back to Ivan Montre Fox Sports Portshookie. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jay.
We have Kevin with us. Jay. By the way, keviny,
you really disappointed me? What is that really disappointed me? I probably it
was probably in your delivery. My picks sucked last week and you're the one
that gave them. Look, I have no control over what happens on the
field, court or ice. If you make these picks, it's you,
whatever mental process you went through before. That was my worst showing, and
you guys did the delivery. It's not it's not me. It's the fact
that you had to do it for remote. It could have been me.
It could have been you know, it doesn't matter. They clean of English.
Anybody. Well, I would have blamed her too, and that's fine.
I felt like Jay this weekend could big crap? I had one game
and I still lost my two. Oh it was horrible. Did any of
them burn more than the others or was it just oh yeah, there was
a couple of bad beats, a couple of pushes. You know those stupid
you know the Chargers. The Detroit had the Chargers all game, all game,
played with her food and they tied. You know, they eventually pushed
other field Gough last night, who the the build? The Bills are going
to lose to the Denver Bronco. I had had the Broncos. How did
you imagine them imploding? Because I think this year I'm taking the approach of
like, once I'm out or in on a team, that's what it is.
And I'm right in that. Financially, Basketball's from the Thunder. I'm
all in on the Thunder. I'm betting the Thunder as long as they're tonight
they do big, big center matchup. But I'm out on the Bills all
the way out. I'm in a different zip code. I've sent him a
postcard at this point like it's over, and I don't know. I don't
think Josh Allen is He's he's been chucked out to be I've been saying that
for a couple of years. But yeah, so that's that's the only reason
why I had the Broncos. Is I just like them in that that specific
spot against that specific team that I also don't like, so, I was
just giving Kevin some grief. He gave the He's gave my picks publicly yesterday
over the last weekend, and they went bad. You know, you know
you're bad when you tie me. I told him, I said, I
felt like Jay. I had a guy, somebody you know who does this
with us. And I'm sitting at the table. You say, you're getting
ready for the game to start, and he comes he comes up behind me.
We got a call. Let's take this call. You're on the air
and on the ball. Hey, gentlemen, I just wanted to get your
opinion on how Saturday is going to play out here now. A lot of
the U of A fans have been begging for a day game. Yeah,
so I get the news. It's twelve thirty. It sounds good, Like,
wait a minute, isn't that tour dy Tucson also Saturday? And I've
come to find out a lot of the old season ticket holders are also a
tour rider. So something's got to give that day. As my guest here,
Oh well, yeah, there's what we're expecting about nine thousand cyclists.
I think the Sudent tickets maybe affect five hundred riders that's a good point.
I never didn't notice that. Yeah, but the traffic is going to be
south of a Broadway, you know, pretty much south of Broadway going into
Green Valley, so it's not going to affect the northern part of it.
So that's good. I don't I don't know though, that's the point because
are you know a lot of people whether they're riding or just they got friends
riding or there. It will be interesting to see how that does play out.
But you know, it really wasn't a choice that Arizona had. That
was something that that was the TV guys did that. So like you guys
that rode the road and the race before. I mean, the race will
be over by then, but you're you're not ready to roll afternoon, You're
ready for nap and you're not going to go sit through a football game.
I guess I wasn't you know when I wrote it a couple of years ago,
I didn't recover from that till Tuesday. Okay, Yeah, well then
the wild card. We haven't got rain forever. Guess what, maybe rain
I want to say it on the air, and that storm Saturday. It's
will be interesting to say all this stuff plays out, what's your name?
What's your name? Real quick? Gary, you're coming up with some bad
scenario, but that they are what they are, what they definitely are what
they thought. You want to talk about the game? Yeah, well you
said I was gonna play. I'm like, what got a chance to win?
We're talking about. Well, the good news, fellas, they're they're
in a Vegas. They're in the second Cheer Bowl. I think, no
matter what, right, I mean, he got that they issues Bowl game.
But I see you if they win at least one more game and that'll
they're not. I don't think they're gonna win the conference, but they're gonna
get what is a San Diego Bowl? Las Vegas? Uh, something like
that, l A. Maybe still seeing everything from the Sun Bowl on up.
So the Sun Bowl, the Vegas, the Holiday possibly the no,
I can't go to any of the between Christmas and New Year's games, Vegas
Vegas maybe special Vegas Christmas. Yeah, exactly, you fellas want to get
your opinion on it? Will say what plays out Saturday. All right.
I appreciate the call. Thank you. He sounds too smart to be on
the show. He did, I know, like, yeah, I mean
he yeah, sounded like a radio He sounded like a radio guy. This
is the FCC, you can't be But yeah, there's a lot of things
in play for Saturday. So you were talking about your friend. So he
comes up to me and says, how'd you do Saturday? How did you
do this week? I'm like, I got another zero? He goes,
are you trying to be bad? I said, no, we're not trying.
Are you trying to give a guy an awful just having an awful year?
I don't know what to say other than that it's terrible. Let's talk
real quick, and we have nine minutes. But the girls game, the
women's game playing game. Did you did they play their second game here last
week? Yeah? Yeah, they played. They played Friday. No,
you know, I, you know, I try to kind of catch up
a little bit on how they're doing. But you know, you've got and
again the you know, they've got a bunch of names that I just am
afraid to try to pronounce on this team, but you know, they they've
got they they've got an inside player. Let me let me let me look
this up because I don't want to be a jerk about this. Who is
shooting ninety five? Percent from the field, she's near the basket and yeah,
in in in three games, and it's I think it's I don't even
want to try and say it Sali Matu Koroma or something like, she's she
came in here from transferred in from looks like Arkansas Little Rock a big center
or was she yeah, yeah, she's sitting around yeah she well, no,
she's she's five eleven, but she's she's she's scoring in you know,
in inside and not scoring a lot, but incredibly efficient, incredibly efficient,
and uh, you know, you just you just you know, I don't
know. I mean, it's it's it's I mean, to the point of
going to this is ridiculous that she's that she's shooting. I'm trying to look
up the stat right now. She's shooting ninety five percent. How many times
she she shot, Well, I'm looking that up right now because it's it's
it's it's a crazy number. Where she Uh no, I take it back,
I'm sorry. It's bray A Cunningham. She's she's shooting eighty eighty eight
percent from the field, so she's fifteen of seventeen. Bray Is I think
she is a tall a taller player. But uh, she you know,
she's fifteen to seventeen from the field. She had she's only had a couple
of free throws, but you know, six and a half she's she started
probably I think she does. She only shot seventeen times. Well that's two
games, right, Yeah, and she started one game. She's played in
both games she started one. You know, I think might have that same
type of game, not eighty five percent, but maybe rival JB. Because
JB, I think hads the record for a season sixty three percent from the
floor. It is Johnson, you know why he's around the basket. Yeah,
and he's not shooting. He's shooting maybe one or team. He's making
some he's shooting some threesough, but but he's he's and he's hit some,
but he's mostly garbage basket stuff. Yeah, picking up trash. Yeah,
he's not trying to lay the ball up either. He's up, he's going
in the air. He's trying to slam that thing home. Yeah, that's
right. It's it's bray of Cunningham. Who's let me see, she's uh,
she's six four plays inside, she's a four. She's a four spot
because of Mayang's the five. So but she's the one who's making eighty eight
percent of her basket now, going back, going back again, you know,
Kaylen Gilbert has had I think three double doubles. You know, the
point guard. She's averaging. She's averaging nine and a half rebounds a game.
So the in the in the time that you've seen the team from the
second game, because we know they're limited, right, well, I've only
seen him. I've only seen him in their exhibition games because I didn't do
either. They played Friday and Sunday, so I was out for both.
This is my first time seeing him in in a regular season game. But
but you know, Kaylen Gilbert is is uh is averaging sixteen points and nine
and a half rebounds. And she's a point guard or not a point she's
the guard. She's not the point. Jada Williams is the point. But
you know, also shooting very well fifty from the field. She's four or
six from three again, grabbing a whole bunch of rebounds. So uh,
she's got a bunch of turnovers, but she's also got some steals. Oah.
You know, I'm not sure to see what this looks like. You
know, they've got there's only one, two, three, four. There's
nine players who have recorded stats on this team, because I think one of
their ten is out for the season. So you know, if it's gonna
work, it's gonna work. They just gotta make sure that they stay healthy.
It's gonna work. Depends how they finished too. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah, so I don't know what,
you know, what we can expect as the as the season goes on,
right, because you know it is you know you, death becomes an issue.
So they're playing San Diego tonight, then they go off to this tournament
in the the Battle for Atlanta's the one that Arizona men went and lost three
in a row. Yeah, which was unbelievable to go. I'm still mad
about that. Two. It's so mad about that because I was in Vegas
seventeen and I bet on them the first game. They lost that, Okay,
they're not gonna lose again. Bet on the second game and they lost
it. Okay, now they're really not Gonnah. Then they lost and that
was they were number three in the country or top five, going to you
think, what the heck? And then they come back and play great down
the road, win the Pack twelve Championship tournament, Championship playing looked like world
beaters, and then and then Buffalo. Okay, yeah, yeah, So
who knows what's gonna happen, But we're trying to see if there's any way
we can get a Da Barnes on the show before they head out for uh
for the Bahamas. But they just got to ask on the show she likes
them. Well, I know I've asked, but it's you know, she's
got a schedule, dude, he's busier than you and me. Oh,
I don't know about that. Not this week. You got off tour going
on. Yeah, and you got your games. Okay. I'm looking forward
to seeing what they look like tonight. Okay, yeah, what else going
on? Well, oh, we on got three minutes. There's a there's
a couple of topics I want to dig in really deep here. One of
them is the Michigan stuff. You know what's going on? Did he talked
yesterday? He said he was gonna talk. Yeah, he went in to
think he's talk themselves, America's team and all this other crap. You know,
he said, this team must be America's team. You have to Yeah,
yeah, and then uh, and then the TEXTAS and M thing,
the text A and M job because you know, I means Jaz's name is
not getting mentioned in there. But you know, you got to ask a
question, how great is that job? That's a good question. That's a
good question. They're paying the heck out of it. I don't know,
I don't know, you know, and i'd like to you know, we'll
have that conversation since we don't have a guest at for oh, okay,
okay, well they we'll go before we can delve into a couple of things
there. But there was a couple of national things going on, but they're
part of the conversation that's going on out there right now. You know,
there's a lot of discussion of those two issues. I mean, you turn
on you turn on a podcast, a national podcast, and those those are
the two topics coaches being fired, the A and M job, and and
just coaches in general. And then then the stuff going on at Michigan.
You know, Uh, there's a preliminary Uh. The hearing on the preliminary
injunction is on Friday, so we should know Friday, if if, if
Jim Harbor can be on the sidelines the next two games. As of now
he can't. Let's say he can't and the season plays out and they played
in the National Channel or they get to the Final four. Uh, it's
hard for me to imagine that he'd be back. I'm not by his own
He'll just say I got money go, I'm gonna again. And that's another
conversation. Yeah, that's another part of that. There's a there's a lot
of tentacles to the conversation. Uh, and so we can get into that.
You did say tentacles, right, just think just being sure, what
do you think I said. I don't know, I heard tentacles. Yeah,
yeah, I'm just making sure it's some big deal. I'm joking.
You got him with one. So you know, you know we've kicked the
men's basketball game team around. I mean, look, last night, we
have a fun thing at our table. You know, we always know what
the point spread is, and it's like, so we go before the game
started, the I think, eat, we're cover it or not? Right?
Thirty one? Right? Everyone and a half and two of us at
the table said no, yes, and one said no, and they did
and I thought they were going to And now when it was twenty what was
it, twenty seven to twenty at the half? Yeah, some Oh no,
they're up twelve ten, eleven, eleven. They got up eleven at
that because I remember thinking, if they get a double digit lead at the
half, they'll cover, and then they did. That's where I was,
but you know, I was a little thinking, you know, okay,
they were at thirty thirty two, thirty four. Yeah, when you know
the subs were coming in at that, they don't have enough of a goosh.
Took me back. He took me back and send in my seat by
myself and michale I was there like a looking at the score. I were
thirty one, all right, we're thirty two, all right? They just
said it. Oh no, they didn't have a question. And they were
launching threes there. The Southern was launching three because they hit. But if
they hit a couple more of those, they almost hit my pockets. Yeah,
exactly. All right, let's take our break. We when we come
back, Kevin's got breaking news and then we'll have to delve into some uh
current college football issues and stick around talking about down saying bottle this and that,
how much spam I swear it's all hea