Steve Rivera and Jagon Salez. They have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson's
Sports Big Jet, Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live. I mean,
iHeartRadio WAPs. Welcome back on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Jacob Zalez here in the studio. My buddy Steve. You just finished
the segment with him. He's in Salt Lake City, so we got him
over the phone and talked about today's press conference with Tommy Lloyd and the players.
I got a trustee guest host today, George Mortis from Showtime Cards.
Just realized that today's this morning's Dodger game was actually a real game. He's
actually counting this is Yes, Dodgers are playing in Korea. They have a
two game set with the Padres. They have won one, five to two.
Today show, Hey went two for five and a stolen base. Who
got Sammy here running the board capably as he always does, So anywhere's we're
going to break it out now to Sammy for breaking news. Is Eye on
the Ball breaking news? Yeah, So we mentioned just before the end of
the hour some college basketball All American teams were being named. Uh, kind
of left and right, it's uh. I don't think the NCAA has come
out with their their their final All American team, but Caleb Love has been
mentioned in four total, two second team All Americans and two third Team All
Americans and obviously being the PAC twelve Player of the Year. That kind of
makes sense. And I'm really trying to think when the NCAA does come out,
he'll probably be on the second Yeah, he's probably And that's about right.
You know, Well, a couple of things there. One, the
visibility that some of these other guys get. You got you got guys like
Zach Edy, Uh, You've got uh, Kyle Philipowski, who's you know,
Duke because you know second team guy uh r J. Davis Silver in
North Carolina, Dalton Connect. You know, they've gotten a lot of national
attention. You look at the usb W A man first team. He got
Davis from North Carolina, is the Dy from is the Edie from Purdue Tennessee's
Connect, Tyler Kolloch from Marquette, Jamal Jamal Sheed from Houston. All top
teams. Can't argue with those. Caleb's a second team player on that one.
He was also second team on the NABC National Association Basketball Coaches Team again
Eddie Davis connect a player from a Connecticut Tristan Newton, and then she'd from
Houston. So he's in that circle. He's in. He's a top fifteen,
right, he's on the list, probably probably consistently be a second team
guy. Yeah, that's what That's what I would say. And then also
in you have a basketball news, they landed a top ten recruit today,
right, Joe Son Sanhan. I don't know if I get that right,
but he is actually reclassing up right, and has the potential to be in
the twenty twenty four class, right, Yeah, yeah, he'll be here
next year. He's a six to five wing player. They say he's they're
calling him a shooter. Now, you know, those of us who've been
here and we hear the word shooter, you know, the shooter at Arizona
is a is a little higher standard than some other place. So we've had
guys like Selim Stoder, Myron, Steve Karr. But they say he's that
kind of a shooter. We'll see. But they're also saying he's probably a
one and done. He's already he's projected as a as a lottery pick in
the twenty twenty five NBA draft. Already, Yeah, we'll see that that
draft is going to be loaded anyway, So we'll see kind of the year
he has. And before I guess the Tommy Lloyd Air the one and Dun's
that you were really hit and miss they were, So we will and I
mean even in the three years that Tommy's been here, you have seen a
lot less one and right that obviously has to do with the transfer portal.
Maybe it's al yeah, somewhat of a new culture at the basketball program.
So we'll see where he ends up. But nonetheless, that recruiting class is
getting better better. But wait a minute, didn't we hear didn't we hear
after last year, after the lost of Princeton, didn't we hear that Tommy
couldn't recruit? That's what I thought, Yeah, that's what I thought.
I heard. I heard that lot. I heard that a lot. Heard
it. I believe me. I heard it a lot as well. I
never thought it, but I never thought it, but it was like,
you know, he's and again it also comes down to his assistant coaches,
Jack Murphy mus he does a really really good job. He's kind of been
that backbone of the recruiting. Even in the Sean Miller A people don't realize
he's a personal friend of mine as well. But he's off season. He's
just constantly traveling. His wife's like come home. Yeah, yeah, twins
man triplets, twins, twins, twins, two girls, and then he's
got a younger son. Yeah. But he's traveling all over doing a great
job. He's building himself quite a legacy here at Arizona. And then lastly,
in college basketball, we were officially one sleep away what some may say
is the best two day of the year. You have Thursday Friday, Round
of sixty four March Madness. Brackets will be busted and people will think they
have perfect brackets left and right. But kind of some big storylines Kansas is
Kevin McCullers is out for the entire time for the church. That's a big
loss, big loss for Kansas and Hunter Dickinson. The status is that it
looks like he will play in the Round of sixty four game, but they
Kansas has had some injuries and McCullers is one of their best players, so
that definitely could change some some brackets. And also Tyler Kollik, a first
team or second team All American, is participating in full court drills. Shaka
Smart still doesn't know if he's going to be ready to play in the first
game. So two, I mean two borderline All Americans will their status will
be up in the air. But and then Boise State in Colorado will play
later tonight, and Grambling and Montana State are in action right now. My
iPad has screwing up, so I don't have a score now. But yeah,
so those are those are some big storylines. Obviously there's going to be
more as the days go on, with upsets, god forbid, injuries and
whatnot. But that is the college basketball breaking news. And we talked briefly
the MLB Opening Day. I guess so you wouldn't know it, right,
You wouldn't know it. The game was on. It was on at three
o'clock in the morning our time. Yeah, here, I was asleep.
I'm not that big of a Dodger. Actually, I'm you know what,
even I'm not. I'm sitting here. I'm all geared up. I've got
my Dodger shirt on, my Dodger hat on, I'm all geared up for
for Opening Day. But no I didn't even my my white all though my
wife actually asked you to go. Are you gonna say I watch a game?
I'm not. No, I'm not. But some interesting MLB news we
talked about it before the show. Shoe hal Tani's translator who's been with him
since he got into the MLB I allegedly has stealing from him and using that
money to UH to gamble and so he had has since been fired and he
is looking for a new trains lady. Yeah, and they're saying, they're
saying millions of dollars with not even not even online betting with a bookie,
and but that they that they're saying he's taken millions of dollars from from show.
Hey, now he's got you know, seven hundred million coming his way.
So I'm you know, I'm thinking, yes, I'm guessing. I'm
guessing the interpreter got you know, got the money out of his UH out
of the you know, the couch coaching, you know, stuck in the
seats of the car, you know, in the change trade whatever. But
look, when you're talking millions of dollars, it's serious, you know,
you know guys like that who are part of let's say somebody's yeah, you
know, he's got to be devastated by this, because I'm sure this guy's
you know, a personal friend, maybe in a family ride. To to
have something like that happen comes out on opening day, holy cow, you
know. And you hear a lot about it. With memorabilia, you know,
they they kind of like slide a jersey or up a right, you
know, certain certain things football. I think it happened to Tom Brady with
one of the footballs. But you know it's just cash, you know.
So yeah, and T million. I mean, how bad of a gambler
do you have to be, Phil Mickelson to be so bad that you're losing
millions and millions of dollars? Yeah, I don't know. You're asking the
person that had Virginia money line, so Andy over No, No, no,
didn't No, not not that. And then quick NFL news. Caleb
Williams had his pro day at USC today and from my understanding and from what
I've seen, he looked nothing short of amazing, right, which you'd expect.
And his quote maybe new teammate Keenan Allen showed up wearing all USC gear,
assuming if he does get drafted by the Bears. That is probably going
to be his target. So, I mean, Kaller Williams is actually putting
stuff out there for people to see. I know there were some questions of
him not throwing you do anything in the combine. All that stuff's out there
now. Well, and you know the Cardinals are dealing with that because everybody
thinks the're gonna take Marvin Harrison Junior. He's not even having a pro day.
Yeah, he's working out with pros. Yeah, he's just you know,
okay, okay, oh I'm I'm he's sure sure fired draft him and
he's going to be our number one receiver for twelve years. Okay, I
think so too. And I get the Malik and Abers has maybe more total
upside and his twitchiness, his speed and his overall potential. But what the
Cardinals need is a guy to be there for a long time with Kyler hopefully,
and that's Marvin Harrison Junior. He's he could play them. Yeah,
I mean, he can play them with god, you know he does,
and you see he watches film and that's really what you need to see.
But these guys are just, you know, there is there something they're protecting,
something they're hiding by not working out, and I mean, what,
you know, why wouldn't you work out or something like that. That's just
that's just me being a guy that you know, I'm gonna do whatever I
can to get a job. No, understand, when they're that type of
talent, they feel like they don't need to show it. You know,
They're just gonna go where they go. And you know, he said if
they dropped him, no, it's when they dropped him number one, right,
you know, for Caleb, you know, And that's why they made
the move with Fields. Yeah, because if not, the GMS fired immediate.
Yeah, exactly. And then the last thing I have, you know,
I had to squeeze in the Phoenix Suns. They signed Isaiah Thomas.
I hate that guy to a contract. I hate that guy really. No,
it's not good. He had a buzzer beater against Arizona Washington in a
packed in championship game, so we signed him to Uh, isn't he like
eighty five years old? No, No, he's he's just turned thirty four,
just turned thirty four. And listen, I'm not saying he should be
playing on the floor for us, but he's a guy that I think him
and Durant have a good relationship. Him and Bill. He he was kind
of in that breed of guys and it's something that the Suns made his need.
Right now, we're roughing it a little bit as we slow, slow,
slowly get to the playoffs are playing. But that is that's another discussion
for another time. It is fully college basketball season and that is my breaking
news. All right, we'll go for one more item. We saw that
Aery McDonald's was named the MVP of her team in the Australian League, the
Perth Links. I think she had some sounds like she had some trouble with
a need during the season, but named her the her as the MVP of
her team down there, and then of course she'll be back to, you
know, take her spot back in the w NBA when that season gets going
again. But you know, you know what what I love about that is
that she was such a talented Arizona. She was you know, easy to
get along with. You know, she came on our show a couple of
times. She was always available, just seemingly a good person, a great
player. And to see that they're actually is opportunity like that, you know,
for a player like that. Now it's getting you're getting more and more
of that with you know, Caitlin Clark and and UH and UH and Angel
Reese, and they're going to do well HB right with with endorsements and and
and stuff like that. But you know, up to now, you know
they they go overseas, right, these these great women's basketball players, like
he said, they've had to find other ways other than just being in the
NBA of w NBA to to to make a living off of this. And
you know, they're never going to make the hundreds of millions of dollars that
that you know, the Kevin Durance and the Lebron James. But you know,
if they're making a few million dollars, yeah, you know, no
doubt Rush right, And I think you speak to the product of it.
I mean ten fifteen years ago you had Diana Tarassi really kind of carrying back
of the w NBA. Now, especially next year when Caitlin Reese is the
number one overall, she's gonna change. She's been must watch television for four
years now and that's now changing from college women's basketball to the w n b
A and she's joining Sabrina and Esque and there and Brianna Stewart and the names
that are almost like pretty household names when it comes to the sporting world.
And so that's gonna it's gonna be good for the w NBA. It's Caitland
Clark is we even see them on these sports card dots. But yeah,
it's kind of evening up, you know with Caitlyn Clark, you know,
her pricing are almost like similar to guys you know, yeah, sports cards.
So it's it's nice to see that, and it's gonna change. It's
great to see it. And look, you just love for them to have,
you know, if not the same opportunities, at least you know,
yeah, maybe similar or just something. So that's great. Okay, uh,
that's okay. We're we're about to take our next break. We're gonna
have Ben Boltch. He's a basketball writer for the La Times normally the u
c l A beat writer. This week he's covering Long Beach State. He
had a story in The Alley Times this morning about Dan Monson and his situation
of getting fired from his job on Monday and coaching then inaa tournament tomorrow against
Arizona. So we'll talk to Ben about his thoughts on Long Beach States,
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I on the Ball with Stebra and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Welcome back on the Baking on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host Jagan
Zales and uh you confused me there, I've Jacob Zalaz and Steve Rivera.
My buddy is on the road to Salt Lake City and we just had him
on a little bit ago. And I've got a guest host today, George
Motis from Showtime Cards. But on phone we've got Ben Boltch, who ran
into last week at the at the Pac Tweff Tournament. Normally the beat writer
for UCLA was there for that, but now he's covering Long Beach State with
this great story. I guess you call it a great story. Maybe not
something great for Dan Monson who got fired from his job on Monday and now
he's coaching in the NCAA tournament. So, Ben, you had a story
this morning on on Monson and the whole situation. What do we know about
all of that right now? Yeah? I mean to me, it's really
one of the potentially most heartwarming stories of the tournaments. Dan Monson, who's
been Lombi State for seventeen seasons, he's along uh winning its company history.
You know, had a team with all five stars returning. They had.
They got to a good start, they beat USC DePaul in Michigan and it
was looking like, hey, maybe we got something again. They've been to
the tournament once in twenty twelve, but then they went into kind of a
funk and uh, you know, finished the fifth place in the conference and
at the end of the year with loss. On senior night, Monson called
a meeting with his athletic director and said, Hey, if we don't have
a run in the tournament, I'm just going to resign. You know,
this is I'm not doing a good job, maybe they need a new voice.
To his surprise, the athletic director said, no, you know that
that decision has already been made. We're going to go in another direction,
and we're going to announce it today. So that completely caught coach Monson off
guard. He went to his team and said, hey, they not only
don't believe in me, they don't believe in you because they don't think we
can make a run in this tournament. They think our season is going to
be over this week. So they've parlayed that into a heartwarming run in the
Big West Tournament, won three games in three days, and the rest is
history. There here playing Arizona is the fifteen seed tomorrow in Salt Lake.
You know, you had obviously, you know, did a bunch of interviews
with players and stuff like that, a lot of great quotes about you know,
how much they want to do this for him. You know, how
much can that translate into you know what it means for them, you know,
to take on Arizona. Yeah, you know they've got us against the
world. Mentality that they used in the Big West Tournament. Now everybody knows
it's very obvious when in the Big West Tournament's a little bit different than meeting
the number two seed Arizona. But you know, that's what I love about
basketball. On any given day, anything can happen. And when you have
a team that's inspired and pulling together like this, we know we're going to
see a great effort tomorrow from Long Beach Day. And not saying they're going
to win or even make it, you know, a ten point game,
but I expect to see them playing at a high level. And one of
the things that they told me that I didn't put this in the story was
that they kind of went from playing with each other for each other and you
know, really moving the ball better and looking for better shots and setting each
other better, so really playing more as a team coming together. And they
also have some talent. I mean, let's not dismiss that they've got five
guys who average double figures, which is pretty unusual. They've got six guys
who score at least twenty points in a game. And they're two best players
who interestingly have the same last name but are not related, but are from
the same area in West Africa. One of them averages a double double and
the other one nearly had average a triple double in the Big West Tournament.
So they got some guys could do a lot of things. Well, when
you look at the at the talent, then you know, how did it
go so wrong that it got the coach fired? Any ideas in terms of
just what happened in there? Yeah, you know, I mentioned those those
those Wednesday had over usc to Paul Michigan, and I think at that point
they kind of felt like, hey, we've done enough and we're going to
coast through the Big West and uh, you know, go to the NCTATE
Tournament and they got into some problems with defense lacking and consistency lacking, and
it just kind of caught up with them and you know, through the motions
a little bit, and they don't have that much talent to be able to
just coast through a season, so you know, that kind of caught up
with them. It was funny. Uh, I wasn't there today and so
like I'm on the way later tonight, but I heard it quote from coach
Lonton today that he was shot him filmed, Uh, you know before the
Big West Tournament pointing out some of the things that went wrong and said,
hey, these are the kind of things that can get get a coach fired.
And and they uh and the guys cracked up. So that was a
kind of a tension reliever there for uh and just kind of indicative of the
coach person coach Monson, and he's he's a real kind of warm and funny
guy, which for yeah, you know, listening to Steve talking about the
press conference because he sat in the press conference, clearly Monson is very loose,
right, I mean, once he got to lose absolutely nothing, that's
uh, he's cracking jokes about all of this, and uh, he was
he apparently at dinner last night he told Tommy Lloyd that he was busy putting
in the Princeton offense and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, which is
pretty cool. You know, he dote that, you know, he's coaching
for free, coaching for free, so he didn't have to answer any questions.
And you know, he's told the players they're they're putting they're putting meals
on the credit card because you know, he's basically gone at this point,
just like you said, I mean, they really have nothing to lose,
so expecting him to come out, uh, you know, just completely fighting
tomorrow. Ben you said of months and you said he stood before his team
and he was dead coach walking. Is that the inspiration or is that what's
motivating this team? Oh yeah, I think so completely, because it was
kind of a dual, a dual front of, hey, you know,
our coach is gone, and you know we didn't do enough for him,
and then you know, as I said earlier, it was almost also an
indictment on the players of hey, you know, they don't think we're very
good, so it's right, let's pull together for our coach and ourselves.
When you got that kind of combination going, it's pretty dangerous. You mentioned
that they've got I want to talk about the match up a little bit.
You mentioned that they've got you know, five guys scoring in double figures.
Arizona's I think got that still going in the last week. I think Umar
was like at nine point nine or something. But anyway, they're close to
it. Are these teams similar? Do they play similar a similar style?
You said, you know, and Arizona's not a bad defensive team, but
you said some of the troubles were defensively and they were busy having fun offensively.
What's the matchup? Look like to you. Yeah, you know,
we know Long Beach they can score, and the question is can they defend
at a high level against the team like Arizona that they really haven't seen offseason.
That'll be the big question. Can they contain Balo? They've got good
size, was not great size. You know, I don't think they havent
anybody who's going to match up, you know, particularly well Balow. So
I'll be to see how they kind of go about trying to stop him.
But yeah, I think defense is going to be the big question mark for
Long Beach. Can they you know that, I don't think they want to
get into a ninety point shootout because the recipe for disaster. But they do
like to score, and they they do like to have up tempo, but
I think they want to stay reasonable with that, maybe keep the game in
the high seventies, right right, all right, let's talk a little bit
about the tournament as a whole. A lot, you know, a lot
of discussion about how many teams can possibly win this. Obviously you kind oft
the at the top of that list, but certainly, you know, a
whole bunch of teams Arizona included, you know, Tennessee, Houston, nor
so many teams that can you feel like somebody can jump up and do this.
Well, what's your general impression of what this tournament looks like going in?
Well, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun because you know,
we still have older teams with COVID eligibility players. I was just wondering
today when when is that all gonna fall off. I think we've maybe got
one more year of that. But you know, with all these older teams,
sometimes the mid majors can pop up and surprise people. I really like
James Madison. I'm actually picking them to get to the sweet sixteen. I
think they're another great story in the tournament. I went through my bracket the
other day and I've got I'm going with the final matchup of defending champ Yukon
against Houston, and I'm actually picking the Cougars with their defense too uh,
to knock off the Huskies and and win the title. So that thirty point
lost to Iowa State didn't scare you off. Now, you know, everybody's
everybody's in titles a day like that, even even sports writers. So I'm
gonna I'm gonna give them a break for that one that that was just ugly.
I mean, I I you know, I turned I turned that game
on, and five minutes into the game, I knew Houston was in big,
big trouble and it just it just it just had that feel of you
guys, are you guys got no shot? And they didn't. Yeah,
you're absolutely right. But as I said, one game, that's not the
finest season. And I really like their their defense. I think they're pretty
close to complete team. Your thoughts on how the how the PAC TWELF tournament
ended up with Oregon winning the thing? You know, well, Well,
on the one hand, I was a little surprised that that Oregon you know,
beat Arizona when they when they did in the semi finals. It wasn't
shocking to me. Uh, you know, Oregon's got players and we've known
that all along. In fact, I kind of thought, why aren't they
better? What did you think about the way that thing turned out? You
know, not totally surprising. I did think Arizona would warn't it. But
as we've seen over the years with Oregon, I mean they did this,
it's basically kind of same thing in twenty nineteen where they needed to win the
tournament to get in, and they did it as well. You know,
Dana Altman's known for getting his team's better as the season goes on, and
fally Dante was just playing a super high level that that really elevated them to,
you know, the best team in that tournament. And you know,
you've got Queisnard and Shelstad banging in threes to go with that. It makes
them really tough. So you know, I think they're a team that could
win a couple of games in the INNS Tournament as well. Yeah. Interesting,
And I like Colorado, you know, I thought they were. I
kind of thought they were going to beat Oregon on in the championship game.
I really like Tristan to Silva Well I did. I never thought that kJ
Simpsons should be the player of the year over Caleb Love I, you know,
getting a good look at him in in in three games, I thought,
Okay, I can see why some people thought he was the player of
the year. I see, I know they're in the playing game tonight,
but I see them winning a game or two. Yeah, I mean,
I think kaed Well was probably one of the most criminally underrated coaches in all
of college basketball. And you know, he he only needs a handful of
good players to really maximize that into uh, you know, maybe a sweet
sixteen level team. And I agree with you. I think that they will
you know, win this game and uh and maybe another or two. Okay,
Well, now with U C l A, you know, going to
the Big ten, it's a whole different scenario for them. Uh. You
know, let's just say, you know, they had a rough year this
year. What you know, what what do you see for them coming up,
you know, heading into next season. Well it's interesting because you know
a lot of people say, let's just scrap this whole roster and start over
with you know, seven or eight transfers. But I don't think that's gonna
happen. You know, Mick mccron is the developp developmental coach, which means
that you need to be in his system for multiple years, uh to really
play at a high level with what he wants you to do. So I
think we'll see anywhere from uh, you know, realistically to two to three
to maybe four transfers coming in. And these are going to need to be
impact guys. These are not going to be guys that can just sit on
the bench and you know, six man kind of thing. I think that
they're going to want, you know, starter level guys, at least two
or three starter level guys to come in, uh, and then you know,
get the the sophomore bumps from from all these freshmen who have potential.
But you know, they just had too many freshmen. Uh. And I
thought that I think that mccronin acknowledged that he thought that the hit rate of
elite play from these freshmen was going to be higher than it was, right,
And I think that that ultimately was kind of what cost them the season,
was that you know, these guys are going to be good players,
they just weren't able to do that as freshman. He kind of overplayed his
hand on that, right, All right, well you're gonna you're gonna be
shipping off to the Big ten as well. So I don't know when we're
gonna hear from you more about UCLA and let's say, you know, decide
to play the series, which I think, you know, we had a
conversation that you'd think that that's possibly not gonna happen. But uh, Ben,
it's been a We've appreciated having you on the show all these times,
and you know, good luck on some of those road trips. Oh,
same to you in the Big twelve exactly. Thanks a bunch, Ben.
I hope you get to Salt Lake City and uh and we'll see what happens
tomorrow. Thanks a bunch. All right. That was Ben Bolche, basketball
writer for the La Times. He's covering Long Beach State this week because of
the big story with with Dan Monson, so he'll be covering the Arizona Long
Beach State game tomorrow if he gets there. The line is twenty right now
and twenty and a half, Okay, I still feel we could cover that
love in the Long Beach State line. You're loving that one, yeah,
one hundred. That's why I always go with the opposite way when it seems
like, oh god, this this could be the line and stuff. Andy
kappers do those lines for a reason. They want guys like streams. It
streams, Long Beach streams slaughter, so they those points streams. Well,
Okay, I'm young, and I know Arizona fans who know my my reputation
is they don't give out a pick. I'm not not touching the game.
I took Arizona minus the points against Princeton last year. I was certain of
it, and I even bet more than my usual unit on it and got
crushed. I'm not touching it. I'm just gonna leave that one alone.
That'll be a game that I don't even think about taking tomorrow. So anyways,
all right, we're gonna take our last break. We'll take your calls.
Five two zero four, one sixty are funds of been busy today with
outside guests, but we have an open segment to take your calls. Talk
about the game tomorrow. It's a you know, I agree with tom i'man
agree with Steve. This is a this is a sort of a crossroads for
Tommy. Right, he's got to win tomorrow. He has to do.
Yeah, he has to do and if he doesn't, people are gonna lose.
Maybe I call all the game, but yeah, he's got tomorrow's but
he's first got to win the one to of course, So let's get would
love to hear your thoughts on on Arizona tomorrow against Long Beach State. So's
stick around. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been
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down all the ex's and ohs, It's Steve Rivera and Jagin Salvez. This
is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Welcome back toime to
balling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We're headed into our last segment before the
sixty four team bracket gets gone tomorrow morning. We've been talking about Arizona and
its matchup against Long Beach State. Want to remind everybody we do have a
brac it uh that we're a bracket challenge that we're having here at uh at
Eye on the Ball with the grand prize, the grand prize of dinner with
Steve and I for two, so that Mexican restaurant we split the costs of.
This guy was gonna say, where were going? Yeah when most likely?
Most likely Minidito Restaurant. Yeah, you know, it's my all time
favorite Mexican restaurant here in town. Part of it will depend on dates and
stuff. Me Detols closed on Mondays. Whatever. The last time we did
this, a friend of my son who's a firefighter, big dude played football
at Arizona, six foot four, and he was alignment and we took him
in and I joked that he ate the left side of the menu. He
killed us. I mean they just started. They just started bringing plates and
putting him in front of him. But we we covered it. We had
a great time, and we're gonna do that again on this great challenge basic
bracket. It's just basic bracket wigs uh, increasing points for each for each
round. There's a tie breaker. But if you go on our web on
our Twitter page, our profile both on Twitter and Facebook, it's pinned at
the top. It's it's on a website called bracket fanatics dot com. Go
in there and search for the eye on the ball, uh bracket challenge and
uh and you can you can find out we've got there's about a dozen of
brackets in there right now. You know. That's we'll take it. We'll
take them all. We've also told people that if you're if you don't live
in town, you can't go to dinner with us, we'll send you a
fifty dollars gift card to a restaurant where you live. So so, Steve
and I are all in would love to have you. We'll just you know,
we'll take the winner. Or to have a fun evening, maybe have
some beers and some great food and uh and just chat saying it's look,
you know, it's just for fun. We want to have some fun and
uh and so we uh we're gonna do. I haven't done my bracket yet.
I haven't done any brack and yet I'm just telling the guys I I
wait until until rounds over. I waited till Wednesday night, and I'll probably
do three or four. Maybe maybe I was gonna ask, are you guys
ay you pick You're a one bracket person, but you send that bracket?
No? No, I picked multiple brackets that had been me the last like
five years on the same bracket. Or No, I've done a bunch of
different brackets, but I've committed to one this year. Are you committed?
I'm committed to my bracket. Yeah, that's what I like to say.
Yeah, I you know, I'll I think I can think of four pools
that I'm in right now. One of them is not a bracket, it's
a it's a different point system, and then then the others are brackets.
I'm sure i'll have Arizona to win it in at least one. I'm sure
i'll have Yukon to win it, probably in a couple. And then I'll
probably pick some sort of a not a long shot. I'm not gonna go
below, say a three seed to win it. I'm not gonna pick a
seven or four or whatever. I'll probably find a three seeds, say,
Okay, if they come out of nowhere, you know, a Tennessee,
you know, somebody like that, I'll pick them to win it. And
it's funny, it almost never works, but I guess I've won a couple
of poles, but I'll pick a champion. So then my next thing is
I'll pick a runner up, and then I just work my way backward through
the bracket. Interesting, So I don't sit there and go through all the
first round games and then pick those games and you know, pick up sets
and things like that. I work my way backwards to do that. You
know, that's my system. So I was telling you guys, you know,
I haven't picked a final four yet, but I think I have a
good sense of who. Let's let's say my my main bracket, my one
on the pool that I really really want to win. We'll get my A
bracket, Okay, okay, all right, So my I'm looking at it
right now. Probably my A bracket is going to have Yukon. It's hard
on the yeast, that's hard, right. My A bract is going to
have Yukon in Arizona. Okay, all right, in the final four,
I'm not talking about the Championship. I'm saying the final four, I'm probably
going to Yukon in Arizona. On the other side, after watching what Houston
did me. Plus I had a money line on that one, and they
and they smoked me on that. You know, I see a lot of
people taking Kentucky and I just don't know that I can do that. No,
I had I had them losing, uh Mark, No, I have
them losing the NC State. Yeah, oh wow. So you know,
and and and Marquete just doesn't have the juice for me, right, and
they're like, let's take this call. They're Creighton to me. They just
don't have enough of a reputation. Good team, Right, let's take this
call. Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball. Hide
Jim, Hey, Jim, how you doing, buddy? I'm good?
How are you? Thanks for calling? Well, I'm telling you I'd be
better off if you do me a favor tonight. That is, just go
ahead and email me your pigs so you can go opposite. I know where
you're going, Jim, go ahead, say it. Say it. No.
I don't need to finish. I just want to have some idea of
what not to do. Well, like I said so far, I'm chock
on my final four with Yukon in Arizona. But going to the other side
of the bracket, I still don't know. I still don't know, Jim.
But I feel hard. Yeah, I know you feel free. I
just I deserve the hard time. But yeah, I called in. I
made a point of calling in when you picked up the football team to go
ten three, and I made a big deal out of that. So who
are you taking? I have no idea. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
I thought I was late. These guys are really no man. You know,
I got to have all the information. Look if I picked a bracket
and we found out that Kansas dude was injured, and I taking Kansas,
now we know, right? I like Houston and I like Purdue, all
right, all right, well, which is pretty easy to do. Well
that's so easy for you because I'm not taking Purdue. I'll tell you that
right now. I am so. I think I think Houston gets the nudge
for me because they're so physical and they're there. They play defense. Yeah,
defense seems to throw a just skew every good team's game. They're unrecognizable
when it's over. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you, all
right, Jim. Hey, it's baseball season. Man, It's baseball season.
Next week. We can talk about baseball the week after, and it's
about it's about time to give my little league updates. All right, man,
we'll talk to Larry. Thanks for calling. Appreciate it. Jim and
I coached little league together. Okay, so you're out on Houston, out
on Houston. I have Nebraska. Then in the second, you know,
when it comes down to it, I might, I might get back on
them. But I'm looking at that. I'm looking at the top four seeds
there, and none of them float me right in that top right backet and
the yeah in the in the in the south bracket, which is the top
right. You got Houston, Marquette is the two. Kentucky Duke is the
four. I don't got Duke, and I gotta take somebody. You do,
you do eventually. The thing with Kentucky is that Cala Perry's had all
these teams and coached a lot of freshmen, and this year is extremely freshman
oriented, and I just it's really hard unless they're all world players like you
had when Anthony Davis won and Karl Anthon Townsend Booker. It's hard for them
to just get over that get over that peak. So that's why I think
it might be a little tough for them. Yeah, we'll see, but
yeah, here's what Here's what my issue is with with all of these teams
is that being in Arizona guy, Right, you're in Arizona, growing up
in Arizona fan, I think more about the losses than the wins, right,
And all these teams in Houston, Duke, Kentucky, Marquette, Purdue,
everybody, they've all lost recently, and I can't get that out of
my mind, Like you know that they still might be really damn good,
And that's that's that's sort of the problem I have with with taking one of
these guys. I think I'm on the side with Jim on the last,
Like Houston, these guys are men playing defense. Yeah, they're gonna shut
teams down and they're they're just not gonna go lightly. I definitely like Houston
on that side. Yea. And I like Markat too. I think I
got to see, especially if Tyler Kolok plays, he's one of the best
guards in the country and he makes he's he's the conductor of that of that
train. He makes it go and he's he's fantastic. I think I'm going
Tennessee in the Midwest. I think I'm gonna do that. They're They're coming
in as a two seed, and I just think somebody along the way is
gonna is gonna find a way to beat Zach Eaedy and produce just not gonna
get there. So we have three out of the four. So I've got
three out of the four. I'm stuck on the on the South region and
I may end up defaulting to the one seed over there, but I Houston
at this moment, I'm not ready to commit to any of those guys.
I'm just not I've committed Iowa State. It's really hard to repeat in college
basketball. Hasn't been done since Florida in eight or oh seven, oh eight.
So I do think you come is one of the best teams in the
country, but Iowa State and my heart tells me no, but my mind
says, Arizona out of that out of that section is probably the best team,
especially, and I think there's some wiggle room to if they don't play
to their quote potential, they can still sneak away with a game. Like
two years ago, when we lost to Houston, barely beat TCU. That
that Houston game. We couldn't. We had to play great to win that
game, right, Yeah, we got right. That's take this call higher
on the air, on the ball. Yeah, Hey, how you guys
doing. We're good? How are you goody? They gave they said a
recent stat it was like twenty five and ten if you lost by twenty points
sometime during the year. No, no, the last couple of games you
get blown out. Okay, before the tournament starts, Houston, I'll call
it right now, Houston ain't making it to the Grade eight like I used
to have the other number ones going to it. You got all the this
is Howard right, yeah, yeah, you got all the number ones except
Houston. Oh yeah, they're going to be knocked out, right, Yeah,
they're going to be knocked out. And uh, Kentucky, by the
way, has a good Uh they have a good draw to get to to
the state. I got to go into the final four. I'll tell you
now, who do you have winning it? I got two Wildcats in the
championship game. Look at you, Look at you believe it? At that?
Okay? All right? I like that. I like that all right,
hey, because we got we got I think our guards don't. I
think this is the first time when the year before where you have two teams
that made it, two players on your team that made it to the final
four, right in both San Diego. Yeah, I think that's going to
help. It sounds like they're expecting to they Tommy feels like he said today
that he feels like they've gotten some run with that. That having those two
guys to help the other guys understand has been meaningful to the team. So
yeah, all right, I think. So, Hey, what time does
the game start? Eleven o'clock tomorrow morning? Oh yeah, eleven am.
It's the first game. Not a great it's the first game in Salt Lake
City. So what are we What are we predicted about? Twenty points?
It's what's it's twenty and a half? Hey you look, hey, I
can I can do this twenty points? I guess all right, man,
all right, all right, one appreciate the call. I don't know,
man, we understand this genuinely. Is that what easy money? Or like,
listen, I and that's why these handicappers know, yeah, they do.
My thing is you a has we we were coming off a loss in
the PAC twelve tournament where both Caleb Blood, both Caleb b Love and Caylem
Boswell are quote guards have not played well and the track record in these tournament
games are just not good for us. And you and I get. I
get the whole story of Long Beach State has quote momentum one five in a
row, fired their coach. It's a great story, and they could easily
Like a lot of people are like, oh, this could be a blowout
game for Arizona, but until Arizona actually blows someone out, that they should
blow out to me, to me, because it's going to be U of
A is going to push the pace, It's going to be up and down.
And so either Long Beach State wants to hang and they make some shots
and they think that they can be in the game, or it just goes
the opposite way, which I don't think that. I think eighteen. Yeah,
do you think twenty is just too much? I think twenty is too
much, especially in the first round of an NCAA tournament. Well, you
know, it used to be that the one sixteen game, you always gave
the point if it was thirty five points, whatever you take, and you
almost can't do that anymore this tournament. These brackets are different, they're so
even. I mean there's higher seeds that are favored a lot, yeah,
I think, yeah, I agree with you, and twenties kind of Yeah,
that's kind of a stresshold, right, I think. Yeah, any
number could say what you want and say what you want about all the seeds
and everybody who's in the tournament. If you're in this bracket, you're a
pretty good basketball test. Yeah. And the beauty of this, and I
know we only have a minute left, but the beauty of March Madness,
which everybody likes, is that it's not a series you have to wait well
today, and it's the common saying of anybody can win on any given and
you found that out last year as an Arizona Wildcat fan. And if you
were a Purdue Boy boiler Maker like Virginia Cavalier, like if you don't have
it on one day, your season's over. And that's the beauty and that's
why everyone loves it. And that's why it's pissing me off. Right here
we are, man, We've been waiting all year for this, We've been
talking about this, and with all the the wins, and the losses and
say, none of it matters until you get here. And we're here finally,
so we'll be back tomorrow. We'll have some folks here to break down
the game. The game will have been only over only a couple of hours
by the time we come on the air, so we'll sort of do almost
a postgame show, uh with. We'll get Steve from from Salt Lake City
to get his thoughts on what we just saw. But Arizona at at oh
just just got a confirmation Reggie Gary will join us tomorrow to break the game
down. So we'll have Reggie on and so that'll be great, right,
all right, So we'll see you tomorrow. Good luck to the cats,
both the men and the women, and we'll see how it goes. So
we win, I think we win, I do all right, great,
let's do it all right,