This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
c R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Station. A good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jagan Zawis. We don't have any kids this week our child support
payment, so I can say we shouldn't be having any kids anyway. You're
still coughing them for a little bit. I am a little bit. I
think I'm you know, getting a little bits better by the day. I'm
well enough to go, you know, do my job at the basketball game
tonight. I'm still testing negative and so I got a call. Yeah,
the question is will the Cats do their job to it? And you know,
I think we'll we'll last REGI carry that, you know. Oh well,
yeah, yeah, he saw he was front row on that bay.
He wanted to make sure that we knew that he's not doing the game tonight.
So that's okay, that's what we get. We get. We get
to ask him some questions then yeah, and he'll be he'll be playing with
us, honest with us. He went through a few of these. I
remember a few while bringing those up as specifically, I mean, what mind
they were the senior year they went to say, they went to Stanford,
Uh got beat and they and unless Reggie, Joseph Blair, Joe McClain,
Corey Williams, Reggie who is the guard? Who's the Reggie was? Must
have been the guard because Corey was a three, Joe McClain, j B
Ben Davis, Ben Davis uh and uh No, No, In fact,
I don't think JB was on the team anymore. Remember he got academically ineligible.
They went and they lost to Stanford. It was the team was kind
of in disarray. I know Corey. I did a story. I don't
know if I'll bring this up to Reggie, but TRD the story that they
were some in house kind of like jealousies. Because guess what happens and and
and I'm not saying that all mention happened. A lot of them were seniors.
So when your seniors and at the end of the your career, what
are you thinking, NBA, I need the ball exactly. I got to
get my numbers. They righted the ship and they fell into Sweet sixteen.
But those are the things that remember, Sean would say, things are going
okay now, but the outside noise, the outside noise, so everything and
anything can happen to a Dean at any time. Yeah. And also remember
last year was kicking the crap out of Stafford and then they lost. Then
they lost. Stuff happens, Jay, You've seen it a number of times.
Sometimes the rambl are covered and sometimes they aren't done the last second.
Can that was but you know what, that was awful on Saturday. I
mean it was bad from the from the get go. You're talking about Sunday.
Sunday. It was nine to nothing and it never got better. Yeah,
I think that they I don't know, do you think they lowed themselves
into believing that they can make a run at any time that could be it,
because you know that that's been that's been their thing, you know,
I mean, I know I sat there through the whole game, waiting,
Okay, they're gonna make a run. They make a run, They're gonna
make They're gonna make a run. And they never made the run. Stanford
kept running right, no, right, and then when you have no solution,
but you have a solution that just doesn't work. And defending the perimeter.
You wonder if there's a time, if there was a time in that
game where Tommy just kind of threw his hands up and said, you know,
they're not winning this game. In fact, Jay, I know you're
the Twitter guys. I saw something on Twitter yesterday fans. I guess they
took a shot of the coaching on the sideline and they looked distraught. Tommy
had his arms crossed, and it had to be with a minute left,
and they're saying, look, look, this is what the coaching is doing.
They were getting round. What are you gonna do? You know,
you don't have a twenty exactly? I would look that way too, And
so they showed these guys they should be No, they were already either butt
kicked. Yeah, you know, time and circumstances of a photo. Oh
look he's not smiling. What the hell was there to smile about? True?
Yeah, you know what, don't listen to theirs on a fan right
now? Running there are you know, and there and there's another thing,
Jaya, and you know this because we we all went through this. Oh
ninety seven, they lost nine, don't worry, well, that doesn't.
Ninety seven has nothing to do with this year. Ninety eight has nothing.
They're in the moment today. They got to get themselves out of it.
I know. But that's also a way of saying it's gonna be okay,
it's gonna be fine. Sure, you know they can go. This is
how bad it can be and you can still do this. You're trying to
give fans perspective. Dand what the hell you wasted your time? Go have
a shot of whiskey. Man, I need a shot of something, but
you need a toddy hot toddy. I'm drinking some coffee. Okay, okay,
but hey, he's a good game tonight, big game tonight, and
it's always a huge game. They're eleven and two. Yeah, I know
why they're not ranked, but you know they're not ranked, but they're close.
But if they win, they'll be ranked. You know, Look,
Colorad always Color is that team in historically for Arizonea, it's that team that
everybody looks at color and says you should kick their ass. Sure, but
you haven't. But they're always tough to play. Yeah, well you remember
the last second shot with the fingertips. Yeah, yeah, I know his
name is Yeah, you know, you know it's Arizona has a tough time
with them all the time. And and you know it's because you know,
when UCLA comes in, not this not this year's UCLA, but anytime UCLA
comes in Arizona, you know, Arizona fans expect a tough game. Expect
hey, we could lose because it's UCLA or whoever. Colorado is that team
that doesn't get any respect as a basketball program from Arizona fans. All right,
so anytime Arizona plays Colorado, they think it's Colorado, you should beat
them. Well, that's not necessarily true. And this team is one of
those teams where Arizona better have its act together. They better not do what
they did even close to what they did against Stanford where they're gonna get beat
tonight, they need to play well. Totally totally agree. I was gonna
say now I lost the train of thought. And obviously they're pretty good UCLA.
The thing about it with Arizona, they need every win in the conference.
They just do because the conference sucks outside of the Colorado really u c
l A lost to Stanford. In fact, I wanted to start the show
today and then we got sidetracked. How about them Cardinals. How about them
Cardinals they beat They went to u c. L A and not the Cardinals,
card the Cardinal. Yeah, the Cardinals, Uh, how about them?
They're going to UCLA the Airson to turn their season around maybe maybe well
they got the kid. Yeah, they got some guys back. Yeah,
you know, so there, you know, they got more of their team
back, and you know, we talked about that with Brian Jefferies yesterday.
But you know, they're there, They've got more of their guys back and
maybe that win, you know, it turns everything around them. Although I've
never been that impressed with with uh, they're they're called Jared Haws. Yeah,
dawksh Yeah, Jared Haw. I've never been that. You know,
he just doesn't look you ever see they ever see the movie hang Over to
where the father in law calls calls the guy what do you call him,
I don't know, like milky Rice or something, the guy the guy who
had his tooth. Yeah, yeah, he just takes like he's just kind
of playing in vanilla. Yeah, yeah, you're right, he was just
kind of seeing he's Stanford, he's booking Stafford, he's books, you know,
he's a good guy. I'm not. I don't mean to criticize him
and say he just he doesn't inspire fear in anything. You're the looks guy.
He's not coming off the buzz guy, right. So it's not an
airport in airport right, right, But he did airport you in nineteen ninety
six, if you remember, he was with Kansas and he's the one that
nailed the shot in the corner the defeated Arizona to that same team we're talking
about. So I the one thing I was going to say to you,
and I remember what I was training of thought that Tommy has not I think
he's gone. Whatever times he's lost, he never lost two in a row,
never lost two in a row. Right, So there's that. Have
they covered. I don't know he lost two out of three, you know,
a couple of weeks ago. But yes, he's not lost in a
row. So look and I and I think he I think he has a
way of gaining the attention of his guys. We'll see and and again the
approach being we stopped talking about Stanford the day after the Stanford game. Sure,
you said to Bruce, you think we didn't practice the day after that,
of course they did. You know, you get it out of their
system and move on to the next thing. Sure, Bruce is such an
innocent target really, because you know, it's a question, it was a
fair question. Did you see did you see ideas press converce a snippet or
two? I I only saw a quote coming out of that that's saying five
stars and stuff like that or not where she wants to go. Okay,
no, there was one. There was one that came out of the news
yesterday. I didn't I didn't see it live or anything, but she was
a bit snippy in a question about her defense and offense. He says,
we're not gonna ban on defense. It got us to the national title game,
and you're you're talking to a coach who coached I'm paraphrasing that. I'm
probably screened it up, but we you know, we went to a national
championship with our defense, and we're going to stick to it. You know.
It's kind of like defending how she plays. And it was not in
a bad knock of Tommy Lloyd tone, but it was in her don't screw
with me, don't don't try to me what to do exactly right, exactly.
No, little little testy over there, Michael, Which is fine.
I mean, let me tell you something, Tucson, and not to say
that they're in bed with the teams, because you know we've been around,
but they are. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean I just
see I see media people defending the coaches, whether it's Tommy or da or
Jed or whoever. There's a lot of there's a lot of defending of coaches
in uh in the media. Now they're not that they're so much rooting for
him, for them, but kind of like this is what they meant,
kind of like defending them when they say things. Right, Bruce doesn't do
that, so he doesn't do it at all, but a lot of the
other media does, including some media at the Star. Yeah, we should
wait on Michael Lev's not one of those guys either. He could be on
the show today because we still want to talk about, you know, a
few the things that have been going on. Yeah, no, no,
okay, So Michael Lev will be here in about ten a team minutes right,
Well, no, no, he's at four to seventeen. Yeah,
no, we got right regigary Forgie first regigary about three in about uh Yeah,
in about ten minutes, you'll be coming on and uh, you know,
look, we'll ask him about Stanford, but we also want to say,
okay, what's you know, what's up tonight? Right right? In
evaluating the team as well, you know, and again Reggie being a former
player, is one of those guys that we can pick his brain about,
you know, what this team is going through after after having something like that,
uh, you know go against you right right. Uh, you know,
Stanford's not always easy. Colorado will see what happens because they are good
this year. So, like I said, we'll see what happens. Yeah,
I got I'm looking for this text. I got a text yesterday talking
about asking you do Bruce and Tommy Lloyd get along because he seems to poke
at it because they heard the press car on the shows. He said,
what is that like? He just you know, Bruce is just kind of
a target to poke at. It's not unfriendly. I don't think they have
a bad relationship. No, I think Tommy likes to poke at him as
sort of got a comfortable Let's also remember that there's no one in this town.
Back in the day, it was Bruce and I traveling with the team
together, him and I together. Uh, and we're the only dudes that
were traveling. Greg showed up every now and again. So it was me,
Bruce and and Greg every now and again with lout for for twenty years
or whatever it was for twenty years. Uh, and now then Sean,
and then Sean came in and they those guys had a little test. Sean
would be Sean to a lot of everybody, even including Bruce. But but
remember that Bruce is trying to do his job, and Tommy's all he knows
well because none of us travel with him except for except for Bruce. About
Bruce, about that is that Bruce has got to get as much material as
possible, and he's got to get something different from everybody else who they're posting
what they've got the minute they get it. And Bruce has the right for
the newspaper and stuff that's gonna you know, right and every day Bob is
a little different, right. And luckily for Bruce because the other guys wouldn't
have the material because he's asking a lot of the questions. You know.
Uh, he thanks me when I go because we asked questions. You know.
We add to the to the criteria of the guys asking like real questions.
Well, and that's another thing, because yesterday he Bruce gets into the
weeds. He does get into the weeds, and that Tommy wishes he wouldn't,
you know, And that's you know, what did you have for breakfast?
Type of stuff? You know, But it's all part of his story.
He's got you know again, he's got to have more stuff, more
angle than everybody else, you know, because he could you have for breakfast
to day? So here's my story. As Jay got out of bed and
brushed his teeth, he sat at the table and the eggs and eggs and
it was all part of a nutritious day. Because you know what I'm saying,
it's a part of the story. People don't understand that. But but
if you're on a one and one you'd understand it. But when you're at
a podium and everybody, yeah, and that's the problem. Everybody's getting the
same stuff exactly, Like, why are you asking that? It doesn't matter
to me? Right right, Well, I'll bring your point of Channel thirteen,
damon, Damien, help me to ask someone you know about his growing
up being an insurance guy, growing up where we grew up and he was
at press comments midway through the first season, I think it was, and
someone looked at him says, why are you asking me these questions? Well,
this is the only time we have access to you. If you're not
going to meet me somewhere else at two o'clock in your office, where do
I get to ask that? And I'm trying to do so that's what you're
get. So that's what you're getting. If you're going to say, give
me five minutes somewhere here. Okay, I won't ask this question, but
you know, what did you have for breakfast? Or yeah, yeah,
I just found tweet. There's some language in it that I can't use,
but not tweet a text to me asking about does Tommy Bruce every time?
No? No, hey, But he poked at it question because it's it's
the militia type of stuff. You know, it's funny stuff anyway. But
you know again, you know, we'll get to this with with Reggie here
and I'm here in about five minutes. But this is a huge game.
Very Arizona's really got it. It's got to show that it's right in itself
and that it's got to try and show that that game on Sunday was a
one. So you talked yesterday Ardi had another two. I'm play the first
two, which is the five. There w a bull. They're the best
team in the West. Yeah, yeah, And he said that, he
said, look, there's still a one. Yeah, but where they are
right now is there? There are two for today? What's today? Which
is fine? January third turn and fourth January before? So what does it
mean? Not dead? That's like what they say if the playoffs were done
today. Well, the playoffs aren't being done today, so shut up.
I know you're you're right, Steve. It means it's it's it's conversation,
and that's what sure, that's what we're here for, correct, and that's
what we do, all right. Reggie Gary coming up in about five minutes.
They'll be sure to stick around. We'll get his take first on what
happened on last Sunday, but then looking ahead to this Colorado game, and
then you talk coming in on the weekend as well. Stick around. For
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mean, iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Brivera and
Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball
here Fox Sports fourteen fifty of Steve Rivera. You're jiginbas. I'm now on
the phone. We have forwork. You'll they guard Reggie Geary. How are
you, Reggie? I'm good. I'm good, guys. Oh, Happy
New Year? Sam? Do you Reggie good? How was your New Year?
I don't want to ask you how you New Year's Eve was, because
you witnessed something something that wasn't fun. Yeah, and New Year's Day was
a little difficult. Uh, you know, fortunately, uh the night went
a little bit better. But all in all it was a great New Year.
But obviously a nice about that win in Stanford. So Grig, you
see, you sat up front, got got to see it up close and
personal. I mean, just what the hell happened? I mean, what
what do you think? Uh? Went wrong on Sunday? All across the
board? Yeah, you know, you know, after after a pretty strong
performance in cal especially in the first half. He really thought, or I
had though, at least for that road trip that we kind of had you
know, correct corrected some things, especially energy wise, and just being a
little more aggressive and and kind of you know, our pickup points and just
just overall being more aggressive and then just to come into the Stanford game and
get off to a slow start as they did. You know, we missed
a couple of layups that didn't help. And I think maybe I don't know,
the mythum just swung so great in that first half where Stamford has every
every time they got to make buck and they just got more and more confident,
really you know, propelled by their two freshmen, uh Styakovich and Cannon,
and just you know, from there it was just you know, just
it was just tough studying for twenty minutes. Yeah, no question. It's
almost like you you're stuck in sand and you can't get out, more like
concrete. Actually, I was explaining to to the Jay here. Uh,
it's not like you haven't gone through stuff like that. I remember your senior
year at Stanford coincidentally, where things just didn't go right and you lost In
fact, you lost them twice that year. Yeah, and sometimes that happens.
I do remember that that trip. It was a frustrating trip, things
weren't clicking as well, and and you know, and when you find yourself
on the road and everything is out aligned, you know, upsets can happen.
I think Jayden Bradley said it best recently talking about some of the defensive
woes that, hey, our connectivity which is not as connected as we once
were. And so I know they've been spending the last few days over the
break getting and you know ready for these Rockey Mountain schools want to get that
connectivity back, get that that defensive edge back, so hopefully that will be
their time. So, Reggie, you're known for being a defender, one
of the better ones in the in the team history. You can kind of
correct me and say the best one. I'm fine with that. Uh but
keny ken defenses are weird. Either you got it or you don't? Is
that true? Or can you You can get better at it, but can
you get it or not get it? Yeah? I mean when we say
that, I don't know if there's so much talking about defense, but maybe
just some of that, you know, in a resilience fortitude that you know
out of that mental and more more important physical toughness, and not everyone has
that, you know, and that's fine, but it's something that everyone can
do nonetheless, and you know, effet wise, you know, that's just
something you can control. And for me, it's something I enjoy it.
And when you start enjoying it and have the passion for it and realizing the
importance of it, you know, whoever that person, that's when that's when
it has a great meeting. And when you do that team, that's when
you're really cooking. It was on the shown that this year. First,
you know, ten games, you know, defensive, they really were locked
in for whatever reason that for game and since there's just been a little bit
of a little bit of a step back. So you go through a game
like that and now you got you got a you know, a tough Colorado
team coming in and I get it. You know, nobody in the Pac
twelve is ranked but Arizona. But these guys they're eleven and two, they're
pretty good. They're always tough. Yeah, they've always had a toughness about
them. You know, how do you move on what's going on in the
locker room to get zeroed in on this game? You know, we know
Tommy's in his press conference as they said, I've moved on, and he
was like giving the media some crap about not moving on. But how,
you know, how do you as a player, what what what do you
have to do in your mind? You know, to get zeroed in on
the next game and shake what it just happened to you. Yeah, you
got to get back in the gym. You got to get back in the
gym. And I'm sure coach Lloyd and the staff, all the players have
done that. You get back in the gym, you you almost you know,
if you break it back down almost to a simplest compound and start with
the fundamentals again and start kind of building the other directions. You get in,
you start getting the shots up, You get into the film room,
both individual as a team, and and you just try to figure it out
because physically, you know, you're fine. It just mentally we're just not
from the right places. And so it's important to get back on the horse,
get back in the gym. There's gonna be some question marks and some
small anxiety going tonight's game about how we're going to respond. But you know,
you have to respect Colild They're a good basketball team. They have talented
player kJ Simpson. I mean he is a he's he's the first first team
Pac twelve candidate, maybe even played the year type candidate. Coming off thirty
four points last game. You know, they Cody Williams of talented fresher and
out of Gilbert who is on the tear right now. In the last two
games he scored twenty and both of those Tristan the Silva, you know,
we all know him. He's a he's a familiar face. I think they
might. I think they're going to have him back for the games coming up.
An ankle injury and so and it's a team that scores eighty five points
like they want to get up and down and and they're explosive. So defensively,
Arizona's gonna have to be on tonight. So I also think that,
you know, having covering you guys forever, that one game, you know,
one game is a season. You move on to the next season.
How how And this may be a dumb question, I even know how to
phrase it. Okay, So you have one bad game, you win ten,
you lose one, and everybody focuses what on the one? Right?
Uh? And it was just something that happens. Did you believe that as
a player here. Yeah, I mean, if it's just a one off,
in my mind, that's not too no concerning, you know, nights
like that happened. I mean, uh, you just often you still have
that yet still realization held on. I'm still a good basketball player. We're
still a really good basketball team. And that being the case, if we
just refocus our mind to get back to practicing and playing hard, that things
will correct themselves and we'll go back to our winning ways. It's when it
starts crying over. You know, if you loft two in a row or
three out of five, and you're stample side could a little bit bigger,
that's when it can be a little more concerning. It's a dow coom.
If it's a one off, get back in the gym, realize, hey,
this is not going to occur again and be bad time out? Did
you? Did you? Maybe some of your guys I mentioned the group earlier,
a good group with Corey and JB and Ben. Did you guys play
pissed at times after a loss like that? Yeah? I mean, I
mean whether whether I was playing at the U of A, you know,
playing professionally, you know, coaching for the fourteen years I did you always
want to have an end. You always want to play with a little bit
of fire in your belly. And and and I think, you know,
there's a lot of ways to go about that. I could do that.
I could play with that intensity and have a little bit of chip, but
also smile and talk a little stuff and have a little fun but all the
time be siously competitive. But you definitely want to have a little edge.
This is Arizona. You're gonna have a target on your back. You have
to realize that. Yeah, and you can find it almost disrespectful to someone's
going to come in here and try to beat you. And so hopefully you
have to play with that buyer. Who who on this team can can bring
that the most or who do they need to bring that right? You know,
I mean all of you guys that they're really out, they're playing the
art time right now, they're playing hard. You know, I just collectively
they just have to get back to playing with that same fire together. And
you know, that's what makes great basketball so great. You can it's not
an individual sports. You need all five guys on the same page playing with
that connectivity, and it's on one guy on everyone. You know, energy
is infectionous when one guy has it. When Colin Bonds was picking up bull
court and guys are stending and Bobo is doing his thing, it's infectionous and
they need that energy to be throughout the team. Right. So one of
the things that Tommy did after the game that day and then again tuesday,
we Wednesday in this press converce so was he called out the guards. They're
getting the ask ask ask kick being a guard. And I said this yesterday
on the show. Back in ninety seven, ninety eight, if Bibby was
off, Miles showed up, if Miles didn't show up, and baby Terry
was showed up, differention they had like four headed monster right to different degrees.
And your team, I think you were the guy. You were the
guy, But this year they have four headed monster. Kind of was that
surprising to you because the backcourt got beat so bad? Yeah, you know,
I mean obviously, you know, you know, cantabiddy ability is important.
I think that's what Tommy's alluding to, that, Hey, take some
personal pride and defend some people. You know, killed Love has done a
great job offensely last few games. Colin Balstiwall, I think it's fair to
be struggling with the shot and maybe that's affected him a little bit, but
I'm looking for him to bounce back. K J. Lewis has been terrific,
and so I Jayden Bradley. But I don't know if they give you
the same type production as bottle will over the long haul. So you know,
they got the guys, Peel Larson, they have the players. It's
more of a mental and physical thing right now, and they just got to
figure their way out of it. Okay. So so having said that,
figuring their way out of it, what is the way out of it?
You know, the guards obviously have to play better defensively, but you know
they just looked in complete disarray on on on uh on Sunday. You know,
but before that, we you know, we're sitting here saying we don't
know what their flaws are and then we found them. So, you know,
how do you play your way out of something like that? Or you
know, let's say they fall behind early, you know tonight, what happens
there? Well, I mean just go back to Stamford game. You know,
after credit they shot they shot the ball at a rarely high clip and
shot the ball. Well, so I definitely want to get Stanford credit for
that. Defensively, you know tonight you get back on it. You can
start the game with energy the first five minutes. You come out and play
the right way, and you come out with a lot of energy, and
you see you're at and then you take a break and can do another five
minutes. And you do that eight times and so you know, I think
you just have to take a step by step. Not they're not get ahead
of our selves, think about the end of the game. Just start the
game with the you know, we got the horses and got the guys,
and if you face them, that whould be double down on Tommy's philosophy,
double down on the team philosophy, and not splinter. And so you know,
those are two ways they could address that. Yeah, no question.
In fact, uh, that game would have ten assists. I think it
was. It was totally not the team we've seen for two plus years where
they shared ball, they moved all around. I'm sure that was what you
were. What did you how was your how was your your play by play?
How was your color analyst job? That day? Was a tough no,
I mean, I mean it's first of all, it's over the pleasure
of with Bran Jeffers. But you know, it is what it is frustrating
because you really want the guys to do well and you're right there with them
and they were not playing well. You have to describe them not playing well
right right, and so that can be that can be difficult. But like
I said, I have full belief in this team. I just think they're
going to just get better and better. There's a young team, yeah,
no question, and they are, and you know, we like to think
that they're not because Cayle, you know, Kyler Boswell has been here for
being playing for two years now. Well he's still like twelve years old.
So I mean, you know, it's you just you know, you just
have to still realize, you know, uh uh what, Jade Bradley is
a young guy. I'm a bunch of young guys. I know. I
know. You you've got a key shot who he looks like an old man.
He looks like he's been around for a while and you're relying on him
to, you know, to kind of carry some of that. But you
know, they are still a bunch of young guys and people have to realize
that, Yeah, the young guy's a lot of success right out the gate,
and we're in that rare air number one in the nation, top five
in the country, and that sometimes is psychologically it can be difficult to digest
if you haven't been there a lot. You don't have some veteran guys,
and they do have veteran guys, but just collectively, you know, that
takes them getting used to. Now they've taken a little bit of a knock.
I'm loving. I'm going to love to see them bounce back and start
going in the other direction. So I have here's another little anecdote for you.
It kind of applies to this year. So in ninety five ninety six,
you guys senior year, you lose a damon the year before, people
say, well, this team might be okay. So I don't even think
you guys were rated or ranked in the first first to first poll. Right,
you guys go to New York win the n I t be Georgetown in
the finals. Here you are. I think you're making the top ten.
And I said yesterday to a few fans on the internet, you know,
the great Internet, that one of the things that is the hurt Arizona is
to go to Duke to beat Duke get all these high expectations, the fans
go crazy, and they get all these expectations, and they should be the
most unbeatable team. You guys went through that in ninety five ninety six,
because that's how you started. Yeah, you know, that's exactly exactly right.
You know, it was almost criminal what the AP and the basketball did
to us in terms of taking us out of the top twenty five without having
seen a flight, because they broke our streak at the time, coach Olsen
had a streak up like two hundred you know, weeks in a row,
so they broke it without even seeing this, which was I thought criminals,
and we were upset about that. To win in the preseason an I T
and being number three in the nation right out the gate. Now, you
know, keep in mind that team had five seniors. We had you know,
Miles Signing, Michael Dickers and Jason Terry, so I thought we were
maybe more mentally equipped then maybe this group a little bit, just because we
had been together so long and we had been you know, number two and
number three previously. But yeah, that was a year we went, you
know, not ranked the twenty five, and we handled the expectations. We
knew every night where Arizona and what does that mean? That means we're going
to the other team's best game and we need to be prepared to that,
prepared that and actually prepared to play harder than them, and we did that.
Were not the Arizona is We need to get back to that. And
you're talking thirty years later and guess what the lesson still needs to be learned.
Oh no, no, it's all relative. You know. That's crazy
about this game. That's why I love it. And yeah, the same
lessons a fundamentally sound back then, are still fundamentally sound today. Yeah right
right, Okay, Reggie is always thank you very much. Yeah, yeah,
Jay, Steve, I appreciate you, guys man, thank you again
and bear down all right, take care. Thank you the Reggie Gary.
I love this stuff because it's accurate. Well, well, it's accurate because
you know he went through it. I mean that's what life having guys like
that on. Because you know, Reggie, what was this like when you
did this? Yeah? Right, right, and how did you react?
Well? I think I think he gives us a lot of it. That
year and they were unranked, they in the in the n I t beat
Georgetown, Arkansas or whatever, and then all of a sudden, you're the
crap. I want to say the S word, but you're the crap and
gets it. You start believing that you said you don't your bulletproof, and
then all of a sudden, somebody starts punching you in the face. You're
like, what the hell is that? Right? Exact? Not just once
twice all day? Because you know what, they want to kick your ass,
right, they did, and they did really bad, and then they
want to kick your ass. So you know there you go, all right,
thank you, Reggie, that was that was awesome. Appreciate it.
Uh, we're gonna take a break, We're to come back. We'll take
your costs. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty. What do
you want to see tonight with Colorado coming into town? Uh? Looking for
a big win, looking for just a win? Uh? Do you care
how much they went back? Give us a call. Five two zero four
one, six seventy four forty. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan,
you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now, take a look
back at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot.
It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
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the exes and oh's. It's Steve Rivera and Jagin Salax. This is
I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifties. Hey, welcome back to
win the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve, He's Jay.
You've got about thirteen minutes. Have you got the call? Do you want
to call? Five two oh four one four forty. We'd like to hear
from you. Good discussion. We've solved all the world's problems, including the
best world tips. Yeah, we've sold how Kylon Boswell and lit Love.
We're gonna get out in guard Colorado guards and not let him do what so
far Purdue, Florida, Atlantic, Stanford all did to them. It seems
so simple, right right, That's not no, it's not it's not.
You know, It's it's funny because it's it's in times like this that you
find out how good a coach is a coach, right, you know,
Tommy Lloyd so far has been very good at this is not losing two games
in a row. Whatever issues they have gained them fixed by the next game.
He's had kind of a short week because they played on Sunday, traveled
back, right, you know, and now you know they're they're they're coming
in on Thursday and having to play Colorado. But they did practice on Monday,
did practice on they did not get the day off. Yeah, you
know, you know, and you know, and people who you know who
question whether Tommy's a good coach or not? What does he have seventy one
wins in two and a half seasons? Stop? Yeah? Yeah, Well
so one of the guys, I guess who reads me and we had a
quick discussion. The jury still out, Jerry still what the jury? Well,
because well, I guess the jury for some people is going to be
out until he does something well in the in the UH in the Double A
tournament. You know that in at Arizona, that's where the jury makes its
decisions. Sure, and for Sean Miller never get you to go final four?
What do you think do people what do you think people think of Sean
Miller as the coach at Arizona historically? Now, yeah, yeah, he
won a lot of games. They think he was pretty good, really good.
Okay, give me give me a level okay, excellent, Okay,
you know, pretty good, pretty good? Uh average? By average,
I mean John did maybe what you know, kind of the minimum No,
so so social three four? Was he bad? Okay? So I think
depends, Like now, I think it's pretty good because it's your three years
removed from the you know, whatever happened happened. It's kind of the recency
bias is kind of fading away. He wasn't actually it wasn't. Didn't get
to the four. You know, had a shot or two fall and he
would have gone to the final four. Pretty good because he won a lot
of games. I couched that by saying, and I did the numbers.
Fifty to sixty of those games came against the Northern arizonas of the world,
right, So he won a lot. Yeah, but let's put a little
astress there. Yeah, because that's it's true. What does three elite eighth
get you here, three elites eight here, what is it? Yeah,
bon chips and that gets you to pretty good, pretty good, right,
And the problem with that is that was early on in his career, at
the end of the at the end of the road, he didn't finish strong.
No, in fact, people forget that he won a lot, lost
a lot of games consecutively, in fact, since before Lute, because Lu
didn't go on these losing streaks of five, six, eight game Sean did.
And I'm not here to rag Sean. But he was very good,
and he still is a heck of a good coach. He just didn't know
the formula here. He wasn't great. He was very good or pretty good.
Well, it might better than sort of kind of what you would accept
my in my departure and my departing column on him the next day after he
was fired, I said, what is his legacy going to be? We're
still talking about it and what is it? We don't know. There's like
two or three things to it right now. I ever got quite to it,
never got to the final four, although he did get to the date
three times. You know, had a last second shot at one of those.
At a couple of those, you know the n C double A stuff
that you know that that's part of the legacy. You can't ignore that that
happened, and that that you can't ignore what kind of effect that had on
the program, right right? So okay, now, if the jury is
still out on Tommy and I'm sure people and I want to ask you this
later after this, how much of a sample size do you need? This
is where I go to the momentum. This is why I don't believe in
momentum, because if I walk to the door, say eight feet to the
door, is it one step? Is that my momentum is two steps momentum.
His three point is the moment when you start to fall towards the door.
Okay, so I got eight steps. I got eight steps, and
I don't disagree with eight steps being some momentum. But you know he's got
momentum after two steps. No, he's won two games. So so so
where was I gonna go with this? So what's the sample size allowed for
Tommy to say, Okay, he can coach. Yeah, well, I
think we already know that he can coach. The question is how good of
a coach is he gonna? Is he gonna be great? Is he gonna
be very good? Or is he gonna be pretty good? Right? So
that and that part, I think right now you're leaning towards he's going to
be great, right ultimately, sure, but you're holding back on that because
you're waiting to see what. Let's say he gets a final four this year.
Okay, this year he's going a final four? Is he great?
Yeah? Well he's gonna be pretty good because then Genhua, because the only
other coach has gotten in Arizona final four has been low But and guess what,
he couldn't win the big win, the big one, right, there
was something else. But you know I've had I've had a person. I
know this person will be they'll remain nameless. But who's Who's told me?
And he said a number of times Ludelson was not a great coach because he
only won one after well, I was and he should have won a bunch
more. I was gonna we had this discussion because I think I bought a
friend of mine about three months ago, pulled me aside when I was selling
the book. He says, oh, good coach, YadA YadA, But
my friends tell me he should have won more. And I said, really,
how do you figure at the same time of his good teams. I
think coach k had a few pretty good teams. So Jay, just because
you can beat me and golf nine out of ten times, ten out of
ten times, you guess what you're not playing me, you're playing good golfers.
I mean, come on, should have he had good, good enough
teams to play capable against those teams. But there's other teams. Well,
I'll just say right now, anybody who doesn't think Luke was a great coach
and shut the hell out. Yeah, they don't know enough he had good
teams. But at the same time, or you could have a fast car,
but guess what other cars are pretty fast by a bull driver. I
mean, do you sit here and think he had teams that could have or
were worthy of winning the national championship? Of course we'll go to eighty eight,
eighty eight, two thousand and one, ninety eight, ninety eight,
eighty nine, eighty nine. So you hit a four or five because what
you run into stuff that happens better team that day. I mean, I
remember whenever they're watching watching watching them lose to u n LV in eighty nine
eighty sweet sixteen, and thinking where did this UNLV team come from? We
didn't. We hadn't seen that, sure all year long, Utah utah ninety
eight. Come on, you think that's gonna happen. And stuff happens.
Stuff happens. You plan a trip to go to Disneyland, there's a crash
on the road or a rain for something happens, right, something happens.
No, I hear that all the time too, It says, don't you
think other teams are pretty good too? It's like it's like last year when
Florida Atlantic showed up in the Final four, You're thinking, what happened here?
You weren't paying attention. It's like your the analogy we used yesterday with
Pennix, what happened here? Well, you weren't paying attention. Were all
of a sudden this is a good team. Well where were you? Well,
I didn't watch much college football. Shut the hell up there, exactly.
Yeah, No, I hear your friend is a lot like my friends.
You should have wanted more. Well, it doesn't work out, but
that and that doesn't make him not great. Exactly right, No, exactly.
I mean, yeah, every coach at Arizona that's won a national championship
and whatever sport should be considered a great coach. Sure you know every single
one. Well, let me tell you. I'll give you a good example
Kendrea's later years. Yeah, people are saying, what the hell is he
passed his prime blah blah blah, and then he gets him to the finally
he gets him back there in his follow year. I don't blame him.
Are you know what? Here's this finger? You like this finger? You
can take this finger. I'm gone. Honestly, his finger was that I'm
glad this is but you don't want I want to. You're gonna tell me
I want a few championships. You don't like it, pull my finger,
take it home with you too. I'm not gonna pull. But you don't
have a line. There's a line in the sand, and I'm not good.
I might know exactly what you're saying, because you know again, and
it gets back to the how hard is it to win a championship in any
sport? Sure, in any sport. It's like you talk you talk to
Laura Ianello. You know who's won a national championship in golf. She should
go down as one of the great coaches at Arizona because she won a national
champion softball. You got a lot of Frank Bush. Frank Bush, well
he does. I mean people know he was a great sure coach, but
you know, we should ask him how difficult this was. David Rubyo a
great coach, very good, consistary, good, consistently, lasted a long
time, was competitive every year. But was he great? I don't know,
no. I think even he would say that he wasn't. But he
was just about just about there? Remember who you remember? Where we're at
here, we're two a results is the Dea Barnes a great coach. We
not know yet the jury is still out right, but she had a hell
of a star. We had a nice run there in that one season and
and you know, and that's kind of created this expectation of her teams.
The worst thing that we're going to find out about that this weekend as well.
They've got Colorado and you're talking in both highly ranked. The worst thing
to happen says you win early. Guess what people think you could do it
all? That's where you should be every year. Absolutely, it doesn't work
that way. It doesn't, it doesn't. I mean, we have a
great show. We should have a great show. Every year. That blows
right away. That's to the point though, right to the point. Nice
of all the time, we do the show five days a week. We're
not on vacation times fifties to two hundred and fifty times. If we're lucky
to survive two hundred good shows, we're doing okay, that pretty good.
We're better than most. But it's not easy. I think people the general
fan doesn't understand that, especially playing on the road too. There's a reason
why they call it home court of that again. And you know, you
look at you look at Maple's pavilion. You saw it. There weren't a
lot of people, the students aren't, weren't in town, so it certainly
shouldn't have been an intimidating atmosphere. But still you're on the road, and
you know they were on the road a lot in December. You know,
yeah, you know, I hate it. I hate that kind of travel.
And you know, and when you're eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old
and you're not sleeping in your bed, and I'm not making an excuse,
I'm saying it's harder than playing those guys and Arizona typically, at least for
my history, if they're in half filled. Arena's twenty five percent. It's
like the first round of the NCAA tournament on that morning over Thursday. They
don't play well. It's they need the bright lights, they need the whatever,
they need the big well and that'll be important tonight. As Reggie said,
they've got it. They've got to come out with a lot of energy.
They got to come out. You know, you can't be behind,
you know, ten to two after the first few minutes. Uh, I
think one the fans are gonna get nervous. That will change the atmosphere in
the arena. And you got to think that, you know what's going on
in their heads if they if Colorado comes out and punches them in the face
right out of the box. In fact, you should start saving some of
those Twitter because you're on Twitter, I'm on Facebook. I'm gonna start saving
some of the responses here in January and then eventually bring them back in March.
Yeah, and you know and see if they still exist, yeah,
or what they're saying here to there, if it's still relevant, or if
a bad right ages bad is the right phrase, yeah, because a lot
of those things do. But you know it's uh, and I've said this
before. I've said this a number of times on the show. We're living
a time when everyone can figure out everybody else's problems but can't figure out their
own. That that is it's true too, that is for sure. I
mean, yeah, you know you want to go figure out your problems like
coming yell at me about money. You want me to cut my grass?
What about the weeds over there on your side? Man, I got a
twin of lead for break in my backyard. All the leads Asters Association doesn't
bother you, any of my grandson to grow a fast. Get over to
start raking. All right, we'll be back. We'll be back here at
the top of the hour with the breaking news a stick around