This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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R TWU SA AT iHeartRadio Statia. Good afternoon, or maybe a bad afternoon
for a lot of you. Welcome BEH on the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. It's the day after and we'll talk a little bit about well,
we'll talk a lot about that. We've got a loaded show. Steve
headed back from La covering the Sweet six from where we covered the Sweet sixteen
game yesterday. We'll get him on the phone during the show. I've got
Greg Hanson here once again to fill in as a more than capable co host
to help us break this stuff down. Adam is here running the board,
and we've got a load of guests today, a lot of guys who know
a thing or two about basketball and a lot more than either Greg or I
do. Starting with Reggie Geary, who's going to join us at three fifteen.
We had read Geohn at the after the first round game last week and
provide a lot of good insight, so he'll join us in after the first
break Steve will come on after the second break at about three p forty to
give us his take on what he saw last night. He had to call
him out that just basically said, you know, this is what we've been
seeing kind of all year long. You can follow him on All Sports Tucson
and read his call umn. We'll do breaking news at the top of the
hour with Adham, and then at four fifteen Scott Thompson, who was on
Lot's staff, first staff here at Arizona. He came with him from Iowa.
Scott still lives in Tucson, and he was a head He was a
head basketball college basketball coach for a number of years, and so he'll come
in. And then we had just here in the last half hour added Matt
Mulebach, who will also come in and give us his insights. So we're
loaded up for bear. If you want to call the show, the only
chance you'll the only time you'll be able to call the show, because these
guys are gonna be on the phone the whole The whole show is going to
be in the first segment of the four o'clock hour when we're doing breaking news.
But Greg, thanks for being here. My one feeling from what you
just said is if you had had those two guests you just mentioned, Reggie
Gary and Matt Melbuck playing for Arizona yesterday, they would still be playing.
Yeah, exactly right. And and well let's you know, let let's go
there, because here we are again, you know, talking about another premature
loss in the in the in the pack, in the in the NC Double
A tournament. I know that there are people out there, and we were
just talking about this that think it was Clemson. Arizona should have been able
to handle them. But Clemson's good, really good. Otherwise it wouldn't be
where they are. And they're playing very well right now. Uh and and
they and they beat Arizona and they they may they may handle Arizona. I
thought your first takeaway from aside from you wish they had Melbak and Geary on
the team from what you saw last night, you know, when the game
ended, I thought, if you had a tryout with the Clemson players in
the Arizona players picking them for one team, you'd probably pick maybe three Clemson
players as a starter, Yeah, or at least three in the top six.
To me, it was that even and we don't pay attention to clubs
and all year at all right, and the game starts and you realize,
wow, that guy can play for anybody, and that guy can play for
anybody, and it's just like every year. When College of Charleston almost beat
Arizona last second possession, two weeks before Arizone became a national champion, the
assistant coach Phil Johnson came up and told me their two guards are the best
two guards we've seen all year. And I thought College of Charleston and that
I try to remember that all the time. Everybody has good players when you
get there exactly. And that's the thing. Everybody has good players when you
get even to the even to the second round, you know, first round,
yeah, you know, it depends. Second round, everybody's good.
You get to the sweet sixteen, everybody can beat you and they don't even
have to play their best to beat you. Uh. And if you don't
play well, if you don't play even to what you're capable of, this
is what happens. You know, people are breaking down the down for you
know a number of things. Well, they didn't do this, and Tommy
didn't do that, and it just came down to they didn't make shots.
It was. I mean, yes, you know, you know, Adam
and I were talking. You know, they had those you know, three
under the basket inbounds plays that they scored baskets on. You know what good
teams do that to you. But it's very simple. Arizona makes three four
three pointers, they win the game going away. I talked to Jim Rosboro
today and he said almost exactly what you just said. And I said,
what about when they x and oa like Utah did with the triangle too?
And he goes, that didn't matter. He said that the shots we missed
shots, open shots. Yeah, and you said, the same thing happened
last night and he's seen it for fifty years. Yeah, and it wasn't
you know. Were there a couple of forced three pointers. Yeah, but
there's always a couple of forced three pointers, but they had open shots that
they just didn't make, you know, And and it was I don't think
there's anything other than that, you know, that you need to point to.
I mean, you can point to a lot of other things that Arizona
could have done better and whatnot, but they won every statistical category except that
one. I mean, when you when your best player goes over nine from
threes. You're you're you're not gonna You're not gonna win. You can't.
And he had good looks, Yeah, no he did. He had a
bunch of good looks. But they weren't even closed. I was, I
mean, I was literally gonna say that a bunch of those shots weren't.
They clanged off and went out of bounds and stuff. I mean, they
were just bad. Colin Boswall threw up how many how many air balls did
he shoot? Did he throw up? Yesterday? You know? I mean,
and I guess the one thing that I wonder is at what point?
And well, that's Red he's a coach, right, And well that's Scott
Thompson, he's a coach. When you're having that bad of a shooting night,
when do you go to something else or do you keep going to that
because you know or you think at some point it's gonna it's gonna start to
work. Every time loved me. Before the ball got there, I thought,
well, this one's going in change, yeah, and then miss worse
than the previous one. Right, all right, we've got we've got Tommy
Lloyd's postgame press conference cued up. It's about six and a half minutes.
We're just gonna play it in its entirety. Get in his comments, Greg
and I'll have a couple of minutes to talk about that afterwards. Then I'll
probably react to that throughout the show. So let's hear what Tommy Lloyd had
to say last night. Solid Book went from PhD X sports coach, you
know, this is the second time we got into the Sweet sixteen. What
did you do differently from the first experience, last year's experience to this year,
and then what would you have maybe possibly changed moving forward. Well,
you know, we'll analyze all that stuff after the season, but I'm proud
of these guys. These guys did an amazing job this year. They're a
great team. I mean that they're a team that, you know, we
had the ability to get to a final four and we didn't, and that
happens, so like it's nothing to look down upon. There there's probably eight
or ten teams that could say that this year, and only you know,
you know, three or four of them will probably actually get to the Final
four, and we were one of them. So I'm proud of these guys.
They dug back, they dug deep. You know, all season we
worked really hard on kind of taking the next steps of our culture of Arizona
basketball, mean really hard, and we're very intentional with it, and these
guys are great participants, and they really allowed me to kind of continue to
build on the foundation, you know, of what we started at Arizona and
what was there before us. So I'm thankful for that and and that's what
we're gonna do. We're just gonna continue to build on that foundation. We're
gonna continue to to get teams that are this competitive and you know what,
our day and the sun will come. Jorda Mendoza USA Today sports coach.
Wasn't the best night shooting from beyond the arc, but you guys were able
to do a lot in the posts where you trying to get your guys to
like drive more in and stop taking so many three point times. Yeah,
I mean, I thought Clemson did a good job and you know, kind
of got us on our heels offensive offensively early in the game, and and
we settled for a lot of tough shots and then that's what kind of allowed
them to get out because I think I think our defense was actually okay early
and it was kind of low scoring early, and we're right there, and
then you know, they got to going offensive a little bit, and we
just never quite did until later in the first half. And yeah, the
second half, we made a more concerted efferent. We wanted to attack those
guys, move the ball, attack, drive close outs, you know,
play with our feet in the ground and the paint, and our guys did
a much better job of that in the second half. Brian Peterson, easy
desert swarm. When you were able to make the run to start the second
half, briefly take the lead and then clems it kind of punches back,
gets up and then you tie it again. Did it just feel like you
had enough punches to just keep and maybe push them aside. I mean,
I thought we were fine, you know. I mean, you know,
we go, we didn't play well to start the game. We're only down
eight and a half, you know, as you guys, you know,
the fought us closely. We've had a couple other games where we've been down
in nineteen or twenty, you know, and being able to come back and
win them. So I thought we were fine. I thought we were well
positioned for how we started the game, and we made that first run of
the second half, which is great and you know, from there, you
know they're gonna probably make a little run, but then you know, hopefully
it's a little one, and then we make the next run and we can
kind of, you know, eventually build a four, six or eight point
lead, and we just were never kind of able to do that. And
and so Clemson gets a ton of credit for that. Coach John W.
Davis with a Orange County register here in the Los Angeles area. You out
rebounded them, you know, score more points and fast break, second chance
points in the paint, like all of these things that you normally see when
teams win, other than maybe the shooting percentage. What do you feel like,
what's the difference? Well, this is your rights the shooting percentage.
I mean, you know, we were I think our starting guys that shoot
threes were two for twenty three, you know, which is you know a
lot to overcome, and you know, I feel like, you know,
some of them were good looks and shots we've made, you know, all
season, and today they just didn't go in. And you know, so
I think our guys deserve a ton of credit. I mean, to have
that sort of shooting night and to get yourself in the game where you have
a position to win it, I think is incredible and and it just shows
the resiliency and the boughness of these guys. And you know, we kind
of had to adjust plans and our guys were willing participants in that. So
I'm really proud of them forgetting themselves a chance to win because, you know,
especially without JB playing the way he did. I mean maybe maybe we
lose by fourteen sixteen points, but JB got in there and you know that
that we were down to the last minute and gave ourselves a chance. So
on a night where we didn't shoot the ball, well, yeah, Temmy
Steven Berrel on sportstoosun dot com. When you have a chance to reflect on
this year, what do you think will come to mind for yourself? We
just love I mean, I love these guys. I love the culture we're
starting to really build upon, you know, at Arizona. I feel like,
you know, I'm real big on you know, eventually getting some compound
return on our investment, and I think we're going to get that. I
think we're doing all the right things. You know, obviously we're not perfect,
and no one is, and we don't ever want to be perfect.
We just want to be making progress. So I love where we're at.
You know, I think, you know, I wasn't ready to take a
breath, but I'm going to take a breath, and then you know,
we'll reevaluate and we're gonna have another really good off season and continue to build.
Go ahead. Second row coach in pH and X Sports. You know
went Keyshad and Caleb, you know, provide a lot for your team this
year. When you take a step back and look at their production and what
they contributed to this program, what does get your ultimate takeaway're going to be.
I mean, they're incredible guys, and I'm just so thankful that you
know, they took a chance on coming to Arizona and and play for our
staff. I mean, you know, it was an incredible experience all all
off season and in season long. So I'm just thankful. I mean,
it just it reinforces to me that you can do things the right way,
run the right culture, and put yourself put your team in position to to
compete at the highest level. So we're just gonna double down on all that,
and and those guys reaffirm my belief that we need to continue to do
with great high character guys. The last few possessions defensively, I believe the
umer was out, was that partly to avoid if they were to foul him?
And then did it just lead to like a breakdown? Not necessarily,
you know, we were just trying to give it a different look. You
know, we're trying to pick up our pressure up the court a little bit,
and you know, you're at that point you're hoping maybe you get opportunistic
with a loose pass and you know someone can break on that. You know,
these things of that nature. We're kind of probably going to be in
a little bit more of a pressing mode and maybe kind of switch you know,
all five positions instead of the you know, four positions, and but
hey, you know in New Clemson, you know, kind of they they
found an answer down the stretch and they were able to get like I think,
you know, maybe three baskets off slips, you know, versus the
switches, you know, which you know, we just didn't execute well enough
and they get credit for for executing. All right. So that was Tommy
Lloyd at the press conference last night, you know, even keeled as he
always is, and you know, to my point that we were talking about
you know, off fair. You know of these fans who get on social
media and just drive me crazy, and I wish I would not let them.
They want accountability and what does that mean? Right? Do you want
him yelling at his players in front of everybody? Is that what you want?
Or you get pissed off when other coaches do it to their please you
go look at that coach. Our coach doesn't do that? But is that?
What is that? What accountability is? Are you upset that he didn't
call guys out in the press conference? Yeah, that's that's the question with
no good answer, right, And I mean accountability. He's probably got the
nation's number one recruiting class coming in next year, So it's not like he's
lagging or he's letting off. Right. He's won more games than anyone west
of the Mississippi in the last three years. Where are you going to find
someone better than that? Exactly? Exactly? And and and what is it
that? What is it that he doesn't have that you want? What's missing?
And I'm not sure what that is because let's not forget. While he's
been a coach for a really long time, he's been a head coach for
three years, three years, find me another coach has done what he's done,
and he took over a program really in a mess. It was a
mess. He was inherited three really good players. But he's taking it to
the next level from there, and there's a couple more levels to get to,
right, and he's really shown that he's going to get there. And
it's just like we're talking about before, when you get to this level,
it's fifty to fifty even if you're really good. Yeah, who's more unhappy
today? Arizona faner a North Carolina fan, right right, Adam, I
mean who is more unhappy? Probably North Carolina fan because their expectations are one
notch higher than Arizona, right right, and they finished at the same place,
at the same spot. All right, we're going to take our break.
We got Reggie Geary coming in into that on the show, so we'll
talk to Reggie, get his thoughts. He you know, when I act
change text messages, he expressed and he was pretty frustrated as well, but
you know, he's a coach a player, So we'll get I think,
some pretty good perspect on this. So stick around and we'll have Regigaria in
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the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe
now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio. While welcome back on the Wall here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I think we have Richie sounds like you're just
right here. It sounds like you just got rolled or something like that.
I'm out here at the track. So yeah, there's a going on all
right. Well, we appreciate we appreciate you being here with us. I
know that you're a busy guy. And but and we went to the well
again because we had John last week after a win. Now we got you
after one of those losses that have become all too familiar for us. I've
got Greg Hanson here with us, so you know he's he's on on on
with us. But you know, just here, initial initial take, initial
thoughts on on where you are right now. Yeah, I think I,
like a lot of people, I'm disappointed, grated just because you know,
I knew it's I know what kind of team we have this year, we
have how well they've played for majority of the season. And then when you
take into combination the fact that we got unbelievable draws, all the stars were
fined really for the lead a final four run and come up the way we
did short play the way we did, I'm disappointing obviously, was frustrating.
So you're getting we're getting a lot of I don't know, if it's windy
out there. We're getting a lot of feedback there. But you know,
as you were watching the game, are you watching the game like a coach
or like a player? And what do you think in terms of what's going
on in the game, particularly in this game last night? Yeah, great
questions. You know, in all honesty, having been a coach for fourteen
years, you know, eight of the head as an assistant for coach Olson
at s, you know, I pretty much always look at a game from
a coaching standpoint, So I'm evaluating strategies and just kind of going by it,
you know, as if I was coaching, and so you know,
it was just it was a great game in terms of the different styles and
matchups and the coaches making maneuvers, and you know, just for whatever reason,
it just didn't It didn't turn over for us, Ritt, Reggie.
You've seen superstars like Damon and Khalid have bad shooting nights on an exit game.
So is it just something that happens. I mean, you can't really.
It's just a happenstance of college basketball, isn't it. Yeah? It
is. You know, you're dealing with eighteen, nineteen twenty, you know,
twenty two year old, and you know it doesn't always go well.
I remember in ninety four at the Final four, you know, Damon and
Kalid, you know, neither one had a good shooting night. It was
probably the first time we ever had both guys off. You always uly they
had one on, but for whatever reason, that night they were off.
You can see last night the entire team gone off to a slow start.
You could see every misshot is kind of affecting them defectively and their energy and
they just you know, it just took you know, really kay Jake Lewis
in the first half to go on a little baby run with a dunk and
a steel to kind of get them going. And then obviously Jason Bradley in
the second half. So when when you when you're seeing that as a coach,
I mean, you know, middle of the second half, they were
you know whatever they were, I mean, they just were not hitting shots.
Do you try something else or do you say it's got to turn right.
I Mean, there's there's so many people that, you know, the
armchair quarterbacks or the Monday morning quarterbacks saying well you should have stopped shooting threes
and done something else. But on the other hand, you think Caleb Love
is eventually going to start making that the that the percentag is going to come
back to you, and that you guys are going to start hitting shots.
What do you do as a coach in a situation like that? How do
you decide what to do? Yeah, it's such a fine line. It
really a case by case. Like you know the players and team and your
assistant playing, and yeah, you want them to stay confident and aggressive.
And if you're staying call Love you if you have room. And your Peter
said, you know, shoot the ball. Was confident. But at some
point when things aren't going well, they're not going in now you're start maybe
changing your conversation and say, hey, let's let's let's see what you do
some other things to get us going. Let's let's drive the ball and get
to the free throw line defensively, Let's see if we can, you know,
show some urgency and get some stops and maybe that'll lead to a fast
break and then maybe that will get you going. And so you want you
don't want to ever take away their confidence or say don't shoot off, say
people are going well, or you find yourself in a bonus or double bonus.
You want to double down at that point and really take advantage to put
you on some officials in the opponents by attacking the rip. Do you think
that the general you have a fan fails to appreciate how difficult it is to
win a game in the tournament? Oh? Well, you know, I
think we were spoiled obviously through the coach Olsen era. You know, getting
to a final four every four years. There wasn't a class that didn't play
in a final four for the most part, and so that gave the perception
that this is something that is supposed to happen, you know, more times
than not. And for us not to have got to a final four and
twenty plus years and is shocking. But it does also indicate how difficult it
is, especially you know today and with the way things have changed, because
you know, and Tommy's done it too. You go out and you get
good players from somewhere else and you rebuild your team. You know, Tommy's
gonna have to do that coming up. But you know, the more teams
are better, it seems to me like, yeah, I mean, that's
just the nature of the game. All the coaches are dealing with it.
In terms of the roster and transporportal and you know all those things that kind
of come with being a Commis coach nowadays. And Tommy and staff have done
a great job and they're going to continue to have to because it really puts
the onus on coaches now and their ability to teach and keep the group together
that maybe had to be together very long and so it's very challenging. So
you've been you've been on both sides of this. You know, you got
you got to a final four, had had a couple of first round losses.
How do you gather yourself? How is how would these guys gather themselves?
And they're going to do some key guys. But in the end,
Tommy's got to pull you know, keep this program, hold it together.
He's got a good recruiting class coming in. But you know, what's the
next thing? How do you move on from this? And way, yeah,
great question. I think you don't move on too quickly. You definitely
want to assess this, figure out what occurred. I'll through alcohol team,
whether it's our relationship building with our players, whether it was our system in
game adjustments. Everything. You want to look at everything. You don't want
to move on too quick. You want to evaluate exactly what transpired. And
then once you've done that, yeah, you can focus on incoming. I'll
finding some players in the portal. I'm making sure the guys that are coming
back or working on their strength and improving their weaknesses, and so you just
start building again. But you don't want to move on too quick. You
want to you want to feel this one so it doesn't happen again, hopefully,
don't you think one of the pluses here is that even though Arizona loss
yesterday, you look at next year and you can see them being back there
again next year. Oh yeah, I mean, and that's what And you
definitely can to see, you know, on paper for sure, obviously Jaden
Bramley kJ Lewis you know Connor Boswell, those guys coming back and surely showing
backward. You know, there's some really good pieces. Obviously the cruity is
very very strong. But you know, honestly, that's always going to be
airs on the story, you know, A sorry, we always recruit well,
we've always done well, so we're always be in the conversation, which
is great. And now you know, like I'm sure everyone else agree that
we got to put the show and you've got to get to that next level.
Okay, So if you had an opportunity to sit down with Tommy Lloyd,
that's somebody who you know, you're not in the locker room every day,
although you have a lot of familiarity with the program, who would you
talk to him about? What would you say to him today? I wouldn't
say just for me Tommy, obviously he's well established. My coach, Trevis
has had a great success. You know. I would obviously say, you
know, keep your head up, you know these things happy uh uh?
Like as you mentioned, you're building something your foundation. Continue to keep your
head down and building and see where you need to get better. But there's
nothing I need to tell him, you know. I would just encourage him
to continue to be in self and it just continue tightening up your craft,
like like we all do. I want to ask you one last question because
this came up. I'm you know, I get I see these games then
again on social media, which I just shouldn't do, and I can't help
myself. But people keep talking about accountability that they don't feel like Tommy holds
players accountable. What the hell does that mean, what would that mean to
you when you know people are accountable? Is you know, for me,
it is if you do well, I'm gonna I'm gonna encourage you, I'm
gonna get behind you. And if you're not doing well, well we're we're
gonna have a conversation and we're gonna try to correct that. And if it
gets over the line, then you know, ructually becomes more severe, you
know, And so just holding people accountable. If you're doing the right thing,
then yeah, we're gonna praise you and you're gonna get get minutes and
it's gonna go. Well. If you're not, we're going to try to
correct it. And your continues go down the wrong path, well you know,
they will take away what you love and that and that is you know,
his game minute. You know, everyone always says the greatest uh,
you know, the greatest teaching tool a coach has the bench, right you
know, putting him on the bench and sitting him out for a game,
saying hey, we'll lose a game potentially because as of your transgression that we
cannot allow that to happen. And so those are the kind of things that
you know, you look for to do to get everybody's mind. But there's
no way in hell a fan, somebody sitting out here can look at Tommy
and look at his team and say he is or isn't holding his players accountable?
Is there no way you have to be there date. You know,
it's thirty sixty five jobs. You know, they're they're getting touch points with
their players every single day, and they know the mood, they know what's
going on in their family, with their party. You know, there's just
a lot going on that the normal fan doesn't see. So that's the thing.
You can eyeball it from the stands and realize, you know, one
way or the other. You know, I think that would be unfair.
Okay, that's good. I'm glad. I wanted you to say that,
because that's to me, that's what it is. And there's no way any
of us can know what the hell is going on in that locker room.
There's just no way. A lot of dynamics, a lot of dynamics.
All right, Reggie, appreciate the time. I know you're busy, guys,
so I really do appreciate you coming on this week and last week and
all you know, all season long, you've been a great guest for us,
So thank you so much for giving us your time, rightly appreciate it.
Greg, thanks for your having me on. Guys, everybody out there,
lockout, you keep your heads up. We're gonna be all right.
All right, sounds great. Thanks Reggie. All right, that was Reggie,
Gary, a lot of good stuff. I love you. Know again,
unless you're a player and in that locker room and you're win of the
coaches, you don't know what the hell's going on, and stop acting like
you do and stop telling those guys what to do. Reggie is one of
the best guys you could have ever asked about that because he was there after
those back to back exits, right, and then it all goes away the
next year when you go you go to the final four, right, and
then they did but then they did it again. But still those things you
know again we we we talked about it the at the at the you know,
before the tournament, you gotta be good and you got to be playing
your best, but you also got you know, you match up with somebody
that does something that you're you know that that you can't deal with, and
you're gonna lose. I mean, did you think of Arkansas was going to
be in North Carolina last night, going in Alabama, I mean Alabama,
no way, because my memory of Alabama is the team Arizona beat. Yeah,
and I turned it on only in the last four minutes away. How
did this happen? Which is probably what Arizona fans were saying, Yeah,
exactly why why is Alabama in the lead eight in Arizona is not we beat
them? Because that's college basketball. And Alabama's best player was that tall,
skinny white hare with He was the best player in the court. Heard of
it, exactly, exactly. All Right, We're gonna go take our next
break. We're hoping Steve Rivera is in a cell phone zone. He's kind
of in the middle of nowhere. We're gonna try and get him on hope
the call holds. But we'll come back and we'll see if we've got Steve
on the air, and then we'll get to the top of the hour,
we'll do some breaking news and will take your calls. You're only gonna have
that one segment for us to take your calls between between four o'clock and four
fifteen, So stick around. If your name's on a named 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, coaches and
friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed
against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years
as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to how he built
the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA
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a teamsecurity dot net. Right Jacon Salles, they have their eye on the
ball on Tucson Sports. Stay yet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We're talking
back the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jagan
Zales. My buddy Steve Rivera is on the phone right now. We're gonna
talk to you, Amy. I got Greg Hanson here filling in for Steve
in studio. So Steve, hopefully this call will hang on for the duration
of the segment. All right, man, So what's up? What do
you think in the day after? Wow? Well, I think when we
talked last in terms, oh, your buddies right on Wednesday, and they
had no issues with tim Son at all. And then I asked you did
they ever see him play? And you said no, And I think that's
the fish for a lot of people. You didn't know or no one knew
how good Thompson pretty was. I think they finished fifth or six in the
league, going for eleven and nine, and they were pretty good. And
we and we all all seasons saw a gonna play uh mediocre against good teams
and mediocre against bad teams. And they ran up against the pretty good team
that had Arizona solved. They yeah, I mean they had Arizona solved.
But to me, you know, we can go into all the different things,
but to me, it was as simple as not making shots. You
know, there is you know, I mean, Clemson did what they were
gonna do defensively, offensively, whatnot. But to me, it just came
down to shots. I mean, what you saw it or what did you
think? But the other team, the other team created those problems and they
scored pretty easily. I mean the final few minutes there was a Clemson had
its way with Arizona and then you know, to get those key baskets underneath
the basket. Uh So that was that was an issue. Uh. And
and the things that I was gonna talk to you about this on Monday,
that I brought to you all year where two things followed, not hitting Pitos
and Caleb Love going cold. Yeah, you know, and since January first
in Arizona's conference games. In the postseasons game, Boswell was eight for forty
eight on threes. Wow, sixteen, I mean that's your point. Yeah,
yeah, I mean Greig and I have been around a long time,
and I'll take one of those guys, you know, kerr and eighty eight
when he's thirteen, Selene two thirty? Yeah, oh no, yeah,
I think it was that experience is from when when did you feel it was
a loss? How early or how late did you feel this this game's a
loss? Oh? How soon? When did I feel it was gonna happen?
In once the game started? When did it feel like lost to you?
Like Arizona's not gonna win this game? Well, I didn't think by
thirteen was ready. Well, they have a chance to come back. They've
done it all year. When they came back, storm back, and I
took the leader, I said, well here they go. You know,
you know you're I'm gonna pull it out. So I don't know, I
don't know how to ask that question. Okay, I mean I thought early
on. It. Let me put it this, it felt like a loss
early on, like five minutes into the game. I thought they could still
win, but it felt like one of those games that ends up inevitably being
a loss. And it became a loss when they couldn't score. For both
of you, guys, Clemson, you had a chance. Yeah, we're
we're losing him. Yeah, you're you're kind of coming in and out.
You said Clemson had a chance. What Yeah, did you think they had
a chance, because I'm sure you hadn't seen them that often. No,
No, but but Steve, you know, I mean, I know enough
about this to know that you get to the Sweet sixteen and no matter whether
you're playing Saint Peter's or somebody else, you're playing somebody who's good enough to
beat you. And if you're not playing well and you don't play you know
better than you normally play, there's a good chance you're going to lose.
So, I mean, I thought they were going to win, you know.
You know, at the end of the show on Wednesday, you know,
Sammy and I were talking. He said, do you think I said,
yeah, I think they win. I think he Harzelon handles them because
they're playing. You know, they haven't played great, but they're playing better
than you know, what we had seen. And I thought they were zeroed
in and and so yeah, I thought they were gonna win. But when
they when they didn't hit their first basket until you know, the sixteen minute
mark, I thought, that's exactly how games start in the tournament when they
lose. Right, I don't know in the hall. I think in nineteen
ninety ninety one when Arizona had no chance in Seattle and then Cali right it
on, came up doing really well and well that one traveling. How much
do you think this is a product of Arizona playing in a crummy league and
Clemson their finished sixth or so in the a CC, so nobody thinks they're
very good. And you know, I looked it up today, the last
eighty sixth verse in the Elite eight the PAC twelve has had four. No.
I mean that could be a factor because it was a crummy league.
It wasn't rummy league, so you really don't know how good you are,
right, and Arizona we didn't know. I mean I kind of said earlier
they're vulnerable to a good team, and they were vulnerable to a bad team.
So how good were they? I think there were There were at least
twelve to fifteen U of A teams better than this one, if you go,
yeah, when you were on the show last time we talked about that
number. I think maybe yeah, a few of US Sean Millers and a
lot of loud Olsen's better. Yet they were talented enough. I think they
were talented enough. Weren't they? Or were we mistaken? I thought they
were enough, but they just didn't show it all the time they were there.
Weren't no reason, right, you think that Timmy would get them off?
And and that's on the kids too. It just didn't happen for whatever
reason. What about in the coming years in the Big twelve Arizona, my
I mean Clemson eleven or nine? Right, what if Arizona goes twelve and
eight next year in the Big twelve, it is a better team. It
could be that just very well happened. Arizona is gonna go looney to you
used to well they did last night and I jumped in there and I couldn't
help myself, Steve, I'm disappointed in myself, had engaging all the all
the trolls out there. I did. I did well. Almost immediately there
was a hashtag fire Tommy on somebody's tweet, and I called I told that
guy he was stupid. And then somebody else who's got one of you know,
some u of a labeled uh uh you know twitter feed called him mediocre
that didn't know, said the program is mediocre. And I'm like, go
look up mediocre in the dictionary and and you know, learn a thing or
two. And then I finally finished it off saying, for all those people
who are you know, bashing Tommy, go back here your mom's basement and
just open another bag of Cheetos and shut the hell up. And so it
wasn't a good food. And then and then I then I wouldn't take my
brother's call. So it's a good thing. This wasn't a game that knocked
Arizona of the Rose. Oh god, yeah, beat down. And I'll
ask Brian this day later, did you really think this team had it to
get to the final four? And I think, in in all honesty,
I had him going to the final four. And I don't know why,
because maybe I bought into it was the easiest road to get there. And
they still kind of messed out. I was thinking they could. I kept
thinking they could, and I still think they could have. But I also
thought, you know, if you play crappy, which they did, you're
going to lose. And they did, right, And so yeah, I
think they had the talent for sure, and they played some game. They
played some Final Four quality games during the year, So yes, I thought
they could. And the only team that I didn't think they could beat,
well, there's two now that I didn't think they could beat, where Yukon
and Produce. But I thought they could beat everybody else. But I thought
everybody else could beat them. I thought the Duke game. I thought the
Duke game skewed perceptions coming into the year. Once they beat Duke, was
like, oh, Arizona's going to do it, and Duke was really good
but not elite. That stuck with me for two months that you bet Duke
and Duke you're going to go to the Final Four. Yeah. Well,
so let me let me ask Greg, where do you think that this rank
the postseason clunkers? Not even close to the worst, not even close.
I mean East Tennessee State, Santa Clara, Miami, Buffalo, Wichita State,
UTIP yeah, I mean get in line. Yeah, yeah, there's
a whole bunch of them. Yeah, yeah, there are a bunch of
right, yeah, there are. It's a Sweet sixteen loss. And that's
what that's what gets me about this is that there's so many fans out there
who feel Arizona should never lose in the Sweet sixteen. I'm like, the
Sweet sixteen is damn hard. That's where again, maybe two weeks I think
even Gregory asked what would disappoint a fan base if they didn't get to what?
And it was dbed eight? Right, yeah, yeah, because that's
become so elusive. Well yeah, and now that's almost the carrot for Arizona
after all these years off the final four. Just get to the Elite eight
and we'll see what happened, right, and take your shot there the morning
after the morning after Arizona lost to Illinois in two thousand and five, if
someone told you twenty twenty four, Arizona still won't go to the Final four,
you would have left. I would have said, no way, there's
not a way. Yeah yeah, So what now, Steve, what do
you think? Uh? You know, they here, you know the where
where do they go from? Here? Does Tommy change anything there is.
He he is who he is. I mean, what do you what do
you think? Because that's the other people. Tommy's got to do something different.
I'm like, what different? No, he is who he is.
He'll feel continue to do what he does. He feels he's on the verge
of breakthrough. In fact, he kind of mentioned it to me a while
back. Uh, they're like Gonzaga had a hard time getting to that.
He'll do the same thing here. I think the personnel will change. I
think there'll be a couple of people that leave, Like everywhere else, they
leave. Yeah, and then we'll see how the nil goes. But who's
going to step up now? And who's they need? A shooter? They
shoot? They had a shooter and they didn't have one. They thought they
had one. Well they did have one. And he I mean, did
you see that? There was a stat by Michael lev said he shot like
in the last six games, in his last six game, he shot like
twenty eight percent or something like that, right right last Later last year,
late in the season, he went all for six from three against Duke and
over seven from three against Louisville. Did you just run out of gas?
But I was. When I looked that up today, I went, Wow,
he did the same thing last year at the end and then elimination.
Didn't you find it ironic that the North Carolina kid went to the same numbers
last night? Yeah? I saw that. Yeah. And when North Carolina
was eliminated in twenty two by Kansas, he was one for eight. Yeah.
I mean he was big, he had he was built for the big
moments, and then when it came, it didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah,
Uh, well here we are, Steve, you know, doing it
again. I wore my Dodger shirt today to kind of to kind of rub
everything off. Uh, you know, we'll talk more about it Monday.
Yeah. They should have driven the Dodger stadium and touched Oi's back. It's
something like that, Steve. You know I would have I would have chased
some jacket. Go go go kiss the Vince Scully statue or something right or
Jackie right, anything, you know something. But you made a good point
to l A has been tough on Arizona. The LA area has been tough
on Arizona. Yeah, he's gonna call it Monday, apologize. Imagine the
crowded Tomorrow's game they're all back. Yeah, yeah, they wudn't have four
thousand fans everywhere exactly, exactly, all right, Steve hey Man, thanks
a bunch, head back and get back here on Monday. We'll see you,
Thanks Steve Rivera. So his travels are over. Well, we're book
going. We're book going to go the final four. I'm working. I'm
working it. Anything, he's gonna go cover it still, So we'll be
out next week for part of it. But uh, you know, I
mean there's not there's not a you know, we're gonna have Matt Muleboch come
in. He'll tell us what, you know, what he thinks. Scott
Thompson will be joining us here in a little bit. We'll get his thoughts
on that. But you know, I kind of want to hear their thoughts
because I would rather hear theirs than what what what I'm hearing out there,
because it's I was so angry last night and I wasn't I was at it
at the loss. I mean, I was upset at thoughts. I was
frustrating for the loss, but then just watching what our fans do and how
they just eat each other alive and and eat the program alive. And just
they lose their minds. And I get it, it's it's where we are
today. But I couldn't help myself last night and I engage these guys and
I wish I hadn't, but I did, and I did feel better at
the end of the day. I felt like I felt like I had done
my piece, for my part, for you know, for for for the
program. So we'll see, all right, you know we you know,
well, we'll kick this around some more. But in the end, you
know, this was a lot like all the other ones. Don't you think
we've seen them all? And we've been to a bunch of them. You've
seen as many of them as I have, right, everyone, Yeah,
yesterday was the first. Yeah, and uh, and none of them are
easier to take than the others, you know. And what we did walking
into the locker room after all those losses, Yeah, that was the reason
why we're no longer working in the newspapers exactly. Those things were hard.
You mentioned the you know, walking into the locker room after the eighty nine
loss to a unld and the players are just in their sobbing and it was
like one of the hardest things ever see these guys still in their uniforms and
stuff, and they're just you know, I remember twenty fifteen TJ McConnell was
crying, yeah, and he didn't even play. Yeah. So yeah,
it's those things are those things are tough, but it's sports man, it's
sports, and it's what it's you know. We I mean, we love
it for this, but we hated for this, I think is what it
is. So all right, we're gonna come back. Adam's got some breaking
news for us coming up, and we'll This is gonna be the only segment
we can take your call. So if you want to give us a call,
if you want to try in on on on what we saw and what
are the cats are, it'll be in this next segment after the breaks.
So give us a called. Five two zero, four, one, six,
seventy four forty we'll be right back