This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon zalaz Son Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions KATZ R
TWU SA AT iHeartRadio Stations. Hey, good duck to younoon, everybody,
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera, he's Jagin's aus got our guy Kevin in for a couple of hours.
Welcome back to me. Welcome back to you, man, Glad to
have you back. All right. I don't like that chair. You don't
like you were you in this chair? Yeah? For a what? Yeah,
that's a person who runs the show sits in that chair. It How
can I say this up? My butt's too big to fill my shoes,
but my butt. You know, we should. You should thank a whole
bunch of people right out right out of the box for filling it, for
helping us last week. In the week before, George Mattis from Showtime Cards
who co hosted three days the week of the first and second round, and
then Greg Hansen co hosted. Last week had Reggie, Reggie Gary and Matt
Meilbacher both in on the show twice to talk about the Arizona games, once
after a win, once after a lot. So let me ask you.
We're going to get to a lot of things today. We're going to reminisce
on on heath Bray and passed over the weekend, and we have some guests
for that, and then we'll talk about hoops with Bruce on the other side.
What what did Reggie? I didn't hear it, So what did Reggie
say about the situation with you? But he was he's frustrated, he was
frustrated. He said that in the text. When I asked him if he
would come back on the show, he said, I'm really really frustrated and
hesitate, but I'll come on. Frustration the frustration that they you know,
they didn't get to wear the talent level. For the talent level that they
had, they didn't get us, did you. I'll bring this up to
Bruce. But did you read Bruce yesterday? Yeah? Yesterday? And I
thought he made a great point, a fair point about Arizona landed where we
thought they'd last in the end, in the end, And I'm thinking,
given the perspective, yes, and I still think and I've said this before,
Jay, and I don't know if you want to agree with me,
you don't have to. That first game against Duke, that set an expectation.
They set an expectation that Arizona fans unrealistically bought into, right right,
and and and look, Duke got to the Elite eight. But you know
they they they aren't. They weren't that Duke team, right. First of
all, they were a four seed. So yeah, I you know both,
you know both. Arizona was what twelfth going into the season, Duke
was two two that day played each other, right, So that set that
expectation. And but yeah, you're right. And look that's not going to
make fans feel any better about losing in the Sweet sixteen. But they landed
about where everybody predicted at the start of the year. As I said,
I don't think I put in the story, but we said it here indirectly.
Arizona was vulnerable to good teams and they were vulnerable to bad teams right
all year. But and which made it frustrating. And I don't know if
it was it was Bruce or well, I think it was Greg Hansen.
Greg on the show said, you know, when we were talking to either
Red or Matt. Arizona plays Clems in four out to seven, they win
the series. They probably win the series four games to two. But on
that one day, how many times have you said said that? For every
team you could tell you you can go up to eighty eight? I mean,
say that, say that about Look, say that about Houston, say
that about North Carolina, all these teams. I mean, who are the
unhappier fans this this weekend? Right? Arizona's you know, up there with
them, But North Carolina, Houston, Duke, who else those? You
know? Well, Marquette and Creighton. You know they were two and three
seeds. Uh, you know, a whole bunch of them, Steve and
and who are the who are the most unhappy? Yeah? I don't know,
but I know these ones aren't. And I was gonna ask you to
coming back from LA. How many Peacebook friends you have? Just estimate three
thousand? Oh you're one of those guys. You don't have very many Facebook
friends. I don't friend everybody the friends. Okay, So let's say three
hundred, just to give Okay, so let's say three let's say five hundred.
Of those five hundred, how many posts? How many posts negative crap
on the internet on Facebook about the football team or basketball team. None great,
great points. I won't friend you if you do that. Okay,
No, no, no, I've told you the story a million times.
I've blocked my brother because of what he post. I remember that, and
I was gonna use that as an example. But no, that's that's fine.
I have two thousand for whatever reason. I have two friends in real
life. But but but I don't see my friends doing the same thing.
They're not posting stuff. So the people who post aren't the people we know.
And they aren't And I've said this before Jay and Kevin that the rich
people who have jobs to do work, they're not busy posting, tweeting or
facebooking stupid crap. Right, And that's all we've seen since that loss.
To be to I have four hundred and forty one friends than Yeah, I'm
I'm choosy, though, you know, somebody friends me. I go look
and see what they post, and if they're you know, the politics is
not like that. I get out of here, right, But you understand
my point. No, the people that we don't know, those people we
know, people who were mostly reasonable. Right, there's a few in there
and some of them going there say, you know, I'm really upset that
this happened, yah yah YadA. But they're not saying fire Tommy Lloyd,
right, and they're not the player. Because if anybody on my Facebook feed
says that, they're not on my Facebook feed anymore, right, right,
because that's stupid. I just don't get it. Of course I get it.
I read the stuff just because to get much. You know, I
did better this last weekend because I remember I told after the after the after
no, I take it back to it after the loss, that I saw
for them after the loss. But I stopped going back and looking at that
stuff at the rest of the weekend. You have to follow them on on
Thursday night. I've said this before when I got this show, when you
came on the show, with all that stuff everybody has has they can they
can figure out everybody else's problems, but they can't figure out the row.
Yeah, yeah, and and yeah, I just I left it alone.
After Thursday. I stopped reading the you know, I read the news.
You know, I read you know, Bruce had a nice season wrap up
yesterday. Mike lev had a you know, he had a piece as well.
Five takeaways on the season. Uh, you know, just very you
know, responsibly reported right. Stuff. Right. I read a few other
things, but mostly from people that just I feel like they're gonna go on
and they're gonna say stuff without a lot of emotions, just being realistic about
what this is. Show. Show. Okay, So go back, go
back to to and frustrated you explain that anything else besides no, you know,
we talked about, uh, you know, when you lose the game
like that, Uh, you know, how does it happen that, you
know, all of a sudden you can't shoot, you can't shoot right?
And his answer was, it just happens. Just happens. It just happens,
you know. I asked him, you know, do you watch the
do you watch games like a coach or a player? And he says he
watches like a coach. He said, okay, you know as you're watching,
are you sitting there are you trying to coach the game where you're trying
to say stop shooting threes and move gets the ball inside? Where he said,
no, I don't do that. I don't I don't sit there and
trying, you know, second guest to coach during you know, during the
game, you know, and he's I don't even sit there and talk about
what I would do, right, So he was kind of like, but
you know, he said, there are some games where you just can't shoot,
and it's and it's as simple as that. Well, the reason I
ask about Reggie is because he's gone through it a couple of times. He
went through a ninety two Chanta Clara, uh, and they went to the
final four with these guys, and then he lost this Miamobhio same thing,
kind of like you know, first round losses. So he's experienced this,
and he basically said, they'll be okay, They're gonna be a fine,
They're gonna be just fine. They just you know, they went up and
they lost the game that everybody thought they should have won. But well,
like they didn't lost it, did it did? Not a lot of Arizona
fane okay, thought they should have won because it was Clemson, right right,
And that's where I wanted to go, right, Okay, So here
we go, and both you guys, you guys follow sports, but I
guarantee you didn't know much about Clemson. I know your Wednesday's group did not
know. Did you know anything about North Carolina State up until maybe well I
followed them through the through the through the ACC tournament. Yeah that was the
last two weeks. I may win some money because of those guys. Two
weeks okay, so two weeks, right, all these other teams we we
don't know. We didn't know about FAU last year, we didn't know about
ALF the teams, and then oh, these guys, these guys are kind
of good. Well they're pretty Other places have good teams too, they do,
they do, And I'm not trying to I'm still not a believer in
North Carolina State. I think they're gonna get killed. Yeah, but hey,
wouldn't you they are in the final four? Would you rather be killed?
I'd rather get in the final four and get killed than not be there.
And it's kind of like what Matt Painter said. He was doing a
post or some sort of press conference and one of the journalists asked, him,
Hey, so you're gonna you're probably gonna win this game, coming up,
your favorite to win this game. You're supposed to win this game,
and like he honestly he gave a really respectful response, but he was like,
look, everyone in the Sweet sixteen are better is good. Yeah,
like this isn't. This isn't. I know, we're favored by X amount
of points and that is what it is. But everyone is good and you
have to go out and win the game. Sure, at the end of
the day, Sure, and you do it, and that's you can.
You can you can theorize about seven game series and all that stuff. Well,
you didn't win when you had to, so all that theorizing doesn't mean
anything. You had to your shot seventeen point nine ercent three and that's what
happened. Right, So now we'll have break canoes. Although it's kind of
out there that there's a few guys leaving right transferring and not a shock now.
Although I really like any anybody, I really like to see those two
guys to day. But yeah, you know, anybody that had that hasn't
played enough, right, is gonna look at the poor Sure, and sure
may very well lead Maybe Tommy it work, says international the magic can get
them to stay. Who knows, But I like both of them. They're
both good. Yeah, and they might shine very really and even somewhere,
well, you should have played the more, Tommy. Look if they were
to help, if they were going to help Arizona win more Tommy would have
played. I hate it when people say, oh, you didn't take care
of that guy. Well, there's only so much taking care of you can
do. At some point you have to produce, and if you're not doing
what you need to do to get on the court, then that's what a
coach does. People talk about depth. People coaches only play seven eight players.
They just do and they have one ever, they have extra time those
other guys playing, right, So we'll see what happens with that. You'll
have the names and breaking news with maybe more to come, who knows.
But good to be back, good to be back, and bad news obviously
over the weekend, I sent you some stuff after hearing some things. And
our frequent guest, one of our great friends, Heath Bray, passed on
Saturday. I think it was uh suddenly uh. And we're going to have
Paul Toffelmeier in to talk about him. He has a special relationship with Heath.
Uh. In fact, who didn't have a special So many people dead,
you know that you saw on social media with a Facebook or Twitter,
Instagram, whatever, you know, just all around, all around the good
dude, the Wildcat community. People just you covered him, didn't you a
time or two? Well, you know you done. He I think he
came in. He might have been a freshman my last year that I covered
the team, Yeah, but probably didn't play much, Okay, so that
I covered him that one year that you were gone, and I was before
basketball, a good guy. And I'll bring up some some thoughts when when
we have Paul in here, Paul's as we know Paul's and Paul's Yeah,
so we'll talk about some of that. And it seems so not long ago.
But he was a great guy. Joe was one of the great guys.
Yeah, we both covered him, right, and we talked Yeah,
Joe, now Joe I did cover and you know, we just talked about
it. Just seemed like there's a bunch of guys from that time hind frame,
right, you know, who are gone, you know, for various
reasons, some suddenly, some some thoughts so suddenly because they got when they
got sick and or you know, dreaded disease somehow some yeah, sort of
dreaded disease. So yeah, I mean it's it's just it's boy, it's
a classes I think a group that's been hit, hit really hard. I'm
looking at Heath Pray. His first year was eighty nine and that was my
last year covering the team. So he would have been here as a true
freshman. Yeah, maybe not. You know, we remember him for the
for the ninety ninety one, ninety two seasons, ninety two, the birth
of Desert Swarm and having been a big part of it, and it was
all over, you know, good advocate for us, for the team.
Obviously he loved. Then he's got he's got a son who's you know who
he's got. I mean, he's got a son who's about to you know,
become a you know, highly recruit you know, quarter or he is
already a highly recruited quarterback coming out of high school. Just to to not
have one, for Heath to not be able to see that, but then
for his son to not have his dad by his side as he goes through
that, I can't even imagine. Okay, And then of course we're gonna
have Bruce Pasco. He couldn't be with you Friday. He apologized to me.
To no, he didn't need to apologize. You know, I rolled
the dice on that thinking, you know, I thought he would just be
too busy Anyways, I just you know, I just remember my day the
day after Arizona lost in the final four. It's busy. In the eighty
eight. I wrote three like thirty inch stories that day and I started working
at like ten o'clock in the morning. There was a press conference where Steve
Carr got that Most Courageous Award and I was writing until close to midnight.
And you know, it was, it was, and that's what I expected
Bruce would probably be doing. Right, So okay, we'll go let's take
the break down since we're running a time, all right, Bruce, and
then we're gonna get Paul to No, it's Paul first, isn't it.
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, Paul first. Paul Tofmar coming up, and
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Go to azpass dot com to schedule your free evaluation Today streaming live I
mean iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Robera and Jay
Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to My the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now on
the phone the former YUI football player Paul Kofelmeyer. Paul, how are you
good? How are you flying? Thank you? We brought you on to
talk a little about football and a lot about Heath Bray. Yeah. I
wanted you explain your connection to him, and because you have a special connection
to him, I do well being a dear friend other than playing football with
him for four years. I named my youngest son after him as well.
Wow. So what was the reason behind that? Just? His personality is
uh, his leadership skills, his uh just he had so much electricity,
so much energy, and his personality. I just I wanted to honor him.
I respected him so much. It was just something that I felt was
a tribute to him. How did he take that when you told him?
Because I'm sure your son is how old now? He is? Twenty four?
Oh? Wow? Okay, so when you told him that you were
going to name him after did he was he surprised? Was he touched?
What was he? He almost cried? Yeah? So so Paul It said,
I guess we're just made. I'm assuming that you know, during your
time at Arizona his time at Arizona, you overlapped for three years. I
mean that's what this friendship was struck? And then how did you know?
How how did that stay together? How did you guys keep being friends in
what ways? You know, kinds of things? Connections did you have?
We played football for four years actually together. My retrot freshman year was his
true freshman year. We did he was We went parties and double dates,
and even after college, I'd see him pretty much every year at the Alumni
and then I moved away up here to Seattle in two thousand and twenty,
I'm sorry, two thousand and four, and I still came down every now
and again, and I saw him and I connected with him on Facebook back
in twenty ten, and we just connected. We just always stayed in touch.
There wasn't a long period of time that went by where we weren't in
touch with each other. So how did and sorry to bring this up,
how did these news affect you? Because it all hit us at a different
time. On Saturday. Jimmy Hopkin Jack, he reached out to me Saturday
early afternoon and he had said he died and I I had to step back
for a bit, and I said, wait a minute. I got a
son named he. I said, I I almost threw up. I said,
Heath Bray and he says, yeah, type pardon. I called me
and I didn't know much of the details, but I was sick to my
stomach, just just terrible. I felt terrible. I'm trying to hold it
all together. I'm coming off like I'm you know, keeping it up,
high spirited, but I am. I am just sick to my stomach.
I've been and depressed the last couple of days, and I miss him.
I just I just miss him. Well, you know, the outpouring that
we've seen, you know, it tells you, you know, how he
was thought of, not just by you know, close friends, but just
you know, the whole athletic community. You know, basketball players, baseball
players, you know, everybody. Everybody knows who Heath Bray is. And
yeah, you know that that's just you know, that's just what you hear.
Administrators, you know, everybody. I mean, there was he was
one of those guys. I mean there's some people that come around and everybody
likes them, they're nice, but there's other people that make a connection with
you know, a community like that, and Heath was one of those guys.
Wouldn't you say he was incredible just from a standpoint of he he made
I don't know, he just did it naturally. He made everybody feel special.
I'll tell you a quick story here. The last their reunion, This
was last April, and I was there for a we were going through and
meeting the players. It was the first night that we were all there and
we were in that new indoor practice stadium, and I saw him. He
was talking with Jetfish and he saw me out of the corner of his eye
and he stopped Jetfish. He puts up his hand, he sees me,
and he screams out top and I come over there, and you know,
hug and he basically stopped this conversation with Coach Fish to hug me. And
he introduces me to Jetfish and he says he he named his son after me
and Coach Fish. He laughed, and it was it was just just to
tell you just the how he how he made you feel. He made me
feel important. And uh, I think, I know, I know,
I have mutual friends that didn't play football that know him that they kept in
conversations with him. He was just a special guy. And he was one
of our guys who came on frequently talked about the football team. He was
kind of the unofficial spokes person. Well, he was kind of a guy
who we would you know, would pick his brain on okay, what's going
on back there with the alumni. I mean, he was one of the
first people I talked to when Jed got hired, and and uh, you
know, well after something got fired, right and then got yeah, yeah,
he uh he. He seemed to have all these connections, obviously,
but he was just he had obviously he he had a lot of connections.
He had his immediate circle and then the outer circle. But everybody just love
the guy I I refer to him. I don't know if it's I can
put just sum him up. And he was a thrill seeking alpha mel that
didn't wasn't afraid to say I love you. I mean, he was just
a special guy. His nails. What what's your favorite memory back in the
day when you played I have mine, I'm gonna I didn't say anything to
start to shovel. I have mine once minded kind of crazy, But what's
yours? Just this was during a practice time I remember early on in our
I was a sophomore, I think he was a recher freshman and we were
practicing, and I remember it was just a scrimmage we were going through and
he had to come back and running back behind me changed directions, and he
went to change directions too, and I was there and I did a pill
pill back block on him and I knocked him out of bounds like about five
yards. He went flying, got up immediately and says, I mean he
just dreamed that, oh yeah, And I think there was just a connection
after that where we just had this he said, that guy knows how to
hit. And I had always had respect for him just from seeing him,
you know, you initially see him in here's this eighteen year old loudmouth kid
from North Carolina, and within a matter of just a couple hours after getting
to know him, like this guy's this guy's legit, right, just a
special guy. Well it's funny, not not not nothing from a game standpoint,
I mean, but I I just remember that that always sticks out in
my head. Yeah, well you describe him perfectly. When he came from
North Carolina. I think he was my second year or third year, maybe
my final year covering the team, and to me, he looked like Vanilla
ice, you know, and he even had the haircut, didn't he have
the haircut like him? And I think and I think I wrote a story,
you know, using some of the lyrics in that in that song about
him, because he was just kind of skinnish, uh, you know,
very athletic. But but this guy with that haircut, that kind of like
thing on the on the side of the head, you know, do you
remember that if he was had the head had a haircut. I don't know
if he did it on purpose, but now that you mentioned it, he
did resemble a vinofa ice. But he was just he was charming. I
mean he was just a yeah, that little accent and right right, I
mean women loved him and men wanted to be He was just a sp He
was just a special guy. He was just full of energy and he was
just had this magnetic personality that it was just and he was He was warm
too. He was legit. He told you what was on his mind.
He he didn't hold anything back and he was he spoke his peace and uh.
He had just massive amounts of people that just loved him and respected him.
And I'm one of them. Right, No, No, I agree
with you. A lot of people liked him and he yeah, did have
he did have that drawl. I'm sure a lot of women loved him when
he was in college. Man, I hate yeah, all you guys had
all the all the women and I joke, of course, you know,
good looks and haircuts, but yeah, he was a good fun too.
Uh. Let me ask you of all the people you've talked to, I'm
sure you've talked to a few about him, just messaging and uh, just
messages from from people. I spoke with Pete Russell on the phone. I
don't know if he played for both him and he was a g A,
which I think it's last year there just uh just threw us for a loop.
It was just so unexpected and there's there's no way you can sugarcoat this.
This is just it's just just a sad day. In fact, uh,
Jay was talking before before that there's been a lot of the guys who
have passed at a young age. Yeah, you know, just in your
group, just after your group, Uh, for whatever reason. No,
no, yeah, pooh uh uh, I'm sorry, Warner Smith. I
could go on and on. There's probably half a dozen more than I'm sure,
only off the top of my head. It's just so sad, right,
And he was fifty two wish fifty fourish I can't remember his na.
Yeah, he was fifty four fifty four. And if I don't want to,
I want to talk about your brother, who we all thought the world
of two when he played here in the late eighties, played for the Seattle
Seahawks, if I'm correct, A great guy and he passed at a young
age for five. Yeah, well, I'm sure that hits you differently too.
I mean, you have your good friend and now you know, yeah
back in the day you had your brother. This one hurt almost as much.
Wow, havn't Heath Hearing the news about Heath? I just felt like
somebody punched me in the stomach. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah right,
Yeah, you know that's the good thing is is that remember and talking
about it and just remembering the good times we have. I was kept finding
myself laughing alive thinking about the memories that we had, So it takes away
some of the pain. And talking about it with you helps. And I
know time is going to take care of things. But it's just a terrible
loss for the u of a community and for the people that knew him and
loved him. And our last words, I can our last words and our
messages was love you tough. That was That was the last time I spoke
with him, So I you know what, I guess I can rest easy
knowing and I reading a lot of comments that he had on with his friends.
He always endited it with you know, love you, And that's that's
just the kind of guy that he was just special. Buy there won't be
another one, just there won't be another one like him. He was one
of a kind. If I can let me transition into something that's a little
different. You live in Seattle, you've been there for a while now.
You see jeg fish in the headlines a lot. What's the recess shouldn't been
up there? Very positive, very positive there. The thing is with them,
they can only go down. I mean, they were almost at the
pinnacle of national championship and anything else. But that is going to be U.
It's going to be on him. But I wish him all the best
of luck, and I never felt bad about I'm really excited about the u
of A coming in and the group that they were able to keep together,
which I'm really happy with the people that were able to stay so but I
hear nothing but positive things and the people that they're bringing in, I wish
them the desk. I'm not a Husky fan, though, I just know
I hang around Husky fans and they accept me for being an Arizona fan,
and that's everybody's fine with it, right right, Okay, Well, Paul
will appreciate your time. Thanks for bringing us some memories. Yeah, thanks
again for having me on. I appreciate you. Got you both of you.
Take care and I'll hopefully talk to you on the road. Thanks,
Paul, appreciate it. Hi God bless Yeah, send you, Thanks very
much. No, that's good stuff. I knew that he had mentioned his
son being that's something. What you know, you name your kid after somebody
that's meaningful. Yeah, yeah, that said and that's forever. So that's
very cool. But you know, just very sad, sad thing for everybody.
As we were saying, you know, Heath was just one of those
guys that you know, he kind of made everybody happy. Sure, and
and to see a guy like that, you know, get taken away like
yeah and here a lockdown in Tucson and talk to football all the time.
Hey, let's let's take a break so we can kind of transition to other
things. I think we're gonna get another call about Heath later from somebody,
but we can move on and right, let's go and take our break and
we'll take your calls. Five to two zero four one four forty. If
you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty
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team security dot net. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and
Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the
iHeartRadio A app Just Surgery I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to
I them out here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay
Kevin with us. Got fifteen minutes. If you guys want to give us
a call. We missed you. I missed you. You know I didn't
miss them, Steve. They were here. I was here with them the
whole time. Who called everybody? Yeah? Yeah, you know, we
had we had good call, you know, I mean after the loss,
you know, yeah, you got some calls and nobody horrible just you know,
the callers were okay, you know, uh, well we have sensible
people. Yeah, yeah, you know, nobody called and ran on,
you know, on the team. What do you know, what are you
gonna do? Yeah? I have a hard time uh hearing this. Okay,
they missed all these shots and it happens, right, but why not
get the ball down low? Well, they went to a zone. They
went to a zone. It's very difficult to do that, right, and
if you get it to Ballow, Okay, you get it to Ballow and
he does catch it, and he does and they fell him, what's gonna
happen? Well, the only thing I would say that because I thought about
that exactly that. But I also thought though that early in the early in
the second half, when they were following them, they got the sums into
foul trouble, they ultimately would have run out of fouls. Sure, right,
guys would have filed out and stuff like that. PJ Hall started the
second half of no fouls and like, I don't know, and he had
three, Like no time. That's what I'm saying during that time that they're
they're they're pounding the ball down low something. Yes, they should have pounded
the ball down low more. Okay, if you shooting free throws, fine,
he's gonna make some we'd hope, you think. But even if he
didn't, you're gonna get them. You're going to run out of falls down
there, because they were already doing that. But they just didn't get the
ball down there. And you're right, it may have been just as simple
as the defense that they were uh that that they were running the Arizona could
not you get fill and well that's not a shock because it's been the kryptonite
forever zone zone zone and how would you play them zone? And that's what
they did. It was it was a pretty good coaching job by by the
Clemson coach. And they were pretty good, let me tell you, Paul
and the other guy sh slide Barna, Yeah, very very good, basic
good players. And then the guards were good too. I mean again,
we didn't know who they were until you know, and they're down by ten,
right, I know. They started the year out pretty well and pretty
well, you know, and that was my story. Then they they were
the anti North Carolina state where you know, here they are, and they
beat those teams, They beat those teams, they beat South Carolina, they
beat Alabama, they beat North Carolina. I think it was whoever was very
good. South Carolina, the good teams, and here they were and they
showed who they were. They were pretty good. Yeah yeah. Chase Hunter
had eighteen, seven rebounds and five assists. PJ. Hall had seventeen.
Very good player, inside out guy and the other guy was very good in
shiffling. Good centered, good basic, good center. Yeah. I mean
for a while I thought they were gonna win that game. For who Arizona
Clemson the their phad a game. Oh yeah yeah, and they had they
did they had them Yeah, same game too, yeah, same game.
They hit their threes though. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, you
like this final four it's not sexy. We're going We're going to it.
You're going to it. I'm going to do it. It's not sexy.
Uh. Well, to mean, let's get to the championship game of Connecticut
and proved, well, that's not gonna happen. Now, why, I
hope because he said that. I don't even want to talk to you about
Houston. I don't even want to. Oh god, that's right. I
forgot. They were your boys and me and Kelvin have bad luck. Yeah,
or Kevin and I have bad luck because their guy goes out and they
can't figure it out. Yeah, they were. I really liked the way
they played, and maybe Kelvin wasn't gonna win it, but they were fun
to watch. They were fun to watch even when they didn't have it I
should. I like if it's Yukon purdueing the championship. I really really liked
that game. That's that's gonna be the best game. That's the best if
you looked at the whole sixty fourteen field, that's the best game you could
put together with the way Purdue was playing. Even I didn't I didn't have
Purdue playing that well. I didn't think they were going to be this good
at the start of but now they are. Well, they're the only team
that has a chance against you. If you were to pick the tournament,
and we all did three weeks ago, you would have said, Okay,
Chalk, you'm purdueue or I didn't like that much because but I would have
taken Purdue over Houston. Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the
air and on the ball, just cod Cody, how are you good?
Steve? How are you? But I'm actually good? But obviously right all
right? No, and you you're going to call in you you had a
great relationship with Heath. I think he went on some trips with you and
you had He was always down here, you guys together in Phoenix a lot.
Give me your story with him. Well, I first met Heath when
he was actually playing, so I'm few years older than him. But I
was at the Green Dolphin one night with a buddy of mine I believe it's
Mike Phillipson, who you knows, and we're playing pool, and uh we
played Jeff Hammerschmidt and Heat and we had a great time. I had a
couple of beers, you know. Uh ran into three weeks later he came
up to me. He was like, Tody right, and I'm like yeah.
And that was in the midst of his career and and uh that's when
he was maybe a sophomore and he was playing special teams and defensive I think.
And so I started following him a little bit. And uh, I
remember the next year he became a he became Jeremy. I was get a
little bit of feedback, you good, yeah, yeah. And the next
year he he was a middle linebacker and then the senior of course, the
famous he started at quarterback against Miami, but The thing about Heat that I
remembered when I first met him is for such a nice guy. He was
maybe the toughest guy. He was a Chuck Cecil type guy, Randon Sanders,
Chuck Cecil. Just he get laid it out all in line, and
he was hit that six pack, and he'd wear the jersey kryd of rolled
up and and uh and and and those special teams. He would go down
there and just like take on the whole wedge and fire up the crowd.
And so that's why I first got to know him. And then as he
got a little bit older, he went and coached Oklahoma, and when he
came back to Tucson, he came to work with us at Mueller and Associates.
For help you, I didn't even know that. Okay, yeah,
a lot of people don't know that. And and I was kind of like
a mentor to Heath, and his love was financial planning, so he went
into financial planning. But the cool story at Mueller Associates. One day I
was going up and remember this is a really cool spot back in the day,
Dave sitting and worked in our building. I was going upstairs to talk
to Dave, and I walked by heath office, which is about the size
of a broom closet. He's like, hey, Cody, got come in
here. Man. He's always like bro, and he's like, I want
you meet my buddy. And I'm like and he goes, this is Gino
and I'm like, oho, you know, and we're just visiting away and
I said, how you guys know each other? He goes, well,
I'm just driving through Tucson. I'm driving back to Florida from California. And
he's I used to play football against each other. I'm like, wait a
minute, you're Gino Torretta and he goes, yep. So you know,
the Heisman Trophy winner came through Tucson. And and did you see Gino tweet
to Hanson's response to Anthony's tweet yesterday, Steve, Yeah, yeah, you
know, like the only guy ever played against suit up against who one year
was linebacker and the next year was quarterback. So I mean Heath And and
then as the years went on, and I'm calling you from Phoenix right now,
I'm up here doing business all the time. Every single time in town,
we would check in with each other, go grab lunch, and he'd
come down to spring football games, and even through all the really tough years,
Heath was one of the few guys that didn't abandon the program. Yeah,
and that's and that's the thing about him, right, is that you
know, he was there through the good times and the tough times, and
that's how everybody seems to think about him. Yeah. I was sucking to
you guys all remember Donnie Sale on the court, right, and Donnie.
I was sucking Donnie last night and Donnie goes. You know, I thought
that Heath was my best friend and he goes. But I know about twenty
guys who think if Heath has their best friends, Yeah, and you know
I almost thought it. I didn't think he you know, was the best
friend, but he was for sure one of my best friends. And I
love the guy because, you know what, he was one of those guys
that would be like you, so happy for his friends, Steve. He's
happy for you with your with your radio show, you know how you you
climb back after your your journalist, your your writing career. He was happy
for everybody in business. He was never one of those class half empty guys.
He was unbelievably positive, right, No, that's the guy we remember,
thanks Cody for calling in great stuff. Yeah, I just uh,
you know, we're going to do something for him, sort of like a
scholarship for him. So as people start calling you, if you can kind
of get the word out his legacy disappointing, be sure we get the details
on that, and we'll make sure that that guy has been put together right
now by his family. But we'll we'll for sure get it. You guys,
Thank you perfect having me Cody. Thank you. Cody was one of
those good guys, one of those Greek guys. Yeah. No, that's
the interesting something you know to really can tell at the crack up. Yeah,
yeah, just Heisman trophy. I just want yeah, okay, okay,
let's go. Anybody else want to call play love to hear five to
any stories about Heath or anything else you remember about him. I mean,
he was again and you know what, Steve, I mean, he was
a really good player kind of you know, but he wasn't Ricky Honley,
he wasn't Cecil, he wasn't you know, Teddy Bruskie. But yet you
you talk about him, sure, and people think of him in the same
way, you know, from a team a team kind of guy. Sure,
no, no question, because he played all the positions and he kind
of and this is you know honesty, he kind of became bigger, in
bigger thirty years later than he was at the time. Well, because of
what Desert Swarm became, right, that became sort of the face of the
program, and he was he's credited with because of the kind of player he
was, right, played linebacker, quarterback, played safety, play but because
that that guy, that type of guy is what Desert Swarm was. All
those guys were like that, whether it was Bruski, Tony Bowie, uh,
Brandon Sanders, you know, guys like Jim Hoffman, you know,
Jimmy Hopkins. All those guys were on those teams. All those guys were
like that. George Malaulu, right, all those guys were those were that
type and there was a whole bunch of them that made up that group of
guys. That's why people think of he the way they think of him,
because he was one of those guys that built this and they'll always be credited
with that. It would be one of the guys. I mean, he
wasn't all America or anything, but he was one of those guys that was
as much a part of that as as anything. I still remember him looking
like the eyes I don't I don't get that one. But okay, yeah,
this is Alan Phoenix. I haven't called for a while. I always
call you usually after u of A has disappointed in the tournament. Knows your
time. Yeah, well, you know, I I thought they were overseated
to begin with. I don't think they should have been a number two seeds.
And I actually think if Nevada had won, they would have they would
have lost in the around of thirty two. I mean, the team was
very uneven. You know, they they they and they had some talents,
but you know, I think I think the recruiting has to get better too.
Tommy, he needs to be a better coach. But he also if
they want to be you know, if they want to make it to a
final four, they have to have they have to have better talent too.
Well. I mean that goes without saying, I mean you got you know,
okay, you got this far with this level of player, You got
to get better players. I mean, I thought this group was good enough
to get to the final four, uh, you know, and and it
might have been if they'd have played somebody other than Clemson on that day.
So let me ask you how old are you? I am fifty four,
okay, so in our in our range by rings at least, So let
me ask you. Okay, the Fantasy State and uh Santa Clara and Miami
Ohio all those and I thought, you know, the National Championship and the
final four. Okay, well yeah, Firon Rain right, Okay, So
let me ask you, then in ninety seven, ninety seven, early March,
you're not thinking that team wins the title realistically, right, Yeah,
that's true. That one cave is that was a that was a shocker.
I mean, we thought the backcourt, they said, the backcourt we knew
was kind of We did know that that backcourt had a lot of potential,
Okay, I think Mike didby the minute that he stepped on the campus.
We knew to say, but they it was potential. But yeah, you're
right, I know one thought they were going to win the National champions Okay,
So to be fair, no one thought that they were fifth in the
league. And then I guess a year later, to the day of March
whatever, tell me you you didn't think they were going to win the title?
No, I I had that that the you know, the the year
they lost they got massacred by Utah. Yeah, that that year. I
did think I thought they were going to repeat. I saw nothing that that
indicated that they weren't going to I mean that that wasn't a That was a
That game I think was the lowest shooting percentage in the in the Olson era.
Maybe that game that was a that was just such a total surprise and
a shock. So my point is you never know what team you're gonna see
what you know, that's true. But I think this u of a team
this year gave had a lot of reasons to give us pause though, because
there are a lot of you know, that game again Stanford, where they
couldn't they couldn't stop anybody. Oh my god, that was terrible. They
gave up one hundred points to Stanford. No, I hear you, I
hear you. But good things. You didn't put any money on them,
probably, or did you? Oh no, no, no, no way,
you know. Just and now they're in this big you know, the
thing is interesting, they're in the Big twelve, so which is all considered
a far better basketball conference in the Pac twelve. And the question is,
you know, I wouldn't be surprised that there are a lot more losses next
year. Yeah, because I think it's gonna be. They're gonna fight a
greater competition. I don't know, you know, depends, like you said,
the players. Who are we getting in, who's gonna go on the
portal, who's gonna transfer all this kind of uh leave early. It's it's
still a real question mark. Yeah, we'll buckle up. Is gonna be
okay? You know, it's just well, you know, that's how I
thought, you know, And I'm not surprised by the You know, if
you look at that Alabama tea, it's like you aight beat them, but
they had You know, they're tough. They're tough teams. They're gonna give
They're gonna give a chuperl too. I was playing yukon ra a little bit.
I guess we'll hear from you next March. Oh. I hope,
I hope sometime I gonna call you. I'm like, it's it's a positive
I don't They don't have to have win the championship begin. You just have
to get to another FINALO. You'll get a positive call, all right,
all right, wel thanks for the call. Appreciate it, all right,
thank you. Jay. You've been around sixty four years. You've been to
four final fours, I think one national title. Enjoy your time. Yes,
exactly. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's very hard.
All right, let's take our break. We're at the top of the hour
of Kevin's Back with breaking news. We've got some stuff breaking out of Arizona
basketball, so stick around.