This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgery High
on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to IM on the Ball, you
know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jaginsauce. Snow
we have hend me with breaking news. This is High on the Ball Breaking
news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. For the first story, former NBA player
Jontay Porter that's pleaded guilty to taking himself out of games for betting purposes and
he could face an estimated time of three and a half years in jail.
Whoops, Yeah, might as see he say he killed himself of a career.
And yeah, a lot of the money, it's I guess it's said
in the spread that he had a lot of gambling debt, So gambling was
all about this. But you know, you're making millions of dollars and how
bad are you? Right? I don't know the ultimate ko d Yeah,
god awful? All right. Next story, Former race shortstop Wander Franco has
been put on the restricted list a day after convicted of three charges against him
for an alleged sexual relationship with a fourteen year old girl. Of course,
this that was just been Dominican Republic. I mean, as a guy had
there's another guy who had a bad day again. You know, you get
this opportunity and you blow up by doing something stupid. You hate to see
it, but it happens. For the next story, Kawhi Leonard is withdrawing
from the Olympics this summer and will be replaced by Derek White, and the
Clippers concluded that it was best for him if you focus this summer on being
ready for the upcoming NBA season, so maybe you could play at least half
the game. Are you shocked? Yeah? Yeah, this was not coming
from anybody else but the Clippers, right, we need you don't get hurt.
Yeah, I mean, come on, I don't know, I get
it. You know you have health issues and stuff like that, but dang,
you gotta when I don't know, as a as a coach or or
a franchise, when you give up on a guy who just can't play,
well, you're paying him all this money for half the game. He's making
fifty million dollars fifty million rate right the next two three years holy crap.
And he may not even play most of the games. He hasn't played much
in the last few years. I mean he's playing. Really, he's playing
like half of your games. I don't get it. For the next story,
College Football twenty five has released their player overalls for the top one hundred
players. Three Arizona guys were in the top one hundred. T Mac was
a ninety four to Carlo Davis was in ninety two, and Jonah Salvinea was
in ninety and Fifeeda was not one of the rated one of the top eight
qvs in the t MAC being ninety whatever, ninety four? Holy, who
does as twelve year olds? Yeah, he's always got a lot of crap
forever. Terrible rating they must because t Max is one of the best college
football players in the country easily easily. Well the highest overall they had someone
was ninety six. Oh I'm sorry, sorry, So this is a out
of one hundred I had. I was I was going the other way.
Okay, So they released the top one hundred players in their ratings back Okay,
yeah, okay, I thought I thought one would bet there's your cultural
different those your your age difference, you know, that's fantastic, Yeah,
because he deserves that. He's he's he's like I say to the JA all
the time and whoever wants to listen that. He to me, he's going
to be the best player to ever come through here if he stays healthy.
If there was a lot of slack for the feet of who wasn't ranked in
the top eight because they had Sanders as the number one quarterback. Yeah,
the good luck with that. Get that stuff out of here. The US
men's soccer team has fired head coach Greg Belter after it dis point in Copa
America where the US did not qualify, and then we all saw that coming.
Yeah yeah, I mean the minute they lost that game and got eliminated
from the from the tournament, everybody said, that's it, you got it.
You got to get rid of him. And so it sounds like they
have ben us. USA soccer has been that for a long time. Just
yeah, I mean, I get it. We're you know, we're a
football and basketball country forever. But you got it. You know, as
you say, with the number of athletes in this day country, you can't
you can't have world class you know soccer. You know, what's the deal.
Uh, Angel Rees got her fourteenth straight double double, which is a
w NBA record, But she was getting a lot of crap on Twitter because
they were up by seven with like twenty seconds ago, and she needed two
more points, so she tried. She got foul trying to score to get
ten points. Yeah, did you see what's your name? Asia Wilson?
Yeah, twenty four and twenty twenty four and twenty twenty rebounds Chamberlain stuff.
Yeah, Kaitlyn went twenty nine points, you know, losing that for that's
all I got it, all right? What else, Steve, I don't
know. I don't know. I know that one of our guys wanted you
to talk about the Dodgers yesterday. I thought nobody wanted me to talk about
the Dodge. They don't put They got smoked last night. Why talk about
your Phillies. The Phillies crushed him. It was ugly. Hey, here's
the thing. Here's the thing that when it was nine to nothing, the
starting pitcher was still in the gate. They just said, keep them stay
out there. Just we're not gonna use anybody that just stay out there.
I was it. Twelve to four was the final. It was twelve to
something and I you know, I got home. I take it back even
worse. I got in the car. Normally i'll put the game on and
listen to it. I didn't even listen to it. I just said,
you know, I don't want to hear this. And I got home with
the game was I checked it. I checked to see what inning it was.
Was still only the sixth inning. I still didn't turn it on.
Yeah, oh, listener Bill, Okay, yeah, I got it.
It was Bill send you he just send you something else. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, so yeah, you know, you know they're they're pitching his
beat up there, they're they're there. I think they was to somebody because
I was, you're gonna hate, You're gonna laugh at this. But I've
been kind of tracking this. The Dodgers have been under favorites moneyline favorites,
in like all but three or four games all year long. Now they are
tonight, but they're playing the Phillies. And I don't know that I would
even touch that because I haven't been playing well well yeah, I mean the
Yankees. Yankees, we've got a bunch of guys hurt. You know,
movie Bets is out, you know they today? Oh well, he was
the picture yesterday. Oh so, you know, no, they're they're they're
kind of in a bad way. They just got to get to the star
break regather themselves. And oh are they still winning the West though? Oh
yeah, they're like seven games up still, And so it sounds like,
oh, the Dodgers are terrible. They're still like I don't know six or
said last I checked. You know, it's it's so I don't even check
the standings anymore. I just assume that they're they're, you know, they're
gonna be up. Let's see, they are. They're up, yes,
still up by seven and a half on the Padres. You know they're they're
they're playing six hundred ball five ninety eight. Yeah, that's pretty good.
Yeah, and they're seven and a half the Padres seven and a half games
back. The Diamondbacks are and the Giants are ten, and the Rockets are
fifteen and a half twenty three. I mean, excuse me. And so
I'm not saying here worried about whether they're not they're going to win the division,
but I certainly don't feel good about their the World Series chances, with
the lack of pitching that they have and all the other issues that they've got
right now. Anyways, so they're there, Bail, I hope you're happy
you brought up that crappy subject. Anything else anybody else? No, I
think you got all the ESPN stuff right. How what was Colorado pick to
finish in the league? Uh? Eleventh? Okay, So I was gonna
say, do that have a chance to supersed Arizona or over pass overtake Arizona?
No? Probably not right? But they everyone knows this quarterback the sun
that you know, the quarterback, and Dion called Travis Hunter the best wide
receiver and the best player in college football. Of course, what was you
gonna say, you know, in the best cornerback like he's ever seen.
Yeah, you know, well, you guys are still gonna go four and
eight. Yeah, we'll see what happens to him next year. I mean,
when you think about it, you know, they're all talking about how
how great Shad or Sanders is. Just because you have that quarterback, sho
should be better than take eleventh place in your conference, right if you got
that player, because that's a player that everybody needs to have it. If
you have it and they don't think you can do better than you know,
eleventh place Senior League. Then then what do they think? What do they
really think of you? Right, well, we're gonna have a Brian Howell
on Friday talk more about because we always had Brian on last year. Right,
what the hell are you going through covering covering h Dean? So we'll
have him on Friday to get the update on what's going on in Boulder.
You know, look, Dan, he he he cares what people think,
but he doesn't care what people think, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, he listens, right and he and it says he keeps receipts.
But if you think he's a crappy coach, he doesn't care that you think
he's a crappy coach because he's got he's got his right Hall of Famer all
these things. He says, well, you know, screw you, I
am who I am, and forget you. But on the other hand,
it bothers him. It clearly bothers him when people, you know, rag
on him. It's a weird kind of I think he's not to the to
the link of Durant to write Durant kind of pays attention. Then he gets
his burner and then he goes rant, uh, you love because it's true.
Right, Yeah, I don't know why anybody would be like that.
You make tons of money, like tons of money. Yeah, what the
hell will you? I care what you think? Right? You know exactly.
There's the calls coming from Tucson. Uh, you know, two dudes
on the radio talking crap. Okay, it's a rob number, so yeah,
it's it's fine. You know. He talked about how he's held to
a different standard. He said that it is press. Possibly, yeah,
possibly he's held a higher standard. Who created that? Right? Who created
that? You did? Right? You created you know? And then when
you you know, when you went off at the beginning of the last year
and you were talking all this smack, and all of a sudden it got
really hard to win games, to the point where you didn't win any more
game. Yeah, let's talk real quick. We have four minutes about the
the d u I thing with gdy Oh. That's right, we can get
him right over. That it is and this is my problem with being a
sports writer and being a sports fan, which of course I'm not. Athletes
at that level get away with stuff. You've seen it, right, I've
seen it. I've had to cover it because if the kid could not run
a straight line in five seconds or whatever, he would have been in trouble.
Right, And we saw here with a quarterback this past year. There
is right to get special treatment. They do, They absolutely do. And
I and I think, you know Gandhi with his remarks about how well I
did it, So what's the big deal? Who hasn't done that when they
you know, okay, well back then it was a different deal, right,
and you can't do that anymore, right, And and then you talk
to nil stuff too, right, and yeah, he said, well he's
making money, so he should be able to handle this on his own.
Stop it. He got a dui. He could have killed somebody and he
didn't. He got lucky. And now you say, well, kids will
be kids. It's kind of what he said. Right. There should have
been a suspension what there needs to be. And maybe there will be two
games suspension. Maybe there will be the Oklahoma State will come and right the
ship, if they will, the power would be but the damage has already
been done because you know how they feel. Right. And then to say,
well, we're gonna punish him and make him, make him answer to
this at Big twelve media days, right, that's a consequence of getting the
d UI right right, No, that's that makes no sense. Well,
the same thing they do DeLaura when he talked about it, and I'm sure
if they rewind if they would have done it, done it differently. Arizona.
Yes, yeah, yeah, because it's kind of like you know,
they got Sometimes you get so close to it you don't see right, you
know the outside. Well, the Texas State team that he went to,
Delora nipped it in the bud right away. You want him, yeah,
well they never should have taken him the first we don't want him, and
then he's not our problems that we don't want him. Yeah. Uh And
Arizona, well, guess who needed him? Chet Fitch? You did?
You did, and and you know what we got something out of it?
Did no Frafida exactly? You know, And I don't know if there's a
right you know, I make fun but that I shouldn't and I shouldn't.
But yeah, you know, as you said, you know, if he
was you or me, right, you know, you suspend the guys were
you know, you're you know, you might lose your job one of a
number of things that that can happen. Instead, there's like well you know,
cans will be kids. He's okay, Well he's answering. He's answering
part of the problem too. He's he's younger than Henry. He's twenty,
so he's not even old enough to dream dream. That's another issue. Yeah,
so yeah, no, I again, one of those things were in
hindsight, you think maybe we should have done something a little different with this,
right, and maybe they could still do that and say, you know,
okay, we talked about it a little bit more. Yeah, and
you know you're you're out the first two games exactly, and they're gonna what's
the criticism after that? Well, why didn't you say that in the first
one? Did you do that the first Well, now we've done it.
Now we've done it. Regardless of how we did it, we did it
right, you know. Okay, Okay, okay, let's take our break.
We're going to come back. Javier Morales will join us. He's at
packed Well, ah two two is a Big twelve, big party. I
hope if you're still here when we have that party. Hob's at Big twelve
media day, so we'll get his impressions. He's been sitting in on all
those things and been on social media about it, so we'll get his take
on what's been going on over there in Vegas. Let's stick around. The
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Steve Rivera and Jacob Salis they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's
sports stay yet Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to wind the
ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta, he's jacing solids
and now we have Harvey Morales from all sportsutsun dot com. How you doing,
Hubry? Hey guys, how are you doing. How hot is it
over there? One hundred and twenty five? My god, it feels like
Phoenix. He you know, if you ever been outside Phoenix from the middle
of summer, that's what it feels like. Yeah, don't don't you stay
in the stay in the hotels there. Their conditioned for a reason. They
want you to play their slot machines. So how did you go today?
How did you My daughter, I can't do that. She's your she's your
your your good girls. You So how was it today? What was the
scene? Like? Uh? You know, they have to set the you
know, Allegion Stadium, which is huge, and it's it's a media days
so that it's like a grand show. And that's what brett Ormark wants with
the Big Twelve to kind of show the SEC and the Big Ten that they're
not going to take a back seat to those conferences. To have it like
an a venue like this instead of like in a you know, ballroom of
like the MGM Grand or something like that. To have it in the big
stadium. Even though the Big Twelve isn't really tied to Legion stadiums in any
way. They might be joined with the Las Vegas pul soon, but that's
not definite. And of course we know the the Big Twelve Championship is in
Dallas at AT and T Stadium, and you know the basketball tournaments for men
and women are in Kansas City for the foreseeable future. So but you know,
listening to your Mark these last couple of days, you just really felt
like you've got a guy that, whether you like him or not, where
you think he's brashed or not, you've got a guy who's like really committed
to, you know, making his conference great in a lot of ways,
not just kind of sitting I don't know. It's just a different field,
a different vibe to how he's operating versus you know, the PACTOV commissioners that
you know that the conference died on their watch. Yeah, he's got an
aggressive like this is the way we're going to do it, and we're going
to do it the right way, and we're going to go after it.
I also saw him and he did that with this with me. He comes
up to you people in Shakespeare hand, he doesn't doesn't wait for people to
come up to him and to acknowledge him. There's something about that too,
or he's he gets that he knows that to be able to survive in the
competitive world now with these super conferences, that they have to be ultra aggressive
and not not hope that things happen and make things happen. Yeah, no
question. You spent most of the time, I'm sure with Brennan and you
had him after right, would you You were there afterward with the scrum with
the locals. What did he say in the scrum anything to get you?
Yeah, Well, the big thing was t Mac and the talk about is
his foot injury that ended his spring practice early and he had surgery. It
was at that time it was called a minor situation and it still has that
feel to ith. T Mac said, he felt wonderful, he feels great,
and you you know, you're smiling about it, and the players kind
of around and were laughing because they knew that he was gonna asked that question.
But you know, Brent Brandon said that they're gonna they're not going to
go full board with him when Paul Camp happens, They're just gonna take it.
They're gonna be smart and ticket uh, you know, slowly with him
to get him back in the groove. But it's not an injury that's going
to keep him out. So, I mean, that's a that's the best
news to come out of it. That there's no question he's gonna play.
That's just how is how is he gonna be handled from the start of practice
to the New Mexico game. Yeah, you know, Steve and I were
talking about him. Maybe you caught this. Uh you know, he was
asked about, you know what what who are you? Right? What's the
character of your team? And he said, I don't know. You know,
I think I think, you know, I know what I want,
but I don't. We don't know who we are yet. I thought that
was really interesting comment that he made about that. Yeah, it's kind of
like he said a couple of times, you know, we don't know.
We were gonna have to wait and see how he pans out. He says
he's confident how he's going to do as a coach. But that was another
thing he touched on when somebody said, uh, you know, how do
you feel about taking over his program and being a you know, being a
big part of it and you know, Lynch keeping it in the up trajectory
And he said, you know, that remains to be seen because it hasn't
happened yet, so I mean it's a realistic viewpoint of it, and he
doesn't want to get ahead of himself and make it seem like, you know,
he's gonna he's going to be a world beater from the beginning because he
hasn't played anybody yet. I mean, he hasn't coached at Arizona in one
game yet. So it's very realistic about that, and you can't fault him
for taking that that viewpoint. He said he hopes to be a great coach
here, but you know that remains to be seen. So when you asked
him a question about a keen or the the past, you know what the
quina and did he give you the answer you were hoping for, Well,
yeah, because he touched on that he wants to u of a guys who
know they're the past and who understand how important it is to be part of
that program. Because let's face that, Arizona is not, you know,
one of the top Power five programs in the country. I mean, they're
a Power five country. I've been a Power five team, but they I
think having Babers and and Aquina and Bobby Wade, Chuck Diesel, Ricky Hanley,
it's kind of essential because they know what Arizona is all about. Where
some of these recruits might not know about Arizona because they haven't been on that
grand stage yet college football. They've they've knocked on the door a couple of
times, like last year, but it has been continuous. But people like
Babers and Keina know what potential Arizona has by being here before and making a
living off their coaching from being at Arizona before. So I think he feeled
that that's an essential component. Let me ask you both both, because you
guys are grads UI grads and have a love for the u A. Do
you think that was to the demise of the guys since told me that they
didn't embrace that more. I've said for a number of times that you know,
when coaches get fired sometimes it's because they didn't make that connection right and
they don't have, you know, sort of the support, you know behind
the scenes of people who feel that connection, say you don't give this guy,
you know, like Mike Stoopids. I think if he would have embraced
that more than he did, he could have, he would he might not
have been fired when he got fired. And I think the same thing with
rich Rod. You know, with the thing that happened, he might have
weathered that had he embraced that that connection as well. I've believed that Cub
Yeah, I agree. And then I mean, look at it went from
Stoops to rich Rod to someone in in in that time it declined like the
holding onto the past. You know, Salavea was with Stoops as a as
an assistant were once that. Once that change came about with rich Rod came
in, he left, and I think that that was kind of an indication
of how things are going to change, not so much for the better.
I mean, rich Rod had a couple of good years there at the beginning,
but the recruiting really tailed off and then someone just fell off the cliff.
And I think that bringing this back at this point that the sense of
pride in the program from before, from the nineties. Bred Brendan made a
comment that he's look, he's excited about bringing back the nineties generation. That
that's when Arizona two of its best teams in the history of the program.
So I think bringing that back is essential for this. Do they need a
guy with Arizona background to be a good coach, not necessarily, but they're
in a situation right now where they do have somebody who was a grad assistant
and his brother played in Arizona and he knows these coaches from their time in
Arizona before. So I think it's essential right now to where the program is.
But well, I was gonna say, and I just also think that
you know, look, Arizona doesn't have like some rich football history, you
know, not a like a USC or house date of you know, but
what history they have, it's ours. It's it's our history, and it's
important to fans like me, you know, to have that right, you
know. I mean it's not like, you know, they've got all these
championships in their background and stuff like that, but yet we still feel good
about, well what it's been. There's my analogy. It's might it might
be an ugly baby, but it's my baby, right Yeah. Unfortunately,
areas of football has been an ugly baby. He set that up. Are
you so well have basically no, But you guys, we talked about this
Jay and how you've lived it, because you've written a number of stories about
it through the history, a handful of strong seasons and no championships, and
that's right. But again it's still ours, you know, we still there's
certain aspects of it that that that we love about it, partly because Steve
where we came from. You know, I was around for the whack years,
right, you know they're in the Whack and you're like, now we're
big time because we're in the Pac ten and so you know that's where we
came from. If you feel like USC has been USC forever, right,
Arizona in our lifetime, you know, was was New Mexico and Colorado State
and now that they've been playing with the big boys all this time, that's
our history. Hold on for a second, because we asked, we talked
to had this conversation yesterday. I don't know if you heard us yesterday talking
about the hoity toity, but there's a sense of entitlement. And what was
the phrase that we used about the Arizona itself being full of themselves or something
was something? Well they god, I remember exactly what we said. They
just got ahead of themselves, ahead of themselves and maybe full of they think
they're more than they they think we're more than we are. You grew up
here just a little younger than me and and a little younger than Jeha than
Jay. Uh. Do you've sensed that too, because you've you covered the
teams of time or two and it seems like it's they can't handle prosperity.
Yeah. I agree that. Uh, we think of maybe Arizona more than
others that outsiders might think, right, but that like because we lived it.
I was, I was there when Jim Young was coaching. I mean
I was, I was in an elementary school, but I remember going to
those games and and just growing up in it. Since we grew up in
it, we kind of have a different kind of thought process about Arizona football,
whereas others who might have just moved here, like even ten years ago,
over like this. This program is not what it should be, you
know, and it's true. So I think it's because of our background and
we think that Arizona, I mean, like I always thought Arizon's gonna Rose
Bowl and that that never happened. So I'm sorry, Jed, I mean,
you know, but you know, we always think that, you know,
it's growing up in Tucson, that Arizona's going to Rose Bowl, Arizona
is gonna be able to upset U, s LA and USC more than more
than once every other year, you know, kind of like the people want
Arizona to be relevant. Yeah, grew up there, and it's been an
ongoing struggle, like a rollercoaster ride to make that happen. With all these
coaching changes, going from a high to a low a lot, it's been
a real struggle for Arizona fans. Yeah, no, it has. I
think what we're saying is that we just you know, Arizona has a great
season and they think they're there and they're not right. That's what I mean
by getting getting ahead of themselves. And this is another one of those years
where you know, we're sitting here trying to hold back the expectations because you
don't want to have these expectations in case it falls apart. If you were
a trend player, guess what you would bet, you'd bet for a demise,
right, Yeah. After they have a great year, they struggle.
Yeah, and then you're throw on top of that new coach and all that
kind of stuff. It's like, you know, the odds really are against
them repeating what they did last year. They really are. But yet we're
sitting here thinking they could win the League. Well, this is probably rose
colored glasses talking, but I think they're going to have a better year than
what we've seen after good years because of the type of players that have returned,
Right, I think that's huge. I mean, if there was a
mass exodus and I think we could forecast another downturn. But you really can't
think that way with the talent that's coming back that Arizona has, I mean
NFL quality talent, right, and some of the other guys. Let me
get your thoughts on this, because Steve and I talked about this a little
bit ago, and it's kind of on the edge of getting into some of
the cultural political correctness or whatever you want to call it. But you know,
I I suggested had had their best players team ac No Offafida, Jacob
Manu, these guys not been Polynesian players from a culture that cares about family
and loyalty and relationships and all these things. Had they not been those guys,
could they have held this team together? You know? Could you have
seen those guys scatter to places abroad as opposed to staying around where they all
got together and said, we all care about each other and we're gonna stay
here. You and that came out today with what Mishall showed up with Laison
that McMillan the mom made for them and then those things and looks like they
were easy to make, and she made five of them and she transported them
in a cooler cooler and presented them at the Bellagio. I mean, that's
just part of the culture. And I think I think them sticking that was
part of them sticking together too. A lot of them share that kind of
family bond away from football, and I think that helped them stay. And
you're right if if they didn't have that, they might have been different.
A different result would have happened, most likely of them spreading going to different
com uh well you know programs right and not saying in Arizona. And I
think Brenton is the big you know, he ties up like a bow because
he has a background of coaching in Hawaii, being with Dick Tomy, has
great Polynesian uh background with you know, friends that are Polynesian. Klane Sataki
told me that he he's that Brent Brennan's awesome and he loves him because they
coach together and he gets it, you know, And I think that's huge
that Brandon came in this situation with these Polnesian leaders really on the team,
it all was like a perfect storm to have to have Brendan be the coach
because of his background with the Polynesian culture, right, yea. The one
thing about Brendan to me is that he doesn't blow smoke. And he doesn't
blow smoke. I don't feel like he does. No, no, and
not that Jed did he see. I didn't get that when I didn't get
close to jad too. I didn't get close to like the guys who loved
him loved him and then he disturbed him and now they hate him. I
really didn't get close to him because I didn't know how good of a coach
he is. I still don't know. I mean, honestly, I don't
know. Yeah, Jee, I still don't know. Three years here was
not an off. That's not a sample size. Well, I've seen this
on social media and I agree with it. Of course, we never know,
but you know, if if Laura doesn't get hurt, Fafida doesn't play
much and he might be gone, he might not even be at Arizona,
and this whole thing would be just unrally. Of course, Fish might not
get a job elsewhere because they might not have went ten and three with Dlaura's
quarterback. So it's I think. I think Fish sticking with Jada and Laura
like he did instead of giving Fida a chance after de Laura really struggled.
Yeah, that doesn't look good on Fish, I think. And he was
like, Okay, we're going to have to play no one else, so
he's going to get a chance because of the injury. And then I don't
think that shows well on Fish. That's a good point evaluation process. That's
a really good point. But you know, similar situation with calil Tate and
uh and rich Rod sitting there and it was Brandon Dawkins, right, and
and all of a sudden he said, okay, I got a play,
hi. Because Brandon Dawkins comes out for a couple of plays. That's everything
changed. That's the odd with coaches. You think that they would know better
or see better because they're with them every day, right, and they two
dudes who know football one more Mike Stewts did it with with Nick Foles and
Matt Scott, right, So there's gotta be it's just strange, right,
Uh, you got something there and everybody sees it, not everybody, but
then it happens. You says, how come that wasn't happened before? And
you're the coach. I think the fact that the players are close to Noah
Fa, I think with him coming in, I think that that meant a
lot to them, and that that really that really they won a five game
winning streak. You your honor. The defense arrests. They said that from
the from that time on. Yeah, and I was laughed at a little
by a few people. And let me tell you what happens. You feel
more confident, you feel you it's it's the Steve Kirk factor. You play
harder because you love the dude. Yeah. Yeah, he's a leader too.
Yeah, and he doesn't with he does it with one hundred percent genuinely,
when means the way the way he conducts himself. Okay, have enjoy
your last day in Vegas. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Okay,
thanks BG, All right, take care read the Javier at all sports you
Sun dot com. He doesn't sleep just so you could read him. That's
right, I guess. So we went a segment without me screwing up Big
twelve and Pact twelve. The whole segment because how it did all the top
two to one one. All right, we're gonna take our break. We'll
be back for the last segment. Give us a call five two zero four
forty. If you're an Arizona men'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 Lut It was a labor of love through
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and jaygin Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports, Big
Chef, Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeartRadio. Wam Hey,
welcome back to il the ball. Here know Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve PJ. We have henryet thirteen minutes. We went a little over.
If you want to call us five, please do five, two zero
or one, six, seventy four or forty. You could talk about the
Big twelve company. You know. The whole idea behind Steve is to break
ourselves up that the habit of the habit of big We've got a call.
Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air and on the ball.
Nico, what's up? Hey man? I want to talk about these
helmets? Man, Oh, let's do that. I kind of't even know
where you're gonna go with it, but go. I hate it, man,
Holy moly, well looking you're growing up, Nico. I like it,
hey man. I grew up during the Magnetic era, going in that
halftime so my dad could come down from his buzz, and they wore white
helmets with a big air on them. Yeah you don't. Why don't you
like them? I just like the simple arison A helmet, Yeah, just
simple a right, Yes, I grew up with that and I had to
do with the blue ones and the copper ones and the red It's just like
Ko finally went back to it. You don't you know me myself and and
Jay go back and forth arguing about that stuff with look good, play good.
I don't believe in it. Which way do you fall when it comes
thereson a football well, just if you general in general, just you know,
do you have to look look good to play good? No? Not
really exactly exactly. You're either good or not, you know, exact exactly.
I didn't say you have to. I said you can though. I
mean, you might feel better about yourself. But if you suck exactly,
that's when that's my next book. If you suck, you suck. I
thought Bret Brett Brennan did pretty good to the media. Yeah, I you
know, I thought you did a good job. Again, we're talking about
how he looks like a coach, he feels like a coach. Sounds like,
so do you think how many games do you think they're gonna winn?
Eco? Wow? Six? You said that with conviction? Why do you
think that? I'm in the bar low man? So I don't get my
heart broken? Man, footballs curse man, we know that. We're just
trying to figure out where the curse started. Mm hmmm. Probably when they
didn't build a statue for the comment. Oh what, you're funny. What
year was that? I don't know. My grandpa used to talk about the
comments. That's that's pretty funny. That's funny. Well, thank you,
Nico Man, thanks for listening. Take it easy, man, that's funny.
When did a comment play fifties? That was that? Is that a
pino? That's okay? Late in the fifties. Yeah, I don't even
know what I'm the same. I think it happened in the sixties. That's
when the the Goat came out or something. Yeah, I don't know.
I still I still think I had to do with the the ultimatum bullet.
Do you think so you said, Brian, Well, you said how you
gave Brendan a name? You said what a great name? Or you said
that's a great name. You said something I didn't want to ask because I
missed that. I missed that he said that grit's a great word or something
like that about Brennan. Uh, okay, I'll ask before you remember.
Do you do you think that in the next eighteen months, I'll give you
the eighteen month rule here. Uh with doctor Robbins. Uh, there'll be
a named there was only stadium sponsor. Yes, I do. I think
they'll find a sponsor. Yeah, I think they'll find a sponsor. And
I think, yeah, I think maybe it obviously won't be this season,
but maybe next Go ahead and take that. Hi, you're on there and
I on the ball. Hey, what's up this? Vic? Vic?
What's going on? Man? Real quick? I wanted to bring up the
survey thing. Man, okay, and I bet you you guys can research
it. But there's not another team in the country that brought three high school
kids from the same high school to their media day. Oh yeah, funny
that survey thing. Honestly, it's saved. There was on a football and
absolutely did say there was on football. Uh. And think about it.
They were not They had won before when Troy Thomas got there. You know,
they were the third place team in that league to Modern Day and and
uh and Bosco and then Noah and and left bought their Juice County guys there
and they actually ended up they they never did get over the hump and win
the state, but they did beat Bosco and Modern Day in both years,
senior and senior years. So Vic, let me ask you, because you're
you're close to the family at least you know them fairly well, Uh,
will there be a residual effect from all this? Uh, you know,
not just this year but beyond with the guys? Oh here, Yeah,
Noah's little brother plays at Modern Day right now. Noah's little brother plays there
right now. And I went and saw the Juice County team, and I
think I talked to you a little bit about it. See, but they
have eighth graders that are like six four ninety on the line. I kid,
you're not. It was. I was so impressed. They have a
quarterback that throws the ball like forty yards on a dime. And I'm like,
yes, these are eighth graders. He goes, yeah, Well,
what is brother a quarterback as well? No, he's a linebacker. He's
a line but not as big, and I don't think he's gonna have the
impact that Noah or Jacob have. But he's a stud. Okay, Well,
if you think they're going to continue this kind of symmetry or whatever word
is, you know the connection that you know, because you got to start
somewhere, right Uh, Luke had to start it somewhere and it worked and
it just brought talent, brought more talent, and it just didn't stop.
Yeah, and I believe that Huges County Buckeye thing is uh, it's going
thing. Okay, all right, really really like I said that serve By
thing, it's pretty amazing when you when you one school took three guys from
that. Can you imagine taking like three Stout Point guys or two Son High
guys. It'd be all over the news, right right, all right,
you guys man, it was a great show. Was awesome. He was
good. Yeah. Well, we're gonna start. We're gonna start start a
law firm. Uh, Morales, Rivera and Gonzales. I'd probably be down
enough to hire you guys. We're cheap. We're cheap. You will,
don't worry you will, all right. Thanks. I'm just curious because you
know, you start, you start getting talent and getting talent, and then
the word of mouth, especially by people who actually like it here and want
to be here. Oh you got to go to you know, gotta gotta
continue the legacy. Yeada YadA. Yeah, it sounds good, but I
don't know if well, you know, and I mean in some you know,
some places you get that legs you. Right, Helix High School is
the one that sticks out for Arizona, right, you know, go back
to Alan dur and Chuck Cecil, you know, Brandon Sanders, Hammersmith,
all those guys, right, And so if you know, you get in,
you get into that. And I you know, I don't know if
I've told you, but I went to when I did a story with Larry
McDuff, the old defensive coordinator on recruiting, and I went with him on
a recruiting trip to San Diego where they were just doing evaluations, right.
They were going in they couldn't even talk to players, they had to they
were going in to see film and talk to coaches and stuff. And I
went with him to Helix High School, and the presence of Arizona over there
was at that time, you know, pretty uh substantial, right you know.
But Duff walks in and everybody knew him, you know, and it
was kind of like Arizona was the thing there. And and if you get
into a school like that, you know, you can keep that for a
really long time, right, right, It's kind of like the club you
have Oklahoma hat on or shirt on, you walk into a room, just
like walking into your room. You know who he is, you know his
purpose, right and and and so yeah, you know, to get you
know, you know, to get a bunch of players from from a school
like that, you'll always have a presence there. As long as you don't
screw it up and do something wrong. You're exactly as long as you mess
it up. How many times could you say that for anything? As long
as you don't screw it, you don't go do something, you don't offend
them in any way or something like that. Yeah, yeah, you know,
Yeah, so I think that, uh, you know, Big makes
a good point that they can they can keep getting guys from there, and
if they continue to turn out players, then that's a good place, a
good place to be. Like learn all the relationships that yeah, you has
had with you know, some of those Phoenix schools. They've never done anything
with it, but you know, but they've had those relationships. And you
think that to be a no brainer, you know, no brainer, and
it doesn't really And actually Jed went in there and made some headway in there,
and and you have to do that. But well you look at look
at some point here. How many times have things gone no south? And
it happened a year ago that when you think it'd be a no brainer.
Yeah, No, not necessarily. Well again, because you know the recent
history of Arizona's relationship with that school has not been good, right, right,
and it was not good at all before the Jed got here. Yeah,
So okay, anybody want to call. We have a little time left.
We got got a couple of minutes left, so you can eat your
call in about four minutes. Actually, a good show today, A good
show today, tomorrow. We'reloaded for the next couple of days. Yeah,
and I just got a confirmation. Looks like we are going to have ACU
athletic director a Grammar on Friday. We can have a lot of good grafts
here the next couple of days. Yeah, So it should be fun.
We're just kind of talking about in transition to the it'll be good as long
as you don't screw it up. That's a possibility. We can. You
know, we're good at screwing up anything. We can screw up anything.
Yeah, go ahead and say, go ahead and say that favorite conference that
you love now, I'm not going to touch it. For now, I'm
trying to get out of here. It's already two to one over here.
So anyway, that's three bucks in the pot already. But no, you
know what, uh, you know, kind of wrapping up, you know,
thoughts on on on big twelve media days? Is that one? First
of all, it's a two day event, a lot of media there,
a lot of attention on it, a lot of national media talking about it,
and you feel like Arizona has landed in a really good place. I
totally agree. I totally agree. People, you guys got you guys were
a little sentimental about it, and I get that and I continue to be
and I get that. But let's move on, and it's gonna be fun,
right, I think it is gonna be fun. You're starting to get
marriage is over. You found your next one. Enjoy it and she might
be hotter, and she might she might treat you better. Yes, and
alreage, that's all we're looking for. Just treat you better, make me
a nice dinner with some candles and some mandolins and stuff, and world,
go see a movie. But but I do, you know, I do
believe that that they're they're in a better place and I've I loved the PAC
twelve. I did. I loved the PAC twelve, but it was sometimes
it was just cringe worthy that the things that the places where it's stepped on
itself, you know, and and screwed things up, you know, the
direct TV thing, and just so many mistakes that they would make that they
would get ridiculed for by the national media. And and you're saying, well,
I know we're stupid in a lot of ways, but we're still fun
and we're still a good conference. But you feel like that's kind of washed
away because now you're in a league that has a commissioner that means business.
Right, he's got a how can I should? Every commissioner has an ego,
right, everybody they wouldn't get there if an ego. He has a
certain kind of did he say swagger, He's got a sense of he does
have a swagger, as like, you know, my my poop doesn't stink
and let me tell you why. Yeah, you know, and we're not
gonna let anybody take our thunder. Kind of like that type of thing.
Different than Larry Scott. Larry Scott was like, you know, kind of
like the salesman the car salesman, the lawyer. Yeah, he kept trying
to convince you that everything was great when the freaking sky was falling right right
right, and say, well, that's not the sky, that's other stuff.
You know, it's not even blue. So I in that sense.
You know, what I've gotten from the from these last couple of days is
that Arizona is in a good spot. And I like the spot that they're
in. It feels better because the football team is expected to be good,
so you feel like, okay, we're a good play. Football's gonna be
good. Basketball is gonna have a fun time in the sight. They might
not win it, but they'll be better for me. Fun. Yeah,
it's gonna be fun. And I think softball, everything everything is basketball.
I think it's all gonna be. And then we're headed for for what's going
to be a really fun time in this league. And I'm looking forward to
getting started. Okay, all right, let's hit the road. We're gonna
be back tomorrow. We've got some great guests we're lining up for the next
couple of days, so be sure to come back and give us a list
and give us a call. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty
with see tomorrow