Streamy Live. I mean, iHeartRadio. This is I on the Ball with
Steve Rivera and Jacob Zalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back
to I in the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Vera,
You're Jacinzales, and I'm hoping you haven't breaking news. I do,
but I'm ready to launch the thing yet. So here we go. This
is I on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right,
so a couple of couple of things. So we need to close the
book on this thing with Kerkkriesa that came up, Okay, don't came up
yesterday because I'm curious how you're going to close this book. Well, well
we you know we, I mean we tweeted out with the announcement. What
yeah, okay, and so so we did. We did see that there
was I do have something to say about that. Okay, there was.
There was the announcement and let me let me let me read the whole the
whole statement, because it got sent out this morning and we were there yesterday
wondering when are they gonna send the day you know, when are they gonna
say something? Well, this had legally all over, all over it,
all over the lawyers wrote this. So here here's the full statement from the
Arizone Athletics Department. Upon learning of a potential NC double A issue with a
former men's basketball student athlete who after they after they left the University of Arizona,
the Athletics Department were collaborative, worked collaboratively and transparently with the NC double
A and West Virginia University in the review of the matter. The review confirmed
there was no involvement from any Arizona Athletics staff members or coaches. As part
of the evaluation, the NC DOUBLEA determined that the University of Arizona's compliance systems
and education met or exceeded their standards and national best practices. The University of
Arizona received no penalties or corrective actions as a relative as a result of the
NC double a's evaluation. The Athletics Department will have no further comment on the
matter in which is the former student athlete the best movie forward. Okay,
So when you when we talked about it yesterday, we you know, speculate
a lot of different things. Okay, So, so I got a text
this morning from somebody who listens to the show. So why did the West
Virginia published Why did West Virginia published the statement while at the University of Arizona.
The ambiguity made it seem like we were dirty. You need to have
a the West Virginia reputter on the show. And I'm thinking to myself,
and I know the guy who texted me, there was no ambiguity. He
was a student here. He was still a student. He was still a
student when it happened. When this happened, they were not throwing Arizona under
the bus, right, he was with Arizona. And look, and everybody
in a situation like that is going to try and say this was somebody else,
this wasn't us, which is kind of what Arizona is saying as well.
Right, they said this wasn't us, This was you know, right,
right, all right? But you know this apparently, I mean remember
it because well, he entered the transfer portal, you know, in early
April. He was still here when we talked to him, remember when he
was still a student a month and a half late or something like that.
He was still in Tucson. So no, I get it. And every
school is going to do that they're going to deflect, you know, they're
going to deflect it to somebody else if they can't. This was not a
West Virginia thing. No, no, it was not. But he's because
of what he did. He's losing some games at Westvirginia as a turnout.
It was a hymn game, was a hymn thing. It's a him thing.
You know. Arizona just happened to be the residence where he was.
Yeah, so I don't have a problem with that. You know, the
schools are gonna everybody's gonna do that. You know, they're gonna say,
sure, if there's another school that they can point the finger at, sure
to say it wasn't us. They're gonna point the face. Yeah. And
then Arizona just did the right thing and said we weren't involved either. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah. So all right, okay, big news on
the football front. The Arizona's a Big twelve Future opponents Future conference opponents have
been announced through A twenty twenty seven. So what they've told us is here's
who Arizona's playing home and away each year for the next four years. Excuse
me. It doesn't have dates or anything like that. It just has opponents.
So next year coming to Tucson to play Arizona will be Arizona State.
Obviously. You know that's the continuing you know rivalry, Colorado, Texas Tech,
Houston, West Virginia. We've seen four of those five teams over the
last couple of years. Houston came here, Texas Tech came here. The
one we haven't seen is West Virginia. Arizona will go on the road to
play BYU, Utah, TCU and Central Florida, and then in twenty twenty
five we got BYU coming here with Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas and then
going on the road to Arizona State, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State,
Cincinnati. So over course the time you're gonna kind of play everybody. Play
Kansas State in twenty twenty six, you play Cincinnati in twenty twenty six,
you get UH, and then you get back to you know, Baylor and
and UH and you know Oklahoma State, Kansas. They mix them up.
I don't know what their formula is, but that's who we're getting. The
thing that I see is that there's anybody on that schedule scares the crap out
of me, right right, No, No, So I exactly what you
just said was on the Facebook, you know, football group or whatever.
He says. Look at this schedule. Uh, there's not anybody intimidating,
right, it's not a sexy schedule. There's we've been talking to this since
they moved over. There's no Washington. Yeah, there's no Oregon, there's
no USC. I think Ever's gonna do pretty well. Got a good chance
of doing well in this Arizona can compete in this late sure basketball, yeah,
but especially right now with the way with what jet Fish is you're looking
at you look at this this conference schedule. Now, let's say i's go
on to finish out the year. Let's say seven of five, eight and
four. Okay, And I was just out of the question and j Jike
Fisher, I'll buy you dinner, but not out of the question to see
Arizona come out of the satan for win a bowl game. Now, you
got nine wins with a lot of people back, right, with a lot
of people back, Arizona can win the league. That league. That league,
yeah, that league, well, they'll they'll be a contender. Yeah,
you know the beyond they have to go to Utah. Uh, they'll
you know, B y U was there just always a pain in the ass.
TCU, we don't know, you know, there they haven't been near
what they were last year. You know. Texas Houston, West Virginia.
Those guys don't scare them, Texas, tex Texas Tech, Houston, West
Virginia. Those guys don't bother me, you know, as an Arizona fan.
No, I think for football the switch is fantastic. Yeah, yeah,
the newness of it will be nice, you know, to see other
teams and what we've been seeing. But yet I'm still gonna miss U c
L A Utah, Oregon of course, of course, I mean U c
L A a USC you know Oregon. Sure Washings not seeing those teams because
you'd get up for those games both as a fan and presumably well, this
would be like this will be a new love for you. Jay. You'll
see cannabis coming in and you'll say, Okay, I found a new love,
and I hope we kicked the crowd. A couple of a couple of
key points of the schedule too. They are playing nine nine games, nine
conference games. I saw that the A c C and the SEC are both
sticking with their eight game, eight game conference schedules, which is stupid and
then just continues to be stupid that the NC Double A doesn't mandate that you
play nine conference games with so much at stake with the with the playoff and
the whole bit. So but they are playing nine games, so it'll be
five and four and four and five, you know, home games and away
games. There's no divisions, so you'll kind of be playing you know,
you'll kind of be playing everybody, Uh, you know, over the course
of over the course of time. I'm assuming that I'm looking at the release,
I'm assuming they're you know, protecting rival you know, certain rivalries.
We saw those, uh in the A C C schedule that came out.
There are certain rivalries that are protected. But you know, with a s
U, but you know, that's the schedule. You know, you see
b YU on the schedule the first three years, but not on the fourth
year, so that's not an automatic. But I get SUG. Justin Spears
tweeted out, you know, aside from a s U, who becomes Arizona's
biggest rival in the league. That's a good question as a UTAH or b
y U Colorado Colorado, Well depends if Deon State's there, depends how it
goes this way in a couple of weeks. I don't know. That'll be
the fun thing again, I don't know. I don't know. You go
back to Texas Tech. That was a yeah, that's private for people like
you and I know that we're dying exactly, So you're could be b u
yu, Yeah, could be, but only they've played a number of times,
played a few times, right, I played two years three years ago.
Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. I wouldn't I
don't know. Yeah, So anyways, but that's that's be like, be
like gay. But let's not worry about it right now. That's not worry
about now. But I like the you know, the home schedule next year,
you know, Arizona State, Colorado, Texas Tech, Uston, West
Virginia. All right, bring them in. Let's you and and you know
what, I do like their chances. You're gonna walk into the stadium every
game thinking Arizona, right, and that would be totally different than for a
while. So anyway, so that's, uh, that's that's the thing that's
come along. So we'll see how that flushes out when they start setting dates
and stuff. Like that. I guess I didn't see. I haven't seen.
We'll have to ask Dave Heke at some point. What what happens to
the Kansas State? Uh? Not confident on the schedule. Yeah, but
he's still gonna play. I assume they're probably still gonna play it, but
maybe play it as a non conference game. Yeah, maybe because otherwise because
if not, then they got to go find a game or not, right,
you know, so they might have to go find a game. So
we'll see what they do there. Let's move on Diamondbacks. Man. Yeah,
I didn't watch much of the game. They were down, well,
there wasn't much of a game. They were down so big that I didn't
really care. H. I'm not gonna get a hold of he apologized.
Yeah, he did, just one word. He just said sorry. And
then I told I said I didn't Jack, I didn't take the game.
I told you I didn't take the game. That's why he gave you the
tips a month ago. So where does he standing? I'm not sure I
trust him, but tend to nothing. Man. Yeah, you know they're
good, man, They're good for reasons. But you know, even if
you even this is super sickond the Diamacks went a second or whatever, don't
win it. What a fantastic year. Yeah, I mean you don't people
think about that. But they're not going to walk away from this feeling bad
about how far they got. It was this, Yeah, exactly exactly.
You know, the Dodgers are the ones licking their wounds. Right. That's
a disappointment, you said, that's disappointment, Atlanta, a disappointment. But
the Rangers ten and Ozer on the road. I mean that that's how you
win. That's how you win a world sure by doing that, you know.
But yeah, Corey seeger Man again. My son said said it again
last night. I miss him, you know, because he you know,
he was on the World Series. Game was the m v P of that
World Series when the Dodgers won. And the Dodgers are shelled themselves over the
last few years. Well this year state, I mean, they had one
of the best offensive teams and the pitching they all they're great. Their three
best pitchers didn't make didn't fit. Two of them barely played and one of
them didn't play at all, one barely played, and the third one beat
up a girl in the parking lot and got kicked off the team. Didn't
get kicked off the team, but he got suspended for the rest of the
year. They didn't they didn't have they didn't have the pitching and go through
this, and I was even with those guys, I was worried about the
pitching going into going into the cost season. So the Corey seger Man guy,
the guy's just been, guy's just been money to run Homer again last
night. So we'll see if they finish it off tonight. If not,
if the Diamondbacks can pull one off, they you know, hey, man,
just one at a time, take them and get back to get back
to Texas. All right. Kirk Cousins did tear his his his achilles,
so he had surgery. That's what Rogers did too, right, yep,
yep, Rogers already out throwing past and stuff. But kirk Cousins had surgery.
And everybody's saying, well, you know, if Aaron Rodgers can do
it, so of course you can do it, right. But he's uh,
you know, he did, he did have surgery. There's a picture
of him in his hotel bed with he's out for the year, right,
he's out for I mean, you know, he's there half way through the
season. Sure, and they're still saying that Aaron Rodgers could be back by
I saw that, and I saw that that's crazy. I don't know if
they're if they're three and not, whatever they're if they're five and fifteen,
what why they're not? I mean there was what are they like? Four?
Four or five and three? Right now? The stuff like well and
if the kids doing well, why would you take him out? Yeah,
there's that too, well because there don't give him the DeLaura the situation though,
because Rogers is coming back that the Jets are four and three, so
they're still in the hunt. I guess who's running the show, the kid,
Zach Wilson. They're just people who don't believe in Zach Wilson. Well,
he's got him at four and three. It's kind of like what they
said about Ohio State getting the number one uh ranking. He said, nobody
out there believes it's the best team, but they have the best resume.
Who Okay, so because they've beat Notre Dame, so who deserves to be
number one? Who do you? Who? Do people still think George is
the best team? Okay, but they've got to go. But they haven't
played enough games like that. Sure, all these games are coming up in
November. Sure, you know, George's gotta play some teams. Uh,
you got conference championships. But you know what, I still think Washington has
the best win of all of those guys. So, j when was the
last time you made everybody happy? Yeah? I guess never. Well do
you think this is gonna make the country happy with Ohio State or Georgia or
Washington again? And people can't lose their minds on it. It'll it'll plus
itself. Gabe gave worry. You know why people were upset to Arizona.
They didn't get ranked this week? Why exactly you win this weekend? Yeah?
Yeah, then maybe you're in the conversation now. You've had three straight
wins over ran team. Right, and remember, Jay, it doesn't really
matter what it does, matter what you do, but the other teams have
to do something too, right, fall or lose or yeah? Yeah yeah,
so yeah, I I yes, If Arizona beats UCLA this week,
then the expectations you gotta rank even if you rank him twenty fourth or twenty
fifth, but imagine that, you know, Wow, Hey, I'll apologize.
Whoever asked me to apologize all right, we're gonna take our next break
word to come back. Matt Muleboch will join us. We'll get him to
talk this a little bit about what he's seen with the with the Wildcats and
what he's seen so far, getting ready to get the regular season started on
Monday. So stick around for Matt Millboch. Well, right back, we
go back. This is the moment and the night hands up, like the
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Jagensovitz. This is I on the Park on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Hear
me. Okay, Hey, welcome back to wyd the ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jigins os Now NFL. We
have triple double guy Matthie a lot. How you doing that, I'm good.
How you gotta doing? We're doing okay? Hey, when you do
your evaluations at games, I'm curious because I'll ask Corey this too when we
have them on. Do you see guys or have you seen any guys that
look and play like you? Yeah? Probably, I think I think you
see a bit of so many you know, so many people you know when
you're watching the game, and uh, yeah, those guys did him Once
in a while, I'll see, you know. I try to compare guys.
I mean, I think it's fun to do comparisons. Some people don't
like it. I actually like it. I think against if you were you
know something something to think about, and I but when I do it,
I try to be really thoughtful, you know, I try not to just
you see a lot of comparisons with guys just because literally just because they went
to the same school or you know, they're both left handed or something.
But I try to be really thoughtful about their games and what they do.
But yeah, I see the other ons while a little bit of myself or
you know, combinations of people. Well, you could do worse. You
could see somebody who compares to Steve and then you go, what the hell
is that doing? Well, Okay, So having said that, since Steve
started that conversation, you know, any guys on on this Arizona roster who
you feel compared to some guys that you know, you know we've seen in
the past or have been you know, key guys in the past or anything
like that. I mean, what do you see in this team? Yeah?
You know, when I think of when I think of like someone that
for sure, when I look at kJ Lewis, you know, I've actually
been watching him in the last few games in Red Blue, in the last
couple of games, and I think there's somebody who reminds me of this happens
a lot too where I haven't placed it yet. So you know, one
of the names that comes to mind is is Aaron Afalo, you know from
U C. L A. Because he was big, strong, and I
think originally when he's early when he played, he was kind of a defensive
guy, you know, and then he I think his offense really evolved and
he became a great NBA player or a good NBA player. But I think
kJ is that type of guy's just a tough athletic, you know, two
guard and and I've seen some pieces of like a little bit of Reggie Yeari
with his defense, and you know, some other guys, but the but
but he certainly comes to mind, you know when I think of when I
think of, I haven't figured out came the love yet and I and I
look at him and there's somebody, there's somebody out there that I know he's
liked. I haven't figured it out yet. But yeah, it's you know,
it's it's really fun doing that. So So let me give you one.
We talked about this over in the week, and I'm not going to
say this is an exact thing, because I want to get your impression on
Boswell a big body, strong physical type, and not that he plays like
him. He kind of plays well though. Boswell, like Kalid, he's
a downhill gun. He's not down was so fast. But you're right,
the body type is really similarcause Boswell's put together man and that and Colid.
I know Boswow works on it, and but I think a lot of it's
natural. And I think the same with Kalid. Like Clid showed up,
you know, from Queens, New York at the u of A, and
he looked exactly like he probably looked, you know, four years later.
The dude was uh uh, you know, a genetic lottery guy. I
mean, he absolutely put together. I think he was fast, like no
one was as fast as Colid. He just like the guy was so fast
with the ball, and so I see that. But I will say this,
you know, Colid and Boswell kind of both playoff two feet. They're
both not really like, you know, above the rim guys, and most
guards aren't, I mean, most point guards aren't. There are some,
you know, even the tire tiree Irvings and guys like that can play above
the rim. But they're both playoff two feet, you know. I think
I think Boswell really shoots so well. So yeah, it's interesting comparison,
but I haven't seen it yet with the way they move. All right,
Well I have one more and it just hit me, uh, just a
couple of days ago. And while he's not and it's somebody that probably near
and dear to you, he's not as big, but in terms of his
his presence on the court, the expression on his face, the way he
walks around the court, and the way he handles himself, Kishaw Johnson and
Brian Williams just kind of a beast kind of guy. Now again not the
same position, not near as big, but for the position that he's in,
he's not going to take crap from anybody, no. And I mean
the one thing I was removing about Brian Williams is I remember one time we
were watching film and some a guard came in and stole the ball from him
and Luke. Luke got all over him about it, and I remember Brian
saying, well, coach, you know, he looked told, you know,
put your elbows up, and you know you got to be a presence
in there and if the guard comes in there, you know, let him
hack. And and Brian said, well, coach. If I do that,
I'm gonna get called for an offensive foul. And coach said, I
don't He said, I don't care. I want you to do that.
And I remember Brian doing that like he actually had the license then to,
you know, to put those elbows out and just start swinging them. And
I remember the literally the next game he did it and he actually almost took
some guy's head off and got called for a foul. He looks over at
Luke, who didn't say a word. But I'll tell you what. He
started doing that a lot, and after that people got the message. It
was like a picture throwing a high fast. I didn't crowd the plate more
so so I could see that. I can see some of the facial expressions.
I mean again, to me, they're a little different. I haven't
figured out the key shot yet and who he plays like, right, but
that's a good one. I'm gonna look for him, all right. Yeah,
No, I didn't think that. I don't think that. It just
hit me the other night, just again, just his stride and his and
his presence. I know again, I know he's not as big, but
just the way he he feels on so Matt since we have you, and
you've been doing this long time, and you were part of a great team
of when you first got here, the eighty eights, and you were a
gunna be and and and ideas going through her situation with you know, she
only has ten people on the roster now she doesn't want fifteen because it's hard
to make everybody happy. How we've passed the age of people on the bench
not being happy, uh with with not playing, because look, look at
this roster. They're gonna have a huge roster with people who can actually play.
Yeah, it's a great point, seemed because you know, it's funny
because you know, people always remember the Gumbies, you know, and and
sometimes people bring it up. You know, me, it was just fun.
It was a fun It was a fun part of that team. But
I always tell people, would you let me say this, like once you
were a Gumby, the goal was to not be a Gumby ever again.
But at the same time, we accepted that role because of that team,
and we thought, you know, we we sort of subordinated our interests to
the team. And you don't see that as much anymore. I agree with
that. I think times have changed a bit and it is harder to find
people to say, hey, I want to play every minute, but even
if I play two minutes or no minutes, I've got to now be a
supportive teammate. And it's rare. And you know, I've always said the
best teams I ever played on at a combination of three things. Great coaching,
great talent, but great chemistry. And you get great chemistry because everyone
wants to play. I mean, you don't find guys if they're at this
level. You don't find them if they want to actually sit on the bench.
And so if you want to play, but not everybody does, and
so not everybody played, and you may even have they play ten guys,
but some are playing, you know, eighteen minutes and they want to play
thirty. So you've got to be able to find guys that accept that role.
And it's hard. Well, and and Matt, guess what if you
guess what they're going leaving exactly? Yeah, And that's why I think it's
it's a lot easier to just leave and and say I don't like it.
Back then, back in the day, when you had to sit out a
year and you had to set out two years. If you win, you
know, interconference, right, So it's it's I think that that that portal
does create more of a Okay, if it's not working out them out of
here, right, and I don't need the you know, I don't need
to buy it as much. So so you you know this. I talked
to twenty five guys in my book with Luke of trying to say just random
twenty five guys, how many of them wanted to transfer but didn't and then
don't regret it because they stuck around and see what happened? Oh you actually,
I mean you have a number. You will me to guess the number.
Yeah, did you know that? That's what? That what? That's
what the case was. They want to leave, but they don't because they
know when the long term it's just for them. I bet, I bet
if you asked twenty five guys even successful U of A players, Yeah,
that's twenty out of twenty five, if not more for the transfer, you're
pretty much accurate, exactly. But they realized long term this was the best
move to stick. Yeah. Yeah, our you know, our buddy Sean
Brooks, Yeah, passed away a few years ago. I remember I'd always
tell this. I probably told the story on your show, and you know
I remember him. It is it is station LaGG and ready to leave for
a pass him. It is after his sophomore year. I mean it was
started the middle of the sophomore year, the middle of the business, right,
and he was ready to leave. And he actually I think he did
visit, but we told him. We're like, no, no, you're
gonna You're gonna have a better career here and be stuck around and paid off.
Lude is still mad at me for reporting on that because remember you said,
like it was the last game before Christmas, right, and he and
all of a sudden, Sean Rooks is not on the bench, and it's
like, where the hell did he go? And so I asked Lude in
a press conference. He got really mad. So yeah, I don't think
ever forget that's pretty cool. But you could actually talk about most of the
guys if you said twenty of them want to leave, I mean everybody,
because they didn't have any time. But you got better by playing better people,
and your your time was coming, all right, man, You got
you got better by being, like you said, battle tested, but battle
tested mentally, because a lot of great things come from having to work through
it. And be and be a little painful and that that that that kind
of like the development and Rooks is the perfect case, right, Brooks is
an awesome case. Yeah, all right, So we've seen we've seen a
couple of exhibition games. One was pretty sloppy. One they looked pretty you
know, pretty good. Chris scored a lot of points. You've moved the
ball around. What are you most curious about in terms of what you don't
know about this team up to now? What are you most curious to see
or show up? And it's got to show up right away because they got
to go play Duke in game two. Yeah, I mean I think two
things come to mind. Obviously, twenty four turnovers on Monday. That's a
little concerning, and so you want to see if that's just a you know,
one game blip or and not something that's you know, not something they
not to be dealing with. You know, I'm curious one thing, I'm
very curious to see, and I haven't seen enoughing of the first game,
especially because of the exhibitions. If you play teams that are not you know,
they're not as good as Arizona and they're big guys, especially if not
as good. I'm curious to see that the key shot bollow you know,
the connection there, right, And obviously bollow and and Tabella slash year had
an amazing connection. But I'm curious to see because they're both great players and
as you said, you know, kind of compare to m'brian woods. I
mean, they both have the ability to make a major impact on this team.
And as much as we love the guards and how sexy the three point
shot is and scoring big points, this team could do damage inside and but
that connection is going to be there. And and you know, look to
Bella's didn't have a great March initially, Ibruary wasn't, but he had an
amazing year. It's close to the pack club player. The year Ballow was
the perfect compliment. They worked really well together. So I'm curious to see
how that how that evolves. You use the word sexy, My eyes lit
up. It's a three point shot. Who's going to hit that shot?
Because Arizona hasn't had a shooter in forever. Yeah, well, he's going
to do it. He's going to do it now. The question is at
what percentage will he do it? Right? You know? And I think
he needs to be you know in the hyper I love to see him in
the high thirties. No, I know that, I know the coaching staff
is well. I think part of that is, you know, you know,
good shots, taking good shots in the offense. He's such a natural
scorer. I mean, like the game on Monday, you look up and
it looked like he had a good game like a lot of other guys,
and he has seventeen without it. You don't even really realize that he just
scores. But I also think Boswell. I think Boswell's got a beautiful jump
shot, and he's going to have to have that balance and when do I
take it? When do I run the team? How do I leave this
team? I think that's gonna He's going to be the second guy. I
think they both have the ability to make shots. I agree with I agree
with with Boswell. Yeah, you know, I see those I see those
guards, all four of them just completely interchangeable. And I don't know if
you know kJ Lewis can run the point at this level. We don't know
that he's a freshman. You know, Caleb Love, even if he even
wants to, I think he just wants to be able to get the ball
and and and score and shoot. But I don't recall four guards, you
know, on the same roster that kind of all look the same, uh
and and can all do all the same things, drive to the basket or
shoot or whatever. To me, that's sort of a piece of this team
that I can want to see some things that over the course of this season
that we haven't seen before out on the perimeter with those guys. Yeah,
I mean, you know, obviously a little bit different, but they're they're
all really they all can handle it. They all could run, they all
can I mean, they're athletic, they're all strong as can be. That's
the thing that jumps out to me. As they all defend and they've extended
at half court, if not further. Now because of all the turnovers,
you kind of wonder, hey, they all can push it down, can
get the rebound and push it or outlet to them. Sometimes that does create
more turnovers. You know, Steve Kerr was talking about how the lawyers hope
to lessen their turns because they kind of had one guy now that brings it
up, Chris Paul and and does that a lot. Now, when you
have a bunch of guys, you sort of open it up potentially for more
turnovers, but they all seem to me to be really smart guys. I
think decision making will be big. But it's gonna be fun. It's gonna
be fun to watch Tommy coach this team. He's such a good he's such
a he's such a good coach, not only x's and o's, but having
a feel for what guys are doing right, wanting his team to share the
ball, how they're going to share it, how they played the team.
I think there was some frustration after the last game, but that's perfect,
you know, perfect early on in the year for a team like that.
And I can't wait to watch Tommy kind of just you know, coach this
team up. Which is which is gonna be? This is gonna be fun
to watch. Lask question before we go where kind of already running over it.
But you've been here a long time, obviously, you played in eighty
eight and in eighty nine and the best team in the country until it wasn't.
Wow, Well no, and that's part of the question. Expectations here
have been always big, right, always big. There's no exception. You've
seen it, you've played on when you've seen it. How big. Are
those expectations? Are they over overstated from the fans point, from the team's
point, and how does how do the players handle that? You know?
I think I think that's why people come to Arizona. They know the expectations
here into so they know the fans are going to have it. They know
they're going to have it. The team's gonna have it. Tommy Mooid not
He's not coming here to you know, finish fifth in the fact twelve or
not make a big run in the tournaments. And so I think they probably
have more of an expectation on themselves than anybody as the It's kind of the
old cliche, but I think they handle it, like I said, because
they love it. That's why they're here. They want to embrace the idea.
Now, I think this team, you know, could be a team
we'll see. I mean, Tommy did such an amazing job with that team
last year in November. But I think this team has an amazing ceiling and
we might see it, you know, no Limber December, who knows.
I don't know if they'll you know, they'll get close to that ceiling.
Maybe they will, but I certainly think it's it's it's very it's very possible
if team gets to a very high ceiling late in the season. You know,
as they evolved, as Tommy coaches them, they kind of figure out
their roles. Again, you guys, says the very game this call.
There's eleven guys that can play. That's probably the biggest challenge for Tommy and
the team who plays. How do they deal with those roles? You know,
how they how they interact and integrate. It's gonna it's gonna be a
cool process to watch. Well, I'm glad you're not in this room,
because you'd be the smartest guy in the room. Thanks, that's hard.
It's not hard, all right. It's always always fun to hang out with
the eyes. Thanks. I'm serious. Spared that could come in and take
out the trap and could be the smartest guy in the room. That's why
we locked the door. Let's take our last break. We'd love to take
your cause. Five two zero four, one, six, seventy four forty
talk about anything you want to talk about. We got a women's game tonight.
The men open up on Monday against Morgan State. Bobby and I passed
away. Interesting thing and one more bit of years that we skipped over on
breaking as well. Have to go in front of that Arizona related so's stick
around. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful
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at a Team security dot net. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WIM. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Robera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth
fifty. Hey, welcome back to Iye in the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jake and Zawas. If you guys want
to call, we have ten minutes. If you're a first time guy wants
to call in, please do I know there's a lot of people out there
who want to call but are free to which makes no sense. We're not
mean, We're not Yeah, no, we'd like to have fun, softy
yeah, bringing some big WIENI cool questions or whatever, say we're full of
it? Whatever, Well we are, Yeah, but they could tell us.
Yeah we like hearing that. Yeah, thanks for listening to Yeah,
means are listening. First time color out here. Let me take you up
on it. Okay, cool, Hire, you're on the air and eye
on the ball. Hey day, tell me Lyang, how you doing?
I'm good? What's up? I was afraid to call you, so I
thought I'd just walked through that pere Hey listening. Uh. According to one
eight hundred gambler, I got the bat for tonight. The Diamondbacks and the
under in Kent State and Ackering they're both one and seven that kin, Okay,
what's the second part of that act? What the under in the Kent
State Ackering? Oh? Okay, So the Diamondbacks, the Diamondbacks and the
under, the Diamondbacks and the under and Kent State Acron. That's right,
forty three call one hundreds, Tommy. You know you're betting Akron on a
Wednesday night. I wanted to. I wanted to ask you guys some much.
I've only caught Spotsier show today and I didn't hear yesterday, so I've
only read the first article that came and came out for everybody about kirk Crisa,
and I got panicked. I'm like, oh, ship, is there
any is there any danger for us? No? They Arizona issued a statement
this morning that the n c double A has completely cleared them. No penalties,
no nothing. It was just something that Kirka apparently did and had nothing
falls on Arizona And we didn't know anything not at the time. No.
No, they're saying that the compliance department did everything. Was like like the
Laura right, we didn't know anything exactly right, exactly right. Uh.
You know what, It's funny. I was thinking the other day the last
time I went to a final four, because you know, I bet all
of ours how far I was. I was thirty nine years old. Bring
one. Yeah, you're probably a lot lighter too. Yeah right, you
know, my body is not going to function the same way like you know,
I'll just tell you, at least off so many high rollers. High
rollers at the Strip Club in Minneapolis at the final four. Everybody was there,
you know, Wildcat club members everywhere, and Matt Johnson came in and
now you're being bed by ten o'clock. Yeah, yeah, Tommy, What
the heck now you're be in bed by ten o'clock. Thanks Tommy, Hey,
listen, I appreciate you guys. Thank you, thanks so much.
Man, thanks thanks for calling. All right, So, so Arizona's funny
because I have a friend in Albuquerque obviously who says, how does Arizona be
able to get away with what they did? I said, that's not it
was not finding a big deal. You know, he didn't do anythings.
This happens, and you make sure to state their own probation. Well,
they're shooting each other over there, I said, well, there's that.
They're shooting each other. What the heck is totally different. That's a little
different here, you know. You know, guy got you know, guy
got a little crosswise with the rules. He didn't shoot or kill anybody,
right right, what the hell, there's no difference. But then I said
to him, if you here, this is the NCB's picking on him exactly.
We have another collar. You're on the Aaronine the ball. Yeah,
I'm not going to call if I have anything to drink, and then you
have to hit the button. But I didn't because because Tommy obviously had a
drink when he mixed with his gambling in the afternoon on a Wednesday. My
god, Howard, thanks for last I appreciate that. Oh yeah, and
you know what, Hammersmith's a lot like me. Obviously, I'm much older
with all that enthusiasm. Yeah, when I think of Hammersmith, I think
of you all the time. But my point also, I want to talk
about Bobby Knight. I knew some stories, but I read some more history.
He went to school with John Haletchik at Ohio State. Oh okay,
all right, And and I do not like Coach k but this is this
makes sense. Coach k gives all the credit in the world to Bobby Knight
because he was a student to play from it at what point? Yeah,
and you know, do you know what do you know? Bobby Knights and
one of his best friends who's one of the greatest NFL coaches ever? Is
it uh Is Belichick? No, Bill Parcells was one of those two they
have. They have most respect for each other. And I tried to read
the story because I heard his story. They used to go fishing together.
Yeah, they've known each other since the sixties. I was going to say,
he's a huge fisherman and a hunter yes, they used to go in
Texas probably and whatever. They're two of the greatest best for the best of
friends. All right, thanks for the call. All right, sons,
you see what happened to the Suns yesterday? Yes, I was. I
was hitting the sack last night. And you know the clip came up in
that last few seconds of the game, Like, how do you do that?
I heard that Sean was in town yesterday because they're in Phoenix, right,
he came down to visit some people, Sean Ell, yeah, yeah,
yeah, And and I wouldn't run back up and he come and see
and he didn't say I didn't. I just heard someone told me, And
I'm thinking, what the heck? Come on, Sean, we were fresh
Sean john Shaw. We'll take what we can get from show. Exactly.
Now you're gonna say something local locally, I have something locally too. I
wonder if it's the same p okay, go you go? Who do you
know who the new head coach of the l A race? Exactly? What
in the world of Antonio Pearce is going on? What do you have to
do to get a head coaching job in the NFL? Break all the rules
in college? The same thing. That's a that's a who's that? Who's
the coach at at US? Now? What am I coach? Uh?
Uh? Cliftsbury? He fell forward at Texas Tech, got the head job
at the Cardinals. Now he's how do you do this? How you fall
forward like this? But Antonio Pierce wouldn't be coaching anywhere but the Raiders probably
Okay, but I know there's a Raider fanatic and there he goes again.
So last night, I guess last time when it happened when they fired the
coach and it came on the screen, and I'm thinking Antonio Pierce is now
the head coats of the Renders in term or whatever. Yeah, I said,
does that happen? It just does the right place, right time.
So I haven't seen much Fami his shoe. I'm sure they're pissed. I
mean, yeah fans, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I haven't
had a chance to see anything like that. But no, when you said
that, I think I bet she's gonna come up with Antonio. Yeah,
I missed that when we were doing breaking and we're not at a time anyways,
A lot a lot of a lot of comments and and and obits on
on Bobby Knight coming in. But at this one, this is Dan Wetzel,
you I follow on his podcast. I think you covered him a lot,
right and uh he writes for Yahoo Sports, has a long oh bit.
But on his tweet linking the oh bit, this this right here says
Bobby Knight. He says, I was fortunate to have gotten to know and
in parentheses and attempt to cover Bob Knight. He was brilliant, he was
difficult, he was charismatic, he was complicated. Yeah, no, I'll
spot on four words right, forewords that describes who you right, right and
you look at it and that's right because he walked in a room and it
was like oh yeah, right right or but he was a pain in the
ass. Often got another Bob Knight's story, all right. So years after
my thing with him, I was I was a press conference moderator when he
was a Texas tech and they come here for a first and second round.
So the n C double A is very picky about brands on right, the
cups and stuff. You have to have a You can't have a coke can
on on the dais you have like a red you have to have an n
C double A cut. So whoever, whoever walk the coaches over to the
press conference, and if they had a drink in their hand, then can
you know, can you put that in the n C double a cup?
And he didn't want He had a gatorade and he did not want to do
it. So finally they said, you can't go up there with the gate
raads. So finally he gave him the gatorade. They put it in a
cup. He said, don't throw away the bottle, went up to the
went up to the days did his press conference, still had some gatorade left
in the cup, walked off the stage and poured the cup of gatorade back
into the gatorad bottle, just to im in charge. That's just who he
was, right, you can't tell me what to do. So he just
like, you can't tell you what to do. Yeah, I mean just
and it wasn't about dude who's telling him. It's you know what, your
rule is a pain, And he asked to him and he was gonna he
was gonna win that. That's perfect him though, I mean, tom on,
yeah, you can't tell me what to do. He was gonna win
that. And and so you know that was that was him. But he
didn't. You didn't hate him for that. For somebody, you didn't hate
him for that. You thought it was a pain, But he didn't.
I think I think too though. We all know those older guys, because
you know, you get to a certain age. F you I'm doing,
don't tell me to do right. I'm sure I'm going to be that way
up kind of the way now I do it that. There's sometimes that I
do it that I'm sorry. I've done it like this my entire life.
I'm gonna do it like that again. The kids are probably saying, God,
that old man. Yeah, wait till you get to Worrow. Got
my lot. I was breaking rules before you were breaking rules. I was
breaking rules before you knew what the rule was. So but good stuff,
and you know, condolences to the Knight family and all his all his friends
and all that kind of stuff. But you know, I mean, he
had been in bad health for a long time. So but eighty three years
old, so really, I mean, you know, he thought he had
some time left. But you know, one of the greats, yeah,
you know, one of the greats of all times eighty three years old.
Yeah, yeah, all right, So okay, we'll be back tomorrow.
John Wilner is going to join us tomorrow, so we'll get him. Tracey
McDonald from us A. Oh okay, so we'll have we'll talk some,
uh some, we'll start getting getting ready for that the homecoming UCLA football game
on Saturday, So be sure to come back tomorrow sing it.