This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your most Prized Possessions kt
z R two sag at iHeartRadio Station Goo. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to RI on the Ball here in Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
he's Jagansaus. Got our guy Adam for his second day of experimenting with
us, the Adam Experiment. Exactly. Welcome to Friday. Let me tell
you something, Jay, you suck at You suck at evaluating teams. If
you suck, I sucked because we both suck. Yesterday and thinking about Juve
and UCLA. You know, as I posted on our on our Twitter Twitter
thread last night, first of all, you know who had Washington State losing
on their Bengo card and then it didn't have that, and I certainly didn't
have Arizona blowing out Ucla at UCLA. Yeah, but they did a great
job. Let me say this, and I tweeted it right away. The
fans at UCLA, whoever they are, two of them showed up. It
was bad. What there was no atmosphere park. We were hearing that it
was raining, and first of all, traffic's just bad no matter what over
there. And then if it's raining and stuff, you know who? You
know who's coming, right, Mildred, you want to go to your show
game it's raining, I don't think. I don't think so. I don't
want to get wet from here to the car, right right, No,
it was it was bad at tennis. What a way to go for Ucla
in this PAC twelve history or lengthy you know, it was just I didn't
see that coming, honestly. You know what, when I said yesterday that
I thought Arizona would cover, I had no conviction behind it. You could
tell, right, I told you. By the time I get home,
I could think Ucla is gonna win. There was no strong belief that Arizona
would cover. And then they beat the hell out of them. Yeah,
it was not even fun to watch. I mean watch, well do you
see Ben Boltch, who was our guess, said they didn't put up a
fight. Yeah, And well they didn't put up a fight, and the
coach admitted that, Yeah, I don't know if you want to go there
right away. But Cronin, in his candidness, was pretty funny. Yeah,
in his candid Yeah, without trying to be funny, right, well
he was. He explained that I think way better than Tommy did. But
here's what Mike Cronin had to say. We can't guard Arizona. They're just
better than us. They're better than us on the backboard, they're better than
us on offense, they're better than us on defense. They're much better than
they were last year at all five starting positions and the bench. So if
Adam doesn't have a really good game, we have no chance. That's a
lot. That's a lot to put on one guy. It's unfair, but
that's just our reality. So we went on a stretch of bad shots and
turnovers that ended the game for us the last ten minutes of the first half.
The we just can't guard them. They didn't run anything, just like
USC they just beat us, just beat us right off the dribble, a
couple of picking rolls. They just beat us. Or or as the Zulus
would say, that's all you had to say, give it to us one
more time. Adam the pretty much the one thing that was interesting to me.
Well, there's a lot of things in that statement by Cronin. Uh
they're much better than last year, and people have been saying that, and
I would agree depth wise. And they have better guard play, which is
obviously important for this month and this week, this next couple of weeks.
Uh. And then he said something at the end. What did he say?
I just lost it. They're better than last year. And what was
just said? They couldn't guard him? No at the end? What do
you say at the end? Holy crap, I just lost it. They
didn't run any Oh, they which guess what they don't do. They don't
run anything. They just don't. Come on. Did you actually what he
meant by that is they only did what we expected him to do, which
which, of course did you and I and I've employed you to do this
because Bradley hasn't really done what I've said the previous time. But they how
many times did they go down and take a one shot possession? It happens
a lot. Yeah, No, go ahead, give the ball to the
tileb get out of the way. Yeah, but you know they made key
shots. I mean they just pulled away, you know, in a hurry
in the tail end of the second half. And that was that. And
also in that conversation, in that eight minute conversation for his press conversion.
He talked about kJ Lewis that he doesn't hit shots and if everyone is getting
that from him, these guys are going to be tough to beat. I
don't disagree with that because because that's another dude that brings offense to the table.
Well, see, think about the guys coming off the bench last season,
yeah, exactly, versus the guy's coming off the bench this season.
Right. Well, well you had Kerr who was in the starting lineup right
offered you something, but then now we see, well not that much.
Kyer replaced him, and then what is he out for you? Something but
not that much? And now you have Bradley and you have kJ, and
you have other people coming in. Did you have the other did you have
the another crona or just technologist? I just I just pulled that, which
was very striking that he says KG, I followed kJ for three years and
he's not a shooter or he was last night last night shooting eighteen points And
and I agree, And and Jay, he's probably the best NBA prospect on
that team. That's what I thought he could be because he's got so much
talent and if right, I mean he can rebound, he can defend,
he can defend like he's today's NBA guy, athletic, can shoot it.
He's tall enough, you can play different positions. Uh so, I think
he just has a good build. So you know that's going to tran right,
right, right, right? No, absolutely, So let's well,
let's go right into it. Well, first of let's see where guests are.
Yeah, yeah, guess Brian Peterson, who covers the team as well,
does a great job covering the team from Afar and near. He'll be
my uber going to Utah. Gotta be nice to him. Uh so,
Brian Peterson in the first hour, right, and then the second hour we
have Jak again, who always has something to say. Yeah, that's right
into Tommy's comments. We'll just play play a stretch of his and I haven't
heard this, show him on the radio stretch of his his initial comments.
It's about an eight minute press conference after the game, and this is about
the first three minutes before he started getting some real details of the game.
You'll hear Bruce Pasco just basically ask him, you know where you're celebrating,
Because if you saw the video, Tommy either got a gatorade bath or they
scored him with bottles. He was soaking wet in the locker room. But
that's here's what Tommy had to say celebrating the title from there. I mean,
yeah, I mean, hey, you know, hey, go on
players, you know, a players coach. I guess you know, so
I didn't expect that, and you know, I was assuming that we were
gonna have to win on Saturday too, But you know, hey, if
the guys want to celebrate it, they earned it, you know, I
mean we will definitely, you know, it'll test our maturity for Saturday.
But you know, I think we got a mature group with some winners,
so you know, I expect them to come out and respond on Saturday.
Did you tell them the Washington State score? Or did? There's so many
mess up nobody told me until the literal y where the buzzer went off.
I think my ho staff is probably looking on their Apple watches or whatever they
do now, and I'll do you guys know, I'm how to watch guys.
So I have no idea you didn't want it or did you didn't want
to know? Probably? Did you? Or I mean, I mean,
listen, it's not going to impact Tom coaching, But I mean I was
I was here to win today. I wasn't worried about Washington State. Well,
how about the way it went for you guys, just putting them away
like you did, especially after it's good. I mean, it was good.
It was it was a good effort. I mean, I you know,
they came out and you know, it was an even game for a
while, and our guys settled in and played good team basketball, and I
thought we were able to make a really good run at the end of the
at the end of the first halt there to kind of get some separation.
And that's crucial. That's something we talk about. That's something we work on.
And you know, when you get that six to eight point le,
can you make that next run and our guy and you can't always it doesn't
always happen, but they did they did today, So you know that that
gave us a nice lead going into halftime. And then we came out and
we started the second half pretty good. Yeah, you guys didn't miss a
be come out on a half time. In terms of week, we talked
about that. You know, I think early in the year, and I
mean, I don't have all the analytics or stats in front of me are
burning my head. But I think, you know, in some of our
higher level games, I think we were oh and eight in the first four
minutes of the second half, you know. And I'm not a coach that
I don't break it down into rounds like some people do, which is smart,
but you know, I'm always trying to get the whole picture and then
possession, my possession underneath that. But but yeah, we need to start
out halfs good. It's really important. And and our guys did that today.
I remember you said the first game that you let them you kind of
tweak the defense to such where they were able to get some really good looks
from three and then you change things. Was it differently or we played normal
defense today? I mean, I think we're a good defensive team, you
know, and and maybe you know there are some points of the year we're
trying to get too tricky here too skoway heavy, and you know, I
think we we literally did our normal defense today. We didn't do anything no
different, So what uh you know, and this the way you did it
too, just again with a lot of balance kJ coming off the Ben's just
uh, you know, was that any of that kind of well, you
know, we're getting deeper into the season and so we have vets. We
have you know, we have our four vets, and you know it's it's
obvious who they are. And those guys have been through the wars and and
they're winners. And we have this group of young guys that are really talented.
So you know, we've really tried to be you know, conscientious this
last you know, two weeks of building up these younger guys and getting them
ready for you know, the experiences coming and and they're awesome, high character
guys. And you know, sometimes when you're players six, seven and an
eight on a program like this, it's hard because you think next year what
we might turn. But but we we don't need next year. We need
now. And those guys are really good players and are really talented, and
they've been through a whole season, a bunch of high level games. They
know what we want to do, what we don't want to do. So
I asked them all to step it up a little bit and and luckily they
responded, yeah, and they have let me. I'll ask you. I'll
lost both of you guys when Brian comes on, But do you like their
defense last night. It was different because you Saily can't shoot anyway. Yeah,
I mean, I don't have any problems with their defense. I don't
know enough to not like it right in terms of what they do. I
did met, you know, I was watching a game with my son Adam,
and we both commented at one point that Arizona's playing great defense. That
I mean they were, and I don't mean just because UCLA was missing shots.
I mean they were making it hard for UCLA to get shots, and
then they were they were doing a great job on the defensive boards. Us
LA was getting one shot at a time. But I thought, you know,
they harassed them into a lot of stuff and shots that looked that I
thought that they had open when they were here. Those shots weren't there for
them last night. The one thing that struck me up watching the game,
they said that they were the eleventh best defensive team I think in the country.
I may be misstating this, but I said that's well, hell,
I didn't realize that, but which of course means, uh, I still
think they can get better. Yeah, I didn't even notice that. And
if I didn't notice that, you could tell that they're one of the top
ten teams or total eleven teams. And if you don't notice that, they
could be better with it, and all it is is on the perimeter right
right, don't don't let them, don't those shots, don't let them hit
open threes. So what's gonna you know, what's gonna win the title for
them? Exactly that? Because they can score, because because you know they're
they're they're you know, with with with key Shot and and Umar. Say
what you want about Umar offensively or whatever, he's you know, he's in
the way defensively, big dude, it's hard to get shots up in the
lane. And key Shot is also very you know, very aggressive too,
and Pella is kind of like the quiet cornerstone, right, So yeah,
I mean that again, what the issues that they've had defensively have been in
guarding the perimeter, right And if that wraps up, because I've seen Houston
a number of times, they're not Houston offensive defensive nobody yet. But but
Houston's not Arizona offensively. So if Arizona can just ratchet that up a little
bit more, they're gonna be unbelievably Talk to me, But you know,
Josh, Josh was in the studio and he says what I say forever since
even before John's got here. If you play a team in the half court
that's going to give you fits. Look at all the teams that have given
Arizona fits to second player. Keep it in the sixties, Wisconsin, keep
him in the sixties into that. You know what I'm saying, bring the
air out of the ball. And Arizona doesn't know what to do because they're
used to pulling back and forth. Yeah. No, yeah, no,
I hear you. No, I again, And look, we do have
to take into account that while it's UCLA, this is a bad UCLA.
Yeah, it's not the usual lady. We know you can't say, well
they play that great defense, are gonna win the national championship? No,
but you know we saw who you said they did to him down here,
and and so certainly you know they're on you know, they're on an on
an upward trajectory defensively. Uh, nobody's done that against them, even the
Washington stay Gium that they lost. It wasn't Washington, Washing State just came
in here and beat them, play better than them. And you don't point,
well, they did it from the outside they just overall played a better
game than Arizona to win that game. Every other game Arizona's played, their
defense has been you know, it has been really good, you know,
and so I think that you know, it certainly is something that gives them
a little, I don't know, momentum. You know who? You sound
like the guy who be Ben. Did you see the part when Ben try
to ask up Conin and he didn't know what to ask him. You sound
a lot like me. You don't even know what to ask anymore because no
momentum, Well, they've won eleven out of twelve, so they're not a
nice little run here. Will will the momentum ever stop or maybe not?
And will they continue playing well? Again? You know, I don't know
the Caleb Kylon Boswa had a great game. We didn't have a bad game,
right, And guess what, that's all you that's all you need,
that's all you Don't play bad, just don't. It's just you're very much
great great stuff. Yeah, don't play bad and we're gonna be very good.
You know. But again, and you look at all the guys that
just you know, they put all the pieces together. You don't have to,
I mean who do you pick out right for say that had they won
because of this guy? Yeah, you don't. Nobody, nobody. Although
it's great to see kJ Lewis do what he does, I didn't realize he
was. It must have been a quite good at eighteen. Yeah, I
had no idea. Yeah, but the one thing that I saw and I
didn't don't really like. I still don't like it is is Keisha taking the
three pointers at anytime. That's not who he is. He hits them sometimes.
Well, sometimes you're a good guy and sometimes I want the good guy
all the time. What you say to that? Okay, I want to
say something to that, but I don't know what it should be. Just
be a good guy, and I won't. So do we have another clip?
We have a idea's team. Now we can go to de Yeah,
well we run, We've run to our bank. Yeah, all right,
we'll talk. Yeah, we will take it. On the other side,
we've got Brian Peterson coming in. Get his thoughts on what we all saw
last night, because again all unexpected as far as I'm concerned. Yeah,
I know about you too, all right, Well, were at back with
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and Jacin Summits. This is I on the Park on Fox Sports fourteenth.
They Hey, welcome back to my on the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty
on Steve, He's Jay. Now on the phone. We have Brian Peterson
from easydisertswarm dot com Bryan Hawait, I'm great, thanks for having me back.
Sure, let me say this before we started with you, we were
talking about the game last actually a little by surprise Jay and I inasmuch as
we didn't think it'd be that big of a victory. Did it maybe surprise
you at all a little bit, just because partly because of how UCLA played
the last time and that, you know, Arizona had this pressure that they
needed to win the game and then at least to stay alive, not knowing
that Washington State was going to lose to Washington. But I mean, this
might just be like an example of if they really put their mind to it,
they can just dominate everyone, which we've seen this year that they just
had a couple of games there in the middle where it looked like they really
didn't give their full effort and it came back to bite them. But that
really hasn't been the case in the past. I don't know, five weeks.
Yeah, you know, well, Richard Jefferson I think talked about that
during the you know, during the telecast. By the way, he did
such a great job. He was fun to I don't know if you guys
thought he was really fun to watch and listen to. You knew the other
schools or you show you guys, shut up, yeah, get away from
me. But you know, I think he talked about the fact that,
look, every team is going to go through periods in a season where they're
just you know, it just doesn't go well. And and you know,
maybe that's what Arizona did and they're out of it, and who knows.
I mean, you know, we sit here and still say we don't trust
them to do this game in and game out, but there are eleven games
into a street. Well that'll be with that question. Because I've asked this
of a many people. I haven't asked this of Brian. Okay, do
you trust this team more now than you did? Or did you not lose
trust in them? I trust them more now. When they had that lull
in the middle, I was wondering, is this just like a thing with
this program that you know, they they don't really look at every game the
same, and that some of them they allow the players to kind of have
this mindset. But it hasn't been that case since then because there have been
some opponents in this run that aren't really of the highest quality and it really
hasn't mattered. But getting back to the you know, the low kind of
situation. Yukon last year started fourteen and oh looked like world beaters won their
last six games to win the title. They were ten and eight in between
that in the middle of the season and looked very, very vulnerable. It
was the exact same team the whole way through. I mean, we do
also have to remember these are eighteen to twenty two year old kids. Weird
things happen and all that. I mean, you see it in the NBA.
When these guys are making millions, there's going to be lulls during it.
As long as they put it together when it matters most, and that
those setbacks during the season don't cost them. It may end up costing them
a number one seed, but the difference between a one and the two if
they get to stay out West, is negligible. I just think they're putting
it all together right now. It sure looks like that. And again,
you know, for Arizona fans who want every game to be perfect or they
lose their minds. You know, I thought I was going to suggest the
same thing. Equate this to what Yukon did last year, you know,
and they came out, you know, got into the tournament and they were
unbeatable. I mean, you know, we saw him at the at the
West Regional in Vegas, or at least I did, and I'm like,
who's going to beat these guys? And nobody did, right, you know,
all the way to the end, and they I mean, there was
no doubt in my mind they were going to win it once they got to
the final four. Yeah. Yeah, So, I mean, there there
aren't any major flaws on this team, and the defensive issues that popped up
in those losses in that stretch mostly were related to the three point defense,
particularly against big guys, and the struggling of the defense on the switching point
that really hasn't been there. Since then, They've they've faced a lot of
decent three point shooting teams and no one has kind of gone wild like Oregon
State and Stanford did. Yeah, no questions. What were the the What
was the brightest side from last night? Probably the fact that they didn't start
to play any starter more than twenty nine minutes and that they can just kind
of rely on those bench guys and rotate in and that they don't have to
have three or four of the starters out there minimum at all times that they
can that they found the right rotations. Even the worst lineup, if you
will, from of the combinations of the eight is still a pretty strong one.
And they they don't seem to have a lineup that they really struggle with.
You know, my, my, my best thing that I saw from
them last night was the fact that they did not come out of lolligag at
the start of the second half. You know, they came out and stepped
on them, you know, stretch the lead and just put it away rather
than sit ronie because even against Oregon, right they you know, they they
never did extend the lead. In fact, I think Oregon scored them in
the second half of that game, but you know, it was never in
doubt. But I thought, you know that that they came out in the
second half and as they said, won the start of the second half.
Yeah, and Tommy had mentioned that after the game that in their most high
level games, uh, that they were winless to speak, in the first
four minutes of the second half. If you break it into those quadronts with
the TV timeouts, and that is well, it won't. You can't necessarily
lose the game during those four minutes. You can help win the game during
those four minutes. And they did that because yeah, Ucla got the first
basket and then Arizona next thing, you know, is up over twenty and
kept it over twenty for like the last I don't know, like seventeen minutes.
Yeah, yeah, they went up. They went up by uh,
they got it. They they well, they were up by nineteen and hit
a three pointer at the sixteen to thirty mark of the second half. They
were up by twenty two and that was about it right there. So yeah,
that that's and those are the things Steve that you know, I think,
you know, if you're gonna win a championship, you have to do
that. You can't get you can't let a team breathe coming out of the
locker room. There's almost done that. Well, this is exactly what Tommy
was talking about. And maybe Brian remembers what he said maybe the first month
or even before the season started. He wanted a lot of wiggle room.
He didn't use the word wiggle room, but to kind of like get out
early. So there's a lot of comfort zone. I don't know, do
you remember this sque from back in the day. I don't, but it
does sound familiar. And they've had a lot of those games. I mean,
heck, the Utah triple overtime game, they were up by seventeen eighteen
points in the first half because and he said after that game that you know
these certain games, especially on the road, that the team is going to
make a run. So if you can get up early on them, then
the run just means that that it gets closer rather than falling behind. Sure,
and that was That's probably very direct to the Princeton game. I think
they had a twelve point lead somewhere in the second fourteen in the first half,
and you're thinking they're not losing this, and then all of a sudden,
we know what happened. He wants more of the wiggle room just in
case they get cold or just because something might happen. But we talked about
this before you too. You came on defensively. We all like this team
offensively, and I didn't realize and you probably your numbers, guy. Are
they eleventh nationally defensively? They're in the top fifteen in Ken Palm in adjusted
defensive efficiency and they've been top twenty the whole year, and for a while
they were top ten before a couple of those those three point games. But
as bad as they were in some of those early conference games against the three,
they're now. I think the last six or seven opponents are shooting less
than thirty percent total, and the only times that teams are hitting ten threes
is because they're taking like thirty five of them. And Tommy has mentioned that
sometimes you just have to live with those that if they're going to jack up
a bunch, they're going to make some of them. It's just a matter
of making sure. It's not that the good guys are wide open. They
hit contested threes. They hit contested three. So we're talking to Brian Peterson
from Azy Desert Swarm dot com. Brian again, now you know we're we're
you. Arizona plays a game like that, the fans can't help but start
projecting, right, Oh, we're gonna you know, we got this and
you know what do they have to be careful of? Uh? You know
the guy uh uh Tommy mentioned last night in his postgame press conference. You
know, we've got to be mature enough to come out on Saturday and take
care of business on Saturday. Well, yeah, I mean this is this
is USC super Bowl. They're they're gonna be the eleven seed in the Pac
twelve tournament, and you know, as as talented as they are, they're
just they've shown they're not good enough to go on a run to win that
tournament and make it into the postseason. So this is their thing. Uh,
it's their senior day. I don't know. So for Boogie Ellis,
I'm imagining Lebron's going to be there. He was there last night. They're
home this weekend in LA. The Lakers are, so it's gonna be this
big environ and Arizona is like they are in a lot of cases. They're
going to be the team with this giant target on their back, knowing that
they've won the title. It doesn't affect where they are in the PAC twelve
tournament. They could easily just be like, yeah, whatever. But I
don't really see that from this group. I don't think they want to have
a subpar game and and have it have anyone questioned, right, their their
devotion and their their motivation. Not to mention the fact that I think it's
not it's Arizona would have to win out and have Tennessee lose to Kentucky and
maybe lose in the first round of the SEC tournament for Arizona to get the
one seed. But you so it's that it's tough for them to get it,
but you still got to make sure that you're doing your part. Yeah,
yeah, no question. Things just fell into place last night. The
basketball gods for Arizona opened up and said, okay, we'll let you have
it. Well, last time we had about three or four minutes. I
know you keep your eyes on the women's team. I think you had Kim
over there in La or in Vegas. What's up with them? What do
you think? I really think that it's well, for one, it's going
to come down to if there's any big Steelers from any of the other conference
tournaments to take away an at large spot for if Arizona can get it.
But it could really go either way. Seventeen and fifteen doesn't look like a
very good record, But when you counter the fact that I believe they played
eleven games against the top fourteen in the NET, they've played nineteen quad one
games, which is two more than any other team in the country, and
one many of them, but they've played a lot of them close. If
they hadn't played the kind of non conference schedule they did this year, which
was abnormal for them, it was tougher they played Gonzaga and Texas and UNLV
if they had not, and there was someone else in there that was really
good, if they had not played those four teams and just played garbage teams,
they'd be sitting here right now at twenty one and eleven and there wouldn't
really be any question of them getting in. It wouldn't shock me either way.
It almost might be better for them to not make it and to get
into one of the secondary tournaments where they get to play at home and their
fairly young team and small team can play in front of a home crowd and
maybe get a couple of wins and get some confidence for next year for the
players returning. But they've also shown that they can hang with pretty much anyone,
So if they do get in, they could pull off an upset.
But I'd say maybe a forty percent chance that they get in. Rate the
coaching job she's done, you know, some have said this has been the
best coaching job she's done with what she's had to deal with, But you
know how much of what she's had to deal with has been because of a
dea Barnes. You know, we don't know that rak the job you think
she's done this year with this team, Yeah, I mean, there's no
doubt that there's been a lot of turmoil within her program. Whether that was
circumstantial or a byproduct of how things are run there. I don't know.
I'm not on the inside of the locker room and all that, but since
it's gone down to this seven core players here, it seems like there's just
such a like a same page mentality of all of them that there isn't any
sort of disagreements that you're surprised when you hear that this team only has seven
players if you didn't know it from the outside with as well as they're playing,
and it thinks that it had to get to that point, like if
this could have been happening when there was still ten players on the team,
what would have happened? But you know, you kind of have to make
the bed you lay in the bed that you've made, and I think it's
been a strong job, but there does need to be some internal introspection of
why did we get to this point. Yeah, no question beyond the injury
right. No. Lastly, I know you covered baseball. It's your heart
chip. How good is this team or isn't it? This was going to
be the season that was going to be the most uncertain because all the veterans
that he inherited are gone. This is all his players for the most part,
that he's recruited out of high school or junior college or brought in from
the portal. And it was probably going to take the longest to figure out
what you had there because so many new position players and whatnot. And you
throw in the fact that their first eleven games, ten of them ended up
being against Quad one opponents. They've already played seven ranked teams, so they're
sitting at five and six and they opened the Pac twelve tonight at USC.
They're better than five and six, and I think they're better than the ninth
place team, which is where they were picked to be in the Pac twelve.
But they're going to have to show that they you know, they've hung
with some of these really good teams and haven't been able to beat many of
them. It's now a matter of can they beat teams that aren't highly ranked
and highly rated to be able to build that confidence for later in the season.
Okay, as usual, Thank you, Brian, We'll see you soon.
Enjoy tomorrow's game, and we'll see you next week in Vegas. All
right, see then, Thank you Brian Peterson from easydisitchwarm dot com. Go
see him and his staff. Yep, a good job Kim Kim Doss Kim
Dos covering women's basketball for them. She does a really good job as well.
So yeah, check out our former intern Devin. Okay, so,
Devin's following the women's softball game. I shouldn't call it the women's game,
the softball game. Cats are down two nothing in the bottom of the six
against Oregon. Stage just had a bases loaded, two out situation and didn't.
Is that at State? Oh okay, let's go come back and talk,
maybe take some calls. All right, we'll take a break. If
you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty
years. I'll take a look back at the Loudolsen era in my new book,
Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of
twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach
and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them.
Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from
Loot is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse.
What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jake and
Salez on Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I on
the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, he's Jake, got
Adam with us. We got fifteen minutes. Do you guys want to call
talk about less nights games women's and men's. I'm sure you were flipping back
and forth or were you? That was that women's games. I started watching
that game rather than the men's game because it was a good game. Yeah,
they almost deal with came back in one day, were getting blown out,
you know, I mean thirteen to nothing, and I'm like, okay,
you know the again, the clock is struck twelve on this team,
and we did. We turned we were having dinner, we turned away from
it and turned it back on and was like, wait a minute. You
know, they're down three, you know, but they were down three at
the half or five at a half or something like that, and I'm like,
okay, they're you know, they're in it. And I mean they
never got there, but you know, hey, you give a lot of
credit to that. In fact, we do have a clip from a DA
from her post game press coffee, just a real quick introductory comment that she
had right after the game. As far as our team was seven, we
battled, and we've had seven and haven't had a lot of bodies to practice,
and but we go out and we fight. I told our players today,
we won every quarter but the first quarter, the first five minutes we
got punched, and that was the difference in the game, because that's one
of the reason why we lost. We won all the other three quarters,
so we had chances to winness like we did last time against them, but
we just came up too short. So I'm proud of us, as she
should be. As she should be. I mean, well, let's say
this, and we talk about all the times teams win championship, right and
and and she said this maybe two or three weeks ago, when some turmoil
happened. Audition by subtraction right, and and you've dealt with it in your
real life. I've I've dealt with it in terms of being a part of
a team where sometimes you just have to cut the people that are bothering the
team. And we you were talking about when we were here originally, you
know, we've been together now three a little more than three years. Uh.
You don't want to sign guys that are can't you know, that are
pain and the asses because they affect the way the team chemistry is. And
and I've seen this more times than not that you see it's there. They're
great players, but their chemistry is hot. Well, I think about how
good a couple of Sean Miller's teams were very much all right, and then
and then that that that that team that lost Toffalo. You know, that
all talent in the world, but if you don't have all the other pieces,
including the teamwork and the mental piece of that, you can be You
can have the best talent, you know, sure every game and still lose
a bunch of games, will get blown out or flame out in the NCAA
tournament or whoever. And anybody who's been in a corporate situation or whatever,
I know, and people who are listening are kind of are shaking the saying
yeah, yeah, he's right, because you can't play with people who don't
want to play right right, And that's more important than anything, it really
is. I mean, whether it's a team situation or you know, two
or three people or whatever, you all got to be on the same page
or it doesn't work. Well, it may work to a certain level,
but you're not going to get to the Promised Land if you're not all together
on it. And how many times and you don't you hate this because I
know I hate this. It's recruiting. Everyone says, well, what about
recruiting, and recruiting, Well, we've got these guys coming in well cold,
great. Recruiting doesn't mean anything unless you're one. You show up and
you're good, right, and show up and you can play together with the
other guys. Remember those first couple of uh top you know uh recruits that
Sean Millerbard and Sadiki Johnson and then the guard yeah yeah, Josia Turner,
And how terrible they were for you. You could see on the court that
they absolutely did not want to be be there with all those other guys that
they wanted theirs and then maybe that was you know, Sean realized, you
know, he went for these guys because they were you know, the big,
big time recruits, you know, highly ranked in the whole bit,
and he went after that and clearly didn't measure the rest of it to see,
are these guys good character, guys that are gonna help me? And
they didn't, and they were both gone. Sadika Johnson didn't even make it
a full season, and Josiah Turner was gone after the first year. And
he probably needed him just to beet on the team, yeah, because he
needed someone to run and he was troubled. Both of them actually were.
So that's crucial, that chemistry totally and and so yeah, so look,
and I'm sure whatever happened, I thought Brian Peterson made a good, uh
made a good observation that it might be better for them. I know they
want to be in the NCAA tournament, but from uh, maybe with seven
players, you'd rather just go take your shot at the n CUAA tournament and
you know, rather than run four or five more games in the n I
t or whatever. But they want to get in the n CUAA tournament,
they wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for them to go get a
couple. Let me tell you this year they get to play a game at
home. Well, let me tell you the n C A no. But
let me say this to you, Jayle. Assume they sneak in as a
twelve or whatever seat they would be just having seen them play the last two
weeks, I wouldn't want to play them. Yeah, because there is that
they've competed against the best in this conference, and we know that this conference
has a lot of good teams are almost again, So so let's assume for
a second that this conference has some of the better teams in the country.
That means that they're gonna play the teams that aren't as good, that wouldn't
be good in this conference, right, that they would be capable of beating
those those teams. I would This story is it's a it's a it's a
fun story. I know how yours covering it for us and blah blah blah,
But it's a fun story now because all the other stuff is behind them,
right, and they're playing out of their minds and you rook for them,
right, yeah, don't you? I mean you you were you know
yesterday I still Hey, I'm apologating too. Yeah, she's a fantastic player,
like a multi dimensional place. Although although there was one ball she had
she got a she had an open lane all the way to the basket,
and she passed the ball. She passed the ball to an open for an
open three. But they didn't make. But if she just takes the lay
up, you know, they would cut I think they were at that point,
would have cut the lead to one. Instead, they you know it
with an empty possession. And then USC went down and scored and it was
like she just she's unfortunately been a pass first player when she's one of the
more talented shooters that they have, and that's been kind of an unfortunate thing
for her. But she's been really good. She's been one of my favorite
players that I've seen them. I mean, she's up in the you know,
not quite the Sam Thomas territory for me, but you know, up
there in terms of she's been a she's been somebody that I've really liked the
whole time she's been sure, of course, I said, wow, she
could do a lot of things. Yeah, she had a shot yesterday,
I think they were down by seven or whatever from the top of the key.
They were they were watched, they were following her, and she finally
found her open and she shot it and she nailed it. They're down by
three or whatever. These girls could wait. Yeah, yeah, they gave
it their shot. Yeah, they gave it their shot. It was great.
It was great to see him you have a shot at it, because
again, when I watched the first coupleans, I thought, oh God,
this is gonna be so bad. And they just never never gave up fighting.
And you could tell from it from Ada's press conference that she was sad
that they didn't win the game, but she was very proud about the way
they just, you know, they battled, and they continue to battle,
and for the whole second half of the year they battled with that. Yeah,
I think we've got to call some I on there on the ball.
Hey, I'm Hector. How you guys doing, Hey Hector, thanks for
calling listening to UH. I'm listening to the You know that some of the
players from a DS team that got either left or cut off or whatever.
But remember my first year of being a head coach up in UH Bullet City
Marby High School and UH and I remember UH we had some good players.
But I remember a fellow coach, a friend of mine, telling me,
you're going to have some players that are good enough to help you win,
but they're also going to get your ass beats. Yeah right, but uh
we ended up we ended up going like one in eighteen that year. But
I tell you what, these kids would work their ass off, steal the
ball and then break the break the backboard, the glass, trying to make
a layoup of what the hell? Yeah, but uh, it really does
set the tone. And that took a little guts, but it's true.
And aren't those teams the most fun to coach? Right when you know every
every practice, every game that they're giving them what they had. They maybe
they're not great, but they give it all they have. But I'll tell
you what I back then, you know, maybe seven years older than those
kids. Wow, they're all close of eyets now and they're great. They're
great families of dads, grandfathers. That makes me feel real good. But
I used to come up basketball was everything. At the pe teacher I used
to have the gym, So I had the gym in the morning at Lawrence
and just worked the ass off of basketball. But then I started working lude
Olson's camps, and uh, it was great. I remember I remember Wednesdays
it would be burgers and beers night that his place or does place or whatever.
But Ricky bird Song was Uh, I mean, but I loved it.
Those out and Ludeawson. You know it looks great. Yeah, Hector,
we appreciate the call. Man. Thank you. Please keep listening,
keep calling. Thank you, thank you. That's a good call. Yeah.
When you're a coach, you have to the balance balance. Well,
think about it, Jay, And I've said this a number of times on
this one. Some of the biggest egos are coaches and they think, I
can, I got this, I can take care of that ego. I
can. I can tell him, you know, you not so much because
if you are who you are, if you're a painting, yeah, it's
guess what you're gonna be yes, And then a coach is gonna say,
what the hell did I do? You know? My last year at Saint
Gregory as the baseball coach, and I left not because we were bad,
but because my son graduated. But we were bad. We were not very
good, but we had a blast. Our road trips were great. We
had fun, Our practices were fun, and then we made the practice is
fun because we knew we weren't. You know, we could practice all the
fundamentals we wanted to could practice, and you know, we just you know,
and we were. We had like ten or eleven guys in every game.
We were checking the parking lot to see who was coming and all that
stuff. But we had a great time and and it made it fun.
And that's it. That's an important piece of all of this. If you're
not having fun, you're not You're not. You know, it's hard to
win. You got to be having fun for sure. Yeah, yeah,
okay, okay, we got about three minutes. Anybody want to give us
a quick call, you can five two o four one forty after this route.
Adam has his breaking news, right, A lot of stuff going on
just during the last hour, A lot of things going on watching Arizona.
And they got the bases loaded, two outs, top of the seventh.
They're down to zip. So let's see what what happens here. But you
know, they don't thin giving them sums of shot. I don't know.
Got one last call coming in, all right, let's take this. Hi
are on the air and I on the ball. Hey, this is Frank,
I'm just wondering, like last night, when Arizona has a big lady
that's at UCLA, or even at other times, or even in football,
when the Wildcats have a kind of a pretty much inserm fable lead, I
wonder why the coaches wait until maybe two minutes or sometimes even one minute or
even thirty seconds to put in their subs. I would think that they want
to see some of those some of those players that they're good to rest on.
They sure see what they have, but can you can you explain why
they they might not want to do that or what's going on? They want
to feel comfortable the rest of the year. Well, you know, Frank
thought I felt the same way. Yeah, because they were twenty something right
there, what tim minutes left? And I think this is the perfect time
to put in Philip and the other right, morescuos, Moriscus and those guys
know, Frank, I firmly believe what you believe. But these guys know
there's there's no big lead being nick. Yeah, and the coaches mind,
no lead is safe. You know, they've I mean, look with with
with three minutes left against Illinois in two thousand and five by fifty and they
got and they got beat. So coaches are just nervous about that. And
Frank, you would understand this, you know, yep, I can't.
It's already too late for them to get some seasoning for what's ahead because they're
not going to play in the tournament. Yeah. So yeah, No,
coaches are just nervous. I think that that's all. It's as simple as
that. And the other guys, the reserves played more, I mean didn't
play him. Yeah, they spread the playing time around quite a bit yesterday,
Frank, thanks for calling. Oh one last day, go back to
football, I mean casino. They just give him a cancer until they find
he had to going down an injury. Oh yeah, cancel. And for
the time he couldn't show what he had. That was a whole That was
a whole different deal that that Jed just had a thing for. I'll give
you, Laura, I'll give you another one. How did we find him?
I get an injury, got hurt, and this guy showed up.
Thanks Frank for Collin. We got to go all right, thank you,
thank you. Isn't that how it happened? Ali? The dude fell on
he wasn't playing Dawkins got hurt. Same thing with with uh A Nick Foles.
Remember, finally Matt Scott had such a bad game, they had to
they had to play Nick Foles and he never gave up the job again.
And both Nick Foles and Close Tate what they said about those two guys weren't
great practice players. Yeah, and then they get him in the game and
they blow the doors of All right, let's take our break. We're here
at the top of the hour. We're going to be back. There's all
kinds of breaking news, including some cool stuff going on at the Arizona Oregon
State softball game, so we'll be right back.