This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Ja Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions katz R
two SAG and iHeartRadio Station Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jacon Zos. We have rookie analyst. It's been nuts. Wait
it Stevehn been here like half an hour and it's been all kinds of crap.
I know. We almost didn't think the station was off the air.
We didn't know if we were going to have a show. Came in and
then the music hacks have totals. We can't play music on our show anymore.
Yes, we get all that good stuff, so we had to We're
having to cease and desist. It's the only thing people listen to. The
music is Hey, what are they gonna play today? Not September. I
can't even do that in No Earth and Wind and Fire. Welcome everybody to
Tuesday. Luck to get to a good show today. We have Tommy we
might get to that early in the show, and we have some good guests
talking more about Super Bowl. Right, We've got we with brand the help
of Brandon Sanders over at in the football Office. We've got Frank Middleton,
played in the mid nineties here at Arizona ninety five and ninety six, got
into the NFL. Was with the Raiders when they played in Super Bowl thirty
seven. Yeah, about twenty years so he was a starting guard in the
Super Bowl. So we're going to talk to him about, you know,
continuing to talk, you know, with guys who have been in the Super
Bowl, you know, because Steve and I and a lease over here,
none of us have ever played in the Super Bowl. Probably not going to
ye what, I don't know what the prices are, but did you see
my Facebook posts about that suite that's going to go for one and a half
million dollars Jesus for twenty tickets And I saw the get in price. The
lowest get in price was eighty five hundred dollars. So what's the maximum you
would pay to go to a game like that? Probably five hundred bucks.
I'm not going I'm not going right at least yeah, I mean, probably
about the same. But none of my teams are in it, so I
feel like that depends, like to go to a game like this, I
probably wouldn't pay that much because I don't Yeah, you see, I don't
have a team. Yeah, neither are my teams. Yeah, I don't
have a team. So if you had a team, if I had a
team, probably five hundred bucks. That's look at I'm not paying a thousand
dollars to go to football. That's a that's a brutal wars. Yeah,
I mean serious, I'm not paying a thousand dollars. No, I wouldn't
need to go to to go to football. I'm just not I paid,
you know, I mean, you know, my son and I we paid
one hundred and seventy five bucks per day to go to the US Open up
Pebbleby. That's good. It was a great experience, a great great weekend.
Is that what it was? Maybe it was more like I don't remember
it was it was a few hundred dollars, you know, but again not
a big fan. How much were you were just additional? So how much
just tickets for that? I don't even ask. So that's undred and fifty
that was bad? Well, well see, okay, we okay, we
got a package of it was it was four nights of a hotel, three
nights at the park. Okay, I just want to get into this,
and it was probably about it was like four grande for no, okay,
but how much for each individual? There were four of us, four of
us, but that's for that's for. It was about a thousand dollars apiece
for hotel and tickets. Was last time you there to Disneyland a few years
ago? Kind of one hundred and twenty five hundred fifty bucks to get in.
No, it's in the twoes. It's in the twos, and it's
and it's all different. I would pay for Disneyland if it was Christmas times
bested. I also driving their stay that need to happen this place on there.
Okay, let me say this. I think we paid per ticket to
the Final four nineties Evan. Yeah, okay, like seven fifty per ticket
for the two games, per ticket per person for two games, for two
games. That's okay, that games. It was affordable. Well, and
then you had your team, right and we were going to see our team
back then. Though that's that's still a lot of money back there. It
wasn't. But I will say that we were very very crafty with it.
We got a hold of some some other tickets and we sold and we sold
other tickets to help pay for the Yeah, but no, but that's about
that's about the max. Like I'm you know, I'm not going to pay,
you know, four or five hundred dollars to go see Taylor Swift or
even Earth Wind and Fire or you know whoever. I'm you know, I'm
not. I no, I didn't know why I brought it up, but
it's crazy. Those prices the most expensive super Bowl ever. I'd pay okay,
I'd pay over five hundred. I'd pay six seven hundred dollars limit to
go to the Masters. Okay, the Masters. I paid one hundred dollars
for this weekend for waste management, Phoenix open. Did you where are you
going? I'm going on Saturday? Is that for the weekend or just Saturday?
And I don't even follow Golfs's going there Friday? I think, or
something like that. He's got him free, but he knows Sammy has a
press pass, press press. I mean, these people who are paying a
thousand dollars to go see Taylor Swift, I'm not, you know, or
even if I liked her a lot, you know. No, no artist
is worth that to me, or no football team or basketball team is worth
that. I disagree. I would always pay money for an experience for whould
you pay them that for? I would have paid a thousand dollars to Taylor
Swift, but the dates she was in LA didn't work out. Would that
have been a good seat? Yeah? For the floor? Yes? Okay.
My daughters paid six hundred bucks to see Harry Styles New Year's Eve.
Reach, No, six hundred each Harry Styles New Year's Eve, Madison Square
Guard. That's different. That's New Year's Eve. Yeah, yeah, it
was all Anything you do on New Year's Eve is gonna you're gonna have to
pay. I take it back. It was Halloween. It was a costume,
but it was a costume concert. You know, everybody worked. I
think it was I can't remember. Maybe it was New Year's I don't know
why I brought this up, but no, it's yeah, I mean,
it's it. It's a valid question. But would you pay? I'm with
you. I don't I'm not that interested. Five hundred bucks maybe, yeah,
but you guys have seen a lot of sporting events. Yeah, that's
that's part of Vegas. Remember, Vegas. You got to go and stay
a couple of days. Those rooms now are through the roof, just because
of the situation. And then you have to eat, which is of course
that you know, like for the you're not going to pack toalf tournament.
That's reasonable for us because you know, we we get you know, we
get things. Yeah, you know, we get in for free. But
even then Vegas is is kind of yeah, but no, I'm not paying
eighty five hundred dollars to go see the game. That okay, five hundred
Yeah, some teams that I don't really care the worst seats to eight eighty
five hundred bucks open the right, I wouldn't. And we've been in the
that's how it is. You've been in the stadium for the Arizona game and
I was there, and the press box is in the cheap seats. We
were, we were, we were bottom level in the in the that's what
you believe, Hey, this team could be good. That was right something
that no, No, it was Fish Jet Fishes Fish's first game. And
I think also, if you're going to see your team in a big game
like that and you're paying a lot of money, you have to be okay
with them losing. You know, you have to be okay, you just
want to see a good game, because imagine that sucks. You pay all
this money. You're a die hard Chiefs fan and the Chiefs loser something you
have to be okay. You just have to be going for the experience.
Also, also, though, if you have that money to spend, you
have that money to spend. I mean, yeah, that's a couch right
COUCHU money because you know you make a lot of money. What do you
want to do? Well, let's go the game. Yeah, I'm saying
as a young person, though with no money, I would pay. Okay,
I would pay though. Okay, here's I'm trying to think of.
I'm trying to think of a game that I would absolutely have to be Arizona
Arizon Championship. No, no, Arizona and the Rose Bowl. Okay,
okay, I pay four figures. Okay, if if all I could get
was a ticket for twelve hundred bucks, I'm going, yeah, you know,
I'm borrowing money from somewhere to go right right? You take his ashes?
No, no, that's good. But Final four two, I think
Final four Championship game Arizona fans would pay a lot for Final four tickets.
I'm not sure I would personally. I mean, like I've told you those
times that we had tickets set up for, you know, for final fours,
the two thousand and three thing, we we had we had tickets at
face value, which were you know, a few hundred bucks, but we
were going to go. I mean, I told you guys last week that
I saw in the Sweet Sick teen two years ago. For that reason,
when we flew to San Francisco, you know, we had to fly,
stay for a hotel, and tickets were probably five hundred dollars. It could
have been coach K's last game, and that's why we went because we were
like, this could be the last time. And it wasn't his last game.
It was his second, third to last, but we paid because it's
an experience and I'm so happy we went. We went. I always remember
that. I mean, it was like online. Oh so that's not fun,
because you know you said that stuff was. In today's digital world,
you don't save your ticket. You can't put the digital thing on the wall.
The kids in today's digital world, they don't give you a ticket.
Had a Q on my phone demanded tickets so I could frame it and say
I was at that game. I'll always remember we took photo we had I
have then, I have our ninety one of our ninety seven tickets. Yeah,
uh final four tickets signed by John Wooden. See, I mean you
could you sign my phone? Please? Yeah, make sure you use a
sharpie. I didn't. I get it. I get it. But come
on, there's gotta be some sentimental value in that ticket to me. Do
you any reasons why they didn't give us? I'm sure I have it.
I don't have it if I remember that. I remember that game though,
and I'll always remember that day and that weekend. No sentimental value there,
no, man, that's that's mad. I remember the flight on the way
there. Of course it was two years ago. It was I remember.
Do you have any memorabilia of any of any sort? Probably find something,
books and stuff from when I was little. I have like d'ts from yourself,
but of but like of an event that you went to, or an
audit, an autograph, nothing like that. I don't know WoT think?
So? I used to tell myself, Oh when I when I started covering
games, sports games for the U, it I was like, I'm gonna
save all my press passes. This is so cool. And now I've been
to so and they all look the same. You have never you have you
haven't have a little mountain of well, I've got only for a big game,
I would save them. I've got them all. I've got a bulletin
board next to my desk, got a nail like this, long, sticky
out and I hang all my press. Okay, I should start doing that.
I've got officially kind of you know, you're you're doing it, but
now is the time to start. Yeah, I've got I've got you a
I sit on the floor and you know what, I'm putting my point from
here on. Yeah, I'm going to save them the next game I go
to. Yeah, I mean i've got you. Your grandchild's on your lap,
he said, yeah. Back, and I was working for two old
dudes. I started saving these trinkets and look at look what's gotten. Yeah,
how far back you have you have? Uh? Press passes? Oh?
Since before well my first final four ninety one? Probably, yeah,
I have something like that. You have to say, Okay, but but
it's like if I'm going to see Arizona versus Washington, let's say it's like,
let's say your regular basketball you have a basketball passes? How far back?
Oh you think since I don't, I don't know how I have to
go back, but you have you have got I know I've got some into
the night all over the place. Yeah, okay, that's cool. I'm
gonna start doing that because then you remember that specific game. Okay, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring you I'm gonna take a picture of
my press pass collection wall and show it to you. Yeah, it's a
bunch of crap and to start a fire, but it means something. To
do mean something. And when I first started going, I was like,
oh, I'm gonna save all these, but then there was just too many.
Yeah, I didn't do what you did, hang them on the wall.
If I started doing that, I had a place I do have I
have. I have two of them framed. Because I did this in the
basically the same count that's sort of the same calendar year. It was the
eighty eight basketball season. I covered the final four. Then it was the
national championship game for the eighty eight college football season. Now was January one
of eighty nine, because it was the festival and I covered that, so
I put those two things in a frame that I've got some more so,
I got my two of the two national championships that I covered in one on
calendar. And I actually told one of my professors this and she said I
told her. I was like, oh, I don't save my press passes.
And she was like, well, when you cover the Olympics, you're
going to save your press pass Yeah. Yeah, I've done two yet,
I've got a Final four. I've got all my packed twelve tournament press passes.
I've got all my NCAA tournament press passes. Yeah, okay, exactly.
I was speaking of the you know, speaking of my you know,
my golf thing. We do have a golf guest today, Jim Anderson,
head coach of the Arizona men's golf team that a great tournament last week.
They broke a school record with their score. Still finished second in the tournament,
but played as well as they've ever played. So we'll talk to Jim
his season going on so far and the guys he's got playing, And then
again at four fifteen or twenty, it'll be Frank Middleton played in the Super
Bowl for Raiders, the studying guard for them back in super Bowl. So
at the end of the hour, we'll get through some Tommy clips at some
point. Right, But if you've been to a big event, a big
event, did you save your stuff? Get us a call. How much
did you pay see a big game? Right? Yeah? Yeah, because
I save saved my US open ticket a cool thing with my press pass.
So let's let's talk about that after the interviews. Okay, So we're gonna
go out with no music, so stick around and we'll be back right back
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evaluation Today. Steve Rivera and Shaken Saliz they have their Eye on the Ball
on Twusons Sports Stig Jet Fox Sports fourteen fifteen streaming live. I mean I
heard radio WAPs. Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jiggins Aws. Now on
the phone. We have Jim Anderson, the Arizona men's golf coach. How
are you, Jim? Hey, Steve doing great? Hey, Jay,
how are you guys this afternoon? Thanks for inviting. Yeah, we're doing
well. But you're doing really well. What's going on with your team as
as you head into this spring? As they say, even though it doesn't
look like spring today, Yeah, it's definitely a little bit more of a
fall ish day, I guess, or no Sunday, how's that? But
No, our team's been doing great. We got them back early and we'll
started, you know, first week of January or the eighth I believe it
was, and we competed shortly after getting them back in the Copper Cup,
which was an awesome format of Ryder Cup versus a SU and also USC and
UCLA played as well, so we're on the right side of those head to
heads having won both days and one Copper Cups. So it was a good
start, got to see eight guys play and really opened up the season on
a positive note. And then as it goes, we hosted in our first
event just last Monday Tuesday. It's the NIT played at Omnitu Sun National.
We had great weather, had some great teams come in and put put three
really good scores together and the team shot fifty under par and normally I would
say that's good enough to win because it set a program record and really excited
about how we're playing. Unfortunately, we had one team shoot fifty one,
Mexico Lobos, and so we finished second, but still beat a ton of
great teams and we've got a lot of momentum building up for the spring already
and ranked tenth in the country. So the guys are hungry and we're we're
gonna just keep doing what we do and keep playing good golf, and it's
setting up for a fun semester right now. Jim talking about that that fifty
under par last week. You know, when you when you do that and
then don't win, you know, how do you manage the I don't know
for lack of but with the emotions of that, right you feel good about
it, will feel bad? I mean, do you come out of that
when you've played that well but didn't win. I think the human inside of
me is really disappointed and really bumped and really mad that we didn't win,
you know, but the coach inside of knows to have better perspectives. And
you know, we we had such some great performances by the whole team obviously,
and our our sport is a team sport. But it happens when when
individuals play well and and do things, make good decisions and you know,
put together eighteen whole score three different times, and when you have four guys
do that, that's when that's when you have a you know, a week
like we did. So Tiger Christiansen led the way for us. He shot
uh He shot a final round sixty four and finished third place in the tournament,
and Tony Jong is a freshman and he shot sixty three in the second
round, which is a program I heard for freshmen. So I think the
perspective of knowing that, you know, really we played some great golf and
it's really difficult to win. Yes, there's easy, easy things to point
too that we could have maybe done a little bit better. Sure, but
the reality is when you when you play that well and don't win, you
just take your hat off and shake the other team's hands, do great job,
and wait till next week. If you keep playing like that, you're
gonna win a lot of times. So how do you kind of temper that
enthusiasm? You come out of the gate and shoot like that. That's like,
in my world, the equivalent of Arizona beating Duke in the first game,
and then where do you go from here? Yeah? I think you
know, I told the guys this before before we played even the Copper Cup,
which was which was again something we were fired up to compete against our
rivals, and you know, I think maybe based on the rankings and the
metrics, we were probably the underdog going into it. So of course we
get excited, we want to play well, we want to win, but
win or lose, you know, this is that perspective thing again. We
want to play our best golf, you know, in April and May.
That's that's when that's when we have opportunities to win championships and along the way.
All of these steps are important and things that we take very seriously.
Opportunities and that we that we want to take advantage of. But on the
other hand, too, it is it is all preparation for trying to execute
and perform. No difference than like you mentioned the Duke game is you know,
it's coach Tommy that they want to play their best basketball in March,
and that's that's what we're setting up for. It's fun to have accolades come
come across and have some guys play well enough to be earning you know,
all American status and having a national rank in the top ten. But the
reality is all that stuff goes out the door when we tee it up in
the postseason. Yeah, just just trying to keep our focus on five ft
in front of us and play our best golf the next opportunity that we have,
and that's really been the message we've shared with the guys and Actually that's
all you can do. If I could. You talked about about the Tommy
thing and the Duke thing and and playing playing in March, and you want
to play better then, but you're not guaranteed that. I mean, I'm
a believer like in every Gary, every games the season, and you know
you you play that way that day, you play that way the next day,
but you're not guarantee. Please, he's not guaranteed to give his team
to play well in March. No, you're exactly right, Steve. And
you know I've heard I've heard this one before. I think you guys have
heard it too. But how you do anything, it's how you do everything.
And that's why the tournament that we're getting ready for next is the most
important one. And and and how we prepare and how we show up and
you know, the game plan that we instill, the composure that the guys
play with, the confidence that they exude, and the belief and they have
them in that strategy and how they execute is how we That's how we play.
So you know, the more times we can we can use that experience
and know that our preparation works, is it just it really builds into who
we are as a team, and it feeds to the culture that we have.
So I'm looking at your at your stats, and you've got I mean,
you've got some guys who are who are scoring low. You've got,
as you said, Tony Jong with the six three, Tiger Christiansen is sixty
four. A couple of sixty six is in there. I mean, you've
got guys that on any given day can go out there and shoot the lights
out. Yeah, And that's one of the reasons I'm very excited about the
team this year. And I don't want to get too far over my skis
with expectations, because that's one of the things we have to manage, especially
in the sport of golf. But the thing that encourages me a lot about
this roster and this team is we've we've got two guys on our team now,
Tiger Christensen who we've mentioned, Zach Polo, who was it was only
a sophomore, he won the n I T last year. We've got two
guys who have have won fullative and I would say that you know, there's
there's probably two or three more guys who have the ability to do that.
So when you show up with a team of guys who you know, can
put together three rounds and win a golf tournament individually. That's that's a good
sign. And you know when we when we have good players playing well at
the golf courses they're familiar with and and and comfortable, that's when our team
score can be really you know, competitive with honestly anyone, you know.
And we've seen it this year, and I think we're going to see it
a little more in this spring. I don't want to project too much confidence,
but I am confident in our group and I do believe in our in
our guys, and they're they're prepared for the opportunities that that we're going to
put put in front of them. Do you as a coach, when you
when you you guys, you know, get on the golf course and you
know, start playing in a tournament, as is there an amount of time
that you need to that they need to be out there a number of holes
that before you say okay, it looks like it's going to be a good
day. It looks like we're going to battle today. It looks like we're
going to struggle today. You know, is there this this whole word about
you used it a minico momentum and guys start playing and they play well and
shoot a sixty four or sixty six or whatever. You know, do you
see that or is it like hole by hole golfers golfers? Yeah? Yeah,
I think for me it's probably a little bit more situational and hole by
hole only because sometimes in college golf, as you know, Jay, you're
you're playing with a shotguns start, so maybe the part fives are coming in
a different point in the round than than you would normally get them. And
you know, if you're only if you're even par through five or six holes,
but I haven't played any of the part fives, well that's okay,
you know. And conversely, if you're even part or one over part and
you played three of the you know, two of the part fives or something,
you know, you're you're you're maybe not going to get some of those
strokes back. So I don't I don't necessarily feel like I get a read
off of the first couple of holes from our team, and I've complimented them
a lot internally. Now I have a chance to say it to the listeners
too. But our team is very, very composed, and I think part
of that composure is a lot of why we've been successful. And with with
good composure, you know, when it's going very very well in your in
your composure is great, Okay, that's going to lend itself to continue to
do things well and maybe even get another one or shoot a sixty three like
Tony did or sixty four like Tiger. And when it's not going well,
that composure really speaks to the player you are too. And so so that's
where if it's not going well, I don't I don't want to say I
don't panic, but I have confidence that our guys can write the ship when
when one round isn't going exactly how they planned it to go. I'm assuming
that because they're so good an individually as well as team that and they're probably
really competitive that each one of them kind of doesn't really compete with each other.
But that's what makes them better, because they have to compete with each
other to be a better team. Does that make sense? One hundred percent?
And that's a big part of our program right now. And it was
a message that we delivered early because you know, the guys on our team
all is m fire to play professionally and win on PGA Tour, European Tour.
You know, play this game for a living for many, many years.
And we're out qualifying right now for our next event. And really there's
you know, eight or nine guys. There's nine guys on the roster,
and based on play last week, I'd say eight of them feel like they
deserve a chance to go to the next tournament. Well, we only get
to take six. So that competition at home and guys taking advantage of the
opportunities when they do earn them through through tournament starts, whether it's on the
team or playing as an individual. You know, those those starts are very
very precious, and them building the resume and having the opportunity to post the
score that says, okay, I'm one of your best five players. Coach
put me in and uh, you know the good thing for me, we
got great guys who are very competitive. We are pulling for each other.
We also know how important everyone on the team is because in golf, you
if you want to be the alpha and you want to be the top scorer,
that's fine, but if you don't have other guys around you who can
also play at the level that you aspire to and you're trying to, then
your team's not going to advance, and it's much much more difficult to get
to the national championship as an individual than it is with a really good team.
So I think we've got that this year, and the guys are pushing
each other and it makes for decision making difficult, but it certainly makes my
job easier because we've got a lot of talent. It tell us a little
bit about Tiger Christensen's experience in the in the British Open last year, he
got to playing that he qualified got to play in it. Have you seen
any impact or effects from having had that experience? Has it affected his game,
changed his game, changes approach, anything like that. It's a great
question, Jay, and I think the answer is yes, it has impacted
him. But I will say this, Tiger has very clear goals and I
was lucky enough to get to travel and watch and be a part of his
very small circle for that week. So so I got to see him compete
at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and it was an amazing experience to take
that in for obvious reasons, but I think what it's done for Tiger is
it's really affirm to him that what he's doing is working. And you know,
after the first day of Wow, you know, I'm at the Open,
I'm taking pictures with you know, some of the history and just you
know, being in a practice round with this guy or that guy, or
having a tour bag or all that stuff. You know, by the time
practice round two cames around, he was all business and he was he was
there to compete and and honestly he missed the cut, but he played some
really, really good golf. He was on the first page of the leader
board early in round one. And I think, you know, I think
if anything, it's just affirmed to him that that this is what he's you
know, he's capable of playing at a very high level and he and he
clearly wants to play professionally. And I think I think it's it's put him
in a place where now he's just even more dead set on where he's going.
It's put it's put an affirmation into his goal and he's he's doing some
amazing things. So I think it's helped him, but he was that way
before. I think it's just confirmed what he was looking looking for. Who
we have about ninety seconds left. And let me just ask you a weird
question. Would you fault any of your kids, like the Alabama kid who
wins the tournament, doesn't get paid one and a half million, but decides
to go pro given his talent, How would you feel? Well, I
mean, I would hate to see somebody leave the University of Arizona because it's
just such a great spot. But I do know that the reason I coach
is because I want to help young men, you know, have a platform
to jump off and be successful for the rest of their life. And obviously
the degree is very important and something that we coach into our program our players,
and it's something we encourage for everyone and they do that. But when
you win a PGA Tour event, it's life changing. And so you know,
I can't fault Ni Dunlapf for making that decision. And I know if
that ever happens here with our program, I'll be completely supportive, and I
know that we would back them up with helping them finish their degree when they're
ready if they chose to leave to pursue PGA Tour status after having been a
winner as an amateur. So I think I think it's a really really good
thing for college golf and certainly makes for tough decisions, but in a way,
probably not that difficult to a decision. Well, the last guy did
that was Phil Mickelson. I think things turned out okay for him. Right,
that's exactly right. And it was done in Tucson. Right, I
was on the eighteenth. Hold, I remember, what are the what were
the odds of that happening? Oh, I don't, I don't study odd.
Maybe maybe maybe you guys, get somebody else, but it's probably pretty
it's probably pretty small. Well Michelson did in ninety one, and nobody had
done it since then. There you go. Okay, coach, Thanks,
Hey, coach, Well, thanks a whole bunch of good luck the rest
of the season. We'll talk to you again. We'll keep an eye on
you guys and see how you do. Hey, thanks for having me on,
gentlemen, appreciate it and fare down. Take care. Thank you.
Yeah, Jim Anderson. You know, it's funny because when the British Open
came on last year and I'm like, hey, wait a minute, there's
the U of a guy playing in there. I thought it was cool.
I was just paying attention to I mean, that's fun. It's like you
know, you know, you see somebody when you come out of the u
of A and they're in the major leagues. When your name Tiger, you
better be good. Yeah, well he's pretty good. You know again,
if you're playing in the in the British Open, the Open Championship, and
you're nineteen twenty twenty one years old, you're gonna be pretty good. You're
gonna be pretty good. You're gonna got some ahead of you. All right,
let's take our next break. We're to come back. We got some
tom Tommy Lloyd press conference clips to play for you, talking about getting ready
for that nasty trip. It's coming up to Utah and then Colorado. To
stick around. If you're an Arizona man's basketball fan, you know it's been
successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take a look back at the Ludelsen
era in my new book, Lessons from lut It was a labor of love
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give insight to the coach and the man whom competed against them and inspired them.
Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's the loved coach Lessons
from Luton is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse.
What one email me a Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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WAFF. This is Eye on the Ball which Bravera and Jacob Salez on Fox
Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to My the Ball Hero Fox Sports
fourteen fifty I'm Steve rivera Peter Chicken sauce and at least with us today work
on the board. So we got fourteen minutes. We're gonna get some Tommy
clips in. Yeah, Tommy hald his weekly press conference kind of a day
earlier than normal. They used to do it like early in the day before
they get out to where they're going. You know, they're going to uh,
you know, the Utah. It's gonna be cold to Thursday night,
Utah Thursday. Then they go to Colorado on Saturday. They play in door
shight, they do play inside. Do you have altitude? They do have
altitude. Everybody has altitude. Okay, I'm just gonna preface this that Tommy
was asked a bunch of questions about altitude, and he was basically like,
look, we all just got to go play up there. Yeah, so
you know, do I think it affects them? I don't know. Maybe,
maybe doesn't. He gave the whole I'm not a doctor, but I
did stay at a holiday inn last night kind of kind of line, and
there were a couple of questions to that, and basically he was saying,
I'm not making a big deal of it. We just got to go up
there and play, So we didn't at any of that in the clips he
was He was asked though about because in the last several games, you know,
they've played teams that weren't at full strength. Stanford had you know,
uh, the guy who put twenty eight points on him up up at Stanford
was out. When Colorado came down here, they had two guys. Their
two best players were out. Usc two best players were out. So they've
gotten lucky with that, and on the flip side of it, they haven't
had, you know, a bunch of injuries. He did mention the Keishad
Johnson hurt his shoulder a little bit on Saturday, but our Sunday, but
not enough to you know, he'll he'll be in the lineup again. But
he was asked about injuries. Is it is it? You know, is
it luck? Is it whatever? And And here's what he had to say,
just talking about their their business with injuries. I mean, I think
the first thing is you have to give credit to your your your your training
staff and your strength coach. I mean, you know, Jay Rock and
Rounds do a great job and they've been around for a long time, and
just you know, the medical setup overall is really good at Arizona. You
know, that's umber one and number two has probably just been a little bit
lucky, you know, I mean, you get a little bit lucky.
I mean it's a there's there's lots of bodies, there's lots of feet on
the ground, there's lots of guys in the air. So you know,
sometimes you just have to get come out on the lucky side of some of
those injury types of things. So the combination of those two things usually are
it. Yeah, I mean, and that's it. I mean, they
have been lucky. What's what's the mention that we have said for the last
thirty some years. Luke kind of used that in order to be really good
at basketball, you have to be lucky, you have to be good injury
free, and who knows after that, but those threes are those are the
requirements. Yeah, and they have been and so you know it's kind of
like he sort of like just shrugs his shoulders said, you know, what
can I tell you? You know, we we've been fortunate. The next
thing is was and I want to ask him a little different question about the
bench, but he did get asked about you know, how you know your
bench is doing them. Look you got you got three guys that come off
the bench, Moe Crevis, kJ, Lewis J and Bradley Lewis. Actually,
yeah, has been good the last few games between the between the three
of them, they are averaging about, I'm looking at it, almost twenty
points a game combined. You know, when you're getting twenty points off the
bench, you know that's pretty good. Previous is doing a nice job rebounding.
He's getting nearly five rebounds a game, averaging only thirteen minutes a game.
So things like that. But you just kind of asked, you know,
tell us a little bit about your how your bench is doing. I
mean, they're they're really good players, and are there instances or circumstances where
they are good enough to start? For sure, there's no doubt about that.
But you know, sometimes you have to make a decision, and they're
not always easy decisions, and and you have to trust that decision. And
I feel good about the decisions we've made. So was the question how was
The question was kind of in the context of have you been thinking at all
about making any lineup changes and stuff like that? Okay, yeah, and
that's what got into well, our bench has been pretty good. Yeah,
but he just he just said, I'm not even thinking because you know in
the past he did this time or two with Pelle. Yeah, he figured
that he was he was not he was better as a reserve. Well,
that was a specific question. It was Brian Peterson asked it about. It
was about this time last year that you put you took Pella out of the
starting playing up, that's what and and and you had him coming off the
bench again and you put Cedric uh Henderson, Yeah, Cedric Henderson in and
and so you know, I'm you know, how do you feel about your
bench kind of thing? And now and then uh, you know, he
just they're starting to kind of run through different players. You know, he's
giving sort of short answers, right. I thought his answer on on on
Creevous was was kind of interesting about how he thinks Creevous has been doing over
the last several games. It's been good. You know, he's good.
He's a freshman. You know, he's had some really good games, and
he's had some other games you know where you know, he probably could have
done one a few things better here and there. But I think all in
all, he's trending in the right direction. And you know, I I
I still think he's got a lot left in the tank, and I think
he's got more to offer this team this year. So so you know,
I would be I'd be happy to see him take another step forward for sure.
Here here's a few numbers on him. He's shooting fifty eight percent from
the field, as I mentioned, he's playing thirteen minutes a game. Importantly,
he's forty of fifty three from free on free throw so season, seventy
five percent, which is great. Which he's got such a nice smooth he
takes forever to shoot it, but he's got a nice shot. He's getting
four point seven rebounds a game, which is you know, another good another
probably thirtes, right, a few too many turnovers. He's got twenty turnovers
in thirteen minutes, so he's got he's got a few of those. But
he's blocked sixteen shots. I mean, he's he's just solid across the board
on the stat line, and you know, and and when when, uh,
there have been times when he's had to come in and actually you know,
not just stand his ground, but actually you know, make an impact
where you know, Umar Bello has had a few, you know, tough
games. Yeah. So one of the things that I've noticed, and I
think I'm accurate. Some of the people who text me Therizone as big men.
I don't know if you agree with this play small, uh, in
part because they miss a lot of easy shots well, and they don't force
them. They don't take over near the basket where they you know, rim
around and babble spinds half the time on the floor, right, they do
they do, And and you think, how does this seven footer missing right
there, right right right? Yeah, you're tall, tall, when you've
been in volleyball, how do you miss a spark? You know what I'm
saying us normal people a good answer with us normal people saying how does that
happen? I'm sure it does. Yeah, I mean it does, but
I feel like he does it too much. Totally agree with you. Yeah,
you get your hand, but you know, they go, they're going
up there and trying to put the ball on. There's all these hands around,
and I think sometimes they're expecting to get their shot blocked or something like
that, and then it doesn't, and then they and then they they don't
put it in. I'm like, I'm like, dunk the ball, Just
dunk the damn you anyway. Well, it could be a little bit more,
both of them, both of them could be I think over time.
I think way earlier in the season, Crevios was incredibly lacking in aggressive.
He was getting the ball taken out of his hands, even over his head.
A bunch of times he's gotten better at defending the ball, but there's
been some time like like there was one on Sunday where he was going up
and I think he just expected somebody to come and swat it and he just
kind of didn't get it over the rim. He just a front rimw do
you what? Times think that he plays tentative not tentative. I just think
he's he's just expecting to be, you know, pushed around more than he
gets pushed around. I don't know if that's the definition of tentative. I
would go there. I would go there, but I don't know. It's
just weird because I gear it to you he doesn't want to go the line.
Yeah, he could be more efficient though, and he can definitely be
more efficient, all right. The burning question that I know a lot of
Arizona fans have on the this w gonna be interesting is about does Tommy think
his team sometimes doesn't take the other team? Oh great, I don't know
if it was Bruce, somebody, just you've kind of well, it just
kind of do you feel like sometimes maybe they've gone into games and not for
It's a legitimate question, a very legitimate question. So here's what here's what
he had to say to that. We played the game Sunday night. I
was with you guys. I went home and I haven't even seen my players.
So I mean, I'll find out in practice this afternoon where we're at
with all that stuff. But you know, I expect us to have a
mature approach. And you know, hey, you know we lost two games
to to you know, you know, a very good Washington State team that
played good and an Oregon State team that that played good and made all the
timely baskets you know they needed to make. And and that happens some So
I'm not overthinking it one way or another. And and there was no come
to Jesus meeting or anything like that, and and and so no, I'm
I'm you know, hey, I just know, listen, maybe we go
out, our guys do pay uninspired. I don't know. I wouldn't expect
that, but if they do, I guess it happens. But you know,
we also go out and play really inspired and lose because these are going
to be hard games. So I mean, that's what we're going to prepare
for. So well, he was asked, you know, does your team
look like they're fired up for these games this weekend because they're hard games,
and so that was his initial answer, saying, I haven't seen them,
so I don't know. We haven't had any practices. But then it was
kind of like, look, Oregon State and Washington State, we played them,
they beat us, they played well. I don't think we came out
uninspired, and I don't think our team would. But he's not saying that
they wouldn't. Well, he's a coach. Also, he's a coaching So
look, I have two people in the room here. Do you think they
do play uninspired? I mean, I agree more with what you were saying,
that they don't take the opponent seriously sometimes when I thought that was a
question, but that's that was that wasn't the pest. Okay, but do
you think uninspired? I don't think they play uninspired? So what what is
it. I think it's more where you say they don't take these games as
seriously they think they're going to win. They think it's a shoe in,
which is worse. I yeah, well see, I kind of think that
that's the same if you're not taking a team seriously. Okay, if you
don't think they can beat you, so and you go out there playing like
you don't think they can beat you, and then all of a sudden they
hit you in the mouth and they beat you and talk about this long time.
Okay, so you say maybe you're maybe, but yeah, ended up.
But you know that U c L a game for example, they were
down by nineteen in the start, they were uninspired, and then they became
and start, they were at home, the crowd was with them, and
the same thing with Stanford. Yeah, same thing with Stanford. And then
they came back and played really well. And then it's like their energy on
the court totally shifted. Second half. There's some there's some energy there,
there's some Yeah, there's some knowing that they have to get around of here
right and then and then the right and then the times that they didn't do
that, they couldn't come back in the second half they were on the road.
Want to be asked, you do you feel that? Do you see
that? I think that as the cliche. I think they played dow under
the competition more often than you would like to see. Okay, so I
have two people in the room I agree with you. So there's three people.
Tommy's not gonna say that. He's not gonna say that, but they
don't, well nobody, he's not gonna say you don't think he sounds yeah,
it sounds to me though that the one who handles that is not Tommy
Lloyd. Yeah, sounds like it's Ricardofoy. Well then they because he's always
fiery. But but think about it. Think about to the teams that we
knew, you know, who was the guy that was going to do that
under Luke his assistant coaches, whether it was Ricky bird Song, Kevin O'Neill,
Rosbero, whoever, those were. Those are the guys that would get
the team. But they were guilty of not this arizon. Those teams have
been guilty of since I've known them. They don't get up for teams that
they think that they can just show up. I mean, they just But
don't you think a lot of teams do oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's really hard. I don't worry about the yeah, you're not
covering the other teams worried about my neighbors, weeds. I worry about what
I would worry about my neighbors. But but I hear you and that.
I mean, that's kind of been the knock. But that's sort of the
knock on any really good program like Arizona, no question, right, imagine
the Duke fans imagine they're due great, right do you play they play down?
I mean, don't don't really good football teams play down to the compety
you know, a USC even in Alabama, or or a Michigan or Ohio.
It's so hard. Obviously you're gonna be more fired up for a game
that's more compet it's gonna be a tighter game, it's gonna be harder.
It's hard to just have that energy against it every single game, not everything,
not only every single game, but against a team sure that you think
you can beat Arizona. Its historically in basketball specifically, uh, you worry
about the first and second rounds after the Sweet sixteen. They're inspired right now?
Maybe Kansas in ninety seven. They everyone told them they were underducks.
How are we underducks. We're not underdu beat We can beat these guys.
And they beat them and they did, and that was one of the all
time great basketball I guess what happened The next game they played Providence, a
team that will came the almost lost. It went double overtime, overtime,
right, So Arizona is that's their great Stuff's an m. Yeah, that's
it. That's that's definitely and always it has been. It has been,
It has been ever since. They've been a program that other teams get up
for. In eighty seven, in eighty seven, and this is what we
know, no one thought, right, Yeah, so they kicked the crap
out of people just to prove a point. And that's when it started.
Yeah, that's when it started exactly. Now, I hear you steve it,
you know, yeah, I mean, that's that's what they do.
But it sounds to me like they've got their full attention with these two games
coming up. Okay, look, the crowds are going to be crazy.
Both of these teams are undefeated at home. If they go in with anything
other than inspired, then then there's a bigger problem. And if they get
beat. They get beat right right if you if you play hard, to
play well and exactly all right, let's take a break. We're gonna come
back. Uh, and let's be up with breaking news.