This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Salaz on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services. I'm sure your most prized possessions,
kat z R two Sale and iHeartRadio Station. Welcome everybody, Good afternoon.
This is I on your ball, in the ball, on my eyes.
Whatever you rather with me? Jay, what you do? I not Gronko
right over man, I not home over Gronk never I know. And he's
still looking like he's gonna spike the ball, but he was on his back
for a second there. Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Iron
the ball. You hoping for something else? Sorry? Well, Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's jagon'saus. Got our boy Kevin back
and we've already started a little chaotically, but we're fine. We're fine.
Good to see everybody. Tomorrow's big game. A good show today. No
more about basketball, right, A lot of basketball. A little change in
the schedule because we posted that we were going to play the Tommy Lloyd Press
conference at three fifteen, but we've been trying to get Ryan Hanson on,
uh, you know, brought waxing a little, a little nostalgic here.
It's the last trip to UCLA. Rhyano has been a part of the program
for a lot of years. He grew up in the conference, you know,
kind of like I did, and I was talking about yesterday. So
Ryan is going to join us at three three seventeen seventeen three twenty, and
then we'll play the Tommy Lloyd press conference in the last segment of the first
hour, right, and then in the next hour, we found an Elie
Times guy, Ben Bultch, and he'll get on the line with us and
talk about tomorrow's game, and I'll ask him about his situation with the UCLA
Bruins. He I'm gonna joke with him, of course, and I won't
see what I want to say, because he's had it tough the last year
or so, Chip Kelly, Chip and Crona. And then the job situation.
Ellie Times is going through a lot of stuff. Yeah, but he
still has his job. So he's one of the better ones in the conference.
So we'll we'll talk to him about everything everything. The next hour should
be a lot of fun. Yep. The girls play at night, Well,
we played a night played to night at the seven o'clock our time,
right, I believe six o'clock Vegas time. Okay, I thought it was
six hard because we're not on daylight savings, right, or they're not on
daylight saving this, I believe. I believe there at seven o'clock two some
times seven o'clock they play in Washington. Okay, so we'll we'll monitor that
and probably talk about it tomorrow. Big game for them. They need to
win. Yeah, they need to win. I think I think they still
got some, you know, little glimmer of hope that they make enough of
a run to get into the NCAA tournament. They would likely they not likely
if they win, they play USC in the second round, it'll be an
opportunity to kind of Okay, let's win that game and maybe we're in.
What's been adirable about in my at least from that team or about that team,
is they haven't given up given all. You know, they started with
nine I think it was the beginning of the year, very thin already,
and then they went to seven, two more left or kicked off or whatever
you want to say, and then they're still working their butt off and working
very hard, when you could have easily said, you know, enough of
this already. We don't need this stuff. And I think, you know,
for those people who are saying, well, you know Ida, you
know, you know, she loses players and your players leave and she's hard
hard to play for and stuff like that. Well, look at the seven
and and and and the work that they're putting in and and what they're going
through, and how much they you know, those seven seem to be together
and maybe, you know, in order for them to be as best as
they could, maybe they did need to weed some people out there. So
auditioned by something that happens, you know, happens a lot. You know
sometimes uh, you know, you clear the decks and you all of a
sudden, you know, the clouds part, and you feel better about yourself.
It's still hard because they've only got seven players, but certainly they feel
better about themselves once they're on the court. Yeah, yeah, no question.
Uh, what you'll find out is what I'll ask Jay right now.
And I'm sure you've been in the corporate well know, you've been in the
corporate world where you've had to say goodbye to people that were good. But
we're a pain in the ad, we're bad teammates. Yeah, and then
you figure out you find somebody else who you cary right, right, you
know, I mean I've told you you know that's right. I mean I
went through with a guy at the TEP and I remember the CEO just said,
Okay, we think he's really good, but you obviously run the department.
Just know that we continue to expect the level of work that he produced
and that you and that you have to produce. It was hard. It
was hard because the guy was really good, but he was a pain in
the ass. Did they replace him eventually? Oh? Yeah, Well we
got to replace him. But I never had anybody as adept at public relations,
just the physical, not physical, but just the technical public relations work.
I mean, the guy was incredible, but he was so bad at
the rest of it. Well, was he not a people person? No?
Well, I mean to me, to me, you could be.
You could pull as much magic out of your bucket as you want. If
you can't deal with people, what the hell are you there for? Well
he got fired because he didn't know. He couldn't, for the life of
him, could not figure out how to supervise people. And he was a
supervisor. Is the world of people place? Yeah, exactly, he couldn't
deal with the people, and he could he could run circles around me from
you know, the technical public relations aspect of what we were doing. I
mean he he ran circles around I mean I but that's why I hired it,
because he was really damn You hire people who can act things you can.
Then I put him in charge of a couple of people and he could
handle it. And ultimately he was doing things that led me to have to
fire the guy. Yeah, and it was unfortunate. Well, you could
have a great point guard center or whatever. They don't get the memo.
There's no more memos, right, you know, enough of the memos.
You gotta go sorry exactly and that and that, and that's how happens,
you know. And then you, as the coach or whatever you want to
call yourself, you gotta you gotta own that. I got to take responsibility
at the end of the day. And then in fact, all uh bend
this because yesterday Cronin said, who's to blame for all this? And he
says me, why not me? He's a coach. Well he's been blaming
other people all season, luck but he not. Yeah, yeah, we'll
ask been because true yeah, one press conference after another. He's throwing guys
under the past. We'll see any chance he gets a team. Yeah,
we'll talk about that. We'll talk about with I'm gonna have to look that
up before we get him on. Yeah, it's just quick quotes. A
well, that's been about that too, So looking forward to talking to Rhino.
I saw the saw the the Tommy Lloyd press conference. I saw you
asked a couple of quick questions. Uh. He was again some of the
Christians were kind of strange though. You know, you're aware that the final
fours in Phoenix, right, you know what? Yeah, yeah, and
then he looks at you like, of course I know, of course I
know, and we care about it. We're trying to get there, but
not right now, you know. Yeah, we need to do in some
game. That was interesting, okay, so we'll go some You know,
it was very lightly attended. I bet press conference. I bet uh well,
I think uh. I think Jason barr Well four and nine were there.
Sheer was not there, Bruce was there, I was not there.
You were not there, yeah, Brian Peterson was there. Yeah. So
so one of one of the younger guys thirteen was nothing thirteen was not there.
Well, you know what, A couple of the kids weren't there too,
because the spring break. The kids are gone because the spring break.
So about six of us. Yeah, some of the real jobs that we
can't get to. So I watched on the on the show, Who's the
guy? Was there? A kid was there? Yeah? Yeah, he
was the guy. He he came and did ur he came and sat in
on our show one time. The player. Oh, I I left before
they brought the player and I got out of here. Okay, I can't.
I hustle over here. And we saw I got the clips into the
into the computer with fifty eight seconds left before the show. So I mean
we we cut that as tight as we possibly could. Yeah, okay,
So we'll get to that throughout the show me or second half of this hour,
after the after right after, after the Ryan Hanson interview, after that
break, we'll we'll go through the clips and we'll play we'll play most of
them we want. We we were playing on playing the whole thing, but
because we're using my recording of it, the question, you can't hear the
questions, so it doesn't really do any good to just play the answer.
So we'll introduce each clip and we'll play as much as much of as much
of it as we can. Right, Okay, next Friday, Next Monday,
we talked to Desiree read Francois. Okay, that's when Monday. So
we'll have some stuff from her her first week of the work, similar to
what we did with with Brent Brannan, will have where we get ten minutes,
get ten minutes, we'll sit down, we'll record it, and then
we'll play it for you. That's as plus, we're going to get to
her right now. But you know she's going in the back twop tournament as
well. I'm sure she's up up in Vegas right now. I think she's
gonna be Yeah. Maybe I was just gonna tease her already because you know
how Jeff Fish was a pretty good social media guy. It looks like she's
the similar. Oh yeah, she's on Instagram a lot. Answer. She's
not a Facebook on Twitter. Maybe on Twitter. I saw. I don't
want to have to be going on Instagram to get her stuff on Instagram him.
Uh, she was strolling through the campus. I guess she had started
or maybe this morning before before anything. Uh, So Vegas it is the
next couple of weeks here now, can you feel things speeding up right now?
Like what like us? You know, just we're just you know that
slow. Yeah, be twelve you cee l A U C l A coming
up. You know, it's a big weekend for for men's basketball. Then
we go into the tournament and C double A. I feel like we got
our foot on the gas and we're starting to you know, get up to
jack it up a little bit. Right, Well, you gotta get the
road of Wickenberg. I'm flying this time, man, I'm flying to you.
We're got a bunch of we have a motley crew of reporters getting off
Arald. I don't know if I told you the story of when we drove
up for the West Regional last year. Oh, I still got the picture
of that guy with a you know, packing and packing the side army.
He's changing our tires. Deliberate music. Yeah yeah, yeah, you Banjo's
dude that But I know that's what he was trying to do. Deliverance,
Yeah, said that was just it was it was, it was, it
was deliverance. We were like, we need to keep an eye on each
other. Do anybody disappear for a second. We need to know where everybody
is about. Pretty funny, Yeah, especially over and we were not on
the main drag of Wickenburg. Okay, we were off, we were off
to the side. It was pretty fun right, Okay, Uh, anything
else? Remember the phone call phone number five two four one, six seventy
four forty. We'll have some calls. So you can call us now if
you'd like for a second. Uh, next off to the rhino. Uh
taping or not taping interview. Well, we'll be ready for you then too,
so you can call us while we're playing the the clips. But uh,
you know, it's interesting that you know Tommy's approached He's okay, we're
you know, you'll see you'll hear him say we're done with Michael. He
called it like a new start, right because they're all the home games are
over with. We're on the road the rest of the way out. You
know, we got this weekend, we got the packed off tournament, we
got the NUBAA tournament, and uh and kind of a really interesting uh sense
of how he's approaching this with his team. Yeah, because I don't want
to speak out of time. I'm pretty sure Tommy is one of these coaches.
But he's one of the coaches. The season season in quarters almost it's
like the maybe first quarter of the season is what we have to do to
see in the second quarter, it's almost like a game within the game,
right, So he might just see this as like, all right, we're
in the final quarter of the season here, like we got to make something
work because he's winning time. Yeah, it's almost like like these two games
coming up are sort of part of their postseason, right because they know that
they got, you know, they got to win these two games to win
the Pack Culp Championship. He knows Washington State is right there, They're probably
gonna be at Washington and they got you know, a tough trip ahead of
him, and he fully expects these guys to, uh, these guys to
be to be ready. I didn't cut the clip on USC. I thought
we could use it uh tomorrow Friday, But you know, he just the
fact that, you know, the USC team that came here is not the
USC team that they're going to face up there on Saturday. Do you have
a lot of breaking news? You know? Okay, So let me said,
did you see that the interview with Saban? I guess yesterday or today
or whatever it was. I saw the story and he said one of the
reasons why, one of the reasons, not the main reasons why he why
he retired was because after they lost to Michigan, his players were cranky and
they're acting like poor sports and just not the players that he played. That
was part of it. And here's a quote, and you'll guys like this.
I thought we could have a expletive of a team next year. And
then maybe seventy or eighty percent of the players you talk to, all they
want to know is two things. What assurance do I have that I'm going
to play because they're thinking about transferring? And how much am I going to
get paid? Our program here was always built on how much value we can
create for your future and your personal development academically and graduating and developing for an
NFL career on the field, So that kind of, you know, he
started to I'm sure he started to see it before, but now it became
more interesting how much am I gonna get paid? And am I gonna play?
We'll say, when I walked in the Doug Gottlieb Show was on overhead
and here here in the studio and I caught the tail end of that quote.
I didn't know who said it, so I thought he was I thought
it was Chip Kelly because I know if you saw what Chip Kelly said.
Yes, no, but I think I saw the reasons why. And we'll
talk to Ben because he tweeted some stuff too. But you could put Jagan
zaliz Is the coach Jaginsawaz on this court. You could put every quote,
every coach on this quote, right, because that's just what about me?
How much play time? How much am I going to? Andy Lopez,
Mike Andre, Dave Rubio, and they're thankful they don't have to be put
on that right spot? Right. Yeah, you might even be able to
put Dave Hekey in there. See, you know, just the fact just
what that what matters to athletes? You know, you get a guy like
Dave Hekey who was all about the athlete experience, right, but this isn't
the athlete, No, he's talking about and sure not what they're signed up
for. Yeah yeah, okay, all right, okay, well we have
a caller. Come but listen, do we can do real quick just take
it in real higher on the air and on the ball. Yeah, I
want a couple of quick comments about women's basketball. Okay, it's got to
be real quick. Okay. Number one, they beat Stanford with seven ladies.
They gave sc all they could handle was seven ladies. And I think
physically, I think by the time they played UCLA, I think physically there
was a lot of wear and tear on them and it caught up. But
I definitely believe if I'm a tournament team, I don't want to play Arizona
and I'm really hoping that they get the chance to play in the NC two
way because I think they burned it well. I think a lot of people
would agree with you. And it starts tonight for them. We'll see what
they do. Yeah, all right, all right, thank you for calling.
We appreciate it. Thanks. All right, Okay, let's go and
take our break. We're going to come back change the schedule. Ryan Hanson
is going to join us after the break, and then after Ryan Hanson after
the break, After Ryan Hanson, we'll get into the Tommy Lloyd press conference.
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evaluation today. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez
soun Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app
just surgeon I on the Ball and welcome back to I on the Ball here
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jaginsaus. Now on the
phone, we have Ryan Hansen, one of the play live lady guys color
analysts for the other station twelve ninety covering the Cats a long time. You
have a guy historian, Canager grew up in this thing, right, yeah,
yeah, you got you gonna miss the Pac twelve and what we used
to know of it, Oh, absolutely right. I when it first came
down that this thing was breaking up, right when USC and UCLA said we're
out, I was sad. It was like, is that possible? And
then I kind of got numb to it because it didn't seem real. And
then I got excited about the Big twelve. And then now that we will
probably not see Washington State, Washington, Cal, Stanford, USC maybe ever
again, or at least for the foreseeable future inside McHale and I'm holding out
hope for UCLA and Oregon possibly. That's sad to me. There's some great
rivalries, some great matchups, right, Steve, You and I have talked
about this for years. Jay, you and I have hit hit each other
up on the Washington runs when they had Brandon Roy and Lorenzo Romar and the
Stanford teams with Mike Montgomery. It just it's kind of sad that we will
not have that when we're playing Arizona and Iowa State. There's just not a
rich history Arizona Cincinnati. Not a lot of things to fall back on.
A couple of games in there, right, not that, not that year
in, year out rivalry. But right now, I don't know. I
don't know how old you are, but I believe I'm guessing that the Pac
ten Arizona was in the Pac ten before you were born. I am forty
nine. I was alive during the merge. Okay, my first couple of
games would have been Wack Conference with Joe Mels and Ma Cruz. Okay,
all right, but close, all right, See, I thought you were
younger than you are, So there you go. There's a little there's a
little compliment there. But you know, I was nineteen when when Arizona,
you know, in its first year in the pack, in the pack,
and I was so excited as a kid, right as a teen. I'm
a college student, I'm at the U, and I'm like, we're gonna
you know, we're not going to be playing in Colorado State and Wyoming anymore.
I'm playing USC and UCLA and the excitement of that and then to see
you know that that I felt that at that time, and then to see
that it's gone, I mean, it's gone. To me, it all
ends next week, I know. There. You know, I've said there's
baseball, there's softball, there's other sports going on. But you know,
the Pac ten and Pac twelve that I grew up with was all about football
and basketball, and it's over next week. And the thought of that just
I depresses the hell out of me right now. Yeah, it's an interesting
thought process when you go back to that, that transition, right Arizona and
ASU were moving up. They were the ones that left at their own wishes
up in a conference into a potential you know. Now they were playing for
Rose Bowls, they were playing for automatic berths in the nca tournament, you
know, and could go deeper because of the competition that they were going to
play, right, So, there was a level of excitement that I'm sure
some of the longtime fans wished there could carry on the rivalry with New Mexico
and New Mexico State some of the other teams. I'm sure there was a
feeling of quote unquote loss for that those rivalries, but there was such greener
pastures. This feels to me a little lateral like unnecessary, a little lateral
better in some worse than others. So let's talk or waxpotic called the UCLA
series through the years. Any ones that stick out to you, I have
a few. There's a number that stick out for good and for bad,
right, so, uh, of course I'll go back to the worst one
ever, the streak ending with Derek Martin knocking down the shot. But in
and amongst that, I have such fond memories of the hatred running through my
veins for Trevor Wilson and Don McClain and Reggie Miller and those guys that era
that really made us hate those guys, Walt Hazard Roman the sidelines, and
then and then it started to evolve more with the Jim Herrick and the O'Bannon
brothers. So there were some great stuff there. I remember Brian Williams had
a colossible game at Pavilion, Yes, that was that one sticks out in
my mind. I remember Chris Mills hitting a baseline jumper at Polly Pavilion to
send the game into overtime that ultimately helped us win. I believe a Conference
champ being shipped. Selina Statomai are hitting a three at the top of the
key in two thousand and five in McHale Center sticks out in my mind.
I'm Steve, I'm sure you recall back to the two thousand and two comeback
in the second half against UCLA nineteen points. It was kind of reminiscent of
the first game this year against UCLA where Arizona had to overcome a massive neficit
in the first half. No, you're bringing up some great points to the
Flalo. The Selima over a Flollo shot right right after entering half court.
I remember Luke just had to be nineteen ninety three, ninety four or maybe
ninety five, because Joe McCay was on the team at the time, and
Luke being so furious, he pounded the table at Polly and got the attention
to the scorekeepers and it made a story, and I think I made in
my book, one of my books, because I had to go find the
scorekeeper and he says, yeah, it was kind of strange because you know
Luke would get fiery, but never do that. That was something out of
the ordinary. And he did that because he got a call that was it
was a bad call I think made McClain was pushed underneath the basket or something.
Speaking of Joe McClain, I know that for sure it was Joe McClain.
I remember the game vividly. Joe got called for an over the back
call on a rebound with like less than two seconds in the game, and
that was a one of a number of bad calls that led to a loss
for Arizona. And if I recall correctly, in the last eleven minutes of
that game, U C l A was called for one file well loot off
and at this point, if this sports coke didn't go into the stands,
you knew was right. You know, there's a little one that sticks in
my mind, and I don't know why this one sticks, but it always
because it happened right in front of me and involves Joe McClain UCLA here and
McLean had like he'd fallen to the ground and he's on his back. No
no, no, not not Joe McClean, but you're talking about Don McLean.
No, Joe McLean's on his back. And Don mcclan walks up,
puts his hand out to help him up, and pulls his hand. I
thought that was Bushler. Maybe what that would have been Butchhler. Okay,
okay, one of eight years apart, So that would have been Bushler that
Don McLain pulled the with the handshake. Oh yeah, what's amazing now.
I think Don mcclan would do that today. Matt Muellbach was pushed down.
He would probably pull the on today. I know that in the book that
Anthony did a story about the U c l A players you love to hate.
Okay, So there's a long a whole bunch of a long list,
right, you know Tracy Murray Miller, who's the worst probably in your time?
You remember one that you we haven't mentioned? How about Baron Davis as
a guy. Toby Bailey was the guy that not not too many people love.
Right, there's an Ottawan Petusca, remember that big dude Petsca. Yeah,
Richard Petrusca, Yeah, I remember him. Don Martin, Well,
Martin was the one that uh Derek Martin Martin. I mean just just I
hit it a great shot and being a great player. People hated it just
because you know this. And I think I can recall Lute and Herrick their
relationship. It was better off the court than it was on, oh for
sure. Right, And it's amazing coach. Coach Olsen, as you know,
had had a high respect for a handful of guys, but yet it
ratcheted up his desire to beat them. And Mike Montgomery probably top that list
where he had a very very high respect for him as a coach. But
when it was time to play Stanford, boy cranked it up a notch.
And I think Herrek was also in that mold and clearly and Herk led the
Bruins to the ninety five national title. So he had the credentials for a
great coach because of he hung a banner in PAULI. But yeah, coach
coach, I loved to beat UCLA and growing up as a coach as a
high school coach and then at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State there
in the shadows of Paul Pavilion, coach Olson kind of had a love for
UCLA because of his relationship with John Wooden. And I'm guarantee you was Lut's
kind of measuring stick. How we played against UCLA was his own personal measuring
stick of where he was in life as a coach, and if he could
beat UCLA consistently, then he had arrived. He was doing his job and
had made it. You know, if we want to talk to villains,
let's talk about Walt Hazard for just that couple of years. Oh my god,
I don't know what you thought at that time? Was Walt somebody that
Lucas didn't have time for? Because what was groucy? What was groucy?
I don't know if Lut I kind of like your phrase, Jay that I
don't know if Lut had as much time for him. I don't think he.
I don't think he disliked him, but I think he may not have.
They weren't great during the Hazard years. If you recall, there were
some good teams. They were up and down in a couple of really really
good players that they weren't going consistently winning championships and going deep into the tournament.
Right, those were the years that Washington was winning the conference title,
work and State was making runs at the Pac ten Conference championship. It wasn't
a consistently UCLA Arizona run just yet. I was kind of towards the end
of the Hazard era. Do you remember the story? And if you don't
know, I'll like to tell it. Miller. Miller was being recruited by
loot here back in the day and Miller came to visit. Did you ever
hear the story about him being recruited here? That not the Reggie Miller.
When when you finished that, I've got a Jason Capono. Every guy,
yeah Capono, Yeah, sharpshooter. So he comes in, I guess at
nineteen eighty six, eighty seven, and him and Whiteman are obviously close,
right, Lton and Whiteman. So they take a Miller to the house of
the White Men's you know in the policehows up north and he goes in and
they show him around, and Craig as the kid at that time, I
don't know, eight ten, maybe years old, and you walk around in
Craig being Craig shows of Miller. Hey, come in the backyard. Let
me show you something. We had to have some snakes in the backyard.
And Miller's the greatest snakes if you have snakes here, right, covied year
not good? Right. There's good things and bad things about the on campus
visits. But I remember we recruited Jason Capono very hard at the same time,
same year recruiting class as Luke Walton and Ricky Anderson and those guys were
it was kind of like, hey, we could take one or two of
those guys, but couldn't take all three. And Luke committed first, Richard
Jefferson jumped in there, and then Ricky Anderson grabbed one of the scholarship spots.
But then towards the end of those guys' careers, I can still recall
and COO may not admit that this happened, but I heard it with my
own ears that told Luke, I think his senior year, looking back,
I wish I could have played for you, And so I know he had
a high respect for Loodles for sure, right right, Well, And you
use that word because in spite of, you know, the bitterness of some
of the rivalries, of some of the rivalry games and stuff like that,
you did feel that the two programs had a lot of respect for each other.
Recruited recruited the players. I mean there was years where the starting five
of each team were recruited by the other team. Hard like it almost was
down to the last two. I mean, Tracy Murray and Wayne Womack were
best of friends growing up in high school. One comes to Arizona, one
comes to Ucla and guess what we recruited both UCLA recruited both that could have
very easily been Tracy Murray in an Arizona uniform and Wayne Womack in a Bruin
blue, which I just can't can't see that in my mind right, But
there was so much respect because it was similar players, best of the West.
Both teams went deep and you and I have talked about this, guys
all the time, and I still believe it to be true. And this
year is case endpoint. When UCLA and Arizona are good, the conference gets
swag nationally, it gets repid Street credibility. When one or both are down,
the league is down. Right. What's happening this year? Boys?
It's a two bid league. It's a point partly because Ucla is not UCLA.
If Ucla was the same Bruin program we've seen when they're at their best
and Arizona is in the top ten, I guarantee you this is the five
or six bid league because of that a lot, you know, getting back
to the whole, the whole respect thing. And again another moment that that
struck me, and this I think this happened while I was still covering the
team because I had to have been there for a shoot around before and before
in Arizona Ucla game here, Michale and we used to get to go to
the shooter rounds, right, and I remember there's the Arizona guys are coming
off court and here comes the UCLA guys and I'm like, okay, I
got to see this, right, thinking, okay, you know, are
they going to you know, glare at each other? What are they going
to do? And they're all coming and they're all hugging each other, saying
what's going on? You know, and getting back to what you just said
about you know that these guys were all friends and they were just happened to
wind up on separate teams and a mon like their buddies. And tomorrow or
later today, they're going to be going at it in a way that you
you know, not a lot of other rivalries do. And it was fascinating
to me to see that. It's a slightly different era though, right Jay,
And when you look at it now with the foreign infusion of players on
both rosters, the transfer portal where Arizona's got Caleb and key Shot who maybe
don't fully fully appreciate that rivalry because they haven't had you know, they've played
UCLA in those an these down years where Pella and Umar have those battles at
the PAC twelve tournament coming down to the last play two years in a row.
They probably have that hatred. But what's interesting is I don't think there's
as many Ruins that Arizona has recruited, and I don't think there's that many
Wildcats that UCLA has recruited. So it's a different era from what you and
I have have. So, you know, lovingly and maybe nostalgically looked back
at that era by gone times of the nineties, eighties and nineties and into
the two thousands, the rivalry remains, but it's taken a different form.
Right when you think of Steve Alford and Sean Miller added a lot of extra
flavor with the timeout in the last minute of the game when the game is
out of hand, Right, that was kind of fun. It was fun
to elevate the rave the hair on the back of everybody's neck. But it's
taken on a different form. Wasn't he touched the ball against You said I
was against Ucla. Yes, in the past journey was Yes, it was
Michael Irving is finally allowed back on the court. That all games what would
be on a ten year pan? I think yeah. His picture was at
the border checkpoint coming into Azon said you can't go pass here. Well,
right, we can talk days about this, at least more time, but
we've already run out of time. Got to go to commercial. Thanks a
bunch, Rhyo for coming on. Appreciate it you. That'd be a good
one against the Bruin. Thanks on you we could go. I looked at
the clock and I said, you forgot this at the clock, but know
you didn't. We're doing We're out, Okay, all right, we're gonna
come back. We've got some Tommy Lloyd press conference clips for you, some
interesting comments about a lot of different things, and so we'll play that for
you, and so stick around. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan,
you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back
at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Lout It was
a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches,
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dot net. Steve Robera and Jacin Solids they have their eye on the ball
on Tucson Sports stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Heay, welcome back
touring the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roberta, He's jagins
Ass. Got our guy Kevin in. We got thirteen minutes if you guys
want to Oh no, no, we're gonna do some clips. Yeah,
we talked about where am I to son Arizona stek all right, we're talking
about the interesting approach that that that Tommy Lloyd is making about. We're done
with Michael, we're moving on. This is the clip that he talks about.
You know, Okay, the question was basically about you realize the final
fours in Phoenix? What do you you know? Are you guys trying to
get their kind of thing with very funny question, but well, well here's
his answer. I mean, I love how it sets up. And we're
done with Michail done and it's it's time to move on and play away from
here. So I mean, I couldn't for ask for a better ending.
You know, I'm not talking Pac twelve. You guys can get all you
know, philosophical and emotional and sentimental about that. I'm just saying, you
know, for us to go out and finish the season on the road,
it's good because we're gonna have to play, you know, really well away
from home the rest of the year, so you know, and I think
we have been playing well away from home as of late, so let's keep
it going. It's funny when I was listening to that and I was kind
of smiling, uh you, and he said, you guys can be philosophical,
bubboll, and I was thinking to myself, Yeah, he's only been
here three years. He does he's not fully invested. He's not even a
little invested in the in the history of the meeting, of the fact that
this last game. Yeah, it's like, just let's play. I don't
I don't care about other stuff. Well, here, there's a there's a
clip to that he was asked about. You know, I mean, he
he obviously, and he's in the West Coast. He's the West Coast,
guys, obviously, knows about the rivalry, so we'll here's what he had
to say about the ending of the rivalry. Well, you know, hopefully
the the memories will stay recent because we'll continue to play them, you know,
so you know, and listen, I know that there's a good chance
we'll have to play you know, obviously you say once, maybe twice more
this year. So I know the rivalry is important to both fan bases,
you know. I I don't get too caught up in that, you know,
because I just have to try to prepare my team to play against their
team, and and so any anything. You know that the past history really
has nothing to do with this game. But but emotions are involved for the
fans, and I understand that. I don't know if they're the emotions are
as strong for you know, the current players or the current coaching staffs.
But but I recognize how special the you know, both brands are and what
they've meant in the history of college basketball, and you know, and it's
an honor to be participating, you know, as as a coach of one
of the teams. You know, it gets back to what Ryan Hanson was
talking about that, you know, the where it used to be that these
guys well recruited by both the SILA and USA. They don't really don't have
that anyway. These guys are coming from all over the place, partly because
of the transfer port. Yeah, yeah, kids, I don't think it
kids today. Maybe they did it in the back of the day. But
it's it's let me play, let me don't care. I just want to
I don't only care what I'm worrying. It's funny too, because I've been
seeing in the stuff that I feeds that I watch a lot of the jet
fists. I don't know why it's popping up, but it's a lot.
And he's wearing the purple w And then I see Tommy with this, you
know, U a sweater, a little quarter cut, and I'm thinking,
these guys must have tremendous amount of swag from other schools. You know what
I'm saying, come back, you know how the number of places that the
jet has for sure? Yeah, Kevin O'Neil, Kevin Hill, I don't
remember this joke, but he'd come in. He says, yeah, you
know, I've been all over the place. I just burned my stuff at
the previous time, so you know, he has no clothes burned. I'm
still debating if I set my pack twelve stuff on fire. No, no,
it to me because I like you, because it helps me, all
right, So he was he was obviously asked about the last U c l
A game and how that went, and so you just, you know,
had some comments about you know, the fact that they came back and won
that game. Well, I mean, it was a frantic and panic game,
you know, I mean, they they jumped us a little bit,
and you know, I mean, and you got to give them credit.
They came in here and earned the lead. And I'm sure we made mistakes,
but you know, mistakes happened in basketball, and they capitalized on our
mistakes. So and then then we scratch and clawed and found a way.
You know, I was proud of that effort, but but I was also
you know, I'm aware, you know, of how good UCLA can be,
and and you know, obviously we got we gotta play better, you
know, going on the road to give ourselves a chance to win than we
did, you know, in that first half, and earning that second half
against them. If that start happens again, which you know it probably won't,
there's no way they're going to be well, he said, after that
game, you know we won that. We can't we were able to come
back and win this game because it was years at home, So we can't
do that or they can't do that. So I asked him, Okay,
what's you know, what's the difference between U c l A, that U
c l A team that you saw here and the one that you're gonna see
tomorrow night. You know, no, no, I mean not in particular.
I mean I think that I don't know if they've had any major injuries
that I've noticed. You know, they're they're definitely a better team now than
they were at the start of the year. And you know, I think
guys, are you know, comfortable with the roles that they're playing. You
know that they have a force inside and Bona that's just a he's just a
really good player and he's a lot to deal with that, you know,
on both ends of the floor. So and then those guards have you know,
gotten comfortable and confident and you know, I mean, I know,
to me, they're they're a good ball club, you know. I mean,
I think you you take away you know, some of those losses they
had early in the season and and and just focus on you know, there
are more recent stuff that they they're pretty good. Yeah, they looked the
same to me, and they were playing better, but they didn't look so
good last week. So I don't know. We'll see what Again, it's
a matter of, you know, where are their heads at for this series?
Do they really want to play this and play out the season or are
they just sick of it? And one wanted to be over with Yeah,
yeah, we'll see. He had other topics too. I guess he talked
about you your question to comparing love to somebody right now? Yeah, there
was that. Well I got, I got a season high three questions in
today they did because there's nobody there. Yeah, well partly and next one,
well I did ask him. I said, you know, Colin Boswell's
put a couple of really nice games together, back and back. You know,
do you notice, you know, when a guy's going well? Does
he have a little more bounce in his step? Can you tell when they're
on the court that, uh, you know that things are going well for
them? And what do you see? Well, I mean you can notice
when guys are playing well, you know, I mean sometimes you know,
you can see you know, basically, you know, than playing with joy
and excitement. But you know, I would hope that you know, how
a guy his body language looks doesn't necessarily reflect that he's playing good or bad.
You know, we we want guys to be locked in and be playing
with effort energy, no matter how well things are going for them individually.
But but you know, Kylon's growing. He's a good player. He's a
good player. He's just you know, he's had he's had an up and
down year like I think ninety nine point nine percent of every other freshman or
eighteen year olds in the country, you know, and and uh, you
know, he's a huge part of what we do. And we have a
lot of belief in him. It's funny because you know how I feel about
that. He's sure, he's eighteen, right, but he's got a lot
of games behind him. He's going to be a junior here and in a
month pretty much. Yes, game wise, he's going to be a junior.
So enough of the age thing. Yeah, exactly, and no exactly,
I mean it. He's he's he's an old grizzled veteran. Yeah,
he really is. Who is one of the at one time a few months
ago was considered an NBA prospect right at a very high level. I think
he slipped a little with that, but in time he'll rEFInd it. Yeah,
yeah. And then I asked him if Caleb Caleb Love uh reminds him
of anybody that that he coached, and you mentioned a guy, but then
he went into what he thinks of how Caleb Love is playing. You know,
I mean a little bit like, uh, you know, there's a
guy we had at Gonzaga named, you know, Zach Norvel, you know,
who was a wing player that you know, he's lefty, that was
different but just really talented offensively, and you know, you know, could
had no problem getting up a high volume of shots and in making tough shots.
You know, Caleb is a special player, and and he's having a
special year. And you know, I'm sure there's gonna be a bunch of
accolades and awards coming his way, you know, whether that's you know,
player of the Year type stuff or or you know, all American type stuff.
But you know, we don't talk about that, and that that that
stuff will be a byproduct of of how our team performs, and and and
he's deserving of everything that comes his way. But I know this, I
know his focus is just on when in the next game, and we we
ain't getting any more complicated than that. Yeah, I mean now, it's
just about showing what you can do. March. They call it madness for
a reason. Yeah, you gotta win as many games as you can to
say, two three, that's five. Can they've gone nine of ten?
Right? Can they go eleven in a row? Because that's what it is.
Can they go eleven in a row? Two? Three and five?
Six? And they don't really have to go eleven in a row, No,
they don't. They don't. They can go you know, even nine
out of eleven and still but as long as they go six in a row
at the end. Sure, Sure, there's a lot to like about this
team. We talked with this with the course earlier the week. Uh,
can you trust this team to do that? Go on a six game heater?
Right? Yeah? And I and I don't you know, we don't
know that yet. But certainly something that I don't know. You'll you'll you
look at it and you go, they can, but we don't know.
What. Did they go nine to nineer begin the year? No? No,
no, it was nine and no, and they played very good teams.
So they're capable of capable of going nine in zero against good, good
teams. Right. Right. Let's say they start out the season uh,
Morgan State, Duke, Uh, Southern University, Belmont U, t Arlington,
Michigan State to Colgate Wisconsin three and then they lost it Purdue three.
So they had three of those games with n C Double A type teams.
Yeah. Uh. And then they played Alabama, so that's four. Uh.
They went eight no, not nine and eight No. But in those
stretch they had three three games against n C double A teams. Lost Purdue,
beat Alabama, and lost in Florida Atlanta. Yeah, so there was
of those five n C Double A teams they went three two, Yeah,
three and two on any given day. Yeah, you can, like they
say, if if those team plays as well as it can and can win
the title, well conversely, if they don't play as well as they can,
they can lose it. They can lose it. Yeah, we were
so we're so bad about that. But it's but it's the truth. I
mean, it's honestly the truth. Yeah, all right, I got a
couple of minutes. I want to play this. He was he was kind
of asked, you know, well, let's go let's go to this one,
talking about, you know, the stretch that they're in. You know,
it came. It came after they they had lost to Oregon State,
then they went and beat Oregon then they've won nine of ten. Uh basically
asked, what did you say? What? What? What happened there that
that all of a sudden, you know, you went on you've gone on
this. He was almost described as a heater. I'm playing there wasn't a
nine. Oh I'm sorry. Uh oh, I must have missed that one.
Okay, let's skip that one and we'll come back to that. Uh,
let's play clip number. He was funny with that too. Yeah.
Basically, as you know, is the conference championship matter to you guys?
I mean it's something we've always had a you know, desire to win.
But you know that they're they're they're steps. Now. You know, you're
wrapping up the regular season, so you know that this is like a new
beginning for us. We're done playing a McHale, We're wrapping up the regular
season, then the tournament, you know, and then then the NCAA tournament.
So you know, you can not win the PAC twelve regular season and
still played well in the NA tournament. But you know, we want to
go step by step and keep building. So you know, our focus right
now is to try to come out and play really well this weekend and put
ourselves in position to win the PAC twelve. We know that's not going to
be easy. You know, we got a team that's you know, deserving
and right on our heels, so we we've got to come out and and
play well on the road, which is never easy to do, right,
especially with this team. In the end. Through the whole new press conference,
he's very low key, right, you know what, guys, I
know I got to talk to you about all this stuff. I really only
give one crap right now about UCLA. Yeah, and given my choice,
I would not be here. Rude right now, you know, I don't
want to be here. I think he was kind of happy that they're only
like a handful of guys there, but we still asked all the questions.
Yeah, yeah, because Nick filled it up. Next year they come back
and I don't even think we probably meet with them before they go to the
tournament, who knows. And then the tournament opens and that's when it gets
Harry because it gets what happens. The locker room opens and it's not closed
like it is now, and we get more access to the guys in the
press conferences. They're longer, so always interesting. All right, Uh boy,
we're up against it, so we're gonna take our break here at the
top of the hour, and then Kevin's coming back with breaking news. Let's
stick around.