This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z
R two SA and iHeartRadio Station. Thank good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jaginsaus. Got our guys sit in Today Friday Show another. Uh,
I want to say, disaster Jameson, I've made five more bad picks,
is what I've done. Have you already done your research? I've done it.
I have you have to do money. You know. I didn't put
a lot of research into it. I just said you're better off, you
know. I mean, I'm just looking at it and saying, these are
game teams that I should have been picking all year long. You know,
got on bandwagons and got right off when they did me wrong. I should
have stayed on them. Let's tell your boy here what the score is.
Okay, it's Steve has eighteen points. He's eighteen. I have twenty.
You've got You're right, you've got. Oh, I haven't adjusted this.
Uh, you've got twenty two points. You're what twenty two out of thirty
five, is that right? Yeah? Thirteen, twenty two out of thirty
five on picks, I've still got four points and I am ten out of
thirty five. That's terrible. You didn't need to say that, I said.
You didn't need to say like that. How many weeks are left?
There's still another twelve, twelve weeks, four weeks. Well, it's bad,
said, I mean, it's it's really bad. No no Bowl game
for Jay this year, no game for well, explained explain to to your
guy here said that the lowest ever was twenty Yes, the lost ever in
a in a a season for anybody in this pool is twenty points. I
currently have four four and then his he'd have to go, well, he'd
have to get one each more than one two for sure to break all that
streak, to break that record low record low. Yes, Yes, it's
it's it's it. It's bad. It's it's bad. I can't, I
can't, I can't. I can't explain it either, because because it's it
just doesn't make any sense that that you know, you're supposed to be fit,
you know fifty right, you're supposed to get you know, fifty to
fifty and I can't seem to do that, and I don't know what the
hell it is. So it seems like the curse is alive. This is
probably your best example of the season, right yeah, yeah, So I'm
just, you know, just go with it, then see what happens.
But I you know, I feel like I've got some decent picks, just
you know, every week, every week, and then they're just terrible at
this point. He's got to pick whoever you think is opposite. Well,
I've done that too, don't work either. Well I did it for one
game and you know, I picked the opposite of what I thought and I
hit that game and then any more game. So yeah, okay, let's
we'll talk about that more at the end of the Telly that that'll be in
the last segment or fab five Friday Picks. I've got mine. They're good.
We're going I'm I'm hitting something this week. Yeah, they're good.
We'll see, we'll see what happens. Okay, No, cool, So
welcome to to Friday Show. We have a pretty good show. At three
seventeen. We have Aeron Torres, right, Aeron Torris from he He's got
a number of things. He's Fox Sports and uh Fox Sports Radio. He's
got a podcast and then he's got a Twitter feed called Torres on Arizona where
he he just covers a lot of stuff Arizona. So he's gonna come and
see, you know, get his impressions of football, basketballah, all things
going on around here. But he's a national uh uh you know media figure.
I guess you would call him and uh, you know, has a
lot of stuff going on. So we'll talk to Aaron. Yeah, and
then at four seventeen, we're gonna have a Terran cowattch I guess like that.
I found him on the internet. He covers the basketball team for Lewis
and Clark State. He is not in town, but he covers a team.
So we'll talk to him. Just gonna preview up today's game. Right,
yeah, that's you know, that's who Erizona was playing in this exhibition
tonight, and so we'll see what, you know, what he's got got
to say about what maybe we can expect to see from Lewis and Clark tonight.
Okay, all right, so uh pop out, you know, finish
out the Friday. It's an off week for football. A lot of reaction
to our interview with Jed fish lat yesterday or so mostly I think it was
mostly toward your post about the quarterback situation. Was the gist of it.
I mean that's what we you know, we wanted to have something about that
because that's the thing that everybody's talking about. Yes, they're talking about the
defense and how good the defense has been. Uh you know, yes,
uh they're you know, they're just playing really well. But people want to,
you know, who's who's the quarterback? And that's that's the case with
any football team, who's the quarterbacks? And the Jed head can't come out
when Jayden Delrugg got hurt and said when Jade and Laura is healthy, he's
the quarterback. Again, well that's not what he said yesterday. So that's
kind of been the reaction. You know, a lot of reaction to that,
and a lot of people saying it's a no brainer. Sure of course,
I think those ill bit you. If you pulled people, they would
be about ninety percent if not more, saying you got to go with ja
with with no yeah. So so yeah, just the you know, I
just posted that detail of the interviews that you post. Listen to the interview.
Yeah, the interview. If you haven't heard it, it's that you
can catch both on our Facebook and uh in Twitter feed and you know you
can listen to it. It's a you know, the fish the jet fish
interview is about fifteen minutes into the first hour. You can listen to the
whole thing. But you know, we just did ask you know, how
are you going about making this decision? We didn't ask him who the quarterback
is, and he's not. He wasn't gonna tell us anyways, but how
are you going about it? And he said, the quarterback that gives us
the best chance to win is going to be the quarterback. That's all anybody
was asking for. Right, we'll know more next week. I'm sure he
will have the same answer. We'll know what we know. I mean again,
you know, it sounded like De Laura was really gimping around on the
on the field before the game. After this next week, there's five weeks
left, right, at some point he's gonna because De Laura at some point's
gonna get healthy. Yeah yeah, and if they win again, well,
the thing is that, you know, let's say if the feeda goes on
and has a horrible game, you know, and it's back up in the
air. Sure, but again, a good problem to have sometimes. You
know, if you got two guys, you can win. Well. He
said that. He said that the press covers on Monday. He says,
good to have two quarterbacks, right, you know, And and again there's
no there's been no sense that he's going to go with any kind of a
two quarterback system. And it's gonna be you know, it's gonna be the
one guy and you know, whoever's playing the best. So we'll see and
uh, you know, again it's nice to have, you know, a
guy in the bullpen if if your starter is not doing very well. Sure,
sure, okay we'll move on from that. But uh, good interview
yesterday. We even got a couple of calls about it. Yeah, okay,
what else is going on basketball tonight? It's gonna be a late night,
Yeah, seven o'clock start. We're taking that, so, Jacob,
I'm taking that for about fifteen a power to app In fact, you know,
it's a it's an exhibition game, but it's our first look at you
know what Tommy's looking at. You know who his starters are. Well,
you saw that there's they're gonna be missing three key players that Pelly Lars and
stuff for the sprained ankle, so he's out. He was wearing a boot
yesterday. Uh Aballo will not be playing too. He's banged up, as
is one of the big men. Uh not creevious thing I was watching.
No, it's it's uh. I can't remember to look it up. There's
three people that will not be playing. That'll give a chance for other people
to kind of show what they can do in a first exhibition game. Hadn't
I hadn't seen that at all. Yeah, so we'll see how they go
with who the center is and somebody maybe a power forward. But those guys
are going to be out. I was watching. I was watching my grandkid
most of the day, so I was not in front of it. So
I know you are definitely chasing a kid all over my house. He's crawling
and he's fast, fast crawler. He gets out in a hurry. No.
No, so I hadn't seen that. So uh well, then you
know, we'll see some guys, you know, and that'll be interesting as
well. It'll be good to see those guys because you know, realistically we
may not have seen, not see much more of them, you know,
once the season. So yeah, no, I'm we'll see what that.
Yeah, I'll find out who those third guy is, but I'm sure it's
something men. Okay. Yeah, so yeah, So that came at seven
o'clock and as we said, we'll have beat righter for the Lewis and Tribune
Terren Cowach, Well, come on and talk a little bit about Lewis and
Clark. See what they see, what we can expect from those guys.
What he sent me the photo on thinking God, it's been so well,
God, the business is going to kids because everythings, everything's young. Yeah.
Well, and you know, every one of these that we see like
they could be our kid or our gran it's like the kid from USC,
right or current USC from Orange County, Rochester. Yeah, he was like
twelve. He looked well, yeah, he really looked. Well it's Crevis
Creevous will be out okay, all right, so you know we'll be interesting.
And then they've got about a week and a half until the next uh
yeah, the thirtieth until the next they got they got a team coming in
from my part of the hood, Las Vegas. From the kids. Your
quarterback, the quarterback for this the the quarterback from the Sugar Skulls. He
went to that school, Highland High School, Highland Highland University. That's what
the team's coming in to play Arizona in about ten days. Got yeah,
New Mexico Highland, a small, very small school. Okay, all right,
uh so look forward to anybody want to call please do. We only
have five minutes for this segment, and but then we're gonna get to the
guests. You can call us on the other side of the segment. We
put you have more time on the other side of the segment because we'll do
our pig pigskin stuff at the end of the end of the showy, But
if you want to give us a call, you're going to give us a
call. Sit here, has got it taken care of? Yeah, you're
you're onto this dead. I didn't mess it up too much, right for
what? Oh it's right? No, no, no, no, no,
no, except for you know, I hope I was quick enough on
the on the dump. But you didn't hear it. You didn't hear anything
for you didn't check for it. I did. I cut it out of
I cut it out podcast. Okay, so, but I don't know if
it records the podcast. I don't know if it makes aaf it blocks it
out when it's live on the air, that's what I think it does.
It's still on the it's still on the recording. I have to go take
it out. We're gonna have to find hammer next time says you got a
fifty thousan dollars. He said he was all over it, and he was
aware and he got away from him. Well, this is you know,
this is a conversation like two dudes at a bar, sitting there talking about
sports. Yeah, yeah, it's hard. You're not even of age,
are you in the morning to Oh that's right, you're old. Yeah,
you're fine, You're fine. You're finding when you're kind of kind of good
at this year, older, not shy. How about your Diamondbacks? Wow,
I mean, I mean, I I had a feeling that they were
going to beat the Dodgers, just because it's the Dodgers. But if they
somehow tied up, we haven't seen you, we haven't seen you since you
Clinton, we have right, Well, yeah, this this run for the
d Backs, if they can tie it up tonight, make things interesting.
Yeah, I mean that was that was quite you know, quite a win.
Last night. I mean they had to they had to. Oh yeah,
absolutely had to and they did so. Yeah, so you don't live
to breathe another day. Right, we'll see what they do tonight. The
Astros are still up one zip. It is the top of the fifth inning.
Their bady Okay, Yeah, the game ended. Rights that we were
like play by playing it and then right is the right? As the show
ended, they get the base right. We couldn't even we couldn't put it
on. Yeah, so anyway, but what you know, and this is
a huge game for Texas today. You know, they they won two on
the road and now they've given up to at home. You know, Houston's
got the last two games at home. So you know, the Rangers cannot
lose this game today. They can't go back needing to you know, needing
to sweep. Verlander's going next game, right, No, Verlander just threw.
Yeah he's throwing today. No, he threw. He threw. No,
he threw Game one two days ago. He threw game one. Game
one. He lost Game one. How do I know? I bet that
game? He didn't? He didn't. He's he'll probably pitch tomorrow for game
five if he has to go. Well, Game five, he pitched Game
one. I'm thinking of sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get
those two. You know, I've always mixed those two guys and then they
were together. I don't know why I always had the old veterans. I
don't know. Yeah, I've always mixed those two guys. Some stupid susure.
I don't know if you'll see him again. He didn't, you know,
he was up to the first city. He was rocking pretty bad.
But Verlander, if he did Verlonder didn't go to If he doesn't go game
play, yeah, that's yeah. The Rangers lose six going back Houston.
Yeah, with those bats rolling, yeah, yeah, I don't think he's
pitching today, is he? No? Yeah, Okay, the Astros are
batting right now, So I don't know. I'll keep an eye. I'll
let you know. All right, let's uh go ahead, Yeah, let's
go all right, let's hit out, take our break. We're gonna come
back, get a little more time with their torres from tours on Arizona and
his Fox Sports radio show. So let's stick around for that. We'll be
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Live, Honey, iHeartRadio Whip. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to
Eye on the Ball. Here all Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rovera.
You're Diggers also the won if all. We have Erorta Torres, a
national guy who comes to Arizona. Very well. How are you, darn,
I'm doing well though, you guys hear me. Okay, how's everything
going? Yeah, well that we're good. I think we're good. Okay,
okay, good. Great to have you back on the show. It's
midway through the football season and we're gonna get geared up here for basketball season.
So you must be a little busy with Arizona stuff. Uh, it's
surely get getting busy, and and you know, it's a fun time of
year and obviously from the Arizona perspective, it's been awesome to see the growth
in the movement of this football team. I know everybody's got an opinion on
the quarterback stuff and all that, but you know, I was on air
during the USC game, so I was watching, you know, play by
play, you know, second by second, and then obviously last to go
into the buy off, what Washington State was was just a really positive way
to kind of go into the buy So yeah, no, I'm excited about
what the football team has done so far, and obviously very excited to see
what the basketball program can bring this year. You know, Aaron, we
you know, the quarterback thing is you know, obviously very unsettled. But
one of the things that what we've called the other storyline has been the defense
at Arizona has put out there. It's been a long time since they've had
even a decent defense at Arizona, you know, and I think there's still
a lot of people who think Arizona is not a good defensive team until they
see them. But what have you seen or what do you think they've done
that it surprises you. Yeah, it's funny, you know, I'm I
mean, even from just a perception standpoint. I mean last year, the
the passing game was so good and the offense was so potent that I think
people still think that that's what Arizona is this year, and it really isn't,
to be perfectly honest, I mean, it's more of a balanced team.
The offense isn't quite as explosive. But you know it's also because they're
playing more complimentary football. You know, how has it happened? I'm far
from a x's and o's expert. I mean, I think obviously when you
recruit the portal as aggressively as Jed Fish has, bringing a bunch of bringing
a bunch of guys from a bunch of different places, I think that has
an effect. And I just think, you know, again the balance on
the offense where you know, they're running the ball well and all that stuff,
where now it isn't score quick, get the ball back, all that
stuff. So I just think, like, yeah, I guess the best
way to put it is, I just think they're they're they're more balanced team
this year. And to your point, Steve, I do think there are
people that still think of them as you know, super you know, uh,
you know, pass heavy dah dah, da dah, this and that.
But if you look at a lot of the offensive stats are a little
bit down this year, but they're complimented again by you know, nice balance
on the other side of the football. And the last three weeks they've been
balanced with a pretty good quarterback who you know was the backup before. So
I'm gonna give you a new role. You were the new head coach of
the Arizona football program. Who are you starting? Well? First of all,
I like that, I like this out of the paycheck. That that's
the first thing. The first thing I'm doing is going off for a nice
dinner tonight. But after that, I mean, listen, I'm starting no
with Fafida and listen, I get it right, Like like, you know,
I respect coach Fish and I I you know, there's this old kind
of perception in the you know, sports world that you never lose a starting
job to an injury blah blah bah blah blah, this and that. But
the results speak for themselves, you know. I mean, you know,
the offense seems more I don't know what the right word is. Calm isn't
necessarily the right word, but it just seems more in sync with noble Fefeeda.
I know that maybe his upside isn't as good as Jaden Dolaura, but
it doesn't feel like the peaks and valleys are there as well. I mean,
listen, I mean, you know this guy. I don't want to
say he went toe to toe with with two Heisman Trophy guys in Kingvill Williams
and Michael Pennix, but I think he definitely held his own. And then,
oh, by the way, you know, they couldn't stop scoring last
week against Washington State. So I don't know if at any updates this week
during the bye week or if coach Fish had a press conference. And again
I understand why he feels the need to do what he's done, which is
kind of play at koy and say publicly that you know, when Jayden Dolora
is one hundred percent healthy, he's gonna have a shot at the job.
But to me, I look at it and say, you know, this
is a results based business. You know, we're in the nil era now,
guys are getting paid. You know, sometimes he get paid late,
Like it's just I don't know. I just think it's a results based business.
Fafita is getting the job done. To me, there's no reason to
go away from him while you're winning. Well, we did have Jed on
the show yesterday, and you know when when Fafia excuse me, when Delora
got hurt for the first couple of weeks, he said, when Jaden is
healthy, he's back, he's going to be the starter. On the show
yesterday he said, you know, when the decision time comes, it's gonna
be who gives us the best chance to win. So it's kind of backed
off of that. So it looks like, well even I mean, I
could be wrong, guys, but I believe it was the post to usc
press conference where you're so close, you're right there, and he I thought
he said something to the effect of if Jaden's ready to go, he's our
guy next week and any kind of that. I felt like he backed off
of that too. I could be wrong on that, but I just bring
it up to say that, you know, listen again, I was joking
about the salary, but that's why you get paid a lot of money,
is that you got to make tough decisions like this, and it sucks,
and you know, we'll see where their team is at a week from now.
But I would go with Fafida and then, as he said, whoever
gives you the best chance to win? No, I like your evaluation on
the team because I'll use the word steady. It's just very steady with Fefida.
Yeah, no flash, nobody get the job. He gets the job
done and looks very calm. To let's switch if we could to, uh
to since there's real game this weekend, let's wish to basketball. Uh.
It's a very very anticipated schedule, very an dissipated season. The rank twelfth
to begin the year. What do you see? Well, I see a
different team, you know. I think obviously more athletic, a lot of
guard play. I think there's I think the strengths are really strong and the
weaknesses are obvious. Is they're super athletic. They're gonna get up and down
the floor. I'm excited to see Caleb Love. I think there's been a
lot of negativity and maybe not in Tucson but another corners of college basketball.
But I think he kind of understands, Hey, this is my last chance
to really uh you know, accomplish the goals that I want to accomplish and
get myself to the NBA. The only concern that I have, if you
want to call it one is three points shooting? Is that? Obviously?
Again, I don't claim to be an x's and o's expert in anything,
but that system that they run is so about, you know, being able
to make open jump shots and so statistically, whether it's Keishaw Johnson, whether
it's Jayden Bradley, whether it's Caleb Love, none of those guys have been
great three point shares throughout their careers. Doesn't mean they can't get better,
but that would be the concern for me. But overall, I like the
talent that's assembled. You know, I'd be lying if I said I knew
a lot about the international recruits, but I'm excited to watch them. But
of the guys that have played in college basketball, whether it's the Returney's like
Colin Boswell and Ballow, or whether it's you know, Caleb Love, Keishaw
Johnson, jayde and Bradley, the transfers, I really like the group that
they have. Yeah, no question, Well, you know I think that
you know, it's funny because that you know, after they lost to Princeton
last year, the thing was the running theme here was, you know,
Tommy can't recruit how's he going to get guys? You just shake your head
at that. And then you look at this team that I know, they
came in ranked twelfth, you know, in the AP at the start,
but I see a top ten team. Yeah, yeah, I know,
the the top ten or the recruiting stuff. You know, Listen. The
one thing I've noticed about him is he certainly takes his time. I mean,
he's very what's the right word deliver it in the portal, you know.
I mean you look at two years ago with Courtney Raimie, I don't
think he got till June. A couple older guys. Last year, it
really felt like it felt like all of mccame in May. I could be
wrong on that, but I think most most of the activity came in May.
So you know, I don't know about the recruitings. I'm not saying
that it's a wrong commentary that that people think that, but I think it's
ridiculous. And as far as the team is concerned, I see a really
good team. And I think what's interesting is, and I think Steve mentioned
this off the top is a very you know, very anticipated schedule, but
I think it's almost by design. Is that with the way the Pac twelve
is again looking this year, I think you kind of have to be aggressive
in the non conference. I'll be curious, and I was talking to somebody
about this earlier this week, is as you transition into the Big twelve,
you have not only Kansas on the schedule, but Texas Tech, Baylor,
b Yu. I mean, these are tough teams, tough places to play,
Houston, et cetera. I'm curious as too if that out of conference
schedule stays as aggressive as it's better if it slows down a little bit.
But uh, but yeah, I think I've done a really good team,
and I think they're gonna be tested plenty early with that loaded, loaded,
loaded schedule. Excited to see them against all these different teams that they're gonna
have to play early. No, I thought your point to your evaluation of
the three point shootering, they don't have it. They haven't had it since
a guy named Salim's Totama was here. I mean that's been a while because
Gabe York wasn't that guy, and Ben Matherin didn't shoot him often enough.
But I totally agree, until until proven otherwise, I think you're right,
that could be an acues heel. It could be, it could be,
and and I think, you know, listen, one thing, I'll say,
no team is perfect, especially this time of year. And as I
said, you look at the assemble talent, it's really good, by the
way, especially relative to the rest of the FACT twelve. I mean,
you know, if you want to talk about do who can Purdue and some
of the other teams in the out of conference, that's a different conversation.
But you know, they're gonna be able to as bad as this sounds,
they're gonna be able to kind of tinker a little bit during the regular season
because the PAC twelve is so weak. But yeah, I think when I
look at that team, that is the thing that stands out. A lot
of guards that can get to the rim. And by the way, you
know, when you have guards as good as the three that they have,
maybe it's about getting to the rim, getting to the fall line, getting
your points that way, and maybe three point shooting isn't as big of a
deal. But you know, just to somebody who loves basketball, we all
get the concept of guard beats a guy off the dribble, you know,
in theory, as the defense collapses somebody's gonna be opening a corner, so
you know, I'm with you, Steve. I think it's probably is the
team's achilles heel. Maybe you can coach around it. I don't know,
but if you're asking me what I think the biggest concern is coming into the
year, that would probably be it. Well keep an eye on. I
think the Leap is gonna be one of those guys you didn't think that.
You were thinking, Wow, this guy can play. He hasn't played much,
right, I think he will be that guy who is this I'm sorry,
in one of the one of the international guys. He was a sophomore,
Philipe Borovich and he was a sophomore. I thought you said Khalid I
was like some reeves or who are we talking about here? Like some of
the team that I don't know about it now. Philipe was good last year.
I didn't mean to cut you off season, Philippe. Philipe was good
in that limited role. I think that's the you know, let me say
one thing really quick too. On that and the international stuff, it's just
so hard to know. I mean, U c l A has gone heavy
international this offseason. Kentucky brought in an international guy, and I and you
know, talking to coaches like I do, think it really does kind of
in a lot of cases take a year for these kids. I mean,
you know, it's it's a new country, it's a new language, it's
a new system, it's a new way of coaching, it's a new way
of traveling, it's a you know, obviously different rules relative to FEBUS.
So I mean you talk about guys. A lot of these guys, even
even when Tommy was at Gonzaga, a lot of those guys red shirted their
first year and it really took him a year to get going. So I
think you're right, Steve. I think that's a guy that when you look
at a potential breakout candidate or or you know, improvement candidate or whatever,
I think that guy's at the top of the list. Yeah. He certainly
looked, you know, very confident in the in their overseas games, and
then in the Red Blue game here he just he walks, he just looks
different. He walks different, he's got he's got a different presence, yeah,
than he's had up to now. It takes time, you know,
And I'll just say this, I'm going to cut you guys off. Like
I think everybody, you know, we live in this you know, microwave
culture, and especially in college basketball, right is you know, it's the
one and done culture. It's you know, you get in and get out
as fast as you can. It just takes time. It just takes guys
a while. I mean, you know, listen as as a Yukon of
lum. You know, you look at that Yukon team last year, they
had in their starting lineup, Uh, you know, two thirty year juniors
that had been in the program for three years, and one of them,
Andre Jackson, is now in the NBA. He was a projected one and
done and you know how good, and it just it took him a little
bit longer. Domasnogo, it's a little bit longer. And I think that
that's part of like the college basketball thing now is if you don't have immediate
success, do you want to go somewhere else or you want to do something
different, or you go pro anyway, it's not always that easy. College
basketball is a lot moreer than people give it credit for. You know,
you mentioned that you mentioned the schedule that Arizona's got. I think they've got
the two number two three and four ranked teams in the country, you know,
in their in their preseason, along with f A U Alabama. It's
a crazy schedule. I mean, to me, it's kind of refreshing to
see this kind of scheduling. Yeah, are you guys coming out to Palm
Springs on Thanksgiving or what? You're gonna have to talk to my wife about
that one to welcome to the club. No, I'm I you know,
Palm Springs about a half an hour from where I live, but I think
I'm going to have some family commitments that day as well. Yeah. I
don't know what the scheduling preference was under Sean Miller or the previous regime or
whatever, but Tommy has been very, very very aggressive, and you know,
I think the cool thing is, you know, listen, I understand
not everything can be a true home and home, but the fact that you're
going to Cameron Indoor early in the year, the fact that Wisconsin is a
true home and home, you know, even Alabama, I know it's not
a true home and home, but you're at least playing them in Phoenix where
the fans can show up. That's the part that I like, and I
think, you know, I understand why stuff is done in college basketball the
way that it is. But all these neutral psyche gas, you know,
by the way, I was joking about the Thanksgiving Day game. But even
there, you know, we know the presence that Arizona has in southern California,
So it's not like you're playing Michigan State in you know, in wherever,
you know, Tulsa or something like that. You know, it's a
place that fans can get to if they want to make a day of it.
So I just bring it all up to say, like one, I
love the early season games. It's great for college basketball. It's a great
test for the players. But I also like that some of it is to
the benefit of the fans. I know next year Duke will be coming to
town. You know, you got a couple of guys home games this year,
and then the neutral site games are kind of advantageous for the fans.
Like I said, you know, Paul Springs from Michigan State Vegas for Florida
Atlantic. I like how the schedule breaks. No super well erin good to
hear from you, Torres on Arizona. In fact, I've met one of
your interns, Mary Grace. She was happy to be working for you.
So oh nice, good, Well that's good now and now I feel okay,
you're making me feel good now still okay, good, I'm not the
taskmaster, you know, mean person that everyone makes me out. You're a
good dude. You're a good dude. Thank you, Eron. I appreciate
it. All right, guys, take care. Thank you. Aaron tos
Tourre's on Arizona. Just google his stuff. Stuff he's just got he's got
knowledge of everything. Yes, he's great. He's got a lot of good
stuff. He's got a great podcast. And as you can see by just
knowing the names on you know, Arizona's basketball and football teams. He just
knows. So he's a good guy to follow. So all right, let's
take our break. We're going come back. We'll take your calls five two
zero four one six before party with Rapack. Lawmatters ten thirty dot org is
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We'll see you there. 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
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out more at visit San Miguel High dot org. Breaking down Oh the exes
and Oh, it's Steve Lamera and Jaden Salmis. This is I on the
Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jake. Got our
guy said with us today. So we've got about ten minutes in a half
minutes you guys want to call. We have that time for you guys to
give us a quick call five to two oh four one sixty. Uh,
let us know what you're thinking of. That's a good time with Aaron Tortoise.
You don't been ready to get him for a while. You know,
he's a busy guy. He's on a lot of shows, he does his
own podcast, so just one of those guys out there doing college sports all
the time. And it's football, basketball, whatever, p any of stuff
to go going on. So yeah, it was good to get him.
He's always good. Yeah, Okay, cool. I hope to get a
call too here sare would love to hear from you. Are you excited about
tonight? Are you just kind of a game? It's an exhibition game because
it's in four hours. I'm excited four hours. Are you excited? I
don't know. It's kind of really quick. It's cool. Yeah, but
you know, now that it's here, it's kind of like, okay,
let's get this thing going. Let's get the season started. You know,
we'll still pay a lot of attention to football. And really, there's an
exhibition today, there's one in a week and a half, and you know,
the season doesn't really get going until, you know, until the first
week of November. So you know, it's time, it's time, let's
get let's let's get time over by a T shirt. Time Well it is,
you know, how long do you think or or do you think they'll
get into the top ten for the basketball program, well, because I think
they will not until after they play Duke. Well that's the whole thing.
If they lose Duke, they're not going to get in, right, But
if they beat Duke, they will get We'll get it. Yeah, they'll
jump right in. Right there, is there a twelve You go on the
road and beat Duke, you know, Duke number two? Yeah, Duke's
number two. But if they don't, yeah, and I hope Arizona fans
have the correct expectation of that, right, Duke is the number two team
in the country. You think if you think that they should go in and
beat Duke at Cameron, you need to shake yourself if you think they can.
Yeah, fine, they can, but uh uh uh you know it's
it's uh, it's gonna be a hard place to go get a win.
And then that early in the season, you know, there's they're gonna be
so fired up for basketball over there. Yeah, no, it's gonna be
crazy. That's why I'm going. I'm just kind of been there, so
it'll be fun to go. Somebody's giving me some grief over saying that Philippe
will have a big role on the team. He said he'll take the under
that he won't. Yeah, well I bet that. I bet that.
Yeah, man, oh man, look I again, did you say what?
No, it just says he said, did I too? Son,
just say Philip B will have a big role. He says, I'll take
the under, like I you know, just his presence, he just walks
different, he looks different, his his his his, his presence is different
on the court. And it showed it. It showed on the overseas trip
and it really showed at the Red and Blue game. And it's not so
much what he did. Can't he shoot all? He just looks, you
know, I belong here now, Like like Aaron was saying, it kind
of takes these guys a year to get acclimated, you know the internet.
Well there's no spot for him too. Yeah, and so but he just
you know, he's he's I think he will have a Is he gonna start?
No? But is he gonna? Is he gonna be a guy who's
gonna be important to them? I believe so, So let me tell you
him. So. We we had a chance to go see them play last
year. Last year when we had the camp and Tommy let us go see
the fans and blah blah blah, and I said, who is this kid?
He just runs the court differently. He shoots the ball well, uh,
kind of thin side, kind of like a you know, like a
deer, like a young deer, and they're not fully developed, and the
right little shakey, yeah, a little shakey. But he had some talent.
He said, who's that guy? And I'm thinking, okay, cool,
And then you don't see him anymore. And then I said, this
is a guy who's gonna do very well this next year. So then he
has that night, right, but then he comes into the press. Were
you there for the post game press? For the Red Blue? Now?
So he comes in he kind of looks like, not that he's lost,
but he's a giddy, happy, gold lucky just you know, when you're
you know, when you're young, you don't know any better. That's what
he looks like. Yeah, he just doesn't know because he doesn't know.
And I think that's why it's kind of a hidden type of thing. I
think Arizona's got a bunch of guys. No, he's got a bunch of
guys like that like that, because you don't know who they are. Again,
you know, what's his name, you know, Henry Bason. Another
guy, another guy who just looked kind of lost out there last year and
just needs to get his feet on given was giving a chance. And again
another guy that you know in the in the uh you know, in the
Overseas trip and in the Red Blue game. You just he just appeared different.
Yeah. Now, is that going to translate to playing time and have
an impact on the game. We don't know, but you think they might.
Aaron said this, and I don't think we needed to hear it from
him that, because it's true. We live in a time now where college
basketball, if you're good, you should be good right away. That doesn't
work. And Luke and Luke Simon, which is still a biable if he
could play, he'd do the same thing if he was alive still coaching.
Where you come in as a freshman, you bide your time, you play
against guys better than you, you get better and as a sophomore, junior
and senior, that's when you shine. Right, Look how this look how
the light came on for Kylon Boswell in the second half of the season last
Right, here's the guy you know he couldn't play because his foot because yeah,
I mean he just wasn't ready to go. Took him a while to
get to get acclimated. And by the time by that, you know,
by the pack twof tournament, he was he was he was money. Well,
you know the guy that's gonna maybe be that freshman guy coming in right
aways, Lewis kJ Lewis Lewis, He's he looks so athletic, he looks
so good. Confidence he does. He has all the kid. He has
a big physical kid. He's not he's not some skinny you know, six
foot four, six foot three. He looks he looks solid, and he's
got these broad shoulders and again, as you said, not afraid to go
out on the court and take on anybody. Yeah. So I and I'm
looking forward to seeing what these says. But it looks like tonight just to
see him, see them run, right, I just want to see them.
That's what they're gonna do. Well, I think to his point with
the three pointer, and and he's right, we don't know who could be,
could be Philip, But in in Tommy's offense, you do need that
perimeter shooting, right, you do need it. Maybe it's kJ, maybe
it's Philip we will see. But because they do so many different things,
uh, and they have some capable inside guys kick it out boom. Well
that's it. And that was the thing that that that we've seen already is
that the guys that they the four guys that they have that are gonna play
the two guard positions. You know, Boswell, Love, Bradley, k
J Lewis all go to the basket all and I hate saying it this way,
but they all go to the basket way better than than Kirk ever did.
Right, Kirk Greesa just was not physical enough, not quick enough.
Yeah, these guys are physical. They're gonna go to the hoop. But
if you've got it, if you've got somebody on the outside who can they'll
be able to kick it back out and shoot some threes. And if they
have somebody who can do that, you'd like to think Caleb Love is that
guy. I mean, he's supposed to be, you know, a bit
of a shooter. You know, is is uh Jay is jayde Bradley?
I don't know, is kJ Kji I don't know. I don't know if
kJ Lewis is more of a point guard kind of guy. But you know,
if they got if they got somebody who can stand out there and shoot,
and Phelipe maybe one of them. You hope Paly Larson is one of
them. You know, They've just got all these pieces that look like they
can fit together in a way that uh, you know, Tommy's been trying
to trying to get over the last couple of years tournament experience experience guys as
well. Right, that's gonna be huge because it seems like the past few
years, guys like Tubella's maybe in the tournament shied away a little bit.
It seems like it just didn't seem you know, physically fit enough, not
physically fit, physical enough to get in there and muscle around with you know,
those guys like you know, there was you know, two years ago
TCU in Houston, and then last year, last year, they just they
just ran into a Princeton team that just had an incredible game and they were
going to beat a lot of teams. Last year, you were making shots
from the outside, we were doing all kinds of things. Well, we
got a call. Let's take this call before we have the break. Hi,
you're on the air and I on the ball. Hey, j how
you doing? Howard? What are you doing. Yeah, I called Steve
when you were gone the other day. Hey, I actually was at the
Red Glue game and freaking we know that lewis guy. He's going to be
the freshman of the year. That guy is so good. But but my
wife and I, you know, we're you know, we're we're we've been
married about the same time as you, j But my wife and I.
My wife's a lot older than your wife. I'm sure she was a cradle
Robert. Ye know, you know my you know, she's more the same
age, but your wife is a lot She's probably younger than me and still
me and Steve's age. No, she's about Steve. Oh no, but
that's younger than me and my wife because remember I'm between you guys. And
remember we're mature, Howard. We don't become old Tour seventy. Anyway,
that game was good, but we left before the game even started. It's
too late, okay, but we saw all the dunk contest. It was
great. I enjoyed myself. Here's your question to you, Jay, Jay,
you know why these guys are getting these stolen bases, right? The
base is bigger, yo. Yes, you're so being being but but Steve,
you were spot on all your assessment of the Wildcat team, so I
didn't have to say anything because you're spot on out you know, how checks
in the mail. Howard, No, no, but it's true. That's
why I I really followed you and you were sort of my you know,
I read your article when I saw you thirty years ago. Yeah, I
was quiet. You see louder today. You know what I mean. It's
like Steve's at my table looking into my cards. But was shell show.
I'm serious. Well we gotta go, all right, Howard, thanks the
whole. I would love Howard, but I have no idea who she's like,
goes one way. He talks about how please keep calling? All right,
God, that that was a fast first hours. It really was.
All right, we're gonna be back, so it's gonna have breaking news for
us. And then we'll have a tarn College who's the writer for the Lewis
and Tribune, and we'll talk a little bit about Lewis and Clark State coming
in tonight to face Arizona. So stick around.