Steve Bravera and Jake and Salez. They have their eye on the ball on
Tucson Sports Stage. Yet Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live. I mean
I hoard radio. Waw hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, he's Jay. Now we have samonly
with breaking Newsy eye on the balls. All right. So we briefly talked
about it when we were talking about college basketball and the Final Four and whatnot.
But two top five teams lost in the last two days. Number three
UNC lost on the road at Georgia Tech Damon Stodemeyer obviously the head coach there,
and the number five Tennessee Volunteers lost at home to what should be a
now ranked South Carolina team. That's that was surprised you. I didn't know.
I didn't pay attention to that one. But that's a big deal.
At home Tennessee at home lost to South Carolina. Wow, who's the coach
of South Carolina? Don't worry about it, even as I should know the
two but they're eighteen and now, really they should be in the top twenty
nineteen. That may have been their nineteenth yeah. I think that was their
nineteenth Wow said you know that said this team should be ranked. So so
here we are. I don't know. Now they're eighteen and three, their
second in the SEC next two six and two behind Alabama, Labella and Kentucky's
always said there too. But this goes to show you how many good teams
are out there at the same record and kind of level. And then and
I don't think that Arizona fans real Is that getting am I wrong? I
on agree? I think the avid Arizona fan that will go to the cow
game tomorrow, watch us win and be like, oh, we can win
the national championship again, doesn't realize that the South Carolina team or teams like
this out there, that if they're a six seed and we're three and we
play them, that's gonna be a dog fight right right right. In fact,
somebody Saturday on Facebook, because that's what I read them, an old
guy and some guys says, oh, if they played like this, they
could beat anybody. Well not anybody, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
they're gonna play South Carolina or Tennessee there somebody, Yeah, they got
to play like they played, you know, Duke Alabama, Wisconsin and they
haven't played like that then, Yeah, I mean Kansas is in fourth place
in the Big twelve. Yeah, I mean, just think of that.
They've won the league. How many times in a row? You know last
year, they tied it last year, but still you know, tied or
won the league like forty times in a row. That number. But you
know, Steve brings up a good points like, oh, well, if
we play like this, we can beat anybody. There's probably twenty teams in
the NCAA that can say that to say, if we play like this week,
set anybody exactly exactly. Maybe there's more than to put in context.
That's a way to do it. Because everybody thinks that they're the best,
you know, the best good looking woman in the ball Well not nothing necessarily.
Well, yeah, you look at FAU. If they play like they
played against Arizona, they could be to find themselves right back in the final
four Hemos. Did you know that they're not in the first place in the
Big Yes, I knew that. They're still I think the best team in
the country. They have the best player in the country, they have one
of the best backcourts. Wisconsin's in first place. Yea, they haven't lost.
They haven't lost. It. It's funny though, No, you say
that the Wisconsin is the better team in the Big twelve, said their first
place in the the first place of Big ten. Their their coach Guard remember
the key came here, they played here and they were okay, it was
gonna beat them at home. And Guard said, well, you know,
I have to give it. It was gonna credit. They were better than
us today today, right, And that's it, And I remember that.
I'll never forget that because that's how you judge today. And to be fair,
I think if Van Wisconsin played again, a similar result would happen.
I just didn't see a lot from Wisconsin. Granted it was in Tucson,
but I would feel comfortable. It's difficult to be the good team twice a
year. But so that that was another part portion. Wisconsin and Duke both
teams you have a beat, are back in the top ten of them.
So interesting to watch. But that Duke game almost feels like it was eight
years ago. It was so long ago. It was early in the football
season, it was so it's almost they're two completely different teams. Like Steve
said, even Wisconsin, I granted I haven't watched them play in a while,
but they've probably figured a lot of things out to where they did play,
you would be different. And then lastly, in the college basketball world,
Caleb Love is one of twenty in the Wooden Award watch list. Oh
okay, so and he was on He's on the He's the finalist for Jerry
West Award too. So he's you know, he's like, he's scoring a
lot of points, he's having a huge impact. He's you know, in
some in some ways you can say it. With the last few weeks,
he's carried this team. So I saw something today I can't remember where,
but it was a legit, legit site that Caleb loves not even this he's
not even the favorite to win the back twelve Player of the Year. The
pact is Colorado guy, Cody Williams. No, No, somebody else.
I'd have to kind of find the rusher, but it was somebody else.
Those are Colorado guy. Nineteen points is every nineteen points. And I think
that was kind of strange. I think that Arizona recruited the kid or maybe
kJ TJ kJ Nelson kJ that guy. Yeah, And I think because because
he's been too well again, when you only watch the Simpson Yeah, when
you only watch the same TV show, when you're thinking, you got this
is the best show on TV. Well, how do you know that?
Well? I know, well, I know he didn't play very well against
Arizona the first time. It shut him down pretty well, but they are
They're also missing, you know, two of their best players that day.
It feels like if Caleb does continue on this trajectory, he will find himself
in a good spot to pack to a player of Year. I think,
especially if you have a wins the conference, y, I think you have
to take some of that. Arizona goes, if Everzon goes and beats Colorado
again up there, and and and Caleb Love has a really good game.
Yet you got it, you got it that you kind of think he has
to be the fair But I guess the question that I have for you,
guys, is is you of A at its best when Love is in that
twenty to thirty range, or is you have a better when he's at that
in fifteen to eighteen twenty The ball is moving around more, other guys are
involved. And I'm not saying that when he does that it's bad for them.
I'm just saying that when you know, when when everybody's getting the ball,
Keishad Johnson is scoring, Paley's scoring, kylon Is Boswell was going,
Umar is getting his, you know, but when they're at when five guys
are averaging double figures, that's when they're at their best because that's hard to
defend. It's much easier to defend Caleb Love one guy, and if none
of nobody else is doing anything. You know, a couple of those games
where he scored a bunch of points, they lost. So no, Arizona
has to They've got to spread the ball around and five guys have to be
you know, scoring and threats to score. That's when they're at their best.
That's kind of why I brought it up, because he's had it seems
as though he's had those big games and you as lost. Yeah, yeah,
and they didn't. That's still last weekend. I think their best when
Kaitlyn shows up. I'm sorry, Yeah, I was looking today was a
player A versus Player B with all the stats on Twitter today and he goes,
oh, who would you rather have? And Player A was clearly kind
of the more efficient, better, more cis and player A was Kercreasa and
player B was Kylon Boswell. Wow, So I just I laughed because obviously
he they parted ways for reasons maybe unknown. But I just kind of Giglden
was like, it occurs, having a statistical better. Are you telling me?
Numbers do lie? Numbers numbers do kind of lie. But I kind
of Gigblden just kind of briefly pictured what this team would look like with him
on the team. But it would look a lot different. But West Virginia
is in thirteenth place out of fourteen and the Big twelve. Yeah, no,
they're I don't know if that's contributing to winning, but it was.
It was just funny but quick NFL stuff. The Seahawks hired their new head
coach, saw the defensive coordinator from the Ravens, Mike McDonald, and he
did so well last week. How did that happen? Hey, they only
give up seventeen They only give up seventeen points. Okay, what do they
do? They lost? But other than that, missus Lincoln Hell was the
player. I don't think you blame that loss on the defense or the defensive
corner. They didn't give up a single point in the second half, and
they did. They lost. And I'm not defending anyone or any you are.
You absolutely defended him. He should be defended it. He put me
in my place. You blew your argument when you just said that. I
hate to bother you, but I'm going to bother you. He did his
job, that's all I know. He's going to be doing it now with
the Seahawks and the Cardinals divisions. Another job that Belichick didn't get. Yeah,
I saw the odds for him not to coach a football team are now
in the minus. So I don't know if he's gonna take a year off.
I heard Fox might want. Well, is it is the commanders?
Is that the only job that's left now? The commander's in. There's been
no word about the Eagles job, but they've their code. They haven't,
Yeah, exactly, so there's been none. But we'll see. The commander's
job is kind of a crap shoot at this point. And then I'm sure
you guys kind of talked briefly about the Super Bowl, but the Chiefs are
one and a half point underdogs. Underdogs still it opened at three and now
it's to one and a half. We'll see what that looks like, but
that's that. I'm not gonna bet against Patrick their money right, love that?
Yeah, so it's moved. What do you think, Sammy, Oh,
I'm I'm on the Chiefs. I'm on the Chiefs. They have this
week. They were a little banged up after both the Bills in the Ravens
game. I don't know if they get their guard back. I think he's
the left guard Tooney. No, not not Kadarius Tony, but one of
the their guys on the offensive line. I just would never want to be
watching a game and have the other side of Patrick Mahones. That's what I
did last week. I'm and I was. I grew up watching Brady and
even a little bit of Paint manning. Sometimes it's like when those guys are
huge games, big moments, and you are rooting for the other team,
then you might be in the wrong spot right for once on the show there,
I don't have any MBA breaking news. Wow, look at you.
I could go on with little minute stuff, but that's just my MBA weirdness.
And then the last thing, so the PGA Tour and the Strategic Sports
Group agreed to a three billion dollar deal, and so now the PGA was
a nonprofit before this deal was all made. Now the PJA is a for
profit entity and it's going to be kind of the new labels. The PGA
Tour Enterprises officially launched today. Okay, what is this agreement? So you
and who was Strategic Sports whatever. So ESPN has an article out about it
says, under the terms of this deal, Strategic Sports Group, which is
being led by Fenway Sports Group, so they're one of the largest sports entities
in all of the world. Honestly, would make an initial investment of one
point five billion, with the possibility of another one point five billion coming later.
The PGA Tour will control the for profit company. So basically, on
a surface level, going to pitch this to like a five year old is
the Strategic Sports Group is acting as what the PIFF would have done. So
the PIFF, the public investment firm, wanted to give their money as an
investment to the PGA Tour. Now Strategic Sports Group Fenway Sports Group is acting
as that entity now, so the PGA is pretty much doing the deal.
The investment, which a lot of people were gonna think it was gonna be
PIFF, is now being done with Fenway Sports Group. There's still conversations with
the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund about regulatory approval, so there's a lot going
on with that right now today. It broke this morning, so I'm sure
contracts, meetings are all going to do. Does this mean anything as it
relates to with the product on the on the golf courses stuff? Not.
From my brief research, not a ton Live Golf will still be acting and
having their season and no such players will be currently allowed to play on both
tours, So that bridge has not been connected yet, but it seems as
though it's a first step to there's going to be more. So we'll see
kind of what happens in that. But as as a golf guy, that
was a that was some big news guys, at least actions it sounded like
big news to me, but I didn't know what the hell they were talking
about, at least from someone that they've been kicking this can down the road
long enough to where now something is in writing. Handshake has been agreed and
there's been approvals from both parties and an investment has officially been made. And
so the biggest thing I think is now the PGA Tour purses, so prize
money that went on last year, they raised them. They have all the
signature event if that if there was no agreement in place in the next couple
of years, that would have began to be a problem. They now have
the purse money for the next five years and then the Strategic Sports Group.
I assume with this investment expect to make money off of this. Sure,
it's and that's what that's the that's the idea, right, that's the idea
of why. I think that the hesitancy was. They gave the one point
five up front out of what's a three billion dollar deal, and the other
one point five will be given later. So I guess they want to see
if they actually are going to be making money. So that's you, you
know what, as long as they're playing all the tournaments and the grass is
green and the winds blowing. So I heard Charlie Brown's teacher going to me,
the richer getting richer, not want exactly, you're not wrong, you're
no, thank you, miss teacher. More money is going to the golfers
that aren't already have a lot of money, right exactly. All right,
let's go and take a break. Now we're going to come back to have
the full Tommy Lloyd press conference from today. You'll get some Here's thoughts on
where his team is now or he thinks it's headed. He had some interesting
comments about why it's so tough to win on the road. So all of
that we'll come back, we'll play it and it's a party to stick around.
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schedule your free evaluation. Today. Streamy Live, I mean I heard radio
act. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to our the ball here Fox
Sports Fortune fifteen on Steve, you're Jay. Now we have Tommy yep put
some but what well thirteen minutes, that's about thirteen minutes. He did start
out the press conference with the thing about the coaches versus cancer and this shoe
auction that's going on, and we'll fill you in on that after the press
conference, but for now, let's just play as press conference and uh,
you know, you know it'll be you'll hear the questions and the answers,
and you'll talk about, you know, what's going on this week as a
hit into the cal Stanford series. So A, you mentioned after the last
game that you're tired of hearing about the bounce back and you need to put
the wins together. What what needs to change or does anything need to change
to make that happen? I mean, you just got to play better.
I mean, I don't think we need to overthink it. I think we
need to play better. And you know, obviously it's easy, you know,
to you know, with a revisionist history to go back and dissect what
happened, you know, but we got to be we got to be better
in those moments and make sure that you know, we're doing the things necessary
to win, whether it's home or or on the road. And so that's
our focus. And you know, I think this team's ready to take the
next steps. But but me thinking they're ready, and that's actually doing it
are two different things. So now now the coaching staff, you know,
has to lead the players, and the players have to help lead themselves.
And then we need to we need to get moving forward on some of the
things kJ said last week. You know, he was concerned about past performances
where he felt like the team, you know, didn't come out with a
sense of urgency against the teams that they were favored. I guess clearly against
Oregon State, you guys came out with good energy. This is just a
matter of keeping that together before you go up. I mean, like I
said, I think you can dissect this stuff anyway you want. You know,
we just got to play better. I mean, and you can give
the old you know, the forty minutes cliche, but you know, you
can't foul seven times under ten seconds on a shot clock, you know,
and when whether those are all good calls or bad calls, it doesn't matter,
they were called vowls. You can't give up five made threes under five
seconds on a shot clock. You know. A couple of those are really
hard shots, and a couple of them maybe we could have influenced a little
bit more. Just things like that, you know, And then offensively,
you know, you got to put together great possessions after great possessions. And
I felt like on that road trip, I think we shot over fifty percent
both games, you know, not not that I wouldn't want to, you
know, I always want a little bit more. But but you know,
like I said, we're We're not you know, dwelling on this stuff or
overthinking it. I thought we played really good on Saturday. I think we've
had another good week of preparation. So you know, I'm excited to see
how we come out tomorrow. So this is starting now, where with the
exception of a couple of moments, you face these teams. Now, does
that give you an advantage or does that just even play field because they know
the same things that I mean, it probably gives both team an opportunity for
an advantage, you know. I mean, if you've played you know each
other, you know, once you have you know, real live bullets.
When you go back and look at the film, it's us versus them and
then versuss so you know, I mean, you know, but at the
end of the day, you know that was you know, over a month
ago now, and you know, and and and things change and evolve over
the course of the season. It looks like to me, they're playing really
well. You know, I mean the Tyson guy, he's a heck of
a player. I mean he's really aggressive, you know, really strong,
you know, skilled, you know, perimeter player. I mean, he's
leading the conference and scoring. And then you know they're big. You know,
they use him in a variety of ways and you know, kind of
like a modern day big where they facilitate through him and play through him,
and he's good at doing that. And then you know Cohen is obviously an
explosive score who you know, he's you know, he may be a little
bit streaky, but you know his streets can end up in five six made
threes in a game. And then the Cells team kids playing really well too,
I mean something that looks like me, he's really settled in and their
role players are playing good. So you know to me that they they got
a solid squad when you took care of him twenty to two run early up.
There is a challenge to convince your guys that they are better. Like
you're saying, if it is a challenge, we don't have mature competitors,
so I hope it's not. I hope our guys, you know, I
mean, I hope they don't need a raw ross beach. I hope they
understand what we're playing for and you know, in what position we've put ourselves
in, and I hope there's a sense of urgency to take advantage of that.
Did you see, Tommy in terms of when you went back to look
at the organ games and they thought it was different for Kylon in that game
and some of the games he had struggled. You know, Kyland was just
way more aggressive he was. You know, I think we had looked at
one deal and and he had like two or three game stretch. We only
got to the paint one time, you know, and so he just was
more aggressive. He got to the paint a few more times, you know,
he he hunted a few catch and shoots, you know, and we
don't expect any player to be perfect, and even Kylon to be perfect,
but he just played with more force and aggression and you just had a better
way about him, and you know, and so I mean that's Island gets
all the credit for playing well. It was no no magic potion, no
big speech or anything like that. He just stepped up and played better.
And we need him to guys double the post defensively. What are your core
philosophies there on how you want your guys to do that? Hey, I
mean, let's get the napkin and go to Bob Dobbs and I'll sit down
with you guys to be honest with you. I mean, we haven't really
doubled the post much lately, you know, So I mean the core philosophy's
always put two guys on the ball aggressive, you know, have a low
hole, a top hole, you know, and then you then you have
a you know, a guy in a rotation. So I mean it's kind
of no matter how you double the post, you know where it comes from,
the baseline, the top, the passer, you know, the other
big off, the dribble, whatever, on the catch. I mean you
kind of end up, you know, with two guys on the ball and
three guys you know, supporting. And so that's kind of all the same
philosophy I think everybody has. You have to be honest with you, There's
not a lot of different ways to do it. You imagine that with surety,
how would you say, from the beginning of the season to now that
the matures the rest within within the team, Yeah, for sure. I
mean we're we're we're better now than we were at the start, you know,
And I think that's hard for people to understand, you know, but
you know, you know, other teams get better too, so you know,
there's always that continuum. And we're better now because of what we've been
through, the good things and the bad things, and and now you got
to you just got to continue to build. And you know, I,
like I told Kylon, Kylin' is a better player now than than he was
before the Duke game because of his experiences, you know. And it may
not look like that or feel like it every day, but but he is
so now. Now. You just hope these guys hang with it and keep
their confidence high and then if if you're able to do those things, the
growth will show. There's a lot of data that suggests it's harder to win
on the road this year right now than it has been a long time in
college basketball. Why do you think that is, Whether it's provable in your
team or the sports? I mean, well, first off, I mean
our team, we don't ever want to lower our standards. We expect to
win on the road, bottom line. I mean, that's our responsibility to
go out and win on the road. We know it's incredibly challenging. I
think some of the reasons are I mean, I think that you're still seeing
the effect of COVID, you know, with these players getting extra eligibility,
and you know, I think that I think the way I've kind of looked
at it, and I might not be right, I think there's one more
year. Last year's kind of that fifth year from COVID where these guys are
getting that extra ability, extra year of eligibility. So there there's more experienced
players in the player pool, you know, and these players are getting dispersed
and distributed, you know, you know across you know, other teams,
you know, because you know you can't load up and kids are looking,
well, I don't want to go there. They have three guys. I'm
going to go here, you know, So maybe some of these other teams
there's a little bit of a trickle down effect. I think that's to me
the most significant reason. And then you know with the transfer portal on kids,
you know, being able to be instantly eligible or transferred twice and get
eligible when that wasn't to be. The plan is just how to lou teams
that are now more experienced, have more depth, you know, have more
talent, you know, across the board, and there's been a trickle down
effect to some of the other programs that maybe wasn't there pre COVID. I
mean, to me, that would be the most logical way. Now,
I don't have any data other than my eyes and you know that are telling
me that, But to me, I think that would be the major cause.
Last week there was on the board meeting there was an agenda item pulled
that would have involved a contract extension for you what are you able to tell
us about why that was taken off there? Because there was no agreement.
I mean, it was as simple as that. I don't know why it
was on there. It's probably just a small oversight, you know. But
but you know, we're we're definitely, you know, working hard behind the
scenes to make sure that we you know, we find an agreement and and
I'm excited about it. I mean, last night, allowed to say this,
Arizona's a great place. Last night we had a social with over two
hunds are in employees from the Athletic department for a happy hour culinary dropout.
We had a great time and this is a special place to work and and
I think people inside this building realize that. And it's on us right now
to to make take the next steps as an organization and make it an unbelievable
culture and and so that's what we're gonna do. And and so I'm excited
to be part of it, lead it, whatever you want, you know,
to follow it. I mean, I'm all in. For whatever reason,
it seemed like Caleb was playing angry in that game Saturday. For him,
he's got a bad scout. I think he was really happy, actually,
you know, and I tell him that, he tell him he needs
to smile more. I used to tell Ben that all the time too,
So, uh, I don't think. I don't think he was he was
angry. I mean I think he's he's a competitor, and I think he
knew, you know, we needed to play well as a team. And
and and he, you know himself, played really well. I mean that's
the one thing that probably hasn't gotten talked about him. He he played a
great game. And you know, to me, he looks every bit you
know, the part of a team all American, you know, And I've
coached a lot of those guys, and he's right there. You know.
I think the really important part, which is going to allow him to get
there and our team to get there, is if he just settles in and
plays really solid basketball. You know, you don't have to try to score
thirty every game. I mean, I'm happy with fifteen, a few assists,
low turnovers, good defense. I think that gets him there. And
I think ed and I know that you know, he's having that all American
impact on our team. You're about the going smaller with some of the some
of the labs having like Keisha or Halloween and five having done that a little
bit the other day, is that something you could do more of or is
it a situation we could do more of a lot of things, for sure,
but yet it is it is something you know that I that I like
that, and just you know, you you know, you develop your team
and maybe you know you always have your your base. You know that that
that's probably what you're going to do a majority of the time. But I
think it's good to add a few, you know, variations to just to
give yourself more opportunities to maybe impact the game with different lineups and and and
so I thought, I thought that was really impactful that game. And and
I and I don't I didn't go back and look at them the lineup numbers,
but you know what my eyes told me, is it really worked At
this time of year? Do you kind of feel like this is the last
time to really get your rotation the way you want it to be. I
mean, I mean, I don't. I don't know if it's the last
time. You know, I think your you know, your mind's always kind
of going to places like how can we be harder to play against? You
know? But but if if your team stays healthy, you know, you
you know, you probably don't have to make a ton of lineup adjustments.
I mean that that's probably the you know, the biggest catalyst for changing you
know, lineups would be, you know, an injury or something like that.
Is any part of that, you know, you've talked about moroscos and
more of each and getting those guys in, I mean, does that get
them? I mean those are good players, they're good players, and I
mean I'm hard on myself every day that they're not getting opportunities, you know,
But but it's hard. I mean sometimes that's you know, one of
the most difficult things about being a coach. You know, it's just you
know, rewarding guys with opportunities they deserve. It's just you can't make everyone
happy or give everyone the opportunity to deserve. But I know this, those
guys are both going to be great basketball players in the future. Was it
specifically the flow of that oring game that we saw he shot take four threes
or is there a mor An emphasis in him doing that? Well? You
know, I mean I think they weren't guarding it much, you know,
to be honest with you. And I like it when he shot shoots good,
wide open threes. I mean, I watch him shoot every day in
practice. I watch him shooting his workouts, and you know, I'm comfortable.
I'm comfortable when he shoots the basketball, and I think that helps us.
So, you know, I think he took you know, he took
a few really good shots and you know, kind of got set up by
his teammates and so yeah, no, I don't think there was anything you
know, different from that game than maybe any other. You know, maybe
there's the ball found him a few times, and maybe Oregon was you know,
you know, maybe keeping his defender closer to the lane to help Stanford
and cow in particular. Do you do you see yourselves playing them in any
form outside of maybe a random MTE in the next foreseeable future or whatever.
Well, the foreseeable future I see have just playing them Thursday and Sunday.
So but but beyond that, I don't, I don't know. I don't
know. I mean, like you know that, I'm kind kind of just
focus on where we're at now. And I know that's no fun for you
because you want to write a scheduling article. I know that, but uh,
but I respect both those coaches, respect about those programs, and I
mean it's possible something can happen in the future, but for the time being,
obviously, I want to focus on now, and then, you know,
I want to figure out what it's like to play a big twelve schedule,
you know, a little bit. Then I think that'll kind of help
me guide me and how we can do some non conference stuff, you know,
going forward, because you know, I think the the easy sentimental answer
is, yeah, we're gonna continue playing all these packed both schools and home
and homes. Well, we'd run out of games and it probably wouldn't be
very smart scheduled. So yeah, I don't know, Bruce, I don't
I don't really know going forward, you know, I mean the only one
you know, I mean, I'm you know, I'll talk to a few
of the programs, and obviously us in Ucila have probably had the most talks
you know, of any any program going forward. But what it's going to
look like in the future, all right, guys, have a great one.
Tommy Lloyd unplugged. Yeah, you know, a little bit of everything,
right. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff. Yeah, a lot
of stuff to react to. So let's, uh, we'll do that,
take our break. Yeah, we'll do that and get some questions in and
Tommy, I mean Tommy, Yeah, give us a call. Sammy has
one five, two zero four, one six, seventy four forty and Steve
and I and maybe a little bit of Sammy will react to some of the
stuff Tommy just covered. So'll 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 Loot.
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breaking down all the excess at all. It's Steve la Vera and Jacin Salvas.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome
back to my I on the back around Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera. You're Jagins always got Sammy with us, Jay, I'm disappointed in
you. I am very disappointed. Two days ago it was National Curmudgeons Day
and you got me nothing. You did not get me a pro I just
find this out just now. I am disappointed and as Steve, I missed
it. You know you need it. You need to like slip a little
note somewhere. I just realized that tell me no cup of CODs and no
cup you know or whatever, any old flowers. I like flowers. I'll
give you a next time. No, never mind, never mind. Hey,
before we go on, something that Tommy Lloyd mentioned at the at the
top of his press conferences. There there's a an auction taking place of shoes
that that the coaches have been wearing as part of the It's It's Yeah Coaches
Versus Cancer awareness. They they took some shoes, some Nike Air Force ones,
which are sort of the most popular shoe right now, and the coaches
along with the kids at the Diamond Children's Medical Center cancer patients, they colored
these shoes and various patterns, various things, and they're they're being auctioned between
now and February tenth. The coaches will be wearing again, wearing them again,
coaches and staff because like Matt and Sore and uh and and Nate Whakers
who are the media guys, their shoes are in here. Brian Brigger who's
the equipment manager. But all you know, the staff and the coaches.
They've got all these shoes and they're being auctioned on a site called You Arizona
the letter you Arizona dot give smart dot com and the proceeds benefit the Diamond
Children's Medical Center as well as the play zone that they're trying to build over
there. The shoes are funny. There's a page that you can see all
the shoes. Some shoes looked like they came right out of the factory and
Nike. I mean they're just perfectly done. Then others are like finger painted.
I went, I went to the event. I went to the vent.
Was it was a better Diamond childrens uh and saw the interviewed I interviewed
what's his name, I'm getting old Keisha Johnson. Yeah, he was one
of the guys. But the four of the guys showed up with little kids.
There was a little kid, a little boy about two years old,
and he just got all his hands all messed up and he turned them all
over the shoes. So it was it was a cute day, dude.
The smart event, Yeah, smart event. So I'm sure people will buy
those shoes there there's nineteen different pairs of shoes. You can go to the
website and uh and if you want to bid on them, you can.
Uh. Tommy Lloyd had the shoes that that he's wearing. He had them
on the on the on the table on display at the at his press conference
today. But go to you Arizona dot give smart dot com and bid on
those shoes and raise some money for for the Diamond Children's Medical Center, the
cancer services as well as the plays on the truck. Right. Yeah,
no, very good, very good event. Uh. Okay, so let's
go send me your first question or what you was your impressional that you had
something? Oh? No, yeah. I think Tommy always does a really
good job. And we were talking about obviously with Jed Leavin and the whole
how that happened all in this muck, in this mix. There was like
a day where Tommy and Juve was trying to get a contract contract extension and
they asked him about it, and not that he deflected the question. I
think he was just being honest of it's it's not done yet, we're looking
to kind of do that. And I would just ask you guys, I
was like, are you guys at all worried that A, maybe this doesn't
get done, and B we have this similar situation with Tommy that we did
with Jed. No, no, I don't. I didn't think so either,
because of what he said at the very end, I'm all in.
Yeah, and you know what after saying the reaction to Jetfish leaving, who
kind of was saying the same thing, I'm all in. And how pissed
off people got Tommy's here. You know, look, this was this was
you know, Tommy said when he got here, this was his dream job.
This was the only job he was leaving Gonzaga for. Jedfish was gonna
take any freaking job that opened up, right, And then he did it
again. I mean, if it wasn't Arizona, you know, three years
ago, it would have been somewhere else. It'd been anywhere else, anywhere
I can get a hit coaching job. And then as soon as he got
an opportunity at a better one, he was going to the next one.
You know. I had another another buddy of mine at lunch and he said,
you know, we're talking about Dave he Key, you know, uh
getting fired. He said, yeah, Well, if he had gotten the
contract and I said, stop, no, stop, he was he was
leaving. Don't you think it's just really weird. We're in this business,
the news business, has had been in it for a long time. How
people either don't pay attention and I'm not saying here, or they just don't
watch enough of the news. It'll put the pieces together and you just go
what they think is right. Yeah, and that's not right. No,
that's not right. And and and it's a narrative that obviously fishes can't put
out there. You know I didn't get my contracts. Stop saying that,
because we know you were leaving anyway, you were going if the contract had
been done. I still say the contract had been done in December, the
day after the Album Bowl, he still would have been in Washington a week
Washington. You would have been in Washington a week later, So stop it,
or maybe two weeks. It would have been two weeks later for the
the National Championship Game. He was leaving. And anybody who thinks otherwise,
I'm telling you right now, you have no idea. You're full of very
true, very true. So one of the things that I can't remember.
God, today is not a good day for memory. He talked about go
ahead, well, I liked you know what he when he got asked about
why it's so hard to win on the road, you know, his response
was, there's players one who have stayed longer. You got a bunch of
fifth and sixth year seniors out there playing on various teams too. The talent
has spread through the transfer portal and with nil and all this stuff. So
he said, you're running into teams out there who have players that they didn't
used to have. Sure, I think part of the problem of not being
a good team earlier or whatever is the chemistry gets effected because you have these
guys right, traveling and moving all over and not just for two years,
it's for one year. It's hard to mix them in. You know,
come on, how are you gonna put kileb in in what he does his
skill set with this team that was pretty good already and then not piss off
a few players, right, Yeah, And you know, and and the
coaches that can do that, that can get those players to come in for
a year and contribute and be happy with that. Those are the coaches that
succeed, and those are the teams that succeed. But there's so many other
teams that don't sure, and you get on the road where it's us against
them, us against the world, and if you're not on the same page,
it's easy to lose. And that's what and that's what's happening out there.
What else were the topics in that conversation. There was a long one
that I I speech that I should have written it down. Well, he
got asked about Colin Boswell like, oh, you know, you know what
you know basically, you know, was it something? You know, he
just said, con just played better. He was more aggressive. You know,
he took the ball, he said there. You know a couple of
times you know that, you know other games where he would you know,
he was looking he was not being as aggressive, you know, he said
he I think he said that in the light. In the previous two games
he had gone into the lane one time. He said, you know,
on Saturday, he just he went back to being doing what he had been
doing, right. I thought that was a real interesting, uh thing,
that he just played better. And that's what he said about the whole team,
said, we just have to play better. And that's it. It's
it's it's not complicated. And here's and here's the rub. You can say
that some of the people doing, you know, the stuff I read,
would just sad that I read this. How come Tommy doesn't get on him?
How come he's not that I saw that. It's not who he is.
He's not going to do that publicly. He's not going to be screaming
at this guy from the bench like like a Mick uh Cronan does and telling
you know, he's not going to tell his players that they're embarrassing the university
as they're coming off the court like I've seen him do. Well, let's
I'll take you back to a couple of years ago when UCLA got to the
final four. Right, what was the reason when they got to the final
four Michigan States? Is so that game that they that game he was berating
the guy up the ramp, right and one of his best players. They
had a ten point lead, kicking the crap out of Ucla. They came
back and got me. They were they just came out and it was like
they said, screw you, I'm not playing for you exactly right exactly,
And so Tommy's not going to do that. And if you're expecting Tommy to
do that, then yeah, go yeah, go see go go watch u
c l A. Okay, he's not going to do that. He's not
that coach and he's you know, he's not going to be that coach.
The second thing is is, oh, we got called it right. Hi,
you're on the ar and I on the ball. Hey guys, how
you doing? What's going on? Power? Hey? What did he say
about culinary dropout? Well, that's when I came in on the press const
that's what I wanted to talk. Well, that's when he was talking about
that. He's here, he's dug in. He said, it's a great
place to be. They had an event, culinary drop out of staff event
for everybody McHale and there were two hundred people there. They all went and
had a great time. He said, I love it here pub because he'll
keep being gone. I mean, you had to get some team bonding.
Well, yeah, they had to do something to kind of reassure people that
things are okay. But that's what it was. There was a big McHale,
well, a natheleactic department event that culinary dropout, right, because that's
the rest of it, Because you're you're where met my dad and myself.
A second generation homebuilder. We Grant Lumber was the place we started fifty years
ago. My dad, Oh you guys, Yeah, should I ask if
you mean? If you? Guy was a fantastic play and that's why they
see that grand Ward Lumber playing. We've called it the meeting place. Later
on in life, like when the two thousand and you'd see people you hadn't
seen for years. So who said it on fire? No? They Yeah,
there was a fire in this that went down to the Marshmallow roads.
I shouldn't laugh at that. But remember he was saying about developing those guys
and I was thinking that too, And you guys are you guys are great?
When we get into the Big twelve, they're gonna have to have a
go deeper on a bench. And in my opinion, he's got to cultivate
a bench for the tournament too. Period. It's too late for that.
It's too late for that. Ye he's got a man. No, No,
well no, I don't think so. On the blow up games,
I think they're going to blow off both these teams and they're going to get
some playing team. I understand in the gritness they they got to because they
said they're great players. I understand it's too late, but in my it's
never too late. Well, the poem is, you've already gone through what
twenty games or whatever, and you played with the same guys during tough games.
Sure play him in blowouts. Yeah, but you're not gonna play him
in tough games because you would have already done that. Who do it's who
do you trust as you get deeper into the tournament or into the season.
But you never know the nerses. You just never know, you know the
you know the miracles. Okay, Hey, I gotta say one thing because
I'm sure drinking some like beer, just I have to that. Gabriel,
we love him and you're gonna laugh at this, Steve, we love him
like Brian. And I knew Brian before. I love Brian, remember back
in the day this. I know, Gate's a little more there than Brian.
But he's on sin ice because he gets a little too excited. And
you got to have your finger over the button. That for you, Howard,
too for you. Well now I'm a little bit I'm double his age.
I think I can control myself. Okay, Okay, thanks Howard.
That's funny, because I did want to talk about the culinary drop off.
There more of a team bondy. It's funny because someone says, I wonder
if the athletic department page for that. They're still spending money. They're not
going to stop spending money totally, but you know, but yeah, here's
another call. Let's take this. Ah, you're on the air and I
on the ball. Hey, what's going on, guys, it's James,
James. What's up? Ah? Not much. I was wondering if you
saw the North Carolina game yesterday. Yes, Damon Stodermayer beats up on North
Carolina. He's got a duke and North Carolina's number now right right? Yeah,
No, it was fine. I only caught the last minute because I
actually flipped it over to see what Kansas was doing against Oklahoma State and the
North Carolina game had not ended, so I caught the very end of it.
But that was you know, that was an interesting ending for North Carolina.
Yeah, well, just get to see Damon having some sex success for
is the top schools in the a CC and curious what he would be able
to do with five and four star recruits coming in all the time. Yeah,
well, he might eventually make that happen. Over there, and you
know this is his first year. Yeah, Georgia Tech is you know,
I mean, it's got some history, it's you know, it's it's not
like a scrub school. So you'll have an opportunity over there. But I'm
glad that Tommy doesn't scream it as players like some other coaches. Now,
yeah, we were having that conversation just a minute ago. And you guys
remember the Tarzuski scenario that was on national TV very much so we did,
so we know, what are you talking about anyway? If you guys take
care Thames? Yeah, so you know against Steve, I mean, you
know on that subject, he's just if that's what you're looking for, then
then you need right, well, you don't follow somebody. How how consistent
can you be? Discooed the football program we had. We had Stoops.
We had a Dick who was who was calm and composed right maca I can't
remember. He was more business like. We didn't give a crab okay,
So then Stoops was crazy on the side. People had issues with that.
Then you had who was after him, Rich Rod Rich Rod. He was
kind of crazy on the side. He would yell at his guys in a
way that you would go that's a little okay over the time, and then
you went to someone who didn't give a crab. So there's gotta be a
fightline subwhere somewhere in there. Well, somebody's gonna be unhappy with if he
was yelling in his players all the time. Somebody would say players all the
time. Point he still he still gets hot sometimes when stuff happens. But
he has a standard and that's I've seen him growl at the refs and he
does. And but you know, you feel like he picks and chooses his
spots when when he's when he's read in the phase, you know something is
wrong. Right, all right, we're done that one kind of fast Steve
again. We pulled one together again. Sam. We've got Reggie Gary coming
into Mark review the air. The he's coming up against Callon Stamford, So
come back for that and we'll be and then right and then we'll have somebody
from the Color Guard Classic. We'll talk the golf tournament coming up here,
so be sure to come back tomorrow. I can see their way from here,
can't you see hell on the window? Open? Confuse never every time
you touch me, I just smelt fool away. God after whi