This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jag and Zalaz sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possessions kat
z R two sad at iHeartRadio STATIONA. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera. He's Jagan Zollis. Happy New Year, everybody. Jay, Good
to see that you're alive and upright. I'm here. I'm choking down the
cough drop, so I don't up along all over the studio. Keep your
distance, ready to go, keep your distance, don't talk directly to me.
Yeah, just you know, I'll just apologize ahead of time to everybody.
If I cough into the microphone. It's you know, it is what
it is. I won't get through the system. I'm gonna try and hit
the button before I do that. But uh, you know, came home
from Disneyland with a cough and a little bit of a sore throat. Happiest
placed on the earth. Uh you know what, Steve. We had such
a great time and you know should have a time of parent This trip was
for for my my one year old grandson, and I'm like, he's you
know, he's obviously not gonna remember how much fun is he gonna have?
I know we're gonna have fun. The kid had fun? Did you tape
it? Oh? We're we It was funny. We set up a a
shared album on you know, on the cloud for us all three days.
Okay, over a thousand pictures and like two hundred little videos. You see,
Dad, we really or Grandpa, we really wanted to. He had
a good time. We could tell he was having fun. You know,
he went to Goofy's Kitchen and you guys have fun. He was I rode
Winning the Pooh two times. We had a great time. It was a
great family trip. And we got back and a couple of the family members
turned up with COVID. My daughter stayed behind in in in LA to spend
New Year's Eve there she got it and my wife has it. But I've
so far tested negative, so here I am. Yeah, okay, good,
just stay keep your distance keeping. Just a lot of people, I
know, I'm so real. Yeah, there's a lot of people say yeah,
yeah some time of year, Okay, no, hey, a lot
to get to a good show. First of all today with Lamont Hunley coming
in first first in about ten minutes, and then Brian Jefferies on the second
half. Right, you're gonna have us with Jed Fish and Tommy Lloyd in
between. Yeah, we figured out the technology and I think I think I'm
ninety nine percent sure we're gonna be able to live stream Tommy Lloyd's three thirty
press conferences, holding it during our show. They can't stop us from having
it on. Great, we're gonna I think I've worked out the technology and
we're gonna play live for you. Great, and we have a lot of
positive to get to and some negative. And there's lots of negative out there
with the basketball team. But we'll wait. Let's talk first. Football first.
We a lot about football. We're gonna talk with Brian, but both
of them, Lamont with football. But you must have been very happy.
I let me tell you. I didn't think they were gonna cover, and
they found a way to win it. Uh cover only in sense of coming
back. But I thought they played out of their minds in that fourth quarter.
They looked bad. It looked really bad. We were watching it in
our hotel room outside of Disneyland. It looked bad. You know, they
got that great start and you thought, ok right, this is gonna be
a killing. Oklahoma doesn't have their players, and all of a sudden,
Oklahoma starts to playing ball for two quarters, Arizona had nothing. You know.
Well, what ran through my mind was, this is a big boy
football. While Arizona had a good record, winning streak against some good teams.
You know the difference between an Arizona and Oklahoma, Michigan, Alabama,
Georgia, all those teams are the lions. Those guys have massive guys.
And that's where Arizona was. There was always going to be bad, badly.
Yeah, and so that's right. Arizona can't block now, like can
they not block? They're being blocked, so they can't stop them either,
And and it looked bad. Well, the the offensive mines that they have
came up with a plan. They rotated the fuffita in the pocket, moved
them around and made made them less stable, and they moved the ball.
Hey, and and thankfully for Arizona fans, maldon and I don't know how
you feel about this, but we were the guys are talking about this.
Maldonado's play has to be in the top five all time biggest players in Arizona.
It's up there, top five because you know, when you think about
you know those the momentus brought you obviously go to Chuck Seasil, you go
to the Leap by the Lake. After that, you got about eight plays
that could be next. You know, uh uh, you know the game,
you know, Darrel loss against Muskraave James the bow in the A s
U game. There's a whole bunch of whole bunch of players. You can
go in there. But yeah, I mean, if not for that,
players don't lose the game. They're they're driving this. They were gonna score
again, this score again, it's over. Yeah, score again, it's
over. Yeah. And you know, we're watching the game and I'm like,
this is it. Arizona's gonna lose this game. I had already talk
myself into thinking believe has lost the game. The fourth they're not playing very
well. You're thinking how they gonna survive this. They're out there what twenty
whatever it was, and then the ball pops out his hands and they have
a chance. And not only do they have a chance, they show that
they're capable of winning the thing, right Because you could have a chance,
but they moved the ball. Looking in the end, you know, people
are gonna say, well, Oklahoma didn't have the quarterback, they didn't have
this, didn't have that. I get that. Yeah, And you know
what, and the Oklahoma quarterback made a bunch of mistakes, freshman quarterback through
some picks. He had that last fumble that a lot of Arizona to get
the clinching score. But you know, I'm gonna tell you at the end
of that, when that game ended, I had the same feeling that I
had after Arizona beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl, because so go there,
go there and say say that, and then I'm gonna ask you a question,
because again, Oklahoma's the blue blood, right a college football blue blood
one you know, once some national championships. They were that team that Arizona
wants to be, you know, and regardless of st Oklahoma was in terms
of its its its team, They're still Oklahoma. They still have those guys,
and they were beating the hell out of Arizona and it was kind of
like, you know, remind me of the nine eight season and that you
know, this team came out of nowhere, had this great season. H
and then they went off and beat somebody just set up. Okay, So
so so I'm gonna ask you to get your realistic football fan hat on.
They win this game, they win ten games of ten and three for the
season, realistically, realistically moving forward, What is capable or what's this program
capable of moving forward? Should the fans who usually get too giddy over giddy
for this because now they think they can compete with everybody, you know,
bring on, bring on, baman, where do they stand. They've got
work, They still got work to do, you know. I mean,
look how many of those games in the in the in the winning streak at
the end of the season, did we actually think they were gonna win?
Not many? If Colorado, without you, I didn't think they were going
to win any of the rest of them. And they did. Here's the
thing, and this this gets back to when you're an Arizona fan as long
as I've been. Here's what here's what you think. I know where you're
gonna say, you know where I'm going. Ten wins in nineteen ninety three,
they crapped, They craped the bed. In nineteen ninety four. Ye
ten wins in nineteen ninety eight, they crapped a bed. In nineteen ninety
nine, they went six and six and nine, right, you know,
ten wins in twenty fourteen, We're never. We're never. UCLA blow them
out in the first conference game. Game day was here and they yes,
they got to I think they played in the New Mexico Bowl again. Or
it's like the follow up has been bad. After all. They can't sustain
it. They haven't been able to sustain it. And the question is what
are they gonna do? And I'm gonna ask Lamont Huntley this because Lamont Huntley
was on the eighty two team that the eighty then the eighty three team came
up and they were ranked like the number three in sports illustrated all these expectations
and that that team didn't I live up to you it's expectations. What are
they gonna do during this offseason to not let that happen again? Because that's
what we're using. Well, I've said this a number of times with the
program itself, just for basketball and a little bit of football. They can't
handle prosperity, right, they get the everything? Do they overthink it?
They think they're full of it? And I'm thinking the crowd based the CAMBI
where look just last week with the basketball team and I said this on Facebook
and I will get to that later. Where we're we're the we're the stuff,
We're the stuff. You can fill up whatever word you want, and
we're the stuff and no one's gonna touch us. Then they show up and
they don't show up, they don't show up and says, don't talk it,
don't talk it, just do it right. Don't you have to say
who you are, what you do. Just go on and kick the crap
out of him. And I love Tommy Lloyd and how he reacts. Did
you you read his comments to kick their ass? We're gonna how many times
the dude, the dude is right. The dude self evaluation was pretty damn
good. But but you know, getting back to the football thing, that's
you know, that's what's happened to Arizona every time, right, So give
the history. I want to know. I want to see. I want
to hear what's Jed Fish and his staff going to do to not let that
happen, because that's what's happened every time. You hope that it's different,
because, like you said, those years twenty fourteen included with rit Trod.
You think, oh, he's gonna build on this. Yeah, and it
didn't. Right. And I've mentioned before a few years after that, that
ninety four season, you know, because remember the ninety three and then they
were number one and sports illustrated going into ninety four horrible and they went,
they went eight and three, but it wasn't a good year, and they
lost to Utah in the Freedom Bowl, a terrible loss where Utah had like
less than one hundred yards total offense but won the game. Something like that.
And a few years later I asked Dick Tomy, I said, what
happened in ninety four? Why did Why were you guys didn't work? Why
did And he flat out to him, I said, we didn't do the
work. We thought we were good, We thought, you know, we
didn't have to do the work, and we didn't do the work in the
off season. And that's what And no matter what we did, no matter
what we said, our guys didn't do the work. And that's and that's
what happened. The number one killer of Arizona Athletics many times, many times,
not all the time, but many times. Okay, so we're gonna
have Laman huddling here in about five minutes. Uh, then Tommy Lloyd at
the end of the hour, see how long he goes partly fifteen minutes or
so. And then have breaking news. There's a lot of breaking, a
lot of breaking news. Lots happened over the last couple of weeks, right
and even today, even tonight today. And then we'll have Brian Jeffries,
who's lived at all the last two weeks in person, traveling all over to
get to the places to give you the news. We'll hear what he says
about everything. We'll talk to him about those follow ups. Yeah, yeah,
because he's all right, And that's the thing that's what's in my mind
now about this year. Great, he had a great year, a lot
of fun. Sure, it was as much fun as we've had. Gratulationship.
Okay, now what No, you're you're you're car sails, car salesman.
Jay. You sold ten ten cars in January, you better sell twenty
of February. Yeah, exactly? Or what or your job? I mean,
what's the expectation? Right right? You know what's the expectation? So
I'm interested, Okay, okay, let's get out of here. All right,
Let's let's take our break. We're going to come back. We'll have
a lemon hunter will comind and we'll talk to him about you know what,
what goes through what goes through players minds in this in an off season like
this, when people think you're the you're the stock. So stick around.
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excess at all. It's Steve Leavera and Jagin Salmas. This is I on
the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to I the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jagan Zaus.
It's not on the pune. We have Lamont Hunley. When you a football
All American and great sponsor of ours. How you doing the month? Oh,
I'm doing well man. Having new years to you both? So do
you did you have a great time in San Antonio? And how proud were
the team? You know what my my chest was was was spreaded wide out
their way out there. It was I mean it was. It was such
a great experience to be around that. I brought my family and my daughters
and my wife. We all was able to enjoy it. And you know,
it was like being in Tucson really and they had quite a few wild
cats, was there. It's a Lamont you know, we're we're We've been
talking about this season as you know, it gotten better and better as the
year went on. You get this, you get this big win. You
know, I don't know how you can wrap it all up with a little
bow, But tell me one thing that you think about this team that allowed
them to do what they do. There's a lot of things, right,
but the one thing that comes to your mind first when we think of this
is why they did this. You know what I tell you, man.
I watched the interview by Hervy and and he summed up the whole thing.
Man. It's all about, you know, the love, the faith you
know that they had in one another as far as what they did collectively as
as a group and as a team, you know, and they understood each
other. They came together as a team. You know, I'm talking about
the players themselves and the message of that kid put out there in regards to
the feeling that he had for his brothers, you know throughout the season.
I think that that right there is it's maybe something we as fans really didn't
get to see that they had internally. And I think the worst that he
said it basically summed up their whole whole season in regards to what these guys
did as a family unit as brothers. No, I think that's it.
You've been on teams like that, I'm sure where people don't see what happens
inside the locker room or on the field with that love that's huge. Without
that great chemistry, you don't have a great team. You don't know,
I mean, and and you and you don't allow things penetrated either. You
know, once you get that that that connection with one another, nothing can
penetrate it. You don't let people in it. I mean that was fortunate
of course, be there and in the hotel with these kids. I mean
you can see the kid as far as the relationship they not only had with
the coaches but with their family members. Man, it was just so exciting
leading up to the game, but after the game you really tells it even
more. Well, that's yeah, And that's exactly where I you know,
was going to when I saw that interview. I'm like, whoaly yact.
You know, there was something really special that was going on in that locker
room. And we've talked a million times about you need to have that,
you need to have something like that. You can have the best talent in
the world, but if you're not all on the same page, you can't
get there. Whereas a team like this that, while talented, wasn't the
most talented team on the field every game. They were able to do that
because of those things exactly. And and I mean look and even look at
the kids that was playing certain positions. As I said earlier in the year,
I mean, you got you got, you got defensive backs playing linebacker,
you know, I mean me as offensive coordinator. But I look at
that, I'd be like, well, heck, I put a big body
on that small body. We should be doing things. But these kids,
I mean, they played out of out of out of their you know themselves,
and and and they of course played for themselves and play for the rest
of their teammates, and and and everything just came together collectively. And you
can even the game itself. Man, we we was controlling that game in
the first quarter, and then Oklahoma just came and took it away from us,
completely took it away from it. I was like, okay, where
are we going with this? And all of a sudden, the defense,
the defense just got out there and created turno was made, things happen,
put the ball in the hands for the offense again to control the game and
take it back and the momentum back to us. You know again that that's
that, there's stuff that that you know, it happens because of togetherness.
It happened because of the fact that you know, brothers are bonding and and
and and trusting one another. So that's that's that's that's it's true stuff.
It's true to form and that you can't teach as a coach. So I'm
gonna let Jay ask the sixty four thousand dollars questions, but these days it's
more of the nil million dollar questions. Okaylemn So you know, every ten
win season that Arizona's had, the next season hasn't been hasn't reached the expectation,
and a couple of playing cases not even close. I'm gonna I'm gonna
throw you back to your your your team, you know. Nineteen eighty two,
you guys, you know, did pretty good. You beat ASU at
the end of the year nineteen eighty three. You guys are in Sports Illustrated
and all kinds of stuff. You're considered the top ten team. What what
has to happen this season to not let them, to not let what's happened
in the past with these great teams happen. What put yourself on the locker
room right again? I mean, they can't allow outside distractions, you know,
penetrate, penetrate their unit that they got, and you can't allow you
know, you know again all of these outside distractions, like even the nil
and whatever it may be. I mean, for me, they all outside
distraction. I mean, these kids got gotta gotta believe that, you know,
they got something special here. We got to try to keep this together.
As far as far as players, at this point in time, it's
all about the players, and they got to take the initiative to say we
got to keep this thing together. You know, for me to go chase
a dollar at this point in time in my career, why chase a dollar,
you know, because you're gonna get that dollar. I mean, you're
gonna get that dollar eventually. And if things keep going where is going they're
gonna get even more dollars than they talk about getting tomorrow if they go somewhere
else. It's going to take a few guys that's in that locker room to
step up, you know, and show that leadership and create that leadership and
get them to believe we got to keep this together as a unit and let
them not allowed any outside distractions pull us away as a family. How hard
is that to do with kids with kids, because you're dealing with young people
first and foremost, and you're dealing with people of need. You're dealing with
football players and that family of need, and so when you're dealing with that
aspect of it, you know, you can find kids chase dollars. But
I still think there's a certain culture of players that's on our team that believe
in family first. And then sometime when you got that culture, and I
believe family comes in for anything. A dollar, you know, don't mean
anything at this point of our lives, you know, because the mom and
the daddy are gonna make sure you stay true to form in regards to what
you're doing. Now. You know what you're doing now, stay true reformed
for that, and the dollar's gonna come and I think we got enough families
that's that's a part of this team that can step up and say let's do
this thing more at least one more time, at least one more time,
and see how far we can take it next year. Well just twenty seconds
in a response, please. So the taste of the victories and all that
fun has to help, has to help moving forward. Oh yeah, it's
gonna help in every fashion as far as keeping us together collectively as a unit.
And also it's gonna help you know, the community here. They going
to get on board. You know, they're gonna start selling some more tickets
and who knows, they might know, people may start doing that little nil
things organically and the kids don't have to chase it. Yeah, no,
that's great, great, great, Okay, thanks the lonch An mind.
We appreciate your comments all these long. It's been great, all right,
brother God bless you. Yeah, thank you so much. So. Yeah,
it's great. Uh, we've got some insight. He's inside, you
know, he's got some insight and he said the right exactly what you would
think. You with you. It's about the player. They have got to
have got to keep their quote unquote eye on the ball this off season,
right right, not on the nine il exactly. So all right, and
we'll have some we'll have some talk about that during breaking me. So all
right, we'll be right back. We're gonna come back. We should have
the Tommy Lloyd press conference live for you when we come back. So stick
around and hear what Tommy's got to say, not only about what happened over
the weekend, but what they got coming up with Colorado started tomorrow. If
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live on the iHeartRadio Whap. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera
and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty he Welcome back, everybody. We're
gonna get in progress with the U, a pres converge with Tommy Lloyd.
What there's it a chance, especially now a few days like this, that
real guys really lock him maybe a little bit more after a game like that.
I mean, Bruce, if you don't try to lock him more,
I don't know what to tell you. I mean, like, yeah,
I mean I hope. So, I mean, I don't got it.
I don't got any magic potion. I just know we didn't play well last
weekend against a team that did play really well. And you know we've moved
on, and you know we're obviously you know, I don't know, I
weedy dress things whatever. We just we we had like a normal week of
preparation and you know, we've lost games before and I'm sure we'll lose them
again, and uh, you know do we just know we're prepared to play
a really good Colorado team in a big game. Those two games against the
Washington Schools without a couple of starters to that impress you even more than well,
listen, they're really good. They're really good all around. They got
a great group of experienced guys. You know, they obviously had Cody Williams
as a really young, talented freshman. I don't know if he's gonna play
or not, but but they have a really, you know, good group
of experienced players and they've been together for a long time, and you know,
this looking like it could be one of those teams where they could have
a real special season. So you definitely about Sunday's game that you weren't able
to maybe see from the sideline. Maybe it's about defensive rotations or just kend
of what happened on defensive I mean, we played a team that you know,
maybe our sense of urgency wasn't enough, but you know, they hit
a lot of tough individual shots to kind of it going. And then you
know we probably panicked a little bit defensively and maybe got too active or every
little adjustment I tried, they picked it apart and made a three at the
end of it, and and it was you know, you tip your hat
simply. Well, beyond that game, you had mentioned that the perimeter defense
hasn't been good multiple games down we've watched the film. Is there a calming
thread in that of the I mean, you can probably find a bunch of
things. I don't know if there's one common thread you know, at the
end of the day, you know, it comes down to want, want
to You got to want to do great there, and then you know you
have to have the discipline to execute a plan. And you know, for
long stretches this year we have we just you know, kind of lost our
way a little bit, and you know we'll have to, you know,
see if we can get it back. Think about teaching defense, you know,
a lot of time to it starts with the shell or it starts with
on ball and it feels like you got Okay, okay, here's the guy.
You guys, stop you're making you guys make a lot. We got
our as kick last game by a team that was on fire. Okay,
okay, you know what, going into that game, we were the second
rate defense in the country. So I mean, I don't know, if
it's broke, we'll figure it out and we'll see how it is tomorrow.
And if it isn't tomorrow, I just have to keep working on it.
We didn't. We're not approaching it any different than we have before. And
we're not we don't need to get into philosophical deals to start questioning, well,
do we start with a shell drill? Do we start with this ball
screen coverage. Going into the game, we had the second rated defense in
the country and we got torched. So now we need to step up and
see where we're at. I mean, I you see, the plan was
okay up to that point. I mean, if you had the two hundred
and second ranked defense in the country, you could ask me any philosophical question
you want, and then you know, now you and I could go to
Bob Dobbs, get out some napkins, and we could talk about you can
help me with how I want to start my base defense, and I'd probably
be all ears insinuating of that. I was saying, since you guys are
such strong on ball defenders, and you see that in the first half against
Cal, what does it take to get the rotation or get their you know,
their their willingness to help at the same energy level of their own.
It just takes consistent effort. And you got to be great on the ball,
you got to be great off the ball. What you're saying maybe is
if you think the schemes and that things were there, but maybe the effort
left. No, the scheme wasn't there, the effort was wasn't there.
Well, I mentioned a little bit after the game about getting Polly as an
opportunity and looked like he made the most of it, especially with being able
to have that. You haven't really had a man like that that that stretches
the floor and shoots the three as well in the previous two years. What
does that do in terms of changing the office? Well, he Poulos is.
He's an interesting player. He's got he's got some real strengths, and
he's got some weaknesses that you know, he's gotta he's got to address if
he wants to be a great all around player. And uh and he's young,
you know, so so we'll see in time over time how he develops.
But there's no doubt he has a real talent. He has some real
strengths, you know, and and we'll see, you know, if we
can tap into those strengths. When you have a player Kylon's been struggling a
little bit, how do you kind of handle that? Do you just part
of the deal. It's it's it's it's your guys's place, dirt bakes,
it's part of growing up. You just hang with them. You hang with
them and you help them and you love them. You mentioned that nothing is
guaranteed to the starters that like a lot of the rotation or some of the
rotation players are getting some more action of how have you seen them respond to
speaking practice? I mean, yeah, practices were fine this week. You
know, our practice was fine and and you hopefully they would be after what
we just went through. So you know, but but guys, I know,
you guys haven't had a chance to talk to me, and you guys
are like picking up the scab a little bit. We've moved on. We're
one hundred percent focused on Colorado. I have not said one thing about Stanford
in forty eight hours. You guys can scheme about all you want. You
know, I have to move on. Our team has to move on.
And we've got a really good team. If we would have won by twenty
or lost by twenty, tomorrow's game is gonna be hard. So that that's
one hundred percent where my focus is about Colorado. That makes them so good.
They got really good players, and they got a good scheme, and
they've their experience, they've been together, and you know that they're a team
that's kind of been building to this. You could see a building for a
couple of years. They've added some really good pieces to a good core the
audio of the audio, and they're just an impressive outfit. I mean either
they look like one of the stronger teams in the country, and I felt
like that going in the offseason too. You look at Kaja Sumpthing last year
versus yar, what do you think he's made in such picion? He just
continues to get better, you know, he just continues to get better.
I mean he's a he's a dynamic guard. You know, he can you
know, run their offense. You can play with great pace, he can
score, he can pass, and he just he just you could just see
he has a supreme confidence about him. He's a really good player. Oh
he just he said he had a really good conversation with you media day.
I didn't know, like, you know, what that relationship has been like
because it was kind of this that was so fast and you know, I
mean it was I mean, listen, it was probably a lot you know,
things were probably a lot more. He was probably a lot more focused
on his situation. I was focused on a lot bigger situation. And he's
a really good player, and you know what, he obviously made a great
choice for himself. And I'm really happy for him. I'm really happy for
Colorado. You know, we've been fine, you know, the last couple
of years, and you know, it's just looks a situation where it kind
of worked out for both. But it was never anything where I didn't think
kJ Simpson was a really good player. It's just hard. You get a
job, the kid signs with another staff, that's a tricky situation for a
lot of people to work out, and you know, and then and then
you have to rebuild a whole roster. Things happen fast, and and he
he picked a perfect place for him, and he's a perfect player for them,
and he's playing really well. What do you make of Eddie Lampkin and
are there any advantages of guy like Umar going against him two years ago?
Eddie Lampkin's a really good basketball player. I mean we saw the best of
Eddie Lampkin. I mean he you know, had a twenty point, twenty
rebound double double against that's the NACAU Tournament. He's a really good basketball player.
He plays with great energy, He's got a great feel for the game.
Yeah, I mean he's impressive. He's an impressive player. What Burph
said you're going to assume that Da Silva and Williams play. But if if
if Da Silva doesn't play because of what he does so many different things,
does that make them different? I mean, then do you kind of that
too? They have really good players and and you know, so you know,
I mean, I I think whoever they roll out there, they're going
to be really comfortable and they're going to be really good. And you know,
obviously Da Silva is a dynamic player. He's really experienced. Now you
know, he's he's he's you know, playing well in side, he's playing
well outside. So you know, I'm sure their preference would be to have
him. But whether they have him or not, whether he's at one hundred
percent or not, they're still going to be a really good team. So
we're we're preparing the same way. We don't have a we don't have two
sheets of preparation with the Silva and without Da Silva plan. So just a
really good player and whoever they plug in there, it's gonna be a really
good player. You guys are a great home atmosphere in Phoenix, but you
haven't played here in the Kale in a month. What's it gonna be like
having a two game we get here, it's gonna be awesome. I mean,
you know, you know, hey, the scheduling kind of broke,
how it broke, and you never want to be away from home that long.
It's gonna be good to be back home. And you know, I
think we need a little home cooking. But hey, you know, I
have no regrets for the schedule we're played, and it's just kind of a
tough hop when you play a tough Deceimber schedule and you end up with your
first two conference games on the road, and you know, but that's also
a great opportunity to go win them. You go win two road games right
away, and and you know, you kind of get put yourself in a
good position, you don't you know, you're you're probably right where you should
be. So you know, I'm comfortable with where we're at. And you
know, I mean, we just we just got to have a great for
tomorrow. One more question. Did you guys take Monday off you don't have
to, right because you're not in school, or did you go? I
can't remember. I mean, what does it matter if we did or didn't.
Bruce, we got a really hard game, Bro Bruce. Bruce,
Bruce, do you think we took Monday off after the way we played on
a Sunday? Okay, there we go. I mean we of course we
came in and we we might not have ran him into the ground, but
of course, I mean, we got to get better. We're like everybody
else, got to get better. Jesus last time. Are you looking at
the coach with you you kind of do you ever just throw out them,
just say we played like crap, Let's move on to the next game.
Mark. I mean, I don't think either. I mean I don't make
too much of it. I mean I don't make too much of it because,
like I mean, at the end of the day, we got to
you know, you got to figure out some why's and you address those things
a little bit. But like I said, we haven't talked about Stanford in
a couple of days. We had to move on. We don't have time.
We don't have time to sit there and dwell on something that, you
know, we didn't do well. And at the end of the day,
guys, I tipped my hat to Stanford. They played awesome that day.
They played really well. The last two years we've played them, there played
really well, exceptionally well, I mean so well, to the point like
sometimes I'm like, how are they not? How is the record not better?
But but that that's neither here nor there. But they they played really
well and we didn't so and and you know, we probably had something to
do with them playing well. They probably you know, had something to do
with us not playing well. And it's just kind of how it went that
day. So I'm excited for tomorrow. You know, I'm looking for a
great effort from our guys, and you know, you know, win or
lose, we're gonna we're gonna keep plugging away. Thanks guys. Well there
you have it, le Vintage to Tommy. Yeah, and it's it's some
that's his relationship with with Bruce. Uh and they do that because well he
does that because he can and he does. But that's the most uh back
and forth I've heard from him ever. That's also the most how can I
say this more the most the not dire straits. But he's in a tough
spot. When you're at Arizona, you don't lose like games like this.
Loot lost a few and Luke got a little testy with the media after questions
like that, but you know what he meant, that game is history and
I'm not gonna do that either side because you have to ask the question,
right, you know, you do, You absolutely have to. You have
to go because the first time the meat has had a chance to talk to
him, so you have to ask those questions correct. But on the other
hand, Tommy is a coaching He doesn't dwell. No, he's not.
No matter how part try to make him dwell, he's not going to dwell
on on those games. I listened to it, and you did as you
did, and many people did. Uh. Some guy just said, I
won't say some guy, but one of our listeners said, he ain't very
funny. Where are the jokes? He's a boring interview? That was not
boring to me. That was very funny actually because he was very pointed and
he's he's there in every day dude and every day man, a common man.
Jay, we sucked. How else I mean, is gonna tell you
that we sucked and we got to get better and we sucked. It's not
about defending even though well he did funny say this on Sunday. Uh.
The Ken Palm, Jim Palm, Jim Palmer, The thing doesn't mean crap.
I was cussed, doesn't mean crap if you don't play that way.
And they didn't play that way. They didn't were terrible, And I covered
a pretty good coach under Loot. He had these games. Yes, he
had a few of these games. I remember trying to kick the ball at
Oregon State the National Championship, No, No, No eight nine. It
could have been could have been eighty eight eighty nine. When you get pissed
and kicked the ball. Hey, these guys get paid a lot of money.
They're not a lot of stretch. And and again you know if he
if he sits there and dwells on it, then the team is going to
dwell on it, and they have to prepare for a team that's really good
coming into coming in. It was disappointing. I think the fans know say
that all the time. A lot of people were coach YadA da da,
YadA YadA. In fact, I posted something I wanted to talk about.
We will talk about your stuff. So you know, here's a guy I
won't say who it was, but one of the most talented and also the
most inconsistent teams we've ever had, just not that good way overrated, and
there was people just just ripping, just ripping, and another guy said,
please stop this, blah blah blah. And I responded, responding to the
guy who was very sensible, I said, well, a rational response unheard
of on these things. You know, on these posts, the worst thing
that happened for you of A and its fans was beating a mediocre duke team.
It brought out unrealistic expectations and as for years and now people think UA
is short of invincible. I'm guessing many of those posts, most by the
pictures, are done by older people, more than older than thirty. You
won one title in your lifetime one a second might never come. But by
my posts, by my posts of the recent past, or the world post
recent past, uh, they think or act like they're entitled. You're not
entitled. And I've said that many times in the show. Relax and enjoy
the moment. They're not. They are fleeting. Even Arizona's best teams all
time didn't win. It didn't win at all. I mean, realistically,
just why do you why do people go freak out with this stuff, because
honestly, you're gonna sleep. You're not gonna sleep tonight and they lose.
I mean, you know, after watching the Stafford game, I'm like,
what the hell just happened? I'm like, I'm mad at them? Did
you get on Facebook or Twitter? And no? What would be the point?
Right? Right? I was mad? What it was Sunday afternoon?
It was Sunday afternoon. So you know, I'm like, what the hell
was that? You know, we had friends coming over Sunday night. Get
a ruin your day? No, exactly, no, man that maybe I
had a prima, I had some crab legs and had we had a great
I say this on the show with you and joke with your what's the big
deal? I mean the world ended because Steve's so many people throw so much
into this emotionally, emotionally and in some cases because they don't have enough other
stuff going on around them. Right, But you know, look, you
know did I care? I absolutely cared. I was pissed partly because I
put some money. You're the reason again, you know I lost you.
I lost a little bit of money, but more than anything though, here,
here's here's why where I am on this stuff is I I hate the
noise that comes after after something like that. So That's why I hate losing
those games, not because they lost the game, but because then I have
to listen to this. You know what you're talking about? I hear you
know you want me. This was after the game, right game? You
buddy of mine says we got out coached, and I said, yeah,
probably, well they have a better coach. I'm like, what you're gonna
tell me that you think Florida Atlantic has a better coach because he have coached
just one time? Right? Stop it? Yeah, it reminds me,
and I've said this before. So you get a mathematician who you know,
there's a meme about it. He goes up on the board and has nine
equations in one right, two, right, nine or right, the last
one purposely wrong. What do they talk to him about? The wrong one,
the wrong one, the wrong ones right? Here's this mathematician. They
should have them all right? No, guess what every now and again you
have a clunker. Yeah. And I'm not trying to apologize for for Tommy
Lloyd because he'll he'll be fine. But it happens. It happens to everybody.
Ten and three, ten and three, Okay, if you said,
looking at the schedule that they had before you knew how good Duke was,
how good Michigan State was. And if somebody said to you, you know,
if you're an Arizona fan, you're ten and three overall, one in
one in the league, will you sign will you sign on the dotted line?
Hell, yes, yes you would. Hell yes you would. And
guess what, they're tenth in the country. The only thing you might not
sign on the dotted line for is splitting that cal Stanfords because that's a trip
that a bunch of teams are gonna sweep, you know, but Arizona didn't.
But then there's also given take you beat Duke on the road, you
beat Alabama on undertube game, you know, you know, people just lose
their minds. Okay, to put it in context, what would people be
saying about the football season had they lost to Oklahoma? Ah, you know,
Luke, you guys got lucky though all those games you lost to an
Oklahoma team that didn't have its quarterback. Yeah, it's not, you know,
overrated, That's what we would have heard. And at the end of
the game when Arizona was losing, that's what's going through my mind, was
like, oh crap, now I'm gonna go back to town. I'm gonna
go back to home, and I'm gonna have to listen to all these people
who said Jed Fish can't coach in the big game, Arizona can't play with
the big boys. The season was a fluke. They got lucky the Pac
twelve. The league was down, the league was not done. Guess what
they may have This league may have a national championship, right. No.
I used to say, you know, how many big games do I have
to win to prove I can win the big Game? You know, He's
only had to win the Big Game to win it all, you know,
obviously, But I mean, what would legacy if he had not won?
That's a very difficult question. You know, you're right, right, he's
probably he's probably still a Hall of Fame coach. But they totally everybody has
been saying, but he didn't, he didn't win, he didn't win.
Well, what's the knock on? Sean didn't didn't get to the final hasn't
got the best coach had ever gone to the Final four and may never get
to the final four at this point. Yeah, you know, I mean,
yeah, yeah, you have to And for anybody who out there who
listened to the press conference and thought Tommy Lloyd was being snippy or was mad
or he's not. If you if you're watching him, you just know he
doesn't want to talk about the Stanford game anymore. And it's as simple as
that. He wants to move on. Yeah, OK, let's take this
call. You're on the AAR and I on the ball. Yeah. That
press conference is great. Tommy's fantastic, and like Steve, I got some
kicks out of it too. And you got to enjoy the ride. I'd
rather be on this ride than running around our stupid town run Buddy's idiots,
the Bumpiness and Tucson roads. I gotta get that one in there. No,
I agree with you, but you're not a I mean this in a
good way, Howard. You're not an overthinker. Enjoyed the moment, go
to the game. Yeah, if they win, great, If they don't,
d well had Okay? How many times have we said this to these
guys are eighteen to twenty three years old? How many times have we messed
up in our work the tennis court, the rec center? How many?
You know what I mean? Come home? These kids are young, Howard
Man, what a sensible call. Look at that. What you haven't been
drinking, have you? Or maybe you have? You're going up. I
just wanted to call before I'm going to my favorite I'm having a brewery the
name thanks my house. Okay, all right, well you guys later,
even though should we have one? Probably on paper? Yeah, but how
many times does paper win the game? Well? And and then and and
again. The whole thing is exacerbated by the fact that two nights earlier a
su went into Stanford and beat me up. And that that's what I kept
saying, like, wait a minute, what's happening here? This team wants
to a sc two nights ago? How are they doing this? That's the
way it is, Jay, because its circumstances of events. Well, John
Rothstein, who was always posting stuff, and and he said, he always
says, it's at the end of something like that, how does this happen?
He says, that's college basket, college bus, friend, college foot
just sports. It's just how it is. Some things are unexplainable. Well,
uh, and talent doesn't always win the day. He just doesn't.
It doesn't and and it did you know Arizona could play Stanford tenth time?
We say ten times they'd win. What eight? You think? Yeah,
at least come on, everybody, everybody has Arizona winning in eighty eight eighty
eight championship. Play play Oklahoma nine more times? You know they're gonna beat
them eight more times or whatever? Uh, every other game, every other
game, Oh we were better than well, you weren't bad day day and
guess when you had to play them that day on that particular day, and
you move on. Tommy was fantastic in the sense that he was biting.
He was biting. He doesn't get how was you watched it? You watched
it right? How was this? He just just like it's like like you
guys, stop, just stop. Okay, we've moved on. You know,
you want to pick the scab and and I'm I'm past that. Well,
we got to go to Bob dobs out and meet him, see what's
going on, because no, he he wasn't you know, well, he
wasn't getting angry. He was just like I don't want to well, I
don't want to keep how many dead horse? How many times can you answer
the same question right? And it did get asked much times? And you
know, you got you got guys like us out in the audience trying to
break down his offense and how to run his offense. I mean, are
you going to do this? Your rotations? And Bruce, I love Bruce.
Bruce is a great friend of mine. Uh did you break this one
day? Because he does get in the weeds. He's got to he's got
to have confidence. You got to. But you know what, this is
a side that we haven't seen of Tommy. Uh if if if he gets
the uh if these uh the strains getting tighter, we'll see how he well
how And now you know, if you're listening to so you heard the whole
press conference, that's the whole thing. I mean, we didn't butt in.
That's a that's a Tommy Lloyd press conference. And that's how they're You
know, if you're not there, you know, you follow on social media.
You get answers to certain questions. We play that. We play some
of the answer, but we pick and choose what's the most interesting stuff.
You heard the whole thing. That was the whole thing, and that was
his his approach the whole thing. And he was like, guys, I've
gotta I've got a game. We've got to win tomorrow. I can't keep
thinking about the game we played three days ago. You know, I got
to think about this one because Colorado is really good and I can't be preoccupied.
Said, we haven't talked about Stanford in forty eight hours. Everybody else
is still talking about sure that it was fun, it's funny, it was
good. Okay, we gotta go. We got news, Yeah, we
do have breaking news. Interesting thing. Yeah, I'll be back with it.
We've got all kinds of stuff going on, and as we said,
stuff going on today, but you got to catch up on a few things
as well, So stick around for breaking news at the top of the hour.
We'll be right back