Steve Rivera and jaygn Salez. They have their Eye on the ball on Tucson's
sports stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeart radio.
WAPs Hey, welcome back to Night in the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen
fifty of Steve Rivera. Jay is out today not feeling well. But we
have Kevin Thomas here doing the board and gonna do some breaking news. This
is Eye on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. It's
a new year, New me, Steve, New Year. What did you
do? Get a haircut? Killed that? Oh? You got it?
Okay? Yeah? One one in the New Year. Okay, that's yalldaytty
good. But so we do have some news in the NFL. Titans have
fired head coach Mike Rabel. Yeah, after six seasons, and he's been
pretty successful. He has been pretty successful in the first three seasons. Now
when you look at from twenty eighteen twenty twenty one, three playoff appearances,
sixty three percent percentage and twenty five points per game with a turnover differential plus
thirteen, okay, and then in the last couple of years no playoff appearances,
a thirty eight percent percentage seventeen point seven points per game in a minus
nine turnover differential. Well, how how fortunes changed? Was there some connection
to New England that they're gonna swap something or he was gonna go there,
He's gonna go there. So the team had the option to as the team
Tennessee option. Yes, Tennessee has the option to trade him. They decided
to just outright fire trade him. Don't you need to be wanted somewhere to
be traded the I don't think you have to be wanted. Well, I
guess you have to you be wanted, but the coach has to be.
It's like a no trade classe kind of in a way where they can be
like, I don't want to be a part of this, and then the
team can't trade them. So it's believed that Mike Rable was he wanted to
stay, okay, and Tennessee did not want to so they fired him.
Yeah, isn't that help? The life works? The life works, it
is. Yeah, you know, I don't want to be traded to uh
Todaisy Fuentest, but you know she does wanting part of me? You know
who she is? Okay, you have but yeah, no, I thought
it was interesting that they did not try to find get any reward or compensation
for him. Yeah, didn't want to draw it out. He'll land on
the spot. I don't know if he's a great coach, but he's a
pretty good quick because you know, the last three years will prove that he
hasn't been a great coach. Great coaches don't do what he's done the last
three years. Could he eventually end up at back at New England? Who
knows? Right well? If not? If he leaves, if they sail
and there's the door, that's true, there's the door because there's one of
those things. It's not whether you want to stay or not. It's not
whether this wants me or not, it's whether it does. It's like being
a great musician. You know, you never know you're done until your fans
tell you're right right right. That's kind of when I asked Marquis, did
you call your shot to say goodbye? Or did someone else call the shot?
Because there's no better feeling you say you know when you retire, or
or you want to stay. Sorry, we don't want you to be here,
you know. But there was another firing and right after that wasn't there
Maybe no, no, there wasn't. Jacksonville fired their their defensive side of
the ball, I believe, so oh Arthur Smith also got fired. But
that was like two minutes after that. Did you see what happened during the
game when he was fighting he was arguing with you. Yeah, yeah,
there was a bunch of you know, you could read the apps. You
could yeah, you could read the lifts, and it was still not what
do you what do you follow on that? Because we talked a little about
that yesterday. It's a unique case. I think in general, stop them,
okay, but but here's here's the nuance with it. Uh I forget
the coach's name for New Orleans. I apologize, but he's he said that
they actually ran a neil. Jamis said he did run a neil, and
then I was like, forget all that. We're scoring Jamaal Williams' first stretch
out of the season. So it was a unique case because they did come
out in victory formation, and I think it's kind of a shady move.
Okay, okay, they ran to play from the neil formation. I didn't
know that. I didn't know that. So if're on the defense, we're
like, well, let's just stand Okay, then they run it and totally
makes sense and that's why he's pissed. Yeah, okay, I didn't get
he got embarrassed on his last I didn't get that information. But okay,
So if you don't want if you don't want them to score on a normal
situation, what is it. What do you do? Are you pissed that
they scored? No? Like, you stop them? Stop them, you
stop them if you don't want to like being court stormed, win the game,
Win the damn game. Pretty simple. Yeah, I agree with you.
I think we're a lockstep on that one. Steelers. T J.
Watt he's bounced out for the wildcard matchup versus the Bills. I have I
have an interesting stat on that go ahead for our gamblers out there. Pittsburgh
is one and ten straight up and four six and one to the spread without
t J. Watt and the eleven games he's what's the spread? Now?
That's the Bills. I think they're ten point underdog. If if he was
available, that'd be a tough task. I do believe that they're ten point
underdogs. Yeah, that's that's about fair. That's about fair and Buffalo's playing
really well right now, not that it matters because every game is this season.
We'll see. Yeah, and so we also had I also had a
little interesting guessing game. Michigan has the longest winning streak right now in the
FBS, but yeah, who has the second longest? Washington was pretty they
had the longest. I think Washington did twenty something two. Who has don't?
Is this a trick question? I don't know. Is it Arizona?
It is Arizona seven seven. It's Arizona. That's a trick because it's seven.
You said seventeen seven. It goes from seventeen to seven, I believe.
So who would you get that? I saw I saw it on Twitter
last night and it was and everything. Okay, so everything you read on
Twitter, I guess is when it's verified by multiple different sources. Don't.
Don't have me out here sounding crazy, but yeah, but that's you know,
that's a big number. I mean, seventeen to seven. That's there's
no win between. Yeah, I have to I'll have the double checkers.
So that's cool. That's cool. It was just a couple of years ago
when you were maybe a freshman or so, they were did not seem really
they were. They were zero for whatever. Well me three years ago that
there will be a seven game win streak here at this school. I think
I would have called, who sold you have to kill to get that has
control? I don't know if you got rabies or what happened, That's what
I would have said. But thankfully, Yeah, honestly, not much breaking
news. We can talk about the we can talk about the the wild card
matchups. Well, we haven't talked about Draymond coming back. We don't talk
really much national news. But Draymond coming back to the Golden State Warriors.
I'm not sure if I'm happy about that. I've been really confused by the
discourse around him coming back in what sense there's It's been a lot of like
really serious undertones, Like he came out on his podcast and said, you
know that that Steve Kerr visited him during his suspension, and then Steve Kerr
cried and he cried and they had a long conversation where Steve Kerr insinuated that
he does not want Draymond to end his career like this, right, and
neither does a Silver Yeah, because Draymond threatened to retire during the thing which
people on the internet made a big laugh about, like, Hey, they
tell you to stop hitting people, and now you want to retire. But
Adam Silver told them, Hey, I think I'm making a rash decision,
he said. So it's just a weird a lot of weird discussion. I
think, honestly, I expected him to be like, you know, hey,
I didn't mean to hit him. I hit him, and then he
would just go in his suspension, make up, make a podcast about it,
and come back. But it's just like weird. Do you think that
he'll be okay after this? And I don't even know what means? Yeah,
I don't know what do you think will be? Right? It's Raymond
Green. So you're saying the scorpion. I'm saying whether whether on purpose or
not, I think he will find himself in a situation because guys are going
to try him. I think I think guys are going to try to them
up. Okay, that's fair, but that's fair in the evaluation. I
don't know. I think he probably will get something will happen. The Spider
doesn't need the Scorpion eventually gets to be the scorpion of warriors. In the
standing round, they're like eleventh tent I was like, I was like,
if it's just towards the regular season, maybe I'll give him a clean bill
of health for the regular season. But if they make the playoffs somehow,
then something could happen too many games. I don't know if you want to
talk about this, but we talked about this off the air, about about
Jimmy Kimmel and Aaron Rodgers today or last night. Kimmell went on the air
live for seven and a half minutes or whatever it was to talk about the
situation because it was his first public and then and then Rogers Today went on
for a while and for a while talking about his situation. Your line was
what because Kimill went after his education. So Aaron Rodgers was talking about how
he felt wronged by kim Will bringing up his education and his JUCO experience and
things, and then he went to cal, I mean, the dude's a
smart dude. Yeah, And Rogers said something along the lines of I find
it really funny that a guy with ten joke writers in an ACU education could
read off the CALLI prompter and when you were in that which is a good
yeah, like him or not? Rogers moments where he's amusing. Yeah,
I think it's just a weird, weird situation. Yeah, I'm not a
political guy. I only going there. But he's I think he's a very
bright dude. He knows he's a very bright dude. Rich dude, women
like him, influential dude. But there's a point when there's a point when
he just play. I mean, just play. We're just talking about I
mean, I guess he is talking about what he wants to talk about.
But that's the whole purpose of that segment. I suppose, man, he
said, he didn't say anything. I mean, it's funny because he quoted
himself. He read it back and I heard the quote again and I was
like, but just why I throw his name right right, right right?
And that was and that was the issue. Yeah, it was strange.
It was just strange. You didn't have to go there. He didn't really
and he thought he was retaliating from a two or three year old the attack
of a stand up comedian. Yeah, part of your issues. He said
that he doesn't like he doesn't care about what people say. But yeah,
Rogers, he did say today he doesn't care what people think about him outside
of the those that he loved, which is a fair sentiment. Yeah,
sure, if you then back it up right. I mean, if you're
remembering jokes from a late night host three years, two years whatever, ago,
do you really not care or are you just waiting until you can direct
it so that the public doesn't think so this or that about you? Yeah?
He definitely has an ax to grind almost every Tuesday. Sure. Sure,
no. And there's a lot of people in this business. You write
about people. You can write ninety nine things or the show. Do you
remember that one thing that you said you brought up or whatever. People remember
those things. You could be ninety five to ninety nine percent positive for all
these things, but they remember that one. It's it's the Sam Decker thing.
Sam Decker was a great player for Wisconsin. Huh Right, So he
gets in NBA, drafted by the Rockets. He's playing a game of the
Rockets. I think most people my age only remember him for killing dribbling the
ball off of his face against the Knicks. Okay, he was running down
the court, trips, dribbles, the ball bounces off his face, goes
out of bounce. That's what I think first when I think, Okay,
and it goes to your point of like you just remember what sticks out,
and if they were good consistently and they did one bad thing, that's an
inconsistency. It's an abnormality. It's gonna stick out among all the great performance.
That's great. That's great analogy because I use that, and in fact,
I saw it again today on on Instagram. A math teacher goes onto
the board that has ten. I don't know if you've seen this. He
does ten math problems and then the ninth ten math problems gives nine accurate equations,
and then the tenth one messes it up purposely and the students start laughing.
He says, what are you laughing about? Well, you made a
mistake in the tenth one, and why are you laughing? You didn't praise
me for the first nine that I got right. Wow, So people remember,
that's a powerful message, very powerful. And he went into the dissertation
of that's what people like to talk about, how you screwed up. It's
fit. That's Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, there's some psychological effects I remember
from high school. I forget the exact name, but it's where no matter
what, if you get one hundred positive comments. You're gonna remember the one
that just made you feel bad. Yes, you're gonna remember that. I
don't know why, but you're gonna remember that before you remember any of the
good stuff. So this kind of goes student and I don't know if he
even compares. But and this is nothing political, just it's a statement.
So so MAWI happens, right, disaster, YadA YadA, the Rock and
Oprah donate ten million dollars each. I hope, I'm getting start y.
They get give ten million dollars each. They're criticizing for not giving more because
of their wealth or mass wealth. Had they not given anything, would have
been out better. I think some people, I think some regardless of any
opinion on the situation. I think some people would have been unhappy regardless.
Yeah, but they're pointed out because of what they did. And I bring
up a example for me. My wife and I at the time, we
had little boys, little kids, and we go to no galleas a lot.
You know, you do have fun, go shopping blubblah. So we
saw some families that were in need, of course, so we so we
said, you know, let's try to help them and bring some of the
kids old clothes and brought it back like a big garbage back brought out of
the border, took it to the people and the first thing the woman said
was could you bring us more? This is not enough? And my wife
at the time got a little and I kind of was taken aback. We
did this. Don't make us not want to do this again. And I
think you give what you have. I know that Rock and Oprah have a
lot more than that, but I mean for most regular people, and especially
with your example, you gave, you give what you have, give and
we didn't have to do anything. And not that I want to pat on
my back, but that was kind of the example. Is some people it's
just not enough and the apology is not enough or something's not enough. Here's
ten bucks, do you have twenty? Yeah? You know, you know
what I mean. Yeah, And it's sadly true of a lot of people.
But yeah, okay, hey, let's get out of here. We're
gonna have Brian Peabody on the other side, talk to the success of the
PEMA men's basketball program to this point in the season, because they're doing really
well, good stuff on the Brick news and you know, we solve the
world's problems with that last segment or at least Aaron Rodgers product Dunning Ruger,
that stuff ain't done yet. If that Dunning Kruger effect at Google it yes.
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This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to IM about Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, no Jay today, but we got Kevin with me.
Now we have mister Brian Peabody from Pima. Brian, are you there?
He's not there. We're gonna have to Holy moully, what happened?
Okay, why don't you go ahead and hit yeah, kill that one.
And Brian, if you can hear us, or Raymond, if you hear
us, give us a quick call back. We're having issues with the phone.
So is that what you did? Saw you did last time? You
just hit the blue and it came back on. So we'll try if you
guys can call us back. We'll keep an eye on the phone. There
we are, here we go helo is this Brian? Oh? Brian?
Thanks? Did you hear my stuff when you couldn't hear me? Or I
couldn't do? Okay? Cool? Cool, cool, Thanks for coming back.
Very very impressed with what's going on at Pima. You must be or
coaches ever impressed? Yeah, I'm impressed. I'm happy. I mean,
it's all going good. So, you know, anytime you start out a
season and have the success that we've had, you know the bar you're obviously
you know, happy but not satisfied. Yeah. You know, we had
a good year last year and got upset in the conference finals to go to
the national tournament. So you know, as a coach, you know you're
wary of everything. You blink your eye and somebody gets hurt or ineligible or
something like that, so it's got to be careful. So how does this
team look Given the number of teams that you've had over the years, they're
probably playing the type of basketball you've always wanted to play. And it's not
that you haven't had teams like it, but this is kind of like the
team that you've wanted to have. I think you get a team like this
about every ten years. Yeah, And I just say that because this team
is really close. They don't they don't care about accolades or who scores or
anything like that. They're they're just worried about winning. And especially in today's
game, you don't get a team like this very often. Like I mean,
I talk to coaches all the time, and you probably get a team
like this every ten years, right, right. Tommy Lloyd talks about margin
for error. I don't think that's the phrase he uses, but he likes
that because you at the end of the game, if you're up by ten,
you're up by fifteen, they give you some wiggle room you're one of
those teams and score a lot of points and see what comes of it.
Right, we do, We do score a lot of points. But on
the other you know, the other side of that, you know, we
share the ball. I think we lead the country in scoring and also lead
the country and assists, and we haven't to be honest with you, we
do score a lot of points, but we haven't played well down the stretch.
We've had you know, like Snow number five in the country, and
we blew a big time lead against them CoA chief on Saturday, we're up
twenty seven, blew a big time lead. So we got to you know,
we saw a room to grow. We got to figure some things out,
especially in the last ten minutes of the game, of what we're doing.
And it's you know, it's as a coach when people say, you
know, how do you play so fast? I mean you got to take
the good with the bad. We do play fast, and you can't say,
okay, now all of a sudden plays slow. You know, it
doesn't work that way. So we got some things to figure out, and
hopefully we'll figure it out and get better down the stretch. Obviously, the
kids see that, which you just said, you know, the the the
late game meltdowns, fightably not the road, but late game demise or whatever.
Those are partly teachable moments, which is good too, because you need
to have those in your coaching pocket to use to motivate the kids. We
do and and there are so many things that you can that you can learn
from. I mean, the other day, we're playing mcclennan, you know,
Division School for Texas, and we were up three with six to go,
and we had we only had two fouls, and we did we didn't
execute properly down the stretch. We ended up fouling a guy shooting a three.
You know, we were just trying to file to get the guy,
you know, to run clock out and then worst case scenario, shoot one
on one and we ended up fouling the guy shooting a three. He missed.
But that's another moment that you know, it's hard to teach every single
circumstance every single day, so it's good to go through stuff like that,
right right, No, that's that's great. So you're probably not surprised or
a huge surprise because you right now you're, what fourteen and one, we
are fourteen and one obviously a great situation, even to this degree, has
it surprised you? I know, I ran into you last week and you
were talking to how exactly how you're how happy you are with the team.
Yeah, Like I said, the team doesn't come around every year, so
you got to, you know, save of the moment. And you know,
I think there's three reasons, you know why we're good. We got
I got really good coaches. You know, I've got Minder Morgan who've been
with me for over thirty years. You know, most marriages don't last that
long. And then we you know, we added Flaying again a couple of
years ago, the longtime Peleverty guy that is kind of the good cop back
Cup. He's a good cop. When guys want to hug, they go
to him, you know, when they want to be down, they come
to me. So it's it's it's worked out really well there. And then
you know, I've got really good players. You know, I'm not a
good enough coach to make chicken salad out of chicken poop, So I got
I got good players. You know that I've been blessed there. And I
think the most important thing is you know that the community we have with guys
they like. When we played CoA Chiefs, they all like each other,
they root for each other. And we had two guys come off the bench,
Tanner and Coda that had twenty one and seventeen off the bench, and
our guys after, you know, after the game were you know, they
weren't down because they didn't score. You know, a normal guys Baker and
Cohen and Jalen didn't have the game that they normally have, but they were
so happy for those guys, and that just doesn't happen very often. So
I credit those three things. And what are the things that I think you
Yeah, those close to basketball or coaching knows that this happens. You have
the head coach who's who's the guy, and then you have a group of
assistants who who are kind of like the middleman before you and the kids.
Uh, I think you give up a little secret if people don't know is
if they don't go to you for whatever reason they have, you have an
assistant or two that they can go and get caddled by or the ego can
be stroked or everything's going to be okay. Uh. That that ain't easy.
You have to fight the right dynamics to find those guys, right,
Oh, no question. And I've got the right guys, you know.
That's the cool thing about it, you know, Morgan, a minder.
Like I said, all those years of and then Planned is unbelievable with our
guys. And we got a couple of assistants, younger assistants, Mateo and
Jacob that you know, they're almost like as young as our guys, so
they can you know, deal with our guys whatever issues they have and all
kind of stuff. And I'm just and our guys know it. I'm tough
love and and not by choice. That's just the way I am. Right,
I'm not trying to put a you know, active thought on and they
know that, you know, if they need something, then go to Plan
and and he'll hug him and take care of him and all that kind of
stuff. So it works out really well. Yeah, I couldn't be happier
with with my staff. So so so I'm sure, I'm sure your coaching
style has been with you from day one. But let me ask you a
question, because I don't know the answer. Have you have you been able
to or even wanted to adjust the style three years? You know, you
and I are not young guys anymore, but have you have you kind of
been a bit more nimble with it, no question. I think my guys
probably wouldn't believe that, but yeah, way nicer today than I was,
you know, ten years ago. And I think I think the biggest thing
that we've done is a just philosophy well, you know, philosophy wise,
where when we got to Pima, you know, they were no good and
we had to make some changes because back in the day, all we did
is work on defense, and I heard Timey Loid talk about Sheldren and all
kind of stuff. You know, that was us and we would get slaughtered
if we were to play that way, and so we did. The change
we made was playing fast and that was you know, eleven years ago when
I got there, and it's evolved into what we're doing now philosophy wise,
and people you know want to come and play that team and now, which
they didn't before because the way we play and the amount of kids that are
getting scholarships, you know, out of our program, Like I have five
guys on my team that have been offered a scholarship to a four year school
already, and that's never happened to me before. It's usually you know,
after the season or after the first of the year when coaches find out their
team is no good and they start going searching for guys. But I've never
had that many guys been offered a scholarship this early. So you know,
the credit to the kids, they're doing a great job. Well, you
know, I was going to go there with you with the scholarship situation,
because that's fantastic. Has has it changed now with the transfer portal? And
I think I asked to code this and a couple of other coaches, especially
in the j C level, have Has it changed with the JC dudes now
that the portal is is available to everybody in that level, the four year
school? And are they are they still keeping an eye on the JC kids
when they have more access to other cod players at their at their own level.
They are It's not like it used to be. I think high school
and junior college has suffered the most. And then not only the transfer portal,
but also the post grad And there's so many postcrads out there that a
lot of kids are electing not to go junior college but are going to the
postgrad you know, and then reshuffling. But again, you know, I'm
different. The kids I'm recruiting, you know, are high character, They're
going to go to class, they're going to do right things and all that
kind of stuff. So it hasn't affected me. Like We've already signed four
kids for next year that you know, would never have thought about PIMA back
in the day. But you know, you know, I tell this to
parents all the time, be careful because there's not many roster spots. So
somebody's recruiting you, you better take that recruitment really, really serious because there's
not many spots out there. People are leaving and transferring and all kind of
stuff. Yeah, And to me, honestly, I haven't even looked.
I don't ever look at the portal. I'm sure we can maybe get a
kid out of there, but they're leaving and unhappy for a reason. You
know. I want to first start with a kid that wants wants to go
to PEMA and wants to be at PEMA. And if you can get those
you know, fifteen kids to buy into that whole philosophy. Yeah, I
think you got a chance to be good every year? Sure, sure,
how I think are you are we passed or you passed the COVID situation where
you get extra years, transfers and all that. Are we beyond that now
or is still affecting you. I have no idea. I don't know.
I just coach the people that are in front of me. I don't know
if they have years left or not. I don't know. I'm not very
smart when it comes out stuff. But whoever shows up, whatever ten guys
are in front of me, I'm gonna coach. I don't know the answer
to that. Yeah, okay, because you know how it is. Some
kids are taking seven years of playing ball. Yeah no, out of your
guy, out of your kids that graduated, he's older than two of my
assistants, exactly, exactly. So again, you've been at this for a
while now. If you want to say, how many years? Uh?
And I don't think I've asked you this question in the number of times you've
been on But has the attitude or the philosophy of the kids changed? I
don't you know. I hear that all the time. I don't think,
so, to be honest with you, I think maybe maybe the coaches have
changed, you know, and they're trying to cad all the kids a kind
of stuff, But I don't see any difference. Our kids play hard,
you know, and I'm happy with them. They still dive after loose falls,
they do all the fifty to fifty stuff, and you know, I
don't see a big time difference. To be honest with you, I think
maybe, you know, if you allow them to do that, yeah,
they probably would act differently. But if you're a coach that you know,
sticks by your guns and says, hey, this is the way we're going
to do things, you know, we've had a ton of success by you
get just taking a blue collar kid that may be under recruited. You know,
Dylan Baker, you know nobody, you know, no d Ones recruited
him out of high school and he trusted us and came in and worked really,
really hard, and you know he's got ten Division one eyes on the
board and going to NAU and you just gotta, you know, you I
want to take a kid's got a chip on his shoulder, Hey I didn't
get recruited. I'm going to go in and show people, hey, I
should have been recruited. My point guard. You know, people didn't recruit
him because of his size, and now people are regretting it. Now he's
getting calls, Hey, we didn't realize he's that good, right, So
I don't I don't see a big difference. Well, I think, you
know, and this is kind of strange for me to say this, but
I think a number of times, uh Division one coaches miss and a number
of people who I didn't realize he was that good, they end up going
to you or somebody else and saying, how did we miss on this kid?
Right? And again, you think the thing that's changed recruiting wise is
like you'll go to a tournament and you know, there's a lot of times
I'll be the only coach there, only college coach there. You know,
a lot of times they're just recruiting, like you said, transfer portal off
film. Yeah, not a lot face to face, and I don't do
that. I got to see a kid, meet a kid, see him
workout, see them face to face, talk to them, you know.
Might you know people talk about some all time. I get a kid,
I cut a kid that played for me that ended up going to Yukon just
because of his you know is that it was it was no fun and I
got to have fun, just like you know the kids do. So I
want I want to see everybody. I want to see their work ethic and
you can win, you know, at the junior college level with just blue
collar, hard working guys that maybe they're not all D one guys but their
division two any I guys, you can be really successful with that formula.
And that's where you're at right now. Yep, yes we are. Yeah.
Yeah. And by the sound of it, because we had you on
the show maybe a year or two ago, and you were coming off this
year saying that wasn't no fun, right exactly. And that was the year
during COVID where I recruited because we didn't have a choice off of film,
you know, and they would get there and I'm like, oh my god,
did I miss on that? Kid? Did I miss on that?
I mean, I could look I could look like Michael Jordan on film.
I mean, so it's really really difficult to evaluate the intangibles off of film.
How hard does he work? What's his character? Like? Are you
going to go to class? Is he a good teammate? You can't,
you can't. You can't you evaluate that on film? Right? No?
Okay, Well, good luck to you. I will probably talk to you
as the season comes closer to the playoffs, you only have what two more
months? Correct? We're exactly halfway with our year, sort fourteen one.
We got fifteen games, fifteen league games left. Big week for us.
We play Chandler Gilbert tomorrow. It's the only team that's feed us. They're
ranked right behind us. Where's that where's that cat? Where's that game at
in town? It's happening. It's happening in the college. Okay, tomorrow
at six eight o'clock, seven thirty, okay, And people need to go
out and see you guys score one hundred points. You guys are averaging what
one hundred and some eleven hundred, make one hundred and seven or putting up
right now. We're the leading junior college team in the country, leading score
junior college team in the country. Loyola Merriormount shades a Loyol herror Mount for
you kids. Google it, you kids, google it. Thanks man,
thanks by, thanks mister, appreciate it. Thank you very much for having
me. Take care. Bryan Peabody, Yeah, Bryan Peabody from from PEMA.
I'm glad that phone worked me too, me too. Yeah, Mystery
scored a lot of points that's a lot of shots one hundred and fifty plus
on some of these teams. Yeah, sheeesh Okay, cool, let's take
a break. Maybe we'll get a call or to and hope the phone works.
If not, we'll kind of the bs here for the final twenty or
fiftrees. Okay. 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. It was a labor
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down all the excess at all. It's Steve Rivera and Jakin Salmins. This
is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to
I on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Jay's
out today. Got my guy Kevin Thomason working the boards thankfully. Have you
not been here, Kevin, we'd have no show. Would have been a
one man band. No, no, no band to do. I don't
work that board. You see all the difficulties you get through. I would
not know what to do. Hey, you have some breaking news real quick.
I do have some breaking news for Arizona fans. Not nothing shocking,
but Michael Wiley has officially declared for the twenty twenty four NFL Draft, sources
himself on Twitter on Twitter. What do you say? Thanks for everybody?
Yes, just like the classic long paragraph, Yeah, thank you who he
wants to thank, you know, thanking the fans, thanking his teammates,
and looking ahead to the draft. Yeah, Okay, So good luck to
Michael Wilin. Yeah, yeah, that's not a shock. Like you said,
he was all but gone. I think you'll have a nice little career
hopefully. It's a business. It is. It's a business man, it's
a business. Hey, I gotta read the Draftking sportsbook stuff because Jay's not
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know that you're kind of using us and helps us for some notoriety and continue
with the sponsorship, which we love. So that's cool. A lot of
games to pick this weekend. I think Drackings, I mean, I know
it's the official partner of the UFC. But I think it's the only place
CHI can place fight bets for real too. Oh really fight parlays? Oh
really? So the other ones don't do that. I think they carry the
fights, but not like round props, like you know, method of method
of victory in round two for example. So okay, I follow that,
right, Yeah, I do when I'm interested. I haven't. Is there
a big this weekend or next weekend? The first card of twenty twenty four
is this weekend, but we don't have anything major until the end of the
morning, okay, because I saw the promo on it today this morning fifteenth,
I think Ray first, Arizona pla. Arizona plays basketball this weekend Saturday.
I just looking for the time because I have to watch that and write
a quick Arizona plays Washington State Saturday the thirteenth at four pm. Four pm.
It's gonna be cold up there. Cold. I don't miss that trip
at all. We went there like twenty years and it was just too cold.
And they only played one game this weekend, no Washington because of the
change schedule. You know, typically they plaid Washington on Thursday, Washington State
on Saturday, or vice versa. What do you think about the schedule we've
had this year, and not in terms of the teams we've played. We've
discussed that in Leke, but like the way in which we've we've scheduled it.
We've played a lot of Saturday games. We've almost god like a football
schedule. Yeah. The first couple weeks it was like Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday. Yeah. Well they've been on the road. Well, you know,
Duke obviously was on a Saturday. Yeah, there are a couple of
Alabama's on Wednesday. I think FAU was on a Saturday in Vegas. I'm
not concerned about that. My concern is Arizona doesn't play anybody the rest of
the year in terms of quality team, and FAU is faltering quickly, so
that win or lost isn't a good one. And Michigan State lost again,
they'd beat me Chigan Stay pretty not handily, but they beat him. So
you know, there'll still be a number one or number two, but it
will not be as easy to evaluate them as maybe we thought weeks ago.
Correct, correct, Yeah, especially well, and they're good. You know,
I really like this team. I really like to see him a lot.
It's probably the best team he's had here. It's best, probably the
best team Arizona's had in a while. Apples and apples in my opinion.
Yeah, so just from even I mean, honestly, from any standpoint you
look at it, in my opinion, within at least the last what I'd
say, well, even beyond that, probably seventeen eighteen Arizona when Sean had
Sean trier, Eton and Alkins. Everyone, i'mistic, everyone thought this team
is fantastic. In fact, I remember Luke doing an interview and I was
there. He said this had the potentially be the all time best team,
and it turned out to be a disaster. You know, we all know
what came out that and they lost in the first round to Buffalo. Yeah.
Yeah. The people just didn't like playing with each other. There was
only one ball basketball. That's how it is usually, that's how they kind
of keep it right, try to keep right. And there was five dudes
who wanted the ball because they wanted numbers, and then ended up with only
one dude being an NBA guy. Sure had a cup of coffee and had
a pretty good expensive cup of coffee because he got paid and then he just
disappeared. Now he's in the upper he's in the Upper West Coast, so
he's definitely getting an expensive cup of what's he what's he doing Portland? He's
true. I was just saying I was no coffee joke. Yeah yeah,
oh yeah, yeah. No. And he's playing. He's doing right.
I mean, he's doing right. No, I was seeing about Trier.
I don't don't even know where Trie is. Okay, thank you, Trier
and Alkins. I think that those two guys are somewhere, maybe the G
League. I don't know. They've got a lot of dudes in the G
League. The guys that are thriving are in Indianapolis with the with Nathain and
and TJ. McConnell doing very well. Don't no worry. I don't I
know where true is that. They don't even show it. I was looking
for, like, I was looking for where he is immediately right now?
In this Wikipedia? Nothing Wikipedia, Yeah, nothing on Wikipedia. It just
says that he last played for the Iowa Wolves in the G League. How
long ago was that? Let me let me check his basketball reference page.
That'll give me a better Yeah, okay, I think I think the COVID
season, so nineteen twenty. It looks like, Wow, he's been out
for that longer. Maybe a little sooner than that movie the year after,
but within the last couple years he's been out of the league. Wow,
and the Alkins, who knows, he might be in the G League as
well. He's visited a couple of times in the last couple of years.
That is one thing I'm not I'm thankfully not really worried about with this Arizona
team. Is the willingness or lack thereof to share the ball. I'm not
really worried about that. No, no, no, no, real nice.
Yeah, they do that a lot. The guy that I think I'm
not concerned with, but Love takes some shots that he could maybe give up
extra pass to. But he is who he is, so you live and
die with what he does. Yeah. We were talking about that earlier in
this season. Yeah, and nothing's really changed. Yeah, but to his
to his applause or whatever, he's done well with it. I just don't
know how long he can sustain it. Yeah, he kind of in a
way. I'm a Celtics fan, but in a way he reminds me of
Marcus Smart from a fans view of where he does all this excellent stuff on
the court, not the same stuff between the two players, but they do
a bunch of excellent stuff on the court, and then there's a couple shots
each game where you're like no, no, yes or no no no,
you know sometimes right then he does that. He does it a lot.
Yeah, So there's a lot of good things happening. They share the ball,
a lot of players are are doing well. Who would you think And
I don't know if you've heard the who would you think is the key to
their success? And I asked this because we had a guy on about two
weeks ago and the analytics say this, And in fact, after we had
the guy on the show, the guy had a great The guy that he
mentioned had a fantastic game, and it's kind of had better games. You
know, that's a great question. I'm really sitting here thinking about it because
I'm thinking about if each I'm thinking about it like this, which which individual
at their best that's the most outsized impact on the team. Well, that's
a good way to look at it. You're kind of an intellectual. I
almost feel like oswell as far as like most not the best, but like
who elevates the team the highest? I think it's gotta be Love Boswell,
Ballow rounds out the top three for me probably maybe kJ lewis. That actually
makes a lot of sense because he does a lot of things, does a
lot of things. You don't see it until you look at it and you
notice it, and his shooting can be a big variance in the game.
And that and then the next night he had he told us that this is
apparently really and then the next act he went off and you're thinking, hmmm,
kind of makes sense, and he's he's done well. Since it makes
a lot of sense actually when you say it, but I definitely, I
mean obviously would have been around. Yeah, we wouldn't think that, Yeah,
because you think that he'd have more of a visible impact. It's got
to be the defense, right, The defense and the shooting is defense and
shooting. I was thinking bozball, well, he can shoot and spread the
ball, but he's probably gonna be not in his peak on defense. Ballow
he can you know, he gives you a woom, but there's still some
flaws there even at his best. Yeah, Pella is a really good pick
actually. Yeah, so as he goes in your buddy watch when you watch
games, now you kind of have a different sense. And when you look
at him and say, I didn't realize it, but it looks makes sense.
It's funny if you say that, because I had that. We had
that conversation a couple of weeks ago, like almost probably a month and a
half ago, honestly at this point when we were talking about Pele shooting and
he said, well, it can be a little inconsistent here and there,
and I was like, well, he's shooting a high percentage of start,
but it was a small sample size. So I've actually been like keeping track
in my head mentally when to watching the game of them. All right,
and he's done, well, he has done. He had an eighteen the
other night and it was kind of a sneaky eighteen and then he's diving for
balls and doing all these things. So just keep an eye on that and
see how it goes. What would your answer have been, I'm sorry,
he already gave it. If you didn't know this, no, I would
have said, uh, buzzwell, because it's just I think he makes the
highlight plays. You're like, well, if he's doing that, boswell,
yeah, yeah. And he's not a he's not a he's not a dude.
Who's it's the guy with all the highlight toys, his love the dunks.
He didn't everyone's saying he'd jumped from the free line. He didn't jump
from the freetha line. He's about four feet in. He's been jumping from
outside the paint a lot, he has been, and he's also missed a
few dunks. In fact, if somebody texted me on Thursday night says,
I think Arizona leads the leads the country and miss dunks because they've missed a
lot. He's missed a couple at the rim. Uh. You know,
obviously some of them have been fantastic. You know, his his dunk and
uh and Johnson's dunk. Holy crap, I mean, I think those are
two guys. I didn't even think that's about Caleb coming into the season,
but uh, those are two guys that every time they attacked the rim,
they're looking to slim that ball as hard as they can to the bottom of
the well. That's the one thing with with Caleb. He gets to the
rim, he knows how to score. He's a scorer. He knows how
to score from the perimeter, and if he's getting guarded, he can get
to them. He doesn't remind me of Michael Dickerson, but he can get
He can score inside outside. Dickerson had that first step that was could free
him from space and he can get to the rim with ease. Because he
was so good at the basket, we were talking about him as like a
natural score type. Yes, there was another natural score type that that played
here at Arizona a couple of years ago, but it was a much different
system in which he played. I was wondering, what do you think as
far as like the ceiling for Caleb Love, how can we use like the
Benedict Maathrian system that Arizona played. There's no answer because I think that from
my end, Love is Love is a maverick. I think he even plays
that way because he once he gets the ball in his hand, you don't
know if you're gonna get an assist. It's more like you're gonna get a
shot, and you don't know how soon he's gonna take that shot, because
I think his range is like twenty five feet at least, he's taking a
few where you're like, the smartest smart thing is no, no, no,
oh, they're good. Yeah. But he had that chance with the
fau and well, he kept him in the game with that shot. He
did. He put him in the second overtime and then and then and then
lost it in the in the in the overtime. That lost it. He
missed it. You can't be well, I was, I was not happy
with that shot, but you can't be too mad at it because he just
made it five minutes ago. Sure, but still you'd like a better look
than that. Yeah, regardless. Well, and you're saying that now you
know why because he missed the shot. It's the Paul George thing, right
where after Damian Lillard hit that dagger on him from the hash Yeah, what
do they ask him in the press conference? He says that was a bad
shot. It wasn't a bad shot. I'm not saying that, but I'm
just saying there are some shots, whether you make or miss, I'm sure
you could have got it better. Sure, and impatience or you you get
lulled into what you do. What's that? Dug and Dougan the dunning Kroger,
Yeah, you better than what you think. You are really good at
one thing, and it makes you think that you're smart at everything. We
were talking about that with Rogers earlier between the break. Yeah, tell me
a kids, the Dunning Kroger Dunning Kroger. Okay, I'm gonna use that
people think I'm smart because I know, I know I'm not. You're really
good at this one thing, So maybe I'll start making I know a lot
of those dudes, especially on Facebook. There's a lot of them on the
Internet, so all the world's probably a lot of internet doctors to do that
with, Like players getting injured, they're like, well arm twisted, that
means it's a sprain, but the twisted left it's probably broken. We'll see.
Yes, thank you doctor. How much you for the co pit?
Yeah, okay, thanks for coming in. You only got a minute here.
You'll be in maybe a time or two this week. Yeah, hopefully
we'll see. I think I got Sammy coming in tomorrow. Uh maybe you
Thursday. You get to go to that school thing that you have to do,
this thing called school sometimes. Yeah, do you go to class all
the time? I do, I really do. I mean I pay to
go to classes. Well, look at you. That's so smart. Wasn't
do you pay for your parents? So that's even but that's even more noble
because a lot of kids don't go because you know they're not paying. Honestly,
I think if I was paying with my own money, I might give
a couple more classes. Really well, I mean it's not you don't have
a schedule. Do you know? This is it for you? Dude?
You enjoy enjoy your final semester of school because you know this real world that
we live in sucks. Man, sucks, I know, because you need
to find a job. I'm working on it. I'm gonna hire me,
all right, thanks man for coming in. Well, maybe Jay comes in
tomorrow. Maybe not. I'm not sure. He's not feeling well today.
So thanks for listening everybody, and we'll see you tomorrow. Will seem Jay
five, he's so fa