This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagn Salid Sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions k t
z R two SAD and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, welcome to Eye on
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're jagins
Awas, and you're you know. I think I think your headphones will work
if you're plug them. We're in no happy Friday. Good thing. It's
Friday, Steve, and I'll have my grandson come and show you how to
use the remote. Please. They welcome everybody enough that I felt like the
women's basketball teams in the next in the next fifteen minutes, Okay, we
both got to get a lot smart. Not happen. We have the president
of the president of the university is coming in. We're gonna ask him about
the stuff going on around around athletics. There's a new a d starting here
on Monday. We heard she's in town. Uh, and he'll probably be
at the game tomorrow. I'm assuming Sunday is heard she said the third.
So the third is Sunday. That's probably when the contract starts on the third.
It's being that they probably start contracts, you know, Sunday through Monday,
Sunday through Saturday. Anyways, so we'll talk to doctor Robbie Robbins.
Uh you know it' it's funny because we have said, well, he's you
know, he's involved in sports, he loves sports. Well, I don't
know how many people know he. I mean, he was an athlete.
He was a he was a college a junior college quarterback. Wanted to play,
wanted to play college. He was in Mississippi, wanted to be the
next Archie Manning. And uh so he's got you know, he's got an
initial sports because he played knee. He blew out of knee and when you
blew out a knee back in that day, that was that pretty much.
So he didn't he didn't get to major college, but he he did,
okay, he went on to become a hard surgeon. I mean he did
all right, and then he was he was running the medical center at Stanford
and then he and then he was running it at the University of Texas.
I think he's done okay, now haven't been the best of his say,
well, again, you know we've talked about that that it's been a it's
been a rough maybe a year or two for him at Arizona. But we'll
talk about that. Yeah, but you know, he's a smart guy,
and uh, I'm sure he you know, he knows the situation. He
knows what, you know, what has to be, what has to happen,
and he may know that, you know, he's he's working for his
job right now because you know, his contract runs out at the end of
at the end of June, and uh, you know, you think that
they got to make some progress on all that's going on for if he wants
to keep being the president here, and maybe he gets to and says,
you know what, I've done the best I can. I'll see you guys
later. He could do that too again, He'll be fine. Okay.
So then we're gonna have Bruce Pascal in the other half another hour talking about
basketball right at the Oregon game coming up tomorrow, another big game for Aona
senior stuff today. I saw some of the senior stuff discussions today, So
we'll talk to that about that when he comes on. So last night was
was an unbelievable performance by the UA women's basketball team, and then it wasn't
they lost. They lost. I like, and we talked about this just
briefly with Kevin that I thought I was inspired by them because they had that
game and then they didn't. Your thoughts. At the risk of sounding like
a pointing the finger at somebody, I don't mind. I don't mean to
disturb you. I don't mean to disturb you, but I'm going to disturb
it. In the last the last few minutes, with the five players that
they had on the court, there just wasn't anybody on the court, or
there wasn't a certain somebody needed to take take charge on the Arizona side,
and never did twive minutes, the last few minutes of the game. Of
the regulation of regulation, regulation, that's that it needed. They needed somebody
to say I'm in charge, and and and and and take charge the thing
and and and it didn't happen. And they blew the lead. I mean,
they're they're they're up five with less than twenty seconds left in the game,
and they got into and they and they got in overtime. Now,
look us, he is really good. They're a top ten team for a
reason. They made some plays, but their best player had filed out several
minutes before that, so they were you know, they were up against it
as well, and they made the plays they needed to make to win,
and Arizona didn't make the plays they needed to make to win. And and
it just didn't look like they had the leadership on the court that it needed
to have in a situation like well, they didn't because they don't have very
many players to begin with. Who are they who they rely on if you
only have seven they have, but they but they had somebody needed to take
charge. I'm just gonna say that because I don't want to. I don't
want to, you know, I I don't want to say I mean that
player needed to take charge. But I believe there was a player on the
court we needed to be in charge. And today's point, I mean,
there was a point in the game, I forget if it was the fourth
quarter or the first overtime where you know, some of the men's basketball players
were court side as well, but Caleb Love was making the motion to shoot
shoot the ball. She was always making that motion, you know. But
there was I mean, there was there was a couple of possessions where Arizona
was kind of like almost hesitant on offense and didn't really know how to get
to the shots they needed to get. That's what I'm saying. There was,
you know, they needed somebody to be like, you know, I'm
in charge. Let's go. We're gonna take this. Hi, you're on
the air and eye on the ball. Hey guys, my name's Stu.
I've got a question for you. Okay, sure. I was out of
town for about a week, a week and a half. At that time,
gil Bert had just left the team. Right when I got back a
week ago, she was back on the team. Now I turned the game
on last night and she's not playing again. She she has gone for good.
That happened over the weekend. Yeah, it happened, I think Monday.
I think it was on Monday. Adia publicly said Kaylen Gilbert was not
was no longer on the team. I think she said it after their game.
It was on the Monday on the Monday Show. Okay, Oh,
that's right. She said on one of the other radio shows that Kaylen Gilbert
is no longer with the team. And we had her on the show two
days ago and she confirmed it and and kind of says it was just kind
of an addition by subtraction or were they just not getting along or well it
seems you know, if you could read between the lines, which we do
here, Uh, I think that's that's what it was. It was just
bad chemistry. Uh. She's content with going to seven and they played admirably
last night. But I think that's part of it. We we don't know
for sure. I think she said something along the lines of, you know,
players are asked to do certain things, and then when players don't do
those things, then we asked them to leave. And I think we left
it at that. You know, I think at the end of the game,
I swear or said they were down to five, Yes they were.
They had they had seven players on the bench and two had filed out,
so they were down to the the end of regulation and the two overtimes they
only had five players. You know. Oh, I think she's a great
coach. I've met her one time, a couple of times. She's awfully
nice person. But you know, I was reading in Sunday spaper, where
is is it Ninja a medical student, Naji Naji Naji. You know,
she said she really enjoyed basketball, blah blah blah, but medical school is
more important. And then there was a little orb about but she said the
environment was a little toxic. Yes, well that's kind of a stude.
That's kind of old news. Now it's not old, but it's like two
three weeks old. They talked about that. She talked about that. How
you know, her story is her story and coach has a different story.
She can't say more than that, but we all understand what was said.
And the fact is a lot of the girls have left a lot of the
women have left the team. So you'd have to kind of investigate as we
would have to. Stu Stuve, go back and listen to our podcast on
Tuesday. It was tues Wednesday. It was Tuesday, Tuesday. On Tuesday,
she was in the second hour Tuesday. The interview comes up at about
uh twenty minutes after the After the hour, listen to her interview, because
we we talked about all of this, and she just mentioned things like culture
and and players. There's expectations of players, expectations of coaches, and sometimes
it doesn't they just don't fit and that and that's why they are for And
Stu, you sound like an older guy like us. Times have changed.
Times have changed in terms of with the student athletes. Well they the article
I read it him was in Sundays you know, the big blurb on the
second page, right right, Yeah, that's Greg Hanson's column. Yeah it
did say uh, it said she she had said the environment was a little
toxic, but now she was kind of taking that statement back. Well,
she she tried to clarify a little bit, but it didn't really. I
mean, people believe what that that. You know, what you say the
first time is generally what you mean. Second question, how do you how
do you get up? How do I pull up a podcast? Go to
the uh go to the iHeart website iHeartRadio dot com, do a search for
Eye on the Ball and our podcast will come up and you can listen to
it. You just click on to it. All right, So search Eye
on the Ball on the iHeart website. I listen to you guys in the
afternoon. I've never listened to a podcast. Yeah, well, we put
we put, we record the show and then we put it on so anybody
can listen to it after the facts, So you can go listen to Tuesday's
show. But you know what is I find ironic and then I'll let you
go. And so many of the players just love her. They do.
Yeah, yeah, well you know the seven whole. Sure, sure,
not everybody loves me, stew I can't. I find that hard to believe.
You know, they looked good last night. I don't agree with you.
They kind of blew it up again. Yeah, well, thank you.
It was too bad. They were shooting and yeah, thanks for seeing
the report that they were ahead. Yeah, and then I put the chimne
I didn't know they were on it puts the channel and then you could tell
they were just kind of you know, it was in the first overtime and
they just didn't look that sharp. And the second time they just didn't have
it, but they were playing. They even though they didn't have it,
they were shooting. Well, they should have won the game. They should
have won the game, and they didn't. All right, Stu, Hey,
we got to run. So thanks for calling, keep listening, keep
calling, and check out the podcast. Okay, well, thanks thanks so
much, STUPI for listening. Appreciate the call. Uh yeah, it's well,
it depends. It's been up two or three weeks from since that story
come out. Yeah, but you know, the everybody's waiting, what's up
with Kaylin? Gilbert and that that kind of ree new lingered for a few
weeks, you know. I mean, I remember you went to a game
and she was on the bench and she looked like she might be hurt,
and she wasn't hurt. And then she never played in the game. So
they've just been going with seven for a while now. Uh, they've got
an eighth player who in a pinch would would give him a body on the
floor. But it'll be interesting to see if if she has any any impact
at all. But Steve, it's very simple. They should have won the
game. And I, oh, yeah, no, Actually, you know,
I turn off the tea. I was, I mean, I was
like angry. I'm like, why am I caring about this this much?
But you know, that's the first time you carried this year. Like I
was like pissed, you know that that they just they just didn't Did you
do it? Did you see the press coverts? I did not. The
women are are totally different than the guys. Uh, She's fantastic in an
interview anyway, she was very level headed. She wasn't pissed, she was
upset. She wouldn't even upset. She was just you know, proud of
the kids, but just wanted to the lost and the girls too. They
were very u not not very they were just you know, another game this
morning that they lost, but they were very good with the media. That's
what I'm trying to go. Well, we're not you know, which is
admirable. And I think you go into a locker room with the guys or
it's like death. Yeah, it's like pulling teeth sometimes. Yeah. I
mean, you know, every every every women's basketball player we've had on the
show, fantastic. Jada Williams on on on Tuesday was awesome. And you
know, again a lot of response to that saying how how enthusiastic and well
spoken spoken, she didn't sound like a freshman, and you know all these
things that you know that we heard from that interview. But again it's just,
man, I would just and then and then so after USC beats Arizona
and and and punches them in the face, then the USC men kick him
in, you know, kick Arizona in the nards. By they had Washington
State, they had him beat. It would have been you know, but
would have been a game that would have been big for Arizona. Have Washington
State lose a home give him some a little you know, a little bit
of a cushion at the and then they pissed that away at the end of
the at the end of the thing. So us see, I'm like,
I'm like, at the end of it. My daughter and I you know,
we were watching. I said, you know what, us, get
the hell out of here, go to the Big ten. Get get that.
I don't want to see you again ever. Just go away. He's
running out of team's apruit for you know, really are in the NFL college
bound? Well just go go go to the Big ten and get your ass
kicked in every sport. Now you know why I'm not a sports fan,
because I'm sure you I'm sure you didn't weren't all stressed out last night like
that was. I was just listening on the radio because I did have it
on TV. But it was like, these girls are romazing. How do
you pull this stuff off? And they had it, they had it,
just a rebound, a rebound, get a rebound, offensive rebound, and
you're thinking they didn't get that rebound, and it was going to overtime.
I think, oh no, they're in trouble. And then they got into
a second second overtime and then it was had a shot to win it with
the last second shot. Man, man, I mean, it was an
incredible game. It was it was I mean again, and in the end
you have to be very happy, very proud that they hung like that.
But they're going to they're going to the nat Well, she and she was
convinced that she was convinced that they're good enough now that they've proven that the
ubit has proven that they're good enough to play in the NCAA the way they've
played against these type of team. But they're not gonna get it. Yeah,
you could, you could, well, they what if they get hot
in the tournament? Well, if they win the damn thing. Yeah,
yeah, if they win a couple of games and get in the finals,
just because they might. I mean, they're great, they're a great story.
They got it, but one game after another with seven players, they're
a great story. But will the story come out? You know what I'm
saying now that they have access to to them full time? Okay, we
gotta go. All right, Doctor Robbie Robbins, president of the University of
Arizona, will be here and we'll kick some things around with him. We
won't kick him around. We'll kick some things around to talk about all the
stuff surrounding athletics at Arizona. So stick around. Make the right choice for
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schedule your free evaluation Today. Dreamy Live, I mean radio Wow. This
is high on the ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jacin Zaus. Now on the
phone, we have doctor Robert Robbins from the U of A President. How
are you? I am doing very well. Jay, How are you?
I'm fine? Oh this is Steve. Yeah, that was Steve. This
is Jason. It's all right, you know, all right, look,
just two old Mexican guys just talking. It's hard to tell us apart,
so doctor Robbins, A lot happened in you know, over the last several
months. Start, you know, the financial stuff. You had to hire
a football coach, had to hire an athletic director. We're I don't want
to go through these chronological order, more so the newer ones. Right,
we've talked off the air, the new ad coming to town. She starts,
she starts the job next week. I just you know, you're in
a tough spot with with all the financial stuff going on and the challenges that
are in front of somebody. But you change athletic directors. How did you
convince them? What did you do to convince an athletic director, certainly one
of this quality to come here in amidst from an SEC school. On top
of that, yeah, well, Desiree Red Princeoise is a national leader.
She's one of only four sitting women Power five ads and the only Latina.
And she was a student athlete at UCLA and then she got her law degree
from the University of Arizona College of Law. So she's coming home. And
she's got a great track record being a deputy AD at Virginia Tech and Tennessee
and then the athletic director at UNLV and most recently at University of Missouri.
So she knows how to make changes, be decisive, and modernize an athletic
department. And UH transitioned us into the Big twelve. So she checks every
box and she she wanted. She want to only be a great leader for
the athletics department. And I am very confident with with her experience that she
will get us to a profitable status in the athletic department despite all of the
challenges that we've got UH in the changing landscape of athletics. But moreover,
she's going to be a university leader. She's already a national leader and she
is totally dedicated to our students, their experience and their well being. So
I could not be more excited that Desiree reed Francois said, yes so and
again supremely qualified. Nobody's you know, nobody's debating that. But you had
to have a selling point, right and and and what you know, what
was it? Aside from her coming home, there has to be more to
why she decided to take this job. What did you sell to her about
the u of A or the community or anything else. Yeah, I didn't
have to sell the U of A in the community to her. She already
got that. I think that, you know, she she was looking for
a new place to to put a mark on for her that she came in
and helped turn it around and build a world class, modernized athletic department.
And this this job gave her that opportunity. Moreover, I think it was
exciting going into the Big twelve and and just all of the history that she
knows about the U of A. Look, you know, we are still
with the coaching change and coach Brennan coming in, We're still one of the
favors to win the Big twelve Football Conference championship. The basketball program is going
to be brutal, you know, every that is just a tough lead to
play in. But I think those challenges for her are things that get her
stimulated. And I just tell you, we're so lucky that she said,
yes, so, doctor, you had you brought in a destrate with that
you had to let go of Dave. What was your thinking behind that?
Well? I thought that, you know, we needed a new direction.
I love Dave. Dave has been a great friend for a long time and
will be forever. But we needed we needed a new change in directions.
Giving all of what's going on at the university, just remind people that,
you know, we've got this structural deficit and all the colleges added together is
sixty million dollars in the athletics department on its own is over thirty million dollars
of deficit. And Desrae never blinked an eye about that, and she's just
excited. I need to get to work on Monday. She will be here
tomorrow for our Senior Day for both the men's game and then the women's game
at night, and I think she's going to a tennis match or something else
in between. So she for all intents and purposes, will be on the
job starting Saturday tomorrow. Bobby, I don't I've seen you in a lot
of the games. We say a little to each other. I wanted to
ask you this question on the air though. It seems to me that you
have your situation here, But why aren't other schools in the same situation or
are they and just not being reported? Because everyone went through COVID and suffered
some great losses, and it seems like it would be a good just contagious
that everybody was going through this or should be going through this. Yeah,
I think all but a few of the really pop athletic programs are losing money.
If you look at UCLA, it was report or just a few weeks
or months ago in the La Times that they have a thirty four million dollar
structural deficit and has been that way I think for four or five years.
Many of our PAC twelve partners are experiencing the same thing. Cal has always
struggled with deficits in the athletics department. We've never really subsidized for the university.
Now we get tuition waivers from the university for We've got five hundred student
athletes and we have about three hundred and fifty or so tuition waivers for those
FDEs, if you will. But I think every athletics department in the country
is going through similar things, and it's just been part of the whole university's
budget deficit and it just gets attention. So I'm sure sure that you know
you've got a lot of things to work out with the border regions in terms
of fixing this. But how long? But how long is this going to
take before you feel like you're at a point where you say, okay,
we think you know, we've got a plan. Is it two years,
three years, five years, ten years? Well, how long is this
going to take to fix because it seems like the problem is almost so big
it's like, how do you ever fix it? Well, but you know,
it's one hundred and seventy seven million dollars on a three almost well it's
two point seven billion dollar budget, so it's about five to seven percent of
the overall budget at the university. Things at the university are going great in
terms of student success, retention accomplishment. When I arrived, our retention rate
was eighty two percent from the first year to the second. Our goal when
I got here was to get it to ninety percent. We're up to eighty
seven point seven percent, the most accomplished, most diverse class we've ever had.
Research. The expenditures were about six hundred million dollars when I arrived.
They hit nine hundred and sixty million this year. We're going to cross over
that one billion dollar threshold within the next year or so. So things are
going really, really well at the university, and I think that what we
say, what we said publicly is that it'll be an eighteen to thirty six
month turnaround. I think it'll be sooner than that. The final thing I
would say is the people who love this university, the alumni, even donors
who've adopted the university and didn't go to the u of A, have been
incredibly generous and supported everything across the university with their hard earned money. We
went public with our three billion dollar campaign in November called Fuel Wonder. We're
already at two point two billion of that three billion dollar goal, and I'm
confident that we'll exceed that goal and get three point five to three point six
billion dollars that will support student success, support our incredible faculty and staff,
our research, mission and athletics in the arts. Those are the big things
we're raising money for. Right Well, well, well, I had a
quick question personally for you. It's been a crazy year given all the things
that have gone on, including the Big twelve move to the Big twelve,
How has it personally been for you other than very busy? Yeah? Busy,
And that's the way I like it. And I'll just tell both of
you, I have never been more energized and more excited about my job.
I've got a great job, and I look forward to waking up every day
and attacking problems. I always say, there's one hundred and sixty eight hours
in the week, make each one of them count like you mean it.
And this is what I love doing and I'm just blessed to be able to
lead this great university. Well, you know you say you love waking up
every day, because I know there's some days I don't want to get out
of bed and I don't do any any of what you do, so I
don't I don't even know what to say to that. So tell us.
We haven't had a chance to really talk about, you know, since the
football season ended. Tell us how your day was when you found out that
Jed Fish was leaving, and then you were going to have to replace a
coach who had just gone ten and three and created all this excitement around the
football program. Yeah, well, coach, you know I'll always be thankful
doing too, for coming to the u of A and and getting the football
program back on track and winning ten games, going to the Automobile and beating
Oklahoma and giving them their a proper send off from the Big twelve to the
SEC. But uh, you know, I knew that we had to get
someone quickly. I knew coach Brennan from the last time that the job was
open. I had a chance to visit with him after that, and I'd
been watching him carefully, and he is a Waldcat through and through. Even
though he went to UCLA, his wife, his brother, he actually coached
his brother right here when when he was at u of A on coach Tony
Staff. This guy will be here until he retires or he gets fired.
I'm just telling you, this guy loves the u of A. He's a
Waldcat through and through, and we couldn't have a better person at this time
in our history to lead our football program. So let me ask you about
the hiring of Brent Brandon because we talked about this a couple of times,
and my comment was, I went, I went through a longer hiring process
to get hired for a job at the mall. Then it took you guys
to hire a football coach and pay him millions of dollars. Are you comfortable
with that? Yes? Oh yeah, I think I think all of these,
you know, the ad hired the coaches usually go very very fast,
and uh, you know, I'm thankful to Dave he Key for getting that
done and and he acted quickly and definitively. So I'm very very happy that
we we got coach Brennan to to come back home, uh into into as
symbol and excellent staff. I mean, coach Barber's I've been watching him and
known him for a long time. You know, former Syracuse head coach is
coming home also, Uh, Coach Akeena, keeping Ricky Hunley and Chuck Cecil
to absolute u of a legends in the program, and being able to retain
our most of our our incredible team from last year. Uh. Those are
all very very positive things. Uh. And now you have a basketball team
men's and women's that are doing very well. What do you see in the
men's basketball program as as we heading now to the big month of March.
Yeah, only great things on the horizon, I tell you, getting coach
Lloyd locked in to be here, hopefully as a Wildcat for life, but
certainly for the next several years. We don't have to have all this speculation
and that he's going to you know, University of Washington or Ohio State or
the San Antonio Spurs or wherever people make up stuff to, you know,
get clicks and get eyeballs. But you know, Tommy has done an incredible
job since he's been here. And I love this team. I love their
spirit, and I'm just hopeful that they can make a very deep run.
If they can continue where they are, at least to the bracketology I see,
they'd be the number one seed in the West. So at Salt Lakes,
La Phoenix, you got don't set up any better for anybody else in
the country. And I just hope, I hope we can get back there
to the final four. And as I always said, I told Coach Fitch,
if you're going to get to a bowl game, he might as well
go out there and win it. If you're going to get to the final
four, you might as well go out and win it. But it is
so hard to win one game in any sport at any level. So I
know that's a tall order. But he's got a very special group of guys
this year. Yeah, I don't think you've missed a game on all this
year, basketball wife. Let me ask you, and I thought this,
do you, and pardon the punt, do you watch it with a surgeon's
eye or do you watch it as a fan? When you go see the
UVA, saw you Asu and I saw you a duke and all these games
obviously the year, But how do you you watch it? How do you
watch it? You critique it or you just enjoy it? I think it's
both. But the main thing is I am there to support our students.
I'm there to supp support our fans and our boosters and donors. And I
obviously enjoy watching the game, but I enjoy going to the ballet here because
I know these are our students who are working hard, not only in the
classroom, but on the court, on the stage, in the pool,
on the field. And the primary joy I get out of this job is
to help our students realize their hopes and dreams so they can go out and
make the world a better place. It sounds corny and trite, but I
believe it deep in my soul. And I know how important the arts,
athletics, all of our academic programs are. We've got truly WorldCat class faculty
and staff. That's why our students come here. And I'm just the biggest
enthusiast from everything about this university. It's just that, you know, the
mere lab or English department is not often on national TV, but this is
important everything at the university. To me, I love every aspect to the
university. Okay, last question. You don't have to answer this if you
don't want to, but you know, where do you put your name on
a list? I guess those seats next to you at the at the table
at men's basketball games, because you know, she seemed to have like a
different guest every game. You know, how do you get on that list?
Yeah? You know it's I Veronica castro Is. She and Craig Henderson
are tasked with, you know, managing me, and they usually have you
know, JP Rosney act ahead of the foundation, usually have donors. I
think if you look down there on Saturday I don't even think I get to
sit down there on Saturday because Terry Lunger in the long time oh yeah,
president and CEO of Macy's and Bloomingdale's is having his big retail conference at at
of Mountain this this week and he's bringing four fortune and fifty CEOs to come
to the game. So I think I'm even getting bounced out of my seat.
I may, I may get to sit in a little jump seat down
there. But it's meant to be for people who love the university, support
the university, and you know it. Sometimes it's a faculty member, you
know, it's a it's a variety and a diverse group of people who come
down there. But anytime you want to come, let me know get through.
So doctor, there you go. You got four big time people coming
in. There's your solvment of the solve of the the money issues right there.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they and they are here because they
love our students. This is a student conference. I had. I there
was a meeting yesterday about women in the C suite that the CEO of Hershey
was there, and I mean, this is all about serving our students and
helping our faculty and staff to be successful. One thing, I don't know
if we're short on time. I want to get this in about last night.
Okay. I tell those seven players who suit up every game for our
women's basketball team, they are the toughest, most resilient, most determined,
most bare down people I've ever seen. And I just I wish they could
have won that game last night, but their effort, they never give up.
They never take a playoff. And it may be one of coach Barnes's
best coaching jobs he's ever done. I was going to say that because we
had Kendree on maybe ten days ago. He said exactly that. And we're
thinking Jy and I are looking at each other. Hmmm, that's interesting.
But you feel the same way one hundred percent. I mean, you know
my dream I told I told the student last night. After the game,
I congratulated them all. They left it all out on the court. Uh.
But you know, TCU went through something a few years ago that I
was reading about where they had open tryouts because they were down to four players.
We're down to seven. Yeah, and there there's a young woman who
who was on the bench, and I said, I would love it if
she came in the game and made the winning shot. You can't make that
up for TV movie. You're right, you're right, right, Well,
doctor, we appreciate your time as always. Thanks the whole bunch for joining
us. Yeah yeah, yeah. And this this walk on student who is
a good basketball player, but she gave up basketball for her study. She's
a four point oh student. This is what we're about podcasts, you know,
just get it done. And I couldn't be more proud of this whole
university. Well, thank you, doctor, appreciate you. Thanks docorn ye
see around, thank you. Okay, all right, my bye, Doctor
Robinson. We got to get him in because he was talk sports you always
done. Okay, let's go because we're right. Yeah, we're way over,
but let's we appreciate him doing that. So let's kind to break down
what you says. Yeah, let's take our break and we'll talk about some
of this stuff and we'll take your costs five two zero four one six four
forty. 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 of
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exes at alls. It's Steve Rivera and Jagin Salvez. This is I on
the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to I on
the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay Gotta guy
Kevin in with us today. We have ten minutes if you guys want to
give us a quick call. Obviously, the interview with the president went long
and it was good. Yeah, no, I thought I thought he was
good. I think he wanted to stay with us. You know, we
need to get him in here for like an hour, but good luck with
that. We never get to a new studio. You know, he's a
little busy. Yeah I know, Yeah, I know. I want to
bring him in here. We you know, we went through the stuff we
wanted to go through. How did you get this athletic there to come here?
Why is Dave. Heck not here sort of, I mean he and
he had said that publicly before we felt we needed to make a check.
Why to your question, I thought my the most interesting response was how soon
they're going to get out? How soon they're going to get out of this?
And she said, what eighteen months? Eighteen to thirty six months,
a year and a half to three years. I can't get out of the
carloan in that fast. Well, yeah, I mean I'm going to ask
him for a little bit to help me get out of that, you know
whatever. But always good to have him on again. Guy loves sports.
I think it's funny that he doesn't even get his seats tomorrow. That was
pretty like, okay, I got front receipts. Well not today here,
I'm you know, I'm in the back row somewhere. But you know,
it's funny because you know, all the stuff that's going on around the border
regions and we don't want to get into the weed into the on the on
the border regions stuff. But you know, Katie Hobbs that the governor was,
you know, went after him and earlier this week, if you said
John Arnold, I mean no, Fred Duvall the chair of the Board of
Regents is uh Fred Duvall, who called yeah who quit? Yeah, yeah,
who resigned? He just came out to yeah today, Yeah today.
So you know, things going on up there. The meeting next week with
the with there supposed to have an in person meeting with with the builder.
Yeah, So we'll see how all that comes out. I know, there's
a lot of a lot of people, you know, who lacking confidence in
in in him right now. But there's been a lot of missteps and you
know, but he's owning it too, right. Well. You you notice
his tone and his love for the university, whether that's the purpose he said,
I'm sure there was, how much he loved the students and the university
and the students and the university. So you know, he wants to stay
obviously it's a great job. But there's a lot of things going on.
Well, guys like him who have achieved what what he's achieved again, they
see these things is as you know, as as he said about about about
the ad, they see these these things as opportunities as opposed to they're not
crisis, their opportunity and and and that you know, if he's that kind
of guy, I mean, look, I remember the first time I interviewed
me. We were talking about I remember what we were talking about. He
goes, look, I've held somebody's heart in my I've helped their heart in
my hand. So anything else you want to throw at me pales compared to
that, you know. And I'm like, okay, I get that,
you know, so uh you know, it's it's it's uh, you know,
when when you've done that type of stuff, been in that type of
scenario or that type of environment, the fact that the governor's telling at you
just really doesn't isn't going to make you sweat that much. And they have
this plan and they're going to fix it. Seems to have a plan,
and he does, and he does have a lot of support. And you
know this from the local business. The business people and the boosters love him
because he's he's he's he's made and this comes from all the biz tuss on
stuff that I that I've done. He's made the university a big part of
the economic development community, helping businesses by by you know, engaging the U
of A into things that businesses are doing, you know, And and that's
important because we haven't had that and you know again another one time, as
the interview said, when I got here, we weren't doing that. The
U of A was not involved with raytheon and and and all the companies that
are here. They were not and we are now and and you can give
him credit for that, because you know they Every story that I do related
to the economy here in town and involves talks about how big a piece of
it the U of A is. Right, do you think to the question
I asked about other schools being in trouble, We know that there are a
few u cl A like but the once you mentioned we've knew you know about,
I'm talking more nationally, more naturally, like that New Mexicos, the
Colorado States. Yeah, I know. But the thing is, you don't
you don't hear. You don't hear about it because to them, it's it's
always been that way. Well, what it's always been like here is that
you have athletics has always been self self sustaining. To my point, however,
is that there should be some kind of story like that. You're not
the lone ranger. It depends on the level being a low ranger. But
it's out there. I mean, look, at Col's troubles, all the
troubles they've had for years, right, that's it indifferent. They don't they
don't give a well maybe they are not. They have, but Steve,
they have a Division one athletic program and they've been in financial distress for years
and years in years, right, you know, very you know, there's
very few Alabama in Ohio states and Michigan's and Washington very few, and everybody
else is you know, just kind of either hanging on or losing lots of
money, and the and the university subsidize them to keep the programs going.
Because whether you're in New Mexico, Colorado State, Tulane or wherever, a
lot of a lot of those schools are identified by their athletic Sure, it's
front ports of Athletics. As they say, okay, well you'll get to
know more about all this eighteen to thirty six months. That's a very quick
for a fixed in eighteen to thirty six months. And oh you know,
wow, yeah, you know, but you know there's going to take some
damage control and people will lose some jobs. And yes, and if your
football program is better, right, if you're selling more tickets, that goes
a long way towards doing that, because not only are you selling more tickets,
you have more donor support, you have you know, all those things,
all those things you know, go hand in hand. And maybe that's
what, okay, we want. We went ten and three last season.
We are our projections for attendance in this next school year can be higher than
they were last year, right, things like that season tickets and all that
stuff, and then paying to get into the spring game, that kind of
thing. Right, Yeah, we'll have to dig deeper into the puckets.
You know, they haven't told me if my tailgate pass is going to go
up, but our tickets did go up, for sure, fifty bucks ticket.
I'm okay with that. That's changed, Bud. That's a party again,
that's successful. Never mind that's not my unit. That's a successful party.
Well, never mind that. But you know, but look, my
my son is an employee of the u of A. You know, I'm
gonna throw whatever support I can, whatever support I can afford over there,
because you know, I feel like in the end, you know, it
helps him too. So and there's a lot of people like that, a
lot of people like me who have kids or dads or moms or relatives or
whatever who work at the u of A. So anyways, that's what i'm
that's my that's my that's what I'm. That's what I'm going with right there.
So okay, okay, again, we have maybe one time for one
caller if you can, or if you want to five two zero four one
six four forty, but we're gonna go at the top of the hour with
breaking news by Kevin Do we have Bruce Bruce Pascal join us and we'll talk
about the game tomorrow and the seniors and all that kind of cool stuff,
and uh, you know, we'll just have him read his story for tomorrow
on our on our air. What do you think about that? I think
that would work, sure, exactly. But interesting breaking news again a topic
that I want to get back to because we were gonna do it yesterday and
then we got into all the some of that other stuff with the stuff that's
going on with the college football playoffs right now. I don't know if you've
seen, if you've seen much of that the fourteen team, yeah, fourteen
teams and how those fourteen teams are going to be decided on. But I
thought that was real cool thing. If you want to, if you want
to look it up, it go look up Ross Dellinger on on Twitter,
and he put out a bracket h t well, a fourteen team brackets on
the conference realignments. So if the conference alignments had happened and and the and
the rankings and stuff like that, and guess who would have been in that
bracket? Arizona, the University of Arizona. Well, yeah, fourteen,
he would He the brackets showed that Arizona was in there as a ten seed
and would have opened up with Ohio State, which would have been I think
that would have been very fun. You know, that game would have been
at Ohio State, which probably wouldn't have been all that much fun, but
that would have been cool. And that's what I do like about the About
the thing we'll talk about it some more about the twelve team tournament is that
that's like a realistic goal for teams like Arizona, whereas teams like Arizona did
not have a realistic goal of making any of the four team playoffs. Right,
right, and you know what, just get me in, I'll take
my shot and see what happens. Okay, we had about a minute left.
Good first hour. Yeah that was good again, doctor Robins was I
thought he was good. I hope if you if you're just joining us and
missed it, our podcast will be up shortly after the show. Tell them
how again because Stu might be listening. Yeah, Stu, this is for
you. You can go to the iHeartRadio website, do a search for Eye
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our shows. So and that'll go up tonight. It'll be up about an
hour or so after the show. So if you missed it, go back
and listen to it sometime tonight. Maybe it'll help put you to sleep.
All Right, we're gonna take a break. We'll be back and Kevin's gonna
have breaking news.