This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Statia. Good afternoon, and welcome to Time
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host today,
Ja Gonzalez. My buddy Steve, who's normally here with me, is on
the road. He's headed to Duke where he's gonna be covering the game tomorrow.
Big game, huge game, one of the bigger games Arizona his head
outside of NCAA tournament games, bigger, not big, non conference game.
Duke is ranked second Arizona's twelfth. So that's an opportunity of Faresan to make
some noise. But Steve's on his way, but he'll be checking in.
We've cooked up a pretty good shock. My buddy Kevin here, Hello,
Hello, who's gonna be hanging with me today? So you'll be hearing from
Kevin and I. But Steve's gonna call in during the third segment of this
hour. We'll pick his brain and see what he's uh, you know,
what he's thinking about heading into this game at due he's covering it for All
Sports Tucsons, so you can follow him there and pick up his game story
after the game and any other any other stuff he does related to the game.
But he's on his way. He'll be calling in from the Denver Airport
today. We're also gonna be obviously talking the Arizona Colorado game. We got
the two beat rioters. We're covering the game for either team. Brian holl
a frequent guest of the show. It will be here at three at about
three twenty, and he'll he covers Colorado. He's been covering Dion since that
whole thing happened, and so we'll pick Brian's brain on what, you know,
what's going on over there. They've going there, they're going through some
tough times. They've lost four of their last five after that really celebrated start
that they had winning those first three games, and so it's got a little
tougher for them over there, a lot tougher, a lot upper. So
we'll see if it's also gotten tougher on Brian as well as But Brian will
be in here and then we're gonna get Justin Spears. We'll get the Arizona
side. Justin will be heading out to Colorado tomorrow and so we'll get his
thoughts on the game where at a press conference with Jed Fish today. We're
gonna play some of those clips here in just a second, but uh,
you know, I think producing show and then the last segment of the of
the show, Kevin's got Steve's picks. I don't know what they are,
but Kevin's gonna do Steve's fab five Friday picks. I'll have mine by that
time. I don't have him yet. I've been thinking about a lot of
games. So I've got some I've got some thoughts. I had a little
better week last week. But Steve, Steve's hot man. Steve's gone perfect
two weeks in a row, five for five, two times in a row.
Control what you can control. You know exactly what Steve's doing. Yeah,
pull off. Yeah, So he's got he's gone, He's gone five.
So he's on a run of ten straight picks against the spread. So
he's left me in the dust. I'm not even I'm not even thinking about
catching him. And he said number of times he's not worried about me catching
him. So he's just trying to do well. He's up. Uh,
he's pretty high up in that pool that we talk about. There's a thousand
people in it. Steve's in the top ten. Yeah, he was talking
about that. Yeah, he's quite proud of that. Yeah, I'm sure
he is. It's a it's a tough it's a tough pool to win.
So good for Steve. So we'll we'll do the fab five Friday pick.
So let's you know, let's go into the Jed Fish press conference because you
know that's what you know, we that's the guy we didn't get. We
didn't get with Tommy Lloyd this week except the stuff he had to say after
the after the Monday game. So Steve will have some stuff to talk about
there. But you know, press conference, it's a it's a huge game
for Arizona. Every game is a huge game. You know, they want
to keep this ball rolling. We've been having this conversation about which is the
bigger game Arizona Duke in basketball, Arizona Colorado, And you could you could
argue that the games only get progressively big right here and out, kind of
regardless of who the opponent, right right, And I've been saying there's no
wrong answer to that, right one. It depends on yourpect. Are you
a bigger football fan or a basketball fan? To me the Colorado game.
And here's why, you know there's all this buzz about football. We're still
talking football as Arizona's getting ready to play Duke. You want to beat Colorado
to keep this conversation going, and and Jed talk about this. We'll play
that that clip in just a second. You know, if Arizona goes to
Duke and unless they get blown out, whatever happens, win or loss,
it's kind of like, okay, great. You know they didn't lose by
a lot. They're at the number two team in the country. Not a
bad loss. They beat them. People are going crazy right now, we're
talking you know, the Arizona's the top ten team. Yeah yeah, yeah,
win wint right right, So as long as they don't go get blown
out at Dukes, whatever happens to Duke is fine. Arizona Colorado. If
they lose this game, it cuts off a lot of the buzz about the
basketball team. With Utah coming in, they want to fill it up.
You know, you don't want to lose this game. They're supposed to win
it they're not. They're actually ten and a half point favorites. Now the
line has moved up. It was nine and a half early this week.
Now it's ten and a half. So you don't want to lose this game.
So I think that's why I think this is a bigger game overall for
the conversation. And I do agree with with the bassment already of your assessment.
And I feel like for this football program in terms of outside the locker
room, in terms of the fans, right funds, all that stuff,
this is kind of a teetering point in like the program like are we going
to be serious? We talked about it on Tuesdays. Are we gonna be
serious? Or are we just going to be another Arizona team? Is it
gonna be another nice seven? And the seas? Right? So that's that's
right. Things at stake. But you know, Jet talked about how much
you know they're they're ranked in the in the College Football Playoff Frankines, they're
ranked in the AP, They're ranked in the Coach's Pull. Here's what Jet
had to say about what does that mean to the program? Well, I
mean it's all you could ask for right throughout these tougher times through Arizona football.
You know, in the recent past, I would say that there was
not many conversations about Arizona football. And now when you're talking, when you're
being talked about and you're becoming relevant, that helps your recruiting, that helps
you know your opportunities for more for your kids. Maybe there's some more nil
opportunities. The more you're talked about, the more wins you have, the
more the fan base are willing to support our kids, the more money that
goes into a collective, the more multimedia rights, some more marketing opportunities our
kids might have. So everything that we could do to help our kids is
happening. And then winning, as I've told them for three years, is
what really helps, you know, and that's the truth. You want to
get paid more, win more, you want to get more opportunities, win
more, And that's really what it comes down to. And I think that's
really the biggest benefit that they're seeing. And that's really it. He at
the end, he said, it's about winning. You got to win to
keep getting these opportunities. Yeah, because the losses against USC are only going
to last so long as in terms of improving morale, and improving the general
feeling about the team. So you do have to out actually win these games
and well, and you have to win the games that you're supposed to win
exactly right. You know, if Arizona had lost to say, Oregon State,
you'd gone, well, Oregon State's pretty good. Washington State as we've
seen since then, right, Arizon should have won that game, and they
won it big, so they did. Ucla is another one. You think
that UCLA team that came in here didn't look like the UCLA team that we
saw a couple of weeks earlier, so I you know, it was important
for them to win those two games. But now you got a game that
you're supposed to win. Arizona has been an underdog the last five games,
and you know they went three and two of those games, so now they're
the big favorite. They really need to win this game to keep this momentum
going. And again with you know the season finale home finale with Utah coming
in the following week, there's a lot of ticket sales at stake for this
game. Yeah, it doesn't it does not get any easier, like you
said, and Jed's been talking about it a lot the past couple of weeks
about the ticket sales, and I was looking earlier, Jedfish said that there's
forty one dollars tickets sold for the final home game. Again, you talk,
five thousand tickets are sold after the UCLA game. That speaks to exactly
what you're talking about. You have to win to get people in right to
care. If they get lucky, you can get a daytime a daytime game,
and all these kinds of things. You know, they can't fill up
the stadium, and that's you know, that's what you're looking for. So
it's a huge game. I think it's a I think it's a you know,
well again, as you said a second, every game gets bigger than
the last one because you win this. Now Utah's coming in, they're going
to come in ranked. You're probably top twenty. I don't think top ten.
You know, now you got you got a chance. You win that
and then you start getting to that ten win thing that I talked about on
Monday. So but you know, he doesn't want to get ahead of himself.
He talked about taking these games one at a time. You know,
that's that's the cliche, and he did talk about that in the press.
Conference, but they really do. You know, one of the storylines is,
you know, Deon Sanders. It's always been all season long. It's
been a crazy uh atmosphere around Colorado and UH and Jed did, in fact,
was on the coaching staff while Dion was playing the last couple of Dion's
last couple of years he was in Baltimore. Jed was on the staff during
that time. Eds, He's been around some good players. Yeah, So
he was asked, you know, he was asked if he had some Deon
stories. He declined the stories, but he did talk a little bit about
Dion annoying him a little bit. I mentioned before, Uh, he's a
fantastic guy. He's got great character, great personality, one of the best
players ever played the game. And uh, Colorado was lucky to have him.
And it's gonna be great to see him on the field before the game
for one minute or two minutes, whatever that is, and then after that.
I wish him the best of luck. I wish his team the best
of luck. But no, I just remember him as a outstanding he for
us. He played nickel so uh at that point in his career, so
I thought, you know, he wasn't gonna say anything, right, That's
what that was. Yeah, I'm not gonna say anything that Dion's gonna use.
You possibly could Dion does that. He'll you know, if somebody says
something, it's it's you know, it's in the locker room. Well,
I was also thinking Dion's also one of those guys where, depending upon when
you met him in your life, you might not have a lot of family
friendly deon stories to share a little while exactly exactly so, especially when he
was that, you know, with the Cowboys and the Niners and that stuff,
and those times for him were that's when Dion was Brian prime prime,
Prime is prime. Right, So but you know it's gonna be interesting.
Well, we're gonna have Brian Howe in here again in a few minutes.
We'll talk about what Dion's been like, particularly the last several weeks when it
hasn't been going so well. He uh, he's uh, he's got somebody
else calling plays. He promoted a guy to co offensive coordinator and uh uh,
you know it was a sign that he wasn't taking the losing very well.
We'll ask Brian how is that the case? But uh uh, Jed
was asked what's changed with the new guy calling uh uh place for Colorado.
I know coach Shermer well so been around him at different times, recruited his
son as a matter of fact, and I think that he's you know,
so he was an analyst there, so he knows what they were doing.
He was in all those meetings. He was probably very involved. I don't
know the exact extent of what the analysts do over there. I know that
our analysts have a great feel for what we're doing. I would guess that
when they made the decision to let coach Shermer call it, what they've really
done is he's not going to change the offense. It's impossible week nine or
ten of a college football season, when you get twenty hours a week with
the kids, to just go in there and all of a sudden implement what
he was doing at the Giants, or what he was doing at the Broncos
or anywhere else he's been. Now, will there be challenges, sure,
will he have a little bit different wrinkles, Sure, I'm sure there'll be
some protection changes and how they want to handle certain things in the running game.
But from watching last week, there's still most of the stuff they've been
doing the whole year, and I can't imagine that really having a significant change
until the offseason. Well, I think that that kind of says a lot.
And he's right. I mean, you know, these are college kids.
They're not you know, NFL guys who get to spend eight hours a
day figuring out a new game plan and stuff. Right, They're not changing
their their offense. They may call plays differently, as he said, they
may change some protection protections and stuff like that, but you're not going to
see a big difference in what they do. And I'm sure Brian, Brian
will uh you know, will attest to that. Uh you know. To
me, the the whole uh impact of that is what's going through Dion's head.
Right, he's not, you know, because he the offensive coordinator that
that he let's say, quote unquote demoted, was a head coach at Kent
State. So you so now you know, halfway through the season, Dion
says, you're not doing the job I need you to do. I'm bringing
up this other guy. And so those are the kinds of thing locker room
stuff, coaches room stuff, that's the kind of locker room and he's gonna
kind of run like, right, that's it constantly innovating and reinnovating locker room.
That's like I was gonna say before we play that clip. Because Deon's
not a loser, right, That's one thing he's not. He's not gonna
wait right bad performances because he expects of others what he expects. I'm sorry,
he's nice. He's not gonna wait around to make change that he thinks
they need to make in order to get better. You know, he talked
to and after the last game. He talked about how they they got to
go get some better offensive linemen, and people took that as well. He's
he's ripping his own offensive lineman. Their kids. Yeah yeah, yeah,
but they kids day, you got it. You get you get a scholarship
to come and do a job. Right now, you're also getting nil money
to come and do a job. There's gonna be a lot less patience for
lack of a better word, They're gonna make moves, and he's saying we
need better offensive line. You know. I I've heard coaches say that usually
on the side, not publicly, but Dean he doesn't care what we think.
And it's not it's not like Dion is a complete stranger. Did these
guys they respect him as a player, so they know, hey, if
he says I'm not up the I'm not up the par I'm not up the
par I need to I need to do a little bit better here in these
certain areas. Exactly. All right, let's go and take our first break.
We're going to come back. Brian Holl from the Boulder Daily Camera and
Buff Zone will be coming on and we'll get his uh perspective on you know,
what's been going on in Colorado, not only all season, but really
the last five weeks where they've you know, they're they're one and four in
the last five weeks. And so we'll talk to him, and we talked
to him earlier in the year when all the deon stuff, what's going on,
But now we'll talk about the game coming up on Saturday. So stick
around. For more than twenty years, the Window Depot has provided the best
price and the biggest inventory on in stock vil windows, and now the Window
Depot is more than a window store, offering homeowners and contractors a one stop
warehouse offering interior and exterior doors, granted and courts, countertops in stock cabinatry
and skylights to finish your project. Their team of professionals will help with everything
from free kitchen design to custom orders from leading manufacturers like mill Guard and Jeldwin.
Order online or find a location near you at the window depot dot com.
Steve Rivera here to talk about Dorato Rock Materials. I needed a lot
of gravel from my driveway, so I called Eric at Dorato Rock. He
found out the amount and color I needed and boom, it was taken care
of and at a great price. How do I know radio commercials work?
I heard one of his on the radio. Dorato Rock and Materials provides a
wide range of landscaping materials, including decorative rock, boulders, gravel, soil,
and sand for residential and commercial use in the Tucson area. They are
locally owned and have been around for more than fifteen years. Give them a
call at five to two zero four zero zero for two three three. Where
do you buy exercise equiate Max Arizona Help Arizona Health Arizona Health. Of course,
to feel better and look better, it makes sense to buy your fitness
equipment from the people who know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health.
Our goal is to help you choose the equipment you need to reach your
goals. Your health and fitness deserve the best you deserve. Arizona Health the
leading edge and exercise equipment on twenty second, just west of Wilmot. At
Nova Home Loans, we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy the independence that
comes with home ownership. Paul Volpi is ready to help you find an option
that best fits your needs. Whether you're a first time or veteran home buyer
or want to get cash out with the refinance. Nova has a variety of
home loan programs to meet your unique situation. Visit voltpeteam dot com. That's
Volpe team dot com or call five two oh six eight five six two six
today in MLS three oh eight seven Arizona BKO nine two nine four two Equal
Housing Opportunity, how to commitment to Lindrix Syncredit Rates and available loan programs are
subject to change. With my notice, it's summertime. In the summer league
are wrapping up. Volleyball, softball, baseball, swimming and pickleball are coming
to their season end. Come down and visit the cool and relaxing Creative Awards
idea center to pick out your awards for the champs and MVPs. It's also
time to replenish your corporate apparel with new Polos caps and safety t shirts with
your corporate logo to make your team look sharp. Creative Awards also has a
large selection of brand names like Nike, Eddie Bauer, New Era, and
car Hard just to name a few. Believe it or not, its corporate
holiday gift season. Time for your clients too, with over one hundred thousand
items to choose from. Come visit Creative Awards, Inc. Two twenty eight
West Drackman Street or online at Creative awardsaz dot com. Did you know sports
cards at Memorabilia are setting record sales last month of nineteen fifty two tops Mickey
Mantle SO for twelve point six million, Lebron James Rookie SO for five point
six Also, collecting cards is a family fun hobby that could be very profitable.
If you want to start a collection or expand your collection, check out
Showtime Cards. They are one of the leading card shops in the country and
have served our local community for twenty five years. They are located on e
Speedway that's show time cards. The Secret Savings Account from Pyramid Federal Credit Union
is an account you pay yourself and save oh right. It's set up as
an automatic transfer for any amount and the transfers add up over time. You
can save for a down payment on a dream vacation or an emergency fund and
the best part for withdrawals. Your Secret Savings Account can only be accessed in
branch or over the phone. Visit Pyramid FCU dot com slash Secret Saving to
learn more. Federally insured by NCUA. It's that time of year, Summer
in Tucson. Time to take control with Temperature Control for all your air conditioning
needs. Will keep you cool during all the hot streaks. All you have
to do is stay in control with Temperature Control where we handle everything you need
with prompt response, affordable pricing and sound solution. We also excel in plumbing
and electrical work. We handle everything you need. Give us a call at
five two oh eight one five five six six' five or visit our website
at tempdash con dot com and remember, stay in control with temperature control.
Need concrete hard Works Concrete has it. We have more than twenty five years
of experience with all things. Concrete installing, sidewalks and patio floors are our
specialty and handle masonry work and retaining laws. We're locally and family owned.
Just let us know what you need, how you want it, and we'll
take care of it. Leave the hard work up to us. We're a
hard works Concrete. Call us at five one two nine six' two five
six six zero or visit our website Hardworksconcrete dot com. We'll put the work
in for you. Guide bugs, termites, bes, or rodents, Arizona
Pest Control will hunt them down. Arizona Pest Control is your complete desert pest
management specialist. Tests can't run or hide from Arizona Pest Control. They use
only the latest and most technologically advanced methods of pest elimina available, which minimizes
the effects on the environment. Let Arizona Past Control get rid of your bad
bugs, termites, bees, or rodents. Serving Tucson and Southern Arizona since
nineteen forty seven. Go to azypast dot com to schedule your free evaluation today.
Register to ride, run raise funds in elterw to Tucson and support the
construction of our new play zone at Diamond Children's Medical Center. For more information,
please visit the eltwor De Tucson website. Steve Ravera and Jacob Salaz they
have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage Shaft, Fox Sports fourteen
to fifty. Welcome back to on bolling out Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
your host for the day, Jay Gonzales. Steve is on the road headed
towards towards Durham for the Duke game tomorrow. He'll be covering that Frost Sports
Tucson. But on the phone, I've got to Brian Hall, Colorado Buffalo's
beat rider for the Boulder Daily Camera. We've had Brian on a number of
times, including earlier in this year during all the Dion and color A hooplas.
So, Brian, we appreciate you joining us again. How things going
over there? Pretty good? Just uh, I can't believe it's Game channel
right here. Seriously. Yeah, so uh you know we we we did
talk to you during you know, all the raging media frenzy over you know,
Colorado's first three games and when they beat a couple of ranked teams and
just got just captured, you know, the whole college football uh, media
attention and everything that goes with it. Since then, they've lost five out
of six. So just first of all, tell me, you know,
how's the mood as far as that goes over there, you know, still
trying to be optimist. What's going on? Yeah, well, the message
this week was is very much focusing on the positives and the optimism of their
future. And we talked a lot to weeak about how how much Colorado and
Arizona marror each other, and the Colorado is just you know, kind of
a step behind Arizona right now because you know, yeah, the year one,
yes, this is the year three, but uh, you know,
Cala was just trying to learn how to win go through that as well,
and they finally that's when going on that earlier this season. But the bus
just haven't learned how to win those close games against good teams. You know,
the expectations really with what happened in those first three games had to have
gotten incredibly unrealistic because in the end, this is still a first year.
Dion was, you know, a brand new coach to the Power five level.
You know, the much discussed roster flip. Uh, you know for
the entire program, do you think people got a little ahead of themselves after
those first few games. Yeah, definitely. You know you could see the
flaws in the team even during that three and those stretch. I mean they
it was a really good winn against CCU and then the great debut, But
you know, I think a lot of that of TCU didn't have any film
on this, you know, the other teing that didn't have any film and
caught by surprise. It was a perfect storm. And you look at TCU
and that's not a great football team this year, that's a four and five
football team. Uh. You know, Nebraska and the CSU were both rivalry
games and they were supposed to ball out CSU and h and barely beat them
in double overtime. And you know, so that we saft laws even in
the three and oh start. And I think that the national hype was just
it was insane and I understood it at the same time. Uh, even
during that how much did the did that loss to Oregon, you know,
forty two to six, I mean, look, it's Oregon, They're going
to bring you down to earth. But was that like a big thud or
was it kind of expected? Because you know that kind of started this whole
thing. Yeah, at the time, it was certainly you know three and
O. The hype you know in that game was I believe it was ABC,
uh, you know, right in the middle of the day, and
and to lose like that was a big sude. They came back the next
week and you know, they lost only by a touchdown the USC and they
got down bigging that game with then rallies. So I don't think it was
really the Oregon game that hurt them so much. It was I think it
was the Stanford game, right, you know that they were up twenty nine
to nothing a few weeks ago and I lost that thing forty six to forty
three and double overtime. I'm not sure they've fully recovered from that one,
and that had some tough games since then, but you know, I'm not
sure they've fully recovered from that collapsed against Stanford and that was yeah, well
they well they haven't gotten to twenty points the last two games, and admitted
the UCLA's got a really good defense, Oregon State's got a really good defense.
But what's the way you know, Colorado's offense had been you know,
had been playing you know, including the forty forty some points against Stanford.
You know that's a little bit. You know, that's quite a calm down
for them. So Dion makes the change with his offensive coordinator. You know,
Kevin and I were talking in here before you came on that Deal's Deal's
not the kind of guy who's going to wait around, and that's kind of
how people have taken it. What are your thoughts on why that happened and
how's it working? Yeah, not really, you know, some one of
those things we don't have all the answers and not really sure why it happened.
My deck is from listening to him and the things I'm hearing is that
there was just a disc between whether it's Dion and Sean Lewis out of the
corner or Schador and Sean Lewis, whatever it is, I think there's just
been a disconnect where, you know, Sean Lewis is a great coach and
he's been on everybody's hot boards for years. Right, He's a great coach
and he'll he'll continue to be a great coach. But for whatever reason,
I just don't think that hard has worked out very well and they want to
go in a different direction, and it's like something different. Did it look
any different? Yeah, I looked a little bit different. You know,
Pat Shermer obviously, you know, long time NFL guy, and uh,
you know there was a lot more you know, Uh, they still passes
of running back trying things like that, kind of the extension of the running
type passes. You know, they did a lot of those, but they
didn't work. I mean I think there was twelve cargets for the two running
backs in the passing game that that met at twenty five yards. Yeah,
so you know it didn't work out very well. It was It looked ugly
last weeks. I mean, other than the Organ game last week. What
the works off as the performance? Wow? Crazy? So you know,
just your perspective on Dion, especially going through this losing period, have you
you know, has there been a change? Does Is he kind of the
same Dion just dealing with it differently? I mean, you know he I
mean, he was the star of the show for the first part of the
season. I know people are still talking about him because he's still Dion,
But what's his mood been? Like, what have you sensed from how he's
going through all this stuff? I think they're great, you know, and
I actually told him the other day I had at a moment that with him,
just find myself. He's the best post lost coach we've ever dealt with
by Conrad, a lot of them obviously, you know, but he's really
good. I mean, he's he's never waivered. He actually asked that Stanford
could have easily come in there fuming, and he literally said to us,
you deserve my best. I'm gonna give you my best here, and you
know, sat and gave us a full press conference that after the u c
l A. The FID tried to you know, cut things off around nine
minutes and Deon said, no, I'm good, keep going, and he
went another ten minutes. Yeah. So you know, he's doesn't really do
and he's the one that's been trying to drive the narrative and the perspective that
hey, we're still in good shape. This is the first year program we're
building. We're fine. Just wait until we see us in the future.
Yeah, Brian, I'm Kevin High. I was wondering, so Dion has
been extremely mature through all this, and I was reading one of your most
recent pieces. You talked about's maturity through all the losing and how he's finding
value in that situation. How is his connection with his father as quarterback and
head coach relationship, How does that helped lead the team through this tough time.
I think it's been helpful because the door is immature, and growing up
with a father like he did, and being around in the AFL kind of
players that he's been around, I think he has given him aspective. And
you know, he's close to Tom Brady and guys like that. You know
he can lean on that for experience. And you know, I was I
was kind of surprised about that answer the other day when he was like,
Hey, I don't I don't mind going through this because you have to learn
how to do it, you know, And you know, that was a
mature response to it, And you know, I think that helps a lot
when your quarterback is not anicking, it's a frame and at the same time,
it's still battling because they were horrible the other night, and then he
goes and gets an injection, then the in between the third and fourth quarters
and comes out and scores two touchdowns and all the leads back to the comeback.
So a lot of all those things together have help this team so let's
get to a little bit about the actual game on Saturday. The first thing
I wanted to ask Jed this question, but I didn't get a question in
the short press conference. You know, it's a first year program. They
got a lot of new guys. How's the depth right now? Are they?
You know, are they going through you know, injuries and trying to
figure guys out. You know, it's kind of like a you know,
we know Jed went through this. They they played three quarterbacks, but I
think actually four quarterbacks in Jed's first year. You know, has has depth
taken a toll or you know situation? Are they pretty low on players right
now? How are they here towards the end of the season. Yeah,
they started well, definitely had I think it was seven scholarship play the season,
so they're already eight below everybody else, but they had they lost some
guys the injury or whatever. But I haven't really like the depth of been
an issue. I've got the line, they're just not that good. It's
not like they've been injured linebacker, same thing. They struggled finding some the
right pieces there. But they're not injured. They just haven't performed. So
I think it's more of the I've got to get better talented places, I
mean, been an issue. Yeah, so I'm sure this was a game
that both teams probably circled on their schedule at the beginning of the year as
a very winnable game. You know, is is that still sort of a
mentality for for Colorado that this is one they think they can get. Arizona's
rank now they're on a bit of a role, but still, you know,
Colorado, you know, after U C. L A and Oregon State
has got to feel like we got a shot at these guys. What's been
that approach? Yeah, the teams they think they never gave I do think
still probably look that Actually, for what I'm hearing from a lot of fans,
they think next week is more winnable than this week. Yeah, Washington,
I just still view as a winnable game. And you know, I
know Arizona probably do it the same way. I mean, they've got five
straight ranked opponents, now get a struggle in Colorado might seem easy. But
what I'm curious about is Arizona keep that up well Historically, Anti as a
somebody who's been you know, following Arizona since I was a kid. This
is a this is a game that you know as a fan, and I
know other fans are thinking the same thing as one that it's a little scary
because you know, Arizona's done this before. You know, they get on
a roll, get a game that they should win, and then they go
lay an egg. You know, I go back to the ninety two season
when quote unquote Desert Swarm was born. Arizona was on a roll, won
a bunch of games against ranked teams, and then closed out with a three
game losing streak. You know, we're kind of at that point of this
season in sort of a similar situation. And uh, I know Arizona fans
are watching John Ford. I don't know, you know, Jed's just saying,
we just want to go one and know, you know, did the
coaches thing today, but just a you know, a really interesting thing.
But so what what kind of game do you expect to see? Uh?
You know, we we know that in Colorado has got a very posent offense.
Jed mentioned that defensively, how's the matchup for for Colorado against Arizona?
Yeah, you know, defensive, but it's still struggled about this year.
Their their best attributes are. They're really creating turnovers and it's been pretty h
so we'll see they can keep that up. And they they forced six turnovers
the last two weeks combined. And and so that's one thing that Arizona's gotting
guard for is you know, these guys hit hard and of course bubbles like
you know, it's a mishandle of a snap and things like that. I
mean, they force the way they hit and now they're opportunistic with their defensive
backs and so you know, I think it's a good matchup for CU.
Theirs have been aspect a lot of the year, but it also got trying
to hunt on one fight. So you know that that's one of the best
cornerbacks in the country. And so I'm curious that Jeff done how much FITA
goes after Travis. How's how's he been since he got back from the injury?
Pretty good. He didn't have a very good game defensively Stamford and everybody
saw that the part Stamford came back, but Dion told us, but that
was because I was didn't focus on defense. He was worried about Austens and
he had a monster game on offense that night. He refocused himself through the
bye week and he's been really good. He had two interceptions against u C.
L A. He was locked down last week against Oregon State. So
he's been really good the last two weeks. All right, man, Well
we'll see, We'll see how it goes there. You know, we headed
up that way tomorrow. But it should be a fun game. I'm looking
forward to this, you know, with all again, despite all the how
it's gone the last few weeks. You know, Colorado was still they're still
in the conversation and people are still talking about them, probably always will because
of Dion. But I'm looking forward to to as you said, after five
straight you know, ranked teams. Okay, how is Arizona handle this?
So I I'm looking forward to seeing this one. Yeah, Kenny, especially
not only if I say rank, but he's not the loik after that.
I mean that eight game stretches is the fund that you probably look at and
say, this is the one you probably don't have to gear up for as
much dangerous. Yeah yeah, well if they do that. If they do
that, they'll be in big trouble. We know that. Hey, Brian,
thanks again, appreciate it. Have a great weekend and have a good
game on Saturday. Thanks for talking. Thanks. That was Brian how from
the Boulder Daily Camera phone, breaking up a little bit. But I think
hopefully you still got all that. But you know, it's this is I
really am interested in how this game is going to play out for that reason.
It's this game that historically Arizona has trouble with after a stretch like this,
this is who Arizona is. It's the trap game, right, yeah.
One, and we'll see if Jed and his guys somehow get across to
the players. Don't let up. Don't let up. Yeah, I mean,
and if you're gonna separate yourself from the other programs that are kind of
in this weird zone that Arizona's in, you gotta win games like this,
win the games you're supposed to win, like you said earlier, and that's
how you build like expectation, right winning, Go on to the next one.
Okay, we're gonna take a break. We'll be right back. I
think we're gonna get Steve Rivera for this last segment or over the phone from
the Denver Airport or wherever he's at. So stick around and we'll get Steve
on and we'll get his breakdown of the Duke basketball game. So come on
back after this. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's
been successful for newly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudolsen
era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor
of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends
to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against
them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as
Arizona's beloved coach, Listens from Newton is an insight to how he built the
program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety
five at gmail dot com. Hey walk at Nation, Jake Fisher here,
I got to tell you about my winning team. Over at Arizona Health Insider,
I was able to get a custom private health insurance plan with no deductibles,
no copays, nationwide coverage, and I get to pick my own doctor
for less than two hundred dollars a month. If you want to avoid getting
gouged on the exchange and you want real health insurance, call Arizona Health Insiders
five to two zero eight, five zero six eight sixty six five two zero
eight five zero six eight sixty six fare down. What's your goal? A
new career or career advancement? How about transferring to a four year college.
PEMA Community College can help you make some day today and reach your goals affordably
on your schedule. With over one hundred programs to choose from and financial aid
available, it's time to earn the degree or certificate you need to prepare for
the career you want. PIMA offers free career exploration classes so you can choose
the field that's right for you. Learn how at Pima dot edu slash Someday
during this Thanksgiving season, pitch Rocks, Cooling, Heating and Plumbing wants to
say thank you for allowing us to serve you when you need us. All
five to two zero or four zero or zero six' nine tips. Ball
season is upon us and fans are bearing down for our new and improved Arizona
football team. I know Edmund Marcus is. He's a huge Arizona football fan
and of course a University of Arizona graduate. If you don't see him at
the football game or you a sporting event. Go see him at All State
Insurance on Campbell and get a quote for your car and home insurance and more.
Visit Edmund Markets All State Agency at twenty seven nineteen North Campbell or give
him a call at five to zero three two three nine three three three.
You are in good hand with Edmund Marcus Whole State Agency. Do you want
to be part of a winning team? A Team Security is looking for friendly,
outgoing event security guards and event staff to be a part of our team.
We've been providing our outstanding services to some of Arizona's biggest sporting events and
concerts for over twenty years. We want you to join the action. A
Team offers a fun and exciting opportunity to work in the sports and entertainment industry,
with flexible schedules that are perfect for those looking for a part time job
or a second income. Come be a part of a winning team the A
Team apply online today at a Team security dot Net. Steve Ravera and Jagon
Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage chef Fox Sports
fourteen fifty streaming live, I Mean iHeartRadio WAP I got the hicups, folks,
So super timely medical time. I welcome back time the ball on Jacob
zalas your host for the next hour and change. But my buddy Steve Rivera's
on the road, but we've got him on the phone right now. He's
toiling in the Denver airport in a long layover, headed to Durham for the
Duke game tomorrow. So we're gonna break this down with Steve, who you
know, in one in twenty four hours has become an expert on this game
coming up tomorrow, right, Steve, sure work, But you know,
here's the thing, and seriously, you know you've you've been through a bunch
of these a bunch of these Duke games, Duke Arizona games. They've they've
played nine times, had a whole bunch during the time that you were covering
covering them the last two times, the twenty eleven game, in the in
the Sweet sixteen and in Anaheim. Then in twenty thirteen they played a neutral
Syche game Arizona one, both of those. What are your thoughts right now
in terms of in terms of the series and what that what it's been like,
Steve, Yeah, they've been I think I haven't. I did not
cover the last two. I was working for Fox, but I wasn't covering
the team on the road. So those are huge games. Obviously at the
Madison Square Garden, Arizon was not expected to win that one, and of
course the big game in the tournament when Mark what's the Dame Williams had a
fantastic game, Derek Williams had a fantastic game, which you know is kind
of almost propelled Sean Miller to his first Final four before it didn't. But
I've been you know, two thousand and one, what a fantastic game Arizona
Party should have won that given the injuries and then a couple of calls,
but then and then and then MAUI I was there for that big game in
two ninety eight. I think it was No. Is there a better rivalry
East West? I'm not too sillar, there is no. I think you
can argue that because and you know, you see it right now, and
how many people are focused on this game tomorrow night, national media. You
know, you're seeing them on social media that this is a game that a
type of game that every you know, everybody wishes there would be more of
these. Yeah, you have no question. I just saw that Duke got
situated with the Kansas rivalry too. They just set up a home and home
with Kansas. But that doesn't start to I think a year next year or
a year after. So until then you have Arizona and Duke and two of
the power conferences back in the day with lut and Skazhevsky. I wish this
would have been done more often, but but hey, it's happening now,
so why complaining? Right exactly, Well, and you know, and you
hope that this sort of becomes the new thing. You got two young coaches,
guys early in the early in their careers. They haven't developed the quote
unquote egos that maybe a Lout and a Skazhevski and somebody like Tom Izzo or
you know, somebody else might have where they say, I'll play you,
but I'm not playing you home at home, which is what we're seeing over
the years, that they're going to play each other. They're going to go
play to each other's places, hopefully because they know it's good for college basketball,
right right, No, no, and look, it's happening. Arizona
may not be doing it at home. Over a couple of teams, but
the season or the schedule that Tommy has developed here, it was fantastic,
not since General Loot was here. Have you seen it? And maybe they'll
start bringing into mcale which benefits you guys, the guys who spend money to
go buy tickets. Right. Have you been to Cameron for a game?
No? No, that's one of the reasons why I come here. Decided
to come because here in Kentucky or the pib of the last two places,
I haven't seen at college basketball game. I've seen it everywhere else. Have
you have you Have you ever seen Cameron from the outside of seen a big
sure of it. Yeah, looks like they played in the Western the regional
when they played in North Carolina State a few years ago when they got beat
the first round. I think it was Kevin O'Neill's first year. First that
year we came. We made a road trip to Cameron and it's smaller than
you think. Yeah, it's just a little building. It's a little building
like a church almost. Well, the whole place looks like a church because
that's that's just the construction of Plus there's a big, giant church in the
middle of it. Well, well, let me ask you something, says
father Jay. Will I be if I light if I go into this church?
Well, I didn't. So if I'm okay, you're okay. The
co host, Yeah, if I if I didn't get it, you're not
going to get I think. I think you're just fine. It's a cool
place. The campus is is beautiful. It's like no other campus I've ever
seen. And it's funny because I purposely wore an Arizona T shirt when we
went to the campus just one day to visit the campus and go to the
bookstore. I'm in the bookstore buying Duke gear wearing an Arizona an Arizona T
shirt. It was kind of fun. Oh, you should have got that
picture. You would have been able to use it tomorrow exactly. But okay,
so let's talk about the game a little bit. I mean, we
don't know much about either of these two teams other than Duke is number two,
rank number two in the country, Arizona's number twelve. You know,
Arizona's got a guy named Caleb Love who knows who knows Cameron. He's played
Duke a bunch of times. How much of a factor do you think that
can be for for Arizona. I think it'll be a factor for him because
you know, we haven't really talked to him much, but he seems like
he's unflappable in the times that we talked about, uh, talked about him
and and the team. Uh. So I think that's they're in good hands
and we've seen him. He's kind of like, uh, he's got to
play with the chip on his shoulder, yes, uh. And the other
guys and and we know this. Arizona's very talented and they played well in
in November, and I think they have nothing to really lose in this game
outside that they get blown out, and I don't think that's gonna happen,
right, So it's kind of like playing with the house money without really having
a house money, right when you think about you know, some of the
let's call him veterans, even though like Kylin Boswell is only a year you
know, into this, but you know, the guys like Boswell, Pally
Larson, Umar Balow, even Keisha Johnson who went to a final four last
year. You know, how do you think Cameron will affect those guys if
at all? Yeah, I don't think. I don't know, I don't
know. Maybe early in the first five minutes, but I don't think they're
gonna get intimidated by it or so. I think they're gonna settle in.
I you know, you see that the pictures in the in the TV,
all the crowd and all that, But but I don't think it's gonna take
them at all. Yeah, you know, I think it makes it.
It's gonna sound weird, but I think it makes a difference that this game
is on a Friday night in Durham instead of a Saturday afternoon. I would
imagine that it's crazy there no matter what. But still, at least from
an Arizona standpoint, I know that a Saturday afternoon game gets gets a crowd
in an arena more riled up than say a Friday night or a week night
game. Well you even though your daughter when they're not studying on a Friday
night. No, I think you're probably right. They're gonna be ready for
some of them have gone about twenty five. Wow. Wow, that's crazy.
That's crazy. So, uh, you know, getting back to you
know what, you know what we expect to see. You know, we
talked about this yesterday. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna take Sammy's money
on the over, because you know, he thinks it's going to go under
one fifty two and a half. I'm thinking a game where both teams get
into the eighties. Well, I you know, yesterday I was joking with
you guys because I wanted to stay out of this bet. But I think,
I think, and then this is hard for me to say. I
think you're gonna win the bet because both teams like to run when they'd like
to play fast. And let's assume that they go to uh seventy five,
seventy five, seventy seven, seventy five, and it could go into overtime.
I mean, if it goes into overtime, it's definitely over one fifty
two, right right. I mean I've already thrown something down on that because
I fully expect it to be, you know, on top of what I
got with Sammy going so double down, the double down exactly. And I
may throw some more tomorrow once I get to Vegas, because it's you know,
on other bet with he has he has Arizona under seventy two points.
Yeah, no, no, that's not gonna happen. I don't think that's
gonna happen. Yeah, they're gonna get too many. Both teams are gonna
get a lot of easy baskets. I think the defense here is gonna be
It's where in November. How good is the defense gonna be? Right?
And a lot of running up and down. I hope there's not a lot
of fouls because I don't want anybody in out of them. What about Tommy,
you know, I mean, he's been a Gonzaga, They's been a
bunch of big games, final fours, the whole bit. I didn't look
back to see if he's if he's you know, been on the bench,
you know at uh you know at now has he they played each other?
They played I don't think they've been in Cameron, but they played each other
and again the Zagas I think beat him in the tournament. I think I
could be wrong, But but think I could be wrong. But thinking about
Tommy going to Cameron maybe for his first time, now Skrzyzewski's not on the
other side over there, so maybe that impacts how he approached. But you
know, do you think he even really sees Cameron as a play said he
needs to worry about No, I don't think so. I don't think.
So he's a he's a dude. He's a really goofid crap about that.
And I think I tell you that in a different with different words. Uh
uh No, I don't think. I don't think. To me, he's
doing this because this is gonna be fun. He's gonna, he's gonna,
he's gonna. You know, wouldn't you if you're the head coach and you
had a good team, like a really good team, would you want to
go play other good teams in great places? Right? Because that's that's part
of the fun of it, right, And if he was going to be
intimidated by a game like this, then he wouldn't have He wouldn't have scheduled
it, right, I mean that's he wouldn't. In fact, he would
not have been scheduled all the other ones either. Yeah. Yeah, so
I think that, you know, I think things is gonna be really fun.
I remember when they announced it and we talked about it, and it's
kind of like it was so far away, right, That's exactly what I
thought. I remembered we were talking about this game, and I was like,
wait, this is the game that all the all those years ago.
I was like I'm excited of talking about this last year and this is you
know, it's finally here, so you expect a close game. Yeah,
I do. There was almost like getting five five and a half. I
would take the points in fact that I'm on the internet now people, I
think it's fine five and a half. I can't make any bets because I
don't think you can do it out here. But uh, but I think
it's going to be closer than five. And hey, I wouldn't be surprised
if there was gonna wins. Remember the polls, the post. No one
knows anything about most of these teams, right, they're just kind of went
off reputation and what they know from last year. And it was as could
be better than the twelve and then probably are and Duke could possibly better worse
than a two. We just don't know. And Josh Shires a new coach
too, right, he's a new coach and as she stepping in has tough,
if not a tougher situation than than Tommy Lloyd stepped into. Yeah,
no, no questions. Do you want to follow the guy that follows the
guy you know you don't want to follow? You want to follow coach k
it's like, do you want to follow? Uh? Uh Luke? Yeah,
no, I seriously, I mean I just think that, uh,
there's a lot of things in play here that kind of have changed over the
last you know, since it was loot Herzewski, you know, at Duke
in Arizona. So did you okay, let's let's let's take away the two
thousand and one game, which was for the national championship. Did you have
a favorite Do you have a favorite Duke Arizona game? Oh? Wow,
take take away the championship game? Right? Well, well you you were
around. I didn't cover the team directly. I was going to help me
out as a sidecar guy back in the late eighties. Uh the one in
Tucson turn Yeah, fantastic game with Leightoner and Sean and although heavyweights, it
was two heavyweights. Man, I just remember it be crazy. Yeah,
that was I was at the NOWICH Championship. Arizona's the defending national title champions,
Miles saying we want to go undefeated for the season and Duke to beat
him in the in the championship game. So and come on, if you
go to the rosters of each one monsters, Monsters of college basketball, right
right. Well, you know you talk about that that the eighty seven eighty
eight season and the Duke game that was here to me, even though you
know they won the they won the Great Alaska Shootout, they beat Syracuse in
Michigan in that, I think it wasn't until they beat Duke that you went,
holy hell, what do you got over here? And that when you
think about all the years after that, you kind of feel like that's where
it started. Okay, So let me ask you this because you've been around
this time, and I talk about this with a lot of the X guys.
Uh, everyone one in Arizona. Once that you peak, there's a
rivalry and there's a Duke of the West and they talk about that. Do
you think Duke stays up at night worrying about Arizona. Absolutely not. They
worried about just because you know, they've got guys within their own conference that
they've got to deal with near North North Carolina right down the dang street.
Uh, you know n C State as well, all the you know,
all the ACC teams, and then I think, you know, if you're
talking about who do they think of in terms of the as a rivalry like
that, I think Michigan State and Kansas come in ahead of that, ahead
of Arizona on that as well. So now I don't I think Arizona fancy
Duke more as a as a you know that rival out there that they want
then Duke does Farzoni. I agree with you on that. Yeah, yeah,
they kind of want they want to be the Duke of the West.
Yeah, maybe they return to that, Maybe they return to that. Yeah
yeah, but this is uh, this is gonna be fun. All right.
See, we're gonna let you go, let you uh finish out the
rest of your lay over over there, grass seven. Don't screw up my
picks, man. You gave me the pick, all right. So if
they don't go through, we're we're not gonna live. Steve, have have
fun, safe travels and let everybody know you to read your stuff in all
sports too, son, So we'll be hearing from you. Thanks to see
later and my buddy Steve Rivera on the on the road. But you know,
look, Steve's been around a long time. That's some pretty good analysis
of this game. You know, we would have had that conversation in here,
and I think, uh, this is gonna be fun. It's gonna
be really fun. I'm looking forward to that game. I'm gonna be watching
it in Vegas, which is even gonna be more fun. That's gonna be
too much fun. Yeah, it could be too much fun. But uh,
you know, we've got a whole group of people are gonna be watching
this game together and having a blast. And uh, you know, these
games haven't been coming around Arizona for some time. I mean, they played
some great games in some of the tournaments. They've played a few, you
know they have. They've had Michigan State and Tennis See and and and stuff
like that, and some of these uh neutral side games and stuff like that.
But this is a true home and home. They're going to Cameron Indoor.
They got to come back here next year. You know, this is
this has the makings of everything that Arizona fans want to see, you know,
every year here and that we used to see all the time. And
as we said, you know, John Shire, Tommy Lloyd, two of
the young guys in the you know, in the in the coaching industry who
are saying we're gonna play these games. And I hope that people see this
as an example and we see more of these down the road. Yeah,
and it should be a great time. I know. Mean and some of
my friends are getting together and watching it this weekend. It should be a
good time. Yeah. You play, you play this game, you watch
this game, and then you get ready for the It could be a great
week It could be a really fun weekend. All right, stick around,
we're gonna be back. Kevin's got breaking news and then we've got Justin Spears
in the next hour, So stick around. Down