This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R two SA and iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to I
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Riverta, He's
Jagan Zauaz. We've got our boys sit in today, so it could be
a good show. I would love to talk about We're gonna talk. We
continue to talk about the football situation. New coach Brenton Brennan. He was
there last night, he was there last week. The electric when he was
announcing it was not a shock. There was a rumor, a rumor tell
me that when he took the floor that North Fafida and team we're going to
come out. Well, yeah, we had kind of speculated that too.
To get to the three of them right all together. Yeah, yeah,
we had tone and then they didn't. But they were there. They were
there. You saw plenty of pictures of him talking today. It was a
crazy night. I don't know if you read me, but it was so
And we'll talk a lot about basketball because we kind of we're going to talk
more about football with our guests today. Uh, and a lot of things.
But let me ask you something, because did you you you when you
do your job. I know you're not able to watch the game, watch
the game, but you're able to see the game at points right. I
wrote, kind of in a backhanded way, there's this team doesn't look like
it used to look. It looks way different from what it did. And
that's not a good thing. Yeah, that's not a good November exactly what
I wrote. It's not the November December team we saw, passing happy,
boom boom bro. I'm not sure what's happening. Things seemed forced, very
much so forced and and and selfish in a one shot take it, get
it down, get it one shot, both sides, both sides, And
I say not maybe selfie is not the right word, but it's get the
ball down, shoot right. It's not the past pass pass, find the
man, open boat shoot. Yeah. And I'm it's hard to ask Tommy
that question in a in a situation for the press comments because we need more
sample size. But the last couple of weeks that it's just looked, it
has looked very different. It just it doesn't seem to have the flow that
it is exactly this team getting the way they were gets what this team needs
needs flow. So here we are and maybe and you've been here long enough,
and I've seen enough games, cover enough teams that the zone screws with
people and it has it has it's always always because they're like the flow,
and what does the zone do it It suffocates the flow. Yeah, so
I'm good. I'm not alone seeing that. I know we in the press
press room we're saying, yeah, this, this doesn't look this doesn't look
the same nothing. It looks bad because we're not that bad yet. But
it's inching too bad rather than good, right right, Yeah, no,
I I I saw that last night and it struck me last night. You
know, in those road games, it's like you chalk it up to your
on the road. It's hard, it's hard to start to play on the
road. But you know, it looked Saturday. Saturday last night looked a
lot like Saturday. It was just choppy, stilted, kind of forced choppy.
Yeah, just they kept usc hanging around. They could have put them
away early, and US had its two best players sitting in street clothes street
and I'm not going to say there's issues, but well, again, are
they Is it a slump you know that they can get out of and it
happens. Could it could be a slump or is there something going on,
uh mechanically or offensively, particularly offensively that it's just kind of take them.
They're they're not getting into any kind of rhythm or for other team's defenses,
I don't know, or internally we're sharing the ball comes easy, yeah,
when you share the ball, and they're not sharing the ball. And if
they hadn't been doing it earlier in the year, you'd think okay, But
they were, and they were playing well like that very much so in the
past and covering the loots teams and that's all you really have to go by
because I was there every day and Shawn's teams a little. But they didn't
really do that. They moved, they ran, they had finally jammed and
blah blah blah, they got on the break. This team isn't doing that.
And if it is, it's a one man break. They do it
every now and again, but not like they did. This is like you
know you love this man? Yes? And do you love this woman.
Yes, let's have fun the honeymoon, honeymoon, honeymoon, and then you
hit the no longer when you're not exactly and here they are no longer in
the honeymoon. But guess what they have to refine the honeymoon. They gotta
do something because the worst thing that could possibly happen would be that, you
know, UCLA has gotten its stuff together and they come in on Saturday and
and do something. Yeah, I don't, Yes, you can. You
can not at home, certainly not at home, but on the road.
Who's on the road. There's another issue. And I've said this from the
first week or two or whatever. That's always concerned me. And I don't
say the other one. But Babow can't hit free throws. And I asked
the question of Sean, he's only one of two most of the time you
have forty is even forty percent of the shots? And is that good enough
for you? No, because he's in a position he's gonna take the ball
that he's gonna he's gonna get followed a lot, and people are going to
follow on purpose. Remember one of the games he got hacking very much so.
And let me say, and I even asked the question, I couched
it even with Tommy. I know you've been asked this question before. Are
you concerned about Babo's free throw shooting? And he said the same answer about
him getting fouled. So it gets him to the double bonus and the bonus
all that stuff. Sure, but that doesn't solve his problem of getting to
the line and hitting shots. You lose, you lose a game by three
points easily, it's gonna come down. He went four for ten last night.
You hit two more, three more. It's a little more comfortable game,
and you kind of start feeling. But he says he likes the way
he shooting him. They're better shot. The shots didn't look better, he
got he's putting more arc on the shots. You know last night you're a
better driver, Jay, but you're still getting into crashes. But you're driving
pretty well now, excellent. What you gonna say you, I get it.
The bigger picture of Steve is that that they don't look right. No,
that's why I brought it off. Yeah they don't. My eyes are
your eyes, and we see the same thing. Yeah, No, they
don't. You see did you watch? Yeah? I was there. I
was there too. My question is whenner are we going to see uptick in
previous playing time as well, because if follow play in games, if he's
getting fouled, prebs is a much better feature. Sure, and that's what
we'll see. The funny thing is a friend of mine texted me late Left
Start early this morning said this team plays small, then a lot of dunks.
The list will miss a lot of bunny I saw that. Didn't somebody
have a have a stat on the number it was? It was in my
story, but Peterson's only came up. But the seventeen out of thirty something
like it was. It was a weird, weird number, where last week
it was twenty out of thirty. And this team doesn't do that, and
he said that there was one who doesn't do that. They need to finish.
Yeah, they do, they do. And there have been a number
of times where you're just you know, you're looking at uh at uh at
umar bellow and you're saying, dude, dunk that you're looking grievous dunk that
like right, like eating right, but put that thing in that and many
times the balls is getting knocked out of their hand. Yeah, yeah,
well, who does this remind you of U back in the day could hold
on it Stokes, Yeah, that's not a good comparison. They they you
know, this was a team, this was the USC team that was uh
incredibly undermanned again with the two best players, and Boogie Allis is really really
good. He's one of the best players in the conference. And to not
have him in your lineup and and hang with their as owner for as long
as they did, I I I, you know, I walked. I
came home last night thinking that wasn't great. They won they one hand that
you know, they weren't they were never going to lose the game. Yeah,
but that wasn't what you were looking for last night, right, So
so I was coming to the show not sure what I was gonna talk about
initially, and I said, I don't want to be this guy that I
always say that, you know, don't to the fans and to people who
observe they win by fifteen. They win kind of handily, but not really.
I'm thinking I'm going to complain about a double digit win on a team
that's, you know, pretty good. And then I'm saying, because I
criticis you know, they just this they should have been better it did it?
Didn't. Again, you know, sometimes let's you know, let's let's
go to the football team, right against Stanford. Yeah, you should have
lost that game. Yeah in Colorado, Colorado, you should have lost that
game. There were two bad teams and you went in there and played down
to their level and you put, you know, you put, and those
games were at risk. You survived. I'm not saying that they survived last
because they again, they were never gonna lose the game, but they did
not. They did not play where you would have expected them to play,
particularly with a team that has his best players sitting on the bench. No,
no, I agree. I agree, And one game is not gonna
solve it. Saturday, if they kill him, I thirty, it's not
gonna solve it because you still have that in the back of your mind that
this is possible, right, this is possible. Okay, we'll talk more
about all this basketball stuff. We have a pretty eclectic show today because I
try to get Kendrea and he'll be on sometime soon. He's taking the trip
and yeah, yeah, we're gonna get Dave Rubio. But the reason I
wanted to have Dave Rubio is not for basketball or football or whatever. He's
retired, and we had this conversation about Savan how it all started right right,
how you know, the retirement stuff and you don't want to deal with
this crap and saving blah blah blah. And now a week later, all
this poopy hit the fan right just And one of the reasons why he left
he didn't want to see He didn't want to deal with people poo. You
don't want to running into poop. And he must be a happy man.
I didn't ask him. I and talk to him and just protect each other.
That will go how happy he is and how probably he saw this coming
and didn't want any part of it. Yeah, yeah, no, I
hear you. You know. It was an interesting thing too, is that,
you know, the number of people from Mikaal who were at the press
conference yesterday, and it's like, okay, we get it. Football pays
the bills, so everybody's got to get out there and and you know,
show support, be excited, you know. And I don't know if this
is the right way to say, but kind of you know, get on
the guy's good side, right right, And that happens most of the time,
you know, they do because it's a family and he's part of that
family. Yeah, because he was in the good old dish, in the
good old dish, and then we're gonna have Clarence Farmer tracked him down.
He's in Houston. Former U a football player, big dude, very good,
very good running back, really good one. You know, one of
the under under um under exposed is the right word, but sort of one
of the underrated really good running back. Sinnares I've never had because he played
back in the day. He had one year under under Dick Toomy and then
he finished his career out with Macovic and you know he people. You know
when I when I was looking up, you know, because we running a
picture of him on our on our social media, I was looking up picture
and you know I remember that guy being really damn good. Yeah, you
know he was Keith when his freshman year when Arizona went up and beat USC
uh at U s C which ended up leading to uh to uh uh Paul
Hackett getting fired. You know, I remember walking out of that game and
saying, guys, the good news is Arizona beat USC. The bad news
is they're gonna fire the coach. Don't want They're gonna fire the coach and
we needed to stand right. That's funny you say that because that happens a
lot. Well, yeah, like I like him, he's a friend of
mine, Steve Lavin don't wear Yeah. Yeah, Well, and like,
uh, you know, uh, my buddy, who you asked me to
ask Jason Johnson about the thing? You know we're talking? I say,
I said, okay, So I asked him and he and he listened to
it and and then we had a discussion. But it's saying basically, you
know, to this day, Pete Carroll says that that was what turned the
program for USC. Was that game when they came back one that won on
that pick six and then the next year two thousand and one. I know
that because that was a game one of the very few home games I missed
because I went to Game one of the World Series. World Series. I'm
listening to that on the radio October November. Yeah. Yeah. And so
you know Pete Carroll later on and talking about about the program and how they
went off, he he has said that game kind of turned a corner for
them, and uh and so Jason Johnson has to answer for that as well.
He gave us the USC Dynasty of the two thousands. Yeah, okay,
that was fun though with Jason, So that we're gonna have these two
on and we'll talk more. Take your calls and and and enjoy the conversation.
Yeah, it'll be fun. Yeah, pretty fun. Look at you
know, let's see how David's doing. You know, I'm gonna tell you
attention to what what was going on in softball. He's out there. He's
out there coaching. You know, I don't know if you've seen it.
You follow him on social media. He's out there, you know, doing
some clubs and going to schools and stuff like that. So he's he's staying
busy. I'm sure you know, these guys who retired don't really retire.
Yeah, and he's he's the youthful kind of guy. So but you know,
you know, getting back to change, getting back to the last they
kept showing guys on the screen who weren't guys on the screen Jam Joiner.
That was, Oh yeah, you're wondering, no wonder, Noah might leave.
Yeah, for those that weren't there, Jami Joiner was showed on the
big screen and they called him be John Robinson, so that that k D
also didn't seem thrilled to be on the big board. He didn't what was
he here for anyway? He was like, what am I doing here?
If they came down to see Yeah, okay, he was pretty good,
but I thought he was much better. I read I had read before the
game that he was over fourteen in his last three games, and I just
jokingly leaned over to the guys at the table and said, hey, you
know, what's thee over under on whether he hits a field goal today?
And like a couple of minutes in card so he looked better than I expected,
and he kept them in the game. And again it might be a
game that he maybe first game and he sort of gets into it, you
know, got got got into more of the rhythm. Did you see his
dad's stuff? Oh yeah, when he was in the locker room. Yeah,
yeah, that was funny. He's watching he's doing the interviews and watching
the game at the same time. That was fine. Yeah, all right,
let's take a break. David Rubio coming up. We'll just see how
his retirement is going and see what he thinks of all this mess that goes
on when a coach has to come into a new program. So stick around
for all that, and then we've got Clarence Farmer in the second In the
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live. I mean, iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with
Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Funny years I heard
the same thing. Hey, welcome back to my I in the Ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacon Zalis and on
the phone we have Dave Rubio, former U of a volleyball coach. Dave,
how are you fantastic? Thank you good, good good. Hey.
We wanted to touch base with you a while back. But I'm sure you
saw that mister coach Saban decided to retire and and we're thinking, hmm,
canrea you you guys must be smiling, thinking, yeah, we knew about
this nil stuff, all these troubled things, and we beat you to the
punch. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me that coach Savings stepped down,
and uh, you know, it's just it gets the point where the
guys have been in the business for so long, just it's kind of an
uptill battle dealing with all these aspects that they didn't have to deal with five
years ago. Yeah, well, you know what you're thinking about. You
know what you know the trickle down that that happened, uh with Jedfish leaving
here, he goes to Washington after they get Kaylen de Borr. Now Arizona
had to feel a job and you know, you got a new guy down
here. But so there's so much more on now that goes into you know,
taking over a new program, right. I mean, Brent Brannan is
here, he's got to he's got to get a staff together, he's got
to you know, all that stuff. But now he's also got to figure
out how to get his players to stay, which is something that you know,
you always met with the guys right or your your players, but you
didn't have to go get the money or whatever it is that they've got to
do now. I mean, can you imagine having to work in that that
whole thing. Now, Well, it's always been a complicated, you know
job, and every year it seems to get more complicated. But as soon
as we started to recruit our own players to stay in the program, and
when I started to really question whether or I wanted to stay in it,
and you know, it's like every year you're trying, you're afraid to push
the guys to the point where they become upset with you. They started to
take it personally, and then you're worried about losing your best players, you
know. And so the whole paradigm of coaching in our generation has changed,
and I think for the player, for the coaches to come in, the
young coaches, they just don't know any different, you know, and so
they just, you know, make the adjustments a lot easier than guys who
have been in the vision for twenty thirty years. You were in it for
close to thirty, if not more, all Longe, Yeah, thirty one
years. And this may be this might be the difficult question you can answer
if you'd like. But at some point, you know, it's a job.
It's obviously worked, but you enjoy it. At some point along the
way, did it become more of like a job that you said, God,
you don't want I'm not sure about this. Well, you know,
it's like, you know, I was in at the front end of Title
nine for the women's sports, you know, so the seventies and eighties and
nineties, and so that's when kind of the Golden Era for US, and
certainly there are zona things were just so different than as we got in the
two thousands and mid two thousands and late two thousands, things really started to
change and evolved. Student athlete and empowerment became a big deal, and you
know, the whole dynamic of coaching changed and it just didn't become as enjoyable.
You know, the things that you really like to do were became much
less and the things that you didn't like to do it became a lot more.
You know, you mentioned, you know how now you have to recruit
your own players pretty much all the time, right, you know, not
not just during recruiting, you know, season, but you know, all
the time. It seems like it what's the hardest thing about that? And
you know, is it approaching a player just to kind of get a sense
of where they are? You know? Do you hear stuff and then you
go talk to somebody? How how is a coach do you work that whole
angle of trying to make sure that your players are solid with you? Well,
that's it. That's that's a good point, you know, and I
think the assistant coaches roles become critical in your ability to keep their players and
your program. And they're the ones who are on the front lines that the
kids will go to the assistant coaches and confide in them long before they will
go to the head coaches. And so the assistants have to communicate with the
head coaches and start to plant the seeds of saying, hey, why don't
you start to go out the coffee with this player, you know, establish
a better relationship with them. You need to talk about things other than the
sport and start to really pay attention to things outside of the football life or
out of the sport life. And that's the key now, the key is
developing. It's always been a relationship building business, but even more so now.
And so there's a certain percentage of kids that are really looking for that.
And then a lot of the players, this is playing time issues,
you know, so they're just looking for another opportunity to maybe have a better
opportunity to play somewhere else. And I don't call if anyone for leaving because
of those reasons. I've always said that some of the best players, if
not the best players, like to be coached. They don't mind being coached.
And here you are or coaches, you know, just coaches in general
who have to right walk that fine line of getting on the players yet not
getting on the players enough where they get you know, oh he's mad at
me. Yeah, that's that's a that's a tough one now, you know.
And it's like it's something that I struggled with, and especially towards the
end of my career. You know, when COVID happened in twenty twenty,
everything changed for us for volleyball and for me specifically and trying to trying to
learn another use had of skills to be able to communicate with my players better,
to build that better relationship. And so it was just a struggle for
me, you know, and I just knew it was time for me personally
to get out. I was just not very effective in my leadership and just
felt like it would be better served for the program and for the institution of
a fight set aside. You know. One of the interesting things about this
week, and we were at the at the press conference yesterday with Brent Brannan,
was everybody was there. I Mean it was like the whole McHale building,
you know, came in there and you know, for the football coach,
right obviously you know, they're the ones that pay the bills, so
you have to show support. But you you were, you were, You
went through a few football coaching changes here, you know what what were the
what were those likes? I went through a lot of changes in the thirty
one years, you know what, what were the what were those like in
terms of how did those reverber How did a foot particularly football coaching change reverberate
sort of through the fletic department and through McHale, well only hope springs eternal.
You know. That's the thing. I mean, football is such a
big deal and that I think the thing that disappoints me the most with Judd
leaving is that the promise of next year and the years of follow was partasically
the greatest time ever for Arizona football. You know, every I bet you
every game would have been sold out next year, you know, and I
mean it was just that's a great opportunity, and I was I really felt
Jeded was a little disingenuous and leaving, you know, And that's easy for
me to say, I'm not getting paid, you know, maybe twice as
much as he would have been paid. But you know, he came in
and saying, look, I'm I've moved too many times and I'm not looking
to move even if we're successful. I'm going to stay here and build this
program. And you know, now he leaves out to three years and a
great season. It's like everything you said you just questioned whether or notlready meant
any of it. And of course I'm certainly not giving you the benefit of
doubt. I would tell you this though, which is interesting. You know,
my daughter plays on the beach team for volleyball, and she just shared
with this with me last week, and she was really bummed when she heard
about jet leaving and she said, you know, they have you know,
this kind of breakfast opportunity of a bear. Now we'll kitchen every single morning,
and she said, the players absolutely love playing for Jetfish says we would
drive up the elevator with the football guys and they just loved playing here.
The culture was great, the assistants were great. They never had anything bad
to say about the football program, which is amazing to me. I mean,
that tells that tells me that Jetfish really understands the dynamics and has figured
out the code on how to connect with these kids. And that's why in
such a short period of time. He did such a great job here and
if you go look back as you were here for all those changes, he's
the first coach to ever go on his own. Yeah, I mean yeah,
everybody else say you're right. I mean, yeah, you're I mean,
I mean we had Macovic after after Dick, right, and I think
it was and then Mike Stoops, and then it was Ritch Trod, and
then it was what's his name? That guy, that guy and someone someone,
and then and then you know, and so I was, you know,
I didn't know who Jed was, and I really wanted Brent. I
mean, I really want to brand brand. I thought you was the guy.
And I'm really happy for him and for us, and now we're just
you know, keeping our fingers crossed and everything works out, all right.
So are you a fan? Are you? Are you in town? Do
you? Did you go to football games this last year? And yeah,
yeah, I'm a season ticket hold of for football and I'm a huge fan.
I mean, I'm an Arizona guy. So I live here, my
family lives here, and my kids are still in high school. My daughter
obviously is an Arizona for playing beach volleyball. But you know, my life
is here in Tucson except when I'm in San die surfing. So we had
Andy opus on when all this started to and you know, Andy, mister
story teller. We love him just as like we love you. But he's
talking about you know, nowadays, and we're gonna talk about what you're doing
now, but the kids getting agents. No, we talked about the sports
psychologists getting agents at fifteen sixteen and doing all these things. How times have
changed? Right? What are you teaching? What? What age are you
teaching now? And you have to deal with And I said, the worst
thing that happened to kids or parents, So I'm sure you have to deal
with that, right right. You know, I'm I'm My focus in the
chapter that's opened up to me now is I'm coaching six, seventh and eighth
players. You know, that's been great for my own soul and to give
back to the community of that age group. And so I'm really kind of
in an nuque situation because I'm just really clinics and the parents think I'm you
know, I'm terrific, and so I'm not coaching a team. I'm just
doing clinics that I think that's way to go. And I'm helping a couple
of clubs in town, one being a Zone of Volleyball club, and so
I'm really pretty busy with coaching. But they're all younger kids, and I
haven't had really any bad experiences with the parents so far. One would just
wait. Team. Well, you said, you mentioned off air that you've
got a league that you've put together, a youth league that you're running in
you know, periods over over the course of the year, and you're out
at Sporting Chance right now. Tell us a little bit about what all that
is and if you want, you know, how people can get involved in
that. Well, volleyball in the town is exploding, I mean, just
like kind of women's sports in general, right and and and all the sports
are are really gaining in popularity in our town. And Tucson Club, Cactus
Juniors and Zone Volleyball Club and a couple of other smaller clubs. But there's
a lot of youth playing in the sixth, seventh and eighth grade level.
And so I'm I am doing small little league here Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's
forty chants from five to four o'clock to five thirty and I run that on
a four week cycle and then start over again. And I run a few
clinics here and if anybody's interested, they can, you know, get into
contact with me at my website at a David Rubio barbellcamp dot com. And
I got plenty of business. I'm completely sold out every single one. So
it's been really really fun for me to stay involved in the community. So
I'm going to give you the ability to be the NC Douable League commissioner.
If that's the guy that I have to ask or give you the guy how
do you fix ANIL or can you? Well, I tell you, I
don't know. I haven't thought about the NIL as much as I thought.
I think about the whole reset of athletics and my solution for that. And
I heard Greg Byrne on a podcast with a father, Bill Burn, and
Greg talked about it. I think coach Kelly at UCLA talked about it.
They need to completely remove football from the equation. Football needs to be kind
of its own entity now and have their own commission and own set of rules.
Still represents institutions, but that needs to be three different tiers of football
and then all the other sports need to go back to regional competition. And
so the fact that we're flying three time zones away is crazy. You know,
it's evolved. It wasn't a way to stop it. But there's going
to be a reset at some point. It just can't do what they're going
to do. And it's I don't know when it's going to happen, but
you know, from my standpoint, this is not good for the student athletes.
And at the end of the day, I think it's going to implode.
The NIL is going to help it. It's gonna maybe it's gonna accelerate
it. You know, I don't know, but you heard what the proposal
is for the inst by the new NCAA president. Right, the thirty thousand
dollars a year or half the student body, right, I mean that's just
crazy. I mean that's just everyone else is going to become a club sport
and you're just gonna have five or six out of the sports they're gonna respond
to. Fancy. That's the way that's lection that's going. So so let
me let me ask you again. You just said it. So everyone's talking
about, Okay, the football is going to do what they do go across
country and the and the the sports that you covered, the softballs, the
volleyballs, the the minor sports, the Olympic sports are going to suffer because
they have to travel the distance too, So that would have been bad as
well. That's going to be bad. Yes, that's what you're saying,
no question, No, I mean you just can't think that. I mean
traveling from west to east. You guys have all done that, right,
three different time zones and then traveling back, and that's just it's crazy that
they think that that student athlete that's going to benefit them academic socially. That's
not it's not any mean, athletically, not a chance. Yeah, another
burden for the coaches. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, lucky,
lucky, what you're doing, what you're doing, you got I'm loving it,
and I certainly have an opinion about all that stuff, and I'm just
glad I'm on the outside looking in. Well that's why we have you on
the show. Exactly. Thank you, all right, man, go teach
those little kids some good habits. Man. Well do thanks you guys.
I appreciate its, David appreciate it. That's exactly what I wanted to hear
from him. Yeah, yeah, and you know, and and again a
guy who's been there and is you know, smart guy who can I you
know, and as he was talking about that, you know, just separate
football. Yeah, let it continue to pay the bills, but separate.
Let it be its on entity and then everybody else go back to playing within
your region and your conferences and stuff. And Jay go back to that.
It's so good of an idea. It'll never happen. Happen, yeah,
yeah, but it could happen. It's a good idea. Yeah, maybe
something it would be. It could be. All right, let's take our
next break. We'll take your phone calls five T zero four one, six
seventy four forty we'll be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan,
you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take a
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on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty Subscribe
now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to Win on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve, He's Jake. You have sitting with us today. If
you have twelve minutes, if you guys want to give us a quick call.
You know, we got a caller two over the break, so if
you want to call that, that'd be great. Uh. Good to talk
to Dave out for some perspective. He sounds great, sounds like he's doing
well. You not haveing any issues with you? Tirement, he says,
I'm here unless I'm surfing in San Diego. So there you go. Very
nice, very nice. I'll retire and on a Thursday, you know,
pass on a Monday. Yeah, don't don't let that happen. Don't let
that. I didn't say which monday, Okay, it'll be the one where
I was right out of money. Okay, No cool. So anybody want
to call five two oh four one six seventy. We'd like to hear from
you. Again a women's team. Do they play tonight? Do they play
anytime soon? Tomorrow? Tomorrow? Okay, they're up in the Washington School.
Okay, you get that call. Let's take this call. Hi,
you're on the aaron I and the Ball. Hey, guys, doing good?
Who's this James? James? What's up? I want to talk about
Jed Fish and the fact he's had on this town and this program. Okay,
go, let's hear it. I see it as all good. Took
a program that was in the bottom of the garbage can, just some terrible,
terrible shake I don't know how to get worse, and in three years
he brought it to a point where they had one of the best two or
three seasons they've ever had. And then and then he got an offer to
better his family and himself. And I see no reason at all to fault
him for that. Anybody else would have done the same thing. And so
we now have probably the right coat, a guy that's been here and has
ties here and has done a good job where he's been at San Diego State,
and people here are anxious for him to come and get started. Yeah.
I think your observation is accurate, except for the the way he left.
I think that's the one thing that everyone is good. Well I shouldn't
say everyone. There's a lot of people who are pissed. Well, you
know, Dave Ruby is a good word, disingenuous, and they Jim.
I don't think, you know, myself included. I don't think people have
a problem with him taking the job. I think that people had a problem
with the fact that he was selling loyalty and commitment and community and all these
things, you know, when all the time he was waiting for the next
big job to come along so we could leave. That's the part. That's
what people have said about it. You Jay, you don't know that he
was waiting all the time for the next job. Okay, then let me
say it this way. He took the first great job that came came his
way. He jumped. He jumped at the first thing that came up,
you know, either way, you know, those are the facts. That's
that's a fact, is that he was selling that and then a great job
came up and he took off, you know, the first chance he got.
So that's the part. It's not you or I or anybody else is
going to take a three million dollar raised, of course we are, you
absolutely are, but you know, don't sell me that you're here. Two
weeks ago on Jim Romes show, he said, I don't want I there's
not anywhere else I want to go. I'm here, and then he was
gone. So that's what people have said about, not that he took a
job. You right, anybody else in a job, you're you're always looking
towards a promotion or the next job or whatever. So that's not the issue.
I think the issue was that he sold out. He sold this community
chronicle all the pocracy that goes on in the world today. At that level,
I mean that that would be a full jive time job for forty people.
Well, James, we're not talking about anybody else. We're talking about
Jenny. He let me say, let me just say this between before you
two guys, two things can be right at the same time. They could
be accurate at the same time. Jim, your point is made. I
totally agree with you that people and fans should enjoy the moment. If he
had a great time, that it was at the worst time two three years
ago. He brought it to this point and and people can be pissed because
now he's left them with what they've what he's left them with. And then,
Jab, I think he's left you with the perfect formula to go forward,
well, a better a better formula, a better one. Yeah,
you are correct. I agree with him one hundred percent when he said I
left it in a better situation than when I got here, No doubt,
James A positive, positive, positive for me when I look at the situation,
and there's no reason to go back and criticize and or call him a
liar because he's doing what it took to have continuity right up to the moments.
As you guys were just talking to Dave about you know, you've got
to sell your players on your program every week. Yeah, okay, James,
thank you, thanks about And aren't you glad he went to Fafita rather
than Jim. It's almost baseball season, man, it's almost baseball season.
Let's go. Thank you. Thank you were taking to the call. We
gainst a lot of times. Seven minutes five to two, four, one,
six, seventy four forty. James is right, and you're right to
Jay, I mean two things can be right at the same time. Yeah,
no, you know again, and those of us who were taking it
personal or guys people like me who've been here, been through, they've been
through all this stuff with the football program, felt like something special could happen
next year and then and it still could. I mean it still could.
Right, we're waiting to see. Let me see this. I think that
Brennan is and this could be totally wrong, is a is a better football
mind? I bet. I think he knows he knows offense and defense more
than Jed was more of an offensive guy. But I feel like Brennan knows
he's a football guy, right. And that's hard for me to say.
And I say that because Jed was kind of we said this on number of
times. Jay he was kind of a CEO. He managed people to get
the job done right and then call plays and then call plays. Yeah.
So I could be wrong. Yeah, but no, I hear you,
I hear you. Look and I'm not. I'm not. I mean,
I I do you know? I agree? I mean, Jed left this
place. You know? Yet last season was fun. Last season was almost
as fun as season because for five weeks in we still didn't believe it.
Right, Let's take this call. Hi, You're on the air and one
on the ball. Hey, guys, how you doing. But I think
the cool Dave Rubio said it all. He goes he's a great guy.
Did all the players love him. But but and he wanted Brennan in the
first place, so we all wanted him, or the people, you football
people wanted him. But I'm ready. I'm ready for the basketball. That's
the more pertinent thing. Now, you guys hit it on the head.
I don't didn't watch it. It makes U c l A's game pretty big
because you know, we're we're we're hanging out there to dry right now.
We got to turn it around to play like we used to, just get
better. Feel like they are on a ledge of some yeah right, yeah,
and it's hard to pinpoint what it is. Yeah, I agree,
yep, all right, Howard, thanks for the call. Hey, hey,
go sons, sons are I was winning a record for twenty five years
coming back from twenty points in the fourth quarter, right we saw that,
Thank you, thank you for Yeah again, we got a few times.
Do you even think about the Phoenix on a given day? No, no,
no, none until the playoffs even and then right right when the plaffs
get here. Yeah, you know, but right now it's like all right,
yeah, it was like Kevin Durant last night at the and you know
whatever, he was going hanging out, Yeah, I know if he came
to and Miles was here too, you know, so you know, yeah,
it was it was a star studded night. We'll have some breaking news
later with Miles and him and k D and then the football team and Brennan
and it was I think the introduction was and he was a normal dude being
crazy Brittan. I wasn't. He definitely has a energetic side to a fun
side that can maybe catch some of the guy's attention and keep him here.
We'll see well and you can tell it. You know, it didn't take
long or he didn't really even have to get up to speed on the on
the buttons, you know that you push with Arizona fans are coming to the
game last night, getting out of the court, getting the band to play
bear down, you know all that all stuff. He gets it and that's
what you're that's what people want. Well, you talked about it yesterday,
Jay, because you're a two soon guy. He's Tucson, Yeah, Tucson
without being Tucson. And that's what this is a how can I say this?
You know people in hate Phoenix and Phoenix and people Tucson, How can
I say this? And I helped you on that. It's like a warm
hug, you know what I'm saying with maybe a blanket that's been used,
tattered, but that's your favorite blanket. Well, well even you know,
I think back to when Dick Tomy got here, right, this town didn't
know Dick Tomy from Joe Schmoll right, and even through much of his first
season, remember that seat it was four four and three, you know,
and I but when they did what they did in that a SU game,
you know where the you know, the drop punt and they're going to lose
the game, and then they win the game and not win the game,
but they finished in a time you know, that captured everybody. From that
point on. Dick was like the dude, let's take this. Hi,
you're on the AAR and eye on the ball. Yeah. I just had
a thought about uh recalled with David Rubio. Yes, yeah, I think
number one, you have to take students out of the student athlete equation because
there they're more like minor league players anymore than they are student athletes. Right
now, that's that's for sure. Yeah, I really I think this thing
it's going to be like a runaway spring here pretty soon. It'll be interesting
to see where it ends up or where it crashes. Well, it already
is a runaway train. Actually, I think it's gonna happen. I mean,
it's happening right now for sure. You saw the movie with the train.
Yeah, there's no way to stop. There's no way to stop it,
man, there's no way to breaks don't work. The breaks don't work.
Who's don't get in front of it? Right? Who's it is this?
Gil? Yeah? Oh good, appreciate appreciate your calling back. Yeah,
no, it is a runaway train. You know, you had Congress
sticking its nose in there because n C. Double A wants Congress you kill
me about the thirty thousand things. I don't know what he was talking about.
There was that proposal a few weeks ago. Yeah. Also, oh
gosh, I just watched it. I forgot what I was. All right,
we forget all the time. We appreciate it. Thanks you about you
want to hear than care? Gil must be already because you know, oh
yeah, let me. I lost the train of thought real quick glad.
A couple of weeks ago, the Charlie Baker and the un double a pressent
came out with this proposal that said they got to create a couple of different
divisions in football and then that schools should have to pay at least half of
their athletes at least thirty thousand dollars a year. You don't hear that.
No, I didn't hear that half of their athletes after their football everybody.
Ah, Everson was two hundred and forty billion dollars in debt, and how
are they going to come up with this money? You throw it out there.
He threw it out there. You know, well I was here.
You know, Ohio State has like eight hundredth They've got thirty six teams.
We've got a eight hundred athlete. Yeah, you know that'll be the end
of some of the miners. There's no question, no question. But no,
that proposal is out there. It's kind of like thrown out to Okay,
see this sounds good to be go figure it out. Yeah, that's
kind of what he did. All right, let's take our break. We're
here at the top of the hour. Since coming back with breaking news,
there's stuff all over the place again, so stick around for that breaking news
at UH four o'clock