This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jakin Zalis on Fox Sports
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z R two side and i Heeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to YE on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jakin's os. It's just two old men and nobody
else today. We'll see how many times we can screw it up. If
you just want to call it, please do make the show more interesting.
Five two, four, one, six, seventy four forty that'd be great.
A lot of things not going on this summer. Yeah, we're looking,
you know, a little thin for breaking news today. So I don't
know what we're gonna do. Yeah, yeah, I was listening to a
podcast now with Kilbert Arenas and uh and JJ Reddick have to watch. Do
you remember Gilbert Obs. Yeah, the crazy fool that he was here,
you know, kind of the stiff. This is a big stages. He
was definitely all of that early stages here, kind of said a lot of
stuff and Luke was kind of cringe when you'd say stuff. And Bruce and
I would quote him, and and he'd get in trouble for talking to us.
He just continues, He just continues. He's got a good show obviously.
Well, you know, he's an interesting guy regardless of I mean,
regardless of what he's interesting for. He's an interesting guy, interesting guy with
an interesting story, big background, him and his father growing up um and
then his life after becoming the star, and and and the word is yeah,
he's at least on the list he's that would be very interesting if he
were to come here, we'd see more Gilbert less Richard, get him and
Richard have this funny exchange of rivalries. Yeah, yea, so it is
what it is. Okay, maybe we'll talk more about that later. So
what do we have going on today? We have a pretty good show.
Yeah, fun show, right, a fun show because, uh, you
know, Brian Jefferies is always fun. We'll talk to him about how uh
you know, just you know, we've been talking about what grade would you
give you of a sports this year? I think we both kind of settled
on a bus. You know, Baseball They're okay. Softball was way below
expectations. Even though football took a big step forward, it still went five
and seven, right, Um, you know, basketball and something that,
but you know, tennis did Tennis was great, some national champions in track.
Um uh. The signature sub basketball is multiple women in basketball, and
women's and men's basketball were good. So we said, I think we settled
on the ball a couple of times two. But we'll see what Brian said.
I don't know if he'll give him a grade because they pay him.
I was just gonna say it might it might be a bias grade if he
does. But I'll be interested to hear. You know, you know that,
you know, because obviously he does and he does football, then he
does basketball, and he does baseball, um, you know, and then
he's obviously you know, he's in McHale, so I've probably got a good
sense of what he thinks it was like for them this year. Yeah.
Yeah. And then an interesting guy that many people don't know because he's a
bus behind the scenes guy for ages, Wendell Neil. He's been the equipment
manager or involved in the equipment operation UH at Arizona for over thirty years.
He's got forty years total in the business. He was at Washington State before
he came here, but he's been at the OVA and thirty for thirty two
years. He's retiring. Um, we just thought he didn't have some great
stories to tell, and uh in invite him to the show. He said,
he's looking forward to coming and telling some of his stories. So hopefully
he's got some some good ones lined up for us. So he'll come on
a four fifteen, Brian at three fifteen. But when you know, when
you talk about an equipment guy, you know they you know, they see,
they see something that not even a lot of athletes see, right,
you know, the track guys don't see. You know, what it is
to get equipment for the football team and whatnot. But all the things that
they got to do, stuff they got to go on the road. He's
more recently been tied very much to the bat, to the baseball team.
Uh. In fact, in announcing his retirement on Twitter, he said,
I was waiting until the baseball scene baseball season was over to announce this.
It's over, saw him announcing. So but the guy that you know,
when we're talking thirty two years, we're talking a guy who's been there since
uh, you know, early nineties. So he seemed a lot of the
eighties, eighties forty years. No, he did forty years total, okay,
with thirty two at Arizona. Oh okay, so thirty two, thirty
two at Arizona. I was here before him. You were here. Oh
that's that's what I saw bio on the uf A website. What was he
doing before? He was at Washington State for I think eight years, seven
years before that. Then he was at a stout school before that? So
he was was he with Living Good? And Levin Goold brought him? We'll
ask him, yeah, I will ask him. I don't know, but
h okay, but you know, guy again, when when you're when you're
the equipment guy, you see and hear a lot of things. There's a
lot that other doctor Porter who was there forever retired Wendell now, um,
you know they can probably write their own books. You guys are aging man.
Guys are you're telling me every time you were it's said to get old.
It's okay though, we're moving well, you know, yeah, I
mean I'm still having fun, right yeah, yeah, of course, of
course, what's having fun? What's a point? Exactly? What's the point?
What's the point? Okay again, if you'd like to call five two
four one, seventy four forty we'd love to hear from you. Um.
Uh, we just kind of are gonna win get as usual we always do.
Yeah, yeah, that's funny. We gotta I got to ask that
on Justin's show. Oh what did you go down yesterday morning? He said?
He said, you know, you kind of caught me a little bit
surprising. He says, just so, what you know what's on tap for
your show this afternoon? And I said, I don't know, and he
and he and Ali obviously you know, they laughed quite a bit. I
said, I suggested. I said, you know, we talked about you
know, news of the day, right, so the day's just getting started.
So we're we're you know, we're a kind of yeah, um,
you know, we win get baby. Unless we have the people in advance,
like a day or so, we don't talk about what we're gonna ask
I don't know, you just asked, yeah, uh yeah, preparation.
What's up? People are so most time you spend when we get to guests,
we kinda we just you know, we just do what we do.
So sometimes you can tell well yeah, and sometimes you can, but you
know, look at look at our show today. I mean this is gonna
be a fun show. Yeah, it will be a lot of stories.
You know. Uh, you know, well all of our shows I think
this week if we I know, I know, we pulled one, you
know, pulled one out of our hat on Monday when doctor Robert Oh yeah,
yeah that was good. You know, we got we've been trying to
get a show set up us on Monday morning and say you can do it
today and we're like, okay, do it, you know, and then
we then Greg Hanson was available to us and talked a little bit about it
about this stuff. So um, you know, it's it's it's uh,
you know, we we do what we do. Uh. We talked about
stuff coming up, you know, talking about today. It's like you know,
we're hanging out at a bar with you or or a pub or something
talking about what's going on today. It is so US Open. I've been
watching US Open all day today. Um, I know if you saw,
but uh uh two golfers uh um Ricky Fowler and uh and Xander Shoftly both
shot sixty two today. That's a US Open record. Yeah. Ricky Fowler,
well because as he hasn't done much in forever. Um he's he started
to play well again again. Recently he's kind of been shown up a little
bit. Um Xander Shotley, you know, he's been pretty good for a
while. But they both went on shot sixty two and looks I turned on
early this morning. They were just getting started and some of the shots I
saw earlier this golf course, I thought, this is an impossible golf course.
Impossible. That's a pretty one that I saw. Well, it's it's
at La country Club, Los Andres country Club. It's the first time it's
ever been played there. It's his start golf course. They don't they've been
very private. You don't even see this. You know, there's no tournaments
there, no PGA tournaments, PGA Tour, nothing. The LA Open has
been at the Riviera country Club. The US Open has never been here.
It's been a very very very private club. Um So while they got you
know, they the somebody talked somebody into hosting the US Open, either the
US Open talk them it hosted or they said, okay, would like the
US Open and they jumped on it. But anyways, early in the day,
I'm looking at this golf course. It looks like an impossible golf course.
The shots are impossible, The greens are impossible. The rough you could
lose a small child in the roof is it is high and it is thick.
You see a guy hit a ball in there and the ball just disappears,
it's just gone. And so guys are you know, they're hidding out
a rough and hidding it, you know, one hundred yards because you can't
you can barely advance the ball out of there. The sand traps unbelievable.
And then the greens poor. Justin Thomas hit a shot, he's one hundred
yards out, hits a shot into the green, bounces up on the green,
it lips the hole. Okay, so it does a little circle around
the hole and spins all the way back and ends up sixty feet from the
hole because it goes down this slope. He should have it almost went in
the hole, and instead he was sixty feet away and he three putt im
there. It's like I thought, you know, that that's the course that
I would as much as I would like to play courses like that, I
wouldst everyone to play. I mean, if you're not in the fairway,
you are hose big time. And then and then so you know, we're
commenting that text exchange and text messes with people, and then you see you
guys go and break the break the US Open record, of course, which
shows that, look, keep it in the grass, keep it in the
fairway. You can score and if you're very very good, like a pro,
and if you even Ricky Fower I had ten birdies. Ten birdies.
Oh man. That's why amazing me about golf, because like I said,
you could go on these runs. Yeah I call them runs, not momentum,
but they go on these runs and then we might never hear from him
the rest of you. Well, I was thinking about that on the way
and thing, well, you know who we talked about what we said.
He said, you could go out and shoot you know, you know seventy
two or as a me, you know, I mean, you go out
to shoot you know whatever. In the next day're gonna go shoot one hundred
and five. Yeah, you'll interesting to see, Ah, you gout like
Rickie Foller, who's been so on and off. Is he gonna go out
shoot seventy eight twoe or is he gonna shoot another low round? But the
thing is they going on these three four days, and that's all you really
need go on these great road four day, four days, four days,
and then goodbye, goodbye. These two guys are five strokes ahead of everybody
else. Scottie Cheffer, the world number one, shoots the three three under
par and everybody thought he shot a great round. And these two guys,
go put up, go put up sixty two. I joked on on Twitter,
I posted the last guy to do sixty two at the US Open tin
cop in a movie that was That was the score in the movie where you
know he set the he set the US Open record and then got into contention
and the rest of the movie. You know, we won't spoil it for
you, but you know that is the record is the sixty two. And
uh, these two guys shot that. It's crazy cool, It's fine.
I love the you know that, I love the majors. Sure, US
Open Masters, whatever. And so it's the US Open week this week,
you know, Okay, Well, that's all Football's done done, even hockey's
done. He's got baseball season. The Diamondbacks are in first place. So
the world is all twisted right now and messed up and off kilter because multiple
Orioles are playing well too. They're you're right, the world is a miss.
So the last night watching the Dodger game, and the Dodger game is
getting ready to come on. I looked at the odds. They were minus
one and a half and that was minus one fifteen and I one and a
half, you know at the White Sox. Yeah, so so I'm like,
I thought about then I didn't, And then then the game started Clay
Crushaw's pitching. I still thought about doing it, still thought about doing Now
I'll just fall behind my two breaths. I saw that six, like the
sixth and into the sixthe so I go look at the odds again and minus
one and a half is plus one eighty and I thought, you know,
I think that I still gonna win this. But then I got busy doing
something. I ain't even dinner or whatever, so I didn't put it down.
Then Dodge about four two, and I'm kicking myself for not putting down.
Putting it down. None of my stas come back and beat a five
four. The bed would have lost. I laid off, which was a
good thing, talking about that stressed thing that you're talking about. Oh no,
I'm cool, I'm cool. I'm cool, just a little yeah,
right, see, just in a day, just in a moment, he
just went through high and high and low. It was a low than a
high, then a low. I could believe they lost it when they were
a five four two. I was so mad at myself. I saw putting
that down, I saw him pitching, and then I'm not I'm not dutch
Mancil. I saw your guy Bowers in trouble again. Yeah, they got
uh they he's being accused by somebody else again. That makes I think,
um the third person, third or fourth that accused him another we'll have this
breaking news another very prominent athlete slash personality also getting accused of sexual assault.
Um, I'll save that one for breaking. But but anyways, but you
know, looking forward to getting these guys on um, you know, maybe
if we got time, you know, get a little into a little sum
of Brian's uh you know, he's been here, what he's been here just
as long as me, so thirty eighty seven and about eighty six, eighty
six eighty five around there, because he was he was the understudy for you
probably know who the who the guy before him was. And he's told me
that story a few times because he was a chapter in one of my books.
Uh yeah, and then all of a sudden, guy and then he
came in and and he well, he pipped him. I remember, I
remember when when Arizona got Ray Scott and you remember, you know, he
was the guy who would do the old Packers games on you know, on
television, not even on radio, you know, the you know, the
back in those John fascentda Voice of God days, you know, and uh,
you know, in the sixties. And I'm like, he's gonna Ray
Scott's gonna come to Arizona. It was cool. How well he remember getting
no longer around he was. He was pretty old back then. I can't
imagine. Yeah, well, no one's seen more basketball than than Brian Jefferson
in all these years. Yeah, okay, let's take the break now so
we can get him back to back. Let's do that. Okay, let's
uh we will. We'll be back back. We'll have Brian Jeffreys talking about
the season, the season that was then. Maybe I know, maybe see
if it gives a little preview expects from football coming up to stick around for
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That's Showtime Cards. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and
Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the
iHeart Radio Whip just Surgery. I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back
to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jacon's House. Now on the phone, we have Brian Jefferies.
You know him as the voice of the Wildcats. Brian, how are you,
gentlemen? Couldn't be better? Great to have some time off, but
I know we'll continue. So it's a never ending task. But it's a
good time of the year. That's good. You go from like September one
still now. But look at those frequent fire miles. Well you know there's
a few. Yeah, you gotta you gotta count your blessings there on your
bonuses. It's the the hotel points had up a lot quicker than anything else.
And so my wife and I were talking about this at dinner last night,
said we thought, hey, we can get three or four nights free
here. Let's let's go someplace really now ice and you know, blow those
points in one stop. Yeah. Well, uh, you just finished baseball
season. As we're talking off fair that, you know, you have to
plan for Arizona to possibly be possibly be in the College World Series. So
you're not you don't have any plans to get out of here like right now.
But um, let's you first, let's talk a little bit about the
baseball season. It was kind of an up and down thing, but they
snuck into the tournament. Didn't look so good there, But overall, what
do you think was the field there at the end of the season with the
baseball team? Well, I think you put the best there. Day was
up and down, and that's kind of the way the season went. They
had the one really down period. They lost those two straight conference games,
and that hurt the most. It's hard to recover from something like that,
and all quite honestly, they never did because they finished twelve and eighteen in
the league. They pick up some extra wins. In the factful tournament,
they got an extra win, and the non confidence can stays you, but
still finished under five hundred league play, and that's that's hard to overcome.
They were able to do it. They one thing that I don't think it's
been maybe publicized enough as the fact that Arizona played one of the toughest schedules
in the country this year, and I think when the selection committee took a
look at their resume, that was one of the tipping factors that got them
into the tournament. I mean, they were playing really good ball there at
the end of the season, not only the regular season, but got to
the championship game, the tactical tournament. But the fact that they played a
top twenty five schedule this year. That's every committee in every sport. That's
something they're always looking for teams that will challenge themselves and so I think that
factor was another reason Arizona made postseason play. And like you said, things
didn't work out so well in Fayetteville, and I wish that they could have
gone farther because I really liked that team. They had some veteran guys that
you know are going to be missed greatly come next season. So I feel
for them some great careers there, but all in all, to get into
the tournament, To get into a regional like that, I think is the
first goal every team has for them to make it to that spot, in
particular after that that tough middle stretch of the season, I think is certainly
to be commended. He talked about some of the players Jay and I rave
about Romero, Kiko, Chase Davis. While the swings that those guys have
and just the ability that he have, well, I mean, both guys
had twenty one home runs and Kiko sets a school record for RBIs in a
single season, and you know, he was just a great addition. And
you kind of had a feeling when the season started that Chase was going to
have the year that he had because we've seen his talent here over the last
couple of years and so great young man, and I think he's got a
great chance to be an outstanding pro baseball player. Kiko, like I said,
great story coming in making an immediate impact, starting every game at first
base and setting the record and hitting home runs and just doing everything they needed.
It was part of an offense that let the tax twelve in almost every
category you could think of. So those two guys were huge. Uh,
you know, I think Nick McClary, I still think it is one of
the best shortstops in the country. Yeah, you know, County Bold coming
back for another year, it was a big help. Mason White was you
know, the freshman story of the year, and you can go on from
there. They you know, they didn't have as many arms as I think,
or as the consistency in the bullpen maybe that they needed ultimately, but
you know that's something they continue to build up. What you're watching Chip work
now. You know he's got two seasons under his belt now with the program.
But what's your sense of, you know, how he has settled in,
you know, recognizing he's a college coach now, not a not a
not a pro coach, you know, settling into the differences, understanding the
game. Uh, that kind of thing. I mean, what's your sense
of how he's evolving, let's say, as a college baseball coach versus a
pro manager. Yeah, you know, first things first, I think you
know, baseball's baseball. It'd be pro or college or high school or whatever.
I mean, it's the same fundamentals and and that's what you know.
Chip is so good at coaching, and you just saw the improvement of the
team made in particular the last two years on the defensive end. I think
that's another thing that really stood out, something that they had not been the
program had not been strong at for a while, and he really has turned
that area around. And so when you look at two of the three and
I'm talking offense, defense, and pitching, and you've got a good a
good defense, you're two thirds of the way there. So you know,
I think last season, his first year, Chip admitted that it was a
learning experience for him coming back to college ball, and yeah, there's a
lot of changes because I one thing he put best is that in Major League
baseball, you play one hundred and sixty two games, and you have an
off night or two, you maybe lose three in a row. Well,
guess what, you can turn it around in college baseball. When Arizona lost
those ten straight conference games, that's hard to recover from. Like I said,
you really sometimes and most of the times you can't. Where even major
League baseball, you can have a ten losing streak and it's not going to
hurt you in the Grand scheme of things. So I think that's one thing
that he's talked about is that every game takes on at his importance and college
baseball, but you could just see that, you know, the players really
gravitate to him. They love his way of managing as a coach because I
think that he you know, everybody wants to play pro baseball, and I
think that with his background, he runs his program a lot in that regard,
so that this is what you expect when you get into the pros.
And I have not talked to a single player that hasn't raved about what he's
been able to do for them them for both on and off the field.
So we all know you as the football guy, the basketball guy, and
the baseball guy. Which is more And I know this is a tough question
for you. Which is more enjoyable? And I don't mean that to favor
one or the other, but I'm thinking baseball must be more relaxing even at
work or am I row? Well, I look at it a couple of
ways. You know, baseball, there's a lot of preparation that goes into
it because the games can run long, and you know you're you're doing it
solo and so you've got time to fill, so you have a lot of
work to do before the game starts. Yeah, I like it once the
season rolls on, and I think when you go into a weekend series and
if you're totally prepared for it. Yeah, I love going to the ballpark.
It's just a great feeling. There's just something calming about getting there early
and watching batting practice, etc. You know, the most. I say
this because I love doing all sports. Basketball is probably the most because the
pace of the game. I mean, it's just NonStop and you're done in
two hours and so that that's fun. But football, on the other hand,
is probably the most exciting of the three because the potential were big plays
and big crowds and just what when you played twelve games again kind of like
you know college baseball, where every game is magnified, and football it's magnified
even more so. It's it's the advance of football build up to that Saturday
and then the pageantry of the game that makes it so special. Yeah,
that's it. It's kind of like, that's sort of it's almost obvious that
you know, as you say, you know, basketball is NonStop, you
know the football, You've got you know, you might have forty fifty thousand,
or you go to a big place, you got seventy eighty thousand people
at a game, and the excitement of that's just got to be, you
know, unbelieved. Plus you get to go to all of the games.
We only get to do it a half of them. So anyway, but
that's well, you know, it's like, you know, this year,
Arizona is going to go down to Startville and play Mississippi State. I'm already
excited about that simply because it's an SEC school And no they're not Alabama or
LSU or several other schools in the SEC. But it's a strong program.
They'll have a pullhouse there, and it's I just think the atmosphere is going
to be fun to watch and witness. So Steve and I we've been talking
this all week about Okay, let's grade the you know, the season for
you know, all the sports talking everybody, including you know, softball,
everybody like that. I know you do those three, but I know you
pay attention to all of them. I mean, you work in a kale
right, so um, you know, Steve and I gave a B minus.
Uh softball, didn't you know, get up to expectations. Baseball,
yes, they got into the tournament, but they worked great all year long.
Football, you know, my put in my position on that they took
a big step forward, but in the end they were still five and seven
basketball and a great regular season PAC twelve Chat Tournament championship flamed out in the
in the tournament. Can you can you or would are you willing to grade
the program as a whole over this last year and you could be a Russian
judge? Yeah, uh yeah, you know, I I'm not going to
put it. The only y hook at it is uh is each and every
program making progress. And that doesn't mean that you double your wind total or
anything like that, but are you getting better? And maybe it doesn't come
into an area of wins, but maybe it's coming and you know, more
depth on the roster, you know, going key roles, et cetera,
shoring up things in areas that maybe you'd been weaker on before. And so
that's the way I look at it, And you know, you look across
the board at the sports this year and it would be hard to argue that
more more more than less, we're making progress in the in the right direction
and Yeah, it was a tough season for softball. They lost some key
players, probably didn't get you know, some some some things out of a
couple of positions that they'd hope for this year. But you know, that's
that happens, and it happens to every sport and every school every year.
That's sometimes the beauty and sometimes the the hard part about college sports is you
don't know what you're going to get every year. You think you might know,
but you don't know until you actually play the game. So I just
I look at the idea. Okay, if you're making progress, and so
you know, the sports I mostly involved in, Yeah, football made a
heck of a progress. I mean, ball continued what it's been doing.
Baseball continued it's doing, so you know, that makes my job easier.
And I look at what has happened in the other sports, and I just
I like the idea that you know, they're moving forward in areas and you
see good things happening and there's a positive vibe around the programs. I think
that's really important. Yeah, we talk about this every note and again.
And you've been here since the late eighties, I think maybe in mid eighties,
this era, this era of US athletics has a vibe of the mid
nineties when it was the heyday, at least in my mind, where a
lot of the school, a lot of the teams are very very good.
I think it's headed in that direction, even even after maybe a little hit
up or two here. Well, it's you know, you guys know it's
cyclical, and yeah, you go through those periods where everything is going great,
and then you go through those periods where things aren't going so well,
and you adjust to it and you have to you have to wait your way
through the times and enjoy the good times. And yeah, if you go
back, Steve and you guys know this, I mean, really you can
trace it back to you Larry Smith and lud Olson because they were the new
count Erry Kendall was already there and saw not putting him into that area.
Mike and Drea. Of course, those two guys, they kind of they
had good times. It seemed all along. But I'm looking at the guys
that kind of in the period you're talking about, the kind of spark plug
the two programs and got them on the map and made them respectable programs not
only in the conference but around the country. And so that's to me when
I kind of started, and yeah, there's been some up and down years
since, but at the same time, I go back to that respect factor.
And when I get a chance to travel around the country, it amazes
me how many people know about Arizona Athletics, respect Arizona Athletics, and are
envious of Arizona Athletics for all the things that have gone on on campus over
the years. So I'm looking at the at the u of a basketball roster
and I'm wondering, if You're gonna go up to Tommy and say, can
you give me like a John Smith and a I mean, though there are
some names in there, how the hell are you going to do that?
Well? There at least, you know, you know, the toughest ones
for me actually are the hyphenated last names, and so once those are gone,
I'm I'm a happy man. I'll figure out. You know, I'm
not even gonna try myself. I can give you a both of beach In
and that's as far as I can go. Right, Okay, we didn't
even have that one, and he's been here a while. Yeah, so
you know, I you know, we'll figure The thing I do is you
know, I go talk to those guys, you know, once they get
on campus, and I usually record them saying their name very slowly, and
then I can go back and practice it and get it down and not have
to worry about it. But yeah, Tommy's put it. How long ago
was it that social media was ablaze with the fact that Tommy wudn't recruit and
you exactly, Well, that's where I was going to go get rid of
him. Now I've lost faith in him. He can't, he can't recruit.
Don't you just love it? Brian? I was gonna say, so
what my guy here, my partner here off the ledge, although he's kind
of a little off the ledge now, he's dying to know about the PAC
twelve and the PAC ten because he doesn't know what he's going to do the
rest of his life. I'm a guy who's just tell me where to go,
put me on a plane, whatever, just let me get there.
Where do you stand? Is it bother you that much? They hasn't been
determined yet? Are you okay with your patients? It doesn't bother me that
that nothing's been determined yet, because I have to trust the leadership in the
conference. I think they've got a smart guy running the league, and I
think he's doing everything. He can't make things right for the ten schools that
are going to be in the league a year and if they add anymore.
So the thing that I have no patience with is all the yahoo's on social
media who think they know the answer when they really don't. It's also it's
actually to me, it's become my daily comedic escape is to go on Twitter
and hear about and read about different guys who claim they, oh yo,
they know they have the source, this is how it's going to happen.
And of course they don't know because they don't have the source because there's only
one source. And until you're going to quote the commissioner, then I tell
you what you don't know. So I enjoy read. It first bothered me
when it first started, when you started. I started reading all this stuff
about you know what's going to happen and this that and the other thing,
and then I realized, well, no one knows, and they can tell
you all day. I read one yesterday from somebody who I'd never heard of
before, and that's the way it is. You don't know who these people
are and It's like I have contacts through every school in the PAC twelve,
and I know exactly what's going to happen. This is unequivably the way it's
going to come down, and blah blah blah. I'm like, no,
you don't. I mean, because if you did, then you know everyone
else would know it too. So yeah right now, Like I said,
I just laugh every day when I read stuff from people that obviously don't know,
because no one knows except the head guy. And I'm going to trust
him at that, I will say. And I think, you know we've
talked about this before that Bobby Robbins and Dave Hekey have only one thing in
mind, and that is taking care of the University of Arizona. And if
that means they're in the PAC twelve, the PAC ten, or the PAC
fourteen, or the Big twelve or the Big sixteen or the Big twenty,
they have to look out for what is right for the University of Arizona.
And I guarantee you every president, chancellor, athletic director in the PAC ten
is doing exactly the same thing as because if thing don't work out, if
the money isn't there, and you've got to have money to survive these days
in college athletics, then you've got to go find the best deal for your
school. And I'm sorry to the other people in the league. You know
you tried, but if you don't come through for us, you know,
we got to take care of ourselves. I think that's every school has got
to look at it that way. I am that's That's the one thing I
do know. The one thing I do know is that Bobby Robins the day
Peak are looking out for number one, and I believe they want to stay
in the current alignment. I think everybody does. But if it's not right
and you're talking about survival and you've got to find another place to go and
exactly it, I mean, that's exactly. But but Brian, I really
do want to know, and I want to know, like right now.
That's all I can say. Well, my sources tell me put it on
Twitter, Brian. All right, Brian, thanks a bunch, and have
a great summer and then we'll we'll catch you. Uh, everybody will be
back in August. Right, we'll be suffering at the old old fall fall
pranks. Uh yeah, fall in parentheses exactly, Thank Thun And he's right,
that's exactly it. I mean again, I do want to know.
But in the end, just what Robin said, you know on our show
on Monday, we're gonna do what's the best thing for the University of Arizona.
You know, we'll talk. We can talk some more about that as
we go along, because it's uh, I mean, that's that's that's how
it's got to work. And if you're not happy with that, then you're
you're just not happy. Right, Okay, let's take a break. We'll
be back. We'll take your calls. Five to zero four one, six,
seventy four four. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you'd know
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Steve Vera and Jacoons Solens they have their Eye on the Ball on two Suns
Sports Station five Sports fourteen fifty. They're welcome back to Ye on the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty from Steve Rava. He's Jacob's house. That
was good to talk to Brian Alight Alway. So it's gonna be June,
July pretty soon August. Yeah, I mean we're mid June. It's the
fifteenth today, so you know, the middle of June. Five more days
till summer five. It's to be hot this weekend for the first really talk
day coming up on Sunday. Yeah, you got going anything going on for
nothing. No, might go to the backyard and in the pool. Where
are your boys? One's Baltimore ones here? Yeah yeah, so we'll see,
we'll see what happens. Yeah yeah, um Baltimore. Baltimore works for
the University of Maryland. Now, oh, our kind of communications communication guy,
make a living at this better than better than you saw you would you
saw what happens at Uh. Well, the athletic right Athletics lost twenty fantastic
writers, twenty twenty of man the NBA, and then anybody we know one
guy in Phoenix, I don't remember the name. I don't recognize the name,
but twenty of them. So there's four twenty percent of the people.
Twenty guys, four percent. A lot of the early times, the goals
some people. It's this business sucks, all the journalism business. Do you
know? Communications? You know, I mean, you know that's what eventually
you know? I know number kids, you know some kids that you know,
kids of our friends, you know who've gotten getting journalism degrees but using
it to go into you know, some of communication. Not necessarily you're trying
to get a job at a newspaper or whatnot. Um, you know,
a friend of my daughters just graduated from journalism at at George Washington University.
You know, she's trying to get a job of an NBC or you know,
or maybe some TV. Yeah, some news service or something like that.
You know, it's not necessarily you know, it used to be your
journalism. You go to newspapers, right, newspapers, wire service. When
back in the day, when I was at when I was going through journalism
at the UFA, it was it was like sacrilegious to say I'm interested in
TV or funny. My last year, my last year of school, I
signed up for a um because radio and TV was separate from journalism. Radio
TV was a department, journalist department, and I signed up for just a
history of broadcasting class in the radio TV department. And my advisor saw my
schedule, What what are you doing taking a radio TV class? I said,
look, I just think it's an easy class, and you know,
I just need some units and I thought it would be an easy class.
He says, i'd want you taken that, and he kind of made me
drop it because he didn't want me dabbling in radio and TV. And it's
a different it's a different writing style too. Yeah, he didn't. He
didn't want me to have anything to do with radio. It makes it makes
sense. But back and back in those days out yeah we're talking nineteen eighties.
Yeah, but you know still it was, it was and then you
know now you they're kind of like intertwined. Have you, by the way,
have you spoken to our guy um or La guy or Montana guy or
non Montana guy? You go, will will you give me advice that was
different than mine? No? Man, I don't haven't heard sent him.
He's got a job. I haven't heard from him. If you listen to
us, well, you shouldn't take my advice. Can't live with your parents
time. Sorry, I didn't miss you up. I didn't screw up your
career. It's tough, man. It's like it's our guy um Jason here,
he's got a senior year left. I said, you gotta get your
stuff together. I gotta get do it right away. Yeah, you know
you have no time to time. I mean you need to be doing that.
You know. Between my junior, sophomore and junior year college, I
got that job in bull Hit City and that was probably the best thing I
ever get. I got. I got newspaper clippings out of time. Yeah,
the newspaper clippings and those things helped me get a job, and I
got I got a full time job, and then at the years one day
to start ran out of college. If I hadn't done all that stuff,
I wouldn't been I wouldn't have gotten you know. So those experiences, your
experience got ye absolute Yeah, yeah, anyways, but yeah, it's good
to talk to Brian Jefferies. He's uh, he's always fun, you know,
a good sense of humor with us. He h but you know,
he's he's the guy. You know, I was like, he's nineteen eighty
six when he got here. Yeah, you know, he filled in and
then he took over. You've been here even a little longer than Wendell.
Neil's gonna be yeah, a little bit. But a guy who's seen a
lot I wanted to ask him, was Jase Davis the prettiest swing he's ever
seen? You know, because he's seen a lot of well, he's he's
seen some great guys. Who's the catcher last year the previous year, who
who we thought was amazing? Right, Um, so there's been a lot
of great project comes to great players that come through. Your guys have played
a lot of time, you know, go back to the who was the
center field of that was just so smooth two or three years ago. Uh
he roamed them. Well, yeah, we had him on our show.
He was fantastic too. And I can't remember his name. God, he
was fantastic. Yeah. He covered a lot of ground, could hit,
hit to get on God, I'm looking, I'm looking through our old old
things. But yeah, no, uh oh man like Dante Williams, fantastic
player. Another guy who just yeah, yeah, it was you know who
did that too, which of course it was bad for him too, was
Clid. Clid. He didn't look like he was playing. It looked after
playing, except that when he was playing in the next level he needed to
play harder, you know. But he was one of those guys who was
just so fluid, effortless, just like fluid, just looks so effortless and
thought not trying all that hard, right when he was just good. Yeah,
he was just good, and that was the problem. He was just
good when he could have been, like Damon said, if he worked as
hard as me, he would have been in the league forever. Yeah,
yeah, no, And guy, and guys are like that. You know,
we always running guys like you know, I wish I had had his
talent, that would have done something with it, that would have worked harder.
It's like Gilbert Gilbert Arena, come on, big guy was fantastic and
if he wouldn't take guns into arenas and kind of a fool he'd be,
he would have been fantastic. There is that. There is that, but
uh, yeah, you know, but you know, I'll tell you another
guy because I was watching this the other day as well, um Antoine Quisson.
Yeah, another guy effortless, just he would just glide around, you
know, kick returns and interceptions and things like that. You don't you know,
he had his time in the league. And I'm not saying that he
didn't work hard. I'm just saying when a guy who just was natural lot
Trump candidate Trunk Candid was another guy, very natural. They're just just a
fluid. Did you say fluid? That that that that's a good. If
you have a guy that we risching, just give us a quick call.
Uh, there's a lot of those fluid. One of those guys because he's
he was one of your bus guys. He'd come up the bus and you
say yeah, and you just look at him. You Okay, that's a
player. Yeah, that guy's really really good. You know, guys like
guys like that in baseball, Guys like that in basketball flip out pretty much
every sport you know, who just do things, you know, so fluid.
You know, he's pissing me off. He's like that Tiger Woods kid.
Oh yeah, I know, but you know what you could you know
what, you can have somebody show you how to hit a golf ball and
you know, show you all the shots. But there's there's a thing that
you know that that like, that's what you're meant to do. Oh yeah,
kid is he's growing up. He's growing up too fast. But you
know, there was a there was a I think it was a TikTok,
you know, just taking a swing at a tournament that he played in recently,
and he looked looked just like well when they when they played a tra
version of it when they played together in the father son thing and they show
side by side stuff. He has a spin of the club and like I
said, no Tiger can show me how to hit a golf ball, But
I'm not gonna look like Tiger getting a golf ball. You know, when
you learn, when you learn in language, when's the best time that we're
learning as a kid. That's how you're doing. He's not gonna teach you
at sixty one. But I know. But still, I mean, you
know, he could Okay, he could go go find another seven year old.
But if the seven year old doesn't have, of course, the gifts,
the gift or the god given talent to do that, he's not gonna
look like Tiger. Of course. Of course this guy was born with it.
I know he's got and he and you know what, he got it.
He got all of it. Dude. It looks like he got all
the plus that's why you see the Gilbert Arenas, the sons and the sons
of players. Can Griffy kN Griffy Junior at the park all this time?
You know that? Yeah, I mean we're starting. There's so many sons
of the guys that we grew up, you know watching Um, well there's
one now I just saw him. I just saw him. Who's the guy
that we talked to? Maybe, uh he's the coach now at the at
the California School, not Smith, but the other guy, oh Man,
I just saw him on Facebook. His son's got a commitment from Notre Dame
UM football player. Yeah, smash oh Smigel, Smigel, Sigel, his
son, know what I mean? Yeah, But nobody was gonna argue that
Joe Smigel was like one of the greatest athletes around. He was alignment,
right, right, So that's my point though they are all but but but
you're right, you know, well, well they get two things out of
it when they get the jeans, right, the jeans, but then they
get the knowledge, sure right right. And if they don't get the jeans,
they had the knowledge, who are the technique watching, watching a film?
All the things that other people don't get to fright right? But I'm
trying to think of the dude play the place for the Blue Jays right now,
Um, push the Blue Jays. Um his dad played for the Angels.
Um, my friends are gonna yell at me for this. He's playing
one of your guys. Guys. He hits all the home run spring Springer.
No no, no, no, um ah, come on, Steve,
no, come, I don't follow that stuff. I'm not I'm not
a I got I got, I got My kid is going You suck you
really Vladimir Guerrero Ja you know, and his dad. But you know,
Dante Bichette's kid plays for them. Boba Schett again, you know one of
those guys. Sure when you grow up, grow up around that and you
see it taking cuts every now and again. And then you see Michael Jordan's
kid, I mean he played college. No no, no, he's just
no, he's just sleeping with the Scunny Peppers. So they have different,
different things going off, Oh my god, different, they pull it in
a different way. That's too funny. Steve, I can't believe you.
I know that stuff, but I can't take you Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you remember that, but you couldn't remember Laddie Junior's name. I'm into
I'm into curtains and it's so bad. It's an addition that is not terrible.
But you know, but yes, I mean we we're seeing all those
guys and you feel like, okay, you know, they were born with
the gene and they get kind of get to get all the other things.
You get the s kind of all these all the you know, Bob Boone
and his kids, you know, Brett and Aaron Boone. And then sometimes
you mess like the Piros of sons and those guys, the Bogie Barrows and
the yeah and all those kids, they don't quite get there. No,
they don't quite get there. So and my son is kind of like that,
you just didn't do me any favors genetics was you didn't do me any
favors. I'm not six feet, I'm not incredibly athletic. Well, you
know, he's very he's very athletic, and he's more athletic than me.
But it's it's like a generation or two down the road before he's got a
kid that's got you know, I know, guess what happens. Guess what
happens. As as your son gets older and my sons get older, they'll
realize how smart you were. And when he has his sons grow up now,
or his son goes up now, he'll say his son will say,
Dad, what the heck happened? What did you leave me? You give?
You give crap to a pop pop? Was? Was my grandfather really?
That dumb and that unathletic son? Just listen to his tape. Listen
to the tapes. I'd say it for you. Here was a podcast exactly.
I mean that what can you? Yeah, I mean, what can
I say, he doesn't give me some funny looks already, I don't know.
We're trying to make them into a left handed picture. All right,
let's take our break. We're top of the hour. We'll be back.
We've got breaking news or some It's been a slow day, but still some
fun stuff to talk about. School. Great back