Steve Rivera and jaygn Salez. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports the Jets, Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeartRadio
WAMS, Welcome back time to the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
We've already had a couple of great conversations with Steve Rivera, who's on his
way back from LA who he's covering the Cats, and also Reggie Geary gave
us some of his insight on the game. I got Greg Hansen here as
a guest host today and Adam and He's gonna go into breaking news. This
his Eye on the ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty.
So the first news I saw today coming out of the NFL Pro Bowl,
Son Reddick was just traded to the New York Jets for a traditional draft pick.
Your thoughts on wow, you know anything that happens in the NFL anymore?
I mean, guys, just you know, I mean, Saquon Barkley's
playing for the Eagles, right, So that's all you need to know about
about any of that. I don't understand the cap stuff, so yeah,
yeah, so yeah, no, it's you know, uh, just the
guys. You know, it's it. They just jump around and it is
what it is. So you just wait, wait for the dust to settle,
find out where these guys are, and then draft your fantasy team and
it's all good. Some college basketball news. Sienna is hiring former Syracuse stand
out Jerry macnamara head coach. You know when those guys that we saw playing,
we were already old when they were playing another another coaches. It wasn't
wasn't he on the on the national championship team right twenty years ago? Yeah?
Yeah, the yeah, no, I it's it's it's nuts. I
did that that. Anytime I hear something like that, that's where my brain
goes, like, tells me how old that I am. Some more college
news n c DOAA president he's aiming to ban all college profits, right,
weird about that the other day? Yeah, which yeah, all right.
Also Oregon State defeat and Notre Dame. Yeah or say women, right,
did you see any of the game? Did you watch the last two minutes?
They're big girl Reagan Beers. She's like eadie, yeah, she is
yep, yep along those lines because I've got it on right here, because
I saw this score come up, but South Carolina unbeaten. South Carolina is
only up four on Indiana. There's sixteen seconds left, I think in Indiana's
at the free throw line, so she's got some time. But it was
a two point game with about a minute left, and so this would be
this would be about as massive and upset as there could be. Right,
Yeah, the women's tournament's usually chalk. Yeah it is. It's starting to
change, I think because there's more parody. All right, she missed the
first one, so it's still seventy eight, seventy four. And the NBA
news Draymond Green the other night, he was tossed three minutes in for arguing,
which left Steph Curry frustrated and winning. But you see Steff kicked the
chair. Yeah, he kicked the chair. Wow, Well, how hard
is it to play with a guy like that? Dude? Did you ever
any of your sports play with somebody you just said, I can't deal with
this guy. Yeah, when you're younger, you know, you did have
guys like that. But Dreymond takes it. He does, he does.
But you know, and I watched I saw the clip of when he got
tossed, and he's like he just wouldn't shut the hell up. Just stop,
dude, just stop. And he can't help himself. And he's got
a TV commercial where he's talking about being a better guy and having second chances.
I'd love to know what is the record for getting tossed from a game?
How early in the game. But the earliest anybody's ever been tossed from
again, I'm pretty sure within a minute. Yeah, I'm not sure.
You probably received Wallace or something. Yeah. I know a coach has been
kicked out before tip off because he confronts and officially had problems with And I
remember seeing I can't remember who, but I remember seeing you're out before before
the game even started. Okay, some baseball news. The reigning NL champs
scored fourteen runs in the third inning last night, the d Backs pouring it
on the rocket. They did. They did fourteen runs in one inning.
Who do they play Waterloo in the Colorado? Wow? But still fourteen runs
in a Major League baseball game. I mean, come on, in an
inning? Just one hit after and not a bunch of home runs, just
one base hit after another after another after another. In high school, yeah,
just one after another. I saw the I saw a clip that showed
all the hits and they were just you know, opposite field singles, opposite
field singles, opposite field singles for fourteen runs. That's crazy. They're still
not going to be the Dodgers though, No, they don't have the personnel.
Yeah. Yeah. Today in MLB there was a there was a fight
between the Brewers and Mets. Already already he's already fighting. Reyes Hoskins,
the former Philly uh slid into Jeff McNeil. He took exception, bench was
cleared and on the first home game, basically we had a braw. I
was watching that game and I missed that. I was I was watching that
game and and I and I missed it. Wow, okay it's and it's
their opener. It was there because the Mets didn't. They didn't the game
yesterday got postponed, so it was their opener. And they're already getting in
a fight. Holy crap. Yeah no, I mean, come on,
guys, you gotta calm down. There's some contentious issues, I guess because
Hoskins played in the NLS with the Phillies and now you got it again.
Also is some news the Braves place. They're starting catchers Sean Murphy is one
of the best catchers in baseball, already on the under list after one game
oblique tightness. And then there was a guy for the Braves. Yeah,
the Braves were playing the Braids were playing in the Phillies today, I think,
And I didn't see who it was. One of those guys took a
swing and the next thing you know, he was headed to the dugout.
And I don't remember who it was. One of the Waves who won their
starters, and you know, he hurt himself on a on a on a
swing. But I didn't see who it was. Carlos Stanton four times a
year, you've that, And so I I don't know who it was,
but I did. I did see that, and I I didn't applaud,
but I'm not going to say that I felt bad either. So all right,
Uh that was that was pretty much what I saw. Well, there
was oh, let's say, let's take this call, all right, Higher
on the air and I on the ball. Okay, how you guys doing
good? Howard? What's up? Man? Hey? You know I don't
listen to the guy, I mean the breaking news. You got to talk
with Steve And after I kiss mister Hanson's butt here in this call. You
got to have him and I got to have a breaking news because this mature
people, because it's like Greg, when I was kissing your butt earlier.
They were saying, you know, about a year ago, I loved listening
to Greg is the man with the personals on the Star. And I actually
had a relationship, my dad and me because we knew the Hatfields who hired
this is we're talking twenty twenty five years ago, because I hired Steve out
of New Mexico. And I go, yeah, I like Greg Hanson too,
this is twenty five years ago. And they go, well, he
does personals, Hatfield said, and here listen to this Greg, And of
course you're a shill for Utah. If you want to name Utah, Greg's
your man. Nothing compared to Jay on the Dodgers. Well, well,
the thing because I've been seeing your articles in English to say, for you
know, Ivan newspapers are really out. I it was for five years,
but you always find a way to interject Utah sports. You know, guilty
as charge, but you don't have to go there. Of course, why
we tried to get Josh pass their job? Yeah, did you hear that.
Yeah, Josh called and we and we were working on getting Josh an
interview over. You did Utah State and come on, but but Utah State.
The biggest story ever out of Utah was when Majeris had Utah and he
lived out of a hotel. That's all I want to remember. Stayed in
that hotel many times. But but but but anyway, I'm disgusted. You
know, I'm going to go top of the list. Charles Barkley gets on
and says, oh, I like how the big man played. Yeah,
he's jaded because he's a big man. No following Boswell, the two Bees.
I'm disgusted with their play. And he's gonna have tim. He's gonna
have to, I think, come on the Betchets. While he's got a
transfer, he's he should never be a starter again at U of all,
Yeah, Boswell, of course, the six foot ten bollow. You know
he's got to get himself in shape. He's gonna never play in the NBA.
Well he's not an NBA guy anyway, So right, but kJ and
and of course I'm waiting for the OKAC because I didn't think I play,
because I'm thinking I'm watching the Suns in Oka. See this is the breaking
news. The greatest player on earth, the Joker in Denver, he made
he he just sung their props praises. We beat them twice on their home
court, the Nuggets. All right, all right, okay, so we're
we're we're gonna be scary. But it's been a slow start, and you
know, I've been pretty pretty perturbed with the Suns and a lot of Suns
fans after that, that disgusting loss at San Antonio. Well they've got they've
got time. Oh yeah, well you gotta win, all right, Hey,
guys, have a great Easter resurrection weekend. That's a lot. Let's
talk about Donald's free throw shooting. God, you know, well, the
thing is he missed six in a row that he front rimmed. How do
you not make the adjustment? You know, if you're going to miss it,
then miss it on the back rim. You know, I don't.
I didn't understand that he finished shooting the only two you hey, guys,
ever below that word Joseph blairer at Aaron Gordon at forty I remember Aaron Gordon.
I didn't really, I don't remember Joseph Blair being a terrible free throw
shooter. Wow. I do remember Aaron Gordon. I mean his his just
his delivery was so whack. I'm like, you're a basketball player, how
do you not have a better free throw shot? Yeah? Well yeah,
okay, let's take this call. If you just if you just called sorry,
we missed you. We'll keep an eye on the on the button.
Give us another try. You gotta you gotta turn that off there. Oops.
Oh, I know what we're doing here. Oops. Did you ever
have to make in a game? No? I was never much on it.
The last actual basketball team I played on was in elementary school. I
got a story about one. Okay, let's go coming back from spring from
Christmas break. Three guys were late and got kicked off the team for a
game against Sacramento State, and they activated me to have enough players. Wow.
And they put me in the game with like six minutes to go because
we're blowing them out and we're ninety eight. And I got foul with like
a minute ago, and I made both found shots. Well, look at
you. One hundred points. Is your one hundred percent free throw shooter in
your career? Yeah? Wow? Sports information director yelled at me, said,
you ruined up my stats. Oh yeah, because that accident as an
extra little space because to have you on thousand percent. Here we go,
let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air and eye on the
ball. How's it going today? What's up? Ryan? Was an interesting
game? You know, I was going to text you. I was going
to text you last night to stop texting me. I think they're going,
I'm sorry, But you know, I mean, if you look at his
game plan, I think it worked well. But if you don't make shots,
that doesn't help the game plan exactly. And and I you know,
I mean yeah, I mean we had tons of wide open shots, you
know, but if you're not going to make him, I don't care what
your game plan is exactly. And it's and also too, it's amazing how
rate coaches fans are the next day exactly. You know. The thing that
the thing about your getting back the shooting to me, you know, people
want to break that, breaking down analyzing you didn't do this. You know,
those those basket, those those easy inbounds baskets and all those things,
all the things that you want to talk about that game. But if you
make some shots, you win the game. And it's just as simple as
that. I mean, it goes back to that poor and only lose by
five is pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, no, as simple as that.
You don't have to you don't have to change the program, you don't
have to change your recruiting, you don't have to change your offensive or defensive
systems. Who can make some shots, make some shots when when they matter,
And that's what it was. And also too, you know, I
don't I would not be surprised if Boswell's not here next year. I just
what do you think, Greg, Because that's it. That's sort of like
a big elephant in the room right now, isn't it. You say,
almost everybody's thinking about that. Who's who would be their point guard? Because
yeah he is yeah yeah yeah modern basketball, Yeah yeah yeah, he'd run,
he'd run the point and and that's what I think people want, and
people want to see Jay and Bradley at the point as opposed to Kylin.
But you know, and in time and said, well, Colin is only
eighteen, he'll be he'll be fine. I mean, he's he's he's a
good player, but he just I don't know, I don't know what what
what went wrong there with him on the days he's yeah, because he's really
he's not there when he's on enough to make a difference. You know,
the time is not good enough for no. Yeah, no, I'm sure
they're going to go into the transfer portal and they'll find a few because you
know, we really don't need a lot. I'd like to see us get
a wing man who can shoot, be really nice. Well, we said
that every year, We've been saying that since Selene Stodamayer left. Yeah,
well, you know, I mean in the three spot, who can shoot?
Oh yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. You know what
the with the European guys we had sitting on the bench, you know how
many, I'm sure it's harder for them to lead because they can't be involved
in the nil so they're not going anywhere. Well, Moroscos can shoot,
but can you do the other things he needs to do to get on the
court, right, because I mean they have guys, but they they you
know, they can't get on the court because they can't do the other things.
We don't see him, We don't see him in practice, so we
have no clue, right what he can't do? Yeah? Zero? And
also also too, it's going to be interesting to see how many, you
know, if someone like I don't know if all over the sides. I
think he has one more year he can use. He can't play another year
that doesn't he have doesn't he have this COVID year too? Yeah, you
know, he's got another year if he wants to. But whether or not
he wants was then a thing. He might want to just go make a
living somewhere, you know, you know, go to Europe, because he's
sure not going to make it in the NBA. No, No, he's
not the upper tier your euro league. We're to make two grand to five
hundred grand. He's the secondary, a third tier of euro League where you'd
probably only make one hundred. Yeah, he makes more than a hundred here.
Yeah. Yeah, well you know, at least we'll be able to
move on to the last part. You know. Can to watch some U
Bay baseball nowt yep, going to the game, and I'm going to one
of the game seven o'clock tonight u c l A. They won last night,
walk off, going to walk off. Yeah, very cool. Yeah,
interesting, Hey, talk to you later. He thanks A buch Man.
Brian and I coached at Saint Gregory together and he started texting me last
night, and I'm like, I don't why they get text messages from anybody
right now? And I told you I didn't take my brother's call. So
all right, Rick, and he says it called me today, so you
can send. All right? Where are we at? Are we out of
here? Oh? Gosh? Okay, all right, God, we went
on, we went along. Okay, we're gonna come back. We're going
to call call Scott Thompson. Uh, we'll take some time with him,
see what he thinks about what he saw last night form Arizona coach under Loot.
And also he coached at Rice in Wichita State. Right, and one
more I don't remember anyway he was in he was in the Ivy League.
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Streamy Live, Honey, iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the Ball
with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez font Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Welcome back to
the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. I'm your host, Jay Gonzalez.
My partner Steve Rivera will be back here on Monday. He was on the
line earlier, so if you missed his his segment, you can pick it
up on the podcast tonight when that gets posted. I've got Greg Hanson in
studio and on the phone. We've got Scott Thompson, a former assistant in
Arizona, head coach at three stops in major college basketball, and somebody who
still lives here in Tucson. So apparently you love living here, Scott,
but you're put having to put up with Arizona fans right now after a loss
in the sweet sixteen. You know, another tough one for us. But
we're where are your thoughts right now? On where the what we saw?
Just what what did you see last night? Well? It's always I mean
when you talk about Arizona fans, Arizona fans are the best and they're experts,
their expectations are high, but we uh, you know, every game
we got to go out and play super and especially right now. Is the
most disappointing day of any team in Division one is when they lose out in
uh the NCAA tournament and specifically the Sweet sixteen. So I obviously disappointing to
lose the game, and I wish, as we all do, wish we
could have kept going. But it's been a heck of a season. Yeah,
it has been. And you know, the I guess the frustrating part
for fans, And we were talking about this with with Steve Rivera. A
lot of us thought and I don't know, you know, they had they
had the talent to you know, to at least get to the final four.
Maybe they weren't going to win it with you know, Yukon and Purdue
and how good those guys are, but you know, they played well enough
during the course of the year where you felt they were worthy, but then
they also played at times where they were not, and those one of those
and I'm not going to you know, I thought they played decent except for
they couldn't shoot the ball last night. But you know, throughout the course
of the season, What did you think of this team? I think the
same way. I mean, I think we were now again. I think
there's a bunch of teams out there that were really good, that could get
to the final four and be that type of team. But the consistency is
the big thing, and that's the you know, unfortunately, but consistency is
when you're playing teams, you're going to see, especially in the tournament,
You're going to see different things than you've seen all seasons, different defenses,
different uh players, different sizes of players. And you can play great teams
back in December, but it's it's just a different game when you go out
there and play now, and that's why you see the upsets. But that's
why there's a whole lot of really good teams still in the in the in
the dance, in the well. It's not the Sweet sixteen anymore, but
it's there's a lot of good teams left. After you went to the final
four at Iowa and then you didn't get there the next few years, was
your reaction from the fans similar to what it is here. Hey, Greg,
you've been around since we started way you know, when when we first
came back in the eighties and you've seen it, and I was I don't
know where I was looking movie in the in the daily start to day or
somewhere where all they went down, and they're talking about first round exits,
second round exit, sweet sixteen, the lead eights and whatever, and there
has never been a time that anybody's happy. I think the thing is we
always have these expectations that we could do better. And that's the part.
So it answers to your question. I always how about this one. I
go way back to I was assistant to Digger Phelps at Notre Dame and we
go to the final four and we have Lambert and we have some really good
players. Well, the next year, we were ranked number one in the
country and we get beat in the Elite eight by a team from Michigan State
with a guy to the name of Magie Thompson. And you know what,
nobody knew. They knew they were good, but shoot nobody. And you
know what our fans were. I mean they were because we were in the
final four of the year before. And you know what it was that that
year? It was what did we do wrong? What happened? Yea?
And so so I tell you, anywhere you go, you've got these this
thing. And that's the thing about fans. If your fans don't have expectations
and don't think you should be that next win more. Uh, you know
what, that's what makes Arizona Arizona. Well, you know, and you
just said, you just use the word you know what did you do wrong?
Sometimes you don't do anything wrong and the other team just comes out and
plays better than you and beats you. Now, for Arizona did wrong last
night? They couldn't shoot the ball. It seemed like they did most everything
else right. They could have won the game if they just shot a little
better. Is that harder to take when you know that it's kind of on
you that that, you know, if you had just done this little bit
of thing better, you might have you know, it might have been different.
Is that Is that tougher? Yeah? It is. But one of
the things that it's very confusing this time of year is when teams come out
and they have the different and switching up defenses. And I'll tell you what,
that's what made Loot so good. And we did it to try to
get ahead back when when I was here, and I'll never forget two thousand
and one in Minneapolis and Loots switching up the defenses on Shrzyzewski and so forth.
But that's what it took to get to the Final four. And you
see that now. You see you know, Oregon switched up those defenses on
us and last night they were switching up defenses and things. It's just completely
slows down the game and it's not the same flow and it's not the same
fast pace that you see in normal it is it it's just this time of
year, people throw different things than you've seen and it's not easy. Had
you seen Clemson before this season? Uh no, Clemson. Clemson has not
been on my radar, greg And but when you know there are six ranked
team acc everybody looks at the you know, the research triangle and uh shoot,
I'm one of my best friends is Steve Forbes at wake Forest, and
I was hoping that he would do it. But you look in that league
and it's it's hard to pick out Clemson as being you know that good.
But again, going back to even last year's teams Florida Atlantic, San Diego
State, you don't know who's going to be in the final four. We
had ready geary On earlier and asked him this question, you know how he
watched a game as a player or a coach. He said, he watched
it as a coach. I'm presuming you you know, you probably watch these
games as a coach. Do you coach the games when you're watching them?
You know? Do you say I would be doing this or I'd be doing
that? How do you look at that? You know, I don't,
Like I said, I could come down and I say, okay, you
know what, they're in his own or you know what, they're in a
they're in a match up in one defense, or they're in a you know,
they're doing this, they're dropping their their guards on the post and defensively,
so I can tell that, but I don't. I don't. I
don't do anything like try to coach or say they should be doing this or
whatever. I just, you know, I guess I've been trained to recognize
that I've been out of coaching long enough that I don't try to act like,
Okay, they should be doing this and whatever. And I'm a big
fan of Tommy and I you know what, it's like, it's like anything,
you know what, I'm not there every day I'm not there with these
guys. I don't you know, Hey, I don't know what's going on
with Nil or transfer portal or anything with anybody. But I'm telling you it
is a more complex environment than it's ever been, right, and so there's
a lot of I mean, who knows what all is going on anywhere with
any team right now in college? Yeah, from a coach's perspective, when
you were in your third year as a head coach at Rice, what didn't
you know that we could probably see might be the same with Tommy? What
do you have to learn what you know three years in? That's a great
question. That's a great question. You know, every year you pick up
something new and something different. I mean, and you got to keep bringing
in really good players. And you know what the advantage that all these coaches
have had in those years was. You know, I knew when we brought
him in his freshmen they were going to be around for four years. And
now you don't have that anymore. And you know what I mean, I
looked at this year. I thought Larsen really improved this year. And I
thought I thought Ballow really improved this year, and and and then and then
you've got guys that are just one year guys. Yeah, and so it's
just so different Greg, from those years back then. I mean, how
about that, I got I got one for you. When I was at
Rice, I had a player that was on my bench. Didn't play a
whole lot, but he was. He was just one of my players,
and he ended up being a governor. How about this. The governor of
the state of Virginia was on my bench. What's his name, Glenn Youngkin.
If he would have told me he was going to be governor, I
would have played him a whole lot. But now now, now, now,
how about this? Though that team had had nineteen straight losing seasons,
and also we're going up against Arkansas with you know, forty minutes of hecking,
yeah, and all that stuff and old remnants of FI slam and jam
or whatever. So yeah, I learned a whole lot during that time.
Greg fired as coach. Maybe they want you back. They dis named somebody,
they just they just I was hoping that one of my former players would
have gotten a job, but they just named a new coach. Well,
Scott, how about this? How about this? How about all the coaching
changes out there? All these yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Yeah,
Andy Anfield, You've got Kyle Smith going from Washington State to Stanford,
you got, you know, all these things. And then Greg was over
here trying to get Josh Passner the job at Utah State when he was on
the show Monday. That's interesting, you know what I mean, Somebody to
me, somebody would would be smart at picking up Josh just because going back
to Greg's he's got he's learned a lot and he's got a lot of experience.
But how about how about you know, Caler Perry at Kentucky. How
do you go out and get somebody better than Cali Perry and they are getting
after him and he's done a heck of death. That's why I think a
lot of these these coaches that have been around are retiring just because it's just
such a different environment. They just don't want to deal with that stuff for
sure. All right, Scott, we appreciate the time, thanks for joining
us on short notice. Good good stuff, good insight, and uh hope
to see around any time. Guys. Will be interesting. It's gonna be
an interesting the next week or so. Yep, you'll be exactly that.
That's a good word. All right, thank you, Scott, I appreciate
it. Thanks, thank you. All right. That was Scott Thompson,
form Arizona coach, former coach at we figured out the last one he was
at. He was at Bryce, Wichita State and Cornell, so a lot
a lot of coaching chops there for that guy. One of the nicest guys
around. Yeah, yeah, yep, yeah. So, uh he was
here in the lute early days. Okay, we're gonna take our last break
and then we're gonna get one last guest. Matt Mulebach will join us.
We'll get his insight on, you know, on things, uh everything from
the game to where does Arizona go from here? So stick around for Matt
Mulbach. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful
for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludelsen era.
In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love
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the exes and ohs. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salves. This is I
on the Ball on Fox. It's fourteenth Welcome back to time the Ball,
you know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacob Zalez, your host,
with my co host Greg Hansen here and on the phone, we've got Mad
Mulebach who's gonna give us his insight on what a what we saw last night,
Matt, and then be a little bit of where does Arizona go from
here? So you know, give us some of your initial thoughts on this.
You know, we'll here we are again with another with a lost in
the sweet sixteen at a time where you kind of thought Arizona was maybe putting
it together a little bit. So tell us what you think. Well,
I mean, it's it's always disappointing when you lose, right, It's it's
a it's a gut punch when you lose in that tournament. And I think
it's also a gut punch when you have a you know, a higher seeded
team, which Arizona often does over the years, and it's it's hard,
man. It's that tournament is unfortunately the way college basketball is set up.
You know, the tournament says a lot about the season, and you can
have a great season, and which they did. You know, they won
the last pack Pac twelve League championship. Ever, you know, they had
a really great I thought Tommy Lloyd did a fantastic job of really two things
this year. One retooling the lineup, and I thought, you know,
he was really reflective after the loss last year and thought, Okay, I
gotta I gotta work on some things, get my team to work on some
things. Maybe a little bit of different line up and he did a great
job of that. I thought. I thought he really kind of got tougher
and better defensively. And as I said, I love the fact that they
scheduled all those tough teams. I thought that got I'm sort of battle tested
and so a lot of great things, right. But at the same time,
I would also say that, you know, he got to the sweet
sixteen. And I've always said, I don't care you know who you are
unless you're sort of back in the sixties, you know, UCLA Bruins or
whoever was, or the ninety one you and of the Rebels. If you
get to the sweet sixteen, it's successful, and you know you're in a
good spot right there. You're only two away from from sort of history of
getting to a final four. They didn't do it. I mean, it's
frustrating they I thought they. I thought what hurt them the most, Jay
was just they got off to such a bad start. I mean, those
games, when you get off to a bad start, the pressure of those
games being the favorite, they just were crawing back the whole game and they
just could not They just couldn't get over the hunt, you know. And
and I thought, that's what kind of doomed them, was that first first
seven, eight, ten minutes. Yeah, you know, I being in
Arizona fan, I'm used to the bad stuff. I can see it coming
and I feel it. And you know, I told we had reggion earlier
like we did last week when you were on, and I felt like it,
you know, in that first five minutes, it felt like a loss.
To me. It felt like the kind of game they lose. I
thought they could still win, right, I didn't think that the game is
lost, but well, it felt like that the things that were happening were
the kinds of things that happened when they lose a game like that. Yeah,
and and and I think, like like with any of those games,
right, Like I talked about the pressure of it and so forth. But
I give them a lot of credit. Man. They fought. I mean
they really fought through some some some bad shooting, some some bad basketball at
times, but some good basketball too. They really fought hard, man.
They And I'll say this like, I'm not trying to dis defend any of
it, you know, Like I said, they didn't play their best at
all. And but Clemson, I don't know what the record was, but
it's almost identical to Arizona's. Like there's this I think there's this feeling probably
from around the country, is you see a six mixt to Clemson and you
see a two next to Arizona and you feel like it's Arizona versus you know,
South Pointing High School. Like it's not like these teams. If you
walked away from that game, Winston had the two best players on the court.
They're big Guy Hayes. I think it was Hayes and their point guard
Hunter were the two best players for forty minutes. And so we have the
two best players during those forty minutes, you're probably gonna win. I mean,
they are very, very good teams. They beat Alabama this year,
they beat Boise State, they beat North Carolina. They lost the Duke by
a point at Duke, like a couple of weeks ago. I mean,
Arizona beat Duke by a few you know, at the beginning of the season.
It's not like the spread of these teams, like I said, is
some enormous gap and you got to hang your head because you just laid an
egg against some horrible team. A team is good knowing and maybe, like
I said, they didn't play their best, and that's why they ended up
with the loss. Do you see any someone who's been around basketball as closely
as you have for all the years, do you see anything mechanically wrong with
Caleb loves jumper. That's a good question, you know, the one thing
I would think with him when I've seen him shoot it. Well, that's
a really good question, Greg, because it's It's something that I thought about
midway through the season, because I remember seeing him in the summer last year
and it looked perfect when I was watching it, you know, and they're
kind of doing some workouts and open gym, and I thought, this guy
can absolutely shoot her. I couldn't understand, you know, the percentages weren't
as good the last couple or the last year, especially in Carolina, and
I thought that there was some inconsistency in how he shot it. It's funny
you asked that, and I think I think that was partly maybe why sometimes
he had some ups and downs with it right. And I will say this
too, like he's a volume shooter. We know that he's going to take
some bad shots, and if you take some bad shots, you're probably your
percentage is going to go down. And I what I don't understand Graces.
That's why I'm almost not really sure how to answer it, because the last
six games he just he really struggled and shoot the ball. You know,
it's and I thought he shot it really well before that, you know,
he was he was up almost as close to forty and like I said,
for a volume guy, that's a pretty good number. But the last six
really struggle. You know, you you you witness firsthand the famous bad shooting
night that Arizona fans know about, you know, watching Steve Kerr struggle in
that final four game. You know, shoot or shoot right, and you
know a lot of people saying stop shooting the threes. Even I said that
stop shooting threes if you're not going to be making threes. But you know,
is the mentality keep shooting because it's got to turn at some point,
or do you do something else? I mean, what you know, you're
kind of between the rock and a hard place right there, because you think
they're going to at some point start going in and then they never did.
What do you do? Well, that's a great question. I mean,
when you're out there, I mean, on the one hand, the tightrope,
right, you don't want to lose confidence. I felt like last year
against Princeton, they got really hesitant to shoot, and that's why they didn't
make shots. And they and the guards were not great at getting to the
lane. You know, Clemson did a good job of of you know,
it's the old saying, they just packed the paint. And when Arizona went
on those runs and when when Clemson went man, you know, Arizona had
some success. When they went zone, they literally just packed it and they
were you know, I'm not saying they I think they did a pretty good
job. Arizona did trying to get looked. They got bollowed some touches late.
They tried to get it inside, tried to you know, penetrate the
zone and so forth. It's not easy like those zones. You know,
you got five guys, you got five guys in the paint. They're they're
they're gonna, you know, they're gonna give you some looks. And and
I think, like I said, the tightrope is this. I think Tommy
Wood does a great job of of not playing scared in the tournament and and
I think his teams will in the future have success because they don't play scared.
Now The tightrope of that is, if you have an off shooting night
like they did, and you keep shooting them from there, you know,
it can shoot you out of it. But I do think in the long
run, Tommy's gonna and that's maybe be a good segue to the future.
I was thinking about this the other day. You know, I think John
Wooden coached for seventeen seasons before he won a national title, and there's a
lot of coaches you could you could you know, Brad Brownell, the coach
for Clinton, is one heck of a coach. I really think he's a
fantastic coach. I mean, he's coached twenty two seasons and I think he's
made two Sweet sixteens, you know, And so from a prospective standpoint,
I think you look at Tommy, He's coached three seasons, He's got two
in his belt already, and I think the key for coaching and Tommy's just
going to even get better. Like I said, I thought he did an
amazing job being reflective after last season, making changes, roster construction, you
know, doing some things that I talked to him about. It. Eight
left Arizona basketball his his the whole year and as a fan, I think
that's the main thing you got to ask, you know, and you want
from your coach as someone who's who's willing to who's willing to adjust and change
and do whatever he can to make the team work. He's an awesome dude,
and I just think, I think, what the thing for him and
all these coaches. You give yourself chances, you know, you just get
there, you get to the Sweet sixteen, you get to the Elite eight.
You got to figure a way to get, you know, to that
second weekend, which he's done twice three seasons. As I said, I
think the first year that Houston team was probably just better, and I think
last night Arizona was probably better, not much, but a little bit,
and they just didn't have it. But I think he'll keep getting better.
I think his teams will keep getting better, and I think he's going to
have a ton of a ton of success. Well, you're you're an expert
on that, because as good as Arizona was when you played for him,
you ran into better teams in the season seton better. Yeah, they were
pretty good that night. We actually didn't play that poorly, and you know,
they they were a really good team. They had. You know,
PJ Carlissimo was one of my buddies right now. He's awesome, you know,
and as good as Luke was, PJ was too, you know,
And so it's you get to those the other I always think of this like
Andy Roddick, you know, one of the most one of the best American
tennis players in history. I think he won one major. And there's an
there's an amazing article right now from Gino Rima on the Athletic and it talks
about, you know, even though he's won I think ten or eleven titles,
he talks about how incredibly tough it was. Every year. He's like,
I don't know how we did it, and he had, you know,
he had a to some degree, and it's caught up now with every
the women's game has so much more parody. Back then, they didn't have
the parody, right you know, when he was winning them. But at
the same time, he was talking about how dificult every year, all the
things that could go wrong, and to overcome those is just really it's hard,
you know, And and it's just that tournament is the ultimate. It's
it's an unfair thing in a way, because look, I think if we're
all sitting here and we knew that that Arizona had the best four out of
seven like the NBA, and you can play Climpson tomorrow for the game too,
I think we'd all feel pretty good about Arizona's chances. But you can't.
And so you've got to develop, you know, way, a way
to get through that tournament. And I think they, I think they will.
I think they're going to have some really good success. You know,
every coach has, you know, they they they they get to the end
of the season, whether they've had a great season, won a champion,
whatever, they reflect, what are they any thoughts on what types of things
Tommy needs to kind of think about, you know, going into you know,
going into this offseason season and into the next year. You know,
from where you from where you sit, you know, I think I think
these days again, because there's so much movement on transfer portal and and ni
L and all this stuff that's going on right it's it's just it's roster construction
and how do how do I just put together the best roster with you know,
high character guys and the best players possible. And I think he's you
know, I really like the character of this team this year. I thought
they had a really high character team. You know, Greg, Greg and
Jay you've both seen this. It's like over the years you get kind of
one bad apple. Yeah, and it's the old saying that can spoil the
bunch. And we you know, we've seen Arizona teams no, maybe have
a guy or too that didn't necessarily fit. The great you know, the
Richard Jefferson's of the world, and you know the Steve kerrz and and some
of the Damon Stoddam are some of the great people you know Arizona's had.
So I think it's I think it's great character guys, but at the highest
highest level they can find. I think you just he's going to try to
find, you know, even better players and and and to some degree some
guys that can continue, you know, maybe you know, get a guy
or to that can stay two three years, right, I mean, I
think the continuity. It's a hard game right now because it's it's weird.
And you look at Coach call at Kentucky. You know, he struggled.
He's won one title, you know, with with the way of doing it
with all the young guys, he's but at the same time, he's had
some really early exits and I think it shows two things. Lack of continuity
and young guys. That's a hard it's a it's a hard way to navigate
that tournament yea, and the season. But I think I think that's what
I think, that's what Tommy's going to work on, you know, and
continue to work on himself, you know, and what can he do to
tweak this or that get a little better, and and roster construction. It's
a it's a huge piece of it. Matt has always good stuff and you
know, I'm kind of like disappointing. We won't talk to you again until
next basketball season, unless you want to come and talk some beach volleyball maybe
in the summer. Right, I'll talk any sport you guys want to think
happy. I love to be on your show. I really appreciate it,
Matt, do appreciate it. Make make sure the Big twelve fires was their
analyst. Yeah, thanks Greg, I And by the way, I appreciate
the uh I did. Jay. I don't know if you know this.
I did a Utah State game this year and Greg gave me a couple of
tidbits pretty it was a pretty actually a pretty cool school and and amazing basketball
fan base. And it's amazing how many good teams are in Utah Utah,
Utah State. They've got the new school. It just went Division one right
now, and BYU is obviously really good. And it was it was cool.
So thanks Greg for that. All right, Matt Tanks a bunch,
take some time off and we'll get back to you at some point. Appreciate
it, all right, we got to get out of here. Greg,
Thanks a bunch for this week. It was fun having you here. Uh
you know, like old you know, old times. Man, it was
great. We do appreciate it and help us helping us, good guests in
the whole bit. Thanks. Maybe Steve will get sidetracked and I'll be back.
Yeah, yeah, well you know what, You're always welcome, dude,
You're always welcome, Adam, thanks a much for today. We're gonna
get out of here the pub. The podcast will be up tonight if you're
getting to the back to the just getting back to the end of the show
here and Steve should be back on Monday. So thanks for being here all
week. We'll see you on Monday.