This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services. Hey sure, your most prized possessions,
Katie z R Two SAD and iHeart Radio Station. A good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball. You know, Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jaganzas. We're by ourselves today Tuesday.
A good show today. Yeah, you know, we put in a request
to we saw saw the Storydia Barnes and this sports and Leadership academy she's launching
over at the Boys and Girls Club and ocause you'd want to come on and
talk about that and what all that's gonna do and what it means to her
and what it will mean to the community. So we invite her to come
on here and talk all about that. Okay, I didn't see that just
recent Yeah, just came out this week. A PJ. Brown had a
story on it. I think it was yesterday. Um, and it's you
know, she's putting some money and u in her time into into this academy
that's going to be housed over at the West Side Boys and Girls Club,
the one buy a real golf course, okay, and speedway, um,
and just you know, giving you know, kids an opportunity to I'm gonna
be a part of something and be mentored, and her basketball players will go
over there and you know, and and and and teach some lessons and just
you know, do some stuff with the kids from that area. So it
sounds like okay, good, good good. I was gonna ask Jos to
say to you, I guess she knows that we're gonna ask questions. Well,
yeah, we are gonna ask questions, but I said, we want
to come and talk about that. Okay, let's talk about Let's be sure
we talk about that first and then whatever the questions. Good good, good
kid will let you ask those questions. It's very cool deal. You know,
it sounds like very cool. You know she's been she's been very um
you know, from the time she got here very uh just involved in some
community right notion, whether it's whether it's for equality and basketball or the stuff
in the community. Um. You know, she's joined more than coach here.
Yeah, no, and she and she's very committed to the to the
university, to the community, and the community has been intern very committed to
her. Right, come on, like I said to you a thousand times,
not in my lifetime would ever ever imagine I'm in a full house in
the n I T title. It's just right. I wouldn't there, and
I'm thinking this is not happening. And then it's continued. Right, Yeah,
they I think they. I think they led the Yeah, they average
like seven thousand a game or something like that. You know, I mean
even the quote unquote you know, not so great games. There's some of
those non conference games, four and five thousand people at those games, right
right, and you were here. I was not here for loots early years.
Um so eighty three, eighty four, his first year, smattering of
people, yeah you know that. Um it took a little bit, but
you know pretty quickly, how quickly. That's why That's why I think my
conference season that year, really people realize that, you know, there was
something, that there was something going on that it was better than we had
seen. Not sold out, right, not sold out, but you know
they were getting eight nine. Okay, that's good. You were a team
that has been well, yeah, the team had been miserable, but you
know, lud olson Um really gave them an immediate, you know, shot
in the arm that people believe, wait a minute, that you know,
there's a there's a commitment here to making this a good program. People were
just waiting for that. And the basketball the previous year was so bad,
right that people wanted something that I think it coincided Jake, because we've had
a lot of the guys from that here, Pete Williamson and all that.
Uh if you remember and you were here, um and I've written about a
thousand times, it took him about half this season to start believing that they
could win. And I think even Pete said at one point, and he
always told me, he says, there was a point in there when they
lost a lot, and it says, no one of you guys can't win.
You guys are a bunch of losers. You don't know how to win,
right, And then they started to win and they started to win.
Yeah, right, So no, I mean I remember that, And then
you know, it wasn't it wasn't long. You know, game started selling
out of them, and and now here we are a year years later with
Adiya who probably and when you got on the show or got to the show,
I said, I'm gonna remind her of something I said to her when
we were on the show. But I'm sure it was a struggle early,
yeah, and then it finally kind of clicked. Yeah, yeah, well
you know they started winning. They started with yeah, no, but you
know what, and I'll bring this to we'll I'll see it now. And
then talking about it later, she had she was beating teams that you should
beat, right the lower level, but she said, I got to let
them know that they can win, right, you know, you got to
start winning somehow before you learn how to win. And then and then with
all that then comes to the ability to have the profile to do these kinds
of things that I get a lot of communities apart. Right, So she
really you know, across the board, you know, elevated, um,
you know, the women's basketball program herself, girls basketball in town. Yeah,
people want to but you know, you know, I'm sure there's girls
playing high school basketball that might not have honest my about it if these things
hadn't weren't going on, No question, he faked. I met some people
I was out four or five months ago, and it was a friend of
mine and his wife, and she had never been to a game, and
she was you know, he's taking me to watch this women's basketball team.
I really don't want to go, blah blah blah. So she went,
and she liked it because it was a crowd. It's it's totally different than
the men you're there all the time. It's a different feel. It's even
crazy. It's it's it is it's it's the softball crowd. Okay, but
with some some youth in it as well. You know. I mean,
my wife goes to the games, right, she's got seasoned for the reason
of she just loves going to these games. You know, they're exciting,
Okay, she loves that it's women's basketball. And and you know, her
and one of her one of our family friends from our kids growing up,
you know, together, they bought season tickets and actually every year since they
watchings, they think two seasons ago. Each year they've moved, they've you
know, increased their uh you know, where they're sitting, or they moved,
you know, gotten better tickets. So but they love they love the
excitement of women's basketball. You know, my wife's been going to the men's
team games forever now, We've always had tickets to that, and she feels
like one she owes it to the program, but two she loves going.
She know, you know, she hardly misses a game. No, no,
And it's it's it's it's shown in it's uh and it's commitment and it's
to her well in the contract and it's shown you know, you're on the
community. People don't talk just about men's basketball. I get asked about women's
basketball. You're you're right. You know people know that I'm doing stats for
the women's basketball, you know, and they asked about that all the time
too. It's funny you weren't with me. I went to the to the
horses. It was one of the last days, and um I posted I
was at the horses. There was no basketball game going on for men right
covered men and the woman and she's might relistening right now. She says,
what do you mean there's no basketball? There's women's basketball. Why aren't you
there? And I think, no, apologies that don't grow over the women,
but hubs there. But it's it's a comfortable point where they want you
to go to cover right every and if you're not and if you're not going,
you're slacking right right right when jail, I mean again, you know,
I started doing stats for them when they were getting you know, there
were crowds when they were five people. Thousand people. Your atmosphere is totally
different than your atmosphere. You know, there's a better feeling when you walk
in, you know, and usually the lower bowl is pretty full, you
know it. I think ten thousands sit in the lower bowl or something like
that. When they're seven or eight thousand and they're all in the lower lower
bowl, it looks pretty full. So you know, again, she's done
a great job. She's done a great job by elevating uh, you know,
the visibility of it, you know, and a lot of that came,
you know, in that NI the w n I t year when she
was you know, pushing tickets during the tournament to the point where you know,
they filled it up for a championship game and the rest is kind of
history. Right. People are just you know, people are caught. You
know, they've got their tickets and they're going to these games. So it's
been uh, you know, it's been a great ride for her and and
you know she's, uh, she's paying it back, and yeah, that's
awesome to see. Right. It's funny because she want the contract whatever was.
She got the million, and there's no questions she's paying it back and
and and more so. Right the enthusiast. You can't pay for that enthusiast,
Right, I guess you can. But yeah, but did you hear
anybody complaining about her getting a million dollars? Absolutely? Not one person.
No back. Everybody said she's worth it, she's worth it, and she
would have been gone. She was a chance, and they didn't want her
to go. Yeah, and then the school made a good move by keeping
her. She made a good move by staying. You know, now,
will somebody down the road come up and snap her up? Maybe? Maybe?
You know? Well, and this is part of the questions. I'll
go. It's it's tough. I mean, she's realized she created a monster,
right, this monster, this monster is tough. Let's say the Connecticut
job opens up in the next few years, right, Gino Rima is getting
old. Right, Let's say that job opens up. You know what,
do you was gonna get a phone? Right? Yeah? Right? Or
or any other big job right? Yeah? I mean you know the Alice
your job just filled? Um, South Carolina. I think I think Don
Steals probably should be there a while longer, but you know, but she
she would be in the conversation for any when the Kentucky job opened up.
Totally agree, Totally agree, and still young enough to do a lot of
things with her with her life, right yeah, okay, no, that's
a great one. And then at the second hour and the second hour gonna
bring Jody Ailer in talking more Phoenix stuff. See what he thinks of that
trade with Bradley Beale. People will talk about the Cardinals with him as they're
really going to be that bad, right, yeah, four and a half
he cents five. Yeah, he's he's and he's more. Really I like
Jody because he's really risk the realistic and he's he and so was Bob yesterday.
Bob was fantastic yesterday. Um and and we'll see, you know,
he's a UA grad. We'll talk a little about Arizona and what Tommy's doing
because Tommy, for when we know this Wilder, I think his Willner somebody
else had written, Uh, everyone was down on Tommy. Tommy, what
Tommy can't Tommy do? Can't you know you know, Kemmy, Tommy can't
win? And then all of a sudden he's the king of what do you
call him the King of the King of the disaster, remain the King of
the Thumber. He's really pulled it out again. But I was with some
people last saying, are they gonna be good? Are they gonna be good?
Talk to me in March, Talk to me in March. You we
don't know. We don't know, just like we didn't know last year.
The absolute were really good, you know, the last few regular seasons.
But you know neither one of those regular seasons was everybody happy at the end.
Right, aren't anybody ever happy? Jay? You know you know they're
never happy. So let me see the cardinals. Yes, are even odds
that under or under four and a half wins over over four and a half
is minus one twenty under four and a half plus one. Yeah, I
would go I'd go under, I'd go under, I'd go under three and
fourteen. It's a disaster. They don't even know their backup is. We're
talking about Whatzell or whatever his name is from a Philly Oh h that guy
whatever he That guy don't even he's not even good enough for me to remember
his name. That guy, Uh, he's still looking for a job.
That guy can't remember those names because we're old. Remember remember remember Danny White
and tweet. Remember that guy though it's Alo's gonna text me. I,
uh that guy, So you know, I murray, he's not good enough.
He's not gonna be good enough. Uh, he's not gonna be healthy
enough at the beginning, that's for sure. Yeah, I had the guy
to google the day Carson Wentz's what, We're awful. We're awful anyway,
So Jody will beyond uh to talk a little again. You know, stuff
going on off all over the place, and I know a lot of a
lot of you know, a lot of stuff with the Suns. The Cardinals
are coming up. Um, you know, the Diamondbacks are going really well
and pissing me off. Yeah yeah, I just goo was too right to
beat the hell out of the Dodgers fifteen. So no, but they've advanced
ahead of the Dodgers and my and my, my, my Reds. Who
I'm not really owning the Reds because I haven't been a Red Spen since nineteen
ninety. Uh, they're they're come out, they've won nine or ten straight.
Wow, Joey Votto comes out, you know, comes off like a
major injury, plays in his first game in like a year. He goes
yard and then they have that kid who just showed up. Yeah, and
guys playing well. Yeah, I didn't realize that the Giants had caught the
Dodgers. The Dodgers are the third place for the first time. And I
don't know how long it's nineteen eighty nine, eighty eight? Is that what
you saw? No, No, let's try. You'll be you know,
ninety four when I might not talk to you the you might not give So
here's a beat. Are you can get to the Rose Bowl before they win
the series again? Oh, that's a bad one. No, they'll win
the years before because I don't know that again with the with the Rose Bowl
and with the the expanded playoff and the Rose Bowl being a part of that
playoff every year after this year, we may we may never get to a
Rose Bowl, you know, because they have to get into the playoff and
then then get bracketed so that they can play in a Rose at the Rose
Bowl. Yeah, and I don't know how likely that is. So this
is it. I think this is the year that they've got to do it,
or the likelihood have been playing in a Rose Bowl is almost I'll give
you ten to one. They were five and seven last year. They're just
seven and five seven games in the regular season. It's another big Yeah,
just pitched for president. Now. I mean we've seen it before. Teams
have gone you know, I've gone from worst to first and had really bad
seasons and you know, shocked the world. But you know that's the you
know, the odds of that are our minuscules. So it's not not very
likely, Steven. So I don't feel good about whether it'll get to a
Rose Bowl with the Okay, as long as you're realistic about it. Okay,
what don't we just go is you're calling us whatever she's gonna call us
about in about three minutes. Okay, let's go. Let's go, let's
go and take our break. Well, uh well, we'll bring Ada Barnes
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mean my Heart Radio Whip. This is I on the Wall with Steve Bravara
and Jake and sALS on Fox Sports sporteen fifteen. Okay, welcome back to
I'm About here a Sports fourteen fifty on Steve, he's Jake. We're just
rooting for it be to give us a quick call. Uh, and we're
expecting any moment that our commercials were kind of weird, which is a couple
of play together. So the the commercial break was a little shorter than it
was supposed to be, So we're back a little before we expected, and
we were hoping to deal with would would have would have already called in,
So we're waiting for In fact, we'll hear the commercials again next hours.
Yeah, and be sure to go visit them. We can. But uh
um, you know again, you know, going back to what we were
talking about, how you know, look, sometimes you know, a coach
just wants to coach, right, and and that's all they want to do.
And we've even had a couple of those, you know in recent years
at the have age. Mike Steps just wanted to coach, right right.
Um, then others like Jed Fish, they know that being a head football
coach at the University of Arizona is more than you know, being on the
field right right. And in Tucson, because I think that Luke probably spoiled
them, did probably spoiled them. That's what Tucson is expecting, expecting.
You're when you're a small town. We're not. We're not Los Angeles college
town. When you're a college town, let's say it that way. When
when you're a college town, you know, the coach has more visibility than
they would. You know, Larry Smith probably us to be able to walk
around LA all the time, right, Um, Sure, you know,
sure, I mean Dad, you know, it's just uh, you know
when when you're in a college town like this, you know, people you're
recognizable, and people hope that you're gonna be out there, you know,
doing stuff and doing some good things for the community, shaking hands, kissing
babies. Uh, and they're giving you money, trying to make a difference,
right, And that's and that's one of the that's the thing with what
you know, this thing that that that A D is doing the Sports of
Leadership Academy, that you know, she wants to make a difference. She
doesn't just want to you know, put her name on something and you know,
and let somebody got off and run with it. But of course you
know in the story that the PJ. Brown did, she wants to be
a part of it, and she's gonna make her team a part of it,
which is gonna make other people want to be a part of it.
And so you know, you you full you know, you fully expect that
uh you know that that that this thing isn't going to be just something sitting
there with with her name on it, which can be you know, something
that you know the coaches do and not not just coaches, you know,
you know, celebrities right right, Um, you know this, uh you
know, we we talked about uh you know Andre agazine we're trying to do
with Arizona Assists, right, trying to make a difference you know and help
you know, help the athletes and stuff like that, which again then supposedly
helps the van so um that we talked about yesterday. Okay, so we're
just waiting for her to go a quick call and uh and it was three
fifteen, right, Yeah, Okay, I just want to you kind of
scare me sometimes. And I did give her the right phone number. Two.
It happens stuff, you know. But remember we had we had Bobby
Robbins had to to I don't want to say he stuffed us for fifteen minutes.
Let's just say he was delayed by fifteen minutes. Yeah, no,
and we were appreciate to Yeah, we're happy to get the fifteen that we
got. So and I think I think Adia is doing her camps this week.
Oh really, Okay, she was gonna she was gonna pull away from
that to come and to come and get on the phone with us. So
um, but you know, I just feel that, uh, you know,
she's she's really being one of the coaches that's gonna really go down however
she leaves, right whether she retires, she goes to a bigger school,
that there's always going to be an appreciation for what she's, uh, for
what she's done here because let's say let's say like let's speculate that a big
job opens up and she can't, you know, she can't turn it down
and she goes you know, whoever comes in, it's got to you know,
he's got a program to run that there's gonna be some expectations and so
just like there was, you know for Tommy Lloyd. So I'm pretty sure
that there's gonna be an appreciation for that, not not to the extent of
what for instance, Kaitlin Lowe had to take over with Mike and Drea.
You know, with all the national championships and stuff, that's still a program
that has got a profile. Now that's way beyond yeah, what it was
she got. I'm glad you mentioned that because I'm want to ask her a
question, which which is I don't know if she can help her even it's
it's not in the same ball park as her. But Okay, so she
came and she was a great player, an All American type player here,
a fantastic player, winning player. UM and went away and came back and
now she's back at her own mormantor doing great um And we know Katon Lowe
is a fantastic player, was a fantastic player All American. I wonder if
if she has or w would give advice to kat and given uh and I
know this the circumstances different. She replaced, Uh, she came in a
tough time, has done, but she didn't replace some a coach Obamasini.
But but uh, and and how do you replace the legend? Right right?
It's almost impossible. Yeah, you'd rather be the person that replaces the
person that correct. But I'm sure she has some advice just to kind of
settle into the job, if if, if that's a need, Yeah,
does that make sense? It does make sense, um, because there's a
lot of pressure on Canton, there's, without question, because who what's the
worst thing? You don't have a good year or whatever. Well, you
know you're not you're not good enough. You're not good enough, and you're
not you're certainly not not come Mike Kendred exactly. So we'll see if I
can ask you that question in a in a night, in a way,
in a good way, in a good way. Just that word. It
makes sense. It makes sense you, But I just gotta And again it
speaks to the idea that you know, she she knows that she's here to
do more than coach women's basketb right. You know people already see her as
a mentor uh, you know, both within within the athletic department and probably
you know and obviously you know out in the community, even in the basketball
world. Right, she's you know, she's one of the you know she
I'm reading the story with PJ. Brown. She she got invited to this.
Uh, I'm gonna look it up really quick. Here a thing with
Nike where she uh called the night the Nike Uh, the athlete think tank
where she was invited to with with what you know, people like Michelle we
Serena Williams Um, some some other athletes and some and some coaches to go
in and just share some ideas as to how they can use their voice to
to do things in their communities and so on. So um, you know
she she's again. But but I'll tell you what, man between all that
and then you know, being a mom, a couple of kids and the
whole deal. Man right again, where do you where do you find time
for all in the public? Guy? Right right? No question, no
question? So do you know your money? Just want to well, I've
yet made it. I sign a couple of text messages to the to the
UFA folks to see what she should be should be calling. So I know
she got gotten to the middle of some things. So, um, about
ten minutes that we can spend with her name maybe twelve fifteen? Um,
wait for a responsor, but um, what else do you've Um, we
were just talking. You've got this thing with the Titanic, right, oh
yeah, yeah, yeah, unbelievable. Unbelievable, but not because stuff like
this happens and you're thinking, how does this happen? Yeah? Yeah,
and you don't like water. I don't like water a much, this deep
water. Look, I didn't even go on the submarine right in Disney.
Okay, it's a small world boat. Yeah, that's that's fine. But
you know, when when you look at this whole thing, you're thinking,
what what were they thinking? Well, you couldn't pay me to do that,
yet these guys paid a quarter of a million dollars. It's like a
parachute. Why in the world would I do that? And you know,
if I get in there and they say, yeah, we're running this thing
with a with the Nextbox Game remote control. If you've seen that, that's
actually the mechanism using to operate, give me a refund. All right,
I'm not going out Wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait, You're
we're using a game console. What if it runs out of batteries? What
are you doing? Yeah? Right, well what to doing? This is
what they're doing now now they're in the rescue mission. Yeah, um yeah,
no, I was telling you it's not like this. But when I
first got here in eighty seven, I remember this very well with a little
girl. I think there was a little girl who who fell down the well
and they had to do all these things for a couple of days and they
had to pull out, and you think there's no way, and then they
got they did well. I did see u a twitter a Twitter post that
came out about three hours ago that said they were estimating that they've got forty
hours of breathable air from three hours ago. So um, yeah, you
know, but that's not a very long time. No, it's not like
a forty hours they have. I mean they've got a day and a half.
You find these guys, I don't know how you find them A needlet,
real needle in a haystock, right, and to be able to go
down there, I want you gonna do. Send somebody else down there,
and how do you find them? How do you get them some air or
whatever, or how do you get them up up to the surface. I'm
already getting I'm already getting a text from people. Yeah, I'll tell you
what they're saying. Well, you can imagine what they're saying. Wow,
well you read that. You know, you go on and see all the
things that some people day. What were you thinking? Oh no, no,
I'm talking about her guests. Oh about her guess yeah, we stood
up again. Oh people love doing that. I'm just telling them relax.
Yeah, you know, hey, look, you know, if she loves
come, I'm gonna ask you. We'll ask her something. I'm a very
busy person. Well, we're understanding. Maybe that's the thing. Maybe they
know that we're not gonna yell out at me because we're saying so just a
couple of guys, A couple of nice guys. Yes, yes, a
couple of nice guys. Dont of luck you know what it is that out
of looks I should say, Oh, I saw it's funny. I'm gonna
this is not a knock on you, but it's gonna be a little knock
kunny. Um. I went to George Lopez right on Saturday, and I'm
thinking, if if Jay just let himself go with his hair and his body.
He would be George Lopez because his hair. His hair is like have
you seen his show on TV? His hair is like his original show.
It's you know, yeah, I told he dad two kids, you know,
pretty wife, yea, the modern issues, but issues that you know
a lot of us his parents face. I haven't. I have not watched.
Well, he's scheduled a lot of hair. He's a little heavier and
uh he's a little yeah, a little worse than well yeah, no,
well, yeah, you're you're Brad Pitt. Yeah you're not Brad Pitt,
but you're Antonio's Lobotto junior. Yeah, yeah, it was It was funny.
He wasn't he hit some new new stuff. It's new stuff on old
terms, just kind of saying saying different jokes on same topics. So it
was good, it was worth it. But he was his Yeah he's getting
old, like oh all of us. But I moisturize, So I'm okay
kind of moisturize in this heat. We're still waiting, We're still waiting.
Um, look, it looks like we're gonna try and get her after the
break. After the break cool cool, Yeah, she still helped her.
She said it sound like she called, but sat here stared at the phone,
and you gave her the right number, right, yeah, yeah,
okay, Okay, why don't we why don't we do this? Why don't
just it's it's uh, I know we have some time that we have extra
time? Do we have extra time to either talk to her and then then
then say goodbye? Okay, you want to do that? All right,
let's say okay, let's go, let's go and take our break. We
have a long commercials. We'll have a long commercial break and then come out
of that. You can talk to her as long as we can. And
okay, it sounds good. Okay, let's take our break. We'll be
right back, hopefully with the da Bars. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball
fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now. Take
a look back at the Ludolson era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.
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net breaking down all the excess. And it's Steve Romera and Jaden Summits.
This is I Am the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen different They welcome back to
win the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jaden.
No idea staring you're gonna call in. No, we're expecting her.
She's gay. If you got time, we got twenty s I'm getting in
the text from her office. I don't know if there's maybe a problem with
the phone. She decided to stop talking to us because her questions, Yeah,
no, kiddy, right, so we're yeah, we have this coming,
but uh yeah, I'm just to wait for her to check. And
again we'd said it for three fifteen, so I don't know if she's got
other appointments are, you know right now? So we'll see if there's any
chance that we're gonna have to reschedule. Buks still trying, still trying to
get a da Barnes on the show. That's okay, we're getting through this.
We'll get through this. Yeah, um yeah. Another question is obviously
to ask, you know, the state of the basketball programs? Now,
who won? Who won the last show? Carolina? Yeah? What did
they? They should have? Um, Stanford got upset. There's a lot
of a lot of teams getting upset, the world of the game, the
game itself, and then I l transfers just seeing how she's dealt with it,
because she's had to deal with the last two years a very very large,
very in a big, large way. We're a large way. Yeah,
I mean where don't remember, Steve, don't remember who one? Yeah,
Um, I don't think South Carolina they go beat look at right now,
mL it's right, Yeah, that was a great game with iowan and
I'll shooting now that yeah, that's right because I yeah, I had the
shooter. Yeah yeah, uh yeah, I know great in the in the
in the you don't you can't see me? Yeah yeah, that's right there,
that's right. And then and and and what's her name Kim Mulki had
that ridiculous out there anyway? Yeah, okay, uh oh god, we're
told that she's on some other conference call or something. We don't know if
we're going to get it around, okay, So all right, man,
it's gotta make it up as it go along. Okay. Uh do you
want to keep the lines open? Um? Oh no, yeah, just
in case. Okay, Um, it doesn't look like it looks like we're
not gonna get it, okay, okay, uh uh all right, which
I've just said we're gonna we'll reasketch it, all right, so let's let's
move on, okay, um whatever. Okay, So then just if you
want to call, please do right, you apologize for that. You can
get his grief about it if you like. Again, things, uh,
you know, things happen, so and that's what that's what happens when you
get live radio. So Anyways, a lot a lot of discussion about Victor
Webb on Yama today. For some reason. He's in he's he's here for,
you know, getting ready for the NBA Draft. It was a really
funny video of of of him. He's that I must have been a Yankee
stadium or something like that, and he's he's, I don't know if he's
gonna take take batting practice, but he had a baseball bat in his hand,
and he looked like he was holding a te like your eye would look
if you're holding a T ball bad. I mean, it was just that
small. A lot of its kinds of people don't really know how tall he
is. They say he's seven some four thought or something like that. And
he's doing and he's doing all kinds of crazy things. I mean, he
plays like a guard. You step back three pointers. Oh here, we
gotta call this. Hell, you're one on the ball. Hey there,
how are you cat recruiting costs? Those? How are you okay? You
got? Yeah? You gotta take those calls otherwise then we're not gonna want
to talk to you. Right, So we're shit. You're calling anyway,
So thank you? How the heck are you? In fact? That we're
hoping you break some news. Any few family members coming, No, no
family members. No. I was, Oh, you're saying pregnant that that
problem is not gonna happen. Sounds good. Well, out of service from
now on, as as are some of us as well, so idea.
So we wanted to talk to you because we saw the story earlier. I
think it was just yesterday on this uh Sports and Learning Academy that you're doing.
Um and we Steve and I've been talking a lot about how you know,
some coaches they don't just coach, they do other things, and this
is one of those things. First of all, just give us a little
bit of a rundown of of what this is and what it kind of what
it means to you and what you're doing with it. Okay. So I've
obviously been involved with the Boys and Girls for many, like decades. So
in Seattle, I was in SCALE for fourteen years, I was on executive
board, did a ton of stuff in the community with my foundations and just
get shoot from the college the WNBA. So it's the organization I've always loved.
So when I moved to Tucsons, you know, Joan was really involved,
and I obviously that's the national organization. I wanted to be involved here
with the Boys and Girls sub so got involved, got on the board,
have a lot of good friends that work there, so just continue to work
with them, and I involved. I was involved with Nike doing some really
cool stuff to like just got put out a couple of weeks ago. It
was called the Athlete Think Tank, and so in the asses Think Tink we
get to like Nike helps us just kind of narrow our focus and see what
we're passionate about. I'm obviously passing on women in sports and opportunity to sport,
access to sport, and obviously quality and stuff like that for young girls.
And I thought, well, in Tucson, I feel like there's nothing
significant for young girls, you know, playing basketball, and there's not a
lot of opportunities here like I see another place. So I wanted to be
a part of creating change for that. Nike loved it and want they want
to support what I would feel passions about, and so UM donated one hundred
thousands to the Boys and Girls clubs and so, but I didn't want it
to be like just one hundred thousand, like oh here you go here's money,
like do what you want. I wanted to create um like a program
that could be impactful. They could end up being the best program in the
state and then national. So we could have an academy, so teaching skills
on and off the court. It's providing access to sports. By we're doing
some stuff in a specific clubhouse will enable them to play. Because like the
Drew Steve Drew clubhouse, like the air contain does the works, the floor
need to be resurfaced, so that needed a faceclift. So wanted to impact
that one directly. And then m like a girl power day where I can
have mentors come in and my friends can speak to the kids and then empower
them and get them motivated to want to do some big things and dream big.
And so it's gonna been there's a five thousand dostarge of every year that's
the youth of the year will get one female will get per year. Nice,
so something that like it's sustainable and it's like a legacy and people can
be involved, and so I'm excited it's going to be incredible. Yeah,
I'm assuming that, well we know this before you were here and even when
you played here. The youth basketball, especially for girls. They had some
pretty good players every now and again or whatever. But since you've arrived,
you can see that the women's game or the little girls game has improved.
Have you have you seen that or seen the impact? Yeah? I think
that, you know, basketball is getting better, But when I look at
Tucson, I don't feel like I see a lot of like opportunities here and
like you know, and honestly, like working with Nike in a high level,
I learned a lot, Like I didn't know there's a huge percentative girls
to stop playing sports, and you guys gonna crazy, You guys are gonna
say, what because of sports frauds like FOURT brothers are really expensive and some
stopped playing because they don't have access to sports bras makes sense, I guess,
yes, Yeah, well I never thought about that. I just thought,
so, there's so many things I can do that just can't impact that.
I was like, after I heard that, I'm like, I'm gonna
sports Rod drive at the game, like you know, just like that's like
and then I'm gonna tell you guys another thing, and you guys gonna probably
drop your little microphone. You know what. The first Spurts fra was what,
okay, take a guys men's underwear. Okay, yes, you're a
good jock strap. This is why I learned a Nike. The first Spoorts
bra was a jock scrap stone together. Yeah, oh my god, I
like, what we do? You know, we don't even like that was
kind of funny, but I couldn't believe. I was like, wow,
yeah, we don't even like worrying what the well, you know, and
and well imagine we probably hated it, didn't do anything. Well again,
when you know, and then when you think about that and how far I
mean, the starting point for girls basketball versus the starting point you know,
for boys basketball are two very different places when you talk about issues like that
that you know, we never had to deal with that. You know,
you're playing a T shirt and short and that it and you don't know until
you know, right, Yeah, well I didn't know that, Like I
didn't even think about that, because you know, I just thought that's like,
wow, I stuff I didn't think about. But I think that I
think a lot of young women are aren't confident. And so even even if
you don't have to be some Division one player, but even getting young girls
and sports, and sometimes there's religious reasons. Some girls can't play. Like
there's a Youth of the Year at a Tucson there wasn't allowed to play for
years. It's Somalian descent and because the religious reason, wasn't allowed to and
then playing it safe her life. So there's so many different obstacles, and
I think that young women just quit sports blot So I wanted to create something
special and impact it here, be able to test it, be able to
see it, be able to grow in And my goal is to build the
biggest US like girls program in the state or nastional like where it can be
big. So like one hundreds of girls are coming for Girl Power Day and
just better teams and younger teams and just access. So what's the starting point
for this? How does something like this you know, in terms physically what's
going to happen? What are we going to see in terms of what your
this academy is going to be. Well physically, the money had to go.
So the money was there. That's the starting boards. You have to
have money to do all this stuff to higher staff, I'm funding and all
that stuff. Um, the next thing you'll see is like we're developing like
programs. It will probably start the next month or so. Okay, so
you'll see a big press release coming out probably the next few weeks and then
with the date of the program. So then we'll start like in the summer
going there for different stuff and the actually there will be actual programming. So
it's a design program. Yeah, okay, god, okay, all right,
Well and yeh, I mean I saw in this story you picked this
clubhouse because, as you said, you know, it's got some physical issues
that need to be fixed over there, and it's look, let's say it's
a it's in an area town where there's just not a ton of money over
there, and I guess you're just you felt like that's the best place to
start this and give them an opportunity to have something that can help them.
Yeah, And what I liked about the club was it's a mixture, so
it's it's really interesting. It's diverse. So it's a lot of immigrants from
all over like you could be Mexicille, like Africa, like a lot of
immigrants, and then it's mixed with some wealthier kids. So I thought it
was a perfect diverse mixture, and I actually sent my son there last week
starting like, so he's going to be involved because I think he needs to
be exposed to everything and just different people, different life. And I think
the other thing is like there was a swamp cooler, there was no air
kiddation thing they couldn't there wasn't like resources there to even like participate in things.
So I felt like that club really needed love. And I knew if
I got involved that other people lived, so other donors, other fans like.
So I felt like I could really impact it as close to you of
a right, Okay, so let to run over there. We could do
internships there, So it was it was a place that I can, like,
um, be really involved with. Ye. That's felt I could really
impact in that way. Okay, I'm gonna throw you a big lay up
question. Okay, easy, lay everybody want you to explain this. You
know, at some point when you were you kind of thought I'm gonna be
a head coach someday, or I'm gonna have an opportunity to do something like
this. You decided you wanted to be this right, and Steve and I
were talking about, you know, some coaches just want to coach. You
don't want to do the other stuff that goes with this. At some point
you made a decision that this is the type of stuff. You know,
when you went to coach somewhere, You're gonna get yourself involved in the community.
You're gonna want We're gonna want to do more than be a coach on
the court. When did that hit you? When did you decide that that's
what you wanted to do. Well. I never had aspirations to be a
coach, so I always had aspirations to impact. Like so, I didn't
know I wanted to coach until I started coaching, because I was like,
I don't know if I'm gonna want to coach these kids, Like I didn't
know. Um, I just knew I love basket all and I really loved
mentoring and I loved foundation stuff. So I was the first of the NBA
player to start a five O one C three And I did that because a
lot of my friends on the NBA side, like rayale I was Chard Lewis,
they all had him. I was like, I love your things.
So I used some of my NBA friends resources to start mine because I borrowed
there people because I'd have the money like they is and that's how I started
mine. And then I just did the little stuff like for me, it
was like effortless and it was so impactful. So when I was I made
programs with a storm. Like one day, I was like, I want
to donate sus. So I said, I said, we're gonna. I
had volunteers. We put out like fifty bins and I said, okay,
that we're gonna donate sus and we're gonna give them out to like all these
boys and girls clubs and stuff. So we would donate sus and I would
say, okay, what's the fourth school in Seattle? And they would tell
me the school were like ninety nine percent rounds for your assists and lunch in
the elementary. So I did a school supply drive. So to me,
it was like it was I could do it because I was. I had
the platform and it was easy and it was fun and I loved it.
So I've always done that. I've always had that servant mental. If I
have access to things, why wouldn't I do that? Like it's easy,
okay, And so I think that was just my mindset because for me,
I'm never gonna win enough games like coaches get fired, probably get fired.
You love when you're when you win, you're hated it when you're laws when
you lose. So I figured, like I thought the biggest impact would be,
like, what's my legacy, Like, how about I remember I remember
by like the things they did to make twosm better, the things I did
that made young girls like have access and um, just like impassing people here.
I think of making it a better place than how it came. Like,
to me, that's more important than like to win the losses. I'm
never gonna win fifty championships. Well, you've made an impact on a lot
of people. They go to the games, they go to games, they
love you. You've you've shown that. But I think that's because of what
we do. So like I feel like if you don't have like that offensicity
and you're not out there like doing stuff to make things better, they're not
going to follow you. And I honestly think because we were getting thousands of
fans when we weren't great, I think it's because of that stuff. They
see what you do then they want to support. It's like, wow,
you know, I think it's all correlated. Yeah, it makes a lot
of sense. I mean, you know, and again that's why I said,
you know, some coaches just wanted to coach, and there have been
some coaches to come through Arizona who just wanted to coach, and then,
as you say, when the time came that maybe they needed some support,
it kind of wasn't there because they weren't out there. And you know,
I won't mention names, but you know there's some coaches that I specifically have
in mind, and even something before you got it, they thought that coach
might still be here if they had been out doing stuff and got to know
people. And I feel like, uh, you know, there's more to
the head coaching job than again, as you say, the XS and oh
so I think that this town has an appreciation for that. And again,
being a college town, you're more visible than if you were coaching and late
say Los Angeles, right, yeah, And I think that like some coaches,
I think it just gets pulled of so many direction, right, It's
hard, but I feel like that we have an opportunity and like we have
the obligation to like, like give back. I think that when you get
to a certain level and you have the ability to put on Twitter to like
rememberingly like Lena was passed, like he was sick and he was gonna die.
It's like he told me, Okay, I want to give clinic bosses.
Like for me, I feel like, because for me to take an
hour or two on Twitter, like that's nothing for someone I can make like
their families feel so sussiful, Like how could I not do that? That's
how I felt. More. I felt like, you're supposed to do it,
right, Like if you're not doing it, you don't get it because
you're supposed to help people. And like, I think that's just kind of
the way you said be I don't mean to be coaching if you're not into
that, right, right, right, then let's talk basketball real quick.
I don't know if you remember this. Two years ago, Jay and I
he had just come on the scene and I and I stupidly and you guys
laughed at me. You and J says, well, now that you have
arrived, and you were like in the championship with the n I T you
said, Steve, we haven't arrived, and you guys laughed at mean,
and more power to you, because you're right. You've had some great success,
great success, and it's it's tough to get there, it's almost twice
as tough to stay there. How has it been with all that success to
kind of stay up there? I think it's been. It's been hard because
I think that once you and I'm a competitor, like this is why I
CoA. It's like I want to win. Um, so you want to
impact, you want to do things the right way, but you're like,
I want to win. And I think different people like approach things differently,
and I think it's just people's mindset. So for me, like we haven't
arrived yet. Um yeah, Like now we're a consistent top twenty program.
Yeah we're good, but it's like we haven't won anything yet. So for
me, it's like that that drives to win and like like sustain obviously,
which is really hard to do, but like, um, but I want
to win and that's why I'm here and that's what I'm trying to do,
so that's what we're working towards. But yeah, I think it's it's really
hard. Winning is hard. It's supposed to do now with all the nil
and there's so many facets to everything. But I think it's fun and they
drives me because after you have a taste of success. You want the real
thing, you want to win it. We only got about maybe another minute
and a half or so, but this is a much longer topic. But
you know, again, a lot of turnover and so many teams. Tommy's
team turned over, a bunch of your team turned over, a bunch of
you know, all these teams all over the country are turning over. With
the transfer portal and all this kind of stuff, is that just gonna be
a regular thing? Now? Do you think that that's We got to get
used to it being that way. Absolutely, And I remember, like about
two months ago, I was taking all kinds of heat. Everybody's online.
He doesn't know that the last all players us and they're like laughing because you
can't say. You can't say the truth about everything. You can't say you
put them in the portal if they put themselves, and like, you can't
say, even though you want to. But so I just sat back and
mind just happened fast. But some of that was by design. I know,
it's people really fast the changes. But after you saw that happened with
me, the average was like four and a half kids, So then it
kind of got normal. But I think this is college athletics. Right,
you were going to lose people every year if they don't play there or not
staying, and they all think they're better than they are usually and kids leave,
and I think that's the way it is. But for me, it's
like I want to coach what I want to be here that like, I
want to be a great teammate. And they aren't just looking at their stuff.
So um, it's talented. I think it's gonna happen with on the
men's side, our side, it's just the way it is. And with
nil the teams have more money, they're gonna buy players. Yeah, and
that's the reality. So you have to figure out how to navigate that,
right, the new world of college about college sports? Actually, so do
you? Thanks a bunch, Hey, thanks a bunch. We know you're
a bunch of a busy person. Again, you gotta go get some more
players, so then we want to invite you on the show some more.
I know, not happening. I have like, well, I have my
daughter and twelve other dollars exactly exactly, all right, coach, thanks a
whole bunch. I have a great summer. We'll talk to you again at
some point. I appreciate it. Thank you all right, bye for us.
I'm glad we got such She's such a great interview page. It's so
easy going. I know she's not easy going, you know, on a
lot of stuff, but well, good coaches aren't, right, you know,
good coach learned. She's I want to win in the in the end,
she's doing all this stuff she wants to Let's talk more about it.
We have breaking news, we have some breaking we have some stuff and talk
more about. There's a whole lot more stuff to talk about because I think
that uh you know what she's a lot of what she said is really is
really important. So let's uh go and take our break. We're gonna come
back. We will have some breaking news and then we'll break down Ada's uh
Ida's stuff as well, So we'll be right back