This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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R two SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jagan Zawis got our guy Kevin in the house today on a Monday.
Welcome to the show. We hope you call, because who knows what's
gonna happen? Five two, four one, six thirty four forty Arizona showed
a good Arizona and a bad Arizona and then a good Arizona. Uh.
I'll just ask you guys a question today. Do you trust this team?
Do I trust it to do? What? To do you trust this team?
Uh? You're you're in mid March or your first run on the tournament?
Does this? Does this team have six bullets in it? I think
it does some right Here. Here's what you know. What I was paying
attention to as as Stanford was yesterday Stanford was doing again what it did Arizona
in Palo Alto, was that I was watching Arizona's saying, are they really
playing bad defense? Where Stanford just shooting the lights out? Because they're just
shooting the lights out, And it looked to me like Arizona was just playing
good that Arizona was playing good defense. They were just making shots. So
and that's my way of answering, Yes, I trust them in that the
effort was there. I thought, you know, I mean, look,
they're not so good that if a team goes off that they still can't lose.
They're gonna lose. Yeah, they can't do they have six wins in
them in March. I think they do when they're somewhere, you know,
as I'm watching more of the other teams go out, Like I watched the
entire Kansas Houston gate, they look fantastic. Kansas looked really good and Houston
looked ordinary. But guess what the Houston game before that? Rightable? Right,
and that, And that's what I'm saying. I watched a bunch of
the Duke North Carolina game. Yeah, I like Carolina. I think Arizona
has those same pieces in there. They can do those same things. The
question is, on a given night, you know, do you have the
right matchup? Because The thing that I couldn't get out of my brain about
the Stanford game was that, for some reason, Stanford just a terrible matchup
for Arizona. Yeah, because yeah, right there is. They are right.
They got big guys who can shoot. You know, you got you
got forty two who was out on the out on the perimeter in the first
half and made like, you know, four to three pointers and Umar ballas
the guy's got to get out on the get out there on him. Finally
he did. Finally, Well I saw exactly when he did. When the
guy, uh, you know, made one in the second half, I
think the only one he made in the second half, and Tommy is yelling
at Umar, you know, pointing, get out there, and he did
and that was that. But that's not Lumar's game though, No, he's
close to the basket guy. So as I was watching midway through the first
half and then the near this the halftime, I'm thinking, God, I
might have to go kat Williams on these guys in my column, you know,
just kind of say, is this team worthy of getting to the Final
four or whatever? Do they have six bullets? And even in the early
parts of the second half, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to start being a
little more critical in my story. And then they won the game, right,
they kind of did it one away as well. I guess they called
him off to wait. I may may never never be written, but I'm
thinking, Man, if this team plays against a good team, it won't
have a chance, because because this is for four chances. They lost five
games, right, four of them from the perimeter, four of them produe
five maybe all five from the perimeter. And I'm thinking to myself, Ja,
how difficult is it to get on the get out and defend him on
the perimeter, And again it's it's uh, well what I what what I
saw was that I think the reason that I think that they can be that
good is because of how we're seeing kJ Lewis emerge, Jade and Bradley's you
know, handling the ball, you know really well. You know, Crevis
is is you know, becoming you know, more confident underneath the basket,
like he actually went up and dunked a ball in traffic, right he also
didn't. Yeah, but what but what I'm saying is that those next three
guys make them pretty good, specifically kJ Lewis. So I think they have.
I I think they're comparable to the other teams that we think, you
know, have a shot at the national champions So so, uh, we
talked about odds last week, were you We talked about odds and getting too
the final four? Was even Sammy, we did talk about that. So
okay, you would probably say that they what what would be the worst case
scenario if you would be disappointed on the season if they didn't they got to
get to the second weekend. They gotta get I don't know, you know,
I have a problem with saying the team got to the sweet sixteen and
it wasn't good enough because it's hard to do true, no matter what you
say, it's hard to do true. But the last two years disappointment,
right, Yeah, well definitely last year's I mean no doubt about that,
okay, and then and then and the other one because you just thought Arizona
should be able to take Houston in that game and then they couldn't and didn't
look good doing right. So, well, isn't this team just the same
as it was two years ago? Even last year where they're they're very good,
but you don't know how good they are or well you've seen the basta.
But who's who Name a team that's not like that? You can't.
Probably to this point, that's really it. You can't. I mean you
don't. You don't like to do and I don't like the're built around They're
built around one guy that you if you stop him and if the other guys
don't, his shirt shots, so you know, and new CON's just hot
right now. I mean, you know, so is ukon the team that
you look at and say, well, they're you know, but Steve,
all the teams are like that. Kansas is like that, North Carolina is
like that. Duke's like that. You know, Tennessee is like Kentucky,
you know, lost another one over the weekend. I mean, there's That's
why I'm saying Arizona's really not different from all the other teams that we're talking
about who can win it. The question is who do you run into?
You know, if if if Tennessee and Kentucky are playing in the Sweet sixteen
like they did on Sunday, Kentucky's getting his ass kicked. You know.
Similarly, if you know, if Arizona has has Duke again, you know
they can beat to So I'm just saying that we it's like we want Arizona
to be perfect, right, Well, we see what we know what we
see, right, and this is the only team we see on a regular
versis. But it's like we want them to be we want all the pieces
to come together in every game, and they don't and that's not gonna be
possible, and and so and then I think the added thing is, like
we said and I said in the past, is that you know it's Pack
twelve competition. You don't expect much from the PAC twelve competition. When Arizona
has a tough time against a PAC twelve team, you go, what the
hell? So, uh, look, you're back to your question, your
your question. Do I still think Arizona can win it all? Yes?
But do I still think Arizona can be out in the first weekend? Yes?
So that's a big extreme there, you go. No, I do
too, because you don't know if they come up against a team that you've
never seen before, that can shoot the shots early, and they're gonna they're
gonna face that that uh, that Murray State or that whomever. But but
also think about think about what they did against both U C. L A
and and and Stanford teams that were playing out of their minds, okay,
out of their minds when they came here, and yet it got it.
They got their act and they came back and they won both of those games
and they never looked, uh in a panic. Okay, but let me
also say that Stanford, and you say, art n Cuba team, I
hear you. So if you get a better team, the better team may
figure them out how to stop Arizona in a rush, in a rush,
I hear you. So I'm not I'm not trying to poop poo Arizona.
Everyone thinks I'm gonna pooh pooh, mister poop poo. But that's not That's
not the case in this room, mister more realistic. But you know this
is I agree with you. There's a team that can get to the final
four and who knows, and I even like their chances once they get there,
because there'll be Arizona that no one thinks anything above them. But they're
also the team that says, oh, we're the guys that can show up
and pakay, well, let me ask you this way because they because as
we all know, it takes basically you just get on a street. If
this, if this Arizona team with what it's capable of, goes on a
tear, goes on a streak like the ninety seven team or whoever, don't
anything they can win at all. Sure, Sure, but there's also five
or six teams like the I hear that there are, and it's depending who
you run into. Matchup is when you run into them, and the whole
bit. I agree, I agree. But when Arizona's playing at its best,
Okay, let's say it plays six straight games where it's playing its best
basketball, Sure they can win it. Sure, of course. Of course,
It's like I see on Facebook. I think I talked to you last
week about this some guy they beat in California. When when Arizona plays as
best or capable of beat of anybody, Okay, you can see that of
five teams, and that's just not cos just not anybody. They're not anybody,
you know again, it's uh. The bottom line though, is you
know they won the two games they needed to win. Yeah, okay,
so this conversation maybe be different next with us Monday after the road. It
depends on what happens, right, I mean, most you know, pretty
much anybody in the league is going to go into the go to the mountain
schools and lose a couple of games. You know, Arizona, you think,
just got a split, Go in there and win one and you'll be
and you're good. Neither of those teams have lost at home this year.
There's a reason for that. So no, they're good. They're good,
and they're good at home. Yeah, so, I uh, you know,
I think that I think what we saw was both ends of it,
right. We saw a team that you seek to be out in the first
weekend. Then we saw a team that you think that team gets on a
roll and kJ Lewis keeps playing the way he's playing, and and Crevis gives
him, you know, and and Umar Ballow back to back double doubles.
You know. No, there's lots of like this team that you know,
they play like that, that they can do a lot. Sure, they
can do a whole ton. And I think I think part of what Jay
was talking about earlier is that with the amount of teams in the top ten
that can make a run and yeah, see success, why not Arizona.
And especially because we I think fans have seen the high Highs and they've seen
them. We have four minutes do you have the top ten up or do
right? Now? Go give me, give me the give me your number
one? Two threes? You con right, very capable, very good.
Obviously I haven't seen them enough to know how good they are. But but
they're obviously number one for a reason. We have you cut at twenty and
two and then Purdue. I don't know, I don't. I wouldn't trust
them at all. I don't trust given given whatever. North Carolina at three
Kansas they play Kansas State on the road. They are a lot like Arizona,
don't you think? Yes? Oh? Okay, I mean honestly,
any of the teams that were about to mention here a lot like Arizona.
Who's Who's five? Houston? Okay? Okay there? I think I like
them better than anybody, But i'd be a fun game, good game.
Tennessee at six, I haven't did you see that game with Kentucky? They
looked good, they look good. Look at home right a Kentucky? Okay,
look really good? So that transferred Dalton connect he's yeah, he's scoring
all the points for them. He's he looks really good. Marquette at number
seven, I haven't even seen I saw them early in there. I haven't
seen them recently. Arizona at eight, Duke at nine, Illinois at ten.
They just barely beat Nebraska yesterday at home, Wisconsin at eleven, Auburn
at twelve, Baylor thirteen, okay, sty So yeah, in the top
ten, they're all outside of maybe Yukon or a lot like Arizona. Yeah,
you want to trust them, you want to trust them, but you
know that you're not sure whether to trust them. Yeah, you can trust
them. You can trust them to be talented enough to get to a certain
point, But do you trust them to be consistent? That's what But and
here's and here's your thing, and I don't know, you know, again,
I think I don't. I didn't feel like what was going on yesterday
with Arizona had had anything to do with Arizona overlooking Stanford, because Stanford kicked
their asses. So I didn't think they were overlook I just thought Stanford came
out and played great for you know, the better part for the whole first
half, and you know, and then Arizona came on in the second half.
So you know, I feel like, you know, when Arizona shows
up to play, let's say they're you know, in around and they're playing
one of these teams above me. You're gonna see the best Arizona team.
Oh yeah, Now they may they may still lose, sure, but they're
not gonna lose because they didn't play well. That's fair, right, that's
fair. If you lose that way, that's fine because you just weren't good
enough. And I think that's the case if you get to the Sweet sixteam.
If this team gets to see existing, all bets are off because they'll
play like they can play. Look, I'm looking at I'm looking at everybody
above Arizona in the rankings, and the only one that I think I'm willing
to say that I believe is better than Arizona is Yuka. Okay, I
think I think aside from that, Arizona is pretty much on a level with
everybody else. And and those two, you know, they walk on the
court against any of those teams and it's like a fifty to fifty shot.
Okay, we'll get to more of this later. We have a pretty good
show here with a couple of great guests. We do. Chip Hale was
gonna going to us a previewing his team getting ready to get to kick off
their their season his third, yeah, his third, right, yeah,
and then Or's four, No, it's third because we all the softball him
okay, and Tommy's third years, oh yeah, okay. And then we're
gonna talk super Bowl. We're gonna try to talk Super Bowl all week with
people who players have been in the Super Bowl. Our first one up is
Ricky Hunley. We're going to talk just about the game, not to not
get into any of the what's going on with the uf A program with the
new head coach, but we are going to talk doctor Ricky about what the
heck it was like to be He played in back to back Super Bowl,
so yeah, would okay, but he has what do you remembers from all
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free evaluation Today. Dreamy Live ony iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome
back to One of the Ball here fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Baberta. He's
jagins Alas. Now on the phone. We have Chip Hail from the There
was on a baseball team. Actually he's the head coach of the baseball He's
not just from the team. Just what you hit? How are you hitting
at the chip? How you know? You guys can call me anything you
want. I am part of the team. That's what that's my that's part
of my job. How was how was the KG event? In his third
year. Uh, we're good, We're good. We're ready to go.
And uh, you know, it's it's tough to tell right now. We
say that first series this year it'll be against Northeastern here at Hi Corbett.
We'll tell us a lot about the team right now. They're they're fighting it
out with each other and it's interesting to tweaking to watch the pitchers and the
hitters compete like that. I'm excited for them to root for each other.
Now, Yeah, Doude, you going into in the preseason, do you
have a sense of where your team is going to be in terms of strengths,
weaknesses, Uh, that kind of thing, or the type of team
it's going to be, or is it just kind of do they ever surprise
you? And you go, I had no idea we had this. Yeah,
I know, you get you get surprised all the time. This year,
I mean, we kind of have an idea. This is the kind
of the youngest group we've had since we've been here. I mean, we
had a pretty veteran late group to start with. This year, our pitchers
will be a little more veteran, with our position players being newer and younger.
Uh, and there's still actually some position battles going on, so it's
been exciting in baseball. How do you tell how do you tell about if
a players are competitor? You know, a guy who can be very talented
and hit the ball, and you know glove has all the tools, but
how do you find out if he's a competitor. And I'm sure that's like
maybe a priority of yours he any coach. Yeah, you want you want
mentally tough guys, and we hope we we hit that when we were you
know, we look at that, We talk to coaches, We watch them
in the summer when we're able to get out and watch them compete. You
get an idea of it, but yeah, you won't really know that until
they get into it. They face some adversity that you know, a lot
of these kids have never done that. They're always the best guy on the
team, are the best guy in their whole high school, you know,
whatever. Sports. So now all of a sudden they're playing against guys are
as good as them and they get they get smacked in the face around a
little bit and see if they can battle back from it. So, you
know, if you're a good team, you're gonna lose good players, you
know, every year you've got holes to fill in that type of thing.
But you know, to me, I mean, Chase Davis, to me
was one of the best players I ever saw in Arizona. I've been here
a really long time. You know, what's your approach when you have to
fill a hole like that? You know, you try to avoid putting pressure
on the new guys. Ull What how do you handle that? Yeah,
we just you know, we just throw it open and see who wins that
job. You're never gonna You're never gonna have the same guy, you know,
Nick McClary at shortstops. You know, we were hoping Mason White,
uh, the South Point grad who was you know, came on the scene
late last year really really good and played second third for us. We're hoping
he can fill that short stop spot. Do we expect him to be exactly
like Nick? No? Probably not. Do they have a higher upside?
Maybe we'll see with Chase. You know, we have a number of guys
running out the left field right now, and they're all good players. They
were all good in high school, they were all good in junior college.
But who knows until the lights turn on and and who's gonna take it.
That's why you might see some different lineups from us were last year. We
were kind of set from the start. You you've been doing this pretty much
all your life, coach uh, at every level. Your third year in,
how do you feel here, more comfortable, more at ease, what's
your temperament? Well, you know, we went out and hired new pitching
coach this year and a new player development coach. My player development coach went
to BYU, so we went more on the pitching side for the player of
the moment, so we put a lot into our pitching. I feel super
comfortable with what they've done with these guys, but again, it doesn't matter
until we get into the outside competition. So there's a little bit of uneasiness
on the new group. But I feel comfortable about the way we've coached them
and the way they've competed. Whether it's in the weight room or in the
classroom, they've done a good job, and in the preseason they've they've done
as good as they can do. So it'll be fun to get going.
I think sometimes when you have so many unknowns, it becomes more of an
exciting time, so you just mentioned how you know you've gone put a little
bit more of an emphasis on the pitching side going into a season. You
prefer having a veteran pitching staff and a you know, a young you know
fielding hitting group, or the other way around. I mean, which makes
you more comfortable having veterans going on the mound? I think the most comfortable
to be. We have veterans everywhere, it seems like in college sports for
the most part, we see it all over the place. You know,
older wins. You know, you see the gonzagaz and these the butlers and
basketball that you don't be good and they got a bunch of seniors. Those
are the good teams. And it works that way in our sport too.
But I do feel more comfortable if I had to pick one of the other,
as our pitching be a little veterans. Now, we have a lot
of veteran arms that really didn't have as much success as they probably should have,
and I think they've done a good job of adapting to Kevin Vance's new
new way of doing things and it improved from it. So it should be
really fun to watch them. So are you where are you in terms of
how close are you to having the lineup. You said you still got a
lot of some competitions going on, but you you started a little over a
week, well almost two weeks. But how close are you are? You
are you close as you would like to be? Yeah, we are.
We're as close as we like to be. We're we're close. We're close.
We're you know, we've got an idea of third base, left field
for you know, first base catcher is a big one for us too this
year. So we've got an idea. We've got two or three guys that
probably could start at all those spots, but we're gonna have to sign on
one to start. And uh, we have a good idea. We we
talked about it today and we're getting there. How did how did the fall
help? The fall was great? I mean it was obviously that that's their
chance to compete. We always tell them you can. The funny thing is
you can win the job in the fall, and you could lose it,
you know, the month before we start. That's how that's how tricky these
things get. So we had a lot of guys did well in the fall.
Outside competition against Pima and Central Central Community College was good. Uh,
we played hermaicyal again and the guys. That's what was really happy, made
me happy was watching how hard they competed. You talked about it earlier,
and we want to have a bunch of gamers and even if the help level
may not be a big league at this point when they're young, if they
compete hard, they're gonna be really good for us. So, going kind
of going back to following up on my first question, so, do you
have a sense of what this team is going to be and you know,
uh, you know what you're gonna sort of what you're gonna stand on this
this year, or you know what are they from a competitive standpoint, an
urgency standpoint, anyone of a number of characteristics that you you hope a team
has, do you You haven't You haven't the sense of that yet. Well,
probably not not until they get outside and you know, gets another team.
Our pitchers have been so good and in the early part of you know,
whatever youone call it winter spring, seems like win or more to us
the wage ways been but they've really been good. So our hitters have battled
their butts off to get you know, to get on base and get hit.
It always hasn't been easy, So I think it's just going to make
them better with the outside competition. I think there's emergency there. I'm hoping
that that continues. You know, do you want to talk about physically what
kind of team we're going to be. We should be a team that's a
little more athletic then we've been in the past. We should be able to
run a little more. We should be able to handle the bat. But
you don't got to do it when games start. You've never shied away from
being having a tough schedule. I'm assuming that's going to be the case again.
Yeah, we've got a nice Northeastern comes in here to open the season,
and every goes Northeastern. Well, they're ranked twenty third there that we're
not ranked at all. So they have a supposed first round pick, I
guess, a top ten outfielder that's really good, and they got a bunch
of veteran pitchers. So it'll be a good past to go to start out.
And then we're gone for three weeks. You know. We go to
University San Diego. We're gonna bust over there and play them three games,
and then off to Frisco, Texas to play a Dallas Baptist. We'll play
TCU on that trip, Alabama and Indiana those are all good, good quality
teams, and then we'll go from there to over to USC and play the
Trojans. So holy heck, that's good. No, that's good. I
don't know. The coaching good, Okay, that one. So chip,
you know, of all the of all the sports I've covered, baseball,
what I found is that, Nope, no players have more of a chip
on their shoulder than baseball players. Just the way they walk, they talk,
you know, and they they act because they're good athletes overall. Not
being ranked and probably not maybe being overlooked may help you, right, I
would assume. So yeah, it definitely does. I mean we obviously people
are not happy, the kids aren't happy. I feel exlighted. But it's
funny because you start voting for the PAC twelve rankings, and you know you're
not allowed to vote for yourself. You start looking at the different teams and
you know there's there's some veteran teams in there, and they're always going to
get more votes than us, just because that's all you can go on as
who has who's who's coming back? And when you see are a bunch of
our pitchers are coming back. It's well, have they performed well enough to
get, you know, to think that they're gonna we're gonna be a good
team. And we feel like they've gotten so much better, but the outside,
the outside doesn't and we're ready to prove it. So this is your
last season coaching in the Pac twelve. You played in the well when it
was the Pac ten. But uh, you have any time for being a
little sentimental about this this year and sort of the the last rodeo in in
Pac twelve baseball for you. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah,
definitely there there's there's gonna be some reminiscing. And it's too bad that your
USC you know, it's Billy and New Stay and they're they're building out their
practice football facilities, so they they're knocking down Dale Field, so we won't
get to play there, which was disappointing for me. We're gonna have to
play them in Irvine. But yeah, we get to go up to Washington
and Oregon. It'll be tough. I mean, because I don't you know,
the funny thing about it is when we start playing the Big twelve,
I don't foresee us going you know, we'll go to hopefully go to Stanford,
play up in the big area at some point, play in LA somewhere,
whether it's you know, whether it's an O Pac twelve school or it's
fuller tentor schools like that. We want to make our presence there because of
the recruiting part of it, right, But yeah, it would be our
last time probably going north. You know, I don't see us going back
up to Oregon or Oregon State or Washington or Washington unless it's some sort of
regional We haven't talked to many of the of the sports like you guys,
But do you talk about the travel, right, how difficult difficult it's going
to be. Do you think it's going to be. I'm thinking nineteen twenty
year old kids don't give a crap before they play, know that we're in.
That's the funny thing about this. Obviously, I've got so many years
in this league. I can remember, you know, growing up in California
as it's the Pack eight. So it is sad it's it's ending, and
who knows, maybe it comes back in five six years, you never know.
But the good thing for us on the other side of it is the
Big Twelve, especially in baseball, it's a very very competitive league, sort
of like the basketball side of it. Yeah, and you're not going to
go into a stadium in the Big twelve and not see it pretty packed and
that our guys aren't used to that. You know, we play issue up
there. We'll get a big crowd. Oregon State draws really well, but
other than that, there's not You go to calund you might get six seven
hundred people. So I think the Big Twelve will be fun for him.
They'll be rowdy crowds. And you got to remember it's not easy to get
to Washington State and Oregon State and Oregon It's hard to get there, so
that travel in itself is no you know, the Big twelve has got the
same deal. You know, it's not that big a difference for us.
Have you talked to any of any of the coaches about this and whether or
not, you know, everybody wants to be the last Pac twelve champion?
Is that a thing at all with you guys? I don't think anybody would
admit it, but I think it is. I think it is a thing,
and you know, I commis. You know, they're on the cusp
of it. I'm excited for them, and you know, football was so
exciting down the stretch and hopefully we can make it that way and Katelyn can
do that with softball. We'd love to bring home that last back twelve trophy.
We have a spot for it and our new haul of champions in Hi
Corbett, so we got a spot saved for it. Chip, Well,
good luck. Thanks. J want to remind everybody you got to meet the
team on noon on Saturday, right, yes, sir, Yeah, we'll
play. I think it's gonna be about nine innings, all right, all
right, come on and see what they look like. And then you open
up in against Northeastern here on the sixteenth, a three game set the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth. So good luck, chapter, we'll see you
around. Well, thank you guys so much for having me. Thank you,
Okay, Chip Hill, one of the great guys. Yeah, the
great guys. When you're always flying under the radar, it helps. Yeah.
Yeah, I think Plus one, you're you're motivated to say, as
he said, people don't believe in it, right, so that gives you
some motivation, and then you just kind of want to be able to go
out and say here we are. It's how you handle it right right,
Okay, all right, thanks a lot cheap, appreciate you being on.
So we're going to be back in a few minutes. We'll take your calls
five two zero, four, one, six seventy four forty Ricky Honley in
the second hour, coming up at about four to twenty and we'll talk to
him about playing in the Super Bowl. 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 Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Lute,
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It's Rovera and Jagen Salvias. This is I on the Ball on Fox
Sports fourteenth different. Okay, welcome back to Eying the Ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen S fifty Im Steve, He's Jay Kevin in the house today.
Fifteen minutes available for you guys to call. If you like to call us,
please do five to two zero four one six seventy four forty. He
couldn't have chip. It was, you know, talking to him about this
being the last season I mean we're getting to it, Steve. Yeah,
you know, the the basketball season is, you know, we're winding up
the packcluff tournaments coming up. I've been getting a little, uh sentiments,
sentimental about you know that this is the last PAC twelve tournament I've I've worked.
The only one I didn't work was the one that didn't happen was the
COVID h when COVID came out, they started the tournament. But I wasn't
on that one because I was busy doing sugar skull stuff. But I you
know, I covered them all and you know, been on the court,
you know, for the championship, for the championship trophy presentations. It's you
you all the games. You know what it's been cool. What I interpreted
from all that is, oh, Jay has a heart and he's not black.
I'm a sentimental guy, Steve, mark this date down. I think
we knew I got a soft side. I got a soft side. But
you know, but really, you know, you know, Stanford and calcume
in right, this is the last time we're going to see them. You
know, we've we've seen u c l a In here for the last time
as a PAC twelve rival. No, the tournament in Vegas is gonna be
a lot of fun, a lot of fun in a weird way because it
is the final one. Yeah, that one's I mean, that one is
really I think in a really nic Yes, they're still basketball and I mean
baseball and softball to play and stuff like that. But I feel like when
the PAC twelve tournament ends, that that's kind of like that's it. That's
that's it. Soone shut the door. Yeah yeah, and and and it's
sad. I'm really sad by it. Well, but then next year you
look at this, this fresh new toy. But I'm already talking about you
know, we're not gonna you know, we're not working the tournament in Kansas
City. So the tournament week is going to roll around and where we're normally
all fired up and excited, and we're going to Vegas and we're going to
spend a week work in the tournament. It's kind kind of like there's nothing
to do. You're gonna miss the slots hunt. Yeah no, dude,
I don't play slots, but I don't. I don't gamble that much when
I'm there because I'm so darn busy. I just love being there the atmosphere
is in Kansas City is going to be funny. We might have to miss
the road fun But you know, I don't know if we had this conversation
on the show. I know I've had it with some other people. I'm
not enough of an Arizona basketball fan to travel to travel to Kansas City.
Well that's the whole tournament. That's the whole thing because you have to travel
there, right, and then guess what turn around n C Double A tournament,
you know, to travel there. I mean, the funny thing about
is Arizona has its following, right, but they're not travelers. They're not
travelers. They have great alums at all the places. You know. I've
only traveled to the NC to watch Arizona in the n C Double A Tournament
as a fan, to the final four three times, oh Anaheim three times.
Anaheim in the final four of the year before that, the national change
when they went Anaheim the Sweet sixteen the next year and they played Iowa up
at ASU one year and I went and saw that track. I remember that
I was coming that Sweet sixteen game. Yeah, yeahst Iowa. You want
to travel three times? Only three times for the nets for Arizona basketball and
so double a tournament. I've only traveled to the final four in Minnesota.
It's cold. I didn't go to I didn't go to Minnesota, didn't go
to Charlotte. Now, yeah, obviously I went. You know, I
went to one, one, two, three, four as a reporter eighty
seven, eighty eight. Well, I didn't go anywhere for eighty seven because
they played here and got beate in the first round in eighty eight, eighty
nine and nineties. So from ninety one on, you know, I've only
traveled three times as a fan. I you know, I'll go to a
bowl game as often as I can, But I don't know, it's kind
of like we you pick your spot, right. I to this day,
I can't explain why we thought we should go to Indianapolis for to follow that
team, thinking that they were even going to play more than one game,
right, But we did, And you know, I've always you know,
been happy about the fact that I was there for that. But you know,
then again, so then we followed them the next year, and then
they they put on our head and they got beat in the in the in
the in the Elite eight. So so again, you know, I don't
see myself going to Kansas City unless somebody gives me some free tickets and a
plant and a plane ticket. Yeah. No, it's different. It's a
difference. A lot of things will change and a lot of people, not
the riffraff, I'll say riffraff, the people will see in Vegas this year.
Yeah, we'll be going to Tennessee next year. Yeah, you'll get
you'll you'll get. I don't. I mean there's a lot of basketball travels
pretty well, you know, the bigger boosters and whatnot. Sure, well
you know there are three four hundred people go to that, but not fourteen
thousand like go to Vegas, right, And so yeah, it'll be it'll
be a lot different. Uh. And that's a longer tournament too because there's
more teams in it. So how do you how do you think that will
affect like Pack twelve teams and other conferences going to different places and and now
no longer having certain advantages or disadvantages. Well, first of all, the
pack twelve fans in all sports are going to find out that our fans here
don't take it near as serious as everybody else's fans. They just do it
on the Internet. That's all right, you know what I'm saying on the
internet. I mean, I mean, if you've been, if you've been
in Arizona Stadium when a team like Iowa or Ohio State, even Oklahoma State,
some of those teams come in, their fans put us to shame in
terms of how serious they are about this. Well you see, just take
a look. They don't even fill the stadium with the local fans. Yeah
yeah, I mean, just look at the size of those those teams stadiums
and they actually sell them out. Yeah, Kevin. That the year it
was it was a the year Ohio State came and that was Dick Tomey's last
year. I think was it two thousand Ohio State fans bought season tickets to
u of A so they could be sure to have an Arizona Ohio State football
ticket. And they bought the season tickets and then did whatever they did with
you gave him away, sold them or whatever. A friend of mine who
didn't renew his season tickets on time, didn't have didn't get his season tickets
because the Ohio State fan bought them. There's just so many levels to the
end of and we we had a su in town that here that year and
they sold the A s U tickets to a to a couple of ASU fans
we got in a fight with and so you know, uh, that's that's
serious. You know, is there an is Arizona fan gonna buy you know,
an Ohio State season ticket to get it to make sure they got tickets?
Day no, no, And Arizona fans are even going to that game
Arizona. And particularly in basketball, you know, Arizona's not going to back
twelve teams or former pack twelve teams aren't gonna be playing in arenas where there's
only five thousand people like they do now. You know, you go to
U c. L A, you go to Oregon State, you go to
Stanford, you go to cal Washington State, even Washington five six seven thousand
people. Every game in the back in the Big twelve is gonna be is
gonna be sold out? And and that's really a home court advantage. There
aren't too many home court advantages in the back twelve. Who do you think
has the best home court advantage in the Big twelve? Kansas Probably Kansasfield House,
Oh yeah, with our question, although there's Iowa State's pretty good now
there's there's a lot of them. Well it's just the name Bailor. Now
you know Houston, Houston, you know, well Houston. It wasn't it
wasn't the case because it was gonna play in Houston. That was the Jared
Bayless year and it was gonna win in and beat them. But now well
there top five, their top five team, and this is you know,
they're in the Big twelve. This is their first year in the Big twelve,
so that you know, they're you know, look, Houston is coming
in with you know in Arizona will go in with that as well. You
know, it's gonna be hard on the Big twelve teams to come to Michale.
But it's it's gonna be I think, you know the A s US
you know, the not Utah so much, but maybe Colorado, you know,
Washington, even Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, they're gonna what the
you know, Washington State and and and and and uh I mean, now
callan Stanford. They're going to the A C C. H. They gotta
go. They're gonna go play Duke in North Carolina. Talk about state,
talk about travel for them, but not just the travel, but then getting
there. What they're gonna be up against in those arenas. But the thing
is cal sever. They don't care. I mean, the players care,
but got to compete. They're gonna want to compete. Sure, but you
know what I'm saying, it's like, okay, here we are. Yeah,
we will give us the money, and then Duke is gonna show up
at you know, and Maples Pavilion. They're gonna go where is everybody right?
No, No, you're you're right unless there Duke, and that'll be
a little job. Yeah, they'll drop it. Spell yeah, you know,
but they're like, what what you got? Ten thousand seed arena?
What the hell? There's nobody care here. They're studying'roughout, studying creating molecules.
Yeah, splitting it anyway. Getting back, I'm starting to get sad
steep talking about Oh, get them a Kleenex. Already had enough of that
stuff. You get five minutes? Anybody want to call five? Two,
oho, four, one, six, seventy four forty. On a more
positive note, what are you guys most excited for? For the Big twelve?
Just to get But I'm waiting for basketball. I don't care about football.
Bestball's gonna be fantastic I'm so excited for basketball next season. I'm I'm
looking forward to seeing how Arizona does in the Big Twelve in the first year
in football, you know, if they if they really are going to be
that good, if they really do have a shot at getting in the playoffs,
you know, getting off to a good start. The Utah game,
is you Tah the first pack Big twelve game, It's gonna be huge,
you know, to the point where Arizona wins, that excitement's gonna be off
the charts because people feel like, holy hell, Arizona actually does have a
chance because Utah, you know, it's probably gonna be the favorite to win
the Big Twelve this coming year. Yeah. And so, speaking of that,
I was listening to the Wilner Canzano a podcast had Mark Harlan on today,
and Mark Harlan, the first question I asked him is you know,
as you know, are you looking at the Arizona job. Did you look
at the Arizona job? Would you look at the air Zone job? And
he just said no, no, I mean he said, in a very
nice long waistace, I love Tucson, got all my friends there. I
love Arizona. That's my Alma Mater. They got a good thing going on
there. I'm very close with Brent Brannan. I really like Brent Brannan.
I like what they've done over there. But I like what we've got here.
Sure, everything we've and we've said that, you tell he's going a
better play and you and and he basically said that. He said, he's
not pursuing it. It's gonna take it. It's gonna take a special a
D to take this spot. It's not the job we think it is for
many people think it is given the circumstances of the job. Well, I
think one thing. And I know outside because they're not seeing the daily news
on all this. But and so you know what it came out of that
Border Regions meeting. They were all basically, you know, fawning on Robert
Robbie Robbins that he's that. You know, there's people out outside saying,
well, Robinson is gonna be there for very long, So why would you
take that job? It looks like he's gonna be here for a while.
Well, well, how do we know that? Yes? And no,
well he's not. He's not getting fired Steve, Otherwise he already would have
been I don't know. Maybe once he gets his contract runs out in June.
But talking to me, yeah, well they renew it, but for
now it appears like he's gonna be here. Yeah. I don't think a
decision will be made by then. I don't. Do you think we got
to get an athletic director? No, No, I'm talking about an a
D. Yeah before then, so yeah, but I don't know if that's
gonna happen. You hearing anything. No, there's some names that have been
thrown at me, but I think Greg did a pretty good job. But
there's one. Greg Gregg's column was basically who they should who they're going to
get? What? He threw some names out of roads. Well it probably
won't come. Uh. But there's a guy at Vegas that was here before.
Who might he was? He was under he was a pund raiser,
he's now the a D at un LV. I can forget his name.
Someone texted to me earlier. Who knows you need something like someone like that
with good experience? Probably not a not at a level this way, because
there's a lot of there's a lot of would you take this job? Would
you take this job given for a million a year? No? No,
no, but you're making but no, no, but you're making Yeah,
you're if I'm an a D somewhere else thousand. If I'm an a D,
like at a group of five, you know, a U N lv
A Nevada, Uh, making six and a half seven? Okay, let's
say but let's say, is that making three? Oh? Yeah, but
that's that's that's okay, let's not making five? Okay? Is that making
five at a at A Nevada or U n l V. Say, yeah,
I'm taking it. Given the situation, we're gonna have a we're gonna
have h We're gonna have somebody this week. I've been trying to find him
and work him, and somebody send me some stuff. A former a D
at another school nearby. Uh, we're talking about the tournament. He's on
the committee or somebody. He was on the committee, and we'll talk to
him because he's a former a D. I mean this is not I'm taking
it because I'm I'm because the universe of Arizona is not going away. It's
not true bankrupt. It'll get fixed. It's gonna get fixed. So I
would take the job thinking I can be part of that fix. Sure.
So no, what what what coach? What a d what? Whatever?
Doesn't have the ego to think that there's gonna be the guy that fixes that.
And that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I would take the job,
you know, for you know, Hounblish. Does he he made do we
know? Did he made it a million dollars this last year of his contract?
Okay, be something like that, right, Okay, well, party,
it was probably me it was more than a year, right, because
he was gonna be due. You know, Yeah I would. I would
because it's a great place to be sure, lovable guys like us are all
over the place, and and ads and and the this is not his problem.
He's here. He's here to problem fix the problem and and and guy,
as you say, those guys have the egos to believe that they can
do that. Absolutely all right, So we're gonna take a break. We're
back with breaking news from Kevin. Uh. Been kind of a busy weekend
rights and stuff, So stick around for breaking news. Then Ricky Hunley coming
up at about four to twenty