This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and jagon Zalis on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services. Hey sure your most prized possessions KATCR
two sad at iHeart Radio Station. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen Countie. I'm Steve Rivera, you're
Jagonzos. It's Tuesday afternoon. You know the hot one. Obviously it is.
Well, you know, I would barely know it. The only time
I've been outside is to get in my get in and out of my car.
That's it. That's the only reason. One of those things was very
early this morning. Run to the car, Get in the car, turn
these get here running here. You're sure you have shoes on because the crowd.
Yeah yeah, that's why I want to get the hick out of town.
Um. Hey, we'll see what happens today. We have a good
show, a kind of a crazy for such for today show. Yeah.
Yeah, nice. We're gonna have Justin Justin Beer. You know, it's
kind of fun because you know, with Justin now doing his show in the
morning, you know he can come on our show. We go on his
show. Um Exchange stuff. Um, I've always been very friendly with Justin,
so it's kind of cool that he's our little kid and he's yeah,
he's sort of a sort of a surrogate child of both of us. So
uh and but he's you know, on the middle of all the u of
a football stuff. He's the beat writer for airzon a Football now for the
airs in a daily Star. So we'll just get his take on on a
few things. You know, they're just things starting to churn a little bit
here in the summertime, and uh, you know, we're getting close to
a deadline on on the TV deal and the expansion with the Pac twelve at
Sandios dates. We'll just see what he's thinking about some of that stuff.
Yeah, and then unless I can get to a Josh Pastor you may remember
him, right, it was on a Tucson's Favorite Son or one of them.
Yeah, the guy who got here and thought, you just win a
national championship every year, right, right, And and he was never afraid
of a TV camera, right. He's you know again, when he was
here as a as a you know, as an assistant and a grad assistant,
you just knew he was going to be successful in this Yeah, even
though he wasn't a great basketball, but it was good enough to walk on
at Arizona and you know played a little so he's a better basketball than most.
But you know, you knew that the way he first of all,
how hard he worked right, just the way he conducted himself. He let
me tell you that you knew he was gonna he was gonna do well.
Mike Bibby and some of those other guys swear by him. You know why.
He was a win that was rebounding for them when they weren't practicing right,
doing the work that other guys didn't want to do right. And that's
why you know he's been ahead a head coach at too what you know,
uh Division one Universe. He's both at Memphis and at Georgia Tech. Recently
got fired, but you know he's gonna land somewhere. Somebody's gonna take him
on as an assistant one. He's probably you probably continue to be an ace
recruiter, enthusiast, a guy who can do good stuff for your program.
Right, I'm not will see what he's gonna do. In the meantime,
I still think that he would be a good TV analyst and those basketball analysts.
Is straightforward, good with an assist, friendly half, all that stuff.
Yeah, so we'll talk to him about all that stuff in the second
hour. Um got to join us here. I had a I had a
not a correction after just screwing up that David Derek Jeter. Uh what's it
that address? But his age? Remember that guy. I was trying to
tell you that that this I was telling Troy, that's that guy. You
know. He's been offered and offered Luke Farrelli Farrelli. He Stanford offered him
and apparently in that time, Texas A and N has offered him. So
he was away commit. So hold on, hold your hats. Yeah,
how do you know when those types of school start chasing you? Hey,
good luck luck. I mean you know what, I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna uh be upset at any body. Oh it's committed somewhere and it gets
offered by Stanford. Yeah no, it's not right, right, right,
It's funny maybe, but Stanford. Right, you know, but like like
when uh the kid from my cdeou oh Martinez, yeah, Blake Martine,
I get it. You know, people people got upset that that Mike Stews
really didn't recruit him, but even if he had, he was going to
stand. You know, John Bolpi is another guy local kid ended up as
Yeah, it reminds me of the time. Recruiting must have been late nineties,
mid nineties. The Collins Twins member Jason Jon, Arizona and Stanford were
the finalists. Uh, and I would talk, you know, you chase
down people. I talked to Collins mom. You gotta get to the mom
I went to talk to that morning. Is okay missus Collins? What okay?
They're going to stand? Why would they decide that? You know,
probably didn't ask it like that, Steve, I'm a parent, and they're
now going to play basketball all their lives. Where else would you want to
go? But Stanford. That's a good point, very good Thanks for talking
to me, very good point. And and that was my story. No,
I mean, it's it's no pine intended. It's a no brainer,
right taking you know, taking Stanford over Arizona, you know, just about
any reason. Yeah, reason why, it's uh, the reason why.
And this is maybe a dumb question. Maybe last will come up close enough
that they would be better in basketball. And I know it's tough. I
know, it's a tough school to get into and all that stuff. But
but under under Montgomery, they were they were still really good. They were
pretty was able to get guys. They were the second best team in the
West. Yeah most of the time. Yeah, got to the final four.
Yeah, the year that Arizona was supposed to win it. All right,
So no, I I think you uh uh, you know, you
gotta look, you know, the darned I guess. You know, we
get athletes get caught up in the idea that there be a professional athlete.
But you you know, you got to look at big picture and yeah,
you know, look if Arizona and as U and whoever comes calling, Okay,
you decide where were we're best athletically? Stanford comes calling, you know,
even Duke Sure comes calling. Sure, you know, you say,
I got to think about a little bit more than um. I wanted to
talk about that and oh, h two sons a little poter. I wanted
to bring that up because you know, I mean, are you know,
are you know? Are you better? You know? People here better because
j Johnson won a national championship, and you know, because of the way
he left her, you just better that he left. Let me ask you
this because I saw I don't know if it was David Kelly, saw somebody
posted something. So he was in Uh, he was in Nevada the twenty
fourteen right. Uh. They win the whack a year later or whatever it
was. And then do you think Avada is better? We know? Again?
Yeah, I mean they if if they they, yeah, I bet
some of them are, but they shouldn't be anymore than I think better exactly,
you know. And they said, well it's the way he left.
Well he left, you know, get over that part of it. You
know, he left for a better job. And you know what, and
if if if LSU was calling the shots and say, look, Jake,
I know you're at the call or series and you got your team here,
but if we don't talk to you today, we're gonna go talk to this
guy. Right. And that may have been a threat, but he made
it right. We all make those choices. Man. We live in a
better and a better for you run for the money. I did, yeah,
in one of my jobs. No, and there's no blame that.
And who do you have to say it's hard here? Nobody, absolutely no,
nobody, absolutely no no. But I have no issues with Jay Johnson
going to LA I mean, I didn't like it, but I'm not and
be pissed off at him winning the national championship. You know, well,
because that's what he's supposed to do. It's like we had leve On yesterday
the day before, and he must be very good at what he does.
I mean, you don't fall into his situation and and and take Arizona to
the championship second year or whatever, first year, first year and do all
these great things and go here even though it's a fantastic school and a powerful
baseball school, because you have to have some magician, you still have to
be very very and make it and make it. The kids got to believe
in you, and they believe in him, right. I mean, just
because they hand you the keys to the Ferrari doesn't mean no, no,
no, no, how to drive fer We've seen we've seen a coach's uh
wrecked the car before. Yeah, no, they do, and they do
it all the time. But hey, did you beat In Puts anything socially?
I was gonna ask you that off the air, but I didn't.
No, no numbers, our numbers. Oh okay, so we'll just we're
just you want to just talk about it. So we'll we'll talk more about
Johnson little down road. I know, I got a few people saying I'm
still better and I was going to be better. Okay they are, Okay,
I enjoy you, my daughters. That she's the one that kind of
kes just relax. Which one chel I love? Rachel? Tell her,
tell her, tell her, Rachel. If you're listening to us a lot
of she's the boss, take care of you boss. Smart woman. Yeah,
smart woman, she's not a girl, very smart for ye for twenty
two years. Yeah. But yeah, So anyways, so I'm getting to
our numbers. You know we um I didn't. I didn't know any of
this. You didn't know, I didn't. You know, we we we're
able to track our podcast how many people listen to it? Uh? And
uh you know we're because of you know those radio books. We don't record
on that. I mean, we're not not us, not ESPN Radio,
not David Kelly show. Nobody you know has big enough numbers to even register
when you do the Nielsen books. Now, there are ways of finding out
who with technology, who who you know, who listens to us when we're
live, But we don't get that stuff. Daily we do get daily is
how many people pull and listen to the podcast. And uh, we're bringing
this up because if you're you know, if you're somebody who doesn't get to
listen to us every day or work or whatever, it helps If you listen
to our podcast, it helps us, It helps us go get advertiser,
it helps us keep this show going, it helps us with a lot of
things. We found out this week that BA basically twice as many people are
picking up our podcasts then they were doing at this time last week. Right,
but the numbers even no, I was telling people I think maybe five
hundred people and then five hundred people on the podcast. I was way off.
No, the the numbers are that we we're getting about on average per
month in a given month, we're getting between twenty five hundred and three thousand
people listening to us in a given month. That's that's just on Oh yeah,
I take back that was those are the those are the those are the
old numbers. Now we're putting pretty much over three thousand regularly. Uh so
far as a as a Monday in the month of June, we were thirty
nine hundred people had had listened to our podcast in some form or another does
not include right. And that's a big number because that doesn't include if you're
on if you're on the iHeart app listening to us right now, that doesn't
include that number, doesn't include the number if you're listening to us on fourteen
fifty and and and the bigger thing there is are numbers that numbers have basically
doubled since last year. And for the month of June, they've tripled.
We only we were two hundred percent over yeah, uh, June of twenty
two. Yeah, and that doesn't include like I said, alive and you
said that people in Zimbabwe are listening to us. Yeah, I mean they're
you know, you look at whatever tell it. Tell us where they're listening
to us. You're gonna you're gonna laugh at this folks out there. But
obviously, you know, the vast majority of listeners are coming from uh,
from uh, you know, within the United States. Mexico is the second,
right, so those people. But guess who's tried with Mexico India.
There's somebody in India who's listening to us all the time. They're trying to
sell me a car. I mean, we're getting you know, we're getting
listeners, and we're getting listeners in Bangladesh, we're getting listeners in you know,
all over you know, all over the world, and and it's it's
kind of cool because you know, we just it's just I don't know,
you just uh, because of the way it is now, you just don't
expect that, right. It used to be that you can only hear a
show if you were within twenty five miles of where the show was. But
you know, now we're in a situation where, you know, people can
listen to us all over the world. You know, maybe somebody's traveling and
they're listening to us. We know, we've got a listener, Bill who
travels a lot. You know, he listens to us wherever we are.
But I don't know how much international travel he does. He doesn't, He
just dust it. But he was in Florida the other day and Hawaii and
all that stuff, so he listened to us almost daily. Yeah, so
it's it's been a very stret thing that we can. We can well,
we've come a long way since we have. We're finishing up our third year
at this station. I mean, let me, let me just say no,
I don't want to bring us down. But when we were, when
we were at that other station for a few months that we were when when
I started, we were getting six hundred listeners a month. We're getting four
thousand in the month of in the month of June. So the one we
thank everybody for who who who's helping us do that. We feel like it
it's kind of validating that we're you know, we're that you want to listen
to and that that you continue to listen to us. So we do appreciate
that. Yeah, I just don't test us with names. Old time names
fine, but not recent names because we fail. I finally got to log
into it to where some of our statistics are. But um, looking at
looking at the locations here, it is um Mexico, India, Argentina,
Spain, France, Germany, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland,
Colombia, Dominican Republic, Algeria. With Algeria sticks in my mind because
of I just saw that movie Dog Day Afternoon. You see that movie Alpaccino
and he holds some ostages and he wants to fly him to Algeria. Well,
they'd have been able to get to listen to us Ecuador, Fiji,
a country I've never even heard of. Gabon right, the UK, Indonesia,
Israel, Kenya, South Korea, allows North Macedonia, and then four
others. Who are the others that Checko Putin? Checko Putin was listening to
us when he cood last week. I don't yeah, yeah, you know,
I don't see any of Ukraine's Okay, I don't. He was,
he was in Ukraine, but he was busy over there, and I don't
see any I don't see any Russia either. Maybe they don't maybe we're not
allowed over there. But anyways, again, thanks to everybody to us.
Uh yes. And then if you're if you're a business and you have some
interest in advertising with us and getting some of this visibility, would love to
Yes. You can find our contact information on our on our Facebook and Twitter
counts on twitter page. Okay, let's go to the bok all right,
let's go back another We heard ourselves impetting ourself in the back. Yeah yeah,
my arms from from all that. But we're gonna come back. We
have justin spears. We're gonna talk some Arizona football and uh, I guess
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in for you. Breaking down all the xs at als. It's Steve Rivera
and Jagen Summits. This is I on the Ball Sports fourteen. Hey,
welcome back to I on the Ball here. I'll Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie.
I'm Steve Rivera and he's Jakin's Austin. Now on the phone, we
have justin Spears from the eras of Arizona, Gaining Star and some other radio
stations whatever that is justin. How the heck are you guy? You you're
up and around. Yeah, no, it's I'm trying to stay cool.
Man. Uh yeah, I don't know if you guys have been outside recently,
but a man, it's hotter than the Devil's toneas. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah they don't. They don't haven't made tunnels for us yet to get
from the house to hear so, yeah, we had to get outside,
did suck. They don't get old too. When you get older, it
sucks. The hot weather exactly exactly. So you know what, I can't
complain about the weather right now because as a guy who has recently been addicted
to golfing, Um, to me, this is amazing because I'm I love
golf and I'm a cheap skate. So when you live in Arizona this time
of year is perfect for me. I love it. It's it's dirt cheap.
It's dirt cheap. We've played, uh, played uh Arizona Nashville for
forty bucks last Saturday and beat that man. Can't beating it at all.
So you're you're you're the football dude now and we know we've known that for
a little bit, but we saw that your buddy Michael lev is now a
columnist, so you'll be working side by side with him as opposed to having
him be your boss. But uh, you know, you guys are you
know it's coming up right, We're just a couple of months away before stuff
starts to happen. So what just kind of what's what are some of your
impressions of kind of where things are right now? You know, Jet's still
bring you know, he's lying in up a bunch of recruits and stuff like
that. Guys working out, and what is your sense of how things are
going down at at the Lowe at the Lowell Stevens facility, for sure.
And I'm really excited about taking on this this new role. Um. You
know, I've been working with Lev now for i mean almost six years,
and we've always been working side by side. So it's got it's gonna be
weird. It's like nothing has really changed, you know, Him and I
are still going to be you know, teammates and partners. It's just I'm
going to be you know, focused on you know, covering the bulk of
this team, if you will. And Lev will be the guy who fills
in the cracks and also the guy who uses his voice and his you know,
extensive knowledge of college football and write the big picture, right, the
big story that everyone is talking about. And I think Lev is very excited
for that role. And I'm just excited to get cracking and start covering this
team. You know, I started, you know, I followed theirs on
a football you know, my entire life growing up here in Tucson. So
this is a new role. I'm and I hope that you know, Tucson
is pleased with my coverage because I'm gonna do everything I can to give you
guys the best. But um, as far as the football program going,
I think that you know, this is officially the year where we could really
judge Jetfish and everything that he's done with this program, because you know,
when Kevin Sumlin left Man, he left the cupboards very bare. There was
really nothing in the kitchen for Fish to work with. And then you know,
that's why you went one eleven Arizona starting a bunch of walk ons and
they just didn't really have the talent. And then you know, with the
trans reportal and also the high school recruiting trail, Jetfish used his clout,
if you will, the buzz that he got from working in the NFL and
working for so many coaches and putting a bunch of guys on staff that have
worked in the NFL and have worked on the West Coast and has worked for
great colleges. That was able to attract a lot of you know, players,
high profile players, players that Arizona wasn't able to get in several years.
And the transport again was key. They were able to get a quarterback
in Jaden Delora, they got the Jacob Cowing, they got the Tanna McLachlan,
they transfer from Southern Utah, and they were able to figure it out
and put it together on offense. Now they used the last year getting all
the guys on defense. When we come together like the offense, that's kind
of a tough ass because you know, the offense was rated six in the
nation and packing. I'm not expecting the defense to the world beaters here,
but I think the defense is significantly better than it was last year. And
if they can stop the run, that's that's either if there was on the
defense can just stop the run and be average or in the top half in
that category. I think the Wildcats are going to be in position to win
at least six games, but maybe even seven or eight. Okay, so
we're gonna go to that because Steve and I just yesterday laid down a little
wager. Steve thinks they're going to go five and seven. I think they're
going to get at least get to six. So we've got a little wager
on we're basically going five and a half. He's taking the under. We'll
also realize that who's the realist in this rule here. I'm not a fan.
I'm not a fan. Didn't go to school here. Um. And
I know they're gonna be better. I mean they're gonna be better. They've
been better in the last couple of years. I won't deny that. But
but I also here's my theory. Other teams are going to get better as
well. They're not sitting in idol. Uh. And I know there's radio
shows all over all over the country, especially in college towns that we go
to, and they're saying the same thing. Those teams that they cover are
getting better too. Colorado's thinking you're gonna get better, Utah's getting better.
All these you know schools, all corvallis YadA YadA. Um. So that's
my Theah, that's my theory. Well, every Stone's they can apply themselves,
but so can other teams for sure. But I also think that you
know, a program like Colorado while they had the trans reportal and Beyon standers
and bringing his Louisa ton Buggage over it, right, that's red all the
right right, the current team. When he got the Boulder in the spring,
he said, you know, you guys going that trans report because I'm
bringing my luggage, an't Louis, But even the Louis Vaton luggage that he's
bringing this year, it's not going to solve all of Colorado's problems. They
still went one and eleven last year, so I think that Colorado is there
gonna be much better this year. But I still like Arizona to go up
to Boulder and beat the Buffaloes. You know, ASU with Kenny Dillingham,
you know, there's just a lot of newness there, and I think that
ASU will definitely be bing building. And I like Arizona going up to Tempe
and also beating them, and you know that that's two conference wins right there.
And then you look at non conference play and you got NAU. You
can win that game, and then you know Mississippi State is going to be
a tough ask as well. But I just I think that when it's all
said and done, Arizona will go into Pac twelve play with a two and
one non conference record, and those two opponents, like I just said,
I think those are games that Arizona should win. And then you get a
couple more somewhere in between. Like I said, I think at right now,
six wins is safe. But if the defense can figure it out,
and that's a big if. If they do and they get off the field
on third down and they stopped the runs, we could be looking at Arizona
being a seven win team. Because think about this, guys. Last year,
what would you say was the one game that could have put Arizona in
full convention? Honestly, I think I think it's easily the Cow game because
they were on the road, they had to had Cow on the roads and
then all of a sudden, Kadea Not goes bow Jackson tech mobile and becomes
unstoppable. Arizona couldn't stop the run in that game and Cow running all over
them. That was the difference maker in the game. Arizona. They were
going to win that game. Data Not starts running all over the place.
Next thing you know, Arizona finishes the season five and where it could have
easily been six and six. So I think this year they'll improve in that
category and maybe they'll get that six months. I think that's pretty likely.
Let's also say from my end uh and not that I want to pooh pooh
you guys predictions, because you guys could be very well, we're right um
um. We also assume that things are going to go that things won't go
bad. Um injuries and key areas blah blah blah. And you still have
the Jon Delora factor. How is he going to handle the season of being
under the eagle eye of so many Yeah, and I think that this will
allow Jed and Jaden to kind of huddle up. And you know, and
as regarding regarding his high school incident, I don't think that's going to be
a thing that carries over fall throughout the season. Um. You know,
it's it's a it's a terrible thing, a terrible look for him, and
it's certainly a blemish on his career. Now we don't know all the details,
right because it was a a juvenile case, so everything was was sealed,
so we don't know all the details regarding his case. But I think
that with the settlement, with all of that happening, I think that at
first, you know, jet Fish and Jaden Delord they're gonna have to answer
some tough questions like at packball media day or Arizona Football Media Day or even
you know, or leading up to the season. But you know, there
eventually there's going to be a time where we're going to talk about Jaden Delord
of the quarterback, and I think that's gonna be you know, suited than
later. But I think with Jaden, as far as his mature in his
growth, You're going to see a big step forward for Jaden on the field
this year because Jaden finally has a full year under Jetfish. He's got a
full season in the system, and he's had time to get not only those
physical reps, with those mental reps studding and now it's kind of second nature
for him and he really understands the offense and has mastered it. You know,
he told us during springball that you know, last spring I wasn't able
to repeat the plays back to Jed. I was struggling big time. Now
he's completely mastered the offense. So Jaden will become a better quarterback this year.
And also, you know, Jed made a really good point in spring
you know, when we compare Jaden to the other quarterbacks in the Pac twelve,
like a Caleb Williams, like a Michael Pennix, even a bone Nick,
all those guys are transfers. But what do all those guys have in
common that Jaden Delora doesn't. They all reunited with former coaches. Bone Nicks
got with Kenny Dillingham, Michael Pennix got with Eric Morris's former coach at Incarnate
Word, and Caleb Williams got with his old buddy Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma.
And there's already a familiarity factor there. That's why it seems so easy for
these transfers to look. Well, Jayden, now he's not foreign to the
in the offense. And plus I also think winning helps too. All those
guys got more attention nationally because they all got their teams to bowl games.
If Jaden can win some ball games this year, I think he's going to
get the pub that he deserves. But I think that you know, a
big thing about Jaden that nobody really talks about is his ability to absorb information
and learn. You know, last year against Missippi State, he was so
hesitant to run. You know, there were so many opportunities where he had
twelve to fourteen yard windows and wouldn't tuck the ball and go and pick up
those first downs and continue to drive and extend it. He always tried to
use his arm and then Jed preached it to him in practice and then next
thing, you know, you're starting to see Jaden Delora run the football.
And then going into the off season, he puts on thirty pounds of armor
of good weight because he knows he's gonna have to run the football, and
yet he still looks fast. So Jayden Delora, keep an eye on this
guy to to really have a fantastic season for Arizona. Wow. Okay,
seriously, I mean seriously, just because you know, I guess I you
know, as as somebody who saw him, you know, be up and
down last year, and I guess the way you explain it makes a lot
of sense. But he was up and down last year, and and uh,
there was there was a there was good jade and bad jade, and
bad jade was bad. Um Washington Yeah, you just yeah, that Washington
State game. So you just wonder, yeah, how's he gonna, you
know, how's that gonna? How is he gonna fix that this year?
And you and you think it's because he'd be more familiar with everything. Yeah,
and I think the Washington State game too, And and thank you for
bringing that up, because you know, that's that's one thing that we do
have to mention, right, Jaden had an opportunity to really stick it to
his old team. And what does he do. He plays hero ball,
He throws four interceptions, and on top of that, he's fighting his teammate
on the sideline on national TV. He just it wasn't a good look.
If jay can learn from those mistakes and learn to be a mature leader,
then then he's gonna be great. But I think that Jayden right now just
needs to keep his nose down, considering what we just talked about with,
you know, the off the field stuff. If Jayden can just keep his
nose down and work and win football games, you know, it's just,
you know, it's kind of that old thing. You know, winning really
takes care of everything. If Jayden can can start winning some football games,
then I don't think, you know, a lot of people are gonna have
much criticism for him. Just real quick. I know we're running out of
time. Jason, Um, you did your top five games in your in
your time right in your time here. Yes, yeah, ever since we
started on the Arizona the top five most memorable games, I haven't I haven't
seen it, but I want to hear out of the mouth of Babes.
Tell me go ahead, justin and then I'll yell at you again. Okay,
tell me you want to go into detail, just give me like five,
four, three, two, one? Okay? So number um gotting
serious? Number Number one was the seventy to seven Territorial Cup game, omberable
game, that great game. Okay, okay. Was the n AU lost,
Yeah, the season. Number three was I think the NC Double A
tournament lost to Buffalo. Oh you're ducking stuff. That's okay, yeah,
okay, yes, um, but no, actually number three was the territorial
Number four was the tournament lost. And then number five I'm blinking on what
number five? Yeah, those are just some of the few of them,
like bad losses or something, and I would like yelled at you about that.
I'm sorry, sorry, but it just seventy to seven game is so
memorable because it was during the pandemic. You know, we were all wearing
masks. They were just cardboard cutouts in the stadium, and it was just
so grim. And I mean Arizona they went down fourteen nothing in fifty three
seconds or something like that. So it was just it was so bizarre and
I'll never forget. In the postgame press conference, they just rolled out this
guy, and we were all in the press box were looking around, like,
who the bleep is this guy? Like we were like, I don't
know who the guy is, Like I didn't even know this guy existed.
Is he really on the team? And then I forgot who it was.
They said, yeah, this is Parker Henley, who's a walk on linebacker
who got some runs because Arizona was just getting whacked. And honestly, guys,
I had no idea this guy even existed, and here he was doing
the postgame press connce. I felt so bad for him, but I respected
the hell out of it. Yeah, it's funny because I think you were
there. We kind of joked, is something going to come out for halftime
or well he already fired him at half because it was a disasters. Yeah,
I didn't want him to come out. So all your your if you
don't mention number five, I mean, if it is Princeton, all five
are losses. No, no, no, that's Territorial Cup win. Okay,
okay, but yeah, the Territorial Cup win in in you know this
past season, I thought, I mean, to me, it was just
all about the Kevin Sumone guys um or the the guys who got there,
you know, towards you know the end of the rich Rod era, and
they never experienced winning a territorial cup. So seeing the look on the looks
on those guys in the faces winning that, I thought it was spectacular.
But I think I'm looking at my list here. Oh, number five,
sorry, Number five is actually the two thousand tey Pac twelve tournament when they
beat Washington and then you know, COVID nineteen happened and then the whole world
shut down that day. Covering the Pactall tournament is one of the most memorable
things I'll ever have my journalistic career because it just it felt like we were
in the twilight zone. It was just nuts. Man. Yeah, that's
what and that's legit. I'm okay with that, John. I'm just like,
you know, come on, man, well you you're one and two
or two of the worst days in the history of Arizona athletics. So it's
like, okay, I guess I make some memorable my boys cheering up.
I'm proud of you. All right, Hey, I promise I talk about
your golf tournament. You gotta golf tournament, did you guys? You and
your brother are doing right. Yeah, my brother and I we've been talking
about doing this for two years now, and we wanted to put together this
golf tournament that's you know, a summer tradition and for not making a dime
office, you know, we just wanted to raise money for TMC for children,
the Miracle Children Network. I think that's that's what it's called. And
um, basically what we're doing is we're raising the money and we're to dump
it off to them and just play some golf and have fun while doing it.
So we're excited about it. It's on July. Two teams at at
Star Pass, so we're gonna have a guitar pass. It's one hundred twenty
five bucks a player five hundred dollars a four. So you get some good
here and that kind of stuff. Um, you got you got some.
You got some guys coming out that are going to attrack some people, maybe
some athletes or something like that. So unfortunately, our guy Levi Wallace backed
out. He's out of town that week, so we're not gonna we're gonna
we're not gonna have NFL stars there. But uh now we're just we're just
gonna have a bunch of you know, people on two so I will be
out there all leave. I think we'll be out there as well, my
co host, and we'll also have people coming in from Phoenix. What we're
having people coming in from out of town to we're out of state, so
we have people flying in from all over. So it's gonna be good time.
It's two weeks from this sacred Maybe we show up and bring out the
sunscreen Justin, Okay, maybe we show up. Always think I want to
disappoint Michigan dollars that she will. Yeah, so she may even show up
to make sure you do, so you never know. Thank you, Justin
Okay, Justin. I appreciate the time, buddy, And uh well,
we'll plug your show to Sleep Spears seven o'clock in the morning weekdays on ESPN
Radio. So Justin, thanks again. Let's see you. Take care Justin
Spears, our adopted son before we go, because it's bugging me that I
got to correct when I was doing the numbers on our on our podcast,
I had him wrong. I was I was quoting the difference between last year
and this year. We're getting about six thousand listeners a month, which is
a lot for a podcast that that's just a podcast. That's just the podcast.
Those are people who don't. We're getting some visibility out there. And
like I said, it's we're we're doubling and tripling these last two months.
We've nearly tripled. Oh we did the same two months last year. Again,
We love you all for listening to us. Keep listening to us,
keep downloading the podcast. And if you're not, if you're not hearing us
live, but it would love for you to listen to us live as well.
All right, let's take our break, right, great, all right,
we'll grab back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know
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Streaming live on the iHeart Radio WAP. This is I on the Ball
with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteens fifty. Hey, welcome
back to I on the Ball here in Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie. I'm
Steve, he's Jay. We have about eight minutes. We went way over
with Justin, but we're okay with that. Yeah, you know, I
love Justin. He's just one of the good guys, right, and you
know, and I mean again, he could be our kid, right,
But we have fun with him. He does a good job. I feel
like he works hard. He got the seven am gig every day and then
you know then he's got the full time job covering and you know, and
I know that every Arizona football there's a lot of work, a lot of
work, a lot every day, yeah, especially now every day all the
social media stuff. Yeah, it's a tough gig. So good, good
adjusted, So absolutely okay. And then we were so busy patting ourselves in
the back. We took right. That's okay. It's exciting though much.
I had no we you and I had no idea, right because we keep
asking for the numbers. We just do our show when we feel like people
are listening. We get a lot of comments out in public and stuff,
but people are really, what the hell did you take the day off?
Exactly? Where the hell? Where are you guys? I was hoping to
take Friday. It looks like, okay, no, cool, you have
a chance. We got a couple of calls left. Well, if you
have a chance for a couple of calls about six minute stuff five two seventy
four, forty, give us a call if you'd like. Are you happy,
unhappy and different about Jay John winning the title last night? Um?
Hey, like I said, he was great at Nevada. Two years later
he was here going how do they feel? Probably the same, you know,
why did you leave? But he's in ten years, in nine ten
years, probably ten ten seasons. He's done very very well, very well
champion. That doesn't happen by accident. And again when you did it that
first year, you thought, you know, people always do. We talk
about that though, but you gotta coach, you gotta coach him exactly coaching.
And then he talked about how he coaching. He was tired, and
you know it was time for him to get out and uh, and he
wasn't giving it. You know, he wasn't given effort that he thought he
should beginning. How I asked you this, I don't know if I've ever
asked you. I think I've asked a couple of coaches when we have them
on coaching. Okay, you have one hundred percent give me a coaching and
players. Well, yeah, we had this conversation because we tell you there's
different percentages for different levels and different sports. Uh, college basketball coaching I
think is huge, all right because you know this, Yeah, yeah,
because you've seen that. You've seen a lot of a lot of places that
have the best players every game and they're not very good, right, Okay,
baseball. I believe that coaching is because there's so many coaching things that
go and don strategy, right, you know, no win to pinch hit,
what pictures, no wind to take out a picture. I think I
think it. I think that magnifies how important a coach can be because there's
so many good baseball players. Yeah, does LSU have better players than um,
you know Cal, Yes, But you know when you get into baseball,
so often a bad team can beat a good team on a given day.
Sure, sure, look at the dip and a coach can screw it
up. Look at the disparitiing games from game two to game three, just
like two days, right, they beat them twenty five to five, and
then they lose eighteen to four or whatever it was. If there, if
there's a sport or a coach, well, obviously football you can screw it
up badly by being terrible play callers. Yeah, but when you're talking about
how you run a game baseball, it's so easy to screw it up,
you know, I mean, I mean, you know, you know I
was there in high school, and you know you don't know when you need
to go get your picture. You know, you don't know when you know,
this guy doesn't have a shot to get a base hit against his picture,
so you go get another guy, or you know, and you don't
have to have guys right, or or Johnny didn't get the grades and now
you gotta you gotta go get a guy to you know, to play his
position, and you know, all of a sudden, everybody's out of position
because of one guy. You know, things like, well, at that
level, you're you're looking for just for body right who can play. But
even you know, even at Arizonaist level, you know, you know,
you lose a guy, Let's say you lose your shortstop, Well, who's
your who's your best shortstop after him? It may not be the backup shortstop.
It may be you're starting second basement, you know. So there's so
many decisions that you got to make in that card. At the college level,
I think coaching matters a lot more than that the NBA level or that
prom I think, and particularly in n I think you can just throw the
guys on. The guys have to have to respect you, though, if
there's one thing that you I've learned, if the guys don't respect you under
any circumstances and you see that a lot with um. You see that in
the NBA or or maybe some football, but like you have to, they
have to have some cachet. Did you play in the league? Are you
gonna tell me? But who? I think that manifest itself. Steve is
in a locker room. If you've got the guys do it'll shut down.
Yeah, it'll shut down everything, and and and not that. If we
go back in our time here thirty some years, I'm sure if we're honest
with each other, that we can tell you teams to shut it down.
Yeah, hey, someone's team that last one down. That's obvious. I
don't think anybody wrote that. I don't think anybody said that. Maybe I'm
wrong, not not the media spot. You could see it. We all
right, and as fans, we thought that you could just and there's fathers,
there's others. Let me say this Buffalo twenty is going to bring that
up. I mean, come on, come on, that that was a
shutdown for probably for all ages. Right, you know that I agree with
you, and I was that was the one I was gonna bring up.
And then you know, you think about that Buffalo game where you just look
those guys just didn't want to be. And this is this is four or
five days after you guys thinking oh, we're back, right back, because
I think the crap out of UNC member right as opposed to this Princeton game
where I didn't think, but I think they just got out played by a
team that played harder and better. I remember Arizona's m O all year lead,
lead, lead, and then dropped the lead at the end. But
it was just the same type of thing all season. Then playing them all
year. Absolutely no, I I yeah, but you're going back to the
original question. I think coaching matters a whole lot more at the college,
and rightly so, because they're young guys, they're still learning, they're ring
out beat at a high level. Some of them get it more than others,
right, And you gotta know which ones to bring along and all of
those things. Um, but you know, if you got Tom Brady on
your team, you're gonna be really good, right, no matter who the
coach. Sure, and you're gonna have players who do we talk to the
other day where you you go to your players or your teammates, and the
one thing you don't want to do is disappoint them, right, You don't
want to just I don't want to disappoint you because I know you're working on
Yeah, yeah, just yeah, I would say with Steve Kerry, right
right, you go to play and you don't want to disappoint your guys because
you're part of the chain, right, You're part of the chain, and
you've got good teams play that way and you gotta be like you gotta be
a strong link to get it further. And if you're the weak link that
that hurts of course to Jay. You run up against a better team.
There are days when you just get beat by a better team. There are
that day, there are Oklahoma, Oklahoma and eighty eight. Yeah, yeah,
I think Arizona would have beat beating them seven out of ten, six
or seven out of ten times on that day. That was one of them
who they didn't. Yeah, I think I think what happened in Arizona that
day was they were not prepared for how fast Oklahoma was gonna be. Probably
now that they'd had a game with them, I think they would have handled
that much. And Oklahoma didn't win it all either, right, and then
they didn't win it exactly. But what everybody thought was a very average cancer
won that championship. All right, We're gonna take our break. Where we
come back, it'll be breaking news.