This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports
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Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera, He's Jagansaus. We've got our guy Henry in today. Welcome to
Monday. Good to be back after a little hiatus. Thanks everyone for sending
their notes and their well wishes and all that stuff about my family situation.
But good to be back. Jay. Thank you for holding up the fourth
not driving this into the dish. It was closed a couple of times.
Steve, I'm not gonna lie. And you did great. I hurt Friday.
You had a pretty good show. You were doing. You had some
Yeah, we had you know, we talked about the broad Runners coming back.
We talked with Bruce. We got him for about five minutes when he
was up at that tournament up in Phoenix. And then we had Jake on
and we talked to him. We actually talked some football, like actual this
is what could happen football? Did he did he make his prediction already or
no, no, we didn't. I thought, I wait for you to
get it out of him. But we did not go into that. We
just you know, we more or less just talked about, you know,
being on the road. You know, he was on the team that went
and played at Oklahoma State and I was fifteen years ago, but still you
know, just the venues, you know, things like that. It was
fun. It was good conversation because we were actually talking about like games and
things. It was good, good, good. And we're about less than
about eighty were No, we're no, we're nine saturdays away, eight saturdays
away now six start of the season, from the start of college football,
nine saturdays away from Arizona Planets first game. So that's nine time seven fifty
six. So it's under sixty days then, right, is that right?
Nine times now? Because it was seventy days this last Saturday. Yeah sixty
something. Yeah, yeah, I think mymth was okay, yeah, I
only knew it because we it was an easy no over ten times seven was
seventy and that's it was. That was it was ten. It was ten
saturdays from Arizona starting its season Las Saturday. Well, great, great,
We're getting closer and we should be a good have a good show. I've
paid a little attention to a few things. Obviously today you probably have a
lot of stuff in breaking news with with signings or commitments, right, A
lot of things going on into the U of A. And what intrigued me
while I was gone. One of the things, the major things, was
the finances of Arizona, and I guess you spoke briefly about it last week.
Yeah, because on Thursday afternoon, right coming into the last segment,
they put out the report from their meeting at the Border Regions. Bruce covered
it. He didn't he did not go to the meeting. He watched it
on stream, but he wrote the story about it. So we tried to
get We got him. He was covering that tournament, so he got tied
up. He came out for about five minutes at the end of the at
the end of the four fifteen segment, and we talked briefly about it,
but really it was we don't know, and you know, we don't know
what it all means. I mean, there weren't any specifics right to the
present then and then uh, I think Lev had first his five takeaways.
Uh. And then I saw the big story yesterday on in the Star about
uh all the finances. We know, Wilner did his take on it,
and then the Star had a big with the new reporter Wolf, very intriguing
uh information for me at least, and all the numbers that were coming out.
And and we'll talk to Michael lev about this on the second hour about
all this. But holy crap, it doesn't look good. And I'm sure
it doesn't look good for a lot of universities across the country. Well,
that's the thing. It doesn't you know, it doesn't look good for anybody.
It's uh, it's uh no, misery loves company. Everybody's kind of
in the same boat, different places, handling it different ways, you know.
And that's and that's one of the things about about the whole thing,
Steve, is that you know, everybody's trying to figure it out, and
nobody really has got to handle it right. And that's that's what uh uh
the new ad and miss miss read Francois was talking about this. It's kind
of like I think Wilner put best, it's like flying an airplane and you're
still trying to build, you know, to build the airplane, right,
and we've heard that turn before. But this is not gonna be fun.
It's good for journalists and as much as you have stuff to write about,
but it's gonna be repetitious because it's the same stuff. And how do you
get out of a hole that's so deep? It's so deep, so deep,
and there's no dirt to fill it. Because it's gonna be it's gonna
be tough, don't I don't. And then then the comings and goings did
you guys talk about and I need to know more about this the and I
saw Greg did something yesterday about the the new I MG, there's no I
am. We don't know what that is either, because it's they're gone.
Those dudes are gone. The people that work there no longer exist on this
website. They're gone, like Jefferson, all those Well, I know that
some of the guys on the roster they're not there anymore. And I'm there
Friday. I don't know. You might want to check again because because I
don't think they're there now. It was because there was a we did talk
about that, because there was because that came out first, right right,
this media thing, And I'm like Okay, what does that mean mean?
We didn't really understand it. And then because they issued that release I think
on Wednesday, and then it was part of the presentation on Thursday, and
and there's like, what, you know, what does all this mean?
Because none of it there's nothing specific in any of it. But that was
the first question that people had was jeffres one, what does this mean for
Brian Jeffreys? And I can't imagine it. Be silly, right, I
can't imagine that there's going to be anything happening with that that doesn't involve Brian
Jeffers. It's just maybe a restructuring of some sort. Maybe. Yeah,
well, I, like you said, I don't know much about it too.
I just know that people some people are gone and I'm going to the
staff director right now. But yeah, no, it's Steve that this,
all of that, all of that put more. There's more questions than answer
right now. Sure, sure, no one likes change, right, I
know I don't. And uh, and there's gonna be a lot of change
in u of a. It's kind of already started, uh to get things
rolling. But guess what, when you're in a situation like this, it
calls for change. Yeah, okay, okay, Well the Wildcats Sports Properties
organization that's in the org chart with you know, Brian Jeffries, Dana Cooper,
you know, the group that does that's selling all those sponsorships through liar
Field. There's still okay, okay, but that's the organization that we think
is new and it's like all those people are moving to a separate organization called
Arizona Media something around. You know, Brian Jefferies' list is director of Broadcasting
and Voice of the Wildcats. Dana Cooper, who you know, we know
he's a senior manager for business development. There's some other people in there.
We don't know. You know, there's no answers to that. Maybe their
contract, you know, Like I said, I too too. I read
Greg yesterday or this morning on yesterday's call him and it said that, uh
I love those guys were gone, and maybe I misread it if you go
to his columnn Yeah, I was a little busy over the weekend notes,
as I told you his notes, because maybe they keep a lot of the
people and because they know what they're doing, or you think they know what
they're doing, they just got to struct, restructure and move, you know,
create a new organization. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking is gonna happen.
I can't imagine that they were just for the hell of it. Let
well, they've brought these people go. They brought in a new assistant,
a d to help her with the marketing part of it. And you'll read
it as you read it. Say here, he says, by Friday afternoon,
the bios or their bios are gone. Let me see if I click
on one. So there you go. And then so new people are coming
in and some people are leaving. Uh, it's correct. So they're listed
on the directory. You click on their link and there's no pay. I
just clicked on Brian Jefferies and I got an air man. See, so
there's that. So there's party needs some clarification from some point at some point.
Uh. With with all that, uh uh, And they're bringing new
people in in terms of trying to fill the holes, well, probably a
lesser salary. The well look, let's let let's let's let's say this much.
It's something's got to change, right the way that the things have been
going, They got to do something different. Because what got him to hear,
you know, it's not working. So yeah, they're gonna have to
figure out something. Again. I can't imagine that that we're not going to
see. You know, Brian Jeffries is part of whatever this new organization is,
or they maybe put him somewhere else in the in the in the uh
yeah, but that would be that would be wasting his talents. Right,
don't you go to when you need a home run, you go to the
home run hitter. If you need a single, you go. What I'm
saying, I imagine he'll be doing whatever he's doing now as part of the
new organization. Now all those other people who knows, yeah, we will
know if they're if they're gonna just start over. Yeah right, yeah,
but there there's again a lot to unpack. You know. When I when
I reached out to uh to uh the FLA Department to try and get somebody
to talk to us on on the Friday, uh, they said, the
only one who can talk to us about this is the Ages. So we're
trying to get her this week. She was on they were up in Pine
Top on Friday, one of those on the road things. So we're gonna
try and get her at first chance we get. And she's been good with
us. She's been the candidate. She could be. Uh, and let
me say, and not to give her an alibi, she's up against it.
I mean, if you took the job, guess what should be up
against it? Exactly. Because this is this is a big number. Now,
I will say I tried to get I reached out to a couple of
prominent boosters on Friday. Did they decline? One could not? Couldn't because
not available right, just could say out of town. I think it was
Burt La but he said he couldn't. He was, he's in he was,
he's in California and he's doing some stuff. I asked another one who
declined, who chose not to say, I have no comment. It's a
sense of situation. I have no comment on any of this. Was what
was what that booster said? So that's where I stopped. I just said,
okay, if if that's kind of the rub out there, I'll just
leave that. Then I went in. I tried to get Bruce. So
this is this is part of the problem. Uh, your your your dear
friend of the u A. I mean talking about the boosters. You've contributed
a lot of money through the years. Now all this changes are these changes
are happening. Do you continue to be a dear friend? And how does
that work? Because there's got to be more coming from somewhere. Well,
look, some of you know these boosters, they're putting millions of dollars and
a lot and a lot of money going into this with the advent of nil
and all that stuff. So there's more money that they're that that's coming in.
I think they're gonna want to know sure, what's what's going on,
how does this work? And is uh they want to make sure their money
is is being used, you know, one for its intended purpose, but
two efficiently. Right when we take the break here to before we speak to
more, and I want you to read what happened to the Wolf story.
There's a line in there and will have the same thing, just how you've
a mismanaged the funds throughout the years because they had Ernst and Young do their
evaluation, and I'm thinking they could have had Rivera and Gonzales evaluate because you
know what they say, you've got to sell the rights to the Michael.
You got to sell the rights to Arizona Stadium. That'll give you some money
and then work your ass off at the end of the day. That's what
they're gonna have to do. That's exactly what they're gonna have. And we've
been talking about that at least the rights. Yeah. And it's not even
my money. Yeah, here's the here's a rob Jay. We live in
Tuson, Arizona. I love this place. You love this place. It's
not a rich town. There's only so much money to go around. They
need henery, they need to get a good job so we can help.
Well, and here's the thing they've got they do. The University of Arizona
does have let's call them supporters, Okay, massive amounts of money. There's
a whole bunch of them. Okay. The thing of it is that over
the years they've pissed them off. They've some of them been alienated. There's
one in particular that you know that we're talking about, who doesn't give them
the time of day anymore. Right, And that that they got they got
a lot of money from and and and you know they they have to get
back out there and and rebuild, refurbish those relationships because it's more important than
ever and and and it's a it's an arms race, it's all. It
already was an arms race with all questions. It's even more of an arms
race question, you know when you think about the you know, the how
how this thing is going to develop and how the SEC and the Big ten
are going to hoard all the money and therefore hoard all the power. Uh
in college athletics. Yeah, there's no question. And that story talks about
that because that's the haves and have nots. It's going to be like that
for a while. And obviously you're Arizona deep down, like you a grad
and a fan of them, believe that you deserve to be better than what
you are, you know, you know, to be among you, to
be competitive and and this that they're not. Yeah, you want to be
competitive at the highest level, and financially they're not because it's just they're not
for some of the reasons you talked about the boosters not being available or or
or alienated. But now they have to find it. Is there are there
any oil wells in Arizona? You can go tap nothing. We got copper.
We got copper, okay, so we're done with that. So they've
got to find ways. I don't envy them, and I'm sure you've heard
this because I've heard this. People and Michale and otherwise are scared. They
should be. I'd be, you know if I was in the ne flike
department. I mean with my son. You know that he's you know,
things didn't go great for him there, you know, in a different part
of the university. If you're at the University of Arizona right now, you've
got you're worried. You're you're putting your head on the pillow at night,
wondering if tomorrow's your last day or tomorrow they're gonna tell you your your last
day's coming up. And I'm giving your situation with BIZ Tucson. You know
this. I guess Raytheon is the number one employer here. I don't know
number one. Ray John's number one private employee. And then what about to
you is the number one employer overall? Okay, so that's going to take
a major hit right right all over the school. Yeah. Well, no,
I know, Steve, I know, and you and I have both
been into this business a lot of time. It hit me when the paper
closed, I had to reinvent and reinvent. Right, you're doing the same
thing yourself over all these years. Yep, still doing still still doing no,
no, multiples are and we know how difficult it is. Yeah,
yeah, okay, that's said. Let's set go to some good news on
the other side. Yeah, lots of lots of lots of activity on the
recruiting side. So we decided to bring in Matt Mardeno give us an idea
of It was a big weekend for Arizona, a big days too. It's
continuing on today, so we'll talk to Matt about all the recruiting is.
It's been going on over the weekend and even today, so's stick around.
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your free evaluation today. Steve Bravera and Jake and Salez they have their eye
on the ball on Tucson Sports. Stay yet. Fox Sports fourteenth fifty streaming
live. I mean I heard radio whom Hey, welcome back to my I
on the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. He's Jay Now
on the phone. We have Matt Mordino go Asycats dot com. Matt,
how you doing doing great? Steve's staying busy. Everything's picking up. It's
been an interesting couple of days here, and it doesn't look like there's any
signs of down. So it's a fun time to, you know, be
covering this team and covering college recruiting for sure. So little Birdie told me
that you're you're the busiest you've been in a while. Yeah, I mean
it's I'm trying to remember back to the time that I've been as busy as
I have been the last you know, several days here, and you know,
June has been the month that's kind of taken over for recruiting, especially
the high school prospects because of uh, you know, you can sueeze official
visits and over the course of these two weeks here, and everyone wants to
do the last visit before the dead period happens in July, and so everyone
kind of crams them into this last weekend. So there's proper truths visiting all
over. It's a bunch of different schools, and Arizona's now kind of at
least the teams that I cover, Arizona has been the biggest beneficiary of a
really strong weekend and a commitments so far in the last two days. And
again, like I said, doesn't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
So class are gonna get filled in a hurry, and it'll be interesting
to see how it kind of all plays out. So so, Matt,
you know, when when you know going into the weekend, you know,
everybody's saying that, you know, there's a big recruiting the weekend, Arizona's
got a bunch of guys, expect a bunch of commits afterwards. You wonder,
though, you know, if somebody commits right after their visit, how
solid did those generally turn out to be? I know, sometimes some are
some aren't right, But you know, is it I guess let me ask
it this way. In this era of the you know the portal and you
can go back and forth, do commitments seem to be softer these days than
they used to be? Honest was saying, I mean, I think a
lot of what you're seeing right now is of recruits going well, I want
to make my decision now because I want to lock up my spot and I
want to know at least I have somewhere that I really like that I'm you
know, comfortable going to. But if something else comes across and plays out
towards the end of the year, then you know, things go ex change.
I mean, I think it's more than every kind of can't necessarily completely
buy into the commitment right now. There's just so much that can change.
There's coaching changes that are going to happen that are going to impact recruits across
the country, not necessarily Arizona, but you know places across the country as
we saw lost off season, which that was at Arizona, where you have
coaching changes that kind of come very late in the process and it changes things
for a lot of recruits. And so you know, for all those things
that you mentioned, you know the transfer portal and you know everything that's going
on. I mean, it's it's definitely a different type of feel. I
think there's we get excited about commitments and it's a strong sign of where things
are headed and you know, the job and a lot of the coaching staffs
have done up to this point. But to think that because the recruit is
making the equipment today, that he's going to end up signing or even playing,
you know, with with the team Nicks fall, you know that that
could be a stretch in some cases. I think there's a lot of guys
at Arizona has picked up the last a couple of days that will stick and
will eventually play for Arizona. I think, you know, having a new
coaching staff on board is a big part of that. But you know,
there's always a chance that this class is going to look much different, you
know, today than it will know in December, and so I do think
there's a reason to be excited, like I said, but yeah, I
think that to your point, I think that you can't get fully fully invested
in every one of these players because it's kind of natural that, you know,
one or two these guys, maybe more will end up leaving the class
and signing somewhere else. So that that said, you said they had eight
and less a couple of days or a few lest few days. How good
are they? It's on the uptick. That's that's the positive sign for Arizona.
There was a little bit of maybe some questions, you know, you
know, going back a little bit, but those are starting to be answered.
And I think the last couple of weeks have been very very good for
Arizona. I've added some talented pieces, and I think think more importantly these
last couple of days, it's in the offensive line. You look at the
players they've added up front and it's impressive, and you look at some of
the offers that a couple of those guys have had on their list, and
it's top programs across the country, and so they really did need to address
that. In this class, there's been there's some veteran guys up front,
and so they needed to make a splash in terms of offensive line recruiting.
They're not gonna blow anybody away there. In terms of their stars, you
know, their stars and all those things, we don't. We have them
all the three star recruits and and you know fans will look at that in
a certain way, but you have to. If you look at the offer
lists, they're really impressive. And I think they added some real talent,
beat out some top programs for a couple of those guys, and I think
that's something to really be excited about if you're an Arizona fan. And then
the end state recruiting, I think is a big deal as well. You
know, you have now three of the top ten at least according to US
and in our rankings, the rivals rankings in Arizona. You're the top ten
players are not committed to Arizona and you know, staying home. And I
think that's a really big deal. And you flip one of them from as
U, and so I think those are couple of things to be really excited
about. And like I said, I think that the talent and the strength
right now from this last group is upfront with the offensive line, and I
think those guys are really impressive and are going to be making an impact for
Arizona and the not be distant future. Tell us about this quarterback that he
was at the Elite eleven, you know event how good is he? Really
impressive? Really really impressive. I saw him earlier in the year, right
right after he committed to cal and I said this. I wasn't sold.
I wasn't told that he was necessarily a top tier guy. He gets a
late invite to the Lead eleven. I know he had from really well at
their previous at the regional camp in Vegas to kind of get on the radar
a little bit more and kind of wipe the slate clean of that performance that
I saw earlier in the year. And he came to Lead eleven as a
late invite at Tennessee commit got injured and wasn't able to participate, so they
brought in Robert McDaniel. He was, you know, since committed to Arizona,
and I was kind of a I think there wasn't a lot of expectations
for what he was going to do, and he kind of blew everyone away.
The second day, in particular the pro day, where it's a little
bit of a difficult challenge, you have to make a lot of difficult throws,
and then he really shined on that day and separate himself from the seven
on seven period. The next day, there several events of the course of
three a's and seven on seven year passing against defense. The rest of the
days it's kind of just on air, so you can't really get a true
gauge of everything. But the last day, you know, he was seven
on seven and going up against the defense and he was impressive there. So
he really helped himself. I would imagine he's going to get a bump and
ranking across the board and really kind of looks the part. I was really
impressed by his footwork. Again, a chance to really kind of see him
do some different things for the first time in person. I think was enlightening
to kind of about his game and what he's about. But you know,
he came to LA and really handled his business, and it's hard to do
that. There was a lot of the top quarterbacks there, including Julian Lewis
is the number one prospect in the class committed usc All, a lot most
of the top quarterbacks were in attendance, and he really held his own and
really outshine them in a lot of ways at different moments. And so he
helped himself a lot. And I think it's that fair has done up very
well for the future. But the flip side of that is that now he's
again going to put himself on the radar for other programs at that position.
It's a little bit different because a lot of the programs already have their guy
committed. Quarterbacks tend to decide really really early on in the process, so
maybe there's not as many options. But I have to imagine if somethings change
and some guys, you know, leave early, or something opens up down
the line, that he's going to get some more looks and potentially add some
more offers before it's time to sign. And so it'll be interesting to see
if that happens. But I know he really likes Arizona. He was just
on campus again this last weekend. His family really likes Arizona. He had
a connection to the to the current Arizona staff back when they were at Santase
State. He's in northern California recruit a small town in northern California, and
so he really fills a bond with this coaching staff and so I think that
played into it as well. But the opportunity to potentially step on the field
early is going to be a big deal for him. And so I wasn't
again sold but that he is going to be that guy, that type of
guy. But I think I'm more convinced of that after seeing him off.
So heak at wait eleven. So so, Matt, I always asked this
question, uh, to two coaches or whatever, but what do you think,
uh, Brennan's secret, sauces? Does he does he have a personality
that kind of sways him to come here? Uh? What's your secret to
get him here? Yeah? I think personality. It's all personality right now.
And and I think, uh, you know, until they can kind
of prove what they are in terms of playing coaching at this level and coaching
players and building systems and schemes to you know, perform at the highest level,
I think there's still be maybe some questions about it. But you know,
talking to recruits, have you committed in these last couple of days and
even before that, there's a kind of a mix of personality and then especially
on the defensive side of someone like Bwayne Keane. He's been very, very
key to this entire process. He's been really active, He's been you know,
he's been out on the road and he's been making the phone calls and
it's been a part of the whole process. And I think kind of from
starting with him on down, we always kind of talked about this, but
the guys that he's been able to coach to the next level, everybody wants
play in the NFL, and I think that they see a lot of those
connections with his staff. Obviously was you know, Jetfish. That was kind
of his deal, is selling players and recruits on the opportunity to play at
the next level and his connections to the NFL. But there's still that kind
of involved here with this kind of staff under Brent Brennan, and a lot
of players have gravitated for that. But I think he just the personality and
someone brought up today the culture that he's building right now, and I think
the players on the team deserves a lot of credit. I think no Fafita
temat a lot of these players are doing a lot when these recruits get on
campus to sell the program, and that can be more important than almost anything
in this entire process. And so I think it's that. I think it's
kind of the the culture and the personality that that Brent Brennan has. And
I think you know, there's been moments where you see pictures that come out
and he's wearing sunglasses and he's taking pictures. He's not afraid to be goofy.
And I think the more that recruits get around those types of people,
I think that really resonates. You're finding that, you know, fewer recruits
and is not a real surprise. Few recruits kind of want, you know,
that coach that is going to coach them hard. They kind of want
something they can kind of have a conversation with. And so that's becoming more
of the norm. And I think being willing to be goofy, being willing
to be transparent, I think that's come across as well with this current staff
of like, hey, this is what our situation looks like, is what
it's going to look like, this is how you're going to get on the
field. Now, feeling like they're being sold on something that is inaccurate.
I think has been important as well, and so I think it's you know,
all those things kind of playing to it. But I think personality definitely
at the forefront. And I think Brent Brennan being willing to kind of,
you know, provide that entertainment for these recruits and they come out all these
visits and be someone that they feel like they can go to and just have
a normal conversation with. I think has been really a big part of this
whole thing. So I was going to ask you this because I would assume
that the culture and the and the looking forward to NFL or whatever it was
under Jet as well, and they were moving in the right direction. And
then you use the work transparency that kind of screwed my pushing up. But
but isn't it the same kind of what Jed tried to do? Absolutely?
And I think that there's, you know, a lot of similarities. I
don't think that you can I don't think you have to be like, hey,
we're doing things different. I think they're doing a lot of the same
thing. And Jed was a very good recruiter. I'm not I'm not somebody
who's like, man, Jedfish is a bad guy, Like I think he
was doing a lot of the right things. You don't get a Troo McMillan,
you don't get some of these guys that he was getting by being a
bad recruiter. He was doing a very good job, and they were recruit
at a high level. I think they've they've taken on a lot of those
same things. And whether that's by designer, that's just naturally how they are.
But you know, the staff has been good recruiters at their previous stoffs,
and they've been you know, they're a good recruiters at fantas they say,
and a lot of times just a bigger school came in and you know,
pulled someone out of their hands. And so I don't think anything they're
doing as a shock and again I think they probably do, you know,
need to give some credit to the to the previous staff and because there is
kind of a blueprint and an outline for how you do it, and I
think they're kind of falling in line. They're doing They are doing some things
their own way. They're really diving deep into Texas and you know a lot
of coaching staffs previously have been a little bit afraid to do that heavily and
as heavily as are zone As being right now. And then I think the
other thing is just that they can't kind of take But I think Brent Brendan,
having you know, his connections to previous Arizona eras, understands that the
importance of the Polynesian connection, and that's something that they've really kind of expanded
on, I think, even more so than you know, Jet Fish and
is previous staff. I think there was a hint of that and there's definitely
wanting to get paul Asian players at Arizona. There was that desire, but
I think his coaching staff has taken that to another level. And so there
are some different things that they're doing within kind of their plan and their method
for bringing recruits in Arizona, but there are a lot of similarities as well.
And so again, I think it was one of those things where if
you can kind of see how it was working and how it was going,
you just kind of step in and continue to do the same things and maybe
you know, expand on it and kind of make it your own unique path.
But yeah, there are a lot of similarities to what the previous staff
was doing and what this current staff is trying to do right now. All
right, but talking to man, what I know from rivals and Gooiseycats dot
gone real quick, Man, you were at that basketball event up up in
Phoenix. Uh, everybody was there. You guys were reporting you know who,
you know who the coaches are watching, whatnot. Oh what did you
get out of that for as it relates to Arizona. Yeah, I mean
there's a handful of recruits that Arizona really likes. It's kind of the same
old, same old from Tommy Wood. I think that you know, he's
he's going to evaluate different options and there's some different players that they have their
eye on, but they really hone in on the guys they really like.
And so there's really only kind of a handful of guys that had Tom Lloyd
at all of their games, and so you know, those guys start to
come from the come to the forefront and there's a lot of talent that they're
looking at, but a lot of competition as well. There's you know a
lot of these recruits that Tommy Lloyd was watching and he looked over and there
was other head coaches, you know, Mark Pope from Kentucky with you know
in attendance as well, and Scott Drew and Bill self and you look at
down the line and there's a lot of a lot of top coaches that Tommy
Lloyd is sitting next to you and trying to battle for the same recruits.
And so I think Arizona's approach has kind of been well established by this point,
and Tommy Lloyd, they're not going to stress, they're not gonna overthink
it. They're just going to kind of do their due diligence and let recruits
go like, hey, we want you, and we're making it clear that
you're a priority, and not putting too much pressure to commit. And I
think a lot of those things have done well for Arizona in the past.
And so, uh, you know, kind of the same deal from from
Tommy Lloyd. He's never he's never looking stressed out on the recruiting trail,
and that was the case this weekend. He was having a lot of conversations
with other coaches and I really kind of honed in on the guys they really
like. And so we'll see kind of how that plays out, because they're
going to start taking place a little bit more rapidly, you know, as
the summer approaches and really gets going. And so we'll see where that's out.
But Arizona's in a good position with a lot of top guys, and
I think that will continue to be the case until those guys make some decisions.
I've never seen Tommy Lloyd stressed, and I didn't see him stressed against
Clemson either, so maybe he needed to stress. Yeah, thanks a bunch,
man, thanks a bunch, if you will, absolutely, thank you,
thank you. All right, it was good, you know, so
much going on. I don't know how these I still don't know how these
guys do it. No, Yeah, the twenty four seven guys, all
the energy that they have to do that, you know, not just one
school, a lot of school Yeah, Matt, I mean Matt's covered a
bunch of schools. He's not just in Arizona, right, crazy. The
good thing is you don't have to you know what, We'll just get mad
on and tell us all about it. That's what we do. I hate,
and you know how much I hate recruit absolutely. Yeah, Okay,
just take the break, all right, come out, take some calls maybe,
Yeah, I would love to take your calls. Five to two zero
four, one sixty, be right back. 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 Loot.
It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them,
competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty
five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to how
he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one Email me at Steve
dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal wild
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the secre. Is it hot in here or is it just me? Honey?
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radio WAW this is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Goozalez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball
here, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jacobsaus Have Henry
today manning the board. If you want to call us five two o four
one six seventy four forty you'd love to hear from you. A lot of
things going on. We gotta call. Okay, Hi, you're on the
air and I on the ball. How's it going today? What's up Brian?
Well, welcome back, Steve. I'm very sorry for your loss.
Thank you. I appreciate it also too. I don't want to be the
the Steve Rivera downer guy on a recruiting but but but everybody has to remember
that you commit to anything doesn't mean anything anymore exactly right, you know,
because in two weeks, all these guys are we who committed could change their
mind and go somewhere else. Well and that and that's the point that Matt
made predicted about the quarterback. Right, Okay, Now you know this quarterback
has said he's committed to Arizona. Now he's on everybody's radar, and say,
oh, this guy's going to Arizona. We got to check him out,
right. But you know, but but even even when they even when
they signed the letters, that doesn't mean anything anymore. You know, they
could still leave. Well you remember that there was an I took advantage of
that the last week too. They've got some players. They flipped some guy.
So you can't say, you know, it works well way, where's
both ways? Yeah, I think what people have to look at us when
they walk on campus and they enroll in school, then we can get excited
about what we got really not until then, right, and and that's it,
I mean, and you know what it's like that even with the guys
that you have right until you know, until they're they're back and they're in
their locker rooms and whatnot, you know, you know, I mean,
there's that whole thing with to Cario Davis, Right, how long did he
wait and wait and wait and wait to say I'm staying you know, he
wasn't even being you just okay, I'm in the portal. What he did
go in the portal, right to Carrio Davis. Yeah, so he went
in the portal and said, like everybody just waiting, what are you going
to do and nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and then he's back.
So, uh, not only are you waiting for guys that commit,
you're waiting for guys who are already here to figure out whether they're staying.
Also too, you have to look at what's going to happen. And it's
not too far away that a kid who has been here for maybe played four
or five games and all of a sudden he said, I want to go
over there instead and play finish the rest of the season somewhere else. That's
the next step in all this, right right well, In fact, I
wrote a story about this when Miller was here Sean uh No four years ago
and then from m might goodbye to him and to me. He coached like
that in terms of having manion green and the Nika the one that does so
he let him play, let him have fun, let him play, did
really well. And then it's semester break. Kind of turned it into his
style, thinking that if he did do that in the first semester, they
would have jumped right away, right you know, but it's probably gonna happen
to it since the NCAA is losing all of its power, that these kids
will transfer during a semester and be able to play automatically. Is that is
that rule hasn't changed yet. I don't think that's changed. I don't know.
I can't I can't say. I mean, we never thought all this
was going to happen two years ago. You're right, you're right. What's
happened? Yeah, you're right, Bright, you're right. Thanks Brian,
thanks for not being Steve Rivera but actually being Steve a bear. I know
I'm contagious. I hate to be the bearer bad news. But but it's
true. It's true. No, it's true, It's totally true. And
and and you know, and and like I said, Matt made that great
point on the quarterback. You know he some people didn't probably don't even know
who he was. And I said, well, this guy committed Arizona,
he must be pretty good, so let's go check him out. Right.
Well, then you go over there and you waive some more money at him
or whatever, Like I said, Arizona's benefited it too, not just this
year. To look at McMillan. How he got here, Yeah, he
was at Oregon, right, probably flipped him and he flipped him. Yeah
it look that's part of it now. And we all have to get used
to it again, and it's not fun because you feel like there's not this
you know, the whole uncertainty, and you know, then people get pissed
and they say things to these kids and stuff. And let me ask you,
because you're the fan of the room and you you know, you have
your friends who are fans of the rooms a different level, is it tougher
now to be a fan because of the situation that we're in now. No,
it's the same. That part of it's the same. You know,
I'm you're you're you're You're a fan because you're a fan of Arizona, right,
not because you're a fan of TM Mac or no Fafida. It just
happens. It just helps. It helps that when those guys stay and now
you feel good about your team. But you're gonna be a fan of Steve.
I was a fan of Arizona the Sumonlan and Macavic years. Right,
Yeah, so you know, I I don't think college fans unlike say pro
fans. I think college fans are fans of their teams and not so much
fans of their players. Yes, of course, right, you know,
in Major League Baseball or the NFL, NBA. Whoever a player leaves and
goes to another team, now you're a fan of that team. Because here,
if a kid leaves, out of sight, out of mind, he's
gone, right, Jed Fish has left. Good luck Jed. You know,
and you know Arizona's not playing you next year, so you're gone.
We don't we don't really care about you anymore. Uh, you know,
and think of all the players that left Arizona over time. You don't think
about what I think. That's true to a certain degree, certain degree.
I mean there's some well let me tell the kid, the kid who went
to u U USC the receiver. Yeah, yeah, or so people people
maybe not to watch the straight up, but they had a side eye,
all right, they were. They're rooting against him over there. He's doing
to a degree, but not not to the point where you know, a
player leaves and they take they take your fandom with them. You're still a
fan of Arizona regardless of who's here. Sure, So in that car,
in that regard, it's not it's not harder to be a fan and you're
still a fan. It's just you just kind of don't like to me,
it's more about I just don't like what's happening to college athletics in general.
It's not affecting whether or not I'm a fan of Arizona. Now, are
there some some college football or basketball fans or college athletics fans who are less
lesser fans because they don't like what's going on across the board. Maybe they're
not buying season tickets because they're just hate what's happening. Yeah, there's probably
some of that. Okay, that said, I don't I don't think you
attend to do your homework yet. Okay, So so now you're you,
you have money in your pocket, and you've been giving, you've been giving,
and now the school needs help, the clic department needs help, the
players need help. There's three different and Bobby, more than that. Are
you knowing what you'read how are you inclined to well, you know what,
if I'm the one hundred five hundred thousand dollars donor per year doesn't affect me
at all. What effect what would affect me is if I'm the million dollar
two million dollar house house, and that I want to know where my money's
going, and that you're in that you're not screwing it up because I'm making
an investment in you, and I want to make sure that when I make
an investment that you're not pissing away my two million dollars on because you're your
budgeting system is all screwed up, or you're giving away too many tickets or
all these things that were pointed out in the in the Ernstin Young report,
you know. So, I think if you're a donor who gives away a
significant amount of money, by that, I'm gonna say maybe in the fifty
thousand plus range. You want to know that money is being used properly.
That's what you want to know. My thousand dollars or my five hundred dollars,
you know, I pay on a seat license, you know, the
seat license or whatever. I'm not worried about that. Now if I'm somebody
who maybe I've come into some money and they've come looking for me, and
they you know, and I'm gonna ask questions like, how do I know
if I give you this one hundred thousand dollars that it's going to the right
place or you're using it the right way and you're not screwing it up as
I give it to you. So let me let me ask you this because
we live in a blame pool society. I don't live that way, but
let me do it in a small degree. But who's to blame for this
mess? Or is there or it goes everywhere, it's all over the place,
Steve, you know it's it's it's the department head who wasn't didn't know
what their budget was and didn't ask the questions about it. Right, am
I Am I spending too much money? Or am I not right? Or
they just went around and said, okay, well nobody's telling me not to
spend it, so I'm gonna spend it right. That's it seems like that's
what was going on in the department, right, athletic department. The people
in the athletic department were spending money that they didn't know whether or not they
had it right. That's that's what that report seems to suggest. Okay,
at the highest levels, when you're talking about the CFO and the athletic director
and you know these department heads, you have to know that they had to
think maybe this stuff's out of control, but nobody really ever said anything.
Right, they say, Okay, if nobody's gonna come and bug me about
what I'm doing. Then I'm just gonna keep going what I'm doing, right,
and then you're in a cross word. Then ultimately the whole thing comes
crashing down. Now, this report just came out, but I have to
think that do you have anew knew about a lot of this even before?
And that's why I'm thinking, Dave, he he's not here anymore? Sure?
Sure? Okay, Well, because ultimately he was driving the wagon.
We talked about that. They're talking about the report for a long time.
Right, what's gonna come of it? What's gonna come of it? What's
gonna come up? And eventually this is what's come of it. I was
gonna ask you, now, do you believe I believe it's not the right
word to put you on the spot, But we had the president on here
a few months ago, a couple of months ago. He talked about getting
out in eighteen months or whatever. Right, eighteen months, Yeah, look
there he'll be gone if they find a new president. But no, but
the situation would be fixed in eighteen months, I think, he said.
Because we even threw that at Yeah, I mean, I wishful think I
don't see how wishful think because it talked three to six years of really major
cuts and Addie and are you willing? Are you willing or your fan base?
Your friend and fan base? Uh, they said fifteen to forty percent
increase in tickets. Again for in a city that's that's not very wealthy.
Yeah, they're gonna lose some, but I I'm gonna still buy tickets.
I'm not gonna stop buying. Picture to me, it's like it's like a
uh circle here, you're having the more you're spending more, How are you
gonna get this where you're gonna get them from more. I fully expect ticket
prices to increase pretty dramatically over the next seven I really do. They already
went up this last year. Now you know they I got the increase with
Okay, I can do I can deal with that. You know, they're
gonna have to do it in a way that people that they don't just bludgeon
people and they lose a bunch of people. But if you're if you're a
season ticket holder or just that somebody who goes to games, just come to
grips with the fact that it's gonna cost you more. And that's the way
it is. I mean, it has in it has in the major leagues,
you know, in the in the major pro sports, you know,
going to I mean we've talked about going It costs you three four hundred dollars
just to go to a single, a single Diamondbacks baseball game. I went.
I went to the Reds, right, Yeah, done to a few
times, uh parking, And I got tickets from from a friend. Yeah.
Well, and beers are twenty pretty much eight ten bucks whatever you're spending
at least a hundred and when you get tickets. Six of us went to
a game, just the tickets, and we sat up in the noseblad and
just the tickets was three hundred dollars for six of you for six five fifty
bucks. And then you didn't go there next to eat right right, and
then you got I mean we probably that night as a group of six,
I'm gonna say we spent six hundred dollars five six hundred dollars, twelve hundred
total. No, no, total, Well, tickets were three okay,
yeah, tickets for three, and then probably another three hundred some food I
spent. I spent one hundred and twenty bucks on food at a U of
a baseball game recently, I'm like you, it was a crap hot dog,
crap hot dogs. And they still they still don't serve the nachos the
way I want to serve of the damn nachos. You completely, you can
put it. That's part of it. But that's part of it. You
know. The price of the price of going to games like that has gone
up, and it's it's just the way it is. And if you look,
if you don't want to pay that, then don't. It's up to
you. That's a that's a personal decision, and that's the problems. And
that's the problem. But because they need people to go to the game,
right And I think I've said this before. You know, major league fans,
you know, the pro fans, the NFL fans, the NBA fans,
major League Baseball fans, they're going to go to games the Maria well,
major League Baseball, lesson say it. And NFL NFL fans they're playing.
They're paying out of their you know what for football tickets. But those
stadiums are still full. And it's a fortune to go to a foot an
NFL game. It's a fortune to go to the NFL. I mean parking
at Parking outside the Cardinal Stadium is fifty bucks. Fifty dollars. That's why
people are getting big screens TVs and they're watching it from home for a two
dollars beer. You see these guys, who see these guys who just put
a fence around a dirt lot and they just make a whole bunch of money
over the course of a baseball season. Yeah, you know, because they're
charging twenty I have thirty forty dollars to park within walking distance of a stadium.
It used to be five bucks. But you know it's the cost of
this is going up for everybody, right, Well, they got to pay
those athletes millions and millions of dogs. Good luck with that. Remember,
I'm not a sportsman. You're not for a reasons, Yeah, exactly.
But at that part is good for you on that one, because now you
don't feel compelled to. But yeah, I mean you went to a ball
game though, but you are a fan enough that you might want to go
check out a ball game. Sure, sure, yeah, just to see,
just to enjoy it. I'll probably go to another one sometime soon.
But you know, I have to not to watch it, but to just
to wick away. You know, go to an event that their fun events
to go to. They're exciting, it's cool, you know, being at
a baseball game is very cool. But then you go to the snack bar
and you go, god, dang, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna diet.
I'm gonna die it. I get one dog or half a hot dog
by to one hot dog for two of us. Well, we're through the
first hour. Thankfully, we got through this and no problem. Thank you
very much for what I know. Now we're going to get to the next
hour with a lot of breaking news and then Michael led with some clarity maybe
on the finances. If he's got clarity, he's a genius, right,
he's a genius. Okay, all right, we'll be right back.