This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
z R TWUSA at iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, Welcome guy in the ball.
You know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jay Gonzalez.
Steve is going to be out today a little unexpectedly and we'll we'll talk
about that at another time. But I have my friend Juan here today,
so one's hanging out with me and we've got a nice Friday, a nice
Friday show when we're going to just kind of talk about all the stuff that's
going on. So Wan, thanks for being here today, Bud for having
me. Appreciate it. So you know, we've got it's just a mash
of stuff going on right. The US Open is on. There's a young
guy, Ludwig Oberg who's winning, is twenty four years old. He's beaten
an incredible field that you always get for the US Open. Tiger Woods is
scrambling to try and make the Scottie Scheffer. Mike missed the cut, so
a lot, a lot still left to happen in the US open that's coming
to the last few holes. On on NBC, there's some news regarding softball,
volleyball. You said softball and volleyball. There's just a whole bunch of
stuff. But and then today on the show, we've got Aeron Torres,
who's covers a college sports of all types right now, talking a lot of
football. Aaron is a friend of the show. He's got a show on
Fox Sports. He's also got his own podcast and does a podcast for Twitter
feeds for different areas of the country. He's got one in Arizona. So
Aaron, you know, talks a lot about Arizona, loves talking Arizona basketball.
So we'll see what's on his mind. A number of things going on.
He's tested some stuff about this whole deal with the Big Twelve, maybe
selling the naming rights to the conference, maybe trying to get some public equity
investment, just trying to find ways to raise money. We'll get into some
of those issues with Aaron because he's stays on top of all that stuff.
He's the guy that I mean, we're talking I think it was November maybe
December who said I was listening to his podcast and he back then he said
that John Calipari would not be the head coach at Kentucky this coming year,
And at that time there was no reason to think that other than maybe the
fans were getting sick of him. And then he had another bad NC double
eight thing. He's gone, he's at Arkansas. So he correctly predicted that,
and that was something that I don't think a lot of people were predicting
at that time. So again, Aaron stays on top of those things.
So we'll have him on the show at about three twenty and then at four
to twenty doctor Porter. We call him Doc Porter. He's doctor Donald Porter.
He's the team physician at Arizona for a lot of years, recently retired
and yesterday was named to the Arizona Athletics Hall of Fame. Good friend,
he's a spectacular guy. I'm sure he's seen a lot in all that time
he was at the u of A. I don't know how much of it
he can talk about, right, because he is a doctor and you can't
talk about all this stuff. But I'm sure he's had some experiences that are
maybe a little um it's things that we don't know right, or things that
we don't know go on and things that they have to deal with. When
we're talking talking about all the medical issues that the athletes have, whether it's
you know, a football player or a volleyball player or an or gymnast or
whatever, a lot of things that go on. So we'll just kind of
kick that around and talk about his career at Arizona. So he's again a
good friend. I've known him for a long time, really good guy,
one of the nicest people ever at McHale, and somebody who they obviously think
a lot of because they put him in the Hall of Fames. We'll we'll
have Doc Porter. So anyways, so he'll be on at about four to
twenty. What do you think you you asked me if I thought the Celtics
would it would finish to sweep tonight. I don't know. What do you
think I think they do? You think they do? I think just just
from the last game, ye know, Luca felling out with four minus left
when it's a three point game, I think that's really demoralizing for a team
to be that close yet you're still down three to zero. And I think
the Celtics just have to drive. They have the focus and the composure even
just the experience. Well, they certainly have the better team, right showing.
Yeah, and it's showing. We talked about that yesterday and you know,
Ryan Ryan our Thursday intern. Ryan is a huge Mavericks fan. I
don't know if you and him talk, but you know, he just basically
said, you know, he admitted, he said they just got better players
across the board, you know, I mean, you know, yeah,
Luka, Doncicks a really good player, u n Kyrie Irving's a really good
player. But you match them up against the Celtics guys, and Celtics are
just a better team. And they got five guys on the court that are
better than the year five guys. So I guess I'm a little surprised though
that it is three nothing. I really thought that the Mavericks would win the
last game. Yeah, they're really dominant at home, you know. Yeah,
just the last couple of years when the Sons have faced on the you
don't see him lose at home. So I know, I know they were
up for a little bit in that first half, but I thought they were
gonna take him three in favorable fashion, right, And I've never thought that
the Mavericks would win the series. I was hoping it would go like six
games. I hate I hate sweeps. And you know, we're looking at
one in the in the NBA, we're looking at one in the Stanley Cup
Final. I mean, you hate for the sports to end early because you
know the NBA would gone one another couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah,
you know, so that's too bad. But I don't know if I hope
for them to win at this point. If it's three nothing, it's like,
we know what's going to happen, just end it. Yeah, that's
kind of how I personally want to see Al Horford, a guy that's been
there and been around for a while, I want to see him go get
one. Okay, so all right, we're doing for one of the bets.
Okay, good, good, But but that also means Peyton Pritchard gets
one, right bettersweet moments. You know, that guy was annoying to me
and you know, coming here when he played with Oregon, he was that
guy that you just he he didn't look like a good player, yet he
could shoot the lights out. He always killed. There was one game he
just killed Arizona here and I'm like, I don't ever want that guy to
win anything. Not that I'm a barter guy and stuff like that, but
I guess I am. But you know, if he's I mean, if
if it means something to Al Horr to you for Al Horford to get when
Okay, I'm not rooting for Bayton Pritchard. I was rooting. He kind
of reminded me of a little bit more skilled TJ. McConnell. He had
that guy, if he had that representation for school and he could shoot the
damn lights out, and he always did against Arizona. It seemed like him
something. I hated that. I hated that. But but he'll get one
too. So but you know, look, the Celtics have been the best
team all year long. I mean, and I'm not going to say it's
not even close, but hands down right the best team. Then the Mavericks
come out of the you know, out of the West as a as a
five seed, right, you know, Oklahoma City wasn't any good. The
Nuggets turned, you know, they're not not be very good. Uh when
when I say not very good compared to what you were expecting to be,
right, So anyways, I don't know, I can't decide. I'm I'm
I'm focused on the us. I'm gonna tell you, I'm I'm a golfer,
so I love the I love the Majors. I've been watching it all
day to day. Scottie Scheffer's in big trouble. Might may not make the
cut, which is crazy. He hasn't missed a cut in two years.
He's five over. They're projecting the cut at five over, but right now
it's at four over. So a couple of guys got to screw up for
the cut to move to five and then if so, then he's in.
But he's not in contention. He's he's eleven strokes out with two two uh
two rounds left. So I don't know, it's been interesting to watch that
golf course is crazy, uh for those golf for those of you who are
golfers out there, maybe some of you who aren't are bored by this,
but seeing I saw a couple of videos going into the tournament where uh,
somebody was standing next to the hole, okay, on a green, standing
next to the hole and just drop the ball, just just dropped it on
the you know, on the green. Uh, you just standing dropped and
it rolled off the green from right next to the hole. I just saw
a shot a few minutes ago. I think it was who was it,
I can't remember who it was, but he knocked the ball and it landed,
couldn't be a foot and a half from the hole, spun backwards a
little bit, rolled twenty yards off the green. That's a tough go,
but you know, that's what they do. They try to make it as
hard as possible. We talked to Don Poolly about that earlier in the week.
They try to make it as hard as possible. And some of the
shots that these guys are I mean, some of the things that you're seeing
happen like Scotti schefferd today, he's in a dirt patch off the green.
He's chipping just to get on the green, and it took him two shots
to get it on the green. The second time he had over the green.
Like I can do that. I have that. I can do that
anytime. But these guys are you know, this golf course is making some
of these guys look very ordinary, and it's it's tough for someone There's some
guys who didn't make the cut. Phil Mickelson's like twelve over right, you
know, and I mean he hasn't been good in a long time. But
you know, he wanted to major a few years ago. But he's twelve
over. I mean, he doesn't didn't even come close. They showed him
a couple of times his shoulders were slummed. He looked like, I just
want to go home. It's tough to watch these guys. But anyway,
so what else we we had a good conversation. Uh, we had good
conversations yesterday with UH with Mark Wicker about UH about the passion of Jerry West.
Uh. I take it back, that was day before yesterday. Yesterday
we had Wilner talking about the uh all the business side of it. You
know, the naming rights. He mentioned he said, you know, our
school's going to sell their naming rights and javera morale is when you know he
kind of he tweeted that out that John had said that. I think John
was kind of tongue in cheek on that, but said, yeah, you
never know, you know, instead of right, instead of being instead of
being the ears on the wildcats, they might be the hsl properties wild kids.
But you know, these these school's got to raise money. They got
to raise a lot of money. Then you're looking at a school like Arizona
Yeah, it's like financial trouble. Right. Where are they going to get
the twenty two twenty plus million dollars that they're going to need to pay athletes
within a couple of years. Where's that going to come from? You know,
you know, you're you're hearing things, and you know there was a
I don't know if it's in your breaking news, the transfer kid who's going
to Kansas State. Do you hear about this? I heard about it.
I don't remember, like what, I can't remember his name, but they're
saying he's getting two million dollars to transfer from from Illinois to Kansas State.
And then somebody said, well, he averaged twelve points and six rebounds last
year. What are you doing? Are you gonna pay that guy? He?
What makes him worth two million bucks to a program? And you know,
some people came up and said, I don't believe that, and then
a number of others said, no, this one. A lot of other
ones haven't been that. This one's true. And I'm like, wow,
must have a lot of faith. I mean, he's highly thought of,
right, but what are you getting for the two million bucks? If you're
the one putting up two million bucks? Somebody said, maybe sixteen exactly,
maybe you're going to the sweet sixteen? What do you you know, what
are you doing? You know, is Kansas State going to win a national
championship with this guy? You'd hope. So even if they do, Okay,
even if they do and they pay two million dollars for it, you
know, how much are they getting for the final four or for a NANCAA
championship and two million of it went straight to this kid? And then what
if you're the guy who's already playing for Kansas State who was a star last
year he decided to come back and you know, kind of finish it out,
and all of a sudden, here comes this kid from somewhere else and
somebody's given him two million bucks. Oh man, the world of college years
or it's messed up. One, it's messed up. I mean, look,
I don't know what tm X getting right, And we know he's getting
something because we talked to to Bert Lopez, who has a contract with TAMAC
too. You know, whatever he's doing for the amount of money, I
don't think it's two million dollars. Yeah, no, I don't think it's
two million bucks. You know, maybe it's uh, maybe it's six figures,
maybe it's a couple of hundred thousand whatever. And you know, because
Bert Lopez has a affinity for you of a sports. He loves football,
he wants it to succeed. You know, he's put up some money for
that. But I don't think Bert Lopez is giving anybody two million bucks.
And I can't think of any boost at Arizona who would do that for anybody.
No, right, I mean what what I mean, what's what's the
top price for you of a athlete, whether it's Caleb love no off a
feed, a couple of hundred thousand dollars, Maybe that's probably what you're looking
at, right, I mean, it can't be much more than that.
But I think that also says something about the culture right of those right,
each of those respective sports. Because yeah, sure you can go make two
million in Kansas State, but you know, Caleb loves highly thought of around
the college football world, or not college football, college basketball world. But
you don't see him making two million. Yeah, he's sticking with Arizona,
all right, He's sticking with Arizona. Sure, he's going to be comfortable.
He'll you know, he'll get some money, he'll have a nice car.
He'll be able to go out, you know and get a pizza or
buy some dinner for somebody, or you know, live in a nice place.
Right. But I just I just don't see where the somebody that I
was talking to with today said, where's the return on investment on two million
dollars going to a kid who averaged twelve and six last year at another school
and coming to your school? Exactly what what do you get for that sweet
sixteen? There's a lot of hopes and dreams. Well, you know what,
and there'll be a lot of a lot of attention paid on this one.
People go to say, Okay, here's this kid, and we're everybody's
pretty certain he's getting this amount of money. Let's see what Kansas State does
with that? What does it do for Kansas State? And that's going to
be crazy, all right, that's okay, We're going to take our break.
We're going to have errent Toors coming in. We'll talk a lot about
just all these things. Right, Probably that one will be at the at
the top of the at the top of the discussion, because I'm sure he's
got some thoughts on that. And then we'll get Doc Porter Doctor don Porter
the form Arizona Team physician in the second hour, so stick around for erin
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They have their eye on the fall on Tucson's sports station CHET Fox Sports fourteen
to fifty. Welcome back time to the ball here of Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Jacin Zalez. My usual co host, Stiververa's out today, but
I have my our great Friday intern Juan here, and on the phone,
we've got Erin Torris for Fox Sports Fox Sports Radio on the Airport Aerin tors
podcast. You know, i'd call you aaron an expert, and I'll tell
you why, you know in college athletics because of a call that you made,
I think way back in November December. So welcome to the show.
Appreciate you being here. What was the call? I mean, now you
got that's that's what we call a teeth in the business. Yeah. Well,
I was listening to your podcast and I remember if it was late November
or December, and you predicted that John Calipari would not be the coach at
Kentucky after this last season. You know, he hadn't the season hadn't gone
far enough for him to be bad, bad enough to say he's going to
get fired. But you said you thought he'd be gone after this last season,
and in the end he was. I got to give you a lot
of credit for that. Oh thank you. Yeah, it's crazy that that
was surreal, and I know we got a lot of stuff to hit on
outside of that, but yeah, it was just, you know, that
situation was so toxic, and listen, I think there's a lot of blame
to go around. It was the fans. I don't think Cal helped his
own situation, but it just felt like every time there was a loss,
you know, Cal wanted to take zero responsibility. The fans overreacted in a
way that I don't know that I've ever seen covering college sports. And I
think part of it was the contract. But I'll tell you, Jay,
you know, I'd love to take a ton of credit. But I just
remember after that NCAA tournament lost to Oakland, I just remember sitting there saying,
this can't go on. But obviously they didn't have the money to fire
him, and I didn't think that he would leave on his own accords.
So you know, I don't remember what I said in November December. I
just know that after that Oakland game, I had the thought of you can't
run this back again, but I didn't, but I thought they had no
choice but to. So, you know, one of many, many,
many crazy stories going on in the world of college sports over the last twelve
months or so. Well, one of the crazier ones to me and Juan
and I talked about it last segment was this news that came out today.
You know, and again, so many numbers have been thrown around about Caleb
Williams at usc how much he was made king and all this stuff, But
this report comes out today that Kansas State assigned a kid and he's going to
get two million dollars a year. And he's not even like a spectacular you
know, can't miss Kinnie. He's a really good player, but two million
dollars to a place like Kansas State. First of all, your thoughts on
that? Are you hearing anything about it? Do you do you have any
confirmation of it? I guess yeah, you know, I actually do.
I can't say one hundred percent confirmation, But you know, he was an
interesting one because you know, he was interesting because he was pretty vocal.
Is he was a great great is relative. He was very good player at
Illinois. The stats are a little bit misleading. He dealt with some injuries.
You know, I would call him one of the top twenty five or
so players in college basketball, maybe top thirty, you know whatever, he
was very good. And I bring it up because you know, he was
very vocal about this time. Last year he entered the NBA Draft, but
you know, he went through the process, but when he decided to come
back, he didn't really have any options. And so in this Nio world,
I think he said it without saying it that you know, he felt
like he was a little bit undervalued at Illinois, so when he entered.
So when he entered the draft, he also entered the portal. And I
will tell you Jay, when he when he announced that he was even before
he announced he was coming back, I knew a staff that had kind of
poked around and just just to gauge is he coming back? Is he not?
What's the price tag? And they said that he did come back because
he saw you know, Great Osabor was the player at the University of Washington
that was at about two million dollars. And long story short, I think
Great osa Bor is a fine player, but I don't even think he's like
elite by any stretch, especially heading to now the big tenant Washington. So
I was actually told before this kid entered the portal, or excuse me,
before he removed his name from the draft, that he was quote looking for
great osabor money. Now has anybody worked that in college basketball? Maybe a
handful of people, But I was told he was going on the highest bidder.
And and the last thing I would say, really quick is I do
think there's a little bit of a learning lesson for the future, is you
know, I think by waiting until the absolute deadline for the NBA Draft to
withdraw, I think he did limit some of his options because you referenced Kansas
State, which is a good program, they made the Elite eight two years
ago. Whatever. But I think he, you know, he would have
gotten the best of both worlds if he had decided to withdraw, maybe a
little bit earlier. Where a little bit of a high profile school, a
little bit of a more eye profile school, Uh, you know, good
money, all that stuff. But to answer your question directly, I knew
something like this was coming, but it is still insane to think about how
quickly the narrative in college sports has changed. And it's crazy. And I
guess, you know, if you're saying he should have done this and he
should have done that. If he's getting two million dollars, he did okay,
right, for sure, for sure. But you know it's like I
think, you know, listen, I mean, let's let's call it what
it is. I mean, at the end of the day, he's going
to a team that didn't make the NCAA tournament last year. He's coming off
in Elite eight appearance, and I think even in a best case scenario,
that's probably the fourth, fifth, sixth best team in the now Big twelve,
your future Big twelve rivals there in Tucson. But in all seriousness,
I mean, you look at the rosters. I mean, Arizona's gonna be
awesome, Kansas is gonna be Austin, and Houston's gonna be awesome, Baylor's
gonna be awesome, on and on and so. All I was really trying
to say was if he had made that decision a little bit earlier, I
don't want to say a more high profile place, but I think he would
have had better options than just Kansas State because there wasn't much outside of them
as far as interest relative to how good he is. Well, let me
ask you, you know, based on what you know, are schools like
Kansas Due, North Carolina, let's say, a god, I don't know,
even Arizona are they Are they paying two million dollars for a player?
For one player? You know? I don't know because you know, well
I can't answer that because ultimately, like what we got to remember is he
was essentially a free agent. So like, what was the number for Caleb
Love to come back to Arizona? You know, I don't know. I
don't know if that's certainly not something that's public as far as I know,
So no, I think these numbers are on the high end, and it's
because these are kids with leverage. Now, what I would also say is,
you know, I think, let me say this is like when we
hear a lot of these coaches, you know, really pushing hey, make
sure to donate to the collectiveness. That the other thing. I think a
guy like today Coleman Hawkins, he certainly makes a headline. But I think
if a Tommy Lloyd comes out and says, hey, make sure you're donating
to our collective, I think it's more to retain a kJ Lewis, Jaden
Bradley, a Caleb Love so that they don't feel the need to enter the
portal and test their options, so that they don't feel the need or feel
as though they're underappreciated. So, you know, I can't sit here and
say who's making what? I just know that, you know, the kids
that do enter the portal end up being super high profile because of the fact
that they almost become essentially free agents, open to the highest fitter. Right,
just the craziness of it is just you know, I'm an old guy,
right, it's just too it's a lot for me to handle. Not
that you're old when I said when I said, I know I didn't need
o guy, just that it's just crazy. You know how much college sports
has changed. I know I'm talking a lot here, but I'll just say
it's like even the story yesterday about the Big Twelve, which obviously has big
Arizona tizes, but you know, are they going to bring in private equity?
Are they going to you know, rebrand the conference with a corporate sponsor.
It's like, you know, two years ago, it was like if
a kid couldn't even sell his autograph for fifty bucks, or he was suspended
for a game, And now it's like you know, the Big twelve might
be you know, the the Big twelve might be the Doctor Pepper twelve before
it's all said and done or something like that. You know what I mean.
Well, you know, and my position on that, and to me,
that's a whole lot different because if if the schools are going to be
forced to pay these athletes, they got to go get some money from somewhere.
You know, all right, I joke, sell naming rights to everything,
right, Sell naming rights to your palm line, Sell naming rights to
your band, sell naming rights to you know, we had John Wilner on
he said, sell naming rights to the school. You know that he said
that the in and out Wildcats instead of the air See. That feels like
a bridge too far. But then again, you know, there's probably thirty
stories that have come out over the last four or five years that feels a
bridge too far, you know, exactly exactly. So speaking of you mentioned,
you know, retaining players and stuff like that, how about Yukon retaining
its coach and all the all the news behind that, Dan Hurley uh deciding
not to go to the Lakers. Uh? You know where you as a
fan, okay, as as somebod who covers this and as a fan,
are you happy that he stayed or would or does it make it better for
you? Or were you okay with him going? And let's see what happens
at Yukon. So yeah, I mean, first of all, you know,
I am a Yukon of lum I. You know, it's tough for
me because I never really thought that it was a real story to begin with.
I thought, and I know he did his media tour yesterday where he
said it wasn't a leverage play, and anybody who says that is an idiot,
and maybe I'm an idiot, but I still think to a degree it
was a leverage play. And oh, by the way, in the same
sentence where he said it's not a leverage play, he said, my contract
is done, but I'm trying to take care of my assistance, So it
is a leverage play to some degree. I'll say this. There's two things
jay On. That is, I don't think it would have landed well for
you despite everything he's done for the university. And let's let's just acknowledge that,
you know, he's trending to go down as a potentially all time great
coach if he stays, and even if he left this year, I think
there's there's a large portion of the fan base that would totally get it and
whatever. But I do think and this is also part of the reason that
I didn't think he was going to go, is just the timing. The
timing of it from the perspective of it's June. You know, you had
a kid named Alex Caravan, one of the first players to sign with you
at Yukon going into his fourth year. Now, maybe not one of the
first, but in early was with you from the beginning. That kid could
have stayed in the NBA draft and ultimately been drafted, and he wanted to
come back for another year. Uh, you know, you had a bunch
of freshmen that were that didn't play much that you know, he really had
to obviously spend a lot of time communicating with saying, Hey, there's a
plan for you in place here, let's develop you, let's get you better,
let's whatever. And so I think that was part of it from his
perspective or and he has acknowledged that in some of the interviews that he did
yesterday of you know, there's a time maybe to seriously consider the NBA.
But not only was this not I don't think the one. I'll just be
honest, I don't think the Lakers is a good job right now because you
have a four year old, you know, aging superstar that wants you to
coach his son too. But but besides all that, I think that the
timing of this popping up in early June. I think if the Lake,
you know, if the Lakers, if he really was the favorite, and
the Lakers had come at him the first week of May when they fired Darvin
Ham, I think even that might be a little bit of a different conversation.
But you know, I was never that worried. Maybe I should have
been, Like I said, he claims that it was a tough decision.
All I'll say is it didn't. He didn't act like a guy this weekend
that had a really tough decision between showing between the fact that he was really
in La probably less than twenty four hours, the fact that he was at
the concert on Saturday night back on the East coast, just nothing to me
adds up to a guy that felt like he was ready to make this move.
And I say that as a guy that says that, you know what
someday in the future there probably will be a job that is of more interest
to him. But this one, I'm not just saying it with hindsight and
revisionist history. It really was never a moment. There weren't many moments,
I should say where I was really that concerned that he was leaving well.
And you know, and the other thing that came out of that, like
you said, was that a lot of people just start saying, you,
guys, the Lakers job is not what the Lakers job used to be,
Kay, And I apologize for keep cutting you off, but like that was
the thing that I and you know, we live on the West Coast,
so maybe it's a little bit different. But I was like stunned by the
number of people that are, like, you don't turn down the Lakers when
they call, And I'm like, what is this night like nineteen eighty two?
Like is Byron Scott and Magic Johnson still on the team? It's like,
you know, you besides the fact that I think it's obviously come out
that you know, the franchise maybe financially isn't in a place that a lot
of others are. But I mean, you look at the situation with Lebron
James, Like people are talking about coaching Lebron James like it's twenty thirteen and
having him on your team guarantees you a trip to the finals. And that's
just not the case anymore. You know, this is a guy that you
know his last two coach listen, a coach that, let remember, it's
easy to forget the Lakers made the Western Conference finals last season, and a
year later, that coach is fired. And so you can sit here and
call me a Yukon homer. But for Dan Hurley to give up what he's
built at Yukon to go to the Lakers and if it doesn't work out,
he's immediately on the hot seat, and he's immediately the fall guy. Like
I said, I just think there's gonna be an NBA opportunity where you know,
it's a little closer to home, a little closer to his family.
He's gonna have time to build it the way he wants. The Lakers can
say all these great things about we want your developmental and your culture near this,
and you're that. But when push comes to shove and Lebron James is
mad, I don't know that I believe that he's going to get the benefit
of the doubt. And so I didn't never understand the conversation about, well,
you don't turn down the Lakers. It's like, I don't know,
a lot of people seem to be turning down the Lakers. So anyway,
I'm going on and on. But no, but I know all that valid
stuff because it's it's kind of what we're talking about, right It's like,
I mean, I thought the same thing, you know, I thought,
like, okay, yeah, the Lakers are it's a you know, it's
they're iconic, but they're not very good and it's not a very good franchise.
Right now, one quick thing before before we let you go, okay,
we're it's kind of like, all right, all the sports are over
with, Well, the College World Series is still going on, but now
we're talking about next year and all the changes, all the all the realignments.
You know, we're talking Arizona is in the Big twelve. Now we're
going to stop talking about the Pac twelve. It's time to start to you
know, as they say, turn the page, and we're looking at an
academic here coming up where completely different. We've got the college Football Playoff,
We've got a Big Twelve Basketball conference. It's just going to be unbelievable,
which to me, you know, if Arizone was going to land in a
conference I like the one that they're in largely because of that. Just some
of your thoughts on what this all these changes, how they're going to look
when when games are starting to get played and now you know, as somebody
said, UCLA is playing Rutgers and it's a conference game. No, there's
no doubt that some of the schedule got leaked the other last week. I
live in LA I do radio on Saturday nights, but USC plays Rutgers in
a Big Ten game on a Friday night, and I said, you know,
I've been out in Coliseum in about four or five years. I would
love to get down to that game because on a Friday I might be able
to do it, you know, my big thing. And I don't know
that it's applicable for some of the Big twelve schools, But first of all,
it is going to look so different, and I think from a basketball
perspective, it's going to be fascinating. From the Arizona side, like how
they end up you know, how just things end up playing out. But
from the football side when I'm fascinated by, Like it's funny. Jeff Levy,
who's the new Mississippi State football coach, said something to the effect of,
I don't think anybody in this league is going undefeated anymore, and it
became like a talking point, and I'm like, yeah, no, nobody
is, you know, and I just I think it's going to be interesting.
There's a lot of schools that that you know, have historically, whether
it's Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, you know, Oregon. In
the PAC twelve, USC has certainly had success through the years, though not
as much recently, Alabama, Georgia. There's these schools that just expect to
be a ten to eleven twelve win team. But I think there's a lot
of there's a lot of teams that are just gonna have to except like nine
and three is kind of the new eleven and one, just with the way
the schedules break. So I think that's the interesting thing to me is,
like I said, there's a lot of schools that dominated in the Pac twelve.
The Big ten is obviously deeper, the SEC is deeper. There's no
divisions in those conferences anymore. And I think It's just gonna be fascinating to
see how people perceive nine and three used to be, like, Okay,
it's good, but it's not great. It might be great for some of
these teams with the way some of these schedules break, right. No,
absolutely, absolutely, Well, Aaron marount of time. I do appreciate you
joining us on a Friday afternoon, and I'm hoping we'll run into you some
And I'm looking forward to this here just to see what it's like. I
think the newness of it. As much as I hate what happened to the
Pac twelve, the newness of all of it, I'm a little fired up
by it. We're gonna see in Kansas City at the Big twelve tournament or
what you know, Well, you know, if they invite me, you
know I got you know, my stuff was paid for in Vegas. Yeah,
I know. I'm not quite as many hotel rooms in can in the
city, I don't think. I mean I've only been once, but I
don't think there's quite as many hotel rooms. So we'll see not quite as
many hotel rooms are blackjack tables. So there you go, exactly, Eric,
Thanks great week. I appreciate you joining us. Thank you, Steve.
Okay, Steve's okay, thank you, thank you all right. The
Eron Tours from Fox Sports, Fox Sports Radio and the and the Erin Tors
Podcast. Give him a listener's he's got a lot of He got a lot
of knowledge, as you could tell, uh follows a lot of stuff.
He's a West Coast guy, even though he's a Yukon guy. A lot
of interesting stuff coming from Eron toaurs. So thank you Erin for joining us.
Let's go and take our break. We went a little over. We're
gonna come back. Would love to take your cost five two zero four,
one sixty four forty wight 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, Lessens from Loot.
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Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez they have their eye on the ball. On
Tucson's sports Stig Jet Fox Sports fourteen fifteen streaming live, I'm the iHeartRadio WAM.
Welcome back down on the Bawling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your
host Jakin Salas. Steve is out for the day, and but I do
have my buddy Jan here, so one and a kicking things around. Interesting
conversation with with Aaron. A lot of you know, interesting perspective, you
know when you talk about you know, Aaron reports from a national perspective and
and just the things going on. We're talking about this kid, Coleman Hawkins
is alleged allegedly getting two million dollars to play basketball in college. Right in
college, we may uh. Javea morale Is on Twitter just pointed out,
we may see him, Michaeliff. You know, we we haven't seen the
basketball schedule yet for Kansas State he's in He's in Arizona's league, so we
may see him. I'm like, okay, are you worth two million dollars?
And then you know what's that gonna be like for him? Right,
He's going to go to an arena, He's going he's going to go to
Kansas or he's gonna wherever. He's going to go. Iowa State, some
of those teams that they already have big rivalries with, what are their student
sections going to be like when he walks in the door, right exactly?
I mean, you know a couple of years ago, we had those owners
are going against the one u c l A forward. Now what are they
are they going to bring out money signs for? They were they were they
were poling Brownie. Yeah, exactly, done anything to them? Yeah,
you just started getting on that starting spot, the injuries. Yeah, and
so there was a lot of unknown with him. You know that. You
heard the booze, right, and I guess, I guess for two million
bucks, you're gonna put it. You'll be happy to put up with stuff.
Right, Well, you give me two million dollars, you can call
me all the names you want exactly. But nonetheless, you know, he's
what twenty twenty one, twenty two years old, and you know he's still
young, and we're going to see you know what some of how some of
these things, uh uh, some of these things, you know, play
out with these guys. Now, football is different, right, You're on
a football field, you're far away from the fans, You're you've got your
helmet on people. You know, it's it's you know, you're you're you're
at a distance. But college basketball players, you're right up on top of
these guys. And these guys aren't making money. I mean, you know,
he made a point. We don't know what Caleb Love got or if
you got anything, or how much he got or what he's getting to play
another season at Arizona. Same with A. A. J. Lewis,
JAYD and Bradley, All three of those guys went into the went into the
draft, and all came back. You know, what are they getting?
And I think at some point one of the things that they're pushing for.
And when I say they, whoever they are, NC double A said that
they want transparency. And in all this, how much of these guys getting
right so that there's an understanding? And I don't know what the purpose of
that is. If I'm if I'm making a salary, I don't necessarily want
everybody to know my salary. I mean, you accept that if you're a
government employee or university employee, Yeah, it's public record what you make.
But you know, people don't know what I make. People don't know what
my wife makes. She works at a private company. I don't understand how
you get that. I know, I know because of anti trust issues and
all the things that come with the regulation of the NFL and the NBA,
stuff like that. Yes, we get their salary information. Is that going
to extend to colleges? I don't know. But you know, I don't
know if we're ever going to know what some of these guys are getting.
And I guess I don't even know what the purpose is of knowing. Yeah,
I think it's just people's interests. And I think, like we said,
when when the Coleman Hawkins comes into Michael Center, you're gonna start comparing
the Caleb Love to the Coleman Hawkins. And is it justified that he is
ranking two million over a killed Love who makes X amount of dollars? Or
or what do you what do your own fans do if you have a bad
game? Exactly right? You you miss a you miss a buzzer beater that
would have won a game, and they say, well, what the hell
are we paying you two million dollars for if you don't make that shot?
Right? Those kinds of things, and those are issues that I think we're
gonna uh you know that, I think we're gonna start to see I think
more in basketball season than in football season. Right Like, like you know
again mentioned mention a tatoo. McMillan, you know he's getting something. Humberto
Lopez came out and show and said, I'm paying him. He's got a
contract with him. We don't know what it is. Uh, maybe we
find out, maybe we don't, but you know, he's just gonna go
play his game. And I don't see, I don't see where he's going
to get boot off the field or anything like that. But college basketball,
because it's it's sort of a much more personal environment. I could see that
becoming an issue for some of these guys who are getting a bunch of money,
and even just the difference in sports. Right, like you said,
football, they have the helmets, they have the year basketball. You see
their face, you see all their expressions all the time. They got to
walk through you to get to their locker room, exactly right. That's going
to be a really interesting thing to see what happens there. If you want
to give us a call, five two zero four one six seventy four forty
would love to hear from you. I said the number wrong. As we're
the break, I've only been doing it for four years. I don't know
what to tell you. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty.
You know, I got to ask the question, right, would you give
that kind of money? Two million bucks? How much money do you have
to have to be able to do that? Right? And you know,
I mean I I think the implication is that you know, the two million
dollars is probably coming from one source. They didn't go out and gather two
million dollars that was going to go to this player and that player in those
players, somebody came up and said, Okay, I'll give you the two
million bucks if you'll go get him and we'll be better if you're a booster
or a fan or an alumnus. How much money do you have to have
to say, Okay, I got two million bucks to give to this kid?
Yeah, how much you know? I asked, and I said I
it would have to be Bill Gates money for me, And I don't even
know if I would do it then, right, I'd much rather put the
money toward, you know, athletic scholarships, you know, help them with
that. And if you've got if you take my scholar if you take my
money and put it towards scholarships, then you move money over to give to
him, that's on you. I don't want to be the one giving one
kid two million bucks. I don't know. I feel like that's just too
much of a risk, right given I know we're getting real specific with Colemenhawkins,
but you see the stats and you see the well he's getting right,
something doesn't add up. There must be a little bit of an x factor
that might be coming with him. We'll see come and again. You know,
Jason Chaer made the point, and as did everybody else. He averaged
twelve and six last year. He wasn't a twenty point guy. He wasn't
going twenty and ten. He's a six ten forward kind of average guy.
You know. Aaron Torres said he's maybe the top twenty twenty five, top
thirty player in the country. How did he get two million bucks, you
know, to do this? How many guys play for his owner that are
better than him? We don't know. Right, you're not saying none,
Right, you're not saying none of them. So what the hell? How
does this guy get that? Look it must be I'm not jealous. Well
okay, I'm a little jealous, but maybe wouldn't be more power to the
kid to pull that deal off? Right? There was one of the one
of the social media posts about it mentioned, you know, he had he
had a marketing firm and an agent and all this stuff that went out and
got this form. More power to those guys if you can get it,
get it. I just don't understand the people who are giving it. That's
the part that I don't that that I can't wrap my brain around, uh,
you know, doing that, and it's something we're just gonna have to
get used to, you know, perfect, that's a that's exactly exactly it.
We do have to get used to that. We you know, and
you know what, sometime somewhere along the line, there's gonna be a kid
come to Arizona, you know, basketball player, more more more than likely
a basketball player that you're going to find out. Some people in this community
put a package together to get him, you know, a million, million
and a half two million dollars so he would play at Arizona. I'm like,
I don't see how that can happen, but I guess it could.
If it can happen again in the States, shoot, it can happen here.
I mean I feel like it should. You know, Arizona's been around
for a while. They're quote unquote a powerhouse in college the college basketball world,
So why wouldn't we be. But you bring that kid here. He's
making more money than anybody on the team except Tommy Lloyd. Yeah, more
than all the coaches, you know, more than all the coaches probably combined.
You know, I mean, it's a it's a crazy thing, but
You're right. It's it's it's the way of the world. We got to
get used to it, and it's going to happen. More and more athletes
are going to get this kind of money and we're going to you know,
we're just going to deal with it. So I don't know, I'd much
rather deal with the naming stuff exactly. I'm I'm you know, I mean,
am I somebody who would have been upset five years ago, ten years
ago, fifteen years ago if they renamed Michale Center, you know, Bank
of America Center, something like go sure, I would have not today because
I you know, I understand the money situation. I'd rather Arizona be competitive
on the field and have the money to run a program that can be competitive
then than not. Right, if you have to, if you have to
change the name of Michale Center, if you have to change the name of
Arizona Stadium, even if you have to change the name of High Corbett Field,
Hill and Brand Stadium, I don't care if you got to. You
know, if you got to name those well, Hill and Brand Stadium is
already named. Somebody's paying for that. But you know, if you have
to do that in order to have the money and the funding to be competitive,
and it keeps ticket prices from going up. As much as I think
they're going to go up because of all this, then I'm okay with it.
Fine, we you know, we've already gotten rid of all the tradition
and history, you know, but getting rid of the PAC twelve. Yep,
let's just let's just do it and be competitive. I mean, as
much as we talk about how much we dislike it, there is some good
stuff to it. You know. If I'd love to see those ticket prices
go down, you know, there's a lot of well they're not going down,
but I think I eventually keep going up the way they're going up.
Right, But you hear I've been hearing about some these these long time ticket
holders that have had to give it up because they keep going up in it.
Yeah, you don't want to hear that. Yeah, yeah, I
mean, and and you know we were talking yesterday the day before that college
football fan is different from the NFL fan. NFL fan is going to die
for their team if the tickets go up, fifty bucks are going to pay
the extra. If they go up, one hundred bucks are gonna pay the
extra, And they're still going to go out and buy the jerseys and the
cups and the you know, make their man caves and stuff like that.
College football fan. There's some college football fans to do that, but the
average regular college football fan, they want the ten dollars ticket, the fifteen
dollars ticket. They or they only buy they only go to three games instead
of buying season tickets. It's a different fan base. And I think that
you know, if again, if you have if you have to go,
if you go raise money and it keeps that stuff kind of within, we're
close to where we are, then do it. Just do it, you
know what I mean? Okay, so it's you know again, it's Bank
of America, a center, you know, presented by Pap McHale, you
know, whatever it is. Uh, you know, you know they they're
going to need the money, and every program is going to need that,
even the big ones, you know, the Texas and Alabama and Ohio State.
You know, we like to think they've got oodles and oodles of money,
but you know, when you start having to pay out a bunch of
that money to athletes and stuff like that, I'm sure those programs don't have
an extra twenty million dollars sitting around right now. They just don't all right,
God, my head is spinning. My head is really spinning. All
right, but you you are loaded up with breaking news, right, Okay,
we're gonna come back. We got breaking news, and then we're gonna
have a doctor Don Porter, the former team physician for UH for the U
of A Athletic department for a number of years. Great guy, I'm guarantee
it's gonna be a fun conversation. He's going to join us at four twenty.
But when we get it's going to be a wand coming up with breaking
news, and there's lots of it. I see the US Open is getting
close to wrapping up, and my boy ludvig Aberg has the lead. He's
the guy that I picked this week. I stug, man, he's killing
it. Look twenty four year old dude. Man can't belie. I mean,
he's a child. He's a child. All right, we'll be right
back with breaking news.