This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagan Zalaz on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services. I'm sure your most prized possessions,
Kati z R two sad at iHeartRadio station. Yet. Hey, good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Ja goon Zalez. We've got a guy Ryan
in with us today. It's Tuesday. Last I checked, could it be
here? Be well? Yeah, one more day, Steven, then a
couple of days off. I'm looking forward to it. I might go golfing
four days in a row. Good luck. That's not that's not that's not
a true statement. Leather leather up, that's already point letter. Don't tell
my wife, but I forgot to put sunscreen on last Sunday when I golfed.
Well, but let me I don't I don't burn. She put you
don't burn until I tell you burn. I mean I looked at myself to
be you know, I got home, I went straight to the bathroom to
look at my face and see if I was all burnt stuff, so that
I could How can you tell you're already, That's what I'm saying. I'm
not burned you already, Chris. I'm yeah, I'm just a little crunch
here, but not not burnt up. You know, I'm not red.
You don't get red. You're over oven an over ovened tortilla. I am
that. I'm not spotty. That like, there's no there's no white parts
of that. There's no Jesus on Actually the kind of kind of is that
a place that you don't get to see very often. No Jesus on your
face, which is fine, exactly exactly. I'm looking forward to, you
know, the weekend. You know, it's a fun weekend, fireworks and
all that stuff. We like I said, we go up to Mount Lemon,
have a good time and uh, you know, just try and stay
cool and then usually eat a lot. Now, with an extra day in
there to do that, I should I should put on eight or ten pounds
by the end of the weekend. Okay, that's good to know. It's
good to know, So welcome to the show. Everybody would take your calls
today, Thanks for yesterday for some of the calls when we didn't have it
was great. Yeah, today we have a pretty good show. It's kind
of all women show. Yeah, yeah, all women and kind of all
international. Right, We've got we've got UH two members of the u US
Paralympic women's basketball team, both of whom are U of A grads and both
of whom are now on the coaching staff for the for the U of A
women's UH wheelchair basketball team. It's a Courtney Ryan and Josie Oslickson, who
are headed Tokyo, Tokyo Paris here in a few weeks after they played in
Tokyo. Right, they were in Tokyo the last Olympics, so this is
their second Olympics, both of them. They coached together at the o A.
And we'll see what they have to say about a second trip to the
Olympics. That'll be fun. And then in the second hour you have Telaiah
Henderson who she's a South Point Catholic kid who played on the eighteen U eighteen
team for Canada. In the most recent U eighteen I think it's a World
Cup or something like that. Yeah, they lost in the gold medal game
to the US, but she was on that team and she's apparently a superstar
in the making in women's basketball attends. I said, attends stop On Catholic
High School, and so we're gonna get her on and talk about her experience,
uh, you know, playing in that tournament just a few weeks ago.
Yeah, so very you know, interesting stuff. Again, just our
efforts to talk highlights some of the you know, some of the people in
the in this town aside from you have a football and you have a basketball.
Uh, you know, some of the things that some great people are
doing here and things that they've got, things that they've got going on.
So that's that's what we're doing with these with these groups. Okay, cool,
Well again, if you want to call five two o four one,
six, seventy four, forty, we'd like to hear from you, no
problem. So a lot of things going on. I know you're gonna have
breaking news. There's a lot of stuff breaking news football wise, right.
Uh you know what, I haven't been on social media like all day to
day, just been busy. But so I'm gonna find out from Ryan what
the hell's going on out there? Yeah, okay, all right, go
over that later, all right. Dodgers trying to bounce back from getting beat
two out of three by the dang Giants over the weekend. So they've got
the Diamondbacks at Dodgers Stadium for three So we'll see what happens. That starts
tonight. We're taking on the Giants tonight. He just beat the hell out
of the Dodgers, you know, the one game the Dodgers did win they
wanted, I mean, they beat the hell out of them, but took
they went to extra indings to do it. So I don't know what's going
on over there. It's pitching. They don't have the they don't have the
any dominant pitching right now? Oh they do? Should they have dominant pitching?
They no, they got a bunch of injuries. They got a bunch
of guys hurt. You know, they're they're probably their three best picture four
best pitchers are all out. Oh really yeah, and have been all year
line and they're still doing okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing.
That's interesting thing is that they are doing okay. So okay, anyways,
all right, U what else is going on? We got a lot of
stuff. The softball teams in Italy, I think basketball team. Did you
see that that the four four guys I didn't see who they were. The
four guys are are projected to go to the NBA next year for four drafts.
Four drafts. Lewis yeah, Uh, Jane Bradley, Caleb Love prevousous.
Somebody had some stuff about Creevous the other day. Uh. And then
if he has a big year, he could be He's not. He's definitely
not ready. He's he's not ready to even in a year. He's how
can I say this, He's he's a mix of Caleb Tarzuski, very stiff.
Uh, he has a way Caleb rustics. Uh. He's got a
lot of the things, but he's not fluid enough. I remember that the
NBA is a fluid Yeah. I'm not I'm not debate with you. I'm
just saying I read a projection on him that you know that he can he
can develop it from what they saw last year, he could develop enough this
year to be to be in that in that neighborhood. So who's the fourth
one? Okay? So Crevios Crevious is nineteen to the Clippers by ESP A
nineteenth nineteen pick. That's pretty generous. That's pretty generous. I wasn't making
it up, man, No, No, I don't. I usually don't
think you're making it up. And usually wrong. And when you do make
it up, Okay, sometimes I'm wrong, but I'm I don't make enough.
Yeah, but I don't. You don't. Just because they put it
out there doesn't mean it's legit. But I'm saying I read that projection.
I was. I was as surprised as you to hear somebody say that crevious
could be somebody who could who could do enough to get to get drafted in
the first round here. Yeah. Well, okay, I just don't see
it, but we don't want to Helio, so you said, Carter Bryan.
Carter Bryan, correct, Okay, right right, which makes sense.
You know, it's active young guy who has a lot of potential. Uh,
it'd probably be best to be stayed to at least two years. I
mean, it's all about potential, right, well, talk about potential money,
Yeah, potential. But but I'm sure they're getting paid pretty well,
That's what I'm saying. If they're getting paid pretty well here, they might
stay. Whereas before, if they weren't getting paid here and if the money
was there on the NBA side, they were gone. So uh No,
I think I think it could be that if he's going to be a low
first round draft pick or or maybe maybe not a certain first round draft pick,
and somebody might go in the second round. He might stick around for
a year where he might where otherwise might not have. Well, they said
they mentioned four, but they only stay three Crevis, kJ Lewis, and
and Uh and Bryant. I would assume that they met, but they don't
mention wholes in Indiana. He's no longer well, so I don't think they
yeah, four names, but he's not a. He's not Why would they
include him? He's not there. Yes, I don't know who would you
rather have this year? YEA, probably Crivos because throws. Yeah, I
mean, and look, Crevo look really good player, really physical and that.
But I think I think Crevis takes a big step. I think Crevis
takes a big step where he can be ballowed like he's he's more skilled offensively.
I think and and and he and I think and he'll make them and
he'll make the damn free throws, you know. And I shouldn't say it
that way. I'm not, you know, I'm not. I'm not puking
on on on Umar Ballow because he was great here and he had a lot
to do with you know theirs success these last two seasons. But you know
you cringed when when they followed him, because he thought, you know,
there's a there that could this could be a waste of possession. And uh
And like I said, if Crevis takes, if Creavs takes the step forward
that you would expect somebody to take between the friendshman and sophomore year, he
could be in the ballot neighborhood already in terms of you know what you know,
in terms of being as a big guy, you know, both offensively
and defensively. You know, I think Ballo is a little more athletic.
Creevous has some other skills that bollow didn't have. Right right then they were
a good combination. He's got to get tougher, for sure, right who
Creevous does? I mean under the basket he got he got pushed around,
he'd get the ball torn out of his hands, those kinds of things.
But those are the kinds of things that you work on in the off season.
And if you if you do do better at those things and get a
lot better overall, then he can be somebody that again brings the types of
things they do. Morballo did what's a little bit more offense. Yeah,
I agree, So I agree, And that's why I'm sure that in Tommy
Low's factor of saying goodbye to Ballow, it was part of its branch out
over there. We've got a guy. We've got a guy. To let
me tell you something. There was a guy before Crebis too and ball Henry.
Henry was fantastic. He was fluid from the outside of three pointers.
He could. He's a stiff, thin guy, but he was not gonna
bang. He was not gonna bang around inside. No. No, But
he's a four. He's a he's a stretch forward to stretch forward, which
I think will be great for Arizona having him there too. So if it's
not Creevous, it could be Henry and whoever else to have. This is
gonna be a pretty pretty solidary. Well uh uh, Tommy Lloyd, that
guy that Tommy lawrdy is gonna have a lot of options. He's gonna have
a lot of He's gonna be able to have a lot of different looks.
Right. Uh. You know, let's say let's say crevious, I mean
not crevous. Vassar's in the game, you know, as the as the
five now somebody's got to go out on the perimeter and cover him, whereas
with Grievous you don't have to do that. So it's gonna give him some
options in some ways to to change things around and keep people, you know,
keep other teams guessing in terms of how they're going to defend or how
they're gonna, you know, run their offense against Arizona. To be asking
you, but Bradley, I think, right, but do you think he's
an NBA guy? I don't know. I don't think we know that yet.
He's really good. He's really good, yeah, and for his purpose,
right and and I know you give him crap about his aggressiveness and now
he doesn't give up the ball. But guys like that they have value with
the next half value at the next level because they're fearless. Right now,
they can get to the basket, right, they're fearless. He's quick,
he can get to the basket. I think he needs to be a little
better shooter, right, right. He's established himself as a little better shooter
this year. And if he does that, I think, yeah, I
think he's an NBA player. I think I think his game is more shooted
to the next level than here. He's tall enough, he's yeah, and
he's aggressive enough. I don't give him grieful about that his aggressiveness. It's
just that he's really ball dominant. Oh you still want you give him crap
because he goes into the lane and the ball never comes out and comes out
and and Caleb will have to learn the same thing. And guess what how
many balls did play with just that one? Yeah? Yeah, So you're
right, they're gonna have to figure that out. Because you know, the
other kid, the kid that transferred the guard what's the name owe? Who
are you? I don't know? Who are you to? Kylin Boswell was
more apt to give up the ball than Jade and Bradley. So we're gonna
have to see what who's who's who's gotta adjust? Does Caleb Love have to
adjust and not seeing the ball as much? Does Jaydon Bradley have to adjust
and give the ball up a little more? Do you think that Boswell uh
probably gave it up more than he should have. Well? This year,
last year was not a good year for Boswell, had the same Boswell showed
up, he got off to a great start, and then he went into
the andh he was he was Nope, not confident at all with the shot
or otherwise. Yeah. Uh, and I think I love that had something
to do with it. However, I don't know. So we'll see.
We'll see. It's gonna be a good team. It's gonna be a good
team. It's gonna be interesting to see what their identity becomes. Right are
they There's somebody who Are they a team that you know, high scoring team,
you know, shooting all over the place, you know, a good
defensive team. Are they good inside or I'll only go out on the perimeter?
All those things. Yeah, so I posted today. I'll save your
stuff for for for first breaking news, but I posted today's poll. They
had a poll for media, poll for the football the media already and I
won't say where Arizona landed. I'll say so people were asking is this basketball
or football? And I'm thinking, do I also have to post that McDonald's
coffee is hot? Because what what? What's the next sport coming up?
Football? Basketball? A few months? Plat Poul won't be out for four
months last I checked. So it's football and you will probably be surprised be
where they landed. I'm gonna have to look, I haven't. That tells
you how out of pocket I have been today. I'm not. I've not
seen any of this stuff. Well I'm saying I'm seeing the all Big twelve
team. The media also had a vote on the on the league. Yeah
yeah, football, where the teams all all conference teams and all where they're
gonna rk? Where are they gonn finish? All right, well, I
do not have any of that. I'm just and I I signed up for
the newsletter and stuff. Yeah, so all right, we'll have we'll go
through that. I got a story, okay, Well you guys just want
to save you you guys send it to me. Yeah, okay, Oh
cool. I'm looking forward to that because I'm okay, I'm just I'm not
gonna look for it so that I can react. We go through. Okay,
let's come back with our Olympic Courdy Ryan Jolse islec Sun, the US
women's wheelchair basketball team that's headed to Paris in a few months on a few
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Steve, Jake and Salez they have their eye on the ball on tucsum
Sports bag chet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeart radio WAP.
I'm Steve Rivera, He's jagan zaus Now on the phone. We have
Courtney, Ryan and Josie a Flexen from the USA Paralympics basketball team. How
you guys doing good, We're done great, Thanks for having us. Congratulations
on another Olympic Games appearance. I'm sure you guys are as excited as as
last time. Oh yeah, even more so. I'd say, yeah,
super excited. Last time it was a unique experience not having fans during the
COVID pandemic. So excited to have family and friends there this time to share
the experience. How's is your approach any different being that you guys are old,
grizzled veteran Olympics athletes or you know, is it the same? Is
there the same type of excitement? How are you handling it this time around?
Yeah? I would say that excitement is different this time. I think
when we went to Tokyo, we were a very young team and we were
just excited to experience the Paralympics. But now I think we're excited at the
prospect of getting goals and using our experience and chemistry to achieve that. So
how much better have you guys gotten four years later? Yeah, we've improved
a lot collectively and individually. Like Josie mentioned, We were a young team
at the last Paralympic Games, so we're excited to have that year of experience
in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one under our belts now to showcase the world
what we got. Now, well, I don't want to put this on
you, but you did get a bronze last time, so it's like,
is it gold or bust this year? How are you guys approaching that?
I think all of us were and are very grateful for the bronze medal.
Right, it's just to metal is an amazing achievement, but I think it
did fire us up being so close to, you know, two spots away
from getting gold. I think everyone has their eyes on that this time around.
So what are the tryouts like? Did you have to go somewhere maybe
Colorado Springs workout as like everybody else and then they pick you or what's the
process? Yeah, our first tryout was in January and there was about thirty
girls women that were invited to the tryout. It's very exhausting week. We
train about six to nine hours a day, including strength and conditioning testing,
and they narrow it down to sixteen after that first tryout and then we came
back in April, which was in Colorado Springs and had the final tryout where
they announced the twelve players and teams teammates. So they're going to be representing
Team USA and then for alternate So did you both you feel pretty good about
your chances at that because you're on the team last year. How many other
repeaters are there on this team? Most of the team except for their one
athlete, has been to a Paralympic support at least one Paralympic, So it's
a team full of vetsa at this point, and as a veteran athlete,
I think you start to feel more confident about your chances of making the next
team, but it is still nerve wracking and you definitely want to show up
to try out as having put the work in. Well, we're talking to
Josie Aslexon and Courtney Ryan, both from the UV right they played here.
That's one of the reasons why we have them. We're local from UVA.
How is that passed help with this future the u of A past? I
would definitely say that being a part of the collegiate program here at University of
Arizona taught us the work ethic that it takes to be able to represent Team
USA. So without that experience and that exposure, it would have been really
hard and difficult to get the opportunity to represent Team USA. So incredibly grateful
for those times at the University of Arizona and have a lot of gratitude for
what we learned there. So you mentioned off air, Joseie, you're the
head coach of the u of A women's team. According to you her assistant.
Now, how's that relationship on the floor with playing as teammates? What's
that like for the two of you? I feel like we just know each
other really well, and we understand and value each other's perspective. It's special
when you get to play with someone so often and then you get to coach
alongside them. I think your basketball brains kind of mess, and it's really
nice to have that chemistry on the court and on the sideline. Is there
actually you know on the court? Can you tell you you know what each
other is doing, you know how to you know your moves, those kinds
of things. I mean, is that actually going on on the court.
Yeah, Like she said, it's a huge benefit to get the opportunity to
coach with each other because we both bring different things to the game that we
can elevate for the girls that we coach. And then it's a huge advantage
to get the opportunity because we talk basketball so much that when we get back
to training camps, you know, it's very easy and we just understand each
other when we're out there, so it's a huge benefit. Well, along
those lines, you said that the team is pretty much the same as it
was last time. Did you play more games since the last in Tokyo?
Did you guys go other places and still have more chemistry or learn more about
the team since the last four years. Yeah, we've gone to Dubai,
We've gone to Chile, and we've recently come back from China. So yeah,
we've we've gotten the chance to complete since Tokyo and kind of see where
we're at going into Paris. What a great opportunity. Yeah, absolutely,
Okay, So what's what's the process from here now? From here until you
get to the Olympics or what you know? When, what are you doing,
how's the training going, where's the training taking place? And then when
do you leave for Paris? And when does all that happen? So we
are a decentralized program. All twelve of us kind of live in different areas
of the United States, so we trained individually and meet at least once a
month to make sure that we're good to go and we're still on the same
page chemistry wise. Is really important to have that. So we have one
more training camp coming up in about two weeks in Colorado Springs. We just
finished a training camp last week actually in Alabama, and then we head out
on August seventeenth. So we're incredibly excited and the games officially start. I
believe our first game is the twenty eighth or the twenty ninth of August.
Woll Yeah, nice. Could you guys give us some background on your plane
or how you grew up, because I think one of you seen some TV
stuff was a lacross player and so you're very competitive. I actually played soccer
starting at the age of four, so I played soccer from four to My
spinal cord injury happened when I was nineteen years old. I was playing at
the collegiate level at Metro State University College of Denver in Denver, Colorado.
At nineteen, I sustained a spinal cord injury due to a blood clot burst
in my spinal cord which caused me to be from paralyzed from the waist down,
and was introduced. That happened in twenty ten, and I was introduced
to adaptive sports and twenty eleven and specifically was in love with wheelchair basketball.
I felt like there was a lot of similarities between basketball and soccer, so
I was just fooked right from the beginning of that. And it's been an
incredible journey since then, since twenty twelve, and grateful for the opportunities that
I've had, Grateful for the places that I've gotten to travel because of the
sport. And Jose been doing this for I don't know it started at a
younger age or something like that. I mean, what's your background on this?
Yeah, my story is a little bit different. I was injured in
a car accident when I was five years old, and so in my childhood
I was, you know, trying different recreational sports and seeing what kind of
clicked for me. It wasn't like I had the opportunity to play sports in
my school system. I had to go to a rehab center and find what
sports were out there, and then I ended up really liking wheelchair basketball when
I tried that at thirteen years old, and so I played through middle school,
high school, got a scholarship to go play college ball, and kind
of my career evolved from there as far as getting invited to USA tryouts and
whatnot. Then you picked Arizona, Well, I think you picked their zona.
It's one of the best a deptive sports in the country. Yeah,
for sure, very grateful to u of A. I was actually a transfer
student when I came to the u of A, so I didn't come here
originally, but it ended up being the better fit for me to both pursue
my academic interests and just the facilities at the u of A are so awesome
for a Paralympic athlete to have access to, and it's such an accessible campus.
The weather's great. I come from Minnesota originally, so I always knew
that that wasn't going to be the best fit for me, probably as a
wheelchair user during the winter. So Tucson's been a really good home. We're
talking to Courtney Ryan and Josie Oslickson, both on the USA Paralympic basketball team
headed to Paris in a few weeks. Since you're both coaches were and we're
college players. What's your coaching approach? Are you trying to coach players to
play like you or do you coach players based on what you know what they
bring to the table. You know what I'm saying. It's it's like,
you know, we all play sports, but how do we coach them?
Right? What's your what's been the approach for both of you in terms of
being a coach? Yeah, I think our style that we've kind of found
since we started coaching together is pretty much focused on player development, right,
Like we would love to have a national championship winning team, but we do
find athletes that come to our program at all different levels of the game.
It's not the same as like college D one basketball, where you know you
have like you're playing basketball your whole life and you have to have a very
very high skill set in order to make a college team. Like sometimes we
have athletes that come to U of A that are newly injured or maybe didn't
play mind when they were a kid because they had confidence issues as a kid
with a disability and didn't get themselves out there much. So it's kind of
courtany and I's shop to boot their confidence and show them the skill set that
they're capable of. And I think that that's our passion, is player development.
So it's already July or early July, you will get together one more
time before you head out to Paris. What's the next step. Next step
is when gold at Paris Paralympics twenty twenty four, bring that home to Tucson.
How long is the tournament it? Does it go on for the pretty
much the entire Olympics or the week or you know, or is it a
week? And how many games do you expect to play? So we start
about August twenty ninth, and then our last day is September eighth, is
the gold medal game. So that's obviously the goal there to make it to
that game. And we have three pooled preliminary games and then there's crossover games
and hopefully it'll be quarterfinals, semi finals into that gold medal game. You
know, I've covered two Olympics, and obviously there's some great stories, but
I think the Paralympic games have the inspiring stories. Do you get that sense
even though you're kind of in it, but you probably meet people that are
that have great stories. Yeah, I mean that's I think part of why
we enjoy doing these interviews and enjoy shedding light on the Paralympic movement because I
think the Paralympics are sometimes categorized as maybe not as televised or not as interesting,
just not as much media hype around them as the Olympics are. But
our stories are just as inspiring, and we have obviously a lot of adversity
that you have to you know, face in order to get to the Paralympic
level, and it's just as hard to achieve those goals and get those medals
as it is on the Olympic side. There are so many Paralympic athletes and
it's definitely a huge achievement to get to that level. So we kind of
want to share that with everyone and hope that they tune into the Paralympics just
as much as they tune into the Olympics. Well, and I think the
beautiful thing about the Paralympic movement is it's breaking down a lot of stereotypes that
people with disabilities faced on an everyday life. So, you know, combating
those stereotypes and advocating to the disabled community to provide more opportunities is a huge
part of being a paralympian, and you kind of get enlisted as an advocate
in that moment when you become a para. Yeah, it makes sense,
totally makes sense. Well, Courtney Josi, thanks for joining us. Appreciate
it and good luck to you. Thanks so much, Go team usay,
take care of be. Well, that's fantastic, great, you know,
great, as you said, you know, inspiring, right, you see
these people and they you know all the all that they face. Yeah,
you know what I mean, what you know you've sprained an ankle, go
through ladies there, you know, it's a life, it's a lifetime.
We complained about it getting out of it and it shoulder injury or whatever.
And yeah no, and you saw him on TV right right, they're pretty
good. Yeah, obviously they're playing at that's level. Incredibly inspiring. Great,
Okay, all right, let's take our break. We're going to be
right back and we'll take your calls. Five to two zero four, one,
six, seventy four forty give us a bus. 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
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Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back
to One on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Pjake
got riding with us for the next fifteen minutes and another hour after that.
If you want to call five two oh four one six seven four four zero.
It is good to talk to ladies. Yeah, you know again as
we said at the end of the interviewer, and they're they're inspiring when you
see people who have that kind of adversity and you do make the best of
it. You better not complain about your legs because we're weenies when it really
comes down to it, Steve, we're a bunch of wienies when you know,
oh it's too hot, or my shoulder hurts, or you know,
I tweaked my knee and I you know, he said, we right,
who's who's the weed? You know what I mean? I know the intent,
but you know again, you know, and then and then again to
get to the Olympics two times, right, not once, but twice,
that's a pretty cool thing, right, Good for them, congratulating and we'll
keep an eye on them. Right. Well, that's kind of our We're
going to be trying to talk to as many Olympians as we can. I
know they're kind of be slim this year. Well the Bravo Bravo put Bravo
young to the lady Snell. Who else we have we have? Did the
girl the girl from the Sunnyside, Oxico. You you're closer to her than
I am. Audre. Yes, she in the Olympics. She is she
wrestling for somebody or I know she went there Panama did that? She she
she she was trying to make the US team. Okay, and I don't
think she made it. Your Javier, let me know if he's listening.
Okay, Yeah, so I don't think there are many. But we also
get to Nico's boy, uh, the cyclist that was in the next games.
Guys, So we have to check some people, Nico send us a
name on our Facebook page or sending send us a note because we forget stuff
Nico. One day's or these days you'll get there. Oh, he's actually
probably forgetting stuff for doing other things. Yeah, okay, cool. If
you want to call five two, four, one, six, seventy four
forty h uh, you're we're gonna talk about the poll here and breaking news,
right, you're gonna wait for that. Yeah, we can wait for
it. Do you have a lot of stuff or a few things we can
talk. Let's talk about the ten We got twelve minutes. Maybe we'll get
a call. Uh, so it was I don't know if it was a
surprise to me, but Arizona was picked fifth in fifth in that uh uh
conference by the media. It did have five guys uh in the first team,
the second most of any team. So that's kind of a contradiction,
but that's just what it is. And I think the I don't know who
the media. I know I didn't vote. No one asked me to vote.
I know that Sheer posted something on Twitter that he had or I don't
know if he voted, but he has Arizona number one, and the knock
me over with a feather, that's yes, you know, he's a he's
a. He's in. I'm not I'm not picking Arizona number one. I
think, well, you know, three or four, I guess because you
know, Kansas State is pretty good. I don't know enough about Oklahoma State
and Kansas and certain look, I think it's you know, it's one of
those things for the media doesn't know, right. I just don't think they
know that. I mean, they know enough to know that Utah is really
damn good. They're and they're mean, and they're nasty, and they want
to you know, they want to kick your ass and take your kids and
your girlfriends and everybody else. Did you see the poll? Yeah, I've
got it up right now, you know. But so you know, Utah
is kind of a no brainer, especially when you think, you know,
Okay, they're coming into a league that's got Texas and Oklahoma gone, so
not surprising that Utah still but you know, Arizona's a team that I just
don't think they know enough about. Okay, so they're gonna say, you
know what, I'm not picking them over Oklahoma State and Kansas Okay, So
Kansas State is number two, right, Kansas State number two, so that
we had them as a loss, right, Yester? Yes, uh,
and they're a steady number two. There's strong number two. Utah got twenty
first place votes, Kansas State got nineteen, so there's a lot of people
that think Kansas State can win the league. And Oklahoma State did. Don't
play Oklahoma State, do they, I don't think, Okay, so they
avoid that one. Ne't number three don't play Kansas either, which is which
is a strong up and coming football. They're not Arizona foot right, you
can flip those two back back and forth. So if they picked Arizona,
I guess when you look at them and you go, Okay, I understand
why you picked Arizona fifth. It makes sense, right, it makes sense.
Do I think Arizona's gonna finish fifth place in the league. I do
not. I think they're gonna finish no lower than third, third, fourth,
or I think I think I think they can finish third. Partly,
they don't play Oklahoma State or Kansas I don't know who that's good or bad
for, but Arizona's got a favorite. Look at look at the teams that
they do play at the bottom. Right, they players on a state.
Who's picked last? They play Houston here, who's picked second to the last.
They played by you, who's picked thirteenth. Right, they play Baylor,
who's twelfth. They picked Blake. Colorado is eleventh. Tco in Texas
go eight nine they play They play seven, seven through six team except for
Cincinnati. Let me tell you something. That's the hell of schedule in taking
your bet from the the eight, I like that bet now because six of
them are way below. Because you look, you look at the top of
the standings. Okay, Yes, they do play Utah. They do not
play Kansas State. They do not play Oklahoma State. They do not play
Kansas. Those are three teams picked ahead of them, and then the one
right behind them, Iowa State. They don't play them either, so so
you know they've got it. They've got a favorable schedule. You know,
you go up and and look, well, Kansas State is not even a
conference game, so even though they play Kansas State doesn't count. It's not
a conference game, so that game doesn't figure into the into the Big twelve
standings. So you look at that, all the teams that Arizona plays plays
in the league are below them except for Utah. That's a hell of a
schedule when you come to think of it. And I'm thinking, if I'm
the media and I see that and actually do some analysis and look at that
schedule, I probably move Arizona up a notch or two. Well, you
have to also compare it to the other schedules, right, Oh, you
know, the Kansas schedule might be favorable too, But you know Kansas and
kandas State play each other. Yeah, sure there's a loss for them too.
One of them is going to lose that. Yeah, I think it's
a well. One of I was with somebody today who's a booster, and
he talked about okay. He was a little surprised too. He says,
okay, but what that'll do is motivate them to be better, you know,
because fifth is you know, fifth is like what is it like?
Okay, yeah, we're we think we're better than that. They can put
a chip on their shoulder over being finished fifth. It's better than the right
coming off of beating their you know, their second best team from last year.
Uh well, you can argue that Oklahoma State got in the conference championship
game, but Oklahoma was pretty damn good. You know, Oklahoma was a
ten and two team, and then Arizona beat him. So it's fine,
you know, Okay, let's go Arizona. You know you're you're you're pick
to finish fifth. Let's go. Let's see what happens to play the games.
But I but looking at this, you have to have to like Arizona
schedule. I didn't see I saw the list of people. Let me just
see if I all big twelve and they were there were a team mac wide
receiver, offensive line, Jonah Savanea a place kicker, Tyler Loop, defensive
player Jacob Manu, and Cala Davis. Uh No, mention of your quarterback
Noah. Yeah, would you take Noah over Sanders in a heartbeat? Really
in a heart beat? Wow? Because of what and not not that I'm
I'm not not that I am, uh, you know, all in on
on everything that that Vic says. But I agree with him from the standpoint
that Norfa he just has something, all right, I could see, I
could just see that should should dor Sanders if things go haywire, let's say
early in the season, him just having a bad year because of the expectations
he has for himself. Uh. And And I don't. I don't know
him, and maybe that's unfair for me to say that, but I feel
like we know a bit about no offa. Hey, I think I think
I totally agree with Vic because Vick has an insire thing. He's so friends
with his dad. But I think one of his big points is what he
does off the field. He galvanizes this team, right. And we talked
about this, you know, when I's Lamar. I spent some time with
lamon uh and I said they played harder for him than they did for uh,
for Dylan Delora, And he said that doesn't happen. I saw it,
And let me tell you, they did the rest of the year too,
And I think that's where they say I like this guy. In fact,
I love this guy. I don't want to he has the Steve kirkfactor.
Yeah, I'm not going to try to. I'm not going to disappoint
this guy, right, right, And that's what I'm saying. That's why
I would take him in a second. I think we saw a couple of
door Sanders kind of lose his mind a couple of times last year, you
know, where they were having a tough time and things weren't going his way
and he was you know, and then just all the hype that's come with
him. Look, he's got a dad who lives for the hype, so
maybe he's got somebody there to advise him on how to handle this stuff.
But there also has to be some stuff that you just are right that that
that who you are, what you're about, and you know your main you
know, he means to be seen. Whether Shador Sanders has all of the
intangibles, right, he is the quarterback of the league. He is the
first team that I have fine, and a lot of it probably with the
hype, but you know, the guy is talented. The guy is talented.
Yeah, you know, he's he's he's a really great athlete, you
know. And the you know, I mean he he had he had a
nice game against Arizona. You know, they almost won that game, but
they didn't, right, And that's all I know. You know, I
know that Noah Flafiita and that team went up there last year and beat those
guys at their place. So to me, Noah Flafita has got you know,
he's got one Nutch in his belt that Shador Sanders does not. And
and again let's remember, as good as he everybody thinks he is, they
went four to eight last year. Well it tanked on the final, yeah,
final a few weeks right exactly. And and and and what I'm saying
is that you put nor Fa in that in that position, they don't tank.
Yeah, I think that's I think that's that's a big difference. We
will see and look, Okay, so no if this makes probably makes no
Ala hungrier as well, I'm gonna show, you know, I'm gonna show
not not only the league but the country. You know, I'm the best
quarterback in the Big twelve. And he's gonna go after. It's gonna be
a lot of fun because it's it's territories we don't really know about or see
very often. They don't see Arizona very often. It's gonna be a fun,
fun year for season. Yeah, I agree, I agree, looking
forward to it. I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be cool.
And I'll see again, We'll just see. We're hoping to get some
A d s or more administrators from in the coming weeks for as we get
up for the Big twelve. I'm curious to see and we've we've asked this,
you've asked this to request, Uh, does Ray to come on?
I'm curious about tickets. How that's going. Well, their ticket prices are
set for how they're selling, how they're selling, Say how much they're how
they're selling, because that's key, that's key. And if you have a
little hype coming in and they do, don't they how that's going? Yeah,
I mean there's been a lot of excitement Steve, since you know,
the season ended. You know, from the day that they beat Oklahoma and
the Alma Ball there's been a lot of excitement behind this program. I know
that there was some people, you know, we went through the whole coaching
change and stuff like that. But I do know, I do feel that
in the end, with the fact that these the players stayed, there's there's
still a lot of excitement. People like what they're seeing from Brent Brandon so
far. I mean, even without knowing whether or not he can coach,
people are very happy with the higher So there's so there's a lot of a
lot of people out there behind this team. Let me ask you this,
Uh, we we know what Jad did, but so that's a little you
said that we don't know if he can coach. Brennan. We know he
can coach, he's at level. Do you think do you think do you
think you come in with more questions about Brennan than you had for Jet?
Oh? Hell no, exactly. That's my thanks. Thanks for the answer,
because and in that tone, because last you're coming in two three years
ago and coming in with what the hell are they doing? What are we
doing? And what are they doing? And what do we see? What
do we say? You could have had Brent Brennan. Then you went,
yeah, Nau and this is not a knock on Jet because he did a
fantastic job. We just didn't know in the first few weeks, right,
you know, had Colbot come in with the COVID team, who knows,
would have gotten you no longer. But you know yet, to Jet's credit,
he turned it around and did a great job and he now found a
better job, a better paying job. But you have less less questions about
Brennan than you did about Jets. Yes, because you again, Brand's been
a head coach, he's got some ties to Arizona. All those things are
you know, matter to to the fan base here. So yeah, no,
I I one hundred percent agree with you, And that's a good way
to put it. We don't have as many questions about Jed as we had
about about Brennan as we had about Jed. So yeah, and in fact,
you didn't really find out whether Jed is a good coach or very good
coach third year till his third year, right then you thought, okay,
you know, and he got these he got these players, and then he
put them together, and who knows, and not to disregards what he did,
he might have caught lightning in a bottle. He might have he might
have well after after the lightning broke down in the first three weeks. Well,
first of all, there was no pressure here whatsoever. No pressure.
He couldn't be worse than what Arizona had. Yeah, Okay, so you
go up there, you go to Washington, he's under pressure right now.
Sure, if they have a bad year after being in the National Championship Game,
there's gonna be questions, regardless of the fact that you know, they
lost some players, they lost all that stuff. There's expectations up there that
he did not have here, and he's gonna have those expectations year and then
you're out and he's in the Big ten. Okay, we'll go back to
this because I'm gonna quiz you on some of the past coaches and the confidence
that you had on them coming in. Okay, after Dick, after Dick,
we got to go here and we're gonna got breaking news on the other
side. Cool, all right, let's take our break.