This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart Radio app Just Surgery,
I on the Ball. They welcome back to win the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay, and Jay has some
breaking news. At least it is I on the Ball breaking news on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. Yeah, a lot of good stuff, mostly tidbits,
right, nothing like first shattering or anything like that, but just a lot
of fun interesting news. First of all, we we mentioned the uh,
the Celtics and the and the Heat go at it tonight. The Heat are
trying to sweep the Celtics. The Heat a number eight seed in the East,
trying to sweep the number two seeds Celtics, and they're in Miami.
So good chance that that could happen, right, what do you think?
It looks very inevitable that will happen. I never would have guessed it was
gunning fourth because because Boston was pretty good. But you can't, you can't
figure out, you can't. How can I say this? Not not to
overlook the Miami because it's done some unbelievable things unbelievable. I even think they
could be Denver. They could. No, they certainly can. The question
is I hope, well, I know you they don't, don't I think
they can? I mean, yeah, they're scary, They're scary. Good
Yeah, Um, okay, we you. We mentioned Arizona b das here
today twelve to three in the in the PAC twelve Tournament up in Phoenix.
But uh five Arizona guys name did the All Pac twelve All Conference team today.
Mac Bingham and outfielder um Chase Davis outfielder had had a great year.
He's become one of the best players ever in Arizona. Um uh infielder Kiko
Romo. Who else they hadn't right here? Um um um oh uh nickc.
Glawdie was named the Defensive Player of the Year, which is very cool
thing because now softball and baseball both had the defensive Player of the Year.
And then a Tony Bullard was named to the UH was a honorable mentioned All
Pac twelve guys. So um five but five people named the U to the
UM All Pac twelve team, and so they're they're there. They hopefully keep
going up in the Phoenix. They got Oregon State tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.
You watch those games on the Pack twelve network. If Arizona wins that
they're in the bracket, in the four team bracket to have a shot at
the Pack twelve the championship, which if they win, it would get them
automatically into the NC double a tournament. All right, um failed to mentioned
yesterday the Tucson Sugar Skulls won on Saturday in a good game against a tough
team and a very nice win against a big crowd, which you know if
you went, they had over four thousand at the game. That you know,
when you when you put on a good performance in front of four thousand
people, you hope to get a bunch of those. Did they wind?
They win? They won by two touchdowns. Yea. They fell behind early,
they were down fourteen to seven, but they went on a twenty one
nothing run and just hold hold the lead the rest of the way. Quarterback
to Ramone Atkins had his best game in the year. No, the Sugar
Sculls had zero turnovers. I think he was like, uh, I want
to say twelve of seventeen throwing. He had a bunch of rushing yards.
They did it without Mike Jones, who who sat out the game. He
just just banged up, so they sat him out and their backup running back
Benjamin Jones came in and did a nice job. Carrington Thompson, who's been
on our show a couple of times, had three touchdown catches, three clutch
touchdown catches, two of them on fourth down plays. So they just had
a nice all around game. The defense played well, special teams played well.
They blocked a field goal and they recovered it all the way to the
other side of the field and led to a score, and they had a
kick return for a touchdown. So I mean, all around, all around
the blo. It was a nice day for the Sugar Skulls as a whole,
for their franchise to be in front of that many fans and have a
nice yeah. So another home game this week. They got Bay Area the
Bay Area Panthers, who they beat on the road. The Bay Area is
now in first place in the West Division. The Sugar Skulls are half a
game behind him, so this is a game for first place in the West
Division. Big game, six o'clock Saturday at the Arena. Michael Block We
talked about him a little bit that the golfer of the PGA Club golfer who
made it into the top fifteen of the PGA Tournament Championship last week, has
been offered fifty thousand dollars for the seven iron that he used to hit that
hole in one that's gone viral. His quote was for fifty for fifty K,
I'll hand deliver it. All I know is that thing is going to
be too far out of my eyesight anymore. I don't think I made fifty
k a year until ten years ago. So, Um, he's playing in
the Charles Schwab Challenge. He got a sponsors exemption, so he'll be playing
in that. He's also been invited to play in the UH in the Canadian
Open, I think, um whereas it here? Um, Yeah, he's
been invited to play in the Canadian Open and then the European Masters in Switzerland.
So he's getting some run in a chance of playing some big tournaments and
uh, you know, he's he's excited about thing. Even Michael Jordan texted
him. I don't know how Michael Jordan got his phone number, but texted
him after the tournament. He said he had he still has about sixteen hundred
unread text messages and one of those is Michael Jordan's. He didn't, he
didn't. He hasn't seen the text from Jordan. He's just been told that
Jordan texted him, which is kind of funny. So he's just kind of
been a kind of a charming story. UM. Let's see UH. Delaney
Schnell one UH won two national titles at the national UH Championships, so she
is going to be in the UH. She qualified for the World Championship team
and the women's ten meter board and the women's ten meter synchronized diving event.
Who sized diving event was the one she wanted. She continues to roll,
so she she's in. She's on the World Championship team in two events.
So again, Tucson High product. Great to see somebody locally getting that kind
of run. UM. On a more serious note, um UH New Mexico
State former New Mexico State basketball player in Mike Peak was involved in the shooting
where he got lord to a to uh an incident at ut in Albuquerque and
ended fatally shooting somebody when he got attacked with a baseball batty. He got
shot. UM that he will not be charged with anything. They decided it
was it was, you know, very obviously self defense, so he will
not be charged with anything. Likely. Um, I saw he got into
the portal business. He's been in the transfer portal since December. He had
his career team, so it's probably he's probably done. On another serious note,
John Morant's shoe, uh Nike shoe has been pulled from from the Nike
website, so they're no longer selling his shoe as of now until he figures
out what they all he's gonna do with his with his life and those things.
But uh, um, you know, he was it was kind of
a you know, his signature shoe was sort of one of the top ones
around. He was making a whole bunch of money off of it, and
now he's not. Um, I'm trying to think it. I think it
showed it somewhere in this story about how much money he was making, but
you know, millions and millions of dollars and now he's not because of because
he was just stupid. So anyways, that's that's the way that goes.
Um. Okay, here's a question for you. How much would you pay?
But the most you would pay for a car. That's a good question.
I'm a cheap dude. Okay, if you had, you know,
I'm not gonna say, you know, like you're a multi billionaire, but
let's say you had. Oh, let's say money was no object to you.
I don't know, really, what would you pay for a car?
Seventy thousands? It? Yeah? I'm not a yeah, yeah, I
used to be a car guy. No, now I'm paid. What's gonna
give you from this place to this place? The best way? Uneasy?
So what were you going with this? I'm going with this And Michael Jordan,
Oh okay, here's here's your story. Paid three point five million dollars
four for a Hennessey Venom F five roadster that can hit a top speed of
one seventy three hundred and eleven. Okay, So what's the purpose? I
mean, what's the purpose? I have so many analogies that I can't He
was on the radio, you can't do it. So what's the point.
Why would you tell you put some wings on it you can fly? I
don't know. A guy named John Hennessy from Hennessey Performance posted a picture of
of Jordan with the car on on on Instagram. The car goes the guard.
Well, I said, so they've built twenty four coups and then thirty
of the roadsters, which is what Jordan bought. It's got a sun roof.
But you get it's three point five million. Why would you do that?
I mean, I know you can do that, and that's probably like
twenty bucks to you with me. Well, last year alone, Jordan made
Okay, how much do you think he made on his on his Nike deal
from last year alone? Probably hundred hundred million, not even close, not
even close. So I don't know, five two hundred and fifty six million
dollars a year from last year. Jordan, after all these years are being
retired and all that stuff, still getting two hundred fifty six million dollars a
year. The Jordan brand generated five point one billion dollars in revenue for Nike.
We saw the movie Man, Yeah, he said give me a piece
of that, and he got a piece of it, and then two hundred
and sixty two hundred fifty six million dollars last year. Oh man, tell
you're depressing. Depressing. I could. I was gonna come buy a car
for seventy thousand I paid, I paid ten for the car of driving exactly
right, exactly. It was a two thousand and seven. It already had
like eighty thousand miles on it and I've got it up to one seventy.
Now all right here you my car, my car, the same car,
just we have different we have radio dudes, local limb all right. Pat
forty reporting that sixteen members of Congress have sent a letter to the Horse Racing
Integrity and Safety Authority urging for a full investigation of death at the Conchurch Churchill,
Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, you saw that probably,
I don't know if you saw this, but Bafferts taking his horse to
the Belmont. But it's he's not sure it's gonna run. If it runs,
it's not gonna win. I know that. Um, just the cours
is too long, too long for him. Yeah, I didn't think he'd
hold on. I'm glad he did, but he was losing. He got
behind him then, so we'll see what happens with that. That's interesting.
That's there's a lot of horses have been have been done. Whilst couple of
well and Bradford had one that day and at at the Preakness. Yeah,
he will he was running. He was running and got you know, got
hurt. Yeah, all right, um okay. Field of sixty eight has
put out its top five coaching hires and its top five coaches on the hot
Seat for this coming year. This coming year Top hires, Top hires,
number one hires one through five. Who do you think would be number one?
Top hires? One through five? Who was needing a court? Who
was needing a coach? Who? Man? Who? Hi? Big East,
Big Georgetown? The first two are in the Big Georgetown waited Cooley,
He's number two? Yeah, okay, Georgetown? Tell me, oh,
Petito, Petito number one, number one, and then Michael Shrewsbury got hired
in Notre Dame. Wouldn't have picked that one. Mike Rhodes at Penn State,
okay, and Corey Gipson at I would not have figured that one out.
Where's that? I can't tell by the logo where he's at, where
he's from? All right? Who are the five on the hot seat?
Number one? Oh, hot seat, hot seat? You think Bobby Hurley's
on that list? No, he's not, he's not. He probably Washington
State, Washington, Washington. Mike Hopkins, he's number four. Kenny Payne.
And oh, how he even still has a job, right, how
he has a seat? Jesus, he's got a he better have a fireproof
suit to be able to sit on the seat. So could you you can't
sit, you gotta stand? Yeah, you got Clemson Brad Brownwell okay,
oh oh, I looked right over this another packed twelve coach. Uh not
USC, UCLA USC No, okay, okay, don't tell me you took
Utah, No, Stanford. No, they just hired a coach. Then
they's got a good Mark Matts, Mark Matson. Yeah, you're right,
you're right, but they just hir Yeah, it's yeah, it's right.
Who Wayne Tinkle? Oregon State? Oh? Really? Yeah? Really,
we just took him to the sweet sixteen or whatever that's gonna be three years
ago now still at the end of this season, anybody told him that Oregon
State? Come on, if you win a Washington State in Oregon State,
if you can win there at any level, you're you should deserve to stay
there. Well that kind of makes sense. But and then number five is
Fred Hoiberg in Nebraska. Those are the those are the five. These Oh,
these are from Jeff Goodman. He's the one who Matson went to cal
Matson went to call you right, No, Stanford did not fire. No.
I don't know why he's not on that list, because then it'd be
an all packed we list. You gotta break it up a little bit.
Yeah, these are Jeff Goodman's uh um um, yeah, everybody's and then
of course all the replies or everybody who's pissed off at their coach. Right,
somebody wants the Indiana coach uh be on there. Uh, Chris Beard,
who just got hired, should be on there. It's crazy, it's
fun, it's fun. Um. Anyway, there you go. There's probably
some people who think Tommy d all right probably well a couple of months ago.
Yeah, yeah, some Arizona fans. Okay, Well, in honor
of that, we're gonna play. Don't fear the reapers. We go out
out to break and we'll be back. We're gonna have um um Troy Troy,
I just said, guy who's who's up at the PacTel Baseball Tournament talked
to us a little bit about the game today. So stick around. For
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Ball on two Suns sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. They welcome back to
our on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve, He's Jay.
Now We've got a boy Troy from goascatch dot com. How are you,
Troy? Hey, how are you guys doing? We're doing well.
What did you see today of offense? Arizona up here in Scottsdale taking on
a SHU today as the eight five game at ten am and the walkouts started
off hot with four runs out of the gate, and then it was the
Aiden may show from then on out. I mean, Arizona struggled all year
pitching wise, and Aid Mayors went out there and had maybe his best performance
of the season. When you when you, I mean all season long,
they've had the offense right, just by the fact that you look at the
PAC twelve, a PAC twelve team and they're you know, all the people
that they have on it, but obviously no pictures on there. I mean,
sort of a similar story to softball, But all of a sudden,
everyone seems to be pitching pretty well the last few games, right. Yeah,
you know, Aiden's kind of come on as of late. He had
the russ start against Stamford and ASU previously, but outside of that he's been
kind of finding his groove. I know, the era is a little bit
high, but he showed why today. There's high hopes for Arizona moving forward,
not only this season, but next season as well. And then you
know they have the transfer from Nevada that had to start late in the season,
and he's kind of been a settling, calming force for Arizona on the
mound. How has a chip held up throughout this whole season. You know,
I think he's kind of stayed positive and realistic at the same time.
I still think he believes that they can make the playoffs, especially if they
win tomorrow against Oregon State, but he's been pretty blunt saying, you know,
we need to get more out of our pitching, and we just haven't
pitched well enough down the stretch of the season and for our parts of the
season. But I think he's been staying positive, and it seems like the
team is as well, because today they came out with a lot of energy,
not aiming their heads, and you know, May talked about it after
the game that this is kind of the chip on the shoulders pack Club Tournament
for them. They get a su and they get that twelve to three win
a team that pretty much handled Arizona during the regular season, and now they
face off against Oregon State and Arizona had two games where they led in the
ninth bottom of the ninth inning and they blew it against the Beavers on the
road, and Oregon State's number two in the Pac Clubs, so they'll have
an opportunity to get some quality winnings there. So is there any kind of
feeling, I mean, is there any kind of feeling like they're actually playing
well enough to maybe move on from this thing? I mean, what's the
confidence level? I think tomorrow is going to be a big telltale sign of
the season. If they're able to get that win against Oregon State, then
they have a decent shot of making the NCAA Tournament. But I think you
do need to get that win. If you're Arizona, if you go one
and one, you're back in Tucson, you go to and oh, you
have a chance to advance in the pack called tournament. Maybe you know,
get to the semifinals and you're good. But that win against organ State would
go a long way for Arizona's resume. So I don't follow this closely,
and maybe Jay does a little bit better than me. You honestly believe that
they win tomorrow, and they do a win or two in the in the
tournament, they could get in. They can get invited. I think I
think they have a good shot if they win the mom I'm not saying that's
one hundred percent, but I think there's a possibility of it, especially when
you're facet a team like organ State, who's in the top thirty of RPI.
Well, I think I saw a note that that you know, their
RPI isn't horrible. It's fifty six right now, what's what's your record?
You're a there thirty one in twenty two. That's kind of mediocre, isn't
it. Kind of it's kind of middle of the pack. But I mean
you get you get the RPI wins and you know they performed well against USC
at the end of the season. You might be heading in the right direction
at the right time. Okay. It's kind of like the softball team,
right and people said they could have got in, they didn't get in.
They should have been in given what you saw with UCLA. Well, if
you're if you're playing the middle of the road, you're middle of the road.
Might wrong. I mean, people still felt Arizona almost got in to
softball, almost got in. Yeah, really, yeah, they they were
one of the first, the first teams out. If they would have beat
UCLA, they're definitely playing in the softball tournament, Okay, And you feel
that so strongly about the men too, you know, I just have the
feeling that won the program's history. Two. They were able to make the
postseason last year, and their trajectory at the end of the season with a
quality win over organ State might put them in. It's a slim shot,
but I think it might. It might put them in. So us what's
turned for these guys? What's turned specifically for the pitching all of a sudden,
You know, I think that they're just trusting the defense behind them.
I mean, we saw it today with Nick McClary being named Defensive Player of
the Year in the Pac twelve. Arizona's defense is very good. They have
a good offense, and these guys are finally trusting I think the defense behind
them and not worrying about, you know, trying to strike a batter out
and get ahead. And they're just pitching that right now and they're staying in
the zone like today, May I think pitch sixty percent of the strike zone
today. So when you're attacking hitters and you're not falling behind the counts.
That's a plus for these pitch Yes, sometimes the ball is going to get
hit, but that's college baseball. But you have a defense that's one of
the best in the conference behind you, and just having that confidence as a
picture on mount I think help them out. Has that been the problem throwing
strikes? It has at times. I know Chip Hills talked about that they
need to find guys that are in the strike zone. And for May in
particular, he's had his walk issues this season. He had three today,
but he only gave up three hits, had three strikeouts, and again that
that sixty percent number was a good number for him today. But what's the
atmosphere like, what's the attendance like up at this tournament? Right and this
is their second year doing it, but is it you know, are people
having fun or they going is that? Has it been an event worthy of
you know what they have to go through, you know to play this tournament.
Honestly, I think the venue is fantastic here at the San Francisco Giants
spring training facility. It's a nice venue in terms of fans. As they
got the ten am game, uh with it being one hundred and four out
today. I think it's kind of hard to draw attendance. It wasn't great
attendance, but we'll see what the later numbers look like today, right,
Okay, okay, there is there anywhere that they would play this in California?
Or is it just because of these great spring training facilities in Arizona and
that's what that that can handle it. Arizona's in particularly Scottsdale, is a
perfect place because you have so many facilities like your say and Jay, and
you look across the country like the SEC. They're playing in Hoover, Alabama,
and they got rained out today at some point, and I think they
picked that game back up. But a lot of these tournaments have you know,
weather issues. They have stadiums that aren't up to part to MLB standards.
And you look at the pack twelve and you are in a MLB spring
training facility. Um, it's just maybe a leather issue right now. But
I think in terms of college baseball, it's pretty good. Attendance during the
later half. I know said it's one hundred and four degrees exactly, well
better than playing at ten o'clock than at two o'clock. Yeah, or at
five o'clock. Yeah, so you'll be up there until they until they're not
there. Uh, tomorrow you will have Aiden and then I will be back
for the semifinals in championship. Okay, Stanford's still the favorite to win this
thing, you think, I think so. I mean Oregon State, you
know, they have the pitching, they're always a very tough program. But
Stanford's been playing really great baseball. Um, I would assume they're gonna win
this, but who knows. You know, in a in a pool bracket
like this and then single elimination after that, you never know. Although it
only takes swing game. Are they Are they National championship caliber? Can they
win the National Championship? I mean historically yes, so I would not see
why not. I mean, Stanford's a very good program, they're well code,
they have really good pitching. Their defense is probably going to be an
issue. I know they lost their short stop from last season and I think
he has fourteen fifteen airs on the season. So you look at the defensive
issues they have compared to Arizona, that's not a good sign. But they
definitely have the pieces to win if they can figure out the defense. Okay,
we got some time here. You've been covering Arizona for a while.
Now, what's up with the d commits on football? You know, I
think it's a strange situation, especially with the kid from Hamilton last night,
where two weeks ago he commits to Arizona and today you know he's decommitted.
You have to remember he's a class of twenty twenty five. Maybe he got
excited when he got the offer, accepted the offer and committed, and you
know, family members are like, well you have a while, so just
you know, decommit and slow down a little bit. I don't think it's
a panic, No need to panic for Arizona fans, especially so the tea's
twenty twenty five. You have the kid who from Hawaii de commit um.
You know, more programs are going to look at him. But I don't
really think it's a big issue. It happens throughout a recruiting class. Uh.
You see the class that Jet has put together so far, there's a
lot of good pieces and you're just gonna have to let it play out and
sometimes bepacammit's happened. Who's the best player that they've recruited so far? You
know, for the next class, for the next class recruited or committed,
committed, committed, sorry, committed. I would say the running back out
of California. And I know he's only a three start back for Rivals,
but the kid is really good. But the issue with him is he plays
in a small high school out in you know, Inland, California. As
he gets more exposure, I think a lot more programs are going to look
at him very fast. We saw that he had that forty yard gas time.
I think it was four point two something like that. I mean,
it's something insane. What was it. Didn't you run a tend something hundred?
Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. Yeah. But um,
he's just been fully incredible. So I think that's the top guy right now
on the recruiting class. So if you're a betting man, would you say
how many wins next year? Seven and five? Wow? Look at you.
You're a betting man in a delusional one. No. I think I
think the schedule really sets up nicely for them in terms of, yes,
you have Mississippi State on the road this season, but unfortunately for the Bulldogs,
you know, without Mike Leach there, we don't know how that's gonna
look and then you have Stanford on the road, and Stanford's going through a
transitional phase. And right after that you get the Huskies at home. And
I think it's really good that you get Washington in Tuoston early in the season.
Okay, we'll see. Well. I was gonna exchange of text messages
with Anthony Gemina, who we know rights for rights for Lindy's, and we
talked about Athlon had Arizona at eighth. They've also got h Lindy's also has
Arizona in eighth. I asked Anthony how many how many wins? He said,
they didn't pick a number of wins, but they have them ranked fifty
first nationally, which puts them in bowl game territory. So how confident are
you, Troy of Arizona going to a bowl game this year? I think,
say, well, I think you've seen a trajectory of the program where
the offense improved last season, the defense showed side at the end of the
year, and he brought in all this defensive talent, and you know,
guys like Justin Flow really impressed and during screen ball, and yes, it's
only spring, but these are high level athletes at Arizona. Hasn't been getting
before. I think they are going to be going bowling this season. Is
that six and six or something five? I don't know. I lean more
towards something five, But I do see them in the ball game this year.
Well, very optimistic you and Jake Fisher exactly. You know, I
know we can only guess and speculate, and we don't you know, we're
not in the locker room and stuff like that. Will there be any Jaden
Dolora effect of you know, good because of the stuff that's gone on.
Does that affect the locker room? Does that affect the team at all?
Does that affect Jade Delora at all? What do you? What do you
think on that? I mean, I think one thing is for sure,
winning tears all. If they're going through a downward trajectory where you know,
losses start piling up, then maybe it does. But if you win and
you're consistent and um you kind of are more on the positive side, maybe
it doesn't. In terms of just the bare bones of it, It's got
to affect some guys in there. I'm sure it does. I know they
know their teammate and they probably still love their teammate, but just knowing the
facts that are out there probably support early with some teammates, but the true
test is going to be on the road when you're at let's say as U
and you have that student section, you know, getting riled up in shanty
Jaden Delora because you know something like that's going to happen in college environments and
how are they going to handle that. So let's talk a little quick about
Tommy Lloyd. I'm sure we taught we had your guy yesterday from Go Easy
and Matt I don't even know who your guy is anymore, from a bet,
just all this stuff. Maybe a month ago people are saying Tommy Lloyd
isn't the guy. A month later they're saying, yay, look at us.
Yeah. You know, Arizona fans are very funny to watch on Twitter
panicking when you know Arizona missed out on them heart and at the end of
the day, In my opinion, Jaden Bradley's actually better upgrade than getting nemhard
because he's only a sophomore. One year at Alabama. He was a five
star recruit, very good defensive player and kind of versatile at back guard position.
So I think Tommy got a huge upgrade there. Then you go out
and get to Shad Johnson, who's very tough and physical, kind of reminds
me of Sean Marion from the Phoenix Suns, defensive first, rebounding guy that
likes to get out in transition. And you look at how they've pieced together
this roster right now, Arizona is projected starting by with Umar Vallow, Tasha
Johnson, Pella Larson, Jaden Bradley, and Kylan Boswell. That is light
years ahead defensively than they were last season, and it might be their best
defensive lineup since the Stanley Jarnson era. There's a lot of defense first players
there, and I think you're gonna see Kyl and Boswell taking a massive jump
this upcoming season. So they're gonna have to score more than twenty points a
game. Where's the point's going to go from? Well, again, I
think Kyland's gonna gonna put up some buckets and Umar is gonna take another step
forward. As you know. Does he improve on his thirteen point nine points
the game? I don't know, but maybe he's more efficient. But I
think the key offensively, two of the keys for its under this upcoming season
is going to be pelle Larson's three point shooting, if he can improve from
an up and down year where he got hot a fan, and then freshman
kJ Lewis, who I think is very underrated, kind of reminds me of
a wiry kind of Devon Mitchell type. Surprise athleticism, good defender, but
can shoot the basketball and if he gets those opportunities, canny score. Okay,
thank you, Thank you for Troy for filling in, thank you for
being our source for everything. I'm going back to this podcast in a couple
of months. Okay, Okay, well we'll see come in November where I'm
at. Yes exactly, Hey, thanks a much. I appreciate you being
Johnny on the spot. Later. You know these guys, you know,
yeah, you know these guys how much homework? He makes sense? Not
like our guy Jason, who said, yeah, Lakers, have you ever
looked at me like what happened to you? I find I'm not gonna listen
to Jason? Or is it all right? Let's take our last break it
We'll take your calls. Would love to take your calls on any of this.
Five ties zero four one right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball
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at a team security dot net. State Bravera and Jay Gonzalez they have their
eye on the ball on two Suns Sports six ya, Fox Sports fourteen fifty
streaming live. I mean I heard radio A welcome back to try on the
bat here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now
we have about fourteen minutes. If you dont give us a quick call,
we'll take it. Kind of question, Well, how many times would your
parents have to tell you to quit doing something stupid before you actually stopped doing
it? That never happened? They want? Right? Well, yeah,
I guess yeah. I mean if they told you don't run into the street,
right, you know, right, don't? Right? Yeah? My
dad never see you. Just give me a look. But they told you
once. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was it right, right,
you know, I mean the fourth Georgia football player in the last five months
has been arrested for reckless driving. This goes to not directly, but kind
of around indirectly. Is what I brought up to begin the show, is
that you have this program. There are a bunch of studs stars, right,
your stuff doesn't stink right, and you don't think anybody's gonna touch you
because you're this guy. And then all of a sudden you're no longer needed.
You're not that guy anymore. And that's obviously happening in Georgia, right,
I mean one times a mistake, four times, Well, you got
a problem. You got a problem, and Herbie Smart has got a problem.
And I don't know how you fix this problem other than by saying no
tolerance. You do this, you're gone, You're gone, You lose your
scholarship, you're off the team, and you're not playing Georgia. Pill that
Jay is the price of winning, right, the price of winning. You
have a debate here within your own self what can I put up with?
But he's so good that I gotta keep him. Yeah, I mean one
and again famously, one of the ones that the speeding UH related to arrest
with Jalen Carter got charged with street racing and reckless driving and a person got
killed because he was racing something right, and what happened to him, what
happened to him? He got drafted in the first round. It's glad you
went because that where I was gonna go with it, because if you're good
enough, they figure out. Okay, we'll kind of we'll work through it
looking at the background. But okay, yeah, let me tell you something.
Arizona has that issue here. It just does. Uh. Public perception
is not great. With the question you asked, Troy, I told you
the older dudes, the older some of my older friends have are conflicted about
it, right, they should be and they should be. What about your
group, Well, you have the smart dudes. You know they're they're conflicted
as well. But I think Troy also makes a point. If Arizona's winning
games, what price winning? They're gonna stop thinking about I said winning.
Okay, I guess okay. I know we talked about this with the principal.
If he was the third string quarterback, would he still be here.
Yeah, you're probably Yeah, no, you're you're absolutely or alignment or something,
yeah, third string anybody. Yeah, sorry to say no, I
think I think you're right, Steve. But it's just crazy that. I
mean, you see these things. You know. No, I don't MBU
as a fan. I gain you know, I love sports. I love
them sports, but I'm not a fan of the sports because of this.
You know, I don't want to go home, and since should I.
I don't want to be conflicted. I just want to watch a good game.
Yeah, you know, I joke about my my love for it.
I love it, of course, but it's like, God, I'm glad
I don't have to cry or we're worry about my team not winning, you
know what I'm saying this? Yeah, no, and every you know,
And Steve, I don't know. I know what you were like as a
teenager. I was. I was an idiot, but I was very close
to that, you know, and I did a lot of stuff that but
all I knew. I knew that if I got away with it once,
Yeah, the chances of getting away with it a second time were extremely love
Well. The thing about it with whatever it was, the thing about it
with you, and I was a very good kid. I really didn't get
into trouble. I had older friends. But for you, and this is
just an evaluation I'm going to in my Kim and Leman mode. Uh,
you had your dad, and you feared your dad, but you also have
big brothers. I feared my brother and you and Rick was your influence.
And Rick would to kick your ass. So you had a couple of dudes.
Maybe Jean Doo would to kick your ass, right, So not just
one dude. Yeah, I had my dad and I just didn't want to
disappoint my dad, so I just didn't do I did, and you correct,
I see when I was doing stuff. I don't take your cope and
you know when I was doing so it's like, God, if I get
caught, you know what am I gonna say to my dad? And we're
gonna say to Rick, right, my brother, because you won't get it
once you get it twice right, right? But then again, any of
those guys had done things in there, Yeah, but yeah, don't do
don't do as I say exactly. But but you know it was I don't
know, just I just see stuff like this and I go and again,
look, I never had as much to lose. Yes, there was my
life, but I never had as much to lose as these financials. Who
are gonna could we financially set if they just stay on the straight and narrow
John Moran, Right, and they can't help themselves? Well, I go
to this again. Athletes being athletes, you kind of feel bulletproof. If
you've been guarded and protected for a long time, you feel guarded and protected
for a longer time. Yeah, because you can play basketball. And you
know what these guys are. If there was a great column a few years
ago, maybe twenty years ago, and I still have it somewhere. These
are just grown men, big men who play a game very well, right,
Noe? Just what we don't do. We don't play a game very
well, right. I mean, think about Lebron James. We talk about
how great he is and all these things. He's a high school graduate,
right, he didn't go to college. He's got a high school ed ucation
and he's doing all the same time, he's been very smart and he's done
all the all the smart things, and he's not you know, he's surrounded
himself with some great people, but in the end, he's a high school
graduate, and there's a lot of stuff that he didn't learn on the way
up. He's learned along the way probably, And I think he's a very
smart guy. But if he was just a little less smart, he would
be John Morris right right. You you when you covered the Triple A baseball
team here, and I'm gonna probably say too much here, did you enjoy
it? Um right there? Kind of tell me yeah no. But there
were a lot of reasons other than the guys who I was covering, okay,
which I just didn't like it. I just didn't like working fourteen nights
in a row covering a game that four hundred people went right, right,
right, okay, But dealing with the guys there were so many of those
guys who, like you know, came out of played baseball, came coming
out of high school, and I thought, dude, you're not really smart.
And there's where I was gonna go with it, right it for two
years, I was probably a dream of mine because he was in Dallas,
helped with the major league team, came here, come from Triple A.
It's gonna be a breeze, right. It wasn't a breeze for that specific
reason. They're guys who came out of high school, didn't have college experience
with the media or whatever, treated you like, treated me like craps,
sometimes didn't want to talk to me, or just you know, kind of
treated me badly. And I'm thinking, this is not why I came to
school. You know, Justin talks about it, with this, with this,
I felt that at the Triple A level, the guys didn't want to
be there. They didn't think they deserved to be there, right, they
wanted to be there, They always thought they should have should they think they
took it out on you. No, I don't want to talk. I
don't need to talk to you. You know what I'm saying. And it's
just two people talking. Yeah. Now, there are very few guys at
Triple A who were just on their way up. But once they any guy
who got their Triple A thought I'm good enough to be up there, and
they were not happy to do play. We had a fun conversation about that.
You talk about guys at A and Double A right there, they work
hard, they play hard. Yeah, they gave it everything. They have
a certain move because they're trying to make their way up. But you know,
and then we all agreed that all those guys that once they got to
Triple A, man, they just like, Okay, I've made it when
you really still have not, especially the guys who were come down right,
I don't want to I don't deserve to be here. Yeah, you know,
I'm you know what I'm saying, And that's what it was. For
two years. I've think guy I regretted rated go into the park. One
of the great one of the best lines I ever got from a from a
Triple A manager was when Sammy Khalifa, the Tucson guy, got sent I
got sent down to the miners and he had I mean, he got to
the majors pretty quickly, but he was in the majors by the time he
was nineteen years old, got out of Sorrow High School. You know my
high school. Yeah. Um, So he got sent down. And it's
funny because the guy would get sent up and he was up and he was
there, you know, within hours. And the coach of the team,
their team, his team happened to be playing in Tucson when Khalifa got sent
down, and it would start in the four game series when he got sent
down. So I'm like, I'm supposed to do a story. Sure,
as soon as he gets here. And I said, when's he gonna get
here? And he says, the road back from the major League is a
lot longer than the road to the Sure did he even make it to two?
So he got here. He got here for like the last game,
you know, And then I had to go get him in the locker room.
And he wasn't a yeah he did, he wasn't two son, He
did, you know, looky here. People want to hear how you're doing
it. I kind of had to talk to him. Sure, sure,
of course, you know. Yeah, And but he talked to me.
He was fine, he was he was okay, and he played and you
know, he was gonna work his way back up. I don't think he
ever got back up there. Well really, I thought he just went back
up. No, I'm not, but he maybe this was Steve. This
was nineteen eighties. Yeah, I remember. I remember that because because come
on, he was a short stop of the major league level from here.
Yeah, yea, from my high school. Yeah, that's the other thing.
As we went high school. I can come in to your high school
talk to me. He was he was that he actually handled very well.
But to kind of link it all together. That's just it's not what people
think. The guys, but they're you're good until they don't need you.
You know, they kind of get guarded there. They're fixed things for you,
right, I'm sure you've seen that. Yeah, of course, of
course. I mean, well, you know we always saw that. You
know, look and you know when we traveled with the guys, you saw
how they got treated. Of course, the basketball team sure stayed at all
the nice hotels, ate at all the nice restaurants. Here's the funny thing.
Here's the funny thing with that. Because I followed them for a long
time. You know that Blot stayed at the best places. Him and Bobby
ate the finest restaurants. The guys didn't want to be there. They wanted
to eat burgers. They wanted to go to the holiday and and have some
burgers. Just get and just get out of there because there wasn't their place.
Yeah, it's part of the book too. I remember Damon saying that
the one thing that he and I didn't put it in the book is he
grew up because of loot, because he didn't know where the forks went,
which forked to use riyada, YadA, and he appreciated that because they went
to the nice place. Right, No, it was Yeah, those are
funny experiences watching these guys, right, some of these guys who would never
had any all of a sudden, there there are some fancy reste treated great
and we're treated great. Uh. You know that one of the first road
trips I took with the basketball team, they were in San Diego and they
got taken to Anthony's, right, you know, the famous seafood play.
And most of those guys didn't know what the hell to order because they've never
seen a menu that looked like that, Like ordered the burgers, right,
we're the burgers of fries. But I got to order, you know,
a piece of fish or some crab or whatever. Well, isn't that the
famous line from Joe Turner? What are you going to order? A super
salad? The super salad? Those are big salad, soup or salad,
the completely And we're telling stories now at that dinner at at at Anthony's.
So I and I got invited to go Steve Condon who was the trainer and
he was the travel guy, so ye, go to Anthony. So I
I was sitting there with the team, and I just remember Joe Turner reached
like across three guys to pull something off of somebody else's plate. I'll send
this arm comes across my plate to the other side of me, and these
these long fingers on his hand. It looked like somebody you know, had
one of those, like like a skick with fingers on the end, and
he pulled, like some French fires something off of somebody's Yeah, Peter Pete
Williams talks about Joe Turner and he was the only dude to drive a car.
Who can you know, be able sitting in the car drivers and put
put a quarter on the floor outside the door and he would be able to
reach it, you know, reach around over the door and reached out and
reach out and kid, it was so funny. That was an experience.
I didn't eat with those guys very often. Actually, I can only think
of one another time that I did. But that was like my second road
trip. The only the previous one before that they played Sason and the last
one because he because I'm sure, no, no, no, that well,
no, I went to the last one was the only other time.
Yeah, the last game of the year. It didn't happen very off,
which I will tell you. I'm for every I think I've mentioned. I
don't know if I mentioned it to Craig McMillan when we had him on.
I'm forever grateful to Craig McMillan were introducing me to steam plans. I had
never had him before. We went to this place called the Warehouse in Marina
del Rey, Okay, and Marina del Rey was it was on the LA
trip, and we got invited. Jack Rickard was a citizen report at the
time. I went to him and in McMillan got everybody, all the players
to order the steam plans, which came in this giant a bowl, a
bunch of the heat. And I hadn't had any, and so I got
him too, and I had him, and to this day, on my
sixtieth birthday, we were in it. We were in LA and my family
family and I went to the warehouse. I should have told him that he's
a big fisherman. Yeah, one of the good guests. Okay, good,
a lot of fun, great great stuff. As Steve and I get
into the story time and you never know, all right, so we'll be
back tomorrow, right, Yeah, They heard you know you're gonna be off
Friday, So we'll see if I haven't decided we're going to get a chest
host or if it's just gonna be Jason and I. But we'll have a
show and we'll talk about where we're going to talk about. We're talking some
Sugar Skulls later in the week, trying to get the Sabino softball coast,
and then had a big game Boomera got a request, and then we want
to maybe talk some arison the football. So we hope you'll be with us
the rest of the week. We'll be around