This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and jagon Zalece on Fox Sports
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Welcome to Hi had the ball got a Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve
Rivera, you're jagon Zalece. We got a guy, Jason in its just
to your last Yeah. I'll get the clinics out and you bring him a
cupcake or something. You can't bring him any candy. He doesn't. He
doesn't like the candy we like. What the hell, Jason, I'm a
chocolate guys. I'm a chocolate guy too, but I like other stuff.
Okay, Well, I'm bret to Molly's. Man, I'm pretty thick with
what. I'm a black cocake okay, No, okay, of your chocolate,
what chocolate bars or whateverybody like the best? Rec's okay, good,
they're you're okay, okay, we're on the scene. No, my chocolate
for you A Milky Way guy, Snickers, Guy Snakers? Yeah yeah,
no, No, welcome to our Eminem's candy. Yeah, okay, that's
list an odd start to this show. Hey man, we're trying to get
to know Jason leave the only video A few bunds. Yeah, okay,
okay, school starts next week, you'll be gone. Oh so in the
new crop of in terms will be coming home hopefully cool. Okay, welcome
to the show. Today's Thursday, right where you're in this Thursday. I
know you thought yesterday was day. I was wishing it was Thursday because I
went the end of the week to happen. But a lot of things going
on. Football practice kind of ended for the for the open media practices are
over today and final scrimmage stay Saturday night. Saturday night in front of some
kids who are back for school, maybe maybe a parent or two. Yeah.
So, so let me ask you this because Chris came in. Chris
came in, our intrepid crazy man at the country station gave us a gave
go ahead and tell what the poll was? Well, he ran a pole.
Uh, you know, I think it was is your favorite? Is?
It was? Was the question which is your favorite? No? No,
no? What are you? What are you most looking forward? But
are you most looking forward to? The trices were Arizona football, men's basketball,
women's basketball and he got one of those was fifty one percent. Yeah,
yeah, football, Well you surprised, No, I'm not surprised because
it makes the most sense, right the team is, you know how they're
looking the high behind No Jets third year. It just makes sense, like
the momentum and everything. There's more football fans because you can, you can
put fifty thousand people in the Upbut stating I don't I don't want to say
yes or no to that, but I think that people are dying for it
to succeed. And they already know Arizona basketball is, so who who I
go there? Yeah, And maybe the way the questions were to which are
you most looking forward to? Maybe there's a lot of people who are just
curious and I want to see what's this gonna look like? Another factor?
Yeah, No, I don't disagree with you with that. And there's there's
a lot of football fans that want to be great football fans. They just
don't have a team to follow. I've been saying Steve, I think in
the end, fans here love their football more than they love their basketball,
and they want football to win so bad. And maybe part of why they're
like that is because it's been so hard, right that when when when Arizona
football wins, it's way more special. Right, Oh yeah, because we've
gotten you. Sure. Sure, Let me ask you. So you grew
up here board in the early sixties whatever sixty baby boomer, let me say
so, in the seventies, what was the what was the early seventies,
mid seventies, what was the population? One hundred thousand, two hundred thousand
and maybe mostly two Soonans or most mostly two Soonans. Because this is where
I wanted to go with it, and I'm just this is not I think
there's no there's nothing scientific about that. That's just my thought. And you
gotta understand it in the in, you know, in the in in the
early to mid seventies, I was in junior high night school. Okay.
So my one is, if everyone or a lot of people are coming from
out of town, right, there's no love, there's no affiliation to the
university. So that's part of the problem of getting people into the stands because
they're from Iowa or whatever, they're not born and bred. Yeah, but
I think I think when people get here and let's say people have been here
for you've been here five six, seven, eight, nineteen years. You
do kind of get attached to the u of A because everywhere you go,
there's there's a yeah connection, it's it's what you see, it's what you
hear about. The university is such a big piece of who we are as
a city. So I think ultimately people do get attached. I think people
who come here and aren't here for a long time, yeah, they're kind
of hanging on to where they came from. But you know, you know,
Paul Sigalia says, you're twosone as far as we're concerned. You know,
you've been here thirty years. Yeah, oh yeah, yea, yea,
yeah, that's but that's what I'm saying. That's scientific. Yeah,
but you know, but but you care about the UVA. Yeah because I
cover? Yeah, I covered. Okay. But let me ask you this.
If you were a sports fan okay, but not a sports writer,
Okay, a sports fan, do you think you God, that's tough,
would you be going to you be going to football ticket? Jay? I
to tell you the truth, I do not know. I would. I
would try to get my friends that you have an extra ticket, get that
and do it that way. Mexico State. But I'm not as I wouldn't
haven't even done that. I haven't done that. I haven't done that.
I'd go, I'd go, or do you think it might become a Phoenix
sports fan? Sports? I'm not that big. I love sports. I
love sports. I'm like Jason and knows all these things like you. But
if you get older, you kind of just say, oh, you know,
what's not a big deal anymore. I don't really care. I don't
know Jay. I'm saying this honestly. When people say, hey, let's
go watch the Cowboys or whatever, this is okay. But I'm not,
you know, like, yeah, let's go. Yeah, I hear you,
because I'm just the dude who likes to see sports. Yeah. I
can just see him on the TV too. Yeah yeah, I think Yeah,
I like watch it on TV. To be honest, Like, if
I are free time, find out a ticket out, I'll go to the
game. Most of the time, I'll probably watch it. Yeah, but
am I gonna spend You just went to Dodger game because you're a darkard Dodger
guy. You spend X amount of months I spend. But I mean,
I mean I spend mine to go to Fenway Park because you want sports fan,
and I wanted the experience of going to Fenway Park. I go to
others, you know, when I go to other cities, I try to
go to ball games. You know, on a on a business trip to
the Bayer, I went to a Giant's Rockies game and sat in the ultimate
nosebleed seat at Candlestick Park. But I wanted to go to the ballpark,
you know. I went to Chicago and I went to Kmiskey Park. Let
me also say this, Jay, because I was in the business for a
long time, traveled everywhere, I might have been gamed out. Maybe that's
what I'm saying. It's hard, it's I know, it's hard to separate
that from whom you are now. But if you were a fan, if
you were in Tucson, living in Tucson, you like you really liked sports,
Okay, you know, would you care about the UVA. I think
I think you'd go to some baseball probably maybe maybe you're not a season ticket
hold or do it, but I think you'd go to some games. I
don't disagree and packed my store. But I'll tell you this, it's like
next week, there's a chance that you and I might go maybe not together
to go at sell point play right whoever, because I'm curious about the kids
that we talked about talking about, and that makes me a sports fans for
that, right, But I wouldn't look at the game or the score.
But you're not you're not. But you're not the average fan right now and
you have you haven't been even since you've got here, yeah, right,
or even even before that, before you got true because you know how it
is how we teach the kids. You're you're you're you're you're not right or
you're not left, you're done in the middle. You're not supposed to cheer
for your your your teams that you cover. And that's kind of what I
turned into, which is sad, but it's true. See, I was
a big fan. That's why you've got early and you got out and I
got because I wanted to be a fan. But from a very early age,
you know, I was riding the bus to you know, to the
U of A to go to you know, basketball and football games and baseball
game. She's never left you, that's never left it never did so Jason
too. So you're covering the team now you're a U a student. How
do you feel. Yeah, I mean I gotta grew up with no loyalty
any team. I'm pretty like me, Yeah, because I kind of grew
up out. Is that sad or not sad? No, I mean that
still enjoy sports sad. That's my point. People say, when we talked
about this earlier on the show, is I'm not a sports fan. You
say, shut up, people, of course you're a sports fan. It's
sad. It's not sad. We just go to watch the game. Yeah,
you still enjoy sports, you know, but you don't have a loyalty
or so you're you're good to your end. I think that we're good to
our end. Yeah for sure. Yeah, No, you you well,
you enjoy sports the way you enjoy sports, and that's pretty much how how
people do it. You know, you're and you're not gonna talk people into
you know, something else, and you're you're right, you know, you
get the person that moved your three years ago from you know, from whatever
wherever they're they're going to continue to care about that team. I just think
at some point you're hunger for to go see sporting events, to go to
a football game, go to a basketball you the only thing you've got in
Tucson is you have a sports Unless you're a hockey fan, you go to
the Roadrunners if you want to see some pro football, but go on to
pay three hundred dollars to go to a Cardinals game. You might go see
the Sugar Skulls. But other than that, you got Arizona Sports or the
high schools, and so you know, and and and that's why. That's
why I think that for instance, you know a c has lost so much
of its of its fan bases because you know, the it's really it's people
from every Sure, either you're a diehard a issue you guys, or you're
not, or you're not you're not right, And there's some in tropolis.
They should seriodically get a lot of people to go to the games. They
should be able to fill up all those days. Sure. Sure, No,
If ten of my friends came in from college or from back home they
wanted to go to a game, I'd say, could somebody else cover the
game for me? Because I want to be Yeah, maybe not so cho
fan, but go with them to have some fun, right you know?
So yeah, no, but I think I think there's still a good core
of of Tucson fans that love, you know, going to you have a
stock. Yeah, well and get and to to to Chris's uh, Chris's
uh poll. I think football tops them out, and I've always thought that,
and I think, you know, there's there might even be an element
of it's been so hard to go to Arizona basketball games, tough to get
tickets and stuff, and some people are kind of like, yeah, I'm
I'm a big fan, but I'm a fan enough to just I watch it
at home because I'm used to watch it at home, and maybe I'm not
as passionate about it as I am. To you have a football games which
I go to, I go to, I'm there, I see it.
I mean I'm in the middle of all of it, whereas you're watching the
basketball games on television. You can separate yourself that stuff. Yeah, we'll
see. I found it kind of interesting. But I think there's caveats to
those polls. The poll, Yeah, no, there are, but I
think that I really do believe that, And maybe, like I said,
it was just that the special football seasons in the history of Arizona football have
been very few. There's just been a handful of and those times have felt
so great that that's what people hunger for. It's funny. I was gonna
bring you up. T J guy. We both know you. He's from
Tour and he's from Florida. Went to the University of Florida. Was there
for the spur of your time. So she went to Iowa, did his
thing over there, and he came here right away. The first thing he
did was by season tickets to because he's a sports fan, football fan,
he has a love for all those other places. But he says, if
I'm going to be in this community, I want to watch some football.
I don't know if it's good football, but you you want to be part
of the conversation, right, You want to be having lunch with somebody who
might be talking about you by football. And you don't say I don't care,
you go, you know, But again, I mean, I told
you years ago we went to an Arizona State SIMIU game football because we needed
some college football that weekend. Right, But it's also in the It was
also good apparently good game. It was the must it was the yeah during
their whole expressed yeah. And we went to saw that game, you know,
and and I've you know, I've gone to games you know, elsewhere,
so you know, I'm a I'm a sports fan in that regards,
like I like to just go see games wherever I can be if I'm in
a big time atmosphere. But in the end, I am an Arizona fan,
and I think there's a lot of a lot. I think there's a
lot of people like me who do that because they love they love the sports.
Yes they're fans of Arizona, but they'll see sports others. We only
have two minutes here, so let me if you were to give uh,
Dave Peaky a suggestion, and you know a lot of people in that building,
so do why but you know them in a different way, Uh,
what would you give them a tip to to sell the tickets that need to
sell to the people that want to go, because that's not happening. I
think people like that who are who are kind of borderline about whether they're gonna
go or not. They make decisions on ticket price, game times. You
know, is it too hot to go? I know, I'm I don't
need to go sit in the heat for this, so it might be game
times. Uh, scheduling right if you want, if you know, if
you still have some basketball tickets to sell. You know, people want to
see you know, Duke and Kansas and those teams. So I think it's
kind of those three things and those that's that's a lot of stuff to deal
with, you know, year to year, year to year, if you
can't get teams to come and play here, if ticket prices have to be
a certain thing because you gotta make a budget, you make decisions based on
that kind of stuff. So I fans were kind of on the fringe like
that, and who are trying to make up their mind if I'm gonna go
see They make decisions based on those things. Welcome to Tucson. That's it.
Welcome to Tucson. It's pretty much like that anywhere. I'm a thing.
Yeah, I don't know too well. I've been here too long that
I did. I see it every day, every every game day, basketball,
football, later arriving, what are we gonna do, Let's go to
the game, blah blah bla. Were we gonna go to dinner before the
game? All that kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, Hey
a good show today. Yeah we have who do we have? Stop bruth?
Bruce Pasco all the way from ABU Dhabi's gonna be calling it in here
in a sec. We're gonna talk to Bruce just about what he's seen up
there in the last few days. They've had a couple of games, beats
and beat the hell out of another team this morning, and then we're gonna
start to talk to some high school stuff. We're gonna have Dustin Peace,
the head coach of CDEO. I wanted to talk to him. He's in
he's my neighborhood. But have your the of all the teams in is the
best one to have much state title, most likely to get a state title,
coming off a season where they really had some you know, struggled with
with the whole suspensions and then still went out and had a green year.
So well, they'll talk to him about that. So Bruce Pasco coming right
up, and then we'll have a dust and Peace. We'll tox some CDEO
football as we head towards the start of high football season, which is in
the next day. All right, stick around, don't believe last, don't
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Jacob Sommits they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports station Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to win the ball. Here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're chickens ass. Now on the
phone, we have Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Dainty Star from abroad. Who
are you hanging out now, Bruce? Inside pretty much what everyone does here.
Yeah, I mean like literally, you can't even you can't even eat
outside at a restaurant here. They just they don't open their terraces that.
I went to one food truck last night that actually has outdoors seating and I
said, Hey, I'm gonna eat over here, and they're like, are
this is low and inside there's room inside? Don't you want to come inside?
And I told the guys, say, I'm from Arizona. Is not
a big deal, and I check it out and he's, you know,
he didn't really know exactly what Arizona, So what's the temperature? Anyways,
it was you know, I actually just actually last night, I was riding
back about midnight, and it was ninety nine at that point. It was
a little cooler tonight. Not that you noticed, but I looked. I
was actually writing a little note about this because Tommy Litt was talking about all
the Hayes. It's also a factor here. But it is ninety three degrees
tonight, and after you were you know, even after midnight. I think
it was around ninety five at midnight to night, and then sixty two percent
humidity, dangerously humidity, and then it says air quality and next is terrible.
It's you know, it looks like honestly on top of the architecture and
other things that are just what you don't see at you know, back in
Arizona. It looks like you're in another world. It feels like you're in
another world. It's just it'same. Well, okay, now let's go with
the team. How has that been. You've been the gun for a while
now, Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. Well,
it's just you see two you see, let's let's go to the games.
You've seen two games. You know, yeah, what are you what are
you gleaning from the game so far? Because I know they really paid attention
all that much to the scores, because you know, it's the competition.
But what do you see? I don't know. I mean, you know
you're seeing you know, they're they're playing two teams that are uh, you
know, just kind of both of them thrown together a couple of practices.
Each team had a couple of good players, you know, But I think
you know, that's like, you know, I think you could be the
you know, I get you know, Arizona certainly has moved the ball well,
they moved the all fast. Uh you know, they've assisted. I
think sixty something percent of their baskets with assists are coming off assists, so
that all that stuff is good. But you know, do that translate to
a team that's going to interrupt them more defensively and maybe get them out of
whack and get them, you know, out of rhythm or whatever. That
certainly could happen because we saw even the last you know, both of Tom
Wood's first two seasons. Remember those first three games they play at home against
kind of easy opponents. They just they average one hundred and five points and
you know, thirty five assists or whatever, and uh and then and then
that would change sometimes when they ran the supper teams. So I don't know
if you can read a whole lot into it, but certainly it does look
like they're playing the way that Lloyd wants them to play. And I think
for me anyway, the biggest takeaway is that, you know, some of
the guys, you know, I think philliboorv each and then particularly just looks
a little more confident, like a guy who maybe can help them. And
you know, and then look at the two Lithuanian freshmen, both playing with
some confidence, look comfortable out there. You know, I can definitely see
both of those guys playing a big role in the rotation as well. Even
even though this competition doesn't tell anything. I just think the way they they
are moving out there and acting and you know, the shows they can you
know, they can handle this. How has Ballo looked? There's been some
some thoughts that he's a little overweight. It's not a lot overweight. How
has you looked on the court? Yeah, not, I might say not,
you know, not not not that dominant, But you know, as
he's been you know, but I don't know, I'm it's kind of difficult.
I mean, the matchups have been a little weirder him they you know,
he hasn't faced anybody like him, and they've been playing the more of
tempo game because they've been out to get to run it and they're scoring a
lot of transition baskets off turnovers. I just think that Ballo has not really
been part of a lot of that, and you know, I think what
he does, he's still been pretty effective and efficient. Just you know,
they haven't really needed that piece for him, and maybe these two matchups,
but it would be interesting. I don't even know whoo Lebanon has as a
big guy, but I imagine that they have some tougher physical bigs in there
that might be, you know, that might bring out sort of more the
best of him. Going back to what you said a minute ago, you
said, a couple of things that I was thinking is that they just look
like Tommy's teams have looked, maybe even a little more athletic at the guard
spot. Let's just say that, you know that the guys that they have
out there, you know, when you compare him to Kurt Crease. You
know, Kurt was a really good guard, but he wasn't the guy that's
going to go up and you know, dunk on a fast break, those
kinds of things. And then just the fact that they're doing what Tommy does,
running up and down the floor passing the ball. Uh, you know,
very energetic and athletic. I mean, that's just kind of what you
can take from it, at least what I've taken from it so far.
Yeah, I agree, I agree, Jay. I think the biggest question
to me is how do these pieces all fit? Like how does Tommy keep
them happy with the chemistry, Like, you know, we have Caleb Love
who's shot a ton of shots at North Carolina but seems willing to buy in.
And then you know, so far has has has played kind of,
you know, just a role like everybody else in there. And then you've
got Colin Boswell stepping it up quite a bit and his role and you know,
probably going to be the primary point guard. And you know, Jaden
Bradley coming in from Alabama with quite a pedigree he's got. And then and
then you know, today they threw out k J. Lewis for the first
time, and he played pretty well, and it's like, okay, where's
he got to play? You know, he looks like a guy, he's
physical and you know, confidence seems seems like he's a team oriented guy as
well. That that maybe could help him. So, you know, it
would be interesting to see maybe maybe they end up maybe Lloyd gens up and
then in Philip or Beach and then the topic they can play one, two
or three basically still just goodn't matter, and as well as Kyla Larson.
So you have all these guys, how how is Lloyd gonna five h fort
that out? And you know that's something that will be really interesting to keep
an eye on, you know, early to season two. I think sounds
like a rich man's problems with so many talent, But you're you're right.
It's funny. I remember when when someone asked Sean about the happiness question,
how do you keep them happy? He said, keep them happy. I
don't care about stuff like that. I just want them to play. I
think that Tommy Lloyds at least a little less string stranger than that, right,
he thinks I think he thinks about that. He thinks about that.
But but when you have ten eleven guys that can actually play. That is
going to be a little difficult, although his style suits this right, right,
Yeah, I mean that's the thing if they you know, I mean
we haven't seen that because he actually had pretty defined starters his first couple of
years, and you knew these guys are going to get the you know,
kirkcreas is going to get his minutes and uh, you know, be the
number one guy. This is gonna be different. I think there's gonna be
you know, a lot of different options for them. And but maybe I
mean they'll see even Yeah, certainly, if they score one hundred and seven
points, there's gonna be plenty of balls and shots in minutes to go around.
And guys may not even want to play that much, you know,
if there'll be tired if they give up that pace. So that that is
true, that could be part of it, you know, And yeah,
we'll see about what Lloyd thinks. I think it's you know, he may
not, I mean, you know it, maybe I think other kids feel
that way. If you do have to keep on eye chemistry. But if
you have a guy that's that's sulking or whatever, and he's not playing it
as much, and you know he's going to transfer. Maybe you think it's
just as well, and you let him, you know, you let him
go. I don't you know, I don't know. I don't know if
that will happen with this group. But you know, I think, you
know, he just wants to play the guys he has. But I think
there's there's got to be some level of you know, making sure the right
combinations and on the right guys you know, get along up there and play
for each other. Might vote for most impressive so far. And again we're
talking, you know what the sampling is, right, but you know,
Borbovich and and you know, he continued, he continues to impress. He
looks like a guy, as you said, can do a lot of things.
But you know, the confidence that he that he seems to have,
you know, whether he gained that, you know, playing in the summer,
you know, internationally, you know, or he just kind of was
biding his time last year because he's a guy that you know, he I
feel like he's making that step from last year to this year that Umar Bellow
made from his first year here to the to the second year. He's just
taking a big giant leap. Yeah, yeah, I definitely can see that
happen, and that's kind of you know, we'll see, but that's kind
of how it was, you know, sort of broadcast when he when he's
fine, it was like, okay, this this guy's got you know,
it's some pretty high potential, but he's not going to play much as a
freshman. But he really could be something because he's big and he you know,
for his position, and you know he's versatile, and now he's got
that little piece of confidence that you know, the pears came from playing in
PRAC just a lot because he didn't play a whole lot last year. And
you know how it is in this same age. A lot of times freshman,
even if they're seen as high potential guys, if they don't play a
lot of freshman they get they get upset and then they transfer at the end
of the year. And you know, he didn't. He didn't do that.
So it's kind of like that, you know, kind of like an
old school thing and you don't see that much anymore, a player who sticks
around and becomes from maybe he does. You know, how is this going
to be interesting with with you know, with these other two, especially with
Love and Jayden Bradley coming in where you know how it can work out again.
How has Martinez looked in with with with your fresh eyes over there,
you know, I mean it's he's not he's actually I do think he's kind
of like a potential spark club kind of guy. Plays hard, He's pretty
intense out there, but he's he's definitely undersized. I think they're listening to
at Dix. I'm not sure, yeah, And I'm he's definitely not sixted
tall and and so you know, there's gonna be justin there. But you
know, if he is what he is, you know what he could be
at least, and you know, maybe he has that potential being that point
guard that that can really drive you nuts, kind of as a pest kind
of guy. You know that that's so small and savvy that that that he
can cause problems like that. We'll see, but it's not gonna not going
to develop right away if that happens. Can you see something about why Tommy
likes him so much? He seems a gush about him or you know,
yeah he does, And I think I think it is just his personality.
You know, it's confidence out there. He doesn't you know, he may
be understized, but he doesn't seem to, you know, it doesn't seem
to affect his confidence like he's not. So you know, we'll see,
of course, if he gets into pack to all games or some of these
big time games that's got come up from non conference, how if he gets
out there, how he how he fares or whatever. But yeah, I
don't I don't know. I think I think it's more of the spirit of
him. Really. I think Lloyd saw him at the I believe at the
youth seven teams last year in Nalaga, and he had a really good tournament.
I think that that kind of clinches he also play well this year and
they kept in touch and that they got him, and you know, I
think he I think he uh, you know, they saw him as a
as a high you know, a guy who a developmental guy as long as
he's willing to come in and you know, he might he might take three
years to become a player. But I think what Lloyd's been telling us is
that he's going to be a guy fans really like and particulate. So you
know, but again it's not gonna maybe not the fans aren't going to probably
see too much on this year, but except in the blow up. But
I think, you know, down the road, you know, maybe he
don't help him and becomes a tricky guy to kind of match up with.
Okay, Brush when we know you gotta go. But we had a couple
of minutes. So how has the trip been. Part of the reasons they
sent you was not so much well basketball, but to find out a personality
is about the guys know that you're there, you going to be the guy.
How has that been? Yeah, I mean, well it's been great.
I mean, you know how it is, you guys. You don't
get a whole lot of contact with him during the season, mostly a couple
of guys at the podium that after a game, and then occasionally we'll get
him, you know, earlier in the week. And then it's hard.
It's you know, they're busy and they have to limit I think some of
our access or whatever, and so this is a little more relaxed. I
think it's interesting. For the most part, they have two buses pretty much
everywhere they go, one as players only and managers, et cetera, and
then the others like boosters and coaches. And then there's been a couple of
times when I couldn't get a car, like going to Bethelhem that I got
on that bus with the booster bus or whatever you want to call it.
So that that's been helpful to just to get to know people around the team
a little bit better, just chatting on the bus, et cetera. And
then you know, and then having a little conversations with some of the players,
you know as we're in the middle of the place, but you know,
like like you know, today or tonight as the mosque, I've seen
Umar Ballo, who's a Muslim, knowing Muslim player on the team, and
how he was effected by it, and just chatting with him a little bit
as we're writing on we were writing on a golf cart together as the sun's
going down on the lights are come and bounce them off to the little pool
there. I mean, it's just it's just like, yeah, who would
ever think that, you know, that kind of thing could even happen.
So so it's been Yeah, it's been really good that way, and just
seeing things through. What I'm trying to do is see see this trip through
their eyes, what they're experiencing, not so much what I am, although
I've certainly got to experience it myself as well, you know, going along
for some of the tours, listening to the tour guys just like they listened
to and and you know, and just getting the field for that and you
know, and that's probably been honestly a little more valuable to me just getting
to know them, not necessarily talking to them, but just watching them react.
Let's stuff being blocked into who who loves it, who's interested, and
you know, who wants to just look at his phone, you know,
stuff like that. Okay, Bruce, Well get some sleep, definitely travels
back, good luck. Yeah, it's been it's been tough. I mean
it's been fun. But it's like every day like there's like all this stuff
like running around them things, and then there's a practice or a game and
I'm literally coming back to the hotel at ten o'clock at night and then I
have to start writing like for two, three, four or five hours so
and then get up to the eighth the next day to go to some other
or whatever. It's it's been. It's been. It's been a whirl one
for sure. All Right. I think you can rest as for people here
are reading this stuff because they gobble it up and people. You know,
you're the only one there, so at least you got that going for you.
Yeah, you know, I'm yeah, no, I'm totally lucky to
be here and grateful for it. And that's that's why we did it.
I mean we if it was just a few games and nothing else, I
don't think we would have gone. But I think the combination of getting to
look at this team and and then getting really some fantastic, you know,
interesting stories and experiences to write about, you know, just made a kind
of a no brainer I think for us to do that, considering especially considering
the interest that this team generate, right you know. Okay, Bruce,
thanks a bunch, appreciate it. Man, As he said, get some
sleep, all right, guys, Yeah, thanks for having to Thank you,
Bruce Pascoe from the everyone to day the start. Thanks for joining us
up. No fun stuff, good stuffs. Tired, Oh he does having
for him he has, well, he's been up. He's gonna probably hit
the second any second though. All right, let's go and take our break.
We'll be back in. We'll take your calls five two zero four,
one, six seventy four forty. Stick around if you're an Arizona men's basketball
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Apply online today at a team security dot net. Steve Ravera and Jay
Gonsalez. They have their eye on the ball on Tucsons Sports Stage. Jeff
Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart Radio Wire. Hey, welcome
back to I in the ball hell Fox Sports fourteen fifty Steve. He's Jes
Jayson with us today. Got twelve minutes. If you guys want to give
us a quick call, like to take your calls right now as we usually
do with this hour five two o four one six seventy four forty interesting you
know perspective from Bruce. First of all, he's like I said, he
sounds really tired. You know, he's working some long hours. I mean,
it's you know what two o'clock in the morning when he was talking to
us. But you know it's hard to know. But then you know he
went there for the kind of the connection, right specifically for that. Yeah,
and so you know, you get to do that. I mean we
saw pictures of him at these various events that that that they went to and
stuff like that. You know, and and you know as a reporter,
you will get you know, when you they when they all get back here,
those guys remember Bruce Street there for that, and there'll be some recognition
of that in some respect for that when they you know, when they deal
with him during the season. So you know, you do make a lot
of a lot of That's why you know, Steve, when we when we
used to get to travel with the team, right, they got to know
us. Yea, you know they saw us all the time. Did you
travel on the plane? Yeah, football did not. No, I flew
separate on foot for football. For basketball, we flew. We were on
all the same flights perfectly. Yeah, because they what they would do is
at the beginning at the at the beginning of the season, they would the
UVA would make all the basketball hotels, flights everything. Then they would just
hand us the sheet from the travel agent and had everything and we're just ended
our travel agent and they'd put us on all the same stuff. So,
you know, I'd flying next to Sean Elliott and Harvey Mason, and you
know, we got to see the guys on planes, and you know they
you know, Loot and Bobby were sitting up in in first class and the
guys would be in the back making fun of that, you know, various
things that were going on because they were still kids, right, and so
they got to know us. Yeah. No, I was with them a
lot. I didn't travel specifically like that, but coincidentally, because we went
to the same places, I was on the same plane. Yeah, And
that's how I became friends with Bibby. I mean, that's why he's a
good friend. We coincidently sat next to each other. We are days,
our birthdays are day apart. Started talking, which you'd never talked back then.
It was like, holy crap, Bibby's talking to be and nothing on
the record, of course, which it was good, and there was no
understanding of that. There was an understanding if you were sitting on a guy
next to a plane, Yeah, you were just talking. You were just
talking and none of this is for publications, which kind of it would be
now, which helped, which helped? They got your trust, you got
to I mean, like I remember there was a we had a long I
think we were going to Seattle flying, which is a long flight, and
probably half an hour into the flight, there was a drunk lady in the
middle seat next to Sean Elly okay, and she was hammered and she was
she wouldn't stop talking, and you selly had and she was yet So as
soon as they as soon as the seat belt like goes off, Sean gets
up and goes to the bathroom. And on the way back, he's,
I'm sitting right behind him, right and on there. You trade seats with
me, You're not? Yeah? And I did, And I went and
sat there and and she said, well, why do you trade seats?
There's more leg room in this you know you want you know, you want
a little more lag room. But in doing that for Sean Elliott, you
know, opened the door for me to have other conversations with him. When
I was doing Story plus plus the time of this, you're talking, you're
talking thirty five years ago. Yeah, uh, And I my paper closes
in two thousand and nine. Uh, it's changed unbelievably. Yeah, nobody's
taking pictures and selfies and no, you know when we have little access to
them, Like he says, Uh, you know, back in the day,
we could do a lot of things. Yeah, you know, I
mean, I you know, Uh sat next to Harvey Mason on a long
trip one time, and then another time I'm sitting I'm sitting on the end
and one of the players I can't even remember who it was, sitting at
the window. There's nobody in between, and the road next to us is
empty, and I can't remember what asked me. Can you go sit over
there so I can lay down? Why not? Right? Those kinds of
things, Right, That's the kind of connection that I'm sure Bruce is trying
to make, probably a little different situations. Is it one of those get
close to you guys. Anyway, he just doesn't do that. We wanted
these guys to know that, you know, we're not the bad guy.
We're not the that guy's perfect way to put it. We weren't the bad
guy. We were just trying but your job. But the perception for whoever
that we are the bad guy was that we were ye oh, of course,
you know, but you know, and you know you'd sit back there,
you'd say, what the coaches and the managers and yeah, you know
I was working, let me tell you, Jay, because I competed against
the you guys to the Daily Star forever. Uh. And that's where I
had it made because you guys were writing. I was with them somewhere else,
right, Well, you guys were writing because I had Saturday off,
you know, to go get my stuff. And that's where I got a
lot of my stuff, whether it was Bobby or Loot or somebody passing notes.
I said, could you give me a quote for this? Yeah?
Or you know, I knew I had to get get it. You know,
we would always fly in the day before a game, right, so
I knew I had to have an advance on that's you know, the game.
And I knew if I needed to talk to somebody, I knew they
were going to be on the plane and I would be able to go get
them and get them for ten minutes to you know, get a couple of
quotes, whether whether I needed one the assistant coaches or look or whatever.
And that knowing that you had that access made your stories, and the assistant
coaches were gems of all. That's where you got all some style man sometimes
I you know, with with Kevin O'Neill and and and Ricky Bird's song and
those guys man sometimes that we had not just you know, and they even
the football coaches. You know, I always talk about the trip, the
trip to Texas Tech where you know, we went to that We went to
the county line, got a bunch of beer, brought it back to our
hotel room, filled up the bathtub with beer, and all the assistant coaches
came over and they gotta beat the next day pretty bad. They would be
pretty bad. I don't know if we would playing for that. Maybe we
were, I don't know. They seemed pretty confident, but you know,
they all came over and hung out in our room. Uh, because they
knew we had beer because they couldn't go get beer because they'd had to jump
you know, you know, they didn't have vehicles to go to go,
and so they knew we were coming in with beer. So they came in
and they just hung out with us for a couple hours. And same with
Douglas. It was the safety for Douglas. You shouldn't pull with those guys
at the atas since the stuff. Yeah, that's you know, and that's
a trip like that, that's what you're trying to get out, and that's
what clearly trying to get out. Yeah. Good, that's a long way
to go for that though. A lot of good to go. No sleeping,
you know, expensive. You know when I go to when I go
to foreign countries, man, I'm always worried about the food. Oh me
too, worried about me too, me too, you know, especially when
I go down to Mexico. Yeah, I experienced with too. You know.
We my wife and I went on a sort of a honeymoon trip and
we spent part of it in Germany and part of it in Austria. Man,
it was that was a tough go for food. It just they didn't
they didn't have anything that either I recognized or that I thought I was gonna
like. And then we're in Austria, we're in Innsbruck and we just went
for a walk to tour. The time would come around the corner there's a
chili. Oh yeah, yeah, no, of course. Yeah. We
were so excited. We're jumping up and down for let me tell you not
to make tell these stories about us. But so I was in the Greece
afford the Olympics and we had a day office. So I'm going out there
with some other reporters. We're just hanging out and some people are some tours
are lost. Hell, I'm a tourist too. Excuse me, excuse me,
star, could you point me to the whatever it wasn't? And this
is I'm having the same problem you were. I have no idea. Oh
you were Greek, Greek, because then you don't know I had my darker
beard because you look like one of them. No, no, no,
no, I'm just as loud as you are. Well that well that that
happens to me down in Mexico too. They think they think I'm a local
and I go down there and they they're like that, and I have no
idea. Yeah, I have no idea. I've had that a number of
times. Yeah. No, it's kind of fun. Yeah, But good
for Bruce that, you know. I'm sure again Bruce is a traveler.
I'm sure that he's experience and stuff. But man, he sounds like he's
working hard and it's the hours right as he as he said, you know,
finish it you know, late and then you still got it right and
all that kind of stuff. So yeah, people, people don't talk about
that that part of it. Oh, you have a great job. And
I don't want to I don't want to sound like a buddy Duddy because I
wouldn't do anything else. But you have a great job. You go to
these games, you need the players. Well that's not the start, does
not even work. The work is from the buzzer to the press conference,
which takes an hour, and then you have to write, yeah, what
rhymes with orange on a lead? You gotta come up with stod stuff.
You gotta come up with stuff that people are going to read, and that
takes another hour and a half. By that time, you're leaving the arena
by one o'clock. Yeah, listen, don't don't get the idea that we
hated it. Okay, we loved it. We loved Steve did it for
a lot more years than I did. I loved it, but I also
there came a time when I got my joy. You go right there,
that's the phrase. I got my feel of it. Uh, I got
my fill after twenty five years. Yeah, because Steve, I mean I
got the I got the the bug for that from throwing newspapers, the morning
paper. But I hear you bet, you know, I hear you.
And I read the morning Paper every day. And the guys that I read,
you know, Bob Moran, Dave Adam, a guy named Glenn Crevier,
who were all you know when I was in high school. You know,
I read all those guys. Then I get a job at the paper
and there's Bob and there's Dave and there's Glenn and all these guys are there,
and that that was my deal. I mean, when I thought about
what I wanted to go to college for, I thought about those guys and
I did that. No, it's funny because I kind of started throwing the
papers. You saw what how cool it was to be in the papers,
yeah, to have you you know, I wanted my mug shot on that,
you know, on a column, you know, and I started having
you know, I had a column, you know, cover from football to
be right for football and basketball, and it's like those things were those things
were cool and that's what I was shooting for. Gonna make me cry,
Jason man, you're just getting started, you know, I know you're gonna
do great. You're gonna have a great time. You're gonna be You're gonna
be sixty five years old on the radio show. Remember talking about this stuff.
A bunch of old man. Take it all in, make some memories,
work hard, who till kids? Uh? Three five days? You
don't like the show? We do five shows a week, but two hundred
fifty shows. So right, we might have some duds ten times out of
two hundred and fifty, but the other ones are pretty good. All fun.
Yeah, they're all fun. They're all fun. And how bad days?
And then if you ever stop having fun with it, get the hell
out and go do something else. Yeah, seriously, you know, I
mean I was still having fun, but I still got the hell out and
went to do something else. Because make money? Yeah, because I want,
well, I want I wanted to make money, but two I wanted
to have I wanted to have more fun as a fan doing, you know,
which was important to me. So yeah, but you're you know you're
at You're at the start of it. Man, it's blast now again.
It's it's way different for you than it was for us. All right.
You can almost say in some sense for us it was easier because of the
access that we had but that made it harder because we had more to write,
right, and it was and deadlines were tough. But no, every
days, every well it's a deadline. Yeah man, Yeah, I don't
know that. I know I couldn't do that. Well, we were trying
to Cico. We gotta go here. But it's the carrying of the luggage,
carrying on the cameras. The Pete Deuborhos still have to do that.
These are changing times, very changing times. All right, Wow, another
trip down memory lane. Let's take a break. We're gonna come back breaking
news and then we're gonna have Dustin Peace, the head coach at CDOs.
Let's stick around.