This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagonzalez Sound Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z R
two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Pay Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's
Jagan's us got our new guy, Adam, So we screw up. We're
believing that it's all on you, baby, it is. It is Adam.
I don't know what I tell you, I know what you tell you.
It's rookie initiations. This is as far as it goes with us exactly.
All right, man, Hey, welcome to Thursday. I thought today
it was Friday. It felt like a'm Friday. I know, Dave.
I want to get to that weekend because then we get one more day and
we're after them. Off to the tournament, Off to the tournament. Yes,
yes, Well, congrats to the women's team who advanced last night.
Yeah, I watched a lot of that game. It was a nice game.
They you know, they had a nice lead, gave up the lead
then know just hung on so and made the plays they needed to make.
So I'll ask you this after I apologize, apologize to miss Poyle. She's
a fantastic player. She's a really good I didn't know that she was the
fantastic player like she is. She could do a lot of things. And
maybe because I haven't seen enough of the women's game, but holy crap,
she could play. And and the thing of it is, Steve. You
know, there's just a feeling that she could do more. Yeah, right,
but she was key last night. She had some he plays a bunch
of you know, her defense has been where you know, she hangs her
proverbial hat and and I think that it hopefully this this is kind of a
sign of Okay, this is this is postseason. I'm taking charge because that's
where I you know, I think they need really badly. You know,
they've got seven players who are playing their butts off, and but you know,
somebody's got to be in charge out there, and and you know she's
the one. I mean, they got a freshman point guard as Mary Martinez
is another one who's got you know, a veteran has got to step up
and do somethings. Yeah, and she's a stud too. Yesterday, very
impressed with po she was, she was fantastic. I'm thinking, where have
I been, Dwarf? Have I not to know this? You haven't been
a Michael Center during bad women's basketball games. You know, I'm too busy,
man, You know that I'm too busy. But uh, you know,
tonight the night, Tonight's the night that they've got to uh if they
want any hope of getting into the then cub A Tournament, Tonight's the night
that they have to uh, you know, make that make a statement.
Well, let me tell you to bless her heart because she's politiicy like crazy.
Barnes. Seven teams got to get in. I'm playing us, playing
a tough conference. We're showing that we're capable. So of course she's gonna
politic and and and some of it's true, some of it's legit, Yes
it is. And and you know, for for for idea that the idea
that that can go down that far. It's one of those things where,
Okay, in other places, you know, if somebody's you know, right
in the middle of the pack, you know, they they give them the
benefit of the doubt if it's a very tough conference. So that's what she's
counting. On that that that that the conference, uh, the conference is
not reputation, but just the work that it's done as a league is good
enough to get to get them in right, right, And she will see
it tonight because they've they've given usc the fits the last couple of nights or
a couple of games. So we'll see what happens for this one, okay,
And then tonight obviously Arizona plays UCLA in a big game, a big
game for Arizona and maybe for UCLA just to say face uh and maybe gain
some of your momentum my runs to the to the Pac twelve tournament, right,
because there's only one way that UCLA will get in. Well, yeah,
there are two things here with with as it relates to Arizona. Is
you know just you know, at this point in the season, you don't
want to you know, lay an egg, you know, put some doubt
into your head about about where you are. And so I think it's important
for them to to you know, I win both of these games, you
know. So let me ask you as we stand today on Thursday, February
March up the number one seed today and that's for a reason I don't think
they are Tennessee, Tennessee one, Tennessee one, say and in fashion and
the one day one on the road against the ranked team, right, So
I think they're the number one, the fourth number one. Arizona slips to
number five. If they can hold the number five, that'll be great.
Even if they can fall the six, that's okay. But five is perfect.
Number two in the West and uh, we'll see. Yeah. No,
I think I think it's uh, it's it's a chance for them to
I mean, they don't have a lot of chances to improve their body of
work. And we knew this for like the last two move known it for
a while now. And the thing was that other teams, and you know
Tennessee and and and and North Carolina specifically have done good enough work to gain
ground on them. And they've headed towards the end of the end of this
season. Right, have they not slipped against Washington State, they would have
helped them. I'm not sure if it had totally helped them. But like
people say, well one is the best team if they play well. Guess
what, there's other teams in the country, right, and they're playing well
and they're playing well too, So you have to give everybody the same equal
wit exactly. Yeah, So we'll talk more about them later today. We
have Brian Jeffries. Yes, Brian's in LA again ready to do the game
tonight. So I don't know if he'll be we'll be talking to him from
his hotel room or if he's going to already be at Polly, But you
know, we we went down memory lane yesterday with Ryan Hansen. Brian obviously
has a lot of memories of going to UCLA and his thoughts on going there,
possibly for the last time, because if you listen to Ben Bolt the
La Times, right, he said this rivalry is not going to continue.
But you know, he basically said UCLA does not want this to continue because
not that he knows anything, he's just that's that's that's his speculation based on
conversation that he's that he's heard that, you know, there's been some issues
with the fans at Michale and that they feel like if we don't have to
play them, then we don't we don't need to play sure sure, so
that you know, although that's unfortunate that that we're in that situation. Well,
although I wouldn't mind a neutral court in Vegas. Yeah, maybe that's
how Maybe that's what you do right, Maybe that's what you say. Okay,
we're gonna play you every year in Vegas, right, I think I
think, you know, if that's if that's a right, if that's a
way to do it right, if that's a way to do it, then
that's a cool way to do it. Okay. Uh So we'll talk more
about that, and then in the second hour we're gonna talk. We're still
gonna stay in memory lane with Joe Nell's where you ve was entering the PAC
ten. They got Yeah, they got into the PAC ten his second year,
so you know they already decided. I went back and did a little
research on this research research. I've kept this old article that somebody wrote quite
a long time ago about all the ins and outs of what happened how Arizona
and Arizona State ended up in the in the league. Well you remember a
great piece. Well it was a long story. Remember we had Wilner on
a year or two ago when some guy did some wilder rehashed a lot of
things from the guy who the legislature he was, he was a provost or
something. It's a great piece about how how uh you know, ASU didn't
want to go, and they were kind of forced to go. And then
Stanford and Washington at the last second decided they didn't want Arizona and and and
ASU win. Then us he said, basically said, if you don't vote
for this, we're leaving with UCLA. And then the and and the Rose
Bowl was going to lose its mind in the little bit, and then at
the last second they voted unanimously. So that's what six that's almost fifty years
ago. So the decision, the invitation came in nineteen seventy six. The
first season was the nineteen seventy eight seventy nine school year. And then so
it was the first time that u c. L A came to McHale as
a pack A Conference opponent. They were ranked fourth in the country and Arizona
beat them. I was gonna say, and it's good to talk to Joe
uh and maybe we talked to some players in football too. When all of
a sudden, DoD that did what was the theme, Okay, you're gonna
go into the Pac ten uh and we're gonna get our butt kicked. A
lot of people thought that and and and that. The thing is at the
time uh and again reading this article, people were saying, you're gonna get
drass kick, but it was in football. It was just about football,
right and bat Well, football matters, So you're gon get drass kicked by
UCLA and basketball and USC and football the rest of the league in the pack,
what was the Pack eight wasn't really a hell of a lot better than
reputation wise, better than the Whack. The Whack had all these you know,
teams, scoring, high scoring teams. B YU was in it.
New Mexico had a great team right around that time. That was when your
boy norm right air Force, I'm talking about football air force. Yeah,
well, in basketball in New Mexico was really good and they had the pit
and football air Force was really good. Uh b y U was really good.
New Mexico was good. And people are saying that outside of U c
l A and USC and football, the Whack very matched up very well.
And in fact, in Arizona's first conference football game, they beat Oregon State.
So you know, but so people immediately were like, this isn't so
bad. Now. I do remember that in the second season because I went
to this game Arizona played at USC and they had Charles White and he rushed
for two hundred and some yards in Arizona got their asses kid, you know,
so welcome to the back twelve right right, So you know, but
but it was back then basketball. That was the end of That was the
end of u c l a run, you know, the use and U
c l a UVE had Fred Stone his career there. Fred Stodeen coach through
the eighty one season. No, yeah, the eighty one season. Ben
Lindsay came in for eighty two and then Luke eighty three. So you know,
but you know that that seventy nineteen you know it was pretty good.
Larry Demick, Joe Nel's, uh Russell Brown still on that team. I
don't think so. I don't think so. It could be. No.
John Smith was the point guard. I believe is any guy named John Smith
who made the game winning free throw to beat U c l a ye had
the game was tied. He got followed with a few seconds left. He
made one of two and they win by a point that you can't remember.
Crap, you can't remember, crap, but you remember that. I remember
that chick. Chick. Google all that stuff, Adam, just to make
sure he's just throwing names out there. There was there was His name was
John Smith. Remember there was a great poster. There was a great pot
black and hoe. It was a black and white poster that was made.
It was a It was a photo from the other end line, so facing
the basket for John Smith to shoot. You know, he the long distance.
Yeah, he had his back to the basket, back to the camera
and the picture was snapped like right as the ball got into the bat.
The net is barely starting to move and enough that you knew it was in.
Yeah, that poster was being sold in the books. I remember seeing
that photo in doing research for the books. I remember all that because I
wrote about this. It was that weekend on the spaghetti weekend, the weekend
c l A or not weekend, but back to back games, Yeah,
back to back games. I think it was a third. I think it
was Thursday, Monday. Yeah, Monday was the Monday was the USC game.
I know that for one hundred for a fact. Yeah, but I
don't think the U c l A game was Saturday. I want to say
it was Friday, even been Friday. I think I believe it was a
weekday because I think I was at school then. Yeah, Okay, so
we'll get with that. We'll get to know all that with jone Els.
He's been on the show with us before. We had a big shot in
that at the end of that game. Yeah, I think he I think
he hit the USC game, no cla. I believe he hit a shot
from the corner. I'll ask him. I'm sure. Remember, I believe
he hit the shot from the corner that tied the game. Okay, but
you know i'd have to know, you know, go see a play by
plate to know that for sure that exists anywhere. Okay, cool? Cool,
So again, if you guys want to call or please do five two
oh four, one, six, seventy four forty, we're gonna get to
we'll probably take no calls now because we're running against it with Brian. We'll
get Brian for about fifteen minutes and then come back and then we'll have open
lines right in the second half time more basketball or whatever you just want to
talk about, and then Adam will take his first crack, gets some breaking
news, and then have Joe Nell's He looks nervous. Uh, he's always
looking nervous. He just smile. He doesn't have his microphone down in front
of him in case he has to say something. Look, he looks a
little nervous. You can't mess up if you say don't say anything, you
know that, right, we should learn from that. But we just have
to shut the hell up the whole time. It's good radio with us not
talking. Okay, so that's cool. What time is it now? Three
twelve? Do you want to treat him down a minute? Yeah, let's
get let's give another another minute. Okay, let's back to the back to
the women. Really, I mean, what time is that game? Thirty
seven? Okay, so both they're gonna compete against each other. Right,
men are on, the men are on at seven thirty women are on package.
But actually Richard Jefferson is filling in for for Bill Walton tonight's game.
He continues to be six. Yeah, he was supposed to do the game.
Okay, Well, Conference Championss is ending. Well again. I you
know, I had that I had that crap bronchitis for like weeks. You
know, it didn't do you in? You did? I hated it,
though, Yeah I did. I did coffea Yeah, I've I've listened to,
you know, pieces of a couple of those podcasts and I sounded bad.
Who do you so? Now I don't sound bad? Better, it's
not better? Yeah? Better, let's go. Let's go before we right,
let's get the heck out of here. We're gonna come back. We're
gonna have Brian Jeffries coming to us from from l Well well, well,
you know, talk about this game. But we'll go down there. We'll
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your free evaluation Today. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I
on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Iye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's jagan zaus having the phone. We have Brian
Jeffries, the voice of the Wildcast. Brian, how you doing? Couldn't
be better? It stopped raining here in Los Angeles. What we got here
yesterday? It was raining heavily and they've had a very wet winter so far.
So sun is out today, a beautiful day and looking forward to a
big game tonight. Well, we hope that it doesn't rain on Arizona's PARADEUS.
It needs two more games and the to have a chance at the title.
So what's the mood like? Have you been around the team this morning?
Choot around? Yeah? They you know, they did not shoot at
Polly Pavilion. They actually went there last night. As soon as we landed,
bust over to Paully and did some shooting. As you well know,
occasionally, just occasionally, they have traffic problems here in Los Angeles. So
the idea was make the long trip last night, don't go back and forth
twice today. So they're doing their shoot around at a high school in Santa
Monica and then they'll head over to Polly a little early tonight. All right,
so we want to talk about we want to go back in time a
little bit, but let's talk a little bit more about the game. You
know, the game tonight obviously, you know, very meaningful. Tommy's kind
of like I felt like he's he kind of stepped into a next season kind
of thing. You know, he was talking about how Mikaale is behind them.
Now we're not no more games than Michale. We're on the road the
rest of the way out. Is there a sense of that around the team
that they're kind of looking this as a next season? Well, I think
they want the mentality there that they played really well on the road starting with
that Oregon game up Ugene, and so if they can keep that type of
I think mental focus and obviously play the way they have on the road and
really at home over the last ten games, then they've got every reason to
think they can win tonight and went on Saturday, and when next week in
Las Vegas and beyond that. So I think it's just kind of an approach
to say, hey, look guys, we're in a good spot right now,
We're in a good groove, so let's keep it going. Yeah.
In fact, I was going to go there with you. Someone asked me
maybe two three weeks ago, how would you describe the team this season?
I'm thinking, I don't know, perplexing, inconsistent, And then over the
last two three weeks they've gone, what eight of nine, nine of ten?
Are playing much better? Are playing more cohesive? Cohesive? Me together?
Your thoughts on that, Well, I look at I look at the
whole season, Steve. I look at it this way. They got up
to a great start, beating Duke at Cameron Indoor, beating Wisconsin, beating
Michigan State, I mean, beating their other non conference teams, and then,
like a lot of teams, I think they went into a little bit
of a low that are maybe in January, and maybe it took longer to
get out of it than any of us expected. And now they've gotten out
of it, and they're back playing really the way they did early in the
season, and so I think they Every team goes through something like this.
Sometimes it's just a week, two weeks. You never know, and I
think, you know, the guys have kept their heads up, and I
think a lot of that has to do with the coaching staff that have kept
their heads up and they just keep working hard at it, because Tommy's never
you know, he's one of those coaches, like a lot of them,
he's never totally satisfied. There's always something to work on. And I think
kind of using that attitude going to practice every day that we got to get
better each day, then you're going to find yourself. If you're not playing
as well as you were during one stretch, you're going to find a way
out of it. So I think they have now. It doesn't guarantee they're
going to win tonight or you know, any games the rest of the season,
but I just think that right now their heads are screwed on the right
direction and they're playing well, they're distributing the ball, they're doing it everything
they need to do to win games, and so it's just a matter now
of going out and executing what the game plan has in store, you know,
talking about keeping your head screwed on right. You know, I asked
Tommy yesterday if if Kylin Boswell just looks like he maybe has a little more
bounce in his step. He's put some couple of good games together, and
you know, all the talk has been, you know, there's so much
better when he's playing really well, and they have been. Do you notice
anything like that with with him? You know, I watched him during pregame
against Oregon, and he just looked he was smiling more, he looked a
little happier. He's making some shots, he was joking around. He just
seemed a little different, like maybe some pressure was coming off of him.
Well, you know, maybe I think depending on how much social media he
reads. You know, I think unfortunately these days that you know, players
if they if they read too much, the cynics are out there and it
goes for just about anybody. And if you if you read too much of
that and take it to heart, I mean, it can probably bother you
a bit. I think Kylon just went through a stretch this season, like
all eighteen year olds, where things weren't falling together the way that he had
hoped and he's fought his way out of it. I'll tell you, I
you know, all these guys work hard, but he might be the hardest
working guy I've seen on this team. I mean, he is, you
know, first one in the gym in the morning, and he's got a
manager out there, and he's done that all season long, and so I'm
happy for him. And I think the other part of it is that we're
just getting over spring break now, and I think the guys can see the
end of the season. And I'm not saying the end is in ending soon.
I'm just saying they can see what's ahead now and what's on the table
for them, and I think they all understand that if they're playing at their
best, they've got a chance to do some pretty special things over the next
few weeks. So I kind of look at Kylon and think of him in
that realm that he can see what this team can accomplish if he plays his
best, and he is playing his best right now. So obviously, you
know, I was with you guys for a long time. We traveled together
a number of times, and you can kind of sense for this game,
specifically, how poly would be either very electric or not. I'm assuming that
it could be tonight. What's the How big is the game? Should that's
the easy thing, Desk. How big is a game for both sides?
Well, I mean it's obviously big for Arizona because they need to win if
they want to win a regular season championship. I mean, you can't count
on Washington State losing at home tonight to Washington and so I think the Wildcats
know that they've got to win both games on this trip, and that's the
plan. They want to sew up that number one seed and get that trophy
and head to Las Vegas and look to defend the tournament championship. As far
as UCLA goes, I mean, they're in a tough spot. I mean,
they don't have many seasons like this, and so they've got to win
the Pac called Tournament to make it into March Madness, and that's going to
be difficult for them. Right now, they're fighting just to try and get
into the top four, and that's going to be difficult for them. So,
Steve, that's a great question. Until we actually get to the arena
and people are in their seats tonight, I don't know what it's going to
be like I mean, I'm assuming, at least from what I saw,
it's almost sold out, and if not, it's going to be very close.
And so I think the atmosphere is going to be like a lot of
Arizona Ucla games in the past. The difference is that you know, the
Bruins aren't sitting where they have been the last few years, and that's fighting
for a conference championship, and you know, how do their players react.
I think that's probably the biggest question. They've dropped four straight games. They're
not going to be able to win the championship, and you know, they
may not be able to accomplish a lot of goals this year. Back it's
Arizona Ucla, and I don't care if you're a freshman or a senior that
you know what this rivalry is all about, and so you would expect the
best out of both teams to no question. In fact, that's where I
wanted to go with it next. And we'll kind of reminisce now, no
guy has seen the u of a basketball program more than you over thirty seven
years or whatever. It's been no one, nobody, So you know that
the ramifications of the rivalry. We've seen it. It's crazy even on some
of these games. So let's go there. What games do you remember specifically
to have that electricity it was? It was you know, Eric Lute,
maybe Sean Sean Alfred, you know the craziness there. You know, there's
always been I think every Arizona UCLA game has been electric. I don't remember
any of them, no matter what the team's records. When you didn't look
forward to it, and the fans didn't look forward to it, and the
players didn't look forward to it, and there was just something extra in the
air. And you know that is all thanks to lout Olsen when he built
the rivalry into what it is. And you know, there are specific games
over the years. Certainly we could look back and you know, Seawan Elliot
breaking bluell Cinders record, Derek Martin ending Arizona's winning streak at home. But
you know, actually I think more of the players than I do the games.
And when I think of Arizona UCLA, I think of Seawan Elliott and
Don McClain. Those are the first two names that come to mind to me
because they were just, you know, such impactful players in particular back when
this rivalry really got heated up. And so, like I said, there's
been games along the lay. I mean last year's championship game, great example.
It's just you could find that you're in and year out. But I
think it's the players that really made the rivalry well and and it really has.
And you know there's been you know, when we you mentioned UCLA USC,
I mean US UCLA, Arizona, you know, you mentioned it with
North Carolina Duke, you know, and in all those rivalries, and you
know, it's been something that I think fans and too soon. I know
they appreciate the rivalry, but you know it's been around for so long.
It's kind of like one of those things where yeah, we yeah, we
had for a long time. It's been great. But I don't know if
they understand what they're going to be missing when it's gone. Oh I agree,
it's going to be I think it's going to be a tremendous adjustment because
there are no instant rivalries in the Big twelve. I mean everyone's going to
talk about Arizona Kansas and yeah because of the programs, the strength of the
two programs, you can say that beyond that, and they really aren't rivals
because they just don't play your in and year out, and so it is
the best rivalry in the Pac twelve. It has been for what over thirty
years. It's going away hopefully somewhere down the road here that the two schools
can get together and maybe play every other year or every third year or whatever.
You know, they've got to work that out because both teams, you
know, are going to have some increased travel. So I just don't know
how they're going to fix that or how the two schools can agree upon a
home and home situation. But maybe that'll happen, but it won't be the
same because it won't be your in and you're out. It won't be games
that have any impact on conference championships. So yeah, I'm really going to
I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it more than any other
rivalry in the Pac twelve. And I know there'll be new ones in the
Big twelve, but it takes time. You guys, know that. You
just don't all of a sudden say oh, this is a rivalry. It
has to go a few years. You have to both teams have to win
once in a while in order to become a rivalry, and that's why this
one has been so good, even for you who who's gone pretty much done,
gone everywhere, done anything, a kid from Washington growing up and now
in Arizona for a long time. Do you still get goosebumps? I know
that's kind of Wexton poetic too much when you get into Paulie too many.
Poli is just another gym because it's so big and it's I know it's Paulie,
but you know what I'm saying, Does it still stir the juices or
No? To be honest, no, it really doesn't. And you're right.
I mean, it's the building. There's no sthetic appeal to the building.
It's the banners hanging from the wrap rt. What makes Paulie specially has
nothing to do with the actual structure itself. And so I think I got
over that a long time ago. And there's other you know, in our
business, there's other things that you have to deal with, and so you're
really not concerned about the building you're in. You just want to make sure
everybody everything's working technically. Man, it's a good place. It's a good
place to work out of. So if you know elfishly, you like that
and you just hope that it's a great game. That's what you're always hoping
for. But the think back to the first time that you went, you
know, to do this job. Well, you know what were your thoughts
on that? I mean, just again, were you just worried about the
technical aspect of it or did you walk in and go, holy crap,
this is poly Pavilion. Oh? Absolutely, you walk in and I remember,
of course, you know John Wooden was alive then and he would be
at the games, and yeah, he would be in that same seat every
time we went, and people would line up to get his autograph and that
was something very special to see that. And again to see the banners hanging
before you know, back then, remember before they remodeled poly Pavilion, it
was kind of an odd shape because the scoreboard didn't hang over center court.
And I my understanding is when when it was built, it wouldn't wanted a
practice court put in, so they had him back to back and that's why
the building looked a little odd. Like I said, So it still came
down to the banners. That was that was it. And you know,
the great players that have played there, and just like all the great players
that have played in McHale Center. I think anytime you go into a building,
that's what I think about about the teams in the past and the guys
that have graced those floors. Yeah, and one of the guys that you
know, you you were good friends with with Lute respected the heck out of
Ucla. But boy did he love beating them. Yeah. I mean there
were there were rivalries, and there were rivalries, and I think that's one
that you could tell. You could see it in loot on game days.
I mean, I got to know him well enough that I'm not going to
say I could read him, but I certainly when Arizona and Ucla on game
days, you could kind of see in his eyes there was something extra special
there because he knew the meaningful nature of the game, and usually something's on
the line. Of course, whenever the two teams played, And yes,
he loved nothing more than coming to LA and beating Ucla. That was one
of his favorite things. I remember when Arizona clinched the championship, here and
a bunch of the staff went out to dinner down in uh I can't remember
where we were, Marina del Rey or somewhere, and he was on top
of the world at that time, because you know, clinching a championship here
in LA was something that I think always stayed with him. Yeah, no,
it did. And I mean we all remember well that I think this
is before you got here, but you know the story when they won their
first pack twelve Pac ten championship was at UCLA, and just how much that
meant to do it there and I mean it was like somebody wrote the book
and said this is the way. Well if you remember too that Bobby had
the game program right, took it to uh, took it to Wood and
got his autograph and kept it and said, you know, changing to the
guard. Well, it certainly was. And you know, I look back
here and I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think
over about the last eighty or ninety games between these two teams, it's almost
dead even terms of when you know who's won each season, I mean the
one lost record, and that's again that's what a great rivalry is alt about.
Well, you get a little misty eyed tonight, either right before or
after the game or just kind of just so you know, let's say,
yet back, I'm getting missy ad right now, Brian, I mean you
know, I mean, how will you take this? It's your last one
there? You know, as you know in the PAC twelve, I will
not be misty eyed, because this entire season we've been saying goodbye to places
that we'll probably never see again. And certainly walking out of the building tonight,
yeah, I'll turn around and take a one last look at it and
say, I don't know if we're going to be back here again, and
we'll miss it, we'll miss the rivalry. But no, not missy eyed.
We just hope, like I said, I if the broadcast goes well
and if the Wildcats win, then you leave with a smile and head back
to the hotel and you know, get some chocolate milk. So let me
ask you. We have no more time, but let me ask you an
opening. It's the same answer as mine. Would be your favorite all time
arena in the Pact ten PAC twelve in your time, favorite arena to go
to watch a game and favorite not Michael, not Mikail. Favorite to watch
a game or to do you mean work? You mean work? I never
get to actually watch to do a game, I don't have one. Sorry,
I can't you they're all They're all the same. To me, look
at your politicians. You're a politician. Matt Cork didn't do it for you.
Matt Cork to me, was like he was almost gonna fall down on
you at any moment. Oh. I mean, I love the historic nature
of it. And you remember you walk around there and it's you know,
you can hear the floors squeak and everything, and oh I love that.
But it was a terrible place to broadcast out of. And so you know,
I have to I have to put that up against it and say,
I'm glad. I wish we could go back there. I love the games
in there, but my goodness, it was a very difficult place to work
out of. So I can't put it at the top of the left.
Okay, so what you're looking at it, no favorite, you diplomatic man.
You Okay, we'll have fun tonight. Thank you, Thank you,
ran appreciate always. Yeah, good stuff, good stuff, trying to be
nice to anybody. I know what I knew he wasn't gonna say Matt Court
because of that, because of what a pain that had to be. That's
that place. And I'm sure I'm sure Oregon State was the same way that
those places tech technical technologically had to be. Yeah, no question. Do
you have a favorite pair of shoes that you've had forever? I mean,
you have a baseball glove that's probably old and yeah, basil glove, and
yeah, I tend to keep shoes for a long time, but they eventually
Yeah, white places, what are you doing with that? That's it?
Okay, I will say that I have I still have my boots from forever
that that I got, uh in El Paso when I went and covered the
sun Bowl boots. I have those Palm Factor I have those, and and
that's what that's what Matt Court it was in this. Yeah, I don't
wear them. I never wear them. I haven't worn them in but yeah
I have them. Yeah. You know, I've thrown out a lot of
shoes, but not those. Okay, that's Matt Court right there there.
There you go. Okay, all right, let's take our break. We're
gonna come back. We'll take your cost five two zero four one, six
seventy four forty. Today's a good day to call in with any of your
memories. Yeah, the UCLA rivalry of going to Polypavilion of the Games.
Here, I'll give us a call five two zero four one six seventy four
four. Great back. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know
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a Team security dot net. This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
the iHeartRadio while just Surgery I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to
in the Ball. This is Steve, This is your Jay right and we
got a phone call right away. Hi. You're on the Art on the
Ball man. You sound horrible, You know, you sound bad? Your
background back? Yeah, we got a lot of background noise from you there.
You guys, You guys sound as bad as I do. That would
never happen where you've been. We've had a search party out for you.
Every Sandler Man, I'm working at intown that intel holdly Nut. You're like
the Jeffersons. You're moving on up, Yes, sir, yes, sir.
So man, it didn't really heal hit me until you know, I
listen to your show like this is actually going to be the last, and
it says, you know, I've been so about the farewell to the Pact
twelve or the pac ten and like you just get reminded of dudes that you
hated. I like people like Kopono and that bars and and last year with
himI Hockings and had to reach all these guys that we loved to hate,
but they were formidable. They they were our joker to our batman or back
badman to our joker, whatever kind of year it was, and how you
guys said it, we took the baton running before there was Gonzaga and whatever
the littlest because I still rolled my eyes at Gonzaga until they win a here.
But this was the West Coast and the West Basketball. Yeah no,
you're right, you didn't. So you didn't like your brother himI Hawkish with
the Dug contest. Then I rolled my eyes at Mexicans play basketball, kicking
in, kicking it to the colt by that game, by that game,
he don't don't rag on us, man, we're trying to survive here.
How are you doing on? Apparently you lost your voice screaming at something?
Oh something great? A pushing here the Cassie is in just this time of
year, it says, no, I'm still my voice is gone from watching
the Cowboys put themselves against the Three Bay Packers. See that's why I really
big. I've been at the pressure that makes that makes perfect sense? Okay,
don't it's such saying fair. Wow, it is happiness. Its tradition
is everything. And just like the little trips that we've talked about in the
football season, because everything was close, like what are we gonna do now?
Nobody wants to go to love it? Nobody wants to lou who about
to go to bop it? Nobody even exactly, So like like, I
know, I know, Jay's a big tradition guy. We're gonna start traditions,
and this is a big tradition. We're gonna lose what It's not like
we're going to PAULI. Maybe you guys, because you guys are the hotch
hot reporters. But like it's it sucks. It sucks hating these guys every
year and losing that. Hey, it's gonna stuck, and I don't care.
You know, even when Michigan in order to aim play, it doesn't
have its luster, or when Nebraska goes back to the Big twelve it plays,
it doesn't have its luster anymore. And if we play Utel again,
hopefully we meet him in the tournament in the future, not this tournament because
they suck, but it'll never have the same luster. You know what I
mean, it's not stuck to talk on no more. Let me ask you
real quick before we lose you for the next five months again. How far
do you think what would be what would make you unhappy if Arizona didn't reach
that point in the tournament? You know what, dude, these let down
these last years in the physicality that we lost to last year and considering the
disappointment, I don't have to loss of anything right now. If they make
a lead eight, I'll be good. Final part is what it is.
But I just up hold now you know the two ferry and Santa Claus was
revealed to me. Thank you man. We miss you my own because you
already know calculator baby. You know, at least at least when he comes
in, he comes in hard and very funny. Yeah, very funny.
Yeah. I we got about that, Mike, So I don't forget about
it because he shows up on my Facebook. Oh it doesn't my Facebook every
now and again. Yeah, okay, And I know he's out there,
so and you know, and I would worry if he wasn't around, you
know, I would worry a little bit. Yeah, okay, good call,
take care good. But he's right. I think that there's a very
tale of the Easter Buddy and Claus and all that. I know that fans
love him or hate them or whatever they do. So we'll see what happens
this weekend. It's always like this weekend. They got to win two,
right, and you'll hear people on Facebook ragging him. Next week in the
Pac twelve, we'll see what they say. And then the tournament, it's
all bets are off. Yeah. Look, basically, Steve, they don't
have to win all the rest of the games. I think I mentioned that
they could lose one this week, and they could lose one next week,
but they've got they can't lose more than that. Jay, if they lose
one this week and lose one next week, doesn't that diminish your your hope
for that three weeks two weeks? Of course it does. And that might
drop them to a three seat you know, but but but the point being
they they can be a three seat going into the tournament. There's still a
team that's good enough to win the win the tournament. The question is,
you know, how much how do you feel about yourself going in and those
but they're good concert your momentum, right yeah, right, right, two
different words momentum, and I know that not like the callers we're calling it.
Okay, tho, it's two different words, all right, all right,
Okay, we got time for a couple more calls. Yeh five two
o four one six, seventy four forty. You'd love to hear from you
if you're a first time caller, first time listener, and give us a
buzz ye, we'd like to hear from you. So just uh, during
the break came across the first game of the day. Uh in the Pac
Twove Women's Tournament, Colorado, who beat the living you know what out of
Oregon yesterday but forty nine points got beat today by Oregon State. Now always
state. It's the four seat called out of the five seat, so it's
not technically an upset. But when you beat somebody by fifty, you feel
pretty good about yourself and you feel like you've got momentum. Yeah you got
you feel you got momentum, and you realize I don't even know what that
means. And then you live and now you're out seeing somebody by fifty did
not do you any good whatsoever. I wish at least was listening because oh
they had a momentum, right and then it was gone. Well they never
had momentum. They played well one game. Yeah, so you know,
is that you know exactly what I said? Okay, okay again, tonight's
the seven thirty starts there, the women starts at seven. You said,
so you're gonna have to have the flipping back and forth if you are either
flipping or you're gonna have to make a call, right, you know,
what are you gonna do? Yeah? Or do what you do? You
have your little dear little computer. Yeah, you know, I'll sit there
like yeah, I mean that's what I'll do. I'll have the you know,
I've watched first half of the women In the first half hour of the
women's game, I'll, you know, put on the men's game and I'll
probably have the women's game on on my iPad. You know, got in
there and watching the game P and P picture and picture. Then the way
that went, that went way. You know, you can still well what
you have now. For instance, if you got YouTube TV, oh yeah,
you can put four screens, four screens whatever, like I had that
with direct I'm not drinking with Sunday Ticket. Yeah, you know, you
had things where you could watch have two or three screens on. But you
know, picture in the picture was cool, but not great because the little
picture was too Yeah, I have bad eyes. It did me no good.
I mean I did go out and get a picture in a picture TV
when it first came out. That tells you how a little bit I have
been with picture picture because what the heck all these smart TV's, I'm not
smart enough to own one. I mean, you can get a little picture
in your computer. Here, I'm still watching my pettycoat Junction TV. You
didn't even know what I'm talking about to you. He doesn't know what petty
coat junction is. How about he oh no, Ggan's Island, I all
right, Michael's Navy, Oh no way, the Partridge family. I've heard
of the Partridge family. Yeah, these kids, we're just getting old,
that's all it is. We're getting old, you know, Steve. Yeah,
yeah, okay, okay, okay, but it's fun getting old though.
Okay. Sometimes I'm finally over my soreness from doing a lifting over the
weekend. Took three days and then wait till you do it again. I'm
gon do it again. You probably do it again this weekend. So anyways,
but anyways, all right, well I look forward to talking to Joe
now because we had him on before. But you know, we're talking about
your first of all, the guy who you know walked into you know,
the U c l A. Well, what became rivalry? It wasn't a
rivalry. It was rivalry for Arizona because Arizona wanted to beat U c l
A. U c l A was still U c l A well at that
time. And I'm sure if we had some U c l A people from
back in the day, what was the impression of Arizona coming in and did
they consider a rivalry because Arizona fans tend to walk into room and says,
we're here, We're here, and we're we're the stuff. It didn't become
a rivalry, Steve, I think until Arizona won the league in nineteen eighty
six because I covered, because I covered the team the next year, and
it was clearly a rivalry they had, Walt had. That's why I brought
up Palt Hazzard the other day when we were talking to uh To Ryan hands
too had Yeah, so right, you know they Walt Hazzard was just a
grumpy guy who was just pissed off that people thought Arizona was taking over the
league, which they did, right, And it was around that time that
it was happening under his watch. Yeah, under his watch. It was.
It was the eighty seven the eighty six eighty seven season, they beat
Arizona, they won the league, didn't end up did not win the packed
off tournament that was the first tournament. Washington won it that year. But
or did they know they beat Washington for eighty six eighty seven? Yeah,
oh yeah, I hadn't dotten here yet they be I think they beat they
beat Washington for the for the tournament championship. Regie Miller was on that team.
And you know, again I've told this story about at their press conference,
at their at the championship game, the bracket got announced on Sunday and
Reggie Reggie Miller was pissed off and Arizona got in. And the next year
Arizona beats him twice, including an overtime game at at Pauli where Shawn Elliott
you know, was falling out of bounds and here the three pointer from the
corner to get the game into overtime. Then they beat him overtime, and
then Walt Hazer got fired at the end of that year and then in comes
Jim Herrick. But that's that's where the rivalry was formed. Yeah, no,
I can, I can. Yeah, And I'm sure let's to the
chagrin of u c l A. Because here was just you know, Arizona
just just entry into the Pac twelve. Even today, you know U c
l A fan acknowledges that this this has been the rivalry. You know,
U c l A USC is not their basketball rival. No, I mean,
it's a rival just because but what in terms of the the basketball rival
for UCLA is Arizona. Well, the rivalry in the western part of the
United States? Is this one right? No? No, no, nothing
comes close. No, there isn't anything close to it at all. Right,
Okay, we're gonna take our break. We're gonna come back. Adam
is gonna have his first breaking news. You ready for it. Don't be
nervous, only your job depends on it, exactly. Don't worry. Well,
don't even call it a job, because he's just here for free.
Did you know that? Okay, all right, we're gonna take our break.
We'll be back and stick around for breaking news