Streaming live. I mean, iHeartRadio. Whap. This is I on the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey,
welcome back, joining the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve,
he's Jake. Now we have Kevin with breaking news. This is I
on the Ball Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, guys,
we have had a ton of Arizona roster movement over the last twenty four
or so hours. We're gonna start outside the program. We're gonna get to
all the Arizona centric stuff later. But I thought i'd be remiss to not
mention that Keona will Height has committed to Nebraska over Ucla. Okay, he
said that he had UCLAs his number one option because of everything that comes along
with going to UCLA, the beaches, the parties, the people, all
of that stuff. And then he said that he actually chose Nebraska because they
are focused and he wants to be focused as well on making it's as opposed
to others who aren't focused. But he was saying, he was saying that
going to UCLA there's a lot more distractions and that the players may be there
for different reasons beyond football. What's his point. It's funny to be help
people. So they don't have any parties in Nebraska. They don't have the
beaches, but they have other things. Right. It's like people who go
to schools. I went to the NMSU because I wanted to go to MSU
there in state. I probably would have got the same kind of education somewhere
else had I gone somewhere. It's where you You don't have to explain where
you go. Just go go, just go. People take the party everywhere.
You're telling me that Nebraska is boring. You don't got to bring sand
to the beach. That's it right there. That's a T shirt right there.
Uh So, we do have some big news for the Arizona running back
room. Yes so, Jacory or Bill crossky Merrit. The Arizona football program
tweeted in their announcement that his name was Bill all his social media names himself
as jor. Uh the Bill would be so much easier for us. I'm
sure I'm gonna call him to Cory or Bill Crossky Merritt from New Mexico.
He has come over alongside of quality. Uh Conley from s J s u
who played under Alonso Carter and coach Brennan. But they have a combined fifty
career touchdowns and five thousand career receiving yards. So Arizona's building a lot of
experience in that rushing room, which was pretty inexperienced just a week ago.
Well well, and it's a very important part of what's missing after last year
with with Mike Wiler leaving, well he's been in his eligibilities over with with
Jonah Coleman uh moving on to Washington with DJ Williams, you know, out
of eligibility. So that that's three big pieces of last last year's offense.
So now you got you know, you likely to see more speedy loop this
year. And then with those two guys you need, they need two or
three guys, so it looks like they wouldn't got some guys that looked look
like they can play, especially when you need guys that can maybe come out
of the slot and be in the passing game as well. Yeah, it
was funny because you know, you hear comments, look great, you know
they're Arizona. They got a guy from New Mexico and a guy from San
Jose. Stay, how good can they be. And then I heard somebody
say, well, okay, let's see where was Jacob Cowing before he came
here? It was a justin. Yeah, he was a UTEP and where
was who's the other one? He brought up the oh guy, I saw
it too, We just saw it. Uh, I forgot, I got
well, he was just right there. Yeah, you know what one another
guy that came from you know again, a group of five school and they
were both pretty damn good. It's interesting how people once once players get to
the NFL and and their past is kind of you're only watching their future in
the present. You know. It's funny how people think, oh, well,
everyone's just from Alabama or Georgia. Well, the kid Lopez, kid
that we talked to, where do you come from your mex school state?
Right right? And he came here and he's in the NFL. There's talent.
There's talent everywhere and school esus. You are coaches from Jose here.
It is Tanner McLaughlin who is at Utah State. Those guys are gonna be
in the NFL next year. So just relax. These guys look like those
guys who bitch like this, don't They don't know how you gotta find something.
And you know these guys, you know especially you know these guys.
No, I don't personally know them, don't know. But my friends aren't
like this. You're friends of your friends. No, you know, No,
In fact, my friends are going to say, holy hell, look
at all those yards that they they're they're overly optimistic, Okay, they're They're
on the other, complete other end of the spectrum of somebody who's complaining about
these guys. They understand that everyone starts somewhere in order to get where they're
And you know what, you know, you go to New Mexico for a
couple of years, all of a sudden you might be really damn good.
And and and you know, I said, okay, I saw a thing
today. The most player by college in the Super Bowl. Okay, and
of course George is up there. You know who's got three players in the
Super Bowl? Who Rutgers? Well, Rutgers has three players in the damn
Super Bowl. The sucked apparently. I mean, look, guys can be
good wherever they are. Sure. No, come on, you watch the
NBA. Now, how many of those players in the NBA do you even
recognize their names? Yeah? And you see a guy where do you see
a guy who can who's who's got a two and a half inch vertical and
he's about three hundred pounds and he lumbers up and down the floor. But
he's seven foot two and he's in the NBA exactly, and he trains horses
and he lives in Serbia. So Arizona has also beefed up their trenches on
each side. Ryan Stewart is transferring over from San Jose State. He was
a part of their offensive line. He had a season ending injury last year.
He should be healthy this season. Trey Smith has also transferred from San
Jose State. He had a career high sixty six tackles, including nine and
a half tackles for loss in six and a half sacks last season. Uh
and he was also named a first team All Mountain West selection. They've brought
in a couple of Juco products from San Mateo Community College, John Oprice a
dB and Cyrus Durham a D lineman UH to go with Trey Smith as well.
Yeah, so for all of you who are still pissed off at Jedfish
for running a bunch of Arizona guys up to Washington. Go talk to somebody
from San Jose State right now and see what they think about Arizona. Sure,
no, I know, come on, the world's not for fair.
It's never fair. Yeah, deal with Look, you know it's every man
for himself. Man, go get some players and try and win some games.
Yeah, And it's it's just the the honestly, it's it's a prime
example for how nowadays in college sports, one coaching, one coaching change can
cause an entire country short worth of dominoes. Right, speaking of, uh
some some dominoes here, the last last bit of transfer news I had have
is Kevin Darton, a d lineman from Syracuse, has transferred over to Ara
Aroona. And that's all the Arizona football news I had. Arizona men's basketball
is a five point favorite against Utah on the road tomorrow night, and they
are favored by ESPN's statistical analysis stuff by their favorite to win the game seventy
three percent of the time. So that sounds that five points sounds like a
lot. I say, as I said off here, I'm not even sure
that Arizona should be favored in that game. I think I think I'll I
think i'll be laying the points of Arizona the mor I think so. I
think because I think if they win this game, they win it by like
they were covering. They were covering almost one hundred percent of the time in
the first couple of months. They're not covering anymore. Yeah, they started
the season undefeated against the spread for like the first like six games, seven
games. Yeah, something. I do have some golf news for you.
All right, let's take the golf news. Tiger Woods is supposed to make
his twenty twenty four debut at the Genesis Invitation will come up, all right,
Yeah, and I know that people have been waiting to see him come
back. I don't know if you have any thoughts on Tiger, you know
what, I just I love watching him play, even even if he plays
terribly. He moves the needle for me, always has I know that,
you know, with all the things that you know, personal stuff that he
went through. And there's some people who hate hate you just if you're winning,
you know, and you win all the time. And I kind of
do that with some teams, right, you know. I hated I hated
the Cowboys when they were winning every year. I hated the Steelers when they
were winning every year. So I was a hater and stuff like that.
But I've always been a big fan of Tiger, and you know, I'd
love to see him win another major or two. I was across my TikTok
feed that was a really funny cliff that came up where he was with some
guys. I don't know who these guys were. When he's offing with some
guys and they were going to have a long drive guy. A guy wanted
to bet Tiger your long drive contest against Tiger. And so the guy comes
up and Tiger apparently Tiger be giving him a lesson and stuff like that.
So he hits the ski crushes one, right. The dude crushes one,
and Tiger said, okay, and he gets on his knees and he hits
and he now drives the guy. That's unbelievable, and that was crack the
guys. That was crap. That was I can't believe you did that that.
It's like, that's Tiger Woods, That's who he is. And it's
funny because as great as Tiger is, you could have picked us about any
professional golfer, and maybe not from the knees, but they would have been
able to just wipe out anybody who thought, because it reminds me of the
video they had of Brian Scalabrini, the old Celtic. Some guy he was
out a y or an la fitness or when some guy goes hey, I
bet I can beat you one on one. You rode the bench or you
did this, and he was just, you know, talking garbage, and
Brian goes out there beats him pretty much, one hand behind his humbles him.
You don't realize how good these guys are, Guys who complain on the
dumb Internet. Listen, all you have to do is go out there,
go out on the court and try and hear the three pointer. Okay,
three in a row, right, try just try to heal one. Okay,
just try to make one, and then watch somebody like you don't even
have to watch, somebody like Caleb Williams or or I mean calebs Kylin Kylin
Boswell or or Caleb Love or one of those guys. Just make one after
another after another. Go watch Helena Poyo shoot three pointers. Go watch Caitlyn
Gilbert shoot them three pointers, and just how easy it is for them.
And then go out there and try and just just make one. Let's see
if you can make one in your first five tries, you know, just
walking onto the floor and don't even try to break out the dribble moves,
right, don't try to go don't try to do that. These people are
elite athletes, especially even at the college stuff. They're damn good what they
do because they play every single hours of their life. Right. But yeah,
speaking of people that were hated just for being good at what they do.
Next, Saban is going to go ahead and join game Day as one
of their analysts alongside of everybody else. I didn't see that they're gonna make
any changes to the to the table. No, but this is what I
tell you, kids, to your jobs are very limited. You know why
athletes and coaches are taking over your job. They just are. And they're
not getting paid you know, twenty five thousand dollars a year. Yeah,
he's getting paid million bucks to do this, right. Look at Tom Brady,
what's he making. He's gonna make three hundred million dollars like ten years,
yeah, something like that. And they haven't even seen him do it
yet. And they have, they have Greg Olsen, who's actually incredible.
They're gonna bump him, this guy who's never done it before. I'd be
a little pissed. You know. He was on Dan Patrick and he asked
him and he asked him specifically that Greg and he basically say said, look,
I'm competitive. He said, I want that job. Of course I
aspired to that job. I get it, I get who Tom Brady is,
and I understand all of that. But you know, I feel like
I've earned that job and I want that job, and I'm gonna keep trying
to get that job. Right, And I though that was really interesting.
But he also called the game of his life the last game of the season,
right right, and it was very good. Yeah, it was very
good. So no, I I can see him. But you know again,
guy was in in the NFL Competitor and he's you know, he's getting
you know, he's getting pushed to the second string and he's like, no,
I I feel out like I deserve to be here. So we do
have Eddie Nuniaz coming up in the next In the next we're gonna talk to
him about everything going on, basketball, basketball and everything going on. Uh
Rick Patino came out in the last day or two. I don't know if
you guys heard his theory college basketball going forward. But he said we should
get all the Power five conferences together, the Big East Conference and have a
salary cap for college basketball. Now he didn't really outline it too deep or
too detailed, But I don't know if you had any trying and get that
past the courts. Yeah, right, that's true because it had nothing to
do with nil. He said, right, No, try and get try
and get that past the course, like say, okay, we're going to
have a salary cap for everybody who works at McDonald's. No, I mean,
you know or you know if okay, if you're if you're in the
burger industry, you can only make X amount of money. No. The
only reason that the NFL can have a salary cap, and then because they've
got an antitrust exemption that say they're exempt from, you know, all of
those laws unless you get something like that for college athletics, which maybe they
can, I don't know, But you can't have a salary cap. You
can't you can't limit how much money somebody gets to make the in a situation
like that, if you don't have that kind of an exemption, I'm not
a legal analyst or anything, but even I know that much. That's the
problem is that how any limit you want to put on these guys and how
much they earned. That's the that's the root issue in the courts with all
these things going on with with with athletics, is that somebody's trying to limit
how much you can make and how long you can make it. Yeah,
and that's like you said, that's exactly the point. Because he did not
mention whether or not the cap would be for nil, whether or not would
include on il because that was if it's the schools paying, because the Lakers
cannot go tell Lebron, hey, you can only get paid five hundred thousand
dollars for your Draftking sponsorship, because he said, so there's the cap.
We're at the cap, right, so who is right? You can you
know, Caleb Love from Yo, you can't go do that sponsorship because if
you know, if you're a you know, if you're no a FAFITA,
you can't go to nor FAFIEDA and say no, you can only bring in
five hundred thousand dollars in nil money. That's all you get. You can't
make any more than that. I can see the middle finger coming up right
now, right, but they don't want any part of this. Yeah,
yeah, I don't know how again, which again we'll get to the gets
the question, how the hell then is college athletics gonna survive? Was it
going to turn into if it does? Right, it's totally different than what
we know? Well, yeah it already is. Yeah, yeah, all
right, next break, we're gonna come up Eddie noon. You has the
athletic director at New Mexico when we're not and where we didn't invite him to
ask him if he's getting the Arizona job or he's the chair of the n
c DOUAA Division one man's basketball committee, So we'll ask him what does that
mean? What are you doing? What do you do? What do you
do? Yeah? All right, so stick around and we'll have some fun,
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breaking down all the exes at OHS. It's Steve Rivera and Jacin Salvins.
This is I on the Park on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back
to ONN on the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jacob Zoas Now on the phone. We have Edy Noon Years the New
Mexico Lobos A d Eddie. How you doing. I'm doing great, Thank
you for having me. Steve. Sure, great to have you on the
line. We're talking about Yeah, we want your your chair of the Division
one Men's Basketball Oversight Committee. So I went to their website. I read
the couple of paragraphs on what it does, and I'm still not really sure
what it does. So first for Steve and mind fourth grade education, tell
us exactly what the Oversight Committee is responsible for. So the Men's Basketball Overside
Committee is basically responsible for everything that deals with college basketball. So the Selection
Committee, we work with the Selection Committee, and when it comes to,
of course, the fund the NCAA tournament. But when you're talking about everything,
every aspect advancing the game of college basketball. The Oversight Committee basically handles
everything everything that you would about two years ago to three years ago, they
really gave a little bit more Leou'd say, autonomy to to the committees to
make better decisions and more informative decisions for the sport of basketball. So we're
there, we're trying to we're trying to advance it. We're trying to do
what we can to make the game of basketball better, especially now even more
with all the challenges and everything else that we're all facing in college sports.
It's imperative that we do our part as a d's coaches and everybody it's involved
to try to help the game. Does the committee who selects the selection committee,
do they go to you to get teams approved as well or to background
or does that they do so? So they're there, I guess the best
way to put it is the flush. First of all, what they do
the selection committee is unbelievable work. They're they're working year round watching games,
uh preparing for the selection. But more than anything else, what they what
we do is, you know, we work with them in regards to what
how the setups are, everything else that everything that goes along with it.
But as far as selecting and how those teams are brought into the NCAA tournament,
that is all them and they do an unbelievable job. Yeah, okay,
So one of the issues that's come up, it comes up every year.
For instance. Let me ask you if they as a for instance,
would this be one of the issues that the Oversight Committee would deal with?
Expand in the tournament? You know, at sixty eight teams, they you
know, you've got people saying anything from one hundred and twenty eight teams to
ninety six teams or whatever. What role would the Oversight Committee have in that?
A very pivotal role. We would again work with the selection committee to
understand what their perspective because they're in the grind every day when it comes to
the basketball tournament. But we work with them in respect to ultimately, if
this is a decision we're going to make as NC DOUBLEA for the game of
basketball, it's going to have to go through the oversight get the approval to
then ultimately take it to the Division one Council, which I have the ability
to sit as well on the Division one council, so is part of it.
We are very instrumental in having to make that decision. That conversation always
arises, especially during this time of year. So it won't be any surprise
if once we have this conversation again, as in the next month or two,
and how we continue to look at if it, if it means bettering
the game of basketball, we have we have to continue to have that conversation.
Well, let me ask you what you played college basketball? You played
at Florida for Billy Donovan. You mentioned affair, You also coached, uh,
you know, at the Division one level. Is there anything wrong with
college basketball right now? Is there anything wrong with the tournament that needs fixing?
And I know you talk about advancing and keeping it on on things,
but to me, as a fan who sits here, loves the game,
talks about the game, loves the tournament, I don't see anything wrong with
college basketball right now. No, you know, it's it's being I think
the one thing COVID and all everything that we've gone through over the last several
years has given us an opportunity to is to take a step back and really
make sure that we're evolving and doing the things that we need to do to
make sure the game continues to advance it and it is as special as that
always been. I'm a traditionalist. I love the tournament. We all,
I think many that that are in our business love what the inc Douba March
Madness, what it does for both mention women's basketball. The big thing for
us is is not just that it's sustainable, but also are we doing everything
we can to continue to be innovative, to be to make it better and
if it means adding some teams down the road, that's a conversation we need
to have. If if at the end of the day we all sit down
and say, you know what, where it is makes total sense and it
continues to bring in the atmosphere that it has had, then then so be
it. But I think it's it's it's proudent for us to continue to do
our job to at least to continue to think about those those possibilities. So
you met, you guys met in Phoenix not too long ago and maybe recent
resting what was determined or was it just to get together to see what's coming
up? So we were actually talking about a lot of things. So at
the same time we're discussing transfer, the transfer window, all the challenges that
that we're facing, understanding it the changes we're also looking at the NIL world.
So it was a bigger conversation about a lot of things. We really
dove in deep into trying to understand where college landscape is going, how does
basketball fit into that equation and what are some of the hurdles that we have
to overcome. So we were doing a lot of that, not much,
not much, just sitting around and hanging out. But it was good.
It was It was well needed because putting putting ads coaches in a room to
have conversation, have good dialogue. It's important with everybody's scheduled, especially this
time of year with basketball season going on, and being able to get some
of our coaches involved in ABC the coaches so siation. It's that's that's that's
really important. We're talking to Eddie Noon as athletic director at New Mexico also
the chair of the n C Double A Men's Basketball Overside Committee. Eddie,
wearing both your hats as an as an a D and then as a as
being on this committee. Is now a good time or a hard time,
or maybe both to be in the position and doing the things that you're doing
I mean, it's sure. The job has got to be dang hard.
Yeah, I would tell you that, you know again and any any job
that's that's worth Uh. The easiest way to put it is we're here to
serve service and athletes and everything we do. So to me, we're always
gonna have challenge. There's always gonna be something around the corner that's gonna kind
of make us do things that are probably uncommon and the reality is that's that's
part of it. So I would tell you, sure, are we in
Are we in a challenging state right now? I would say we are,
And I think nobody would disagree with that. I think there's a lot of
things that need to be hammered out, figured out and to get we have
to do it together. We have to figure this out because it's in the
best interest for college athletics. It's in the best interest for you know,
the championships and everything that we discussed, and for our student athletes, putting
them in a position that if they have the ability to generate, you know,
some kind of revenue, if it's through nil or however it may be,
we have to continue to find ways to to to move it, move
it in the right direction. So I've been out here, Eddie from New
Mexico thirty five years. I covered Arizona a PAC twelve member, kind of
not the elite like the SEC, but the PAC twelve has a reputation.
And then I go back home and I went to New Mexico State in New
Mexico, and I'm thinking, how do these teams survive? And I say
that with respect because you have what you have, but you're not Arizona.
You're not u CLA, you know what I'm saying. And Arizona's not Alabama.
So in in IL world, you're kind of like the the afterthoughts.
And with all due respect, but you know what I'm saying, how do
you survive? And these kids get money where there's probably little money. Well,
I think, first of all, I'm sorry about that that you attended
to me live with. Wait wait a minute. The fact is having spent
time in the SEC. I spent a good percentage of my career in the
SEC, so I understand what it is at that level. We're having the
ability to be here six years now, we can compete. Now are we
going to be able to compete and a sustain a level that's against the Alabama's,
the Clemsons, Arizonas and all stuff. In certain sports, it's a
lot more challenging and we have and we have to be aware of that.
We have to understand that we can't be naive to the to that situation when
you look at all the other sports and you talk about what possibilities exist here
at a school the University of New Mexico, we've been able to compete at
the highest level in batman's basketball, all other sports. Football. We have
to do better and that's something we know. But when you talk about the
nil and you talk about possibilities, when it comes to basically resources, giving
the resources those teams to be successful, we're not at the same level.
We understand that, but we have also seen that if done right, you
have a chance to compete, win championships, maybe conference championships, maybe even
bowls in football. In other sports, be able to compete up when we
won two national championships, and I know it's a cross country here, but
for a school like the University of Mexico to be able to compete with three
hundred some schools, it goes to show it's possible. But you can't be
naive and you can't think that. Look, it's not. So I relish
the challenge. I'm not against competing at the highest level. I understand what
it takes. And so what we do every day is we try to do
everything we do at the level that that would give us a chance to compete.
So I don't want people thinking that we're only competing for a conference.
We're competing to be to be the best we can be. And that's the
way our staff is, our coaches, and our student athletes. And so
again it's it's a challenge, but we relish in it. So you're an
ad and so obviously you know you've got you know, you're dealing with football
and and all the other sports and basketball, you know, but you're on
this basketball overside committee. But with what's going on in football, and let's
let's call it what it is, they're driving the ship right now, or
the car or the boat or whatever. You know, football is driving what's
happening as it relates to realignment, maybe even as it relates to n I
L and transfer Portland all that kind of stuff. When you're how are you
able to kind of keep basketball sort of in the picture and be able to
make sure that basketball's best interests don't get lost in what's going on in football.
You know, I learned a long time ago, having spent playing at
the University of Florida, working for Jeremy Foley when he was the FI director
at the University of Florida, working for some great ads at LSU and other
places. At Vanderbilt, I learned that you have to give everybody the ability
to be successful. And the way I look at it is I want my
basketball coaches to understand that he is a party, he is gonna and I
try to show that same opportunity for every one of our coaches. You know,
we haven't had the success in football here that I that I think myself
and our fan base want to see. We did unbelievable higher this year and
have Bronco Manning Hall as our new football coach, and we're excited for that.
But our previous coach did an unbelievable job. Actually he's now there at
Arizona. He did an unbelievable job helping us build the culture back. And
so I understand that every sport looks and say football drives the train. I
get it. But you can when you look at our student athletes, and
we have five hundred student athletes here. I need them to understand that we're
going to invest every resource, every opportunity to show that we can win and
win at a high level in their sport. And so that's the way we
approach it. You have to have coaches that understand it and buy into it,
because at least for me, I want coaches that are all in.
We're all in this together. If we have silos, it's not going to
be successful for everybody. So we've been able to do some special things here,
but be able to do that means you have to have the right people.
So you're in a tough position as an ad ADS a tough position as
Jay was talking about today, we met with Mike Candrea, you know,
the interim AD here just all the things that are going on the wild wild
West. It's trying to figure out what's going on. How do you guys
survive? And then everybody This is an ad general question with all the things
going on, because there's so many things and just keep chipping away. I
mean there's no there's no uh, I mean there's nothing that I can say
right now. There's still a lot of work that has to be done in
the world of like I said, transfer of the nil but all the nuances
that we're dealing with today. But it's it's part of working together. I
mean, we've got to find ways to continue to chip away and do what
we can if it's truly about the best interests of our student athletes and putting
our institutions in the right place. We've got to make sure that we just
continue to to to help get where we need to be, because I think
that's the other side of this is a lot of people are waiting for somebody
else to do it, and the reality is we all have to do this
together. There's gonna be some federal support that's gonna have to get involved.
There's there's institutions, the conferences. Everybody's gonna have to find a way to
get to where we need to get to to make it happen. I mean,
it really does. I'd be remissed to not ask you have you ever
been to Tucson interested I actually I played against in ninety I think it was
ninety five or ninety six, it might have been ninety sixteen. We played
We played there in the tournament. They used to have there the holiday tournament.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it was good. It was a
good time. I enjoyed my time in Tucson, really did. Uh.
We didn't win, but you know what it was that that team ended up
going to win the national championship. So I look back and I'm like,
it was a good it was a good tournament, a good time. So
let me finish. Would you be interested in a job out here? They're
looking for a you know, at this point, I'm excited about where I
am. You could never talk about the future, but I tell you that,
and my focus is always to do the best job that I am where
I am. That's that's always been my number one responsibility. And sure,
so I would tell you that. You know, if, if and when
time comes one day that it takes me away from where I am today,
it's gonna have to be something that's right for my family and I. Politicians,
by the way, don't let Jeff Grammer bull you around. I brought
him to Tucson. He left here to go to New Mexico, so don't
edge Grammar. Well, I apologize for you, knowing Jeff. I do
want to say this for your because I know you guys get traction in Phoenix
hopefully. But I also want to say in behalf of the men's basketball,
we are ecstatic about having the Final Four in Phoenix this year. I mean,
I mean, if you go back to twenty seventeen, the second largest
attendance, what the host committee does, all the in the weather at that
time of year, it's an unbelievable location. I know, everybody's really excited
for the Final Four this year. So you know, with all the fan
fest and everything's going on, I need to just say thank you to not
just the people in Phoenix, but the people of Arizona because to be able
to have this tournament there, it's all hands on deck and they do an
unbelievable job. So kudos to them. We're excited. As part of the
NCAA Men's Basketball, we're really excited to be heading down there. Who knows
if there's going to be a Wildcat Lobo matchup Phoenix, wouldn't that be funestatic?
Thank you, Eddie, Appreciate your time. Man, all right,
guys, you'll have thank you be well. Eddie Unis, Eddie Unias.
That's like jack Ard on your Mexico A Basketball committee. Let's break that site
committee, because did you get what he does? I mean, if there
the well they did. They're just kind of responsible for every Yeah, we'll
come back. Wait let them. We can't do it in the thirty seconds
we've got. We got to go hit our last break. So sick around,
we'll try and figure out what Eddie Nunians does on the committee. If
you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty
years. Now take a look back at the Ludelsen era. In my new
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What one email me at Steve dot rivera ninety five at gmail dot com.
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a teamsecurity dot net. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I
on the Ball with Steve Robera and Jacinzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey,
welcome back to Win in the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve. He's JAYT Kevin with us. We you have thirteen minutes. If
you'd like to get in a conversation, give us a call to four one
six seventy a company. Yep. So what does he do well? It
just sounds like they're they're kind of like responsible for everything that goes on with
college basketball. It looks like they're you know, they appoint committee members for
the basketball tournament committee. They just they're going to be the ones that will
make a recommendation, okay whatever. They'll have a study or a committee or
whatever maker recommendation if they decide or if they're going to look at expanding the
tournament. They you know, what I read on their website, they you
know they'll make recommendations on rules to the rules committee. So just basically whatever
it takes to run the basketball tournament committee. I'm presuming that they have a
role or if not, are the final decision makers on you know, basketball
tournament sites, men's and women, you know, all that stuff. It's
just they're just they're kind of like the Commissioner's office for NCAA basketball and he's
the chair of the committee. You you've been a bureaucrat every now a couple
of times. Yeah, how many meetings did you? How many groups of
people the way? Too many meetings? There were sometimes that I'm like,
one meeting after the next, the next meeting. Oh yeah, I mean,
like, you know, you're making me have nightmares about my time at
the city. I mean it was just, you know, I was a
communications guy, so I had to be at everything. Yeah, you know,
you know there was a weekly uh you know, staff meeting with all
the department. He had the first thing Monday mornings, then there was another
one right before the city council meeting the next day, and then there was
one at the end of the week. And my point is, okay,
so we get these meetings and then you have more meetings for meetings, and
what the hell do you keept done? I mean, you know what,
you know what I'm saying. Well, in my in my case, it
was hard to get stuff done because I was in so many meetings. Now,
not every department had was in every meeting that I went to, but
then I wasn't in every meeting that they had, you know. But you
know, I seem you know, my wife and then the job she has
with them with a medical company, you know, and she works from home,
but she goes into her office and closes the door. She can be
in there all day, one meeting after another. I've seen her calendar and
I'm like, that's very colorful. Hunt. It's got colored blocks all over
the day. Things I got yelled at yesterday because she's in a meeting,
right So you got to understand her. Her office is right off of our
living room, so and my office is in the living room. Okay,
she closes the door. She's un meeting on zoom or whatever, and one
of our cats started screaming, just screaming and just standing over in the kitchen
just screaming. And I'm like, I'm screaming at the cat for screaming and
she goes everybody can hear you in my meeting? Were you? I might
have I might have done a couple of damnits, But that's that's not too
bad. If you want to call him, please do five two zero,
four one, six, seventy four forty. I think we're done with the
CA Andrea stuff. Did we play the last one? Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yah, yeah we were, And there's still plenty
more. But again, let's well, let's go back to that. Though,
A really interesting time with him, because you know, look, I've
always seen him as a softball coach. Yeah, and you know, obviously
he's way smarter than just a softball coach. He could run this department.
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I think he could. Yeah. You know
again, he'd have to, you know, surround himself with the right people,
which anybody has to do. But I could see him being in you
know, the the airs on an athletic director. I don't know think he
will be, but I was trying to picture him, as you know,
in Davey's chair up there at the at the podium, and I thought he
could do this if you want, but your perception of him is correct because
he is the softball coach. But I think isn't most of those or most
of those eighties former coaches or coaches, athletes, all those things. Yeah,
but I think before he comes off those being good at is he's a
people person. He's a people person, and he and and again. But
what you know, what do Arizona Athletics fans want? They want somebody who
understands what Arizona sure, sure, right And if there's a guy who does,
he's the guy. Now does Brent Brennan? I think he does.
I think Tommy Lloyd has got to handle on it very quickly. Yeah,
yeah, let me ask you. I came up there was another show was
listening to earlier today about something. So I want to ask you be candid
with me and YouTube kept who's the best coach at you obey right now,
right now today? It's hard to say Steve because I don't know that,
we don't know some of the other coaches. So I was well enough I
was going to go with the other one of the other Yes, but I
would say, you'd have to say Clancy Shields tennis tennis tennis number one.
You know, you'd have to argue for Jim Anderson, who we had on
the show yesterday about golf women's. Yeah, Laura and Elo, you'd have
to argue is going to go with look at what John Court's doing with with
the gymnastics program. We gotta get him on the show, you know,
you know, you look at I think that I think the the the the
jury is still out on Caitlin Lowe over in softball, Drew Tommy Lloyd,
the journey, journey jury's out less out than it's you know, more and
more. I think you're getting that he's pretty damn good. But I think
he's you know, people will say basketball, people say him because that's a
has been has been really good, and that's what they know, you know,
Chip Hale, I mean, you know, we're we're still finding out
about him. You know, uh Fred, uh Fred Harvey. You know,
guy's been doing this for Yeah. I mentioned most of the coaches.
Yeah, I would say Clancy Shields. Yeah, I would say Clancy's probably
done the most and brought his team, his program, the furthest right.
Arizona was already really good in golf, both men's and women. There's also
idea who's brought Using the same example, the same example idea, but you
know, you can't help but have question marks about what's going on in that
program right now. But you know, she one of the best, She's
one of the best. Is she the best? I don't know. You
know, if you if you put a knife to my throat, as I
always say, i'd probably say Clancy Shields right now, that's who I would
have picked it. Yeah. Yeah, And he's and he's personal, he's
smart. Obviously we talked to him, and he's brought this program. Yeah.
Who would have thought, right, Yeah, But you know, look
at what Jim Anderson is doing over there and and Laurie Golf. You know,
they've been doing so well that Jenny Clements threw up millions of dollars and
whoever else throw up millions of dollars to build this country facility at Tucson Country
Club that I see going up every Tuesday when I go over there for my
breakfast meeting, it's like, you know, it's it's coming along. Yeah,
And that's a great and that's a great golf course. So no,
I yeah, I mean, but they've got a bunch of good coaches over
there. Steve. You know, I don't know that there's a bad coach,
right, No, well there's nobody that we think is that we here
is obviously bad right right? You know, so you know, and a
lot of programs have that. But you know, I mean what I want
to be at ACU right now. I wouldn't. I wouldn't want to deal
with Bobby Hurley on the daily. Well did I ask you this question?
If you I did ask you this question, if you were, if you
were a guy like an Eddie Nunis or whomever, whould you take this job?
I would? I told you I would, because oh today, today,
today, under the circumstances, because again, because you would be coming
in with an opportunity and challenge to fix something kind of like what Jed Fish
did with football. You know who would want who wanted that job? Will
somebody who had the attitude that says, I know it sucks, I know
things are horrible over there, but I think I can fix that. And
and if you're an if you're an AD at a New Mexico or above level
program, you think you're good enough to come and do this job? Right
because you're they're not gonna hire you if they don't think they can pay you
In perpetuity. You know, the you have athletic department is gonna exist.
It's not like one day it's gonna shut down and you're not gonna have a
job and you're looking for a severance package. So, if you believe that
you're a competent athletic director, why wouldn't you want to come here and try
and do this where? And if you fix it and the program goes off,
you're a god in this town. I was just gonna say, I
think not only is it having the right attitude, but it's also having the
foresight to see what the program could be if you beat it to that place.
Well, guess what somewhere. Guess what happens when you do that?
Then you go somewhere somewhere else. You followed Greg burnd right, Honestly,
I'm still not sure how he got that job. Things weren't that great here,
No, no before right, the trail of her very much so,
very much so, if he calls it, if if you're listening right now,
he's gonna call in. He's gonna call an alloy for that, right,
but he did. If the evidence shows us very Let's let's say his
name came up for this job. Do you think this community would say,
okay, they would not, they would not. Look, he did a
pretty good job. I mean a lot of things have facilities on his watch,
facilities. You know, the programs were good. A lot of good
things happened on his watch. But he left a lot of stuff behind that
people are still talking about. Sure, but no, it's gonna take a
special person to come in and and fix things under the conditions that are are
there right now. And you have to work for a boss who we all
know has kind of become the micromanager of the position, right yeah, yeah,
so uh you know, uh yeah, no, I think Look,
it's a good it's a good it's a great place to live. That's where
you start, right is the place that you're going a rat hole or is
a place where you go. I can live here, I can bring my
family here. I mean, my kids can go to go to school here.
And you know, and and I'm gonna like the place. I'm gonna
like getting up in the morning and going to work. But you know,
obviously there's a challenge. And look, as time goes on, I'm not
as caught up in Is there an athletic director who's gonna have to. He
says, I'm not taking this job until they figure out what's happening with the
president. Because again, if you're good and you're doing a good job,
no matter who comes in as president, you know, if you're doing a
good job, they're not going to come in here just to ax you.
Oh sure, no, no, but we all know you've been there.
Yeah, I've probably been there. Hei Key was not his guy, right,
it was weavers guy. Well that see, but that comes into play
when stuff goes bad. Okay, right, if if this financial issue hadn't
happened, just no, if the financially if things were all honky, door
over in the department, would still have his job. In fact, I
did the profile on Hikey last year or so, and you got some glowing
quotes from the robins and everything was fine. But how could you not three
years ago COVID already they're already forty five million publicly, forty five million in
the whole because of that, not no down the road that it's gonna happen.
You can't spend the money that they spent. Yeah, you just they
just didn't happen. After all these years of saying this was a self sustaining
a place. Yeah, it's an interesting thing that, like even Candre said,
it doesn't think that it's going to be like right in the future.
And people need to understand. I think in every every school, like I
said, they have to be going. I mean the UCLA is two hundred
million dollars their athletic department, only it's two hundred million dollars in the hole,
which is why they you know, high tailed it to the Big ten
to try and catch up. And then how long is that going to take
to get out? Right? Plus they got to give a bunch of the
money to cow So you know, no, I you know, yeah to
your question, Yeah, I would still take this job. If I'm a
city and athletic director somewhere and I think I'm pretty good at it, I
would accept the challenge, and I would I would come here. I would
too, especially because you see what Burne was able to do. Yeah,
bag getting the Alabama job. You see what this program and then in school
could be. It's gonna be interesting to see how Greg Burnie hangs on to
his job if Alabama football goes into the toilet. True, right, because
that's the biggest hire in the history of the program to this point. Right,
if kaln to Board does a terrible job, you know, it doesn't
win games, and they're become mediocre, just like that. Yeah, it's
gonna be interesting to see what what happens to Greg burn over there. Okay,
but he's our friends, so we won't talk bad about it. You
just did call tomorrow. It's Greg, I mean, it's you want to
talk all right, Thanks for being here. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll
try and get some more Super Bowl talking and more great guests, so be
sure to come back.