Streamy Live. I mean I heard radio. This is Eye on the Ball
with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome
back to the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, here
Jenkins, and now we have Kevin with breaking news. All right, I
hate so yeah, just go. We're breaking news today. We're gonna start
with absolutely scathing report that I'm I'm looking at on MSN. But uh,
Katie Hobbs has come out and Governor Katie, Yeah, Governor Katie Hobbs has
come out and demanded a meeting with the Arizona Board of Regents and the University
of Arizona leadership, and she is accusing them of telling her false false reports
of being pretty much awful leaders and saying that they did not deserve to have
their jobs. She's mad. She's mad, well, she had already been
mad a month ago or a couple more mad, right, because they're kind
of she says, you guys relying to me of what the situation is.
The scathing statement is new facts have come to light that once again show the
airzon A Board of Regions failed in their oversight role and highlight a university leadership
that was clueless as to their own finances. She should have news release,
a long, scathing news release. It's crystal clear that the handling of the
University of Arizona crisis is heading in the wrong direction, which means what I
mean, you can read whatever you want into it. Now she spends more
time shredding the border regions and particularly Fred Devall, the chair of the Board
of Regents. Obviously, you know, Bobby Robbins, the president of the
university, mentioned his name, but it's more of a There was apparently apparently
in a in a in a some sort of a meeting or whatever, Fred
Devall, she called it, threatened a faculty member who he felt had defamed
him, and a whole bunch of stuff. But she's pissed, she's really
pissed what's going on, and that she's the event that's not the solutions to
this right. So well, I think it's going to be this next couple
of months is going to be crazy. Yeah, politically and internally, Yeah,
somehow it needs it needs to be. You know, all this needs
to be fixed politically, financially and all these things and more to come.
We would need a whole show to get into the knee deep into in the
pressure. You. We have a lot of time, right, we have
time. She talked about the reputation of Arizona, the university of I'm not
a grad. You guys are grads, gonna be grads. How do you
feel about that? The reputation of this? It can be But but I
think you know, when when people outside of here hear about the university,
I mean, some here about this. You're hiring a football coach, like
director of people who know sports hear about this. But you know, does
the kid who's applying for school, who lives in Eugene or La or wherever
the universe is going to be here as long as they got classes and they
can get the degree that they want, and Arizona's got a good reputation,
A condemically, they don't give one crap about this. I think, yeah,
I would totally agree with your assessment of it, because I feel like
the majority of the people that are not in the state of Arizona that have
talked to me about this, it's a it's in a sports context. A
lot of them had no idea that we were actually in this crisis before we
hired Brett Brinnan, right, So I totally agree. I think maybe locally
the reputation is in a grave peril, but I don't think nationally at all.
Well, and people who live here they want they don't want the university
to look bad in any respect. Right, there's and there's plenty of stuff
for a university at Arizona or wherever, playing of opportunities to look bad in
various aspects of the university. But this is not specific to athletics either.
No, this is not this is not specific athletics. But what I'm saying
is that we hear are paying attention to this, and we hate it.
I hate this. I hate that this is happening. You know, there's
a whole lot of pieces to it. My whole family, all five of
us are graduates of the U of A. Sure you know, well,
and one is an employee, right one and one is an employee, And
so I hate that. You know that this is happening, and that locally
it's making the u A and its leadership not look so great. But but
outside of here, I don't know how much it really impacts whether or not
a kid is gonna or a parent is gonna let their kid come to the
juo A uh, you know, because they've still got a great medical school.
They've got a great, you know, biosciences program, they've got a
great uh, you know, astronomy program. All these things, those things
that matter. And if you can get a degree from the u of A
in one of those areas, you're doing great, you know, optical sciences,
all those things. So no, I I think it's uh. I
think it's really when people are thinking about jo A and looking at this in
a bad way. It's more local, maybe even statewide, but not beyond
that. Yeah, I totally agree. Okay, so we do have some
more positive news. Okay, the Arizona Wildcats have swept the Pack twelve weekly
awards for women's basketball is as as Marie Martinez has been named the PAC twelve
Player of the Week and Jada Williams has been named the PAC twelve Freshman of
the Week. Well deserved right to go up go to the Bay Area and
sweep beat beat Stanford up there for the first time in twenty years or so.
Again, as we talked about, I didn't I didn't even give that
game a whiff on Friday night, think and you know, I really didn't
want to see Arizona to go up there and get ripped. And then they
I find out after the fact that they won the game. Yeah, I
mean I was the same way. I was out and about with some friends
and I got the notification on my phone that it was went final and I
gathered everybody. I was like, can you believe this? Look at my
phone right now, it's unavable. But yeah, they had a great weekend.
Martinez had a twenty point triple double to follow that game up to really
solidify, and then they blasted Cali yesterday. Yeah, and you know,
I was thinking, is Cal really bad? But they Cal was one game
worse both overall and then the Pac twelve standing, so it wasn't like Arizona.
You know, Cal like at the bottom of the barrel. Yeah,
you know, it'd be interesting to see if Arizona is and play at all
at all for for people. Look still, they're hoping, right, and
you know you beat used to. You was telling us here coming to town
this week toughly until you do something stupid and beat them. Now maybe you're
maybe you're talking right. And it's just so strange because you see this team
that's that's you know, doesn't have a full roster in any sort of way,
right, uh, And the roster is up and down in many different
ways. And you see that they have success like they had this weekend,
and it makes you think like they had a full roster of just anyone.
But yeah, speaking of that roster, so, Arizona Athletics announced that the
Wildcats are going to add Brooklyn Roads from Saint Louis, Missouri. It's unclear
if she's gonna play at the tail end of this season or if she's just
gonna roll into next season if she has any eligibility, but yeah, so
the player from Saint Louis is going to join the roster. Well again,
you can, yeah, you can join it mid year. Now, when
Maddy Maddy Connor semester, it was mid semester. And when Maddy Connor did
it, she wasn't jeopardizing a year of eligibility because it was during the COVID
year, so she could she joined the for you know, Arizona for that
second half of that season, but it didn't count against her eligibility. So
it's okay, if if this player comes in and joins them, you know,
it'll count for some eligibility, so it'll be interesting to see what they
do. But they need bodies, i mean, seven people players to go
through to you know, the end of the years is tough. Are you
gonna talk about what happened on Twitter just now? Just with them? We
don't, we don't for any information. Okay, we have more positive news.
The softball team swept for the twenty second time in twenty eight weekend tournaments.
They've they've completed the sweep. Uh. And they are fifteen and one
now on the season, fifteen or six and I saw sixteen maybe maybe,
So you're talking about the Hillbrown. Yeah, they swept. It's always good
to bring people into your own tournament coming out. They'll feed you the food.
They are. They are sick teen and one. Uh. They the
one ranked team that they played, they Arkansas. They split with them,
so you know, let's take it with a grain of salt. But Indiana's
supposed to be you know, Indiana's a decent program, and they they beat
them twice, including a fourteen inning game on Saturday night. And you can
only play with teams ahead of your right. But they've got h they've got
the Crimson Classics. So they're going to Alabama, uh this coming weekend to
play Uh. They got Northern I with two games with Alabama and Northern I
or twice two games with Alabama and then South Alabama. So they'll be on
the road for a little bit there. That's all I had for Arizona centric
stuff for today. I have this Wonders the rankings. Yeah, we took
a place on dude. Well, I was gonna end with the rankings because
we had some other Yeah, one other thing I wanted to say to Jay,
and I thought he'd find this funny, so it came out the Philip
House. He did not have any sort of limp during his media time recently,
but apparently he is quote still a bit sore. Uh. And there's
no sort of structural damage, no, no tests needed, but he is
still a bit sore. Are we worried for him? Jase? You know
if we had if we had audio effects here, I would ask you to
play the crime baby. Reminded me of the Trevor Lawrence saga exactly with you,
Okay, because I get we can't play a zoo they kicked our asses
because that really doesn't Well, yeah, that's all we got That's how we
have. That's all we have, all right, I do, I do
have a piece. Your friend Don Brown and his and his and his U
mass what are they the Patriots or the Musketeers? What's going on? They're
joining the Mid American Conference coming up. Yeah, they've they've been voted in
including football, so they've been a they've been an independent the last couple of
years. But they are now in the MAC starting for the twenty twenty five
twenty twenty six academic year, so not this coming year, but next season.
So the Don Brown and his boys going over the going over to the
MAC Conference. Did you have that? Leaves only Yukon as an independent now
because Army's gotten in to a league, Navy's in the league. All these
teams have gotten into leagues. Did you see that that Peter King is yes,
football football Morning and assuming you met him at some point, Steve,
Yeah, the final horse and yeah, yeah, a long time a side
guy. Yeah, and uh it's NFL insider. Yeah, he's older than
both of us and one of the good guys. Yeah, he has been
Uh you know, if you follow his Monday Morning quarterback call him uh for
for for football, you know, he's done a great job with that.
He's calling it. He's just retiring from that. You know, he's still
gonna be around. He's just gonna do that. Every time I read that
comment that that's a damn lot of work you gotta put into that, you
know. Yeah, so you guys want to talk about the rankings. Houston
has hit number one for the first time this season. Not surprised. I
love I love them. I love them. They just played tough and you
watch them, it's like that's a basketball. They are champions. They are
my champion. Kelvin is due. He's gotten really old. No, yes,
yes, he's gotta be still kind of cool the way you walk you
out, But yeah, he's you know, obviously we're all through. How
about you're old doubles? How about how about how about the voter the voted
a su number ten. You see that, No, Washington got some votes.
Yeah, somebody, some guy out of the out of our passo.
I'm sure it was an accident, right, but gave as you would vote
at number ten and coming on Twitter obviously, oh yeah, because you know,
because there's always people in the guard to check who's voted for who at
somebody said that ac you got to vote for number ten in the ring.
Probably I did the math and it didn't They wouldn't have moved up. Okay,
they wouldn't have moved up. And who is there's enough of a gap.
Who's the other one? You said to issue issue? And then there
Washington, Washington, Washington got like a couple. And then Washington State went
up twelve spots to somebody. Yeah from somebody went moved up, moved up
to all spots in somebody's ballot. I guess they didn't see that. They
got their asses kicks Saturday. These poles are just what they are, and
everyone's ahold, no one, no one knows enough. Yeah, yeah,
I watched the state did move up to spots. There's a beating in Arizona.
But especially if you didn't stay up and see that a su just handed
their butts on Saturday. You know which which weighs more? Right, there's
on to win ways a little a little more, especially it being a road
wind. So anyways, I thought that was funny. Gonzaga back in the
back in the rank. Right, they're on the bubble too, is there
on the bubble? They played well lately, but they were on the bubble
for one of those. They're one of those four four. They're actually one
of the Jerry Palms. Last four in still last four in for him right
now Old Miss Gonzaga, Utah, and wake Forest the first four out Texas,
Seaton Hall, Providence in Oregon. And I think he has Arizona and
the two line now he does. He has Arizona. He has Arizona as
the West second seed and North Carolina now as the West first. I think
still as one. There's one. There's three of them, and I think
Paul is the only one that has them. Yeah, that was them there,
and it's it's, uh, it's a dicey thing like they're right four
or five. Yeah, you know, I mean Arizona. Let's say,
you know, I don't see them losing two. I could see them losing
one, right and then you know, we'll see what happens, you know,
from there on, because other teams, you know, the Roth Carolina
Tennessee. Tennessee's got a good spot there if they go for to one,
have a tough schedule. It's not just about Arizona can't look good last night.
They're on the they're on the two line now. So you know,
I don't know. Well, we'll see Kansas. You know, Kansas beat
up on the hell did they beat up on? I don't know. I
remember tonight's as some pretty good game. Baylor Teah North Carolina. We had
a minute. So what do you got anything else? I was okay,
cool, cool, I think we're good, right right, yeah, yeah,
just go side, great catch break. We'll get Greg Hanson. We're
going to talk about We'll talk about a lot of stuff, but one of
the things is he in his Sunday Communes, they spend a good amount of
time talking about desiree read Francois than you. That's like Directorate Arizona. So
we'll talk got Greg about that as well as court storming. All right,
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it's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salmax. This is I on the ball on Fox
Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagon's all same. We got our guy,
Kevin here Man in the phones. We're phone. Yeah, we're waiting
for Greg any second now and he'll be on. We'll talk about his column
from yesterday about the new ad and then other things we sat together on Saturday.
Jay, We're gonna bring up a topic that I thought was interesting.
Okay, we'll see. Well, you should be calling us here any second.
Okay if he's sitting by his phone. Otherwise, you know, you
never know, he could get on the eighteenth hole or something, or the
nineteenth hole or something. But yeah, no, IoT, I thought Greg's
call him yesterday if he still does a Sunday Column's funny. I saw him
at the basketball game. I told him, you do realize you have to
write that column up until you die, because it's got to be there for
the rest of us every week. And you know, speaking of Peter King's
you know, call him. I mean that I tried doing something like that
when I was you know, I did a call him for and doing a
notes column like that's really hard. He probably had to do that. I
did it for a page a page of stuff. It was the notebook let
go everything dropped. One of those is a little story. But that that
that you gotta do, you know, kind of. I don't know if
you remember this. I used to my page. I used to call celebrities
too. Were at Arizona Connections and I called mister the Herman Munster not Herman
Munster, the grandpa Pa because he was at an U and m Arizona game
and I said, what are your thoughts? And he was great because he
was a good basketball fan, the grandfather and the Adams final. Yeah yeah,
yeah, oh that's right. I remember him. He was a huge
yeah, huge basketball. Yeah. Okay, here here here we go,
Greg, is this shoe? Yeah? How do you do it? Greg
Hanson? Sorry, Jay had to wake you up? Oh no kidding.
Now you're coming off the eighteenth forward. You're even golf in the ring,
don't you. Yeah, well it's not windy. When when is the Curson?
Yeah? That's the key. So Jay's we have you on today?
Saw you call him yesterday? Yeah, Well, you know, I was
trying to think of the probably five or six people in the whole city who
have been up close in personal with all the ads back to Cedric Dempsey,
and I think you're one of them. So I thought I would just kind
of get your take on, you know, the new ad. Tell us
first what you think are her. We know the financial thing is a big
challenge, but being the AD at Arizona, you know, what is that?
What do you think that's like? And particularly today compared to you know,
a few years ago or even back to that said Dempsey days, I
think there's a lot to live up to because probably for at least forty years,
Arizona's had the best athletic directors in the PAC twelve, one after another
after another, and not just good athletic directors, but like star level athletic
directors. You compare that to USC who's had three of their former football coaches.
They were all clunkers. And you compared the UCLA they had for almost
thirty five years. They had Peter Dallas and Dan Guerrero and two more clunkers.
Yeah, and they've under both underperformed because I think they had in athletic
directors in Arizona hasn't done hasn't done that they've hired well, yeah, I
think the only other school that made I could be wrong with you, Greg
Oregon Oregon, because those guys have left other bigger jobs. You know,
if you ask me to pick, say that the best four athletic directors in
this league since it started, I would pick Mike Leude of Washington easily,
Cedric Dempsey of Arizona easily, Bill Muse of Oregon he was a big time
and Ted Leland is Stanford, both for standalone in my opinion, and you
know, and close after that, you know, Greg byrne is, Look,
Arizona has now hired two athletic directors from the SEC. That's unreal,
isn't it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Greg Burn, Greg Burn and
Francois? Were you How surprised were you at the hire? Did you?
Had you heard anything about her before that? And again then you heard she's
coming from the SEC. How'd you react to that? You know, I
was texting with Jeff Stevens, who's probably the number one donor in school history,
and he brought her name up and I had never thought of her until
that minute. Yeah, and even though Stevens wasn't involved this time, right
away I thought, Yep, you got to do the opposite. You can't
hire another guy like Dave Ikey, who was fully qualified, but the old
school guy. And she's the opposite. And isn't that what they usually do
when they head coaches hire the opposite? Yep? And man getting somebody from
the SEC with all of her history at Tennessee and Virginia Tech and on down
the line. And to me, that was on paper about as good as
you can hope for well, and none of us have really gotten a chance
to, you know, know her. She hasn't been here very long,
but you know, what are your initial thoughts on what we've seen so far?
Communicator which wasn't Dave's strength. She's got the Greg burn Jean in her
and that's needed right now. She's got to be a fundraiser. Maybe she
can get Jeff Stevens back, right you know, Stevens hasn't donated because he's
at odds with Bobby Robbins. And if they could get him back, maybe
they could really start working on digging down the debt service. And I mean
she just seems like a person you want to like and want to be around.
Yeah, no question. I think that somebody's got to find a way
to get Moreno Beck, he'd be another Wow, you know, maybe she
is. She is the person. Uh, we'll see, because if you
have Stevens and Modeno here, your problems could get solved pretty easily. Wow.
Mareno. But the funny why he stepped away. He stepped away because
Greg Byrne had gone to a s U. That's amazing. I had never
heard that people on their money. People. I'm just gonna say, I
don't blame him, but I'd never heard that Burne didn't go to SU to
be a sun devil. He was the last guy you'd think was the sun
devil. He went because his girlfriend left their people on their money. So,
I don't know if you've seen with Katie Hobbs, the governor is really
mad at the U of A. How does that? How do you think
stuff like that will filter down to athletics or does it? To me,
the only way it would filter down is if she puts so much heat on
the Board of Regents that to cover their own rear ends they fire Bobby Robbins,
I agree, totally agree, But I think that I think that Jay
and Greg a month ago, six weeks ago, I think at least we
thought he was gone anyway, he was going to be gone. I think
it's just a matter of time. Whether it's time means anything, but in
time. I don't know if you want to agree with that, but that's
what I say. Yeah, I would say his contract expires next summer.
I would say the odds are pretty good that they just won't renew it.
If anything else right, maybe they wouldn't fire him, like kind of like
when Robert Shelton left, he just didn't renew his contract. Yeah, I
mean, and I like him, and we might be having him on the
show later this week, And I've always liked him. He's a really smart
guy. But you have to admit that things haven't gone well. There's been
a lot of mistakes the last couple of years, and whether they give him
a chance to rectify all that stuff remains to be seen. But yeah,
he certainly been good for athletics, don't you think, Oh wow? You
know when hekey was building you know about a million dollar, one hundred million
dollars worth of projects from the from the Zona Zeus area of the stadium to
the David Center to redoing the indoor of McHale Center and swimming facility in the
softball stadium. Robins was aligned with him to spend all that money. Yeah,
So it wasn't Hekey piloted on. It was Robin's approval and it just
caught up with him that maybe they didn't think it would catch up with them
because every other school in the league was doing the same thing, right,
but because the administration here had financial troubles, then it came to light more
well. Also to ask you that because I've asked this to Jay and I'll
Poliastis of the president of Fronday if he does come, If he does come
on that. Okay, Arizona has its its issues. It's become public.
What's the thing that other schools like Arizona don't have the same issues? Do
you just have him become public? I think that could be a lot of
it. You can't tell me. Oregon State, which just spent two hundred
million dollars to redo Reser Stadium the football stadium, doesn't have the same kind
of athletic debt that Arizona does, or Washington State. Washington State, And
I read this today when waiting for you to call. They had more than
seventy five million dollars of athletic debt a year ago. And can you imagine
what UCLA's athletic debt is, Well, it was thirty seven million last year.
It was I'm not trying to excuse it, but that's just the way
the PAC twelve is gone, with its low level TV meteorized money. Well,
isn't that one of the reasons why they jump ship? Yeah? That
was why the USC and you sort of got out. Yeah, and then
Oregon and Oregon State didn't. You didn't want to get along on thirty one
million a year. Let's talk about something that you and I sat down and
talking about Saturday. So we were talking about this team, be Arizona basketball
team. And I've been around a long time cover a lot of teams.
Jay, Greg has two So I you, Jay, where does this rank?
And we won't we won't tease. Where do you think this team ranks
among the last since loots teams? You know? Wait, wait, no,
no, no, I want Jake, because you and I you and
I talked to Greg, So I want to ask Jay, where does it
rank? Oh God, I could probably think of a whole bunch of teams
that are better than Well that's that's the that's what we talked about. We
Greg and I Greg said this is probably not even the top fifteen. I
think you hold by that, right, Greg. Oh yeah. And after
I got home that day, I went through and I listed seventeen seventeen teams
and I wouldn't disagree with that. Sewn Sean's thirteen fourteen or fourteen fifty six,
seventeen four of them for them. Yeah, so that's four. And
Luke had one of Tommy's one of Tommy's okay, five, that's five.
And then lut had ten in about twelve teams. Yeah, there were a
whole bun. Doesn't that enlighten you? Well, yeah it does. But
but you also have to and if you're talking about if you know, are
you talking about if they would play against each other? Just how? Or
are you talking about how? Yeah, because you know it. But one
of the things is that you have taken to con is that it's different,
right, He's getting different players, you know every year. Now, Lute
had some of that stuff with the one and duns and there were a few
of those too, but not as many as even Sean had, Right,
So I think it's a lot different lout had Chris Mills was a fifty year
senior here. Can you imagine a player as good as Chris, he'd be
the National Player of the year now, yeah, right, and that was
not uncommon for LUDE to have a guy like that. Chris Mills had been
around forever. Yeah. Well, Brian Williams, Ryan Williams, there's another
one, La Wood, Lauren Wood. Yeah. Yeah, but I think
it's fair and a fair assessment to top fifteen at the best at the best,
Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean I would think they're
they're still they're winning the crapload of games still, and there's more a lot
of games ahead of them, so it's it's it's even hard to tell.
I would say I'd want to see how this team finishes before I ranked them
somewhere. I agree with that, but I also would add that I think
this is a historically bad PAC twelve this year. Yeah, no question.
It ranks up there with Remember the couple of years Cal won the league title
about ten years ago. Wasn't Montgomery the head coach? Yeah? And they
had. There was about a two year period there where Cal won the league,
and this year is getting close to being that bad. I think.
I think back to the eighty six eighty seven season when UCLA and Arizona are
the only ones that got in, and there are a lot of people who
thought Arizona shouldn't have gotten in that in that year, and I remember Reggie
Miller actually up being pissed that Arizona got it. Was it forty eight or
sixty four? Then six? It was sixty four, sixty four and forty
eight. So there was the first in the second round here and it was
there were eight teams here. Yeah, it was a sixty four and the
first round. How was the game attended the next couple of days because thereon
was not in anymore? Right? Oh yeah, it was u tap utep
advanced and LSU and who else was here that utip An l Cu and I
can't remember who the other other ones? Did anybody go yeah it was okay?
But that's that was when I when I developed the opinion that Arizona that
basketball fans here are Arizona fans. That was no question. Not basketball fans,
they're Arizona fans. Not basketball question because it wasn't I remember it wasn't
full, but there were still a lot of people here. Kay were you
were you sitting with me? And on the days of Reggie Miller said Arizona
got in only because they're athletic directors on the selection panel. Yes, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. We were at that press conference. Yeah,
and he was probably right. No, yeah, yeah, I mean
nobody thought they should. They were, but they were like eighteen and twelve
or something like that, in a bad league and bounced out in the first
round of the first Packed Buff tournament. All four Pack twelve teams lost in
the first round. We were in Albuquerque that weekend and all four Packed ten
teams lost that weekend. Yeah, it was it was pretty bad. As
I recall, Well, we'll see what happens when only two teams get in
this year, and if they're gonna be bouncing the first day, Yeah,
I don't think there's any way that Ducks or UCLA can snake in. Now.
That's been tough. Yeah, unless they win the put me, unless
they win the conference time tournament title. Yeah yeah, yeah, because Arizonna
have another loss in them. I was thinking today that they would lose at
least one. I mean, do you think they can sweep that La trip?
That's also games tall, I don't. I think UL is going to
have them have them. That's always you know how it is. It's always
a huge game there, huge game there, and UCLA sometimes shows up sometimes
sometimes. Yeah, and if they if Mick Cronin could play his slowdown style
in that game sixty three sixty two games to exactly, and it's not like
they're bad, they just just aren't playing good or well yeah yeah, okay,
well Greg, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for asking.
Man, appreciate it. Stay dry Greeg handsome from the Daily Star. Yeah,
that's fun, good stuff. Again. You know, just guy's been
here since the early eighties, so then tell you he's retired now forty plus
years, but you know again forty one, he's got your eighty three.
Yeah so no, no, he knows all those eighties all the way back.
I thought that was an interesting so why so you I know, but
we're not as old as Greg. No, thanks for pointing, Well you
weren't here. Were you here for for a lot of years? Yeah?
All right, I thought he was. To me, he's my fees.
I like Jim Aton, but but said it was like, you know,
just your grad podcast. Yea, yeah, he was just still getting royalty
exactly exactly. Okay, all right, let's take our last break. We'll
be back. We'll take your calls. Five two zero four, one sixty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
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iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez
on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Hey, welcome back to Win in the Ball
Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jiggins ows. I
think we've got a call. We do have a calling. We do.
Hi, how are you? Is this Kevin Lehman? It is? How
are you guys? Fine? Have you been listening to us? I haven't.
Just a really couple of quick things, and you can ask me something
that you want. But number one, I thought you guys really broke down
the Washington State game beautifully. If you asked me what you said, I
probably can't remember, but I remember thinking while that was spot on. The
other thing real quickly about the new athletic director. I don't know who asked
the question, why did you move from the SEC to Arizona? And she
gave a five star answer and she said, well, actually was a matter
of the heart. When she said that, my ears went back and up
at the same time, and I said, boy, I want to hear
this. And she went on and shared the story of her younger brother,
I think it was, who ended up a quadriplegic in junior college football.
And she told the story about the professors at the u of A in law
school and the dean who not only came around her but continued to come around
her. And my guess is she's going to be our ad for a very
very long time. I just spoke Sunday at Zion City Church and Tucson and
they asked me to speak on encouraging one another. And I made the point
that you know praise. Everybody thinks praise is good. Well, praises actually
destructive with people. But we won't go into that in detail. But it's
short lived, it's shallow. But when you encourage someone, you come around
them and you stay with them, and it's the action you do. But
I think it's the action that those professors did a long time ago in her
life. This is gonna make her an ad here for a long long time.
Well, yeah, I think she's gonna be a good one. We're
going to have tomorrow. The Saint Louis columnist who covered her back in the
day. He's the one to introduce me to her last year at the tournament,
so I wanted to get his insight up, and she was here,
you know, this is home. I asked her that question because nobody asked
her the why and when you all ask why, and she was great with
that answer. I agree with you totally. So can we switch gears real
quick? And I'm gonna have you and Greg, you and Jay answer this.
So you've been a long time Arizona fan. You're a Buffalo fan back
in the day. But let me say this. Sports are fickle, and
if you're a fan, you die every season because they don't get to where
you want to get. How many times have you been pleased with the result
that they gave you? I'm telling you basketball? Does that make sense?
Yeah? You go first. Oh, you're you're asking me to be personal.
Well, you know, sports, you know you live and die.
I mean I sit here and watch on my phone our girls' softball team,
our boys baseball team. I'm about as red as blue as you get.
I mean, I've had a license plate that says that ASU, that says
a lot you live and die, and a Buffalo bill fan. I died
four times back in the nineties in the Super Bowl. But I don't know.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm in mourning right now because
football is over. Now, we got the draft that we can talk about
the draft coming, but I'm I sort of molt like a bird until till
late July when they exhibition camp start. Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm
the same way. And I'm talking about basketball specific here in Arizona. How
many times have you been okay, I can deal with it. Never well,
I usually am okay with it, you know, I really am.
Yeah, you know to me, you know, in the I mean,
in the immediacy of a tournament, being eliminated from the tournament, you're going,
what the hell? You didn't get as far as we thought. But
you know, if you're a reasonable guy like me, right, Kevin,
it's your reasonable guy like me, after the fact, will go Okay,
that seemed to me in most cases about as far as they were going to
get. And there are a bunch of times of that. But likewise,
there's a bunch of times you go, dude, you that that doesn't cut
it. Princeton didn't cut it. Santa Clair didn't cut it. These Tennessee
State didn't cut it. But when they beat Duke in twenty eleven and came
within a Jamel Horn three pointer of getting to the final four, you got
way further than we thought, right, you got to this. There's a
couple of those you thought, you know, remember the Chase the year Chase
Buddinger and they got through the sweet sixteen with a not very good team.
So there have been years like that where you go, you've gone above and
beyond. Then most of the time it's kind of like, okay, that
was about it, right, Well, first year, so you thought,
you know, we thought, you know, Okay, if you just said
at the beginning of the year, you gave me the lead eight or you
get into the sweet sixteen, I'd say, sign me up. So there
are times like that. Yeah, well, I remember the Illinois game.
I was on the phone talking to American Airlines. I don't know what year
that that was, but I was making my reservations, right and Illinois beats
us and the Prince then's of course hurt. I mean that hurts everybody.
But if you ask people across the board, name the top ten basketball powers
Arizona's in the top ten, So what are you gonna do complain about that?
Now you're a fan, You come back next year and hope springs eternal.
Yeah, no, I think that. I think that most of the
time you're in the end, you're okay with where they got to. But
there are obviously times that they're not, and obviously times that they got way
ahead. So okay, I'll ask that question again before the tournament starts.
How far do you think these guys are going to get? What's the record
comes out? Hey, Kevin, thanks for calling, Thanks for listening.
You're welcome. You guys do a great job. I want to listen to
appreciate it. So you knew where I was going with a yeah, yeah,
no, And again you know we we we still don't know where this
team is going to wind up. Right, If they get to the leading,
is that okay? That okay? Is that okay? Right? I
think yeah? I think so. It depends how how they get there and
who they lose to and blah blah blah. But they're gonna be a one
or two expectations again, a thing you're a wonder or two you're you're if
you're a you're seeded into the final four. If you're too, you're seated
into the lead eight. Sure, So you know, I think I think
you know, if there are one or two the expectations you got to get
to the lead eight. If you if you if you flame out at the
at the sweet sixteen, that's a that's a game short of where you should
have gotten. And to me, the ones in the twos, they're sort
of all especially this year, especially outside of maybe a Yukon and Houston.
Yeah, just because you're on the one line doesn't mean you should get to
the foot floor. You know. Well, I think that was the case
with Tommy two years ago. They're on the one line, but you didn't
see TCU like they were and used them like they were because you thought that
Arizona was built for it and they just weren't and against you. This is
another year, This is another one of those years that we're going to say,
did their conference prepare them? What's the answer right now? No,
exactly exactly, And that's a great point because it hasn't. It hasn't,
it never does. You're right, when when was the last time it did?
Ninety seven? Yeah, ninety seven, right, two thousand and one,
maybe by but there were so talented in two thousand and one. But
I don't even remember those season. The game in game out that the PAC
twelve was a hard It was a hard game two thousand and one. And
there was a lot of circumstances, you know, Bobby had passed, Lot
was out, Jim took over. There was a lot of circumstances internally,
But no ninety seven. Yeah, because they got their butt kick left two
games when they finished fifth in the league. Yeah, yeah, and then
they just showed up for three weeks. Yeah. I don't know, that's
all you need, right, three weeks maybe six bullets avoid six bullet exactly
exactly. It's it's a burning question, the burning question at this time of
the year every single year. You know, how far do they need to
get for you to not be unhappy? And for some people Steve every year
at the final four every year, no matter of course, those are the
delusional ones, no matter what. Take this call. Hi, you're on
the R and I on the ball. Hey guys, how you doing?
Howard? What a treat having Hanson on And then doctor Lehman enjoyed that a
couple of good, cool guys. So what's gonna be your your your peak
for Arizona and if they get beyond that more power teeth. Well, remember
we were I already h told said this. I said, I need we
need the grade eight for the program and for me, which is I guess
realistic jet Yeah, I think that's the realistic number. Yeah, too bad.
The internet that went down over at the casino there on Friday, because
I went over and I wouldn't have known there was a card show if it
wasn't for you guys. Oh yeah, yeah, I was headed there and
that's what I found out, and I didn't go. Yeah. Yeah,
you couldn't get you couldn't use your debit card, you had to have cash
only. That's what they were saying around the Seine. It's still it's still
down going on. What the heck has happened over there? Still down?
Yeah? But did you and you of course you haven't talked to George because
I'd be curious to know how they did the rest of the weekend for for
for show goers. Yeah, I'm not too sure. He said he was
doing okay, but we spoke to him. That was Friday afternoon. Yeah,
yeah, I know. But Saturday and Sunday for the dealers. Did
you see I mean, how was it in your by your expertise? Oh
well, they well, they were still setting up when I went there.
It was nice. They had dealers from Wisconsin, Las Vegas. I don't
know. I guess one other play. Oh a lot of people are from
Illinois and New York. But but I don't know where they lived currently.
Okay, okay, what else did you want to talk about anything? I
just wanted to say that I enjoyed the best writer and Tucson Hanson and of
course the best beat writer we get to talk to whenever I call you.
Guys. Thank you the checks in the mail. Okay, guys, thanks
art the week off right, Thanks for listening, Thanks for listening to you,
Thanks for listening. Yeah, that's a good one too, all right.
Okay, So, uh just came through on on Twitter. Wildcats Radio
twelve ninety David kel come on, posted Deo Barnes just told our David Kelly
twelve ninety that Arizon Wildcats leading scorer Kaylin Gilbert will not be with the team
for the remainder of this Did she play yesterday? No? Oh she did?
Well, wasn't on the trap. Oh, okay, makes sense,
Yeah, it makes sense. They went they had seven there were seven plays
on Friday without Gilbert. Yeah. Oh, we're gonna have her on tomorrow.
Yeah. And I'm going to repeat the question that I thought that was
interesting to me after we had uh interim ad Cheddrea. He thought this was
her best coaching job in her career being which is I mean, that's kind
of miracle worker and not to be not to wax poetic, but because there
are issues obviously, right, but seven players. Yeah, but they've certainly
played themselves into the very into a minimum. The n I T right with
the w n I T. And I think, you know, again,
if they do something ridiculous and beat you know, two ranked teams coming into
coming into into town this week, UCLA and USC, who knows what the
hell can happen. And that's kind of what I was touching on earlier when
I said, when you look at the season, that that was at the
end, at whatever happens with this women's basketball team this season, When you
look at the end, my takeaway is going to be, how did they
make it as far as they did? Whatever that is, what's the record?
Do you know seventeen and twelve, I believe, which is either sixteen
or seventeen and twelve in a tough league, right, and I think they're
I think they're one game or maybe maybe two games over five hundred in the
conference. So Arizona women's basketball is currently eight and eight in conference, sixteen
and twelve overall, ten and three at home, So they were they in
the conference. I think they're like in sixth place, seventh, seventh,
which is pretty remarkable. Was but they've got the six teams ahead of them
are all ranked all right, So yeah, this is gonna be a tough,
tough road here. Yeah. Yeah, And the tournament, they're gonna
announce their their thing pretty soon, like the three weeks or two weeks.
Isn't like the week before and the men's announcing the basketball tournament or at the
same time. Because they got finished, the finished early, they definished,
they finished a week early, right, So yeah, they they've got to
have their their announce their tournament bracket coming up because it's the week before men's
right. They also have the longest winning streak in the conference to four games.
Four games. Well, so we'll talk to her Tomorrow'm looking forward to
that idea, Barnes, we had four fifteen and then we have a Va
Gregorian. He's the columnist in Saint Louis newspaper, very good at what he
does. Cover a new one from college basketball, and now he's he knows
Francois read France. Francois a ray with a with a with an accent on
the East. So we'll get so we'll get some thoughts from people out there.
I know that with some concerns was because she had an oversight committee coming
on board to kind of take control of She's got a really big oversight issue.
So you know, joke from one fire. Yeah, well yeah,
and it is becoming a dumpster fire down here, so we'll see. We'll
still we'll talk about all that. But she didn't start till third third Yeah,
okay, so she probably still hanging out back over there, right stuff.
Okay, good, good show today. This was fun. Kevin Lehman,
Thank you for calling in, Howard. Also thanks for calling in a
lot of the interesting stuff over the weekend and some stuff coming up Arizona a
s U on Wednesday. Steve is gonna blow me off for the last half
hour of the show. I wanted to think she takes him forever to get
to Phoenix, and it doesn't. But okay, it does. He hasn't
driven up there forever. I went up there for a Diamondbacks game and I
you know, there was no Scar down. There's two people living in Arizona.
Big baby, all right. But Dea Barnes will be joining us in
the four fifteen hour tomorrow, so we'll we'll get her hair take on how
her season is going and what she thinks about the rest of us. It
would be really interesting. They need some big crowds this weekend. They really
want some help from the crowd. So that's I'm sure she's been talking about
that. So thanks for being everybody, have a great Monday evening, and
we'll be back tomorrow.