This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most prized possession is kag
z R two sad at iHeartRadio Stave. Welcome Time the Ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm still arranging my mic. Well, Ryan turns it
on, so you heard a little bit of that. But good afternoon.
Welcome. I'm jacon Zalez, your host for the day. Steve is still
I'm not sure how much longer he'll be out, but we know he's he's
kind of day to day, so we'll we'll let you know when he's when
he's on his way back. We have got Ryan here today are Mavericks fans.
We're gonna get in the to the MAVs. Noticing he didn't wear the
shirt. He's got something with a spider on it, whatever that means,
if there's a hidden meaning to that. But the NBA NBA Finals are over
and Ryan's MAVs are gone. It's just a spider Man shirt. Okay,
it's a story mancher anyways, But we do have a couple of great guests.
We're going to talk some UFA Sports. We're going to have Troy Hutchinson
in at from Goasycats at three fifteen. The Cats are piling up the football
team at least is piling up commitments for the twenty twenty five class, or
according to a post today, they're up to seven. We'll talk about some
of that with Troy. Also, you know what's going on basketball, why
so we'll see what he's got on his mind with Goasy Cats. And then
PJ Brown, who covers Arizona women's basketball for the Arizon Daily Star, she'll
joined us at four fifteen. Adia Barnes had a press conference last week talking
about her recruiting class, and so we'll go into that with PJ and just
there's a lot of new faces in women's basketball. Is there going to be
every year from now on? You can expect that She's still got a core
of players that's stuck around. And so we'll see what PJ gleaned from the
press conference last week. So we'll talk some women's basketball in the second hour.
So Ryan, it's over, man, Now we knew it was over
a couple of games ago, right, Yeah, we did, right?
I know that. You know there's hope against hope right. As you know,
we talked about it. You know, if they they win, you
know that you never know whatever. But they finished them up last night.
Yeah. It was honestly, I didn't like really tune into it much.
It was just kind of on. It was on the background, right,
I was just tuning in to see what would happen, and they just got
they got killed. Well, you know, and you're sitting there, You're
trying to hang on, trying to hang on, trying to hang on,
and then Peyton Pritchrick hits a half court shot at the end of the half.
You go, what why? Right, what am I doing? Why
am I watching? It's you know, there's nothing left. Yeah, when
that happened, I was like, I'm done. Yeah, I'm done.
I'm gonna go watch the that's more interesting. Yeah. Well, so,
so the the Boston Celtics are the champs, as they always do. As
always happens. You know, people start saying, oh, this is you
know, a dynasty in the making. Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum and all
these guys. You know, these guys win championships from here. They said
that about the Nuggets last year, right, And who's gonna beat the Nuggets
next year, everybody. You know. So look, we were talking about
it yesterday with with Kevin. The Celtics are really good. They were the
best team in the league all year long, no, hands down, right,
yeah, definitely, I mean hands down, no, no, no
question. By the way the season was going, it's like they should win
it, and they did. They're not a great team, are they?
I mean, you know, great. I'm talking about it in the sense
of, you know, some of the greatest teams of all time. They're
a really good team that was really good all year long, won the championship
as they were supposed to. I'm not sitting here thinking this team is put
together for five years to come. What do you think? They're definitely not
one of the all time, right, I don't think they had a good
season, right, you know, the best team in the league. They
went all the way. You know, it was it was said that it
was their champion ship to lose. You know, I would have been surprised
if the Mavericks actually had beat them. Sure, when the Mavericks were a
five seed. I mean, you know, the Mavericks got to be happy
they got there, right, definitely, and I mean they they took down
the Clippers, which they weren't a hundred percent they didn't have Kawhi Leonard.
Okay see, I really don't think was that good. But they took them
down. They took down the Timberwolves, which I thought was probably the best
team in the in the in the West West, which that was a surprise
that they actually beat them in five games. And then you know, it
was like, all right, Celtics are up next. They're gonna they're gonna
take it, and yeah, congratulations to them on winning. Al Horford finally
got his his championship, well deserved. Great player, Tatum Brown, you
know, really good. Those guys are really good. I mean they're really
good. They're the best in the you know, the best duo in the
league, you know, and they showed it. And again they were supposed
to win it and they did. But I don't, you know, I
don't put those guys up there with you know, some of the great twosome's,
you know. Ever, they're really good. Yeah and that, and
you know, and they're they're champions, and they won the championship and they
were easy. You know, again, without a doubt, the best team
in the league, and you give them that but you don't hand them next
season. Although I'm getting you know, I haven't checked to see if odds
are out of them, guessing they are probably, but they're probably the favorites
to win it next year, as we're again, as were the Nuggets going
into this season. I mean, uh, go back back to what you
were talking about over the next five years. You know, are they going
to be you know, can they be n can they do it again?
You know? I I think maybe they win another championship in the next five
years. Yeah, with this group of guys that they have, yeap next
year, I don't I don't know. And they and they can do it
again. I mean, they're good enough to do it again, sure,
but I you know, I don't know that you're going to just hand it
over to them. I'm looking at Draft Kings. They've got them as plus
two ninety for next year, and then the next team after that is the
Nuggets at plus eight hundreds. So they're kind of saying almost prohibited favorites.
But you know, there's teams that are going to come along. I mean
the Timberwolves until they lost to until they lost to the Mavericks, they were
proclaiming the Timberwolves as the team to beat for the next three, four or
five years, and then they didn't even get to the finals. So I
mean that's how it goes, right, right, So we'll see. I
you know, you got to like the Celtics, you know, but other
teams are going to make changes and and that's that's how it works, right,
as Steve says, Yeah, Okay, these guys are getting better,
but all these other teams are getting better too, So so we'll see.
The Nuggets. I think, you know, felt like they underachieved and they're
so they're going to, you know, put some work into it. They
were really good last year and they should have won it last year and they
did, so we'll see. I'm like you, I never believed in Oklahoma
City, you know, Like I mean, it wasn't until the end of
the year that it thought, holy hell, they're the number one seed.
How do how do the other teams in the West let that happen? You're
right? I mean like whenever the playoffs started, it was like, Okay,
who's in the playoffs? And it was like the thunder, Yeah they're
number one. Yeah, I didn't realize they were like fifty three and whatever.
Yeah. I mean, did anybody in the right mind think that they
were going to win an NBA championship or even get to the finals? I
know I didn't. I thought I thought the Nuggets were better. I thought
the Timberwolves were better. And I didn't really have an opinion about whether I
thought the Mavericks were better. But even with Luka Danca, you thought they
could be. Right. I can't name a guy for the for Oklahoma City.
No, really, certainly, very there's not. There's nobody that sticks
out. It's very young, right, very young team. And maybe they're
you know, a year better next year. And okay, and then we
did talk about them. But again getting back to the point, I don't
see how you just hand the twenty twenty five championship to the to the Celtics
just because they won it this year. People are gonna put money on this.
I can say I'm taking him now at plus two ninety, and I
don't think that's a good number to take, you know, to try and
pick an NBA champion. It happens in all sports, right, right,
They Okay, you win the championship, all right, you're the you're the
top top dog to win it next year. You know a lot of times
it doesn't happen. Yeah, you're not gonna have the same group of guys
that you had, right winning got championship, right, You're gonna have a
whole whole new group. All right. So I've been in your seat a
number of times, you know, Dodgers, you feel like they should have
gotten there. They didn't. Your you're Mavericks. You know, what do
you like about him going in the next year? What do you not like
about him going in the next year? They got a they got kind of
a young team as well. I mean, of course they've got Kyrie,
who's a veteran lucas. You know, he's not young, but he's but
he's not super old. He's super old either. You know, you have
Derek Lively, who did a really good job for him this year. Yep.
I'm hoping that they keep PJ. Washington. He was a really good
trade. He would be a good fit for the team going forward. I
think they win. I think they go to I think they go back to
the conference finals. Yeah, do they do you like? Do you like
Kyrie on this team? Do you like him? I do? Now?
You do? Now? I do know? You didn't then no, okay,
why do you like him? Now? He's he's matured, Okay,
he used to be finally finally, Yeah, I mean he's been in the
league a long time, right, I mean before he became a Maverick,
he wasn't. I really didn't think he was gonna be a good fit,
right, just because of his attitude? Nobody did. Right then, you
know, how is he gonna fit with Luka Doncik? I mean who thought
he could fit? Probably a lot of people. Yeah, because really,
for before that, I thought Porzingis and done, We're going to be the
two right back there? Because Porzingi is a really good player. He did
good for the Mavericks. He just had a lot of injuries. Right.
But yeah, now, I Kyrie is really inturred being a ma rich And
I feel like you really, right, I feel like you really. I
mean, I guess I don't know if Jason Kidd is the right guy to
credit for that. You know, Jason Kidd having been a point guard you
know in the league, uh, you know all that. You know,
did did he do something with Kyrie to kind of change his whole approach to
things? Because I agree he clicked. I mean at the end of the
game yesterday. You know, he went and congratulated all the Celtics when he
came out of the game. And I like that, that's not the Kyrie
we knew, right, A lot a lot of players don't do that.
Yeah, it's good sportsmanship, right, right, because and those are guys
he played with, you know, some of them, and so yeah,
yeah, I mean I thought, whoa, And this isn't the Kyrie we
all grew up with. And I mean, you admire those guys from Afar
too, right, you know, you you spend six seven months playing regular
season basketball, you see these guys, yeah, you know, from Afar.
It's like, you know, they're pretty good, and then you finally
get to play against them, and it's like he he showed a lot of
respect for him. Yeah, I like to see that. Yeah. Well
again, series is over. I'm a little bummed it's over, you know,
but it went five games, so at least it wasn't a sweep,
and then you know, over the weekend we've got an extra game out of
it. We're in a similar situation with with the with the NHL play with
the Stanley Cup, right, you got you got the the oilers and the
and the Panthers playing I think tonight, right, that's a game five that's
in that's in uh uh uh in Florida and uh and and again a situation
where if Edmonton wins, now you start talking about a series again. But
you know, the Panthers just beat him up so bad in those in those
first three games that you don't have a lot of a lot of confidence that
they're gonna you know, they're gonna get it back to Edmonton for another game.
Game well, but so it was game four of the of the of
the NBA, right, you know, I mean it's kind of it's almost
like you almost feel like, yeah, Florida just kind of sat around and
they want to win it at home or something like that, right, and
look, you're not gonna throw games, but you know, the urgency,
you know, the urgency was in was in at the Edmonton side. They're
the ones who had the urgency, playing with their hair on fire, the
the the the Panthers kind of going all right, you know, okay,
you win, we go and we'll go back to our place. We you
know, we just got to win one of two at our place and we're
and we're golden. So that that series. I think I think it'll wrap
up like this, like the NBA did last night. I think this want
to wrap up tonight and all our playoffs will be over, and I'll be
you know, and I'll be bummed and out. It's just baseball, and
I'm depressed about baseball right now. With the injuries the Dodgers got over the
weekend. I don't know if you saw, you know, Mookie's got a
bust at hand. They said six to eight weeks now, So that's,
uh, that's a long time to be without your best player. You have
a motives out for. We don't know how long he's on the eye l.
I don't know what. They're gonna be a very injury pron right for
everybody. Right, you got you got Ronald Acuna out right, Strider's out.
You know. Shohy O Tani is the Dodgers' lead off hitter. I
mean, why he's not batting third, I don't know. I mean he's
only he was batting second before, but he led off last night. The
Dodgers don't have a leadoff hitter to put in there. You know, Miguel
Rojas, he's he's batting, you know, he's batting two sixty or something
like that. But he's not gonna get you know, he's gotten hot lately,
but he's not a lead off hitter. He's an eight or nine hitter.
You know, Uh do you stick you know, Key k Hernandez.
He's not an everyday guy. You know, I don't know who you put
in there? So out of default, you know, they put they put
show Hey up there and then moved Will Smith up to the three spot and
and uh oh no to the two spot. Freddy Freeman is now in the
three. Then Tiascar Hernandez is four that you know, that's that's standing out.
Let me ask you do you think the Dodgers are going to make a
move at the trade trade deadline to try to get another shortstop. I don't
know who you go get though, you know, and especially with the you
know, how much money do they have? Are they? I mean,
are they gonna Mookie's coming back? And maybe he comes back and they say,
okay, you're going back to the outfield, you know, something like
that. But uh, you know, I don't know. I don't know
what they'll do. I haven't heard any conversation. I wouldn't be surprised if
they did. They probably have the money to do something, but who are
you gonna go get that that can actually fill a lead US five. Nobody's
feeling the spot that Mookie Will Mookie Betts had. You know, he's the
best player, he's you know, the odds on favorite to one the most
player. That's who you're replacing. That guy's not out there right at this
time in the season. So we'll see, we'll see. All right,
we're gonna take our break, We're gona come back. Troy Hutchinson is gonna
be here. We'll talk to Marizona football recruiting. A lot of things have
been happening over the last several days. Got a bunch of guys we'll ask.
We'll get his thoughts like we did yesterday with Justin Spears about uh,
what Troy thinks of the new guy, Brent Brennan and just what he what
he thinks about him. So stick around for that. We'll be right back
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WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Welcome back TI on the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jay Gonzales. My partner Steve is out
today, so he'll be back soon. I've got Ryan here working the board
and being part of the conversation. And on the phone, we've got Troy
Hutcheson from Goazycats dot Com, who I think is like anybody else covering Arizona
football and basketball. And then pretty busy, Arizona's pulling in a lot of
football commitments. Troy, what the heck's been going on? And why is
this all happening so fast? Yeah, you know, this weekend, this
past weekend was a very busy weekend for Arizona landing for recruits. But the
theme of the weekend is the state of Texas. You know, you get
Wesley Yarborough, a four star back out of Texas, and today you get
Terry Shelton out of Texas as well. This is kind of a you know,
emphasis for Arizona fame with Sean Robinson and they've been hammering Texas hard with
offers and visits and this is their fruit of the labor for them as of
right now. And is this a concerted strategy to do to the move to
the Big twelve? I mean, I mean just saying, Okay, we're
in the Big twelve, we got to recruit the area. Yeah, you
know, and that was one of the questions I asked Brett Brennan when we
got to do those one on ones with him. As you move to the
Big twelve, yes, you still want to keep the Southern California ties strong
and still recruit the Polynesian community obviously in Southern California and Hawaii as well.
But the reality is, you're not going to be playing UCLA, You're not
going to be playing USC cal Stanford, You're not going to be playing so
many California teams. So you really have to make your way into the Texas
region, your foot in the door now, or else it's going to be
hard to moving forward. So this year is really important for Arizona to get
their foot in the state of Texas, and right now they have four of
them in terms of their recruiting class coming out of the state of Texas.
Now, I don't know where you were during that time, but we all
know that Mike Stoops, who you know came here from Oklahoma, had had
the familiarity with the area. He he recruited Texas hard during that time,
maybe even kind of forgot about Southern California a little bit to recruit Texas.
But now it's been a while. Are any leftover from that? I mean,
do people know Arizona in in in Texas and in that and let's just
say the southwest over there, or are they start kind of recreating relationships.
Do you have any idea about that? Yeah, you know, I think
it's a little bit of Yes, they're familiar that Arizona has recruited Texas in
the past and had had success there. And Arizona has Duyne Akina, who
you know, has been a d D coach at Texas before, so there
familiar with them. But this is a process of we need to start whole
new relationships out now that maybe Duanne Aquina and some other staffs as well.
But the main takeaway from the state of Texas and really recruiting in general is
there's a lot of like and there's a lot of positives with this coaching staff
from young kids. But they want to see Arizona start winning football games with
this staff. Yes, they were successful last year of the previous staff,
but can they do it again? Can they prove that they can win with
the same players. If so, you're going to see recruiting take an uptake
at Arizona. But there's a lot of good foundations being laid right now.
There's just there has to be that moment of seeing it on the football field.
Well, when you have guys like like nor Filafiita, Jacob Monu,
Tedro McMillan who are getting national attention, you know you can hang your hat
on those guys. You can go say, look, we got these guys.
These guys can play. We want you to come here and play with
them. How much does that help to have guys with some visibility versus guys
with no visibility. Oh for sure. I think any time you have guys
that you can hang your hat on, you're going to have success out there
recruiting and bringing in transfers as well, especially for southern California and the Hawaii
area with no FAFIDA and team acting of Polynesian descent and other players on the
roster, and I'm talking about more of the headline players, the star players
on the roster. That helps in recruiting drastically. But you know, again,
at the end of the day, yes you have those guys, and
yes they're high level players, but now can those guys exceed They're not maybe
exceed their expectations, but live up to the expectations from last year. With
this new coaching staff, you know you're gonna have Dino Babers running the offense.
Yes, Akina has a lot of the same stuff coming back last year
as he was a major part of that defense and Brett Brennan being the head
guy. You know for Arizona. You just want to see what they can
do on the field when you're in a close game and a close situation you
a jet and his staff were going to do and they're very successful at it
last season. Can this staff be successful at what their game plan is going
to do and showing recruits that yes, not only can we recruit that,
we can develop players and get you in the right position to win games and
move on to the next level. We're talking to Troy Hutchison from goezycats dot
com. Troy, you know, Brent Brandon's a new guy, new guy
in town. He was at San Jose State, you know, admittedly probably
recruited mostly around there and in California. I mean, how hard is it
to establish a presence in a place like Texas or if you're going into Oklahoma
or even you know, headed towards you know, Louisiana some of those you
know, hotbeds of players that you're going to need to recruit, you know,
in the Big twelve. How long does it take a coach like that
to you know, establish himself. You know, I think if you're really
focusing on it. Even if you are, it's going to be a little
bit of a process. But there's some good signs when you're able to get
a four start back out of Texas like Yarborough, very talented, but luckily
for Bret Brennan, he was kind of smart about his coaching staff. When
you have a guy like Duanna Kina who's coached in the state of Texas.
You have Dino Babers who coached that Baylor. He knows kind of that area.
Even though he's more of a Hawaii and in California recruiter, he knows
that area very well. You also have Chip Viney, who played at Oklahoma,
was a recruiting director at Oklahoma, and although he was at San Jose
State and recruited in the state of California, he is familiar with that area
as well. So you have guys on your coaching staff that know the layout
of Texas in that Oklahoma region. It's just a matter of getting your foot
in the door and just being able to present those kids with a winning record
and a clear path to success for the program. Okay, now looking at
looking at you know, who might not be around, you know after this
season, of whether it's a guy like t mac or even Jacob mon or
something like that. Is there is there an a established strategy in terms of
the players that going they're going after so far or are they just going you
know, spreading it out, doing a little bit of everything. I think
it's spreading it out and doing a little bit of everything. Although they picked
up two receiving commitments over the last forty eight hours, I think that's obviously
a sign of you're probably not gonna have team back next season and you need
to replace that. But as you look at this roster, yes there are
a lot of young guys, but it's hard to gauge who's going to be
an NFL guy next year and who's not. You know, no Fafida,
you know, five eight quarterback, five eleven quarterback. Obviously there's some height
issues for the NFL level, But if he has the year R's going to
expect him to have and he's potentially in New York for that Heisland conversation.
Then eventually you would have to think that you know, he's going to be
a second third round draft pick and he might leave for the next level.
It really depends on what type of year are's going to have. If they're
able to excel, they're gonna have a lot of roster spots to fill.
But you look at what they did in the transfer portal. They brought in
a lot of guys that were freshmen, redshirt, freshmen, sophomores that didn't
get a lot of playing time at their previous program. But we're highly talented
recruits and so you look at those players that they're able to develop them within
the next year or so, Uh, they should be okay, they're developing
depth in terms of the transfer portal that they brought in that has talent.
It just needs you know, a few polishing and a few chip chips away
at the rock. And if you're able to do that, you have found
starters in the transfer portal that were once three, four or five star recruits.
All right, So I asked you, I asked justin this yesterday,
I'll ask you to any buzz around the injury to Team AC. You know,
what are we talking about? Do we know what it is? You
know, I know Brendan's saying, yeah, he's going to be ready,
but how much do we know about the injury to to Team AC as of
right now? You know, last time we talked to Brennan, it was
he's going to be ready for you know, training camp, and we'll see
is that going to be you know, he's ready for training up right at
the start of it? Who knows. I think their goal is too similar
to what Amazonna have last year with Jordan Morgan coming off of his ACL injury.
Is you kind of baby him in training camp? You bring them along
slowly that way at the start of the season he's fully ready to go and
you're not worth sitting in the injury that he's trying to recover from. Again,
that's ankle leg injury. They weren't really clear on the specifics of that,
but I'm sure they're trying to get them ready for training camp and definitely
for the start of the season. Now again, I think it's going to
be a slow, kind of gradual increase throughout training gramps and by that last
week he will probably be ready to go. Okay, all right, So
I want to put you on the spot a little bit with this one because
I asked justin yesterday and I think I caught him off guard, and you
know, I just want some of your opinions. You guys in the media,
Well we're all in the media, but you know, you guys who
are around around Brent Brennan and a little bit more we're around Jed Fish quite
a bit. In what ways are are Brennan and Jed very different? And
what ways do you think they're alike, Whether it's what they're coaching, how
they're going about with their personalities, the type of people they are, how
they're dealing with the media, similarities and differences between those two guys. Yeah,
you know, let's start off of the differences. I think Brett Brennan
is a little bit more hands off in terms of the team as a whole.
He kind of lets his assistants run practice and he starts getting involved during
the seven on seven and eleven on eleven drills and helps coach the receivers and
other offensive position groups on the side, but more like individual work after their
drill. Also, in terms of with the media, I think Brett Brennan
is a lot more I don't want to say personal, but you can tell
it's very real. I think there was a sense of almost a huge car
salesman like attitude with Jetfish, where you know you're saying all the right things.
You know you're this is great, that's great, everything's wonderful, but
I don't think you always necessarily believed it. In terms of the how do
I put it, the welcomingness media, especially the local media, where Brett
Brennan there definitely is a sense of welcomeness to the local media and it's a
little bit more open than it was with coach Jet Fish, So I think
there's a sense of realness to that and a family atmosphere. And then lastly,
in terms of differences, I just think he's very laid back. Both
of them kind of have a laid back personality, but you know, Brennan's
kind of this is football and let's make it fun and this is why you
play football. Is yes, you're trying to get to the next level,
but you're having fun in the process as well, and it's about that and
team building as well. Do you see or during the spring, I guess
do you see a lot of you know, player interaction with him. What
did it look like when he's talking to guys or maybe he's talking to the
team as a group or individual or whatever, Well, what does it look
like in terms of how the players are reacting to him? You know,
I don't think I've ever see Brennan snap on a player, And you know
that happens to out coaching. You're gonna have argument with players and all that
you're trying to make them better. So I'm not saying the previous staff did
that, but it seems more of kind of like that, you know,
let me put my arm around you and explain it real quick, even if
it's positive, negative, whatever. It be more of a kind of a
father figure like demeanor to him to me instead up more business with Jed and
his staff. But it seems just like a very not not happy, go
lucky, but very easy going sense to it. It's kind of calmness to
it, like we know what we are, let's just try to get better
and enjoy the now, right. You know. One of the things that
I think we all recall was, you know, Jed's interaction with his quarterbacks,
right, he always had his arm around around Jade and De Laura.
Same thing when although I think he missed Jaden in the second half of the
season, you no, Fafita kind of got forced on him and he had
to, you know, show that relationship as well. You see a lot
of the same stuff with with Brennan and his and his quarterbacks. Yeah,
you know, I think Brennan with his quarterbacks. More of the role that
you've seen that from is Dino Babers and the quarterback analysts as well. Dino
being a quarterback guy. You know, he's kind of filled that role that
Jed had with the quarterbacks. So he's been the guy mostly working with the
quarterbacks and you're seeing that, but more from a I would say military mindset,
you know, do you know having the military role behind him as well.
I don't think it's as much you know, let me put my arm
around you, kumbaya, but it's very you know, I'm proud of you.
I need to see improvement here in this. I don't want to say
it's strict, but it's a lot more straightforward of what you've seen from the
past, and I just think it's a different way to look at it.
And Dino's have success in the past, and it's a little bit more of
a military vibe to it. Yeah, just a very straight forward this is
what we need to see. Got it? Got it all right, Troy,
Well, I appreciate the time again as always, a lot of good
stuff there, you know, start, you know, getting studied up on
the Big twelve. We're headed over there. Man, games are really not
that far away. You got Pack twelve, got Big twelve. Media Day
coming up. Got a lot of boning up to do on those teams over
there. Yeah, you know one Las Vegas Strip, big told media Day
and I back called media Day the other day too. But it's gonna be
very interesting and seeing a lot of Texas teams and Oklahoma and Iowa states.
So a lot of fun coming in the lay of the Arizona fans. Maybe
not in the trip, but just a different opponent and seeing what that was
like. Okay, Troy, thanks a bunch, have a great day,
and we appreciate the time. Have a good one, all right. That
was Troy Hutchison from Goizycats dot com. You can follow him him there.
He's he works with Matt Moreno, who is sort of the West Coast recruiting
guru for rivals and cats, so blown up on the stuff. Troy does
a lot of great work, always in the middle of things. If if
the media is hanging out at football, Troy's there, so a good guy
to follow. So thanks much to Troy. We'll be back. We're gonna
take our break. We'll come back and take your calls. Five T zero
for one, six, seventy four, forty. If you're an Arizona Man's
basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take
a look back at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from
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Is it hot in here? Or is it just me? Honey?
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dot com, Pocks and Plumbing. This is I on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast
on the iHeartRadio wapp just Surgery. I on the Ball, Welcome back to
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jaconzales, my usual co
host. Steve Rivera's out today, but I've got Ryan here and we Ryan
the Mavericks fan. We've been commiserating on having a team that gets to the
gets to the finals and doesn't finish. And Ryan's going to that right now
in his Spider Man shirt and as opposed to his MAVs is authentic MAVs jersey
that he wore the other day. It's in the back of the you know
till October, right, and then you dig it back out, start putting
it on, where to bed all that kind of stuff. Well, that
yeah. Hey, you know, I got a bunch of Dodger tea shirts
that I sleep in because they're nice and cool. Anyways, Yeah, SOBA
playoffs are over. Hey, you know what, we're starting to talk about
football, you know, college football. A lot of newnits for us going
to the Big twelve. You know, Steve and I are trying to work
some things out to and we want to talk to some of the media,
maybe some of the athletic directors whatnot from the from the Big twelve kind of
like what's in store for us as you know, the four schools from the
Pac twelve head over there. You know, we've already talked to a number
of people about you know, the fans in the Big twelve. Right.
Look, Pac twelve fans were, for lack of a better word, lane
all right. They don't fill up their stadiums, They don't fill up their
arenas. You know, there were some UCLA games last year where they were
twenty fives some people at the Rose Bowl. It was it looked gross.
You know, you USC plays in this in the coliseum, you know you
need you need eighty thousand people to fill that or to make that place look
kind of full. They weren't getting that unless they were winning. You know,
Washington, which used to get seventy thousand people in their stadium all the
time. You know, they weren't filling it up anymore. Oregon does.
But that's a small stadium, right, I think it's in the in the
fifties. You know, you look at Stanford game, a Cal game,
there was just nobody there. That's not going to happen in the Big twelve
Winter or Loo. Whether they're winning programs are losing programs, people go to
their games. And that's what uh, that's what these four teams from the
Pac twelve have to realize when they go there every game on the road,
there's gonna be a crowd there waiting for him. And you know what a
as Brent Brandan said on our show, Arizona, you know Arizona fans and
need to realize that and create the same thing here. Buy tickets and go
to the games and create an atmosphere because Arizona's going to be facing that everywhere
they go on the road. They go. You know, they've got this
game with Kansas State that was already on the schedule. It's a non conference
game, it's the third game of the season. But it's a game with
one of the teams that's favored to win the when the Big Twelve, we're
going to learn a lot about where Arizona sits in the league by what happens
in that game. If Arizona goes there and gets blown out, heads up,
be careful. On the other hand, if they can go over there
and win the game, now watch out. You know, the Big twelve
needs to watch out for Arizona. If Ari Zone just goes up and puts
up a good show, all right, then we see what happens once the
conference season starts. But you know, it's a long way of saying,
you know, it's time to start talking about that. You know, I'm
excited about it. I'm excited about you know. One, I'm excited about
having games in the daytime, right, not having a step to midnight to
catch to catch it in the game. Although the first couple of games that
Arizona's in their their night games. The NAU game in the in the New
Mexico game are both night games. But you know, I think that,
you know, we need to get ready and need to be prepared. So
you know, we're we're going to try and talk to as many of the
people as we can who can kind of give us a sense of what we
can expect over there. We got we gotta start used to say Big twelve,
right, how many times have I slipped up on that already? And
that's going to happen for a while, and especially for somebody who I confuse
my kids' names to this day. And you know, my young my oldest
is in his thirties, so you know, I've known them for a while
and I still mess up their names. But but you're right, you know,
we got used to the fact that the PAC twelve is gone. But
uh, you know again, as I said, looking forward to it,
the schedule is is interesting just because they're all new teams. I mean,
yes, we played Texas Tech in the past, and even dating all the
way back to when Arizona was in the whack, they would play Texas Tech
and it was a big game. So we've got some familiarity with Texas Tech,
a little bit with Houston. Arizona played them a couple of times and
a few years ago, but really nobody else, nobody else over there Oklahoma
now, but Oklahoma's gone, so you know, there's just not a lot
of games with those teams, particularly you know, Baylor. I don't think
Arizona's even never played Baylor. Iowa State, that's another team, and you
know people are picking Iowa State to have a good season, and that could
be a tough game for Arizona when they play. They got to go to
Central Florida. My nephew who lives in Ortlanta, say you guys coming to
the Central Florida game. I said no, not only no, but hell
no, you know, I you know, I don't know, maybe some
someday, but you know, I don't see any field in any any road
trips in in the in the twenty twenty four season for me, not with
the flights now with cost of flights, you know, and so but look,
it's gonna be interesting. They're gonna be on ESPN, which is cool.
You know, that's gonna be fun. Get your ESPN Plus subscription because
you might have to, you know, catch a couple of games there.
But you know, Arizona, I think one of the things that's gonna happen
in Arizona's gonna get a lot more attention. You know, They're not gonna
be out playing at eight thirty at night and playing at you know, ten
thirty at night. Uh, you know East Coast time, because you know,
they're they're not gonna want the existing Big twelve teams to have to play
that late all the time. We haven't gotten the times of many of the
games. I think the Kansas State game is a is A it's a Friday
night game, so that's probably. I think it's a five o'clock game,
five o'clock the senter time. Yeah, five o'clock on Fox on a Friday
night. There you go that game. If it's a if it's a you
know Arizona Plane, another West Coast team, that game is at eight o'clock
or seven thirty. Right, So there, there you go. You're already
seeing that. I heard an interesting stat yesterday and and it was it was
it was brought up in a podcast that they listened to, and it said
that the last ten national champions have had at least three of these four things.
Uh, coming in going into a new year, they had their head
coach back, their defensive coordinator back, their offensive coordinator back, and they're
starting quarterback back. All for for those three of those four things, there's
only two teams that have all four of those, Georgia and Texas like they
need it. My first thought was, okay, I'm putting money on those
two teams to win the national championship. But the interesting thing was that like
Ohio State only has two right, they don't have They don't have a starting
quarterback coming back, I think, and I think either the offensive or defensive
coordinator left, so they've got their head coach and one of their coordinators.
Michigan doesn't have its head coach coming back, doesn't have its starting quarterback coming
back. Their defensive coordinator is now the head coach, so they they're gonna
have a new defensive coordinator as well. Penn State I think only has two
of them coming back. Oklahoma I think only has two of them coming back.
US see all these teams that you tell that people are talking about,
only have you know, only have a a couple of them. I think
I think Oregon has three. They've got their their coaches back, their their
their head coach, and they're in both their coordinators. But they've got a
new quarterback because bon Nix has gone Okay, even though they've got Dylan Gabriel
who's been a starter at Oklahoma it's still a new quarterback in their system.
So I you know, I thought it was an interesting stat that. First
of all, who's got the time to dig up a stat like that,
but they did. But you know, of course two teams that don't need
that kind of help have that kind of help, with Georgia and Texas.
I think it's interesting. Yeah, I mean going back to Arizona to be
you know, new into this Big twelve, they have a chance to to
do something kind of like I guess an example for me would be like an
expansion team coming into any right, you know, they have a chance to
go over there and say, just show why we belong in the playoffs,
like we deserve to be the top dog. Yeah, in this conference,
And they have a good opportunity the very as you've said before, it's a
wide open a conference, right, it really is, you know. And
Brent Brandon made a really good point because I asked him, I said,
hey, you know, are you at a disadvantage because you don't know all
these teams? Right? I mean, first of all, you were at
San Jose State, so you weren't you know, And but Arizona hasn't played
and you know, there's not a lot of film with you know, Arizona,
you know, against these guys. You know, you don't know who
these guys are. It's a whole new conferences, he said. He said,
well, yes, but there's a flip side to that. They don't
know us, right, Not only that, I mean, all they know
is what jet Fish did here. Now they can look at San Jose State
film, but San Jose State didn't have t Mac, they have no Fafita,
you know, didn't have Jacob mon who didn't have Dakario Davis. So
he said, we're new to them too, So it's kind of a flip
side to that sort of a trade off. And that's why he's that's why
he's a football coach and I'm not. He's way smarter than me when when
it comes back, because my first thought was, well, you don't know
any of those teams. You know, how are you going to do that?
But you know, just look, they've got people in place to you
know, do this, go out and do the breakdown and figure it out.
But you know, nobody's got film on Arizona, right. They have
film on Jed Fish's Arizona, which if you're gonna play Washington that's good film
to watch. But you know, if you're looking for what Brent Brennan does,
I don't know that you can even go to San Jose State film because
they don't They didn't have the players that Arizona has now, you know,
right, and they're just going to have the first three games of the season,
right, kind of go off of that defense. Right now. They
will have the game against Kansas State, you know, to to kind of
be able to tell a bit because you know, look, they're playing New
Mexico in NAU in the first two games. They're not gonna do anything stupid
to lose those games. But they're not going to show a lot, right,
I mean, they're just not going to show a lot. Then they
got Kansas State, then they go into the league in the in the conference
play, so that that'll be a really interesting thing to see how how how
Brent Brannan plays that I loved what I loved what what uh Troy had to
say about how he sees how Brent Brannan differs in terms of the way he's
coaching, because we did feel like Jed Fish had his hands on everything right,
especially the offense. He called the plays, you know, he ran,
you know, he you know, he was the quarterbacks coach. Even
though there was a quarterbacks coach, it was his you know, it was
his offense. You know, Brent Brannan's got a guy who's pretty capable of
running an offense in in in what can't you think of his name, Dino
Babers in Dino Babers. And then again, you know a coordinator like like
Duayn a Keina on defense that he can coach, right, which fits in
with the fact that you know, Brent Brannan is a is a Dick Tomy,
is a Dick Tomy guy. And that's what you saw in Dick Tomy
at a practice. You wondered what Dick was doing because he was just kind
of walking around checking things out. But you know, he was paying attention.
It's not like he wasn't paying attention, but he was letting his coaches
coach. And you know, I you know, to me because look,
you know rich Rod, he was the offensive coordinator. He was calling the
place. Same thing with same thing with with Jed Fish. I don't know
what the hell Kevin Somemlan was doing, probably you know, having hot dogs
and chewing gum. But you know, those two guys ran the offenses,
so you kind of wondered how much attention are they paying to the defense.
Rich Rod didn't have very good defenses until last year. Jed Fish's defenses weren't
any good. You know, you like to think, okay, you know,
between Akena and Brent Brennan and kind of being involved on you know,
both sides of it, but letting a Keena run the defense, letting Adno
Babers run the offense, you feel like the total package might be a little
better, a little more balanced to it. Right that that Brandon's paying attention
to both sides of it, but not so much that he's running either one
of them. That makes it makes a good coach, Yeah, to me,
it does. To me, it does. You need to be able
to let your coaches right do their do their job. Like make no mistake,
Brennan. Carroll was not the offensive coordinator at Arizona for the three years
he was here under Jed Fish. He was not. He was an offensive
line coach. That's what he was doing, and and and and that,
and that's fine. I mean, I'm not saying one's right or one's wrong.
I just I just find it interesting that that's going to be one of
the big differences, Uh, one of the big differences. When you see
Arizona on the sideline during the game, Dino Babers calling the place. Dino
Baby is gonna be talking to the quarterback. I'm sure Brent Brandon will be
there, but Dino Babers is doing that stuff. And and I you know,
for those of us who are here in the you know, in the
in the nineties, we're all good with Dino Babers being that guy because he
was the offensive coordinator for those teams. I'm excited to see. Yeah,
I am, I am, Yeah, Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
And again the new We'll see how long the newness lasts, right, kind
of like the new car smell, how long that lasts. With this,
you know, they need to have success early because that's how fans are.
Fans like me who have been around and seeing these ten win seasons be followed
up by crappy seasons the year after that. You know, they need to
They need to get off to a good start. They need to be in
good shape. Yes, look, they're gonna lose some games, and we've
got to be prepared for that going on the road is going to be really
hard. But I think that you know, they've got a good team,
and I think that they'll have a chance. The question is, you know,
how good are the other guys and what's it going to be like,
you know, going on the road. What's it being like gonna be like
going all the way to Florida to play a game, to play a conference
game, Right, those kinds of things, those are gonna be tough.
All right, let's take our break word to come back. I hope you
load it up with breaking news. I think you are right. We got
a few things, and then we're gonna get with PJ. Brown Talks and
Arizona women's basketball idea. Barnes at a press conference last week talking about the
makeup of her team as they hit into the summer. We'll pick her brain
on what fans can start to expect from Arizona women's basketball in the next season.
So stick around for all that breaking news coming right up.