This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez on Fox Sports
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Our two Sad and iHeartRadio Station Yet Tay. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
he's Jacob's us, got our boss and Alise here today. You're running
the show thankfully. Yeah, well better than you're mean. Welcome to Tuesday,
everybody. You know the number five two, four, one, six
seventy. Good to be here. I hadn't seen Alease in a month or
so, since before spring my spring break. Yeah, that's right. He
told me he doesn't like you. That's why he's been gone all this time.
He's gone every time. Why he hasn't had service on the road heday,
He's like, oh, you're breaking up, guys. Enough of that,
you know his liney? Hey, a lot of news today, a
lot of hay stuff right university wise, we're going to have a guest talking
about it. But how can we not talk about it right now? Right?
Chrisery, So the Big Boss has decided to say goodbye at some point.
At some point, and by that I mean Bobby Robbins, the president
of university, has decided that he will leave at the end of his contract,
which runs through twenty twenty six, but in doing so said basically said,
if you want to go find somebody right now, I'll stick around until
that person is in place and there's a smooth transition. So he's he's opened
the door to let the U of A go get somebody right now if they
want to now it's you know, the ball is in the hands of the
Bord of Regents or the Court of the Border Regents and probably the governor to
decide, Okay, do we want to replace him now? Should we?
It doesn't say his statement to in an email that went out to student employees
and students, did not say, well, if I leave early, I
still get all my money through the end of my contract. He just said
I will step down if they find somebody beforehand. So the implication to me
is that whenever they find a new president, he's done. They don't have
to pay him anymore, and he's just completely doesn't come as a complete surprise,
given that we thought he would not make it to the end of his
contract. Some people thought it was this year, but it was next year.
I don't think. I think we are in agreement that we don't think
he'll get to the end of the I don't think so. I think I
think, you know, look to kind of get restore some confidence in the
university, because the confidence has been shot because of all the stuff that's happened
with the finances and the reason that Robbins is under fire. I think in
order to try and begin to restore that confidence as quickly as possible, that
the border regents and the governor will move to get it, get a replaced.
And the governor is none too happy with his performat at him. She's
been so yeah, rightfully, Well, let's let's kind of look at the
ramifications that we can. Uh So, a new president's coming in months whatever.
A new ad just showed up, a new football coach just showed up,
and the coaches who I think I've done well enough are here only for
three you know, relatively new coach, relatively new coaches under a new ad
who will be under a new president. That's a heck of a load.
That's a lot. That is a lot, and it'll be interesting to see
it. It's gonna take some real I don't know what the right words,
not character, but just some sort of that's just for this flexibility on the
part of everybody to kind of say, Okay, let's let's just kind of
let things happen, get this done, and kind of regroup instead of saying,
well, you know, God, if the person that hired me is
gone, then I'm gonna leave as soon as I can. Already under the
conditions that there might be some layoffs throughout the adversity that's on top of them,
that's on top of all that. I was gonna ask you a quick
question at least, what was the buzz today. You guys got the email?
Does it affect students and it's like kind of divorce with parents the kids?
No, but you know, okay, dead and mom don't love each
other? Is going to go? I think like all my group chats that
I'm in we're talking about it like this has been like the craziest news that
has happened since I've been at the U OFA. Really, I would think
so, even though with the COVID and all that stuff. Yeah, well
I got here during COVID, right, Oh so you're already here. Yeah,
I got here freshman year of twenty twenty. So when it was COVID
and President Robinson actually came to my COVID dorm and like knocked on the window.
It was like, how are you guys doing in there? Guys okay,
Like, yeah, we're fine. But yeah, this has been big
news. I think it does affect students because I think people students actually liked
him, like I liked him. Yeah, we'll get to that in a
moment, because we did two Okay, so now you have a job will
be for the president in a school that is deeply in depth. Well,
but but like they went out and got a really good athletic director, it
seems right, somebody who you wouldn't expect them to get. They were already
got a football coach who came in. You know during this time. It's
a good job and what and you take a job at any university and you've
got some level of challenge because you know, usually a president leaves. Rarely
does a president leave because they're retiring. They leave because their stay is over
with Yeah, right, what do you mean by that? There's there's usually
things that pile up over the course of like, Robin's been here longer than
a number of the last I don't know how many presidents seven years, you
know, President's three four, And the things always pile up because the university
is such a hard place to run smoothly. Manny Pacheco very well liked president,
all right, you know, ultimately, ultimately he high tailed it out
of here. He's going four years. I'd have to look it up.
You know. Peterking, now, Peter Likeings retired he was you know,
he retired again, another well like president though. But you know what,
at the end, like in any job like that, there are people who
are ready for you to leave. And regardless of how much good Bobby Robbins
had done here, there was gonna be a time when people want him.
Now. The thing crashed on him, so, you know, he gave
them a reason to want him to leave. But things were piling up.
The you know, the the you know, the thing with the shooting of
the the of the professor didn't get handled well, and he took a lot
of craft for that. Uh. The the faculty has been on him for
sort of creating this you know, call it a kingdom or whatever. But
a lot of high level highly paid administrators when you know faculty was you know,
they thought being ignored for their needs. So a job like that,
I mean, you know, you could be the best president of the United
States, but people are going to find a reason outside of the politics of
it. You can't just things that you do because you're not making everybody happy
because you're that's impossible to do. Yeah, yeah, I know. And
that's just on that side of the right. So we're gonna have Brett Farrell
here in the after after the first hour talking about all that how it relates
to the sports alets, implications sports, right, and there's a lot there.
There's a lot because Robbins was a guy who loved the athletics piece of
his shop, and we had him on the show a number of runds.
You went to all the travel baskets. Yeah, no, he was a
huge fan, which is maybe maybe it wasn't, but you know, his
predecessor was somebody who was not that personated athletic. Sure, sure no,
and and she had her issues. So no, we'll talk about it it
relates to sports with Brett Farrell, the sports editor at the Daily Star.
But first we're gonna have a very fun guest, a very well decorated yet
who deserves everybody Adre. It was her day to day too in the city.
Did you see she was on today? I think so, I'm talking
about it was just perfect timing. So we'll look forward to that. We're
not that smart, though, are we not that smart to have thought of
that? That day was her day? So let's get her on the show.
This is just cool. This kind of happened. But we've been mining
to get her on for a while. But she's a uh she won the
boys state championship in her weight division, first a person in state of Arizona
to ever, first female in Arizona to have done that, right, Yeah,
I think so. She was like the second or third to ever qualify,
but the first one to actually win it. Yeah. So we'll have
some fun with her and and then kind of picked her brain why she does
this and how good does she think she can be? I mean, come
on, she's targeting the Olympics. Yeah, she's gonna be the she's one.
She went to Mexico, right, She went to Mexico right with the
coach Yese for an Olympic qualifier. Yeah, okay, chance, So talk
all about that the final force here in a few days, three four days.
Uh So the state's looking forward to that because you can't go. They
can't. They didn't even get the chance to try and convince my mom to
get us. You can still contry, well, yeah, your team,
and she's like, there's no point. I mean, I would think it's
so her family's dookies, a bunch of them, all of them except for
you. You're the You're the okay, Okay. Were they pissed hurt?
Uh? Are they mad at you know, at the coach for Duke?
Yeah? I don't think so. I mean, I think Duke had a
good, great season. We weren't like upset at them, at least for
me. I felt like they just couldn't stop n C State and C State
played better for sure, like another realistic effect. Yeah, like the Arizona
Pads. I want to burn the house down. You know, today's my
breakfast club day. And uh, you know the conversation, you know,
with the upset that they lost, but kind of like when I told him,
you know what we talked about yesterday with Bruce that got you know,
they ended up about where everybody thought they were gonna end up in pre season,
they go Sweet sixteen, sixteen Top sixteen. They were ranked, they
were ranked twelve pre season and they were picked to when the whin the pack
twelve they did, but they were RANKEDWELF nationally. Yeah, that's kind of
where they wound up, and they'll party end up there again. But at
the end, but you know, they were kind of like, I guess
you're right, you know, and I guess what I'm not right? Bruce's
right. Yeah, he's the one that said it. Yeah, I didn't
know, and did they? Well, this is the breakfast club this morning.
You'll have your Wednesday group tomorrow tomorrow and ask him Rivetta things that you
guys just didn't know what the heck you were seeing in was or didn't know
what you didn't know anything about was clumsy. Yeah, yeah, I think
they'll admit that. I still haven't talked to my brother who ranted, you
know, is he still your brother? I mean, are like a different
state you Texas and California. I'm Switzerland. That was depressing, you know,
I'm the hold on just as a student though being on university at General
Bends, packed everything, watched it on the big screen, every restaurant,
bar, lyned down the block. You know, it was so much spirit
and then you just go home. So how was the how was watching it
with the guy? With the people? It was so fun. They just
kind of pissed all the way through that. I mean, it was like
it was kind of funny because it was like, you knows, however many
three throws that he makes one and it's like the you know, the crowd
goes crazy and I'm like, you guys, like you just missed six?
Like how we're cheering? Like yeah, But like anytime Arizona did anything good,
it was like there was a lot of hope for sure. But I
was there when we played Duke and we beat Duke and that was like so
fun, like everyone's screaming, like storming the streets. And then this was
and that's where it all began for the bad stuff. Yeah, because you
beat Duke, there are number two at the time, and you're thinking,
hey, look how good we could be or we're gonna be and then they
go eight in a row. I think it was whatever it was, and
you're thinking, yeah, we're the stuff, we got it, we got
it, and then things start to unravel and you're thinking, well, we'll
be okay, we're still good. We beat Duke, Yeah, yeah,
we beat Alabama, we beat Wisconsin, and it just never found the fire
again. I think they relied too much on their talent instead of playing together.
They arguably played their best basketball in November December, without questions. That's
when you can't do that. And I feel like Duke, on the other
hand, was starting to get it together now right right, which was good.
Do you think and this is we're going off the trail here, but
do you think that Duke coaches is the guy? I like John Shire.
I feel like he has a good heart and plays with you know, character,
a chip on his shoulder. I feel like sometimes Tommy Lloyd doesn't play
with the ship chip on his shoulder. That's a good point. That's a
good point. We talk about this all the time, though I don't think
he did in that game. You don't want to follow the guy who follows
the guy, you know, you don't want to follow the guy, and
he follows the guy I think from what you hear about him, I think
he does. We just don't see it as much as fans would like to
see it. That's that's a big complaint about Tommy is that he's not he's
not fiery enough. He doesn't he doesn't hold his players accountable in front of
everybody, you know, and and they when we don't know what goes on
in practice, you know, in his office, in team meetings or whatever.
And you know, you did a piece of piece on him that they
say, you know, he's ultra competitive and kinds of thing very much.
But you know what, when I was when they were saying this, it
just struck me because everybody said this. But then you don't see it when
you don't, you don't see that. But but he you know, he's
not going to be Miller on the sideline. No, you don't want that.
He's not gonna tell somebody don't catch the ball. Yeah, you don't
want to, you know, like like we have. You know, you
know, he's not gonna be yelling with his players on the court. He's
not gonna do that. And but people see that as a sign of weakness
for something. Well, no one's gonna beer. You know, you have
Stoops excuse me, who did his thing. You have rich Rod who did
his thing. And then how far do you go to be that guy?
Right? You know, because he had levels, right and then shot had
his levels right, right, is there? Right? Answer? Probably not?
I don't know. Look he's three years into this, guys, yeah
in the end, three years into this. Yeah, you know he's got
time to figure this out. His record, we talked about it last night,
is eighty eight and twenty tied. The record from Why anybody, anybody
would say he needs to be fired is beyond me, because they don't have
anybody one. They don't get to talk to him, they don't see him.
They can see it from the well. You got to say Stevens eighty
eight and twenty, and you say a guy eight and twenty shill not be
under fire? Du packed. Well yeah, give them this opportunity to vent
and they'll do it whatever anonymously. Right. You know, if tummy's in
the room, they ain't gonna tell him, right, They're not gonna sit
they say you need to be fired. Yeah, yeah, Hey, we
got to go. All right, let's get the heck out. I don't
want to keep her waiting exactly. She'll kick your butt. We'll have to
get down at least to step in for us, all right. Audrey Human
is the great wrestler from a Sunnyside who's taking a shut her shot at the
Olympics. She'll be joining us here after the break, so stick around.
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Steve Rivera and Jacin saliz they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sports
stage. Yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty, streaming live on the IHEID radio app.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacobzawas. Now on the phone, we
have Audre Hemenez, Sunnyside Wrestling Champion, All around champion. Audrey. How
are you? How are you? I am doing good? How are you?
Thank you? What did you get to the key to the city and
where are you gonna put that key? Where are you gonna go? Fresh?
Oh? Man? It was it was a surprise to me. Actually
what what? What they what? To give you? What they say?
So? I thought I was supposed to be going to the Pima County Board
meeting h just to be recognized, shouted out. But I show up and
they ended up. They ended up, I guess, proclamating a day for
me. So nice. It seems a little young to be having your day,
right, that's amazing that you're having to day. How old are you,
Audrey? If we can ask, are you eighteen? You're eighteen?
Okay, So that's man, that that's crazy. What I mean. We
want to talk to you about the wrestling in your path and you know,
trying to get to the Olympics. What all of this that's happening to you?
What's that like on a daily basis for you as you just go about
your day, a hanging out with friends, going to school, doing the
things that you do that you're Audrey humanis that everybody knows you're doing all these
things. What's that like for you? Well, I mean, it's it's
really great. I'm grateful that I'm not treated too differently, you know,
obviously by my teammates, my peers, and I have sacrificed so much for
wrestling, and I've committed so much of myself that I don't always live just
a normal, I guess teenage life because I am, you know, training
constantly or doing something that's gonna help me get better. When did you come
up with this idea of doing what you're doing? Were you like seven years
old? What age? I'm not I'm not too sure the exact age.
I've always been athletics. So I started playing softball when I was four years
old. And even when I when I played softball, I had dreams seen
Olympic champion. And I mean that that translated and transferred into into wrestling.
So I mean I fell in love with with wrestling and I stopped playing softball,
but I still had the same goal as to be an Olympic champion.
So I feel like I've just a lot of people in my life who've always
believed in me and spoke, you know, affirmations, and they've always spoke
and expected excellence of me. That it's just kind of the naturalm. But
but from softball, how did wrestling get on your radar? I was just
on a season season break and my theo, Anthony Burshak, he opened up
Tenth Planet, which is a digitsu gym, so he was inviting a bunch
of people to go try it out, and my dad talked me into it.
So I want to go try out ju jitsu for a little bit.
And I was actually doing digitsu and softball for maybe four or six months together,
and then I started learning well during during jiu jitsu, my theo Anthony
he was teaching me like takedown and stuff from wrestling. So I just became
more interested in wrestling, and I hopped around a bunch of different clubs in
Tucson, and then from there I kind of just focused on wrestling, and
and you know, I guess two treasons then. But so so when you
first had your first meet, are you nervous? You? What are you
thinking? And it says, oh no, what am I doing? Or
how was that first one? My first match? I'm honestly not just sure
how it went. I do remember I actually wrestled a current teammate, so
he beat me my very first match, and he became a good friend and
partner over the years. But I think I'm pretty sure I was nervous.
I still get nervous to this day. So yeah, I'm pretty sure I
was nervous. I don't remember too much. So at some point you decided,
you know, you got good, right, so you decided, all
right, I'm gonna start taking on the boys. And that was the decision
that you would have had to make, and what was your thinking behind that?
So I actually started off by wrestling boys since girls wasn't as big of
a sport as it is now then it was seven years ago. When I
started, it was kind of just normal for everybody to wrestle boys. I
mean in the in the clubs, in the wrestling room, in the tournaments,
there was the majority of boys obviously, So those brackets were bigger and
I would always wrestle the boys when I was younger. I remember I would
go to boys nationals. I think once I placed like Aceh and Greco.
But yeah, it's just kind of always something I've done. Obviously, when
I get to a national level, when I'm trying to make world teams,
I'll wrestle girls. But it was just something I was already doing, so
I figured why not just do it in high school as well, especially if
it was my last year. Well, such a such an accomplishment. You
what's your record? Do you know what your record is? Overall? I'm
not too sure. No, I guess I've never kept track. Wow.
Wow, okay, so now now what we know. You were in Mexico
a month ago or so. We tried to get you on and you were
all doing your your your Olympic stuff. So it was actually the ten Am
Championships. I'm second, I'm second in line for this on the senior team.
So the first the number one couldn't make it, so then they called
me to go and I ended up getting bronze while I was out there.
But the Olympic trials are actually in two days, I mean two weeks,
sorry, two weeks and half weeks, right, yeah, So tell us
how that works. I mean, what you know, what, what are
you gonna have to go through? How many matches do you have to win?
And have you been preparing for that? So? I qualified for the
Olympic Trials through the U twenty and U twenty three silver medals, World silver
silver medal. There's multiple qualifiers, I mean like tournaments of the national tournament
December. There's one coming this weekend that's qual a fire, but so pretty
much there's I think it's a sixteen man bracket and that's called the Challenge Tournament
that I'll be wrestling on Friday and then on Saturday, assuming I win all
of those matches on Friday, I'll wrestle this the number one Sarah Hilton brat
out of the best two out of three series to make the team. Let
me ask you up, where do you have a big family and where do
you land in that family in terms of being So I have an oldest sister,
she's twenty three years old, but she is the she's the she's my
only sibling. Okay, So you don't have any brothers? No, I
don't know. I was gonna ask they'd probably be afraid of is they're probably
lucky them. Oh no, So so what about cousins and stuff, because
I'm sure there are there are guys out there that you say, I don't
mean, is there wrestling in your family and the rest of your family?
Uh huh, So I have, I have you. I have a pretty
big family, So I do have a lot of cousins in the majority of
them are boys there. They are a lot bigger than me. So they
played basketball, they played football. I mean they're they're they're bigger in those
sports for sure. But I mean growing up we would play football. But
I mean even now, I don't think that's just scared of me. But
they're way bigger than me, so they shouldn't be. So what at what
age did you say, hmm, I think I have something here or maybe
someone told you, Hey, you have something here. I'm not I'm not
too sure. I think when I really felt that I was it was twenty
twenty one, so it was only a few years ago. That was the
first year I made a world team, and I was just like, that's
when I really felt my progress and that's when I really saw my improvement.
So that was that was big for me. But I feel like I've just
been blessed overall. I mean there's people that have come into my life,
Coaches, you know, teammates that have always just I guess helped me,
help me like feel the fire of my dreams. And it's just it's I
feel like there's not really a time where I've ever felt like, Okay,
I can be special or I can be good. It's just kind of like
a day by day thing. We're talking to Audrey Human as a wrestler from
Sunnyside but also world class, right, I guess we can say take shot
at the Olympic. I'd you tell us a little bit about your your daily
regimen in terms of you know, be you know, staying in shape,
conditioning, all the things that you've got to do to be prepared. You
said that you know the Olympic trials are coming up in a few weeks.
Tell us what you're what you're doing now to prepare for all of that and
how much time does that take right now? I mean it changes. I
feel like every kind of training camp just seeing what I'm able to do or
how I feel that day. But currently I'll lift at six am and then
for an hour and then I'll practice at seven thirty to maybe eight thirty ish,
and then I go to school, and then after school, we'll practice
again at three for about an hour and a half and then I'll go home
and either I'll recover or maybe once twice a week, I'll go to another
practice in the evening. Wow, who do you who do you practice with?
And what does that mean? When when you're practicing, are you practicing
against you know, wrestlers, you know, your same your same weight and
stuff like that, or you're trying to practice against people who are stronger than
you. What do you do? And we apologize for the questions, Yeah,
because we don't know what the hell we're doing. Yeah, no worries.
So I mean pretty much I practice. How it's structured is we'll warm
up, We'll obviously jog, will stretch out, We'll do some dynamic stretches,
and we'll do like gymnastics, you know, roles just to get our
body moving. We'll do like stance in motion with no partner where we're just
in the movement, and then we'll drill for a little bit, like certain
techniques that's usually a sack place plas drill, and then we go into live
goes. So that's kind of we just grab a partner and then give it
our all, you know, feel the different positions and get a real life
match look. And that's pretty much how how our practices go. But when
it comes to partners, my main partner I feel like is our thirty eight
calendars, So he's a lot bigger, but his style wrestling he's able to.
Obviously, he doesn't use all of his way all of them strength with
me, but he gives me a really good look and I mean it's he's
a great wrestler. So I mean, I mean, I'll even switch up
partners with you know, our middle schoolers. I go with a lot of
middle schoolers because I am small, So it just we switch around partners a
lot, so it doesn't it doesn't really matter, you know, their size.
Obviously I'm not gonna go wrestle with a heavyweight, but as long as
they're kind of close. So you we said that you were state titled will
state winner, right, right, the first one, first first female to
win the boys division, right, Yes, yeah, so that must have
been just crazy proud of yourself, and I'm sure your family was too.
How did the other guy take it. I didn't see him after the match.
I mean he was very respectful. He shook my hands. There wasn't
any really commotion after the match or anything. And I did because that his
dad is very respectful. And I mean it was a great match. He
wrestled a really great match overall. So I mean his parents and his dad
at least was really respectful. Good sportsmanship. So yeah, great to hear.
So tell us a little bit about your coach. Coach Leon, Uh,
he's you know, he's been around, He's got a bunch of state
championships under his belt. How is he contributed? And he was down in
Mexico with you. So is he? Is he a mentor a coach,
all those things, maybe a little bit of a parent to help you through
some of this stuff. Yes, I would say all of the buzz for
sure. He's I owe a lot of the credit to him because you know,
he's helped me with my mindset. He's helped me obviously with my training,
and he gives me great advice, whether that's you know, in school,
on the mat, whatever it may be. And I mean he travels
with me to you know, world see the international competitions and he's he's just
a really great coach. He really does care about our while being overall and
not just winning, not just you know, not just wrestling. So so
like having that relationship as you know, a mentor, it really means a
lot and that translates onto the mat besides the Olympic. Hopeful that you are
what's next for you academically. So I just admitted to Lehigh University. So
I'll be graduating high school May twenty second, I believe, and then I'll
leave to Lehigh maybe August. I don't have an exact date, but I'm
looking to study engineering over there Lehigh University. It's in Pennsylvania. So that's
so far. I know what I know. Lehigh's out in the east.
What what what went into that that that pick and what other opportunities did you
have that you thought about? So right now they just have a club team.
They're looking to build a program by twenty twenty sixth a women's program.
They have a great men's men's program right now. But I feel like they
just they were able to offer everything I was looking for when whether like that's
school, whether that's training. They have a great wrestling facility, they have
great education I was. It was pretty difficult because I got accepted into Columbia
University, so having to turn down that Ivy League education was a bit difficult.
But I knew Lehigh was the best place for me with the location.
It's in the mountains. It's such a nice campus, and I mean just
the community over the they really care about, you know, the process,
and they really care about building yourself up for the best future possible. I'm
curious if you've if you've met Bravo and maybe you've gotten some advice from him.
If you have, yes, I have so. Actually, when I
came to Sunnyside as a middle schooler, he was the first person, or
the first high schooler at least I kind of rolled around with and he he
was the guy I looked up to a lot. You know, I try
even now following his footsteps. He's one of my favorite wrestlers. I love
his style. He comes down for the breaks whenever he can, and you
know, he rolls with us. He he helps us out and he does
us some good stuff. Yeah, I just I just really look up to
him, and he's been he's been a great role model and I feel like
just a great representation of Sunnyside. Well, Audrey, we don't know you.
I don't know you, but we're proud of you. How could you
not be rightnbelievable, exactly, luck the best of best of luck on this
will keep an eye on you and you go get one man, get get
over there, get over to the Olympics. We well appreciate it. Okay,
that's Adre. Yes, Audre human Is. Wow, you know it's
funny, you know, I keep how is a girl? She's eighteen,
a woman, the young woman with that voice, kick the crap out of
it is knock your socks off too. I mean she's got that little voice.
Yeah yeah, so yeah, I mean, you know, impressive,
that's all you can say. And then to get into Columbia, right,
that's that's not easy. Yeah, no, not not at all. So
good for her. Well, best of luck. So all right, that
was great. Audrey human Is from Sunnyside. So we'll keep an eye on
her and uh see, you know, see if she winds up you know,
uh you know, and that'll be awesome. All right, let's take
our breakword and come back. We'll take your calls five to two if we
can get our phone fixed five to zero, four, one, six seven.
I would love to hear from you needs about Bobby Robbins. He's going
to be stepping down. What you think that might mean to the athletics at
Arizona. He was a big proponent and a lot of good things happened under
his watch as far as that goes, So stick around. 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 Loot, it was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty
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is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What
one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi,
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today at a teamsecurity dot net. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to il the mark here Fox sportsporteen fe to
young Steve Roberta, He's Jacobs as you have analyse here for the hour and
you wanted to bring something up. Oh yeah, we talked about it five
minutes ago when I forgot about it. Ben Boltch, who's been a guest
of the show. He's the U c l A beat writer, you know,
friend of the show. I guess I met him in in uh In
at the PAC twof tournament, introduced myself to him, talk to him for
a few minutes, wrote a kind of a I don't know how how do
you describe the column that he did previewing the L s U. Well,
you knew what he was doing c l A. He trying to paint a
picture of bad guys versus good guys, but he used some words that were
probably not advisable, and and and and fans took it as a sort of
you know, very kind of a racist you know, the the L s
U uh you know the and the African American you know, gangster players versus
the the you know the princesses that you U c l A. And and
man it it well, one of the things that did it took the It
took the spotlight off of Kim Malki talking about the Washington Post piece when they
put it firmly on the on the sale time. Do you know how it
all started by accident? It was by accident. So he wrote the story.
It may have not have gotten any kind of feedback from anybody or from
anybody, but the u c. L A coach saw the headline. She
she saw it. She said, oh look another story of or talking about
promoting the game. So she sends it to Molchy. She actually reads the
story. Oops, yeah, oops, Because the coach from UCLA apologized she
hadn't really read the story right, And that's what got you here. I
think Ben Bolch, I know Ben Bolch, after covering the team for a
long time, A good guy. Uh, he's written a couple of things
that have kind of been on the edge. He won about tw songs.
A lot of people Tucson got a little offended, were a lot offended.
And here we are. He apologized about a fifty word type of apology.
You see it right on. Yeah, let me let me read a little
segment of it. He you know, he said it took him longer to
apologize than he really wanted to, really wanted to put some some thoughts ageinst
He said, words matter. As a journalist, no one should know this
more than me. And I failed miserably in my choice of words in my
column previewing the lsu U s LA when the basketball game, I tried to
be clever in my phrasing about one team's attitude he's in alliteration, while not
understanding the deeply offensive connotation or associations. Also these metaphors that were not appropriate.
Our society has had to deal with many, so many layers of misogyny,
racism, and negativity that I can now see why the words I used
were wrong. It was not my intent to be hurtful, but I now
understand that I terribly missed the mark. And he goes on too. You
seems just to really apologize to lsu U said la and all the and anybody
else said yeah, a lot of people said okay, thank you, and
a lot of people said not good, not GOODA and you're gonna get those
people and if you can ever please everybody. So so here we are.
I'm the only time is going through a lot of stuff right now there.
I've let go of a lot of the sports writers. It's almost a shell
of itself back when we covered the teams back in the day. The journalism
itself is gone, gone, to whatever it is now, so we'll see
what more comes of this. I think I think he maybe he's okay.
Now I'm not sure because you follow that thread on on on Twitter, right,
no question, So so let me ask you after that, did you
ever read the monkey story? Finally, you haven't to do some homeworks,
so I know I do some homeworks. These are my busy days, because
you'll see I keep hearing about it. J mol Gonzales that you have a
little did you read this compares to yeah, okay, well you'll say,
oh that's what Steve bent. Yeah, oh I'll read Okay, I promise
I'll read it tonight. Oh did you watch your game last night? I
get Did you watch? Watch a lot of it? Yeah? You didn't?
You have too many things going on? Well you twelve point three million
people did. I thought it was ten, but this twelve sixteen, sixteen
million probably done. What a fantastic game. I tweeted somebody from Iowa saying,
and I've seen her before obviously, Yeah she's fantastic. She's fantastic.
Yeah, you know. And and it's funny because one of the analysis I
heard analysis I heard of it was that it's kind of like you know,
zach Edy or any great player you see on the team, they're going to
get theirs. Yeah, so what you have to do? Oh, it
was you know, it was it was. It was. It was Kim
wl Key. It was her comments at postgame Chris that I heard, you
know on another show, basically saying that you know, a player like her
is going to get hers. It's when you don't stop. The rest of
the team is when you get beat like that and that, and that's what
happened. The rest of the team went off, you know, because of
her. You know, she got her forty one points, she got twelve
rebounds, but what she was doing open the door for the rest of the
team, so you know, you know they're they're look, there'd been great
player pistol Pete Mayrivitch was one of the greatest individual college basketball players ever and
his teams were never that good because he didn't have any guys around them,
right, you know, and and that that was the you know, the
sense of it. You know, like when Arizona played played Purdue, right,
you know, Zachie was going to get his he he because other guys
are the one those other guys, those guards that were shooting the lights out
of the reasons Arizona lost that game, and that's what that's what it is.
Yeah, yeah, that's no question. What impressed me obviously her shooting,
but she had thirteen assists and those assists were fun to watch. Yeah,
you know, she found the open person underneath a bunch of bunch of
really long passes, good passes. She's just fun to watch. I mean,
she's obviously the stepf. It's the steff of of the women. It's
gonna be fun to watch her down the road. I'm just wondering, and
I wanted to have a deal. Maybe we still get a dal what we're
trying to get because she tweeted, you know she's she's illegal. You know
she's illegal. Uh And how do you you know? Boxing one, how
do you stop? You can't. How do you can't? Probably you can't.
There's no way you can guard. You can't guard her, which you
have to again, as as Kim Olkey said, you gotta guard the other
ones. They're the ones that you got to stop because because you know,
if she's gonna get twenty five or thirty or thirty five or forty points.
But I heard she accounted for seventy seventy eight of the baskets, either as
an assist or Okay, so you watch that game and you watch LSU do
what they do and they were good too. Reese was fantastic as well some
of the other players. And then you watch the next game, which I
watched that one too, with Juju Juju doing what she does, and then
the Yukon and I should know this one, the blonde, the blonde page
Backer, page Backer who we said three years ago that she's fantastic, and
then Arizona beater and then got she got hurt or whatever, and then she's
back now and that's gonna be another great matchup of two similar players. You
know, they can shoot from distance, they can get the others involved,
creative. Uh, this women's game is going into another level, it is,
you know, and that that's the talk. Uh you know that it's
really whether this The question is can this sustain? Right? You know?
Is Juju Watkins is going to be around long enough for the interest to to
step because you watch her plane, you go, that's a that's a different
player for all the other ones as well. Not and funny, not in
a Kaitlyn Clark kind of because Kaylen Clark just the way you know, she
shoots from a mile away Juju Watkins is. You know, she's physical,
she gets inside, she has a lot of moves to get to the basket,
and she can shoot. I just thought of this, and I hope
I'm not gonna characterize her wrong. But she's lebron of. She gets to
the back, she's downhill, she's downhill, and she knows how to move
around the basket. When she gets to the basket, she's that good and
she can shoot it too. Now she plays a different game than the rest
of them. And and again, you know, I don't know what the
w n b A rule is on when somebody can enter. I think they
got a thing. Three years two three years, three years related you,
but it so long, couldn't begin to tell you, couldn't begin to tell
you as an evolved Yeah, but you know she she plays a whole different
game than than the others. Right. Well, the thing about it too
is that they're making a ton of money, making money? Why why?
Why leave? I heard that Kaelin Clark has made out of all college athletes,
she made the most nil this year. Even the gymnasts from l S
U over the her. Yeah, well that's what I heard the Urban Men
and woman, which not surprising because she's now in the insurance business and all
of a sudden, well you saw that she's been given or offered five million
dollars to be in the Big Five with Doctor Dre, one of those guys,
Doctor Dre, to play Oh no, no ice Cube, the Big
Three, the Big Three. Five million dollars. She turned it down,
she did. I don't know, I don't know. Okay, here's the
here's the here's the rule on on w NBA draft eligibility. All n c
w A players we are graduating seniors or turning twenty two years old. Algibe
now twenty two, right, But she has a chance to come back if
she wanted to. She to come back, So that KAYL Clark, Yeah,
Watkins is not twenty no, No, she can come back for another
tree. She could break that record. She well, she broke the all
time freshman scoring record last night. It's just you know, I don't watch
the watching women's basketball. I did last night, and I watched it last
week. I watched last year's Final four. It's just so I put the
game on in my car and on the drive home, you know I did.
And that's how big it's gotten. And and I took my phone inside
safeway with me, you know, to keep listening to it. You know
that I mean. And then and you're when that game ended. I watched
the USC game. I watched the USC partly, I'm gonna say though,
partly because I want to see how back Connecticut really was. You know,
there were three seed and that and the fact that I watched it kind of
like Arizona beat these guys a couple of years ago to get in the final
four. That was cool. Well, this is what I texted you,
I think right after the game or whatever. So we got to get a
DA on because and this is nothing to dow with the teams. I'm thinking,
how did Arizona with seven people, seven players take this ua USC team
to the brink not once, but twice. This is a USC team that
was the virger getting to the final four with some very good players. How
do you how did the DA pull that off? Right? It was just
right there for them. She you know, yeah, she in retrospect,
she's she works on magic. Yeah, she worked for this game or for
this component. Yeah, no, absolutely, you know, with all the
things they went through it. You know, they got beat badly a few
times and stuff like that, but youet to have hung with usc all those
times, right, it would have been ambarssed for if you see got into
the final four. Oh yeah, of course, and they fell apart in
the last three minutes. Yeah, it went south on. I mean,
I was going to say this for breaking news, but kind of what you
were saying right about, you got an you can save it for if you
want to hold it for a minute, Well just say that if this was
the most watched n c double a women's game ever, women's college basketball game
ever, more than more of youers in the twenty twenty three NBA Finals,
more than every World Series game from last year year we'll talk about on the
side. So maybe why why do you think that's happened now that we go
to break put? Because why right? Because there's wait, don't answer it.
Don't answer that you asked me, Yeah, but we got don't I
got an answer. I got an answer. Okay, I do have an
answer for that, all right, I gotta remember to ask you. All
right, let's take our break. We're gonna come back and releast it's gonna
have some breaking news for us. There's other stuff going on, and then
uh, we're gonna have uh Brett Farrah sports editor. If there's another star
who come and talk about his his take on how Bobby Robbins leaving uh the
University of Arizona might impact athletics here, So stick around,