This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to Eye
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's
Jagan Zaliz. We got our guy Kevin in this day, Monday, and
it seems to me that the sun is unshining, although you can't see it
because the basketball team is fine, both men's and the women. It's a
little cloudy out there. But yes, the sun did come up again for
Arizona. You have a big win on Saturday, well even more so,
and then Asu lost. I loved somebody somebody on Twitter put out but it
just said Washington State's time in first place in the Pac twelve and it was
a video of Aaron Rodgers running out with the flag in the game where he
got injured like two plays into the game. Incredible. There's always a tweet
like that. Somebody always comes up with something clever, right, that's pretty
funny. Well, well thank you, I wrote that right away once it
happened, and the big fans didn't want to thank his shoe. I'll never
think his shoe fans is that, but hey, you take what you can
get. Yeah, you know, it's it's funny because I look, I
never cheer for Arizona State. I just don't. But there are Okay,
did you watch the game? Yeah? R okay. I sat there and
I watched that game like I was watching an Arizona game. Did you cheer
them? I did? Okay, Wow, I did. I cussed him
because you know they were they got a big lead and then they led him
back in it. And I mean, I watched that game like I'm watch
an Arizona game because you know it was it was that big. And I
said, here's the funny thing, and I'm gonna I gotta give these guys
a little props. Both, you know, on either side of me at
uh you at the at the table on Saturday. You know, my son
Adam is on one said, actually he was a little further down with another
duty, but he came and sat next to me after the game. And
my brother Jean on the other side. Both of those guys said, as
you will lose. I mean that issue would be Washington that. Yeah,
it wasn't a major shock because of you know, you've been covering. We
talk about this all the time, and everyone says, well, how does
this happen? Happens all the time, the get up game and and and
that's when Arizona remember when Arizona and Issue were good together. It happens very
rarely, but when it happens, it's a one two, not a juggernaut,
but it's a one two bunch. It was hard, yeah, because
you have to survive both of them, not just one of them. I
mean in Washington State looked nothing like the team they were not Thursday night.
It wasn't even I mean, well it's like you know, Isaac Jones,
and and and and and and uh and Rice and the guy the number zero
you who made all those three pointers. Well, none of those guys look
like they looked on Well you saw here, here's the case. And I
truly believe in this stuff. Uh. The coach what's his name, the
Smith Smith did some great celebrating in the post game blocker room. Yep,
forty eight hours. He couldn't do that. They were already celebrating that that
victory and maybe the weekend, like they thought like they had won the league
because they thought they had happens all the time. Well, that that whole
you know, the way the pack puff schedule is configured where you've got you
know, Thursday Saturday or Thursday Sunday game. That second game is always a
hard game, and it always it's always affected by what happens on Thursday night,
no question, it's like next week, next week when they go to
l A. They play u c l A Thursday, right, and then
US see the next Saturday, I think it's Saturday. No, No,
it's u c l A Thursday Saturday. So even if you flip flopped them
because bigger game, blah blah blah, because you got to get it from
now, you've got to get it for both games. I would like to
think that in Arizona's case, playing u c l A first is better?
Is better? Yeah, they go play LA. If you beat them,
you know US is bad. Except they weren't bad well Saturday because they got
up for the game, right and they're healthier now. Right. But you
know, I think you say, Arizona would have a better shot of beating
u c U S coming off of a UCLA win. Then you know,
they go in and have a nice win against USC. Now they got to
play UCLA. It's the second game of the weekend. It's a little harder.
So we'll get to that point next week when we get there. But
they did recover. I didn't think they recovered as well as they should have
because they were kicking the crab by and it's again once again. Oh wow,
these guys are playing really well and then what happened. It just kind
of went flat in the second half a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
and that happens too. But still, this team, this team, and
I know we don't have access to Tommy, I would ask him. I
would ask him, does this team frustrate you as much as it frustrates people,
because it's come on, in one half they look fantastic, the other
half they look so So guess what happens next month. You can't do it
right, you can't play so so yeah, there's no wiggle room. Yeah,
you know you're hundre percent correct, and you know that's gonna be interesting
to see. But it seems like you like to you like to say that
one because of what happened in Princeton last year, right, that everybody is
going to have their full attention. Is that what you just never know is
that your teaching moment that everyone talks about, Well, you're learning more like
to think it is. But you know the look, Caleb Love wasn't on
that team. Uh Tishad Johnson wasn't on that team. But on the other
hand, those two guys have seen the promise, so you would think that
the two of them would like, dudes, we cannot be you know,
taking taking off a half or even you know, a segment from one TV
time. They've been doing this all their lives, all their lives. Yeah,
you think they nobody now, right, all their lives. They just
can't. And I remember last year when they played Princeton. The one thing
that Kyra did justin Kya did when the introduction line, what did he fail
to do? Shake the other dude's hands? And they said felt disrespectful.
Oh I remember that, and he says, what what did you just do
to me? You guys so you got to respect opponents? Uh, let
me ask you something, each of you. What did you what was your
takeaway from third from satur from Saturday's game your biggest thing? And I have
my own That's why I asked nothing really really, I mean, they won
the game that they were supposed to win, the game they were never they
were never really threatened. Just that, you know, they did what they
needed to do. That's okay. Honestly, I kind of feel the same
way. I didn't really walk out of the arena and feel any one specific
thing that stuck out to me the most. I think there was a little
bit of I almost expected them to win a little bit more decisively, yea,
but it wasn't like it was ever in question like Jayson. It was
decisive though they won by sixteen. Okay, so let me maybe you'll chan
change your minds with this uh shot. Uh Tommy getting on bosswell, and
I made the point of asking him about that because yelled at him and got
on him and and and put him to the bench and then brought him back
and he played better, much better. And Tommy, I says, you
know, everyone saw it, we all saw it. Your your thoughts on
getting on him, and and how were you pleased to what happened? And
he said, yeah, I hate to do stuff like that. And it's
funny a coach hating to do stuff like that, you know, Alost apologizing.
No, So I thought that was needed and essential to to Boswell because
he looked disinterested. He looked like you saw the tapes. I'm sure,
like you know, don't talk to me like that. And he and he
that came on a play where he played horrible. It was horrible and he
lost the ball and he lost the remember just previous to that, they stole
the ball from him at half court. Ye, So I think I don't
know if that's going to get him right, but he used to got his
attention. Yeah, and and that that, yeah, I mean that again,
that's been the big the big thing that people are scratching their heads about
what's up the season is what's up with Colin Boswell? You know, I
mean to the point where you think you have some sort of a personal issue
going on that his mind is not on on his games been so good.
There's a lot of internet speculations on campus to talking. I won't go there
because it's too personal and I don't really care about that. So we don't
know anything right right, right, We're not that group. You know.
It does make you wonder, but no, I remember seeing that we all,
you know, we all at the table like whoa, whoa, whoa
whoa. Yeah, you know, yeah, so I think that's a good
that was a good thing. Obviously he wasn't at me, so it was
it was as well, So lose baby steps because guess time is running out,
man. Yeah, well again, you know, but but you know,
I mean, the thing that we hear is that no matter how far
into the season you are, you have to keep getting better. Right right
now is not the time to say, Okay, this is as good as
we're going to get. And so there's still things that they need to do,
whether you call him, that they need to fix or progress that they
need to make, and and so you know, there's it's always trying to
advance and be better than they were the game before. And that's you know
that that's an effort towards that. So yeah, I completely I completely forgot
about that. Again, you don't you forget about stuff like that. When
they win the game, you think, okay, everything was fine. They
won the game, They were never threatened. They took a big lead early.
I know, they led by a bunch, but you know, and
it got down to you know, single digits in the second half, but
there was never a point you thought they're gonna lose this game. Now,
if you had the fourteen and a half on Friday that could have gotten on
Friday night versus the sixteen and a half that you got on Saturday, you're
not very happy if you had sixteen and a half, right, And it
was just little things, just you know, turnovers and poor shots, and
it is what it is. They won by sixteen, so that's a good
thing. And then the women, the women pulled off a dumb my god,
pull off a double that was unexpected. Well well, I mean we
talked about it on briefly. Briefly No, no Friday. No, that's
right, it's Friday night. So we did. I mean, we just
talked about the game being okay. We just got confirmation a Dea Barnes gonna
be on the show tomorrow, Fantastice. We're gonna talk about it. So
I don't know if she's listening or if somebody over there is listening, and
if you are, don't tell her. But I'm gonna say, I'm gonna
admit that I didn't even watch a game on Friday night. Why am I
gonna sit down and watch Arizona get blown out at Stanford had other things to
do, and as I didn't really have other things, I was watching a
movie. I don't even remember what I was watching. I didn't watch a
game. All of a sudden, my daughter comes out of the out of
the room and says, Arizona be Stanford. I'm like in basketball, and
she goes, yeah, I like in women's basketball. She goes yeah,
come on, and you know. And then I immediately shot over to Twitter
to see what's going and saw highlights and it's late as I think three minutes
left in the game, they were still down eight or nine, Yeah,
and came back and one because they outscored in like thirty one sixteen. Well,
and the game was sixty one all and Arizona outscored scored the last seven
points for the game. But the game, so to use the point of
Arizona beating Stanford, guess what it happens. Conversely, didn't you see the
you follow me on Twitter? I'm like me, per No, you don't,
but I do. I tweeted, what the hell? I know what
He's right, This is exactly what I to I was gonna put it out
on a as a as A did I put it out on my Twitter account,
and I said, for those of you still grieving Arizona's loss to WAZU
on Thursday night, this stuff happened. Does happen exactly? Answers a great
tweet, right and and and and it was and it was a retweet of
of the Arizona BA women's basketball Twitter account that said this just happened. And
I said, this happened, It does it does happen. You could be
on both sides of it at any time, at any time. The game
we talked about, you know, before we went on the air, Oha
State had lost seventeen straight road games. They go to Michigan State, They're
getting their asses kicked the whole game, and they went on a buzzer beater
in overtime to beat Michigan State, Michigan State a game that could cost Michigan
State even getting into the tournament. You know, those things just happen to
do. And you could go through any sport, any team. It happens
all the time, especially to the to the degree of big good teams.
I want to also talk about, because I'm not sure we'll be talking about
this is a national story. The court Stoparts and Sean it was kind of
the Sean Miller rule right here, because who's going to courch from other schools
except for Arizona. Right when you showed up, it happened here a lot.
Yeah, and you know, how do you prevent them? You win
the game. But now it's going to be changed. Probably there's been a
lot of a lot of stuff, a lot of people throwing stuff out about
how you can work on No, no, no, no whatever. They
you're not going to prevent kids. Await sixty minutes and sixty seconds. They
want to go. Now it's a celebration. Now. You don't want the
delayed gratification, of course, like when the New Year's ball drops. You
don't want to wait another five seconds ago, you know, to do the
thing right. But the funny think about it, and not funny the ironic
team or whatever word. It took a guy from Duke from Duke. That's
my change, that's my thing. We saw kid here at who's on high,
the kid who got hurt badly. The guy had a life altering injury.
I'm gonna try to truck him down and see because but it took a
Duke guy to change the narrative. Well, and and I want to I
want to break this down some more. You know, on the other side
of our guests, we should say, had guess Jim Monico is coming on,
athletic director of Pima coming on in a few minutes. And then in
the second half, Greg Hanson, we invited him on to talk about the
new athletic directory. Had a long piece and is a Sunday column yesterday.
But Greg is one of the few surviving people in the community who have worked
with all the athletic directors dating back to said Dempsey, So we would kind
of get hit some of his input on that. But anyway, the point
I was gonna make, uh was I forgot the point I was we were
talking about I know we're talking about well, uh, I was I going
to say something really important? It was? It was. It was a
really good, good point about this. But you might want to tweet it
out. But yeah, but you know, as but as you said,
you know, it took it took somebody from from Duke. You know,
oh, somebody said, uh, we have to keep we have to work
on this, or somebody is going to get hurt. Like dudes, people
have been getting hurt for decades in court storm. That's that's that's what I
was thinking, that everything's like yesterday. But now that the Duke guy got
hurt. Oh, he's the first guy to ever get hurt. And it's
crazy because Kaitlyn Clark got bodied. But that was I'm not saying it.
I'm not saying it was you. But it's just you know, it takes
a special there. Yeah, there's some things that we got And I do
want to talk about this some more because I tweeted so I could read it
in a big ish I'm not you know what, I'm not talking to you
the rest of the day. All right, Well, we'll be right back.
Jim Monico, Pema College of Pemia as techsa Athletic Director, coming right
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Jacin Sallez, they have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson's sports station yet
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I I on the ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jagan Zaus.
Now on the phone, we have Jim Monico the Pima aztecs A d for
the next couple of months and then righting off into the sunset one month.
To be clear, I don't think you're looking forward to it, you know.
I mean to say something. I saw a story a while back,
and I've kind of kind of knew something was going on last semester, but
you kind of just thought recently or in the Chris it was time, right.
Yeah, that really it kind of solidified what I was thinking. Because
you're you're a young man. What are you gonna do hopefully grow older without
stress? Do you already have I mean, forty three years I've been working
and not full time, you know, more than full time because you're coaching
and whether a police officer off duty work, you're always ninety one hundred dollars
a week, So you just kind of get a beaten and I guess I
kind of I kind of burn out a little quicker because I probably exude a
little too much energy. So do you already have like a long list of
things that you're going to do in books that you're going to read that you're
really never going to get to because you're going to be busier than you were
before. Let me tell you I was stupid enough to get that second master's
degree and I haven't read a book in about nine years. I'll make sure
you read my and just make sure so so, and we'll get to that
in a bit. Let's kind of go back to the final months or days
for you. How has this year been knowing that this is gonna happen?
You know, I I had it in the back of my mind that I
was thinking it was just probably time. But you know, I've been trying
to get things done at a little quicker pace. There are a few things
I wanted to finish up, and I'm trying to get to them because I
want to make sure when I go that not only did I try to leave
it better, but finished everything that I wanted to get done. Well,
you know, going to that, I mean there's obviously some things even right
now that you can say, Okay, I left these things. These things
already in place, they are going to be in place when I leave.
These are areas that I think we've already done a great job, that you've
done a great job with over time. What are some of those things,
you know? I think getting the fields to where they were now, getting
our study haul set up for athletes so that they had an opportunity to you
know, it's not like the college doesn't help them, but because their schedules
are so different, they need times when they can get there. So having
that set up for them, getting our coaches full time that that was a
big deal for me. I thought they deserved it, and the college agreed.
When I pushed it forward. You know, a couple of things that
I didn't get finished yet that are in the works is redoing all the backsops
for baseball softball because they're old. But that's in the works and should be
done by the end of the summer. And then we have in the work
trying to get their scoreboards replaced. I've raised the money to do that,
so just there are a few things left that I just wanted to get done
and make sure that you know, if they weren't done, they were at
least in the work so the next person can pick it up and keep moving
forward. And I think you've been there about five years, right, I
can remember a lot of the candidates were, you know, coaches there and
you've got the job. How fun has it been or is it still not
so much fun? No, I'll be dead serious with withft you. I
love this. I mean, in all honesty, it's really in my wheelhouse.
I've been able to get some stuff done. I've got such an amazing
support staff as far as at the college and in in our coaches and our
players that just they work so hard and it's just, uh, you know,
if people keep saying, you know, what did you do. I
don't know what I did. I just came in with an attitude and an
idea and everybody jumped on board. And if if they didn't, I wouldn't
have been successful. True, Yeah yeah yeah. Uh. And and then
you, I mean, certainly the coaches that you put together over there,
you know, we are none of us know how long they'll be there after
you're gone, but you're certainly going to leave a coaching staff behind. It's
uh, you know, pretty Uh, it's done pretty well for themselves,
been amazing for themselves. They're incredible. I mean, come on, our
athletics from top to bottom. I mean, we're getting ready to go to
nationals with all our qualifiers from track and we're taking thirty eight student athletes.
Thirty eight that's just incredible. We have a shot to take a national championship
there and come home with a bunch of national champions So, I mean,
it's just it's just from one sport to another, there's no real drop off,
and it's been great and the graves have been still have been great,
So I mean, you don't get much better than that. So I'm not
from here as we know, and Jay, I don't know how much you
paid attention. But I've always said, and I said this to you,
Jim Pemo's kind of plaking a back seat to Arizona for a long time.
It's done this and you know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't
already know. But in the recent years, and I couldn't tell you how
long ago, that this situation that you're in now has kind of like the
Glory years. I could be misspeaking. I don't know athletically, but soccer
is nationally known, boys and girls, the basketball our scores teams like crazy,
both men and women. It's just so many things. Where would you
put this glory years? Am I overstayed in it? You know? I
don't know. I mean, I've been in Tucson thirty four years, so
I've seen a lot. But you know, you have to. It's so
hard because I just I'm just I've never been that kind of guy. I
enjoy winning, and but you can't look at yourself and go, I did
this. You know. Maybe it's because right now we have had coaches on
campus full time except for tracking golf. You know that that allows them to
make the student athlete a little more accountable because they're there all the time and
they can see what they're doing and making sure they get into classes and practices
and weight room. So I mean as far as winning, no, I
don't. I don't think we've ever been a success full as we are right
now. But that's not because of me. I think it's because a lot
of things that we've put in place and and got to happen that hadn't happened
in past years. Right, Edgar Soto did a great job. I mean,
Larry Tledo started athletics, so and they were practicing and hangars down at
the airport. So you know, to say that I don't know, I
know we're doing incredible and people are very happy about it. And and it's
just and listen, we don't and I told you this a bunch of times.
If it isn't for you and the and the Moralesies and and the and
the kvoas and everything else, we don't, Greg Hanson, If we don't
get that pressed, people don't know. And and that's also helped us tremendously.
So Jim, just uh uh, just tell us a little bit about
what you where do you think junior college athletics is headed? You know,
We've talked about, you know what NIL and the transfer portal and all these
things are doing you know, at the at the higher level, but obviously
impacting and impacting your the junior college level. We've talked about it with some
of the coaches. But you know, what is the future? What are
we talking about here in terms of the role that junior collegers are going to
have in collegiate athletics going forward? You know something that question, if you
ask me truly right now, the last and I'm not and I'm including high
school, I think the last real amateur sports right now is JC ball because
they're in that in between high school kids are now getting nils and it's a
big deal, and a kid's on in the ninth grade and he's talking about
where he's going to high school or where he's transferring to junior college kind of
gets left out of that, and they're the last frontier in my opinion of
real amateur athletics. Now, where does it hurt them because of the transfer
portals, because of people looking going do I take a fifth year kid out
of the University of Miami or do I go ahead and take a kid out
of a JC that's an All American. Well, he's already proven himself at
the Division one level, so you're probably going to take that kid. So
it becomes less and less of junior college and then high school kids getting that
opportunity because it at college athletics now is insane when you have people like Nick
Saban walking out the door going I just don't want to do this anymore.
I mean, it's going to be difficult and for j C ball if people
don't look at it for really what it's worth, and that's the opportunity you're
given those student athletes, male and female in any sport, an opportunity to
not only improve their craft and maybe get a break and go to a big
time school, but getting an education. And if people don't look at the
fact that you're keeping kids in school, JC football's in trouble. J C
Ball's in trouble. Period. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the answer
that we thought you'd say, right Jay, Because it's tough. It's tough
now, especially under these conditions. Let me ask you. We got about
five minutes, so there's a lot to talk to you about. You're sixty
ish sixty, What are you gonna do? I mean, competitors compete,
what are you gonna do? Well, I'm gonna try to compete a little
bit better at golf. I'm probably gonna we're gonna travel a little bit,
you know, I mean, And that's exactly the key here, right.
I'm gonna be sixty three years old in July, and uh, thank god
I made it through this this illness this winter, which is just insane,
and you know, I'm just gonna do Honestly, I don't want to punch
a clock. I'm just gonna sit back and if I want to do something,
I'll go clean golf carts or paint my house and play some golf and
get them traveling in and then who knows. You know, I've been asked
by several people to coach football, and I'm like, I need a year
off and then we'll just we'll see where we're at. But you know that,
you say, what are you gonna do after the day after you retire?
So I'm gonna stay in bed. I don't even care if I'm not
sleeping because I wake up at five o'clock anyway, don't do that, go
clean the yard or so one day. I don't know what that feel like,
you do it, do it, you'll enjoy it, Thedn't you do
it again the next day. It can become a bad habit right away.
Right, you might gain some weight though, you know, just beat a
slug. Maybe start a radio show or something, right, go do a
radio show with these with two old guys. Yeah, the three old guys,
three year old guys. Exactly right. My knees are about eighty five,
so we can call it that. So, so let's talk a little
bit about you know, things going on this season. You know, just
how things are going basketball, both basketball teams nationally rank. You got baseball
you know Underway and and softball and those just U I don't know where you
at, man, how you feeling about things? Oh amazing? We uh
we We just had our golf team. We just finished second up in our
first tournament. So that went really well. Track, like I said,
is just blew it out of the water. They're just we've got I want
I might be missed speaking, but I think we have six number ones right
now in the nation. Wow. So yeah, And actually we in a
couple of areas and I think one of them is high jump. We're actually
one and two in the country. So tracks doing amazing and they head out
to Florida on Wednesday for nationals, for indoor nationals even though it's outdoors.
Baseball just ran off twelve in a row, had a rough weekend, but
they just tore it up. Softball went up to Phoenix and beat them to
took a double header from them this weekend, which is huge because they're number
three in the nation, you know, and basketball women just went up to
number eleven. I want to say men are thirteen, but I didn't get
a look at that. So I feel great. I mean, we're in
a great position. Yeah, no question. With about a couple of weeks
left, right before the tournament starts. Yeah, so basketball has uh we
we're gonna end up hosting first games, so with March seven and nine,
and then the at large bids go out if you don't win the tournament on
the tenth, and then they'll take off the next week and they'll be gone
for nine days. Track will come back the end of the week, and
uh they start their outdoor season right away at Willie Williams. And then like
I said, baseball and softball are going full full more, and so's golf
and and they'll be getting ready for nationals and and playoffs. We have about
a minute left, ninety seconds. Jim. Let me ask you this might
be a weird question. I think you were you were a police officer before
all this. How did that set you up to become this or to handle
you know, I've always h coached. So my dad, you know,
he was a barber at first and didn't make a lot of money in the
sixties, and and became extodian in high school. And my mom worked in
the office, and you know that he was always a big guy. He
did it. Wasn't a sports guy at all. Didn't didn't like him.
But he always wanted me to be a teacher. So when I had to
retire, my legs finally let go. I always coached as part of being
a police officer, So it was just natural fit for me to go back
to school and and get my degrees in that and uh and and and going
that route. And I've been blessed to have two amazing careers in my life
already, and not to mention a husband, dad, and grandfather. So
I'm a pretty lucky dude. I think I know somebody who knows you.
Uh, my brother Jean, I believe was your your sergeant at some point.
He sure was. Yeah, okay, I don't know if that's a
good thing for you or a bad thing, you know, to get that
out there. Great guy, he was a great guy. He was a
great sergeant. I wanted to give a shout. He's texting me, goes,
Jimmy worked free. Yeah he listen. You know, Jean has has
always been on my side, and even when I had to retire, and
and of course he was coaching softball eema. He's uh, he's always been
uh, he's always been on my side. So I owe him a lot.
He's a great guy. I love him. Well, Jim, We're
always on your side. Thanks for joining us. We'll have you back before
it's all over. Yeah. Oh I appreciate you guys so much. Thank
you always be will Thanks much. Thanks so so. What I realized from
all that is these you know, Kevin Bacon has six degrees of separation,
Jay's got about sixties and Tucson. I'm like, okay, you know,
hey, that my my my my kids hate that. Yeah, they hate
that. Everywhere. I always find that fascinating, isn't it? Everywhere we
go? Man, it doesn't matter everywhere we go. Okay, funny story.
We got to go now though, all right, we do have to
get out of here. We're gonna come back. We'll take your cause.
I want to talk court storming again. Uh you know, I've had a
lot of thoughts over that over the weekend. So let's let's do that,
and then we're gonna have breaking news at the top of the hour and Greg
Hanson in the second hours. To stick around. If you're an Arizona men's
basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take
a look back at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from
Loot, It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former
players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man
who led them, competed against them, and inspired them twenty five chapters for
his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot is an insight
to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one Email me
at Steve dot Rivera ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi. This is
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apply online today at a Team security dot net. Steve Rivera and Jaken Salez
they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports a Jet, Fox Sports
fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeartRadio wapp. Hey, welcome back to my
I on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay.
We've got Kevin with us. We got fifteen minutes. If we want
to call us, please do low. Our line is open five to zero
four one six seven four four zero. We'd love to hear from you.
Good weekend. Uh, Mosday's a big game. Yeah, uh, Saturday's
another big game. The rest are all big games, raw big game.
Well, you know, as you know again with Quhingon States in ACU,
that put that put the you know, pacwech championship in Arizona's hands. But
it's a tough roads on the road. I've said this a number of times.
I don't know how many how many, but I'm gonna ask you guys,
now, do you think the and it's helped them all your the Duke
win all the wins, But do you think the Duke win the first game
kind of threw things out of whack for Arizona? No, because because I
mean right, but I think what you're implying is that the Duke win told
us that Arizona is better than they are. And I don't think it necessarily
did that, partly because Duke has not turned not to be all that great,
right, Okay, realistic people would understand that. But and that's kind
of where I was maybe for some fans, Yeah, but where you know,
we beat Duke. We were able to win the national title from day
one, which is unrealistic. It's unrealistic to think that you can win the
national title. Even if they didn't beat them, they would think that.
But I'm just saying that no one thought they'd be Duke that first game.
No, But but what I'm saying is that regardless that Arizona, you can
sit there and think that there Arizona might win the national title. So whether
or not they beat Duke is but but they did, and that's what gave
them more loftier expectations by the fans, which are are real unrealist or realistic
or not realistic. Actually, I think it had had more to do with
the other games that came along, you know, uh beating Alabama, beating
Michigan State, beating uh uh. But we've seen that those teams are again
but as but as Arizona's going through that November December schedule, they were winning
all these games, you know, That's what it was. I think it
was the whole body of all the games of course that had that had fans
believing this team is really good. But the key is, Steve, it
is really good. They can win the national championship. I think you're I
don't know, maybe I'm putting words into your mouth but I feel like you're
saying they beat Duke and they gave them an unrealistic expectation they could win the
national champship when I think they the National championship is a realistic who's the day?
Who's the day? Though? That's fans. Are you talking about fans?
So that's what I'm talking about that, yes, they can. I
think it is a realistic expectation, and every year they think that. But
I thought that, I'm thinking that you didn't think they were ranked twelfth in
the country. But going to Duke. They beat Duke on the road and
oh god, let's get the reservations. Now, well, there was some
of that. Uh, there was a lot of a lot of that.
And then again like to your point, the Alabama win, the Michigan State
win, the Wisconsin which I think it was a very good win, has
kind of kind of kept it up. But then they hit the Pac twelve.
Yeah, and they said, oh no, yeah, yea, let's
take this call. Hi, you're on the Aaron Eye on the ball,
Hey Jay, Hey Steve, this is done, don how are you?
I'm all right? The win over Duke Art and I want to talk about
the court storming stuff too, but the win over due. It did set
some expectations. But the college basketball season on the whole is such a it's
like March madness the whole way through. I mean, who who's really health
served? As far as the top teams like Houston and Purdue. Well,
the last week Creighton goes to Yukon or beats Yukon and then loses the next
game. It happens all the time. People just see it here. It
happens all the time. Yeah, that's it's just crazy. It's a roller
coaster. Yes, And to try and to try to hang national championship hopes
on on every single game in a thirty game schedule, that's that's just exhausting.
Has been. That is a really good point. All right, what
do you What do you think on the court storming issue? You know what,
I have mixed feelings on it because I've been on the court a time
or two, like back from high school days and stuff like that. Of
course, at Arizona we don't storm the court because if we win, we're
supposed to. So that's that's another thing. But you got to think back
to it's sometime between like two thousand and six and two thousand eight or something.
They had a court storming at Tucson High in. One of the players
we talked about that mister K Joe K I think was his name. Yeah,
And you know, almost all of those kids that are running onto the
court, you know, they just want to be there with their friends and
you know, and celebrate this good time. But with so many people in
those small places, I mean, it's like you can't even be a Dodger
fan and go to the game in San Francisco and wear your stuff, you
know, you with the crowds and everything, there's something could happen at any
time, right Well, yeah, so I got mixed feelings about it because
I know it's a fun time, you know, to run out the football
field after a big game or whatever. But it's you know, it's it's
like time in place. I don't know, I don't know. It's well,
they're going to try to figure out what to do, but it's going
to be almost important. Don't know what. I don't know what you do
Joe K. Two thousand and four, two thousand and four, two thousand
and four. You know, maybe maybe the players just find their way to
the sideline and to a nusher and and wait it out. No, come
on, or you hit the lottery, you hit the lottery. Let me
see, I'm gonna wait a while to jump up and down because no,
no, no, no, no, I'm talking about the players that are
on the floor because we're talking about player safety, not not the not the
students have to protect the car rushers. Yeah, so what are you sharing
about them? What are you saying they should do. I'm just saying,
go find a nusher, Go find a security person, hang out with them,
because anybody that's rushing the court is going to try to stay away from
security, right, get off the floors. What you got to do.
And that's exactly all right. Don Hey, thanks about playing surface as fast
as you can. And then if you're on the wrong side to the locker
room, just make your way around the outside. Dog tomorrow calls about world
peace, we'll save that one too. You know, it's I think it's
a fun thing for all the students. I think it's a fun thing to
do. You make you you, you upset somebody. But on the other
hand, there's players safety, there's a safety of the referees and all that
stuff. A lot of stuff to worry about you understand with that thought,
and so we'll see you walk. It takes a boutch Don appreciate it.
Take care. I think it's a tough situation. It's a very tough situation.
You don't, Okay, he's sounds like I think he's thirty nine.
Now I'm looking at an ESPN story that ran in twenty thirteen. But you
know, the story on him was he you know, he got knocked down,
He got pulled down in a in a court storming at Tucson. I
saw a high school court's from when he got tackled, suffered a torn carrot
and artery, and I think he ultimately had a stroke. And you know,
he was headed to Stanford to play basketball. But nonetheless, and in
that case, it wasn't I've you know, if you've seen the video of
that, there wasn't anything he could do. Somebody just came up right behind
him and tackled it. So those instances are gonna happen if something that doesn't
happen. But you know, I watched Philip Hoski's Philip Hoski's situation. He
did not try to get off the court. He saw it coming. What
was what point was he on them in the court at the very end or
was that the very end? How could he prevent You know what I'm saying,
as soon as he saw the court storm happening, he needed to be
on his guard, and he was walking off like nonchalant. Well, he's
been accused of not being on his guard or being on his guarden, and
some people accused him of pushing the student and tripping the student. Have you
seen that? Yeah? But what I'm saying is what he should have done
is run the hell off the court because he saw it coming. I don't
I don't know if that was preventive. And you see you've seem you know,
you know players, and you know you do that and you figure out
there's just different ways, sure, you know. And again I'm not putting
it all on him because you know this thing and I don't know what they're
gonna do. There's been so many different things that have been But you know
what we know doesn't work is finding the schools because the kids don't give one
call. Yeah, yeah, because they're not paying stuff. You know,
the SEC Institute of those fines for football field storms, and that doesn't even
someone just suffered one hundred thousand dollars fine last week, I think the previous
week, uh one of the sec schools, and so that that doesn't matter.
What I thought was funny guy that uh Jay Bellist, Do you see
what he said? He said, you're not going to stop the court storm,
but the next one, get enough security that you keep everybody on the
court at the end of the courtroom and everybody gets a ticket or gets arrested,
and that'll stop it. And that was kind of interesting. I don't
know how you do that. You'd have to have, you know, one
hundred cops there to do that. Do not let anybody off the court.
You tell them if you go on the court, you're going to get arrested.
And then if the court storm happens, everybody who runs on the court
has to pay one hundred dollars or two hundred dollars fine or whatever it is.
Right, I thought that was that seems viable. Sounds good. However,
having worked for an organization that has to pay the cops, the extra
cops I know is not cheap. So one hundred cops, right, It's
the only thing I've heard though that seems viable, right, because you're not
going to be able to have enough cops there sure to keep it from happening.
And that was Jay Billis's point. You're not gonna stop it from happening
no matter how many cops you have there. I mean, we've seen videos
of the security people get on the field at a storm and they just let
the cops on the side. And the problem is the people getting hurt are
the old people trying to jump the fence. Right, the whole idea of
okay, everybody wait and then you can storm the court. That doesn't work,
right, And then it didn't work on Saturday. So I think you
find a way to punish the ones that actually storm the court. I don't
know how viable it is, but that's the only thing that even came close
to seeing. Hm. Maybe that might work. Yeah, good luck with
it. But you know, I don't know. I mean, Steve,
you know, we've been here how many years and there was one remember forget,
but that scared the crap out of me. People were jumping over the
stepping on the table where I was sitting me and the next guy jumping over
the top. And those are so called I wanted to get to another statement
here. Those are the old people, so called old people, like who
are sitting Yeah, who are sitting behind? I wanted to go there because
I'm gonna ask. We have doctor Robbins POSSI me. On Friday, they
got into a Facebook debate about the kids being on the sides, right,
that they should move them on the sides. We've talked about this not ever
possible. No, the kids don't pay the bills. The lums who have
those seats are not going to change their ways to move that seat. And
I'm thinking, why doesn't anybody understand this? There's too much money involved,
especially now, and it's never gonna happen. Also, we're talking about behavior
here, right, so like if you've moved, I mean, we aren't
even talking about earlier. Just this season we've talked about and last seasons two
with the UCLA incident. Yeah, we're talking about students getting too riley,
too unruly. You want to move them closer to the benches. Yeah.
I have a vivid memory of a court storm that I was in on and
that was when the students were sitting in bleachers on three sides of the court
those seventy eight The seventy eight game against ucl was seventy eight, seventy nine.
Yeah, it was against UCLA U S. I was number four,
beat them and the bleachers around on those recites emptied faster than you can even
imagine. And I was one of them, right, and and uh that,
No, you're not gonna be able to do that, for sure,
I don't. But you can't give those seats to them anyway. You can't,
just can't. I don't understand mean people Terry Francona sitting in the front
row in the floor seats. Yeah, you know you can't have students behind
those guys. No, it's it's so much. I got into it with
one of our guys team Unions, and he has all the solutions to solve
the world, and I think they're not gonna do it. And one of
the people responded to me is, well, why don't the people who buy
those tickets give them to the kids. You're gonna tell me you're gonna spend
five thousand dollars for a ticket and give those tickets away? Who in the
right mind? And then they responded, I talked to a couple of people
that they said they would do that. Who stop it? That's like the
person that went on and tweeted, Arizona's got hiring for you? Why are
they hiring a football coach? That is so I don't get it, Jay,
to the point. To the point is I read this for our discussions
and stuff. If I read it just for whatever reason, I'm thinking,
why in that world am I reading this craft? I don't look at me.
I don't know what it's like on Facebook, your Twitter, and you're
thinking, does it anybody doesn't make any sense? Read it? And I
continue to read it, and I'm thinking, what the hell that's your ticket?
I mean, first of all, how do you find someone to pick
you? Like? Walking around campus? Like, all right, who's the
who was my front row seeds? Who's sober? Who does not drink?
Who's not gonna yell? What are the people who have those seats? Are
you kidding me? You mean to me, I'm gonna pay and give them
away? Doesn't make any sense to me. Zero, We'll talk and we're
gonna see if we have doctor, doctor Robinson and Friday. What's the possibility
of what you possibly do? All right, we're at the top of the
hour and take our break. We're losing our mind. Kevin's back with breaking
News and then Greg Hanson at about four to twenty stick around