This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalaz on Fox Sports
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R two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jagan Zawas. We have our guys sitting in today for two hours.
What keeps you up at night? Jay? What kissed me up at
night having to go to the bathroom? Well, besides that, I'm in
the same boat. Did I hate getting out of it? Eh? I
don't know. I mean I got I got all kinds of things swirling in
my head at night. Yes. The reason why I ask is this morning
I got up I at two ten, two fifteen, and I just couldn't
go back to bed, so I got on you know the stupid thing they
do, get on the phone, to get on the phone and go through
stings and social blah blah blah. And then I said, then I read
France for Schella talking about talking about nil and it reminded me of my our
conversation with the idea yesterday. Coaches are gonna have to coach now, especially
at this level, and not they didn't do it before, but the best
players, they're not gonna get them, not if they don't have a cash
cow somewhere deep. And it became I do this before. I'm very well
aware now given Arizona situation at men and women right, because she really opened
my eyes. And now, if you're not gonna get the best players,
guess what you gotta do. You gotta coach up the ones you get.
You gotta coach up the ones that you get. That's what I just I
didn't wake up thinking about it. Well I saw them, and I'm thinking,
you know what, it could cost a lot of good coaches jobs.
But Steve in the sense that it's always been like that, right because Alabama
always got the better players because they were Alabama. Now now because they have
more money, now it's gonna be and you know, and the Dick Tomy's
of the world had to had to go get guys that they could coach up.
The big The big problem with that now is, though, is that
you get a guy or a girl, a woman player and if they're not
immediately satisfied or immediately see potential in the place that they are, they'll go
somewhere else. So that's the that's the rub on this thing. So in
that tweeter, twit twit tweeted, tweet tweet one of those words. Uh,
some guy came in, you know, the random the tweeter came in
and said, do you know how much they paid for Jordan Brown? You
remember him? Jordan Brown? Yeah, he went to you know where he's
at. You know where he went that He ended up like Alabama State or
something, Louis It moved to Memphis. This was his final stops last year.
Just one of those fringe players, blah blah blah. But he had
played it so well. Losing a penny hardway took him expecting right, Well,
he didn't play much because he had issues. I guess he left for
nine games unexplained reportedly, I want to say, definitely, reportedly, four
hundred thousand Jesus for a guy, for a guy that was mediocre at best.
You saw, I saw, yeah, yeah, I mean I remember
fans being kind of disappointed that he left, but certainly not heartbroken. And
do you remember the meeting with Tommy, Well, that's right, Tommy had
told him, you're the guy, and he transferred the next day, you're
the guy. And we you know, whatever he said we were in that
room, we were outside of And that's where this is going to get all
kind of crooked, Steve, because whereas before, you know, if you
misevaluated somebody, okay, it costs you a scholarship. But now you mis
evaluate somebody, it's going to cost you more several hundred thousand dollars that you
might have given to somebody who is good or who is uh, you know,
a good investment. And and there yes, there's so many more things
at stake now with all of this. And I saw somebody else you know,
this Facebook world, in the Twitter world. Uh well now it was
some guy says, now the alumbs are gonna have to step up and give
money and up. Actually, if you're a fan, you everybody's gonna everybody
has to everybody. We talked about this with the with the the collective.
Who's if you're gonna bitch about it on this thing that we call called the
World Wide Web, you might have to be you might have to help.
Well, that that's the thing, you know, Whereas before, you know,
people like me look, am I a big donor to the vein?
No, I get little bits, right. You know, I have a
I have a premium on my seat, and I, uh, you know,
my football ticket and you know things like that, Uh I buy.
I buy season tickets to football and anybody you know, my wife's got season
tickets to women's basketball, those kinds of things. That's not gonna be enough
anymore, you know, Uh, we we are. You know, those
of us who have have been said, I'm doing my part by buying tickets,
You're gonna have to do more. I'm curious, have they called you
out of the blue because they're calling people. They call me all the time
to say what are they asking? I don't answer the call. Well,
I see, I see a six two six number. I'm not answering.
So you're part of the problem. I am part of the problem. I
am. I am, and I'm not because I do buy tickets. Plus,
you know, I give my time to you know, to those guys.
I give a lot of time to those guys. So you know,
because because I'm there, they don't have to pay a statistician right that maybe
other schools might have to. So I feel like I donate a lot of
a lot of my time and and and things like that to do things that
go on over there. I've only got you know, I've only got so
much money to give, and I give it in terms. You know,
we're going to get two more seasoned football tickets this year because my daughter's are
here, right, and you know, so everybody has their way, but
yes, everybody's gonna have to do some more. So, I mean,
just just listening to a DYA yesterday channel sounded desperate, desperate in her tone,
right, Yeah, it was like, well I didn't realize that.
And she's talking millions at LSU and here thousand, one hundred and fifty whatever
it is, whatever the bank account looks like. And you know, I
hang out with the boosters, you know, you know that, and I
have some big ones who have money. And I'm saying this for a reason.
They're getting calls all the time, and they and we talk about booster
fatigue. They haven't reached that point, but they get calls all the time.
And like I said before, I mean a month ago that people are
starting to lay off people to accommodate, to accommodate that, I mean,
Burt Lopez got the call when you know, to keep a team act and
spread time and for feet of you know, from leaving after after Jed left,
and then we find out from then we find out from him. It
wasn't Washington that Arizona was up against for team act, was Alabama, you
know. So when the Alabama's come, you know, come crawling around,
you know, it's hard to compete with those guys. It's twenty two.
I think I read Goodman a day or two ago, and he says it's
going to be interesting. And I follow these guys just because I'm curious and
not because I'm gonna report with the reporting, but he says, you know,
it's going to be interesting in the next few days or weeks. I
can't remember what you said because the nil money checks come in. They come
in. I didn't know they came in at a certain periods, you know.
I thought it was gonna be a monthly thing or whatever. They come
in and once that check cash is what did they jump? Yeah, well
you get your last paycheck. Nice seeing you. If the schools and the
athletes aren't having contracts for all of this stuff, then that's their fault.
So if there's a there's a contract in place, and and somebody says,
well, I got my money, I'm leaving, but there's a contract in
place that says, well, then you got to give us the money back.
And how do you not do that? You have to do that.
Don't you buy before? It's basically pro sport now, right, Yeah,
I gotta have contract. Yeah, and we talked about that in terms of
Okay, now there was suptible criticism. You didn't do this, you didn't
do that, you won zero for nine from the floor in a crucial time.
We're cutting you, We're putting you on waivers. Yeah, yeah,
you know that's gonna have that's gonna have to be. And again, you
know we're probably I mean I you know, we're probably not far away from
these players actually being employees of the schools. Yeah. I hate it,
and there's a lot of people who don't want it, even a lot of
you hear a lot of athletes don't want it. But I think, just
in terms of the way our country functions in terms of labor, I don't
see how they're not going to be employees at this school. And just bringing
me to one of my first points before this all started, in our conversations
with us. Okay, Jay, you get paid one point five million for
this year. You're the starter, you're second string guy. I'm the seventh
guy off the bench. I'm a little pissed. I'm getting fifty thousands,
I'm getting twenty. I'm the ninth place guy. I getting up there?
Yeah? Or nothing? What it's like or your Jordan guys, who's you
know, trying to get into the Olympics bringing all this visibility and prestige to
the to the track program and he gets his name on some water bottles and
you know, ten thousand dollars right right, Well, and we most importantly
were more example better exampleotball on the center and you have some guy behind me
getting fifteen hundred yards. Well, how did that happen? Yeah? I
think I opened whold or two. Yeah. Yeah. Although I think we've
said before though, what you're hearing is that offensive linemen are the next highest
paid valuable football players after quarterback. As it should be, as it should
be, ye, as it should be, even even above running backs.
And the defensive players will say, ay, what about us? Yeah right,
Well that's the thing, you know, the cornerback, the safety,
the linebacker. Uh, you know, the defensive lineman, those guys.
It's really going to become like the NFL, where the market, maybe a
market for a running back isn't as much if you invest in an offensive line,
right, stuff like that. I'm getting up in the age now.
Maybe I'm cranky, like it was a Bill Bright. I don't. I
don't hate. I don't like anything. You're up in the age. I
don't. And you love sports, you just love, but you you're selective.
I'm getting the point of, I'm not sure I like this anymore.
Yeah, really no, they're Steve. There's there's a there's a lot of
people who are like that. And who you know, I mean, I
even you know some of the people that I know who are generally you know,
die hard fans start starting to say stuff like that, like, you
know, I don't know that I want I'm gonna, you know, follow,
I don't. I don't know. I'm gonna keep fulling. I don't
know, you know, I'm thinking maybe maybe instead of buying tickets, I'm
just gonna watch these games at home. You know, that's where all the
money's coming from. Anyway, So what what what does my two hundred dollars
for a football ticket matter. It does because you got to you got to
get fifty thousand of those, you know, in a game. But you
know, you're you're starting to hear things like that, like, well,
you know, I hate this, I hate that, I don't know the
players. I hate the players can come and go. You know, we've
got Caleb Love out there saying, well, I don't know if I'm gonna
come back, but I might. I don't know. Well maybe you know
people hate that after being used to you know, athletes, and they come
and they're here for three, four or five years and you get to know
them and you feel like they care about your program and your school. Then
you realize know that all they really care about is is, you know,
is the lettuce that comes with it. It's funny, go ahead. It's
like, uh, you know in professional sports, when you buy a jersey
for a guy, right, and then next year somewhere else, right,
Yeah, that's why you see the burning of the jerseys. You know,
you just spend whatever they cost, one hundred bucks and now it's being burned
in the corner. Yeah, having college right, right, So I saw
this interesting today. Colin Boswall put the tweet out today with himself in the
Illinois uniform when he was a kid, he had Illinois stuff because he's obviously
from there, from the same city. And here is our life really comes
full circle nineteen years here and happy. I know that's that's good for you,
Colin. Were you happy? Were you not happy here? Were you're
not happy here? It's like the guys that I know who they've married a
couple of times to the reasons, I've never been happier. And you had
five kids with this woman before. Were you kind of happy at some point
at least five times? I've always thought that was distasteful when you when somebody,
when somebody on their third wife says that she's the love of my life
one, I mean, my my, my soulmate. I'm like, you
had two other ones? Didn't two other souls? I know too many people
with second and third ones? I should I should stop right there, all
of you guys. Yeah. I wasn't singling anybody, but you know what
I mean. Uh, And I just thought that was kind of kind of
fun. Okay. Uh. And so we're gonna go to uh guess what
do we like today? Okay, We've got Lamont Honley coming in we'll talk
to move a football with him, how things are going. He's always he
always gives us some good perspective on what he sees out there. I want
to talk to all this and then there's all this stuff. He's a he's
a he's you know, Lamon's a businessman. He's in Tucson, supports the
U of A. You know, how much can a guy like Lamont dude?
And I think he said, I mean, he's got pretty he's got
a pretty good business. But you know, yeah, I don't think he
does. I think if we asked this question before and said none, I've
already been involved, like, yeah, I'm already heavily invested time tickets,
right, you know, all the game. Yeah, And I'm curious to
ask him about Larry Smith. What would Larry Smith be thinking about all this?
Yeah, yeah, because that's what we played for, right, right.
And when we talked about Dick told me we talked about Lout, I
think he would be just I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah,
Lout for sure, because it was beyond his control. It is pretty much.
But I think though because of Loupy Lout, he had away with the
donors. Well, that's That's the thing that we don't know is if lut
was you know still you know in this you know coaching in this era,
how much influence would he have on you know, building you know an nil
pot of money, you know, did he have more swaye than say Tommy
Lloyd or even a Sean Miller or anybody else that's been around. So that's
hard to know, Okay. The second and then John Wilner, who today
well he actually put it up yesterday. Was it ran in today's arizon a
Daily Star did a piece on the finances at the U of A, the
deficit that they're running forty three million or so that they ran in the fiscal
year that ended in twenty twenty two three twenty twenty three, and basically saying
the Arizona is not unlike a lot of other programs that they're just this is
what they're going through right now. And so if you get a chance to
read the story, well in the next hour, you know, it might
be a good good homework assignment. Before we talk to him in the four
fifteen segment, but just basically a storied you know, he took a look
at everything and just said Arizona's not like not unlike anybody else, particularly in
the Pac twelve. I don't know if you remember this one we had the
president Robinson, I asked him, says, I would assume, I would
assume because of the pandemic that other schools are going through this and it hasn't
been publicized yet. Well here we are, yeah, here we are.
You know, people are finding out. And in fact I just ran across
a little bit ago a on somebody named Tony Aaltimore. I don't know where
we got these grap who the sources on these graphics, But the schools in
the Big twelve county are ze right, next year's Big twelve, only three
of them, three of them we're in the we're in the black. And
you have you know, you have Arizona at forty seven million, uh Ace
who had forty eight, uh Colorado at forty one, Utah sixteen, Central
Florida at forty, Houston forty seven, Cincinnati forty three. The only ones
that were that were in the in the black were Texas Tech, Kansas and
Kansas State. Well, okay, you got to go, all right,
get hold of the month. All right, Well we'll go, we'll talk
to Lamont Huntley and just it's so much going on in athletics. Again,
Lamons, you know it was a player. He's a businessman. More sponsors.
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free evaluation. Today. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and
Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the
iHeartRadio WIP just Surgery. I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to
you. I on the Ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera. He's Jay Gonzalez. Now on the fun we have Themont Huntley,
former Arizona football All American, one of our great sponsors. Lamont. How
you doing. I'm doing good, man, I'm doing good. Ready for
this summer? You're not ready? Not ready, But we'll get to that
point after the spring game. So I'm sure you've been to the practice of
time. You'll be our correspondent today. So if you've been to the practices,
what have you seen? Well? I seen I seen kids out there
working as far as trying to figure out what the next step is, as
far as the next step itself in my opinion, in my view, I
seen mostly they may observe the mo is, certain coaches on the field really
giving themselves to these kids. As far as going back to old school technique,
going back to old school fundamentals of the game of football. I like
what I've seen as far as the management of the coaching staff as far as
dealing with each other internally, and there's no external craziness in my opinion,
everything is internal off that end of it, and they work collectively together.
I mean nine times out of ten they out there corresponding with one another,
and you don't know they they're doing that because of this hitset system they got,
which I mean, I think it's pretty cool to have that. So
for my I view that end of it, I think that's that's all been
a positive of that aspect cover it. When you when you say old school,
right, we're not, I mean you're you're really I mean this is
you know, they've got two old school guys as coordinators, you know,
doing the keen uh you know here in the eighties and the nineties. Do
you know neighbors here in the nineties, you know, and then you have
Brent Brennan who was like a child when those guys were here. How is
that? What have you seen from that whole dynamic out there? You know
what Jay? You know what I kind of lacking what I see in Brennan.
It's what I saw me being a player when Coach Smith got here as
a coach, and Coch Smith himself, as far as a head coach walking
walking out the field with his staff, Coach Smith, in my opinion,
was more of a you know, he was more of a manager than actual
coach. And I see those same characteristics and and and Brennan and Coach Brennan.
He's out there managing you know, the actual practice itself in regards to
you know, day to day operation, and and no doubt in my mind,
when he's behind closed doors, he's probably a whole different person. He's
more in charge when he's behind door. But on the field, he let
his coaches do all the coaching and he and I think, I think that's
a good way of managing grown men, as far as grown coaches that's out
there trying to manage players. Yeah, super no, because because we sawd
that you know, Jet Fish was the offensive coordinator, right, so you
felt like like he was occupied with that and you wondered, you know,
okay, so he's really put the whole h all the other aspects of of
of you know, their their system in the hands of the other guys,
whereas as it sounds to me like Brandon, you know, he's overseen all
of it. I'm sure he's lady who coaches, coach, but he's kind
of saying, but I'm still the one who's kind of directing things. Is
that right? Right? Yeah? And that's that's exactly what I'm saying,
and and and and and that, And me personally, I like that approach.
And as that's as I said earlier, and there's no doubt in my
mind behind closed doors when he's in his staff meetings, he's in charge of
things at that point in time. He's running the show at that point of
time, and he might have seen some on the field that he didn't approve
of, and he's letting these coaches know. It can be a guy that's
twenty years older than him but getting to steal. He's letting them know,
you know, this is my show, and this is what I expect from
you to do these kids out on the football field. And again I like
it. I like it to what I see as a player, you know,
under the watching coach Spith. Well, okay, so that's good.
Now we know more about the football program anything else from well systematically, can
you tell any differences? I know it's hard to tell when they're just practicing
and stuff like that, But does it look like they're doing, you know,
a lot of the same things, or can you tell the same thing?
They're not particularly defensively, it's a whole different defense. It's not the
same defense fight by no means the scheme of the defense has changed a lot
in regards to It's not a plug type of a defense anymore. It's gonna
be more of an aggressive defense. And they're gonna try to meet behind the
line of scrimmage versus letting the offense meet at the line of scrimmage. You
know, he's using his second level players as far as a lot of man
coverage and also meeting in the backfield per se. Now now, offensively,
you know, I can I can see I can see more teaching offensive and
maybe because of the spring ball right now, but offensively, I can see
more teaching going on, and more hands on and and and and and and
making a mistake of teaching moment. I see more of that than I've seen
in the previous coaching staff, and and and particularly when I said it's the
particular person and that I see that's happened with more than anybody. It's the
off. It's a line coach. I mean, I mean he just to
me, he's a phenomenal teacher from what I've seen that the few times I've
been out there, and and he got his guys in sync. He's doing
the simple things, watching defeat, moving the wrong way, stepping here and
there. As soon as he sees something that's not right, it's a teaching
moment. And that's correct that. Now that that said, Lemon, let
me ask you, so you have two different styles of coaching, last year's
and this year's, and I'm sure there's a ton of them. Is there
a right way or a wrong way? Or can you skin a skin a
cat different ways and still be good at it? You know what I'm saying.
Maybe the kid was taught differently last year, now this guy wants it
differently, but still both are good. I mean it both still be good.
And and here here, here, here's the goodness when it comes to
Steve. The goodness is how you're going to deliver your message to those kids,
to get those kids to believe in what you're saying and what you're doing,
okay, And and and again when I when when I see that offensive
line coach out there coaching and not out there and and and I'm not trying
to put any any disc you know, bad feelings into Carl last year,
but I see this guy coaching and teaching and not being a cheerleader in my
opinion, and not a raw person. I mean, he's he's really he's
really honing in on on the important things, especially on the offensive line and
defensive line and you know in your defensive backs too, when it comes to
your footwork. Those things are so important to have because you can't think about
it when you're about to react. And here's the only time that you really
can do that and really teach that, you know, and put that in
their head where become programmable automatically versus a thinking about it. Okay. And
I see that, and and and and you know, and I applaud the
guy, you know, because I saw it. And that's and I was
like amazed that this is taking place. That makes sense. Now now to
one of the things we definitely wanted to have you on. You must be
I'll say, disheartened. You can use whatever word you want with all the
transfers, all the demands for money in basketball and football, because I know
you're a big basketball fan, you go to the game, sitt front Row
Center, and now football obviously we have a big connection to Again that you're
very disheartened all the stuff that's going on with n I L and transfers and
stuff like that. I mean, as a fan, you just hate that.
And you're connected, Yeah, and you know, and you're absolutely right.
I'm not. I'm not a fan of it as far as how it
takes place, but but I am in the realization that is happening, you
know, and and and and I can only do so much financially. Whatever
I can do, I try to do. But I'm not one of those
that believe that I need to give a kid one hundred thousand dollars to let
them perform on the on the football field or the basketball field. I mean,
of course, I just don't think. I don't think we're doing a
good service to these kids. But you still, in order to be you
know, competitive and productive, you know, unfortunate dollars is what's controlling and
ruining everything right now. And it's statting to me and and now, Yeah,
you're right, I'm in it because you know, my brother, he's
the one who's helping with that right now, is particularly on the football end
of things, and so so so you know, it's it's kind of like,
you know, do I do I agree with this? Is this job?
Or should they be giving these kids this kount of money? It's it's
it's I don't know, it's it's just it's just baffled me that that we
at this stage of this world, that we got to, you know,
pay eighteen years old to get out there play a game that he posed to
love. Exactly. Let me ask you that said, uh, you had
a former coach in coach Smith, why would he think about all this?
He'll be turning in his grave right now. I mean, I mean,
I'm sure all these old coaches are turning grave. I mean, look at
the makeup now. Coaches don't want to coast no more, right you know,
so coaches that believe in the game and love the game, they want
to get out of the game because they don't want to mess with all of
this other stuff that's going on and try to get these kids, you know,
paid all this money. You know, I'm setting it the fact that
we setting these kids up for failure in life. I mean that just the
other day I talked. I was telling Brennan, I said, man,
I want to see these kids ten years from now. Let me see these
kids ten years years from now. And first and foremost that none of them
are gonna graduate from anywhere. Secondly, they're gonna have no allegiance as far
as coming back to ten twenty years from now, You're not gonna be that.
You're not even gonna have alumni weekend because there's gonna be no alumni to
come back to the weekend, you know, because you know, nobody have
no loyalty to any school. So it's gonna be a whole disconnect ten to
twenty years from now. Well, you know, they guess sorry. That
gets your point that you know, we've made a number of times about people
like you. Uh. You see all these athletes that have stuck around Tucson
because you were here. You were here for four years, five years,
whatever. You made connections, you met business people, you got your degree,
all those things, and so you've been able to build a successful life
out of that. A business, you know, whether it's been in business
or just having a great job you think of Matt Mulebach, Cory Williams,
all these guys, you know, Bob Allio and all those guys, and
that these guys who come for a year then go to the next school,
then the next school and the next school. They're not making those connections.
You know, Caleb Loff could come back in fifteen years and people aren't going
to know who he is, you know, if he doesn't stick around or
you know whoever they are, right, I mean, and that's important idea,
and people just start I think the athletes aren't recognizing that how important that
is because of the bank, you know, they chasing the bag and chasing
it opportunity to be hopefully to play, and it's said and also the fact
that they got family members who was ahead of them trying to find a place
for them for you know, more dollars and things of that particular nature instead
of looking out the well being of these kids, and they're looking out the
fact is they you know, first of all, they gotta have some i
mean, you know, social positional skills as far as being able to be
a kid when you're eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, they can't even
be kids right now, in their heads. They trying to, you know,
find that next opportunity to particularly basketball, to play, you know,
in the NBA. And it's sadden me because none of them gonna play in
the NBA, you know, none of them gonna play in DNA. I'm
just looking at our team just just just just now, just these kids are
leaving now. None of those kids are ready to play in the NBA,
none of them in my opinion of the little basketball I know. But all
of them think they ready to play in the NBA. So they're gonna leave
here, go to Illinois and Indiana, and they're gonna be forgotten people here
Tucson at the University of Arizona, a great institution that that that can,
like you say, create these long relationships. I mean, I got relationship
with with Brandy Robbins and David Adams and you know, and and Byron Evans
and uh, I mean this weekend, I mean I'm helping this Byron,
I'm Brandon do a golf tournament for guys coming in. We got like seventy
guys that's coming in to play. God. But like I say, ten
years, twelve years from now, we're probably gonna have two guys. You
know, because the real Wildcats, as far as the ones that lord to
our university, we probably gonna be dead and gone, and these no one's
gonna be around to really really appreciate what the university has done for them,
you know, right, and what you got out of the university. I
mean, I mean, I just hate it. I just hate it.
In N two fix, that's definitely God completely lost money. I'm glad that
I'm on your nil advertiser. Hey, you're actually Steve. It should be
the other way. I think I can get more out of my name.
You get out of Yorks and I'm getting you. Be quiet, Be quiet,
you know. I think I think the name Hundley got more Paul behind
it than you know, you know, Steve and Jay. I'm not you
know what, Lamon, We're not gonna argue with you on that one.
We're just not. We're not, by the way, the but we do
appreciate the time Lamar always thanks about you, all right, God bear down,
lad, But no, but you know it's a good point. Look,
you can look all over town. They're they're you know, they're got
people who've been athletes in Arizona, men and women were here making a living,
you know, long term, right, Lamon's been here since for forty
years. Yeah, right, and he and here he is, you know,
and and they're all doing well because they've used those connections. And that's
that's a big piece of what's being lost in all of this. Sure,
well, look we got to go. We'll come ahead and other tide to
talk. All right, Yeah, let's let's kick this around some more.
So, well, we'll be back. We'll love to take your cost five
two zero, four, one, six, seventy four forty give us a
bus. 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 five former players, coaches and friends to give insight
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shocks and coming Tucson. It's Centurion time. May the fourth be with you
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online at the Centurions dot Com. That's the Centurions dot Com. Steve Ribera
and Jacin Salles, they have their eye on the ball. On Tucson Sports
Stage, Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifteen, Welcome back to Why of the Ball
Hero, Fox Sports fourteen fifty hubs. Steve, he's Jay, your sid
Jay. You'll call pretty today. You know I had to get all gussied
up today, Steve. No, now got to go to an event.
Well, you know, we're doing a little bit too sound work today.
We guys should remind people that were not reminded. But let people know.
You're gonna have to leave after the breaking news segment because you've got to go
cover the ribbon cutting for the new golf facility at Tuson Country Club, the
U of A men's and women's golf facility over there. It looks a really
nice building, it's really cool, but they're going to cut the ribbon on
that today. I think it's the Bill Clements facility or something like that.
So you'll you've got to go do that. I've got to go cover an
event for a Sun Corridor event down at the Fox Theater right right. I
mean, I got a haul out of here right as soon as the show
is over. So the the podcast will be going up a little late again
tonight. We're just busy, guys, Steve. Yeah. In fact,
the podcast which was I thought we had a pretty decent interview with the with
the DA right, it's it's up, gets up. It's been up.
Yeah, so you can uh uh you know what, I only put it
up on on on Twitter. I didn't put it up on Facebook. But
if you go to our Twitter feed you can see it at the top of
our profile. Uh. In conversation, in addition to the conversation we just
had with Lamont Huntley about money has become the number one factor in everything right
now. It's all about the money. You know, we heard a Da
Barnes yesterday. She said that that Ni l is the number one, two,
three, four, five and six things that's they talk about, you
know when she's recruiting. You know, you got Lamont who has all those
connections to the u A as as a player, an All American football player.
You know, his brother is on the football staff. He's a businessman.
He's you know, certainly somebody that if you know, I don't know
how much he's donating, but I'm certain he gets phone calls, probably more
phone calls than I do, because he's you know, he's done. You
know, he's so visible and and all that and how everything revolves around that.
No, it's just a tough time, like I tell you, I
tell you that the coaches are there's a new challenge and no one promised,
okay say no one who would have thought that it would come down to this.
As a coach, you're more than a coach, your salesman. And
not that they hadn't been before. But this is like on steroids. But
but when guys like Nick Saban leave the profession because of this, Yeah,
that I mean that, that more than anything else, tells you what's going
on here and how bad it is. Let's take this call h Are on
the air and Eye on the ball. Hey, guys, is Rick Beck?
What's up? So? I had a couple of questions and the first
one when Jay writes his check for five hundred thousand dollars, is that that's
deductible? Uh? Honestly, some of it is. I don't know.
I don't know the tax in terms of like nil money, you know,
if it's going directly. I don't have the answer. Yeah, is it
tax deductible? Well, let me tell you this. Vic. We're trying
to get Ray Wells. We try to get him this week, but he's
very busy, he told me this week, So we're gonna get him on
next week, we'll ask him that question. We should know, Okay,
I'm sure we'll get it up and then you guys have kicked this around.
But how long is this gonna last with no return investment? There's how many
this is in its infancy right now. But people that are donating a million
dollars can't do it every year, right, Right, We've talked about that.
I know it's it's unbelievable. Even if even if the NCY double A
or whomever's in charge it decides that they can't do this anymore, you're gonna
tell me that players are going to say no, no, no, no,
we're going to continue this, and you're still gonna pay me, whether
it's above board or under the table. Yeah. Hey, and Vic,
I just looked this up real quick to answer your question. Uh, And
I'm not sure what the website this is that says this, but it says
that, and I did. Donations to nil collectives are not tax deductible because
because the private quote unquote, the private benefits they provide to student athletes are
not incidental, both qualitatively and quantitatively to any tax exempt purpose further by that
activity. Right. So yeah, so you're just you're just you're just giving
away. Man. You have said this before, Steve, How are you
gonna still pay for weight rooms and uh coaching and all that stuff. It's
yeah, the free internship to the NBA and the NFL is not again.
I don't know how sustainable is the word that I keep coming up with.
I don't I don't know how this long term this can continue to go because
the last thing, real quick, I mean you guys, these guys are
getting the best weight room, the best coaching, food room and board and
and how is that sustainable? Like and importantly Vic, you know, for
the programs that have built those kinds of things, you know where a football
locker has a TV and a video game and all that, they went into
debt to build that stuff. So they're having to service they're having to service
that debt at the same time they're having to ask for more money. Yeah,
wow, Okay, thank you guys. They're amazing, But you're kind
of hit it on the head. I don't know how long I can keep
watching, right, It's hard. It's hard. It's getting harder without any
loyalty too. It's just you know, hey, Jay or Vic, thank
you, Vick, Jay I you know, I gave ten thousand dollars especially
for this guy X to play to play here, and look at what he's
averaging two point nine points in game and three rebounds. Yeah, I don't,
I don't. I'm not happy. I mean, okay, look and
look, we know tam Mac is going to be good. But whatever amount
of money that Bert Lopez has given him, and yell, whatever service he's
providing. Let's say TAC doesn't do so well, how much value is there
to that? Hi, you're on there and eye on the ball. Hey,
Jay, he Steve has done it. Donny, what's up? Man?
Hey? You know what? I think. It's gonna take one of
the big dogs, an L, s U, an Alabama, Ohio State
or somebody to make their ni L a two year or three year commitment unless
you declare for the draft and you go. And if you leave, if
you try to leave, because the NCAA rule says you can transfer, but
if you leave my collective, I want my money back. Some semblance.
It's gonna it's gonna take. It's gonna take an ironclad contract that says you're
gonna be here for for three years two years if you declare for the draft
and give up your college eligibility. Yeah. No, you make a good
point, becauseho's in the weaker position something like that. Right, is it
the school that's giving the money and saying, you know, they're the one.
Is the contract more important to them or is it more important to the
athlete. You know, the athlete says Okay, well I need to know
that I'm going to get my money, but the school needs says well,
I need to know that you're going to be here. I think I think
the schools are more under the gun because you know, you get a kid,
you get a five star kid that has nobody to to help, you
know, help them make decisions, and he's jumping at the big dollar every
year, and right now there's nothing, there's nothing to stop them. There's
nothing to hold them up for Hey, you know, wait a minute,
we're giving you X dollars, you know, opportunity for an education, the
exposure of being on it, you know, on a you know, you
know, top top ten team and on all that stuff. It's right now,
it's not fair to the schools who it's not fair to, right because
because even kids that have no business making any spare money are making money.
We don't know how much, but they're getting something right, no question.
And nineteen year old you're paying of a million. He's not going to give
a crap about the school situation. They reported the whole roster, the whole
scholarship roster of Utah got a truck, which if I was a student up
there, I would not be driving that truck after hours. That's for dang
sure, because you know they got GPS on them. But that's another that's
another discussion, right right, Okay, yeah, I mean you go to
that remember the Spencer Rattler getting those ings, he got two vehicles? Did
he get to keep those right after he left? You think? Well?
But who knows? Yeah, it all depends on how the paperwork went exactly,
exactly exactly, you know, and the collective, you know, the
collective you know, because I don't want to name names of who's giving out
that money. But you know, it's like, hey, I'm putting this
into you and I'm bettering, I'm bettering your situation, but you've got to
give me something back, and a little bit more than just to play on
the field. I need a commitment, right, And that's only fair.
That's only fair. Because that's that's what the rest of us have to do
out in the world. Right. So that's why I don't believe in the
word fair, because nothing's fair. Well, no, maybe not fair,
but I don't know. I don't know another word to you, but it's
a little more even that way, if you go, Okay, I'm going
to give you this, but I need a commitment from you. The funny
thing about it is we'ma making a great point in terms of after this is
all done, they're coming gun and they've been paid in ten years. They
don't have a degree because the gun bounced around. They didn't care about the
degree, and then what are they doing? Well, you know what are
they up to? Probably nothing? Yeah? The money that is going to
last, right, yeah, I mean it's it's truthfully, at nineteen years
old, even a million dollars, that's not life changing money that if you
got to have it for the rest of your life, right, Donnie,
can you adopt me. I'm in trouble right now. I didn't have any
money. I just have thoughts. I want some of those thoughts. I
mean, but if but if I had money, I for dang sure would
be finding a way of getting a commitment on my money to try to make
this, to try to raise this program. And I think it's I think
it's only right that, you know, because if you give a kid money,
six months later he's gone, or six months later he gets the duy
and gets kicked off the team or whatever. You know, I mean,
you're taking it. There's a lot of risks out there for something like that.
I mean, everybody takes a risk when they make an investment, but
something like that, boy, you just I don't know. Well, that's
I mean, you go with the NFL, with the personal what is the
personal conduct? Plus the guys get cut and their contracts get canceled. You
know, all that stuff's got to be put in there. And right now,
who knows, we have We have no idea what is that is.
It's just is it just a bag of money? Right right? Right?
Well, Donny, thanks for calling, Thanks for calling us always all right,
man, appreciate it. Thanks, guys, have a good one.
You know. Another thing that's not factored into this that we that I saw
in that tweet, uh APR APR the GPA of the teams where guys leave
the transfer. That's got to be such a mess. Right to track that
exactly. Then you have to wait until he does graduate or he doesn't graduate.
Oh god, that's gonna have to change as well, because it's such
a mess, right, such a mess. Oh god, all right,
I know, I'm I'm glad I'm in this job position whatever, uh,
compared to the U A or or any because there's so many moving parts and
them parts are gonna continue to move until they get it right, if they
ever get it right, because what's right here? What's right? What's the
right move? Because they didn't when they thought of this, they didn't think
of all this. Now, I thought, Jay, you were gonna get
paid for being in an endorser for a car dealership, give you some money,
get your car maybe, and you were gonna make ten thousand whatever money.
Yeah. Just hey, I'm I'm Noah. I'm Noah, and I
want you to go to Ford or wherever. Yeah, all right, we've
got to call her calling in. We can't take that call right now because
we've got to go to our break. We would let you if you want
to call on the other side, even you're during breaking news, feel free
to do that. We're we're just not able to take your take your calls.
We gotta we got to head out of here. We don't have any
leeway on this one, but we're gonna come back. There's breaking news that
there's breaking stuff is stuff is breaking right now. Uh uh, what's your
name said? But we'll have breaking news and then we're gonna have John Wilmer
we'll talk to speak to some of this, but more along the lines of
the financial challenges that some of these athletic departments are facing right now. This
is just man, this is just scary stuff. So stick around. And
again, if you just called it, we didn't take your call, please
give us a call back at five two zero four one six seventy four,
forty after the break