This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart Radio app just surgeony
I on the Ball, Welcome back to it in the Ball here Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay, and I hope he has some breaking
news. This is High on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. Okay, um, first off, well, we continue to sit
here and wait on the PAC twelves a TV deal. The Atlantic Coast Conference
today announced that they're gonna put fifty a total of fifty uh combination of fifty
college football and basketball games on the CW over the next uh. You know,
people are happy with that or not. Here's the thing and here's the
thing that bothers me about this. Right when the CW got mentioned as part
of the PAC twelve TV deal, people mocked that they've ridiculed. They're saying,
oh, the PAC twelve, they're gonna be on the CW, you're
gonna be coming on after Gilligan's Island. None of that. Today. It's
a great deal for the ACC, more visibility, YadA, YadA, YadA.
They gotta you know, they're gonna do one game. You know,
CW's gonna have one game every Saturday, isn't Isn't that about the audience now?
Like it just come on, it's about there, and it's about the
media. Sea, it's about the media. The PAC twelve got relentlessly mocked
about putting it because they never said the CW is gonna be our main sure
thing. They just said we might have some games on the CW, and
people were going crazy that they're gonna be coming on after I dream of Genie
upon a for the review. Wouldn't you rather have them on CW rather than
the PAC twelve network, who who no one pays attends to you in the
first right, right, And and that's what they're saying. You know,
the ACC network has basically been Raycom. Okay, that's what these games,
So noo, they're gonna be on the CW. They point out, more
people have the CW than access to the ACC network, so it's a good
deal. But yet when the PAC twelve was doing it, it was ridiculous
and it showed you how far the PAC twelve had fallen. So you're telling
me that some of the fans where elad us not just the fancy, the
media too, and it really pisses me off. I'm getting angry. I
got I got all fired up in about it three seconds there. But it's
it's it's it's just so crazy about how how true of course is of course
right? But but yes, So they are going to be on the CW
says a total of fifty college football and basketball games, and the basketball is
both men and women. Um. There. The first game on on the
CW will be on September nine. You'll be Pitt taking on Cincinnati. Um.
And then they'll have a game at least one game every Saturday throughout the
seasons. The thirteen football games, batman's basketball games, nine women's basketball games.
So there you go, and everybody's thrilled, everybody's happy. The BASc
has done really great thing. Screw all of you. Let me calm down
for a second. I gotta take a deep bread. Can I fill it
in real quick? So did you see that there's a possibility that t J
mccondll might be going to the Suns, No go in a trade for the
guard. The guard uh that they talked about. Hold on, it'll come
to me, um campaign oh for campaign. Wow, that would be a
nice little thing. I'd like more. I like that move for Phoenix because
he's more of a point guard and he can get and he doesn't care about
scoring. Right, He's gonna get the ball to who needs whoever needs to
get the ball, have the people to do it right, and there're guys
he can get it too. It'd be perfect. And I don't know if
he'd sell tickets, but there'd be a better team. Yeah, does that
make sense. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it makes a
lot of sense. All right, Um, okay, there's there was actually
a discussion among among the uh ncable A Division one man's basketball committee and actually
an agenda item talking about Spain the tournament we talked about there. You know
this this um this committee a while back, I forgot what they call it.
It's sort of a restructuring committee recommended the twenty five that in sports with
over two hundred teams, that twenty five percent of the teams should be in
their postseason tournaments, which would mean for both men's and women's basketball, about
ninety in the tournament. You get a trophy, You get a trophy,
You get a trophy. Hate this now they're saying it's not imminent. But
you know, one thing, but a ball like that gets rolling, it
usually have who's who's making that decision, right, well, the basketball committee.
Then there's a power, the power. It's an NC double a committee.
Um, you know, they'll they'll make a recommendation and then I don't
know who in the membership votes on it is they are they who's spending the
money to get the teams there. It's a cash grab, it has to
be. Yeah, they wouldn't do it if they didn't get benefited financially,
right, No, yeah, yeah, it's if it's a lot, if
it's a losing they're not financial they're not doing it. And so they still
got to pay for the teams to get to the tournament and all that.
It must be pay for itself. Another week of game. I don't like
it. It's an extra week of NC double A tournament game, which is
fine, which is fine. It will be there, right, we'll be
there. We'll talk about it if they do it. We're not gonna not
pay attention to it just because we don't like it, which is fine,
but it just doesn't seem exclusive enough anymore. Yeah. Again, it's the
partiation trophy. If you're gonna allow me, if you're gonna allow me into
a club that allows me, what's that saying that, let's meet in.
I don't want to be part of it. Yeah, you know. And
and look, you know the coaches love it because now it's easier for them
to say, hey, I got in the tournament. You can't fire me.
Then the ad says, I remember, Jim, you're a ninety seed.
Yeah, your bonus. No it doesn't work. I got it.
I'm hating that. I'm really hating that too. I don't want I don't
want them to do that too. I don't want them to do that at
all. All right, Um, okay, some rough us. So the
woman who was seriously injured in that car crash where Georgia football player got killed.
The other football player, uh you know, was also drag racing,
well shocker. She has sued the University of Georgia and the player that will
not on the NFL guy. She has sued both of them for the crash
that took her January fifteenth. Did you see a poor report yesterday? I
think it was yesterday. I saw ESPN somewhere that there's still a lot of
people getting in trouble. Well, the Atlanta Journal, well the Atlanta Journal
Constitution did a big, long investigative piece that covered a couple of things.
One, there's been a number of UH sexual abuse sexual assault cases among the
Georgia football team that have kind of been that and they kind of been swept
under the rug. And since the January fifteenth, this crash that killed a
one almost killed another one, there have been eighteen more obsessive speeding UH incidents
involving Georgia football players. Um. The most recent one was just a few
days ago, a guy going eighty and a fifty five. Yeah, you
know, so they're not getting it. And Herbie Smart is being called on
the carpet for when are you going to do something about that? And he
says, we're trying, and they're saying not one of your guys has been
kicked off the team, so you're not trying, right, or suspended or
anything. Nobody's been punished for any of So if they have been punished,
then tell us that they've been punished and tell us what the punishment is,
but don't tell us you're trying, and then not tell us what you're doing
to try you know, so they're Georgia. You know they're which is great.
They're not you know, you know, the Atlanta papers not letting Georgia
skate on this, which is you know, which I think is a good
thing. All right? Um? What was another one? So here's a
couple of a couple of gambling things. So if you took the over eighty
nine and a half wins on the Cardinals, you're in big trouble now because
they're in last place in the division. And that number if you bet it
now with seventy five and a half, so you're going way under the other
hand, the Reds, who's over under wins was sixty five and a half
already have fifty. Get on that baby right now. Killer CRUs keep doing
it. I keep watching that video of him stealing three bases, three bases
on two pitches. They weren't even close. They weren't even close. Who
sim stealing home? It was like he robbed him. Yeah, it was
like he was already halfway there more than that. Um, all right,
another thing one of those things that I kind of don't know, well I
understand, but just the complications of all of this. The federal government,
Congress is looking into I think it's Congress is looking into. Yeah, the
Senate is looking into, um, this agreement between Live Golf and the PGA
checking for and I trust issues. And in the agreement, the two leagues
and the DP Tour in the European Tour said they agreed we will not poach
each other players. Well, the Senate has said that sounds like an I
trust to me. So you either get that the hell out of your agreement
or you guys are in big trouble. So today they announced that, uh,
that they're going to take that out of the agreement. But they're still
looking at this thing, and there's still a lot of animosity. I was
still a ton of animals. I saw the quote by who was it,
Ricky? Ricky he's been hot though, Um Rory, yeah, I was.
I don't care. I don't want to be captain. I don't want
the other I don't need any of that. Right while they're trying to get
Rory and Tiger to be captains of of you know teams that the Team Golf
that that Lived does, and they don't want to do that. They just
want to play. So there's still a lot to come on that one.
So that's that's kind of a mess. Um, that's more or less.
Okay, did you I saw something? Let me call it up real quick
earlier today, Bijean Robinson. Take an estimate and how much he'll make this
year? Oh no, thirteen point seven million in total cash this season as
a rookie, which is the most by any RB this year. We gotta
go. We gotta get Cleo and no running back is even within one point
five million of this grand total thirteen point seven million. Well, good,
good for the family. It's a good thing that they are. I got
his mustard. That's all I done. Wow. All right, So including
veterans including oh yeah yeah, all right, just up on our up on
our Twitter feed in terms of best performance or best player, what do we
say best best players this year? Best player? We said geist uh we
were sending out by uh the guy that I went to high school with,
Kiko Romero broke the all time. Oh yeah, right, Baseball and Chase
It was pretty dumb good too. Yeah, No, that's that's gotta be
in the conversation right all time. That's a long, long record, man,
no question. Some great and some great players that have come through to
come through Arizona Baseball. That's that's a good one. Good catcher appreciate that.
Uh good call. Yeah na see, and I don't know what to
say on now, so but uh yeah, so there you go. There's
there was another one. Okay, we'll get some more calls here on that
side. We'd love to hear. You know, you've got done on some
of this stuff again. I mean, I but you know, when you
brought that up, like I said, I was thinking back to your best
performance ever been, you know, and things like that, and maybe we
do that at some point. But oh, here, I just saw how
balls just retweeted this thing on on t J McConnell man. Yeah, fans
here would love to see it. I've certainly got some more fans at that.
You'd have two of You have a guys, and he's like eight years
deep into that league. When when when when you first heard Sean twenty was
saying that he was going to be in the NBA, You're thinking, what
do you see? Yeah, yeah, right, but you know, smart
player, unselfish player, hard worker, can score, right, all the
reasons that Solomon Hill stuck in the league for as long as he did,
Right, But but then you but then you realize, how come other guys
don't do that because they don't do what he They choose not to. Yeah,
they choose not to. They think they think the talent. I think
people are gonna recognize the talent, that they're gonna stay because of the talent.
And then they you know, and then people say, there's a lot
of guys like you. You need you need to up the rest of the
game, and they don't because they think that what I've got is good enough.
And that's and that's unfortunate against you. I should have you know,
if even I just could have had t J. McConnell's talent, I would
have been happy with that. I didn't even have that. They didn't even
have that. Yeah, well you gotta would, uh you know. They's
like the kid we talked about for oh yesterday, the the the a lot
of singeles rams guy. I was telling you that on the you big guy.
Austin Hill, Austin Hill, you see names. Yeah, I love
Austin to He was good of the good guys, one of the good guys,
really good. He was a guy he couldn't remember that played he was
at n Cry. Remember Ciner were kind of like the same guy right and
very very just would go up get a ball, well good looking and our
guy point extra right, yeah, so he doesn't make it long, Hill
doesn't make it long? And claner, how good do you have to be?
Right if you're that good to make and you're not good enough? Right,
because those guys are pretty damn right, no question, no question?
All right, okay, sure attack John all right, John Proman, President
and owner of FC Tucson. Coming up. We'll talk about their season and
actually they're in third place in the Southwest Division of USL too. We'll see
what that means to them and what you know, they got the last game
of the last game of the season season coming up on on Saturday. So
well, and I'm talking about what's going on over at the stadium, so
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for you. And Jacob Solids they have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. If you're welcome back tying the ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We are
just waiting for the call from Jonathan Felman to be able to show talk about
this week Kim's Game Owner of President. They got their regular season finale coming
up on Saturday seven o'clock stadium. I didn't realize that the women's season had
ended up last weekend kind of know they had ten have been doing well and
they lost, so that's ober. It's like really fast. Well it does,
yeah, it does. I mean they can there's only so much summer
that these guys flick. I can't even imagine when practices are like in the
morning, no matter how early night, they probably practice probably practice eight.
It's already there's one ninety five. You know. I went out at seven
o'clock this morning to put my garbage can out. Holy crap, it was
so hot. It was so hot. I'm like, it's it's it's it's
not like we're surprised. We live it, right, and we've gone through
it, but you know now it's just like we're getting older and I just
can't take it. Well, we're reaching your level of hot. And I
don't know if they I know, my wife Belly believes this was this was
true, but I guess, excuse me, hiccups. I guess it was
the day last week or it was the hottest day like in the history of
the planet, right or something like that. It's to be a right,
right, Yeah, you saw that. I saw that. Yeah, all
over there just the way it is. Yeah, yeah, you talked.
I never post my relationship stuff on my social you know, I never do
right. Well, I'm having an affair with my ac now air conditioning.
I'm in a relationship with dude. I had swamp. You turn do you
turn her on? Or does she turn you on? It's her would be
I have swamp. I finally got you, finally got finally got like a
real action like the wall of some wall unit. It just couldn't take it
anymore. Yeah, it's brutal. Yeah, it's brutal. I don't want
to melt anymore. Yeah. Now we we've had some issues with with you
know, my we we have a house. My son lives in it.
It's there are tenants and there you know, their bed, their master bedroom
is the furthest room from the air conditioner. So by late afternoon it isn't
pretty hot in there. Yes, you just don't go in there in the
afternoon, you know, go in there and I you cool an. Yeah,
No, it sucks. I feel sorry for those how to have to
do what outside? Yeah, it's a yeah, it's it's a tough going.
You know, when the air conditioning companies are just right no, no,
Pine intended. There's swamp. You know, you keep up right right,
and nobody has swamp anymore. Just stupid people like me, or I
shouldn't say that, people like me. Yeah, you can say what I
am or whatever I am. Wanted you wanted to give him a call and
try. I don't know. He don't let me give it a try.
Just got to try, and I'll try to talk to the people here.
You have the number, right, okay, cool, Yeah, we'll see
what happens with with Jonathan. Excited to talk to him. I gave him
grief. I'll tell him money's on the phone. If we get him on
the phone. He's always good about stuff, A very informative, very bright
guy. Let's see what happens. Yep, keep talking Jonathan. Oh no,
maybe it's his phone. Maybe it's just funny, said, okay,
let's see him. Um, So baseball starts today, baseball start to night.
Oh you have another night to another day off with nothing going on?
Oh okay, here we go. Yeah, no, there's there's there's not
a lot happening right now, just summer league stuff. Yeah, okay,
Jonathan, you didn't get my text, I said, Collins, Please John
we're about to put you on the air. So here you go. You're
on the air. You're on the air. What are you doing? What's
going on with? Are you at the airport? I'm gonna Okay, here
better, that's better, much better. So so but worst of all time,
let me jay. So about a monute ago, you know, Jonathan
Perelman's on the uh Justin and an our show, and I'm thinking he's pretty
funny. He was like in the morning, I was coming home from somewhere.
I said, how come he's not funny for us? So he said,
he'll be funny. Okay, yeah, I mean I can't be funny
on cue. But I mean what I would say is this, I'm running
around getting ready for this this last game. We've really just gone on this
incredible run. So you know, for me, it's, uh, there's
a lot of joy right now, a lot of laughter for us. We're
on an eight game, really a nine game on beaten stake, So for
us, it's incredible that you know, we have the opportunity in the last
game the season to be meaningful. We always want that. And like I
said, I mean, this team is really just pulled together and really put
performance after performance together. So John, this is the you know, the
first year that you went to USL too. So is there a playoff situation?
I mean, what's the what's the future after this? After this game
on Saturday. Absolutely. So the situation is this, we currently sit two
points behind the other team. We both have one game to play. If
we win our match and they draw or lose their match and they have to
play against the top team in our conference, we're both bating for that second
playoff spot if we as long as we win our game and if they draw
or lose, we have the tie breaker if they draw because we beat them
head to head, and if they lose and we win, we automatically go
through. And not only that, we have the opportunity to host. We've
been granted rights to host, so it's a really massive opportunity on Saturday night.
So the boys are all set up and we really knew we have to
the most important thing is that we win. But you're gonna need a little
bit of help. So it's been a fantastic season to this point. I
assume a win win. I mean the team is has only lost one time.
It's the four draws that have heard us you know, but we're unbeaten
in our last eight games. We're on a four game plus a friendly fifth
game, five game winning streak, and the team has just performed magnificently during
that period. I mean just not just wins, but wins with conviction.
We smashed the second place team Redlands, who's ahead of us three nothing and
they're and we just it's just tough at the beginning of summer when you don't
have all your players in and you're trying to execute, it's just frustrating.
But once all our guys got in, you know, we put in the
national champions ben Tura, we had them beat we gave up a penalty the
ninety second minute, or we already have quenched the playoffs. So I mean,
again a little bit of frustration there, but we've got to get it
done this weekend and focused on the task ahead of us. What was there
a switch that went on or that got flipped or something like that that this
just started to happen, or you know, how how did you guys get
on this role? I think I think a big piece of it was the
forwards that we had come in. You know, one of our main attacking
players the guy by the names of Oppose eight contest and he's from UCLA and
he's he's a guy who's scored basically, you know, seven goals since he's
coming in the last you know, five matches, and just his performance and
just the performance of the other strikers finding their form has really elevated us.
We've also shut out our opponents in the last three and the four matches,
and that's massive. I mean, so again, it's just the overall performance
of both defending it on the attack. It's really we've shown the quality of
players we have. The system of play has really been integrated, and this
team is fun to watch. It keeps the ball, they're creative, they're
tricky, they score absolute colossos and you know, really, I think the
fans are just really desperate for us to win because they don't want it to
end, because we're really peaking at the right time. You must be proud,
not the right word, because I'd be self self gratifying, but impressed
with your move. You decided to move to this situation after last year.
Did that help too? Kind of maybe making the move readjusting. I think
one, I'm proud of one the job, the staff has done, which
has been remarkable. I'm proud of the whole organization. I'm proud of the
partner I have in Jeff Arnold and my coaching staff with Mark and the guys.
But I think the thing that I'm most proud of is that the fans
have really come back and really came out and fought for us. I mean,
we've put them through a lot as an organization, not with me at
the Helm, but the namesake ob TWOS on the last four years has just
put them through a lot of weather delays and frustration and ownership changes, and
really for them to come back out and hunder that from a partnership standpoint of
partners in the community and then the fans just to have a great summer where
we've you know, exceeded where we expected to be on you know, number
of tickets and revenue and pieces of that puzzle. I'm just so grateful and
it's been so entertained and they've been so positive, and the games have been
you know, effervescent, there's no better word for it. And the truth
is that I know, you know, for me, I'm always filled with
gratitude, So I just I think it needs to be better all the time.
I like that challenge, but grateful is probably how I'm feeling. But
I'm really pleased that we resuscitated the organization to a stable position with only great
things to come in the next few years. Well, you meant you meant
that as you talk about that, you know the sort of the boost of
energy you've gotten from this season, So you know, what do you do
with that? What you know are your what are your thoughts in terms of
how do you how do you capitalize on you know, the great time that
you guys have had this year. Well, I think for us, we
know that we've got obviously the plans and I don't want to get into the
communition obviously to the women's professional team launching in twenty four and our expectation is
to relaunch as a professional team in twenty twenty five. I mean, we're
not decentively saying which league it's going to be because usl IS just announced in
August that they're voting for within the league a promotion relegation system. So it
may make sense for us to enter in the league that we're in League one,
because we can win our way up. If that's not the case,
and we want to go right in and you know, battle against the Phoenixes,
the El Pasos and those teams. You know, we have an opportunity
to do so from an organization standpoint, should we we need the threshold for
our business plan. But the most important thing is we want professional soccer here
for men and women and two soon. We want to make sure that we're
at the top level we're bringing. We're making every efforts again to be a
team that's you know, six and six and one with four draws. It
has a huge winning percentage and a great goal differential that people see this as
a place where champions come from them. We're developing young players from Tucson on
both sides, women and men. But yeah, like I said, our
ambitions are really very high. But the most important thing for us right now
is getting to the playoffs, trying to win a national championship with a men's
team here, and then we're going to transition right away to building the teams
for next summer and then obviously building a national championship, a Division one women's
team that can compete, you know, against the best of the world,
and that's going to be a huge challenge in our team months, so we
want to make sure we get working on that right away. So I know
you couldn't talk much about it, but you did talk some about it with
the ownership stuff on the estimates from the public. How has that gone,
Um, it's it's John fantastic. We've got um obviously some major events coming
up once this season ends that connect with the Women's World Cup in August.
UM, some real announcements coming in. So I'm able to tell you as
things have gone as well as I could have hoped, Steve Um. When
we've we've met all of our we're meeting, we're on schedule to meet all
of our goals that we've had for each month in each period, and so
I, like you said, if I had set back, so I would
let you guys know, I would say, you know what, We're We're
optimistic, but we still have some some ground to cover. But the truth
is we've really been able to u to execute at a level that I'm really
pleased with. And I think we're going to have a real opportunity to have
an incredible team here and for a long, long period of time. It's
very very stable and sustainable. Well, you talked about the fact that you
guys have a big game this Saturday on the Arizona Arsenal TuS was a little
bit about what we expect to see on the field on Saturday. Well,
again, we're playing the Arizon Arsenal Us are right in the mix of we
created, you know, the Golden Sawara. We brought that trophy back,
which was a Phoenix tusun rivalry which involves our women's, our men's and our
academy. So right now we stand ahead because our men have won the game
and drawn a game, the women split the games, and our academy team
has won and drawn a game, so we can clinch it with the academy
team winning and our team winning raised that trophy right on Saturday. But the
arsenal is coach, spot my very good friend, I know they were embarrassed.
We dropped six goals on them at home. Here, they're going to
come with a chip on their shoulder. It's always hard to beat a team
twice in a row in a short period of time. So again I'm expecting
goals from both sides. I'm expecting a wide open game. We have to
win, so we're gonna throw caution to the win and go for it in
full fashion. Less we're hearing the other teams absolutely getting drummed in the first
half, which is very very unlikely. So um, it's one of those
weird ones that you see in the World Cup at the end of the group
where you're playing simultaneously and you've got to get somebody watching the score on the
one side, which will be my job, March job. It's just to
coach the team to a victory. But we'll know exactly what we need minute
five minute in that game. But ultimately we just have to make sure we
do a good job of executing on the field. I mean, that's just
control your controllables in all facets of your life. And I realized Steve that
none of this is even humorous whatsoever, the coach talk that I'm doing right
now. So if you need me to throw in a joke at the end
of it, I just don't want to let you down. But we're executing
at a great level. Mark Seba, Jason Victor have been amazing. And
the team you know, all the players you know from you know, our
goalkeeping, through the defense, cuity attack. We've got lots of potential pros
and hopefully some of those guys. We'll be back playing for us hopefully when
we reach Urn to the pros and maybe twenty five or twenty six. No,
you're fine with the jokes, no jokes, but it's it's it's amazing.
We talk about the heat here. You guys are playing under Party one
hundred and two at game time. Yeah, it's it's it's a massive advance
for us against the most teams. Obviously the Arsenal uh you know, for
them, they're they're used to it. I think that that's a that makes
the Phoenix game very interesting because it's always tough for people to go up there
as well. But again on our field, which is big and it's very
good, and they are our groundskeepers do such an amazing job there. It's
a Keenan North Stadium. It's a ball roll smooth and if you're not ready
to play and be stretched out and run, we have great depths on our
team. We've got great athletes, were in top condition. So again for
me, the heat has just always been an advance for us. We have
our record in June and July has been so great in in this league,
in our history being in League two. So again this is where we thrive.
I put the home matches in July because I know no one wants to
come here and we have a huge advantage. And you know, I've really
gotten great compliments and I really preached them from Mark on the GMing side of
it, where we've put ourselves in a good position that people come here the
rest of the summer and hopefully the Western Conference Championship goes through Tucson. You
want to talk to us real quick, so too, a mission times and
all that stuff. Game Saturday, Yeah, Yeah, Game Saturday, seven
o'clock pm, Keenan North Stadium. One dollar hot dogs nine dollars special on
tickets right now. You just put fan in in your code right an fctisun
dot com and Fan Appreciation Night. We're gonna have some posters out there.
Poebo va is given away, a raffle, give cards, some of the
best beer in Tucson. And like I said, I mean, it's just
going to be a celebration of our team. Hopefully we're raising that trophy and
clinching the playoffs. All right, coach, we'll talk to you. You
don't have to be funny. I thought you were funny, John, I
really did I'm just listen, I'm funny looking, you know, so I
think that, I mean, what can we expect the gingers? Well,
you ended up being funny, so that's good. Thanks John. I appreciated
that. It was a good guys. What was the good guys? Very
smart guy. Yeah, all right, let's take our last break. Welcome
back if you want to continue having the conversation on some of the best performances.
Yeah, arizonas that we missed that. We missed a few, right,
we already got called out on one. Uh, you can chime in
on those a time. My best performances of the last challengdar year or school
year affairs on athletics we'll bring back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan,
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Shaken Salles they have their Eye on the ball on two Sons Sports stag Chef
Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart Radio AM welcome back, joying
about hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Jakin's as I
listened to that ad that we have thee Eye on the ball. You just
can't remember, James, we just had heroldics with names. Would be fun
that guy that guy, Yeah, it could be someone who talked to you
yesterday. I know we can't remember. We laugh now, but it's south's
kind of funny. I mean, but we remember like eighty eight, right,
but we can't remember. Well, that's it. My drives my wife
crazy. She goes you know, she said, you can remember the score
of the nineteen eighty two ball game, but you can't remember they were supposed
to pick up some eggs store. I'm a fifteen minutes time a husband.
That's part of the requisite. You don't even remember the stuff. If you
try to call Lait in the first hour, give us a quick call.
Yeah, but somebody was trying to call us as we were as we were
going to break. So I would love to hear from you. I don't
know if that was this friend of mine that sent us to Kiko Romero,
which is a good one. It's a real good on that one. So
yeah, but uh um, you know, you know the thing is though
that you know, and I guess it's just because baseball and softball, you
know, weren't great, right, right, Like we had this void,
you had the Princeton loss, right right, and you had this bad feeling
coming out of basketball, and you never got a great feeling, right.
It's kind of kind of that kind of hung but right, a couple of
great performances individual performance R Davis, Chase Davidson, and Kiko Romero. So
yeah, but you know, it's a new school year and the stuff starts
really at the end of this month, right right, So let me ask
you who's gonna be the breakout star. We can talk about this tomorrow too,
A breakout star in football team at I agree, I agree. I
think I think, you know, a year, a year more physical,
you know, putting on some you know, putting on some some weight and
some you know, some skills. You know, he's not I mean,
he's out of high school and you know over you know, I feel like
what we saw from him last year talent wise. I keep thinking back to
that. I think it was a Colorado game where he made that one hand.
That's an eighteen year old kid doing that. You know he can do
those things and now have another year in the program, another year you know,
being coached, another year getting stronger and stuff like that. How good
can that kid be? Right? No question? He was very I even
tweeted a road about you know, this is the reason why they went after
him. Yeah, for the plays like those, do those things, and
then if he just makes the place he's supposed to make, Yeah, you
know, and I mean I know there, you know, there maybe a
couple of drafts, maybe a couple of times where he missed a block or
missed an assignment or whatever they come with being you know, new in this
thing. But you know, he certainly looks looks the part and seem to
be doing things that made you believe that he could be really damn good.
Yeah. I know I don't look excited or feel excited, Jay, but
I am excited about the season because it's going to probably be the first time
in a long while you're kind of excited to see the team play. Yeah,
at least five Yeah, you're not you're not holding your you know,
your eyes and what's this going to look like? You kind of feel like,
Okay, you know this is a team that you know, you feel
can come. There's hope. Yeah, there's hope that they could win seven
games. Yeah, I mean, you know, tired of walking into the
stadium and not thinking that you could win. Well, well, you're a
fan and you have your fans that you you know, deal with at the
tailgate. How is it? How is it when you go, especially during
to some of the years, did you go and think we're just going to
watch the game, no excitement about how possible win. It's like that we
went through that with the Macavic years, where you were walking to the stadium
and you're going, I just hope we don't get beat by sixty, right,
that's no fun. No, I mean they played LSU at home during
that time. I remember walking to the LSU game and I'm like, I
don't know if that I even want to see this. Yeah, I'm going
because I'm not going to be the fan that stops going because they're terrible.
But I fully expect to lose by by six touchdowns tonight and then Oregon put
a sixty on Arizona during that year, and I think we would walk into
the stadium thinking they got no chance to win, and that was a terrible
feeling. And then it came back during the Unfortunately the one the season that
got horrible was the COVID seasons. We didn't have to go to the game,
but you turned the game on TV and you watch the game. Steve,
I did not turn off the seventy to seven game. I watched it
the end, yeah one, because I felt like, I'm not going to
be the fan that turns it off because it's bad. I'm going to watch
it till the end. And it was bad. I mean, we kind
of joked and we knew it when happened. But is he gonna come out
a halftime or did Dave go down the sea? Enough already we've seen enough.
Well, there's a really funny, funny little story time, right my
friend Raymartinez, Yeah, late Remartinez. He was he was a fundraiser for
so he would go down, you go down on the field on the sidelines
during games. So there was a they were playing, they're playing us.
It was the Macivic was playing Ucla. Ucla has got a third and forty
one, third and forty one, all right, and they get thirty nine
on third down, and then they score a touchdown on the next play.
And I called Ray on his phone. He was sticking and he standing for
me to you from John mckivic I called Ray on his phone and I can
see him and he answers his phone. I said, I want you to
go get John mcivicci's right now in town him. Just get the hell out
of the stadium. Don't even go to the locker room. Get his keys.
Yeah, go get his keys. You you can't do that. You
can't do that. And that's how I felt with someone. I said,
get him the hell out of here, please. And I know when the
time came, we didn't know if they were going to fire him because no,
so someone, because we didn't know if they had the money to fire
him, right well, But and then in the end, right, they
can't not fire they That's what he said. The future was too important for
them not to fire him, right, Yeah, that's how Dave said it
at least. Yeah. Yeah, And it was the same thing with Mac.
I mean, it's just like and as a fan, it was awful
to go to the games and we went to all the games. We went
to all of them. We went, we went to all the game.
We didn't miss a game during the man. We even traveled. We went
to Wisconsin that that that horrible game at Wisconsin or walking into this yame and
said, please, just don't be losing by three touchdowns at the end of
the first quarter. And they were losing by three touchdowns at the end of
the first quarter. Yeah, you know, you know it was it was
not the Hawaiiar When they first played Hawaiian there was some promise and then they
got they opened a San Diego State. Okay, so this Hawaii was his
first year, but one of those years where they started his first year,
they opened it. They opened at San Diego and they beat San Diego State
and and we're like, okay, you know, and then they go to
Wisconsin they got their ass kicked at. It was downhill. Hawaii must have
been the second year. Yeah, oh okay, So you know, it's
just it's terrible as a fan to have to yeah, yeah, have no
questions. Questions. So yeah, so now we you know, we go
to you know, we're we're excited. Look, we're gonna we're gonna have
what we used to do. We used to do a preseason tailgate party every
year the week before the Saturday before the games. We're gonna have a party
somebody's house, just as somebody's house. Um. Sometimes it was a race
house. Sometimes it was a Raymartenzi's house. Sometimes, but we always had
a preseason party. Tail would come. I did. I did a video
from the previous year of our tailorhow and show like that. It would show
the video would watch the best game of the year, you know, we
just put it on the TV so it was on in the background. We
had a lot of and we haven't done that in fifteen years, ten years
because people got people didn't get that excited about the season. Art that tradition,
you know, but we I don't think we did it all through the
rich Rod years. But I think we're gonna we're gonna do one this year
because we're our our our group. We're excited about the season, excited about
going to the game, because you should be. Yeah. So another person
just texting me, Ellie Skaggs with the no errors was a pretty impressive deal.
I mentioned, yeah, just to just we had that one. We
had that one. Yeah, all right, Um. It just came across
John ros Rothstein just uh Rothstein Rothstein basketball writer, National basketball writer uh says
that source. His source says it Colgate is going to be on the basketball
schedule, uh this year, the twenty twenty three, twenty four basketball schedules.
I don't know when. Okay, Well, it's just adds to them
to the greatness of the less. Next year's not the Colgate does but the
whole but co Gates. The tainment's been good. They've we've seen them in
the tournament now and again and stuff, So we might we'll have Colgate.
I'm sure here right, it's not going to sound They're not going to go
to Colgate UM. And then we just saw a thing that the north Western
baseball coach has been fine, right for some abuseve and bullying. Let me
let me say this to Jay. I mean we've lived, we live in
a different time with coaches and which you can and cannot get away with.
That's the right train because you can. It's almost your too. You can't
be tough on them. You can't be tough on them, right, well,
you can be tough without being demeaning. You can't well what does that
mean even that. Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what
you're not supposed to do, okay, which to this day I regret having
done this. How many years ago? Um? Okay, so okay,
So to this day I still think about this week days. No, no,
no, um uh. You know I was the head coach, but
I was coaching third or third base coach wasn't there normally, I'm coaching third
and uh, our best hitter was at the plate. We had a guy
on first, the bottom of the order. He had gotten on a walk
and he steals on his own and he gets thrown out by you know,
a lot. Okay, the catcher gave the catcher. This was a cat
grad. The catcher got drafted, all right. So he threw the heat,
threw him out by a lot, and he was on his own,
fright. He just he just took off. And I do not know why
I didn't get I didn't give him any sign of any sort to go,
and he went. And instead of just taking him into the dugout and say
dude, what are you doing? I screamed at him. I chased him.
He's jogging off the field. Were you in the game. That was
the third out. No, but were you in the game. No,
you were getting be yea. Yeah, he's running jogging to the dugout.
I chased him to the dugout and I yelled at it. Woud who?
In front of everybody? Okay? And I felt I never I shouldn't have
done that. What did you say? I didn't cuss at it. What
are you doing? I screamed at him, what you know? What the
hell are you doing? Blow? The way I did it was bad?
Why because people, because the whole place heard it. Well, if I
should I feel like I should have taken him into the dugout. I mean
I yelled at him on the first base line. Okay, so I'm the
middle of everybody. I shouldn't take him into the dugout. If I was
gonna yell at him there, maybe yell him or just what you know,
getting get up a little bit in his face, like what the hell are
you? Okay, So let me give you this example that happened ten years
ago too, Sean yelling at Ki in the splits. Yeah, similar,
probably in front of people in public on scholarship. Oh so no, there's
no circumstances it was that was that was okay? I don't know. See,
that's where that's where you draw the line. Okay, you get him
in the locker room maybe, but there yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah. Well, as you said, though, you certainly can't do
that anymore. You can't. It's almost right, you can't. What about
football, because they do it in football every down again, what you know
what, you can't grab their face, man, you can't like that no
more. But we saw Rich Rode yell at some guys. We saw Stoops
yell at some guys. You know, we never saw someone yelling anybody because
he didn't give a crap about any of it. But you know, yeah,
but you know what that explosion you saw Rich Rode in the in the
in the press box, you remember, you know, yeah, there's too
many people watching now sure, right, but they're not watching in the locker
room. No, they're not watching the locker rooms. Sea. That's what
I'm saying. I should have taken him into the dugout. If I wanted
to yell at him in the dugout, that would have been the appropriate Guess
what, Guess what the Northwestern Issues found out in the locker room. From
the locker own, there's more stuff going on there. I'm sure, but
you know again, but yess, you say certain things you can't do.
Look, you know I saw stuff the two years I played you know,
freshman jabe football at Sorrow, and I saw our coaches dude things. Oh
yeah, players, this was forty years ago. But you do that,
You're not only are you fired, you go you might be going to jail.
Yeah, you know, we talked about it with somebody. You know,
that's the way it is fifty years ago now, but that's you know,
that was that was those with the times. Yeah, uh, generational
situation. Okay, hey, good show today. We done. We're done.
It goes by quickly, and you were looking at the clock goes back
quickly. I was waiting for the phone and then I saw the time.
My apologies to Ethan. Ethan, I'm the way I did that too,
and I still feel bad about it. There you go, Yeah, what
are you talking about? Yeah, he got over it. I'm not over
it, by the way I did it because I thought you were paying attention.
All right. Then woming back tomorrow, Ari Wasserman, the national football
writer for the Athletic will be with us tomorrow, so you're sure to come
back for that. Lots of stuff to talk about with him, so here tomorrow