This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possession. It's
kat Z R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station ATOY. Good afternoon, everybody,
Welcome to Iye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Roberta. He's Jagon'sawae scot a guy. Ryan back in. Ryan continues to
come back for the punishment. We're good, Thank you. Ryan. It's
Thursday. It is Thursday or that show to this week. It is last
show of the week, everybody. We're gonna be off tomorrow and Monday for
Memorial Day, So long weekend for the guys. We need to break.
Steve's the road, gonna hit the road, and I'm gonna hit the sack.
I don't know. Well, you gotta get ready for next week's when
you're on the road. Yeah you got a vacation from your vacation. Yeah,
I'm in your vacation. So Steve will be We'll both be back on
Tuesday, and we're lining up who we think is gonna be a great but
we're not gonna let you know who that is until we confirmed that over the
weekend, but somebody who would be very fun and that we've had before but
always have a great time. But I will be here Tuesday and then I'm
off for a week. And I headed down to Rocky Point with the fam
and uh, you know, couldn't go down there and you know, hit
the beach, sit on the sit on a back porch and just drink a
lot of beer and eat a lot of food. So cool. But Steve
will be here and uh, man in the man in the man in the
microphone. Yeah, it'll be it'll be fun. I'll have some good guests
with me, like you have a couple already lined up. I won't say
whom. Uh. So it's good as Thursday, a lot of things going
on. The last night's game baseball game was good. I hope ya taking
some news. Got a little dicey last night. At the end I watched,
I watched till there was sixty three. I'll find it, uh,
and then I just said, well, they're gonna win this. Well.
It was nervous from the from the get go, because Arizon gives up a
two run homer in the bottom of the first and like, I didn't think
they were gonna, you know, lose two to one. But you just
hate to see the other team get any get any bounce from anything. But
h Mason White just hit another moon shot or a three run homer that there
were there's a in that at that stadium, there's a there's a there's like
a I don't even know who you would call it, but there's a two
story Uh. It's it's just a place, a place to hang out.
Right, there's a bar and grill up there, you know, durry spring
training. There's like a bar and grill up there and people hang out.
He hit it over that. There were people sitting in it who turned around
and watched the ball goal over their heads. That's how far he hit that.
And so then Arizona had a nice six three lead. But then they
give up two runs in the bottom of the in the bottom of the ninth,
the winning run is at the plate, uh, and they get them
out. So they so they went six to five. They're in the they're
in the bracket on on tomorrow Tomorrow play at seven o'clock. They play Stanford.
Regardless of what happens tonight, they play Stanford. As I mentioned yesterday,
Oregon State bt ACU this morning. So they get in, they get
in the bracket. If Arizona beats Cal tonight, Arizona loses to Cal,
which would put Cal in the bracket, Oregon State is out. Okay.
Interesting and how would you handle it if you were you try to win every
game obviously, Yeah, but he'll figure out how to pitch. He's gonna
yeah, he's gonna save his starting his you know, his starting pitchers for
for the rest too. He only needs two of them, right, so
you know, I don't know if he'll throw one of you know, one
of the starters or save him for uh, you know, if needed in
relief, you know, over the weekend. But uh, you know,
tonight's game doesn't matter. There's there's no consequence to the game tonight, Cal
Cal okay. And coincidentally, one of our guests our first kisses from Cal.
Yeah that's j John, a former assistant coach here at Arizona. He
was a head coach at Cal, I mean, excuse me, at Oregon
State, an assistant coach at Cal under under Mike Montgomery. Now he's administrator
over there, so keeping his uh, keeping his finger in it. But
h John's a Jay is a local guy, went to South Point and UH
so recent an inductee into the Peoplehall People County Hall of Fame. Right,
so we t you know, he grew up in the PAC twelve or Pack
ten, just like us. So we'll see what he's got, you know,
some of his thoughts on on where we're headed with with all of that,
and again as an administrator in a formerly packed twelve school heading to the
a SEC, we'll see what he's got to say. Yeah, we'll see
what he says. I'm sure he'll couch his words, yeah closely. Yeah,
okay, no, that'll be fun. And then in the second hour,
we're gonna introduce the new UH swimming and diving coach at Arizona, Ben
Lures. Uh just just joined the the staff in the last couple of weeks.
We'll just kind of find out a little bit about him, see what
he's up to, what he thinks of the place. He's coming here from
UNLV where he worked with Desiree Reid Francois when she was the ad over there.
So we'll see what he's got to say about his first few days here.
And so maybe some of his thoughts and expectations. Yeah, that'll be
that'll be good. You get to know him right away. Who else nothing,
you know, I don't know if we want to get to some stuff.
I know, I don't. I don't know if you saw this,
but I'm taking it. I don't know if I've taken away some breaking news.
But PAC twelve sent out their financial results for the twenty twenty two to
twenty three fiscal year no end, and well, they paid out thirty three
point six million dollars per school, which is great. Yeah, you know
about where they thought they would be six hundred million dollars in revenues, with
three hundred and eighty nine million of that coming from television rights, another one
hundred and forty million from bowl games. And it looks like the way,
if I'm reading this correctly, another forty million from n C Double A events
like you know, tournaments and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, say,
brought in a little over six hundred million dollars in revenue, hundred million,
so you're saying thirty three. So well, but then they you know,
they had expenses, right, so they're their their their total expenses ran
one hundred and forty million dollars. So they distributed four hundred and almost four
hundred and four million, uh and they kind of kept uh about sixty million
for themselves. Yeah, okay for the PAC twelve pepub for the packed two
well one for you, one for me for you, what for me?
Twelve times there's Scott's gone, right yeah or is that still yeah? In
in the uh in the news release, uh, they said that the Pack
twelve Networks made about where was it? Pack twelve Networks had made about about
twenty seven dollars uh in in you know, uh net income from you know,
from it's from its operations. I saw the other day that they are
talking about they're talking about keeping the like doing you know, uh sort of
being not an ESPN, but providing production services to conferences that need what they
have right well, because they've got all this, you know, I mean
they've got a yeah, a studio, a studio broadcast basically all the all
the makings of a broadcast network, equipment, cameras, trucks, you know,
studios, the whole bit. And so they're trying to generate business by
doing that. For like, maybe does the Mountain West need something like that
or whack or whatever and kind of trying to make that a business. Do
you know how Arizona's going to pull this off? Because they need their own
studios, right, Yeah, that's what the Big Twelve requires because ESPN is
doing their own things. So yeah, no, the the the four school
from the PAC twelve going into into the into the Big Twelve have to have
their own studio facilities on the campus. Arizona has a pretty good TV program
with the IS, the IS, the PM people, Oh yeah, yeah
yeah, the u A oh oh yeah yeah, sure that's gonna be the
campus network. Yeah, yeah, so I would I would imagine that they
would do something, yeah, in conjunction with them. Uh and see it's
gonna all be in house, right supposedly supposedly so so basically if you know,
yeah, I mean the schools are gonna have to you know, if
they want coverage of their stuff, I guess they've gotta. They've got to
have the facilities for for the Big Twelve, you know, or ESPN I
should say to come in and do that because games and stuff are going to
be on ESPN plus. Is it just start. ESPN is not going to
send a crew here to do the Arizona a s U women's basketball game.
You know they're gonna have to produce all that. I think the way it
works, all the schools have to produce that if they want to put it
on. Wow, that's interesting. So now they turn into their own TV
press. You know, we'll have to get somebody from there. How it
will work from the department. I wonder if they'd hire hire out people like
you know, let's say, just throw a name after Sean Mooney or something
like that. Who can you do that? It can be there like the
studio hosts or whatever? Right right? That interesting? Yeah? Okay,
cool? Wherever my resume, I gotta dust that off. I got a
face for it. Might have to shave. I have a face for radio,
so you might have to stretch that idea. I have to annunciate.
Never mind, I have to enunciate, shave and clean up my face exactly.
I'm not in for that race. Okay, No, no, cool.
That's interesting. Although I knew that, I just know how well,
we still didn't know how they're gonna pull it together. Yeah, because it's
it's coming up pretty quickly. What's going to start to happen and we're just
three months away? Was yesterday, yesterday. Today was one hundred days till
the start of college football. Hundred days. Okay, so you've got less
than a little more than three months, all right, that'll be cool,
that'll be cool. We'll get five minutes. We're gonna talk to Jay John
and then we're going to talk to to Ben Lords, Ben Lewis Lords.
Okay, tell you pronounce. I got some good feedback on our talk with
with Steve Curry yesterday and and all everybody, but Steve specifically because we got
about the last minute, right, yeah, And and they either they were
they were prepared for him or not prepared for him like we were. But
you put it on the website, right, put it on the website on
Twitter, so if you if they haven't seen it or heard it or whatever.
Yeah, well and you posted on Facebook. So you go to Facebook,
our Facebook and Twitter, and you can find you can find the interview
you got. And we had Roman Bravo Young uh at the in the second
segment and then Steve in the in the third segment of the second hour yesterday.
So if you want to listen to that. Uh, we had fun
with him, you always, we always do. He's he's always such a
great guest. But you can go listen to that anytime you want, right,
right, And that was fun always good to talk to him. Uh.
And today is our final day, which is another good thing. So
thank you for the summer. Yep. But it was funny because when you
first came on during the pandemic, it was like summer we could find anybody.
Yeah, everybody with nothing we want to come on the show. We're
having all kinds of great guess. We had Bill Walton, we had Frank
con we had Louise Gonzales, remember that one. Uh. We had Idea
Barnes comes on and announces that she's gonna have a baby. Uh and then
realizes I should I probably should have said that my son was her was her
sports information person at the time, and he was losing his mind because his
dad kind of made some work for him. Uh. I. We had
we had a great bunch of guests that that that whole that whole summer.
Yeah, so it was good. Fine. I would continue to do what
we what we do with good guests, and then next week we'll do some
more, or try to at least when you're one day and then in my
three days, uh, anything else that we we can't steal everything from mister
nos was taking some of his stuff, right, but yeah, you have
the tennis person play the issue. Okay, you don't. I was just
curious. Yeah, I don't even know what happened. That's why I don't
say that I do. Oh you do? Okay? What else? The
game last night was a pretty good one, h Dallas and Minnesota. I
had Minnesota. I think everybody had Minnesota. And then these games have been
weird. And I've covered the NBA for for a while ninety three and I've
told people way back then that nothing happens until the fourth quarter, and it
continues to be that way. And nothing happened last night until the final two
three minutes like the previous game, when it will happen in the last minute.
I mean, things happened in the fourth quartera you just don't expect.
Dallas was Dallas was was down and then they were up, and then they
were down and then they were up and then they win it. Right,
I missed it. You're happy about that? About that? Oh? Okay,
you have Dallas? Oh is it? You're from Texas? You know
origin? Okay? Oh you are? Yeah? Well part did we know
that. Wow, like West Central. Oh yeah, yeah, I remember
that. Yeah, I remember that. So on your resume, I should
remember that. I believe there's nothing in ablee two. Only two things come
out, and I believe one of them. I know exactly. I know
the reference exactly and exactly. I know I know the reference. Look it
up. You really don't. Okay, that's what I believe Texas got.
Okay, we'll just go. Yeah, we got about a minute. We
got about a minute. So but I was I was going to say that
I didn't. I didn't see any of the game. Actually I was,
you know, believe it or not. Get this. Don't don't fall off
your chair when I tell you this. I worked out last night. Just
so you went to church. I went, and I went to the I
went to the gym. Drop somebody off. No, I just I just
got up on the on the treadmill for a while. And then but I
was watching the Amazon baseball game. When so I didn't see any of the
basketball game. Okay, I even want to go there today. I'm back
today, back. I haven't fallen today. So that's even another thing.
So I got it all going on today, all right, Okay, let's
go and take our break. We're going to come back. We're gonna have
J John, former Arizona basketball assistant, former head coach at Oregon State,
now a former assistant at CAL, now an administrator at CAL, and just
get some of his thoughts on the PAC twelve into where we're headed. So
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Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with
Roberta and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to
wynding the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Ribera, He's
Jaginsaus. Now on the phone, we have Jay John Now. I'm currently
a university of California, Berkeley administrator, athletic administrator, former you of A
basketball assistant and Oregon State head coach. Jay? How are you doing fine?
Steed? Jay? How are you guys doing today? We're doing well.
We even trying to find people. And you're perfect for this situation to
talk about the good old days of the PAC ten PAC twelve. You know
you've seen it all growing up here, being part of it here, being
part of it at Oregon State and now at cal Are you sad like some
many others to see it? Go? Sure? I mean it's been an
institution. I mean, if you were you were a kid growing up in
the set is in Tucson, you know, we had a Pack eight Game
of the Week to watch. You know, we're you know, we're playing
afternoon games in California. We've got you know, our U of A night
games. But yeah, I mean, it's it's it's just it's just strange.
It's just strange to think about. Are you more mad or sad about
this? Because I'm pissed. I'm really mad. Well, it's it's Uh.
Greg Byrne ran with the ball pretty well back ten years ago when he
started realizing some things in we're right with with Larry Scott and that leadership.
I'm mad from the standpoint that leadership. Leadership was misguided. Leadership was got
their eyes on the wrong on the wrong football. And you could extend that
to the n C two A. You know, I've told the story a
number of times. Was of late when I was after my first year at
the u of A. I mean, I'm sorry, my first year at
Oregon State as head coach, I got it from ten thousand dollars in May.
I called my agent and I said, well, what's this for?
It is you know, it's just from me. It was from me A
Sports and this is two thousand and three, and he says, he said,
well, you get that. It's in your contract. You're part of
the basketball basketball game. And I said, oh, all about that.
It's what about my players, because my kids don't care about me in the
game. They care about the players. Players can't get any that money,
you know, they're not they're amateurs. And the SAI that's gonna be a
problem. You're gonna they're gonna have to fix that. Yeah, So that's
not anything answer to A didn't understand and some of these things with the Pact.
You know Pac twelve that they just took the eye off the ball in
some areas and now there's no league. Yeah, it's it's yeah, yeah,
it's crazy. Yeah, crazy. And now you're in a different league.
Yeah, okay, okay, tell us about that. Tell us about
that and what you guys are having to go through now to prepare yourselves to
be in the league. That's you know, pretty much across the country in
all respects. Well, the geographical piece for you know, for Arizona and
again I'm a Wildcat, so there'll be a time when I'm assuming when I'm
retiring back in Arizona, and you know, geographically that's not a that's not
a horrendous move right to go into the Big twelve, you know, for
the for the four teams going to Big ten and then Stanford and call going
you know to the CC, it's like trap your kind of wrap your head
around, you know, you know, where's the California kid or West Coast
kid that wants to play in horwell conference? You can't, well I can't,
I can't. I guess I can go here, but I got to
travel. It just doesn't make sense. It's it's too bad. Right,
right, So do you travel with the teams that you are are kind of
facing or for following? Uh? Only in postseason? Okay, it's just
I've got I mean, I have thirteen, I'm thirteen teams that I supervise
out of our out of our out of our thirty and most of them are
in the most of them are in the spring. And so it's just like
our men's golf team is in the n T two A Championships and Carlsbad.
So once baseball we get through this, I've got I know, I've got
to go over there to to California this weekend and just said, but that's
just really for the most of my travel, it's the heavy travel March,
April and in May and the rest of the time, just trying to work
with my coaches and and keep you know, keep the athletes moving straight ahead.
So so let me ask you, Jay, and we've you know,
the kind of there's all this conversation about, you know, the student athletes
and the angst over the travel and the cost of the traveler. We're we've
that's been run run to the ground a whole bit. Is there other stuff
out there that's coming with this move to the ACC and theoretically for the other
schools that are moving to conferences that are you know, where they're they're heading
east. That we're not talking about that, or that we don't know,
that we don't understand, or that are maybe things that are kind of up
in the air for you guys in terms of we don't know yet how this
is going to work. Is there anything like that besides the travel aspect of
this, Well, for the sports, for the sports that I that I
supervise, you know, so when I have golf, if I have golf
and swimming, track and field, by and large, you know, either
whether it's at the U of A or whether it's in Oregon, those teams
pretty much don't go east anyway in the regular season, you know. They
they they some of them assemble at certain places and have big meats and stuff
like that. Baseball now is the one that's creating has got a lot of
moving parts because they played they played three games series. Anybody, anybody who's
been on the West Coast and has to travel three time zone away, you
can't. You can't do that the day before the games and expect kids to
be have their bodies responded well, you try to stay away from that with
basketball baseball. I don't know why baseball would be any different les let's anaerobic
stuff, but still so you know, and you have a mandated day off
during the season with your sport. So you're gonna play a Thursday, Friday
Saturday baseball series, which okay, that I mean you're leaving Tuesday night.
Okay, are you putting kids on red eyes or or how are you doing
that? And then it rains a lot in the southeast. You know,
so some of these airports aren't necessarily Virginia Tech and you've got to drive.
You got to drive bit to get the ronoacher Richmond. I mean, so
there's some logistical things that are like you're gonna have to deal with. Baseball
is always playing a midweek game too, so you know it's are we talking
about academics too, they how's a different entity than a lot of places on
that piece. Let's let's get away from the administrative part of this now seven
minutes. I want to go to the good old days. So I want
to kind of get breck your life apart. This is your life. So
you were talking as a kid in Tucson, what were your greatest moments of
recollections sports wise at the u of A as a fan. As a fan,
I will say that when fred Zan Noden showed up, McHale got built,
and all of a sudden we were good in basketball. That was I
was right in high school at that time, exhilarating. That was so awesome
because all of a sudden we were good. I mean, we're in that
stretch where ANSU was just so good in football no matter how good we were,
you know, they were beating us. So all of a sudden,
now basketball is good. Okay, I go back to you know, the
first thing, the first U of A events that I was taken to were
baseball. So you know, my senior year in high school seventy six,
you know, baseball, we win, We win the World Series. I
mean that was a big deal because again I grew up as a kid who
doesn't like a s U and they were always so good in baseball. We
were two, but we win one there, you know, and when we
go to the Pac ten and you know, by that time I had transferred
back from Northern Arizona to the u of A. I can you know,
explicitly remember that for season, the Pac ten basketball will upset U c l
A and the fans storm, the fans storm the court. Security wasn't ready
for it, and it was it was wild, you know. And then
well, I mean college, you know, we win baseball again, you
know, I mean stuff like that. That were those were things just like
then. You know, then you get out of school and you start working
and you know, other things to take up your time as much. But
I remember those, those those moments when we got we got good. We
got good football too, you know, you know, beat Notre Dame,
uh, you know for football and uh, anyway, you know those kinds
of things. You know, you grow up in twoshoun, your you know,
you raised a big party life, and in that window time in high
school and college, we move into the Pac ten. We're good and we're
good and everything, and it was fun and it was fun. I think
you're not close to the same age. I think we're you know, teenagers,
right or late teenagers when they when we got into the into the Pac
ten. You know, I've told people to me, it was like we
grew up right when when Arizona got into the get into the Pac ten.
That's how I saw it. Yeah, no, it was. It was
cool, right because you grow up watching the California teams, you know,
and and so that first year, you know, that first year we joined
the Pac ten I had just turned twenty and my junior year in high school
in college. But it was it was fun. It's just there was such
an energy, and there was such an energy in town. And the team's
coming to playoffs. Oh my gosh, you know, we've got we've got
these teams coming. I'm not you know, I'm not knocking Colorado or what
Colorada, state of Wyoming, but nonetheless I got these other ones coming in.
That's a little that's a little different fun. Yeah. No, I
say we traded those few schools for USC and U C. L A.
And you know, al a sudden, John Elway is on the field at
you know, at at Arizona Stadium. Yeah, just tell you how things
have changed. You know, you're in college and you just you know,
everybody can be a friend, right. I run into John Alway after Stanford
plays cal plays Arizona. I don't know seventy eight or seventy nine, but
I run in. I run into him at Stanford went to go eat after
the football game, at Arby's on on Speedway and I see him and I
just walk up to him and say, we got we got a little party
going on in our house. You guys are sitting around, he says,
you know, so nobody's nobody's chartering home. They're going postgame meals in in
Rby's, you know, And that's It's like the world has definitely changed.
Yeah, no question. Okay, So then you get out of school,
you become eventually become a teacher at a school, an assistant coach. Here
onner loot and talk about those times, those great times with coach Oh yeah,
yeah, I'm going to I'm going to go back a little bit in
eighty three when when when coach arrived. I was a freshman high school basketball
coach at tell Point, and I had a little burro up my behind and
I wanted to coach in college. So I went to the u of A
and met walk walked in and I got an audience with Coach O for fifteen
ten minutes. Asked him, I want to be a GA. He says,
well, we ever got my GA, son, But I want you
to go down and want you meet my number one guy, Scott Thompson and
uh So, I go meet Scott Thompson and Scott invites me to come work
camp, and I take it your college job in New York State coaching basketball.
So now I'm in college and i'd come back and work camp, and
you know, got to know coach and coach was was an ally. I've
been an ally for me and somebody that I could every now and then call
and ask for professional advice, and one thing leads to another. I get
you know, I bounced around a bit in the eighties. I get to
Butler, we do a good job at Butler. I get to Oregon with
early camp first year, and then all of a sudden, I'm able to
come back home to my hometown, to my alma mater and coach to one
of the best coaches in in America and coach add a great program to do
ay. So I couldn't have been more fortunate. We're talking to Jay John
uh stupoint Catholic grad coach at Arizona, coach at CAL coach at Oregon State.
Go back to that. You know when you when you first got on
the staff in Arizona, first game, right, You're gonna sit on the
bench and the whole deal. What was like that for you when you walked
into Michale. Uh, you know for a game. Well, I will
tell you this is a lot different than being a visitor. And everybody was
going to stand and uh the band was going to keep playing that riff until
you score it. Oh yeah, it was just exhilarating. Honestly, I
couldn't I couldn't explain it. It was just so it was just so awesome.
And yeah, yeah, it is awesome. I don't want have to
say it. Well, here's another one. I'll give you one of your
better experiences, if not ever. Uh, you face Loot for the first
time. No one beats Loton, none of his ex guys beat Loot,
and you beat him up in Oregon. I was there. You guys beat
him? How did that feel? That was one of those moments. We
actually did win twice, once in O four and once and O six.
It's one of those things where you know you're never on footing with with the
Hall of Fame and legendary coach no matter where it might be, somebody that's
of that statue. Coach os certainly that way a good mentor for me,
but it makes you feel like it's okay for you to be in the same
in the same gym. You know, it makes you feel like you're you
know, your your piece of what you're doing is is you're doing. You're
you found some things that are working. You're not at that stature. You
know. Those are teams that coach O still had went to the n C
two A tournament. I didn't have one of those, so you certainly you
certainly got them all they weren't looking. But it's still again, it just
makes you you've accomplished something in the profession if you can get to that point
where you can take on a legend and come ahead, come out ahead.
Yeah, no, it was great. I remember that first time because that
was the first time someone like you or on a former assistant and beating them
at that level. So I remember. I remember the game too, and
we had a we had a freshman that just just caught the ball and pivoted
from twenty eight feet away front of the bench and it went in. And
I said, howly smokes, we just might this game may run out of
time. We may just walk get get a w tonight. Yeah. So
yeah, yeah, well, Jay, thanks a bunch for joining us.
We got to go. It goes quickly here. I have a good luck
tonight. I guess you know you're facing Arizona. Yeah, I know.
It's it's it's it's you know the difference in this because again I'm a I'm
a wildcat through and through. You know, you get close to a group
of kids, and kids just wear a different shirt and matter where they go
to school, right, the kids, you like them, so you know,
for tonight, I want I want the Bear kids to do well.
Arizona's in the instit institute a tournament. We're not and it can help.
But again, I'm a wildcat at heart, and I love Chip Hale and
I like what they've done with the program. It was fun to watch it
on video to see the walk off against Oregon State the other night. So
manyhow Yeah, okay, Jay, appreciate it, Thanks coaching, Thank you,
all right, you guys, thank you j John you got you got
a lot of good stories. One of the good guys too, Yeah,
one really good places. All right, gotam went too fast? He goes
by fast. Well, i'dlucky to interview. I was gonna say, can
we cut it and just bring him back? Yeah, you know, I'm
looking at I'm looking at the clock and it's just running. It went faster
than normal. All right, let's take our break. Would love to hear
from you. Five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four,
forty. We'll be right back. 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 Loudolsen 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 lut is an insight to how
he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve
dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal.
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From picture rocks, spooling, beating, and plumbing, make sure your
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Rocks and Pumbing. 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
app just searching I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to My on
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay got
Ryan with us. We got about thirteen minutes. If you guys want to
call, please do five two oh four one six seven four four zero.
We haven't heard from you guys in a couple of days. We've been really
busy. Yeah, so why not just give us a call. If you
heard yesterday Kurt, that'd be great. Uh, Jay, John, good
to have him back, you know, and all this stuff we've been talking
about, you know, the old days of the pec te you know,
it's get in emotional, Steve, Well, give me give no, we
have time to b s. Give me a couple of games that you definitely
remember. We've talked about the U s L A yeah game. You know,
Yeah, there's ones and losses and stuff and those are kind of obvious,
but you know, I think moments that kind of are I don't want
to say under the radar, but like you think, okay, this was
you know, this was cool. It was when Notre Dame came to town.
You talk about football, Okay, you've got football, got basketball play
lay and played in nineteen eighty right, and you we're like, okay,
wait a minute. In the whack, Notre Dame wasn't coming to Arizona Stadium.
All of a sudden, you see the gold helmets and the and the
and the and the gold pants and Notre Dame is here, and you're going,
holy crap, you know what we're you know, how did we get
here? Right? You know? One of those things, you know what
you know the first time we went to a home game and USC is on
the field because U. C. L A Had come here way back in
the day, had come here before, but not USC. All of a
sudden, you're playing U. S C. And you know, and and
for me, you know, Jay Jay talked about you know, there was
always a pack a pack eight game you know on TV here on Saturday,
and you watched the game and these are the schools that you saw on TV
and you go, wait a minute, that's that U. S C.
The one that's you know, plays in the LA Coliseum. They're here the
first time. All those things you know, started to happen. Uh.
We're kind of moments where you go, you know, okay, this this
is this is really cool and I'm glad Arizona did this, even though I
know us he's gonna kick our asses. Right yeah, well you you talk
about that, I'll go, I'll go. Big games during my time,
well even before my time. And you you saw this because I think you
may have been covered when Duke came down here for the Festival classics, right.
Uh, those big those were right, big games. Uh. And
I wish they had a feastbal Classic and they handed handle it that way where
you know, four games four days, two days, three days because they
had in between games they have no game, no game, but fantastic teams,
parties, dinners, stuff like that. Uh. And it was a
place to be so so that but ended up in the Pac twelve, you
know when Stanford came here and beat them. Yeah, and the first storm
and it was a big store. It was a big deal. No,
it was a court storm by by other people or no, Arizona one,
but Stanford against Azona be number one. The court storm, which never happened.
Yeah, never happens. And you know where I always remember, well,
we always like anytime Arizona got beat on the road, there was a
court storm. You go, guys, you know this is happening more often,
you know, sure, you know, you know, as we say,
you know, act like you've been there. Then all of a sudden,
Arizona beats the number one team in the country on it's court. Yeah,
and here they come, right, you know, right, how about
how about and you were here? I was not here the bokshot, yeah,
I said, I well, I saw that as a fan. I
was sitting in the I was sitting in the corner, so my view of
it. They it happened on the far side of the court for me,
but I was sitting in the corner, so I saw the trajectory of the
pass and the whole bid. I was right in line, and I'm like,
in that instant. It happened fast, but I thought he's gonna score
and he did yeah, yeah, yeah, and and you know yeah,
I mean, now you know that was a huge one. Again, I
was still a fan. I wasn't I wasn't covering sports when they you know,
when when they, you know, eight eighty six, they won the
championship. I was in sports, but I wasn't covering the team when they
won the Pack the Pac ten Championship for the first time. But you know,
I'm here's here's this one's gonna sound goofy. I remember when they hired
Ludolsa. I had no idea how big a deal it was. Three I
had no idea. I'm just like, Okay, we got a new coach
and he coached at Iowa. I mean, how good is that? Right?
I'm be like, who is he? You were twenty three show because
I was eighty three. I would have been twenty four eighty three. Well,
yeah, well what happened in early eighty earlier eighty three, so I
was still twenty four years old. But I'm like, I don't know who
this guy is and he's from Iowa? Is he any good? It was
just in the final four? Is any good? I guess, you know,
I guess yeah. And that changed the kind of the complexion of Tucson.
Yeah, the complexion of Tucson and sort of Tucson. It's sort of
you know you By by that time, football had kind of said okay,
we're competitive in football. Basketball had not been, especially the year before,
and it's kind of like, okay, now, you know we're we feel
like we're grown up in football. Are we going to be grown up in
basketball now? Yeah? And you you were and you were they were.
So there's a couple of other ones. Obviously, Uh the Derek Williams block,
yeah against Washington. That was big, but there's been there was much
bigger. Get there. I was gonna say, there's so many people that
you know with we call it recency bass when they say name a big moment
in Arizona basketball at Michale and they throw in the block by Derek Williams against
Washington, Like, guy, well, that was that was a great play.
But that was come on, that was like I remember they did the
serviy like four or five years ago and big plays or that was the number
one I think you were. Are you talking about Matt mellbox steel against against
Duke you know in ninety one, you know in the game that was in
like double overtime or something like that. A ball's going not a ball,
not steal a save, a ball's going out of bound. He saves it.
Arizona scores, they win this game. Uh you know those kinds of
I'll give you another one. Salim hits the shot over a Flollo from from
forty a mile out, a Kaylin Clark shot, right, Yeah, it
was playing the final moments of the game. That was a fantastic over U
c l A. Right, you beat Ucla, you beat Duke. It's
like it's Washington. Yeah, yeah, no, I know everybody was afraid
I was going to lose to Washington in this game. But it was Washington.
It wasn't you know, right, and anybody want to call it that
to these quick moments you have them in football, I have him in basketball
so many well, a loss when Ucla came here and beat the streak and
we talked about this a lot when we have Authic and we have these guys
because he was not in the game at the time, so shocky. Yeah,
yeah, that one was shocking, right, I mean it was U
c l A. And I guess if you're going to lose that streak,
better to lose it to Ucla than sorry. J John Caller, Oregon State.
I'll give you another game that was just bizarre in how they want When
Buddinger got his face stepped off. Yeah, and they were down by like
seventeen eighteen and then came back and won the game. Yeah. And there
was a UCLA game like that too. Oh yeah, yeah, same,
same. Actually, uh they played Oregon Oregon State and it happened twice in
the same year. Oregon State came, they beat the Oregon State and they
beat UCLA in the same fashion, came storming bath. Yeah. Yeah,
no, yeah. We could go on and on about great moments, great
moments in baseball, you know, some of the softball wins, and we
don't know, we didn't even know about women's basketball. They've beat in Stanford
here a few times, a couple of times, a couple of times.
You had to cover. You had to do those games scoring I did.
I did the latest one. I did the latest one, but I the
first one. I wasn't. I wasn't doing that that yet. But you
know, and look, you know, you know, let's take this call.
We got somebody calling in, Hi, you're on the air, eye
on the ball, Hey, guys, how you doing. What's going on?
Howard? Hey? Yeah? Leigh? And they had the McMillan shot
was really good, but the coolest thing I'll ever forget and I don't know
exactly which game it was. It was around the holidays, it was right
before Steve got there. Probably what about eighty six, Jay, when the
U of A was down by eleven? Was it at home? It was
about two minutes and they won the game. That was just crazy. I
can't remember which one that was, but do you vaguely remember it that McMillan
he was Maybe that McMillan game. I don't know. I'm saying this is
like telling Jay he was about five eight gorgeous talking about Okay, there is
one that I do remember like that, and it was it was Loot's first
year and it was sort of the year that towards the point of the season
where all of sudden things turned around. But they were down nine to a
s U at a s U with thirty seconds left in the game and came
back and won that game. That's the one like that that sticks in my
brain is like, not only did they win that game, but it was
a SU at their place. Eddie Smith and and and and uh Pete Williams
and those guys, you know, coming back with thirty seconds left in the
game. I would have been ned walk at the time. Okay, you
remember that one. Oh so it was it around that was around the holiday.
It was probably one of the first pack. Yeah, it was early
in I think it was pretty early in the pack Puffs Impact ten seasons.
Yeah, because I just remember. I think it was snowing. It was
almost snowing. I think was one game I'm talking about. Yeah, I
can't. I don't remember that one when you're saying eighty six ish, Yes,
it was right around eighty six. Yeah, and it was right on
it was. I think it was snowing in Tucson that day because I was
we were hanging out in Rio Cancion. Oh my god, I lived there.
It wasn't the same, but it wasn't the same bun a Venture.
It wasn't Texas Tech. That was. That was. That was a tournament
with those two teams. That's just game. I wish I remember what that
watch. I don't have that one. It was down eleven, was about
two minutes left, yah boom. I don't have that. I don't have
that one. That doesn't happen anymore. Well, yeah, well, you
know sometimes occasionally occasionally, Howard, are you okay? The sons are done
and everything's okay, up there. I'm okay, you've got the last time,
and you weren't. I talked to Steve. Had to be at a
funeral. I didn't tell you, guys, I fell off a ladder too,
Did I tell you that? What the hecky? What are you doing
up on a ladder? Come on? No, don't know. I should
have went down to my roofers ladder because you know, I'm building my garage.
I tore down the old car port and there's a beautiful garage. I'm
just she rocking it. So that's when is that your doghouse? You're fixing
up your doghouse from the wife. Oh my god, it's so fancy.
It really is fancy, and it's got all the belt was a store built
by through a storage remount. I have to get a permit for that,
but permitted and uh anyway, my roofer shouldn't have worked on the Easter,
which was a few weeks before. Guess how far he sell? Ten feet?
Twenty eight feet he was. You know, he's lighter than me and
still gravity. You shouldn't have been working on eastern j J fell three feet.
Yeah, I fell three feet. I heard him say that, Yes,
I heard him we gotta go, Howard, thanks a bunch of guys.
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that game, Jay eleven, I
don't know. There were a few of those games. They were down like
eighteen right the second half. It came back one seasons the Organ State game.
I have that pension to either be killing him or they get down and
they race back. Well the Florida game, Uh that was a Sean Miller
game. But that Florida game, they were down a bunch right right,
and I was and they you know, they turned it around and won that
and when that came So look a lot of great moments and there'll be some
more, right Kansas. Those coming to fifth said, yeah, creating some
new memories. But uh, you know when we're talking about going back to
you know, nineteen seventy eight, I mean, Jay, John, you
talked about the court storming when they beat U C l A here and uh,
you know and that kind of stuff. A friend of mine went to
the thing on the South Side with the U A coaches. You saw that.
I'm sorry, Facebook Murphy was there. Yeah, and Brennan all that
says He says, h I met Brennan. What a good guy. What
a just a normal dude. Yeah, I said, yeah, he's just
a normal dude. He would you couldn't point him out in the mall and
say that's the head coach of football football. You know, you're one hundred
percent correct. Again, I hate the I hate these the word unassuming because
that sounds like plain. But you know, just kind of like, you
know, like like Tommy Lloyd, just kind of an average guy making his
way around town and and you know, and then he's a multi million dollar,
you know, head head coach at a major university. You know,
the time needed Tommy at at at Canes, Yeah, I was gonna say,
and then it was kind of early in his time here. Yeah.
Yeah, I was sitting there at Canes and the T shirt and and Jim
shorts and you know, having some canes and nobody going up and bothering him
asking for We went to lunch somewhere nearby campus, and it was like his
first three or four months, and we kind of just walked and we just
he wanted to get the Bible, what what to expect. So we talked
and he pulled out his credit card blah blah blah, and the waitress didn't
have any idea and like nobody really knew what I'm taking. How refreshing it
is. Come somewhere and not being harassed, right, you know, if
you're the coach. I'm sure now that's not the case. But back then,
his first few months, first few months, and I'm like, Okay,
there's Tommy hanging out. Yeah, you know, decided to go over
to canes and get them. Your brother run into him like somewhere, and
he just had them at union. Yeah, he bought some drinks. Pretty
funny. All right, We're at the top of the hour. We've got
breaking news coming up. Ryan says, there's a whole bunch and I think
there is, so uh, stick around for breaking news, and then we're
gonna have Ben Lors. We're gonna talk Arizona swimming. He's the new the
newest coach at on campus, so we'll see what he's what his impressions are
of his new job and his new campus. So stick around for all that