Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. They have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson
Sports Stage Jet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart Radio. Wapp
Hey, welcome back to Eye the Ball here in Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve, he's Jay. Now we have Kevin with breaking news, his
Eye on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right,
so first things first, we're gonna go ahead and get started with the
with the Women's Basketball Pactall Tournament which is going underway today. We already have
our first result. Colorado absolutely embarrassed the University of Oregon, which is putting
it very kindly. The final in that game is seventy nine to thirty in
favorite of Colorado. Colorado is the five seed, libet Oregon and Oregon was
the Will you talk about this? Because I thought about this. Someone did
the all time best women's basketball players in the league's bignans closing years ago.
Oregon was the talk of the town. They were gonna win the national championship
in the in the year that the tournament got cam in. Yesco there is
a senior and look at how far they fall in the league. That's tough.
Yeah, I mean, well, we'll get to this later because next
time we have Moreno, I know, I'll bring this up. Go ahead.
Because of Oregon. Everyone talks about and I'm the guy that says,
because they have nice uniforms and this is not to your point. Oh,
they have all this money, they can do all this stuff. Well,
tell me about it now. It's not so much basket men's basketball. Tell
me how that's working basketball women, Tell me how that money and kids?
The kids want to play. Man. People talk more about their court than
the team exactly, exactly. All that money and all the beautiforms, shut
up. They want to play. And if you don't get players, you're
not gonna play. Cal Is up ten right now over Washington State with five
minutes left in the second quarter. Yeah, yeah, that's and the women
play tonight, and they have Washington tonight at seven. The Buffalo Bills a
busy day in Buffalo. They have not only Tradevious White, but Jordan Poyer,
uh Naim Hines and Mitch Morse as wells pretty good too. Yeah,
It'shavious White, multiple all pros leaving the Bills organization today. That's yeah.
Cost cutting I'm not really sure what the deal is with with t White.
It seems like he would be somebody you want to keep on the back end
of that defense, But I don't know. We'll see how that plays out.
Who they're going to bring in. What the next move is there?
The Seattle Seahawks after trading the farm for Jamal Adams and him coming in,
have you a couple of injury injury riddled seasons? Uh, this past one
was not the prettiest. They have cut him and they have also cut Quandre
Diggs, who is also a pro bowler as well. So a lot of
kind of surprising timing roster moves today the NFL, so their deadlines they can
march to if you make it to with this deadline, the new league year
starts in the Yeah, seven days. Is that why they're doing the Russell
Wilson thing before some Sun day? Yeah, they actually came out and today
said that he can start talking to other teams today, which is good for
us. I guess let Russ Cook as they say, former you kids come
up with these phrases. Former Arizona guard Brandon Williams. Yeah, I was
gonna want the G League Player of the week after averaging wopping thirty nine and
a half points, ten and a half assists, and ten and a half
rebounds in just two games this week for the Texas Legends the Dallas Mavericks affiliate.
All right, good for him because you know, with all the injuries
that he had here and he almost the knee, he'll hardly ever played here,
right, he barely got in any game, and he was the guy
that kind of saved Sean at the end because he kept the other guys because
he stayed or he can state. Yeah, Lorenzo Romar has been let go
as the Pepperdine coach, his second stint after six seasons. And then Matt
Crenshaw is also out as the i U b U r Uy coach. Yeah,
making it the four teenth coaching change already. Jason Gardner used to coach
there. I think this guy is a guy who replaced Jason Gardner. But
you want to talk about it. I always like Lorenzo Romer. You know
when he was he spent all that time as the Washington coach. You know,
he coached when when you're here under Shawn Mill just a good guy and
you know, you you know, you rarely get these opportunities. But in
the that game that the Pac twel would always play in China at the beginning
of the year, and I worked the first couple of those up there.
They actually went to Shanghai with those guys, but Washington played in one of
them. And you know, it's a big it's a big social event for
you know, the coach. I mean, we had cocktails with the refs
and the coaches. You know, just went up to the bar, the
hotel bar, and everybody's up there. You know, Roxy Bernstein was hanging
out with him, held out with Bill Walton at breakfast. But I got
you know, I got a chance to hang a little bit with Lorenzo and
he was fun. It's just a good guy, and to me is one
of those guys that you don't look like you could be a basketball coach because
you're too easy going. Well in this moment and that's part of the probably
him with Steve Lavian and Josh Pasner. You know, I agree with you
because I covered him when he was I watching him for a long time.
When he came here, I texted Sean and said, you got your best
recruit of the recruiting class. That was him. Coming to help him,
not that he made a difference, right, because you know you're thinking that
some guy was rubbing off on him because guess who was the boss that year,
Sean Miller. You're not gonna tell Sean how to run this program.
Yeah. So, but I really like Lorenzo. I honestly though, I
kind of got out of sight, out of mind. I kind of forgot
about him being a Pepperdine. I bet you lancewers onsistant coach. You know,
you know some guys, you know, when some guys that I talked
to were talking. He's like a Steve Robinson kind of guy. Right,
he is going to go help a young coach somewhere, Jim Jim Rosborough bring
some stability, uh, some very variants to a guy, maybe a need
somebody take a guess how old heuse? I think he's in the sixties.
Sixty five, got it? You know what, that's hard to believe.
I mean I've said that because I know he's been around a long time.
He didn't, you know, to me, doesn't. So but but and
you're reaching that point soon. So sixty five. When I was a kid,
when I was a kid, so old, so old, and it
was retirement age. Right. Yeah, now, now, not so much.
I got a lot of time. I got a lot of work to
do. We all do. We do have a little bit more college recruiting
news. It's my last thing I got today, Kayman Mallock. I don't
know if I've pronounced that correctly. I probably didn't, But he is currently
ranked the number three prospects in the nation out of Africa. He played in
the NBA Africa Academy. He has committed to Duke to join Cooper Flag,
who is the number one. They're gonna be a good player in the nation
and listen to these measurables here. Cooper Flag, we all know, is
an incredible talent. Listed at six nine the number one player in the nation.
Me Locke is seven to one, two fifty and he is the third
player in the nation, meaning the Duke has two of the top four and
Rutgers has the other two. Wow. Rutgers, yep, Rutgers, Ace
Bailey and Dylan Harper. A great n IL program. Yeah, I mean,
and Ron Harper's kid just went there. Silent related but interesting. Yeah,
there should be good. I'm not too sure about the coach Shire as
a shire. We'll see how he does, because he's another one of those
good guys, not so much tough guys. And you have to have both,
you have to be both. Let me let me say something. This
came on and I saw just now that you know, the apparent meeting with
Hobbes and the UA administrators, including obviously President Robbins. I guess this is
a release from her office stated Hobbes was clear in her expectations that ABOR and
the University of Arizona take the necessary and appropriate steps to resolve these issues.
I make sure she was pretty stern in herkayu. And then you know,
from day one when the financial mismanagement at the University of Arizona became public,
my goal has been to restore the public's faith and trust in this institution.
There's along road ahead of us to fix this financial miss mismanagement and ensure the
university emerges from the situation stronger than it was before. She could she could
have said all that without a meeting. Rather, what did you think of
the meeting? That's all I see right now. But the government requested the
border regions take up the following steps. Here we go on the war,
engage external experts in supporting the improvement of financial process and procedures, provide monthly
financial updates on the progress to date to Governor Hobbs and her staff prior prioritize
those who have longer lengths of time working at the university, working class staff
and Arizona based employees when assessing layoffs. But didn't you say there's no longer
just two But didn't you say yesterday that there was going to be no layoffs
or well, they're not gonna they're basically they're not going to be like wholesale
after They're not gonna say you got on low ten percent of your staff.
It's it's sense, it's gonna be more a thing of jobs are going to
get vacated and not be filled. Right, every every but every department has
to you know, take a look at you have the right number of people.
But they're not they're not forcing tax amount of we're layoffs, work with
less right, work with less right, you know. So it's I think
it got everybody breathing a little easier in that you know, they're they're not
going to just start chopping, you know, indiscriminately. You know, at
the bottom of the food chain. Uh, you know, all over the
university there probably will be some positions that will be eliminated or whatever, but
it's not going to be like, Okay, you got to get rid of
percent of your of your staff or whatever. Well, in talking to the
president last week, I thought he was very ambitious in saying that thirty six
months. Yeah, holy crap, I wish I could pay my car off.
That's well, that's the that's the that's the athletics part. I think
that was just the athletics part. I do, but I don't want to
pay him back. Well, if I could only be were you here with
us for the other history? Was he yesterday? The bracketologists for the Yeah,
yeah, I'm still trying to find me a you groopye, yeah,
bracketology groopy the wrong line of work. Man knocking on the basement window.
Yeah, your mom around, mom doing a bracket I line. All right,
we got a few minutes left, so let's we got a couple more
clips left from from the Tommy things. So he was asked about, uh,
their three point defense, and uh, you're just it's just a little
funny exchange talking about you know, he wasn't really aware what the stats are,
but Oh yeah, he's just what he had to say about his three
point defense. Well, I mean, you know, gardening the three point
line is important, you know, down the stretch, and you know,
not that we're necessarily doing anything different, but I just think you have to
have an awareness and you know of you know, there's some threes you're going
to live with and there's some threes you you'd rather not, and just kind
of making decisions on those is is really important. Yeah, I know,
I mean that that's good to know. I mean, I haven't looked at
the stats, you know, as in depth that you have, but you
know, I feel like our defense is trending in a in a good direction.
I wasn't happy with the second half defensive effort against Oregon, you know,
and we're trying to address that. But uh but but all in all,
I think the defense is going in the right direction. But it's going
to be tested on the road this weekend. Yeah, we'll see, because
I think if it's Ula was shooting the lights out, it's a problem.
It's gonna be a problem for whatever long and listen to get it fixed.
And you got to twenty nine how many games they played, almost thirty games
if not thirty games. If you haven't got the problem solved, you can
hopefully get it solved. You are who you are. You are you are.
That's gonna be on the tombstone or toobstone about tombstone. They died because
we are who we are, better or worse they could remember. Crap you
are? We thought they were all right. It was not so much on
the ball. Yeah, yeah, all right. He had to come work.
He talked about Grant Whiteman, who got the start. You got the
start in uh Over Boswell because he was a senior on on Saturday. He
had some nice things to say about why let's put that on. He just
high character, high character, great guy, puts the team first, you
know he you know, his family is an incredible legacy with Arizona basketball.
And you know, I think it's been really cool to watch him be able
to have his own journey and make his own impact on Arizona basketball. He's
a he's a he's a really good basketball player. He's he helps us in
practice a ton and he takes a lot of pride in that and and I
think that's really special. And I've always you know, told people, if
you are looking for someone to hire for your company. I would always look
at a manager, a student manager, or a walk on first. Those
people know how to serve the greater good of the organization and and they know
the importance of support roles. And so I think that's tremendous. And Grant
has you know, been I hold him in high regard and and I'm going
to really miss him, you know. And and he has a COVID operamortunity
to go play another year, and that's what he's expressed that he wants to
do. And there's no doubt in my mind somebody's gonna end up with a
really impactful basketball player, you know. When he said that, Jay,
we talk about this every now and again. How and you see the commercials.
If you want somebody to hire, hire an ex athlete, right,
they know how to be team. If you're not a good teammate, you're
just not a good teammate. But most of them are pretty good teammates.
They know how to work within the system, do what they can. They
know their roles. And I thought his point of the walk ons and the
managers because it's a tireless, thankless job, and they're there because they want
to be there, they want to be part of the team and the success.
I thought it was a fantastic analogy because it's true and and and you
know these you know some of the ex managers that we know, the the
the guy, A bunch of them. Ryan Hansen is the president of a
local local company, Todd Walsh, who's done very well for himself media wise
in Phoenix. There's a bunch of them. There's some, there's some my
dentists, a former former guy who's the dentist for all the coaches and other
people at U A uh so mean And this the story goes on and goes
on. Right, one of the guys is it's I think he's a Fox,
big time Fox guy TV back in the day thirty years ago. Right,
I mean very true what he said. No, it is exactly.
You know, you love guys. And then on top of that, even
better, you know guys who play, play and experience multiple sports. Yeah,
because you know, you have to be a different type of teammate on
different types of teams. So I was well said by Tommy on that one.
All right, let's let's take our break. We're gonna get Ben Boltch.
He's the he's the uh uh u c l a beat writer for the
Los Angeles Times. We'll get into, you know, his thoughts on the
game tomorrow night, his thoughts on Mick Cronin, and we'll definitely ask him
about Chip Kelly and all of that stuff. So stick around for Ben Boltch
from the Lly Times. We'll be right back. The Windows Depot is more
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I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Welcome back to I in the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Rivera,
He's jacob'sauce known if on. We have Ben Bulk from the La Times.
Ben, how are you excellent? Thank you so much for having me
on. We're Greek to have you have you on. Occasionally I want to
congratulate you. You're done with the Chip Kelly era and now almost done with
the Crone era this year. How you know, from people from outside of
LA and we don't get to see you all the time. And you know,
people call Cronin cranky and Kelly he clicked, uh, just kind of
erratic or whatever word you want to use. How is it or was it
covering these guys? Yeah, you know, it's easy to kind of shoehorn
them into one easy narrative. You know, Chip Kelly's just this gruff guy
who's hard to deal with, and Cronin's kind of like this maniac on the
sidelines. But they're, you know, just like anybody else. They're very
complex, nuanced people. You know, I really have enjoyed my interactions with
coach Krony's almost thoughtful, honest coaches I've ever dealt with, probably the most.
And then on the flip side, you've got coach Kelly, who until
recently I thought was a man of integrity despite all his quirks. But as
I wrote an a column for the La Times that posted yesterday, I think
he lost a lot of honor in the way he left. You know,
he had his introductory press Conster House State yesterday said that he wanted to,
you know, get back to coaching and just coach. But which is fine,
but you can't do that at a time when you leave your team in
February and just leave everybody in a terrible spot. So I lost a lot
of respect for him with the way he left. And as you said,
uh, I don't have to deal with him anymore. Good for you both,
Good for you. Yeah, it's a tough situation. You know,
we we've heard it. Look from from an Arizona standpoint, everybody thinks Mick
Cronin is you know, like one of the groucheous people you know ever on
the planet. But how is he really because I've also heard that off the
court on the side, he's just a regular guy and you know, not
who we think he is. What are your what's your take on? Yeah?
Yeah, I mean, as I said before, you know, when
I don't know if you've ever watched one of his not non Arizona, I
should I should uh preface this by saying non postgame Arizona media always seemingly in
a bad mood there, but uh, you know, when we meet with
him weekly, it's just a tremendous twenty minutes of inside into his life.
Basketball even liked to talk about the NBA, obviously his team's. He is
legitimately the most enjoyable coach I've ever covered, just because he's so open,
honest and insightful about everything. And you know, he gets grouchy like everybody
else does, but he's not that kind of roving maniac that he looks like
during games. Sometimes he's a completely different person. Well, as I said,
a very nuanced person, and I've really enjoyed interacting with him. So
explain this to us. So yesterday, I think you pushed it, or
maybe even today from yesterday's press conference or media gathering where earlier he'd been throwing
people under the bus or players under the bus, And I guess someone could
have been you who asked what type of role do you play in this?
And he said all me, It's all me. Yeah, it was me.
Actually, yeah, you know, people were asking rightfully, So he
was kind of throwing his players under the bus basically all season. So I
think it's only fair for him to agnow she's rolling this, and I think
he had to some extent. I mean he said, you know, I
have to coach them up, I have to build their confidence. But you
know the bottom line was he never said, you know, our our our
failures are on me as a coach. So I opened my first question to
him yesterday, you know, what's your level of culpability given that you evaluated
these players, you recruited them, and then you assembled this faster and without
flinching or hesitating a second? He said one hundred percent percent. So you
know, he owned up to it as I thought he probably would. Uh
So, you know, as as Chip Kelly loses respect, Mick Corning gains
it. In my eye, Interesting, So what okay, so what what
went on with has been going on? I guess because the team is still
playing? What's been going on with the team? Why have they not been?
You know because they had been because it happened they went in a nice
sixty six. Yeah, So, I mean, what what's characterized this team?
Is that just the so many new faces that didn't come together? I
mean, what, how have you analyzed what this team has done this year?
Yeah? Well, you know the bottom line is seven freshmen eight newcomers,
including Lazar Stefanovitch, who's turned into a really nice player transfer from Utah.
But as I look at, you know, and as coach cronan is
also conceded, it's just really hard to win with so many new pieces,
particularly freshmen. Not trying to make excuses for him, it's just a fact.
And he did have them playing pretty darn well during that stretch where they
won eight out of nine, and it's never going to be a high octane,
pretty to watch offensive team. But what they did was they supplemented their
very good defense with very good rebounding, and then they took care of the
ball and basically never turned it over. So they added in those two components
to kind of compensate for their shaky offense, and they were getting a lot
more shots than the other team, and that really kind of was the edge
they needed to win some games. And in the last you know, four
games started with that just crushing lost to Utah at the buzzer. They've kind
of gotten away from that, and I do think they also hit a little
bit of a freshman wall with you know, four freshmen playing really significant roles.
Those guys have never been through a college season before, I think they've
kind of run out of the gas a little bit. And then you know,
when they came off that high and lost that Utah game, they just
kind of have fallen a little bit of flat. You know, it's late
in the season. I'm sure they're tired, and obviously, you know,
they're not going to plan inst a tournament unless they win the whole pac twelve
tournament. So I think motivation fell off a little bit, and it's a
confluence of factors. So and midway through the year or through the season,
his name gets mentioned for the Louisville job and people saying he's got one foot
out the door. Yeah, I don't believe that for a second. You
know, in fact, he addressed that on the Arizona road trip. I
wrote about it, and in fact, going into the Arizona game, he
was standing in the hallway in Tempea and he you know, kind of pulled
me aside and said, hey, you know, I don't read anything,
but I hear things, and people are and saying, you know, you
seem really unhappy about the roster and the nil and all this stuff, and
you know, are you are you got one foot out of the door you
leave it, and he said, I'm gonna stop this right now. I
want this to be my last job. And of course, you know,
you can quote other coaches who've said similar things, uh, you know,
uh and ended up somewhere else next year. But when when Mick Cronin says
it, I really do believe it. I really do believe he wants to
speed last job for for a number of factors, he has a deep appreciation
for what UCLA basketball brand means. Uh. He moved his daughter and his
ex wife out here and they're very happy, and he's very happy. He
loves everything about living in southern California. So I'm not gonna say there's no
chance in the world, but I would be stunned if he left UCLA.
So okay, so you know we're we're sitting here and they got this this
game tomorrow. Do you you know there's there's two ways of where we say,
as fans, you look, okay, did one or two things is
gonna happen. Either the UCLA is gonna come out saying, look, we
don't have a lot to play for. This is a big deal to us.
We really want to you know, it would help us feel better about
us if we win or we're mailing it in. What you know, what
from what you see? What do you think is the most likely thing to
happen tomorrow? Yeah, you know, I think I think they we're gonna
see similar to what we saw the first Arizona game and early in that Washington
State game. I'm not saying US is gonna win. I think that's still
a tall order, but I think they're gonna play an inspired, energetic brand
of basketball they kind of had. You know, they had their rivalry game
a couple of weeks ago at home and they just sell and it was the
biggest crowd, first sell out of the season, and they just fell completely
flat. And I think it was a hangover from that, just gutting Utah
US. But I think they were legitimately embarrassed by that, and I don't
think they want to have another showing like that, particularly at home. You
know, we're getting ready to close out the season here, so I think
we're gonna see us best punch. I'm not saying it's gonna result in a
win, but I think you're gonna see some impressive effort from these guys.
No, I think the usually Arizona game always brings the best out of both
teams, so and it's going to be packed, right. I guess Arizona
will bring some people out, you know, the people you usually don't see
at the game will be there tomorrow. Yeah. You know, you always
get the u of a chance going whenever they come to Polly, so I
expect them to be out in full force as well. Yeah. So it's
a tu a little bit about the fan base and how they're taking this season
because that's always, you know, always an issue, and you know,
now they're looking at going to the Big ten and all this stuff. What's
that been like? Yeah, I think that you know, coach Kordin's getting
a pretty big mulligan here because, let's face it, you know, he
even in his first year, he had them playing really well at the end
of the year that got cut off by COVID, and then next year they
have the unexpected run in the Final four and you know, gotten Sweet sixteen
in each of the next two years. So he's really done a nice job.
And you know, I think he thought that either Jalen Clark or Murray
Bailey was going to come back this year and wouldn't have to do quite the
complete roster overhaul that he had, So I think he was caught a little
bit off guard by that, and that really deepens he's kind of rebuilding efforts.
But I do think the fans have given him the pass, especially you
know, there was one point where it felt like they may not win another
game this year, right, I mean when they lost the calp date Northridge
and then got embarrassed by Maryland at home, and I think they started one
and four in the Pac twelve and it's like, wow, are they going
to win another game? But you know they they're right around five hundred,
which is is awful. There's no doubt about its awful for UCLA, but
it's not going to be a historically bad season. So I think LA fans
are giving him a path. Now. He can't do this and again next
year. They've got to make the tournament next year or there's going to be
a big price to pay. So we've had a we had a you know,
Rhino here earlier in the show talking about the old, good old days
of the UCLA Arizona rivalry before I asked you for some of your great moments,
because I know you've covered the team for a long time. What the
heck happened? Did you ask Cronan because you referenced it earlier about Cronan and
one of the reporters here, like I expect that from you, and he
just asked about the mcale Center. Yeah. I think it was justin Spears
asking about, uh, you know, the atmosphere or something. And I
don't think that Cronin knew who he was. I think it was just kind
of like, oh, you're you know, you you cover Arizona. He
was kind of lumping him in. I did think that was a little bit
unfair and uncalled for, but you know, he was. He was testy
after after a loss. I've gotten that handful of times from him. Uh
yeah, just just kind of salty, unnecessary remark from Cook Cronin. Okay,
okay, so you've covered it. You know, I was with you
back in the day when you recovered the team as well some of your greatest
memories with this rivalry, which is obviously the storied one of the Pac twelve.
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I actually covered USC basketball for
a while during the Tim Floyd are. I think that was the first few
times I came in and I remember, h uh, you know, uh,
Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt upset them. That was back in the days
when we sat right in front of the band behind the baskets. I'm sure
you obviously remember that. And uh, that was. That was a heck
of a game. They always had a good fight. And you know,
I've come in with U. C. L A for like the last fins
Alonzo ball era and that was very shortly dearra. Uh you know that was.
That was a good game. And you know you say he went to
a run there where I think three three years or so on a row with
Steve Alford, uh, going and merging into mc cronin that they wanted the
McHale Center. But it's been pretty much all Arizona these last handful of years.
But it's just always so much fun. You know. I always relished
the atmosphere because I'll be honest with you, we don't get that at paul
A Pavilion unless they're playing Arizona ORFC. So always fun for me to come
in there. I will say, I think this is important, you know,
with some of the back and forth between the spitting incident and from the
fans, I would be a little bit surprised from the UCLA perspective if they
continued this rivalry, really, because I think that there's a lot of tension
there, lingering over what's happened so interesting, and I haven't been told anything.
I just think just from kind of reading the tea leaves and you know,
Tiger Campbell's mom telling me that she was kind of verbally assaulted there,
and I know that stuff gets back to the coaching staff. So I don't
think, you know, continuing this rivalry is going to be high on the
wish list for UCLA going forward in the Big ten era, which is of
some rise to US. Jay and I because just Tommy Lloyd said today the
press cooverence, he anticipates it to continue because it's such a good thing.
But you're right, though, yeah, you're you're right, Ben. I
think they, you know, all things being cool, they would like to
continue it. But I do think that from the US perspective, and I've
heard it, you know, and this is not coming from mcconnan. It's
coming from other people. But I know that they passed this along and I
know that, uh, you know, there is some tension there that probably
needs to get resolved if they're going to continue it that that that really bums
me out here, you know, from a from a local that you know.
And I mean, look, I'm not saying that it's there have been
some things and I under I would I completely understand U. C. L
A's point of saying, why would we want to keep going and dealing with
that stuff? So, uh, you know, there's things you can't do.
I mean, was it was it was the last game? Something I
thrown? Was it? That? Was that the game? Or well what
happened last game? Was I was sitting right above it. It was an
Arizona student, h if he was videoing or something, but he put his
phone right in literally like inches from multiple players heads and some of the staffers
kind of lingered behind and were drawing at him, and uh, you know,
it doesn't sound like a very big deal, but it just you know,
added on top of you know, Figer's mom situation and then the mac
Etsy and stuff, and obviously that was you know on UCL I should not
have done that, but just there there's been a lot of incidences, uh,
just piling up. So I think that stuff does kind of have a
cumultive effect. After a point, and UCLA has a choice, right,
It's like we're stuck with having to deal with the A su fans. But
but you know, and that that's bad on both sides as well. But
yeah, you're you're right. If USLA doesn't want to deal with that,
they can just say see you, yeah next knowing ye Ben as always think
you will see you next week. Enjoy the weekends games, all right,
same to you. They trap me on. I think you've been Ben Bolt's
one of the best sports writers in the West, and I want to make
sure that people understand we don't excuse Arizona fans and do stuff like that.
I was just gonna use it the fans really, yeah, no they do.
I mean remember the Oregon organ cheerleader got here with a water bottle,
launched it well at a football game and it got carried out on a stretcher
and the right and then you just try to remember the one from Washington State.
They got through the light with those little light things that they have the
other day. This the other day. You know what they If their strivalry
doesn't continue, Arizona fans, it's your freaking fault. Yeah, true.
And airzew he sale has every right to say thanks but no thanks, and
I hope that's not the case. Sure, okay, hey, let's take
the Breakdow. That's good, all right, last break. We'll be back
and we'll take your cast five two zero four and six seventy four to forty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
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Breaking down all the exes at OHS. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salvinz.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth dif Hey, welcome
back to my on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve,
He's Jay. You have fifteen minutes. We get Kevin at the board,
so we pay attention to the phone lines five to two, zero four one,
six, seventy four to forty give us a quick call. I thought
that was a good interview. It's been fun. Both both Rhino and Ben
Bolt are fun talking about the rivalry. It's a big deal. And again
again, st you're just sad that this thing is over. Well, the
thing about a two And we know this as journalists, as we should know
this as journalists. There's two sides to the story, right, and and
we're here in Tucson, right and we hear we hear stuff here, and
we hear the people here and they have a story too. Look, we
know that and let's say, let's say who it is the students at this
you know at Arizona and Michael Center, they push it and and often go
over the line. Sure again this week I saw something on Facebook the mkill
will take this call. All right, let's get this call, Hire on
the aaron I on the ball. Hello guys Howard. Yeah, So,
of course loud Olsen didn't like the tournament. And what I think Tommy was
saying the same thing. He values the next game and of course the season,
your league season a little more than the tournament. Do you guys agree
with that the tac TO twelve tournament. I don't know. I don't get
a sense that he doesn't like it. I I you know, it's like,
you know, opportunities play again and kind of you know, in Arizona
situation, you know, solidify their their seed and all that stuff. Right,
I agree, But you know me, I push for cultivating to call
me mister cultivator of the bench. I know it's too late. I think
you guys, using your guy's own words, the PAC twelve is pretty weak.
Yeah, yeah, what's your point? My point is that they could
play those guys, Mark Kowski, all those other players that don't get in
the game because I think, first of all, they're gonna be blowing them
out, so they will see the floor in the blowout. No, they
do. I mean, he'd love to get them into pac TWEF tournament,
right, but what's he's not going to risk a loss? You know,
What's it going to matter in a week or so after that, because if
he hasn't trusted them to this point, he sure he ain't gonna trust him
in the NCAA tournament. Right. Yeah, I get that. But you
know, I was ready to push the panic button movie, right, and
I got talk tomorrow out the game war but I was ready pushing the panic
button about my sons. But they had that great victory last night, and
then people are already on them, says don't sleep on the Suns after one
pou because I actually hear these guys talking, Okay, I'll comparing to the
Warriors. They're saying, well, they still don't have a point guard,
you know what I mean? Yeah, I said that's bs because the Warriors,
let's face it, they didn't have a point guard. They had Green
who's a really good passer, and and and and Seth. But Steph is
a two. He's a shooting guard, he's not a point guard, right
right, Well they found the way to do it, Howard, thanks to
the call man as always, all right, thank you? Yeah. When
were we talking about? Oh yeah, MG, so another another post.
We got to do something about the students being moved again and enough already guess
what and I guarantee you j this is another person who doesn't go to the
games seas it on TV and they don't experience experience Thursday night with the red
lights and all that stuff. How crazy was that? And it's been crazy
most of the year, right, and then you want to move the students
because what to make it crazier just because it doesn't look right on the side
on the TV. And let's never forget the student section was half full on
Saturday because they were out on spring break. Another point. You know,
you know, you have a spring great spring break game. And now the
bottom some down on the bottom bowl, it's you know, it's empty because
they took off for a spring break, and the upper bowl was fully empty.
So even the people who are actually buying the nosebeat seats, they weren't
there either. So it was just a whole depth of sound that wasn't.
No, you know what stop. Okay, first of all, you're not
that great a student section that you deserve those seats, perfectly said, because
it's true. Oh everyone can say, oh, it's the best fan.
No it's not. No, you're not. No, it's not. You
show up when you feel like it and guess what, and you don't show
up other times the team does very well anyway. You know, the Cameron
crazies are there every single out. But I went for this reason too,
to see exactly what it was. Okay, it's a roll of a few
a few rospeck and it looks great on TV. But outside of that,
it's a normal stadium because it's it's nine thousand or whatever. It is right
across the way. When they have the donors and stuff, they ain't jumping
around the zona zunis to shake itself. It feels about how great great.
It feels like some fans go to the big games throughout the year that the
biggest of games and the atmosphere is absolutely killer. It's electric. I will
say that there have been more games this year where you thought they're not going
to have a great crowd, where they in fact did The Washington State game
wasn't nine o'clock game, and that place was loud. It was full,
and it was loud, including the students. I was surprised at that.
I thought, you know, like you said, I thought we're going to
see the upper level was going to be, you know, half full,
and man, I looked around and it was jammed. That's what I was
saying. The students action might not be the greatest the atmosphere, but it's
at its best. It's like one of the best night that. The other
thing that gets me is, okay, we're both go ahead. Now you're
on the air and on the ball. Hey Jay, Hey Steve, this
is done. How you guys doing. Hey. You know one thing that
you guys haven't mentioned about the atmosphere at McHale Center is game day at McHale
Center is lit inside like an NBA game, not like a college game.
The lights aren't always up and you can't see everybody like at McKay. Like
at Pauli, it looks like a high school gym and all the lights are
one, whereas mckill Center is more of an experience with the video boards and
everything else and the music and all that stuff and you know, you don't
see that. You know, you're not seeing that at other places the way
it is at McHale. No, you're and and when the seats were selling
out back in the day, it was the donors and the and the season
ticket holders that filled that place up. And you know that's there's just the
student section hasn't been a collegiate student section right on the floor for as long
as I can remember. I started going to games in eighty eighty six,
eighty seven, and then you know, that's that's the way it's been the
whole time. Yeah, no, that that happened when Cedric Dempsey got here
in the early eighties. He said, no, we need to make money
off these seats, and they shut the students you know where they where they
are today. Do you remember when he having spotty, they had to put
him in spotty. Yes, that didn't worked because it was it was spotty.
Yeah, yeah, no absolutely, But now it looks I remember they
used to be up in the corners in the top and all and they were
all spread out all over. Yeah, and look, the students bring it
off. But there are sometimes that you just go, what are you doing?
You know? And so I don't know. Yeah, how a lot
of interactions have gone gone too far. We don't need to be We don't
need to be hearing about extracurricular stuff in the news the next day or that
night. We don't need to be hearing that. So exactly done. All
right, Hey, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Take care.
Yeah, No, I lost my train of thought because I was just
saying when one more point was gonna be the students, YadA, YadA.
Oh oh, now that we're older, because you're older and I'm older.
I've been hearing this since I got here. I was twenty five years old,
twenty three years old. And now those guys have passed. You know,
the people that we saw Now we're the old people. We're the old
people. So at what point is are we not the old people? Because
it's always gonna be a generation of the tickets continuing on, right, So
if you're forty year thirty or whatever, to the kids, we're always the
old people. Yeah, no, we are. We are the old guys.
Yeah, of guy, And guess what your sons and your daughters who
are there now are gonna guess what they're gonna be. Yet, the old
gonna be the old guy. You can't fix this problem because they're generational.
Look, I think I think the McHale fan base, the McHale atmosphere is
what it is. It's that's how it's going to be and how it's been
for a really long time, and it's just going to stay that way.
The thing is that, you know, you do see where as time goes
on, you know, whether they're students or fans, get bolder, and
do they keep pushing the envelope further out? And and you know, the
the guy sticking his phone in the face of a of a a UCLA stop
right. I was sitting next to him, next to Ben, and I
saw that too. And the kid, the kid was being a pain.
It was being a punk, you know, And and he pull it back
and then do it again, and then the coaches came in and he kind
of got some glee. I, Hey, guess what I'm doing. Guess
what's about? It's about being visible? You know that that that conversation came
up in the in this whole court storming thing. They said, you know
you're gonna try and stop ports to on. The suggestion was, well,
then don't show the court's storms on TV. They don't give a crap.
How many of the guys people running out on the court had their phone clubs
so they could put that stuff up on social media. That's what it is.
It's the same now that kid was trying to get himself on social media
by putting his phone in in you know, in the face of a player
the moment exactly, and then everybody, there's more people with just because they
have phones, have an opportunity to have that moment that you didn't have before.
Was before you know, the camera would come around and everybody start waving
at the camera that was their moment. Well, now I don't even need
that. I just need to do something and with my phone and put it
up on social media, you know, and people will, uh, you
will look at it, and that's good enough for me. But that's the
way it is now, and that's the way it's going to be forever.
Yeah, And I mean I saw it's totally different levels of this, but
it's the same kind of entitlement to a moment that we have noticed because that
at the Senior Day festivities, the players are lined up at the top of
the concresce right and No one's asking for some people are Some people are asking
politely, hey, mister love like can get a photo. Mostly we were
just going tapping them on the chest, like hey, turning selfie click click
click click. It's like, this is not a zoo. Can you just
be like, hey, mister bollow like a big fan photo exactly. People.
People are definitely entitled to their moment with these people, these players,
these athletes, coaches, and they think they are and it is it's going
too far for ye no, and again you know, and it's it's it's
not just the Arizona either, No, no, no, every right,
And it's the world we live in. And I'm sure our generation had the
pin and the asses too, but now it's about the phone. It's upon
the phone and look at me and and and whatever before it wasn't before.
Thank god they didn't have phones when we were younger. I'm very happy about
that we can just tell stories about I'm very happy about that you can tell
the story. There's no visual evidence of anything that I was doing back in
that day, although I'm looking at we were talking about this off air.
Justin Spears put up his twelve twelve Moments of the of the U SALE series.
How far did he go back? Well he did. He does have
a picture of the court storm in the seventy nine U c l A game.
First year was in the league, and I'm in there somewhere. I
can't find phone, but I didn't have a phone. Can take the wall.
I'm gonna I'm gonna call Justin out on this. Okay, he got
it wrong because he said, uh he mentions that, uh, you Arizona
upsets U c l A. Maybe maybe the headline right, upsets UCLA to
finished sleep of Lli schools. No l A game was first, sure,
that was that was a period of time when the because of the TV contract,
they had a Monday night Pack twelve or Pac ten game and the USC
game was on Monday night because this was this was this was Thursday, and
the Spaghetti game was the next game. The Spaghetti game was the USC game,
right, and that that that really killed the Spaghetti company, right,
go ahead and explain to the kid here. But there was a rush I
called the Spaghetti company for inexpensive really good. I think there's no no no,
this was called the Spaghetti Company. But uh, it was down there
on on Alvernon South of twenty second Street and big boosters, and they did
it a couple of times where they gave out a coupon Arizona wins this game
free, you know, free dinner and twice and this was and the arena
held more Hell fifteen thousand because there were bleachers around three sides of the floor,
which is where the student fans. And they hit a they hit it
twice and book and they went out of business. It's not funny, but
it is. No, it's just incredibly ironic. Yeah. But that was
also the first I was their T shirt that I ever saw, that I
ever got because they I think, in fact, it might have been the
Spaghetti Company sponsored those T shirts because they were you know, I was there,
and they had the scores of the two games because this was Arizona's first
year in the bit in the back ten and here at U c l A
and U S he come to town and Arizona beat him both, which is
very cool. Yeah, it was huge. You know. In fact,
I'm gonna try to get don't get Joe Neills trying to get maybe filled in
tomorrow talk about the last memories of stuff like that. But there's a there's
a very cool black and white photo of the court storm. And like I
said, I was in there somewhere, I don't know where. I was
very short of trying to trip. I could have my hands in there.
You probably still wouldn't see me because I was very trip. You're trying to
trip one of the centers. No, no, no, no, no
no, no, it was no. I just you know what. And
I didn't go near a u c l A player. Okay, I ran
on the court and I didn't go near any u c l A. Players.
I might have even given, like Joe Nell's a hug or something.
He probably wouldn't remember it, but you know, but you know, when
Larry Damick was on that that was a great It was a great night,
one of the great one of my great moments as an Arizona fan. All
right, okay, here we are, man, we're out of here.
We have we have uh Brian Jefferies fifteen from l A at three fifteen from
LA. He's from LA. He'll be in l No, he's gonna be
in l Okas gonna be he'll I would be at Polly if not, you
know, at his hotel room nearby. I'm guessing he's at Polly because it
can take you hours to get the yes. You don't want to take a
chance. You're leaving the morning to get there to a night game. All
right, So yeah, Brian Jefferes. Tomorrow we're going to try and get
another great guest, so we'll be back tomorrow. We'll break down some more
of the UCLA Arizona game, last one as a Pac twelve rivalry