Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 2: Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Iron the Ball here
Speaker 2: on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in today
Speaker 2: with me is Blake Eagert from the Southern Arizona Sports
Speaker 2: Tourasament film Authority. Thanks for having me. We got that
Speaker 2: big doubt. Now if I don't did a ruptue, I'm good.
Speaker 2: We got Kobe winning the system, so don't blame me
Speaker 2: ifything bad happens. It's all on Kobe. This like you're
Speaker 2: fifth time by yourself. Yeah, it's sorting to get the
Speaker 2: hang of it. Yeah, okay, here we go berserk here. Hey, good,
Speaker 2: good afternoon, everybody. Well it's Tuesday, not Monday. It feels
Speaker 2: like a Monday though, doesn't it does? It does? Which
Speaker 2: I'm glad as Tuesday. Did you watch your game last night?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 3: What did you think? I thought the team that should
Speaker 3: have won one? Yeah, I mean you're you're arguably the
Speaker 3: most talented team in college football should have come on
Speaker 3: top and did so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the by the margin, I think not
Speaker 2: maybe how it happened by the margin they won by,
Speaker 2: if not more. You know, they had that comfortable lead.
Speaker 2: They kind of like played backs of days ago whatever word,
Speaker 2: and then the guy fumbled before he fell and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. Yeah, fourteen points or whatever it was. That's
Speaker 2: that's about right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would think so, I mean you would hope
Speaker 3: for maybe a little bit more competitive National championship game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, NFL. It was for like a second, yeah, for
Speaker 2: a quick second, yeah, quick second, but it was. It
Speaker 2: was Okay. I I'll wait for Jay when he comes
Speaker 2: on the show eventually to gloat with him, because everybody
Speaker 2: who follows us knows that we have this competition. And
Speaker 2: I pulled it off. So I won and lost the
Speaker 2: field goal, so I won. So that's for another day.
Speaker 2: So I gotta tell you.
Speaker 3: So, my cousin, my so my my mom's side of
Speaker 3: the family lives in Cleveland and Akron area. Uh, and
Speaker 3: they're all Ohio state diehards, right yeah, And so when
Speaker 3: they lost to Michigan this year, our and gets in
Speaker 3: the group chat and he's like, oh, they got a
Speaker 3: fire and I was going way timeout. I said, So
Speaker 3: if they win a national champion he says, I don't care,
Speaker 3: you got to beat Michigan. I said, so, you don't
Speaker 3: care whether you win a national championship, you care more
Speaker 3: about beating Michigan.
Speaker 2: And he's like, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is the dumbest conversation I've ever had,
Speaker 3: because you're talking to you of a football fans who
Speaker 3: would die for that opportunity.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, no, no no. I heard that conversation this morning.
Speaker 2: I think he was on Justin's show that they had
Speaker 2: somebody on and a guy who covers with somebody, and
Speaker 2: he said exactly that there's still some people, some people
Speaker 2: on that life still want him fire because of that
Speaker 2: he can't beat Michigan. He's seventy and ten I guess
Speaker 2: in the last whatever years he's been there, and a
Speaker 2: few of them have been to Michigan. Of those ten, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think four or five and they say, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you know, yeah, but yeah about what, there's no
Speaker 2: asterisk you won a national championship. Yeahan In fact, ESPN
Speaker 2: talked about that with him at the end. You know,
Speaker 2: sit and sit down, what can you do? I mean
Speaker 2: they won nine titles or eight titles three of the
Speaker 2: last few years the last fifty years. You know how
Speaker 2: you know because you played and you coached, you know
Speaker 2: how difficult it is to win a national title.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've won two championships. I've been to the playoffs
Speaker 3: a lot, but it's so hard to win that final
Speaker 3: game of the season.
Speaker 2: In what sense? What level?
Speaker 4: I won?
Speaker 2: Hi, A, we won a championship? High.
Speaker 3: I won a winter league in Hawaii when I was
Speaker 3: still with the Mets, and then I won I guess three,
Speaker 3: I want a championship in the north Woods League.
Speaker 2: So you want that? And when you didn't when you did,
Speaker 2: did you finish second at all? When? Oh, yeah, that
Speaker 2: on the field, it doesn't it? Did it diminish your
Speaker 2: worthiness because you didn't win it? I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: really good question. I'm a sicko.
Speaker 3: So I sat there and watched the whole thing happen
Speaker 3: because I wanted to remember that feeling. Yeah, so it
Speaker 3: just had to I emphasize what I need to do
Speaker 3: the next day to get to that point. But yeah,
Speaker 3: you do, you do question yourself for especially like for
Speaker 3: me as the starting pitcher. So if I started that
Speaker 3: game like I started the championship game in Hawaii and
Speaker 3: we end winning, But you know, if we would have
Speaker 3: gone the other way, I would have felt the blame
Speaker 3: on my shoulders, and sometimes rightfully so. But it's such
Speaker 3: a long season to carry that burden to the final.
Speaker 3: It's not There's so many things that could happen. So
Speaker 3: you followed your forty two. I sorry to tell you, Steve,
Speaker 3: we don't need to talk about age on the radio.
Speaker 2: Well they wanted twenty seven years ago, twenty eight years ago. Now,
Speaker 2: I think it was NCAA til you were fourteen. She
Speaker 2: have some perspective. I know that Kobe doesn't, but Kwan
Speaker 2: does because he's followed all his life. So in your estimate,
Speaker 2: who would be the best or what team would be
Speaker 2: the best ever? At you of a? Could you have
Speaker 2: like a listen to it?
Speaker 3: And I think we talked about this last time because
Speaker 3: we talked about me being at Putney's and everybody going
Speaker 3: crazy with ketchup and mustard and shooting all. It was
Speaker 3: like the weirdest celebration, but it was the coolest thing
Speaker 3: ever as a fourteen year old. So with the best
Speaker 3: basketball team, I don't listen. I still think I might
Speaker 3: be going. I still think that eighty eight team's pretty crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but Miller's Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: Wow, I just.
Speaker 3: Think that's that's starting five. To me is arguably five
Speaker 3: of the greatest athletes in college basketball at that time.
Speaker 2: Okay, so so they're not even in my top five
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: Positionally Zeus, Brandon, Ashley, TJ McConnell, Nick Johnson, Nick Johnson,
Speaker 3: and Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: That's not okay. I want to trump you. I want
Speaker 2: to try to trump you with this. These guys, Gilbert Luke,
Speaker 2: Richard Michael Wright, Lauren Woods, who, Jason Gardner. That's my
Speaker 2: tough one. So I'm talking team. I'm talking team absolutely.
Speaker 2: And the reason I asked this they finished second in
Speaker 2: the in the championship right then Austin Duke a couple
Speaker 2: of controversial calls, and to me, that was the best
Speaker 2: team ever here you threw me for a curve because
Speaker 2: I expect that as of you. But but they don't.
Speaker 2: They don't. They're not talked about. They're not talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't ever really bring that. And to me, they
Speaker 2: would beat ninety seven ninety eight given head to head. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all things equal.
Speaker 3: I mean that run though, was crazy for the ninety
Speaker 3: seven Oh yeah, yeah, that was ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, and they and you you know this, you
Speaker 2: catch light in the bottle and you right and you
Speaker 2: write it. Two thousand and one did that too, kind
Speaker 2: of but they were very good, ran into a very
Speaker 2: good Duke team and guppy. So so my point is,
Speaker 2: if you've finish second, does that diminish your you're worth? Yeah?
Speaker 3: We have this, We have this question all the time
Speaker 3: and our family because of U A basketball, right. I mean,
Speaker 3: if we go out in the sweet sixteen, is that season?
Speaker 3: Is that season of failure? If you won you know,
Speaker 3: let's say you want a pre pre conference tournament, if
Speaker 3: you won the conference, if we won the conference tournament
Speaker 3: and you were ranked in the top ten all season
Speaker 3: or top you know eight, to me, to me, as
Speaker 3: you know, it's hard because you have to take a
Speaker 3: step back of what the realistic outlook is. Sure for
Speaker 3: that for that year, in that team, that for that year,
Speaker 3: and for that team, that two thousand and one team,
Speaker 3: do they walk away as failures? You ran into one
Speaker 3: of the best college teams of all time in that
Speaker 3: Duke team. I don't think that season's a failure. No, no,
Speaker 3: it's not. But I think high expectations, like for me.
Speaker 3: If you look back at that mather Arin team, right,
Speaker 3: you had Terry Matharin. I mean that group is you're
Speaker 3: looking at now, little Loco. I mean that's you have
Speaker 3: four NBA guys off that team. But they weren't mature
Speaker 3: enough and hadn't been haven't been there in the first
Speaker 3: year coach, Yeah, first year coach. I think if you
Speaker 3: go back, that's a to me, at least the Elite
Speaker 3: should be an Elite eight team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, yeah, and then they were kind of
Speaker 2: there until they weren't. Yeah, and they ran into a
Speaker 2: pretty good Houston. Houston team was really good. They should
Speaker 2: not have benified. I'm not sure why we're talking about this,
Speaker 2: but I was thinking about the Dore Dame and all that.
Speaker 2: But I like this discussion of of Arizona basket basketball.
Speaker 2: The player night.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: I run into a guy I don't know, I don't know, five, six,
Speaker 2: seven years ago, and we were talking about the failures, YadA, YadA,
Speaker 2: and if you say no, but they want to pack
Speaker 2: twelve title or packed title, packed title. They did very well.
Speaker 2: They finished you know whatever, it was twenty two and whatever.
Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, because the only I only say this
Speaker 2: because you brought this up. Okay, So now that your
Speaker 2: measurement is the PAC twelve title, are you talking about
Speaker 2: Arizona basketball? They don't, they don't measure it by Pack
Speaker 2: twelve titles. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It goes back to the same conversation we had last time,
Speaker 3: blue Blood, right, Yeah, you can't put yourself in a
Speaker 3: blue Blood conversation. And if the last time you went
Speaker 3: to the final four was two thousand and one, right,
Speaker 3: I mean you have to be able to show that
Speaker 3: consistency and march matters, that's all it matters. And if
Speaker 3: you're comparing if it's an ACC or Big twelve title
Speaker 3: every year, that's a different story and a PAC twelve
Speaker 3: or PAC ten where you maybe have three teams ranked, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not the same makeup.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And how are you going to convince that
Speaker 2: you a fan about that?
Speaker 3: You enjoy the ride, Steve, Right, You enjoy the ride,
Speaker 3: You enjoy the winning piece of it, you enjoy the makeup. Now,
Speaker 3: we talked about this last time as well. Now it's
Speaker 3: a different fan base, right, The Big twelve is a
Speaker 3: different fan base. Every place you go to play is
Speaker 3: a mikhale, Right, So how are we going to differ
Speaker 3: and share or differentialate ourselves from other teams and other
Speaker 3: fan bases. And that's really the evolution that we need
Speaker 3: to make at this point.
Speaker 2: Right, And I get that because the quality of play
Speaker 2: in the Big twelve is much different than it than
Speaker 2: it was in the PA Pack ten Pack twelve. So
Speaker 2: there's that, and it may be a while, maybe a
Speaker 2: long while, before Arizona wins a Pack twelve regular season title.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean with the Big twelve, I mean it's
Speaker 3: gonna be tough. You've got so many things that need
Speaker 3: to fall in place for that to happen. I mean
Speaker 3: you're talking about what was it, five teams or preseason
Speaker 3: ten y right, ranked in the top ten. I mean
Speaker 3: you look at Kansas, l Houston, yeah, twelve, And I
Speaker 3: mean you even look at teams that we just played.
Speaker 3: UCF is not a it's not a it's not a
Speaker 3: blowover team by any means. They're physical. They just beat somebody,
Speaker 3: didn't they or they played well.
Speaker 2: So I think they lost by two to Houston, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then West Virginia beats I would say, yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean that's kind of how goofy this this season is
Speaker 2: going to be, or has been, so far Arizona could
Speaker 2: lose again tonight. I don't think they will. We're gonna,
Speaker 2: in fact, we're gonna talk to Ryan Hanson at the
Speaker 2: four seventeen hour about tonight's game and just you know,
Speaker 2: ask him because he's close to it. Obviously he's been
Speaker 2: close to it for a long time. Just what the
Speaker 2: hell does he think is going on? Because I think
Speaker 2: that's the question for seven straight games. I think you
Speaker 2: were with me last week. We talked, Well, they hey,
Speaker 2: they found their way, right, they're good now, they're good again.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And when I say they haven't played anybody, they haven't
Speaker 2: played any of quality to kind of determine how good
Speaker 2: you are. And then they lay the egg against Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: All right, but that stuff happens. That stuff happens. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go Tan Gentle here. Uh, because you're a player
Speaker 2: and your coach, I'm a believer of every game is
Speaker 2: a season. How you play that day is how important.
Speaker 2: How you play the next day is important because yesterday
Speaker 2: has nothing to It's like, really, the ball doesn't care
Speaker 2: what happened yesterday in spinning right now it's gonna land
Speaker 2: somewhere else. And did you feel that you have that
Speaker 2: philosophy where Okay, you pitched one day, Jimmy pitched the
Speaker 2: next day. Every game is a different season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean every five days, I got the ball
Speaker 3: in my hand, right, and I had to perform every
Speaker 3: five days, right, So I couldn't I couldn't think. And
Speaker 3: relievers have a really difficult time. I don't say they
Speaker 3: the most difficult time in sports. But you've got to
Speaker 3: have a goldfish memory. You've got to get rid of
Speaker 3: it in thirty seconds because you've got to reperform, and
Speaker 3: if you don't, that's your career. And every time a
Speaker 3: coach writes a lineup, that's his job, and that's it.
Speaker 3: We we tend to not realize that. We try to
Speaker 3: put too many things into that. But every time a
Speaker 3: coach writes a lineup, it's his job at the end
Speaker 3: of the day. And every good team doesn't show up
Speaker 3: to be good that day. You know, Notre Dame is
Speaker 3: pretty good, but but enough that they weren't deserving. They
Speaker 3: ran up against a pretty good Ohio State team. So
Speaker 3: here's a good here's a good question. Who's the second?
Speaker 3: In your mind, who's the second best football team this
Speaker 3: year in college football? Was it Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: Uh, good question. I would I would venture to guess
Speaker 2: apples to apples, I would take Oregon probably, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: would too.
Speaker 3: I mean I just as soon as that matchup happened,
Speaker 3: I said, there's no way Organs being on. No, No,
Speaker 3: it's just a bad matchup, right, So that's what we
Speaker 3: were just talking about. Like, it also comes down to matchups, sure,
Speaker 3: a lot match ups. Time of they had already beaten
Speaker 3: beaten them. That's tough to be the time team twice
Speaker 3: they beat them at home, right the first time, that's
Speaker 3: worth some points.
Speaker 2: They beat him at the last second or the final
Speaker 2: final score. Yeah, no, that would be my guests. Who's
Speaker 2: the second best basketball at U of A. Oh no,
Speaker 2: we can go into that too, but attend we have
Speaker 2: we have about two minutes, two minutes, two a half minutes. Okay, cool, cool,
Speaker 2: your second best team? Okay, let me ask you this
Speaker 2: question first. So, what what's what's the best decade for
Speaker 2: you of a basketball out of ninety Okay I didn't hesitate. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I mean you're right, yeah, ninety four, ninety seven, ninety
Speaker 2: eight they were even better than ninety seven. They just
Speaker 2: layed an eight ninety nine. It was Jake and Terry's
Speaker 2: senior year. They weren't that good. Ninety five, ninety six
Speaker 2: to what to Sweet sixteen could have beat Kansas in
Speaker 2: the final final moments, they didn't. Ninety three first round
Speaker 2: lossninety two first one loss.
Speaker 3: So you don't rank that Illinois loss up there. You
Speaker 3: know they were up with three minutes. Yeah, you were
Speaker 3: talking about loss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lost or team just that team and that loss
Speaker 2: because that team was good team. Yeah, the team had
Speaker 2: that team had some dysfunction on it, but they played
Speaker 2: really well in the tournament. Uh hasan loss the Salem
Speaker 2: Channing McMillan. McMillan, McLellan was Iguodala on that team, Okay
Speaker 2: left at Yeah, so yeah, yeah, no, no, no, this
Speaker 2: is the second or third best team. Who's your second team.
Speaker 3: I think that eighty eight team is probably myself, Yes,
Speaker 3: I said in two thousand and one. I would change
Speaker 3: my answer two thousand and one. I still think that
Speaker 3: Gordon It's pretty solid, but I think that eighty eight
Speaker 3: team was was really good.
Speaker 4: See.
Speaker 2: The funny thing is I don't disagree with I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go two thousand and one. It's between ninety eight and
Speaker 2: two thousand and eighty eight, because eighty eight and then
Speaker 2: you're first born. Right now, you're first born. How do
Speaker 2: you not love your firstborn? Go in the final four?
Speaker 2: Good dudes. They had that mentality of let's kick the
Speaker 2: crap out of teams. They had a good NBA career
Speaker 2: for that team too, coming out of there. Uh so
Speaker 2: you're Gordon, I didn't. I haven't even thought about maybe
Speaker 2: fifth or sixth. Here's what, here's a here's a caveat,
Speaker 2: here's the asterisk for me. I covered the team, but
Speaker 2: we were never close to any of his team. To Miller, yeah,
Speaker 2: but that's a conversation we had last time.
Speaker 3: That's always it was always an you know, you're always
Speaker 3: six feet apart from there, like you can never get close.
Speaker 3: There was never a connection of community to team, and
Speaker 3: I think that takes away from that. I think that's
Speaker 3: where Lloyd's been so successful, as there's been some community.
Speaker 2: There's been some community. Yeah, yeah, well because of him.
Speaker 2: It's like it's like a Last Night's coach, the coach
Speaker 2: from Freeman with Notre Dame. You may not like do
Speaker 2: to day. A lot of people don't like Notre because
Speaker 2: but you like them because of the coach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you love them because of the coach. Yeah, like
Speaker 3: the Lions we talked about you love them because of
Speaker 3: the coach.
Speaker 2: Right right, And we'll talk about that pros because that
Speaker 2: was a really funky Weekenducky weekend. Okay, let's go. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk to whom? Are we gonna talk to? Love?
Speaker 2: I love it talking about the last night's game and
Speaker 2: what's going on U of A with recruiting and stuff.
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Speaker 8: I just realized that the first letter of every line
Speaker 8: of this review spells help me. It seems like everyone's
Speaker 8: a critic these days, blessing the world with our slightest opinions,
Speaker 8: all on our own mini platforms.
Speaker 9: I have another user review here.
Speaker 8: It's impossible to get into the lives of characters.
Speaker 9: Nope, it's entirely possible. That's the profession of filmmaking.
Speaker 8: Hate Batman, and the only thing we have left to
Speaker 8: criticize is criticism itself.
Speaker 9: I'm Scott Jenovitz and I'm very Calma.
Speaker 8: Citizen Critic a podcast where we will critique the critics
Speaker 8: and review the reviews of everything from movies, music, and television,
Speaker 8: to toasters, toiletries and pink colors.
Speaker 9: We'll hear from the experts.
Speaker 8: Here's my review, Coldness and heartlessness are undermining today's suspense movies.
Speaker 9: The en don't go see it zero stars, as well
Speaker 9: as from all the citizen critics out there.
Speaker 8: So we loved our experience here because I read all
Speaker 8: the reviews beforehand and did not stay, eat dinner, or
Speaker 8: officially toward here five stars.
Speaker 9: We'll find some useful tips. This is in German.
Speaker 8: Do not buy unless you speak German, as you can
Speaker 8: tell from this review.
Speaker 9: I speak English and I'm not German because we won
Speaker 9: the war. Well, and some pretty useless tips. Oh, it's
Speaker 9: wal to wall profanity and vulgar language. Can't just make a.
Speaker 8: Movie about bobsters or they don't Where we'll uncover some
Speaker 8: startling truths.
Speaker 9: September eleventh was still more than a week away.
Speaker 8: He claiming mister Rogers has something to do with nine
Speaker 8: to eleven.
Speaker 9: May think he's not claiming it. I think he's about
Speaker 9: to prove it.
Speaker 4: Greg.
Speaker 9: We'll go on a journey of self discovery. That of
Speaker 9: the Common is one of the greatest movies.
Speaker 2: Well, no it's not.
Speaker 8: But I immediately back on this and confront our own
Speaker 8: shameful opinions. Why should the pros who get at least
Speaker 8: they get paidful.
Speaker 2: I want to do this free.
Speaker 8: Like my opinion on what was that band that I
Speaker 8: really got out in front of the new radical stun who raticus.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I was like, I think this guy's the next team,
Speaker 9: but mostly it'll be a bunch of nonsense like this. Yeah,
Speaker 9: he was being he was a big let me bing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to bring this thing thing.
Speaker 8: Find citizen critic on the iHeartRadio app or wherever.
Speaker 5: Breaking down all they says it. Ohs, this is eye
Speaker 5: on the ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Going the ball here on Flexible fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rovera.
Speaker 2: You're blank eager, You're okay from this lace everywhere? Get
Speaker 2: up and shop cut. What's what's going on? Man? It's
Speaker 2: a dangerous and I'm a sensitive man. You saw my face.
Speaker 2: Do we have lamt love it on the phone. No,
Speaker 2: let's do this. I will have him call us. Go
Speaker 2: ahead and disconnecttion from that phone, and we'll have him
Speaker 2: call us once we uh, once we find him. Okay,
Speaker 2: So Blake, we can always talk about this topic. Were
Speaker 2: you talking about teams again or no? What were we
Speaker 2: talking about before?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were talking about the greatest teams that come
Speaker 3: from you there in our own opinion, and I thought
Speaker 3: yours was wrong and you thought mine was wrong.
Speaker 2: So I didn't like your order. Yeah you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't even think about you. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you said this will be the last time you
Speaker 3: ever come to the show. I was just thinking dead
Speaker 3: like that. And it's it's Cody right first time? Uh, Kobe, Kobe, Sorry, Kobe,
Speaker 3: I apologize. You can mispronounce my name all you want.
Speaker 3: So anyway, I was talking to Kobe before and we
Speaker 3: were talking about you're from New York, right, Uh, and
Speaker 3: my best friends from New York as well, and you
Speaker 3: guys both suffer from the same disease, which is being
Speaker 3: a Jets fan and it's just so depressing. So what
Speaker 3: what's your outlook on the season now that you saw
Speaker 3: this last one and going to next season?
Speaker 10: I think Greeney said the biggest failure in sports on
Speaker 10: it's on history, It's it's up there, the expectations they
Speaker 10: had and then the results. I guess you got to
Speaker 10: give Rogers one more year is what I would do,
Speaker 10: and then draft.
Speaker 3: But so you're not you're not going into the mindset
Speaker 3: in this draft that you need to get I think
Speaker 3: draft a quarterback.
Speaker 9: I do have him learned behind Rogers?
Speaker 2: One, What are you gonna learn behind Rodgers? Because you
Speaker 2: know he doesn't want to teach them.
Speaker 3: You well, I mean you can look at love for that, right,
Speaker 3: But I mean it's not can you blame Rogers because
Speaker 3: you get the same trem with far So it's not
Speaker 3: like he had a mentor to carry him.
Speaker 2: Along, right right?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know. Oh unplugged us are you?
Speaker 2: Are we off that? He says he's got to get
Speaker 2: in this busy signal, So just make sure you're out
Speaker 2: of there or disconnected from that phone.
Speaker 3: I just got a tax from one of my buddies.
Speaker 3: He's like, I go with the two thousand, two thousand
Speaker 3: and one team and you can't argue it. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's arguably the best team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the one I mentioned. Yeah, I do this for
Speaker 2: a living blake.
Speaker 3: I know, you know, And I'm a fan who has
Speaker 3: opinions that nobody cares about.
Speaker 2: But yet I tell people. But I don't know about you,
Speaker 2: but you're you're you know that that team is pretty good.
Speaker 2: And I did like a strange not a strange in
Speaker 2: our final year at at the Citizen. I put all
Speaker 2: the teams that were good together, maybe the top sixteen,
Speaker 2: and play it out, you know, yeah, who. Of course,
Speaker 2: everything has to be picture perfect because you have injuries
Speaker 2: and you have you know, day of game and intangibles
Speaker 2: and matchups like you talk about. But two thousand and
Speaker 2: one was the best to me. It was a special team.
Speaker 2: It was. There was a lot of things that happened
Speaker 2: in that year. Remember Bobby Pass that time. Yeah, Loot
Speaker 2: was out for about two weeks. Jim Rosborough took over.
Speaker 2: They lost to Connecticut and last the second field goal.
Speaker 2: You know, so I don't know is the on of here?
Speaker 2: He hasn't called yet, So busy. Okay, how about this?
Speaker 2: That's strange.
Speaker 3: What's the what's the U of a basketball team that
Speaker 3: outperformed the number one team that most outperformed in your mind?
Speaker 2: Wow, overperformed? Yeah I would. I'll just tell you.
Speaker 3: I think it's a Derek Williams team with melon right
Speaker 3: getting to the Alleitiate and losing to Yukon. They go
Speaker 3: on to winnin Natty like it was unheard of, and
Speaker 3: then puts him into the number two, I mean gets
Speaker 3: drapped in number two. I mean, it's a really good
Speaker 3: team when you in hindsight, but at that time, I
Speaker 3: think I think they outperformed what everybody's expectations were.
Speaker 10: For sure.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. That's a real good one. Oh God.
Speaker 3: Mostly in the loop time, it was kind of the underperformed. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you had a lot of first round and second
Speaker 3: round losses.
Speaker 2: Right, wow, even maybe even the one you refer to
Speaker 2: with with Slim and the Yeah, they may not have
Speaker 2: been able to get there, but they got there. They
Speaker 2: beat Ole Clone State and maybe in the last second shot. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a good point.
Speaker 3: I just think that I look at that team with
Speaker 3: such a disappointing loss against Illinois that maybe I don't
Speaker 3: put him that same category.
Speaker 2: But you're not wrong about that by anymore. That was
Speaker 2: just that would that had to be one of the
Speaker 2: worst losses in the history. Yeah. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you ever were in eighty nine. I was seven, so
Speaker 2: you wouldn't remember this or that eighty nine lost to
Speaker 2: Vegas when when they tried went over. Yeah, just guess
Speaker 2: that's seven years old you pay attention to. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's why I loved the Cubs and I loved juve basketball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're still trying to figure out how to work
Speaker 3: a rotary phone in here, but it's just.
Speaker 2: Not popping up. I don't know why it's not popping
Speaker 2: up here. Try calling me again. Okay, let's try calling
Speaker 2: him again and see if we can get him. Okay,
Speaker 2: I won't tell you the number on the air. So
Speaker 2: h that's strange.
Speaker 3: So what it comes? Yeah, I guess you've had a
Speaker 3: hard life. I mean, won in World Series in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: My dad and I got to go to the games.
Speaker 3: So one time it was yeah, like I said the
Speaker 3: other day to that, I said, you're a fan no
Speaker 3: matter what, right, and yeah, we've had some we've had
Speaker 3: some tough times.
Speaker 2: Always next year, right.
Speaker 9: Do this.
Speaker 10: Take that?
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see. This is make for great radio on
Speaker 2: these calls that are aren't getting out there. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: it's part of the process. Yeah, enjoy the process, under
Speaker 2: the process. Honor the process, Trust the process, Honor the process.
Speaker 2: If this doesn't work, I'll get to our technician to
Speaker 2: come in and maybe look at it and see what happens.
Speaker 2: I'll let them know. We'll get them on the second.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, go ahead and hang up and
Speaker 2: we'll be fine. All right. That was exciting radio. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but we'll talk to we'll try to get ahold of them.
Speaker 2: Three forty see, I did it again. I mean you
Speaker 2: get you slippers or drag? Stop dragging? Yeah, by knuckles. Okay,
Speaker 2: So if you want to talk a little bit more,
Speaker 2: we'll wait for love month to talk about last night's game.
Speaker 2: But basketball, we'll talked with Rhino on the other side.
Speaker 2: Are you surprised? Are you not surprised about what happened
Speaker 2: last week?
Speaker 3: I mean I'm a little surprised, but I also know
Speaker 3: this team. They get away from how they were playing.
Speaker 3: So I mean, call him again because he heard us.
Speaker 3: He's just not on the phone. I'm not sure what's
Speaker 3: going on with the phone ahead it's technology. No, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll keep I think I can keep that air. Which
Speaker 3: story you want me to tell about my past? So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I'm not surprised about it. I think you
Speaker 3: get the team out of the way they move, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, uh, they get away from playing team basketball.
Speaker 3: You look at the assists in that margin getting out rebounded.
Speaker 3: It was something that you didn't see in the prior
Speaker 3: seven games. So uh, it does show weakness. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I'm not pulling I'm not pushing a
Speaker 3: panic button at all. I think if I looked at
Speaker 3: eight games ago and said we're going to be seven
Speaker 3: and one at this point, I'd be pretty happy about it,
Speaker 3: especially with the start of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well seven, they're six and one right six months
Speaker 2: five on one because they went five straight and then
Speaker 2: they and then they lost. Because I think would be
Speaker 2: seven if they win. They're like a nine point favorite tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's doesn't mean they're gonna win. It doesn't
Speaker 2: mean they're gonna win.
Speaker 3: But you said it before, this is it's one of
Speaker 3: those categories of the lower tier Big twelve program that
Speaker 3: you should be able to beat. I thought Texas Tech
Speaker 3: is a tough place to go in and play as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, and they got pushed around a little bit
Speaker 3: when they shouldn't have U and the two guys that
Speaker 3: we talked about a lot is Visar didn't have the
Speaker 3: game that you're expecting them to have and dolorso was
Speaker 3: pretty much a no show. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know what's going to want to say, we'll get
Speaker 2: them at the other set.
Speaker 3: You can have them text converse stations and I'll just
Speaker 3: do his voice. Yeah, and you took some bad shots
Speaker 3: down the stretch, right, I mean, you're if you stayed
Speaker 3: inside out, you're you're you're you're keeping the game within
Speaker 3: one to three points there with five minutes left, you've
Speaker 3: got a chance. And you start, you start going against
Speaker 3: what you were actually doing well and start shooting threes.
Speaker 3: And I mean, I I don't I don't knock like
Speaker 3: a guy like de La orso when they had the
Speaker 3: ball move they had to get open. But you've got
Speaker 3: to hit, and you've got some You've got to knock
Speaker 3: down some of those shots.
Speaker 2: So to that point, that'sch let me ask you a
Speaker 2: quick question. Yeah, given who who needs to show up?
Speaker 2: Who needs to show up? If you're not named Love
Speaker 2: or Bradley or or kJ like you need you, who
Speaker 2: do you need to show up? You gotta have visa
Speaker 2: show up. I was gonna say, besides you, besides those
Speaker 2: four because you're not getting much from Milwauka. You're just
Speaker 2: not and you're not getting anything from Townson.
Speaker 3: I think a WAKA might be outperforming what our expectations
Speaker 3: are at this point.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's my own personal thing.
Speaker 3: But I thought, I thought, I think his improvement over
Speaker 3: the last five to six game stretch is there. I
Speaker 3: mean he I thought for what it was, he played
Speaker 3: well in the in the minutes that he had on
Speaker 3: the court, because if we saw was in foul, trouble, trouble.
Speaker 3: But I think a guy like Doloreso needs to hit
Speaker 3: some shots because it creates it creates a better offensive flow,
Speaker 3: and that's really what you need. You also just need
Speaker 3: a guy to be unselfish and start passing the ball
Speaker 3: a little bit more. Because we talked about it. You
Speaker 3: look at that assistant margin margin, assist margin last game.
Speaker 3: It's nowhere near what we've been or averaging. And the
Speaker 3: team we've become is that's not us. We're not We're
Speaker 3: not a one on one team. And then shots haven't
Speaker 3: been falling. So you need those.
Speaker 2: You gotta, Yeah, you gotta find out the most you
Speaker 2: need better play obviously from from love. You need a
Speaker 2: lot of different things.
Speaker 3: He's an All American, you need to you need him
Speaker 3: to act like an All American. We don't need him
Speaker 3: to average twenty five points to thirty points, but he's
Speaker 3: a guy that needs to knock down.
Speaker 2: What do you what do you tell me? What do
Speaker 2: you mean by act? He needs to be more of
Speaker 2: a leader on the floor. Do you think that he's
Speaker 2: Do you think this team right now looks to him?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what you need. You get all American
Speaker 3: on the shore. I mean, you're looking at the teams
Speaker 3: that we've lost to or even gone down the stretch.
Speaker 3: They have a dude. There's a dude in that game.
Speaker 2: Who is the dude?
Speaker 3: Last game, they don't have a dude. They don't have
Speaker 3: a dude. So it's got to be a team effort.
Speaker 3: When you saw it last you saw it last game.
Speaker 3: When it's not falling, you got to have one guy
Speaker 3: that says, you know, after give me the ball.
Speaker 2: That's that's the funny thing. I asked Todd me about that.
Speaker 2: Do you have a leader on this team? This was
Speaker 2: four months ago, four weeks ago, and maybe even less,
Speaker 2: And he says no, But you know, we're still looking
Speaker 2: and it could be by committee. But even that's not happening.
Speaker 2: I think the only guy that would be described as
Speaker 2: that is Bradley, But he's not one hundred percent the
Speaker 2: leader all the time, even though he has the ball
Speaker 2: in his hands all the time. But I would trust
Speaker 2: him more than I would trust anybody on that team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think he finds a way to get buckets, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, he can drive, he can take a jumper,
Speaker 3: he finds open looks. That's it, I think right now,
Speaker 3: since we're having this conversation, that's a guy I'm most
Speaker 3: comfortable with having the ball in his hand fifteen seconds.
Speaker 2: Left in the game, right, right, Usually get a foul,
Speaker 2: get to the basket. He hit a jumper, He makes
Speaker 2: tough shots, makes tough shots and creates to help. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But Caleb, it's I don't know how much money he's making,
Speaker 2: but this has been on the internet and probably some
Speaker 2: of the boards you read that he's getting paid overpaid
Speaker 2: for what he's worth or what he's doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think in this day in IL, right,
Speaker 3: you're going to treat it like a business, because it
Speaker 3: is a business.
Speaker 2: It is a business. What let me ask you to
Speaker 2: before you say, are they worthy of what we're doing
Speaker 2: right now? Be criticized given they are paid now not
Speaker 2: just party, not what you make, partly not what I make,
Speaker 2: probably a lot more than what you make and what
Speaker 2: I make Steve, that's a great question, because my defense
Speaker 2: in the past has always been like, these are student athletes.
Speaker 2: They're not getting paid.
Speaker 3: Now you're getting you're you're getting paid, right, You're making
Speaker 3: a living, You're supporting your family, your immediate family, sometimes
Speaker 3: your secondary family. I think it's fair to say that
Speaker 3: you can get treated as a professional athlete at this
Speaker 3: point critical game. I think so, I mean, I think
Speaker 3: I think you still have to take in the maturity factor. So, right,
Speaker 3: you're still talking about seventeen to twenty one, twenty two
Speaker 3: year olds, but now it's seventeen to twenty six year olds.
Speaker 2: Now, well, when you were when you were in the
Speaker 2: minor leagues, you were what twenty twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: I was twenty two, But I mean as a college athlete, yeah,
Speaker 3: I understand that perspective.
Speaker 2: Okay, so many of the kids that you were, you're
Speaker 2: playing against and with, did not go to college. They're right,
Speaker 2: I mean, and now the seventeen as another are proach
Speaker 2: right and not making what these kids are making. And
Speaker 2: were they criticized although the media probably wasn't following them,
Speaker 2: like yeah, not at that level. I mean, that didn't
Speaker 2: really still start to Clay I mean, I won't take
Speaker 2: that back. I mean short season in Brooklyn when that
Speaker 2: was you had a lot of media on hand, and
Speaker 2: they were i mean, it's New York. You're still playing
Speaker 2: in New York. And then were they criticized Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: well because you're in New York. Yeah, you're in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: The demographics were the at least the not democratic. The
Speaker 2: sites yeah, don't change. I mean they changed, but they're
Speaker 2: not really in the circumstances areting different. Yeah, that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a really tough there's there's I'm like split in
Speaker 2: the middle on that because because baseball.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying you have to coddle these athletes by
Speaker 3: any means, and they should. They need to be accountable
Speaker 3: for the mistakes they're making. But I think you also
Speaker 3: have to give them a little bit more leeway. They're
Speaker 3: not professor, they're not playing in a professional sport. They're
Speaker 3: playing a collegiate sport getting paid as a professional.
Speaker 2: Well, are you think, okay, here, let me be your
Speaker 2: your devil's advocate im with that? Times have changed? Are
Speaker 2: you thinking from pre ni L or post ni L,
Speaker 2: because there's there's a mark there that's totally different. Okay,
Speaker 2: you gotta you know they're they're on stipend. Now they're
Speaker 2: now they're buying nice things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean now they're you know, you're you're
Speaker 3: looking at maybe sometimes six to seven figures depending on
Speaker 3: what it is. Right, Uh, you're probably right. My mindset's
Speaker 3: still in that pre and ils.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I don't and I don't disagree with you there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm not trying to defend what I write, will write,
Speaker 2: or how I think. But you know, what's the heavy
Speaker 2: is heavy is hit the head that hoars the ground
Speaker 2: or you know, you're much given as much as expected
Speaker 2: heavy as I had. Yeah, So here we are. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then maybe you're just as good as you are
Speaker 2: going to be and that's as good as.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe you're your ceiling. But if that's your ceiling,
Speaker 3: you better be you better be really good, right, you
Speaker 3: better be as good as your ceiling can be. Look
Speaker 3: at McConnell, Right, everybody said that's a ceiling, right, but
Speaker 3: he was the best at that ceiling and game in
Speaker 3: game out found ways if he wasn't shooting well, he's
Speaker 3: passing well. If he's not passing well, he's defending well.
Speaker 3: Like there's just there's fighting, there's fine. You gotta find
Speaker 3: a way. And that's that's where I thought this team
Speaker 3: had done really well for that stretch, is a finding ways.
Speaker 3: We go back to this and it's probably been talked
Speaker 3: about and nausingham, but that first half against Baylor, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's arguably the best U basketball first half
Speaker 3: I've seen in ten years.
Speaker 2: Would you argue with that? I mean, defensive effort, it
Speaker 2: was pretty good, It was pretty good. I thought some
Speaker 2: some of that too. Yeah, who is so like? You
Speaker 2: know that team is that team is capable people of
Speaker 2: being that team.
Speaker 3: But how do you get him in? And Tommy said this,
Speaker 3: how do you get him to the point where it's consistency.
Speaker 3: You can't be highs and lows. Just find that middle
Speaker 3: ground where you're gonna go out and grind and grind.
Speaker 2: And the good thing, Blake is I have somebody who
Speaker 2: would know something about it in the studio right now.
Speaker 2: You're a former player, you're a former coach. And one
Speaker 2: of the things I learned, if anything I've learned in
Speaker 2: this business, in my business is emotions and getting up
Speaker 2: for games, getting challenged. You're told you're not worth it,
Speaker 2: that team's going to crush you. Teams get up for
Speaker 2: those teams, right, there was a purpose why he said.
Speaker 2: We saw the week before he was saying this ain't
Speaker 2: gonna work. He got on them. That might have been
Speaker 2: all psychological, We're gonna suck if you don't get better,
Speaker 2: or you gotta be physical bluff. The next game they
Speaker 2: played out of their mind and they did. Yeah, absolutely right,
Speaker 2: So if you could bottle up, I'm sure there are
Speaker 2: days when you didn't feel like pitching, but you guess
Speaker 2: what you had to do that day? You had to pitch.
Speaker 2: And there were days where I name a couple of games,
Speaker 2: and then then there were days wh when you were
Speaker 2: the underdog against the Yankees or whoever you played, and
Speaker 2: you pitched out of your mind. You found something within.
Speaker 2: Not every day you're gonna find something within. That's why
Speaker 2: the every game is the season type of thing. For me,
Speaker 2: how you play that day matters. Am I inaccurate or
Speaker 2: am I accurate?
Speaker 3: And I think that's how we're going to be judged, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So that day with Baylor, or at least that half
Speaker 3: or thirty five or seventy the game, they played great, great,
Speaker 3: And you're saying this team is capable of doing a lot,
Speaker 3: and then you see the last few minutes.
Speaker 2: You think, oh crap, what the hell? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it's a focused level.
Speaker 3: Right, you lose focus and you see this with this team, Right,
Speaker 3: we're here, we've already done it. You lose focus in
Speaker 3: the last five minutes, and you see how fast that
Speaker 3: game can change. Cincinnati gained the same way West Virginia
Speaker 3: to extant. I mean, so the tell tale of a
Speaker 3: good sign is how to nip that in the butt
Speaker 3: as soon as you possibly can or at least recognize it.
Speaker 3: And I think that's where I struggle with this team,
Speaker 3: putting them in the top tier. I think they're a
Speaker 3: really good middle tier team. I think they have the
Speaker 3: capability when they play unselfishly to be in that top tier.
Speaker 3: But I don't think they recognize those actions fast enough
Speaker 3: and they're able to course correct.
Speaker 2: The funny thing about is we talk about this all
Speaker 2: day over the weekend. After they lost on Thursday, one
Speaker 2: of one of the callers, one of my friends, sent
Speaker 2: me a note. He says, well, they'll learn from this,
Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, and I see this every year, how
Speaker 2: many learning lessons do you have to have before you learn.
Speaker 2: It's every game you get to come up against the
Speaker 2: same stuff and either corrected or not corrected, or the
Speaker 2: other team has some say in this because they're pretty
Speaker 2: damn good. And it's not about fixing it or learning
Speaker 2: from it. It's just doing what needs to be done.
Speaker 2: You know. It's like your shortstop. I'm sure he's muffed
Speaker 2: the ground ball or two and he says, well, you'll
Speaker 2: learn next time. Sometimes it's not learning. It's just opportunity
Speaker 2: that you didn't have, or something you have with the ball,
Speaker 2: or took a bad hop, or you just had the
Speaker 2: bad It's not about learning. You've been doing this all
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 3: I mean as human though, right, so exactly so, I
Speaker 3: still find myself and I've had this conversation a ton
Speaker 3: of times with myself, is that, uh, there's a bit
Speaker 3: of insanity in me because I repeat the same mistake
Speaker 3: and you are who you are, but I expect a
Speaker 3: different result.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I hate that.
Speaker 3: Saying I am who I am because I think you
Speaker 3: can course correct at some point, and you don't really
Speaker 3: fully know who you are until you acknowledge there's more
Speaker 3: potential and soulf If you get.
Speaker 2: Tired of getting hit in the head a few Times's
Speaker 2: I got a bunch of plenty of times you start
Speaker 2: protecting that there? Yeah, yeah, okay, let's take a break.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll get ahold little monto. Le's see what's up
Speaker 2: with these phones. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan,
Speaker 2: you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now
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Speaker 5: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio AP. This is I on
Speaker 5: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Why on the Ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Blake Eager.
Speaker 2: Got Kobe here now on the phone. Finally we got
Speaker 2: Lamont love it. How were you? Lamont? Do you have
Speaker 2: that little black long you want them on? Kobe? Don't
Speaker 2: kill me? Kobe?
Speaker 3: Well, we had it, folks, So I did hear it?
Speaker 3: We're not crazy here? So he was on the phone.
Speaker 3: I heard his voice. It was buttery smooth. I was
Speaker 3: still excited to hear him.
Speaker 14: He's right, this is.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: Shoot, what's going on here?
Speaker 11: This is not right?
Speaker 3: Oh, the technology it's finest.
Speaker 2: This hasn't happened in a while. I used to do
Speaker 2: this by myself. So are you here? Not here? That's
Speaker 2: not on right there, So they gotta calibrate what's going on.
Speaker 2: Don't don't touch those ones.
Speaker 3: I've got a pretty solid five minute stand up act
Speaker 3: if you guys needed me to like take over for
Speaker 3: some dead air.
Speaker 2: Are you there, mister Lamont? This is bizarre there. We're
Speaker 2: gonna have to Lamont. We don't have to get ahold
Speaker 2: of you tomorrow with this mess and see what's going
Speaker 2: on there? He is, but mind you there?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I'm still here, like.
Speaker 2: We got it. It was good.
Speaker 3: It was gonna be a really bad Verizon commercial if
Speaker 3: we can't get him on.
Speaker 2: So No, that's great, that's great, thank you. Okay, that's strange.
Speaker 2: We just couldn't hear you. Hey, just real quick, because
Speaker 2: you've been around the we're discussing Blink and I. Who's
Speaker 2: the best basketball team that you've seen at Ua? Because
Speaker 2: you've been here forever.
Speaker 14: Oh wow, I would say I'd probably say my freshman
Speaker 14: year was my freshman year somewhere. It's the year that
Speaker 14: had Chris Mills.
Speaker 2: Oh wow. No, in fact, that was that's like night
Speaker 2: were you nighty one ninety one ninety two?
Speaker 14: Yeah, yeah, because I graduated high school in eighty nine,
Speaker 14: so I was. I was at the U of A
Speaker 14: when when Chris was there. Yeah, okay, team to me
Speaker 14: was was just loaded. I don't know how they lost load.
Speaker 2: Well, they won. They went seventeen to one in the
Speaker 2: in the league. They almost went undefeated in the league,
Speaker 2: and they lost to Santa Clara. That was the Senate
Speaker 2: Santa Clara loss. So thanks for bringing up bad memories.
Speaker 3: I remember meeting Mills in the Fries grocery store and
Speaker 3: I was a diehard, right, I mean I was young then,
Speaker 3: but that was, like, I still one of my like
Speaker 3: core memories of meeting an athlete at that point in
Speaker 3: my life and meeting him in Fry. He was shopping
Speaker 3: in the frozen food section. I was like, hey, mister Mesn.
Speaker 3: He's like he picked me up. Yeah, there's a giant
Speaker 3: human though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and he's probably guys to me the most
Speaker 2: underrated or underappreciated ex cat. Ever, Yeah, I wouldn't argue
Speaker 2: that at all. Yeah, because he was pretty damn good. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: good good good, good pool, good pool. Hey, what did
Speaker 2: you see last night's game?
Speaker 14: I did, I did. It was it was a really
Speaker 14: good game, very very well played game.
Speaker 2: Uh the team that should have won one.
Speaker 14: I think so. I think so. I felt like they
Speaker 14: definitely had more talent. I thought Notre Dame played their
Speaker 14: hearts out, but I just think that they just didn't
Speaker 14: have enough on the offensive side and involved and yet
Speaker 14: still they still messed to get it down to a
Speaker 14: one score late in the game. But I just you know,
Speaker 14: I think at this at this uh, this day and age,
Speaker 14: you have to be better on offense. I think they
Speaker 14: need to take the approach like that Nick Saban took
Speaker 14: later in his career, because you remember Nick Sable used
Speaker 14: to kind of be like Notre Dame. They were playing
Speaker 14: vicious defense and then just try to run the ball,
Speaker 14: but but not really explosive on offense. And then he
Speaker 14: had a change of heart and started really getting some
Speaker 14: great receivers, probably rough around the time when he signed
Speaker 14: Toua to his squad, and that's what Notre Dame's approach
Speaker 14: needs to be. They need to get get you know,
Speaker 14: it's great to be going to run the wall, but
Speaker 14: you still need to be able to throw it and
Speaker 14: you need to be on any balance when you get
Speaker 14: to that level, to the top level, you know, when
Speaker 14: you're trying to win a championship, but you need to
Speaker 14: be able to do everything.
Speaker 3: Lamont, this is Blake Eager. Hey, did you do you
Speaker 3: think this is a start of a I don't want
Speaker 3: to say dynasty by any means with Notre Dame and
Speaker 3: that's not the right word because you have to win,
Speaker 3: but a long lasting effect of them being a top
Speaker 3: tier program year in, year out. I know they had
Speaker 3: that a little bit with Kelly obviously, but I mean
Speaker 3: they've been they've been pretty good for a while now.
Speaker 3: We haven't seen that that kind of run with Notre
Speaker 3: Dame in a long time.
Speaker 14: It's possible. I mean, you know that they have the
Speaker 14: resources there and this is a new day and age,
Speaker 14: and they just pocketed twenty mili the last night, so
Speaker 14: I would say absolutely. And I really like their coach.
Speaker 14: I mean, he's yeah movement and he got some jobs,
Speaker 14: you know, right away, and he's got those guys playing hard.
Speaker 14: If he can maintain that same time with the culture
Speaker 14: and just continue to get some players, and I mean,
Speaker 14: you can definitely win it.
Speaker 2: So this may be a dumb, naive, dumb question, but
Speaker 2: Arizona dreams of being in this spot right Last year
Speaker 2: they played at Oklahoma. They plaid Oklahoma in the in
Speaker 2: the Bowl in San Antonio. Do you think do you
Speaker 2: think if they caught lightning in a bottle or whatever,
Speaker 2: they could eventually make a run at something like this.
Speaker 14: It's not it's not impossible. I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 14: crazy as it sounds. We did it. You know, the
Speaker 14: team that we had when we beat Oklahoma. I mean
Speaker 14: that team could you know, I think they could have
Speaker 14: done a little damage. They could have made some made
Speaker 14: some noise late in the season. They're playing running pretty
Speaker 14: well late in the year, just like an issue this year,
Speaker 14: and you know they kind of caught fire and got
Speaker 14: a bit of a run. I mean, it can happen.
Speaker 14: You just have to have you know, you got I
Speaker 14: think it's you can get the right guy, that quarterback,
Speaker 14: get get get a you know, a nasty defense.
Speaker 1: You have a chance.
Speaker 14: I mean, anybody can catch it because especially you know,
Speaker 14: when we're talking about playoffs, because before it was you
Speaker 14: just had to be perfect the whole year. But you
Speaker 14: just have to find a way to get in to
Speaker 14: get in, and it could be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Uh now, let's talk because we
Speaker 2: don't have a whole lot of time with you talking
Speaker 2: about you of a you like what's happening, what you're
Speaker 2: seeing I do.
Speaker 14: I feel like they kind of got some new life,
Speaker 14: you know. I feel like they you know, they gave
Speaker 14: him some resources and we had a little bit of time.
Speaker 14: I think the first time around, I really felt like
Speaker 14: they didn't have really I don't think they had a
Speaker 14: good crack at it. I mean, you know, everybody got
Speaker 14: an impression of what the team was going to be.
Speaker 14: But I really feel like this time around, I mean,
Speaker 14: it's show. It seems like they really focused on trying
Speaker 14: to get some needs met and they seem to have
Speaker 14: a direction and a focus. And I really like the
Speaker 14: changes that made on the staff. I mean, I think
Speaker 14: that they need he's going to be a superstar. I
Speaker 14: think he's gonna be really good. I've liked everything I've
Speaker 14: seen from him, and I started watching, you know, Marshall
Speaker 14: games is to try to get a feel for, you know,
Speaker 14: the direction and what he wants to do, and that
Speaker 14: I just like everything I've seen from him. And he's
Speaker 14: a quarterback, he's a quarterback coach, an ex quarterback, and
Speaker 14: you know it comes from that Mike Boots coaching treats
Speaker 14: and gotta be excited there. And then I just like
Speaker 14: to change. I love that they got you know, Joe
Speaker 14: Salada back on the staff. I just think that's going
Speaker 14: to pay some real dividends and recruiting, particularly in the
Speaker 14: Polynesian community. And he's just he's kind of been just
Speaker 14: a guy there. I mean, he's a man back. If
Speaker 14: he goes back to the Islands and goes with Samoa,
Speaker 14: I mean's from He's from Samoa. He needs to be
Speaker 14: the legend out there. So that could bake some dividends
Speaker 14: for Arizona on the defensive front and getting this big
Speaker 14: guys up front, and I just yeah, and Danny Gonzalez,
Speaker 14: that's has got a great reputation in the coaching community
Speaker 14: and everywhere he's coached the corner he's done a nice job.
Speaker 14: So it's all about getting the right pieces together. They
Speaker 14: can get the right pieces together. You know, anything can happen.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask we had Brian last week and
Speaker 2: I didn't ask him this question because, uh, we just
Speaker 2: ran out of time. And and I know Brian have
Speaker 2: traveled with Brian for a long long time. And when
Speaker 2: you're covering a good team and doing what you guys do, uh,
Speaker 2: it kind of rubs off on you because you're identified
Speaker 2: by that team. Is that the case with you? When
Speaker 2: things are going really well like the previous year, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, people ask you questions. God, it's so fun
Speaker 2: watch his team and you kind of maybe even have
Speaker 2: a different step because you're kind of with the team,
Speaker 2: and then last year you didn't have that step, and
Speaker 2: people are what the hell's going on?
Speaker 14: Yeah, that's that's pretty accurate. I mean, I think at
Speaker 14: the end of the day, we're all fans. I mean
Speaker 14: I am. I can't speak for everybody else, but I
Speaker 14: mean I'm a fan too as much as I mean,
Speaker 14: you know, I kind of believe the colors, and so
Speaker 14: when the team is doing well, you know it is
Speaker 14: I'm I'm definitely it's fun. There's probably doesn't go by
Speaker 14: that I don't think about the team and I'm playing
Speaker 14: you know, uh, I'm actin like I'm a general manager,
Speaker 14: and so I was just thinking about moves on the
Speaker 14: team and think about how they can get better. So
Speaker 14: I'm thrilled when the team is good and when it
Speaker 14: looks like, you know, they can they can make some
Speaker 14: noise nationally. I really just you know, I wanted to
Speaker 14: see this guy get through the Rose Wolte before my
Speaker 14: life is over. Yeah, I don't I think of change.
Speaker 14: Who knows now, it's kind of gee. I was feeling.
Speaker 14: There's a few times where I was like, you know,
Speaker 14: when rich Rod was here and we had some really
Speaker 14: good years, I'm like, this could happen. And then when
Speaker 14: when Jed you know, came in last year they were
Speaker 14: doing it, I was like, could you know, another year
Speaker 14: or two we could get there, and and everything college
Speaker 14: football just blew up. So I don't know, but I still,
Speaker 14: you know, I'm holding I hope that they can they
Speaker 14: can do something great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we were talking about a little bit
Speaker 3: off air, But the change with Nil and how college
Speaker 3: athletes are looked upon nowadays is I mean, they are
Speaker 3: professional athletes because they're getting paid in that sense. I
Speaker 3: thought Fish in his small time here did change the
Speaker 3: face of U of A football from an entertainment standpoint
Speaker 3: and was able to connect with communities in our younger
Speaker 3: generation and younger population from an entertainments factor. Do you
Speaker 3: think you think Brennan's going to try to maintain that
Speaker 3: as he moves forward? Is that is that kind of
Speaker 3: the the level that we need to maintain at the
Speaker 3: U of A to create a larger sense of culture
Speaker 3: in our community.
Speaker 14: I think that, you know, you may get there differently.
Speaker 14: I don't think you know, you'd be silly to try
Speaker 14: to act like Jets because Jenni Fish is Jeen Fish.
Speaker 14: He's got that personality that you know that's it's pretty
Speaker 14: dynamic in terms of as a showman. You know, I
Speaker 14: don't see that Britain, this bees showman. But if you
Speaker 14: can find a way to win games, it doesn't matter
Speaker 14: about being a showman. It matters about winning. At the
Speaker 14: end of the day, if you're if you're if you're
Speaker 14: boring his hey, can you win ten games? This community
Speaker 14: is going to burse you like nobody's business. So I
Speaker 14: just think that, you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 14: it's just about building the team and and he's proven
Speaker 14: in the past that he can. He can do that
Speaker 14: last year, you know, this one season, but I don't
Speaker 14: think that that defined him. And the good thing is
Speaker 14: the good news is he has an opportunity to define
Speaker 14: what what his uh his legacy is going to be
Speaker 14: here at the U of A. And so I'm just
Speaker 14: interested to you know, the big final wall and just
Speaker 14: watch it kind of come together. I'm obviously hopeful and
Speaker 14: I think he does good things. So we'll see, I mean,
Speaker 14: we'll see medicon beck and watching and see how it
Speaker 14: comes together.
Speaker 2: So we have about thirty seconds. So just to go
Speaker 2: back to your question, my question to you and your statement.
Speaker 2: So if it's not the Rose Bull, what's the what's
Speaker 2: the Mendoza line? Now, what are you hoping for?
Speaker 14: I'm thinking to do, like as you did last year,
Speaker 14: get to the playoffs.
Speaker 10: Man.
Speaker 14: I feel like you just got to get in there,
Speaker 14: you know, try to try to win your conference and
Speaker 14: in the way our common is set up. Man, anybody
Speaker 14: can do it, especially with a transfer port on it.
Speaker 14: Every year is a new year, so you know, your
Speaker 14: your goal's got to be when your whin your league
Speaker 14: first and from there, you know, get to the playoffs.
Speaker 14: So that's the new that's the new you know, Rose
Speaker 14: Bull now for us, you know, it's a new benchmark.
Speaker 2: Okay, No, that's good. That's a good one. I hope
Speaker 2: that's easier than the other one. Yeah, atable, Thanks Lemon,
Speaker 2: thanks for hanging with us. Yeah we got to go.
Speaker 2: Thank you, guys. Does Lemon love it from the other station?
Speaker 2: Twelve ninety does a big drop as the color analyst.
Speaker 2: So let's take a break. Come here, and then you've
Speaker 2: got some breaking news maybe, Okay, cool,