Speaker 1: Breaking down all the ipsays and ohs. This is I
Speaker 1: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to my in the ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. I'm busy, busy afternoon.
Speaker 2: Now in studio, we have mister Aaron Crowley from The
Speaker 2: Color Guard Classic joining us with Blake Eager. Oh he
Speaker 2: doesn't need it. I don't think he's. Oh fine, yeah,
Speaker 2: hey today, so fine. Good to see you to the
Speaker 2: busy guys. You're busy in that you're busy now, I
Speaker 2: don't getting ready for your tournament and about end.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Blake here is with the WBC and they
Speaker 2: start Sunday.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Great sports week for the Rodeo is just finished. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you start here in a few days. You start right
Speaker 2: after two young dudes. I wish I had your guys career.
Speaker 3: I think we're occupying a little hotel space too, right.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we had to we moved our event for
Speaker 4: their event the date that we were supposed to start
Speaker 4: the week and they're starting, and we knew how important
Speaker 4: Color Guard is to the community, so we actually moved
Speaker 4: it up and that's why that Wednesday's off because they
Speaker 4: have their pro am and then our Thursday night is
Speaker 4: a night game. So totally conflict with anything with them, okay,
Speaker 4: because there could be some audience interaction, I would hope. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: you want you want both of them going to the
Speaker 4: same thing. We want to promote that as much as possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in your time, we haven't talked about this. How
Speaker 2: many people you think you're going to show up in totality?
Speaker 3: Hope?
Speaker 4: I mean it would be great if we could have
Speaker 4: twenty five thousand in totality. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 4: realistic view. If we could get that, that'd be great.
Speaker 3: And for you, Senior Eric, probably thirty five.
Speaker 2: Oh really for the three days to the three days okay,
Speaker 2: And that's pretty that's pretty u comfortable. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we've we've been between the nine and ten
Speaker 5: each day, yeah, last yeah, the last few years, so okay, okay,
Speaker 5: and it's at least the ticketed right, So who see
Speaker 5: if we get that many bodies.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I say twenty five and that's including a lot
Speaker 4: of yeah tickets out there that are making sure there's
Speaker 4: butts in the sea, correct ye.
Speaker 2: Right, So we were talking about the weather. Look how
Speaker 2: it is right now? Right, I need a lot of
Speaker 2: wood to knock on.
Speaker 3: My well.
Speaker 4: You were talking about maybe a little cool next week. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we're not gonna even talk about it.
Speaker 5: Weather seventy three whatever, and you've had you've had great weather,
Speaker 5: so we So it's funny. I think of it in
Speaker 5: two aspects, because of the tournament play itself as important,
Speaker 5: that is, but our two program days. So the last
Speaker 5: three years we've had weather issues on our Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Speaker 2: Yeah, heavy rain, yeah, yeah, but that makes for like
Speaker 2: you know, remember when you had that and the pictures
Speaker 2: and all that and not that it helps, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's during the Cool Guard Classic, they came out
Speaker 2: and it was still cold and they still played and
Speaker 2: ye had snowball fights.
Speaker 5: And that's yeah. A few years back. I think it
Speaker 5: was not even the year that we had snow. We
Speaker 5: had some lighter snow earlier in the week and it
Speaker 5: stayed cool enough behind all the hospitality since it didn't
Speaker 5: have Sunno.
Speaker 3: Right, right, it's funny.
Speaker 4: You guys have never met before, and you guys, as
Speaker 4: I know, most of the Conkey stores too, Yeah, like
Speaker 4: Dan Lintel and all those guys and then yeah, but
Speaker 4: Dan's taken over. I think he's in charge of Centurions
Speaker 4: this year. So yeah, I'm pretty sure he is so nice.
Speaker 4: Tom Clark's been one of my close friends of mentors
Speaker 4: from lunch he see is one of my favorite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the man, what are these things that we've talked
Speaker 2: about before and I've had re floors and all that.
Speaker 2: How everybody comes together like you are skipping Wednesday because
Speaker 2: of that? You know what I'm saying. It's everybody's pulling
Speaker 2: the same rope to success. We're trying to.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think not just from our standpoint, our job,
Speaker 4: the authority's job, so there's on sports churism film authority
Speaker 4: is to uplift and promote and market the communities that
Speaker 4: we represent. So, I mean, I said it before, but
Speaker 4: the color Guard's ingrained into our DNA of who we are.
Speaker 4: We don't want to we don't want to mess with that.
Speaker 4: We want to make sure that we're creating success as
Speaker 4: much as as possibly can the same, right.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think that's and we've got some bigger
Speaker 5: restrictions with the PGA tour and and kind of win
Speaker 5: oh short and get seedtled out within them. So, I mean,
Speaker 5: I know that kind of plays in because you're right
Speaker 5: before the book festival and the tournament and the tournament
Speaker 5: or the PAC twelve tournament you know now, but you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, it's kind of like the small
Speaker 5: window everybody has during this great time. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 5: timing wise too, especially with the book festival, we don't
Speaker 5: think about it until we need, you know, a big tent.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 5: I mean, especially coming out of you know, COVID a
Speaker 5: few years back, where a lot of the restaurants were
Speaker 5: utilizing the tent structures. Right, it could be outside but
Speaker 5: there we could a different day. But yeah, So trying
Speaker 5: to find and maneuver that capacity of where we could
Speaker 5: get our structure built.
Speaker 3: Well, you're in a big small town, yeah, you know, everybody's.
Speaker 4: Million and a half a rural area, right yeah, right, right,
Speaker 4: So so where are you at now with things?
Speaker 2: Because you're starting a week a little more than a week.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we've got we're officially on property Saturday, but
Speaker 5: we've been there for a while now with our structure builds.
Speaker 5: So our events start to kick off Sunday. So we
Speaker 5: have an AMM event on Sunday. So we got a
Speaker 5: bunch of amateurs that come out and I scramble.
Speaker 3: Have each of you slept? I mean no, I did.
Speaker 4: I mean it's funny if somebody in the we're teaming
Speaker 4: up with a snoop dog irisona Ble and one of
Speaker 4: the Benchi look ast me today when we were walking
Speaker 4: to a garage and he's like, how's your sleep schedule?
Speaker 4: And I was like, I just wake up at one
Speaker 4: am and then my brain's like, whoa did you remember
Speaker 4: to do this? And then three hours later I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't remember what I was thinking about.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's it's a four to four to five
Speaker 5: hours sleep right now. And it's almost the exact same thing.
Speaker 5: I was up at two thirty the other day and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, from a cold swept did I do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? It wasn't you know I've had I've had a
Speaker 3: few of those. This one was like I got some
Speaker 3: stuff to do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's starting to I mean it's getting it's
Speaker 5: the exciting time now, to be honest with I mean,
Speaker 5: most of the stuff that we're still going to worry
Speaker 5: about it, but there's if there's things I'm worrying about
Speaker 5: now it's not right.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the thing you you have, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure both of you guys have this army of people helping.
Speaker 2: Oh you you're part of the concustators. They're you know,
Speaker 2: on there, your combat people.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely mean there's fifty fifty four of
Speaker 5: us that have been you know, working our tail off
Speaker 5: for the last year. That helps, and then the other
Speaker 5: two hundred plus members that we have that that that
Speaker 5: helped throughout, and then our volunteer base. I think we're
Speaker 5: up over four hundred and fifteen volunteers.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And without them, oh, it doesn't We're not doing it.
Speaker 2: I know that from our tour because we need those
Speaker 2: people to hand out things and metals and directions and
Speaker 2: YadA YadA.
Speaker 5: There are a handful of volunteers that we have that
Speaker 5: know more about our golfe meant than Yeah, some concuisittors.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's no shot against them, those volunteers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and they want and they want to be
Speaker 2: part of them. Yeah, they want to be part of it.
Speaker 2: There was something I want to ask, uh, oh, no,
Speaker 2: it'll come to me. You know how these days are
Speaker 2: when you get older Uh, well, it's funny really quick
Speaker 2: about the two events going on because we both have
Speaker 2: to answer to somebody else and that's a PGA for
Speaker 2: you guys and MLB for us.
Speaker 4: So we get I'm sure you get the same thing
Speaker 4: where people are like, well, we'll just do this, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, that.
Speaker 2: Doesn't work that way. It sure sounds great.
Speaker 4: We have to get approval and then we have to
Speaker 4: get another piece of approval, and then we have to
Speaker 4: go through this because people are like, well, just do this,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, yeah, that's not how it works.
Speaker 2: And I know you guys have been dealing with that forever.
Speaker 2: No exact same thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly.
Speaker 5: And we've got our tour liaison and our tour official
Speaker 5: that we have Kevin Diaz is phenomenal, so we come
Speaker 5: to him with, hey, so we want to do this.
Speaker 5: Can you run that up the food chain for us
Speaker 5: and find out if we can?
Speaker 2: Yeah, gotta get approvals for approvals. I just had to
Speaker 2: read those conversations. Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's fun. So
Speaker 2: what's what's next. What's the pressing thing?
Speaker 5: Because you're selling tickets still, yeah, and our concert that's
Speaker 5: the biggest thing, right, now I mean our most of
Speaker 5: our hospitality ticket packages, we still have some available.
Speaker 3: So I mean if anyone wants to to come.
Speaker 5: Out to Club sixty two, our Trophy terror so those
Speaker 5: are our two biggest all inclusive mostly all inclusive trophy terars.
Speaker 3: You got to buy food, but you get the drinks.
Speaker 3: Those are still available. Court hold our classic that is
Speaker 3: on Fairway sixteen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so from that one you actually get to see
Speaker 5: the t shot and then approach shot into the parking.
Speaker 3: Is that's what you guys are in.
Speaker 5: We're on eighteen eighteen, okay, yeah, and then you get
Speaker 5: to see the fairway in on eighteen. So it's actually
Speaker 5: it's a great spot.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is.
Speaker 5: You have a beautiful backdrop, so right, that kind of
Speaker 5: helps there. Now we're on eighteen and.
Speaker 3: There's a lot.
Speaker 2: It's not the it's not the waste management crazy stuff.
Speaker 2: It's it's the you know, hey, how are you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's our version of it, right, so yeah, Well
Speaker 5: as rowdy as sixty five year old people could get.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. So the and we're trying to figure out.
Speaker 2: It's exactly right.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm living right there.
Speaker 4: That's that I had a way better time at the
Speaker 4: color Guard than I waste management. I had the worst
Speaker 4: day of my life the waste management. I love the
Speaker 4: color guard. Yah, it's not my favorite up there. But yeah, no,
Speaker 4: the the whole our whole seventeen. So it's kind of
Speaker 4: our signature par three that we finished.
Speaker 5: We've done a little bit more of a wrap job
Speaker 5: on that one with with regards to hospitality, and that's
Speaker 5: one of our ticketed items. But the Champions Tour players
Speaker 5: have come accustomed them too. There's there's heckling that goes on. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: there's it's it's a little bit more uh yeah, less reserve.
Speaker 2: Okay, there on eighteen because I just got the call
Speaker 2: from Vands called him in there.
Speaker 5: You baby love it. Yeah yeah, we're on eighteen. So
Speaker 5: we've got a command of there onything and that's fantastic.
Speaker 5: That holds fantastic. It's a beautiful You get to see
Speaker 5: you guys.
Speaker 2: Coming up and and you know, like I said, i'd
Speaker 2: like to be Uh what's the guy said?
Speaker 3: I wanted to be.
Speaker 2: God, don't get old. The guy who watchs like you know,
Speaker 2: he's uh, you know God. I just loved it. We'll
Speaker 2: find I just had his name earlier. Uh, no, fantastic time.
Speaker 2: So is there a best day to go besides the
Speaker 2: championship game or in championship the final Thursday Friday.
Speaker 5: And you still have tickets, call them Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Speaker 5: we still have tickets for So call guard Classic dot
Speaker 5: com for for our tickets. There's general mission tickets and
Speaker 5: then Dove Club tickets would get you into the clubhouse. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and some viewing from the eighteenth hole there. But the
Speaker 5: big push right now is our concert. So yeah, c
Speaker 5: Q Fest Stack. I'm getting my hips ready so you
Speaker 5: won't break one. A little bit of Ice, Ice, Tone
Speaker 5: Loak and Rob Bass for Friday night and then co Wetzel.
Speaker 5: So if you're a country fan at all, you've been
Speaker 5: hearing his music. He's up and coming, so he's been
Speaker 5: kind of hit and hit mainstream pretty.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm sure that's been pretty Both of them have
Speaker 2: been pretty popular both nights they have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is the first time that we've done
Speaker 3: two nights. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So last year was fantastically Midland on Friday Night, which
Speaker 5: over at the the til Park.
Speaker 3: The racetrack was a perfect setup.
Speaker 5: So we've made that a little bit bigger to accommodate
Speaker 5: a larger fan based this year.
Speaker 2: So so my story for Bisinus song with you. You
Speaker 2: know you've seen that place a thousand times, every you know,
Speaker 2: every nook and cranny, right, because you had to make
Speaker 2: sure everything is right. Uh, just a dumb question because
Speaker 2: I know the answer. Probably Would you do this again?
Speaker 2: Because you guys switch every year, right we do? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would because it's it's fun.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's it's hard, it's a ton of work,
Speaker 5: but I mean it's an apps blast. And if we
Speaker 5: can hit close to the numbers that I'm tracking and
Speaker 5: hoping that we can hit from a sales standpoint, and
Speaker 5: what we can give, I mean, it's worth every bit
Speaker 5: of nightless sleep to be able to give back the
Speaker 5: way that we can.
Speaker 2: I think the numbers I used and you may be
Speaker 2: better than what I'm going to say. Seven hundred thousand.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what that was our last year's community impact.
Speaker 5: Between us, the tour and Color Guard, we were able
Speaker 5: to give back to the Tucson community over seven hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty thousand, And at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: that's what it's all about. One hundred percent. I mean,
Speaker 5: as I mentioned when you, when you and I were
Speaker 5: talking about in the article. I mean one dollar changes
Speaker 5: of life, So anything above that we're winning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm sure you will aware of this. I
Speaker 2: think this these guys, these guys the color Guard, the Classic,
Speaker 2: there's no better partnership because it's right in our wheelhouse
Speaker 2: for the testing and all that. Because I guess now
Speaker 2: they're going to forty forty five, forty five forty five
Speaker 2: and you have these great stories of the people coming
Speaker 2: in their survivors. I mean, come on, you're gonna either
Speaker 2: cry or or be happy for their success.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: It's the partnership with col of Guard because you know,
Speaker 5: we've had corporate sponsors in the past for you know,
Speaker 5: the Tucson Open, you know, back in the day and
Speaker 5: when we were Center match Play, and those are great institutions.
Speaker 2: But I think the.
Speaker 5: Fabric of what color Guard by Exact Science does and
Speaker 5: getting to hear the stories and how they utilize this
Speaker 5: platform to showcase their survivors and caregivers so they bring
Speaker 5: them out for the entire week. I think they're going
Speaker 5: to try to host over four hundred and fifty this
Speaker 5: week for the tournament and one of our exemption picks
Speaker 5: so we get a few exemption picks. So we've got
Speaker 5: you know, the obviously the tour players and their credentials
Speaker 5: and what they qualify for for for certain tournaments, but
Speaker 5: we got countless emails for a local pick that I'm
Speaker 5: pretty proud that we were able to select Ted Perdy.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: So we got a few of survivors that had reached
Speaker 5: out asking for him to be able to participate based
Speaker 5: on on his affiliation last year, and then also some
Speaker 5: affiliate with FAMO members and colon cancer.
Speaker 2: So I mean that just makes it all so so blake.
Speaker 2: When you were growing up, who did you watch? Who
Speaker 2: did you see? When you were like, it was these guys, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: so anybody that you kind of signed up, sorry's going
Speaker 2: to be here.
Speaker 3: But you're talking about from golf.
Speaker 2: I mean you grew up.
Speaker 4: I mean we grew up in a kind of a
Speaker 4: golf family too, So you're you're telling this there they
Speaker 4: they've aged out or they're passed away.
Speaker 2: But like Lee Trevino and oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But but even now the guys that it's like, who
Speaker 2: do you have?
Speaker 3: Who do you have? You have? The crazy bearded John Daily.
Speaker 5: He's been going some surgery he's been the last two years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say, but when he's here, it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's yeah, his following is Yeah, it's a show.
Speaker 3: What about the what about the pro am? On the
Speaker 3: celebrity side.
Speaker 5: So we are and it hasn't been fully announced yet,
Speaker 5: but Barstool Sports is going to be doing a little
Speaker 5: bit of a challenge, kind of a three hole challenge
Speaker 5: with some of the pros, which will be a pretty
Speaker 5: cool social media following there.
Speaker 3: So they're going to going to do an influencer thing.
Speaker 5: Okay, but for our celebrity stuff, we we've kind of
Speaker 5: gone away from the celebrity challenge component. It was just
Speaker 5: too hard to facilitate to bring them in or yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't. I think it's more influencers that people
Speaker 3: are firing.
Speaker 5: So it's not necessarily like getting Larry Fitzgerald to come
Speaker 5: out and play golf.
Speaker 2: That's a good fall Instagram girls right now.
Speaker 3: I know, no, and I don't. I don't do that.
Speaker 3: I don't know, so I don't know those guys are anyway.
Speaker 2: So yeah, right smart smart, Yeah, yeah, no, you guys
Speaker 2: do it, do it right? Yeah, three straight days sports.
Speaker 2: I mean we've got again, going kind of going back
Speaker 2: to our age group. I mean there's a few. Oh
Speaker 2: you have the guys from well last year. Who's Stuart
Speaker 2: saying bad the previous year? The previous year, who's the
Speaker 2: the spend spend Miguel On Hell yes, and he was.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a fantastic dude. Oh yeah, yeah. He always
Speaker 5: has a cigar smoking slog. He's always yeah yeah the time,
Speaker 5: just still Wills still wears metal spikes. Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: I love it. Did you fix the He's not big
Speaker 5: enough for heavy enough to do any of that, right,
Speaker 5: I mean that's the problem though.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Now it's uh, I mean we've got a great field
Speaker 5: starting to come together. So Stuart Sink will be back,
Speaker 5: Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els.
Speaker 2: It's their huge names easy, yeah, and that's yeah, that's
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. I mean, you remember these kids or
Speaker 2: as a kid, you ran them golfing, and they're not
Speaker 2: too much older than me.
Speaker 5: No, and they can still move the golf ball to
Speaker 5: them and these guys are sure crazy good.
Speaker 3: It'll come to me once.
Speaker 4: That's a one great thing about golf though, it's it's
Speaker 4: it's almost I don't want to say it's ageless or timeless,
Speaker 4: but I mean you can play into your seventies, maybe
Speaker 4: a little bit into your early eighties. Like I would
Speaker 4: love to see that in other sports, Like I want
Speaker 4: to see NFL like stend into the Champions League and
Speaker 4: they've got just guys just just in the straight flag.
Speaker 2: Well in your in your area that you have coming up.
Speaker 2: Who's what's the age rage for the World Baseball Classic?
Speaker 2: It's it's baseball, So it's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you've got a lot of young guys for like
Speaker 4: Brazil and Germany. Those are you're you're talking Andrea Agacy
Speaker 4: and Steffie Grafts kid just that fresh out at usc
Speaker 4: Manny Ramirez's son, Dante Bouchett's son, and then you're looking
Speaker 4: at Columbia's roster. It's kind of a mix, right, Jose Kantana,
Speaker 4: Gio Urschelo, those guys are all into that like late twenties,
Speaker 4: mid thirties, in that prime age.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's it's crazy following baseball too.
Speaker 5: I'm a pretty big baseball fan, but you know, watching
Speaker 5: the sons of guys that you.
Speaker 4: Know, yeah, that we grew up going like come on,
Speaker 4: Manny's being manny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2: We've got to take a break here and come back
Speaker 2: and talk more about all this stuff.
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio AB. This is I on
Speaker 1: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Winning the Ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera and with me today
Speaker 2: color Guard Classics Aaron Crowley and the World Baseball Classics.
Speaker 2: Mister Blake Eager. Where are you from, although also we're
Speaker 2: both from Tucson. No, no, no, your other.
Speaker 4: Job, oh Southern Arizona sports tourism in film authority.
Speaker 2: And then mister Aaron is one of my brief sponsors
Speaker 2: with RBC.
Speaker 3: RBC Wealth Management. Yeah, thank you guys, thank you very much, big,
Speaker 3: big time. This is I love this time of year.
Speaker 2: I like November, the weather and all that stuff before
Speaker 2: we get ten days of you know, ten days of
Speaker 2: which are already passed that right, Yeah, it's going to
Speaker 2: be in the eighties. I think it is in the
Speaker 2: eighties today, a will be for a while. Yeah, hopefully
Speaker 2: it'll be in the mid seventies next week for you guys.
Speaker 2: Perfect time of year, I mean, just perfect time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just think it's wild for the amount of things
Speaker 4: that we've been I mean, like Tucson has shown out
Speaker 4: and has continuing show out for like like six weeks
Speaker 4: in a row. It's crazy, right, And that's why I
Speaker 4: was posing for us, Like, you get a week long
Speaker 4: professional sports.
Speaker 2: When's the last time.
Speaker 4: Tucson had a week long literally a week long from
Speaker 4: Sunday to Sunday of professional athletes in town.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, yeah, and then there's basketball. You get
Speaker 3: the road Runners going on right now, the road is
Speaker 3: going to start, yeah, yeah, looking to end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're going right now. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Did you guys get out to the rodeo?
Speaker 2: I did Sunday? Yeah, perfect day, another one of those
Speaker 2: great days.
Speaker 3: Packed, absolutely packed. We were out there. Uh So in
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen two so key sitters.
Speaker 5: Were Grand Marshall Hu and so for one hundred year
Speaker 5: they brought back as many Grand Marshals as that's awesome.
Speaker 5: We got to the executive director, Jeff Hell and I
Speaker 5: road in the back of Oh nice cool. He's the
Speaker 5: second year and he's like his second year way he waved,
Speaker 5: he needs to get better. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was it
Speaker 5: just a dead fish?
Speaker 3: Yeah, dead fish? No, No, just town.
Speaker 2: This town, you know it's it's Maybury sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: because it's it is what it is.
Speaker 3: But it has a lot of cool stuff. I mean,
Speaker 3: come on, it does. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's just getting better and better too, right right, No,
Speaker 2: we just got to keep it. If you can you
Speaker 2: talk about the future, is this a trial?
Speaker 3: But what is this? Can you talk about the future?
Speaker 3: What do you want me to talk about? Which if
Speaker 3: you knocking out of the park, will you be back?
Speaker 3: If you don't knock out the park, will you be back?
Speaker 4: If we do really, if we if we succeed in
Speaker 4: our venture with this, we're going to be in really
Speaker 4: really good shape for three more events. Uh and potentially
Speaker 4: a couple of teams, a couple of teams.
Speaker 2: Right, we talked about that really good shape baseball could
Speaker 2: be back.
Speaker 4: I hope, I really hope to be able to announce
Speaker 4: something here in the next month. And now, Steve, I
Speaker 4: told you that for like seven months. But hey, I
Speaker 4: did do it. Listen, we did deliver, right, I mean
Speaker 4: I did deliver.
Speaker 2: I was all of dis asked for everything. You got
Speaker 2: the story what it was, I just come out, should
Speaker 2: tell me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So there's some things happening right now behind closed
Speaker 4: doors that are really good.
Speaker 2: Tucson is it?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 2: I got here in eighty seven and it wasn't a
Speaker 2: dusty town. It was just you know, a little slower.
Speaker 2: Now it's like mad.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 4: Well, when Aaron and I were growing up, you had,
Speaker 4: I mean we I'm just talking from a baseball standpoint.
Speaker 4: You had spring training, you had Triple A Baseball. Tucson's
Speaker 4: the home of USA Baseball, and you had I believe
Speaker 4: we still had an Arizona Fall League team down here,
Speaker 4: and I think, like in a blink of eye, that's
Speaker 4: all gone, you know, and so thank goodness for I mean,
Speaker 4: like the road Runners being here, that's huge, The Sugar
Speaker 4: Skulls FC Tucson like, well.
Speaker 5: You know, being wanting to watch that. I mean, having
Speaker 5: a pretty good squad out there.
Speaker 2: And also I'm sure the people that involved, like the realle,
Speaker 2: those people have a care or have a want to
Speaker 2: make this thing happen.
Speaker 4: I just think you have so many people pushing in
Speaker 4: the right to like it's the first time that I
Speaker 4: felt and this is probably m might be putting my
Speaker 4: foot in my mouth a little bit that, Uh, Tucson's
Speaker 4: being proactive and not reactive, which I don't ever remember
Speaker 4: a time like that. And and I think we have
Speaker 4: a lot of positive momentum.
Speaker 2: And I know you hate that word.
Speaker 4: No, no, it works in this yeah, in this regard right,
Speaker 4: not when on offense is gelling together, right, But no,
Speaker 4: I mean it's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great for us.
Speaker 3: You guys are paying attention than Yeah, I agree with.
Speaker 2: You, I think.
Speaker 3: I mean, our partnership with Lapalona has been amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean who would think it, right, who would think?
Speaker 2: But it's ideal. It's a great place. You already have
Speaker 2: the traffic situated, the parking situated. Yeah, and that's what
Speaker 2: people would think it's taken care of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and not this is not a shot
Speaker 3: at Omni.
Speaker 5: I mean we've had over our sixty year history of
Speaker 5: running golf tournaments, thirty nine years at Omni on and off,
Speaker 5: and I mean it's it's a great facility and a
Speaker 5: great golf course. And yeah, you know, I was, you know,
Speaker 5: first thinking and when La Palomo was brought into the conversation,
Speaker 5: and there was a couple of other venues that we
Speaker 5: were looking at too, but you know, it's one of
Speaker 5: the prestigious clubs in Tucson, right, So from a golf standpoint,
Speaker 5: you know, they don't need us. Not that Omni did
Speaker 5: the hotel. It's one of the top ones. They've done
Speaker 5: a great job of, you know, bringing that back up
Speaker 5: over years. But I just am blown away on the
Speaker 5: partnership that we've.
Speaker 3: Had with them.
Speaker 4: I gotta give you guys a ton of credit to
Speaker 4: because I think when you made that change and the
Speaker 4: decisions behind closed doors and you made that change and
Speaker 4: you picked lat Plum, I think a lot of people
Speaker 4: in public were like, well, how's that going to work
Speaker 4: with the three Nines? And it doesn't make sense, and
Speaker 4: like there's not a up. Every person I talked to
Speaker 4: that went to that event that year said the same
Speaker 4: thing that it was absolutely phenomenal. You guys did such
Speaker 4: a phenomenal job with.
Speaker 5: That, and tell us the situation now because you're using
Speaker 5: two nights, right, Yeah, so we're operating off of all
Speaker 5: three nine, So we've got if you're familiar with the
Speaker 5: Courser's Ridge, Hill, Canyon are the three nines that they have.
Speaker 5: So Ridge one through nine is tournament one through nine,
Speaker 5: So that's the first nine holes that we have, and
Speaker 5: then we jump over to Canyon one through four and
Speaker 5: then Canyon eight nine, Hill three four nine, So we're
Speaker 5: grabbing three holes off of Hill, six off of Canyon
Speaker 5: and nine off of Ridge, right, so it kind of
Speaker 5: ties in. It just helped us stay on one side
Speaker 5: of Sunrise and then work our way back. Did the
Speaker 5: players Do the players have any say? There are some?
Speaker 5: I mean, it was definitely from the selection of La Paloma.
Speaker 5: The hotel played into it because of having rooms on
Speaker 5: property makes it a whole lot easier player standpoint, and
Speaker 5: then the playability of the golf course. So we definitely
Speaker 5: we came out with some of the rules officials, right,
Speaker 5: some of our leadership committee came out and played actually
Speaker 5: with some pros that you know could say hey, yeah,
Speaker 5: this will work. Here's what needs to change here some things,
Speaker 5: And I mean the superintendent, the gramis gramas the whole
Speaker 5: staff at Lapeloma Country Club because it is a whole
Speaker 5: when a tour comes to play your golf course, from
Speaker 5: watering schedule to cut schedule to to how you actually
Speaker 5: maintain that golf course, it changes pretty dramatically from just
Speaker 5: you know, keeping the golf course maintained for for your
Speaker 5: your general you know, membership, yeah, or general public if
Speaker 5: it's a public course. But yeah, it's an endeavor and
Speaker 5: they've embraced that too. So even going back to me,
Speaker 5: the hotel has been a great partnership. The country club
Speaker 5: has been a great partnership, so right, right, and in
Speaker 5: a great area obviously, Yeah, I mean that was the
Speaker 5: part too. I mean I think the views are are breathtaking,
Speaker 5: and you know, getting around the golf course we thought
Speaker 5: would be a little bit.
Speaker 3: A little bit tough.
Speaker 2: But so you talked about you're gonna be a Fox
Speaker 2: at least two or three days. Yeah, we've got three
Speaker 2: games on Fox Sports, so and you're gonna be on
Speaker 2: the Gulf Channel. So so tell me, you guys are
Speaker 2: showing the city showing you know, these things, that's kind
Speaker 2: of invaluable property views.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can a week long commercial of how
Speaker 4: beautiful in March.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can't pay, you can pay for it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, no, sorry, we should. Yeah, especially I.
Speaker 5: Mean with you know, having you know, nationalized television games
Speaker 5: for for you guys, and having people, you know, cheeks
Speaker 5: in the seats. Yeah, I love the cheeks in the seats,
Speaker 5: empty stadium type of picture. Hey, look how beautiful this
Speaker 5: can be? And then the same for us. I mean
Speaker 5: not that Lappelom is not beautiful in its own right,
Speaker 5: but when you put hospitality structures and you've got that
Speaker 5: backshop with the grass, and I mean how it all
Speaker 5: works together.
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 2: And do you know those numbers obviously with viewers and
Speaker 2: things like that, not sure.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it was pretty well viewed.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I don't have the exact numbers of yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean it's yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for you it's going to be worldwide, I
Speaker 2: would assuming worldwide.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So they just finished the other they finished the other
Speaker 4: qualifier in Chinese type A, and we were we were
Speaker 4: all over it like everything that we were on the
Speaker 4: outfield signage, we were on the scoreboard. We were on
Speaker 4: the runner and we're on the ticker right now on
Speaker 4: MLB every single spring training game. So that viewership. And
Speaker 4: so we've got three games on Fox Sports, and we've
Speaker 4: got three games on MLB Network and uh, I mean
Speaker 4: color Guard on and the Golf channel. So when you're
Speaker 4: speaking to kind of the same demographic from a sports standpoint, like, uh,
Speaker 4: we hit all those areas right. So, and it's worldwide views.
Speaker 4: So tell me real quick.
Speaker 2: You have you have people who watch baseball, right uh,
Speaker 2: and and you have people who watch the national out
Speaker 2: there there's national teams, national teams. What's more powerful? It's
Speaker 2: a tough question to ask and only explain why. So
Speaker 2: the final for the last World Baseball Classic, when you
Speaker 2: had USA VERUS Japan drew ninety nine point five million views.
Speaker 2: Now a lot of those viewers were from Japan. So
Speaker 2: when you get into a country like that. Now, Chinese
Speaker 2: Type A was a home team for their qualifier and
Speaker 2: they sold out the games they played in their forty
Speaker 2: thousand seed arena. Right, So you've got these communities that
Speaker 2: will go all out. Now, if you if we would
Speaker 2: have had USA or Mexico here, you're probably selling every
Speaker 2: single game you're playing it, so I would stay. I
Speaker 2: would still say it's more regional than it is national
Speaker 2: at this point, but I think the World Baseball Classics
Speaker 2: is changing that view more much like the World Cup
Speaker 2: does for soccer. And it's great baseball. I mean, you
Speaker 2: saw the Columbia roster. Yeah, we haven't had I mean
Speaker 2: I tell people this all the time. We have a
Speaker 2: hand major League Baseball players here in March, maybe once
Speaker 2: off with the Dodgers. I think the one time since
Speaker 2: twenty ten like that Columbia roster is absolutely loaded. You
Speaker 2: know Gio O'shella, Jose Quintana, you know Jorge Alfaro, Juli
Speaker 2: Hoo Tran. I mean, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It's phenomenal. Yeah.
Speaker 2: For golf, and I know you see the guys walking
Speaker 2: around to get to their places. They're they're pretty friendly. Obviously.
Speaker 2: Now their careers are kind of now that's the kind
Speaker 2: of like the country club career of what they do.
Speaker 6: Very.
Speaker 3: Easy to easy to find and maybe get a signature. Yeah.
Speaker 5: More so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 5: Ones, the crowds aren't as as large, right, so I
Speaker 5: think it's a little easier and more comfortable more comfortable,
Speaker 5: and and they know why they're there, and they know
Speaker 5: the impact that this tournament still has, and and the
Speaker 5: fact of the work that we put in to put
Speaker 5: it on. They're very appreciative of that because it gets
Speaker 5: them the opportunity to keep playing.
Speaker 3: A game for life.
Speaker 2: Right, No, no, yeah, And it's less it's less stressful
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 3: Right. And they still have groupies.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. They stays all in ys like wait,
Speaker 2: Freddy couples.
Speaker 3: Is He's like numbers?
Speaker 2: Could I can I look like Freddy? That was the
Speaker 2: guy I was trying to figure out you came up
Speaker 2: with the run away. He walks like, oh, that's ready.
Speaker 4: Ye no, I You know, with LPG and Ebsen, we
Speaker 4: supported some of their tour events and got to play
Speaker 4: in the Proram, which was a phenomenal event that we
Speaker 4: were really lucky. But Darren's point the golf world is
Speaker 4: so the ability for them to be welcoming is exceedingly
Speaker 4: special because they do the pro ams right, so they're
Speaker 4: out in the public and they know how much it
Speaker 4: means for those communities, especially for this because will is unbelievable.
Speaker 4: I mean, you could think about one sport you could
Speaker 4: choose to play or one in one league.
Speaker 2: It would be the Champions Tour. I mean, like that
Speaker 2: would be my dream, would it not?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: If I could play?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, And that's and typically I mean with it
Speaker 5: being a three day event, there's no cuts and you've
Speaker 5: got to feel right yah, yeah, you're I think just
Speaker 5: from a deliverable standpoint versus you know, the regular tour
Speaker 5: that may have depend on the event itself one hundred
Speaker 5: and twenty five right right with with Caddie's personnel. Then
Speaker 5: you've got to feed all those bodies, Like, there's a
Speaker 5: lot that goes.
Speaker 3: Into that aspect.
Speaker 5: So I think we can go a little bit over
Speaker 5: the top, and we typically do because you know how
Speaker 5: important this is we don't, you know, you want to.
Speaker 2: Make sure we take care of it. So what's your duty?
Speaker 2: What like, Yes, come Friday, Saturday Sunday, are you walking
Speaker 2: the course kind of like cocktails?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: Just kidding, Yeah, you know, I need to be stressed
Speaker 2: doing it every day.
Speaker 3: There'll be some components to it.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think our Friday Saturday of this week
Speaker 5: that we start to kind of build out the structures
Speaker 5: with with our team here now and kind of take
Speaker 5: over the golf course and get it ready what we
Speaker 5: call show ready for our Sunday amm. I'll have a
Speaker 5: little bit of stress around that, just making sure that
Speaker 5: you know, if there's loose ends that we can make
Speaker 5: sure we have those tied up. And then our first
Speaker 5: like real event that takes place. We've got our special
Speaker 5: Olympics on Monday, so we've got Monday.
Speaker 3: Three, a three hour event.
Speaker 5: And that's another thing that's just very special phenomenal. So
Speaker 5: we've got I think fifteen players. They'll be playing the
Speaker 5: three whole Challenge and that's awesome. Just under one hundred players.
Speaker 5: We'll be doing our putting challenge, so we're going to
Speaker 5: have I think two hundred and fifty lunches serve that
Speaker 5: day to parents guardians, which is awesome. And then we
Speaker 5: have our our parents party for our program on Tuesday night,
Speaker 5: so that'll be another stressful event. Wednesday morning our first
Speaker 5: pro am, kind of making sure that that runs pretty nice, smooth.
Speaker 5: So I didn't come tournament time after our opening ceremony.
Speaker 3: I mean, from that point on, it's it kind.
Speaker 2: Of is what it is right right, No, that's going
Speaker 2: right here, and then Sunday it's like climber's remorse and
Speaker 2: you're halfway through the mountains. I don't want to do
Speaker 2: this anymore. You get to the top, you said, God,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to do it again.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's definitely a different stress level now at this position
Speaker 5: than you know, my first This is year nine that
Speaker 5: I've been doing this. But you know, our our rookie
Speaker 5: year is longer days. Oh yeah, you know backbreak my
Speaker 5: bags Felipe Garcia of rookie last year.
Speaker 2: The yeah. So yeah, all these guys have been through
Speaker 2: the ringer. Yeah, yeah, right, everybody does it.
Speaker 5: So it doesn't matter what your walk of life or
Speaker 5: where you come from outside.
Speaker 3: Of it, we all kind of go through.
Speaker 5: Who's who's the guy next year? I be talking year
Speaker 5: most likely Dan mental okay, you you're.
Speaker 3: Talking about it right, Yeah, over centurions. I think this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if he does not do something horrendously wrong next week,
Speaker 5: then most likely and.
Speaker 2: You never know that you don't know about Dan.
Speaker 5: Dan lose Canada that way, So yeah, you know that's uh,
Speaker 5: that's kind of who's who's next line?
Speaker 3: So he's my assistant tournament chair this year, right right?
Speaker 3: Tell me real quick, I know you've got to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe not. Maybe you can stay say tell me,
Speaker 2: uh tickets all that stuff?
Speaker 3: Where to go, how to get.
Speaker 5: Tickets color Guard Classic dot com. You can go for
Speaker 5: golf tickets. You can access the concert tickets from there
Speaker 5: as well, or you can go to r o c
Speaker 5: qfest dot com. Come out support that if if golf
Speaker 5: doesn't work for you Friday, Saturday, Sunday and you want
Speaker 5: to come out one of the concerts, come out Friday
Speaker 5: night or Saturday night.
Speaker 3: That's yep, really till park. Tell me, can you have
Speaker 3: perishable snuff? We do, so we've got Saturday is.
Speaker 5: Our title sponsor, which is awesome, partnering with Community Food
Speaker 5: Bank basically bought the gate. So either bring a perishable
Speaker 5: food item or you can make a five dollars donation
Speaker 5: online to the Community Food Bank and you get a
Speaker 5: free general mission ticket on Saturday.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, cool, that's really cool. Who's that?
Speaker 3: Can you see the sponsor? You can see?
Speaker 2: Yeah, color Guard.
Speaker 5: So color Guard bought the bought the gate on Saturday
Speaker 5: with partnership. But again it just goes back to their
Speaker 5: desire to be involved, though they're not located here in Tucson.
Speaker 5: From a corporate standpoint of intertwining and the fabric of
Speaker 5: our community.
Speaker 2: And so it's just like I show you what a
Speaker 2: fantastic marriage with them. All week I saw color guard hats,
Speaker 2: you know guard hats blue, the blue ones. It has
Speaker 2: like four. Yeah they're no one, you lose one, yeah exactly,
Speaker 2: but you know they're everywhere. It's like you, guys, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you're gonna have merch. Yeah, well, I mean we aren't.
Speaker 4: But the World Baseballs and Major League Baseball well yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: nobody wants my merch. I couldn't even you won't even
Speaker 4: take the hat I tried to give you.
Speaker 2: Wait to think where was I Let's let's go take
Speaker 2: a break and come back. If you're an Arizona Man's
Speaker 2: basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty
Speaker 2: years now. Take a look back at the Ludelsen era
Speaker 2: in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a
Speaker 2: labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
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Speaker 2: Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's
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Speaker 2: Email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail
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Speaker 10: It's time for the Colo Guard Classic by Exact Sciences
Speaker 10: March seventh through the ninth at La Poloma Country Club
Speaker 10: and the Weston La Poloma Resort and Spa. Come see
Speaker 10: some of golf's greatest players competing for the coveted Tucson
Speaker 10: Conquisodor's helmet. It's PGA Tour Championship golf at its finest.
Speaker 10: Don't forget to join us Friday and Saturday Night under
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WIP. This is Eye on
Speaker 1: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Why I'm About here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 3: I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 2: In with me today called Classics Aaron Crowley and the
Speaker 2: World Baseball Classics. Blake eager, Let me switch gears real
Speaker 2: quick because we can always go back and talk to
Speaker 2: what you guys were talking about. But you guys are
Speaker 2: big UA fans, and we've talked a little about it,
Speaker 2: Senor Blake. Did you see that that Duyna keenas leaving
Speaker 2: the program?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, yeah, this last night. He's going to Texas. He's
Speaker 4: going back to Texas. My cousin might actually text that
Speaker 4: in our in our family group chat and I might.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of a huge blow. That is because
Speaker 3: you know, he was beloved here.
Speaker 2: They even said if, if, if he could be the
Speaker 2: head coach, you know, and that's how much they loved him.
Speaker 2: So he's going back to Texas. He came from came
Speaker 2: from there before to join Stanford. He was at Texas
Speaker 2: a while back. Now he's gonna work with Nissa and
Speaker 2: Niss and you know the former defensive coordinator here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and obviously more money. But this is where he he said, professed,
Speaker 2: I love this place. And then yeah, well no, no,
Speaker 2: always right, And what are you going to say, right,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna say?
Speaker 3: Can't? Yeah? Right, I mean that's there. Yeah, what do
Speaker 3: you think about the program? Let's talk about you get
Speaker 3: what do you think about the football program? Struggle with it?
Speaker 2: Because you're you're a fan, right, yeah, don't be a fan,
Speaker 2: you won't strug.
Speaker 3: That's that's the hard part. I mean, I think the.
Speaker 5: I think it's it's just a tough spot for us
Speaker 5: to because I think I think I've heard you guys
Speaker 5: talk about it.
Speaker 2: I mean I think you know we've got some there's
Speaker 2: some ceiling.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and as fans, we don't have that as expectation, right,
Speaker 5: the ceilings to to be the best.
Speaker 3: It's like once every ten years you get there.
Speaker 5: It's hard, right, Yeah, I think that's the hard part too.
Speaker 5: And and and then you throw the nil in it.
Speaker 5: I think the cost to be a fan, right, it
Speaker 5: continues to go up and up and up, which is
Speaker 5: which is tough. Is your love different for football than
Speaker 5: it is for basketball? Yeah, quite a bit, doesn't even
Speaker 5: richa No, I mean there's certain sports that I just don't.
Speaker 5: I mean, like, I I'm not a huge college people
Speaker 5: are going to run me and rake me over the
Speaker 5: calls on this one, but I'm not. I've never been
Speaker 5: a huge college football fan. And it's a different world
Speaker 5: when you go experience big, Big ten or SEC because
Speaker 5: I've lived in those worlds. Uh, it's like you think,
Speaker 5: we go like, no, you're you're not even the same,
Speaker 5: Like you're not even the same breasts, Like you have
Speaker 5: no idea what those people come out and drove and
Speaker 5: it's wild.
Speaker 2: It's a way of life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And and to Aaron's point, and I think you've probably
Speaker 4: heard at least Steve talked about it, and Steve and
Speaker 4: I've talked about it a lot. The expectations for fans
Speaker 4: and Tucson, like you have to live that life to
Speaker 4: have those expectations, And we're trying to do it in
Speaker 4: reverse where you have those expectations, but you're willing to
Speaker 4: live that life.
Speaker 2: That's that's well, well sends right. Basketball is a little different. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's completely different. Yeah, complete different, completely different because it
Speaker 2: taste it's tasted that. Yeah, it's tasted that, which we've
Speaker 2: had success for for quite a long time. And I
Speaker 2: think the fan base here, I mean again there's tradition. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so I mean it's the the BYU game.
Speaker 5: A good buddy of mine that I played basketball with
Speaker 5: it with your college is one of their assistants for
Speaker 5: b YU.
Speaker 3: So I haven't seen him in twenty years. Oh did
Speaker 3: you have a chance to talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we grabbed dinner Friday night. Yeah, and then Aaron.
Speaker 4: Aaron was chanting after the game at him, Yeah you're
Speaker 4: too blue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was there. Its fault. Well, you guys have
Speaker 2: been you guys have been in that arena for a
Speaker 2: long time, go to games. To me, it was just
Speaker 2: a big disappointment because it happens from time to time
Speaker 2: UCLA comes in.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean I think this was I was actually
Speaker 5: talking with Dvance about this because that's what we have
Speaker 5: season tickets with. But I mean our expectation from where
Speaker 5: the PAC twelve was, and not that it wasn't a
Speaker 5: great league, but it was generally one or two teams
Speaker 5: and then maybe another one that would give us, you know,
Speaker 5: some competition, and there's times that they beat us, and
Speaker 5: most times we beat ourselves, specially at home. It's a
Speaker 5: different ballgame now. And you know, though we're disappointed on
Speaker 5: how the BYU game ended, and there's obviously a few
Speaker 5: questionable calls like YU is a pretty good team.
Speaker 2: Yeah we played pretty darn well, Like it was not like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you just put it to Kansas. Yeah, yeah, well let's
Speaker 2: let's go there. Because we talked about it before. Are
Speaker 2: you more comfortable this year than you have been in
Speaker 2: the previous years as they move forward? Move forward this year?
Speaker 5: So I would say yes, as this season has gone along,
Speaker 5: I would have said absolutely not. I think like a
Speaker 5: lot of us the first you know, fifteen games this season,
Speaker 5: like and it wasn't even just who we lost to.
Speaker 5: I think it's how we were losing those games. And
Speaker 5: now I mean, yes, we could have a bad shooting
Speaker 5: night because we are our margins are very very thin
Speaker 5: with this team, which was you know, not the case
Speaker 5: for Tommy's first two years, or you know, Sean Miller's
Speaker 5: kind of that middle run that we had with Sean,
Speaker 5: but Yeah, I think there's the margins are super thin,
Speaker 5: and I'm loving what I'm seeing out of Caleb Love.
Speaker 3: With You're the guy. You're the guy. So there's one
Speaker 3: vote yes with Kayleb.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm saying of late, the fact that he's getting
Speaker 5: to the free throw line and he's attacking the basket.
Speaker 5: We're gonna We're gonna live with him shooting some nights
Speaker 5: going one for eight or threes, one for nine, one
Speaker 5: for ten, like that's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: But if he gets in the basket, I think that's
Speaker 2: a a better team there. There were forty five to
Speaker 2: one to win it all last week through now thirty three.
Speaker 2: They got better odds actually really to go yeah, because
Speaker 2: they they they're okay, the it's the if thing. If this,
Speaker 2: if that correct, if that happens, they're gonna be pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well that's three ifs that you gotta rely on, and
Speaker 2: that's you need more ifs. We talked about Talenton, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna do with him? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: I don't know how that concussion truly has treated him.
Speaker 4: So I think overall season though, the expectations going in
Speaker 4: was one of oh yeah, absolutely, I mean one of
Speaker 4: the highly regarded Well then he transfers.
Speaker 2: Then he hit those threes right in exhibition games, he
Speaker 2: couldn't miss. Oh, this guy is shoot this. We need this,
Speaker 2: and he hasn't hit a three whatever.
Speaker 5: That was watching the exhibition games and a couple of
Speaker 5: the non conference when we first started off.
Speaker 3: Yes, I know it was against lesser competition.
Speaker 5: I wasn't really looking at what the score difference was,
Speaker 5: but the way that we played, in the depth that
Speaker 5: we had at least how they were playing, I was like, Wow,
Speaker 5: this is this is the team we've been looking for.
Speaker 2: Right and then and then reality hits You go seven deep,
Speaker 2: he's got seven you know because seven I've talked about
Speaker 2: it with you, with everybody else. To me, they're playing
Speaker 2: with the kind of a hand point behind her back.
Speaker 2: You don't know about del orso you don't know about Townson.
Speaker 5: I mean you gave a perfect example of del Yes,
Speaker 5: nothing in the first half and get eleven points in
Speaker 5: three minutes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, and you need that.
Speaker 5: You need that.
Speaker 3: He has to have that. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Who was uh, who's your X factor? Everybody quized everybody
Speaker 2: else who's the X factor for moving forward? It's kJ Lewis. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's two kJ Lewis. Yeah, and he hadn't been great
Speaker 2: because of his risk. I guess he wasn't wearing his wrist.
Speaker 2: But I even say that the BYU game was the
Speaker 2: point in his defense. I mean when we got five fouls. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: great offensive game though.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So then I mean that's that's the other side of that, right,
Speaker 5: I mean, and he's been starting, he's been showing that
Speaker 5: the last month or so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys are going to be busy this week. Actually,
Speaker 2: you won't be in give me any And I asked
Speaker 2: this a bit, right, anything less than a X is
Speaker 2: going to be disappointing this year.
Speaker 5: I think, based on on how we've done in the
Speaker 5: Big twelve, and I know the Big twelve down a
Speaker 5: little bit. I think a Sweet sixteen. If we don't
Speaker 5: get to Sweet sixteen, I think, okay, well that's year
Speaker 5: they did. And there's still does support they always will be.
Speaker 5: But I mean I think what we ran into and
Speaker 5: the timing of of how hot Clemson was at the time,
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's kind of hard again getting back
Speaker 5: and going from a fan to a fan of the
Speaker 5: game who got you.
Speaker 3: In There's nothing realistic about people that come in here.
Speaker 3: That's for you.
Speaker 2: National championship. There you go double digit when national championship came.
Speaker 3: I just hope they have fun. Steve, who kidnapped you?
Speaker 5: For you?
Speaker 4: What do you think I mean? I'm gonna say sweet sixteen.
Speaker 4: I honestly think it's a lad eight. And I know
Speaker 4: it's crazy for me to say that, but watching these
Speaker 4: guys play throughout the season, watching them develop, I think
Speaker 4: we're a tough matchup against anybody. And if you can
Speaker 4: play the way we've played and you're losing or you're
Speaker 4: winning those last two minutes, you can beat anybody in
Speaker 4: the country. Okay, sorry, I gotta take the scam. Likely
Speaker 4: calling me apparently they're my best friend because they call.
Speaker 3: Me all the time.
Speaker 17: Yeah, but potential calls me all the time. Who does
Speaker 17: potential participant? Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So we'll see
Speaker 17: what happens. I know you guys, are you know at
Speaker 17: the games all the time? I see you guys often.
Speaker 17: I'm not you so much now I know where you're at.
Speaker 17: There's only two more home games. I see you all
Speaker 17: the time. You just don't see me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said you listen at the issue game it's
Speaker 2: going to be crazy. I hope it's not one of
Speaker 2: those you know, they're going to give Hurly his stuff.
Speaker 2: They are, I mean, but not to be They're going
Speaker 2: to be monitored now oh yeah, last two games. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would agree with you completely.
Speaker 4: I still think that the question, and we've kind of,
Speaker 4: you know, teeter back and forth on this, but is
Speaker 4: Hurley coming back next year?
Speaker 3: I doubt it. I doubt it.
Speaker 2: I would say twenty percent that the most, at the most.
Speaker 2: Even then I don't think so. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 2: if he wants to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can kind of tell, can't you tell?
Speaker 2: Any coach's comments and his demeanor that you know, I'm
Speaker 2: going to burn down the house?
Speaker 3: What does it matter?
Speaker 4: ACU is such a conundrum to me, Like, you're the
Speaker 4: largest school in the United States. You should have one
Speaker 4: of the largest NIL packages and wells to go to.
Speaker 4: But it's just like, I mean, their football team wasn't
Speaker 4: supposed to be good. They got they got a great
Speaker 4: coach going to be and he stays there. That program's
Speaker 4: I mean, but he did say that's his dream school.
Speaker 4: But I mean, come on, like, but you should be
Speaker 4: paying for coaches at any elite level you should be
Speaker 4: putting out. You have one hundred and twenty thousand students,
Speaker 4: you're in the fifth largest city. How are you not
Speaker 4: better at your major sports?
Speaker 2: We've always said this, and since I've been here at
Speaker 2: least eighty seven, I'm sure before me it's a sleeping giant,
Speaker 2: sleeping giant and it still can't wake up.
Speaker 3: Maybe and what if?
Speaker 2: What if this last year for Arizona State was what
Speaker 2: happened to Arizona last year? It was that one off.
Speaker 2: I mean it might be.
Speaker 5: I mean there's there's again going back to you know,
Speaker 5: I think the SEC big tent money wise, like how
Speaker 5: hard it is to actually repeat that if you don't
Speaker 5: already have the foundation built to a place to replace,
Speaker 5: to replace.
Speaker 4: I mean it's a cream model, right Wu Tang they're
Speaker 4: going on in their last tour. You know what cream is,
Speaker 4: Steve No, I do not cash rule is everything around me?
Speaker 4: Cream the money. That's what you're the you're the music
Speaker 4: guy than you very much, Casey case No. But I mean,
Speaker 4: like it's true, like to Aaron Sport, you it's you
Speaker 4: don't know, especially with a s U, it's probably going
Speaker 4: to be a one off. I mean they've got a
Speaker 4: great coach. But again, ni L is going to get
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, it's your your professional
Speaker 4: athletes catching let me into the bottle. Yeah, you gotta
Speaker 4: do it a few times. So hot up there, it's
Speaker 4: so hot. We listen, there's no argument. I hate when
Speaker 4: people bring this up. It's hot down Tucson. It's not
Speaker 4: one hundred and three degrees at eleven PM. And I
Speaker 4: lived there for a couple of years. I'm with you, guys.
Speaker 3: I'm with you guys.
Speaker 2: Thanks guys for joining us. We got to go appreciate it.
Speaker 13: Great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great, thanks Kobe.
Speaker 2: Try not to talk so much next Yeah, please keep
Speaker 2: it down.