Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 2: Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball
Speaker 2: here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. It's
Speaker 2: gonna be a busy show today. Today we have Dave
Speaker 2: silver in with me in the studio and Troy Hutchison
Speaker 2: fromgoasecats dot Com, so it's a packed house. And then
Speaker 2: we're gonna have some pretty good and we also have
Speaker 2: our guy here, mister Kobe. Kobe. How you doing, Kobe,
Speaker 2: Good to see you. And then we're gonna have Ben
Speaker 2: Hallen in the first hour three seventeen, and then we're
Speaker 2: gonna have Jarrett Ramirez from Rivals in Texas Tech, So
Speaker 2: we'll be busy with all this thing is going on. Hello, Dave,
Speaker 2: Hello Troy.
Speaker 3: How's it going?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 4: Troy?
Speaker 2: Are you okay?
Speaker 5: I'm doing better?
Speaker 2: What does that mean?
Speaker 5: I can speak now? So you know? Is that what
Speaker 5: you call speaking somewhat someone?
Speaker 2: Okay? Do you don't have headphones? I don't okay. I
Speaker 2: thought you were one of those guys up right.
Speaker 5: Do you have battery.
Speaker 2: It works. Welcome to the Step Aware Crack Studio. Bring
Speaker 2: your own equipment. Yeah, you have higher tech stuff than
Speaker 2: I do. That one those were used on mine. Welcome everybody,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Thursday Show. I think you should be a
Speaker 2: lot of fun show, talking a lot about college basketball
Speaker 2: and the state of college basketball. I saw Ben Hallan
Speaker 2: out of game here maybe two three weeks ago and
Speaker 2: talked to him briefly and said, could you come on
Speaker 2: the show, and he said sure. So I'm gonna reminisce
Speaker 2: about the good old days when he was at u
Speaker 2: c l A. He had that thing, I mean, Dave
Speaker 2: he did. They won a national championship. Not for him
Speaker 2: now with him, no, No, it was that was yeah America. No, No,
Speaker 2: he took he took UCLA to three straight final four.
Speaker 2: That's what I was thinking, right, Yeah, that, you know,
Speaker 2: with some great group love Westbrook and there was a
Speaker 2: couple of other guys in there. So we're gonna talk
Speaker 2: a lot about that, the good old days and even today.
Speaker 2: He was most recently at Mississippi State was let go
Speaker 2: I think in twenty twenty two, and now they have
Speaker 2: the former New Mexico State coach there who are who's
Speaker 2: doing very well over there, So we'll talk to him
Speaker 2: about the state of the NIL and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you gotta wonder what, you know, if he ever
Speaker 3: wanted to come back, he's he's still sixty seven, that'll
Speaker 3: be a question that we asked. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked about that briefly in terms of aren't
Speaker 2: you glad you're out?
Speaker 3: I'm sure and he probably said, oh yeah, damn straight.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say a lot of coaches you know of that,
Speaker 5: I coach k coach Williams retiring all at once. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you have this nil thing going on, nobody wants to be.
Speaker 2: I would assume that there's going to be more after
Speaker 2: this year. The Miami coach, that's right. You know, he's
Speaker 2: a seventy seventy four to seventy five. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see more and more of that happening, just like
Speaker 2: the guys when we have Kendre and Lopez and all
Speaker 2: these guys coming in and saying, I'm glad I don't
Speaker 2: have to do with that stuff anymore. And it's crazy.
Speaker 2: I mean, all the transfers and all that. What'd you
Speaker 2: see recently, Troy about quarterbacks getting paid x amount of money.
Speaker 2: HU guy one point five or three. I saw.
Speaker 5: I saw that recently in terms of viewers from Texas
Speaker 5: turned down eight million dollars to stay to declare for
Speaker 5: the NFL instead. So he's not transferring, he's going to
Speaker 5: the NFL.
Speaker 2: What do you mean he was he was going to
Speaker 2: be given eight million.
Speaker 5: Eight million from another school. Yeah, so that's the number.
Speaker 3: But you know, and he thinks he's going to get
Speaker 3: that much in a signing bonus or something with.
Speaker 2: You gotta move on sometimes, I guess you gotta move
Speaker 2: on some time. And there was something like the Miami
Speaker 2: guy who from Georgia who went to Miami back Beck.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm sure he got some well his girlfriends at
Speaker 5: at Miami as well. That's free, you know, it's a
Speaker 5: free move. But I'm just saying, you know, there are
Speaker 5: other other things around there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not like you couldn't have got a girl
Speaker 2: at Georgia too. So we'll see what happens with all
Speaker 2: this stuff. Welcome to the show. We talked a lot
Speaker 2: about basketball. Basketball, let's talk a little about football. There's
Speaker 2: still a lot of news there. We're not gonna we
Speaker 2: might do breaking news. I'm not so sure, because we're
Speaker 2: gonna be so full. Some more goings on to Detroy
Speaker 2: with tight end coach.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, hiring Josh Miller, the tight end coach.
Speaker 5: Spent one year with Seth at Marshall for you know,
Speaker 5: leaving Marshall when that coaching staff had their changeover. Was
Speaker 5: hired at Mississippi Southern miss but decided to join Seth
Speaker 5: at Arizona. So one season at Marshall and coach with
Speaker 5: him at Purdue as an offensive analyst as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so more comings and goings anymore holds.
Speaker 5: The special teams coordinator would be the number one thing
Speaker 5: now on the list.
Speaker 2: Is that's what's left?
Speaker 5: That is what's left.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well we had who do we have on yesterday?
Speaker 2: I can't remember, glev Michael Laff. Yeah. He talked about
Speaker 2: just the things going on with the right moves. Seemingly
Speaker 2: the right moves right at least you think there'd be
Speaker 2: improved moves. Do you think that?
Speaker 5: I think they're improved moves. They are easy moves. There
Speaker 5: are moves that should have been made with previous coaching staffs.
Speaker 5: Joe Salavea, obviously that's a huge pickup for Arizona. You
Speaker 5: have the associate head coaching title with him, plus the
Speaker 5: d line coaching title as well. He got that at Miami.
Speaker 5: He probably got paid more at Miami. So this is
Speaker 5: a move of I want to come home. I want
Speaker 5: to be at Arizona, and it's a move that he's
Speaker 5: been wanting to make for a very long time, not
Speaker 5: only as a defensive line coach, but he did apply
Speaker 5: to be the head coach back when Fish was hired
Speaker 5: to be the head coach of Arizona.
Speaker 2: Right right, and I think he's going to be the
Speaker 2: associate head coach. Yes, is that right? So you never
Speaker 2: know the coaching wait, just in case, but how old
Speaker 2: is around fifty? Yeah? Yeah, I'm talking about Brennany Brent.
Speaker 2: They're both around the four Okay, okay, so fifty so yeah,
Speaker 2: long and blog careers ahead of them.
Speaker 3: Salave was super popular here too as a player, and
Speaker 3: everybody kind of followed him and watched him get into
Speaker 3: coaching and wondered why wasn't he here. So it's kind
Speaker 3: of nice and it's kind of comfortable.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the reasons, I think, Dave, you might
Speaker 2: know this better than me. Oh, Troy Rich had a
Speaker 2: chance to keep him, right or Rich.
Speaker 5: So rich when he first came in, let go of
Speaker 5: Joe Salavea, I'm not going to go into details.
Speaker 2: Well I I can go ahead, I can speculate.
Speaker 5: And then wanted him back several years later, realizing the
Speaker 5: mistake he made it to begin with, and just said, no,
Speaker 5: I'm good. You didn't want me the first time. That's right,
Speaker 5: that's not good.
Speaker 3: Well go beat you from Oregon or Washington State.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't. He kind of Rich kind of feel
Speaker 2: threatened with having in house people kind.
Speaker 5: Of here from from my understanding talking to other alumni,
Speaker 5: that was part of it. But also the Polynesian influence
Speaker 5: that Joe Salavea and the previous staff had on Arizona
Speaker 5: wasn't something that Rich was really willing to explore. He
Speaker 5: didn't feel like that meant his system. He wanted to
Speaker 5: explore other recruiting options.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, how'd that go? Yeah, And that's why you
Speaker 2: probably wanted him to exactly.
Speaker 5: Once you realized that mistake. It's hard to mend those.
Speaker 2: And he's already started with that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: With that with give me a couple of names in
Speaker 2: terms of the kids coming back to players coming here.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you have ta coming in from Texas, who
Speaker 5: was here previously a season ago, transferred to Texas, played
Speaker 5: the season at Texas, is now is coming back. Salavea
Speaker 5: recruited him obviously at Oregon. Uh he went when ended
Speaker 5: up going to u C.
Speaker 6: L A.
Speaker 5: But Uh, Salve and have a strongly relationship and he's
Speaker 5: here at Arizona.
Speaker 2: And also goes to show guys that gress isn't always greener, right,
Speaker 2: you know, and you're not gonna be you may not.
Speaker 2: You may be good here, you may not play somewhere else,
Speaker 2: and and here we want you.
Speaker 3: That's definitely the case I would think for Joe, he
Speaker 3: was you know, he was here in the early nineties
Speaker 3: as a kid and you know, kind of saw what
Speaker 3: Tucson was all about, had some good wins, part of
Speaker 3: some great teams, goes away, wants to come back. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's just like I said, it's just kind of a
Speaker 3: fairy tale finish at least or at least stop for him,
Speaker 3: because I think he wanted.
Speaker 2: To be here for a long time and Slavia specifically
Speaker 2: where yeah he was here, wanted to get whatever he
Speaker 2: got at Texas, didn't get a whole lot of playing time,
Speaker 2: so there that's that's women what sal Yeah, so that
Speaker 2: him so he left, didn't play a whole lot. Now
Speaker 2: he wants to come.
Speaker 5: Back, and you know the relationship, it's a good relationship.
Speaker 5: Joe Salve obviously strong Polynesian connections, has great recruiting prowess
Speaker 5: and just a very good fit. And you know, we've
Speaker 5: seen Joe Salve here in this defensive line coaching position
Speaker 5: before under Mike Soups and had a tremendous success building
Speaker 5: that defense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we'll see what happens with that.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: Anymore news with the football. I think that's about it.
Speaker 2: Throughout recruiting right now.
Speaker 5: They're out recruiting right now. It's in recruiting. Was some
Speaker 5: offensive and defensive analysts in Texas, so.
Speaker 2: You you followed closely, h Troy. How much did a
Speaker 2: issue success help them or hurt Arizona.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it hurts Arizona a issue did
Speaker 5: it a lot? With the transfer portal, you know, you
Speaker 5: bring in the quarterback from Michigan State, you bring in
Speaker 5: Cam Scattaboo from Sack State, and some of those things
Speaker 5: fell into place where I don't think anybody thought Cam
Speaker 5: Skattaboy was going to be that type of player. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you didn't think Levitt was going to have that good
Speaker 5: of a season. And they had bumps and bruises along
Speaker 5: the way, But yeah, scheduling and it just fell into place.
Speaker 5: Right now, what Arizona needs to do is get back
Speaker 5: to what it was doing in terms of recruiting and
Speaker 5: laying a foundation. And you saw that messed up a
Speaker 5: little bit last year. But with the new coaching staff
Speaker 5: coming in, it looks like Arizona's trying to get back
Speaker 5: to its roots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see. Did you you didn't cover? You didn't
Speaker 2: cover you? You were more unobservant. I'll ask you again
Speaker 2: of both of you guys. The kid from CEO, the
Speaker 2: running back team, No, no, no one's on the roster now.
Speaker 2: The scataboo kind of guy player, uh Luke King Luke Oh?
Speaker 2: Could could they use him like that?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 5: Because I think he's more of a traditional full back.
Speaker 5: I don't think he could be in every down back
Speaker 5: for Arizona. I think I think he's more of a
Speaker 5: full back.
Speaker 3: There's not too many skataboos out there.
Speaker 2: No, No, But you don't know until you know. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. And they used Luke as a
Speaker 2: full back a lot early. Did he use him a
Speaker 2: lot late?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 5: And I think what happened was when you saw Luke
Speaker 5: on the field, it was one hundred percent going to
Speaker 5: be a runner. Oh yes, yes, So it was very predictable,
Speaker 5: and eventually they had to stop going to it because
Speaker 5: they were never throwing the ball out of that formation. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So with the new offense coordinator, everything can change.
Speaker 2: Your secret weapon because no more secret weapon.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 5: Especially when you have journalists writing about it that they
Speaker 5: never pass out of that formation.
Speaker 2: Well, you're getting paid to observe, right exactly?
Speaker 3: Why are they running anything.
Speaker 2: The time he's on the field. Yeah, we just got
Speaker 2: a tweet on the sideline he's in, he's in the field,
Speaker 2: be prepared for a run. Okay, okay, anything else, you guys,
Speaker 2: uh football. We'll talk a lot about basketball, obviously. Your
Speaker 2: thoughts on what you saw. We haven't seen you since
Speaker 2: the game, right, No, since Tuesday? What did you say
Speaker 2: that stayed up?
Speaker 6: You stayed up.
Speaker 3: I had a little snack and made it through to
Speaker 3: about eleven fifteen.
Speaker 2: You and I are part of the ones that Timmy
Speaker 2: was saying, Oh, look at the good crowd tonight. I'm
Speaker 2: surprised some of you guys are here. I didn't expect
Speaker 2: some of you. And he was looking at right at me,
Speaker 2: and I was laughing.
Speaker 3: Because it was, you know, kind of an atypical UVE
Speaker 3: game where they have the big lead and things kind
Speaker 3: of dwindled away. But they played great in the first
Speaker 3: half and Caleb was nowhere to be found and kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, what did he did? He even get ten points?
Speaker 7: Nice?
Speaker 2: Yes, like that.
Speaker 3: Andy's still you know, three strong performance.
Speaker 2: Three for ten. The thing that impressed me the most, guys,
Speaker 2: was that they were very aggressive and very physical, something
Speaker 2: you never you I shouldn't say that rarely see for America.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, guys, but I mean, Henry,
Speaker 3: it's just fun to watch this happening. As I'm watching
Speaker 3: him a little bit, I'm going he's like Paul Gasol.
Speaker 3: He kind of reminded me of that a little bit,
Speaker 3: kind of looks like him, kind of built like him.
Speaker 3: You know, he's got that great outside shot. So far,
Speaker 3: so good to watch. I agree with uh, I agree
Speaker 3: with through. I think he's gonna be a pro.
Speaker 2: And it's still way early, but he's got the tools
Speaker 2: to be the pro.
Speaker 5: I think the difference is the hustle. He's able to
Speaker 5: hustle get the fifty fifty balls. I tweeted out and
Speaker 5: kind of jokingly because you can't be this physical and
Speaker 5: this type of era of college basketball or basketball today.
Speaker 5: But he's kind of got that Billi and Beer feel
Speaker 5: about him, kind of like I'm going to get that
Speaker 5: ball and you're not going to get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's yea feisty at feisty some energy they need,
Speaker 2: no question, let me say that they wouldn't get that
Speaker 2: from Cretis Crevas, and they wouldn't. I don't know. If
Speaker 2: I don't know if he would be playing. It's hard
Speaker 2: to ask a question like, you know, how would you
Speaker 2: be playing if Crevas was still here? He wouldn't be
Speaker 2: playing as much, he wouldn't be dependent on as much,
Speaker 2: and Crevas would kind of slowly offense down.
Speaker 5: I think not only that, but just the team in general.
Speaker 5: I think one of the main things of why Arizon
Speaker 5: has gone on this winning streak is Henry Vassar and
Speaker 5: the energy that he's brought off the bench. You don't
Speaker 5: have that energy of Crevis. It's no offense to him.
Speaker 5: He's just limited right now, and so I think that's
Speaker 5: one of the keys.
Speaker 3: I mean again, kJ and Vassar were the basically top
Speaker 3: scores in.
Speaker 2: The game off the bench, and they're not bench dude.
Speaker 3: I mean they're playing yeah thirty minutes.
Speaker 7: Still.
Speaker 2: So I said this a couple of days ago, or
Speaker 2: even yesterday, Dave. In the history of the big man,
Speaker 2: Arizona big man, they're not really known for big men, right.
Speaker 2: Who who's the last good big men from Arizona?
Speaker 5: DeAndre Ayden?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he was pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but even even you know what, I'm not sold. I'm
Speaker 2: not sold on the Andre in terms of the yeah yeah, good, good,
Speaker 2: good answer. I'm not gonna take that answer phoneo, friend,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna believe in. I like it, and I
Speaker 2: can't like him to Lauren Woods. But uh, this place
Speaker 2: is not known for big men. He's not a Tarzouski,
Speaker 2: he's not a those big guys, because those guys are
Speaker 2: just big dudes, right.
Speaker 5: I think the last I think what you're looking for
Speaker 5: is consistency, and the last time Arizona had that was
Speaker 5: Jordan Hill. George, Yeah, yeah, nineteen ten. Yeah, you're in
Speaker 5: and you're out and that's a good.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah you not the same
Speaker 2: build but still kind of tall and thin. That's not
Speaker 2: a bad one. Yeah yeah, I'm thinking more. Lauren can
Speaker 2: shot block and stuff. Well, let's take this call real quick, just.
Speaker 3: Just because it's Lauren on nine one.
Speaker 2: Hello, you're on the air and eye on the ball.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like a mine.
Speaker 2: Hello, Okay, can you hear us? Can you hear us?
Speaker 5: I heard him for a half a half a second.
Speaker 8: We can hear you.
Speaker 2: You're there, well, coach, is this you?
Speaker 7: Yes? It is?
Speaker 2: Oh good, good, good good. Hey you're a little early.
Speaker 2: What time is it you're about to do? We're inserting.
Speaker 2: Let us give you a quick call back and we'll
Speaker 2: go break here and then get ahold of you? Is
Speaker 2: that cool?
Speaker 7: That's fine?
Speaker 2: Great? Thank you, Thank You's Ben Hollen. We're going to
Speaker 2: reach out to him. Let's go to commercial right now
Speaker 2: and then come back right away. Thanks so much.
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Speaker 1: Breaking down all the xs and os. This is I
Speaker 1: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to have the ball here Fox sportspoorteen fifty.
Speaker 2: I'm Steve Rivera, You're Dave Silver, You're Troy Hunchesson, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna wait for Ben's call any second now. H
Speaker 2: I just texted him, so okay, cool, what do you can
Speaker 2: ask him?
Speaker 5: Guys? You know, I'm excited to talk to him and
Speaker 5: really talk about those old back ten airs on the
Speaker 5: UCLA matchups and really the atmosphere of those games at
Speaker 5: poly in McHale Center. When you talk about West Coast
Speaker 5: basketball and rivalries and college basketball, there's hard hardly any
Speaker 5: rivalries better than that game right there.
Speaker 3: There's so many good players like you mentioned briefly earlier.
Speaker 3: I mean, guys like you know, Kevin Love and college
Speaker 3: with Darren Collison, people like that, Jordan Farmar, Ryan Hollins,
Speaker 3: Aaron follows so many guys who went to the NBA Westbrook.
Speaker 3: I mean it's just he had a lot of good,
Speaker 3: great talent there those years.
Speaker 2: Coaches, Yes, it is, yes, great, great. Can you hear us? Okay?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I can hear your fine?
Speaker 2: Okay, great coach. Great to see you a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago. Did you get some heb gbs when you
Speaker 2: came to McHale? But you you played pretty well down
Speaker 2: here with UCLA, So we had some.
Speaker 6: Good games down there.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: We played there ten times and a great, great fan
Speaker 6: base was allus. One of the loudest places that we
Speaker 6: played every year. The band especially, I love the band there.
Speaker 6: The band is really good, so it was fun. I
Speaker 6: have great memories of playing at McHale.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no question. Let me give you a little memory.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you'll remember this, so I covered
Speaker 2: the teams from nineteen ninety to loots years and a
Speaker 2: little of the Shan's. There was a guy named Ben Helen.
Speaker 2: We'd go meet with you guys in between games, and
Speaker 2: this guy bought us lunch. Well, we had our fireside
Speaker 2: chats with you before the games. You remember that you're
Speaker 2: trying to smooth us.
Speaker 6: No, that was not, but yeah, I do remember. You know,
Speaker 6: Luke had the program that he would do it had
Speaker 6: the opposing coach come in and talk, and we're doing
Speaker 6: that a couple of times, which was fun.
Speaker 7: I mean great.
Speaker 6: I mean it's one of the all time great coaches
Speaker 6: in the history of the game, and it was an
Speaker 6: honor to compete against his teams.
Speaker 2: Before before we get into the thing the stuff is
Speaker 2: going on today, could you talk to us real quick
Speaker 2: about your time at Northern Arizona. Typically, typically and this
Speaker 2: is didn't have to coaches go to there to get,
Speaker 2: you know, experience and eventually get fired because they don't
Speaker 2: do well. You did tremendously well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we were really fortunate. You know.
Speaker 6: I took that job because no one else would give
Speaker 6: me a chance, and it was a great opportunity. It
Speaker 6: was a one year contract, so you know, there weren't
Speaker 6: a lot of guys I had to beat for the
Speaker 6: job because no one else was going to take a
Speaker 6: one year deal, and so you know, I went there
Speaker 6: in nineteen ninety four and luckily I hired Jamie Dixon,
Speaker 6: who had been our graduate assistant when I was an
Speaker 6: assistant for Jerry Pim and TSP in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 7: And you know, Jamie really really was good.
Speaker 6: I had Mike Adris who ended up being my replacement
Speaker 6: right and was there for a long time as well.
Speaker 6: But that was probably, you know, the hardest I ever
Speaker 6: worked in my life. Steve and we were in the
Speaker 6: office every night to twelve. He was trying to find
Speaker 6: guys you know, would fit our program. Uh and we
Speaker 6: you know, we ended up going for a profile of
Speaker 6: kids that came from smaller communities so.
Speaker 8: They wouldn't be uncomfortable and.
Speaker 6: Flag staff and we got some really good players and
Speaker 6: guys that were really under recruited. Ross Land was a
Speaker 6: great player, and we got Andrew Mavis who was MVP
Speaker 6: the league. Charles Thomas who was a jac kid that
Speaker 6: was MVP the league. Damn McClintock. We got a really
Speaker 6: good player out of Phoenix area, Casey Frank that was
Speaker 6: an outstanding big man that really really he played for
Speaker 6: another seventeen years down in the So we were lucky.
Speaker 6: We got a lot of good players. Kavika Kena was
Speaker 6: an outstanding point guard that we got left Hawaii to
Speaker 6: come to our place, and it was really really good.
Speaker 6: We had a kid, Michael McNair that was an out
Speaker 6: tanning guard. We had Ryan Abbott out of the Valley
Speaker 6: and got Taylor played for Dave Babcock and junior college
Speaker 6: there in Arizona was a good player the first couple
Speaker 6: of years we were there. So we had we had
Speaker 6: good players, and that's always the key, good players.
Speaker 5: Hi, this is Troy Hutchison from God's Acts, coach, and
Speaker 5: I was wondering, you know, I grew up in that
Speaker 5: era when you were the coach of UCLA. But just
Speaker 5: your thoughts reminiscing back of the Pac ten and just
Speaker 5: not only yourself and coach Olsen, but the coaches in
Speaker 5: the conference and the strength of the conference of that era.
Speaker 8: It's so sad to me.
Speaker 6: You know, I was at the last Pack ten excuse me,
Speaker 6: Pac twelve game last year at Paully when UCLA played
Speaker 6: Arizona State. And to see the conference no longer be
Speaker 6: a conference, it's really difficult for those of us who
Speaker 6: participated in it. It was a great conference. I mean
Speaker 6: when you go back and look at some of the coaches,
Speaker 6: I mean, Mike Montgomery's one of the great coaches of
Speaker 6: the game. I mean, Mike Montgomery is as good as
Speaker 6: it gets. And obviously Lout you know, Sean was great
Speaker 6: when he was at Arizona and I was competing with
Speaker 6: his teams. But you know, Ben Brown was doing a
Speaker 6: great job at Cal when I was at UCLA, Learns
Speaker 6: of Romar really had things rolling.
Speaker 8: At Washington Obviously.
Speaker 6: Tony Bennett, you know his dad, and he came to
Speaker 6: Washington State and turned that into a juggernaut. And you
Speaker 6: know at Oregon they had good teams. Joarning did a
Speaker 6: great job. And then obviously, uh, you know what has
Speaker 6: been done since uh has been tremendous and uh with
Speaker 6: the new facility, you know, it's it's you know, Dana
Speaker 6: is just fantastic there.
Speaker 7: You know, it's it's been you know.
Speaker 6: You know, Trent was it at Stanford and did a
Speaker 6: great job, following Mike and Johnny Dawkins, I mean, and
Speaker 6: then at SC you know, Tim Floyd, Uh, you know
Speaker 6: had some really good teams when I was there during
Speaker 6: you know, when we were at our our peak, at
Speaker 6: our strongest with those three Final four teams. We had
Speaker 6: some great battles with his teams and Kevin and Henry
Speaker 6: Baby was there when I first started, so you know,
Speaker 6: they had they had good programs. And then you know,
Speaker 6: Herb did a great job at Arizona State and had
Speaker 6: many good teams that I competed against with James Harden
Speaker 6: and such, and.
Speaker 8: You know, so it was really really a good league.
Speaker 6: And then Utah and Colorado came in at the end
Speaker 6: and both had good teams and both had you know,
Speaker 6: great basketball programs.
Speaker 3: You know, Arizona like kind of talks their family atmosphere.
Speaker 3: They've got guys who kind of come back all the
Speaker 3: time in the offseason. And same way with UCLA. Is
Speaker 3: that kind of similar. We always hear about these pickup
Speaker 3: games on Magic Johnson's playing some pickup game Paula with
Speaker 3: with the UCLA guys.
Speaker 6: Things like that with our players, but also the former players.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, any give him back. You know,
Speaker 6: I was really blessed to coach.
Speaker 8: So many good players during my tenure.
Speaker 6: You know, Russell made the big gift for the back facility,
Speaker 6: and he comes in and works out there all the time.
Speaker 6: And in the offseason, Kevin's giving back a lot of
Speaker 6: was giving back a bunch of money to u C.
Speaker 6: L a and his you know, promoted mental health research
Speaker 6: with funds. I mean, he has done great things. But
Speaker 6: we had really good teams and great players and mess
Speaker 6: you know, Drew Holliday and you think about Aaron Aflalo
Speaker 6: and Darren Collison, Bob Moute. You know, we had you know,
Speaker 6: over twenty pros during my tenure there that were really
Speaker 6: really good players. So you know, and you know our
Speaker 6: last year we had we actually wonted McHale my my
Speaker 6: tenth year when we had the Wear Twins and Larry
Speaker 6: Drew and Shabab Muhammad and Kyle Anderson and Norman Powell.
Speaker 7: We had some guys. Yeah, and that's what it takes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. In fact, I remember when you went
Speaker 2: to the three final fours. People here were telling me, uh,
Speaker 2: there's no way, Arizon, who's going to match these guys.
Speaker 2: Ben's got something going there. It's fantastic. They're not gonna
Speaker 2: They're not gonna do the same stuff. And it was true.
Speaker 2: You guys did very well. Uh how do you remember
Speaker 2: or reflect back to those three great years?
Speaker 6: Well, those were all special teams. You know, I mentioned
Speaker 6: a bunch of the players. You know, Josh Shipp was on.
Speaker 8: Those teams Jordan Farmar, you know Farmar.
Speaker 6: Flalo Calls and ship we had said Bozeman was was
Speaker 6: big in that first Final four team. Bob Mute, Alfred
Speaker 6: Aboya and Lorenzo Motta were just tougher and heck and
Speaker 6: really really good players. I mean we had guys and
Speaker 6: you O eight we had you know, Kevin joined the
Speaker 6: team and that was special because you know, we really
Speaker 6: had a you know, I thought we had our best
Speaker 6: chance in O eight to win it, and uh, you know,
Speaker 6: we we ended up runn into a really good Memphis team,
Speaker 6: uh that you know, had a great player and a
Speaker 6: great coach at cal Party, but they had older guys
Speaker 6: that were really really good. It was a very physical
Speaker 6: game in San Antonio. They ended up losing to Kansas
Speaker 6: in the finals because they didn't foul when they had
Speaker 6: a chance to foul up three in the last five
Speaker 6: seconds and and the Kansas hit a shot. But you know,
Speaker 6: I just loved those teams and how hard they played,
Speaker 6: how unselfish they were, and that was you know, kind
Speaker 6: of our mantras to you know, really defend and share
Speaker 6: the ball, to do a good job of executing offensively
Speaker 6: when we didn't have anything in transition, and it was
Speaker 6: just a great group of young men. And uh, you
Speaker 6: know back then there was a lot out of one
Speaker 6: and done, two and then we had Trevor Reza was
Speaker 6: one and done, Kevin was one and done, Drew Holliday
Speaker 6: was one and done. Those are always difficult because you
Speaker 6: try and replace guys that are really good players, you know, quickly.
Speaker 6: And you know, the league, though, was so good. I mean,
Speaker 6: I I go back to eight, there were I think
Speaker 6: in the ten teams. I think it was the ten
Speaker 6: then it wasn't twelve yet.
Speaker 7: You know, you had.
Speaker 8: Fifty starters and I think I counted.
Speaker 6: Twenty one of them were NBA players, you know, Buttinger.
Speaker 7: Was down there.
Speaker 6: They had the really good six to ten Jan Hill,
Speaker 6: Jordan Hill, and they had a really good guard.
Speaker 2: That I mean.
Speaker 6: But but it was throughout the league, I mean it
Speaker 6: was everybody had guys. You know, James Harden was an SU.
Speaker 6: They had someone else made the low Paz Twins. They
Speaker 6: had another pro on that team too, that that end
Speaker 6: that he's a GM now in the league. Uh, children
Speaker 6: that that didn't play a lot for Stanford at the time.
Speaker 6: They kl had Ryan Anderson and I mean, it was
Speaker 6: just up and down the conference. You know, Washington had pros.
Speaker 7: They had the little guy.
Speaker 6: That Isaiah Thomas, and then they had Brockman, they had
Speaker 6: a pondexter. I mean, Oregon had pros. You know, they
Speaker 6: had a really good guard.
Speaker 7: I mean it was just unbelievable amount of NBA players
Speaker 7: in the league, including.
Speaker 8: Usc sc I guess, TODs Gibson.
Speaker 7: And Oj Mayo. I mean it was just everywhere.
Speaker 6: It was like, it's so sad. You even look at
Speaker 6: football this year and how good the teams were that
Speaker 6: were from the former Pac twelve, including a s U.
Speaker 6: I was so happy for them and how they did
Speaker 6: and how and you look at Oregon, I mean they
Speaker 6: were number one, undefeated all the way to the playoffs,
Speaker 6: and there's some great teams.
Speaker 7: It's just tough, you know.
Speaker 6: I see now, for example, you know the Washington Oregon
Speaker 6: sc U c l A by traveling three thousand miles
Speaker 6: to play the league games. You know mc cronin just
Speaker 6: got back and playing Maryland, sitting on the rope for
Speaker 6: three days and then playing Rutgers.
Speaker 7: That's a long way to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I bet you. And I said I said
Speaker 2: this to you jokingly at the game a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago, says, I bet you don't miss this stuff,
Speaker 2: But do you miss this?
Speaker 6: You know what I missed. I missed the practices. I
Speaker 6: missed the players. I missed the relationships with the coaches
Speaker 6: and and the fans.
Speaker 7: I mean it was really, really.
Speaker 6: You know that's special, the other coaches in the league,
Speaker 6: the competition, and obviously the games. The games are great.
Speaker 8: I think it's so difficult now though, with this transfer portal.
Speaker 7: Where you're allowed to move every year and you have.
Speaker 6: A lot of you know, people behind the scenes trying
Speaker 6: to move kids because you have people making money off
Speaker 6: their moves right getting a piece of their new deals.
Speaker 6: And I don't think it's good for players.
Speaker 7: I get it.
Speaker 6: You know, you go somewhere and you want to transfer,
Speaker 6: leave without you know, having to sit out a year.
Speaker 6: But you can't doing it every single year. First of all,
Speaker 6: you know, hurts you academically.
Speaker 8: And that still matters. There's still the same percentage.
Speaker 6: Of people are going to be in the NBA as
Speaker 6: there were ten years ago, twenty years ago, and you
Speaker 6: don't have that you know, relationship, Like think about the
Speaker 6: Arizona guys that come back every year. They're not guys
Speaker 6: that were there for one year. They're guys, you know,
Speaker 6: we're there in Bucsan and you know, you had a
Speaker 6: real relationship and build relationships with people in the community,
Speaker 6: with you know, alums, with other former players, and it's
Speaker 6: really special in that way, and it helps them beyond basketball.
Speaker 7: Basketball.
Speaker 6: It is going to end for every player at some
Speaker 6: point point. You know, I have no problem with them
Speaker 6: or any money. There should be a salary cap. I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, it's just a wild West right now. There
Speaker 6: is no salary cap. And you know, if you're going
Speaker 6: to pay them, then you've got to run it more
Speaker 6: like they do in the NBA, where there's some fairness
Speaker 6: to it all and in terms of, you know what,
Speaker 6: what you're allowed to do, so it's not just a
Speaker 6: bidding war, which is right now what it is.
Speaker 5: You know, I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 5: You have to deal with the navigating and the upcoming
Speaker 5: of the one and done during that era of the
Speaker 5: back ten and having guys you know leave after one
Speaker 5: year and everybody was kind of like, oh man, this
Speaker 5: isn't this isn't Fina scene players leave after one year.
Speaker 5: What are you hearing from Yeah, and I was going
Speaker 5: to ask you, what are you hearing from coaches that
Speaker 5: I have to deal with the transfer portal of today,
Speaker 5: because this is a whole entire different animal than it
Speaker 5: was ten to fifteen years ago.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it really is minimized freshmen in recruitment of
Speaker 6: freshmen because everybody wants to play old everybody, you know, honestly,
Speaker 6: there aren't that many guys that end up being one
Speaker 6: and done and being in the same system, you know,
Speaker 6: from one year to the next really helps a player
Speaker 6: and helps a program. Uh, you know, have stability and
Speaker 6: continuity is key. I mean you see it in the
Speaker 6: professional leagues, you know, and that's what they're all striving
Speaker 6: to be. They're all trying to get to the you know,
Speaker 6: the promised land of being an NBA player. I get
Speaker 6: that we had over twenty my ten years, Usille at
Speaker 6: twenty four that you know, played in the NBA and
Speaker 6: Loot had.
Speaker 8: You know, just a ton as did Sean.
Speaker 6: You know, that's great for the program and great for kids,
Speaker 6: but you know, you want to have I think they've
Speaker 6: got what were they had at originally, which was when
Speaker 6: they put in the transfer portal.
Speaker 7: You could leave after one year.
Speaker 6: But the second time you pulled the transfer, you know,
Speaker 6: you were in the city, and I think that made sense,
Speaker 6: but you know the powers would be obviously disagree with that.
Speaker 6: So I think that's the toughest part of this whole
Speaker 6: new new age right now, is that transfer portal and
Speaker 6: and and and then pulling on kids behind the scene
Speaker 6: to make moves for you know, uh, the wrong reasons.
Speaker 3: And during the season too. I mean, I think they
Speaker 3: were talking on the broadcast of the Arizona game the
Speaker 3: other night. They were saying, you guys are already already
Speaker 3: planning for next year. They've already got their agents, you know,
Speaker 3: looking at their next deals.
Speaker 6: That's how do you focus on what you're doing?
Speaker 8: I mean, you know, the most important thing.
Speaker 6: Is to live for today and try to get better.
Speaker 6: And a lot of players get a lot better fighting
Speaker 6: through adversity.
Speaker 8: If as soon as you see.
Speaker 6: Adversity, if you just say I you know, quit and
Speaker 6: going to move somewhere else. Ultimately, that hasn't help that
Speaker 6: kid in basketball or in life. Uh, you know, some adversion.
Speaker 6: We all have adversity that we've got to fight through
Speaker 6: and battle through. That makes us stronger, It makes us better.
Speaker 6: I think Luke would say the same exact thing.
Speaker 7: You were alive right now.
Speaker 2: No question, no question? Uh yeah, he'd be upset with it.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you how's life now? I know you're
Speaker 2: you're in the cushy Santa Barbara area. Are you okay?
Speaker 2: Safe with the fires one? And would you ever come back?
Speaker 2: Or is golf life too good?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 6: I don't golf, Steve, but I love being in Janna Barbara.
Speaker 6: It's where I grew up. It is absolutely the most
Speaker 6: you know, beautiful community. And I feel very, very blessed
Speaker 6: my wife and I, you know, we were living in
Speaker 6: a lot of different places over my coaching career. You know,
Speaker 6: I'll be sixty eight in May. I'd like to, you know,
Speaker 6: stick around, watch my grandkids who are here in town
Speaker 6: growing up. We've got four grandsons, which is really fun.
Speaker 6: And I am coaching. I coached Coastlines Christian Academy sixth
Speaker 6: and seventh grade team, which my grandson was on this year,
Speaker 6: and that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I bet, I bet, are you making up?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 2: One of the things I read recently and I was
Speaker 2: gonna ask you this, Uh, in the today's world and
Speaker 2: the kids. They want to play fast. They got to move,
Speaker 2: you know, that's how they score. Blah blah blah, and
Speaker 2: money of your regrets was not doing that more often.
Speaker 6: Well, you know what, the last year I was there,
Speaker 6: we played really fast and led the league and scoring.
Speaker 6: If you'll remember with the you know, the Wears and
Speaker 6: with Kyle and with Larry Drew and Baz and it
Speaker 6: really helped us. But you know, we we played fast
Speaker 6: and we.
Speaker 7: Had the ball.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think we played really smart. And you know,
Speaker 6: I'm still you know when I look back right now,
Speaker 6: I don't know how many Pack ten teams have gone
Speaker 6: to the Final four since our three in a row.
Speaker 6: I think Oregon went to one, La went to one,
Speaker 6: and I'm not sure there's been very few.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the sad part of it. Are you by
Speaker 2: Arizona hasn't been back since two thousand and one?
Speaker 6: Yeah, And what I'm telling you is, you know, the
Speaker 6: whole goal is to get there. And you know, at
Speaker 6: the end of the day, when you look like Yukon's
Speaker 6: last two years, they've been great offensively, but they win
Speaker 6: at the defensive end because of the toughness and the
Speaker 6: consistency and to be on the road. You know, that's
Speaker 6: where I thought Sean was really good. I mean, his
Speaker 6: teams are so sound defensively. That's why he won so
Speaker 6: many games. Is that's what's most consistent. You look at
Speaker 6: the NBA teams.
Speaker 7: And who wins.
Speaker 6: I mean, everybody's scoring a ton of points. But you
Speaker 6: get to those playoffs, you better be able to fit
Speaker 6: in the half court because the only rebound one guy
Speaker 6: on offense. Yeah, everybody's back.
Speaker 8: It turns.
Speaker 7: It's the whole point of defense.
Speaker 6: Is to turn the offense your guarding into a half
Speaker 6: court game where you have a better chance. And that's
Speaker 6: what teams do, the highest echelon teams. That's not changing.
Speaker 8: Defense wins where you're talking about.
Speaker 6: NFL, you're talking about Major League Baseball, you're talking about
Speaker 6: the NBA, you know, and yes, you have to score,
Speaker 6: there's no question. And the change it's really changed just
Speaker 6: a three point shot. I mean, you know, college Bacto
Speaker 6: still has a place for a low post player. There's
Speaker 6: no such thing at the next level. Everybody wants to
Speaker 6: be able to step out and shoot threes and open
Speaker 6: the floor. And I get it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, my favorite.
Speaker 6: Player in the whole world and has been for the
Speaker 6: last years. Is watching the Joker Denver just how special
Speaker 6: he is. I mean, he is truly like today's epitome
Speaker 6: of what a great player is.
Speaker 8: You know, to be third all time and triple.
Speaker 6: Doubles at the five spot is mind bottling.
Speaker 2: Coach, you got to go. Well, you appreciate your time. Thanks,
Speaker 2: So it's good to see you. You look great.
Speaker 6: Thanks, Steve. It's great to see you, and all the
Speaker 6: best all the Wildcats. They're playing really well right now.
Speaker 6: Tommy has Tommy was a terrific higher and uh, you know,
Speaker 6: he is really really good. I have no doubt that
Speaker 6: he will get Arizona to a Final war and most
Speaker 6: likely a national championship in time. And he's got to
Speaker 6: stick with him because he really knows what he's doing
Speaker 6: and he is an outstanding recruiter.
Speaker 2: Well, you just got the fan based crazy against fell
Speaker 2: on the truth.
Speaker 7: Thanks.
Speaker 8: They're playing really well right now.
Speaker 6: I watched their play Baylor the other night.
Speaker 7: Oh my god. They I mean they're playing and I
Speaker 7: was at the TCU game.
Speaker 6: They're coming on and without their big guy who's still
Speaker 6: out and hurt.
Speaker 7: Yeah, right, so I have no doubts.
Speaker 2: Thanks Ben. Make sure guys Thank you, Ben Helen, but
Speaker 2: we got to go. We're way over, so we'll come
Speaker 2: back on the other side. If you're an Arizona men's
Speaker 2: basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now.
Speaker 2: Take a look back at the Ludelson era. In my
Speaker 2: new book, Lessons from Lowton, it was a labor of
Speaker 2: love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches
Speaker 2: and friends. The insight to the coach and the men
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Speaker 2: five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's loved coach.
Speaker 2: Lessons from Newton is an insight to how he built
Speaker 2: the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me
Speaker 2: at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Speaker 1: Steve Rivera, He's got his Eye on the ball on
Speaker 1: Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fIF day.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports Fortune fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera in with me today.
Speaker 2: Troy Hutcherson from Go Asy Cats, Dave Silver from his
Speaker 2: broadcast days at Kega nine. He's retired. I hate you, Dave,
Speaker 2: Go cool, Go cool, and we got our guy here.
Speaker 2: Uh Gobe Bessie with the digits. That's good. That was
Speaker 2: a lot of fun A good memory from him. Obviously,
Speaker 2: it's funny because his his one of his last year's
Speaker 2: was loose, not last year. It was Kevin O'Neill's year
Speaker 2: and I was doing some stories when we went to
Speaker 2: LA and I said, Kevin, who's the best player on
Speaker 2: that team? Who's the best guy? Says he didn't even
Speaker 2: hesitate at Westbrook. And I'm thinking Westbrook because they had
Speaker 2: Kevin Love, they had, you know, a few guys. He says, Oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: the dude's good. It is really good. I'm thinking. Then
Speaker 2: I went to Westbrook, I said, did you know or
Speaker 2: did I want to tell you something? Kevin said that
Speaker 2: he said, really, really he thinks that highly of me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then look what he turns into interesting too,
Speaker 3: because I think if I remember correctly, well, there was
Speaker 3: a lot of run and gun in that era. Holland
Speaker 3: seems slow to down. He was, he slowed down. That's
Speaker 3: why you see you you see all games in the
Speaker 3: sixties and Arizona wanted to play in the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 2: That's why I asked him. That's why I asked him.
Speaker 2: In fact, in doing some stuff research for the show Today,
Speaker 2: there was a USA Today story when he had gotten
Speaker 2: let go by had go by UCLA that he regretted
Speaker 2: going slower because he was pretty good in transition. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So that's why I asked him.
Speaker 3: The question if I remember, didn't Bill Walton kind of
Speaker 3: get on his cast a little bit too on some
Speaker 3: of the broadcasts. I can't, you know, I'm not enjoying
Speaker 3: watching my alma mater play.
Speaker 2: And no, he was that. He was the defense, he
Speaker 2: was the shan he was shown before Sean.
Speaker 5: Was showing without efficiency.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think his teams were so efficient offensively and they
Speaker 5: could they could do this, they could do that, but
Speaker 5: they wanted to be in that and half court set
Speaker 5: right right, and that's why you get to a final four.
Speaker 2: It's funny when he was listing off the coaches that
Speaker 2: he competed against, some thinking is he can mention Bill
Speaker 2: is issue, and then it wasn't Bill Frieder, it was
Speaker 2: Herba his Herbitt.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just so many great coaches
Speaker 5: of that era and once once they left, they couldn't
Speaker 5: replace them, and that's kind of when it started started
Speaker 5: falling apart. For the basketball side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, there was some greaz mia Montgomery, especially
Speaker 2: especially with Loot and those matchups of those big games,
Speaker 2: big games.
Speaker 3: You know, he's Holland's still coaching with john Wood and
Speaker 3: looking over his shoulder in those years too, right. I
Speaker 3: think he was still coming to the games. And that's
Speaker 3: not easy. I'm sure never was for the guys who
Speaker 3: dress him.
Speaker 2: And he's sixty seven, he says, you canna be sixty eight.
Speaker 2: He's probably done. He's probably done, got a great career,
Speaker 2: lives in a great place in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 5: What it's not a bad career. Three final fours, three
Speaker 5: final force, I'd coached UCLA, made a lot of money, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I take it. Yeah, five and thirty three wins.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I thought he had a lot more more than that too.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: H but he's been out, you know, he was out
Speaker 2: before after the u C l A. Well, and it's also,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna win a whole lot of a You're
Speaker 2: gonna you're gonna survive. And and you, like I said,
Speaker 2: come on, you go there to either get really lucky
Speaker 2: and win and get the heck out or you get fired.
Speaker 5: And hearing them say he had coach Jamie Dixon on
Speaker 5: that stuff, I was like, wow, yeah, okay, I didn't
Speaker 5: know he started there.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize. And you you were here in ninety
Speaker 2: four obviously, yeah, uh that uh, then it was that late.
Speaker 2: I thought it was like earlier than that when he
Speaker 2: was there.
Speaker 3: When he was there, yeah, yeah, I'm sure Arizona played them, yeah, series,
Speaker 3: I used to play them all the time every other
Speaker 3: year or whatever. He had the issue. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean he was there for five years. That's a pretty
Speaker 3: good run in NAU. A lot of the coaches like
Speaker 3: asked Jack Murphy how long did he last?
Speaker 2: Right, And then he needed to get the heck out
Speaker 2: of Dodge because he was you know, yeah, he was
Speaker 2: next a tough, tough place to coach and have success
Speaker 2: you win. It's like it's like I say with Colorado State,
Speaker 2: New Mexico State, if you win, he got out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well he goes right from there to the Big East. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Pitt's Pitt well there too. That's a good gig. That's
Speaker 3: a pretty big jump in your career.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And you know, you look at all those all
Speaker 5: those guys that came through U. C.
Speaker 7: L A.
Speaker 5: And just the rivalry game, and what a tremendous job
Speaker 5: that was and just a tremendous career in Mississippi State.
Speaker 5: They're better in basketball now, but they were so bad
Speaker 5: when he got there, and he got them kind of
Speaker 5: in the right direction, even though it wasn't six. That's fall.
Speaker 5: Then it was in the right direction, right.
Speaker 2: No, coach jans Now from ch he's the heck of
Speaker 2: a coach. He had in trouble before he was at
Speaker 2: New Mexico State, but now he's found away, he's found
Speaker 2: a way. So okay, no cool, good to talk about
Speaker 2: college basketball. He'll be back on the show probably before
Speaker 2: the NCAA tournament to talk a lot. And he was
Speaker 2: very uh no surprise, right, talking highly about Arizona. Of course,
Speaker 2: of course you're on the show in t so well
Speaker 2: they suck, no, And he's right, he's been. They are
Speaker 2: playing well, the.
Speaker 3: Middle of a seven game winning streak, and what can
Speaker 3: you say?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, what do you what do you think before?
Speaker 2: Because I'm not gonna have both you guys on the
Speaker 2: show tomorrow. Are they gonna do okay on the road
Speaker 2: next two?
Speaker 5: I think they sweep the road trip.
Speaker 2: Really, I think they sweep the road. Really.
Speaker 5: That's gonna be tough. Another tough one, that is. I
Speaker 5: think Texas stacks they're playing very well. I like how
Speaker 5: Arizona's plane. I think the aggressiveness of Henry Vassar and
Speaker 5: kJ Lewis off the bench, and how they're extending out
Speaker 5: the defense is going to cause Texas Tack some trouble.
Speaker 5: And then Oklahoma State they have a winning record. It's
Speaker 5: a tough place to play. I don't think the talent's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I agree with you. There, I agree with you.
Speaker 5: So I think the hard one is going to be
Speaker 5: Texas Tack.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Let me ask you, so we're halfway through. I
Speaker 2: asked this of Tommy a couple of days ago. He
Speaker 2: did not want to hypothesize or to speculate or whatever.
Speaker 2: Uh I mean asking this question. But today today, as
Speaker 2: we speak, who's the MVP so far.
Speaker 3: For the team?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Can it be a tie?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Co you go first, I'll go, Jaylen Browsing and empty Vasar.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I would think you say, yeah good, Ques
Speaker 2: kJ right behind them. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: And I think Bradley, the biggest thing is you no
Speaker 5: longer have to have Caleb Love have a big game
Speaker 5: to win well and true, because everybody's picking it up
Speaker 5: and you know, at those moments, throughout those whole entire
Speaker 5: winning streak, Jayden's been offensively efficient five for seven, four.
Speaker 2: For as he's running the offense. Yeah, yeah, David, you agree.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say Jade and Bradley right off the top,
Speaker 3: and Henry the last month, Yeah, yeah, has emerged.
Speaker 2: Think about it, And I said this yesterday. I think
Speaker 2: you're You're right on the guys. You're right on the guys.
Speaker 2: But I still believe at some point, at some point,
Speaker 2: maybe in the tournament, you need Caleb to have one
Speaker 2: to light to go out fire.
Speaker 5: Well. I think for Arizona to get from a Sweet
Speaker 5: sixteen to that a lad eight final four level, that's
Speaker 5: going to be the difference. I think you can get
Speaker 5: to Sweet sixteen with what you got right now with
Speaker 5: Caleb Love having terrible games.
Speaker 2: And then play out of his mind.
Speaker 5: But then you need him to go off in the
Speaker 5: lead eight and final four. Yeah, we'll get to that one.
Speaker 5: We'll see what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, They're gonna need him at some point because we
Speaker 2: know how good he can play, how dynamic he can be.
Speaker 2: You just don't trust.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean they shot fifty eight percent for the game,
Speaker 3: and he was three for ten. Yeah, I think so
Speaker 3: the other guys, you know, Henry was nine for eleven.
Speaker 2: I think I think they're shooting over fifty three percent
Speaker 2: in the seven game winning streaks, which you said fifty
Speaker 2: eight percent. So they're shooting poaty being be fifty four
Speaker 2: per fifty three this past game. Yeah, okay, so they're
Speaker 2: shooting about the same and you shoot that, you're gonna
Speaker 2: do okay. Yeah, but then again, and I hate to
Speaker 2: the poop poo and I do it all the time. Right, guys, uh,
Speaker 2: we got we we got to go already, We can
Speaker 2: probably have to go already. Let's go take a break
Speaker 2: and we'll talk more about it. We're not gonna have
Speaker 2: very much breaking news if we do lit all