Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio while just search Eye on the Ball.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Andy Lopez.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me. You didn't know that was Kim Lena.
Speaker 3: No doctor Liman. If you're still listening, forgive me, man,
Speaker 3: I missed talking to you. I love it when he
Speaker 3: come in my office and no matter what was going
Speaker 3: on in my life, he'd cheer me up and we'd laugh,
Speaker 3: and he'd tell me these great stories about Buffalo, New
Speaker 3: York and yeah his time here at THEUVE, and yeah
Speaker 3: he's a great man.
Speaker 2: Great you're you.
Speaker 4: Guys are all a psychogy in your world. You have
Speaker 4: to be a psychologist if you're If you're a coach
Speaker 4: and you're not one, you're not a good one.
Speaker 3: Hey, I caught a break. I married a girl that
Speaker 3: was a three point eight student from UCLA who majored
Speaker 3: Ready Steve in psychologist. Nice boy. I can't tell how
Speaker 3: many times I'd come home say Linda, Okay, explain to
Speaker 3: me why this guy does this? When I do that
Speaker 3: of what's going on or da, and she would give
Speaker 3: me some insight, right, No, she really need to help.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're talking about that, we're talking about psychology
Speaker 4: of the sport. I love psychology of the sport because
Speaker 4: you could tell a cerebral guy and he's already thinking
Speaker 4: about how can I beat this guy? Angles or situations,
Speaker 4: time and circumstance.
Speaker 2: Yeadha yea da.
Speaker 4: And that's kind of how I was because I wasn't
Speaker 4: gonna beat you with the home run. I was gonna
Speaker 4: get on base steel third, you know, second, So you
Speaker 4: give me the one, two three, now?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, when we recruited, I developed this at cal
Speaker 3: State Demingons Hills for this reason. At kel State Demingons Hills,
Speaker 3: we were it was my first college coach. We were
Speaker 3: a Division two program. Everybody had eighteen scholarships. We had
Speaker 3: one point three. I had no money for assistant coaches,
Speaker 3: not one penny. So I was really kind of having
Speaker 3: to do it all night. It was a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible,
Speaker 3: in fact, deeper in the alphabet with a Z. It
Speaker 3: was a horrible job, but it was the greatest. What's
Speaker 3: your first job?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: It was the greatest six years I spent in my life.
Speaker 3: It was the greatest six years I spent professionally because
Speaker 3: it really showed me how to coach, how to teach,
Speaker 3: how to be demanding yet be fair and it is yes,
Speaker 3: and how to recruit ready for this, the athlete that's
Speaker 3: gonna work for Andy Lopez. Yes, okay, because there's a
Speaker 3: certain athlete that is not going to work for me,
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to work for him. And there's
Speaker 3: a certain athlete that he's going to work for me,
Speaker 3: And man, I'm gonna work for you.
Speaker 2: So you had to have already learned this before you
Speaker 2: got there.
Speaker 3: No, I thought I did, And then I got to
Speaker 3: the realization we're getting We got killed our first two years.
Speaker 3: I mean, we got annihilated because I was recruiting guys
Speaker 3: that I was just trying to give you the players,
Speaker 3: good players. But some of these good players again, the
Speaker 3: Minga's Hills. It's hard to explain. I mean, we had
Speaker 3: to I think I share this one time on the
Speaker 3: show with you, Steve. But I had to carry my
Speaker 3: equipment in the back of my car after every practice
Speaker 3: because the Bloods and the Crips. The two games down.
Speaker 3: There were in Carson Compton, California. They would steal our equipment. Okay,
Speaker 3: and you had to be tough mentally to survive at
Speaker 3: Dominga's Hills, you had to be tough. We had no
Speaker 3: locker room. You dressed in the dugout where you dressed
Speaker 3: out of your trunk. We had no locker room. It
Speaker 3: was just it was a tough environment. We came to
Speaker 3: the University of Arizona when one year we drove down,
Speaker 3: God blessed coach Kendel. He played us every year. We
Speaker 3: didn't have any buses, didn't any vans, drove your own cars.
Speaker 3: Right we came down. Didn't have hats. Everybody's wearing different
Speaker 3: hats because our hats didn't come in. What division were you?
Speaker 3: Division two? Division two?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable, believe So my first two years I
Speaker 3: got brains beat up and because I and I hit me.
Speaker 3: I said, what's going on? Because I'm recruiting good players,
Speaker 3: but they were mentally weak. So they were good, but
Speaker 3: the environment just wore them out, just wore them down.
Speaker 3: Nobody comes the games. There's no assistant coaches, the head
Speaker 3: coaches dragging the field before practice, after every before everyone.
Speaker 3: You know, it was like, this is a tough environment.
Speaker 3: It's a really tough environment, and there's no scholarships. So
Speaker 3: then it hit me, you know what, Okay, I gotta
Speaker 3: get some ones. My wife Linda could tell you who
Speaker 3: a one is if you took her to a baseball
Speaker 3: game today. She go, Wow, that guy is six foot
Speaker 3: three and he runs really fast, and every boy he
Speaker 3: hits goes into the sky for a long time. So
Speaker 3: ones are that's a superstar, superstar. Okay, yeah, you gotta
Speaker 3: get a couple. You got to get a couple. Even
Speaker 3: at Domingus Hills. You got to get a guy that's
Speaker 3: one that maybe the other schools are passing by because
Speaker 3: it's Los Angeles. There's so many people up there, they
Speaker 3: just kind of pass them by. And I had a
Speaker 3: left handed pitcher named Jim Payne. You pitched nine years
Speaker 3: in the big leagues. I got Jimmy. Yeah, nobody wont
Speaker 3: He wasn't very big at the time. Then he grew
Speaker 3: up a little bit, right, Okay. Another guy, Craig gray
Speaker 3: Back played fourteen years the big leagues, little guy, little
Speaker 3: short stop. Nobody wanted. He's a little guy. Oh played
Speaker 3: four he was Ozzie Gian's backup for fourteen years.
Speaker 2: With the White Sox. I don't know how you pull
Speaker 2: these names out of oh Man.
Speaker 3: I stay in touch with these guys, they run, they
Speaker 3: send notes to me and all the rest. Okay, So
Speaker 3: the ones, you gotta get some ones, and you gotta
Speaker 3: make sure you stay away from twos. The category is one, two, three,
Speaker 3: very simple ones. You gotta get very talented, very talented,
Speaker 3: very talented. Twos. They think they're ones. They're not as talented,
Speaker 3: but they think they are Marsha and Marshall Marsha. They
Speaker 3: become headaches.
Speaker 4: Yes, I Kenvi believe would have been perfect for this
Speaker 4: because it's the second board, right.
Speaker 3: You got to go get ones and you got to
Speaker 3: live off your threes. The threes know their threes, but
Speaker 3: they're willing to work like crazy to become a one.
Speaker 3: So your programs are built on ones and threes and
Speaker 3: still away from twos.
Speaker 4: So okay, but you're not always going to do that.
Speaker 4: The twos. Are they cancerous? Yes, because they think they're ones.
Speaker 4: They want to be treated like a one. They want
Speaker 4: to know why they're not pitching on Friday Night. Well,
Speaker 4: you're not good enough to pitch on Friday night. But
Speaker 4: I am good enough to pitch on Friday. No, you
Speaker 4: look at your numbers, So what do you do with
Speaker 4: the twos? Because you know you're going to have some
Speaker 4: two and they eventually leave to become one. So mohere
Speaker 4: else to try to become one somewhere else. But they're
Speaker 4: two's well, so you're hoping to get ones in threes.
Speaker 4: But it's almost I'm thinking you, it's almost impossible not
Speaker 4: to get a tour.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, no, right, every year you get too, Yeah,
Speaker 3: every y're good and that's when your story. You got
Speaker 3: time for a real twenty twelve. I don't know we're
Speaker 3: gonna win a Nastra Tambishire, but I know we're pretty good.
Speaker 3: We've been in regionals the past two years and we've
Speaker 3: been really close and this and that. Okay, so I've
Speaker 3: got at. I recruit a freshman player from southern California
Speaker 3: and he comes into the twenty twelve program. Great makeup
Speaker 3: on that team, ricker Ryker, Ricord, Johnny Fields, ref sneyder
Speaker 3: Mahea seth maheis, Breen, just great maker, sure, fantastic Occurt Higher,
Speaker 3: Connor Wade. Great makeup plus plus plus plus makeup a
Speaker 3: bunch of threes that become ones. Okay, okay, okay. So
Speaker 3: I bring this kid in and he's a two. He
Speaker 3: thinks he's a one, but he's getting beat out in
Speaker 3: the fall and his position by a guy that's not
Speaker 3: even on scholarship. All you know is what you see, right,
Speaker 3: So you at the end of the practice, you go, hey,
Speaker 3: that guy we're there, he's playing better than that guy.
Speaker 3: So this guy we here, a three, is playing over
Speaker 3: this guy who we think is a good player, and
Speaker 3: we recruit him. He's on money and he thinks he's
Speaker 3: a one, but he's a two, and he's getting beat
Speaker 3: out by a guy this night, even on scholarship. So
Speaker 3: towards the end of the fall, we have meetings every
Speaker 3: day with my staff nine o'clock. Everywhere we meet, we meet,
Speaker 3: we meet, and we go through the roster. We go
Speaker 3: through the roster, and halfway through the fall I recruit him.
Speaker 3: I say to my staff, you know what, this guy's
Speaker 3: not a good fit here because he's driving guy's nut sure,
Speaker 3: because he's walking around like short one. He's walking around
Speaker 3: like he's the guy, but he's not. And the players know, Hey, dude, relax,
Speaker 3: You're not the guy. You're getting beat out by this guy.
Speaker 3: Just be humble and try to get better. Come early,
Speaker 3: stay late, work on your game. So I tell my staff,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm probably gonna have to set him. I'm
Speaker 3: we're gonna have to tell him there's a better place
Speaker 3: from somewhere else and won't help him, which we did
Speaker 3: all the time. I don't want to do it. I
Speaker 3: don't want to do it because I just he was
Speaker 3: my recruit. Oh my god, I don't want to do it.
Speaker 3: I'm going to get a phone call from his mom
Speaker 3: and dad and his high school coach. I don't want
Speaker 3: to do it. Maybe he's going to change. Maybe he's
Speaker 3: going to change. Maybe he's gonna humble himself and become
Speaker 3: a three usually be one. Did you talk to him
Speaker 3: and yet, Well, we talked a couple of times. But again, Steve, remember,
Speaker 3: he thinks he's the one, no matter what talk.
Speaker 2: He thinks he's a one, no matter what talk.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he thinks he's a one. Okay, true story. I
Speaker 3: used to jog every day. I go for a run
Speaker 3: every day. This day was kind of cold at the fall.
Speaker 3: Here at the end of the fall. Uh, you know,
Speaker 3: it's getting close to November. So I'm in the clubhouse
Speaker 3: on the treadmill and this young guy comes in. His
Speaker 3: name is Jim, that's not his name. He comes in
Speaker 3: and I'm on the trip money. He says, Hey, Lopes,
Speaker 3: can I talk to you? It's the end of the fall.
Speaker 3: Hey Lips, can I talk to you? And I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: what's up? He says, well, I need to talk to you,
Speaker 3: So can you let me finish my run? I'll be
Speaker 3: done in twenty minutes. Yeah, okay. So I finished my run.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, Casha, what the hexts?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: I want to you know, I'm working through my long story.
Speaker 3: So I sit down with him. I said what's up?
Speaker 3: And he goes, hey, I'm transferring. I said, you're transferring?
Speaker 3: What's going on? He said, well I got cut? So
Speaker 3: what you got cut? Who cut?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 3: Are here for this? Mahia. Mahia came to my dorm
Speaker 3: room earlier this morning and said, you know what, you're
Speaker 3: not fitting in here. You're selfish and you're not fitting
Speaker 3: in here. You need to go to another program. Wow,
Speaker 3: Alex Mahia cut him.
Speaker 4: So the one that's not that's not How can I
Speaker 4: say this so what happened. I mean, that's not possible.
Speaker 4: I mean it happened.
Speaker 3: He went, he went to another program, So you did
Speaker 3: he did your dirty works.
Speaker 2: That's love.
Speaker 3: But that just shows you. He his makeup was off
Speaker 3: the charge. So he Hea was a three not recruited
Speaker 3: by a lot of people.
Speaker 4: Without telling you that he's what he's going to do,
Speaker 4: he just kind of took charge.
Speaker 3: And him said, see, I had a rule. I didn't
Speaker 3: make captains. I said, you're all captains. All of you
Speaker 3: act like captains and be captains. Act like captains, and
Speaker 3: then if we have a great year at the end
Speaker 3: of the later on in life, you can put down
Speaker 3: in your resume. I was the captain of the twenty
Speaker 3: twelve Pack twelve championship team. I was a captain of
Speaker 3: the Western Regional team. I was a captain of the
Speaker 3: Super Region team. I was the captain of the twenty
Speaker 3: twelve National Championship baseball team. And you know what, when
Speaker 3: that business person calls me and says, was Joe Smith
Speaker 3: a captain? I said, yes, it was, yeah, he was.
Speaker 3: It was so alex Mehea said, hey, you're selfish, you
Speaker 3: don't fit in. You know, you pop off the guys
Speaker 3: and they're trying to help you, and no, Da, you're
Speaker 3: just not a good fit here.
Speaker 2: You you should go somewhere else. What happened to that guy?
Speaker 3: He went to another program and didn't pan out. No wow, yeah, wow,
Speaker 3: what a good story. Yeah he was a three yeah
Speaker 3: and turned into one. Well, you probably had a lot
Speaker 3: of threes on that team. I was my whole philosophy.
Speaker 3: Get someone's go get the Kurt Hires, Go get the
Speaker 3: Robert Refssires. Those guys are superstars, right, but man, go
Speaker 3: get Joey Rickords, go get Johnny Fils, Go get Alex
Speaker 3: Mahea's go get Seth maheis Breen, Go get those guys.
Speaker 2: We'll get those guys. No, it's funny.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to the ninety seventeen that was darn good
Speaker 4: at won a title in basketball, right, A lot of threes,
Speaker 4: a lot of threes. I know you had a couple
Speaker 4: of twos, uh, but you had guys who just were workhorses,
Speaker 4: knew the roles.
Speaker 2: And that's part of the little story.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 4: You should write book about the one two threes. But
Speaker 4: it's know your role right and and perform your role
Speaker 4: and don't interrupt anybody else's role.
Speaker 3: Here's the two for you. The two. The two gets
Speaker 3: a little bit of a twitch and a hamstring.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: One's man injury is another man's pain. Yeah. One guy
Speaker 3: says I'm injured. That's a two.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The three says, yeah, I got a little bit of pain,
Speaker 3: but i'll play tonight. I'll play. Yeah, Okay. The one
Speaker 3: Mahea breaks a bone in his right hand two days
Speaker 3: before we opened the twenty twelve season. Anybody looked back.
Speaker 3: We opened against We opened up against Sodd Brown, a
Speaker 3: former Wildcat who's by in fact, my son's boss, New Mexico.
Speaker 3: But here plays that night. Hits left handed and he's
Speaker 3: not a left handed No, because it hurt his right hand.
Speaker 3: So he hit left handed? No, the question you need
Speaker 3: to ask me, Stevens. So he was a twitch hitter. No, No,
Speaker 3: he wasn't. But he was a three. Yeah, he was
Speaker 3: just a beast. I'm going to get in the lineup.
Speaker 3: I'll hit left handed. Have you ever hit left handed? No?
Speaker 3: But I'm a three.
Speaker 4: So how many of the kids that you've had. We've
Speaker 4: talked about this already, kind of you've had a lot
Speaker 4: of threes.
Speaker 3: We tried to pride ourselves on finding threes. We would
Speaker 3: call opposing coaches and say, hey, what do you think
Speaker 3: about We'd ask about their guys, and we say, hey,
Speaker 3: what do you think about that kid on the other
Speaker 3: team in your league? And when you played them, what
Speaker 3: do you got on him? And if he said, ah,
Speaker 3: he's a show mode or he's this okay, all right, good,
Speaker 3: thanks a lot. I appreciate it. And then but if
Speaker 3: he said, oh man, he's tough. I wish he were
Speaker 3: in my program. Okay, let's call another coach. Let's call
Speaker 3: his counselor now, and then we would call his high
Speaker 3: school coach, and then we would bring him on campus
Speaker 3: and I tell you, Steve, and then we would watch,
Speaker 3: and we always begged him, please bring your mother and father.
Speaker 3: Please bring your mother and father. Please. Moms always ask
Speaker 3: the questions that need to be asked, but the dad
Speaker 3: won't ask it. And the kid's got no no way
Speaker 3: he's gonna ask you. What are those questions? Are there
Speaker 3: gonna be sheets in the dorms? Does he get hot meals?
Speaker 3: Do they do his laundry? Does you know? Dad don't
Speaker 3: want to ask that, and the kid don't want ask that. Sure,
Speaker 3: watch the body language on the kid. When the mom
Speaker 3: asked that question, the two's gonna roll his eyes and squirm.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. The three is very polite, listens, and
Speaker 3: then at the end of the meeting usually gives his
Speaker 3: mom a little hug or something and they laugh about mom,
Speaker 3: why did you ask that question? But he but he's respectful.
Speaker 4: So let me ask you, Linda, right, yes, I'm sure
Speaker 4: did you? Does she have a part in this one
Speaker 4: twos threes or you just came up with this because no,
Speaker 4: well you just came from Dominicus.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I met Linda my second year.
Speaker 2: Okay, so can you apply that to the real world?
Speaker 3: Me, my, my, Yeah, I've applied it to everything in
Speaker 3: my life. Yeah, so you.
Speaker 4: Can know, you go to whatever a meeting or you know,
Speaker 4: you're developing team.
Speaker 3: And now you sit around at a meeting, you sitting it's
Speaker 3: the first okay a few When I retired, I was
Speaker 3: asked to be a part of a Christian organization here
Speaker 3: in town. And uh, and I went to the meeting
Speaker 3: the big building, the fifty one to fifty one building
Speaker 3: on Broadways, big toll Yeah, top of the building. So
Speaker 3: I show up. You know, I got nothing to do
Speaker 3: with that I sit there and because I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: that's really the fallacy of you know, Christians, they're perfect.
Speaker 3: Now I've got so many flaws it's scary, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, I'm far from perfect. But anyway,
Speaker 3: but I'm sitting there and I'm going, whoa, there's a one.
Speaker 3: I mean, you can just tell me. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: he knew scriptures. He was very humble. He was there,
Speaker 3: that's a superstar over there. That's a superstar. And there's
Speaker 3: a guy over there that wants to be a superstar,
Speaker 3: but he's very humble.
Speaker 2: The three or the two. There's three, the three and
Speaker 2: the two.
Speaker 3: And the guy sitting right next to me, Steve Rivera
Speaker 3: was a bond of five to got all the answers,
Speaker 3: but really don't have them run Oh yeah, thinks he
Speaker 3: got all the answers everything.
Speaker 4: It's like, as they saying, Cowboy, were a lot of
Speaker 4: hat no cattle.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, so yeah, there everywhere, I think, there everywhere.
Speaker 3: Let's go with that's great stuff. We gotta go.
Speaker 4: We're gonna talk to Matt Reynoldson here from Phoenix, I believe.
Speaker 4: So we'll come back here in about three four minutes.
Speaker 1: Now, your chance to win one thousand dollars. Just enter
Speaker 1: this nation wide keyword on our website. Credit that's credit.
Speaker 1: Enter it right now, Fox Sports fourteen fifty dot com.
Speaker 8: Are you ready ready to discover your soul, your wild side,
Speaker 8: your passion, your joy and excitement. From the latest slots
Speaker 8: and table games, to award winning dining, to world class
Speaker 8: entertainment to a luxurious resort.
Speaker 3: Discover all this and more.
Speaker 8: Discover with Soul Casino Dell Soul, the Soul of Tucson.
Speaker 3: Are you ready Enterprise of Fasca Yaki try.
Speaker 9: The Window Depot has everything you need to create the
Speaker 9: kitchen or bathroom of your dreams. Browsey aisles of instock
Speaker 9: cabinets available in a variety of sizes and configurations, and
Speaker 9: instantly elevate your space.
Speaker 10: Today.
Speaker 9: Visit a showroom and let our experts guide you. Whether
Speaker 9: you're choosing for ready to go designs or creating a
Speaker 9: custom masterpiece. We can help you select the perfect with type,
Speaker 9: color and style, and top it off with unique hardware
Speaker 9: to complete your look. Find a location near you at
Speaker 9: the Window Deepot dot com. The Window Depot more than
Speaker 9: a windows store.
Speaker 4: Steve Rivera here to talk about Dorato Rock and Materials.
Speaker 4: I needed a lot of gravel for my driveway, so
Speaker 4: I called Eric at Dorato Rock. He found out the
Speaker 4: amount and color I needed and boom, it was taken
Speaker 4: care of and at a great price. How do I
Speaker 4: know radio commercials work? I heard one of his on
Speaker 4: the radio. Dorato Rock and Materials provides a wide range
Speaker 4: of landscaping materials, including decorative rock, boulders, gravel, soil, and
Speaker 4: sand for residential and commercial use in the Tucson area.
Speaker 4: They are locally owned and have been around for more
Speaker 4: than fifteen years. Tip we'll call at five two zero
Speaker 4: for zero zero for two three three.
Speaker 2: Where do you buy exercise equipment?
Speaker 11: Arizona Health Arizona Health Arizona Health.
Speaker 12: Of course, to feel better and look better, it makes
Speaker 12: sense to buy your fitness equipment from the people who
Speaker 12: know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health, our
Speaker 12: goal is to help you choose the equipment you need
Speaker 12: to reach your goals. Your health and fitness deserve the
Speaker 12: best you deserve. Arizona Health the leading edge and exercise
Speaker 12: equipment on twenty seconds just west of Wilmot.
Speaker 13: School and the false sports season are in full stride.
Speaker 13: Time to give that special student athlete a Creative award
Speaker 13: for his or her efforts they are deserving. It's also
Speaker 13: time to rejuvenate your fall apparel with a crisp looking
Speaker 13: embroidered school corporate logo on caps, shorts or long sleeve follows.
Speaker 13: And why not get some fresh looking promotional products representing
Speaker 13: your school or corporation, or just giveaways for the upcoming
Speaker 13: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 10: Season For over one thousand fun items of choose room.
Speaker 13: Come visit Creative Awards at Creative awardsaz dot com or
Speaker 13: see our Idea Center at two twenty eight Westtrackman Street.
Speaker 5: At Nova home Loans, we believe everyone and deserves the
Speaker 5: opportunity to enjoy the independence that comes with home ownership.
Speaker 5: Paul Volpi is ready to help you find an option
Speaker 5: that best fits your needs. Whether you're a first time
Speaker 5: or veteran home buyer or want to get cash out
Speaker 5: with the refinance. Nova has a variety of home loan
Speaker 5: programs to meet your unique situation. Visit voltpeteam dot com,
Speaker 5: that's Volpe team dot com or call five to two
Speaker 5: oh six eight five six two six Today in MLS
Speaker 5: three oh eight seven Arizona b K nine two nine
Speaker 5: four two Equal Housing Opportunity, got to commitment to Lyndrix,
Speaker 5: syn credit rates and available loan programs of subject to change.
Speaker 3: Don't notice?
Speaker 1: Did you know?
Speaker 13: Collecting sports cards is one of the fastest growing hobbies around.
Speaker 13: Whether you're looking at chart or expand your collection, Showtime
Speaker 13: Cards is your ultimate destination.
Speaker 10: As one of the leading card.
Speaker 13: Shops in the country, we've been serving our community for
Speaker 13: over twenty five years with the best in.
Speaker 10: Sports cards and trading card games.
Speaker 13: From rare fines to the latest releases, Showtime Cards has
Speaker 13: it all.
Speaker 10: Check them out at Showtimecards dot Com or visit them.
Speaker 13: On e Speedway and discover why collectors everywhere truy Showtime
Speaker 13: Cards for their passion.
Speaker 14: On a road trip just around town, driving a car
Speaker 14: you can afford is more important than ever. At Pyramid
Speaker 14: Federal Credit Union, our one rate auto.
Speaker 7: Loan is for everyone.
Speaker 14: One rate offers a single competitive rate, no matter in
Speaker 14: your credit score.
Speaker 10: You can borrow better with premid.
Speaker 14: For details or to apply online, visit Pyramid FCU dot
Speaker 14: com slash Pyramid Federal Credit Union is an equal opportunity
Speaker 14: lender federally insured by NCUA.
Speaker 11: Got bugs, termites, fees, or rodents. Arizona Pest Control will
Speaker 11: hunt them down. Arizona Pest Control is your complete desert
Speaker 11: pest asment specialist that's can't run or high from Arizona
Speaker 11: Pest Control. They use only the latest and most technologically
Speaker 11: advanced methods of pest elimination available, which minimizes the effects
Speaker 11: on the environment. Let Arizona Pest Control get rid of
Speaker 11: your bad bugs, termitespees, or rodents. Serving Tucson and Southern
Speaker 11: Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go to azpest dot com
Speaker 11: to schedule your free evaluation today.
Speaker 4: Want to build your business better, There's no better place
Speaker 4: than the Arizona Business Networking Conference December tenth to the
Speaker 4: twelfth at Casino del So. Meet thirty five premier speakers,
Speaker 4: including new a All American Ricky Huntley, Hall of Fame coach,
Speaker 4: Mike Candrea, CEOs and more. Expand your professional network, explore
Speaker 4: new opportunities and learn from industry leaders. Get your tickets
Speaker 4: at Tucson Business Networking dot Com Slash Conference. Once again,
Speaker 4: that's at Tucson Business Networking dot Com Slash Conference.
Speaker 1: Steve Rivera, He's got his eye on the ball on
Speaker 1: Tucson Sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifth day.
Speaker 4: Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball here
Speaker 4: on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 4: In with me today is coach Andy Nopus Now on
Speaker 4: the phone. We have Matt Reynoldson from Believes, the new podcast.
Speaker 2: Are you doing Believe?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 6: Yes, indeed, I'm good.
Speaker 15: How long have you?
Speaker 2: How long have you been on the Believe podcast?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: So they reached out to be July about starting an
Speaker 7: Arizona podcast shortly after, shortly after.
Speaker 6: The layoff at KBOA.
Speaker 7: So I was super excited to jump on with that
Speaker 7: just to continue to continue covering Arizona and had a
Speaker 7: fun you're doing it on TV now having a fun
Speaker 7: few months doing it on the podcast platform as well.
Speaker 4: So you're down here every now and again, and you're
Speaker 4: asking the football especially especially the football program, some some
Speaker 4: pretty good questions. What are your observations to this point?
Speaker 4: Or or yeah, maybe maybe two of your top three observations.
Speaker 7: You know, let's say, to the football program's a sixty
Speaker 7: four dollars question right now, right because it is just
Speaker 7: a tough spot to be it. You know, you consider
Speaker 7: the fact that and this has been kind of their
Speaker 7: answer a lot of the time that they do have
Speaker 7: some legitimate excuses for how things have gone poorly. One
Speaker 7: excuse that they haven't made, but I've made for them
Speaker 7: time and again is the fact that they were hired
Speaker 7: in late January, and you don't get your pick of
Speaker 7: the litter of assistance and support staff, strength conditioning staff,
Speaker 7: you know, winter conditioning program, everything like that when you're
Speaker 7: hired that late in the process. However, they have continued
Speaker 7: to regress throughout the year.
Speaker 6: It feels like they have sort of lost the.
Speaker 7: Leadership ability of a team that they kind of counted
Speaker 7: on to have great player leadership and everything like that,
Speaker 7: And it feels like there's a lot of the noise
Speaker 7: from the outside that's seeping into the program and making
Speaker 7: this just kind of a real downhill slide. The UCF
Speaker 7: game was kind of the cherry on top of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's very difficult. And once you lose it,
Speaker 4: I have Andy, it opens with me. I'm not sure
Speaker 4: we'll talk about this. And once you lose it, how
Speaker 4: difficult is it to get back?
Speaker 3: Oh man, Honestly, I don't think you can until you
Speaker 3: just kind of regroup. Yeah, you just get through it.
Speaker 3: You get through it and unless it's just a magical thing.
Speaker 3: But yeah, once it starts going in that way, it's
Speaker 3: almost you know, we need to we need to just
Speaker 3: kind of regroup, you know, we need to get through it,
Speaker 3: and then let's get this thing going again. Let's start
Speaker 3: it up right. And I've done that. I had to
Speaker 3: take over four programs. The four college programs that I
Speaker 3: end up I got when I was hired. They were
Speaker 3: when I came here. They've been to two regionals in
Speaker 3: thirteen years. Think of that. It was on a baseball
Speaker 3: when I was hired, had been to two regionals in
Speaker 3: the previous thirteen years. That's phenomenal when you think of that.
Speaker 3: And uh, man, it you know, you come in it's
Speaker 3: it's a different, different animal. And although he you know,
Speaker 3: poor coach brand I mean, he came into a winning
Speaker 3: environment with a lot of expectations and that's hard in itself.
Speaker 3: Like keV, I mean, you know, I mean, Kevin, you
Speaker 3: know that. I mean, when people expect something out of you,
Speaker 3: it's it's a little harder to do it. You can,
Speaker 3: you don't sneak up on anybody. We'll talk more about that.
Speaker 3: And yeah, if if you know what you feel is true.
Speaker 3: That's that's a tough one.
Speaker 2: So so Matt, so what what do you think are
Speaker 2: the correct bulls?
Speaker 4: You know, you have Noah and you have Team Act,
Speaker 4: and you have a couple of other players, but you
Speaker 4: have they are who they are, and you have the
Speaker 4: what you have.
Speaker 2: How do you fix it with what you have?
Speaker 13: You know?
Speaker 7: I don't think that, I mean, And again he made
Speaker 7: a great point in that you can't really fix it
Speaker 7: until you fix it right. It starts with getting the
Speaker 7: little things right.
Speaker 6: And I think one of the positive things as.
Speaker 7: We are really really catographing for silver linings here as
Speaker 7: we have been for a while right this losing street
Speaker 7: because now we HEA's five straight games, which is just
Speaker 7: unfathomable at the start.
Speaker 6: Of the season.
Speaker 7: But one of the real silver linings was how they
Speaker 7: came out of that bye week, how well coached they
Speaker 7: looked out of that bye week, that first by week,
Speaker 7: heading into a Utah game that was now a pretty
Speaker 7: poor Utah team, but at that point, you know, they
Speaker 7: looked and played like a top if not a top
Speaker 7: ten outfit, at least the top fifteen outfit.
Speaker 6: And that was a legitimate win for Arizona.
Speaker 7: So if they were able to show the same amount
Speaker 7: of fire off the thirteen day break because they did
Speaker 7: a fourteen day as they did a fifteen day break
Speaker 7: in that time, and come out and win a game
Speaker 7: at home against the Houston team that's starting to play
Speaker 7: some pretty good football.
Speaker 6: I think that'd be a big that'd be a big
Speaker 6: win for Arizona. This is no longer just to throw
Speaker 6: away game for the U of A.
Speaker 7: This is no longer just a sleepy Friday night game
Speaker 7: against the worst team.
Speaker 6: In the Big twelve. No, this is a you gotta
Speaker 6: you gotta get something. It shows something here that shows
Speaker 6: legitimate progress.
Speaker 7: Because right now it's in a bit of a spiral
Speaker 7: and it all has to turn back around.
Speaker 6: That starts with a win.
Speaker 4: So I believe, and I'm sure you're active on Twitter.
Speaker 4: Are the people who are following you because you're a
Speaker 4: positive guy. I know when you'll I've had you on
Speaker 4: the show, your you skewed positive? Are they are they positive?
Speaker 4: Are they negative?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, it's it's just kind of the negative
Speaker 7: vibe around the program right now. It's not anything to
Speaker 7: do with it's not anything to do with the decision
Speaker 7: of Arizona fans. I think U of a fans are
Speaker 7: awesome and resilient and everything like that, and it's I mean, frankly, Steve,
Speaker 7: We've talked about it.
Speaker 6: It's why we keep coming back every March believing that
Speaker 6: there's gonna be a tournament run.
Speaker 7: And I will still believe that everything, But you know,
Speaker 7: it's just a tough it's a tough pill to swallow
Speaker 7: when you lost five straight games, and you know what
Speaker 7: that Texas Tech loss and the way they lost it,
Speaker 7: and making those small mistakes at the end of the
Speaker 7: game when they did all that work to come back
Speaker 7: and take the lead in that game, and then to
Speaker 7: have your two best players make critical mistakes in Federal
Speaker 7: on McMillan and Tyler Loop and then for things to
Speaker 7: just snowball from there after a fairly good second half
Speaker 7: performance against Tech against a pretty good Tech team. I
Speaker 7: just think that speaks to what people are seeing as
Speaker 7: fragility with this team and this program right now, and
Speaker 7: for them to not be able to bottle the good
Speaker 7: things that they did against Texas Tech. They go up
Speaker 7: to BYU get Flatten to come home, just don't even
Speaker 7: put up a fight against Colorado and have a weird
Speaker 7: decision to kick an on side at the start of
Speaker 7: the game, which says, I don't think that we can
Speaker 7: go out there and win this game straight up against
Speaker 7: this team.
Speaker 6: That's what that showed me from the coaching staff.
Speaker 7: And then, you know, just pitiful performances again against West
Speaker 7: Virginia stay for that fourth quarter, and then just an
Speaker 7: overall blowout at UPS. I mean that there's not much
Speaker 7: to be inspired about this team right now.
Speaker 6: So I don't mind people.
Speaker 7: I don't blame people for being, you know, a little
Speaker 7: bit testimistic, because there's not that much to be optimistic about.
Speaker 4: Right Yeah, no question, and you're being realistic. Holy moly,
Speaker 4: I think it's gonna snow and Tucson to.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: And I used to say this, man, whenever I coached man.
Speaker 3: I told her guys, I said, fellow, this is a
Speaker 3: real simple world. It really is. I mean it's a
Speaker 3: challenging world. It's very simple. If you play well, they're
Speaker 3: going to write a lot of good things about it,
Speaker 3: and if you don't play well, they're going to write
Speaker 3: some bad things about you. So it's real simple. Play well.
Speaker 3: Just go out and consistently play well. The thing that
Speaker 3: I you know, and I've watched them the last couple weeks,
Speaker 3: just out of intrigue to be very canid with you.
Speaker 3: But there it's in their resume. You know. You mentioned
Speaker 3: the Utah game, and I watched them last year because
Speaker 3: you know, my kids all graduated from the U of A,
Speaker 3: and obviously I spent my time there. And I don't
Speaker 3: know coach Brandnan, but you know, I'm pulling for the guy,
Speaker 3: pulled for anybody that's at UVA. You know, it's in
Speaker 3: the resume for them to perform well because they proved
Speaker 3: that last year. Now when does that show up? I
Speaker 3: had I always believe that there was a point in
Speaker 3: my season where the game was going to be really
Speaker 3: hard to play in baseball. There's gonna be a weeknd
Speaker 3: or two where we just can't get a hit, we
Speaker 3: don't throw strikes, we just don't look like a good team.
Speaker 3: And you got to get you know, you get through
Speaker 3: that that little stretch where the game is really hard.
Speaker 3: It's really hard, and it looks like the players look
Speaker 3: like it's really hard. And I kept thinking, yeah, I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, this was gonna and would clear up. So
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm like, I'm the optimist, you know,
Speaker 3: they're going to get through this hard part and finish strong. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, so, how often do you produce your copy or
Speaker 2: your content?
Speaker 7: Yeah so I try and go.
Speaker 6: A couple times a week. I work at ABC fifteen
Speaker 6: as well here in Phoenix. So with the new stuff.
Speaker 6: As most people know, these fast couple of weeks, news
Speaker 6: gets a little.
Speaker 7: Crazy around the election, so it's it's been appressive not
Speaker 7: do it that much. But button went out this week
Speaker 7: before this weekend and actually coming down for the old
Speaker 7: Dominion game for Mets basketball this weekend as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's go real quick. We've got a couple more minutes.
Speaker 4: Your thoughts on what you've seen so far with Tommy.
Speaker 4: I think you had one season, right, at least one
Speaker 4: season I did.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I had the full season last year to
Speaker 7: cover the U of M men's basketball. My first week
Speaker 7: was media day, so got the full ramp up to
Speaker 7: got the preseason stuff, everything like that. Liked a lot
Speaker 7: what they did against Kenisia Sun Monday, and I think
Speaker 7: that it's a testament to what Tommy Lloyd is as
Speaker 7: a coach and how he.
Speaker 6: Runs this program. The fact that they come out looking so.
Speaker 7: So prepared for a season over I mean at twenty
Speaker 7: to four, start in the first five minutes, having your
Speaker 7: best player be super aggressive in Caleb Love when he
Speaker 7: was a little bit passive and just kind of deferred
Speaker 7: a little bit.
Speaker 6: In the exhibition games.
Speaker 7: I thought they set the right tone. I thought it
Speaker 7: was the right decision to start tobay Iwaka. I thought
Speaker 7: Krebs came in and played some good minutes.
Speaker 6: And if this backcourt plays like it does the plays
Speaker 6: like it did on Monday, if.
Speaker 7: This backcourt shows what it has shown us through three games,
Speaker 7: two exhibitions, in a regular season game all season, which
Speaker 7: I think it could, this could be one of the
Speaker 7: best backcourts in the country and really give them a
Speaker 7: chance to win the Big twelve because I don't see
Speaker 7: a Big twelve back court that has this level of
Speaker 7: just dynamic ability, especially in Jade and Bradley's plan like
Speaker 7: he's playing.
Speaker 4: That's the match, I know, because you're positive that's the
Speaker 4: mat I know. No, no, no, I feel the same
Speaker 4: way with the backcourt. It's it reminds me a lot
Speaker 4: of and of the team I cover back in ninety
Speaker 4: seven with Bibby Bibby Miles and Michael Dickerson, where you
Speaker 4: had a three headed monster, right, If one guy goes down,
Speaker 4: the other two can show up. If one two, you know,
Speaker 4: it's the Monty card three card Monty team one two three.
Speaker 4: Here we go and you have three with with the
Speaker 4: capable backup with the Martinez.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I want to give you.
Speaker 7: I want to give you this to talk about maybe
Speaker 7: in your next segment as well, because this is something
Speaker 7: I've kicked around a little bit too. You know, I
Speaker 7: do like the energy that Conrad Martinez brings to the floor.
Speaker 7: I think he plays good defense, but I don't think
Speaker 7: he's necessarily a rotational type player when it comes to
Speaker 7: those Big Twelve games.
Speaker 6: Deep in February in March. So yeah, my question to
Speaker 6: you is, does.
Speaker 7: Caleb Love need to develop into a backup point guard
Speaker 7: to be able to spell Jaden Bradley when.
Speaker 2: He can't be on the floor for all forty nin
Speaker 2: Good question.
Speaker 4: I thought that he tried to do that, or at
Speaker 4: least maybe initially with kJ Lewis coming off, you know,
Speaker 4: having the ball in his hands a little.
Speaker 2: So good question.
Speaker 4: I don't know, because I don't disagree with you with
Speaker 4: with Martinez's potential in the Big Twelve because it's going
Speaker 4: to be rough and tumble, but good question. I think
Speaker 4: that he'll move kJ Lewis to the one and keep
Speaker 4: Caleb as a two.
Speaker 6: Love it. I'll reference that on my podcast as well,
Speaker 6: because that's that's that.
Speaker 7: That will be an interesting question, I think all year
Speaker 7: long because Bradley is just playing as well as you
Speaker 7: can play that.
Speaker 2: Position, right, right, right, And he's a tough dude.
Speaker 4: He fits them. He fits your three, he fits your three.
Speaker 4: He's he's a go getter. He doesn't like to lose.
Speaker 4: He's going to do everything you can to win. He's
Speaker 4: that dude.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm serious, but both both you gentlemen. Just your
Speaker 3: is the Big twelve basketball conference the best in the
Speaker 3: It's not even it's not close.
Speaker 2: Seventh.
Speaker 3: I've heard that and read that.
Speaker 6: Yeah for anybody else at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The thing about it is is it's outside of Kansas,
Speaker 4: and maybe I was, it could be.
Speaker 3: Anybody's I mean right, you got Houston, Houston, Baylor, Baylor State.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I was, stay bun, a bunch of a
Speaker 3: bunch of soft soft yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: So so when so you're coming down this weekend for
Speaker 4: Saturday's game. Uh, you'll have a column before that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I'll have I'll have all the podcast up today,
Speaker 7: just kind of taking kind of a little inventory on
Speaker 7: what I've seen from Arizona basketball so far, and.
Speaker 6: You know, resetting the bye week a little bit.
Speaker 7: Obviously, big news in college football Tuesday night was the
Speaker 7: college football playoff rankings coming out, So have a little
Speaker 7: reaction to that and just kind of kind of kick
Speaker 7: it around for half far.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we'll see you Saturday. Where can they find
Speaker 2: that podcast?
Speaker 7: Yeah, they can find it on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 7: or tune in wherever you get your podcast. That's B
Speaker 7: L E A V in Arizona. I'm try and try
Speaker 7: and put them up like two or three times a.
Speaker 6: Week most weeks.
Speaker 7: Been a little inconsistent, like I said, with with the
Speaker 7: other work and stuff like that, but just kind of
Speaker 7: looking to get back into the swing of things. That
Speaker 7: cross overseason ramped up once again.
Speaker 2: Yes, great, great to talk to you, Matt, Thanks a bunch.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Steven ye bid Uck if you will, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're going to take a break here and then talk
Speaker 2: to you for the final segment.
Speaker 3: Coach. Great, you're an.
Speaker 2: Arizona men's basketball fan. You know it's been successful.
Speaker 4: For newly forty years now take a look back at
Speaker 4: the Ludelsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.
Speaker 4: It was a labor of love through the eyes of
Speaker 4: twenty five former players, coaches and friends to give insight
Speaker 4: to the coach and the man who led them, competed
Speaker 4: against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his
Speaker 4: twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach, Lessons from Lout
Speaker 4: is an insight to how he built the program into
Speaker 4: a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot
Speaker 4: RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
Speaker 16: Hi, this is former Wildcat Mamanhuntly with Arizona Health. Imagine
Speaker 16: how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and
Speaker 16: your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform
Speaker 16: your personal space.
Speaker 10: In your life.
Speaker 16: We off a complete line of caudio machines, multi gms
Speaker 16: and freeway equipment. I'll certify fitness experts and technicians will
Speaker 16: set you out with the right equipment and training to
Speaker 16: get you started to keep you going. Visit our shareroom
Speaker 16: today at twenty second in Wilmot. Arizona Health the lead
Speaker 16: edge and exercise equipment.
Speaker 15: What's your goal a new career or career advancement. How
Speaker 15: about transferring to a four year college. PEMA Community College
Speaker 15: can help you make some day today and reach your
Speaker 15: goals affordably on your schedule. With over one hundred programs
Speaker 15: to choose from and financial aid available, it's time to
Speaker 15: earn the degreer certificate you need to prepare for the
Speaker 15: career you want. PIMA offers free career exploration classes so
Speaker 15: you can choose the field that's right for you. Learn
Speaker 15: how at PIMA dot edu. Slash someday, Hey Tucson, Steve
Speaker 15: rivera heir, and I've got a tip for you. Want
Speaker 15: to be in good hands while cruising the desert or
Speaker 15: kicking back at home, then you need to call my
Speaker 15: friends at the Edmond Markets All State Agency. These guys
Speaker 15: are the MVPs of home and auto coverage. Whether it's
Speaker 15: a fender vender or a leaky roof, they've got you covered.
Speaker 15: Don't fumble your chance to say call them today and
Speaker 15: score big on your insurance. With the Edmond Markets All
Speaker 15: State Agency, You're always in good hands. Visit them at
Speaker 15: twenty seven to nineteen North Campbell or call them at
Speaker 15: five two zero three two three nine three three three
Speaker 15: selling your home. Want to get more money for it, Well,
Speaker 15: Danny Roth can help you. He told me about as
Speaker 15: you Flip the Home You Own program. The program allows
Speaker 15: for a homeowner to fix up their home to sell
Speaker 15: without using any of their own money. They will be
Speaker 15: able to, say, build a home for a much higher price.
Speaker 15: Danny Roth with Armny Holmes International is the real estate
Speaker 15: consultant in Tucson that offers this program. He has consistently
Speaker 15: been the top agent in Tucson for the last thirty
Speaker 15: years and has sold over ten thousand, five hundred homes.
Speaker 15: For more information on his program or just buying our
Speaker 15: selling a home, oh Danny Roth at five two zero
Speaker 15: four nine zero four thousand, Tucson.
Speaker 3: Listen up.
Speaker 17: El Tourty two Son is rolling in on November twenty third,
Speaker 17: and you won't want to miss it. Dnahair Conditioning is
Speaker 17: proud to be a sponsor of this fantastic event, supporting
Speaker 17: our cyclists and celebrating the vibrant spirit of our community.
Speaker 17: Huge thanks to our title sponsor Banner University Medicine and
Speaker 17: are presenting sponsors Rio Nuevo and TMC Health for making
Speaker 17: this possible.
Speaker 3: So are you ready to ride? Grab your bikes and
Speaker 3: your buddies.
Speaker 17: Join DNHAC for an Unforgettable day at the El Tooty Tuson.
Speaker 17: For more info, check out el Toour Day Tucson dot org.
Speaker 15: El tour Dy Tucson is on November twenty third. You
Speaker 15: can help support the kids at Banner Diamond's Children's Medical
Speaker 15: Center in Tucson by joining the Banner Health Team, ride, run,
Speaker 15: or walk any of the routes to make a difference.
Speaker 15: Visit al to Tucson dot org for more.
Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball on Fox.
Speaker 10: Sports fourteen fifding.
Speaker 1: I want to take part in the show. Call up
Speaker 1: Steve now went five to two oh four one six
Speaker 1: seventy four for ding.
Speaker 4: Hey, welcome back to I in the Ball here on
Speaker 4: Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
Speaker 2: I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 4: He's Andy Lopez. Oh the wisdom I'm getting. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: another book. I'm gonna call it be Good or be
Speaker 4: Gone Baby, be Good or Beat my next title of
Speaker 4: an X. But hey, so so you you had this career.
Speaker 4: Good to talk to Matt Rendlson. By the way, you
Speaker 4: have your philosophy, the one, twos and threes. I'm sure
Speaker 4: you had a lot of proteges behind you coaching, and
Speaker 4: how big is that branch of tree for you coaching?
Speaker 3: Gosh, I don't you know. I got well, Raffie Vealezuela,
Speaker 3: who's a kid from uh Negoles and he came and
Speaker 3: played for us in two thousand and eight, nineteen, I
Speaker 3: think it was. He just won the A ball. He's
Speaker 3: in the Tampa Ray organization as manager and he just
Speaker 3: won the eight ball Championship. Mark Wazikowski, longtime player, long
Speaker 3: time assistant head coach of Oregon, doing really well. Sean
Speaker 3: Cole just got the job at Sanduel State last year.
Speaker 3: He was my assistant in twenty twelve. Steve Rodriguez was
Speaker 3: the head coach at Baylor, played for me Pepperdine. Was
Speaker 3: Wazakowski's a teammate at Pepperdine. And there's a few other
Speaker 3: guys out there in pro ball.
Speaker 4: So did your philosophy of chasing players you're one, twos
Speaker 4: and threes, did they adapt to that or adopt?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, I don't know if they took it with him.
Speaker 3: Quite honestly, they may. They may. I never really asked him.
Speaker 3: But when they worked for me, like if they called
Speaker 3: me and said, hey, Lopes, we got a guy. I'm
Speaker 3: in LA I'm watching this guy. I would just say
Speaker 3: is it a one, two or three? And they, you know,
Speaker 3: they'd have to tell me I think he's a one. Okay, Well,
Speaker 3: if he's not a one, make sure he's a three.
Speaker 3: Can they be a chameleon? Can they turn into committee?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 3: You know that right? Ever, Hey, I've often said the
Speaker 3: greatest thing of my thirty eight years was that I
Speaker 3: got a chance to be a really good body language reader. Boy,
Speaker 3: you read body language because you're searching for because every
Speaker 3: recruiting weekend, what everybody's on their best behaviors. Everybody's on
Speaker 3: their best behavior, they're everybody's the happiest family in the world.
Speaker 3: And he's the greatest student in the world. And they said, man,
Speaker 3: you've got to be able to read through things you do.
Speaker 4: So yes, I don't want to lose this conversation either
Speaker 4: in terms of I love it. I love that conversation.
Speaker 4: It'll be good or be gone. Baby. But you talked
Speaker 4: about Brennan with with or the situation with with Matt Well,
Speaker 4: not Brendan specifically, but you you had some situations where
Speaker 4: you weren't any good you and you how do you
Speaker 4: get out of not being any good.
Speaker 3: You try to small for me personally, I would try
Speaker 3: to take, for example, I never coached a fifty six
Speaker 3: game schedule, and I and I forbid our players to
Speaker 3: do that. I know they did. We played fifty six
Speaker 3: games in the baseball cause, right, Okay, I used to say, no,
Speaker 3: we don't play fifty six games. We played ten game increments.
Speaker 3: So for the next ten games, we're gonna play hard
Speaker 3: for these ten games. We're gonna get after for these
Speaker 3: ten games, and then at the end of those ten games,
Speaker 3: we're gonna evaluate what we just did in those ten games.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we're ten and oh, we might be one and nine,
Speaker 3: we might be five and five, but we're gonna take
Speaker 3: a fifty six game schedule and increment it into ten
Speaker 3: game increments. You know, they have twelve weekends. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, hey, I'm pulling for them. I really am.
Speaker 17: Sure.
Speaker 3: That's a tough, tough gig coming here and a lot
Speaker 3: of expectations, and you're on a bad spin, you know,
Speaker 3: shortening up the goals, you know, let's let's play a quarter.
Speaker 3: Let's be really good this quarter, you know, And I'm
Speaker 3: not telling coach Brandon how what he's doing. But yeah,
Speaker 3: if it's me, I'm shortening up all the goals. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to get our guys away from the big goals
Speaker 3: and the big noise and all that's going on. And
Speaker 3: let's just, hey, Felas, let's just really be good for
Speaker 3: this first three innis for me, it was a nine
Speaker 3: inning game. Let's be really good for these three innings then,
Speaker 3: and we'll evaluate, and then we'll evaluate, and then we evaluate.
Speaker 2: So were you analytical before analytics?
Speaker 6: Was there?
Speaker 2: Or did you not go there?
Speaker 3: I didn't realize it, but I guess I was in
Speaker 3: many ways because there was a lot of things we did.
Speaker 3: We would, you know, we'd use the stopwatch for a
Speaker 3: lot of different things. Times of the play, catchers exchanges.
Speaker 3: If you came to one of our practices, you heard
Speaker 3: coaches and players yelling out times. We always took ground
Speaker 3: balls with a stopwatch on the on the infielder. Average
Speaker 3: time is four to three to from home to first
Speaker 3: for college baseball players for that matter, big leagues too.
Speaker 3: And so when we hit ground balls in fillers, they
Speaker 3: never just threw it across. They threw it and then
Speaker 3: someone to yell out four to four and that let
Speaker 3: them know who. I got to quicken up a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, three eight oh, I got to slow down
Speaker 3: a little You know. Our whole thing was, don't you know,
Speaker 3: let's not let let's not be let's not do something
Speaker 3: so fast and hurry hurry, hurry hurry. Let's see how
Speaker 3: slow we can do it and do it right. Do it, Yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it right. But let's see how slow we
Speaker 3: can do it and do it right right, Because, as
Speaker 3: you well know, in anything in life, right you get
Speaker 3: directions somewhere. If you don't have a GPS and you're
Speaker 3: you're driving like a mad man, it's a great opportunity
Speaker 3: to get a ticket because you're lost, your frustering, you
Speaker 3: speed up into what instead of what? Slow down, pull over,
Speaker 3: ask for directions, and you get your destination.
Speaker 4: So I had this, uh, this philosophy, and my friends
Speaker 4: give me grief about it. Every game is a season. Yeah,
Speaker 4: every game is a season. And I guess that's a
Speaker 4: do you bide by that philosopher?
Speaker 3: You don't asking anything to play for me? I'd show
Speaker 3: up randomly and I'd say, today's the biggest day of
Speaker 3: the year, the biggest day of the year practice or game.
Speaker 3: I said, you know, if it's practice, today's the biggest
Speaker 3: practice of the year, fellas, And the older guys knew
Speaker 3: what I was about to say. I said, you don't
Speaker 3: want to know why, And I'd looked at the young guys.
Speaker 3: You know what, because it's the only day we got. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we don't get We're not guaranteed it tomorrow, you know.
Speaker 3: I tell my guys all the time, Hey, I might
Speaker 3: be driving home night, fellas, you know, nothing's bigger than
Speaker 3: the program. I might drive home to night and get
Speaker 3: hit by a bus, t boned by a bus, and
Speaker 3: guess what, They're going to put a little number seven
Speaker 3: on your jersey. That might well, they might even put
Speaker 3: on your helmet, and they'll do the flag at half
Speaker 3: mask on Friday night and they'll give them minute a
Speaker 3: silence and then guess what. You move on. You gotta
Speaker 3: win three games, you gotta win through games. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I say, you know, the biggest game of the year,
Speaker 3: fella's biggt game of the year. And the older guys
Speaker 3: would know. I said, why because it's the only game
Speaker 3: we got.
Speaker 4: So so when you had your health scare, you were
Speaker 4: at you were at the field right, you're at the field.
Speaker 3: No, no blue or not. I denied the symptoms for
Speaker 3: seven weeks. You was icing it, I was icing it.
Speaker 3: So I was good enough. By doctor doctor Jeffrey Selling,
Speaker 3: he since retired, just had lunch with a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, great man. I went to see him because
Speaker 3: I was complaining about this stuff for seven weeks but
Speaker 3: never said anything anybody. I finally told my wife said
Speaker 3: go see doctor Selling. So the very next mon I
Speaker 3: saw docor Selling. He sent me to TMC. They ran
Speaker 3: some tests and said, hey, you're gonna need heart surgery,
Speaker 3: well bypass surgery, and we don't know how bad.
Speaker 2: But when they got well, there was that moment of
Speaker 2: of what did your t bone? Example?
Speaker 4: Oh did and your did your philosophy change because you
Speaker 4: don't know about tomorrow? Did the kids philosophy change?
Speaker 3: Coaching?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah it it altered me to the point where I
Speaker 3: needed to retire.
Speaker 2: Do you realized it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. You finished off the year, right, I finished
Speaker 3: off the year. Yeah. I came back and then I
Speaker 3: went one more year and then I went. I got
Speaker 3: to get out. I had two hernias that they popped
Speaker 3: during the surgery, and I didn't get those fixed, and
Speaker 3: there was me. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't throw batning.
Speaker 4: You were sixty two years old, I think, yeah, it
Speaker 4: was because I was at the press conference and I
Speaker 4: said to you, if you remember, because you're sixty two
Speaker 4: years old, you still got a lot of life in
Speaker 4: your in your game. He said, well, thanks, Steve, but
Speaker 4: I've had an offer, and to your whatever credit or otherwise,
Speaker 4: I'm tired of this flip flopping.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was tired of the recruiting, the de commitments
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. I just I just didn't understand
Speaker 3: that in any way, shape or form, and still don't.
Speaker 3: I'll be very marketed about that. I still don't. I
Speaker 3: just again, I credit my mom and dad. Your word
Speaker 3: is your word, and that's it. And you know, I remember,
Speaker 3: I remember I committed to UCLA, but I really wanted
Speaker 3: to go to s C. And I committed to UCLA,
Speaker 3: and I thought, oh, I made a bad decision. I
Speaker 3: went to my dad. You know, Mexican man from you know,
Speaker 3: fourteen years old, jumps in the back of a pickup
Speaker 3: truck with his brothers, drives from what is Mexico to
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, California, and you know, goes to the Second
Speaker 3: World War and gets a citizenship. And I said, Dad,
Speaker 3: I made a mistake. I you know I made He said, no,
Speaker 3: did you tell UCLA you're going? Yeah, well that's where
Speaker 3: you're going. I said, no, Dad, I made a mistake.
Speaker 3: He goes, no, no, no, no, you make it the
Speaker 3: right decision. Yeah, you go there and make it the
Speaker 3: right way.
Speaker 2: So your dad sounds like like did you get a
Speaker 2: lot of the the the lopus isms from my father?
Speaker 3: Not from my father, more from my mom. But my father,
Speaker 3: like I said earlier, he was very quiet. So when
Speaker 3: he spoke, when he spoke, oh man, I remember when
Speaker 3: I was fourteen years I remember being in the garage
Speaker 3: with him, and his garage was immaculate, immaculate, you could
Speaker 3: eat off the floor.
Speaker 15: Uh.
Speaker 3: He just he was in the army for four years,
Speaker 3: you know, four or five years and all the rest.
Speaker 3: He was in New Guinea for two and a half years,
Speaker 3: and he was in a lot of combat. And they
Speaker 3: turned me. I was fourteen years He turned to me
Speaker 3: and span, She said, you know, son, work is going
Speaker 3: to be hard. I'm fourteen years old. I don't have
Speaker 3: a job. He said he work is going to be hard.
Speaker 3: And life is going to be hard and it's not
Speaker 3: going to be fair. And he said it to me
Speaker 3: two or three times and I finally nodded my head.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, Dad, Yeah, I got it. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: I got it. And I didn't get it until I
Speaker 3: was about thirty years old. Right, and I'm at kel
Speaker 3: State Dominga's Hills with no assistant coaches, and you're raking
Speaker 3: your own one point three scholarships. And I'm going, you know,
Speaker 3: my dad was right, work is hard and it ain't fair.
Speaker 2: What's that saying? As I get older, my dad gets smarter.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well the one I love is youth is
Speaker 3: wasted on the young, right, right.
Speaker 4: So I'm sure he spoke to you in Spanish and
Speaker 4: that was a Spanish phrase that yeah, and there was
Speaker 4: always clever.
Speaker 2: My mom did that same thing to me. And you think, God,
Speaker 2: I didn't write that stuff down if.
Speaker 3: I was in trouble with Spanish or if it was
Speaker 3: something profound or he felt that he needed to give
Speaker 3: to his son. It was a Spanish like I said,
Speaker 3: I can't if I had a dollar for every time
Speaker 3: I heard either my mother and father say you know me,
Speaker 3: he'll see no us I said, oh, yeah, you're not
Speaker 3: going to do it, right, don't do it. Don't even
Speaker 3: do it, man, don't even do it.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: I heard that a million.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so how many and your kids? I'm sure you've
Speaker 4: heard it. Oh yeah, and your team probably did it.
Speaker 4: Somewhere in America is kind of like in America, someone's
Speaker 4: making that play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Somewhere in America there's a team not complaining about
Speaker 3: being on a four game losing.
Speaker 2: Streak, right or perking out in one hundred and ten degrees.
Speaker 3: Well, somewhere in America there's a team that say, you
Speaker 3: know enough, enough's enough, let's get this thing going right.
Speaker 2: Are you we got we got about five minutes performances
Speaker 2: kids today.
Speaker 4: I know you're not coaching anymore, but as you're going
Speaker 4: to get it out, are they still coachable?
Speaker 2: Do they want to be coached?
Speaker 3: You don't believe or not? I am coaching my son
Speaker 3: in law, Dallas Howe. Jack Howell's kid Jack played here
Speaker 3: in the Arizona program, and my youngest son David. They
Speaker 3: run a two travel teams fourteen years old and twelve
Speaker 3: years old, and on Tuesdays and Friday's Night at Mill Park,
Speaker 3: I go over there and practice with them. I go
Speaker 3: there and work with these kids.
Speaker 6: What do you do?
Speaker 3: Whatever they need, whatever they need, you know, I'll work
Speaker 3: with the pictures, I'll work with the infillas. But both
Speaker 3: those my son in law, my you know, my son
Speaker 3: played with me and and Dallas, my son in laws.
Speaker 3: He played at Pima and played at push Ridge and
Speaker 3: played at Pema. They're both They're both very suitable, very
Speaker 3: they know what they're doing. But you know, they they
Speaker 3: asked me to come out, Hey, come on, and so
Speaker 3: I go out there and I hang out with these
Speaker 3: little guys. And so to answer your question, Steve, I
Speaker 3: think they I still believe they want to be good,
Speaker 3: you know, how to get there, get ready. I still
Speaker 3: believe they want to be good. But now for a
Speaker 3: lot of different reasons.
Speaker 2: Oh, money, yeah, fame, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I had eleven year kid. I had. I had an
Speaker 3: eleven year old kid. About a month ago. He was
Speaker 3: taking batting practice. He's eleven years old. He came up
Speaker 3: to my belt buckle and I'm what five foot eight,
Speaker 3: He's eleven years old and he's swinging and swinging and
Speaker 3: swinging in the air, swinging in the home run Derby Homeland,
Speaker 3: dirty pop up pop up, pop up. So after batting practice,
Speaker 3: I call him over the side said hey, and I
Speaker 3: won't say his name. I say he Bobby. Hey, Bobby, listen,
Speaker 3: you're this big and you're really fast. He's really fast,
Speaker 3: he's a short something. You're really fast. Why don't you
Speaker 3: hit the ball on the ground. Get ready for the steve?
Speaker 3: This really happened. Why don't you hit the ball on
Speaker 3: the ground right and run like crazy and forced that
Speaker 3: team to play defense. You'll be on base every time.
Speaker 3: You'll still sag and stuff third d D da da da.
Speaker 3: He looked me right in the eye and said, coach Andy.
Speaker 3: They call me coach Andy. Coach Andy. They don't pay
Speaker 3: you big money in the big leagues to hit singles.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the real world.
Speaker 4: And that's some players don't drive Cadillacs. Baby, that's funny,
Speaker 4: but that's how people think. No, And so what do
Speaker 4: you think he got that from mom and dad TV?
Speaker 3: Hitting coach? Try to hitting coach.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I said, what did you say?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I said, now what I used to
Speaker 3: tell my players all the time. Hey, everybody wants to win.
Speaker 3: My wife Linda in the seventh inning, she reads a
Speaker 3: book from ennings one through six. She'll sit there reading
Speaker 3: a book. In the seventh inning, she puts the book
Speaker 3: in her purse and now she wants to win. Right,
Speaker 3: everybody wants to win, but not everybody knows how to win.
Speaker 3: And this little guy, Bobby, I said, Bobby, I know
Speaker 3: you want to win, but you're five foot this and
Speaker 3: you hit the ball in the air, it's an out.
Speaker 3: Hit the ball on the ground and help this team win.
Speaker 4: Along those lines, that's a twos. Don't know who they are,
Speaker 4: maybe think they are, but you.
Speaker 2: Have to you have to be self aware, right right,
Speaker 2: kids today, No.
Speaker 3: Zero, I shouldn't say zero because there's a kid. There's
Speaker 3: a kid out there, and I'll say his name. Excuse me, Pierce.
Speaker 3: This guy's a little short stopped. This guy is unbelive.
Speaker 3: This guy is a one in ability and one in makeup.
Speaker 3: His mom and dad have done a marvelous job with them.
Speaker 3: He's unbelievable. He comes up after every practice and he
Speaker 3: says to me, after every practice, Teve, coach Andy, what
Speaker 3: do I need to work on? And it's sincere. I
Speaker 3: mean it's sincere.
Speaker 4: It's going to end on that. Wow, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 4: I always it's like it's like going to the people
Speaker 4: church for me. Oh, thank you, thank you. I enjoyed this,
Speaker 4: you know how.
Speaker 6: Great? Great?
Speaker 4: Sure today. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll start talk to
Speaker 4: you tomorrow